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BailesBudding Enthusiast
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About Bailes
- Birthday 12/08/1992
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Focus Titainium
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UK/Ireland Location
General Automotive
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Previous Fields
Bridgend, South Wales
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Do you have any information or copies of the field service issue? I paid for an update and it's still exactly the same. I'm pulling my hair out. I'm questioning weather they actually done it. It's going in Monday for the camshaft sprocket recall, it'd be nice to have some information on the 'flat spots' to get it sorted once and for all.
Apologies for dragging up such an old thread of mine. Can't believe there's two people here with the same issues as me and I've been pulling my hair out thinking I've been the only one for the last 2 years and 3 months. I'm now paying for a software update to be done in 2 weeks time to try and rectify this issue. I have the issue shown as live data but Ford won't take it seriously as I can't make my issues happen with them in the car. It will be the last Ford I own.
New Focus 1.5Tdci
Bailes replied to Bailes's topic in Ford Project and Build ThreadsUnfortunately I've had loads of issues with it, one issue is the engine intermittently bogs down and/or cuts out for a split second when you go to accelerate Ford admit they currently have no way of repairing but won't offer me a replacement car or a refund. It always happens when you've used little to no throttle for a bit and then start to feed in some more throttle. Sometimes the engine bogs down and feels like someone is applying the brakes before it picks up, sometimes nothing happens for a few seconds before it shoots off (almost feels like turbo lag) and sometimes the engine cuts out quite harshly for a split second before it starts to go. The latter almost feels like you hit something in the road. The fault is intermittent, most of the time the car drives fine but I hate having anything wrong with my car and this really frustrates me. The car has been returned to Ford 13 times, the last time it was returned I was advised by the tech at the dealer that there was a few others complaining of the same thing and it is a programming glitch with the EGR valve. As so few people were complaining of it there was nothing they could do and no repair available. I have recorded live data of the fault happening. The graph shows in order of top to bottom... Throttle Position (%) in RED Engine Speed (RPM) in GREEN Road Speed (KPH) in LIGHT BLUE Fuel Delivery/Flow (L/H) in PINK Fuel Desired (MM³) in YELLOW Fuel Rail Pressure (Volts) in BLUE Inlet Manifold Pressure (kpa) in PINK Mass Airflow (g/sec) in ORANGE EGR Position (Volts) in RED ECU Volts in GREEN. At 1549.06s (about a third of the way across from the left) you can see on the top red line I have increased my throttle position. At which point the fuel delivery (PINK) and the Fuel Desired (YELLOW) have both nosedived to nearly zero before they start to increase. You can also see where my RPM (GREEN) dropped slightly as a result. This is the cutting out/bogging down/hesitation I'm feeling. I'm now 100% sure this is a calibration issue as all the sensors are still reporting perfectly acceptable readings. And again at 1850.58 and at 1858.88 (half way)... But yet where I accelerate just before 1880.39 the car pulls absolutely fine with no hesitation what so ever. I've finally decided to stop getting stressed about it and to just live with it. Constantly chasing it up with Ford Customer Relations (who are a complete waste of time should I add) to be let down or fobbed off was making me more and more angry. The paint was always dull, hazy, full of imperfections and there was dirt in the paint all over the car. I was told by Bridgend Ford that there was nothing wrong with it, it would be unreasonable for me to expect the paintwork to be perfect and that I was just being picky. The car covered in masking tape... In the end Newport Ford flatted the paint back and polished it up and it came up an absolute treat. Couldn't believe the difference. It had a few buffer trails and swirls so I run over it today with a finishing polish with a DA and tidied up the tarnished chrome. Tarnished Grill... After... Tarnished chrome around the fog lights... After... And my cat... So I've given up caring about the hesitation issue now. It's obvious Ford aren't in any rush to fix it. I can hope it gets fixed within the next 2.5 years but I'm not convinced. My main issue now is getting a goodwill gesture out of them for the lost earnings, courtesy car costs and stress the car has caused me the past 6 months during the 14 times it's had to be returned. This means lots of slagging them off on their Facebook page and a few bad reviews here and there. As soon as the car is out of warranty it will be having DPF & EGR removal with a Stage 1 remap. It should be around 150bhp with 380nm, enough to keep me amused for a few years. To be fair, it goes well now! Ford have agreed a repair for my broken heated windscreen and some loose trim in the boot so I need to get the car booked in soon to sort that. Handy that I'm getting a new windscreen, saves my excess getting it replaced since I already have 6 chips in it! So now I'm pretty convinced I'm going to be keeping it I thought I'd start doing a few things. I stuck my Missus personal plate on the car because, why not? It can't go on her lease car and it was a waste just having it on retention. And I bought some silver lamps to tidy things up. Unfortunately while I was changing the lamp in the O/S mirror unit I was a bit too rough on the mirror housing, the back popped off and landed on the floor. There is very little damage but I can see it from the drivers seat which is !Removed! annoying. I'll have to paint it soon. :supafrisk: It had an oil change a month or two ago at 6500miles. It'll be having it's first service soon at 12,500miles. Currently showing just shy of 10k. I bought a roof rack and two bike racks at a cost of... £272 for genuine Ford items. To be fair even the Halfords aero units were coming in at £257. I decided to pay the little bit extra. And que a ride up the Afan forest on the weekend. I need to get a list together of what I want to do to the car in order of priority and what is warranty friendly and what isn't. Warranty Friendly - Towbar with car specific module which talks to the ESP to stabilise the trailer during snaking. £470inc VAT. - Zetec S front bumper £318 + Painting & Fitting - Zetec S Side Skirts £306 + Painting & Fitting - Zetec S Rear Bumper £293 + Painting & Fitting - Zetec S Rear Spoiler £282.99 + Painting & Fitting - Zetec S Fog Lights £102 - Ford Accessories Illuminated Gear Knob £121.38 - Ford Illuminated Scuff Plates £228.99 - Eibach Lowering Kit 35mm £170.38 - Ford Umbrella Holder £24 - Climair Load Protection Pack (a bit of plastic to cover the bumper just before the boot) £97.71 - Climair Wind Deflectors £77.62 - Wheels. I want 18" alloys of some sort. It will be a case of whatever I can find for a good price. Those prices are Ford RRP. I'm hoping some parts can be purchased much cheaper second hand or even with big discounts through Ford. I certainly won't pay RRP for any of them. The towbar is from Bank Farm Trailers. I won't be able to get that any cheaper. Out of warranty it'll be the usual intake, intercooler, DPF & EGR removal, custom exhaust and a stage one remap. Just like I did with my Mondeo. I fancy a decent sound system again, haven't had anything other than standard systems since my last Focus. I will keep the standard Ford SYNC head unit but fit a 5/6 channel amplifier with high level inputs powering a set of door components front & rear and one 10" or two 8" subwoofers. I think I will have to strip the interior and sound deaden everything. The amount of rattles for a 6 month old car is unreal! I've had the passengers door card off twice already. I do fancy a Focus ST interior too. It would have to be a full leather one though.
Calling 1.5tdci Owners!
Bailes posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubI have a 1.5TDCi. I have a software issue where the EGR stays open too long and sometimes when you go to accelerate the car bogs down or cuts out before it starts to pull. It's an extremely annoying fault that among other issues mixed with extremely poor customer service from Ford Customer Relations has insured this will be my last ever Ford. However I'm wondering if anyone else on here is experiencing the same issues I am? Have you reported it to Ford? Ford have told me they need 50 reports before they will take action but it's still in single figures. Bailes.
Scott, Is your neighbours a 1.5TDCi also? My bogging down isn't so much when I'm pulling away but when I'm already moving and try to accelerate.
1.5Tdci Running Issues
Bailes posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubSo I purchased a brand new Focus Titanium 1.5TDCi end of last month. I have a few issues with it. When driving at a constant speed with very little load from a few miles and then push the accelerator a bit the car jerks harshly as if the engine cuts out for a split second before it picks up and starts to pull. Sometimes (mainly when pulling off a roundabout) when you press the accelerator the car seems to hesitate and almost start to slow down before it pulls. Also the engine revs jump up 250rpm when changing gear as if my foot is still on the accelerator. The car has been back 3 times in 3 weeks and the dealer admits that it's not right but we took another 2 brand new 1.5TDCi's out and they were doing the same thing. The mechanics seem to think the first two issues are down to the programming of the EGR but there is no PCM update available right now and they've told me to live with it. The second issue is a bit of an unknown, but again I'm being told I have to wait for a PCM update. The car should hold it's revs for a second before letting them drop and then holds them where the engine would be in the next gear making the gear changes smoother but it seems to be over compensating and revving itself when you put your foot on the clutch. I really down know what to do now. The car annoys the hell out of me as I know it's not right. The dealer doesn't want to know, and I got totally fobbed off when I asked them if they'd replace the car with a 1.6TDCi. I seem to have spent £21,500 on a car that is still in development. Bailes.
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New Focus 1.5Tdci
Bailes posted a topic in Ford Project and Build ThreadsI sent my trusty MK4 Mondeo in for a new DMF and flywheel. Even with 149k on the clock I was always convinced it was on the original flywheel and clutch. I was quite smitten with my Mondeo. It went well, was awesome on fuel and I always trusted it to get me where I needed to go. I never worried that it wouldn't make it anywhere! Infact I've been all over europe in it. I should have known the DMF and clutch couldn't possibly be the original. It done a track day, many hill climbs and had a remap at 122k. I had no paperwork off the lease company that owned it prior related to a replacment DMF so I can only assume it was done under warrenty. I had a phonecall 7pm one evening when the mechanic stayed on to work on the car telling me there was an issue. The flywheel had been replaced previously (was Sachs not FoMoCo) and whoever had fitted it as badly cross threaded two of the bolts. Our options being to tap and thread the hole which had very little metal left, pop some threadlock on it and hope for the best or fit a new crank. Being that the car was only worth £2500 at most I decided to cut my losses and sell it spares or repair. It had been a good workhorse and always got me where I wanted to go, I never had to worry about it and if I started bodging things now I'd be constantly worried that the bolt would come loose. So it was time to find a new car! My plan was to get something old, run it for 18 months and buy my Fathers F30 320d when the lease was up but I decided against that. I do 25k a year so running an old car wasn't practical. It was a shame as I had a 5 or 6 cylinder itch that required scratching. I went to a Ford dealer first and was amazed at how nice the new MK3 Focus' are! Not just by how well they are built and look but the amount of spec on them. There was a few availible in different colours and spec's and I went for this one! So after a week with the focus I thought it was time I got some better pictures up. So it's a... 2015 Ford Focus Titanium 1.5TDCi (120ps) Appearence Pack Sat Nav with SYNC2 Spare Wheel I'm actually really impressed with it. I was expecting it to feel like a downgrade from the Mondeo but it really doesn't. The Sat Nav with SYNC is a great bit of kit and really easy to use! The only confusing bit is the fact you can control the climate with it even though there is a separate heating control panel? I feel they done it just to fill a corner on the screen! Only gripe with it is the fingerprints! One of the handiest features is the two USB ports and the Line In. One USB port located under the climate control panel... And the rest of the connections in the armrest... It's also got a small colour display in the instrument cluster where you will find two separate trip computers and a verity of different setting and information about the car such as tyre pressures etc. The engine? Well it's based on the old PSA derived DV6. It's has a shorter stroke which reduces the cylinder capacity to 1.5 litres. It's actually the quietest and smoothest diesel I've ever driven. No sign of turbo lag and It has a lovely power band from 1200rpm all the way to 5000rpm with a nice smooth and even pull right through the rev range. I'm impressed with how quick it actually feels! I do have a few niggles as you expect with a new car. Sometimes when changing gear the revs hold for a bit too long or increase slightly even though my foot is off the accelerator. Also when you're doing a constant speed around 1750-2000rpm and you put your foot down a bit the car can hesitate and sometimes jerks before it starts to pull. I suspect both issues simply require a PCM update with some newer software for the ECU. I was expecting this sort of thing as it's a brand new engine for ford. Other issue is there's a little dirt under the paint on the bonnet. I'm unsure if it's even worth mentioning to ford? Afraid it'll come back from Fords bodyshop with even more issues. I don't think anyone would even see it without being shown it. And there's a bit of etching on the grille. It will come off with some polish but none to happy about it! But all in all I'm very happy with the car, and so is the missus which is a bonus! :cheesy:
Tyre Wear. Plus What Tyres Will Have The Greatest Mileage
Bailes replied to stu412t's topic in Ford Mondeo / Vignale ClubDunlop Sportmaxx RT not good on wear? The set I had on the car when I bought it lasted 40k!
Tyre Wear. Plus What Tyres Will Have The Greatest Mileage
Bailes replied to stu412t's topic in Ford Mondeo / Vignale ClubI'm anal about my Tyre pressures and after a bit of asking about and googling Goodyears are very bad for going out of shape! Also noticed since my Fathers F30 320d has had it's Pirrelli P7's replaced with Goodyear Eagle NCT5s there is a bit of vibration around 50mph!
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Tyre Wear. Plus What Tyres Will Have The Greatest Mileage
Bailes replied to stu412t's topic in Ford Mondeo / Vignale ClubI personally would avoid Goodyears. I've had Goodyear Efficientgrips and Eagle F1 Assy 2's on my Mondeo. The Efficientgrips had decent grip but the sidewalls were too soft which made the car feel disconnected. They also caused steering vibrations which I never got to the end of. They also wore out at an astonishing rate! I had 4 Eagle F1 Assy 2's fitted and 2 of them went out of shape after just 3000miles. The tyre shop insisted this was something I have done and wouldn't replace them! They also had very soft sidewalls and made the car feel very 'floaty'. But they did last much longer than the Efficientgrips! I still have 2 on the rear, one of them is out of shape but has been balenced out so I feel no vibrations. I would reccomend Dunlop Sport maxx RT's or contisportcontact 3's. They last well, are quiet and offer good all round performance. I always pair up tyres on axles. Never just replace one tyre on an axle. If I have an irrapairable puncture on the front of my car I would replace both front tyres. Might be worth getting 4 new tyres and rotating them every 3000miles (Which I believe the manual reccomends if you have a look).
What Have You Bought Your Ford For Christmas
Bailes replied to Lenny's topic in General ChatMy parents got me a Richbrook gearknob as my standard item is worn. Had a bit of hassle getting a half decent insert for the top of it but richbrook sorted it out after a bit of a nag! I also have a new heated windscreen switch as the paint on mine is falling off. And I have 6 litres of oil, a Hengst oil filter and a new sump plug sat on my floor. Just need to pick a day with decent weather to fit it all!
My Father had two years ago! It's what got me interested in cars. This is an 05 plate on LPG with 100k on the clock. It'd be a straight swap for my 08 plate Titanium 1.8TDCi. I like the thought of it being a simpler engine, more reliable too! But the age it putting me off.
mine passed 123456miles a few months ago. Today is passed 130,000miles :( Still goes like a train though and feels like new! Am considering going up to Leeds friday and chopping it in for an ST220
Uk Winter 2013/14
Bailes replied to The Dark Knight's topic in General ChatI've yet to start wearing a jumper. It's been far to warm for that! My Missus thinks I'm insane and I should start wearing one "because it's the middle of !Removed! December and people are looking at you like your an idiot" Quite dissapointed as I love the freezing cold, dry cripsy mornings. Leave my house at 5:30am to get to work the other side of the Bridge at 7:30am and get to watch the sun rise all the way there! But alas... all that we've had to far is clouds and rain. It's still to warm to consider winter tyres usefull! They don't come into their own till 7°c and blow. Today it was 8°c when I woke up and got in the car!
Reversing A Temporary Oil Filter By-Pass
Bailes replied to dan can's topic in General Ford Related DiscussionsErrr what? The Oil filter on the Lynx engines is a screw on canister oil filter. There is no way to bypass it. Are you sure he didn't mean oil cooler? That's located underneath the oil filter. If so then I assume he would have removed the coolant hoses and joined them together. This is located on the back of the block. Simply unjoin them and connect them back upto the oil cooler.


