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Photo Credit: Photographic illustrations of Idina Menzel are copyright © by their respective holders. The images are published with permission or as allowed by the copyright law's fair use or quotation provisions. If any copyright holder objects to an image being included, please notify us and it will be removed immediately.
Disclaimer: This information about Idina Menzel is derived from astrological interpretation of Idina Menzel's date, time, and place of birth.


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You had to know after seeing his terrible dancing that David Hasselhoff wasn't going to win "Dancing With the Stars." But to be sent home on the first night? Surely not!
Yet, that was the result on Tuesday night. A shocking result that left the judges visibly stunned and host Tom Bergeron nearly at a loss for words.
"Of all the first people to leave in all the seasons, this was the biggest surprise to me," Bergeron said to Hasselhoff.
We didn't even get a chance to see one Hoff reference, like "It's a Dance-Hoff." The judges didn't even get a chance to make a joke about KITT or "Baywatch." All of this great material gone to waste.
How did it happen? Quite clearly Hasselhoff put himself in a hole with the lowest score of the night (part of a three-way tie) and his legion of fans failed to pull him out. Just watching the Hoff sing along to "Sex Bomb" as he stumbled through the routine was pure entertainment of the sort that is supposed to make the show great.
It's a blow to the show, which had more than a great name with the Hoff. It also had a great, unpredictable showman who was sure to keep people on their toes for at least a few more weeks.
Hilariously, the Hoff continued to say variations of a "it was a great run" after he got knocked out. But it really wasn't. It was one lousy week. Meanwhile Margaret Cho somehow scraped through after her embarrassing dance floor travesty and some kid you've never seen from a Disney show you've never heard of continues through week two.
The Hoff put on a brave face and sat down on the couch with Jimmy Kimmel (the fate of all dance rejects) and admitted the obvious: "I was't really big on technique."
He then tried to look for a bright side by asking his beautiful partner, Kym Johnson, out on a date. She accepted on national television.
The perpetually optimistic Hasselhoff laughed, "God has a plan."
Not for "Dancing with The Stars." Big loss.

subset: commoncrawl


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Save interesting products in this list and find them quickly at any time.
Simply click on the watch list symbol
The bathroom ceramics in the Architectura collection from Villeroy & Boch impress with timelessly beautiful, puristic design as well as high functionality.
A urinal can fit in almost any bathroom and is a useful complement to your toilet. The attractive designs of Villeroy & Boch's elegant urinals enrich your home while providing maximum functionality. They are also perfectly suitable for public areas.
CeramicPlus - the anti-dirt surface for sanitary ceramics - simplifies bathroom cleaning. This innovative process causes water to immediately form droplets on contact, which then merge into beads and simply drain away, carrying dirt and limescale particles with them.
AntiBac is an innovative hygiene solution for bathrooms, which considerably reduces the risk of transferring bacteria. The glaze from Villeroy & Boch contains silver ions and has been proven to reduce the growth of bacteria on ceramic surfaces and toilet seats by more than 99.9%. This saves you time, effort and money in bathroom cleaning and gives you hygienic cleanliness in an instant.
Thanks to the specially developed angle of the back wall, the Villeroy & Boch urinals direct urine splashes downwards into the bowl - for the greatest possible hygiene in public areas or private bathrooms. The spray-preventing urinal makes cleaning easier. The refined outlet breaks the flow of urine and guides it directly into the drain.
Sanitary ceramic is the perfect material for washbasins, toilets and bidets. Sanitary ceramics from Villeroy & Boch are fired at 1200 °C and meet the highest requirements for durability and hygiene. Additional glazes such as CeramicPlus and AntiBac simplify bathroom cleaning with antibacterial protection and dirt-repellent surfaces. Sanitary ceramic is resistant to knocks and impacts.
The ProDetect 2 automatic flush from Villeroy & Boch integrates into the sanitary ceramics unseen. Fitted with the latest sensor technology, the urinal flushes reliably after every use. The flush volume can be set from 0.8 - 4.0 l. Ideal for urinals with high user frequency such as in gastronomy.
|355 mm
|385 mm
|18,55 kg
|WELS Rating
|6 Star 1LT
|Product designation
|Siphonic urinal
previously Omnia Architectura. splash-reducing, with ceramic strainer. Sanitary ceramics. fastening set included. EN 13407
|Sanitary ceramics


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Serving the greater Downtown Albuquerque area, University Volkswagen Mazda carries the full line of Mazda and VW vehicles under one roof. Whether you are shopping for a new or pre-owned vehicle in the Uptown Albuquerque, our friendly and knowledgeable staff will help make your purchase a pleasant experience.
University Volkswagen Mazda of Bernalillo County is known for providing superior automotive customer service and features an extensive inventory of new and pre-owned vehicles.
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 505-761-1900 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, 4.9% interest and 20% downpayment.
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Open Today! Sales: 9am-7pm
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Let me say right up front that I love this job. I don't think there's any beat on the planet that even begins to rival the financial services industry for sheer entertainment. As the SEC's "request for information" comment period regarding the creation of a fiduciary standard for brokers drew to a close last week, a flood of comments were submitted. Many of them were noteworthy, and some not so much, which will provide fodder for many blogs to come. But I'd like to give a special shout out to my main men at the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) for their ongoing efforts to keep me from getting bored.
For the record, I applaud the many fine advisors covered in Jamie Green's July 5 AdvisorOne story, "SEC Gets an Earful From Advisors on Fiduciary Standard," who support a fiduciary standard for brokers that is "no less stringent" than the '40 Act for RIAs (as Dodd-Frank mandates), and decry the SEC's thinly veiled attempts to pave the way for a watered-down broker version. Their comment letters and supporting information provides a unified cry for investor protection that, hopefully, the Commission won't be able to ignore.
But yesterday my attention was stolen by a lesser-covered comment letter. To bolster its comments against a fiduciary standard for brokers, my good friends at NAIFA conducted a survey of 2,400 or so of its members and other "financial professionals" that found — wait for it — that 84% said that their "costs of doing business would increase" if the SEC imposed a "uniform fiduciary standard on broker-dealers and investment advisers."
In case you missed it, the standard in question would require NAIFA "advisors" to put the interests of their clients first. Why that would cost more wasn't addressed, except vaguely as "compliance costs." (How anything could cost more than FINRA is a mystery to me.) In the release accompanying the survey results, NAIFA CEO Dr. Susan Waters said "NAIFA members protect the financial interests of American families throughout the country," apparently she should have added: "unless it costs more."
In response to these curiously escalating costs, only 39% of NAIFA advisors said they would increase prices to clients, while 35% said they would "offer a more limited range of products." Perhaps I'm missing something there, but that means 61% (or nearly 2 out of three) respondents wouldn't raise client fees: doesn't this undermine the whole "increased client costs" argument? And where's the threat in insurance agents going back to focusing on insurance products?
According to NAIFA, the biggest threat posed by having to put clients' interests first is that 46% of their "advisors" "would most likely shift their customer mix to higher-income clients." As if. Now don't get me wrong: I know that there are many dedicated advisors around the country who focus on serving the "middle market," including the members of Garrett Planning Network. With that said, it's been my observation of the advisory world that there's a lot more to attracting "higher-income clients" than simply "shifting" one's "customer mix."
Yet despite these highlights, the most amusing part of the NAIFA survey is the whole idea of it. Suppose someone introduced legislation that would stop gas stations from watering down their gas (I suspect this is already illegal, but work with me here). So the National Association of Watered Down Gas Stations — NAWDOGS — conducts a survey of the owners of gas stations that water down their gas, and guess what? A majority of them say that being forced to stop watering down their gas would raise gas prices. Would anybody be shocked? Would anyone believe them? Would it affect the legislation?
Point is, a standard that requires retail advisors to put their clients' interests first is not about costs: It's about protecting investors. Last time I looked, that is the SEC's #1 job. Much as I appreciate NAIFA's contributions to levity, perhaps Dr. Waters should listen to her own words, and join the legion of professional advisors who know that not only is putting clients first less costly, it's also the right thing to do.
See also:
New bill would shift DOL fiduciary oversight
Don't extend RIA fiduciary standard to broker-dealers


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Grifter said:PJ - You can put it into perspective this way too. Between us, Midnite and I probably play about 500 hours a year........That's about 50,000 hands of blackjack.
Does one hand really make any difference?....No!.....And would we "sneak" to get one extra win?......No way!
tuffy88 said:I tell the dealer when he overpaysme or pays by mistake. However any money I find on the floor I keep. It is lost property and becomes the property of whoever finds it providing that I do not know who it belongs to. It is not the casino's money.
Both are rare events. Don't happen often.
I've gotten complimentary drink coupons for the entire table a couple of times because of this.
midnite said:Bug, once again ALL casino's are not the same. Here, one doesn't serve booze and at the ones that do, you have to Buy it.... All the soft drinks are free, but not the beer or mixed drinks.
Mr. Ed said:Correcting a dealer's mistake, whether in your favor or not, will harm the dealer's confidence, get him more nervous, get the other players to question more hands and raise the attention of the pit boss.
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There is a circuit court in each city and county in Virginia. The circuit court is the trial court with the broadest powers in Virginia. The circuit court handles all civil cases with claims of more than $25,000. It shares authority with the general district court to hear matters involving claims between $4,500 and $25,000. The circuit court has the authority to hear serious criminal cases called felonies.
The circuit court also handles family matters, including divorce. In addition, the circuit court hears cases appealed from the general district court and from the juvenile and domestic relations district court.
Contact Information
- All Circuit Courts
- Individual Circuit Court Homepages
- Map of Virginia's Judicial Circuits and Districts
Case Status and Information
- Circuit Court Case Information
Online access to the case management system for selected Circuit Courts. Cases may be searched using name, case number, or hearing date.
- Fees
- Circuit Court Records Information
Online access to court records such as deeds, marriage licenses, judgments, and wills for selected courts.
- Court-Appointed Counsel Procedures & Guidelines Manual
- Court-Appointed Counsel Eligibility
- Circuit Court Clerks' Duties List
- Circuit Court Clerk's Manual - Civil
- Circuit Court Clerk's Manual - Criminal
Note: To assist those using "non-Adobe friendly" Web browsers, links have been added to each chapter title in order to navigate within this manual.
- Drug Treatment Courts
- Foreign Language Services
- Guardians Ad Litem
- Judicial Settlement Conference
- Mediation
- Parent Education
Resources and Reference Materials
- Circuit Courts Informational Pamphlet
- Commissioners of Accounts
- Guardians and Conservators of Incapacitated Adults
- Jury Service
- Probate and Estate Administration
- Records Management and Retention, Library of Virginia
- Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia
- Unclaimed Property Division, Virginia Department of the Treasury
- Virginia Courthouse Facility Guidelines


