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BINGHAMTON, NY- Helping at-risk high schoolers succeed in the classroom has always been difficult. Binghamton University Professor David Sloan Wilson thinks that he has a solution: design a school program that draws upon general theories of social behavior.
Wilson, who has studied the evolution of social behavior throughout his career, recently had an opportunity to advise a new program for at-risk 9th and 10th graders in the upstate community of Binghamton, NY. Known as the Regents Academy, the program initiated in the Binghamton City School District was a huge success during its first year, as described in the current issue of PLoS ONE, the Public Library of Science's open access online publication. Wilson's consulting relationship with the school is part of a more general effort to apply evolution to everyday life, which he describes in his newly published book The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time (Little, Brown 2011).
Working with a graduate student, Richard A. Kauffman, the Regents Academy Principal, Miriam S. Purdy, and a dedicated staff of four teachers, Wilson designed a school environment that that is maximally conducive toward cooperation and learning. Some of the ingredients included a positive group identity, an atmosphere of safety and trust, and consensus decision-making. Other elements include the monitoring of good behavior in a non-threatening fashion, quick resolution of conflicts regarded as fair by the students, and consistent efforts in meeting long-term learning objectives in a way that also engages over the short term. A key ingredient was for the program to be provided with the authority to govern itself by the Binghamton City School District.
"None of these design features are unusual," said Wilson. "But we brought them together to form an unusual package. A well-functioning group is like an organism. Just as an organism needs all its organs and will die if any one of them is removed, a group needs numerous design features in combination and can become severely compromised if any one of them is missing."
After identifying 117 9th and 10th graders who qualified for the RA by failing three or more courses during the previous year, 56 were randomly chosen to enter the program. The rest were tracked as they experienced the normal routine at Binghamton's high school. By the first marking period, the RA students were performing much better than the comparison group. Fewer of them dropped out during the year. The most outstanding result came at the end of the year when the RA students not only outperformed the comparison group on the state-mandated Regents exams, but performed on a par with the average Binghamton high school student. Boy, girls, blacks, whites, and Hispanics all improved their performance to an equal degree.
"The fact that the RA students started doing better right away illustrates that people are like chameleons," said Wilson. "Just as chameleons can quickly change their colors to match their background, at-risk high school students can quickly respond to a school environment that favors cooperation as a social strategy, even when the rest of their lives remain harsh. The fact that they performed as well as the average high school student on the state mandated exams, after failing three or more courses during the previous year, demonstrates a surprising degree of resilience in kids that have experienced a lot of hardship in their lives."
Why don't schools automatically adopt the design features of the Regents Academy if they make so much sense and are so successful? According to Wilson, all educational practices have a surface logic, based on background assumptions.
"If students aren't learning the basics, it makes sense to cut back on play, arts, and sports, which are seen as superfluous," said Wilson. "It seems efficient to create classes where students interact primarily with others of their same age. It makes sense to do things according to the experts without consulting the students. It makes sense to standardize practices and limit the opportunities of teachers to implement their own strategies. The problem is that all of these policies have unintended consequences that weren't anticipated by their rationales."
But as Wilson points out, worse yet are negative effects, which are typically indirect and diffuse.
"They can't be traced to their causes without a rigorous assessment, such as the randomized control design that we employed for the Regents Academy," said Wilson.
Unlike most other successful programs for at-risk high school students, which require expensive measures such as extending the school day and year, the RA is affordable by the average public school district.
"The same principles that inform the RA can improve the social environment of all students and indeed all groups whose members are attempting to achieve shared goals," said Wilson.


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- 3 Beds
- 2 Full, 1 Half Baths
Property TypeResidential – Condominium
SubdivisionElkhorn Condo
Listing Date08/15/19
Year Built1979
Lot Size0.08 Acres (3,485 SqFt)
Parking1 Car Assigned, 2 Car Garage
Property Description
The perfect location for every reason you live in Colorado! 10 mins to Vail/Beaver Creek this beautifully updated condo nestles in the friendly golf community of Eagle Vail. Roomy bedrooms,vaulted ceiling in main living area and a versatile flex room. Walking to pool, tennis courts and community garden. Low HOA dues with new roof, siding, and energy efficient windows installed within past 5 years. Large, rare 2 car garage plus 1 assigned parking spot. $2100 carpet credit
Presented By
- See Remarks
- See Remarks
- Community Center
- Cross Country Trails
- Golf-Public
- Hiking/Pedestrian Trail
- On Bus Line
- Pets
- Pool
- Tennis Courts
- Cable Available
- Fireplace - Wood
- Multi-Level
- Patio
- Vaulted Ceilings
- Pets
- Pool
- See Remarks
- Tennis
- Cable TV
- District Sewer
- District Water
- Electricity Avail.
- Satellite
- Snow Removal
- Trash Pickup
- Baseboard
- Electric
- Ceiling Fan
- Dryer - Electric
- Washer
Financial Information
About EagleVail
Situated between two world-class ski resorts, the community of EagleVail is one of the valley's most prime locations in terms of access. With an 18-hole golf course, par 3 golf course, tennis courts, community pool, hiking and biking trails, sporting fields, a community garden, local restaurants and more, this community has something for everyone. EagleVail serves as a basecamp for families, second-home owners and adventurous thrill-seekers alike. Wave hello to your neighbors on an evening stroll around the golf course, hang out at the community pool or ski home from Beaver Creek — whatever lifestyle you're looking for, EagleVail delivers the perfect setting for it. Real estate in the community includes a healthy mix of condominiums, townhomes, duplexes and single-family homes. In EagleVail, neighbors hang out together at the community garden, driving range, Turkey Trot or the pool. EagleVail is also just a bike ride away from Vail, Avon and Edwards, and multiple county bus stops in the neighborhood provide easy shuttle service to anywhere in the valley. With its commercial and residential zones, adjacent National Forest lands, beautiful green spaces thanks to the golf course and other pocket parks, EagleVail features alpine living without sacrificing any conveniences. It's also a community that offers pricing from entry-level to luxury buyers.
Area Market Data
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Copyright © 2020 Vail Multi List, Inc. (VMLS). The information displayed herein was derived from sources believed to be accurate, but has not been verified by VMLS. Buyers are cautioned to verify all information to their own satisfaction. This information is exclusively for viewers' personal, non- commercial use. Any republication or reproduction of the information herein without the express permission of the VMLS is strictly prohibited.
Listing courtesy of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices - Lionshead

