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Exportable Righteousness, Expendable Women
Exportable Righteousness, Expendable Women
The "global gag rule" is stifling debate about reproductive health. It's going to force a lot of poor women in developing countries to bear children they don't want. It's likely to increase (not decrease) the number of "coat hanger" abortions. And it's probably going to get a lot of women killed, which will in turn boost death rates among the children they leave behind. So why exactly is it U.S. policy?
T he desire to control fertility may be nearly as ancient and universal as sexual desire itself. Every culture, it seems, has had its contraceptives, although their efficacy has varied greatly. To prevent pregnancy, the Petrie Papyrus, an Egyptian medical text from 1850 BC, recommended vaginal suppositories made of crocodile dung. In the 4th century BC, Aristotle described women coating their cervixes with olive oil before intercourse. Women on Easter Island made suppositories from seaweed. And from the 1930s to the 1960s, Lysol, now a popular household cleaner, was marketed coyly to American women as a "certain...yet safe" disinfectant douche.
In the developing world today, nearly two-thirds of all women in their reproductive years-about 525 million of them-rely on some form of birth control, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). But there is still a great deal of unmet demand for contraceptives. More than 100 million women in these countries say they want to delay the birth of their next child or stop having children altogether, but are not currently using contraception.
Family planning has been recognized by the international community as a fundamental human right. Under the program of action adopted at the International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo in 1994, "All couples and individuals have the basic right to decide freely and responsibly the number and spacing of their children [that is, the length of time between births] and to have the information, education, and means to do so." But efforts to secure this right were dealt a serious setback last year. On his first working day and the 28th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States, President George W. Bush issued an executive order that resurrected a measure known informally as the "global gag rule."
Essentially, the gag rule prohibits foreign family planning organizations from receiving U.S. government aid if they provide abortions (except in cases of rape, incest, or danger to a woman's life), or if they counsel women about abortion as an option for dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, or if they advocate less restrictive abortion laws in their own countries. The restrictions apply even if no U.S. funding is being used for the activities in question: any such activities, no matter how they are funded, render an organization ineligible for U.S. support. The gag rule, which obviously gets its common name from its sanctions against free speech, had first been imposed by Ronald Reagan in 1984. Bill Clinton lifted the policy during his first week in office. Its reinstatement by Bush has put the United States in a peculiar diplomatic position: while formally committed to the Cairo program of action, the United States is in effect using its economic power to undermine the human rights principle upon which the program is built.
The U.S. government is the largest international donor to family planning programs. U.S. contributions flow through the country's foreign aid agency, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which has budgeted $425 million for family planning for the 2002 fiscal year. About half of this money will go to foreign governments and to multilateral agencies like UNFPA, to whom the gag rule does not apply. The other half will be channeled to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are subject to the rule. The rule applies on a rolling basis: when a project is due for renewal, the managing organization must decide whether to comply or forgo funding.
USAID supports medical training and research on family planning, but it also funds the direct provision of services to millions of couples in over 60 countries, including many of the poorest and most densely populated on Earth. In comparison to other major international donors, USAID relies heavily on NGOs to carry out its family planning activities. And that makes U.S. programs highly vulnerable to the gag rule.
The effects of the rule are already being felt. The compliance option has been rejected by two of the largest international providers of reproductive health services, the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) and Marie Stopes International (MSI, named after the activist who in 1921 founded the first British family planning clinic). These organizations argue that as a matter of principle, they cannot exclude access to safe abortion from the set of reproductive health goals that they are trying to advance. As a result, IPPF will lose approximately $8 million from 2001 to 2003, or 8 percent of its budget; MSI has thus far lost over $2 million. To date, at least a half dozen other NGOs-some international and some local-have lost funding by refusing to comply with the gag rule.
The potential consequences led Anthony Browne, health editor of the British newspaper, the Observer, to label the gag rule "the Bush edict that kills women." Clinic closures have already been reported from Nepal to Peru to Kenya. Marie Stopes-Kenya, for example, has closed two centers serving the slums of Nairobi and Kisumi. In Kenya as a whole, only one in four married women uses a modern method of contraception, according to UNFPA. In the poor areas served by these clinics, the proportion is likely to be even lower. The country also has a high maternal mortality rate: for every 100,000 births, 650 women die as a consequence of pregnancy or childbirth. One-third of those deaths are caused by botched abortions, even though Kenya has restrictive abortion laws.
The pervasiveness of abortion, even where it is illegal or cannot be safely performed, is perhaps the clearest indication of the gag rule's medical absurdity. (See sidebar, below.) The rule's ostensible objective is to reduce the number of abortions, but by obstructing the delivery of family planning services as a whole, it is likely to have just the opposite effect. As Sue Newport, MSI's Africa Regional Director, explains, "In depriving access to contraception and basic reproductive health choices through these unavoidable clinic closures, Mr. Bush has condemned more women to face crisis pregnancies and resort to desperate, life-threatening methods to abort."
The rule is a legal absurdity as well. In the first place, it's discriminatory because it applies to pro-choice activities only: anti-abortion lobbying does not render an organization ineligible for funding. The rule also sends a strong signal to developing countries that the United States disapproves of abortion; that will likely set back efforts to increase access to safe abortion, despite the fact that in the United States, abortion is legal. In developing countries that permit abortion, the rule has the bizarre effect of preventing counselors from discussing a procedure allowed by law, with the very people most likely to need it. More generally, the rule's suppression of debate is hardly a proud reflection of the U.S. constitution, which is supposed to guarantee the right of free speech. Susana Galdos Silva, an activist for the Movimiento Manuela Ramos, a Peruvian women's rights NGO that accepts USAID money and has consequently been gagged, testified on this matter at a U.S. Senate hearing last July. "The gag rule," she said, "has taken away my freedom to speak about an important issue in my country-a serious issue that is about the life and death of women in Peru." Had it been delivered in Peru, her testimony would itself have been sufficient to disqualify her organization for U.S. aid. Some critics of the rule regard such de facto censorship as a kind of ideological hegemony. Malcolm Potts, Bixby professor of population and family planning at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health, puts it this way: "You can't run a world on a few people's political and religious assertions."
No family planning, no security
Family planning provides a higher return on investment than almost any other type of development assistance. "A development success story" is the phrase the World Bank used in its 1994 survey of the field. Its most obvious successes appear, not in demographic trends, but in the lives of the women it reaches. In the developing world, pregnancy and childbirth are the leading cause of death and disability for women of reproductive age. Worldwide, UNFPA estimates that over 500,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year and several million more suffer injury or infection. Ninety-eight percent of these women live in developing countries. In Africa, the continent with the highest rates of maternal death, a woman has a one in sixteen chance of dying in childbirth over her lifetime. Before giving birth, African mothers sometimes bid their older children farewell. In Tanzania, a common formula is: "I am going to the sea to fetch a new baby but the journey is long and dangerous."
The World Health Organization estimates that 100,000 maternal deaths could be avoided each year if all women who said they wanted to stop bearing children were able to do so. Reducing maternal mortality would also confer enormous benefits on large numbers of children, as is apparent in a negative way from current child mortality statistics: in some developing countries, the loss of a mother increases the death rate by 50 percent for children under the age of five.
For most couples, family planning might best be characterized not as a way of preventing pregnancy outright, but as a way of better managing its frequency. Spacing births at least two years apart leaves time for a mother's body to recover, allows more attention to be given to the newborn, and tends to improve nutrition for both mother and child. The result is a 50 percent increase in infant survival.
The benefits of family planning extend well beyond the health effects. There is a strong correlation between lower fertility rates and the educational and financial advancement of women. This correlation was borne out, for example, by an 11-year study of working women in Cebu city in the Philippines. Researchers found that the fewer children a woman had, the greater the increase in her earnings over that period. Although it is difficult to distinguish cause from effect in such situations, few if any experts doubt that family planning improves the social position of women.
At the national level, reducing population growth can promote economic development. Some economists argue that families with fewer children save more money, a phenomenon called the "demographic bonus." Higher savings rates may in turn reduce a country's dependence on foreign capital. Decreasing population growth can also ease the strain on over-taxed natural resources, particularly those associated with subsistence agriculture. Today, an estimated 420 million people live in countries where the amount of cropland per capita has dropped below 0.07 hectares-the amount generally deemed necessary to sustain a bare minimum vegetarian diet. By 2025, the number of people living in such countries will probably have reached between 550 million and 1 billion. But the most important limit is not likely to be access to land; it's likely to be access to water. Already, half a billion people are living in areas prone to severe water shortages. In 25 years, that number will probably have risen to between 2.4 and 3.2 billion.
Such figures suggest the importance of family planning as a global enterprise. By 2050, the world's population is likely to approach 9 billion-almost a 50 percent increase from its current level of 6.1 billion. Nearly all of that increase will come in the developing world and at this point, most of it is probably inevitable. That's because record numbers of young people are now coming into their peak reproductive years (between the ages of 15 and 24). Even if the global fertility rate (the average number of children per woman) were to fall overnight from its current level of 2.8 to the longterm "replacement level" of 2.1, more than three-quarters of the growth projected for the next half century would still occur, because of the enormous demographic bulge of young adults.
This population expansion will create profound challenges to development in many ways-political, technical, and moral. Family planning is going to be essential for managing those challenges. On this broad demographic level, family planning could be said to serve two purposes: incremental reduction of population growth over the relatively near term, and over the long term, insuring that the growth actually stops somewhere around that 9 billion mark.
The decency gap
The gag rule is a product of American neoconservatism. Hostility to family planning was not a standard element in the conservative outlook before the Reagan era. In 1969, with the United States firmly committed to providing family planning assistance overseas, it did not seem incongruous to hear President Richard Nixon identify population growth as "one of the most serious challenges to human destiny in the last third of this century."
But the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 inaugurated a marked shift in both conservative ideology and the electoral mechanics of the Republican Party. During Reagan's presidency, conservative Christianity became an increasingly influential force within the party. And of course, the issue that conservative Christian groups care most about-then and now-is abortion, which they want to outlaw. Their position on family planning proper (which is built around the provision of contraceptives, not abortion) varies somewhat but is generally unfavorable. This constituency scored a major coup at the 1984 population conference in Mexico City, when the Reagan administration announced that it had adopted the initial version of the gag rule as U.S. policy. (The rule is still sometimes called the Mexico City policy.)
Opposition to family planning picked up additional momentum from serious abuses within several national programs. Coercive government policies have sometimes created a lasting suspicion of family planning in the countries concerned; this happened in parts of India, for example, after the forced sterilization programs in the mid-1970s under the Indira Gandhi administration. In Washington, such cases of coercion have tended to strengthen the neoconservative agenda. In 1985, the Reagan administration expressed its displeasure with China's one-child policy, which has been associated with forced sterilizations and forced abortions, by ordering a $10 million cut in U.S. contributions to UNFPA. The cut was equal to the amount that UNFPA was spending on Chinese family planning programs. (Despite its involvement in China, UNFPA does not endorse any form of compulsion.) In the following year, U.S. support for UNFPA was eliminated altogether. (It was not restored until 1993 and even today, the United States continues to deduct from its contribution an amount equal to UNFPA's China expenditures.) In 1998, accounts of forced sterilization in Peru triggered U.S. legislation withholding monetary and food aid to that country until the sterilization program was stopped.
