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Barb Dabney wasn't supposed to cry - or laugh or speak or walk, or even wake up - after the events of April 30, 2005, in Las Vegas. Run over by a pickup truck moving about 35 mph, Dabney was never supposed to see her three children or three grandchildren again.
Turning 50 can be emotional. For Barb Dabney, hitting the half-century mark was just one of countless eye-moistening moments in the past 2 ½ years. A few days before Dabney turned 50 in September, friends, relatives and therapists threw a surprise birthday party at Professional Therapy Services in Morton. After a session of physical therapy, Dabney was greeted by loved ones, lunch, cake and gifts. "I can't believe you're all here," Dabney said, breaking into tears. Guests could have said the same thing. Dabney wasn't supposed to cry - or laugh or speak or walk, or even wake up - after the events of April 30, 2005, in Las Vegas. Run over by a pickup truck moving about 35 mph, Dabney was never supposed to see her three children or three grandchildren again. Although Dabney has experienced all of the low points typical of brain-injured patients - rapid mood swings, depression, angry outbursts and sometimes wishing she had died - her resilience has amazed many. Even as she goes through a divorce from her second husband, Randy, she continues to defy expectations. A crushing combination of physical damage and brain injuries, which have forever altered her personality, memory and cognitive function, mean her goals must be modest: walking unassisted, driving, maybe working a job. Getting around town with the help of a four-wheeled walker is "just short of miraculous given her injuries," according to family physician Dr. Phil Rossi. "She's a remarkable lady who I've had the opportunity to know before and after the accident," Rossi said. "To watch her go from a very lively younger lady to being extremely debilitated, and now fighting her way back, I think she's an inspiration for a lot of folks who know her. She did not give up. She's wanted to. I know she has on several occasions. But she's decided not to." Although her short-term memories usually are sketchy, Dabney recognizes her progress. "They didn't think I'd amount to anything," Dabney said of the grim medical prognosis in the weeks immediately after the accident. "They didn't think I would walk or talk again. I was more or less a vegetable." Tough Times Dabney has faced adversity before. Her first husband, Stan Lape, died of pancreatic cancer in 1989. He left behind three children: Travis Lape, who was 4 months old at the time and is now 18 years old; Matt Lape, now 20; and Amanda Phillips, now 28. Dabney remains in the Mackinaw home she shared with her first husband. She joined the work force after his death, last working for Kraft Foods. In 1997, she married Randy Dabney. The Dabneys traveled to Nevada in spring 2005 in an effort to work out a struggling marriage. Barb recalls little about April 29, 2005, and the early morning hours of April 30. She remembers leaving a party with friends after an argument with Randy. "I probably had too much to drink, but I don't remember that night," she said. Going back to her hotel room at about 2 a.m., Dabney ran across an eight-lane road. She made it to the final lane before a truck – whose driver didn't slow but wasn't ticketed because Dabney failed to use a crosswalk -- struck her. Dabney was thrown 60 feet from the point of impact. Dabney was admitted to Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center in Las Vegas. She had multiple fractures in each leg and her pelvis, as well as a broken collarbone. She also had a collapsed lung and ruptures to her bladder and diaphragm. Because of extensive physical damage, as well as brain injuries, Dabney was kept alive with a ventilator and feeding tube. What happened in Vegas most definitely did not stay in Vegas. Dabney began a long series of hospital stays. On May 19, she was flown to OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, where her sister, Marilyn Egolf, first noticed signs of awareness such as wiggling of toes in response to questions. But after moving to Kindred Hospital in Sycamore on June 10, Dabney appeared to be regressing. Doctors provided a grim long-term outlook, and the family considered letting Dabney "die with dignity," as several relatives recall one doctor stating it. The family gathered in Sycamore, near DeKalb, to discuss removing the feeding tube. "All her kids were out there bawling," Egolf said. "It was like a funeral, like they'd already made up their mind. I was a little upset. I thought, 'There's no way I'm going to let this happen.' " Although the family considered letting go, her children opted instead to send her to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. "Aunt Marilyn was up there just about every day seeing Mom," Travis Lape said. "She was able to see all the progression Mom was making, day by day. She really thought Mom was there. She kept telling us we need to keep hanging on because she knows Mom is in there and can hear us talking. "We kind of thought Aunt Marilyn maybe couldn't accept the fact. We thought she was just saying that because she didn't want to let go. Obviously, she was feeling something." The Turnaround Dabney was moved to RIC on July 21, 2005. She quickly began a turnaround. The family had seen signs that Dabney was paying attention. During a visit from her granddaughter Ashten, Dabney had a vacant look in her eyes. Ashten approached the bed and said, "Hi, Grandma." "My mom opened her eyes, big as quarters," said Phillips, Ashten's mom. "From that point on, you couldn't tell me something's not there." Still, Dabney had yet to speak. On Aug. 16, Matt Lape brought his daughter Jordyn to Chicago. Jordyn had been born six weeks earlier while Dabney was in a coma. Knowing their mother's fondness of babies, they hoped Jordyn's visit might trigger a more noticeable response. Egolf noticed her sister's eyes seemed to be bouncing back and forth between her son and her new grandchild. "I said, 'You know who this guy is, don't you?' " Egolf said. "She said, 'Matt.' That's the first time I heard her speak. I thought he was going to drop the baby. Everyone started bawling." Back at home, Travis received a stunning phone call. In her barely audible, scratchy voice, his mom said, "Hi, Travis." Dabney's words were met with silence. "My eyes filled with tears and I couldn't even speak," Travis said. "I couldn't even try to describe how happy I was." Improvements continued. Dabney moved closer to home, to Hopedale Hospital, on Oct. 4, 2005, then quickly on to Snyder Village in Metamora. On Dec. 4, 2005, she came home. Homecoming Living in her home of 27 years is important, but arriving there was only an initial step toward recovery. Days are filled with trips to the doctor, to a psychiatrist and to physical and speech therapy. The community raised nearly $40,000 to cover medical expenses upon Dabney's arrival home. Now, medical care is covered by Medicare. Once confined to a wheelchair, Dabney journeys a few blocks from home using a walker. She has rods in both lower legs and her coordination and balance are compromised. Brain injuries leave Dabney relearning how to swallow. Food must be cut into small pieces, and many items are off-limits. Dabney has difficulty swallowing food properly, sometimes leading food fragments into her lungs. That causes coughing and makes her scratchy voice even more difficult to hear. Because eating creates a choking sensation, proper calorie intake is a constant struggle. Speech pathologist Vicki Winn of Professional Therapy Services said speech exercises actually are secondary. Winn spends much of her sessions with Dabney on swallowing exercises, pill prescriptions, dietary issues and other "cognitive retraining" issues. Some moments, Dabney quickly cracks a joke within the context of a conversation. Other times, an elementary task leaves her stymied. "If you take this pill at 8 a.m. and you need to take it again 12 hours later, when do you need to take the next pill?" Winn asked during one visit to the house. Dabney hesitated, thought carefully and finally answered, "8 p.m.?" Ask about something from her children's youth and there's an instant, accurate answer. "I heard a neurologist describe your memory as concrete," Winn said. "What you poured yesterday is still fluid and kind of wobbling around, and what you poured 20 years is hard and locked in there. It can be confusing: How come she can't remember what happened yesterday when she can remember what happened 20 years ago? "Some of it is memory, and some of it is actually the ability to solve