subset: commoncrawl


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Shelby GT500: Snake Bit Again!
For 2007 the GT500 makes a grand return to the Ford line-up
DETROIT, Jan. 8, 2006 - What happens when a legend from Texas reuniteswith a legend from Dearborn? The most powerful Mustang ever.
After 40 years, racing legend Carroll Shelby and the Ford Mustang areback together with the introduction of the 2007 Ford Shelby GT500.
The collaboration between Shelby and Ford's Special Vehicle Team (SVT)is yielding an instant collector's Mustang that builds 475 horsepower inits 5.4-liter supercharged V-8.
A modern interpretation of the Shelby Mustang of the 1960s, the FordShelby GT500 uses advanced engineering to attain the performance thatmade the original GT500 the king of the road.
True to the original GT500, it will be available both as a coupe and asa convertible when it goes on sale in the summer of 2006.
"When Carroll was developing the original GT350 and GT500, he wanted tobuild the most powerful, most capable Mustangs of his day," says HauThai-Tang, director, Advanced Product Creation and Special Vehicle Team. "Our goal was to build the most powerful, most capable Mustang ever."
Serving as touchstone and inspirational leader for both the concept andthe production versions, Shelby was impressed by what the team hasaccomplished.
"It's one thing to put 450 horsepower in an exotic supercar," saysShelby. "It's another to put that much power in something as affordableas a Mustang. The fact that they not only met their goal but pushed onto 475 horsepower is a remarkable achievement."
Shelby knows something about creating modern supercars. He served as asenior adviser on the team that developed and built the 550-horsepowerFord GT.
Power Play
As expected of anything with Shelby's name on it, the heart of the caris what's under the hood. The Ford Shelby GT500's supercharged5.4-liter, 32-valve V-8 evolves from Ford's experience with tuning itsmodular, or MOD, engines. Output is a brawny 475 horsepower.
The engine is force-fed an air-and-fuel mixture via a "Roots-type"supercharger providing 8.5 pounds per square inch of boost. The GT500uses a cast-iron engine block. It borrows from the Ford GT programaluminum, four-valve cylinder heads, piston rings and bearings, adding ahigh level of performance durability to the drivetrain. "Powered by SVT"camshaft covers add the finishing touch to the engine.
Helping put the power to the pavement is a 6-speed manual gearbox. Forthe performance driver, its evenly spaced gears mean less "stirring" isneeded to find the "sweet spot." This gives a rewarding experiencethroughout the engine's broad torque curve. The heavy-duty transmissionhas proven itself a willing companion to Mustangs in both road and trackenvironments, including recent road-going Mustang Cobras and the newrace-winning Mustang FR500C.
Power Requires Control
The Ford Shelby GT500 continues a legacy of all-around performance thatmade the original a world-class racer on tracks and road courses aroundthe world.
The Ford Shelby GT500 starts with the solid Mustang underpinnings. Theall-new Mustang was designed from the beginning with performancederivatives in mind, providing an exceptionally rigid, well-engineeredstarting point for GT500 chassis engineers.
SVT engineers retuned and upgraded key chassis components. Improvementssuch as revised shocks, spring rates and upgraded stabilizer bars helpthe Ford Shelby GT500 stop and turn with the same authority as it goes.
The Ford Shelby GT500 features a MacPherson strut independent frontsuspension with Reverse L lower control arms, and a solid-axle,three-link rear suspension with coil springs and a Panhard rod forprecise control of the rear axle.
This rear suspension design has been validated on the track by FordRacing. The Ford Racing Mustang FR500C was purpose-built from the base2005 Mustang body structure and suspension geometry to run in theGrand-Am Cup series, a class of road racing for production-based cars.
Competing against the best from Germany and Japan, a Mustang FR500C wonits first race in the season opener at Daytona International Speedway inFebruary 2005. It went on to dominate the season and clinch thechampionship.
"SVT and Ford Racing will be working closer than ever as we go forwardon future projects, especially Mustangs," says Thai-Tang, a Ford Racingalumnus who served as the race engineer for the Newman-Haas Racing teamin 1993.
To match this power and handling ability, engineers fitted some of thebiggest brakes in the business to the Ford Shelby GT500. Four-pistonBrembo calipers are fitted to 14-inch Brembo vented rotors up front, and11.8-inch vented discs in the rear continue SVT's legacy ofgreat-braking Mustangs. Secure footing is provided by 255/45ZRhigh-performance tires in front and 285/40ZR high-performance tires inback. Wheels are 18 inches by 9.5 inches.
The Snake is Back
One glance shows this is not the typical Mustang Cobra. Asinister-looking front-end design includes wide upper and lower fasciaopenings with a functional air splitter. The upper intake sports thefamous Cobra logo floating off-center in place of a centered gallopingpony found on other Mustangs. On either side, slanting headlamp openingsadd to the dramatic front appearance.
The bulging hood has heat extractors protruding near the leading edge,combining to provide improved airflow and aerodynamics. As air passesover the hood, hot air from the engine compartment is drawn out throughducts attached to the hood extractors.
"The restrained, performance-oriented SVT design theme has becomeinstantly recognizable to enthusiasts without brash styling cues," saysDoug Gaffka, design director, Ford SVT vehicles. "The GT500 takes a hugeleap forward by combining the modern Mustang muscle car with the classicShelby performance look."
The 2005 Mustang design team drew inspiration from classic 1968Mustangs, the models that transformed the mild-mannered pony car into amuscle car with attitude. Envisioning a high-performance model, the teamtested GT500 design cues on the Mustang GT coupe concept that wasunveiled at the 2003 North American International Auto Show.
In 2004, designers further developed the GT500 look on the Mustang GT-R,a race-bred concept with the dual purpose of foreshadowing SVT's Mustangdesign direction and Ford Racing's plans to return Mustang to roadracing. The Ford Shelby GT500 Cobra concept coupe capped the designconceptualization effort.
The production Ford Shelby GT500 Coupe now comes into full light,punctuated by the classic Le Mans-style white stripes that race alongthe top from nose to tail. The stripes recall the Shelby Mustangs thatmarked another important 1960s Mustang transition when Ford put it onthe track to becoming a racing legend. The GT500 nomenclature isprominent in the lower bodyside racing stripe, another cue from theclassic Shelby Mustangs.
In a touch also borrowed from the GT500's past, no Le Mans stripes willbe seen on the 2007 Ford Shelby GT500 Convertible. However, theconvertible will sport a cloth top similar to those found on pricierconvertibles.
"There were no Le Mans stripes on Shelby's original GT500 Convertible,so we decided to pay homage by not offering them on the 2007 Ford ShelbyGT500," says Gaffka. "We also went with a cloth top material as anothermeasure of substance and authenticity. The fabric used is the same usedon the 2002-03 SVT Mustang Cobra, the Thunderbird, Jaguar and Ford'sother high-end convertibles."
The unique rear fascia features lower strakes inspired by the Ford GT'sintegrated rear airflow diffuser, and a rear spoiler reminiscent of aclassic GT500. To mark the collaboration of two Mustang performanceicons, the GT500 features Shelby and SVT badging.
The fenders each feature an updated design of the Cobra. The frontgrille features an off-center snake in place of the standard runninghorse. "GT500" is emblazoned inside the side rocker stripes, and thename SHELBY is prominently written across the rear deck. The SVT logocan be seen on the wheel center caps, a signature SVT location, as wellas on the doorsill plates. To top it off, the medallion between thetaillights reads "Shelby GT500" centered on the Cobra image.
Cockpit Upgrades
Inside, too, upgraded levels of flair and function abound. The locationsof the speedometer and the tachometer are swapped to provideperformance-oriented drivers with a better view of shift points whilechanging gears. Front seats have received additional lateral support tohelp keep the driver optimally positioned during cornering. The interioris offered in a choice of two colors, Charcoal Black or Charcoal Blackand Crimson Red. The charcoal/red offering features Crimson Red seatingsurfaces and door panel inserts. Seating surfaces are leather with bothinterior treatments. Snake logos embossed in the seat backs finish thepackage.
The Shelby GT500 script and Cobra image are repeated on the steeringwheel cap. Behind the wheel, the gauges wear light faces in keeping withSVT tradition. The chromed accessories inside the cabin have beenreplaced with a satin aluminum finish, including the aluminum shiftlever knob that is nicely positioned for quick, positive shifts.
SVT and Shelby: The Legends Grow
With the look and legend one would expect from Shelby and the kind ofpower and performance enthusiasts have come to expect from SVT, theGT500 points to a brand-new era in Ford's performance future.
Shelby first put his name on a Mustang back in 1964 when he was asked toinject some high performance into the brand-new pony car. The result wasthe GT-350R, a lightweight, handling-focused race car that earnedMustang its first performance credentials. Subsequent Shelby Mustangsincluded a street version of the race car, the GT-350, and what wasknown as the "rent-a-racer" Mustang, the GT-350H, a joint project withthe Hertz rental car corporation.
The ultimate Shelby Mustang of the era was the GT-500KR, or "King of theRoad." Powered by a big block 428-cubic-inch "Cobra Jet" V-8, the GT-500was one of the most powerful, and memorable, muscle cars of that period.Shelby Mustang production ceased in 1970 with a total volume of 14,559units.
The Ford Special Vehicle Team brought high performance back to Mustangin 1993. After 12 years, with nearly 80,000 high-performance Mustangs onthe streets and total SVT vehicle production nearing 145,000, SVT isprimed for growth with the GT500 serving as the foundation for otherperformance Mustang projects.
By bringing together Shelby and Ford SVT, the company's commitment toperformance becomes as powerful as at any time in its history -including the famed "Total Performance" days of the 1960s. From the FordGT supercar, the GT500, to a rejuvenated Ford Racing Performance Partsprogram, performance and racing can drive innovation and add luster toFord's proud brand heritage.
"SVT will remain the leader in performance vehicle engineering," saysThai-Tang. "It will continue to build new, innovative products usingadvanced processes that will not only provide great enjoyment to thededicated driving enthusiast, but that also will provide great benefitto other Ford products and Ford Motor Company itself."
The Ford Shelby GT500 will be built at the Ford-Mazda joint venture,AutoAlliance International, in Flat Rock, Mich.


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BCG's Channel Compass Tool helps companies develop the best mix of sales channels for a given product portfolio.
Working in collaboration with the brand team, the customer excellence task force evaluates each potential channel against the product and customer characteristics. The team then maps the current channel mix and investment allocation against the compass to highlight areas of apparent overinvestment or underinvestment. The final step is a set of ROI analyses for each channel to identify areas that merit sizable investments.


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Last week we surprised our kids with an epic three day play date. They had no idea they were about to board a plane and head to Orlando, Florida. An hour before our trip we shared the fun news! There was screaming and lots of excitement. They both loved the plane ride and view of the clouds. I still think they had no idea how much fun the next three days were going to be!
Day 1 of Florida fun included visiting Sea World. We were all memorized by the dolphin show and the divers. The boys both won sharks and carried them around the entire trip.
Day 2 we spent visiting Disney. We made sure to indulge in lots of ice cream and ice water to beat the heat. We all loved the parades, rides, food, and pure magic of being at the happiest place on earth.
We even ran into some TV friends at Hollywood Studios...
Our last day we just enjoyed family time swimming and visiting The Lego Store at Downtown Disney in the evening. There might have even been some create-your-own Light Sabers made that evening to celebrate a big 7th birthday. Having 3 days as a family in such a special place where you are allowed to engage and explore truly created an epic play date for us all (adults and kids) and memories that we will have forever.
If you could plan an epic play date of your own, what you would do? Would you travel or plan something near home? Would it be an outdoor or an indoor activity? Would you bring or buy special foods? Would you craft? Bake? Head to the beach?
Well, Hyundai Santa Fe pondered the same questions and pulled together one seriously epic playdate with the help of some great bloggers. The whole purpose behind the event was to create cool family experiences out of the norm of our regular routines.
Curious about what the bloggers did at this epic playdate? They all shared videos and posts about the event. One of my all time favorite bloggers is Jordan from Oh Happy Day. She shared a post about the event here. There's even a video of Jordan zip lining from tree to tree in the Redwoods!!
Hope this has inspired you to think epic and get play dating with your family!
Hope this has inspired you to think epic and get play dating with your family!


