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Archive for the 'Operation Link' tag
Mentoring Program uses ROBOTC and VEX IQ to Teach STEM and Connect with Military Families
We were delighted to hear about an inaugural weeklong robotics summer camp happening in North Carolina that is using ROBOTC, ROBOTC Graphical, and the VEX Robotics IQ system to help teach students STEM while keeping them connected to their military families. (One of the mentors was trained at the Robotics Academy last summer too!) Read the story and watch the video highlighting this program below!
Reblog from East Carolina University's News Service
ECU partners in Operation LINK mentoring program
Ten-year-old Tyrrek Grizzle took control of his paddle, maneuvering his miniature land mover with ease.
He and a teammate moved his robot across a grid and past an opponent to pick up as many green-colored blocks as possible and dump them in a coordinating green basket. The team that filled the basket with the most blocks in the three-minute competition won.
Grizzle attended an inaugural weeklong robotics summer camp through Operation LINK, an AmeriCorps school-based science, technology, engineering and mathematics mentoring program for elementary and middle grades students in eastern North Carolina. The STEM program, with a special emphasis on students from military families, will transition from an afterschool program to part of the regular school day this fall.
Offered this spring in Wayne County, the program aims to promote positive behaviors and success in school while keeping military youth connected to family. It's a partnership between East Carolina University, AmeriCorps, military family support networks, veterans groups, community colleges and public schools.
The summer camp, held at Greenwood Middle School in Goldsboro, allowed students to make real robots from designs they developed in their afterschool program.
Counselors and campers used a box kit to construct a robot with up to 650 pieces. A software program (ROBOTC) developed at Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy gave the students the ability to control movements.
"We had fourth-graders writing code," said Michael "Mike" Dermody, associate professor of cinematic arts and media production in the ECU School of Art. Dermody, who grew up in a military family, said "It's amazing how quickly they adapt. It's a very tactile and hands-on experience. They go in and test and modify it. There's lots of activity between the computer itself and the robot."
For Grizzle, a rising fifth-grader at Tommy's Road Elementary School, taking his work from the computer lab to create a functioning robot is exciting. "Robots help you in a lot of ways," said Grizzle. "They help us do things we can't normally do ourselves." Grizzle has cousins who serve in the military.
The pilot program will become part of the curriculum this fall at three Wayne County schools with a higher population of children from military families, said Lou U. Rose, Operation LINK coordinator in the ECU College of Education, which has facilitated the program.
"We will be able to impact more kids that way."
Area teachers observed some of the program activities. "Some will do it as an elective in science and math classes," Rose said.
"The beauty of this is they can tailor it and run with it and be creative. It brings relevancy in the real world, and maybe will get students interested in science."
Michael Giddens, an AmeriCorps camp mentor who earned a teaching certificate in middle grades science and math from ECU in May, said students learned to collaborate and work as a team at the camp.
"The energy has been electrifying," Giddens said. "Keeping them (students) engaged is a challenge in the classroom in the 21st century."
One old-fashioned value students have learned has been patience, Giddens said, such as when broken robots have had to be re-assembled. Now poised to reach more students, the initial idea for the Operation LINK program was to create a way for military parents to interact with their children – via the web – while the parents were away from home. "It's (been) a way to keep the child connected," Dermody said.
Amy Perry's nine-year-old daughter Kayla and 10-year-old daughter, Alexis, participated in the afterschool program. Perry, a technical sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, inspects aircraft for defects at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. The Perry family doesn't have a computer, internet or cable in their home. So the program has helped support her girls' interests in science and technology. "It works for us," she said.
Perry said the counselors encouraged her daughters' unique personalities. "It's allowing them to have the space to be who they are," she said. "Respecting others is important."
Kayla Perry said she enjoyed the computer lab and making a virtual robot. "I like the teachers. All the time they think of cool things for us to do," she said. "They always come up with these amazing ideas."
Program activities have helped build relationships between mentors and students, and among students, said Virginia Harris, a retired teacher and military spouse who taught 23 years in several states and overseas.
"I've seen changes in the students, being able to work together and learning to follow rules better," Harris said. "One of the main things they learn is you're not an island. You have to get along with people in life. I think it's difficult for little people to work together as a team sometimes."
To learn more, visit www.ecu.edu/operationlink.


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Emily Maynard & Ricki Send A Balloon Up To Daddy In Heaven On His Birthday – How Precious!
