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As many hacky newspaper articles are sure to tell you, 2012 is the "Year of the Female MC." Look, I don't besmirch newspaper editors for trying to find a way to squeeze Azealia Banks into the stuffy confines of old gray ladies, but let's be honest: Lauryn Hill was one of the top three or five MCs of the '90s, and women in rap have been just as marginalized in rock. That there are suddenly a bunch of interesting rappers with two X chromosomes does not a trend make.
But at the same time, there's certainly someone at a major label desk right now, tasked with trying to find the "next" Nicki Minaj. This is how Iggy Azalea gets signed to a real record deal, with ink and everything. And while THEESatisfaction are sure to find themselves tacked on as footnotes in articles about Azealia Banks and Kreayshawn later this year because the group features two female MCs (Stasia Irons & Catherine Harris-White), know this: their Sub Pop debut awE naturalE is, with Heems' Nehru Jackets excluded, this year's most artistically complete hip-hop album. Imagining a new lane between the spacious electro future-rap of labelmates Shabazz Palaces and Spoek Mathambo, the Native Tongues and the neo-soul rap of Lauryn Hill, awE naturalE is a triumph from front to back.
THEESatisfaction first made a splash last year, when their soulful voices broke through the stream-of-consciousness flow of Ishmael Butler's Shabazz Palaces album, Black Up. Since his name has helped THEESatisfaction get noticed outside of the Seattle stomping grounds they've been working in since 2008, he's unavoidable when discussing awE naturalE, particularly because it's clear the influence was two-ways. THEESatisfaction's own compositions bear the splintered vibes of Shabazz Palaces': "Earthseed" and its unsteady percussion and inconsistent beat pattern being the most ample example. But Butler is hard to ignore here for another reason: He pops up a couple times on awE naturalE, lending master class verses to album standout "Enchantruss" and "God."
But awE naturalE's greatest strengths lie in its invocations of the conscious black empowerment that fueled the Native Tongues hip-hop renaissance in the early 1990s. Lead single "QueenS," with its looped vocal beats, is at its heart a fun jam—it plays on the first couple of passes like Queen Latifah doing an electro rap song—but it's really a song about turning your swag off, standing up for yourself and letting loose. On the outro verse of "Enchantruss" the duo traces a line from drinking gourds, "taking a course in white," Black Jesus, Orson Welles, and the "war beat drum," while on "Deeper," they repeatedly say "my melanin is relevant." Meanwhile, on "Needs," they conjure a campfire drum circle as they repeatedly chant, "I need to prove myself," while spinning twisting verses about men and defining their personalities. But there's never direct, to the point messages here: Irons and Harris-White rap in splintered thoughts, jumping from complex thought to complex thought, while linking them together with their rich, all-encompassing production.
Considering everything, this album could have out in 1993, which puts THEESatisfaction in a rarer camp than being a female rap group: a new rap group paying honest and true homage to classic sounds with deft skill. Think about it? Did you ever think you'd hear a new hip-hop album that sounds like a long-lost Ladybug Mecca solo album? THEESatisfaction's awE naturalE is one of the most adventurous and tradition-bending hip-hop albums of the year, and further cements Sub Pop as the place for imaginative, left-field hip-hop.


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Code for America is looking for a few good geeks.
The project, now in its fifth year, inserts developers in state and local government agencies for one year to build technical solutions to knotty government problems. Code for America is looking for applicants with well-developed coding chops and project management experience, but also for a more hard-to-find set of soft skills.
Alex Tran, the program manager for the year-long fellowship, is looking for individuals with the maturity and poise to interface with government officials, and bear up under special and perhaps sometimes baffling demands of bureaucratic procedure.
"I think that one of the most powerful things that CfA does is bring geeks to the decision-making table on how we support and deliver services to citizens," Tran told FCW, GCN's sister site. Fellows in the program are on the front lines of moving government services into the digital arena. "In this day and age, a technologist can really inspire folks with what's possible – with things you can make that are lightweight and fast."
The Fellowship is an 11-month program where developers, designers, usability researchers and project managers work alongside city staff to produce open-source apps and improve the citizen experience.
Several cities have collaborated with Code for America, including Austin and Raleigh. Recent projects that have come out of CfA include Atlanta's ATLCourt website, which allows residents to look up their court cases, get text reminders and find answers to frequently asked questions about municipal court operations, and an application programming interface platform in San Mateo County, Calif., that aggregates information on social programs in the area so developers can build applications around specific offerings.
A unifying theme of CfA projects is that they provide a way for technological solutions to infiltrate old, off-line ways of doing things, and bring Internet speed and agility to the platform of government.
Candidates have until July 15 to apply for a CfA fellowship. Governments interested in participating in the project can find more information here.
About the Author
Adam Mazmanian is executive editor of FCW.
Before joining the editing team, Mazmanian was an FCW staff writer covering Congress, government-wide technology policy and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Prior to joining FCW, Mazmanian was technology correspondent for National Journal and served in a variety of editorial roles at B2B news service SmartBrief. Mazmanian has contributed reviews and articles to the Washington Post, the Washington City Paper, Newsday, New York Press, Architect Magazine and other publications.
Click here for previous articles by Mazmanian. Connect with him on Twitter at @thisismaz.
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In heating and air conditioning systems, water must be distributed from the supply system to the point of consumption. This is done by means of main pumps.
Larger systems can be divided into several pipe circuits with each their local pump. The main pump is the pump that distributes the total amount of water from the supply source.
Due to variations in heat demand and flow in large systems, it is recommended to use speed controlled pumps in parallel as main pumps. By using speed controlled pumps it is also possible to obtain maximum energy savings.
A maximum of three pumps plus one standby pump is recommended.


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Farm & Farm Products
Shelburne Farms is a working farm, including a dairy, Market Garden, and woodlands. The food that we grow honors and preserves the land it comes from. That's what building a sustainable food system is all about. What make us unique is that we also use our food and farming practices to educate others about sustainable agriculture and our shared connections to the soil. We produce:
- Farmstead cheddar cheese from our herd of purebred Brown Swiss cows
- Organic fruits and vegetables in our Market Garden
- Pasture-raised lamb
- Pasture-raised beef and veal
- Pasture-raised, whey-fed pork
- Pastured eggs
- Maple syrup
Where are these products available?
- Our Welcome Center and Farm Store (cheese, beef, lamb, year-round)
- The Inn at Shelburne Farms farm-to-table restaurant, where 75% of the food served is either grown or produced locally (seasonally)
- Online Store (cheese and other Vermont-made products) (Browse our print catalog)
- The Farm Cart (seasonally)
As a proud member of the Vermont Fresh Network, we are part of a tremendous community of Vermont farmers and food producers.
- Strawberry Gazpacho
- Beef and Potato Curry Stew
- Ramp, Chicken, and Cheddar Risotto
- Maple Sugar Blondies
- Potato Gratin
- Assorted Cheddar Crisps
- Lacy Cheddar Crisps
- Beef Chili
- Sour Cream-Maple Muffins
- Maple Oatmeal Cookies
- Strawberry Tiramisu
- Carrot & Glass Noodle Salad
- Spaghetti Squash Greek Salad
- Pumpkin Pie
- Pea Tendrils Pesto


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Secure Area
- Home -
- School Life -
To access this area we need you to login using the username and password provided to you by the school. Please enter this information below and click login to proceed.
If you have forgotten your username and/or password please contact the school.


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Inbox Alert—Don't Trade on Pump-And-Dump Stock Emails
FINRA and the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy are issuing this Investor Alert to warn investors to be on the lookout for email spam promoting "pump-and-dump" stock scams.
Email stock spamming is back in high gear. The latest McAfee Threats Report confirms a steep rise in spam email linked to bogus "pump-and-dump" stock schemes designed to trick unsuspecting investors.
For years, fraudsters have used large-scale email pushes (what most of us call junk email, or spam) to lure potential victims into investment scams. Many of these emails tout a company's stock—typically small, so-called "microcap" companies—through false and misleading statements to the marketplace.
These false claims could also be made on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as on bulletin boards and chat room pages. Often the promoters will claim to have "inside" information about an impending development, or to use an "infallible" system that uses a combination of economic and stock market data to pick stocks. Some purport to allow investors to capitalize on a new technology, strike it rich in an emerging economy, or market-time their way to huge profits. Subject lines and short messages are designed to quickly pique interest and lure investors into buying the stock—all with the goal of creating a run-up in price.
Investors should treat emails like these with extreme caution—they are very likely part of what are called "pump-and-dump" scams.
In reality, the fraudsters sending these emails are often paid promoters or company insiders who stand to gain by selling their shares after the stock price is "pumped" up by the buying frenzy that they create through the mass email push. Once these fraudsters "dump" their shares by selling them and stop hyping the stock, the price typically falls dramatically—and investors lose their money or are left with worthless, or near worthless, stock.
FINRA and the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy have one message for investors: Don't fall for these scams. They are the inbox equivalent of a boiler room sales operation, hounding investors with potentially false information about a company. When it comes to pump-and-dump spam, the smartest play is the easiest. Just hit the delete key.
Additional Resources
- FINRA Investor Alert: Stock Spams and Scams
- SEC Investor Alert: Social Media and Investing—Avoiding Fraud
- SEC Publication: Pump&Dump.con: Tips for Avoiding Stock Scams on the Internet
- SEC Publication: Ask Questions: Questions You Should Ask About Your Investments
To report a possible securities fraud, ask a question, or report a problem concerning your investments, your investment account or a financial professional, please visit the SEC website.
To receive the latest Investor Alerts and other important investor information, sign up for FINRA Investor News.
To receive the latest Investor Alerts and Bulletins from the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, sign up for their RSS feed or email. You can also follow them on Twitter, or visit Investor.gov.