The Reagan era gag rule set off a series of reactions that substantially undercut family planning efforts in the developing world. Two of the field's biggest "umbrella organizations," IPPF and the affiliated Family Planning International Assistance, decided that they couldn't comply, and consequently lost funding. IPPF lost a full quarter of its operating budget. Out in the field, the efforts of many little NGOs-the "subgrantees" under these umbrellas-were disrupted by the cuts. In the schools, educational curricula were purged of references to abortion; medical textbooks mentioning the subject were withdrawn. And although post-abortion services were not explicitly prohibited, the rule reportedly had a chilling effect on both the providers and seekers of this type of care. Meanwhile in Washington, the gag rule's supporters were looking beyond the rule itself. In 1985, USAID granted funds to the Family of the Americas Foundation, an organization opposed to all artificial methods of birth control. This grant violated USAID's own informed consent policy, which requires family planning programs to supply information on all contraceptive methods.
Even after Bill Clinton repealed the gag rule, Congress continued to use its power over the budget to chip away at family planning expenditures. (See graph, page 26.) From its peak of $542 million in fiscal year 1995, Congress cut USAID funding for family planning by 35 percent for the next fiscal year-a substantially greater loss than the 20 percent cut inflicted on foreign aid as a whole. The family planning budget regained some ground in the following year but in 1999, Clinton struck a deal with congressional conservatives: in exchange for an agreement to pay back dues owed to the United Nations, Clinton signed a more lenient version of the gag rule, which cut USAID funding by $12.5 million. Late in his presidency, Clinton negotiated a 2001 budget with ostensibly more favorable terms. Family planning funding would be increased to $425 million and the gag rule withdrawn-but conservatives insisted on one important condition: no funds could be disbursed until after February 15, 2001. Thus the fate of the rule hinged on what turned out to be one of the most unusual presidential elections in American history.
Bush lost no time in reinstating the rule with all its Reagan-era restrictions, but the intervening 17 years had altered the field. In the first place, there are more NGOs than there used to be, particularly in the advocacy sector. NGOs are also generally better organized and more sophisticated-and USAID is much more dependent upon them to drive its family planning programs. Abortion laws have changed too: in many countries, restrictions have eased, so compliance with the gag rule will probably be more onerous than it once was. Overall, these changes are liable to make the effects of the rule more complex than in the 1980s. More complex means less predictable, but it's safe to say that in many developing countries, civil society is much less likely simply to accept the gag.
In the short term, at least, the rule's effects will probably be mitigated somewhat by funding increases from elsewhere. Poul Nielson, the European commissioner for development, announced his commitment to fill the immediate funding shortfall, which he called "the decency gap." In June, both the Danish and the Finnish governments increased their IPPF contributions. And Los Angeles Times columnist Patt Morrison sparked an informal fundraising campaign in the United States, when she told readers she was planning to make a donation to Planned Parenthood in George W. Bush's name as a President's Day "gift." Her idea, circulated over the internet, brought in tens of thousands of contributions.
In the United States, several legal challenges to the rule have also been mounted. Last February, a bipartisan bill to overturn the rule was introduced into Congress. In the House, it survived a committee vote but was defeated on the floor. In the Senate, it won the support of the Foreign Relations Committee-a major political accomplishment, since that committee is chaired by arch-conservative Jesse Helms (a Republican from North Carolina), and since Bush had already threatened to veto the bill if it got to his desk. (At the time of writing, the bill had not yet been scheduled for debate on the Senate floor.) In the courts, the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy has sued for the rule's withdrawal, on the grounds that it violates the right to free speech. "President Bush is holding free speech hostage to a viewpoint he doesn't like," says Janet Benshoof, the organization's president. "As a result, many foreign organizations can no longer work in partnership with my organization, cannot attend events at the United Nations at which we are speaking, cannot meet with us and provide information about the situation in their own country." The case was dismissed by a U.S. district judge in New York but the Center has promised to appeal.
Does the gag rule have momentum?
The resurrection of the gag rule suggests that attacks on family planning may escalate. Although Bush insists that he supports family planning itself, conservative policy appears to be singling the field out for unfavorable treatment. This is apparent, in the first place, from the way the rule itself works. The rule does not restrict USAID funding for HIV prevention, safe motherhood, or child survival programs, even though these activities overlap significantly with family planning-for example, in the distribution of condoms-and even though many of the same NGOs are involved. Only family planning comes in for the gag rule's restrictions. As development policy, such contradictions don't seem to make much sense. But as a U.S. domestic political strategy, unfortunately, they do: to many conservative political activists, family planning is suspect; safe motherhood and other such programs are not.
There is also a kind of financial double standard at work in the administration's policy. The use of federal funds to support abortion abroad was banned in 1973-long before the Mexico City conference. But supporters of the rule argue that it closes a loophole by preventing indirect funding of abortion: the argument is that an NGO could use U.S. funds to cover its nonabortion family planning activities, thereby freeing up funds from other sources for its abortion services. Yet the administration has been careful to deny the same line of argument when it comes to one of Bush's pet projects: the "faith-based" initiative, which would provide government funding for social programs run by churches and other religious organizations. The administration argues that the initiative would not violate the constitutional ban on state support of religion, because churches can keep their social services funding separate from their religious funding.
The months following Bush's inauguration saw the emergence of several other initiatives that took aim at abortion in the United States. Tommy Thompson, Bush's Secretary of Health and Human Services, suggested that he might reconsider federal approval of the abortion pill, RU-486. (He later withdrew this suggestion because "Nobody has written to me asking me to review it on any safety concerns.") And the House passed an "Unborn Victims of Violence Act," which would make it a federal crime to harm a fetus, or even an embryo, in an attack on a pregnant woman. Supporters of the bill claim that it demonstrates that "all life is precious." At present, the bill has little chance of getting through the Senate, where Democrats now have the upper hand, but if it actually were to become law, it might establish a legal precedent for regarding even a fertilized egg as a person. Such a precedent could be used to argue that abortion providers are guilty of a federal crime.
Conservatives have also been targeting family planning proper. Bush's proposed budget for 2001 eliminated coverage of contraceptives from the federal employee health insurance plan. Congress overruled him on this point, but Congress itself may be undermining contraception in a less controversial way. For the 2001 fiscal year, Congress approved a $20 million increase in funding for abstinence-only sex education programs, and a $30 million increase for 2002. But no increase has been approved for family planning. The goal, say officials, is to spend as much money on abstinence-only programs as on family planning, despite the fact that the latter provides medical services and supplies, while abstinence-only programs consist mostly of classes and workshops. Nor is there any evidence that abstinence-only programs actually work.
Attacks on domestic family planning are bad news for the international programs, which are likely to be even more vulnerable to politicians out to prove their commitment to some "pro-life" constituency. That vulnerability is probably in part the result of ignorance: most Americans appear to know little about population issues. A recent survey by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit policy think tank, found that only 14 percent of the U.S. population had even a rough sense of what the global population is. They estimated it at about 5 to 6 billion-but a similar proportion of the people surveyed thought it was greater than 30 billion! Yet despite their fuzziness on the reasons why it is needed, Americans seem to have little problem with family planning per se. The RAND survey found that 80 percent of Americans favor support of voluntary family planning programs in developing countries. Apparently, then, the gag rule is not taking U.S. policy in a direction that most Americans would want it go. And it is certainly not taking it in the direction envisioned by the Cairo conference-towards a world with fewer abortions, healthier mothers, and healthier babies.
Ann Hwang is a medical student at the University of California, San Francisco, and a former intern at the Worldwatch Institute. The author would like to thank the following people, who provided valuable guidance in researching this article: Felicia Stewart and Tracy Weitz, at the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health Research and Policy; Barbara Crane at Ipas; and Susan Cohen at the Alan Guttmacher Institute.
Sidebar; What Does Abortion Have to do with Family Planning?
Family planning providers may offer a wide range of services, including sex education, maternal health care, and programs designed to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. But the basic goal of family planning is simple: to give people the means to control their fertility. Family planning focuses on contraception to prevent pregnancy, rather than abortion. This focus is consistent with the Program of Action negotiated at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo. The program explicitly condemns the use of abortion for family planning.
By preventing unwanted pregnancies, family planning can decrease the incidence of abortion. Research has confirmed the obvious: in country after country, as contraceptive use has increased, abortion rates have declined. But the need for abortion never completely vanishes. No contraceptive method works perfectly; rape and incest occur in every society.
A woman may want an abortion for any of a number of reasons. She may worry about the impact of a pregnancy on her health, or about her ability to support a child. She may fear social disapproval or punishment, the loss of educational opportunities, or the loss of a job. Without access to safe and legal abortion, a woman in such straits may try to self-abort, or she may turn to a practitioner who employs dangerous methods. Around the world, the equivalent of the coat hanger-representative of so much needless suffering before abortion was legalized in the United States-includes everything from twigs to crochet hooks. In Zambia, women have even been known to drink gasoline to end an unwanted pregnancy.
The consequences are often fatal. Worldwide, an estimated one of every eight maternal deaths is due to unsafe abortion. Many more women are injured. In large, urban public hospitals in developing countries, women with abortion complications account for as many as two out of every three maternity beds, according to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, an NGO that studies reproductive health. Romania made itself into a tragic social experiment with this form of misery when it virtually banned abortion from 1967 to 1989. Abortion-related maternal deaths soared from less than 25 per 100,000 births in 1965 to 142 per 100,000 by the end of that era.
The real tragedy behind such statistics is that virtually all these deaths are avoidable. When performed properly, abortion is a very low-risk procedure. In industrialized countries, the risk of dying from abortion is roughly one-ninth the risk of carrying a pregnancy to term. In developing countries, where death rates from pregnancy and childbirth are several times higher, this ratio is even more lopsided.
According to the Alan Guttmacher Institute, one-quarter of the world's women live in countries where abortion is prohibited altogether or allowed only to save a woman's life. (See map, pages 28-29.) Some 15 percent live in countries that permit abortion to protect women's physical health and in some cases, their mental health as well. Another 20 percent live in countries that recognize socio-economic concerns, in addition to health concerns, as grounds for the procedure. The remaining 40 percent live in countries where abortion is legal, regardless of the reason that it is sought, although it may be subject to gestational limits, consent requirements, mandatory counseling, or waiting periods. Women in developing countries are more likely to face restrictive abortion laws than are their counterparts in the industrialized world.
Between 1985 and 1997, 9 developing and 10 industrialized countries reduced restrictions on abortion. In many countries where the laws remain restrictive, public debate about abortion is growing-in part, presumably, because more and more women are aware that the status quo is not inevitable. As the Peruvian activist Susana Galdos Silva puts it, "We support reform of Peru's abortion laws so that women need not fear for their lives when they face an unwanted pregnancy."
- Ann Hwang


