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The other side to Windows 8
Windows 8's touch experience is well thought out, and in the main works well. There's still some room for improvement, but overall the experience is satisfactory...
...as long as you don't venture into the desktop. Here's a list of all the improvements that Microsoft has made to improve the desktop experience with touch:
- ...
Using the desktop with fingers is horrible in Windows 7, and it remains horrible in Windows 8. It will probably stay horrible until the end of time. It's not a surprise to anyone that this is the case, and it's precisely why we have the Metro interface and why Microsoft has stopped trying to get tablet users to use mouse-oriented interfaces. This isn't just an issue with "legacy applications" or anything like that, either; even brand new interfaces, such as Explorer's ribbon, do not work well with touch.
With enough care and practice, it is possible to use the desktop with touch to an extent. Some things, such as the large ribbon buttons, are nice and easy to hit. But for everything that's big and easy to hit, there's something small and hard to hit, like this long list of checkboxes:
Or the ribbon size toggle:
Or the weird segmented ribbon buttons, like delete, that have one safe bit (the arrow) and one dangerous bit (the X):
And that's before you get into real applications. Even Office 2013, which Microsoft has made (superficially) touch-accessible, provides a unsatisfactory experience; you can just forget about using a completely non-touch application such as Paint.NET:
That keyboard again
Then there's the keyboard behavior. In touch applications, the on-screen keyboard is quite automatic. Tapping an editable field makes the keyboard appear, and if necessary, the application scrolls up to ensure that the field isn't hidden behind the keyboard. That's not perfect (as demonstrated in the video earlier), but the intent is there, and for the most part it works as expected.
On the desktop, things get much wonkier. The keyboard has two modes on the desktop. The default is a free-floating mode, where the keyboard appears in a borderless window that sits on top of all the other windows and can be dragged around. Hit a little toggle switch on the keyboard and it changes to the other mode, where it's anchored to the bottom of the screen. In this mode, the system reduces the usable desktop area to exclude the space occupied by the keyboard, so in theory at least, the keyboard doesn't hide anything other than the taskbar; applications will stay clear.
In general, the keyboard only appears when you press the keyboard button on the taskbar. An API allows applications to trigger the keyboard automatically; tap the editable area in Word 2013, for example, and the keyboard appears. But most applications, including built-ins like Notepad and Internet Explorer, don't seem to use it. Regardless of the mode it's in or how it was invoked, the keyboard is dismissed by pressing its close button.
Both of the keyboard modes are problematic in their own way. The first problem with the hovering mode is that it's a different keyboard to the one used elsewhere in the system. Specifically, it's narrower and doesn't stretch to the edges of the screen. Thus, it feels different to type on; the buttons are no longer in the same places as they would be in a Metro application. This is most egregious in the thumb keyboard mode, where the keys are displaced by about a full key width, resulting in a very different typing feel.
Windows Phone makes a similar, though less severe, error with its keyboard—the keyboard appears above the app bar, meaning that it's differently positioned depending on whether an application has an app bar or not. There's no reason for the keyboard not to use the full screen width that I can see. It just doesn't. Muscle memory and keyboard fluency suffer as a consequence.
Presumably as a result of this resizing, the system also disables the use of the split keyboard in portrait mode. The button in the keyboard selector is greyed out.
The fixed mode keyboard uses the full screen width and so avoids these issues. The fixed keyboard is probably better all round, except for its fatal flaw: though application windows will move out of the way of the keyboard, unresizable windows such as dialog boxes do not. This can leave their contents stuck out of view behind the keyboard. The floating keyboard can be moved to the top of the screen to uncover the bottoms of large dialog boxes, and that is perhaps its sole virtue.
The "hidden behind the keyboard" issue crops up with both keyboards to some extent. Windows 8 provides an API that lets applications know that the on-screen keyboard has appeared, and applications that use that API can make sure to reposition their content appropriately so that the right things are visible. When programs do use this API, such as Office 2013, it works reasonably well.
But it also works not at all when programs don't use the API, and such programs are abundant. Internet Explorer doesn't, for example. The result is that there's lots of manual shuffling and scrolling to ensure that the thing you want to type in is visible.
The biggest problem of all
I could live with this if the touch interface were self-contained and complete. If I never needed to go to the desktop except when I both wanted to and was equipped to do so (which is to say, when using a mouse, trackpoint, or trackpad), then its lack of touch accessibility would be a non-issue.
But that's not the case with Windows 8. Let's leave aside for a moment the whole Office issue (the ARM version of Windows, Windows RT, will bundle Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, all of which are desktop applications) and just look at the core operating system.
Imagine that Windows Update has just downloaded a new driver for a piece of hardware in your system. Although Windows Update has a touch interface, it can't be used to install optional driver updates. The touch interface will show a link to let you install the optional updates, and tapping it takes you without warning to the old Windows Update Control Panel.
Imagine that you want to add a language or keyboard layout. Same thing happens; the touch settings app has a link, and tapping that link unceremoniously dumps you in the desktop Language Control Panel.
Want to add a folder to one of your Libraries so that the Music or Video Metro apps can actually see your media, or maybe create a "backup" Library to work around the missing features of the new backup system? You'll have to use the desktop, and in this case, the application won't even take you to where you need to go directly. You'll have to memorize the instructions and then go there yourself.
These are just the things that the touch portions of Windows 8 acknowledge. Then there's everything else. Need to configure a proxy server for your Web access? You'll have to find your way to the desktop and Internet Explorer's properties to do so. Want to double-check your WiFi connection is working properly? You'll have to find the relevant part of Control Panel yourself. Interested in how long you can expect your battery to last? Again, the touch parts of Windows 8 won't help you out; it's up to you to find the right place in the desktop. Need to know how much disk space you have free? Desktop. Want to enable full device encryption? Desktop. Want to change the notification sounds Windows uses? Desktop. Want to change the date or time (though, strangely, not the timezone)? Desktop.
None of these are particularly weird or wacky things to want to do. In Android, iOS, or even Windows Phone, all can be done comfortably with an interface designed for touch. This creates a tremendous problem. Android and iOS are the competition, and their proponents can point to these parts of Windows 8 and make a very credible argument that, for all the thought and care and work that have gone into the touch parts, it's only half of a real tablet operating system.
And they'd have a good point.


