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Following The X Factor Season 2's first live, super-stacked performance show — showcasing the rise of Emblem3 as a serious threat and the obvious fact that Britney Spears' favorite adjective is "amazing" — on Thursday it was time to face the music in a whole different way, and for Brit and her fellow judges Demi Lovato, L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell to play heartbreaker and send one of their own home. Slowly but surely, we got the acts down to an even dozen.
RELATED | The X Factor: Michael Slezak Handicaps Season 2′s Top 16
Demi Lovato's Under 25s
Sent safely into the Top 12: Jenell Garcia, Paige Thomas
Singing for Survival: Willie Jones, Cece Frey
Eliminated: Willie Jones (whose sendoff included this heartfelt piece of advice from Demi: "Go back and figure out what you need to do, to make sure it's your time.")
L.A. Reid's Over 25s
Sent safely into the Top 12: Vino Alan, Tate Stevens
Singing for Survival: David Correy, Jason Brock
Surrounded by a backdrop of wheat fields and hazy clouds, Correy's "Since U Been Gone" was a definite mixed bag for the judges (from Britney's "You blew us away" to Demi's "It felt like you were screaming the whole time"), while Jason's "One Moment in Time" turned Britney into a fan and made Demi a believer. That said, Simon summed it up like this: "You're asking me to judge two horses who are coming last in a race…I can't believe either of these guys based on these performances can win." Ouch!
Eliminated: David Correy. "I've been through a lot in my life like we all have," said the incredibly gracious, composed contender, "but it's never stopped me, and I promise you this is not going to be the last time you ever see my face. I promise you."
Britney Spears' Teens
Sent safely into the Top 12: Beatrice Miller, Carly Rose
Singing for Survival: Arin Ray, Diamond White
Watching a shifty-eyed Britney milk the moment before saving Beatrice and Carly was good fun, but it soon time for Spears to unceremoniously bring the hammer down. Arin's wobbly "I Look to You" left Brit looking bemused, but left L.A. ("It would be a shame if you were to go home") impressed, and his wary comments anticipating an Arin departure were echoed by Simon and Demi. Diamond's sparkling rendition of "Sorry Seems to Be Hardest Word" gave L.A. chills and really put Brit on the hot seat ("I wouldn't want to be in Britney's position right now," said Simon, who added, "I don't think either of these two should leave the competition").
Eliminated: Diamond White. "I'm happy I made it this far, and I'm still gonna keep smiling and I still love you Britney!" said the (of course) smiling White before leaving the stage.
Simon Cowell's Groups
Sent safely into the Top 12: Lyric145, Emblem3
Singing for Survival: SisterC, 1432
"I genuinely loved all four," says Simon of the remaining groups, before adding, "Even up until five minutes ago, I hadn't made up my mind" who's going home. But SisterC's performance (what Miley Cyrus song was that?) seemed to leave Simon stoned-faced and applauding politely, while L.A. ("There's a gap in the marketplace for what you do") liked what he heard. Even Brit got creative, saying the trio had the "eye of the tiger." Amazing! A tearful (post-song) 1432 made Britney a believer and impressed Demi ("I don't know who that song is by…but regardless, you did better than the original singer") with their gutsy cover of Ms. Lovato's "Skyscraper."
Eliminated: SisterC. Simon could barely get himself to say the name of the act going home, but he somehow pulled himself together just fine. "I think I saw it coming, it's a no-brainer, they're amazing," said SisterC, before Simon dropped a bomb by insisted on renaming 1432 next week!
And now it's your turn. Did the right four acts go home? Whose departure was the most heartbreaking? Should 1432 really be getting renamed next week? Can Britney come up with another adjective? Sound off in the comments!
Due to Hurricane Sandy, Michael Slezak is still living by candlelight (and without TV!). He will return next week. — Mitch Rustad


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Sheridan Wildlife Area News
Sheridan Wildlife Area News
Fall Hunting Forecast:
Dove; some doves may be harvested near trees associated with creek drainage.
Upland birds; a very limited number of pheasant and possibly a few quail can be found on Sheridan WA.
Turkey; limited opportunities exist to harvest a turkey in the spring or fall as birds travel along the drainage.
Deer; white-tail and occasionally mule deer are present on the area.
If you have questions, please contact Michael Zajic, Area Manager at 785-425-6775 or at email@example.com

subset: commoncrawl


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PORTLAND, OR -- Something as simple as keeping a food diary can double a person's weight loss, according to a new study.
"The more food records people kept, the more weight they lost," says lead author Jack Hollis, a researcher at Kaiser Permanente's Center for Health Research in Portland, OR. "Those who kept daily food records lost twice as much weight as those who kept no records. It seems that the simple act of writing down what you eat encourages people to consume fewer calories."
In addition to keeping food diaries and turning them in at weekly support group meetings, participants were asked to follow a diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low-fat or non-fat dairy, attend weekly group sessions, and exercise at moderate intensity levels for at least 30 minutes a day. After six months, the average weight loss among the nearly 1,700 participants was approximately 13 pounds. More than two-thirds of the participants (69 percent) lost at least nine pounds, enough to reduce their health risks and qualify for the second phase of the study, which lasted 30 months and tested strategies for maintaining the weight loss.
This is one of the few studies to recruit a large percentage of African-Americans as study participants (44 percent). African-Americans have a higher risk of conditions that are aggravated by being overweight, including diabetes and heart disease. In this study, the majority of African-American participants lost at least nine pounds of weight, which is higher than in previous studies.
"More than two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. If we all lost just nine pounds, like the majority of people in this study did, our nation would see vast decreases in hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and stroke," says study co-author Victor Stevens. In an earlier study, Stevens found that losing as little as five pounds can reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure by 20 percent.
The findings will be published in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. The research was funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.


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Chicagoshĭkä´gō, shĭkô´gō [key], city (1990 pop. 2,783,726), seat of Cook co., NE Ill., on Lake Michigan; inc. 1837. The third largest city in the United States and the heart of a metropolitan area of over 8 million people, it is the commercial, financial, industrial, and cultural center for a vast region and a midcontinental shipping point. A major Great Lakes port, it is also an historic rail and highway hub. O'Hare International Airport is the second busiest in the nation. An enormous variety of goods are manufactured in the area. Despite an overall decline in industry, Chicago has retained large grain mills and elevators, iron- and steelworks, steel fabricators, and meatpacking, food-processing, chemical, machinery, and electronics plants. The city has long been a publishing center; the Chicago Tribune is among the most widely read newspapers in the country.
Chicago covers over 200 sq mi (520 sq km); it extends more than 20 mi (32 km) along the lakefront, then sprawls inland to the west. Its metropolitan area stretches in the north to the Wisconsin border and in the south to industrial suburbs on and beyond the Indiana border. In addition to its noted expressways and boulevards, Chicago has a system of elevated (partly underground) railways that extend into the heart of the city, making a huge rectangle, the celebrated Loop, which gives its name to the downtown section.
Sections in this article:
- Introduction
- Neighborhoods and Points of Interest
- History
- Bibliography
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: U.S. Political Geography


