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An Arizona company that has sold at least 82 vehicle service contracts illegally in Washington state has been ordered to stop.
Our office has issued a cease-and-desist order against Phoenix-based Prestige Administration Inc.
Our legal affairs investigators found that the company issued at least 82 motor vehicle service contracts or similar products to Washington consumers. (Under Washington law, these contracts are considered a form of insurance.)
The problem is that the company is not authorized to conduct insurance transactions here in Washington. Nor have they registered with our office as a service contract provider.
Here's a key part for consumers who bought those contracts: Nothing in our order prevents the company from fullfilling the terms of the existing contracts.
The company has the right to demand a hearing.
Monday, May 7, 2012
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Fighting forest fires from space
Faced with fire, flood, landslide or other cataclysm, disaster relief agencies around the world are increasingly turning to the insights satellite data can give to assist their efforts. In the run up to a major conference "A European Perspective on Disaster Management," hosted by ESA at the end of this month, we've interviewed several key figures who have fought natural disasters (using space-based assets). Our first perspective comes from John Flanagan, a Fire Operations Specialist, with the Protection Program of the British Columbia Forest Service.
"We face 3000 forest fires a year in British Columbia," says Flanagan. "94% of which are contained at a small size, but 6% turn into what we call project fires - which demand any and all resources we can deploy to tame them." "With the help of a contract from ESA, which is in part funded by the Canadian Space Agency, we've developed a system for real-time emergency management, using space-based assets. REMSAT can provide command and control and information in areas where the normal infrastructure has been destroyed by fires, earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding - whatever the natural world can throw at us."
Flanagan explains that as well as providing telephone, fax and internet access from the remotest areas, the REMSAT equipment gives access to satellite Earth observation images, land use data and topographical models. "Using REMSAT, we can map the perimeter of the fire more accurately than ever before," he explains. "We're combining digital images, terrain models and fuel models - which deploy land use, weather data and vegetative data to help predict how fire will spread over a specific area - with on-the-ground observations using GPS positioning. This means that we can predict the spread of the fire, the damage that is likely to be caused, and any particular danger spots more accurately, and fire control resources more effectively. In the past, we'd request maps or airphotos, and they would be sent out 2-3 days later: REMSAT is a near-real-time system which cuts that delivery time down to hours and minutes instead of days."
REMSAT began life as a project to study the use of satellite communications in disaster management, "but then we added the earth observation and aerial imagery, and built models based on wind conditions and terrain models held digitally. Now we have a unique system, able to predict the volume of timber lost in different scenarios, and warn us of any properties that may be threatened," adds Flanagan. In British Columbia's vast and sparsely populated forests, the potential economic impact of most large forest fires is far greater than the risk to life. REMSAT can help stamp out any risk to life, and minimise the destruction of valuable timber.
As deployed in it prototype phase last year, the REMSAT system is a container, carried by a truck or large helicopter to within sniffing distance of a fire. "We deploy a 1.8m satellite dish aerial, which gives us a 128K data rate, communicating through the ANIKE-1 geostationary satellite," explains Flanagan. "We went operational last August at the Thynne Mountain fire, which burnt out 380 hectares of forest before it was stopped, and moved immediately to the Cool Creek blaze, which destroyed 168 hectares. At Thynne Mountain, we put the equipment on a trailer at 8am, and were operational eight kilometres from the fire-line by 2pm. And redeploying to Cool Creek took us only three hours. As soon as we were there, we were providing information to the incident commander. And that's not only mapping and imaging information: we soon faced a potential hazardous chemical situation, and thanks to the internet access we had available, we were able to provide critical safety and hazard information to the safety commander in a few minutes."
The REMSAT equipment will be in use again this year, and for several more years to come under a generous loan of equipment by ESA. The BC Forest Service has other plans as well. "We need to get this out of the military-style shelter, which can only be deployed by heavy helicopter or a large truck, and we're planning to develop "REMSAT Lite", which will be an airborne unit, packaged in a few aluminium cases which is able to be transported by light helicopters. And in future versions - which you could perhaps use at earthquakes in populated areas - we want to re-introduce handheld user terminals, which will allow rescue workers on the ground to feed back detailed information about the situation in their areas, including emergency medical data."
The REMSAT prototype provides a clear vision of one successful deployment of satellite data in fire management. Later interviews in this series will focus on flood mitigation and civil protection. And to find out more about space-based assets in disaster management, why not attend the conference on 27-28th February?

subset: commoncrawl


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The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway—the world's largest rotating tram car—travels over two-and-one-half miles along the breathtaking cliffs of Chino Canyon, transporting riders to the pristine wilderness of the Mt. San Jacinto State Park. During your approximately ten-minute journey, tram cars rotate slowly, offering picturesque and spectacular vistas of the valley floor below. Once you reach the Mountain Station—elevation 8,516 feet—enjoy two restaurants, observation decks, natural history museum, two documentary theaters, gift shop and over 50 miles of hiking trails.
Dining at 8500 ft.
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Weather at the Tram
Real-Time Data
Know before you go! Our detailed weather information is from the Mountain Station at the top of the Tram. If you're a real weather buff, we have complete weather details including a weekly planner, radar and more.


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Create an Account - Increase your productivity, customize your experience, and engage in information you care about.
Show All Answers
There are six Okaloosa County libraries and one vending machine. For more information, visit our locations page or contact us at 850-279-6436 ext 1500.
Each library in the Cooperative issues their own card. However, that card will be honored at all six libraries and the Library Spot Lending Machine in Baker. Your card provides access to downloadable eBooks and eAudiobooks, and online learning courses and research sites.
You will need to provide forms of identification for eligibility.
We do have online registration.
A parent or guardian must sign if the applicant is 16 or under. The parent or guardian is responsible for any items checked out by a minor. Parents are responsible for monitoring their children's use of library resources. For more information, contact us at 850-279-6436, ext. 1500.
You may access your account online by going to the OCPLC website and clicking on "My Account." You will need the barcode number on the back of your library card and a PIN to log in. You will use the default PIN "CHANGEME" if you have not previously set up a PIN. If you have any problems, please call 850-279-6436, ext. 1500.
Each patron may check out up to 15 items (limit three video games).
All items are checked out for a period of two weeks.
Video games may be renewed once. All other items may be renewed up to two times. If an item is on hold for another patron, it cannot be renewed.
For more information, contact us at 850-279-6436, ext. 1500.
You can renew items online by going to the OCPLC website and clicking "My Account." Enter your library card number and your PIN.
Be aware that items which have already been renewed may not be available for additional renewals. In addition, items on hold for another patron cannot be renewed.
The library gives a one-day grace period. Fines are $0.10 per day excluding the days the library is closed. Contact us at 850-279-6436, ext. 1500 for further questions.
A PIN is a personal identification code that you create to access your library account online.
If you have not yet created a PIN: type in your barcode number (no spaces) and use "CHANGEME" as your default PIN.
You can then create your own PIN (must be 10 characters or less) by selecting "My Account" and "Change Pin."
If you do not remember your PIN, please call us. You will need to have your library card number for verification, or come to the Library with your library card or valid photo ID.
Items checked out from the Niceville Public Library may be returned to any OCPLC member library. Book drops are located at all locations as a convenience for patrons to return materials. In addition, the Library Spot Lending Machine also has a book drop available. The Niceville Library is not responsible for items left in book drops.
Over the course of being a Niceville Library user, you may end up damaging or losing library material. We understand that accidents happen to all of us. If you lose or damage an item owned by our library, we would prefer that you purchase an item identical to the one you are replacing and bring it to us for processing. You could also choose to pay for the item. Please call the library at 850-279-6436 ext. 1500 or visit the front desk to report the item lost or damaged. If you find an item that you have already paid the replacement cost for, you may receive a refund, minus a processing fee.
There are a few situations where your library card will no longer be able to place holds, check out items, use the online resource databases, or other functions. To find out the specific reason your card may not be working, please contact the Library at 850-279-6436 ext. 1500 or ext. 1504. You can also email us or visit our library.
Possible causes for your card not working:
Computers with internet access and word processing capabilities are available to the public. Adults with a library card from an OCPLC member library can log in to a computer using their card number. Adults without a library card must show picture ID at the Circulation Desk each visit to be signed on with a guest pass. Anyone under age 16 must have a parent or guardian sign an Internet Permission card at the Circulation Desk. Filtered internet computers and computers equipped with educational games and programs are available in the Youth Services area.
Yes. For further information you can contact us at 850-279-6436, ext. 1500.
If you have lost your library card, please contact our library right away. You can call us 850-279-6436 ext. 1500 or come to our Circulation Desk for assistance. You are responsible for all materials checked out on your library card, so please treat it as you would a credit card. Once the lost card has been cancelled, a new card may be obtained with photo ID. In addition, if you lose your card twice there will be a $5 replacement fee.
There are monthly children's programs offered at our library. For more information visit the Youth Services programs page, see our calendar of events, or contact Youth Services at 850-279-6436 ext. 1514.
We have two study rooms available with a computer in each. There is also small conference room available that will accommodate 8 people. To reserve one of the rooms, please call 850-279-6436 ext. 1500. Reservations are limited to two hours and can be scheduled no more than two weeks in advance. You may also check at the Circulation Desk for availability.
The Niceville Public Library provides exam-proctoring services in support of lifelong learning goals. This service is provided as a courtesy to patrons and is subject to the availability of staff to administer the examination. The Niceville Public Library may refer students to other institutions that provide proctoring service when conditions cannot be met or a library staff member is not available to provide this service.
The Niceville Public Library has display spaces available for individuals and organizations to display their art, crafts or collections. If you are interested in providing a display, please fill out the Art Display Application and return it to the Reference Desk.


