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New Mexico Wedding Photographer Case
A while back, I blogged about the pending New Mexico case in which a wedding photographer who refused to photograph a gay commitment ceremony was sued for violating the state's antidiscrimination laws. The case presented the question whether the application of antidiscrimination laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of (among other things) sexual orientation to a photographer who is morally opposed to same-sex marriage violates the photographer's First Amendment rights.
The New Mexico Supreme Court today issued its decision, holding that the First Amendment does not prevent a state from enforcing antidiscrimination norms against businesses that hold themselves out as open to the general public, even when those businesses offer services (like photography) that are artistic or expressive in nature. Although I might have written the opinion a little differently, I think it reaches the correct result. More details after the jump.
The photographer's most interesting argument was that her business is intrinsically expressive and that, as a consequence, requiring her to photograph same-sex couples amounts to government-compelled speech. The court rejected this argument -- correctly, I think -- by observing that the enforcement of antidiscrimination laws neither forbids the photographer from speaking nor requires her to send any particular message. The owner remains free to express her opposition to same-sex marriage or homosexuality in general.
The photographer argued that third parties might think that, by photographing a same-sex commitment ceremony, the photographer was endorsing homosexual relationships. But, as the court suggested (though I wish it would have been more explicit on this point) , this argument has a self-fulfilling quality. If the law allows an owner to discriminate, observers are more likely to think that service constittutes endorsement. (Even then, the court correctly observed that "[i]t is well known to the public that wedding photographers are hired by paying customers and that a photographer may not share teh happy couple's views on issues ranging from the minor . . . to the decidely major.") The possibility that observers will misunderstand service on equal terms for endorsement is diminished, however, when the law compels equal service. That is, the existence of antidiscrimination law prevents the risk of the very consfusion the photographer was worried about. As I said in my earlier post, one of the purposes of antidiscrimination laws is precisely to ratchet down the expressive significance of these kinds of commercial interactions. Doing so both protects minority groups from, in the court's words "humiliation and dignitary harm," and protects the expressive freedom of those providing the service by emptying the service of expressive content.
The case leaves some interesting questions unanswered about the intersection between free speech and antidiscrimination norms. For example, although the court said that the photographer remains free under the New Mexico antidiscrimination laws to express her opposition to same sex relationships, it seems likely that expressing those views in certain ways would amount to a denial of service on equal terms. If, for example, she showed up at the commitment ceremony wearing a t-shirt that said "God Hates Fags," I think that would be the same as refusing to provide the service in the first place. Or is she hung a sign with the same message on her door, I think the same reasoning would apply, even if accompanied by a sign indicating that the shop complies with state antidiscrimination laws. Whether the First Amendment protects either of these hypotheticals is an issue the court in the case did not get into.
About the Author
Eduardo Moisés Peñalver is the Allan R. Tessler Dean of the Cornell Law School. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the subjects of property and land use law.
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I recommend reading Judge Bosson's concurring opinion on pages 27-30 of he document linked in he original post.
Let's give thanks that a bishop didn't file an amicus curiae brief in favor of the photographer.
From the concurring opinion: "The Huguenins are free to think, to say, to believe, as they wish; they may pray to the God of their choice and follow those commandments in their personal lives wherever they lead."
From the 1st Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Does the phrase "in their personal lives" appear in the 1st Amendment?
Your right to swing your hands and fists stops at the beginning of my nose.
Here's an article about some of the issues in this case. Yes, I think there are many issues. The question is: which should be considered paramount? I haven't made up my mind yet. The argument about an animal-rights photographer photographing having to photograph hunting and taxidermy has merit, I think.
The argument about an animal-rights photographer photographing having to photograph hunting and taxidermy has merit, I think.
I disagree. Hunters and taxidermists are not members of a class the state has found to be discriminated against and passed legislation to protect. Gay people are. An animal-righs activist and videographer would be perfectly free to refuse a job filming men hunting or taxidermists stuffing animals. That example has no bearing whatsoever on the case of the wedding photographer. I don't even see how it constitutes an argument. There are obviously many possible scenarios of the state forcing someone in a particular profession to take on a job that we would quite reasonably object to. That has nothing to do with antidiscrimination laws. In this particular case, there was a law prohibiting discrimination against gays and lesbians, and the photographer wanted to be exempt from that law, thereby providing an example of discrimination against gays and lesbians
I remember a story here in New York from quite some time ago when a landlord refused to rent an apartment to a lawyer, because "they're nothing but trouble." The landlord sued, and lost, because lawyers are not a protected class. The government doesn't take on the job of making sure that nobody discriminates against anybody. It doesn't take on the job of guaranteeing that hunters and taxidermists can hire any videographer they want. Government steps in when there is enough evidence that it decides a certain group needs legal protection. If hunters, taxidermists, or lawyers start suffering from real discrimination, then the time may come that they are made into protective classes. When that time comes, we'll have to wrestle with the issue of whether an animal-rights activist and videographer should be required to film hunting and taxidermy. But for the moment, the question is totally irrelevant.
Why can't we just live and let love? Jimmy Roland says it best in his Gay marriage song Partners For Life in the HuffPost article: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3497134
I've just realized that this is a decision by the New Mexico Court of Appeals, which is one level below the New Mexico Supreme Court. The lawyer for the photographers says they will appeal to the state Supreme Court
Wrong again. It is the Supreme Court decision.
The Christinity Today article referenced above is from June and reported on the Court of Appeals decison issued in May. The Supreme Court has now upheld that decision.
Well now, everytime I think I've finally just about gotten my morality barometer working well a topic like this one comes along and I am forced to wonder. In as much as one is not required to have photographs taken at a wedding and the only important issue at a wedding is how the couple feel about each other.....well, I get confused easily.
Clearly Eduardo grasp is well beyond mine. Perhaps that's one of the reasons he is blogging here and I am not?
