text:
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right now, we are covering the letter Kk. this is a sort of limited letter, so i decided to make it a little more interesting. i hot glued an old key onto a small wooden spool for Bear to use as a stamp to paint.
when he saw the keY sTaMP, he came right over. and started working.
he even got really close to inspect how it worked.
what are some unconventional art approaches
you have used?

subset: commoncrawl


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ChemWorks meeting over Menomonee Falls treatment plant postponed
A company looking to relocate a wastewater treatment facility to Menomonee Falls has postponed an information meeting for later this week.
Mike Malatesta from Advanced Waste Services said Thursday's informational meeting has been put on hold until the village makes an official determination about the relocation project.
Residents packed a village board meeting on Jan. 21 opposing the idea of moving the company's wastewater treatment plant from Milwaukee to an area along Lily Road.
"I can only imagine how hard my property value will be hit with this new addition to the neighborhood," resident Bill Meindl said at last week's meeting.
Advanced Waste Services, which operates a Milwaukee treatment facility under the name ChemWorks, also has facilities in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Pennsylvania.
Malatesta said the company believes it has followed all rules and procedures of the village when applying to relocate their Milwaukee facility to the Menomonee Falls location.
He said the company has posted information regarding their new location on their website, www.advancedswasteservices.com.
Neighbors of the current Milwaukee plant said foul smells in the area are common. A MillerCoors spokesperson said their visitors center had to be closed for a few days last summer because the odors were quite foul.
Malatesta said the odor issues at the Milwaukee plant will not be present at their new location.
"Our new facility will be served by an enclosed, underground sanitary sewer system – completely separate from any storm drain systems – which is an ideal setup for the nature of our business, since it keeps odors in an enclosed system," he said.
Menomonee Falls neighbor Jodie Dreier said she is not convinced. She and other nearby homeowners plan to fight the relocation plan.
"We are going to do everything we can to stop this from happening," she said.


text: Sleek, versatile, and almost iconic in its simplicity, Tennyson Linen Stool ottoman is an instant classic. With its streamlined shape and sophisticated nailhead detail, it will add a pop of functional style that will flatter traditional and modern settings alike. Use singly or in multiples as extra seating and surfaces throughout your home.


text:
They announced earlier today that they are expecting and tonight James McAvoy and Anne-Marie Duff arrived together at the UK premiere of The Last Station totally blissed out and beautiful even though I'm not sure about his hair. Can't decide. She however, at 39 and pregnant with their first, has never looked lovelier.
As for The Last Station, about the final year of Tolstoy's life, and in particular his wife Countess Sofya's battle to guard what's hers before he goes, James and Anne-Marie are solid as usual though the film undoubtedly belongs to Helen Mirren who is considered a very good possibility for an Oscar nomination a week today. Go see it. This cast is unbelievable.
Photos from Wenn.com and Splashnewsonline.com


text:
Makes 6 large or 12 small popovers
Recipe adapted from the Joy of Cooking
What You Need
1 cup (8 ounces) whole or 2% milk
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and divided
1 cup (5 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
Blender or food processor
Whisk and a bowl
Popover pan
Muffin tin
1. Make the Popover Batter: In a food process or blender, or with a whisk and a bowl, blend the milk, eggs, and one tablespoon melted butter until completely combined. Add the flour and the salt. Blend until frothy and bubbly.
2. Heat the Oven: Heat the oven to 450°F. Let the popover batter rest while the oven heats. This gives the flour time to absorb the liquid and gives the popovers a better texture.
3. Pour the Batter into the Pans: Put the popover tin or muffin pan in the oven for 2 minutes to warm. Remove from the oven and divide the remaining 2 tablespoons of melted butter between the cups. Whiz (or whisk) the batter one more time to froth it up again and then fill each cup halfway.
4. Bake the Popovers for 15 Minutes: Place the pan back into the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Do not open the oven door during baking (this causes the popovers to deflate).
5. Reduce the Heat and Continue Baking: Still without opening the oven, reduce the heat to 350°F and bake for another 15 minutes. Now you can open the oven door and check the popovers. Finished popovers will be golden-brown, feel dry to the touch, and sound hollow when tapped.
6. Prick with a Knife, Cool, and Eat!: Turn the popovers out onto a drying rack. Pierce the bottoms with a knife to allow steam to escape. Cool just enough so they can be handled and then eat immediately.
Additional Notes:
• Making Popovers Ahead: Popovers are the best when they're fresh from the oven. But if you need to make them ahead, just warm them in a 350°F oven until warm and crispy again, about 5 minutes.
• Freezing Popovers: Freeze baked popovers in an airtight bag or container for up to three months. To re-heat, place the popovers directly from the freezer into a 350° oven and bake until warm and crispy, about 8 minutes.
• Other Ways to Make Popovers: While you should keep the ratio of milk, eggs, and flour about the same, you can add other flavoring ingredients to the batter. Try a few tablespoons of sugar for sweet popovers or a few teaspoons of herbs and spices for savory ones. Or you can really treat yourself and make cheesy popovers.
Related articles
- How to Make Popovers (thekitchn.com)


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Friday 25 January
|Bos (1)
The handsome mammals largely resembles domestic cattle both in size and colour (3), but also demonstrates considerable sexual dimorphism, allowing the sexes to be readily distinguished (4). Mature males have a dark, chestnut-brown coat, more blue-black in the Javan and Bornean individuals, while females and juveniles are reddish brown, with a dark dorsal stripe (2) (4) (5). The horns of females are short, tightly curved and point inward at the tips, whereas those of males are long, upwardly arching and connected by a horn-like bald patch on the forehead. Both sexes have the characteristic white 'stockings' on their lower legs, a white rump and muzzle, and white spots above the eyes (2). A gentle hump exists above the shoulders (6), and a slight ridge runs along the back (7).
Banteng are social creatures, spending most of their time in herds of two to 40 animals (2), which are usually led by an older cow and accompanied by a single mature male (3). Other males live alone or in bachelor groups (2). While this species may be active during the day or night, the herds have adopted a nocturnal lifestyle in areas of heavy human encroachment (3). Banteng feed mainly on grasses, bamboo, leaves, fruits and young branches of woody shrubs, depending upon the season and availability (2).
The single male of the herd reproduces with all the females, and competition for dominance of a herd is therefore fierce (6). Although capable of breeding all year round in captivity, wild mammals in Thailand are known to mate only during the months of May and June (2). Single offspring are born after a gestation period of 285 days. Weaning occurs at six to nine months, and sexual maturity is reached at two to three years. Banteng have been recorded to live up to 20 years in the wild and to over 26 years in captivity (6).
The South and Southeast Asian distribution includes the countries of Cambodia, Indonesia (Kalimantan; Java; Bali), Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam (1). Until recently, it also included Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, India and Peninsular Malaysia (1). There is also a fairly large introduced population of mammals in Northern Australia, which are currently thought to number up to 400 animals (4).
On the Asian mainland, mammals prefer open, dry, deciduous forests (1), although individuals in Myanmar inhabit mixed deciduous and evergreen forest (4). Feeding in open clearings, banteng depend on dense thickets in which to retire for shelter and safety (2). During the monsoon seasons, banteng tend to migrate to higher areas, where they occupy dense forests and bamboo jungles (6). Within the more humid areas of Java and Borneo they occupy secondary forest that has formed after logging and fires, and they also occur in a tract of sub-humid forest (1).
Classified as Endangered (EN) on the IUCN Red List (1).
The most significant threats facing mammals are hunting and habitat degradation and loss (1). Extinction is thought imminent in Vietnam and, in Cambodia and Lao PDR, habitat fragmentation caused by agriculture and new settlements is seriously threatening the remaining mainland Asian populations (3). These wild cattle have been domesticated in numerous locations, most notably on the island of Bali, with over 1.5 million domestic banteng thought to exist (2). Interbreeding with domestic and feral cattle threatens to contaminate the gene pool by hybridization of the remaining wild banteng, and disease transmission from domestic livestock is also considered a serious danger (1) (6). The number of banteng trophies reported for sale within Cambodia and the Lao PDR, along the Thai/Cambodia, Thai/Lao, and Thai/Myanmar borders, strongly suggests that the banteng population on the mainland has been, and remains, under considerable pressure from hunters (2) (3). Despite legal prohibitions against trade in banteng, law enforcement is inadequate, and poaching and illegal trade in their meat and horns remains widespread (6) (7).
The mammals is legally protected across its range and occurs in a number of protected areas (1). However, the natural resources of reserves often continue to be exploited, with about 12 banteng poached annually, for example, in Baluran National Park, Java (7). Several on-going field survey programmes exist (e.g., in Indochina) and a monitoring programme is conducted in East Java. A large captive population is maintained world-wide (1), with European zoos first importing captive banteng from collections in Indonesia as early as 1867 (4). Such populations provide a buffer against total extinction, offer potential for future reintroductions into the wild and can be managed to maintain the genetic diversity of the species. In addition, they now have a new and exciting role that utilises the very cutting edge of technology and scientific knowledge – cloning! For the first time on April 1st, 2003, a healthy clone of this endangered species was born, offering powerful evidence that cloning technology can play a role in preserving and even reconstituting threatened and endangered species (8).
For more information on wild cattle see:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
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Friday 25 January
Friday 05 October
Monday 24 September


