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It's hard to focus after a bad night's sleep and by using mice and flashes of light, scientists have found why; just a few nerve cells in the brain may control the switch between internal thoughts and external distractions.
The study may be a breakthrough in understanding how a critical part of the brain, called the thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN), influences consciousness.
The TRN is a thin layer of nerve cells on the surface of the thalamus, a center located deep inside the brain that relays information from the body to the cerebral cortex. The cortex is the outer, multi-folded layer of the brain that controls numerous functions, including one's thoughts, movements, language, emotions, memories, and visual perceptions. TRN cells are thought to act as switchboard operators that control the flow of information relayed from the thalamus to the cortex.
"Now we may have a handle on how this tiny part of the brain exerts tremendous control over our thoughts and perceptions," said Michael Halassa, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at New York University's Langone Medical Center and a lead investigator of the study. "These results may be a gateway into understanding the circuitry that underlies neuropsychiatric disorders."
To understand how the switches may work, Dr. Halassa and his colleagues studied the firing patterns of TRN cells in mice during sleep and arousal, two states with very different information processing needs. The results published in Cell, suggest that the TRN has many switchboard operators, each dedicated to controlling specific lines of communication. Using this information, the researchers could alter the attention span of mice.
"The future of brain research is in studying circuits that are critical for brain health and these results may take us a step further," said James Gnadt, Ph.D., program director at NIH's National Institute Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), which helped fund the study. "Understanding brain circuits at the level of detail attained in this study is a goal of the President's Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN) Initiative."
To study the circuits, the researchers identified TRN cells that send inhibitory signals to parts of the thalamus known to relay visual information to the cortex. Using a technique known as multi-electrode recordings, they showed that sleep and concentration affected these cells in opposite ways.
They fired often when the mice were asleep, especially during short bursts of simultaneous brain cell activity called sleep spindles. These activity bursts briefly widen electrical brain wave traces making them look like spindles, the straight spikes with rounded bottoms used to make yarn. In contrast, the cells fired infrequently when the mice were tasked with using visual cues to find food. The results suggested that these cells blocked visual information from reaching the cortex during sleep and allowed its transmission when the mice were awake and attentive.
For Dr. Halassa, a practicing psychiatrist who treats schizophrenia, these surprising results may provide fundamental insights into how the brain controls information transmission, a process that is disrupted in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders. Previous studies suggested that people who experienced more spindles while sleeping were less susceptible to being disturbed by outside noises. Moreover, people with schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder may experience fewer spindles.
To test this idea, the researchers used optogenetics, a technique that introduces light-sensitive molecules into nerve cells. This allowed them to precisely control the firing patterns of visual TRN cells with flashes of laser light. The experiments were performed in well-rested as well as sleep-deprived mice. Similar to what is seen in humans, sleep deprivation can disrupt the ability of mice to focus and block out external distractions.
Well-rested mice needed just a second or two to find the food whereas sleep-deprived mice took longer, suggesting that lack of sleep had detrimental effects on their ability to focus. When the researchers used flashes of laser light to inhibit the firing of optogenetically engineered visual TRN cells in sleep-deprived mice, the mice found the food faster. In contrast, if they used optogenetics to induce sleep-like firing patterns in well-rested mice, then the mice took longer to find food.
"It's as if with a flick of a switch we could alter the mental states of the mice and either mimic or cure their drowsiness," said Dr. Halassa.
In a parallel set of experiments the researchers found neighbors of the visual TRN cells had very different characteristics. These neighboring cells control the flow of information to the cortex from limbic brain regions, which are involved with memory formation, emotions and arousal. The cells fired very little during sleep and instead were active when the mice were awake. Dr. Halassa thinks that their firing pattern may be important for the strengthening of new memories that often occurs during sleep. Combined, the results suggest that the TRN is divided into sub-networks that oversee discrete mental states. The researchers think understanding the sub-networks is an initial step in thoroughly exploring the role of the TRN in brain disorders.


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Things to Know About Renzo Piano
Things to Know About Renzo Piano
Renzo Piano is an Italian architect who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1998. His work includes such notable buildings as The Shard in London, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, and the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens. If you'd like to learn more about his work, read on. Here are some things to know about Renzo Piano.
The Italian architect is known for combining modern technology with a respect for the cultural context. His work has often been praised for enhancing the landscape and utilizing imaginative design. The architects have a deep understanding of local history and environment, and their projects demonstrate that they are sensitive to the natural habitats and cultures. For example, the Jean-Marie Tjibaou Cultural Center in Noumea, New Caledonia, incorporates local materials into his architecture, while integrating contemporary technology and ecological design into a modern structure. As a result, these buildings blend into the Melanesian culture comfortably.
In addition to completing major projects, Renzo Piano also has a prolific portfolio. His portfolio spans various sectors, including museums, trade fair pavilions, and historical buildings. His designs for the Menil Collection museum in Houston have been a landmark in the architectural world. The roof was a continuous veranda that served as a heating and ultraviolet light protection system. His designs include the San Nicola soccer stadium in Bari, Italy, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which was completed in 2006. In addition, he has recently donated his design for the replacement of Genoa's Morandi bridge.
Renzo Piano was born in Genoa, Italy, in 1937. He later worked in Louis I. Kahn's office for a short time. In the 1970s, he founded his own firm, Piano & Rogers, which he co-founded with Richard Rogers. He received a commission from Peter Rice to design the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, which was a cultural center for the dawn of the multimedia aesthetics.
Renzo Piano's designs are often considered groundbreaking and have won many awards. In addition to the Pritzker Prize, he has won numerous other awards and been named one of the 100 most influential people in the world. While it may seem difficult to believe, the architect has been credited with over 100 design prizes, and the works of his firm have been praised by the public around the world. However, his success is far from over.
Renzo Piano's work is diverse. It includes historic buildings, trade fair pavilions, and commercial buildings. He also has interests in sailing and furniture design. The 82-year-old architect has many projects in progress. His next big project is the Menil Collection in Houston, Texas, which houses a 10,000-piece collection of art. The building includes a winter garden. The architect's work is also prolific. The entrepreneur is a pioneer in the world of architecture.


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While many spend the time after Thanksgiving in the US shopping I spend it a different way. The Friday after Thanksgiving is the beginning of Christmas for me. What that means is I leave the shopping mall behind and head to the Christmas tree lot to buy a tree and pine roping to drape around the house. There are many scents I associate with the holiday season but the clean green coniferous smell of pine is with me every day of the last month of the year. In honor of the beginning of the Holidays I am going to name my five favorite pine perfumes.
When I first moved to Boston I was told of this fantastic little perfume shop in Harvard Square called Colonial Drug. It was the definition of a perfume lover's paradise as Cathy, the owner, had a huge selection of European perfumes you couldn't find anywhere else. The first time I went in she was busy extolling the virtues of Pino Silvestre to the male customer. Over many years I would see the green pine cone shaped bottle leave the store in a bag because perfumer Lino Vidal made a pine fragrance which did not smell like an air freshener. Sharp sunny citrus dives deep into a pine note surrounded by clove, sage, and rosemary. It all ends up on a cedar and sandalwood foundation. There is a reason this sits on a lot of men's dressers in the Boston area.
Serge Lutens Fille en Aiguilles is one of the few pine perfumes you will encounter where the lighter nature of pine needles are as evident. Christopher Sheldrake composing under Serge Lutens creative direction uses those pine needles in the top to create an airy coniferous experience. Soon enough a host of resinous notes allow the sap to rise. The final camphor note is like breathing in cold air in the middle of the Christmas tree lot.
Christian Dior La Collection Privee Granville was a perfume which had to win me over. When I first tried Francois Demachy's pine perfume it was not what I expected as strong citrus, herbs, and a particularly strong gorse note all seemed to be competing with each other. Over time Granville's eclectic kinetic quality has won me over and it is one of my favorites of Dior's exclusive collection. Tart lemon and herbal thyme open things up. Black pepper and rosemary join the pine in the heart. The gorse blows in soon after before sandalwood finishes things up. Over time I realized Granville is a more modern take on the same themes used in Pino Silvestre. My appreciation and affection for Granville probably was an evolution of my perfume tastes without my being conscious of it.
My final two choices exemplify the reason independent perfume can be so exhilarating when the perfumer finds a unique small batch ingredient. Samantha Rader the perfumer behind Dasein Winter sourced a pine essential oil from the Austrian Alps to use as the centerpiece of her first release. By understanding her raw material was something special she wisely did not complicate the experience and only used cardamom and lavender to complement. The lavender really evokes the Alpine milieu in particular. This is the smell of carrying that Christmas tree home in my arms, face pressed into the branches.
Dawn Spencer Hurwitz found a local wildcrafter Eric Bresselsmith of House of Aromatics to source a pinon essential oil infused with fifty-year old pine resin crystals for her DSH Perfumes Seve de Pin. Ms. Hurwitz also keeps it simple but she chooses some notes to be more interactive with the pinon oil instead of framing it. Early on it is a group of green notes to evoke the rest of the forest besides the pine. Once the pine comes out rose and amyris use their floral character to smooth out the rough edges and provide depth. The base is a deeper dive into the resinous as olibanum and labdanum come forward. Seve de Pin is the most photorealistic pine perfume I own. Whenever I want to be in the Holiday mood I just need a drop or two to get me there, even in July.
If you need a little perfume to carry around the pine scentd of the Holidays these five are worth giving a try.
Disclosure: This review was based on bottles I purchased.
–Mark Behnke


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BANG! The Duel is a two-player version of BANG! in which each player chooses a certain number of characters from a personal deck, with one deck containing lawful individuals and the other one outlaws; the more characters you choose, the longer the game. Each player starts with two characters in play, with one being in front of the other.
Each player also has an individual deck of action cards, with the lawful player specializing in drawing cards and the outlaw player specializing in tricks. Players take turns playing cards, trying to take out the opponent's characters. As you do, new characters come into play, and whoever eliminates all of their opponent's characters first wins.


