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EduCon: Daring Conversations
Last year I blogged about EduCon from my couch whilst the snow piled up outside around me and I vicariously enjoyed & participated in this innovative concept for an exchange of ideas. This year I'm not only going but I'm honored to be involved with two different conversations. More about that below! You may ask what is EduCon, an unconference, and why a conversation?
A Conversation NOT a Presentation:
Viva la Unconference!
My gorgeous mentor Joyce Valenza has written a must-read SLJ article about the EduCon unconference experience:
"It's networking at its best," says Valenza. "It's critical, especially, that librarians network. It's clear to me that nobody knows who we are. I don't think we've gotten the word out. But we can't be in our buildings alone anymore."Dare to be Out There!
More than ever we need to be "out there" not only in our school, local districts but on the state & national level. If you have a passionate voice & vision for our profession - don't be shy...TALK about it! The Educon conversation model is a perfect storm of opportunity to be in the mix and talk about the challenges & issues in education today. If you can't make it to EduCon consider following it via the Twitter hashtag #EduCon!
Do you have an ISTE affiliate in your state or vicinity? Join it! Do they have a yearly EdTech conference? Apply to present at it! That's how I got my start! Every year since 1997 I've presented at my ISTE affiliate conference MSET (formerly MICCA) not only did I get Free registration for the conference (Score!) but it forced me to keep up on my practice and SHARE SHARE SHARE!
Oh and If you're a DC Metro educator let me invite you to join our MSET Ning! Our yearly MSET conference is in April & I'm going to be a featured speaker! YAY!
It's Ok to be Feelin Kinda Shy!
Yes, you can start being "out there" from the comfort of your couch! Creating a 24/7 Library through blogging, wiki web resources, & Twittering Librarians can up their web presence and promote their practice to the community. And when you're ready to be "out there!" join us! Your voice is important!
Join US & the Conversation at EduCon!
I am honored to be involved with two conversations at EduCon this year.
The Future of Student Inquiry/Research: Environmental Scanning and Scenario BuildingJoyce Valenza and Shannon M. Miller!
What will student inquiry and investigation look like in the years to come and how can educators prepare learners for a world in which they can productively interact and contribute to research. Joyce, Shannon, and Gwyneth will lead the discussion and forecasting using Joyce and Doug's environmental scan as a launching pad.
Large group sharing of what new stuff goes into "buckets" involved in inquiry/research--tools, skills, dispositions. (Following by What Rocks; What Sucks--Research Edition)
Diane Cordell and I will be leading at EduCon in January (YAY!) The Power of the Product: Creative, Meaningful, & Daring Ways to Demonstrate Information Mastery
The conversation is a working and discovery session fueled by questions and assisted virtually by connected PLN members via Twitter with the goal of empowering our students by freeing them from repetitious, banal, and limiting assessments. How can meaningful products demonstrate student comprehension of information and concept mastery, but also provide an opportunity for students to apply skills and knowledge to practical situations? The goal - creatively and collaboratively build a Google slidedeck, & wiki pages of product ideas. Culmination: last 20 min have each group share round robin or gallery walk to create a combined slidedeck of Daring Creative Classroom & Research Products to share with our PLN.
This conversation will create a crowdsourced slidedeck of viable, creative, meaningful, and daring products that demonstrate information mastery, go beyond the regular research report and span the digital divide. The products of this conversation (Google slidedeck, Wallwisher, wiki, & published Slideshare) will generate layers of sharing, producing, and value.
I will be tweeting from the conference when I can and I will be sure to have a follow up review of the conference!


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Robotic Mannequins Are Being Used to Spy on Shoppers
If you ever get a creepy feeling that the mannequins in the department store are watching you, you just might be right. Some fashion brands are now using mannequins equipped with technology used to identify criminals at airports to watch shoppers at their stores.
The technology is called EyeSee and was created by Italian mannequin maker Almax Spa. At least five companies are using a handful of these anti-theft products with more on the way.
The EyeSee looks normal on the outside, but inside a camera is inserted into one eye. Using facial recognition software just like the police would use, the camera logs the age, race and gender of shoppers. Critics claim this raises concerns about racial profiling amongst customers, as well as other legal and ethical issues.
However, those who are in favor of the EyeSee mannequins say that not only does it help to stop theft, it also provides important information that will help the company in their marketing campaigns. For example, some of the stores found that men shopped more than women in the first two days of a sale and also that children made up more than half of the afternoon's traffic. Both of these findings led one company to rearrange their window displays in order to attract more shoppers in these two demographics.
Despite the controversy, it will be interesting to see how these mannequins will fare in the future. We're also curious as to whether they come alive at night and dance around with handsome customers. The documentary footage below filmed in 1987 suggests we may be on to something.

subset: commoncrawl


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[Image: The original fire house from Ghostbusters, seen here via Google Street View].
Every once in a while it's rumored that there will be a Ghostsbusters III – the current rumor being that Judd Apatow might produce – and so, today, while walking around the National Gallery of Modern Art here in Rome, in a state of 100º exhaustion, I got to thinking about what would make an interesting plot if BLDGBLOG were somehow hired to write the screenplay.
And this is what I came up with:
It's 1997. NYNEX is on the verge of being purchased by Bell Atlantic, after which point it will be dissolved in all but name.
But all hell starts breaking loose. Pay phones ring for no reason, and they don't stop. Dead relatives call their families in the middle of the night. People, horrifically, even call themselves – but it's the person they used to be, phoning out of the blue, warning them about future misdirection.
Every once in a while, though, something genuinely bad happens: someone answers the phone… and they go a little crazy.
Thing is – spoiler alert – halfway through the film, the Ghostbusters realize that NYNEX isn't a phone system at all: it's the embedded nervous system of an angel – a fallen angel – and all those phone calls and dial-up modems in college dorm rooms and public pay phones are actually connected into the fiber-optic anatomy of a vast, ethereal organism that preceded the architectural build-up of Manhattan.
Manhattan came afterwards, that is: NYNEX was here first.
It's worth recalling, in fact, that NYNEX – at least according to Wikipedia – actually stood for New York/New England, "with the X representing the unknown future (or 'the uneXpected')." It's like Malcolm X's telephonically inclined, wiry cousin.
So the phone system of Manhattan – all those voices! all those connections! leading one life to another – starts to act up, provoked by its dissolution into Bell Atlantic… and the Ghostbusters are called in to fix it.
Fixing it involves rapid drives from telephone substation to telephone substation, from library to library, all while Dan Ackroyd's character keeps receiving phone calls about a family crisis… his ex-wife is calling… his dad is calling… they're urging him to stop this whole, crazy Ghostbusters business… He starts acting funny. The voices on the phone say strange things. They call at strange hours. He feels kinship with public pay phones; they sometimes ring as he walks past. He tries to call his family back – but they're not answering.
Harold Ramis starts to suspect something.
In the background there are shadowy figures called out to fix transmission lines – but they are actually wiring something up… something big…
The whole movie then leads up to the granddaddy of them all: an electromagnetic confrontation inside the windowless, Brutalist telephone switching tower at 33 Thomas Street (rumored haunt of the ghost of Aleister Crowley).
[Image: 33 Thomas Street, via Wikipedia, "is a telephone exchange or wire center building which contains three major 4ESS switches used for interexchange (long distance) telephony…"].
The opening scene: a pay phone on a sun-splashed street near Washington Square Park. You can see the famous arch in the background.
A man is sitting nearby, outside a deli. He's got a bagel and a coffee and he's reading the New York Times.
The phone starts to ring. He looks at it. It rings and rings.
He gets up, finally, and approaches the phone – and he answers it.
It's his dad.
But he thought his dad was dead.
Ghostbusters III.
The city's telecommunications system is not some mere collection of copper wires and fiber optics, the film will suggest; it's actually the subtle anatomy of a barely understood supernatural being, an angel of rare metals embedded in the streets of Manhattan.
Somewhere between AT&T and H.P. Lovecraft, by way of electromagnetized Egyptian mythology.
These metals, Harold Ramis will explain, pushing up his eyeglasses, also correspond to materials used in pre-Christian burial rituals throughout Mesopotamia. Copper coffins. Traces of selenium found in embalming tools. He refers to Tiamat, dragon of multiple heads, and he draws mind-bending parallels between Middle Eastern mythology and the origins of NYNEX. NYNEX/Tiamat. NYNEX/Michael. NYNEX/Metatron.
Certain members of the audience think the whole thing sounds like bullshit. But they like the special effects. And who cares, anyway.
So the movie will involve everyone from Guglielmo Marconi to Thomas Edison to Alexander Graham Bell (he's the "ultimate sorcerer," Dan Ackroyd exclaims, laughing along with the rest of us), and it will make reference to the hundreds of architecturally interesting telephone substations scattered throughout the greater New York region.
It's voodoo meets urban infrastructure by way of Avital Ronell. Architecture students will flock to see it.
Having seen the film, people will long for the days of pay telephones – when, according to the film's mythology, you were actually using the body of an angel to make local phone calls.
Within the film, then, there are also brief scenes of excavation – a kind of angelic archaeology wherein Bill Murray digs through the plaster of tenement walls in search of ancient trunk lines. But he accidentally breaks into the plumbing.
At one point, he and Ernie Hudson drive north along the Hudson, discussing Christian archangels, afraid to use the car phone, looking for some kind of old anchorage point for the phone system.
They think maybe they can just shut the whole thing off.
They are surrounded by dark trees and the scenography is breath-taking.
Harold Ramis then uncovers a diagram of city streets and the exact locations of NYNEX lines; these line up with other diagrams from some Central European grimoire that he finds down in the basement of the New York Public Library.
They're getting close, in other words.
And that's when they discover 33 Thomas Street.
In any case, the film is released in the summer of 2012 and it's a runaway blockbuster. It's "a return to American mythmaking," A.O. Scott writes in the New York Times, and there's immediate talk of a Ghostbusters IV.
Manhattan is the wired center of a vast, global haunting, a transmission point crisscrossed by whispers above a magical infrastructure no one fully understands.
Ghostbusters III: hire me, and I'll write it! I don't think it'd be a bad movie, actually.


