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China's Censorship Hits Internet Users In Other Countries
from the worst-of-all-worlds dept
It's hardly a surprise these days that Chinese Internet companies routinely self-censor what appears on their services: the world knows there's not much it can do about what happens within China's borders. But here's a disturbing story about how that censorship has started spreading further afield.
It concerns the WeChat app from the Chinese company Tencent, which has started to gain users in countries like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam. But as Tech In Asia now reports:
the Chinese name of the outspoken magazine caught up in a tense struggle of wills with the government -- Southern Weekend in English, nan fang zhou mo in Chinese -- is censored in Chinese on WeChat. But it's not just restricted to users in China (where the app is called Weixin), and typing that name in the Chinese language is now blocked globally.
Sending a message with "Southern Weekend" in Chinese produced the warning that it contained "restricted words":
We've tested it out going from users in China to Thailand (blocked), Thailand to China (blocked), and even Thailand to Singapore (blocked); the prohibited words are not sent at all. The name of the magazine can be sent in English.
Interestingly, just a day later the warning was gone, and Tencent claimed it was simply a "technical glitch":
A small number of WeChat international users were not able to send certain messages due to a technical glitch this Thursday. Immediate actions have been taken to rectify it.
But as Tech In Asia points out:
It's as clear as day in many screenshots. "The message [Southern Weekend] you sent contains restricted words. Please check it again."
As the article notes, maybe the "technical glitch" referred to was accidentally turning on the censorship for the service outside China.
Yes: Restricted words. That's no error message. It's very far from being: Ooops, our servers are a bit busy right now, please try again a few minutes later.
In any case, this is a clear straw in the wind. China's Internet companies are now so big and successful in their home market that it is only natural for them to look to expand overseas. I'm sure that at first they will be very reluctant to censor material there to avoid drawing the ire of digital rights groups and local governments; but at some point something will crop up that is sufficiently problematic for them as Chinese companies that they will feel compelled to act in order to safeguard their relations with the government in China, which will remain their priority.
Of course, the West can hardly claim the moral high ground here, since it, too, is censoring material. It's just that different governments take exception to different things, and react with differing degrees of severity against those who flout their laws. Unfortunately, the end-result of Chinese Net companies expanding overseas is likely to be double censorship – one imposed by local authorities, and the other flowing from China.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Filed Under: censorship, china, free speech, impact


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Music for a Winter's Evening: Sunday December 15
The Deerfield Academy Visual and Performing Arts Department presents "Music for a Winter's Evening" on Sunday, December 15 at 4PM in the First Church of Deerfield (71 Old Main Street, Deerfield). The event is free and open to the public.
Vivaldi: Gloria
Vivaldi: Concerto in F minor, Op. 8, No. 4
("Winter" from "The Four Seasons")
Handel: Excerpts from Messiah
Performed by the Deerfield Choral Society and the Deerfield Academy Orchestra with guest musicians.

subset: commoncrawl


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Moron-Free Radio is back!
The feminist movement – or at least the part the media pays most attention to – seems to be increasingly puritanical, anti-sex and pro-censorship. And yet, those attitudes aren't representatives of feminism. For the past few years, Carlyle Jansen has run the Feminist Porn Awards in Toronto. I spoke to her to find out what feminist porn is about.
Podcast (moron-free-radio): Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:02 — 26.6MB) | Embed


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|Home Software category Just in softwares Submit a program Contact us
Home > Desktop::Screen Savers: Art > I miss you 1
I miss you 1
Romatice screen saver for the ones whos heart is beating stillCompany: Poor Credit Mortgages
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Size: 329 KB
Price: USD $0.00
Release Date: 2011-09-24
Screenshot URL: http://img809.imageshack.us/img809/4518/thumbjc.jpg
Category: Desktop::Screen Savers: Art
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RUGER & COMPANY INC Ruger American Rifle
The 100% American-made, Ruger American Rifle is the latest engineering innovation from America's leading firearms manufacturer. Offered in short- and long-action calibers, the Ruger American Rifle combines the rugged reliability of Ruger's past with the award-winning ingenuity featured in so many of Ruger's products. Ruger Marksman Adjustable Trigger offers a crisp release with a pull weight that is adjustable between 3 and 5 pound, allowing shooters to make the perfect shot. Ergonomic, lightweight stock blends a classic look with modern forend contouring and grip serration. Power bedding, an integral bedding block system that positively locates the receiver and free floats the barrel for outstanding accuracy.
SPECIFICATIONS:Mfg Item Num: 6904 Category: FIREARMS - RIFLES Action :BoltCaliber :243 WinchesterBarrel Length :22 in Capacity :4 + 1Trigger :Ruger Marksman AdjustableSafety :TangLength :42 in Weight :6.25 lbsStock :Black Composite StockFinish :Matte Black


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|Induction Class of 2006
|Previous College:
|Boston State College '81
|Men's Lacrosse
Bussy Adam was one of the greatest players in Boston State College history, leading the Warriors to a 42-18 record (.700) and an ECAC Division II-III tournament berth in three of his four seasons. The Newton native was named a Colonial Division Lacrosse League All-Star three times, while racking up 186 career points as a midfielder and attackman to rank second on the Boston State all-time points list. He finished second in school annals with 106 assists and was sixth with 80 career goals as well. He capped his outstanding playing career in 1979 with 74 points, including a then school-record 34 assists and became the third player in school history to be selected to the North/South Senior National All-Star game.
The 1981 Boston State graduate starred in the 1979 New England Senior All-Star game, earning Most Valuable Player honors with five assists. Adam was not only a skilled player, but also a great team player, as evidenced by his volunteering to play four games in goal as a junior when the team's regular netminder was injured. Fellow Hall of Famer Gordon Webb remarked on Adam in 1979, "Bussy Adam was the type of player that all coaches dream about," he said. "I mean he not only had the skills on the field, but had a tremendous attitude towards the game and more importantly to his fellow players.
He was always doing something above and beyond to help the team." Following his playing career, Adam went on to coach at Newton North High School, where he has been since 1987, compiling an impressive 287-73 mark, while winning 13 Bay State League championships, five Eastern Massachusetts titles and three Massachusetts State crowns. He has been named the Bay State League Coach of the Year five times and was tabbed as The Boston Globe Coach of the Year in 1994.
His coaching prowess has taken him out of Massachusetts and North America with the opportunity to coach in the National High School All-Star game in Ohio in 1998 and a trip to Melbourne, Australia in 1995 to direct the USA 15 and under team. His selection to this year's Hall of Fame won't be his first as he was inducted into the Newton High School Hall of Fame in 2004.


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|Professor of psychiatry George Grossberg, M.D. is the principal investigator of the study.
Generalized anxiety disorder is the most common cause of anxiety symptoms in adults and can affect 3.1 percent of the population in any given year, says George Grossberg, M.D., professor of psychiatry and principal investigator for the study at Saint Louis University.
"People who have generalized anxiety disorder show excessive amounts of anxiety, worry and preoccupation on a number of different things, on a day-to-day basis for at least six months," said Grossberg.
According to Grossberg, the extreme amount of anxiety is difficult to control, which can cause difficulty sleeping, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating or focusing, and irritable and tense feelings.
Treatment approaches for generalized anxiety disorder typically involve medication, cognitive therapy or a combination of the two.
Investigators will enroll men and women who are 18 to 70 years old who have been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder in this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.
Participants will take one of two daily doses of the investigational product or placebo. The effectiveness and safety of the investigational drug will be evaluated through eight clinical visits over the course of 10 weeks.
Saint Louis University hopes to enroll at least 10 participants for the trial and is the only study center in the St. Louis area. A total of 660 patients will be randomized into three groups across approximately 40 study centers.
To learn more about the study and inclusion criteria, contact Susan Brown at 314-977-4818 and reference IRB number 22482.
Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: cancer, liver disease, heart/lung disease, aging and brain disease, and infectious diseases.


