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Somalia: Stolen Food Aid, And All To Blame
Two heart-wrenching stories are making headlines from Somalia, today: First, an Associated Press investigation found that thousands of sacks of food aid meant for victims of famine have been stolen.
The AP reports that the same food is then being sold in markets where children don't have enough to eat:
The U.N.'s World Food Program for the first time acknowledged it has been investigating food theft in Somalia for two months. The WFP said that the "scale and intensity" of the famine crisis does not allow for a suspension of assistance, saying that doing so would lead to "many unnecessary deaths."
And the aid is not even safe once it has been distributed to families huddled in the makeshift camps popping up around the capital. Families at the large, government-run Badbado camp, where several aid groups have been distributing food, said they were often forced to hand back aid after journalists had taken photos of them with it.
Ali Said Nur said he received two sacks of maize twice, but each time was forced to give one to the camp leader.
"You don't have a choice. You have to simply give without an argument to be able to stay here," he said.
One source told the AP that that as much as half the food aid is being stolen by "unscrupulous businessmen."
NPR's Frank Langfitt worked on a series earlier this year that explained much of the troubles of Somalia. But how deep they go is evident in a new report put out today by Human Rights Watch. The conclusion of the 58-page report is that everyone is to blame for the country's crisis.
While for the most part, the knee jerk reaction has been to throw a lot of the blame on al-Shabaab, a ruthless group of Islamist insurgents, the report found that in their offense against the group, the Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG), the African Union peacekeeping forces (AMISOM), and Kenya- and Ethiopia-backed Somali militias have deepened the crisis.
The report, based on interviews with recently arrived Somali refugees in Kenya and other sources, examines two major TFG offensives against al-Shabaab since September 2010. Civilians have borne the brunt of the fighting, Human Rights Watch said.
All sides have used artillery in the capital, Mogadishu, in an unlawful manner that has caused civilian casualties. Al-Shabaab has fired mortars indiscriminately from densely populated areas, and the TFG and AMISOM forces have often responded in kind with indiscriminate counterattacks. As a result, civilians have not known where to turn for protection. While al-Shabaab's reported withdrawal from Mogadishu may bring some respite to civilians in the capital from the incessant fighting, future abuses are likely unless the warring parties take assertive measures to end them, Human Rights Watch said.
"Both sides don't spare the public," a woman who had fled Mogadishu told Human Rights Watch. "Sometimes it happens that the person you had breakfast with in the morning is killed by mortars in the afternoon.


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subset: commoncrawl


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The big story of the past week, along with the preceeding resignations by Blairite ministers trying to topple Brown?
Millions of Labour supporters stayed home; two fascists won seats in the European parliament on a reduced turnout. Yes, their vote fell, but they won seats because of the low turnout.
I won't give you the obligatory post dedicated to how and why they made a breakthrough. Oxygen of publicity and whatnot.
So, Brown's clinging on, having ceded more power to Lord Mandelson, who is now virtually deputy Prime Minister – and unelected, like many in the reshuffled Labour cabinet. Having faced down the parliamentary party in a stage-managed meeting, Brown's hoping that an economic recovery will save his premiership.
Darling, in situ as Chancellor, despite rumours the PM wanted to replace him with Ed Balls, warns against complacency in seeing "green shoots" of recovery. As well he might, he knows how much government spending will have to be directed towards those made unemployed. Oh, and the banks – mostly owned by the public these days – they aren't lending to our manufacturing base…
Mandelson, negotiating with the new owner of Vauxhall, is unable to guarantee jobs will stay in the UK. So much has been devoted to bailing out the banks, there's not much room for manuoevre – not unless there's another radical change in approach.
A senior Tory let slip that they intend to cut spending by 10% on all but health, education, and international aid, if they win the next election. To Labour's cries of "Tory cuts!" – the nearest they get to a class analysis of Her Majesty's Opposition – the reply comes, from both the Tories and the corporate press, that Labour is committed to 7% spending cuts across the board.
As Ann Pettifor has pointed out, to cut spending in the next few years will be a disaster for an economic recovery:
As things stand, any fragile signs of economic recovery will quickly be crushed by the failure of government to intervene and spend at an appropriate level. Instead, government cutbacks will impact with considerable force on the fragile economy, and will hurt the middle and working classes. As the year proceeds many will discover the true, and often pitiful value of their pensions, and will be hurt by cuts in services and job losses in the public sector. This will hamper recovery and deepen, if that is possible, the alienation of British voters from the Labour government.
And don't forget, this is the woman who was writing about the debtonation before it began.
She continues in the same article to outline the blades which may slice through any "green shoots":
Foreign direct investment could fall globally by 45% this year, according to the same report, and corporate profits will decline by 20-25%. Global trade is down 25%, and the EIU predicts trade will be down by 10-15% by year end – the worst figure since 1945.
In April this year, consumer prices turned negative in the US, the UK, Germany and Japan. This may be good news for consumers, and may help lower food prices for the poor, but it is not good for the economy as a whole. Businesses cannot profit from negative prices, so they are bankrupted and lay off employees. The rocketing numbers of unemployed (whose plight is seldom taken seriously by orthodox economists) will cut back on borrowing and shopping and may even default on loans. This is not good news for the productive sector of the economy, and it's very bad news for the banking sector. Banks have still not fully de-leveraged the debts on their balance sheets. Now, thanks to rising unemployment, non-performing loans are "set to rise sharply around the world over the next 12-18 months" according to the EIU. This is very scary, if one considers that there are still $600tn of liabilities in the form of derivatives on balance sheets out there – backed up by a mere $38tn of so-called credit default swaps (in reality a form of insurance on derivatives).
More banking trouble, in other words…
Pettifor concludes:
Nothing has been done to restructure the global economy and limit financial imbalances – including Anglo-American deficits and the Chinese surplus. Indeed these matters were not even discussed at the last G20 summit. Big, reckless money continues to be made from currency speculation, just when the global economy requires currency stability.
We – employees, consumers, investors and borrowers – have been misled and fooled by the economics profession and finance sector for years before this crisis. As a result of our gullibility, we lost $60tn of wealth in the past year. We would be wise now to dismiss their vain efforts at confidence-boosting, and instead rest our judgments on the real world economic outlook.
Back to politics, word is that Balls and Darling are split on how to present the supposedly "inevitable" cuts in public spending.
Hardly confidence boosting!
As far as this modest blogger can tell, the debate isn't on what to cut, but on when to admit the cuts are coming.
In the leadership challenge that never was, the unions didn't bark – despite the looming cuts and failure to aid the car industry. For sure, a change of leader – even to someone more in touch with the needs of ordinary people – would bring forth a general election at the worst possible time. With MPs expenses hanging in the air, Labour voters are unlikely to show up at polling stations and register support for the party any time soon.
For the Labour grassroots, there's no difficulty in choosing between Trident, PFIs, the Afghan war, ID cards – or investing in a new generation of social housing, a Green New Deal, and helping workers to stay in their jobs. However, there's no means by which the party's grassroots can influence policy; even the parliamentary party has a tough time defeating unpopular measures, like Royal Mail privatisation, which hasn't yet been ditched.
According to opinion polling, most voters agree Labour has abandoned its traditional supporters and believe that the Tories are most interested in helping out the rich. So what gives with the BNP victories, then? Well, it's worth remembering that the Green vote was up – they campaigned on job creation through a Green New Deal to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy industries, all very practical. But if your main themes are not echoed in the media, it's difficult to get ahead. The upcoming by-election in Norwich could see the Greens win their first MP, should the support be forthcoming.
In the meantime, I'm wondering exactly where this announcement by John McDonnell will lead:
If we go beyond November without real change visibly under way, what hope is left of Labour not only remaining in government but also surviving as an effective political force at all?At that stage the only responsible act in the long-term interests of our movement would be to offer a real change in political direction by mounting a challenge to the political leadership of the party and letting the members of the party decide. Let me give notice now that this is the path I will take. If this route is blocked again by MPs failing to nominate, then the alternative is Labour MPs making it clear at the next election that they stand on a policy platform of real change as "change candidates".
Of course, they will be standing as Labour candidates but binding together as a slate of candidates committed within Labour to advocating a change programme, setting out the policy programme they will be advocating as a group and supporting in parliament if elected. Only in this way can we demonstrate to the supporters that want to come home to Labour that there is the hope and prospect of change.
I can't see a policy debate being tolerated, not without the capitalist media emptying another bucket of shit over the heads of New Labour and calling for a Cameron coronation. Hence the talk of the Blairites toppling Brown without recourse to either the PLP, the members, or the unions – with the Cabinet nominating one of its ranks to become party leader and PM.
So, the question is, will McDonnell and co. defect to form a new workers' party? If not, will parties like the Greens back this new "change candidates"?


