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Previously published on BillMoyers.com.
On Monday, via teleconference, whistleblower Edward Snowden addressed a crowd at SXSW, the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. Speaking from Russia, it was Snowden's first public address to people in the United States since he fled the country last June and the revelation that he possessed thousands of secret documents obtained while a subcontractor with the National Security Agency (NSA). Reporting based on those leaked documents has made headlines around the world, revealing a depth of government mass surveillance heretofore denied by official Washington.
"When I came public it wasn't to single-handedly change the government. I wanted to inform the public so they could make their own decision," Snowden told the audience. "I took an oath to support and defend the Constitution and I saw that the Constitution was being violated on a massive scale."
Monday's session was moderated by Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, and a legal adviser to Edward Snowden. The day before he left for SXSW, Wizner spoke with Moyers & Company's senior writer Michael Winship.
Special thanks to John Light for recording and editing, and to Helen Brunner, director of the Media Democracy Fund, for helping to make this interview possible.
Winship: Tell us about the [American Civil Liberties Union's] Speech, Privacy and Technology Project. What's its agenda?
Wizner: We're trying to plant our flag at the point where science and technology and civil liberties intersect. The rapid developments in science and surveillance technologies really do have an impact on a whole range of rights, not just privacy, and we want to have the institutional expertise to be able to identify what those issues are and shape sophisticated responses. So the project has lawyers, but not only lawyers. We have two full-time computer scientists on our staff who are technologists, who are experts in encryption, secure communications, surveillance technologies. And they've been able, not only to help us respond with more intelligence, I would say, to the intelligence surveillance scandal, but also to help identify issues that we might not have intuitively understood to be civil liberties issues.
We want to be looking at issues that are not ready to be litigated, but might be important issues in five years, or eight or ten. One of the things I like to do is go into a room of scientists, maybe neuroscientists, and say, "What do you think the ACLU should know and be worried about?" and just see what kind of conversation comes out of that. And it's a really amazing kind of exercise. You might have somebody say, "You need to be worried about fMRI brain scanning. The research on this is really scary. It makes the polygraph seem like child's play. This is going on in classified Pentagon labs and you need to be thinking about this right now..." It might be somebody talking about other biometrics that are not at the forefront, or what's going to happen or what the dangers are of universal DNA screening at birth and what protections are necessary.
So sometimes we might end up writing a white paper about an issue like this. Other times, we might prepare litigation, and other times we might use our network of 50 ACLU state affiliates to push for immediate legislation through the state legislature.
Winship: So, really, what you're saying is there's something in almost everything that everybody does that's affected by the work you're doing.
Wizner: The reality is that, in the last year in particular, and really the last two or three years, there's been a disproportionate focus on digital privacy and government surveillance. And that focus has certainly exploded in the eight or nine months since Edward Snowden began to dominate the global headlines with revelation after revelation about the scope of the surveillance data. And so it's sort of an "all hands on deck" for that issue right now. A debate like this may come along once in a generation, an opportunity to kind of hit the reset button and for us to really reinvigorate our oversight mechanisms, and also encourage changes in the technology community to correct some of the asymmetries in power between the state and the citizens.
Winship: How did you first learn and know about Edward Snowden? When did that happen?
Wizner: I had been a friend, and at times advisor, to Laura Poitras, and a friend, and at times, source, to Glenn Greenwald. These were people with whom I was in very regular communication, and still am. And so when Laura Poitras first received a communication from someone who claimed to be in a senior position in the intelligence community, who claimed to have access to documentary evidence of illegal, unconstitutional and very, very troubling government surveillance activities, I was one of the people to whom Laura reached out for advice about what the next steps were. At that time, she had been subjected to so much surveillance herself that it was at the front of her mind that this might be an effort to entrap her, and so she wanted to make sure that she didn't put herself in any legal jeopardy or unnecessary risk. And so over the course of the next several months, leading up to the day in late May or June when Laura Poitras and Glenn Greenwald got on the plane to go meet Snowden, I had been having conversations with them. But I didn't know Edward Snowden's name or his identity until you did, until The Guardian put on its website that first video interview, in which Glenn Greenwald asks Edward Snowden who he is, what he's done and why he's done it. We were gathered around computers in our office watching that, just as I imagine people were gathered around computers in offices in Silicon Valley, in Fort Meade [National Security Agency headquarters], in Washington and in a lot of other places where people watch these issues closely.
Winship: How would you characterize what he has revealed?
Wizner: Well, maybe the best way to answer that question is to remember what President Obama said in the first week after the revelations began to appear on front pages. He said Americans shouldn't be too worried about these disclosures because all three branches of government had blessed the programs and activities that were being disclosed. That was a true statement. That was also exactly the problem. And it's worth looking at what those same three branches of government have done since Edward Snowden's disclosures, since the public was brought into this conversation.
So let's look at the courts. Now, it's true that a court called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court had approved, in secret, some of these programs. It's a court that hears only from the government, does not have the benefit of adversarial briefing, didn't get to hear what our objections would have been. It's also a court that was set up to give warrants, not to write opinions on whether surveillance programs in general were lawful. And when we tried to bring challenges to these programs in open federal courts, we got as far as the Supreme Court, but every court turned us away without even considering the legality of the programs. The government said, "These plaintiffs have no right to be in court. They can't show that they were subjected to these surveillance programs, and therefore they don't have standing. And they're not allowed to use the discovery process to learn that, because that would be a state secret." The result being that no one has the right to go into federal court to challenge the legality of these programs.
Edward Snowden was watching this. In our very first conversation, one of his first questions to me was, "Have these documents that have been published so far given you standing to go back in court?" To him, the idea that a court would not answer the question, "Is this program legal? Is it constitutional?" but instead would contort itself in order to not answer that question seemed like a failure of oversight, and he was right.
What's happened since his disclosures? We have now taken some of these documents, gone back into federal courts, where our standing is really much harder to question. Two federal judges have now considered, for example, the constitutionality of the government's collection of all telephone metadata. They've come so far to different conclusions on the legal question, but both said that the plaintiffs have standing to be in court. So one thing that he's done is he's reinvigorated judicial oversight.
Now, what about Congress? To me, the signal moment in Congress is [Senator] Ron Wyden asking [Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper, "Is there any kind of information that you collect on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" And Clapper says, "No, sir, not wittingly." We like to call this Clapper lying to Congress, and it's certainly that. But it would be much more accurate to say that Clapper was lying to the American people, because Senator Wyden knew that the answer was false. He didn't, he felt like he couldn't correct the answer. No one else on the committee corrected the answer. Clapper didn't correct the answer, no one on his staff, no one on the Administration. So what we had was a lie being told to Congress and no one in any branch coming forward to say that a lie had been committed. And Snowden was watching that, too. And what's happened in Congress since the public disclosures? The issue has come out of the intelligence communities and into the full Congress. There is historic bipartisan legislation that would end bulk collection of American's data, that would create an adversarial process in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. This is the kind of legislation that would've been absolutely unthinkable before Snowden.
The direction has been one-way since the late 1970s. The Deep State has more authority, not less. The opposite is going to happen now. Now, whether it's something that seems more cosmetic or something that really is historic, well, that's really up to the people to decide. We will see. But there's been an earthquake in the congressional oversight of these programs, and that's because of Snowden.
And even the executive branch, which said, "Nothing to see here" -- you know, the president appointed his own review board, that included former very high ranking intelligence community officials and other close friends of his. I think it's fair to say that the civil society organizations expected a whitewash. But that's not what we got. The conclusions were -- more politely stated -- that the NSA had essentially gotten out of control, that it allowed its technological capabilities to drive its practices, rather than having its practices constrained by laws and values, and even wisdom. And there were dozens and dozens of recommendations that went not only to giving Americans greater protections, but also people abroad. And you heard the president in January, in his big speech about the NSA, say -- first time for any president, I think -- that we need to be concerned about the privacy rights of people outside the US who are not protected by the Constitution.
So all three branches of government are now doing the oversight that the Constitution wants them to do, that they were not doing before Edward Snowden. To me, that is his most significant contribution.
Winship: And you feel that the route he took, via journalists, was the one and only way he could go?
Wizner: I guess at times I wonder what people mean when they say he should have gone through a traditional route rather than going through journalists. Sometimes, the kinds of people who we call whistleblowers -- and I don't use that term as a term of art -- are people who uncover unquestionably illegal conduct that's been hidden away and they just need to bring it to the attention of an overseer, call up an inspector general, call up a member of Congress and say, "Look what I found," and then the system will take care of itself. But sometimes, someone comes upon a system of global dragnet surveillance that the oversight system deems perfectly legal. This is not something that Congress was unaware of. This is not something that courts were unaware of, at least the courts that were set up to review these practices. What was Edward Snowden supposed to do, call up the Senate Intelligence Committee and say, "Hi, I'm a 29-year-old contractor who works in Hawaii, and I'm calling to report to you about the programs that you have approved in secret?" This was a very, very different kind of situation. There was no one to report to who had not been part of the system of approval. And even those who were in the Congress who shared Snowden's view about the propriety and maybe legality of this were unwilling to talk. Senator Wyden was on the floor of the Senate with his hair on fire, saying, "If the American people knew what I knew, they would be angry and they would be shocked." Well, that turned out to be true, but we didn't learn it from Senator Wyden. We learned it from Edward Snowden.
And one more point about what he did. You know, the number of documents that Edward Snowden has made available to the public is zero. What he did is give information to journalists, with the instruction that they and their editors, in consultation, where necessary, with government officials, decide what was in the public interest to publish, and to withhold information that would be harmful to publish. He wanted to create a protocol that would correct for his own biases. He was someone who had spent the last almost ten years in the intelligence community. He didn't think that his own judgments -- and he has very strong judgments about what should or should not be public -- were adequate to this moment and wanted to make sure that the institutions that had the experience in doing this -- and these are our newspapers, who have long experience competing with the government over access and control of secret information -- that that be the way that the information got published. And many people have not noticed this. In an interview that Snowden gave with Time magazine when he was runner-up to the Pope for Person of the Year, he said he hasn't always agreed with the public interest determinations of the journalists, but that that's precisely why he needed to do it this way. He didn't want and didn't think that he should have the responsibility to decide which of these documents should be public. He wanted to appeal to the traditions, the institutions, the expertise of the media in helping to make those important judgments. That's what we want whistleblowers to do. We don't want them to unilaterally substitute their judgment for everybody else's. We want them to go through these institutions that funnel and that channel that and have longer experience in making these kinds of decisions.
Winship: And yet, Keith Alexander, the outgoing head of the NSA, made a speech at Georgetown a few days ago in which he said that journalists don't have the proper ability to analyze these materials, and he said that Snowden's leaks had caused "grave, significant and irreversible damage to our nation."
Wizner: Those words are the classic weasel words of the Deep State. That sentence could have been lifted from the United States government's brief to the Supreme Court in the Pentagon Papers case, where they said if the Court allowed The New York Times and Washington Post and others to publish the papers they would be responsible for "grave and irreversible damage to the national security." It's exactly the same kind of language.
You know, I wonder if General Alexander really believes that our democracy would be stronger and better off if journalists deferred in every case to the expertise and interests of the executive branch in deciding what to publish. I mean if you look just back at the last few years and consider what the public would not have known on that model, we would not have known that the case for war in Iraq was cooked and based on deliberate exaggerations and lies. We wouldn't have known that American soldiers tortured and sexually humiliated prisoners in Abu Ghraib. We wouldn't have know that the CIA set up a network of secret prisons around the world and used an extraordinary rendition program to kidnap people off the streets of cities, chain them to the floors of planes and fly them to those places. We wouldn't have known about an enhanced interrogation program, known to the rest of the world as torture, where prisoners were waterboarded, suspended from ropes, beaten and treated in ways that the US has always considered criminal when it was done to our own soldiers. We wouldn't have known that the Bush administration decided that the rules for foreign intelligence surveillance collection were too cumbersome and that they should just throw aside the statute and collect whatever they wanted to, under the president's own authority, leading to the near resignation of the attorney general and the head of the FBI.
All of this stuff was classified. Not just classified; it was classified at the highest level. These were the secrets that the government said were most critical to keep. But what kind of democracy would we be if the public had never learned of this information?
I'm also not saying that journalists alone should decide what the public sees. I mean the government's voice in this debate is an important one. It's a back and forth. It's always been a back and forth. I don't believe a single story based on Snowden documents has yet been published without consultation with the government, without giving the government an opportunity to strenuously object and to point out things that might cause harm in their view. And that's why I don't think there's been any credible evidence at all of real harm to national security from these leaks.
Winship: From your position here at the Speech, Privacy and Technology Project, were you, like Senator Wyden, shocked by the extent of the surveillance?
Wizner: The short answer is yes. And I'm not easy to shock. And I question whether I was being naïve, but it never occurred to me that the NSA or Department of Justice could think that a provision like Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which is similar to a provision giving grand juries subpoena authority, could be used to get the records of every single American phone call every day. It simply didn't make any sense. Or that the government could think that it was a valid constitutional argument to say that the Fourth Amendment basically is silent when it comes to intercepting and storing all of our communications -- it has nothing to say, it's not even implicated -- that only when someone decides to query that database in search of a particular person does the Fourth Amendment have even a limited role, that they're allowed to collect everything without having to consider the Fourth Amendment. It seems to me that that turns the Fourth Amendment on its head, that we do search and seizure before suspicion, rather than having suspicion before search and seizure.
This stuff, the extent of it, was shocking, and I was also shocked by some of the NSA's efforts to undermine the security of the Internet in our global communications in order to facilitate their mass surveillance. The idea that they would deliberately weaken commonly used encryption standards that are used to protect our financial records, that are used to protect our medical records, our networks -- and they would do this even as other parts of the government are telling us that the cyber threat is greater than the terrorism threat right now. Well, in the name of fighting terrorism, the offensive surveillance that they're doing is weakening our cyber defenses against those other kinds of threats. This is going on in the very same government. And the amount of that, the way that offense had just been sort of given everything at the expense of defense, did come as something of a shock, and I think not just to people in the ACLU, but to people in the technology community, many of whom did not consider themselves political, saw politics as messy, liked the elegance of ones and zeroes and code, but now find themselves having to treat the NSA as a different kind of threat model when they're thinking about security of networks and systems.
Winship: And yet, certain of these companies were also, selling information to the NSA, or sharing information.
Wizner: I think the relationship between the NSA and these companies is complicated. It's not one relationship, it's many relationships. And I do think that, in particular, the Silicon Valley companies -- that have a sort of self-image as being libertarian; they have the ethos of being against evil and on the side of freedom -- certainly want to minimize the ways in which they facilitated the kinds of mass surveillance that's gone on.
On the other hand, I think there is a difference between a program like PRISM, where the government goes to the technology companies with orders from a court and then they open up their systems in response to those orders, and other programs that we read about where the NSA looks for the places in these companies where data is moving around without encryption -- so transfers of data between data centers overseas -- and then hacks into those connections. I don't think they ask permission to do that, and I think that it's not all hypocrisy when the companies say, "I can't believe they did that." Their attitude is, "You could get what you wanted with a court order. The law is so favorable to you now, why are you hacking us? Why are you weakening us?"
And I do think that now that the debate is out in the open, and now that people around the world, or known to these companies as markets around the world, are very nervous about American companies, because they have seen how the NSA treats them like a silver platter for dragnet surveillance. You know, the companies face a kind of existential threat. They're either going to have to do more to protect, to give end-to-end encryption to their customers' data, or they're going to lose those customers. And so maybe it was easier for the companies when this debate was in the shadows or when it wasn't really known. Now they really are going to have to make these choices. They can't present the same smiley face to the public and to government.
Winship: And it's really a global issue, not just a domestic one; the companies have clients all over the world and there's pushback from those clients.
Wizner: And you see the way that the NSA operates. They might tell Germany, "We're not going to take data of Germans in Germany," so they'll wait until it leaves Germany and transits to Denmark and take it there. And they might say the same thing to Denmark, "We're not going to take information from the people of Denmark in Denmark," but they'll get it when it transits to Germany. And because of the NSA's access to these global communications systems, the issue is global, as you say. Not a lot of domestic reform litigation is going to be able to be equal to the size of the challenge, so there is a sort of broader challenge to free societies about how to deal with the question of mass surveillance. We're talking -- when I say mass surveillance, I'm saying basically collecting everything, tapping into the backbone of the Internet and syphoning off everything and storing it, which we can do now because storage is cheap. We used to have to decide who we were going to follow. Now we can follow everybody. And there's no question that having all of that information is going to be useful to governments in some way. You create a database that can be a surveillance time machine. It can allow governments to hit rewind and recreate our lives in ways that would surely help solve some crimes.
It also is, I think, a real danger to give governments that much power over their citizens. And so I think there has to be a sort of law and policy debate that takes place at a global level, at least among free societies. But also, remember that when Google switches from having its Gmail traffic go from being unencrypted by default to being encrypted by default, something that it did in 2010, that affects hundreds of millions of people instantly, at the flip of a switch, and not just people in the United States. Google just made it almost impossible for the government of Iran to get Gmail information from Iranians who are using the service. So the technology companies, the fixes that they put in place will be global fixes and not just for Americans.
Winship: But in terms of Americans, what do you say to people who say, "Look, they're just trying to protect me. What's the harm? I haven't done anything wrong. I've got nothing to hide"?
Wizner: I think that many Americans do feel that way. I do think that, when you talk about the dangers of mass surveillance, they can seem abstract. They can seem futuristic, they can seem science fiction-y. They're not as easy to digest as a villain like J. Edgar Hoover, who was blackmailing Martin Luther King and infiltrating movements, or a Stasi [former East German secret police] keeping detailed files on neighbors and all of that. And I start by saying we are not a society like that yet. We are fundamentally, for most people, at least, a free society. I mean there are communities like the Muslim community that have experienced a much more invasive form of surveillance, with informants in their mosques and people in their community, provocateurs. But for the most part, that's not what it feels like now to live in America.
Having said that, without the right kinds of democratic controls, these kinds of technologies frighten me. And they frighten me for a number of reasons. As I said, our principle privacy protection in the past was probably more a cost than law. Governments simply had to make decisions about what they were going to collect and what they were going to store, because it was expensive to do those things. Now that those costs are plunging to zero and Moore's law [1] marches on, it's technologically and financially feasible for governments to collect and store everything about us, all of our movements, all of our communications, all of our associations, all the information they need to construct portraits of our lives that might be more detailed even than things that we know about ourselves. And if you add to this other kinds of surveillance that surely are coming -- drones in the sky with ARGUS cameras that can record entire cities second by second and reconstruct them -- we will be living in a different kind of panopticon, and I do think that that is going to cast a chill on what it means to be a human being, if we know that every moment that we consider private now is actually residing somewhere, and someone somewhere can hit rewind and see it, even if we ourselves are not suspected of doing anything wrong.
If that's too abstract, I think that when governments amass this kind of information and unleash upon it computer algorithms that are trying to make predictions and judgments -- you know, who's dangerous, who might be a terrorist, who should we be more worried about? We've seen what happens on the commercial side every day with these kinds of processes, because of course supercomputers that belong to insurance companies and others are trying to calculate what kind of risk we are. You have a credit score. If anybody's ever made a mistake with a credit score of yours, I bet it was not that easy to have it resolved, and in the meantime, you might not have gotten a loan, you might've been redlined, you might've had much higher car insurance costs. I think when this tendency moves over to government -- and it's happening already -- we already have watch lists that say that some people can fly and some people can't, or that they can go in this lane or they can go in that lane. But that's only going to proliferate as there's more and more data and faster and faster computers and more confidence that they can make these predictions about us. I worry about due process. I worry about basic fairness. And I worry about a world -- not a world that looks like Orwell. The law professor Daniel Solove has said that maybe the better analogy for this, or metaphor, is not Orwell, but Kafka, where a big data state makes judgments that can be permanent and irreversible, and don't seem fair, and we don't have a chance to speak back.
And then, finally, I worry that the current state of play with these technologies cannot last, that we're being told, "Don't worry, all of this data just stays in a box and we only look at it a couple of hundred times a year." That's true now, but it will not be true in two years, and it will definitely not be true in five, and in ten years, every law enforcement agency is going to have access to this data. Today it's the NSA, but it's going to be the FBI, if it isn't already, and the DEA, and joint terrorism task forces that include local sheriffs and your local police. And very soon, the cop on the corner, through his handheld device, is going to have access to all of this data, and he will because we'll be presented with scenarios where if he had had it, it would've stopped this crime or stopped this attack, and the restrictions will be blamed. And, you know, Pandora 's Box is going to be opened.
I think if we don't, right now, when we hold the world's attention focused on this debate, put in stronger democratic controls, it becomes more and more likely that, gradually, through mission creep, we're going to be living in a different kind of surveillance state, and one that people feel and experience much more directly.
Winship: It seems to me, the other thing we're talking about is the chilling effect on speech, that people are self-censoring, even, because they're afraid to be surveilled like this and to have everything that they're saying covered and documented.
Wizner: Yes. I think "chill" is something that we worry about a lot, and maybe we should worry about it even more. I sometimes think about poor Professor Petraeus [former General and CIA Director David Petraeus] at the City University of New York. One woman sent a nasty anonymous email to a second woman, the second woman called the FBI, and in a short time, the FBI was reading the content of many, many, many thousands of emails. And perhaps they justified doing that -- I think it was outrageous -- because once they saw the CIA director's name, they thought maybe this is a national security threat. Well, I hope that that scared every member of Congress, that the FBI could use national security as a pretext to pour through the CIA director's private email communications. He was not even suspected of wrongdoing, but because our digital trails are basically permanent and we can't erase them, it doesn't even require the arrow to be pointed at us. It could be pointed at somebody next to us and then our lives can be turned upside down like this.
So I think people are beginning to experience this. We see these sad cases where a Facebook photo of somebody drinking at a fraternity party when she was 20 results in her not being able to get hired as a teacher when she's 26. Stories like that are going to proliferate, where the digital footprints that we leave by living ordinary lives constrain choices down the road and do chill. And I think they already do chill. I think they chill things in a way that are going to give us worse politicians. Right now, anybody who wants to be president who's 18 years old is probably living a life of walking on eggshells and trying to avoid the kinds of experiences that could be embarrassing. But do we want that person to be our president, someone who from the age of 16, 17 and 18 is doing everything possible to engage in our world so as not to be in a position where his or her life can be distorted down the road? I mean, to me, these are really, really important questions that go far beyond law and get at what it's going to be like to be a person in a world of universal collection. And the kinds of controls that we put access to this, our ability to hit delete on things that might actually be useful and not to make national security the first, second and third argument in deciding how to make these hard decisions as a society, it's going to be very interesting to see how all of that plays out.
Winship: Are you hopeful?
Wizner: I think there was a period of time after the 9/11 attacks, and it was a much longer period of time than it should've been, where the talismanic invocation of terrorism or national security was enough to sort of silence opposition to the expansions of the government's surveillance authority. And I think that one of the remarkable developments in the last eight or nine months has been how the surveillance state has lost control of the argument in the plot, that their efforts to say that they have stopped any number of terrorism attacks with these and we would all be in great danger if they lost these authorities just don't seem as credible anymore, and partly, I think that that's a function of the distance from 9/11 and the fact that very, very, very few Americans are injured or killed by terrorism -- you know, a tiny handful, compared to other threats. And so people are beginning to be able to contextualize that. Partly, there is a generation, and particularly a digital generation, that was not as politically traumatized by 9/11, and doesn't jump when the intelligence agencies tell them to. And I think partly it's because people are seeing how these technologies are proliferating at the local level. Even if someone is willing to trust the president and the Defense Department and the NSA, most people are a lot less trusting of the cop on the corner, who might use this technology to stalk his ex-wife. And we don't want him to be able to open up his handheld device and have location information for everyone in the city because a license plate-reading camera has snapped that and he can feed right into that database. Some people call this the little brother problem, as opposed to the big brother problem.
But I do think that there is pushback. There is bipartisan pushback. This is an issue that is at least as important to people on the libertarian right as it is to people on the liberal left. There is this fundamentally American notion of being left alone unless you do something wrong that is jeopardized by dragnet surveillance, which captures information on everyone, in case we might do something wrong.
So, yes, I'm about as upbeat as I've been. I'll tell you that two states have passed legislation requiring law enforcement to go a judge and get a warrant before they can track your location using your cellphone. Those states were not New York and California; they were Montana and Maine. So there's something going on in the country where the question will be, at the national level, whether this will be a strong enough coalition to push reform through the House and the Senate against very, very, very strong opposition from a very well funded security state. But the fact that we're adding dozens and dozens of sponsors to these kinds of bills that would've been unthinkable just a year ago makes me optimistic.
Moyers & Company airs weekly on public television. Explore more at BillMoyers.com.