text:
Memory Eternal! + Charles G. Ofiesh
Nov. 22, 1924 - Aug. 23, 2010
Charles G. Ofiesh, 85, of St. George Orthodox Church in Altoona, PA fell asleep in the Lord Monday, August 23, 2010. Charlie was a long time member of The Order of St. Ignatius and served many years on the parish council as a member and chair. He initiated an Endowment Fund and worked tirelessly for the good of the parish. In 2005 he was awarded the Antonian Silver Medal by Metropolitan Philip. He was for most of his life in the parish, "always there." He will be greatly missed. His leadership in the parish, in Altoona and in Pennsylvania is established by the list of organizations and accomplishments of his life as well as his three children, three grand-children and six great grandchildren.
He was born in Albany, N.Y., son of George and Emily (Ofiesh) Ofiesh. He married Helen V. Ajay on Sept. 4, 1949, and she preceded him in death on May 14, 2009.
Charles was a 1942 graduate of Altoona High School. He was a U.S. Army veteran of WWII, serving in the Pacific theater, and the Korean conflict. He retired as a Command Sergeant Major after serving 41 years in the Pennsylvania Army Reserve. He received 26 awards and decorations, including the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service medals.
He retired as a general contractor and owner of Ofiesh Construction.
Charles was a member of the Altoona Zoning Board for more than 45 years, past president and life director of the Pennsylvania Builders Association, past commander of the local and Pennsylvania Disabled American Veterans, past commander of the American Legion, life member of the VFW, life member of Cooties and parade marshal in Altoona for more than 30 years.
He was a member of the Blair County Industrial Authority, ABCD Corp. and Flag Day Committee, senior life director and member of the National Association of Home Builders, past president and member of Blair County Builders Association and past commander of the Blair County War Veterans Council. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Civil Air Patrol and was elected alderman for six years.
The Funeral Service was held on Friday, August 27 at 11 am at St. George Orthodox Church in Altoona, PA and he was laid to rest with full military honors at Alto Reste Cemetery in Altoona.
Donations may be made to The Endowment Fund at St. George Orthodox Church in Altoona, PA 16602, 519 58th St. in memory of Charlie.
May his memory be eternal!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Matrox Graphics, provider of the most extensive range of advanced multi-display graphics hardware for process automation systems, will participate in the biennial 2010 Yokogawa Australasian User Conference. Matrox Extio™ Remote Graphics technology will be on display and Matrox representatives will be present to provide information on the unique features of Matrox technologies for operator workstations and display walls alike.
Monday May 10th - Tuesday May 11th, 2010
Perth Exhibition Convention Centre
Matrox offers a comprehensive range of products to meet the most stringent control room requirements—from advanced multi-monitor graphics cards, to external Graphics eXpansion Modules, Remote Graphics Units and display wall controller boards. Matrox PowerDesk desktop management software and unified display driver architecture provide the versatility required to easily customize display configurations.
Matrox M-Series graphics cards uniquely feature low-profile, fanless designs, consume very little power and support up to four truly independent outputs in varying orientations—a combination of portrait and landscape—from a single Matrox-designed graphics chip. The Matrox M9188 supports up to eight outputs from a single card. For projects that require even larger display configurations, multiple Matrox M-Series cards can be combined in the same computer1.
Matrox Extio remote graphics technology has been designed for mission-critical environments where data security, heat generation, noise levels, and space constraints are concerns. Matrox Extio Series products address these issues by separating the user interface components—keyboard, mouse, audio peripherals, and graphics hardware—from the host PC by up to 250m over a single strand of fibre-optic cable. Matrox Extio remote graphics units are fanless devices that support for up to four high-resolution displays at the same performance as though the PC were situated at the operator's console.
Matrox products are renowned for their advanced feature sets, stability, pristine image quality, and long life cycles.
Matrox Graphics is a leading manufacturer of graphics solutions for professional markets. In-house design expertise, top-to-bottom manufacturing, and dedicated customer support make our solutions the premier choice in industries that require stable, high-reliability products. Matrox is a privately held company headquartered in Montreal, Canada.
Liv Stewart, Regional Sales Manager, Matrox Graphics Inc. +1 514-822-6336,
For more information, visit Matrox solutions for control rooms pages or Contact Matrox Graphics.
1 Operating system, hardware and driver compatibility need to be verified for large monitor configuration arrays. Contact Matrox for details.


text:
The Panchatantra (also spelled Pañcatantra, in Sanskrit: पञ्चतन्त्र, 'Five Principles') or Kalīleh o Demneh (in Persian: کلیله و دمنه) or Anvār-e Soheylī انوار سهیلی, 'The Lights of Canopus') or Kalilag and Damnag (in Syriac) or Kalīlah wa Dimnah (in Arabic: كليلة و دمنة, 'Kalilah and Dimnah') or The Fables of Bidpai (or Pilpai, in various European languages) or The Morall Philosophie of Doni (English, 1570) was originally a canonical collection of Sanskrit (Hindu) as well as Pali (Buddhist) animal fables in verse and prose. The original Sanskrit text, now long lost, and which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sarma. However, based as it is on older oral traditions, its antecedents among storytellers probably hark back to the origins of language and the subcontinent's earliest social groupings of hunting and fishing folk gathered around campfires.
- We ought to do our neighbor all the good we can. If you do good, good will be done to you; but if you do evil, the same will be measured back to you again.
- Dabschelim and Pilpay, Chapter i. Compare: "And with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again", Matthew vii. 2.
- It has been the providence of Nature to give this creature [the cat] nine lives instead of one.
- The Greedy and Ambitious Cat, Fable iii. Compare: "A woman hath nine lives like a cat", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part ii., Chap. iv.
- There is no gathering of the rose without being pricked by the thorns.
- The Two Travellers, Chapter ii, Fable vi. Compare: "But ne'er the rose without the thorn", Robert Herrick, The Rose.
- Wise men say that there are three sorts of persons who are wholly deprived of judgment,—they who are ambitious of preferment in the courts of princes; they who make use of poison to show their skill in curing it; and they who entrust women with their secrets.
- The Two Travellers, Chapter ii, Fable vi.
- Men are used as they use others.
- The King who became Just, Fable ix.
- What is bred in the bone will never come out of the flesh.
- The Two Fishermen, Fable xiv. Compare: "It will not out of the flesh that is bred in the bone", John Heywood, Proverbes, Part ii., Chap. viii.
- Guilty consciences always make people cowards.
- The Prince and his Minister, Chapter iii, Fable iii.
- Whoever … prefers the service of princes before his duty to his Creator, will be sure, early or late, to repent in vain.
- The Prince and his Minister, Chapter iii, Fable iii.
- There are some who bear a grudge even to those that do them good.
- A Religious Doctor, Fable vi.
- There was once, in a remote part of the East, a man who was altogether void of knowledge and experience, yet presumed to call himself a physician.
- The Ignorant Physician, Fable viii.
- He that plants thorns must never expect to gather roses.
- The Ignorant Physician, Fable viii. Compare: "For as you sow, ye are like to reap", Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part ii., Canto ii., Line 501.
- Honest men esteem and value nothing so much in this world as a real friend. Such a one is as it were another self, to whom we impart our most secret thoughts, who partakes of our joy, and comforts us in our affliction; add to this, that his company is an everlasting pleasure to us.
- Choice of Friends, Chapter iv.
- That possession was the strongest tenure of the law.
- The Cat and the Two Birds, Chapter v, Fable iv. Compare: "Possession is eleven points in the law", Colley Cibber, Woman's Wit, Act i.
About the Panchatantra[edit]
- [Arvind] Sharma recommends introducing the study of Arthashastra in all schools in all languages. ....Some others suggest that Panchatantra ought to be taught at very young ages as a popular version of strategic thinking. It is interesting that the Arabs took the Panchatantra and translated/adapted it into their children's stories, which reached Europe as Aesop's Fables.
- Rajiv Malhotra, The Battle for Sanskrit


