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In an ongoing effort to undermine homeopathy, the FTC disregards hundreds of peer-reviewed studies and suggests that there is no scientific evidence for these safe, effective therapies.
Extreme Bias in FTC's Ruling on Homeopathic Medicine
Despite the fact that there are over 300 clinical trials published in peer review medical journals, the U.S. government's Federal Trade Commission (F.T.C.) has deemed homeopathic medicine to be unproven scientifically. This governmental agency will now require manufacturers of homeopathic medicines to provide the following two statements in their marketing of over-the-counter homeopathic medicines: (1) there is no scientific evidence that the product works and (2) the product's claims are based only on theories of homeopathy from the 1700s that are not accepted by most modern medical experts.
Obvious evidence of the F.T.C.'s bias in this ruling is that the word "homeopathy" was not even coined until 1805, and the founder of homeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann, MD, did not write his first book on the subject until 1810. The first homeopath to come to the USA wasn't until 1825. And yet, the F.T.C. asserts that homeopathy is based on theories from the 1700s?
The fact that the F.T.C. is not being honest or accurate on historical facts will lead anyone to question whether they are honest or accurate in their assessment of homeopathic research. In actual fact, research showing the efficacy of homeopathic medicines have been published in many of the most respected medical journals in the world, including The Lancet 1, BMJ (British Medical Journal, 1, 2), Chest (the publication of the American College of Chest Physicians), Rheumatology (the publication of the British Society for Rheumatology), Pediatrics (publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics), Cancer (journal of the American Cancer Society), Journal of Clinical Oncology, Pediatrics Infectious Disease Journal (publication of the European Society of Pediatric Infectious Diseases), European Journal of Pediatrics (publication of the Swiss Society of Pediatrics and the Belgium Society of Pediatrics), and numerous others. And yet, the F.T.C. insists that there is "no scientific evidence" that homeopathy works? Really, none?
It should also be noted that the prestigious World Health Organization (W.H.O.) has deemed France to have the BEST health care in the world. It is therefore important to note that according to a recent survey published in the respected medical journal, Family Practice, 95% of French pediatricians, dermatologists, and general practitioners use homeopathic medicines. Further, 43% of all health and medical professionals prescribed at least one homeopathic medicine in a 12-month period. And ALL of these statistics were gathered from the government's prescription records, making this data precise and accurate. The practice and usage of homeopathic medicine is also substantial in Germany, Italy, Netherlands, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. And yet, homeopathy is "not accepted by most modern experts?" Is there absolutely no respect for minority schools of thought in medicine for the first time in medical history? Is conventional medicine so perfect that it can only allow for medical treatments that a majority of medical experts accept? Or…are there efforts influenced by Big Pharma to reduce competition in health care?
To be clear, the work of the F.T.C. is vital for consumer protection, but it is clear that this governmental agency is ignoring important scientific evidence, and one must wonder if they are protecting Big Pharma from competition more than protecting the consumer.
To understand how and why the F.T.C. has such obvious bias against homeopathy (and various alternatives to Big Pharma), it is helpful to know something about history…and then, to learn something about the body of scientific evidence that presently exists for homeopathic medicines.
History of Attacks Against Homeopathy
Due to the impressive successes that physicians found from homeopathic medicines in the treatment of severe infectious disease epidemics in the 19th century, homeopathy grew so rapidly that the American Institute of Homeopathy was established as this country's first national medical organization in 1844. A rival medical organization was formed just two years later asserting that one of the reasons for their formation was to slow the growth of homeopathy. That organization called itself the American Medical Association.
Homeopathy continued to grow in America in the 19th century and was called "the new school," while conventional medicine was deemed to be "the old school." By the early 20th century, there were 20 homeopathic medical schools in America, including Boston University, University of Michigan, Ohio State University, University of Minnesota, Hahnemann Medical College, and even the University of Iowa.
At the turn into the 20th century, George Simmons became the new President of the American Medical Association, and he devised a brilliant plan to make the AMA rich and powerful. Simmons created the AMA's "Seal of Approval on Drugs." To get this award, drug manufacturers did not require ANY evidence on safety or efficacy of drugs. Instead, the drug-maker simply needed to divulge the ingredients of their drug (an important consumer protection) AND, more importantly, they were required to pay for advertisements in EVERY local, regional, and national AMA publications (a legal form of bribery). This "collaboration" between the AMA and Big Pharma led to a significant increase in membership in the increasingly rich AMA, growing from 8,000 members in 1900 to over 70,000 members in 1910.
The "collaboration" between Big Pharma and government has been substantial in the 20th century and even more so in the 21st century. In fact, for the past couple of decades, Big Pharma has spent almost 50% more (!) in lobbying politicians than the closest industry (the Insurance industry). When you take this fact into account and then realize that Big Pharma spends its greatest amounts of advertising dollars for TV news programs, you can see and understand Big Pharma's strategy to "own" the news and politicians. This strategy has worked too well.
Evidence of serious corporate shenanigans on health products is just beginning to be uncovered. According to the British Medical Journal, recently uncovered evidence has verified the extraordinary extent to which key public health experts at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) have been influenced by big money given by the sugar industry to take any blame away from sugar for today's obesity epidemic.
Verifying additional problems at the CDC, Dr. William Thompson, a senior scientist at the CDC has obtained whistleblower status after he admitted to falsifying research to show that there is no correlation between vaccination and autism when, in fact, his research actually showed that there was a correlation between vaccination and the autism rate in all children and was found to be 250% higher in black children than those children not vaccinated. Yet, CDC Director Tom Frieden has attempted to block Thompson from testifying in a civil hearing asserting, "Dr. William Thompson's deposition testimony would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC or HHS [Health and Human Services]."
According to Robert Kennedy Jr. one of the key people in this cover-up at the CDC is Dr. Colleen Boyle who is the Director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, one of the CDC's centers that evaluate autism rates. This same scientist who was previously found to have orchestrated the cover-up of Agent Orange and dioxin toxicity in the 1970s, and rather than punish her, she was rewarded with a plum position that enabled her to cover-up the vaccine-autism connection.
Needless to say, the media has repeatedly asserted that there is "no connection between vaccines and autism," and yet, the media has carefully avoided reporting on this whistleblower case. Recent reports about serious levels of anxiety from employees at the CDC are well-founded because the Trump administration may be more forthright in investigating corporate and scientific fraud. Trump has expressed his support for vaccines, but has also expressed direct concern about the inadequacy of safety studies on them.
The additional reason that issue of vaccines is discussed here is that Americans do not know that there are virtually no double-blind and placebo controlled studies that show that vaccines are safe. The few times that vaccine research has used a "placebo," they do not place pathogens in the placebo but they actually still insert mercury or aluminum adjuvants in the placebo, thereby destroying the ability for real scientific evaluation of safety from these neurotoxins. Even one of the most prestigious medical journals in the world, the Cochrane Collaboration, has acknowledged that the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine research on safety is "largely inadequate." And yet, Big Pharma spins the fact that there are so few real tests for safety to mean that "vaccines are safe" (when you don't really test with a real placebo, you cannot evaluate safety issues). To make matters worse, not only are vaccines allowed to be marketed despite the paucity of safety evidence, several states are now making them mandatory for children who wish to attend public or private schools.
As important as regulatory agencies are for consumer protection, it is disturbing how much corporate involvement has influenced these governmental agencies. Instead of providing consumer protection, there seems to be much more corporate protection, and it seems obvious that Americans want a serious change from this corporate swamp.
This discussion about the swamp surround vaccine research and governmental agencies is provided here because there is also a swamp surrounding homeopathic and natural medicines and regulatory agencies.
Homeopathic Research
Additional obvious bias was evidence when the F.T.C.'s ruling cited old and incorrect information asserting that homeopathic medicine are "so diluted that no single molecule of the original substance remains." In actual fact, an important study in 2010 was published in the famed journal, Langmuir (published by the American Chemistry Society), that verified that six different homeopathic medicine were found to have nanoparticles of the original medicinal agents even after they were diluted 1:100 two-hundred times and this fact was confirmed by three different types of spectroscopy. Further, the nanodoses that remained in water were, according to Archives in Internal Medicine, comparable to the nanodoses to which many common hormones and cell-signaling agents are known to operate. Based on this research, anyone who says that there are "no active ingredients" or "no molecules" in homeopathic medicines are basing such assertions on disproven theories, not scientifically verified facts.
Unless the F.T.C. wishes to proclaim that our body's hormones are placeboes, it can and should accept and recognize that the nanodoses used in homeopathic medicines have physiological action.
Further, modern evidence for the physiological effects from homeopathic medicines is provided by a growing body of basic research that has shown up- and down-regulation of genetic expression from homeopathic medicines, including in these studies, 1, 2, 3, 4. Even the highly prestigious Nature magazine edition in India published an important news report about one of these studies that showed these effects from a homeopathic medicine. Ultimately, at least a dozen laboratories have confirmed the persistence of nanomedicines in water made with homeopathic medicines, including labs at the University of Arizona, Northwestern University, University of California at Davis, University of Mumbai, Russian Academy of Science, and India Institute of Technology.
Ultimately, homeopathy is the "original nanomedicine," and the entire field of nanomedicine is so hot that some reports estimate that it will be a $130 billion industry this year. It is hard to avoid the possibility that Big Pharma is pressuring the FTC to rid itself of any competition, even though homeopathy itself is only $1 billion industry in the US.
The F.T.C. report on homeopathy carefully avoided reference to the largest review of research on homeopathy that has ever taken place. The Swiss government's "Health Technology Assessment" on homeopathic medicine is much more comprehensive than any previous governmental report written on this subject to date. Not only did this report carefully and comprehensively review the body of evidence from randomized double-blind and placebo controlled clinical trials testing homeopathic medicines, they also evaluated the "real world effectiveness" with observational studies (discussed below) as well as safety and cost-effectiveness. The report also conducted a highly-comprehensive review of the wide body of preclinical research (fundamental physio-chemical research, botanical studies, animal studies, and in vitro studies with human cells) as well as epidemiological studies and cost-effectiveness studies.
After assessing basic research and the high quality clinical studies, the Swiss report affirmed that homeopathic high-potencies seem to induce regulatory effects (e.g., balancing or normalizing effects) and specific changes in cells or living organisms. The report also reported that 20 of the 22 systematic reviews of clinical research testing homeopathic medicines detected at least a trend in favor of homeopathy. To date, this report on homeopathy was the only review of research to ever to be published in a peer-review medical journal.
The newest meta-analysis (a systematic review of research) on homeopathic medicine chose to evaluate only those clinical trials that provided individualized treatment. In reviewing the "highest quality studies," the researchers found that homeopathic patients were almost twice as likely to experience a therapeutic benefit as those given a placebo. Further, in reviewing a total of 22 clinical trials, the homeopathic patients experienced greater than 50% likelihood to have benefited from the homeopathic treatment than those given a placebo.
Perhaps one of the strongest statements in this article was the confirmation that four of the five leading previous systematic reviews of homeopathic research also found a benefit from homeopathic treatment over that of placebo:
"Five systematic reviews have examined the RCT research literature on homeopathy as a whole, including the broad spectrum of medical conditions that have been researched and by all forms of homeopathy: four of these 'global' systematic reviews reached the conclusion that, with important caveats, the homeopathic intervention probably differs from placebo."
The ultimate observation of this significant review of homeopathic research is that there IS a difference between homeopathy and placebo, despite what skeptics and the media tend to assume and assert.
To date, there are at least 300 clinical studies that have been published in peer-review medical journals. Although ALL of the meta-analyses conducted on homeopathy deem that "good quality studies" must be randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled, these same guidelines are not expected of vaccines, nor are any surgical procedures required to have these standards for evaluating safety or efficacy. A double standard persists, and attacking and bullying the little guy (homeopathy) has become the order of the day.
According to the most prestigious medical journal in the world, The New England Journal of Medicine, randomized double-blind and placebo controlled trials are not the only way to evaluate therapeutic benefits from a treatment. In fact, this medical journal has published numerous articles that assert that observational trials are just as reliable. One author asserted emphatically,
"The popular belief that only randomized, controlled trials produce trustworthy results and that all observational studies are misleading does a disservice to patient care, clinical investigation, and the education of health care professionals."
Observational trials provide information on "real world" use and practice, and there is a considerable body of evidence that homeopathic treatment provides "real world benefits. It is very common for conventional drugs to be found seemingly effective in randomized double-blind and placebo controlled trials, but not really work in "real world medicine." In comparison, homeopathic medicine has consistently been found to be effective in real world medicine.
Implications of Ruling on Homeopathy Today
The F.T.C. ruling will require the above described statements asserting that there is no scientific evidence for the efficacy of a homeopathic medicine. However, the vast majority of homeopathic medicines are single-ingredient homeopathic medicines that are not prescribed for specific diseases but for the unique syndrome of symptoms that every person has. And because the vast majority of practicing homeopaths use these single ingredient homeopathic medicines, the practice of homeopathy itself will not be influenced much by this F.T.C. ruling.
In fact, some homeopaths actually appreciate this ruling because it'll encourage people to understand homeopathy and the homeopathic approach to healing better. Further, the ruling will lead more people who are seeking safer alternatives to conventional drug treatment to purchase homeopathic guidebooks, such as those that this author has written, that teach people how to select the right homeopathic medicine for their own, their family's, or their friend's health care problem. Therefore, books such as Everybody's Guide to Homeopathic Medicines and Homeopathic Medicines for Children and Infants may be in greater demand. And people who want to learn to use a homeopathic medicine kit to treat their families will be encouraged to access such courses or e-courses.
This ruling will have its primary impact on the various homeopathic formulas on the market today that make figuring out which medicine to get more "user-friendly." Homeopathic formulas are mixtures of homeopathic medicines that include ingredients that are known to benefit people with specific ailments, but each ingredient is thought to only have benefits for the limited group of people whose symptoms match those that each substance is known to cause (if given in overdose). Therefore, a homeopathic pharmacy creates a mixture with ingredients that will have a more broad-spectrum effect beyond that of a single remedy.
It is these homeopathic formulas that the F.T.C. ruling will impact. However, because there are now over 300 clinical trials published in peer-review medical journals, there are a surprising number of studies that show that homeopathic formulas do provide therapeutic benefits. The F.T.C. ruling therefore will have some benefits for those homeopathic medicines that have had such research. Certain books or ebooks that reference such research will probably increase in demand. And courses and e-courses that teach people how to use a homeopathic medicine kit and that provide evidence from peer-review medical journals will also be more popular.
The bad news about the F.T.C. ruling is that poor people who cannot afford going to a professional homeopath and those people who are not motivated to learn how to use homeopathic medicines will unable to get the benefits from homeopathy like 500 million people across the world do.
It is additionally intriguing to know that every one of the dozens of surveys ever conducted on who uses homeopathic medicines has discovered that these homeopathy users are more educated than those who don't. Therefore, it seems that it is common for more educated people to go out of their way to choose homeopathy.
Closing Thoughts
The F.T.C. report on homeopathy noted a survey of users of homeopathic medicine found that 60% to 73% were satisfied with the performance of the homeopathic treatment they used and half of the people who used a homeopathic medication for one condition went on to use a homeopathic treatment for other conditions.
The report then noted that a representative of the homeopathic industry remarked that such levels of satisfaction would not be explained by the placebo effect based on his assertion that the "placebo effect … is probably around 30%" (see p. 5) When one considers the widely recognized fact that homeopathic medicines are considerably safer than conventional drugs, one would think that this system of medicine would be embraced and encouraged by federal regulatory agencies, especially for pregnant and lactating women and for infants and children. However, this F.T.C. ruling suggests that there is no scientific evidence that homeopathy works.
Even though other constituencies of the "natural health movement" have not had a collaborative relationship with the F.D.A. (Food and Drug Administration) in the 20th and 21st centuries, homeopathy and advocates for this system of medicine have had a long-time collaborative relationship with this governmental agency ever since this health agency was first empowered with regulatory controls as a result of the famed Federal Food Drugs and Cosmetics Act of 1938.
In fact, this 1938 law was written by a Senator from New York who was a medical doctor as well as homeopathic physician by the name of Royal Copeland, MD. This three-term U.S. Senator was so highly respected that Franklin D. Roosevelt was his campaign manager when he first ran for the U.S. Senate. This 1938 law not only empowered the F.D.A., it also gave formal federal recognition to homeopathy and homeopathic medicines as a different and separate system of medicine and pharmacology.
The bottom line here is that the U.S. Congress passed this important consumer protection law in 1938, and it granted formal recognition of the U.S. Homeopathic Pharmacopeia as a DIFFERENT compendium of drugs than the U.S. Pharmacopeia. This law did not seek to merge these two different schools of thought in medical practice, but instead, they sought to respect them as different and complementary. It is therefore questionable if homeopathic drugs should be understood or regulated in the same manner as conventional drugs.
One would hope that the F.T.C. would have a good working relationship with the homeopathic community as the F.D.A. has, but the fact remains that the new F.T.C. ruling now requires marketing information on homeopathic medicines to include statements that there is "no scientific evidence that the product works" and the product's claims "are not accepted by most modern medical experts." The intent of this article was to show the extreme bias in their recent ruling in their evidence from history and their interpretation of homeopathic research.
Ultimately, the F.T.C. is staffed by lawyers, not by physicians or scientists or experts on homeopathy and natural medicine. Clearly, this F.T.C. report has numerous significant errors of fact and has obvious biases. One would hope that these problems will be rectified.
Whether the F.T.C. corrects its report and changes its ruling or not, it will be curious to watch if the F.T.C. and health and medical regulatory agencies continue to protect Big Pharma and Big Corporations or if they will truly seek to protect consumers.
It will also be important, even vitally important, to observe what priority the F.T.C. grants this new ruling on homeopathy. In this day and age in which the average American is prescribed 13 prescription drugs per year (not counting any of the over-the-counter drugs they are prescribed or that people take on their own), there are very few studies that confirm the safety or efficacy of this common practice of "poly-pharmacy." If regulatory agencies are truly interested in protecting the health of Americans, it would be prudent if they focused their attention on the real and significant dangers to American's health that exist in our use and over-use of conventional medications, not on homeopathic medicines that has an impeccable 200-year history of safety.
Finally, the F.T.C. chose to issue these rulings after Donald Trump has been elected President. Trump has asserted that he plans to eliminate two regulations for every new regulation. Is this new regulation really worthy of keeping when two other regulations will be eliminated? Considering the long-time safety history of homeopathic medicines, it is surprising and even shocking that the F.T.C. would consider proposing new regulations now. One cannot help but wonder who or what is pulling their strings. Only the naïve think that policies result in a vacuum but instead more commonly result from powerful economic forces at play.
For evidence-based research on homeopathic treatments, visit the GreenMedInfo.com Research Dashboard.
"© 11.29.16 GreenMedInfo LLC. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of GreenMedInfo LLC. Want to learn more from GreenMedInfo? Sign up for the newsletter here http://www.greenmedinfo.com/greenmed/newsletter."
About the Author:
Dana Ullman, MPH, who TIME magazine described as "the Leading Proselytizer of Homeopathy" and ABC News touted as "Homeopathy's Foremost Spokesman." Dana has devoted his life to homeopathy. He regularly speaks at leading medical schools and universities. He has authored 10 books and authored chapters on homeopathy in 3 leading medical textbooks. Dana authors an exceedingly popular column at the HuffingtonPost. You can visit his website here .


