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After User Uproar, Instagram Apologizes and Reverts to Old Terms of Service
(NEW YORK) -- Instagram has snapped to it.
Earlier this week, after users lashed out against Instagram's updated terms of service, which implied the company might sell user photos and place them in ads, Instagram's CEO, Kevin Systrom, promised to revise the terms. On Thursday, he announced that not only is he sorry for the confusion, but the company will keep the previous wording.
"It became clear that we failed to fulfill what I consider one of our most important responsibilities -- to communicate our intentions clearly. I am sorry for that, and I am focused on making it right," Systrom wrote on Instagram's blog Thursday night. "Because of the feedback we have heard from you, we are reverting this advertising section to the original version that has been in effect since we launched the service in October 2010."
The clause users were most concerned with was one that implied Instagram would allow users' photos to appear or be displayed in advertisements. Systrom cleared up that concern.
"I want to be really clear: Instagram has no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don't own your photos -- you do," he said.
After hearing of the new terms, many users were up in arms and said they planned to quit the service -- including a few celebrity users. Even after Systrom's original response, National Geographic and other large brands said they would reevaluate their use of the service.
"Instagram needs to do some serious damage control to repair what was a pristine, 'for the users' brand," Patrick Moorhead, principal analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told ABC News.
Regardless, Instagram, which Facebook bought for $1 billion, will begin to start advertising. It just might do it in some different ways.
"Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertising products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work," Systrom said.
"Instagram, like all mobile properties, needs to drive revenue and they will turn to advertising," Moorhead said. "This will turn away some users at first but, like Facebook and Twitter, users will adjust and not flee en mass."
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio


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No. 95,015
In the Matter of the Marriage of
LAURA F. OSBORN, n/k/a BERTELSEN,
C.M.O., A Minor Child,
1. Whether standing exists is a question of law providing an appellate court with unlimited review.
2. Kansas statutes authorize parenting time and visitation rights only to parents, grandparents, and stepparents. The Kansas Supreme Court has recognized that any expansion of the categories of individuals who have standing to seek visitation rights should originate with the legislature.
3. A minor child has no legal standing to file a motion to modify visitation or parenting time in a divorce case.
Appeal from Ford District Court; DANIEL L. LOVE, judge. Opinion filed June 2, 2006. Affirmed.
Jack W. Shultz, of Dodge City, for appellant.
Eric A. Commer, of Law Office of Eric A. Commer, P.A., of Wichita, and Richard W. Benson, of Tenopir and Huerter, of Topeka, for appellee.
Before GREEN, P.J., MALONE and BUSER, JJ.
MALONE, J.: C.M.O., the 11-year-old daughter of Laura Osborn, n/k/a Bertelsen, and David Osborn, filed a postjudgment motion to modify parenting time in her parents' divorce case. The district court dismissed the motion on the ground that C.M.O. had no legal standing to file the motion. We affirm.
On January 3, 1997, Laura filed for divorce from David. There were two children of the marriage: C.R.O., born June 3, 1992, and C.M.O., born April 28, 1994. A decree of divorce was entered April 18, 1997. The parties were awarded joint custody of the children, with Laura as the residential parent. The district court established a parenting plan to enable David's visitation. Conflict immediately arose over the parenting plan, and the parties litigated the visitation issue several times over the ensuing years.
In 2002, David was residing in Emporia and Laura was residing in Dodge City. At a hearing on June 3, 2002, the district court ordered that David's summer parenting time with the children would begin the day after Memorial Day and end 1 week before the start of school. During the summer period, Laura would have the children for 1 full week of her choice and alternating weekends. Laura subsequently filed a motion to alter or amend the judgment, and the district court denied the motion and ordered Laura to pay $400 of David's attorney fees. Laura filed a second motion to alter or amend the judgment which was also denied.
On May 19, 2005, C.M.O., by and through her attorney, filed a motion to modify parenting time in her parents' divorce case. C.M.O.'s appeal brief acknowledges that her attorney was employed by her mother and stepfather. C.M.O.'s motion sought modification of the summer parenting time schedule to enable C.M.O. to participate in certain sports and band programs in Dodge City. C.M.O. also filed a motion for an interview pursuant to K.S.A. 60-1614. David filed a motion to dismiss C.M.O.'s motions due to C.M.O.'s lack of standing. David also asserted C.M.O.'s motion was not verified, as required by K.S.A. 60-1628, and there had not been any changed circumstances which would require the court to modify the present parenting plan.
On June 16, 2005, the district court held a hearing on the motions. The district court noted the legislature had not provided for minor children to file their own motions regarding visitation. The district court indicated a guardian ad litem can file motions on behalf of children in certain situations. However, in the present case, the district court noted C.M.O. had made no allegation that her parents were unfit, and the district court specifically found both parents were fit and proper persons to have the care, custody, and control of their children. The district court found C.M.O. had no legal right at stake before the court. The district court dismissed C.M.O.'s motion to modify parenting time because she lacked standing to file the motion. The district court did not specifically address C.M.O.'s motion for an interview. C.M.O. timely appeals.
C.M.O. claims the district court erred in finding she had no standing to file a motion to modify parenting time in her parents' divorce case. C.M.O. maintains Kansas law does not restrict a minor child from filing a motion to alter or amend parenting time. C.M.O. states that K.S.A. 60-1610(a)(3)(B) provides that the desires of the child and the child's adjustment to his or her home, school, and community should be considered when determining visitation; therefore, C.M.O.'s motion should have been heard by the court.
This is an issue of first impression in Kansas. Whether standing exists is a question of law providing an appellate court with unlimited review. In re Marriage of Brown, 279 Kan. 282, 287, 109 P.3d 1212 (2005).
Kansas courts are vested with continuing jurisdiction to modify custody and visitation orders. Hoffman v. Hoffman, 228 Kan. 290, 613 P.2d 1356 (1980). K.S.A. 60-1610(a)(2)(A) authorizes the court to "change or modify any prior order of custody, residency, visitation and parenting time, when a material change of circumstances is shown." K.S.A. 60-1616(c) provides that the court can modify parenting time "whenever modification would serve the best interests of the child."
Kansas statutes authorize parenting time and visitation rights only to parents, grandparents, and stepparents. K.S.A. 60-1616. The Kansas Supreme Court has recognized that any expansion of the categories of individuals who have standing to seek visitation rights should originate with the legislature. In re Hood, 252 Kan. 689, Syl. ¶ 2, 847 P.2d 1300 (1993); see 2 Elrod and Buchele, Kansas Law and Practice, Kansas Family Law, § 13.33 (1999). There are no statutes which explicitly address whether a minor child has standing to file a motion to modify visitation or parenting time. K.S.A. 60-217(c) specifically restricts minors from appearing in court without a duly appointed representative, except by their next friend or a guardian ad litem.
We begin with the premise that only a party may file a motion in any civil action, unless specific leave to do so is granted by the court. C.M.O. is not a party to her parents' divorce action. Because she is not a party to the action, she lacks standing to challenge the terms of the court orders related to the decree of divorce. C.M.O. made no attempt to file a motion to intervene as a party pursuant to K.S.A. 60-224. In the absence of an order allowing C.M.O. to intervene as a party, she had no standing to file a motion in the divorce case.
C.M.O. emphasizes that her motion should be heard so that her preferences can be considered in determining the parenting plan. However, there are other ways for C.M.O.'s wishes to be made known to the court. First and foremost, if one of C.M.O.'s parents determined that C.M.O.'s schedule and activities required a modification of parenting time, then the parent could file a motion in district court for the direct benefit of C.M.O. "Parents have a constitutionally protected right to determine how their children will be raised. See Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 753, 71 L. Ed. 2d 599, 102 S. Ct. 1388 (1982)." Hood, 252 Kan. at 692. There is a fundamental presumption that a fit parent will act in the best interests of his or her child in determining visitation. Kansas Dept. of SRS v. Paillet, 270 Kan. 646, 658-59, 16 P.3d 962 (2001). Of course, the parent would need to show the prerequisite that a material change in circumstances had occurred, prompting the motion to modify.
Second, if one of C.M.O.'s parents believed that C.M.O.'s interests were not being represented in the divorce case, the parent could file a motion pursuant to K.S.A. 60-217(c) for the appointment of a guardian ad litem. In the alternative, the district court could appoint a guardian ad litem on its own motion if the court believed both parents were unfit. Once a guardian ad litem was appointed to represent C.M.O., the guardian ad litem could file motions on C.M.O.'s behalf. See 2 Elrod and Buchele, Kansas Law and Practice, Kansas Family Law, § 12.13 (1999).
Third, K.S.A. 60-1614 expressly authorizes any party to request the district court to interview a minor child involved in divorce proceedings. C.M.O. filed her own motion for an interview which was not addressed by the district court. However, there was nothing to prevent one of C.M.O.'s parents from requesting an interview pursuant to K.S.A. 60-1614.
Finally, C.M.O. argues she should have standing in her parents' divorce case because she has a personal stake in the determination of her parenting time. However, C.M.O. fails to recognize that minor children are subject to the rights of the parents to determine what is in the best interests of their children. Kansas law does not recognize that C.M.O. has a legal right to participate in summer sports and band programs. If C.M.O.'s parents were not divorced, there would not be a forum for her to petition the district court to allow her to participate in these activities. We agree with the district court that C.M.O. had no legal right at stake before the court.
In summary, the legislature has not provided for minor children to file their own motions regarding visitation and parenting time. C.M.O. has two fit parents who can and should represent her interests before the district court. The Kansas statutes provide other alternatives for C.M.O.'s preferences to be made known to the court. We hold a minor child has no legal standing to file a motion to modify visitation or parenting time in a divorce case. The district court correctly dismissed C.M.O.'s motion due to lack of standing.