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We are already at the point in this prematurely unfolding 2016 presidential campaign when a glance down the list of prospective candidates can cause most observers to wince. As that seductive and sultry crooner Peggy Lee once sang, "Is that all there is?"
At the U.Va. Crystal Ball, we currently have 11 Republicans and nine Democrats as probable or possible presidential contenders. The Democrats have fewer and more tentative contenders because of the paralyzing gravitational pull of "Planet Hillary," as the New York Times Magazine described the Clinton operation. The former secretary of state is a kind of massive Jupiter in a solar system that may not have many more worlds if she runs.
Story Continued Below
The Republicans have a sharply different problem. They have plenty of wannabes but no obvious general election winner. It's not that we can't construct scenarios by which this or that GOP nominee will capture the White House three years hence. Rather, it is that no one on the present list seems able to convincingly combat the growing demographic edge that produces a Democratic lead in the Electoral College.
Republicans probably won't believe this assertion once they do reasonably well in this November's low-turnout, red state-skewed midterm election; they'll fool themselves again, just as they did after their 2010 midterm triumph, when the most frequently heard GOP comment was, "Even my dog could beat President Obama in 2012."
Maybe Obama will be so unpopular by 2016, or the economy bad enough, that the Democratic nominee simply can't win. But if the general election turns out to be closely competitive, as most open-seat contests for the White House are, who among the Republicans can redraw an Electoral College map that's strongly in the Democrats' favor?
Many Republicans privately worry that there isn't anybody, but if forced to choose a champion, they will argue it is Jeb Bush. The Bush family's extensive network of operatives and contributors will certainly be a giant assist to his nomination, and Jeb's ties to segments of the Hispanic population, plus past success in critical Florida, give him a plausible general election strategy. But Jeb Bush was last on a Sunshine State ballot in 2002, and it's not difficult to see him trapped in the web of his brother's very mixed legacy. If elected he would be the third Bush in the White House. The aspiring Clinton dynasty is just working on its second occupant.
Tea Party Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ted Cruz of Texas probably can't do much better than Bush with Hispanics, despite their ethnic heritage, and because of their far-right positioning they may do far worse with other swing groups. A sitting governor is also a possibility, as I noted in a previous column: Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and John Kasich of Ohio are promising but untested presidential contenders, unless you count Kasich's brief, unsuccessful 2000 bid. The unfolding e-mail brouhaha surrounding Walker, while small potatoes in some ways, shows the risks associated with any pol who hasn't gone through the national wringer.
A more potent scandal in the Garden State has already made it obvious that Gov. Chris Christie's White House hopes could be a bridge too far. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has a shaky libertarian-lite coalition that rhetorically reaches from Edward Snowden to Monica Lewinsky, but may be subject to catastrophic collapse due to internal stresses and contradictions. Then there's Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania; they would offer the GOP a melancholy reprise of the Goldwater landslide defeat of 1964.
Is there no one who can break the stranglehold Democrats have on 70-90 percent of various demographic minorities (African-Americans, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian-Americans, and gays and lesbians) and 55-60 percent of women and the young (age 18-29)? These groups, some swelling in size, practically hand a presidential election to Democrats as long as the party's candidate can secure a mere 38-40 percent of the white vote.
The natural GOP impulse could be to put a minority or a woman on the ticket, so that gender or ethnic identity can pull enough votes to transform electoral reality. The theory is probably flawed. All by itself, a token representative of diversity—especially in the second slot on the ticket—won't have the juice to undo decades of partisan polarization among women and minorities.
But what about another approach—finding a nominee who doesn't just superficially demonstrate diversity but has taken a substantive, career-threatening position in standing up for diversity? Happy talk, campaign promises and speaking slots at national conventions are wholly inadequate if the goal is the remaking of the electorate. By contrast, a genuine profile in courage who has dramatically broken with GOP orthodoxy and demonstrated a capacity for growth can get the party a hearing, maybe more, with skeptical voters.
Enter Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio. Portman attracted national attention in 2013 when he announced that his son, Will, an undergraduate student at Yale, was gay. Portman declared his support not just for his son but also for same-sex marriage. This happened before the key Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, and showed real family values, not the phony ones invoked by many politicians. Every political adviser on Portman's team must have warned him of the dangers: You could lose your seat in a primary, you'll be targeted by social conservatives, your national career will be over and your effectiveness even within the Senate will be circumscribed. It took guts to do what Portman did, with the political consequences unknown and potentially severe.
Before Portman's dramatic announcement, I often heard political observers on both sides of the aisle name him as one of the most qualified and able presidential candidates the GOP could muster. It's easy to see why. Portman was a respected member of the House from 1993 to 2005, then U.S. Trade Representative for President George W. Bush and subsequently director of Bush's Office of Management and Budget. In 2010, Ohioans voted Portman into the Senate by a landslide margin, 57%-39 percent. Though Portman served late in the Bush years, the OMB post still opens him up to criticism about Bush's smoke-and-mirrors budgets, full of debt, tax cuts and unpaid-for wars. Yet it also demonstrates he understands the federal bureaucracy and could govern from day one. The trade post gives Portman some foreign policy background, which would be useful in a run against a former secretary of state. Add to this his geographic placement in one of the swingiest states, without which no Republican has ever been elected president.
Colleagues on both sides of the aisle like Portman, who is low-key and willing to listen, if not agree, with others' strongly held points of view. Cheap shots and grandstanding press conferences are not in his repertoire.
He's serious, credible and smart. So why isn't there more Portman chatter?


text:
Powerful connection technology is the basis for industrial production technology.The HARTING product and services spectrum includes connectors, device connectivity and network components. HARTING products combine machines and systems with data, signal and power.
These offerings enable solutions for the following markets: automation technology, energy, transportation, broadcasting, stage and event technology, engineering, medical technology and infrastructure. HARTING employs 44 sales companies and 13 production sites and around 4600 employees.
Find out more about the history, present and future of HARTING.


text:
Asked by Kay, Via CNN.com comments
A dermatologist told my sister she has ichthyosis. What is it, and how is it treated? She has been on medication for six months, and it is still not gone.
Conditions Expert
Dr. Otis Brawley
Chief Medical Officer,
American Cancer Society
Ichthyosis is a group of more than two dozen skin diseases that vary in severity. Most are mild inconveniences, and some are life-threatening.
They have in common that the skin is thickened with scaly patches, especially on the shins, the forearms and upper arms, and the palms of the hands and the bottoms of the feet. The skin of the fingers is dry and bleeds easily. Opposing skin in the armpits, the groin, the elbow and the knee is usually not effected.
There are huge psychological problems due to appearance. Patients have issues with self-image and may withdraw.
People with the severe forms of the disease are prone to skin infection. Some of these skin infections are actually treated in burn units of hospitals due to their seriousness.
Most cases of ichthyosis are genetic in that a parent with the disease can pass it on to their children. It is not uncommon for a parent to have mild ichthyosis and the child to have more severe disease. Most children with icthyosis are born without evidence of the disease and develop symptoms in later childhood.
Some forms of ichthyosis are also more severe in childhood, improve in young adulthood and worsen in old age. The disease can wax and wane throughout life.
It is also interesting that many, perhaps most, patients with this condition also have skin allergies, eczema and/or asthma. The patient with moderate to severe icthyosis often has problems sweating due to the buildup of scales on the skin. The scales essentially seal the sweat glands. This can cause a tremendous itch known as "prickly itch."
Patients can also have serious sensitivity to heat. The most effective treatments are exfoliating chemicals to remove the scales and allow the skin underneath to function normally.
These exfoliating drugs often must be applied several times a day, and treatment may continue for years. The itch can be treated with Benadryl creams and topical steroids.
A dry-air conditioned environment and consumption of alcohol have been reported as making icthyosis worse. Avoiding these may improve symptoms.
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Will my meniscus tear heal without surgery?« Back to Conditions
Next question:
Why do my boyfriend's feet sweat?
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text:
Well, darn. I guess I can't just shut down the whole blog now.
I've been following your blog for a long time now, starting as a 16-year-old Christian trying to cope with my father's sudden cardiac-related death. With help from you and many other intelligent, unyielding atheist commentators, I've long since shed the religious mindset and all its associated toxicity.
Today, FreethoughtBlogs remains as important as ever in maintaining my sanity. Over the past few years I have managed to rid myself of an eating disorder that has haunted me from my youth, but I still find myself vulnerable to hurtful comments about appearance and its relation to a woman's worth as a person — a susceptibility against which the recent profusion of MRA nastiness on the internet has preyed. However, every time I am drawn into the bowels of MRA pseudoscience that would have me believe that as a 23-year-old woman, the quality and value of my life will decrease with each passing day (and commensurate drop in my "SMV"), I meander over to your blog to receive the antidote — healthy servings of science and compassion — and leave with my self-esteem and knowledge increased.
I want to sincerely thank you and your regulars for your tireless dismantling of nonsense — religious, MRA, libertarian, or otherwise — and for sharing your love of science. I'm proud to announce that in May, I — despite my inauspicious beginnings as a Christian bulimic from a family netting $17,000 a year — will be graduating from a prestigious university with a degree in the sciences, a love for which field your posts helped to kindle.
You will never know how much your blog has helped to change my life for the better.


