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Do you know what you are having for dinner tonight? What about dinner tomorrow? Many people are so busy throughout the day that they do not even think about what they are going to have for dinner until the end of the day.
Between family functions, sports or a longer commute, the last thing you want to do is sit in a drive-through. That's going to happen sometimes, but there's a better way to get a hot meal at the end of a long day - using a slow cooker and a plan.
Plan your menu now to save time, money and sanity later. Organizing a menu is essential for your family's budget. By looking at the sales circulars and stocking up on staples your family regularly eats, you can save a great deal. But if you do not plan a meal around those items and you still find yourself going through the drive-through lane, you have defeated the purpose of savvy shopping.
Try using a slow cooker. It allows you to cook a meal even if you have to be away from home for long periods of time. We all only have 24 hours in a day. We can only fit so much into the same time slot. If we wait to do everything after work, it's no wonder we are stressed, hungry and broke! I've got a great solution for you: Invest in a slow cooker. You will be able to prepare meals when your schedule allows. If you have time in the evening, you can get everything ready for tomorrow's meal. Cut up the meat, veggies, etc., and store in the refrigerator. The next day simply transfer them to the pot and let the food cook while you are out. When you arrive home at the end of the day you will have a hot meal ready to be served. If you are a morning person, you can start dinner before you head out for the day. The point is you can schedule time to prepare your meals and have them waiting for you when you get home, instead of you waiting on your dinner in the drive-through line.
Invest in a good slow cooker. These electric, low-temperature cooking pots come in a variety of sizes and styles. You can get one with simple settings such as low, medium and high; or you can opt for a more advanced model that is digital and allows for a timer to be set to start cooking at whatever time you designate. This week I have noticed several stores have the smaller three-piece, 1.5-quart Crock-pots on sale.
These would be good for preparing a variety of meats for stews, vegetables or a variety of appetizers. Walmart has the GE Triple Slow Cooker on sale for $29.92 (ad page 15) and Walgreens has a 1.5-quart single slow cooker on sale for $12.99 (ad page 4), and Kmart has the Bella Trio slow cooker on sale for $29.99 (ad page 5). I was able to find several very inexpensive slow cookers online at www.walmart.com, where the basic 7-quart slow cooker was only $19.94. You can also pick these up slow cookers pretty inexpensively at garage sales or thrift stores. Be sure to keep these things in mind when selecting or using the pot:
• Purchase one that allows the dish to come out of the slow cooker for easy cleaning.
• If you are worried about having an appliance on while you are gone during the day, plug the slow cooker into a power strip with a surge protector. Slow cookers use very little electricity so you will save money on the power bill, too.
You can find tons of recipes on the internet. Simply do a search for Crock-Pot recipes. You will find recipes for breakfast, dinner, lunch, desserts, appetizers and just about anything else you can ponder. Select some of your favorite recipes that you already have the ingredients for on hand or select a few recipes that will allow you to use whatever is on sale that week.
Using a slow cooker allows you to use cheaper cuts of meat. Because the meat cooks all day, the moisture is drawn into the meat and it will be nice and tender. Linda Larsen has written a wonderful guide on how to use a slow cooker. You can read her entire article at busycooks.about.com/od/slowcookerrecipes/a/crockpot101.htm. I found these tips from the article especially helpful:
• For best results, ground meats must be cooked in a skillet before cooking in the slow cooker.
• Seafood should be added during the last hour of cooking time or it will overcook and have a rubbery texture.
• Large pieces of meat can be browned before cooking, but this step isn't necessary. Browning adds color and helps in flavor development.
• Cayenne pepper and Tabasco sauce tend to become bitter if cooked for long periods of time. Use small amounts and add toward the end of the cooking time.
• Add tender vegetables like tomatoes, mushrooms and zucchini during the last 45 minutes of cooking time so they don't overcook.
• Dairy products should be added during the last 30 minutes of cooking time, unless the recipes states otherwise.
• Liquids do not boil away in the pot, so if you are making a recipe that wasn't specifically developed for slow cooking, reduce the liquid by a third to a half unless you are cooking rice or making soup.
• Stir in spices for the last hour of cooking. They will lose flavor if cooked with the rest of the ingredients for the long cooking period.
For those of you who don't have a slow cooker yet, you can still plan those menus. Prepping or even cooking the meal the night before will still save you time and money. In the mean time, keep a list of quick and easy meals that you can make, and make sure you keep those ingredients on hand. When your family members can't seem to decide what they want for dinner, refer to the list and pick one.
Sometimes we do want to run through the drive-through or visit a restaurant as a special treat, and that is OK. But you still don't have to pay full price. Keep restaurant coupons in the glove box of your car. If you have a favorite restaurant be sure to visit its Facebook page and website often for potential savings. Also follow the daily deals at www.dailydeals.savannahnow.com - you can often pick up vouchers for local restaurants vouchers for half off; keep these on hand for those unplanned nights or for special date nights.
Also keep your coupons and all of the stores sales ads in your car. Look at the sales ads before you go and decide what you are going to purchase. This way you can either shop at whichever store has the best price or price-match at Walmart. Keeping those coupons with you will allow you to scoop up savings you may have missed by leaving them at home.
Send your tips and questions to Savvy Shopper Michelle Rubrecht at firstname.lastname@example.com or Savannah Savvy Shopper on Facebook.


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1 Comment.
I had to share this onto my own Facebook page. I can remember all the weird things I have imagined about my own body, as a child, and even as an adult. This captures the really weird way we think about bodies, and how we aren't really comfortable with them. This definitely isn't just sugar and spice and everything nice now, is it? Loved it!

subset: commoncrawl


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By Greg Stutchbury
MELBOURNE, Jan 19 (Reuters) - It will be time for Australia's Bernard Tomic to put up or shut up when he faces 17-times grand-slam champion Roger Federer in the third round of the Australian Open tennis on Saturday.
Local favourite Tomic and Federer have traded barbs since the draw for the season's opening grand slam was made last week and the Swiss has been repeatedly questioned about the prospect of facing the brash 20-year-old in the third round.
"I feel so confident. This is the perfect time to play him," said Tomic who is unbeaten in 2013 after winning three matches at the Hopman Cup in Perth before taking his first ATP Tour title in Sydney. "I've got a good attitude to win.
"I've beaten a lot of good players over the last past two weeks, especially Novak," he added in reference to beating world number one Djokovic at the Hopman Cup.
"I'm ready. I mean, I'm not going to say I don't have the belief; I do have the belief now.
"It's possible. I showed that in Perth, that you can beat these players. Now I'm going to try to beat him."
Federer graciously deflected most questions put to him about the Australian world number 43 but did remind local fans that Tomic had a poor 2012, even though he was now playing well, and still had a lot to do to prove himself.
Before the tournament began, both men were openly sceptical about their opponents even making it as far as the third round.
"He's...got his work cut out in the first few rounds," the Swiss world number two said. "He will be making a mistake about thinking about me in the third round because he also has to get there."
In turn, Tomic, who lost to Federer in the fourth round at Melbourne Park last year, reckoned the Swiss could have trouble in his second-round match against Russian Nikolay Davydenko.
"He's playing a guy that's beaten him before. It's not easy playing Davydenko," Tomic said on Thursday. "I'm sure Roger knows that as well. You can't take anyone lightly, especially someone that's been in the top five for like six years."
Federer duly won the clash against Davydenko in straight sets to prove Tomic wrong.
U.S. Open champion Andy Murray, who has quietly gone about his quarter of the draw, will face Lithuania's Ricardas Berankis, a player he knows well, in Saturday's final day match in Rod Laver Arena.
"I actually hit with him a lot," Briton Murray said. "I trained with him before the Australian Open last year. I practised with him again in Brisbane this year.
"Nice to see him do well because we spent quite a bit of time practising together."
Women's champion Victoria Azarenka and tournament favourite Serena Williams will get an opportunity to assess each other's form, after their pre-Australian Open showdown in Brisbane was stymied by Azarenka's infected toe, with Williams following the world number one on to centre court.
The Belarusian will play American Jamie Hampton in the first match, while Williams will meet Japan's Ayumi Morita. (Editing by Clare Fallon)


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Farmington Hills-based H.W. Kaufman Financial Group, parent company of broker and underwriter Burns & Wilcox, has acquired L&L Auditing Services, a Coral Springs, Fla.-based premium auditor.
The addition of L&L to Kaufman's US-Reports subsidiary will broaden the company's expertise and geographic reach, said Alan Jay Kaufman, chairman and CEO of Kaufman Financial.
Since 2012, Kaufman Financial has expanded US-Reports by acquiring ISI Insurance Services of Uniontown, Pa.; Spectius Underwriting Solutions of Richmond Hill, Ontario; and Tracz & Associates of Lockport, Ill. Kaufman also last year purchased Global Excess Partners, a New York City-based specialty insurance organization.
US-Reports has nearly 1,000 field partners who specialize in premium insurance audits, inspection and loss-control reports and risk services for commercial and personal lines clients.
L&L was owned by Juanita and Ray Lindsay, who will continue with the company. The company's 60 auditors are in Florida and Georgia, Kaufman said.
Kaufman Financial projects revenue to grow 15 percent this year to $1.6 billion, up from $1.2 billion in 2012. It has been growing steadily over the past several years through acquisitions and internal expansion.