subset: commoncrawl


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Cannellini Bean Soup with Roasted Italian Sausage and Escarole
Cannellini Bean Soup with Roasted Italian Sausage and Escarole
(Makes about 6 generous servings, I suggest doubling it if you want to use the whole head of escarole; recipe created by Kalyn with inspiration from many similar recipes she's seen.)
1/2 lb. hot or sweet Italian Sausage (2-3 links, use turkey Italian Sausage for South Beach diet)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 T finely minced garlic (or use garlic puree from a jar)
1-2 tsp. olive oil, to saute onions and garlic
1 can cannellini beans (not rinsed)
6 cups + 1-2 cups more homemade chicken stock (or use 4 cans + 1 can more chicken broth)
pinch hot pepper flakes
1/2 large head escarole, thinly sliced and coarsely chopped (use outer leaves and save inner leaves for salad)
coarse ground black pepper to taste
fresh grated Parmesan cheese for serving
Serve hot, with fresh-grated Parmesan cheese to sprinkle on top if desired.
Printer Friendly Recipe
South Beach Suggestions:
With turkey Italian Sausage, this soup is a perfect main dish for any phase of the South Beach diet.
More Delicious Ways to Cook Escarole:
(Recipes from other blogs may not always be South Beach Diet friendly, check ingredients. If you have a good recipe using escarole, feel free to leave a link in the comments.)
What's the Role of Escarole from BlogHer
Lentil and Escarole Soup from Farmgirl Fare
Chickpeas and Escarole from Mele Cotte
Green Pea, Escarole, and White Bean Minestrone from Figs, Olives, Wine
Escarole and Chickpea Soup with Pesto from Champaign Taste
Chickpea and Escarole Soup from Vanesscipes
Turkey-Escarole Soup from The Perfect Pantry
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Gorgonzola and Escarole from Culinary in the Country
Escarole at Home from In Mol Araan
Grilled Escarole from Nosheteria
Utica Greens from Couteau Bonswan


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A great deal of mystery surrounds the photos above.
When the video they were pulled from was taken, where, and just exactly what the heck that thing is dancing in front of the underwater camera of an oil platform.
According to the news blog Zeibiz, scientists think the "large blob" swimming slowly toward the camera is the rarely seen jellyfish known as depstaria reticulum. That's based on the hexagonal pattern on its skin. The video is believed to be shot in the Gulf of Mexico about two years ago.
These bizarre jellyfish can be up to 60 centimeters (about 2 feet) wide and are more apt to be found near the Antarctic than in the Gulf of Mexico.
An international team led by the University of Southampton in England has created the first global jellyfish database to map jellyfish populations in the oceans. The project is known as JeDI, for Jellyfish Database Initiative.
It's not unusual for subsea cameras used by offshore oil and gas facilities to capture up-close shots of deep-sea creatures.
Houston-based subsea equipment provider Oceaneering recently was using such a camera (called a remotely operated vehicle, or ROV) for a Shell project when it captured this massive shark floating through the Gulf.


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Jrue Holiday Declares for NBA Draft
April 9, 2009
LOS ANGELES - UCLA freshman guard Jrue Holiday announced today that he would make himself eligible for the NBA draft but will not hire an agent at this time in order to maintain his NCAA eligibility.
'After speaking with my parents and with Coach (Ben) Howland and the coaching staff, I feel that it is in my best interest to test the waters and see where I land in the NBA draft,' Holiday said. 'I'm taking this opportunity now so that I can keep my eligibility and keep my options open. I'm not signing with an agent.'
Holiday averaged 8.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.6 steals per game in 2008-09 and was named to the Pac-10 All-Freshman Team. He scored a season-high 20 points in the win over FIU (Nov. 29, 2008) and recorded his only double-double of the season of 12 points and 10 rebounds in the win over Louisiana Tech (Dec. 28, 2008).
'I really enjoyed my first year at UCLA, being part of such a historic program,' Holiday added. 'I have a great connection with my coaching staff and love all my teammates, so I couldn't ask for anything more.'
In 2009, Holiday ranked ninth in the Pac-10 in all games in assists, fourth in steals and sixth in assist/turnover ratio (1.7).
'There's no question that Jrue (Holiday) is a first-round NBA Draft pick,' Howland said.' He's very excited about his opportunity to be an NBA player and I'm 100 percent behind him and proud of him. We are very happy for both Jrue and his family.'
Pac-12 PlaylistTODAY | 5:00pm PTLive
Football: Inside Pac-12 FootballTue 9/17 | 6:00pm PTLive
Thu 9/19 | 3:00pm PTLive
Airing on:
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- Pac-12 Network


text:
Become a social impact investor for as little as $50.
It is hard to believe how far we've come since we first started donating Microsoft software. TechSoup used to distribute software donations to worthy nonprofit organizations from the basement of a San Francisco Victorian. More than10 years later, TechSoup Global has moved on from that basement, but Microsoft software donations are still mainstays of the TechSoup program. And it's a good thing! Since they started the program in 1998, Microsoft has donated more than $3.9 billion worth of software to nonprofit organizations in more than 100 countries worldwide, now reaching over 40,000 nonprofits each year. That's a lot of basement-fulls of software!We at TechSoup want to thank Microsoft for its longstanding commitment to supporting nonprofits around the world through software donations and more, and are thrilled to join them in announcing some important updates to their software donations program that will make it even easier for nonprofits and public libraries to get the Microsoft products they need, when they need them. Beginning today, July 27, 2011, organizations now have more flexibility regarding when they can request Microsoft software donations and in the product donations available. And, to make navigating the program easier, we're introducing the Microsoft Donation Center, where eligible organizations can easily track their Microsoft requests, see the value of donations received to date, and more.
Not sure if your organization is eligible for the Microsoft Software Donation Program? Take our Check Program Eligibility Quiz – see if you're eligible for Microsoft and our 44 other donation programs.To learn more about the updates to the Microsoft Software Donation Program and how they affect your organization, visit our Overview of the Microsoft Software Donation Program. Then, watch out free webinars on the Microsoft Donation Program: Microsoft Donation Program: How Does It Work? and Microsoft Donation Program: Get Your Questions Answered.Together with Microsoft, we're excited to help you understand the updates and how they can benefit your organization, and – ultimately – your community.
Many organizations have benefited from software donations from Microsoft, but there are many more still to reach! Help us spread the word to our fellow nonprofits. Check out this great video on the impact of Microsoft software donations and share it with your networks. You can also follow @msftcitizenship on Twitter to hear more or find them on Facebook.
From the blurb under the Windows 7 software offering it appears that organizations that have older operating systems installed are not eligible for upgrading. Is this correct? Our group would really like to upgrade to W7 but it seems Microsoft doesn't want us to?
Hi davidorr,
It really depends on the situation. The new Windows 7 Get Genuine offering is specifically for organizations running Home or Starter Editions, Open Source, illegal or Pirated Operating Systems or for organizations that have computers without an operating system.
But if your organization is running any of the following: Windows Vista Enterprise, Business, or Ultimate; Windows XP Professional or Tablet PC; Windows 2000 Professional; Windows NT Workstation 4.0; or Windows 98 SE, then you should look at our upgrade options. To locate these, please click on Get Products, and the Microsoft link under Browse By Partner (on the left of the page) and then the first product category: Microsoft Windows PC Operating System Upgrades.
TechSoup Client Services
Any idea if Office 365 will be part of these new offerings?
Our non-profit, which is signed up with techsoup, has funding for a new laptop for outreach presentations. All the computers that we can afford just have windows 7 home and office starter. It looks like I can use techsoup to get a full version of office, but we will have to pay to upgrade to the professional version of win 7, with its additional features. Am I missing something, or has something changed? We are a senior center that does a lot of medicare counseling.
Hi bethshalomseattle!
We don't have information on Office365 at this time. But you should add this
to our Product Wishlist forum thread which you can find here. Our development team looks at this regularly. It's also
great to add to the thread in case other people are interested too. This can
help us in our conversations with our partners when asking about new product
Hi cindybirk!
I would encourage you to read through our Get
Genuine category and product pages as it does sound like your scenario (you
have Home editions of Windows 7 but would like Professional editions of Windows
7) is eligible to use these products. If you still have questions, please
contact TechSoup
Client Services.
We haven´t been able to find out our licence key, can you help us please?
Is there a Get Genuine program that authenticates Windows XP? Our school in Tanzania has older computers that probably can't handle Windows 7. We have a variety of XP and Ubuntu systems and would like to authenticate everything to XP. I've reveived no response from Microsoft to the same question.
Hi rocklandcc,
Donated products and license acquired through TechSoup cannot be transfered to other organizations or individuals as they are meant for the use of the specific nonprofit. If you have a field office which serves multiple projects in Tanzania, they could use the products, but you would not be able to give any to the school or any partner organizations or facilities. I would recommend getting in touch with one of our Global partners in the region as they may have a network and resources that you can look into. www.techsoupglobal.org.
If you have any questions, please contact Client Services directly: www.techsoup.org/.../email.asp
We purchased Office Suite 2007 on 2/3/2010; it was upgraded to Office 2010 which a few of our employees downloaded. Now, this initial purchase doesn't show in our Microsoft Donation Center. Does this mean we need to start from scratch since everything was reset in July 2011? If so, do we need to pay the fee again? Please advise asap. Thanks!
The list of products shown in your Microsoft Donation Center reflects only what was requested during the current 2 year cycle. You should see a link that says something like "View all of my Microsoft Requests" above the current product list. This will take you to your Donation Request Status/History which you can also access through My Account. The program rules and restrictions do not impact your ability to use the licenses you've already requested. You should still have a history of licenses, products, available downloads, subscriptions etc. through your Microsoft Volume Licensing Service Account.
If you have additional questions, please contact Client Services: www.techsoup.org/.../email.asp
Wondering if you have a best-guesstimate as to when Office365 will be available through Tech Soup. Kathy
This is wonderful news...Thank you Microsoft & TechSoup. As a small non-profit CEO I'm able to maximize my technology infrastructure so that staff and volunteers can provide the most effective services to our target populations.
Question, we purchased Quickbooks for Windows this year, and our computer crashed, we are switching to MAC and now can not buy the programs for this computer because we already bought one this year… any ideas?
MendingHearts - I suggest you post this to the TechSoup Help branch of the Community Forum, to ensure that the right TechSoup staff person sees it and will respond to your message promptly.
This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International License.
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February puts the spotlight on romance and that doesn't have to change just because you're surrounded by turkey legs, throngs of tourists, daunting queues and double-wide strollers at theme parks. Using factors such as privacy, atmosphere and uniqueness, we picked seven spots that could make the heart grow fonder at Central Florida's seven theme parks.
Paddle boats
SeaWorld Orlando
Flamingo-shaped vessels provide a watery getaway for two on the park's central lagoon. And February is a good month to think pink. In most other months, it will be very easy to work up a sweat keeping the boats in motion. (Cost: $5 per person for 20 minutes.)
Discovery Island Trails
Disney's Animal Kingdom
The paths and greenery around the park's iconic Tree of Life are good for exploring and provide little nooks of privacy. The area, which includes waterfalls and bird exhibits, provides an excellent angle to look over the elaborate carvings of animals together in the "bark" of the tree.
Peter Pan's Flight
Magic Kingdom
It's a ride designed for kids, so it's cozy. But the gently dangling ride vehicles glide over a pleasing nighttime London scene before encountering Hook- and croc-based danger … and a happy ending.
Fireworks Cruise
Get away from the crowds for a unique onboard perspective of the nightly "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" fireworks and light show. The six-passenger ship comes complete with captain. Get reservations (up to 90 days in advance) by calling 407-939-7529.
Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant
Disney's Hollywood Studios
This eatery hearkens back to grandma and grandpa's courting days. It's has low lighting you might find in finer restaurants, and the place is spookily quiet.
Wizarding World of Harry Potter (the dark side)
Islands of Adventure
Islands is a high-energy sort of place where there's almost too much going on for love to bloom. But after sunset, Hogsmeade takes on a new glow with romantic lighting and sparkling snow-capped rooftops. Pretend someone has left the light on for you at Hogwarts castle.
Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit
Universal Studios
Stay with me here. Can we all agree that dating has its ups and downs? OK, well, this might be for the more adventurous couples, but at least the passengers ride in couples. For maximum lovey-dovey effect, we suggest selecting ZZ Top's "Gimme All Your Lovin' " as the coaster's soundtrack.
firstname.lastname@example.com or 407-420-5477