a problem. She ran out of a medication and she didn't know what to do about that. She has real ready access to a physician right in Mackinaw, and if the physician is not in the office she can always call the nurse. She just went several days without that medication because she couldn't figure out exactly how to renew the prescription." Winn's job is to stimulate brain function, then to help Dabney compensate for what has been lost by coming up with organizational systems - such as putting pills in dosage boxes, or taking detailed notes. "Because of the amount of time that has gone on since the injury, I think where she is now is probably where she's going to be as far as brain function," Dr. Rossi said. "This is probably where she's going to be long-term." Emotional Roller Coaster As is typical with brain injuries, the biggest toll on the family has been emotional. Phillips said her mom was once her best friend, but now she feels more like she's on the opposite end of the parent-child relationship. Afraid to discuss her own problems because they pale in comparison, Phillips weathered a year when Dabney lashed out verbally and occasionally physically. "It's like having your best friend ripped out from under you," Phillips said. "We were really close before the accident. She's getting better now, but basically she would have the mentality of a 7- or 8-year-old. Because of her brain injury, it made her a very angry person. Anybody can understand that it's very difficult for her to deal with, but it's tough for us. "She was more frustrated, but she would take it out on the ones closest to her. That was very, very hard. To have your mother screaming at you that she hates you and she wants you out of her life, when all you're trying to do is help, it's a difficult situation to deal with." Medical professionals close to Dabney said her children will face hard work in restoring relationships with their mother. "With a head injury you get some personality changes that occur and mood disorders, depression - things the patient has no control over, unfortunately," Rossi said. "She will never be totally normal from the standpoint of her walking or her personality or mood," he added. "I don't think that'll ever be normal, but it can get to a point where it's functional and she can carry on reasonably well in life with some help." Travis, an Illinois Central College freshman, is the last child at home. When he leaves to attend a four-year university, Dabney will be living alone. Egolf, who drives Dabney to most of her appointments, wishes Dabney's children were more involved day-to-day but concedes they face difficulties. "Brain-injured people need so much support," Egolf said. "It can be tough because they get frustrated and come down on you. You have to imagine yourself in that chair or behind that walker, unable to do the things you like." Dabney hopes to exchange her walker for a cane before eventually walking unassisted. With the walker, she can make short strolls to places such as church, the post office and grocery store. Sometimes, she takes a few short steps without aid before feeling off-balance. She talks of one day driving and working again, but it is unclear how likely she is to meet those long-term goals. At her worst moments, Dabney wondered why she held on. "She has talked to me some nights about, 'I should have just died,' " her sister said. Grandchildren Austen, 6, Jordyn, 2, and Xander, 1, provide motivation. "I know it's going to get better, but it's a long road," Dabney said. "When Jordyn was 1, I told them I would walk (unassisted) before her - but she's walking before me," Dabney said. "Now it's Xander - he's not walking yet. "I keep going because of the kids, and I want to see my grandkids. That means a lot to me." Ryan Ori can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Document Type
- Lecture (9) (remove)
- English (9) (remove)
- Analysis (1)
- Differenzierbare Mannigfaltigkeit (1)
- Funktionalanalysis (1)
- Optimization (1)
- Vorlesungsskript (1)
- decisions (1)
- konvexe Analysis (1)
- multicriteria optimization (1)
Multicriteria Optimization (1999)
Life is about decisions. Decisions, no matter if taken by a group or an individual, involve several conflicting objectives. The observation that real world problems have to be solved optimally according to criteria, which prohibit an "ideal" solution - optimal for each decisionmaker under each of the criteria considered - , has led to the development of multicriteria optimization. From its first roots, which where laid by Pareto at the end of the 19th century the discilpine has prospered and grown, especially during the last three decades. Today, many decision support systems incorporate methods to deal with conflicting objectives. The foundation for such systems is a mathematical theory of optimaztion under multiple objectives. With this manuscript, which is based on lectures I taught in the winter semester 1998/99 at the University of Kaiserslautern, I intend to give an introduction to and overview of this fascinating field of mathematics. I tried to present theoretical questions such as existence of solutions as well as methodological issues and hope the reader finds the balance not too heavily on one side. The interested reader should be able to find classical results as well as up to date research. The text is accompanied by exercises, which hopefully help to deepen students' understanding of the topic.
Cohomology of Groups (2020)
Convex Analysis (1998)
Preface Convex analysis is one of the mathematical tools which is used both explicitly and indirectly in many mathematical disciplines. However, there are not so many courses which have convex analysis as the main topic. More often, parts of convex analysis are taught in courses like linear or nonlinear optimization, probability theory, geometry, location theory, etc.. This manuscript gives a systematic introduction to the concepts of convex analysis. A focus is set to the geometrical interpretation of convex analysis. This focus was one of the reasons why I have decided to restrict myself to the finite dimensional case. Another reason for this restriction is that in the infinite dimensional case many proofs become more difficult and more technical. Therefore, it would not have been possible (for me) to cover all the topics I wanted to discuss in this introductory text in the infinite dimensional case, too. Anyway, I am convinced that even for someone who is interested in the infinite dimensional case this manuscript will be a good starting point. When I offered a course in convex analysis in the Wintersemester 1997/1998 (upon which this manuscript is based) a lot of students asked me how this course fits in their own studies. Because this manuscript will (hopefully) be used by some students in the future, I will give here some of the possible statements to answer this very question. - Convex analysis can be seen as an extension of classical analysis, in which still we get many of the results, like a mean-value theorem, with less assumptions on the smoothness of the function. - Convex analysis can be seen as a foundation of linear and nonlinear optimization which provides many tools to handle concepts in optimization much easier (for example the Lemma of Farkas). - Finally, convex analysis can be seen as a link between abstract geometry and very algorithmic oriented computational geometry. As already explained before, this manuscript is based on a one semester course and therefore cannot cover all topics and discuss all aspects of convex analysis in detail. To guide the interested reader I have included a list of nice books about this subject at the end of the manuscript. It should be noted that the philosophy of this course follows [3], [4] and THE BOOK of modern convex analysis [6]. The geometrical emphasis however, is also related to intentions of [1].^L
Functional Analysis (1998)
The aim of this course is to give a very modest introduction to the extremely rich and well-developed theory of Hilbert spaces, an introduction that hopefully will provide the students with a knowledge of some of the fundamental results of the theory and will make them familiar with everything needed in order to understand, believe and apply the spectral theorem for selfadjoint operators in Hilbert space. This implies that the course will have to give answers to such questions as - What is a Hilbert space? - What is a bounded operator in Hilbert space? - What is a selfadjoint operator in Hilbert space? - What is the spectrum of such an operator? - What is meant by a spectral decomposition of such an operator?
Logic (2001)
Universal Algebra (2004)
A Topology Primer (2002)
Manifolds (2017)