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The wind farm is among the first in the world to use a conical joint at the top of its monopiles to prevent transition pieces from slipping.
The design was taken forward by the London Array in parallel with a separate industry research project established to overcome problems that have been reported on some monopile foundations.
"The construction and design of what will be the world's largest wind farm is a major technical and engineering challenge, and we have paid close attention ...
to ensure that we got the design absolutely right," said London Array project manager Soren Thorbjorn Larsen. In addition to slippage, water depths and the mobility of the seabed across the site were also important.
Novel features
The new foundation features a gently sloping cone at the top of the monopile that sits inside an inverted cone at the bottom of the transition piece. A layer of grout lies between the two surfaces.
Phase one of London Array is due for completion by the end of this year. The DNV certification covers the wind farm's 175 turbines, with a combined capacity of 630MW, and two offshore substations.
London Array is being developed by a consortium comprising Dong Energy (50%), E.on (30%) and Masdar (20%).


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Computer Engineering
Innovation is key in the steadily growing computer engineering field. Our graduates are prepared for R&D, and fields, ranging from movie special effects to nanotechnology.
Electrical Engineering
Contribute to the 21st century in technological areas that you can only begin to imagine. From communications to signal processing, the department can prepare you to transform society.


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COLUMBUS -- The Crew Juniors U-16 Gold squad broke new ground in the 2013 James A. Martella Girls' State Cup over the weekend. Coached by Glen Tourville, the side beat Fairfield Optimist Soccer Club 3-2 in the semi-final to advance to its first-ever final. The Gold U-16s fell 4-1 in the final to Hammer FC.
Crew Youth is also preparing to launch tryouts for the 2013-14 season. Tryouts for Crew Juniors start May 28, while tryouts for the Crew Soccer Academy and Crew Juniors U13-U18 squads begin June 3 as the Academy searches for its next crop of talent.
"Tryouts are always one of the most exciting times of the year for us," said Crew Juniors Executive Director Andrew Arthurs. "During each year, we spend considerable time examining how to continue to provide more enjoyable and better programming for our youth players. We feel very positive about our 2013-14 system and plan and look forward to welcoming nearly 2,000 players to tryouts in the coming weeks."
A recap of the action from the Crew Soccer Academy U-16s and U-18s is below in the roundup section.
Silankonet Bayo tallied to bring the CSA U-16s level in the 63rd minute of Saturday's match against Vardar SC Freiburg. Unfortunately for the Black & Gold, the home side netted the winner three minutes later. The CSA U-16 squad is currently in seventh-place in the Central Conference on 29 points after 23 matches. The U-16s return home to face FC Milwaukee (Saturday, 3:30 P.M. ET) and Sockers FC (Sunday, 12:30 P.M. ET) this weekend at the Crew's training ground in Obetz.
After a week off, the CSA Wolves U-16's return to action on May 18 against the Indiana Fire at 4:30 p.m. at the IUPUI turf field in Indianapolis.
The CSA U-18s remain in fourth-place of the Central Conference 41 points after a 4-0 win over Vardar SC Freiburg in Pontiac, Mich. on Saturday. Aiden Bean, Noah Hutchins, William Bayemi and Quinn Miller all scored in the match, while Nicholas Ciraldo kept the clean sheet in goal. The U-18s face FC Milwaukee on Saturday at 1:00 P.M. and Sockers FC on Sunday at 10:00 A.M. Both matches will be at the Crew's training facility in Obetz.
The CSA Wolves U-18s return to play on May 18 against the Indiana Fire at 2:00 p.m. at the IUPUI turf field in Indianapolis following a break in action over the weekend.


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Outdoor warning sirens are only designed to be heard outside - they are not intended to penetrate inside residential and commercial structures. Warning sirens only have an audible footprint of one to two miles, meaning that you have to be within that distance (in any direction) of the siren in order to be able to hear it. Keeping that in mind, during the rain and hail that oftentimes accompanies many severe storms, it becomes even harder to hear a siren at a distance. Wind speed and direction also will affect that sound range. Outdoor warning sirens exist for one purpose only – to alert people who are outdoors that something dangerous is happening, and that they should go inside. Once inside, people should use a radio or the television to get current and updated information. Ultimately, while outdoor warning sirens can be instrumental in warning citizens who are outdoors about impending danger, residents who are already inside need to depend on other options to stay updated on impending danger.
If you are indoors, use a radio, television or a special National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather radio to get specifics on potentially dangerous weather events. Like a smoke detector, a weather radio waits in standby mode until a warning is issued. When the National Weather Service issues a warning, weather radios in businesses and households throughout the threat area automatically alarm and broadcast the warning, allowing people to take the appropriate actions. Portable models also are available for use outdoors or when traveling.
If the sirens are sounded:
1. Be alert. A tornado warning siren will consist of a 3- to 5-minute steady siren blast.
2. Seek shelter immediately.
3. Turn on your radio for further information.
Note: Residents should not call 9-1-1 to find out why sirens are sounding. Only dial 9-1-1 if you need to report an emergency.
The following definitions are used by the National Weather Service to help community service units warn their residents of impending severe weather conditions:
Severe Thunderstorm Watch - The threat of severe thunderstorms and damaging winds exist in a defined area.
Severe Thunderstorm Warning - A severe thunderstorm has been observed by the public, or detected by radar, and persons in the warning area should take precautions.
Tornado Watch - Climatic conditions exist which could result in tornado activity within a defined area. Tornado watch bulletins will also state that severe thunderstorm activity is expected.
Tornado Warning - A tornado has been sighted in the defined area or has been detected by radar. Persons in or near the area should take immediate cover or steps to insure safety.
Severe Weather Statement - Issued by the National Weather Service during weather watches. Advises the status of weather in the WATCH area.
Attack Warning Signal - An attack warning is a 3 to 5 minute wavering tone or siren or a series of short blasts. The attack warning signal means that an actual attack or detected missile launched against the United States has been detected and that protective action should be taken immediately. The attack warning shall be repeated as often as deemed necessary to obtain the required response by the population, including taking protective action related to the arrival of fallout. Per federal guidance, "this signal will be used for no other purpose and will have no other meaning."
Attention or Alert Signal - An attention or alert signal is a 3 to 5 minute steady signal from a siren. This signal will be used to alert the public of peacetime emergencies. The attention or alert signal shall indicate to all persons '" turn on your radio or television, listen for essential emergency information and take immediate cover. This signal will be used for weather emergency.
It is essential that the warning system be tested on a periodic basis to be certain that the system is operating properly and to help the public learn to recognize the warning signals.
The Illinois Emergency Services and Disaster Act of 1988 specifically indicates "the testing of disaster warning devices, including outdoor warning sirens, shall be held only on the first Tuesday of each month at 10:00 o'clock in the morning and during disaster training exercises that are specifically and expressly approved in advance by the Illinois Emergency Management Agency." Federal guidance indicates that monthly warning system tests should occur in the following manner:
"The ATTENTION/ALERT signal should be sounded for 1 minute." This testing procedure will establish a test exercise pattern different from that used in an actual emergency when the ATTENTION/ALERT or the ATTACK/WARNING signal will be sounded for 3 to 5 minutes.
The Outdoor Warning Sirens are positioned at the following locations:
Village Hall (Village of New Lenox)
Water Tower @ Nelson & Meadow Ridge (Village of New Lenox)
S. Roberts Road @ RR Tracks (Village of New Lenox)
Clinton Road, 1/2 mile north of Francis Road (Village of New Lenox)
Cherry Hill School (Village of New Lenox)
Waste Water Treatment @ 2210 Sanford Ave. (Village of New Lenox)
Bluestone Bay Well House #2 (Village of New Lenox)
Airway Court (Laraway Road & Schoolhouse Road (New Lenox Township)
Lincoln Way Central High School (New Lenox Township)
Francis Field 4H Center, S. Side of Francis Road (New Lenox Township)
Marley @ 187th & Haas Road (New Lenox Township)
During a severe weather incident, local warning systems should be activated if:
A tornado or funnel cloud aloft is reported within 10 miles of alert area. This 10 mile perimeter, at minimum, should be extended geographically around the perimeter of the farthest edges of the area being alerted.
A trained municipal employee, trained Skywarn Weather Spotter or Police or Fire personnel report a confirmed sighting of a tornado, or funnel cloud aloft.
If New Lenox Township is in the path of a tornado which has touched down and is moving towards New Lenox Township.
If Police, ESDA, or Fire personnel request the activation of the system due to severity of storm which could indicate the possibility of a tornado.
When reported that a tornado has touched down in New Lenox Township.
Any time the National Weather Service advises, " take cover" which addresses New Lenox Township.
To alert the public if it is necessary to evacuate an area. (Hazmat, Flooding, Public Safety, etc.)
An unconfirmed sighting is a report that is received from one or more members of the general public and no severe weather is obvious and the National Weather Service has issued no weather watch or warning. A radio-dispatched vehicle should be dispatched to investigate the unconfirmed report and determine the validity of the report.
Following the occurrence of a weather event meeting the criteria the Lincoln Way Public Safety Communications Center will activate the outdoor warning system. Once activated, the warning system should not be re-sounded for the same storm or sighting.
The warning system should be re-sounded for any new confirmed sighting that meets the activation criteria described above.
Whenever the siren is activated for a weather event, the on-duty dispatcher shall notify the local radio station as soon as possible so the information can be broadcast to local residents.
In keeping with the policy of the National Weather Service, the issuance of an "all clear" statement will not be issued by the local government.
Severe weather watches, whether severe thunderstorm or tornado, are traditionally issued for a period of 6 hours. The Weather Service may terminate a "watch" early if weather conditions change and the threat of severe weather conditions no longer exists.
Severe weather warnings, whether severe thunderstorms or tornado, are traditionally issued for a period of 1 hour. Warnings are usually allowed to expire on their own, without early termination by the Weather Service.
Residents requesting "all clear" information should be advised to monitor commercial radio and television for further weather information, but local government will not issue an "all clear" statement.
No activation of outdoor warning signals should be used to signify the "watch" termination or any kind of "all clear" advisory.