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April 11, 2013, Dumfries, Scotland (ISN) – The World Curling Federation (WCF) and the Royal Caledonian Curling Club today announced that the Scottish town of Dumfries will host the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship and World Senior Men's and Women's Curling Championships in 2014.
All three world championships will take place at the Dumfries Ice Bowl between April 22-29, 2014. Over 30 senior teams from around the world are expected to compete, along with a similar number of mixed doubles teams.
"We are delighted to be heading to Dumfries for the World Mixed Doubles and Senior Curling Championships in 2014," said World Curling Federation President Kate Caithness. "The South-West of Scotland has a long tradition with curling and it is very fitting that these World Curling Federation championship events will be hosted in a region which has produced so many fine curlers."
It marks the first time that Scotland will host the World Mixed Doubles Curling Championship, which began in 2008 in Vierumäki, Finland. However, Scotland has previously staged the World Seniors – in 2005 at Greenacres.
Dumfries and Galloway Councillor, Finlay Carson, said: "It is a fantastic achievement for Dumfries and Galloway to be selected to stage such a prestigious event. The investment our Council has put into the Dumfries Ice Bowl now allows us to stage World Championship events. Great credit must go to all the Council staff involved in making this possible over the years. Financial support in attracting the event will be well invested and assist the Council in delivering one of its key priorities: to support and stimulate our local economy by maximising the tourism potential, economic benefit and legacy from major events."
Dumfries and Galloway Council officials have been successful in gaining financial support for the staging of the event through Nithsdale Area Committee and through the Homecoming Scotland 2014 events fund which aims to showcase hundreds of events across the country – from mass participation to small community activity.
Caroline Packman, Homecoming Scotland 2014 Director, said: "2014 promises to be a very exciting year for Scotland where we can celebrate all that's great about our country and place the spotlight on our greatest assets. We are delighted to have the World Curling Federation Mixed Doubles and Senior World Championships as part of the ever-extending Homecoming Scotland 2014 programme. It presents a fantastic opportunity for both visitors and locals to enjoy what's set to be a great event."
The 2013 World Mixed Doubles and World Senior Championships are due to begin on April 13 in Fredericton, Canada. Previous World Mixed Doubles Curling Championships have been held in Vierumäki, Finland in 2008; Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy in 2009; Chelyabinsk, Russia in 2010, St Paul, USA in 2011 and in Erzurum, Turkey in 2012.
Both the World Seniors and World Mixed Doubles are played over eight ends instead of 10 ends. While the World Seniors competition follows the rules of traditional team curling, the Mixed Doubles format brings together one male and one female curler. Teams have only six stones each (instead of eight) and one of those stones, from each team, is prepositioned on the centre line before each end of play. Player one delivers the first and last stones and player two plays the second, third and fourth stones. If they choose to, the two players may swap positions from one end to the next. Both team members are also allowed to sweep.
The local organising committee are well underway in developing a comprehensive plan to deliver this event and show off the region and Scotland to the visiting curlers from around the World.
The committee will be looking for volunteers and helpers to assist with the event and would very much like to hear from you if you are interested. The event website is currently being developed and will be launched later this year. Anyone interested in being involved please get in contact via email@example.com to register your interest.
The local organising committee will be staging an information day and opportunity for volunteers to register on Saturday 4th May at 11.00am, for anyone interested in attending please contact the email address above.


text:
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Is it possible for a show to be extremely well done and yet still not entirely connect?
Oh, my, yes.
Palm Beach Dramaworks does exactly that - and does it very well - with Eugene Ionesco's absurdist classic "Exit the King."
First, a little context: The play premiered 51 years ago in 1962 and was translated by Geoffrey Rush in 2007 and staged on Broadway in 2009 (Rush won a Tony for his performance). The production is part of the playwright's Berenger Cycle, which includes 1958's "The Killer," 1959's "Rhinoceros" and 1963's "A Stroll in the Air."
The staging here - directed with cartoonish flair by William Hayes - is flawless. The cast jumps onboard the irrational ride, grabbing on tightly until the last stop, 90 minutes later with no intermission.
But there's a reason this show isn't mounted much: Many people just don't "get" Theatre of the Absurd. Besides, "Exit the King" is about death, not a biggie for American audiences. In the ultimate spoiler alert, we are told at the opening that the central character, King Berenger the First (Colin McPhillamy), is going to die by the end of the performance.
Even before that, Berenger yucks it up with the audience, vaudeville style. He's desperate for attention like a needy child, even though he has lived for 400 years. Eventually, he wanders onstage, and we learn that his kingdom used to have a population of "9,000 million." But now, it's less than a 1,000 old people "who know the party is over, but pretend they don't," observes Queen Marguerite (Angie Radosh).
His ramshackle castle - because he was a terrible king - is shared by his second wife, Queen Marie (Claire Brownell), his doctor (Rob Donohoe) and what's left of his staff: one guard (Jim Ballard) and one domestic (Elizabeth Dimon).
Noblesse oblige be damned, Berenger is not going gently into that good night. He flaps and flies around the stage until finally, in the last truly poetic passage, Queen Marguerite eases him into the inevitable.
Absurdists use humor not to make you laugh as much as to show their reaction to life's capriciousness, randomness and fathomlessness. It is all about alienation and miscommunication. So unless you're really, really into gallows humor, this might not be your thing. It's not so much a "comic romp" (as billed by the company) as it is a drama with desperate, nonsensical humor. And it's all sooooo academic in a way.
That's a tough sell. But if any theater company can pull it off, it's Palm Beach Dramaworks and it's with this cast.
"Exit the King" runs through April 28 at Palm Beach Dramaworks, 201 Clematis St., in West Palm Beach. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays; and 2 p.m. matinees Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets cost $55 ($10 for students). Call 561-514-4042 or go to PalmBeachDramaworks.org


text:
I needed Mountain Lion because some of the newer software of Apple, such as Xcode, requires Mountain Lion, but besides the iMac 27 I have, sometimes I need to go on trips and need to bring a white Macbook that I bought near end of 2007.
It is indeed a very decent Core 2 Duo notebook (besides the screen dimming a little after so many years because it is not LED type), with an Intel graphics card that is capable of playing all videos and Flash games I tried, but wonder, this Macbook can't install Mountain Lion and so I need to buy either a new Macbook Air for about $1200 or a Macbook Pro for $1800 to $2200 (depending on whether it is Retina). Is there a reason why Mountain Lion can't be installed on this notebook? Since it is to run Xcode mainly, graphics card performance is not needed if that may be a reason -- or for other reasons?