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Crystal Cruises Culinary Coupsby Janice Wald Henderson
In today's luxury cruise market a ship must whip up culinary razzle-dazzle to keep fans.
2.25.13 Pictures
The Bistro's Magnificent Housemade Cupcakes
I'd love to be the writer who discovers that the emperor, or in this case, chef, has dull knives. That maybe the wizard at the wok isn't a wizard at all. But Crystal Cruises isn't going to be that luxury line that makes this girl say plus ça change, plus ne change pas. This line isn't resting on its laurels. It can't. In an age where foodies feel faint if ketchup isn't homemade, a posh ship must whip up further culinary razzle-dazzle to keep fans.
Plus, new competition nips at its heels. Not from a luxury liner, but from upper-premium Oceania Cruises. Oceania has branded its newest ships (Riviera, Marina) as built from the ground-up for foodies. And they largely deliver; the company spends big bucks on premium ingredients prepared new-school-style, and has introduced at-sea culinary innovations, such as an olive oil menu and hands-on cooking school.
Without a new ship to broaden its culinary concepts, Crystal Cruises worked with the existing 1,070-passenger Serenity and 922-passenger Symphony (spectacularly redone in 2012) to up the gastronomic ante. Last year, the line went all-inclusive, meaning specialty restaurants, wines and spirits and gratuities are included in the cruise cost -putting it on par with competition such as Silversea and Seabourn.
Unlike most luxury lines with open seating, Crystal offered two fixed dinner seatings. In January 2011, they introduced "Perfect Choice Dining," allowing guests to choose between early or late seating nightly, if desired. Plus, besides specialty restaurants Prego and Silk Road & The Sushi Bar, guests can dine without reservations at casual cafes The Bistro and Tastes, now open nightly.
A few months ago, I sailed on Crystal Serenity on a Black Sea voyage from Venice to Istanbul, visiting exotic ports such as Yalta and Odessa in the Ukraine. (Crystal Symphony covers similar ground in July 2013 cruises - including one sail with superstar Nobu Matsuhisa, whose glam Nobu restaurants dot the globe. Crystal has the only affiliation with this chef at sea.)
Some two years had passed since I had last been onboard. What changed? Or perhaps more importantly, what hasn't?
Even the best chefs can't cook six-star cuisine without utilizing six-star ingredients. Crystal still spends a small fortune on foodstuff. Fresh berries and herbs. Michel Cordon Bleu smoked salmon - ranked one of the best in America. Fresh lobster; some 80% of fish Crystal purchases is fresh. Seafood for Silk Road & The Sushi Bar undergoes intense scrutiny and is stored in a special freezer ordered by Nobu Matsuhisa.
Cupcakes, most pastries and bread (even hot dog buns) are made from scratch. Beef is U.S. Angus, with Wisconsin veal. Orange juice is fresh. Maple syrup is real and pure. Nearly all ice cream, sorbet and yogurt are made in-house, including fresh waffle cones. Some 30-to-40 stellar cheeses are onboard for each cruise. Valrhona chocolate, arguably the world's finest, goes into desserts.
Housemade Cupcakes
Breakfast is served in multiple locations, in keeping with Crystal's goal of delivering choice. The Lido Café serves elaborate buffets, Trident Bar & Grill handles the late risers, Crystal Dining Room goes all-out on the service side and The Bistro lures the cappuccino-and-croissant crowd. I didn't love the croissants and Danish on my most recent cruise, although in the past I've raved. I really think it was the butter, which changes depending upon where the ship sails. Other than flatter-than-desired omelets, other morning specialties live up to high expectations. Fruit selections are particularly diverse and always served at their ripest.
Tastes is the alternative to Trident Bar & Grill's top-notch hotdog/burger menu. Barbecued duck quesadillas, tender meat with a tantalizingly sweet-and-spicy sauce, are awesome. Lightly dressed Asian chicken salad, a menu staple, still wins raves.
Barbecued Duck Quesadillas
Crystal Cruises once threw lavish lunch buffets on deck. The variety of dishes was astonishing, and I bet plenty went to waste. In a move more suitable for today (no one wants to eat that much midday), themed buffet lunches are now in The Lido Café and delivered in smaller doses.
The Asian buffet - with Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Malay influences - may be less froufrou but flavors still impact. Roast duckling, carved to order, has skin that practically crackles. Yum potstickers, served in wooden baskets, are steamy on top with brown bellies. Sushi, lychee soup and lamb curry are other standouts.
Yet the Mediterranean buffet is my favorite. Fresh sardines, top-notch pissaldiere (South-of-France flatbread with caramelized onions and anchovies), flaky spanakopita (Greek spinach pie) and cinnamony Moroccan chicken tagine (braised dish) top the list. Rustic lasagna, saffron-scented paella and syrup-drenched baklava (filo-nut dessert) also earn applause.
Seafood Paella
At cozy Avenue Saloon, hot and cold canapés are a luxe affair. A tony take on pigs in a blanket becomes flaky puff pastry encasing a mini-dog with good snap. Miniature quiche, with caramelized onions and topped with crème fraiche, tastes fabulously French. Golden crisp egg rolls go dressy in skinny cigarette shapes.
Crystal Dining Room, the ship's main restaurant, still looks sparkly fresh. Could be those fancy tabletop appointments, which include Villeroy & Boch china and Frette linens.
Wisconsin veal chop
The continental menu with a modern American bent does meat proud. Take the veal chop, a mammoth slab of Wisconsin's best, cooked to a rosy pink hue. The carefully arranged plate displays artistry and complexity of preparation; an intense veal reduction for the sauce base, the slight chew of slow-cooked risotto, the crispness of broccoli, cooked just to bright-green. And any carnivore would swoon over Crystal's juicy prime rib and lamb chops.
Roasted Rack of Baby Lamb
Prime Rib
Silk Road & The Sushi Bar is a culinary trump card for Crystal Cruises. Onboard chefs are trained by Nobu executive chefs and sometimes, by major domo Nobu Matsuhisa himself. While I don't recall the menu changing in the last couple years, I also have no complaints with signature dishes that endure.
I can't imagine that impeccably fresh salmon tartare sprinkled with caviar disappearing. Or the melt-in-your-mouth Wagyu rib-eye ever going away.
Black cod with miso did for Nobu what "National Velvet" did for Elizabeth Taylor; it launched his career. This dish is as timelessly tempting as ever; under the richly lacquered skin is white meat flaking into thick moist slices at the touch of a chopstick.
Nobu's Signature Miso Black Cod
Sashimi and sushi are first-rate. It's nearly unimaginable such quality appears on a cruise ship. Nobu-style lobster with truffle-yuzu (Japanese citrus) sauce is good enough to smartphone a pic and text to friends back home. As for dessert, dark chocolate soufflé cake with homemade sesame ice cream, is all you need to know.
Pristine Sashimi with Jalapeno
For guests wanting light dinners, The Bisto stays open for grazers with fare such as European cheeses, exotic fruit, crackers, smoked salmon, prosciutto and other charcuterie and terrific homey desserts. (Love the banana cupcakes.) Yes, there's a chocolate fountain - such things are old news but guests love it. Munchies like beef sliders and mini-sandwiches are served until 11 p.m.
Tastes at night is like a good neighborhood mom-pop Chinese restaurant - except al fresco and at sea. Crystal's food-and-beverage team spent more than a year researching chefs, sourcing ingredients and visiting dumpling and noodle houses throughout Asia to create the Chinese comfort food menu, which debuted in January 2012.
The efforts pay off; dishes like Singapore-style stir-fried noodles, dumplings, hot-and-sour soup and shrimp fried rice taste authentic. A big shout-out to mushroom-vegetable potstickers and steamed pork buns - they're excellent. Douse with as much chili oil (on each table) as you like.
Fresh Noodles
You can also dine here on more Western fare like rotisserie chicken with matchstick-size roasted root vegetables and fluffy rice pilaf. The white meat can be a touch dry but I love the crisped skin and concentrated chicken jus.
Rotisserie Chicken
To me, Prego, the Italian restaurant, has undergone the most change. Dishes seems lighter, more modern. Carpaccio of beef, with aged balsamic drizzled tableside is stunning. The bread basket rivals New York restaurants' best with diversity and quality, and specials, like spinach ravioli with mascarpone, quivers at a fork's touch as its dough is so delicate.
Black Angus Beef Carpaccio
I only wish someone offered a marrow spoon for the tender (but salty) osso buco, but I can't pout over lemon souffle with a sugar crust and pillowy-soft custard. And kudos to new petits fours, like lemoncello (Italian liqueur) jellies and butter cookies with dark chocolate "thumbprints."
Complimentary wines are generally impressive, such as Conundrum, a proprietary white blend with floral and bright tropical tastes. Most fall in the $20-to-$30 range. Don't like what's poured? Then request another bottle. Sommeliers make it easy.
Champagne Jacquart champagne is the bubbly (about $30-to $38 per retail bottle) throughout the ship, although Billecart-Salmon (about $45 bottle) appears in penthouses. All-inclusive spirits include premium brands like Grey Goose, Bombay Sapphire and Belvedere.
The Connoisseur List has impressive selections. (On lesser ships, many of Crystal's complimentary wines appear on such a fee-based list.) Wine geeks like me drool reading about Lafite-Rothschild 1982 (I've seen online for about $3,000), or Chateau Petrus 1988 (about $2,000). Of course, drooling over food or wine onboard a Crystal ship for one reason or another is practically de rigueur. www.crystalcruises.com