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Preclinical Phase
The first phase of the program, commonly referred to as the preclinical phase, consists of 77 credit hours in five continuous academic semesters. Beginning in May of the first year, these courses take students through the preclinical phase with completion the following August. This portion of the curriculum utilizes classroom, laboratory, and clinical settings that provide a thorough theoretical and practical background in the basic health sciences and in clinical medicine.
|Summer A
|Summer B
|Summer A
|Summer B
|Anatomy Lab
|Cross-cultural Medicine
|Essentials of Musculoskeletal Care
|Emergency Medicine I
|Emergency Medicine II
|Anatomy and Physiology
|Clinical Medicine I-IV
|Diagnostic Medicine I-V
|Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapeutics I-V
|Fundamentals of Medical Science I-V
|Professional Development I-V
|Behavioral and Community Medicine I
|Behavioral and Community Medicine II & III
|Critical Care Medicine I
|Critical Care Medicine II
Courses and Credit Hour
|Credit Hours
|Anatomy & Physiology w/lab
|Clinical Medicine
|Diagnostic Medicine
|Diagnostic Medicine Lab
|Pharmacology & Pharmacotherapeutics
|Fundamentals of Medical Science
|Professional Development
|Behavioral & Community Medicine
|Cross-Cultural Medicine
|Evidence-Based Medicine
|Essentials of Musculoskeletal Care
|Emergency Medicine
|Critical Care Medicine
Clinical Phase
The clinical phase consists of 66 credit hours of academic work. During the series of clinical practicums I-VIII students will be assigned to eight clinical rotations conducted at a variety of clinical sites. Five weeks of the clinical rotation are spent on site, and one week is spent on campus for exams, lectures, board preparation, and course work. The rotation specialties include Emergency Medicine (6 weeks), Family Practice (6 weeks), Internal Medicine (6 weeks), Pediatrics (6 weeks), Surgery (6 weeks), Behavioral Medicine (6 weeks), Obstetrics & Gynecology (6 weeks), and an elective (6 weeks) of the student's choice. Students must complete all eight rotations to complete the practicum series. The capstone of the clinical phase is the Advanced Clerkship. During this course, students choose an area of concentration and spend part of or the entire semester at one training site.
Clinical Coursework
- Advanced Professional Seminar I-V
- Evidence-Based Medicine II
Clinical Practicums include:
- Family Medicine
- Internal Medicine
- General Surgery
- Pediatrics
- Women's Health
- Behavioral Medicine
- Emergency Medicine
- Elective
Advanced Clerkships Include:
- Any area of medicine, based on availability and approval of the clinical team.
Clinical Rotations
Family Medicine
This course is designed to provide the student with the basics necessary to build a solid foundation for the evaluation, documentation, diagnosis, and treatment of problems common in primary care/family medicine. Students learn the skills necessary to evaluate and manage the effects of chronic disease on multiple body systems and to perform or assist in procedures commonly used in providing care across the age spectrum. The student will develop proficiency in office procedures commonly performed in a family medicine office.
Internal Medicine
The focus is on in-depth evaluation and ongoing treatment of adult patients with complex problems and/or chronic illness. Students learn the skills necessary to evaluate and manage the effects of chronic disease on multiple body systems and to perform or assist in procedures commonly performed in internal medicine. This rotation also includes in-depth evaluation and ongoing treatment of geriatric patients with complex problems and/or chronic illness. Students learn the skills necessary to evaluate and manage the effects of chronic disease on multiple body systems and to perform or assist in procedures commonly used in providing care to the geriatric population.
General Surgery
Students will develop the skills necessary to evaluate and manage patients with a variety of surgical problems. Exposure will include pre-, intra- and post-operative patient care. The rotation will provide students the opportunity to develop an understanding of the role of the surgeon, anesthesiologist, assistant surgeon, circulating nurse, scrub nurse, scrub technician, recovery room and surgical floor nurses, aides and technicians in the care of the surgical patient.
This clinical rotation is designed to provide the student with outpatient and inpatient experience in pediatrics. The student will learn to perform evaluations of the healthy pediatric patient, recognize, evaluate and treat the common illnesses and problems experienced by the neonate, infant, small child and adolescent to age 18. Additionally, the student will learn to identify and manage problems in growth and development of these age groups and recognize and manage pediatric emergencies.
Women's Health
This rotation is designed to provide the student with a comprehensive experience in the area of care of the female patient, especially in the areas of women's health and prenatal care and the impact of disease processes on the reproductive system. The student will develop the skills and knowledge necessary to evaluate, manage and educate the patient in areas such as annual exams, birth control, infertility, menstruation, sexuality, pregnancy, pre- and post-natal care, menopause, and relationships.
Behavioral Health
The student will develop the skills necessary to evaluate and manage patients with a variety of behavioral and psychiatric problems. The rotation will provide students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of the role of psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and nurses in the care of the psychiatric patient. Students will learn the appropriate use of selected psychoactive pharmaceuticals. There will be ample opportunity for the student to practice the skills necessary to perform a psychiatric interview and mental status examination and make referrals for specialized psychiatric treatment.
Emergency Medicine
The student is introduced to triage and the stabilization of patients with life-threatening conditions and the procedures performed in the emergency department. Emphasis is placed on skills required to perform and document a problem-oriented history and physical; formulate a differential diagnosis; order and interpret the tests necessary to confirm or rule out a primary diagnosis and give appropriate patient education. The student will also learn strategies for interacting with patients and/or families in various levels of stress.
In association with the Clinical Coordinator, each student will choose from a list of elective rotations (i.e., primary care, hospitalist medicine, nephrology, interventional radiology, etc.). No student will be required to acquire his/her own clinical rotation site. If a student has a particular clinical rotation site he/she wishes to develop, this may be done in association with and at the discretion of the Clinical Coordinator.


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LooToGo is a Google Map that shows the locations of public toilets in Germany. The site currently has over 28,000 restrooms in its database.
It is possible to search the map by location. If you click on a map marker you will be taken to the reviews section for that public toilet. If you know of a loo that is missing you can even add it to the map.
LooToGo also comes with an iPhone app, so now you can find your nearest toilet when you are out and about and caught on the hop.
Also See
- SitOrSquat.com - thousands of toilets mapped around the world
- Diaroogle - Google Map of Manhattan toilets
- NYRestroom.com - A map of New York restrooms


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There's an element of lead guitar playing in this part, but in many ways, it is the counter rhythm to the part learned in the last lesson. Listen to how the two electric parts push and pull at each other, particularly in the "B" section.
Taught by Chris Liepe in Style of Modern Worship Guitar seriesLength: 5:52Difficulty: 2.0 of 5
Modern church/worship music pulls from all sorts of genres. You'll hear a lot of Rock/Pop influence, some Punk riffs, and even the Nashville Country sound from time to time. As guitar playing has become more prominent in the church and more instrumentalists step up to lead their congregation, the culmination of these genres has created a recognizable and specific style of guitar playing. This series deals with concepts and techniques and sounds that make up the style of modern worship guitar. Perhaps the most unique aspect of this type of playing is the way that simple parts with specific effects are layered together to form very atmospheric and layered soundscapes. We'll not only look at the playing, but we'll dissect tones and patches to provide the tools necessary to create that modern worship guitar playing sound. We also deal with typical roles that each guitarist might assume in a band setting so that all the pieces to the puzzle fit the way the need to... So the band moves as one unit, and the music is tight and textured!
Lesson 1
Produce the sounds that have made modern church/worship music what it is today. Learn how to craft minimalist guitar sounds, find your place in the mix of other instrumentalists, and dial in your tone...Length: 4:35 Difficulty: 0.5 Members Only
Lesson 2
We all must know our place in the band. We must know how to play for the good of the whole. By being a "backbone player," you'll create an unstoppable tightness that will allow each instrument to perfectly...Length: 12:46 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 3
Here, we take a look at the rest of the "CAGED" keys and discuss more ways to fluidly move between basic chords in a progression while maintaining that 'backbone' acoustic rhythm style.Length: 15:46 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 4
Learn to think of each of the standard "CAGED" keys as positions rather than groups of chords tied to a specific key. Tie these positions to the number system, and you're golden!Length: 15:28 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 5
Simple leads and tasty rhythm playing are often built from two string repeating phrases that loosely follow the chord progression of a worship song. We'll look at 3 blocks in total. Start with block 1...Length: 6:38 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 6
Move up the neck and tap into more range and an even more familiar sound. Combine blocks 1 and 2 for variety. Keep the rhythms slow and simple, add some effects, and you're off!Length: 9:02 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 7
We move to an even higher register in this lesson. There are nearly infinite possibilities when you expand on the concepts of forming little block positions around common chord progressions. Let your creativity...Length: 8:25 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lesson 8
Learn how to dial in reverb and delay effects for that signature dreamy, minimalistic sound. Get actual knob settings and perspective on when and how to use certain effects.Length: 12:18 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lesson 9
Dissect the playing and effects in this simple, arpeggio line with a 1/8D delay. Practice this Hillsong United-inspired part with the other guitars, or by itself with the included backing track.Length: 8:08 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 10
Turn up the FX a little more, warm up that picking hand and get ready to add some serious texture to the mix! Don't go too crazy though! You still want to be listening to what the rest of your band is...Length: 8:07 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lesson 11
If there was a guitar solo in this mix, this would be it, I suppose. This is the most 'out front' part and has the greatest sense of melody. Played with the other two parts, it completes this sound environment...Length: 7:27 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 12
With three guitars all playing rhythm parts, you have to know that what you are playing compliments what the other guys are doing. This first part looks at intentional, simple rhythm playing that fills...Length: 6:13 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lesson 13
There's an element of lead guitar playing in this part, but in many ways, it is the counter rhythm to the part learned in the last lesson. Listen to how the two electric parts push and pull at each other,...Length: 5:52 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 14
...And then there's the acoustic. As with the two electric guitar parts, pay careful attention to how the intentional strum pattern fills its own unique corner in the overall mix. Take this example and...Length: 4:19 Difficulty: 0.0 Members Only
Lesson 15
When it is layered among the other guitar tracks, this line almost sounds like any other standard rhythm part, but it's not! It is a moving riff that, though dry, uses a static wah sound to lay back in...Length: 5:19 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lesson 16
It's the refrain of this series: simple, catchy and well placed lines that work in harmony with each other make this world go 'round. In this lesson, we literally provide harmony to the line from the previous...Length: 5:45 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lesson 17
The acoustic guitar propels the groove forward in this example. Practice being precise with your strum patterns and be very conscious of how you are strumming in relation to the other instruments.Length: 3:06 Difficulty: 1.5 Members Only
Lesson 18
With a progressive sounding track like this, you need that chunky rhythm foundation. Strategically adding quirks and taste to this part, while listening to the other parts is going to make everything...Length: 7:20 Difficulty: 2.0 Members Only
Lesson 19
Crank up the delay and get in the groove. Let the revolving rhythm of the delay carry you as you sneak in tasty morsels between the repeats. Have fun!Length: 7:37 Difficulty: 2.5 Members Only
Lesson 20
Yes! Now we get to learn a full guitar solo in the style of one of the greatest guitar players to contribute to modern worship guitar. Learn a concrete example of developing a theme, inserting licks,...Length: 10:58 Difficulty: 3.5 Members Only
About Chris Liepe
View Full Biography
Chris Liepe was born on September 17th, 1981 in Portland OR. His first instrument was piano which he pursued until discovering his love for the electric guitar in high school. He became fans of such groups as Soundgarden, Collective Soul and U2 inspiring him to start singing, songwriting and helping others in their musical endeavors with teaching, co-writing and album production.
Having moved to Colorado with his family, he began gigging, recording and teaching in a number of music stores as well as out of his apartment until deciding to pursue music full time. He moved to Denver, CO to complete a Bachelors in Music Technology and was then hired on by Sweetwater Productions, a division of Sweetwater Sound and one of the largest, most successful recording studios in the Midwest.
Chris spent nearly 4 years at Sweetwater as a producer, recording engineer, studio musician and writer. During this time he had the privilege of working with many artists including Augustana, Landon Pigg, Jars of Clay, and Mercy Me. He also wrote for and played on numerous independent albums and hundreds of radio/TV commercials.
Wanting to get back to his favorite State in the world (Colorado) and feeling the urge to 'go freelance', Chris moved to Greeley, CO and opened his own recording and teaching studio. He continues to write and produce music for artists and agencies and is happy to be among the proud JamPlay.com instructors.
Our acoustic guitar lessons are taught by qualified instructors with various backgrounds with the instrument.
In this lesson Justin introduces his series on playing with a capo and dishes out some basic tips, including how to properly...Free LessonSeries Details
Mark Nelson introduces "'Ulupalakua," a song he will be using to teach different skills and techniques. In this lesson, he...Free LessonSeries Details
In the classical guitar world, there seems to be a lot outdated instructional advice. And while this type of information...Free LessonSeries Details
Tyler Grant is back with an introduction to his new series "Classic Country Chops." In this series, Tyler goes in-depth...Free LessonSeries Details
Erik expounds on the many possibilities of open tunings and the new harmonics that you can use in them. He explains what...Free LessonSeries Details
Steve Eulberg does a quick review of this lesson series and talks about moving on.Free LessonSeries Details
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Mitch teaches his interpretation of the classic "Cannonball Rag." This song provides beginning and intermediate guitarists...Free LessonSeries Details
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Allen shows you the 24 rudiments crucial to developing finger dexterity. This is a short lesson but the exercises here can...Free LessonSeries Details
Mark Brennan teaches this classic rock song by Jethro Tull. Released on the album of the same name in 1971, this song features...Free LessonSeries Details
David Ellefson, co-founding member of Megadeth, explains his overall approach to teaching and learning bass in this introductory...Free LessonSeries Details
Jane Miller talks about chord solos in part one of this fascinating mini-series.Free LessonSeries Details
JamPlay is proud to welcome senior professor and Coordinator of Guitar Studies at the University of Colorado at Denver,...Free LessonSeries Details
Meet John Shannon and his approach to rhythm guitar. John discusses why he put this lesson series together and what his...Free LessonSeries Details
Get an in-depth look into the mind of virtuoso guitarist Andy James. Learn about Andy's early beginnings all the way up to...Free LessonSeries Details
Joel Kosche talks about creating and composing a guitar solo. He uses his original song "Sunrise" as an example.Free LessonSeries Details
Steve McKinley talks about evaluating your bass and keeping it in top shape. He covers neck relief, adjusting the truss rod,...Free LessonSeries Details
Stuart delves into all the different aspects of how R&B guitar has had an impact within reggae music.Free LessonSeries Details
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Mike H."I feel like a 12 year old kid with a new guitar!"
I am 66 years young and I still got it! I would have never known this if it had not been for Jamplay! I feel like a 12 year old kid with a new guitar! Ha! I cannot express enough how great you're website is! It is for beginners and advanced pickers! I am an advanced picker and thought I had lost it but thanks to you all, I found it again! Even though I only play by ear, I have been a member a whopping whole two weeks now and have already got Brent's country shuffle and country blues down and of course with embellishments. Thank you all for your wonderful program!
Greg J."With Jamplay I can fit in a random session when I have time and I can go at my own pace"
I'm a fifty eight year old newbie who owns a guitar which has been sitting untouched in a corner for about seven years now. Last weekend I got inspired to pick it up and finally learn how to play after watching an amazing Spanish guitarist on TV. So, here I am. I'm starting at the beginning with Steve Eulberg and I couldn't be happier (except for the sore fingers :) Some day I'm going to play like Steve! I'm self employed with a hectic schedule. With Jamplay I can fit in a random session when I have time and I can go at my own pace, rewinding and replaying the videos until I get it. This is a very enjoyable diversion from my work yet I still feel like I'm accomplishing something worthwhile. Thanks a lot, Greg
Bill"I believe this is the absolute best site for guitar students."
I am commenting here to tell you and everyone at JamPlay that I believe this is the absolute best site for guitar students. I truly enjoy learning to play the guitar on JamPlay.com. Yes, I said the words, ""enjoy learning."" It is by far the best deal for the money.