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Blue Jays provide no help for Dickey in solid start
ST. PETERSBURG -- The Blue Jays' bats looked a lot sicker than David Price did on Sunday afternoon.
The Tampa Bay ace silenced the Toronto offense in the Blue Jays' series finale against the Rays at Tropicana Field, as Toronto dropped its final game before the All-Star break, 3-0.View Full Game Coverage
ST. PETERSBURG -- The Blue Jays' bats looked a lot sicker than David Price did on Sunday afternoon.
The Tampa Bay ace silenced the Toronto offense in the Blue Jays' series finale against the Rays at Tropicana Field, as Toronto dropped its final game before the All-Star break, 3-0.View Full Game Coverage
Price was originally slated to start Saturday's game before being scratched with an illness. That didn't stop him from tossing eight-plus scoreless innings the next day and outdueling R.A. Dickey, who put in a solid day's work.
Dickey's knuckleball was often baffling -- Ben Zobrist batted lefty against Dickey in the first inning and struck out, then switched to righty for his next at-bat and got out again -- but not enough to win.
"That's a perennial All-Star over there, and he did a great job today," Dickey said. "What can you say? He shut us down. He almost pitched a complete-game shutout. You know when you're pitching against a guy like that, you don't have a lot of margin for error anyway."
Toronto dropped the series, two games to one, and hasn't won a series at The Trop since 2007. That's now 21 series without a win, including 19 series losses and two splits. The Blue Jays have lost eight of their last 10 games and have won just two of their past 11 completed series.
Sunday's loss also cost Toronto its chance to become the first Blue Jays team to win 50 games before the All-Star break since the 1992 World Series-winning squad. The Blue Jays will enter the break 49-47, good for second place in the American League East.
"We're obviously not playing the baseball that we started off playing and that we're capable of playing," said Jose Bautista, who will be starting in the outfield for the AL in Tuesday's All-Star Game. "We've had a lot of injuries to deal with. Bottom line is, we've got to figure out how to win some of these games that we've been losing, especially close ones.
"Hopefully we can manage to keep winning enough games to stay in one of the top two positions in our division, and when we get all our big bats back, kind of get back in the thick of things."
The All-Star break is coming at an opportune time for the Blue Jays, whose dangerous lineup has been hollowed out by injuries. Toronto's disabled list is full of key players such as Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind and Brett Lawrie.
Those names were palpably absent on Sunday, when a lineup filled out by players who have spent considerable time in the Minor Leagues this season failed to muster up any offense against Price or Jake McGee, who closed out the Blue Jays in the ninth.
In the rubber game of the series, Toronto's 4-5-6 hitters were Dan Johnson, Erik Kratz and Steve Tolleson. Dan Johnson was called up from Triple-A Buffalo on Friday, having played with the Bisons all season. Kratz has played 25 games in Buffalo this year. Tolleson has played 19.
"We can't worry about that," manager John Gibbons said. "This is our team right now. You've got to show up and play every day, try and win a game."
That batting order left no wiggle room for Dickey, who scattered two runs in his six innings on Sunday, but lost his ninth game.
In the second inning, Dickey got two quick outs but couldn't nail down the third. Yunel Escobar hit a jam-shot single into right field, Dickey plunked Jose Molina -- to the extent to which a 73-mph knuckleball can plunk a hitter -- and Logan Forsythe lined an RBI single through the right side to put the Rays up, 1-0.
In the sixth, Bautista came within inches of hosing a runner at the plate in his first game back in right field since June 22, but after a successful Rays challenge, those few inches gave Tampa Bay a 2-0 lead.
Like the Rays' first run, the second came with two outs when, with Yunel Escobar on second after a stolen base, Molina lined a single to right off Dickey. Bautista came up firing home, catcher Josh Thole laid the tag on Escobar and home-plate umpire Sean Barber called him out. But Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon challenged, replays showed Escobar's foot getting in safely ahead of the tag and the out call was overturned.
"We scratched out a couple runs, fortunately for us," Maddon said. "A big play, obviously, is Escobar eventually stealing the bag and J-Mo driving him in."
Really, that run didn't end up mattering with the goose egg the Blue Jays put up against Price and McGee.
"[Price] is good. He's one of the best in the business," Gibbons said. "He did his thing, and then McGee came in and finished it off. I don't care what lineup you throw out there today, it was gonna be tough, tough going."
David Adler is an associate reporter for MLB.com.


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No. 93,806
1. K.S.A. 2005 Supp. 21-4716(a) requires the sentencing court to impose the presumptive sentence under the sentencing guidelines unless the court finds substantial and compelling reasons to grant a departure. On appeal, the appellate court must determine if the sentencing court's findings of fact and reasons justifying a departure: (1) are supported by substantial competent evidence in the record and (2) constitute substantial and compelling reasons for departure as a matter of law. The appellate court considers only those factors articulated by the sentencing court.
2. It is not required that all of the reasons given by the sentencing court to support the departure sentence be substantial and compelling as long as one or more of the factors relied upon is substantial and compelling.
3. K.S.A. 2005 Supp. 21-4716(c) provides a list of nonexclusive substantial and compelling departure factors. Nonstatutory departure factors are subject to stricter scrutiny than those enumerated in the statute.
4. Under the facts of this case, the sentencing court's finding that the victims' behavior invited the defendant's conduct was not a substantial and compelling basis for a dispositional departure. However, the remaining factors cited by the sentencing court, considered collectively, were sufficient to justify the downward departure.
Appeal from Seward District Court, T. KEITH WILSON, judge. Opinion filed April 28, 2006. Affirmed.
Melissa G. Johnson, assistant county attorney, Don L. Scott, county attorney, and Phill Kline, attorney general, for appellant.
Brett Getty, of Kansas Appellate Defender Office, for appellee.
Before MALONE, P.J., GREEN and BUSER, JJ.
MALONE, J.: Tiffany Bolden was convicted of two counts of aggravated battery and other related charges. The State appeals the downward dispositional departure of her sentence. We affirm.
Tiffany was charged with two counts of aggravated battery, two counts of aggravated assault, one count of criminal damage to property, one count of violation of a protection order, and one count of reckless driving. The charges arose from an incident where Tiffany drove her car into the side of another car, pushed it off the road, and then struck it again from behind. The other car was occupied by Tiffany's husband, Derrick Bolden, and his girlfriend, Glenda Plunk. Glenda had previously obtained a protection from abuse order against Tiffany due to stalking and harassment. The jury convicted Tiffany of all seven charges.
At sentencing, Tiffany's criminal history and crime severity level indicated a presumptive prison sentence of 27 to 31 months. The district court stated that it could find no compelling reason for a durational departure and imposed a sentence of 29 months. However, the district court granted a dispositional departure and placed Tiffany on 24 months' probation based on four factors: (1) The victims' actions invited the reaction, even though they did not justify the reaction; (2) the long-term effects on Tiffany's children were not justified; (3) Tiffany sought help for anger control; and (4) the probability of reformation was increased with probation. The State appeals the sentence. Additional facts will be provided.
K.S.A. 2005 Supp. 21-4716(a) requires the sentencing court to impose the presumptive sentence under the sentencing guidelines unless the court finds substantial and compelling reasons to grant a departure. On appeal, the appellate court must determine if the sentencing court's findings of fact and reasons justifying a departure: (1) are supported by substantial competent evidence in the record and (2) constitute substantial and compelling reasons for departure as a matter of law. K.S.A. 21-4721(d); State v. McKay, 271 Kan. 725, 727, 26 P.3d 58 (2001). The appellate court considers only those factors articulated by the sentencing court. State v. Haney, 34 Kan. App. 2d 232, 235, 116 P.3d 747, rev. denied 280 Kan. ___ (2005). "It is not required that all of the reasons given by the sentencing court to support the departure sentence be substantial and compelling as long as one or more of the factors relied upon is substantial and compelling." State v. Ippert, 268 Kan. 254, Syl. ¶ 2, 995 P.2d 858 (2000).
K.S.A. 2005 Supp. 21-4716(c) provides a list of nonexclusive substantial and compelling departure factors. Nonstatutory departure factors are subject to stricter scrutiny than those enumerated in the statute. State v. Murphy, 270 Kan. 804, 807, 19 P.3d 80 (2001). The meaning of the phrase substantial and compelling was discussed in McKay. "The term 'substantial' refers to something that is real, not imagined; something with substance and not ephemeral. The term 'compelling' implies that the court is forced, by the facts of a case, to leave the status quo or go beyond what is ordinary. [Citation omitted.]" 271 Kan. at 728.
Victims' behavior
At the sentencing hearing, the district judge stated:
"I will tell you that I am substantially offended by a victim who thinks it's okay to continue to carry on a relationship with his spouse, and one or more girlfriends, to do it pretty openly and flaunt it, and expect no consequences therefrom. In that marriage relationship there is responsibility that belongs on the shoulders of both parties. Certainly the appropriate response to a spouse who does what Mr. Bolden was doing is not to go out and try to run over him with your car, or the girlfriend who knows good and well he's married, the appropriate response is not to try and go out and run over her. However, you do have to anticipate that somebody may, under those very extreme circumstances, lose control."
The State argues this was an insufficient basis for a departure. K.S.A. 2005 Supp. 21-4716(c)(1)(A) provides for departure if the victim was an aggressor or participant in the criminal conduct. Here, the district court did not find that Derrick and Glenda were aggressors or participants in the crime; rather, the court found they invited Tiffany's reaction.
Tiffany cites State v. Minor, 268 Kan. 292, 997 P.2d 648 (2000). In Minor, the court held that willing participation of a minor female victim was a substantial and compelling reason to depart in a case of statutory rape. 268 Kan. at 305. This case is distinguishable from Minor in that neither victim willingly participated in the crimes of aggravated battery. In fact, Glenda had obtained a protection order to prevent contact from Tiffany.
There are no Kansas cases dealing with such behavior being used as the basis for a departure. In order for a departure factor to be compelling, the facts of the case must go beyond what is ordinary. It is difficult to conclude the victims' behavior in this case forced the district court to go beyond the ordinary sentence devised by the legislature. A reasonable person would expect a wife to be upset upon learning that her husband is being unfaithful. However, it is unreasonable to accept that by engaging in infidelity a person invites their spouse to assault and batter them. The district court recognized this when it conceded that Tiffany's response was not appropriate. Even if this ground for departure may have applied to Derrick, it certainly did not apply to Glenda who had obtained a restraining order against Tiffany's harassment. Considering the stricter scrutiny this court applies to nonstatutory departure factors, we conclude the victims' behavior was not a substantial and compelling basis for departure.
Effects on the children, anger control, and reformation
Tiffany testified about her children:
"I implore this Court to consider the matter of my children. Our five-year-old son, Audric, has suffered a regression in his childhood development in response to the void created by my husband's absence, which has been marked by his return to bedwetting, trouble adjusting socially at pre-school, and a spoken desire to want to stay a baby. Therapists and doctors have suggested that Audric's regression is caused by a desire to remain in a developmental stage where he perceived our family to be happy, and most of all a period of time when his father was a major part of his life. I fear that if I am suddenly removed from his life as well, he will suffer more developmental regression and would undo the progress he has made in dealing with the absence of his father.
"Austin and Alexis, my two oldest children, seem to be handling the changes in our family better than Audric, but I fear that an extended separation would create added anxiety that could impede their normal developmental progress. In light of my recent diagnosis of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality disorder, and research that suggests that this anxiety disorder and others like it is genetic, my children would greatly benefit if I were able to remain with them and ensure that they get the therapy and/or evaluations necessary to help identify and manage this bothersome disorder or any like it that they too may have."
In State v. Crawford, 21 Kan. App. 2d 859, 861, 908 P.2d 638 (1995), the court found the fact that the defendant was raising three children, along with other factors, constituted sufficient grounds for a downward durational departure. Crawford is distinguishable because it addresses a durational departure rather than a dispositional departure. Nevertheless, the fact that a defendant is raising dependent children has been acknowledged as a legitimate basis for a departure sentence.
At the sentencing hearing, the district court heard testimony from Dr. Sue Dowd, who conducted a psychological evaluation of Tiffany. Dowd testified Tiffany's IQ tests indicated superior intelligence. Dowd recommended specific counseling for Tiffany, including a 26-week domestic violence class and a 12-week anger management class. Dowd indicated she thought Tiffany could successfully complete these classes, and she believed the counseling would help Tiffany control her aggression and anger. Tiffany also testified the counseling she had received thus far had helped to control her anger.
The district court specifically cited the fact that "Tiffany sought help for anger control" as one of the grounds for granting the departure. We believe this ground constitutes the strongest departure factor cited by the district court. As long as one factor relied upon by the sentencing court is substantial and compelling, the departure sentence should be upheld. State v. Rodriguez, 269 Kan. 633, 646, 8 P.3d 712 (2000).
Finally, the district court found the probability of reformation was increased with probation. Amenability to rehabilitation alone is not a substantial and compelling reason to depart from a presumptive sentence, but it may be considered if the totality of the circumstances warrant departure. Haney, 34 Kan. App. 2d at 246.
An appellate court may review a sentencing court's grounds for departure collectively. Crawford, 21 Kan. App. 2d at 861. We hold that when taken together, the final three reasons advanced by the district court to justify the dispositional departure were supported by substantial competent evidence and constituted substantial and compelling reasons for departure as a matter of law in this case. We hasten to note that we do not believe that any one of those factors, standing alone, would necessarily justify a downward departure. However, when considered in their totality, they were substantial and compelling.