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|me + v.v. photo by Kumi
This is the sweetest! Thank you so much Choko and Sonoko for this really sweet post. I met these sisters while they were traveling through different cities in California to do research on a lifestyle book they were working hard on. Their book and blog emphasizes the importance of eating fresh food (preferably raw and vegan), drinking green smoothies and living with more nature and peace. They want to bring this awareness throughout Japan. Everything that I too believe in. So I had them over for tea and cake and we shared wonderful conversation about this kind of lifestyle living. They also told me about their old 70 Volkswagen bus that they were in the process of turning into a juice bus to drive around Tokyo and deliver juices! They clipped some herbs from my garden and made me the best green smoothie I have ever had! I hope to get to spend more time with Sonoko and Choko when they are here next or perhaps when I finally make it out to Japan.
Check out the rest here


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House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said bringing up something like the DREAM Act would be "worthy of consideration" a day after his No. 2, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), embraced the plan that would give children brought to the United States illegally a pathway to citizenship.
Rep. Joe Garcia, D-Fla., joins The Daily Rundown to explain how Congress can move forward on immigration reform.
The idea is "worthy of consideration," Boehner said Wednesday at his weekly press conference. As speaker, he said, he wants to "do everything I can to foster this continuing conversation" regarding immigration.
Yesterday during a speech that aides described as "Republican re-branding," Cantor expressed support for ideas found in the DREAM Act that were voted down by Congress in 2010 saying.
"It is time to provide an opportunity for legal residence and citizenship for those who were brought to this country as children and who know no other home," Cantor said.
Boehner did not wholly embrace the DREAM Act, however, which is understandable considering the speaker has to weigh politics within his conference.


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If your personal brand was incorporated in the 1980's, there is a high likelihood you've had an encounter or two with Alphie. Made by Playskool, the white plastic robot was designed to teach children ages three and up arithmetic, spelling, and a host of other valuable skills. Place a "Learning Card" on Alphie's mid-section, tell him what it is, and listen to the white robot's dulcet computerize tones. Don't mourn Alphie and your childhood just yet, the little guy is still alive in well in a much more immersive form, and has even gone mobile — making his way on to Apple's iOS. Hit the jump to see a few videos that may help jog your memory. And as always… batteries not included.
Thanks to @bettiol for this week's Throwback Thursday suggestion!
BGR's Throwback Thursday is a weekly series covering our (and your) favorite gadgets, games, and software of yesterday and yesteryear.


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The Beautiful Stitch Bullion Stitch AKA Rolled
In addition, the mesh rolled known the sting of a gold bar of complex points and advanced in crochet, tatting and Cro-tatting uses addiction. It can also be added to knitting and art of other fibers, such as trim.
The only requirement for a gold bullion is that you must implement a hook to get this scam. Several packages of wire (or wires) to the hook point is the basis of Bullion and therefore the development of a round 'Hold' is in placecomplementing it. Here are a few simple steps and helpful tips and instructions for the test sample to make things easier.
For the thread that I like a steel size # 5, # 6 and # 7 hook use
1) Chain 20 (which is just a number in my head a foundation for the practice of giving.
2) YO 7 times
Note: You may find it easier if you keep the packaging to keep close to the thumb. Thus, the cycles larger and easier to pull the hook through. These rings are nexteach other so that together resemble a coil or spring. This is the key in drawing the hook through your wraps.
3) Insert the hook in 4th chain from hook
5) Draw yarn through all 7 loops and
Note: This is achieved by maintaining the pressure surrounding the hook, push all the boxes at the end of the hook. I continued to do this with the help of the finger, which is usually on top of hook to keep under wraps.
Also, when I pull the wire through the developmentgiven chain, to change (as I delivered) to keep the packages freely with my left hand. Then, making sure that the hook can be pointed down, pull the hook through the housing.
NOTE: At this point, the bar is still very sensitive. So, yet packs in his left hand, grab the wire and slide it to the top of the gold market wraps until the CH 1 Otherwise, it will do the CH-1 on the gold market and that will cause gold bullion angleon the side and not stand up straight and pretty.
7) DC next trick
8) Repeat 1-7 until the end of the line.
If you find 7 packs that work too, start with just four laps. Increase of 7 if you are comfortable with 4.
This should be on track to crochet and tatting is made with fine mesh of gold bullion.
16:36 | ป้ายกำกับ: Beautiful, Bullion, Rolled, Stitch | 0 Comments


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Splave (US) Wins GIGABYTE March Madness Contest, plus Prize Draw Winners
The first GIGABYTE sponsored contest of 2017 came to a close just a few days ago on OC-ESPORTS. At the end of a month long contest that attracted some of the world's most potent overclocking talent, we find US overclocker Splave sitting at the top of the table. In second place we have World Champion 2016 marc0053 from Canada, while in third place we find Belgian legend leeghhofd. Let's take a look at all the scores from the contest, the $2,500 USD prize pool on offer and the lucky prize draw winners.
GIGABYTE March Madness: March 1st to 31st, 2017
The March Madness contest from GIGABYTE, was open to Overclockers from all leagues on HWBOT. It spanned four individual stages with benchmarks chosen with the emphasis on CPU and memory performance. To make things more interesting and reduce the effects of the silicon lottery, the contest implemented a frequency cap of 5,003MHz. This meant that competing Overclockers had to find ingenious ways to tweak their systems beyond simply pushing CPU frequency. In terms of hardware restrictions, it was all pretty simple; any single-core, dual-core or quad-core processor on any GIGABYTE motherboard. The following benchmarks were chosen for each of the four stages.
Contest Stages and Benchmarks
- Stage 1: 3DMark Time Spy Physics
- Stage 2: Geekbench3 (Multi Core)
- Stage 3: X265 1080P
- Stage 4: Intel XTU
Stage 1: 3DMark Time Spy Physics
In Stage 1 overclockers were tasked with squeezing as much performances from their system to score as highly as possible in the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark, using the Physics score. Splave made his mark here, earning a first place finish with a score of 6,978 marks. The score was made using an Intel Core i7 7700K and a G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 kit configured at 1,834.8MHz (13-13-13-28).
Here's a great shot of the rig used by Splave which is based around an GIGABYTE Z270X-Gaming K7 motherboard:
Second place goes to marc0053 with a score of 6,962 marks while Germany's Nik arrived in third place with 6,911 marks. Check out the Stage 2 contest table below:
You can check out the Stage 1 contest page here:
Stage 2: Geekbench 3 (Multi-Core)
In Stage 2 of the contest we turn to the Geekbench 3 Multi-Core benchmark. Once again the fastest overclocker proves to be that man again… Splave took first place with a score of 22,506 points. On this occasion he configured his G.SKILL DDR4 kit to 1972.1MHz using 12-12-12-28 timings. In second place we find marc0053 is the bride's maid again, arriving in second place with a score of 22,501 points, while in third place leeghoofd makes an entrance on the scene with a score of 22,385 points.
The rig shot below comes from marc0053 and is also based on a GIGABYTE Z270X-Gaming K7 board:
Here's the Stage 2 table:
Find the the Stage 2 contest page here:
Stage 3: x265 1080p
The HWBOT in-house developed x265 benchmark and its 1080p preset is the focus in Stage 3. This time the Belgian master leeghoofd makes a big splash with an outstanding score of 42.76 fps, quite a bit ahead of Splave who managed a score of 42.73 fps. Leeghoofd used a GIGABYTE Z170X-SOC Force board with his G.SKILL Trident Z DDR4 kit pushed to 2,012.4MHz (12-12-12-28). Third place goes to Indonesia's IvanCupa who managed a score of 42.7 fps.
Here's a rig shot from Nik of Germany who also opted to use a GIGABYTE Z170X-SOC Force motherboard:
Here's the Stage 3 table:
The Stage 3 contest page can be found here:
Stage 4: Intel XTU
In the final Stage we're focusing on the Intel XTU benchmark. The scoring was a little odd however with all submissions earning one point, regardless of score. For what it's worth we find marc0053 finally arriving in top spot with a score of 1,787 marks. Nik arrives in second place with 1,785 marks while Splave has to make do with 1,783 marks and third place.
Here's the Stage 4 table at the end play:
The Stage 4 contest page is right here:
GIGABYTE March Madness: Final Standings
At the end of the month we find Splave in a commanding position at the top of the table with 149 points. Marc0053 arrives in second place with 141 points while leeghoofd makes third spot with a haul of 139 points. Here's the table at the end of the contest:
A total of 60 overlockers took part in the contest, which might not seem the highest participation numbers for an OC-ESPORTS contest. The GIGABYTE March Madness contest did however involve some the biggest names in overclocking with several of the world's top Elite players taking part. This is great to see.
A big thanks to all the overclockers who took part, and also to GIGABYTE for their valued support. We leave you with a mouth watering look at the great prizes that GIGABYTE are sending the contest winners. These winners also include Prize Draw winners, so if you took part, take a look. You might still be a winner.
1st Place: Splave (US)
- GIGABYTE AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 ($239.99 USD)
- Intel Core i5-7700K ($349.99 USD)
- GIGABYTE Radeon RX 480 WINDFORCE 8GB ($239.99 USD)
2nd Place: Marc0053 (Canada)
- GIGABYTE AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 ($239.99USD)
- Intel Core i5-7600K ($239.99 USD)
- G.SKILL Trident Z Series 16GB (2 x 8GB)DDR4 3600 Memory($159.99 USD)
3rd Place: Leeghoofd (Belgium)
- Enermax Liqtech 240 All-in-One Liquid Cooler ($240.49 USD)
- Enermax Platimax 850W ($169.99 USD)
Lucky Draw Prizes
- GIGABYTE AORUS Z270X-Gaming 7 ($239.99 USD) - Hippo (Germany)
- G.SKILL Mouse or Keyboard ($129.99USD) - skulstation (Belgium)
- Open Benchtable ($149.99 USD) - subaruwrc (Hungary)
- 5x Heroes of the Storm Kerrigan Hero & Succubus Skin Codes ($10 each) - Lochekey (US), aerotracks (Germany), Nik (Germany), Clingon (Australia) and disputes1 (UK)
- 1x $50 USD Steam Wallet Code - Doublepi (Germany)


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Production Studio comes with various 3D models, for example a red Jeep. That model has dozens of parts that can be removed or animated individually, such as spinning tires, etc.
Objects, e.g. 3DS models have one part.
Question: What are the 3D models actually called, for example the red Jeep? I would like to find, possibly buy additional models that have various parts - for example other cars that allow each part within the model to be removed or animated. For example, the provided red Jeep can be animated to go across the screen with the key having the tires rotate as that happens.
All I can find on the web is 3DS models that may or may not be compatible with this product. Some are useful but all of them come in one piece - one cannot animate, for example the tires since the tires are incorporated within the one piece.
So, once again: What kind of model am I looking for, e.g. perhaps dozens of 'parts' or 'objects' that make up the model with all providing the option of animation - individually, exactly like the red Jeep?
Thanks for any input.