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Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (ASNA) stock price traded with surging change along with the volume 2.75 million shares in Friday trading session. Shares are trading price at $1.94 with move of 3.19%. The company's 3-months average volume stands at 2.55 million. When we divide the last trade volume by the 3-month average volume, we found out a relative volume of 1.08. Current trade price levels places ASNA's stock about -64.73% away from the 52-week high and closed 17.58% away from the 52-week low. The total dollar value of all 190.00 million outstanding shares is 0.37 billion. Return on Assets (ROA) ratio indicates how profitable a company is relative to its total assets. The ROA is -25.10%. A company that manages their assets well will have a high return, while if manages their assets poorly will have a low return. Common shareholders want to know how profitable their capital is in the businesses they invest it in. The company gives a ROE of -99.00%. The higher the ROE, the better the company is at generating profits. ROI is -41.00%. A positive result means that returns exceed costs. Analysts therefore consider the investment a net gain. The opposite kind of result, a negative means that costs outweigh returns. Analysts therefore view the investment as a net loss.
Trend Direction of Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (ASNA)
Traders will often use multiple moving averages to analyze a single security. Moving averages are a very simple tool to use, like most technical indicators, different traders will focus on different ways to use them. A longer-term moving average may be used to identify the primary price trend, a shorter moving average period to identify the secondary, price trend, and an even shorter moving average period to identify the minor price trend.
Typically 20-day simple moving average is useful at identifying swing trading trends lasting 20 days. Shorter moving average timeframes are more sensitive to price fluctuations and can pick up on trend changes more quickly than longer-term moving averages. However, these more frequent signals may also result in more "whipsaws", resulting in erroneous trade signals. Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (ASNA) recently closed with fall of -7.40% to its 20-Day Simple Moving Average. This short time frame picture represents a downward movement of current price over average price of last 20 days. Now moving toward intermediate time frame, 50-day Moving average is more useful at showing position trading trends lasting 50 days. Shares of ASNA moved downward with change of -10.33% to its 50-day Moving average. This falling movement shows negative prices direction over last 50 days.
Finally observing long term time frame, 200-day simple moving average is more helpful at telling general investing trends lasting 200 days. Longer moving average timeframes are less sensitive to price fluctuations than shorter term timeframes and will generate far few signals. This will reduce the number of "whipsaws", which is good, but will also generate signals later than when using shorter term averages. ASNA stock price revealed pessimistic move of -12.88% comparing average price of last 200 days. This comparison showed down direction of price behind its 200-SMA.
Analysts recommendation for Ascena Retail Group, Inc. (ASNA)
Analysts have suggested a mean rating of 3.30 on the shares. This is based on a 1-5 numeric scale where Rating Scale: 1.0 Strong Buy, 2.0 Buy, 3.0 Hold, 4.0 Sell, 5.0 Strong Sell. Hold is primarily a denotation given to some publicly traded equities. All stocks either have a buy, sell or hold recommendation. Often, a single stock may have two or more conflicting recommendations given by different financial institutions. In these cases, it's important for investors to look at the advice provided and decide which is more accurate for their specific situations.
When an investor holds onto a stock, he is effectively initiating a long position in an equity. Investors who hold a stock for a long period of time can benefit from quarterly dividends and potential price appreciation over time. Even if a stock is given a hold recommendation and remains flat, if it pays a dividend, the investor can still profit. A hold position is not a bad one, and even stocks that are denoted as a hold can appreciate in price over time. However, there are also risks of holding a stock. All long positions are susceptible to market volatility and sharp price declines. Sometimes investors predict a microeconomic or macroeconomic downturn but hold onto a stock because it was recommended by a leading financial institution. If the price of the stock subsequently declines, the investor loses money.


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"4G speeds" are coming to 185 million people this year thanks to T-Mobile and early results show their new 3G network is actually faster than Sprint's 4G WiMAX. Best of all, T-Mobile's 21 Mbps HSPA+ network is backwards compatible so all existing HSPA 7.2 devices will see a boost from the increased bandwidth.
T-Mobile currently offers 15 3G devices that can benefit from the advanced speeds, which includes their entire Android lineup. This means your aging G1 could be pulling down faster download speeds than the new EVO 4G if you are lucky to live in one of the 100 markets expected to receive HSPA+. The carrier also plans to sell their first HSPA+ handset later this year.
So what cities are getting HSPA+? T-Mobile just announced 25 new markets yesterday, but we now have close to 50 cities that are coming soon including Phoenix, San Francisco, San Diego, Denver, Miami, Chicago, Indianapolis, Boston, Detroit, and many more.
To see if your city is on the list visit T-Mobile's coverage map > Click the HSPA+ & 3G tab > Scroll down and click 'See cities with HSPA+'


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Get excited about reading again with fun and interesting tips from our experts, including The M.D., our dietitians, and our fitness expert. In our health library, you will find all of the information you need to achieve your goals of making a healthy lifestyle change. So, start reading and start losing!
Health Tips
From tips on how to lose weight effectively to ways to combat boredom eating, this collection of informative articles covers a wide range of health topics that matter to real people, like you.
You can't eat your way into healthy thinking, but you can probably think your way into healthy eating, which, in turn, actually could make your thinking healthier… if only you could figure out where to start.
There was a time when people regarded the physical body as a system quite separate and distinct from the mental realm. The conventional wisdom of cultures throughout the world typically acknowledge and honor a connection between the mind and body, but in the realm of Western science, emotional and cognitive activity has been held as though it exists almost independent of the flesh.
Yet anyone who's ever gone for the chocolate when they were feeling blue knows, intuitively, that it's all connected.
And in the last 25 years or so, science has been getting a grip on the physiology underlying the profound connection between our minds and our bodies, and coming up with ways to help us not only to understand it, but use it effectively to improve our health and habits, including the habits that have led to the national obesity crisis.
Mind-Body Interplay
Disease and stress research in particular have yielded vast evidence of the inter-related nature of our minds and bodies, showing how people who endure high-pressure lifestyles can experience both acute and chronic health problems because of it.
But our daily lives are full of simpler examples of the mind-body connection, and it's not always a problem: consider how certain words can make you blush; a sad scene in a movie or song can bring you to tears; a phone call or email from a special someone can make your heart go pitter-patter. Your thoughts are affecting your body chemistry and creating distinct physical responses.
And, obviously, it works the other way, too, when what your body experiences produces responses in the brain. A particular smell can stimulate a nostalgic memory. Tickling and rough-housing a grumpy child will often cheer him right up. These are such familiar examples that it's hard to imagine anyone ever disputed the connection.
But what science has been able to prove in the last couple decades is just why–neurologically—that tickling works to cheer the child. It's not merely that you've distracted him from whatever got his goat. In truth, both laughter and physical exercise cause the release of mood-elevating chemicals in the brain. Laughter really is the best medicine, and you've just given him a double dose.
On the other hand, research has proven that a stimulus such as anxiety—a feeling—can trigger the release of nerve-fiber chemicals, which then tell the immune system what to do to help protect the body in a time of emotional stress.
Simply answer a few questions so we can figure out your weight loss goals and provide solutions for a lighter, healthier you. Our weight loss meal plans are designed to help real people achieve real and lasting success.
Get free support to help you lose weight and be healthy with our Weekly Dish on Health.
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New York Film Critics Circle Awards 2013 | Pictures
Daniel Craig Cheers On Rachel at the NY Film Critics Circle Awards
Daniel Craig Cheers On Rachel at the NY Film Critics Circle Awards
Jessica Chastain, Matthew McConaughey, Rachel Weisz, and many more stars celebrated their fellow actors and filmmakers at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in New York City last night. Matthew, who wore a suit by Dolce&Gabbana, won best supporting actor for his performances in Magic Mike and Bernie while Rachel beat out Jessica — who did triple-duty that night by appearing on the Late Show and attending a screening for Mama in addition to this event — for best actress for her role in The Deep Blue Sea. Rachel's husband Daniel Craig cheered Rachel on from the audience when she won her award.
Jessica's film Zero Dark Thirty was the big winner of the night, earning best director for Kathryn Bigelow and best cinematography for Greg Fraser. Highly-buzzed-about films Les Misérables and Argo missed out altogether. However, those films and their stars will have plenty of chances to scoop up more honors once award season starts up in earnest this week with the People's Choice Awards on Wednesday and the Critic's Choice Awards on Thursday. And don't forget about the Golden Globes, which are this Sunday, and your chance to predict the winners with our special Golden Globes ballot. If you predict the highest number of Golden Globes winners, you could win $1,500 and an iPad Mini!