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AS-T Degree & Certificates
All Broadcast Electronic Media Arts courses are credit and degree applicable, and selected courses TRANSFER to the CSU and/or UC systems. Many students transfer to nearby SAN FRANCISO STATE UNIVERSITY. Students are encouraged to work with a college counselor and a department program advisor to establish an education plan during the first semester of study. For more information contact the COLLEGE TRANSFER CENTER.
Need some advising? Email firstname.lastname@example.com
- AS-T Degree in Film, Television and Electronic Media
- Certificates
- Foundations In Broadcast Electronic Media Arts Certificate of Achievement: Required for Advanced Certificates
- Courses
- Transfer Center
- Broadcast Technicians - Job Outlook
What Jobs Can I get with a BEMA Certificate?
Audio and Video for the Web
Podcast Series Producer, Blog Publisher, Social Media Writer
Multimedia Journalism
News Reporter, News Producer, Social Media Writer
Convergent Media Production
Mobile video/media/festival producer, Multimedia Journalist, Social Media Producer
Newswriter, On-air reporter, News producer, Promotions assistant, On air radio personality, Producer, Programming assistant
Live Sound*
Front-of-the House Engineer, Sound Monitor Engineer, Sound Systems Engineer, Sound Installer, Live Sound Engineer
Sound Design*
Production Sound Mixer, Sound Designer, Dialog Editor, Foley Recordist, Music Editing, ADR Recordist, Boom Operator, Project Manager, Sound Effects Editor for Film, TV, Web Serires, Theater, Games and Advertising
Sound Recording*
Assistant Recording Engineer, Recording Engineer, Mix Engineer, Master Engineer
Television Production*
Production Assistant, Floor Manager, Associate Producer, Teleprompter Operator, Camera Operator, Character Generator Operator
Video Production and Post*
Video Editor, Assistant Video Editor, Colorist, Post-Production Operations Assistant, Camera Operator, Associate Producer, Assistant Video Editor
Broadcast Motion Graphics*
Motion Graphics Producer for TV, Internet, Theater and Cinema, TV/Film Editor.
* To earn this certificate, you must first earn the Foundations in Broadcast Electronic Media Arts certificate.
Check out our Alumni page for some of the folks who've done it. Click here!

subset: commoncrawl


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Posted by Anne Harding - American Journal of Industrial Medicine on 11th Feb 2016
Article on knee injuires in the trades
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK | Mon Jan 4:31pm EST
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Men who spend significant amounts of time kneeling on the job are at great risk of developing osteoarthritis of the knee, a new study published in the American Journal of Industrial Medicine confirms.
While several studies have suggested that people working in jobs that require spending time on one's knees, such as floor laying, are prone to knee osteoarthritis, few have been able to quantify the amount of time spent kneeling that actually increases risk, Dr. Alfred Franzblau of The University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor and colleagues note.
Franzblau and his team evaluated 1,970 people participating in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for whom knee X-rays were available, limiting their analysis to people who had been on their longest-held job for at least five years.
The researchers had five ergonomics experts rate occupations based on how much time a worker would spend each day sitting, standing, walking or running, carrying or lifting loads greater than 22 pounds, kneeling, or working in a cramped space. This information "allows us to better identify the magnitude of the exposure that contributes to risk," Franzblau told Reuters Health in an interview.
Men in occupations requiring the most kneeling were more than three times as likely as those who spent the least time on their knees to develop knee osteoarthritis, the researchers found. Heavy lifting also nearly tripled knee osteoarthritis risk for men. For women, spending more time standing during the workday increased the risk of knee osteoarthritis.
Based on these findings, the researchers estimate that 21 percent of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis cases in men are due to working in jobs that require kneeling for more than 14 percent of the workday. Thirty-one percent of men in the study had jobs that met this description, including nursery or farm work or construction trades.
While just 5 percent of women in the study had jobs that required kneeling, 35 percent had jobs that required them to stand for more than 30 percent of their work day, in activities such as operating machines or working in sales, the researchers note. This means about 19 percent of cases of symptomatic knee osteoarthritis in women are due to working in such jobs.
"Our results indicate that modifications to work methods are needed to reduce occupational risk of knee osteoarthritis," Franzblau and his colleagues conclude.
SOURCE: American Journal of Industrial Medicine, January.


