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Within just weeks of the law passing, parents started dropping off their kids. But here's the rub: None of them were infants. A couple of months in, 36 children had been left in state hospitals and police stations. Twenty-two of the children were over 13 years old. A 51-year-old grandmother dropped off a 12-year-old boy.
One father dropped off his entire family – nine children from ages one to 17.
Others drove from neighboring states to drop off their children once they heard that they could abandon them without repercussion.
The Nebraska state government, realizing the tremendous mistake it had made, held a special session of the legislature to rewrite the law in order to add an age limitation. Governor Dave Heineman said the change would "put the focus back on the original intent of these laws, which is saving newborn babies and exempting a parent from prosecution for child abandonment. It should also prevent those outside the state from bringing their children to Nebraska in an attempt to secure services."
On November 21, 2008, the last day that the safe haven law was in effect for children of all ages, a mother from Yolo County, California, drove over 1,200 miles to the Kimball County Hospital in Nebraska where she left her 14-year-old son.
What happened in Nebraska raises the question: If there were no consequences, how many of us would give up our kids? After all, child abandonment is nothing new and it's certainly not rare in the United States. Over 400,000 children are in the foster care system waiting to be placed in homes, thousands of parents relinquish their children every year. One woman even sent her adopted child back to his home country with an apology letter pinned like a grocery list to his chest. Whether it's because of hardship or not, many Americans are giving up on parenthood.
Secret Confession
In February 2009, someone calling herself Ann logged onto the website Secret Confessions and wrote three sentences: "I am depressed. I hate being a mom. I also hate being a stay at home mom too!" Over three years later, the thread of comments is still going strong with thousands of responses – the site usually garners only 10 or so comments for every "confession." Our anonymous Ann had hit a nerve.
One woman who got pregnant at 42 wrote, "I hate being a mother too. Every day is the same. And to think I won't be free of it until I am like 60 and then my life will be over." Another, identifying herself only as k'smom, said, "I feel so trapped, anxious, and overwhelmed. I love my daughter and she's well taken care of but this is not the path I would have taken given a second chance."
Gianna wrote, "I love my son, but I hate being a mother. It has been a thankless, monotonous, exhausting, irritating and oppressive job. Motherhood feels like a prison sentence. I can't wait until I am paroled when my son turns 18 and hopefully goes far away to college." One D.C.-based mom even said that although she was against abortion before having her son, now she would "run to the abortion clinic" if she got pregnant again.
The responses – largely from women who identify themselves as financially stable – spell out something less explicit than well-worn reasons for parental unhappiness such as poverty and a lack of support. These women simply don't feel that motherhood is all it's cracked up to be, and if given a second chance, they wouldn't do it again.
Some cited the boredom of stay-at-home momism. Many complained of partners who didn't shoulder their share of child care responsibilities. "Like most men, my husband doesn't do much – if anything – for baby care. I have to do and plan for everything," one mother wrote. A few got pregnant accidentally and were pressured by their husbands and boyfriends to carry through with the pregnancy, or knew they never wanted children but felt it was something they "should" do.
The overwhelming sentiment, however was the feeling of a loss of self, the terrifying reality that their lives had been subsumed into the needs of their child. DS wrote, "I feel like I have completely lost any thing that was me. I never imagined having children and putting myself aside would make me feel this bad." The expectation of total motherhood is bad enough, having to live it out every day is soul crushing. Everything that made us an individual, that made us unique, no longer matters. It's our role as a mother that defines us. Not much has changed.
Fem. Mystique
"The feminine mystique permits, even encourages, women to ignore the question of their identity," wrote Betty Friedan. "The mystique says they can answer the question 'Who am I?' by saying 'Tom's wife ... Mary's mother.' The truth is – and how long it's been true, I'm not sure, but it was true in my generation and it's true of girls growing up today – an American woman no longer has a private image to tell her who she is, or can be, or wants to be."
At the time she published The Feminine Mystique, Friedan argued that the public image of women was largely one of domesticity – "washing machines, cake mixes ... detergents," all sold through commercials and magazine. Today, American women have more public images of themselves than that of a housewife. We see ourselves depicted in television, ads, movies, and magazines (not to mention relief!) as politicians, business owners, intellectuals, soldiers, and more. But that's what makes the public images of total motherhood so insidious. We see these diverse images of ourselves and believe that the oppressive standard Friedan wrote about is dead, when in fact it has simply shifted. Because no matter how many different kinds of public images women see of themselves, they're still limited. They're still largely white, straight upper-middle-class depictions, and they all still identify women as mothers or non-mothers.
American culture can't accept the reality of a woman who does not want to be a mother.
It goes against everything we've been taught to think about women and how desperately they want babies. If we're to believe the media and pop culture, women – even teen girls – are forever desperate for a baby. It's our greatest desire.
The truth is, most women spend the majority of their lives trying not to get pregnant. According to the Guttmacher Institute, by the time a woman with two children is in her mid-40s she will have spent only five years trying to become pregnant, being pregnant, and not being at risk for getting pregnant following a birth. But to avoid getting pregnant before or after those two births, she would had had to refrain from sex or use contraception for an average of 25 years. Almost all American women (99 percent), ages 15-44, who have had sexual intercourse use some form of birth control. The second most popular form of birth control after the Pill? Sterilization. And now, more than ever, women are increasingly choosing forms of contraception that are for long-term use. Since 2005, for example, IUD use has increased by a whopping 161 percent. That's a long part of life and a lot of effort to avoid parenthood!
Now, it may be that these statistics simply indicate that modern women are just exerting more control over when and under what circumstances they become mothers. To a large degree that's true. But it doesn't jibe with an even more shocking reality: that half of pregnancies in the United States are unintended. Once you factor in the abortion rate and pregnancies that end in miscarriage, we're left with the rather surprising fact that one-third of babies born in the United States were unplanned. Not so surprising, however, is that the intention to have children definitively impacts how parents feel about their children, and how those children are treated – sometimes to terrifying results.
Jennifer Barber, a population researcher at the University of Michigan, studied more than 3,000 mothers and their close to 6,000 children from a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Barber and her colleagues asked women who had recently given birth, "Just before you became pregnant, did you want to become pregnant when you did?" Those who answered yes were categorized as "intended"; those who answered no were then asked, "Did you want a baby but not at that time, or did you want none at all?" Depending on their answer, they were classified as "mistimed" or "unwanted." Over 60 percent of the children studied were reported as planned, almost 30 per center were unplanned ("mistimed"), and 10 percent were unequivocally "unwanted."
The results of Barber's research showed that the children who were unintended – both those who were mistimed and those who were unwanted – got fewer parental resources than those children who were intended. Basically, children who were unplanned didn't get as much emotional and cognitive support as children who were planned – as reported both by the researchers and the mothers themselves. Barber's research looked at things like the number of children's books in the home, and how often a parent read to a child or taught them skills like counting or the alphabet for the "cognitive" aspect. For the "emotional" support rating, they developed a scale measuring the "warmth" and "responsiveness" of the mother, how much time the family spent together, and how much time the father spent with the child. Across the board, children who were wanted got more from their parents than children who weren't. Children who were unplanned were also subject to harsher parenting and more punitive measures than a sibling who was intended.
Barber pointed out that this kind of pattern could be due to parental stress and a lack of patience that's "directed explicitly toward an unwanted child," and that a mistimed or unwanted birth could raise stress levels in the parents' interactions with their other children as well. She also says that in addition to benign emotional neglect, parenting unintended children is also associated with infant health problems and mortality, maternal depression, and sometimes child abuse.
Safe Haven
When Torry Hansen of Shelbyville, Tennessee, sent her seven-year-old adopted son by himself on a plane back to his home country of Russia with nothing more than a note explaining she didn't want to parent him, she became one of the most reviled women in America. Russian officials were so incensed that they temporarily halted all adoption to the United States. We sometimes expect fathers to shirk their responsibility; but when mothers do it, it shakes the core of what we've been taught to believe about women and maternal instinct.
Anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy argued in a 2001 Utah lecture, for example, that being female is seen as synonymous with having and nurturing as many children as possible. So when mothers abandon their children, it's seen as unnatural. This simplistic, emotional response to parents – mothers, in particular – who give up their kids is part of the reason Americans have such a difficult time dealing with the issue. As Hrdy says, "No amount of legislation can ensure that mothers will love their babies."
That's why programs like safe haven laws – age limitations or not – will never truly get to the heart of the matter. As Mary Lee Allen, director of the Children's Defense Fund's child welfare and mental health division, has has, "These laws help women to drop their babies off but do nothing to provide supports to women and children before this happens."