subset: commoncrawl


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No-Bones Chicken Wing Dip
Total TimePrep: 15 min. Bake: 25 min.
Makes6-1/2 cups
I wanted to double this recipe and incorporate some of the comments made by others. I used 4 (12.5 oz) cans of Chicken Breast, 2 8oz. pkgs of sliced provolone chopped up, 1 c. of bleu cheese dressing and 1 c. (plus a few shakes more after hubby's taste test) of Frank's Buffalo sauce. Also, 2 8oz bricks of cream cheese and 4 c. sour cream. Plan to put in crock pot. Will post later to report how it was ;-) Hopefully, a five star!
I tried this recipe 7/1/14, so this is my first review for July 2014! I had a 12-oz. bottle of Marie's blue cheese dressing, so I used that & I had a whole rotisserie bird which I microwaved 5 minutes, then deboned the chicken and shredded it in my food processor. I got 4 cups of shredded chicken & I used the full 2 cups of sour cream, the 1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce, 8-oz. cream cheese, 1-1/4 cups Artisan Swiss cheese blend, pre-shredded. I'd beaten the cream cheese 5 minutes, then added the hot sauce, sour cream, and salad dressing. I found that for me, the best thing is to scrape the beaten cream cheese from the bottom and sides of mixing bowl before adding other ingredients, then stir together and beat 5 minutes longer on medium speed. I added the Swiss cheese blend and shredded chicken last. I used an 8- baking dish and a smaller square casserole dish which I sprayed with PAM & then greased with a paper towel. I covered the dishes with foil and poked vents in foil to allow the steam to escape! I'd put the dishes on a baking sheet, also, & I baked for 30 minutes. I'd tasted the dip as I'd gone along in preparing it and I think it tasted very good-quite the version of Buffalo Wings! I don't use a crockpot-I admit that that's not for me, but if other folks choose to use a crockpot, that sounds like a very good idea! What I did was purchase Pepperidge Farm Buffalo Wing Cracker Puffs to go along with this dip and also Everything Bagels, Pumpernickel, Jewish rye bread & deli-swirl Pump-rye bread as dippers! I think that this dip will mature in taste as it cools! I made it for 2 of the departments in the hospital where I do volunteer work. I also purposely put some of the BAKED dip in a plastic cup and sampled it! I think that the taste was very nice-I wouldn't want it any spicier than what your recipe called for! Hot sauce IS REALLY spicy due to the cayenne pepper added! This recipe had the right amount of hot sauce! Having had Buffalo wings sans dip, I found that the blue cheese helped tone DOWN the hot taste of the wings! delowenstein
My family enjoys this dip on Saturday evenings. I can adjust the "heat"'to appeal to everyone. I typically boil chicken breasts, making it very easy to shred when cooked. The crockpot idea is excellent, I will be trying it.
Has anyone tried to make this in a crock pot?
I thought this had too strong of a blue cheese flavor and not enough of a chicken wing flavor. IF I make it again, I would cut the blue cheese dressing amount in half, double the wing sauce and add 4 oz more cream cheese.
Basically a good recipe but way to much sauce. Also I would use a cheddar cheese.
don't know yet haven't tried it
You would not be allowed inside the city limits of Buffalo if you had a bottle of ranch dressing. lol I just added more hot sauce and can't wait to make it again.
This dip didn't do much for me. I would much rather prefer to make the Buffalo Chicken Dip that's on TOH. I like the ranch flavor of it versus the blue cheese flavor.
Some friends brought this over one night and I was shocked that I liked it because I don't really care that much for blue cheese, but it sure was yummy. When I make it I might do half ranch and half blue cheese. If my husband has a say in it, I'll use the whole cup of blue cheese. Thanks for the recipe.


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Was playing a little over the holiday and just wondering if anyone has working versions of the plugins fir the CD ripper or DVD copy? Both of these have worked for me in the past, but after installing the latest V3 from the downloader neither of these plugins are working now.
THANKS! - I sure miss Steve and team!


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Thank you Madelon for these lovely photos and for showing us how these sets add to play time!
As with all our posts we would love to hear from you so please leave us a comment here or email me at email@example.com
Welcome to our blog! We here at Karen Mom of Three's Craft blog are passionate about doll play. We love our dolls big and small and creating for them. Our passion is sharing what we know with those who love dolls or who have a doll lover in their lives. We are pleased to have you join us and we hope you share with a friend.


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Wednesday, August 3, 2011
1982 - The Marvel Comics Guide To Collecting Comics!
9 comments:
Apparently, the number one rule is "sure, stack your comics and use them as armchairs!"ReplyDelete
I bet the number two rule is "don't bother buying those icky comics from our Distinguished Competition. They'll never be worth anything."
- FanOfClaremontNMAugust 4, 2011 at 3:45 PM
The ultimate irony, of course, is that I found a digital copy of this and downloaded it in order to read it.ReplyDelete
Fascinating historical document that explains a lot about comics at that time.
I can still remember moving in Sept 1986 to a larger town that had a direct comics shop. The owner put an ad the local Wednesday newspaper-ad-thing that was put in every mailbox (remember those?), in the summer of 1987, and I found back issues for the first time. (Probably the best ad anyone ever placed, since I was a loyal weekly customer thru probably 1994.)
True story: In 1979, I got my first (real, non-kiddie) comics - Star Wars. I got three bags of comics, which extended from #11 thru #18. I didn't find the conclusion until I went to the comics store in 1987! For a kid, that's a LONG time. I finally found out what happened after the cliffhanger ending of #18 when I bought #19 as a back issue.
Hey FanOfClaremontNM, thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
- FanOfClaremontNMAugust 4, 2011 at 3:50 PM
Don't encourage me to tell stories about old comics.ReplyDelete
That's the fun of this blog!ReplyDelete
- FanOfClaremontNMAugust 4, 2011 at 4:09 PM
The first (non-kiddie) comics I ever got were the SW comics in bags. Readers probably wouldn't know where this is, but I lived in Kingsport TN in 1979 and there was Aunt Emma's restaurant (EXCELLENT food) beside Rose's, and you could go into Rose's from the restaurant. One day, when I went into Rose's after, there they were, on a big spinning rack. I didn't know anything about comics, of course, but I knew about SW.ReplyDelete
A year or so later (so we're in the 80s now), I was at a place called Santa's Land, near Maggie Valley. (It's still there, if anyone wants a unique vacation trip. They have a large zoo. Not sure what that has to do with Santa, but that's what they have.) On the way back, there was a little Christmas ornament shop. I didn't get any ornaments, but they had some bagged comics. I got a bag of LSH issues (Superboy + LSH #255-257) and one of Brave and Bold issues (Batman/Red Tornado #153 and Batman/Metamorpho #154), plus Green Lantern #120 (this one was VERY hard for me to track down - GL and GA encounter Ponce De Leon during a Florida hurricane).
In the early 80s, I lived in Hendersonville. I bought comics initially at Sherman's Superette. I bought a lot of war comics because my grandfather told me about his experiences in WWII. (Many Fighting Army and Marines, because they were CHEAP.) Eventually a bookstore opened that carried comics, and finally a mall with Waldenbooks.
My favorite comic in the early 1980s was the Empire Strikes Back adaptation. I read it over and over. Some of the best art and storytelling I've ever seen in a comic book.
I didn't start getting back issues until 1987 when I had access to a comics store.
See, don't get me started.
Cover prices...what happened to you? I sometimes fantasize about going back in time to when I was 7 or 8 and retaining the sensibilities about comics that I have now. I'd have horded them with more vigilance.ReplyDelete
Come by and visit my comics blog if you have a moment:
and if you're into art at all, I have some posted at my art blog:
I'd like to have more followers so I know I'm not just talking to myself.
- Stephen GurrAugust 5, 2011 at 7:55 AM
That was a great little insert. Although I had been reading comics since the late 70s, that guide really got me SERIOUS about Collecting. And the Walt Simonson cover IS beautiful.ReplyDelete
Not only was it an insert, I think the shops used to give it away on its own too. I think that's how I ended up with two copies, one to read and one to bagReplyDelete