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Q&A with Sports Broadcaster Craig Elsten
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One of the most versatile and accomplished sports broadcasters in San Diego, Craig Elsten is also a Triton. A 1995 communications major at Marshall College, Elsten is a 15-year veteran in the San Diego market as a play-by-play announcer, studio host and print journalist, covering the NFL, MLB and local universities. He is currently the voice of UCSD Men's Basketball on ESPN 1700 AM and has covered everything from baseball to water polo online at ucsdtritons.com. In February of 2013, Elsten will reach his four-year anniversary as host of UCSD's online radio show Triton Talk which features weekly interviews and updates with Triton coaches and student-athletes. A native of Long Beach, CA, he and his wife, Mitzi, live in La Mesa and have an 18-month-old son, James. Elsten recently took time to talk about his career, his observations regarding UCSD over the years and provide some advice for aspiring broadscasters.
Q-What's the most interesting aspect of calling the UC San Diego Men's Basketball games on ESPN 1700 AM?
ELSTEN-I enjoy the competition. Our guys are perpetually giving up the edge in height, size and athleticism when they play in the CCAA. Despite this, Coach Carlson's Tritons play with great intensity and always seem to be right in the game, even when they come up short.
Q-When you were a student at UCSD did you have a notion that you would someday be calling collegiate and professional sporting events in your professional future? If not, when did you start thinking this would be the direction you'd want to take with your career?
ELSTEN-I grew up in Long Beach as a sports fan and enjoying the radio work of three Hall of Fame broadcasters: Vin Scully, Chick Hearn and Bob Miller. By the time I was a junior in high school I thought I would like to do play-by-play. One of the reasons I came to UCSD (along with all the reasons everyone else goes here) was because the student radio station KSDT gave me the opportunity to start calling games right away. By the time I was a freshman on campus in 1990-91 I was already calling men's basketball games with Tom Marshall as head coach, Darvin Jackson at point guard and Tim Rapp averaging 22 points a game at shooting guard. Our men's team made the D-III tournament twice while I was calling games as an undergraduate.
Q-As someone who has a unique perspective, what are some of the most significant changes you've seen with UC San Diego Athletics as well as the campus in general since you were on campus?
ELSTEN-RIMAC was being built when I was graduating from UCSD. The physical improvements I think helped better integrate the sports and student experience on campus. Moving to Division II was also an important step. The biggest changes I've seen in UCSD Athletics have come from within. The athletic department is much more serious and proactive now than when I was a student. It would be great if the student body got more engaged in the teams on campus.
Q-As a prominent member of the San Diego media, how would you describe UCSD's current and future place in the local sports market?
ELSTEN-Fighting for space and attention along with everything else that's not the San Diego Chargers. Ratings competition and the consolidation of print media have led to a sports market that is probably 80% Chargers coverage, 15% Padres and 5% everything else. Even a highly successful and popular team like SDSU basketball had to fight for years to finally gain a foothold in terms of coverage.
I also work for the Sockers, who have won 46 games and three championships in a row, and used to get the type of coverage in the newspaper that the Lakers get in L.A. Now they're lucky if they get two lines in the paper two days after a game. The UCSD programs, if/when they move to the Division I level, will be in a much more favorable position but will still be part of a battle to gain media attention. Luckily online coverage is robust and allows for those who are interested in something other than what a program director or station manager dictates to find what they want.
Q-Sports broadcasting is a very competitive business. What advice would you give aspiring announcers as they're starting out?
ELSTEN-If you want to do play-by-play, you need to do play-by-play. That may sound trite but there's no substitution for getting actual "reps" doing a game. A piece of advice that I was given very early on in my career I've used throughout: no matter what I was doing to earn money, I tried to keep at least one small job that let me do play-by-play somewhere for someone. It's really easy to get knocked off your career path and shunted into doing something else.
Whether it was for some independent video company doing a Little League game on a mud field, or high school sports, or whatever, I always managed to keep at least a little nugget of play-by-play in my portfolio at all times.
A second piece of advice is you have to be versatile and flexible. Every sport is different and requires a different set of tools for play-by-play. You may go into the pursuit of a career saying, "I'm a baseball guy" or basketball, or any particular sport. Don't limit yourself, because then you're greatly limiting your opportunities to find work. Know all the sports and be willing to cover/announce anything, no matter how humbling it might seem.
Q-What are one or two facets of the profession that listeners/viewers would find most surprising?
ELSTEN-I think one thing people would be surprised by is how unglamorous and often unsettling it can be to go inside a professional locker room. You're in someone else's workspace and personal space as an intruder. There are all sorts of things you don't particularly want to see, or sometimes smell. After a football game it's hot, steamy, and 30-40 people are wedging their way between 53 large naked men, trying to get them to say something reasonably profound while they're talking to you in shower shoes and a white towel. Before a baseball game, millionaire players are doing their best to not talk to you, while they get ready for a night at the office. It's your job to be casual and cordial but also get what you need. Some people love to cozy up to athletes and just hang out in a locker room, but I've never been like that. I'd rather get in and get out.
Q-Is it difficult jumping back and forth, as you do regularly, from play-by-play to studio host to journalist?
ELSTEN-I think of it as many facets of the same jewel, so to speak. The principles of journalism and storytelling cross over from one outlet to another. I think being good at play-by-play means you're used to spontaneous presentation, so doing a studio show shouldn't be too much of a stretch. Covering events is exciting and being a good writer is the foundation for all the work I do. I take each job as they come and enjoy each for what they offer.
Q-Over the many years you've been involved with both men's and women's basketball, who are some of the players you've most enjoyed watching? Why?
ELSTEN-A lot of the guys who played while I attended UCSD stick in my memory. I mentioned a couple earlier. Tim Rapp was the first "star" player I ever covered or announced, he was a 22-point per game scorer, outside shooter who went on to play professionally in Australia after he graduated. Darvin Jackson was the point guard while I was here and was a very steady-handed player who could rise to the occasion late in the game. Many years later another point guard, Kelvin Kim, reminded me of Darvin. Both of those guys helped lead their teams into the tournament and those are the memorable years, of course.
On the women's side, I have to say Chelsea Carlisle, so successful, a daring player on the court who could drive to the hole or shoot from way outside. Also, Annette Ilg, a whirling dervish of energy who was always borderline out of control but held that edge.
Q-For several years, you've also served as host of UCSD's weekly online radio show, Triton Talk. As the interviewer, what makes for a good guest?
ELSTEN-Subject matter, and a willingness to open up and be conversational. A good interview is going to be compelling to the listener either because the subject or person is interesting to them, or because they are being drawn into the conversation in a natural manner. I try and make our interviews conversational and then see where the stories take us.
Q-Who are a few of your favorite coach and athlete interviews over that run? Why?
ELSTEN-I've always enjoyed my conversations with the head coaches on campus, each has brought a different insight into the Cove Studio. I really couldn't single one out amongst the current staff because they truly all are quality people and interesting to talk to about their teams and sports. On the student-athlete side, I'm proud to have met Vance Albitz and covered his career, he's one the great human beings and young student-athletes I've ever met. There were dozens of others but he's one that stands out (hard to say for a 5'6" guy but it's true).
Q-What would you consider the highlight of your career to date?
ELSTEN-Another difficult question because many moments stand out. I've been with the Sockers since they restarted their franchise in 2009 and helping build up what they have done from a broadcast standpoint really from the ground up is something I'm very proud of. That's not really a singular highlight though, more of a long successful run.
In baseball, calling MLB spring training games for MLB.com, and covering the 2001 Padres as the pre/postgame host for KOGO, interviewing Rickey Henderson after his amazing homer to break the all-time runs scored record (he slid into home plate). Also from that same season, helping anchor our coverage of Tony Gwynn's final game, a truly memorable night in San Diego sports history. In college baseball, definitely covering Stephen Strasburg's junior year at SDSU and calling all but one of his starts that year. Nobody was more dominant.
In UCSD sports, going to Compton and calling the game that sent the Tritons to the College World Series a second time. I've done a little PA work in the last few years, and getting the chance to work on five Poinsettia Bowls, two Holiday Bowls and the Battle on the Midway are all memorable moments. But I really like to think the best highlights are still to come.
Q-If you could announce/cover any sporting event in the world, what would it be?
ELSTEN-I'm really thinking about this one and it's a tough choice. From a "cover an event" standpoint, I'd think it would be a Summer Olympics. So many stories to follow...the travel, the multiple sports...if I was working an Olympiad that would be incredible. From an announcing standpoint, I'll be self-indulgent and say an NBA Finals. I love calling basketball and indoor soccer the most from a purely technical standpoint, and the NBA is the highest level of basketball in the world, the NBA Finals the highest level of competition. It's hard to limit yourself in these open-ended questions! My most honest and complete answer, though, would be to be calling "my team" in their championship game or series. I prefer being a team's/school's announcer as opposed to the swoop-in neutral network guy.
Q-Who do you consider the premier play-by-play announcer in the profession today? Is there anyone you've tried to tailor your style after?
ELSTEN-If there's one event to call in the world on TV, regardless of sport, you could give the job to Al Michaels and you're going to get a top-notch broadcast. The play-by-play announcer that blows me away with his ability time and time again is Mike Emrick, the national NHL announcer. He's overlooked because his sport is less popular but I bet he could do all the other sports too. Kevin Harlan is the most ridiculous combination of detail and energy working in the country. And of my three broadcast idols, two are still working and producing HOF-level material, Vin Scully and Bob Miller.
I'm a voracious consumer of play-by-play as well as a creator, and I'm not above taking note of what others are doing and trying to incorporate certain technical elements. Harlan is an example of that. He wedges more detail into a line of play-by-play than anyone else in the business, and that challenges me to think about painting a more vivid mental picture with my words. But unquestionably I've always patterned myself the most after Chick Hearn. I'll even still use a couple of his pet phrases from basketball PBP and consider it a tribute to him when I do. More than just the words, it was his high-energy style and willingness to be an objective observer and critic of the game he was watching. Chick was always doing the broadcast for the FANS and not necessarily the owner or the team and he was always willing to call it as it stood, praise the opponent if they were doing well or criticize the Lakers for their poor play.
Q-What's the most embarrassing thing you've done or said on the air?
ELSTEN-Again, there are unfortunately many choices I could make here. Almost all of them involve a microphone that was supposed to be dead but was live. Once we were on the air on KOGO from a Padres game and interrupted a pregame or postgame show, I forget, to carry a speech from the President. As a news station this is what we had to do. Someone back in the studio was supposed to have potted us down while the speech was playing, but forgot, or inadvertently turned the mics back on. Long story short, I let out a nice belch that helped punctuate one of President Bush's remarks. The Dave Shelly and Chainsaw show ran that clip for some time.
Q-You and your wife, Mitzi, recently had a son, James. What has that experience been like?
ELSTEN-Incredible, transformative, and in that way not at all atypical for any other set of parents out there. James is 18 months old now and every day there are new revelations in language, comprehension, behavior and activity. He's so much fun to be around and you get to see the world again through new eyes.
Q-Technology has set off a whirlwind of changes in the media world over the last decade. What do you think of the direction your profession is headed and what changes would you predict over the next several years?ELSTEN-Everything is moving toward a more personal consumption experience for media. Already we can through social media gather our friends and converse, like the various topics and events that we like and shut out/ignore the rest. I firmly believe that experience will be carried over and integrated into every other platform of media, from TV to radio to mobile devices. Any outdated media platforms that fail to get with the times will be left behind.
Previous Q & A Articles
Beth Dong (Women's Swimming & Diving) December 3, 2012
Tyler McGrath (Men's Basketball) November 15, 2012
Danielle Dahle (Women's Volleyball) October 26, 2012
Jessica Wi (Women's Soccer) October 10, 2012
Elena Inouye (Women's Cross Country) October 1, 2012
Josh Stiling (Men's Water Polo) September 15, 2012
Alec Arsht (Men's Soccer) August 28, 2012
Amber Hawthorne (Women's Volleyball) August 13, 2012
Kristin Jones (Women's Soccer Assistant Coach) June 24, 2012
Nick Howe (Men's Track & Field) May 13, 2012
Kris Lesovsky (Softball) March 16, 2012
Danny Susdorf (Baseball) March 6, 2012
Sarah Lizotte (Women's Water Polo) February 9, 2012
Charity Elliott (Women's Basketball) January 31, 2012
Alex Henley (Women's Swimming & Diving) January 17, 2012
James McCann (Men's Basketball) December 29, 2011
Emily Osga (Women's Basketball) December 19, 2011
John Butler (Men's Water Polo) November 28, 2011
Lauren Demos (Women's Volleyball) November 8, 2011
Cory Wolfrom (Men's Soccer) October 26, 2011
Ellen Wilson (Women's Soccer) October 1, 2011
Brian Donohoe (Men's Water Polo) September 4, 2011
Roxanne Brunsting (Women's Volleyball) August 19, 2011
Jon Pascale (Men's Soccer) August 4, 2011
Vincent Nguyen (Tennis) July 1, 2011
Patti Gerckens (Softball) May 26, 2011
Blake Tagmyer (Baseball) May 11, 2011
Theresa Richards (Women's Track & Field) April 27, 2011
Austin West (Men's Tennis) April 17, 2011
Drew Lawyer (Men's Crew) April 11, 2011
Keith Okasaki (Men's Golf) March 26, 2011
Matt Herman (Men's Swimming & Diving) March 12, 2011
Hanalei Crowell (Women's Water Polo) March 5, 2011
Camille Gaito (Softball) February 23, 2011
Tim Shibuya (Baseball) February 8, 2011
Carl Eberts (Men's Volleyball) January 31, 2011
Neda Nguyen (Women's Swimming & Diving) January 24, 2011
Amy Bianchini (Fencing) January 14, 2011
Lauren Freidenberg (Women's Basketball) January 3, 2011
Christian Hatch (Men's Basketball) December 24, 2010
Blake Langland (Men's Swimming & Diving) November 27, 2010
Sarah McTigue (Women's Soccer) November 8, 2010
Brandon Yee (Men's Soccer) October 11, 2010
Bryce Madsen (Men's Water Polo) September 23, 2010
Annette Ilg (Women's Soccer) September 9, 2010
Ricci Luyties (Women's Volleyball Head Coach) August 24, 2010
Kevin Messey (Head Athletics Trainer) July 7, 2010
Dan O'Brien (Baseball Head Coach) June 18, 2010
Christine Merrill (Women's Track & Field) June 14, 2010
Vance Albitz (Baseball) May 11, 2010
Erik Elliott (Men's Tennis) May 3, 2010
Kelly Fogarty (Women's Track & Field) April 23, 2010
Liz LaPlante (Women's Tennis Head Coach) April 15, 2010
Kirby St. John (Baseball) March 24, 2010
Dan Perdew (Men's Swimming) February 28, 2010
Calvin Ross (Men's Volleyball) February 20, 2010
Nicole Saari (Softball) February 4, 2010
Brad Kreutzkamp (Women's Water Polo Head Coach) January 18, 2010
Tyler Acevedo (Men's Basketball) January 4, 2010
Dr. Cliff Kubiak (UCSD's Faculty Athletic Rep) December 18, 2009
Chelsea Carlisle (Women's Basketball) December 9, 2009
Carianne Cunningham (Women's Swimming) November 23, 2009
Elena Inouye (Cross Country) November 6, 2009
David Morton (Men's Water Polo) October 28, 2009
Juan Pablo Carillo (Men's Swimming) October 19, 2009
Sara Spaventa (Women's Soccer) October 10, 2009
Karen Reis (Women's Volleyball) October 2, 2009
Daniel Pavitt (Men's Soccer) September 23, 2009
Daniel Anderson (Cross Country) September 11, 2009
Peter Gresham (Men's Water Polo) September 2, 2009
Alexia Zatarain (Women's Soccer) August 24, 2009
Elaine Chen (Women's Volleyball) August 12, 2009
Jared Kukura (Men's Soccer) July 30, 2009
Dawn Lee (Former Women's Soccer Standout) July 8, 2009
Rob Mamula (Director of Athletic Performance) June 18, 2009
Garrett Imeson (Baseball) June 8, 2009
Leon Baham (Men's Track & Field) May 21, 2009
Kristyn Lesovsky (Softball) May 8, 2009
Kazumi Negishi (Men's Tennis) May 5, 2009
Laiah Blue (Women's Track & Field) April 16, 2009
Ryan Andre (Men's Crew) April 2, 2009
Josh Tanner (Baseball) March 24, 2009
Anju Shimura (Women's Swimming) March 7, 2009
Stephanie Bocian (Women's Water Polo) February 20, 2009
Lauren Chastain (Softball) February 5, 2009
A.J. Maulhardt (Men's Basketball) January 28, 2009
Annette Ilg (Women's Basketball) January 22, 2009
Steven Hardy (Men's Swimming) January 13, 2009
Frank Fritsch (Men's Volleyball) January 5, 2009