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Finding a gift for the quintessential British gentleman can be tough. With his refined taste and penchant for luxury, socks simply won't cut it this year. If you're struggling to buy for the lord of the manor, take a look at our selection of timeless gifts below:
Hand-built watches
Few gifts can wow as much as a Roger W. Smith watch. The painstaking process takes roughly six months, with the hand-built creations costing anything between £100,000 and £250,000. However, much like Smith's former employer, horology expert George Daniels, the impeccable watches are among some of the finest in the world.
Chesterfield sofas
One of the more extravagant items in our list is a handcrafted Chesterfield sofa. Characterised by its quilted leather design and rolled arms, the piece has remained an essential piece of furniture for gentlemen for over 400 years. While imitations may exist, The Original Sofa Company still use traditional crafting methods to create and restore these distinctive sofas.
Gieves & Hawkes tailoring
The unofficial mark of a gentleman is fine tailoring. One of the most iconic tailors on Savile Row is Gieves & Hawkes, creators of bespoke suits based on client's exact requirements. Prices start from £4,500 and take around 12 weeks to make for new clients. The period is often shorter for existing clients, as they will already have the client's measurements.
Loake shoes
Of course, every gentleman's suit should be complemented with a pair of timeless shoes. Loake Shoemakers has been hand-crafting British-made shoes since 1894 and operating under the royal warrant. With each pair taking around eight weeks to make and costing around £220, it is estimated that over 50 million pairs have been created in the brand's history.


text: Lacewing Members of the genera Chrysopa and Chrysoperia Lacewing Lacewing Lacewing Lacewing eggs Host Plants: Where Found: Worldwide in most temperate climates Description: Lacewings are usually green or brown in colour, and can be easily recognized by their long, transparent, lace-like wings. Lacewing adults are usually nocturnal, and will lay eggs at night in groups attached to the underside of leaves by long stalks around 1cm in length. Lacewing larvae are elongated and almost hump-backed in shape. They have long bristles along their sides which trap debris and help to camouflage the larvae from predatory birds. Beneficial Because: Lacewing larvae are voracious predators of small pests such as aphids, whitefly, caterpillars and leaf-beetle larvae. They will colonise almost any plant where they have a plentiful food supply, and can effectively keep troublesome plant pests under control. Food and Habitat: Adult lacewings feed on small invertebrates, but also feed on nectar. Lacewing larvae will feed on many species of soft-bodied invertebrates, particularly aphids. They will also eat invertebrate eggs. Attracting More: Lacewings can be encouraged to breed in your garden by providing a wide range of nectar-rich plants. They also need safe havens to hibernate overwinter, such as log piles and dense hedges. Tolerate small aphid outbreaks in spring to help support a thriving summer population of lacewings. Do not use insecticidal soaps or other natural pesticides on plants where lacewing eggs are present. < Back


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Square Signet Ring Polished Small
Handmade signet ring in the shape of a small square.
Made of sterling silver with mirror finishing.
Each item is created and processed by hand in St. Petersburg.
Available in sizes 13 to 23.
Please note, we work by pre-order, manufacturing time is about 7 working days.
Dimensions and weights given in the description are average values. Exact values depend on the selected ring size.
Care recommendations
Do not expose silver jewelry to cosmetics and household chemicals. We recommend removing rings when washing your hands, swimming in the pool, sea, etc., or playing sports. That is, if you want to preserve the beautiful appearance of silver jewelry without worry, protect it from contact with anything that can cause a chemical reaction in the metal.
The item is not stamped on the conveyor. This means that it is impossible to create a copy that is absolutely identical to the original. The author will always strive to ensure that the item is as similar as possible to what you see in the photographs, however, an item made to order may have slight differences in the texture and/or pattern of the materials used, color, size, weight, etc.
Due to the color rendition of some devices, the color of the product may slightly differ from what is shown in the photographs or displayed on the screen of your device.


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Mark 10:46-52
"And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee. And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus. And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way" - Mark 10:46-52 KJV
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Commercial Carpet Cleaning in Pinehurst, North Carolina
Your business deserves a clean carpet. Your Pinehurst employees and customers deserve a healthy carpet. Sparkling Klean's commercial carpet cleaning in Pinehurst, North Carolina gives you what you want and your business needs. Give us a call at (919) 635-1341 to get started on your Commercial Carpet Cleaning in Pinehurst!
Call for a FREE Quote
Improve the Health Of Your Building With Carpet Cleaning
Did you know your carpet in your office building serves as a giant air filter? That is carpeting's main job, and it does it very well. Carpeted surfaces trap airborne particles, making the indoor air cleaner. But filters can only hold so much debris before they stop working. At that point, walking across a dirty carpet actually releases trapped particles, making them airborne. That is why regular vacuuming and periodic professional carpet cleaning in Pinehurst is important to the health of your building.
Clean Pinehurst Commercial Carpets Increase Happiness
If you can tell that your carpets in Pinehurst need professional cleaning, your employees and guests can see it too. You might already have it on your to-do list. It doesn't have to break the budget, either. Don't procrastinate any longer. Just pick up the phone and make an appointment for a free estimate by calling (919) 635-1341. Clean office carpets in Pinehurst would make many people happy!
Save Money With Pinehurst Commercial Carpet Cleaning
Save money by paying a contractor for commercial carpet cleaning in Pinehurst? Yes, it's true, and for several reasons! First, customers vote with their dollars and they would rather visit an establishment that is clean. Successful businesses are clean businesses. Second, clean carpets work as great filters to remove particles from the air and improve indoor air quality. A healthy work environment promotes a happier and more productive work environment. Lastly, sand and dirt and general grit that become trapped in carpet damages the fibers just like sandpaper would. The result is frayed fibers and a prematurely worn carpet that will become a significant expense sooner rather than later. Protect your business. Vacuum that carpet daily and regularly steam clean your Pinehurst commercial carpets.
★★★★★ - "Excellent service with attention to detail. The professional crew used wall bumpers to protect from hose lines and attacked stains with pre-treatment and specialized equipment. Didn't just hit them with a spray bottle and run the wand over it. I've used numerous carpet cleaners over my years in the military; these guys are well above par!"
Shane L., Commercial Carpet Cleaning in Holly Springs, NC
2021-08-31 -
★★★★★ - "We used this lovely man to clean our doctor's office. He took the time to explain what he was doing and everything. He was extremely polite and patient with me. My doc has used him for many years. His prices are extremely reasonable for the size of our office."
Sabrina J., Commercial Carpet Cleaning in Durham, NC
2021-08-31 -
★★★★★ - "Quick and thorough. Len did a great job and was even willing to do it last minute on a Saturday."
Joseph in Spring Valley, NC
2023-07-05 -
★★★★★ - "Len was wonderful and professional. He did such a great job on my carpets and I was surprised to my delight when I saw him on his hands and knees scrubbing some bad spots that I had on my carpet and he vacuums before he starts. My carpets look great and there was no skimping with the job. Will be my go-to for carpets for sure."
2021-11-29 -
★★★★★ - "Len did an excellent job on our carpets we thought the dog had all but destroyed. He was very thorough and really spent a lot of time getting some nasty stains and odors out. Everything looked great, the spots were all gone and smelled fresh and clean. The service was fantastic and prices were very reasonable. Oh, and for those in CT, the misunderstanding with the gate has been resolved so they are more than willing to provide service for anyone living in Carolina Trace."
Wendy T., Carpet Cleaning in Fort Bragg, NC
2021-09-30 -
★★★★★ - "I read the other reviews and I have to say those who gave this nice old man a bad review obviously have personal issues and sound like cowards throwing a temper tantrum. Excellent FIVE STAR service and very professional! Honest too! If it cant be cleaned or guaranteed then he is upfront and honest about. If he can clean/fix your issues then he will and he'll do it exceptionally well. He just takes pride in his work and wont try and sell you something he cant make work. Just upfront, honest, and polite while doing it. We couldn't ask for more from a small business owner. Customer for life now! Thank you Sparkling Klean!"
Rico M., Carpet Cleaning in Durham, NC
2021-09-30 -
★★★★★ - "Did a great job with a great price"
Orlando P., Carpet Cleaning in Fort Bragg, NC
2021-08-31 -
★★★★★ - "Amazing service! Cared more about doing a professional job, than just rushing through it."
Matt M., Area Rug Cleaning in Fort Bragg, NC
2021-08-31 -
★★★★★ - "Sparking Klean recently cleaned all the carpets in our entire house. They exceeded our expectations from start to finish. Top-notch professionalism and my carpets look amazing! Call them next time you need your carpets cleaned, I know we will !!"
Sandy P., Carpet Cleaning in Sanford, NC
2021-08-31 -
★★★★★ - "I am very pleased! I called and got my service done the same day. Thank you!"
Dania J., Carpet Cleaning in Holly Springs, NC
2021-07-29 -
★★★★★ - "Len has been cleaning our carpets for at least 10 years. We wouldn't call anyone else. He is very detail-oriented and takes his time in order to do the job well. With his state-of-the-art equipment, he can take out some pretty nasty stains (Think of the worst possible accident your dog could have on a pure wool white rug--now imagine it's GONE! That's one of the amazing feats of Len and his carpet steaming machine! ) In addition, he is unfailingly courteous and his prices are fair (even low, considering the quality of his work). I'd recommend him to anyone."
Johanna B., Carpet Cleaning in Fort Bragg, NC
2021-07-29 -
★★★★★ - "I am extremely pleased with the cleaning! The service is friendly and personable, and the cost is reasonable! Our beige carpet is back to its original color! Thank you so much!"
Celia K., Carpet Stain Removal in Durham, NC
2021-07-29 -
★★★★★ - "Great job! Happy with his work. I would recommend to friends and family."
Oscar H., Oriental Rug Cleaning in Durham, NC
2021-07-29 -
★★★★★ - "Excellent service, excellent price! If you are in need of good quality cleaning at a affordable price this is the company to use. Very friendly quality work! Easton and Len did a wonderful job and I would highly recommend them if you are in need of good quality cleaning."
Lisa T., Carpet Cleaning in Sanford, NC
2021-07-29 -
★★★★★ - "Awesome job and very professional!"
Jenifer M., Sofa Cleaning in Durham, NC
2021-06-29 -
★★★★★ - "Len was very thorough in my move-out clean. Will highly recommend it."
Robert L., Carpet Stain Removal in Durham, NC
2021-06-29 -
★★★★★ - "In our case, we were given a quote based on an invoice from the cleaning of our rental house before we moved in. We got a call saying that he would need to charge more. Since the check had already been left on the counter, he went forward with the work. It seems like this may be an issue that comes up often, so maybe they should work on how they give quotes (although since they cleaned my house before I was a little confused why there would be an upcharge now). But, in the end they did a great job cleaning the carpets, and got out some pet stains I thought were stuck for good. Thank you for honoring your word, and still doing a great job."
Chelsea P., Carpet Cleaning in Holly Springs, NC
2021-06-29 -
★★★★★ - "Did a wonderful job. Arrived on time and even called to let me know he was on the way. He able to remove spots I thought were hopeless. Price was exactly as I expected for a 5 room home. Definitely recommend to use ag"
Jennifer P., Carpet Cleaning in Sanford, NC
2021-06-29 -
★★★★★ - "They were very friendly and flexiable with their schedule. They arrived at the set time and thoroughly explained the process they use to clean my carpets. Before they began we discussed the areas that were to be cleaned and agreed on a price so there was no miscommunications later. They helped moved my couches back in place and cleaned up after themselves when they were done. I would definitely recommend them and will be using them again if I ever need my carpets cleaned again."
Jessica G., Carpet Cleaning in Durham, NC
2021-06-29 -
★★★★★ - "Our upstairs carpet needed cleaning due to a particularly nasty dog accident. Scheduling was easy, and since the original job was too small to meet his minimum fee, he offered a very fair deal to clean several other areas to bring the fee up to the minimum so we wouldn't waste any money. The job was done very thoroughly and after a month plus the carpets still look freshly done! Len was also very friendly and did a great job explaining the process and the after-care instructions. Would absolutely recommend it."
Andrew K., Carpet Cleaning in Fayetteville, NC
2021-05-26 -
★★★★★ - "They were great! Very professional. Would use them again."
Stephanie A., Tile & Grout Cleaning in Sanford, NC
2021-05-26 -
★★★★★ - "Len and his colleague Angelo were courteous and efficient. Their attention to detail was appreciated after having a household of two cats and two young children wreaking havoc on the carpets for the last 18 months."
Kyle S., Carpet Cleaning in Fayetteville, NC
2021-05-26 -
★★★★★ - "They have great prices and superb service, they got all the stains off the carpet that had been there for years. They even wiped down the baseboards and furniture legs after cleaning the carpet, that attention to detail is appreciated!"
Rachel R., Carpet Stain Removal in Sanford, NC
2021-05-26 -
★★★★★ - "The job was done right and the price was extremely fair. We had a few heavy stains from the kids such as red sauces and mascara (oh the little ones) thankfully Len himself was very thorough and did an excellent job removing all the stains in a timely manner. I will use his services again in the future if ever needed. He even gave me a discount for paying in cash and has a 10% referral payback deal. Great friendly service indeed. You won't be disappointed."
Christina G., Carpet Cleaning in Sanford, NC
2021-05-26 -
★★★★★ - "Friendly service, devoted to performing a great job."
2018-08-27 -
★★★★★ - "Len did a fantastic job of cleaning our carpets and our tile/grout. He went above and beyond our expectations. There were stains he was able to remove that other companies couldn't. We highly recommend his services. Kudos to Len! "
Lino, Sanford, NC
2014-04-24 -
★★★★★ - "You guys did a fantastic job today! I'm amazed by how new the carpets look! We have never seen them look this amazing and highly recommend you to everyone! We know that during our moving out walk through that they will be amazed. The previous renters before us had them looking horrible. We truly appreciate it!"
Chris and Jenny Johnston