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Upper Valley gathering calls for stricter gun control laws
HANOVER, N.H. (AP) � A gathering of Upper Valley residents is urging New Hampshire lawmakers to push for stricter gun control laws.
About 70 people attended the forum in Hanover on Sunday organized by the United Church of Christ. The event was planned to raise awareness about how residents could help state lawmakers who support stricter gun control laws.
The Valley News (http://bit.ly/WoTlu5 ) reports that Hanover resident Dena Romero asked the five Democratic lawmakers who attended to influence legislative action on assault weapons.
Rep. Laurie Harding said there's an ideological divide between Democrats and Republicans on gun control.
She said "people are determined to defend their second amendment rights no matter what, and it's very difficult to get people to change their minds."
An Enfield police officer advocated against restrictions on assault weapons.
Information from: Lebanon Valley News, http://www.vnews.com


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Event box
Sports Equipment Borrowing only at the Isaías González-Soto Branch Library, 280 Porter Avenue
NEW! Sports Equipment Share and Play Down Your Fines – Only at the Isaías González-Soto Branch Library, 280 Porter Avenue, children under the age of 17 can borrow snowshoes and, if needed, they can play down their library card fines/fees. Funded by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation.
Parent /guardian must be present the first time and signed waiver required.
Equipment can be borrowed and returned only at the Isaías González-Soto Branch Library in Buffalo, located at 280 Porter Avenue and Niagara Street.
- Date:
- Monday, December 16, 2019 Show more dates
- Time:
- All Day Event
- Library:
- Isaías González-Soto Branch Library
- Audience:
- Adult All Ages Child Teen Toddler Young Adult
- Categories:
- Sports


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BLUMENTHAL: In the wasteland of democracy, Israel destroys Al-Arakib . . . again August 13, 2010
by Max Blumenthal – 11 August 2010
"The Negev affords me the pleasure of watching a wasteland develop into the most fruitful portion of Israel by a totally Jewish act of creation." –David Ben Gurion, Memoirs
In the middle of the night on August 10, residents of the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Arakib sent a panicked text message to Israeli activists in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. Israeli police helicopters were buzzing overhead, surveying the scene ahead of what was likely to be a new round of demolitions. Three activists staying in the village had been nabbed during a night raid. Having already witnessed the razing of their homes twice in the past two weeks, the residents of Al-Arakib expected the third round of demolitions to arrive tonight, on the eve of Ramadan. During Ramadan, when the villagers fasted all day, the police and Israeli Land Administration reasoned they would be too weakened to rebuild — it was prime time for destruction.
I arrived in Al-Arakib at 3 AM with a handful of Jerusalem-based activists. A local couple hauled out mattresses and blankets and poured us small cups of coffee. "I've had enough of sleeping," the man grumbled as he reclined next to his wife. He seemed grateful to have company. I laid down and stared at the desert sky, listening to the man describe in a lulled tone the experience of watching his neighbors' homes crumple under the teeth of bulldozers again and again. As he trailed off, I heard a low droning sound in the distance. Were they here already? I looked around at the others. No one to register the slightest sign of concern. Finally, I slipped into a light slumber.
Two hours later I was torn from my sleep. "They're here!" someone shouted in Hebrew. I leapt from my mattress and scrambled up a dune until I reached the center of the village. A phalanx of one hundred riot cops had assembled in a tight formation. They were bristling with assault weapons and centurion shields. Flanked by bulldozers, the police quickly ringed the activists and journalists, who numbered about two dozen, and began forcibly pushing them away from the site of the demolitions. Their intention seemed to be to prevent any brave souls from standing between the bulldozers and the homes they sought to destroy. Dispatched by a faceless network of clerks and engineers in air-conditioned offices to do the dirty work of the state, the police performed their duty with cold efficiency.
As the bulldozers trundled around the village, tearing tarps from plywood pylons, crushing tin roofs, and dragging the shattered structures into hulking piles, the villagers watched with resignation. Seated on her bed in the naked desert, a girl wiped a few tears from her eyes, grimacing at the sight before her. On a nearby hill, a man quizzed his daughter on surahs from the Quran before sending her to collect mattresses from beneath the dusty waste of what used to be their sleeping quarters. An old woman stood impassively by a flock of birds perched on the collapsed remains of her house. Dispossession and homelessness have become nearly mundane in Al-Arakib.
The villagers remain devoted to the nomadic Bedouin tradition. (Why else would they resist with such tenacity the Israeli government's plan to resettle them in one of the Indian reservation-style "development communities" the state has created for them?) However, they have established a permanent presence in the areas around their village that pre-dates the foundation of Israel. Al-Arakib's cemetery, for example, contains the graves dating back to the end of the 19th century. Yet the Bedouins' historical claim to the Negev has not convinced the state that they deserve legal recognition. Nor have their attempts to demonstrate their loyalty by serving as front-line combat soldiers in the Israeli Army. In the eyes of the state, the Arabs of the Negev are at best quasi-human.
In 1953, the first Prime Minister of Israel David Ben Gurion (original name: David Gryn) moved to Sde Boker, a kibbutz in the Negev. A self-described messianist who rejected the existence of God while simultaneously describing the Torah as his political guidebook, Ben Gurion saw the Negev as a blank slate for realizing his revolutionary fever dreams. In his memoirs, he fantasized about evacuating Tel Aviv and settling five million Jews in small settlements throughout the Negev. Just as he disdained the cosmopolitan spirit of Tel Aviv's urbanists, Ben Gurion was disgusted by the sight of the open desert, describing it as "a criminal waste." In the place of sand dunes, he imagined a Jewish replica of Northern Europe.
"When I look out of my window and see a tree standing [in the Negev]," Ben Gurion wrote, "that tree gives me a greater sense of beauty and personal delight than all the vast forests I have seen in Switzerland or Scandinavia… Not only because I helped to grow them but because they constitute a gift of man to Nature, and a gift of the Jews to the cradle of their culture."
With the ethnocentric Ashkenazi outlook of Labor Zionism, Ben Gurion held deep contempt for non-European cultures. He denigrated the Jews who had immigrated to Israel from Arab countries as "savage" and as "a primitive community" that reveres pimps and thieves. But he at least acknowledged their existence in Israeli society. In his writings about the Negev, Ben Gurion did not once mention the presence of the tens of thousands of Arab Beduoins whose villages abutted his kibbutz. To him, their culture was void; they lived in a "wasteland." They were obstacles to his utopian vision, not human beings.
Today the Israeli government remains committed to fulfilling Ben Gurion's fantasies even though the Israeli public has completely turned its back on the Negev. "It seems that the fantasies grow stronger especially when the Jews do not move to live in the desert," the Israeli blogger Eyal Niv wrote. "The more the Jews back away from the desert, the more their leaders toughen the force, frequency, and cruelty of the expulsion of its other residents."
In the areas in and around Al-Arakib, just 5 km north of the city of Beersheva, the Jewish National Fund is in the process of planting the "Ambassador Forest." The forest will cover the land inhabited for over 100 years by the residents of Al-Arakib and prevent them from ever returning. The "Blueprint Negev" plan of the Jewish National Fund, an organization that claims to be acting "on behalf of Jewish people everywhere," can only be realized through harsh military force, the razing of villages, and ultimately, ethnic cleansing. The meting out of these practices against citizens of Israel should raise serious questions about the country's claim to uphold democratic values.
After the Israeli Police completed their third demolition of Al-Arakib, the villagers collected the remains of their homes and, with the assistance of a few international and Jewish Israeli activists, began rebuilding again. Without any recourse from the state or its courts, they have no other option but to start over from scratch. And they have nowhere else to go.
Thank You.


