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Stop the Arrests in New York City
March 10, 2009 - The National Coalition for Sexual Freedom (NCSF) is a proud member of the Stop the Arrests Coalition. Spokesperson Susan Wright has participated in organizing meetings and spoke out at the Sheridan Square Rally on February 21st, 2009, against the false arrests of gay men and professional Dominatrices for prostitution.
There is good news from a meeting on March 6th with Police Commissioner Ray Kelly pledging to curb the stings against gay men (see articles below). NCSF is continuing to press for a cessation of arrests of professional Dominatrices, and has written to Commissioner Kelly to ask for a meeting about the NYPD's change in policy after 14 years of legal operation, which has resulted in a number of arrests of Dominatrices and owners of BDSM houses since Fall 2007.
NCSF opposes the prosecution of pro-dominants under prostitution laws. Consenting adults engaging in safe, sane, consensual SM, fetishes, and cross-dressing services do not pose legitimate health or safety issues for local communities. What these adults agree to do in private is no one else's business.
Members of the Stop the Arrests Coalition include: Queer Justice League, Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project, Sex Workers Outreach Project, Urban Justice League's Sex Worker Project, and FIERCE New York.
by Larry Celona
New York Post
March 9, 2009
Following accusations that vice cops were making dubious arrests of gay menat pornography shops, the NYPD has decided that similar investigations will now have to be approved by the department's higher-ups, sources told The Post.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly called the head of the department's OrganizedCrime Control Bureau, which oversees the vice squad, and others to Police Headquarters after protests outside Mayor Bloomberg's home over the arrests.
Protesters said undercover vice-squad cops were flirting with customers in Manhattan shops and offering to have sex for money - which the activists said amounted to entrapment.
The department had said it was not targeting gay men but was ratherconducting a nuisance-abatement operation in response to neighbor complaints.
As a result of the talks, it was decided that all such operations would haveto be cleared by OCCB head Chief Anthony Izzo, the sources said.
Click here for more information on this story.
Manhattan DA Pledges to Investigate Gay Men's Prostitution Arrests
by Duncan Osborne
Gay City News
March 8, 2009
Activists who met with Robert Morgenthau report that the district attorney said he would investigate the 2008 prostitution arrests of at least 30 gay and bisexual men in at least six Manhattan porn shops, and may dismiss the cases against five of the men who are contesting the charges.
"The first thing Morgenthau said was, 'We are going to investigate all these cases,'" said Joey Nelson, coordinator for the Queer Justice League and a member of the Coalition to Stop the Arrests. "That was the first thing out of his mouth."
The March 6 meeting lasted roughly an hour, and included coalition members, elected officials or their representatives, community groups, and Leroy Frazer, the executive assistant district attorney for governmental affairs and community relations.
"They were going to go back and start looking at all the individual cases," said Robert Pinter, also a coalition member and one of the men who was arrested last year. "They really seemed genuinely concerned that something wrong was happening here."
The arrests, which were later cited in lawsuits seeking to close the shops brought by the city against five of the six businesses, are widely seen as false arrests in the gay community.
"They weren't trying to cover things up or hide," Pinter said. "Morgenthau himself brought up that he has prosecuted police over 300 times in his career."
Morgenthau's office could quickly dismiss the charges against the five men who pleaded not guilty, but Pinter and Nelson said no promises were made.
"He said that those would be easier to act on, but there was no promise of automatic dismissal," Nelson said. "He said they would investigate those cases and that those would be the first that they would investigate."
Morgenthau's office may already be doing that. At court dates, the district attorney's office has
repeatedly adjourned the cases saying they are not ready, leading defense attorneys to speculate that the prosecution is letting the time limit it has to bring the cases to trial run out so the cases will
have to be dismissed.
Activists asked that Morgenthau reopen the other cases in which some of the men are known to have pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and received minor sentences. Those dispositions should be vacated, the charges dismissed, and the cases sealed, activists said.
Morgenthau cannot do that on his own, though he might not oppose such motions. Those men convicted would have to ask that their pleas be vacated.
"Those cases would have to be brought forward by the individuals," Nelson said. "At this point, we
should be doing an all-points bulletin that people who have been arrested should be contacting the district attorney's office to ask if their cases can be vacated."
The meeting was convened by State Senator Thomas K. Duane who, activists said, was an effective advocate.
"I thought Tom Duane was very, very strong in putting out the lay of the land," Nelson said. "He called it homophobic... He said it was a set-up."
Duane, who is openly gay, represents Chelsea where some of the arrests happened. State Assemblywoman Deborah Glick, an out lesbian who represents the West Village, was also praised by activists.
"[Duane] was really forceful and Deborah Glick chimed in a really forceful way," Pinter said. "They were just very outspoken."
Other attendees included Assemblyman Dick Gottfried, who represents Chelsea, Brendan Fay, a coalition member, and staff from the New York City Gay and Lesbian Anti-Violence Project (AVP).
Activists had a February 11 meeting, organized by City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, an out lesbian who represents Chelsea, with senior police officials who said they had paused in their efforts.
"The message, at least in the DA's office, was heard really loud and clear," Pinter said.
To comment on this story please click here.


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March 3, 2012
U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team ties FC Dallas reserves 2-227 Feb, 2012
The U.S. Under-20 Men's National Team held the FC Dallas reserve team to a 2-2 draw on Feb. 26. The teams met at a friendly at the ESPN Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla.
The U.S. took the early lead, scoring twice within the first 24 minutes of the game. Daniel Cuevas received the ball from Mikey Lopez and scored on a fast break, beating his defender with a hard low shot to the opposite corner of the goal in the 20th minute.
Villyan Bijev doubled the USA's lead in the 24th minute with a decisive shot after latching onto the ball when FC Dallas failed to clear from 20 yards out.
FC Dallas pulled one back just before the half, with Jonathan Top firing an 18-yard strike into the roof of the net. In the 83rd minute, Ruben Luna leveled the score. Andrew Wiedeman provided the assist as he slotted the ball across the box, and Luna finished with a quick shot into the low corner of the goal.
The U.S. looked the better technical side throughout, though FC Dallas had the physical advantage toward the end of the game.
-- U.S. U-20 Men's National Team Match Report –Match:
U.S. U-20 MNT v. FC Dallas
Sunday, February 26, 2012
ESPN Wide World of Sports; Orlando, Florida
4:00pm (4:00pm ET)
66 degrees, cloudy/windy
Scoring Summary: 1 2 F
USA – Daniel Cuevas 20
USA – Villyan Bijev 24
FCD – Jonathon Top 44
FCD – Ruben Luna (Andrew Wiedeman) 83
USA: 1-Tomas Gomez; 2-Boyd Okwuonu (Capt.), 9-Walker Zimmerman, 5-Christian Dean, 3-Juan Pablo Ocegueda; 8-Mikey Lopez, 6-Seth Casiple (Benji Joya, 77), 10-Daniel Cuevas; 7-Victor Pineda (21-Sean Okoli, 80), 4-Villyan Bijev (Dan Metzger, 65), 11-Daniel Garcia (Collin Martin, 46).
Subs not used:18-Jesus Guzman, 12-Eric Miller, 25-AJ Cochran, 14-Javan Torre, 17-Alex Guido.
Head Coach: Tab Ramos
not available
Stats Summary: USA / FCD
Shots: 13 / 13
Shots on Goal: 7 / 8
Saves: 6 / 5
Corner Kicks: 2 / 10
Fouls: 12 / 9
Offside: 4 / 5
Misconduct Summary:
USA – Walker Zimmerman (Caution) 34
USA – Boyd Okwuonu (Caution) 65
FCD – Kleyner Bejarano (Caution) 69
USA – Tomas Gomez (Caution) 75
Referee: Rob Mauws
Assistant: Matthew Miscannon
Assistant: Kyle Longville
Referee: Michael Miscannon
« Back to full list of College

