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WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is nearing a decision to send more than 30,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan next year, but he may not announce it until after he consults with key allies and completes a trip to Asia later this month, administration and military officials have told McClatchy.
As it now stands, the administration's plan calls for sending three Army brigades from the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Ky. and the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y. and a Marine brigade, for a total of as many as 23,000 additional combat and support troops.
Another 7,000 troops would man and support a new division headquarters for the international force's Regional Command (RC) South in Kandahar, the Taliban birthplace where the U.S. is due to take command in 2010. Some 4,000 additional U.S. trainers are likely to be sent as well, the officials said.
The first additional combat brigade probably would arrive in Afghanistan next March, the officials said, with the other three following at roughly three-month intervals, meaning that all the additional U.S. troops probably wouldn't be deployed until the end of next year. Army brigades number 3,500 to 5,000 soldiers; a Marine brigade has about 8,000 troops.
The plan would fall well short of the 80,000 troops that Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, suggested as a "low-risk option" that would offer the best chance to contain the Taliban-led insurgency and stabilize Afghanistan.
It splits the difference between two other McChrystal options: a "high-risk" one that called for 20,000 additional troops and a "medium-risk" one that would add 40,000 to 45,000 troops.
The officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss internal administration planning, cautioned that Obama's decision isn't final, and won't be until after administration officials discuss it with the NATO allies at a Nov. 23 meeting of the alliance's North Atlantic Council and its Military Committee.
Coalition forces now include 67,000 U.S. and 42,000 troops from other countries. The Army's counterinsurgency manual estimates that an all-out counterinsurgency campaign in a country with Afghanistan's population would require about 600,000 troops.
Although the administration privately is holding out little hope of persuading Canada or the Netherlands to abandon their plans to withdraw combat troops, much less getting additional allied troops, it wants to avoid creating the impression - at home and abroad - that the U.S. "is going it alone" in Afghanistan, said one military official.
In an interview last week with The New York Times, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner complained that the American administration is leaving its NATO allies in the dark about its new strategy.
"What is the goal? What is the road? And in the name of what?" Kouchner asked, according to the Times. "Where are the Americans? It begins to be a problem . . . . We need to talk to each other as allies."
The officials said that Obama also wants to complete his Nov. 11-19 Asia trip and a state visit by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, the arch foe of Pakistan, a key U.S. ally in the war on terror, before he announces his Afghanistan plan.
Administration officials also want time to launch a public relations offensive to convince an increasingly skeptical public and a wary Democratic Congress - which must agree to fund the administration's plan - that the war, now in its ninth year and inflicting rising casualties, is one of "necessity," as Obama said earlier this year.
"This is not going to be an easy sell, especially with the fight over health care and the (Democratic) party's losses" of the governors' mansions in New Jersey and Virginia last week, said one official.
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Generating public, congressional and international support for a troop increase will require heavy pressure on Afghan President Hamid Karzai to crack down on endemic corruption and drug trafficking, surrender more power to provincial and local governments and improve public services, the officials said. Karzai won a second term last week when his first-round election opponent bowed out of a run-off.
"Another reason for the president to hold off for a bit on ordering more troops to Afghanistan is that we can tell Karzai that if he doesn't act firmly now, there won't be any support for a troop increase," said one official. "That has the added advantage of being true, and it's easier to hold off on sending more troops than it is to threaten to pull them out once they're there."
U.S. allies already have begun applying pressure. On Thursday, Kouchner called Karzai "corrupt," and the next day, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that if Karzai's government didn't attack corruption, international support against the Taliban-led insurgency would evaporate.
"Sadly, the government of Afghanistan had become a byword for corruption," Brown said in a speech. "And I am not prepared to put the lives of British men and women in harm's way for a government that does not stand up against corruption."
As McClatchy reported last week, the Obama administration has been quietly working with U.S. allies and Afghan officials on an "Afghanistan Compact," a package of reforms and anti-corruption measures that it hopes will boost popular support for Karzai and erase the doubts about his legitimacy raised by his fraud-tainted re-election.
The officials said that as of Friday, when Obama's top military advisers met for at least the seventh time to discuss the strategy in Afghanistan, the president had spent nearly 20 hours in meetings on Afghanistan. The planned troop increase may be his best hope to balance the competing political, economic and international pressures his administration is feeling.