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What to watch for in Friday's matchups at the World Cup quarterfinals:
The first match features a number of teammates on their professional clubs facing off against each other when France takes on Uruguay in Nizhny Novgorod. France forward Antoine Griezmann plays at Atletico Madrid alongside Uruguayan defenders Diego Godin and Jose Maria Gimenez; Godin is godfather to Griezmann's daughter. Those ties are so thick that Uruguay striker Luis Suarez needled Griezmann this week for trying to be Uruguayan . Suarez himself will find a Barcelona teammate on the other side of the pitch in French defender Samuel Umtiti.
With so much talent on both sides, the late game in Kazan features even more intrasquad intrigue: Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus, Fernandinho and Danilo against teammates Vincent Kompany and Kevin De Bruyne of Belgium; Brazil's Willian against Chelsea teammates Eden Hazard, Michy Batshuayi and Thibaut Courtois, all Belgian; and Belgium's Thomas Meunier against his Brazilian teammates at Paris Saint-Germain — Marquinhos, Thiago Silva and Neymar.
Belgium is scoring almost a goal a game more than any other team in the tournament, with 12 in four matches. Brazil, to the surprise of some, has allowed just one goal in its four games. Only one other team has been that stingy: Uruguay, which will face a France attack loaded with speed and scorers. In both cases, something will have to give.
The most expensive player in the world has had a strong tournament so far and is the biggest star whose team is still alive. Some think Neymar could even win his first FIFA player of the year award if Brazil wins it all. But he's increasingly catching grief about his flopping , diving and writhing around after minor contact. Will that prompt the referee to give the Belgian defenders more leeway, or will Neymar keep getting the calls?
Credit : Associated Press (AP) | Photo Credit : (AP)