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Some two decades ago, Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter's research brought him to an uncommon conclusion: By aiming to reduce poverty, traditional inner-city initiatives had chosen the wrong target.
"We must redefine the challenge as one of creating income and wealth" by harnessing market forces, he argued, "rather than trying to defy them."
In 1994, Mr. Porter launched the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a non-profit research and strategy organization. Among the success factors it has identified are anchor institutions such as colleges and universities that can drive economic growth in urban areas.
President William Destler and other officials at Rochester Institute of Technology clearly understand that potential. RIT's decision to open a Center for Urban Entrepreneurship at the site of the former Rochester Savings Bank on Franklin Street could be a key milestone in the resurgence of downtown and surrounding areas.
The school's plan calls for investment that could top $5 million. Slated to open next fall, the facility will be a multi-use venue for RIT programs and activities.
The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship will be the centerpiece, however. Said Mr. Destler: "With a focus on entrepreneurship, we see potential for reshaping the region's economy through new business development."
The recent arrival of dt ogilvie, dean of RIT's E. Philip Saunders College of Business, gives a real boost to this effort. As founding director of the Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development at the State University of New Jersey, Rutgers Business School at Newark-New Brunswick, her hands-on experience should be invaluable.
Plans for the center were made possible by Rochester Historic Ventures' donation of the historic landmark building. "This is a donor's dream come true. It hits all the buttons: education, historic preservation, entrepreneurism, job creation and urban revitalization," said Amy Tait of Rochester Historic Ventures.
In praising the move, Mayor Thomas Richards referred to Rochester as "a city grown through innovators and entrepreneurs." In the eyes of many, however, the inner city long ago ceased to be a place where entrepreneurship can thrive.
ICIC and others have shown that's not so. With RIT's new center, Rochester can become a leading example.
10/26/12 (c) 2012 Rochester Business Journal. To obtain permission to reprint this article, call 585-546-8303 or email email@example.com.


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Theoretical weekends at Scission turns to a woman I "met" recently. Leil-Zahra Mortada is "just a blogger" to some, but she seems more than that to me.
So today Scission turns to her for a much needed look at Syria. The left can't seem to get its act together on how it should relate to the civil war and revolution taking place there. Much of the left, clouded by its Euro-Centric, Western outlook, has an analysis which is confused at best, and downright warped at worst. It is paralyzed into inaction. Part of the Euro-American left says we should support Assad the Butcher because the USA does not. Another part says, well, it seems its either Assad or the Islamist militias. Some see this or that revolutionary grouping to support (as long as it has the "correct" line). Many western radicals just can't find the proper revolutionaries at all. Bullshit, rhetoric, and dogma reign.
Last week or so I read something by this young woman about the patronizing attitude of some "marxist" academic types in regards to the Syrian uprising, in particular that of a certain Mr. Zizek. It was punishing to say the least. Today, I give you another.
I am not sure this is theoretical at all...seems like real life stuff to me...probably a bit of both.
This comes from the blog of Leil Zahra Mortanda.
The Syrian Double Revolution and the Euro-Leftist Double Impotency
Since the beginning of the Syrian Revolution many radical Leftist groups and networks, both on the international and local levels in Europe and around the world, have engaged in a heated debate on wether to support the revolution or not, on wether it was a revolution or an imperialist conspiracy. The European counterargument against the revolution had a quite-telling approach that was different from many in the rest of the world. It wasn´t just the usual claim that the Assad regime is one of the last-standing anti-imperialist forces. That claim became weaker in Europe after the aggravation of the regime crimes accompanied with hard-to-deny evidence on its brutality continuously coming out from Syria. Many within the European Left over and over affirmed that they will not support what is happening in Syria until they find revolutionary forces worthy of their support. The difference in approach was in the claim that there was no third option that is "revolutionary" and that poses a substitute to both the Assad regime and the Islamist militias. This approach wasn´t only problematic in its privileged laziness in not doing the needed effort to find these networks in Syria, but also in its White-tailored presets for what is a "better future" for the Syrians. It is the cliché and banal dichotomy of Secular vs. Islamist, something very reminiscent of Huntington´s "Clash of Civilizations". It also bears a certain condescending patronization on who is worthy of demanding an end to a certain terrorist regime and who is not. This is a very dangerous approach. It is a clear double-standard in the alleged radical Leftist agenda, and a quite revoking one. Any people, whether we agree with them or not, who are living under such an oppressive and violent regime, has the right to overthrow it. Whether they have a plan that meets our aspirations on what is to come next, or not, it is their full right and own choice to rebel. We can be critical and actively disagree with their agenda, but we should never justify or whitewash the crimes of the regime against them. Refusing to support certain anti-regime actions or groups that do not meet our politics is needed and important, but this should not be mistaken for a support to the regime forces or undermining rebellious efforts of other groups and individuals. This is not problematic on the Syrian question only. It is a clear call for reflection on the mentality and approach of a big section of the European Left. This is where the debate is urgently needed. The strictly Eurocentric definition of the world, of politics, and even of revolution itself. The European Left has made a brand out of Revolution. It was taken under a European copyright and it gets bestowed on some and denied to others. It is given and could be taken away. Alas!
With over 170 days of siege on the El-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, and over 30 people there murdered by the regime forces with the weapon of starvation, Assad´s credibility as a pro-Palestine leader crumbled. It is no longer easy to justify his crimes against El-Yarmouk, nor paint him as the Palestine-loving fairy. It became harder and harder for people to look the other way. The humanitarian approach was gaining grounds before the revolutionary agenda. While El-Yarmouk suffered for a pretty long time, and its rebellious residents joined the revolution very early on, it took starvation and the usual postcard of dying children to get the world´s attention; especially the world of Palestine-solidarity networks in Europe and beyond. Starvation can´t be justified as a bomb that allegedly took a wrong turn, nor it could be blamed on certain anti-regime militias. It was no longer easy to keep the eyes closed! Though this only undermined one of Assad´s PR points, it still didn´t provoke the needed reaction. The Palestinian refugees in the El-Yarmouk camp, like many Syrians, are dying of hunger. The regime is using starvation as a weapon. Clear? Now action is needed!
The denial of life-saving medicines and vaccines is also being used as a weapon. For example, Polio vaccines are denied or given in amounts much less than the needed ones to zones out of the regime control. This is not a matter of a UNICEF-style activism of sick children on a postcard like some claim. And it is not a matter of the World Health Organization taking its responsibilities and duties seriously, plus putting the funds it has into action. This is another evidence, just like the refugee question, on the corruption of the international relief agencies. On the amount of money wasted and on diplomatic and bureaucratic protocols that are respected more than life itself. Health is being used as a weapon, as a repressive measure that is destroying the lives of many and will most probably leave life-long life-devestating impacts. There is a revolutionary obligation to actively put an end to this and as soon as possible. This is in no way different than fighting against a nuclear-power facility or a multinational that endangers the lives of many and that of the future generations, except maybe in its pressing urgency.
Much of the European Left´s counterargument against the revolution was demanding proof from the Syrians on their worthiness of support, asking them to demonstrate that they are "revolutionary enough". Maybe it was never put so bluntly, but that is the essence of it. It was never enough that there are people dying, and that there are thousands in detention camps; it was never enough that the population is being forced into murderous exodus or being deprived of basic needs. The European Left wanted its "revolutionaries". They continuously negated the presence of any substantial forces fighting the regime and posing an option other than religious fundamentalism.
Now news is hitting international fronts on Syrian activists kidnapped by Islamist forces. There is no more hiding of the division between the Islamist militias and the revolutionary groups in the anti-Assad camp. This division made it crystal clear that there are voices who are fighting both, that there are people who are a threat to Assad and to the Islamists. The threats-turned-attacks of the Islamists against many activists within the anti-Assad camp undermines the oversimplified binary of Assad vs. Islamists. The "third option" paid for the spotlight dearly, with threats to their lives. The voices from local committees and grassroots networks denouncing both the Assad regime and the Islamists trying to hijack the revolution intensified in the recent period. It is now much harder to ignore and marginalize them, let alone claim they don´t exist and that it is only Al-Qaeda militias in the horizon.
They have names and their photos are circulating the Internet, activists who are either detained/kidnapped by the regime or by the Islamists. The press releases and communiques of grassroots organizations concerning these detentions/kidnappings, and the violations of both the regime and the Islamists are available, and are either translated or awaiting translation (hint hint). The European Left is as always invited to email these networks and communicate with them. It is a chance to get to know them, to hear their stories, and to listen to what they have to say… then decide! Once again, it is not the duty nor the obligation of the Syrians to explain themselves to the world. They have enough on their hands to deal with, they are leading a double-revolution. A revolution against the Assad regime, and a revolution against the Islamists attempting to take over. A revolution to overthrow a regime, and a revolution to fight another repressive regime in the make. A double revolution with all what it entails of fighting sieges, lack of basic needs, its injured, its refugees, bombs, armed militias, detentions, torture, kidnappings, lack of freedom of movement, crackdown on freedoms in both the regime areas and the Islamist-controlled ones, desperation.. etc. Individuals who don´t only have to worry about what is happening in Syria and their own lives but carry the weight of what is happening to Syrian refugees all over. The Syrian people are not only being killed in Syria! They are being devastated, sometimes to death, in Jordan and in Egypt, hunted down in Lebanon, drowning at the shores of Italy and Greece, and suffering at the Moroccan borders with the Spanish State.
Here is your proof, signed with detention reports and kidnapping news. Here is the list of names for your revolutionary talent show. Here are your revolutionaries denouncing and criticizing both Assad and the religious fundamentalists. Here are the people who you claimed over and over do not exist, the attacks they are now suffering took them into a whole new level of attention. You can no longer hide in your weakness claiming there is no one to talk to and no one to work with. Not that this lame excuse ever stood ground! Even if this was not a revolution, even if this was "just a civil war", there is still much to do. Even if this was "just a Syrian issue", something "for them to work out", there is still much to do. Syrians are at the borders of Europe. Syrians are dragging their injured and waiting with bleeding bodies at the borders of Europe. The last phrase is not an attempt at a poetic sentence. It is the crude and graphic reality! Syrian families are with their injured awaiting access into Europe with literally open and bleeding wounds that require urgent medical attention. Syrians are freezing to death in refugee camps, while international relief agencies organize endless conferences, and while governments make one useless PR maneuver after the other. This is not a "Syrian issue", this is Fortress Europe and the dominant North at its best. This is no longer about Syria only, this is about the system we repeatedly claim to fight.
There is so much to be done. And it is not charity we are talking about, nor the corrupting relief mentality. It is radical and revolutionary work that is needed. It is stepping out of the narrow Eurocentric vision of semantics into political action. It is not only Assad and the Islamists who are killing the Syrian people, it is international systems like the EU border regime and the international relief mafias to name but a few. This is not about Syria, and this is not "just a faraway civil war". They are dying right here, on EU borders, and they are in EU immigrant detention camps. If it is not for Syria, and out of belief in the Syrian revolution, or even in the right for every people, wether they meet our shades of color or not, to rebel, it should be out of coherence with our political beliefs. Our fight on the EU front is needed. This is a people who has risen against a brutal dictatorship, only to see that they have a whole world to overcome. A world of international meddling, whether in the form of Islamist militias, or international relief, or leftist patronization. A world of closed borders and complicit governments that once again put their profit over life. A world of apathy. This is what the Syrians and the Palestinians in Syria are facing. Questions that are not only related to Syria, but related to international and intertwined local struggles.
Today it is harder than ever for the European Left to claim that the anti-Assad camp is void of people who fit the Eurocentric and classist definition of people worthy of solidarity. They are there, and there names and faces are all over the place. It is also hard to deny that there is a force seen as a threat by both Assad and the Islamists. It also became hard to push Syria into faraway geographic oblivion since Syria is now right here drowning at EU borders. What is left to see is how the European Left will react now that it has less and less excuses to justify its revolutionary impotence not just on Syria, but on its own fronts that are also implicated in the Syrian question.


