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NEW YORK (AP) — Disney says its networks will air Ariana Grande's "One Love Manchester" benefit on Sunday. The concert, to be carried by broadcasters around the world, is aimed at helping victims of the recent attack in Manchester, England.
The full concert will air live at 2 p.m. EDT on Freeform, Disney's young adult cable network.
ABC will air a one-hour highlight special following the NBA Finals telecast.
Grande will be joined by the Black Eyed Peas, Robbie Williams, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Coldplay and other stars at the charity event being held two weeks after the suicide bombing at Grande's performance in the city. Twenty-two people died at that show.
Proceeds will go to an emergency fund set up by the city of Manchester and the British Red Cross.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Doubts Raised That Universe Is Expanding At An Accelerating Rate
Five years ago, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astronomers for their discovery, in the late 1990s, that the universe is expanding at an accelerating pace.
Their conclusions were based on analysis of Type Ia supernovae – the spectacular thermonuclear explosion of dying stars – picked up by the Hubble space telescope and large ground-based telescopes. It led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that the universe is dominated by a mysterious substance named 'dark energy' that drives this accelerating expansion.
Now, a team of scientists led by Professor Subir Sarkar of Oxford University's Department of Physics has cast doubt on this standard cosmological concept. Making use of a vastly increased data set – a catalogue of 740 Type Ia supernovae, more than ten times the original sample size – the researchers have found that the evidence for acceleration may be flimsier than previously thought, with the data being consistent with a constant rate of expansion.
The study is published in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
Professor Sarkar, who also holds a position at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, said, "The discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe won the Nobel Prize, the Gruber Cosmology Prize, and the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. It led to the widespread acceptance of the idea that the universe is dominated by "dark energy" that behaves like a cosmological constant – this is now the "standard model" of cosmology."
"However, there now exists a much bigger database of supernovae on which to perform rigorous and detailed statistical analyses. We analysed the latest catalogue of 740 Type Ia supernovae – over ten times bigger than the original samples on which the discovery claim was based – and found that the evidence for accelerated expansion is, at most, what physicists call "3 sigma". This is far short of the "5 sigma" standard required to claim a discovery of fundamental significance."
According to Professor Sarkar, "An analogous example in this context would be the recent suggestion for a new particle weighing 750 GeV based on data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It initially had even higher significance – 3.9 and 3.4 sigma in December last year – and stimulated over 500 theoretical papers. However, it was announced in August that new data shows that the significance has dropped to less than 1 sigma. It was just a statistical fluctuation, and there is no such particle."
There is other data available that appears to support the idea of an accelerating universe, such as information on the cosmic microwave background – the faint afterglow of the Big Bang – from the Planck satellite.
However, Professor Sarkar said. :All of these tests are indirect, carried out in the framework of an assumed model, and the cosmic microwave background is not directly affected by dark energy. Actually, there is indeed a subtle effect, the late-integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect, but this has not been convincingly detected."
"So it is quite possible that we are being misled and that the apparent manifestation of dark energy is a consequence of analysing the data in an oversimplified theoretical model – one that was in fact constructed in the 1930s, long before there was any real data. A more sophisticated theoretical framework accounting for the observation that the universe is not exactly homogeneous and that its matter content may not behave as an ideal gas – two key assumptions of standard cosmology – may well be able to account for all observations without requiring dark energy. Indeed, vacuum energy is something of which we have absolutely no understanding in fundamental theory.," Professor Sarkar said.
Professor Sarkar added: "Naturally, a lot of work will be necessary to convince the physics community of this, but our work serves to demonstrate that a key pillar of the standard cosmological model is rather shaky. Hopefully this will motivate better analyses of cosmological data, as well as inspiring theorists to investigate more nuanced cosmological models. Significant progress will be made when the European Extremely Large Telescope makes observations with an ultrasensitive "laser comb" to directly measure over a ten to 15-year period whether the expansion rate is indeed accelerating."