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It's that time of the year when a young man's fancy turns to ...his tax return. "Tax season," as it is called. Baseball should have a season, mating should have a season, but, when tax has a season, something is seriously wrong. Guest-hosting for Rush on Monday, I took a call from Patricia in Indiana, who's just received notice from the IRS that she's going to be audited for her 2013 taxes. Which she hasn't filed yet. Because they're not due until April 15th.
So she's being preemptively pre-audited. It's like the tax collector's version of Philip K Dick's "thought crime": Just in case she's thinking of claiming a refund in a month's time, they need to nip it in the bud now. What could possibly set off such alarm bells? Patricia said she and her husband had an entirely normal, boring tax profile - but they had made a small donation to Mitt Romney. Next it will be the TSA showing up at the door for your secondary patdown even though you've no plans to fly anywhere.
The IRS is corrupt, and should be abolished, and replaced by an agency with far fewer powers. Instead, Republicans dither ineffectually. In Congress last week, IRS fall girl Lois Lerner took the Fifth again. That's her right, of course, and very prudent given the malicious and selective prosecutions of a corrupt Justice Department. But in my column below I quote Walter Williams observing that every single US tax-filer signs away his Fifth Amendment rights every April 15th. My piece was written last May, when the scandal broke. It ended with some advice that self-respecting American citizens ought to try the Lois Lerner Defense when the IRS comes a-callin'. Ten months on, it's more pertinent than ever:
We have the president of the United States' word as a gentleman that he knew nothing about the Internal Revenue Service's targeting of his enemies until he "learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this."
Furthermore, although the commissioner of the IRS, Douglas Shulman, visited Obama's White House no fewer than 157 times, which is 156 times more than his predecessor Mark Everson ever visited the White House, we know that this was for legitimate Easter-egg rolls, as he testified to Congress, and meetings to discuss Obamacare. The Easter Bunny, one should note, visits the White House two to four times as often as the average IRS commissioner did before Mr. Shulman came along. But you can't make a health-care omelet without breaking Easter eggs: It is one of the many distinctive features of Obama-style "health" "care" "reform" that, while it has not led to the hiring of a single additional doctor, nurse, or hospital janitor, it did require the biggest expansion of the IRS since the Second World War. So, when he wasn't rolling Easter eggs and advising the moppets on whether they needed to declare the luxury Belgian white chocolate balls with praline filling, he was participating in vital meetings on how many extra SWAT teams he was going to need to enforce the new colonoscopy non-compliance penalty.
Let us also overlook the excellent treatment received from the IRS by members of the president's family. Although acting commissioner Steven Miller apologized for the "horrible customer service" conservative taxpayers had gotten, a gentleman by the name of Malik Obama received impeccable, express service when he took the precaution of mailing in his non-profit application from N'giya, Kenya, rather than notoriously slower mail processing centers such as Phoenix and Dallas. Malik, the brother of President Obama, runs the Barack H. Obama Foundation, named for the president's father. On May 30, 2011, they applied for tax-exempt status, and had their approval signed less than a month later by Lois Lerner herself, and conveniently backdated by Lois to cover the two-and-a-half years the enterprising Malik had already been raking in "tax-deductible" donations from Americans. The Washington address of the Barack H. Obama Foundation appears to be bogus, and it's not clear whether the funds are being used back in Kenya for anything other than supporting the famously lavish lifestyle of Malik and his twelve wives. Given that the IRS is not shy about asking American conservatives for Facebook posts and lists of who attends their meetings, Ms. Lerner surely would have been within her rights to ask Malik Obama about the "exclusive" photographs currently displayed on the Barack H. Obama Foundation website of a recent meeting in Sudan, one of only four countries the U.S. government designates as a "terrorist state," and the Foundation's apparently extensive association with the Sudanese president and blood-soaked genocidal war criminal Omar al-Bashir. Given that the IRS likes to ask conservative taxpayers whether their friends and relatives are planning on running for office, Ms. Lerner might like to ask Malik Obama when his friend President Bashir is planning on leaving office. After another quarter million corpses?
Whatever. Let's take it as read that, when U.S. taxpayers wind up giving tax breaks to an entity linked to the butchers of Darfur, it's pure coincidence that the racket turns out to be run by the president's brother. Let's accept that Malik Obama just got lucky that his letter landed on the desk of Lois Lerner, and that, when she backdated his application for two-and-a-half years, she'd momentarily forgotten that it's illegal for her to backdate it more than two-and-a-quarter years. Indeed, let's take the president at his word that the existence of this shadowy IRS entity working deep within the even shadowier U.S. Treasury planted in deep cover within the shadowiest conspiracy of them all, this murky hitherto unknown organization called "the Executive Branch," that all this was news to him. What that means then is not that this or that elected politician is corrupt but that the government of the United States is corrupt.
There seems to be ever more evidence for that. Every day brings revelations that the IRS conservative crackdown went way beyond the Tea Party. McClatchy Newspapers reports that a woman known only as "Ms. Richards" in the Cincinnati office of the IRS told Coalition for Life of Iowa that their application for nonprofit status could only be approved if they signed a letter promising not to picket in front of Planned Parenthood. Mark Drabik, a military veteran, became politically active and started giving to conservative groups only to have the IRS challenge his church donations. Catherine Engelbrecht founded True the Vote to protect ballot integrity, and within a few months her family's business, farm, and personal taxes had all attracted IRS audits. Hundreds and hundreds of groups were consigned to the purgatory of "pending" — a term for IRS customers not as favored as Malik Obama can stretch leisurely from six months to ten to twenty to thirty, and beyond. When the most lavishly funded government on the planet comes after you, eventual guilt or innocence is irrelevant: The process is the punishment.
I am an immigrant to this great land, and I love it, but I will make a small observation from my years in the United States which I hope won't be taken the wrong way: Like citizens of almost all Western democracies in the 21st century, Americans are overly deferential to bureaucracy, but, in my observation, they are uniquely fearful of the state's tax collectors to a degree I have never seen with Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs in London or equivalent agencies in Paris, Ottawa, Rome, Canberra. The IRS has, in American terms, extraordinary powers. It was, for example, amusing to see Lois Lerner plead the Fifth Amendment and exercise her constitutional right not to put herself at risk of self-incrimination. As the great Walter Williams pointed out the other day, every single American waives his Fifth Amendment rights every time he signs that tax return on April 15. Americans are fearless if some guy pulls some stunt in a shopping mall, but an IRS assault is brutal and unending. Many activists faded away, and the media began writing stories about how the Tea Party had peaked; they were over; they wouldn't be a factor in 2012. And so it proved. As Rush Limbaugh pointed out the other day, the plan worked.
But, of course, there was no plan, was there? So let's take Obama at his word that he had no idea all this was going on. In that case, he might like to take the lead in calling for the abolition of a corrupt agency and its grotesque tax code, and their replacement by a bureaucracy with more limited powers commensurate with a free society and a simplified tax regime with lower rates and thus fewer bewildering, mercurial "exemptions" that make the citizenry dependent on the caprices of Ms. Lerner and her colleagues. That's a prize worth fighting for. In the meantime, the next time the IRS call you up with demands for this and demands for that, simply tell them, "I am filing the Lois Lerner defense," and then say as she did to Congress "I have not done anything wrong. And I will not answer any questions." Every man his own Lois Lerner!


