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Sarah Raven and Adam Nicolson moved to Perch Hill fifteen years ago from London. They found a rather ramshackle ex-dairy farm with a lot of concrete, corrugated iron and not much else. Since then, Adam has converted the farm to an organic 90 acres, putting in many new hedges on old lines, trying to encourage wild flowers into the meadows and introducing a herd of Sussex cattle, with Middle White pigs and a flock of Romney cross sheep.
The constant supply of favourite flowers, (cut hard for Sarah Raven's flower arranging courses) comes from the large cutting garden where the central four beds are filled with hardy and half-hardy annuals and biennials, with two or even three different crops in the same square foot of soil in one calendar year. The second growing season is manned by predominantly half-hardy annuals which take us through high summer into autumn, and some of these are replaced as they go over with biennials.
There are also two purely ornamental gardens at Perch Hill, not dedicated to harvesting – the Oast garden with an extravagant mix of colour and structure (salvias, cardoons, artichokes, brilliantly coloured dahlias, zinnias, gladioli, cannas, jungly corn and banana foliage) and the front farmhouse garden, which is designed to have a calmer feel. There is also now a willow bed which combines with silver birch coppice to give a good supply of wood to use for plant supports all around the garden.
The gardens grow enough produce to supply the kitchens with delicious homegrown fruit and vegetables at Perch Hill on open days, as well as enough flowers for Sarah's courses and to decorate Sarah's house and the demonstration room on course days.
Perch Hill is also the location of the trials for new seed and plant varieties for our catalogues – nothing makes it into our range without being grown here, and we only put in our favourites too!

subset: commoncrawl


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Casey: Lower Interest Rates for Disaster Relief Loans
Quick Action will Help Businesses Open Doors and Rehire Workers
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Bob Casey (D-PA) strongly urged the U.S Small Business Administration (SBA) to lower interest rates on disaster relief loans, making it easier for homeowners and small businesses to recover from damage due to Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee.
"It is my understanding that the SBA has the authority to lower the interest rates on its disaster relief loans, and I strongly urge that you take such action without delay," Senator Casey wrote in a letter to SBA Administrator Karen Mills. "Any unnecessary delay will only further exacerbate an already difficult economic situation. Ensuring that small businesses can reopen, rehire and recover lost revenue resulting from flooding is crucial to getting the regional economy back on track."
Lowering interest rates on SBA disaster relief loans will help communities that have been disproportionately impacted by the economic downturn, Senator Casey wrote, noting that many areas affected by flooding are already burdened by unemployment rates higher than the Pennsylvania average.
The full text of Senator Casey's letter is below.
Dear Administrator Mills:
I write today to request that the Small Business Administration (SBA) lower interest rates for disaster relief loans for residents and businesses affected by recent natural disasters in Pennsylvania. In the wake of Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee, the federal government must do everything in its power to help individuals and small businesses in Pennsylvania recover.
In my recent travel around the Commonwealth, I have witnessed first-hand the destruction caused by flooding. I have continually heard from affected homeowners and small business owners that the current rates for SBA disaster relief loans are prohibitively high in many cases. It is my understanding that the SBA has the authority to lower the interest rates on its disaster relief loans, and I strongly urge that you take such action without delay.
Lowering the interest rates on these loans will help communities that have been disproportionally impacted by the economic downturn. As you know, northeastern Pennsylvania was particularly hard hit by the flooding. This natural disaster comes in the midst of an economic downturn that has gone on too long and has affected the region to a greater degree than other parts of the state and country. The unemployment rate in the metropolitan statistical area that includes northeastern Pennsylvania lies at 9.4 percent, significantly higher than the Pennsylvania average at 8.2 percent and the national unemployment average. Moreover, the dual impact of the economic and natural disasters is not confined to northeastern Pennsylvania. Other counties in eastern and central Pennsylvania located along the Susquehanna River and its tributaries affected by Lee also suffer from high levels of unemployment. This is also the case in the Lehigh Valley and southeastern Pennsylvania counties in the Delaware River basin that were significantly affected by Irene.
These residents and businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania that have suffered an economic blow must now contend with the fallout from a natural disaster. Many affected residents already have mortgages and other costs to pay on damaged properties. In addition, many of these same residents are either out of work or have someone in their family who is either unemployed or underemployed. Taking on a loan with high interest rates in addition to the costs residents have already incurred will be a real challenge for affected homeowners. Lowering the interest rate for these loans will relieve the tremendous economic burden facing these residents.
In addition to helping residents get back on their feet, we need to make sure that small businesses in eastern and central Pennsylvania are able to open their doors as soon as possible. Any unnecessary delay will only further exacerbate an already difficult economic situation. Ensuring that small businesses can reopen, rehire and recover lost revenue resulting from flooding is crucial to getting the regional economy back on track. SBA disaster relief loans are essential to helping small business owners on the pathway of economic recovery. Small business owners have informed my office that an interest rate of 4 percent is too costly a burden for them to take on, and I am concerned that some of the businesses will not be able to come back if the rates are not adjusted. I strongly encourage you to lower the interest rates so more business owners can benefit from this program. I am also aware that in the past the SBA has provided twelve month deferment of principal and interest payments for SBA serviced business and disaster loans. I strongly encourage you to consider taking this approach in Pennsylvania.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to your prompt reply and quick action on this pressing matter.
Robert P. Casey, Jr.
United States Senator


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Trends in Student Aid
Trends in Student Aid, an annual College Board publication since 1983, is a compendium of detailed, up-to-date information on the funding that is available to help students pay for college. This report documents grant aid from federal and state governments, colleges and universities, employers, and other private sources, as well as loans, tax benefits, and Federal Work-Study Assistance. It examines changes in funding levels over time, reports on the distribution of aid across students with different incomes and attending different types of institutions, and tracks the debt students incur as they pursue their educational opportunities.
Report findings are organized into the following categories:
Total Aid
Student financial aid includes grants, federal loans, work-study and tax benefits. Federal and state governments, colleges and universities, employers and other private entities provide financial aid to both undergraduate and graduate students.
Federal Aid
The federal government provides grant aid, most of which is based on students' financial circumstances. It also provides education loans for students and parents and work-study funds that help to pay the wages of some student workers. Tax credits and deductions also subsidize students and families paying for college.
From the student's perspective, grant aid is the most desirable form of financial aid. It is awarded before the tuition bill has to be paid and does not have to be repaid. The federal government and colleges and universities are the largest sources of grant aid, but states and employers and other private entities also provide significant amounts of grant aid.
The federal government provides education loans to both students and parents. These loans are now funded directly by the government, but until July 2010 some were funded by private lenders and guaranteed by the federal government. Federal loans carry fixed interest rates and a variety of repayment protections, but this is not the case for the nonfederal loans on which some students rely. Student loans make college possible for many students, but rising education debt levels are a growing concern.
Education Tax Benefits and College Savings Plans
The federal government provides education tax credits and deductions that reduce the tax bills of parents and students paying for postsecondary education. It also exempts from taxation the earnings on specified savings vehicles earmarked for paying for college.
Inflation Adjustment
The Consumer Price Index for all urban consumers (CPI-U) is used to adjust for inflation. We provide much of our data in constant dollars, adjusting values for changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI).


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Hi all,
I'm running a homebrew turnstile antenna, with a reflector, that is fed with about 45 feet of low-loss RG-8 coax. The coax is feeding the latest version of the Funcube Dongle. I'm wondering if a pre-amp would help me receive more of the telemetry data then I get now, particularly on the low passes. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this.


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Decision : 37 COM 8B.54
Cultural properties - Examination of minor boundary modifications: Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments (Russian Federation)
The World Heritage Committee,
1. Having examined Documents WHC-13/37.COM/8B.Add and WHC-13/37.COM/INF.8B1.Add,
2. Approves the proposed minor boundary modification of the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg and Related Groups of Monuments, Russian Federation ;
3. Recommend s that the State Party give consideration to the following:
a) Slightly modifying the protection zones established according to the Saint Petersburg Law no. 820-7 where necessary to cover with the appropriate regime (CZ or DRZ1) those small portions of territory that are proposed to be included in the inscribed property and are currently not covered by the appropriate level of protection (CZ or DRZ1) regime;
b) Establishing a buffer zone based on the DRZ2 zone according to an agreed timeframe, considering the reiterated requests made by the World Heritage Committee since its 30th Session for boundary clarifications and the need for a robust protection of the cultural historic setting of component 540-001;
c) Modifying the juridical status of the property component "Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg" within the Russian legal framework to become a 'remarkable site' and modifying the detailed provisions of the protection zone regimes established in 2009 by the Saint Petersburg Law no. 820-7 in order to better detail and differentiate them;
d) Developing a comprehensive management framework for the entire inscribed property, together with a management plan, on the basis of detailed urban and safeguard plans for the Historic Centre of Saint Petersburg, to be elaborated as early as possible.
DocumentsDecisions Report
Context of DecisionWHC-13/37.COM/8B.Add