text:
by Ned Zeman
First thing in the morning, the king of Hollywood receives a phone call. The call always comes from New York. The reason is simple. New York, being three hours ahead of Los Angeles, always has The Numbers. And The Numbers—daily accountings of every dollar spent, every box-office receipt—are all that matter.
That's how Lew Wasserman sees it. And if Lew Wasserman sees it that way, that's the way it is. This is what makes him Lew Wasserman, the feared and omnipotent head of Universal Pictures.
It is October 1979, and The Numbers are not to Wasserman's satisfaction. The culprit is Universal's big-ticket production The Blues Brothers, a movie that pretty much defies logic and description. Some call it a musical; others, a comedy; others, a buddy movie; others, a bloated vanity project.
One thing is clear. The movie is behind schedule and burning through its budget, which Wasserman considered too big to begin with. That Wasserman feels this way about every film's budget is incidental.
"Goddammit!" Wasserman says to his second-in-command, Ned Tanen, the president of Universal. Tanen then finds the executive one rung lower. This is Sean Daniel, Universal's vice president in charge of production. Tanen, shouting "I'm getting killed here!," orders Daniel to do something, anything, to stanch the bleeding.
Daniel calls the movie's director, John Landis. Landis then appeals to one of the film's two stars, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd. The latter is always easy to find and to deal with. He is also, by a mile, the best way to reach Belushi.
Everything revolves around Belushi, the most electric and popular comic actor of his time. It would be inaccurate to blame all the movie's problems on Belushi. He isn't responsible for the late-developing script or the unwieldy action sequences. It would be even more inaccurate to say Belushi isn't responsible. He has become a blessed wreck, thanks mostly to his spiraling (and ultimately lethal) addiction to cocaine.
On days when coke gets the best of Belushi, production stalls. And when production stalls, money burns. And when money burns, Lew Wasserman burns.
It begins, as these things do, in a dark bar. The time is November 1973. The bar, a speakeasy called the 505 Club, is in Toronto and owned by Aykroyd, a bizarro 20-year-old with webbed toes, mismatched eyes—one green, one brown—and a checkered past as a two-bit hoodlum and a seminary student.
The club opens at one A.M. because Aykroyd works nights. For the past three years, he has been performing with Second City, the famed comedy troupe based in Chicago but also flourishing in Toronto.
Aykroyd is at the 505, unwinding after a show, when a bullish 24-year-old charges through the back door. This is Belushi, wearing a white scarf, a leather jacket, and a five-point driver's cap of the sort worn by aging cabbies. Aykroyd wonders whether his guest had somehow mistaken himself for Lee J. Cobb.
The two had met earlier in the evening, backstage at Second City. "We had heard of each other," Aykroyd recalls. "We took one look at each other. It was love at first sight."
Belushi is a Second City alumnus, having spent two productive years with the Chicago troupe. But now he works in New York, running and starring in a show called The National Lampoon Radio Hour. He's in Toronto to poach talent.
Aykroyd says no. He is contractually committed to Second City and happy in Canada, where he was born and raised (in Ottawa, specifically). Plus, he owns a private club, with a jukebox stocked with his favorite music: R&B, soul, and, especially, blues. Chicago blues. Memphis blues. Just a whole hell of a lot of blues, popular (B. B. King) and less so (Pinetop Perkins).
Belushi stops talking and starts listening. His own musical tastes vary only a hair. He likes hard 70s rock (Cream, Bad Company) and harder 70s rock (AC/DC, Deep Purple).
"This is a nice record," Belushi says. "What is it?"
"A local blues band," Aykroyd replies. "The Downchild Blues Band."
"Blues, huh? I don't listen to too much blues."
Brief silence. "John," Aykroyd says, "you're from Chicago."
The platonic love affair between Belushi and Aykroyd defies reason—Belushi, who scribbles ideas on wrinkled scraps of paper; Aykroyd, whose mad-scientist digressions are such that Belushi, when asked to translate their meaning, says, "I have no idea."
Granted, both are young comic geniuses from the Greater Great Lakes region, with its shortage of sunlight and abundance of Polish sausage. But Belushi is an overgrown teenager, a celebration of willful chaos, a hugger. He couldn't hide his emotions if he tried, and he never tries. Formality is his enemy. When Belushi first meets you, he calls you "Pal."
Aykroyd is precise, disciplined. He evinces a genial Canadian aloofness, a square-peg formality. When Aykroyd first meets you, he calls you "Sir."
Aykroyd lives and dies for the blues, his command of the subject falling somewhere between encyclopedic and monomaniacal. His blues evangelism transfixes Belushi, a man who embraces nothing halfheartedly. Suddenly it's all blues, all the time. Within a year, Belushi's apartment contains hundreds, maybe thousands, of blues recordings.
Larger than Life
In the spring of 1975, Belushi and Aykroyd join the original cast of Saturday Night Live. Everyone knows what comes next—that big, shiny blur of samurai swords and Little Chocolate Donuts; of the Super Bass-o-Matic '76 and Fred Garvin, Male Prostitute; of "No Coke, Pepsi" and "Jane, you ignorant slut."
And the Blues Brothers enter the equation—although, technically, they were conceived back on that first night in Toronto, when it became known that Aykroyd's passions include, in addition to U.F.O.'s and high-tech weaponry, the harmonica.
Belushi always wants to play music. He's been this way since high school, where he was the drummer in a garage band called the Ravens. This despite his bandmates' utter rejection of Belushi's singing ability. "Oh, John, I don't know," one of them would say. "Maybe you can do a Ringo song."
Aykroyd mentions an idea he's been mulling. The idea, he recalls, "is based on two classic recidivist American characters. It's based on a love of the city of Chicago and the music that came out of there."
One of Aykroyd's friends, Howard Shore, chimes in. (Shore is an aspiring movie composer, who would go on to win three Oscars and four Grammys.) "You should call yourselves the Blues Brothers," Shore says.
But Aykroyd's idea doesn't gel until the early S.N.L. days, when he and Belushi fully morph into Elwood and "Joliet" Jake Blues, blood brothers outfitted like John Lee Hooker gone Hasidic: black suits, skinny ties, Ray-Ban sunglasses. Aykroyd is Elwood, the laconic, harmonica-playing straight man; Belushi is Jake, the swaggering belter fresh out of the state prison in Joliet.
Aykroyd exhibits an almost spooky faith in Belushi, whose singing voice is O.K. but no great shakes. Then again, Belushi isn't just a singer. He's a front man. "The alpha Illinois male," Aykroyd calls him. "One of those people like Teddy Roosevelt or Mick Jagger. He was just one of those great charismatics who turned heads and dominated a room."
After the Blues Brothers play gigs around town for a while, Lorne Michaels lets them warm up the S.N.L. crowd before shows. Airtime proves harder to come by. Michaels isn't quite sold. A compromise is reached. The Blues Brothers go live from New York on January 17, 1976. Dressed as bees.
The compromise, which exploits S.N.L.'s popular "Killer Bees" skit, is mercifully short-lived. Two years later, during a show hosted by Steve Martin, Jake and Elwood finally take the stage, performing "Hey, Bartender."
Three months later, Belushi's first movie opens. This is Animal House. Belushi, having played Bluto, the gluttonous rascal who rallies Delta House to glory, becomes a Major Movie Star.
This is good. During an out-of-town car trip, Belushi asks Aykroyd to stop the car, saying, "Watch this! Watch this!" Aykroyd recounts that "he gets out of the car and starts knocking on the ground-floor windows of this primary school, knowing he'll get a reaction. By the time we left, all the windows are up and the whole school is chanting, 'Bluto! Bluto!' "
Suddenly Steve Martin is asking them to open his nine-night stand at the Universal Amphitheater, in Los Angeles. The opportunity presents a vexing problem. The band has no band.
They turn to Paul Shaffer, S.N.L.'s bandleader. Shaffer draws up a list of candidates. All are crack musicians, highly paid and hard to get.
Belushi rallies, cold-calling the candidates at inappropriately late hours. "This is John Belushi," he tells Steve Cropper, a noted guitarist. "We're putting a band together. I need you here tomorrow."
"There's no way," Cropper replies. "I'm mixing an album."
"I gotta have you."
"No way. Can't do it."
"I gotta have you."
This continues for an hour.
Within days, the whole team is in New York: Shaffer and Cropper plus lead guitarist Matt "Guitar" Murphy, bassist Donald "Duck" Dunn, drummer Steve Jordan, and a horn section composed of Alan Rubin, Lou Marini, Tom Maloney, and Tom Scott. Shaffer mans the keyboards. After two weeks of rehearsal, they all fly to Los Angeles.
They kill. This has something to do with musicianship and a lot to do with showmanship. Belushi and Aykroyd execute perfectly choreographed dance routines. They play it half-straight, half-comic. Taking the stage, to Otis Redding's "I Can't Turn You Loose," Aykroyd carries a briefcase; Belushi, the key that unlocks it. Inside is Aykroyd's harmonica.
They sign with Atlantic Records, which wants to record a live album at one of the shows. The show's plotline is finessed during late-night brainstorming sessions in New York, at Belushi's place, on Morton Street, or at Belushi and Aykroyd's private club, the Blues Bar, at the corner of Hudson and Dominick.
Often these sessions include Belushi's wife, Judy, and their friend Mitch Glazer, a young music journalist. Glazer writes the album's liner notes and then an article in Crawdaddy magazine, a smallish alternative to Rolling Stone. Both expand on the legend of Jake and Elwood. They were raised by Curtis, a blues-playing janitor. They need $5,000 to save the orphanage. Adventure ensues.
The album, Briefcase Full of Blues, goes double platinum. Meanwhile, on January 24, 1979—his 30th birthday—Belushi hits an unprecedented trifecta. The previous year he'd had a No. 1 album, a No. 1 TV show, and a No. 1 movie.
The old studio system is finally dead. Stars, not studios, run the show. Never has this been more apparent. "I say we make the thing into a movie," Belushi says.
"Agreed," Aykroyd replies.
They call Belushi's manager, Bernie Brillstein, a Hollywood player who looks like a Jewish Santa. "Sounds good," Brillstein says.
Suits descend on S.N.L. A young executive at Paramount Pictures, Don Simpson, is among the fiercest suitors. A neck-and-neck race develops between Simpson and Sean Daniel, a relatively green executive at Universal. Daniel supervised Animal House. Belushi likes Daniel. So there it is.
The director is a no-brainer. John Landis, a bearded comic prodigy, has already guided Belushi and Animal House to runaway success. Belushi covets his approval. Late at night, after especially good S.N.L. shows, he calls Landis, asking, "You see the show?"
"No," Landis replies.
"Fuck you," Belushi says, and slams down the receiver.
Things progress swiftly, perhaps too swiftly. Daniel doesn't even sit down with his immediate boss, Ned Tanen, or with Universal's boss of bosses, Lew Wasserman.
Daniel simply calls Tanen and says, "Belushi, Aykroyd, Blues Brothers, how about it?"
"Great," Tanen replies. "I'll tell Lew."
Wasserman trusts Tanen, who had persuaded him to make Universal's smash American Graffiti. Tanen knows a deal when he sees it. Belushi gets $500,000, Aykroyd $250,000. The studio gets a potential blockbuster and quite possibly a franchise. "There was no inter-company conversation," Tanen recalls. "It was simple: Don't fuck with love."
A few details remain unresolved. Wasserman wants the movie done for about $12 million. The creatives are thinking $20 million. The executives want filming wrapped by August 1979—just six months away. The creatives wonder whether that's possible, let alone desirable. They envision The Blues Brothers as a large-scale production involving grand set pieces, special effects, and a cast and crew of hundreds.
There's also the matter of a script. There isn't one.
Without a script, it's damn near impossible to produce anything. Belushi urges Mitch Glazer to collaborate with Aykroyd, saying, "Just go figure something out."
Glazer begs off. This is Aykroyd's baby. He's an Emmy winner, the author of many or most of his best S.N.L. skits. There's just one catch, production-wise. This runaway train hinges on a screenwriter who has never in his life written or even read a screenplay.
Again Belushi does what he does best. Another flurry of inappropriately late phone calls draws the band to Belushi's place. Judy is out of town. So Belushi and Glazer find themselves in the garden, lighting candles. Belushi wants everything to be perfect. This is about the team.
"O.K., we're going to do this movie," he announces. "It's going to be called The Blues Brothers, and it's about … "
The band's doubts become evident. Never mind any concerns they have about being a white band playing black music. This is a band: cracks have formed. "John would give one of them a raise, then the others would get mad and demand the same," Glazer says. "And of course John had told each of them they were the 'heartbeat of the band.' "
"Come on!" Belushi implores them, in his middle-linebacker way. "This is what we're going to do! And I want you all to be a part of it!"
He corrals the band but loses its architect, Paul Shaffer, who has obligations in New York. Belushi, unmoved, circulates a memo of sorts. "Shaffer is out," it reads. "He will never be a Blues Brother."
Belushi can afford to pick fights now that his own exit from S.N.L. is inevitable. Last season, his fourth, was messy. He spent too much time bouncing between New York and Los Angeles while starring in 1941, Steven Spielberg's exuberant comedy about a Japanese invasion of California. Belushi has grown tired of S.N.L., and it of him.
The drugs aren't helping. By now Belushi's appetites for fun and adventure are fueled by quaaludes, mescaline, LSD, and amphetamines. But all of them combined take a backseat to cocaine. One line is never enough. Coke fuels his performance, Belushi says. It helps him be John Belushi.
And Belushi is "the boss of the Blues Brothers," as Aykroyd calls him. Whenever a band member has a problem, he turns to Belushi. Belushi always handles it. Somehow he manages to be both a father and a son. "He was very loyal," says guitarist Steve Cropper. "And he was like a big child, everybody's teddy bear. He just wanted to keep the party going. He was afraid that, if he went to sleep, he'd never wake up."
During pre-production, Belushi and Aykroyd decamp to Hollywood. Aykroyd literally lives in the office, in a bungalow on the Universal lot. It's free. It's quiet. It's close to the Frankenstein Village set.
At night he "borrows" cars from Universal's motor pool. Alone, or with Belushi, he drives to the top of Universal City, smokes a joint, and gazes out at Beaver Cleaver's house (which is still on the lot today).
Finally, in March, the film's producer, Bob Weiss, gets a call. "Be on your property tonight," the caller says, and hangs up.
Weiss heads home to find an ominously thick package, its contents wrapped within the cover of a phone book. This is Aykroyd's screenplay, titled The Return of the Blues Brothers. Its writing credit reads, "By Scriptatron GL-9000."
Weiss calls Sean Daniel. "Good news," Weiss reports. "The first draft finally got here." It is not the typical 120-page draft. "It's 324 pages," Weiss says. "We have a lot of work to do."
The script contains great scenes and inspired ideas but is written in a kind of free-verse style. It includes lengthy, Aykroyd-esque explications of Catholicism, recidivism—you name it. It gets meta, with separate story lines detailing the recruitment of all eight backup musicians.
"The script is never-ending," Ned Tanen thinks. "It doesn't really work. It's like a long treatment or something"—a treatment being a detailed outline the writer produces before writing a script. The Blues Brothers is scheduled to begin shooting in two months.
Landis, script in hand, locks himself away. He cuts, shapes, tones. Then he cuts some more. Three weeks later, he emerges with a script that's down to size and, as they say, shootable. More or less. It still lacks certain basics, such as stage directions.
Landis and Aykroyd haggle over bits the latter wants to restore or change. Aykroyd wants a scene explaining why Elwood's car, the Bluesmobile, has magical qualities. Landis doesn't but agrees to film it. He knows he'll just cut it later.
They head to Chicago. Universal places an ad in the trades. "It's too late," the ad reads. "Production has begun."
Wind at Their Back
As filming begins, in July 1979, things somehow run smoothly. Belushi and Aykroyd occupy the top two floors of the Astor Tower, a louvered high-rise in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.
For this they owe a debt to their friend Stanley Korshak, who wangled a discounted rent for them. Korshak happens to be the son of Chicago's own Sidney Korshak, the notorious Mob lawyer and Hollywood "fixer" whose client list happens to include Lew Wasserman, who happens to have an in with Chicago's mayor, Jane Byrne. "Let's just say we were welcomed by the mayor," Daniel says and smiles.
Aykroyd spends his free time speeding through outskirts and befriending coroners. Belushi, being Chicago's favorite son, does anything he wants. Everything about him—his lunch-bucket charm, his utter lack of pretense—makes Belushi a figure of such resounding local popularity that Aykroyd calls him "the unofficial mayor of Chicago."
A trip to Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, boggles Landis. "Like being with Mussolini in Rome," he remembers. Belushi, having entered one of the stadium's crowded bathrooms, smiles and shouts, "O.K., stand back!" Everyone retreats from the urinals. Belushi does his business. Then, zipping his fly and beaming, he says, "O.K., back you go!"
"John would literally hail police cars like taxis," Mitch Glazer says. "The cops would say, 'Hey, Belushi!' Then we'd fall into the backseat and the cops would drive us home."
Naturally, Belushi and Aykroyd require yet another private bar, also called the Blues Club. Here Belushi's local friends mix with the cast and crew, among them Carrie Fisher, who plays Jake's maniac ex-girlfriend. In reality, Fisher is Aykroyd's girlfriend. It is an arranged romance of sorts. One day Belushi decided they made a good couple and presto!
For a month, production hums along. Landis gets Belushi. As in Animal House, as in reality, Landis sees him as the boyish scamp, the Cookie Monster, a silent-movie star in a spoken world. Occasionally Landis rides Aykroyd, urging him to tone it down and play Elwood wholly deadpan.
All three leave their marks. A lady asks Jake and Elwood, "Are you the police?" Elwood replies, "No, ma'am. We're musicians." Pure Aykroyd. Landis produces the movie's signature line: "We're on a mission from God." And who but Belushi can turn to a family and ask, as Jake does, "How much for the little girl?"
The film's budget is $17.5 million, then an expensive proposition, particularly for a comedy. Or whatever it is. Nobody quite knows. There's comedy and lots of it. There are car chases and crashing helicopters. But all of the above revolve around four giant song-and-dance numbers, each starring a different music giant: Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, and Cab Calloway. Not to mention the performances by Jake and Elwood.
"You could tell there was confusion," Landis says. "I told some of the crew, 'This is a musical.' They were so confused. They didn't know what the fuck they were making."
By August, though, everyone knows one thing. The production is falling behind, and fast, and the trend is largely attributable to Belushi, who stays out until all hours. Usually he can be found at his speakeasy. Sometimes he can't be found at all. Except by cocaine, which finds him everywhere.
Friends, fans, and hangers-on literally throw it at him. They slip vials into his hands and pockets. "Every blue-collar Joe wants his John Belushi story," says Smokey Wendell, who would soon become Belushi's anti-drug bodyguard. "Every one of those guys wants to tell his friends, 'I did blow with Belushi.' "
It is 1979. Rare is the actor who doesn't snort, pop, or guzzle. Landis, a teetotaler, misses the bigger picture. "We had a budget in the movie for cocaine for night shoots," Aykroyd says. "Everyone did it, including me. Never to excess, and not ever to where I wanted to buy it or have it. [But] John, he just loved what it did. It sort of brought him alive at night—that superpower feeling where you start to talk and converse and figure you can solve all the world's problems."
"There was some girl who would hang out at the Blues Bar," Carrie Fisher says. "She cleaned the fishtank and provided mescaline. There were always these people that were enabling the party to continue."
Belushi endlessly breaks and mends fences. He takes offense at a comment made by his friend Michael O'Donoghue, an S.N.L. writer. Belushi refuses to even see him. O'Donoghue sends Belushi a taped and unusually candid explanation. Belushi, having listened to it, destroys the tape. "No one else should ever hear this," he tells Mitch Glazer before making a teary call to O'Donoghue.
Belushi, as Jake, sounds increasingly congested. Sometimes he shows up hours late. Or he shows up but spends most of the time in his trailer, sleeping it off.
"I'm fine," Belushi tells Judy. "I can't stop now until I finish the movie. It'll be fine when it's over."
Ned Tanen, the executive who green-lit The Blues Brothers, has a theory about wayward productions: "You go in thinking, This is going to be great! About the 20th day in, you think, This is the worst piece of garbage out of hell. Nobody will see it. I'm going to be assassinated for making it."
The studio is not helping things. It wants "fresh" contemporary acts. It wants, in place of Aretha Franklin, Rose Royce, the band that sings the hit theme from Car Wash. The creatives refuse. The suits (except for Daniel) want Jake and Elwood to periodically lose the Ray-Bans and reveal their eyes. The creatives refuse. (In the end, Jake reveals his eyes only once.)
Such battles pale by comparison, because now everyone has a Lew Wasserman Problem. Each morning, having received his call from New York, Wasserman sees that which he least wants to see. The numbers are, as they say, trending upward.
Still, filming continues despite a collective worry about the final budget. There isn't one. Neither Landis nor Weiss sees the magic number until a month or so into filming. At which point Weiss turns to Landis and says, "I think we've spent that already."
He's joking. And yet. They both know that every lost day, every extra hour of overtime pay to union workers, brings "overages" and therefore the wrath of Wasserman.
"Lew would nail me every day," Tanen says. "I wasn't getting phone calls. He would be in my office. He comes in and says, 'Goddammit.' " Or, when scenes take too long to shoot, Wasserman says, "God damn this thing—they've only got two and a half minutes to do it." Or, increasingly, he says, "God damn that director."
The more Tanen defends Landis, the less he can explain the overages. Blaming Belushi isn't an option. "I couldn't say to Lew, 'We have another kind of problem.' It's not what he wanted to hear. You didn't tell him somebody was stoned or couldn't get out of his trailer. You just didn't do it."
Instead, Tanen screams at Sean Daniel. "For Chrissake!" Tanen yells. "Wasserman's eating me alive with this thing because it's going over and over! You'd better protect me, Sean, because I can't hold the fort much longer!"
"I don't know what you want me to do," Daniel replies. "I've done everything I can."
Belushi is in free fall. "John was fucked up," Landis says. "It became a battle to keep him alive and to keep him working on the movie."
When Carrie Fisher arrives on location, Landis gives her the same spiel he gives everyone. "For God's sake," he says, "if you see John doing drugs, stop him."
Seventies and Snowy
Only two people can get to Belushi. The first is his wife. With Judy, and especially at their vacation home on Martha's Vineyard, John returns to his natural state of lazy quietude. "I wouldn't call John a high-energy person," says Judy. "He had a great energy, and he could pull it out of nowhere, [but] he would sit down and watch TV for hours. And he could do so without a remote and without ever getting up to change a channel because somehow he'd always convince you to do it. And [his brother] Jimmy once said something about how you wanted to serve him."
Then there's Aykroyd. Yes, Belushi occasionally tries his patience. At one point, Aykroyd smashes his wristwatch, shouting, "Do you want to end up like this?" But he always protects and never judges. "There was a sense that, no matter what John did, Danny wouldn't abandon him, that he didn't think John was this awful person," Carrie Fisher says. "He was really taking care of John."
One night at three, while filming on a deserted lot in Harvey, Illinois, Belushi disappears. He does this sometimes. On a hunch, Aykroyd follows a grassy path until he spies a house with a light on.
"Uh, we're shooting a film over here," Aykroyd tells the homeowner. "We're looking for one of our actors."
"Oh, you mean Belushi?" the man replies. "He came in here an hour ago and raided my fridge. He's asleep on my couch."
Only Belushi could pull this off. "America's Guest," Aykroyd calls him.
"John," Aykroyd says, awakening Belushi, "we have to go back to work."
Belushi nods and rises. They walk back to the set as if nothing happened.
Sean Daniel dreads the mornings at Universal, where all the higher-ups use the same elevators. "I would stand there going, 'Elevator doors close, please, before Lew walks in,' " Daniel says. "Then Lew walked in and said, 'Mr. Daniel, I see that yesterday you went another day over. That puts you at 14 days over.' He was always right, to the dollar. I would say, 'I couldn't agree more. I'm working on it.' "
Wasserman and Tanen had valid questions. How many car crashes does one movie need? Is the cameo by Twiggy really necessary? "I can't shield this anymore!" Tanen shouts. "Get this fucking thing finished! You have to do whatever you do. Cut scenes—whatever! I can't do this much longer!"
Bob Weiss makes a judgment call. Tanen, unlike Daniel, has never actually seen what Universal is paying for. The production is a production unto itself, and an impressive one. Weiss calls Tanen, saying, "Ned, get Sean and come out to Chicago. I want to show you what we're doing."
Weiss takes Tanen into the "war room," where action sequences are engineered, and to the building where vehicles used in these sequences—70 police cars alone!—get repaired and sometimes built. "They got a full feeling for the size of the production," Weiss says. "They also caught an earlier flight home. I saw a distinct ashen pallor on Ned's face."
By now overages are into the millions, the $17.5 million budget a pipe dream. Filming in Chicago is scheduled to wrap in mid-September (before continuing in Los Angeles). Alas. September comes and goes, and October is no picnic, either.
Landis, beyond frustrated, heads to Belushi's trailer. There, on a table, Landis sees a mountain of cocaine.
"It's like Tony Montana," Landis says, referring to the main character in Scarface. "It's like a joke. I scoop it all up and flush it down the toilet. Probably a lot of money's worth. So I'm on my way out of the trailer, and John comes in and says, 'What'd you do?' Then he pushes me, mostly to get to the table. It's pathetic. He's trying to get to the table to save the cocaine."
They scuffle. It lasts about 15 seconds. "At which point," Landis says, "John hugged me and started sobbing and apologized. He and I are sitting there, both crying, and I'm going, 'John, this is insane.' "
Tanen's options are none. They can't use a "double" for Jake. Nobody can double Belushi. They can't shut down the production and wait for Belushi to go through rehab. Belushi won't go. Even if he does go, the ensuing costs and media madness will send Wasserman around the bend. Finally, carefully, Tanen tells Wasserman, "Lew, there is a core problem, a basic problem with John Belushi, and we're just getting through it."
Wasserman betrays nothing. "Finish the movie," he says. "Get on with it."
Filming finishes in Los Angeles, in and around the Universal lot, where Aykroyd again takes up residence. John and Judy rent a house in Coldwater Canyon. "By the time we got to Los Angeles," Aykroyd says, "[the shoot] was a well-oiled machine."
By comparison, anyway. Production goes more or less on schedule, and Los Angeles injects its energy: parties at the Playboy Mansion, nights with De Niro and Nicholson.
Belushi summons periods of sobriety. By now he has met Smokey Wendell, a kind of bodyguard/anti-drug enforcer for Joe Walsh, a guitarist for the Eagles. "If I don't do something now," Belushi tells Wendell, "I'm going to be dead in a year or two."
Belushi is on his best behavior while in the presence of the movie's other musical stars: Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin, James Brown and Cab Calloway. They, too, are in fine form. Even Charles, the crankiest of the bunch, laughs and laughs, usually while retelling the same dirty joke. The Blues Brothers presents a real opportunity for all of them, since all but Charles are in commercial ruts.
Not that this changes any of them. Marini, one of the horn players, spots Franklin taking a cigarette break. He approaches sheepishly, saying, "I just want to tell you how much I enjoy your work." Franklin turns, glancing at the number on Marini's football jersey. "Sixty-nine, huh?" she says, and turns away.
One day Aykroyd and Belushi raid the wardrobe department. Tanen happens to be in Wasserman's office when Wasserman takes a call notifying him that two of Universal's biggest stars, dressed as Nazi SS officers, have driven off the lot and onto the freeway. Tanen finds this hilarious. Wasserman does not.
Behind the scenes, it's a different story. Daniel and Weiss are spent. And now they're confronting the movie's climactic concert scene. The finale requires Belushi and Aykroyd to do cartwheels, dance steps—the whole deal. It requires hundreds of extras. It requires the Hollywood Palladium.
Daniel gets a call from Weiss. "You better get down here," Weiss says. When Daniel arrives, Weiss explains. A kid had ridden past Belushi on a skateboard. Belushi asked to ride the board. Belushi fell off the board.
Daniel finds the star clutching his knee and in serious pain. "This was bad," Daniel recalls. "We had to deal with it in the most effective and emergency-like way. And there was one person who was wired into the Los Angeles medical community better than anyone else." Wasserman. "I was one of the last people he wanted to hear from," Daniel says. "The only thing he wanted to hear from me was 'We're done.' "
Wasserman calls the top orthopedist in town. "It's Thanksgiving weekend," the doctor points out. "I'm on my way to Palm Springs."
"Not yet," Wasserman replies.
Thirty minutes later, the orthopedist wraps and injects Belushi, who then grits his way through the finale.
End of story.
Or not. In the weeks preceding the movie's theatrical-release date (June 20, 1980), Landis screens The Blues Brothers for major theater owners—"the guys with white belts and white shoes," as he describes them.
The owners, who call themselves "exhibitors," are Hollywood's ultimate gatekeepers. They hold a movie's fate in their hands. "Most of them said, 'This is a black movie and white people won't see it.' Most of the prime houses wouldn't book it."
Granted, Landis et al. have themselves created a few roadblocks. Belushi's previous movie, Spielberg's 1941, has crashed and burned, thereby earning The Blues Brothers the nickname 1942 and inspiring O'Donoghue to distribute buttons that read, "John Belushi, Born 1949, Died 1941."
Also, The Blues Brothers clocks in at two and a half hours, not including the intermission. Wasserman, exiting a preview screening, spots Landis and gestures with two fingers, in a scissoring motion.
Landis cuts 20 minutes. In the meantime, another bomb explodes. "Lew calls me up to his office," Landis says. "I go in there and he says, 'John, do you know Ted Mann of Mann Theaters?' " Mann owns many of the country's top movie houses, among them the Bruin and the National, both located in Westwood, a prosperous white neighborhood. "Lew says, 'Ted, tell Mr. Landis what you just told me.' "
Then, Landis remembers, the conversation goes accordingly:
Mann: "Mr. Landis, we're not booking The Blues Brothers in any of our national or general theaters. We have a theater in Compton where we'll book it. But certainly not in Westwood."
Landis: "Why won't you book it in Westwood?"
Mann: "Because I don't want any blacks in Westwood."
Then, Landis says, Mann explained why whites won't see The Blues Brothers: "Mainly because of the musical artists you have. Not only are they black. They are out of fashion."
The typical big-budget movie gets booked into about 1,400 theaters. The Blues Brothers gets about 600 bookings. This, coupled with frequently heckling reviews—"a ponderous comic monstrosity," The Washington Post calls it—spells epic disaster.
The Blues Brothers, having exceeded its $17.5 million budget by $10 million, is needlessly long and clearly flawed. In New York, Belushi drives from theater to theater, gauging audiences. Aykroyd watches the movie in a theater in Times Square.
He detects laughter.
The Blues Brothers makes $115 million, becoming one of Universal's most enduring hits and by far its greatest farce.