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Better Off Dead
"Lane wants to end it all. But Monique is just getting started." Better Off Dead was a romantic comedy released in 1985. It starred 80's stud John Cusack as Lane Myer. The movie did well at theaters and was a hit with most critics, although the powerhouse of Siskel and Ebert gave the film thumbs down. It is well known that Cusack did not like the movie when it came out, but he has since lightened up about it.
The movie revolves around Lane Myer (Cusack), a high school student whose girlfriend, Beth, dumps him for the school ski team captain, Roy. Lane is devastated, and figures the only way out, is suicide. Fortunately, Lane's half-hearted attempts at following through with his plan never quite work out. In the mix are a number of other characters, such as members of Lane's crazy family, his best friend Charles, who will even snort snow because he cannot get real cocaine, a couple of Japanese drag racers, and a foreign exchange student named Monique.
After spending time with Monique, who feigns to not know English when around her annoying host family, he begins to forget about Beth. Monique helps Lane fix up his Camaro, and fix up his self-confidence. In the end, Lane battles Roy (who stole Beth) on the slopes. Does he win?


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Dear All,
If I am a sponsor and I would like to outsource the production of IMP as I do not have the facility to manufacture the IMP. Do I need to have any sort of agreement with manufacturer? If yes then what kind of points should be included.
All comments will be appreciated.
Many thanks


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Hello my friends! I'm so excited to see all the comments and emails on yesterday's post. That will be open through the end of the week.
This year I really did less than ever with the holiday decor – I actually wanted to do more but time just didn't allow. Next year I'm starting in October!! Kidding. As far as you know.
Of course like every year I didn't really get the bug to do a lot of decorating till the past week or so – when things are crazy. It never fails. And in a few days I'll be soooo ready to take it all down! 🙂
But with each passing year I like things a little simpler. I used to have a ridiculous amount of Christmas decor (I still have a lot) but now I much prefer to use what we already have and make it work for the holidays. Fresh greenery is my go to for years now – it's free (from our yard) or pretty cheap (at the store) and NO STORAGE. Whoot!
Here's a final look at our home at Christmas this year – I can't believe how fast this season has gone!
I'm totally in love with these LED lights this year – I actually picked up these at Kirkland's over the summer!:
They were \$10 for five feet and are battery operated. Even better – these have a timer option! I so wish I would have picked up more! I'll be using them year round for sure.
They make for a pretty nightlight in our powder room:
That little tree was from Ikea (someone mentioned on Instagram that those are less than \$4 right now!) and I picked up a wreath as well:
I wish I had grabbed another one of these – they have great texture and fullness!
I shared my crazy cheap Pottery Barn advent knock off last month:
I absolutely love it – we hung it in the mud room and the Bub loves grabbing one of the bags every morning. One of my readers created one and hung it on the wall under her cabinets in the kitchen – I thought that was brilliant!
I showed you our new family room and kitchen earlier this month. I love pulling out the metal Goodwill candleholders every year:
They were all brass when I got them and now I'm kicking myself for spray painting some of them.
It was so fun to decorate this new space – we absolutely love it!:
I think there are only four things you need for easy, pretty Christmas decor – fake snow, ornaments, greenery and lights. That's it. You can fill accessories you already have sitting around and the greenery makes regular spots look festive:
I didn't do much in the kitchen – mainly just some decor on the shelves and table:
I'm already dreaming of how fun it will be to decorate the "new" kitchen next year!
Printables are another biggie – along with my four staples they are becoming my favorite fast and easy way to add some Christmas touches. I printed off my Fa la la's again this year:
And again…a bowl, a tray, a candleholder? Put ornaments in it. Easy!:
I love our stairs and I love dressing them up this time of year:
I just wrapped the fresh gr
eenery around the railing, added some lights and then filled my Ball jars with snow and small ornaments. I put an LED votive candle in each one. Love this view to our new back doors:
The new library/den didn't get as much decor this year either – just a few touches of greenery really:
In my opinion everything doesn't have to scream holidays — just adding a big thick cable knit blanket feels warm and cozy. 🙂
I love to add little holiday touches in our bedroom too – it just got some greenery and our skinny tree:
I shared that room and how I decorated that tree in five minutes (and for cheap) here. I think it may be my favorite tree. 🙂
Although I say that about all of them. 🙂 Bertha is pretty amazing too:
Be sure to follow that link to see all of the beautiful homes linked up to the annual party! And if you'd like to see more of our decorated home you can check out my Instagram account. 🙂
From our home to yours…Merry Christmas and happy holidays!! I hope yours is wonderful and you have an absolutely lovely time. I will be back next week!