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"In the Country of Women is moving, fierce, and gorgeous. In a time of individualistic fragmentation and the tearing of the social fabric, Straight offers the contrary narrative, the essential need for community, its past and future, and celebrates her place in its weaving."
—Janet Fitch, author of White Oleander
"In the Country of Women is a masterpiece and a great read—heartfelt and soul-warming. A full life, cleanly, deeply, and beautifully told."
—Dorothy Allison, author of Bastard Out of Carolina
"In the Country of Women must be the most populated, celebratory, filled-with-life memoir of our time. With her characteristic mix of compassion, warmth, humor, and acerbic insight, Susan Straight writes of her 'massive black and mixed-race family' and her 'quirky, deeply embedded white family'—a memoir that is, though addressed to her three daughters, a valentine to virtually everyone whom the renowned author has known in the course of her vividly described life. Unlike most contemporary memoirs, which focus upon singular, self-obsessed individuals, Susan Straight's is about an entire way of life, lived with great verve and passion: 'a strange California transcendentalism which never fit in with American upward mobility.'"
—Joyce Carol Oates
"In the Country of Women is the astonishingly beautiful story of a life and family history that could only happen in California, just as California is a place (and an idea—of expansion, light, color, a meeting of bloodlines and cultures) that could only happen in America."
—Attica Locke, author of Bluebird, Bluebird
I just bought a car for my oldest daughter, who is sixteen. A red Honda Civic, circa 1994, with only three dents. She and I were impressed by the chrome rims, but when we brought it home, our neighbor corrected us with a laugh. They're hubcaps.
Cheap ones.
My ex-husband, Dwayne, helped out physically and financially. We checked out the car together, where it was parked in a dirt backyard not far from where we grew up. After we examined the dents, we both glanced at the pepper trees and then squinted at each other. Even though we have been divorced for eight years, we knew the other's thoughts: Didn't we party in this yard, during high school?
We did.
This is southern California. Cars figure in nearly every memory of our lives together in the same city where we were born. In fact, for the most part my ex-husband doesn't remember names, but connects friends and acquaintances with their vehicles. He'll say to me, "I saw your old friend today. The one used to drive the Duster."
"Ah," I'll reply. "Julie." She drove a Duster in 1978.
He'll say to our three daughters, "Call that one girl – her grandma drives the Escalade."
Our daughters are very good at recognizing makes and models of cars and trucks. They know the difference between Blazers and Broncos without hesitation.
My father taught me to drive on deserted vineyard roads. He'd raced cars as a teen in inland southern California, and told me stories of using a sewer pipe for a muffler to amplify sound. I practiced on his vintage 1965 Mustang, and when I swerved on a dusty road to avoid a ground squirrel, he shouted at me for the first time in my life. "Who's gonna live – you or the damn squirrel! Don't ever choose an animal over yourself."
Dwayne learned on dirt roads, too, in borrowed cars. But when we began dating, he was just sixteen and I was fifteen. We walked for months to parks and burrito places, until his father broke down and bought The Batmobile.
The first time Dwayne drove up to my house, I couldn't believe it. The car was a 1960 Cadillac, vintage oxidized brown like faded coffee grounds, with huge fins as if sharks were chaperoning us down the street. Sitting in the passenger seat, I saw a dark stain along the inside of the driver's door.
It was cold, and I asked him to close his window, but he couldn't. He didn't want me to see the spiderweb cracks around the bullet hole in the glass. Then he told me the story of the car, while we headed to the movies. Some guy had been leaning against that car window when he was shot. The bullet pierced the glass; the man fell into the door and the dark stains were reminders of his blood.
"You went out in the Batmobile last night?" his friends teased me at school the next day.
"You let me go out in the Batmobile?" I said to my mother last night on the phone.
"What did I know?" she laughed.
Dwayne's father had seen the car parked under a tree in someone's yard, and knew the story. He kept asking the father of the murdered man to sell it, and finally the man relented. $200 was the price.
We never had much money growing up. But we do tell our girls the good-time stories we have, and they all involve cars. My stepfather bought a vintage 1965 Mustang from a barn, and the convertible top was gone while a hay bale filled out the missing back seat. During high school, no one wanted a ride home from me. Then he sold that and bought a 1959 Thunderbird, which I raced against our friend Wendell's car, a Pontiac named Maybelline. Where the road narrowed to a bridge, he chickened out.
We cruised with eight bodies packed into our friend Penguin's Dodge Dart, and when The Bar-Kays sang "Your Love is Like the Holy Ghost," we all moved in unison so that the car leaped up and down without the aid of hydraulics.
One of our girls' favorite stories is about our wedding. We got married downtown, and we had no limo, but after the ceremony, Dwayne's cousin Newcat drove us around the local lake in his Cadillac, which had a broken horn. The best man, Dwayne's older brother, shouted out the open windows to waving onlookers, "Honk, honk, damnit, these people just got married!"
Well, now we're not married. But we both taught our daughter to drive. Her father counseled her to stay out of the bike lane. I reminded her not to drift into the left lane on a right turn.
I brought the red Honda home, and she drove with one or the other of us for a few weeks. The car drove fine, but it didn't have a radio. I offered to have one put in, but Dwayne said he wanted to take care of it.
He got an inexpensive CD player at the local swap meet. When I came home from work that day, Gaila had her first car story.
"I was doing my homework and Daddy kept calling me with his cell phone."
"Where was he?"
"In front of the house installing the stereo," she said, rolling her eyes. "First he said, G, bring me a lighter. We didn't have one, so I gave him some matches. Then he called again. G, bring me some tape. I brought the wrong kind twice. The silver tape and the white tape. He wanted that black one."
"Electrical tape," I said.
"Yeah. Then he said, G, bring me some water."
I laughed. "You're slow," I said. "Didn't you realize what your dad wanted?"
She shook her head.
I remembered our early days of marriage, our old broken down cars – a Fiat, a Renault, each of which required hours of Dwayne's time under the hood. In our old gravel driveway, I used to sit in the driver seat with my own work, because every few minutes he would ask me to do something. "Start it up. Rev the engine. Push down on the brake pedal. Okay."
Really, he wanted my company, and so I wrote most of my first book there, in the car.
"He just wanted you to sit out there with him," I said.
She sighed. "Well, I had homework. Then he called me again and said, 'G, listen.' He turned the music up real loud and I heard Kanye."
When I saw my ex-husband the next day, I said, "Thanks for the stereo." He handed me a small silver figure with a clip. It was an angel holding a note that read, "Drive safely, Daughter."
"I got this at the swap meet today," he said. "Put it on the visor, okay?"
"I will," I said.
When he left, he hesitated by the red Honda for a moment, and nodded his head.
I finished my seventh novel on New Year's Day. After transcribing the tiny, cramped sentences I'd originally written by hand on a series of those subscription cards you find inside magazines, I wanted to sign off with the date, and then name the exotic locale or city considered an intellectual haven where I'd typed the final page.
Books have a certain literary cachet when authors sign off with Prague, Paris, New York City, Cape Cod, and Rome and mention writer's colonies in Italy, Vermont, and Santa Fe. But I always tell the truth, when I'm not writing fiction, and so the most appropriate end note for me is Mercury Villager, Riverside, California.
I wrote most of my new book, Take One Candle Light a Room, in my car. Longhand, on legal pads, on the backs of discarded homework papers from my daughters, and yes, on about fifty of those inserts from Runner's World or Sport Fisherman (from the waiting rooms of doctor's offices.) You have to write very small, around all the print on those things.
I tell my students – whether in college classes, prison workshops, or elementary school presentations – that anyone can write, anywhere, at any time, and I mean it. I bring my legal pads to show them. I have lived in the same house for 22 years, less than a mile from the hospital where I was born and two blocks from the city college where I wrote my very first short story, when I was sixteen, in a lined notebook like the one carried by Harriet the Spy.
I wrote my first novel Aquaboogie in a pale green 1975 Fiat parked in my father-in-law's driveway, often while my husband was working on the vehicle. He would say, "Check the brakes!" from underneath the car, and I would push down on the brake pedal, then write a few more pages in my notebook.
After that novel was published in 1990, I was 29, and had a baby about to turn two, was pregnant again. My life seemed so circumscribed, and I fantasized, as many writers do, about the writers' colony where I would have meals delivered silently to my porch while I typed in a room where only the sound of birds would break into my concentration. But I worked on my second novel while sitting on the curb, while my first daughter had finally fallen asleep in her stroller. I was hunched over my notebook, the stroller beside me with the brake on, when a car pulled up. A woman offered me money and sympathy, since she thought I was homeless.
I'm just writing, I said. She frowned. Writing what?
I couldn't say it, back then. I knew I looked bad. Tired, wearing old clothes, holding a legal pad. A novel? Just writing, I replied. She shook her head and drove away.
This year, I tried to feel sorry for myself – but then I remembered a photograph of Eudora Welty, sitting with perfect posture at her desk in her bedroom in the house where she was born. I remembered an interview with Raymond Carver, who said that to escape the chaos of his home and family, he often wrote in his car, parked in front of the house.
I realized I was a native southern Californian who had spent much of her life in the car. There was an expansive freedom in the windshield, completely different from a house window. And my middle daughter was most like me – when we pulled up after school, everyone else went inside, but she and I stayed in the car while the sun was lowering, starting homework or just staring at the trees before the others came to get us, puzzled by that small liberty.
This year, while I worked on a novel about a travel writer who has never married or had children and who has refused for years to help her orphaned godson, my 20-year-old nephew came to live with me and my three girls. My nephew, who needed me in the past, and who I was afraid to take in, because it seemed too much. With his dreadlocks and skateboard and ONE LOVE tattoo, his Pan-like mischief, he has transformed our house. The constant laughter of visiting skateboarders and YouTube drove me to a familiar place – the van – where I wrote about the travel writer, a woman selfish and beautiful, with only coffee in her kitchen, rather than endless stacks of frozen pizza. Would she rescue her godson from the trouble that could get him killed?
Six yellow legal pads, the backs of letters, even day passes from Disneyland covered with words. I finished the novel at dawn during the rare night all the children spent elsewhere, typing ten hours without stopping except for coffee and chocolate. My brain went into a fugue state of imagination that might feel like a deserted cabin somewhere, a colony, so that I could write after the very last line something that sounded impressive and not the prosaic and common name of my village.
It seems like I've never gotten anywhere, but I'm cool with it now, I'd better be, and so I write – 2010, Riverside, California.
I just let the chickens out to play. We've been at work and school for most of the day, they've been cooped up (that's where the word comes from – chicken coop) and the sun is shining. The hens are teenagers, but they are still cute, unlike many teenagers. They are six months old, one golden and friendly, one black speckled and wary. They are sisters, named Butter and Smoke.
They run around in the back yard, following me the way my daughters used to, when the garden was a daily-explored universe full of ladybugs and earwigs and pink jasmine blossoms and green apricots like fuzzy pieces of jade.
I am embarrassed to admit I feel tender and companionable toward two chickens.
And because within minutes our neighborhood hawk is circling above us, crying and warning and feinting in the wind, I can't believe I'm babysitting. When we first put these two chicks in an old rabbit cage, one morning the hawk sat on top of the wire mesh, cocking his head. He's been hunting these chickens for weeks now, but if I'm here in the back yard, he stays away.
I sit on a wooden chair and watch them scratch the soil. Every few minutes, the chickens run over to see if I'm still here. I turn over a paving stone and they eat an entire nest of slugs in about two seconds. Very convenient. My older daughters, 16 and 14, don't come into the garden very often now, because of SAT classes and basketball, and they don't even want to rake leaves, much less help me destroy slugs. Last week, I moved two wooden crates full of tools, and when black widows dropped from the slats and ran toward my toes, Butter snapped them up. (For a moment, I worried that she might be poisoned, but the spiders must have tasted good, because she looked frantically for more.) Kids can't do that.