Even though Ricky Hendrick is no longer with them, Emily and their daughter Ricki remember him with love each year!
Emily Maynard may be happily engaged to Bachelor Brad Womack, but that doesn't mean she's forgotten her first love — Ricky Hendrick, the former NASCAR driver who was the father of her 5-year-old daughter Josephine "Ricki" Hendrick.
Ricky passed away in 2004 — and it's super-important for Emily to carry on his memory for little Ricki, who never met him. So Emily and her daughter have started an annual ritual.
"Its our tradition to make a cake and let a balloon go in the backyard," Emily tweeted on April 2 — Ricky's b-day.
Ricky was killed on Oct. 24, 2004 in a plane crash. A week after he passed away, Emily — who was engaged to Ricky — found out that she was pregnant with Ricki.
Even though Emily has found love again with Brad, she still makes sure that Ricky's memory lives on for their daughter.

subset: commoncrawl


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Italy's star midfielder Andrea Pirlo is injured, making him the latest key player to miss the opening of the 2010 World Cup.
Mr. Pirlo sustained a calf strain Friday. The team doctor told reporters that Pirlo will miss Italy's June 14 opener against Paraguay. And his availability for Italy's second match, against Slovakia, remains in question.
But Pirlo is far from alone.
Some of the world's biggest stars will miss early games due to injuries and others have just recently been knocked out of the Cup altogether. And their absence could have a huge effect on some of the top-ranked teams in the tournament, which begins Friday in South Africa.
IN PICTURES: Ready for the World Cup
To date, every World Cup held outside Europe has been won by a South American team. Will that pattern continue? A healthy Argentina team and nearly healthy Brazil team help their prospects as the best European teams are now hampered with injuries.
"A succession of pre-tournament injuries and the lessons of past World Cups outside Europe suggest the football at Africa's first finals will resonate to familiar Latin rhythms," Reuters writes.
This may undermine the financial wizards at J.P. Morgan, who used 'Quant Models' to determine that serial underperformers England will win the World Cup, taking out Spain in the final match.
Here's a rundown of key players who may miss the World Cup – or at least the opening matches.
ITALY: Pirlo, winner of the Bronze Ball in the 2006 World Cup, was integral to Italy's championship at that tournament in Germany. But his potential absence isn't the team's only concern. Midfielders Mauro Camoranesi, Claudio Marchisio, and Angelo Palombo are facing injuries, according to Sky Sports.
IVORY COAST: Didier Drogba broke his forearm Friday and underwent surgery Saturday. He is one of the world's top strikers and highest paid players (as a member of English Premier League champions, Chelsea). Mr. Drogba hopes to return in time for the June 15 opener against Portugal.
ENGLAND: The Brits face two major losses in key defender Rio Ferdinand and superstar David Beckham – both out of the World Cup because of injury. Striker Wayne Rooney, considered one of the best players in the world, is still recovering from an injured ankle. (Correction: The original version of this article incorrectly stated that Mr. Rooney is the English team's new captain.)
SPAIN: Top striker Fernando Torres, midfielder Cesc Fàbregas, and Andrés Iniesta have all battled injuries this season. But Mr. Torres, while initially expected to miss the World Cup, has quickly recovered from an ankle injury and is now expected to play.
GERMANY: Captain and star midfielder Michael Ballack will miss next month's World Cup 2010 due to an ankle injury.
BRAZIL: Goalkeeper Julio Cesar and left-back Michel Bastos are expected to recover from injuries in time for their June 15 opener against North Korea, according to BBC News.
GHANA: "The Bison" Michael Essien is out with a knee injury.
NIGERIA: John Obi Mikel is also likely to miss the World Cup because of a knee injury.
US: players Jozy Altidore and Oguchi Onyewu are also questionable because of injury.
Is there a common thread to the injuries? Most of the players listed play in the English Premier League. The New York Times argues that the League's rough nature and crowded schedule have contributed to the injuries:
Some of the world's most accomplished and explosive players are limping into the World Cup, if they have made it here at all, and few are as bruised and battered as the stars of the English Premier League, where the physical nature of play is particularly unforgiving.
"England is probably one of the roughest leagues in the world," said United States goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann, who plays for Wolverhampton. "A foul in England is a foul. In another country, they're wondering if it's a red card or a yellow card."