subset: commoncrawl


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Rare polychrome beaker depicting the symbols of the barber. Highlighted in gold leaves. Frieze decorated with acanthus leaves and rosettes. We can also appreciate Asclepius's snake, a mortar and the coat of arms of France. The base is ornamented with various stylized flowers and the talon is decorated with sea monsters colored in red.
SAINT-CLOUD, tender porcelain.
Beginnings of the 18th century, circa 1700-1710.
Height: 3 inches. Diameter: 3.1 inches.
Provenance: Château in the Blois region.
The presence of the coat of arms of France leads us to think of a royal provenance, possibly Louis XIV.
Only one other piece similar to this one is known, and it is conserved at the Musée de Sèvres, and illustrated in "Les porcelainiers du XVIIIè siècle francais".
H.P. Fourest considered this model as the most ancient witness of the attempts to gild by steamping in the factory of Saint-Cloud.
It holds a certificate to exit the French territory.


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Kangaroo Paw
Origin & History
The kangaroo paw's botanical name anigozanthus is derived from the Greek anoigo (to open), and anthos (flower.) The name reflects the kangaroo paw's way of opening widely from the blossom's base. The French botanist Jacques-Julian Houton de Labillardiere was the first European to collect kangaroo paw at his home near Esperance in 1792. It was proclaimed the flower emblem of Western Australia on November 9, 1960.


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Press Release
Breakthrough Watch and the European Southern Observatory achieve "first light" on upgraded planet-finding instrument to search for Earth-like planets in nearest star system
10 June 2019
Newly-built planet-finding instrument installed on Very Large Telescope, Chile, begins 100-hour observation of nearby stars Alpha Centauri A and B, aiming to be first to directly image a habitable exoplanet
Breakthrough Watch, the global astronomical program looking for Earth-like planets around nearby stars, and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Europe's foremost intergovernmental astronomical organisation, today announced "first light" on a newly-built planet-finding instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope in the Atacama Desert, Chile.
The instrument, called NEAR (Near Earths in the AlphaCen Region), is designed to hunt for exoplanets in our neighbouring star system, Alpha Centauri, within the "habitable zones" of its two Sun-like stars, where water could potentially exist in liquid form. It has been developed over the last three years and was built in collaboration with the University of Uppsala in Sweden, the University of Liège in Belgium, the California Institute of Technology in the US, and Kampf Telescope Optics in Munich, Germany.
Since 23 May ESO's astronomers at ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) have been conducting a ten-day observing run to establish the presence or absence of one or more planets in the star system. Observations will conclude tomorrow, 11 June. Planets in the system (twice the size of Earth or bigger), would be detectable with the upgraded instrumentation. The near- to thermal-infrared range is significant as it corresponds to the heat emitted by a candidate planet, and so enables astronomers to determine whether the planet's temperature allows liquid water.
Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to our Solar System, at 4.37 light-years (about 25 trillion miles) away. It consists of two Sun-like stars, Alpha Centauri A and B, plus the red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. Current knowledge of Alpha Centauri's planetary systems is sparse. In 2016, a team using ESO instruments discovered one Earth-like planet orbiting Proxima Centauri. But Alpha Centauri A and B remain unknown quantities; it is not clear how stable such binary star systems are for Earth-like planets, and the most promising way to establish whether they exist around these nearby stars is to attempt to observe them.
Imaging such planets, however, is a major technical challenge, since the starlight that reflects off them is generally billions of times dimmer than the light coming to us directly from their host stars; resolving a small planet close to its star at a distance of several light-years has been compared to spotting a moth circling a street lamp dozens of miles away. To solve this problem, in 2016 Breakthrough Watch and ESO launched a collaboration to build a special instrument called a thermal infrared coronagraph, designed to block out most of the light coming from the star and optimised to capture the infrared light emitted by the warm surface of an orbiting planet, rather than the small amount of starlight it reflects. Just as objects near to the Sun (normally hidden by its glare) can be seen during a total eclipse, so the coronagraph creates a kind of artificial eclipse of its target star, blocking its light and allowing much dimmer objects in its vicinity to be detected. This marks a significant advance in observational capabilities.
The coronagraph has been installed on one of the VLT's four 8-metre-aperture telescopes, upgrading and modifying an existing instrument, called VISIR, to optimise its sensitivity to infrared wavelengths associated with potentially habitable exoplanets. It will therefore be able to search for heat signatures similar to that of the Earth, which absorbs energy from the Sun and emits it in the thermal infrared wavelength range. NEAR modifies the existing VISIR instrument in three ways, combining several cutting-edge astronomical engineering achievements. First, it adapts the instrument for coronagraphy, enabling it to drastically reduce the light of the target star and thereby reveal the signatures of potential terrestrial planets. Second, it uses a technique called adaptive optics to strategically deform the telescope's secondary mirror, compensating for the blur produced by the Earth's atmosphere. Third, it employs novel chopping strategies that also reduce noise, as well as potentially allowing the instrument to switch rapidly between target stars -— as fast as every 100 milliseconds — maximising the available telescope time.
Pete Worden, Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives, said: "We're delighted to collaborate with the ESO in designing, building, installing and now using this innovative new instrument. If there are Earth-like planets around Alpha Centauri A and B, that's huge news for everyone on our planet."
"ESO is glad to bring its expertise, existing infrastructure, and observing time on the Very Large Telescope to the NEAR project," commented ESO project manager Robin Arsenault.
"This is a valuable opportunity, as — in addition to its own science goals — the NEAR experiment is also a pathfinder for future planet-hunting instruments for the upcoming Extremely Large Telescope," says Markus Kasper, ESO's lead scientist for NEAR.
"NEAR is the first and (currently) only project that could directly image a habitable exoplanet. It marks an important milestone. Fingers crossed — we are hoping a large habitable planet is orbiting Alpha Cen A or B" commented Olivier Guyon, lead scientist for Breakthrough Watch.
"Human beings are natural explorers," said Yuri Milner, founder of the Breakthrough Initiatives, "It is time we found out what lies beyond the next valley. This telescope will let us gaze across."
The data from the NEAR experiment are publicly available from the ESO archive under programme ID 2102.C-5011. A pre-processed and condensed package of all the data will be made available shortly after the campaign concludes. In addition, the Python-based high-contrast imaging data reduction tool PynPoint has been adapted to process NEAR data, and will be provided to members of the astronomical community who would like to use the data but do not have their own data reduction tools. https://pynpoint.readthedocs.io/en/latest/near.html
Breakthrough Watch is a global astronomical programme aiming to identify and characterise planets around nearby stars. The programme is run by an international team of experts in exoplanet detection and imaging. https://breakthroughinitiatives.org/initiative/4
The Breakthrough Initiatives are a suite of scientific and technological programmes, founded by Yuri Milner, investigating life in the Universe. Along with Breakthrough Watch, they include Breakthrough Listen, the largest ever astronomical search for signs of intelligent life beyond Earth, and Breakthrough Starshot, the first significant attempt to design and develop a space probe capable of reaching another star.
Yuri Milner founded Mail.ru Group in 1999 and under his leadership it became one of Europe's leading internet companies. He took that business public in 2010 and founded DST Global to focus on global internet investments. DST Global became one of the world's leading technology investors and its portfolio has included some of the world's most prominent internet companies, such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Snapchat, Airbnb, Spotify, Alibaba, and others. Yuri lives in Silicon Valley with his family.
Yuri graduated in 1985 with an advanced degree in theoretical physics and subsequently conducted research in quantum field theory. Yuri and his wife Julia, partnered with Sergey Brin, Priscilla Chan and Mark Zuckerberg, Pony Ma, and Anne Wojcicki to fund the Breakthrough Prizes — the world's largest scientific awards, honouring important, primarily recent, achievements in Fundamental Physics, Life Sciences and Mathematics. In July 2015, together with Stephen Hawking, Yuri launched the $100 million Breakthrough Listen initiative to reinvigorate the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in the Universe, and in April 2016 they launched Breakthrough Starshot — a $100 million research and engineering programme seeking to develop a technology for interstellar travel.
ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world's largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".
ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has recently added to its suite of advanced instruments, with a newly modified instrument VISIR (VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared). On 21 May 2019, it made its first observations since being modified to aid in the search for potentially habitable planets in the Alpha Centauri system.
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Rx News
Improving Understanding Of Psychiatric Disorders With The Help Of Zebrafish
May 20, 2012
Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London have shown that zebrafish could be used to study the underlying causes of psychiatric disorders.
The study, published online in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, found zebrafish can modify their behaviour in response to varying situations.
Dr Caroline Brennan, from Queen Mary's School of Biological and Chemical Sciences who led the study, said: "Zebrafish are becoming one of the most useful animal models for studying the developmental genetic mechanisms underlying many psychiatric disorders; they breed prolifically and we have many new and exciting techniques that allow us to explore their genetic make-up in the laboratory."
The scientists took 15 zebrafish through a series of experiments involving colour choice to test aspects of behaviour associated with psychiatric disease.
The fish were given a choice between two colours - they learnt to choose one of the colours which gave them food. The colours were then reversed and they learnt to change their colour choice.
The scientists then introduced a new set of colours and started the process again. The fish were able to change their behaviour accordingly, learning the new set of colours much faster than the original set, a process psychologists call 'behavioural flexibility'.
The research challenges previous studies which suggested fish were unable to elicit behavioural flexibility, unlike mammals and humans, because they didn't have a frontal cortex.
"Problems with behavioural flexibility, and general deficits in attention, are key symptoms displayed by people suffering a variety of psychological disorders related to impulse control, such as drug addiction, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and some personality disorders," Dr Brennan said.
"The results of our study suggest that there may be a role for zebrafish in the future as a useful comparative model to study the cause and prognosis of some of these disorders."
Zebrafish are often used by neuroscientists to explore mechanisms controlling behaviour and in the search for new compounds to treat behavioural disease such as addiction, attention deficit disorders or autism. This study adds further weight to the argument for using zebrafish in the study of these disorders and conditions.
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January 1, 2017