text: The head of Pakistan's army Friday gave the go-ahead for his soldiers to return fire on US troops, if attacked. The change in rules-of-engagement comes after Saturday's NATO airstrike that killed 24 uniformed Pakistani soldiers. The attack sparked fury in Pakistan and led the country's leaders to close a critical US supply route to land-locked Afghanistan. Before 9/11 and the US invasion of Afghanistan, cargo transport across the Pakistan-Afghanistan border was minimal. But now, with over 130,000 NATO troops to sustain in land-locked Afghanistan, supplies had to come from somewhere, and the cheapest and fastest route is through Pakistan. "The industry has grown from zero to a phenomenal size," said Mohammed Rajpar, managing director of a major shipping agency based in Karachi. "The way the western countries sustain their troops is even the water they shower in is imported, forget the water they drink," Rajpar said. "And all their food, drink, transport, surveillance, weapons. It spawned an entire industry." At its peak, some 500 trucks carried fuel and goods each day from the port at Karachi to Afghanistan. Today, that number is down to between 200 and 300, as NATO shifted some supply to what is known as the "northern route," going through the Central Asian republics. Even now though, almost half of NATO's supply travels through Pakistan. But after last Saturday's attacks on a Pakistani border post, the Pakistani government closed off its border crossings with Afghanistan. Private transporter unions issued statements of support for the government reaction. Nawab Sher Afridi, secretary general of the Oil Transporters Association, said six of his trucks are involved in the transporting fuel to Afghanistan, but that he has always been against NATO's actions there — a contradiction he readily admitted. "We are against NATO, I'm telling you plainly," Afridi said. "Our original home is in Afghanistan. We are ruining it ourselves. What kind of interview do you want from someone who is ruining his own home. But when our livelihood is at stake then the name of necessity is "thank you". There is no limit. You have to accept the law that they have imposed, and that is the dollar. And in front of the dollar, my faith is nothing." But now, the truckers said they're glad the government is taking a stand against NATO, and, for now at least, they said they're willing to bear the financial loss. Babu Jan Shinwari, a driver and owner of a goods supply truck, said the personal gains they have made over the past 10 years have come at a cost for society. "Its true, we are making more money than we did before," he said. "But if you look at it another way, we have also suffered a great deal. We have lost human lives, homes have been destroyed, there have been drone attacks and terrorist bomb blasts. It' a huge loss." In fact, in 2005, Babu Jan's cousin was killed in a bomb attack near the Kandahar Air Base, in Afghanistan, while he was sleeping in the cabin of his oil tanker. While the truckers claim to be in favor of Pakistan's action, the closing of the supply lines is having an impact. Many of the trucks that would normally be on the roads to Afghanistan are sitting idle in Karachi. And shippers have had to rent extra space at the port to store cargo that has nowhere to go for the meanwhile. This isn't the first time that the supply lines have been suspended. And most observers find it hard to believe that Pakistan will keep the supply lines shut permanently this time, because of both strategic and economic interests. But shipping company director Mohammed Rajpar said the industry is already starting to think of what comes next, since NATO has already announced plans to leave Afghanistan by 2014. "These truck drivers and truck owners are probably among the most clever commercial, versatile businessmen on the planet. They have operated in the roughest of environments and the most difficult of circumstances at great personal risk to their life and property," he said. "They'll find other avenues of business. And second they will transfer some of this knowledge to elsewhere in the business. How to secure cargo, meeting deadlines. Hopefully they'll transfer this to the commercial side."


text:
Fire Situation Report – January 13, 2012
Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
Forestry Services
PROTECTION AREA STATISTICS* for Time Period 0800 thru 0800, 01/12/12 thru 01/13/12
NE Area – 0 fires
EC Area – 0 fires
SE Area – 0 fires
* - Protection Area Statistics do not reflect local fire department's fire run information. Statistics are for the ODAFF-Forestry Services' eighteen county Fire Protection Area in
eastern Oklahoma unless otherwise noted in the Discussion section of this report. Large fires are defined as having burned over 100 acres in timbered areas or 300 acres in
grass fuels.
FIRE DEPARTMENT STATISTICS** FROM www.firereporting.ok.gov for Time Period 01/12/12 thru 01/13/12
No wildfires reported
** - These statistics are from Fire Departments that have reported their information on the Oklahoma Forestry Services web-based Fire Reporting System. Totals do not
reflect the total acres burned or total number of fires that have occurred in Oklahoma.
Statewide Discussion: No reports of unusual fire activity or requests for State assistance were received during the
reporting period.
No fire control problems are anticipated anywhere in Oklahoma today.
No County Commissioner Burn Bans are in effect. Click on the link listed below for the latest and most current
Burn Ban information:
Report any suspicious wildland fire activity on the Arson Tip Line: 1-866-662-7766 (1-866-NO ARSON).
Prepared by: Mark Goeller, Ass't Director, Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry - Forestry Services


text:
Moderator: GnATTERbox Moderators
Gavin Sowry wrote:Roof ribbed. Painting tomorrow night.
Gavin Sowry wrote:
Paint still wet, and a few blemishes, but, she'll be right on the night.
chris stockdale wrote:Looking very smart.
A nice light, bright venue too. All too often it's somewhere with just electric light, perhaps a litte gloomy, and thus not great for photography here in the UK.
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For the first time in a long time, all five productions at the Santa Fe Opera this summer will be new as in design, concept and casting. The operas certainly have been around, some for as long as 200 years, but Puccinis Tosca, Bizets The Pearl Fishers, Strausss Arabella, Rossinis Maometto II and Symanowskis King Roger will each get a dust-up beginning June 29.
Tosca, one of the most famous works from the 19th century, will open the 2012 schedule and play a dozen times. Bizets pre-Carmen triumph will run for eight performances. Rossinis original version of a love affair wrapped in a Turkish turban will see six performances. And Strauss romantic comedy and a 20th-century take on the old argument between the sacred and secular will each have five.
Tosca, the popular opera of love, sacrifice and political intrigue is undergoing a makeover, Santa Fe-style. Last performed here in 1994, this seasons Tosca has imported a raft of new talent making a SFO debut. The list includes director Stephen Barlow, designer Yannis Thavoris, soprano Amanda Echalaz and tenor Andrew Richards singing the doomed lover Cavaradossi. Echalaz is making her American debut in Santa Fe.
The spellbinding baritone Thomas Hampson sang Baron Scarpia here in 1994. Because of previous commitments, Hampson will share the role with Raymond Aceto. Scarpia is one of operas most memorable scoundrels, chief of the secret police in Rome. He lusts after Tosca promises, lies, presses and threatens, which brings up the troubling question of baritones.
As a group, baritones tend toward the darkest of male intentions, at least in opera. Revenge, greed, jealousy, lust the deadliest of sins are theirs. Scarpia is a cunning predator; his name pops up in office pools for the nickname of a malevolent boss. And hes the linchpin in the Tosca love triangle.
Leila, an old love, sparks the love triangle in Bizets The Pearl Fishers. She complicates the friendship between two old friends, Zurga and Nadir. When Leila appears in disguise, friends become enemies. Baritone Christopher Magiera sings Zurga and tenor Eric Cutler is Nadir. Their bond will be sorely tested by soprano Nicole Cabell. Watch for Au Fond du Temple saint, a stunning male duet and the most familiar music in the opera.
In 1820, Gioachino Rossini wrote Maometto II for a baritone lead. Based on a historic 15th-century figure, Sultan Mehmed II, the title role is a Muslim ruler determined to squash the Venetian colony of Negroponte. When the opera starts, Maometto II already has conquered Byzantium, and hes laying siege to the Venetian city.
Unbeknownst to everyone, theres a complication inside the palace. Anna, the governors daughter, already knows Maometto. That means trouble in the form of, you guessed it, a love triangle. So its only partially based on history.
Rossini composed several versions with different endings. The one youll see in Santa Fe holds true to the original. A leading Rossini scholar, Philip Gossett, has brought Rossinis manuscript to light and shared it with SFO to reimagine this summers production new operatic history in the making.
And the baritone quotient? Luca Pisaroni, the rising Italian baritone who was last seen in Santa Fe as Figaro in 2008, will sing the title role. Hes also a regular in the MET: Live in HD productions.
The baritone that drives Strausss comedy is a mysterious foreign stranger, Mandryka (sung by American Mark Delevan). He has two rivals tenors. Will Mandryka win Arabella (sung by soprano Erin Hall), the lovely daughter of Count and Countess Waldner? The parents are looking for an advantageous match in a glittering Vienna of 1860. In this last of the Strauss-Hofmannsthal operatic partnerships, soprano roles seem to hold court, but the mysterious baritone, no doubt, holds the key.
The baritone role in King Roger may reap all the headlines. Mariusz Kwiecien, 39, returns to Santa Fe this summer. The Polish-born singer has commandeered Don Giovanni for the 21st century and gave a powerful performance here in 2004. He was Count Almaviva in 2008, another treacherous baritone role.
This summer, Kwiecien will sing King Roger, a cunning leader and like Maometto, based on an historical figure. In the 12th century, Roger was a Norman nobleman who oddly became King of Sicily. He created political stability and inspired a cultural Renaissance in a deeply troubled century.
Kwiecien has championed Syzmanowskis opera for some time and has performed the lead in Europe and America. Its a stunning tale of awakening by a political ruler caught between two worlds. Sung in Polish, the performance will have the excellent supertitles available in English at each Santa Fe seat. King Roger has been much anticipated at Santa Fe and will be performed without intermission.
This baritone role may just have a twist that will surprise you.
Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic. Reach her at email@example.com.