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By Daniel Hoy
The teacher from Weipa in the farthest north of Queensland mixes a fulltime career, a house with nine children and some unique training obstacles to get to the start line at the Cairns Airport IRONMAN Cairns on 8 June.
Preparing for a swim of 3.8km, a ride of 180km and a 42.2km marathon takes time and commitment that needs to be shoe-horned around family and work.
The Whittles live in Weipa, a small town 800km north of Cairns where he and wife Frances are parents to nine children.
Whittle is Head of Student Services at Western Cape College while his wife works fulltime in the mining industry – engaged in the rehabilitation of the land after the removal of bauxite.
"Between us we have eight sons and one daughter. We regard them all equally and
love them the same. They are all indigenous - both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander -and have very strong connections to family, country and culture," says Whittle.
Once work is out of the way and the children are under control Whittle heads out to train in and around the flora and fauna of Weipa.
Because of the heat and humidity, training needs to be completed in the early morning.
"I start at 3:45am and put in a couple of hours either riding, running or swimming before the morning rush of getting the others off to work or school."
Often his wife joins him on the bike or running, which also provides some unwelcome obstacles.
"I have run over countless snakes, swarms of insects, ducked low flying flying-foxes, come face to face with feral pigs, swerved past an errant croc on the road and held on for dear life through the pot holes."
One of the other challenges is that there is just 30km of sealed roads in Weipa.
"The bitumen extends 15km north over a 1.5km single lane bridge which is always exciting no matter how polite the miners are and 15km south to the airport and southern haul road. That's it - endless laps."
The Whittles have put in a 12m pool in their backyard so he can train because the local pool is not open early enough.
IRONMAN is always special and there's a fair bet that it will be an extra special experience for Roderick Whittle.