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America's Town Hall Moves Online
Almost four years ago, the United States experienced the first national election in which social media was seen by many as the key that opened the door to the White House and, no doubt, it will play a critical role in the upcoming election.
Over the past four years, it has become evident that the town hall of American government has moved online and into the social arena. Public officials in every corner of government — not just politicians — are expanding their use of social media to better understand and communicate with today's digital citizens.
With an estimated 107 million Twitter users in the United States and another 156 million Americans using Facebook, more and more people expect real-time access and authentic engagement with everything from the brands they love to the governments they elect. In fact, according to a survey by Accenture of citizens in seven countries, including the United States, 50 percent believe that being able to interact digitally with government would encourage them to become more engaged and would make government more transparent.
Recognizing the opportunity to engage the digital generation in the democratic process, the state of Washington took the unprecedented step in July of becoming the first U.S. state to allow eligible residents to register to vote in this year's election through Facebook. The secure registration process Washington developed clearly signals the collapse of the last few barriers to the public acceptance of social media as a critical — and secure — medium for government communications. In addition to increasing voter participation, the new process will require no printing, signing or mailing of forms to a state office — saving both time and state resources. Today, government is using social media to register voters, but soon we may see actual voting via Facebook, and the opportunity to become a truly digital democracy.
While encouraging, the state of Washington is unfortunately not the norm. In the same Accenture study that found a majority of Americans want greater social engagement from their government, fewer than half of the respondents believe their government has effectively leveraged social and digital platforms to ease access to public services. While major consumer brands are busy trying to meet the challenges of the social marketplace, most public-sector efforts lag behind citizen expectations. After Y2K, governments turned to "e-government" to dramatically improve their efficiency and effectiveness, building online portals to dispense important information about public services. However, the fundamental aspiration of Gov. 2.0 — a more personal, convenient and empowering interaction, a social contract with citizens — was not realized.
Even when government agencies decide to engage, most "social" programs are still relegated to one-way information broadcasting and sporadic individual use by officials. But mobility has brought us to a tipping point, and social engagement is the next frontier. The good news is that there are many other good examples to emulate.
In 2011, for example, FEMA officials were able to monitor social media conversations and respond to tornado disaster reports in Joplin, Mo., from citizens on the ground before official reports could be verified. And, in Boulder, Colo., real-time social communications between citizens and government through Facebook and Twitter helped save lives and property as a wildfire raged in 2010.
New York City has re-engineered a tool from the analog era — 311 — into a leading social media support system to facilitate more efficient citizen interaction with city government and reduce public services spending. Leveraging Twitter and Facebook from a mobile device, residents can use NYC 311 to request pothole repair or report graffiti simply by attaching a photo and hitting the send button. The system shortens government response time, reduces costs and deepens the connection between citizens and local government.
The federal government also has begun leveraging the connectivity of social media to streamline government and save taxpayer money. A good example is an innovative program called the SAVE Award (Securing Americans Value and Efficiency), which effectively crowd sources cost-saving ideas from federal employees on how to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. Since introducing the program in 2009, federal employees have submitted more than 56,000 cost-cutting ideas.
Social media applications are used very effectively throughout the private sector to trim costs and improve efficiency. Cisco, for example, says it has been able to reach 90 times the audience for a key router it produces at one-sixth the cost through social channels.
Imagine the potential savings and insights that government could generate by having an ongoing online dialogue with citizens. Getting there would require funding for the tools, training, analytics and measurement needed, but there's no doubt, in this era of continued belt tightening, that social media could render a positive return on investment.
Government agencies can start now by taking three steps:
- First, they should conduct a bottom-up assessment to determine how best to leverage social media to serve the unique needs of their constituents. Agencies at every government level should review programs and practices built for the offline era to determine how the social marketplace can reshape their service offerings for the next decade.
- Next, government workforces must be given the tools necessary to create two-way integration, especially those under 30 who prefer to communicate through social channels. They must be trained in all relevant digital technology to be ready for the next phase of citizen communication.
- Finally, governments should solicit direct feedback from the public through free tools like Facebook and Twitter. This type of "digital democracy" enables citizens to make recommendations in real time and to play a leading role in shaping everything from public policy to public services.
Increased transparency through social media at all levels of government can deepen the connection with the public, instill a greater sense of trust and drive increased citizen participation. With a majority of Americans seeking more social interaction with their government, and the potential for increased efficiency and cost savings, social engagement will help create the public services for the future that digital citizens demand and deserve.
Stephen J. Rohleder is group chief executive for Accenture's global Health & Public Service business.


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October All Over are, to quote their own MySpace page, "a loud band from London". Need we say any more, really?
Yes, really: anyone can be loud given tinnitus-spreading bluster enough, but where October All Over trump so many of this nation's capital's most-rocking acts is that they meld their might with killer pop hooks and stirring melodies that bring to mind the Breeders as swiftly as their chopped-up chords conjure thoughts of a dozen or more hard-touring hardcore outfits.
The four-piece – Neil (guitar, vocals), Paul (drums), Graham (guitar, vocals) and Sophie (bass, vocals, not pictured!) – have been playing London's dirtiest and dingiest clubs for some years; from time to time they've made it beyond the city limits, but to many an ear to the underground they're part and parcel of their hometown's D.I.Y. scene. Keen to play, keen to promote, keen to do things their own way, the quartet's work rate has only slowed when key members have been abroad, as Sophie was for a period in 2006.
2007 will see the band release their second album and undergo a line-up change, as Sophie will leave the band for good – her final show with OAO will be at London's Buffalo Bar on March 16 (Silver Rocket), but before that the four-piece play this Saturday's DiScover Club, promoted by DrownedinSound.com and Rough Trade Shops, at London's Notting Hill Arts Club.
The facts: doors open at the club at 4pm, and OAO will be joined by the also excellent twentysixfeet and An Emergency – DiScover interviews with both acts are already available for your reading pleasure here and here. Full details on the DiScover Club, March 3, can be found here.
Before you come on down to party some with us, DiScover October All Over…
Hello October All Over! Please give us a quick overview of the band's composite parts: how and when and where did the four of you come together; what you were doing, musically, prior to OAO; what your favourite television quiz shows are and, um, what's better: Guinness or Guinness Extra Cold?
Graham: Neil and I met Sophie when her old band were on the same bill as us in 2000. Both bands were on the verge of disintegration, as people were either moving away or doing other projects. Neil and I hit off with Sophie and it was pretty obvious we were gonna play together. I think it took a tearful J Mascis gig to seal the deal. Sophie had already sung in her previous band and her vocal style worked just perfectly with the unholy racket Neil and I favour. The band took shape pretty quickly and as soon as we found Paul Mist – who took some convincing – our sound just came together. I always felt OAO had a distinctive sound from day one. Angry pop? Historical alt-rock? I dunno, it just gelled. I'm liking Nevermind The Buzzcocks at the moment – Simon Amstell just doesn't give a shit. He's smart. And Guinness regular!
Neil: Guinness regular, but only if there's no guest ale.
Paul: Panpipes and The 'Golden Joystick' challenge section of Gamesmaster. Bring it back, Patrick. And Guinness… I heard they're bringing out Guinness-flavoured Marmite. Good times.
You've been gigging around London, on and off, for some time but never with much regularity – I know your bassist left the country for a bit, so did this render the band on hiatus for a while? Have you had the opportunity to play around the country much?
Neil: Yeah, we've been unfortunate that there have been a few extended periods in the last couple of years where we've been unable to play for various reasons, and we've hardly played anywhere out of London, as none of us, or our friends, have access to transport. I mean we can cram the amps on a train to Oxford, but it's just impractical to do it for more than one night. When we've found a label for the new record, we will put together a tour with some like-minded bands, hire a van and really get out there.
We had a wasted/frustrating year in 2006, really. It started so well with our single selling out and being tipped in certain areas of the music press, but the label we were on went down the pan and the money promised for our second album did too, so we went from being in a great position to having nothing again. And then with the imposed three-month lay off it was hard to see what would happen.
Paul: My favourite memories of playing outside London include sleeping in a tent and waking up in the middle of a boot fair in Suffolk.
You've one album to your name already (The Sixteen Channels), and a second coming – what's the progression like from A to B? The new material I've heard live is certainly… chunkier?
Paul: More power.
Graham: The first album was inspired very much by simply playing in a new band! That and horror films and Black Flag. The single that followed ('2005 BC' / 'The Cabinet Of Dr October', self-released) was a slightly new direction, and the new album Vital Organs takes the seed of everything that came before with the additional influence of returning to the bands I listened to as a kid: Slayer, Maiden, Megadeth et cetera. That along with the rise of bands like Mastodon and Baroness, and long-time favourites Converge, Cave In and Refused.
Neil: It's a progression that we wanted to make, and one that reflects the music we've been listening to for the last year or two. I've been listening to loads of Mastodon, Cave In, Hot Snakes, These Arms Are Snakes and Old Man Gloom. The new stuff may be heavier, but still with the original dynamic of weird timings and screaming with more traditional melodies and choruses. From a technical point of view we decided to switch Fender guitars for Gibson, so even the older songs are sounding much fuller than they ever did! I think whatever path we go down we never lose sight of our original desire to create intense interesting music with a more 'pop' edge, and having three voices really allows you exploit that.
What bands have you been compared to previously? Are these comparisons flattering? Have you been able to play with many bands you admire?
Graham: We used to get the At The Drive-In/Sonic Youth thing, but we haven't had that so much lately. I love the fact Vital Organs genuinely sounds like Helmet one minute and Stevie Nicks the next. Whatever the fuck that sounds like! Either way, this record has a hell of a lot more influences on it. It's still got a nice, scrappy Unwound feel to it, but vocal harmonies too!
Neil: Comparisons have really ranged quite a lot. I liked it when people said we were like Pretty Girls Make Graves meets Helmet, but I never understood when others said we sounded like Idlewild! Although we would say that the new album is somewhere between Converge and Fleetwood Mac. As for playing with bands we admire, it's smaller bands and friends like Cove, Silent Front, Rainer Maria and Collapse (RIP) that we enjoy playing with. The first time we played with Collapse they fought drunkenly on our behalf, after some bunch of dicks missed the point of what we were doing. We had to admire that.
Paul: Sex in a wind machine.
It seems, to me, that each member's tastes can be quite different to those of the next, and the next… or, rather, that Neil and Graham like The Metal while I see Sophie as the more melody-loving of the quartet. Is this the case, and if so is it an essential factor in finding that balance in your songwriting, between CRUNCH and cooooo…?
Neil: You'd think so, but Sophie is just as likely to be down the front at a Mastodon show as much as Graham is likely to be at a Sufjan Stevens show. Although there are some grievances – I don't think Sophie listens to much Nile – we do share a huge common ground from High On Fire to Paul Simon.
Paul: Paul is also a member of the band. (Sorry Paul – MD)
Graham: OAO is a fun band to be in, as each member brings their own influence in and it comes across without taking any other elements away. Neil and I have always been beer-swilling metal heads! I don't feel that having four of them in the band would work. Paul lives and breaths AC/DC and Iron Maiden and has a great less is more ethic, and Sophie loves a bit of everything.
Neil: As for song writing, we don't write in a classic verse/chorus/verse style and a lot of our songs don't even have vocals 'til we go into the studio. We just see what the song needs and try a few things out, to see how they shape the path of the song. We know our song writing process well enough that when Sophie leaves we will be able to continue down the same route.
What's going to happen when Sophie leaves again, as I hear she is? Are you auditioning for bass players? Or have you been writing as a trio at all? I guess you must have while she was away in… well, wherever it was she went off to. Somewhere warm…
Neil: Sadly Sophie will be replaced, like Paul Dianno, but with the female Bruce Dickinson. We all felt that we had failed to live up to our potential as this version of OAO for whatever reason. So we're going to move forward, and hopefully this record is going to give us the best chance of doing that. We've rehearsed as a three-piece before, but we thrive on the dual guitar action, so it wasn't as satisfying.
Graham: We will be auditioning as soon as possible. I've already got a four-track tape full of new songs! And, yes, it's just getting more intense!
What does the rest of 2007 – of which there's a lot – hold in store for October All Over? When's the new album out and who has the pleasure of putting it out? Basically, plug your upcoming STUFF here…!
Graham: 2007 is gonna be the year we work ourselves to death! Haha. We're basically gonna work as hard as we can to get this record, Vital Organs, known. It's high time we did so! Not sure who's gonna be putting it out just now, but we have ideas. For now it will be available through us at shows.
Neil: We're mastering Vital Organs this week, then there will be promos from us until we find the label who's going to put it out. We're lucky to have a few people whose labels will take seriously when we tell them to listen to it, so fingers crossed on that front. We have two more shows with Sophie, this one and the March 16 Silver Rocket show, which hopefully will just be a huge party! Then it's new member / album release / tour as quickly as possible. In that order. That's the plan.
October All Over play the DiScover Club, at Notting Hill Arts Club, this Saturday, March 3. Also on the bill are twentysixfeet and An Emergency. For full gig details, please click HERE.
For more on October All Over, click to either their MySpace or 'proper' website. Songs – different songs! – can be heard at both sites.