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Tagged: Coors Field
The Angels May Still Have Problems, But A Mendoza Line Hittin' Catcher Ain't One…
…Or is it? Oh, I don't mean are the Angels still keeping Jeff Mathis. Jerry Dipoto made his first personnel move as the Angels manager on Wednesday, trading rookie pitcher Tyler Chatwood to the Rockies for catcher Chris Iannetta and, by all accounts, one of his next moves will be to non-tender Jeff Mathis and I am beyond okay with this. I think Mathis is a good guy and the pitchers love him. And he is rather good at take down plays at the plate. But there are also all of the mental errors in throw down situations and, ugh, that batting average. Yes, Mathis has a pretty swing to be sure but, after this many seasons, I've stopped waiting for the pretty swing to become a productive swing and just reflexively cringe whenever the guy steps into the batter's box.
Suffice to say, I'm not going to miss Mathis much and would be thrilled to get an actual bat in the catcher's position. And, initially, I was quite seduced by Iannetta's lifetime .238 average and typical double digit season homeruns numbers…okay, so they're just barely double digit and .238 isn't that great a batting average for anyone who isn't a catcher but compared to the lifetime .197 average and "he holds the record for most home runs…hit on opening day…on his birthday" stats that I'm used to? Please, that there is a hitting dynamo.
…But then I slowed down my ridiculous happy dance and began to think, hmmm. Rockies player. Batting in the land where balls hit with a stick fly freely into the upper deck and pitchers fear to tread. What are this guy's road splits like? Ugly, as it turns out. Looking up to Mathis' .197 most seasons, in fact. And the happy dance is slowing down. Sllloooooooowing down. And we're stopping now. Well, yuck. And by yuck I really mean something that rhymes with yuck and has more of a Van Halen album title-ish vibe to it, but this is a family blog, or something like that.
I'm not crying foul on this trade yet. Maybe I've just been scarred by Vernon Wells' last season and the home/away splits that preceded it. Maybe Iannetta's splits have more to do with really feeling comfortable with the home crowd, the home clubhouse, home cooking, home anything but the Earth's yellow sun like properties that Coors Field has on the would-be Superman bats of hitters ranging anywhere from mediocre to awesome. Maybe?? Or, maybe my pessimistic thoughts are more akin to realistic thoughts in this case.
In an interview today on Clubhouse Confidential Jerry Dipoto was asked about this very thing and chose the more optimistic interpretation of the splits. On the one hand, of course he would, he just made the deal! On the other hand, he did work for the Rockies and has some insight into the players. Then again, when asked what primary characteristic sold him on Ianetta, Dipoto said, He walks. A lot. Okay. So, what then? Iannetta is the Italian demi-god of walks?
Anyway, National League folks, or anyone else who knows a lot more about this player than I, lay it on me. What do you think of this acquisition?
And as for the trading away Tyler Chatwood, I don't mind it terribly. I thought he was good, poised beyond his tender years, and showed promise as a bottom half of the rotation starter. I was less than thrilled with his strikeout to walk ratio and with how early and how well and thoroughly he sputtered out during his rookie season. I know that it will take another season to determine if that's indicative of a long term flaw or just rookie stretching out and growing pains, but I still don't view trading him as a bad thing, not that I would have minded keeping him either. Of course, if the Rockies turn around and trade him to the Rangers tomorrow and Chatty proceeds to take revenge on the team who scorned him by having a career year and sitting our asses down one by one all season long, I may revise my opinion somewhat.
Scarred, who? Me? 😉


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The nature photo tour images that appear on Russ BurdenPhotography.com are available for sale. All pictures are printed on archival paper ensuring long life and lasting color. Please contact Russ Burden Nature Photography Tours at email@example.com or call him at 720 560-6123 for more information regarding prices and shipping. Join Russ on one of his photo tours.
Photographs appearing on every page of this website are the exclusive works of Russell Burden. Every image is under the protection of the United States and International copyright laws. No photograph may be used whole or in part without the written permission of Russell Burden.