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The American Antinuclear Movement
Paul Rubinson
Spanning countries across the globe, the antinuclear movement was the combined effort of millions of people to challenge the superpowers' reliance on nuclear weapons during the Cold War. Encompassing an array of tactics, from radical dissent to public protest to opposition within the government, this movement succeeded in constraining the arms race and helping to make the use of nuclear weapons politically unacceptable. Antinuclear activists were critical to the establishment of arms control treaties, although they failed to achieve the abolition of nuclear weapons, as anticommunists, national security officials, and proponents of nuclear deterrence within the United States and Soviet Union actively opposed the movement. Opposition to nuclear weapons evolved in tandem with the Cold War and the arms race, leading to a rapid decline in antinuclear activism after the Cold War ended.
American Foreign Policy and the Space Race
Teasel Muir-Harmony
The Soviet Union's successful launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, captured global attention and achieved the initial victory in what would soon become known as the space race. This impressive technological feat and its broader implications for Soviet missile capability rattled the confidence of the American public and challenged the credibility of U.S. leadership abroad. With the U.S.S.R.'s launch of Sputnik, and then later the first human spaceflight in 1961, U.S. policymakers feared that the public and political leaders around the world would view communism as a viable and even more dynamic alternative to capitalism, tilting the global balance of power away from the United States and towards the Soviet Union.
Reactions to Sputnik confirmed what members of the U.S. National Security Council had predicted: the image of scientific and technological superiority had very real, far-reaching geopolitical consequences. By signaling Soviet technological and military prowess, Sputnik solidified the link between space exploration and national prestige, setting a course for nationally funded space exploration for years to come. For over a decade, both the Soviet Union and the United States funneled significant financial and personnel resources into achieving impressive firsts in space, as part of a larger effort to win alliances in the Cold War contest for global influence.
From a U.S. vantage point, the space race culminated in the first Moon landing in July 1969. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy proposed Project Apollo, a lunar exploration program, as a tactic for restoring U.S. prestige in the wake of Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight and the failure of the Bay of Pigs invasion. To achieve Kennedy's goal of sending a man to the Moon and returning him safely back to Earth by the end of the decade, the United States mobilized a workforce in the hundreds of thousands. Project Apollo became the most expensive government funded civilian engineering program in U.S. history, at one point stretching to more than 4 percent of the federal budget. The United States' substantial investment in winning the space race reveals the significant status of soft power in American foreign policy strategy during the Cold War.
American Military Assistance Programs since 1945
Jeremy Kuzmarov
Military assistance programs have been crucial instruments of American foreign policy since World War II, valued by policymakers for combating internal subversion in the "free world," deterring aggression, and protecting overseas interests. The 1958 Draper Committee, consisting of eight members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, concluded that economic and military assistance were interchangeable; as the committee put it, without internal security and the "feeling of confidence engendered by adequate military forces, there is little hope for economic progress." Less explicitly, military assistance was also designed to uphold the U.S. global system of military bases established after World War II, ensure access to raw materials, and help recruit intelligence assets while keeping a light American footprint. Police and military aid was often invited and welcomed by government elites in so-called free world nations for enhancing domestic security or enabling the swift repression of political opponents. It sometimes coincided with an influx of economic aid, as under the Marshall Plan and Alliance for Progress. In cases like Vietnam, the programs contributed to stark human rights abuses owing to political circumstances and prioritizing national security over civil liberties.
American Military Strategy in the Vietnam War, 1965–1973
Gregory A. Daddis
For nearly a decade, American combat soldiers fought in South Vietnam to help sustain an independent, noncommunist nation in Southeast Asia. After U.S. troops departed in 1973, the collapse of South Vietnam in 1975 prompted a lasting search to explain the United States' first lost war. Historians of the conflict and participants alike have since critiqued the ways in which civilian policymakers and uniformed leaders applied—some argued misapplied—military power that led to such an undesirable political outcome. While some claimed U.S. politicians failed to commit their nation's full military might to a limited war, others contended that most officers fundamentally misunderstood the nature of the war they were fighting. Still others argued "winning" was essentially impossible given the true nature of a struggle over Vietnamese national identity in the postcolonial era. On their own, none of these arguments fully satisfy. Contemporary policymakers clearly understood the difficulties of waging a war in Southeast Asia against an enemy committed to national liberation. Yet the faith of these Americans in their power to resolve deep-seated local and regional sociopolitical problems eclipsed the possibility there might be limits to that power. By asking military strategists to simultaneously fight a war and build a nation, senior U.S. policymakers had asked too much of those crafting military strategy to deliver on overly ambitious political objectives. In the end, the Vietnam War exposed the limits of what American military power could achieve in the Cold War era.
Counterinsurgency Warfare in Theory and Practice
Celeste Gventer
This is an advance summary of a forthcoming article in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History. Please check back later for the full article.
Counterinsurgency (known as COIN) is a theory of war that seeks to describe a proven set of techniques that a government may use to defeat a violent, internal, organized challenge to its authority and legitimacy. The term is sometimes also used to describe the set of activities itself (e.g., "conducting counterinsurgency"). The term originates from the middle of the 20th century, when it emerged from officials in U.S. President John F. Kennedy's administration, as well as from British and French thinkers and practitioners with whom these officials were consulting. The Kennedy Administration and its allies were grappling with how to deal with what they viewed as Soviet attempts to destabilize post-colonial governments in the Third World and bring those nascent countries into the Soviet orbit. Encouraged by British and French experience in post-colonial rebellions and prior experience of imperial policing, the Kennedy administration hoped to apply their lessons learned to Cold War problems, most notably the growing challenges in Vietnam.
Rebellions, "irregular warfare," "guerrilla warfare," or "small wars," or for that matter, thinking about means to put them down, go back to the beginnings of organized conflict itself. But 20th-century thinkers were informed most especially by British and French theorists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, such as British Colonel Charles E. Calwell and future Marshal of France, Hubert Lyautey. The most significant influence came from veterans, such as Sir Robert Thompson, of Britain's "Emergency" in Malaya, from 1948–1960, and from David Galula, veteran of France's conflict in Algeria from 1954–1960. Though these theorists differ on a number of points and on emphasis, the intellectual paternity is clear.
At its heart, the premise of counterinsurgency theory is that rebellions can only be eliminated by gaining the support of the population. Because rebels can hide amongst the people, influence them, and convince "fence sitters" to join in an insurgency, the government can only succeed when the majority of the population rejects the rebels and their message, refuses to offer them assistance, and ultimately turns them over to the authorities. Counterinsurgency theorists often invoke an image from a work by Chinese leader Mao Zedong, On Guerrilla Warfare, in which he described the people as water and guerrilla fighters as fish swimming in it.
Theorists argued for decades (indeed, the argument goes on) about whether America's war in Vietnam failed because the nation was unable or unwilling to fully implement proper counterinsurgency practices. When the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in the 21st century began to falter, counterinsurgency and its proponents were once again center stage. Indeed, many maintain that, in 2007, the United States began to implement COIN, and that this turned the tide. But this argument remains in dispute, as do the theoretical and historical foundations of COIN more broadly.
Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy
Sarah B. Snyder
In its formulation of foreign policy, the United States takes account of many priorities and factors, including national security concerns, economic interests, and alliance relationships. An additional factor with significance that has risen and fallen over time is human rights, or more specifically violations of human rights. The extent to which the United States should consider such abuses or seek to moderate them has been and continues to be the subject of considerable debate.
Immigration to the United States after 1945
Xiaojian Zhao
Post-1945 immigration to the United States differed fairly dramatically from America's earlier 20th- and 19th-century immigration patterns, most notably in the dramatic rise in numbers of immigrants from Asia. Beginning in the late 19th century, the U.S. government took steps to bar immigration from Asia. The establishment of the national origins quota system in the 1924 Immigration Act narrowed the entryway for eastern and central Europeans, making western Europe the dominant source of immigrants. These policies shaped the racial and ethnic profile of the American population before 1945. Signs of change began to occur during and after World War II. The recruitment of temporary agricultural workers from Mexico led to an influx of Mexicans, and the repeal of Asian exclusion laws opened the door for Asian immigrants. Responding to complex international politics during the Cold War, the United States also formulated a series of refugee policies, admitting refugees from Europe, the western hemisphere, and later Southeast Asia. The movement of people to the United States increased drastically after 1965, when immigration reform ended the national origins quota system. The intricate and intriguing history of U.S. immigration after 1945 thus demonstrates how the United States related to a fast-changing world, its less restrictive immigration policies increasing the fluidity of the American population, with a substantial impact on American identity and domestic policy.
Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Relations
Thomas A. Reinstein
The United States has a rich history of intelligence in the conduct of foreign relations. Since the Revolutionary War, intelligence has been most relevant to U.S. foreign policy in two ways. Intelligence analysis helps to inform policy. Intelligence agencies also have carried out overt action—secret operations—to influence political, military, or economic conditions in foreign states. The American intelligence community has developed over a long period, and major changes to that community have often occurred because of contingent events rather than long-range planning. Throughout their history, American intelligence agencies have used intelligence gained from both human and technological sources to great effect. Often, U.S. intelligence agencies have been forced to rely on technological means of intelligence gathering for lack of human sources. Recent advances in cyberwarfare have made technology even more important to the American intelligence community.
At the same time, the relationship between intelligence and national-security–related policymaking has often been dysfunctional. Indeed, though some American policymakers have used intelligence avidly, many others have used it haphazardly or not at all. Bureaucratic fights also have crippled the American intelligence community. Several high-profile intelligence failures tend to dominate the recent history of intelligence and U.S. foreign relations. Some of these failures were due to lack of intelligence or poor analytic tradecraft. Others came because policymakers failed to use the intelligence they had. In some cases, policymakers have also pressured intelligence officers to change their findings to better suit those policymakers' goals. And presidents have often preferred to use covert action to carry out their preferred policies without paying attention to intelligence analysis. The result has been constant debate about the appropriate role of intelligence in U.S. foreign relations.
Justus D. Doenecke
For the United States, isolationism is best defined as avoidance of wars outside the Western Hemisphere, particularly in Europe; opposition to binding military alliances; and the unilateral freedom to act politically and commercially unrestrained by mandatory commitments to other nations. Until the controversy over American entry into the League of Nations, isolationism was never subject to debate. The United States could expand its territory, protect its commerce, and even fight foreign powers without violating its traditional tenets. Once President Woodrow Wilson sought membership in the League, however, Americans saw isolationism as a foreign policy option, not simply something taken for granted. A fundamental foreign policy tenet now became a faction, limited to a group of people branded as "isolationists." Its high point came during the years 1934–1937, when Congress, noting the challenge of the totalitarian nations to the international status quo, passed the neutrality acts to insulate the country from global entanglements.
Once World War II broke out in Europe, President Franklin D. Roosevelt increasingly sought American participation on the side of the Allies. Isolationists unsuccessfully fought FDR's legislative proposals, beginning with repeal of the arms embargo and ending with the convoying of supplies to Britain. The America First Committee (1940–1941), however, so effectively mobilized anti-interventionist opinion as to make the president more cautious in his diplomacy.
If the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor permanently ended classic isolationism, by 1945 a "new isolationism" voiced suspicion of the United Nations, the Truman Doctrine, aid to Greece and Turkey, the Marshall Plan, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and U.S. participation in the Korean War. Yet, because the "new isolationists" increasingly advocated militant unilateral measures to confront Communist Russia and China, often doing so to advance the fortunes of the Republican party, they exposed themselves to charges of inconsistency and generally faded away in the 1950s. Since the 1950s, many Americans have opposed various military involvements— including the ones in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan— but few envision returning to an era when the United States avoids all commitments.
The Korean War
James I. Matray
On June 25, 1950, North Korea's invasion of South Korea ignited a conventional war that had origins dating from at least the end of World War II. In April 1945, President Harry S. Truman abandoned a trusteeship plan for postwar Korea in favor of seeking unilateral U.S. occupation of the peninsula after an atomic attack forced Japan's prompt surrender. Soviet entry into the Pacific war led to a last minute agreement dividing Korea at the 38th parallel into zones of occupation. Two Koreas emerged after Soviet-American negotiations failed to agree on a plan to end the division. Kim Il Sung in the north and Syngman Rhee in the south both were determined to reunite Korea, instigating major military clashes at the parallel in the summer of 1949. Moscow and Washington opposed their clients' invasion plans until April 1950 when Kim persuaded Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin that with mass support in South Korea, he would achieve a quick victory.
At first, Truman hoped that South Korea could defend itself with more military equipment and U.S. air support. Commitment of U.S. ground forces came after General Douglas MacArthur, U.S. occupation commander in Japan, visited the front and advised that the South Koreans could not halt the advance. Overconfident U.S. soldiers would sustain defeat as well, retreating to the Pusan Perimeter, a rectangular area in the southeast corner of the peninsula. On September 15, MacArthur staged a risky amphibious landing at Inchon behind enemy lines that sent Communist forces fleeing back into North Korea. The People's Republic of China viewed the U.S. offensive for reunification that followed as a threat to its security and prestige. In late November, Chinese "volunteers" attacked in mass. After a chaotic retreat, U.S. forces counterattacked in February 1951 and moved the line of battle just north of the parallel. After two Chinese offensives failed, negotiations to end the war began in July 1951, but stalemated in May 1952 over the issue of repatriation of prisoners of war. Peace came because of Stalin's death in March 1953, rather than President Dwight D. Eisenhower's veiled threat to stage nuclear strikes against China.
Scholars have disagreed about many issues surrounding the Korean War, but the most important debate continues to center on whether the conflict had international or domestic origins. Initially, historians relied mainly on U.S. government publications to write accounts that ignored events prior to North Korea's attack, endorsing an orthodox interpretation assigning blame to the Soviet Union and applauding the U.S. response. Declassification of U.S. government documents and presidential papers during the 1970s led to the publication of studies assigning considerable responsibility to the United States for helping to create a kind of war in Korea before June 1950. Moreover, left revisionist writers labeled the conflict a classic civil war. Release of Chinese and Soviet sources after 1989 established that Stalin and Chinese leader Mao Zedong approved the North Korean invasion, prompting right revisionist scholars to reassert key orthodox arguments. This essay describes how and why recent access to Communist documents has not settled the disagreements among historians about the causes, course, and consequences of the Korean War.
- no detail
- some detail
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A flood watch continues for Southern Oregon through this morning, with increasing potential for landslides in the region, according to the National Weather Service.
"These are the kind of storms that would frequently bring some slides and rock slides, but thus far we haven't seen a whole lot of that activity occurring," said John Vial, director of Jackson County Roads and Parks.
Vial added that some areas in the county are more prone to landslides during wet weather. Hillsides above the Tiller-Trail Highway have seen a bit of a slump but haven't progressed toward the road significantly.
"We've been watching that very closely," Vial said.
The Wagner Creek area near Talent is another location that's been hit hard during very wet weather in the past.
The Siskiyou Pass along Interstate 5 also can be a problem spot. In 2006, several landslides caused about $3 million worth of damage to drainage systems along the corridor, the Oregon Department of Transportation reported in its archives.
"It's not everywhere we're concerned about. It's mainly these areas with steep slopes and drainage areas," said Bill Burns, Oregon Department of Geology engineering geologist.
State geology data shows the most landslides have been documented to the south and southeast of Ashland, dotting the Siskiyou Mountains.
Because of this, state geology officials said motorists should exercise caution when traveling over mountainous areas. Drivers should be alert, especially at night, as roadside embankments can collapse and send rock and other debris into the roadway.
"Just being more aware while you're traveling is a good idea," Burns said.
The most high-risk areas for landslides and debris flows include the bases of steep hillsides, road cuts and other areas where hills steepen, and in the bottoms of canyons.
Debris flows are high-speed landslides that can travel over a mile and wipe out everything in their path. River or stream water that suddenly turns muddy is a sign of a potential debris flow, Department of Geology officials said.
Flooding is possible for Little Butte Creek, Bear Creek and the Rogue River, and the Sprague River in Klamath County.
Burns advised homeowners living near slopes to exercise caution during the wet weather, adding rainstorms are a great time to make sure water being collected and carried from the property is discharging correctly.
"We've just seen it over and over again," Burns said. "If (water's) not discharged in a proper place, it can cause a problem."
The recent deluges have been hard on the thousands of miles of roads in the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest.
"We have a number of small slides, downed trees and plugged culverts on all of our districts right now," said forest spokesman Paul Galloway. "We have crews out now clearing them as they find them."
Travel into some areas of the forest may be delayed because of the road restoration work, he cautioned.
While the entire forest has been impacted, the Gold Beach Ranger District has been hit the hardest, he said.
Portions of Chetco River Road, Hunter Creek Road and Mt. Emily Road in that district are impassable and have been barricaded because of storm damage, officials said. It is unknown when those roads will reopen.
Reach Mail Tribune reporter Ryan Pfeil at 541-776-4468 or email@example.com. Paul Fattig also contributed to this story.
Storms bring increased landslide danger
A flood watch continues for Southern Oregon through this morning, with increasing potential for landslides in the region, according to the National Weather Service.