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Like many in the Java community, I had been following the Ruby on Rails (RoR) phenomenon. For me, Stripes was the closest of the Java MVC frameworks to the RoR philosophy: simple, elegant, and requiring minimal configuration. In addition to its simplicity, Stripes looked familiar to a Struts veteran like me. The application flow and many of the naming conventions were similar. Stripes' ActionBeans were like Strut's Actions, and ForwardResolutions looked a lot like ActionForwards. With this framework, I would not have to throw away all of my hard-earned Struts knowledge.Another deciding factor was that Smith estimated that he could reduce the total lines of code in the action, configuration and validation areas of his application by half. According to Smith, the migration from Struts to Stripes was generally painless, due to several factors. Stripes, for instance, has a similar tag library to Struts. Also, Smith was able to replace all of his Struts message tags with JSTL format tags using universal replace. And he could get rid of his extensive Struts Action Forms for Stripes form handling, which allows using the domain object as a form. Where validation is concerned, with no user configuration, Stripes returns HTML forms to the user when they enter the wrong value type - and beyond that, Smith describes, "automatically with a user-friendly message and the offending field highlighted."
Converting the control flow of my Struts application was probably the one place that required a break from the Struts way of thinking. In Struts, control flow—the binding of URL requests, actions, and the resulting view—is rendered in XML markup and centralized in the struts-config.xml file. This rendering outside the action layer makes Struts bindings flexible. They are not hard-coded inside the action layer and a single action can easily be coupled with different input URLs and forwards. The downside of this approach is that Struts configurations can quickly grow large and cumbersome. The separation of control flow from the action layer can also make debugging all the way through the request cycle difficult. Stripes offers three different ways to map requests to the action layer: 1. Explicitly bind an ActionBean to a URL using annotations 2. Allow Stripes during startup to guess the binding of its ActionBeans based on the similarity between the ActionBean class path and the application URLs 3. Bind a JSP to any ActionBean, or call any method of a Java class in the application class path, using the Stripes useBean tag While the first two approaches seem somewhat hard-coded compared with Struts configuration, the useBean tag provides a lot of flexibility. With it, JSPs can access multiple ActionBeans or classes to get just what they need.When considering porting to a new framework, ease of migration, Smith admits, should not be a deciding factor. But in the case of Struts to Stripes, Smith says it was nice that he could maintain some of his investment after a fairly simple porting process. What are your experiences with porting? What framework is most beneficial to you - and what qualities would make a new framework worth a migration?


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A few times per week, I'll make something for dinner that we've never had before, but when I want to go back to the basics and taste something comfortable and familiar, it doesn't get much better than spaghetti and meatballs.
As it turns out, until last week I hadn't actually made spaghetti and meatballs in YEARS, because my previous attempts were a flop.
I know, how can you mess up meatballs? Well, if your head was in the clouds and you didn't add an egg or two to the mixture, the chances are high that you won't succeed. That, combined with rolling them around in a pan on the stovetop is just asking for trouble. (That is, until I actually learn how to do meatballs on a stovetop pan without undercooking them.)
But, it seems I've finally learned the error of my ways. These meatballs turned out A-MAZING. The Mediterranean flavor comes from the lemon zest and parsley, and though it's a unique addition, it only enhances the familiar flavor of this classic Italian dish.
This is one scrumptious meat-a-ball!
Mediterranean Spaghetti and Meatballs
For the sauce:
- 2 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 large yellow onion chopped
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 28 oz. can tomato puree
- 1 28 oz. can tomato sauce
- 2 tsp. dried parsley
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 2 tsp. salt
- 2 tbsp. sugar
- 1/2 cup of water or more
For the meatballs:
- 1 pound ground beef
- ½ cup bread crumbs
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese
- ¼ cup minced onion
- 1 tbsp. minced garlic
- 1 tbsp. lemon zest
- ¼ cup parsley
- Salt and pepper
For serving:
- Spaghetti cooked according to package
- Shredded Parmesan cheese
- Fresh basil chopped
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- To make the sauce, heat olive oil in a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion to the pot and saute until tender, 5-8 minutes. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant, stirring, about 1 minute. Add the tomato puree, tomato sauce, parsley, basil, oregano, salt and sugar. Add water to thin the sauce out to your desired consistency. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat to a simmer. Let simmer for at least 2 hours.
- To make the meatballs, in a medium mixing bowl combine all ingredients and mix thoroughly with your hands. Form the mixture into equal-sized meatballs and place onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
- Transfer spaghetti to serving dishes. Top each serving with sauce and meatballs. Garnish with shredded Parmesan and fresh basil, if desired.
- Enjoy!


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Blog Archives
Eliminate toxins from your body using Chinese mantras – Tao of Breathing
Posted by NaranTeam
Do we have toxins in our body, accumulated, stored and not eliminated from our body?
What happens if toxins are not removed?
You can be prone to infections because the immunity level (Chi level – prana) is low.
Get afflicted by diarrhea or by other diseases. Of course, without fail you will feel tired and stressed out.
How toxins are created?
– You inhale them from the atmosphere, in the form of polluted air
– The food you intake – stuff they mix in the food for taste, fertilizers, chemicals in the food product
– Heat generated by the body organs and due to their normal functioning of wear and tear.
– In addition, as our own emotions and thoughts cloud the organs.
Steps to remove toxins
We need to focus on five organs – lungs, heart, spleen, liver and kidneys. You can sit, stand or walk, while doing these steps. Do it anytime, though not immediately after eating. Of course, you can do WU…..EXHALATION after eating.
- Lungs: keep your hands on the middle of the color bone, on exhale put your tongue under upper teeth and say "ISSSSSSSSSS", 5-15 times. If you do while walking, it is very effective (do a short inhalation with a short "ISSS")
- Kidneys: draw a line mentally from your belly button on both sides; keep your hands exactly opposite, behind your back, hands touching each other, on exhale chant, "CHU…… WAY", while pushing your lower belly inwards.
- Liver: keep your hands right side of your stomach and below the ribs; on exhale, bend your neck towards the left side of the shoulder, while looking in the front and chant "SHHHHHH" (as in wish), 5-15 times.
- Heart: hands on the heart area, touching each other; on exhale, bend your neck towards the right side of the shoulder, while looking in the front and chant "HAAAAAAAAAA", 5-15 times.
- Spleen: keep your hands left to your belly button and below the ribs, on exhale chant "WUUUUU", 5-15 times.
During exhalations, raise your head as high as possible.
– A good anti-aging technique, if one does it daily.
– You will recover faster after a bout of illness or infection. Do them during the period of illness.
– Will come out of your tiredness. Very effective for all software people, who are subject to radiations from computer and who always work out of air-conditioned offices, where oxygen level is at the lowest.
– Will improve your stamina, so you will be able to do lot of work. You will always be enthusiastic and motivated.
– Less likely to be infected in the future, even in the midst of epidemic.
– Children around 10 or 11 can be taught this, so that they are free from recurring infections. They are exposed to all junk foods, mobile phones etc. They will enjoy doing this.
Posted in Mantra
Tags: accumulated, Acu-Reiki, Advantages, afflicted, air-conditioned offices, Animal Spirit Guides, anti-aging technique, around 10 or 11, "CHU", "HAAAAAAAAAA", "ISSSSSSSSSS", "SHHHHHH", "WUUUUU", Bach Flower Remedy, belly button, Body, body organs, chant, chemicals, Chennai, Chi level, Children, Chinese Mantras, cloud, Color Therapy, Colour Therapy, Connection, created, Crystal, daily, diarrhea, diseases, Do it anytime, do lot of work, effective, EFT, Eliminate Toxins, eliminated, emotions, enjoy doing this, enthusiastic, epidemic, EXHALATION, exposed to, fail, feel tired, fertilizers, five organs, food, for taste, free from recurring, from atmosphere, from computer, Gem Remedy, head, Healing CD, heart, heart area, Heat generated, Homeopathy, IEIT, illness, immunity level, improve, in future, India, infection, infections, inhalation, inhale them, intake, Intelligence, junk foods, Karuna Reiki, kidneys, Less likely to be infected, liver, Living with Awareness, Low, lowest, lungs, Mantra, Master, Meditation, Meditation CD, middle of color bone, Mind, mobile phones, motivated, Mudra, Naran, neck, NLP, normal functioning, not after eating, oxygen level, polluted air, possible, prana, product, prone to, R Mohan, recover faster, Reiki, Remedies, removed, ribs, S Balakumar, shoulder, sit, software people, spleen, stand, Steps, stomach, stored, stressed out, stuff mix, subject to radiations, Switch Word, Tamil Nadu, Tao of Breathing, Tapping, taught, Therapist, thoughts, tiredness, tongue, toxins, under upper teeth, walk, walking, way, wear and tear, work out of, WU, Yoga, Your Body, your stamina


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Ellen DeGeneres is calling Becky with the good hair.
Not actually, but the talk show host hilariously spoofed her version of Beyonce's "Lemonade" on Friday's episode.
When asking her show DJ, tWitch, if he had seen Beyonce's recent visual album on HBO, DeGeneres said, "You know HBO took it off the air because you could only really see it once or twice. And Beyonce was very upset...Did you see me in it?" What followed is the hilarious clip in which the comedienne placed herself in the now famous scene for the ultimate revenge song, "Hold Up."
U.S. & World
News from around the country and around the globe
The video began with DeGeneres sitting in one of the cars watching Queen Bey in her car-smashing glory. Unsure of what Beyonce was about to do with the bat, DeGeneres called up her friend and exclaimed, "You will not believe this but Queen Bey has gone cray-cray!" She added, "I think she hates cars!" and "Well, somebody doesn't care about the drought," as the singer struck everything in her path, including a fire hydrant.
As Beyonce made her way down the block, DeGeneres watched in bemusement at the singer's baseball bat swinging rage. When Beyonce approached, DeGeneres hysterically told her friend on the phone, "Oh, no! Here she comes...Becky, I have to go. I'm gonna call you back. But I do love what you're doing with your hair. It looks good."
In case you somehow forgot, the release of "Lemonade" created a whirlwind of rumors about Beyonce and Jay Z's relationship, including a scandalous lyric in the track "Sorry" in which Beyonce sings, "He only want me when I'm not there / He better call Becky with the good hair."
Ellen didn't just stop there. As the singer began to destroy the car that DeGeneres was watching from, the talk show host yelled, "What is wrong with you? Look! Look! That's Becky with the good hair."
Cue comedian Wanda Sykes, looking unrecognizable in a long wig. "What? Girl, I'm Wanda with the good weave!" she responds.