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1. Road Fear
I am afraid of racing on the road (as opposed to trails) because I always get injured, get a return of my SI joint dysfunction/piriformis tightness. Rather than looking at my painful experience at BT half marathon as a set-back, I am looking at it as a sign. I need to learn to run correctly. My body can not handle running so many fast miles on pavement with my default running form.
I land- bang, bang, bang on my heals. The shock is absorbed by my hips. The fact that I was wearing hard Vibram shoes at BT did not make this any better.
I thus once again am on the lookout for new running shoes. My coach says Books PureConnect are perfect for pose running on asphalt.
|PureConnect forced into uncomfortable yoga position
|Pose running looks like this. He is acutally not going to fall. But since he looks like he is, he is doing it right.
Watch the video here (seriously do it): http://vorespuls.dk/artikel/loeb-saadan-loeber-pose-running-0. I love this video, partly because it is so clear that it was filmed in Denmark. Not just the buildings, trees and gray sky give it away, but: would a guy in the US get away with filming something that looked like this? It reminds me of
If that video is not working, here is the link (enjoy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHZR9SA5pOg
I had learnt the pose running form and then stopped practising. I just kind of got lazy after Fyr til Fyr. When learning to run correctly, you need to consciously think of your form all the time- and it is easy to forget and get lazy. It's about actively lifting your feet and feeling as though you are going to fall forward.
Well, now I am back at it and it is my #1 priority to run with a non-injurious running style, regardless of the time (though of course -whether you call it pose or chi - it is faster because you use the momentum of falling to move you ahead - or as purists would say, you don't put the brakes on yourself every time you land). And this means I will be signing up for some road races as an incentive to keep practising!
Want to know if your SI joint is subluxed? Try the Høeg squat test:
Are you knees at the same height? If not, you probably have SI joint problems. (this was the test I used to know I needed to go to the chiropractor). This is a very common problem for pregnant runners, by the way, and chiropractors have above a 90% success rate in pregnant women for fixing SI joint subluxation with just 2 treatments.
To help fix it for less money, you can loosen up your piriformis by having someone do this:
I have SR do this to me though I extend the knee. I find that more effective. I just couldn't find a picture of that, but you can also see Natti doing it to me in the video from two blog posts earlier)
2. This July in Wales, the IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) is holding
|Submarine- a love story in Whales. Nailed me quietly to the spot.
|I am trying to get over the silliness: this is a Spanish island yet the default map is in German. I am thinking the number of German tourists has something to do with this.