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Flu vaccines dwindling
Greenfield Health Department in good shape
As demand shoots up for the flu vaccine, supply in southeast Wisconsin has been dropping.
Darren Rausch with the Greenfield Health Department checked the refrigerator to see how much flu vaccine supply they have left and liked what he saw Monday morning.
"There are seven unopened vials, which would be 70 doses," Rausch said. "The fact that we still have some available is kind of a happy accident for us. The fact that other players don't have any just means they used their supply in the fall, and they weren't anticipating the demand in January."
Rausch said he believes because last year's flu season was much less severe, many people didn't get vaccinated this fall at the Health Department, leaving plenty left over for the January rush.
Despite the increased demand, the Greenfield Health Department said it has enough to last through the season, but some area pharmacies are scrambling to get more, including several Walgreens.
The company told WISN 12 News that only about half of their stores in southeast Wisconsin are stocked, but they expected to receive more shipments Monday.
"This year, it's more along the lines of a major mountain, and we're still peaking, as far as we can tell," Rausch said of the number of flu cases.
While there's still time to get protected, experts expect another big rush next fall, when the vaccine is in high supply.
The Milwaukee and North Shore Health Departments told WISN 12 News they expect to have a reduced supply of the vaccine, but North Shore doesn't have any plans to order more.
To find a place to get a flu vaccine, go to www.flu.gov.


text: I've been a mechanical engineer for 28 years, still at it, and I've been a shade tree mechanic since I was a kid. I feel like I know a bit about how things mechanical should or should not be. I just changed my oil for the second time on my '05 330i. I got lazy and had the dealer do the free changes at standard interval under warranty. First time I changed oil myself at the 15K interval after warranty expiration (I've never been comfortable with that long interval) I usedd BMW oil and filter from the dealer. This time around, just yesterday, I dumped that oil at 10,400 miles. I did a close inspection of the used filter, (it's just how I do things). I was looking betweeen the fan folded pleats to see what I could see. The filter looked good til I got to the seam where the ends of the fan folded filter sheet are just butted up and glued together. The glue had failed completely. The filter was wide open along this seam. I'm dissapointed my car doesn't deserve a better filter design than this. Pretty sure this was a Mann Filter, it came from the BMW dealer. I'll look at my records. I used Amsoil 5W40 synthetic this go around. Had to use another Mann Filter HU925/4X with the cheap glued seam, made in Mexico by the way. Other than the lousy butt end seam the filter seems OK. A simple solution might be to interlace then glue the folds at the very ends so that a glue failure would not be a catastrophy. Is there a real flter out there for these cars? Am I forced to use these lousy filters on my rather expensive German Ultimate Driving machine? Talk of quality is cheap talk in this case.


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Legendary Texas Longhorns coach Darrell Royal passed away at 88 this week, and his former team paid tribute to him with a helmet decal and midfield logo. Current coach Mack Brown announced, too, he'd honor the man who introduced the wishbone to major college football by running UT's first offensive play from the formation.
He didn't, however, tip off that it would be a trick play. We're not sure how Coach Royal would react to it, but given its success (and Iowa State's confusion during the play) he'd have approved. [ABC]


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honestly speaking, this post could be messy, let me start with I DONT KNOW 'How' and 'where' could i get the answer for this one..
-im looking for a way how to get a report 'view' thing for the program im writing(time keeping), generating reports for log in/out of an employee
-i saw a thing called JasperReport for generating an .xml file, that can be manipulated using iReport, a complex one
-i was mentally shocked due to i dont know where and how to start, i tried different articles stating some codes , samples, step-by-step procedure(which-i CANNOT follow), but i always ended up in a very nasty exceptions, stream exception, doc != null..
-i saw some samples that queries a database values with some varchar, int data type to the iReport/.jrxml
-the problem is, im manipulating Employee data by serializing objects, a table with longblob type that saves my Employee instances
-the codes that i saw passes an argument of an instance of Connection directly to a .jrxml file, i really dont know how can i pass the values
to the file from java code, not directly by from the Database, due to this serializing, i have to deserialize and object first, get the values on it, and pass it into a report viewer thing (.jrxml), but i only see samples that directly passes a Connection to the .jrxml and queries all on it
-so i decided to go hard core again(atleast i have some idea though), instead of using these bunch of things that i wont be able to study due to time constraints,
-i decided to go back to swing components, JTextPane, JEditorPane, Text Components
Question: (while im trying to look for resources which can be accepted by my brain)
1.) which of the components do i need to write JUST...... a simple looking Paper that will stand as a report view? where i can pass java data from a deserialized object
2.) will it be printable? if yes, what classes should i focus on? for printing THESE paper looking reports
- though i have some idea how, the print package of awt.
im really stressed up, my statement writings expereses my stress.. i hope you can give me some advice with this one..