Even my youngest daughter, Rosette, who is ten and still loves the garden, often has homework. These are her chickens, but they are my odd company. Butter and Smoke come when I call them, as my girls used to, when I say loudly, "Look what we've got here," and I move aside the birdbath. My girls used to have pillbug farms, and their Tonka trucks and bulldozers are still here, half-buried in the dirt.
But I can't believe I've developed maternal feelings toward chickens during the years of avian flu, during the afternoons of hawks.
Recently I went to a lecture on avian flu and learned that backyard poultry could be the first place where this disease will gain entry to our population. (I also learned that influenza viruses are ingenious and lethal, can mutate from birds to swine to humans, and that the Spanish Flu which killed millions of people in 1918 was not from Spain, but began in Haskell County, Kansas as an avian flu, mutated through bird droppings consumed by pigs into a swine flu, and then was transmitted to American troops stationed there for training. The soldiers took the virus on ships to Europe.)
Tom Scott, an expert who spoke during the lunchtime seminar, believes the present avian flu virus, H5N1, will probably not travel to America through an infected wild bird. He showed us the migration patterns of this flu from Southeast Asia to Europe to Africa, a series of jagged routes running north to south. It looked the same as the pattern West Nile virus took throughout America, through mosquitoes and birds.
He, and other experts, don't think ill migratory birds would make it across the Atlantic Ocean. They believe it will arrive on another winged carrier – an international flight, with an infected human.
But other experts believe birds will travel as usual from Asia to Alaska, bringing the virus to the Western United States, very soon. When migrating birds fly over southern California in great numbers, which they do every year to seek shelter in the desert at the Salton Sea, they could spread the virus through feces. Ron Farris, poultry expert at UCRiverside's Cooperative Extension, told me I had better put the chickens inside a wood-roofed enclosed coop, and never let them out to be exposed to the wild.
I watch my chickens ruffle their feathers until they are bigger for a moment, like brief explosions of fringe, and then they settle down for their daily dirt bath. They like the moist soil near the rabbit cages, where they scratch out a shallow depression and open their wings to throw dirt onto their backs. That's how chickens keep mites and bugs out of their feathers.
I had been feeling proud at my little utopia, my rabbit fertilizer which nurtures my corn crop, my corn cobs feeding the chickens, along with bugs I don't want around anyway, and then the fresh eggs. But the chickens are pecking at the poop now. I have visions of influenza virus mutating into the rabbits, and Snowball, the meanest one, biting one of the girls.
Near my feet is a peanut hidden by our resident scrub jay, pushed into dead leaves under the geranium. Every day, I find pecans hidden by the crows, who always forget their stash. Usually, my girls and I consider this found treasure and crack them open on the spot.
But now I recall the viruses shown on the lecture-room screen, their mutation capabilities, and I see the bird poop on the fence, and on the birdbath.
"You have chickens?" people at work say to me, incredulous, frowning. "Actual chickens? You'd better get rid of them now. Haven't you read Mike Davis' book?"
I have.
"Why chickens?"
We've always had rabbits, and a dog. We have twelve rabbits now – they're quiet, easy to play with, and they make great fertilizer.
But my brother lived for years on an orange grove, next door to a man from Chihuahua who raised fighting roosters. My brother loved to see the birds growing and trained, but he didn't like the fighting part. He got a few roosters for himself, but only trained his favorite rooster to sit on the couch with him and watch Monday Night Football, complete with Doritos for their snack.
Rosette wanted a farm like her uncle's, and so several years ago my ex-husband brought her home with a shoebox containing two day-old chicks. Oldest trick in the book. Cute babies, held by a cute kid.
I learned that there are few sounds sweeter than baby chicks getting ready to go to sleep at night, in the laundry room, in a tin washtub. It's not peeping. It's more of a strange little comforting song, directed at the sky turning purple, almost as if they were chanting to themselves what they'd done all day and what they planned to do tomorrow.
But my ex-husband doesn't speak Spanish, and though he'd tried to convey his desire for hens at the feed store whose proprietors were from Mexico, when the chicks had quickly outgrown the tin washtub and been transferred to a large rabbit hutch, where we fed them warily but didn't know what else to do, they began to crow. At five am.
I called him during his graveyard shift that night and said, "You'd better come get your roosters."
I have to give him credit. He took them to his back yard, where they tortured his neighbors, whose dogs tortured him. The roosters crowed so loudly and constantly that we had trouble talking to Daddy on the phone.
Those dogs broke the fence eventually. But he bought two more chickens for us, insisting they were girls. Caramel and Fudge. We put them in a nice big coop, which was an old dog run, but they were still mean. Animals have personalities, and these females were mean enough to be on The Bachelor. Caramel ate her own eggs, which was just wrong. Fudge taught us the terms pecking order (we were last), henpecked, and you feeling peckish?
During the summer when West Nile virus hit hard in Riverside County, both chickens got sick. Fudge recovered, after losing her tail feathers, but Caramel languished for three days, getting weaker and weaker.
She was still a creature. I put her in a separate cage, as she didn't try to peck me, and I put water and food near her beak. It was hot, and the earth was hard, and I knew she would die in the morning, when I would have to get ready for work, so late that night I soaked the ground near the old bunny graves, marked by river rocks. Then I dug the hole, in the dark.
My ex-husband called during his night shift to see how she was. When I told him, he was shocked, "You dug the hole and she could see you? Dang. That's cold. At least move her around the corner."
I said, "You're the one who keeps bringing me chickens."
"I bring them for Rosette," he said.
I buried Caramel at dawn, and he brought Butter and Smoke, shortly afterward.
The other day Luis, an acquaintance from Corona, showed me how to hypnotize them. He lay Butter on her side while she struggled and squawked, and with a stick he drew a line in the dirt near her eyes, over and over, while murmuring, Hey, hey, hey.
He said, "If you do this right, they'll just lie here forever, until you snap them out of it. I learned it on my grandma's chicken ranch in Mexico."
I watched Butter, who did look dizzy and limp. "But why?" I asked.
Luis laughed, and Butter ran off. "There was nothing else to do down there."
I've tried it only once, but the motionless chicken made me nervous. I don't want to dig holes for these two birds stepping contentedly around my feet right now. I know the interface between the larger world and my yard, between the urban and wild, is so permeable. I stay awake at night, hearing the skunk and possums lumbering through the leaves, thinking of the fleas that carry bubonic plague. I see the raccoon peer from the sewer drain across the street, and think of rabies.
Amid the garden of blackberries, beds for corn and tomatoes and zucchini, the chickens eat everything, even spider eggs and microscopic insects invisible to me.
And when I am out checking the beans, I remember that chickens are women's provenance. (That's where the term egg money comes from.) All over the world, women are throwing corn for hens, hoping hens will eat the grasshoppers decimating their plants, and surviving on the children of the chickens.
These have not laid eggs yet, but Fudge does, and I take today's egg into the house. The teenaged chickens are on their own for now, because the girls are calling me.
At the sink, though, washing the large brown egg while my kids do their homework at the kitchen table, I wonder how avian flu will drift into my yard, my small postage stamp of soil in this huge map of the world.
Right now, the resident sparrows, a flock of ten or so that live in my mock orange hedge, are following the chickens around the yard. The blue jay is sitting on the fence. The hawk is gone, but he will return.
Because the sky is going lavender, the huge flock of crows begin their flight to the riverbottom pecan grove where they've lived since I was a child. For the seventeen years I've been in this house, they have flown over us in a long skein of trembling black, calling to each other. They were gone, that year of West Nile, and the sky was eerily silent.
I have the kitchen window opened, and I am listening. The girls squabble over lined paper and talk about boys who think they're players. Above the sound of traffic on the busy four-lane avenue outside, and the dogs barking and car stereos thumping, I'm listening for the hawk. And when the cry comes, it pierces the air like a dart – the high keening register, the echo off the tallest palm trees, and I'm grateful. I hurry outside and put the protesting chickens back in their cage for the day. The hawk flies far above me, circling, dipping, riding the currents. The wind tosses the branches of the carob trees.
In the air above us now, predators wait patiently, and in the soil under us, viruses and fleas thrive. And yet there are still young hens and children and those of us watching, narrowing our eyes, only vigilance and hope to protect us.
"Susan Straight is a remarkable writer— there is no new, emerging voice of the past decade more exciting, more surprising, and more richly and subtly human than she."
— Joyce Carol Oates
"A book by a writer whose love for her characters infuses her work with the dignity and urgency they so clearly deserve."
— New York Times Book Review
"Rarely is a black community so precisely, humanly, and searchingly delineated."
— Minneapolis Star Tribune
"A world of pain and love and longing is contained in these stories."
— Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Straight's portrayal of a black woman's life is nearly miraculous in its astonishing richness of detail, its emotional honesty and its breadth of human thought and feeling."
– USA Today
"Susan Straight opens up a whole world, which good writers do. In her case, however, it happens to be a world that many of us don't really want to go to…It is a world where the language is often not lush but hard and rough as concrete."
– Los Angeles Times
"Straight gives that Godforsaken area of Southern California back some of its natural beauty…This is fine writing, and fine now means something different as well, something sparkling and glamorous, but with a big-hearted integrity born of much suffering."
– Los Angeles Times
"Her gallery of misfits reminds one of Flannery O'Connor's– but with a dash of sympathy and human goodness."
— The Washington Post Book World
"An eye-opener of a novel, a road map to the real California. Straight turns headlines into poetry."
— The New York Times Book Review
"Packed with the kind of detail about people, places and emotions that transport the reader to a different world."
— San Francisco Chronicle
"One of America's gutsiest writers … a polyglot with an astonishing ear for how people really talk in places we hardly remember they are living."
— The Baltimore Sun
"Radiant. . . . Unforgettable, a classic haunting story of love, tragedy and perseverance."
— The Miami Herald
"Moving. . . . Lush passages drip like Spanish moss from Straight's prose [she] writes with nuance and insinuating grace."
— The Seattle Times
"Intelligent and heartbreaking. . . . Celebrates the individual's power to create a personal freedom within the most rigid social order."
— The Portland Oregonian
"It is only the rarest of novels that cry for a sequel, the most unusual of stories that at once satisfies and leaves the reader aching for more. Susan Straight's remarkable Take One Candle Light A Room is such a novel. And she has satisfied our desires in Between Heaven and Here, a magnificent novel, that manages to be at once unflinchingly real and transcendently beautiful. Susan Straight is one of the very best American writers. If you haven't read her, you're in for a delight and an awakening. If you have, then you're probably as thrilled as I am that she has taken us back to Rio Seco."
—Ayelet Waldman
"Susan Straight finds LA's secret heart in Between Heaven and Here and with a sleight of hand only the masters have, she creates an alley, a neighborhood, a history that is as rich and tragic as any Shakespearean tale."
—Walter Mosley
"Straight employs glorious language and a riveting eye for detail to create a fully realized, totally believable world."
—Kirkus (Starred Review)
"Beautifully-written narrative."
— Kirkus Reviews
"Straight thoughtfully captures the 9-year-old girl's ability to perceive her parent's emotional struggles while dealing with feelings and questions of her own."
— Booklist
"Readers will . . . be glad to see the quiet and persistent heroine rewarded not only with the love of a good dog but with the promise of a closer family."
— The Bulletin
"In luscious prose, Straight expertly captures the complexities of Fantine's identity."
– Booklist
"A searing, ultimately redemptive novel about America's legacy of racial violence and a woman's struggle to forge her own identity…Straight writes about the thorny subject of race with sensitivity and nuance."
– Kirkus (starred review)
"A vivid portrait of a mixed-race family, proud yet haunted by the vagaries of the past…Straight beautifully blends the rhythmic cadence of the Creole patois with the down-and-dirty slang of the street." — Library Journal.
Cover Design by Toni Scott.