subset: commoncrawl


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$ 15.00
$ 900.00
This incredible chandelier is truly magnificent. Made of hundreds of capiz shell discs, you'll love the natural look of this chandelier.
With room for four bulbs, this gives off plenty of light, and the capiz shells diffuse the light beautifully for a wonderfully soft and almost ethereal look.
This chandelier is designed to be hardwired into the ceiling using existing wires and does not come with a plug to use a wall outlet.
6' Long
20" in diameter at its widest point..
This comes in 2 sections and some assembly is required to attach the capiz shade to the hanging base...
This is a limited collection and very few were made. Once these are sold out, They will disappear from the world forever...
Oversized shipping by UPS.
View full product details
$ 600.00
Huge Beaded Spiral Chandelier.
This is my largest chandelier... measuring 12 feet in length and 2 feet wide.
Use the included U.L. approved light cord that installs in seconds with a 75 watt bulb or dangle your own strings of lights through the center ..
Iridescent Clear Beads.
The item is over-sized with UPS.
View full product details
$ 145.00
The Acrylic Drop chandelier is one of my best selling items.
10-1/2 inches wide by 5 feet in length.
Comes with the light cord...
View full product details


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★ ★ ★
Even some of Rick Perry's Republican legislative allies seem to be a bit impatient with the governor's national presidential explor-a-tour. This report was written by Gary Sharrer of the Austin bureau.
The state House adjourned abruptly Friday without debating an anti-groping bill that Speaker Joe Straus said would turn Texas "into a laughingstock."
Gov. Rick Perry placed the issue on the special session agenda in his continuing campaign against the federal government. But federal officials say any effort to criminalize pat-down searches could shut down commercial air flights out of Texas.
Perry spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger disagreed with the Speaker's description of the bill.
"The dignity and security of Texas airline passengers is a serious issue," she said. "Just yesterday, days after this issue was added to the call, the TSA changed their policies on invasive screenings for children under 12."
She also discounted the possibility that the federal government would actually carry through with a threat of shutting down Texas airports. Instead, she saw legal action against the state as a more likely outcome.
HB 41 would make it a crime for airport security to touch the private parts of folks during passenger pat-downs. Perry and some of his legislative allies view those security checks as unreasonable groping and want to make it a Class A misdemeanor if a federal agent knowingly touches a traveler's "anus, sexual organ, buttocks or breast." Federal officials recently warned state officials that airport travel from Texas may be suspended if they interfere with measures designed to enhance airline safety.
The House also could not conduct any official business on Friday because not enough lawmakers showed up for work. That's what happens when the governor turns groping into a legislative priority, Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio said.
It takes at least 100 of the chamber's 150 members to reach the necessary quorum to take official action. There was no formal head count, although some members said fewer than 80 lawmakers showed up.
Republicans have a super-majority of 101 members.
"This is an indication of the Legislature's interest in the governor's subjects that he is prioritizing in the call," Villarreal said. "He's going to bring us into a special session for a groping bill?"
Only the governor can call special legislative sessions and determine the agenda.
We are waiting a response from the governor's office.
Perry recently added the anti-groping legislation to the agenda of the special session, which he called more than three weeks ago for lawmakers to pass legislation needed to distribute a $4 billion cut to public education.
Straus said he has not received any direction from Perry in terms of what the governor wanted to accomplish with the anti-groping bill.
"The only thing I have seen from the governor was on YouTube," Straus said in reference to the governor responding to questions from a supporter of the anti-groping legislation at a recent book-signing even in New Orleans.
★ ★ ★
Want to learn more about Rick Perry and his presidential prospects? Visit TxPotomac's Perry Watch pages for the latest polls, media hype, issues, supporters and critics and details of the Rick Perry explor-a-tour.
★ ★ ★
>>> Get an RSS feed of every Rick Perry story from Texas on the Potomac
>>> Get the latest Perry Watch posts from Texas on the Potomac


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Congratulations to the staff members at Rudolph Matas Elementary and Mildred Harris Elementary for being recognized as October 2018 JPPSS Campus of the Month.
Rudolph Matas Elementary won the honor for the East Bank. Mildred Harris Elementary was honored for the West Bank. Each month a committee of five will select an East Bank and West Bank school and showcase a selected campus based on the following criteria.
- Clean hallways
- Clean restrooms
- All restrooms are equipped with adequate supplies such as toilet tissue in each stall, soap for washing hands, working hand dryers or paper towels
- Safe and secure campus
- Well- groomed yard and flower bed
- School entrance and office entrance are appealing, free of clutter, trash, and inviting to visitors
- Office staff is welcoming
- All classrooms are free of clutter
- Evacuation signs are posted in all areas
The winning schools will be recognized at a school board meeting with the school principal and custodial staff in attendance.


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TL;DR: how secure are memorable password generators, given the fact that `memorable' passwords are a subset of total password space? How big is the entropy in memorable passwords compared to random passwords?
Whenever I need new passwords I use some tools to generate those, preferable memorable passwords, but I've been wondering how secure this might actually be.
Using The xkcd random number generator is probably pretty bad,
cat /dev/random is probably pretty good, but generating memorable passwords seems a bit more tricky.
Whenever a program generates a memorable password, it only uses a subset of the total password space available, and it is not clear to me how big this space is. Of course a long password should help in this case, but if the `memorable' part of the program is too predictable, your passwords are not very good in the end.
Some tools I know of:
- pwgen -- seems ok, but passwords are not too memorable
- Mac Password Assistant - generates memorable passwords but it is unclear to me how this works.
Update: Thanks for the insight on theoretical password entropy and memorability, but I was also looking for the practical aspect of generating these passwords.
How do I choose such a password in practice, and specifically: what is the entropy of pwgen or Mac Password Assistant (MPA)? For example: what if the MPA has a very small database of words and generates passwords predictably? Perhaps this is a bit pedantic on my part, but I was curious if anyone could shed some light on this.
Update II: Although this question received a plethora of answers on password generation, none go into the question how secure these are. The question is still open and waiting for an answer.