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Everyone's got an opinion about Seung-Hui Cho and how his Virginia Tech rampage could have been prevented. The university administration should have done something. The police should have done something. And where the heck were his parents?
Such acts never occur out of the clear blue sky. There are always signs. With new details emerging rapidly about Cho Seung-Hui's history, we know that Cho gave off a great many signs. And some around him noticed those signs.
At least one teacher was so disturbed that she reported him to academic authorities and to police. Police investigated his "stalking" of female students and even had him briefly hospitalized. His parents called campus administrators to voice their concerns about his mental health. Fellow students say they even wondered aloud whether Cho could be a school shooter.
The problem, in terms of violence prediction, is that many people – and especially many adolescent and young adult men – are troubled. Many are severely depressed. Many express disturbing, violent fantasies. But, fortunately, only a tiny fraction commit lethal acts against others.
In other words, hindsight is 20/20. It is far easier to realize that a young man is depressed or disturbed than to accurately predict whether he will become violent. Prior to his rampage, Cho may not have seemed all that out of the ordinary to college counselors and police.
A national study of 95,000 college students last year found that in the previous year 16% had felt so depressed that they found it difficult to function. More than 9 percent had seriously considered suicide, and one in every 100 had tried to kill themselves that year. And more and more students are seeking treatment at college counseling centers. The counseling center at Virginia Tech treats about 2,000 students a year, according to its director.
In an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education, the incoming president of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors said that many of Cho's signs are not at all unusual among college students.
At Cornell University, where he is director of counseling services, Gregory Eells said it is "fairly common" for a professor to call counseling services to ask what they should do when a student writes a disturbing essay.
"Would you hospitalize Quentin Tarantino?" Eells asked. "There are all sorts of writers who write about dark, violent themes, but most of them are not dangerous to themselves and others.
"It's always easy to look back and say the friend was concerned, a faculty member was concerned, they had a previous hospitalization…. But to make a jump and say that everyone who exhibits those signs is going to become the perpetrator of the worst shooting in American history is not a logical jump. That possibility is always there, but a million times that is not what is going to happen."
The director of the counseling center at Virginia Tech agreed, pointing out that the types of stalking complaints made by the two women against Cho are not uncommon on college campuses.
"It is very difficult to predict when what someone perceives as stalking is stalking, and then how it might translate into violence later," Dr. Chris Flynn of the Virginia Tech counseling center told the Associated Press. "Clearly, if anyone had any warning about a violent incident, people would have stepped in and acted."
After a disaster such as this, some people will likely lobby for stricter laws. Laws reducing psychologist-patient confidentiality. Laws making involuntary hospitalization easier. But such laws would cast too wide a net. In the end, it may prove impossible to predict which troubled young man will become violent.
Instead, we might want to look for ways to reduce the alienation and rage felt by so many young men today. To improve school climates. To reduce the bullying, the ostracization, and the glorification of hypermasculinity that provide the social backdrop for school shooting rampages.
For an interesting perspective by educator ira Socol, go to: http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2007/04/20/socol
April 19, 2007
1 comment:
"After a disaster such as this, some people will likely lobby for stricter laws. Laws reducing psychologist-patient confidentiality. Laws making involuntary hospitalization easier."
You were prescient, sadly that is exactly what has happened in Virginia. Confidentiality laws which were already among the weakest in the country are now weaker and commitment which was already easy is even easier- (easy in that studies showed 84% in 1994 and 91% in '07 who were detained ended up in the hospital or in involuntary outpatient treatment.) http://hymes.wordpress.com - May 02, 2008
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Bolivian President Evo Morales expelled the U.S. Agency for International Development from his country, accusing it of undermining his government.
"We have decided to expel USAID from Bolivia," Morales said in a May Day speech outside the presidential palace in La Paz.
He said he'd ordered the country's foreign minister, David Choquehuanca, to notify the U.S. Embassy of the decision.
Bolivia's official ABI news agency reported that Morales accused USAID, which has been in Bolivia since 1964, of political interference with peasant unions and other social organizations and conspiring against his government.
The Associated Press notes that U.S. foreign aid to Bolivia has fallen from $100 million in 2008 to $28 million last year.
Morales also said the U.S. must changes its mentality of "domination and subjugation" of Latin America, criticizing Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks that the region was America's "backyard."
U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell called "baseless" the allegations that the U.S. was undermining the Bolivian government. The AP reports:
"In a 2010 Freedom of Information Act request, The Associated Press asked USAID for descriptions of the Bolivian recipients of grant money. The response did not go into detail, but did include such items as $10.5 million for 'democracy-building' awarded to Chemonics Int. Inc. in 2006 'to support improved governance in a changing political environment.'
"A related USAID brochure said components of the three-year 'Strengthening Democratic Institutions' program included 'teaching basic citizenship principles and skills' in all of Bolivia's nine states.
"A similar program in Venezuela, bearing the same name, was described by then-U.S. ambassador to Caracas William Brownfield in a November 2006 diplomatic cable as being aimed at countering attempts by that country's late president, Hugo Chavez, to centralize power and suppress civil liberties.
"The cable, classified as secret, was published by WikiLeaks, and the program was administered by USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives, whose Web page says it operates 'in priority countries in crisis.' "
This isn't the first time the Bolivian president has expelled a U.S. agency working in the country. In 2008, he ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration out.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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By Syd
Gunsmiths have told me that, even though it is thought to be OK to dry fire a revolver with empty chambers, it is better to have either empties or snap caps in the chambers for dry firing, especially if you plan to do a lot of it. I first bought a set of Triple-K plastic snap caps. They were puny and pathetic. They lasted about one cycle through my .357 Magnum before they shattered, literally. They also have another weakness: they are flat on the front, making them undesirable for reloading practice.
One of the more difficult aspects of handling a revolver is achieving a quick reload. It's something which should be practiced until the reload is smooth and swift. If you get a chance, watch a video of Jerry Miculek shooting, and notice how smooth and fast he reloads his revolver. Practice and multiple repetitions are essential to achieve real competence in this procedure. Not being Jerry Miculek, my reloads are the pits, and I wanted to practice them. I needed a durable dummy round that would stand up to heavy use, both in speedloader practice and dry fire.
If you have reloading equipment, it is possible to build dummy rounds with no primer or powder, but in my experience, these can become a management issue. Since they look so much like ammunition, they have to be marked with paint and kept separately so as to not be confused with the real thing. I have also found that the bullets in dummy ammo tend to work forward with repeated dry-fires, eventually rendering them unusable for practice. A-Zoom Practice Ammo is one solid piece of aluminum which is anodized with a burgundy color. The bullets don't come loose, and they are not easily confused with really ammo.
I discovered A-Zoom Practice Ammo Rounds while surfing around the web. A-Zoom snap-caps are precision CNC machined from solid aluminum to exact size, then hard anodized. This hard anodized surface provides for ultra-smooth functioning and long cycling life. The highly durable dry fire "Dead Cap" can take over three thousand dry fires while protecting the firing pin. The manufacturer states that A-Zoom snap caps last over 30 times longer than conventional plastic snap-caps. A-Zoom Snap Caps are available in over 130 sizes from 50BMG to 22 Hornet.
The .38 Special snap caps that I purchased are shaped like lead round-nose .38 Special ammunition so the practice reload with a speedloader is an excellent simulation for live ammunition. In short, the A-Zoom is a better snap cap. Especially if you practice dry fire and speedloader drills, I highly recommend them.


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This week, Baby Yoda flew above the streets of New York at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, Ridley Scott's House of Gucci made its debut and the Grammy nominations were announced. Here's what NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour crew was paying attention to — and what you should check out this weekend.
Piranesi, by Susanna Clarke
I loved Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, both the 2004 novel and the 2015 BBC adaptation. But somehow I never got around to her 2020 novel, Piranesi, which is about a credulous young man who lives in a massive house made up of vast halls and vestibules that are lined with statues. For all he knows, the house is the entire world. He's lived there for as long as he can remember, which isn't very long.
It is such a dreamlike setting that at first you almost wonder if it's going to work as a narrative or if it's going to do more Murakami dream logic stuff, which really isn't my bag. But then he starts interacting with someone else who lives in the house, and we, the readers, start to intuit a lot of things about what's going on. The mystery of it starts to give way to something more concrete and more dark. The book, and the audiobook version, read by Chiwetel Ejiofor, cast a spell. It might not work for listening around the house, so save it for a long trip. It's only four hours long. — Glen Weldon
The Fergamerican National Anthem: A Civic Story by Rob Anderson
Fergie's star spangled banner but it's a children's book pic.twitter.com/JIKGlh4k8C
— Rob Anderson (@smartthrob) November 9, 2021
Picture this. It's 2018. You're watching the NBA All-Star Game and then this happens. Fergie performed an infamous rendition of the national anthem that year.
The reason I bring it up again is because YouTube star Rob Anderson created a children's picture book that commemorates this moment. It's called The Fergamerican National Anthem: A Civic Story, and he recently shared an amazing tweet pairing Fergie's audio with a tour through each page of the book. It just made me so happy. — Aisha Harris
Valentine, Snail Mail
We are coming up on the end of the year, which means the whole NPR music team has been picking over the year in music to identify the best songs and albums. At the same time, several major album releases have come up, and we're frantically trying to assess, "Is the Adele record one of the best of the year? Is the Silk Sonic record one of the best of the year?" These late-in-the-year albums can run the risk of getting lost in the shuffle. And one that jumped out at me is Valentine, by Snail Mail.
The album came out in November, and I think it is one of the best rock records of the year. It manages to be slick and warm at the same time. — Stephen Thompson
Epicurious YouTube channel
Recently, I have been greatly enjoying the YouTube channel for Epicurious, and specifically, two related series I love very much. One is one where a regular home cook and a professional chef put together the ingredients that they would use to make something, whether it's roast chicken or macaroni cheese or something like that. Of course, the professional chef will have $250 dollars worth of ingredients, and the home chef will have, you know, $15 worth of ingredients. They'll swap and then they cook with each other's ingredients.
I'm also a fan of a series that they refer to as "Four Levels of Chefs": they have a beginner chef, an intermediate chef, and a professional chef make their version of a dish — they've done chicken nuggets, fried rice, even eggs benedict. Then a food scientist, the "fourth level," takes stock of what they've done. What I love about this series is that it's not intended to say the food that's made by the basic level chef is bad. It's just meant to show that as you put more work into food that you make, it changes. — Linda Holmes
NPR Kroc Fellow Mia Estrada adapted this Pop Culture Happy Hour segment into a digital page.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Feel Free to Contact Us.
Alang is on its way to become the super power but there are still some internal problems that have to be solved before aiming to be the power because when the root is not strong enough then how a tree can stand and even if it stands then it will be demolished by even a slight storm. So, the country will have to be tough from inside then only we can be a super power but here, there is insecurity among the people because the crime have increased so much and this insecurity makes the people live in tensions and they don't get the opportunity to live their life freely and fully. In public places too, these devices should be installed by the government as well as the associations who work in a particular area to ensure safety and security. Cameras installed in temples, transportation hubs, markets etc helps to keep an eye on suspicious looking activities, objects and people so that quick action can be taken and the proceedings can be stopped. In a city like Alang, where there millions of people residing, there is always risk of crimes as even the neighbors are like strangers in this city and to believe a stranger is like inviting trouble for oneself. But, it is not that the government is not doing anything, spy cameras in Alang are being installed in many public places like busy market places, bus stands, railway stations, temples etc because these places are often very crowded and chances of crimes are very much in these places so the cameras help the police force to track any kind of suspicious activities, persons and objects which can be a threat. So, now the people too have to take up some responsibilities by installing spy cameras in their concerned places like at homes, offices etc. at shops and showrooms it is a must because robbery can happen anytime at these places. We, Action India Home Products are a group which is providing security solution to the people all around the world for the last seventeen years and have many products which can make our life more safe and secure like cameras there are also other products like audio devices which help one to know many truths and secrets and as there many forgery cases in business nowadays, these devices help us to know our partners more and be safe about our investments and partnerships. Apart from that there are also products like mobile jammers which may not be a useful to an individual unless he or she is a professional secret agent or a secret agent but in institutions like schools, colleges, hospitals and petrol pumps this device is very useful because these place prohibit using of mobile phones because of some disciplinary acts and some places like hospitals do it because it loud noise can disturb the patients and disturb the doctors and nurses while doing their work and in petrol pumps the mobile phone batteries can catch fire as they are highly inflammable. So, these jammers will block the phones from receiving network and as a result no one will able to use their phones. So, technology is giving us many products and we are making them to reach you so that our society and our country can be safe and crime free and we are here to provide the people with more products from the spying world like GPS trackers, watch phones, wireless cameras, spy software etc which will always provide top class safety and security and it will help our country to be crime free so that it can develop at a greater speed.