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The "fiscal cliff" isn't nearly the biggest cliff we face -- if we're talking about dangerous precipices looming on the horizon. Here are three:
The child poverty cliff. A staggering number of our children are impoverished. Between 2007 and 2011, the percentage of American school-age children living in poor households grew from 17 percent to 21 percent.
Last year, according to the Agriculture Department, nearly 1 in 4 young children lived in a family that had difficulty affording sufficient food at some point in the year.
Yet federal programs to help children and lower-income families -- such as food stamps, federal aid for poor school districts, Pell grants, child health care, subsidized lunches, child nutrition, prenatal and postnatal care, Head Start and Medicaid -- are being targeted for cuts by deficit hawks who insist we can no longer afford them.
It seems as if no one in Washington is any longer talking about reducing poverty in America. All we hear from both parties is the importance of preserving the middle class.
The states, meanwhile, have been laying off teachers and social workers, ending preschool and after-school programs, and cutting local family services. Twenty-three states reduced spending on education this year, much of it on poor schools.
Yet unless we focus on better schools, better health and improved conditions for these poor kids and their families, America will soon have a significant population of under-educated and desperate adults.
The baby boomer health care cliff. Health care costs already take 18 percent of our entire economy, and we're soon approaching a cliff that will require far more. Between now and 2030, when 76 million boomers join the ranks of the elderly, those costs will soar.
This is the major reason the federal budget deficit is projected to explode in future years -- not Medicare and Medicaid but the rising health care costs underlying these programs.
These costs, in turn, are the result of a mind-bogglingly inefficient system. We're spending almost 2.5 times more on health care per person than any other rich nation, yet the typical American doesn't live as long as the citizens of those nations, and we have a higher rate of infant mortality.
We spend $30 billion a year fixing medical errors -- the worst rate among advanced countries -- largely because we keep patient records on computers that can't share the data. Meanwhile, administrative costs are eating up 15 percent to 30 percent of all health-care spending in the U.S., twice the rate of other rich nations. The money goes mainly into collecting money -- doctors and hospitals from insurers, insurers from companies and policyholders.
The Affordable Care Act will reduce these inefficiencies, but not nearly enough.
The president also has to lead the way in using Medicare and Medicaid's bargaining power over providers to get lower costs and to move from a fee-for-service system to a fee-for-healthy-outcomes system of health care.
But the real health care cliff can only be avoided if we adopt a single-payer health care system.
The climate cliff. The third big cliff we're heading toward is climate change. Global emissions of carbon dioxide jumped 3 percent last year and are expected to jump another 2.6 percent this year, according to scientists who are carefully measuring the atmosphere.
This puts the human race perilously close to the tipping point when ice caps irretrievably melt, sea levels rise, and the amount of available cropland in the world becomes dangerously small. Some say we're already there.
Yet many Republicans (and their financial patrons, such as billionaires Charles and David Koch) continue to deny climate change.
Not even the Obama administration is any longer pushing for a cap-and-trade system to limit carbon emissions, or a carbon tax that would deter excessive use of carbon-based energy.
Yet unless we act to reduce carbon emissions, other major emitters around the world won't do so on their own. The only binding pact so far is the Kyoto Protocol, which the U.S. never joined. And we took scant leadership at the international climate talks that just concluded in Qatar.
While the "fiscal cliff" could be dangerous, these other three cliffs pose far greater perils.
Yet we seem unable to avoid hurtling over them because American politics is obsessed by the federal budget deficit, paralyzed by ideological fights over the size of government, and overwhelmed by the power of big money.
Robert B. Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California and former U.S. secretary of labor, is the author of "Beyond Outrage: What has gone wrong with our economy and our democracy, and how to fix it," a Knopf release now out in paperback.


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The world depends on mariners. Mariners depend on SCI. And we depend on you.
On June 12, 2012, SCI hosted the 31st Annual Silver Bell Awards Dinner at Pier 60 at Chelsea Piers, honoring Michael Grey with the Silver Bell Award, William O. Gray with the Lifetime Achievement Award and Paul S. Edelman with the Distinguished Law Award.
Photos by Leo Sorel.
Special Events are an important source of funding for the Seamen's Church Institute's programs. If you would like to receive information or invitations to our events, please email SCI's Special Events Team or telephone 212-349-9090.


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Dangerous Teen Trends
Nutmeg, candy, cough medicine, air freshener " these may seem like common household products, but your teen may actually abuse these items. Is your child at risk? And what other risky trends could your kids be involved in? Their cunning might surprise you.
Maureen and Tim admit that they initially looked the other way when their 14-year-old son, Sam, started "smoking" crushed candy and then snorting powdered drink mix. Now they believe Sam's experimentation with these legal foods led to his making an illegal marijuana purchase.
"When I found out, I felt like a failure."
Dr. Phil has a heart-to-heart with Sam to get to the bottom of why he uses drugs. What does the eighth grader admit that brings his father to tears?
Dr. Jim Sears, co-host of The Doctors, weighs in on these risky trends.
Update: Read how Sam is doing now.
Adela worries for her 17-year-old son, Alex's, safety after discovering that he's participating in an underground extreme sport " teen fight clubs. Alex and his 20-year-old friend, Casanova, say that these amateur boxing matches are training them to reach their goal of becoming Ultimate Fighting Champions (UFC).
How do the teens respond when they come face to face with real UFC fighters?
John and Teresa say their 12-year-old daughter, Lacey, created a profile on the Internet and claimed to be a porn star. Now the crestfallen parents say they have difficulty trusting the girl and struggle to move forward.
Learn how Lacey accessed the Net ... without ever touching a computer!
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Aspen Education Group
(866) 949-5945(866) 949-5945
Got Fight? The 50 Zen Principles of Hand-to-Face Combat
by Forrest Griffin