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Book Groups
How the Book Group Collection Works
Orem Public Library patrons may check out a special kit designed to serve the needs of book groups. Each kit checks out for six weeks and normally includes twelve copies of the title requested. The kit also includes a booklet with information about the author and novel, and a list of possible discussion questions.
Kits not picked up during the week you requested in your reservation will become available to others.Please be sure to have your Library card and security PIN when you arrive to check out your or your group's kit items.
Information! We hope that this service will allow us to meet the increased needs of book groups in the community. Please call 801-229-7175 with additional questions or comments.
In order to best serve you, please try to complete your request online a week before your preferred pickup times. Librarians can also assist in placing your request; call 801-229-7175.
Book Group Reservation Calendar
View the Book Group Title List
View the Book Group Genre List


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Vetch cover crop, fertilizer practices recommended for organic zucchini
Cover crops may be in the hardest working plants in organic farming systems. A variety of dependable cover crops are used to subdue weeds, build productive soil, control pests and diseases, and enhance overall sustainability of organic systems. In a new study, the popular cover crop Vetch (Vicia sativa L.) was used in a 2-year field experiment. The experiment was designed to determine the effects on organic zucchini yield and quality of vetch residue management strategies incorporating green manure using a roller-crimper and organic fertilizers.
To allow for timely crop rotation in organic farming, the growing cycle of cover crops is often terminated before natural maturity using mechanical chopping and/or plowing, field disking, mowing, or crushing with a roller-crimper. Innovative conservation tillage production systems using roller-crimper (RC) technology to end cover crops are gaining popularity. The technique uses one or two passes of the RC to flatten the cover crops, leaving a thick mulch layer into which the next crop is sown or transplanted. The thick mulch hinders the development of weeds during the critical growing period, contributes to reduced soil erosion, and increases soil moisture and fertility.
Although the roller-crimper technology has been widely used for the termination of legume cover crops, the technique has its limitations. For example, difficulties determining the most effective cover crop growth stage for crop termination can result in insufficient or untimely amounts of nitrogen being delivered to the cropping system by legume cover crops, ultimately affecting crop yield. Supplementing crop fertility with off-farm organic compliant inputs to reduce nitrogen deficiencies can help to ensure acceptable crop yields.
A study published in the August 2013 issue of HortScience showed the influence of different vetch residue management strategies in combination with the application of organic fertilizers and amendments in an organic zucchini production system. The scientists used municipal solid waste compost, anaerobic digestate, and a commercial organic fertilizer in the field experiments designed to determine yield, yield components, crop quality, and soil nutritional status in organic zucchini fields in southern Italy. The experiments were conducted over two seasons.
"Our results showed that zucchini yield was influenced positively by the vetch residue management strategy, although the response was significantly different between years," the scientists said. "The vetch cover crop increased marketable zucchini yield in the first year by 46.6% compared with the fallow treatment, indicating that this fertility-building crop could reduce off-farm nitrogen (N) fertilizer input for subsequent crops. Averaging over 2 years of the experiment, marketable zucchini yield increased by 15.2% and 38% with the roller-crimper mulch and green manure plow-down, respectively, compared with the fallow treatment, although differences were significant only in the first year."
The application of organic fertilizers in vetch management plots increased marketable zucchini yield by 21.8% in the first year compared with the unfertilized control. "This result is particularly relevant, because organic fertilizers were applied at about 50% of the normal application rate for zucchini after taking into account biological N fixation attributable to the vetch," the scientists noted. "The greatest yield response was obtained in the green manure treatment, probably as a result of high aboveground biomass production that, when incorporated into soil, progressively mineralized and increased the available N content," said the study's lead author Francesco Montemurro.
Montemurro also noted that the findings indicated that both cover crop and application of organic fertilizers and amendments in zucchini organic farming are constrained by environmental conditions, and that the effects are most valuable when typical or favorable weather patterns occur.
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I wouldn't go so far as to say I'm an expert on almond croissants.
But as someone who has eaten many almond croissants in life (it's kind of my job, you know), I have sampled enough to know what works and what doesn't.
And the version from La Boulange in San Francisco works.
In case you don't know the establishment, La Boulange is a small bakery-cafe chain in the San Francisco area. Well, it was a small chain. Until it was purchased by Starbucks last year for $100 million.
Yes: One Hundred Million Dollars. Pardon my pun, but that's a lot of dough.
I have been a big fan of La Boulange since before the takeover--one of their locations is just a few blocks away from SpySis's apartment. So far, not much has changed following the purchase. The pastry offerings seem the same, and that is a good thing, because in my opinion, they are exquisite. Especially the almond croissant. I mean...look at this.
Almond croissant is possibly the cleverest and most delicious use of day-old croissants, wherein you split the buttery treat, coat the inside with almond paste, and re-bake. At La Boulange, they not only use a nearly obscene amount of almond paste inside of the croissant, but use more on top, which not only makes it almond-y heaven but also acts as "glue" to hold on an armadillo-like coating of almond slices.
Those almonds on top crisply crunch when you bite into the treat, giving way to a soft, pillowy interior, gooey with almond paste, and then another light crunch when you reach the toasty bottom of the croissant.
Just looking at the pictures make me want to cry, just a little, because I don't have one right now to eat.
But I'll always have my memories. And hopefully, following the Starbucks takeover, not one thing changes about this recipe.
La Boulange, various locations in the SF Bay area; find one online here.