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The Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro) today announced that it has successfully negotiated the purchase of Los Angeles Union Station from Catellus Operating Limited Partnership for $75 million, a move that sets the stage for future expansion of the "last of the great railway stations" built in North America.
The direct purchase includes 38 acres of land and 5.9 million square-feet of entitlements that provide Metro the right to build on the property and draw lease revenues from both transit operators and businesses. Currently, the station is home to Amtrak, Metrolink, Metro Red and Purple Lines, Metro Gold Line, L.A. FlyAway and numerous Metro and municipal bus lines serving Los Angeles County and beyond. The station is also home to several new retail businesses.
The purchase enables Metro to better meet the station's current and future transportation needs. Union Station has experienced a boom in the number of transit patrons and others who travel through it on a daily basis. Use of the station is expected to experience strong growth through a combination of factors, including planned construction of the Regional Connector transit project through downtown, the future Metro Silver Line express bus station on Patsaouras Transit Plaza, a growing retail presence and future high speed rail plans for Los Angeles.
"As Southern California's largest public transportation hub, Los Angeles Union Station is absolutely critical to the current and future mobility of our region," said Supervisor Don Knabe, Chairman of the Metro Board of Directors. "Our purchase of this historic station will enable us to make the needed investments to enable this facility to accommodate greater increases in transit ridership resulting from Measure R transit projects and anticipated future arrival of high speed rail. We now have the ability to retain the historic nature of Union Station and prepare it to serve as a world-class 21st century transportation hub."
Metro's negotiations with the seller began in November 2010. In the seller's interest to conduct an expedited sale, Metro will purchase the station independently. The California High Speed Rail Authority (CHSRA) has indicated an interest in partial ownership of the station as it continues efforts to bring high speed rail service to the region.
The income generated from the deal supports a substantial portion of the station's purchase price. Metro already owns Union Station's East Portal, the adjacent Metro Headquarters building and Patsaouras Transit Plaza. Not included in the purchase agreement are Axis Union Station Apartments, the Metropolitan Water District Headquarters building or the office building in front Union Station on Alameda Street.
Following an expected April 2011 closing, Metro will review the station premises and plan for future transportation and development needs. Metro will evaluate, among others, potential efforts to add and improve pedestrian flow through Union Station, parking, and bus capacity issues on Patsarouas Transit Plaza.
Due to the size of the property and accompanying entitlements, the purchase also presents new opportunities for joint development on the station's 38 acres, which increases the potential for Metro to generate additional revenues on the developed property.
Built in 1939, Union Station is a nationally registered historic landmark.
For additional information about Metro, visit metro.net


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July 2, 2007
Hon. Drew P. Saunders
House of Representatives
North Carolina General Assembly
Legislative Building 16 W. Jones Street
Raleigh, NC 27601-1096
Re: Advisory Opinion: Workers' Compensation Act; N.C.G.S. § 97-19.1; Regulation of Motor Carriers
Dear Representative Saunders:
Thank you for presenting the American Trucking Associations' White Paper concerning Section 97-19.1 of the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act for our review. Your letter requests that we review whether N.C.G.S. § 97-19.1 violates the restrictions on State regulation as expressed in 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c).
Does N.C.G.S. § 97-19.1 violate 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)? No. N.C.G.S. § 97-19.1, which provides that a motor carrier may be liable for workers' compensation benefits, does not violate 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c).
Section 97-19.1 of the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act states in pertinent part:
Any principal contractor, intermediate contractor, or subcontractor, irrespective of whether such contractor regularly employs three or more employees, who contracts with an individual in the interstate or intrastate carrier industry who operates a truck, tractor, or truck trailer licensed by the United States Department of Transportation and who has not secured the payment of compensation in the manner provided for employers set forth in G.S. 97-93 for himself personally and for his employees and subcontractors, if any, shall be liable as an employer under this Article for the payment of compensation and other benefits …
The intent of this provision is to make it more likely that the independent trucker, his employees and subcontractors are afforded the protection of the Workers' Compensation Act through the purchase of workers' compensation insurance or other financial safeguards established in Section 97-93 of the Act. Section 97-19.1 allows the independent driver to purchase insurance or for the motor carriers up the chain of command to have secured coverage for the truckers below them in the chain. Thus, Section 97-19.1 establishes a requirement for workers' compensation insurance applicable to the trucking industry.
The United States Congress has specifically limited state and local government regulation of motor carriers. Section 14501(c) provides, in pertinent part:
Motor carriers of property(1)
- General rule. Except as provided in paragraphs (2) and (3), a State, political subdivision of a State, or political authority of 2 or more States may not enact or enforce a law, regulation, or other provision having the force and effect of law related to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier (other than a carrier affiliated with a direct air carrier covered by section 41713(b)(4) [49 USC § 41713(b)(4)]) or any motor private carrier, broker, or freight forwarder with respect to the transportation of property. (2) Matters not covered. Paragraph (1)(A) shall not restrict the safety regulatory authority of a State with respect to motor vehicles, the authority of a State to impose highway route controls or limitations based on the size or weight of the motor vehicle or the hazardous nature of the cargo, or the authority of the State to regulate motor carriers with regard to minimum amounts of financial responsibility relating to insurance requirements and self-insurance authorization;
49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(emphasis added); see New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc. v. Rowe, 448 F.3d 66, 76 (1st Cir. 2006), cert. granted, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 342, 166 L.Ed.2d 14 (2006); Worldwide Moving & Storage v. District of Columbia, 445 F.3d 422, 426 (D.C. Cir. 2006). Under this Federal regulation, "insurance requirements" is a specific exception. New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc., 448 F.3d at 76; Worldwide Moving & Storage, 445 F.3d at 426.
The effect of the "insurance requirements" exception has only been addressed in a few cases. In New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc. v. Rowe, 448 F.3d 66 (1st Cir. 2006), cert. granted, ___ U.S. ___, 127 S.Ct. 342, 166 L.Ed.2d 14 (2006), one of the cases cited in the American Trucking Association "white paper," the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a statute enacted by the State of Maine to regulate the sale and delivery of tobacco products violated 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c), stating:
These provisions combine to bar states (subject to certain exceptions discussed later) from enacting laws related to prices, routes, or services of air or motor carriers of property.
New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc., 448 F.3d at 69 (referencing 49 U.S.C. §§ 14501, 41713). The exceptions, or areas that the State is allowed to regulate, specifically include insurance regulations:
the authority of the State to regulate motor carriers with regard to minimum amounts of financial responsibility relating to insurance requirements and self insurance authorization.
New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc., 448 F.3d at 76. The First Circuit concluded that the statutory exceptions are to be interpreted narrowly and do not include the ability to broadly regulate "health and safety," but specifically allow States to pass laws relating to insurance requirements. Id.
The insurance exclusion from the Federal Motor Carrier regulation was also discussed by the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in Worldwide Moving & Storage v. District of Columbia, 445 F.3d 422 (D.C. Cir. 2006). In this case, Worldwide challenged a District of Columbia regulation requiring a surety bond asserting that the federal regulation preempted the local regulation. Worldwide Moving & Storage, 445 F.3d at 424. More specifically, Worldwide asserted that it complied with federal bonding requirements for interstate carriers, and thereby, the additional bonding requirements of the local ordinance violate 49U.S.C. § 14501(c). Id. The Court of Appeals rejected the moving company's arguments stating:
Worldwide contends the Superior Court's enforcement proceedings is preempted under two federal statutes. … The second statute is 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(1), which prohibits a state from enacting or enforcing laws or regulations governing aspects of interstate transportation. Section 14501(c)(2)(A), however, expressly states that the prohibition "shall not restrict … the authority of a State to regulate carriers with regard to minimum amounts of financial responsibility relating to insurance requirements and self-insurance authorization," which appears to exempt from the prohibition the surety bond requirement imposed on Worldwide. Id. At 426. Thus, the D.C. Circuit refused to enjoin the enforcement of a District of Columbia surety bond ordinance.
The "white paper" presents numerous decisions, which address the broad reach of the federal regulations prohibiting local laws that relate "to a price, route, or service of any motor carrier." These cases, however, do not address the specific exception presented by Section 97
19.1 of the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act; to wit, Section 14501(c)(2)(A)'s specific permission for the State "to regulate motor carriers with regard to minimum amounts of financial responsibility relating to insurance requirements and self-insurance authorization." Because Section 97-19.1 appears to fall clearly within the exception to the Federal legislation, Section 97-19.1 should not be precluded by the Federal legislation. See New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc., 448 F.3d at 76; Worldwide Moving & Storage, 445 F.3d at 426; 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(A)(2)(States permitted to regulate insurance).
North Carolina has an interest in protecting the health and financial security of employees who are subject to its jurisdiction. See Jenkins v. American Enka Corp., 95 F.2d 755 (4th Cir. 1938)(N.C. Workers' Compensation Act is constitutional). The philosophy of the Workers' Compensation Act is that the wear and tear of human beings in modern industry should be charged to the industry, just as the wear and tear of machinery has always been charged. Vause v. Vause Farm Equipment Co., 233 N.C. 88, 92, 63 S.E.2d 173, 176 (1951). The social policy behind the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act is two-fold: First, the Act provides employees with a swift and certain compensation for the loss of earning capacity and Second, the Act provides limited liability for employers. Hendrix v. Linn-Corriher Corp., 317 N.C. 179, 190, 345 S.E.2d 374, 381 (1986).
North Carolina, consistent with other States, has chosen to protect employees through workers' compensation insurance. On Page h of the "white paper," the American Trucking Association suggests that its preferred coverage is "occupational accident insurance." This coverage provides some of the benefits available through the Workers' Compensation Act; however, occupational accident insurance is not a replacement for workers' compensation insurance. Occupational accident insurance policies often have limitations on triggering events (such as disability within 10 days of injury) and limitations on the benefits provided (i.e., $100,000 cap). Further, the occupational accident insurance policies are not administered by an administrative body and thereby do not assure the injured employee a swift and certain compensation for injuries received on the job. See Hendrix, 317 N.C. at 190, 345 S.E.2d at 381(one of the purposes of workers' compensation is to provide swift and certain benefits). Moreover, occupational accident insurance policies do not comply with the insurance requirements of the Workers' Compensation Act, and thereby do not necessarily afford the employer the protections of the Act. See N.C.G.S. § 97-98.
The current requirements expressed in Section 97-19.1 do not appear to violate 49 U.S.C.§ 12405(c). See New Hampshire Motor Transport Assoc., 448 F.3d at 76; Worldwide Moving & Storage, 445 F.3d at 426; 49 U.S.C. § 14501(c)(A)(2)(States permitted to regulate insurance).
Respectfully yours,
Ann Reed
Senior Deputy Attorney General
Robert Hargett
Deputy Attorney General
Gary A. Scarzafava
Assistant Attorney General