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If you ever ordered salt and pepper pork chops, or salt and pepper shrimp at an asian restaurant, this tastes just like it. Coated in a light dry batter and deep fried. It's actually delicious, despite the deep-fried factor. I hope you enjoy it too. It's a very simple recipe.
1 lb Shrimp, peeled and deviened
1/2 tsp White Pepper, ground
1/2 tsp Black Pepper, ground
1/2 cup of Cornstarch + pinch of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp of MSG (optional)
Stir Fry Mixture:
2 Green Onions, chopped
1 Jalapeno Peppers, sliced
3 Glove of Garlic
Salt and Pepper
Place shrimp in coating mixture, toss to combine and coat.
Heat oil in a pot until 350F. Cook about 5 to 6 shrimps at a time until pink in color. Cook remaining shrimp in batches. Drain off in paper towels.
Place some oil in a wok, and heat until hot. Throw in stir-fry mixture (no salt or pepper yet), and stir fry until pungent. Put the shrimp into the work and stir-fry for about 30 seconds. Sprinkle salt and pepper to taste.


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Who Should Be the Angels' First Baseman?
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It's time for another poll.
Who should be the Angels' first baseman in 2007?
Choose from Shea Hillenbrand, Casey Kotchman, Kendry Morales or Robb Quinlan.
The results of the last poll … Who should be the Angels' center fielder in 2007?
- Gary Matthews Jr. 31%
- Reggie Willitts 28%
- Tommy Murphy 22%
- Erick Aybar 18%
There were 183 votes cast.


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Suddenly, no one wants to say it like it is: the car is second-hand, the game was sold to us by someone else, that is just something the previous diner threw up. "Pre-owned" simply sounds corny. Before it was owned, it was manufactured, assembled, retailed, distributed, displayed, packed, thrown-away-at-never-before-seen-rates-at-export-material-reject-sales.
But before it was owned, it was never owned.
Try saying: "Oh, this is my post-owned car. I've had it for three years now. I'm thinking of selling it to a new post-owner and become a proud owner of a pre-owned car".
Soon everything will achieve new pre-ownership. The raddi-wallah, previously mistaken for a mere recycler, is actually an enabler of pre-owned items, a mobile purveyor of modern antiques. If information from 'trusted sources' is first-hand then grapevine data is no longer rumour, but 'pre-owned' gossip.
Try saying: "Oh, these undies are not second-hand, they are merely pre-worn".
We have an old car at home - we are its 3rd owner. That makes it a pre-pre-owned vehicle. It also sounds like a spiritual guru.
I suppose there is no point in continuing these rants; after all this is the land that also gave "prepone" to the world. I will wait to recycle them another day. Maybe the day I see matrimonial ads for "second marriages" claiming:
"Dynamic, fair, 42 (looks 30) /5"8', IIT-IIM. Innocent, issueless pre-married."
Till then, this is just pre-post-erous.


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Next Generation Science Standards Connection:
Students will conduct an investigation on sound and sound vibrations. The investigation will allow my students to gather evidence on how sounds are made with a rubber band. Using cause and effect, the students will demonstrate an understanding of vibrations and how they are responsible for the sounds we hear. Students will record their observations and evidence in their scientific journals.
Classroom Structures:
In order to support a high level of student discourse within my science lessons I have assigned two different student partnerships. Turn and Talk Partners are discourse partners that work together to share the deep thinking that happens throughout the day. Workshop Partners are partners who are matched together for the purpose of working during our independent times. In this lesson students will be engaged in both partnerships.
Prior Knowledge Needed:
Students will need to know that our 5 senses are tools that help us gather information and learn about the world around us. We will be utilizing our senses for observation throughout the lesson.
Home-School Connection:
I LOVE involving parents in the learning in my classroom. This parent letter is both an introduction to our next two units as well as a request for supplies. Many of the items used to teach this unit are recyclable items so I request parent help as well as help from my colleagues in collecting items.
1. Completed anchor chart from lesson "Listen, Listen, Listen!"
2. A new anchor chart labeled, "Sound Wonderings"
4. Class set of rubber bands
5. Class set of shoe boxes or empty tissue boxes (you can do this activity in partnerships as well with half the amount of boxes and rubber bands)
8. Science Journal (Avery Labels 5163) - I use blank paper in my journals so my students have more space and freedom to experiment with graphic organizers, illustrations, etc.
9. How are sounds made? (Avery Labels 8160)
It is important to teach questioning across the subject areas as well as scaffold this instruction for our young learners. One way to do this is to provide an avenue in which children feel safe to ask a variety of questions. I am careful to validate student questioning and record their ideas.
The other day we thought, observed and drew like scientists. Do you know why? Well it is because we are scientists. Scientists are people who observe the world around them. Boys and girls as I think back on our nature walk I think about all the great noticings you shared with me but now I have a lot of questions. I wonder how did that crow make that short, loud sound? How do the leaves make a short, crunchy sound? Are any of you wondering something about sounds right now? Please share some of these questions with your "Turn and Talk Partner."
I allow the students to share their wonderings with each other and I listen in and write down some of the questions I hear. I am careful to listen for questions like, "How are the sounds even made?" or "How did it make that sound?" I make a list of all their great questions and wonderings and post it up on our science bulletin board for reference.
Once we have asked question it is time to narrow our investigation to one of the questions on our chart: How are sounds made? It is important to emphasize the question we are trying to solve.
We have developed a list of great questions to investigate. Today we will start with one question. This one right here... I point to our anchor chart. How are sounds made? WOW! That is a really big question. How many of you are wondering the exact same thing? Almost all of the children respond in agreement. In a few minutes we are going to use our sense of sight (seeing), feeling (touch) and hearing to investigate the answer to that really big question.
We will not be using our sense of taste or smell today. In this investigation you will be using one rubber band and one shoe box to make sound. If you try an idea and it doesn't work, try another. Keep trying until you have made sound. As you are working I want you to keep in mind our big question: How are sounds made? Your job is to work with your workshop partner and learn all about making sounds. Once you have discovered a way to make a sound, use the magnifying glass to look even closer at the sound. Before sending them to work I model how to observe using a magnifying glass.
As my students work I walk around and confer with each group naming and noticing the smart thinking happening. Conferring is the process of listening and recording the work the student or students are doing and then compliment the work. As I listen, I research a teaching point and then work to provide clarification through questioning, modeling and re-teaching. The students respond with, "No. That idea isn't working. Let's try it this way." or "Look. If you wrap the rubber band like this and pull it it makes a sound, listen." As I hear these comments I may say, "Great! You found a way to make sound. Now think about that big question; How are sounds made? Can you see any clues to help answer this question? Students will respond by saying the rubber band is making the sound so I will respond by saying, "Use your magnifying glass and tell me how. Look very closely and tell me what you notice." I move onto the next partnership to allow time for the partners to ponder this question together. This formative assessment tool will help guide the learning in my classroom.
Mid-Work Teaching Point - If I notice that my students are having a hard time finding ways to make sound with the rubber band I may suggest that they try four different ways and find the one that works best. I will suggest that if one way doesn't work, quickly move onto a different way. If they still struggle I may ask them to take a tour of the room and observe what the other students are doing.
I have the students meet me on the carpet and I ask if anyone discovered ways to make sounds. I listen to the children share their thinking with their Turn and Talk Partnerships. I listen for the students to say things like, "When the rubber band moved back and forth it made sounds." or "When I pulled the rubber band it made a sound."
After a minute of sharing I bring the children to attention and say, "Boys and girls today you said that when the rubber band moved you heard a sound. I will use one of the student examples and show the movement of the rubber band. That movement you see is called a sound wave or vibration. These vibrations and waves are what make sound happen. Sound comes from vibrations and these vibrations (or waves) travel to the nerves in our ears. When the vibrations hit the nerves it sends signals to our brains to tell us what we are hearing. Listen: (I whistle) Did you hear that? The sound waves or vibrations traveled to your brain and your brain told you that I was whistling.
Put your finger on your throat and hum like this." I model humming and holding my finger to my throat. I then ask them to try the same thing and watch their reactions. Did you feel something moving on your finger? That is called vibrations or sound waves. They are making sound and you can feel the vibrations with your finger!
Classroom Video: Whole Group Share
I show the children the following science vocabulary: vibrations, sound waves and sound travel. I tell the children that these words are very important for the work we will be doing in this unit. I hang the words under "Vocabulary" on our science bulletin board.
Writing in first grade can be in the form of illustrations, labels, and words. In science I have my students write in a journal during and/or after every science lesson. This type of writing should be explicitly taught in all subject areas. With each writing I explicitly teach one thing that I want my students to do in their science writing and show them a model before sending them off to write. Today they will learn how to draw a diagram and add labels.
Boys and girls this is the word diagram. I hold up the vocabulary card. It is a science word for a drawing. When drawing a diagram you don't need crayons only a pencil. It is a simple picture that shows your work. You will need to include labels as well.
Today your job is to use only a pencil to create a diagram in your science journal to show me how you learned about vibrations. The one thing that all diagrams need are labels so be sure to include a lot of labels to tell me what you are drawing.
Writing in first grade can be in the form of illustrations, labels, and words. In science I have my students write in a journal during and/or after every science lesson and use these journals to gain deeper insight on student learning. This type of writing must be explicitly taught in all subject areas. With each writing I explicitly teach one thing that I want my students to do in their science writing and show them a model before sending them off to write. Today they will learn how add some writing to their illustrations.
"Boys and girls today and everyday when you hear sound what you are hearing are vibrations (or waves) that are sending signals to your brain telling you what you are hearing. These sound waves are everywhere!!" I want you to go back to your diagram from our rubber band experiment and I want you to write the answer to our big question today: How are sounds made?
In order to check for understanding, I send my students back to their science journals and ask them to take a few minutes to add the word sound wave or vibration to their diagram from our rubber band experiment. In their journals, I ask them to write the answer to our big question. How are sound made? I will be looking for answers like, "I learned that sound comes from sound wave." or "I learned that vibrations make sound."