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Proofreading and editing isn't that hard…you'd think. Still, I manage to stay in business because I have a secret. Now I'm sharing it with you. I'm a Sydney proofreader who's been in business for almost 20 years. I still have many of my original clients (which makes me very happy).
Before we start, I want you to begin to think differently about the chore of proofreading. You think it's all about finding mistakes, right?
Wrong. It's more about patterns.
Take a look at this graphic below:
What's the first thing that pops into your head? What do you notice?
Me? I look at that and groan. It's all wrong! The four-sided figures aren't all the same size or the same shape and they're on different planes. That image makes me feel a little bit sick.
I am pleased that they're all the same colour.
So what was your reaction? If you groaned, too, you'll make a brilliant proofreader.
You see the 'wrongness' of the grouping.
However, if your first reaction was, "They're all blue" or "They're all four-sided" then you'll do OK as well. You've seen a pattern.
(If your first reaction was 'Rubbish logo', then you're probably a graphic designer and you can stop reading now.)
What doesn't fit the pattern?
When you proof copy, you're looking for words or symbols that don't fit – the word 'color' amongst pages of 'colour', the em rule or hyphen instead of universal en rules. (One of my favourite clients hates me because I change her incorrectly placed hyphens to ens. She thinks it's pointless. I disagree. The mixture of hyphens and ens where there should be all ens…well, it's disturbing to a reader.)
Most of us 'see' things that don't fit but allow our brain to override that part that's saying, "Isn't something wrong here?"
When you proofread, your first step should be to 'look without looking' so your brain can register what doesn't fit.
General proofreading tips
Once you have a sense of the wrongness or rightness, make a list of everything you're checking. This could be: client's name, phone number and address; product names; offer (all 15% not 18%); or page numbers and links.
If you must do your own proofreading, then read each word syllable by syllable. You'll be amazed at what you find.
Better still, give your copy to a colleague or an experienced proofreader (like me) and give yourself a second chance.
Finally, read through your corrected copy once more to make sure it all makes sense.
So what are your tricks? Can you read your own copy…or do you give it up as a bad job and hand it over to a fresh pair of eyes?


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I feel like posting some random pictures. For some reason I started looking at the random pictures that are saved on my work computer and some made me laugh so I decided to post some...and they are in no particular order.
Along with some pictures I thought I would list some things that I am grateful for....because I am in a horrible mood today and need to pull myself out of it...
1. Meg. I know, I know, anyone who reads this blog knows that I am grateful for Meg but I am saying it again. She knows me through and through and loves me for all of my faults and all of my strengths. She makes me laugh harder than anyone else can and sometimes we are in the middle of a store and we are laughing so hard we are on the floor and people must think we are crazy...and I don't care if they do. I LOVE laughing with her and I appreciate how much of my burdens that she shoulders with me. She is so strong and I wouldn't be able to function without her.
2. Jesse. Again, I talk about being grateful for him too, but he is so good to me. He is so patient and understanding. He and I are so different, but he balances me out in a way that I have never had from any relationship before. He tries to understand my dramatic-self and I try to understand his worry-free-self. We have learned so much together and I am so grateful that he is so patient with me.
3. Young Women's. I have the best calling in the world. I have always loved Young Women's and am so grateful that I work with such amazing women and that I get to hang out with some of the sweetest and strongest girls I have ever known. They listen to me teach every week and they love me anyway, even when I don't have all of the answers or teach a lesson that probably isn't very informative or entertaining. I am trying to be better and be a good teacher and a good listener and they are so good at being patient with me.
4. Patience. I have used that word several times in this post already and I am so grateful for the patient people in my life. I am not a patient person. I never have been. But I am grateful that I am surrounded by people who have been blessed with this amazing attribute and who use said attribute when dealing with me. I am one lucky duck....in so many ways.
Life is good. June was a long month for me and I am so glad it's almost over. Yea for July! Fireworks, paid-holidays, and BBQ!
And now...randomness....
(Jesse, me...and a chicken...I was thrilled to be holding it...as you can see...and my hair's all messed up...I was not prepared for Jesse to hand this chicken to me and to have someone take our picture...)
(Meg, Ford, and Me at her wedding...this chick is about to have twin girls...yep...2 more Chelsea & Megan's running around this earth...get ready world :)
(I love Jesse's face as he pushed me off that huge tree. It really was SO high up. I tried it once and swore I'd never do it again. But I tried it again last summer and it re-affirmed the fact that I do NOT like jumping off things)
(Our wedding day...I loved every minute of it!)
The end.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Another "Grateful" Post...
I feel like posting some random pictures. For some reason I started looking at the random pictures that are saved on my work computer and some made me laugh so I decided to post some...and they are in no particular order.
Posted by Chels at 1:45 PM 3 comments