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Cardiovascular Centre of the Augusta Hospital in the Düsseldorf Catholic Hospital Group (VKKD)
Specialist disease: Cardiovascular disease
Prof. Dr. med. Ralf Kolvenbach
Rochusstraße 2
40479 Düsseldorf
Prof. Dr. med. Ralf Kolvenbach
Tel. +49 (0)211 9043-301
Fax +49 (0)211 9043-309
Professor Ralf Kolvenbach
Senior Consultant at the Cardiovascular Centre of the Augusta Hospital in the Düsseldorf Catholic Hospital Group (VKKD)
Cardiovascular procedures can save lives in a gentle way and are also becoming increasingly important in aesthetic correction. Professor Kolvenbach is Senior Consultant at the Cardiovascular Centre of the Augusta Hospital in the Düsseldorf Catholic Hospital Group (VKKD). Professor Kolvenbach and his team offer the full spectrum of modern cardiovascular surgery, from routine procedures to the replacement of entire major arteries, and all incorporating the latest advancements in modern medicine.
Small incisions that save lives – precision vascular surgery using high-tech methods
"A person is as old as their veins," goes an old saying. Particularly when we get older, problems with veins and arteries can often have life-threatening consequences. In the Cardiovascular Centre at Düsseldorf's Augusta Hospital, specialists treat arterial and venous diseases using the latest nonaggressive techniques.
All specialist clinics required for the comprehensive treatment of cardiovascular diseases are united under one roof here. In addition to cardiovascular surgery, this includes interventional radiology (imaging with minimally invasive procedures), and endovascular surgery (procedures inside the blood vessels).
Because it is possible to treat patients with catheters and stents, the need for more serious operations can often be averted. The Düsseldorf Catholic Hospital Group is the city's largest provider of hospital services, which is why many patients are referred from other VKKD departments. Increasingly, patients are also coming from other regions of Germany or from abroad because of the exceptional reputation of the Cardiovascular Centre. The VKKD is also able to offer patients a suitable post-treatment recovery programme in a dedicated rehabilitation clinic.
Constriction, pain, numbness: the signs of cardiovascular problems
Circulatory disorders restrict blood flow, decreasing the supply of blood to the organs, the heart and the limbs. The most common symptoms of circulatory disorders of the legs are chronic pain in the calves and toes, which cause the affected person to walk slower or to have to stop and pause every so often (hence the name 'shop window disease'). But the core blood vessels, i.d. those that supply blood to the head and the brain, can also be affected. Deposits on the inner walls of the blood vessels can form small clumps or the vascular walls themselves can bulge out, an event known as an aneurysm. If a blood vessel in the head bursts, it can cause a stroke, in which case the specialists at the Augusta Hospital will have to perform surgery immediately. The heart is supplied with blood by a network of surrounding vessels. If one of these vessels 'closes up', the blockage can be removed by various minimally invasive interventions using catheters or by operations involving heart-lung machines. Another domain of the Cardiovascular Centre is the treatment of life-threatening aneurysms caused by weakened vascular walls of the aorta in the chest or stomach area.
Varicose veins are a particularly common venous disease and can also be removed in the Cardiovascular Centre using the latest minimally invasive treatment techniques
Minimally invasive procedures as standard
A key focus both in the clinic's research and its day-to-day patient care is the development of minimally invasive techniques for procedures that are less traumatic for the patient. As one of the main providers of minimally invasive aortic procedures to patients from a wide catchment area, Düsseldorf's Augusta Hospital is now able to treat nearly 90 per cent of people with aortic aneurysms in this way. Use of these minimally invasive methods greatly reduces complications and mortality rates, which in the past were often associated with cardiovascular procedures, and significantly decreases the amount oftime that people have to stay in hospital.
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Come see our new Jaguar model lineup!
Located at 1010 28th Street SE in Grand Rapids, MI, Jaguar Grand Rapids provides an expansive inventory of all your favorite new Jaguar vehicles currently on the market from the Jaguar XE to the all-new Jaguar F-PACE. Because our selection is constantly being updated, Grand Rapids, Wyoming MI, Kalamazoo and Kentwood, Jaguar customers are sure to find something at our dealership that fits their needs as drivers. Whether you're on the hunt for a Jaguar XF, the modern Jaguar XJ, or the Jaguar F-TYPE, the new inventory at Jaguar Grand Rapids has got you covered!
While you're here, be sure to check out the latest new car specials we have available here at Jaguar Grand Rapids. And if you're still having trouble finding your desired Jaguar in stock, simply fill out the CarFinder form and we'll do the searching for you!
Find the Right New Jaguar XE, Jaguar F-TYPE, Jaguar XJ, Jaguar XF or Jaguar F-PACE for you at Jaguar Grand Rapids, Proudly Serving the Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kalamazoo and Kentwood Areas
To put it simply, we're car people. We offer a wide selection of new Jaguar XE, Jaguar F-TYPE, Jaguar XJ, Jaguar XF and Jaguar F-PACE models that provide you with many options here at Jaguar Grand Rapids, serving Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kalamazoo and Kentwood. Whether you're looking for a fuel-efficient vehicle, something stylish and tech savvy, or something with a potent powertrain, you can find it in the new Jaguar lineup. To see for yourself, browse our inventory below. If you have any questions, contact us at Jaguar Grand Rapids as we'd be happy to discuss individual models, financing or even car service.
Learn More About Your Warranty Coverage On A New Jaguar XE, Jaguar F-TYPE, Jaguar XJ, Jaguar XF or Jaguar F-PACE
The new Jaguar lineup comes with Limited and Powertrain warranties that are both extensive and competitive. At Jaguar Grand Rapids, we'd be happy to discuss the details of these coverage plans with you, so contact us today. We believe you'll see that one thing is clear: the coverage provided to you stand out among the rest.
* MSRP is the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of the vehicle. It does not include any taxes, fees or other charges. Pricing and availability may vary based on a variety of factors, including options, dealer, specials, fees, and financing qualifications. Consult your dealer for actual price and complete details. Vehicles shown may have optional equipment at additional cost.
* The estimated selling price that appears after calculating dealer offers is for informational purposes, only. You may not qualify for the offers, incentives, discounts, or financing. Offers, incentives, discounts, or financing are subject to expiration and other restrictions. See dealer for qualifications and complete details.
* Images, pricing and options shown are examples, only, and may not reflect exact vehicle color, trim, options, pricing or other specifications.
Vehicle shown is for illustrative purposes. Actual vehicle image and details may differ. Vehicle in transit.


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Rondac III was the third planet in its star system. During the Dominion War, it was the location of a Dominion cloning facility. In 2375, it was attacked by detachments of the First, Third, and Ninth Cardassian Orders loyal to Legate Damar, signaling the start of the Cardassian Rebellion. Although Damar lost half his troops in the attack and the planet was not captured, the Cardassians were successful in destroying the Dominion facility. Weyoun speculated that Damar had picked the facility as a target to prevent any of his future clones from being activated. (DS9: "The Changing Face of Evil", "When It Rains...")
The location of Rondac III was labeled on a tactical map that was on display in the wardroom of Deep Space 9. (DS9: "Tears of the Prophets", production art)
|Major battles of the Dominion War
|2373: Second Battle of Deep Space 9 • Battle of Torros III
|2374: Battle of the Tyra system • Operation Return • Battle of Betazed • Liberation of Benzar • First Battle of Chin'toka
|2375: Battle of Monac IV • Raid on Trelka V • Siege of AR-558 • Battle of Ricktor Prime • Invasion of Septimus III • Breen attack on Earth • Second Battle of Chin'toka • Battle of Rondac III • Battle of Avenal • Battle of Cardassia
External link
- Rondac III at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works


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What Am I?
Act out a profession for others to guess.
- Target Age: 4-7
- Learning Goals: vocabulary, oral language development, social studies, dramatic play
- Related Episode: Martha Plays a Part, Martha Treads the Boards
Target Words
architect, athlete, barber, dancer, doctor, inventor, meteorologist, musician, nurse, veterinarian
- Vocabulary Cards
This acting game is like "Charades" but with talking allowed (and encouraged).
- Make your own vocabulary cards with the target words and, if you wish, a picture of the word.
- Go through the cards with the kids, introducing and discussing each word, then shuffle the cards and put them in a hat or bag.
- One person picks a vocabulary card and pretends to be that word. (If it's a kid who doesn't read, an extra grownup can whisper the word.) That person cannot say the name of the job aloud but must act it out. The other players have to guess what that person is.
Take it Further
You may want to add other profession words to your stack of vocabulary cards, including jobs done by family members and family friends.
Related Books
- On the Town: A Community Adventureby Judith Caseley
Charlie draws pictures of the community helpers he sees when his mom takes him on a neighborhood walk.
- Community Helpers from A–Z by Bobbie Kalman
Meet the people who help make our communities better places to live.
- Guess Who? by Margaret Miller
This fun and challenging visual game helps children identify the jobs people do.