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The Maraudine clan of centaur were founded by Maraudos. One of the five main clans of centaur, they occupy and maintain the temple of Maraudon, a shrine to their ancient Khan and the procreators of the centaur in Desolace.
The Maraudine have a settlement in the Valley of Spears which is also the entrance to Maraudon; the tomb of Zaetar. Only the bravest and mightiest of the tribe's warriors are chosen to guard the tomb of Zaetar.
Known classes within the Maraudine tribe are:
- Maraudine Khan Advisor
- Maraudine Khan Guard
- Maraudine Marauder
- Maraudine Mauler
- Maraudine Scout
- Maraudine Stormer
- Maraudine Windchaser
- Maraudine Wrangler
- Maraudine Priest
- Maraudine Bonepaw
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This post is part of Marc H. Ellis's "Exile and the Prophetic" feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Kuwait is in. Yesterday Kuwait pledged four billion dollars to Egypt – the Egyptian revolution – or the Egyptian military. Take your pick.
With Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States in line, the rogues' gallery is almost complete. The IMF can't be far behind.
The Guardian reports reports that U. S. military aid, the latest being F-16 fighter jets, continues to flow to Egypt. Lockheed Martin – yet another member of the rogues' gallery as the premier supplier to the Pentagon – is happy as a lark.
With so many political and strategic strings attached what do these handouts mean? In an economy the size of Egypt's these billions don't last long. The money keeps the economy from collapsing rather than moving society in a new direction. It also helps to stabilize and consolidate the power of all concerned – except progressive forces. Progressive change isn't part of these aid packages.
Power continues to be the status quo coin of the realm.Should we expect more?
Meanwhile Egypt's military government is broadening its crackdown against the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamists in general. Allegations of inciting violence before and after President Morsi's ouster are circulating. That's a mouthful for a military that's been conducting coups for decades and dominating the streets whenever it sees fit. Nonetheless, such statements are made without a hint of irony.
Arrest warrants for Muslim Brotherhood leadership multiply. Reports are that a (re)banning of the party might be imminent. Since Egypt is (re)turning to Mubarak's time (re)banning the Muslim Brotherhood makes sense.
This follows the New York Times report report this morning that there may have been a concerted effort to weaken Morsi's government by the police, judiciary and private sector elites aligned with the old Mubarak regime. This theory is buttressed by the sudden change in society's functioning. With Morsi's ouster, for example, the police have reappeared on the streets and restored order. Gas and electric shortages have disappeared. The Times also suggests that Tamarod, the movement that sought the recall of President Morsi, was funded by a business titan aligned with Mubarak's regime.
In short, the opposition to Morsi was coordinated and calculated. Morsi wasn't going to be given a chance to finish his term. Here's how the Times frames it:
"Despite coming to power through the freest elections in Egyptian history, Mr. Morsi was unable to extend his authority over the sprawling state apparatus, and his allies complained that what they called the 'deep state' was undermining their efforts at governing."
It will be interesting to see how Tamarod responds to the claim against it. Is it true that the more progressive forces in Egypt were co-opted by Mubarak era oligarchs? Since progressive forces aligned with the military, perhaps other alliances were necessary, too.
How you accomplish political change without using and being used by the powerful and often regressive forces isn't found in a simple formula.
Politics makes strange bedfellows but the issue remains how truly progressive change can come to Egypt with such known and unknown alliances. Using and being used is another way of defining politics. In the end, though, who comes out on top is important.
In Egypt, I doubt progressive forces will win the day. The most progressive forces can hope for is to hold their own. What "holding their own" means in Egypt today is another story.
The "deep state" is everywhere you look. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to recognize that power doesn't just give itself over because a dictator has been banished, an election is held and a new ideology is ascendant. Morsi and his allies may have been ineffectual. They may have been unable to negotiate a bridge between the old and the new order. However, their major failure might have been their inability to convince the Mubarak elite that the future they wanted to create included them in their elite roles.
Were the Mubarak elite wrong? Did Morsi and his allies want to create a new elite, an elite that would one day become the deep state?
Mubarak was in power for almost thirty years. An entire world of influence, money, power and corruption was created. Did anyone think that this world – Mubarak's world – would go silently into the night?
Egypt's current struggles have been framed around the secular/religion divide. In this case, at least for now, secular deep state is defeating Islamic deep religion. Or is it really a struggle between Mubarak's old deep state and Morsi's ascendant deep state?
Trying to find a place within the conflict between deep states, progressive change can only be incremental and ancillary. This means that alignment with the lesser of evils is the name of the game.
The lesser of evils. Another global phenomena. Can this strategy succeed anywhere?


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The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has released some of the personal papers of former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.
The papers released Monday for researchers and scholars feature never-before-seen records relating to her efforts to restore the state rooms of the White House and her Feb. 14, 1962, televised tour of the building.
The Kennedy Onassis papers were donated by her children, Caroline Kennedy and John F. Kennedy Jr.
The papers' release follows the September release of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' 1964 oral history interviews.
Library director Tom Putnam says the papers demonstrate the former first lady's legendary attention to detail and the range of her understanding of art, history and diplomacy. The works include handwritten notes on the principals guiding the restoration project.


text:
There was a time, a time before cable. When the local anchorman reigned supreme. When people believed everything they heard on TV. This was an age when only men were allowed to read the news. And in San Diego, one anchorman was more man then the rest.
His name was Ron Burgundy.
He was like a god walking amongst mere mortals. He had a voice that could make a wolverine purr and suits so fine they made Sinatra look like a hobo.
In other words, Ron Burgundy was the balls.


text:
May 25, 1922 - March 6, 2013
Blooming Grove, NY
Ann B. Schupp, 90, of Blooming Grove, NY, passed away, with her family by her side, Wednesday, March 6, 2013, at home.
Ann was born May 25, 1922 in New York, NY, the daughter of Mario and Angela (Pellici) Buzzeo. She was the widow of Arthur Schupp.
Ann was a 70-year resident of Blooming Grove. She retired as a Payroll Supervisor from Star Expansion in Mountainville, NY.
She is survived by her children: Judy Kessler of Manhattan, Linda Lussier and husband, Lee of Blooming Grove, Arthur Schupp of Cornwall, Carl Schupp and wife, Sandra of New Hampton, and Peter Schupp of Blooming Grove; two grandsons: Ryan Schupp of Goshen and Ian Schupp of New Hampton; brothers: Pat Buzzeo of the state of Florida, Connie Buzzeo of Long Island; sister, Fran Pressner of Virginia; and several nieces and nephews.
Services will be private.
Arrangements under the care of the Donovan Funeral Home, Inc., Goshen; to leave the family a personal condolence please visit www.donovanfunerals.com


text:
Pro-Potts: Sabato's the one who held out
The University of Virginia Center for Politics asked two newspapers to run corrections to editorials published last week on the matter of the October 9 gubernatorial debate sponsored by the organization.
Op-ed pieces in the Newport News Daily Press and The Washington Post claimed that the Center had agreed to a 15 percent inclusion standard for independent candidate Russ Potts at the request of the Jerry Kilgore campaign.
The Daily Press editorial appeared on August 18. The Post commentary was published a day later.
On August 15, The Augusta Free Press reported that UVA political science prof Larry Sabato, director of the Center, had said that he had held out for four months in order to get the 15 percent condition included in an agreement that both Kilgore and Democrat Tim Kaine would sign off on.
"I'm not a debate dictator. If I was, it would be a three-way debate," Sabato says. "But I'm just the guy trying to coordinate everything. The candidates don't have to listen to what I have to say. I've been organizing gubernatorial debates in Virginia since 1981, and it's never easy."
In a letter to The Washington Post, Sabato defended the Center's role in setting the 15 percent standard for Potts' inclusion in the October televised debate.
"The Center, not the Kilgore campaign, as your editorial states, proposed the 15 percent rule in our original proposal to the campaigns in May," Sabato wrote in the letter.
"The Kilgore campaign immediately balked. We could have had a debate agreement in May had we caved in, but instead we held firm for about four months, insisting that the debate needed to provide a reasonable, consistent way for Potts to qualify," Sabato wrote. "Finally, under pressure to agree to a statewide TV debate, the Kilgore campaign relented a couple of weeks ago. Our position never changed; the Kilgore camp's position changed."
Larry Sabato