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While Apple updated its MacBook family at last month's WWDC, the iMac didn't get any new upgrades. Rumor has it Apple's already producing new iMacs — with Retina displays that'll make your eyeballs explode.
Once again, DigiTimes is reporting based on supply chain components, it's very possible that Apple is already ramping up production of new iMacs.
Although DigiTimes was unable to fully confirm whether the new iMacs will pack Retina displays, it strongly believes that Apple will expand the high-resolution display to its all-in-one computer.
The only reason Apple will not release a Retina display iMac is because there aren't enough compatible images, apps and content that would make it shine — a problem new MacBook Pro with Retina display owners have learned.
DigiTimes' rumors directly contradicts Instapaper developer Marco Arment's sources who say that the new iMacs will not come with Retina displays at 5120x2880 resolution.
As Apple blog MacRumors notes, the iMac is due for an update soon. It's been 427 days since the last update, which is an eternity in Apple product years.
A Retina display iMac would be ideal, but is it necessary? Especially on a 27-inch iMac? It might be overkill...


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Symbol of the Starfish
According to legend, starfish are reflections of stars in the sky inhabiting the ocean floor. Symbolizing rebirth, starfish have a remarkable ability for regeneration. If a starfish is cut in half, two starfish will grow. The limbs of the starfish work together for the benefit of the whole, illustrating equality and teamwork.
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Mercedes-Benz 600SEL Parts
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Like it's counterpart the 600SEC, the Mercedes Benz 600SEL was an automobile produced by Mercedes from 1992 to 1993. Although it shared many of the features that the 600SEC did, such as the powerful V12 or V8 engine options, the 600SEL was arguably a more luxurious vehicle than the coupe version. With four doors and longer build, the 600SEL was more geared towards luxury than it was style and performance. A rarity in the Mercedes community the 600SEL is a highly collectable vehicle due to the short time in which it was in production.
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Origin: 1890?95;??<?German,??equivalent?to?Schaden??harm?+?Freude??joy
Bernard Hickey, the NZ Herald and Stuff are all crowing about Mark Hotchin again. It is almost gleeful. A touch of H-Utu. This time about his name suppression and falling for a dirty Ponzi scheme back in 2o04. They are mocking a victim. They don't mock the victims of all the other frauds out there so why mock the victim in this case?
The point of name suppression in many cases is the protection of victims, in this case Hotchin was the victim and yet the NZ Herald saw fit to seek to overturn a permanent name suppression order designed to protect victims. They did what Judge David Harvey said could not be done, that the only people who could overturn a court ordered permanent name suppression was either the victim or the court who ordered it in the first place.
It appears now that any name suppression can be validly challenged by any news?organization?or indeed any interested party seeking to crucify a victim.
My campaign against name?suppression?was for the removal of the?practice?for the criminals. The Herald's actions and the?gleeful?vitriol and running of sensationalist headlines by financial commentators who are themselves a bunch of broken-arses by comparison. There is a old line that if you can't do, you teach and if you can't teach, you write about people who do. This fits the financial correspondents perfectly, who collectively probably don't muster enough in assets to cover?the?amount lost by Hotchin and Finnigan in?the?Ponzi scheme.
Using the logic of Bernard Hickey:
Hotchin was given permanent name suppression, which has only now been lifted after a challenge from the NZHerald. Strategic Finance boss Kerry Finnigan was also duped and also got name suppression.
If only the Rotorua District Court judge James Weir hadn't granted permanent suppression, thousands of Mum and Dad investors might not have lost over NZ$500 million in Hanover and over NZ$300 million in Strategic Finance…and counting. Thanks for that.
then none of these people should be anywhere near running a company or even investing or indeed offering advice:
Victims from big business include hedge fund manager Arki Busson and US property magnate Larry Silverstein, who is currently working to rebuild the World Trade Centre in New York.
A number of large banks, including UBS, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and Bank of America, were also named in the filing.
From the world of politics, trusts belonging to the family of former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger appear, as does the name of current New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg.
The full?list?of Bernie Madoff's wealthy and famous victims is?available?on the internet in an easily accessible format. Is Bernard Hickey suggesting that none of those people should ever run a company or give investment advice and all should also be a target of derision for having the temerity to fall for a complex and elaborate long-term fraud?
In a Ponzi scheme, the Bank cops a?flogging?too, and are essentially part of the fraud. I hope that Bernard's bank isn't the same one as the bank used by Papple and West, Westpac. I note that Bernard Hickey has all the Westpac investment products listed on interest.co.nz….given his new position shouldn't he really be?recommending?to his readers that, since they participated and fell for the Ponzi scheme themselves then investors in Westpac would be best to take their money elsewhere.
Then again, some already did that when they walked out of the country with $10 million of Westpac's cash. Funny thing is, I didn't see?Bernard?Hickey telling Westpac customers to stop investing in the bank when they couldn't keep track of $10 million. So long as Westpac keeps the cheques coming to interest.co.nz then?Bernard?will stay mum.
The logical conclusion of Hickey's farcical suggestions and "analysis" is that anyone, and I mean anyone, who has had an accountant nick cash from their firm, handed over funds to a Nigerian 419 fraud, or "invested" in a Ponzi scheme, or indeed thought Amway was a path to success, should be barred from running a company.
What is worse though is the history of the Herald's involvement in this case. They clearly, back in 2004, used Hotchin and Finnigan as a confidential source for their story:
One prominent company director told the court he did not want the public to know he was "conned" for more than half-a-million dollars.
The man, who has been granted name suppression by Judge James Weir, said he was advised to apply for suppression because it would be better if the Papples and West were not publicly associated with his companies.
It was revealed in court that the man had been a director of 71 companies, including a prominent finance company, although he said he had recently moved to Australia and had resigned from a number of directorships.
It was important for him not to be connected with the Papples and West, as he had been "duped into doing an investment with people who conned me for a lot of money", he said. "I don't want to make that public."
The man had told the court he invested $561,066 with the trio.
He received a payment of $120,000, followed by a further three sums totalling $336,000.
The Herald has known about this for 6 years and they shamelessly used the confidential information for their story then used that information 6 years later to over-turn a name suppression case. People should be very wary of providing confidential information to a Herald journalist from now on, they will turn on you and cut your heart out just to sell papers. They will betray a confidence to justify a taudry headline.
Not only that during this whole time they ran Hanover ads in their paper, and on their website,. They have performed the business equivalent of raping the victim all over again except they did it to sell papers.
Bernard?Hickey isn't much better, he too took?advertising?revenue from Hanover. Did he know about this all along? Remember Bernard Hickey still writes for the Herald.
In the interests of fairness, surely the Herald and Bernard Hickey should pay back all the "dirty Hanover cash" they took while sitting on this information for 6 years. If the investors should have been told back then, then their cash for advertising is just as tainted as anyone elses.
To get back to the name suppression issue, the wonder is that the Herald isn't in court seeking the overturning of every person's name suppression but then a great many of those people won't sell tell many papers, but Mark Hotchin's name does.
Bernard Hickey and other financial media might like to think and enjoy the?schadenfreude but they should really hang their heads in shame at their utter hypocrisy and breach of their own ethics and standards that they hold so dear as the reason why they are superior to bloggers. If they had even a modicum of decency they would apologise and pay back all the filthy loot they took in advertising revenue and related puff pieces at the time.
If I was Mark Hotchin, or even one of his advisors, I would be laying a complaint with the Press Council for breaches of ethics.
As much at home writing editorials as being the subject of them, Cam has won awards, including the Canon Media Award for his work on the Len Brown/Bevan Chuang story. When he's not creating the news, he tends to be in it, with protagonists using the courts, media and social media to deliver financial as well as death threats.
They say that news is something that someone, somewhere, wants kept quiet. Cam Slater doesn't do quiet and, as a result, he is a polarising, controversial but highly effective journalist who takes no prisoners.
He is fearless in his pursuit of a story.
Love him or loathe him, you can't ignore him.
To read Cam's previous articles click on his name in blue.