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I've only been in to a Kiko store a couple of times but when I do, I tend to do some serious damage in an effort to make-up for the fact I can't ever just "pop in". Truthfully, I haven't been hugely blown away by the things I've bought, with the exception of a couple of matte eyeshadows, they've mostly been neither here nor there in terms of eliciting any major makeup-excitement.
Having said that, I am rather fond of this softly muted sage green. I'm not actually sure if it's still available to buy… huge apologies if it isn't. It should be, it's lovely.
#349 (I hate numbers for names!) is a soft green in a greyed out base, it's perfect for year-round wear and always looks beautiful when topped off with glittery tips… you can imagine how lovely gold-flakies look applied to the tips, no?
The formula is ok. It's not completely smooth and as time's passed, my bottle has thickened slightly. The above shows three coats but two would probably cover it if you were careful during application.
KIKO Cosmetics can be found online at kikocosmetics.co.uk


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Hey all!
So sorry that this was closed in the past. Not entirely sure why we closed this in 2019, but I am opening it back up for you guys to vote and comment on while we investigate adding this to the site.
Thank you so much for your continued feedback and patience with us on this request.
An error occurred while saving the comment moloko__0 commentedAdd, Ukrainian language, please 🥺
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Mental deficiency, depending upon disease or imperfect development of the nervous system, and dating from birth or from early infancy previous to the evolution of the mental faculties.
Though the parents of more than 15 per cent of idiotic children have been alcoholics, and alcoholism is rare among Jews, yet idiocy and imbecility are found comparatively more often among Jews than among non-Jews. Thus in Prussia in 1871 there were among Jews 1,826 idiots per 100,000 of population; among Protestants 1,437, and among Catholics 1,346 ("Preussische Statistik," 1875, xxx. 137). In Silesia there was one idiot among 580 Catholics, one among 408 Protestants, and one among 514 Jews ("Bulletin de la Société d'Anthropologie," iv.). From recent statistics collected by Pilez it is evident that in Vienna the proportion of Jews affected with mental deficiency is very large. He found that of the cases of idiocy and imbecility treated at the clinic for nervous diseases in that city between Jan. 1, 1898, and Aug., 1901, no less than 17.7 per cent of the males and 15.3 per cent of the females were of Jewish extraction. At the census of 1900 the Jews of Vienna were found to constitute only 8.86 per cent of the general population.
In Wörttemberg, also, there was one idiot among 3,003 Jews, as against one among 3,207 Protestants, and one among 4,113 Catholics. Mayr reports that in 1880 the proportion of idiots and imbeciles per 10,000 population in Baden, Bavaria, and Prussia was as follows:
State. | Jews. | Non-Jews. |
Baden | 26.07 | 15.8 |
Bavaria | 20.73 | 14.4 |
Prussia | 15.27 | 13.6 |
In Hanover it has been calculated that according to the census of 1855-56 there was one idiot to 1,528 Lutherans; 1,473 Reformed Church; 1,143 Catholics; 763 Jews (G. Brandes, "Der Idiotismus und die Idiotie mit Besonderer Berücksichtigung der Verhältnisse im Kgr. Hannover," 1862).
In New York city a large proportion of the inmates of the hospital for feeble-minded children are Jewish; but no definite statistics are obtainable. It must be recalled in this connection that the rigid examination at the port prevents the entrance of such defectives into the United States.
Amaurotic Idiocy.It is a curious fact that amaurotic family idiocy, a rare and fatal disease of children, occurs mostly among Jews. The largest number of cases have been observed in the United States—over thirty in number. It was at first thought that this was an exclusively Jewish disease, because most of the cases at first reported were among Russian and Polish Jews; but recently there have been reported a few cases occurring in non-Jewish children. The chief characteristics of the disease are progressive mental and physical enfeeblement; weakness and paralysis of all the extremities; and marasmus, associated with symmetrical changes in the macula lutea. On investigation of the reported cases it has been found that neither consanguinity nor syphilitic, alcoholic, or nervous antecedents in the family history are factors in the etiology of the disease. No preventive measures have as yet been discovered, and no treatment has been of any benefit, all the cases having terminated fatally.
The Mongolian type of idiocy is also very frequently observed among Jews. Its chief features are shortness of stature; broad, protruding cheek-bones, flattened bridge of the nose, rounded pinna of the ears, enlarged tongue, and the obliquely placed Mongolian eyes. There is a more hopeful prognosis in this type than in amaurotic family idiocy. Many cases improve under treatment.
Marriages of those of near kin, which occur more often among Jews than among Gentiles (see
In the present state of knowledge of the etiology of idiocy and imbecility in general the only cause of their frequency among Jews that may be considered is the neurotic taint of the race. Children descending from a neurotic ancestry have nervous systems which are very unstable, and they are often incapable of tiding safely over the crises attending growth and development. They are often idiots or imbeciles.
- Preussische Statistik, vols. lviii., lxix., c., cix., cxi., cxxviii., cxxx., cxliv., cxlviii., clviii., clxiii., clxxiii.;
- Beiträge zur Statistik des Königreichs Bayern, xxxi. 48, 49;
- Georg Luschan, Einfluss der Rasse auf die Häufigkeit und Form der Nerven- und Geisteskrankheiten, in Allgemeine Medizinische Centralzeitung, 1897, Nos. 9-11;
- Falkenheim. Ueber Familiäre Amaurotische Idiotie, in Jahrbücher, für Kinderheilkunde, liv. 123. 171, Berlin, 1901.