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We are an independent timber based sheet material company based in Darwen, Lancashire. Starting life in 1983 and have successfully provided a comprehensive service covering all aspects of wood based panel products.
As you can see when navigating our website, not only can we supply all wood based sheet material products (Plywood, Chipboard, MDF, Veneered Boards and Laminates etc.) We can also offer a full fabrication service. This includes straight cuts using our state of the art Beamsaw. A specially commissioned CNC machine with a 10 foot (3000mm) x 7 foot (2100mm) matrix bed. A laminate bonding service, which includes bonding any laminate of your choice to any substrate and we can even cut to size and edge if required.
Our normal delivery service covers all of the mainland UK. But we have been known to supply customers as far as France, Italy and the USA to name a few.
Thank you for taking the time to visit our website and we would welcome the opportunity to quote on all your sheet material requirements. Read more


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Social Travel: Rediscovering the Friendly Skies
This post originally appeared in TechCrunch in 2011…
We've heard endlessly how "social" will eventually disrupt and transform old, stodgy industries, perhaps even reinvent them for the better. The promise of this change, of course, is often tempered by the reality that, if indeed this stuff actually happens, it will take time and we're currently in the early stages of the game.
And when it comes to travel, one of the most heavily regulated industries, disruption and transformation would be music to travelers' ears. There are a number of reasons travel has become more of an onerous task (thank you, TSA), yet consumers continue to brave the elements to merrily trot around the globe.
Brushing aside the fact that a significant portion of travel is business-related, decisions around leisure travel typically involve a number of factors, many of which are coming online. The catalyst for a personal trip can originate from different sources. One could have vacation time that will evaporate unless you use it. One could be offered a travel deal rate that motivates you to capitalize on it. One may want to catch up with old friends or families, or travel for entertainment, adventure, or to simply get away from your surroundings.
In exploring the travel space through a social lens, most of today's consumer web-related entrepreneurial attention is focused on what travelers do once they reach their intended destination. In the old days, travelers would book hotels directly (or through travel agents) and would rely on branded guides like Lonely Planet or Frommer's, hotel concierges, and traditional tour companies to help address these needs. A few years later, services like Kayak and TripIt offered more options for users to organize their travel.
Today's traveler has many more options. They can "couch surf" or use others' private spaces as lodging (thanks to Airbnb), and by comparison, could literally pick from over twenty different services to get information about their intended destinations. When I travel somewhere, I'll typically ask friends on Facebook and Twitter for recommendations, which so far have tended to be excellent and satisfy my needs.
If I happened to need even more information, I could continue my research through sites likeTripAdvisor, FlyerTalk, TripIt, Quora (local), explore Foursquare lists, peruse Gowalla's new social travel guides, or sign up for one of a new wave of startups focused on the space, such as Planely(meet people at the airport or on your flight), Trippy (friend-sourced itineraries), Triposo (interactive mobile guides), Travellr (location-based Q&A), Toour (currently in stealth), Tripping (traveler community service), Twigmore (connect with your friends' friends in other places), Globetrooper(tool to find travel partners), MyTab (where folks can gift travel to members), Gtrot (scrapes social data and aggregates around places), JetPac (seems to be a slick iPad app, but not released yet), and many, many others I haven't gotten around to trying.
Jetlagged yet?
The sheer number of startups focusing attention on this aspect of travel seems out of balance to me. Investors like this particular space because the path to victory is clearer, albeit its crowded, and because these types of apps and services could be inherently viral, both in terms of onboarding new users as well as benefitting from positive word-of-mouth.
Instead of destination-based guides, however, I've started to wonder if the real opportunity is higher up the decision funnel, before we buy plane tickets and hotel rooms, at the point we first feel the urge to travel. The best travel recommendations I've received (and acted on) have come through having conversations with close friends in real life. They share slideshows of their trip and we get to interact with them in rich ways about their experience, to see if we want to sign up for the same feeling. That is a true recommendation with a real strong social signal. These moments of inspiration oftentimes ignite the travel spark and could trigger a transaction. Startups like Gtrot and Gogobot, for instance, allow users to plan trips or record them after the fact, and research travel tips from social networks, organizing information around places.
There's simply no way that all the destination-based services listed so far will be able to survive such a cluttered field, so it may be worthwhile for some of them to at least consider the discovery-related aspect of travel and to design systems that help draw out and collect users' preferences around travel, sort of how Gtrot and Gogobot currently do, but perhaps in deeper ways. The current offerings incorporate "social," yes, but they seem to lack truly relevant social context. For a big decision like traveling, the strong signal usually originates from one trusted friend or source.
Despite an unstable economy, rising fuel costs, and the hassles of air travel, people continue to jam airports worldwide. The majority of travel expenditures are eaten up by transportation and lodging, as well as food and entertainment at the destination. Therefore, today's trend is to leverage social recommendations to help consumers shape their experiences in new places, though I'd argue this focus area actually ignores richer pastures.
The real opportunities in social travel may lie closer to the top of the decision funnel, at the moment when a consumer discovers a new place he/she wants to travel to. It's at this point where startups could build applications on top of existing social graphs to help people get inspired about travel, to plan and book their trips, and share them in novel ways with friends and family. There's no reason TripAdvisor needs to continue to show up on the first page of Google results for travel searches anymore.
With all of the data and pictures uploaded to Facebook, the opportunity is just sitting there, waiting for someone to jump on it. If done correctly, a new site or service could be created that actually acts as a modern travel collection and concierge in one, making travel arrangements easier and more affordable. In a nutshell, that is the challenge to startups in this space—to more intelligently incorporate data, to reinvent TripAdvisor's existing offerings plus adding social, making results more relevant, personalized, and more emotional to interact with. Whomever can crack that code and present travelers with a better travel experience will find themselves in a very enviable seat, high up in the friendly skies.


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Melliodora – Hepburn Permaculture Gardens
- 16 Fourteenth St
- 03 December 2023
- Expired!
- 10:00 am - 4:30 pm
- $80.00
Permaculture Tour at Melliodora
December 2023
There is no better way to learn how the household economy works than to take part in the whole day guided tour at Melliodora. Situated in the Victorian central highlands, Melliodora is one of the best examples of working cool-temperate climate permaculture in the country. At Melliodora you can see how permaculture can produce an abundance of food and other yields from a beautiful living environment.
The one hectare property has been transformed from the blackberry covered wasteland in 1985 into a model of small scale intensive permaculture. David Holmgren and his partner Su Dennett will show you how their passive solar house, mixed food gardens, orchards, dams and livestock, as well as creek revegetation, have been developed and maintained. The Melliodora garden farming model is most relevant to large town blocks and small rural allotments, but you don't have to have a large block to gain a huge amount from the tour.
Discover ways to apply the underlying principles and strategies to your own situation.
The Whole Day Tour includes morning + afternoon teas, while the Garden Only Tour includes afternoon tea. Participants are encouraged to BYO lunch to enjoy under the 100 year-old pear tree or to visit one of the local cafés in Hepburn or Daylesford during the lunch break from 1 pm.


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Willie Nelson's 'God's Problem Child' Enters Billboard Country Chart At #1
Willie Nelson's Topping The Charts Again!
God's Problem Child Enters the Billboard Country Chart at #1
Album Hits Top 10 on Billboard 200
God's Problem Child, Willie Nelson's new studio album (and 9th for Sony/Legacy Recordings) has entered the Billboard Country chart at #1, making it the artist's second US country chart-topper in less than two years. Nelson's 6th Legacy release, Django and Jimmie, an unforgettable musical collaboration with Merle Haggard, debuted at #1 on the Billboard Country chart in June 2015. God's Problem Child is Willie's first album to debut all-new songs since Band of Brothers (his 4th Legacy release) reached #1 on the Billboard Country chart (and #5 on the Billboard 200) in June 2014. Willie's new album has also entered the Billboard 200 at #10 and is his third Legacy release to break into the Top 10 pop charts.
God's Problem Child was released on April 28, on the eve of Willie's 84th birthday (April 29).
Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin, Willie's 7th Legacy album, took home the Grammy for 2016's Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. That album debuted at #1 on both the Top Current Jazz chart and the Top Traditional Jazz chart following its release in February 2016.
God's Problem Child is being lauded in both the mainstream and underground press as an essential addition to the Willie Nelson catalog with The Wall Street Journal naming it one of "This Spring's Best Country Albums."
Rolling Stone called God's Problem Child "…a tightly-woven, poignant collection of ruminations on aging and fading faculties that amounts to Nelson's most moving album in decades." The Los Angeles Times concurred praising "…the most bountiful batch of Nelson songs since 2014's 'Band of Brothers.'"
"….one of pop culture's few reigning icons who remain creatively engaged," noted Paste who wrote that God's Problem Child "…feels like Nelson's personal state of the union….as vital as anything he's done."
"The key," opined the Austin American-Statesman, "is a near perfect balance between Willie as songwriter and as interpreter." Wide Open Country summed up, saying," God's Problem Child is a peek into the next chapter in the book of Willie, a promise that he's not even close to being done and another helpful guide on how to live. It's been a wild ride and it sure as hell ain't over yet. Thank God."
Appreciation is shared across the Atlantic where the UK's Uncut praised the new song "Still Not Dead" as "one of Willie's modern masterpieces" and God's Problem Child as "an album that can stand comfortably alongside any of his iconic work…. approaching life and love from angles that can only result from a career spent studying both with a restless sense of wonder. It's the kind of perspective that most songwriters can only dream of attaining-for Willie Nelson, it's just another day at the office."
Willie has lensed several music videos for songs from
God's Problem Child. These include "Still Not Dead", which pokes fun at the many exaggerated reports of his demise he's heard over the years, and the album's closer, "He Won't Ever Be Gone," a song written by Gary Nicholson which pays tribute to Willie's outlaw country comrade, Merle Haggard. (Haggard's last album was 2015's Django and Jimmie, his musical collaboration with Willie Nelson.)
An album that reflects on mortality while marveling at the beauty and absurdity of it all, God's Problem Child finds Willie Nelson at one of the creative peaks of his career, writing and singing with the seasoned wit and wisdom that can only come from the kind of life he's living.
Nelson continues making music every day. When he's not in the studio, Willie's on the road and performed more than 100 live shows in the past year. Coming up on his calendar are a number of tour dates in June and July including the Outlaw Music Festival and Willie Nelson's 4th of July Picnic in Austin. For details on Willie's upcoming performances.
God's Problem Child
1. Little House On The Hill (Lyndel Rhodes)
2. Old Timer (Donnie Fritz / Lenny LeBlanc)
3. True Love (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
4. Delete And Fast Forward (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
5. A Woman's Love (Mike Reid / Sam Hunter)
6. Your Memory Has A Mind Of Its Own (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
7. Butterfly (Sonny Throckmorton / Mark Sherrill)
8. Still Not Dead (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
9. God's Problem Child (Jamey Johnson / Tony Joe White)
10. It Gets Easier (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
11. Lady Luck (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
12. I Made A Mistake (Willie Nelson / Buddy Cannon)
13. He Won't Ever Be Gone (Gary Nicholson)
Willie Nelson & Legacy Recordings
In February 2012, Willie Nelson entered into an historic new record deal with Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment, marking a label homecoming for Nelson, who, from 1975-1993, had cut a phenomenal string of top-selling singles and albums for Columbia Records, beginning with 1975's seminal smash Red Headed Stranger. New titles by the artist under the Legacy imprint will include newly recorded songs and performances as well as archival releases, personally curated by the artist, drawn from all phases of his career including his recordings for RCA Records and others.
Since signing with Legacy, Willie Nelson has sold more than 1 million albums for the label.
Nelson's album releases for Legacy Recordings have included:
God's Problem Child (2017)
For The Good Times: A Tribute To Ray Price (2016)
Summertime:Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin (2016)
Django and Jimmie (2015) (with Merle Haggard)
December Day: Willie's Stash, Vol. 1 (2014) (with Bobbie Nelson)
Band of Brothers (2014)
To All The Girls… (2013)
Let's Face The Music And Dance (2013)
Heroes (2012)