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Users / Re: pluto-ati drivers vs official fglrx ati drivers« on: April 26, 2007, 11:57:03 pm »
I have always found that the latest ATI binary drivers work the best for me. YMMV.
Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
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A new classic, some old classics, war and sex... Here are the 10 best and/or most interesting new releases on Blu-ray and DVD.
Barry Munday (2010)
Patrick Wilson stars as a wannabe stud who one day loses his mojo in a horrifying trumpet assault. While struggling with his lost manhood, he's approached by a homely conquest, Judy Greer, who claims to be carrying his child. Now available on DVD, watch the trailer
A Dog Year
Before he won an Oscar and starred in films like "Tron" and "True Grit," Jeff Bridges, made this film about a man who gets through his midlife crisis by adopting a dog. This film is so good it's going straight to video. Now available on DVD, watch the trailer
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel (2010)
A documentary about the publisher who brought porn to the masses by launching Playboy. Now available on DVD, watch the trailer
Inception (2010)
Leonardo DiCaprio stars in director Chris Nolan's brilliant heist film that takes place inside the mind of an unsuspecting business magnate. Maybe not the best movie of the year, but certainly the movie of the year, the one everyone talked and/or argued about. Now available on Blu-ray and DVD, read our review and watch the trailer
Restrepo (2010)
Author Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington spent a year in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, widely considered the most dangerous place on Earth, with a platoon of U.S. soldiers at a camp named after their medic who was killed in action. Now available on Blu-ray and DVD, watch the trailer
Shrek Forever After (2010) (Single-Disc Edition or Donkey's Christmas Shrektacular Double Pack)
The fourth and final (?) installment in the green ogre franchise, it finds our hero getting the "It's a Wonderful Life" treatment. First he wishes things were different, then he must fight desperately to get them back the way they were. Now available on Blu-ray and DVD, read our review and watch the trailer
Absence of Malice (1981)
Paul Newman plays yet another dirt bag, this time a Miami businessman named by a local reporter, Sally Field, as a possible suspect in a murder mystery in director Sydney Pollack's film about the squishy ethics of journalism and the damage the press can do. Now available on DVD, watch the trailer
Cronos (1994)
The directorial debut from Guillermo del Toro, the genius behind "Hellboy" and "Pan's Labyrinth," it tells the story of a man who stumbles upon an ancient artifact with mysterious powers. It's from Criterion, so you know it's good. Now available on Blu-ray and DVD, watch the trailer
Lost in Translation (2003)
The film put Sofia Coppola on the map, stars Bill Murray as a movie star in Tokyo to film a commercial while his family life is crumbling back in the states. While there he meets the beautiful and much younger Scarlett Johansson, and together they forge an odd friendship. Now available on Blu-ray, watch the trailer
Videodrome (1983)
Another one from Criterion, this one directed by creep-out master David Cronenberg. It stars James Woods is a sleazy cable station programmer always on the lookout for new material. Things go pear-shaped when he tries to find out whose behind the hyper-violent show "Videodrome." Co-stars the super-sexy Debbie Harry. Now available on Blu-ray, watch the epically cheesy trailer


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Copyright: Permissions
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Saint Michael's College maintains an account with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) to manage permission to copy or scan items beyond the limits of fair use. If you determine, after consulting the SMC Copyright Guidelines, that you need to obtain copyright permission to copy or scan items for your class, use the process outlined below. The CCC can obtain permission the majority of the time that it is needed, although some items may require contacting the copyright holder directly. Copyright fees for each course are billed to students as part of the registration process. Copyright permission must therefore be obtained no later than November 1 for spring courses and March 1 for summer and fall courses.
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8. While Copyright Clearance grants the permission to use material, the tasks of copying or scanning, distributing, and uploading text to Canvas will still need to be completed by the faculty member.


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Fire Gym is ready and Gym leader Ra Is Fired up and waiting for a strong challenger!
I actually made more than 5 don't worry, i am only slow on posting them, ill try to get that done. another thing is im updating the older gyms (not much) but everyone wanted me to add statues to the top of the gyms.
Anyway, i hope you like the fire gym. The Puzzle has a redstone parkour meaning that if you fall you will have to find this place again ;) better get ready.
Meet the Fire gym and Gym leader Ra!
Fire Gym screenshots
Fire Gym Leader Ra
1. Ninetales. Item (Heat Rock)
Abillity: Drought. Nature: Timid
Max Ivs. Evs: 6hp, 252spatk, 252spd
- flamethrower
- psychic
- solar beam
- nasty plot
2. chandelure. Item (Choice scarf)
Ability: Infiltrator. Nature: Modest
Max Ivs. Evs: 6hp, 252spatk, 252spd
- flamethrower
- energy ball
- shadow ball
- Psychic
3.Charizard. Item (Expert Belt)
Ability: solar power. Nature: Timid
Ivs: Max evs: 6hp, 252spatk, 252spd
- Flamethrower
- solar beam
- air slash
- dragon pulse
4. Blaziken. item (shell bell)
Abillity: speed boost. Nature: adamant
Max Ivs. Evs: 6hp, 252atk, 252spd
- thunder punch
- swords dance
- flare blitz
- hi jump kick
5. Volcarona. Item (shell bell)
Ability: Flame Body. Nature: Timid
Max Ivs. Evs: 6hp, 252spatk, 252spd
- Quiver dance
- Fiery dance
- Giga Drain
- Bug Buzz
You will get the Volcano badge and TM Flamethrower
Fire Gym Download