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Once the explosion that is summer comes to a screeching halt, gardeners are susceptible to "garden fatigue." Ah, but fall is for reflection — on the successes and failures of the year's garden, on the "bones" of the landscape, on the cyclical nature of life. It is a time for slowing down, observing, writing snippets of poetry. It is the perfect time to start a garden journal.>> read "The Joys of Garden Journaling" #Fall #Misc #Tools
Often when pulling weeds or mowing the grass, my mind drifts to some of the challenges in the world. I don't mean solving world hunger or anything, but just considering some of those gardening questions not discussed on radio shows. This happens in a "stream of consciousness" where one thought or question runs into another and another and so on.>> read "Gardening Questions You Never Really Thought to Ask" #Misc #Pests #Uncategorized #Vines
Gather herbs and flowers now for potpourri all year
The original French term for potpourri meant "rotten pot," referring to the moist method of pickling flowers and leaves. More common now is the dry method using flowers and leaves that are picked just as they reach maturity full of fragrance and color. It also incorporates seeds, spices, dried leaves and flowers, berries, dried fruit slices, barks, seedheads and cones to add a variety of textures to the mixture. The best potpourris have a subtle, natural scent that comes from the combination of all natural ingredients. Different ingredients contribute aroma, texture, color and bulk. Many herbs contribute fragrance as well as color and texture.>> read "How to Make Potpourri" #Fragrant #How to #Misc
Imagine yourself sitting around a warm fire. Can you hear the snapping and crackling of the wood? Do you feel the warmth of the fire on your hands and face? Can you hear and see your family and friends talking and laughing as they sit around the fire, toasting marshmallows? That could be your backyard, if you had a fire feature.>> read "Warming Up With a Fire Feature" #Decorating #Hardscaping #Misc
A moonlit garden is enchanting, but sometimes the moon needs a little help shedding light on a garden's nighttime beauty. That's when it's time to turn to technology.>> read "Enchanted Evenings" #Design #Misc #Tech & Gadgets
On a spring morning while visiting Magnolia Plantation and Gardens near Charleston, SC, I left the main pathways and walked onto a narrow trail that led among Spanish-moss draped magnolias and bald cypresses. The trail went past an open glade, wild in its tangle of wisteria vines and solitary azalea and camellia blossoms. It had an eerie and deserted look about it, and I was startled by a white figure standing in the far distance like a mirage. When I looked closer, I realized that it was a white marble statue of a woman. Suddenly this abandoned space came alive. It was inhabited by this lovely sculpture, and my eyes focused on the glistening figure standing evocatively among the tangled vegetation.>> read "Sculpture in the Garden" #Decorating #Design #Misc
When I want to get a room full of gardeners engaged in a lively debate, I bring up the topic of tomatoes. A question that transforms shy, reserved types into outspoken, opinionated verbal wranglers is this one: "Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?">> read "Tomato: Fruit or Vegetable?" #Fruit #Misc #Unusual #Vegetables
Using texture for great garden theater
Thousands of opportunities to create real drama and beauty make designing a garden fun. But that can also be the rub: Things get overwhelming pretty quickly. A bit like staging a movie, how do you decide on the set and cast? Start by understanding what you need, why, and a good mental image of how that might look.>> read "Lights, Camera, Action!" #Design #Misc
How many times have you been to a child's birthday party with a bunch of laughing, screaming kids and lots of toys, and what the children end up playing with are the cardboard boxes, ribbons and ties from the gifts, loose parts from one of the toys (and not as they were intended to be used), or a pile of dirt or rocks next door? OK, that proves it – all they really need to play is a dirt pile and a bucket; unstructured play is the secret to happiness.>> read "Unconstructed Play" #Kids #Misc
These are the 'Who-What-When-Where-Whys' of mulch. And you thought mulch was just a pile of stuff on the ground.>> read "Mulch Primer" #Advice #Misc #Soil
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It seems unimaginable for a garden to be still. Do you often find yourself looking at something moving from the corner of your eye, or do you look to a sound made by the moving wind? Movement engages you in the garden. Movement can be introduced with plants or personality; look around your garden to see how you can add more movement in your garden.
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I think I'm getting on my WoW-years because I'm spending less time reading and looking forward to Mists of Pandaria and today, on the literal day of patch 5.0.4, looking back at the things that have changed. I thought I'd be okay; it wasn't like Cataclysm where everything was being destroyed. However, I find myself being a little verklempt at even the smallest things. It hit me as I was running in and out of Scholomance five times an hour to try for a Sawbones Shirt.
This place wasn't going to be the same anymore.
Any time change creeps up on me, I get caught out a bit. Old dungeons that I remember doing fondly in Vanilla are obviously no exception to this. The fact that stuff like the Tabard of the Scarlet Crusade, Whitemane's Chapeau just vanishing into the air because their bosses are too is weirding me out. The more this stuff fades into the sands of time, the more I feel myself wanting to snatch grains of it out of the air to keep safe.
Scholomance may had not been the quintessential dungeon that Scarlet Monastery has been, but I have fond memories of the place. It was long and unforgiving even after it was taken down from a raid instance to a 5-person dungeon. It had many, many secrets and quests tucked within.
The Secrets Long Past
It is unfortunate that most of the really, truly neat things about Scholo were removed with Cataclysm.
Easily the most interesting part of Scholomance back in Vanilla was the quests associated with the place and the island. The quest to kill the boss Kirtonos the Herald netted you a Spectral Essence, which was necessary to see all of the ghosts that wandered around the island, including vendors that had rare patterns. The vendor is visible now but a lot of NPCs are lost to players because the Spectral Essence is no longer obtainable in the game. The quest that originally rewarded it, "Kirtonos the Herald" no longer gives it as a reward. (It also doesn't require you to kill a succubus for a vial of Kirtonos' blood to summon him with the brazier.)
The Spectral Essence was key to a lot of other quests on the island that were only given out or turned in to ghosts in Caer Darrow. One of these ghosts was Magistrate Marduke, who gave you the quest for Ras Frostwhisper. It was a 5-part chain that sent you packing to Arathi to search all over Stromgarde for a book tucked away in a random fireplace. I spent at least 3 or 4 hours looking. I'm not kidding you. It also required you to go into Stratholme with the book to draw out Ras' soul so you could eventually turn the lich inside the dungeon to a mortal and kill him. Stuff like this was secretive, meandering and full of lore. Definitely not the caliber some quests have today, but definitely not easy to finish.
You also completed one of the quests in the Tirion Fordring quest chain that was in Eastern Plaguelands (before the revamp) from an artist on the island.
The hardest quest associated with Scholomance was definitely the key quest, however. A lot of the end-game dungeons in Vanilla, like UBRS, had key quests so it could further alienate people who didn't feel like doing them. (My boyfriend when I brought this up to him – "Fuck that key quest, I didn't do it. You could die and walk through the door that way.") I dutifully did the Scholomance key quest because I was a level 60 in my guild who came to it late and wasn't really taken on raids. After proving yourself with some Andorhal quests, you were set to create a skeleton key, literally. After killing skeletons for fragments, you had to travel to Gadgetzan to get a mold made, paying 15G of your hard-earned cash (having 100G back in Vanilla was the same as having 10,000 nowadays). Then you had to take the mold to a volcano. Then you had to gather a GROUP of people to take down the lich Araj the Summoner for his scarab pendant. Then you finally got a key.
Remind people that this is what they look fondly back on when they talk about "vanilla being the best expansion."
Not everything that was hidden about Scholomance was something on the outside though – many of the secrets lay inside the actual instance. The one that really threw me for a loop was the secret torch. Despite being someone who spent the better part of her level 60 existence crawling through this dungeon, I had no idea about this until this year when a guildmate (or a friend, I cannot remember) pointed it out to me.
There was an executable torch in Jandice Barov's mortuary room, to the right of her alcove. Turning it unlocked a gate in the Viewing Room, which held a chest.
It only ever really held greens, but the idea that Blizzard stuck something this hidden inside was just fascinating to me, a veteran like me. Who goes around clicking on walls to see if torches work? But it makes sense for the atmosphere of the place. Why wouldn't a hugely corrupt and rich family keep things tucked away in a hidden locale?
I think one of my reasons for being so persistent about collecting items from places like this when they change is because, like in real life, sometimes memories and emotions are all you have. In a video game, your experiences someplace are reduced to screenshots and remembrances shared over voice chat. The ability to go and take a "tangible" reminder of what something was like "back in the day" is something you aren't really afforded in real life, usually. Scholomance was one of the places I remember best from Vanilla and it is sad to see it change.
I remember:
- Helping at least 6 or 7 paladins from Northrend Commonwealth get their paladin charger in the finale of the quest chain.
- Doing a run at 3 AM and my bags being full so I left without looting my Magister's Crown and having to ticket a GM.
- Accidentally pulling the summoners in the Summoning room because I counterspelled them thinking they were attacking us. Turns out I was just being anachronistic.
- Being able to climb out of Kirtonos' room to explore instanced Caer Darrow.
- Those horrible magic resist skeletons.
- Being terrible at fighting the monsters that you got locked in a room with during the Gandling fight.
- Someone being really excited about Robe of the Void pattern dropping.
- Dark Runes, the ultimate in trickery for RP.
- Farming for Ichor of Undeath for Greater Water Breathing potions.
- Seeing the Headmaster's Charge drop twice (Didn't win it either time.)
- Learning how to expertly polymorph mobs in the packs in the middle rooms.
- Making flasks at the alchemy table in Ras Frostwhisper's room. (The only other one was inside of Blackwing Lair.)
- Coming back in later expansions to farm Skins of Shadow for my Insane grind.
I know that nothing is going to take away those things from me, but part of me still tried to race up there and codge a shirt out of Rastinov all the same. New Scholomance, with the hints of the Lilian Voss storyline and smoother redesign will be better for everyone, I know this. But part of me still misses the confusing and punishing complexity of the former dark arts school.