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Ryan Seacrest kicked off Top 4 results night on Season 12 of American Idol with a speech that — depending on your outlook in life, or at least reality television — sounded either incredibly hopeful or deeply ominous: "I will announce some shocking news that will affect the judges and turn the competition upside down. It's gonna be another serious night of drama."
Ryan, who's hummed along this season as quietly and efficiently — and with as little fanfare — as a high-end refrigerator, had already hinted at a "surprise twist" in the Idol proceedings at the end of Wednesday's Top 4 performance show. And, of course, with TVLine breaking the news on Tuesday that the Judges' Save had expired — and the knowledge among Idol watchers that at its current pace, Season 12 was on target to end a week short of the scheduled May 16 finale — all signs pointed to a non-elimination week, with the next ouster slated for May 2 and based on two weeks of voting tallies.
RELATED | American Idol Top 4 Performance Night Recap: I Don't Think That I Can Take It
But if that was the case, how come Ryan was talking about the implications for the judges' panel? Did executive producer Nigel Lytgoe have some nefarious card up his sleeve? Would RuPaul emerge from that trademark seam in the backdrop and demand that Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey "lipsync for their lives" — with the loser being asked to "sashay away" from the proceedings? Was a quartet of semi-good-looking, semi-talented white guys about to storm the stage and engage in individual sing-offs against Angie, Candice, Kree and Amber, the better to placate hormonal teenagers whose texting fingers have gone idle since the elimination of Elijah Liu back in Vegas? Or maybe there was just a simple plan to present Randy Jackson with the thesaurus that Santa never ever seems to bring him — despite it being No. 1 on the Christmas list of every Idoloonie of every religious denomination for the last 11 years.
VIDEO | Idol's Lazaro Arbos on Sassing the Judges, Smuggled Whitney CDs, and 'Courage' Critiques! Plus: 'No Way 5 Guys Could've Left in a Row'
After performances by Season 10 grad Stefano Langone (charmingly cheesy as ever) and Season 9 champ Lee DeWyze (freed from the 19 Machine and able to actually release a catchy, self-penned tune!), it was time for the results:
Angie Miller
Kree Harrison
Amber Holcomb
Candice Glover
"And the person who could be at risk tonight is…no one!" said Ryan, revealing that indeed, the schedule demanded a non-elimination week, and that Wednesday's 38 million votes will be added to next week's numbers.
Before I turn things over to you, a few additional thoughts:
* Please tell me I'm not the only one who was moved to tears when that cute little boy at the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles grabbed the mic from Candice and joined the Top 4 on "Just the Way You Are."
* The group rendition of "Girl on Fire" was — dare I say it — one of the least atrocious group numbers in Idol history. Despite an outfit that was lacking in both sophistication and fabric, Amber sounded particularly potent on the Alicia Keys track though (brace for Slezak Conspiracy Theory No. 477) I swear something weird was happening with the volume on Candice's mic. Weigh in below if you caught that, too.
* I could make fun of the Ford Fiesta "Cloning Ryan Seacrest" spot, but let's just be glad it didn't end with the Idol host/E! reality series producer multiplying his stable of a Kardashians, yes?
* Amber may have "won" the "5 things in 20 seconds" battle by managing to fit in six fun factoids about herself in the allotted time, but it was Kree who won the war with her charmingly self-deprecating "I suck!"
* How could Jimmy note vocal strain from Amber's "Power of Love" on Wednesday, then assign it an A+ on Thursday? That said, I don't think it was fair of him to tell the audience she didn't know the meaning of "MacArthur Park." I needed Alicia Florrick to stand up and shout, "Objection: Hearsay!" Srsly, if it wasn't captured on camera, then did it actually happen in the Idolverse? I say "no."
* Jimmy's evisceration of Kree's choice of "Whiter Shade of Pale" made me want to dial 1-800-Trying-Too-Hard.
* I had to roll my eyes when Stefano went on and on about ladies to his left (the Top 4) and ladies to his front (Nicki and Mariah) before singing "Yes to Love," but he plays his Mack Daddy Jr. role with such goofy obliviousness that I find it hard to root against him. Still, as far as dude's singles go, I preferred "I'm on a Roll." (Woo hoo hoo hoo.)
* Interesting to hear Jimmy reconfirm his belieft in Candice — and then publicly ask for her to "speak less" and save her voice for these next few weeks of competition. Do we trust Old Man Bieber? I'm not sure. But I'm 10 percent less angry about the judges' ghastly treatment of Ms. Glover on Wednesday after they brought out her idol Drake to thank her for covering one of his tunes. Bonus points for the way Kree, Angie and Amber went berserk with excitement over seeing their competitor's dream come true. I buy that these gals really do dig one another.
* Lee's "Silver Lining" sounded very au courant, no? It was like if Mumford and Sons' "The Cave" made a baby with Phillip Phillips' "Home," and then that baby grew up and became a motivational speaker. I know I've never been the biggest fan of the Season 9 champ — or his win over Crystal Bowersox — but it's always nice to see any artist reclaim their artistry after getting steamrolled by the major-label conformity monster.
And with that, let me turn things over to you. What did you think of Season 12 Top 4 Results (Part 1)? Did you see the "twist" coming from 10 miles away? What did you think of Jimmy's comments? How about the Candice-Drake moment? Sound off in the comments, and for all my Idol-related news, recaps, interviews and videos, follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV!
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Lujo wrote:Anyway, if I ever decide to hack this game, I'll hack a button which lockers me an item and freezes my game for half an hour. Anyone in need of proof that this makes sense and moral reassurance that what we were trying to tell the devs - make a black jpeg with the white caption "Scumming..." and sit there looking at it for 10-20-30 minutes, or "Relockering..." and do the same for an hour in case of vicious stuff. Every so often make a break to load up on preps and suicide, to account for the screwup possibility in Naga City. That's what the game is asking us to do to relocker stuff, and it's magnifying allready present problems, etc, etc. Now load up that same jpeg, set an alarm clock to 30 mins, and go about your life, come back after the 30 minutes and take the jpeg away. After you're done think about which half hour had comparatively more sense.
So I'd like to know, in all honesty, if playing a run in DD without the item you *want* isn't fun? (not just from Lujo, but everyone)
Maybe I approach playing things differently, but at the level that you guys are playing, why is a scumming run even a thing anymore? Why not pick a dungeon you find challenging (or the PQI, or the flaming dungeon) and just go play it. Now you're in there, and, win or lose, there's probably a shop item that could make for an interesting run. So buy it before you head out.
Now it's in your backpack, so use if for the next run (yes, we're going to make backpack items carry through). Maybe you'll happen across the item you were looking for in the first place, but instead of "10-20-30 minutes where you can't do anything else" it's "10-20-30 minutes of challenging myself to win with what the RNG spits out". Isn't that fun? Yes, it's just a change in perspective, but really, is that so bad?