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For nearly a year Syria, which borders Iraq, has been besieged by the same type of uprising that led to the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in nearby Egypt. But while the protests in Syria began on the same day as those in Egypt, with protesters demanding the resignation of President Bashar al-Assad and a major government overhaul, thus far Assad has been able to hold on to power with the violent assistance of his military.
As reported by Reuters News, over the last month hundreds of Syrian citizens have been reported killed as government forces try desperately to crush both peaceful protests and armed resistance to Assad's rule. In the past week, according to Reuters, "gunfire by pro-Assad militiamen killed five people, including a woman, and wounded nine in the restive city of Homs, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. A sniper later shot dead a 16-year-old girl there."
Apparently, not even government soldiers are solidly behind Assad. So far at least a score of soldiers have defected over to the opposition, and British civil rights monitors reported that five other soldiers were killed as they attempted to change sides during a clash with Assad opponents in the northwestern province of Idlib.
And on January 16 USA Today reported that a member of Syria's own parliament, Imad Ghalioun, had jumped ship and joined the opposition to Assad's rule. Ghalioun, who represents city of Homs, which has seen some of the worst violence during the uprising, said the residents of his city "are under siege and the city is disaster-stricken. There is no electricity, piles of garbage fill the streets…. The sounds of shelling all night terrify children." He said the Syrian people "are living their worst period."
Thus far, a plan by the Arab League to put an end to the violence has failed to slow the spread of civil unrest. The Arab plan supposedly called for Assad's forces to withdraw the military from cities, and for the government to begin dialoguing with leaders of the opposition.
Since the start of the uprising, government forces have killed more than 5,000 people, the United Nations estimated, and Syrian officials said that some 2,000 of their soldiers have also died. On January 15 alone, 32 civilians were reported killed in the conflict.
As noted by the New York Times, discussion concerning Syria's plight centers not so much on the possible collapse of Assad's government as it does on the likelihood of a full-blown civil war, which some within the country say "has already begun, with the government losing control over some regions and its authority ebbing in the suburbs of the capital and parts of major cities like Homs and Hama." According to the Times, even Damascus, which has remained mostly peaceful over the past months, "has been carved up with checkpoints and its residents have been frightened by the sounds of gunfire."
As one Western observer visiting the area told the Times, "There's absolutely no sign of light. If anything, it's darker than ever. And I don't know where it's going to end. I can't tell you. I don't think anyone can."
While in a recent speech Assad declared confidently that "we will defeat this conspiracy without any doubt," one member of the opposition warned that each day Syrian factions "are closer to fighting each other." He added that Assad "has divided Syrians into two groups — one with him, one against him — and the coming days will bring more blood into the streets."
With most eyes on Iran at the moment, and the tracks of U.S. military forces leaving Iraq still fresh, as of yet there have been no aggressive discussions about Western (read: U.S.) military intervention into this latest Middle East nation on the verge of toppling. The United States, the European Union, and the Arab League have all announced economic sanctions against Syria, but talk of UN "peace efforts" via military intervention has been met with resistance, most notably by China and Russia, which have their own agenda in the region. VOA News noted that Russia is a particularly high-profile ally of Assad, and Russian officials have insisted that any action taken by the UN Security Council should not target just Assad's government, but also the opposition movement.
Nonetheless, UN rhetoric concerning Syria has been more pronounced of late, with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon using a speech on "democracy" in the Arab world to call on Assad to "stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end." Ban declared that the "old order" of family dynasties and one-man rule was a thing of the past in the Middle East, meaning that, in his mind, the future of the region would most likely include a lot more international "peacekeeping" efforts.
During a stop-off in Abu Dhabi, Ban had words for the UN Security Council, saying that he hoped it could handle Syria "in a coherent manner and with a sense of gravity." He added that the "casualties have reached such an unacceptable stage we cannot let the situation continue this way."
Meanwhile, U.S. foreign policy analysts were adding their own ideas on how the next phase of America's involvement in the region might look, with the Council on Foreign Relations' resident Middle East "expert," Steven Cook, offering his pitch for U.S involvement in Syria. Writing in The Atlantic, Cook began by discounting the similarities of a Syrian invasion to U.S. "intervention" in Iraq. "Unlike Saddam at the time of the invasion, Assad is engaged in the mass killing of his own people," he wrote, and "unlike Operation Iraqi Freedom, there is a chance that the Arab League would support a humanitarian intervention in Syria, and any military operations could be undertaken multilaterally."
Suggesting that action against Assad could be taken without UN sanction (ignoring congressional authorization completely), Cook warned: "If there is no intervention and political will to stop Assad's crimes remains absent, the world will once again have to answer for standing on the sidelines of a mass murder."
Connecting Syria's plight to action in Iran, Cook pointed out the possibility that "bringing down Assad would advance the long-standing American goal of isolating Iran," adding that a "post-Assad government in Damascus would not likely look to Iran for support, but instead to Turkey and Saudi Arabia. That would be a net benefit for Washington and others looking to limit Iran's influence in the Arab world."
By contrast, over at Foreign Policy magazine, another Middle East wonk, Mark Lynch, argued against military intervention in Syria, not because it would be morally wrong or unconstitutional, but because of the possibility of failure. "Risky, costly foreign policy decisions can not simply be taken to express moral outrage," wrote Lynch. "They need to have a serious chance of success."
Lynch warned that military intervention in Syria "has little prospect of success, a high risk of disastrous failure, and a near-certainty of escalation which should make the experience of Iraq weigh extremely heavily on anyone contemplating such an intervention. There is no magic number of deaths at which the U.S. must embark on a self-defeating and foolish adventure."


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By Emily Anderson
One in a series
MADRID — No matter how many times it happens, seeing the pope takes my breath away. I am sitting in Spain, with teens I love, celebrating a faith I love and I am paid for it. Excitement does not describe the feeling here! Joy is what is happening all around. Teens and adults alike living in the light of Christ! The Holy Father is finally here and it feels like I am right at home! God is good!
Yesterday, 20,000 people protested World Youth Day at a local metro stop. Today, in droves, teens from all over the world witnessed that Christ is here, joy is here and that we are called to be light in the darkness! Muchas Gracias Papa! We love you!
Emily "Em" Anderson, 28, is the director of youth ministry at St. James Catholic Church in Falls Church, Va. She is excited to be traveling with seven teens and two other adults from her ministry. This is her second World Youth Day, having trekked across the world to Sydney with 10 teens for World Youth Day in 2008. She enjoys laughing, singing at the top of her lungs — rather badly — praying liturgy of the hours and planning her next party.


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Cheniere Energy is aiming to raise $690 million through the initial public offering of a holding company, an effort to garner cash to develop assets and future projects, according to regulatory documents filed Friday.
That would be among the largest energy-related IPOs announced in 2013 , according to SNL Energy.
Cheniere Energy Partners LP Holdings, which expects to trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CQH, will exist only to hold a 55.9 percent stake in Houston-based Cheniere Energy Partners, a master limited partnership that owns regasification facilities at its Sabine Pass LNG terminal in Louisiana. It also is developing liquefaction units for an export terminal at the site.
El Paso: Houston oil and gas company filing to go public
The holding company will allow Cheniere to segregate lower-risk, stable assets from higher-risk, early-stage projects and marketing activities, Cheniere said in regulatory documents.
The company added that its equity offering in the holding company would give it a lower-cost source of capital funding.
"We believe that Cheniere Holdings will be attractive to investors that desire to invest in Cheniere Partners without the tax and other complexities arising from the ownership of master limited partnership securities," the company said in a filing.
In the filing, the company did not disclose how many shares it would offer or their price.