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KUALA LUMPUR: One of Malaysia's former top civil servants has called on the Government to consider downsizing the country's bloated civil service, while it still can.
Malaysia has the highest civil servants to population ratio in the Asia-Pacific, employing 1.6 million people or 11% of the country's labour force.
And that could be a problem Malaysia may not be able to sustain if it runs into a financial crisis, said Tan Sri Mohd Sheriff Mohd Kassim, the former Finance Ministry secretary-general and Economic Planning Unit director-general.
He said if the Government was really set on keeping the national deficit at 3%, it needed to look at retrenching employees, particularly in the lower levels of the civil service, to cut spending.
"Government bureaucracy has grown so big that it's not only taking up too much resources but creating many failures in our finance economy. There are just too many rules and regulations that the public and private sector have to live with," he told a delegation of economists, politicians and government officials at the Malaysian Economic Association's forum on public sector governance.
He advised Malaysia to begin downsizing the civil service, "better sooner than later" if it wanted to avoid running the risk of falling into a Greece-like crisis, where the European country had to cut salaries and was unable to pay pensions for its civil service.
Drawing examples from the recent Malaysia Airlines restructuring, where 6,000 people were retrenched, Mohd Sheriff said it was better to let staff go now and compensate them with retrenchment packages while the Government can still afford it.
"It may cost the Government a heavy expenditure now but it is worthwhile to do it now while we can still afford it and not until we are forced into a financial crisis like Greece.
"We don't want to be in that situation. I think we should do it gradually. It is kinder to do it now with incentives than to suddenly cut their salaries and pensions at a time when they can least afford it," he said.
Malaysia is expected to spend RM76bil in salaries and allowances for the civil service this year, on top of another RM21bil for pensions. Efficiency and corruption dominated talks on the civil service at the forum, held at Bank Negara's Sasana Kijang.
Mohd Sheriff, who is also former president of the Malaysian Economic Association, said these issues have been around since his time in the civil service decades ago though not much has changed due to a lack of political will.
In jest, he suggested Malaysia emulate United States President Donald Trump's idea on downsizing the US civil service by closing down two departments of the Government if it wanted to open another one.
He also suggested that Parliament create a committee to monitor the performance of top civil servants and give them the ability to retrench these officers if they fail to meet their marks.
"In many countries, even Indonesia, they have committees to hold Government leaders to any shortcomings on policy implementations and projects.
"These are the kinds of checks and balance we need to make our civil servants aware that they are being monitored for their work and they can be pulled out at any time," he said.
Finance Minister II Datuk Johari Abdul Ghani had said Malaysia's ratio of civil servants is one to 19.37 civilians and that the high number of Government staff had caused expenditures to balloon yearly.
As a comparison, the ratio in Indonesia is 1:110, in China it is 1:108, in Singapore it's 1:71.4 and in South Korea the ratio is 1:50.
Despite this, Johari said there were no plans to reduce the number of civil servants.
By Nicholas Cheng The Star
Related posts:
Ministers may face conflict of interest, says Tunku Abdul Aziz: "If you have no power, you cannot abuse it. Civil servants hav...
Bloated civil sevice in Malaysia must cut down the size and salaries
Oct 25, 2016 ... The Malaysian government can make further spending cuts if it reduces the size of its "bloated" civil service, an economist said. File picture ...
Malaysia world's No.1 highest civil servants-to-population ratio! Its tenure of service legally vulnerable but notoriously difficult to dismiss