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James "Jes" Staley is leaving his job as chairman of the investment banking unit of JPMorgan Chase & Co to join a hedge fund that profited from the bank's $6.2 billion derivatives loss at the hands of the "London Whale" trader.
The 56-year-old Staley, who was moved aside in July from his position as chief executive for investment banking at JPMorgan, is becoming a partner at BlueMountain Capital Management, the hedge fund company said on Tuesday.
BlueMountain was among a group of hedge funds that profited by betting against JPMorgan in credit derivatives transactions known as "the London Whale" trades, which ended up costing the bank billions of dollars.
Later, BlueMountain worked for JPMorgan to help the bank close the positions, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The hedge fund manages more than $US12 billion, and was founded by JPMorgan alums.
Staley, a 34-year veteran of JPMorgan, was sidelined in a management reshuffle in July that foreshadowed his departure. He had long been seen as a possible successor to JPMorgan chief executive Jamie Dimon, but both men are the same age, and Dimon seems to be focusing on promoting younger executives now.
At BlueMountain, Staley will focus on cultivating relationships with clients and developing new strategies, the firm said, echoing the kind of talk about financial innovation that used to be routine at investment banks.
Many bankers complain that regulations are making it harder to innovate. The new rules were put in place after a financial crisis that was fueled in large part by abuses of innovations like securitisation.
Staley will buy a stake in BlueMountain, and the money will be used on new technology and staff, the firm said. The amount of his investment was not disclosed.
Staley spent nearly 22 of his 34 JPMorgan years at its investment bank. He was a founding member of its equities business in the early 1980s. He later worked as CEO of its asset management unit, which includes its private bank.
As Dimon reorganised business units, he named two younger executives to be co-CEOs of commercial and investment banking and made Staley chairman of the unit and head of a committee to consider the future of global banking.
Staley, appearing on CNBC on Tuesday, said of no longer being in contention for Dimon's job, "There is a generational issue. The bank has to get ready for that. The transition that Jamie and I have been able to execute from JPMorgan to a firm like BlueMountain, I feel very proud of."
The Whale trades were made through JPMorgan's chief investment office in London, which was a separate business unit from the investment bank. One of the key engineers of the trade was Bruno Iksil, who took big enough positions to earn the nickname "the London Whale."
Andrew Feldstein, the CEO of BlueMountain, worked for JPMorgan for more than a decade before starting the hedge fund in 2003. His jobs at JPMorgan included heading structured credit and the global credit portfolio.
Dimon, in a memo to senior managers after the announcement of Staley's departure, said, "BlueMountain is an important client of ours, and we look forward to working with Jes in the future."
Execs 'acted like children'
Meanwhile, Dimon said some top executives at the largest US bank "acted like children" in handling the errant derivatives bet.
"Instead of helping, they were running around with their head chopped off, 'what does this mean for me personally, how's my reputation?'," Dimon said at a conference in San Francisco hosted by the New York-based bank. Some people "felt they could take advantage of it personally, they were willing to hurt the company by maneuvering."
At least a dozen state, federal and international bodies are investigating the trades.
"We had 100 people who worked every day for 90 days to help the real problem, the risk, not the ongoing regulatory review, but the real problem to get the risk down so we didn't have ongoing exposure," Mr Dimon said. "You learn the good and the bad about people and that's invaluable to find out who those people are. Invaluable."
While some people "acted terribly," he said the bank now has the "best management team I've ever had in my entire life."
Reuters, Bloomberg
The original release of this article first appeared on the website of Hangzhou Night Net.


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« School Leaders Should Take a Lesson From NASCAR | Main | Make Your Voice Heard »
The U.S. Education System Is Not Failing
By Steve Berlin, Senior Communications Manager of the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE)
The American education system — inasmuch as it's actually a system — is not failing. For readers stunned by a phrase not often seen in print these days, I repeat: The U.S. education system is not failing. I know that's not a popular position these days, but it is the right one. There are indeed problems that need addressing, but there is significant cognitive dissonance in how the public views K-12 education.
So, why do I say our schools as a whole are succeeding? Well, why not start with what is meant by "failing?" The term is a relic that defines education policy and growth as all-or-nothing propositions. It can be easily traced to 1983's A Nation at Risk, which made "failing schools" a part of the American vernacular. But it was truly burned into headlines and our collective consciousness with the 2001 iteration of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, better known as No Child Left Behind — a law that uses all stick and no carrot as inducements for improvement, usually with the "failing" schools and districts that were struggling in the first place.
Worse, NCLB pointed to 2014 as the deadline for 100 percent proficiency. If schools, districts and states can't meet that deadline, well, they have failed. Doesn't matter that people are working hard to draft new policies and legislation, and devising new and improved means of integrating technology into curricula, or that greater instructional rigor than ever before is being demanded of our teachers. It's all-or-nothing.
We constantly hear that our schools, nationally, are failing, but in this year's PDK/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, only 7 percent of respondents agree. More telling, however, is that only 4 percent of that same group think their own local schools are failing and a combined 48 percent think their local schools rate grades of 'A' or 'B.' So the system is failing, but their schools are OK. Hmm.
There are, however, metrics that are often used to illustrate how awful American schools are. PISA scores are quite popular in that regard. For instance, students in Finland, South Korea, Singapore, and in one city in China do better on these exams than their U.S. counterparts. After all, what better way to show how bad our schools are, and how inept our students, than comparing them to actual top-down education systems in ethnically homogenous countries (and city) with populations a fraction of the United States'? Which is, again, not to say we should neither see nor expect improvements in student performance. We should, and I think we do. So who's to blame for our perceived failure?
Teachers and teachers' unions are popular punching bags for our assumed mediocrity. Why not? It's easy to blame public servants — who spend almost as much time with students during the school year as their parents and whose salaries are paid for with tax monies — for the lack of students' progress.
Again, it's true that not every teacher is great, or even good. But most are good at what they do and work hard to improve all the time. I never really understood how hard that job was until I bombed while trying to convince high school juniors that American history is important and that they should be ready to write original papers if they planned to go to college.
Those who are quick to blame teachers and their supposedly inflated salaries use the familiar refrain that more money does not make for better results. Perhaps, but if they think there are so few high-quality instructors, what makes them think cutting their pay and making them public scapegoats will make the profession that much more attractive to the next generation?
More interesting, for the third straight year the PDK poll reports that 71 percent of Americans believe that public school teachers are worthy of their trust and confidence. Hmm. Must be all the other kids' teachers who stink.
It is rarely mentioned that teachers and unions are just one piece of the educational puzzle. We seldom hear at large that safe and healthy school environments are critical to student success; that safe and healthy students are important to this formula; that sound parenting is a must; that technology alone will not solve any problems.
The discussion here is larger than that. If you read EdWeek, it follows that you care about education. To you I ask, "Who's controlling the tone of the debate about public education?"
I will never say that we in the broader education community — from state board members to educators to custodians — should not aspire to greater academic success for our students. Indeed, we must. But I will not say that we are failing. And we should not let anyone who says so get away unchallenged, either.
Views expressed in this post are strictly those of the author and do not reflect the endorsement of the Learning First Alliance or any of its members.


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Manually Enter Cadence and Heart Rate data to an existing Strava Activity
I have a Bontrager Node 2 that calculates cadence and heart rate, tells me temperature too. Why cant I manually enter this data into my rides? I use my phone to access Strava for all other measurements. I cant justify investing in another device to add this data to Strava, if Strava allowed me to enter the average cadence and heart rate numbers at the end of the ride it would be perfect. Greg