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There's an interesting post over at Dimitri Rotov's Civil War Bookshelf. Its main concern is the state of Civil War historiography, but it also raises some interesting questions about the role of narrative in historical writing.
Narrative history is one of those loaded terms. When I was in graduate school, one of my professors (who is a first-rate scholar) had recently put out a successful book with a commercial publisher. One day in class, the subject of "literary" history came up. The professor made some wry remark about having "gone over to the Dark Side." He wasn't talking about writing a popular book. He was referring to its narrative format.
Part of me gets this dichotomy between narrative and analysis. I completely agree that the historian's reason for being is to understand the past and then to convey what he's found. The historian is not first and foremost a storyteller—although if he tells a good yarn in the process, then so much the better. Few things irritate me more than reading Amazon.com reviews in which the reader says he loved a history book because "it was just like reading a novel," or because he "got so caught up in the story." And I'm fully aware that a narrative framework imposes certain limitations on the historian, as does any other framework.
Still, I think we tend to draw too stark a distinction in terms of quality and seriousness between narrative history and whatever else it is that narrative history isn't. Most narrative history, if it's written by any scholar worth his salt, will almost inevitably analyze and explain as well as relate the course of events.
I'd submit that every narrative historian, to one degree or another, will use the technique that David Hackett Fischer—whose body of work I admire as much as that of any living historian—calls "braided narrative." In two outstanding books, Paul Revere's Ride and Washington's Crossing, Fischer unashamedly employs a chronological approach, while interweaving analysis throughout. The narrative and analysis work hand-in-hand to relate the events in question as completely as possible. It's an extremely effective approach, but I think the main difference between Fischer and other writers of narrative is that he's more explicit about employing it, and employs it more extensively. Any writer of history who uses a narrative framework will have to weave in some analysis to one degree or another, simply because you can't really explain anything without doing it.
Actually, it's worth asking when a given historical work becomes narrative history. Is it when chronology is the main organizational technique? That raises some problems. Edmund S. Morgan's American Slavery, American Freedom is generally chronological, but I don't think anyone would call it a narrative. Technically it tells a story—the story of colonial Virginia's plantation labor system and its impact on notions of liberty and race—but within that general chronological framework, it's thick with analysis.
Does a historical work become narrative when it relates a discrete sequence of events, following principles of time and location? This, too, is somewhat problematic. The author of even the most straightforward campaign study or account of a particular event (or series of events) will periodically stop his account for exposition or to summarize a conclusion. Indeed, when John Demos wrote The Unredeemed Captive, his primary motive, as he says, was to "tell a story," and that's exactly what he did. But major portions of the book are pure analysis and exposition. Demos uses the story as a means to dissect colonial family life, Indian culture, French missions, and so on. The book is as much an examination of the three-way relationship between English, French, and Indians in early America as it is a relation of the story of its main characters.
In fact, the history books that seem to me to be closest to pure narrative are the volumes in Allan Eckert's "Winning of America" series. And they contain so much imaginative reconstruction that tthey seem to me to be more non-fiction novels than historical works, so even here the designation "narrative history" is questionable.
I don't think writing narrative is tantamount to going over to the dark side. The only dark side in historical writing is doing bad history. There's definitely plenty of bad narrative history out there, just as there's plenty of mediocre analytical history. What separates good historical scholarship from bad is the quality of the questions asked and answers provided.


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Word of the Day, Web Site of the Day and Number to Know.
Word of the Day
Macrobiotic mak-roh-bahy-OT-ik (adj.) Of or having to do with macrobiotics, a dietary system derived from Zen Buddhism and purported to prolong life -- www.dictionary.com
Web Site of the Day
Times Square New Year's Eve
Millions of people all over the world watch the famous Times Square ball descend at the countdown to midnight, and on this Web site, you can find all kinds of information about the festivities: history, fun facts and more. If you're planning to go to Times Square, the site will give you all the information you need.
Number to Know
1904: Year in which New Year's Eve was first celebrated in New York's Times Square.


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A symposium on Atmospheric Turbulence and Boundary Layers was held June 24-25, 2010 in honor of Dr. John C. Wyngaard, who recently retired from the teaching faculty in the Department of Meteorology at The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Wyngaard had a distinguished teaching and research career at Penn State and is a world-renowned leader in the field of atmospheric turbulence.
New book, "Turbulence in the Atmosphere," by John C. Wyngaard
Product Description: Based on his 40+ years of research and teaching, John Wyngaard's textbook is an excellent up-to-date introduction to turbulence in the atmosphere and in engineering flows for advanced students, and a reference work for researchers in the atmospheric sciences. Part I introduces the concepts and equations of turbulence. It includes a rigorous introduction to the principal types of numerical modeling of turbulent flows. Part II describes turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer. Part III covers the foundations of the statistical representation of turbulence and includes illustrative examples of stochastic problems that can be solved analytically. The book treats atmospheric and engineering turbulence in a unified way, gives clear explanation of the fundamental concepts of modeling turbulence, and has an up-to-date treatment of turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer. Student exercises are included at the ends of chapters, and worked solutions are available online for use by course instructors.
Available for Order: This title has recently been released and you may order it from Amazon.com for $75.00
Large-Eddy Simulation: Guidelines for its application to planetary boundary layer research
August 1984
Report available upon request.
Prepared by the Working Group on Large Eddy Simulation (John C. Wyngaard, Walter D. Bach, Jr., Stephen Burk, William R. Cotton, Joel H. Ferziger, Steven R. Hanna, Parviz Moin, William Ohmstede, Jeffrey C. Weil), Edited by John C. Wyngaard.