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Components for machinery and plant construction
Liebherr components are used in a whole range of equipment in machinery and plant construction. Our portfolio offers solutions tailored to customer needs - from individual components to complete systems and services. We always bear application-specific requirements, such as high working speeds, small installation spaces and highest precision, in mind.
Advantages of Liebherr components
Liebherr electric motors of the KGF and KDF series are distinguished by compact dimensions and optimised cooling. In this way, they negate any doubt regarding the compatibility of customer-specific design and cost effectiveness.
An innovative design with self-supporting housing makes it possible to construct motors with reduced volume. These can be integrated into any system without trouble.
Optimal cooling
Our electric machines ranging from 7.5 to 650kW feature a wide range of different cooling options.
High availability values during operation safeguard the efficiency of our machines and reduce total costs of ownership.
The winding and bearings in Liebherr electric motors are orientated around eliminating or resisting harmful side effects such as bearing currents and voltage spikes.
Optimum compatibility with other Liebherr components, such as inverters or gearboxes, means that the system can be brought into operation quickly.
The high availability of spare parts and a fast, obliging service guarantee a long service life of our electric motors.
The Liebherr product portfolio comprises axial piston units for the open circuit in the high and medium pressure range.
Hydraulic motors from Liebherr are characterised by a favourable bearing load and a compact design. This ensures a particularly long service life.
Specifically designed products
Axial piston pump DPVO
The pumps with open circuit and inverse piston technology are designed especially for high pressure applications and can be used e.g. in presses, steel works or test benches. The hydraulic pumps impress with their large swing angle and high resistance to pressure. They offer a through-drive of 100 percent and can be combined with all conventional controllers.
LH30VO axial piston pump
The medium pressure pump LH30VO is suitable for linear equipment movements, e.g. during manufacture of injection moulded parts. With our experience from the high-pressure range, the pump was designed for a long service life. Optimised production processes make it very cost effective.
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Experienced engineers design our hydraulic cylinders according to customer-specific needs and orientate themselves around the requirements of each application.
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Liebherr switch cabinets for industrial production machines cover a broad performance spectrum. This ranges from a few kilowatts up to the multi-megawatt range. Application-specific engineering services, such as the creation of circuit diagrams or software, round off our portfolio.