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Image 1 of 1
Grey Phalarope - Phalaropus lobatus - Winter Adult. L 20-21cm. Confiding wader that habitually swims and spends its non-breeding life at sea. Bill is shorter and stouter than similar Red-necked, and has yellow base. Sexes are dissimilar in breeding plumage (seen here occasionally). Winter adult has grey upperparts, white underparts, dark cap and nape, and black 'panda' mark the eye. Adult female in summer has orange-red neck and underparts, dark crown, white face patch, and buff-fringed dark back feathers. Adult male in summer is similar but duller. Juvenile recalls winter adult but plumage is tinged buff and back feathers are dark with buff fringes. Voice Utters a sharp pit flight call. Status Nests in high Arctic, winters in tropical seas and seen here on migration, mostly in autumn but sometimes spring. Mainly coastal but sometimes on reservoirs.
- Copyright
- PAUL STERRY/Nature Photographers Ltd
- Image Size
- 3543x2358 / 3.8MB
- www.naturephotographers.co.uk
- Contained in galleries


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Demographic and Macro-Economic Problems of Retirement Age Regulation in the Russian Federation
The problem of raising the retirement age in our country has been under discussion from the very outset of pension insurance market reforms, is for a quarter of a century, and without any apparent progress towards its solution. At the same time, all civilized countries have already developed a clear action program to address this problem, although with different social and economic consequences: some of them raised the pensionable age in one-two years, using shock instruments, some of the countries distended this process for decades, others renounced the age regulator of pension insurance rights. In the current socio-economic conditions the problem of raising retirement age in Russia has become especially acute.


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With the 2012 NFL Draft wrapped up and experts grading out all 32 teams' picks, it's time to dive right back into Fantasy Football for the 2012 season and see where the new guys rank. This is definitely a list that Dynasty Football owners will want to take a look at since most rookie-only drafts will be taking place within the next several weeks to months.
1. Robert Griffin III - Washington Redskins
2. Andrew Luck - Indianapolis Colts
3. Brandon Weedon - Cleveland Browns
4. Ryan Tannehill - Miami Dolphins
5. Russell Wilson - Seattle Seahawks
6. Ryan Lindley - Arizona Cardinals
7. Brock Osweiler - Denver Broncos
8. B.J. Coleman - Green Bay Packers
9. Kirk Cousins - Washington Redskins
10. Nick Foles - Philadelphia Eagles
I really like Griffin's potential as a QB2 in larger redraft leagues this year. With better coaching, better players around him and his ability to run, he could be a strong sleeper option in leagues that allow two starting fantasy quarterbacks. Luck should have success right out of the gate. But with an iffy backfield and Reggie Wayne as the lone veteran weapon in the offense (Austin Collie is right behind him), Luck will take a bit longer to truly succeed. Either way, both are going to be the top two quarterbacks taken in all dynasty leagues. Whether or not Colt McCoy is still a Brown by training camp is irrelevant. The job will be Weedon's to lose. Tannehill is going to find it rough going in Miami and could be a boom-or-bust prospect. After the top four, it's anyone's call. Wilson and Lindley could find success entering quarterback stables that are on shaky ground. Everyone else will be backups or third stringers for the time being. The Redskins are believed to have drafted Cousins for the sole purpose of trading him for future picks.
I couldn't end the quarterbacks without posting the hilarious gifs of Russell Wilson's wife going crazy face after Wilson was selected by the Seahawks with the No. 75 overall pic. PRICELESS!! Courtesy of SB Nation.
1. Trent Richardson - Cleveland Browns
2. Doug Martin - Tampa Bay Buccaneers
3. David Wilson - New York Giants
4. Bernard Pierce - Baltimore Ravens
5. Isaiah Pead - St. Louis Rams
6. LaMichael James - San Francisco 49ers
7. Lamar Miller - Miami Dolphins
8. Ronnie Hillman - Denver Broncos
9. Chris Polk - Philadelphia Eagles
10. Chris Rainey - Pittsburgh Steelers
I was pretty close to ranking Martin over Richardson as I like Martin's outlook past 2012 over the Cleveland running back. But because Martin will still have to contend with LeGarrette Blount for carries this year, Ruchardson holds the top spot. Either way, I love both players and I wouldn't fault anyone for taking either one first in a dynasty league. Richardson should easily be in the mix for Offensive Rookie of the Year honors. With Brandon Jacobs gone and Ahmad Bradshaw's propensity for injury, Wilson should be in the mix for carries right away and is easily Bradshaw's handcuff. Much like the quarterback rankings, it's anyone's guess as to who will have more fantasy value beyond the top three. I have Pierce ranked at No. 4 because he stands to have the best chance at being the primary backup behind Ray Rice. The same goes for Pead, who could wind up as Steven Jackson's eventual successor as the starter under Jeff Fisher. Ranked as a low-second-to-high-third round pick before the draft, Polk went undrafted due to issues regarding his shoulder. But the Eagles may have gotten one of the undrafted free agent gems with the backup spot behind LeSean McCoy left open after Ronnie Brown left for free agency. Rainey projects as a Dexter McCluster clone who OC Todd Haley could utilize in the rushing and receiving game.
1. Michael Floyd - Arizona Cardinals
2. Justin Blackmon - Jacksonville Jaguars
3. Kendall Wright - Tennessee Titans
4. Stephen Hill - New York Jets
5. Alshon Jeffery - Chicago Bears
6. Brian Quick - St. Louis Rams
7, Rueben Randle - New York Giants
8. Ryan Broyles - Detroit Lions
9. Mohamed Sanu - Cincinnati Bengals
10. A.J. Jenkins - San Francisco 49ers
Blackmon may have been the top pick at receiver in the draft, but I love Floyd's fantasy outlook in both dynasty and redraft leagues in 2012. Playing across from Larry Fitzgerald, who is the ultimate tutor in receiving, will pay dividends for Floyd immediately. Blackmon's fantasy outlook is a bit murky in 2012 with Blaine Gabbert at quarterback. Not to mention that the team really doesn't have any other legit weapons in the passing game outside of Laurent Robinson, who may have benefited more by playing with Miles Austin and Dez Bryant in Dallas. I love what the Titans are doing in their offense. With a bounce-back candidate in Chris Johnson, Kenny Britt coming back and Jake Locker expected to make a push for the starting job against Matt Hasselbeck, the Titans have a young talented squad that will grow together in an AFC South division that will no longer have to deal with Peyton Manning. The next three, Hill, Jeffery and Quick, all have chances to start immediately in 2012. Even though he will be stuck behind Victor Cruz and Hakeem Nicks, I like Randle's upside playing in the Giants' offense. Broyles could start the season on the PUP list because of ACL surgery, but his dynasty value is looking up if he can secure the No. 2 spot across from Calvin Johnson. He is an upgrade over current starter Nate Burleson. Jenkins rounds out the top 10, but he shouldn't be a redraft option considering the logjam at receiver at the moment.
1. Coby Fleener - Indianapolis Colts
2. Michael Egnew - Miami Dolphins
3. Dwayne Allen - Indianapolis Colts
4. James Hanna - Dallas Cowboys
5. Orson Charles - Cincinnati Bengals
Having played with Andrew Luck in Stanford, Fleener should have fantasy value as soon as this year as Luck's security blanket. The team wound up taking Allen with their next pick, which makes many believe that the Colts are going to try and duplicate the success that the Patriots have with Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez. Egnew is a dynasty option only, as Missouri's past draft prospects Chase Coffman and Martin Rucker were complete busts. Unless something changes between now and Week One, Fleener looks to be the only tight end from this year's draft class to be worth anything.


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The following are the elected representatives at various government levels representing the residents of Harvest Meadows:
Please note that residents of Harvest Meadows elect representatives to the following special district boards:
Also, in addition to the Ward 3 representative on Commerce City Council, residents also participate in the election of the City Mayor (currently Benjamin Huseman) and four at-large City Council representatives (currently filled by Craig Hurst, Kristi Douglas, Sean Ford and Craig Kim). At the County level, residents also elect the county assessor, county clerk and recorder, corner, district attorney, sheriff, surveyor and treasurer -- all to 4-year terms of office. Finally, at the state level, residents also participate in the election of the State Governor and, at the Federal level, the President and Vice President of the United States.


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Supermodel Art Men's Wallet
What's the most important thing in a man's life? His wallet, of course! So make sure you're carrying around the best of the best with PU leather Neon Men's Wallet. It's got plenty of room for all your cards and cash, plus it looks damn good too. So go on, treat yourself (and your money) right with Fantasy Men's Wallet.
Neon Men's Wallet
Supermodel Art Men's Wallet is made of quality PU leather, smooth to touch and sturdy, not easy to fade and lightweight, with delicate surface texture, and a faux leather lining. This wallet is lightweight and easy to carry and can serve you for a long time.
This wallet is about 8.7 x 3.7 inches, which is enough to fit small things, such as cards or some small change, it is very convenient and portable, you can carry it with you or in your bag, and it does not take too much space.
Wide usage
Fantasy Men's Wallet is suitable for holding coins, multi-cards, driver's licenses, car or house keys, and other personal items, classic and stylish design will never be out of date and can make your life convenient and efficient. Designed and printed in California.