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Talk about coming full circle. Actor/Musician/Adorable Face Donald Glover will appear on a future live episode of 30 Rock as a young Tracy Jordan, the character Glover cut his teeth writing for (in television anyway) when he worked on the show for its first season. It's thanks to Glover that we have gems like "Werewolf Bar Mitzvah" (spooky scary) and he has appeared on the show before. Is there a reason to suspect that this will be anything but great?
Donald Glover Will Play Tracy Jordan on 30 Rock's Live Show [Vulture]
Image via John Sciulli and Kevin Winter/Getty.


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Unlike most of the underclassmen who've come to Science Career Night at Boston College dressed in jeans, some even in backward baseball caps, Timothy Harrington arrived better dressed than some of the recruiters. As a graduating senior, Mr. Harrington is only months away from the real world. Now all he needs is a full-time job to match his snappy suit.
Unfortunately, finding one has proven more difficult than expected.
All of his friends who graduated last year found work and "none of them have had to go through the same amount of grief that I have," says Harrington, a biology major who hopes to go into sales. "The closest I can get to [employers] is usually through their website, and then all you do is plug your résumé into a database and I don't even know how they look at those."
Harrington is one of 1.5 million college grads expected to have a harder time landing a job this year as the United States slides deeper into recession. Although the job market continues to expand, its growth rate has slowed to the lowest in five years as employers gauge how the economy will take shape in the months ahead. If current trends persist, some workplace experts say, college graduates will continue to face an increasingly shrinking job market.
"Between what's going on in the housing market, and with the gas prices, and everything increasing, I think [companies] are just being a lot more cautious … because they're not sure what's going to happen," says Andrea Koncz, an employment information manager at the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). "It's just starting to hit the college market," adds Mrs. Koncz, who believes the outlook for next year may be even worse.
While the number of jobs available for college graduates this year increased by 8 percent and average salary offers rose by 5.3 percent, the signs of contraction are clear, reports NACE. The class of 2007 saw a 17.4 percent increase in job openings – one of the best markets since the late 1990s. This fall it appeared that the situation would remain relatively similar for the class of 2008, with a projected 16 percent increase. But by early spring that number had dropped by half.
Unlike previous dry spells in which every industry tightened their belt, this year's slowdown appears focused on the industries hit hardest by the nation's economic woes: finance and construction. New positions in those fields decreased by 7.5 percent and 2.8 percent respectively, NACE reports. Meanwhile other sectors continue to flourish. Entry-level positions in the utility industry saw a 49.3 percent increase while jobs for grads in the government sector rose 32.5 percent.
"There's definitely still some positive news for recent college graduates," says Tanya Flynn, a career adviser at CareerBuilder.com, a Chicago-based website that connects applicants with employers. "I think they just need to put in a little more effort communicating with employers."
Application tactics that may have worked last year, when 79 percent of employers were hiring, could leave graduates living in their parents' basement this year. With only 60 percent of companies looking for new employees, according to a CareerBuilder.com survey, the battle for jobs will be fierce.
"A lot of employers are now investing in employment branding and activities that help them market opportunities to candidates, so that they're getting the best candidates in the door," says Mrs. Flynn. Consequently, employers expect applicants to make a similar investment with job-specific cover letters and résumés at the very least.
Gone are the days when blanketing 20 different firms with a generic cover letter and résumé might have resulted in an interview, says Flynn. In the current economic climate, companies are taking extra care to ensure that they're bringing aboard qualified people whose talents and goals support their organization.
Martin Yate, a job transition coach for executives, says that in just the past six months finding work has become more difficult even for the top of the workforce – something likely to have a trickle-down effect on college graduates.
"It's a much different world for the graduate entering the world of work today," says Mr. Yate, who is also the author of "Knock 'em Dead 2008: The Ultimate Job Search Guide." What's taking place in the workforce and application process represent systemic changes, he says. To succeed, today's workers must be highly mobile, deal with the increased outsourcing of jobs, and please employers demanding more specialized skill sets.
As a result, graduates are only experiencing the tip of what will continue to become an increasingly competitive workforce over the course of their lifetime, says Yate. "Those who don't connect the dots are going to be working at paper-hat-and-name-tag jobs."
Regardless of grim predictions, Amy Donegan, associate director of the Boston College Career Center says that it's important for graduates to keep things in perspective.
"There's still a very strong demand for highly educated, entry-level workers," says Mrs. Donegan. "Students know the job market is tough, but the job market's always tough for an entry-level grad with no experience. They have to be able to learn the skill of job-searching and networking, and that's a ramp up for many of them."
In spite of the tighter market, most students are likely to find a job but it might not be their first choice. Take the 70 percent of graduating seniors who already have an offer, but are either still looking or have yet to accept, reports NACE.
Senior biochemistry major Kyle Crowell says that most of his friends at Boston College and from his home in Gilford, N.H., have yet to find a job. During an interview with a major pharmaceutical company in Boston, the interviewer told him that last year the company had offered at least 14 positions, but this year it was only offering three.
"I'm a little bit apprehensive that I have to go through all of this because it's kind of new, but I'm not worried," says Mr. Crowell. "It may take a little longer than it would have [a year ago], but it'll come."


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I've been to that mall. I've never noticed any mutawa there but probably I just didn't know what to look for. Anyway, fun video with woman telling a mutawa to stop following her, he can't tell her what to do, etc.
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Why can't those guys just stop controlling womens...
Because they can't tolerate the challenge to their ego. Their self concept and self-esteem is defined in such a way that to be "real men" they cannot permit the thought into their minds that women might have any power over them, in particular, sexual power. They would feel emasculated. By hinging their masculinity on false premises, not only do they do great damage to the women in their society, but ultimately they do themselves a disservice as well. Real men can appreciate powerful women without being intimidated by them.
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Over the course of his career, musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber has put together a catalog of shows that, at least commercially, is paralleled by none. For anyone else, a show like Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats or The Phantom of the Opera would serve as a career-defining achievement. For Lloyd Webber, each is yet another one of his hits. And while each of the aforementioned shows was written before 1990, Lloyd Webber continues to do some of his best work today. He has proven as much with School of Rock, a musical adaptation of the popular 2003 Richard Linklater film of the same name. School of Rock chronicles the tale of Dewey Finn, a failed rock musician who, more or less, lies his way into a role as a long-term substitute teacher at an elite private school. Dewey slowly teaches his uptight students to loosen up a bit through rock 'n' roll, and a great time is had by all—both onstage and off.
School of Rock debuted on Broadway at the Winter Garden Theatre in December 2015 to enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics alike. "Andrew Lloyd Webber has entered his second childhood, and it turns out to be a good career move," Ben Brantley wrote for the New York Times, giving the show a Critic's Pick designation. "This show...is his friskiest in decades." School of Rock stars Eric Petersen (Peter and the Starcatcher) as Dewey and Jenn Gambatese (Tarzan) as his love interest, the strict principal Rosalie Mullins. School of Rock will also tour the United States starting in September 2017.