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To order images and/or obtain permission to use them commercially, please contact the KSHS Reference Desk at email@example.com or 785-272-8681, ext. 117.
For more information see the Copyright and Permission FAQ.
This black and white photograph, taken from a glass plate negative, shows crowds of people on the steps of the capitol in Topeka, Kansas. Located on twenty acres of land once owned by Cyrus K. Holliday, work began on October 17, 1866 when the cornerstone was laid for the east wing. Thirty-seven years later the statehouse, an example of French Renaissance architecture and Corinthian details, was completed at a total cost of $3,200,588.92.
Date: 1904
Item Number: 214056
Call Number: FK2.1 C.1904c *1
KSHS Identifier: DaRT ID: 214056
Built Environment - Architectural Style - French Renaissance
Built Environment - Areas of Significance - Politics/Government
Built Environment - Function - Government - Capitol
Built Environment - Materials - Stone - Limestone
Collections - Photograph
Date - 1900s - 1904
Government and Politics - State Government - Legislature
Objects and Artifacts - Communication Artifacts - Documentary Artifact - Photograph
Places - Cities and towns - Topeka
Places - Counties - Shawnee
Type of Material - Photographs


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Two new administrators have joined the Princeton staff to enhance the University's diversity-related initiatives.
Cheri Lawson has been named director for equal opportunity programs in the Office of the Provost, and Robert Martinez has been appointed manager of diversity and inclusion in the Office of Human Resources.
The new positions were approved last year by President Shirley M. Tilghman in response to recommendations by the University's Diversity Working Group intended to make Princeton a more diverse and supportive workplace for people of all backgrounds.
Lawson will report to Terri Harris Reed, whose promotion to vice provost for institutional equity and diversity also was approved last year. Lawson will lead efforts to support the University's commitment to faculty and staff diversity through affirmative action compliance and training activities. She will be responsible for developing the University's affirmative action plans and for coordinating and implementing equal opportunity, diversity and affirmative action policies, initiatives and programs in accordance with laws and guidelines.
Lawson has worked for three years as an equal opportunity specialist for Home Depot USA, advising regional officers, directors and managers on employment law issues. She also served for five years as an in-house staff attorney for the New York City Board of Education. In addition, she has worked in private practice as a labor and employment attorney. For the last three years, she has had her own practice in Princeton.
A graduate of Long Island University, Lawson earned her law degree from Fordham University.
"We are pleased that Cheri has agreed to join our staff," said Reed. "Her experience dealing with employment law issues and building trusting relationships across boundaries made her the top candidate. Her former colleagues and supervisors agree that she is a skilled attorney, adept administrator, team player and, maybe most importantly, a spectacular person."
Martinez will be responsible for managing and guiding efforts to conceptualize, define, assess, nurture and cultivate diversity as an institutional commitment and to bridge the multiple constituencies that make up the Princeton community. These efforts will include practices to address issues of retention and recruitment of a diverse staff, among many other initiatives.
Martinez came to Princeton from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he had been a recruitment/diversity specialist since 2002. He also served as an outreach specialist on MIT's Diversity Management Team. Previously, Martinez worked at United Parcel Service as a recruitment supervisor and at WBTS Inc. as a consultant in training and development.
He is a graduate of Excelsior College in Albany, N.Y.
"Robert brings great experience and a fresh approach to the issues of retention and recruitment to the University," said Lianne Sullivan-Crowley, vice president for human resources. "He is a great addition to the team of human resources professionals dedicated to diversity and inclusion in our workforce."


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Sub/Amp Harness - Nissan 300ZX 1995-1996
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Being A Crabby Bitch Is Just Part Of My Charm - Bumper Magnet is a high quality thick UV protected car & vehicle magnet. Magnetic material is printed with UV protected inks that will not fade, flake or chip and is suitable for outdoor use. Magnets are idea for any magnetic surface including metals, cars, lockers and refrigerators.


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Cameron County, PAGenWeb Project
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Cameron County was created on March 29, 1860, from parts of Clinton, McKean, Elk and Potter Counties and named for U.S. Senator Simon Cameron. Emporium, the county seat, was incorporated as a borough on October 13, 1864. Its name is Latin for market or trade center. In Cameron County you can view majestic elk, the white-tailed deer, black bear, all types of small wild animals and much more. Cameron County PAGenWeb site. This website is being maintained by Nancy Janyszeski. You can support our genealogy efforts by contributing any files, records, family stories; by volunteering your time, or making suggestions. Send obituaries of based on being born in Cameron County of anyone over the age of 90 to Nancy Janyszeski. Email if you can help out with township history. Hope you find this site helpful in your search and come back often to see the changes. Email your Cameron County Family names |
Cameron County related Archives |
Cameron County Genealogy Resources |
Cameron County Today