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I found this from Morgan's tweet and had to share all of this teaky shelf goodness. I really don't get tired of these Poul Cadovius style units and hope that someday one will end up in my home. Then I'll be referring back to this store for styling ideas.
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13 comments:
- AnonymousMarch 09, 2011
Oh, I'm drooling over this place!!ReplyDelete
Amazing place! We have a definite lack of these places where I live...just as well I like charity shops and car boot sales!!ReplyDelete
Very, very cool.ReplyDelete
wow that's alot of teak, I want to steal a stack of those chairs!!ReplyDelete
Great place!, to much to see and to much to like : )ReplyDelete
beautiful! I never get tired of this look, either. can I have a clean slate and start decorating my home all over again? yes please!ReplyDelete
Gah! This is incredible. SO many ideas here.ReplyDelete
I love this space. I hate that I've come across some of these types of shelves but don't really have anywhere to put any more furniture right now. I just keep hoping when the time is right, I'll find some again!!ReplyDelete
My favorite store in LA. I really want to buy a few of their chairs from Amsterdam Modern, who they share the space with.ReplyDelete
Great post! How do you find this stuff?ReplyDelete
Verry cool.all kinds of great finds!ReplyDelete
Art by Karena
Come and enter my fine art giveaway!
This is such a great store. I don't know if they still have them, but a few months ago they had two amazing huge pendants lights in the center of the store. They were ridiculously fantastic.ReplyDelete
Such a great place!!!!ReplyDelete
Thank you for your comments, I love hearing from you!
Questions, comments or sponsorship inquires, please contact me via the 'contact' link.


text: Whether you're trekking through distant lands, or just trekking to work, it won't be long before your leather shoes start to show their age. There isn't always time for the lengthy shine and buff ritual, but thankfully, a quick application goes a long way with these portable wipes. They clear up scuffs instantly and give dull kicks a brilliant shine (with zero drying time).


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NASA-funded researchers are refining a tool that could not only check for the faintest traces of life's molecular building blocks on Mars, but could also determine whether they have been produced by anything alive.
The instrument, called Urey: Mars Organic and Oxidant Detector, has already shown its capabilities in one of the most barren climes on Earth, the Atacama Desert in Chile. The European Space Agency has chosen this tool from the United States as part of the science payload for the ExoMars rover planned for launch in 2013. Last month, NASA selected Urey for an instrument-development investment of $750,000. Much of the development work on the instrument has been funded by the NASA Astrobiology Program.
Image right: Artist's concept of ExoMars. Image courtesy: European Space Agency
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The European Space Agency plans for the ExoMars rover to grind samples of Martian soil to fine powder and deliver them to a suite of analytical instruments, including Urey, that will search for signs of life. Each sample will be a spoonful of material dug from underground by a robotic drill.
"Urey will be able to detect key molecules associated with life at a sensitivity roughly a million times greater than previous instrumentation," said Dr. Jeffrey Bada of Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego. Bada is the principal investigator for an international team of scientists and engineers working on various components of the device.
To aid in interpreting that information, part of the tool would assess how rapidly the environmental conditions on Mars erase those molecular clues.
Dr. Pascale Ehrenfreund of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, said, "The main objective of ExoMars is to search for life. Urey will be a key instrument for that because it is the one with the highest sensitivity for organic chemicals." Ehrenfreund, one of two deputy principal investigators for Urey, coordinates efforts of team members from five other European countries.
Image left: Urey Instrument. Click browse view to see instrument labels. Image credit: NASA/JPL
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Urey can detect several types of organic molecules, such as amino acids, at concentrations as low as a few parts per trillion.
All life on Earth assembles chains of amino acids to make proteins. However, amino acids can be made either by a living organism or by non-biological means. This means it is possible that Mars has amino acids and other chemical precursors of life but has never had life. To distinguish between that situation and evidence for past or present life on Mars, the Urey instrument team will make use of the knowledge that most types of amino acids can exist in two different forms. One form is referred to as "left-handed" and the other as "right-handed." Just as the right hand on a human mirrors the left, these two forms of an amino acid mirror each other.
Amino acids from a non-biological source come in a roughly 50-50 mix of right-handed and left-handed forms. Life on Earth, from the simplest microbes to the largest plants and animals, makes and uses only left-handed amino acids, with rare exceptions. Comparable uniformity -- either all left or all right -- is expected in any extraterrestrial life using building blocks that have mirror-image versions because a mixture would complicate biochemistry.
"The Urey instrument will be able to distinguish between left-handed amino acids and right-handed ones," said Allen Farrington, Urey project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which will build the instrument to be sent to Mars.
If Urey were to find an even mix of the mirror-image molecules on Mars, that would suggest life as we know it never began there. All-left or all-right would be strong evidence that life now exists on Mars, with all-right dramatically implying an origin separate from Earth life. Something between 50-50 and uniformity could result if Martian life once existed, because amino acids created biologically gradually change toward an even mixture in the absence of life.
The 1976 NASA Viking mission discovered that strongly oxidizing conditions at the Martian surface complicate experiments to search for life. The Urey instrument has a component, called the Mars oxidant instrument, for examining those conditions.
Switzerland will provide electronics design and packaging expertise for Urey. Micro-Cameras and Space Exploration S.A., Neuchatel, will collaborate with JPL and the European Space Agency to accomplish this significant contribution to the heart of the instrument. Dr. Jean-Luc Josset, Urey co-investigator at the University of Neuchatel will coordinate this effort and help provide detector selection and support. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Image right: Nature makes hundreds of types of amino acids. Twenty different types are the basic building blocks of proteins. In this illustration of the molecular structure of a generic amino acid, the part labeled "R" is the variable part, which is different for each type of amino acid. Nearly every type of amino acid can exist in two different forms, often referred to as "left-handed" and "right-handed." The two forms have the same component atoms and bonds as each other, but they mirror each other the way a person's two hands mirror each other. Nearly all amino acids produced and used by living organisms on Earth are the form called left-handed. In the illustration, C represents a carbon atom, H a hydrogen atom, NH2 an amine group, and COOH a carboxyl group. The variable R can be anything from a single hydrogen atom to chains or rings of multiple carbon atoms and other atoms. Image credit: NASA/JPL


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Astronomers have had their first glimpse of the atmosphere of exo-planet GJ 1214b. GJ 1214b has a mass 6.5 times that of Earth and is 2.6 times its radius. By measuring the absorption spectra of the planet's atmosphere, astronomers were able to shed light onto its composition.
Knowing the mass and radius of GJ 1214b is not enough information for us to know how it is made. For example, it could be a small gas giant like Neptune, or it could be a rocky planet with a hydrogen atmosphere produced by geological processes. Models show that both options could produce the same mass and radius. To distinguish between different models, astronomers set out to measure the composition of GJ 1214b's atmosphere directly.
As the planet passes in front of its host star, its atmosphere will absorb some of the star's light. The absorption by the atmosphere at different wavelengths of light will be dependent on the materials present. By recording the intensity at different wavelengths, from 780-1100nm, as the planet transits its star, researchers were able to determine the absorption spectrum of the planet's atmosphere, and hence determine its composition.
So, do astronomers know what GJ 1214b is made of? Not quite. What they found was a rather featureless absorption spectra. While this does rule out an extended hydrogen-only atmosphere that would have strong distinct absorption lines, there are still two other possibilities. The absorption spectrum is consistent with both a dense "steam" atmosphere made up of 70 percent water, as well as a cloudy hydrogen atmosphere where the clouds would hide the absorption spectra. This is a great first step towards characterizing the atmosphere of an exo-planet, but we're not quite where we'd like to be yet.
Nature, 2010. DOI: 10.1038/nature09596 (About DOIs).