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Chances are, if you've been in the same house or apartment for many years, you've probably accumulated stuff that you don't need. NCSE is like that, so before I retired, I promised to return to help sort out archival materials—helping to decide what to keep and what we no longer need. This is turning out to be a rather fun project as I am going through old files that neither I or anyone else has looked at for a long time. From time to time I'll share gems with you.
In one e-mail from the early 2000s, a correspondent reported that he had recently returned from a raft trip down Grand Canyon with a university group. "I discovered that one of the boatmen had been a 'swamper' [slang for the assistant boatman] on the latest ICR-[Steve] Austin expeditions. He noted that three times a day, the ICR people held hour-long prayer devotionals at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. He and the other boatmen and swampers were a little miffed that the ICR crew did not allow the boatmen and swampers to bring beer along for their personal use."
We also have occasionally asked our boatmen if they ever have crewed for a creationist trip, and from those who have, we usually receive a diplomatic smile in reply. As employees in a service industry, Colorado River boatmen are careful not to sound critical of customers. Swampers, on the other hand, tend to be short-timers, so maybe feel they can speak more freely. In any event, the report to our correspondent from those many years back had a familiar ring.
So let me assure you: in addition to learning actual science, which you are unlikely to experience on a creationist trip, there are two additional advantages to rafting with NCSE: we have no objection to your bringing beer, and prayer is optional.
Two excellent reasons to raft with us.