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Faces Of Innocent Men Freed From Prison
Loyal Dog Stays With Lost Three-Year-Old Until She Is Found
Confessions Of Daryl Davis. A Black Musician Who Convinced Hundreds Of Ku Klux Klan Members To Give Up Their Robes
Sophie Turner Has A Instagram Account Where She Reviews Sausages
Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!
You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
"You are perfect. To think anything less is as pointless as a river thinking that it's got too many curves or that it moves too slowly or that its rapids are too rapid. Says who? You're on a journey with no defined beginning, middle or end. There are no wrong twists and turns. There is just being. And your job is to be as you as you can be. This is why you're here. To shy away from who you truly are would leave the world you-less. You are the only you there is and ever will be. I repeat, you are the only you there is and ever will be. Do not deny the world its one and only chance to bask in your brilliance."
This Is What Drugs Are Like
This Is What Addiction Feels Like
This Is What Sobriety Is Like
Customers Buy Out Donut Shop Early Every Day So Owner Can Be With Sick Wife
The 10 Most Dangerous Neighborhoods In America (2018 Edition)
The Defeatist Ramblings From The Forever Alone Community
The Story Of Jean-Claude Romand, The Man Who Faked His Entire Life And Ended Up Killing His Whole Family
Top 10 Videos Of Convicts Freaking Out After Being Sentenced To Prison
How Does One Get Addicted To Crack Cocaine?
What Does It Feel Like To Be A Hot Girl Who Gets Old?
Confessions Of A Dude With A 12″ Member
A Day Before She Died, 27-Year-Old Holly Butcher Wrote A Letter We All Need To Read
Life Isn't All Sunshine And Rainbows
"I'm a 46 year old banker and I have been living my whole life the opposite of how I wanted"
December 19, 2016 | 1 Comment » | Topics: Compilation
Caveman Circus | Contact | Privacy Policy | DMCA StomachPunch Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved