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Reinvented Tribe, Royals making strides
CLEVELAND -- The Indians and Royals are playing a series at Progressive Field here in the second week of September that has potential postseason ramifications.
That sentence alone qualifies 2013 as a success for two AL Central clubs who dramatically reinvented themselves last winter.
CLEVELAND -- The Indians and Royals are playing a series at Progressive Field here in the second week of September that has potential postseason ramifications.
That sentence alone qualifies 2013 as a success for two AL Central clubs who dramatically reinvented themselves last winter.
The Indians brought aboard a two-time World Series winning manager in Terry Francona and spent aggressively on two of the winter's top five available free-agent position players in Nick Swisher and Michael Bourn. The Royals shipped a seemingly can't-miss prospect in Wil Myers off to the Rays for James Shields and Wade Davis and also traded for Ervin Santana in a bid to improve a wobbly rotation.
Now, the stated goal, for both clubs, was to challenge the defending AL champion Detroit Tigers for the Central crown. But in honest moments, the leaders of either club might openly admit that would be a tall task.
The more realistic hope was real, tangible progress in a sport not generally prone toward quick fixes. The Indians lost 94 games last year, the Royals 90. Today, the Tribe is on pace for 87 victories, the Royals 84.
That's progress, which itself is success.
"It's definitely gratifying to see the progress we've made this year," Shields said of the Royals. "Obviously our No. 1 goal is to make the playoffs and win a championship. But if you asked me in Spring Training if we had a shot to make the playoffs in September, I'd take it."
The real probability of that shot sways considerably from day to day by the time you get to this point in the calendar. The Royals lost a heartbreaker to the Indians in Monday's series opener to drop four games back of the Rays, who currently hold the AL's second Wild Card spot, in the loss column. Their playoff odds, as calculated by Baseball Prospectus, dipped all the way to 0.9 percent.
For the Indians, on the other hand, Monday's 4-3 win raised their Wild Card percentage to 24.8 percent, and the Royals, who they'll face three more times next week, are the last above-.500 club they'll face this season.
Both clubs take heart in the Rays, Yankees and O's beating up on each other out East. The Rays, on Tuesday, begin a final stretch of 20 games in 20 days, with 14 against contenders. If they hold onto that Wild Card spot, they'll have earned it, no doubt.
But the mere possibility that the second Wild Card might come from the Central and not the East is a credit to the strides made by two formerly flagging franchises.
In the wake of 2012, the Royals' highly regarded farm system wasn't affecting the bottom line, there were concerns about the developmental paths of Eric Hosmer and Mike Moustakas and there was little doubt that the rotation, as currently constructed, wasn't going to cut it.
The Indians, meanwhile, had some solid core pieces in Jason Kipnis, Carlos Santana, Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Brantley but on the heels of a 5-24 August and with abundant questions in the rotation, the external expectation was a rebuild, not a reload.
Everything changed for the Tribe the day Francona was hired, as that was the first signal the Indians were intent on getting better, not younger. And everything changed the day the Royals made the controversial Myers move, one that might have shortened their window (Shields, like Alex Gordon and Billy Butler, will be free-agent eligible at the end of 2014) but sped up their route to respectability.
"I give them credit," Francona said. "That takes a lot of guts to do that. [Shields is] about as close to a guaranteed 200-inning guy as there can be in the league. He does it every year."
The next out Shields records in this 2013 season will complete his 200th inning, and he and the resurgent Santana and re-signed Jeremy Guthrie have guided one of the steadiest rotations in the league, setting the stage for a bullpen loaded with high-velocity weapons. The pitching staff, as a whole, benefits from what some advanced metrics rate as the best defense in the Majors. And as Hosmer, after a brutally slow start, has regained the confident and mechanically sound stroke that made him such a rookie sensation at the end of '11, the Royals erased the memories of all that was ailing them in April and May (22-30) to make a strong surge. Since June 1, the Red Sox, A's and Tigers are the only AL teams with a better record than the Royals' 53-39 mark.
That surge has ensured general manager Dayton Moore, in his seventh full season at the helm, will be back for what currently stands as the final season of his contract. It has also likely saved manager Ned Yost, whose seat appeared uncomfortably warm when the Royals changed hitting coaches at the end of May.
Make no mistake, though: The 2014 season will be the ultimate judge of all Moore has built these last seven years, and it will ultimately determine whether moving Myers, who has shown early signs of superstardom with the Rays, was a worthwhile endeavor. With that in mind, it seems reasonable to expect added action on the Royals' part this winter. Perhaps they'll deal from their bullpen depth to solidify their gaps at second base and right field or make use of the influx of national TV money due to arrive in 2014 to take a stab at the free-agent market (Carlos Beltran might look good in Royal Blue again).
Whatever the case, the Royals will have reason to enter 2014 with confidence, not just hope, and that's a major distinction for a franchise that, prior to 2013, hadn't played meaningful September baseball since 1985.
"Experience," Shields said. "That's what it comes down to. We had a clubhouse full of guys who hadn't really been in this situation before, and it showed in April and May. We lost a lot of one-run ballgames in May. We figured out how to win them after May was over, and here we are. Just going through different situations in a season is definitely huge for an organization as a whole and also individually."
The Indians have experienced a similar change in organizational culture, and that starts with the winning mentality instilled by Francona and his coaching staff. Pitching coach Mickey Callaway did great work coaxing comeback seasons out of Justin Masterson, currently hobbled by an oblique injury, and Ubaldo Jimenez, while also getting surprising surges from Corey Kluber and the formerly AWOL Scott Kazmir.
The Tribe's rotation has been better than advertised, the lineup and bullpen worse. But a deep bench, masterfully employed, has made for a resilient bunch that has taken advantage of the softer parts of the schedule. And that schedule, as noted, is plenty soft down the stretch.
"We know it works in our favor compared to some of the other playoff teams," Kipnis said. "But it doesn't matter if you don't take advantage of the teams you're supposed to beat."
Nor does a dynamic winter matter if it's not followed up by a successful season.
"Sometimes when you change things like that, it doesn't always go for the better," Masterson said. "But it happened. Changing the coaching staff and adding some guys really did improve every bit of what we needed."
The Indians and Royals both changed for the better in 2013. Whether it results in an October berth is yet to be determined, and the 2014 yield will provide added context. For now, though, it's hard to look at the leap from 90-plus losses to September relevance and not see profound progress.
Anthony Castrovince is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his columns and follow him on Twitter at @Castrovince.


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Officials in Saudi Arabia are notorious for their intolerance of outsiders observing the Christian faith within Saudi borders, and on February 8 the country's religious police re-enforced that reputation when they arrested 53 Ethiopian Christians involved in a private prayer service in the Saudi city of Dammam, shutting down the service and hauling the believers off to jail.
According to the World Evangelism Alliance, a total of 46 women and six men were arrested in the raid, and three of the Christians, identified as leaders of the private house church, were charged with trying to convert Muslims to the Christian faith.
In December 2011, the Saudi religious police, known as the mutaween, arrested 35 Ethiopian Christians, 29 of them women, on charges of "illicit mingling" after the authorities raided a private prayer meeting in Jeddah. According to Human Rights Watch, some of the Christians were tortured, and the women were subjected to arbitrary body cavity searches.
In September 2012, a Saudi Arabian girl who converted to Christianity fled to Dammam, a Saudi center for petroleum and natural gas production and a major seaport. The girl was eventually granted asylum in Sweden last month, according to Dammam's Al-Yaum newspaper.
In its 2012 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) noted that Saudi Arabia continues to oppress non-Muslim religious observers, with Christians taking a big share of the abuse. "The Saudi government persists in banning all forms of public religious expression other than that of the government's own interpretation of one school of Sunni Islam," said the report. It also "prohibits churches, synagogues, temples, and other non-Muslim places of worship; uses in its schools and posts online state textbooks that continue to espouse intolerance and incite violence; and periodically interferes with private religious practice."
The strict form of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia is Wahhabism, which has been tied to many of the most notorious acts of terrorism across the Earth. Nineteen of the terrorists tied to the deadly 9/11 attacks in the United States were Wahhabi Muslims from Saudi Arabia.
Said the USCIRF report: "More than 10 years since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, the Saudi government has failed to implement a number of promised reforms related to promoting freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief."
The report called Saudi Arabia a "country of particular concern" for its crackdown on religious freedom, linking it with such oppressive regimes as Iran, North Korea, China, and Sudan.
Dwight Bashir, the USCIRF's deputy director for policy, said that the crackdowns by the mutaween are coming even as the Saudi government does lip service to religious freedom. "During an official USCIRF visit to the Kingdom earlier this month," recalled Bashir, "Saudi officials reiterated the government's long-standing policy that members of the Commission to Promote Virtue and Prevent Vice, also known as the religious police, should not interfere in private worship." Nonetheless, Bashir reported, "the past year has seen an uptick of reports that private religious gatherings have been raided, resulting in arrests, harassment, and deportations of foreign expatriate workers."
Bashir recommended that "the U.S. government and international community should demand that any expatriate worker detained and held without charge for private religious activity in the Kingdom be released immediately."
Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, told FoxNews.com that the latest arrests are part of Saudi Arabia's overall policy "to ban non-Muslim houses of worship and actually hunt down Christians in private homes." Shea said that the nearly total silence on the part of the U.S. government over Saudi religious oppression has much to do with the strategic partnership between the two nations, charging that pressuring the Islamic government to change its behavior "has taken a backseat to oil and the war on terror. The Saudis are playing a double game — cooperating with the war on terror and working against the war on terror campaign."
At least one U.S. lawmaker has sounded off on the behavior of the American ally. "Nations that wish to be a part of the responsible nations of the world must see the protection of religious freedom and the principles of reason as an essential part of the duty of the state," said Representative Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.), who is a member of the the Caucus on Religious Minorities in the Middle East.
World Evangelism Alliance director Godfrey Yogarajah said his group is monitoring the situation in the Middle Eastern country closely, and called on Saudi officials to treat the latest detained Christians "with dignity and release them immediately as there is apparently no evidence for any offense against them. Arrest of believers for peacefully gathering for worship goes against the spirit of Saudi Arabia's promotion of inter-religious dialogue in international fora."