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While the rest of the world was rocked by the financial crisis and recession, Sub-Saharan Africa, with less to lose, has fared better than many other regions. The crisis was a setback, but the continent's diverse economic regions are expected to regain their footing in the coming year and experience strong growth relative to other parts of the world. Observers predict that governments will continue reform initiatives, infrastructure will improve and investors will put capital to work across the continent.
Indeed, for many investors, Africa represents one of the few regions still offering an opportunity for outsized gains. As a middle class begins to emerge in many African nations, once poverty-stricken countries will provide the high rates of return on investment earned recently in fast-growing economies, such as Brazil and China, that are now likely to grow more slowly as they continue to mature.
Africa's gross domestic product, which was increasing at double-digit rates in some countries before the crisis, is likely to grow by between 5.5% and 6% in 2010, according to the African Development Bank. Yet Wharton finance professor Richard Herring notes that significant hurdles to African economic growth remain. He says it is difficult to generalize about Africa because there are so many diverse countries, including those rich in commodities and oil that are poised to make a "great leap forward" if world trade recovers from the crisis.
At the same time, in many parts of Africa, political and social instability continue to hamper growth. "The main obstacle in all too many of these countries is a political system that controls most of the flows of resources for the benefit of the ruling elite rather than making the essential investments in human capital and infrastructure that are essential for sustainable growth," says Herring.
In the near term, the financial crisis has had less impact on African economies than it has on other parts of the world, notes Idris Mohammed, a partner at Development Partners International in London where he manages a pan-African investment fund. "Africa has done a lot better coming out of this recession than in past economic downturns. That's primarily because it went into it in a strong position. We think that bodes well for 2010. The past eight to nine years have been good, and when the global economy [rebounds] next year, Africa will return to relatively high rates of growth."
New Foreign Direct Investment
According to Mohammed, who spoke about private equity investment in Africa at the Wharton Africa Business Forum in November, the recent economic strength in Africa is due to a number of factors. Governments, he says, have made improvements in economic and political freedoms and have learned to become more conservative fiscal managers. African nations have also benefited from debt-reduction programs initiated by Western lenders. As a result, African governments have more flexibility to invest in pro-growth policies and projects. In addition, higher commodity prices buoyed exports, and the continent was able to attract substantial foreign direct investment, particularly from China. Finally, he notes, African businesses have become dramatically more productive due in large part to new communications technology, including mobile phones that are commonplace even in remote villages.
"It's a nice complement of factors that has really driven this renaissance in Africa. We expect that to continue," says Mohammed.
Others point to economic reforms that have been adopted across the continent, encouraging investors to finance new projects. In an annual study of business conditions conducted by the World Bank and the International Finance Corp., Rwanda was identified as a top reformer. The report, Doing Business 2010: Reforming through Difficult Times, points to progress in other countries as well. Liberia eased procedures for business start-ups, reduced construction permit fees and initiated a new one-stop trade center. Sierra Leone strengthened investor protections, enhanced access to credit and provided for the reorganization of troubled firms. Burkina Faso and Mali each made reforms in five of the 10 areas covered by the report, while Angola, Cameroon, Ethiopia and South Africa lowered taxes on domestic firms.
Yet Eric Kacou, Rwandan-based managing director of the development consulting firm OTF Group, suggests that despite these signs of progress, it is necessary "more than ever for governments to remove some of the constraints that make life more difficult for businesspeople." He points to a new type of business leader emerging in Africa. "It used to be that most of the entrepreneurs were people from other colonies who were just interested in trading natural resources," he notes. "Now, entrepreneurs are coming to the continent and seeing potential markets they can serve. They see products they can develop. They see platforms that are ripe to establish and grow a vibrant firm." These new leaders, he adds, are a mix of local tycoons, foreigners and people who were born in Africa, grew up or were educated abroad, and have now returned to establish their careers on the continent.
Larry D. Bailey, president of LDB Consulting in Washington, D.C., and vice chairman of Africare, a Washington, D.C.-based African aid organization, says investors are turning to Africa because "all the emerging economies have emerged. Africa has the greatest potential." Latin America and China are well on their way to becoming established developed economies, he notes. Meanwhile, in Africa, natural resources are bountiful with frequent new discoveries of oil and gas. "It's going to be incumbent on Africans not to be exploited this time around," Bailey states. "You have a younger generation of Africans going back home and they are going to put pressure on governments to manage these resources well."
Given the vast size and diversity of Africa, business and economic prospects for the new year vary by region and sector.
In East Africa, especially Kenya, key industries are well-integrated in the world economy and have suffered as a result of the worldwide business slump, according to Laila Macharia, CEO of Scion Real in Kenya. European demand for Kenyan vegetables, cut flowers and tourism is down. She notes that in 2005 and 2006, private equity funds and other investors were pumping money into local stock exchanges and opening branches in the region. "Now, much of that money has been pulled out of the markets, causing a slump in values."
In the early days of the crisis, East Africans working abroad who contributed billions of dollars to the regional economy cut back as they grew uncertain about their own jobs. Yet those contributions are rebounding, according to Macharia, providing a multiplier effect throughout East African economies.
She says that the crisis is being used as a reason to support conservative financial measures that prohibit the development of secondary mortgage markets or derivatives that might otherwise help boost investment and growth. Africa, she adds, has the opportunity to introduce these types of financial mechanisms with strong regulations right from the start, rather than having to add new oversight later, as is happening in the United States and Europe.
"For East Africa, the long-run outlook is very good," says Macharia, noting that the English-speaking region has a strong complement of educated managers. "Our countries are organizing themselves into a common market, and our demographics bode well for sustained growth for several decades."
Growth in West Africa, which is largely dependent on oil and other commodities, is expected to remain flat for the next two years, predicts Daouda Thiam, a management consultant based in Cote d'Ivoire. "At the beginning of 2008, most of the countries were growing. Then the growth stopped because of the spike in oil and food prices and some mismanagement as well. Now, we are going on the downward slope. I cannot tell if we have hit bottom yet."
Natural gas and energy sectors are strong and could be harnessed to produce badly needed electricity throughout Africa, but Thiam says that would raise concerns about climate change. Meanwhile, he notes, political instability remains a concern in oil-producing Nigeria.
Welcoming the World Cup
In Southern Africa, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup to be held this summer in South Africa is expected to drive growth, according to Malcolm Pryor, CEO of the South African Enterprise Development Fund. Pryor, who spoke on a panel about microfinance during the Wharton Africa Business Forum in November, says the region is already benefiting from investment in infrastructure — including roads to accommodate three million visitors expected to attend the World Cup games between mid-June and mid-July.
In addition, investment in infrastructure — such as power projects and an expansion of broadband capability that has occurred over the past three years throughout the region — is expected to pay off in productivity and economic growth, according to Pryor. In Africa, he says, some technologies are going to leapfrog typical patterns of adoption in developed countries. For example, the widespread use of mobile telecommunications technology may make mobile banking more available across Africa than in Western countries, thereby reducing the cost and effort of providing financial services to people living in remote regions.
"The process of politically delivering on the promises at the end of apartheid by the South African leadership will continue to be a challenge, but an emphasis on housing, health care and education seems to bring renewed vigor," Pryor says, adding that governments in South and Central Africa have taken a stronger role in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.
Pryor notes that while African banks were not directly affected by the crisis and are not holding toxic assets of their own, the resulting lack of liquidity in the world financial system is increasing the cost of borrowing to finance projects in Africa. "But I see some financing coming back into the market. Transactions that were put on hold are again being revived and the banks are more willing to be a financial partner."
Meanwhile, continued economic progress in Africa will depend on the development of stable financial systems and ongoing investment. "Interest in investing in Africa has really mushroomed in the last five years," says Dawn Hines, co-founder of Aventura Investment Partners, an early-stage investment fund targeting the rural food system in Africa. For example, agriculture had been considered a risky, low-margin business until the global food crisis emerged in 2007 and investors suddenly wanted to add agriculture to their portfolios.
"The issue of food production has gone a little bit under the radar in the last year because of the financial crisis, but I think the food crisis is going to rear its head again," says Hines. As the world grows richer, demand for meat and grain to feed cattle will put pressure on food prices — driving demand for production in Africa where arable, irrigated land is plentiful. "There are opportunities for agriculture in Africa," she notes, making it all the more incumbent on governments "to do the right thing" by, for example, "investing in agriculture and making sure farmers have access to fertilizer and equipment."
In Africa, development aid from governments or non-profit organizations represents a significant chunk of the overall economy, as much as 75% of GDP in the small Central African country of Sao Tome and Principe.
Natasha Quist, regional representative for the World Wildlife Federation in Central Africa, says the financial crisis will take a toll on organizations that are dependent on donations from individuals or charities that have suffered declines in the value of their assets. However, she says, programs that depend on large donations from governments are not experiencing a drop-off in funding. In particular, she notes, work that can be linked to good government or climate change continues to enjoy strong support. Many nations and multinational agencies — whose missions are oriented toward economic growth — are focusing more intensely on Africa as other countries that once competed for funds, such as Malaysia or India, begin to climb out of poverty.
Bailey says African nations need to develop their own financial networks without relying on international financial centers overseas. "At some point in time, they have to take control of their own market," he says. "The whole mindset has to change. London and Paris will no longer be the center of African affairs. Africans want to control their own destiny like everyone else."
Yet some observers predict that Chinese investors will continue to play a major part in development across the continent in 2010. Kacou says they were initially interested in natural resources and construction, but are now moving into a range of sectors — including hospitality, local manufacturing and distribution. "The impact … has become very widespread within African economies," he suggests, noting that Western nations are sensitive to Chinese expansion in Africa, fearing the Chinese will gain market share and promote dictatorships. In Kacou's view, however, the source of the investment is less important than whether the investment will lead to productive growth.
Family Dynasties
As important as the source of foreign investment is the fact that, despite economic opportunity, African nations remain troubled. "Continuing civil wars in many countries not only destroy lives and waste resources, but also encourage people with education and valuable skills to leave," says Herring, adding that South Africa has shown it is possible to change governments regularly without chaos. Yet many rulers in Africa want to keep power for life and establish dynasties to enable their family or tribe to maintain control for years to come.
Much of Africa's political problem is a result of "clumsy" national boundaries drawn in the colonial era, Herring argues. In some cases, the best solution would be to redraw the borders to better represent tribal boundaries, although Herring cautions that impetus for this change must come from the African people themselves, not outsiders. "At some point, African countries may realize that diversity can be a wonderful resource," he says, "but for the last two decades it has been a disastrous burden."
Going forward, Mohammed suggests that African economic growth will hinge on development of a new model based on internal growth within Africa, not a model based on exports of commodities or low-cost manufactured goods that has often been used by developing economies to stimulate growth. "We think what's happening in Africa now is that growth will be driven by domestic demand. We see that in terms of increases in agriculture, the banking and financial sectors, consumer goods and staples — food, drink, housing, transportation, all these things that need to be locally produced. Those are what will drive growth in Africa."
He says an analysis of economic performance over the past years comparing oil-producing countries to those without oil concludes that countries that had to rely on internal markets for growth did better than those with oil to export. "This bodes well for economic growth in the future. The recent financial crisis has shown we are all linked, but I think Africa is much more insulated than places like China from what happens in the global economy. There is an emerging middle class growing across Africa, and that is what will drive improved economic growth."
Thiam's pet peeve is competing tiny flagship airlines that are heavily subsidized by governments but do not meet traveler's needs, inhibiting business growth and productivity. "If you all have just two or three aircraft, it can't work," he says. "My hope is that these countries can get together and create one big airline to fly between the countries. The demand is there."
According to Bailey, an important aspect of any African investment and development strategy is patience. "Things just don't happen as quickly there. You want them to happen and eventually they will, but you have to go in with a long-term interest in the continent. You have to go in with an idea of building capabilities so the people will be able to run their own businesses at some time. The younger generation is going to demand that."