Republicans have pressed for a decision, and many at the Pentagon and in conservative political circles argue that Obama, who has little experience in military affairs, should back his commander and send him whatever troops he's requested. The president, they note, called McChrystal the best general the military had to tackle Afghanistan when he appointed him to his post last summer.
Other military officers, particularly in the Army, warn that committing more troops to Afghanistan could risk "breaking" the force by reducing the time soldiers can spend at home between deployments, overtaxing equipment and destroying families. Those problems could worsen if Iraq's January elections are delayed or disrupted, and with them the administration's timetable for withdrawing U.S. forces from that country.
Many Democrats, meanwhile, are urging Obama not to send more troops to Afghanistan. Some in his own administration, notably Vice President Joe Biden, aren't convinced that more troops would guarantee success and advocate instead more drone attacks and more training for Afghan forces.
Training Afghan troops, police and border guards, however, is proving to be a slow and frustrating process, hampered by corruption, illiteracy, ethnic rivalries and logistical problems, and carried out in the shadow of doubts about what kind of government the troops are serving.
Finally, Obama must reckon with domestic economic pressures. The unemployment rate reached 10.2 percent in October, the highest since 1983, and there are growing fears that changes in the nation's health care system could send the federal budget deficit even higher.
Obama campaigned saying that he'd fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars from the defense budget, but Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week that the Afghan war - which some administration officials privately concede could cost $700 billion to $1 trillion - might require a supplemental funding bill next year. Among the cost estimates the Pentagon is considering is $1 trillion over 10 years, two senior defense officials told McClatchy.
Because of these pressures, it's become "highly likely that the administration would send more troops," said Paul Pillar, the director of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University. "Then it is a matter of degree," particularly given the struggling U.S. economy.
For all the debate and deliberation, however, the proposed new deployments still may not answer the fundamental question about Afghanistan, Pillar said: Would a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan pose a threat to the United States?


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The San Francisco Giants -- whose players keep making news for matters occurring south of the suspenders -- have another "junk story" emerging on today's news wires.
Team doctors evidently had prescribed a player Viagra. If that's not a "performance-enhancing drug," then I'm not sure what is.
Andrew Baggarly busts the story today in his Contra Costa Times "Extra Baggs" blog that shortstop Brian Bocock was prescribed Viagra this past off-season in order to help circulation problems developing in his right hand.
U.S. & World
Circulation problems in your right hand? Sure, pal, we hear that one all the time.
It does appear that this was legit. It was Bocock himself who came forward with the information, so we'll tease him a Little less, ummm, hard.
Bocock tells the CoCo Times that he was prescribed the hard stuff for a circulation problem occurring in his right hand. The poor guy had fingers turning blue. "The doctors had me on baby aspirin, anti-inflammatories, blood thinners and, well --Viagra," Bocock said.
According to Bocock, the Viagra totally did the trick. It even helped the circulation problem in his right hand, too!
Again, it should be noted that Bocock's story does check out and his prescription appears legit. But don't be surprised if several Giants visit the clubhouse doctor this season complaining about "circulation problems in my right hand..."
Joe Kukura is a freelance writer who is totally going to try the old "circulation in my right hand" story with his physician.

subset: commoncrawl


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Recently, cloud platforms have emerged as a great way to build and deploy applications that require elastic scale, high reliability, and a rapid release cadence. By eliminating the need to buy and maintain hardware, the cloud gives developers inexpensive, on-demand access to computers, storage, and bandwidth without any commitment. Developing for the cloud also makes it easy and less risky to try out new ideas. If an idea is successful, it can be scaled up by adding more hardware. If an idea is unsuccessful, it can be shut down quickly.
The core benefits of the cloud were obvious from the start, but when I joined the Windows Azure team in 2007, the cloud was primarily seen as a way to provision virtual machines on demand. What excited me about Windows Azure was that it was a new kind of cloud platform that went beyond this. Microsoft set out to create a platform that made it easy for developers to build scalable and reliable applications without having to become experts in infrastructure. Today, I'm excited to see that the idea of a platform as a service (PaaS) model has grown and matured, and there are now many cloud providers that are recognizing this model.
As much as Windows Azure has changed and grown since I first joined the team, the core benefits have remained constant. Windows Azure offers an easy development experience, it gives developers the flexibility to choose their favorite tools, and it supports very demanding workloads.