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Hey there, I'm brand new to the forum but very excited to find such a valuable resource. My questions are as follows.
1. Are there any abandoned canneries along the BC coast?
2.what sort of permission do you need to go to these places? Is it site specific? Whondo you generally contact?
3. I run a media company with a couple partners nd am hoping to film a documentary on one of hese locations. We are hoping for very remote coastal village or camp with some standing out buildings. Anything come to mind?
thanks for your time and shared interest in old things.


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The Writing Life - Drifting through Driftless country
September 7, 2013
Estherville News,
This is a monthly column on the writing process. Topics will range from books and authors to writing conferences and workshops to the writing process itself. Driftless by David Rhodes. Milkweed National Editions. Usually you research the countryside in which a book is set after you read it, not before. After reading Driftless by David Rhodes, the hills and valleys of the southwest Wisconsin Driftless region came hearkening back to me. The Wisconsin Driftless region is a name people have given to that area of Wisconsin marked by limestone escarpments that escaped the last ice age. It's remarkably similar to the northern Black Hills of South Dakota, except apple orchards and maples and oaks dot the landscape instead of aspen, spruce and ponderosa pine. What Rhodes has done is take a Midwestern locale and crystallize it, much as William Gay did with his native Tennessee or William Faulkner and, more recently, Larry Brown, did with Mississippi. In fact, Rhodes' ability to equate people with the landscape in which they are born, live and die is probably the strongest part of the novel. Like Brown does with his native Mississippi, Rhodes captures the spirit of the southwest Wisconsin locals — the same spirit with which their ancestors were imbued generations before: "As three generations of rural people had migrated to cities like woodland creatures fleeing fire, the current denizens of Words remained stubbornly rooted in an outdated idea. Like people who refuse to update their wardrobes, they simply ignored all evidence that their matter of living had expired." Rhodes also shares Brown and Gay's ability to make language sing, especially as he writes about nature — "As the morning rinsed stars out of the night sky . . . " July Montgomery, the main character of Rhodes' novel, is a lot like Brown's character Joe in his novel by the same name. Montgomery is flawed, yet heroic. He's an everyman — someone we could all be like and maybe a lot of us are exactly like him. After his wife is murdered, he drifts through life aimlessly but becomes "driftless" in the sense that he finally settles down. By the end of the novel, we find how heroic he really is. It's probably July to whom Rhodes is referring when he writes: "It was impossible to explain in those days in earlier times, in the past, there really were giants — people who did things, good things, odd things, that others would never do. Those giants were at the heart of everything. Nothing could have been the way it was without them, but how could anyone explain them after they were gone?" And then there's July: "He had come here, he knew then, as a last stand — to either become in some way connected ot other people or to die. He could no longer live as a hungry ghost." The novel's central plot focuses around Cora and Graham Shotwell who find themselves on the losing side in a war with the local cooperative. After Cora tries to expose graft and corruption in the cooperative, the Shotwells find themselves ground under the cooperative's heel. Rather than give the ending away, I'll leave it to the reader to check out the book which is at the Estherville Public Library. As I drove through the Wisconsin Driftless region this past June after a weekend writing workshop in Iowa City, I was again struck by the similarity of the countryside to the Black Hills. I actually sold a few copies of my own book too, to two book shops in Viroqua, a health food store in Gays Mills and a coffee shop in Galesville. I was actually on a ghost hunt, trying to soak up the countryside in which a young woman I once knew had been born and grown up. I again visited the town where she had been born, places where she and her parents had lived. And I learned that her father, a retired minister, had died alone in a hunting accident on his own land Dec. 13, 1988, four years to the day after she had died in a car accident on Dec. 13, 1984. I felt the sadness he must have felt at the last place where he lived — and the place where he died. As the new owner walked me across the property that had a creek spilling from the reaching driftless hills, I tried to image what thoughts may have been going through his mind those last moments of his life. Thinking back on visiting that sad place, I began to understand what July may have been going through — that interminable sadness that ends only when life ends. Maybe this is why I was able to relate to Rhodes' novel so well. I had a context, a countryside and a similar but different event, in which to place it. I would highly recommend Driftless to anyone interested in seeing how an author interprets how Midwestern people are affected by their native landscape. It's a good book — one genuinely worth reading.
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Department of Environment Iran
Department of Environment, Iran
The Department of Environment (DOE) is a state organization which is managed by the Vice-President and is situated in west Tehran in the Pardisan botanic garden.
The DOE has two buildings. The tall one is the main building and the wide short one is specially designed and built for regional congresses and conferences.
There is a regional congress hall with 450 seats, one conference room with 24 seats and one conference room with 20 seats in this building. All three rooms are fully equipped with professional audio, video and lighting systems.
In the congress hall 42 built-in MCS-Digital conference units with voting and language selector options have been installed. Furthermore, camera control via iCNS software, four MCS-D 202 interpreter units, five Opus 300 wireless microphones, two SHM 203 gooseneck microphones and five Opus 69 microphones. The interpreted languages can also be heard through a TTS 300 wireless UHF system with 150 FE 316 receivers.
Both conference rooms are using MCS 50 conference system and two Opus 300 wireless microphones.
- Congress hall equipped with flush-mounted MCS-Digital conference units
- Department of Environment, Tehran
- Congress hall with 450 seats
- Conference room with 20 seats (MCS 521)
- Conference room with 24 seats (MCS 521)
Source: Pajouhesh Gostar Systemhaye Novin Co. – Iran


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Almost from the first moment I started quilting, I realized it was good for my soul. I love that it makes me smile and I really love it when I see some fabric or a quilt and I catch my breath or laugh out loud. That's what quilting is all about for me – making me happy.
I make and design quilts all across the board – piecing, applique, stitchery and wool applique. But my favorite is combining them. This quilt hangs in my sewing room, and I just love it.
I'm sure you have seen those little animal soap holders. Where its mouth is wide open to hold soap or a little scrubbie? When my daughter painted a frog and gave it to me as a gift, I knew I had to make a quilt. What can be happier than 4 happy frogs? And seriously, LOVE the striped binding.
Rolling along with the Happy 4′s, I designed this quilt for Quiltmaker's Quilts from 100 Blocks, Fall '12. I was like a kid in a candy store while designing this quilt – it was ridiculously fun figuring out what do with all those ears.
And speaking of ears, this little quilt is one of my all-time favorites. I first fell in love with the fabrics, and knew I wanted to applique something wooly in the center. Then I found that awesome pink check at a quilt show – had to buy a yard of course – just to make sure I had enough – and the idea of a pink bunny was born. I love, love love her. She makes me happy!
When I saw this Christmas line Candy Cane Angels by Lynette Anderson, I knew I had to design something with that fabric. (I have 6, yes 6 ongoing projects projects designed by Lynette going on right now. Yes, seriously, I do. She's kind of my hero.) Of course it had to have wool applique, and I love the little bitty blocks in the border. I made this quilt for my best friend, so I thought of her the whole time I was making it. Making a quilt for someone you love is about the best thing in the world, I think. And it made her very happy. (Me too!) You'll find it in QM's Nov/Dec '13 issue.
When I was very young my grandma and my mom taught me how to embroider. I'm pretty sure they did it in hopes that I would sit still for 5 minutes. I didn't learn to sit still, but I was intrigued enough to play around with it. Once I learned that you can embroider on more than just dish towels (remember those happy kitties-of-the-day, or the dancing frying pan and salt and pepper shakers?) I was off and running.
Stitching absolutely feeds my soul and makes me happy. This little quilt just sings to me. I designed it as a free block-of-the-month on my old blog, and I must have stitched it in 6 different colorways. I love, love love it. Adding embroidery to quilts is like adding frosting to a cupcake.
And adding wool applique to a quilt? It's the cherry on top of the frosting on top of the cupcake.
I love that quilting can be so many things to so many people. It's creative, soothing, adventurous, fun, bonding, inspiring and fulfilling. It touches our hearts and feeds our soul. And, yes, it makes us happy!
It's a Quilt Happy giveaway! We have a fun bundle of books, fabric, perle cotton and thread for one lucky reader.
For your chance to win, please leave a comment below before midnight Saturday, April 5. We'll choose winners and post them here next week. Quilt Happy!
Elizabeth Lee has been chosen as our 'I Love Happy Giveaway' winner and has been notified by email. Thank you all for your wonderful comments on Paula's post!