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Star Wars: Visions
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We've been waiting (and speculating) for a while now and finally
offers up product descriptions for both the limited and regular versions of the upcoming
Star Wars: Visions
book. See below for the
links and descriptions...
Star Wars: Visions: Limited Edition
"When Star Wars debuted in 1977, it revolutionized the visual landscape of mainstream American filmmaking, transporting fans to new galaxies and introducing them to countless now-classic characters, costumes, aliens, planets, and starships. By 2005, with the last film in theaters, the Star Wars Saga had become a phenomenon impacting cultures across the globe. From the beginning, the Star Wars aesthetic was influenced by comic book artists from the 1930s to the 1970s; famed illustrators Chesley Bonestell, John Berkey, Frank Frazetta, and others; as well as classical artists. Just as George Lucas drew upon the work of N. C. Wyeth and Norman Rockwell for his own visual inspiration, he has now invited more than 100 of the most well-known and promising working artists-across several disciplines, genres, and countries-to draw upon the entire Star Wars galaxy for inspiration. Star Wars: Visions collects these magnificent artworks for the first time. Featuring pieces by renowned artists such as Amano, Allan R. Banks, Harley Brown, Gary Carter, James Christensen, Michael Coleman, Kinuko Craft, Jim Dietz, Phillipe Druillet, Donato Giancola, Ann Hanson, H. R. Giger, Daniel Greene, Ron Kleeman, Arantza Martinez, Syd Mead, Moebius, Paul Oxborough, Alex Ross, Anthony J. Ryder, Dolfi Stoki, William Stout, Dan Thompson, Julie Bell and Boris Vallejo, Scott Waddell, Yuqi Wang, and Jamie Wyeth, Star Wars: Visions is a breakthrough tribute to the worldwide inspiration that Star Wars has fostered for over three decades. Star Wars Visions: Limited Edition features more than fifty paintings and illustrations not seen in the trade edition, as well as "behind-the-scenes" shots of artists' working processes, preporatory sketches, and more. Presented in a delux format, with a real-cloth cover and clamshell case, the Limited Edition also comes with five 10 x 12" high-quality archival giclee prints, signed by artists Jamie Wyeth, Alex Ross, Moebius, Donato Giancola, and Daniel Greene."
Star Wars: Visions
(regular edition)
"Star Wars Visions collects a wealth of art - hand-picked by George Lucas - produced by a variety of artists, illustrators, designers and cartoonists, working across all genres and styles to celebrate their favourite characters, themes, worlds and moments from the Star Wars Universe. The full list of contributors is to be released incrimentally over the 6 months leading up to publication, with sneak previews, on starwars.com."
Star Wars: Visions
is currently scheduled for an October 2010 release. Catch up on some glimpses from the upcoming book through the related links below.
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Thanks to everybody that ordered patches. I sent a check for $1,600.00 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation on Monday. While it's not as much as I hoped for, it's still very much appreciated. They will remain for sale in the store for anybody that still wishes to purchase them. Details after the jump.
BBC Interviews J.J. Abrams About
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CHICAGO � An American drug dealer who had faced life in prison was sentenced instead to 35 years Thursday for helping plan the deadly 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India � a punishment prosecutors said reflected his broad cooperation with U.S. investigators but that a victim's family member called "an appalling dishonor."
CHICAGO � An American drug dealer who had faced life in prison was sentenced instead to 35 years Thursday for helping plan the deadly 2008 attacks on Mumbai, India � a punishment prosecutors said reflected his broad cooperation with U.S. investigators but that a victim�s family member called �an appalling dishonor.�
It was David Coleman Headley�s meticulous scouting missions that facilitated the assault by 10 gunmen from a Pakistani-based militant group on multiple targets in Mumbai, including the landmark Taj Mahal Hotel. TV cameras captured much of the three-day rampage often called India�s 9/11. More than 160 people, including children, were killed.
Glimpses of the horror came through the teary testimony of one of the victims who described the gory scene as she huddled under a restaurant table with her friends as gunmen sprayed the room with bullets, then walked around executing men, women and children one by one. Her own clothes soaked with blood.
�I know what a bullet can do to every part of the human body,� said Linda Ragsdale, a Tennessee children�s author, who was shot. �I know the sound of life leaving a 13-year-old child. These are things I never needed to know, never needed to experience.�
Headley faced life in prison, and at 52 years old, even a 35-year term could mean he�ll never walk free. But federal prosecutors had asked for a more lenient 30 to 35 years, citing his extraordinary cooperation including as the government�s star witness at the 2011 trial of a Chicago businessman convicted in a failed attack on a Danish newspaper.
Former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald spoke in court calling Headley�s cooperation within 30 minutes of his 2009 arrest �unusual�.
However, Ragsdale and other victims called the 35 years unjust for the severity of the violence.
U.S. District Judge Harry Leinenweber said he considered the cooperation in imposing his sentence even though �the damage that was done was unfathomable.� He cited a letter from Headley who vowed that he was a changed man, but Leinenweber said he didn�t buy it.
�I don�t have any faith in Mr. Headley when he says he�s a changed person and believes in the American way of life,� he said.
Headley, who did not address the court, showed no emotion when the sentence was announced. Security was tight at the packed hearing; dogs were walked through the lines of people waiting to get into the courtroom.
Prosecutors say Headley, who was born in the U.S. to a Pakistani father and American mother, was motivated in part by his hatred of India going back to his childhood. He changed his birth name from Daood Gilani in 2006 so he could travel to and from India more easily to do reconnaissance without raising suspicions.
He never pulled a trigger in the attack, but his contribution to the Pakistani-based militant group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, made the assault more deadly. He conducted meticulous scouting missions � videotaping and mapping targets � so the attackers who had never been to Mumbai adeptly found their way around.
One woman whose husband and daughter were killed in the attack said a lighter sentence would be �an appalling dishonor� to those killed.
�I feel that for the magnitude of the killings that took place, David Headley has lost his right to live as a free man,� said Kia Scherr, who is currently in Mumbai. �This would be a moral outrage that is inexcusable.�
Prosecutors also have praised Headley for testifying against Tahawwur Rana, the Chicago businessman convicted of providing aid to Lashkar and backing a failed plot to attack a Danish newspaper for publishing depictions of the Prophet Muhammad. Rana, sentenced last week to 14 years in prison, claimed his friend Headley duped him.
Testifying at Rana�s trial in 2011, Headley spoke in a monotone voice, seemingly detached, even as he described one proposal for the never-carried-out Danish plot to behead newspaper staff and throw their heads onto a street.
In video excerpts of his interviews with the FBI after his arrest, Headley appears flippant, cool and calculating.
Prosecutors have recounted only in broad terms how Headley has shed light on the leadership, structure and possible targets of Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was believed to have ties to the Pakistani intelligence agency known as ISI. Headley has said his ISI contact was a �Major Iqbal,� who was named in the indictment that charged Headley.
The attackers arrived by boat on Nov. 26, 2008, carrying grenades and automatic weapons, and fanned out to hit multiple targets, crowded train station, a Jewish center and the hotel.
The attack heightened the strain in a historically antagonistic relationship between India and Pakistan, which have fought three major wars. Indian officials accuse Pakistani intelligence of helping to plan the assault � an allegation Pakistan denies.
For his cooperation and guilty plea, Headley secured both a promise that he would not face the death penalty and would not be extradited to India. Late last year, India secretly hanged the lone gunman who survived the Mumbai attack, Mohammed Ajmal Kasab.
The 12 counts Headley pleaded guilty to included conspiracy to commit murder in India and aiding and abetting in the murder of six Americans, who included Americans Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi.
The Scherr family members were in India for a two-week spiritual retreat and were staying at the Oberoi Trident Hotel, one of the sites that came under assault.
After the attack, Scherr helped start an organization called the One Life Alliance, which seeks to work against terrorism by promoting understanding and respect for the sacredness of life.
�This is how I am surviving this event, which erased life as I knew it,� she wrote in an email from Mumbai, where she continues to travel to for charity work.


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When you're healthy and rarely visit the doctor it's easy to forget how important health insurance is until you actually need to use it. Minor injuries and emergency room visits can cost a lot to a college student on a budget. But one important point that most students forget is that they have more options than the average person when it comes to getting health coverage.
Going without coverage is never a good idea, and your school may require you to have some form of coverage. What health insurance options are available to New Hampshire students?
Stay on Parent's Plan - if you are a fulltime student, you may be eligible to remain on your parent's plan. It is easier since your parents will be handling the bills, but if you go to school out-of-state, your coverage levels may not be as robust as they would be in your home state. Also, your parent's health insurance could be more expensive than other coverage options.
School Sponsored Plan - Some colleges offer their own health plan. Some common concerns with these plans is that they may not cover services off-campus or you can lose eligibility if you are a part-time student. Check to see if your school offers a health plan for its students.
Student Health Plan - These plans are for full-time students typically between 17-29 years old. The major advantage with this plan is that the coverage will travel with you wherever you go in the US. However, it may require you to pay your premium in a single lump-sum amount and it is not available in every state.
Individual and Family Plans - You can also purchase an individual and family health plan. Individual and family health insurance is a type of health insurance coverage that is made available to individuals and families and offers a range of coverage benefits depending on the actual plan you select.
Federal Health reform law states that after September 23, 2010, children are allowed to stay on their parents' insurance plan until age 26, whether or not they are enrolled in school. Certain states may have additional rules determining dependency eligibility. Check with the New Hampshire State Department of Insurance or your parents' insurance carrier.
Some New Hampshire colleges and universities may require that students to have some form of health insurance coverage. You should check with the admissions office to determine if health insurance coverage is required.
Whatever you decide, make sure the plan is right for your health care needs.