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Switzerland, federated country of central Europe. Switzerland's administrative capital is Bern, while Lausanne serves as its judicial centre. Switzerland's small size—its total area is about half that of Scotland—and its modest population give little indication of its international significance.
A landlocked country of towering mountains, deep Alpine lakes, grassy valleys dotted with neat farms and small villages, and thriving cities that blend the old and the new, Switzerland is the nexus of the diverse physical and cultural geography of western Europe, renowned for both its natural beauty and its way of life. Aspects of both have become bywords for the country, whose very name conjures images of the glacier-carved Alps beloved of writers, artists, photographers, and outdoor sports enthusiasts from around the world.
For many outsiders, Switzerland also evokes a prosperous if rather staid and unexciting society, an image that is now dated. Switzerland remains wealthy and orderly, but its mountain-walled valleys are far more likely to echo the music of a local rock band than a yodel or an alphorn. Most Swiss live in towns and cities, not in the idyllic rural landscapes that captivated the world through Johanna Spyri's Heidi (1880–81), the country's best-known literary work. Switzerland's cities have emerged as international centres of industry and commerce connected to the larger world, a very different tenor from Switzerland's isolated, more inward-looking past. As a consequence of its remarkably long-lived stability and carefully guarded neutrality, Switzerland—Geneva, in particular—has been selected as headquarters for a wide array of governmental and nongovernmental organizations, including many associated with the United Nations (UN)—an organization the Swiss resisted joining until the early 21st century.
Switzerland's rugged topography and multicultural milieu have tended to emphasize difference. People living in close proximity may speak markedly distinct, sometimes nearly mutually unintelligible dialects of their first language, if not a different language altogether. German, French, Italian, and Romansh all enjoy national status, and English is spoken widely. Invisible lines separate historically Protestant from historically Roman Catholic districts, while the tall mountains of the Saint Gotthard Pass separate northern from southern Europe and their diverse sensibilities and habits. Yet, Switzerland has forged strength from all these differences, creating a peaceful society in which individual rights are carefully balanced against community and national interests.
Switzerland was formed in 1291 by an alliance of cantons against the Habsburg dynasty—the Confoederatio Helvetica (or Swiss Confederation), from which the abbreviation CH for Switzerland derives—though only in 1848, when a new constitution was adopted, was the present nation formed. Prior to 1848, internal conflict was quite common, but Switzerland has enjoyed relative domestic tranquility since the mid-19th century, and its organization has remained essentially the same: it is a union of more than 3,000 communes, or municipalities, situated in 26 cantons, 6 of which are traditionally referred to as demicantons (half cantons) but function as full cantons. Ordinary citizens are able to participate at every level of politics and regularly exercise their will in referenda and initiatives, through which Swiss citizens directly make numerous policy decisions at the national and subnational level. Two effects of this popular involvement are evident: Swiss taxes are rather low by European standards, because voters are able to review and approve a broad range of expenditures, and political decision making tends to be slow, because contending individual claims and opinions must be allowed to be expressed at every step.
That high level of citizen involvement prompted the renowned 20th-century Swiss playwright and ironist Friedrich Dürrenmatt to allegorize Switzerland as a prison in which each Swiss citizen was at the same time prisoner and guard. Even so, the Swiss blend of federalism and direct democracy is unique in the world and is considered central to the country's political and economic success. And Switzerland is indeed a major economic power, thanks to its long tradition of financial services and high-quality, specialized manufactures of items such as precision timepieces, optics, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, as well as of specialty foodstuffs such as Emmentaler cheese and milk chocolate. Switzerland is regularly judged to have among the world's highest standards of living.
Bern is a placid city whose name derives from the bear pits the canton's medieval rulers established there as a heraldic symbol; the bear pits are now part of the city's popular zoo. A metropolis extending along a large lake where the mountains meet the plains, Zürich is by far the country's largest and most cosmopolitan city, its famed Bahnhofstrasse rivaling shopping districts found in other leading cities in the world. Basel and Lucerne are major German-speaking cities, Geneva and Lausanne the centres of the country's French-speaking cantons, and Bellinzona and Lugano the principal cities in the Italian-speaking Ticino.
Switzerland has long been a model multiethnic, multilingual society, a place in which diverse peoples can live in social harmony and unite in common interest. The Swiss justifiably take great pride in this, and the point was encapsulated in the early 21st century by Ruth Dreifuss, who in 1999 became the country's first woman and first Jewish president (a post that rotates annually):
I may be a native speaker of French, but my parents originally came from German-speaking Switzerland and I myself worked in an Italian-speaking area for a while and enjoy travelling to all parts of the country…. I live in a neighbourhood in which over 100 different nationalities live together in peace and harmony…. I greatly appreciate this diversity.
Switzerland is bordered to the west by France, to the north by Germany, to the east by Austria and Liechtenstein, and to the south by Italy. It extends about 135 miles (220 km) from north to south and 220 miles (350 km) at its widest extent from west to east. Switzerland's landscape is among the world's most unusual, and it has long had to contend with a variety of environmental problems that threaten its integrity. Economic development and high population density have caused severe environmental stress, resulting in pollution and debates over the use of natural resources. During the 1970s and '80s, ambitious environmental policies were implemented by the cantons and municipalities, and this led to impressive progress on pollution abatement. For example, air-pollution emissions in Switzerland are among the lowest in industrialized countries.
Relief and drainage
Situated at the hydrographic centre of Europe, Switzerland is the source of many major rivers. The two most important are the Rhône, which flows into the Mediterranean Sea, and the Rhine, which empties into the North Sea. Switzerland's small area contains an unusual diversity of topographic elements, which are divisible into three distinct regions: the Jura Mountains in the northwest, the Alps to the south and east, and the Mittelland, or central plateau, between the two mountain ranges.
The Jura (Celtic: "Forest"), a rolling mountain range in the northwest, occupies about one-eighth of the country. The region was formed under the extended impact of the general Alpine folding, which created the folded Jura that abuts the Mittelland and the tabular plateau Jura that forms the northern edge of the range. Jurassic limestone and marl with rich fossil content are the characteristic rocks that dip below the Mittelland and appear again in the pre-Alps. The limestone has been eroded in typical karst fashion, with sinkholes, caves, and underground drainage common. The ridges, covered with meadows and only sparsely forested, receive more precipitation than do the valleys, the slopes of which are wooded. Between Saint-Imier Valley (Vallon St. Imier) and the Doubs, a river that forms part of the border with France, the Jura has been reduced by denudation to form an undulating plateau that extends into France. Known as the Franches Montagnes (French: "Free Mountains"), a name acquired in 1384 when the bishop of Basel freed the inhabitants from taxation to encourage settlement of the remote area, this tableland is characterized by mixed agriculture and dairying. The highest point in the Jura, Monte Tendre, at about 5,500 feet (1,700 metres), is well below the Alps; indeed, the Jura was not a significant barrier to surface movement even before modern railroads and highways were constructed. Entrenched transverse valleys known as cluses have been eroded across the Jura ridges, providing relatively easy routes for transportation. The climate of the Jura, which has abundant precipitation, is the most continental of Switzerland; cross-country skiing is popular during the long winters. Switzerland's watchmaking industry had its beginning in these mountains.
The Alps were built of large complexes of massed overthrusts of extremely varied sedimentary, metamorphic, and igneous rocks that were shaped by glaciation. The canton of Valais contains many striking Alpine peaks, including the Dufourspitze on the Monte Rosa massif, at 15,203 feet (4,634 metres) the highest point in Switzerland; the Weisshorn (14,780 feet [4,405 metres]), overlooking the valley called the Mattertal; the Dom (14,912 feet [4,545 metres]), above the village of Saas Fee; and the ice-sculpted Matterhorn (14,691 feet [4,478 metres]), long a symbol of Switzerland. The northern and southern Swiss Alps are separated by the trough formed by the Rhône and upper Rhine valleys, the narrowest portion being the Urseren valley, which lies between two crystalline central massifs, the Gotthard and the Aare.
The Alps' role as the European watershed is most apparent in the central Alpine region of Switzerland, where the different chains meet; from there the Rhône River flows west, the Rhine River east, the Ticino River south to the Po River, and the Reuss River north to the Aare. The fundamental Alpine source point, however, is located in the upper Engadin valley at the Piz Lunghin, from which streams flow toward the North and Adriatic seas and from which the headwaters of the Inn River flow toward the Danube and ultimately into the Black Sea.
The country's geographically destined role as guardian of Europe's natural trans-Alpine routes has been both a reason for and a basic tenet of its existence—a role expressed in its traditional neutrality in times of war. In the central Alpine region lies the Saint Gotthard route, the first and shortest north-south passage through the mountains and an important European linkage; it was opened in the early 13th century with the construction of a bridge in the Schöllenen Gorge, which traverses the northern chain, while the southern range is crossed by the St. Gotthard Pass at an elevation of 6,916 feet (2,108 metres). The 9-mile (14-km) Saint Gotthard rail tunnel through the pass was opened in 1882; a twin 10.5-mile (17-km) road tunnel was opened in 1980.
Despite the tunnels, increasing rail and highway traffic often resulted in long delays through the mountains. For example, on weekends during the peak summer tourist season, cars and trucks were often backed up some 10 to 15 miles (16 to 25 km). To address this congestion, in 1992 Swiss voters approved the construction of a massive 35-mile (57-km) rail tunnel beneath the existing St. Gotthard tunnels. Primary excavation was completed in 2010, and upon its official opening in June 2016, the Gotthard Base Tunnel was the longest and most deeply set rail tunnel in the world. Because the tunnel was excavated at virtually zero-grade, it could accommodate high-speed trains that would slash travel times between northern and southern Europe and reduce traffic-choked-up Alpine roads.
Between the Jura and main Alpine ranges lies the hilly Mittelland, accounting for nearly one-fourth of the country and enclosed by the two mountain ranges and the two largest lakes, Lake Geneva (Lac Léman) in the west and Lake Constance (Bodensee) in the east. The fertile rolling land of the Mittelland is the agricultural heartland of the country and is where the majority of Swiss settlements, population, and industry are situated. Furthermore, vital east-west highway and rail routes bind the urban areas. As a result, the Mittelland is highly urbanized, with large chunks of land sterilized by shopping centres, housing estates, motorways, oil-storage tanks, container depots, warehouses, automobile distribution centres, and industrial complexes.
Soil conditions and agriculture reflect the diversity of Switzerland's climate and geologic structure. The major soil groups consist of gray-brown podzolic soils and brown forest soils, loess, glacial drift, and alluvium in the Mittelland; brown forest soils, rendzinas, and the heavier glacial clays in the Jura valleys; and the lithosol and podzolized soils of the high Alps.


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Wikia Search May Have Trouble Achieving Critical Mass
from the notability dept
Mathew Ingram notes that Jimmy Wales's company, Wikia, has unveiled a new version of its search engine. The basic premise of the search engine, allowing users to edit search results the way they can edit Wikipedia pages, is clever. But I think Wales is going to have difficult making the project successful. The fundamental problem, I think, is a matter of raw mathematics: there are far, far more potential web searches than there are pages in Wikipedia. Last month I critiqued the business model of Biographicon, a site that's attempting to create a Wikipedia-style page for everyone. I argued that they're likely to have trouble making it work because any given page is unlikely to have the critical mass of contributors necessary to make the wiki model work. I think Wikia's search engine is likely to suffer from an even more serious case of the same problem. Wikipedia achieves this critical mass by limiting itself to subjects that are "notable." But a search engine can't have those kinds of limits. People want a search engine to have good responses even for (maybe especially for) obscure searches. And by definition, it won't be possible to get a bunch of people to contribute to the page for an obscure search term.
Closely related is the problem of bias. Wikipedia strives to take a neutral point of view, presenting all viewpoints fairly and accurately without passing judgment on which one is correct. This often leads to pages being longer than they would otherwise be, but they tend to be reasonable representations of what various people think on the subject at hand. This approach won't really work with a search engine because people expect the most important search results to be at the top, and deciding which results are the most important is an intrinsically subjective decision. If Wikia's search engine ever became popular, it could be beset by edit wars that would make the infamous Danzig/Gdansk edit war look tame. Companies pay search engine optimization firms thousands of dollars to improve their Google ranks, a successful Wikia search would likely succumb to the same kinds of pressure, and the site appears to lack Wikipedia's well-defined procedures for resolving disputes.
Filed Under: search, user generated, wikia, wikis