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Students at the UK public school Flitch Green Academy use iPad, Mac, and iPod touch to create unique learning experiences.
The inspiration
Flitch Green is a public elementary/middle school located just outside of London. This modern eco-friendly version of a village school was designed to be the hub of the community — where the teachers support the kids so they feel safe to explore, to ask questions, and even to make mistakes. The school was built on the principle that there needs to be a purpose to learning, and that children learn best from an innovative curriculum that teaches through first-hand experience and discovery.
The founders of Flitch Green designed a creative curriculum that allows children to develop skills for the 21st century. The school's philosophy is that learning is not just about gaining knowledge and acquiring facts — it's that you need to be able to do something with those facts. This purposeful learning needs a strong investment in technology, That's where Mac, iPad, and iPod touch come in.
When designing this curriculum, Apple products were a natural fit. Their ease of use allows students to master the tools, and focus on their projects. The work they're able to produce is greatly enhanced by the creative opportunities the products give the students. Flitch Green's creative curriculum couldn't exist without the Apple products.
We wanted a curriculum that was meaningful, purposeful, and creative. And with Apple technology we have the whole package. It's ignited everybody's learning progress."
— Tracey Bratley, teacher at Flitch Green Academy
The implementation
The staff first purchased MacBooks, and as the curriculum evolved, they quickly added iPad and iPod touch devices. Apple products have become an essential piece of how students learn at Flitch Green.
Flitch Green's unique approach is taught through open-ended "experiences" where students use the Mac, iPod touch, and iPad, alongside more traditional media, to work towards an end product. "This allows children to use all the resources they have available to them to represent what we've asked them to do," says Principal Helen Johnson. "And normally they come back with things that we won't have even dreamt of."
Giving all students access to all of the Apple products was also a goal for the school. The 11 year-olds as well as the 4 year-olds are using the Mac, iPad, and iPod touch to explore and create. "Originally we thought the iPod touch would be great for the older children and the iPad being bigger would be for the younger children. But actually our 4-year olds are more than capable of picking up the iPod touch, recording their voices, taking a photograph, or writing on it for phonic work," says Helen Johnson. The Flitch Green vision — right from the beginning —was to equip the children with the technological know-how so they would be well prepared once they got to the outside world.
Creating their own learning experiences with Apple products allow the students focus on their end-product. The Mac, iPad, and iPod touch lend themselves seamlessly to these cross-curricular experiences and give the students the choice of technology tools that best suits their individual project.
The results
Since first opening its doors in 2008, Flitch Green's academic scores have been in the 90th percentile, granting the school Academy status. Students are not only learning basic academic skills such as English, Mathematics, and Science, but they also learn and practice key life skills such as resilience, reflection, and risk taking. With the Mac, iPad and iPod touch, lessons are fun, interesting and packed with activity.
"Students can find all the objects inside and outside the school that start with a certain letter and record it with their iPod touch. They get excitement out of that which keeps them engaged, and keeps them learning longer than they would have if they've been sat down with a pencil they can't hold very well." says Helen Johnson.
Everything has a similar feel and a similar look — there's synergy. So it's easy for kids to pick up an Apple product and just start working."
— Emma Nichols, Flitch Green Academy parent
Using technology has helped both the children's speaking and listening skills — particularly for many of Flitch Green's shy children. "Put them in front of a Mac, put them in front of a camera and they lose all their inhibitions, they're really confident. " Says teacher Tracey Bratley. "We've been able to gain lots of evidence from children just from watching what they recorded on iMovie or PhotoBooth. Apple products have given children the tools for them to develop their confidence. And it's been a great assessment tool for us as well."
Besides academic achievement, Flitch Green Academy can also lay claim to having students that are excited about their learning. It has students excited to come to school each morning. And their enthusiasm and love of learning is carried home with them. They are confident, creative students that have had their curiosity fostered with the help of the Mac, iPad, and iPod touch.