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The Voluntary Guidelines on the Tenure of Land Fisheries and Forests are complete
CSO Press release
(Rome, 13/03/2012) Last Friday, 9th of March in the evening, the Committee on Word Food Security (CFS) completed the intergovernmental negotiations of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines on theTenure of Land Fisheries and Forests in the context of National Food Security. With the successful completion of these negotiations after a participatory process lasting nearly 3 years, the CFS has shown clearly that it has the capacity to bring a wide variety of social actors to the debate and to seek solutions to one of the most difficult and delicate issues we face today, that of access to natural resources for food production/provision. More than 45 persons representing 20 civil society organizations attended the final round of negotiations.
The Guidelines contain valuable points that will provide backing to organizations in their long struggle to ensure the care and use of Resources and Natural Goods in order to produce more nourishing food, so helping to eliminate hunger from the world by addressing its root causes.Ensuring access to land, fisheries and forests is absolutely vital, not just to enable small food producers to nourish the world. Access to natural resources is a question of dignity and a matter of life and death for millions of peasant communities, pastoralists, indigenous Peoples and fisher folk. In many parts of the world, land-grabbing causes great suffering by displacing people and communities and destroying and confiscating their lands, further increasing the incidence of violent conflicts.
Just in the last few months, while this document was being negotiated, leaders of social movements in different parts of the world have been persecuted or assassinated for their struggle. In Latin America, we wish to remember Jerónimo R. Tugri y Mauricio Méndez dePanamá, Bernardo Méndez Vásquez de México, Christian Ferreyra de Argentina, and the peasants who were assassinated in the land conflicts of the Bajo Aguan region of Honduras.
We also want to show our solidarity with Herman Kumara, leader of the World Forum of Fisher Peoples, who has been threatened with death and forced to leave his country, SriLanka.In spite of the massive and systematic violations of human rights, violations that take many forms in rural regions of the world, governments remain reluctant to re-affirm the commitments they have already made to different international Human Rights instruments relating to natural resources. This means we must all redouble our efforts. We deeply regret the fact that over the course of these negotiations, governments maintained their position that large investments in industrial agriculture are essential for development.
We call once more on the whole international community, the states and governments of the world, to finally commit themselves to establishing a new era in history, based on food sovereignty. These Guidelines, when understood as rights to land, fisheries and forests, are another tool in the ongoing struggle to eradicate hunger from the world
CSO media contact: Sofía Monsalve Suárez, monsalve [at]fian.org , phone +4962216530051
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Thursday, March 6, 2014
The Wine Blogger's Prayer
Lord, we come to you today with humility and reverence, and ask that you hear our pleas, for our hearts are open unto you as quickly as Stelvin allows, yet are as pure as the bark of Quercus suber. You led us to the path of blogger, encouraged us to begin our journey to discover wine, and, as you instructed us, we invited all of mankind to join us on that journey. Lord, it is a lonely journey. My room where I composeth my posts is as quiet as the grave, and my comments section is as barren as the wine list at P.F. Chang's. I send my prayers twice weekly into your blessed Internet, and the silence with which they are greeted is as empty and soulless as a Wine Spectator editorial. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Shanken, I shall fear no Laube, for thou are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. Though I'd prefer it, Lord, if your staff posted a link to me instead.
Lord, we ask that you bless us with the blessings you have bestowed upon our most devout brethren. Saint Thomas of Wark, of the Holy Distribution Trinity System, who hath many followers, which is a supreme miracle. Saint Dude. Nah, nah, nah, nah-nah-nah-nah, nah-nah-nah-nah, Hey Dude. Lord, you have favored the Dude, have bestowed your greatest blessings upon him, and yet we can see no difference between his talents and ours. Just as he Vimeo, so doth we Vimeo. Just as we Tweet, so doth he twat. Is not our twat his equal? Hath thou so forsaken us that Saint Alder has ascended? Saint Alder of Catatonia, duller and emptier than the Amish FaceBook page? Lord, how you make us suffer. Have we fallen so far from grace that we are lower than Saint Blake the Petulant? Must we beggeth for alms on our blogs as he? Oh, Lord, hear our pleas.
Lord, we ask that you deliver us an audience greater than the number of people allowed in a Denny's rest room at any one time by thine fire department regulations. We doeth as thou decree. We publish worthless and incoherent wine reviews and ask only for thine angels of UPS to bring us said wines for free, so that we may spread thy gospel, Drink what you like! Hear me, brothers and sisters! Drink what you like! Break free of the bonds of scholarship and hundreds of years of wine traditions! Drink what you like! Though your wine be corporate and more manipulated than a Florida election, drink what you like! Though your wine bears a label that insults your intelligence, calls you bitch or fat bastard, drink what you like! We shall bear witness, Lord, that we drink what we like, and, yea, we like what we drink when thine angels of UPS bring it for free. Please deliver us an admiring audience for our fatuous and simpleminded tasting notes. Let the words ring out! Great Post! Great Post! Great Post! Love, Mom.
Lord, we ask that you monetize our blogs, for we have talent, Lord, talent that comes from you, talent you should reward for you are responsible for our talent. Allow the winemakers of the world to see our talent, to admire that we Drink what we like. Allow the finest wineries in your kingdom to see the power and the glory that is wine blogging. To see that our future is their future, that your children of the Internet will cast out the powerful naysayers of print, the privileged paper tigers of the press. Your children of the iPhone will abandon the 100 Point Scale like the passengers of the Titanic abandoned ship, plunging into the cold, dark, unforgiving sea of stupidity that is their peer group. We are that cold, dark sea, Lord, and we pray that you monetize us, for we deserve it for our hard work and ability to type. Your children of Twitter will forsake the teachings of Saint Eric and Saint Jon, abandon them as they must abandon any prints of darkness. Your children will no longer continue beneath the fold, but dwell on the surface, where true knowledge lies. As the passengers of the Titanic hath discovered, there is only safety in the shallow, Lord, and none are more shallow than we.
Lord, we are the humblest of your servants. Yet we gather together and give each other awards, since you have forsaken us, and given us so little attention. Are you not the least bit embarrassed for us, Lord? We unashamedly praise each other, as baboons groom, the lowest of us attentively offering up our swollen fun parts to those more powerful in the hopes of being lovingly mounted in the parking lot of Meadowood after the Napa Valley Wine Writers Symposium. We yearn, Lord, to be the mounters, not the lowly Canadian mountees. Must we wait, Lord, must we wait so long for our palates to be recognized? Our friends are dazzled by our wine knowledge, why won't strangers accept our wine thoughts as gospel? We have a CSW, and are in a wine tasting group. What more is there? In your name, we preach your truth. Drink what you like! And yet we feel forsaken, unheard, like Alice Feiring at a UC Davis Winemaking 101 course.
Lord, the simplest of us gather to have Wine Wednesdays and give each other strokes, as Boy Scouts often discover the joys of situational homosexuality. Other simpletons reach out to your least blessed children, Lord, your most intellectually deficient children, your children who seek wisdom from wine blogs, and offer to teach them the basics of wine with splashy graphics and using the simplest words. Forgive them, Lord, they are but the crazy guy in the park lecturing the pigeons, the retired professor lecturing to the empty class room in his mind. They are idiots, they are feebleminded, they presume to teach though they have the qualifications of a one-legged stripper and are just grasping at poles. Yet they are us. Others provide wine pairings for the stupid, who are much in need of wine advice, Lord, and underserved. Pairings for Girl Scout cookies, and breakfast cereal, and edible panties. Oh, Lord, what goes with edible panties better than wine from ancient bush vines? And yet these somms for the simpleminded are us as well.
Lord, hear our pleas. Let us be read and admired, let us be monetized through self-published books and newsletters, let our words be heard, our opinions carry weight, our business cards open doors to the most exclusive tastings. Ask not of us originality of thought, insight or integrity, for we have not the tools. Suffer us fools gladly, Lord, for we are but your fools. We walk our path to discover wine and expect others to walk fearlessly with us through the valley of the shadow of ignorance. We use our gifts to bless others with our wine wisdom and faultless palates, and want only to be recognized as a force for sales, and be taken on junkets where we can get drunk and be unfaithful, like people at real jobs do. We ask this humbly, Lord, though it's only what we deserve. It was this, or a porn site on Tumblr.
23 comments:
- Boopster said...
Holy Moses - I thought you were gone forever! This, your latest rant is quite something.
- March 6, 2014 at 8:25 AM
- Samantha Dugan said...
"Just as we Tweet, so doth he twat" I'm dying ovah heah. I love you so
- March 6, 2014 at 9:58 AM
- Steve Lay said...
I trust the Lord will answer your prayer. We definitely need some devine intervention with the true believers being held in the cleft of His hand. The others are following the Judas Goats.
Remember, the first miracle was the Lord turning poor quality well water into fine wine that was consumed by wine critics/bloggers (my eidit)at a local wedding after everyone was drunk and out of their minds. Probably drunk on 20%abv wine in fine crystal that was designed for each varietal wine offered.
Isn't this the season of Lent? Forgive me Lord, but I just don't like the holier-than-thou.
You wrote a Nice piece. - March 6, 2014 at 10:04 AM
- Marcia Macomber said...
Yea, tho' we walk through the Shadow of Hosing...at least for the rest of us! Thy Holy Blog Post will please the Lord (and the rest of us), O HoseMaster and Commander of Wine!
- March 6, 2014 at 10:27 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Hey Gang,
I have no idea what this piece is really about. I was inspired to write a Wine Blogger's Prayer--I just had the title, not a solid idea. I was winging it the whole way, and, considering my non-religious upbringing, I also had no idea how to make it sound like a prayer. I left it in God's hands.
There's something about all prayer that is a cry to be noticed, to be heard, to feel worthy. Isn't that the exact definition of blogging? Maybe prayer is the attention-barking of lonely Poodles. - March 6, 2014 at 10:50 AM
- Steve Lay said...
You hit a hot button with me. Wineries are their own worst enemy, they mindlessly pour (pun) money down a proverbial rat hole to buy mention from bloggers at a publication or event. These events and publications target the self annointed "washed". Or, plebeian's (in my view) striving for patrician status. I have never read a wine blogger at a tasting jump up and scream-"this wine is crap, it taste like crap, so it must be crap. - March 6, 2014 at 10:51 AM
- Unknown said...
Lower than a Canadian mountee.. jeez, who are us lowly Canucks going to mount?? Ya ever wonder if St. Alder reads your column??
- March 6, 2014 at 11:11 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Wineries, like most of us, have always been their own worst enemies. It didn't start with wine bloggers. As for calling attention to wine that is crap, well, there's an old attitude that people don't want to read about what's terrible, they want to know what to buy. That's probably true. But I'm always aware of writers promoting wines to suit their agendas, which is a way of promoting yourself--whether it's Natural Wine, Wines in Pursuit of Balance (as fake as Natural Wine as a category), or Wines from a Recent Sponsored Junket. Way too much smoke being blown up way too many unsuspecting, ignorant butts.
You Canucks are the mountees, not the mounters...
It's unlikely Alderpated reads HoseMaster of Wine on a regular basis, if at all. Because, hell, no one else does either. - March 6, 2014 at 11:21 AM
- The Sommeliere said...
Ron, where to start? So many wonderfully outrageous lines...
One of my faves: "Pairings for Girl Scout cookies, and breakfast cereal, and edible panties."
Another fave: "Drink what you like! Though your wine be corporate and more manipulated than a Florida election, drink what you like!"
And finally: "And yet we feel forsaken, unheard, like Alice Feiring at a UC Davis Winemaking 101 course."
YOU ROCK! - March 6, 2014 at 11:41 AM
- Thomas said...
Did someone call me???
Sorry, HoseMaster, I was on a journey of my own when your prayer came in--in actuality, it was a junket. - March 6, 2014 at 11:44 AM
- Unknown said...
Figured it was time to finally publicly admit that I read this blog. Always provides a fun read during lunch.
- March 6, 2014 at 11:44 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Marlene Darling,
Thank you. I was just rambling. Though I think maybe the assembled bloggers at the next WBC should read this prayer aloud. Hell, if they do that, I might even go.
No, not really.
No, no one called you, Thomas. I said, "Lord, hear my pleas," not "Lord, where's my earpiece?" And who would sponsor you on a junket? Wines of Crimea?
Consider yourself forgiven. - March 6, 2014 at 11:57 AM
- Thomas said...
Wines of Crimea...How did you guess?
The whole thing over there has nothing to do with Ukraine; it's really about my blog entry regarding their hospitality. Can you imagine that they wanted me to pay for my own journey?
PS: I can hear the opening prayer of the next Wine Blogger's Conference. It's made up of the first line of each of your seven paragraphs, ending in a large howl and some tail wagging a la the raccoon lodge hat.
- March 6, 2014 at 1:17 PM
- Samantha Dugan said...
Damn Baby,
What's a poodle got to wag to get out of the "Gang" bang?! First a common tater and now just a member of the pack...
Gonna go lick my wounds. - March 6, 2014 at 1:24 PM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Well, Crimea River, Crimea River, I cried a river over you.
I can dream about the Wine Bloggers Conference, but, for the most part, none of them have a prayer.
My Gorgeous Samantha,
No need to feel neglected, Love. You're the most uncommon tater of them all, and absolutely the sexiest. Isn't it enough to be Commander of Wine!'s pet? No, I guess it wouldn't be. - March 6, 2014 at 3:22 PM
- Unknown said...
Remember, the first miracle was the Lord turning poor quality well water into fine wine that was consumed by wine critics/bloggers (my eidit)at a local wedding after everyone was drunk and out of their minds. Probably drunk on 20%abv wine in fine crystal that was designed for each varietal wine offered.
Wine Companies in Bangalore
- March 6, 2014 at 10:48 PM
- Joe Roberts said...
More spectator than active commenter lately but felt the need to chime in and say what fun it's been to see the end results of all of the ideas we discussed in Calistoga in your foray of latest works. This one is just as brilliantly funny as I'd hoped. Well, I'll admit that the boy scouts thing got me wincing a little bit, but I'm getting soft now that I'm a parent.
p.s. - Sorry that Parker guy brought you into his bizarre Anti-Asimov/Bonne agenda, that was pretty weird... - March 7, 2014 at 4:24 AM
- Eric V. Orange said...
oh, wait.....
EVO - March 7, 2014 at 6:21 AM
- Quizicat said...
Another fun blog post. Takes me back to my abused parochial childhood. Thank goodness the boy scout troop wasn't sponsored by the church. We'd have truly been in trouble then.
Also Mr Parker still appreciates your writing. - March 7, 2014 at 8:32 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Sher Kahn,
Are you the tiger? Or formerly married to the late Sonny Bono?
I've been wondering, did Jesus' first wine qualify as "natural?" Seems like it would be disqualified for too much divine intervention. And if Jesus can't make natural wine...
It was great fun to hang out with you in Calistoga. Thanks for getting in touch.
Hey, any time Parker drops the HoseMaster's name, I'm fine with that. The whole overblown kerfuffle about his speech to the Napa Valley "Professional" (used in the same way Sears uses it for power tools) Wine Writers Simp/osium was great comedy, from my point of view. The "Professional" wine writers will know if they've made it one day, which is unlikely for most of them, when a speech they make is picked to pieces. The word "vultures" comes to mind.
Meanwhile, thanks for dropping in, my friend. And making people wince is a satirist's job.
Man, you're like the Internet equivalent of a photo bombing. A Blog Bomber! - March 7, 2014 at 8:34 AM
- Vin de Terre said...
"Natural Wine, Wines in Pursuit of Balance...." Wasn't Obscure, Godforsaken Fringe Wines the third in the Axis of Evil?
- March 7, 2014 at 9:34 AM
- Eric V. Orange said...
"A Blog Bomber!"
I like that!!
I'll be the Blog Bomber. Instead of trying to think of something witty, when all I really want is my name in print, I'll just spew out BOMBER!! or BLOG BOMB or some such.
EVO - March 7, 2014 at 11:27 AM
- Ron Washam, HMW said...
Just go to all the major blogs, and mine, and have as your comment:
Start with Blinky.
- March 7, 2014 at 11:29 AM