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In 1 Samuel 15:26-29, after a disastrous mission against the Amalekites in which Saul "pounces on the plunder" instead of completely destroying it, Samuel announces that God has rejected Saul. In Samuel's words, "because you rejected the Word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you as king."
There's a lot going on in this dark and confusing passage, but I was reading it the other day and something in particular struck me as odd. In 1 Samuel 15:28, Samuel turns to leave Saul and Saul, afraid of the political ramifications of this public withdrawal of Samuel's support, attempts to detain him. Now a-days we might say, "he was worried about the optics." So he catches hold of Samuel's robe, which tears in the subsequent tussle, and in that moment he becomes his own prophetic object lesson: just as Saul has torn the Prophet's robe in his efforts literally to seize the bearer of the Prophetic Word, so too YHWH will tear the Kingdom from him because he has metaphorically seized on the Prophetic Word and used it to his own ends (i.e. he seized on the prophetic commandment to attack the Amalekites, but used it as a license to loot and pillage for political gain).
And here's where things get both convicting and freeing. Samuel's precise words are: "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to ..."
To whom?
"One of your neighbours, who is better than you" is how we translate the verse in English, and this is accurate, but the actual word is reyah, which means "friend/close companion." I don't want to make an exegetical mountain out of a linguistic molehill here: there is a Hebrew word for "intimate friend/confidant" (côwdh) and that's not the word that's being used here, but there's also a word for neighbor (shachen) and that word's not being used either. The word is reyah; and the nuance, I think, points us to someone of more significance than simply "one of Saul's neighbors." Because, the reyah in question, we'll find out later, is none other than King David himself, who will indeed become Saul's close companion before he becomes Saul's replacement. But at this point, the Prophetic Word is just left echoing ominously. God has rejected Saul and has chosen his reyah, his close companion who "is better than him," to replace him as the Lord's Annointed.
I read this verse the other evening and as the weight of the word-choice sunk in, it seemed to me that God was saying: "Oh yeah; I've also rejected you as Messiah, too, Dale, and given that role to a close companion of yours, who is far better than you." And as that prophetic word sunk in, God gently started to show me ways I've been "playing Messiah," or have done in the past. I won't share those here, except to say that they're the same kind of ways we all, I think, play Messiah -- in our churches, in our families, in our marriages, in our relationships, in our spheres of influence -- by trying to "fix," or "reign-over" or "own" or "save" ourselves and those around us.
God showed me some of my own efforts at self-Messiahship for what they were, and assured me that it's just not my job anymore. I'm a reject Messiah.
And there is something convicting about this, but also deeply liberating: God has rejected us all, with Saul, as Messiah, and has turned that onerous responsibility over to a close companion of ours-- a true reyah who is infinitely better at this role than us. And he, we will discover if we will chose a path different than Saul's, he is the true "Beloved" whom David only prefigured and who delights (like he said it John 15) he delights to call us friends, rejected Messiahs though we are.
On Being a Reject Messiah
In 1 Samuel 15:26-29, after a disastrous mission against the Amalekites in which Saul "pounces on the plunder" instead of completely destroying it, Samuel announces that God has rejected Saul. In Samuel's words, "because you rejected the Word of the Lord, the Lord has rejected you as king."
The Book of How?!
When God Gives Us What We Ask For
In an effort to keep my Seminary Hebrew fresh, I've been reading 1 Samuel in the Hebrew these days, so something stood out to me here that I'd never noticed before. There are a variety of verbs Samuel could have used to describe Israel's sin in "asking" for a king. But the verb he did use, it so happens, was ša'l. "To ask for." If that verb looks familiar, I think it's supposed to. It's the same verb that gives us King Saul's name-- which, loosely translated, means something like "the asked-for one," or "the desired one."
Names, of course, are seldom accidental in the Hebrew Scriptures, and I doubt the writer wants the irony here to be lost on us (the pun, after all, gets repeated in 12:19). Israel "saul-ed" (so to speak) for a king like all the other nations, so God gave them, quite literally, the "Saul" they asked for. The disastrous results of their "saul-ing" of course, unfold almost immediately, as their "saul" begins his reign with one debacle after another: sacrificing to the Lord as king at Gilgal, amassing loot from the battle with Amalekites, setting up a monument to himself on Mt. Carmel. To be sure, none of this would have even raised the eyebrows of a typical Ancient Near Eastern king-- for whom things like personal aggrandizement, or personal gain, or personally assuming the role of mediator for the divine, that stuff just came along with the job description of king. Put bluntly: Saul proves quite quickly that he is a king like the kings of all the other nations and that Israel has received, quite literally, the king they had "saul-ed" for.
And I'm left wondering. If the story of Saul's inauspicious reign teaches the people of God anything, it seems, it's this: there are times, it turns out, that God's most terrifying judgment on our sin is simply and finally to give us what we've asked for.
The fifth calling of Samuel
No wonder this mysterious episode has made it to so many a Sunday School coloring page. It's vivid and compelling and charming; but as I say, I was re-reading it the other day and I realized that, though we often end the telling after the fourth call of Samuel (the "Speak Lord, your servant is listening" one), Samuel is actually called five times in the story, and the "fifth call" is essential to the boy's prophetic ministry. Because when Samuel does recognize the Word of the Lord at last, it turns out to be a prophetic judgment against Eli and his house, one that will make "the ears of everyone who hears it tingle." It's a message so heavy and heart-rending that Samuel, we're told, is afraid to tell the vision to Eli.
And then comes the fifth call: the next morning Eli himself "calls" to Samuel. The narrative accentuates the irony here by using the same verb as before (karaw-- to call), and by putting the same response into Samuel's mouth-- "Here I am." Previously Samuel had mistaken God's voice for Eli's, but now, having responded to God's call, Samuel hears and recognizes Eli's call for what it is. And what it is, in fact, is an invitation to share the terrifying word of the Lord with the very one against whom it has been uttered. It's a call to do the very thing that young Samuel is loathe to do: to speak the prophetic Word to power.
So here's what I'm wondering as I meditate on this "fifth call" of Samuel. If the "fifth call" is the call for ministers of the Word to share it faithfully with God's people, even when it may cause the ears of those who hear it to tingle (inasmuch as Samuel's "fifth call" was a call from Eli to share what God had spoken against him), if the "fifth call" is our invitation to speak the Word of God to "power" when we're most afraid to do so because we're most uncertain of the outcome and we have the most at stake-- if Samuel's story is in some way paradigmatic for the Ministry of the Word, then what would it take for us to speak a willing "Here I am" with Samuel when we receive this "fifth call" in our ministries?
Deuteronomy 24:17-22
Read This... (Seeing Her)
I don't usually link to other blogs in lieu of a post, but I've always wanted to write a reflection on Judges 19 and Richard Beck over at Experimental Theology beat me to it (and he crossed the finish line far more gracefully than I could have). Hyperbole fails me: his is the most sensitive, insightful and beautiful reading of the most painful, opaque and ugly passages of scripture that I've ever read.
Read it. Please. To understand Judges 19; to understand how to read Scripture generally; to catch a glimpse of the heart of God. Read it.


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I have used Gallery for over 7 years or so now and really have found it incredibly valuable to have to share pictures with family and friends. I have migrated through many version updates and now that Gallery just released the flashy looking Gallery 3, I wanted to go ahead and move to that. We have a personal image collection of about 12,000 images or so in our gallery that we have been adding to over the many years and knew an upgrade to the new version 3 was going to be a challenge. I moved off version 1 a couple of years ago and was not really happy with version 2 and the various updates so that was another big reason I wanted to get the new GUI tools and look of the Gallery 3 environment.
To upgrade to Gallery 3, you need to really install 3 in a separate directory, create a new database in mysql and get that all squared-away first then enable the Gallery 2 import module and import your existing Gallery 2 setup and albums. This is a departure from previous updates in that you really need to get a clean parellel struture up and running then run the old environment through the import/scrubbing process. Documentation for this is sparse at the moment since Gallery 3 just really was formally released last week or so.
Anyway, so you do that and I what I did was get that all going by creating a mysql db for Gallery 3 data tables and ran the Gallery 3 installer, etc. and enabled the G2 Import, pointed the importer at the old G2 install path and watched as it grinded-away at the import of the 12k or so images. But, after the multiple hour import process was done, it was a mess in that I didn't have thumbnails of images at the smallest or resized sizes. I checked the Gallery 3 Forum, but not much help yet. So, I thought, let's just redo the setup and try the import again. I did and was really careful about permissions in the Apache directory where the new Gallery was going to be and everything, but still no dice. I did notice that when I click through down to the full-sized image, it was present – it was just the the small thumbnail and resized thumbnails were hosed (not present).
At the unix-level, going into the new location where G3 wants to put albums – now in (GalleryDirectory)/var BTW, I noticed for whatever reason there were no thumbnails in the album sub-folders. So, went into the Admin area and did all the Maintenance stuff, but no dice either. The generic 'Fix' option that goes through the various low-level checks was no help. Also, the 'Rebuild Images' came back with zero images for whatever reason.
I was able to get to a solution by kicking-off a rebuild through the Theme Options under the Admin>Appearance menu. If you do that and change your 'Thumbnail Size' and 'Resized Image' size, it wants to kick-off a total rebuild for out-of-date files. You will get a prompt at the top of the browser window to have the rebuild go. Even if the values are correct, I changed them to a different value, let the rebuild run and then changed them back and let it run again.
After making the Theme Options changes and kicking off the rebuild you have to sit for a while and it grinds but after, you will get your thumbnails and resized images back. This is something to try in case you make the plunge and your Gallery 2 Import to Gallery 3 doesn't fully take. I am sure later versions will check for this, but for now it is a workaround.


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A lot of us are running around with our heads spinning round, trying to decide what to gift for our family, loved ones and friends. We often forget the hundreds to thousands of people who will go without not only Christmas gifts but also food. Hopefully you can find it in your heart to donate some money to our local food banks and various other charities that strive to make the holidays joyous for all mankind.
– Kenny Hibbler, Creative Director
$1 Feeds 4 People.
For many of us, the holidays bring thoughts of cheerful gatherings, gift giving and going back for seconds. But for thousands of North Texas kids, families and seniors, all that comes to mind is "Where will I find my next meal?"
Families who once prepared a lavish feast are now skipping dinner. Kids who, just last year, were asking for the newest toy are now walking to school hungry. And elderly couples, recently enjoying retirement, are now choosing between paying bills and putting food on the table.
Fortunately, we can come together as a community and make things better. In fact, a simple one-dollar donation to the North Texas Food Bank provides four meals for hungry North Texans.
This holiday season, North Texans need your help more than ever. Please click on the Donate Today button to start making a difference right away. Individually you can make a meaningful impact on someone's life–together we can truly fight hunger in our community.
Join the fight against hunger. Donate Today.
Our Donor Confidentiality Pledge Personal information remains confidential and will not be shared, traded or sold by the North Texas Food Bank.
For those of you outside of North Texas (KRAVE Is based there), please visit Feeding America for information on how to assist your local and national food banks to fight hunger right HERE in our country.