Consider this question I read somewhere else today: if one of the gay grooms was a photographer, and if he was asked to photograph the wedding of an anti-gay couple in a fundamentalist Christian ceremony, should the gay photographer have the right to refuse?
if one of the gay grooms was a photographer, and if he was asked to photograph the wedding of an anti-gay couple in a fundamentalist Christian ceremony, should the gay photographer have the right to refuse?
How will answering your question above shed any light on the New Mexico case? Is the premise that if a gay photographer is permitted to refuse to work for anti-gay people, gay people don't have any right to sue anti-gay people who turn downjobs photographing gay weddings? For what it's worth, a gay wedding photographer should not have the right to turn down customers based on their religion alone, even if that religion teaches that homosexuality is wrong. But why specify Christian fundamentalists? The Catholic Church is anti-gay, too.
David N. --
ISTM this case revolves around a conflict between the political right of the gay spouses versus the religious right of the photographer. The gay couple is basing their demand on their legal right to be served under the Civil Rights Act founded on the 14th Amendment while the photographer is claiming his First Amendment right to follow his religious conscience. Because the religious right is included explicitly in the First Amend. while the right to be served is not explicitly in the 14th, it would seem to me that the First Amendment religious right would trump the other. (Notice, I'm just considering what I understand is the law here.)
But what is the morality of this case? (Does morality ever enter into legal decisions when the law is not clear?) How much of a moral duty does one person have to respect the religious rights of another person? In the present case it is not a question of respecting the other person's religion -- it's a question of respecting *him* and his *right to practice* his religion. Is this case simply a matter of who is ingured the most or of whose feelings hurt most -- the person who has to go agains his religious conscience or the gay spouses who feel insulted by the photographer?
Ann Olivier, in explaing the New Mexico decision, Judge Bosson pointed out that the laws that used to forbid interracial marriages were also based on sincerely held religious beliefs:
The Lovings, an interracial couple, had been lawfully married elsewhere and wanted to live openly as husband and wife in Virginia. For their honesty, they were prosecuted and convicted; their prison sentences were suspended on condition that they leave Virginia and not return for 25 years. The Virginia trial judge, in justifying the convictions, drew strength from his view of the Bible:
"Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with this arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
Whatever opinion one might have of the trial judge's religious views, which mirrored those of millions of Americans of the time, no one questioned his sincerity either or his religious conviction. In affirming the Lovings' convictions, Virginia's highest court observed the religious, cultural, historical and moral roots that justified miscegenation laws....
There is a lesson here. In a constitutional form of government, personal, religious, and moral beliefs, when acted upon to the detriment of someone else's rights, have constitutional limits. One is free to believe, think and speak as one's conscience, or God, dictates. But when actions, even religiously inspired, conflict with other constitutionally protected rights—in Loving the right to be free from invidious racial discrimination—then there must be some accommodation. Recall that Barnette was all about the students; their exercise of First Amendment rights did not infringe upon anyone else. The Huguenins cannot make that claim. Their refusal to do business with the same-sex couple in this case, no matter how religiously inspired, was an affront to the legal rights of that couple, the right granted them under New Mexico law to engage in the commercial marketplace free from discrimination...
The New Mexico Legislature has made it clear that to discriminate in business on the basis of sexual orientation is just as intolerable as discrimination directed toward race, color, national origin or religion.... The Huguenins today can no more turn away customers on the basis of sexual orientation—photographing a same-sex marriage ceremony—than they could refuse to photograph African-Americans or Muslims.
All of which, I assume, is little comfort to the Huguenins, who now are compelled by law to compromise the very religious beliefs that inspire their lives. Though the rule of law requires it, the result is sobering. It will no doubt leave a tangible mark on the Huguenins and others of similar views....
In the smaller, more focused world of the marketplace, of commerce, of public accommodation, the Huguenins have to channel their conduct, not their beliefs, so as to leave space for other Americans who believe something different. That compromise is part of the glue that holds us together as a nation, the tolerance that lubricates the varied moving parts of us as a people. That sense of respect we owe others, whether or not we believe as they do, illuminates this country, setting it apart from the discord that afflicts much of the rest of the world. In short, I would say to the Huguenins, with the utmost respect: it is the price of citizenship. I therefore concur.
Judge Bosson dicusses other issues that I've skipped over in these excerpts, so you might want to read his concurring opinion on pages 27 to 30.
"There is a lesson here. In a constitutional form of government, personal, religious, and moral beliefs, when acted upon to the detriment of someone else's rights, have constitutional limits."
JOhn Hayes --
I recognized that. However, sometimes such conflicts are resolved on the side of religious freedom and sometimes they are resolved on the side of the other constitutional guarantees. My question is: how does the judge decide which side to come down upon? Just repeating that sometimes religious rights must come in second does not answer *why* they must sometimes come in second. Just to repeat that religious rights are sometimes limited does not base the decision on a principle of law. What is the principle of law that tips the balance?
John Hayes --
Thank you for that quotation from the judge. It makes the matter clearer for me.
In trying to weigh the two rights in this case, I ask myself: what are the consequences for each side? It seems to me that the consequences for the two sides are *both* commercial -- if the gay couple loses they have to make a phone call to get another one, costing them 30 cents (?), while if the photographers follow their religious conscience they must give up their whole business. It seems to me that clearly the latter would be a much worse outcome, so that the judge should find for them.
Again, this is a prudential judgment.
Ann Olivier, it's a decision the state legislature made when it added "sexual orientation" to the state law defining classes protected from discrimination by a "public accomodation." The couple didn't argue that it had a right under the federal constitution to have its wedding pictures taken.
21 states have similar laws.
In this case, the photographers stipulated that they were a "public accomodation" otherwise, the judges would have had to decide that.
Because of the state law, the photographers must do for a same-sex couple anything they offer to do for a heterosexual couple.
The New Mexico State law says
28-1-7. Unlawful discriminatory practice.