Building Your First Cloud Application
Because Windows Azure supports many kinds of applications, programming languages, and tools, there are lots of ways you can get started, but let's start with an ASP.NET web application as an example.
The Installing the SDK and Getting a Subscription tutorial walks you through the process of getting your development environment ready for Windows Azure. Note that you don't actually need to sign up for Windows Azure to get the tools and start developing. The steps below are based on version 1.5 of the SDK.
Once you have the tools installed, start Visual Studio as an administrator, and create a new project based on the "Windows Azure Project" template as pictured in Figure 1.
Next, you'll be prompted to choose one or more "roles" for your application. In the next section, we'll learn more about roles and the part they play in cloud architecture. For now, just choose an ASP.NET MVC 3 Web Role by highlighting it and clicking the right arrow to add it to your solution, as in Figure 2.
As with any ASP.NET MVC application, the next screen will ask you what kind of MVC application you want to build. Just to get something to play with, I suggest choosing the "Internet Application" template; see Figure 3.
At this point, you have a functioning Windows Azure application. You can run it locally by pressing F5, and when you're ready to deploy to the cloud, you can choose either "Package" to create the files you'll need to deploy to the cloud, or "Publish" to deploy directly from Visual Studio; see Figure 4.
Now you can develop your custom application simply by editing the default ASP.NET MVC template, as you would for any ASP.NET application.
What you've seen so far may not look that impressive on the surface. We built a simple web application and ran it locally. It was easy to do, but we could have done that without Windows Azure. What's truly impressive is that this same application, without modification, can easily be deployed and scaled across many servers and even multiple data centers with ease. I can also update my application at any time without having to touch individual servers and without any downtime. All of this is possible because of Windows Azure's scalable programming model.
Scalable Programming Model
Not every application needs to grow to thousands of virtual machines and terabytes of data, but some do; and it's often the case that the developer of an application doesn't know what scale will ultimately be required. So, it's important to use a cloud platform that supports applications of any scale.
As is typical in the cloud, Windows Azure encourages a scale-out architecture. Scale-out means that your application's elastic scale is achieved by adding or removing virtual machines (not by moving to bigger and bigger servers, which would be called "scale up"). Scale-out architecture also gives your application reliability, high availability, and the ability to be upgraded without downtime.
In Windows Azure, this scale-out architecture is implemented by use of roles. A role is a component of your application that runs on multiple instances (virtual machines). Each instance of a role runs identical code, so a role can be scaled simply by adding or removing instances.
In the application we built in the previous section, our application had exactly one role (the ASP.NET MVC 3 web role). In a typical three-tier application, you might have a front-end web role and a back-end service role (along with a database for the third tier). Each role has its own code and can be scaled independently. Any role that accepts traffic from the internet (like a web application) sits behind a load balancer, ensuring that all instances contribute to your application's scalability.
For this architecture to work, each virtual machine needs to be identical. That means it needs to be running the same code (which it is, thanks to the concepts of roles). It also needs to have the same data. To make sure that all virtual machines have the same data, data should be centralized in a storage system. This model is exactly like a web farm with a database for storage.


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Wireless internet access now available.
Pacific Coast beaches, Scenic California Highway One, Redwoods, Farm life, Historic Architecture, nature, flower gardens, a full ranch breakfast, onsite hiking - all combined with generous hospitality, make Howard Creek Ranch special.
Howard Creek Ranch Inn is an historic, 60 acre, ocean front farm; bordered by miles of beach and mountains on the beautiful Mendocino Coast. We are a family owned and run business. Charles (Sunny) and Sally have been working on the Howard Creek Ranch for the last 20 years, and will probably be working on it for the next 20 years. Howard Creek Ranch is a Mendocino County Registered Historic Site nominated to the Federal Register of Historic Places.
The Ranch offers farm animals, award winning gardens, fireplaces/wood stoves, a 75 foot swinging foot bridge over Howard Creek, hot tubs, on-site hiking, sauna, and access to a German masseuse. 1000 year old redwoods, and horseback riding on the beach or in the mountains.
Accommodations include cabins, suites and rooms furnished with antiques, large comfortable beds, and handmade quilts with views of the ocean, mountains, creek or gardens. Wireless Internet connection is available for your computer.
A full ranch breakfast is included in your stay. Breakfast is a hearty farm meal with fresh juice, omelets, bacon, sausage, hot cakes, fried potatoes, grits, and baked apples with granola and whipped cream. Coffee is strong and early. Tea is available anytime. Menus change daily. Vegetarians are gladly accommodated.