… Injuries are part of the game in any league. But when players get minor injuries, and fixture congestion reduces the time they have to heal, those injuries can worsen. And the situation seems most acute in the Premier League.
IN PICTURES: Ready for the World Cup


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Surely more than enough has been said and written about the misadventures of Adobe PR back in November, yet there is still one unresolved pain point that has not been addressed - where is Shantanu Narayen in this whole story? Throughout Adobe's restructuring and announcements around its new focus, the one person missing in action has been its CEO. In fact, so conspicuously absent, that just about the only related public statement we have seen from him since is a single blog post (conveniently closed for comments) where he not even acknowledges the disruption caused to the community.
Its obvious though Adobe is scrambling to get the right messaging across, unfortunately though for a lot of us the damage has been done and we're left to pick up the pieces. Many long time Adobe employees are now either laid off or in the firing line of a largely disgruntled user community.
Disgruntled, not because of Adobe's plans, but their public messaging and clear lack of leadership. There are a great many Flash Platform developers both on desktop with the Flash Player and mobile through AIR who's primary occupation now is convincing clients about the viability of their technology rather than doing actual coding.
For all intents and purposes Flash is alive and kicking, though admittedly its scope and use cases will change over time as web standards mature and allow us to reach as wide an audience. AIR development on desktop and mobile remains a compelling cross platform solution for rapid application development.
Fast-forward to today, for several days people were asked to submit questions on Twitter using the hashtag #askShantanu to be answered during the keynote of the Adobe Digital Marketing Summit by the CEO himself. The hashtag in question makes for good reading material, as does the distinct lack of actual questions submitted. Another sign of increasing apathy around everything Adobe?
Needless to say, my widely retweeted question was left unanswered:
"with respect, do you feel you've taken enough personal responsibility around the massive communication failure in November? #askShantanu"
So I'll ask it here again, along with a call to action - if you think this question deserves an answer, I'd like you to post the following to whatever blog or social network you're active on:
"Shantanu, where are you? #Adobe"
It is in my opinion time for Adobe as a company to clean up its mess and move on, but to do so it needs to come to terms with the present situation and acknowledge its failures. If nothing else, I expect from a CEO to be willing to step up and defend his position.
This is my question, this is your opportunity Shantanu.


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In development since 2011, Frostbite 3 is an improvement of Frostbite 2 and will debut with Battlefield 4 in 2013. It only supports DirectX 11 on PCs. It also features in-game destruction with Destruction 4.0 which upgraded from Destruction 3.0, and it features an entirely new tessellation technology. Frostbite 3 is described by DICE as an upgraded version of its existing Frostbite 2 engine, designed to create a "dynamic, human and believable experience" and allow for improved animations, destruction and AI.
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.


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Animals get priority
This is in comment about the animals being mistreated, left in cars. If anyone is not going to take care of the animals, they don't need them in the first place. I have two dogs and I would do anything I can for them to protect them and provide medicine and all. My husband says I think more of the animals than I do him.
Pulpit reserved
This is in reference to churches should leave politics out of the pulpit. That is for preaching — about our Lord and Savior.
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This week brings the trade paperback collection "Conan and the Daughters of Midora and Other Stories" to shelves. Contained within is the "Island of No Return" storyline by me, Bart Sears, Randy Elliott and Mark Roberts, including the 8-page prequel story that ran in USA Today. The volume also offers Conan tales by Jimmy Palmiotti, Mark Texeira, Tim Truman, Marian Churchland and Mike Oeming, among others.
The 8-page USA Today story can still be accessed here:
I grew up on Conan, both the Ace paperbacks and the comics, especially Savage Sword magazine. Getting to write Conan, especially with my buddy Bart on art, was very literally the fulfillment of a dream for me. I love the character, I love the world he inhabits. The work of Robert E. Howard is one of the primary reasons I do what I do. So I'm very happy our tale is getting collected with some other "orphan" stories, and wrapped in a lovely painted cover by Tex. This was my first shot at Conan. I hope it's not my last.


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2002: U.S. lost its best chance to decimate al-Qaida in Tora Bora
TORA BORA, Afghanistan — America's decisive battle against al-Qaida in Afghanistan began in early December.
U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks told Congress in July that the attack started after two Afghan warlords, Hazrat Ali and Haji Zaman, told U.S. officers they intended to attack Tora Bora, al-Qaida's mountain stronghold.