It is an unlawful discriminatory practice for:
F. any person in any public accommodation to make a distinction, directly or indirectly, in offering or refusing to offer its services, facilities, accommodations or goods to any person because of race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, spousal affiliation or physical or mental handicap, provided that the physical or mental handicap is unrelated to a person's ability to acquire or rent and maintain particular real property or housing accommodation;
if the gay couple loses they have to make a phone call to get another one, costing them 30 cents (?), while if the photographers follow their religious conscience they must give up their whole business.
Why in the world do you say the photographers must give up their whole business?
The original incident took place in 2006, and Elane Photography has been in court over it ever since, losing at each successive stage. To the best of my knowledge, they are still in business and no other cases have been brought against them. The original "fine" of about $6000 was not a fine at all, but the lesbian couple's lawyers' fees. When the couple won, they did not seek any punitive damages, but asked only that they be reimburse for the money they had spent on on legal fees. Also, to the best of my knowledge, there have been no similar cases brought against wedding photographers in New Mexico or anywhere else.
Your position seems to be that people who claim a religious objection should be exempted from antidiscrimination laws protecting gay people. John Hayes has listed the New Mexico statute above. What other protected categories do you think should be subject to discrimination based on religious objection to the law? Should white supremacists Christians be able to refuse to photograph African-American weddings? Should Christians be able to refuse to photograph Jewish weddings, and vice versa? Does everyone who says, "I seek an exemption on religious grounds" about anything have a right to get out of whatever it is they claim to object to?
I think it is not perhaps the court decision you object to, but antidiscrimination laws that protect people because of their sexual orientation. Surely when the New Mexico statute was amended to include sexual orientation, the legislature was aware that it was very likely that if there was anti-gay discrimination, it would come from religious objectors.
The New Mexico Supreme Court wrote:
Enforcing the NMHRA against Elane Photography does not violate the Free Speech or the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment or the NMRFRA.
As a practical matter, and aside from the award of attorneys' fees, what has been enforced as a result of this case? Since the case began in 2006, I assume that the marriage has taken place by now or has been canceled for other reasons, and that Elane Photography did not photograph it. Does this decision make it more likely that punitive damages would be assessed against the photographers for a second violation with other prospective clients? If not, what behavior changes?
John Prior, I think the message is that anyone who discriminates against same-sex couples is going to spend years in court and, at least, may have to pay the other side's lawyer's fees. If they are lucky, the ADF or Becket will be there to represent them, free, so they don't have to pay their own lawyer's fees.
I haven't looked up what penalties there are under the law. If they are simply fines, there may be supporters who would subsidize them the first few times but I would guess that source would dry up, eventually.
The court said there is no reason that they can not post their objections to same-sex marriages on their website - i could imagine something on the order of "We are Christians and we believe that same-sex marriage is wrong. We are concerned that if we photograph a same-sex wedding some people might think that we support it. Therefore, we hope that you will respect our views and not ask us to photograph a same-sex wedding. However, the state requires that we treat all couples equally and, if you do ask us to do that we will photograph your wedding on he same basis as any other."
"I think it is not perhaps the court decision you object to, but antidiscrimination laws that protect people because of their sexual orientation."
David N. --
You're reading stuff into what I said. My argument is only about conflicting rights, not about anti-discrimination laws of any sort. I support anti-discrimination laws. But I also respect the First Amendment, and where the two clash it seems to me that one mustn't automatically enforce the lesser law -- and the civil rights acts are all on a lower level legally thana the FA.
Also, morally I think it would be wrong to ask someone to violate their conscience to assist me when there are other people who would assist me in good conscience. It would show a disrespect of their consciences, no matter how ill-formed they might be.
Ann O.,
It does seem that the issues in this case have had a thorough airing. I don't know the legislative history of the New Mexico Human Rights Act, but it is likely that when it was amended to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, the proponents of the amendment offered evidence that such discrimination was significant enough to require a remedy. The legislature and presumably the governor agreed.
Then the issues in this specific case were argued at the New Mexico Human Rights Commission and all over again in three state courts, including the New Mexico Supreme Court. In particular, the protections for speech and religious exercise afforded by the First Amendment were discussed at length and found not to exempt Elane Photography from its obligation as a public accommodation. Maybe the case will go on in the Federal courts, possibly even reaching a different outcome. But so far, I think, no one can fairly say that the defendants have not been given a careful and thoughtful hearing.
As for your last paragraph above,
Also, morally I think it would be wrong to ask someone to violate their conscience to assist me when there are other people who would assist me in good conscience. It would show a disrespect of their consciences, no matter how ill-formed they might be.
Elane Photography itself apparently did not see fit to offer that argument, so there was no question of a court considering it. And whether it was possible to find another photographer of equal ability and offering similar terms is not in evidence.
Also, morally I think it would be wrong to ask someone to violate their conscience to assist me when there are other people who would assist me in good conscience.
Would you make the same argument if you were discriminated against on the basis of race, color, creed, or national origin? There were many people (still are!) who have religious objections to racial integration and intermarriage. Was almost 2000 years of anti-Semitism acceptable because Christians sincerely believed the Jews were collectively responsible fo deicide? Suppose I believe today that Jews are responsible for killing Jesus. Would you exempt me from antidiscrimination laws if I refused to photograph (or bake a cake for) a Jewish wedding?
Also, is the government always obliged to exempt people from legal obligations if they say, "This obligation violates my religious beliefs?" What would government in the United States be like if each religion, or each person who claimed to be religious, got to decide which laws to obey and which laws were violations of conscience?
It would show a disrespect of their consciences, no matter how ill-formed they might be.
So if someone believes he is saving thousands of lives by killing abortionists, we should show respect for his conscience?
Peter's response to the authorities who demanded that he stop preaching about Christ: "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29)
Perhaps one day our government will learn its proper role. Until then it seems Christians must actively resist this overreach.
Ann, it was Justice Scalia who wrote the opinion setting the standard that would be applied if this case went to the US. Supreme Court:
" We have never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate. On the contrary, the record of more than a century of our free exercise jurisprudence contradicts that proposition. As described succinctly by Justice Frankfurter in Minersville School Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Gobitis, 310 U.S. 586, 594-595 (1940):
Conscientious scruples have not, in the course of the long struggle for religious toleration, relieved the individual from obedience to a general law not aimed at the promotion or restriction of religious beliefs. The mere possession of religious convictions which contradict the relevant concerns of a political society does not relieve the citizen from the discharge of political responsibilities.