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Mick Fleetwood's Star-Studded Peter Green Tribute Concert: Set List, Video
More than a dozen musicians took to the stage of the London Palladium tonight to pay homage to founding Fleetwood Mac guitarist Peter Green.
The night was organized by Mick Fleetwood, and featured the contributions of such luminaries as Pete Townshend, Billy Gibbons, Steven Tyler, David Gilmour, Bill Wyman, Kirk Hammett and Noel Gallagher. John Mayall, who gave Green his big break when Eric Clapton left the Bluesbeakers, was also on-hand, as were John McVie, Christine McVie -- who joined Fleetwood Mac after Green departed in 1970 -- and Neil Finn, who plays in the current incarnation of the group.
"The concert is a celebration of those early blues days where we all began," Fleetwood said. "And it's important to recognize the profound impact Peter and the early Fleetwood Mac had on the world of music. Peter was my greatest mentor and it gives me such joy to pay tribute to his incredible talent. I am honored to be sharing the stage with some of the many artists Peter has inspired over the years and who share my great respect for this remarkable musician."
The evening's set began with "Rollin' Man," a track penned by Green for Fleetwood Mac's sophomore LP, Mr. Wonderful. The all-star group of musicians then rolled into "Homework," a blues classic originally written by Dave Clark and Al Perkins, which Fleetwood Mac included on their 1969 album Fleetwood Mac in Chicago.
From there, a cavalcade of special guests stepped into the spotlight. ZZ Top's Gibbons fronted renditions of "Dr. Brown" and "All Your Love," followed by McVie leading the way on "Stop Messin' Around" and "Looking for Somebody." Later, Gallagher joined for a handful of tunes. The erstwhile Oasis member previously appeared in the 2009 documentary on Green, Man of the World.
Townshend joined for a rendition of "Station Man," the Who guitarist notably playing Green's Lemon Burst Les Paul. Aerosmith's Tyler delivered "Oh Well, Part 1," while Gilmour contributed "Oh Well, Part 2." The Pink Floyd rocker also performed a soaring version of Fleetwood Mac's 1968 instrumental track "Albatross." Prior to the latter song, Fleetwood recalled hearing the Beatles name-drop the tune during a 1969 radio interview, a moment he called "profound." The drummer dedicated "Albatross" to George Harrison, whose birthday would have been today.
Metallica ax-wielder Hammett appeared on several tunes, including "The Green Manalishi." The final song of the night featured all of the performers collaborating on the classic rock/blues standard, "Shake Your Moneymaker."
You can see the set list and fan-shot video from the concert below.
Last month, Hammett revealed that he and Fleetwood had recorded "Man of the World," a 1969 Fleetwood Mac single, for an upcoming tribute to Green, with a rare vocal track performed by the Metallica guitarist. "It's an easy song to sing," Hammett said. "It's got that talk-singing kind of thing; I can handle that. That's about the length of my singing abilities, but I'm into it. I just modernized the whole song, modernized it with modern tones, kind of like a more modern arrangement. I've made the uppity part heavy and dynamic."
A deluxe box set of the concert, consisting of four LPs, two CDs and a Blu-ray, is currently available for pre-order, with an anticipated release date of Oct. 16.
Mick Fleetwood & Friends Tribute to Peter Green - London, England Set List
1. "Rolling Man"
2. "Homework"
3. "Dr Brown"
4. "All Your Love"
5. "Rattlesnake Shake"
6. "Stop Messin' Around"
7. "Looking for Somebody"
8. "Sandy Mary"
9. "Love That Burns"
10. "The World Keeps Turning"
11. "Like Crying"
12. "No Place to Go"
13. "Station Man"
14. "Man of the World"
15. "Oh Well, part 1"
16. "Oh Well, part 2"
17. "Need Your Love So Bad"
18. "Black Magic Woman"
19. "The Sky is Crying"
20. "I Can't Hold On"
21. "The Green Manalishi"
22. "Albatross"
23. "Shake Your Moneymaker"


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Matt and I talk shop about one of our favorite books, The Way of Kings, by Brandon Sanderson, and we also talk about the follow-up Words of Radiance, and some of the technical problems it has compared to the first book in Stormlight Archive. We both agree that The Way of Kings is an excellently well-constructed fantasy novel where Sanderson uses his flashback narrative techniques to create plot points that wouldn't be possible in a more straightforward style.
Writers of the dawn is:
David V. Stewart – Fantasy and Historical Fiction Author, musician
Matthew J. Wellman – Urban Fantasy author, musician


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My Teachers Secrets – S3:E7
629KRachael Cavalli has been lonely since her husband left her, but this bigtit teacher knows how to take care of her own needs. She isn't shy about grabbing a toy to help her masturbate. With one hand on her breasts that peek out of the top of her lingerie bra and the other guiding a dildo all the way into her greedy snatch, she brings herself to climax. Then she takes the toy to the bathroom and prepares herself for a tutoring appointment with her student Juan El Caballo Loco.Juan is ready to study, but he has to use the bathroom first. When he goes in, he finds Rachael's dildo! Rachel remembers her toy at the same time, and when she confronts Juan he swears he can keep a secret. Since Juan seems to be the trustworthy type, Rachael realizes this is her chance to get nice and close with another person. She confesses her loneliness and then drops to her knees to pull out his stiffie and slide it between her lips.Juan can't believe his bigtit teacher is blowing his cock, or that he gets the chance to eat out her cream filled fuck hole. Then she gets comfy on the toilet and spreads her thighs so Juan can finally satisfy her cock craving fuck hole. They go at it with Rachael on her back and then turning over onto her hands and knees for a doggy style pussy pounding. Juan waits until his teach has reached her peak, then pulls out to cover Rachael's bottom with his manly stamp of approval.


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Writing has rules. And writing has "rules."
By which I mean, writing is beholden to two things:
Laws and guidelines.
Laws are mostly immutable. A period goes at the end of a sentence. Commas work a certain way. Words mean things. Grammar, punctuation, parts of speech, etc.
These laws grow more complex, of course. Byzantine, even. And the more complex they become, the more mutable they get — technically, you don't put a preposition at the end of a sentence, but really? You can. And most do. You're not supposed to use sentence fragments, either. But you can use sentence fragments to excellent effect: the short, sharp shock of information delivered. It can set a staccato rhythm. Just as deft use of a run-on sentence — also a technical no-no — can draw out rhythm and give your prose a purposefully meandering, stream-of-consciousness feel.
Guidelines are a different animal. They feel like laws and are often reported as such because it's much easier and more interesting to yell YOU SHOULD NEVER USE ADVERBS instead of the more even-handed hey, maybe you should think very hard whether that adverb is necessary here because it might not be, okay? Never mind the fact that in the phrase "never use adverbs," the word 'never' is actually a goddamn adverb, and so are lots of words you will use frequently like 'now,' 'here,' 'there,' 'always,' 'yesterday,' 'everywhere,' or even, ahem, 'frequently.' Writing advice is often about guidelines and not about laws, though, so many of the givers of advice (or shouters of advice) appear do so as if they are banging a gavel against the stone binding of a bonafide holy book. This is doubly more complicated when they begin to deliver storytelling advice, which is waltzing on ground that is as unstable as a field made of wadded-up jizz-tissues.
(Don't even get me started on publishing advice. Yoinks.)
And I say all this as a person who quite clearly delivers a goodly bit of writing, storytelling and publishing advice weekly. I say this to remind you, in part, that what I say here is really just a suggestion — advice on par with how to how to brew coffee or how to perform a given sex-move. You do what you like. Different squeaks for different freaks.
Or: whatever makes your grapefruit squirt, you know?
Because every writer is a different animal. A mythic beastie whose mold was broken.
But herein lies the value of writing advice: these are things worth considering. Seeing how other writers do things matters. Just as the very nature of writing is not immutable, neither is your process, and neither is your grip on language, character, plot, story. Writing advice gets you to engage in the thoughtwork necessary to say, is my way better, worse, different, or what? It demands you ask, is there a way to improve what I'm doing, and is this way the way forward, or is it a step backward? It behooves you to pick up a tool and check its heft, its grip and its function before dismissing it entirely.
Learn the laws. Observe — and challenge — the guidelines.
Some writers violate the laws and guidelines because they never beheld them in the first place, in which case they're not some bold explorer or given over to artistic experimentation. They're just an orangutan with a paintbrush. (Sorry to any orangutans reading this blog.) If you use a chainsaw to perform dentistry, I'm impressed, but I'll be a whole lot less impressed if after the act you say, "Wait, what's a chainsaw?" Accidental genius isn't easily duplicated.
I know that I've broken rules in my writing. I know that I've broken rules in this very post.
I know why I did it, too.
I have said before and I will say again here:
We learn the rules so that we may know when to break them.
We break the rules so that we know why we need them in the first place.
Learn your craft. Then make it your own.