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Atheist vs. agnostic
Many people are confused about the meaning and usage of the terms atheist vs. agnostic. A frequent claim made by theists is that being an atheist implies certainty about the non-existence of God. At the other extreme, many people apply the term agnostic as if it simply means waffling on the issue of whether or not God exists. The following explanation is presented as an attempt to clarify these terms.
Theism addresses the issue of belief. For any claim asserting the existence of a god, a theist is an individual who accepts (or positively believes) that the claim is true and an atheist (literally, "one without theism") is someone who does not.
Note that this doesn't mean that theists must accept any existence claim about any god. One can be a theist with respect to some claims and an atheist with respect to others. In particular, followers of one religion are typically atheists with respect to the gods of all other religions.
To be more precise about the issue of belief, consider the two possible claims one can make regarding the existence of a god:
- The god exists.
- The god does not exist.
There are two positions one can take with respect to either claim:
- Belief or acceptance of the claim.
- Disbelief or rejection of the claim.
For claim number 1 (the god exists), the theist takes the first position (belief), while the atheist takes the second (disbelief).
For claim number 2 (the god does not exist), the theist takes the second position (disbelief), while the atheist can hold either position (belief or disbelief).
Note that one may wish to consider a "third option" of simply reserving judgment. This is actually consistent with position number 2. "Disbelief" means lack of belief. If someone reserves judgment, then clearly they don't believe — and thus they disbelieve, which is position 2. In light of this, one must interpret the term "rejection of a claim" as meaning "lack of acceptance" (and thus, in a sense, only a rejection "if forced to choose right now"). In particular, the term "rejection" should not be interpreted as being based in any way on an acceptance of the opposite claim.
Therefore, atheists need not positively believe that no gods exist. Some do, and this position is often known as strong atheism. By contrast, other atheists hold that neither claim is sufficiently supported by evidence to justify acceptance, a position known as weak atheism. (The weak atheism position is often confused with agnosticism, which is discussed below.)
While logic dictates that exactly one of the two claims above must be true (assuming the concept of "god" is sufficiently well-defined in the first place) — and so if one claim is not true the other must be true — there is no such implication in the case of belief. Just because someone doesn't believe something, that doesn't mean they believe the opposite. (For example, not believing the claim that the inventor of the Slinky died in a spring-related accident doesn't mean one positively believes that he didn't die that way.) This is one reason why the theist's accusation that atheism requires "just as much faith" as theism is unfounded (except possibly in the case of particularly strong forms of strong atheism, as discussed below).
Gnosticism (in the general sense being discussed here) addresses the issue of what one knows or claims to know. For any claim regarding the existence of a god, a gnostic is an individual who claims knowledge that the assertion is true and an agnostic (literally, "one who lacks knowledge") is someone who makes no such claim.
Obviously, based on these definitions, the terms atheist and agnostic are not mutually exclusive. One can be an agnostic atheist, meaning someone who doesn't claim to know whether or not a god exists (agnostic) but doesn't find belief to be justified by evidence or argument (atheist). Other ways in which the terms agnostic, gnostic, atheist and theist can be combined are discussed below.
Typically, the gnostic's assertion of knowledge is esoteric and may well be attributed to divine revelation. In some cases, the gnostic will assert that the knowledge of a god's existence is available to anyone, although rarely through empirical, scientific evidence.
Many people assume that atheists believe that gods can be proved not to exist, but this isn't strictly true. In fact, there is no term commonly used to describe such an atheist, since their position would be even more extreme than strong atheism. Such a person might be called an "untheist" or "antitheist", perhaps. According to our definitions, they would simply be called a gnostic atheist who happens to think that his or her belief can be proven.
While many atheists would probably agree that given any sufficiently detailed description of a god, that particular god could be convincingly argued against, that is very different from constructing an airtight proof of universal non-existence. (See also Proving a universal negative and You can't prove God doesn't exist.)
Combining terms[edit]
As the terms we have been discussing concerning belief and knowledge aren't mutually exclusive, it is possible to combine them into four different descriptions:
|1. Agnostic atheist
|2. Gnostic atheist
|3. Agnostic theist
|4. Gnostic theist
Note that case 1 describes weak atheism, but case 2, as stated, is actually stronger than strong atheism, since it includes a claim of knowledge.
Clearly the distinction between belief and knowledge is an important one, and it is this distinction that is often misunderstood, or simply ignored, by self-identified "believers".
Other epistemological issues[edit]
A common usage of the term agnostic denotes a philosophical position invented by Thomas Huxley. This type of agnostic would claim that the answers to questions about the existence of gods are both unknown and fundamentally unknowable. In addition, many agnostics believe that such questions are essentially meaningless, as the concept of "god" is ill-defined.
It's important to note, when discussing the complicated issues of knowledge and epistemology, that these claims of knowledge do not necessarily require absolute omniscience. It can be argued that we can never truly "know" anything (see Wikipedia:Agnosticism), yet we constantly make claims of knowledge. You may "know" who your (birth) mother is, for example — but you could be wrong. For many gnostic atheists, their claim of knowledge stems from practical considerations. The positive assertion that "gods don't exist" can be made, and said to be "known", in the same spirit as the statement that "leprechauns don't exist".


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Sunday, August 12, 2007
Naturally At Home
We are proud and thrilled to announce the birth on August 9, 2007 at 6:56 a.m. of Dominic Price Witham, born naturally at home after 29 hours of labor and weighing 9 lbs. 4 oz. and measuring 21 3/4" long.
We are all doing just great!
With love,
Karen, Bill, and Dominic
2 comments:
- Erika-Nicole said...
It was nice to have come across your blog!
- August 12, 2007 at 6:21 PM
- phillipsmob said...
so beautiful! Thank you for sharing, I long for my next birth to be like this!
- October 7, 2007 at 6:03 PM
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text: « back to directory print Brian Lee Professor of Law 250 Joralemon Street Brooklyn, NY 11201 (718) 780-0620 | Email | CV Areas of Expertise PropertyIntellectual PropertyInternational Law Education B.A., University of California, Berkeley M.A., University of California, Los Angeles Ph.D., Princeton University J.D., Yale Law School Biography Courses Publications Noteworthy All Articles Contributions to Books Articles Uncompensated Takings: Insurance, Efficiency, and Relational Justice, 97 Texas Law Review __ (forthcoming 2019) Emergency Takings, 114 Michigan Law Review 391 (2015) BrooklynWorks | HeinOnline Just Undercompensation: The Idiosyncratic Premium in Eminent Domain, 113 Columbia Law Review 593 (2013) BrooklynWorks | SSRN The Nature of Coasean Property, 59 International Review of Economics 145 (2012) (with H.E. Smith) Making Sense of "Moral Rights" in Intellectual Property, 84 Temple Law Review 71 (2011) BrooklynWorks | SSRN Preventive War, Deterrent Retaliation, and Retrospective Disproportionality, 2009 Brigham Young University Law Review 253 (2009) BrooklynWorks Contributions to Books Average Reciprocity of Advantage, in Philosophical Foundations of Property Law, ed. James Penner & Henry E. Smith (Oxford Univ. Press 2013) Related Links: Faculty News Curriculum