(Footnote omitted.) We first had occasion to assert that principle in Reynolds v. United States, 98 U.S. 145 (1879), where we rejected the claim that criminal laws against polygamy could not be constitutionally applied to those whose religion commanded the practice. "Laws," we said,
are made for the government of actions, and while they cannot interfere with mere religious belief and opinions, they may with practices. . . . Can a man excuse his practices to the contrary because of his religious belief? To permit this would be to make the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself. Id. at 166-167.
Subsequent decisions have consistently held that the right of free exercise does not relieve an individual of the obligation to comply with a
valid and neutral law of general applicability on the ground that the law proscribes (or prescribes) conduct that his religion prescribes (or proscribes)."
i believe Justice Scalia would say that the government is free to write a religious exemption into the law if it wishes, but it is not required by the Constitution.
Here is Justice Scalia's explanation of limitations on actions that would not be permissible:
But the "exercise of religion" often involves not only belief and profession but the performance of (or abstention from) physical acts: assembling with others for a worship service, participating in sacramental use of bread and wine, proselytizing, abstaining from certain foods or certain modes of transportation. It would be true, we think (though no case of ours has involved the point), that a state would be "prohibiting the free exercise [of religion]" if it sought to ban such acts or abstentions only when they are engaged in for religious reasons, or only because of the religious belief that they display. It would doubtless be unconstitutional, for example, to ban the casting of "statues that are to be used for worship purposes," or to prohibit bowing down before a golden calf.
David --
When I was young (before ecumenism) many Southern Protestants thought that Catholics were the devil incarnate. Some even believed that Catholics literally had tails and cloven feet. In those circumstances would I have pushed a bigoted Protestant to serve me against his/her conscience? No, I certainly would not. I'd have found somebody else and prayed for the bigot.
Yes, we do have to respect other people's consciences. No, we should not respect what their consciences tell them to do or not do, but we must respect the fact that they are *obliged* to act according to it. Yes, if someone thought he ought to slaughter Christians we should stop him from doing so. But we should respect him for having the courage of his convictions.
Perhaps one day our government will learn its proper role. Until then it seems Christians must actively resist this overreach.
What about, "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's"? What about, "My Kingdom is not of this world?"
I don't thhink it is overreach for the government to pass nondiscrimination laws involving public accommodations. No one demanded that Elane Photography not preach about Christ.
Yes, if someone thought he ought to slaughter Christians we should stop him from doing so. But we should respect him for having the courage of his convictions.
You can't be serious. Should we have respected Eichmann for having had the courage of his convictions? Should he have been put on trial and executed? That was certainly unnecessary, since he wasn't going to kill any more Jews in the 1960s. Why execute a man for having the courage of his convictions? Isn't that disrespect for conscience?
But we should respect him for having the courage of his convictions
Yeah, pretty sure we shouldn't.
David N. ==
Of course I"m serious. It boils down to respecting and even loving people with misformed consciences.
As to Eichmann, if you're against capital punishment, which I am, then he should not have been executed either. (But note -- you seem to be *assuming* that he honestly believed that he was doing right. I say that given the enormity of his crimes that the best evidence is that he was terribly, terribly guilty.)
What happens when consciences conflict?
In 1964, when one could still buy a Colored sign at a local hardware store in Virginia Beach, lunch rooms on the other side of the tracks in cities and towns across the South offered burgers and milkshakes that were probably every bit as good as those sold at the "whites only" lunch counter in the local Woolworth's. But some people's conscience told them that they had to sit at the "wrong" counter, even though they knew that beatings and arrests were all they would be served, because the conscience of other folks said they shouldn't sit there. If all sides were being sincere, whose conscience deserved to be upheld? And how should it have been decided?
Bloody confrontation was part of the process, but nothing on the scale of the conflict a hundred years before, when related issues had arisen. This time a more or less orderly course of legal proceedings, backed to be sure by the unchallenged power of the federal government, changed customs and conduct while still leaving all participants free to think as they chose. Today many people believe, and even more profess to believe, that that was a good outcome.
Laws and court cases, being human contrivances, are always likely to be imperfect and are sure to be contentious in a diverse society. But before despairing of them, we might look around the world to see how other nations are settling their differences.
In those circumstances would I have pushed a bigoted Protestant to serve me against his/her conscience? No, I certainly would not. I'd have found somebody else and prayed for the bigot.
Ann, I remember having dinner with a family in Princeton at the time when women students started pressing for membership in the all-male eating clubs. Their very proper daughter said she couldn't understand why any woman would want to go where she wasn't wanted. Clearly, she wasn't going to be on on barricades. My impression was that she didn't think other women should be protesting either.
My guess is that that when people started sitting-in at Woolworths, there were probably other equally self-identified "Colored" people who felt they could eat perfectly well at those places John Prior described on the other side of the tracks and didn't see why those other people were trying to get served where they obviously weren't wanted.
However, I don't think that the fact that some people were willing to live with discrimination entitled Woolworths to keep on discriminating.
But note -- you seem to be *assuming* that he honestly believed that he was doing right. I say that given the enormity of his crimes that the best evidence is that he was terribly, terribly guilty.
You seem to be assuming that everyone who claims they ought to be exempt from the law on religious grounds is acting in good conscience. It seems to me the nature of prejudice against gay people (and Jews, and African-Americans, and Muslims, etc.) is such that people are in serious danger of taking the inner voice of prejudice to be the inner voice of conscience. Were people who discriminated against Jews, or people justified slavery or racial segregation sincerely acting according to conscience? Or were they confusing conscience and prejudice.