Ali, Zaman and warlord Haji Qadir had taken control of the nearby city of Jalalabad from the Taliban on Nov. 15.
Ali's version of the attack on Tora Bora is different. He says the Americans came to him 10 days before the offensive started.
"They said they wanted to attack al-Qaida at Tora Bora," said Ali, an opium smuggler who was living in a refugee camp in Peshawar, Pakistan, when the CIA hired him to help fight the Taliban and al-Qaida. "I told them that we had been fighting them for six years, and that some things take patience. But when the Americans came, they told us they wanted to attack as soon as possible, so we attacked."The U.S. battle plan for Tora Bora, an area in the mountains near Jalalabad in eastern Afghanistan, followed the same blueprint as the one that had routed Taliban and al-Qaida forces in northern Afghanistan. American planes would bomb and the Afghans would attack on the ground. Small teams of U.S. and British special forces would direct airstrikes in support of the advancing Afghan forces.
From the start, American commanders had tried to limit the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
"We deliberately did not plan an operation in Afghanistan based on putting in 100,000 or 150,000 American troops along the model of the Soviets," Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a Senate panel in June.
Some military officers, however, thought their superiors' aversion to risk was crippling the effort to wipe out the terrorist group that had killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States. An angry allied officer stormed out of one planning meeting, calling the Americans' eagerness to avoid casualties at any cost "bloody stupid."
U.S. and allied military and intelligence officers also warned that the combination of precision bombing, special operations forces and anti-Taliban ground forces that had worked so well in driving the Taliban from northern Afghanistan might not work in the heartland of the country's dominant Pashtun tribe.
By the end of the first week of December, there was plenty of evidence that they were right.
U.S.-backed local commanders moved into Kandahar, the Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, on Dec. 7, but they were more interested in jockeying for control of the city than in pursuing Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar and his lieutenants.
Some Taliban leaders fled south to Pakistan. Others returned home to the deeply conservative southern and eastern regions of the country. Hundreds of al-Qaida fighters vanished, making their way across the desert to Pakistan and Iran. All the while, more than 1,200 U.S. Marines sat at an abandoned air base in the desert 80 miles to the southwest.
"None of us here understood why we had the Marines playing at the desert strip," says a U.S. officer who asked that his name not be used. "They did a couple of small route interdiction things on the Lashkar Gah-Kandahar road, but other than that sat in the desert and then moved to Kandahar International (airport) and then to the American Embassy in Kabul. All during that time, Mullah Omar (and other Taliban leaders) were roaming all over the place in a state of shock. But they got over that, and now we have them burrowed into Pashtun tribal protection."
The episode, said a senior U.S. defense official, should have been a wake-up call.
"I think it has become clear to us that these guys do not share our interests all the time," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Military and intelligence officials warned the U.S. commanders that their Afghan allies in Jalalabad, Hazrat Ali and Haji Zaman, were no more trustworthy than the warlords in Kandahar.
"Both Ali and Zaman are as crooked as snakes," said one U.S. officer, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Ali and Zaman were also bitter rivals, and they bickered about who would attack Tora Bora and from which direction. The two commanders had about 2,000 gunmen between them, but they were slow to move into place. They didn't launch their ground assault until four days after American planes started bombing. A third commander, Haji Zahir, joined the attack at the last minute with 400 of his fighters.
Zahir said he met briefly with the U.S. commander after he arrived with his men at the village of Pachir Agam, about five miles north of Tora Bora. They did little more than exchange pleasantries, Zahir claimed, and this was the first and only time he met with the Americans during the battle. As they had in Kandahar, the Americans left it to the Afghans to plan and carry out the ground assault.
"We didn't talk about our plan for fighting," said Zahir, the son of Haji Qadir. "The plan of attack depended on us _ myself, Hazrat Ali and Haji Zaman. The Americans were in charge of the bombing."
The Afghan commanders decided to launch a three-pronged attack. Zaman would position his forces an hour to the west at the village of Waziri Tangi. Ali would attack from the village of Milawa to the north. Zahir would put half his troops at Gherikil to the east and send the rest to block al-Qaida fighters from escaping south to Pakistan through the Sulemankhel valley. By this time, hundreds of other al-Qaida fighters already had escaped to Pakistan along these routes, according to villagers' reports.
Zahir contends that the assault was doomed from the beginning, because the Americans started bombing before the Afghans could position their forces on the escape routes to Pakistan.