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Precise Tan Chenille Upholstery Fabric *Bargain Bolt*
Code: X0884
2 yard(s) available
Price: $9.45
Width: 54 inches
Manufacturer: Farmington Fabrics
Precise Tan Chenille Upholstery Fabric *Bargain Bolt* is a special purchase fabric remant to add to your stash or for smaller projects. This bargain bolt fabric is good for pillows, bolsters, cushions, cornices, and other home decorating or craft projects where you don't need a huge amount of yardage. Be creative while saving money at the same time!
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EU's new approach to the cultivation of GMOs - guide13 July 2010
by eub2 -- last modified 13 July 2010
The European Commission has proposed to confer to EU Member States the freedom to allow, restrict or ban the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) on part or all of their territory. While keeping unchanged the EU's science-based GM authorisation system, the adopted package consists of a Communication, a new Recommendation on co-existence of GM crops with conventional and/or organic crops and a draft Regulation proposing a change to the GMO legislation. The new Recommendation on co-existence allows more flexibility to Member States taking into account their local, regional and national conditions when adopting co-existence measures. The proposed regulation amends Directive 2001/18/EC to allow Member States to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of GMOs in their territory.
Why is the Commission adopting this package today and what does it include?
In March 2010, the European Commission announced that it would come back before the summer break with a proposal on how to combine the EU science-based authorisation system with freedom for Member States to decide on the cultivation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). The package adopted today delivers on this commitment and complies fully with the position set out by President Barroso in the political guidelines he presented in September 2009.
What are co-existence measures and what does the new Recommendation on co-existence change?
The objective of co-existence measures, in areas where GMOs are cultivated, is to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in other products, preventing the potential economic loss and the impact of traces of GM crops in non-GM crops, such as conventional and organic crops.
Experience gained over the last years shows that Member States need more flexibility to take into consideration their particular local, regional and national conditions when defining measures to organise the cultivation of GM, conventional and organic crops.
The new Recommendation on co-existence recognises that Member States may adopt measures to avoid the unintended presence of GMOs in other products below the labelling threshold of 0.9%. When co-existence measures are not sufficient to prevent the unintended presence of GMOs in conventional or organic crops, Member States may restrict GMO cultivation in large areas of their territory. Such restriction measures need to be proportionate to the objective pursued (i.e. protection of particular needs of conventional or organic farming).
The Commission published in 2009 the second report on national strategies for coexistence of GM crops with conventional and organic farming. The report shows that 15 Member States adopted legislation on coexistence while three more notified draft legislation.
The European Coexistence Bureau (ECoB) develops together with Member States best practices for co-existence, which take into consideration that Member States need flexibility to take account of their local and regional conditions.
Further information on ECoB
What is the current procedure for authorising the cultivation of GMOs?
GMOs are authorised at EU level on a case-by-case basis on the basis of the particular uses defined by the application of the company, after a positive assessment of health and environmental risks. Applications for cultivation of GMOs can be submitted under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 for GM food and feed if those GMOs are to be used as source material in food and feed production. GMOs can also be authorised under the Directive for the deliberate release of GMOs into the environment (Directive 2001/18/EC) for uses other than food/feed. In both cases, the Member States play a significant role, carrying out the initial risk assessment of the GMO for cultivation.
Further information on the authorisation procedures
What are the amendments to the current legislation proposed by the Commission?
The proposed amendment provides for the addition of one article to Directive 2001/18/EC, which explicitly allows Member States to restrict or prohibit cultivation of GMOs on their territories. Member States may use any grounds to do so, other than those covered by the health and environmental risk assessment of the EU authorisation process. Therefore, the proposal gives competence to Member States to decide on cultivation.
When the legal amendment enters into force, Member States will be free to restrict or prohibit the cultivation of all or particular GMOs, in parts of or in their entire territory. This amendment will be applicable to all GMOs that have been authorised for cultivation in the EU, being under Directive 2001/18/EC or under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. According to this proposal Member States are only allowed to adopt measures against the cultivation of GMOs. They are not allowed to adopt measures prohibiting the import and/or the marketing in the EU of authorised GM seeds.
Are any GMOs already cultivated in the EU?
Yes. There is one GM maize –MON 810– that is commercially cultivated in the EU. This product's genetic modification aims to protect the crop against a harmful pest – the European corn borer. It was authorised in 1998.
A GM starch potato, known as "Amflora" potato, was authorised for cultivation and industrial processing on 2 March 2010. This starch potato has increased amylopectin starch content. The starch is intended for industrial uses, such as production of paper.
What are the GM plants that are authorised in the EU for feed and/or food uses?
Besides cultivation, the placing on the EU market of GMOs and the use of their derived products in the food and feed chain is subject to an EU authorisation.
As of today, the list of authorised GMOs includes also: one sugar beet, three soybean, three oilseed-rape, six cotton and 17 maize products.
One of the most recently authorised GMO is the "Amflora" starch potato. As it is the case for conventional starch potatoes, "Amflora" is not intended to be used as food. The by-product of the starch potato (pulp) is authorised as feed. The adventitious or technically unavoidable presence of this potato in food and animal feed is authorised up to a level of 0.9%
The list of authorised GM plants and the precise scope of their authorisation is available in the EU register of GM food and feed
Have Member States already prohibited GMO cultivation?
Six Member States (Austria, Hungary, France, Greece, Germany and Luxembourg) adopted safeguard measures and prohibited the cultivation of the GM maize MON810 on their territories. Moreover, Austria, Luxembourg and Hungary have notified to the Commission the prohibition of the cultivation of the "Amflora" potato. Poland has legislation in place forbidding the marketing of all GM seeds.
Member States could now reconsider their safeguard measures on GMO cultivation, when there is no scientific justification, and rather use the more flexible Recommendation on co-existence adopted today to avoid unintended GMO presence in other crops.
Once the addition proposed today of the relevant article to Directive 2001/18/EC is applicable, Member States will be able to restrict or prohibit GMO cultivation without resorting to the safeguard clause when no new scientific risk is identified.
Are there any other GMOs for cultivation on which the EU could take decision before the legal change is applicable?
There are more than ten requests for authorisation of GMOs for cultivation (or for their renewal), at different stages of the procedure.
Four GMOs are at an advanced stage. They have received a favourable European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) opinion and their authorisation procedure (or renewal of authorisation procedure) is ongoing. The favourable EFSA opinion concerning the renewal of the authorisation of MON810 maize, conferring protection to the plant against certain insects, was adopted in June 2009. There are two other GM maize products - Bt Maize 1507 (filed by Pioneer) and Bt maize Bt 11 (filed by Syngenta) -, which also confer protection to the plant against certain insects. The favourable EFSA opinions were respectively adopted in January 2005 and April 2005 and draft decisions to authorise these two GMOs were voted on 25 February 2009 in the framework of the Regulatory Committee under Directive 2001/18/EC. No qualified majority was obtained. The fourth one is maize NK 603 (filed by Monsanto), which is tolerant to the herbicide RoundUp. EFSA adopted a favourable opinion on this product in June 2009.
From a procedural point of view, the next step for MON810 and NK603 would be the submission of a draft decision to the Standing Committee for Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) (first step of the comitology procedure). Bt 11 and Bt 1507 are in the middle of the Comitology procedure, the next procedural step being the submission of decisions to the Council.
What improvements have been made to the environmental risk assessment of GMOs since the Council's request in December 2008?
The Commission and EFSA, together with the Member States, are working on the particular areas for improvement of the implementation of the GMO legislation, identified by the 2008 Environment Council conclusions.
The update of the EFSA guidelines for the environmental risk assessment is ongoing and covers the specific areas requested by the Council. Given the complexity of the topic, the need to ensure a broad consultation process and the large number of public comments (approximately 500), EFSA is expected to finish the guidelines in November 2010. The Commission will then discuss these guidelines with Member States to give them normative value with the Member States' endorsement.
Furthermore, EFSA is engaged in dialogue with Member States and stakeholders, enabling them to contribute to its scientific work. EFSA has created a network of Member State experts to exchange scientific knowledge and experience. EFSA is also considering all Member States' comments during the entire risk assessment process.
In addition, EFSA has a comprehensive set of internal mechanisms and working processes to safeguard the independence of the scientific work of its Scientific Committee and Panels, including a comprehensive policy on declarations of interest for its scientific experts. EFSA keeps this policy under regular review, and as encouraged by the Commission, will continue to strengthen the examination of the independence of its experts.
The Commission is analysing how to further reinforce the post-market environmental monitoring of GMO crops, in line with the provisions of the current legislation and the 2008 Environment Council conclusions.
When will the Commission finalise the report on the socio-economic implications of GMOs?
In December 2008, the Council requested the Commission to provide a report on the socio-economic implications of GMOs by June 2010.
This report should be based on information provided by Member States, which have made an important effort to compile information on the socio-economic implications of GMOs and, notably, of their cultivation. But given that Member States' contributions arrived later than expected, the Commission will finalize its report by the end of 2010. This report will then be submitted to the European Parliament and to the Council for consideration and further discussion.
Can we anticipate a speeding-up of the authorization process of GMOs and a rising of surface of GM cultivated areas in the EU?
There is no speeding up of authorisations or weakening of the rigorous environmental risk assessment requirements of the legislation. The proposal the Commission adopts today does not change these requirements. To the contrary, work on the implementation of the 2008 Council conclusions is since ongoing. Moreover, ensuring a safety assessment following the highest scientific standards and a reinforcement of the monitoring function were and remain priorities for the Commission as concerns GMO cultivation.
Source: European Commission