text: The Hillman Hunter was the Chrysler Europe machine that eventually became the Iran Khodro Paykan (and was related to many other British cars of its time). In 1970, Australians could buy themselves a rally-ized version called the Hustler, equipped with a twin-carb 1725cc engine, four-speed box, and one of the most bongo-riffic Sideburn Era ads we've ever seen. Here comes Hustler!


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Your understanding of step and stamp (or AmE, "stomp") is correct. You could probably live your life with just those two verbs.
"Trample" and "tread" aren't very common words. "Trample" brings to mind stepping through a flower bed or similarly causing damage. "Tread" just means to step and is commonly found in set phrases like "where angels fear to tread" or the American colonial warning "Don't tread on me."
Interested in Language


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Crude prices for November West Texas Intermediate (WTI) on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) climbed higher on October 18th after the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the statistical arm of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), reported unexpected drops in crude, gasoline and heating oil inventories.
The API report, released late on October 17th, showed a crude stock draw of 3.1 million barrels over the previous week to 280.72 million barrels. Distillate stocks, including heating oil, fell 540,000 barrels, while gasoline stocks plunged by 3.7 million barrels.
The numbers surprised many analysts, who had forecast a rise in inventories, and sent the market to $33.70 a barrel in overnight trading, a gain of 71 cents.
The EIA's numbers showed steeper inventory drops, with crude stocks falling 4.5 million barrels from the previous week to 283.2 million barrels, 20.5 million barrels lower than the same period in 1999.
Gasoline stocks were seen down 2.5 million barrels to 193.3 million barrels, a loss of 12.7 million barrels over a year ago, with heating oil down 800,000 barrels to 45.8 million barrels, a drop of 25.4 million barrels from 1999. The EIA also saw U.S. refinery utilization for the week ended October 13th at 92.1 percent, down from 93.6 percent the previous week.