"The bombing had no effect," said Zahir. "Before the Americans started bombing, we should have gone in and surrounded Tora Bora on the ground. That is the basic military way. But we weren't able to do so, because they started bombing first. So all of those ways were left open. In my opinion, this was the biggest mistake of the battle."
One of Zaman's tasks was to block escape routes through the Waziri Tangi valley, but he didn't do it, said Rullulah, a subcommander of Zaman's rival Ali.
The United States had made no plans to deploy its own or allied troops to block the exits. The 1,200 Marines stayed safely at their base in the desert near Kandahar.
"Ali and Zaman both assured our people that they had forces in blocking positions on the Spin Ghar when there were, in fact, no people there," said a U.S. military official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "So besides taking Afghans at their word, we had no plans to bring up sufficient forces to make up for perfidy."
Some American intelligence officers smelled treachery from the start. Reconnaissance pictures showed what looked to be campfires along the trails crossing the mountains into Pakistan, at altitudes above 10,000 feet. The Afghans told the Americans that the fires belonged to sheepherders, who were not to be attacked.
"Our guys in Afghanistan bought the Afghan story," said one military official. "Sheep have trouble finding food under 2 or 3 feet of snow and sheepherders usually stay home when the temperature is zero. They were exfiltrators, pure and simple."
Those who got away appear to have had help.
Even before the ground attack began, Zaman and Ali were trying to negotiate an al-Qaida surrender. They told the al-Qaida forces that if they gave up their weapons, they would not be killed. Bin Laden's Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks refused.
"I will continue jihad (holy war) even after my death," one al-Qaida commander said in Arabic over the radio. "We are not afraid of anything, and if I were to die, either way we win."
Nevertheless, Zaman declared a cease-fire on the second day of the attack, claiming that the Arabs and other foreigners wanted to reconsider. They asked for a 24-hour truce; Zaman gave them until 8 the next morning. But Ali and Zahir claimed no deal could be made, and a few hours later ordered their Afghan fighters to resume the attack. The American bombing never stopped. But Zaman had left the escape route through the Waziri Tangi valley open.
The Arabs said there were only 82 al-Qaida fighters at Tora Bora, according to Janullah Hashimzada, a Pakistani journalist who was present and spoke to one of them by radio.
Pentagon officials initially estimated that there were 2,000 al-Qaida fighters at Tora Bora. Now they think there were 1,000 to 1,100.
Forty-one al-Qaida fighters surrendered to Zaman and were taken to jail in Jalalabad, Hashimzada said.
Ali said he was infuriated by the cease-fire because he thought it was a ploy to give the besieged al-Qaida and Taliban time to escape. It also infuriated the Americans. One U.S. officer angrily told the three Afghan commanders: "We are here to destroy, destroy, destroy."
U.S. intelligence officials blame Zaman for letting al-Qaida fighters and leaders escape through his lines. A Pakistani official told Knight Ridder that intelligence reports also suggest that Ali probably took payoffs to let them go. The official said some al-Qaida members paid $30,000 to $40,000 each to either Ali or Zaman for safe passage out of Tora Bora.
"Of the 4,000 people who escaped from there, about 50 to 80 were top leaders of al-Qaida," said the Pakistani official. Most of them paid bribes, he said.
In fairness, Tora Bora is some of the roughest country in a rough country.
"When the Russians came, they would try to catch us there, but they never could," said Haji Din Mohammed, a former resistance leader who is now the governor of Nangarhar province, whose capital is Jalalabad. "There are forests and many small valleys where you can hide. If you had 1,000 people, then maybe you could seal off those areas, but it would be difficult."
It is only about one and a half miles in a straight line from where the Afghans began their ground attack to al-Qaida's last line of defense, a network of gun emplacements overlooking the Milawa valley.
The hilly, rocky terrain resembles Colorado. The low ground at Tora Bora is at 6,000 feet. The highest peaks along the Pakistani border reach more than 13,000 feet. Small, twisted trees dot the area, providing a fair amount of cover. Footpaths and a few rough roads lace through the hills like spider veins.
"There are many ways to go," said Malik Nizar, the deputy governor of Nangarhar and another veteran of the Soviet occupation. "That is why al-Qaida was able to escape."
Several midlevel Afghan commanders complained that equipment and ammunition shortages, along with cold and snow, hindered their progress.