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Perhaps interest in Mongolia hasn't run this high since Genghis Khan and his descendants roamed far past the steppes of Eurasia nearly 800 years ago, sweeping to conquest on all sides. Back then, the united Mongol Empire swallowed territories from China to Europe and Russia to India, even part of the ancient Silk Road—named for the lucrative silk trade with China—as part of its vast land holdings.
Now, however, the launch of a new ETF from Global X Funds indicates growing investor interest in the country. The Global X Central Asia & Mongolia Index ETF (AZIA) seeks opportunities presented by central Asian countries, including Mongolia, and their close trade ties with China, as well as their rich natural resources. Opportunities are there aplenty, though the road is far from smooth.
Russia and China are far from the only outside nations exploring opportunities in Mongolia. The Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto is deeply involved, in the wake of 2009 legislation that advanced an investment agreement to develop the Oyu Tolgoi mine, thought to be one of the world's largest unmined copper deposits; it is also rich in gold and silver. Output from the mine is expected to boost the country's GDP by 33% once it's fully operational, with an ore deposit that runs for 20 miles beneath the sands of the Gobi Desert—comparable in size to Manhattan. The yield is expected to reach 330,000 ounces of gold annually, and an even more spectacular 450,000 tons of copper.
Rio Tinto has already spent more than $6 billion in development on Oyu Tolgoi (the name means "turquoise hill" in Mongolian), through its Turquoise Hill Resources unit. The Chinese aluminum firm Chalco bid on a majority interest in SouthGobi Resources, which mines coal from Tavan Tolgoi, another huge Mongolian mine. Toronto-based Kincora Copper owns the Bronze Fox copper-gold deposit. Mongolrostsvetmet is a joint venture between Russia and Mongolia, mining fluorspar, gold and iron. Other countries mining in Mongolia include Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany, the U.S. and Switzerland.
But here's the rub: in mid-2012, a resource nationalism effort to retain more income and resources from its mines led Mongolia to change its laws, and outside investment dropped by 17% for the year. From Mongolia's point of view, the new laws made sense, since currently coal from Tavan Tolgoi costs more to mine and deliver than Mongolia makes from its current agreement with Chalco. In addition, as its agreement with Rio Tinto is currently written, Mongolia stands to make no royalties from Oyu Tolgoi until Rio has recovered its investment, which could take years.
Mongolia suspended SouthGobi Resources' mining licenses last year after Chalco's bid, and followed with a law restricting foreign ownership of companies in strategic sectors, including mining, to 49%. In addition, coal delivery to Chalco was halted in January as Mongolia sought to renegotiate contract terms. In February, Rio Tinto threatened a delayed launch of the Oyu Tolgoi mine in a dispute with the government. Funding requirements in a stage-two mining report by the company reflect an inflation rate of some 30% in building costs for the mine, and neither the government nor the company are satisfied with the investment agreement as it stands.
A new minerals law has also been proposed that would allow the government to change tax rates on mine leases, take back leases that provide limited compensation, and gain free rights to shares in strategic mineral deposits. The proposal has not been welcome news to mining companies, whose shares plummeted on the government's actions.
Now, however, the government is wooing companies and investors back. Among new measures proposed to ease the way for foreign companies to do business in the country is the removal of a requirement for Mongolia's parliament to review minority investments by private companies. State-owned companies, however, would still be required to undergo a parliamentary review.
The country has also said it intends to legislate on investment to stabilize tax rules and avoid frequent change. In addition, debate on the proposed minerals law has been postponed till June.
The original prospectus for Global X's AZIA ETF was filed more than a year ago—prior to the Mongolian government's restrictive resource nationalism actions. With its new ETF barely a week old, research analyst Alex Ashby from Global X said that the current negotiations and disputes on regulation create an atmosphere that the firm is watching closely.
Still, "Mongolia is predicted to be a pretty high-growth country this year and obviously a portion of that is related to the natural resource production and demand from China, so that's the strongest link. Growth in Mongolia is hinged pretty solidly on increased and continuing demand for resources in China. So even when growth slows down a little bit, [China is] still such a huge consumer of natural resources that Mongolia could be a very strong partner," Ashby said.
Since the ETF investing is index-based, it's in for the long haul. "When we move forward with a product, we have a long-term view in mind as to what we think macro drivers will be in the future. Growth in China, the middle class there, and the consumption of natural resources [add up to] a trend we think is stronger in the long term. We see longer-term growth for investors with a longer-term horizon," Ashby said.
The ETF invests not in Mongolian companies, but "in companies that are headquartered in or have operations in Mongolia and central Asia, or get significant income from there," he said. And while opportunities abound, the firm is keeping a close eye on developments.
"It's a tricky situation for such a young government and a young democracy, in trying to balance the involvement of foreign countries that manage the natural resources, and make sure that the country also benefits proportionally from those investments and resources," Ashby said.
"It's definitely an area people are going to be looking at—that we're watching in Mongolia and [elsewhere in] central Asia as well. There's going to be some back-and-forth, but in the longer term, the country will want these companies operating there, and companies will want a clear and enforceable set of guidelines and rules that they can operate under. Negative developments have been reflected in past announcements—Rio Tinto and others—and had an effect on stock prices and companies. It's definitely an issue that we're watching," he said.
After all, silk wasn't the only thing that traveled the Silk Road. So did bubonic plague.


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In the interest of shining a light on the OEM vs aftermarket truth, I wanted to show off a little something I noticed during my travels. Not too long ago, I replaced my timing belt, pulleys, hydraulic tensioner, and water pump on my 2005 Subaru Impreza RS 2.5 SOHC (booo no turbo, I know, I know, it was a good deal). As you can imagine, I got part number GAEEK00038 from 1A Auto (Hey, I can throw a subtle ad in here if I want, amirite?) Anyway, the timing belt kit that I purchased was made by Gates, who is a very well known, and reputable brand in the auto part world. When I opened the box, it was a bit of an "Ah Ha!" moment. Mixed in with the Gates brand water pump and belt, were OEM pulleys! They had all the same markings as the OEM ones that I pulled off of my Subaru. Yes, 100% totally identical in every way. Cool right? (New ones on the left, old ones on the right)
Much like I had seen in the past, even though it is considered an "aftermarket" part, it may actually be OEM. Now, obviously this is not the case every time. In fact, I would say that it is the minority. But, hey, it happens more than you might think. Beautiful "aftermarket" …ehem… OEM… parts at a bargain price!


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Think Before You Marry
This show is not available in your regionWant to see it in your area? Tell us about it!
Marriage and divorce come a little too easily in modern Beijing society. When Long Xia (Tong Da Wei) and Yu Xiao Yu (Wang Li Kun) are both betrayed by their partners in different ways, they meet in Beijing and end up becoming roommates. But when their parents find out that they are cohabitating, they force the two to get married. Long Xia and Xiao Yu accept the situation without much thought. After marriage, the down-to-earth Xiao Yu discovers that the more materialistic Long Xia is her polar opposite. As conflicts arise with regular frequency between the impetuous newlyweds, they discover the importance of really getting to know someone before jumping in marriage. Can the unlikely couple make their marriage work? "Think Before You Marry" is a 2015 Chinese drama series.


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January 9, 2009
Contact: email@example.com
(202) 523-3240, ext. 114
WASHINGTON -- The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom is seriously concerned that the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) has failed to properly implement many of the recommendations in the Commission's Congressionally-authorized Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal. Almost four years after the release of that report, the Commission received an official response from DHS to the Commission's findings and recommendations. However, in a letter to DHS released today, the Commission expressed disappointment that many of the actions taken by DHS fail to accurately follow the recommendations or adequately address the problems identified in the report.
In its report, the Commission identified serious flaws in the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the expedited removal process and made a series of recommendations to the Departments of Homeland Security and Justice. These recommendations would further the aims of both protecting U.S. borders and ensuring fair and humane treatment for bona fide asylum seekers-two goals of the 1996 Expedited Removal law. However, as found in the report, this policy, as implemented, has put asylum seekers at the risk of being returned to countries where they face persecution.
As explained in the letter responding to DHS below, the Commission is calling on DHS to fully implement the recommendations found in the report:
The Honorable Stewart Baker
Assistant Secretary for Policy
Department of Homeland Security
Washington, D.C. 20528
Dear Assistant Secretary Baker:
Thank you for the official response dated November 28, 2008 from the Department of Homeland Security to the findings and recommendations of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom in our 2005 Report on Asylum Seekers in Expedited Removal ("USCIRF Report"). The USCIRF Report identified serious flaws in the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in the expedited removal process. To address these flaws, the Commission proposed a series of specific concrete measures to the Department.
I appreciate your description of the actions the Department of Homeland Security has undertaken to implement some of the recommendations in the Report. Few of these actions, however, accurately follow the recommendations or adequately address the problems identified in the USCIRF Report. Consequently, many of the same problems exist in the expedited removal and detention systems today as existed in 2005 when USCIRF issued its report. With the passage of almost four years without adequate action on the part of DHS, we are concerned that due to these systemic flaws, bona fide asylum seekers continue to be at great risk of being returned to countries where they face persecution. There are four areas to which I would specifically like to draw your attention:
· The Special Advisor for Refugees and Asylum Seekers requires greater authority so that s/he can effectively address and coordinate inter-bureau issues relating to asylum;
· Asylum seekers should not continue to be housed in jail-like facilities that create serious risks of psychological harm and significantly impede an asylum seeker's ability to access services and information necessary to present his/her legal case;
· New parole policies are necessary to ensure that asylum seekers who pose no risk of flight or danger are not subject to unnecessary detention; and
· Greater oversight is necessary to ensure qualified asylum seekers are not deported due to improper processing;
The Special Advisor for Refugees and Asylum Seekers Requires Greater Authority
A key USCIRF recommendation was the creation of the position of a high-level refugee coordinator to address the lack of coordination among the DHS agencies thathave responsibility for the Expedited Removal process. While we commend Secretary Chertoff for his appointment of a Senior Advisor for Refugee and Asylum Affairs in 2006 to coordinate department policy, the Commission remains concerned that the position does not have the status or resources, including necessary staff, to fully implement reforms and fulfill its responsibilities. Furthermore, the Commission was disappointed to learn that this position was tasked with handling broader immigration policy instead of focusing on refugee and asylum matters. The Commission continues to urge that the Senior Advisor be placed in a high-level position with the requisite staff needed to implement the reforms and coordination called for in the USCIRF Report.
Asylum Seekers should not continue to be housed in Jail-like Facilities
USCIRF also recommended that non-criminal asylum seekers be placed in "non-jail-like" facilities, such as the facility in Broward County, Florida. While we appreciate the new, performance-based standards of detention developed by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, we do not believe that these standards address our concerns or recommendations. These standards, which are not legally binding, rely on correctional standards, which are inappropriate to asylum seekers. Additionally, contrary to USCIRF recommendations, DHS's use of jails and jail-like facilities has increased in the past few years.
New Parole Policies are Necessary
The November 2007 promulgation of new parole criteria contradicts our recommendation that asylum seekers with a credible fear of persecution and who pose neither a flight nor security risk are released from detention. In contrast to our recommendation, the ICE Policy Directive requires that additional hurdles be met for the parole of asylum seekers with a credible fear of persecution and who pose no danger to society.
While USCIRF has credited ICE for its development of a uniform worksheet and review to gather information for parole decisions, we remain concerned that an asylum seeker who meets the original criteria (the credible fear standard, established identity, and who poses neither a security nor a flight risk) must nowestablish that there are medical reasons that warrant release, that (s)he is a juvenile or a government witness in a legal proceeding, or that release would be "in the public interest." The new ICE directive provides no definition or guidance of what constitutes "the public interest." USCIRF continues to recommend that the ICE Policy Directive initial criteria be implemented and the secondary eligibility criteria be withdrawn.
Greater oversight is Necessary to Ensure Qualified Asylum Seekers Aren't Deported Due to Improper Processing
USCIRF continues to urge the Department to allow asylum officers to grant asylum claims during the credible fear interview and establish more quality assurance procedures, including the videotaping of secondary interviews at all major points of entry. Further, the Commission continues to recommend the use of live testers (actors) who go through the process and report on whether procedures were followed.
In conclusion, allow me to emphasize that the Commission commends DHS on efforts that addressed recommendations articulated in the Report. USCIRF welcomes the efforts by the Department to expand the Legal Orientation Program and partnerships with service providers to ensure that asylum seekers have access to legal assistance during the credible fear stage of the asylum process. We encourage the Department to continue to expand these efforts. We have also welcomed the asylum training course developed by the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and encourage that this course be made mandatory at IGSAs.
We look forward to continuing to work with you and the Department to address and implement USCIRF recommendations that have yet to be acted upon. Thank you for your consideration of our concerns.
Felice D. Gaer
CC: Secretary Michael Chertoff
Acting Special Advisor for Refugee and Asylum Affairs Brandon Preloger