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Not guilty: Murder suspect beats assault charge
Andrew Alston, the UVA student charged with murder in the stabbing death of Free Union volunteer fireman Walker Sisk, was in court last week facing charges that he'd punched his girlfriend September 7 in what the prosecution called a classic case of domestic violence.
The defense claimed the girlfriend, reluctant witness Karen Graham, did the hitting– including punching herself in the face. And in the middle of the November 21 hearing, a man was arrested and charged with contempt of court.
Most cases heard in General District Court, domain of traffic tickets and other misdemeanors, barely go five minutes. That morning, 54 cases were heard between 9 and 11am.
Among them was the case of Robert Haskins, the man who attacked a woman walking in Greenleaf Park with her toddler last winter. He was back in court on obstruction of justice charges. For allegedly grabbing a woman jogging on Locust Avenue October 9, he was sentenced to 30-days, all suspended.
The 55th case tried that day took a bit longer, clocking in at nearly two and a half hours. Andrew Alston stood in his black-and-white striped prison garb at the bench for most of that time.
At 10:50am, eight witnesses filed into Charlottesville Circuit Court and to the bench to face Judge Robert Downer. Karen Graham, along with two roommates, a police officer, and her mother with her arm around her waist, lined up in front of the bench.
On the other side of assistant commonwealth's attorney Ron Huber and defense attorney Fred Wood stood the shackled, slight Alston, encircled by his mother's arm and patted by his father. They, along with Alston's roommate, were sworn in by the judge.
Graham, the first witness to be called, immediately told the judge she didn't want to be there, and Huber confirmed that his witness did not want the case to move forward.
Then the striking pony-tailed blonde in a pale pink sweater, who appeared taller than Alston in her one-inch heels, detailed what happened that Saturday night with the man she'd been dating for eighteen months.
Alston was hosting a birthday party in his apartment for one of his roommates. Graham said she had "two or three" glasses of wine, and by 12:30am, she was ready to "go to the bars."
She said Alston didn't want her to go, and that she pushed him in the family room "and maybe he pushed me" before she stormed off to his bedroom to get her purse.
"I believe I said stuff like he was ignoring me and that he liked some other girl," Graham testified. In the bedroom, she said, Alston pushed her into the closet where she hit her head.
"I was still yelling," Graham testified. "I was in Andrew's face yelling ...He backhanded me out of his face." Then Alston hit the light on the overhead ceiling fan with his hand. "There was blood everywhere, glass everywhere. I was very upset," she continued.
Alston's roommate drove Graham home before taking Alston to the emergency room. When she got to her apartment, Graham testified, "My roommate Anna asked if he had hit me."
The roommate and a neighbor called the police, and the prosecution submitted Polaroids of Graham taken at the magistrate's office showing injuries to the left side of her face and on her lip.
Under cross examination, Graham admitted she was intoxicated at the time of the argument and then clarified her condition: "I was at the point I would not drive. I could stand, walk, and talk. I can recall conversations."
She also acknowledged that she was jealous that her beau was talking to "an Asian girl."
At that point in the proceedings, a voice from the door at the back of the courtroom called out, "Dismiss." Judge Downer snapped, "I want him held in contempt of court," and a handful of police officers took off after the shouter.
Under Wood's questioning, Graham denied that she'd hit herself in the face, and said she wanted to drop the charges against Alston.
She recalled how later that same day she met with Alston's parents– who had driven from Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, to Charlottesville. She testified that they sat on the Lawn for a couple of hours while Bob Alston wrote out a statement that she initialed and signed.
"I'm really nervous, could I take a break?" Graham asked the judge at that point.
Just then, police brought in a handcuffed man identified as Jeffrey Williams. It was unclear whether Williams had any connection to the case, or if he had been shouting "Dismiss" about cases heard in the court in general.
Saying, "I don't allow anyone to make outbursts like that in my court," Downer sentenced Williams to five days in jail.
The defense continued to question Graham about her signed statement written by Bob Alston that said, "Andrew never hit me."
"Are you denying it now?" asked Wood.
"Yes," replies Graham.
And why did she sign a statement that she now claimed to be false? Wood asked. "I wanted everything to be over and Andrew and I to be together, whatever the cost," Graham replied.
Wood produced emails from Graham to Alston; his roommate, Simon Wagner; and his parents, in which she wrote, "I fully accept the injuries were of my own volition."
"I would do anything to be with Andrew," Graham testified as her lover stood before the judge. "His dad was promising he'd do damage control to keep it out of court."
Graham explained the signed statement and emails by saying, "I felt like crap, the lowest of the low because someone I loved had been in jail."
After almost an hour of testimony, Downer allowed Alston to sit down while he read a four-page email written by Graham, prompting Alston's first words that day: "I thank you, sir."
Wood again asked Graham why she had written emails suggesting she hit herself in the face.
"I was willing to do anything," Graham replied. "I got the impression I was a wild woman the night before and ruined [Alston's] life. If they wanted to give the impression I hit myself, I was willing to go along with that."
Graham testified that Alston's mother, Karen, told her that her son had never done anything violent. "She said she'd already lost one son," Graham testified.
The Daily Progress reported the day after the trial that Alston's brother had committed suicide a little more than a year ago.
A tearful Graham again told the court, "I wanted us to be together."
The first defense witness, Alston's roommate, Simon Wagner, testified that Graham was "cussing" at Alston at the party in the living room, and when Alston got up, "Karen hit him a couple of times in the shoulder and stomach."
Wagner said he followed the couple to the bedroom, where he stood in the hallway listening to their argument and heard glass break when Alston hit the fan.
On the drive to take Graham home, Wagner testified, she turned and took a couple of swings at Alston in the back seat. And when Alston told her to stop, Wagner told the court, "She hit herself with both fists."
Karen Alston, a school counselor, testified that Graham told her she "was hitting herself in the face and her roommate got carried away and called the police."
Her husband took photos of her son and his bedroom, she testified. Even 10 feet back in the courtroom, a bruise was visible on the photograph of Andrew Alston's face.
Robert Alston, who's on the board of supervisors in Lower Gwynedd, told the court he saw bite marks on his son's arm when he and his wife arrived in Charlottesville around 2:30pm September 7.
And he produced a picture he'd taken of his wife and Graham, with an enlargement of Graham's face. "I saw the injury on the side of her head," the elder Alston said. "There was nothing on her lip."
When prosecutor Huber asked about a court case currently under advisement involving Andrew Alston in Pennsylvania, Robert Alston responded, "That was a juvenile case resolved five or six years ago."
In that 1998 case, Alston pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy, and spent six months in a juvenile rehabilitation facility, according to the Progress report. In that case, the victim, a minor, was attacked by three assailants and suffered a fractured skull and broken nose, and had to have reconstructive surgery, according to Montgomery County probation officer Frank Snow.
At 1:40pm, Andrew Alston took the stand as his own final defense witness. He explained that he was talking to his guests as host of the party, and that Graham came up to him saying, "You haven't said one f-word word to me all night," and punched him in the chest.
"She was upset and yelling, 'Why don't you go f-word one of your Asian whores?'" Alston testified. In the bedroom, "She slapped me in the face on the left side, she bit my right bicep... and she punched me in the face."
He continued, "I never would lay a hand on her, ever. I would never hurt or punch her. I treated her so well."
Alston told the judge that he had never seen Graham so drunk. And on the ride to take her home, he testified, her ring hit his tooth when she hit him, and then "she started to hit herself in the face repeatedly."
Under Huber's questioning, Alston admitted that during a previous argument, he had hit the windshield of Graham's car "after she hit my face."
Huber called Graham's request to drop the charges and her signing the statement denying Alston hit her "a classic domestic violence response."
He added, "Mr. Alston's dad was already trying to put the squeeze on her... He knows exactly what to do, that you get to the witness as soon as possible."
As for Graham's truthfulness, he said, "She didn't want to be here. She had no motive to fabricate the story."
In his summation, Wood countered that the case was based on Graham's credibility, and he called her contention she never read the statement she signed "incredulous. If she's willing to say that, she'll say anything."
Judge Downer ruled quickly. "I've listened very carefully, and one thing I'm certain of: This is classic domestic violence."
He noted Graham's admission that she was very jealous, and the difficulty of believing anyone would punch herself in the face. He characterized Graham's willingness to do anything to keep the relationship alive: "That's typically what happens."
Downer continued, "I'm not able to tell beyond a reasonable doubt that's what he did... I am not going to find him guilty of assault and battery on these facts."
As the bailiff led Alston out of the courtroom, Attorney Wood followed them, but then returned to report to Alston's parents, "You can't see him."
Alston was returned to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail where he's being held without bond. The Cavalier Daily reported November 21 that he'd been in a fight in the jail and was being kept in isolation.
Alston will return to court on January 15 to face second-degree murder charges in the November 8 death of 22-year-old Walker Sisk.
"I would do anything to be with Andrew," Alston's girlfriend testified. Here, he arrives for his November 21 assault and battery trial.
Walker Sisk, the firefighter killed November 8 on 14th Street.


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Ionization Detectors: Ionizing Radiation
Ionization smoke detectors use an ionization chamber and a source of ionizing radiation to detect smoke. This type of smoke detector is more common because it is inexpensive and better at detecting the smaller amounts of smoke produced by flaming fires.
Inside an ionization detector is a small amount (perhaps 1/5000th of a gram) of americium-241. The radioactive element americium has a half-life of 432 years, and is a good source of alpha particles.
Another way to talk about the amount of americium in the detector is to say that a typical detector contains 0.9 microcurie of americium-241. A curie is a unit of measure for nuclear material. If you are holding a curie of something in your hand, you are holding an amount of material that undergoes 37,000,000,000 nuclear transformations per second. Generally, that means that 37 billion atoms in the sample are decaying and emitting a particle of nuclear radiation (such as an alpha particle) per second. One gram of of the element radium generates approximately 1 curie of activity (Marie Curie, the woman after whom the curie is named, did much of her research using radium).
(For an extensive explanation of nuclear materials and nuclear radiation, see How Nuclear Radiation Works.)
Let's take a look now at the ionization chamber.


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Chorizo chicken with chilli wedges
Nutrition and extra info
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal422
- fat7g
- saturates2g
- carbs54g
- sugars15g
- fibre6g
- protein39g
- salt0.66g
- 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
Sweet potatosweet po-tate-toe
Sweet potatoes have a creamy texture and a sweet-spicy flavour that makes them ideal for savoury…
- 1 tsp olive oil
Olive oilol-iv oyl
Probably the most widely-used oil in cooking, olive oil is pressed from fresh olives. It's…
- ½ tsp dried chilli flakes
- thin slices chorizo
A coarsely textured, spiced pork sausage widely used in Spanish and Mexican cooking. It is made…
- 2 skinless chicken breasts
- few thyme sprigs, leaves stripped, half tsp dried thyme
This popular herb grows in Europe, especially the Mediterranean, and is a member of the mint…
Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Place the sweet potatoes on a baking tray, then toss with the oil, chilli flakes and seasoning. Roast for 10 mins, then remove and reduce the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.
Lay half the chorizo slices over each chicken breast, overlapping so the chicken is covered, then tuck the edges underneath to secure. Lift onto the baking tray next to the wedges, scatter the wedges with thyme leaves, then roast for 20 mins more, turning the chicken and wedges halfway until golden.