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This Web page has been archived on the Web.
November 27, 2008
Check Against Delivery
Mr. Speaker, I am pleased today to present the Government's Economic and Fiscal Statement, and to set out our key short-term and long-term objectives as we prepare for the next federal budget.
I present this Statement at a time of unprecedented deterioration in economic and financial systems around the world. Without a doubt, here in Canada and around the world, these are difficult times that will require difficult choices.
It is important to recognize just how quickly things have changed, Mr. Speaker, and how dramatically. The cascading effects of the international credit crisis were sudden and devastating.
An unexpected credit crunch in the summer of 2007, and a U.S. recession sparked by a plunge in the American housing market, have spread throughout the world.
Today, the International Monetary Fund expects global growth to be the weakest since 1993.
The speed at which this crisis has intensified, and the damage it has brought to countries around the world, have been extraordinary.
All countries are struggling to cope with this crisis.
The Euro area is in recession for the first time since its creation in 1999.
It has been joined by Japan.
There are signs of a prolonged downturn in the U.S., with a sharp decline in U.S. consumer spending and almost 1.2 million jobs lost since the beginning of the year.
A lengthy list of American financial institutions have either collapsed or required a bailout or takeover—Citigroup, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, AIG, Wachovia—all in a matter of months.
Financial rescue efforts are underway in the U.S., and similar ones are happening in countries throughout Europe.
The crisis has laid bare some serious flaws in many aspects of the international financial system:
The mistakes of some are today being felt by all.
We have not been immune to the resulting global economic slowdown. Forecasters around the world did not predict, and could not have predicted, the full force of this economic crisis.
The volatility we are seeing in the world economy is truly historic. It is affecting Canada, driving down our economic growth expectations. Canada has not faced such severe economic tests in a generation.
Economic projections are now much lower than at the time of our last budget. Private sector forecasters expect real GDP growth of just 0.6 per cent this year and 0.3 per cent next.
The same private sector forecasters are now widely expecting a technical recession, with negative growth in the fourth quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.
No government at any level can guarantee the future. In fact, given so much uncertainty, no one could unconditionally guarantee the fiscal projections contained in today's Statement.
We will be faced with tough choices as we prepare our next budget, in the face of the deteriorating international economy. Those choices must be part of a clear plan to protect our future.
Last week's Speech from the Throne laid out a five-pronged plan to protect Canada's economic security—a plan that will define the choices we make.
We were fully aware that difficult times were ahead when I presented our Economic Statement last fall.
We planned for it. We made choices to help put Canada in a stronger economic position. In fact, since 2006:
Our Government, from last year to next, will have doubled the level of federal funding for provincial, territorial and municipal infrastructure projects.
Canadians and Canadian businesses will pay nearly $31 billion less in taxes in the next fiscal year, thanks to the tax reduction measures introduced since 2006.
That's equivalent to nearly 2 per cent of Canadian GDP.
This is a substantial fiscal stimulus—stimulus with staying power.
Unlike other countries, Canada is providing tax relief that is sustainable and permanent—tax relief that is helping Canadian families every single day.
We took action when it was necessary. Our performance has shown that it was worthwhile.
However, our actions did not insulate us completely from the rest of the world. Global conditions have deteriorated as 2008 has unfolded.
We had to take further extraordinary steps in the financial sector to respond to a global credit crunch we did not spark, yet which threatened to engulf us if we failed to act.
Once again, we had a head start over other nations. Our financial system is considered to be the world's soundest by the World Economic Forum.
The International Monetary Fund concluded Canada's financial system is mature, sophisticated, well managed and able to withstand sizeable shocks.
We have acted to keep it that way. We have protected its stability, so that Canadian businesses and families would continue to have access to credit.
Businesses need credit to invest or to meet their payrolls. Families need it to take out mortgages and loans.
These are basic and vital components of the Canadian economy.
We took steps to maintain the availability of longer-term credit with the purchase of mortgage pools through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
This innovative measure is allowing Canadian financial institutions to continue lending to consumers, homebuyers and businesses at an affordable cost.
Our Government also created the Canadian Lenders Assurance Facility. The Facility offers insurance on a temporary basis on wholesale term borrowing by Canadian financial institutions.
This backstop ensures that our financial institutions are not at a competitive disadvantage internationally.
We increased the borrowing authority of Export Development Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada.
The combined boost of nearly $4 billion that we introduced will mean more lending choices for Canadian businesses.
We announced new rules for government-guaranteed mortgages this summer to prevent a U.S.-style housing bubble, rules that are in place today.
Our sensible Canadian approach is paying off.
Our country will come out of this economic crisis in a strong position, because we are going into it in a strong position.
Faced with threats outside our borders, we answered with leadership from within. The result is a fiscal position that is the best of all G7 countries.
The next fiscal year will be difficult. But Canadians can be fully confident that we will overcome whatever hardships may lie ahead in 2009, and beyond.
Mr. Speaker, like governments, families face economic challenges beyond their control every day.
When they face challenges like those, families must adjust their priorities. Just like governments, they must make tough choices—tough, but pragmatic. They make choices that give them flexibility to weather the storm.
Their choices are made with the future in mind. To protect the future they want, they make sacrifices today.
Our Government will take the same approach. We will protect the future by maintaining strong fiscal and financial management.
We take no pleasure in saying that despite our best efforts, this may not be enough to keep a small surplus on the books.
But in situations like this, it would be misguided to simply engineer a surplus, just to be able to say we have one.
Today's Statement lays out a plan that keeps our budget balanced for now.
However, in the weeks ahead, we will determine the extent to which we will inject additional stimulus to our economy, joining the efforts of our international partners.
Any additional actions to support the economy will have an impact on the bottom-line numbers in our next budget. These actions, or a further deterioration in global economic conditions, could result in a deficit.
We do not take the potential of a deficit lightly. The thought of a long-term structural deficit would be even more serious—one that the Government is unable to climb out of, even when the economy improves.
The days (and years, and decades) of those chronic deficits are behind us. No matter what 2009 brings, they must never return.
Our goal must be to ensure the strength of the economy—to protect jobs, to encourage investment, and to help business grow.
We must do that while protecting the long-term fiscal position of the Government, so that when the economy improves, we return quickly to balanced budgets.
Today, our Government is announcing a series of measures designed to strengthen Canada's fiscal position in an uncertain time.
These measures will enable us to plan on a balanced budget framework, while recognizing potential downside risks.
We cannot ask Canadians to tighten their belts during tougher times without looking in the mirror.
Canadians have a right to look to government as an example. We have a responsibility to show restraint and respect for their money.
Canadian tax dollars are precious. They must not be spent frivolously or without regard to where they came from.
Canadians pay taxes so governments can provide essential services. They trust the people they elect to serve society with that money, not serve themselves.
The truth is, tax dollars have been supporting political parties for a long time.
For example, we take advantage of reimbursements on our election spending. Canadians also receive a tax credit on their donations to political parties.
This is a generous allotment of tax dollars to politicians. It ought to be sufficient for all of us. But we ask for much more, in the form of a $1.95 subsidy for every vote we receive in an election.
Canadians pay their own bills, and for some Canadians that is getting harder to do. Political parties should pay their own bills too, and not with excessive tax dollars.
Even during the best of economic times, parties should count primarily on the financial support of their own members and their own donors.
Today, our Government is eliminating the $1.95-per-vote taxpayer subsidy for politicians and their parties, effective April 1, 2009.
There will be no free ride for political parties. There never was. The freight was being paid by the taxpayer. This is the last stop on the route.
There will be no free ride for anyone else in government either.
We are directing government ministers and deputy ministers from every single department and agency of the Government to rein in their spending on travel, hospitality, conferences, exchanges and professional services.
This includes polling, consultants and external legal services.
In the broader fiscal picture, we will expand the actions under the new Expenditure Management System we put in place in 2007. We will use this systemic approach to help keep spending growth on a sustainable track.
Under this new system, the Government has been reviewing all departmental program spending. The Government already examined department spending of $13.6 billion in 2007, and is examining $25 billion in program spending this year.
For the first time in nearly 15 years, the Government is also expanding this businesslike and multi-year review to include corporate assets: Crown corporations, real property and other holdings.
The review will take a careful approach to the sale of any asset, considering market conditions and ensuring fair value can be realized for the benefit of taxpayers.
Our Government expects to save over $15 billion over the next five fiscal years under the new Expenditure Management System. This system will be an invaluable tool to help us maintain balanced budgets, along with the other steps announced today.
As indicated in last week's Speech from the Throne, the Government is also introducing legislation to ensure predictability in federal public sector compensation.
Our Government values the contribution and hard work of our public servants. They must be fairly compensated for their work on behalf of Canadians.
We must bear in mind that their work is also paid for by Canadians.
We will introduce legislation to ensure that the pay for the public sector grows only in line with what taxpayers can afford as the economy slows.
This legislation will put in place annual public service wage increases of 2.3 per cent for 2007–08, and 1.5 per cent for the following three years.
This restraint will also apply to MPs, Senators, Cabinet Ministers and senior public servants.
The legislation would also temporarily suspend the right to strike through 2010–11.
Another issue we intend to address is the litigious, adversarial, and complaints-based approach to pay equity. Since the mid-1980s, Canadian taxpayers have paid out over $4 billion in pay equity settlements.
These settlements were the result of pay equity complaints to the Canadian Human Rights Commission. These complaints were filed after agreements on public sector wages had already been reached through collective bargaining.
New complaints continue to be filed, sometimes for the same groups that have already received past pay equity settlements. These represent large potential future costs to taxpayers.
This costly and litigious regime of "double pay equity" has been in place for too long. We are introducing legislation to make pay equity an integral part of collective bargaining.
We are also bringing certainty to the growth of Equalization. We have put its growth on a sustainable path.
A new, three-year moving average that puts growth in Equalization in line with nominal GDP growth will bring fairness and stability to both the provinces and the federal government, while reflecting changes in the Canadian economy.
We are ensuring that Equalization will continue to grow, because it is a key federal program for providing support to provinces.
We are also protecting the Canada Health Transfer and the Canada Social Transfer. Provinces must be able to plan accurately, especially when it comes to some of the largest expenditure items in their budgets: health care and social services.
These transfer payments will continue their built-in growth of 6 per cent for the Canada Health Transfer and 3 per cent for the Canada Social Transfer.
We will ensure any new measures to support the economy are carefully chosen and targeted for maximum benefit.
In preparing for the 2009 budget, we will ensure spending is as effective as possible, and aligned with Canadian priorities.
Infrastructure is an example of such worthwhile spending. Investment in infrastructure creates jobs for today and for the future. It creates essential links between communities and regions.
Next year's increase in infrastructure spending will be our largest, and will push the total amount to over $6 billion in stimulus to the economy.
Our Government is committed to expediting our historic, $33-billion Building Canada plan to get projects moving as quickly as possible, in particular for the upcoming construction season.
We will work with provinces and territories to identify a limited number of key infrastructure projects across Canada by January 2009.
These investments will help keep Canada moving forward as the world economy slows.
Quickly deteriorating circumstances in the financial sectors in other countries have contributed to this slowdown.
Here at home we must have the flexibility to respond quickly and decisively, and protect our financial system from global risks.
Our Government is proposing that the Minister of Finance be granted additional flexibility to support financial institutions and the financial system in extraordinary circumstances.
This is consistent with the additional powers we provided the Bank of Canada earlier this year. It is also in keeping with the action plans we agreed to with our international counterparts at the G7 and G20 meetings.
These proposed measures include authority for:
These are additional tools in our tool box. I hope we never have to use them.
But the lessons of the past couple of months have shown us that we have to be ready to deal with every kind of risk, even the unlikeliest ones.
With these measures, we will be ready.
We are taking steps to help Canadian seniors. Our seniors built this country and deserve to live with dignity and respect.
Many seniors are understandably concerned about the impact of the sharp decline in the markets on their retirement savings.
Registered Retirement Income Funds, or RRIFs, and their associated withdrawal requirements are of particular concern.
Last year, our Government raised the age limit for converting a Registered Retirement Savings Plan to a RRIF from 69 to 71.
I have heard from seniors about two issues they are dealing with today:
There is no requirement under the tax rules to sell these assets to meet the RRIF minimum withdrawal requirements, and seniors should not be left with the impression that there is. Assets may be kept intact, so that they can grow in the future.
To help deal with this issue, last week I wrote to all federally regulated financial institutions. I asked these institutions to ensure that in-kind distributions are accommodated at no cost to clients, or that clients are offered another solution that achieves the same result.
Now, these are exceptional circumstances, and we are taking further action to allow RRIF holders to keep more of their savings in their RRIFs.
To help seniors cope, today I am proposing a one-time change that will allow RRIF holders to reduce their required minimum withdrawal by 25 per cent for this tax year. For example, for an individual otherwise required to withdraw $10,000 from their RRIF in 2008, the required withdrawal will be reduced to $7,500.
If the individual has already withdrawn more than $7,500, they will be permitted to recontribute the excess up to $2,500, and claim an offsetting deduction for the 2008 taxation year.
We are also addressing the immediate consequences this financial distress has dealt to Canadian workers who contribute to federally regulated pension plans.
Based on what has happened so far, and under current rules, the decline in value of these plan assets would trigger substantial payments at the worst possible time for struggling companies.
The money these companies would need to use for pension top-ups could otherwise be used for further investment and growth.
The Government is proposing to allow plans under federal jurisdiction to double the length of time required for solvency payments from 5 to 10 years.
Companies that pursue this option must meet one of two conditions:
Today's announcement will give these companies one more option they can use to cope with these extraordinary circumstances.
To deal with longer-term pension concerns, we will soon be launching consultations on issues facing defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans, with a view to making permanent changes next year.
Since pension plans are regulated either federally or provincially, our Government will coordinate our efforts with our provincial and territorial counterparts to create a pension system able to withstand whatever future challenges come its way.
This subject will be high on the agenda when I meet with my provincial and territorial colleagues next month.
While helping Canadian workers save, we will also help the businesses that employ them, in particular with their ability to borrow.
We will increase the supply of credit available to export-oriented manufacturers, including the auto sector, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.
On top of a recent $2-billion increase to the borrowing authority of Export Development Canada, today I am announcing a $350-million equity injection that will support up to approximately $1.5 billion in increased credit for Canada's export businesses.
The export sector has been hit hard by the financial crisis. EDC will now be able to add to the nearly $80 billion in exports and investment it helps make possible for Canadian enterprises, including $4 billion for the auto sector alone.
The Government will also inject $350 million in equity to the Business Development Bank of Canada to assist small and medium-sized companies. This new injection will increase BDC's lending ability by about $1.5 billion, and comes on top of a $1.8-billion borrowing increase announced earlier this year.
We will also move forward quickly on the securities regulation front. Our cumbersome and unwieldy system of 13 securities regulators is a glaring flaw in Canada's world-leading approach to promoting financial stability.
The Government will soon receive the report of the Expert Panel on Securities Regulation. The report is expected to outline the best way forward to improve the content, structure and enforcement of securities regulation in Canada.
We will act on it quickly. We invite all participants to join us in improving our regulatory system.
Mr. Speaker, this Government came to office looking years down the road. Our country is better off today thanks to exactly such an approach. Short-term problems will not distract us from continuing to focus on the horizon.
At the same time, we are far from finished confronting unheard-of global economic and financial threats. There are warning signs ahead that we must heed if we are to remain a global role model in an uncertain time.
We will address our immediate, external challenges the same way we will reach our longer-term goals: by continuing to manage tax dollars wisely, investing strictly in the essentials and focusing on what ultimately matters—the longer-term prosperity of all Canadians.
These are not easy times. But we must not forget that our country has been through plenty of hard times before, and we'll get through these ones the same way.
Our Government will respond to the challenges of the upcoming year the same way we are seeing this year to a close, through the values Canadians themselves hold dear: prudence and restraint, combined with hard work and a focus on the future.
The greatest histories are always written in the toughest times. I believe that we're in the midst of writing some bold new chapters in our country's long-running success story—an unfolding account of new accomplishments by a country that is compelled to grapple with global hard times, and that will emerge even stronger because of them.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker.