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The IRS has released proposed regulations addressing the deductibility of meal and entertainment expenses in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017. Among other things, the proposed regulations clear up lingering confusion regarding whether meals are considered entertainment and, therefore, generally nondeductible.
TCJA rule changes
Prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), Section 274 of the Internal Revenue Code generally prohibited deductions for expenses related to entertainment, amusement or recreation (commonly referred to as "entertainment" expenses). The tax code granted exceptions, however, for entertainment expenses "directly related to" or "associated with" actively conducting business. Businesses generally could deduct 50% of such expenses.
The tax code also limited deductions for food and beverage expenses that satisfied one of the exceptions. A deduction was permitted only if 1) the expense wasn't lavish or extravagant under the circumstances, and 2) the taxpayer (or an employee of the taxpayer) was present when the food or beverages were furnished. The amount of the deduction was limited to 50% of such expenses.
The TCJA amended Sec. 274 to generally prohibit deductions for any expenses related to entertainment, regardless of whether they're directly related to or associated with conducting business. Some taxpayers wondered if the amendment also banned deductions for business meal expenses.
The IRS responded to this question in the fall of 2018 with Notice 2018-76. The notice listed several circumstances under which businesses could continue to treat business meal expenses, including meals consumed by employees on work travel, as 50% deductible expenses until the IRS published its proposed regulations explaining when business meal expenses are nondeductible entertainment expenses.
Applicability of the proposed regulations
The proposed regulations provide that the deduction limitation rules generally apply to all food and beverages, whether characterized as meals, snacks or other types of food or beverage items. The deduction limitations apply even to food and beverages treated as de minimis fringe benefits.
The proposed regulations define food or beverage expenses as the cost of food or beverages, including any delivery fees, tips and sales tax. But the deductible expenses for employer-provided meals at an eating facility don't include operating expenses for the facility (for example, the salaries of employees preparing and serving meals and other overhead costs).
Food and beverages at entertainment activities
Food or beverages provided during or at an entertainment activity aren't considered nondeductible entertainment expenses under the proposed regulations as long as they're purchased separately from the entertainment, or their cost is stated separately from the entertainment cost on a bill, invoice or receipt. For example, let's say you take a client to a football game. You buy some food at the game and pay for it separately from the game tickets. The amount may qualify for a deduction, if you meet certain other requirements.
The 2018 notice provided that taxpayers couldn't circumvent this entertainment disallowance rule by inflating the amount charged for food and beverages. The proposed regulations tackle this issue by requiring that the amount charged for food or beverages reflect 1) the venue's usual selling cost for those items if purchased separately from the entertainment, or 2) the reasonable value of the items.
Business meal expenses
The proposed regulations generally follow the lead of the 2018 guidance on the deductibility of business meal expenses, but also incorporate other statutory requirements taxpayers must meet to deduct 50% of the expense. Thus, businesses may deduct 50% of business meal expenses if:
- The expense isn't lavish or extravagant under the circumstances,
- The taxpayer (or an employee of the taxpayer) is present at the furnishing of the food or beverages, and
- The food and beverages are provided to a business associate.
The proposed regulations also clarify the requirement in Notice 2018-76 that the food and beverages be provided to a "business contact." The notice described such an individual as a current or potential business customer, client, consultant, or similar business contact.
The proposed regulations use the term "business associate," defined as a person the taxpayer could reasonably expect to engage with in business, including a current or prospective customer, client, supplier, employee, agent, partner, or professional advisor. The inclusion of employees makes the standard applicable to employer-provided meals and situations where a business provides meals to both employees and nonemployee business associates at the same event.
Travel meal expenses
Although the TCJA didn't explicitly change the rules for travel expenses, the proposed regulations are intended to provide comprehensive rules for food and beverage expenses. As a result, they apply the general rules for meal expenses to travel meals.
The proposed regulations also incorporate statutory substantiation requirements for travel meal expenses — evidence of the amount, time and place, and business purpose of the meal. In addition, meal expenses for spouses, dependents or other individuals accompanying the taxpayer (or an employee of the taxpayer) on business travel generally aren't deductible unless the individual is an employee of the taxpayer and traveling for a bona fide business purpose.
Other food and beverage expenses
In addition, the proposed regulations provide that business meal expenses and 50% deduction limits don't apply to expenses that fall within one of the following exceptions:
- Expenses treated as compensation,
- Reimbursed food and beverage expenses,
- Expenses related to recreational, social or similar activities for employees, such as holiday parties, annual picnics and summer outings that don't favor highly compensated employees (but not free food and beverages in break rooms or provided for the convenience of the employer, such as that provided for employees who must stay on call for emergencies),
- Items available to the public (as long as more than 50% of the actual or reasonably estimated consumption is by the general public, including customers, clients and visitors), and
- Goods and services sold to customers (for example, food or beverage items that are purchased as part of preparing and providing meals to a restaurant's paying customers, which are also consumed at the worksite by employees).
These expenses all are fully deductible.
Final regulations are on the way
Comments on the proposed regulations must be submitted by April 13, 2020, and a public hearing may be held. In the meantime, you can rely on the proposed regulations as well as the guidance in Notice 2018-76 until the IRS issues final regulations. If you have questions on business-related meal and beverage expenses, please don't hesitate to contact us.
© 2020