To give another example of what John Hayes has talked about, before women had the right to vote, many women were adamantly opposed to women's suffrage. Now, what you said about not forcing an anti-Catholic to provide services to you certainly makes a lot of sense. But suppose black people had taken the attitude that they didn't want to go where they were not welcome. Or suppose Martin Luther King had said, "If you can't get served at an all-white business, or you can't get into an all-white school, find a place where you are welcome and go there instead"?
I should point out that unless we don't know about it (and I am sure we would), in the seven years since Elane Photography refused to do business with the lesbian couple, there have been no other complaints against them. I don't think gays and lesbians are eager for confrontations, nor do I think they will go to places where they know they will be turned away and then spend thousands of dollars on legal fees to bring a lawsuit. The lesbian couple tried to hire Elane Photograph in good faith, not expecting to be turned away. They made their complaint against Elane Photography on principle, not for the purpose of forcing Elane Photography to take their wedding pictures. And when they won the initial case, they asked only to be reimbursed for their lawyers' fees, not to have Elane Photography punished. One can only imagine what the legal fees of 7 years of wrangling have cost both sides. Nobody setting out to plan a wedding, gay or straight, is going to deliberately provoke a situation in which they will have to be in court for years and pay thousands of dollars in legal fees.
You seem to be assuming that everyone who claims they ought to be exempt from the law on religious grounds is acting in good conscience.
The problem is that courts cannot evaluate the legitimacy of a person's claimed religious beliefs - it would be an impermissable involvement in religion.
There have been disputes about state driver license requirements that had the effect of prohibiting Muslim women from wearing headcoverings when ID photos were taken. Most places have made some accomodation for that.
I thought of that when I read this story, today:
A student at Texas Tech University appears to be the first American to have his driver's license photo taken — and to successfully obtain a driver's license — while wearing a pasta strainer on his head.
The student, Eddie Castillo, pulled off the stunt by claiming to practice Pastafarianism and belong to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, reports KLBK.
Castillo told DMV officials that the silver, metal pasta strainer is a religious symbol for him, and they bought it.
"Once she allowed me to put the pasta strainer on my head, I took the biggest, cheesiest smile I probably ever took," he reminisced to the Lubbock CBS affiliate.
Pastafarianism is a satire. Its proponents seek to illustrate their belief that government should avoid promoting any single religion.
"You seem to be assuming that everyone who claims they ought to be exempt from the law on religious grounds is acting in good conscience."
David N. --
I don't know whether "everyone* is acting in good conscience, but the couple at issue does seem to be. Evidence? They were willing to pay hard cash for legal representation to live their lives as they seem to see fit.
The case with Eichmann is totally different. My point about him is that what he did is so enormously, hideously wrong that only a madmen could not see that it incredibly wrong. Might he actually have thought he was right? Only if he was insane. He doesn't seem to have been insane (though a good psychiatrist might convince me otherwise), so I assume is is terribly guilty. True, only God can judge him with absolute certainty
I agree that people do take prejudice as the voice of conscience sometimes. And sometimes they take ideology, and self-interest, and what-grandpa said, as the voice of conscience. But I know from my experience as a very old Southerner that there were people who were brought up to believe on religious grounds (see the Bible on slavery -- some interpretations allow it) that segregation was immoral, and since many of them were uneducated and some were stupid to begin with, there was reason for their prejudice that was not their own doing. So, no, I don't think they were rotten people. The were grossly *mistaken* people.
True, I often complain about Americans giving up the notion of sin and replacing it with the notion of mistake. But in my experience the best explanation for some objectively wrong behavior is *mistaken* conscience. And what I'm appealing for here is that those imperfect people's acting according to their (mistaken) consciences be respected because they have done what they have thought was right.
Granted, if someone's conscience tells him to physically injure others then that cannot be tolerated. But the photographers in question weren't going to hit the spouses with their cameras. They are only claiming *a right not-to-do* something, and the photographers refusing to photograph the wedding did not deprive the spouses of their right to have their wedding photographed.
".... who were brought up to believe on religious grounds (see the Bible on slavery -- some interpretations allow it) that segregation was immoral"
Oops = I said that exactly wrong. There were Southerners who were raised to believe on religious grounds hat segregation was morally *right*.
For a photographer, it doesn't matter in which wedding ceremony he or she is going to be performed. But here we have found a very controversial issue, which a wedding photographer refuse to photograph a gay commitment ceremony. I don't think these kind of unprofessional behaviors are appreciated, we have don't have any rights to hurt anyone's sentiment or emotion. But in my point of view a professional photographer is completely responsible for making a wedding ceremony, engagement ceremony and commitment ceremony special and attractive. For more about wedding photographs we may visit Wedding Photography Las Vegas.


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The American Public Works Association (APWA) announced last week that the Kiowa County Commons building has received the APWA's "Project of the Year" award for small cities.
Professional Engineering Consultants (PEC) of Wichita, KS provided engineering design for the project. The building houses the Kiowa County Historical Museum and Soda Fountain, the Kiowa County Media Center and the Kiowa County K-State Research and Extension office.
It was designed to LEED Platinum standards, incorporating energy and water conservation features and utilizes sustainable and reclaimed construction materials.
PEC project manager Tim Lenz remarked, "This is a great example of what can happen when a community wants to cooperate and get the maximum value for their investment. We're glad the APWA rewarded them for that."
The award ceremony will be held in Lawrence in May.
Location, ST | website.com

subset: commoncrawl


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Event Information
The First Year Leadership Exploration is a 6-week leadership emersion program designed to assist newer leaders in creating and enhancing their personal philosophy of leadership while developing basic leadership skills and learning about all of the leadership opportunities that the GVSU community has to offer. FYLE teaches leadership through interactive activities and discussion led by student leaders and GVSU staff.
Program Dates:
10/7,14,21,28 and 11/4/11
Kirkhof Center: 2266
To learn more about this program, visit the above URL.
REGISTER: https://orgsync.com/62944/forms/102565
This event also occurred on 10/5/2010, 10/10/2011, 10/17/2011, 10/31/2011 and 10/7/2014


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- Updated: 7/17/01 5:46:38 PM
- BSO Case Number: BS01-7-8713 (UPDATED)
- PIO Number: 01-7-37
- Date: July 17, 2001
- Time: 12:50 p.m.