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From Florida to California, Black Friday fever has taken hold earlier than ever as dedicated shoppers camp out in front of major retailers, several of which are expected to open their doors on Thanksgiving Day. NBC's Diana Alvear reports.
From Los Angeles to Tampa, shoppers are already camping out in front of big-box retailers, determined to be among the first in line for door-buster deals.
In Los Angeles, some hardcore consumers have been in line since last Monday, even taking vacation from work in order to save big money.
An estimated 147 million Americans will take advantage of Black Friday sales, 4 percent more than last year.
"This year's the earliest I've seen people line up," said Jeff Cox, the Best Buy manager at a Best Buy store in Los Angeles. "I'm astonished. I've never seen that in my history in retail."
Why would a person spend 10 days camping out in front of a store? Are the deals really that good?
"People are like, why come, make a line. You're not saving that much. But we actually are," said Miriam Santamaria, who is proudly first in line at the Best Buy.
By Friday morning, managers at the L.A. Beat Buy are expecting up to 5,000 people. That explains why Miriam says the worst part about Black Friday is getting out of the parking lot.
In Tampa, shoppers starting waiting in line over the weekend at a Best Buy, hoping to get their hands on heavily discounted flat-screen TVs and computers.
Good things come to those who wait. But this may be taking it too far.


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Charity / Cinema Park / digital economy / ecotourism / filedtrips / hiking / Interport / Interros / Interros-Dostoinstvo / Kennedy Center / National Council on Corporate Government / nature tourism / NCCG / Norilsk Nickel / Norilsk Nickel AGM / OPIN / Petrovax Pharm / Potanin / Power Machines / ProfMedia / quadrivalent vaccine / Rosa Khutor / Rosbank / RSPP / RUIE / Russian International Olympic University / Russian Lounge / Russian Union / Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs / Soglasie / Sport Connect / sustainable tourism / The National Council on Corporate Governance / Three Volcanoes Park / UNEXIM Bank / vaccine prophylaxis / Vladimir Potanin / Vladimir Potanin Foundation
In 2011 Vladimir Potanin made a donation to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts to celebrate the Center's forty year anniversary. As a result of the collaboration between the Foundation and the Center with the support of the Embassy of the Russia to the US a reconstruction of the largest Lounge of the Center took place.More Topics Russian Lounge / Kennedy Center / Vladimir Potanin Foundation / Charity
During the AGM a new Board of Directors was elected and the dividend for 2014 in the amount of RUB 670.04 per ordinary share was approved.More Topics Norilsk Nickel AGM / Norilsk Nickel
The opening of the 'Fostering Leadership' exhibition curated by the Vladimir Potanin Foundation provided a catalyst for dialogue on the way in which Foundations can effectively fund 'culture'.More Topics Vladimir Potanin Foundation / Charity
Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov finished a series of deals terminating their mutual trust and released each other from mutual claims. Entities close to M. Prokhorov purchased all OPIN shares owned by V.Potanins entities.More Topics OPIN
Vladimir Potanin and Mikhail Prokhorov reached an agreement on termination of a mutual trust. The trust agreement was inked by both parties on March 20, 2008 with the trust manager Andrey Klishas in order to manage mutual assets. Today, the parties signed a number of agreements which are to settle all issues related to the trusts assets as well as to free each party from mutual claims. The signed agreements also provide that business entities closed to M. Prokhorov are to purchase all OPIN shares owned by V.Potanins entities.More Topics OPIN