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Customized TV Listings are available here: www.latimes.com/tvtimes
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Nine for IX Female pioneers in sports journalism are saluted in the new documentary "Let Them Wear Towels." 5 p.m. ESPN, 8 p.m. ESPN2
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Late Show With David Letterman Bill Maher; Dock diving dogs; Pokey LaFarge performs. (N) 11:35 p.m. KCBS
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Late Night With Jimmy Fallon Bruce Willis; June Shannon; Mayer Hawthorne performs. (N) 12:36 a.m. KNBC
The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson Jon Hamm; Georgia King. (N) 12:37 a.m. KCBS
Nightline (N) 12:37 a.m. KABC
Last Call With Carson Daly 1:36 a.m. KNBC
Baseball The best players from the American and National leagues face off at Citi Field in Flushing, N.Y., in the 2013 MLB All-Star Game. 4:30 p.m. Fox


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I've been wanting to get a new Chanel Boy Bag for a while now, and can't seem to settle on the exact version I want. Chanel reintroduces this bag every season in new materials and renditions to match with the theme of the runway show while continuing to keep the classics. While I keep feeling like I should just get the new medium in classic black (there is an old medium and a new, the new is a bit bigger), I saw the two new pink options at the store and found myself leaning toward Chanel pink.
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Wake County NC's Top Martial Arts SchoolKarate International is the premier karate academy in the Raleigh - Durham area. We have been offering martial arts training in the local community since 1974, instructing pre-schoolers, children, teens, adults, and seniors, and whole families. We offer a number of programs for instruction in the martial arts, health and fitness, character development, weapons training, and street smart self-defense. Our goal has always been to produce champions inside and outside of the dojo.
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Chester Rowe
Mr. Rowe is the chief instructor at Karate International of West Raleigh. He currently is a 6th Degree Black Belt in Sanshinkai Karate. Some of the other martial arts Mr. Rowe has trained in over the past 30+ years include Judo, Jujitsu, Aikido, Taekwondo, Shotokan, and American Shaolin Wu Shu.
Alex Tsikos
Alex Tsikos is a college student attending NC State. He has received his Associates Degree in Art from Wake Technical Community College in 2013. While attending North Carolina State University, he is currently working on his bachelors in operations management for 2017. At twelve years of age he received his first black belt in Kenpo Karate. At age twenty-one he earned his first degree black belt in Sanshinkai Karate in 2013, and is an assistant instructor and student under the guidance of Mr. Rowe.
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Diabetes/ Kidney Leakage
My husband was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes 10 years ago. He is now 59. He also had triple bypass heart surgery 10 years ago. I have done the genealogy on his family and on both parents sides the family is riddled with diabetes, yet all lived long lives. He is obese 5`6″ and 210 lbs, all in his belly. His belly is rock hard and when he burps it smells like rotten eggs. My husband doesn`t check his blood sugar very often (maybe every week). He doesn`t exercise at all. He has seen his doctor regulary but fails to heed his advice. His medication has been increased over the years from pills to daily shots and pills. He now shows signs (in his blood tests) of kidney leakage. He still eats whatever he wants: ice cream, cookies, candy. He is also impotent, depressed (on meds for that too, 3 pills a day). He has eczema, toe nials and finger nails that bleed and look terrible.He bites his finger nails constantly. He doesn`t smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol but he spent about twenty five years addicated to pot. He stopped after the heart surgery. He is under huge stress at work, and has mood swings. My question is how long can a person live like this. I am preparing to be a widow and would like an honest answer to how long he can last if he doesn`t change. Obviously you can`t say for sure but I just want to know in general how long a human body can take this kind of abuse? His test scores (just the high ones) are: Comprehensive Met Panel: Glucose 277 A1C 9.0% Microalb/Creat 394.3 ug/mg Cr Urinalysis Glucose 1000 mg/dl Protein 30 mg/dl Urinalysis, Microscopic Crystals-Mod Calcium oxalate crystals Please help me to understand what is happening. I Have my life to plan for and since he obviously isn`t planning on being here I need to have some idea of how long his body can put up with this?
This question has been forwarded by Kidney Diseases:
Kidney Disease Expert – Mildred Lam, MD
Since I am a kidney doctor, I feel best able to address your husband's kidney problems. However, here are some general thoughts which I hope will be helpful: For sure, the human body can fool and amaze us. As doctors, we see many, many examples of people who do nothing but abuse their bodies with obesity, lack of exercise, smoking, alcohol, horrible diets, and failure to take medicines to control their diabetes, hypertension, and cholesterol . . . and yet live long (though not necessarily happy) lives. Your husband has the right genes, apparently; but the things that are working against him are his poor diabetic control, coronary artery disease at an early age, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, and stressful work environment.
As for his kidneys: I assume that by "kidney leakage" you mean leakage of protein from his body out through his kidneys, which is the earliest sign of diabetic kidney disease. Judging from the levels of urine microalbumin and protein that you give, he's not leaking very much protein yet (a lot would be more than 1000 microalbumin or more than 300 protein), but he's certainly showing the first signs of kidney damage and eventually may end up losing his kidney function and needing dialysis (artificial kidney treatments). The calcium oxalate crystals in his urine are probably of no significance, because they can be seen any time someone eats foods that contain oxalate (such as tea, coffee, chocolate, nuts, spinach).
However, the biggest risk that he currently appears to have is atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries with deposits of cholesterol in the walls of arteries, causing conditions like coronary artery disease, which he already has experienced). This process can be worsened by poorly-controlled diabetes, high blood pressure, smoking, and/or high blood cholesterol. I am also concerned about his mental state: it sounds like he's under a lot of stress, is angry and/or depressed, and has given up trying to take care of himself, perhaps because he figures it won't help and won't change the problems he's already experienced. I hope, for his sake and yours, that he is under the care of a good internist and that he has a good relationship with his doctor. If not, he should consider changing doctors. Best wishes to both of you, and I hope that he will take care of himself and try to make the most of the time he has left, which could be quite a few years.
Kidney Disease Expert – Philip Hall, MD
I urge you to get your husband to see a board certified nephrologist as quickly as you can. If he refuses you need to consult an appropriate diabetic social worker. Contact your primary physician very quickly. That person should be able to direct you to the appropriate person to help you. Use the web and search for diabetes help.
Diabetes Expert – Robert Cohen, MD
I agree with the Kidney Diseases expert that this is a worrisome situation. The major message for your husband is that he needs to realize he has a lot of risk factors for bad outcomes AND HE HAS THE ABILITY TO MAKES CHANGES THAT WILL LIKELY IMPROVE HIS OWN OUTCOME.
My suggestion is to show your husband this response as a form of wake up call. Think about who is able to influence your husband's thinking: perhaps a brother or sister or a clergy person or a close friend or somebody else that he respects can speak to him in a way that he will hear that the time has come for some action. He is getting advice – now he needs to hear the advice.
For more information:
Go to the Quality Health Care and You – Diabetes health topic.