Unfortunately, discussing the structural issues has never been an American strong suit. Hrdy notes that legislators are too afraid to focus on sensible solutions. "Talking about the source of the problem would require policymakers to discuss sex education and contraception, not to mention abortion, and they view even nonsensical social policies as preferable to the prospect of political suicide."
If policymakers and people who care about children want to reduce the number of abandoned kids, they need to address the systemic issues: poverty, maternity leave, access to resources, and health care. We need to encourage women to demand more help from their partners, if they have them. In a way, that's the easier fix, because we know what we have to do there; the issues have been the same for years. The less-obvious hurdle is that of preparing parents emotionally and putting forward realistic images of parenthood and motherhood. There also needs to be some sort of acknowledgement that not everyone should parent – when parenting is a given, it's not fully considered or thought out, and it gives way too easily to parental ambivalence and unhappiness.
Take Trinity, one of the mothers who commented on the Secret Confessions board about hating parenthood. She wrote, "My pregnancy was totally planned and I thought it was a good idea at the time. Nobody tells you the negatives before you get pregnant – they convince you it's a wonderful idea and you will love it. I think it's a secret shared among parents ... they're miserable so they want you to be too."
By having more honest conversations about parenting, we can avoid the kind of secret depressions so many mothers seem to be harboring. If what we want is deliberate, thought-out, planned, and expected parenthood – and parenting that is healthy and happy for children – then we have to speak out.
This is adapted from Jessica Valenti's newest book Why Have Kids?


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WMU's Office for Sustainability conducted a survey of faculty, in January 2012, to help identify and prioritize the types of initiatives and policy changes faculty believe are important for facilitating the infusion and integration of sustainability into research and teaching. The result of this survey was the creation of Sustainability Across Research and Teaching (StART), a ground-up, faculty-driven effort in the form of a new University-wide learning community on education and research in the broad areas of sustainability. The intent of the learning community is to build understanding, develop skills, and promote conditions to improve quality of life for all through sustainability teaching and research.
After a very successful StART-I in 2012, the Office of the Provost, the Office of Faculty Development, and the Office for Sustainability are pleased to announce StART-II, beginning Jan 2013 and running through April 2014. Building on the success of StART-I, The StART-II Initiative will offer opportunities for two cross-disciplinary groups of 10 to 12 participants to study pedagogical topics of shared interest in an in-depth, ongoing, scholarly, and systematic manner. StART-II participants will meet once every three weeks for two hours, delve into existing research on their common area of inquiry, then design and pursue individual projects that require them to apply and test new ideas and information about teaching and research in sustainability. Each StART-II community will have a faculty facilitator, knowledgeable in the field of sustainability, and a small operating budget to invest in materials and resources to promote the actions of the community. It is the expectation that StART-II participants will not only further their individual professional skills, but also actively promote curricular development in the area of sustainability across the curriculum.
For more information contact us or visit:
Office of Faculty Development
1903 W Michigan Ave
Kalamazoo, MI 49008-5268 USA
(269) 387-0732

subset: commoncrawl


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Dawn Marie Lemonds, a member of the Soroptimist International of Newport Harbor, has joined as co-chair the planning committee of the National Women's Coalition Against Violence & Exploitation (NWCAVE) for the Jane Velez-Mitchell Journalism Award.
The Jane Velez-Mitchell Journalism Award is named after the award-winning journalist, host of "Jane Velez-Mitchell" on HLN. The award recognizes excellence in the coverage of news of local, national and international significance. It will be given to either a print or broadcast journalist who has used the power of media and his or her position to highlight violence against women and girls.
Violence takes the form of domestic abuse, human trafficking, kidnapping and more.
The award will be presented Jan. 18 in Los Angeles during the Southwest Conference Against Trafficking. Lemonds reports that applications are now available at nwcave.org/pressroom/jvmjournalismaward.html. Deadline for submission is Sept. 30.
New officers for Rotary Club
The Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa installed new officers in July, with local attorney Bob Merring accepting the presidency from outgoing President AJ Thielen. Joining Merring in club leadership are Gary Konecne, president-elect; Jerry Morris, vice president for policy and ethics; Richard Oberreiter, public relations; John Kerr, international service director; Ron Gill, vocational service director; Dick Holmgren, the Rotary Foundation; Dan Hoffmann, club foundation treasurer; Art Walton, community service director; Martin Pitha, secretary; and Steve Speer, club service director.
The Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa has been serving the communities of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa in addition to touching lives around the world through Rotary International since 1939.
The old stereotypes of service club membership have fallen away over the past decade. The club has members in their 20s and over 80. While Rotary was originally founded as a businessmen's networking and service group, women have been the fastest-growing segment of the Rotary population for more than 20 years.
The club meets at 5:45 p.m. Thursdays for cocktails, with dinner at 6:15, at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club, 1601 Bayside Drive, Corona del Mar. This offers a great opportunity to get together with others who share a commitment to Rotary's tradition of service above self. Where else can a young up-and-coming professional share dinner with a successful retired CEO as equals dedicated to shared service?
Rotarians are business leaders, professionals, managers, educators, retirees, young entrepreneurs and more. They come from every political and racial background. In Rotary's second century, there is no "typical" Rotarian. The modern Rotarian is simply committed to working with others to make a difference and to subscribing to Rotary's Four-Way Test as a way of leading an ethical life and an ethical business. For more information visit http://www.newportbalboa.org.
Service Club Meetings This Week
Noon: The 15-member Exchange Club of Corona del Mar meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club.
7 a.m.: The 20-member Costa Mesa Orange Coast Lions Club meets at Mimi's Café, Newport and Harbor boulevards, Costa Mesa.
Noon: The 45-member Kiwanis Club of Newport Beach/Corona del Mar meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club. For more information, visit sites.google.com/site/kiwanisofnewportbeach.
Noon: The 75-member Exchange Club of Newport Harbor meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a program by Jordan Fisher on "Digital Marketing"; on Aug. 22, David Jones will talk about "Maximizing Your Social Security Benefits." For more information, visit http://www.nhexchange.org.
Noon: The 40-member Kiwanis Club of Costa Mesa meets at the Costa Mesa Country Club, 1701 Golf Course Drive, Costa Mesa. For more information, visit http://www.costamesakiwanis.org.
Noon: The 55-member Newport-Irvine Rotary Club meets at the University Club, 801 E. Peltason Drive, Irvine.
6 p.m.: The 57-member Rotary Club of Newport-Balboa meets at the Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club for a program by Eric Spitz, president of Freedom Communications, the parent company of the Orange County Register. For more information, visit http://www.newportbalboa.org.
6:30 p.m.: The Harbor Mesa Lions Club meets at the Costa Mesa Country Club on the first Monday of each month; on the third Monday, the club meets at a restaurant in the area. For more information, email firstname.lastname@example.com.
7:15 a.m.: The 58-member Newport Beach Sunrise Rotary Club will meet at the Five Crowns Restaurant, 3801 Pacific Coast Hwy., Corona del Mar, for a program by Hans Linhardt, who will discuss "World Energy." On Aug. 27, Rae Shirer, District 5320 governor, will make her official visit. For more information, visit http://www.newportbeachsunriserotary.org.
COMMUNITY & CLUBS is published twice monthly on Wednesdays. Send your service club's meeting information by email to email@example.com.


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helping a real life hero
Discuss anything vaguely M&M related here, such as comics, movies, and action figures.
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helping a real life hero
didn't know where else if at all to post this sorry in advance if this is the wrong place. there is an organization who makes wheelchair accessible vans who is currently having a national contest for local heroes with disabilities here is the link http://www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/e ... rcreek-oh/ please consider going to it and voting. thanks for the consideration.
please help a real life hero http://www.mobilityawarenessmonth.com/entrant/nathan-roll-beavercreek-oh/
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Chris Young needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 154 designs submitted by 59 freelance designers.
Hi all, looking for a Logo for my photography business ! Looking for something funky yet professional looking and with a good amount of class to it. Prefer no clip art looking logos, cameras, aperture symbols or film strips - more something just funky and fresh !
Chris Young Photography
I am mainly a wedding photographer but want something that works with any type of photography - would also like something that will work on any background, white or black etc. My fav colours would probably be blue and black but I am open to anything you can come up with. Definently not keen on anything clip art looking or tacky, would love something that stands out from the rest of the logos going around out there
- Item 1...cool, funky and simple looking logo - easy to read is a must. Be great if it can work with a black or white background and even if it is simple to change the colours in the logo - so you can create a slightly different look just by changing the colour of the logo.