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Tractor-trailer, car crash on I-40 in Greensboro; 1 person dead
Truck driver charged with DWI
A tractor-trailer driver was arrested on DWI charges after a crash killed the driver of a passenger car early Wednesday morning. A female passenger suffered life-threatening injuries.
Khristopher Blue was killed in the crash just after midnight on Interstate 40 east near Lee Street. Blue's passenger, 21-year-old Laterria Shaundria Whitner, was taken to Moses Cone Hospital, where she is listed in critical but stable condition.
Allen Coe was driving an International tractor-trailer when he ran off the road and over-corrected before crashing into Blue's Toyota Prius, Greensboro police said.
Coe's charges include DWI, DWI in a commercial vehicle and "other assorted alcohol offenses," police said.
Eastbound I-40 was closed at the Highway 29 split for several hours Wednesday morning but reopened around 5 a.m.


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Autism down: Some credit mercury removal
In what may be a bellwether for autism rates nationwide, the number of new cases of autism in California has fallen for the first time in more than 10 years, according to new data compiled by the state Department of Developmental Services.
The total number of autistic children receiving special education services from the state continues to grow– bringing the current total to 28,046– but the rate of increase peaked in 2002 and has dropped slightly since then.
California has the best reporting system for autism in the United States because it guarantees special education services for autistic children. Because of its tracking system, the state is generally considered a predictor of what is to come for the rest of the country.
Experts said, however, that they don't know what's causing the numbers to drop.
"Perhaps whatever caused [the number of cases] to go up... is no longer present,'' said Dr. Robert Hendren, executive director of the University of California, Davis MIND Institute, which researches neurodevelopmental disorders. "It's all speculation. I wish we had good studies.''
Parent activist Rick Rollens of Sacramento, who played a key role in the creation of the MIND Institute, said that the trend roughly corresponds to the removal of mercury preservatives from pediatric vaccines. Many activist groups say that the use of mercury in the vaccines caused the sudden increase in autism cases.
Federal scientists, however, have continually said that the evidence does not support such a link.
The state data do not include children under the age of 3. About 90 percent of all autistic children are entered into the system before the age of 6, the department said.
According to the state data, 2002 was a record year for new autism diagnoses, with 3,259 cases. In 2003, the number of new cases slipped to 3,125. In 2004, the number was 3,074.
For the first half of 2005, there were 1,470 new cases, compared to 1,518 in the same period in 2004.
David Kirby, author of Evidence of Harm: "For months now, a mantra of the thimerosal defenders has been as follows: 'Mercury was removed from vaccines years ago, and we have not seen a drop in autism rates.' It looks like they might have to find a new slogan."