There is plenty to do in the area and at the ranch. Visit the gigantic redwoods, take the famous Skunk Train, shop in the village of Mendocino, go horseback riding on the beach, in the mountains, in the redwoods or just relax in scenic splendor.
Howard Creek Ranch is alive with the rural splendor of sweeping ocean and mountain views, sixty acres of peace and beauty on the beach near the Lost Coast, a sixty mile long wilderness. The Ranch was settled in 1867 as a land grant of thousands of acres and included a sheep and cattle ranch, and a blacksmith shop. Horses and sheep graze the pastures. The buildings are constructed from virgin redwood from the ranch forest.
In the middle of a wide, green lawn sits a large 1871 farmhouse filled with antiques. A 75 foot swinging bridge spans Howard Creek as it flows past barns and cabins to the beach 300 yards away.
Howard Creek ranch was featured by the California Heartland, a Public Television Program special.
Are you looking for a Northern California Bed & Breakfast? Howard Creek Ranch is a Romantic Bed & Breakfast In Northern California For more information on a Northern California Bed & Breakfast, contact us at Howard Creek Ranch; (707) 964-6725.
Your Guide to Bed, Breakfast and Biking
Find bike-friendly bed & breakfast inns on your favorite biking/hiking trail!
Breakfast Menu | Horseback Riding | Hiking | Gift Certificates
General Policies | Pet Policies | Bird List | History


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"Happy Holidays" Towers For HO-scale Train Display
Create holiday train display with handcrafted water tower, control tower, beacon tower, more. Real metal, lights, decorations. Free mechanic figurine.
Measure up to 24 cm H
- Price:
- s&s◇
Just as stately towers add drama to a life-size railroad, miniature-scale towers can go a long way towards enhancing your train collection! In fact, they're the must-have accents to any prized train and village collection. Now, you can get your train set on track in a HO scale train holiday accessory collection handcrafted of fine artist's resin, beginning with Issue One, Happy Holidays Water Tower. Soon, you can look forward to Issue Two, Control Tower. Later, your collection will continue with additional train holiday accessories, some with FREE figurines, and each a separate issue to follow.
Ride the rails to Christmas fun with this HO scale train holiday accessory collection, available exclusively from The Bradford Exchange. Complete with a water tower, control tower, aircraft beacon and more, you'll enjoy flawlessly recreated details like "steel" supports crafted of real metal and the delightful garlands, wreaths and bows trimming each accessory. And you won't find a finer value anywhere. Strong demand is expected. Order now!
- A HO scale train holiday accessory collection perfect for your village and train display, available exclusively from The Bradford Exchange
- Meticulously handcrafted by master artisans, each detail is flawlessly recreated, from the "steel" supports made of real metal to the enchanting garlands, wreaths and bows that trim each accessory
- Accessories include a water tower with lighted Christmas trees and "wooden" storage shed; a luminous control flower topped by a flag; an illuminated, rotating beacon and more
- Require 2 "AA" batteries, not included
- This accessory collection's special touch of realism makes it a must-have addition to any cherished train collection
- Exceptional value, attractively priced
- Measure up to 24 cm H
- Reserve the HO scale train holiday accessory collection from The Bradford Exchange in your name so you never risk an increase on the price of other collectibles in this collection
- Each issue will be shipped to you for your review, about one every month or two (pending availability), at the same low issue price and charged to the credit card on which your order was placed. No need to order each one separately
- You may cancel your collection at any time with no obligation
- "Issue One - Happy Holidays Water Tower," will be followed by "Issue Two - Control Tower," and additional train accessories, some with FREE figurines, as they become available
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Exclusive HO Scale Train Holiday Accessory Collection Includes Water Tower, Control Tower, Aircraft Beacon and More!
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Whether it is business, adventure or romance that brings you to Hanoi, La Badiane provides that calm eye in the hurricane of Hanoi energy that you seek – with food flavors on par with five star restaurants from the likes of Paris, Rome, New York and other top tier food havens.
From tourist center Hoan Kiem Lake, it's about a half hour walk weaving between ubiquitous motor scooters to the unassuming street, replete with street food and merchandise vendors, where La Badiane makes its home.
Or, if you want to spare yourself the thrill or dread of being a Hanoi pedestrian, there are many rickshaw drivers or taxis to get you there in about ten minutes.