- Item 1...clip art images of camera's or film strips or aperture blades
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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|Winnebago County Sheriff's PoliceNews Media Release
|News Release Number2008- 056A
|Information: Murder
|Date: December 28,2008
|Time: 1200
|Page of 1
On Saturday December 27, 2008 Winnebago County Sheriff's Deputies and medical personnel were sent to 6441 Alice Lane, Rockton, Illinois in regards to a medical assist. Upon arrival a 65yr old female was located in the basement of the home with trauma to her head. She was deceased. Sheriff's detectives and crime scene officers, as well as representatives of the coroner's office were called to the scene and preliminary investigation indicates that the death was the result of a homicide. The coroner's office will release the victims name once all family members have been contacted. An autopsy has been scheduled for Monday. Anyone with information on this crime is asked to call the Sheriff's Office (815/319-6400) or Crimestoppers (815/963-7867). THE VICTIM IS IDENTIFIED AS 65YR OLD CONSTANCE J. HOUNSELL. MS HOUNSELL WAS A WIDOW AND LIVED ALONE AT THE RESIDENCE.


text: For testing Perl in php I run this script: PHP: <?php print "Hello from PHP! "; $perl = new Perl(); $perl->eval('print "Hello from perl! "'); print "Bye! "; ?> For this site I enabled everything: SSI,Ruby,SuEXEC and PHP=CGI And than I get mod_fcgid: stderr: PHP Fatal error: Class 'Perl' not found in /var/www/clients/client0/web9/web/index.php on line 4 Could me someone give me a hint how to handle Perl with ispc3? Thank you.


text: Here is the list of Tuesday night classes scheduled to be presented at the Grove Creek Family History Center in April, May, and June. We hope that there is something that will add to your family history endeavors! A reminder that classes are from 7-8 pm. followed by a hands-on lab from 8-9 pm. All are invited!


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February 24, 2010
Listen to Audio (12 min.)
Please note: These files can be quite large. Allow some time for them to download.
Below is the transcript of a press conference held at CROI 2010 on Feb. 17, in which Kimberly Smith, M.D., M.P.H., of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, previewed a talk she gave later in the conference about ways to combat racial disparities in HIV infection, treatment and mortality within the U.S.
Kimberly Smith: My talk tomorrow will mostly focus on the black community within the United States, although there'll be some discussion of some other parallel issues in Hispanic populations. As you all have probably already heard, there's clearly a disproportionate impact of HIV disease on black communities, with the numbers in black communities -- I'm sure you've probably already discussed, but just to review -- the black population makes up roughly 12% of the U.S. population, but about 50% of the HIV and AIDS cases in the United States. And the Hispanic population makes up approximately 14%, until the new census data come out, of the population and about 19% of the HIV/AIDS cases in the country. So obviously there is a dramatic disparity.
Kimberly Smith, M.D., M.P.H.
What I'll be talking about tomorrow are some of the drivers of that disparity.1 First, I'll talk about some of the risk factors that exist within the community that place individuals at risk -- substance abuse, high rates of incarceration and other risk factors. But what I'll talk about more is the fact that in the black community, particularly the heterosexual community, you don't have to have high-risk behaviors in order for you to be at risk. The prevalence has come to a point now where your likelihood of coming in contact with an HIV-infected person is so much higher that there's basically no room for error. And so that's true for black women who are having sex with men, as well as black men who are having sex with men.
I think that that's an important message for people to understand because I think one of the challenges in discussing HIV/AIDS in the black community has been there have been individuals put into certain categories of risk that is by definition stigmatizing. And so I think that if we start to focus on this as a community challenge, rather than focusing on individual risks, then that may move us in the right direction.
The second part of my talk will focus on the fact that not only is there disparity in incidence and prevalence, there's also disparity in mortality. Black individuals are much more likely to die of HIV-related diseases than white individuals. For black men, it's something like eightfold difference. And for black women, it's roughly a twentyfold difference in the likelihood of mortality from HIV/AIDS. And so my talk will review some of the reasons why that is.
One, I think that part of our challenge is that we're diagnosing individuals too late, when they have high viral loads, low CD4-cell counts and opportunistic infections, which makes treatment much more complicated. Initiatives like the D.C. Initiative are going to be very important in identifying people earlier with higher CD4-cell counts so they have a greater likelihood of being able to respond to therapy.
In addition, there's a large proportion of individuals, in some estimates, as much as 20% of HIV-infected individuals that are never in HIV care. Never in care, despite knowing that they have HIV for five years or more, they're never seen by an HIV provider. We find out that those individuals are sick when they're hospitalized with opportunistic infections. And again, their chance of being able to respond to therapy and do well is challenged because of their advanced stage of disease.
In addition, there are data that suggest that, in some cases, black individuals aren't responding as well to therapy. There are a number of cohort studies, as well clinical trials, that have shown that. Now there are a number of factors that I'll discuss in detail that will explain why we think that might be. It's not one answer. It's actually many, many factors. I'll save that for tomorrow's talk. But certainly, differences in response, as well as differences in the proportion of individuals that are on therapy are really playing a big role in the greater likelihood of mortality from HIV.
I'll finish my talk by basically talking about things that we need to do to make it better. And I think that some of the initiatives that are being presented at this meeting are moving us in the right direction. I mentioned the D.C. Initiative already. Other initiatives that are doing targeted testing, for example, one of the initiatives in New York City that is doing targeted testing in male "social" clubs -- and I'll use social with parentheses around that -- but that are finding high rates of HIV-infected individuals, and identifying those individuals and linking them immediately to care.
The D.C. Initiative is very important at being able to look at the population as a whole, but also, other initiatives that look at the target particular areas. I will talk tomorrow about a couple of studies where poor communities with high rates of HIV have been targeted with either mobile vans or other efforts. And high rates of HIV-infected individuals identified in those areas just on the basis of where they live, not on the basis of any particular risk factor. And so using more of those types of strategies to identify people earlier will be really a big move in the right direction.
But then the next direction is, how do we do better with treatment? And I think one of the challenges that we're experiencing, especially in this economy, is that we have fewer and fewer resources. We're hearing and floating around this meeting that the North Carolina ADAP [AIDS drug assistance program] program is soon to start a waiting list. The Illinois ADAP program is projected to run out of funds at the end of April. And so more resources that allow us to take these people that we're identifying, and linking to care and getting them on treatment, regardless of their ability to pay, is going to be critical.
Reporter #1: Hi, Dr. Smith, I guess my question goes to certain biomarkers or certain numbers of racial and ethnic disparities in clinical trial numbers, and how once the trials are constructed, they just enroll them as they please and whoever comes in, comes in. And we know that that is a disproportionate number of what the outcome is. How do you intend to address that in the future when you have new markers? You have IL-2 and IL-8 [interleukin]. You have certain things that you know are markers of racial and ethnic disparity, and yet they don't get added on to the trial. They're not done by prevalence numbers either. So it's just a number that gets tallied and then, "Oh, this should be looked at further in AA [African-American] populations later."
Kimberly Smith: Well, one of the challenges of the past has certainly been that clinical trials have not done a good job of enrolling people of color. If we look at the evolution of clinical trials from the early studies that looked at some of the initial antiretroviral therapies, even though the numbers of blacks, in particular, were high at the time that the studies were being done, you found some of these studies that had 80% or 90% Caucasians, and mostly men in them. We have evolved though, I will say that. To the point that now, for example, in ACTG [AIDS Clinical Trials Group] naive clinical trials, typically more than 50% of the enrollees are black or Hispanic.
We have evolved in there. There's a lot more ability to answer some of these questions because we actually have the populations enrolled in the trials now. And industry trials lagged behind, but actually are starting to catch up now too. And so some of the trials that I'll present tomorrow, the reason that I can present them and feel confident that their data are meaningful is because of the fact that the enrollment did adequately represent blacks and Hispanics in those studies.
Now, with regard to some of the questions that you raised about biomarkers, and some of the potential genetic markers of increased risk of infection, or genetic markers of increased toxicity to medications, we've actually because of the better enrollment in those clinical trials have been able to answer some of those questions. For example, the fact that we know now that blacks may have a higher likelihood of having CNS [central nervous system] toxicity to efavirenz [EFV, Sustiva, Stocrin] because of some differences in metabolism. The answer to that question was only able to be obtained because of the fact that we had studies that had large enough proportions of individuals in them to be able to see variations in genetic markers of metabolism.
And so I do think that we're moving forward. I can't say that we have all the answers. And for a number of trials, other than naive trials, the enrollment of people of color is actually still very poor. But I think we're making progress.
Reporter #2: I'm just interested to know if there's any wanting to look at the folks and how they present, how they conduct themselves as far as risk factors, and more specifically, risk factors as far as degree of risk, and also trying to avoid HIV because they would implement a certain type of sex, rather than something that's more risky.