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Hi there! I have swatches from NYC's limited edition fall collection called In the Spotlight. These polishes are perfect for fall. They are simple, but sometimes simple is good! :)
The first is Scenestealer Grey. A blue toned charcoal with shimmer. I think this is my favorite!
Next, is Backstage Brown. This is a caramel shade with shimmer.
And finally, Underground Purple is a magenta with blue shimmer.
All of these polishes covered in 3 coats. These retail for $1.99 and I have seen this LE collection at Kmart so far.
I also have baby toes for you too! It's been a while! Sorry for the blurry pic, keeping an 11 month old still is never easy. She is sporting China Glaze It's Alive! A little preview before I show it to you for real. :)
*Products sent to me for review.


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A former reality TV show contestant may be spending the rest of his life in prison after being sentenced in a San Francisco murder case.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that 29-nine-year-old Jamal Rashead Trulove of Oakland was sentenced to 50 years to life Friday for a fatal shooting in a San Francisco housing project in 2007.
Trulove was convicted in February of first-degree murder and weapons charges in the death of 28-year-old Seu Kuka, who was gunned down at the Sunnydale Housing project in the city's Visitacion Valley.
U.S. & World
Trulove appeared on the VH1 reality show "I Love New York 2." The program was taped in Los Angeles just three weeks before Kuka's murder.
A few months after the fatal shooting a witness came forward and said she saw recognized Trulove from both the television program and the shooting.


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Omega Seamaster Black Dial
Of course, that's only true if Kaepernick has enough receivers at the other end of his passes. And that was Sunday's even more encouraging development. The 49ers' top receiver last season, Michael Crabtree, underwent surgery last spring for a torn Achilles' tendon and won't be back until December at the earliest. So there were questions about who might fill his role.
The Green Bay defensive strategy was as plain as a cheesehead on a Sheboygan fan's skull. The Packers did not want Kaepernick to burn them with his legs, the way he did for 181 yards last January. Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra Mens
What does that mean? It means that a good Packers team had 239 days to think about that playoff game and make certain it didn't happen the same way again. The Green Bay coaching staff had 239 days to break down video. The Green Bay players had 239 days to stew about the loss and study what they'd done Omega Watch On Wrist
There is work to do in certain parts of the 49ers effort, of course. The Packers did roll out 385 yards worth of offense against the 49ers defense, which did not make linebacker Patrick Willis happy.
Next weekend in Seattle, where the Seahawks are waiting, fewer mistakes will be a must. But the reassuring outcome against Green Bay is a good base upon which to build. The 49ers were supposed to be a good football team this season. But until Omega Seamaster Black Dial the first whistle blows and the violence begins, there are no guarantees.
So they focused on containing Kaepernick in the pocket, and whenever he rambled, they tried to knock off his block at one point even tackling him out of bounds and drawing a penalty flag.
This was only one game. Only the first game. There are 15 more in the regular season, including an extremely significant one next weekend at Seattle. But while the 49ers were hardly perfect Sunday, they were impressive in the overall picture.
(Give that man a duster and a rifle, and we've got a "Hang 'Em High" sequel, yes?)
The 49ers kicked off the season Sunday, their last one at Candlestick Park. And quarterback Colin Kaepernick kicked off his campaign to show the world that he was not just a one season wonder. He steered his team to a 34 28 victory over the Green Bay Packers or, as 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh analyzed it, Kaepernick did a good job "managing the chaos of the game."
"If intimidation is your game plan, I hope you have a better one," Kaepernick said.
Chaos was indeed visited upon Kaepernick. Chaos was welcomed by Kaepernick. With the Packers clearly out to take every possible physical shot at him and prevent Kaepernick from running the ball on his favorite read option play, he responded with the best passing game of his career.
Colin Kaepernick not intimidated
"Their game plan was to not allow him to run, so he beat them with his arm," said 49ers safety Donte Whitner. "When we face a team that wants to take the pass away from him, he'll use his legs. That's what you get with a dual quarterback . make defensive coordinators have nightmares."
Basically, the Packers dared Kaepernick to beat them with his passing game, his most unproven asset. You could probably now move it into the "proven" column. Kaepernick was held to 22 yards in seven carries as a rusher. But in the air, he completed 27 of 39 passes for 412 yards and three touchdowns.
"Just because one guy's down, it doesn't mean that the team can't win," Davis said. "It's never about one guy. We've got tons of talent on this team. You saw it today. Tons of talent. And I think we've only scratched the surface."
"I don't think we played our best," Willis said. "We missed some tackles out there and gave them some first downs. . It's the first game. We don't condone mistakes, but we know that they're part of the Omega Speedmaster Black White
Anquan Boldin answered that casting call Sunday. Obtained in a trade from the Baltimore Ravens during the offseason for a sixth round draft choice, a deal that now looks like a dastardly crime in another Clint Eastwood movie Boldin was spectacular Sunday. He caught 208 yards worth of passes, scored a touchdown and had absolutely no one in the stadium saying to themselves: "If only we had Crabtree today."
game. Some of them are ones that we can't allow to happen."
He also responded with a postgame quote that sounded like dialogue from a Clint Eastwood western.
Sunday wasn't a certified guarantee that the 49ers will return to the Super Bowl. We're a long way from that. But it was certainly a moderately significant down payment.
Consider that the 49ers could have drawn few tougher opening day assignments than the Packers. Sunday was a rematch of a playoff game last January, which the 49ers won by a score of 45 31.
SAN FRANCISCO They looked quite familiar and quite recognizable. If anything, they might have looked better than a year ago in some areas. Especially in the starting quarterback area. In the National Football League, that is never to be taken for granted.
Yet after all of that breaking down and stewing and studying, the Packers could not crack the Kaepernick code or come up with any method to produce a different result.
Vernon Davis, the 49ers tight end who caught Kaepernick's first touchdown of the afternoon, shrugged off any surprise over Boldin's game.
Omega Seamaster Black Dial
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Job Search
Prepared Food Associate
Job: #2020-73057
Store Number: Location 1463
Store: Winn-Dixie Retail Stores
Category: Retail
Position Type: Hourly Associate
Full-Time/Part-Time: Part-Time
Address: 1803 LA HWY 3125Gramercy, LA, 70052
Job Title: Prepared Food Associate
Location: Retail Grocery Location
|Position Overview
|The prepared food associate will prepare and cook quality deli/bakery food items as directed by the department manager. This position is responsible for increasing customer confidence and loyalty by providing courteous and prompt service, consistent operating conditions and a friendly atmosphere. Additional duties include supporting sanitation standards, product quality and presentation.
|Primary Responsibilities & Accountabilities
|Required Behaviors
|Knowledge, Skills, Abilities