Other than the sign peeking above the row of parked scooters, there is nothing from the street view that suggests the charm of La Badiane's surrounds.
Walk into the plant-adorned entranceway and you begin to feel your transport into another world – an elegant world—where the simple uncluttered design with lights of bright reds on table tops welcome you.
It is no wonder that La Badiane has become a favorite of the growing community of expat Westerners as well as drawing many upscale Vietnamese natives as well.
There is nothing about La Badiane's cuisine that suggests it is watered down with an eye to appealing to the imagined dull palate of the typical tourist. That said, it should be noted that the restaurant was chosen by TripAdvisor as one of the world's best in 2013.
La Badiane's cuisine is described as "world fusion", but the French origins of the chef, Benjamin Rascalou, are apparent from soup to nuts.
So too are the fresh ingredients from the Vietnam locale that you find in every dish. That said, expect pesto, expect feta cheese, sumptuous chocolates and more.
As any traveler to Hanoi knows, it is sometimes difficult to find good wine in Vietnamese restaurants, even relatively upscale ones. Warning: wines from Dalat are barely recognizable as wine for regular wine drinkers. There was no Dalat wine at La Badiane—a solid sign that it is safe to explore the wine list. At both a lunch and dinner sampling of La Badiane, we sampled four excellent white wines—served both by glass or bottle.
If you have several occasions to visit La Badiane, this is clearly a wine menu worth exploring.
Our first and perhaps favorite dish of the evening was "Rémoulade de crabe à l'huile essentielle de gingembre, carpaccio de betteraves & asperges de Dalat". This was clearly the very fresh and delicious crab of Vietnam. It was augmented with the crunch of a sesame cracker, a touch of dill, some cilantro. The very fine chop of crab pieces and the razor thinness of the beet slices speaks to the care that goes into every dish. The mayonnaise aspect of the remoulade was barely noticeable. Rather, the predominant taste was the freshness of the crab. Excellent!
Next up was "Tambourins d'aubergines grille au fromage de chèvre, jambon de Parme & pesto balsamique" (grilled eggplants & goat cheese rolled in Parma ham, pesto and balsamic sauce). What struck us first was how creamy the goat cheese was and the sweetness of the balsamic vinegar. Clearly the best ingredients are being used.
For our first entrée we enjoyed "Souris d'agneau rôtie, pommes-noisettes feta-tomate, fèves à la tapenade, jus d'agneau au romain" (Roasted lamb shank, pan-fried potatoes stuffed with feta, beans in black olives, rosemary gravy). The "secret sauce", so to speak, was clearly the tamarind rosemary sauce that made the already succulent meat quite savory and sweet at once, a winning combination that one finds in much of the most delicious Vietnamese fare.
The chef then regaled us with a special treat of tender beef pieces cooked to look well-done on the outside and rare within, in which he demonstrated artfully how the temperature of the food bears heavily on how the palate receives it. Although in his comments to us the chef tended to downplay the degree to which technique matters, clearly technique—whether handling meat or fine mincing tomato pieces for a lunch menu item—is clearly at work.
What matters to Chef Rascalou most is creativity, of which he clearly has ample supply and which he defines as THE motor for his art. He was only 15 when his life course to become a chef was determined. He worked and studied with many renown chefs in France before moving to Vietnam twelve years ago.
Rascalou explains, "My objective—what I have always wanted to do—is something original….You have to have a good team and you need good technique and focus on quality. But if you aren't really working for yourself and making what you want to make you cannot do this right…I teach my team members everything I know—all the details of how to do it right. All our chefs are also free to innovate…We love what we do and find pleasure in it and we want everyone to say "This is good food'. You have to be technically good, but it is creativity that makes the difference."
If you love Vietnamese food, which is so easy to do, it may seem like an unnecessary detour to seek out a French inspired fusion menu after going such a long way to get to Hanoi. Know that you'd seek out this restaurant in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Seoul or any European capital. This is world class food.
One warning--SAVE ROOM FOR DESSERT. The chocolate dessert we sampled had exquisite hazelnut touches and a mix of textures that added to its burst of chocolate flavor.
Open for lunch and dinner, La Badiane accepts reservations.