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By the time this gets posted, most of you who are unfortunate enough to read my little blog will have already voted. And I've waited until today to post it because I don't even for one second want to come across as "this is who you should vote for." YOU should vote for whoever YOU deem most worthy. This is simply putting it out there for one day, a day far away from now, when I'll wish I could go back to this day in our history, this monumental day for our nation, and see exactly what the hell I was thinking.
I am a bit of a conspiracy theorist. I will never, ever check Catcher in the Rye out of the library. I totally believe that JFK got shot by the government to get us into 'Nam. I am fairly sure that we have proof of extra-terrestrial contact tucked away somewhere, and the only reason they interviewed people like my skull-less uncle for Project Blue Book is to hide the evidence. To discredit sightings. To make us THINK it was insanity. Because, really, if that man told me the sky was over my head, that would only mean one thing: I was standing on it.
And so, as my paranoid little mind works, I am predicting a McCain/Palin win tonight. Well, actually, I'm predicting and Obama/Biden win, a big fat temper tantrum, and an eventual GOP win.
It's not like it hasn't happened before. *coughgorecough*
I hope that doesn't happen. I dream that when the GOP starts screaming FALSE COUNTS! that the DNC remembers that we still have a president until January, and we'll all happily wait while every single vote gets counted, while all the re-votes are cast. If we can dump $750 billion into the market; we can pay the salary of the vote counters for a few extra weeks.
Hell, we're CREATING JOBS!
But in all sincerity, I dream that I am wrong. I dream that tomorrow night, that socialist, skinny, not-quite-black-enough Muslim terrorist is my new president. I dream that over the next eight years, he gets the chance to make every single person that threw those hideous accusations around about him eat their words. I dream that my sons get a president they deserve, one they can look up to, one they will be proud in their golden years to say they can remember when he was the president, one that maybe at least one of them will serve under if they follow my family's tradition of military service.
Yup, I come from a military family. Betcha didn't know THAT.
I am really heartbroken about John McCain. I don't understand what he's doing, I really don't. 2000 John McCain was a decent guy, and I'm afraid he took too many lines from the Bush playbook after that race for the presidency. I mean, remember how he had supposedly fathered an illegitimate child, dark skinned child? Remember how he'd committed treason while a POW? Or how he'd gone insane while he was imprisoned? And what did McCain do about all those lies thrown around about him by the Bush camp?
He embraced the man and the soulless beast behind him. Here's the thing, John McCain. I could almost, almost, handle 8 more years of Bush. What I can't handle is 8 more years of the people that come with Bush. I can't have my fear preyed upon anymore. I can't have my hopes exploited anymore. I can't have my intelligence insulted anymore. I can't be lied to, tricked, manipulated or talked down to anymore. I cannot allow a small group of people to re-write the playbook for my nation's management anymore. I can't handle the secrets, the deceits, the smears, the smoke and mirrors.
This is OUR goddamn country, and those people you call friends don't seem to get that. If you choose to associate with them, take your queues from them, then I don't trust you with my country. I don't trust your judgment, and I am damn well not going to pay you to run the show over decade that will see my boys become men. I'm not worried about the company your parents kept when you were 8 years old; I'm worried about the company you are CURRENTLY keeping.
If you are willing to add discrimination and hate to the constitution of your home state, what are you going to do to the nation's constitution? If you believe community service is a joke, something to mock, what kind of example are you setting for my children? If you are willing to incite fear and hate into the hearts of your constituency, what are you going to do to the citizens of the entire nation, hell, the entire world, once you have a global platform? If you can't understand that opening up the health care market will work out just about as well as deregulating the housing market has, how can I trust you with my tax dollars, with decisions that will affect my day to day life? And if you ever EVER put my health or my daughter's health into air quotes again, so help me god, I will do everything in my power to get you thrown out of whatever office it is you currently serve in.
Today, I dream that you, sir, are judged, not by the color of your skin but the content of your character. Which you seem to have let ambition rob you of.
Today, I am going to take my children to get portraits taken for the first time in 2 1/2 years. We are going to come home and turn on The Daily Show and watch history made. I will have tears in my eyes as I watch the electoral countdown. My sons will stay up as long as it takes for the votes to all come in, and I dream that they will watch with pride as the first Black man in the history of this nation, this nation that was built on the backs of too many fine, nameless, forgetten black men, takes a stage and accepts his nomination.
My dream is also that someday, one day, my daughter will watch a woman do the same thing. Just not today, please, not today.
Cross posted on my personal page at BlogHer.com. Because I'm a glutton for punishment.


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This feature is designed to give you functional training tools for your off days when you are not training capoeira. We will be looking at various excercises, tools, and resources that we will have as resources for you to devise a strategy for your overall physical development as a capoeirista.
The goals will be:
Overall Physical Health
Promoting Longevity
Improved Performance in your capoeira training and game
This week we look at Handstand Pushups, one of the Holy Grails of body weight based exercise.


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Maintenance Technician
DoubleTree by Hilton Billings
Billings, MT, USA
Sep 12, 2019
Job Description
The?DoubleTree by Hilton Billings, managed by The Hotel Group (THG?) is looking for a courteous, customer service driven, happy, energetic, ambitious, inspired, ego-free, and ?open for business? type Maintenance Technician to join our growing hospitality team! If you think you are ready for the exciting world of hospitality then The Hotel Group is for you!?
Summary of position: To maintain, repair and clean areas, equipment and to assist other trade mechanics in their duties to ensure a safe, and well maintained Hotel. Full job description available upon request.
Qualifications: You must meet minimum age requirements to apply and be available to work overnights, weekends and holidays. ?Prior maintenance or hospitality experience preferred.
We offer a competitive salary and excellent benefits, and industry discounts. Potential for promotional opportunities to other THG properties including Marriott & Hilton brands.
Who We Are:
With a name like The Hotel Group, we don't just aspire to set new standards in the hospitality industry; we promise it - to team members, guests, partners and investors with national recognition on the Top 40 hotel management companies. Founded in 1984, THG? currently manages and/or owns 38 properties in 12 states, representing 19 brands and employs more than 2,000 team members. Our guiding principle of integrity leads us to respect client partners and encourage team members' growth. THG? keeps potential in mind, judging prospective properties by what they can be, not what they are. Because of this drive, we have consistently made poorly performing hotels into market leaders and attracted the industry's finest people to our ranks along the way. As our legacy and success continue to grow we will maintain the core values of integrity, initiative, innovation, and inspiration that have brought THG? thus far.
To learn more about our company please visit our web site at
The Hotel Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer, offering employment opportunities to all qualified persons without regard to race, color, national origin, disability, religion, age, sex, veteran status or other classifications protected by law.
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Orange Co. paves way for economic growth
Orange County Commissioners have unanimously approved a resolution to nominate International Paper as a double jumbo enterprise project and entered into a contract with iDocket.com for the company to provide public, fee-based access to records of the district and county clerk offices.
Jonathan Ferguson with Ryan LLC, a consulting firm assisting International Paper with the double jumbo enterprise project, approached the podium at the Commissioners Court meeting Monday, May 20, to explain the request for nomination.
"Essentially the difference between just a single enterprise project and a double jumbo is in order to get the double jumbo status, you have to be planning to spend at least $150 million in capital over the five-year designation period, and International Paper is planning to do that over the next five years at the Orange County mill. They employ approximately 370 employees at the mill and this capital investment will help. … That is one part of the program, meant to retain the existing level of employment."
According to the State Comptroller's website, the Texas Enterprise Zone Program is an economic development tool for local communities to partner with the state of Texas to promote job creation and capital investment in economically distressed areas of the state. Local communities must nominate a company as an Enterprise Project to be eligible to participate in the Enterprise Zone Program. Designated projects are eligible to apply for state sales and use tax refunds on qualified expenditures. The level and amount of refund is related to the capital investment and jobs created or retained at the qualified business site. International Paper's request to be considered a double jumbo enterprise project requires guaranteed capital investments of more than $150 million up to $249.99 million in order for the company to apply for tax incentives under the program.
Commissioners approved the measure to nominate International Paper as a double enterprise project to the state, paving the way into Orange County for the $150 million in capital the company plans to spend over the next five years. Commissioners then approved a related measure authorizing Judge Carl Thibodeaux to sign all forms concerning the certification of application for the project.
In other matters, the county signed a contract with iDocket.com for the company to provide public, fee-based access to district and county clerks' scanned records. According to company representative Armando Balderrama, Orange County will join 69 other counties who utilize iDocket.com's records services.
"This is a contract to provide information and technology services to the public," County Attorney Doug Manning said, addressing commissioners. "We have an independent right to do that without any competitive bidding. Plus, there is no expenditure by the county."
Manning recommended the county enter into an agreement similar to the one Polk County has with the company. He said county employees would have free access to the database of all counties using iDocket.com, and 20 percent of revenue generated by the fees for accessing records would go to the county.
Balderrama added that public users would be entitled to one free query per day, and users who plan to use the database frequently, like attorneys and bondsmen, could subscribe to the service to reduce their costs.
County Engineer Clark Slacum said he wanted to remind people using the county landfill that permits would now be required for use of the facility. Permits can be purchased at the Orange County tax office or the Road and Bridge Office in Orange, temporarily located behind the Veterans Administration Building at 10984 FM 1442. Permits will not be sold as the collection site, so permits must be purchased prior to trash drop-off. Call (409) 882-7905 for more information.
Orange County also joined other counties, cities and the nation in proclaiming May as National Mental Health Awareness Month. Janna Fulbright from The Spindletop Center appeared and accepted the proclamation, thanking the commissioners for the recognition. The center serves Jefferson, Orange, Hardin and Chambers counties.
Sharon Brooks can be reached at (409) 832-1400, ext. 241, or by e-mail at sharon [at] theexaminer [dot] com.