- Place of Occurrence: near 1200 block of East Sunrise Boulevard, Ft. Lauderdale
- Fort Lauderdale man, in his early 40's, name withheld (DECEASED)
Description of Incident:
Broward Sheriff's Office Traffic Homicide detectives are investigating a bus accident that resulted in a pedestrian fatality in Fort Lauderdale Tuesday afternoon.
The accident occurred near the 1200 block of East Sunrise Boulevard around 12:50 p.m. Eastbound lanes of Sunrise Boulevard were closed to traffic for several hours while rescue workers responded and BSO detectives investigated the incident.
BSO traffic homicide detectives said the pedestrian stepped off the curb into the path of an eastbound Broward County Transit bus when he was hit. The Fort Lauderdale man landed in the center lane where he was struck by an eastbound 1994 Jeep. The driver of the county bus and the driver of the Jeep remained at the scene.
The victim, whose name is being withheld until detectives notify his next of kin, was transported to Broward General Medical Center where he later died. No other injuries were reported.
- INVESTIGATORS: Sgt. R. Hodges, Det. M. Gorman & Det. J. Gill and PIO Veda Coleman-Wright
Posted At: 07/17/2001 12:00 AM
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I would like to create a horizontal image sprite for use in a jQuery animation, how would i create a sprite from 190 images in a folder (around 220kb each file) into a single horizontal sprite?
As I write code a lot too, I know your pain with this task. Luckily there are dozens of
out there. I don't even save the link, as you always find a fitting one soon. The above linked generator takes a ZIP file. Luckily they don't only give you the resulting sprite image/sprite, but write the CSS for you as well.
Sidenote/Hint: Pay attention how you name stuff. They normally order stuff by names. So if you got
The only thing that's now left is to write the (pretty intense) mark-up :)
Well the obvious answer is to create a batch process to do it for you so you don't have to do it 190 times.
But maybe you can use one of Photoshop's automated processes to do it for you. In the old version of photoshop I use there's a Contact Sheet II process available. Perhaps you could set it up to include all the images you want to turn into a sprite, and then set the width to be the total width you expect all of the images to be, the height to be the max height of the individual images (so for example it'd be something crazy like 15,000 px X 200 px)
And then you'd set the "thumbnails" to be 190 columns and 1 row. Then turn off "Use Filename as Caption".
Oh and playing around with the spacing may help.
You have to open all images in your photohshop then you have to place them in one file which will be containing your horizontal image. next to each other this will be a big task and pain,
if you found any another way(rather than your mentioned script) of this please let us know
Although not directly related to Photoshop, I'd like to recommend TexturePacker.
I've used it in the past I'm pretty happy with it: light, fast, easy to use, affordable and it generates clean code for most targets/frameworks out there(including css sprites).
The full version also offers command line access which makes it super easy to automate workflows.


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26 May 2012 4:03 AM #1
Design pattern for Grid without Bean property
I have a grid with different columns which values map into POJO object via ValueProperties interface. Now I would like to add one column which value is really calculate by application state + some bean states. How can I create ValueProperties method to get values if I don't have this calculate values in my bean? This was very easy in GXT 2.x :
GridCellRenderer<BaseModelData> buttonRenderer = new GridCellRenderer<BaseModelData>() {
public Object render(final BaseModelData model, String property, ColumnData config, final int rowIndex, final int colIndex, ListStore<BaseModelData> store, Grid<BaseModelData> grid) {
Thank you for advice.
GWT stuff twitter - http://twitter.com/#!/gwtstuff
29 May 2012 9:38 AM #2
There are several ways to accomplish the same thing, depending on exactly what it is you want to customize.
The first, most exact translation of the code you've posted, would be to build a GWT Cell instance and attach it to your ColumnConfig. These uses SafeHtml to ensure that all content will be outputted correctly, and can accept events to make lightweight widget-like elements to draw cheaply.
This sample assumes that you need the entire model to read from multiple properties of your bean to render content, and so uses the IdentityValueProvider, which makes sure that the model itself is passed to be drawn.
ColumnConfig<MyData, MyData> column = new ColumnConfig<MyData, MyData>(new IdentityValueProvider<MyData>()); column.setCell(new AbstractCell<MyData>() { @Override public void render(Context context, MyData value, SafeHtmlBuilder sb) { //append content to sb about the value object } });
class CustomValueProvider implements ValueProvider<MyData, String> { public String getValue(MyData data) { return data.getA() + data.getB(); } public void setValue(MyData object, String value) { //do nothing, this is a read-only column, or build your own logic here } public String getPath() { return "";// this may be needed if you allow remote sorting/filtering on this column // if so, this string is what will be passed to the server to represent this column. } }
18 Jul 2012 10:58 AM #3
Design pattern for Grid without Bean property
Great information and confirms my thoughts. This just saved me at least an hour of experimentation!
-JasonStamp Image Bursting Application
see http://code.google.com/p/stamp-imagebursting/


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I've been tasked with making a powerpoint theme for the company I work for and one of the requirements is that it uses a font that comes standard with most computers. What are some of the built-in sans serif fonts that graphic designers respect and use more frequently?
Of the original "web-safe" (that is, as close to universal as you'll get on the Web) sans-serifs (Arial, Impact, Tahoma, Trebuchet MS, Verdana), Verdana tends to get the most love. It's well-designed and is designed to be readable on the screen. It was designed by Matthew Carter, a respected typeface designer, and the design itself is pretty original, so it doesn't get panned for its existence and history as much as Arial does. Also, MoMA added it to its design collection, calling it (and the others in the collection) "a milestone in the history of typography". A scientific study (funded by Microsoft, so take with a grain of salt) touted Verdana's readability, particularly at small sizes. It was one of the first fonts that was designed with readability on the screen particularly in mind, so it has a large x-height (good for seeing the lowercase letters) and is well-hinted. These advantages will become less relevant as pixel density increases, but they're good things to look for in a screen font for now.