But America's Afghan allies clearly had little stomach for a fight. "Everyone knows that two Arabs are enough for 40 other men," said Gen. Mohammed Musa, Ali's top commander.
It took the Afghans six days to advance to al-Qaida's middle line of defense. The Afghans moved forward only after American B-52s and other aircraft had cleared the way, said Dost Mohammed, another of Ali's subcommanders.
The Arabs fought like cornered men, raking the hills with machine gun fire, 20 mm cannons and mortars from their dug-in positions.
"I've been a mujahid (Islamic warrior) for 20 years, but this was the most intense fighting I have ever seen in my life. Even if I were to train my soldiers for the next 10 years, they couldn't fight anything like that," said Haftab Ghul, who led 240 men under Zahir.
It took the Afghans three more days to clear out the last al-Qaida positions, a series of dug-in gun pits scattered along the top of the ridgeline on the other side of the valley, where they captured 22 prisoners.
"When we got into the mountains, it was covered with snow and ice," said Sian Mohammed, one of Zahir's chief lieutenants. "They were too weak from their wounds and they had no food. They couldn't escape because of the snow. We told them to give themselves up and that we wouldn't hurt them. They surrendered."
For all the talk of fierce fighting, fewer than a few dozen Afghans were killed and wounded.
The Afghans claimed to have eliminated al-Qaida resistance by Dec. 16. American bombs stopped falling in the nearby mountains soon after.
Ali thinks there were 1,100 al-Qaida fighters at Tora Bora, 300 of whom were killed. Other commanders claim the figure was much lower, suggesting that the battle may have been nothing more than a rear-guard action by a couple of hundred fighters to cover the escape of the main al-Qaida columns.
"The majority of them escaped before the bombing," said Musa, the commander who fought for Ali. "Those who remained at Tora Bora wanted to fight and die."
There are few graves or other evidence in these mountains and valleys to account for the hundreds of al-Qaida fighters who U.S. officials claimed were killed.
After the fighting at Tora Bora ended, Rear Adm. John D. Stufflebeem, then the deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Afghan and American troops were methodically searching caves at Tora Bora and tracking al-Qaida forces who were trying to escape to Pakistan.
But a visit to Tora Bora today makes it hard to understand how the cave search could have taken weeks. The caves that are there can easily be explored in an hour. When asked if American bombs destroyed deeper, more extensive caves, Afghan gunmen who fought at Tora Bora say there were never any such structures to destroy.
There is no evidence of the hundreds of caves that some U.S. military officials said were part of a massive underground cave complex where al-Qaida fighters hunkered down.
There are fewer than a dozen caves at Tora Bora. None is deeper than 25 feet. There are no connecting tunnels. Nearly all the caves are smaller than an average bedroom. There is no evidence that American bombs destroyed larger structures.
"Those 'artist renderings' that had the caves looking like Titan (missile) silos were really garbage," said a U.S. intelligence official.
There may have been more elaborate al-Qaida cave complexes, dug during the war against the Soviets and expanded with money from bin Laden's personal fortune, the official said, perhaps not at Tora Bora but at a place called Zawar Khili, some 70 miles to the south.
Pakistani officials think that as many as 4,000 al-Qaida and Taliban fighters crossed into Pakistan's tribal areas by the end of December. A U.S. intelligence official said he thought that about 1,000 al-Qaida fighters, including some of the group's most important leaders, escaped the American dragnet at Tora Bora.
Those who made it safely across the border were helped not only by friendly tribesmen but also by sympathetic members of Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence agency, according to a senior official with links to the agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Others dispute this.
"If the ISI is rogue, then the army is rogue, and if the army is rogue, then the whole government is rogue," said retired Gen. Hamid Gul, who ran the ISI from 1987 to 1989. "It is simply not possible."
Underground radical groups helped some fugitive al-Qaida members obtain Pakistani passports, which they used to flee to such countries as Iraq, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, according to Pakistani intelligence sources. Others slipped into Peshawar, a city that served as headquarters to the anti-Soviet Afghan resistance in the 1980s and remains a hotbed of militancy.
U.S. special forces now have established a chain of bases along the Afghan-Pakistani border, but another winter is bringing new dangers. Officials worry that al-Qaida and Taliban survivors of Tora Bora are still hiding along the border, waiting for the clouds and snow to ground the Air Force's A-10s and AC-130s and leave the American soldiers who are guarding the border vulnerable to ambushes.