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John 13
Jesus Washes His Disciples' Feet
1Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this world and return to his Father. He had loved his disciples during his ministry on earth, and now he loved them to the very end.#13:1 Or he showed them the full extent of his love. 2It was time for supper, and the devil had already prompted Judas,#13:2 Or the devil had already intended for Judas. son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God. 4So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, 5and poured water into a basin. Then he began to wash the disciples' feet, drying them with the towel he had around him.
6When Jesus came to Simon Peter, Peter said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
7Jesus replied, "You don't understand now what I am doing, but someday you will."
8"No," Peter protested, "you will never ever wash my feet!"
Jesus replied, "Unless I wash you, you won't belong to me."
9Simon Peter exclaimed, "Then wash my hands and head as well, Lord, not just my feet!"
10Jesus replied, "A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet,#13:10 Some manuscripts do not include except for the feet. to be entirely clean. And you disciples are clean, but not all of you." 11For Jesus knew who would betray him. That is what he meant when he said, "Not all of you are clean."
12After washing their feet, he put on his robe again and sat down and asked, "Do you understand what I was doing? 13You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and you are right, because that's what I am. 14And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other's feet. 15I have given you an example to follow. Do as I have done to you. 16I tell you the truth, slaves are not greater than their master. Nor is the messenger more important than the one who sends the message. 17Now that you know these things, God will bless you for doing them.
Jesus Predicts His Betrayal
18 "I am not saying these things to all of you; I know the ones I have chosen. But this fulfills the Scripture that says, 'The one who eats my food has turned against me.' # 13:18 Ps 41:9. 19I tell you this beforehand, so that when it happens you will believe that I Am the Messiah.#13:19 Or that the 'I Am' has come; or that I am the Lord; Greek reads that I am. See Exod 3:14. 20I tell you the truth, anyone who welcomes my messenger is welcoming me, and anyone who welcomes me is welcoming the Father who sent me."
21Now Jesus was deeply troubled,#13:21 Greek was troubled in his spirit. and he exclaimed, "I tell you the truth, one of you will betray me!"
22The disciples looked at each other, wondering whom he could mean. 23The disciple Jesus loved was sitting next to Jesus at the table.#13:23 Greek was reclining on Jesus' bosom. The "disciple Jesus loved" was probably John. 24Simon Peter motioned to him to ask, "Who's he talking about?" 25So that disciple leaned over to Jesus and asked, "Lord, who is it?"
26Jesus responded, "It is the one to whom I give the bread I dip in the bowl." And when he had dipped it, he gave it to Judas, son of Simon Iscariot. 27When Judas had eaten the bread, Satan entered into him. Then Jesus told him, "Hurry and do what you're going to do." 28None of the others at the table knew what Jesus meant. 29Since Judas was their treasurer, some thought Jesus was telling him to go and pay for the food or to give some money to the poor. 30So Judas left at once, going out into the night.
Jesus Predicts Peter's Denial
31As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, "The time has come for the Son of Man#13:31 "Son of Man" is a title Jesus used for himself. to enter into his glory, and God will be glorified because of him. 32And since God receives glory because of the Son,#13:32 Several early manuscripts do not include And since God receives glory because of the Son. he will give his own glory to the Son, and he will do so at once. 33Dear children, I will be with you only a little longer. And as I told the Jewish leaders, you will search for me, but you can't come where I am going. 34So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."
36Simon Peter asked, "Lord, where are you going?"
And Jesus replied, "You can't go with me now, but you will follow me later."
37"But why can't I come now, Lord?" he asked. "I'm ready to die for you."
38Jesus answered, "Die for me? I tell you the truth, Peter—before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.
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Please consider joining Saints and Sinners Books for their first annual Read, Fight, Cure: Compassionate Care Packages cancer charity event. Do you know a mother, sister, cousin, aunt, or friend that's facing cancer? Do they read as a way to get through their treatments? Please consider nominating them for a gift box from Saints and Sinners Books' Read, Fight, Cure: Compassionate Care Packages Donation Form campaign. You will find below sign up form. Please provide as much information as you can. The basic information we need is their name, mailing address, which digital e-reader they use, e-mail, and favorite genres. We will try our best to match every recipient with their genre.
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Help us bring a smile to a brave warrior this fall.
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Smell. Taste. Think.
This is wine tasting 101 with an obvious omission
Then again it's hard to 'Look' when you're deep underground in an echoing cavern just metres from a millions of years-old giant stalactite, particularly when you've turned your headlamp off.
I'm sipping in total darkness and perfect tasting conditions at the Grotte de Saint-Marcel d'Ardeche at Saint Montan, in southern France.
This is quite the experience, as our caving party is led through a giant network of underground caverns past huge halls and giant water basins, also used for the vinifying of wine from Notre Dame de Cousignac, where the deeply passionate winemaker is Raphael Pommier, who accompanies us into the darkness.
Grotte de Saint-Marcel d'Ardeche at Saint Montan
We taste the wine perhaps wisely before we are led, squealing, to zip-wire across an unforgettable cavern and edge across a rope, in an adrenaline-fuelled adventure not for the faint hearted.
Or perhaps the entirely sober.
But this is the beautiful Ardeche, where wine runs through the veins, the history and the economy so a glass of impeccable Cote du Rhone 80 metres under the surface of this fertile landscape seems entirely appropriate.
Eventually we surface to the glorious October sunshine and welcome unseasonable heat that makes this region such a glorious a location for vineyards – and had made 2017 a classic year (take, note, wine buffs).
We travelled to this beautiful part of the world by train via Voyages-sncf.com.
After a hop under the channel via the comfort of the Eurostar, we picked up the TGV in Lyon before completing the final part of our journey in a hire car, travelling through quiet roads.
The only drama was the idiosyncrasies of the in-car sat nav which sent us right up a mountain to an unexpected but beautiful views of Ardeche.
That morning we had been in London after a night a the smart and convenient London Bridge Hotel.
Gare du Nord: Eurotunnel station. Picture @jabberingjourno
By evening we were gazing, infatuated, at our home for the night, the stunning Chateau d'Uzer. Underground wine tasting.
The blond-stoned building lies tucked away in the village of Uzer, transformed from the defensive castle of yesteryear built to protect nearby silver mines, to a magical home from home for a small number of lucky guests.
Chateau d'Uzer. Pic @jabberingjourno
Hosted by the owners themselves, the six rooms and suites are suitable for royalty.
The comfortable, quirky interior design, set into the stunning stones and tiles of the 12th century chateau reflect the personality of our elegant hostess Veronique and husband Eric whom we dine with that evening alongside other guests,a home made menu starring soups and breads made with the Ardeche's other favourite crop the Chestnut.
Chateau d'Uzer. Pic @jabberingjourno
In the morning I'm awoken by church bells and chirping birds in the green, sprawling, grounds. If you venture further in you find a pool and a couple of gypsy caravans primed for extra guests in their own leafy corners.
It's an idyll we leave reluctantly but the Ardeche and neighbouring department Le Gard, have so much to offer.
Chateau d'Uzer Pic @jabberingjourno
Still waters run deep in these regions and not just through the caves.
The area is defined, perhaps, as much by its history as its present and we gaze in awe at a replica of the oldest cave paintings in the world in the Pont d'arc cavern – the original UNESCO World Heritage Site close by are too delicate to be trampled through.
Back overground and lunch is enjoyed gazing over the fields from a classic French Bistrot de Pay – La Farigoule – enjoying the local speciality Brouffado – slow cooked beef with herbs, anchovies and capers,served with Gratin Vivarois, potato gratin with porcini mushrooms .
La Farigoule. Pic @jabberingjourno
But back to the wine. Under blue skies, and after a night spent in the beautiful town of Uzes at the picturesque Hotel Entraigues, we find ourselves gliding through the vineyard in a horse and cart. It it wasn't for the odd glimpse of a tractor or a mobile phone, we could be in any century.
Midway we stop off for a picnic.
But no sausage rolls here, rather a Michelin starred experience at the Les Lys vineyard, where we taste their delicious wines just metres from the vineyards, where some grapes still glisten in the heat. It's an extraordinary and surreal experience.
Les Lys vineyard. Pic @jabberingjourno
After a stop at the magnificent Roman aqueduct of Pont du Gard, where we were granted access to climb right across the remarkable structure with sweeping views across the Gardon River, we head toward the stunning city of Nimes.
Pont du Gard. Pic @jabberingjourno
In the beautiful ancient settlement with its ampitheatre and thriving community was twinned with Preston – something the city would do well to make more of. Nimes is a stunning place and a glamorous older sister.
Old and new in Nimes. Pic @jabberingjourno
We stayed just one night, at the immaculate appartcity Nimes Arenas, perfectly located for the station and our journey home via Paris.
But it's not adieu from me– simply au revoir.
- In London, I stayed at London Bridge Hotel, where weekend rates start at £99. It's just a few tube stops on the Northern Line (northbound) from London St Pancras station, where Eurostar services depart. Book tickets via Voyages SNCF
- My first French home from home was Chateau d'Uzer. You can book by calling (0)4 75 36 89 21. Website is chateau-uzer.com
- We visited Pont d'Arc Cavern in Vallon Pont d'Arc, for the replica of the nearby UNESCO world heritage Chauvet cave with the oldest cave drawings in the world. Look up cavernepontdarc.fr
- We dined at La Farigoule in Bidon, a Bistrot de Pays, website auberge-lafarigoule.com
- You can take part (and I urge you to..) in a potholing and wine tour at the Grotte de Saint-Marcel d'Ardeche at Saint-Montan. You can look up escale-ardeche.com if you speak French – a English speaking version is due online!
- In Uzes, we stayed at the l'hotel Entraigues
- *We toured the Domain Les Lys vineyard by horse and cart with a gastronomique picnic with ecuriefontclarette.com. The vineyard is les-lys.fr
- Enjoy a cycling tour with Natu' Rando in Remoulins
- Visit the Roman aquaduct Pont Du Gard pontdugard.fr*
- Perfect for the TGV station, we stayed at AppartCity Nimes Arenas appartcity.com/Nimes-Arenas
- We dined at the fabulous Restaurant Vincent Croizard in Nimes (0)4 66 67 04 99 For more information please look up gardtourism.com and ardeche-guide.com