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He has really grown and is a very good dog.
|It was a wonderful Christmas, and the new year will continue to be the same.
|It was a wonderful Christmas, and the new year will continue to be the same.
What a beautiful family you have. I got a kick out of your movie of dressing that poooooooor boy up for Christmas~ Hope you are having a good week- xo Diana
It looks as if you had a wonderful Christmas Day. I can't believe how much Puffin has grown. I like the Grinch Turtle.
That was wonderful! I enjoyed seeing your pets dressed up in Santa hats! So Cute!
I totally love your Christmas Palm Tree. It looks fantastic! A perfectly tropical Christmas!
Looks like you had a fabulous Christmas, Tootie! What a sweet family you have! And darling Puffin has grown up so! :)
xoxo laurie
Thanks for sharing your Sanibel Christmas! Your Puffin is such a big boy now! What a cutie!
Hi Tootie,
I've looked at your blog for over a year now and really enjoy it. I love hearing about Sanibel.
And I've a greater appreciation of how cool clouds are as I look at them through your eyes from the causeway!
Anyway, I just got a google id or whatever it is so I can now leave comments.
Thank you for your blog and the time and effort you put into it.
I, like you, so love Florida Christmases! I don't long for anything but white sand for the holidays (no white snow for me). Puppies are adorable and make us laugh a hundred times a day, but there is nothing like a dog that is getting older and begins to "know our ways." I booked a vacation at the Castaways in the Spring. We've vacationed there with our dog about five times now and love our times! I love to follow your Sanibel posts. Happy New Year. Peace. Brianne


text: Hans Brasch was a German expressionist painter. He was born in Karlsruhe, where he also attended the Academy of Fine Arts. He was a pupil of Hans Thoma between 1904 and 1908 and subsequently of Ferdinand Hodler in Genf. Around 1900 he was a contributor to Fliegende Blätter, a German non political satirical weekly. He settled in Frankfurt in 1913 and served as a soldier during World War I. He was specialized in portraits, but he also painted flowers and mountain and forest landscapes. He has lived in Stuttgart since 1930.


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MDO3024 Oscilloscope
Tektronix - MDO3000 Series
Todays integrated designs need an oscilloscope that is just as integrated _ such as the MDO3000 Mixed Domain Oscilloscope (MDO) Series. It is the ultimate 6-in-1 integrated oscilloscope that includes an integrated spectrum analyzer, arbitrary function generator,ic analyzer, protocol analyzer, and digital voltmeter/counter. The MDO3000 is completely customizable and fully upgradeable. Add the instruments and performance you need now _ or later.
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Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A
Online ISSN: 1552-4965 Impact Factor: 3.221
Download Product Flyer
Journal of Biomedical Materials Research Part A
The Journal of Biomedical Materials Research is an international, interdisciplinary, English-language publication of original contributions concerning studies of the preparation, performance, and evaluation of biomaterials; the chemical, physical, toxicological, and mechanical behavior of materials in physiological environments; and the response of blood and tissues to biomaterials. The Journal publishes peer-reviewed articles on all relevant biomaterial topics including the science and technology of alloys, polymers, ceramics, and reprocessed animal and human tissues in surgery, dentistry, artificial organs, and other medical devices. The Journal also publishes articles in interdisciplinary areas such as tissue engineering and controlled release technology where biomaterials play a significant role in the performance of the medical device.
The Journal of Biomedical Materials Research is the official journal of the Society For Biomaterials (USA) , the Japanese Society for Biomaterials, the Australasian Society for Biomaterials, and the Korean Society for Biomaterials.


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Data centers, accusations and the fallout
Data centers, accusations and the fallout
In a series of articles this week, the New York Times refused to pull punches in exposing the dirty secrets of the data center industry as wasteful power users who violate air quality laws and strong-arm overmatched small towns with their might and influence.
There's been no shortage of backlash from tech pundits. To highlight a few, here are responses from: Wired, Slate, Triple Pundit, Slashdot, Datacenter Knowledge and even a 5000-word treatise from Diego Doval.
Microsoft has countered saying the article fails to "recognize that not all data centers are created equal, nor are the operations and software applications running inside those data centers equally utilized."
GigaOm's Katie Fehrenbacher suggests the reporting is "from a time machine" and Dan Woods from Forbes called the series a "sloppy failure." He notes that while the series names Amazon, Facebook and Google, many of the numbers it cites actually come from "IT data centers, not from the state-of-the-art-data centers run by the Internet companies."
Our own contributor Kathrin Winkler with EMC writes about how the articles neglect to mention what the data center industry is doing to be more efficient. She says "if the auto industry had gotten efficient as quickly as the IT industry in the last 40 years, we'd be getting 450,000 miles to the gallon."
Given the prominent spotlight, we thought it appropriate to run through recent GreenBiz coverage on data centers, cloud computing and energy efficiency.
Google, to be sure, is leading the way in investing in clean energy and touting its strategies for highly efficient data center operations.
For its part, Facebook, unveiled data center secrets with a major new initiative designed to share server and data center designs with rivals. The Open Compute Project, dedicated to building the "most efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost," releases open hardware data from a new center in Oregon, which the company says uses 38 percent less power than existing server farms.
The Facebook facility in Oregon earned LEED certifications, as did a Yahoo site in Nebraska and a sprawling 990,000-square-foot site for a QTS data center in Atlanta, considered the second largest data center in the world.
Electric night photo by Bruce Rolff via Shutterstock
As noted in the Times articles, sourcing energy for data centers can be critical for businesses, and some large data center operators are exploring new ways to provide onsite electricity generation.
Through a partnership with Bloom Energy, eBay recently unveiled plans for building fuel cell technology into data center design to deliver six megawatts of electricity for its Utah facilities.
Earlier this year in Phoenix, eBay launched Project Mercury consolidating equipment and taking advantage of free cooling. With guidance from The Green Grid on best practices for energy efficient and adaptable data centers, the project consolidated 11 centers into three locations while deploying tens of thousands of servers in a six-month period.
And it's not just the high-tech darlings like Google, eBay or Facebook that are making strides to develop green IT operations.
Vantage Data Centers in Santa Clara, Calif. took over an old, 18-acre Intel campus and turned it into a model of efficient data center operations. Taking a middle-ground approach with a scalable data center space, the company doesn't use cloud operations, deploying its own hardware and managing its own staff.
Design-software manufacturer Autodesk completed a major data center retrofit cutting its power consumption by 62 percent while saving $7 million annually in reduced energy and infrastructure costs, representing 15 percent of the IT budget.
The government, too, has got into the game of data center efficiencies. Not usually considered a nimble operation, the U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General announced plans to consolidate data centers into a single, energy efficient facility. Built in a scant 10 months, the relocated new facility will boast a new voice and data network, modular power systems and high density in-row cooling.
The U.S. Army also recently awarded its first cloud computing contract to several contractors (including MicroTech, Lockheed Martin Corp. and IBM) to help create its own private cloud. The five-year, $250 million contract will host virtual operating environments for new or existing applications and mobile data centers.
In a long-awaited specification update, the EPA's Energy Star program is rolling out a certification for servers that promises to help build the "green data center of the future."
And coming in the summer of 2013, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will use one of the world's most energy efficient data centers to handle complex renewable energy and energy efficiency research. NREL's High Performance Computer center is the largest supercomputer dedicated to clean energy research, using 3,200 powerful Intel Xeon microprocessors to crunch more than a thousand trillion floating point operations per second.
Small and medium-sized data center operators can also find ways to become highly efficient while reducing costs with these three essential rules. We found that understanding key energy management practices, such as determining the scope of the problem and setting practical limits, can help contain costs and align corporate IT and facilities.
At its Rio Rancho facility in New Mexico, Intel has come up with a novel way to cooling data centers by dunking them in oil and keeping them there. After some testing, the company is convinced it's a viable option as the mineral oil's cooling effect improves energy efficiency and server performance, and reduces energy costs.
Another nontraditional approach for data center cooling is found by recycling seawater as a means to amplify energy savings. Interxion touts the benefits of using the same seawater to cool two data centers and help heat neighboring homes and businesses.
The explosion of data centers can also put a strain on community relations. But strategic partnerships and collaboration early on in the data center siting process can help better engage communities. This article gives a nod to Duke Energy's Envision Charlotte project, which connects local business leaders with technological and municipal resources to "demonstrate Charlotte's national leadership as a sustainable, progressive, cost-efficient place to do business."
Clearly, we've seen dramatic changes in recent years on the way data centers can be designed and operated. It'll be interesting to see what the coming months bring in the evolution of new data center technology and the inevitable march towards cloud computing.


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WELLS — On Tuesday, Feb. 5, the American Cancer Society Relay For Life of York County will officially get under way as cancer survivors, caregivers, families and members of schools, companies and faith-based and civic organizations gather at the Wells Junior High School Cafeteria at 6 p.m. for a kick-off rally to launch their fundraising efforts for the year.
Priscille Jean, a local cancer survivor of 13 years, will speak to the audience about her journey through cancer, how to remain hopeful, and why she has been devoted to Relay For Life of York County for 12 years.
The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is a life-changing event that gives everyone in communities across the globe a chance to celebrate the lives of people who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against the disease. People from all walks of life come together with a shared mission of furthering the American Cancer Society's vision of creating a world with less cancer and more birthdays.
At Relay, teams of people camp out at a local school, park, or fairground and take turns walking or running around a track or path. Each team is asked to have a representative on the track at all times during the event. Because cancer never sleeps, Relays are overnight events. Teams do most of their fundraising before the event, but some teams also hold creative fundraisers at their camp sites during Relay.
Anyone who is interested in forming a team, volunteering for the event, joining the planning committee, or just learning more about Relay For Life is encouraged to attend the launch at Wells Junior High School on Feb. 5.
For more information about the Relay For Life of York County, please call 207-691-1094 or send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com. More information can also be found online at www.relayforlife.org/yorkme.
To learn more about the American Cancer Society or to get help, call anytime, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit www.cancer.org.