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At Jonas Software, we believe that acquiring businesses is about more than just buying companies. It's about investing in people and doing what it takes to help manage and grow businesses for life. To accomplish this, we operate with a decentralized model, pushing decision making down to the front lines where the people who know the industry and products best can do what is right for clients. This is why Jonas Software has a buy and hold-forever strategy (yes - we have never sold a business), and why we have grown to operate over 70 companies in 20 vertical markets around the world.
Our companies provide real business enhancing solutions, which allow our clients to operate at a high level of efficiency. This is accomplished by eliminating manual effort, streamlining workflows, providing vital information needed to make crucial business decisions, and most importantly, by delivering real value to the products and services our clients provide their customers. Worldwide, over 60,000 customers in more than 30 countries have partnered with Jonas Software and our companies.
At Jonas Software, we have long realized that our greatest asset is our employee base. As such we strive to provide our team with a fantastic working environment and an enriching career, which we know will translate into world class service to our valued clients. This allows Jonas Software to maintain and extend our lead as the premier software and services provider in each of our markets. If being part of a growing organization that moves at a fast pace and constantly strives to get better each and every day is what you are looking for, then we want to hear from you.
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The Sacramento Police Department will be joining law enforcement agencies throughout California stepping up DUI enforcement at the end of the traditional summer season through Labor Day – August 16 through Sept. 2. During the crackdown period, there will be an increase in law enforcement presence on the roads, including additional officers and DUI checkpoints throughout the state, and those caught driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs will be arrested.
The Sacramento Police Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint on August 31, 2013, on Del Paso Blvd near El Camino Ave. It will begin at 8:00 p.m. and run for 5 to 7 hours. The California Office of Traffic Safety is reminding Californians to plan ahead during the crackdown and every day by designating a sober driver.
The Sacramento Police Department will be joining the CHP, Avoid DUI Task Forces and over other 115 local police departments across the state. Specially trained officers will be on hand to detect drivers under the influence of alcohol as well as legal or illegal drugs. In 2011, 774 California drivers with a blood alcohol content of .08 or higher were killed in alcohol-impaired crashes. A first-time DUI conviction can cost up to $10,000 in fines, legal fees, and insurance increases.
During the Labor Day weekend in 2011, a total of 138 people across the county were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving drivers or motorcycle riders with a .08 BAC or higher. Of those fatalities, 83 percent occurred during early evening and overnight.
"The purpose of the checkpoint is to promote public safety; increase awareness of the dangers associated with drinking and driving, and serves as a deterrent to potential impaired and unlicensed drivers. Remember, Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over and Report Drunk Drivers – call 911. Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Please direct any inquiries to Sergeant Chris Prince at (916) 808-6069. Media is encouraged to attend the checkpoint in an effort to spread awareness about the impacts of drinking and driving.
Sacramento Police Media Relations · (916) 808-0808 · firstname.lastname@example.com
The Mission of the Sacramento Police Department is to work in partnership with the Community to
protect life and property, solve neighborhood problems, and enhance the quality of life in our City.


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New Google Glass
Google just secretly released a new version of Google Glass. The new edition will be targeted primarily towards businesses in the healthcare, manufacturing, and energy industries.
The main new feature of this product is that it is a clip on rather than a whole set of glasses, this allows it to be attached to any set of goggles or glasses. It also is reported to have a battery life that lasts 2 hours longer then the previous edition. The new version is expected to be water resistant as well as more durable in general. It is estimated to be released in mid 2016.


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Fresh off a year practicing medicine in Nepal, Grainne McKeown found her old habits weren't sitting well with her new worldview.
"Coming from a place where you might spend 50 cents for a meal — and a lot of people don't even have 50 cents — it was really hard to figure out how I can suddenly spend $50 for a meal."
McKeown, 35, grew up service-minded in Glenview and attended Wilmette's Regina Dominican all-girls Catholic high school. She worked soup kitchens. She moved to an Indian reservation in Montana after college. She studied Buddhism in Nepal. Her old worldview was hardly insular.
But in 2008, after earning a master's degree from The Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine, McKeown moved first to Bali and then Nepal to work in local clinics. She treated patients with ailments ranging from diabetes to asthma to typhoid to cerebral palsy. Many paid the equivalent of $1 for her aid.
She returned to the Chicago area a year later to face her looming student loan payments and a new mindfulness.
"They are really two different worlds," she says. "And I had to figure out how to exist in both. Refusing to exist in Chicago doesn't make people in Nepal not starving. My job became connecting the two worlds."
In this spirit, she founded Mindful Medicine Worldwide, a nonprofit that recruits professional volunteer acupuncturists to staff health care clinics in developing areas. Her organization runs two clinics in Nepal, and she has her sights set on Thailand next.
"My job is to educate: This is how people in the rest of the world are living; this is what they have access to and what they don't; this is what they need," she says. "And then I get to be a conduit to get them what they need."
McKeown also practices acupuncture, Thai bodywork and Chinese herbal medicine in her Lakeview office.
"Universally, people just want to be cared for," she says. "Whether it's someone here who has financial access to all the care in the world or someone in Nepal, they want someone to listen to their story and tell them, 'Pain is hard. Disease is hard. But we're going to get through this together.'
"People need medical care," she says. "They need to get better on a physical level, but they also want to be comforted. They want to be healed from within."
Q: What is your greatest attribute?
A: Being able to live happily with very little, in order to do the work that is meaningful to me.
Q: What is your greatest possession?
A: Strength and never giving up.
Q: Who is your living hero?
A: My mother is my hero. She came from Ireland with no other family but my father, and worked incredibly hard to make a successful life for us, while being the best parent and role model in the world. Her love is unconditional, and she continuously overcomes obstacles and challenges with faith, kindness and a smile.
Q: What is the one secret to success?
A: You have to choose the things in life that will allow you to be successful. Usually those are things that bring your life into balance, and then success will naturally come.
Q: Which side gets cheated more often: personal or professional?
A: These days it's definitely personal, but I am always trying to balance that. My professional life is so much a part of who I am that it often seeps into the personal without me even knowing.
Q: What do you gain most from your work?
A: It's not sleep! I don't think I would be totally satisfied working on what I call the micro-cosmic level. I love my patients in my Lakeview office, and it's so satisfying to help them, but I still need to feel like I'm making a difference on the macro-cosmic level.
Q: What is your dream job?
A: The work I do now, but maybe with a staff of 20!
Q: What is your favorite city?
A: I have so many favorites: Berlin, Buenos Aires, Katmandu, Chiang Mai, Stockholm, and small towns in Ireland are just some of them. Every city has beauty to offer, and many of my friends live all over the world so that makes those places my favorites too.
Q: If you only knew then ...
A: If I knew that great things take time to build, I wouldn't put so much pressure on myself to do it all right now. I haven't quite learned this yet.
Q: What did you want to be at age 13?
A: A ballerina or a nun.
Q: What's your professional mantra, in fewer than 10 words?:
A: Strive to be the best person you can be on the inside and the work you are meant to do will come.


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Single Cab Life Tank Top
**Please review the size chart before ordering**
Processing and Shipping Times:
Products are made to order and take 3-5 days to produce. Production times may vary depending on order volume.
Aggressive Thread utilizes state-of-the-art printing processes on a high-quality name brand clothing to bring you stylish, impressive and long-lasting products you'll be proud to wear.
The Single Cab Life Tank Top is perfect for truck and muscle car enthusiasts.


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Last month, Micromax launched the cheapest Android phone, Micromax Andro in India. Wynncom and Olive also promised to launch Android phones soon in India. According to the folks at Telecom Yatra, Intex Mobiles will soon join the bandwagon and will launch the cheapest Android phone in India.
After the successful launch of Intex V.SHOW, India's first projector phone, Intex will launch the cheapest Android phone for around Rs.5,500. This handset will be powered by Android 2.2 (FroYo) OS and it is expected to launch in February 2011. Currently Micromax Andro is the cheapest Android phone in India. It comes with a price tag of Rs.6,999.
"Intex will launch four more models of V Show – a mobile phone with built in projector, which was recently launched. The new models of V Show will support Office applications and therefore be useful for professionals. People who want to watch movies, videos, picture galleries and even read e books on their mobile phones will also find some interesting applications in the new model. We will launch an Android 2.2 phone in the first week of February and it will priced at around Rs 5,500", said Sudhir Kumar, Assistant General Manager of the telecom division at Intex.
The Intex Android phone will come with a 2.8-inch resistive touchscreen display, 3.2 megapixel camera, GPS and Wi-Fi Connectivity. Android powered Huawei Ideos is also expected to launch early next year in India for around Rs.8,000.