Kimberly Smith: Well, it sounds like what you're sort of asking about is, are black folks doing serosorting type of behavior? And I think much less so than in the gay male community. I think that part of our challenge is that a lot of the black community has not perceived itself to be at risk, based upon the history of how we understood -- the evolution of how we understood risk of HIV in the United States. And so I do think that it's a very different response to the disease. And so for example, for black women, the challenge is, people still have the perception that you can look at somebody and decide if they're HIV infected. And as long as we continue to have misunderstanding on that level, we're not very effective at protecting ourselves.
One other point that I want to make, and that I'll make tomorrow, is that I think it's really important that we consider all of the things that are playing a role in the high numbers in the community. And one of the things that we don't talk about enough is the high rates of incarcerations in the community. And so high rates of incarceration, I'll talk tomorrow about a study that was published in the last year that showed a large number of men in Georgia prisons that became HIV infected while they were in prison. And so we take situations like that -- and we know there's a really hugely disproportionate number of black men that are incarcerated. Those men are released, come back into the community and HIV continues to be spread. It's actually sort of parallel to apartheid in the old apartheid days.
So I think that there are so many things that are complex in understanding HIV epidemic in the black community that it's hard for me to get it all done in a half hour. I'm going to talk really fast. But I think that the fact that we're having this conversation at this meeting, a research meeting, is really a move forward because it means that the research community recognizes that it has a responsibility in figuring out how we can do studies and how we can make plans that will help us to stem the tide of these disparities.
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
|Please note: Knowledge about HIV changes rapidly. Note the date of this summary's publication, and before treating patients or employing any therapies described in these materials, verify all information independently. If you are a patient, please consult a doctor or other medical professional before acting on any of the information presented in this summary. For a complete listing of our most recent conference coverage, click here.
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California's attorney general sued JPMorgan Chase & Co on Thursday, accusing the company of falsely signing documents to unlawfully collect credit card debt from thousands of customers.
The lawsuit accuses JPMorgan of engaging in widespread, illegal "robo-signing" of legal documents to commit debt-collection abuses against approximately 100,000 California credit card borrowers.
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JPMorgan "flooded California's courts with collection lawsuits against defaulted credit card borrowers based on patently insufficient evidence," according to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.
The company "bet that borrowers would lack the resources or legal sophistication to call bluff," the lawsuit said.
In the foreclosure industry, robo-signing is the practice of a bank employee signing thousands of documents and affidavits without verifying the information contained in the document or affidavit.
Paul Hardwick, a JPMorgan spokesman, said in an email that the company did not have any comment at this time regarding California's credit-card lawsuit.
"Robo-signing" first gained prominence after the housing bubble burst in 2008, when it emerged that banks across America evicted people from their homes with false or incomplete documentation.
JPMorgan was one of the five largest U.S. banks which agreed to a combined $26 billion settlement with state authorities in February 2012 over foreclosure abuses.
In Thursday's lawsuit, Kamala Harris, California's attorney general, alleges that JPMorgan filed thousands of debt collection lawsuits in California between January 2008 and April 2011 by running "a massive debt collection mill".
In a statement, Harris said: "Chase abused the judicial process and engaged in serious misconduct against California credit card borrowers. This enforcement action seeks to hold Chase accountable for systematically using illegal tactics to flood California's courts with specious lawsuits against consumers."
Among fraudulent debt collection actions, the lawsuit states that JPMorgan "illegally robo-signed" various litigation filings, including sworn documents, declarations, and verified complaints, without reviewing the relevant files or bank records or even reading the documents before signing.
(Editing by Matthew Lewis)


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VII Summer School on International Migration: challenges and opportunities for the EU and its Neighbourhood (20th June 1st July 2011)
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The following Analytical and synthetic notes have recently been added:
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Discovering German Heritage – An exciting journey back in time
With more than seven million individuals, Germans were the largest group of immigrants in 19th century America and among the first pioneers to arrive in 1608. According to the 2000 Census, over 51 million Americans claim German heritage.
In 1683 "Germantown" became the first German settlement in America. In promise of land, freedom of religion and refuge, Germans and other Europeans embarked on a trip of their lifetime and for generations have built America's prosperous identity. Whether or not your family claims German heritage, learning about the impact of German immigrants on American history will surprise you. Use the tabs on top to discover famous Americans with German roots, to find Grandma's old recipes, and find all information and tools to do research on your own. Heritage centers and emigration museums in Germany welcome you and assist you in your journey back in time.


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Column: Prioritizing the Human Economy
PIERRE - Governor Daugaard and a bipartisan group of state legislators in both the house and senate deserve credit for doing the right thing. The most recent version of the economic development bill now includes a trigger mechanism that would only allow the revenue from the contractor's excise tax to be spent on development projects if the budget also allows for the normal increases to education, Medicaid and state salaries.
The proposal would allow millions of dollars each year into the Building South Dakota fund, which would help finance the noble goals of infrastructure, career education and affordable housing projects. While new investments along these lines make good economic sense, they all represent medium to long term projects which should rightly be shelved during a state budget crisis.
In contrast, the damage created by underfunding education, Medicaid and paying the salaries of state employees has an almost immediate impact. Layoffs or pay reductions would only serve to compound the problems of a slow or contracting economy that most likely caused the state budget concerns in the first place.
It is admirable to see the Governor and legislators from both parties setting up sound policy that will prioritize human beings in the lean times and hopefully prevent more damaging cuts like those from two years ago. Why can't they be this sensible more often?
The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of John Gossom and do not reflect Results Radio, Townsquare Media, its sponsors or subsidiaries.


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Meg Frens, who is an assistant professor of kinesiology and athletic trainer at Hope College, has received the President's Excellence Award from the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association (GLATA).
Meg Frens, who is an assistant professor of kinesiology and athletic trainer at Hope College, has received the President's Excellence Award from the Great Lakes Athletic Trainers' Association (GLATA).
She was honored "in recognition of service, leadership, professionalism and exemplary contributions to the GLATA membership." The award was announced on Friday, March 11, in conjunction with the group's annual Winter Symposium, held in Minneapolis, Minn., on Thursday-Saturday, March 10-12.
Frens, who is a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA), is active in the state, regional and national athletic training associations in a variety of ways. She is co-chairperson of the Professional Education Committee for the Michigan Athletic Trainers' Society (MATS), responsible for planning and coordinating the annual educational meeting and most recently working on continuing-education opportunities to assist athletic trainers in maintaining state licensure. As a member of the GLATA Education Committee, she led the development of a "Policy and Procedure Manual for use of Vovici Community Professional Survey Software Management," and administered the surveys and reports for the membership for two years. She is an exam item writer for the NATA Board of Certification, and is a past advisor to the GLATA Student Senate.
She has made several invited addresses at professional meetings. Her publications include articles in "Athletic Therapy Today" and the "Journal of Athletic Training," and most recently she co-authored a chapter in a volumned edition for "Career Choices for the Sports Medicine Professions," part of the "Praeger Handbook of Sports Medicine and Athlete Health," edited by Claude T. Moorman and Donald T. Kirkendall.
Frens has been a member of the Hope faculty since 2002, following a previous two-year appointment as a visiting instructor from 1998 to 2000.
She graduated from Hope in 1996 with a major in kinesiology, and completed a Master of Science degree in kinesiology/athletic training at Indiana University in 1997. During the 1997-98 school year she was an assistant athletic trainer and co-director of summer camps at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania, and from 2000 to 2002 she was an assistant professor of athletic training at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine.
Also during the GLATA Winter Symposium, a Hope student-led project to promote athletic training was honored as Michigan's winner in the 2011 GLATA Public Relations Contest, and the three-student team from Hope that had won first place in the 2010 Michigan Athletic Trainers Society (MATS) Quiz Bowl in October represented the state in the GLATA regional competition.
The Hope project honored in the Public Relations Contest consisted of presentations and interactive demonstrations during the college's home men's basketball game at the DeVos Fieldhouse on Feb. 20, 2010, and a related video posted on YouTube. The students who represented Hope as winners of the 2010 MATS Quiz Bowl were seniors Emily Corstange of Kalamazoo; Molly Schab of Galesburg; and Brian Wiese of Wilmington, N.C.
Athletic trainers are allied health care professionals who prevent, manage and rehabilitate injuries in physically active populations. Hope offers a major in athletic training as one of three majors within the department of kinesiology. Hope was the first liberal arts college in Michigan to have its athletic training program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education.
GLATA includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. The association represents approximately 22 percent of the total membership of the national association. Members serve in settings including high schools, colleges and universities, professional sports organizations, physician offices, rehabilitation clinics and industrial work sites.