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March 13, 2009
LANCASTER, PA-Friday the 13th was not a good luck charm for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's men's basketball team in their NCAA Division III Sectional semi-final playoff game against DeSales of Allentown, PA, at the Mayser Center at Franklin & Marshall University Friday evening.
The Bulldogs outscored the Corsairs, 20-3 during the final 7:26 and went on to a 67-59 victory.
UMass Dartmouth, which led by a single point at halftime, 28-27, scored 17 of the first 25 points in the second half en route to a 45-35 lead with 14:02 remaining. Sophomore forward Brandon Stephens (Dorchester, MA/Newton North HS) and junior forward Matt Walker (Brockton, MA/ Brockton HS) scored all the points during the run, with Stephens connecting three times from the field and Walker hitting twice. DeSales came back with a 9-2 run to make it 47-44, with Rob Schubach capping the run with a three-pointer and a lay-up.
A three-pointer by junior guard Jeff Macchi (Franklin, MA/Franklin HS) and a pair of free throws by Stephens allowed the Corsairs to open up a 56-47 advantage with 7:26 remaining. The Bulldogs scored the game's next 13 points, taking a 57-56 lead on a three-pointer by Matt Zwetolitz with 3:47 left.
Senior guard Reece Freeman (Cambridg, MA/Cambrudge Rindge & Latin HS) ended the run when he made one of two free throws with 1:29 left to make it 60-57. But that was the first point for UMD in nearly six minutes, and they never led again. Ed Lapinski's lay-up with 1:20 left made it 62-57, and the Bulldogs hit five of six free throws in the final 43 seconds to preserve their advantage.
Neither team caught fire in the first half. Junior forward Brandon Shelton's (Cambridge, MA/Cambridge Rindge & Latin HS/UMass Lowell) jumper with 15:14 left in the first half gave the Corsairs their first and largest lead of the half, 9-7. DeSales never led by more than three points and a jump shot by Freeman with 39 seconds remaining in the first half allowed UMass Dartmouth to hold a 28-27 lead at intermission.
Shelton led the Corsairs with 13 points, while Freeman added 11. Darnell Braswell of the Bulldogs was the game's high scorer with 15 points; Lapinski added 14 and Brian Hunter contributed 11. Macchi had eight rebounds, but Lapinski grabbed 12 as DeSales out rebounded UMD, 32-22. The Corsairs forced 25 turnovers while committing 16, but made just five of 28 shots from three-point range and made eight of 18 free throws while shooting 42.6 per cent from the field to 59.1 per cent for DeSales.
"We had our opportunities, but we didn't capitalize on them," said UMass Dartmouth Head Coach Brian Baptiste. "They made some big shots, they threw it over the top of their press, and they hit a lay-up and they hit a big three-pointer. They slowed it down, and instead of playing at our pace, we didn't run good offensive sets, and we didn't make many free throws down the stretch. It is a disappointing loss, but we had a great year. We went much further than we went last year, and it was a good experience for our team."
UMass Dartmouth dropped to 27-4 with the defeat, while DeSales improved to 25-5 with the victory. The Corsairs finished the season tying two records-the 27 victories equal their most wins ever in a season, while the 31 games they played also ties a single-season mark. The Bulldogs advanced to play the winner of the game between Salem State and host Franklin & Marshall Saturday for a spot in next weekend's Final Four.


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Melissa O'Dell (301) 734-5222
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WASHINGTON, April 30, 2008--The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will begin issuing permits under the agency's streamlined process for blueberries from Guatemala into the United States.
APHIS published the pest risk analysis for blueberries from Guatemala on Feb. 7. Based upon the analysis, APHIS determined that Guatemalan blueberries can be brought safely into the continental United States subject to one or more of the five designated phytosanitary measures, and are therefore eligible for the streamlined approach.
To be eligible for importation, the blueberries must be part of a commercial shipment and undergo cold treatment in accordance with the regulations. The fruit also must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by the Guatemalan national plant protection organization and is subject to inspection at the port of entry. While this action allows blueberries from Guatemala to be imported into the continental United States, these measures will continue protecting the U.S. against the introduction of plant pests, such as Mediterranean fruit fly.
In July 2007, USDA published a final rule which streamlined an approval process for importing certain fruits and vegetables under what is known as the Quarantine 56 (Q56) regulations. Q56 pertains to the prohibitions and restrictions concerning the importation of fruits and vegetables into the United States. While this new process continues to provide stringent protections for U.S. agriculture, it employs notices rather than lengthier rulemaking to solicit public involvement in the approval process. It is a less time-consuming approach that allows USDA plant health specialists to focus on more complex domestic and import issues.
Under the new process, a commodity becomes eligible if the risk analysis demonstrates that it can be brought safely into the United States subject to one or more of the five designated phytosanitary measures. The measures include port-of-entry inspection; approved postharvest treatment; a phytosanitary certificate verifying that the commodity originated from a pest-free area; as well as a phytosanitary certificate verifying that the commodity is free from a specified pest or pests or that the risk associated with the commodity can be mitigated through commercial practices. A notice announcing the availability of the pest risk analysis then is published in the Federal Register with the opportunity for public comment.
After the comment period ends, all comments are considered and if appropriate, a notice is published in the Federal Register announcing that USDA will begin issuing import permits for the commodity.
To learn more about the revisions made to USDA's fruit and vegetable regulations, go to www.aphis.usda.gov and click on the Quarantine 56 hot issues link.
This notice is scheduled to be published in the May 1 Federal Register and becomes effective upon publication.
Note to Reporters: USDA news releases, program announcements and media advisories are available on the Internet. Go to the APHIS news release page at /newsroom. Also, anyone with an e-mail address can sign up to receive APHIS press releases automatically. Send an e-mail message to firstname.lastname@example.com and leave the subject blank. In the message, type
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BALTIMORE (AP) — California Chrome has won the Preakness to keep alive his bid to capture horse racing's Triple Crown.
As a follow-up to his victory in the Kentucky Derby, trainer Art Sherman's horse justified his stature as the overwhelming favorite by outrunning Ride On Curlin to the finish Saturday.
He covered the 1 3-16th mile course in 1:54.84.
Ride On Curlin finished second and Social Inclusion took third.
It was the first Preakness victory for the 77-year-old trainer. California Chrome has won six straight races.
The chestnut colt is the first California-bred horse to win the Preakness since Snow Chief in 1986.
With a victory in the Belmont on June 7, California Chrome will become the 12th Triple Crown winner in horse racing history and the first since Affirmed in 1978.
Copyright (2014) Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.