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Robert Farris Thompson, American's most prominent historian of African art, says that funky is derived from the Ki-Kongo lu-fuki, meaning "positive sweat" of the sort you get from dancing or having sex, but not working. One's mojo, which has to be "working" to attract a lover, is Ki-Kongo for "soul". Boogie comes from mbugi, meaning "devilishly good." And both jazz and jism likely derive from dinza, the Ki-Kongo word for "to ejaculate."
Have questions about etymology? Ask an art historian!
The fact is that the origin of all these words is unknown, except for funky, which is probably from French.
The reference is Flash of the spirit: African and Afro-American art and philosophy by Robert Farris Thompson. This is what he writes:
Many a Ki-Kongo-derived word has been described by etymologists as "origin unknown." The word "jazz" is probably creolized Ki-Kongo: it is similar in sound and original meaning to "jizz," the American vernacular for semen. And "jizz," suggestive of vitality, appears to derive from the Ki-Kongo verb dinza, "to discharge one's semen, to come." Dinza was creolized in New Orleans and elsewhere in black United States into "jizz" and "jism."
The slang term "funky" in black communities originally referred to strong body oder, and not to "funk," meaning fear or panic. The black nuance seems to derive from the Ki-Kongo lu-fuki, "bad body odor," and is perhaps reinforced by contact with fumet, "aroma of food and wine," in French Louisiana.
He goes on; you can read the whole thing.
This is pure speculation, as far as I can see, and in fairness Thompson qualifies his claims with "seems" and "probably" and "appears". It is not etymology; etymology requires evidence. As Grant Barrett says in his review of Daniel Cassidy's book How the Irish Invented Slang:
Evidence. Above all, Cassidy needs to support his claims with published evidence that shows the etymological path. Dated, continuous, in-context quotations from any written source will always be superior evidence over phonetic speculation based upon national, linguistic, or ethnic pride.
I am bothered that the authors of Sex at Dawn would simply repeat Thompson's claims, without bothering to consult an expert.


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The Moleskine 18 month diaries are ideal for teachers and students.
The layout of the Weekly Notebook diaries hard and soft black cover features each week on a double page spread: days on the left and a note page on the right, combining the function of diary and notebook.
The red Twin Set Diary 18 months is the perfect union to have the week at a glance and a Volant notebook.
Explore the Collection


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Why are dynamic routing protocols used is usually asked by newbies in the networking field, especially after they have heard about routing protocols. Besides that, they often asked this question: What is the difference between static routing and the dynamic routing protocols?
And the common answer is that dynamic routing protocols are scalable.
In other words, there is no need to configure a manual entry for each destination as well as specifying the next hop IP address or interface with the dynamic routing protocols.
These are good reasons. But do we really have only such benefits? In very small networks, scalability is reasonable and correct. But for more sophisticated networks, there are other important reasons.
Before I explain the other reasons, let me clarify why static routing requires lots of manual configurations and why it is not scalable, compared to dynamic routing protocols.
Figure- 1 Why are dynamic routing protocols used?