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Expedia Reports Strong Third-Quarter Growth
Business Travel Thea Klapwald October 31, 2013
Expedia, Inc. reported solid growth in the third quarter compared to the same period last year. Room nights increased by 20 percent, driven by the Chinese booking site eLong and Brand Expedia. Gross bookings were up 15 percent over 2012.
The overall growth of revenue was 17 percent year-over-year due to the increased hotel room nights as well as revenue from advertising and media, and, to a lesser extent, increased air.
Brand Expedia, trivago and Hotels.com were responsible for driving the revenue growth. Trivago, an online hotel search company with sites in 33 countries, is set to grow its full-year revenue up almost 85 percent over last year.
New strategic agreements were signed including Expedia powering the technology platforms for Travelocity-branded websites in the U.S. and Canada, while providing Travelocity with access to Expedia, Inc.'s extensive global supply and customer service operations. The Brand Expedia-powered sites are expected to launch in the first half of 2014.
Distribution agreements were signed with international airlines, including Mexico's national airline Aeromexico.
Worldwide air revenue increased 16 percent for the third quarter due to a 9 percent increase in revenue per ticket as well as a 7 percent increase in air tickets sold. All other revenue (excluding hotel and air) increased 44 percent for in third quarter through strong growth in advertising and media revenue generated by trivago.
EBITDA increased 16 percent compared to last year's third quarter due to the overall top-line growth and the leverage of fixed costs.
Downloads factored in to Expedia's success. There were almost 80 million cumulative mobile app downloads since its launch, including approximately 35 million downloads at eLong as well as 25 million and 18 million downloads of the Hotels.com and Brand Expedia mobile booking apps, respectively.
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Did The Baby Boomers Destroy The Economy?
The Article: Who Destroyed the Economy? The Case Against the Baby Boomers by Jim Tankersley in The Atlantic.
The Text: My father taught me how to throw a baseball and divide big numbers in my head and build a life where I'd be home in time to eat dinner with my kid most nights. He and my mother put me through college and urged me to follow my dreams. He never complained when I entered a field even less respected than his. He lives across the country and still calls just to check in and say he loves me.
His name is Tom. He is 63, tall and lean, a contracts lawyer in a small Oregon town. A few wisps of hair still reach across his scalp. The moustache I have never seen him without has faded from deep brown to silver. The puns he tormented my younger brother and me with throughout our childhood have evolved, improbably, into the funniest jokes my 6-year-old son has ever heard. I love my dad fiercely, even though he's beaten me in every argument we've ever had except two, and even though he is, statistically and generationally speaking, a parasite.
This is the charge I've leveled against him on a summer day in our Pacific Northwest vision of paradise. I have asked my favorite attorney to represent a very troublesome client, the entire baby-boom generation, in what should be a slam-dunk trial–for me. On behalf of future generations, I am accusing him and all the other parasites his age of breaking the sacred bargain that every American generation will pass a better country on to its children than the one it inherited.
We are sitting on a beach in late afternoon on a sun-drizzled lake in the Cascade Mountains, two college-educated, upper-middle-class white men settling in for a week of generational warfare. My son, Max, splashes in the waves with his grandmother; sunbathers lounge in inner tubes around us; snow-capped peaks loom above the tree line. The breeze smells of Coppertone and wet dog. My father thinks back on the country that awaited him when he finished law school. "There seemed to be a lot of potential," he says, setting up the first of many evasions, "but there weren't a lot of jobs."
I'm mildly impressed that he's even bothering to mount a defense. The facts as I see them are clear and damning: Baby boomers took the economic equivalent of a king salmon from their parents and, before they passed it on, gobbled up everything but the bones.
Ultimately, members of my father's generation–generally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964–are reaping more than they sowed. They graduated smack into one of the strongest economic expansions in American history. They needed less education to snag a decent-salaried job than their children do, and a college education cost them a small fraction of what it did for their children or will for their grandkids. One income was sufficient to get a family ahead economically. Marginal federal income-tax rates have fallen steadily, with rare exception, since boomers entered the labor force; government retirement benefits have proliferated. At nearly every point in their lives, these Americans chose to slough the costs of those tax cuts and spending hikes onto future generations.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose twelvefold from the time the first boomers began working until last year, when they began to cash out their retirement. (The growth trend over the 12 years since I entered the workforce suggests that the Dow will double exactly once before I retire.) They will leave the workforce far wealthier than their parents did, with even more government promises awaiting them. Boomers will be the first generation of retirees to fully enjoy the Medicare prescription-drug benefit; because Social Security payouts rise faster than price inflation, they will draw more-generous retirement benefits than their parents did, in real terms–at their children's expense. The Urban Institute estimated last year that a couple retiring in 2011, having both earned average wages, will accrue about $200,000 more in Medicare and Social Security benefits over their lifetimes than they paid in taxes to support those programs.
Those retirees and near-retirees bequeath a shambles to their offspring. Young people are unemployed at historically high levels. Global competition is stronger than ever, but American institutions have not adapted to prepare new workers for its challenges. Boomers have run up incomes for the very wealthiest Americans, shrunk the middle class, and, via careless borrowing and reckless financial engineering, driven the economy into the worst recession in 80 years. The Pew Research Center reports that middle-class families today are 5 percent less wealthy than their parents were at the same point in their lives, after adjusting for inflation, even though families today are far more likely to include two wage earners. Another Pew report shows that those ages 55 to 64 are 10 percent wealthier today, even after the Great Recession, than Americans of that age bracket were in 1984. Those younger than 35 are 68 percent less wealthy than the same bracket was in 1984.
The baby boomers built an economy where young people increasingly need a college education to move into the middle class, or even to simply hold on to the middle-class lifestyle they were born into. But the boomers who run state legislatures and private universities have collectively pushed the costs of that now-requisite education into the stratosphere. Tuition has risen at twice the rate of inflation: In today's dollars, tuition, room, and board at a four-year public college ran nearly $6,800 per year in 1967; it costs about $13,300 today. Private-college tabs have more than doubled in that time. The increase has saddled young workers with more than $1 trillion in student debt–the average college student today borrows six times more from the federal government to finance her education, per year, than the average student in 1970. The boomers keep their low taxes, and their alma maters gain prestige, but the next generation of workers starts with a debt boulder strapped to its back. All for no apparent gain. Today, Pew says, men who grew up in the middle class are just as likely to earn less than their fathers did (adjusting for inflation) as they are to earn more.
Members of my father's generation reaped the benefits of dirt-cheap fossil fuels through most of their working lives, when gasoline price increases ran well below inflation, freeing up cash for them to save or spend on things their children now cannot afford. Because gas was so cheap, they burned too much of it (my father has never owned a car that averaged better than 20 miles per gallon), filling the atmosphere with carbon dioxide to levels that scientists warn will likely warm the globe by several degrees. Climate change will cost trillions of dollars to avert or adapt to. It's almost impossible to overstate this level of buck-passing.
Perhaps most egregiously, the baby boomers, led by boomer-coddling leaders in Washington, are bequeathing a runaway national debt and a gaping federal budget shortfall that their children and grandchildren will have to pay–through higher taxes or reduced benefits, or both–if they don't want the country to go broke. Balancing America's future receipts and obligations would require all taxes to rise by 35 percent "immediately and permanently," and all federal entitlement benefits to decrease by another 35 percent, the International Monetary Fund estimated last year. Shielding boomers from that pain–as most so-called deficit hawks in Washington propose–would dramatically increase the bill for everyone else. Brigham Young University economists Richard Evans and Kerk Phillips and Boston University economist Laurence Kotlikoff published a paper in January that projected a 1-in-3 chance that the U.S. economy will reach "game over" within 30 years. In their definition, "game over" means that the government's obligations to seniors (thanks again, boomers) will exceed 100 percent of everyone else's earnings. In other words, all the young workers in America together won't earn enough to pay down the government's obligations to their parents.
It is hard for me to see how the gray-mustachioed attorney is going to get his client out of this one.
That's my first mistake.
Beginning in junior high, my father knew he wanted to be a lawyer. He grew up an Air Force brat whose father designed cameras for spy planes, and he landed in Los Angeles for high school. He met my mother at a YMCA dance, kept his nose in his books while his University of California (Santa Barbara) classmates bombed a bank to protest the Vietnam War, and graduated near the top of his law-school class at the University of California (Los Angeles). Big firms in California and Colorado recruited him, but he opted for a clerkship at the Oregon Supreme Court and then a two-man firm in a former timber town of 10,000 residents called McMinnville. There, my dad knew, he could balance work with time for coaching Little League and leading the church vestry.
When I was a teenager working summers at McMinnville's semiweekly newspaper, I'd often start one morning a week at a downtown coffee shop, listening to a pair of old-timers give my dad all kinds of crap. They ribbed him about politics, fishing technique, and proper deference to the altar guild. They always made him buy their lattes. And when the hour was up, they'd shoo him back to the law office with an admonition to keep working so he could pay for their Social Security benefits.
You could call this anecdote Exhibit A in my father's defense of the boomers, which he offered over coffee on the first day of our weeklong dispute. It boils down to a claim that he didn't exactly inherit a great deal, either. Tom Tankersley's argument breaks into two categories. First, he deflects blame for all of the bad stuff of the past several decades to previous generations and myopic politicians. Second, he builds a case that the boomers did far more good than harm.
The Greatest Generation, his parents' cohort, paid a lot less into Social Security and Medicare than it took out of it, he says. (This is true.) It did nothing to reduce pollution, conserve natural resources, or halt the nation's growing and dangerous addiction to fossil fuels. "Previous generations did not have a Clean Air Act or a Clean Water Act," he says. His enacted both. (Also true.)
Point, parasite.
After dinner at my parents' cabin near Crescent Lake, my father, sporting a blue shirt with a tropical print, spends two hours setting up targets and knocking them down with the precision of his favorite target rifle. Lawmakers at some point stopped working together to solve problems, he says. Big companies gorged on profits and stopped caring for their workers' livelihoods. Regular people around the country spent money they didn't have, signed mortgages they couldn't afford, and lost their patience for delayed gratification. Who's to blame for the cultural decay of personal responsibility? "I don't know which generation's fault that is," my father says.
He says he's rather surprised that he's still in line to draw Medicare and Social Security benefits. "I felt I was paying all this money in, and it was going to be gone … and it turns out I'm going to get some." He complains that "no one" is willing to pay the necessary taxes for government services or to adjust those services to current tax levels. He manages to dismiss one of the greatest acts of fiscal recklessness ever by a boomer–President George W. Bush's decision to run two wars off the books without raising taxes or cutting outlays to fund them–as "outrageous" and "not my choice."
Then he dives for my legs: There's no guarantee that young Max Tankersley won't grow up to enjoy economic opportunities as sweeping as those his grandparents did. Economic conditions change in unpredictable ways, my dad says. Oh, and the idea that opportunity eroded for my generation? Only if you're a white American man. In his lifetime, he points out, women and minorities have seen their economic prospects brighten considerably, especially in higher-earning fields like the law. (A quartet of economists from Stanford and the University of Chicago reported this spring, "In 1960, 94 percent of doctors were white men, as were 96 percent of lawyers and 86 percent of managers. By 2008, these numbers had fallen to 63, 61, and 57 percent, respectively.") Expanded trade has helped to lift people in Africa, Brazil, China, and the rest of the developing world out of poverty. (The World Bank reported this year that 22 percent of the developing world's population lives on $1.25 or less per day, down from 52 percent in 1981.) My father says he will not apologize for that.
I keep bringing him back to the critique: His generation bought homes in a far cheaper market than mine; they didn't move us off oil; they've reaped the stock gains and the carbon externalities and the budget deficits–and left us with the bill. He keeps brushing me off, flipping the camera. "There's this whole theory in democracy that you get the government you deserve," he says, readying more verbal jujitsu. "And it's our fault for not saying, 'That's enough,' just like it's your fault. I mean, you've been voting now for how long?"
By evening's end, the defense has turned to open taunting. So what, he asks, if it's his generation's fault? "What are you going to do with that? Are you going to learn something and not do it? Or are you going to just point fingers, like this article seems to be doing?"
I realize: He's beating me.
The day after my trouncing, we retreat farther into the mountains, to a chilly lake where the Deschutes River springs to life, for a night of camping with family friends. We swim and roast marshmallows and play in the dirt and watch deer walk past the tent. Max helps my parents paddle the canoe.
In the morning, we comb the campsite, picking up food wrappers and specs of trash, some of them months old. You always leave your site cleaner than you found it, I tell Max, because other people will come after you, and others after them. It's your duty as a camper.
Where did you learn that? he asks.
Your grandpa, I say.
This is the moment the prosecution regains its footing, by remembering just how hypocritical the defense has been. Boomers have always talked about making the world a better place. They were the century's most idealistic young people. They've also known for decades about the fiscal, economic, and environmental paths America was headed down. How can they possibly square that wisdom with their inaction?
We break camp. Back at the cabin, I call up statistics, build economic charts online, and transplant a new backbone into my case. (I'd chide my dad here for installing Wi-Fi at his cabin, but I think it was Mom's idea.)
In my mind, I know which of his arguments I must grant. The boomers haven't been a total disaster, of course. They did indeed blaze huge social and economic trails for women, minorities, and people with disabilities. Those groups have gained rights that, as long as the rest of us remain vigilant, will never be reversed: Young women can grow up to be lawyers or scientists. African-Americans can grow up to be president. Boomers gave us Apple and Microsoft. They made the Star Wars movies. They grew the economy for a bit. Once, for a couple of years in the late 1990s, they balanced the federal budget.
But the numbers on the laptop remind me how fleeting much of that progress was–and how boomers chose short-term gratification when they had opportunities to secure a better future for generations to follow. Classic example: Instead of devoting the budget surpluses of the late '90s to social programs that desperately needed them, they voted themselves tax cuts in 2001 and 2003, and an expanded Medicare benefit shortly after–a move a Congressional Budget Office study from that era suggests raised the expected tax rate on future generations from 29 percent to 53 percent. They borrowed heavily to cope with the economic sluggishness of the 2000s and, in so doing, inflated a housing bubble that, when it popped, triggered the Great Recession.
Median-income growth has stagnated for women and minorities over the past decade. The typical African-American today has less wealth than his or her parents did, according to Pew. Labor-force participation for women this year hit its lowest level since 1991.
And Congress? Well, Capitol Hill is where I realize I'll win this trial. Baby boomers chose the leaders currently paralyzing Washington, and those leaders are, by and large, boomers. My father's cohort has formed a generational majority in every Congress since the dawn of the George W. Bush administration. Electorally, boomers vote in dramatically larger numbers than anyone else. The Census Bureau reports there were 81 million Americans ages 45 to 64 in 2010, of whom slightly more than half voted. They made up about 43 percent of the electorate–almost as much as those 25 to 44 and those 65 and older combined.
As afternoon descends over the fir trees, I call my father over and show him this statistic. Look, I say. That government you say is crippling America? You and your friends own it.
"Shit," he says.
The first time I bested my dad in an argument, I was in fourth grade. I wanted to play football, and he said it was too dangerous. With my mother's help, I trekked to the public library and pulled up some research showing that youth football was perfectly safe (oops!) and even built character. I may also have threatened to run away. My dad relented. My football career was short and forgettable, but I'd beaten him with data.
My second win came when I was in eighth grade and wanted to drive eight hours with a bunch of college students and coaches to see my favorite basketball team in a playoff game. My dad said, "No, you are not driving to Idaho with a bunch of college kids." To which I replied, tears in my eyes, "Well, what if you came with me?" It was blatant emotional manipulation. We ended up watching the Linfield Wildcats lose, in person, together.
I connect these two strategies in my closing argument against the boomers. I win my conviction against my father on his fishing boat on a choppy Friday, lines bobbing wildly in the swells, the trolling motor struggling to hold speed against a bracing wind. The boy and the grandma are back on shore. It is only us, a photographer, and a Labrador retriever. I am at the wheel, my dad is working the rods.
I start with data. The deal the baby boomers got from the Greatest Generation wasn't so raw, economically: Gross domestic product growth from 1970 to 2000 was among the strongest in American history, and far better than the average growth so far in the working years of Generations X and Y.
The Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act have improved the environment, but the federal government has done almost nothing to curb the growth in carbon emissions here or around the world. Earth's atmosphere is currently 391 parts per million carbon dioxide, up from about 325 ppm 40 years ago. The concentration is on pace to hit 450 ppm by 2035, which would translate into an increase in global average temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius, the tipping point at which scientists say we would no longer be able to block or reverse a future of the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. More high-temperature records were set across the U.S. last year than in any previous one. Arctic ice melted to an all-time recorded low.
America's federal debt-to-GDP ratio has more than doubled from 28 percent to 62 percent since 1970, and the borrowing has benefited boomers far more than folks my age. A majority of boomers want no part of paying that debt off through higher taxes or reduced benefits: A recent Pew poll found "little appetite [among that age group] for debt-reduction proposals that will take a bite out of their pocketbooks."
And boomers seem to know that the future won't be brighter for Max and his friends. Nationwide, optimism that today's youth will fare better than their parents is down from a peak of 71 percent a decade ago to 44 percent today, the lowest level since 1983, according to Gallup. Pessimism is highest among–you guessed it–baby boomers.
My emotional argument seals the case. Where I finally best my dad is on the question of why his cohort hasn't stopped the freight trains of generational woe that have been barreling down America's tracks for a few decades now. The question he can't answer is this: How could the members of a generation so willing to lecture everyone else on personal responsibility not recognize, even at this stage in their lives, their collective responsibility for ending this mess?
You used to be such an idealistic generation, I say. You were going to change the world. Yet you've known all this was coming and haven't tried seriously to stop it. You've reaped all the benefits and left the rest of us the bill. And you knew what you were doing. Why?
He hooks and nets a fish. When he has rebaited the line, he vents some frustration at his boomer peers/clients. "I'm saying, there are problems," he says, "and I've been talking about them for a long time."
He stops pushing back and starts making concessions. On the budget, he says, "You're right, we haven't had the, whatever, to say to our parents' generation, 'No, we're not going to give you those Social Security raises,' " even when, as in recent years, low inflation levels haven't warranted them.
Those raises represent a tiny fraction of our future debt load (the lethal combination of soaring Medicare costs and insufficient tax revenue accounts for most of it), but, hey, I'll take what I can get. Life isn't Perry Mason; the defendant never confesses on the stand. The closest my father comes, in this case, is with energy policy and carbon pollution. "I'm disappointed in the environmental thing," he says. "We could have done a lot more."
Our budget and economy are struggling through a huge transition, he says. "But if the country says we've got this big challenge, and we're going to share it in a fair way, then Max will be fine." I wonder aloud, what are the odds that will happen? He grimaces under the mustache. "Your generation, my generation, everybody," he says. "If someone says you can have something for free, you tend to want to have it." He asks me to swing the motor, and we steer back toward the dock, into a gathering mass of black clouds.
Only later do I notice the knife he's left in my side. We are sitting at the kitchen table. He is joking about regrets ("You raise these kids, and then they turn on you!") when he suddenly becomes serious and offers me a rare piece of fatherly advice. "We didn't stop it. Maybe someday, Max can have the same discussion with you and ask you why you didn't stop it. He'll get the article out. He'll say, 'You knew about it! You knew about it even more than [your parents] did!' "
The knife twists. I am 34 years old. I have some pretty successful friends. How have we sacrificed to balance the budget, to slow climate change, to deliver better opportunity for our children? We haven't. I own an SUV, and I don't compost my trash. We are barreling, generationally, toward higher and higher levels of carbon emissions; a demographer from the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research estimated last year that an individual's emissions rise some 50 percent from the time he is in his 30s until the time he retires. Worst of all, we don't seem to care about changing things: Only about a third of registered 25-to-44-year-olds voted in the 2010 election, compared with half of registered baby boomers.
If my father is a leech on the future, then I am becoming one, too.
"Your generation should be thinking about how you'll step up to the plate," my dad says, brown eyes boring into mine. "And you also need to step up to the plate, learning from us about the politics. Just say no to the kind of politics that get in the way of what you perceive are the solution."
He rises to water the saplings behind the cabin ("for the next generation"), and leaves me to stare out through the tall firs. My little boy has come in from playing in the dirt.
"Daddy," he yells.
Parasite, I hear.