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May 05, 2003
New story text:
He grinned despite himself. Marcel was good at fonzing dishes into place with one well-placed whack, could crack him up when the winter slush was turning his mood to pitch. He was a good kid, basically. Hot head. Like Roscoe, once.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon," Marcel said, and he could picture the kid pogoing up and down in a phone-booth, heard his boots crunching on rock-salt.
He covered the receiver and turned to Sylvie, who had a bemused smirk that wasn't half cute on her. "You wanna hit the road, right?" She nodded. "You wanna write about how unwirers get made? I could bring along the kid I'm 'prenticing-up, you like." Through the cellphone, he heard Marcel shouting "Yes! Yes! YES!" and imagined the kid punching the air and pounding the booth's walls triumphantly.
"It's a good angle," she said. "*You* want him along, right?"
He held the receiver in the air so that they could both hear the hollers coming down the line. "I don't think I could live with him if I didn't take him," he said, "so yeah."
She nodded and bit her upper lip, just where the scar was, an oddly canine gesture that thrust her chin forward and made her look slightly belligerent. "Let's do it."
He clamped the phone back to his head. "Marcel! Calm down, twerp! Breathe. OK. You gonna be good if I take you along?"
"So good, man, so very very very very good, you won't believe --"
"You gonna be *safe*, I bring you along?"
"Safe as houses. Won't breathe without your permission. Man, you are the *best* --"
"Yeah, I am. Four PM. Bring the stuff."
Whole story to date:
The cops caught Roscoe as he was tightening the butterfly bolts on the dish antenna he'd pitoned into the rock-face opposite the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. They were State Troopers, not Fed radio cops, and they pulled their cruiser onto the soft shoulder of the freeway, braking a few feet short of the soles of his boots. It took Roscoe a moment to tighten the bolts down properly before he could let go of the dish and roll over to face the cops, but he knew from the crunch of their boots on the road-salt and the creak of their cold holsters that they were the law.
"Be right with you, officers," he hollered into the gale-force winds that whipped along the rockface. The antenna was made from a surplus pizza-dish satellite rig, a polished tomato soup can and a length of co-ax that descended to a pigtail with the right fitting for a wireless card. All perfectly legal, mostly.
He tightened the last of the bolts and slid back on his belly, off the insulated thermarest he'd laid between his chest and the frozen ground. The cops' heads were wreathed in the steam of their exhalations, and one of them was nervously flicking his -- no, *her* -- handcuffs around on her belt.
"Everything all right, sir?" the other one said, in a flat upstate New York accent. A townie. He stretched his gloved hand out and pulled Roscoe to his feet.
"Yeah, just fine," he said. "I like to watch winter birds on the river. Forgot my binox today, but I still got some good sightings."
"Winter birds, huh?" The cop was giving him a bemused look.
"Winter birds."
The cop leaned over the railing and took a long look down. "Huh. Better you shouldn't do it by the roadside, sir," he said. "Never know when someone's going to skid out and drive off onto the shoulder -- you could be crushed." He waved at his partner, who retreated into the steamy warmth of the cruiser. "All right, then," he said. "When does your node go up?"
Roscoe smiled and dared a wink. "I'll be finished aligning the dish in about an hour. I've got line of sight from here to a repeater on a support on the Rainbow Bridge, and from there down the Rainbow Street corridor. Some good tall buildings there, line of sight to most of downtown, at least when the trees are bare. Leaves and wireless don't mix."
"My place is 4th and Walnut. Think you'll get there?" Roscoe relaxed imperceptibly, certain now that this wasn't a bust.
"Hope so. Sooner rather than later."
"That'd be great. My kids are emailing me out of house and home." The cop looked uncomfortable and cleared his throat. "Still, you might want to finish this one then go home and stay there for a while. DA's office, they've got some kind of hot shot from the FCC in town preaching the gospel and, uh, getting heavy on bird watchers. That sort of thing."
Roscoe sucked in his lower lip. "I may do just that," he conceded. "And thank you for the warning."
The cop waved as he turned away. "My pleasure, sir."
Roscoe drove home slowly, and not just because of the snow and compacted slush on the roads. *A hot shot from the FCC* sounded like the inquisition come to town. Roscoe's lifelong mistrust of radio cops had metastaized into surging hatred three years ago, when they busted him behind a Federal telecoms rap.
He'd lost his job and spent the best part of six months inside, though he'd originally been looking at a from a five year contributory infringement stretch -- compounded to twenty by the crypto running on the access-point under the "use a cypher, go to jail" statute -- to second degree tarriff evasion. His public defender had been worse than useless, but the ACLU had filed an amicus on his behalf, which led the judge to knock the beef down to criminal trespass and unlawful emission, six months and two years' probation, two years in which he wasn't allowed to program a goddamn microwave oven, let alone admin the networks that had been his trade. Prison hadn't been as bad for him as it could have been -- unwirers got respect -- but while he was inside Janice filed for divorce, and by the time he got out he'd lost everything he'd spent the last decade building -- his marriage, his house, his savings, his career. Everything except for the unwiring.
It was this experience that had turned him from a freewheeling geek into what FCC Chairman Valenti called "one of the copyright crooks whose illegal pirate networks provide safe havens to terrorists across the homeland." And so it was with a shudder and a glance over his shoulder that he climbed the front steps and put his key in the lock of the house he and Marcel rented.
Marcel looked up from his laptop as Roscoe stamped through the living-room.
"Slushy boots! For chrissakes, Roscoe, I just cleaned."
Roscoe turned to look at the salty brown slush he'd tracked over the painted floor and shook his head.
"Sorry," he said, lamely, and sat down on the floor to take his heavy steel-shank Kodiaks off. He carried them back to the doormat and then grabbed a roll of paper towels from the kitchen and started wiping up the mess. The landlord used cheap enamel paint on the floor and the road-salt could eat through to the scuffed wood in half an hour.
"And paper towels, God, it's like you've got a personal vendetta against the forests. There's a rag-bag under the sink, as you'd know if you ever did any cleaning around this place."
"Ease the fuck off, kid, you sound like my goddamned ex-wife," Roscoe said, giving the floor a vicious swipe. "Just ease back and let me do my thing, all right? It didn't go so good."
Marcel set his machine down reverently on the small hearthrug beside his Goodwill recliner. "What happened?"
Roscoe related his run-in with the law quickly. Marcel shook his head slowly.
"I bet it's bullshit. Ever since Tijuana, everyone's seeing spooks." The ISPs on the Tijuana side of the San Ysidro border-crossing had been making good coin off of unwirer-symptathizers who'd pointed their antennae across the chain-link fence. La Migra tried tightening the fence-gauge up to act as a Faraday cage, but they just went over it with point-to-point links that were resistent to the noise from the 2.4GHz light-standards that the INS erected at its toll-booths. Finally, the radio cops got tired of ferretting out the high-gain antennae on the San Diego side and they'd Ruby-Ridged the whole operation, killing ten "terrorists" in a simultaneous strike with Mexican narcs who'd raided the ISPs under the rubric of shutting down narcotraficante activity. TELMEX had screamed blue murder when their fiber had been cut by the simple expedient of driving a backhoe through the main conduit, and had pulled lineage contracts with rogue ISPs all along the Rio Grande.
Roscoe shook his head. "Bullshit or not, you going to take any chances?" He straightened up slowly. "Believe me, there's one place you don't want to go."
"Okay, okay, take it easy man." Marcel waved his hands at Roscoe placatingly. "I hear what you're saying."
"I hope you do." Roscoe dumped the wad of towels in the kitchen trash and stomped back into the living room, then dropped himself on the sofa. "Listen, when I was your age I thought it couldn't happen to me, neither. Now look at me." He started thumbing his way through the stack of old magazines on the coffee table.
"I'm looking at you." Marcel grinned. "Listen, there was a call while you were out."
"A call?" Roscoe paused with his hand on a collector's copy of *2600: The Hacker Quarterly*.
"Some woman, said she wanted to talk to you. I took her number."
"Uh-huh." Roscoe put the magazine back down. *Heads it's Janice, tails it's her lawyer*, he thought. It was shaping up to be that kind of day; a tire-slashing and an hour of alimonial recriminations would complete it neatly. Marcel pointed at the yellow pad next to the elderly dial phone. "Ah, shit. I suppose I should find out what it's about."
The number, when he looked at it, wasn't familar. That didn't mean much -- Janice was capable of moving and her pathologically aggro lawyer seemed to carry a new cellphone every time he saw her -- but it was hopeful. Roscoe dialed. "Hello? Roscoe. Who am I talking to?"
A stranger's voice: "Hi there! I was talking to your roommate about an hour ago? I'm Sylvie Smith. I was given your name by a guy called Buzz who told me you put him on the backbone."