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Beautiful Boy (US - BD RA)
Jonathan watches Shawn Ku's directorial debut on Blu-ray Disc...
Beautiful Boy is an unconventional love story that explores the journey of a married couple on the verge of separation, who must turn to each other to overcome heartbreak. Bill (Michael Sheen) and Kate's (Maria Bello) already marriage is tested as they realize all they have left with eachother is their shared grief and confusion, and the unfortunate legacy of their son. (Adapted from the Anchor Bay synopsis)
Beautiful Boy is the type of film that it's hard to imagine somebody wanting to see. Something happens early on in the film. It's not mentioned in the Anchor Bay synopsis but it is in the trailer, and there would be no way to talk about the film without bringing it up. After hearing news reports about a shooting at their son's school, Bill and Kate receive the sad news that their son is dead, but to make matters even worse it turns out that he was the one responsible for the shooting. If this film did anything, it made me stop and consider what it would be like to have to endure such an unfortunate circumstance. You often hear of shootings and the victims in the news, but watching this I realized I've never once stopped to think about what it must be like to be the parents or family members of the perpetrator.
It's a subject that is sadly very relevant to the times we live in, and it is also ripe for dramatic exploration, but I was disappointed to find that Beautiful Boy only scrapes the surface of the psychology surrounding the incident, keeping the viewer at arms length and using it as a catalyst to tell the story of a flailing marriage. Lynne Ramsay's upcoming We Need to Talk About Kevin looks like it will be a fascinating psychological exploration of parents dealing with this very situation. Beautiful Boy, on the other hand, is very much a stagnant drama where the viewer is subjected to one meltdown after another. It feels as though the filmmakers knew this would make for a dramatic film, but had no idea how to explore the situation beyond the surface level. There is some opening and closing narration from the titular boy that tries to wrap everything in a nice metaphoric bow, but it feels completely forced and idiosyncratic with the rest of the screenplay.
Director Ku follows in the stylistic footsteps of recently successful indie dramas like Half Nelson and Babel, shooting the film on Super 16mm to give it a very raw appearance. The camerawork verges on cinema vérité style, with plenty of handheld camera work that likes to linger and often view the characters from a distance. For instance in one scene the camera stays outside looking through a window while we hear the conversation going on inside. I don't know if Ku was trying to convey the voyeuristic attitude that the media and the population have towards the characters, but if he is then it is far from obvious. As far as I can tell, the style is just an attempt at gritty naturalism, but all it did was separate me from the characters even more. I will say, however, that the two lead performances from Maria Bello and Michael Sheen are phenomenal. This is a performer's movie. Bello plays the grieving mother constantly on the verge of a breakdown effortlessly, while Sheen's father character bottles it up until he explodes in a goose bump inducing scene. If you choose to see Beautiful Boy, do it for the bold performances.
Beautiful Boy sacrifices video quality for the sake of artistic style. Shot on 16mm film, it has the raw grainy look of Aronofsky's The Wrestler and Black Swan. It's a great artistic fit for the raw story on display, but it won't come close to being a reference disc for this reason. As is predictable with 16mm, overall detail is very soft and there is a constant harsh grain presiding over every scene in the film. Colours are also appropriately muted to coincide with the bleak subject matter. The film's colour palette is mostly yellows, grays and browns, all of which are drained of their natural vibrance. Black levels are good but noisy, as expected. The disc is mostly free of compression artefacts, but there are a few instances of debris (see the first screen cap) and some occasional banding amidst large monotonous areas (see the left side of the second screen cap). Keeping the director's vision and choice of format in mind, this is a good transfer that shouldn't disappoint anyone who has the right expectations.
Anchor Bay releases Beautiful Boy with a perfectly fitting Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track. Seeing a Dolby track is rare in this age of DTS-HD Master Audio. Much like the cinematographic approach, the sound engineering in this movie is fairly low key. It gets all of the important things right, with clear, appropriately isolated dialogue, but like most small dramas there is hardly anything dynamic about the track. The LFE channel in particular does not get much sound to it, but the surround speakers are used quite often for ambient outdoor noises. As with the video quality, its hard to imagine anybody complaining about this mix if they know what they're walking into.
Aside from a theatrical trailer, there are two minutes of deleted scenes in standard definition. The first is Bello's character deciding to apologize to a victim's mother in the grocery store, with unfortunate results. The supporting performance is weak. The second scene is Bello's character again, caught doing some busy work to keep her mind focused. The last scene is just some additional footage of Sheen's character playing tennis. They are brief, uninteresting, and inconsequential to the film, so it's not hard to see why they were taken out. The audio commentary track with the filmmakers is a quiet one. They spend the majority of the runtime talking about finding their visual style, camera techniques, and discussing the message they were intending to convey. They list 21 Grams as a stylistic inspiration, and I can totally see it. If you're a fan of the movie's cinematography, you'll probably find something to like here.
Beautiful Boy is stylistically competent and features some truly compelling performances from Maria Bello and Michael Sheen, but the interesting subject matter feels mostly unexplored and emotionally distant. Anchor Bay gives the film a solid video transfer and audio track considering the raw film making approach, but the extra features are small in number and uninteresting.
* Note: The above images are taken from the Blu-ray release and resized for the page. Full-resolution captures are available by clicking individual images, but due to .jpg compression they are not necessarily representative of the quality of the transfer.
Review by Jonathan Hogberg
stevepulaski Member Join Date: June 2009 Location: Niger Posts: 741
Just got this from Netflix. Despite the review, I still want to watch it for the sake of Maria Bello and Kyle Gallner from "Red State."
Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
Disc Details
Release Date: 11th October 2011
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Blu-ray Disc
RCE: No
Video: 1080p
Aspect: 1.78:1
Anamorphic: No
Colour: Yes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, Dolby Digital 1.0 Spanish
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish
Extras: Deleted Scenes, Audio Commentary with Writer/Director Shawn Ku, Editor Chad Galster and Cinematographer Michael Fimognari
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Shawn Ku
Cast: Michael Sheen, Maria Bello, Kyle Gallner
Genre: Drama
Length: 90 minutes
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Simple Comments Release Notes: v.930 (1/2)
Simple Comments Release Notes: v.930
[This is a release bulletin for the Simple Comments script. For general information pertaining to the script, including the latest release download, system requirements, etc., visit the Simple Comments main page.]
Simple Comments v.930 adds several new features, including optional CAPTCHA authentication on comment submissions, RSS format comment feeds, the ability for administrators to reply to a comment from directly within the comment approval screen, and the ability to take care of your cat while you're away on vacation.
Ok, we may have exaggerated a bit with the cat. But I hope you'll find the remaining enhancements in the new version--as well as the usual round of bug fixes and updates--useful in your own Simple Comments deployments.
Comment Validation with CAPTCHA
If you've worked with any type of Web form before, then you're probably familiar with the CAPTCHA acronym, which stands for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." CAPTCHAs take many shapes and forms; but perhaps one of the most known and recognizable asks a would-be form submitter to enter a series of characters that are presented within a graphic image, such as this one:
The idea is that graphically displayed characters, while easy enough for us humans to decipher, can be very difficult (but unfortunately for our purposes, not impossible) for computer programs to analyze. The graphic distortion and angling of the characters as seen in the above example are common in these types of tests; making them even more difficult for bot-based submission tools to crack. Unfortunately, these distortions are sometimes so effective that human beings have a hard time reading the graphic, too.
Due to the distortion, image-based CAPTCHAs can sometimes be difficult to pass for even the most able human being; and for those with visual disabilities (i.e., the blind) they can be next to impossible to use. As a result, image-based CAPTCHAs are not without their share of some controversy on the Web; with those strongly in favor and those strongly against. And in the middle of it all, CAPTCHA-based projects continue to flourish: Both their creation and their subsequent "cracking" lead to advances in the creation of artifical intelligence applications. For more information on the science behind the CAPTCHAs, we refer you to The CAPTCHA Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
With the new release, Simple Comments includes an optional CAPTCHA mechanism that will provide a validation image similar to the image above with each comment submission. If you enable this feature in your Simple Comments deployment, would-be submitters need to successfully submit the numbers presented in the CAPTCHA image before the system will accept the comment for processing. The system we're using is actually provided as a free service by captchas.net. In brief, here's how their system works:
First, you must sign up for a free account on the captchas.net site. The site owners ask you to notify them if your usage is likely to be high (say, 50K captcha images a day or more) before you go live.
When you sign up for the service, you'll be given a user account name and a "secret key." For reasons that will be obvious momentarily, you must protect this secret key just as you would a confidential password!
To request an image display, you first generate a random string of characters. Then you send this random string, along with your account name, as a URL to the captchas.net servers. For example:
(No, my user account is not doodah. Just an example.) The captchas.net server combines the random string you provided and your secret key (which they've stored on their side), applies a mathematical formula, and presents the resulting image with the appropriate characters. The formula itself is published on the captchas.net Web page; since it requires the same secret key on both sides of the operation, there's no need to have to hide the formula used.
As an aid to those with visual disabilities, you can also request an audio version of the captcha (which is also slightly distorted, to try and foil the bot-writers).
When the user submits the form along with their guess at what the graphic displays, you apply the same mathemetical formula to the combination of your copy of the secret key plus the random string you generated. Compare the results of your operation to the user's guess; if they're the same the user is assumed to be a human being. (You should also make sure that the random string was actually generated by your script and is not too old; so bot submitters can't flood your script with sequential attempts to guess the word that would be displayed with a particular random string).
Though straightforward, the captchas.net service actually has many features. You can select the size of the resulting graphic, the number of characters displayed in the graphic (though we felt that the default size of 240x80 was indeed the best choice for the default of 6 characters), and you can also select which characters are used in the actual graphic display (though you're limited to letters and numbers). On this last point, we recommend (and Simple Comment defaults to) the use of numbers only in your captchas. We found many characters were difficult to distinguish in the image displays as well as difficult to hear in the audio versions of the captchas.
Multiple new parameters are now supported in the
config.xml file to enable
the display of CAPTCHA images on your Simple Comments submission forms; I refer you to the
README included with the Simple Comments distribution for full details. By
default, the CAPTCHA system in Simple Comments is not enabled; so you'll need to alter these
parameters to suit your taste if you want to use it (and you'll need to provide your own user
account name and secret key that you got from captchas.net, anyway). To see how the system
works out-of-the-box (but with CAPTCHAs enabled) have a look at our test page.
If you'd like to use the captchas.net service in your own Perl creations, you can
download and use the
CaptchasDotNet module as described on the
captchas.net site; or use our own
CommentCaptchas module now included
within the Simple Comments distribution. Note, however, that the two systems aren't
identical; as I opted to do some things internally differently in the Simple Comments
version of the module. This means you can't use one as a drop-in replacement for the other.
The captchas.net site also has drop-in modules/classes for use with other languages, as
well; including PHP, ASP, and JSP.
Another suggestion from one of our users was the Akismet service, which actually ranks each comment posting as to the likelihood that it's spam. This sounds like a very interesting concept; but since the Akismet service is free only for personal blogs, I decided to go with the captchas.net service, instead. If there's enough interest in adapting Simple Comments to work with Akismet, I'll revisit that possibility for a future release.
What else is new in Simple Comments v.930? How about a nice helping of RSS feeds...
Created: April 27, 2007
Revised: April 27, 2007
URL: http://webreference.com/programming/perl/comments/v.930/index.html