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Besides getting to meet all the other lovely Blogstars we were treated to a mystery pack of Stylecraft Yarns for Spring 2017. Three stunning "vintage" colours were added to the Stylecraft Special DK range and I could not wait to try out a few colour combinations!
Aren't they just too pretty for words????
Stylecraft Special DK "Walnut" and "Apricot" were the perfect choice for a vintage feel "Gorgeous Granny" Bag and Granny Stripe Scarf
I used double rows of each colour for the bag in the following order: Buttermilk, Vintage Peach, Apricot, Mushroom & Walnut.
The pattern for the bag is available in my RAVELRY STORE


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Originally built as a Gothic fortification, Burghausen Castle bears witness to an exciting chapter in Bavarian history. It has stood sentinel over the surrounding countryside for more than a thousand years.
Built in response to a threatened Turkish siege, the fortress then had to resist the advancing Swedes in 1632 – Burghausen Castle has experienced many ups and downs through the ages. Its history goes back to the 8th and 9th centuries. The castle's present appearance with its fortified towers, walls up to five metres thick, keep, banqueting halls, ditches and drawbridges dates from the 13th to 15th century. Work began on restoring the castle nearly 50 years ago – and it may well look more beautiful now than under any of its previous lords. The castle also paints a wonderful picture as a museum. Its State Collections feature furniture, weaponry and art from the castle's heyday, while the House of Photography's 15 display rooms contain over 300 exhibits, including the camera used on the first manned space flight. The observation platform on the roof offers amazing panoramic views of the entire castle complex and the glorious surrounding countryside. Burghausen Castle measures 1,051 metres from one side to the other, making it the longest castle in the world. Nearby attractions: head down into the picturesque old quarter of Burghausen with its brightly coloured facades from the Renaissance, baroque and rococo periods. You could then travel the 30km to Markl, the birthplace of Pope Benedict XVI, or visit Altötting, Passau and Landshut. Another option is the Glass Route, which runs for more than 250 scenic kilometres through the Upper Palatinate and Bavarian Forest.
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