Roscoe tensed. Odds were that this Sylvie Smith was just another innocent kiddee looking to leech a first-mile feed, but after this morning's run-in with the law he was taking nothing for granted.
"Are you a law enforcement officer federal employee police officer lawyer FCC or FBI agent?" he asked, running the words together, knowing that if she was any of the above she'd probably lie -- but it might help sway a jury towards letting him off if this was a sting.
"No." She sounded almost amused. "I'm a journalist."
"Then you should be familiar with CALEA," he said, bridling at the condecension in her voice. CALEA was the wiretap bill, required switch-vendors to put snoopware into every hop in the phone network. It was bad enough in and of itself, but it made the noncompliant routing code that was built into the BeOS. access-points he had hidden in a bus-locker doubly illegal and hence even harder to lay hands on.
"Paranoid, much?" she said.
"I have nothing to be paranoid about," he said, spelling it out like he was talking to a child. "I am a law-abiding citizen, complying with the terms of my parole. If you *are* a journalist, I'd be happy to chat. In person."
"I'm staying at the Days Inn on Main Street," she said. "It's a dump, but it's got a *view of the Falls*," she said in a hokey secret-agent voice, making it plain that she meant, "It's line of sight to a repeater for a Canadian wireless router."
"I can be there in twenty," he said.
"Room 208," she said. "Knock twice, then once, then three times." Then she giggled. "Or just send me an SMS."
"See you then," he said.
Marcel looked up from his machine, an IBM box manufactured for the US market. It was the size of a family Bible, and styled for the corporate market. Like all unwirers, he lusted furiously after the brushed-aluminium slivers that Be was cranking out in France, but they were *way* too conspicuous here.
Roscoe pointed at the wireless card protruding from the slot on the side nearest him. "You're violating security," he said. "I could get sent up again just for being in the same room as that." He was past being angry, though. In the joint, he'd met real crooks who could maintain real project secrecy. The cowboy kids he worked with on the outside thought that secrecy meant talking out of the side of your mouth in conspiratorial whispers while winking tourretically.
Marcel blushed. "It was a mistake, OK?" He popped the card. "I'll stash it."
The Days Inn was, indeed, a dump and doubt nagged at Roscoe as he reached for the front door. If she was a Fed there might be more ways she could nail him than just by arresting him in the same room as an illegal wireless card. So when Roscoe turned around and drove a diner along the block from the motel he pulled over, then went inside to look for a wired phone.
"Room 208, please ... hi there. If you'd care to come outside, there's a diner about fifty yards down the road. Just turn left out of the lobby. I'm already there." He hung up before she could ask any awkward questions, then headed for a booth by the window. Almost as an afterthought, he pulled the copy of *2600* out of his pocket. The hacker magazine (shut down by a court injunction the year before) was, he'd found, a really good recognition signal -- plus, having it didn't violate the letter of his parole.
Roscoe was halfway down his first mug of coffee when someone leaned over him. "Hi," she said.
"You must be Sylvie." He registered a confused impression of bleached blonde hair, brown eyes, freckles. *Must be straight out of J-school*. "Have a seat. Coffee?"
"Yes please." She put something like a keyring down then waved a hand, trying to catch the waitress's eye. Roscoe looked at the keyring. Very black, very small, very Nokia. Rumour said they were giving them away in cereal packets in France.
"Suppose you tell me why you wanted to meet up," Roscoe said quietly. "Up front. I can tell you right now that I'm out on parole, and I've got no intention of doing anything that puts me back inside."
The waitress ambled over, pad in hand. Sylvie ordered a coffee. "What were you charged with?" she said. "If you don't mind me asking."
Roscoe snorted. "I was *accused* of infringement with a side order of black crypto, but pled down to unlawful emissions. Strictly no-collar crime." He took another mouthful of coffee. "So what is it you're doing up here?"
"I'm working on a story about some aspects of unwiring that don't usually make the national press," she said, as the waitress came over, empty mug in one hand and jug in the other. Roscoe held his up for a refill.
"I could give you a phone number, but would you trust it?"
"Point." Roscoe leaned back against the elderly vinyl seat. *Young, but cynical.*
"Well," she said, "I can do better." She pulled out a notepad and began scribbling. "*This* is my editor's name and address. *You* can look up his number. If you place a call and ask for him you'll get put through -- you're on the list of interview subjects I left him. Next, here's my -- no, an -- email address." Roscoe blinked -- it was a handle on a famous Finnish anonymous remixer. "Get a friend to ping it and ask me something." It was worth five to twenty for black crypto -- anonymity was the FCC's scariest bogeyman in the net-pantheon. "Finally, here's my press pass."
"Okay, I'll check these out." He met her eyes. "Now, why don't you tell me why the Wall Street Journal is interested in a burned out ex-con and ex-unwirer, and we can take it from there?"
She closed her eyes for a moment. Then she dangled her keyring again, just a flash of matte black plastic. "These are everywhere in Europe these days, along with these," she opened her purse and he caught a glimpse of a sliver of curved metal, like a boomerang, in the shape of the Motorola batwing logo-mark. "They're meshing wireless repeaters. Once you've got a critical mass, you can relay data from anywhere to anywhere. Teenagers are whacking them up on the sides of buildings, tangling them in tree-branches, sticking them to their windows. The telcos there are screaming blue murder, of course. Business is down 40 percent in Finland, 60 in France. They're using the net for telephone calls, instant messaging, file-sharing -- the wireline infrastructure is looking more and more obsolete every day. Even the ISPs are getting nervous."
Roscoe tried to hide his grin. To be an unwirer in the streets of Paris, operating with impunity, putting the telcos, the Hollywood studios and the ISPs on notice that there was no longer any such thing as a "consumer" -- that yesterday's couch potatoes are today's *participants*!
"We've got ten years' worth of editorials in our morgue about the destruction of the European entertainment and telco market and the wisdom of our National Information Infrastructure here in the US, but it's starting to ring hollow. The European governments are *ignoring* the telcos! The device and services market being built on top of the freenets is accounting for nearly half the GDP in France. To hear *my* paper describe it, though, you'd think they were starving in the streets: it's like the received wisdom about Canadian socialized healthcare. Everyone *knows* it doesn't work -- except for the Canadians, who think we're goddamned *barbarians* for not adopting it.
"I just got back from a month in the field in the EU. I've got interviews in the can with CEOs, with street-thugs, with grandmothers and with regulators, all saying the same thing: unmetered communications are the secret engine of the economy and of liberty. The highest-quality 'content' isn't 100-million-dollar movies, it's conversations with other people. Crypto is a tool of 'privacy'" -- she pronounced it in the British way, prihv-icy, making the word seem even more alien to his ears -- "not piracy.
"The unwirers are heroes in Europe. You hear them talk, it's like listening to a course in *US* constitutional freedoms. They talk like the letters-column in that dead old magazine." She tapped a finger on the cover of his *2600*. "But here, you people are crooks, cable-thieves, pirates, abetters of terrorists. I want to change that."
That evening, Marcel picked a fight with Roscoe over dinner. It started low key, as Roscoe sliced up the pizza. "What are you planning this week?"
Roscoe shifted two slices onto his plate before he answered. "More dishes. Got a couple of folks to splice in downtown if I want to hook up East Aurora -- there're some black spots there, but I figure with some QoS-based routing and a few more repeaters we can clear them up. Why?"
Marcel toyed with a strand of cooling cheese. "It's, like, boring. When are you going to run a new fat pipe in?"
"When the current one's full." Roscoe rolled a slice into a tube and bit into an end, deftly turning the roll to keep the cheese and sauce on the other end from oozing over his hand. "You know damn well the feds would like nothing better than to drive a ditch-witch through a fiber drop from the border. 'Sides, got the journalist to think about."
"I could take over part of the fiber-pull," Marcel said.
"I don't think so." Roscoe put his plate down.
"But I could --" Marcel looked at him. "What's wrong?"
"Security," Roscoe grunted. "Goddamnit, you can't just waltz up to some guy who's looking at 20 to life and say 'Hi, Roscoe sent me, howzabout you and me run some dark fiber over the border, huh?' Some of the guys in this game are, huh, you wouldn't want to meet them on a dark night. Are you with me? And others are just plain paranoid. They wouldn't want to meet *you*. Fastest way to convince 'em the DA's office is trying to shut them down."
"You could introduce me," Marcel said after a brief pause.
Roscoe laughed, a short bark. "In your dreams, son."
Marcel dropped his fork, clattering. "You're going to take your pet blonde on a repeater splice and show her everything and you're afraid to let me help you run a new fat pipe in? What's the matter, I don't smell good enough?"