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The Crimson won their second-straight match to move to 2-2 in the Ivy League, setting up a showdown with first place Yale tomorrow afternoon.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard women's volleyball team rode a career night from freshman Kristen Casey to a 3-1 win at Brown Friday evening, improving the team to 2-2 in the Ivy League.
Casey scored five of her 21 kills in the fourth set as Harvard (9-5, 2-2 Ivy League) earned match point, 25-22. The teams traded points back and forth early in the set and found themselves tied at 16 midway through. The Crimson rattled off five straight points for a 21-16 edge and held off a late charge by Brown (5-10, 1-3 Ivy League) for the win.
Harvard won both the opening sets for a commanding 2-0 lead. With a slim 8-7 margin in the first set, Taylor Docter sparked a 4-0 stretch with a pair of kills for a 12-7 lead. A 4-1 spurt by the Crimson moved the score to 19-14 before Casey notched set point for Harvard, 25-22.
Brown took a 2-0 lead in the second frame but it was all Crimson from that point on, as Harvard rolled to a 25-17 victory. Casey led the way with eight kills and hit .462 for the set. Harvard scored four of the set's final five points including a kill from Erin Cooney for the win.
The Bears came back to win the third set, 25-17, denying Harvard the straight set victory.
Casey tallied a season-high 21 kills in the victory, surpassing her previous best of 19 which she set just last week at Penn. The freshman also turned in 12 digs for her second straight double-double and fifth of the year.
Docter finished her night with 15 kills and a .359 hitting percentage. Natalie Doyle dished out 40 assists with 15 digs for her third straight double-double as Christine Wu led the defensive efforts with 26 digs. Emma Pastore notched 16 kills and a .371 hitting percentage for Brown.
Harvard will be back in action tomorrow when it travels to Yale for a 5:00 p.m. showdown. Yale is currently in sole possession of first place in the Ivy League standings with a perfect 4-0 record while Harvard sits in fourth.


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Hankering for a sandwich while in the East Village last week, I stopped at Marco Polo Café out of sheer curiosity. The tiny shop on St. Mark's bills itself as "Asian-Italian New Cuisine." The menu, on the other hand, reveals its Asian influence to be entirely Chinese. So, in the spirit of this blog, what the heck.
The restaurant is the product of a Sicilian-American and mainland Chinese husband-and-wife team. So, naturally, you can order dumplings and buns, or pasta, like bison meatballs over penne. (Unlike another Italian-Chinese partnership I wrote about last year, whose menu was completely Western.) But...what's so interesting about a seemingly schizophrenic food selection?
Well, the restaurant does try to fuse flavors on a few of the items. I decided to forgo the Dumplavoli, which, while having a catchy name, is merely a plate of five raviolis and six dumplings.
On the other hand, the Moo Goo Gai Panini seemed interesting. Anyone who grew up with a ton of take-out should be familiar with moo goo gai pan, the Chinese-American stir-fry of cubed chicken, button mushrooms, maybe a few other vegetables, and generous last-minute phlumph of cornstarch.
My panino does not have cornstarch, thank goodness. Instead, they took the basic concepts of chicken and shiitake mushrooms, added some cucumbers and onions, and topped it all off with a generous serving of melted fontina. You can taste the teriyaki and ginger flavors in the chicken and mushrooms, but in a very subtle way. I had been dreading curious what teriyaki sauce would taste like with fontina, but combo actually works.
At least, it seems to work better than the "Bahn mi italiano" (sic) at Terroir.
Marco Polo Café
102 St. Marks Place (bwtn 1st Ave. and Ave. A)
New York
Related posts:
Yun Nan Flavour Snack - Brooklyn


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Undergraduate Programs
Why major in writing?
Even if your eventual career isn't writing per se, expanding your ability to write concisely and fluently provides an invaluable set of skills that can be used to speed you along in virtually any career path: the law, teaching, internet and multimedia activity, business, health care and many others. The ability to write well is increasingly valued as fewer and fewer college graduates in our visual and Twitter bound culture know how to write anything of length and complexity.
Some of the skills of a writing major acquires: persistence, imagination, the ability to analyze an issue and make sense of it, the ability to communicate that sense, the ability to explain and argue effectively, resourcefulness, the ability to detect flaws in arguments and address them, the ability to know how to accept and mold criticism to make a more effective product, the ability to be creative, flexibility, and confidence.
More specifically, the undergraduate Professional Writing program gives form to the contradictory fact of life about writers in American society: They are both specialists and generalists. People who make their living (or some part of it) by writing today find themselves frequently crossing writing genres even as they are called upon to specialize in some specific genre. Business writers may find they are sometimes asked to do PR or may do it freelance; poets won't make a living writing poetry, but they might through teaching, or marketing, or journalism.
Courses within the Professional Writing major are mixed and matched so that they both contribute to the specific writing profession the student is aiming toward, and demonstrate the interrelation of one type of writing with another. This is particularly important in an era when the boundaries between writing genres are breaking down. To take just one example from journalism, news stories these days are much closer in presentation techniques to creative writing and advertising. It is easy enough to bemoan this fact, but we think it is more important to teach writers how to write creative nonfiction in an ethically and professionally sound way, understanding both the advantages of a creative approach in terms of reader interest, and the dangers of allowing the creative form to falsify and distort the reality they report. Similarly, poets may need to learn advertising.
The Professional Writing faculty (who are themselves professional writers) believe strongly that we want to train writers to take a professional attitude and to see themselves as professionals.
Courses in the Major are workshops of various kinds: some focus on student writing and hands-on learning with substantial writing projects; others train skills such as copyediting; others invite students to learn by imitating and finding inspiration from texts produced by accomplished writers in many genres.
The Undergraduate Curriculum
Organization of the Undergraduate Program
THE CORE (12 SH): A core of four Craft of Writing workshops calls upon students to imitate models of professional writing in many genres, to understand the creative process, to grapple with the relationship between form and insight, and through writing and reading to enter directly into the conversation between and among writers over the centuries. In these workshops, texts will be used as models, prompts, and inspiration for student writing projects. Much like student painters are asked to imitate the Masters, we will be asking our students to write in the context of the models and exemplars presented in these courses. It is through this kind of rigorous attention to craft that student writers will find inspiration for their own innovations.
GENRE WORKSHOPS (14 SH): In addition to the four core Craft of Writing workshops, students in the B.A. in Professional Writing options will take a series of workshops that will help to focus students' writing within a particular genre (e.g., journalism, fiction, or public relations writing) that align with the five different options. Here students specialize and hone their skills in particular writing genres.
UPPER LEVEL REQUIRED COURSES (16 SH): The upper level required courses, including the capstone thesis project course, reflect our dedication to the principle that every graduate should leave our program with important intellectual and practical knowledge such as how to operate in an editorial environment; an understanding of libel; familiarity with publication design and development; a basic understanding and ability to apply the linguistic and semantic approach to language; and the ability to edit and copyedit manuscripts.
MENU COURSES (6 SH): The category of Menu Courses is a new addition to our program sheet. These are advanced multi-genre courses that emphasize the cross-genre practices usually involved in a writer's life. In this category, students will take two courses from a menu of courses that will be rotated to allow for a great variety of topics and approaches. Here is where imagination meets research, and flexibility meets the demands of assembling the elements of the writing process.