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Budget woes will result in reduced staff and services
After three consecutive years of financial losses, Lenoir Memorial Hospital is looking at larger-than-ever deficits this year.
The hospital board approved its 2014 budget for its fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 with at least a $3.4 million loss after projected investment earnings of about $3.5 million were added.
This year�s budget projects $105.6 million of revenue and $109 million of expenditures. It�s the first time the hospital has not been able to cover its expenses.
LMH announced this week it would be implementing a strategic cost reduction and a facility redesign plan. The budget deficit is expected to result in staff reductions, as well as phasing out and combining services.
�Contemplating a workforce reduction is the hardest thing hospital leaders have to do,� said Sarah Mayo, vice president of financial services, �but ensuring hospital care for this community is our first priority.�
An option to retire will be offered to employees ages 55 and older with 20 or more years of service, and employees may be able to move into positions left vacant.
The reasons given by LMH are state cuts in Medicaid, the state�s decision not to expand Medicaid, federal Medicare cuts and federal cuts due to sequestration, she said.
The losses are projected to be as much as $5 million.
Mayo said losses in previous years haven�t been so large the investment income couldn�t cover them. But this year is different.
�This year, the cuts are larger,� she said. �� It�s that sort of perfect storm effect.�
The hospital has taken hits from state and federal cuts, including about a $1 million loss of Medicaid revenue. There is also a loss of about $1 million through the Affordable Care Act.
�There is a provision (in the Affordable Care Act) that starts this year,� Mayo said, �that reduces the Medicare funds that the hospital receives for taking care of indigent patients.�
More than 70 percent of LMH�s patients are covered under Medicaid or Medicare, while 8 percent have no insurance. Less than 20 percent of patients have managed care reimbursements or other commercial insurance.
More than 13 percent of patients cannot pay for services amounting to a loss of more than $34 million of revenue.
Hospitals across the state are experiencing similar financial situations. Wake Med suffered more than $8 million in losses, is closing two nursing facilities and is reducing staff. Vidant Pungo is expected to close.
�The healthcare industry is a tough one to be in at this time,� LMH President and CEO Gary Black said. �It is our hope that very few employees will be affected by these changes, that through attrition, early retirement and redeployment we can limit the involuntary displacement of our staff.�
Hospital employees were notified of the changes Tuesday.
Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.
Lenoir Memorial Hospital financial information
Total revenues $105.6 million
Total expenses $109 million
Net loss $3.4 million
Expected uncompensated care $34 million
Patients without insurance 8 percent
Patients with insurance 20 percent
Patients with Medicare/Medicaid 70 percent
Source: LMH


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With the non-waiver trading deadline one month away, teams are expected to increase their evaluations and discussions.
And even after White Sox general manager Ken Williams said last week he intends to remain a buyer, it won't stop other teams, such as San Francisco, from scouting Sox players who can help them for their own playoff runs.
The Giants, who currently lead the National League wild-card race, sent one of their top scouts to Cleveland on Monday night to watch right fielder Jermaine Dye.
UPDATE: The SF Chronicle reports that the Giants scout could be looking at Cleveland's Victor Martinez.
Dye is in the final year of a $22 million contract (his contract has a $12 million mutual option with a $1 million buyout for next year that becomes a player option if he's traded). He has a limited no-trade clause of 6 teams in the Northeast; one of those team are the Mets (if I remember correctly another team are the Phillies). The Giants are not among the teams in Dye's no-trade clause.
And while Kenny has said that he doesn't envision being a seller, he also said that there is a chance he trades for a younger player who will help in the future.


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Tag: Richard Carlson
- Dec 27
Kenya's Top 2017 Reads1. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives by Lola Shoneyin (KES 1,350) To the dismay of her ambitious mother, Bolanle marries into a polygamous family, where she is the fourth wife of a rich, rotund patriarch, Baba Segi. She is a graduate and therefore a great prize, but even graduates must produce children and her


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As the economy continues to flounder, many cities are looking for ways to replicate Silicon Valley's financial success. When seeking to catch the magic of those biggest successes — Apple, Google and Facebook — the word "innovation" gets thrown around frequently. And as intellectual property is taking on a larger and larger role in how companies do business in the Bay Area, many have equated innovation with patents.
A recent Sun article about innovation in Baltimore and Maryland focused on just that. It lamented that the Baltimore metro area came in 116th out of 360 metro areas for the number of patent applications per capita, and that the number of patents granted to Baltimoreans remained flat over the past decade. The article seemed to suggest that this lack of intellectual property growth was at least partially responsible for Baltimore's lack of job growth.
While these statistics are important, patent applications simply do not equal innovation. Nor do patents necessarily create jobs. Rather, there are nuances to intellectual property — and specifics about Maryland's research corridor — that give these statistics some color.
First, it's important to understand which inventions merit a patent. By and large, there are only three requirements: that the invention is new, useful and nonobvious. These are relatively low bars. The invention doesn't have to be better than what's currently on the market. It doesn't have to appeal to consumers. And it doesn't have to be a significant invention at all. In fact, "worthless patents" (like a patent entitled "Method of Exercising a Cat" using a laser pointer) are well documented. Patents are simply tools to recoup an inventor's cost of developing an invention. They are not necessarily rewards on "innovation."
Second, it's also important to understand what a patent is. A patent is simply a legal right to prevent others from practicing an invention. It is not a right to make a particular product; the inventor had that right whether he applied for a patent or not. Nor is there a requirement that the inventor make her own invention. Indeed, many inventors have sold their patents to companies that do absolutely nothing except file lawsuits against other innovators in the hope of collecting money from settlements or court judgments. These "patent trolls" are the single most serious threat to innovation today, costing the U.S. economy $50 billion to $500 billion a year — all without making a single innovative product.
Third, the number of patents per invention varies widely across industries. In the high-tech space, one big invention, like the iPhone, is covered by at least 200 patents, and likely closer to 400. But in the biotech and pharmaceutical world, one invention, like a new drug, is often only covered by a single patent. This point is critical for Baltimore and Maryland because biotech and the life sciences — not social networking apps — are what the Baltimore-Washington corridor does best. The Johns Hopkins University, the National Institutes of Health, and the University of Maryland, at College Park, Baltimore County, and the Biotechnology Institute (as well as these institutions' various spin-offs) are all focused significantly on life sciences. One should therefore expect Baltimore and Maryland to have substantially fewer patent applications than, say, California.
Patents, alone, don't create an innovation economy. Rather, they're a product of it. An economy of innovators will produce patents because some of those innovators will need to recoup their costs of research by licensing their inventions and preventing others from copying them. But getting to that innovation economy in the first place requires an ecosystem of innovators: young, hungry inventors, senior but not jaded management, liquid private financing, a regulatory scheme friendly to product deployment, and a culture that focuses on getting deals done quickly. This is all famously harder in the life sciences. Inventors are typically PhDs in their 30s or 40s, not straight-out-of-college hotshots looking to be millionaires overnight. Management is often jaded by the FDA regulatory process, which in turn puts a strong damper on product deployment. Private investing in the life sciences has famously dried up. And deals usually come complete with armies of big-law-firm lawyers, rather than over a handshake.
Nevertheless, basic life science research is a huge job creator. One study from the University of Georgia has estimated that every job created in the life sciences spawns two jobs in other industries. These jobs span the gamut, from high-profile executive positions to research scientists to salespeople to office workers to factory employees. And unlike jobs in the high-tech industry, these jobs tend to be sticky. People don't work their way into the pharmaceutical and biotech industries hoping to get rich quick and move on the next "cool" thing.
Baltimore and Maryland should therefore continue to do — and do much more of — what they already do best: basic scientific and biological research. This is the kind of innovation Baltimore needs, with or without patents.
Jacob S. Sherkow is a fellow at Stanford Law School's Center for Law and the Biosciences. His email is firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Haven't found anything yet?
The designer wallpaper 56301 expresses emotionality that is inspired by nature . The structured pattern is highlighted by natural forms which creats a dynamic room atmosphere. In combinition with the colouring of cream the wallpaper gets also an elegant touch. The wallpaper is highly washable, dry strippable and has a good lightfastness.


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Believe it or not, there are some scholars who believe the prototype of Camelot was indeed in southern Scotland, as a result of attempting to identify the historical figure on whom the legendary Arthur was based.
Arthurian fiction I've read:
Tennyson's Idylls of the King, and related poems
parts of Geoffrey of Monmouth
White--The Once and Future King
Stewart's first 3 books (I have The Wicked Day but haven't read it yet)
Charles Williams's Arthurian poetry
parts of Malory
parts of Chretien de Troyes
the Mabinogion material
Bradley--The Mists of Avalon (not the other one yet)
(author forgotten)--The Idylls of the Queen (about the insult to Guinevere, from Kay's point of view)
and some others I can't remember at the moment
I have the Lawhead books but haven't read them yet either.
Thay all have their good points and they're all quite different from each other!