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Karen of Keeping Secrets gave me a Sisterhood Award. Thanks, Karen!
It's awesome to know Karen. She's a beautiful person and beautiful poet. Karen has a powerful poem at her blog about book burning, a subject that sends me into a tailspin.
Joaquin Carvel is another wonderful poet I have met here. Joaquin and Karen have both given me a challenge. They ask that I list the 25 writers or poets who have influenced me the most.
I've enjoyed reading all the poetry and fiction lists I've seen in Blogland lately. It's interesting how each list I've seen is truly unique to the person who made it.
When I first started making my own list, it quickly escalated into the hundreds, from ancient times to today. What a challenge to give to a nerdy reader!
I think I was just naming all of the people whose work I love, including people I have met here. In order to keep the list to a minimum, I decided to give it three criteria:
1. Everyone on the list influenced me in my "formative" years.
2. I can literally see the influence in my own work.
3. I'm listing them in order of their appearance in my life.
God – The Bible (King James Version) – Though beautifully written, I don't think of the bible as "literature." For me, it's God's holy word. But I do see the influence in my work, often in my phrasing (sometimes intentionally, sometimes not). I also see it in theme, especially in Jesus' compassion for outcasts in society and rage against hypocrites. I started reading it when I was five-years-old and still do so today.
Ken Kesey- One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest – It might seem odd to follow the bible with the Cuckoo's Nest. But it makes perfect sense to me. The men in the institution are outcasts of society. Many of them are bound by their own chains. The society in which they live is oppressive and hypocritical. The main character in the book is a sort of "savior" figure for them. I found a copy of this book on the side of the road when I was eight. My poor mother would have been shocked to know I was reading it. But even at eight, I saw the beauty in this book and still do. I continue to read it at least twice a year.
Flannery O'Connor – The queen of fiction. I bow down. I wish she were still alive, so I could stalk her. Just kidding about the stalking. But I know I would go to the ends of the earth to hear her speak. I study her mechanics, the way she so carefully places each word. I take apart her sentences and stare at them. If I live to be a hundred, I'll never figure them out completely. There has never been another writer like Flannery O'Connor.
T.S. Eliot – I bought my first book of Eliot's poems when I was still in grade school. I didn't understand it, but I was drawn to the phrasing and imagery. Since then, I study it almost daily. Critics be damned. The theory of the objective correlative IS poetry.
Nikki Giovanni – My junior high favorite. Reading Giovanni was the first time I realized the importance of voice. I still love her, of course.
Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Another favorite poet of my youth (and today). I can't remember the year, but I think I was in junior high school when I found the poem, Underwear. It was printed on a purple mimeograph copy and folded inside a book on a back shelf in a small town library. I got kicked out of the library for laughing. Okay, I know it's deeper than that. But believe me, if you want to turn on a kid to poetry, bring along a copy of Underwear. A few months later, I found more of his work at a second hand store.
Steinbeck (in particular, The Grapes of Wrath) – It changed my life.
J.D. Salinger (The Catcher in The Rye) – Why, of course. I was fifteen and full of angst and anger at all the phonies in the world. I still find it to be an amazing book. The phonies still make me mad.
William Faulkner – Everything he has ever written. The king of fiction. I read that he had a friend named Mr. Buffaloe. Unfortunately, I'm no relation.
Joyce Carol Oates – I discovered her work in high school and have never put it down. An amazing writer.
Carson McCullers – Outcasts. Southern Gothic. Need I say more? I'm jealous that she wrote The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter when she was 23.
Eudora Welty – Another excellent writer. I love to read her after I read Flannery O'Connor and compare the two styles.
James Baldwin – Simply amazing. Everything he has ever written. I can't do him justice here, so I will just bow.
Doris Betts – Her voice has a powerful pull on my heart.
Fred Chappell – One of my favorite Carolina writers. His poetry and fiction are equally breathtaking. I Am One Of You Forever is one of my all time favorite books. After I wrote my first novel, I soon realized that half of it was a poor imitation of Fred Chappell.
Kell Robertson – An amazing poet. My hero. Kell Robertson was the first poet I ever read who wrote poetry about rural themes in a vernacular that felt like my own. I connect with his themes of lost American landscape. But my love for his work goes deeper than that. I could go on for five hundred pages about how great Kell is. If you look at the links on the right, I have a post about his newest book, The Goofy Goddess On The Wall. Or you can read a sample of Kell's poetry HERE.
Charles Fort – My first real life mentor and teacher who is also a dear friend. Charles Fort is the master of the prose poem, but his work encompasses a wide range of styles and themes. He is also the first person to introduce me to the world of poetry readings. Charles Fort's work is powerful, yet lyrical and beautiful in voice and structure. You can read his bio HERE. Click on "Selection" to read some sample poems. He was a wonderful, lively teacher and a master poet.
Howard McCord – The documentary about Howard McCord's life, The Tao of Poetry, says it all. He is another amazing teacher and poet. A master. Though some call him an American Badass, I will always remember him as a sweet, gentle man who had endless patience with younger poets. Check him out HERE.
Keith Wilson – I did not "know" Keith Wilson personally, but I was fortunate enough to take a class with him. I am so sad that he has passed away. His work is beautiful and powerful. Check it out HERE.
Art Coelho – Art Coelho is a master poet, fiction writer, and artist. He's another dear friend I love. I stand in awe of his work. Art's writing spans many forms, and he is also another master of the prose poem. (Art, if you're reading this, please forgive me if I embarrass you by slobbering. I can't help myself). From April 11 through June 27, you can check out his artwork at the Boston Public Library's Portugese-American exhibit, Twice Removed. His excellent poetry is also in the current (spring '09) issue of Prairie Schooner. This list wouldn't have been complete without Art.
Joy Harjo – Her work is so beautiful; she makes me cry. I cannot even describe what it has done for me throughout the years. Check her out HERE.
Alice Walker – Beautiful Alice. I met her work when I was going through a difficult time, and she made me realize that difficult is a relative term.
Bukowski – I love his lines, his themes, his phrasing. Why, of course. Buk's the man.
Edward Gaines – Amazing. I have lost many nights of sleep by staying up to read his work.
Anne Sexton – I had read a lot of Plath and other "confessional" poets, but I felt a big connection with Sexton's work during my college years. I still love it.
Martin Jack Rosenblum (especially The Holy Ranger: Harley Davidson Poems). – Freaking Amazing. The book is actually licensed by the Harley-Davidson Motor Co. Check it out HERE.
Wilma Elizabeth McDaniel- The queen of poetry. Art Coelho turned me on to her work, and I am still trying to catch my breath. You can read her HERE.
Did you notice I cheated? I couldn't quite keep it down to 25. Sorry!
I know I'm going to kick myself after I post this, because I have at least twenty more people I would like to list. My early years would also have to include a lot of classic poets, children's literature, and Mark Twain.
When I say I literally see these influences in my work, I don't mean that I will ever be as great as any of them are. I'm hoping that someday, I can take what they have taught me and shape it into something that is completely mine.
Please feel free to comment or leave your list in the comments section. If you do one at your own site, let us know.
Thanks for the interesting challenge, Karen and Joaquin!