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Home Page Chess Life Online 2010 July The Kids are Alright in Amsterdam
The Kids are Alright in Amsterdam |
By GM Ian Rogers | |
August 16, 2010 | |
Last year, Hikaru Nakamura had a nightmare
outing at the annual Youth v Experience tournament in Amsterdam, suffering from
illness and, apart from one sensational win over Beliavsky, playing well below
his normal form. In 2010 Nakamura has returned to the plush Hotel Krasnapolsky but at the halfway mark his chances have already taken a big hit. The fifth edition of the tournament is the strongest in the series, with Beliavsky being replaced in the old codgers by a top 10 player, Boris Gelfand, and a powerful new crop of youngsters joining 2009 attendees Caruana and Nakamura - the American now proudly sporting a 2700+ rating. Conditions for the youth players are lavish, including expenses and a fee for a second; the older players make do with a wife or girlfriend. The players also have a dress code; suits for the opening and closing ceremonies and smart dress - no jeans - during the games. As well as the modest cash prizes, the juniors are also playing for some bonus prizes, the most prestigious being that the winner qualifies for the lucrative and elite Amber exhibition tournament, to be held in Nice next March. For Nakamura, the chance to compete against the world's best in rapid and blindfold games would be particularly attractive, though a blindfold bullet tournament would probably be his dream gig. Better promotion and signage has resulted in the NH tournament - played in the centre of the Dutch capital at one of the city's most historic hotels - no longer being Amsterdam's best kept secret, although the 80 seat commentary room has yet to be more than half full. Those who have turned up have been treated to some spectacular chess, with Nakamura and Howell drawing only one game each to date. The chess press have come out in some force, from as far afield as Russia and Greece, plus ICC's Macauley Peterson who, with Chessvibes' Peter Doggers, is producing videos for the organizers at http://www.nhchess.com/. The press room may be small but with living legends like John Nunn and Vlastimil Hort sitting in the front row discussing variations, there is no shortage of informed opinion on the games. Even better, when watching a post-mortem in the VIP room the journalists are forced to wave away (or not) waiters offering delicacies such as sweet chili prawns or Dutch croquettes. John Nunn is the tournament oracle. For example, when Svidler suggested that a particular hypothetical endgame from his third round loss against Caruana might be a draw, he was contradicted in no uncertain terms, and told exactly how White should win. And when Nunn discovered a winning rook sacrifice on move 17 for Caruana in his fifth round game against Ljubojevic, he marched into the commentary room and showed the wonderful winning variations to the assembled masses. Caruana was shown the error of his ways after the game and readily accepted Nunn's conclusions. The Nakamura Rollercoaster Nakamura, playing against the lowest rated oldster in the first round, started the tournament impressively. Amsterdam NH 2010 White: H. Nakamura Black: L. Ljubojevic Black had emerged from the opening with slight pressure but had unwisely allowed Nakamura a queenside majority and now the American, despite slight time trouble, finds an effective breakthrough. 31.b5! Qxb5 32.Qxb5 axb5 33.Rfb1 Be3 34.Bxe3 Nxe3 35.a6 Kg7 36.Nd4 b4? "A blunder," said Nakamura. "36...Ra8 gives Black better chances to draw the game but it is still slightly worse and he would have had to suffer quite a bit." 37.a7 bxc3 38.Rb8 R8e7 39.a8Q Ng4 40.Nf3 c2 41.h3 1-0 The next day Nakamura looked like a different player, misplaying the opening against van Wely and barely surviving into a lost rook endgame. Then something strange happened... Amsterdam NH 2010 White: L. van Wely Black: H.Nakamura Van Wely saw that 45.h3 Rxa5 46.Rh7 Ra1+ 47.Kh2 f4 48.Rxh5+ Kf6 49.h4 followed by Rg5-g4 and h5 would be a slow but sure win, but decided to play something 'cleaner'. 45.h4?! Rxh4! 46.a6 Ra4 47.a7 Kf4 "Now I saw he had counterplay and I was in shock," said van Wely. "If my king comes to the queenside he will have ...h4-h3 and a passed f pawn. 48.Kh2?! Had van Wely recovered his equilibrium he would have been able to calculate that 48.Kf2 Ra2+ 49.Ke1 h4 50.Kd1 h3 51.gxh3 Kxf3 52.h4! f4 53.h5 Ke3 54.h6 f3 55.Re7+ Kd3 56.Ke1 wins quite simply for White. The alternative attempt to hang around the g pawn and give up the Black rook for the a pawn also fails, e.g. 50...Ke3 51.Kc1 Kf2 52.Kb1 Rxa7 53.Rxa7 Kxg2 54.f4! and the White king gets to e5 or in front of the Black pawns in plenty of time. 48...Ra2 49.Rb7 Ra6 50.Kh3 h4 51.Rh7 Kg5 52.g3? It was not too late to head back with the king. 52...hxg3 53.Kxg3 Ra2 54.Rg7+ Kf6 55.Rb7 Kg5 56.f4+ Kh5 57.Rg7 Kh6 58.Rf7 Kg6 59.Re7 Kh5 60.Rh7+ Kg6 61.Rc7 Kh5 62.Kf3 Ra3+ 63.Ke2 Kg4 64.Kd2 Kxf4 65.Kc2 Ke5 66.Kb2 Ra6 67.Kc3 Kd6 68.Rf7 Kc5 69.Rxf5+ Kb6 70.Rf6+ Kxa7 71.Rxa6+ Kxa6 Draw An amazing escape by Nakamura, though van Wely injected a note of realism when he said "Nakamura wants to get to the top and if you want to get all the way to the top you can't gamble like this." A visiting Greek journalist was more complimentary; "I admired his concentration - even though he was completely lost he kept fighting." Round 3 saw the bright side of Nakamura's optimism; if at first you don't succeed, try again. Amsterdam NH 2010 White: H. Nakamura Black: P-H Nielsen Rather than play the natural 23.Reb1, Nakamura found a tricky tactical idea... 23.Ne4!? Qe7! Now Nakamura examined all White's attacking ideas such as Qf4 and Nf6+ and correctly calculated that they didn't work. (Remember that Black is now threatening 24...Ba5.) So, showing a maturity beyond his years, Nakamura simply retracted his last move, doing no lasting harm to his position. 24.Nc3! Nielsen was thereby encouraged to try to take the initiative with 24...Ra3?! but after 25.Reb1! "I just didn't know what to do," admitted Nielsen; 26.Ba4 is coming and if 25...R3a7 26.Ba4 is again strong. However Black's choice just makes matters much worse. 25...g6? 26.Ne4!! There is no law against going to the same square twice! 26...dxe4 "Probably the only chance," said Nakamura, who clearly viewed the position after 26...Ba5 27.Rb8+ Kg7 28.Qc1 Bc7 29.Rxa8 Rxa8 30.Nd6 as far too passive for Black. 27.Rxc4 e3 28.fxe3 Qg5 29.Bd3 h5 "29...Qh6 makes more sense," said Nakamura, who was nonetheless confident that his extra pawn would prevail. 30.Rcb4 h4 31.Kg2 Kg7 32.Rb7 Ra2 33.R1b2 Ba5 34.Qf2 Rxb2 35.Rxb2 Ra7 36.Qf4 Bd8 37.Be4 h3+ Desperation. 38.Kxh3 Qh5+ 39.Kg2 Qd1 40.Rf2 1-0 Suddenly Nakamura was leading the tournament, although his two highest rated opponents were to come in the next two rounds. Peter Svidler, coming off a bad loss to Fabiano Caruana, was in no mood to give the front-runner an easy time... Amsterdam NH 2010 White: P.Svidler Black: H.Nakamura Opening: Advance Caro-Kann 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.h4 h5 5.c4 e6 6.Nc3 Ne7 7.Nge2 dxc4 8.Ng3 Bg6 9.Bg5 Qb6 10.Qd2 Qb4 11.a3 Qb3 Svidler picks up the story; "I was using some old line I had worked on [as Kramnik's second for the world title match in 2004] in Brissago, while Hikaru is following a game between Adams and Karpov from 1994 - some decent players, I must admit. However my plan here is very strong." 12.Nge4! Nd5?! "Of course he has to try to hang onto the pawn; otherwise the whole plan makes no sense. He had to try 12...Bxe4 13.Nxe4 Nd5 14.Rh3 Qa4 when I have wonderful compensation for the pawn but it is not so easy to break through." 13.Rh3! Qb6?! "13...Bxe4!? was still possible because after 14.Nxd5 Black can try 14...Bxd5! 15.Rxb3 cxb3." 14.Bxc4 Qa5 15.Nd6+ Bxd6 16.exd6 Nd7 17.Rc1 Nxc3 18.Rcxc3 Nf6 19.b4 Qd8?! 20.Qf4! and White won convincingly. "I think he just doesn't feel comfortable playing me," said Svidler, whose score against Nakamura is now overwhelming. "Of course one day he will beat me and you won't see games like this. It was a disastrous opening for him but also I saw quite a lot today." Nakamura, who remained tied for first place, accepted the defeat as deserved but worse was to follow. 4753 Opening: Caro-Kann, Panov Attack. 1.c4 c6 2.e4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 0-0 10.0-0 a6 11.Bd3 b5 The action started here, when Nakamura, a tempo down on a fairly standard queen's gambit position, decided to gambit his d-pawn with 12.Qe2!? and Gelfand took up the challenge... 12...Nxd4! 13.Nxd4 Qxd4 14.Be4! Rb8 15.Bf4 Nxe4! 16.Bxb8 Bb7 17.Bg3 Gelfand was more concerned about 17.Rfd1 Nxc3 18.bxc3 Qxc3 19.Be5, although 17...Qxf2+ 18.Qxf2 Nxf2 19.Rd7, which he had thought to be unplayable, might yet work out for Black after 19...Nh3+!. 17...Nxc3 18.bxc3 Qd5 19.f3 Qc5+ 20.Bf2 Qxc3 21.a4! Bd5 22.Rfc1 Qb3 23.axb5 axb5 24.Bc5! Nakamura is consistently liquidating the right pieces and one might expect a draw to be agreed soon but Gelfand, with no weaknesses in his position, is happy to keep the game going. 24...Bxc5+ 25.Rxc5 Qb4 26.Qe3 Qb2 27.Rcc1 Bc4 28.Qc3?! Now Black's options expand; White could simply push the Black queen back with 28.Rcb1. 28...Qxc3 29.Rxc3 g5! 30.Rca3 Bd5 31.Rb1 Rb8 32.Rb4 Bc4 33.h4? Handing over a pawn for no reason. "I played like a complete idiot," said Nakamura. "I shouldn't be making blunders like that. If I [organize to] take on c4 instead of play 33.h4, it's a complete draw. I blundered inexplicably. Yesterday I deserved to lose but today I should have drawn. I played a good game until 33.h4??" Gelfand agreed, but with reservations. "At some moment White must exchange on c4 and play the 3 v 4 rook endgame. But because White cannot get the f2, g3, h4 pawn structure it is not trivial - White must find some good moves to draw. Najdorf lost a similar endgame to Botvinnik once." 33...gxh4 34.Kh2 Rd8 35.Re3 f5! 36.Re5 Kf7 37.Kh3 Kf6 38.Rc5 Kg5 39.Rcxc4 Too little, too late. 39...bxc4 40.Rxc4 Rd1 41.Kh2 e5 and Gelfand won easily. So at the halfway mark, although the youth team is leading, Nakamura is back on 50%, trailing two of his teammates in the race for the trip to Melody Amber. Local hero Anish Giri, just 16, leads the field alongside Gelfand, with Caruana just behind on 3/5, the only other player ahead of Nakamura. The rest day could not have come at a better time for Nakamura but to regroup and start winning again against a field of this class is a big ask. Follow the action, including videos, live games and pgn files on the tournament website, http://www.nhchess.com/index.html. |