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Religious Christmas Trivia
The first Christmas crib was
assembled in 1223.
Can you Describe the First Live Nativity Scene?
In a cave on a windswept Italian mountainside, Francis of Assisi assembled the first Christmas crib in 1223. The Christ Child, placed on an altar of stone, and two live animals -- an ox and a donkey -- were its only occupants.
Today, a tiny monastery surrounds the cave, which still remains relatively undisturbed by the years. The idea behind the crib was to make the story of Christ's birth more vivid in the minds of shepherds and farmers who lived there. The townspeople were very enthusiastic -- they were the ones who suggested the ox and donkey.
What is the belief behind the Twelve Days of Christmas song?
One of the holiday's best-loved songs, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," marks the longest holiday in the Christian calendar -- the time between Christmas Day and Epiphany, celebrated on January 6.
The song's origin is unknown, but some believe the song was written to help Catholic children remember various articles of faith. These are:
True love
A partridge in a pear tree
Two turtle doves
Old and New Testaments
The Twelve Days of Christmas Song
represents the various articles of faith
in Catholicism.
Faith, Hope, and Charity
Four calling birds
Four Gospels
Five golden rings
The first five books of the Old Testament, the Pentateuch, which records the history and laws of ancient Israel
Six geese a-laying
Six days of Creation
Seven swans a-swimming
Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, or the Seven Sacraments
Eight maids a-milking
Eight beatitudes
Nine ladies dancing
Nine fruits of the Holy Spirit
Ten lords a-leaping
Ten Commandments
Eleven pipers piping
Eleven faithful disciples
Twelve drummers drumming
Twelve points of doctrine in the Apostles' Creed
Where is the World's Largest Nativity Scene located?
With more than 450 figures and hundreds of yards of landscape, the world's largest diorama of the Nativity is found in Einsiedeln, Switzerland. In the 1930s, crib maker Ferdinand Pottmesser built a giant Christmas crib along with hundreds of figurines.
Pottmesser sold the collection to Einsiedeln in the mid-1950s, and the figurines became the impetus for creating a giant diorama -- a copy of the landscape of Bethlehem and a visually accurate representation of the story of the birth of Christ.
The diorama starts with angels awakening the shepherds with news of the birth of Jesus and ends with Joseph and Mary fleeing into Egypt to escape Herod and his soldiers. The diorama attracts thousands of visitors every year.
What is the Meaning of the Word "Xmas?"
Some people think of Xmas as a contemporary, sacrilegious
abbreviation of the word Christmas. On the contrary, the first letter of the
word Christ in the Greek language is chi, which is identical to the modern
Roman alphabet's X.
Xmas is an ecclesiastical abbreviation.
Therefore, Xmas is an ecclesiastical abbreviation that has been used for almost as long as Christmas has been in existence.
What is the story behind The Birthplace of Jesus?
It was prophesied in Micah 5:2 that Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the future King of the Jews. Indeed, this small Judean city near Jerusalem became the site of the Nativity. Bethlehem, which means "house of bread," was also the home of David, one of God's favorite kings.
Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger.
Though the exact location of Jesus' birth is unknown, the story maintains that Jesus was born in a stable and laid in a manger, or food trough. In those days, stables were made of stones or situated in a cave.
Around A.D. 326-330, Empress Helena, wife of Constantine, built a church over the cave thought to be Jesus' birthplace. The church was rebuilt in the sixth century, and pieces of the original building still remain. It is said to be the oldest Christian church in existence and one of the most genuinely holy sites in the Holy Land.
This altar inside the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem is
believed to mark the exact place of Jesus' birth.
Who was Good King Wenceslas?
"Good King Winceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen when the snow lay round about deep and crisp and even." King Wenceslas, about whom John Neale wrote this carol, became Duke of Bohemia in A.D. 924. He was a man of great faith who worked diligently to thread Christianity throughout Bohemia.
King Wenceslas served his people very well, especially the children and the poor. But his reign lasted only five years. His brother, Boleslaw, invited Wenceslas to a religious festival, then attacked and murdered him on the way there.
that you've discovered some surprising new religious trivia,
continue to the next page. There, you'll travel to England, Mexico, and Germany to test
your Christmas traditions trivia.


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KC Jones conference&events specialise in the management of Association conferences, Business to Business events and communication programmes across the public and private sector. We have extensive knowledge and experience in events of all sizes. To learn more about what KC Jones can do for you please visit "what we do..."
Please scroll through our current events, managed on behalf of our clients, listed below in date order:


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Hello and thank you for letting me join this group.
I was wondering if anybody has the Memorial Inscriptions for either St Stephen's or St Hilda's Graveyards
I have two brothers both died in 1863, both were Mariners/Seamen so wondering if they died in a shipping accident etc. I was hoping to find their graves to see if it told me anything about this or other members of their families.
Thank you
Burial Memorial Inscriptions
local History for Tyne & Wear, please leave your false teeth & walking sticks at reception
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
Re: Burial Memorial Inscriptions
There is a gentleman called Bill Hartman who has a large collection of photos and has a lot of information about memeorial stones. He is on Facebook, he would be worth a try.
Post Reply
2 posts • Page 1 of 1


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Population 32,058
Parcels 20,484
Welcome to the Hardin County Auditor's website! To begin using the system, click on the Searches link above, or simply use the QuickSearch feature at the top of the page. First time users can access the Online Auditor Help at any time by clicking the Help link above. Before using AccuGlobe Internet Edition, please review our browser compatibility information in the help pages.