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
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I don't know timezones ok? xD
Quote from: Vitoko on November 17, 2013, 06:30:23 PMI don't know timezones ok? xDMaybe this will help: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ I'm in Austin TX, TAR will start for me in about 5 minutes.
Hope there is one today. I would not resist, looking for spoilers if not seeing it live.Happy Finale day everyone
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A QR code (abbreviated from Quick Response code) is a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability.
The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. This is the QR code which, if you scan it with your smart phone, should take you straight to my CUMPSTON research website. Many thanks to John Greenwood from the Guild of One Name Studies for helping me design it. Here comes another:
Related articles
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- Why and How to Use QR Codes in Healthcare (managemypractice.com)
- QR Codes: Unlock The Hidden Potential (letsgetdealstoday.wordpress.com)


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What's more hipster than a two-piece rock band with a white male singer on drums and a cute Asian girl on guitar? Hmmm…let me calculate this on my ironic Casio calculator watch (matches the Urkel glasses). Well, I guess a cute Asian girl on drums/singing and an owl playing bass would trump that.
Enter PAIRS, the duo of outspoken scene stalwart Rhys, an Aussie cunt, and F, a nice girl from Shanghai who can [kind of] play the guitar. Together they make some loud rock music with lots of banging and screaming a la Animal from The Muppets. Refreshingly, they're better appreciated live. This weekend they join the ranks of I-released-a-vinyl-in-2012 with their double-LP "If This Cockroach Doesn't Die, I Will," on Metal Postcard records and produced by my good friends and neighbors The Acid Pony Club.
Perhaps more importantly than their music, PAIRS vis-a-vis Rhys have unquestionably helped build the music scene in SH. Rhys is one of the few Western promoters in China who markets to the local crowd. [Also the only person who came to the Love Bang pool party in jeans]. But really, dude has sweated to build something in our city, e.g. throwing a secret show in a far-away place with no profit-incentive, promoted exclusively in Chinese on Douban and other websites, conducting and posting countless multi-hour interviews with peeps in the scene (inc. yrs truly), putting lots of local bands on all his bills, and adopting weibo earlier than most laowai.
He's got a militant approach to everything he does, come across as..intense in interviews (but as my friend pointed out, also has the inquisitiveness of a young Charlie Rose), and doesn't hesitate to talk shit when called for. Opinions of the man may be divisive, but scenes need peeps like this to grow.
So if you're somewhere in China this weekend, go support, because they've probably been supporting harder than you. No DL on this, go buy the album. If you don't have a record player, holler at Uptown.


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The iPhone can't do 3D—that might be a great thing!—but it's reality. Hasbro's got a workaround—strapping your phone to a pair of big plastic goggles that convert an on-screen double image into a stereoscopic effect. It's surprisingly fun!
As a piece of hardwareThe MY3D (out now, exclusively at Target, until summer), isn't really much of a thing. Like I said, it's a pair of plastic goggles with lenses for the 3D conversion. It feels like a toy. It is a toy. But it's only $35—which is pretty cheap! And, most importantly, the apps are free (for now).
Games and virtual tours are where it shines. Using the iPhone's gyroscope, the MY3D's little display will move along with you, providing a neat virtual window effect. Sometimes it's pretty fun—like Sector 17, a sort-of-generic shooter I tried out, which let you swing your head around to swivel a laser turret (great design move—little holes for your thumbs made tap-shooting a breeze). I was lucky enough to be in an office chair so that I could spin around like a dizzy idiot, but if you're at home, Hasbro told me there is a "couch mode" which lets you nudge your field of view around by leaning, rather than 1:1 motion that requires actually moving around.
The game itself was decent—though it mostly made me think how much better a Star Wars version would be—but the novelty didn't wear off after five minutes which is a great sign. An aquatic sim I tried out wasn't quite as fun, but hey, that's on the devs. And, wisely, Hasbro's releasing an SDK this month. Will anyone actually use the SDK? Who knows. It'd be great to see someone take advantage of the phone's other features—combining the camera, GPS, and 3D into augmented reality supergoggles could be a lot of fun. If dev support doesn't materialize, it might be hard to justify the $35, but if even a few quality MY3D-compatible titles pop up, it's be an easy enough gimmick to spring for. [Hasbro]


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By NELSON D. SCHWARTZ - New York Times
As Europe struggles with its debt crisis, American businesses and financial firms are swooping in amid the distress, making loans and snapping up assets owned by banks there — from the mortgage on a luxury hotel in Miami Beach to the tallest office building in Dublin.
The sales are being spurred on because European banks are scrambling to raise capital and shrink their balance sheets, often under orders from regulators. European financial institutions will unload up to $3 trillion in assets over the next 18 months, according to an estimate from Huw van Steenis, an analyst with Morgan Stanley.
This month a team of three bankers from the London office of the buyout giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts headed to Greece to examine a promising private company that cannot get Greek banks to provide credit for future growth. The Blackstone Group agreed to buy from the German financial giant Commerzbank $300 million in real estate loans that are backed by properties, including the Mondrian South Beach hotel in Florida and four Sofitel hotels in Chicago, Miami, Minneapolis and San Francisco. Commerzbank is under pressure from regulators to raise 5.3 billion euros ($6.9 billion) in new capital by mid-2012.
Google too saw an opportunity. It bought the Montevetro building in Dublin this year from Ireland's National Asset Management Agency, which acquired it after a huge bank rescue by the Irish government.
"There is clearly a restructuring and shrinking of European financial institutions," said Timothy J. Sloan, chief financial officer of Wells Fargo, which last month acquired $3.3 billion in real estate loans from a bank in Ireland. "And many of the assets they're shedding are in the United States."
He added, "We're keeping our eyes and ears open for the right situations."
American financial firms are taking the plunge in a troubled Europe despite problems of their own. In the last quarter, JPMorgan Chase, which has taken hits to its earnings, increased its total loans to European borrowers.
At Kohlberg Kravis, Nathaniel M. Zilkha, co-head of the special situations group, is expanding his London team to eight, from two, and hoping to take advantage of opportunities in Europe. The firm is even considering potential investments in the country where the crisis began, Greece, despite headlines warning of a default by Athens or the possibility that Greece may withdraw from the euro zone.
"If no one is willing to turn over the rocks, that's when you can make extraordinary investments," Mr. Zilkha said. "The market dislocation in Greece is creating significant opportunities that wouldn't be otherwise available."
Besides Greece, Kohlberg Kravis bankers have also been looking for deals in Spain and Portugal, where private companies are having a similarly hard time winning new credit or extending existing loans.
Ireland, whose banks were devastated by the collapse of a real estate bubble rivaling the one in the United States, also has deep-pocketed American buyers like Google circling.
But in many cases, the assets are much closer to home.
Last month, Wells Fargo bought the $3.3 billion in real estate loans, which are backed by commercial properties in the United States, that had been owned by the former Anglo Irish Bank. Wells has also bought $2.4 billion in loans and other assets from the private Bank of Ireland, which is trying to raise 10 billion euros ($13 billion) after a bailout by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
Even with opposition from consumer advocates, Capital One Financial could soon win final approval from the Federal Reserve for its $9 billion acquisition of ING Direct in the United States, one of the year's biggest banking deals. Based in the Netherlands, ING has been forced by European authorities to divest ING Direct, an online bank, after ING required a $14 billion bailout following the 2008 financial crisis.
Experts expect these kinds of sales to jump as European banks race to meet the June deadline imposed by the European Banking Authority to raise more than 114 billion euros in fresh capital. Financial institutions also have to increase their Tier 1 capital ratio — the strictest yardstick of a bank's ability to absorb financial blows — to 9 percent of assets.
Banks get a twofold benefit from unloading assets like real estate loans and other holdings; not only do they have more cash, but there are fewer assets they must hold capital against in case of losses, thereby quickly bolstering Tier 1 levels.
Investing in Europe is not without risk; a big bet on European sovereign debt helped bring down MF Global, which went bankrupt on Oct. 31.
And even as they jump into the new deals, some American banks must deal with their own woes, especially the overhang of soured mortgages from the subprime bubble and bust in the United States. Bank of America, for example, has raised billions recently by selling stakes in banks in Brazil and China.
At the same time, even the strongest banks, like Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase, are suffering significant earnings hits from weak demand for loans, moribund capital markets and new regulations that cut deeply into lucrative fees on debit cards and other products.
But American institutions remain stronger than their European counterparts, said Christopher Kotowski, an analyst with Oppenheimer.
"Everyone is going to be cutting staff and shrinking capital commitments but the Europeans are doing it more," Mr. Kotowski said. In large part, that's because earlier in the United States financial crisis, Washington forced American banks to take huge write-downs, while raising tens of billions in fresh capital and halting dividends to conserve cash. European banks have been much slower to take those steps.
Besides buying assets from struggling overseas rivals, Mr. Kotowski predicts that firms like JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs will capture more trading business on Wall Street, especially as French banks like Société Générale and Crédit Agricole and other European institutions pull back.
French banks, in particular, have been heavily dependent on American money-market funds to obtain financing in dollars. With many of these funds now pulling back from those loans, French firms are shrinking. This month, Crédit Agricole said it would exit the commodity trading business, while Société Générale said it was getting out of physical gas and power trading in North America.
Inside his firm, Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group, recently cited the $3 trillion estimate of how much European banks will have to unload, and this summer he told investors that Europe was back on Blackstone's radar after being absent for several years.
"As people become increasingly negative on the environment there, we think we are buying good companies at very good values," he said.
- Added by Mark Zilbert, Zilbert Realty Group - http://www.zilbert.com