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Kid Rock to introduce Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan at Oakland University today
Republican vice-presidential candidate Paul Ryan will appear at Oakland University on Monday.
The rally will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Athletics Center O'rena at Oakland University, 2200 N. Squirrel Road in Rochester. Doors open at 5 p.m.
The Detroit News is reporting Clarkston native Kid Rock is expected to introduce Ryan at the rally.
Tickets for the rally are available at Republican campaign offices in Lake Orion, Bloomfield Hills, Royal Oak and Utica, the Mitt Romney campaign said in a release. The offices are open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Watch a report on Paul Ryan's visit to Oakland University during today's News at Noon.
Earlier in the day Monday, Ryan is expected to participate in an educational round-table discussion at a Detroit charter school and attend a private fundraiser in Pontiac.
Ryan rallied the Republican faithful in his home state of Wisconsin Saturday.
President Barack Obama on Sunday launches a lucrative and celebrity studded trip to California. Romney rallied in battleground Florida on Saturday.
The campaign said tickets for Monday's Ryan appearance can also be found at the website www.mittromney.com/MI
(The Associated Press contributed)


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I've installed ubuntu 8.04 and 8.10 on this machine without any problems. I did have to install gkrellm and i8kutils to get the fan to operate.
Only other issue that is a nuisance is the screen brightness will modulate from slightly dim back to bright and back again slowly when it is running on battery (Ubuntu 8.10) (this seems to be a bug that is being worked on).
Also, if you change the brightness using either the function through gnome or the quick key on the keyboard will lock the keyboard and mouse (also a bug being worked on).
Everything else works like a charm. Super fun to customize the gnome GUI and such.


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WASHINGTON — Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was a Democrat's Democrat, so much so that he became a rallying point for those in his party and an object of derision for Republican opponents.
Yet his affability and capability to span the partisan divide on an array of legislative matters prompted an outpouring of condolences from those in the GOP as well as the Democratic Party following his death Tuesday at age 77 from brain cancer .
"An important chapter in our history has come to an end," said President Barack Obama, who called Kennedy a colleague, counselor and friend and "the greatest United States senator of our time ."
"Even though we knew this day was coming, we awaited it with no small amount of dread," Obama said, speaking outside a beach house where he's vacationing with his family on Martha's Vineyard. "For his family, he was a guardian. For America, he was a defender of a dream."
Former President George H.W. Bush expressed sympathies from members of the Republican Party.
"While we didn't see eye to eye on many political issues through the years, I always respected his steadfast public service," he said in a statement.
Bush's son, former President George W. Bush, said he was pleased to work with Kennedy on legislation for improving public schools, immigration rule and mental illness care.
"In a life filled with trials, Ted Kennedy never gave in to self-pity or despair," the younger Bush said.
'I will miss him'
The widow of another Republican president, Ronald Reagan, also ofered warm words.
"Given our political differences, people are sometimes surprised by how close Ronnie and I have been to the Kennedy family," Nancy Reagan said in a statement from Los Angeles.
"But Ronnie and Ted could always find common ground, and they had great respect for one another," she said, adding, "I considered him an ally and a dear friend. I will miss him."
Other political news of note
Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
House Speaker John Boehner became animated Tuesday over the proposed Keystone Pipeline, castigating the Obama administration for not having approved the project yet.
- Budget deficits shrinking but set to grow after 2015
- Senate readies another volley on unemployment aid
- Obama faces Syria standstill
- Fluke files to run in California
- Animated Boehner: 'There's nothing complex about the Keystone Pipeline!'
Ronald Reagan died in June 2004 of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz., who ran for president against Obama, praised Kennedy's willingness to reach out to those who did not share all of his political convictions.
"Many of his fellow senators, Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, will note today that Ted was sincerely intent on finding enough common ground among us to make progress on the issues of our day," McCain said.
The Senate will seem a "less interesting place in the knowledge that his booming voice, fueled by his passion for his convictions, will never encourage or assail or impress us again," McCain added.
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton called Kennedy "one of the most influential leaders of our time.
"Hillary and I will always be grateful for the many gestures of kindness and generosity he extended to us, for the concern he showed for all the children and grandchildren of the Kennedy clan, and for his devotion to all those in need whose lives were better because he stood up for them," Clinton said.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose White House run was dealt a blow last year by Kennedy's endorsement of Obama, praised Kennedy for championing "women and families, health care, education, civil rights and the environment.
"His legacy will live on in the hearts and minds of millions of Americans who are freer, healthier and more prosperous because of his efforts," she said. "As he said, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die."
'Best friend in the Senate'
For some members of Kennedy's own party, the loss was deeply personal.
"My heart and soul weeps at the loss of my best friend in the Senate, my beloved friend," said Sen. Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. Byrd and Strom Thurmond were the only members of the Senate to have served longer than Kennedy, who had represented Massachusetts for more than 46 years.
Video: Remembering Ted Kennedy "Senator Kennedy and I both witnessed too many wars in our lives, and believed too strongly in the Constitution of the United States to allow us to go blindly into war. That is why we stood side by side in the Senate against the war in Iraq," he added.
For the governor of California, Kennedy's death was a family matter.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose wife, Maria Shriver, was Kennedy's niece, said in a statement: "He was known to the world as the Lion of the Senate, a champion of social justice, and a political icon. Most importantly, he was the rock of our family: a loving husband, father, brother and uncle."
Kennedy's death came just two weeks after that of Shriver's mother, Eunice Kennedy Shriver , one of the senator's siblings.
Vice President Joe Biden fought tears as he spoke about his friend and colleague of many decades in the Senate.
"I truly, truly am distressed by his passing," Biden said. "Teddy spent a lifetime working for a fair and more just America. For 36 years, I had the privilege of going to work every day and sitting next to him and being witness to history. ... He restored my sense of idealism."
Former Vice President and ex-Sen. Al Gore called Kennedy "a champion for those Americans who had no voice — the sick, the disabled, the poor, the under-privileged."
John Boehner, the House Republican leader, said that he counted Kennedy as a friend despite being on the opposite side of the political divide.
"While there were few political issues on which he and I agreed, our relationship was never disagreeable, and was always marked by good humor, hard work, and a desire to find common ground," Boehner said.
'Treasured friend'
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a 2008 GOP presidential contender, recalled losing to Kennedy in a 1994 Senate race. Nonetheless, the two joined forces in 2006 to help pass a universal health insurance law in Massachusetts.
"The last son of Rose Fitzgerald and Joseph Kennedy was granted a much longer life than his brothers, and he filled those years with endeavor and achievement that would have made them proud," Romney said, recalling the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy, as well as the World War II death of Joseph Kennedy.
"In 1994, I joined the long list of those who ran against Ted and came up short. But he was the kind of man you could like even if he was your adversary," Romney added.
Republican Sen. Orin G. Hatch of Utah called Kennedy a "treasured friend."
Hatch said that although the two disagreed on most issues, "once in a while we could actually get together and find the common ground, which is essential in passing legislation."
Former Republican Sen. Bob Dole, said: "Ted and I served together for 35½ years, 27½ of those in the U.S. Senate, where we worked together on many important pieces of legislation, including the Martin Luther King Holiday Bill, the Americans with Disabilities Act and Social Security amendments. He is the hardest working senator I met. He was always prepared.
"He was a strong ally if you were in agreement but a formidable opponent when he had a different view. Though he had his own philosophy, he always reached across the aisle for a bipartisan solution on issues that mattered to the American people and he could grasp where those compromises could be found better than anyone."
Health care reform
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called Kennedy the "patriarch" of the party and promised that Congress would renew the push for the cause of Kennedy's life — health care reform.
"Ted Kennedy's dream was the one for which the founding fathers fought and for which his brothers sought to realize," Reid said. "The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die."
Kennedy's junior colleague, Sen. John Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, lauded him as a "larger than life" presence.
"He taught us how to fight, how to laugh, how to treat each other, and how to turn idealism into action, and in these last 14 months, he taught us much more about how to live life, sailing into the wind one last time," Kerry said.
Former President Jimmy Carter, who beat out Kennedy for the 1980 Democratic presidential nomination, praised Kennedy during a visit Wednesday to the West Bank town of Ramallah.
"The courage and dignity he exhibited in his fight with cancer was surpassed only by his lifelong commitment and service to his country."
Mourned in 'every continent'
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Kennedy would be mourned in "every continent."
Video: Allies from both sides of political aisle remember Kennedy "He is admired around the world as the senator of senators," Brown told Britain's Press Association.
"He led the world in championing children's education and health care, and believed that every single child should have the chance to realize their potential to the full.
"I am proud to have counted him as a friend and proud that the United Kingdom recognized his service earlier this year with the award of an honorary knighthood."
Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, praised Kennedy's "passionate commitment" to the Northern Ireland peace process.
"Senator Kennedy was a figure who inspired admiration, respect and devotion, not just in America but around the world," Blair said.
"He was a true public servant committed to the values of fairness, justice and opportunity."
In Ireland, where photographs of the Kennedy family adorn homes and hundreds claim to be distant relations of the dynasty, Kennedy is largely known as JFK's brother but also a power broker who mobilized Irish Americans and their political views on Northern Ireland.
"He lived to see two great chasms bridged, between Catholic and Protestant in Northern Ireland and between black and white in his own United States," former Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern said. "These achievements, which were the dreams imagined by his brothers in his youth, were the legacy of a long life and of a good and great man."
More on: Edward Kennedy
NBC News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.


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What to Watch Out for in a Business Lease
If your business has a physical presence, you'll most likely negotiate a business contract known as a lease for rental of space to house your business. Be aware that the landlord may use a form lease that contains gotchas. Gotchas are provisions that may cost you a lot of money or headaches in ways that you didn't plan. Your best bet is to negotiate them out of the lease. Some classic gotchas to look out for include:
The landlord's right to pass increased operating costs in the building on to the tenant without limitation
The tenant's obligation to pay any increased taxes as a result of the landlord's selling the building
The landlord's right to terminate your lease early for his or her convenience
A disclaimer about the building and the services provided to tenants
Severe limitations or prohibitions on subletting your space (you may need to sublet space if your business shrinks)
Personal guarantees or payment of the rent required from the company's owners