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Black hole found in Omega Centauri
Omega Centauri has been known to be an unusual globular cluster for a long time. A new result obtained by Hubble and the Gemini Observatory reveals that the globular cluster may have a rare intermediate-mass black hole hidden in its centre, implying that it is likely not a globular cluster at all, but a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars.
Omega Centauri, the largest and brightest globular cluster in the sky, is visible from Earth with the naked eye and is one of the favourite celestial objects for stargazers from the southern hemisphere. Although 17 000 light-years away, it located just above the plane of the Milky Way and appears almost as large as the full Moon when seen from a dark, rural area.
Images obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys and data from the GMOS spectrograph on the Gemini South telescope in Chile show that Omega Centauri appears to harbour an elusive and rare intermediate-mass black hole in its centre.
"This result shows that there is a continuous range of masses for black holes - from supermassive, to intermediate-mass, to small stellar mass types", explained astronomer Eva Noyola of the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Garching, Germany, leader of the team that made the discovery.
Noyola and colleagues measured the motions and brightness of the stars at the centre of Omega Centauri. The measured velocities of the stars in the centre are related to the total mass of the cluster and were far higher than expected from the mass deduced from the number and type of stars seen. So, there had to be something extraordinarily massive (and invisible) at the centre of the cluster responsible for the fast-swirling dance of stars — almost certainly a black hole of about 40 000 solar masses.
"Before this observation, we had only one example of an intermediate-mass black hole — in the globular cluster G1, in the nearby Andromeda Galaxy", said Karl Gebhardt at the University of Texas, Austin, USA, member of the team that made the discovery. According to Noyola the presence of an intermediate-mass black hole is the most likely reason for the stellar speedway near the cluster's centre. These intermediate-mass black holes could even be the seeds to create supermassive black holes. This provides astronomers with important new clues to understand one of the possible formation mechanisms of these galactic monsters.
This discovery also has important implications on the very nature of Omega Centauri. Globular clusters contain up to one million old stars bound tightly by gravity and are found in the outskirts of many galaxies including our own. Omega Centauri already has several characteristics that distinguish it from other globular clusters: it rotates faster than average, its shape is highly flattened and it consists of several generations of stars, while typical globular clusters usually consist of just one generation of old stars. It is also about 10 times as massive as other big globular clusters, almost as massive as a small galaxy.
The fact that intermediate-mass black holes may be rare and exist only in former dwarf galaxies that have been stripped of their outer stars, reinforces the idea that Omega Centauri is not a globular cluster but indeed a dwarf galaxy stripped of its outer stars in an earlier encounter with the Milky way.
Notes for editors:
The European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Paranal, Chile, will be used to conduct follow-up observations of the velocity of the stars near the cluster's centre to confirm the discovery.
The finding will be published in the 10 April issue of the Astrophysical Journal in a paper titled 'Gemini and Hubble Space Telescope Evidence for an Intermediate Mass Black Hole in Omega Centauri' by Eva Noyola (Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany & University of Texas, Austin, USA), Karl Gebhardt (University of Texas, Austin) and Marcel Bergmann (Gemini Observatory).
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and ESA.
For more information:
Eva Noyola, Max-Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Garching, Germany/University of Texas, USA
E-mail: Noyola @ mpe.mpg.de
Lars Lindberg Christensen, Hubble/ESA, Garching, Germany
E-mail: Lars @ eso.org
Ray Villard, Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, USA
E-mail: Villard @ stsci.edu
Peter Michaud, Gemini Observatory, Hilo, Hawaii, USA
E-mail: PMichaud @ gemini.edu


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UEFA Grassroots Day celebrated around Europe
Wednesday 16 May 2012
Article summary
UEFA Grassroots Day has been marked in Munich and all over Europe with a series of especially arranged activities promoting the message that football is open to everyone.
Article top media content
Article body
In the lead-up to this week's UEFA Champions League finals for men and women, the third UEFA Grassroots Day has highlighted the link between the elite and grassroots levels of the game, with Giovane Elber and Willy Sagnol involved in activities to mark the occasion in Munich.
Elber and Sagnol, who both played in the FC Bayern München team that won Europe's elite club trophy in 2001, took part in a specially arranged skills clinic, offering inspiration to youngsters from local club FC Tirschenreuth with a 90-minute session as part of the UEFA Champions Festival.
Another grassroots highlight of the day was a mini Champions League tournament for local schools, organised by the Bavarian Football Association (BFV), with each team representing a club from this season's UEFA Champions League. Meanwhile, youngsters were able to test their ability at a series of skills stations around the UEFA Champions Festival site at the Olympiapark.
As well as the activities taking place in Munich, the grassroots game was also celebrated across many of UEFA's 53 member associations. In Scotland UEFA Grassroots Day was marked in Edinburgh's Festival Square, where former Heart of Midlothian FC and Hibernian FC players Jimmy Sandison and Keith Wright gave a coaching session.
Wright, who made 197 appearances for Hibernian between 1991 and 1997, said: "UEFA Grassroots Day is a special day to raise awareness of the importance of football for young people.
"Today there are so many distractions like video games and television which keep kids inside, but if there is fun, open and accessible football opportunities we can increase the number of people playing the game and, in turn, see the health benefits to the country."
Elsewhere, a schools' football event for 400 children was arranged in Keuruu, Finland, a special festival took place in the Azeri city of Zaqatala and in Belgium, activities for six to 12-year olds were set up at professional clubs all over the country.
Meanwhile, in Slovenia, grassroots activities were arranged around the UEFA European Under-17 Championships final in Ljubljana, as well as nine regional football associations around the country.
An annual highlight of the football calendar since it was created in 2010, UEFA Grassroots Day emphasises UEFA's commitment to the foundations of the game, while also relaying the important messages that elite football cannot flourish without healthy grassroots and that the game is open to everyone.


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The Xikar EX cigar lighter in chrome silver is stylish and powerful. The Xikar EX cigar lighter's durable casing protects the reliable windproof flame in the EX lighter. The EX cigar lighter features a protective flip cap, easy fuel adjustment wheel and beautiful durable finish. Balancing style, materials, price and performance, the EX lighter is just what you've been waiting for.
Xikar EX cigar lighter has a lifetime guarantee from the manufacturer. If you feel that a XIKAR lighter fails to live up to the promise of fit, finish and function, simply return it to the manufacturer and they will immediately and cheerfully repair or replace your product under their 100% Total Satisfaction Guarantee!