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The Government could save almost £7 billion a year by 2022/23 by tweaking five existing wealth taxes and subsidies, a think tank has argued.
Scrapping the lifetime and help-to-buy ISAs, reforming or replacing council tax, and clamping down on inheritance tax loopholes were among the suggestions made by the Resolution Foundation.
Other recommendations included making pensions tax relief more progressive and limiting entrepreneurs' relief.
The report predicts that as the UK population ages, the cost of public services will rise by £36bn a year by 2030, and £83bn by 2040.
Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation, acknowledged that making changes to wealth taxes would be "politically difficult" - but said it would help fund this growing cost.
Bell said:
"The good news is that relatively large sums can be raised simply by tightening up our existing wealth taxes and subsidies.
"That is how we protect our public services without placing all the burden of taxation on hard-earned income from work."
Get in touch to discuss your tax liability.


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Despite government warnings about an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and actions while taking antiepileptic drugs, these medications do not appear to be associated with increased risk of suicide attempts in individuals with bipolar disorder, and may have a possible protective effect, according to a report in the December issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Antiepileptic drugs are life-saving for those with seizure disorders and are also used to treat many other conditions, including mood disorders and nerve pain, the authors write as background information in the article. The 11 antiepileptic drugs include gabapentin, pregabalin, topiramate and carbamazepine. "On Jan. 31, 2008, the Food and Drug Administration issued an alert regarding increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior related to use of antiepileptic drugs," the authors write. "On July 10, 2008, a Food and Drug Administration scientific advisory committee voted that, yes, there was a significant positive association between antiepileptic drugs and suicidality but voted against placing a black box warning on antiepileptic drugs for suicidality."
Individuals with bipolar disorder--often treated with antiepileptic drugs--have a higher risk of attempted and completed suicide than the general population. "That makes this a population of interest in detecting the effect on suicide risk of antiepileptic drugs compared with a no-treatment control group," the authors write. Robert D. Gibbons, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues studied a cohort of 47,918 patients with bipolar disorder who had at least one year of data before and after their diagnosis in a national database of medical claims.
A total of 13,385 patients received one of 11 antiepileptic drugs and 25,432 received neither antiepileptic medications nor lithium. After treatment, those taking antiepileptic medication had similar rates of suicide attempts (13 per 1,000 patients per year) as those taking lithium (18 per 1,000 patients per year) or those who did not receive treatment (13 per 1,000 patients per year).
Among those taking antiepileptic drugs, the rate of suicide attempt was significantly lower after treatment (13 per 1,000 patients per year) than before treatment (72 per 1,000 patients per year). In patients who were not receiving treatment with another antiepileptic, an antidepressant or an antipsychotic medication, taking any antiepileptic mediation appeared protective against suicide attempts relative to no pharmacologic treatment (three per 1,000 suicide attempts per patient per year vs. 15 per 1,000 per patient per year).
"Our analysis also reveals that there is a selection effect, in that the pretreatment suicide attempt rate is five times higher than the rate in untreated patients," the authors write. "If pretreatment suicide attempt rates reflect the severity of illness, it is the more severely impaired patients who receive treatment with an antiepileptic drug or lithium. Nevertheless, the post-treatment suicide attempt rate is significantly reduced relative to their elevated pretreatment levels to the level found at or below patients not receiving treatment. This finding suggests a possible protective effect of antiepileptic drug treatment on suicidality."
(Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2009;66[12]:1354-1360. Available pre-embargo to the media at www.jamamedia.org.)
Editor's Note: This study was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and a grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, financial disclosures, funding and support, etc.


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Get Your Free Audiobook
Minute for Murder
Publisher's Summary
The eighth Nigel Strangeways mystery.
The Second World War has just finished and amateur detective and poet Nigel Strangeways is working at the Ministry of Morale in London, in the Visual Propaganda Division. With war over, life seems to be calm again, that is until the Director's beautiful secretary is poisoned in full view of seven members of the division, including Nigel himself. Who could have killed her? And how?
Nicholas Blake was the pseudonym of Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, who was born in County Laois, Ireland in 1904. After his mother died in 1906, he was brought up in London by his father, spending summer holidays with relatives in Wexford. He was educated at Sherborne School and Wadham College, Oxford, from which he graduated in 1927. Blake initially worked as a teacher to supplement his income from his poetry writing and he published his first Nigel Strangeways novel, A Question of Proof, in 1935. Blake went on to write a further 19 crime novels, all but four of which featured Nigel Strangeways, as well as numerous poetry collections and translations.
During the Second World War he worked as a publications editor in the Ministry of Information, which he used as the basis for the Ministry of Morale in Minute for Murder, and after the war he joined the publishers Chatto & Windus as an editor and director. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1968 and died in 1972 at the home of his friend, the writer Kingsley Amis.