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Servers attract the most attention, but data and storage offer another conservation target
Green information technology is often treated as a straight hardware play. Powering down PCs at night and consolidating servers top most organizations' energy conservation checklists.
How to measure the maturity of your green IT goals
But the information side of information technology — the capture, management and storage of data — provides another candidate for greening. The growth in data is not likely to slow anytime soon, and all that information has to be stored. However, disk and tape systems contribute to data centers' power and cooling requirements. So consolidating storage or at least slowing the proliferation of new devices can help an IT shop boost its environmental profile.
Here are some basic steps for reducing the environmental footprint of electronically stored data.
"The typical interest in green and sustainability is around the data center and energy efficiency, but organizations across the spectrum are beginning to realize there are other dimensions," said Harsh Sharma, chairman of the Object Management Group's Sustainability Special Interest Group. "How green is your data? That's another important dimension."
But with a few exceptions, government entities, like everyone else, appear to be focused on hardware when it comes to green initiatives. A CDW Government report on energy-efficient IT listed the top three energy-saving measures among federal agencies interviewed for the study: migrate to LCD monitors, buy Energy Star-compliant gear and pursue server virtualization.
One obstacle on the path to green data is the lack of a documented return on investment. Reports abound on the server side — many from vendors interested in selling newer, energy-efficient products — but scant information exists about data-related energy costs and the potential for reducing them, which makes it harder for enterprises to justify projects that address green data.
Moreover, systematic approaches to green computing of any kind are uncommon. Therefore, agencies are on their own as they try to develop more comprehensive and strategic sustainability plans that include data management among other initiatives, such as green buildings, regulatory compliance and procurement practices.
The Object Management Group's sustainability group is leading an effort to develop such a holistic approach with input from several federal agencies and other organizations. The group's Sustainability Assessment Model would give organizations a way to define a standard set of metrics for assessing, measuring and reporting on different dimensions of green initiatives, including data management, Sharma said.
In the meantime, some organizations are reporting good results when they include data in their broader energy conservation efforts.
A green adjunct
Oregon took on green data management as an adjunct to the state's data center consolidation effort. About four years ago, Oregon consolidated 11 centers into one. Server virtualization — migrating multiple servers to operate as virtual machines on fewer physical devices — helped the state reduce energy costs and its carbon footprint. A new storage strategy also contributed to the savings.
"When we first consolidated in 2006, we spent a lot of time re-architecting the data storage and putting in tiered storage," said Dugan Petty, Oregon's chief information officer.
The data center chose a mix of disk storage and virtual tape libraries. State agencies and departments that use the data center's services can select the storage approach that is most cost-effective and uses the least amount of energy for their particular needs.
The data center established a rate structure that provides incentives for adopting that approach. Rates start low for storage that has a smaller energy footprint, such as on-site tape, and increase for higher tiers of storage that offer better performance but consume more energy.
In the future, Petty said the data center will consider a strategy to identify and eliminate duplicate copies of data. Deduplication, usually done using an automated software tool, eliminates redundant data, thereby shrinking storage and backup requirements. The reduced storage demand in turn eases cooling and power requirements.
Rockwell Bonecutter, global green IT lead at Accenture, said deduplication can shrink the physical space required for datasets and files by 30 to 90 percent.
Outside the data center, Oregon officials have already sought to reduce the redundancy of geographic information systems data.
The state's Geospatial Enterprise Office used to make copies of GIS imagery it acquired and distribute them on CDs to state agencies and counties. Agencies would then load the data on their local servers to boost performance for users. Now, the office operates an imagery portal through which agencies can download data as needed.
The need for a more centralized approach became evident as the size of the state's GIS holdings grew. In the mid-1990s, its GIS dataset was 325G, but it grew to 4.1T in 2005 and is expected to reach about 7T this year, said Ed Arabas, Oregon's senior operations and policy analyst. That growth stems from the arrival of color imagery and half-meter resolution in 2005. The still-larger 2009 dataset will include infrared imagery.
Chilling data
The California Institute of Technology's Spitzer Science Center offers another approach to green data and storage. The center handles science tasks for NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, and its data center houses an archive of the data the telescope collects, among other things.
A couple of years ago, Eugean Hacopians, a senior systems engineer who runs Spitzer's data center, began talking to Nexsan Technologies about the storage vendor's massive array of idle disks technology. MAID reduces the power consumption of storage because the disk drives spin at full speed only when they are in use.
Hacopians said the MAID discussions inspired him to think about the broader implications of energy consumption. So the data center began taking additional steps to reduce energy use. A plastic wall was installed to shrink the area of the computer room that needed cooling — Hacopians said he was inspired by a freezer curtain at a supermarket: plastic panels were used to isolate cold and hot aisles. Overall, the project cost $25,000, but it cut the center's air conditioning requirements in half.
"Why waste so much energy running the air conditioning full blast and making the computer room like an icebox?" he asked.
Hacopians said green was not the project's initial goal but a side effect of making air conditioning and power usage more manageable.
Nevertheless, some agencies remain focused on servers in their green efforts. The Los Alamos National Laboratory began a server virtualization push in 2006. The lab has eliminated 105 physical servers and now runs more than 250 virtual servers on 13 physical hosts. Virtualization has saved the lab 873,000 kilowatt hours per year and about $639,000 in energy costs.
Before virtualization, the lab was "running into the proverbial brick wall in terms of cooling and power in the data center," said Anil Karmel, solutions architect at Los Alamos' Network and Infrastructure Engineering division. He said the lab will investigate the data side of the equation in the future, but he believes there are still savings to be had in virtual servers.
"I honestly haven't seen any data regarding energy efficiency as it relates to storage," Karmel said. "All the metrics that we have seen have been for traditional server virtualization."
Sharma said that although the lack of metrics has kept some organizations from pursuing green data initiatives, that attitude will likely change as they advance beyond the easy wins of server and computer efficiency and develop more comprehensive approaches to sustainable energy use.
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The current appropriations bills are set to expire on Oct. 1; the bill now goes to the Senate where it is expected to pass.
Interoperability, integration and JADC2 are likely to figure into an updated electromagnetic spectrum strategy expected soon from the Department of Defense.
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A blog to compile what I have learned (and what I am learning) about Mandriva (and GNU/Linux in general) since 2009, when I migrated. Current distros I'm using: OpenMandriva Lx 4, Mageia 7, PCLinuxOS, MX 19, PicarOS, Elive 3, and AntiX 13.
sábado, 7 de agosto de 2010
Some Notes on Linux Effects
However, Compiz also has the Ring Switcher, the Fire-writing, and many other effects. The problem is that some of the possibilities are mutually exclusive. For those who like this kind of eye candy, I'll point out two features in which Compiz and Kwin differ:
1. Different wallpapers in the multiple desktops
As far as I know, this is only possible if you are using Kwin effects. Somehow, the plasma environment does not enable the different wallpapers with Compiz. Here's the desktop display in Compiz. All wallpapers are the same:
2. Skydome
A skydome is the animated background that moves as you rotate the cube in Compiz. It is pretty impressive when you have a background image that merges on both sides.
However, if you have Kwin, although you can change the background, you cannot animate it to follow the rotation of the cube. This is the Kwin cube with its fixed background:
Of course, the Compiz set has a lot more effects than Kwin does. Nevertheless, I've seen that Compiz makes KDE unstable in certain computers. Kwin effects, on the other hand, do not seem to cause this problem.
So, if you want to beautify your KDE distro, take this information into account and remember: No four wallpapers if you get skydome. And yes, there are other effects, too, like the ones that Metisse incorporates. However, that is the matter of a different discussion.
Some people consider effects a waste of computer power. They may be right but, in my modest opinion, the cube, the multiple wallpapers, fire-writing, water, and snow make my computer environment more appealing to me. I find this aspect significant because, believe it or not, those pieces of eye candy become quite relaxing when you are trying to write an article on, say, Japanese acceptance/rejection ambivalent syndrome or the dark night of the soul in T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets and the muses decide to hide from you. Plus, when the poor souls trapped in Windows 7 Starter see me enjoying my writer's block by playing with the desktop effects, they always ask themselves why I get so many cool features for free and they have to pay to be able to use the over-rated Aeroshake.
3 comentarios:
I, for one, think that eye candy is not necessary to operate a computer. However, it will become an artificial necessity like many others dealing with ICTs. After all, how would OEMs justify selling us more powerful, but also more resource-consuming equipments each time?ResponderEliminar
On the other hand, it's hard to find a person who has the latest video card and is content using it only to, say, open spreadsheets. The more advanced our systems are, more we want them to do. That's how it should be and that's the strongest point of Linux regarding eye candy: it takes it to its limits!
- Anónimo8 de agosto de 2010, 22:54
Compiz can have different wallpapers as well. But you have to disable metacity desktop drawing first.ResponderEliminar
Thanks for the information. Is that in KDE? I'm a Linux beginner and, to be honest, I have no idea of what you are talking about, but I'll try to do find a way to do it.
It's the Ides of August!
In Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Roman general Julius Caesar is given an ominous message by the Soothsayer. The message is a simple warn...
I bought a new headset for my laptop two days ago. Since the store did not have many options available, I went for a Combat Argom Tech piec...
On Feb, 24, I upgraded my Fedora install from 27 to 29. Well, it turns out that Fedora 30 was released two days ago, so I decided to upgrad...


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Outlander Sport SE, 4WD.
CARFAX One-Owner. COMPLIMENTARY INSPECTIONS FOR LIFE!! 1ST OIL CHANGE FREE.
Cooley Motors has been proudly servicing and selling New and PreOwned vehicles to Rennselaer, Troy, Albany, Colonie, Schenectady, Hudson, Kingston, Saratoga, the Berkshires, and Bennington for 50 years! www.cooleymotors.com.
New vehicle pricing includes all offers and incentives. Tax, Title and Tags not included in vehicle prices shown and must be paid by the purchaser. While great effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information on this site, errors do occur so please verify information with a customer service rep. This is easily done by calling us at 518-283-2277 or by visiting us at the dealership.
**With approved credit. Terms may vary. Monthly payments are only estimates derived from the vehicle price with a 72 month term, 5.9% interest and 20% downpayment.
*Number of views in last 30 days
† Based on 2015 EPA mileage ratings. Use for comparison purposes only. Your actual mileage will vary depending on how you drive and maintain your vehicle.
Opened by Erwin Cooley, Cooley Motors has served as the longest standing Volkswagen dealership in Upstate New York. Having served the Capital Region since as early as 1966, our team takes great pride in being a family owned and operated business since our inception. Our new car dealership in Rensselaer features dual showrooms, displaying the newest Mazda and Volkswagen models. Not only that, but with an onsite Service Center, you can count on our team to assist you with your every automotive need.


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What is workshop equipment what types are available?
Workshop equipment is everything within a workshop, either at home or in a professional garage or a building site, or other industrial and domestic settings. We stock workbenches and workshop accessories to set up and sort out workspaces. Workshop equipment covers the equipment used when handling workshop tools and instruments. Our storage components can be used to keep workspaces tidy and safe. Workshop equipment also includes workbenches themselves.
If your workshop is cluttered with equipment, we offer a range of styles of equipment and storage options for your workshop. Our workbench accessories and equipment can enable you to store and sort your equipment to ensure the safety of you and your tools when they are properly stored whilst you work. We stock:
- Compartment boxes - we offer varied styles with adjustable compartments
- Compartment bins- both stackable and non-stackable
- Storage boxes- to contain larger components or general workshop clutter
- Drawer storage- useful for storing smaller tools such as spanners
Workbenches and worktops can be found on our website along with our range of accessories, that make your workshop easier to maintain and care for in any setting. Workbenches can be in the form of a portable workbench or fixed in a more traditional workspace but both are designed to be a place to safely store your tools and many have additional storage spaces such as drawers or shelves as added on components.