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- News
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TORONTO — Golshifteh Farahani says her new movie can never been shown in Iran because of the theme — it's about a Muslim woman revealing grievances about her marriage — and because of the fact that she is the star.
"Maybe if it was another actress ..." she begins, before saying, "No, no way. No way. There's no way that they show it in a cinema."
Farahani, 29, was the biggest star in Iran until she was banished from the country this year when she showed her breast in a French video. It was an ad promoting the Cesar Awards, and Farahani, who lives in Paris, was one of 30 young actors who took off an item of clothing to demonstrate how they bared their souls for their art. She slipped off the corner of her blouse.
The reaction was immediate: the Fars News Agency said the video showed the "hidden, disgusting face of cinema" and an official of the Islamic republic's supreme court phoned her parents, who live in Tehran, and said her breasts would be cut off and given to them on a plate.
It wasn't the first time the actress had upset the regime. Her passport was taken away because she made an American movie, Body of Lies, the 2008 Ridley Scott thriller with Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe. She also had her working permit cancelled because she hadn't worn a head scarf at the film's New York City premiere.
Now comes the new movie, called The Patience Stone, which also features a brief nude scene. Based on a novel by French-Afghan writer-director Atiq Rahimi, it concerns an Afghan woman whose husband has been paralyzed by a bullet in his back. As he lies there, uncomprehending, she begins to tell him her confession: how she was oppressed by his family, felt sexually unsatisfied (the couple never kissed), and how she has now begun an affair with a young soldier to whom she poses as a prostitute.
It's explosive material, but Farahani says it would be a mistake to think her character represents the life of women in Afghanistan or Iran. The woman who has upset the government of her country still is connected to its people.
"We know that there's horrible pressure on women in Islamic countries," she said during an interview at the Toronto International Film Festival.
"But for me, the most powerful women I've ever seen, they were in Islamic countries and not in the West ... It's not that they're not victims. The law is not friendly. If there's divorce, they give the children to the father. Law is with the men in a way. But the women found a way to manage, so they became stronger."
For Farahani, though, it can never be home again.
"If I work in Iran, I have to respect the law which is definite about things you shouldn't do, like showing your hair or touching men in a scene or things like that," she says. "But now I'm living in Paris, working in Paris, and there was no way to have both. So I had to choose."
She misses the people and the natural beauty of her country.
"I love Iran," she says. "It's hurting and it will always be like this, but anyways I choose this path and I have to walk on it. I cannot go back. I don't know exactly what will happen if I go back, but now I decided to work in art because I knew I cannot work in Iran anymore. So I decided to live my life as an artist."
Farahani can't understand why Canada has chosen to close its embassy there, saying it provided a way for people to go between the countries, establishing "a path of friendship."
"There are thousands of Iranians in Toronto; they're great citizens, and they all went to the embassy and now they're here working. How can you close your embassy? Why? What is the reason?"
It's an impassioned question. She is equally passionate in emphasizing how the wife in The Patience Stone is just one character, not an entire nation.
"In the west, we don't have any idea of what's happening there, (so) it represents the whole society," she says. "But when you read Madame Bovary, you cannot say all French women, they are like Madame Bovary ... If you show a drop and you say 'you see, this is the ocean'. But this is a drop. If you want to see the ocean, you have to go and swim in the ocean. You can never judge what is the ocean. She's herself. She's an individual."
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What is an Archives? Is it some mysterious club that only library workers belong to? The short answer is no. Chances are you have an archive at home -maybe love letters to your spouse, family photos, mom's wedding gown, a collection of your favorite vinyl records. My personal archives consists of photographs, handwritten love letters from my husband, my first piece of jewelry from my dad. Yes, everyone has something worth preserving for future generations.
The Society of American Archivists defines archives as materials created or received by a person, a family, or an organization, public or private, in the conduct of their affairs and preserved because of the enduring value in the information they contain or because they provide evidence of the function and the responsibilities of their creator. Both these records, and the places in which they are kept, are called archives. Archival records take many forms, including correspondence, diaries, photographs, video or audio recordings, publications, and electronic records. The people who manage these records are called Archivists. Archivists, or in my case Archival Assistants, keep records that have enduring value as reliable memories of the past, and they help people find and understand the information they need in those records. Now that you understand the terms archives and archivist, let's move on to preservation.
As defined by the Society of American Archivists, Preservation is the act of keeping from harm, injury, decay, or destruction, especially through invasive treatment. Have you ever seen the yellowing, fading, and warping of papers, books, or photographs exposed to too much light (artificial and natural) and heat , perhaps from sitting around somebody's hot garage for days, months, or years or from hanging near a window? What about the mold spots growing on that picture in Grandma's attic? If you want to save these materials for future generations, place them in a room with minimal light exposure and with climate control to lower temperature and humidity.
Your University Archives has many records that document the history of the campus. Do you know that in the very beginning this campus was a medical school, not the UT Health Science Center? Do you know the names of the founding faculty members? Are you curious about the first graduating class or are you interested in researching early medical doctors who lived and practiced in San Antonio?
Materials in the University Archives include photographs (like the ones pictured below), yearbooks, news clippings, meeting minutes, student newsletters, graduation programs, video and sounds recordings, college catalogs, casebooks and journals, and many other items – too many to list here.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to read my post. If you have a story of the early days of the Health Science Center or medicine in San Antonio to share, please send to email@example.com or call 210-567-2470. Happy Archives Month, All.
Information Courtesy of:
Mellisa DeThorne, Keeper of precious things


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More Rain Expected for Already Swollen Rivers
CLARKSVILLE, Mo. (AP) - Makeshift levees mostly held back the water in communities along the Mississippi River and other Midwestern waterways, but meteorologists warn that looming storms could cause problems. An inch of rain is expected to fall on a wide swath from Oklahoma to Michigan through Tuesday. The National Weather Service says that could raise crest forecasts on some rivers, especially the Illinois River, and slow the retreat of others.
The hastily built barrier in Clarksville, Mo., showed signs of strain Monday, and volunteers in the town 70 miles north of St. Louis scrambled to build a second wall to catch the water that found its way past the first.
Additional rain could be troublesome in Michigan, too, where the Grand River drove hundreds from their homes in Grand Rapids and flooded downtown.


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Contact Us
Do you need to get in touch? We hope our website menu items will lead you to the right areas but please don't hesitate to contact us if you can't find the information you are looking for.
You can enter your details in the contact form below if you require any additional assistance or have a specific query you would like answered. We'd be delighted to hear from you.
You can also use the form below to let us know if you have any comments, feedback or suggestions.


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"Tell Congress To Take Its Appropriations Power And Shove It"Comments
Over the last year Bob Woodward has refined a perfect synthesis of green lanternism ("the president could convince his partisan opponents in Congress to do anything if only he were enough of a leader to lead, thorough leadership") and tightly related centrist wankery ("the national interest is precisely identical to a pain caucus 'grand bargain.'") I would have to say, though, that today's assertion that Obama should just go ahead and violate the law like Saints Reagan and Clinton surely would have takes things one more farcical step further.
…BREAKING! David Ignatius explains, in specific detail, how the green lantern could be raised!
Obama tries everything to gain control — except a clear, firm presidential statement that speaks to everyone onboard, those who voted for him and those who didn't — that could get the country where it needs to go.
If only Obama were a leader with leadership capabilities, he would show leadership by issuing a firm, hard presidential statement that would immediately get everyone to agree with him, especially congressional Republicans. Westen was right!


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One of the biggest challenges the Dallas Cowboys face as they spin forward is fixing their running game.
Coach Jason Garrett was criticized for his lack of committment to the run in 2012, though it didn't help that running back DeMarco Murray was never the same player after suffering a foot injury that cost him six games.
The Cowboys ran for just 1,265 rushing yards as a team, a franchise-worst figure over a 16-game season. It led to the firing of running backs coach Skip Peete, who was replaced by Gary Brown. Officially added to the staff on Monday, Brown believes Murray can be a star in his third season.
"I believe so," Brown said, via The Dallas Morning News. "We all know that the injury bug has bit him a little bit. We have to keep him healthy, and he and I will work together to just refine some of his things and get him better. Obviously he is a good, talented runner. We just want to shine up some of his things and get him to be an elite runner."
Expect a shake-up on the depth chart after Murray. Felix Jones is a free agent who's likely run out of chances to prove himself. Brown hinted that the Cowboys will pursue a player with a different style than Murray.
"You probably just want a guy that's going to come in and complement him in the way maybe of just being, maybe more of a jitterbug type guy," Brown said. "It's hard to say. I've only been here a few days."
This is an important year for Murray, who needs to stay healthy if he wants to prove himself to be a bell-cow type back. If Murray goes down again, part of Brown's job will be finding out a way to keep the running game moving.