Arial is almost universally panned by designers (see above link), Impact isn't practical outside of headlines, and even though Tahoma is more or less Verdana's skinny brother, it doesn't tend to draw as much praise. I've personally never minded Trebuchet as a choice, but it doesn't seem to be as common.
If you're using Office 2007 or later, the ClearType collection comes into play. Three sans-serifs are available: Calibri, Candara, and Corbel. Everything I've read about and them adds to my personal opinion - they're good fonts to use. Wikipedia told me that "Calibri won the TDC2 2005 award from the Type Directors Club under the Type System category."
If you have the right version of Publisher (ours was 2003), there are some extra fonts available. I'm not as knowledgeable about this, but I know that Publisher was the reason we ended up with Franklin Gothic on our PCs, and that is an excellent choice of a sans-serif.
I'll add a disclaimer - as John notes, you can embed fonts. If a font is not embedded, you're always at the mercy of someone else's system, and no font has 100% saturation everywhere.
Steer clear of the original "safe" fonts: Verdana, Arial, Times, Tahoma, whatever. There are more flexible fonts available now, designed for today's quality display panels.
Work smarter and start using Google presentations (via Drive), where you have access to the myriad fonts available on Google fonts. Not only do you get a reliable set of awesome fonts, you get bonus points for collaboration and portability.
If that's not an option, I'd recommend Microsoft's 'C' fonts. They are all well designed for screen rendering and available wherever those terrible Microsoft Office products are installed.
I'm not sure how Powerpoint handles fallback for each font, but a quick search for web-safe fonts reveals these Windows/Mac (considered close enough) pairs:
Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif
Personally I use "Century Gothic", "Century", sans-serif, although I guess it technically doesn't make the official web-safe list.
Why is that one of the requirements? If it is so that the presentation will look the same on any computer, then I'd recommend another route: embed the font in the file
Obviously this is something you will want to test on different computers/operating systems to ensure that it saved properly, but the extra styling flexibility will surely be worth the work.
Segoe UI (as @Supuhstar already suggested) - An overall great sans but the best italic variant of any sans, commercial or system included, hands down. Bold works comfortably in display sizes since Segoe UI Black is not system.


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Game Details - Ephrata High School, Kiwanis Field
The Cashmere Bulldogs football team has an away non-conference game @ Ephrata on Friday, September 2 @ 7p.
MaxPreps is looking for one person to be the Official Scorer! This person will provide LIVE play-by-play for fans to follow along during the game.
If you have any corrections for the Cashmere football schedule please contact Support.


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7 Old People Who Gave Retirement the Finger
Some of us can't wait until retirement so we can park our asses on futuristic hyperchairs all day, yell at kids who are jet scooting on our hoverlawns and quietly wait for death or the end of the world (whichever comes first). But there are some senior citizens who aren't quite ready to give up just yet. These old people not only have more ambition than most of us despite being well past their prime, but they're also doing jobs most of us wouldn't even begin to consider.
People like ...
#7. An 80-Year-Old International Jewel Thief
Let's say you work security in a jewelry store and the proprietor lets you know that a very expensive diamond ring is missing. The only customer who looked at it was a tiny old woman who merely wanted to try it on. It may interest you to know that you've just fallen victim to one of the most prolific international jewel thieves in the world.
And that's why you should always tear gas the elderly whenever you encounter them.
The jewel thief in question is Doris Payne, and she is currently serving a five-year prison sentence for the theft of an $8,900 diamond ring. But larceny is nothing new for Doris; she's been doing it almost every month for the past 50 years.
Payne's method was very slick. She would dress as a fancy, well-off woman and head to the jewelry store. Using her charm and good looks to confuse the clerk, Payne would ask to try on many different pieces, often causing them to forget how many items they had taken out. In the confusion, she would shift the rings from hand to hand and then finally declare that she'd "think about" the purchase and leave, becoming a few thousand dollars richer in the process. The clerks wouldn't discover that they were a ring short until after Payne had left the store.
Wheeling out just ahead of an incredibly slow-moving explosion.
Payne traveled the world, stealing from shops in Paris, Greece, England and Japan. Sometimes she got caught, but most times, she didn't. In fact, she once MacGyvered a diamond from its ring setting when she was in custody and sewed the diamond into her girdle, which prevented authorities from finding the stolen merchandise. She was eventually profiled, and a major search for the jewel thief went into effect.
Wanted: Al Capone, Grandma ...
Still stealing as recently as 2010, Payne has stated that it's not even about the money anymore, but about seeing just how much she can get away with. We're not the only ones to realize just how noteworthy this story is, either: Her life will be the subject of the upcoming film Who Is Doris Payne? starring Halle Berry.
(The one on the left.)
Really, Hollywood? Who Is Doris Payne? Not No Payne, No Gain? OK. Your loss.
#6. Frank Evans, the 69-Year-Old Matador
Of all the animals a person could choose to fight, bulls are, of course, one of the most dangerous. They usually weigh about a ton, have two extremely sharp stabbing weapons on their heads and are built like brick shithouses. If you're going to go one-on-one with one of these monsters, you'd better make sure you're spry and agile, and have balls of steel.
And a rectum of mithril.
With the precise timing needed to be a bullfighter, it's no surprise that the average age of a matador is around 25 to 30. Enter Frank Evans, who's slightly older than that. To be precise, he's 69.
"Yer grandmama was tougher than you! I know this to be a fact!"
If we're going to discuss just how badass some old folks can be, we really need to break down Frank Evans' life. In a time when the title of "matador" was awarded only to fighters from Spanish-speaking countries, Evans decided he would go for it anyway, despite being very, very British. This would work out in his favor, as he earned his title and became known as El Ingles, the first top-level British bullfighter in the world. He was eventually ranked number 63 out of some 10,000 bullfighters worldwide.
His methods include self-deprecation and fatal doses of sarcasm.