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Each book in this series really can be read as a stand alone--and each of them are fantastic reads!! This one has lots of twists and turns right up until the end and of course there is a love story that takes quite a while to materialize because of all the drama that is gong on.
About the Book: (from Amazon)
Christina Connors and police detective Dan Mallory find themselves caught in a deadly game of conspiracy, murder, and vengeance. While the detective fights to save Christina and protect his career, she must discover how to play the game without revealing her true identity. But her secret won't stay buried for long, and the truth could mean death for them both.
Read a chapter or two here
Purchase the Book here
About the Author: (from Amazon)
Award-winning, bestselling author Angel Sefer was born in Athens, Greece, and has studied and worked on both sides of the Atlantic. She holds a degree in Economics and divides her time between the corporate world and her true passion: reading and writing mystery romance novels, full of heart-racing action, suspense, twists and turns, and breathtaking romance.
Angel lives in Athens, Greece, with the two loves of her life--her son and her husband--and is a member of several writers groups.
The Greek islands--alluring destinations that cast a spell on the visitor from the very first moment--are among her favorite settings. She has written a whole series of standalone mystery romance novels--The Greek Isles Series--each taking place on a different island.
In this series, dark mysteries mingle with sizzling romances, while the reader enjoys the virtual experience of visiting some of the most enchanting Greek islands. The impeccable beauty of those islands--where nature exists lavishly in hundred shades of green and blue, and centuries of Greek tradition coexist harmoniously with cosmopolitan activity--will steal the reader's heart away.
Award-winning bestseller Spellbound in His Arms is the first novel published in The Greek Isles Series. In this suspenseful tale of murder, deceit, and political cover-up, sexy investigative reporter Jackie ignites the fury and stirs the passion of mysterious police detective Michael. The action unfolds on majestic Corfu in the dazzling aquamarine waters of the Ionian Sea.
Bestseller Deadly Secrets is the second novel published in The Greek Isles Series. Stunning Helena and seductive Captain Dimitris confront each other--and make sparks--in this suspenseful tale of murder, deceit, embezzlement, and treachery. The action unfolds on picturesque Mykonos--one of the most beautiful islands in the sparkling sapphire waters of the Aegean Sea--and is supported by a steamy story of forbidden love.
The Heiress of Santorini is the third novel published in The Greek Isles Series. The startling truth about her billionaire client drives breathtaking insurance manager Alexandra over the edge but cannot quell her desire for sinfully handsome and off-limits Mark. This tale of non-stop action, suspense, deceit, and murder unfolds in Atlanta, New York, and on the awe-inspiring island of Santorini--a precious gem in the Aegean Sea that is still an active volcano with spectacular rock formations, impressive lunar landscapes, and breathtaking red and black sand beaches.
Dark Shadows of The Past is the fourth novel in The Greek Isles Series. Dazzling Christina is caught in a deadly game of conspiracy, murder, treachery, and vengeance while desperately trying to conceal her real identity. Seductively handsome police detective Dan puts his job and life on the line to protect this feisty enchantress from the threat hovering over her. The non-stop action and steamy romance unfolds in Atlanta, the Blue Ridge Mountains of Northern Georgia, and the island of Cephalonia--the fascinating setting of "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" in the amazing aquamarine waters of the Ionian Sea. Dark Shadows of The Past will be available Winter 2015. (HUM--she is ahead of schedule!!)
Authors Website
Author's Blog
I purchased this book with my own funds. All opinions expressed are my own honest opinions. For more information please check my Disclosure Statement. Our giveaways are in no way sponsored or promoted by Facebook.


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Items where Institution is :Other partners > University of Eastern Finland (FINLAND)
Number of items at this level: 1. Charman, Dan J. and Beilman, David W and Blaauw, Maarten and Booth, Robert K. and Brewer, Simon and Chambers, Frank M. and Christen, J. Andrés and Gallego-Sala, Angela and Harrison, Sandy P. and Hughes, Paul D. M. and Jackson, Stephen. T. and Korhola, Atte and Mauquoy, Dmitri and Mitchell, Fraser. J. G. and Prentice, I. Colin and Van der Linden, Marjolein and De Vleeschouwer, François and Yu, Zicheng C. and Alm, Jukka and Bauer, Ilka E. and Corish, Y. M. C. and Garneau, Michelle and Hohl, Veronica and Huang, Yongsheng and Karofeld, Edgar and Le Roux, Gaël and Loisel, Julie and Moschen, Robert and Nichols, Jonathan E. and Nieminen, Tiina M. and MacDonald, Glen M. and Phadtare, Netajirao R. and Rausch, Nicole and Sillasoo, Ülle and Swindles, Graeme T. and Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina and Ukonmaanaho, Liisa and Väliranta, Minna and Van Bellen, Simon and Van Geel, Bas and Vitt, Dale H. and Zhao, Yu Climate-related changes in peatland carbon accumulation during the last millennium. (2013) Biogeosciences, 10 (2). 929-944. ISSN 1726-4170 |


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Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger posted a heartfelt video to Twitter on Sunday, recounting his childhood in Austria after World War II and denouncing the violent mob that overtook the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.
The video, nearly eight minutes long and set to swelling music, starts by recalling Kristallnacht — or the Night of Broken Glass — an infamous night in 1938 when a mob of Nazi sympathizers stormed through Jewish neighborhoods in Germany, destroying thousands of businesses, rounding up Jewish men to be sent to concentration camps and killing dozens of people in the process. The night was named for the broken glass from Jewish homes and businesses that littered the streets, and it came to symbolize shattered Jewish lives.
"Wednesday was the day of broken glass right here in the United States," Schwarzenegger says in the video, which by Sunday afternoon had been viewed nearly 12 million times. "The broken glass was in the windows of the United States Capitol. But the mob did not just shatter the windows of the Capitol. They shattered the ideals we took for granted. They did not just break down the doors of the building that housed American democracy. They trampled the very principles on which our country was founded."
My message to my fellow Americans and friends around the world following this week's attack on the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/blOy35LWJ5
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 10, 2021
Schwarzenegger, who immigrated to the United States in 1968, was born in Austria two years after World War II ended and the Nazi regime fell. In the video, he talks about the emotional pain he remembers all around him during his childhood.
"Growing up, I was surrounded by broken men drinking away their guilt with their participation in the most evil regime in history," he says. "Not all of them were rabid anti-Semites or Nazis. Many just went along step by step down the road. They were the people next door."
Schwarzenegger's father was a member of the Nazi party — something Schwarzenegger himself didn't know until decades later — and in the video, he talks openly about his father's anger and the abuse his father inflicted on the family after the war. He says he saw the same anger in his neighbors and grew up thinking it was normal.
"My father and our neighbors were misled also with lies. And I know where such lies lead," he recalls in the video. "President Trump is a failed leader. He will go down in history as the worst president ever."
The former governor is a member of the Republican Party but has often spoken out against Trump. In the video, he denounces members of his party who stand by the president, calling them "complicit" in the insurrection. But he also points out that within hours of the assault on the Capitol, Congress was back in session, certifying Joe Biden's victory over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
"What a great display of democracy," he says.
In a surprising twist near the end of the video, Schwarzenegger — known not only for his role in the Terminator franchise but also as Conan in Conan the Barbarian — holds up the Conan sword from the film.
"Here's the thing about swords," he says, the blade gleaming in the light. "The more you temper a sword, the stronger it becomes. ... I'm not telling you all this because I want you to become an expert sword-maker, but our democracy is like the steel of this sword. The more it is tempered, the stronger it becomes."
He ends his message in support of President-elect Biden and with a final message for the people involved in the attack on the Capitol building.
"To those who think they can overturn the United States Constitution, know this: You will never win."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Donald William McGee
Oct. 4, 1913 - July 1, 2007
Don died peacefully with family by his side. He will live forever in the memories of his loving wife LaVerne, this their 64th year of marriage; his children, Donna (Bonnie), Alan (Lily), Arlene, daughter-in-law Janet, grandchildren Jade (Anne), Jennifer (Scott), and great grandson Jade Jr. (J.J.), nephews David and Robert, and niece Maureen.
Born in Victoria, Don grew up in Bamfield and built a business career in Vancouver, BC, then Hamilton and St. Catharines, Ontario. In business, as in daily life, he was a gentle gentleman who believed in fairness, kindness, honesty, hard work and humour.
Ever mindful of the needs of others, he was active in his church, St. Paul St. United, and worked tirelessly for the Association for Community Living. He was instrumental in having a school built with the help of Gyro, and was the inspiration behind the building of independent living residences and a thirty-bed residence. He spearheaded the annual Burgoyne Golf Tournament at the St. Catharines Golf and Country Club that continues to raise funds for Community Living.
In 1969, he was named Citizen of the Year of St. Catharines and he received the honour of the Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International. He was so proud to belong to a group of men who played golf three times a week and also enjoyed the Lamplighters, an investment club.
Don and LaVerne moved back to B.C. in 1997 to be closer to family.
There will be a private Remembrance Gathering in Victoria.
The family especially wants to thank the staff and management of Oak Bay Kiwanis Pavilion for their wonderful care. Donations in memory can be made to either Victoria Association for Community Living (3861 Cedar Hill Cross Road, Victoria, V8P 2M7) or Oak Bay Kiwanis Pavilion (3034 Cedar Hill Road, Victoria, V8T 3J3).