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Weds, 6pm: the Sheraton concierge
Not quite crusty, but most certainly cranky. I wanted to buy food, he told me the deli two doors down. I wanted a grocery store of some kind, he told me the deli two doors down. Okay, man. I'm going the other way. Welcome to New York. Just the first of many people too busy to spend time talking with me.
Weds, 8pm: Michael Ricci
The esteemed Publisher of All About Jazz showed up around eight and dropped off his stuff in our room at the Sheraton. It's always great to see Mike, something that happens way too rarely. We doodled on the laptop (hooked up to a high bandwidth connection in the room), checked out the web site, and visited a few jazz clubs around the city as a cheap excuse to test AAJ's Club Guide . Spent half an hour screwing around with digital cameras and just generally shot the shit. Eventually we set out for the 55 Bar in the Village, our venue of choice. (Photo: AAJ mobile command center.)
Weds, 10:30 pm: Queva Lutz
At the 55 Bar , which was a pleasantly intimate discovery, Mike Stern was playing in a hard-jamming quartet with Chris Potter and Francois Moutin. (The drummer was unremarkable and my memory is miserable.) Unfortunately there were no seats left and no place to stand, so Queva (the owner of the club) guided us out shortly after the first set started. She is a very grounded, very intelligent womanfriendly and accommodating, just what's called for in that situation. We went out for Thai food, came back for the second set, and stayed till 2 am.
Weds, 12 am: Trucker hero
We met Kurt (last name unknown) in the line at the 55 Bar. He had piloted a truck from Manhattan, KS (IAJE HQ) to Manhattan, NY carrying all-essential T shirts, guide books, and hardware. Apparently the rental truck wasn't working quite right, which meant its lights blinked out almost randomly for several long seconds at a time on the road. Just imagine driving a truckload of jazz paraphernalia through the mountains at night with no lights. Our new friend operates a string sales/repair place in Kansas, plays the bass, follows the music. Good chats.
Thurs, 2 pm: Brian Lynch
At the clave workshop the next day, Brian Lynch led a very friendly, accessible introduction to the clave, rumba and other Latin jazz rhythms. Lynch understood that he had to start simple (everyone clapping the basic five-note beat) and build up (to two renderings of the Miles Davis tune "Solar," before and after the imposition of clave). Given the heterogeneity of the audience, his approach worked perfectly.
Thurs, 4 pm: Ken Hatfield
Sirius is one of two satellite radio giants in the US, a subscriber-only service with 100 channels, five of which are devoted to jazz. They have a huge midtown headquarters full of glass and metal, 45 recording studios, a massive satellite control center, and DJs scattered everywhere doing announcements. In fact, Jason Moran's Bandwagon was in the front studio going nuts. Ken Hatfieldjazz guitarist and savvy businessman, leader of the well-received Phoenix Risingjoined the group of 40 or so that went on the tour. He's sharp, he's direct, he's not afraid to get down to nuts and bolts. There are a lot of nuts and bolts in the music business, but Ken Hatfield isn't afraid to twist them all. (Photo: Sirius satellite nerve center.)
Thurs, 6 pm: the brothers Moutin
Bassist Francois and drummer Louis Moutin form half of the Moutin Reunion Quartet , which just released a second record, Red Moon . Sunnyside Records hosted a private party at the Iridium , and it was hard not to home in on the rhythm section. The brothers Moutin share an active, intelligent, and warm approach to the music, and they lock in like tongue in groove. It was nice to be in a relatively open space with few people. The Iridium made an excellent first impression. (Photo: Jean-Michel Pilc, piano; Francois Moutin, bass.)
Thurs, 8pm: Ted Panken
Mike Ricci and I went to a Thai place for dinner with writers: Howard Mandel, AAJ's David Adler , Ted Panken, and Ashley Kahn. This was my first introduction to Howard , who is a very cool, open, friendly, and honest guy. He's an excellent ambassador for the music, and he understands writers. Ted, on the other hand, had a problem. As he most tactfully explained, he didn't like me. And he didn't like to be touched. He didn't want to sit next to me. Mike and I left before I hit the idiot. He can touch himself all he wants.
Thurs, 12am: Franz Matzner
Franz (who came up from DC) is one of the most enterprising writers I have ever met. He joined All About Jazz not long ago, and this was the first time I saw him in person. Franz looks great in a hat, he does not hesitate to go up and talk to people, and he's got an excellent sense of humor. We spent some time hanging out with Mike in the hotel room, only to be interrupted by a staff member telling us to quiet down. A real party knows no rules until it meets The Man.
Fri, 6pm: Fred Bouchard
The Jazz Journalists Association hosted a gathering for its members in Le Jazz Au Bar , a new club on 58th Street in Manhattan where shows will purportedly cost $50, with a $25 drink minimum. Only in New York, right? Elaborate Victorian-style couches everywhere, lots of nooks and crannies, and these utterly stupid-looking hotties in tiny black outfits roving around with appetizers. I was introduced to a fellow Bostonian writer, Fred Bouchard , who very shortly thereafter pressed his card into my hand and told me he wouldn't do anything for free, then passed along. Thanks, Fred, I won't be calling, don't worry.
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From looking back on our storied past, we've set a plan in motion for an even more promising future. We call it "Drive for 10."
It all started on store shelves. But the constant quest for innovation never ends.
We've helped explore the solar system and beyond. Where will tomorrow take us?
Looking for inspiration?
Visit our Learning Center to explore the how and why of cans.
Ball's Revolutionary Lightweight Aluminium Aerosol Technology
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Some of our latest headlines
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Key milestones since our founding in 1880.
Ball's future looks bright, thanks to the important work that each of our 17,500+ employees does every day. Together, we are turning ideas into reality and impacting the world around us.


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Welcome to Whimsie Doodles' 2nd Birthday Blog Hop! If you came here from the Whimsie Doodles blog, you are on the right track. If not, head on over there now to get all of the details, then see you back here in a few. I am so excited to be sharing my project with you today. In honor of Whimsie's second birthday, Melyssa has designed an adorable new rubber stamp set-- woo hoo!
Even though it is Whimsie Doodles' birthday, one lucky hopper will be receiving a wonderful present, including…
from Whimsie Doodles
(see image below)
Whimsie Doodles Online Store
(including the ones I am sharing below)
And now for the star of today's show.... this is Baby Joy!
Challenges used for this card:
Paper Sundaes - #60 Keep It Simple
And now a SPECIAL OFFER for fans and readers of my blog: Use the coupon code below (ALICIA10), the next time you shop at the Whimsie Doodles Online Store and receive 10% OFF your order!
Stamps: Whimsie Doodles (Baby Joy); Patterned Paper: DCWV (Amber Autumn, Linen Closet, All About Girls mat stacks); Cardstock: Wausau (kraft); Inks: Memento (Rich Cocoa, Tuxedo Black), Ranger (Sepia), CTMH (Colonial White); Brads: The Paper Studio, Making Memories; Die Cut: Sizzix (Bookplate); Other: Gems


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The Orange County Crime Stoppers program (OC Crime Stoppers) helps resolve, reduce and prevent crime by enabling citizens to safely report criminal activity to law enforcement through anonymous crime tips.
Crime Survivors is committed to serving our community by being an advocate and resource for crime victims and their families. If you don't know where to turn, or are confused or frustrated with the public services that are available to you as you recover or seek justice, Crime Survivors can help.
California Department of Motor Vehicles.


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How Crowdsourcing Can Solve Otherwise Intractable Real-World Problems
from the see?-it-can-be-useful dept
Although crowdsourcing is all the rage at the moment, there has to be a worry that this is just the latest fad in the world of technology, and will soon follow portals and the blink tag into justified oblivion. Occasionally, though, an application of crowdsourcing appears that seems to address a real problem in a way that would be otherwise intractable.
In the UK, the authorities have discovered that a deadly disease affecting ash trees has started to spread from the rest of Europe, where it has been destroying forests for some time -- in Denmark and Sweden, 90% of ash trees are affected. The challenge is to find as many of the outbreaks of the disease as quickly as possible, in an attempt to stop it spreading even more widely to the UK's 80 million ash trees.
That's an impossible task given the limited number of scientists and experts available, and the large number of forests scattered over a wide area. So researchers at the University of East Anglia have come up with the idea of enlisting the public using a smartphone app. Clearly, untrained observers would be unable to make reliable assessments of outbreaks directly. But what they can do is to photograph ash trees that look as if they might be infected (pdf), and send these images to experts who would then decide whether further action needs to be taken:
The free "Ashtag" app will make it possible for anyone to take a photo of diseased leaves, shoots or bark and send it remotely to plant pathologists to identify whether or not the tree isinfected.
As that points out, geotagging allows the individual photographs to be aggregated to form an overall picture of where the infection is concentrated in the country. That will permit action to be taken where it most needed, and will also provide a picture of how the disease is spreading. Crowdsourcing is really the only way to gather so much information from such a large area, so quickly, and on a continuous basis.
As well as collecting photographic evidence, the app also uses geo-tagging software to give a precise location of infected trees -- allowing researchers and authorities to build up a picture of where the dieback is happening. This can then be used to target areas for culling to stop the spread of the disease.
Other benefits of this approach are that it allows members of the public to become engaged with scientific work, and to contribute directly to the fight against this disease. Too often people feel alienated from the research they are paying for through their taxes, and frustrated that they can't do more to tackle an issue that concerns them. Crowdsourcing helps to tackle both problems.
Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and on Google+
Filed Under: ash trees, crowdsourcing, disease, solving problems