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A day spent Christmas shopping
Tax Deduction #1 and I spent all of last Saturday Christmas shopping.
To be more accurate, we spent several hours looking and about 15 minutes actually buying things. At a time when the economy is as stale as a Jay Leno monologue, it just seemed like the prudent thing to do.
I'm a firm believer in buying local � especially when it comes to produce and semi-automatic weapons. That being said, I thought TD#1 would get a kick out of visiting an old school behemoth of a shopping center, so we pointed the Impala west and headed for the Streets at Southpoint in Durham.
Anyone that knows me at all knows I detest two things: Being late and sports memorabilia in any color other than the team�s official colors.
I know this is America and people want choices, but pink Dallas Cowboy T-shirts are just wrong. Even Free Press Managing Editor and sports elitist Bryan Hanks special-orders pink adult-sized Virginia footy pajamas by the case.
Wanting to cram as much into the day as possible, we got started fairly early. The plan was to be pulling into the parking lot just as the stores were opening, which would be 10 a.m. We didn't exactly bring our A-game, but we made it there at a respectable 10:06 a.m.
If a certain 8-year-old weren't so nitpicky about things like breakfast, bathroom breaks and having to have BOTH shoes we could have made it by 10 � but I'm not bitter. Not one bit. Not at all. It's fine.
We entered the Streets at Southpoint and were greeted by a mass of humanity not seen since Rush Limbaugh and Rosie O'Donnell hooked up at Burning Man back in �06. Their love was brief, but at the time Moses couldn't have parted them.
The purpose of our trip was to find something for The Wife/The Mama. The Wife/The Mama never asks for anything or drops hints. Apparently being married to a man with the body of Adonis, the charm of Pierce Brosnan and the natural scent of hickory-smoked bacon has rendered the idea of any further gifts as mere piffle.
The only Christmas gift I've given that was an unabashed homerun was a novelty item purchased as a goof at the last minute. I was walking out of a store and noticed a stack of those odd concoctions that only appear in December. An example would be a frying pan/MP3 player/label maker that can be folded into a pair of sunglasses.
The item stacked in a pyramid in the middle of the walkway this time was a jewelry washing machine. Supposedly all you had to do was dump your fine jewelry into the machine, squirt a little of the provided magic goo on top and hit a button and within seconds your jewelry would be restored to its original pawn shop luster.
I was hesitant to buy the jewelry washer for two reasons. For one thing I�d already purchase a home spa kit for The Wife/The Mama. This thing turned an ordinary tub into a Jacuzzi, so I just knew I�d struck pay dirt. Secondly, aside from a wedding ring and maybe 3 percent of a dinner ring I bought her when we were dating, most of The Wife/The Mama's jewelry was as fake as Matt Lauer's left buttock.
For whatever reason, I ended up getting the jewelry washing machine. I figured if nothing else I could use it to wash the letters off of M&M's. They say the chocolate doesn�t melt in your hand, but we all know that�s not necessarily the case.
In short, that Christmas the Jacuzzi/spa thing was met with a polite thank you while the jewelry washer elicited a �wow� and a hug. It was this moment that led to several years of gift-card only Christmas shopping.
Over the course of a year the Jacuzzi/spa thing was cranked up maybe twice, while the jewelry washer caused a stir in the family. Women of relation near and far interrogated me about the jewelry washer. For months afterwards strangers would stop me on the street and ask for any information that could lead to the acquisition of the magical $20 machine that could clean $4 worth of jewelry in a matter of seconds.
TD#1 and I plowed through crowds of people to peruse gifts no wise man in his right mind would pay for. When we found a nice blouse that was priced at a mere $265, TD#1 remarked that it should only cost about $5. I figured the woman who knitted the thing was probably paid $5 a week. We passed on the blouse.
With the help of Friend of The Column and Durham resident Correai Moore, we eventually found a few nice things for The Wife/The Mama. Later on we ended up at a Best Buy that � shock of shocks � still had a CD section.
I mention this because TD#1 went up to the Christmas music section and began a feverish search. Fearing the worst I stood stoically by as she passed over the insipid Justin Bieber, the apparently possessed-by-Perry-Como Rod Stewart and the blusterously nonsensical Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
What did that sweet, brilliant child eventually choose? She chose the Vince Guraldi Trio�s �A Charlie Brown Christmas Soundtrack.� This may seem trivial, but anytime quality wins out over well-promoted garbage it makes me happy. It did my heart good to see TD#1 choose something she genuinely liked instead of what the rest of the world is trying to tell her to like.
I forget where I was going with this. Free Tibet and Merry Christmas!
Jon Dawson�s columns appear every Tuesday and Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Purchase Jon�s book �Making Gravy in Public� at the Free Press office or jondawson.com.


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Jim Breuer and Noreen Haddad were never able to say goodbye to their brother, lay flowers on a casket or visit him in a cemetery. Sunnyside resident Donald C. Breuer was 26 years old when he was killed in action in 1972 during the Vietnam War and his body was never recovered.
Now, after 42 years, Breuer will live on in the neighborhood he called home and in a park he and his siblings visited at a young age.
Breuer's name, which is on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C., will now become part of a list of veterans from Sunnyside and Woodside that is being engraved on a commemorative plaque at L. CPL Thomas P. Noonan Playground.
"This was our Central Park, this was the park to come and play," said Jim, who now lives in the Bronx. "It is going to be wonderful to see his name here. I think [our mom] would be very touched."
The plaque is part of the reconstruction and renovation of the Sunnyside playground, which was named after Lance Corporal Thomas P. Noonan who was also killed in action attempting to rescue members of his company and later awarded the Medal of Honor.
"Noonan Playground is an important community hub for our seniors, families and local children," Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer said Friday during the official ground breaking of the playground's reconstruction. "The renovations will make the park safer for children and forever commemorate the sacrifices our local veterans made for this great nation.
Van Bramer allocated $2 million to redesign and expand the local playground as well as have a granite slab added to the base of the park's flagpole as a monument to Noonan. The city's Parks Department also received additional funding to renovated the basketball and handball courts.
The renovation of the park, which is expected to be completed in one year, will include the addition of play equipment, a play area for children from 2 to 5 years old and another for children 5 to 12 years old, and a new rainbow spray shower. Additional planted areas are also being created within the playground along Greenpoint Avenue and 43rd Street. Lighting will also be improved, the main entrance will be partially reconstructed and new bike racks, benches, paving and fencing will be installed.
Two years ago Van Bramer launched a Noonan Park Community Design Initiative, which brought in community suggestions from students of nearby P.S. 199 and residents on what they wanted to be done at the park.
"I believe great parks equal great neighborhoods and with the feedback we have received from the community we will rebuild a better playground that everyone can enjoy," Van Bramer said.


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Snoozihedz Dragon
Make the journey warm and comfy with your cozy travel pal.
SnooziHedz is the ultimate travel companion. The cute character unzips to reveal a comfy inflatable pillow and cozy fleece blanket that connect together with the unique Trunki Grip. This stops the blanket sliding off so your little one stays tucked up toasty.
Recommended for ages 2+
Orders are sent via Next Day Delivery via DPD - (Unfortunately next day service is not available for Ireland or Highlands, this also excludes Custom Trunki which takes up to 10 days)
If your order is placed before 1pm it will be eligible for same day dispatch, otherwise it will be sent the following day.
Orders under £10 will be sent via Royal Mail and can take upto 3 days.
If you are unhappy with your purchase for any reason, you can return it to the below address within 14 days of your delivery in perfect condition complete with original packaging. We will be happy to refund the original price of the item or send you an exchange. This does not affect your statutory rights. We regret that postage, packing and insurance are direct costs and cannot be refunded.
We strongly advise that a proof of postage receipt should be obtained when returning your order. You are responsible for the item until we receive it at our warehouse.
Should goods be damaged or faulty please contact us on 01179 542 780 or via our contact form.
Please include your order details and send returns to: Trunki Returns The Mothership Shaftesbury Chapel Union Rd Bristol BS2 0LP