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Beer is a Rich Source of the Dietary Mineral Silicon and May Help Prevent Osteoporosis
A new study suggests that beer is a significant source of dietary silicon, a key ingredient for increasing bone mineral density.
Researchers from the Department of Food Science & Technology at the University of California, Davis studied commercial beer production to determine the relationship between beer production methods and the resulting silicon content, concluding that beer is a rich source of dietary silicon.
Details of this study are available in the February issue of the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society of Chemical Industry.
The study examined a wide range of beer styles for their silicon content and have also studied the impact of raw materials and the brewing process on the quantities of silicon that enter wort and beer.
Silicon is present in beer in the soluble form of orthosilicic acid (OSA), which yields 50% bioavailability, making beer a major contributor to silicon intake in the Western diet. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), dietary silicon (Si), as soluble OSA, may be important for the growth and development of bone and connective tissue, and beer appears to be a major contributor to silicon intake. Based on these findings, some studies suggest moderate beer consumption may help fight osteoporosis, a disease of the skeletal system characterized by low bone mass
and deterioration of bone tissue.
The researchers examined a variety of raw material samples and found little change in the silicon content of barley during the malting process. The majority of the silicon in barley is in the husk, which is not affected greatly during malting. The malts with the higher silicon contents are pale colored which have less heat stress during the
malting process. The darker products, such as the chocolate, roasted barley and black malt, all have substantial roasting and much lower silicon contents than the other malts for reasons that are not yet known. The hop samples analyzed showed surprisingly high levels of silicon with as much as four times more silicon than is found in malt. However, hops are invariably used in a much smaller quantity than is grain. Highly hopped beers, however, would be
expected to contain higher silicon levels.
The study also tested 100 commercial beers for silicon content and categorized the data according to beer style and source. The average silicon content of the beers sampled was 6.4 to 56.5 mg per liter.
"Beers containing high levels of malted barley and hops are richest in silicon," concludes the study. "Wheat contains less silicon than barley because it is the husk of the barley that is rich in this element. While most of the silicon remains in the husk during brewing, significant quantities of silicon nonetheless survives into the beer."


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I understand that by default, newly created filesystems will be created with 5% of the space allocated for root. I also know you can change the defined space with:
tune2fs -m 1 /dev/sdXY
What I'm curious about though, is what the actual purpose for this reserved space is. Does it serve any practical purpose which would merit more than 5% space in some circumstances?
The reason I've stumbled upon this question is that we recently built a 1TB filestore, and couldn't quite figure out why a df -h left us missing 5% of our capacity.


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So you've got your sprite created, and it's working great. 30+ icons in one image… major HTTP connections saved. You have made your little corner of the interwebs a little happier and faster. Steve Souders would be proud.
Until you find that your sprite is used on an element that is tall enough to expose the next image component down in the sprite.  The 50px of spacing between components you thought would be enough… isn't. 50px isn't enough so 100px should be right? Better make it 200px to be ultra safe. So you increase the space between all of your components from 50px to 200px which increases the height by 400% and probably increases the filesize a bit too.
The 200px spacing surely is tall enough… right? Â RIGHT??!? Surely no content maintainer would ever put more then 200px of content in there after you hand it off. *gulp*
I figured there had to be a better way to make sure this didn't happen. Horizontally spacing the sprite would solve the too tall issue, but then it has to be spaced out pretty decently as well. Probably even more than the vertical spacing. What I wanted was the best of both worlds. Horizontal AND vertical spacing.
What do you get when you both horizontally and vertically space something? A diagonal. I searched around but couldn't find any mention of a diagonal sprite. I didn't know if that meant this was a new idea, or a bad one that no one was willing to publish. I'm hoping it's the former.
Why a Diagonal Sprite?
With the sprite built on a diagonal there are no components below or to the right of the component you are showing. This allows for the element using the sprite to be as wide or as tall as it needs to be with no worry of exposing the next component.
Unfortunately there is a filesize tradeoff. You add a LOT of unused whitespace. For one 30 or so component sprite that I changed from vertically stacked to diagonally stacked, there was only about a 10% increase in size. Â For another that had around 60 images, it was a 45% increase. The 10% increase was pretty easy to swallow for the benefit gained. The 45% is a bit harder. So your mileage may vary.
Since you don't have to put as much spacing between your sprite components (I do 10px vertically and horizontally to allow a little per component manipulation) the sprite dimensions are significantly smaller. Â My 60 sprite image with 50px of space between components was 2142px tall. Spacing it out to 200px between components took it to over 8000px. The diagonal sprite using the same 60 components, with 10px padding ends up being around 1500px tall and wide. As far as I can tell this only really matters to the Opera browser. I can't find information on any other browser having issues with ginormous dimensions, but would love to hear feedback if you know of other issues.
So that you can see this in practice, I created a simple 10 component sprite from a few icons from the famfamfam silk icon set (seen above). You can view an example page that shows the 50px, 200px and diagonally spaced sprites. The filesizes and dimensions ended up being: 50px – 16×610 5,723 bytes, 200px – 16×1960 5,967 bytes, diagonal – 250×250 6,554 bytes.
Resize the page to be fairly narrow to get content to wrap and even the 200px spaced sprite exposes an additional component.
Making the Diagonal Sprite
When making my normal vertically stacked sprites I use the fantastic online tool CSS Sprite Generator. Â I noticed that the back end for that was open source and so grabbed a copy.
After significant pain in getting the required components installed on my local machine (post on that coming later), I tweaked their code to output the sprite in a diagonal. At the moment the code is kind of quick and dirty since I wasn't sure if it was going to work. If there is interest in me making it available, please let me know in the comments below and I'll try to get it cleaned up and released.
In the end I think this is a pretty decent solution to the problem I ran into. It probably doesn't work for everyone and the filesize increase is something to consider, but it is an interesting option to have in the back pocket. I would love to hear your thoughts on this solution.


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Arctic Records opened for business late in 1964. The label was the brainchild of Jimmy Bishop, the program director of WDAS — at the time Philadelphia's No. 1 black radio station. If that sounds like a conflict of interest, you don't know much about the music business in Philadelphia back then. Besides, it didn't help Arctic's first single, "Happiest Girl in the World" by the Tiffanys, three local teenagers who sang backup in various studios. But it was only a few months later that Arctic had its first — and only — national smash, thanks to a young girl who'd caught the ear of Weldon McDougal, lead singer of the Larks and a good friend of Bishop's.
Barbara Mason had had one minor hit on Arctic by the time "Yes I'm Ready" came out in March 1965. Backed by the Tiffanys and three guys — Weldon McDougal, Kenny Gamble and Herb Johnson — Mason's untutored, straightforward delivery sold the song, which she says she'd written in imitation of Curtis Mayfield. It went Top 10 on both the R&B and pop charts and established both Mason and Arctic as forces to be reckoned with. Following it up, though, wouldn't be easy: Soul music was catching on in a big way, and although Jimmy Bishop thought of himself as Philly's answer to Berry Gordy, Gordy had more talent that he'd been developing longer.
Honey and the Bees were four young women who made a number of singles for Arctic, some good but not spectacular. Then there was the problem of coming up with a male group — which, in a city like Philadelphia, should have been no problem.
You can't hear it here, but the Ambassadors, Arctic's main male group, suffered from an inability to sing in tune, as well as a lead singer who wasn't as strong as he should have been. The label also had the Volcanoes, one of whom sported a hairdo that looked like a mushroom cloud, and another problematic group called the Temptones.
The problem with the Temptones sure wasn't talent: The group had beaten both the Ambassadors and the Delfonics in a contest at the Uptown Theater. It wasn't their name being too close to the Temptations: The Temptations' members were fans and offered management advice. No, it was the fact that the Temptones, whose name had been modified from Templetones because the group all went to Temple University, were white. Lead singer Daryl Hohl had a great voice, and they could dance like crazy. Without anything but local success, though, they eventually fell apart, and Hohl changed his name to Hall — and, with their guitarist John Oates, moved to Atlantic Records, which knew a thing or two about white soul.
Around the time the Temptones were falling apart, so was Arctic. Kenny Gamble, who'd been a singer and an engineer, started concentrating on running the mixing board along with his friend, keyboardist Leon Huff; they started writing songs together, like "What Does A Man Do," a B-side from 1967.
The group that performed it, Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, only made one record for Arctic, but Gamble and Huff kept in touch, and the next time they saw the band, it was an entirely new group except for Melvin. His drummer, Teddy Pendergrass, had a pretty good voice.
Arctic definitively fell apart at the end of the 1960s, and released its last record in 1971. By that time, Jimmy Bishop had disappeared entirely, and to this day nobody knows what happened, although rumors of his preaching in Mississippi have surfaced. Barbara Mason, Hall & Oates, Gamble and Huff, and the studio band that coalesced around the label and became the house band at Philadelphia International, though, have every reason to thank him for starting Arctic Records.
Copyright 2021 Fresh Air. To see more, visit Fresh Air.