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Why Finding Out About Easements Early On Is Extremely Important When Buying A Home!
If you're here, it could be you noticed I touched on "Assessor's Map" in my Buyers Response example. Easements are important consideration when thinking about the purchase of any given property, often times they are displayed on the Assessor's Municipal Map and available for review. Wouldn't you like to know before you decide to schedule a showing, before you commit to a written offer on a home, that the pool you dreamed of, planned on adding down the road, will not conform to the property due to a conservation easement.
Here is another example of the service I provide, assessor's maps. If you're not working with me, be certain to ask your agent to provide the same.
Let's call this section, "Why can't I add?…." Subject heading, Easements!
( Please Note: The Following Maps Were "Custom Made By Me" Specifically For My Buyers )
There could be many reasons why a homeowner, on a listed home you're in love with, has never taken the initiative to add, let's say,… a paved driveway, a sport-court or a pool. Perhaps your wondering why the home is as close as it is to the street, not set further back as the property is expansive. When you purchase that lovely home, you're going to plant a row of Cedar trees to hide the ugly retention basin,…the deer in the area won't eat them, yeah, that'll fix it.
As I stated, there could be many reasons why things are they way they are, and some can be remedied with some initiative, and some will not. Not paving the driveway could have something to do with "lot coverage", which could also be applicable to not adding the sport-court & pool. The home being pushed to the front of the property could have everything to do with the stream in the back, the 300 ft. set-back, depending on the designation attributed to it. As for that retention basin which you plan on hiding with trees, well that area is part of a "conservation easement", which goes almost to the right to the corner of the home and in many cases,….you can't touch it.
Yes, there are many reasons why you'll be able to do what you like once you move in, after all you own the property, and others reasons why you won't. There are also many types of restrictions, many types of easements. Some familiar names may be: Utility, Landscape, Drainage and Conservation to name a few. So, let's digress for a moment, revisit, perhaps why there is no pool.
Below is an aerial map, a satellite image of a subject area. Perhaps you have the wherewithal to pull these yourself, Bing & Google work nicely. Let's suggest home #9 is listed for sale, a lovely home, nicely appointed, offers everything you had hope for and more. It features lovely curb appeal, a great neighborhood, a convenient location and an expansive property,…but no pool, unlike the homes on either side, the neighbors, properties #8 & #10. Assumption could suggest you'll simply add a pool after you Close on the home, perhaps a pool with a waterfall, maybe a gazebo or cabana, an outside shower, a lovely stamped concrete patio with a lounging area,…perfect.
Next up, the Assessor's Map, a matter of record on-line for Real Estate Agents or available for review in the municipal offices of any given municipality. If you've taken the initiative, if your agent has taken the initiative, you'll notice the subject property shows as 1.66 acres,…loads of room, hot damn! Once you've tempered your enthusiasm, you noticed there is an indication of a conservation easement on the property. No worries, the neighbors did it!
The next reference is the same area, highlighted with green arrows, this is where it starts getting good…
Ah, magic,…this reference is the initial satellite map, superimposed over the assessor's map, not 100% accurate but enough to suggest suspicion about the feasibility to do what you had planned. In case you were wondering why the neighbors pool on home #8 is as close to the home as it is,…maybe this is the reason. Perhaps you've noticed the pond on property #8, the fact that there are no fences, you know how kids like to explore,…. and while we're at it….
The NJ Transit commuter railroad tracks are directly behind the home, separated only, by another street.
So humor me for a moment. Let's hypothetically suggest you were interested in home #9, that it is available for purchase, seemingly everything that you had hoped for in reading the details, viewing the normally, limited number of photographs provided on the home search websites.
Just like conservation easements, there are many such scenarios, various types of considerations, probably more forthcoming, I've only scratched the surface. Simply put and besides the obvious,…the desire for an updated Granite Kitchen, the finished walkout basement or anything you may consider wanting to change, amenities to enhance your potential new home, there are some things you will not be able to, location being be one of them,… something I find more important, than if the drapes match the carpet and all that comes with it.
What I've suggested is a complimentary service I provide for the courtesy of your interest. I know there are many agents out there for you to choose from, the onus on you to align yourself with someone like me. If I leave you with nothing else, simply remember, ownership is not necessarily a qualifier for entitlement. Assume the responsibility of empowering yourself toward making an informed decision, likely the most important decision you'll ever make, hopefully through the efforts of someone like myself.
Why not do yourself a favor, contact me for all your real estate needs…as I've just shown you, there is so much more to searching for your next home…this one instance, represents a small sampling of the unique services I provide for my clients.
Need more reasons to work with Edward Vivona?
If You Would Like To Receive These Type Of Buyer Custom Overviews For Homes You Have An Interest In, Then Please Fill Out The Form On Any Of My Pages, Send Me Your Search Criteria, I Would Be Happy To Add You To My Exclusive Homes Search, Update Campaign!…And Of Course, You Can Cancel At Any Time.


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After an exploratory visit to Kazakhstan (reported here in 2009), Heinrich obtained funding from the Wenner Gren Foundation (USA) for an initial excavation season in 2011 at Dzhankent, just east of the Aral Sea. This proved highly successful in showing the potential of the site for a major project, and it provided new dating evidence (see the interim report).
The first series of radiocarbon dates from Dzhankent, and pottery finds from sections inside the town walls have key implications for the starting date of the town: its origins are not in a 9th century fortified capital of intrusive Turkic nomads (which is suggested by writings of 10th century Arab geographers), but in an open settlement of a local sedentary fishing population in the 7th century. This is changing our ideas on the medieval urbanization of this region, and instead of looking for explanations in nomad state formation started by the arrival of the Turkic tribe of the Oguz from Mongolia, we now have to look for other factors two centuries earlier. And the most important event affecting this region on the river Syr-darya in the 7th century was the establishment of the northern Silk Road along the river, around the northern shores of Aral Sea and Caspian Sea, and continuing from there southwest to Byzantium, or northwest along to Volga linking into Viking trade routes in Eastern Europe.
Now Heinrich has obtained funding from the Deutsche Forschungs-Gemeinschaft (DFG) for a major three-year project to explore the relationship between this deserted town on the steppes close to the Aral Sea, and the wider world of trade in the 7th to 11th centuries. The main collaborative partner will again be the regionally important Korkyt-Ata State University of Kyzylorda. There is a whole series of key questions to be tackled: How long did that fishing village exist on this spot before it was turned into a trading site? Does the archaeological evidence suggest the presence of traders from the southern Silk Road civilization of Khorezm (Chorasmia)? There are substantial quantities of Khorezmian pottery in the occupation layers, and even the lay-out of the later fortified town appears to copy a Khorezmian type of urban lay-out. When did the Oguz nomads arrive to make this trading town their capital? Did they live in the citadel? Did they contribute livestock trade to the regional exchange patterns? Where are the cemeteries which might prove or disprove the multi-ethnic nature of this town? Where is the river channel which must have run past Dzhankent before the delta dried out, and where is the river port implied by a short note in one 10th century text? Is the hump outside the east gate of the town a caravanserai? And why did the town falter in the 11th century?
These questions require a multidisciplinary approach, and Heinrich envisages close collaboration of the German and Kazakh archaeologists with geophysicists, geomorphologists and soil scientists from Russia, American animal bone specialists based in Germany, a German radiocarbon laboratory, and numismatists and historians from Britain. It is hoped that the answers will have an impact not just on debates within Central Asian archaeology, but well beyond. After all, the 7th to 11th centuries AD were the period when a trading network flourished in northwestern Europe – and Dzhankent, with its connection to the northern route leading to the Volga, may have provided a link from the Silk Road to the East European and Scandinavian trade network of this time.