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Divided … Barack Obama has slammed the Republicans for not cooperating on debt issues.There is a photograph of Barack Obama taken almost four years ago. He is in a tiny, wood-lined lift in the White House heading up to the residence for the first time. He and Michelle have just attended 10 inauguration balls. Lifting his chin to loosen his bow tie he looks young and happy, tired and endlessly confident.
He did not know that as he and Michelle slow danced through the night before seas of raised smartphones, the shattered Republican leadership had held a meeting that would help define his presidency.
They gathered in a downtown steakhouse called The Caucus Room. Leading the group was Newt Gingrich, whose hardline, hard-nosed brand of politics had in the 1990s led the Republicans to a majority in the House of Representatives before it collapsed, exhausted by its own overreach.
Many of those present were stunned by the scope of the 2008 Republican defeat. Earlier in the day, they had seen almost 2 million people carpet the National Mall to welcome their new president. They feared they faced a generation in the wilderness.
That very night, according to PBS's Frontline program, the group, which included the congressional heavyweights Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor and Jim DeMint, agreed on a simple strategy – ruthless, disciplined opposition to everything and anything Obama proposed.
The following morning in the White House, Obama returned to work on the stimulus package his team was preparing to try to stave off what many feared would be a new Great Depression. Their transition briefings had been horrifying. One of them, an economic adviser, Austan Goolsbee, told Frontline he recalled saying to Obama, "Wow that has to be the worst briefing a new president has had in almost a century."
"That's not even the worst briefing I have had this week," Obama replied.
Determined to keep his promise to end the partisanship gripping Washington, Obama put together a proposal for a $900 billion stimulus package, much of it in the form of tax cuts designed to appeal to Republicans.
In a further display of amity, he left the White House and travelled up Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol to sell the proposal to Republicans.
He need not have bothered. They had already decided to oppose the proposal, just as they did later when Obama tried to win bipartisan support for healthcare reform.
The blanket opposition allowed Republicans to blame Obama for the flat economy, while using the spectre of socialist Obamacare death panels to gin up a large enough opposition to defeat the Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections.
It was an effective strategy. As the economy languished and fury grew at the bailout of Wall Street and the banks, the Tea Party evolved and directed its often inchoate rage not at the traditional allies of big business – the Republicans – but at Obama.
In the mid-term elections, the Republicans won back the House, and rather than simply voicing their opposition to Obama's causes, they were now able to block Democratic legislation.
Obama, known around the world for his soaring rhetoric, proved a reluctant participant in the face-to-face politics, and failed to win over any Republican support. To the disappointment of many in his own caucus, he retreated to the White House, leaving the split Congress to try to settle their economic differences. They never managed to pass a budget after the mid-term elections, though the House found the time to pass legislation repealing Obamacare 33 times.
By the time he began his race for re-election, Obama had given up on any ideas he might have had about ending the division. Just as Republican candidates sought to best each other in reaching out to GOP's right-wing base – often by railing against abortion rights and immigration reform – Obama declared in an early appearance that if he said it was night time, Republicans would say it was daytime.
Meanwhile, his Chicago headquarters quietly went about stitching together a coalition of constituencies ignored by Republicans – Latinos, blacks, women and youth.
You could hear the shock in one of the key voices of white middle America on election night when it became obvious that Obama had won.
"The white establishment is now the minority," lamented Bill O'Reilly during Fox News's election coverage. You are going to see a tremendous Hispanic vote for President Obama. An overwhelming black vote for President Obama. And women will probably break President Obama's way. People feel that they are entitled to things, and which candidate, between the two, is going to give them things? The demographics are changing. It's not a traditional America any more."
That night, not only did Obama keep the White House and the Senate, but also the Democrats whittled away the Republican lead in the House. (they outpolled the Republicans by more than 1 million votes, but failed to win control because of gerrymandering.) The Republican House Speaker, John Boehner, viewed this as a status quo result; Obama as a mandate.
Instead of enjoying the once traditional inauguration ceasefire, Obama threatened Boehner he would use his inaugural address and the coming State of the Union speech to blame the Republicans if they failed to come to the table during the "fiscal cliff" talks, The Wall Street Journal reported.
And on Monday, Obama gave his last press conference of the first term, using the leisurely hour-long performance to smack Republicans about for their threat to refuse to raise the debt ceiling – the authorisation Congress must give the government to pay its debt.
"[Republicans] have two choices here: they can act responsibly and pay America's bills, or they can act irresponsibly and put America through another economic crisis. But they will not collect a ransom in exchange for not crashing the American economy … and they better choose quickly, because time is running short."
On Wednesday, Obama got tough on guns. No one who saw him speak at the memorial in Sandy Hook last month could doubt he believes this is good policy, but it is also anathema to the Republicans, and particularly to the southern base that Obama's coalition defeated in November.
Once the debt ceiling crisis is resolved, it appears likely that Obama will tackle immigration reform – an area where, by happy coincidence, good policy might meet good politics for Democrats. Obama wants to introduce measures that will "create pathways to citizenship" for some of the estimated 11 million illegal immigrants in the US.
This brings a generation in from the dark – many of whom have been born and raised in the US – but it would also split the Republican Party. Many GOP supporters from the southern and western states cannot support the measure without being killed off in the primaries, while the party leadership knows it faces a structural minority if it alienates the Hispanic vote.
Meanwhile, the President will be working to secure his legacy by bedding down his healthcare reforms, one of the policies that contributed to the savage division in America that exists today.
It is hard to imagine this rift in US politics will be healed soon. The two parties have vast ideological differences. Obama believes the debt and deficit can only be tackled once the economy has been restored through economic stimulus. He has yet to propose any significant cuts to the automatic spending that soaks up half the budget in welfare and health programs.
The Republicans, especially those elected in the 2010 Tea Party revolution, believe cutting spending and shrinking government is their first duty.
Then there is the matter of race, a topic that was far more a part of the national discussion in the days before the last inauguration.
Charlton McIlwain, a New York University professor and author of a book on race in American politics, believes Obama's re-election is even more significant than his first victory.
"Had he not been re-elected, I think the significance of his and the country's racial achievement would have been nullified, seen as an aberration. His reelection affirms the notion that non-whites can legitimately attain such political heights. It gives credence to the notion that we have made progress on race as a nation."
But McIlwain is not optimistic that the coming term will be less acrimonious than the first.
"I think division is inevitable and will likely be exacerbated during the second term. Obama will likely be more far reaching in what he attempts to achieve, drawing even greater opposition from a Congress that is already sharply divided along party and ideological lines.
"Like the healthcare debate from the first term, opposition in the second will likely be tinged with both explicit and implicit racial rhetoric. The NRA's head [Wayne] LaPierre's reference to Obama as elitist is one recent example of steps in this direction."
(The subtext, he explains, is that forceful white leaders are seen as tough, while strong black ones are often described as arrogant or elitist, another way of saying uppity.)
It is hard to even conceive the self-belief Obama must have felt the last time he walked under the Capitol's dome, down the narrow corridors and passageways to the inauguration stage. Just four years earlier, he had been an unknown Illinois politician.
When he retraces his steps on Monday, he will be more battered and tarnished, certainly more grey. Rather than seeking to heal and unify his country, he will be wanting to keep his enemies in view and his friends at his back.
As a RealClearPolitics headline put it this week, there will be No More Mr Nice President.
The original release of this article first appeared on the website of Hangzhou Night Net.


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Random Ramblings
There was a time when I went to the cinema almost every day. The cinema that I went to was located near to my school. So, after school, my classmates and I would go there to watch a movie or two. Sometimes, I would go alone if no one was free to accompany me.
Now, I barely go to the cinema anymore. The last time that I went to the movie theater was a year ago. It's not that I don't have the time, it's just that I don't enjoy watching movies on the big screen as much as I used to be.
Back in the days, even after doing some part-time job, I would go to the cinema at 11:00 PM and the movie would finish at around 1:00 AM. That was my way of relaxing in the past aside from reading.
But those days were different. The movies at the time were really great. Movies produced in Hong Kong were numerous but many of them were excellent. When I was still studying, there were approximately 400 movies produced in Hong Kong per year, but now, it would be lucky if they can produce 60 movies in one year. In addition, the quality of most of these 60 or so movies is not good.
The cost of a movie ticket has also changed a lot. Back then, the cost of a single ticket was HK$25 (US$3.20), but nowadays, it's around HK$100 (US$12.75) or more.
What a Mess
Earlier this morning, a deafening sound of some broken glass woke me up. I glanced at the clock and it was still 5 AM so I opted to ignore it. It could just be from somewhere else. However, after a few minutes, I smelt some kind of soy sauce and other spices. My first thought was, "Who the heck is cooking heavy meals that early in the morning?" However, as the smell intensified, I decided to see what it was.
When I went to the kitchen, I finally learned what happened. The dark soy sauce that I used for cooking last night, together with a bottle of ketchup, a bottle of light soy sauce, a bottle of black vinegar and a jar of XO Sauce (which took me quite a while to make) fell to the floor. I am not sure how it happened. Perhaps, I didn't place back the soy sauce properly after I used it last night…
Long story short, it took me three hours to clean up all the mess and the glass shards. After cleaning the mess, I also cleaned the entire kitchen as I was already cleaning too long anyway, might as well clean them all.
How Much Water Do You Drink?
Most people would tell you to drink 8 to 10 glasses of water (around 2.5 liters) per day to avoid dehydration. However, experts are still debating the exact amount of water that is needed by the human body and it seems that nobody agrees with each other.
I have read some scientific articles that even argue that you don't have to drink 8 glasses of water since you can get all the water you need from the food that you eat and from other drinks like juice, coffee, and beer. Yes, beer. While others say that alcoholic beverages can dehydrate you, others argued that there is no scientific basis that supports the claim. Personally, I don't buy their claims since their tones are rather condescending. Instead of making arguments, they would say something like, "the media brainwashed you into believing that you need to drink 8 glasses of water a day." This kind rhetoric just rubs me the wrong way. Those are the same type of people who will say, "Wake up Sheeple!"
Now then, back to the original question: How much water do you drink per day? I drink around 4.5 liters to 6 liters per day depending on the weather and how much exercise I do. Each day, I exercise for 1.5 to 3 hours depending on my mood and the amount of free time that I have. So, drinking a lot of water makes sense for me. However, even if I don't exercise for some reason, I would still drink around 4 liters of water a day. I can't imagine myself drinking less than that.
Monthly Likes
Portland, Oregon could have been named as Boston, Oregon.
William Overton, the founder of the place, owed money from several benefactors in Boston and Portland. In 1845, the city that would give its name was chosen through a coin toss.
Curious Links
Chicken Itza (Mysterious Places)
Beware of these Financial and Identity Theft Scams (psecu)
20 Unusual Things that Exist in Our World (The Awesome Daily)
12 Weird Things that have Washed Ashore (Mental Floss)
List of Artificial Intelligence Projects (Wikipedia)
Lewis Carroll
The following is an extract of an obituary of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) published in the Daily Telegraph on January 15, 1898:
The sayings attributed to him at Oxford would fill an entertaining volume of Carrolliana. Among other things, his 'etymology of the bell' is still quoted with relish by scholars. There was a provisional belfry at Christ Church College, which was familiarly known to Oxonians of the time as 'the meat safe.' Mr. Dodgson, undertaking to explain this epithet etymologically, split up the word belfry into two parts — the French word belle and the German word frei (free). Then he went to work as follows:
Belle = beautiful = comely = meet (meat);
Frei = free = secure = safe
Result: 'Meat-safe.'
A mathematician friend told me that if I write down the number 82 to 1 in a descending order and concatenate the digits together:
The 155-digit number formed would be a prime. And she's correct. You can check it on Wolfram|Alpha.
The first song is titled Keiko no Yume wa Yoru Hiraku performed by the enka singer Keiko Fuji and the next song is Inochi Azukemasu also by the same singer.
"A variety of nothing is superior to a monotony of something." — Jean Paul Richter
A discussion on how optical illusions trick our brains.