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Studying abroad is an amazing experience. It is unique from the personal as well as academic point of view. Being for a few months in an international environment is the best opportunity to establish intercultural contacts, have a valuable insight into a different culture, learn a language and grow as a person.
Trailer of "Icelandic Dreams", an inspirational online series about the real-life Erasmus experience.
Watch it here: Icelandic Dreams, an Erasmus Story
Benefits of an exchange period abroad
There are four main traits of those who passed some time at the university abroad:
- they are culturally competent,
- many speak foreign languages and possess good communication skills,
- they are mobile
- they develop their personality.
Opinions of students who came back from abroad
"My year participation in the Erasmus exchange was highly enjoyable, exciting experience, which broadened my mind, and exceeded all of my expectations."
Timothy, English (studied in the Netherlands)
"One of the best years in my life, if not the best."
Maria, Spanish (studied in Sweden)
"This experience might be a bit scary, but for sure needs to be done by every university student. Especially from those faculties (like Economy) after which one will participate in the global market, where the languages are extremely important."
Davide, Italian (studied in England)
"Because this is a spectacular experience that enriches you, that opens you mind, that changes you. Everyone should do it! Do not think twice, but leave!"
Anna, Italian (studied in Portugal)
"What did I most appreciate? Different things: you meet new and different people, different cultures, different ways of life... You can also visit new countries, new cities... From educational point of view, it's a new and very interesting experience."
Eva, Spanish (studied in Sweden)


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Have you made New Year's resolutions and wonder how you are going to achieve them? Here are 50 free printables on what to do in January to get yourself organized and ready to achieve your goals!
These 50 free printables include worksheets for New Year's resolutions goals, printable calendars, checklists for busy moms, free kids chore charts, meal plans, and checklists for groceries, couponing, & fitness goals! Let's not forget to mention printable tags as well as budget and home finance worksheets!
New Year Resolutions
1. New Year's Resolution List {Printable} ~ An at-a-glace checklist where you can write down all of your new year's resolutions for yourself and your family.
2. Printable Goal Sheet ~ Stay organized and meet your monthly goals with this free printable. It includes a place for a list as well as notes so it's perfect for craft or home projects as well.
3. Goal Planning Worksheet ~ Organize your weekly goals by category. Family & Home, Personal, Career, Health, Spiritual, etc. It will help you better manage your time, plus the cheery colors will keep you optimistic.
4. Print the Executive Homemaker Binder ~ The ultimate way to keep track of all of your papers! From School, sports, menu planning, To-do's, and anything else you need to keep track of.
Free Printable Calendars
5. Year at a Glance ~ Five different designs to choose from, here's a quick way to keep track of your ongoing events.
6. Free Family Birthday Calendar ~ Keep track of your immediate and extended families as well as friends' birthdays with a master calendar that you can use year after year.
Busy Moms Goals
7. Everyday Photo Checklist ~ This checklist is filled with 50 photo ideas and photography prompts intended to help you capture those ordinary, but oh-so-special, everyday moments.
8. Cant Miss Photo List ~ This checklist is filled with 50 photo ideas and photography prompts intended to help you capture those ordinary, but oh-so-special, everyday moments.
9. School Note Printable ~ Make your life a little easier and add some charm with these free printable school notes. Just check the appropriate boxes to let your kid's teacher know of an absence, a need to leave early, sending money for lunch, or other important information.
10. Free Printable Calling Cards ~ Jessica from How About Orange has designed these groovy calling cards that you can customize and print out for FREE! And as she says:
11. Printable Playdate Invitation ~ With all the new friends your kids are making now that school is in, keep these printable playdate invitations on hand to make it easy to swap info. Printable versions are available for girls or boys.
12. Kids Activity Calendar {Free Printable} ~ This is a 2011 Calendar, but the activities and printables are amazing! This is a great calendar that the kids can use to keep track of their projects and family activities. They can even add what's for dinner, can you imagine the kids never asking you that again?! Plus there is a cute activity for them to do each month at the top of the calendar which will help make it their own.
13. New Year Paper Doll {free printable} ~ This adorable set includes Three Winter/New Year outfits, all the makings for a fun Snowman, and the makings for a New Year's Party including a banner, confetti, and party horns.
14. House Rules ~ This is just a quick idea of how you can organize and display your family house rules. This not only shows your kiddos what is expected but also keeps Mom and Dad on the same page for consistency with enforcement. {wink}
15. Free Printable Birthday Planner ~ Use this birthday planner not only to help you plan the party but also to host the party. Keep the Birthday Planner, in your Family Info section of the Executive Homemaker Binder.
Organizing the Home Goals
16. Printable Sewing Room Labels ~ Print out these free colorful labels to help you stay organized in your sewing room. Cut them out, sort your fabric into bins, stick them on the front and you are good to go.
17. Recycling Bin Labels {Free Printables} ~ Are you an environmentalist? How about an organizing guru? Or do you just like bright pretty labels? If you answered yes, these free printable recycling labels are for you.
18. Printable Service Jar Slips~ A kiddo picks a slip and does a good deed. Once the jar is empty, the whole family celebrates with a reward. (We like ice cream, but maybe you like movies feel free to make it your own.)
19. Winter Bucket List {Printable Activities for Kids} ~ This fun winter bucket list will look cute framed on your desk and will be handy when planning some winter family fun for your brood. The activities will keep everyone in good spirits when it is too cold to go outside and play
20. Thank You Note Tracker ~ A printable worksheet to keep track of all the wonderful people you need to send a quick thank you to.
Printable Chore Charts for Kids
21. Chores at what age ~ Here is a list of what kids can do at each age and training them to be independent. From Merrilee Boyack's book, 'The Parenting Breakthrough'.
22. Printable Children Chart {Chore Ticket System} ~ This is a weekly schedule that is fun with a printable children chart or chore ticket system which can be redeemed for store items or activity rewards.
23. Room by Room Chore Checklist for Kids {printable} ~ Each week, assign each child their job card. They check off the jobs throughout the week and at the end of seven days, you will have a relatively clean house. Each card has a reminder at the bottom: If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right!
24. Way to Go Reward Chart ~ These charts are for toddler-age children, thus the minimal list for good behavior. Available in three colors, this chart rewards good eating, good listening, picking up toys, and playing nice.
25. Printable Chore Charts {scrapbook style} ~ Choose from two great free printable chore chart. One you can print, laminate, and add magnetic strips to be moved over when the chore is completed, or laminate the other and use a dry-erase marker to check off each chore as it's completed.
26. Toddler Chore Chart {Printable} ~ With the simple, chic design of this free printable chore chart, you will be proud to display it on your fridge. Perfect for getting the younger kids into a helpful routine while the older ones are at school.
27. Sticker Reward Charts {Printable} ~ These sticker reward charts are a great way to stay organized and motivate your children. Use them for homework, chores, or any other goals your little ones are working toward.
28. Organization Kit for Kids ~ It's never too late to start the kids off on the right track to the organization. Here's a fun organization kit to help! Use a corkboard, fridge, or other visible place to keep these items where the kids can easily use them.
29. Daily Schedule for Toddlers ~ When my children were toddlers I found it very difficult to get everything done that I needed and wanted to do. My boys needed serious structure, so I came up with this schedule that helped all of us have fun and accomplish what we needed.
30. Sports & Music Practice Pages {5 Free Printables} ~ A simple and fun way to help motivate them is by showing them how to keep track of their progress. It can be with their favorite sport or even music.
Groceries, Couponing, & Fitness Goals
31. Printable Grocery List Tear-Off Pad ~ Not only is this grocery list printable, but it is customizable as well! You can choose which items you use and put them on your list before printing, genius!
32. Printable Coupon Organizer ~ If you are a coupon clipper who has trouble sorting and organizing your coupon stash, this free printable coupon organizer will help you get your money-saving adventure of on an organized foot.
33. Printable Menu Plan and Shopping List {Printable Worksheets} ~ If you are looking for something new to help you organize your menu and shopping list each week, this just might be the trick. Write out your menu on one side of the paper and make your shopping list on the other. Then separate and place the menu on your fridge and the shopping list in your purse.
34. Menu Planner {Weekly Calendar Printable} ~ Make your meal planning easier and prettier with these free printable menu planners. Fourteen different designs to choose from. Let's eat!
35. Menu and Grocery List {Free Printable} ~ What's for dinner? The question all mothers dread. Use this free printable list to plan out your meals for the week and organize the list you need for the grocery store. And it's cute to boot!
36. Printable Snack Chart ~ Write down the food or snack that you are going to feed your kiddos or you can have them write down the snacks they ate for the day. Making them write down the snacks themselves makes them (and you of course!) aware of what they are stuffing their mouths with whether they're healthy food or not. At the end of the week, you and your child can examine the worksheet and evaluate your child's eating habits.
37. Monthly Food Storage Schedule ~ This is a detailed listing of food storage and 72-hour kit items broken down by month. This schedule should make it a little easier to purchase, rotate, and schedule your food storage and 72-hour kit.
38. Weekly Food Diary {Free Printable} ~ A tool to help dieters track points, calories, carbs, and more. Keeping a daily food log or diary is an excellent weight loss tool. It makes you more aware of your habits and consume less.
39. Weekly Fitness Goal Tracker ~ Weekly Fitness Goal Tracker: Increase your odds of reaching your fitness goals by planning them out for the week. Includes strength training and cardio activities, as well as a space to record notes and additional details.
Financial & Home Goals
40. Basic Medical Information ~ keep all of your info in one place. You can grab it at a moment's notice if you're in a hurry to the ER, when you're leaving the kids with grandma, or just because.
41. Printable Home Management Lists {Free Printable Chore Chart} ~ These printable kitchen chore and laundry chore checklists are a great addition to your home management binder.
42. Printable Worksheets for Home Management ~ These printable kitchen chore and laundry chore checklists are a great addition to your home management binder.
43. When To Buy Chart ~ Save money with this great free printable. This handy chart will tell you when the best time is to purchase everything from vehicles and patio furniture to chocolate and flip-flops.
44. Free Monthly Spending Worksheet ~ Use this at-a-glace worksheet as a great way to keep track of your money-management skills.
45. Budget Organization ~ Organize your family budget with this beautiful free printable! If you have to stick to a strict budget, it may as well be on a cute paper, right? 😉
46. Twelve Free Printable Recipe Cards ~ Tip Junkie Printables has twelve darling free printable recipe cards to help organize your favorite recipes for quick meal planning.
47. Urgency and Importance Worksheet (To-Do List) ~ This worksheet is best for when you've got a long to-do list and they get jumbled together because you've got too much on your mind.
48. Free Blog Organizer {printable worksheet} ~ Free worksheet to help you track your inspiration online and plan out your posts. Great for bloggers and crafters who find inspiration from blogs.
49. Clear Toy Bin Labels ~ Organizing your kid's toys is now easier than ever! The best part is this system makes it easy for them to clean up after themselves.
50. Christmas Card Garland {Christmas Tree} ~ Get a leg up on next year by turning your Christmas cards into a decorative garland.
More Printable Activities from Tip Junkie:
- Roll a Snowman- A game for the whole Family!
- Winter Holiday Paper Doll Printable {free printable}
- Free Printable Sight Word Cards {+25 Games}
What fun activities are YOU doing this week?
Creating Memories that Endure,