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Privacy Policy from Infospace.com. The live version of this document is available at http://infospace.com/support/privacypolicy. This document is a part of Docracy's Terms of Service Tracker project, which tracks changes to terms of service and privacy policy documents of many of the world's top websites.
Google, Yahoo!, and Yandex
Privacy Policy
InfoSpace, LLC ("InfoSpace") owns and operates a number of different sites on the Web (each, an "InfoSpace Site"). InfoSpace is strongly committed to protecting the privacy of its user community. The intent of this privacy policy is to detail the information InfoSpace may gather about individuals who visit the InfoSpace Sites, how that information is used, and InfoSpace's disclosure practices. Please note that this policy applies only to the InfoSpace Sites, and not to the Web sites of other companies or organizations to which we provide links or to any software that may be downloaded from the InfoSpace Sites.
Anonymous User Information
InfoSpace collects some anonymous information each time you visit an InfoSpace Site so we can improve the overall quality of your online experience. We collect your IP address, referral data, and browser and platform type. You do not have to register with InfoSpace before we can collect this anonymous information.
The InfoSpace Sites do not require you to share information that identifies you personally, such as your name or e-mail address, in order for you to use the InfoSpace Sites. The InfoSpace Sites assign an anonymous ID number to your requests and links the following additional data to that number: the date and time you visited the InfoSpace Site, your search terms, and the links upon which you choose to click. Like most standard Web site servers, we use log files to collect and store this anonymous user information. InfoSpace analyzes the information to examine trends, administer the site, track user's movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use.
Individual User Information
From time-to-time the InfoSpace Sites request information from you that may identify you personally in addition to the anonymous information described above. The requested information typically includes contact information (such as name, e-mail address, shipping address, and zip code), and demographic information (such as age, gender, occupation, and household income). InfoSpace will not use or disclose your individual user information except as described in this privacy policy. InfoSpace collects individual user information in the following ways from different InfoSpace Sites:
Surveys or Contests
From time to time, InfoSpace may conduct surveys or contests on an InfoSpace Site. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and you therefore have a choice whether or not to disclose individual user information to the InfoSpace Site. Contest information will be shared with the contest or survey sponsors to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of the InfoSpace Site. We may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests. These companies may use your personal information to help the InfoSpace Site communicate with you about offers from the InfoSpace Site and our marketing partners. Such third parties do not have InfoSpace's permission to use your personally identifiable information for any secondary purpose.
Go2Net.com Registration
The InfoSpace Site located at www.go2net.com offers customization capabilities. To register, you must provide InfoSpace with your name, zip code, e-mail address, birth date, gender, and income range. While not all of this data is required for our services to function, we are better able to customize your experience if you volunteer complete and accurate information. Users who complete the registration process are given a Go2Net ID and can take full advantage of the Go2Net customization capabilities.
Directory Services
InfoSpace offers certain personalization services within its directory services (i.e., White Pages and Yellow Pages) that enable you to give us your geographic location so we can remember it for you when you return to use our service. For example, if we know that you are searching from Bellevue, Washington for a particular company, we will pre-populate the city and state fields with Bellevue and Washington. While you are not required to use this feature of the directory services, the information enables us to provide you with a more efficient experience on the InfoSpace Sites. In addition, InfoSpace allows you to update, correct any errors in the listings, or include yourself in the directory services. In order to make these modifications, you may provide InfoSpace with certain individual user information that InfoSpace will use, along with its affiliates and third party service providers, to modify and update your information in the directory services database.
Yellow Pages listings are supplied by Verizon SuperPages. To add or update your existing free basic Yellow Pages listing, please go to the following web site: https://snap.superpages.com/NASApp/Listing/control/ViewListing. To delete your listing, please call the customer service department at 1-800-428-8722 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-800-428-8722 end_of_the_skype_highlighting, stay on the line without pushing any prompts, and a representative will assist you.
Once you have located it, simply click the update or remove link. To verify your request, InfoSpace will send an e-mail message to the address that you provide. Once you confirm the request, your listing will be updated or deleted. Please allow approximately 24 hours for the update to become active after we receive your confirmation.
User Groups
When you register for a user group on any of the InfoSpace Sites, you are asked for your individual user information. The individual user information may be collected and stored by a third party partner. This partner will store your individual user information on their servers for a period of time at which InfoSpace will assume such storage responsibilities and your information will be deleted from their servers. The partner will not have InfoSpace's permission to use your individual user information for secondary purposes. If you choose to participate in a user group, your individual user information will be used to qualify you and to contact you for various projects at InfoSpace's discretion. InfoSpace may share your individual user information with a third party with whom InfoSpace has entered into an agreement to support such user group projects. You may opt out at any time by following the opt out provisions of this privacy policy.
If you elect to use our referral service for informing a friend about any of our sites, we ask you for your friend's name and e-mail address. InfoSpace will automatically send the friend a one-time e-mail inviting them to visit the InfoSpace Site. InfoSpace does not store the information related to your friends and the one-time e-mail sent pursuant to your input will be our only contact with that person for such input.
If you contact InfoSpace, we may keep a record of that correspondence and we may collect your e-mail address.
Third Party Information Gathering
The InfoSpace Sites include content and ads from third parties that may perform user activity tracking other than that described herein. For more information about each third party content provider, cookies, and how to "opt-out", please refer to such third party advertiser's privacy policy.
The InfoSpace Sites contain links to other sites on the Web. Please be aware that InfoSpace is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Web site.
InfoSpace may set and access InfoSpace or partner cookies on your computer. A cookie is a small data file that a Web site may send to your browser and which may then be stored on your system. We use both session cookies and persistent cookies. For the session cookie, once you close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on your hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.
We use cookie and web beacon technology to track which pages on the InfoSpace Sites our visitors view and which Web browsers our visitors use. We may also use cookies to help us provide personalized features and preferences to you within various InfoSpace Sites in a way that may be linked to individual user information that you elect to share with us. We also use "action tags" to assist in delivering the cookie. These action tags allow us to compile statistics and other data about our customers on an aggregate basis, by embedding a random identifying number on each user's browser. Then we track where that number shows up on our site.
Though we make every effort to preserve your privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a criminal investigation, a court order, or legal process served on our Web site. We may also share your personal information if we believe it is necessary in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of InfoSpace's or such InfoSpace Site's terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.
InfoSpace Sites may use third party service providers to serve ads and e-mails on our behalf. These companies may use technologies to measure the effectiveness of ads and e-mails and use information about your visits to the InfoSpace Site so that we can provide a better search experience to you. For this purpose, we may also provide these third party service providers anonymous information about your site navigation.
Mergers; Business Transitions
In the event InfoSpace goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.
We desire to keep you in control of the personal information you provide to us. Accordingly, you can review, correct, change or remove the personal registration information you provide to InfoSpace and that InfoSpace controls. In order to elect not to receive future communications from us, please Contact us
Notification of Changes
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement in places we deem appropriate so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.
If, however, we are going to use Individually Identifiable Information in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify users by posting a notice on our Web site for 30 days.
Special Notification with respect to Children's Privacy (Users under the age of 13)
In response to concerns about protecting children's privacy online, Congress enacted the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 ("COPPA"), which sets forth rules and procedures governing the ways in which Web sites may collect, use and disclose any personal information for children under the age of 13. In accordance with InfoSpace policy and COPPA regulations, we DO NOT:
It is possible that by fraud or deception we may receive information given to us or pertaining to children under 13. If we are notified of this, as soon as we verify the information, we will immediately delete the information from our servers
Questions regarding children's privacy should be directed to:
InfoSpace, LLC
10900 NE 8th Street, Suite 800
Bellevue, Washington 98004 USA
+ (1) 425.201.6100 phone
+ (1) 425.201.6150 fax
E-mail: Contact us
Policy effective October 8, 2013
Google, Yahoo!, and Yandex


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To join the discussion about A Confident Heart, or to order a copy, go here.
There's an old story about Abraham Lincoln and his horse. It seems that the president was trying to get on his horse, but the horse started hopping around and got his back hoof hung in the stirrup. Lincoln stopped, looked at the horse, and said, "If you want to get on, I'll get off."
I think that God sometimes says something similar to us. Women, in particular, are afflicted with the Miss Perfection syndrome. I think it comes from our strivings to be good girls. We share an all-too-human craving for approval and validation from the people around us. For women, this is intensified by our intuitive understanding of others.
Make no mistake about it, women are better at people skills than men. When it comes to human interaction, we have a whole other level of intelligence that is just not there in most men. This intelligence can cripple rather than empower if we turn it on ourselves in the guise of people-pleasing.
The truth is, if we are trying to please others 24/7, then we aren't in sync with the God Who made us. We aren't doing what He made us to do. Read the Scriptures through from "In the beginning" to "Come Lord Jesus." You will not find admonitions to make people pleasing a life's goal in there anywhere.
On the contrary. We are a exhorted to please God, even if it displeases other people.
That's a tough order for most of us with double x chromosomes, wired as we are with antennae that respond to the slightest change in the emotional weather of those around us.
Renee Swope wrote a book from her heart to other women when she wrote A Confident Heart. The subtitle, How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Live in the Security of God's Promises, says it all.
Mrs Swope talks directly to women with this book. She frames her message by sharing the life lessons she has learned, first from growing up in a broken home with a distant father, and then walking the high-wire act of care-giver, mom, writer, ministry leader.
The truth is, the average American woman's life is an insanity-making brew of conflicting demands based on conflicting roles. Most women work almost non-stop at their various jobs, and most women feel that they are failing at least a little bit at each of those jobs. We live, as Henry David Thoreau said, "lives of quiet desperation."
We drive ourselves to get it all right, at least on the outside, and often end up neglecting the inside of our lives and the lives of those around us. Miss Perfection doesn't have time to follow God because she is too busy trying to prove something that can't be proven to people who really don't care all that much, anyway.
People pleasing is a poison that drives us to drink deep of the unhealthy brew of perfectionism and pretense. God pleasing is simply being who we are.
People pleasing perfectionism is all about lying on the outside, hiding the flaws that make us human and hoping that no one ever finds out. It is about self-isolating fear and fraudulent living under the whip of our own demands. God pleasing is a matter of letting go and simply knowing … accepting … that He is God. God pleasing is as simple as saying yes in a long sigh of relief.
We don't have to do anything for God to love us. No matter what we accomplish, He will not love us any more. No matter how often we fail, He will not love us any less.
Unconditional love is the answer to people pleasing, and the only place we will ever find it is at the foot of the cross.
Mrs Swopes takes her women readers through a discussion of the gifts of the spirit and how they apply to their own lives. That is the one place where I part company with her in this book. Catholics and Protestants both encourage people to spend time looking for what God wants of us. Catholics call it discernment, Protestants call it seeking God's will.
I think — and I realize that I am almost alone in this — that all we have to do is just follow. Follow Christ. Obey the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes and trust Him. You don't need to chase yourself around, looking for God's plan for your life. It has been my experience that if God wants you to do something, you won't be able to get out of it.
It is a mark of how much this book got to me that I say that. I got engaged with it, and found myself in quite a few of the things that Mrs Swopes wrote. I did this to the point that I found myself dialoging with the author — and now the people reading this blog — in my head.
A Confident Heart is designed to be used either in personal reading or in small group settings. It comes with a dvd to help the study group setting.
If you are a woman who is struggling to find spiritual balance in your life (which of us isn't?) then A Confident Heart is a good place to find some answers.
I'm going to offer a free giveaway of this book to three of Public Catholic's women readers. It will be very simple. The first three women commenters who ask for it, will receive a free copy.