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It's Monday and time now for the Opinion Page. And after today's stunning news from the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI plans to resign, we want to hear your opinion on his legacy. 800-989-8255 is our phone number. Email us: email@example.com. You can also join the conversation at our website. That's at npr.org, click on TALK OF THE NATION.
The former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger replaced John Paul II nearly eight years ago and his papacy included sex abuse and cover-up scandals in his native Germany, Ireland and Belgium, among other places. Pope Benedict maintained the extensive travel schedule that came to be expected under his predecessor. He also reached out to other faith, notably to Jews. Again, we want to hear your thoughts on his legacy, 800-989-8255. Email us: email@example.com.
Rocco Palmo is a journalist and founder of the blog Whispers in the Loggia. He's written for the tabloid, Catholic Weekly, and joins us now via Skype from his home office in Philadelphia. Nice to have you back on TALK OF THE NATION.
ROCCO PALMO: Thanks, Neal. Crazy day.
CONAN: Crazy day, a complete surprise.
PALMO: Yes and no. Yes because, you know, in Italy, for those of us who do this work every day and follow the Vatican with the pope saying what he's doing, we've been kicking this around for a couple of years. You know, Benedict has actually, both in symbolic, you know, signals but also explicitly at times talked about leaving the door open to resignation if he felt unable to do the job anymore. He comes from a very different background, or spirituality, as John Paul II. John Paul is very kind of supernatural in spirituality. Benedict is much more of a realist and basically, you know, being a German with a kind of a Teutonic efficiency. Well, if I can't do the job, I can't do it anymore. But to have heard a knock on my door at 6 o'clock this morning and somebody screaming the pope resigned, I thought I was having the craziest dream of my life.
CONAN: It - someone has described the - that decision today as one of the chief legacies of this pope, the idea that the pope can resign for the first time in, what, several hundred years.
PALMO: Seven hundred years, 1294, when a pope who resigned the office and sometime later was consigned to hell by Dante, "Divine Comedy," because he was seen as renouncing his call from God. And it's interesting, too, Neal, because, you know, when Benedict, a couple of years ago, left Rome, went to the south of Italy to go to the tomb of that pope, Celestine V, who was - the body was exiled from Rome because he was seen as a disgrace for resigning the papacy. And Benedict brought with him the symbol of his office, the pallium, a woven band he was invested with in 2005, and laid it on Celestine's tomb. And for those of us, again, who follows every day, it was a signal to us that this was something that was very much on his mind.
CONAN: And can his legacy be separated from that of his predecessor, John Paul II, with whom he worked very closely for many, many years?
PALMO: Oh, yeah, because they're two different people. And part, I think, of the reason that Benedict has left the door open to this over time and has come to the step today - I actually just got off the phone with somebody who was in the room this morning, gave me a very intense description of what was going in there as the pope made his announcement. But, you know, he didn't want us - for John Paul saw the papacy as something that God gave him and that God would take from him by letting him die.
But Benedict, again, in his theology and his teaching, is much more of a realist. And so - but Benedict saw - because of John Paul's determination to keep on, literally, until death - he was appearing at his apartment window until days before he died, John Paul. But Benedict saw how the - the nuts-and-bolts of the job of being pope, governing 1.2 billion Catholics, the largest organized religious body around the world. The church ground to a halt in the last five years of John Paul's pontificate, and we were all on a death watch. And he didn't want to put the church through that again.
CONAN: Can you share that description of that intense moment this morning?
PALMO: Sure. I talked to a senior Vatican cleric who is in the room who had no idea that this was going to happen today. From what I'm just seeing, Neal, only two cardinals were told over the last couple of days, and one of them was told, I think, on Friday in a private meeting. And, you know, this guy told me he didn't know Latin terribly well, but everybody's eyes, like those who did know Latin, their eyes just started going off when Benedict - this was a routine ceremony, fairly routine, for the canonization of new saints, to announce the dates when new saints would be made.
And then at the end, the pope pulls out this statement in Latin and starts reading it - well, thing is, since Vatican II, since you don't have to say mass in Latin anymore, most priests, most bishops, even some cardinals don't know Latin. And so this guy was telling me that he - people's eyes, among those who knew Latin, just started going off in the room, so that everybody knew something was - crazy was going on. And the pope walked out, and apparently, there was just dead silence in the room. Everybody was stunned.
CONAN: And did somebody say: Anybody know Latin?
PALMO: Well, no. They just started talking in Italian or German or French, or whatever their language is, and communicating to each other: The pope has announced he's going to resign.
CONAN: Wow. Interesting. Let's get some callers in on the conversation. We're speaking with Rocco Palmo, a journalist and founder of the blog Whispers in the Loggia. And we'd like to hear what you think is the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. 800-989-8255. Email us: email@example.com. We'll start with Jerry, Jerry on the line with us from Milwaukee.
JERRY: The great legacy of Benedict XVI is the restoration of the Mass of Pius V, the Latin mass. We went through liturgical nonsense after Vatican II that destroyed our priesthood and our church. Benedict understood that, and he made the Mass of Pius V once again a normative mass, open to all Catholics. And now we have at least three orders in the church that are trained to offer this mass for the worldwide apostolate, and that's going to be his great legacy.
CONAN: Rocco Palmo?
PALMO: Well, I think that's a maximalist statement. Benedict, in 2007, did extend the permission for - a wider permission for the celebration of the mass according to the rites that were in place before Vatican II from the time of the Council of Trent, which was beginning of the Counter-Reformation, after the Protestant Reformation.
You know, in the church, the term that Benedict instituted was there would be the extraordinary form of the mass. The ordinary form, you know, the day-to-day form of the mass, would still be that which was implemented after Vatican II, most of the time in the vernacular, in native language, not in Latin, not with priests facing away from the people - you know, facing the wall, if you will, as some say.
But, you know, for - what Jerry said, you know, for as much as Benedict gave priests that permission to say it privately and where there's a group of people who want to have the old mass, to say it publicly, Benedict himself has never celebrated in that mass. And he sees that it's something for people who want it, who aspire to that form of worship. But it's not something normative or that's going to be, you know, imposed on people who don't seek it in the life of the church.
CONAN: Jerry, why was this so important to you?
JERRY: Well, because the church died after Vatican II, and it died because we changed our mass. It's not accurate to say that Ratzinger never celebrated the Mass of Pius V. He celebrated it three times at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York during the 1990s when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger. It's our identity. It's what makes us Catholic. And it was taken away from us. It was never abrogated or officially suppressed, and now we have it back courtesy and thankfully of - because of Benedict XVI.
CONAN: Jerry, thanks very much for the call.
PALMO: Well, I just - if I can clarify, Neal, Cardinal Ratzinger did say the pre-Vatican II mass at certain occasions. When he said it in St. Patrick's cathedral, he said it in the private sacracy, which is not publicly accessible in the cathedral, and he has never celebrated it as a pope.
CONAN: Let's go next to Bob, and Bob's on the line with us from Cleveland.
BOB: Hi. I am afraid that the great legacy of this pope is that he ran the church when they lost most of the Catholics under the age of 50 to stop going to church actively, and that hopefully the next pope will bring about a change in the understanding of the church to bring people back or make it - help them reconsider the church.
I think they now see it as an organization that's based upon a lot of rules, but no substance and meaning. And I don't think that's a correct statement, but I think it's the generally believed statement, certainly hurt even further by the pedophilia, you know, scandals and - which have even touched the pope himself and his brother. And I'm hoping that this next pope can do something to remind people of the great legacy of the church and the great meaning of the doctrine of the church, as opposed to perhaps the weakness of some of the people who have run the church.
CONAN: Thanks very much for that. And, Rocco Palmo, unlike John Paul II, Benedict did reach out and meet with victims of sexual abuse. He addressed it much more publicly than John Paul ever did. Still, many people say he did not go far enough.
PALMO: Well, yeah. Neal, he's had to walk - it's been very difficult. But, you know, there's a saying in Italy that the church thinks in centuries. And within 12 or 13 years - first as Cardinal Ratzinger, and then as Pope Benedict - has kind of revolutionized the church's response to sex abuse. He had to fight a Vatican turf war for five years to bring under his oversight - in his job before he became pope - oversight of sex abuse cases, because the cardinal who had been running sex abuse cases until he finally was able to have oversight of them was congratulating bishops for covering up abuse.
And once Ratzinger got the control of cases and then became the pope, since the last 12 years - and even before the scandal erupted in the U.S., I should note. It wasn't done under public pressure. Eight thousand priests, credibly accused of abuse around the world have been defrocked. Several bishops in - around the world have actually been pulled out of office, having presided over cover-ups, by Benedict, on his orders. And, you know, obviously, when you talk to survivors, when you work with them - and I've done that through the years and their families - one case is one too many. And a thousand cases just break your heart into a million pieces.
And the emotion of that and the shattered-ness you feel just hearing it will always live with you. And - but at the same time, he deserves a lot of credit that he hasn't gotten. But given the failures of the church over time, that's something that's only going to shake itself out over the decades to come.
CONAN: Rocco Palmo of Whispers in the Loggia and the legacy of Benedict the XVI on the Opinion Page this week. You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
And it has to be said, I guess, Cardinal Mahony - disgraced in the release of documents from the archdiocese of Los Angeles just in the past few weeks - does he get a vote on the next pope?
PALMO: Indeed, he does. There will be 11 Americans voting. Mahony, by seniority, is the senior American. And it's really open season. You know, I talk to Benedict, by now - just in seven years as pope - has named the majority of the American cardinals. And I talked to one of the cardinals named by Benedict today, who obviously has never had to vote for a pope, or even had to think about it until today, really. And so I just asked this guy, I said: Is this the moment - even if you've been a cardinal for a while now, a couple of years now. Is this the moment when, really, like, when it becomes real, of what you're going to have to do in a couple of weeks, locked in the Sistine Chapel, looking up Michelangelo's "Last Judgment," deciding the future of the church, or being one vote in what decides the future of the church? And he said: no question.
CONAN: Let's go to next Gabrielle, Gabrielle with - Lakewood, Ohio.
GABRIELLE: Right. I think that his decision should be really considered one of the greatest legacies for the church, because can you imagine if somebody develops Alzheimer's at, say, 70, and he lives to be 90? His spirit is really not running it. But maybe some of the church leaders - and that's not really who we chose as a pope, and it's run by somebody else. And it's good that the church is going to see this need to be honest and say: I cannot do the job, because the church is a living organism, and it has to breathe and move with the times. And I hope that - I, for example, I'm a Catholic. I have turned off myself from the church because it is against birth control.
And to me, that is a very serious problem, because we are having overpopulation. We are growing exponentially as a humanity. We're exhausting the planet's resources. And unless the church faces this reality, this is going to be absolutely a catastrophic thing for the whole planet. And so this, to me, I pray to God that the new pope sees that, just because we are taking birth control doesn't mean that we love Jesus less or that we are less Catholic. And so, to me, this is a serious point, and I hope they will be taken in consideration for the new pope.
CONAN: Gabrielle, thank you very much for your call. And Rocco Palmo, she mentioned you could point to dwindling flocks in the United States and Western Europe. You could also point to, well, growing members of the faith in Africa.
PALMO: Yeah. But even, Neal, in this country, you know, when you talk about decline in American Catholicism, it's actually something that's limited to the Northeast. You know, the largest - five centuries since Catholicism first came to these shores, only now is the largest diocese in America actually existing in Los Angeles, five million Catholics, twice larger than New York and Chicago, the second and third largest dioceses combined. They baptized 100,000 infants every year in the archdiocese of Los Angeles. American Catholics, now own the back of immigration, own the back evangelization in the South and the West of this country, much like the rest of the country.
You know, the demographic center of the American church is shifting. So people hear about parish closings. They don't hear about parish openings. But mid-century, you know, the church in this country - which now has 70 million members - is probably going to have 100 million members. They're just not going to be Anglo.
CONAN: A couple of emails, this from Tom Smith in Ann Arbor: I'm a conservative Catholic in Ann Arbor. I support Pope Benedict. If he feels the need to step down, it takes a good man to know when he's not as effective as the job demands. I will support any strong pope chosen. I feel the church's message has become weak, especially in the U.S. Uncertainty needs to become certainty, reinforcement of our doctrine and pushing out liberalism.
John in San Francisco writes: NPR's coverage of the pope's retirement has used the expression the modern Catholic Church. To me and millions of others, this is an oxymoron. The legacy this pope will be that of driving away many from the church with his cold-hearted, antiquated ideas about history, women and minorities. And so there's going to be a sharply divided opinion about the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI, no doubt including his historic decision to resign.
Andrew - excuse me, Rocco Palmo, thank you very much for time today.
PALMO: Anytime, Neal. Stay tuned. It's going to be an interesting next month.
CONAN: It will be that. Rocco Palmo is a journalist and founder of the blog Whispers in the Loggia. He's written for The Tablet, a Catholic weekly newspaper, joined us by Skype from his home in Philadelphia. This is TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. I'm Neal Conan, in Washington. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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By Chris Kanthan,
You thought Big Oil was bad, but the Rockefeller Family also set the stage for Big Pharma destroying Natural Cures in the process. Author, Chris Kanthan, has written an amazing article on how the Rockefeller family undermined modern society in countless ways, but what most do not realize is just how much they wiped out natural cures. The family name has now been linked to the suppression of natural medicine to found big pharmaceutical companies and make big money.
Here's what Chris wrote for World Affairs:People these days look at you like a weirdo if you talk about the healing properties of plants or any other holistic practices. Much like anything else, there is a lot of politics and money behind our modern medical system.
It all starts with John D. Rockefeller (1839 – 1937) who was an oil magnate, a robber baron, America's first billionaire, and a natural-born monopolist.
By the turn on the 20th century, he controlled 90% of all oil refineries in the U.S. through his oil company, Standard Oil, which was later on broken up to become Chevron, Exxon, Mobil etc.
At the same time, around 1900, scientists discovered "petrochemicals" and the ability to create all kinds of chemicals from oil. For example, the first plastic — called Bakelite — was made from oil in 1907. Scientists were discovering various vitamins and guessed that many pharmaceutical drugs could be made from oil.
This was a wonderful opportunity for Rockefeller who saw the ability to monopolize the oil, chemical and the medical industries at the same time!
The best thing about petrochemicals was that everything could be patented and sold for high profits.
But there was one problem with Rockefeller's plan for the medical industry: natural/herbal medicines were very popular in America at that time. Almost half the doctors and medical colleges in the U.S. were practicing holistic medicine, using knowledge from Europe and Native Americans.
Rockefeller, the monopolist, had to figure out a way to get rid of his biggest competition. So he used the classic strategy of "problem-reaction-solution." That is, create a problem and scare people, and then offer a (pre-planned) solution. (Similar to terrorism scare, followed by the "Patriot Act").
He went to his buddy Andrew Carnegie – another plutocrat who made his money from monopolizing the steel industry – who devised a scheme. From the prestigious Carnegie Foundation, they sent a man named Abraham Flexner to travel around the country and report on the status of medical colleges and hospitals around the country.
This led to the Flexner Report, which gave birth to the modern medicine as we know it.
Needless to say, the report talked about the need for revamping and centralizing our medical institutions. Based on this report, more than half of all medical colleges were soon closed.
Homeopathy and natural medicines were mocked and demonized; and doctors were even jailed.
To help with the transition and change the minds of other doctors and scientists, Rockefeller gave more than $100 million to colleges, hospitals and founded a philanthropic front group called "General Education Board" (GEB). This is the classic carrot and stick approach.
In a very short time, medical colleges were all streamlined and homogenized. All the students were learning the same thing, and medicine was all about using patented drugs.
Scientists received huge grants to study how plants cured diseases, but their goal was to first identify which chemicals in the plant were effective, and then recreate a similar chemical – but not identical – in the lab that could be patented.
A pill for an ill became the mantra for modern medicine.
And you thought Koch brothers were evil?
So, now we are, 100 years later, churning out doctors who know nothing about the benefits of nutrition or herbs or any holistic practices. We have an entire society that is enslaved to corporations for its well-being.
America spends 15% of its GDP on healthcare, which should be really called "sick care." It is focused not on cure, but only on symptoms, thus creating repeat customers. There is no cure for cancer, diabetes, autism, asthma, or even flu.
Why would there be real cures? This is a system founded by oligarchs and plutocrats, not by doctors.
As for cancer, oh yeah, the American Cancer Society was founded by none other than Rockefeller in 1913.
In this month of breast cancer awareness, it is sad to see people being brainwashed about chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. That's for another blog post … but here is a quote from John D. Rockefeller that summarizes his vision for America…
Author: Chris Kanthan
Source: World Affairs
Disclaimer: We at Prepare for Change (PFC) bring you information that is not offered by the mainstream news, and therefore may seem controversial. The opinions, views, statements, and/or information we present are not necessarily promoted, endorsed, espoused, or agreed to by Prepare for Change, its leadership Council, members, those who work with PFC, or those who read its content. However, they are hopefully provocative. Please use discernment! Use logical thinking, your own intuition and your own connection with Source, Spirit and Natural Laws to help you determine what is true and what is not. By sharing information and seeding dialogue, it is our goal to raise consciousness and awareness of higher truths to free us from enslavement of the matrix in this material realm.