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Back in 1969 when the Alumni Association began, under the guidance of Alumni Secretary Robert Barrymore Crow, an Executive Committee was formed to serve as the governing body of the association and to perform a vital, positive, and meaningful role on behalf of Deerfield Academy and its alumni.
In the fall of 1998, Bink Garrison '66, P'94, '00, convened his first meeting as President of the Executive Committee. During this gathering, he stressed the need for every organization to have a vision, noting that while it may not be possible to fulfill that vision in its entirety, doing so would provide an ideal toward which to strive. After lengthy and spirited discussion, the committee agreed to the following vision statement:
"To lead and represent the most informed, enthusiastic, involved and supportive alumni/ae body in the world."
Today, thanks to our uniquely dedicated alumni and the tireless efforts of the folks in the Advancement Office, a growing number of initiatives are bearing fruit. Each year, the committee chooses the recipient of the Heritage Award, recognizing an alumnus/a whose professional and personal achievements represent a special contribution to the betterment of society.
Some other projects include: Pathways, which started in January 2000 as an annual program where current seniors hear alumni talk about the "pathway" that he or she took to their present career. The development of the website and alumni e-newsletter, Reunion Weekend, alumni athletic events, the ongoing development of regional clubs both nationally and internationally, inducting graduating seniors into the Alumni Association during Commencement, and young alumni events. We are always thinking and welcome your suggestions for engaging our alumni with each other and with the school.
To find out more about any of the above initiatives, please contact the Advancement Office.


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|The awesome swag bag from Book Blogger Convention 2010
Start spreadin' the news ... I'm leaving in 268 days!
I want to be a part of it!
Book Blog-ger Con!
That's right, folks ... it is back! According to the Book Blogger Convention blog, what was a wonderful inaugural event last year is returning for a second year. And I clearly cannot wait.
(I feel a little like Virginia in the classic Christmas movie. Yes, Melissa, there will be a Book Blogger Convention in 2011!)
I posted this on my Facebook the other day and a few of my book blogger friends seemed to have missed this announcement. So, because I'm blog-post challenged today, I thought I would offer up the details as a public service announcement by recapping what Michelle said on the Book Blogger Convention blog (which is how I learned of the news).
The BBC reception will be held Thursday evening May 26th.
The main event will be on Friday May 27th.
For your convenience and to minimize confusion, registration will run directly through BEA (registration isn't open yet but we'll let you know when it is!)
I absolutely loved last year's Book Blogger Convention and am already packing my bags for next May. (Which should be easy for me to do, since I haven't fully unpacked from BlogHer yet and there's a good chance my suitcase will still be sitting on my bedroom floor for another 8 months.)
Make sure to subscribe to the Book Blogger Convention site and follow @bookbloggercon on Twitter!
Will I see you in the Big Apple in May?
|All the wonderful peeps I met during last year's Book Blogger Convention ...
spread out on my keyboard.
copyright 2010, Melissa (Betty and Boo's Mommy, The Betty and Boo Chronicles) If you are reading this on a blog or website other than The Betty and Boo Chronicles or via a feedreader, this content has been stolen and used without permission.


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Publications and Textbooks
Site Search
Braille titles make up the largest portion of the collection. These include braille music transcriptions of the standard eighteenth and nineteenth century repertoire for most instruments, with emphasis on piano, vocal and choral music. The braille collection also contains earlier and later classical music, popular music, textbooks, librettos, and instructional method books.
Braille music scores and popular music lead sheets are available in an electronic format via the Internet. To access these music files, eligible program users must first receive a username and password from either their cooperating network library or the NLS Music Section. When these are received, the music files can be browsed online or downloaded for later reading or embossing. A list of available titles is on the web www.loc.gov/nls/Braille/muslist.html
There is a link to each music file from its record in the online catalog nlscatalog.loc.gov.
Resources from Dancing Dots for Blind Musicians,Their Educators and Supporters
Do you serve students who need to learn to read music braille in order toparticipate in general music classes, school ensembles or any educationalsituation where sighted peers are reading conventional print music?
An Introduction to Music for the Blind StudentParts I & IIby Richard Taesch
An Introduction to the Piano for the Blind Studentby Richard Taeschwww.dancingdots.com/prodesc/currdet.htm
Tack-Tiles(R) for Musicwww.dancingdots.com/prodesc/tacktile.htmDo you serve students who need to receive braille music materials much more quickly, keeping production on the local level? Are you yourself a blind musician who wants to produce braille editions of the same computer music files used to create printed versions of scores?http://www.dancingdots.com/main/goodfeel.htm
Cakewalk SONAR with CakeTalking scripts & tutorial from Dancing DotsDo you or your visually impaired students need to independently produce high quality sound recordings for radio or TV productions, theatrical works or creative self-expression?Cakewalk SONAR with CakeTalking scripts & tutorial from Dancing Dotswww.dancingdots.com/prodesc/CakeTalkingForSONAR.htm
Do you or your student need training in the use of technology from Dancing Dots or in Braille music reading?Training seminars and one-on-one training options from Dancing Dotswww.dancingdots.com/main/events.htm
NBP offers two braille music publications. Who's Afraid of Braille Music by Richard Taesch and William McCann introduces beginners to braille music, while How to Read Braille Music by Bettye Krolick provides more extensive information about the braille music code for students, teachers, and professionals.
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Union Square Is the Loneliest Place in New York City
There's 74 katrillion people in New York and sometimes it seems like there is absolutely no one, especially when you start researching that great post-modern cry for romantic attention: the Craigslist "Missed Connection" ad. Where do most of these missed connections happen? In Union Square.
The Village Voice has a great interview with Ingrid Burrington who has gotten a ton of attention for her statistical analysis and geographic charting of Missed Connection ads. She found that most of them happen in the Union Square area because of the number of subways that converge there and the presence of especially cruisey Whole Foods and Trader Joes.
She also has a bunch of other great facts, like a chart explaining which subway line hosts the most fleeting moments of lust (it's the L, duh) and what sort of language people use when describing their romantic partners. So, if you're feeling particularly lonely today, avoid Union Square. Or, you know, actually go say hi to that hottie you're staring at.


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MMO Champion's released a great new tool for Guild and Raid Leaders alike! It's called RaidComp!
The basic premise of the tool is that it allows your leaders to plan raids and optimize them by literally dragging and dropping different class specs. The right side of the screen shows buffs and debuff abilities that the spec can bring.
With buffs now being applied raid wide, it would be time consuming to manually figure out what spec your players were and what abilities they had on your own. Using RaidComp, you don't have to do that anymore.
Right: Here you can it showing the debuffs that the raid composition I picked will be able to apply. Below the debuffs, you can see the total count of the number of tanks (based on talents), healers, Ranged DPS, Melee DPS, Mana Batteries (Replenishment), as well as Heroisms.
There are certain classes and specs that will overlap with each other. You'll notice that Spell Damage Taken debuff is in yellow. I have a Warlock in there with Curse of Elements which increases the Spell Damage taken. There is a talent that increases the potency of Curse of Elements to 13% (Spell damage taken increase).
Alternatively, if I didn't want the Warlock to pick up that spec or if they didn't want to get the talents for whatever reason, I can mouse over that and it will show me the other classes and spells that can do the same thing I want. You can see what it looks like below.
Below: And just for fun, here's a test raid that I threw together just for kicks to ensure that I could get every possible buff and debuff so you can see what it looks like. It offers full support for a 40 man raid. Not only that, you can even export builds as links and share them with other players.
A great big thanks to the tech monkeys at MMO-Champion for coming up with this nifty script!