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Snugly ensconced on a scenic promontory and featuring a resort-like ambiance, the craftsman-style Homestead is a community commons where neighbors gather to relax and share the latest news around an Olympic-size, six-lane swimming pool and an interactive water park.
Panoramic Front Range views highlight Samuel's Point a picnic and barbeque plaza reached by a trail through Homestead Park. The Samuel's Point trail connects with a miles-long community network that help make Tallyn's Reach a walker's paradise.
Among the many additional amenities that continue to draw single professionals, growing families, empty nesters, and others seeking an active and enriching lifestyle to Tallyn's Reach are its library and tennis courts together with a new YMCA set amidst a lovely park.
Distinctive neighborhoods featuring full-custom homes, luxury single-family homes, patio homes, and townhomes are buffered from one another by greenbelts and parkways that follow the undulating hillsides and native waterways.
Rural flair notwithstanding, Tallyn's Reach is by no means isolated. Situated near the Smoky Hill Road and E-470 interchange, Tallyn's is close to Cherokee Trail High School and Southlands Mall, a "Town-Center" style shopping district loaded with stores, eateries, and theaters.
Also within the greater Tallyn's Reach area are Saddle Rock Golf Course, Heritage Eagle Bend Golf Course, and Grandview High. Both area high schools, as well as the community's new elementary school, belong to the Cherry Creek School District, which consistently ranks among the very best in the nation.
A short 15-minute drive brings residents to Park Meadows Mall and Centennial's general aviation airport, while DIA can be reached in under 25 minutes.


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Our Master of Wine, James Davis has carefully selected our temporary wine range. Ensuring all your wine needs are covered for the next couple of weeks, from our delicious Prosecco to our fruity Malbec. The wines in the range will be available in 6 bottles cases, perfect for replenishing your wine rack. Explore James' top picks here. Please be aware that you if you'd like to mix your own case, there must be a minimum of 6 bottles of wine to checkout.
Order Merlot, Terroir Tradition, IGP, France online from Adn
Order Merlot, Terroir Tradition, IGP, France onlin
Six bottles of grown-up and savoury red


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No matter what it's called -- Olimpico? -- Marco Pappa's goal directly from a corner kick in the Chicago Fire's 2-1 loss to Seattle last week can now be called an AT&T Goal of the Week winner.
Pappa, whose strike came late in the second half when the Fire were already down by two goals, edged out New York's Thierry Henry's lovely chip for the weekly honor.
He is the first Fire player to win Goal of the Week honors since Week 7 of the 2010 season, when a long blast from Logan Pause won it.
- Marco Pappa (CHI) 29.52%
- Thierry Henry (NY) 23.39%
- Tony Cascio (COL) 17.06%
- Eric Avila (TOR) 16.52%
- Y.P. Lee (VAN) 13.51%


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Finding the right type of e-liquid when you are starting out can be a real minefield. We have listed the top eliquids that you should consider in your early days of vaping. In truth, these starter eliquids will probably keep you going until you finally kick the nicotine habit for good as they are so popular.
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Riot Black Edition Salts | Ultra Peach Tea | 10ml Ultra Peach Tea from Riot Squad Eliquids, Black Edition Salts is now available in the nicotine sa...View full details
Anarchist Salts Pink 10ml Pink from Anarchist Eliquids is now available in the nicotine salts e-liquid version. Available in two variants, these wo...View full details
As a business that was founded by someone who quit smoking using e-cigs, it's part of our DNA that we understand what makes a great beginner vape juice. We believe that they should be able to be used on ANY vape or ecig device, they should taste clean and come in a range of nicotine strengths that you could stick with from high to low. Often there are vape juices that are only made in zero or one strength. We get that many vapers don't like change of their flavours, so we have only listed those eliquids we think are great for quitting smoking with.
Where we talk about new vaper e-liquids, we are talking the types of eliquids that are a little runnier and can offer a bigger nicotine hit. There is no use jumping straight in with a big flashy vape kit, and a load of money wasted on eliquids that neither hit the spot, or the best vape mod that's just a bit too much tech for you. We think you should start simple, including with simpler ejuice. The best part of that, is as you change up to more premium eliquids, you will be blown away! Check out these selected starter eliquids today and if you have any questions, chat to us on our live webchat or in store.


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Set your TiVos. The XIII World Athletics Championships will be held next week in Daegu, South Korea from August 27th to September 4th. Cuba has announced its sporno-tastic and testosterone heavy roster will be lead by R20 faves and Olympic medalists Leonel Suarez and Dayron Robles, according to Radio Havana and Guantanamo TV.
Along Suarez, his teammate Yordanis Garcia, javelin and runner-up in the previous event Guillermo Martínez, Victor Moya in high jump, Carlos Veliz, Misleydis Gonzalez and Mailin Vargas in shot put, Yipsi Moreno in hammer, and Yanet Cruz in javelin will also depart this week to the Korean appointment. Yoandri Betanzos ....among others, complete the official roster.
Guillermo Martínez is seen above at the 2009 Worlds in Berlin—where he famously performed a few backflips after winning silver in the javelin.
Dayron Robles won gold in the 110m hurdles at the Beijing Olympics. Robles' Olympic-sized bulge became quite the conversation topic across the internets. More recently: Robles beat hurdles super hotness David Oliver on August 5 in London. Robles, Oliver and China's Liu Xiang are expected to fight it out for the gold in Daegu.


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After the congressional supercommittee failed to find common ground for budget cuts, Fitch Ratings, the last agency to rate the U.S. outlook as stable, downgraded it on Monday to negative.
The U.S. still retains its triple-A credit rating from Fitch, although the agency cited "declining confidence that timely fiscal measures necessary to place U.S. public finances on a sustainable path will be forthcoming" as its reason for the change in outlook. The change, according to the agency, makes the probability of a downgrade higher than 50% within the next two years.
Bloomberg reported that David Riley, Fitch's head of sovereign ratings in London, called the supercommittee's failure "a missed opportunity," adding, "The scale of any subsequent budget cuts are probably going to have to be larger than they otherwise would have been and certainly implemented in a faster manner."
The company also said that a congressional failure to agree on a "credible deficit reduction plan" combined with a "worsening" economic and fiscal outlook would probably end up with the U.S. losing its triple-A ranking. It added, "Further deficit reduction will not be credible if it relies solely on further cuts in discretionary spending rather than reform to entitlements and taxation."
Colleen Murray, a Treasury Department spokeswoman in Washington, said in the report, "Fitch's action is a reminder of the need for Congress to reduce the country's long-term deficit in a balanced manner and to avoid efforts that would undo the $1.2 trillion in automatic cuts negotiated last summer."
Riley said the reason Fitch retained the U.S.'s triple-A rating is due to the dollars role as a reserve currency. "That does provide a tremendous amount of financial flexibility for the U.S.," he said, continuing, "We're waiting for a plan to be presented. Our expectations are that we won't get substantial fiscal reform this side of congressional and presidential elections."
Standard & Poor's already dropped the U.S.'s rating on Aug. 5 after Congress brought the country to the brink of default in a budget standoff. However, the ratings agency made a $2 trillion error in its evaluation, which caused both President Barack Obama and Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett to criticize S&P; the latter said the U.S. should have been upgraded to "quadruple-A."