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Parrots and Horses Reveal their Musical Preferences
By Jill Harness
From classical and country to dub step and smooth jazz, humans have some drastically different opinions on music. But when it comes to animals, it seems that birds of a feather tend to rock together—or at least they tend to agree on what they hate. We know that because researchers in the UK recently exposed African grey parrots to folk, rock, pop, classical and techno. While some of the birds seemed relaxed while listening to classical music, others preferred to bob their heads to folk or rock music. The one thing they all agreed on was techno. Whenever the Chemical Brothers or Prodigy were played, the birds started acting stressed, screeching and squawking until the music was shut off.
Horses, too, are quite critical when it comes to their musical tastes. Another team of British researchers recently studied how horses behaved while exposed to classical, rock, country, and jazz (unfortunately, no techno was played). Strikingly, the horses were much bigger music critics than the parrots, showing stressed behaviors such as head tossing, stamping and snorting when both rock and jazz were played—seeming the most agitated by jazz (the researchers think it's because of jazz's fast tempo and minor key). On the other hand, when country and classical were played, the horses were far calmer than they were when no music was played at all.
Though the parrots and horses seemed to disagree on many genres, they did both agree that classical music is relaxing. So until similar studies are performed on dogs, cats, chinchillas, hamsters, and any other pets you may have, you might want to stick with classical if you want to play some music for your non-human friends.


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Chemipure quickly filters excess waste nutrients that bacteria feed on, stopping bacteria build up and clearing your tank. Most fish tanks and aquariums become cloudy, dirty or murky as bacteria consume waste and multiply, clouding up the water.
Chemipure removes dissolved organic waste, food and other particulates quickly and safely by filtering them directly from marine and freshwater tank water, stopping the bacteria build up. Chemipure is a simple-to-use filter media suitable for all types of aquatic environments, and which is manufactured with the latest technologies available.
Chemipure is very economical, and provides problem-free filter operation. Chemipure is a nylon filter bag filled with a high grade blend of activated carbons and ion exchange resins. The activated carbons filter particulates and waste while the ion exchange resins help remove nitrogen (ammonia and nitrate) build up which is harmful to your fish.
Chemipure also stabilizes water chemistry while keeping your pH levels perfectly constant. Its effects are far reaching, another reason why aquarists worldwide have been using it for years to help improve the life and health of their aquariums.


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First molecular steps to childhood leukemia identified
Chromosome reshuffle affecting blood stem cells leads to cancer development years-later
A Harvard research based at Massachusetts General Hospital has identified how a chromosomal abnormality known to be associated with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) – the most common cancer in children – initiates the disease process. In the July issue of Cell Stem Cell, they describe how expression of this mutation in hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which usually occurs before birth, leads to the development of leukemia many years later.
"Based on their longevity, it had been assumed but never shown that HSCs were the cells in which the first steps of leukemia occur. We now unequivocally demonstrate that HSCs can be involved in the early evolution of leukemia and that cells expressing an oncogene can continue contributing to blood formation while serving as a hard-to-detect reservoir of malignancy-prone cells," says Hanno Hock, MD, PhD, of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the MGH Cancer Center and Center for Regenerative Medicine, corresponding author of the Cell Stem Cell article. "We hope that better understanding the latency period of childhood leukemia will help us interfere with the disease earlier and in a more targeted, less toxic manner."
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) represents 23 percent of all cancer diagnoses in children under 15. Although treatment of childhood ALL has been a major success story, with 85 percent of patients surviving five years or more, it involves two to three years of complex chemotherapy. Studies have identified leukemia-associated genetic and molecular abnormalities that can precede development of symptoms by several years and also pointed to a chromosomal translocation called TEL-AML1 as the first step toward ALL. But how and in which cells this process begins was not clear.
Previous examinations of the role of the TEL-AML1 allele in initiating ALL, conducted using less refined systems, had inconsistent results. In the current study, the research team developed a mouse model in which they could induce the expression of TEL-AML1 at various stages of blood cell development using the same chromosomal regulatory elements active in leukemic cells. They found that, when the mutation is expressed in more differentiated progenitor cells, those cells do not survive long enough to acquire subsequent mutations required for malignant transformation. But expression of TEL-AML1 in HSCs, the only blood-forming cells that continually renew themselves, leads to a persistent overpopulation of altered HSCs that are particularly sensitive to secondary, transformational mutations.
"Basically, TEL-AML1 expands HSCs and puts them into a dormant but malignancy-prone state, setting the stage for the catastrophe to come," says Hock. "We are now looking at what happens when TEL-AML1 combines with other mutations occuring later in the development of this type of leukemia, to put together the complete biology of the disease. If we can generate a disease model that incorporates all the steps leading to full-blown leukemia, that should help us further study the biology of the disease and test new, targeted therapies."
Jeffrey Schindler of the MGH Cancer Center and Center for Regenerative Medicine is lead author of the Cell Stem Cell paper. Additional co-author are Denille Van Buren, Adlen Foudi, PhD, Ondrej Krejci, MD, PhD, and Jinshong Qin, PhD, MGH; and Stuart Orkin, MD, Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The study was primarily supported by grants from the Ellison Foundation, the Laurie Strauss Leukemia Foundation, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute, and the National Institutes of Health.


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A massive 14-pound lobster was caught during a fishing trip in Bermuda following a powerful category 4 hurricane that barreled through the region recently.
The lobster was caught "by accident" with a hook a line while the Sanctuary Marine Bermuda charter boat was out fishing for snapper, according to a Facebook post Saturday afternoon.
"Hurricane Nicole blew in some sea monsters," the post read.
After taking photos of the mammoth crustacean, the lobster was released safely back into the ocean. Photos of the lobster that were posted on the Sanctuary Marine Bermuda's Facebook page have been shared more than 6,000 times in less than 48 hours.
While appearing massive in size, the lobster is far from the bigger one ever caught; he Guinness Book of World Records lists a lobster weighing more than 44 pounds that was caught off of Nova Scotia, Canada, as the largest ever recorded, according to multiple reports.
Lobsters typically grow to be about 3 feet or longer in length, according to the University of Maine's Lobster Institute. And while there is no way to determine the exact age of a lobster, experts say they can live to be up to 100 years.
Hurricane Nicole passed over Bermuda on Thursday and moved out to sea. The storm hit Bermuda with plenty of wind and rain but never officially made landfall.
"Bermuda did get into the eye," he explained, "but when it involves an island, the center of the eye must go over the island."
Nicole attained Category 4 status Wednesday night on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the center said, but lost wind strength Thursday.
A storm surge was expected to raise water levels by 6 to 8 feet above normal tides, and 5 to 8 inches of rain are expected to fall over the island through Thursday evening, the hurricane center said.
Nick Warren of Boston and his wife, Nicole, told CNN they were spending the week at Tucker's Point 5 resort when the storm hit. He said the weather changed from fierce storm to calm in a matter of about 15 minutes, apparently when the eye of the storm passed over, then picked up again.