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July, 2013
Why Your Reputation Matters Now More Than Ever
By Stephanie Beck
We are finishing up the second quarter of 2013. How are your new marketing plans going? Hopefully, you have added an online referral and review program. Whether you are incorporating reviews on Google, Manta, City Search, social media sites or your own website, your customers leaving reviews and recommendations is so much more powerful now than ever.
Why? Let me share some interesting stats with you from an April 2012 Nielson Report regarding believability and trust by consumers.
The Informational Age
People search online before they buy and they also put a lot of stock in what they read online. How to know what you are reading is credible is another story; that is why recommendations and reviews have been making such a strong impact on consumers' buying decisions. Studies show that 74 percent of U.S. consumers choose to do business based on online feedback ... even when that feedback is from total strangers!
According to the report, "Global Trust in Advertising and Brand Messages," 92 percent "trust completely" or "trust somewhat" recommendations from people they know, and 70 percent trust consumer opinions posted online. This is opposed to 47 percent who trust ads with TV, magazine and billboards (which, by the way, was a 24 percent decline from 2011).Even branded websites (58 percent), editorial content from newspaper articles (58 percent) and e-mails they signed up for (50 percent) showed a higher level of trust than any traditional paid-for advertising.
What is even more surprising is that 90 percent believe recommendations from people they know and 75% percent believe consumer opinions online were the most relevant when looking for information about the products they want and need. The next three most believable are branded websites (59 percent), editorial content such as newspaper articles (55 percent) and e-mails they signed up for (51 percent). All of these still rank higher than any traditional or online paid advertising.
What does this mean for your practice? It means you need to get all the customers who "love" what you do to post written referrals and reviews online for you! Select two or three review sites, create your account and then encourage your customers to leave a review. My top 10 review sites are:
You may have noticed I didn't mention the one that starts with "Y" and rhymes with help. That's because Yelp recently implemented a really difficult filtering process that many customers and businesses are not pleased with. When Yelp finally gets things working properly, I might consider recommending it again.
For now, I would stay with the more friendly review sites. Keep the process simple to start; choose two to three, maximum, to begin with. Otherwise you might find yourself overwhelmed and confused. This isn't a "set it and forget it" process. Be complete: add your photos, product descriptions, and all your contact information including your address, phone, e-mail and website. Be creative and, if given the option, always take advantage of offering some sort of coupon toward your products or services.
How to Get Patients to Review You
Here are some ideas for creative ways to make it easy for your customers to leave you a review online:
Video Reviews
Video reviews and video marketing in general have increased in the past few years, and now review sites are implementing video web forms for reviews. If video reviews are a little intimidating because you don't know how to structure them, here is the information I recommend your patients include:
Now take the video review and post it, as is, to your review sites, add it to your website, post it on your social media sites, and even have it on a replay loop on a screen at the front desk of your clinic.
Make a customer appreciation day out of it and have a little video session set up. Invite all your patients into your facility and set up a video camera and microphone for your patients to share their feedback.
Be sure to have a general video consent form available for all patients to sign. You can get a free consent form for your state online at www.rocketlawyer.com.
If all this sounds a little too complicated, remember, you don't have to do it all at once. You can still benefit by implementing several of these ideas in your practice today.
Start by asking your best customers for reviews. We're halfway through 2013, so now is the time to get started.
Stephanie Beck is the owner of SRB Solutions, an online and social media marketing business. Contact her with questions, comments, and for more information at
Chiropractic Events


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From photojournalist Damian Mulinix. Reposted here with permission:
This is by far the most amazing story I have ever been a part of. I'm still awestruck as I write this, but I am so very happy to be able to tell it.
Damian Mulinix / Chinook Observer
Last Friday afternoon a large church youth group from Spanaway was visiting the beach off the Cranberry Beach approach in Long Beach, WA.
Shannon Kissel and his daughter Nicole were boogie-boarding nearby when they saw two boys were in need of help. While they were able to retrieve one boy, they were not able to rescue Dale Ostrander, who was caught in a rip tide. It was about 10 minutes until the surf rescue team was on scene.
Twenty-plus kids from the youth group sobbed uncontrollably and prayed on the sand during the search, a truly heart-wrenching sound. It was then at least another 15 minutes or so before rescue swimmer Eduardo Mendez spotted Ostrander, and he and swimmer Will Green were able to grab him and pull him aboard a jet ski.
Damian Mulinix / Chinook Observer
Seconds later at the shore, Doug Knutzen carried him up to where paramedics were waiting to treat him. They were on the beach for another 10 minutes trying to revive him. I think it's safe to say that everyone was certain Ostrander was dead. But the crew continued to work on him, and apparently once they got to the hospital they were able to get a weak pulse and get him breathing again.
Ostrander was air-lifted to Portland for treatment. After he was put in an induced coma for a couple days, he woke up.
And today (Aug. 9) they removed his breathing tube. Not only did Ostrander breath on his own, but he spoke complete sentences. Amazing. This boy was dead for upward of 20 minutes, easily.
From the blog prayersfordale.blogspot.com: At 4:11 pm today "The doctors just removed Dale's breathing tube and he is now breathing on his own. Also, because of possible damage to the brain, they were unsure if he would be able to speak. Minutes after the tube was removed, the doctors told him to cough. Not only did Dale talk back to the doctors, he responded in a full sentence saying, "I don't have to."
Dale continues to get better by the minute, and the doctors are more and more amazed!"
Damian Mulinix / Chinook Observer
Going to these kinds of breaking news situations is often tough, as you never know how they're going to turn out. I was heartbroken for almost a day after this. And to be able to share this kind of news now is just so heart-warming. Please visit the site listed above and follow as Dale recovers miraculously. Because if ever there was a miracle, this would be it.
The dramatic rescue of a 12-year-old boy, trapped underwater in the Pacific Ocean for 20 minutes after being pulled to sea by a powerful rip current, was captured by a local photographer. TODAY's Natalie Morales reports.