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Topic of the moment – the transit of Venus
On 6 June Venus will cross the face of the Sun in a last-chance-to-see event that was once crucial in working out our place in the universe.
The transit of Venus is much like a solar eclipse, with the planet crossing in front of the Sun as viewed from Earth.
However while the Moon can completely obscure the Sun's disc, Venus, being much further away, appears as a small black dot slowly making its way across it over the course of six to seven hours.
Like eclipses, however, the event would be far more common if the orbits of the bodies involved weren't tilted.
Because of the incline, Venus usually appears above or below the Sun rather than directly in between it and the Earth. As a result, transits are among the rarest predictable astronomical events, occurring in a repeating pattern of pairs eight years apart – the last was in 2004 – separated by a gap first of 121.5 years and then of 105.5 years.
Johannes Kepler predicted the transit of 1631, but no observations were made. Subsequent transits (in 1639, 1761, 1769, 1874 and 1882) were used to make increasingly accurate calculations of an important astronomical measurement – the distance between the Earth and the Sun, which was previously unknown. Many other astronomical distances depend on this, from the size of the rest of our solar system to the distances to other stars.
By watching a transit of Venus and measuring the time taken for it to cross the entire Sun's disc as viewed from two points on Earth separated by large latitudes, the distance from Earth to Venus can be worked out using the parallax method. Then, using Kepler's third law, the interplanetary distance and the orbital periods of both bodies can be used to determine the Earth's orbital radius.
Jeremiah Horrocks initially miscalculated the distance, arriving at a value two thirds of the currently accepted 93 million miles after the 1639 transit. The next pair were observed by a number of astronomers all over the world, and increasingly accurate results taken.
After the 1882 transit, Simon Newcomb combined data from the prior four events and determined the distance to the Sun to an accuracy of 0.31 million kilometres. Using other techniques such as radar, it's now known to within around 30 metres. These figures allow easy calculation of the distance to other planets, stars, galaxies and ultimately the size of the observable universe.


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Consider a $C^k$, $k\ge 2$, Lorentzian manifold $(M,g)$ and let $\Box$ be the usual wave operator $\nabla^a\nabla_a$. Given $p\in M$, $s\in\Bbb R,$ and $v\in T_pM$, can we find a neighborhood $U$ of $p$ and $u\in C^k(U)$ such that $\Box u=0$, $u(p)=s$ and $\mathrm{grad}\, u(p)=v$?
printf("%c", z)
Can you tell me why this question deserves to be negative?
I tried to find faults and I couldn't: I did some research, I did all the calculations I could, and I think it is clear enough . I had deleted it and was going to abandon the site but then I decided to learn what is wrong and see if I ca...


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Mosque may remain open for individual prayer beyond scheduled jama'ah times.
General Information
- Name: Alzahrah Islamic Center
- Type: Mosque
- Address: 4010 Bishop Ln, Louisville, KY 40218, USA
- City/Locality, State: Louisville, Kentucky
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- Prayer space available in completely separate prayer hall.
- Odhu facilities available.
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"Keeping your friends close but keeping your enemy even closer" seem to be the mantra that NGO should be following when battling it out on the social media scene.
How come that millions can be mobilised in just a few hours on a problem in Africa that have mostly been forgotten for the past 20 years. The Kony 2012 campaign to get rid of the Uganda warlord has at this time (17 o'clock local Copenhagen) reached 55'000'0000 views. More people than all the Scandinavian countries put together and far more views than even the best rock bands can hope to achieve even with the best of songs. How come that in a time where politics and politicians seem further and further away from the people that have elected them, is possible to create a social movement in a matter of hours.
For one it cause is uncontroversial. We can all agree that the rape of children or being forced take up arms against your own family and mutilating others are bad. And when we even have a personification of there atrocities in the form of a concrete named person it makes it even easier for the many to come together. In contrast it would be much harder to create one consistent image if we had had to relate to multiple issues like the ones in Libya, Syria or even Iran. So hating Kony is easy because it does not force us to make nuanced decisions or relate to alternatives that might distort our image of evil.
The media also plays a significant part in the success of the campaign. We have witnessed activist consumers before, like in the case of Dow Chemical in Vietnam or Shell and the dumping of Brent spare in the North Sea. But with social media and the possibilities within viral videos, it is possible to communicate easy, fast and not least with a great deal of media richness to a very big audience. Within normal communication you substitute speed with quality and the amount of information you can put into one piece of communication. However, with the use of social media one can distribute information with high levels of richness at a fraction of what the cost of the media just ten years ago. The trade-off is that within the 30 minutes that you have to communicate, one often does not have room for more than one overall message. (e.g. Evil vs. Good/Innocence)
Social media might make it easy to get your message out. However, it is just as easy for competing communication and not least your competitors to try and top your latest viral campaign. One element of communication, that many forget, is that they are working on a competitive market. That even though that the viral message is out there for all too see, it have to compete with many other messages that in its characteristics looks very much the same as any other consumer market.
The interesting thing about the Kony 2012 campaign is that the video does not just need to survive in terms of competing with other messages out there, but also attacks that is meant to destroy your campaign all together. Already there are organisations like Red Cross, Action aid Denmark and others who have attacked the campaign for exploiting the African conflict to their own ends. In effect attacking the production of another provider in the "goodness"-industry.
On the commercial market it is only very seldom we see these kinds of initiatives and responses to a product launch. But in the world of NGO, CSO and governmental aid organisations it is more the rule, that when a competing organisation launches a fundraiser or mobilisation campaign that it is immediately attacked. Not from the intended target, but from organisations in the same line of business.
I have no idea if the Kony 2012 campaign will be successful and if the warlord in Uganda will be put to trail. But it is amazing to see that the main challenges does not come from Kony himself or from struggles to get room in the complex media picture, but that it comes from organisations that have basically the same purpose and reason for operating.
These links are just a selection on what is out there primarily debating the sender rather then the message.
Related articles
- KONY 2012 – where does the money go? (bighazeleyes.com)
- Kony 2012: Meet the group behind the viral Stop Kony movement – Toronto Star (thestar.com)
- ICB: Playing heroes and villains with Kony 2012 (thepunch.com.au)
- Kony campaign shows us the power of one (socialmedianz.com)
- Get Kony: 50 million join the hunt (smh.com.au)
- Outrage grows over 'Stop Kony' campaign – CTV.ca (ctv.ca)
- Not So Simple: Kony2012, Its Criticisms and Some Perspective (auroralapetite.wordpress.com)
- For Those Of You Still Campaigning For The Kony 2012 Cause… (citysubwaycreatures.com)
- Kony activist: Young hungry to voice their view (cbsnews.com)
- Learning Lessons About Social Media (sharonannevanwyk.wordpress.com)
- 12 Lessons from KONY 2012 from Social Media Power Users (forbes.com)
- The Story Behind #StopKony (thedailybeast.com)
- Millennials Want To Make Kony Famous In 2012 (ypulse.com)
- Joseph Kony fame campaign targets Ugandan warlord (cbc.ca)
- Video: Kony 2012 campaign defends Ugandan warlord video (vancouversun.com)
- Another 30m watch Kony film … in a day – Sydney Morning Herald (m.smh.com.au)
- Social Media for Society Countdown Kony 2012 the Story of Jacob (newmmage.wordpress.com)
- Non-Profit -Kony 2012 – Watch this Compelling Video (lovelo.wordpress.com)
- The Kony 2012 Campaign: A Manhunt Goes Viral (sutradharsmarket.wordpress.com)
- Supercharged Social Media Activism – The Kony 2012 Video Looks to Save "Invisible Children" (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
- Joseph Kony: Brutal warlord who shocked world – CNN International (edition.cnn.com)
- The warlord versus the world (smh.com.au)
- NMR Exclusive: The Impact of "Kony 2012″ (newmediarockstars.com)
- Why You Should Feel Awkward About the 'Kony2012′ Video (globalspin.blogs.time.com)
- Former child soldier in tears over Kony film (news.ninemsn.com.au)
- Joseph Kony campaign under fire – BBC News (bbc.co.uk)


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Lesson 73: Forough Farrokhzad - Fathé Bagh, Part 5
In this last part of our series on Forough Farrokhzad, we learn the final part of the selection of the poem we've been learning.
In addition, we learn about three birds that feature prominently in the poem that play a large part in the symbolic structure of the poem. These birds are the crow (kalāgh), the eagle (oghāb), and the mythical Iranian bird, the seemorgh (seemorgh). As Forough Farrokhzad explores her relationship and the role society and nature play in her relationship, she evokes these different birds. Each bird plays a pivotal role in her understanding of her relationship and of her self.
Listen Now:
how are you?
Note: In Persian, as in many other languages, there is a formal and an informal way of speaking. We will be covering this in more detail in later lessons. For now, however, chetor-ee is the informal way of asking someone how they are, so it should only be used with people that you are familiar with. hālé shomā chetor-é is the formal expression for 'how are you.'
Spelling note: In written Persian, words are not capitalized. For this reason, we do not capitalize Persian words written in phonetic English in the guides.
I'm well
Pronunciation tip: kh is one of two unique sounds in the Persian language that is not used in the English language. It should be repeated daily until mastered, as it is essential to successfully speak Persian. Listen to the podcast for more information on how to make the sound.
|how are you?
|I'm well
|thank you
|khayli khoobam
|I'm very well
|khoob neestam
|I'm not well
|bad neestam
|I'm not bad
|how are you? (formal)
|hālé shomā chetor-é?
|how are you? (formal)
|hālet chetor-é?
|how are you? (informal)
|are you well? (informal)
|thank you
|chetor peesh meeré?
|how's it going?
|ché khabar?
|what's the news? (what's up?)
Leyla: Hello and welcome to learn Persian with chai and conversation, the podcast for anyone looking to learn conversational Persian. My name is Leyla and I'll be your teacher for this course.
Matt: And my name is Matt and I will be learning Persian along with you.
Leyla: Chai and conversation will teach you conversational Persian in weekly lessons of about 15 minutes each.
Matt: If you know anything about Iranians, they don't do anything without first grabbing a cup of tea – or as they call it, chai. So pour yourself a cup and join us in learning the Persian language.
Leyla: Hello and welcome to Learn Persian with chai and conversation. The point of this podcast is to provide you with a simple, effective and easy way to learn conversational Persian. As we've said, my name is Leyla and I'm joined by Matt.
Matt: Hello.
Leyla: If you've downloaded this program, you are looking for a way to learn to speak and understand Persian. I was born in Iran, and although I moved to Texas when I was only four years old, I grew up speaking the language. My mother was a Persian language instructor who taught me to read and write the language from an early age. But if you're learning on your own, you've probably noticed that there is a lack of effective learning material out there, online and otherwise. And although there are so many language learning podcasts available, none of them are for learning the Persian language. We decided to put an end to this by creating a podcast specifically for people seeking to learn conversational Persian.