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Conservation and Environment in Peru: Monthly Updates
Monthly Update - July 2009
Once again I have a month of hard work and adventure to report on from the depths of the Peruvian Amazon. With the lodge bursting at its seams we have been able to accomplish a huge amount and push forward many of our projects in parallel. The butterfly house moves ever closer to official opening, beach patrols have begun on the turtle project, Mauricio has returned to mist net, modifications have been made around the rescue centre and necessary maintenance has begun around the camp and reserve before the return of the rains later in the year.
Normally during these updates I mention sightings and adventures around the reserve in conclusion but I feel it is time to dedicate more attention to these encounters as the Amazon rainforest is a place of mystery and amazement and, whilst our constant work in the field of conservation is incredibly worthwhile, we should not detract from the fact that we are living in one of the world's greatest ecosystems with the unexpected surprises and adventures that only true wilderness can provide. This month has been no exception as we have been working in huge numbers around the reserve. Trails have been cleared, bridges repaired, mist nets tended and monitored, materials collected for the newly modified animal enclosures and our regular observation hikes undertaken. It was during such an outing that we heard a huge crash as the jungle came alive with swarming bodies hurtling through the undergrowth. Whilst clearing one of the many trails we had stumbled into the middle of a herd of white-lipped peccaries. Many local guides and wildlife books will swear that wild peccaries are dangerous and that climbing trees is the only way to ensure not being mauled! The truth is they are just trying to get away from you and by standing still their amazing sense of smell means that they will never come too close during flight. Nonetheless it was a great experience for the volunteers lucky enough to feel the jungle suddenly come alive around them before returning to the facade of relative tranquillity. Another group working in a different sector of the reserve came across a huge snake in the middle of the trail, the relatively harmless yellow-tailed creibo was no threat but the loud whoosh as it took off down the trail caused most of the group to stumble back a little! Further down the trail we found fresh jaguar spoor overlaying tapir tracks- a hunt from the previous night? The truth is that the tropical rainforests around the globe are teeming with life and much of it we have yet to discover. Scientists and investigators continue to try and unravel the mysteries and complex relationships between its inhabitants and we are truly privileged to be at the forefront of such research!
This brings me on nicely to news from our own diversity studies and this month I would like to mention our herpetology research first. As volunteers and staff alike continue to check the pitfall-traps and carry out frog hunts at night it was actually a random encounter whilst walking the trails that led to the discovery a new species for Taricaya. The Flat-headed snake (Xeopholis scolaris) is a small member of the Colubrid family of harmless snakes. This is our 33rd species of snake identified in the reserve and takes our complete list of herpetology to 110 species. A few days later, there was a further snake adventure that deserves mention this month. Whilst working on some cage improvements in the rescue centre I heard shouts of snake from the Amazon parrot enclosure. I rushed over and was greeted by a large rainbow boa (Epicrates cenchria) trying to hide in the cement blocks inside the cage. It took me close to 15 minutes to finally extract it after a tug-of-war that left me struggling for breath. When I finally got the snake under control we were able to measure it at just less than 2m and its display of strength demonstrated just how effective these predators are and the relative ease with which they suffocate their prey. Once everyone had a chance to hold and photograph it I released it well away from the cages as the snake had entered the enclosure with a view to snacking on one of its residents!
On a different herpetological note we have also begun our monitoring of Playa San Francisco; the beach allotted us by the government for collecting the eggs of the "Taricayas". These freshwater turtles (Podocnemis unifilis) have been struck hard by the freakishly stormy dry season and the associated high water levels. If that was not enough, the rains were followed by a seasonal "friaje" (cold weather front from Patagonia) where temperatures dropped to 12 degrees Celsius for almost a week. As the river finally starts to drop and the sun shine we have only encountered two nests so far in the first ten days of monitoring but I am confident that the female turtles have been patient in waiting for ideal laying conditions and that August will see me reporting on yet another successful collection phase that will reward the hours spent wandering the beach at night.
The butterfly house is almost ready to receive our first study species as the plants that we transferred have taken root well and are producing new shoots and foliage. This is essential as these particular species have been selected as primary food sources for the caterpillars. Adult butterflies will happily feed on fermenting fruit and nectar but their respective larva can only digest certain plant toxins and so the appropriate plant species needed to be identified and transplanted. In August the government official responsible for the permits and license will visit us and give us the green light to proceed with the project and the introduction of our first specimens will follow directly after this.
The animal rescue centre continues to flourish and our young arrivals from last month are progressing very well. The baby jaguarundis (Herpailurus yaguarondi) have quintupled their weight and are becoming a handful already. The young spider monkeys (Ateles chamek) are growing quickly also and their fur is starting to shine with a healthy diet and treatment of vitamins. However, the growth of these youngsters coupled with a continued lethargy from the Peruvian government in producing release papers for some of our older residents mean that we have had to modify some of the existing cages. The problem lies in the fact that we are using the quarantine area for animals that should be in larger enclosures. As a result, we have made some adjustments to existing enclosures and built new partitions to create a row of three cages for our smaller cats (margay and three jaguarundis) and as soon as the coatis are released next month we shall reshuffle the remaining residents and free up the quarantine cages again. July also saw us receive a new species in the rescue centre, INRENA, the government branch responsible for the environment, called and left us a juvenile Striped owl (Pseudoscops clamator). This magnificent bird of prey is usually found in open grass lands or abandoned farms where it feeds primarily on rodents. The bird is doing well on a diet of fresh beef and when it moults leaving the adult plumage we shall have to locate and appropriate release site as we have yet to come across this bird in the wild around the reserve.
With the return of Mauricio Ugarte we have been out mist-netting again and this time the nets were located on the eastern border of the reserve. The first few days have been very successful with some great captures including the aptly named and very vociferous Screaming Piha (Lipaugus vociferans). This mid-canopy bird is renowned for its distinctive call that pierces the forest at all hours during the day but its drab colouration makes it very hard to spot and we were all excited by this capture. Our bird list is now at 417 species and the three new discoveries this month were the Ladder-tailed nightjar (Hydropsalis climacocerca), Blue-crowned manakin (Lepidothrix coronata) and the Rose-fronted parakeet (Pyrrhua roseifrons). Mauricio will be with us for the first week of August also so I am sure that there will be more new findings to report on next month.
Before signing off this month I would just like to thank all the volunteers who have been with us during this very busy period. I should mention this every month but the results we achieve speak volumes on their own but the work ethic of the team never ceases to amaze me and with a mix of nationalities, ages and backgrounds the morale on the project is fantastic and enables us to achieve so much. This coupled with the continued dedication of all the staff members means that we move from strength to strength and as both our project and recognition grow it is looking very bright for the future here at Taricaya.
Stuart Timson
Conservation Director
Projects Abroad
1st August, 2009


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Minneapolis Gay bars and clubs by distance
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this post on 10 ways to be more powerful advises women to express a point of view, something many women avoid to spare themselves trouble. The post notes that that approach just diminishes your effectiveness over time:
Every time you leave something that you feel strongly about unsaid, you take away your own power. You listen to the critical voice inside that says, "that wasn't that important anyway," "maybe that's a stupid idea," "I'll let someone else say it first." The more you listen to that voice, the louder it gets.The post includes lots of useful advice, including the preparatory steps you need to take so that you'll feel ready and confident when the time comes to speak up. I'd add that you should frame these types of statements starting with "I" -- it's a confident, powerful construction, and has the advantage that no one can contradict what you're thinking or feeling on a topic if you are solely speaking for yourself. (Check out my lists of the 5 weakest speaker statements and the 6 strongest speaker statements--the latter group all start with "I.")
In the video below from Empower Women Leaders' YouTube channel of mentoring videos, Hala Moddelmog, president of the Arby's Restaurant Group, shares her insights on "being yourself in a male culture," with more tips based on her experience as a woman in a male-dominated industry.
Use the Evernote clip button, above, to save this post in an Evernote notebook. Go here to subscribe to Step Up Your Speaking, my free email newsletter that looks at a different speaking topic in depth each month...then become a fan of The Eloquent Woman on Facebook and join the conversation with thousands of other women (and men) about public speaking skills and confidence.


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h/t Ozzie Saffa
The subject of Brandon Huntley has been raised on this site a few times and the latest news is that a Canadian judge has largely rejected his story of racial prejudice in South Africa. This is something of a travesty, because as all of us at ILSA know well, racial prejudice has official status in South Africa, and for a foreign judge to deny it is simply a rejection of facts.
Now, whether or not you believe Huntley's story is largely irrelevant - and I've made it clear that I have my doubts - but the facts to which he alludes are incontrovertible. Victimisation of white people in South Africa, both at an officially sanctioned level and on the streets, is a reality and the goal of this blog has been, in no small part, to gather and present evidence of this reality.
If Huntley is sent home, this represents a huge kick in the teeth for South Africans, and reveals the entire concept of refugee status as a sham intended to favour only certain "victim groups". While Huntley has been living in Canada, a boatload of Sri Lankan "refugees" has pitched up in Vancouver and stated their intent to live off the state for the rest of their lives. Similarly, other claimants plead "poverty" in their homelands as a reason for their refugee claims - as though Western countries have a duty of care towards those whose cultures and societies create only poverty and need.
White South African fights to stay in Canada
- Brandon Huntley had been granted refugee status because he claimed persecution in his homeland, South Africa. (Tony Caldwell, QMI Agency file photo)
OTTAWA - A white South African who was granted refugee status in Canada after claiming racial persecution may yet be sent home.
On Wednesday, the Federal Court granted immigration minister Jason Kenney's request for a judicial review of the refugee board decision that allowed Brandon Carl Huntley to stay in Ottawa.
In his 2008 application, Huntley said he'd been stabbed three times in seven robberies at the hands of black South Africans. They called him a "white dog," he told the refugee board.
Huntley presented "clear and convincing proof of the state's inability or unwillingness to protect him," the board found. It granted him refugee status in 2009.
Kenney had argued evidence presented on Huntley's behalf was irrelevant. Another woman had testified that black South Africans had tortured and shot her brother, showing the country was powerless to prevent black-on-white violence.
The board decision had also been blasted by South Africa's governing African National Congress as "racist."
Huntley's lawyer, Rocco Galati, told the court the South African government had twisted the immigration minister's arm to review the case, calling the review application an "abuse of process from outside pressure."
Federal Court Justice James Russell didn't buy it.
Russell's decision sets aside the earlier refugee board decision, and sends Huntley's refugee claim back to a "differently constituted" board for consideration.
Huntley first came to Canada in 2004 to work as a carnival attendant. He returned the next year, staying illegally until making his refugee claim.