text: From sea shells and spiral galaxies to the structure of human lungs, the patterns of chaos are all around us. Fractals are patterns formed from chaotic equations and contain self-similar patterns of complexity increasing with magnification. If you divide a fractal pattern into parts you get a nearly identical reduced-size copy of the whole. The mathematical beauty of fractals is that infinite complexity is formed with relatively simple equations. By iterating or repeating fractal-generating equations many times, random outputs create beautiful patterns that are unique, yet recognizable. We have pulled together some of the most stunning natural examples we could find of fractals on our planet. Above: Romanesco Broccoli This variant form of cauliflower is the ultimate fractal vegetable. Its pattern is a natural representation of the Fibonacci or golden spiral, a logarithmic spiral where every quarter turn is farther from the origin by a factor of phi, the golden ratio. Image: Flickr/Tin.G.Salt Flats The San Francisco Bay salt flats pictured above have been used for commercial salt production for over a century. Below, an image from the largest salt flat in the world, Salar de Uyuni, located in southern Bolivia. The encrusted salt shows a remarkably consistent but random pattern, a characteristic of fractals. Images: 1) Flickr/Tolka Rover. 2) Flickr/Mike D. Green.Ammonite Sutures Extinct for 65 million years, ammonites were marine cephalopods that built chambered spiral shells. The walls between these chambers, called sutures, were complex fractal curves. Stephen Jay Gould used the complexity of ammonite sutures over time to argue that there is no evolutionary drive toward greater complexity and that we are a "glorious accident," alone in the universe. The shells of ammonites also grow as a logarithmic spiral, a pattern that appears often in nature, as with romanesco broccoli. Ammonites also inspired this cathedral staircase in Barcelona, Spain. Images: 1) Flickr/cobalt123. 2) Flickr/Didier.bier. 3) Flickr/Edgley CesarMountains Mountains are the result of tectonic forces pushing the crust upward and erosion tearing some of that crust down. The resulting pattern is a fractal. Above is an image of the Himalayan Mountains, home to many of the tallest peaks on Earth. The Himalayas are still being uplifted by the collision of India with the Eurasian plate, which began about 70 million years ago. Image: NASA/GSFC/JPL, MISR Team.Ferns Ferns are a common example of a self-similar set, meaning that their pattern can be mathematically generated and reproduced at any magnification or reduction. The mathematical formula that describes ferns, named after Michael Barnsley, was one of the first to show that chaos is inherently unpredictable yet generally follows deterministic rules based on nonlinear iterative equations. In other words, random numbers generated over and over using Barnsley's Fern formula ultimately produce a unique fern-shaped object. Images: 1) Flickr/cobalt123. 2) Flickr/CatDancing.Clouds The marine stratus clouds above were photographed by the Aqua satellite over the South Atlantic Ocean, off the west coast of Africa. A fractal cloud pattern is interrupted by a series of diagonal grooves. According the NASA Earth Observatory, it is highly unusual to see such a sharp boundary in a continual cloud formation such as this, and scientists have yet to explain how it could form. Below, the 200-mile long series of cloud vortexes is perhaps the longest of these formations ever photographed, according to NASA. These cloud vortexes are also called von Kármán cloud streets, for the late fluid dynamicist Theodore von Kármán. Cloud streets form when low-lying clouds are interrupted by an object such as an island. Similar patterns occur in the wind flow downstream of airplane wings. Images: 1) Jeff Schmaltz/MODIS Land Rapid Response Team/NASA. 2) NASA.Leaves Many plants follow simple recursive formulas in generating their branching shapes and leaf patterns. Ironically, deforestation patterns that occur along primary, secondary and tertiary roadways form a similar pattern, like that pictured below from the state of Rondonia in western Brazil, one of the most deforested regions of the Amazon. Images: 1) Flickr/ CatDancing. 2) NASA.Canyons This false-color image above, of the Grand Canyon, displays the fractal pattern created by the Colorado River over millions of years. Red indicates areas of vegetation in the image. Below, a false-color image of Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona. The National Park Service calls it one of the longest continually inhabited landscapes in North America. Images: 1) GeoEye/Space Imaging. 2) NASA.Lightning The path lightning takes is formed step by step as it moves towards the ground, turning air into plasma. Images: 1) Flickr/thefost. 2) Flickr/Brujo+.Peacock Feathers Peacocks attract mates with the repeating patterns in their plumage. Images: 1) Flickr/Digimist. 2) Flickr/Maia C.Snowflakes Crystallizing water forms repeating patterns in snowflakes and on frosty surfaces. The patterns have inspired claims about the power of consciousness to affect matter, as well as one of the first described fractal curves, the Koch snowflake. Images: 1) Flickr/mommamia. 2) Flickr/monteregina.Waterfall Similar to canyons, a combination of rock irregularity and gravity produces repeating patterns as water flows over the side of a sharp ledge. Image: Flickr/catdancingRiver Delta The Yukon River branches into thousands of distributary channels as it drains into the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska. The river is flowing right to left in the image, with the Bering Sea visible in the far left side of the image. Image: NASA.See Also:Channeling Earth: Rivers Seen From SpaceInexplicable Superconductor Fractals Hint at Higher Universal LawsGeeky Math Equation Creates Beautiful 3-D WorldCryosphere: Earth's Icy Extremes Seen From SpaceThe Oldest Trees on the PlanetSee Them While You Can: Endangered Butterfly Gallery


text:
Shareology hasn't been to the Minnesota State Fair in years: many, many years. At some point riding various choices on the Midway, until one debarks and deplanes in a less than perfect state, just loses its appeal. However, once every twenty years or so an opportunity presents itself and it is time to take another look. Oh, yeah, crowds. Shareology hates crowds. The thing about the Fair is by the time you are tired and want to go home, you are acres away from your vehicle and hours away from escape. Oh, yeah, now I remember why I don't go to the Fair.
That being said, Shareology did manage the horse and cattle barns, a free malt, the butter carving station, the new baby animal barn, and a few animals that didn't live on the farm she grew up on. Alpacas or llamas? You be the judge.
Although the only thing better than a free malt might be a raspberry sundae……those lines really move! It's a miracle I ever left the Dairy Building. Ya got do something while working on that free malt; turns out that puts you 3 feet from the best known exhibit at the Fair: Butter Sculpture!!
Time to head to the cattle barns, where the contrasts are kinda interesting. (Shareology still knows the difference between a Hereford and an Angus, and what a raised tail on a cow means. The two things it could mean.)
Definitely time to head for the Giraffe Parking Lot……ooooohhhh, look it's llama judging!!!
That black llama rocks!!! OKay, time for one last foot long and this time Shareology is really leaving……..See Ya There!!
In say another twenty years……
Kay Roseland @KayLoire


text:
Eliza Robertson
Eliza Robertson attended the creative writing programs at the University of Victoria and University of East Anglia, where she received the 2011 Man Booker Scholarship. Her first collection, Wallflowers, was shortlisted for the Canadian Authors Association Emerging Writer Award, the Danuta Gleed Short Story Prize, the East Anglia Book Award and selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice. In 2015, she was named by Joseph Boyden as one of five emerging writers for the Writers' Trust Five x Five program.
Eliza Robertson on Granta.com
Five Things Right NowFive Things Right Now | The Online Edition
Five Things Right Now | The Online Edition
Five Things Right Now: Eliza Robertson
Eliza Robertson
'For me, astrology's opened this new language and field of understanding. '
FictionFiction | The Online Edition
Fiction | The Online Edition
The Maenad
Eliza Robertson
'She feels the wildness enter her and keeps her eyes shut.' New fiction from Eliza Robertson.


text:
Good morning its Susan here from Craftin' Suzie welcoming you to another Hostess Monday at Digital Delights which I am delighted to be hostessing.
I have recently been making quite a few shadow box cards after seeing them on Pinterest and in Blogland so I thought it would be nice to make one for today. The design is not mine I have seen quite a few tutorials to make them and it is quite easy. Here is my card:
I have used :
Standing Santa available here
Christmas Hugs Sentiments available here
To make the card you need to pieces of card the same size, I used 6" x 6". Score each card at either end 1" and 1/2" from the edge. On the first piece fold like this:
Then fold the next crease:
On the other card just fold the opposite way and mark the centre:
Then place a die for your aperture so it is in the centre, use low tack tape to hold in place:
To make a frame for the aperture I use the die that I used to make the aperture and the next size up one and tape them down:
Then its just a case of making sure you can see your image through the aperture:
Then glue both sides together and decorate as you like! The card folds flat for posting. Here is a side view:
I do hope you have a go, its a really easy card to make and looks fabulous in real life! Thank you so much for looking and I would like to wish you all a Happy Holiday!


text:
There may be more science behind the lush landscape of "Avatar's" Pandora than the average movie-goer would expect.
Jon Landau, who produced the 3-D sci-fi epic along with James Cameron, brought on a plant physiologist to consult on the moon's native flora and to determine just how a scientist would study it.
"After being briefed on the plot and being shown early images of the plants on Pandora by Jon Landau, I met with Sigourney Weaver [who plays botanist Grace Augustine] and set designers to talk about how a field botanist would study and sample plants to learn about their physiology and biochemistry," Jodie Holt, chairwoman of the department of botany and plant sciences at UC Riverside, told The LA Times.
U.S. & World
After advising Weaver, Holt went on to develop full descriptions and a naming system for the moon's plant-life, which all appear in the book "Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide."
"Since some of the plants looked like Earth plants, while others were quite fantastic, and others resembled each other, I started by grouping them by somewhat similar appearance to develop a crude taxonomy," Holt told the paper.
But, as with any major Hollywood flick, the science is never perfect -- Holt did find one flaw in botanist Grace Augustine's lab.
"The fact that Grace smoked could be a problem in the lab," she told the paper. "The tobacco mosaic virus is common on cigarette tobacco and can easily be transmitted from a smoker's hands to biological samples and contaminate them."


text:
A soaking wet man, bound and suffering from stab wounds, crawled from Philadelphia's Schuylkill River after he and two other men were abducted, attacked, robbed and dumped into the water, police said.
The other two victims never made it out of the river.
Philadelphia Police rushed to the water along Kelly Drive near Hunting Park Avenue in Fairmount Park around 4 a.m. Wednesday after someone called 911 to report a partially-dressed injured man screaming along the roadway.
U.S. & World
When authorities arrived on the scene, they found the man, identified by NBC10 sources as 23-year-old Thanh Voong, soaking wet and suffering from multiple stab wounds to his stomach and legs. His arms and legs were partially bound and he had duct tape on his face.
The attack left Voong in critical condition at Hahnemann University Hospital, where he underwent surgery for seven stab wounds.
Investigators found two bodies submerged in the water -- both bound with tape and tied or tethered to some sort of anchor.
Police using flashlights taped off an area along the river and searched for clues about what happened. Police dive teams finally recovered the bodies, which could be seen in about 5 to 10 feet of water, around 8:30 a.m.
Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said the victim told investigators that about five men abducted him near 62nd Street and Woodland Avenue in Southwest Philly and threw him into the back of a van around 1 a.m.
"While in the back of the van he was blindfolded, he was stabbed numerous times, he was robbed of an undisclosed amount of money," said Small. "He says that while in the back of the van he then realized that there were two other males in the back of the van... they were duct taped and they appeared to have been stabbed numerous times."
Police believe at some point Tuesday night, the abductors brought the men to a home at 72nd and Elmwood Streets. Officers returned to the home Wednesday night. Investigators tell NBC10 they found a marijuana growing operation inside, leading them to believe the abduction and attack was related to drugs. Small also said that robbery was the motive behind the attack.
Voong was unsure whether the two men with him in the vehicle were alive or dead, according to investigators.
Detectives are reviewing surveillance video that captured the area near where the abduction took place in hopes of finding the van and the suspects.
Voong somehow climbed out of the water, said Small.
An initial investigation showed that the men were dragged across the concrete and grass before being dumped in the river, according to police on the scene.
Police responded to the victim's Northern Liberties home to collect evidence.
"There were original reports of blood evidence," said Philadelphia Police Cpt. James Clark. "That is not the case. Through the investigation we found out the surviving victim lived there so we went to that residence. But the crime did not happen there."
Police continue to investigate. No arrests have been made.