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Nearly everyone in the house had a personal and painful reason to be sewing, cutting, ironing and crocheting, but the sounds were anything but sad.
"We call it our senior sweatshop," said Julie's Mission founder Dee Brantley. Throughout her house were tables filled with fabric, sewing machines, finished projects, partly completed items and all the tools needed to add finishing touches of love. The women at work were chatting, comparing notes on project steps and enjoying each other's company.
Minus the "sweatshop" aspect, it's what the group hopes will happen Feb. 28 when they host a fundraiser in the Pavilion sponsored by Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q.
"They'll give us enough food to feed 600 people," Brantley said. "Barbecued ribs, chicken, their world-famous biscuits, coleslaw, beans and homemade cookies made by one of our members."
There will also be tea, soda and a big salad so no one will go away hungry, Brantley said. The nonprofit 501(c)(3) holds the fundraisers to purchase materials and pay shipping charges to get their projects to neo-natal clinics.
At the club's meetings, the members of Julie's Mission fulfill their goal of providing remembrance items for families who will experience a troubled pregnancy and possibly the loss of a baby.
For women like Brantley, the mission is very personal. The group is named after her granddaughter.
Julie's mission
Julie, her son and daughter-in-law's first child, lay in the neo-natal intensive care unit of the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women & Babies in Orlando for three weeks before she died.
"Julie had an emergency christening the day after she was born," Brantley said. "She was a full-term baby and had the best care, yet she was with us for a day. She was born, died, resuscitated and put on life support. She had only one lung and that was the tip of the iceberg. It totally changed my life. I kept thinking why do people have to go through this? Why the suffering? How can you help them?"
Brantley wanted to bring some peace and comfort to the families and let them know they are not alone in their pain. She came up with the Memory Envelope the day Julie's parents took her off life support, and a butterfly is added to each item the group makes.
"After her passing, several of us were in the ward waiting room looking out the window and a butterfly fluttered by. We all believed it was Julie saying 'I am happy. I am free. We will meet again,'" Brantley said.
Made with love for anyone
The items Julie's Mission creates are made out of everything from the softest, plushest yarns to donated wedding dresses. Some parts are hand-stitched and others are run through sewing machines. They are all made with love and compassion.
Joyce Steffan came to the group some time ago. She couldn't knit or crochet.
"What can you do," she was asked.
"I can make counted cross-stitch blankets."
Steffan makes about four or five each year and donates them to the cause.
"I think it's wonderful if a family has something beautiful for their child, especially if they lose it," she said.
The Memory Envelope is a little less than 12 inches square. Soft and quilted, it can hold things by which the parents can remember their baby such as cards, baby caps and locks of hair.
Linda Craig, coordinator of the group's ideas, has had a hand in a number of baby garments made from wedding gowns. The women make memory layettes that include the gowns, hat and blanket. Some made from the train are quite elaborate.
"It's recycled love," Craig said. "There's already so much love in the wedding part. And for a family that has very little, this can be a special way to say goodbye."
Craig knows the challenges of a difficult birth.
"I had a son who was in the incubator but he made it and came home a week later," she said. "He was so small."
Carol Beck from Eagle's Pointe Plantation saw information about the group and arranged to add her support. She was crocheting a soft, delicate blanket.
"I was a twin and my twin didn't make it. My daughter had a miscarriage and it was already on my mind," she said. "The most important reason, though, was she then had a 3 1/2 pound preemie, my grandson.
"He was the motivation for my learning to make preemie caps in the first place. I remember seeing him in the incubator," Beck said. "He was in there for five weeks before they let him come home. He was only five pounds. Now he's 11 years old."
It's all free
Everything made by the members of Julie's Mission is free to the families cared for by various clinics, including the Winnie Palmer staff with whom Brantley keeps in touch.
"We are always looking for volunteers and help because unfortunately our work will never be done," Brantley said. "Until there is better prenatal care, we're going to have to deal with it.
"No one goes to the hospital expecting not to bring the baby home. The hospital takes care of all the things medically, but we can take care of the personal caring touch."
What: Fundraiser
When: 4:30-6 p.m. and 6:30-8 p.m. Feb. 28
Where: In the Pavilion
Cost: $15 for dinner
Details: Call 379-1191 or email firstname.lastname@example.com


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SociableGroup's software, SociableShops, has supported dozens of brand name retailers while being featured on ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today Show. Brands include: Kenneth Cole, Travel Pro, Calvin Klein, Isotoner, Seiko Watches, and Oxford Golf, amongst many others.
SociableShops is packed full of unique features to make your sale efficient, fun, and extremely successful. For over a year we have refined our features to meet the specific needs of flash sale events specifically for Good Morning America's Deals and Steals, and Today Show's Jill's Steals and Deals events. For example, our real-time inventory management, Sell-to-zero™ technology, and fulfillment house integrations are just a few features that set us apart from the competition. Learn more about our features.
For over a year we have supported dozens of brands with a 100% success rate. We know what it takes and want to help you.
Secure, scalable, and battle-tested. Our platform outperforms any other solution, guaranteed.
Professional designs and streamlined interfaces result in fun customer experiences leading to optimal sales performance.
We do not stop when the sale ends. Take full advantage of your sale's email subscribers and implement on-going marketing efforts.
Our solution's features, processes and software are designed from the groud up for flash sale events, not traditional e-commerces. This gives our product significant advantages when used for your flash sale event.
Our designers will work with you until you are 100% satisfied. We also have many proven designs to start from.
When you have 100 or less products left we show the buyer how many are left to generate buying urgency.
Safely sellout your entire inventory without the danger of overselling.
Add/Remove inventory and put inventory on hold during the sale.
Download fulfillment files in different common formats. Advanced API integration is also available.
Get reports in real-time that show just how well your sale is doing.
Here are some of the most common questions we get. If you do not see an answer to a question you have please contact us and we will be happy to answer it for you.
Customers come to us for a few reasons. The number one reason customer's need our services is to ensure their website remains operational and does not crash under the heavy traffic that being aired on the Today Show brings to their website. A crashed website can not only represent a loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars, but also a poor customer experience associated with your brand. Additionally, our services are helpful to separate your Today Show sale from your main site to give Today Show shoppers a familiar and streamlined interface for getting the deal before inventory runs out. Again this helps dramatically with creating a positive customer experience associated with your brand.
We've been monitoring high traffic sales for over a year and out of all the brands that go it alone (and very few do) well over half have sites that crash during prime buying time. This not only represents a loss in sales, but also portrays a bad brand image and customer experience. If you really think you can go it alone, we offer an insurance package along with free consultation. We collect everything we need and get you far enough along that when your site crashes (and odds are it will) we get you online and selling again within 1 hour (often 30 minutes) or it's free!
Our sites use cloud technology to automatically scale to traffic demands. This means that we are able to support an unlimited amount of traffic without compromising your site's responsiveness.
Our process is optimized for Deals and Steals and Jill's Steals and Deals which means we can get your site up fast. We've gotten customer sites up in as little as 3 hours in the middle of a sale! While we encourage you to get started as early as possible for maximum flexibility, it's never to late to give us a call. The earlier you contact us the better because some components including the e-commerce enabled merchant account, authorize.net account, and domain name are required to take full advantage of our services and can take a few days to process if they are not already setup.
We will keep the site running for up to fourteen (14) days after the sale. We can take the site down as early as the next day based on your requirements. When we take the site down we leave up a note on the page with your shipping and return policy and a link to your main site. After approximately six (6) weeks the site will be down for good.
We do offer on-going marketing services to help you sell left over inventory and build lasting relationships with your flash sale customers
Our exclusive Sell-to-Zero™ technology allows you to confidently sell every last item you have available without overselling. We also have advanced controls on inventory that allow you to add new inventory in the middle of a sale, or remove inventory levels. Additionally, you can place products on hold in real-time with a message informing buyers to come back soon. The on-hold feature allows you to reserve products across time-zones during a high volume 24 hour event.
We provide you with a fulfillment report in a CSV format which can be opened in Microsoft Excel and other spreadsheet software. This file includes all information needed to fulfill your orders such as shipping, product, and contact information for all orders placed during the sale. You can login and download these reports in the most common formats at anytime during the sale allowing you to start the fulfillment process before the sale even ends. You can even give your fulfillment partner limited access to login and download fulfillment reports themselves, without being privy to other sensitive information like revenue numbers.
Our sites integrate with an Authorize.net account. The authorize.net account links with your e-commerce enabled merchant account. We will provide the accounts and services needed with competitive rates to get you setup with both of these if you do not already have them. The money goes directly to your account with this setup and is typically available within one-three business days following the sale.
We have a special package that can be added to the standard flash sale site package that adds tons of social integration features including Facebook Like and Send buttons, Pinterest buttons, and Twitter buttons per product and for your whole brand. We offer multiple points of prompting a user to initiate social actions helping to spread your sale to a dramatically larger audience than the Good Morning America or Today Show viewing audience alone.
You will have the same experienced person to manage the entire process whom is available for contact whenever needed. The flash sale account manager becomes your partner to ensure your sale is run at an optimal level from site design, email marketing, social integrations, and fulfillment. Occasionally others will join your account manager on calls to help workout design and functional features you may want for your site.
We offer our base flash sale services for one flat rate which includes everything you need to be successful on the day of the sale. This includes the website with unlimited revisions and updates up to and even during the sale if desired, a domain name such as www.todayshow-yourcompany.com, an authorize.net account (setup free, but transaction-fees are required by authorize.net), email address configuration, google analytics, real-time inventory, Sell-to-Zero™ technology, real-time monitoring, fulfillment files, and most importantly out-of-this-world phone and email support from a dedicated flash sale specialist.
Additional services we offer include a Social Integration package, an insurance package for brands attempting to go it alone, on-going marketing services and a site-conversion to one of our deal-site offerings.
Regardless if you use our services for your next sale, we hope you will find some of these resources helpful for your next event. You can sign-up to get access to more exclusive member's only content.
A downloadable pdf slide deck about our flash sale services.
Understand how to implement social media to exponentially increase your reach during a sale event.
A list of things you can use to make sure your sale is executed smoothly. Don't leave home without it!
See how Random House Children's Books achieved success with SociableShops.
"We always enjoy working with SociableGroup. Their near flawless customer support and zeal for perfection makes every project a huge success in process and execution. We would encourage any of our contacts to utilize their industry leading products and services."
"Upon having my brand selected to be featured on Jill's Steals and Deals, I realized the need for a high traffic website to support the sale. I chose SociableShops, and I couldn't be more satisfied with their level of client service. I recommend them to any brand in need of e-commerce solutions."
"Thank you so much for all your work... It looked beautiful and you managed the inventory perfectly. All time zones had a chance to purchase and we also sold out! You really helped make it an extremely successful event! Thank you!"