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The MoHS photo shoot is Monday, or that's what it says anyway. I'm kind of bummed I won't be able to go.
we can change it to Sunday maybeh?my list is screwed up...so I'm not going by that anymore.


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Posts Tagged 'Pencils'
Mary Katrantzou: London Fashion Week A/W 2012 Catwalk Review
Standing ticket? Pft. Never mind; I'd do a handstand for an hour if forced, if it meant I got to see the wondrous Mary Katrantzou dazzle the crowds - as I did on Tuesday 21 February at the Old Billingsgate Newgen venue…
Written by Matt Bramford
Mary Katrantzou A/W 2012 by Janneke de Jong
Allow me to depict the glamour of fashion week for you. My friends go green with envy when I say I'm 'doing' fashion week (or at least they used to, until they saw the state it left me in). My family start 'wooing' at the mere mention of it, baffled as to how a coal miner's son is even allowed in to these places. I'm surprised they haven't written a letter to the British Fashion Council asking them if they've gone mad.
Mary Katrantzou A/W 2012 by Lesley Barnes
Well, here's how… read more


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Insert Your Own Clever Bubblesort Pun
Okay, here we go with my data decomposition parallel code for Bubblesort. With applications dealing with large data sets that involve sorting (or parts of larger applications needing to sort large amounts of data), it seems only natural to consider a data parallel solution. It got longer than I had originally thought, but I hope you find it worthwhile.
Before we dive into the gory details, let's do a quick review. Under a data decomposition scheme, we need to divide up the large collection of data and assign a portion to a thread. Each thread runs the computation on the assigned piece and coordinates with other threads as needed. For Bubblesort, I divide up the data array into non-overlapping partitions and assign a thread to each partition. Threads use the Bubblesort algorithm on their assigned partition. The coordination needed between threads falls between adjacent partitions. Each thread will need to "peek" over the partition boundary to compare (and possibly swap) the last item in the assigned partition with the first item in the succeeding partition. This must be done in a safe manner. After each thread performs a complete pass on the assigned partition values, threads will determine if there was at least one exchange by any thread during the just completed pass. If no thread did an exchange, the sorted order has been achieved; otherwise another pass is initiated.
Due to the length and the format of this forum, I'll break my
BubbleSort() function into a few logical pieces and describe each one separately. I think that will be easier to follow the flow than to require you to keep paging back and forth to examine a monolithic code sequence. The code blocks described will be broken down into 5 "steps":
- Variable declarations, shared and local
- Test the first and second elements in partition
- One full pass through the data in partition
- Test the overlapping elements at end of partition and start of next partition
- Update and check exchanges made from any previous compares
As with the previous Bubblesort code examples, I've used POSIX threads for my implementation. First up, the declarations for variables, both shared by all threads and local to individual threads.
// Shared declarations pthread_mutex_t BLock[NUM_LOCKS]; pthread_mutex_t m_Done; pth_barrier_t bBarrier; int Done[2] = {0,0}; int *A, N; void *BubbleSort(void *pArg) { int i, j, temp; int k = 0; int exch; int myid = *((int*)pArg); int start = ((float)N / (float)NUM_THREADS) * myid; int end = ((float)N / (float)NUM_THREADS) * (myid+1); if (myid == NUM_THREADS-1) end = N;
The shared variable set contains the
BLock[] array of mutexes to be used by threads to look into an adjacent partition or to prevent a thread from an adjacent partition from swapping out a value that could be read by another thread. Prevalent wisdom in using locks is that a lock must protect some data, not the execution of code. (We put mutexes around code that updates or reads those data items that must be protected from concurrent multiple thread accesses.) In this case, I will use a mutex to protect/allow access to the first elements in each assigned partition of the array. More details on how that is to be done in the description of upcoming code segments.
Added synchronization variables that weren't in the task decomposition variation are another single mutex,
m_Done, to protect updates to the
Done array elements and a barrier construct unimaginatively named
bBarrier. This barrier is the answer to the thought problem posed at the end of the previous article as we shall see in the final code segment description. Finally, the array,
A, to be sorted as well as the number of things in the array,
N, rounds out the shared variables.
The local variables are what you would expect. There are some array index variables (
i, j), a
temp storage location for the swap of values found to be out of sequence, and an identification number for the thread,
myid, that was sent as the single parameter to the thread function
BubbleSort(). A counter,
k, will be used to reference the elements of
Data, an integer.
exch keeps track of whether or not the thread made an exchange of at least one pair of adjacent items, and the two remaining integers,
start and
end, denote the indices of the array partition that will be sorted by the thread. I employ the trick of using floating-point arithmetic and integer truncation to get a balanced distribution of partition sizes across all threads, especially if the size of the data set isn't evenly divisible by the number of threads.
Now, with the preliminaries over, let's look at some executable code. Surrounding the bulk of the function will be an infinite
while loop that is terminated in the last segment below. Each iteration of this loop will have threads execute a Bubblesort pass over the data within the assigned partition.
while (1) { exch = 0; i = start; if (myid > 0) { pthread_mutex_lock(&BLock[myid-1]); if (A[i] > A[i+1]) { temp = A[i]; A[i] = A[i+1]; A[i+1] = temp; exch = 1; } pthread_mutex_unlock(&BLock[myid-1]); } else { if (A[i] > A[i+1]) { temp = A[i]; A[i] = A[i+1]; A[i+1] = temp; exch = 1; } }
At the outset of each
while-loop iteration, I reset the
exch flag since no exchanges have been made yet. The index variable
i is set to the first index of the thread's partition,
start. This is more of a personal style thing. I could have just as easily used
start in the code, but the use of
i makes it a little easier to decipher what's going on with the compare and exchange.
The rest of the code in this segment compares the first and second elements within the partition. For the first thread,
myid == 0, since there is no other thread responsible for lower indexed elements, there will be no chance of a data race on this first element from another thread. Thus, the else-clause simply compares the first and second partition elements and swaps as needed.
For all other threads, there is a partition of lower-indexed items and a thread passing through that partition. Because I know that there is going to be a "peek" across the partition boundaries by such a thread, I must protect the access to the first element,
A[start], in the partition. From the way the partition boundaries are computed, I know that the partitions are numbered with the same ID number as the assigned thread. With that in mind, I use the mutex from the
Block array that is indexed by the ID number of the thread that I know will be peeking over the boundary, which is one less than the partition thread's ID number
(myid - 1). When we get to the fourth code segment, it should be clear how this scheme protects data across the other end of the partition. Consequently, I know that there will be no race condition on the first element of any partition.
The compare and swap are standard stuff with an addition. If a compare and swap are executed, the
exch flag is set. This serves to force at least one more pass over the data.
for (j = start+1; j < end-1; j++) { if (A[j] > A[j+1]) { temp = A[j]; A[j] = A[j+1]; A[j+1] = temp; exch = 1; } }
After the first compare (and exchange, if needed) is done, threads are free to run a Bubblesort pass over all other items within the partition. As with that first item, if a thread does execute an exchange, then the
exch flag is set.
There is one more comparison to be done by almost every thread: Compare the last element of the partition,
A[end-1], to the first element in the succeeding partition,
A[end], if it exists.
i = end-1; if (myid != NUM_THREADS-1) { pthread_mutex_lock(&BLock[myid]); if (A[i] > A[i+1]) { temp = A[i]; A[i] = A[i+1]; A[i+1] = temp; exch = 1; } pthread_mutex_unlock(&BLock[myid]); }


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