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Horation Johnson, 37 2412 Van Arpel, LaPlace LA |
Brittnay Martin, 24 1544 Delta Rd, LaPlace LA |
Arrested by the US Marshalls Office Task Force as Fugitives from New Orleans PD, wanted for the 2nd Degree Murder of Kenneth & Lakeitha Joseph.
UPDATE – March 25,, 2014
The body of Kenneth Joseph was found Monday in the Intracoastal Waterway in New Orleans LA.
The coroner's office identified the body taken out of the water near the Paris Road, or green bridge, as that of Kenneth Joseph.
The cause of death for Joseph was drowning and coroner's office investigator John Gagliano said that Joseph's body had likely been in the water for weeks.
UPDATE – March 11, 2014
The body of Lakeitha Joseph was found Monday in the Intracoastal Waterway in New Orleans LA.
Lakeitha Joseph, 29, and her husband, 34-year-old Kenneth Joseph, were reported missing by relatives on Feb. 19 after their house on Homewood Place was found ransacked.
The Orleans Parish coroner has confirmed that Lakeitha drowned, but did not rule out foul play.
Kenneth Joseph has not been located.
The couple's 2010 Dodge Caravan was found in a suburban Atlanta parking lot on Feb. 28, and the Sheriff's Office sent detectives there to look for evidence.
Lakeitha's body was found by a boater Monday at about 1:30 p.m.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
UPDATE – Feb. 28, 2014
Georgia Agency Locates Van in Missing Persons Investigation
On Thursday, February 27, 2014, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office detectives received information from the Fulton County Sheriff Office in Georgia that the van that Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph were known to be driving was located in good condition at an apartment complex in College Park, GA. Fulton County Sheriff's Office detectives are assisting our agency in this investigation.
Additional information will be forwarded when available.
Release of Feb 20, 2014
On Wednesday, February 19, 2014, at 6:38 pm, St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office deputies responded to the 500 block of Homewood Place in Reserve for the report of a married couple who have not been heard from since Tuesday evening at 6:30 pm. Family members of Kenneth Joseph, 34, B/M, and Lakeitha Joseph, 29, B/F, reported that they had not heard from the couple since Tuesday.
Vehicle located in Fulton County Georgia 2-27-14 |
Current Picture of Lakeitha Joseph |
Kenneth Joseph's sister told investigators that Kenneth often borrowed her vehicle and would return it before morning the next day. She said that he borrowed her vehicle Tuesday at approximately 6:30 pm and had not returned the vehicle. She felt that it was odd that he did not return the vehicle as he usually does.
The mother of Kenneth Joseph became concerned after several attempts through the day Wednesday to contact her son by cell phone failed. She contacted Lakeitha's father, and his attempts to contact his daughter were unsuccessful. The concerned parents went to the couple's residence on Homewood Place in Reserve to find the house unlocked and them not home.
Kenneth Joseph is 5 foot 8 inches tall and weighs 210 pounds. Lakeitha Joseph is 5 foot 4 inches tall and weighs approx 200 pounds. The vehicle Kenneth borrowed is a silver 2010 Dodge Grand Caravan with Louisiana license plate, TVN 993.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Kenneth and Lakeitha Joseph is asked to call the St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff's Office tip line at 985-359- TIPS(8477) or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.


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Lady Gaga Suffers Concussion During New Zealand Show
Ouch! Lady Gaga suffered a concussion while performing in Auckland, New Zealand. But the Mother Monster didn't halt the show, instead playing 16 songs after being smacked upside the head with a stage prop.
Gaga, who recently seemed to respond to Madonna's onstage diss of her music, was performing 'Judas,' dressed in white, when Mark, who is one of her dancers, accidentally hit her on the head with a pole. She didn't miss a note or get knocked off her game, despite get knocked in the skull. She rubbed her head for a second and kept going. What a trooper.
GagaMedia reports that while on stage, Gaga said, "I want to apologize, I did hit my head and I think I may have a concussion but don't you worry. I will finish this show." And finish this show is just what the Mother Monster did. She likely had a pretty ripping headache as a result of the knock she took on the noggin, though.
Kudos to her for being so selfless. Concussions are dangerous things, and they've become prominent in the media recently due to so many NFL players sustaining them.
The singer's makeup artist Tara Savelo, about whom Gaga often tweets, confirmed that Gaga was indeed concussed but that she is feeling better.
That's great news. Below is Savelo's tweet, where she assures little monsters that she is taking good care of Gaga.
Gaga has a concussion but she is going to be okay.She wants u to know she loves u. I'm taking care of her.cant believe she finished the show
— Tara Savelo (@TaraSavelo) June 10, 2012
Watch Lady Gaga Get Hit in the Head While Performing 'Judas'


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Working in close partnership with leading designers, we develop and manufacture furniture that could not be produced by either industrial or craftsmanship methods alone. Each piece of furniture is a testament to the finest in Swiss quality.
As a comprehensive supplier of interiors, we plan and execute national and international projects in collaboration with renowned architects. From development through to planning, production and installation.
Röthlisberger is a fourth-generation family business. We combine traditional craftsmanship with innovative engineering and cutting-edge technology.


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Hello! Welcome to Synology Web Station!
The Web Station service is enabled. You can now create you own website on DiskStation. Please follow steps below to build, and publish your website online.
How to publish my website?
To publish your website and make it available for people on the Internet, you need to set your DiskStation to use an external IP address.
Now, people on the Internet can browse through your website by connecting to http://serverIP/ or http://DDNS_hostname/ with a web browser.


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Directed Duties and Inalienable Rights: A Brief Summary – Article by Daniel Yeluashvili
Daniel Yeluashvili
Editor's Note: This guest article by Daniel Yeluashvili is being published in order to further discussion on the nature of rights and how rights might look in the future. It does not, however, represent any official position of the U.S. Transhumanist Party. We recognize that different members of the U.S. Transhumanist Party may approach the subject of rights, and whether inalienable rights exist, from a wide variety of philosophical frameworks and backgrounds.
~ Gennady Stolyarov II, Chairman, United States Transhumanist Party, September 14, 2017
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." These words were written by our Founding Fathers in 1776, on a document that, despite having no binding legal powers of its own, has not only served as a touchstone of hundreds of legal cases in America but inspired subsequent Documents of Freedom to be written, namely, the Constitution and appended Bill of Rights. However, contemporary political philosopher Hillel Steiner has upended the foundation of America's moral codex in his essay "Directed Duties and Inalienable Rights" by positing, nimbly but firmly, that inalienable rights do not and cannot exist. Therefore, no aspect of American laws or rights comes from a God of any kind, in direct contradiction to much of the fundamentalist rhetoric heard throughout America today. Steiner proves this point in three ways: first, by deriving his conclusion from the presupposition of the cogency of the Will Theory of rights, second, by doing the same from the Interest Theory, and third, casually proving that he never needed to work with either theory in the first place and constructing an independent argument he calls the Moral Primacy Thesis. This thesis is derived from the work of Wesley Hohfeld, a prominent legal theorist who used a form of logic designed for ethical concepts to prove that nobody has an inherent "right," in the conventional sense, to anything.
Steiner begins his argument with the Will Theory, a legal theory of moral rights supported by philosophers such as Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Carl von Savigny, and Steiner himself. The Will Theory, given its emphasis on granting rights through the power of personal choice, grants the power to demand and force someone to perform an action or, alternatively, willingly give up the right to make that demand in the first place. Per the Will Theory, nobody's rights can forcibly be taken away, but they can be voided through one's own inaction or inability to make a choice. By its very definition, inalienable rights within the framework of the Will Theory cannot exist.
By contrast, the Interest Theory takes a different approach. Championed by the likes of notable philosopher Jeremy Bentham, the Interest Theory suggests that rights exist solely to protect one's personal interests rather than to exert liberty or choice of any kind. While such rights can't be given up as easily as within the framework of the Will Theory, Steiner makes the case that, per the second page of the attached essay, "a necessary and sufficient condition of being a rights-holder is that those interests would be adversely affected by the breach of a duty." A duty, in this context, refers to whichever demand one make make of someone else. If you demand of someone, for example, that they not look at your browser history to protect the interest of hiding your mind-uploading memes from the world and they do it anyway, this would be a breach of a duty on their behalf. This is no better than the Will Theory: instead of personally rescinding one's rights through incompetence, now they can be taken away by others. Once again, no rights within this framework would be genuinely inalienable.
After so clearly formulating two arguments against the existence of inalienable rights, Steiner throws them out the window by constructing a new one entirely: the Moral Primacy Thesis. This thesis is based on Hohfeldian deontic logic, a system of logic designed for ethical concepts which, ipso facto, does not universally guarantee a right without the possibility of said right being taken away. The four most basic types of rights that Hohfeld defines are powers, immunities, privileges, and claims. Privileges give access to something without guaranteeing the safety and stability of said privilege, meaning that they are ephemeral and may be taken away at any time. A more stable version of privileges would be claims, which restrict others from gaining the same access that is guaranteed by one's privileges. Claims can be countered in two ways, by oneself or others, one in the short term and one in the long term. The short-term counter to a claim is a power, which waives, annuls, or transfers said claim. The long-term counter to a claim, which prevents it from being modified in the future, is an immunity. Even by this logic, no rights are inherently inalienable. If they were, such a legal concept would be politically omnipotent and illogical. Thus, no aspect of America's ostensibly "God-given rights" has any bearing on political philosophy or moral theory.
Daniel Yeluashvili is a student at San Francisco State University and a member of the U.S. Transhumanist Party.


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Welcome to iphone pay as you go – this website's aim to help you find the best, cheap pay as you go deals for iphones quickly and simply. The website is low on frills but gives you the pricing information you need to help you find the right balance of the cheapest way to purchase an iphone and to make your purchase from a reputable high street retailer online store.
We also review iPhone apps, games and accessories. See the how to section for tips on how to get more from your iPhone.
If you are looking for a pay as you go phone then you need to choose between a 3G and 3GS phone. Find out which iPhone you need.
Read our guide to finding a reconditioned iPhone. You could get a refurbished iPhone for much less than a new one.
If you are in a rush to find an iPhone on pay as you go then see our supplier page for links to the best online iPhone retailers.


text: IT IS HARD to imagine Mr. Dale King without talking about his voice. Rich, rolling, booming — a deep baritone marvel. No one who knew him could forget it. His closest friends, his students who held him in awe, even his peppery daughter, all jokingly … [Read more...] about Dale King: His Voice was the Voice of God