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In Wake of Factory Fire, U.S. Labor Groups Attempt Blockade of Walmart Imports
The fight for justice at Walmart went another round on Tuesday morning, as around 75 protesters gathered in Port Newark, N.J., in an attempt to block the unloading of the container ship Maersk Carolina, whose cargo included Walmart-bound goods made in Bangladesh. While the blockade was not successful, the action demonstrated the strengthening alliance between Occupy-related groups and more labor-specific organizations.
The action came less than a month after 112 workers burned to death in the Tazreen Factory in Bangladesh, which supplies clothes to Walmart. Bloomberg reported that in 2011, the retail giant had refused to cover the costs of safety improvements to Bangladeshi factories such as Tazreen. Bangladeshi authorities who researched the case just announced findings of "unpardonable negligence."
The protesters, who included participants in Occupy Wall Street as well as labor and community groups, hoped to connect Walmart's actions abroad to its actions at home. Goods from Bangladesh are unloaded by the International Longshoreman's Alliance, then distributed to warehouses, and finally to Walmart's retail outlets. Labor unrest appears at every stage in this supply chain: the longshoremen are currently in contract negotiations, warehouse workers in California and Illinois went on strike this September over unsafe and unfair working conditions, and retail workers walked out on Black Friday over low wages and retaliatory tactics.
"The main purpose of this event was to highlight Walmart's abuses throughout the supply chain," said organizer and Occupy Wall Street member Isham Christie.
Organizers had also planned to disrupt that supply chain. Their original intent was to leaflet the employee entrance to the port and persuade the Longshoremen not to unload the Maersk Carolina.
But port police and Homeland Security agents stepped in and escorted the busses of protesters to a stretch of highway out of sight of the worker entrance. While this outcome disappointed many of those in attendance, it also proved the activists' point.
"I think they realize the supply chain is vulnerable to economic disruption," Christie said.
Despite the failure of the blockade, Christie noted that protesters had received many honks of support from passing truckers, and hoped that picketing near the port would give the Longshoremen an edge in contract negotiations. This was the first East Coast port action organized by Occupy Wall Street, Christie said, and it will not be the last.
A deepening alliance
The port action also bore witness to an increasingly fruitful collaboration between Occupy Wall Street and labor and community groups along issues of workers' rights.
First, individuals within Occupy Wall Street researched the supply route from Bangladesh to the United States and put out the call to action. But that call was taken up by many organizations, including Occupy working groups like 99 Pickets as well as more established labor organizations such as ALIGN, Jobs With Justice, the Retail Action Project, the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council, and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, which sponsored busses from New York City.
Maritza Silva-Farrell, Senior Organizer at ALIGN, has been working to keep Walmart stores out of New York City since 2011. She said the collaboration between Occupy and groups like hers was building momentum around workers' rights. "We want to build a movement, a real movement, and this is it," she said.
She praised 99 Pickets, an Occupy working group formed after May Day out of conversations between other labor-related groups such as Immigrant Worker Justice and the Labor Outreach Council. The group works to unite workers and struggles around New York City by organizing, publicizing, and attending picket lines.
Exactly a week before the port action, the two groups helped organize one such action outside a talk on corporate responsibility by Walmart CEO Mike Duke. According to Silva-Farrell, the protest succeeded in influencing some of the questions Duke received at the event.
99 Pickets member Michelle Flores said that worker justice has always been part of Occupy Wall Street's larger agenda. Many people, she said, had come to OWS from various labor struggles. "Occupy Wall Street built on that momentum and I think that momentum came out of it," she said.
From the workplace occupation of Hot and Crusty to the Black Friday strikes at Walmart, the fall of 2012 has seen an increased focus on labor militancy within Occupy. Tuesday's port action, however small, helped build that wave.
As for the Maersk Carolina, its role in the fight for justice at Walmart isn't over yet. Reports are already emerging that protesters will target the ship again when it docks on Thursday in Charleston, S.C.
Organizers expect more than 1,000 strikes on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.
A tough economy makes cross-race organizing more important than ever.
How Americans across professions, religions, and states are uniting in opposition to Wisconsin's anti-union bill.


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The Onslow County Board of Commissioners, responding to a request from the county�s Board of Education, is putting the democratic process to the test by giving voters a chance to vote in May on a property-tax increase to fund school construction.
The Onslow County Board of Commissioners, responding to a request from the county�s Board of Education, is putting the democratic process to the test by giving voters a chance to vote in May on a property-tax increase to fund school construction.
The proposed tax increase would be substantial, nudging county property taxes up from a valuation of 58 cents per $100 to 64.65 cents, a jump of 6.65 cents. That�s an 11 percent increase in the county property-tax rate.
The bond, if passed, would provide a total of $149,235,718 in funding for improvements to existing school structures, along with enough cash to build two additional schools.
The referendum will appear on a ballot during a special election scheduled for May 14. If passed, property owners will start paying on July 1 and continue to pay the higher taxes for the next 20 years.
County officials were rueful about the prospect, noting that they ran on platforms emphasizing no tax increases, but school officials say they must have the bond money in order to keep pace with the county�s growing school population.
The student population has been growing at a continuous rate in recent years, and that growth is projected to continue. There are those who have serious doubts about those projections based on the expected overall decrease of locally assigned military personnel and their dependents.
For now, school officials say they desperately need the additional funds in order to house the climbing student population that currently spills over into 190 mobile classrooms.
If there is anything that�s certain about this proposed referendum, it�s that it will be a contentious issue. The education community will ramp up its efforts to recruit support for the schools by appealing to the generosity and community spirit that reside in Onslow�s citizens. But the cash-strapped public, which is already finding making ends meet a challenge, may have a difficult time welcoming the opportunity to raise their cost of living via their property taxes.
Whichever way it goes, we�re going to hear more about this issue in the months to come. And the issue won�t be limited to the need for another school-building campaign, but how this new tax burden fits with the county government�s plan for future spending.
Onslow County residents have a tough decision to make. Raising property taxes is a serious move, and opposing or supporting such a measure should not be a kneejerk reaction but rather a decision made after carefully weighing the implications.
In the meantime, the Board of Education should do some listening of its own and follow the advice of board member Mary Ann Sharpe, who favors having a Plan B in case the bond doesn�t pass.
Having a back-up plan is always smart. School board members should start considering how to alleviate overcrowding if troop cuts don�t make a significant impact in the population but higher taxes prove an unpopular alternative.


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soft(redirected from soft palate myositis)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Legal, Encyclopedia.
1. That which lacks statistical significance–ie, a statistical 'p' value > 0.05, as in 'soft' data or 'soft' risk factors. Cf Fragile data.
2. That which is socially regarded as relatively innocuous, as in 'soft' drugs–eg, nicotine or alcohol where dependence is often considered psychological or.
3. That which is not based on objective data, as in the 'soft' sciences of psychology or sociology.
soft(sŏft) [AS. softe]
Not hard, firm, or solid.
lacking in firmness.
soft fat
unpleasant soft fat occurs in pigs fed for too long on kitchen swill.
soft khaki weed
soft palate myositis
a cause of dorsal displacement of the soft palate in horses, resulting in chronic obstruction of the airway during exercise.
soft rolypoly
soft rush
soft shell disease
fish eggs lose their turgidity and become flat and wrinkled; the cause is unknown.
soft shelled eggs
hen eggs with soft shells occur in birds affected by avian infectious bronchitis and can persist for a long time into the recovery period.
soft ticks
ticks lacking a dorsal shield or scutum; members of the family Argasidae, e.g. Argas persicus. Called also nonscutate.
soft tissue
tissue other than bone and cartilage.
soft x-ray beam
made at low kVp output. The beam has low energy and weak penetration.
Patient discussion about soft
Q. Is it healthy to have a soft belly? I do not have a huge belly, but it is round and soft with no muscle tone with a fat layer.
A. The fat is more problematic than the muscle tone, and it's considered as a risk factor for heart diseases and others. Low muscle tone or strength of the muscles of the abdomen may lead to problems like hyperlordosis (lower back that is too curved backward) but these are usually treated, if necessary by strengthening these muscles, so usually it doesn't pose a substantial risk.
Q. For the past 6 months I have been trying to loose weight. For the past 6 months I have been trying to loose weight and I succeeded in that. But I feel to be heavy now. Why did this happened? Or is it just a feel?More discussions about soft