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I'm guessing the collector would be my 1v signal, base to groundand the emitter would be my 5v out?
How wrong can a guess be?
Seems like the inversion won't be an issue as all I care about is reading a change from high to low (or vice-versa) usingattachInterrupt or am I not understanding something?


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My most recent genealogy road trip was on Christmas 2008 and it was spent in my hometown of Castroville, Medina County, Texas. It has been many years since we last visited over Christmas as my husband and I now live in Maryland. In addition to being with my 3 brothers, their families and my parents, I also had in mind to make it to the church cemetery and take head stone photos as well as meet with a local historian, family friend and distant relative, Frances (related five different ways!).
My husand and I departed from Baltimore to take the Southwest Airlines' nonstop flight to San Antonio, Texas. I lugged my laptop, scanner and luggage through the Baltimore airport and was happy to learn that our beautiful hotel, The Hotel Alsace Spa and Resort (sitting high on a hill overlooking my little hometown) had free wireless access. The hotel also had a spa, but alas, this was not the trip to take advantage of that luxory! My parent's home was filled with my brother's family who flew in from Denver, Colorado and some other grandkids who did not want to be separated from their 1st cousins! My two other brothers live in nearby San Antonio.
The meeting with my mother's cousin, Frances, was entertaining and very educational, as it always is! Frances and another woman in Castroville, Connie, have become the de facto caretakers of the records of St. Louis Catholic Church. They also extensively researched their own families as well as other people in Castroville. Since I am related to both women, they are able to answer a lot of questions that I come up against! The visit with Frances was bittersweet because I had already met with her 2 years ago and scanned every photo that she had of our common ancestors (a lot!) but when my laptop was stolen from my home last fall, those photos went with the laptop. Thank you for people like Thomas MacEntee who encourage and educate people on backing up their data! I know better (I am a high school media specialist and give these "lessons" every day), but for goodness sake, I can't seem to follow all of my own good advice! So needless to say, I will be at the next Data Backup Day on Feb. 1st!
As much as I did not want to be recanning photos that I already scanned previously, visiting with Frances for an afternoon is always a fruitful event and it was a chance for my mother, Frances and me to reconnect and get relationships and marriages straight in our records.
Carolina Wussler Echtle & 9 Surviving Children
After arriving at New York, they at once left for San Antonio, Texas, where she met her husband, Martin, and oldest son, Joseph. Martin and Joseph came down from Iowa to meet the rest of the family, as they had left Germany a year or so earlier. I can't imagine traveling anywhere with 8 children, much less on a ship across an ocean to an unknown place!Here is the ship's passenger list for Carolina and her eight children:
Upon her arrival in Texas, Carolina found her husband, Martin ill and died shortly after their arrival. The family settled in Boerne where they stayed for two years. They then moved to Bulverde until 1887 when they moved to Geronimo, Rio Medina. They stayed until 1902, then moved to a farm near La Coste where family members still reside. The family was very poor. They had no stove, but Joseph (oldest son) built one with rocks outside the house. They often wondered where their next meal was coming from. Most of the meals were made from flour, such as "noodles," "dunes," "pluda," "Knepfla" and "phana-kucha" as well as "kartofel soup." They seldom had meat, as they had only one of two hogs to kill in the winter time. The older girls worked as maids for families in San Antonio.
While visiting with Frances, I found that she had researched the early newspapers and found Carolina's obituary. The local library in my hometown does not have a microfilm printer, so Frances transcribed the obituary:
My mother has written down the recipe for homemade noodles just like the way the early immigrants used to make it (read obituary above). It is still served with beans on Fridays at the local diner! It is a meatless meal and cheap too! This is from my mother:
"This next recipe is for "Knapfla" (The K is silent when pronouncing the word. I got the verbal instructions on how to make Knapfla one day at the grocery store from Florence Tschirhart (90 years of age). She is a good noodle maker and gave me tips on how important kneading is when making noodles. Until then I did not have much success with noodles until she told me how to knead the dough. " ~Roselyn Keller Kempf
Mrs. Tschirhart's Knapfla
2 Eggs
1 cup water
2 Cups flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
Add more or less flour to make a spongy dough
Mix in a shallow bowl and then with a spoon or knife, cut off pieces from teh dough while in the bowl, straight into the boiling water. Boil for 10 minutes and drain.
Note from Andrea--this is suspiciously like German spaetzle that I learned to make when my husband and I lived there 1995-1998!
Well, I didn't even go on to talk about my cemetery excursion, but that has to wait for another day! This trip "home" gave me the impetus to begin blogging to keep me on track with my research and to share, as well learn from others. I scanned a lot a photos from my parents and I have uploaded those to Flickr. I find that the "Add a Note" feature is useful when you do not have the luxory of sitting down next to someone to get their assistance in identifying people. My parents can log into Flickr and make comments on the photos or add a note so that I can properly record names and places! Yea! I also joined find-a-grave online and began uploading my gravestone photos from the St. Louis Catholic Cemetery. Lastly, this trip gave me the inspiration to begin grouping my records into some sort of story. When I acquired the photos of Carolina Wussler Echtle from Frances, I logged into Ancestry.com to find the family on the ship's manifest and when I did that, I also found the photo of the ship! Most of the Alsatian settlers came into Galveston and I have not been able to find those records on Ancestry.com. I was unable to visit the cemetery where Carolina was buried, but hey, I have to have another reason to return to my roots to continue on with my story!
I hope you enjoyed hearing about my genealogy trip home and finding out all that was produced out of a simple desire to scan photos and gravestones from one cemetery!


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Fishing Rod Holders & Storage
Whether you are trolling or stowing your fishing gear, your prized rods and tackle require boat rod holders and storage compartments that respect the integrity of your investment. At Wholesale Marine we understand that the key to a great fishing trip can be a rod holder that delivers performance, whether you're out for a day of sport fishing or participating in a tournament. We even carry fishing rod holders specifically designed for fresh or saltwater use to provide a fishing experience without limits.
We Carry the Best Brands in the Business
Wholesale Marine carries the best names in the business: Attwood, Boat Buckle, CE Smith, Lee's Tackle, RAM Mounting Systems, Sea Dog, Taco Metals, Tempress, Tigress, and Wise. We offer fishing rod holders made from economical yet durable PVC up to chromed steel that is corrosion-resistant. Increase your trolling spread with the Stainless Steel Boat Rod Holders - Outrigger--it provides a 20 degree up angle and reduces trolling tangles. When not in use, stow your rods in an easy to access Sea-Dog Five Fishing Rod Storage Rack. Its soft foam inserts hold rods securely against bumps and vibration from rough seas.
There are many fishing rod holders and mounts that are favored by sport and tournament fishermen. For our customer's convenience Wholesale Marine carries a great selection. You'll find the Flush Mount Rod Holder Open Bottom with Bar, Transom Mount Rod Holders, Ball Base Mounts for Revolution Fishing Rod Holders, Flush Mounts, Side Mounts, and Rail Mounts. In short, we have boat rod holders and rod storage mounts for every type of fishing and fishing craft.
When it's time to stock up on essentials for your next fishing trip, call the experts at Wholesale Marine. We are fishing and boating enthusiasts too and will be glad to answer any questions you have. With our flat-rate, same-day shipping on most items your boat rod holders will arrive in no time. When you join our Loyalty Program you'll be able to use the points you accumulate today towards any future purchases. Just give us a call Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM until 6:00 PM EST at (877) 388-2628.


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The computer program also secretly recorded what normal operations at theNow, I don't happen to believe for a minute that the program did any such thing. First of all, it'd be very difficult to do so--you'd have to alter all the changing details of operation, such as timestamps and run durations, while keeping all the consistent details the same. Anyone who understood the data generated by the monitoring systems that well would almost certainly be able to have the software simply create bogus-but-plausible readings out of whole cloth, rather than record and replay samples of previous problem-free runs. (And how would the software know those previous runs were actually problem-free, anyway? A log that contained data showing the same rare anomaly over and over would look mighty suspicious...)
nuclear plant looked like, then played those readings back to plant operators,
like a pre-recorded security tape in a bank heist, so that it would appear that
everything was operating normally while the centrifuges were actually tearing
themselves apart.
On the other hand, suppose you're an intelligence official working on the Stuxnet project. You know that the worm has succeeded in disabling some fraction--but not all, and probably not even most--of the Iranian regime's nuclear fuel-generating centrifuges, and is now being thoroughly purged from all its facilities. How do you maximize the cost and difficulty of the Iranians' task, given that your whole cyber-sabotage operation has pretty much played itself out?
Why, you drop a little hint to the New York Times, to the effect that all the Iranian systems that appear to have been untouched by Stuxnet may simply have been faking it, presenting perfectly fine data while actually being infected and destroying themselves. That way, the Iranians--if they're naive enough to believe the New York Times--will have to minutely examine every single machine in their facility, to check for physical signs of damage, rather than simply scrubbing the facilities that appear to have gone awry. Fiendishly clever, indeed!