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Last week we took a peek at Melinda and Aaron's gorgeous engagement photography. Moving right along in the planning process, we're having a look at their gorgeous wedding invitations, a lofty design from our Coral collection that we call Maybeck. When Melinda first saw this design come to life in our studio, she knew instinctively that this was the invitation she had to have for her wedding. It also happened to be Aaron's favorite, so they customized it in a palette all their own.
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A large, well-equipped facility, the Exercise Physiology Lab at Ithaca College is home to spaces that are dedicated to teaching and research. The research spaces include areas for studying cardiovascular and muscular responses to exercise, biochemical effects of exercise, and body composition analysis. Each of these spaces contains state of the art equipment for related research projects. The teaching space is designed for small group meeting (<20 students) but contains all technology needed in a modern smart classroom. Many classes in the Exercise Physiology teaching space take advantage of the close proximity of lab equipment so that many classes flow directly from discussing theory directly into practicing application.
With over 4,000 square feet of space and well over $500,000 worth of equipment, we can perform just about any exercise physiology experiment that you can imagine. Recent projects in the "Ex Phys" lab have looked at high intensity training for cyclists, strength training and core training on unstable surfaces, and physical activity profiles of school children. Another unique aspect of the Exercise Physiology Lab is that it is located only steps away (down the hall) from our Wellness Clinic. Essentially, the Wellness Clinic often serves as a living laboratory for our exercise physiology related studies.


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Back in November 2010, Vladimir Putin drove an F1 car. Never one to shy away from a muscular PR opportunity, Putin gave that year's Renault a substantial portion of beans on a secret military airstrip while his aides and various team personnel nibbled their nails to the quick on the sidelines.
"He did very well," remembers Gerard Lopez, who was one of the people charged with offering the big man driving advice. He must have done OK, because a dinner invite followed at Putin's dacha. There may have been vodka involved. "We got on," is all Lopez will say.
Words: Jason Barlow
Pics: Justin Leighton
This feature first appeared in the May 2012 edition of Top Gear magazine


text: Lafayette Studios and even the type of house sitting next to it, I arrogantly assumed this was a Lexington Christian Church. While I never conducted full scale research on the photo, it was always something I looked for when driving downtown. When leaving work, I would sometimes just take some extra side roads to view a different brick church that might fit the architectural mold. Over the years, it was definitely a church whose outer details were very committed to my memory.


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Sibling rivalries have existed as long as there have been families: From the garden variety found in Genesis — wherein Cain and Abel, being the only two siblings in paradise, biblically begat history's first fratricide — to the black eagle family, whose offspring arrive two eggs at a time, with the older chick then pecking the younger one to death.
Hundreds of brothers have squared off in the NFL and the old AFL, some no doubt dragged along by the crazy glue of that fraternal bond — all still trying to avoid being pecked to death. But for XLVI Super Bowl seasons, no two coaches vying for the game's biggest prize were ever brothers — until now.
So for the universe to line up precisely as it has, pitting John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens against his younger brother, San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh, turns a simmering sibling rivalry — born in the family basement — into blood sport for a global audience of billions.
Only the brothers know whether theirs is truly the bromance they describe, built on mutual love, shared values and Griswold-style family vacations. Or if grim boyhood battles are still bubbling beneath that smooth surface. Are they best friends, like Peyton and Eli Manning? Mortal foes, like Michael and Fredo Corleone? Or are they completely uninterested in next week's Har-bowl, as they've spent so much energy professing to be.
"They're trying to deflect any discussion of a rivalry, but I don't buy it," said Avidan Milevsky, author of "Sibling Relationships in Childhood and Adolescence," a psychology professor at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania. "Considering the cocktail of variables in play, they normally would have reached a point where they had a very negative relationship. In sports, you have a very definitive measuring stick, and it seems the younger brother, Jim, has been more successful. And that's usually a recipe for disaster."
Parental favoritism
The most toxic sibling rivalries often have a Shakespearean quality, and, in fact, the Bard — who was himself the third of eight children, providing him with a lengthy enemies list — used sibling rivalry as a plot point in four of his plays. The two women from whom millions of Americans took advice on personal relationships over the past half-century — newspaper columnists Abigail Van Buren and Ann Landers, in reality twin sisters Pauline Phillips and Eppie Lederer — couldn't stand each other. During that same period, America's most successful wine-making empires were run by Ernest and Julio Gallo, then by Robert and Peter Mondavi. Both sets of brothers feuded furiously, plotted against one another endlessly and took each other to court often.
Tom and Dick Smothers own a winery in Sonoma Valley, but as the Smothers Brothers they built their career on Tom's sour grapes claim: "Mom always liked you best." The pair started as comedy troubadours at famed clubs such as the Purple Onion in San Francisco — and before that, competed on the track team at San Jose State. On their album titled "Sibling Revelry," Tom accuses his brother of getting a dog, while all he got was "a crummy chicken."
Milevsky says parental favoritism is usually a prime cause of sibling rivalry, which was the case in its most grotesque — albeit fictional — incarnation, the 1962 film "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" In that picture, the aging child star, Baby Jane Hudson (Bette Davis), and her sister, Blanche (Joan Crawford), are locked in a lifelong cycle of torment, ending in siblicide.
Slightly less Gothic were the exquisite tortures carried out by sisters Joan Fontaine and Olivia de Havilland, who apparently learned to hate each other while growing up in Saratoga. Like the Harbaugh brothers, they were pioneers of a certain kind: the first sisters nominated in the same year (1942) for the best actress Oscar. Fontaine won for her performance in Alfred Hitchcock's "Suspicion." But when de Havilland won in 1947 for "To Each His Own," the presenter was her little sister Joan, and she refused to shake Fontaine's hand while accepting the award.
Same gene pools
Considering the potential for sibling rivalries to turn disastrous, it's a wonder more of them haven't. Venus and Serena Williams have so dominated the current era of women's tennis, while remaining best friends, their five Wimbledon singles titles apiece has led some cynics to speculate that they decide in advance of their matches who the winner will be. The Harbaugh brothers, who say they have been too busy this week to stay in touch, aren't likely to engineer an outcome ahead of time.
It's not uncommon for a flock of talented players to come splashing out of the same gene pool to make their mark in the NFL. Brothers Lee Roy and Dewey Selmon were the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' first two draft picks in 1976. Lee Roy made the Hall of Fame, while his brother did not. Just like three-time Super Bowl winner Shannon Sharpe, whose older brother, Sterling, didn't make the Hall, but did manage to scratch out a career that included five Pro Bowl selections.
Just last week, brothers Arthur Jones III and Chandler Jones faced off in the AFC Championship game, with Arthur — a 6-foot-3, 315-pound defensive end for the Baltimore Ravens — prevailing over little (6-foot-5, 260-pound) brother Chandler, a defensive end for the New England Patriots. "It's a win-win because a Jones is going to the Super Bowl," reasoned their uncle Jeffrey, betraying a fundamental misunderstanding of the whole win-win concept.
The Harbaugh brothers have spent 46 seasons on pro and college sidelines, each waiting for his turn on the game's biggest stage. Now that it has arrived, there is no win-win situation for their proud parents, Jack and Jackie Harbaugh, who have been reluctantly drawn into the media maelstrom, along with their other child, John and Jim's little sister, Joani Crean. Those three have surrendered to the demand for a news conference Thursday, during which it may be revealed which brother will be going to Disneyland — with or without the rest of the family.
Contact Bruce Newman at 408-920-5004; follow him at Twitter.com/BruceNewmanTwit.
Tweet @mercnews
a photo of you and the sibling you have the biggest rivalry with, use hashtag #mercphoto.