(Knight Ridder correspondent Mushtaq Yusufzai contributed to this report.)
(Editors' note: Knight Ridder Pentagon reporter Drew Brown and Detroit Free Press photographer David Gilkey recently returned to the Afghan battlefield at Tora Bora, where last December U.S. commanders thought they had cornered Osama bin Laden and more than 1,000 al-Qaida fighters. They interviewed Afghan fighters, retraced the terrorists' escape routes to Pakistan and talked to Pakistani intelligence officers who were tracking bin Laden. Their story explains how and why the United States lost its best chance to capture or kill bin Laden and decimate al-Qaida.)


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Each year Pantone, the color connoisseurs, give us gorgeous style advice, guided by the "it" colors of the season. And each year only one color gets to be THE COLOR OF THE YEAR. This year, the leading lady is an imaginative and bright, captivating purple: Radiant Orchid. The 2014 Pantone Color of the Year is an intoxicating mixture of fuchsia, purple and pink hues. An unusual shade, Radiant Orchid brings serenity when incorporated throughout the home, and gives interiors an updated look. Inspired by designs around the world, radiant orchid is complemented by a wide array of accents and undertones, making it a pleasure to execute in your own home.
"Radiant Orchid is a totally different direction from last year's Pantone Color of the Year, Emerald," says Paula Berberian, a Creative Director of Brewster Home Fashions for WallPops. "The softer shade makes quite a statement when paired with neutrals like taupe and cream, and is even more striking alongside brighter hues like turquoise and yellow." Here are some tips on how to incorporate this dazzling hue into your decor.
Create a Feature Wall
It's often intimidating to introduce a new color into your home, so starting on a smaller scale makes it easier to take the plunge. Instead of dressing an entire room in Radiant Orchid, focus on just one area to test out the shade. Choose which wall serves best as the center of attention, often the dining room provides an ideal arena. Pictured above, the Pandora Purple Botanical Vines wallpaper by Kenneth James from Brewster Home Fashions creates an enchanted accent. After adding the ravishing wallpaper, which features swirling orchid vines, keep the rest of the design minimal so your Radiant Orchid accent wall will become the highlight of the room.
Add Accessories
Accessories like throws, pillows and rugs can quickly turn any space into a coordinated design. Subdued colors such as grey, cream and taupe work well in the bedroom, but can often come up short when you are trying to create a bold design. Incorporate soft blankets, small pieces of furniture like the chair above, and textured decorative pillows in Radiant Orchid for a touch of sophistication and style.
Focus on Florals
The 2014 color of the year is a vivid tribute to one of the most coveted types of orchid blossoms. One of the best ways to integrate lush radiant orchid into your home is with a real plant! With tropical leaves and exotic blooms, you simply cannot go wrong with a fresh orchid plant in any room. You can also fill vases with cut flowers to infuse a luxurious and invigorating pop of purple into and space.


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13 December 2011
Willard Suitcases
This is one of the more amazing things I've stumbled across lately (via Foxtail + Fern). What you see here is a collection of suitcases that were discovered in 1995 at The Willard Psychiatric Center. They had been stored away in the attic of the pathology lab for decades like time capsules for their former owners. They are now in the hands of the New York State Museum and are being carefully archived and preserved. Read more here.
9 comments:
- Chandra said...
I've seen some things from a sit on this before. It's so heartbreaking. If I was a better poet I would write about some of these images, but I could never do it justice.
- December 13, 2011
- Joy said...
These are so beautiful!
- December 13, 2011
- Lisa said...
Fascinating! Thank you so much for this link. I am hooked! I hope he releases a book of these cases. I would love it for my coffee table, wouldn't you?
- December 13, 2011
- Shannon said...
These are so special and unique. Everything has so much character. I love things like this.
- December 13, 2011
- Anonymous said...
What exciting treasure!
- December 13, 2011
- Anonymous said...
Such intriguing and thought provokin, nostalgic pieces and images! Love it :)
Tracy @ The Wardrobe Wanderer
- December 13, 2011
- the wild bunches said...
Wow, that's impressive. Wish I could see more of these.
- December 14, 2011
- Anonymous said...
Great pictures! I like the story behind them. I was looking out for some old medicine packages...couldn't find any ;)
- December 14, 2011
- Caitlin said...
so sweet and interesting. i love being able to have a little peek into their lives. that's why i love estate sales.
- December 14, 2011