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Thoughts On "Is Augmented Reality the Next Medium"
In the age of the ubiquitous internet, 24hours is already a bit late to be posting a response to anything, but I had to be sure. There is rarely any time for reflection, and much of the content of our electronic media is reflex. These thoughts are on a recent opening and panel discussion at Eyebeam (Center for Art and Technology in Chelsea NY) concerning the topic of Augmented Reality.
At about 6:30 I arrived at the panel at which point the moderator, Laetitia Wolff was finishing her introductory remarks. I caught enough to hear her point out the existence of as many video cameras on the earth as there are neurons in the human brain, connecting with the idea that this constitutes a form of an artificial intelligence equivalent with a human brain, or the possibility of one. Though intriguing, admittedly it's a bit disturbing to dream of the possibilities of an intelligence formed from the interconnection of electronic eyes. With the announcement that the handsomely designed Google Glass will be made available this year (2013), one can't help but wonder what it all could mean in the context of a the emergence of a potentially new medium.
Augmented Reality (AR) serves to visually enhance objects, spaces or people with virtual content. It has the potential to dramatically change the relationship between the physical and digital worlds. (Henchoz)
The above excerpt from the "Is Augmented Reality the Next Medium" curatorial statement written by Nicolas Henchoz and provides a bit of context. A good part of the discussion was occupied by mentions of graphic overlays (projections and heads up displays), physical objects with embedded information, and our mobile devices providing windows into new content. Enough material to start any dreamer's head spinning.
But it wasn't that my imagination ran wild with possibilities that made it hard for me to follow the particulars of the conversation. I was left wanting deeper insights, thirsty for critical dialog. I found myself asking questions which were never fully addressed in the discussion. A moment of relief came when Christiane Paul cautioned us to question this desire for further mediation that AR entails, but there was no real follow-up to this call to investigate what is staged, and to unmask theatricality.
It would seem that perhaps the most obvious question to address would be our ideas of reality and its relationship with the virtual. A mention of Umberto Eco's essay, "Travels in Hyperreality", provided some insight. Though not directly quoted by any of the panelists, here's the paragraph referenced:
Constructing a full-scale model of the Oval Office (using the same materials, the same colors, but with everything obviously more polished, shinier, protected against deterioration) means that for historical information to be absorbed, it has to assume the aspect of a reincarnation. To speak of things that one wants to connote as real, these things must seem real. The "completely real" becomes identified with the "completely fake." Absolute unreality is offered as real presence. The aim of the reconstructed Oval Office is to supply a "sign" that will then be forgotten as such: The sign aims to be the thing, to abolish the distinction of the reference, the mechanism of replacement. Not the image of the thing, but its plaster cast. Its double, in other words. (Eco)
It was pointed out that this instance of the Oval Office model served to illustrate a possible mode by which a simulation or replica functions. The reproduction in the pursuit of realism becomes hyperreal, standing in for the thing itself. Well beyond evoking a connection to the real, this form of realistic simulation becomes its own reality, and as such operates in its own unique way as a modifier of the potential experience of the real thing. Despite this, however, further insight into what addition theoretical framework we have for approaching the notion of the Real, reality, and the virtual failed to surface.
In building Augmented Reality, there is a dynamic between the physical object or environment, its simulation through electronic media, the mediated experience of an overlay of virtual content, and the ways in which the experience of one spills over into the other. Perhaps I yearned for some connection to the Lacanian theory of the Mirror Stage, but without a clear idea of how we formulate or notion of what we take to be the Real and the operation of the virtual within it, we stand little chance of understanding how this new reality will be used to control or influence perception. Granted, not every new technology is evil, but they aren't without their unintended consequences. There's going to be influence of some kind or another and we have to be aware of how to look for it.
It's incredible to imagine just how many computation devices are in the world, currently connected by various wireless networks, and how many of those have cameras of some sort. Though taken as a whole, can they possibly exhibit a human equivalent of intelligence? Are we able to formulate criteria by which we can asses the level of intelligence such a system might have? How does this equate to the level of intelligence of a single human, a small group, or the entire population?
When taken as a whole, the human species may be hardly more intelligent than slime mold. As we currently understand it, intelligence comes from the connectivity between elements and the plasticity of those connections. It's not so much the structure itself, but the formation and revision of particular configurations. Sadly, the point missed by the panel is that our digitally mediated environment must be programmed, and until it can program itself, we must do it. The only information we can put into it will be limited by what we ourselves can input followed by the sophistication of the algorithms we write to automate that process. Here is where there are clear sources of structural bias and issues of access. Beyond that there are also the issues of interface and content filtering.
Jonathan Lee of Google UXA rightly lists inputs and outputs as chief technical challenges faced by designers of user interface (UI) frameworks for Augmented Reality. There are no shortage of sensors today, and haptic interfaces allow for a wide variety of user control over content. It seems that the problem is that there are almost too many inputs. The question then becomes a matter of managing the inputs, of extracting information from the input streams and storing them in a way that enhances virtual content and a user's experience of navigating that content. Content and context aware algorithms solve this problem, but bring up other issues. Our experience of the internet is already highly mediated by content filtering algorithms. It can almost be argued that serendipity has been all but filtered out (they should make an app for that!) as individuals are catered to based on previously gathered information as interpreted by predictive algorithms (call for submissions: creative predictive algorithms). On the broader issue of adaptive algorithms and similar forms of artificial intelligence, one has to ask what are the models for such algorithms? They must be programmed at some point, based upon some body of data. How do we select or craft the template? Is a possible consequence of further refining the intelligence of our algorithms a normative model for intelligence?
Perhaps it might seem as though I've come unhinged, but these questions become important when we begin to approach the task of embedding objects with information. What information or virtual content do we embed in these objects? Who has the ability to do the embedding? What are the possible system architectures that would allow for the system to become a place where the experience of an environment is actually enhanced. What is the framework for approaching this issue of enhancement?
While you consider these, here's some more of the curatorial statement:
The prospects of augmented reality are linked to a fundamental question: What makes the value of an object, its identity, our relationship with it? The answer lies in the physical properties of the object, but also in its immaterial qualities, such as the story it evokes, the references with which it is connected, the questions it brings up. For a long time, physical reality and immaterial values expressed themselves separately. But with digital technology an object can express its story, reveal information, interact with its context and users in real time. (Henchoz)
It's important not to mistake the map for the terrain. Physical objects are already vessels of their own history as they are products of a particular sequence of events. Those events, though external and broad in scope, can be decoded, traced and ultimately placed within a larger context of processes (not only physical ones but those with linkage to various cultural practices). With digital technology, an object will not express its story, but always that of someone else. To which we much ask, why that particular story? How did it find its embodiment as embedded data in that particular object? Is it a special case? Why does this story come to us and not others? If we open the system up for anyone to leave their story with any object, what do we do with hundreds of unique stories each told through a single object? What of a world filled with such objects? How do we navigate this terrain of embedded content? The information revealed by an object through media will, on the surface, only be what is placed their by the one privileged with the ability to do so. The nature of interactions will be limited to those programmed by those privileged enough to do so and the awareness equally limited.
The pieces in the exhibition did little to elaborate these deeper questions, or complicate the view of reality that values the particular form of Augmented Reality as put forward by Nicolas Henchoz. The lack of imagination here comes off as almost tongue in cheek. A microphone is placed before a drum kit rigged with mallets and drum sticks attached to actuators. By making utterances of vocalizations into the microphone, the guests can use their voice to control the kit. Mediation is dealt with as a translation or mapping of one kind of sound through a chain of electronic and mechanical processes to the production of another. Elsewhere in the exhibition space there is a flat shallow museum display case without protective glass, in which various postcards, photos, notes, and objects have been placed. iPads are locked and tethered to the case, provided for guests to view the objects in the display with the camera in order to reveal additional virtual content in the form of animations or video, suggesting a sort of lived experience beyond the inert relics. In all there were seven pieces in the exhibition, of which two were not working after the panel discussion. Despite technological foundations of the works presented, the whole exhibition space is filled with wide sheets of paper, gently curved around large cardboard tubes, evoking the sensation one might have of inhabiting a paper factory or new paper printing facility.
There are two major paradigms within average digital, electronic and media art: "the funny mirror" and "demo mode". The exhibition explored variations of these two paradigms to great effect, but with little affect. But it's still unclear whether this was all to be taken seriously, or if the whole panel discussion and exhibition is actually intensely subtle critique of current developments of AR. The partners and funders list for the whole affair doesn't do much to shed light on that matter, except to indicate that there are a group of respectable people taking this all very seriously, whether as an emerging new technology with radical potential as a profoundly transformative media or as a nuanced critique thereof.
Bernard Garnicnig's "Almost White"
Selections from Almost White by Bernhard Garnicnig (source: flickr – images taken between 29 Mar 2006 & 04 Aug 2010)
Photographs taken to set a camera's white balance.
"Almost all cameras allow the user to set the photographic white point manually. To make this setting on some cameras, you have to shoot a picture of a usually white surface and set it as the white point reference.
These pictures, usually deleted right after confirming the setting, question the concept of subjective realities in the photographic process and document the photographers surroundings from his part unconscious, part mechanic eye. This is one of the last kinds of photography where no post processing is applied by a human while it shows how much the camera is manipulating the image already.
Its one of the last snapshots of photographic truth in the digital imaging age." — B. Garnicnig
So much of the world is left on the cutting room floor. This is a necessary part of relating experience, whether in the transmission of factual information or the telling of story based on fact. Not every detail is needed in order to give a general picture or to convey the essence of an idea or experience, nor can every detail be captured, recalled, or communicated. Exactly what is omitted reveals the circumstances (bias) around and through which the material aspects of an experience are transformed by the process of relating and crafted into media.
Where lived subjective experience is often filled or obscured by the mediated experience of information displayed or rendered through electronics, today those scraps are increasingly difficult to find. Our culture of digitally mediated exchanges has been carefully structured to remove the perception of the framework through which we conduct our daily activities. The unwanted bits are tucked away on our hard-drives or tossed in the recycling bin—in some cases, deleted in-camera. Everything is curated, edited, cleaned and polished (even the raw webcam feed is a considered choice to convey honesty).
It's not so much an issue of noise—the din of cellphone rings, tinny ear buds cranked way too high, the drone of our air handling systems and refrigeration units, the screeching, grinding and rumbling of our transportation machines is certainly something we will not easily rid ourselves of—the dust that imposed itself on the grooves of a record, the grain of a piece of paper and the pen-in-hand overcoming it to scrawl a letter, the grit of static and dead air between the stations, are all disappearing.
It is not so much a sense of nostalgia but a reflection, looking back on where we were but a few years ago, while understanding that today digital media strives for higher levels of fidelity (which ironically force television personalities to pursue more extreme methods to alter their physical appearance; this in addition to the artificial sharpening and saturation applied to just about every image these days) in an attempt to look forward into the potential media of the future where everything is so radically fabricated and manipulated that there is no honesty, no substance, no reality left but a simulated phantom of what once was.
What is striking to me about Bernhard's Almost White series is that it brings to the surface issues of the photographic medium, how its digitization has been quietly accepted as Photography wholesale. The question of what makes photography different than digital imaging has been unearthed. By using these artifacts as evidence of the manipulation nearly every digital image undergoes, Bernard opens the door to questioning the honesty behind every media image. Even tempting us to ask exactly how staged are these white balance calibration shots? Has "fidelity" in the digital (dark) age become a matter of passing off artificially enhanced hyper-realism as reality? Or has it becomes something more subtle, staging reality in such a way that the extraordinary seems mundane?


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Posted by Editor on 08/3/03
Sun Peaks Canada Cup Update
We received the following message from Henry Pejril, organizer of the Canada Cup Final scheduled for next weekend.
It is quite possible that the Canada Cup Finals at Sun Peaks will be cancelled. The area around Kamloops and Sun Peaks is presently inundated by three massive forest fires. The location of these fires blocks virtually all access to Sun Peaks, and the mountain has been put on 1 hour Evacuation alert. All of the guests and most of the residents have been removed from the mountain and there is only a skeleton crew left there, manning snow guns to try to keep the village area moist. Highways in the North Thompson area remain closed and we are not sure when they will reopen. Over 3000 people in areas surrounding Sun Peaks have been evacuated so far. As long as we have access to return to the mountain even as late as Wednesday there should be no problem running the event.
The courses are all built and groomed, and partially signed. The remaining signage and taping could be accomplished within hours. The issue is simply access at this point. I stress that at this time Sun Peaks is not in any danger from the three fires, it's just that those fires have blocked all access to the mountain. I will be communicating with CCA on Tuesday with the conditions on the mountain and the final decision of mountain management if the race can, in fact, proceed. Note that there is some rain forcast for Tuesday, but it is not known if this will be enough to reduce the fire hazard.
Any public inquiries should go to www.sunpeaksresort.com or guest services: 250-578-5484. Internet communication is also difficult, as the Shaw fibreoptic line has been damaged by the fires and crews are not allowed to get in. It took me almost 1-1/2 hours to get into a dialup connection. Once again, Sun Peaks itself is not in any immediate danger from the fires, but obviously the fire hazard there is most extreme.
Henry Pejril - Race Organizer
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Essay Topics on RIVER WATER POLLUTION IN INDIA
Jose John December 27, 2014 No CommentsRIVER WATER POLLUTION IN INDIA Holy rivers have rather become a myth today. According to a report of the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) all the fourteen big rivers of India are badly polluted. They cover 85 per cent of the surface flow of water in the country. The main pollutant of river water is industrial waste. River Jamuna in Delhi receives 6000kg of dissolved solids, 3000 kg of heavy metals and 200 kg of detergents every day. In its 48 km stretch around Delhi Yamuna gets polluted through 17 drains that bring toxics, acids and a number of chemicals that affect the health of the river and consequently of all those who depend on it for drinking and bathing water. The Ganga starts getting polluted by chemicals from Rishikesh itself. It receives effluents from the Indian Drug and Pharmaceuticals Ltd (IDPL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL). The flow of toxic effluents including chemicals metallurgy and fertilizers to river periyar in Kerala is so great that the people living on its banks have a high incidence of skin diseases. Cauvery and Kapila in Karnataka are so polluted that in stretch of 10 km of the banks of Cauvery people suffer badly from skin diseases, boils and burning... read more