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Friday, December 1st 2017 - Sunday, December 31st 2017
What's on at The Tower Helensburgh: December
00:00 - 00:00
The Tower Digital Arts Centre is a registered Scottish Charity. Located in the heart of Helensburgh, the centre is home to the areas local cinema complex running first release films 7 days a week. Run by a lively, friendly and predominantly volunteer staff, the charity provides the area with first release cinema, satellite cinema events, live ballet, live opera, touring plays, music concerts and variety shows. The centre also hosts conferences, school events, lectures, debates, private parties and screenings.
To find out whats on now and to book tickets please check here.BACK


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In general, an autocratic regime's foremost concern is its own survival, and, when economic circumstances threaten its existence or even its legitimacy, the regime must pursue policies that either cure the problem or distract from it.
Rather than embrace the cure of structural economic reform and market liberalization, Putin has consistently opposed such measures, a decision rooted in his preference to keep himself and other Russian kleptocrats wealthy and in power at the expense of the Russian people. Opting for the second option taught in Autocratic Regimes 101, Putin has chosen to disguise widespread economic malaise at home by engaging in adventurism abroad, all in the name of demagogic nationalism and the "rescue" of "repressed" Russian minorities in neighboring ex-satellite states. Irrespective of the actual outcomes of such a foreign policy—which, as I would argue, is really a domestic policy—Putin's state media will continue to craft an image of Russian triumph and adversarial acquiescence.
Read the entire article here
The leaders of the United States and the European Union are making a grievous error in thinking that President Vladimir Putin's Russia is a potential ally in the fight against the Islamic State. The evidence contradicts them. Putin's current aim is to foster the EU's disintegration, and the best way to do so is to flood the EU with Syrian refugees.
Russian planes have been bombing the civilian population in southern Syria forcing them to flee to Jordan and Lebanon. There are now 20,000 Syrian refugees camped out in the desert awaiting admission to Jordan. A smaller number are waiting to enter Lebanon. Both groups are growing.
Russia has also launched a large-scale air attack against civilians in northern Syria. This was followed by a ground assault by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's army against Aleppo, a city that used to have 2 million inhabitants. The barrel bombs caused 70,000 civilians to flee to Turkey; the ground offensive could uproot many more.
Read the entire article here
Read the entire article here


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Dispatch from the Downton Abbey Diaspora is written for Inside THIRTEEN by Deborah Gilbert, a British television maven and editor of the E20 Chronicles, a free, weekly Eastenders e-newsletter, and an Eastenders column in the Union Jack Newspaper. Check back for updates.
Last Sunday, as the ladies took shelter downstairs and Pritchard walked off into the air raid darkened London night, we saw the finale of Upstairs Downstairs' Season 2 and it sure left us hanging, didn't it? If you're like me, when the credits suddenly rolled, you were left with a lot of thoughts; the utmost being, 'What happens next?!?!' It seems that they ended Season 2 with definite plans for a Season 3. There have to be. We have to know what happens to all our friends at 165 Eaton Place. Will Johnny and Spargo make it back from the war? Will Blanche save more Jews from the Nazis? Will Sir Hallam and Lady Agnes reconcile? Will Miss Buck return? Will 165 Eaton Place be hit in the Blitz? Will Lady Persie haunt the place and trip people down the stairs? So many questions… the kinds of questions you're left with when the story, the performances and the production as a whole are so satisfying. Not surprising that Upstairs Downstairs and Call the Midwife are both written by the same brilliant writer, Heidi Thomas.
So what about Season 3? Of course PBS will want it, but will our friends across the pond produce it? Right now, it seems the answer is no. While Upstairs Downstairs was a big success, it seems that wasn't enough, and so, as of now, the BBC hasn't commissioned Season 3. How nuts is that? Ah well. I suppose that for the moment we will have to make do with my interview with Michael Landes, the actor who played one of the two major catalysts for drama in Lady Agnes and Sir Hallam's marriage this season, Caspar Landry.
Landry, the wealthy and dashing, self-made American who steals Lady Agnes' neglected heart, is played by Landes, a Bronx-born actor. His long list of credits include other British productions that are PBS staples such as Miranda, New Tricks and Miss Marple. He now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Wendy and their two children. I interviewed him during a break from filming his latest project – a new NBC sitcom, where we chatted about one of my favorite topics: British telly! Enjoy the interview.
DG: How did you make the leap across the pond to start doing programs there?
ML: It's so funny, because my father-in-law Harry [photojournalist Harry Benson] is from Scotland, so my wife is a UK passport holder. I had gotten hired to do a play in 2004 in the West End, and then when we went over there I realized that I could get the equivalent of a green card. I was then offered a role in Miss Marple, and I ended up doing that, and then I did a series for the BBC called Love Soup, a great show in which I starred with Tamsin Greig. One job just led to the next and I just kept picking up all these great roles as "the American guy". I love working over there. I genuinely love going there any chance I get. A couple of years ago I did a David Mamet play there and while I was doing the play I did Miranda, which was awesome because she's so great. She's really genuinely a funny woman. Then just last year they called and offered me Upstairs Downstairs.
DG: Do they have a different style of working over there than here?
ML: Yes, definitely. We have a lot of corporate companies that own our networks and TV shows here. There's a lot of scrutiny, a lot of eyes, a lot cooks in the kitchen. And it makes sense because there's also probably a lot more money at stake. But over there the BBC funds projects at a very reasonable budget and they actually let artists be artists. So Heidi (Heidi Thomas, creator and writer for Upstairs Downstairs) writes these scripts, you get them a month ahead, there really aren't any rewrites, so you have a lot more time to prepare. Then when you film the show the costume people are actually artists that collaborate with you and research this period. We have great people here, but there they let everybody do their thing. There's not anybody hovering over you, and it actually is quite freeing. So you may not make the money you can make in America, but you are paid infinitely in the work experience and the creative experience of it all.
DG: Was it daunting to be cast in such a storied franchise as Upstairs Downstairs?
ML: It was exciting because I knew they were doing a newer take on it. With this one, the production values are so great. I think it looks like a movie. I thought it was definitely well made. Not only do they do great costumes and historical things over in the UK — at the BBC, but you are working in real locations. The outside sets aren't fake. I mean, they built the inside of the house on a stage in Cardiff, Wales, but when you're on the streets, it's real. And for an actor to stand in that environment when everything around you seems like it's of the time, a lot of that does the work for you and you just have to surrender to the material at that point. Because you're in these great costumes, you're getting out of these amazing cars, you're on streets that are that old. It's very easy to just land in that.
DG: When you did the scenes on that boardwalk in episode 4, where was that?
ML: That was supposed to be Brighton, which is South London, but because they filmed a lot of it in Wales, there was a very charming little town called Penarth, which is right around the harbor from Cardiff. It was that patina green — they didn't do any touching up. That's exactly what it looks like. The problem was, we were playing the summer but filming in the middle of January so we were freezing! Because I was in it, I can see we had frozen faces, and we we're sniffling. Other scenes were shot in Bristol, which is very beautiful. So where we danced and where my factory was located was actually in Bristol.
DG: That was the part that was supposed to be the East End?
ML: Yes, exactly.
DG: What do you think Caspar's motivation is? Is he a good guy or is he a little dangerous?
ML: What I loved was that Heidi actually made Caspar a gentleman. At the end of it all, did they have a chemistry? I think they had a connection with each other and hopefully you want them to fall in love. Maybe they shouldn't have danced. Maybe that was inappropriate, but I don't think he did anything inappropriate. He would have let her make that move. Heidi also created a guy that was actually a decent human being. It's so funny, the Americans represent someone who's so confident, and you have to walk that fine line of being smarmy or having an agenda. So we tried to make sure that he didn't; that he was present and happy and confident. But then I think they couldn't help it; They fell for each other a little bit. And also what Heidi did very well, particularly in episode 6, was she wrote a scene where the dialogue is saying one thing, but the two people are actually saying something else. I thought that was really nice. That kind of echoed throughout the whole series.
DG: Do you spend part of the year living over there or do you just go when you get jobs?
ML: I've been very fortunate that every year for the last eight years I've gone over for a chunk of time. So we've ended up getting paid holidays. The only trick now is I have two kids in school, an eight and five year old, so with Upstairs Downstairs I worked a couple of weeks, came home for a couple of weeks, and then went back. But to be there for any long period of time is harder now with the kids. You can't really pull them out of school. Thus I'm very grateful to be working on a show in LA at the moment.
DG: What is it you're working on now?
ML: I'm doing a new comedy for NBC — Save Me, coming this winter, with Anne Heche, who's amazing. It's a romantic comedy about a couple trying to save their marriage.
DG: I looked at your Wikipedia page and saw you have a long list of credits and I've probably seen you in other things and…
ML: …and not known? Right, I'm pushing that ball up the hill! I'm trying! (laughs) What I love about having Harry as a father-in-law is he's lived my life and already won. Acting is similar to photography. You finish a job and you don't know what your next job is, but you keep fighting and keep your chin up. He has great life advice for me, so I'm very fortunate. He always says, 'Opportunity strikes like an express train. So you've just got to be ready.' Whenever you're down and out, something can turn, so you've just got to rest and get ready. So far I've been very fortunate, but it never ends. You finish a job and you go back to the end of the line.
DG: It seems that the British actors I've interviewed, even the highly successful ones, have that attitude that they are working actors as opposed to stars.
ML: They have a good attitude about that. You're a jobber. Actually, I think that makes you a colorful person. I think you can fall into the trap of being a star if you get success very quickly. I've been doing it for 24 years, so I've gotten a taste of it, and of humble pie. But it's what I love so you just go where it takes you.
DG: Yes, it's an adventure.
ML: Yes it is. Sometimes it's a scary adventure when you're trying to put two kids through school!
DG: I know that Upstairs Downstairs hasn't been renewed for a third season.
ML: The problem is, because Downton Abbey was so successful, the press made so many comparisons to Upstairs Downstairs that we never really got a fair shot, although it did very well in the ratings over there. But because Downton Abbey is such a monster, I think ultimately the BBC didn't want to be constantly compared to it.
DG: It's such a shame. Do you think there's any chance they'll come back with a third season?
ML: I don't know. It's funny over there because sometimes they'll do a one-off Christmas special. Heidi Thomas, who wrote Upstairs Downstairs, also wrote Call the Midwife, which is their biggest hit. And her whole argument was – you can have ten reality shows but you can't have two costume dramas? One of them was during World War I and one was during World War II – and she had great stories broken for the next series. So I don't know they were all set to get a green light, and they didn't. But anything is kind-of possible with the BBC.
Who knows what we'd see during a Season 3 of Upstairs Downstairs: Will Caspar Landry lead the Bundles for Britain brigade here in the US? There certainly would be no shortage of stories to tell during WWII London, so let's all hope that the 'anything is possible' happens! In case you missed it, watch Masterpiece's Upstairs Downstairs on Thirteen.org through Dec. 12.
Boys Rule, Girls Drool: It isn't just the women of Downton Abbey who are gracing the pages of fashion magazines in luscious photo spreads. The men take a turn in the December issue of GQ UK. Even Bates takes off the hair shirt for a stylist turn.
Call the Midwife: Are you missing the ladies of Nonnatus House already? After the finale episode, I sent a tweet out into the Twitosphere that said, 'Please say there is a Season 2!' And I got a response tweet back from none other than Cliff Parisi (@CliffParisi) who plays Fred the handyman (as well as Minty on EastEnders), saying, 'We are shooting it now and you may have it by Christmas.' So stay tuned! Watch Call the Midwife on Thirteen.org through early Dec.
Attention Downtonians: Between now and that long anticipated day on January 6 when Season 3 of Downton Abbey begins, there will be a flurry of activity at THIRTEEN. For starters, on Sunday, Nov. 25 at 9pm THIRTEEN will air Downton Abbey Revisited, a special 90 minute program that gives you a glimpse into Season 3. And for our long suffering and (and misguided) friends who haven't yet watched Downton Abbey, it looks back at the first two seasons, allowing them to get up to speed!