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A high-tech alternative to traditional dentures, the ALL-On-6 technique creates a comfortable and stable full set of upper and/or lower teeth using six strategically placed specialized dental implants. While conventional removable dentures can effectively replace a full complement of lost or missing teeth, ALL-On-6 dental implants provide a fixed and permanent method of reestablishing a complete set of teeth. This restores patients with a sense of having their own teeth and offers an improved quality of life as they can once again eat and speak with confidence. With ALL-On-6 dental implants the need for messy denture adhesives or having to take one's dentures out to clean and sanitize them is eliminated. The replacement teeth are cared for in very much the same way as a set of natural teeth.
All-On-6 dental implants offer a less invasive and quicker way to restore a full upper or lower set of teeth than treatment with conventional dental implants. Requiring just six implants per jaw for a complete set of functional teeth, All-On-6 treatment may reduce the need for preliminary bone grafting surgery. Utilizing the All-On-6 method, temporary teeth can often be placed right away with a permanent set to follow within just a few months after the implants become fully integrated with the surrounding bone.


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Solos for Young Cellists, Vol. 3
Solos for Young Cellists, Vol. 3
* Estimated price converted from UK retail price
Solos for Young Cellists is an eight-volume series of music compilations with companion CDs. The series ranges from elementary to advanced levels and represents a truly exciting variety of musical genres and techniques. This collection of wonderful music offers young cellists the opportunity to work in various positions, techniques, meters, keys and musical styles. Many of the works have long been recognized as stepping stones to the major instrumental repertoire, while others are newly published pieces and original compositions, providing an exciting and diverse choice of study. The collection will become a valuable resource for teachers and students of all ages and levels. The piano track recorded on the second half of each CD gives the cellist the chance to practice performing with accompaniments.


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Is everyone ready for this amazing online writing conference? Have you read my Ten Tips for Write On Con?
If you'd like everyone to come find you in the forums and comment on your posts, please leave any of the following in a comment . . .
Your real name
Your twitter handle
What genre you write
A one line pitch
Links to your website or blog
Links to your WOC posts
You'll find me over there as Dee! And I'm @writeforapples on twitter.


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Keanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Reeves is known for his roles in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Speed, Point Break, and The Matrix franchise as Neo. He has collaborated with major directors such as Stephen Frears (in the 1988 period drama Dangerous Liaisons); Gus Van Sant (in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho); and Bernardo Bertolucci (in the 1993 film Little Buddha). Referring to his 1991 film releases, The New York Times' critic, Janet Maslin, praised Reeves' versatility, saying that he "displays considerable discipline and range. He moves easily between the buttoned-down demeanor that suits a police procedural story and the loose-jointed manner of his comic roles." A repeated theme in roles he has portrayed is that of saving the world, including the characters of Ted Logan, Buddha, Neo, Johnny Mnemonic, John Constantine and Klaatu.
Keanu Reeves
59 · Born: Sep 2, 1964


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Thanks to all those of you who joined us for our Feeling Festive challenge.
Our lucky winner of the prize of our Lucky Bag is
#120 - Joey
Congrats please e mail us to claim our prize!
And the Top 3 in numerical order are:
#43 - Anna
#45 - Eileen
#131 - Jays Crafty Corner
Well done friends please grab your badges for your blogs.
So onto this weeks challenge
We would like to see lots of RED on your creations
We are super lucky to again be sponsored by
the awesome Live and love crafts
And here are what the fab DT have created for you this time..