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WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney's pick of Rep. Paul Ryan for the Republican presidential ticket brings clarity to the stark election-year choice for voters — the competing Democratic and GOP visions about the size and role of the federal government in Americans' lives.
Ryan is synonymous with his revolutionary budget that slashes spending for safety-net programs for the poor, remakes Medicare and cuts personal and corporate taxes while pushing the deficit down to a manageable level. It turns the tea party dream of a scaled-back, less involved government into hard-core reality.
"America is more than just a place … it's an idea. It's the only country founded on an idea," Ryan said Saturday in Virginia as Romney introduced his vice presidential choice. "Our rights come from nature and God, not government. We promise equal opportunity, not equal outcomes."
With Romney's embrace of Ryan, it is now the Romney-Ryan budget and blueprint for the future.
President Obama, who repeatedly talks up the November election as a profound choice for the country, has rejected the Ryan approach as "thinly veiled social Darwinism." The Democrat and former community organizer sees government as a place with enough resources to help the less fortunate.
The Ryan budget, Obama said in April, "is antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity and upward mobility for everybody who's willing to work for it; a place where prosperity doesn't trickle down from the top but grows outward from the heart of the middle class."
Roughly three months before the election, Romney's choice clearly defines the fault lines and establishes the narrative for the election, one that Republicans and Democrats, liberals and tea partyers will echo in congressional and gubernatorial races. The outcome in November will have far-reaching implications for looming fiscal crises in the year's final days.
On the grass-roots level, the selection of the 42-year-old Ryan, one of the House's intellectual conservatives and Budget Committee chairman, energizes a GOP base wary of the Massachusetts governor and architect of the state's health insurance program dubbed "Romneycare."
Conservatives, from The Wall Street Journal editorial page to the rank and file, had been clamoring in recent days for Ryan. The timing of the announcement came as polls showed Obama with a narrow advantage and the number of undecided voters diminishing, underscoring the need for Romney to act fast.
"It's absolutely fantastic," Sal Russo, a longtime Republican operative and founder of the Tea Party Express, a well-funded wing of the populist movement, said in an interview. "He's willing to go out there and tackle tough issues. The American people want somebody to make the tough choices."
Russo said his organization had polled its 17,000 members, and Ryan and freshman Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida were the favorites for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket.
The conservative reward of Ryan also carries a significant political risk — and Democrats wasted no time in making it a top talking point.
The Ryan budget would scrap the current Medicare system that the nation's seniors have enjoyed for decades in favor of a voucher program for those under 55 today. Starting in 10 years, the plan also calls for gradually raising the Medicare retirement age from 65 to 67.
Democrats immediately sounded the alarm about the implications of changing the popular entitlement program, a warning certain to resonate in battleground states such as Florida, Iowa and Pennsylvania — states with the heaviest concentration of those 65 and over.
"In selecting Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney has crystalized the contrast of this election," said Rod Smith, chairman of the Florida Democratic Party. "Ryan is the architect of Romney's extreme budget plan which would end Medicare as we know it, increasing the healthcare costs for Florida's seniors by thousands every year."
The state's senior U.S. senator, Democrat Sen. Bill Nelson, who faces a stiff challenge in his bid for another term, quickly posted on Facebook.
"Romney VP pick bad for seniors. Signals an end to Medicare as we know it. My commitment to Medicare never stronger," Nelson said.
Democrats are certain to replay past Republican criticism of the Ryan budget.
Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker and one-time Republican presidential candidate, referred to Ryan's plan to overhaul Medicare as "right-wing social engineering." He later apologized.
Florida Rep. Connie Mack, who hopes to win the Republican Senate nomination Tuesday, said in April of the Ryan budget: "You know that budget was a joke, doesn't balance the budget for years."
An aide later clarified that Mack was referring to the voting process in which Republican-passed legislation in the House goes nowhere in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Mack's deficit-cutting plan calls for cutting one penny from every federal dollar spent.
Republicans see Ryan, a Catholic from Wisconsin who could appeal to blue-collar voters, as an appealing complement to Romney, a Mormon and multimillionaire.
But Ryan has tangled with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and others in the church over his budget, which would cut Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and a host of other programs that directly help the nation's poor.
Ryan had said the budget is based on Catholic social teaching. But in a letter, the Rev. Thomas J. Reese called that nonsense.
"I am afraid that Chairman Ryan's budget reflects the values of his favorite philosopher Ayn Rand rather than the gospel of Jesus Christ," said Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. "Survival of the fittest may be OK for social Darwinists but not for followers of the gospel of compassion and love."
Romney insisted Saturday that Ryan is intent on creating opportunities for all Americans.
"Paul is in public life for all the right reasons — not to advance his personal ambitions but to advance the ideals of freedom and justice, and to increase opportunity and prosperity to people of every class and faith, every age and ethnic background," Romney said.
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The Input directives allow you to select filters that will process incoming request data read by the Service stage. For more information, see Input.
The following Input-class filter is described in detail in this section:
In addition, the following common SAFs are valid for the Input directive:
Every Input directive has the following optional parameters.Table 7–71 Input Directive's Optional Parameters
Optional Parameters
(Optional) Specifies a wildcard pattern of MIME types for which this function will be executed.
(Optional) Specifies a wildcard pattern of HTTP methods for which this function will be executed. Common HTTP methods are GET, HEAD, and POST.
(Optional) Specifies a wildcard pattern of query strings for which this function will be executed.
The sed-request filter applies the sed edit commands to an incoming request entity body, for example, an uploaded file or submitted form.
The following table shows the sed-request parameters:Table 7–72 sed-request Parameters
Specifies a sed command script. When multiple sed parameters are provided, the sed edit commands are evaluated in the order they appear.
The following obj.conf code instructs sed-request to encode any (<) and (>) characters posted in an HTML form:
Input fn="insert-filter" method="POST" filter="sed-request" sed="s/</\\</g" sed="s/%3c/\\</g" sed="s/%3C/\\</g" sed="s/>/\\>/g" sed="s/%3e/\\>/g" sed="s/%3E/\\>/g"
Because POST bodies are usually URL-encoded, it is important to check for URL-encoded forms when editing POST bodies. %3C is the URL-encoded form of (<) and %3E is the URI-encoded form of (>).


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Aviation Week was invited to fly the Boeing 787 in November. The Dec. 10, 2012 issue of Aviation Week & Space Technology features a full technical report, written by our resident test pilot, Fred George. Digital subscribers can see the full report, with charts and technical data collated by Guy Norris, on tablet devices today.
Also, click here to see Guy's behind-the-scenes photos from the flight.


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Fist Puncher follows a team of vigilantes led by Dr. Karate, world renowned neurosurgeon and black belt, as they perform unnecessary surgery on the crime lords that hold a lawless city in their brutal grip. The gameplay is true to the classic era of button mashing brawlers, as players choose from a colorful cast of characters and take to the streets to battle endless waves of thugs and ruffians. Featuring 15 playable characters, 50 levels of mayhem, over 100 collectible items, 99 trading card achievements, unlockables, easter eggs, special attacks, and RPG elements, Fist Puncher combines the glory days of multi-player beat 'em ups with the frills and richness of modern games. Bust out the baseball bats, sledge hammers, and prison shivs, and prepare to mash pixel fists into pixel faces.
Only registered members can share their thoughts. So come on! Join the community today (totally free - or sign in with your social account on the right) and join in the conversation.
Screenshots from the GDC Alpha Build of Fist Puncher


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It is currently Wed Sep 18, 2019 10:32 am
Garth Cartwright wrote:BALADOOK - the supernatural element is added to, I guess, take the film to a wider audience (and, to me, unconvincing).
Garth Cartwright wrote: director George Miller ... the cars appeared a tribute to Cars That Ate Paris: his first film, I think.
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The Class of 2016 gathered in Robbins Auditorium on Monday, August 20, to mark the beginning of their journey toward becoming physicians. As part of the College of Medicine's annual On Becoming a Physician ceremony, they pledged to never lose sight of patients' needs.
Each year, this special evening denotes the first milestone in medical students' academic careers. At the same time, it highlights an unwavering loyalty to patients that is instilled in them throughout their time at Einstein. While the white coats they are "cloaked in" by alumni represent their newfound identities as physicians-in-training, they also walk away from the ceremony with a healthy respect for the caregiver role they are adopting.
As Stephen G. Baum, M.D., senior associate dean of students, stated, "Over the next four years, each member of the class will need to acquire an enormous knowledge base, develop expertise in clinical and ethical reasoning, and become proficient at a variety of technical skills." Once mastered, the knowledge and skills will aid them in providing care that is both compassionate and highly competent.
To receive their white coats, the students were called to the stage where alumni members congratulated them and helped them don the jacket-length garment for the first time. Each class member quickly discovered they were gaining more than mere apparel: An attached note provided the name of an alumni member whose generous contribution had provided the coat.
Dr. Sten Vermund, MSTP '77 and member of the Einstein Alumni Association's board of governors, who is the Amos Christie Chair and professor of pediatrics at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, offered the evening's keynote address. After welcoming the students into the Einstein family, he introduced them to the world of global health, sharing his experiences and perspective as director of the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health -- and as an alumnus who has benefitted from Einstein's long-standing leadership role in the global health arena.
At the conclusion of the event, the Class of 2016 recited both the Hippocratic oath and an oath of their own creation, reinforcing their respect for the doctor-patient relationship by pledging "never to lose sight of the human-being standing before us" and "that we are responsible for our actions and strive to earn the trust of all those in our care."
Posted on: Friday, September 14, 2012
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The most commonly used statistics about sexual assault and American college women show that 25% of female college students will be sexually assaulted; U.C. Davis professor of communication Michael Motley believes that at least some unwanted sexual contact is due to misunderstanding on the part of men — which he calls "faulty male introspection" — and unintentionally vague statements on the part of women. Motley said in a press release, "When she says, 'It's getting late,' he may hear, 'So let's skip the preliminaries.'" Motley performed an experiment where he gave 30 female and 60 male Davis students a questionnaire asking them to interpret "16 common female resistance messages." And his results may surprise you.
If a woman says, I'm "seeing someone else," as a way to get a dude to stop going forward sexually, he could interpret that statement to mean:
- You want to go further but you want him to know that it doesn't mean that you're committed to him
- You want to go further but you want him to be discreet, so that the other guy doesn't find out
- You want to go further but you want him to realize, in case you end up "going together," that you may do this with someone else while you're seeing him
- You don't want to go further.
Those were all choices in the form that Motley gave his students. Some of the men were asked to choose what it would mean when they said "I'm seeing someone else," and the other half were asked what a woman would mean if she uttered the phrase. According to the press release, "The questionnaire study showed that men were accurate at interpreting direct resistance messages like 'Let's stop this.' But they were as apt to interpret 'Let's be friends' to mean 'keep going' as to mean 'stop.' And few of them would mean 'stop' if they were to deliver any of the indirect messages themselves." Motley thinks that women are more likely to use indirect messages because they don't want to anger or offend the men that they are dating. One of Motley's main conclusions is that women need to be as direct as possible when communicating sexual wants. We suggest using the time-honored "Get your fucking hands off me." It seems to relay the message pretty clearly!
Men, Women, Sex And Confusion [Los Angeles Times]
Why College Men May Hear 'Yes' When Women Mean 'No' [UC Davis]
Earlier: College Senior Tells Rape Apologist* To Stop Blaming The Victim
'Cosmo' Tells Me I Was 'Gray Raped'; Feministing Says It Was Rape. Are We Really Arguing About This?