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The meeting that could kill the internet?
Fears of internet oppression by the UN are unfounded, writes Christian Caryl.
For the next few days, the eyes of people who care about the fate of the internet will be sharply focused on a meeting in Dubai.
That's where representatives of the 193 members of the United Nations have come together to talk about a new treaty on global telecommunications. The previous treaty is from 1988, when fax machines were still cool and mobile phones (for those lucky few who had them) were the size of a brick.
Normally this isn't the sort of thing that would prompt headlines. But the run-up to the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT, pronounced "wicket") has stirred up some scary talk.
If you believe The Wall Street Journal, the internet is about to be "rewired by bureaucrats" – a process it likens to "handing a Stradivarius to a gorilla".
A commentator at Fox News could barely restrain himself from summoning the black helicopters: "The future of freedom in the 21st century may be about to be deleted, at the click of a mouse." Meanwhile, an op-ed at The Huffington Post huffed that the very fate of the "open internet" is at stake.
Remarkable. Finally America's left and right seem to have found a common enemy: the UN's nefarious ninja army of internet oppressors.
It's gratifying to see that people are so eager to react to perceived threats to the freedom of cyberspace – something that too many of us probably take for granted. And there's no question that there are major dangers to the openness of the internet.
But it's not the United Nations that we should be really worried about. "The real threats to the internet come from nation states," says Milton Mueller, a professor at the Syracuse University School of Information Studies. "And that includes some of the Western governments as well as the more authoritarian governments."
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) – the group that is meeting in Dubai this week – is a bureaucratic organisation that was founded in the 19th century to ensure that different national telegraph networks could talk to each other. It consists of representatives from each member government. That should give you an idea of how flexible it is.
The ITU is also weak. Each country has one vote, meaning that most proposals will get watered down to a least common denominator. And the ITU has little power to enforce its rules. Despite all the conspiracy theories, the UN has never really shown itself to be good at imposing its will on the world. Why would we think that it could have its way with the notoriously protean internet?
Now, it's true that Russia has floated the idea of giving greater powers to the ITU, an effort designed to give national governments much more of a say over cyberspace than they have now. The proposal was a non-starter, and it was withdrawn before WCIT even got started.
It's also true that China has quietly lobbied for some very dubious practices that it has tried to smuggle in to global technical standards. But that initiative doesn't seem to have gotten very far, either.
Yes, these moves are ominous. There's no question that the same governments that aim to maintain tight control over the internet within their own borders would like to see the same philosophy on the international level. "It took a while for governments to figure out how potentially destabilising internet access is," says Susan Crawford, a professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School. "Now that they think they've understood it, they're considering acting in a way to protect themselves." And some of them clearly see the United Nations as the place to pursue this aim.
It's not only the police states that want to meddle with global internet governance. Some democracies – India, Brazil and other developing countries – do too. Their motives often have less to do with politics than money. Some of them want to erect protectionist barriers that would compel big internet companies such as Facebook and Google to pay for access to their national markets. (The countries in question want to use the resulting fees to build their own internet infrastructure.)
What all these efforts have in common is that they aim to undermine US control of the institutions that currently define how the internet works – or at least that's how many other countries see it.
The internet was invented in the United States, of course, and Americans still play an outsized role in shaping its operations. The domain name system of the internet is controlled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a private, non-profit corporation that is subject to US Commerce Department oversight.
This has made ICANN the focus of considerable ire in foreign capitals. Russia, China and Brazil have talked about shifting control over domain names to the UN or to individual national governments. Earlier this year, a commentator at The People's Daily, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper, railed against US dominance: "The United States controls and owns all cyberspaces in the world, and other countries can only lease internet addresses and domain names from the United States, leading to the US hegemonic monopoly over the world's internet."
There are undoubtedly many people in Washington who wish that this were true. But it's doubtful that anyone exercises anything like a "hegemonic monopoly" over the global Internet today, which, despite its origins in the US Department of Defense, has evolved over the years into a vast, decentralised entity – less an organisation than an organism – that depends on voluntary standards.
Today, most of the web's operations are defined by an ever-shifting cloud of companies, industry groups and users. " 'Internet governance' is probably the wrong term to use," says Kevin Werbach, a professor at Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania. "There isn't a need for a body to govern the internet."
Its defenders call the reigning order "the multi-stakeholder model". It certainly has its problems. But it has the virtue of transparency – unlike the ITU (although, to its credit, the WCIT has responded to its critics by allowing a live webcast of the proceedings). It's also a model that has been largely vindicated by experience: after all, it's worked pretty well so far.
It's striking, in fact, that the Europeans, who don't necessarily side with Washington on many issues nowadays and who tend to be quite fond of multilateral forums, have supported the United States in its efforts to maintain the internet status quo.
None of this, of course, means that there aren't threats to internet freedom out there today.
Syracuse's Mueller notes that no other government in the world has surveillance resources to compare with Washington's. Powerful US content providers are constantly lobbying to shape the web according to their interests. SOPA and PIPA have been defeated for the moment, but no one should doubt that their sponsors in the business world will seize the next possible opening to punish online copyright infringement in the most draconian of ways.
We all have an interest in keeping the system of internet administration as open as possible – and, if anything, making it even more decentralised. Reforming ICANN, which has attracted its own share of controversy lately, might be a start. But handing over greater control of the internet to governments would definitely be a move in the wrong direction.
Speaking of which, it would be interesting to hear what Russian and Chinese internet users, as opposed to their governments, have to say on these matters. Funnily enough, no one in Moscow or Beijing seems to be asking them. Even in democratic India, for that matter, technologists and activists have scolded officials for shutting them out of deliberations before the Dubai conference – and rightly so.
"The internet is not a government-run telephone network," says Werbach. "Why is it that only governments should make these decisions?" It's a good question. And the answer is that they shouldn't.
Christian Caryl is a fellow at the Legatum Institute, a contributing editor at Foreign Policy and a senior fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies.
Foreign Policy