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Kansas Drought Conditions Likely to Ease in 2012 - UNL CropWatch, Jan. 13, 2012
January 13, 2012
MANHATTAN, Kan. – December precipitation across Kansas averaged 1.69 inches, which was almost double the normal amount. That helped ease drought conditions in parts of the state and early forecasts point to a further reduction in 2012, according to Kansas climatologist Mary Knapp.
"The preliminary statewide average precipitation total for December was 192% of normal," said Knapp, who is director of the state's Weather Data Library. "That makes it the 16th wettest December since 1895."
The Weather Data Library is based at Kansas State University.
Knapp said southeast Kansas was the wettest overall, with an average of 2.85 inches or 179% of normal, but southwest had the greatest departure from normal, with an average of 1.58 inches or 345% of normal. Despite having the 5th wettest December since 1895, southwest Kansas ended the year as the 4th driest on record. Northwest Kansas was the driest in December, with an average of 0.39 inches, or 81% of normal.
The U.S. Drought Monitor (http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/) posted Jan. 3 showed another decrease in the area of all drought categories in Kansas, Knapp said, although more than 57% of the state was still reported as abnormally dry to exceptional drought.
Recent forecasts indicate that drought conditions are expected to continue in southern portions of the state, she said, but some improvement is expected in extreme eastern and southeastern Kansas.
"The La Niña (http://www.elnino.noaa.gov/lanina.html) has continued and is expected to influence precipitation patterns through the winter, with drier-than-normal conditions expected across the Southern Plains," said Knapp, referring to cooler-than-normal sea-surface temperatures in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean and their impact on global weather patterns. "The influence of the Atlantic Oscillation and the Madden-Julian Oscillation which had fueled the storms in December is expected to weaken, resulting in less moderation of the La Niña impacts."
Nevertheless, the outlook calls for the La Niña to continue to weaken, Knapp added. By early summer, the consensus forecast calls for the El Niño/
Southern Oscillation (ENSO) to return to neutral conditions. Some models even call for El Niño conditions by early summer, which would mean warmer-than-normal waters in the Pacific Ocean along the equator. El Niño conditions favor wetter-than-normal conditions in the Central Plains during the summer.
Kansas State University News Release


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I made it to Leicestershire Records Office and had a look at the prescriptions books of W T Hind, chemist and druggist on Queens Road for over 100 years. I wrote an article about W T Hind here. The office holds the prescription books from between 1894 (so not long after Mr Hind opened for business in 1888) and 1954. They are beautiful, card and leather-bound ledgers in a variety of styles. I looked mostly at the volumes covering 1894-1920. The handwriting was difficult to decipher and the prescriptions were in note form, using archaic terms for obsolete medicines, so it was quite a task to make sense of them.
The prescriptions were interesting from two points of view: Firstly, the prescriptions themselves; and secondly the people for whom the prescriptions were intended. These varied from those not important enough to be named – many servants like "The Maid (Rev Forsyth)" who needed an expectorant "when the cough gives trouble." She was prescribed Terebene on a piece of sugar. Also "Baby Baker" (who needed lanolin), "Mrs Rattenbury's baby" (who turned out to be Grace, daughter of the Wesleyan minister John Ernest Rattenbury, one of the outstanding preachers of his day, then living in North Avenue. He founded the Belgrave Hall mission and built Clarendon Park Church) and countless others. Mr Hind seems to have dispensed to quite a clerical crowd as there were lots of Reverend gentlemen amongst his clientele, eg Rev Holmes (could have been the vicar of St Peter's or the curate of St Nicholas…anyway, he was a bit bunged up and needed oil of eucalyptus in a tumbler of steamy water) and Rev Forsyth (the renowned theologian and first minister of Clarendon Park Congregational Church).
But the prescriptions are fascinating. W T Hind dispensed the medicine of his day and until well into the 20th century much of it was rough and ready, some of it being quackery and much of it being downright dangerous. Take Mr T Pochin's prescription: Chloroform, strychnine and digitalis three times a day. It must have been a heart medicine, but it didn't save the poor chap as he died the same year, aged 58. Mr Alfred Edwin Dexter – a commercial clerk living at 51 Howard Road – was prescribed magnesium carbonate, magnesium sulphate, chloroform and aqua…I'd love to know what that was for.
Mr Hind also made up his own "branded" medicines, which all pharmacists offered in the days when medicines were not heavily regulated and when druggists literally made up pills and powders by mixing ingredients. In 1897 Mr Hind offered "The Sulphonal Powders" (a sleeping medicine) and there were several others mentioned. I like this: Hind's Nursery Hair Lotion.
I couldn't help buying the label above on ebay last week…Mr W T Hind has really caught my imagination. I am delighted to report that his great-granddaughter – herself a pharmacist – is willing to let me interview her about The Park pharmacy, and I will be sharing the results as soon as possible. Regards, Elizabeth.


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Even space pilots need to keep warm... There's no better way to fend off the cool weather than by wearing this Elite Dangerous pull-over hoodie.
Frontier Developments plc 26 Science Park Milton Road Cambridge CB4 0FP England, UK


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I can't believe it's back to school time already! Ahhhhhhhhhh! OK, sorry -- had to get that out of the way. One of the things that's so overwhelming is all the shopping we need to get done: My daughter is starting a new school with a new dress code, so we need even more clothing than usual! That's why I am totally stoked that there are some really great ways to save a bundle of money through online clothing swaps and consignment stores. And -- yay for moms -- some of these sites offer great deals for us too!
1. MoxieJean.com (newborn to size 8): Founded by two moms (who are also sisters!) who wanted to save time, money, and be eco-friendly, Moxie Jean's tagline is "Upscale re-sale." To sell, you just request a pre-paid mailer bag and send your "like new" kids' clothes in to get cash, store credit, or a donation to a children's charity. To buy, simply check out their Pinterest-like gallery of available clothes and add what you need to your shopping cart. Right now they have everything from Ralph Lauren to Gymboree and H&M.
2. ThredUP.com (kids, juniors, and women!): This is a site for almost the whole family (sorry Dads!). Just like MoxieJean, you can buy and sell high quality clothing. ThredUP's site is designed really well: It's easy to search by category or size, and there are also editorial components like "Fabulous Fall Finds" and a school uniform section. A quick glance shows brands like BCBG and LOFT for women, and everything from NIKE to Mini Boden and Gap for kids.
3. FlipSize.com (newborn to size 8, plus kids' shoes up to size 3): This site operates on the same principle as the others, though in addition to store credit and cash, you can redeem your used clothing for gift cards to major retailers. The brands they're particularly interested in are: Gymboree, Hanna Andersson, Zutano, Guess, Janie & Jack, Oilily, Gap, Naartjie, Mini Boden, Tea Collection, Hannah Banana, Baby Lulu, and Ralph Lauren. They have a "no dud" promise!
4. SwapMamas.com (clothing and goods): There's NO buying or selling on SwapMamas.com; it's purely a site for -- you guessed it -- swapping! Once you join the community, you can upload photos of the stuff you have (I see everything from Tide Pods to DS games to clothes listed), and then you can "start a swap conversation." It sounds a little more involved than just being able to purchase items, but it also seems like a fun way to meet other moms online and make some great trades!
5. DoubleDutchery.com (kids' and teen clothing, shoes, and sports gear): The newly launched Double Dutchery site is also purely about swapping. Basically, you send in a box of your gently worn kids' clothing, and then you'll get points, which you can redeem for other members' boxes. Buyers pay flat rate shipping plus a handling fee, so, for example, they say that $17 will get you a box of 4 to 12 items, many with brand names.
Have you ever tried an online swapping or consignment site?
Image via ThredUp.com


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Hi! I'm David Tenser, and I live in Sweden (a beautiful country in northern Europe) in a small city called Eskilstuna. I live quite near the center of the city, close to the Tuna Park shopping center. I work for a global company/community called Mozilla, where I'm part of the marketing team. This map gives you an approximation of where I live:
The reason why I blog today is because I'd like to introduce you all to a guy I recently got to know. His name is Patrick Finch, and he also lives in Sweden (a beautiful country in northern Europe) in the same small city called Eskilstuna. Just like me, he lives quite near the center of the city, close to the Tuna Park shopping center. Intriguingly, he works for the same global company/community as I do — Mozilla. Finally, he's part of (you guessed it!) the marketing team.
Bizarre coincidences aside, I'm truly excited about having Patrick working for Mozilla, and so close to where I live and work. The following picture gives you an idea of just how close to each other we live (I'm A, he's B):
That's just one mile between us! This morning my internet connection wasn't working properly, so I took a five minute bike ride and worked from Patrick's home office instead. When most of my colleagues and community friends are on the other side of the globe, having an IRL colleague just five minutes away is an amazing contrast.
Say hello to Patrick and pay his new blog Tuna Park a visit!