"Listen." Roscoe stood up, and Marcel tensed -- but rather than move towards him, Roscoe turned to the pizza box. "Get the *Wall Street Journal* on our side and we have some credibility. A crack in the wall. Legitimacy. Do you know what that means, kid? You can't buy it. But run another fat pipe into town and we have a idle capacity, upstream dealers who want to know what the hell we're pissing around with, another fiber or laser link to lose to cop-induced backhoe fade, and about fifty percent higher probability of the whole network getting kicked over because the mundanes will rat us out to the FCC over their TV reception. Do you want that?" He picked another cooling pizza slice out of the box. "Do you really want that?"
"What I want isn't important, is it, Ross? Not as important as you getting a chance to fuck that reporter, right?"
"Up yours." Roscoe returned to his seat, shoulders set defensively. "Fuck you very much." They finished the meal in silence, then Roscoe headed out to his evening class in conversational French. Marcel, he figured, was just jealous because he wasn't getting to do any of the secret agent stuff. Being an unwirer was a lot less romantic than it sounded, and the first rule of unwiring was *nobody talks about unwiring*. Maybe Marcel would get there one day, assuming his big mouth didn't get everyone around him arrested first.
Sylvie's hotel-room had a cigarette-burns-and-must squalor that reminded Roscoe of jail. "Bonjour, M'sieu," she said as she admitted him.
"Bon soir, madame," he said. "Commentava?"
"Oy," she said. "My granmother woulda said, 'you've got a no-accent on you like a Litvak.' Lookee here, the treasures of the Left Bank." She handed him the Motorola batarang he'd glimpsed earlier. The underside had a waxed-paper peel-off strip and when he lifted a corner, his thumb stuck so hard to the tackiness beneath that he lost the top layer of skin when he pulled it loose. He turned it over in his hands.
"How's it powered?"
"Dirt-cheap photovoltaics charging a polymer cell -- they're printed in layers, the entire case is a slab of battery plus solar cell. It doesn't draw too many amps, only sucks juice when it's transmitting. Put one in a subway car and you've got an instant ad-hoc network that everyone in the car can use. Put one in the next car and they'll mesh. Put one on the platform and you'll get connectivity with the train when it pulls in. Sure it won't run for more than a few hours in total darkness -- but how often do folks network in the blackout?"
"Shitfire," he said, stroking the matte finish in a way that bordered on the erotic.
She grinned. She was slightly snaggletoothed, and he noticed a scar on her upper lip from a cleft-palette operation that must have been covered up with concealer earlier. "Total cost of goods is about three Euros, and Moto's margin is five hundred percent. But some Taiwanese knock-offs have already appeared that slice that in half. Moto'll have to invent something new next year if it wants to keep that profit."
"They will," Roscoe said, still stroking the batarang. He transferred it to his armpit and unslung his luggable laptop. "Innovation is still legal there." The laptop sank into the orange bedspread and the soft mattress beneath it.
"You could do some real damage with one of these, I bet," she said.
"With a thousand of them, maybe," he said. "If they were a little less conspicuous."
Her chest began to buzz. She slipped a wee phone from her breast-pocket and answered it. "Yes?" She handed the phone to Roscoe. "It's for you." She made a curious face at him.
He clamped it to his ear. "Who is this?"
"Eet eez eye, zee masked avenger, doer of naughty deeds and wooer of reporters' hearts."
"Yes, boss."
"You shouldn't be calling me on this number." He remembered the yellow pad, sitting on his bedside table. Marcel did all the dusting.
"Sorry, boss," he said. He giggled.
"Have you been drinking?" Marcel and he had bonded over many, many beers since they'd met in a bar in Utica, but Roscoe didn't drink these days. Drinking made you sloppy.
"No, no," he said. "Just in a good mood is all. I'm sorry we fought, darlin', can we kiss and make up?"
"What do you want, Marcel?"
"I want to be in the story, dude. Hook me up! I want to be famous!"
He grinned despite himself. Marcel was good at fonzing dishes into place with one well-placed whack, could crack him up when the winter slush was turning his mood to pitch. He was a good kid, basically. Hot head. Like Roscoe, once.
"C'mon c'mon c'mon," Marcel said, and he could picture the kid pogoing up and down in a phone-booth, heard his boots crunching on rock-salt.
He covered the receiver and turned to Sylvie, who had a bemused smirk that wasn't half cute on her. "You wanna hit the road, right?" She nodded. "You wanna write about how unwirers get made? I could bring along the kid I'm 'prenticing-up, you like." Through the cellphone, he heard Marcel shouting "Yes! Yes! YES!" and imagined the kid punching the air and pounding the booth's walls triumphantly.
"It's a good angle," she said. "*You* want him along, right?"
He held the receiver in the air so that they could both hear the hollers coming down the line. "I don't think I could live with him if I didn't take him," he said, "so yeah."
She nodded and bit her upper lip, just where the scar was, an oddly canine gesture that thrust her chin forward and made her look slightly belligerent. "Let's do it."
He clamped the phone back to his head. "Marcel! Calm down, twerp! Breathe. OK. You gonna be good if I take you along?"
"So good, man, so very very very very good, you won't believe --"
"You gonna be *safe*, I bring you along?"
"Safe as houses. Won't breathe without your permission. Man, you are the *best* --"
"Yeah, I am. Four PM. Bring the stuff."
Word count to date: 4332Posted by Cory Doctorow at May 5, 2003 07:59 AM | TrackBack
Charlie, I've cut out your last chunk (feel free to add it back if you want to) and added some more. IMO, though, it covered old ground (we already know about his job...) and failed to get Roscoe, Marcel and Sylvie into the same scene. I'm also concerned that Sylvie's lines telegraphed the ending. I thought we were building towards:
* Roscoe and Marcel argue about taking the reporter. We learn how unwiring works.
* Chase scene as Marcel pushes Roscoe to act of bravado(?)
* Reporter works out what Marcel is doing, has one-on-one with him.
* Reporter tries to convince Roscoe that Marcel is a fed, Roscoe doesn't fall for it.
* Marcel provokes new act of unwiring (and we need to get specific on what this is!).
* Last-minute prep scene. Roscoe figures out what Sylvie is doing. Proceed to climax and Roscoe sets Marcel up for the cops.
* Post-climax. Roscoe off to Canada/Europe/Mexico.
I'm trying to get them all into the same room and lead up to the climax. I think Marcel needs to be more sympathetic to be plausible, and Roscoe less cartoonishly bitter. They need to have some reaason to be hanging around each other, right?Posted by: Cory Doctorow at May 5, 2003 08:00 AM


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text:
Design Specification: Support NoSQL Databases
Document History
|Version Description & Notes
|0.1 Draft
Project overview
There are several "NoSQL" databases that are non-relational. These databases include:
- Oracle NoSQL
- MonogoDB
- Hadoop
- Google BigTable
- Cassandra
These databases offer alternative APIs to JDBC and either do not support querying, or support alternative query languages to SQL.
You could also include legacy hierarchical and non-relational databases, object databases and XML databases in the "NoSQL" category.
It is desirable for EclipseLink to support persistence and specifically JPA access to NoSQL databases.
EclipseLink currently provides persistence support for relational databases through JDBC, and non-relational datasources through JCA. This support requires a JDBC or JCA resource adapter/driver for the database. Most NoSQL databases do not provide a standard driver, although some may, and some do provide JDBC drivers. There are also third parties that provide JDBC and JCA driver to a wide range of datasources, including some NoSQL databases.
Users connecting EclipseLink to NoSQL databases have several options:
- If they have a JDBC driver available they can connect using EclipseLink's relational support, creating their own DatabasePlatform in EclipseLink will provide enhanced functionality and ease of use.
- If they have a JCA driver available they can connect using EclipseLink's EIS support, creating their own EISPlatform in EclipseLink will provide enhanced functionality and ease of use.
- They can implement their own JCA (or JDBC) adapter for their database to enable usage of EclipseLink's EIS support.
EclipseLink currently provides several JCA adapters to non-relational datasources. These include:
- Oracle AQ
- XML file adapter
EclipseLink should provide a platform and adapter to popular NoSQL databases, similar to the platforms provided for popular relational databases.
EclipseLink's EIS support currently has several limitations that must be resolved to support NoSQL databases.
- No JPA annotation or XML support is currently available for EIS descriptors, mappings, and queries.
- Although hooks exists, no current EIS adapters provide Expression (JPQL/Criteria) translation into non-SQL query languages or APIs.
- The JPA API has not been tested with EIS descriptors and datasources.
- NoSQL - see NoSQL - Wikipedia
- Hierarchical data - data that is nested like XML, not flat like relational data, most NoSQL data is hierarchical.