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Ahead of the release of their much-anticipated debut album Partie Traumatic on July 7, DiS grabbed five minutes on the phone with hyped Florida five-piece Black Kids' Kevin Snow.
Video: 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You'
- - -
What's it been like, being in the middle of a storm of hype you're not really responsible for, and that you can't control?
Y'know, it's kinda… We just sort of focus on what we're doing.
Right. So did the buzz at the turn of the year come as a surprise?
The thing was that we only had four songs [out at the time, the Wizard Of Ahhhs EP], and when we've been playing these shows they're the ones people know. It's great to get these new songs out there, to show people exactly what we're about. We feel like there's a lot of diversity on the record, and we'd like people to hear that for themselves.
And what made you want to record the album in England, with Bernard Butler?
It wasn't our initial idea to record in England; the idea was presented to us by a third party. We're fans of Bernard Butler's work with The Libertines ('Don't Look Back Into The Sun' – Ed), and Reggie [Youngblood, vocalist] and I were big Suede fans. He knew right away what we were trying to do, and it made perfect sense.
He's quite the reputation for making these grand-sounding songs – is his influence evident on the album?
All the song structures were there before we went into the studio, and the actual process allowed us to add a bit of what our influences are sonically without full-on mimicking them. It allowed our sound to come through. We recorded the singles in December (see the videos – Ed) and the rest of the album in February and March.
"We set out to make a classic album, and we feel we've accomplished that"
- - -
And now the finished product's in your hands, how do you feel?
Well, we set out to make a classic album, and we feel we've accomplished that. And hopefully it's the first of many. We feel that we've accomplished our goals with this record. But we imagine there will be people who despise it.
Despise it? Probably not, although there will always be critics. Speaking of which, how will you ride out the inevitable backlash that'll crawl from some quarters?
I think we've already gone through that cycle – someone coined the term 'frontlash' for it. In the last six months we've been through everything, from the hype to the backlash. We can understand the backlash – when we've friends into new bands, we think they're probably going to be shit! We understand where these people are coming from.
Is any of this scepticism because of the rapid nature of your rise to prominence?
Sure, people can look at the success and ask questions, and have a certain perception of us. But that's a bit frustrating – we're not teenagers who just picked up guitars and bashed out an album. Reggie and I have been in bands for ten years, doing shitty tours. We've had 20-hour drives to shows where we're met by an audience of three people. I know it doesn't sound like we've been playing music for that long! But we've certainly been trying.
Video: 'Hurricane Jane' (released June 23)
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Partie Traumatic will be reviewed on DiS in the coming days. Find Black Kids on MySpace here and see them live as follows:
18 London ULU
28 Glastonbury Festival
29 Oxford Wakestock Festival
2 Nottingham Rescue Rooms
3 Leeds Cockpit
4 London Wireless Festival
5 Liverpool Barfly
10 Brighton Concorde 2
11 Canterbury Lounge on the Farm Festival
12 Naas, Ireland Oxegen Festival
18 Southwold Latitude Festival
19 Dorset Camp Bestival
20 Newcastle Academy
21 Bristol Thekla
23 Reading Festival
24 Leeds Festival
25 Buckingham Last Days Of Summer Festival
31 Jersey Jersey Live Festival
5 Isle Of Wight Bestival


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Feb 22, 2008: Skate On Xbox With JessyPaul Romein - Canon Powershot Sd1000
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Saving energy starts at home
HANCOCK Each month, local SEMCO ENERGY Gas Company customers pay a very small fee on their utility bills to support state-sponsored energy conservation and efficiency programs.
Local energy legend Dave Camps, owner of Blue Terra Energy in Hancock, works with Efficiency United to bring these programs directly to customers, saving them money while also helping the environment.
Blue Terra Energy is currently conducting free furnace and boiler tune-ups for local natural gas utility customers. Residents must be Semco customers to qualify for the tune-up, typically priced at $100. Tune-ups ensure heating systems are running cleanly and efficiently, saving residents money and reducing health and safety risks.
"There are no out-of-pocket costs for customers who call to schedule their tune-up," Camps said. "This program is covered by the small "Energy Optimization" charge they're already paying on their monthly Semco bill."
Blue Terra Energy's team of certified technicians perform the free furnace and boiler tune-ups promptly and professionally. They inspect each unit to ensure it's operating safely and efficiently. "Safety is always our number one concern when performing inspections. Identifying inefficiencies and helping customers save money on their monthly utility bills is definitely an added bonus," Camps said.
Checking carbon monoxide levels in residents' homes as well as the heating appliance system is included in the appointment. If unsafe levels of carbon monoxide are detected during an inspection, Camps said they may either condemn the furnace or ask residents to evacuate their home, depending on how high the levels are. Homeowners who do not have carbon monoxide detectors in their home will be provided one free of charge. Technicians also provide education on the dangers of carbon monoxide.
Customers who do not have a programmable thermostat or a carbon monoxide detector can have one of each installed free of charge, a $100 value.
Programmable thermostats are a convenient and effective tool for increasing efficiency. Features allow residents to program temperature settings in advance, increasing or decreasing heat while at home or at work. Lowering the temperature a few hours each day offers significant savings on monthly utility bills.
"The programmable clock and thermostat allows you to set the time and temperature around your schedule. Say you get up at 5 a.m. You can set it so your furnace kicks in at 4, that way your home is warm when you get up," Camps explained. "The same goes for at night. So, you can see the advantage and cost savings."
Local Semco customers who did not receive a free tune-up from Blue Terra Energy in 2013 are eligible for this program. Call (906) 487-5342 to schedule an appointment.
To learn more about free furnace and boiler tune-ups or to find out about other services provided by Blue Terra Energy, visit blueterraenergy.com.
Editor's note: This feature is part of a paid advertising package purchased by Blue Terra Energy. Businesses interested in being featured on the Business page may call Yvonne Robillard at 483-2220.


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I think you're going to like this one:) Today's interview features Molly Jaffa of Folio Literary Management. Enjoy!
KV: How did you get into agenting?
MJ: Ever since I was very young, my ideal day has consisted of setting up camp at a local bookstore. I've always loved to spend hours wedged between aisles, searching for "the one"--the next book that will reach out and grab my attention so much that I'm compelled to read the whole thing in one sitting.
In many ways, agenting is just like that, so it seemed like a natural career choice for me. I started out at Folio assisting the fabulous Jeff Kleinman, reading and working on manuscripts and proposals, and I absolutely fell head over heels in love with the job. I started taking on more responsibilities at the agency, becoming our Foreign Rights Assistant and then the Subsidiary Rights Associate, which means I handle things like audio book rights. I recently started taking on my own projects, and I'm helping to start our new Folio Junior division, an exciting new part of the agency dedicated solely to nurturing, developing, and selling children's and YA titles.
KV: How would you summarize your personal agenting philosophy? What do you expect from an agent-author relationship?
MJ: I am my authors' biggest advocate and their number one fan. I won't take on a manuscript unless I find myself so excited about it that I'm eating, sleeping, and breathing that author's work. Having that kind of passion for a book makes the agent-author relationship a really enjoyable, highly productive one.
I'm definitely an editorial agent, and will typically go through a manuscript multiple times before sending it out on submission. I want to get inside the characters' heads, to get to know them as intimately as possible, so that the author and I can work as a team to make the manuscript the best it can be. I'll do line-edits and bring up thinking points for the author and me to consider together. I'm all about open, honest communication, and I have a policy of complete transparency with my clients. For me, the agent-author relationship isn't a one-book thing--I see myself as a facilitator, supporter, and idea-bouncer in a career-long partnership. I want to help my clients achieve their writing goals and dreams.
KV: What client work do you have coming out soon? What drew you to those writers and/or projects?
MJ: I'm just starting to build my list, and while I do have a few things in the pipeline, I'm signing clients very selectively. Right now I'm working on an upper-MG literary science fiction book by a debut author whose work I couldn't be more thrilled about. The protagonist's voice leapt off the page and straight into my head from the very beginning. I wanted to get to know her; to hang out with her. I couldn't have put that book down if I tried. The author's world-building is so gorgeously complete and fully realized, but it's never done at the expense of the characters. The book strikes that perfect balance between compelling plot and strong character development, which isn't easy to achieve.
KV: What genres do you represent? What genres do you definitely NOT represent?
MJ: I represent mainly middle grade and YA fiction, especially works with literary voices that challenge the reader to explore new ideas and modes of thinking. I love books set in another time or place, magical realism, multicultural fiction, "edgy" YA, verse novels, and almost anything that will make readers feel that the narrator understands them and what they're going through.
I don't represent picture books, "boy" books (no bathroom humor, etc.), or paranormal fantasy.
KV: You're interested in magical realism but not paranormal fantasy. I've always wondered what the difference is. How do you define them?
MJ: Good question! For me, the difference is this--magical realism is a style of writing that's often highly lyrical, fantastical, and literary in tone. Writers like Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende (who are two of my favorite authors!) really epitomize the idea of magical realism in their works.
Paranormal fantasy, on the other hand, is typically a more commercial genre, and will feature characters who are vampires, werewolves, zombies, or something else that goes "bump" in the night. One genre isn't better or more saleable than the other--it just comes down to a personal preference for me.
KV: What query pet peeves and/or pitfalls should writers avoid when querying you?
MJ: I request that authors please follow the clear submission guidelines I've laid out on my Folio page (www.foliolit.com/s-molly.php). I'd also really like to encourage writers to be specific in their queries. Don't just tell me that you've written a book about love overcoming all odds and triumphing in the face of evil. You're leaving me with a lot of unanswered questions (What kind of love? Who's in love and why? What are "the odds"?) and not in a good way. You've got to tell me exactly what's at stake for me (and your readership!) to be emotionally invested in the book's outcome. I think that oftentimes, the more we try to "universalize" a book by putting it into broad thematic categories, the less relatable it becomes to readers.
KV: What are you looking for in a manuscript right now?
MJ: Send me something that leaps right into the story without too much exposition--middle grade and YA readers are unbelievably smart and savvy, and they don't need all that explained to them. I love to see manuscripts that are honest in their portrayal of children, teens, and the very real issues they face. And above all, I'd love to see something fresh. Give me a manuscript that was written not to fit a trend or popular genre, but because the story was so darn compelling that you had to share it with someone. If you feel that way, there's a good chance I'll want to share it with someone, too.
KV: What's the best way to query you?
MJ: I only accept e-mailed queries, and I'll always respond within two weeks--though I usually respond much, much more quickly.
Thanks again, Ms. Jaffa, for this. So much of it really resonated with me--and it probably resonates with a lot of you readers, too. Be sure to send her a query, then, just as soon as you check out the submission guidelines she mentioned above.
Have a wonderful Thursday, everyone! I'll be out of town until sometime next week, so I may not see all of your comments right away, but I'd still love to hear from you. And I'm sure Ms. Jaffa would, too:)