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WASHINGTON, DC – Fannie Mae (FNMA/OTC) announced today that it will suspend evictions of foreclosed single family and 2-4 unit properties from December 19, 2012 through January 2, 2013. Legal and administrative proceedings for evictions may continue, but families living in foreclosed properties will be allowed to remain in the home during this period.
"We're taking this step in support of families who have faced financial challenges and gone through a foreclosure," said Terry Edwards, Executive Vice President of Credit Portfolio Management, Fannie Mae. "The holidays are a chance to be with loved ones and we want to relieve some stress at this time of year. We encourage homeowners having difficulty to reach out for help as soon as possible."
Previously, Fannie Mae announced a temporary suspension of foreclosure sales and evictions in areas designated for individual assistance by FEMA due to Hurricane Sandy. That 90-day suspension will last through February 1, 2013.


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Facebook posts loss despite strong revenue growth
Zuck's first earnings report fails to impress
On Thursday Facebook gave its first-ever earnings report since becoming a public company, and although it posted a loss, it generally met analysts' expectations and showed strong revenue growth, aside from some nagging weaknesses in the mobile market.
Wall Street was largely unimpressed, however, and Facebook shares began tumbling in after-hours trading following the earnings call.
Some analysts wondered whether CEO Mark Zuckerberg would participate in the call, after he was a no-show at Facebook's Boston IPO roadshow in May. He did, but he seemed uncomfortable, stammering through his prepared remarks and quickly yielding the floor to COO Sheryl Sandberg and CFO David Ebersman.
"Our goal is to help every person stay connected and every product they use be a great social experience," Zuckerberg, said. "That's why we're so focused on investing in our priorities of mobile, platform and social ads to help people have these experiences with their friends."
Zuckerberg said 995 million users were active on Facebook each month as of the end of June, an increase of 29 per cent from last year. Of those users, 552 million were active daily, an increase of 32 per cent. And 543 million users were accessing Facebook via mobile devices, an increase of 67 per cent year over year.
That last figure has troubled some analysts, who see the mobile market as a weak spot for Facebook. The company acquired Instagram in April to help assuage those concerns, Zuckerberg said, but it is also "investing very heavily" in its mobile apps for iOS, Android, and the mobile web.
"Facebook is the most used app on basically every mobile platform," Zuckerberg said. "We want to increase the depth of the experience in addition to just growing users."
Forget about those rumors of a Facebook phone, though. "Building out a whole phone wouldn't really make much sense for us to do," Zuckerberg said. (Aw, he's probably lying!)
Facebook's revenues for the quarter ending in June were $1.184bn, up a healthy 32 per cent from the same quarter in 2011. Ebersman said that the strengthening dollar had actually knocked a few points off that figure – it would have been 36 per cent, had exchange rates remained constant.
Revenues from advertising were up 28 per cent, and these accounted for $992m, or 84 per cent of the total. According to Sandberg, Facebook saw an 18 per cent increase in the overall number of ads delivered, which she attributed to user growth, particularly in Brazil, India, and Japan.
Ad delivery was weak in Facebook's own backyard, however. The number of ads delivered in the US was actually down 2 per cent over last year. Sandberg said that this was due to the fact that more users in developed markets are switching from PCs to mobile phones, where Facebook's advertising opportunities are weaker.
Sandberg also said the average revenue from each ad increased 9 per cent, owing to more clients using Facebook's social advertising products, including Facebook News Feeds and Sponsored Stories. The social network is working aggressively to educate clients about these higher-value offerings, Sandberg said.
Unfortunately, however, Facebook's revenue gains didn't translate into income. The company posted a loss of $157m for the second quarter of 2012, or 11 cents a share – a big drop from the $240m profit it reported for the previous year's quarter.
But things aren't as bad as they seem. Most of that loss is attributable to stock compensation charges related to Facebook's IPO. When it adjusted its earnings to remove those charges, the social network actually earned income of $295m, or 12 cents a share. That figure was about on par with what analysts expected.
Facebook's results come hot on the heels of a calamitous earnings report by Zynga on Wednesday, in which the online games maker posted a $22.8m loss for the three months ending in June.
Zynga's numbers had been widely viewed as a bellwether for Facebook's own earnings because of the companies' close relationship. Payments from Zynga games accounted for 12 per cent of the social network's revenue last year.
Facebook's revenue from payments and other fees was $192m for the second quarter, or 16 per cent of the total, Ebersman said – a figure he said was flat from the previous year. Yet again, Ebersman attributed this weakness to the shift from web to mobile devices. Mobile games generally don't use Facebook's payment system, he said.
Zuck & Company seemed to feel that was worse for Zynga than for Facebook, however. Zuckerberg said the company was focused on building out its Open Graph social platform to allow more developers to integrate social features into their products, beyond just games.
"You can view our business as an advertising and payments business, or you can view it that there are these companies that will transform various industries and we'll get a share of that revenue," Zuckerberg said.
Investors didn't seem to be buying it, however, and at one point during after-hours trading, Facebook's stock slipped to $23.75 per share, an all-time low. ®


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Yes indeed! For a start, all your massive capitals are horrible to look at - I couldn't bear to read them.
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A tangling of limbs in a dark, secluded corner of the world between two strangers turned into a child growing around my vital organs which turned into a little man pushing through an unwilling cervix that became soft pink skin warmed by mine in a hospital room that grew into cuddles after owwies which evolved into hasty kisses on my cheek at school doors and subtle snuggles when no one was looking which will change into handshakes at college dorms one day. For now, forever, I hold fast to the memory of my soft, sweet, perfect creation pressed against me.
100 words: Against. See the others here.


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Entry for the Trade and toll category
"The Robber baron"
My entry for the CCCX Trade and Toll category
After getting through the zombie infested dark forest, and meeting up with Nicohloas Mactagen in Dragonsmouth town. Mencot and Hannah, now joined by Nicohloas continued their journey northeast towards Garheim. Taking a small vessel from Dragonsmouth, travling up the river Fyrla they soon approached the Garheim boarder. The forests changed into harsher terrains,
high mountains and low valleys. The weather change quickly also, temperatur dropped and snow started to fall. The journey on the river was about to get really dangerous, nearly going under. But that´s an diffrent story.
Finally crossing the Garheim boarder the first stop was, as for all travlers by river the toll tower at Flussquelle village. The toll master there Johann Löwenkopf, was one of the official toll masters appointed by Jhirian Eindrik ruler of Garheim. But to some people these toll masters where "Robber Barons", because they thought that the toll masters charged an unjust and higher toll then needed.
But Mencot and his company stopped here with delight because the toll master was Mencots cousin. Altough half of the cargo was lost in the danger of the river, the most important was saved and delivered here.
Arriving at the toll house at Flussquelle village. Bringing the personal message from High Lord prince Jarius and the surviving goods from Loreos and Lenfald to the toll master there Mencots cousin, Johann Löwenkopf.
This was a fun build, tried out some new techniques, some good others not so good. I think it turned out pretty good.
All C & C welcome