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Happy Friday, everybody! It's time for our next installment of Fun Fact Friday, with Arthur V. Evans's latest book, Beetles of Eastern North America.
This week's post is dedicated to (drumroll, please)…the art of playing dead.
Did you know?
Thanatosis, or death feigning, is a behavioral strategy "employed by hide beetles (Trogidae), certain fungus-feeding darkling beetles (tenebrionidae), zopherids (Zopheridae), weevils (Curculionidae), and many others" to avoid becoming a predator's dinner. When these beetles sense danger, they pull their legs and antennae up tightly against their bodies so that they look dead and lifeless to their enemies. These small predators lose interest in the hard, small, and unflinching beetles, and move on to their next target. Pretty cool, huh?
Batesian Mimicry is another tactic to keep from being eaten. In this case, beetles "mimic the appearance or behavior of stinging or distasteful insects," as in the case of the flower-visiting Acmaeodera (Buprestidae), scarabs (Scarabaeidae), and longhorns (Cerambycidae). They all sport fuzzy bodies, bold colors and patterns, and behaviors to make them believable mimics of bees and wasps, and make quick and jerky movements to complete the staging. And believe you, me, neither animals nor humans want to be stung by bees – and so the predators retreat.
We hope you feel informed, and we'll see you next Friday for another great Fun Fact!
Arthur V. Evans is the author of:
|Beetles of Eastern North America by Arthur V. Evans
Paperback | 2014 | $35.00 / £24.95 | ISBN: 9780691133041 | 560 pp. | 8 x 10 | 1,500+ color illus. 31 line illus. | eBook | ISBN: 9781400851829 | Reviews Table of Contents Preface[PDF] Sample Entry[PDF]


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QUINCY, Mass. – After a rocky first set, top-seeded UMass Boston regained its footing to hit .500 in the second and .600 in the third to earn the 3-0 win over fifth-seeded Rhode Island College to advance to the championship match of the 2012 Little East Conference tournament, Saturday afternoon at Quincy High School.
On the day, UMass Boston, which improved to 16-11 overall hit a combined .365 scoring 42 kills on 85 attempts. Rhode Island College, who closed out it's 2012 campaign with a 14-16 mark hit .205 in the contest, and nearly pulled out a first set upset over the top-ranked Beacons. UMass did manage to hang on in the first to take the 25-23 decision. In the second the Beacons notched a 25-16 win, while in the third they controlled the set from start to finish to take a 25-12 victory.
Individual the Beacons had six players finish with a .360 hitting percentage or better. Freshman middle Molly Witzmann (Encinitas, Calif.) had perhaps her best showing of the season as she hit .500 in her first postseason match. Brooke Nemethy (Oviedo, Fla.) and Amber Clemons (Simi Valley) posted a .444 and .421 hitting percentage respectively. Shannon Thompson (Moorpark, Calif.) was the Beacons leader in kills with 12, followed by Clemons with 11.
For the Anchorwomen Amanda Cabral led her squad in kills with 13, while Michelle Malboeuf posted a team-best .333 hitting percentage.
Setters Megan Pollock (Wilton, Calif.) and Emma Rocha (Boynton Beach, Fla.) tallied a combined 45 assists respectively, while their RIC counterpart Jessica Ho totaled 28 assists in Saturday's semi-final.
Defensively, UMB was solid all afternoon, with junior hitter Corrine Porter (Huntington Beach, Calif.) finishing with eight digs. Nemethy was second on the team with six digs. At the net UMB recorded six team blocks overall, with Thompson leading the way with two solo stops and two block assists.
In the opening frame, UMass and Rhode Island exchanged points, with neither team really gaining any type of momentum. In total there were eight lead changes in the first set. The two teams were also tied on the scoreboard an additional 15 times. It was not until a 7-0 run late in the set that UMass was able to take control of the contest. With set point on the scoreboard for UMB, Rhode Island made one last push and managed to make it just a one-point game. However with a kill from Clemons the Beacons were able to secure the victory to take a 1-0 lead overall.
In the second set UMass once again had to overcome a hungry RIC squad, but with another run, this time coming midway through the set the Beacons were able to jump out to a comfortable lead. The Beacons limited any rallies and used consistent sets from both Pollock and Rocha to keep the Anchorwomen defense guessing. UMass closed out the second set with an ace from Porter.
The third set was the Beacons best, as they scored 12 kills on 20 attempts, without surrendering an error. UMass held the Anchorwomen to single-digits, while they tallied a combined 21 points. Rhode Island broke into double-figures on a kill by Cabral. UMass would seal the win on a RIC hitting error.
Tomorrow's appearance in the conference tournament finals will mark the fifth straight for the Beacons, as they look to earn their fourth consecutive conference title. Start time of the championship match is scheduled for noon.


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A Florida lawyer convinced a judge yesterday to quash several RIAA subpoenas directed against anonymous University of South Florida students. The subpoenas, which use the secretive ex parte discovery process, were shot down by the judge on narrow technical grounds that seem limited to this particular case. Still, attorney Michael Wasylik tells Ars that his victory still matters because it shows that RIAA attorneys "have to obey the rules" when they use the court system.
Until this point, Interscope v. Does 1-40 has proceeded much like other cases against college students across the country. RIAA lawyers move on an aggressive schedule in such cases; this case was filed in June, subpoenas were authorized in July, were sent out immediately, and were due back by mid-August.
Under ex parte discovery rules, the students aren't notified until after a subpoena has already been granted, giving them little time to contest the process. Unless they act quickly, the RIAA gets the identifying information it needs from the university in question, then usually dismisses the case and files individual suits against the students (whose identities it now knows). It's an aggressive strategy, and as Wasylik points out, is one built on speed and stealth.
In this case, the suit was filed after school had ended for the summer, and the subpoena information was requested before students returned. Once the university received the subpoenas in July, it did attempt to forward them to the students' summer addresses. Not all addresses were correct or up to date, though, and at least one student was traveling in Europe and could not be reached by his agitated parents, who received the letter.
The upshot: Wasylik represented only two of the 40 students in court, and the judge's decision to quash the subpoenas applies only to them. The other 38 defendants have already had their information released. These defendants might not even have known about the case until they arrived back at school to a nasty surprise.
Several similar motions to quash this form of subpoena have been filed in cases across the country, but this is the first to be decided. It's a "crack in the dam, a flaw in the armor," Wasylik tells Ars, but he fully expects the RIAA to fix the technical service errors and try again (the judge did not quash the subpoenas on material grounds, even though Wasylik made several such arguments). To him, though, it's encouraging to see that the RIAA can be beaten, that it does make mistakes. It also provides a roadmap for attorneys in similar cases to follow.
The RIAA wins default judgments in most of its cases after defendants never show up; many other defendants also settle rather than face court. Opposing them at key points in litigation, though, can be effective, in Wasylik's view. Not even the RIAA can afford to fully litigate the more than 20,000 suits it has filed to date. If enough defendants fight back, the group might need to change tactics, especially if it has to keep paying attorneys' fees.