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Press Releases
Carl's Jr. to Award $60,000 in Scholarships
Jan 3, 2006
Applications Now Available for 2006 La Estrella Latina de Carl's Jr. Scholarship Program
CARPINTERIA, Calif. - January 3 - Carl's Jr. is pleased to announce that applications for the 2006 La Estrella Latina de Carl's Jr. Scholarship Program are now available at participating Carl's Jr. restaurants. The application deadline is Feb. 1, 2006.
Sixty scholarships in the amount of $1,000 each will be awarded to deserving students to help support continuing education. Winners will be selected based on their academic record, school and community leadership and participation, work experience and future goals. Financial need and other family circumstances will also be considered.
Applicants to the La Estrella Latina de Carl's Jr. Scholarship Program must be students 21 years of age or under who are high school seniors or graduates. Eligible applicants must be planning to enroll for the first time in a full-time undergraduate course of study at an accredited two- or four-year college, university or vocational school. Applicants must be residents of Arizona, California, Oklahoma, Nevada or Texas. In addition to the application, students must submit an essay describing how they have been "A Star" in their community.
In its eighth year, the La Estrella Latina de Carl's Jr. Scholarship Program has granted $264,000 in scholarships since the program's inception in 1999. Last year, more than 5,000 applications were received from candidates nationwide.
More information about the scholarship application process may be obtained from Cheryl Beamer, at 805-745-7663 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
The La Estrella Latina de Carl's Jr. Scholarship Program is administered by Scholarship America, a national nonprofit educational support and student aid service organization. Employees, affiliates and franchisees of Carl Karcher Enterprises, Inc., Scholarship America, affiliated agencies and their immediate families are not eligible to receive a scholarship pursuant to this program.
Carl's Jr. is a wholly owned subsidiary of CKE Restaurants, Inc. (NYSE: CKR) of Carpinteria, Calif. As of the third fiscal quarter ended Nov. 7, 2005, CKE Restaurants, Inc., through its subsidiaries, had a total of 3,163 franchised or company-owned restaurants in 43 states and in 13 countries, including 1,042 Carl's Jr. restaurants, 2,004 Hardee's® restaurants and 101 La Salsa Fresh Mexican Grill® restaurants. For more information, or to find a Carl's Jr. near you, go to www.ckr.com or www.carlsjr.com.


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Item Details
Letter From Charles N. Tenney to Adelaide E. Case, 1861 Ocober 10
Tenney, Charles N.
- Format
- Online
- Creator
- Tenney, Charles N.
- Date
- 1861-10-10
- Collection
- The Corinne Carr Nettleton Civil War Collection
- Online Manuscripts
- Notes
- Source copy consulted: Manuscript letter, Corinne Carr Nettleton Civil War Collection, Department of Special Collections, Alderman Library, UVa.
- Copyright & PermissionsRights statements and licenses provide information about copyright and reuse associated with individual items in the collection.
Additional information about rights, reuse of Library materials, suggested citation forms, and related issues can be found on the "Permission to Use Library Materials" page.
- Copyright Not Evaluated
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Instructional Faculty Workload Policy
Excelsior College places a premium on recruiting, hiring, and retaining highly qualified instructional faculty to serve its students. Crucial to the College's mission is the need to appoint faculty who are dedicated to student success, who are knowledgeable and current in their fields, and who have the skills and talent to engage students in learning. To fulfill this mission, Excelsior depends on hundreds of adjunct faculty to deliver a large and growing number of graduate and undergraduate courses per year.
To manage this growth in a thoughtful and deliberate way, Excelsior places a necessary limit on the number of courses an adjunct faculty member may teach for the College within a calendar year. As it continues to grow, the College must carefully monitor and enforce the instructional faculty workload policy. There are compelling reasons for this:
- There are legitimate concerns that adjunct faculty may be taken advantage of if they are teaching an excess number of courses. Excelsior College joins the ranks of most colleges and universities across the country in placing a strict limit on its adjunct workload to prevent even the perception that it is taking advantage of its adjunct faculty.
- To ensure the academic quality of its courses, Excelsior must set reasonable limitations on the number of courses an adjunct faculty member may teach in a given term or year.
- Since Excelsior currently depends on nearly 100 percent of its courses being taught by adjunct faculty members, the College must demonstrate to outside accrediting bodies that its policy on adjunct course limitations is both reasonable and strictly enforced.
The maximum teaching load, based on 3-credit courses, for adjunct faculty is dependent on the course length and is as follows:
- 14 course sections per calendar year for 15-week courses
- 16 course sections per calendar year for 8-week courses
No more than 3 course sections may be taught by any faculty member at one time.
Note: These limits will vary somewhat for those teaching two- or four-credit courses, for those teaching tutorials with just one or two students, and so on. Program directors and/or associate deans in the schools will follow specific guidelines (below) to determine the limits for these courses.
There are basic principles that guide the instructional faculty workload policy:
- Students and faculty must have a quality teaching and learning experience.
- Adjunct faculty are meeting expectations for substantial and constructive interaction as stipulated in the Faculty Handbook.
- Those who oversee the adjunct faculty are provided with a clear and reasonable policy to accomplish their work.
- Adjunct faculty are treated fairly and ethically to ensure that faculty feel that Excelsior College is a preferred place to teach.
- The College is in compliance with labor laws and the College's benefits plan.
The Student Information System (SIS) has been programmed to apply this policy. Adjunct instructors who go over the limit stated by this policy will not be available for teaching until the following calendar year.
The following guidelines will be used by the SIS to calculate the number of hours that the faculty member has taught depending on the number of credits and the length of the courses.
|Course Length
|Time worked for each credit taught by week
|Example based on 3-credit courses
|15-week term
|3 hours/week
|3 credits x 15 weeks x 3 hours = 135 hours taught
|8-week term
|5 hours/week
|3 credits x 8 weeks x 5 hours = 120 hours taught
Exceptions to the policy
Exceptions to the course load policy will be made only with the approval of the provost and may be made only on rare occasions and according to the following specific criteria:
a. A compelling student need for an additional section
b. A compelling program need to staff course sections
c. A highly qualified instructor who demonstrates the capacity on occasion to handle a larger-than-normal workload
d. Emergency situations due to faculty absences from the course, etc.