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CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian authorities on Sunday moved the trial of the ousted Islamist president to a new location at another end of the capital, a move apparently aimed at thwarting mass rallies planned by the Muslim Brotherhood in his support when it opens on Monday.
Facing charges of incitement of violence with 14 others in connection to clashes last December, Mohammed Morsi has been held at an undisclosed location since his July 3 overthrow by the military. The trial will be his first public appearance since then, possibly inflaming an already tense political atmosphere as animosity between Morsi's Islamist supporters and Egypt's security establishment steadily deepens.
"For (the Islamists) it will be like taking revenge on the police and the military," said lawyer Khaled Abu-Bakr, representing three victims of the December clashes. "I really hope that no blood is spilled tomorrow," he added.
The change of the venue was announced at a tumultuous news conference by appeals court judge Medhat Idris, who threw his statement in the air and stormed out of the room when Morsi supporters shouted in protest at the change.
He later told The Associated Press by telephone that the trial will not be aired live. Other details about the proceedings, including where Morsi will be held during them, remain secret.
A security official said Morsi will probably be taken back to the place he has been held instead of being transferred to a normal prison after the first session, for fear his supporters would turn the prison into a "focal point of endless protests."
The new venue is a heavily fortified police academy in an eastern Cairo suburb, already used for the trial of another former president — Hosni Mubarak — toppled in a 2011 uprising. He is accused of failing to stop the killing of protesters.
Egypt witnessed one of its worst bouts of violence in decades on Aug. 14, when security forces violently cleared protest camps set up by Morsi supporters, sparking days of unrest that left more than 1,000 dead. Since then, violent incidents have multiplied: a suicide car bomber tried to assassinate Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim in September, and dozens of members of the security forces have been killed in a string of drive-by shootings, explosions and car bombs. Churches have been torched, and in an attack in Cairo last month, five Copts and one Muslim were killed in drive-by shooting at a church.
Both government officials and Morsi's supporters forecast bleak scenarios for Monday, with each side accusing the other of plotting killings, including that of Morsi himself.
A senior Interior Ministry official told the AP his ministry had received information that Brotherhood supporters will engage in acts of violence, "including assassinations of top religious figures, suicide attacks and targeting military facilities."
"We expect a kind of hysteria and rioting when Morsi shows up in court," he added.
A Brotherhood-led group has called for mass rallies, while the interior minister has ordered the deployment of large numbers of security forces to guard the trial venue.
In recent statements, a coalition led by Morsi's Brotherhood described the trial as a "farce" and reiterated that it regarded him as the "elected, legitimate president" of Egypt. "This is a naive tool to break our will and our determination," it said Sunday.
Shaimaa Awad, a member of the group's political party, said it envisages several scenarios for the day of the trial. One of them, she said, sees the authorities bringing in Morsi for a swift and a secretive session. The second scenario, she said the group fears, is that authorities exploit the protests in order to create chaos and "liquidate Morsi."
"There is real fear Morsi would be assassinated during violence, and protesters depicted as trying to break into the courtroom," she said.
"We know our presence could backfire, but we cannot simply not go. We have to be there. When you know that your president is brought in to be humiliated, you ought to be outside to show that he is not alone," she added.
Meanwhile, a newspaper known for close ties to the military published what appeared to be the first pictures of Morsi from his detention. Daily el-Watan published a transcript of remarks it says were made by Morsi and captured on video, describing him as being "in total denial" and saying "I am the president of the republic, in accordance to the constitution." Later in the day, it posted a video showing Morsi wearing a blue track suit, sitting on a chair and speaking calmly
The paper quoted him as saying: "I will represent myself in front of any court … I am not involved in killings of the protesters … I will tell judges that."
A military official said the video was leaked to the paper in order to give his supporters a first glance of the former president to lessen the impact of the shock of his first public appearance.
Meanwhile, in Egypt's restive northern Sinai Peninsula, troops killed three alleged militants Sunday, a military official said, discovering rocket launchers, mortars, and rocket-propelled grenades in an abandoned house in the city of Rafah. Hours later, suspected militants killed two soldiers in a drive-by shooting at a check point near the Suez Canal city of Ismailia, a security official said.
Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
International rights groups have called for fair trial for Morsi.
In a Sunday statement, London-based Amnesty International said Morsi's trial is a "test" for the Egyptian authorities, who must grant him the "right to challenge the evidence against him in court," said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty's Middle East director.
Morsi is being tried along with 14 other Brotherhood members and allies including top leaders Mohammed el-Beltagy and Essam el-Erian.
Morsi's family considers the trial illegitimate and will not attend, his son Osama told The Associated Press. Awad said they feared they would be mistreated and humiliated.


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Classic squash casserole made with summer squash, seasoned with bacon and onion, and tossed with cheese, eggs, mayonnaise, sugar, a generously sprinkling of salt and pepper and baked with a cracker topping.
Summer Squash Casserole with BaconThis Squash Casserole recipe is probably my hands-down favorite way of eating all that great summer squash that grows like a weed in the garden. Growing up, I remember my aunt always having a vegetable garden - a pretty good sized one at that - and plenty of squash! Most times when I have ever planted squash it has always seems to come under attack of squash bugs and borers and I end up with dead plants and no squash... grrrrrr. This year the squash has been producing! Ah, the joys of the veggie garden! Ya just never know what's gonna happen I guess.
Since the squash is at least giving me a bit of a harvest this year, I thought I'd start out with a summer squash casserole recipe. I would normally use just the yellow squash, but I also had some calabacita squash - a type of zucchini squash - so I thought I would combine the two. Use whatever summer squash you enjoy.
I weighed but forgot to count the squash, so if I recollect correctly, I wanna say it must've been about 6 or 7, maybe? Just slice up enough to fit your pan and you'll be good to go!
You can use Ritz crackers, Club crackers and even regular saltines as a topping here. I also used an 8 x 8 inch baking dish, since I couldn't get The Cajun to eat a squash on purpose no matter how hard I try so in other words, it'll be ME eating this casserole! If you need to stretch this out a bit for your family, use a slightly larger pan - about an 11 x 7 inch should give ya about 8 servings - and increase the squash to about 3 or 4 pounds, but you can leave the rest of the ingredients about the same. And don't worry. I'll be featuring more squash recipes as the season goes along!
For more of my favorite squash recipes, visit my page on Pinterest!
If you make this or any of my recipes, I'd love to see your results! Just snap a photo and hashtag it #DeepSouthDish on social media or tag me @deepsouthdish on Instagram!
Recipe: Summer Squash Casserole with Bacon©From the Kitchen of Deep South Dish
Prep time: 10 min |Cook time: 30 min | Yield: About 4 to 6 servings
- 2 pounds (about 6 medium) yellow squash, washed and unpeeled
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 cup chopped Vidalia or other sweet onion
- 1 teaspoon minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 heaping cup shredded Cheddar cheese
- 2 large eggs, beaten
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
- Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1 sleeve Ritz crackers, crushed
- 3 tablespoons butter, melted
Slice the squash into rounds about 1/4 inch in size. Bring a large pot of water to boil and boil the squash for about 6-7 minutes or until tender; drain well on paper towels to absorb some of the moisture. Pat with more paper towels to dry.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter an 8 x 8 square baking dish or spray with a light coat of non-stick spray; set aside.
Chop up bacon and saute in a large skillet until cooked but not crisp. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and the chopped onion to the skillet, cooking until the onion is tender but not browned. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Remove the skillet from the heat, add the cooked squash, cheese, eggs, mayonnaise, sugar, a generously sprinkling of salt and pepper. Turn to coat well.
Turn out into the prepared casserole dish. Combine the crushed crackers and 3 tablespoons of melted butter; sprinkle evenly over the top of the casserole. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 30 to 35 minutes or until it is set. Doubles great.
Variations: Can substitute sour cream or Greek yogurt for the mayonnaise. Substitute regular or panko bread crumbs or crushed saltine crackers mixed with the 2 tablespoons of butter, or a package or prepared stuffing mix (like Pepperidge Farm) for the topping.
Tex-Mex Squash Casserole: Add in 1 (4 ounce) can of drained chopperd green chilies, 1/4 cup chopped, pickled jalapeno and 1 envelope taco seasoning.
Pimento Cheese Squash Casserole: Add in 1 (2 ounce) jar of chopped pimentos or roasted red pepper, well drained, with the cheese.
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Summer Squash Dressing
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Posted by Mary on June 11, 2009Images and Full Post Content including Recipe ©Deep South Dish. Recipes are offered for your own personal use only and while pinning and sharing links is welcomed and encouraged, please do not copy and paste to repost or republish elsewhere such as other Facebook pages, blogs, websites, or forums without explicit prior permission. All rights reserved.
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What: The Fly Fishing Film Tour
When: 7 p.m. April 12
Where: Boulder Theater
More info: Discount tickets ($13) are available at Rocky Mountain Anglers and Front Range Anglers. Tickets can also be purchased from flyfilmtour.com for $15 or at the door for $20.
About a week ago I was supposed to be fishing the Arkansas River. At the time, the idea of a trip was easy to justify because I'd just gotten off the telephone with a trusted friend who reported that the blue-winged olive hatch was on.
Unfortunately, the reality of actually heading to the river the next morning was a little more difficult. I'd overslept, the wind was howling and I was looking at a minimum of a two-hour drive.
Most Colorado fly-fishers learn early on to not let silly little things like weather forecasts deter them from heading out to a nearby river for a day of fishing. But if you couple that with gasoline prices and a prediction that the wind will worsen, it's even harder to leave home. And I might also add to the mix that my friend Doug Powell at Mayfly Media had recently sent me a DVD of the films scheduled for this year's Fly Fishing Film Tour, which returns to Boulder Theater on April 12.
By now you can probably see where this is heading. That's right. I wimped out and watched films about fly-fishing when I could have actually been fishing. But the good news is that this year's lineup of films is the best I can remember. There's some great footage dedicated to the pursuit of trout in Montana and Idaho in addition to the dreamy far-off fly-fishing forays that attendees have come to expect.
The 2012 tour also includes the mandatory "quest" films, where a fly-fisher or a group of fly-fishers travel hundreds or thousands of miles in pursuit of their obsession.
Waterline Media's "Riding High" is a classic example of the fly-fishing quest. The film features a group of young, highly motivated fly-fishers who, along with their yellow Labrador retriever, Yeti, decide to follow the tarpon migration as it moves along the Florida coastline. They catch some incredible tarpon along the way, too, both on film and the fly rod. There's plenty of screaming, yelling, giggling and barking (credit that to Yeti) when the happy fly-fishers hook up to feisty tarpon. Yeti gets so excited that he actually jumps in the water after one especially large tarpon as it flees toward the horizon. Plain and simple, the film will get you pumped.
I like adrenaline as much as the next fly-fisher, and it's always been part of the Fly Fishing Film Tour. The two films that impressed me most in this year's lineup, though, produced less adrenaline and plenty of inspiration.
"Hatch," Gin-Clear Media's fourth feature film, documents the world's most extraordinary insect hatches and the incredible fly-fishing that accompanies them. The segment on the Green Drake mayfly hatch that occurs on English chalkstreams is magnificent. River Keeper Ronnie Butler explains that "the mayfly season lasts about 10 to 12 days and it's all about big, wild brown trout making a mistake." Those days are the pinnacle of the entire season because the large brown trout seemingly appear out of nowhere to aggressively take dry fly imitations. It's a beautifully filmed testament to the natural history of the mayfly, the trout that eat them and the art of catching those trout.
Initially, "Doc of the Drakes" by filmmaker and photographer Bryan Huskey appears to be a tribute to the glories of the brown drake hatch on Idaho's Silver Creek. But Huskey steers the narrative to how Dr. Robert Franklin, a world-renowned surgeon whose career ended when he developed Parkinson's disease, turns his love of medicine into a love for fly-fishing. Franklin credits Silver Creek fishing guide Pete Wood with helping him achieve that transition. The film includes great footage of the brown drake hatch on Silver Creek and a fascinating glimpse into the how the relationship between a fly-fishing guide and his "client" develops into a bond of friendship.
I like "Hatch" and "Doc of the Drakes" because mayfly hatches have always been the focus of my own fly-fishing. Like many fly-fishers, I started out thinking that carefully imitating the mayfly hatches with an artificial fly would be my ticket to catching trout. And that was true. What I didn't know was that over the years I would come to appreciate the mayflies as much as the trout that rise to feed on them. Both these films capture that appreciation.