text: Social Responsibility With an expanding global network of more than 30 offices worldwide, contributing to society and promoting a diverse work force is important to us. Together with the help of clients and vendors, our firm and its employees have contributed nearly $30 million in donations from charitable trading days toward the relief efforts in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; the December 2004 Asian tsunami; Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005; the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti; the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan; and in 2012, Hurricane Sandy, which affected communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Separate from these disaster-related trading days, to date, Jefferies has also helped raise more than $5 million for cancer research, and our educational grant program supports the education of the children of Jefferies employees and has granted more than 900 scholarship awards valued at nearly $8 million. In addition, the firm has an established employee contribution matching program, which benefits a wide range of important causes. At Jefferies, we believe that every employee is one-of-a-kind, with a unique perspective and outlook. We seek to enrich our firm by recruiting individuals from diverse cultures and backgrounds with wide-ranging experience and academic achievement from all over the world. As a result, we are able to pool our collective insights and intelligence to provide fresh and innovative thinking for our clients.


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The team and I are about to head off to CanSecWest. While I have been attending CanSecWest for several years, this year will be a unique experience for me. During my talk, I will demo an open-source tool I just released, called Adobe SWF Investigator. The tool can be useful for developers, quality engineers and security professionals for analyzing SWF applications. It has been a pet project of mine for some time, and I decided to share it with a broader audience.
Within my current role, I have to look at all aspects of SWF applications from cross-site scripting issues to binary analysis. Therefore, the tool includes capabilities to perform everything from testing cross-site scripting to viewing the individual SWF tags within the file format. I am hoping that by releasing the tool as an open-source ActionScript application, it will encourage all ActionScript developers to learn more about security. The tool is designed to be an extensible framework everyone can build upon or modify. More information on the tool can be found in my DevNet article.
In addition to demonstrating the tool, I will also be talking about Advanced Persistent Response. Adobe has been the focus of hackers for some time, and I plan to discuss what we have learned and observed in the process of responding to those threats. My talk will be on Wednesday at 3:30pm, if you are interested. When I am not speaking, you can probably find me and the Adobe team either at the Adobe table or milling around the pwn2own contest for no particular reason. Please feel free to come by and talk with us. See you there!


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So what is the Looe Bioblitz? And if you're interested in wildlife, why should you come to Looe in South East Cornwall to take part on June 23 and 24?
What is a Bioblitz?
A bioblitz is a survey of a natural space to try and identify and record as many species as possible, and to raise public awareness of biodiversity in the marine and coastal environment. Anyone who lives in Looe or has visited on holiday can't fail to appreciate how lucky we are in Looe to have an amazing variety of wildlife from grey seals to blackbacked gulls, from bats and badgers to dolphins and basking sharks, from fish aplenty to crabs and kingfishers – the list is endless. And that's why Looe was selected this year by the Marine Biological Association as the focus for their fifth Bioblitz – the largest one they've held.
An amazing range of activities will be run to survey and gather the species and data, under the eye of national wildlife experts who are coming to Looe specially for the event this weekend. The 24 hour race running round the clock will involve local groups, holidaymakers, wildlife enthusiasts and volunteers from our local Looe Marine Conservation Group.
What type of wildlife events are taking place?
If you fancy any of these activities, turn up on Sunday at the new Millpool Centre in the Millpool Car Park in West Looe which is acting as the base camp for the event. From 10 am on Sunday, here you can get details of the programme of activities from a manned desk. Amazing interesting activities that you might not have ever done before such as seashore safaris, bug hunts, woodland, meadow and strandline walks, plankton netting, rock pooling, bat detecting, moth traps, mammal spotting, and snorkelling – with national and local wildlife experts on hand to answer questions. Most of the surveys will take place at Hannafore and East Looe Beaches, on Looe Island and in Kilminorth Woods. So the base camp in the Millpool is the nerve centre for data, where lab work, identification and data recording will continue through the night. You can take part in events or simply observe. In the Millpool Centre, there will be talks; art based activities and microscopes/screens/ specimens for people to look at and learn about, all under the knowledgeable eye of experts – some coming from France and from the Natural History Museum as well as the MBA and Cornwall Wildlife Trust. There will be monitors in the centre for viewing photos and identifying additional records from these pictures and a series of 'mini missions' for volunteers and members of the public to take part in.
Support for Looe's Wildlife
At Polraen, we have a major interest in Looe's marine wildlife as we sit on the steering committee of our Looe Marine Conservation Group. We've found it a great way to engage with nature, meeting like minded people and its a great excuse to get out and enjoy the fantastic rural and coastal environment that we have the privilege to live in. Whether you live locally or are on holiday, you might like to support the efforts of our group by becoming a member for just £6 per annum. Take a look at the Looe Marine Conservation Group website from the comfort of your armchair or better still, become a member or even a volunteer if you live nearby.
At the time of 'blogging', we have rooms available at Polraen if you're needing overnight accommodation.