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Mexican-Indian corn chaat
I was in a waiting room for several hours the other day.
Between moments of exasperated and forced eye contact with staff down the window-less corridor and then stiller and weepily-hungry jiffies of reading 'The Kite Runner' I listened to a gentleman whose granddaughter had just graduated from a university in Birmingham and Grandson who had just departed for travels in Australia. His daughters' tolerantly listened to 'daddy' repeating himself. Well, one did whilst the other arranged school pick-ups and take-away dinners. I wondered why they didn't intervene when their father asked another waiting lady about how many children she had, again. She who had twin 7 year old sons and a four year old daughter had just miscarried and she had gently explained for the third or fourth time that, 'these things happen', 'it's really common', 'I just want to move on'. I wonder if she really was that calm when she heard the older gentleman resaying, 'was it your first', 'oh that's awful' and 'life is so unfair'. Maybe she was thinking the same as me, which is that we are all going to end up where this gentleman was except whether it is a lonely struggle or one accompanied by loved ones remains to be seen.
She tucked her gaze onto the sketch she was making; she is an artist and worked flexibly around her children, describing this harmony as 'nice'. Across from me a father and daughter nestled into each other. She must have been 11 or 12, long dark and silky hair tied into wafting pony tails but sportily dressed, like her dad. When I was of that age, it would have been less common to see such snuggling in a public area. Things have changed. My husband asked my three year old son what we do in our family, he replied, 'we just erm, give love'.
On my right a gentleman waited with his family. His wife smiled serenely and his son discussed important subjects around his work and readings. His father listened with eager eyes and encouraging nods, though I did notice him stifle a couple of yawns. His daughter explained how she wanted to gradually transition from her professional job into her own business and her father agreed devotedly. I thought back to my teens when some of my friends were chastised for even hinting at more artistic subjects and felt sorry for parents who could not truly understand, relate or advise their children on many of these education and profession related matters. But they tried, like my parents did.
And so, as an ode to the many colours of life, I share with you a recipe for Mexican-Indian corn chaat. I scoffed an entire (sharing) plate of corn chaat when in Dubai (where it is very easy to be vegetarian) a few months ago as my husband looked on smiling. It was supposed to be a light and easy meal. Sweet corn in chaat is probably not the most traditional chaat recipe but the juicy and cool kernels of corn work well amongst the crispy puffed rice, tangy chutneys and soft potatoes. As I was eating it I couldn't help think of Mexican corn salad with lots of red onion, corn tortilla and green peppers. And so, the Mexican-Indian corn chaat is born; it has pungent and peppery chaat masala but also smoky Mexican Guajillo chillies. It has green chillies and also a double whammy of crunch from corn tortilla and puffed rice. I have smoothed on some cool whipped yoghurt for the base of the dish too. One serving of this dish is just never enough!
Ingredients to serve 2-4
3 guajillo chillies
3 green chillies, finely chopped
One medium red onion
½ cup mung bean shoots, or you could use chickpeas
2 tbsp. tamarind chutney (shop bought is fine)
5 tsp. chaat masala
125g chopped, fresh tomatoes
4 new potatoes, diced boiled
1 tin of 325g sweet corn
5-6 dessert spoons of plain, natural yoghurt
¾ cup puffed rice with peanuts (readily available in Indian supermarkets as sev mumra)
A couple of handfuls of corn tortilla, lightly crushed
- On a dry pan gently roast the peppers until they start to smoke but don't let them brown. Take them off the heat and immerse them with enough hot water to cover them. Leave them to stand for about 15 minutes before blitzing them to a paste.
- In a large bowl, add the drained corn and toss the kernels amongst the guajillo chilli paste and tamaring chutney.
- Now add the potatoes, onions, green chillies, tomatoes, mung bean shoots and then toss all the ingredients. Sprinkle in the chaat masala.
- Prepare each plate by layering the yoghurt on the base of the plate.
- Before serving, add the puffed rice with peanuts and corn tortilla to the bowl of ingredients. If you add them too early they will soften.


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When you are looking after someone with cancer, you might not be sure how to get information about cancer, or about being a young carer. When you search the internet, you can often end up on unhelpful websites that give you no information.
This is why some young carers start up their own support groups, often through school or college, or a young carers' service. It's a good way to share information, and to help each other cope with the different feelings you are having. There is always someone to talk to, including other young people who are going through something similar to you and who will understand.


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Hello lovelies,
Sorry I've been away from the blog for a few days – I have been very busy prepping for Tiny House Road Trip Spring 2013. What is this Tiny House Road trip? In my neverending quest for the essence of the tiny house movement, I have planned a tour of the eastern and southern US, during which I will interview, film, and photograph tiny house people and their homes. I leave in less than 2 weeks! The road trip is about one month total. I'm interviewing tiny house builders, designers, and dwellers, documenting everything with cameras, audio recorders, and the pen. I'm very excited to finally meet some of the tiny house bloggers and internet acquaintances that I have been following via the internet for a long time. I'll return with lots of footage and insights to share with you all. So for the last week, Matt (cameraman, audio tech, and tiny house partner in crime) and I have been modding out my Honda Element with a platform bed with storage underneath, insulated window covers, black-out curtains, and custom vents for the windows. We're just car camping the whole trip (not towing the COMET, alas) to save money. If you have a tiny house project or business or thing you think we should see, let us know in the comments! This is the first of multiple tiny house road trips I have planned. I hope it goes smoothly – we've been planning everything out to the last detail but you never know!
Also, I was delighted to be interviewed by Andrew Odom of TinyRevolution for his podcast, RevoConvo. He's a super nice guy, and we share a common sponsor (GreenBuildingSupply.com). We talked about trailers and Worcester and off-grid systems. It was really fun, and you can all give it a listen next Thursday when it comes out! (I'll post the link when it comes out).
Lastly, I wanted to mention that I'm going through an exciting transition right now in my (also unending) quest for Tiny House University and autonomous education. "Tiny House University" is my phrase for the unusual education/college path I have carved out for myself in search of a major in a subject that isn't exactly mainstream. I left Hampshire College last semester, which was a hard decision. I had been on Field Study (independent, off-campus semesters) for a few semesters in a row, and realized that I would never be able to go back to campus and the traditional classroom, as the COMET has taken on a life of its own and more than anything I need the flexibility of independent education in order to pursue opportunities that arise thanks to the COMET. I was accepted at Goddard College, a non-residential school in Vermont (my favorite state…in the warmer seasons haha) and I start today! Basically you go to the campus once a year for one week to meet your advisor and create a study plan, then you go home to wherever you live and do whatever you do, while corresponding with your advisor once a month. Pretty cool! So I get to study tiny houses full time, and earn a degree in Sustainability, which is what I've been working towards for a few years now without even realizing it! I'm very excited for this new leg in a long journey towards Tiny House University.
Did you guys know I now write for Tiny House Talk on occasion? I'm very excited. Here was my first post: http://tinyhousetalk.com/tiny-houses-of-the-past/. And soon there will be another post on THT detailing my search for Tiny House University, a "how-to" for interested people!
Thanks for reading along, I hope to be able to update you all throughout my week at school and the road trip, but forgive me if I'm MIA for a minute!