- EIS - Enterprise Information System, includes non-relational databases, gateways, transaction monitors, and applications. (VSAM, ADA, CICS, IMS, SAP, Salesforce, MongoDB, BigTable).
- Support JPA access to EIS and NoSQL databases.
- Support EIS JPA annotations and XML.
- Support JPQL subset (superset?) for NoSQL databases that support querying.
- Support mapping XML/JSON data from NoSQL databases.
- Support EISPlatforms and adapters for key NoSQL databases:
- Oracle NoSQL
- MongoDB
- others?
Design Constraints
- Some NoSQL databases do not support querying.
- Transaction semantics may be different, or even not exist in some NoSQL databases.
- Data and its access is non-standard and may require different types of mappings, queries or data access.
- NoSQL databases may be schema free, and may support storing of dynamic data.
- NoSQL databases provide non standard Java APIs, our adapters will require compile dependencies with these APIs.
Support EIS annotations and XML in JPA.
- @EIS annotation will allow a class to be tagged as mapping EIS data.
- JPA @Basic, @Embedded, @ElementCollection, @OneToOne, @ManyToOne, @OneToMany, @ManyToMany will be allowed for EIS classes and mapped to EIS mappings.
- @EisField annotation will allow defining the data field name, similar to @Column, (@Column will also be supported), (for non-XML data)
- @NamedEisInteractionQuery will allow a native query to be defined using an EIS interaction
- A subset of JAXB and Moxy annotations will be allowed, @XmlAttribute, @XmlElement, @XmlPath in place of @Column (to start with).
- Other JAXB annotations my be supported, or added in the future.
- Unsupported JAXB annotations will be checked for and log warnings or trigger errors.
Support JPA auto-mapping and defaulting.
- Defaulting rules will be similar to relational. Some JAXB defaulting rules may also be used.
Support JCA adapter for Oracle NoSQL.
- GET, PUT and DELETE operations will be supported.
- keyed XML data will be supported.
- nested keyed data will be supported.
- Oracle NoSQL does not support querying, so JPQL, Criteria querying will not be supported, only CRUD (find) and native interaction based queries will be supported.
- Oracle NoSQL has no transaction support, the JPA transaction API will be supported, but flushes will be committed and aborts will not rollback committed changes.
Support JCA adapter for MongoDB.
- JSON data mapped through MappedRecords.
- JSON data mapped through XMLRecords.
- A subset of JPQL and Criteria (through Expressions) will be translated to JSON based querying.
Testing will require access and installation to supported NoSQL databases.
Testing will be done locally by commiters responsible for the NoSQL database's integration (i.e. Oracle).
JPA and native API test models will be provided for Oracle NoSQL and MongoDB.
Oracle NoSQL will test:
- keyed XML data
- nested key-value pairs of string data
- possibly serialize data
MongoDB will test:
- JSON mapped data through XML
- @Eis - Tags descriptor as EIS
- @EisField - synonym for @Column
- JAXB - @XmlAttribute, @XmlElement
- Moxy - @XmlPath
- @NamedEisInteractionQuery
Native API
- OracleNoSQLPlatform
- OracleNoSQLConnectionSpec
Examples: Option #1 - JPA annotations
@Entity @Eis public class Employee { @Id @Basic long id; @Basic @Convert("dateConverter") Calendar hireDate; @Embedded @Column(name="addr") Address address; @ElementCollection @Column(name="phone") List<Phone> phones; @OneToOne @JoinColumn(name="mgr") Employee manager; }
<entity name="Employee" class="org.acme.Employee" access="FIELD"> <eis/> <attributes> <id name="id"/> <basic name="hireDate"> <convert name="dateConverter"/> </basic> <embedded name="address"> <column name="addr"/> </embedded> <element-collection name="phones"> <column name="phone"/> </element-collection> <one-to-one name="phones"> <join-column name="mgr"/> </one-to-one> </attributes> </entity>
Option #2 - EIS annotations
@Entity @Eis public class Employee { @Id @EisBasic long id; @EisBasic @Convert("dateConverter") Calendar hireDate; @EisEmbedded @EisField(name="addr") Address address; @EisElementCollection @EisField(name="phone") List<Phone> phones; @OneToOne @EisJoinField(name="mgr") Employee manager; }
<entity name="Employee" class="org.acme.Employee" access="FIELD"> <eis/> <attributes> <eis-id name="id"/> <eis-basic name="hireDate"> <convert name="dateConverter"/> </eis-basic> <eis-embedded name="address"> <eis-field name="addr"/> </eis-embedded> <eis-element-collection name="phones"> <eis-field name="phone"/> </eis-element-collection> <eis-one-to-one name="phones"> <eis-join-field name="mgr"/> </eis-one-to-one> </attributes> </entity>
Option #3 - JAXB annotations
@Entity @Eis public class Employee { @Id @XmlAttribute long id; @XmlAttribute @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(DateConverter.class) Calendar hireDate; @XmlElement(name="addr") Address address; @XmlElement(name="phone") List<Phone> phones; @XmlIDREF Employee manager; }
Config files
- "eclipselink.eis.connection-spec" - JCA connection spec
- "eclipselink.eis.property" - JCA driver property (synonymy for "eclipselink.jdbc.property")
- "eclipselink.eis.platform" - EIS platform (synonymy for "eclipselink.target-database")
- "eclipselink.jdbc.property" - JDBC driver property
- "eclipselink.jdbc.connector" - JDBC connector
Need to document our BNF, example queries and support beyond JPA 2.0/2.1 in query section.
Open Issues
- Which NoSQL databases should be supported? Oracle NoSQL, MongoDB, Hadoop, BigTable, ...?
- Where should JCA adapters be developed?
- How to resolve compile dependencies with third party APIs and drivers?
- Oracle NoSQL and MongoDB were decided for initial investigation.
Future Considerations
- Hadoop
- Google BigTable
- Cassandra
- Oracle Coherence (as a datasource instead of a cache)


text:
Michigan teams finished first in three of the six major categories at the 15th annual Robofest World Championships held May 17 at Lawrence Technological University.
Over 70 teams competed in the final round of competition, including teams from nine other states besides Michigan – Ohio, Texas, Minnesota, Florida, Hawaii, California, Missouri, Indiana and Washington – and eight other countries – Canada, Mexico, South Korea, China, India, South Africa, Brazil and France.
The winning teams at the Robofest World Championships included:
• College Vision Centric Challenge: Luxrobo, Seoul, South Korea.
• Senior Vision Centric Challenge: BOG, Seoul, South Korea.
• Junior Exhibition: Metal Robots, Canton, Michigan.
• Junior Game: Hoben iTerrifics, Canton, Michigan.
• Senior Exhibition: Dragons, Vanderbijlpark, South Africa.
• Senior Game: NCA Lights, Northville, Michigan.
The People's Choice Award in the Michigan Exhibition category went to RoboClimbers and RoboCruisers, both of Canton.
The Doge team from Farmington Hills was second in the Senior Vision Centric Challenge. RoboCruisers of Canton finished second in the Senior Game.
"The level of competition continues to improve every year," said LTU Professor CJ Chung, the founder of Robofest. "It is becoming harder and harder for teams here in Michigan to finish first. It is a real accomplishment when they do."
Students from the Shanghai University of Engineering and Science who are studying at LTU finished second in the College Vision Centric Challenge.
Demonstrating the geographic diversity of the competition, the five winners of the Best Team Photo Award came from Brampton, Canada; Belton, Texas; Newark, Ohio; Seoul, South Korea; and Paris, France.
Now in its 15th year, Robofest recently was named the national organizer for the United States for the World Robot Olympiad Association(WRO-USA), which runs a global LEGO robotics competition that draws participants from around the world. WRO Secretary General Claus Ditlev Christensen of Denmark spoke at the Robofest World Championships.


text:
Charis Ministries is a Jesuit ministry to those in their 20s and 30s. An outreach of the Chicago-Detroit Province of the Society of Jesus, we offer retreats, leadership development and spiritual resources that bring the gifts of Ignatian spiritualiy to the lives of young adults.
The word "Charis" (pronounced Ka-ris) is from the Greek and can be translated as "grace" or "special presence of the Divine." St. Ignatius of Loyola challenges us to find God in all things. Charis Ministries strives to help young adults to see this grace in all aspects of their lives. Our events give young adults the opportunity to find this grace in the midst of their relationships, careers, struggles and joys.
Charis Ministries, headquartered in Chicago, serves young adults and those who minister to them through the nationwide Charis Partner Program. Members of the Partner Program offer our peer-led retreats in cities throughout the country.