text:
Nanni Balestrini, Tristano, copy #10750 (Verso, 2014).
In order to program a poetry machine, one would first have to repeat the entire Universe from the beginning—or at least a good piece of it.
— Stanislaw Lem [1]
"All directions are of equal importance." This is the second sentence in the second paragraph on page 88 of my copy of Nanni Balestrini's 1966 novel Tristano, #10750. You cannot read this novel, unless I lend it to you, as each of the 10,000 copies Verso publish this month contain different iterations of the same text.


text:
For all of the "Sex and The City" fans growing more and more anxious for the release of "Sex and The City 2," some exciting new soundtrack news should be able to keep you satiated. Just two days prior to the release of the movie (due in theaters May 27, 2010) the soundtrack is set to debut, and the album will be jam-packed with some of Hollywood's most noted recording artists.
E! Online's Marc Malkin reports that the soundtrack will feature a smorgasborg of hit singers, lead by pop-diva Alicia Keys, who will be performing a cover of Blondie's hit "Rapture" remixed with none other than the iconic "Sex and The City" theme song.
Jason Linn of WaterTower, the soundtrack's label, tells Malkin that producer Salaam Remi had Alicia in mind when he created the mix.
"She's [Alicia's] the perfect voice to introduce the… music of 'Sex and The City 2'."
Also on the playlist… a duet with Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson, who also had a role in the first "Sex and The City" film as Carrie Bradshaw's hopeless romantic assistant (Jennifer will not be reprising her role in the sequel, unfortunately). Also, Brit pop star Leona Lewis will be singing an original ballad called "Love Is Your Color."
To add to the anticipation of its release, the fab four, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon, will themselves be featured on the album, belting out Helen Reddy's hit "I Am Woman."
Additionally, megastar Liza Minnelli will be singing a cover of Beyonce's smash hit "Single Ladies." New tunes from Dido and Cee-Lo will be featured on the soundtrack, as well.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Scenes From 'Sex And The City 2'
VIEW THE PHOTOS: 'Sex And The City' NYC Premiere
PLAY IT NOW: Sarah Jessica Parker Brings Carrie Couture To Vogue
PLAY IT NOW: New Trailer: 'Sex And The City 2'
MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Sex And The City - Music - Movies - Cynthia Nixon - Kim Cattrall


text:
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text:
West Bountiful fourth-graders visit residents at Avalon Care Center
Real-world experience • Semi-monthly trips allow students to work on literacy, art and social skills.
Carol Lindsay | The Salt Lake Tribune Avalon Care Center resident Janine Coltran visits with Sophie Thornock, left, and Annie Salazar as part of a program at West Bountiful Elementary where students read to residents to improve literacy and social skills.
Bountiful • Two little girls sit on a couch in the library, reading to an elderly woman in a wheelchair. Another woman sits in curlers with her head under a hair dryer as she is read to and shown pictures. Other students sit in chairs in resident's rooms reading.
The fourth-grade students in Stephanie Feller's West Bountiful Elementary class make the mile trek to Avalon Care Center in Bountiful twice a month to visit with residents.
The program gives 26 fourth-graders the opportunity to serve others, practice their social skills and learn to interact and talk with others.
"They gain reading fluency in the real world," explained Feller.
While some students were a little nervous at first, by November they had all warmed up to the residents and were comfortable interacting.
"They are more willing to break out and talk to others, they just shine here," Feller said.
The youth choose the books they will read. They are assigned to a resident at the beginning of the program and will read to that resident throughout the school year. This allows the students and resident to establish a relationship. If a student is absent on a reading day, a parent volunteer steps in and reads to the resident.
The students also make cards and share artwork with the residents. Some students play the piano. They have plans to write and perform a play for the residents later in the year.
Janine Coltran, a resident at the facility, enjoys visiting with her two readers.
"They are just fabulous, so smart and intelligent," Coltran said.
Annie Salazar, 10, and Sophie Thornock, 9, read to Coltran. Both said they were nervous their first week but quickly warmed up and now look forward to their visits. "I just got to know her, and I really like it," Annie said. "I like reading and talking to her."
Candice Arona and her husband Alex came to the facility as parent volunteers with their daughter Olivia. Candice Arona, a registered nurse, particularly enjoyed visiting because she was a former nurse at the facility.
"I was so excited when Olivia told me about this program. It's great for the residents, but even but even more wonderful for the students,"Candice Arona said.
After the students are finished reading, they meet with the residents in the activity room for a meet and greet and refreshments. The enthusiasm and energy in the room is high. Students shake hands with all the residents and ask them how they are doing and learn about their families and lives.
Lisa Deguenon, therapeutic recreation therapist, is always looking for activities to keep her residents happy and active. She looks forward to having the students in the facility.
"Our folks just love them! They love to listen to them read and just visit with them. The youth are so enthusiastic and vibrant, they add a real energy to the atmosphere," Degunenon said.
Twitter: @sltribDavis
© 2012 The Salt Lake Tribune
West Bountiful fourth-graders visit residents at Avalon Care Center
By Carol Lindsay
Special to The Tribune


text:
Dr Annette Gero @ Burwood: 1pm, 4 December 2010
The final meeting of The Quilters' Guild of NSW Inc for 2010 is set for 1pm, Saturday 4 December at Burwood RSL.
11am demonstration by Cathy Jack Coupland
Shop: Logan's Patchwork Fabrics
Come along to hear Dr Annette Gero's presentation about her 2009 Guild Scholarship research in Berlin on inlaid quilts. She helped curate, and to learn from, a major quilt exhibition in Berlin, which was the world first on woollen inlaid patchwork.


text:
Inside the Tasteless Private Clubhouse San Franciscans Love to Hate
There was a valet stationed outside The Battery on Sunday night. Even for a private clubhouse with a $2,400 annual fee, this seemed superfluous. San Francisco's Financial District turns into a ghost town after 6 p.m. The neighborhood was so desolate, the only place I could find to charge my phone was a SUBWAY® around the corner, where they gave me free rein over an outlet behind the soda fountain.
The valet, who wasn't there during my epic quest for power, must have appeared after sunset so that members of The Battery could pay $15 to $40 to avoid opening one of San Francisco's myriad parking apps. Valet parking: the analog convenience economy.
Inside, the club was equally as barren as the rest of Jackson Square. It smelled acrid, like synthetic varnish and trying too hard.
A source had warned me about Ken Fulk, creative director at The Battery—a peacock of a designer who struts between the city's nouveau tech riche and the families behind the hedgerow. "He's the darling of old, white Pacific Heights and total nerds who don't know any better. In three years, they'll get the memo about terrariums." (It's true. No one here seems aware that terrariums are over, even the sleek scenesters at Sightglass Coffee. But mini plant worlds are nice to look at, so no harm, no foul.)
Fulk also serves as a "full-service concierge" for Michael and Xochi Birch, the husband-and-wife entrepreneurs behind The Battery, who fund their extravagances with the spoils from one of the worst deals of the dot-com era.
For the Birches' home in Pacific Heights, Fulk imported "an actual old English pub from England." If you believe Michael Birch, an English programmer, those village bars were the inspiration for a social club seeded by 100 hand-selected members. "It's because [he] just discovered gastropubs," explained the source, calling Fulk's clients the exception, not the rule. "This is not a city that is behind in good food or home design."
As promised, the decor inside the Battery was the textbook definition of "over-propped." Incongruous animal heads lined the walls of the House Bar; empty signifiers of the old guard dotted the rooms: Sea-faring tableaus, a marble fountain, quilted leather, a secret room that opens if you find the right book on the shelf. The only hint at a sense of humor was a patch of astroturf—at least that's what it felt like to my toes—in front of the outdoor fountain.
All around the club, from the front desk to the members-only Musto Bar, the wood was finished with an over-the-top black-and-white treatment that made it look like a children's book come to life, in keeping with the Old Money Fantasyland theme.
That unnecessary flourish was my pet peeve, but San Franciscans seem particularly offended by the food. "The kale salad was something I could make when I was drunk and hungover," one resident mentioned. "The kale was fresh, but that's because of the farmers." (That was followed by an unfavorable placement of the club's french fries on a quality vs. price graph.)
Upstairs, the ladies room featured gilded faucets and stall doors were marked with the seven deadly sins. That night, the "Greed" toilet was out of order.
During my brief visit, I also took a peek at the Penthouse suite, where guests are greeted with a pop art portrait of the Queen of England. Access to the roof deck, infinity hot tub, and the view (from the Bay Bridge to the Transamerica building) will set you back $10,000 a night. Not that you would know it by the underdressed code.
The Battery likes to point out that they offer "scholarships" for the less fortunate. But I was told, "No self-respecting artist would want to hang out there."
Once I was escorted back onto the sidewalk, I ordered an UberX so as not to miss my first trip to Carcosa. My driver turned out to be a Google employee who said he drew the lucky H1-B visa straw to get out of Bulgaria. (I looked him up later on LinkedIn.)
During the ride, he told me he works at the company's Mountain View campus, but started driving for UberX for two hours on Saturdays and Sundays to send money to a family of four kids he met on vacation, who couldn't afford to go to school or even shoes. "I just calculated that if I work four hours of a week, I can clothe all of them," he told me. "For so little, it's amazing what you can do."
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