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Motley Fool analysts recently culled through an array of data to yield The 25 Best Companies in America, providing a gathering of best-in-class corporations according to stakeholder-friendly factors. Some companies didn't make the cut, but revealed surprisingly positive elements that many investors may not be aware of. Aeropostale (OTC:AROPQ) is one of those companies, so let's take a look at why it almost made the list.
New York-based Aeropostale is an apparel retailer that peddles fashionable, low-priced clothing to teens aged 14 to 17. Its P.S. for Aeropostale brand addresses the four- to 12-year-old age group. In the 1980s, Aeropostale originated as a men's brand at Macy's, and the department store company opened the first stand-alone, mall-based Aeropostale store in 1987. Aeropostale went public as its own entity in 2002.
The company's core values include four categories: integrity (do the right thing, be open, honest, and ethical); respect (respect customers, employees and partners; honor our heritage and embrace the future); teamwork (communicate and collaborate; be accountable; empower and encourage each other); compassion (recognize needs; show heart; give, acknowledge, and reward contributions).
The case for Aeropostale
Employees: Aeropostale has an interesting not-for-profit program called Aero Cares, which is a fund set up to help employees who experience financial hardship. Aeropostale employees contribute to the fund for their fellow workers. In addition, Aeropostale crept onto Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For list at number 97 this year; one reason is a "teen advisory board" through which its workers can make recommendations to management.
Customers: Unlike many teen retailers, which would prefer their young customers to blow their babysitting money (or their parents' bank accounts), Aeropostale is out to provide stylish but affordable, options.
Shareholders: In five years, Aeropostale's growth rate has fallen by 7.62%, although its total revenue growth has increased 10% in that time frame. Its median return on capital has been 49.4%. Although Aeropostale was one of the few retailers that did well during the recessionary period immediately after the financial crisis, its margins began eroding due to higher promotional activity and higher product costs, among other things. In fiscal 2011, business continued going awry, complete with a decrease in revenue, and a precipitous drop in annual profit.
World: Aeropostale has a Vendor Code of Conduct through which it tries to make sure the people who make its clothes are treated decently, and given healthy and safe working environments. It requires its suppliers to adhere to its rules, and has a factory inspection program. Overseas clothing manufacturing can be an inhumane and unsafe business, so Aeropostale's ahead of many of its retail peers on this factor. Aeropostale also has several initiatives that are part of the Aero Gives program, through which it practices charitable giving to those in need.
The case against
Whatever Aeropostale was doing right in its business sense for many years running has soured in more recent history. The retailer's recent tidings about the fourth-quarter -- the all-important holiday quarter -- sadly showed that a turnaround isn't a foregone conclusion anytime soon. Teen retail is a cutthroat industry, complete with a very fickle customer base that will defect to competitors in the blink of an eye. Macroeconomic difficulties can make it even worse, since parents have fewer discretionary dollars for kids, and teen unemployment has been a major problem for years, as retail jobs have gone to older, more experienced people desperate for work. Despite continued disheartening trends in its business over the last year, Aeropostale inexplicably acquired an online women's fashion retailer called GoJane.com. Maybe it can acquire its way to growth, but that's a risky strategy for any company (and for its shareholders, too). Although the company's apparent respect for teens is an interesting twist, some of its efforts feel like they fall short. The Aero Cares fund for employees beset by hardship is interesting -- but it appears that it relies solely on employee contributions for their fellow workers. Is the company's top brass adding to the kitty, as well? It would be nice to know.
Foolish bottom line
Aeropostale's business strategy has gone off the rails; retail turnarounds aren't easy and, so far, shareholders have seen few signs that this retailer will regain its fashion sense anytime soon. Although Aeropostale has some surprising positive factors, it simply didn't make it into our Top 25 Best-Run Businesses list; the retailer has plenty of areas where it needs to work a whole lot harder.


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I'm madder than a flea on a soapy dog! There's this crazy rumor going around the computers that I'm dead! Well, that's the dumbest thing I ever heard. If I was dead, how could I be writing this?
What with everybody dying last week, I guess it was bound to happen, but it still ticks me off. I go hiking for a couple of days on the Appalachian Trail, and I get back to find folks peeping on that Peeter.com that I've gone to the great Gun Show in the Sky.
Well, you can't get rid of old Ed Anger that easy. Those Hollywood types might be dropping like flies but I'm made of stronger stuff. I didn't single-handedly storm Pork Chop Hill, kill a hundred commies and live to tell the tale just to keel over now.
There's too much that needs to be done to save America and only Ed Anger can do it!
The Teleprompter Kid and the Hair Club for Men Vice President and Nancy Puglosi and Barney Spank are bound and determined to ruin this great country of ours.
They want the DMV and the Post Office to run the hospitals!
They want to take away your house and give it to welfare bums! They want to take away your guns too, and your talk radio shows and your light bulbs and your air conditioning!
Nope, I can't die now! So I've been stocking up on oxygen tanks and canned beans and bottled water. Ed Anger is here for the duration!
So look out, all you leftover hippies and liberal traitors: Ed Anger is still breathing! And as long as I've got WD-40 for my wheelchair and a pantry full of tinned chili, I'll be on your tail.
Consider yourselves warned!


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ELWOOD ENERGY LLC: Solicitation of Consents Relating to the 8.159% Senior Secured Bonds due 2026 (CUSIP No. 290408AB9)
RICHMOND, Va., Jan. 18, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Elwood Energy LLC, a jointly and equally owned partnership of Dominion Resources, Inc. and J-POWER USA Generation, L.P., announced today that it has commenced a solicitation of consents related to its 8.159% Senior Secured Bonds due 2026 (CUSIP No. 290408AB9). Due to amortization, the unpaid principal amount outstanding of the Bonds is $175,686,060 or $437.03 per Bond (reduced from the original principal amount at issuance of $402,000,000 or $1,000 per Bond). Elwood Energy LLC, as issuer of the Bonds, wishes to amend the October 23, 2001 Trust Indenture (as supplemented and amended by the First Supplemental Indenture, dated October 23, 2001 and Second Supplemental Indenture, dated as of March 1, 2002) to amend the definition of "Change of Control" and include more specific provisions related to the process to be followed should a "Change of Control" occur.
The Consent Solicitation seeks to modify the definition of a "Change of Control" to reflect the current ownership structure of Elwood Energy LLC, as well as to provide limited additional flexibility for the Company's owners under the Indenture's "Change of Control" provision. In addition, the Company is seeking to replace the current general provision involving the exercise of the "Put Right" associated with a Change of Control with more specific terms, including: imposing upon the Company a requirement to provide notice to holders upon a Change of Control event; removing any ambiguity concerning the period in which the Put Right can be exercised; and providing procedures related to the actual notice of exercise and payment of the amounts due upon exercise of the Put Right.
Holders of the Bonds are referred to the Consent Solicitation Statement, dated January 18, 2013, and the related Letter of Consent for the detailed terms and conditions of the Consent Solicitation. The record date for determining the holders entitled to consent is January 17, 2013. The Consent Solicitation will expire at 5:00 p.m., New York City time, on January 31, 2013 (the "Expiration Time"), unless extended in Elwood Energy LLC's sole discretion.
Subject to certain conditions, Elwood Energy LLC offers a consent payment equal to $2.50 in cash for each $1,000 in unpaid principal amount of the respective Bonds (or $1.092575 per Bond) to holders for which consents are validly delivered and not properly revoked prior to the Expiration Time.
Elwood Energy LLC has engaged Citigroup Global Markets Inc. and Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC to act as solicitation agents for the Consent Solicitation. D. F. King & Co., Inc. has been engaged to act as the Information and Tabulation Agent for the Consent Solicitation. Questions or requests for assistance or additional copies of the Consent Solicitation Statement, the Letter of Consent and related documents may be directed to D. F. King & Co., Inc. at +1 (800) 829-6551 (toll-free) or +1 (212) 269-5550 (for Banks and Brokers). A holder of Bonds may also contact the Solicitation Agents at +1 (212) 723-6106 (collect), in the case of Citigroup Global Markets Inc., and +1 (212) 761-1057 (collect), in the case of Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, or such holder's broker, dealer, commercial bank, trust company or other nominee for assistance concerning the Consent Solicitation.
This press release is for informational purposes only and is not a solicitation of consents. The Consent Solicitation is only being made pursuant to the Consent Solicitation Statement dated January 18, 2013 and the related Letter of Consent. The Consent Solicitation is subject to certain conditions and presents certain risks for the holders, as set forth more fully in the Consent Solicitation Statement. Elwood Energy LLC retains the rights to waive or modify any term of, or to terminate, the Consent Solicitation for any reason prior to the Expiration Time.
SOURCE Dominion


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THE autobiography of the Oxford University professor John Carey soared to the top of the bestseller list at this year's Oxford Literary Festival.
Organisers announced that Prof Carey's The Unexpected Professor was the most popular book amongst festival-goers, beating second place AC Grayling's Friendship and third place Ian McEwan's Sweet Tooth.
Around 40,000 people attended this year's festival, which featured talks from the journalist James Naughtie, Jeremy Paxman and Oxford-based author Mark Haddon.
Blackwell's manager Zool Verjee said: "The Unexpected Professor has sold very well since its release earlier this year and we anticipated that it would do well at the Oxford Literary Festival. Equally, Ian McEwan and AC Grayling's sell consistently well, so it's no surprise to see their titles towards the top."
Roger Scruton's Soul of the World was the fourth best seller, followed by Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries.


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Next Gallery
PICTURES: Classic carsPHOTO GALLERY: Take a look at these classic cars.
Featured Photos
- PICTURES: Classics & CruisersThe second annual Classics & Cruisers was held in Allentown on Saturday.
- PICTURES: Halloween Haunt at Dorney Park PreviewDorney Park held a media preview night for this seasons Halloween Haunt attraction.
- PICTURES: Grim's Orchard Getting Ready for FestivalWorkers at the farm were busy making sure everything is ready for the festival this Saturday. The festival hours are10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays in September; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays in October with the festival running until October 27th.
- PICTURES: Early Fall Comes to the Lehigh ValleyEarly fall scenes from Jacobsburg State Park Thursday.
- PICTURES: Lehigh University students place flags for 9/11 remembranceStudents from Lehigh University Senate and students in the ROTC Steel Battalion placed flags on the University Center lawn outside Linderman Library on Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2019.
- PICTURES: Simon Silk Mill UpdateAs work wraps up on Easton's long-awaited Simon Silk Mill, a new film festival there is just getting started.
- PICTURES: Liberty defeats Dieruff in Boys SoccerLiberty High School defeated Dieruff High School 11-0 Monday at BASD Stadium in Bethlehem.