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Sometimes when I take a big pile of stuff to Goodwill, I worry about what's going to happen to it. I don't worry in a warm-fuzzies sort of way, like "I hope my things find good homes!" or anything. I worry in a "I hope Goodwill won't throw this stuff out" sort of way. Whenever I shop at Goodwill, I always marvel at the amount of absolute junk there is. They can't possibly sell all this stuff, can they? People drop things off every day, and sometimes it looks to me like the amount of stuff people drop off is larger than the amount of stuff people actually buy. What do they do with the stuff people dropped off because they didn't want it but none of the shoppers want it either? I give my stuff to Goodwill because I don't like throwing it out, and the idea of Goodwill throwing it out instead isn't much better.
Lately I've been giving my apartment an overhaul. I'm gradually replacing my old (inherited, scavenged, particleboard) furniture with some vintage pieces that are more durable and suit my tastes a bit better. I bought a sofa to replace my futon, a credenza to replace my (I use the term loosely) entertainment unit, and a pair of end tables and an ottoman to replace my coffee table. My coffee table was too big for my living room and it didn't match anymore, but it's still perfectly good, so I stored it away in a closet for potential future use. I didn't want my futon or entertainment unit anymore, but since neither of those things would fit in my car, I couldn't take them to Goodwill by myself.
At my apartment complex, a lot of people put their discarded furniture next to the dumpsters to be hauled away. The discarded furniture sometimes stays there until trash day, but other times it's gone fairly quickly because someone saw it by the dumpster and decided they wanted it.* When my new old sofa was delivered, I put my futon outside next to the dumpster. I had to carry the frame and mattress out separately (they're heavy), but I made sure to set the frame back up and put the mattress back on it, to make it look as attractive as possible for potential takers. I left my futon outside at 9 p.m., and it was gone by seven the next morning. When I put my entertainment unit out by the dumpster, it too was gone within hours.
I'm happy about this for several reasons. It makes me feel good that other people think my stuff is worthy of owning. It entertains me to think that a nearby apartment now looks a little like mine used to. But most of all I'm really glad to know that neither Goodwill nor I had to throw my stuff away. I know that I won't be able to do this with everything I want to get rid of (some things are impossible to display enticingly next to a dumpster), but it makes me feel good to know that at least those two pieces of furniture aren't going to waste.
* In my apartment in Houston, I was able to make shelves in two of my closets using bookcases and magazine racks I found by the dumpster.


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NEW YORK (AP) Trevor Siemian has joined the Jets to be Sam Darnold's backup.
The veteran quarterback signed a one-year deal Wednesday with New York , which was in the market for an experienced QB while Josh McCown mulls his playing future.
A person with direct knowledge of the contract says it is worth $2 million, with a maximum value of $3 million with incentives. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the team does not announce financial terms of contracts.
The 27-year-old Siemian spent last season with Minnesota, but was with Denver the previous three years. He has 30 touchdown passes and 24 interceptions in 26 games, including 25 starts.
Siemian was a seventh-round draft pick by Denver out of Northwestern in 2015 and served as the Broncos' backup to Peyton Manning and Brock Osweiler. He replaced Manning as the starter the following season and went 8-6 while throwing for 3,401 yards and 18 touchdowns with 10 interceptions. Siemian was Denver's Week 1 starter in 2017 and went 5-5 in 10 starts before injuring a shoulder and finishing the season on injured reserve.
He was traded last March to Minnesota, where he served as Kirk Cousins' backup and never played a snap in a regular-season game.
The Jets also have Davis Webb on their roster, but wanted a veteran presence with McCown an unrestricted free agent and considering retirement.
McCown, who turns 40 on July 4, wrote in a statement last week released by agent Mike McCartney that he still has a strong desire to play football but wanted to spend time with his family to determine if he would want to continue playing this season.
''I have spoken to the Jets to make them aware,'' McCown said in the statement on March 11. ''I'm excited about spending time with my family as we process what's next.''
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Doha, Qatar – A new report released today, The Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2012, produced by Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), shows that global annual investment to curb climate change reached approximately USD 364 billion in 2010/2011.
This amount, while significant, falls short of most estimates of investment needed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. According to the International Energy Agency, approximately USD 1 trillion each year is needed in incremental investment in the energy sector alone to promote low emissions growth. Much more will be needed to achieve climate resilient development globally.
Building a complete picture of climate finance flows is critical to understanding how much, and what type of support, is available to curb and address climate change. The Global Landscape of Climate Finance 2012 provides the most comprehensive global climate finance mapping effort to date.
According to the report, the private sector was the main source of global climate finance, contributing between USD 217 and 243 billion, mostly from corporations and renewable energy project developers. Public sector investment totaled between USD 16 and 23 billion globally. Most public sector investment acted as a catalyst for private investment through incentive mechanisms and subsidies that helped to lower investment costs.
Public and private intermediary organizations such as national development banks and commercial banks also played an important role, raising and channeling between USD 110 and 120 billion, and often providing support for projects that would otherwise not be viable.
"The fact that the public policies and incentives are starting to unlock private investment is good news for policymakers dealing with limited budgets," said Barbara Buchner, Director, CPI Europe, and one of the principal authors of the report. "However, the level of available investment still falls far short of the total amount needed to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius. We must focus on the policies that are working and act quickly to scale those up around the world."
One place to look for examples of how to encourage private investment may be in Germany. According to a related CPI report, The German Climate Finance Landscape, which will be released later this month, the private sector provided more than 95% of total climate finance in Germany, about half of which was supported by concessionary loans from public development banks.
The Global Landscape report also provided insights on how and where climate finance was used. Emerging economies were key recipients of climate finance, but were also important sources. Roughly one third of global climate mitigation investments were located in China, Brazil, and India, a significant share of which was raised domestically and invested in pursuit of national development mandates.
For more information, and to download the report, visit www.ClimatePolicyInitiative.org
Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) is a global policy effectiveness analysis and advisory organization. Its mission is to assess, diagnose, and support nations' efforts to achieve low-carbon growth. An independent, not-for-profit organization with long-term support from George Soros, CPI's headquarters is in San Francisco and regional offices are in Berlin, Beijing, Hyderabad, Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, and Venice.
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Sitting in on a March 1 Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) press conference regarding global warming and heavy snowfalls, I couldn't help feeling like the chairman of the Senate committee questioning mafia capo Frank Pentangeli in Godfather II. The chairman, listening incredulously as Pentangeli contradicts a sworn written statement he had earlier given to the committee, waves the written statement in the air and protests, "We have a sworn affidavit -- we have it -- your sworn affidavit…. Do you deny that confession, and do you realize what will happen as a result of your denial?"
The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Third Assessment Report was as straightforward as Frank Pentangeli's earlier confession that he had killed on behalf of Michael Corleone. "Milder winter temperatures will decrease heavy snowstorms," IPCC reported.
That was in 2001. Now, however, with an unprecedented number of major winter snowstorms hitting the northeastern U.S. during the past two winters, the alarmists are clamming up and changing their tune faster than Tom Hagen can fly in Vincenzo Pentangeli from Italy to aid his brother in his time of trouble.
Jeff Masters, director of meteorology at the Weather Underground, and Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center, explained to the media at the UCS press conference why they believe global warming caused the heavy snowfalls in the northeast these past two winters. Masters and Serreze obviously are weather experts. They may be right. Other weather experts, such as John Coleman, co-founder of the Weather Channel, and Joseph D'Aleo, the first director of meteorology at the Weather Channel, disagree with Masters and Serreze. It is also possible that Coleman and D'Aleo are right.
During the question and answer portion of the UCS press conference, I quoted the IPCC Third Assessment Report and asked Masters and Serreze if they were saying IPCC was wrong on the science.
"I would say that we always learn," replied Serreze. "Have we learned a great deal since the IPCC 2001 report? I would say yes, we have. Climate science, like any other field, is a constantly evolving field and we are always learning."
While I believe the weight of scientific evidence favors Coleman and D'Aleo, the larger importance of the UCS press conference is not whether global warming causes – in effect – more winter, but what the press conference illustrated about the alarmists' oft-repeated assertions that "the science is settled" and "the debate is over."
The IPCC Third Assessment Report was as straightforward as one can get asserting that global warming would cause a decline in heavy snow events. As the Senate chairman would say, while waving the IPCC report, "We have it…." But now that real-world evidence has proven IPCC wrong, the alarmists have pulled an about-face and are claiming global warming is causing more frequent heavy snow events.
Regardless of whether global warming is causing more heavy snow events, the alarmists' about-face on snowfall calls to mind other alarmist global warming assertions that were supposedly "settled science", but that were subsequently refuted by real-world climate conditions. The alarmists used to claim global warming was causing more hurricanes, but real-world data show hurricanes have fallen to historically lows levels.
The alarmists used to claim global warming was causing the retreat of Kilimanjaro's mountain snowcap, but scientists now understand that local deforestation is the culprit. IPCC claimed in its 2007 assessment that global warming would likely melt the Himalayan glaciers by 2035, but IPCC now admits there is no scientific basis for such an assertion. IPCC claimed in its 1990 assessment that global temperatures should rise 0.6 degrees Celsius between 1990 and 2010, yet NASA satellite data show global temperatures warmed by merely half that amount, at most.
For years, alarmists have claimed "the science is settled" and "the debate is over." Well, when was the science settled? When global warming would allegedly cause Himalayan glaciers to melt by 2035, or now that it won't? When global warming would allegedly cause fewer heavy snow events, or now that it will allegedly cause more frequent heavy snow events?
We could ask Frank Pentangeli, but Frankie Five Angles is no longer talking.
James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at The Heartland Institute and managing editor of Environment & Climate News.


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On to our special guest! Hold on to your hats, because this guest is going to take you for a ride with her breezy and cheerful designs! I am so happy to introduce my friend and March's Guest Muse (and one of my favorite Canadians! LOL!)......DAWN EASTON!
Let's get to know a little about Dawn in her own words:
Now for this week's Tuesday Sketch Challenge #63:
My Sample (and pic of Copics used):
- Pam Speidel
- Cindy Haffner
- Pam Varnell
- Julie Lacey
- Crystal Birr
- Jackie Pedro
- Jessica Diedrich
- Shannan Teubner...will not be posting for a while, but please take a moment to go by to see and encourage her
- Dawn Easton (March 2010 Guest Muse)
Now it's your turn! Create a card or scrapbook layout using the sketch above, and link your creation below in Mister Linky. Be sure to use the keyword MTSC63 when uploading to a public gallery!
Happy Stamping!