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The 2007 video of then-Senator Barack Obama hinting at racism in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina isn't the only news story that NBC's Today show stuck up its nose at during the first days of October. The morning newscast has conspicuously ignored covering the latest developments in the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. It hasn't devoted a full segment or even a news brief to the issue since September 29.
As Today devoted air time to how Mitt Romney's debate performance was supposedly "completely overshadowed" by "hunting" Big Bird, ABC's Good Morning America and CBS This Morning devoted full reports on Monday to a former security official's charge that the State Department ignored repeated requests for extra security at the diplomatic facility in Libya.
ABC and CBS's morning shows also put their colleagues at NBC to shame on Friday when they covered e-mails that showed that the State Department denied a request for increased security at American diplomatic facilities in Libya in May.
The NBC morning show started this omission trend on the terrorist attack even before their last report at the end of September. The same week the Big Three newscasts devoted 88 minutes of air time to the "47 percent" secret recording of Romney, Today failed to cover U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice's claim on the September 16, 2012 edition of Meet the Press that "what happened in Benghazi was, in fact, initially, a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo."
The program also ignored The Daily Beast's scoop from September 26 that U.S. intelligence officials had "strong indications" within a day after the attack in Benghazi that Islamist terrorists had carried it out. ABC's Jake Tapper provided the only Big Three coverage within 48 hours of Eli Lake's article.
On September 29's Today - their last coverage of the developing story - fill-in news anchor Craig Melvin spotlighted how "the U.S. intelligence community is under fire because officials now admit their initial assessment about what led to the September 11th attack in Libya that killed a U.S. Ambassador was wrong." Correspondent Pete Williams pointed out that "spokesman for the U.S. director of national intelligence now says the attack in Benghazi was deliberate and organized" and added that this was a "big change from the administration's original claim." Williams did include a clip of Ambassador Rice's "spontaneous reaction" talking point from Meet the Press.
One might get the overall impression that NBC News is too busy trying to provide cover and excuses for President Obama and his administration to be bothered to do the real journalism on the consulate attack. As Fred Barnes pointed out in the October 15, 2012 edition of the Weekly Standard, "An obvious question arises, or at least should. Was there a cover-up? If we had a Republican president—or even a Democratic president not named Obama—the press would be pursuing that possibility with great intensity."
The full transcripts of ABC's Good Morning America and CBS This Morning's Monday coverage of the latest developments in the Benghazi consulate attack:
07:07 am EDT
ABC - Good Morning America
JOSH ELLIOT: Exclusive new information this morning about that attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya that did kill the U.S. ambassador, three other Americans there. ABC News has obtained a memo that raises new questions about whether the State Department rejected warnings from its own staff about security.
Senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper joins us this morning with those details. Good morning to you, Jake.
[ABC News Graphic: "Security Warnings Ignored? Memo Raises Questions About Libya Attack"]
JAKE TAPPER: Good morning, Josh. That's right. This memo details all the ways that the embassy in Libya thought a security support team was vital to their operations. But that team left in August, and the commander of the team told me he wanted to stay past August, and Ambassador Chris Stevens wanted them to stay as well.
TAPPER: (voice-over) In the memo, obtained exclusively by ABC News, the embassy in Libya did not mince words, requesting that the State Department keep the 16-member security support team in the country. 'Quite simply, we cannot maintain our existing levels of Embassy operations without a continued security support team presence,' the memo says. That request, made in February, was granted. But after that, security in Libya deteriorated further, with Western targets attacked.
Now, the commander of the security team - former Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Wood - tells me he and his team wanted to stay past August, and that Ambassador Stevens wanted them there as well. But, for some reason, the State Department, he says, did not let it happen. Wood will testify before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.
REP. DARRYL ISSA, (R), CALIFORNIA: We need to operate, in a country like Libya, with erring on the side of security.
TAPPER: A senior State Department official tells ABC News that no official request for an extension after August was ever made, and there were just as many U.S. shooters present as before. The official denied that the State Department was too eager to transfer security to local Libyan contractors - an idea congressional investigators are exploring.
TAPPER (on-camera): And the big question, of course, is whether or not this would have made a difference. The State Department says no - the security support team would have been in Tripoli that night of the attack. But Lieutenant Colonel Wood tells me the last time that Ambassador Stevens was going to go to Benghazi, the security support team was going to go with them - although that trip was scrubbed. Josh?
ELLIOT: We will be looking ahead to that testimony. Jake Tapper, there in Washington, thank you for that.
07:00 am EDT
CBS This Morning
O'DONNELL: The former top security official for the U.S. ambassador to Libya is testifying to Congress this week.
But Sharyl Attkisson spoke with him on Sunday. She's in Washington with an interview you'll see only on 'CBS This Morning.' Sharyl, good morning.
[CBS News Graphic: "Deadly Libya Attack: Official To CBS News: Staff Pleaded For Security"]
SHARYL ATTKISSON: Good morning, Norah. Andrew Wood is a highly-decorated special forces Green Beret with counter-terrorism expertise, who headed a sixteen-member security team in Libya. He met daily with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, who was killed, along with three colleagues, in the assault on the U.S. compound in Benghazi. Wood says the State Department initiated an ill-advised draw-down of security in the six months before the assault. One month before the attack, Wood's military team and the last of three SWAT-style State Department teams left Libya.
ATTKISSON (from pre-recorded interview): When you found out the last two teams were being pulled from Libya, what was your feeling about that?
LT. COL. ANDREW WOOD, ARMY NATIONAL GUARD: I felt like we were being asked to play the piano with two fingers. There was concern amongst the entire embassy staff. I had people come and ask me that as well-
ATTKISSON: What were they saying?
WOOD: I – I didn't feel good about – they asked if we were safe. They asked if – if – what was going to happen? And I could only answer that what we're being told was, they're working on it. They'll get us more. But I never saw that.
ATTKISSON: Ambassador Stevens wanted continued or enhanced security. The regional security officer wanted enhanced or continued security-
WOOD: Yes-
ATTKISSON: You wanted enhanced or continued security-
WOOD: Yes-
ATTKISSON: It was a consensus on the ground?
WOOD: For enhanced or continued – security that we had, that we had known, that we had come to live with and work with there for the environment we had. We felt we needed more, not less.
ATTKISSON: So, all the experts on the ground are telling headquarters at the State Department, we need this. And the answer kept coming back as?
WOOD: You've got to do with less. For what reasons? I don't know.
ROSE (live): Sharyl, does – do those believe that if, in fact, those security teams had not been withdrawn - even though they can't really know the answer to this - but they may very well have been able to have resisted the attack and save lives?
ATTKISSON: Well, they've certainly talked about that, according to Colonel Wood. He says he wonders - he told us - that armed members of his military team, as well as the companion State Department security team, would have traveled to Benghazi with Ambassador Wood [sic], had they still been in the country on September 11. But on that day, the U.S. was down 34 highly-trained security officers in Libya, compared to just six months before. The State Department told us they're still sorting through everything, but that they don't see evidence of a lot of security requests that were denied. Charlie?
O'DONNELL: Sharyl Attkisson, thank you.


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SPORTS LEGENDS MUSEUM AT CAMDEN YARDS TO HOST FOOTBALL ROUNDTABLE WITH LOCAL MEDIA ON SEPTEMBER 17th
Baltimore Media Members to Provide Insight on 2013 Baltimore Ravens Season
Baltimore, Md. – Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards today announced that it will host a football roundtable discussion on Tuesday, September 17 from Noon to 1:30 p.m. with members of the local sports media.
The panel of Baltimore media experts will consist of Pete Gilbert (WBAL-TV, WBAL Radio, 98 Rock & Ravens Broadcast Team); Bruce Cunningham (Fox 45 Sports Director & Public Address Announcer at M&T Bank Stadium); Nestor Aparicio (WNST Founder & Author of Purple Reign and Purple Reign 2); and Jeff Zrebiec (The Baltimore Sun). The panelists will discuss the Ravens off-season moves, provide their insight & predictions for the 2013 season and take questions from members of the audience.
"There is an excitement building as the Ravens prepare to kickoff their 2013 campaign, especially after winning the Super Bowl last season ," said Mike Gibbons, executive director of the Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation. "Baltimoreans love talking football, so we thought this roundtable would be a great opportunity for the media who cover the team and fans to come together to share their thoughts on the Ravens initial start to the season and the long-term outlook for 2013."
Tickets for the program are $25.00 and include lunch, the roundtable program and admission to the galleries at Sports Legends Museum. Attendees will have the opportunity to see the latest additions to the Ravens Gallery featuring new artifacts from the Super Bowl XLVII Championship season. Artifacts include Ravens Kicker Justin Tucker's cleats worn during Super Bowl XLVII; Ravens Defensive End Arthur Jones' jersey (#97) worn during the Wild Card game against the Indianapolis Colts; a reproduction Super Bowl XLVII ring that is an exact replica of the one presented to Joe Flacco with his name and "MVP" engraved on the side; and more.
To order tickets, please contact Ashley Serano at 410-727-1539 x3013 or firstname.lastname@example.com.
About The Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation
The Babe Ruth Birthplace Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and celebrating the legacy of Maryland's rich sports heritage. The Foundation owns and operates both Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards and the Babe Ruth Birthplace. Located adjacent to Oriole Park, Sports Legends Museum at Camden Yards opened in May 2005 and consists of 22,000 square feet of artifacts and interactive exhibits profiling Maryland's sports history. Among the items featured in the Museum's Ravens' Gallery are the Super Bowl jerseys of Jonathan Ogden and Matt Stover, as well as the football from the team's first home game.


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Fake Psy Tricks People at Cannes [Pic]
Someone was biting off Psy's 'Gangnam Style' at Cannes. A Psy impostor made the rounds at the film festival, posing with fans and celebrities. Apparently, they were easily fooled, thinking that the K-Pop superstar was in the house.
Uh, he wasn't. He was in another part of the world and moved quickly to clarify his location. Thank God for Twitter, which helped him get the word out about Faux Psy.
The currently unidentified fake Psy left behind enough photographic evidence, so he's not being covert or subtle about it. The real Psy saw these photos and quickly tweeted to reveal that he is not in Cannes, but in Singapore, so anyone posing with someone who looks like him is being snookered.
So any Cannes-related Psy photo opps are worthless. Anyone who was fooled should remove the offending pics from their feeds in order to stave off embarrassment.
Below is Psy's tweet and a photo that he shared of the fake Psy.
Psy tweeted: "Here the picture of #fakePSYinCannes spotted by @scooterbraun!! lol #realPSYinSingapore."
We have to admit. The doppelganger does resemble the real thing, although he's not nearly as stylish. Or Psy-lish!