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- Talk about this issue--with your friends and colleagues, with your boss, with your professional organizations. Ask what they can do to help. Share this list as a starting point. When you see people helping to keep women silent, point it out.
- When you organize or moderate a panel, take the time to look for, invite and encourage women speakers to join it. Got an all male panel? Include women. (This is a problem even in female-dominated professions, by the way.) Get your organization to make this a rule of thumb.
- Share speaking resources with women you know. I always hope you'll recommend The Eloquent Woman or The Eloquent Woman on Facebook, but please also share the many books, blogs, seminars and other resources you find useful with women interested in speaking.
- If you're a manager, offer support for speaker training, particularly for younger women on your team. Use a low-cost alternative like Toastmasters, private coaching, or team training for the women on your team. Insist that women working on your team get speaker training. Encourage them to keep trying.
- Managers also can make public speaking and presentations skills a professional development goal for female team members, both to indicate their importance and to cause training to happen.
- Not a manager? Then ask for presentation and speaker training at work, and ask to make it part of your professional development plan. Suggest group training for you and your colleagues. Feel free to use my memo to the boss for this purpose.
- In a meeting, ask a woman what she thinks about the matter at hand. Listen to what she says. If a woman's having trouble getting a word in edgewise, help her out: "I'd like to hear what Emily has to say on this score" is all it takes.
- If a female friend or colleague is speaking, go hear your speaking friend. Congratulate her. Encourage her to do it again. Ask intelligent questions during her presentation. Tell others to go see her.
- If you're a woman who speaks on a subject with authority, make yourself known to program organizers, and publicly. Women are sometimes penalized for putting themselves forward in this way. Do it, anyway. It's okay to "toot your own horn."
- Offer to help a friend practice public speaking. Watch a video playback with her, watch her rehearse, or sit in the audience and offer observations afterward.
- Mentor another woman with less speaking experience. Let her watch you speak, and talk to her afterwards so she has the chance to ask questions. Help her get speaking gigs and opportunities to practice. Show her how to network in ways that will help her be noticed as a speaker, and talk to her about how to promote her speaking.
- Speak up and shut down the myths, mocking, negative talk and sexual slurs that attempt to silence women. A simple "that's unacceptable" should do it; if it doesn't, make a complaint. Don't let women around you be intimidated into silence.
- Before you register for a conference, figure out the proportion of female speakers. Send a message to the organizers if it's out of whack. Let them know the problem has been noticed--and ask what they're going to do about it.
Inspiration, ideas and information to help women build public speaking content, confidence and credibility. Denise Graveline is a Washington, DC-based speaker coach who has coached nearly 200 TEDMED and TEDx speakers--including one of 2016's most popular TED talks. She also has prepared speakers for presentations, testimony, and keynotes. She offers 1:1 coaching and group workshops in public speaking, presentation and media interview skills to both men and women.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
From the vault: 13 simple things you can do to help women with public speaking
This blog's full of examples of the difficulties women face in public speaking, starting with just getting a spot on the program. But instead of blaming women or saying this can't be done, what are some practical and simple things that any of us can do to help a woman with public speaking? Unlike some observers, I'm not suggesting that only women should do these things. These are tasks any woman or man can do. I welcome your additions to this list in the comments:
Posted by eloquentwoman at Wednesday, June 13, 2012 0 comments
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City Council will consider cutting mounted patrol
Mayor approves city manager's budget proposal
The future of Cincinnati's mounted patrol is now in the hands of City Council.
Mayor Mark Mallory passed along City Manager Milton Dohoney's budget proposal, which calls for the reassignment of mounted patrol officers to other duties, to city councilmembers.
Police Chief James Craig has called the horse patrol a luxury the city can no longer afford, but once it's gone, it's much more expensive to reinstate.
"We have large events here in Cincinnati where we're doing crowd control, often things that don't make the news, you know, that are events that happen quick that could potentially turn into something, you know, more than what they were," said Officer Dave Price, of the mounted patrol unit.
Cities around the country have been dropping the patrols to reduce costs, including stables, feeding and equipment.
But supporters say the horses serve as ambassadors between the police department and the community it serves.
"I can't tell you how many people I run into every day, (and say), 'Hey officer, love your horse,' shake my hand, 'Thanks for your job,'" said Officer James Van Steelandt, of the mounted patrol.
Cutting the mounted patrol will help the city avoid laying off any human workers, but there's not much market for 15-year-old horses like Joseph.
If City Council decides to cut the patrol, city officials have not yet decided where the horses will go.


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The first panel lists the objectives of this unit. Read these objectives carefully.
|Given the definition of a physical quantity, or an equation involving a physical quantity, you will be able to determine the dimensions and SI units of the quantity.
|Given an equation, you will be able to determine if the equation is dimensionally correct or incorrect.
Most physical quantities can be expressed in terms of combinations of five basic dimensions. These are mass (M), length (L), time (T), electrical current (I), and temperature, represented by the Greek letter theta (q). These five dimensions have been chosen as being basic because they are easy to measure in experiments. Dimensions aren't the same as units. For example, the physical quantity, speed, may be measured in units of metres per second, miles per hour etc.; but regardless of the units used, speed is always a length divided a time, so we say that the dimensions of speed are length divided by time, or simply L/T. Similarly, the dimensions of area are L2 since area can always be calculated as a length times a length. For example, although the area of a circle is conventionally written as pr2, we could write it as p r (which is a length) × r (another length). Now try the questions in Quiz 1.
Now that you can determine the dimensions of physical quantities, it'll be useful to write the SI units for the quantities. SI stands for International System (Système Internationale). The SI unit for mass is the kilogram, for length the metre, for time the second, for current the ampere, and for temperature the kelvin. Notice that kelvin is abbreviated as just K. The degree symbol, °, and the word "degree" are not used with kelvin.
As a quick example, let's look at speed, which has dimensions of length divided by time or L/T. Its SI units are then metres divided by seconds, represented as m/s or m·s-1. Now try Quiz 2.
Some combinations of SI units are given special names. For example, the unit of energy, kg·m2/s, is given the special name joule, which is abbreviated as J. Study the information presented below.
|joule (J)
|newton (N)
|hertz (Hz)
|watt (W)
|J/s = kg·m2/s3
|coulomb (C)
|You might be wondering when to write joule, J, or kg·m2/s2 as the energy unit. The SI convention is that if there is no number in front of the unit, then the unit is written as a full word. For example, you would write "energy is expressed in joules," with "joules" written out in full, since there is no number associated with it in the sentence. If there is a number, then "J" ( or less commonly, "kg·m2/s2") is used. Thus, you would write "the energy is 6.4 J".
Now test yourself on the SI special names. Do Quiz 3.
Panel 9
| Some quantities have no
dimensions. For example, the sine of an angle is defined as the ratio of
the lengths of two particular sides of a triangle. Thus, the dimensions
of the sine are L/L, or 1. Therefore, the sine function is said to be "dimensionless".
There are many other examples of "dimensionless" quantities listed in the
following table.
Now try Quiz 4. Try NOT to look at the table while you do it.
We've now done all the basics so let's get into some fine points. There are two special cases of quantities which are "dimensionless". First, the argument of a trigonometric function, and second, the exponent in any exponential function. The argument of a trig function is an angle, of course, so it's "dimensionless"; and an exponent of an exponential function is the same thing as a logarithm so it's "dimensionless". These facts often are useful in helping to determine the dimensions of a quantity.
For example, if we're given that y = ekt, where t is the time, we can state that k must have dimensions of time-1 in order that the exponent be "dimensionless". Now let's see how well you can use this information in Quiz 5.
A common notation, which means "the dimensions of a quantity", is simply the quantity written inside square brackets []; thus, [area] = L2. Now you should be able to try Quiz 6.
In an algebraic expression, all terms which are added or subtracted must have the same dimensions. This implies that each term on the left-hand side of an equation must have the same dimensions as each term on the right-hand side. For example, in the equation a = bc + (1/2)xy, "a" must have the same dimensions as the product "bc", and the product "(1/2)xy" must also have the same dimensions as "a" or "bc". Remember that the "1/2" in "(1/2)xy" is just a plain old number and so it has no dimensions.
An equation in which each term has the same dimensions is said to be dimensionally correct. All equations used in any science should be dimensionally correct. The only time you'll encounter one which isn't is if there is an error in the equation. So dimensional analysis is a valuable tool in helping you to detect an equation in which you made an error in algebra, for example. Let's try this out on some equations. Try Quiz 7.
F is force
What are the dimensions and SI unit of h (viscosity)?
|We're just about finished now. Let's do a sample question. This is a typical question which is fairly difficult. We're given an equation (shown on the left) involving force, radius, length, speed, and distance, and are asked for the dimensions and SI units of eta, (h), which is a viscosity. First, we rearrange the equation to solve for h and then convert it to an equation involving dimensions. Note that the negative sign is interpreted as "-1". Okay, you finish it off. When you've worked out the answer, move on to see if you're right or not.
|Well, the correct answer for the dimensions is M·L-1·T-1. The corresponding SI unit is kg·m-1·s-1. If you didn't get this answer, try the question again. You've probably just made a simple error with your exponents.


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This page proposes the websites' links of some of the most important think tanks based in Brussels, dealing with the analysis of European policies from the social to the political area, from economics to science and technology, from industrial policies to trade policies.
- Bruegel (Brussels European and Global Economic Laboratory) is an international political and economic think tank based in Brussels. Founded in 2005, it has quickly gained importance and it is now considered one the most important think tanks in Europe and worldwide;
- CEPS (Centre for European Policy Studies), founded in Brussels in 1983, is one of the most influential think tanks in Europe. Its main objective is to provide a forum of discussion to stakeholders interested in the European political process and to publish the results of researches and debates through a regular flow of documents and public events;
- EPC (European Policy Centre) is a think tank composed by 400 members from private sector, civil society, national governments, diplomatic missions and regional and local bodies, discussing with experts and officials of the European institutions key themes of the EU agenda;
- The Robert Schuman Foundation is a research center that develops studies on the European Union and its policies, promoting their content in France, Europe and worldwide. The think tank is based in Paris and Brussels.