Monday through Saturday—
Lunch (including Set Lunch menu) – 11:30 – 2:30
Dinner – 6:30 – 10:30
La Badiane
10 Nam Ngu Street, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam
Tel: +84 (4) 39 42 45 09
Photos: Peter Kachergis unless otherwise indicated


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Woodward County Democrat and Palace Weekly Pioneer. (Woodward, Okla.), Vol. 4, No. 37, Ed. 1 Thursday, December 31, 1908
Description: Weekly newspaper from Woodward, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: December 31, 1908
Item Type: Refine your search to only Newspaper
Partner: Oklahoma Historical Society


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Let $G$ be a finite group. Suppose that $G$ has a normal Sylow $p-$subgroup $P$ such that $|P|=p^2$ where $p\neq 2$, but $P$ does not contain an element of order $p^2$ or equivalently $P$ is not cyclic.
Is it the case that if $g \in G$ has order $k$ such that $\gcd(k,p)=1$ then there is an element of $G$ of order $kp$? Thanks in advance.


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More than 300 people are reported dead, and casualties are expected to rise as rescue workers examine the burnt husk of a garment factory in Pakistan's industrial hub of Karachi, which was still smoldering on Wednesday, 24 hours after the worst industrial disaster the country has seen in decades.
On Tuesday evening, reportedly around 6:30 p.m., a fire broke out in a four-story garment factory owned by Ali Enterprises in an industrial part of the city known as SITE. Initially a minor blaze, the conflagration quickly spun out of control and was classified as category 3 by local firefighters—the highest and most dangerous type—prompting the deployment of all available fire engines and staff, including those belonging to civil defense authorities and the Navy.
Lack of proper emergency exits—one firefighter has described the building as a "box"—and barred windows meant that most people were trapped within the building with no means of escape. The few who managed to break the windows or reach the roof were forced to jump. The majority of injuries, including broken limbs and second- and third-degree burns, were a result of such attempts, according to local hospital authorities.
Many among the dead were workers trapped in the building's basement. Ehtisham-ud-Din, the chief fire officer of Karachi, told journalists that with all exits blocked, most had died due to suffocation and excessive smoke inhalation. The basement of the building, which is now flooded due to the firefighting efforts, is believed to contain at least 50 more bodies. The fire officer said the bodies would be recovered once the water had been drained.
Factory workers told journalists that they manufactured underwear and plastics in two separate sections of the factory. The building operated 24 hours a day, with staff of approximately 500 in each of its three shifts. At the time of the fire, there were up to 500 people within the building, of whom 310 were confirmed dead, according to police chief Manzoor Mughal, who is heading an inquiry into the blaze.
Earlier on Tuesday, another fire razed a shoe factory in Lahore, the capital of Pakistan's largest province, Punjab, leaving at least 25 dead and 14 injured. Taken together, the two fires highlighted growing concerns that factory owners are bribing government officials to either ignore safety guidelines or bypass them in favor of utilizing the maximum space allotted for employees and work.
"This is purely government inefficiency and corruption," Fazal Sherani, the president of the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told The Daily Beast. "Government employees allocate licenses to these factories without considering proper safety routes or factoring in total employees in a building."
According to government officials, a faulty electricity generator caused the fire in Lahore. The reasons for the fire in Karachi are under investigation, and the government has said a report will be finalized within three days. A preliminary report has already been submitted to the provincial government.
By law, all factories in the country must have emergency exits, provide preparedness training, and have in place some sort of early warning system. The garment factory in Karachi is reported to have none of these provisions. Investigators told journalists on the site that the building construction appeared flimsy; it had started to develop cracks in the brickwork, and the structure was in danger of collapsing under its own weight.
Already the death toll in Karachi has prompted the government to launch an inquiry into the owners of the garment factory in Karachi. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Memon told reporters that their names had been placed on the exit control list. Sindh province Gov. Dr. Ishrat-ul-Ibad announced that $5,288 will be provided for each of the victims' families, and assured them that justice would be served.
The Sindh High Court also took notice of the incident and has issued notices to all stakeholders with hearings expected to begin from tomorrow. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, who is currently on a tour of neighboring China, "expressed shock and grief" and urged the authorities concerned to provide the best possible treatment to the victims of the fire.