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Metamaterials experts show a way to reduce electrons' effective mass to nearly zero
The field of metamaterials involves augmenting materials with specially designed patterns, enabling those materials to manipulate electromagnetic waves and fields in previously impossible ways. Now, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania have come up with a theory for moving this phenomenon onto the quantum scale, laying out blueprints for materials where electrons have nearly zero effective mass.
Such materials could make for faster circuits with novel properties.
The work was conducted by Nader Engheta, the H. Nedwill Ramsey Professor of Electrical and Systems Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science, and Mario G. Silveirinha, who was a visiting scholar at the Engineering School when their collaboration began. He is currently an associate professor at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.
Their paper was published in the journal Physical Review B: Rapid Communications.
Their idea was born out of the similarities and analogies between the mathematics that govern electromagnetic waves—Maxwell's Equations—and those that govern the quantum mechanics of electrons—Schrödinger's Equations.
On the electromagnetic side, inspiration came from work the two researchers had done on metamaterials that manipulate permittivity, a trait of materials related to their reaction to electric fields. They theorized that, by alternating between thin layers of materials with positive and negative permittivity, they could construct a bulk metamaterial with an effective permittivity at or near zero. Critically, this property is only achieved when an electromagnetic wave passes through the layers head on, against the grain of the stack. This directional dependence, known as anisotropy, has practical applications.
The researchers saw parallels between this phenomenon and the electron transport behavior demonstrated in Leo Esaki's Nobel Prize-winning work on superlattices in the 1970s: semiconductors constructed out of alternating layers of materials, much like the permittivity-altering metamaterial.
A semiconductor's qualities stem from the lattice-like pattern its constituent atoms are arranged in; an electron must navigate the electric potentials of all of these atoms, moving faster or slower depending on how directly it can pass by them. Esaki and his colleagues showed that, by making a superlattice out of layers of different materials, they could produce a composite material that had different electron transport properties than either of the components.
Though the actual mass of electrons is fixed, Engheta and Silveirinha thought the same principle could be applied to the effective mass of the electron. Engineers have been tailoring materials to alter the effective mass of electrons for decades; existing semiconductors that give electrons a negative effective mass were a prerequisite for the team's new theory.
"Imagine you have a ball inside a fluid," Engheta said. "You can calculate how fast the ball falls as a combination of the force of gravity and the reaction of the fluid, or you can say that the ball has an effectively different mass in the fluid than it does normally. The effective mass can even be negative, which we see in the case of a bubble. The bubble looks like it has negative mass, because it's moving against gravity, but it is really the fluid moving down around it."
Like the optical metamaterial with alternating bands of positive and negative permittivity, Engheta and Silveirinha theorized, a material with alternating bands of positive and negative effective electron mass would allow the overall structure's effective electron mass to approach zero.
And like the optical metamaterial, the electron's effective mass in this case would be anisotropic. While travelling against the grain of the alternating materials, its effective mass would be near-zero, and thus it would travel very fast. But trying to move the electron along the grain would result in a very high effective mass, making it very difficult for it to move at all. "In the direction the electrons are collimated, we see an effective mass of zero," Engheta said. "This is like what we see with graphene, where electrons have an effective mass of zero but only along its plane.
"But a plane of graphene is only one atom thick, whereas here we would see that property in a bulk material. It's essentially like the material has wires running through it, even though there is no wire surface."
As with graphene, the properties of this composite material would be dependent on structure at the smallest scale; a few stray atoms could significantly degrade the material's overall performance. A single uniform layer of atoms is ideal in both cases, and, while deposition techniques are improving, working at the scale of a few nanometers still represents a physical challenge. The team hopes to address this challenge in future studies.
"While physics prevents us from having infinite velocity, having materials that give electrons near-zero effective mass will let us move them much faster," Engheta said.
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I received quite a few, both on my facebook page and in my inbox. You'll notice that some have been edited or added to if I received similar questions. Hopefully everything you want to know gets answered!
Q: How did you get started blogging?
I began blogging my senior year of high school, 10 years ago, when a friend introduced me to the Xanga blogging community. I've been blogging somewhere about something ever since. I love to write and connect with the great friends I've made via blogging. So blessed to know you all!
science/history/readers, Horizons and Teaching Textbooks for Math, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and Explode the Code for phonics, Sequential Spelling for spelling, A Reason For Handwriting for handwriting. I usually go by the book lists on amblesideonline for literature.
What a wonderful way to ring in a new year! Thank you all for your lovely questions. It was so fun answering them all!


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The Page That Counts: Winter 2012
Percentage of Muslim Americans who say military attacks on civilians are never justified: 78
Protestants: 38
Catholics: 39 [1]
Percentage of all the waste generated by a typical school that could be recycled or composted: 80 []
Amount of oil and gas money designated by the United States for rebuilding Iraq after the 2003 invasion: $9.1 billion
Amount the U.S. Department of Defense was unable to properly account for: $8.7 billion []
Percentage of 16- to 34-year-olds who use a phone as their primary timepiece: 60 []
Pounds of carbon dioxide each square meter of public forest in western Washington and Oregon soaks up per year: 1.1
Pounds of carbon dioxide emitted from driving one mile: 1.1
Number of acres of federal and state forest land in Oregon and western Washington: 11.8 million
Number of acres needed to soak up the two states' carbon emissions from gasoline: 23 million []
Average number of people killed annually in shark attacks from 2001-2010: 4
Number of sharks killed annually by people: 26-73 million []
Percentage of Americans receiving Social Security retirement who say they "have not used a government program": 44
Percentage receiving unemployment insurance who say they "have not used a government program": 43 ]
Number of nuclear power plant sites in the United States: 65 ]
Number of sites reported to be leaking radioactive tritium: 48 []
Percentage of people age 18 or older married, in 1960: 72
In 2008: 52
Average age at first marriage for men in 1960: 22
For men in 2008: 28
For women in 1960: 20
For women in 2008: 25 []
Amount the USDA spent in assistance payments to large industrial farms in 2010: $13.7 billion []
Amount the USDA spent to support small and medium farm operations: less than $100 million []
2. Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, 2010.
5. ; Forest Ecology and Management 2011 Oregon State University. Department Forest Ecology and Management, Oregon State University, 2011.
6. International Shark Attack File, Florida Museum of Natural History. World Conservation Union (IUCN)
7. "The Social and Governmental Issues and Participation Study of 2008" from Cornell University's Survey Research Institute.
8. Nuclear Energy Review, US Energy Information Administration, June 26, 2009.
9. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, June 2011.
11. Congressional Budget Office, 2011.


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(CNN) -- He was just 18 years old when he got the news. It was the summer before his senior year in high school.
"I had a fever of 103," Bryan Seth Johnson said. "My body was hurting; I wasn't eating, couldn't hold down food. I just felt weak all the time."
He went to the hospital, told them he was having difficulty swallowing and was treated for tonsillitis. But he didn't have tonsillitis.
Johnson had the human immunodeficiency virus, better known as HIV.
"I was basically in shock, because the guy I got HIV from works in the HIV-prevention field," Johnson recalled. "He deleted me from Facebook and basically cut all communication out."
At the time, Johnson was getting tested for sexually transmitted diseases every three months at SMYAL, an organization dedicated to supporting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and questioning youth in Washington. Johnson says he generally practiced safe sex, but once, when he was under the influence, he had unprotected sex.
Still, "I was in denial at the time. I thought it might be a false test."
So he got retested. He remembers the date: September 16. The result was the same.
"The bus ride home was so quiet. Even though there was a whole bunch of noise around me, I blocked everything out."
At home, he could not tell his mother; her baby brother had died of AIDS complications two years before Johnson was born.
One in a million
At the 20th International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia, this week, young people from over 50 countries gathered to make sure the issues of their generation were heard.
The numbers are quite startling.
Globally, 5 million young people between the ages of 15 and 24 are living with HIV. They represent 41% of all new infections. About 2,500 young people become infected every day, according to Advocates for Youth, an organization that works here and in developing countries.
In the United States, 26% of all new HIV infections are among young people ages 13 to 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most new infections are among young gay and bisexual males.
Yet only one in five high school students has been tested for HIV, according to a new CDC report (PDF) on sexual risk behaviors, though 47% percent are sexually active. Although the majority of these teens report using condoms, those numbers are decreasing, said Dr. Stephanie Zaza, director of the CDC's Division of Adolescent and School Health.
"Teens are unaware of their risk of HIV and how to protect themselves," Zaza said. "As parents and health professionals, and as educators, we need to take responsibility to help them learn about HIV."
'We know what works'
A staggering 60% of youths with HIV in the United States don't know that they are infected, which leads us to an even more troubling statistic: In 2011, about 3,000 young people in this country were diagnosed with AIDS, an increase of 29% since 2008.
"That makes me sick to my stomach," said Adam Tanner, executive director of Metro TeenAIDS in Washington. "I'm horrified. I think we're in a moment now where there is more complacency around HIV."
Metro TeenAIDS is a community health organization working with young people to end HIV/AIDS. It's where Johnson went to be retested, and after his diagnosis, he began volunteering with the group. Tanner says two-thirds of Metro TeenAIDS' clients who come in for testing have had unprotected sex in the past year.
Two years ago, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 64% of 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States don't get tested because they think they're not at risk. More than 40% said they didn't get tested because their doctors never suggested it.
"We know what works to end the epidemic," Tanner said. "We have better medications than we've ever had before. We need to arm young people with basic education about how HIV is transmitted. ... All the data suggest that by fourth grade, we should be starting those conversations about sex."
The United States is one of 10 countries that make up 61% of HIV cases, says Cornelius Baker, acting director of the HIV/AIDS division at the nonprofit group FHI 360.
"We have the tools to protect our young people through education, quality health care and family and community support," Baker said. "If we continue to fail them, our hopes of an AIDS-free generation will be lost."
Safe sex or no sex
Brennan Stewart, 22, understands the importance of educating young people. He was diagnosed with HIV at age 16. Stewart had just had a routine physical and blood work done. His mother delivered the news.
"My first thought was death. I was going to die," Stewart recalled. "I felt like, oh, my God, I'm just this dirty person. ... I've contracted something that's going to mess up my life."
He's not sure how he got it. He says he practiced safe sex but not all the time. He never got sick, never had any symptoms of the disease.
A few months after the diagnosis, he started taking medication. Today, he takes one pill a day and has no side effects. He says his viral load is undetectable.
Metro TeenAIDS has kept him on track, making sure he does what he needs to do to stay healthy. He wants other teens to know what he learned the "extremely" hard way.
"If you think it can't happen to you, it can," he said emphatically. "You have to get tested, because if you don't, you can put your life in danger, as well as somebody else's life."
Oh, "and wrap it up," he said. "Either safe sex or no sex."