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Like so many winter-weary tourists trekking to the shore this summer, Hollywood is drawn to the beach.
And why not? It has been the setting of some of the movie industry's most memorable scenes ever -- where Frankie Avalon crooned, big-name stars were marooned, and a young Brooke Shields frolicked in a blue lagoon.
The beach is where bullies beat up the "Karate Kid," where John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John fell in love in "Grease" and where Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr made out in the surf in one of the hottest kisses in film history.
Over the decades, beaches have been a favorite Hollywood setting for everything from coming-of-age flicks to stunning documentaries and summer romances -- from innocent Annette Funicello films to the far, far steamier.
If you can't get to a sandy shore this summer, let the movies take you there.
Here are five of the best beach movies ever.
No. 5: "Cast Away" (2000)
This is arguably the purest beach movie ever made -- a film in which the beach itself is a major character -- the chief antagonist to Tom Hanks' character Chuck Noland.
After a shockingly bone-jarring plane crash, the movie plunges into scenes devoid of dialogue as Noland struggles with the beach for survival. He desperately tries to open a coconut, spells out HELP in huge letters in the sand and ultimately learns to spear fish.
Gradually, Noland fades into the scenery as he transforms from a tubby time-obsessed FedEx analyst to a gaunt but savvy denizen of the beach -- a natural part of the sandy landscape.
An obvious honorable mention for another movie in which the beach itself played a starring role would be "The Blue Lagoon" (1980), with a lush setting so beautiful it was upstaged only by Brooke Shields and earned an Academy Award nomination for cinematography.
No. 4: "Blue Hawaii" (1961)
Elvis Presley is remembered for dreamy love songs and establishment-rattling rock-and-roll. But he was also a Hollywood beach stud, appearing in the likes of "Girls Girls Girls" (1962), "Paradise Hawaiian Style" (1966) and "Clambake" (1967).
"Blue Hawaii" was the first of his beach-bod-bearing roles and was perhaps the biggest commercial success of his film career. Sure, the story is kind of lame -- Presley's Chad returns from the Army and rebels against his father, refusing to go to work at dad's [eye roll here] ... pineapple business.
But the musical comedy is a time capsule of a simpler era, brilliantly lit by sunny nostalgia, and it amounts to a cheesy but fun bit of film.
It also has some beautiful beach scenery for its time and includes 14 songs that helped make the soundtrack a Billboard chart topper, including "Can't Help Falling In Love." Angela Lansbury co-stars in an over-the-top role as Elvis' mother.
No. 3: "Gidget" (1959)
"Gidget" pioneered the summer beach flick and in many minds is synonymous with the genre.
Audiences fell in love with the spunky character played by Sandra Dee, who falls for surfer Moondoggie, played by James Darren. A young Cliff Robertson stars as The Kahuna.
The movie is often credited with bringing a surfing subculture to the mainstream. Gidget was followed by two sequels and launched a TV show starring Sally Field. It pioneered a long string of beach party and romance movies, including Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello romps "Beach Party," "Bikini Beach" and "Beach Blanket Bingo."
Ultimately, Gidget helped pave the way for the likes of more modern girl-power beach movies, including the surfer-chick film "Blue Crush" (2002), which suffered from a trite plot but helped make a star of actress Kate Bosworth with spectacular surf scenes.
No. 2: "Endless Summer" (1966)
The beach has served as a backdrop for a long string of surfing documentaries. More recent notables include "Riding Giants" (2004), a vivid history of big-wave riders, and "Step Into Liquid" (2003), which features unforgettable surfing footage and gets inside the heads of wave riders as it follows them to their favorite beaches.
But the pioneer of the genre is still one of the best.
"Endless Summer" is also a fun historical snapshot of the sunny side of the 1960s. The movie follows two American surfers as they travel the world in search of the perfect wave, an adventure that takes them to Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii.
Filmmaker Bruce Brown narrates the film with humor and a sincere fondness for the surf and the planet's beaches.
No. 1: "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001)
The coming-of-age plotline is a staple of the beach movie. It's been done well by Jan-Michael Vincent and Gary Busey in surfer-favorite "Big Wednesday" (1978), by Matt Dillon in "The Flamingo Kid" (1984), and to a certain degree, by Keanu Reeves in "Point Break" (1991).
But "Y Tu Mama Tambien" (2001), explores the coming-of-age theme in raw, powerful new ways. It follows two teens in Mexico on the cusp of adulthood played by Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, on an impulsive road trip with an older woman in search of a mysterious secluded beach.
The movie was released unrated in the U.S. due to its stark sexuality -- this is no "Gidget." But it artfully reveals a number of broader social issues as well as a timeless tale of young men on a journey from lusty teens to manhood.
Critics almost unanimously praised the movie: "originality writ large" (Washington Post) and "fast, funny, unafraid of sexuality and finally devastating" (The New York Times).


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Zeiss LSM 710 main content.
We are preparing to reopen! See updates to ticketing and health and safety measures.
The Zeiss laser scanning microscope (LSM) is a confocal light microscope that also uses helium/neon and argon lasers to image samples. The LSM can take a three-dimensional scan of samples, allowing the user to have a deeper understanding of how surface structure of their sample appears. Our LSM is equipped with a Zeiss Axiovert inverted microscope and a wide range of lenses including: Plan-Neo 1.25X, Plan-Neo 2.5X, Plan-Neo 5X, Fluar 10X, Fluar 20X, Plan-Neo 40X, and Plan-Neo 100X (oil immerision). The instrument accommodates five lenses at a time. Confocal microscopes use specific wavelengths of light to excite fluorescent molecules within a sample. Our Zeiss 510 uses the following lasers: 458/488 nm Argon, 543 nm HeNe (helium/neon), and a 633 nm HeNe.
Additional software available at the MIF to further analyze data collected from the LSM includes the Fledermaus de-convolution program. This software allows the user to explore their collected data like a map. This software is also applicable to geological maps and scans.