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44 's
New Chaps, western artwork of a cowgirl
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Jundo Cohen and Taigu Turlur are Soto Zen Priests and teachers of the Treeleaf Zendo, a Soto Zen Sangha located in Tsukuba, Japan. Treeleaf Zendo was designed specifically as an online practice place for Zen practitioners who cannot easily commute to a Zen Center due to health concerns, living in remote areas, or childcare and family needs, and seeks to provide Zazen sittings, retreats, discussion, interaction with a teacher, and all other activities of a Zen Buddhist Sangha, all fully online. Members now sit in over 20 countries. The focus is Shikantaza "Just Sitting" Zazen as instructed by the 13th Century Japanese Master, Eihei Dogen.
our Community Forum: http://www.treeleaf.org/forum/
'Sit-a-Longs': http://www.treeleaf.org/sit-a-long/with-jundo-and-taigu/


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Successfully complete Arcade in Amateur mode (four stages) to unlock Championship mode. Note: Arcade is mush easier than Career mode because you only have to be in time to each checkpoint.World Pro mode
Successfully complete Championship mode (eight stages) to unlock World Pro mode. In World Pro mode, the cars are a lot quicker but the brakes are more efficient.Bonus cars
Successfully complete World Pro in Arcade mode (twelve stages) to unlock three classic cars: the Mini Cooper, Lancia Stratos, and Audi Quattro. You can only use the classic cars in Quick Race mode.Save money
In order to save money, try all the cars you can in Quick Rally mode. You can also skip the 1600 class as it has similarities to Privateer cars. Unlock the Vauxhall Astra in "Race Pace Car" and use it in Career mode, which will unlock all 2000 cars that can be used in Quick Rally mode.Suspension
When the surface is hard as gravel, rock, or both of them together has the highest number, use "Soft" on suspension. Set a low number on "Brake Bias" (forward-back relation). This makes the car more "skiddy", but easier to countersteer. At high number brakes, the car comes to a stop easier, however it goes straightforward in corners.Braking
Skid into a turn, not in it. Brake, let go, brake, let go, etc. As long as you have a good track, not much braking is necessary, except in turns called "4" or "5" or "any number -tightens". Listen to your co-driver carefully.Handbrake turns
This is useful where there are many hairpins, as in Kaihuavaara, Lapland. Hold the handbrake momentarily, the use the normal brake if necessary, and steer all the time.Visual warnings
Set "Warnings" and "Pace Notes" on in "Visual". This will display a warning sign for hinders and an arrow which indicates how tight a corner is.Recommended cars
- Privateer: Skoda Felicia
- 1600: Honda Civic
- 2000: Vauxhall Astra
- Pro: Mitsubishi EVO VI
Those are all all-around cars which can be used on any stage. The handling is good and you can quickly counter-steer if you are about to lose the grip. They are middleweight cars, meaning that they are more durable than light ones.Africa
Glengap: You travel along a mountainside. The surface can be rough, the space tight, and a few square turns (90 degrees) can make the first stage a challenge. Brake in good time before a turn. The Hyundai Coupe from the 2000 class is very fun to use at this stage.
Black Loch: The first turn is a 90 degree left. Early are two 90 degrees immediately after each other (one right, one left(. At one part, it seems like the road turns left, but it goes straight. Be careful when you drive through the house.
Twiglees: Keep on straight of a course as possible, especially at the end, where there are many 1 and 2 turns can be driven straight through.
Dumfries: Narrow track, with several 90 degree turns and four narrow gates that must be passed. A fun stage.
Pen-Y-Coed: Watch the outside of turns, as hinders are rather frequent here. The turns are often long, which is good for high speed. At the gravel spot, the road is narrow. Brake and let go quickly at the tight corners.
Gartheinlog: The many 5 turns and slippery surface can be nasty. Brake in good time before a turn, and accelerate out of the turn.
Llandudno: You will start in the harbor with many 90 degree corners. Also be careful after the bridge; the "right 2" turn is rather nasty followed soon by a 90 degree right. A few more 90 degrees onto a loose surface and the passing of a very narrow railroad crossing makes this a very challenging stage to get the top scores in. Change your standard "Brake Bias" to 5, with equal brake power front-back.
Llanberis: Some 90 degree turns, but many turns are long -- meaning you can have a rather high pace here. The VW Golf, 2000 class is very good here.
Kaihuavaara: Night stage. Many hairpins and snow for the first time. Take it easy. Brake carefully with the handbrake and normal brake if necessary. Watch for solid obstacles like walls, vehicles and street lamps which are near the road. Skoda Felicia is a good car here.