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Thomas H McGovern
Professor (joint appointment with the CUNY Graduate Center)
Email: email@example.com
Tel: (212) 772-5656
Fax: (212) 772-5423
Room: HN 701
Office Hours: (Spring 2013) Weds 11:00-5:00 or by appointment
PhD Columbia University, 1979
Areas of Specialization
Environmental archaeology, zooarchaeology, island archaeology, climate change, Historical Ecology & Long Term Human Ecodynamics, cultures of the North Atlantic and Circumpolar North.
Overview of Research
Tom McGovern has done archaeological fieldwork since 1972 in the UK, Norway, France, the Caribbean, and NE US, but his main research work has been in the North Atlantic (Greenland, Iceland, Faeroes, and Shetland). McGovern was one of the founders of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO, www.nabohome.org) with initial NSF support in 1992, and has served as NABO coordinator down to the present. This international regional research cooperative has sponsored collaborative science, education, and outreach work from arctic Norway to Labrador, and its website now provides rich resources for science and education. In 2009 NABO was funded by NSF to explore the possibilities of taking this collaborative model global by connecting other regional interdisciplinary teams working in long term human ecodynamics. Following a successful workshop and conference publication, this effort has resulted in the new Global Human Ecodynamics Alliance (GHEA, www.gheahome.org) that has attracted wide interest and NSF support through the new Science Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) initiative. McGovern is active in the GHEA alliance, linked to IGBP human dimensions initiatives and working to coordinate and connect many excellent local and regional initiatives in sustainability education and research. In 2010, the NABO teams were recognized by the American Anthropological Association's Gordon Willey Memorial Prize for outstanding interdisciplinary archaeology. McGovern is associate director of the Human Ecodynamics Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (http://herc.gc.cuny.edu/ ) and has served on multiple NSF and international panels on arctic and interdisciplinary research.


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During a time of controversy in American medicine and the use of contraception, one man stood firm in his values and commitment to offering affordable reproductive health services to women of all ages.
Dr. Ronald Levine, a retired physician and current professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, first began serving the community, practicing obstetrics and gynecology in 1966. During his residency, he became passionate about the need for contraception and sexual health education, in turn, joining forces with Planned Parenthood, the largest provider of reproductive health services in the U.S.
Levine held several leadership positions in Planned Parenthood and served on its national medical committee, where he helped chart a ground-breaking course for the establishment of modern contraception techniques. He also served as the Medical Director for the Louisville Planned Parenthood health center, and on the Planned Parenthood of Kentucky Medical Advisory Committee.
For his excellence in service and commitment to assisting Planned Parenthood in achieving its mission, Dr. Levine will be honored with the Planned Parenthood of Kentucky (PPKY) Founder's Award during the annual Birds & Bees Bash, held this year on Friday, Aug. 17, at the Seelbach Hotel.
The Birds & Bees Bash will feature a cocktail hour, dinner, music, raffle and short program. All proceeds support education and outreach programs at PPKY. For tickets, call 502.584.2471 or e-mail firstname.lastname@example.com. For information on PPKY, visit www.plannedparenthood.org/kentucky.
How many years have you been involved with Planned Parenthood?
Almost 50 years.
When did you become involved?
I started when I was an OBGYN resident in 1964, I think it was.
What sparked your passion for advocating contraception and affordable reproductive health services for women?Â
One thing, of course, was women who we would see in the clinic who were pregnant for their fourth or fifth times and had no knowledge of contraception and no available contraception. … When you're talking about abortion, we used to see, at least once a week, women with septic shock, (where) some people get infected from back-alley abortions. Abortion was illegal (at the time). It was very common to see people with these severe life threatening infections. … My idea was to prevent unwanted pregnancy, because of problems with abortion, and just unwanted pregnancies of teenagers and people with multiple pregnancies.
Was your decision to back contraception controversial at the time?Â
Birth control pills weren't even available at the university, at what was then called Louisville General Hospital. Viola Keys, the executive director of Planned Parenthood, used to hand-carry birth control pills for us to use (because you couldn't get them). … I did spend some time years later sending a blue ribbon committee to Jefferson County for setting up sex education programs in the schools.
How much progress have you seen in PPKY over the years?
First of all, when I first started (with) Planned Parenthood it was this little storefront clinic. … As more and more contraceptive devices became available, that had an impact, and Planned Parenthood just grew and teaching sexual health care became more available to people, and people became aware and there were more groups supporting Planned Parenthood.
Why should people come out to the Birds and Bees Bash?
(Planned Parenthood needs) as much financial help as they can get. … We just always assume young people know what's going on with sexual health. They get a lot of misinformation and Planned Parenthood is an actual supply of needed information.
Planned Parenthood also kind of morphed along to do more of just healthcare for women: breast exams and pap smears, which helps prevent cancer. … There is no other group out there who does as much as Planned Parenthood for unwanted pregnancies and to prevent problems with venereal diseases. … It allows people who would not ordinarily go to a check up for a doctor … they come for contraception and end up getting good health care advice. And finances are extremely important for that.
What does receiving the Founder's Award mean to you?Â
I was flabbergasted, and it's certainly very humbling, and it's a great feeling. You, know I guess one enjoys being recognized, and I never thought of being recognized. I just did something I thought was necessary and couldn't help but be a part of it.


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Deftones has leaked -- however, at the request of a significant member of the fan community, Kingdom Leaks has decided not to aid in its spread until Thursday morning EDT. What you do with that is up to you, but please don't be asking us for links or publicly aid others in finding it on this website.
- Vinnie Paz - As Above so Below (2020)
Started by Summers ,
7 posts in this topic


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Since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's alleged attempted bombing of a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, full-body scanners have been introduced at many airports worldwide, but the increasingly paranoid world of terror prevention appears to be spreading its tentacles right into homes and workplaces, via the Internet.
Paul Chambers of Doncaster, England, now knows this all too well. He was arrested for making an off-color joke on the popular social networking website Twitter amid frustration with flight cancellations at his local airport caused by icy conditions.
Mr. Chambers says he posted the message, which reads in part: "Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to [fix the problem], otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky-high!!" He had planned to fly to Ireland to visit a friend.
Now, he's facing terrorism charges and the possible loss of his job. Chambers has also been banned for life from Robin Hood airport. A spokesperson said the airport supported the police's actions.
In this first instance of an arrest in Britain for making comments on Twitter, Chambers's remarks appear to have been brought to police attention by a third party: he was arrested on Jan. 13, a full seven days after posting the comment.
The arrest came as a shock to Chambers, who has since been suspended from his job as a finance supervisor.
"All together, five officers were there. One said [we're] arresting you under the Terrorism Act because of a tweet you sent, and he showed me a copy of my tweet. I didn't realize the gravity of the situation. I was stuck in a cell, processed, fingerprint[ed]," he said in an interview, after he was released on bail.
Chambers was arrested at his workplace and held in a police vehicle while officers searched his car for explosives. He was then taken to a police station in the town of Doncaster and questioned by detectives from the criminal investigation department. He was released on bail late on Jan. 13 pending further investigation.
The arrest was under aegis of the Terrorism Act (2006), Britain's controversial version of the Patriot Act. The Terrorism Act gives police sweeping powers of arrest and the right to detain suspects up to 28 days without charge. The Act politically damaged former British Prime Minister Tony Blair when members of his Labor Party rebelled against initial plans to allow authorities to hold suspects for up to 90 days.
Chambers, who has no legal counsel of his own, was provided with state legal aid by GV Hale and Company solicitors. Andy Blennerhassett, a solicitor at the firm, declined to comment "while the investigation is still going on."
Privacy advocates say the police action crossed a line. Though Chambers's remark was ill-advised, a simple investigation should have showed he was not a threat, they argue.
Tessa Mayes, author of "Restraint or Revelation: Free Speech and Privacy in a Confessional Age," says authorities do not appreciate jokes: "We live increasingly in a no-laughs-allowed age. In a democracy, our right to say what we please to each other should be non-negotiable – even on Twitter," she says.
Frank Furedi, a sociologist at the University of Kent, says the arrest wasn't surprising. "Arresting people in order to make a point is one of the features of contemporary 'impression policing,'" says the author of "Invitation to Terror: The Expanding Empire of the Unknown."
"It is arbitrary, petty, and intrusive and of course has absolutely nothing to do with curbing the behavior of those who represent a real threat to people's lives," says Furedi.
A good arrest?
Others say the arrest was appropriate. Counterterrorism expert Andy Oppenheimer argues the police had to take notice.
"Regardless of what you think of the law," Oppenheimer says, "if you say anything in the public domain you've only got yourself to blame. People are trying to address the terrorist threat, and people making jokes like this muddy the water."
But Chambers says the workplace arrest, which has him facing potential charges and also the sack, failed to take account of his personal background; the accounting student has no links to militant organizations.
"I'm the most mild-mannered guy you could imagine," says Chambers.
The Irish friend Chambers was hoping to visit, who asked that her name not be used, didn't initially believe he had been arrested.
"He phoned me and told me the story, I thought he was joking," she says. "I'm angry at how the whole thing has been dealt with by the police. If they had looked into it properly before they could have avoided all of this – and saved taxpayers' money."
Other European nations are also jittery over terrorism, but this does not appear to deter all Europeans from making off-color jokes at transportation hubs. A German man was temporarily detained at Stuttgart airport Tuesday after he jokingly told security personnel he had explosives in his underwear.