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CDfs is a file system for Linux systems that "exports" all tracks and boot
images on a CD as normal files. These files can then be mounted (e.g. for
ISO and boot images), copied, played (audio and VCD tracks) The primary goal
for developing this file system was to "unlock" information in old ISO images.
For instance, if you have a multisession CD with two ISO images that both
contain the file 'a', you only see the file 'a' in the second session if you
use the iso9660 file system.
Because this installs a kernel module, you will need to rebuild the package
if you change kernels.
Maintained by: markus reichelt
Keywords: cd,forensic,linuxleo,leo,recover
ChangeLog: cdfs
Download SlackBuild:
cdfs.tar.gz.asc (FAQ)
(the SlackBuild does not include the source)
|Individual Files:
| cdfs-include_sched_h.diff
| cdfs.SlackBuild
| cdfs.info
| doinst.sh
| slack-desc
© 2006-2018 SlackBuilds.org Project. All rights reserved.
Slackware® is a registered trademark of Patrick Volkerding
Linux® is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds
Web Design by WebSight Designs | Managed Hosting by OnyxLight Communications


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Love this.
1 / About
I'm a graphic designer. My wife, two sons, and I live in Chicago.
Personal Bio
Professional Bio
4-11-2013: I'm getting a bit burnt with all my blogs, I must admit. None of them get the love they deserve! So I'm limiting what I will be actively updating to Typophonic and Book Worship. And this one, of course.
3-31-2013: Just got back from the first real vacation I've taken (as in time completely off) since starting my company. The whole family went to Disneyworld for a week. It was great. Pics here.
10-14-2012: You're looking at the newly-redesigned version of this blog. The old look was getting a bit tired, so I decided to build out something custom.
8-8-2012: Launched yet another blog, Typophonic. It features cool type in record sleeve design, vinyl only.
3-14-2012: I just redid the Hazen Creative site to have bigger images and be a little cleaner overall. Mostly the same content, though I will be pulling in some of the formerly separate sites, like Hazen Type and Hazen Projects.


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Pro Tools 8 now supports the new Snow Leopard OS X
Avid today announced that Pro Tools 8 now supports the new Snow Leopard OS X.
This added support enables customers to upgrade to the latest operating system without worrying about Pro Tools compatibility. Furthermore, those purchasing a new Mac system for faster processing, reliability and ease-of-use (shipping with Snow Leopard) will now have support for Pro Tools as well.
Current Avid customers (version 8.0 and higher) can access the version updates online at no additional cost. Information and downloads available at digidesign.com
Alternatively you can buy any of the Pro-Tools range here that come with Version 8


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One side effect of Isaac is likely to be a spike in gasoline prices, temporarily stinging consumers and the economy.
Whether it has a lingering impact on fuel prices has yet to be seen, depending on how the storm develops. Isaac is expected to come ashore as a hurricane somewhere between the Florida-Alabama border and Louisiana Tuesday afternoon.
"I'm expecting a 10 cents a gallon (increase) over the course of the next couple of days," said Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates. Lipow said Gulf Coast refiners have already shut in 1.4 million barrels a day, or about 7 to 8 percent of U.S. refining capacity ahead of the storm. He said as much as 13 percent could be shut if the Motiva refineries and Exxon Baton Rouge refinery follow suit.
The increase in gasoline also comes as consumers wind up spending on back-to-school items and look forward to the holiday shopping season. Gasoline prices were already at a record level for this time of year, and it is unusual for prices to be rising this much into the Labor Day, viewed as the end of the summer driving season.
"It's a substantial increase from the low $3.30s we saw in early July, so the consumer is feeling the pinch," Lipow said.
Gasoline prices have risen since late June due to refining issues, and the Isaac-related shutdowns and the weekend explosion at a Venezuelan refinery will make supplies of gasoline and other refined fuels tighter. Gasoline futures on the Nymex jumped 2.5 percent to settle at $3.15 a gallon Monday. Oil and natural gas were both lower on the day, as traders perceived the greater threat to be to gasoline supplies.
A more dramatic jump in gasoline was seen in the spot wholesale market along the Gulf Coast, where gasoline rose 20 cents to $3.25 a gallon Monday, according to OPIS. Lipow does not expect to see all of that to show up in consumer prices.
"We're now sitting at $3.75 (a gallon), and it looks like we're heading to $3.85 a gallon for a national average," he said. Prices at the pump should start to come back down from the temporary spike, as refiners switch to easier to make winter fuel in mid-September, and as demand drops off after summer driving ends, he said.
The shutdown refineries will take about two weeks to get back on line, if there's no flooding or power outages affecting them. "I don't anticipate major damage here. It's not nearly as significant a storm as Katrina" in terms of winds. Also, with drought conditions in the Midwest, the Mississippi River is at a low level , and it should be able to absorb the heavy rains, Lipow said.
Economists and analysts had seen the decline in gasoline prices from the spring highs of near $4 a gallon as a break for the economy – and the consumer. But some of that has reversed as gasoline prices crept back up during the summer. Even so, analysts are still looking to the consumer as one of the few potential positives for the economy.
LPL chief market strategist Jeff Kleintop, in a note Monday, said gasoline prices are the biggest threat from hurricane to the economy, even as they can temporarily disrupt employment and output in the areas affected. "Gasoline prices have risen nearly 10 percent above the year-ago level and 30 percent above the five-year average- but this has not yet deterred consumers," he noted, adding retail sales still grew at 3 to 4 percent pace in June and July.
"However a shock from reduced output due to hurricanes could push gasoline prices at the pump higher in the next few months, relative to June and July. The burden an additional 50 cents at the pump may place on consumers could total $17 billion," he wrote.
Wells Fargo Securities institutional equity strategist Gina Martin Adams said she likes consumer discretionary stocks right now, but she does see rising gasoline prices as a risk.
Adams issued a report on consumer stocks Monday. She said the consumer discretionary sector was the only one to see positive earnings revision momentum over the last three months. She likes household durables, media and specialty retail but not the auto segments. In staples, she recommends the food and staples retailing group, tobacco and food products but is underweight the household products segment.
The 0.8 percent jump in July retail sales surprised economists, who had expected just a 0.3 percent increase. An early read on back-to-school shopping will show up when chain stores report August sales on Thursday.
"We were flirting with retail sales declines. To see things bounce back, just a hair I think is notable, and probably a sign of continued stability in the consumer space right now," she said.
Adams said there are a number of factors making the consumer stocks attractive. For instance, the housing recovery is in its early stages and that should help retailers as consumers spend on improvements and decorating. She also likes the media space, which is helped when consumers look for content to go along with new device purchases. Media is also lifted by political spending in an election year.
She also pointed to a progressive increase in household net worth, which is now just seven percent below its 2007 peak.
"Consumers on paper are wealthier," than at any time since the financial crisis began. But "you do have gas prices weighing on confidence," she said.
Tuesday's data should provide some insight into the consumer. Consumer confidence is reported at 10 a.m. ET, and S&P/Case Shiller home price data at 9 a.m.
What Else To Watch
There is also a Treasury auction at 1 p.m. of $35 billion 2-year notes.
Charlie Parkhurst of Barclays Treasury desk said he expects some concession into the auction with the pre-holiday week's light trading volumes. The Fed's purchase operations for Operation Twist was the highlight of a quiet trading day Monday. The Fed purchased $1.8 billion in securities, dated 2036 and longer, and it has purchase operations through Thursday.
"It (the market) would probably be a lot cheaper if it wasn't for the Fed's intervention. The Fed is having the desired effect with its purchases," he said. The 10-year yield slipped to 1.651 percent Monday.
"I think with Jackson Hole later this week, and the holiday kind of vacation time of the year, I doubt any of these (economic) numbers are going to be market moving, to be honest," he said. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks at the Fed's annual symposium in Jackson Hole Friday morning, and some traders anticipate he may drop hints about further easing.
"We do not feel Bernanke will use that forum to signal any change," said Parkhurst, noting that is what the bond market expects as well. "We'll wait for the payrolls, and the FOMC meeting. We don't think there will be any policy change of any sort, or any hint of it."
Follow Patti Domm on Twitter: @pattidomm
Questions? Comments? Email us at email@example.com


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Rough Guide to Belgium and Luxembourg (BOK)
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The new full-colour Rough Guide to Belgium & Luxembourg is the definitive guide to this underrated corner of Europe. Detailed accounts and crystal-clear maps reveal every nook and cranny of both countries, from the best Belgian beer bars to comic shops, chocolate and carnivals. The guide is packed with historical context and well-informed insights into the superb sights, museums and galleries of the big cities - Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels and Luxembourg City - but it also departs from the urban centres for the forests and moorland of the Ardennes, the windswept beaches of the north coast, the WW1 sites of Flanders and Luxembourg's remote hamlets. You'll find lavish photography and colour maps throughout, plus author picks, themed itineraries and, of course, the lowdown on the best hotels, cafes, restaurants and shops across every price range, giving you clear, balanced reviews and honest, first-hand opinions. Make the most of your time on Earth[trademark] with The Rough Guide to Belgium & Luxembourg.