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August 13, 2012
When you farm 35,000 acres in five states, balancing input purchases with crop pricing can boost the bottom line. But a leading indicator to make one of those trades may not keep you from lagging on the other in the decision-making process. That 's Donny DeLine's attitude. He doesn't always market the same percentage of corn or soybeans to match production with inputs bought. But if both ends of the spectrum look good, he takes action. In fact, early fertilizer purchases and bulk buys last summer helped him save 20% or more over prices this spring. And by booking corn early, he had almost 50% of it priced at $6 or higher.
DeLine, 42, has farmed on his own about 15 years. He started in the Charleston, Mo., area, where he's a fourth-generation farmer. He quickly realized the advantages of spreading out. He began putting together more rented land in Missouri; then added farmland in southern Illinois, western Tennessee, eastern Arkansas and northern Mississippi. Always the optimist, he added another 8,000 acres in 2012.
"It helps to spread the risk across a wide area," he says.About half his corn and soybeans are grown in Missouri and Illinois and half in the three southern states. His production also includes wheat, cotton and rice. "We have a diversity of crops in different locations. I don't have all my eggs in one basket in the event of weather problems."
The diversity of his north and south farm locations helped him dodge the summer's drought conditions on much of his production. His Missouri and Illinois crops suffered more than his crops in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, which received some timely spring and summer rains.
DeLine strives to buy inputs and make sales when both actions likely yield a solid profit margin. Fertilizer buys started slower than normal for 2012.
"We normally start buying a portion of our N, DAP and potash early in the fall if the price is attractive," he says. "We began locking in a few inputs late last summer. But the prices were too high to lock in large numbers." That attitude changed in late January, when it was apparent that corn acres would be higher and demand for fertilizer would increase.
"We ended up locking in most of our inputs by mid-February," DeLine says. "We saw them take off because of the increase in corn acres, so we locked in 85-90% of our needs. That included buying urea at near $400/ton and liquid at $340/ton. Both were substantially higher in early summer."
Be ready to sell
While pricing inputs, DeLine watches crop sale opportunities a year or more before harvest. Corn is contracted off the September contracts and soybeans off the November contract in Missouri and Illinois. A few southern elevators also allow him to set futures off the September contract. "We can usually deliver corn and beans earlier than production areas farther north," he says. "So the Septembers work better for us."
Bullish on both corn and beans, he made 25-35% early sales in September 2011 when corn hovered over $6.40/bu. and beans were over $13.50/bu., adding that he chose not to lock in a comparable percentage of inputs because prices, again, were "too high."
When crop prices started down last fall, his sales stopped. "We started making sales again when corn was about $6 on the futures and beans pulled above $13 again," he says. "With about 650,000 bushels of on-farm storage, we're not afraid to store corn, beans or wheat until we see a better price."
DeLine's corn, soybean and wheat marketing is done via consulting work with Hurley & Associates, Charleston, Mo. His first corn sales in September 2011 were at $7.06 for about 15% of his crop. He made another 10% sale at $6.01 at the end of December. Another 10% was sold at $6.08 in January. He made a small 5% sale in March at $5.63. Another 10% of his corn was sold at $5.53 in mid-June.
For soybeans, he started making 2012 bean sales last September with 10% of his expected production sold at $13.94. He then made a 5% sale in December at $11.41, then another 5% December sale at $12.06. Another 10% sale was made in late January at $12.13. The next sale was in March at $13.23 for another 10% of the crop. Another 5% sale was made in late May at $13.85, with one more 5% sale in June at $13.73.
DeLine used both futures and cash contracts for the sales, adding that another 10% of his corn and beans were sold during the weather rally in late June when corn surged to $6.50 and beyond, and beans flew past $14.
In mid-July, after corn and bean prices exploded due to the drought, another 10% of beans were sold at $16.40. And 10% more of his corn was sold at $7.80. "Those were cash prices for fall delivery," DeLine says.
So with about85% of his fertilizer purchases made by early February, he still had only 50% of his corn and beans marketed in late spring before becoming about 70% sold in mid-July.
"I can see where guys try to buy inputs equally with making sales," DeLine says. "But sometimes it makes more sense to hold off on too much pricing if grain prices are too low."
Gary Schnitkey, University of Illinois agricultural economist, says growers should measure their own situation when deciding on inputs and crop sales. But overall, "pricing inputs and grains at multiple points in time will reduce risk," he says. "I would suggest beginning pricing a crop over roughly the same period as inputs are priced. This will allow price averaging over a fairly long period."
Ed Usset, University of Minnesota Extension economist, adds, "The best risk management is not just price risk management, but margin management. And margin management involves managing input and output prices."
Put a pencil to 2013
Usset encourages growers "to put a pencil to 2013. You have a sense of fertilizer costs and, hopefully, other key variable costs (land rent, fuel, etc.). You have a futures market that tells you the value of the 2013 crop.
"What do these figures imply for your gross margin per bushel or per acre in 2013? I would not take action today if the figures indicated a breakeven scenario. I would take action on a portion of my crop if the figures indicated a large margin. It's the burden of each producer to define a 'large margin,'" Usset says.
Melvin Brees, University of Missouri agricultural economist, says 2013 planning can help growers begin paying their costs early. "It comes down to identifying profit margins and market signals in a variety of markets to identify price sales or targets for amounts that the grower is comfortable with," he says.
DeLine needed the corn and bean price rallies before making any sales for the 2013 crops. "We're definitely getting involved in 2013 with 10% of sales made in mid-July for corn, soybeans and wheat for next year," he says. "We're also looking at locking up some of our N, potash and DAP for 2013 in August. I think fertilizer prices are going to be much higher than anticipated, based on the fact that everyone will try to plant as much corn as possible with the high grain prices."
He adds that good relationships with landlords, farm managers and consultants mean further expansion is possible. "My crop is in good hands because I have good farm managers and employees. My uncle, Smith DeLine, is not only a landlord in Missouri, but also advises me on crops in the Bootheel and southern Illinois. My father is also a landlord.
"As long as we can manage things efficiently and use economies of scale, we can purchase many of our inputs locally and provide good jobs for people. That puts money back into the community. All of those things are pluses."
About the Author(s)
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Country guides South & Central America
Venezuela Travel Guide
Venezuela means 'Little Venice' in Spanish, the name given to this northerly country in South America by the early explorers when they found the natives living on the Sinamaica lagoon, in houses built on stilts, close to the present day oil-rich city of Maracaibo.
The people have a reputation for being welcoming and friendly, although there is a problem with street crime in the larger cities, Caracas in particular. Venezuela has an abundance of natural resources, including one of the biggest oil reserves in the world. The resulting revenues have helped build good infrastructure and encouraged the country's leadership to forge an independent path in international relations, but in many ways Venezuela is still a poor country, wrestling with a number of issues. More specifically, its economy is in freefall, with hyperinflation, power cuts, as well as food and medicine shortages forcing millions to leave the country.
Outside of its economic issues, Venezuela is blessed with diverse landscapes, from miles of beautiful Caribbean beaches to open plains, towering mountains, tracts of Amazon rainforest and even a small desert. In the southeast, in Bolivar State, the Gran Sabana National Park contains the spectacular Angel Falls, the world's highest waterfall.
Venezuela's cities are similarly scenic, particularly the capital, Caracas, which sprawls in a long, thin valley flanked by the majestic Avila Mountain. Caracas is lively and green, with a rich cultural life, vibrant nightlife, great restaurants and marvellous modern shopping malls on offer. A favourite excursion in Caracas is to ride the cable car to the summit of the Avila. The popular city of Merida, in the Andes, also has its cable car, and this one takes tourists on a one-hour journey to the highest point in Venezuela, the Pico Bolivar, which reaches more than 16,404ft (5,000m).
Venezuela has a little bit of everything that Latin America has to offer, with the addition of thousands of miles of Caribbean coastline, and the constantly pleasant temperature that makes it good year-round destination. It is not a well-established tourist destination, but for some intrepid travellers this is part of the appeal of Venezuela.


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CFP: Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the US: Crosscurrents (11/18/05; MELUS, 4/27/06-4/30/06)
MELUS, The Society for the Study of Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the
United States, announces its 20th Annual Conference,
from April 27-30, 2006.
Call for Papers and Panels
Conference Theme
Crosscurrents: Navigating the Mainland and the Margins in U.S. Ethnic
Host: Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letter, Florida Atlantic
University, Boca Raton, FL
Conference Committee: Sika Dagbovie, Andrew Furman, Cleavis Headley,
Elena Machado Sáez, Johnnie Stover, Anthony Tamburri, Derrick White,
Wenying Xu
We invite paper abstracts and complete panel, workshop, and roundtable
proposals on all aspects of multiethnic literatures of the United
States. We especially encourage those that engage the conference theme
to discuss issues of race, gender, class and sexuality. Crosscurrents
celebrates the 20th anniversary of the MELUS conference by emphasizing
the theoretical ebbs and flows that emerge from placing U.S. Ethnic
literatures into conversation with each other. This anniversary
provides us with the opportunity to reflect upon the history of
comparative work within U.S. Ethnic literatures in addition to
examining how the center and the margins are being redefined within
U.S. literatures as a whole. We offer the following as suggestions:
➢ routes and shipwrecks of transnational politics
➢ diasporas of violence, ethnic cleansing and refugee communities
➢ body trafficking, displaced and misplaced bodies
➢ assimilationist and oppositional movements
➢ marginal voices within cultural exchanges
➢ circulations of cultural production (music, film, literature, visual
➢ narratives of resistance and re-imagi(nation)
➢ pedagogical meditations on teaching the crosscurrents
All abstracts and proposals (250 words) should be submitted in
duplicate. We ask that submissions detail requests for specific
audiovisual equipment. We also strongly encourage proposals of compete
panels, roundtables, and workshops that should include a brief
description and abstracts for individual speakers. Please mail
abstracts postmarked by _November 18th_ to Professors Sika Dagbovie and
Elena Machado Sáez, Department of English, Florida Atlantic University,
777 Glades Road, PO Box 3091, Boca Raton, Florida 33431. Submissions
by email should be forwarded to Heather Schriefer at hschrief_at_fau.edu.
Fax for international submissions only: (561) 297-3807.
All presenters must be members of MELUS. For information about
membership and renewal visit the MELUS website
From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
Full Information at
or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu
Received on Fri Sep 30 2005 - 12:33:00 EDT


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The Port's origins date back to the 15th Century, but it was in the mid-16th Century when it acquired major importance which continued to grow in subsequent centuries; in the 19th Century, the city achieved its greatest success due to the raisin export trade. The first known jetty and boat pier date back to 1871. When the raisin trade entered into crisis at the end of the 19th Century, it then solely developed the fishing activity.
A neighbourhood with a major seafarer character arose around the Port with old whitewashed fishermen's houses with ground floors and narrow streets.
The charm of this neighbourhood is highlighted by the sculptural silhouette of the church: Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Loreto, inaugurated in 1967, a major example of avant-garde religious architecture which is famous for its daring linear design and its conception of space.
Another outstanding building in the Port is the Casa del Cable (1860), of which only the pillars of the portico gallery ("naia") have been conserved; it has been refurbished as an Exhibit Hall.
This neighbourhood has developed over the years without losing its original charm. At present, Duanes de la Mar is one of the liveliest neighbourhoods all year round. We can find all kinds of shops, restaurants and business services in its busy streets.
The arrival of the fishing boats, the auction and subsequent fish & seafood sale in the fish market called "La Lonja" has become an essential tourist attraction for our visitors. Next to the port, the Yacht Club (Club Náutico) offers a wide range of options for nautical sports fans.
Various events and holiday festivities are celebrated during the year, such as the Moors and Christians festivity during the month of July. However, the most popular and entertaining holiday for the Duanes citizens are the festivities dedicated to their Patron Saint, "La Virgen del Loreto" in the first week of September.


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I am on a project which requires Hadoop for crunching millions of documents. Being new to Hadoop, I was faced with a learning curve. Here are a couple of notes on the experience.
Hadoop Streaming
Working with streaming jobs on Hadoop is straightforward enough, except when it comes to controlling how Hadoop treats the input files.The input files I needed to process were large (100's MB). Hadoop insisted on chunking those to smaller size but unfortunately the default splitting wasn't compatible with my file type. I ended up fooling Hadoop in accepting bigger minimum split size:
-D mapred.min.split.size=10737418240
Hadoop with Custom JAR
Although one has full control of Hadoop when using custom JAR jobs, I must say I had quite a rocky ride getting my stuff to work.First off, I needed a a way to package the dependent JAR librairies inside the main JAR. I was forced to write a custom ANT build file to do this.
The trick is to get the dependent jars in the directory ./lib for Hadoop EMR (I don't know about the standard Hadoop, sorry) to be able to include those in the Java classpath.