Rovaniemi: Snowstage on day with a few tight corners.
Kemijärvi: Halfway through you will pass under some huge oil pipes. Listen carefully to the co-driver because the road can sometimes be difficult to detect.
Ristilampi: The setting takes part in a city, which means many square corners. For a short time you will drive at the outskirts of the city, then into the city with its many 90 degrees again.
Tsavo: Use caution after the helicopter appears. There is a tight left and a 5 right in front of the Tvbus. Brake in good time before it. There are many tight turns.
Rift Valley: Night stage. Note the arrows which tell you if it is a tight corner. Listen carefully to the co-driver. A 4-turn is often tight; brake carefully beforehand. When driving along a high cliff, there is a right directly afterwards.
Mt. Longonot: You will drive along riverbeds and scale a mountain. The road is narrow, as it is between the cliffs. If the co-driver says "Wide", you can go with unchanged speed. Two narrow bridges must be traveled.
Turkana River: A short stage with ,any wide turns so even a "5" can be easy to handle. It has a few square turns though. You wo;; pass the river twice, brake directly afterwards because of the turns. The hairpins are long so you can proceed at an unchanged pace.
Arizona: 100% Tarmac stage. The roads are very wide, like a highway with four lanes. It is easy to skid through each curve, even "5"s and hairpins. A very fast and fun stage.
Nevada: Long wide curves with easy-to-see road. You can hold a good speed. Use the Hyundai Coupe on the first two USA stages for more fun.
Hualapai Nation: Night stage. It very narrow during the whole stage. You must pass a few tunnels and bridges. Try the Hyundai Accent (World Pro car) because it has ABS brakes. Otherwise, use the Vauxhall Astra because of its good handling. This stage requires you to trust the car that you are re driving.
Bullhead: Desert stage. The curves and corners are often "4"s and "5"s but still easy to handle at a good pace. The problems you will meet are that the road disappears to the background, which means paying attention to your co-driver.
Bennon: Extra stage in Scotland. Unlocked by placing very high for a long time during Career, World Pro Class. A changing stage with bridges, woods and many 5-corners. A fun stage. The Hyundai Coupe is a car you can have a lot of fun with in all Scottish stages.
Glenmooar: Another city stage with lots of houses and a narrow road. Similar to Ristilampi, except for the snow.
Baldrine: Sometimes narrow, sometimes wide. It has a changing surface, like gravel, tarmac and lots of turns. A fun stage.
Knocksharry. The turns here are often wide, so many can be taken in your current speed.
Laxey: Rally with a sea view. Long passages takes you along or on the beach. The turns are long and need only the slightest of braking.


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1A psalm of David.
I sing of mercy and justice;
to you, LORD, I sing praise.
2I study the way of integrity;a
when will you come to me?
I act with integrity of heart
3I do not allow into my presence anything base.
I hate wrongdoing;
I will have no part of it.c
4May the devious heart keep far from me;
the wicked I will not acknowledge.
5Whoever slanders a neighbor in secret
I will reduce to silence.d
Haughty eyes and arrogant heartse
I cannot endure.
6I look to the faithful of the land*
to sit at my side.
Whoever follows the way of integrityf
is the one to enter my service.
7No one who practices deceit
can remain within my house.
No one who speaks falsely
can last in my presence.g
8*Morning after morning I clear all the wicked from the land,
to rid the city of the LORD of all doers of evil.
* [Psalm 101] The king, grateful at being God's chosen (Ps 101:1), promises to be a ruler after God's own heart (Ps 101:2–3), allowing into the royal service only the God-fearing (Ps 101:3–8).
* [101:2] Within my household: the king promises to make his own household, i.e., the royal court, a model for Israel, banning all officials who abuse their power.
* [101:6] I look to the faithful of the land: the king seeks companions only among those faithful to God.
* [101:8] Morning after morning: the morning is the normal time for the administration of justice (2 Sm 15:2; Jer 21:12) and for the arrival of divine aid (Ps 59:17; 143:8; Is 33:2). I clear all the wicked from the land: the king, as God's servant, is responsible for seeing that divine justice is carried out.
a. [101:2] Ps 26:11; Is 33:15.
f. [101:6] Ps 26:11; Prv 20:7.
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text:
(talk given Lent 2014)
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To have eyes for the good things of the Lord is to live by faith, to see life with the eyes of faith.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols
(talk given Lent 2014)
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