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- Contact information
- DNR invasive species staff
Terrestrial Invasive species - Regulated plants
Terrestrial invasives come in many forms including plants, animals, insects, fungi and diseases. They affect the health of our forests, prairies, parks, urban landscapes and more. When these landscapes are unhealthy, all the benefits they provide to us are at risk. The good news is, each one of us can make a difference. Learn what to look for, and you can help slow the spread of invasive species!
Learn about terrestrial invasives
- Explore regulated or non-regulated species by clicking the buttons below
- View or print BOTH lists of regulated terrestrial invasive plants: 2010 regulated terrestrial invasive plants [PDF] and 2015 regulated terrestrial invasive plants [PDF].
- Learn more on our prevention, best management practices and firewood pages
- For further plant identification assistance, visit University of Wisconsin Weed ID [exit DNR].
View a printable list of all species regulated by NR 40 [PDF] or a list of plants only [PDF].
Click on the buttons below to see what species are invasive in Wisconsin.
The buttons separate invasive plants and animals into regulated or non-regulated categories. Regulated species currently have legal restrictions under the Invasive Species Rule, Chapter NR 40. Non-regulated species currently are not regulated by Chapter NR 40. View our terminology page for classification definitions.
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Terrestrial Invasive species - Regulated plants
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Arts Listings
The Life and Loves of Novelist Cecil Brown
When novelist and educator Cecil Brown—longtime Berkeley resident and teacher at Bay Area colleges—was introduced for a reading and talk he gave a few weeks ago at Washington University in St. Louis, Prof. Gerald Early recalled when he was in high school in the '60s, "The three books that everybody just had to read were James Baldwin's Another Country, John A. Williams' The Man Who Cried I Am and Cecil Brown's The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger."
Now, Brown notes, Baldwin is dead and Williams doesn't have a major publisher. "He isn't appreciated anymore. I've tried to review him, and it's been hard to get the reviews published."
Brown's most celebrated book, The Life and Loves, was reissued at the beginning of this month by North Atlantic Press in Berkeley. Originally published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux in 1969 to great acclaim, Brown recalled his book's reception: "Roger Straus was the greatest publisher in the world! There were Hollywood stars at the book party. I was on the Tonight Show, went to England ... I doubt any African American writer today would get the accolade we got in those days. It's dead, now. No one's interested."
Brown's books continue to get published, reprinted and garner critical acclaim. His nonfiction book, Stagolee Shot Billy, published in 2005 by Harvard University Press, was praised by Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Guardian (U.K.) and in the Times Literary Supplement. The Life and Loves has been reprinted multiple times in Europe, Germany in particular ("But I don't usually hear about it till later!").
With the Stagolee book, "I found the nonfiction material so interesting, I novelized it." I, Stagolee was published in 2006, and "there's the possibility of a film. Samuel Jackson read and liked it."
Brown, who also works with the UC Berkeley Department of Information, developing digital education video games for 3- to 5-year-olds, has made a video game based on the Stagolee tales for 13- to 15-year-olds, "for drop-outs," he said. "Forty-eight percent of Alameda County's young black men drop out of high school. Violence is such a waste of time. They need recourse to understand the structure of racism they're involved in. And it would behoove us to find out what in playing video games, not reading—which about the same percentage doesn't do—is a reaction to the system making learning boring, penalizing African Americans for a different understanding of what is play, what is work."
Brown was born in rural North Carolina. After he and several other students were lent a coach's car to drive to an SAT test center, Brown received a scholarship to A & T College in Greensboro, N.C.
As a college freshman, he was influenced by an event: when Jesse Jackson ("He was in a fraternity") came in late to class, he answered the teacher's query of where he was by "saying he'd been across the street at a sit-in at the Woolworth's five-and-dime, protesting that black people couldn't eat at the lunch counter there. The teacher turned to us and said 'the rest of you should be doing that, too.' I was witness to that history when it really got started, and never forgot how students could influence a country's history."
Brown later attended Columbia, publishing stories in the student magazine. "I was writing everything I could; I always wanted to be a novelist. I went to Europe for the first time. None of this had been in the cards for me. I'd been a plowboy. After Columbia, it gave me such confidence ... worldly classmates inviting me to Nantucket—'Meet my mom, she's a painter'—I'd never have been accepted in such homes in Mississippi or Georgia, and I came in the front door with their kid, treated as an equal ... .
"That's why I feel such pain about the avenues closed to young blacks today. Young guys don't get to hang out like that, meeting sculptors and musicians like I did, people thinking about what to do with their life—and so did I."
At Columbia, Brown was encouraged to write "by LeRoi Jones, now Amiri Baraka, who gave me a tip for an agent, and Seymour Krim, who sent me to Evergreen Review."
Brown later attended the University of Chicago, where he witnessed "the eruption of the Democratic National Convention, and when Martin Luther King was assassinated, the rioting on the South Side that spilled over into Hyde Park."
But it was with a recommendation from his Columbia teacher Mark Van Doren's son Charles that Brown drove west "in a Cadillac, with a couple other students" to interview for a teaching job at Modesto Junior College.
"I took one look at Modesto and could not even stop the car. We drove straight to Berkeley," he said.
Brown ended up teaching at Merritt College "and ran into Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, students organizing their own curriculum—and the Black Panther Party." Brown staged his own plays at Merritt, where a UC Berkeley professor saw them and told him he should be teaching in the UC English Department.
At UC, Brown met Leonard Michaels, Al Young, Ishmael Reed and David Henderson—"And I added Claude Brown and Richard Pryor," who was performing at the Mandrake in Berkeley. Brown later followed "when Richard went down to Hollywood, working with him, being his full-time running buddy, day-to-day," before "taking off to Berlin," where Brown got involved in filmmaking.
Asked what influence Pryor had on him—or vice versa—Brown replied, "I had such admiration for Richard. Taj Mahal claims Richard got all these nuances he needed for his characters from me, being from the South, Richard being from the Midwest. Like Taj, living next door to blues players, he paid attention. He says Richard did that with me."
(As Brown was explaining this, his cellphone rang. It was Taj Mahal, who, asked to amplify, said: "I bought a four DVD set of Richard Pryor, and said, 'Wait a second! This cat's from Peoria, Ill., and sounds like he's Down South—like Cecil Brown.' You meet Cecil and see how much Richard got from him for his characters.")
Brown's Hollywood experiences found their way into a 1982 novel, Days Without Weather. Currently, his biography of Pryor, Kiss My Rich, Happy, Black Ass (a remark Pryor famously made to gay leaders, with Brown a witness) is making the rounds of publishers.
Brown returned to Berkeley in the late '80s to teach, gaining his Ph.D. in African American Studies, Folklore and Narrative in 1993. Currently, he's preparing a class at Stanford: Classics 130: From Homer to Hip-Hop, on the oral tradition, studying "Greeks and Griots."
He said he believes that "with their feet in the oral tradition, African Americans anticipated the digital age."
"No Child Left Behind is the negative onslaught of the world Marshall McLuhan predicted in his famous Playboy interview in 1966, when he described the conflict between the white world versus the black as rooted in envy of a life left out for whites—and that blacks should maintain their connection with the Africa within," Brown said. "I want to remind the academic world—and certainly students—of that, and to look at what real change is."
Cecil Brown's website is www.cecilbrown.net


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Michele V. Cloonan, Professor at Simmons College and Editor-in-Chief of Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture, presented the talk "Exeunt Libri: Will Libraries of the Future Preserve Cultural Heritage?" for the 2013 Donald G. Davis, Jr. Lecture on Thursday, October 17. Below, she shares her thoughts about preservation.
Preservation is all around us. It encompasses continuity and change. I first encountered issues of preservation as a child living in Hyde Park, on Chicago's south side. Three particular touchstones have stayed with me. One was the dismantling of the Fifth Army Base on the Promontory Point. While there was wide-spread support for it to be closed, some people advocated for the preservation of parts of the installation, so that there would be a permanent record of the site.
A second touchstone was the Museum of Science and Industry, my next-door neighbor. I explored every outside nook of it as a child and was intrigued by what little I knew of its history. Built as The Palace of Fine Arts, it was constructed for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. One had to be captivated by this building, the only one to survive the vast White City.
Finally, the demolition of a beautiful brownstone apartment complex across the street from my house, which was replaced by a less-attractive high-rise, made me think about preservation as I watched people collect tiles and light fixtures right before the wrecking ball destroyed the building.
In ways like this, we are all touched by preservation. Each community shares its own stories of the old—and the newer. Most communities contain some legacies of their past, which may become "Places of Memory" (Lieux de Memoires, as Pierre Nora refers to them). Other historical artifacts are destroyed, or their sites become neglected. We contemplate the presence, as well as the absence, of cultural artifacts. They are part of our memory.
The rise and fall of physical monuments are part of the preservation continuum of cultural heritage.
As an adult, I have written about preservation, focusing mostly on libraries, archives, and museums. For my talk at the Harry Ransom Center, I will focus on preservation, memory, and libraries. Libraries represent many things. They may be storehouses of books and manuscripts, information centers, classrooms, and community living rooms. At the same time, the library exists in many physical and digital forms, some analog, others virtual. As a metaphor, the library may represent a fictional place (Jorge Luis Borges), or the concept of a library may occur within other metaphors such as the World Brain (H. G. Wells), the Memex ("memory" + "index") (Vannevar Bush), or the Internet.
The Ransom Center is the perfect place in which to consider the interplay between preservation, memory, and libraries because it has been a leader in the American preservation and conservation movement; a preeminent collector of books, manuscripts, and objects; and a research center. Its original "temple-of-knowledge" architecture/building is now complemented by dramatic accents of glass, which invite us to reflect on its collections in new ways.