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QUnit-CLI: Running QUnit with Rhino
Previously I talked about wanting to run QUnit outside the browser and about some issues I ran into. Finally, I have QUnit running from the command line: QUnit-CLI
After a good deal of hacking and a push from jzaefferer, I gotten the example code in QUnit-CLI to run using Rhino and no browser in sight. This isn't a complete substitute for in-browser testing, but makes integration with build servers and faster feedback possible.
/projects/qunit-cli/js suite.js PASS - Adding numbers FAIL - Subtracting numbers PASS|OK|subtraction function exists| FAIL|EQ|Intended bug!!!|Expected: 0, Actual: -2 PASS - module without setup/teardown (default) PASS - expect in testPASS - expect in test PASS - module with setup PASS - module with setup/teardown PASS - module without setup/teardown PASS - scope check PASS - scope check PASS - modify testEnvironment PASS - testEnvironment reset for next test PASS - scope check PASS - modify testEnvironment PASS - testEnvironment reset for next test PASS - makeurl working PASS - makeurl working with settings from testEnvironment PASS - each test can extend the module testEnvironment PASS - jsDump output PASS - raises PASS - mod2 PASS - reset runs assertions PASS - reset runs assertions2 ---------------------------------------- PASS: 22 FAIL: 1 TOTAL: 23 Finished in 0.161 seconds. ----------------------------------------
The first hurdle was adding guards around all QUnit.js's references to setTimeout, setInterval, and other browser/document specific objects. In addition I extended the test.js browser checks to include all of the asynchronous tests and fixture tests. Finally I cleaned up a bit of the jsDump code to work better with varying object call chains. My alterations can be found on my fork here.
The second hurdle was getting QUnit-CLI using my modified version of QUnit.js and adjusting how Rhino errors are handled. Adding a QUnit submodule to the QUnit-CLI git repository easily fixed the first (I previously posted my notes on git submodules and fixed branches). QUnit.js's borrowed jsDump code is used to "pretty-print" objects in test messages. jzaefferer ran into an issue when running QUnit's own tests through QUnit-CLI resulting in the cryptic error:
js: "../qunit/qunit.js", line 1021: Java class "[B" has no public instance field or method named "setInterval". at ../qunit/qunit.js:1021 at ../qunit/qunit.js:1002 at ../qunit/qunit.js:1085 at ../qunit/qunit.js:1085 at ../qunit/qunit.js:1085 at ../qunit/qunit.js:110 at ../qunit/qunit.js:712 (process) at ../qunit/qunit.js:304 at suite.js:84
It turns out that errors objects (e.g. ReferenceError) throw in Rhino include an additional property of rhinoException which points to the underlying Java exception that was actually thrown. The error we saw is generated when the jsDump code walks the error object tree down to a byte array off of the exception. Property requests executed against this byte array throw the Java error above, even if they are done part of a typeof check, e.g.
var property_exists = (typeof obj.property !== 'undefined');
Once I figured this out, I wrapped the object parser inside QUnit.jsDump to properly pretty-print error objects and delegate to the original code for any other type of object.
... var current_object_parser = QUnit.jsDump.parsers.object; QUnit.jsDump.setParser('object', function(obj) { if(typeof obj.rhinoException !== 'undefined') { return obj.name + " { message: '" + obj.message + "', fileName: '" + obj.fileName + "', lineNumber: " + obj.lineNumber + " }"; } else { return current_object_parser(obj); } }); ...
With these changes we have a decent command line executable test suite runner for QUnit. With a bit more work QUnit-CLI will hopefully be able to print Ant/JUnit style XML output and/or include stack traces when errors bubble out of test code.
5 Responses
Ever thought of using V8? See http://ariya.blogspot.com/2010/11/v8-jslint-vim.html for an example.
[…] QUnit w/ Rhino posts. At every step of the way I thought "Oh this should be simple and clever" and […]
thanks for publishing your findings on all of this. I'm honestly astounded that there aren't more people wanting to run pure unit tests for their javascript code from the command line and your approach seems to be the best I've found.
[…] Cet article indique une version modifiée de QUnit qui fait le lien entre QUnit et QUnit-CLI. Téléchargez les 2 projets : – QUnit modifié – QUnit-CLI […]


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The real 'Butler': Alonzo Fields served 4 presidents
- Fields preceded Eugene Allen%2C on whom a new movie is based
- Fields began White House service during Hoover administration
- He oversaw planning of all White House social functions
INDIANAPOLIS -- When Juanita Hudson first heard about the movie Lee Daniels' The Butler, a story of a black man who was a White House butler for decades, she thought the film might be about her uncle, Alonzo Fields.
For good reason, too, because Fields, who worked in the White House from the Hoover to Eisenhower administrations, was the first African-American to be promoted to chief butler. The Indiana native wrote a book, My 21 Years in the White House, and later was the subject of a one-man theater show, Looking Over the President's Shoulder, that played to audiences nationwide.
Hudson, 76, remembers seeing the nearly 3-hour stage performance at Indiana Repertory Theatre and finding it a fitting tribute to her Uncle Lonnie, whom she recalls fondly from his visits to his family in Indianapolis. He was level, and decorous — he usually had on a coat and tie. He was approachable.
"He was a very tall person, he just filled the doorway, like a giant," she said. "But his voice was medium, gentle. We liked him very much. My mom liked him, and she didn't like everybody."
The Butler, which opened Friday with a blockbuster cast including Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey and Lenny Kravtiz, turned out not to be about Fields. It is based the life of another black White House butler, Eugene Allen, who succeeded Fields. Fields, who left White House service in 1953, hired Allen.
The younger butler, whose dramatized movie character is the fictional Cecil Gaines (played by Whitaker), served during more racially turbulent, dramatic times than Fields. Allen was there for the height of the civil rights movement. Fields left just prior — a year before Brown v. Board of Education, and two years before both Emmett Till's murder and Rosa Parks' ignition of the Montgomery bus boycott.
"Alonzo's story, the book he wrote, it was all before the Black Power, it was before Roots, it was before all of this," said Roscoe Fields, the butler's nephew, who lives in Indianapolis and is an accountant. "In the book he had what people were eating during certain events — it's what he knew about. If he'd come later, he'd probably have written a different book."
Martin Luther King was born in 1929, Malcolm X in 1925. Alonzo Fields was born in 1900. His book, published in 1960 (reviewers said it was "most sincere," had "a sense of discretion" and would be "of timely interest to women readers"), is no tell-all. Nor is it confrontational, though Richard Nixon shows up, momentarily, as a jerk.
"As I always told the Negro servants and dining room help that worked for me," Fields wrote, "'Boys, remember that we are helping to make history. We have a small part, perhaps a menial part, but they can't do much here without us. They've got to eat, you know.'"
By the time he retired from the White House, Fields had the title maitre d'hotel and was in charge of more than a dozen butlers, cooks and other workers. He oversaw the planning of all White House social functions.
His descendants of a certain age, such as Hudson and Roscoe Fields, are proud of him and were honored to go backstage at the 2001 Indianapolis debut of Looking Over the President's Shoulder to meet James Still, the actor and playwright. "It was downtown, and it was special," said Hudson.
"But I remember my grandson thought, 'Well, he was a butler,' and my grandson wasn't impressed with being a butler,'" said Hudson, who can recall a time when many black people, including her own mother, worked "in house," as domestic servants for well-off white people. Such jobs paid little money, but many black women took them, even into the 1970s.
"It's a generational thing," said Loretta Fields, another of Alonzo Fields' nieces. Loretta Fields, 60, lives in Chicago and sells real estate. Her three children graduated from college and are in business. "Uncle Lonnie, I look at him as a trailblazer," she said. "He paved the way to other opportunities. But my kids would never have aspired to be a butler."
The funny thing is, Alonzo Fields didn't aspire to be a butler, either. He aspired to be an opera singer. He had a powerful voice, "deep, rich, almost a baritone but not quite," recalled Loretta Fields. He came to music by way of his father, who was a band leader in the small, all-black Gibson County town of Lyles Station. Fields' father ran the general store and on weekends led the town's marching band. Later the family moved to Indianapolis, where they operated a boarding house.
Alonzo Fields was in his 20s when he decided to pursue his music seriously. He moved to Boston and enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music. He showed promise but lacked funds.
To pay for his school, Fields took a job as a butler to Samuel W. Stratton, the president of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "I confess I didn't relish the thought of being a house servant," he wrote in his autobiography, but it was pointed out to him that "if I ever did reach the heights as a concert singer, these conventions he was teaching me would give me a background of good breeding."
Then two things happened. Stratton died suddenly, on October 18, 1931, while giving an interview to a reporter on the subject of his good friend Thomas Edison. Edison, who previously while visiting Stratton had been served tea by Fields, as had John D. Rockefeller and Mrs. Herbert Hoover, had died earlier that day.
Also, in the midst of the Great Depression, jobs were extremely scarce.
Herbert Hoover was the U.S. president, and his wife remembered Stratton's strapping butler. She offered him a job as a servant in the White House. Fields, who by then had a wife and stepdaughter ("food and shelter were the paramount issues for my family," he later wrote), took the job.
It was supposed to be for a few months, to get the Fieldses through the winter.
"I know I should have been elated and I knew, as most people told me, that I was lucky to have a job at the White House," Fields wrote. "But I had a premonition that this was going to be a very long winter for me and that somehow, regardless of my efforts, fate might be deciding my singing career."
By 1933, Fields had been elevated to chief butler. In a 1982 interview with Ebony magazine, Fields described the White House as "a beautiful jail with the President as a sort of warden."
Still, serving as butler in the White House could be thrilling. The actress Marie Dressler "remarked that she thought me handsome and that I should be in Hollywood," Fields wrote.
He had more than one comical encounter with Winston Churchill, the English prime minister. The Roosevelts were fun people, but Fields' favorite president was Truman. Truman "treated him not like a servant," according to an account published by the Medford (Mass.) Historical Society, "but like a man."
But the highlight for Fields happened early on in his White House tenure and involved nobody big. It was Christmas, 1932. "I was invited to sing in the East Room for the party given for the help," he wrote. "Of course the President and First Lady were absent, but despite this I had my day, and a very appreciative audience gave me reason to believe they enjoyed my renditions. To this day, that afternoon ... was the most thrilling experience in all the 21 years at the White House."
Fields died at age 94. In 1994, as he lay dying of leukemia, an old friend named Oscar Greene visited him in the hospital. The Medford Historical Society reports that Fields asked Greene to give his eulogy.
These were Fields' instructions to Greene: "Don't talk too long and don't tell the truth."