Frank did consider retiring a few times. He had a minor setback when he was forced by his doctors to leave the ring for knee replacement surgery. During that time, doctors also realized his heart was in big trouble. After quadruple bypass surgery and a titanium knee replacement, Frank did what anyone recovering from serious surgery would do: He started fighting bulls again.
"I used the leather from the bulls to make my face."
Now, as he nears age 70, Frank says he still plans to be a bullfighter -- a sport that has injured and killed men less than half his age. When asked why he continues to do what he does, Evans says, "There's a 98-year-old man who runs marathons. If he can do that, I can fight a bull."
Frank is of course talking about ...
#5. Fauja "The Turbaned Tornado" Singh
It sucks to get old. Your back begins hurting and your knees have a tendency to give out on you. It's hard to keep up with the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Menial, everyday tasks become harder and harder to do, until you actually need a device to assist you in the simple chore of walking.
And the not-so-simple chore of pants selection.
Which makes it all the more natural that Fauja Singh, when he was a mere lad of 81, decided that his ninth decade on earth would be an absolutely bitching time to take up a career as a world-record-setting marathon runner. With Matlock's cancellation looming, it was really the only logical choice.
Nicknamed "The Turbaned Tornado," Singh has spent his later years not on the porch with a pair of slippers and a walker, but in a pair of sneakers, running marathons all over the world.
We guess his beard kind of looks like a tornado.
Singh was born in India in 1911. If your math skills aren't up to snuff, that makes him just a shade over 100 years old. The Tornado is the near record holder for the oldest marathon runner in the world. We say "near" because Guinness can't grant him the record spot without a birth certificate -- something that unfortunately didn't exist in India in 1911. He was born before birth certificates, and he's run more marathons than you. That's just wild speculation, but hell ... prove us wrong.
People speculate that he's actually a 25-year-old woman in a charity costume that got slightly out of hand.
The Guinness snub is not enough to keep Singh out of his running shoes. He currently runs every day with his elderly gang of joggers called Sikhs in the City.
"I'm Carrie!" "I'm the sex-obsessed one!" "I'm gonna poop myself if we don't stop!" "I'm the red-haired one!"
After completing his first marathon at age 89, Singh devoted his life to the sport. He has since run in eight marathons and even plans to run in the Torch Relay at the 2012 Olympic Summer Games.
So what's your excuse for not jogging today?
#4. Hershel McGriff -- NASCAR Driver at 84
When you think of NASCAR, you automatically think of fast cars, fast drivers and Danica Patrick in a bikini soaping up her stock car.
This is a legitimate sport that deserves our attention and respect.
You don't tend to think at all of senior citizens. Since the track is reserved for those who want to go really, really fast, NASCAR racing requires a careful combination of speed and safety. So in a time when the fastest speed many seniors drive is however quick their Rascal scooters can go, NASCAR racer Hershel McGriff cuts a different image.
"I don't know if it's possible to outrun death, but someone's gotta try, dammit!"
The average age of your typical NASCAR winner is about 33. McGriff is 84. Having kicked off his racing career in 1945, during the pioneer days of stock car racing, he's raced on and off in the nearly 70 years since. And what have you accomplished today, again?
McGriff raced for NASCAR in 1954 and finished the year off with four wins under his belt. In 1967, after more than 10 years off, McGriff returned to the track. At 40 years old, he decided to show the younger crowd how it was done by finishing in first place after starting in the 41st position.
He hasn't quite mastered the smash-through-the-side-window-feet-first trick yet.
And he wasn't done yet. In 1989, McGriff snagged the record of oldest driver to win a NASCAR race at the ripe old age of 61. In 2002, he was the oldest NASCAR driver on record ... a feat that was only broken seven years later, when McGriff got back behind the wheel at age 81 and finished at a very respectable 13th, shattering his previous record when most people his age are shattering their hips.
And guess what? As of this past summer, McGriff is still freaking racing. At 84 years old, he's surpassed every old driver you've been stuck behind on your way to work, and still places in the top 15 in his races. With no plans to quit anytime in the near future, he's secured his place as the old guy who makes your driving look slow.
Eat my Metamucil, d-bags.


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With a plane wave, I always took the direction of the wavevector, $k$, as the direction of propogation (magnitude proportional to the inverse wavelength). Alternatively, it could represent the momentum (minus a factor $\hbar$) of a particle.
However inside a crystal, the electron wavevector and the electron velocity are not necessarily in the same direction. I'm thinking here of a 2D material with a cylindrical Fermi surface where the momentum may have a z component, but the Fermi velocity does not. In everyday cases you would expect momentum and velocity to be in the same direction, moreover I considered the propogation of the wave to be in the same direction as its particle analogue.
I realise that inside a crystal the electrons are no longer simple plane waves, but what then does the $k$ vector mean?


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Crane Hosts American Boychoir & Conductor Christof Perick
SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music will mark the centennial of the composer Benjamin Britten's birth with a performance of his monumental War Requiem on Saturday, May 4.
As part of the second annual Lougheed Festival of the Arts, Crane will host the American Boychoir, as well as Maestro Christof Perick, the 2013 Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor, for campus residencies next week. In addition, visiting soprano Christine Goerke will lead a masterclass and Britten scholar Dr. Vicki Stroeher of Marshall University will present lectures during the festival.
"The Britten War Requiem performance, in Benjamin Britten's centennial year, recalls the Crane performance of this work in 1966 under Robert Shaw, just four years after its world première," Crane School of Music Dean Dr. Michael Sitton said. "Bringing together our distinguished visiting conductor, the wonderful American Boychoir, a celebrated guest soloist, distinguished faculty soloists, and, of course, Crane's outstanding faculty and students, will provide the audience a privileged encounter with this important, deeply moving and rarely-heard work.
The second annual Lougheed Festival of the Arts will include public masterclasses, rehearsals, presentations and recitals from April 29 to May 4 at The Crane School of Music. The American Boychoir will present a special concert on Friday, May 3, from 1 to 2 p.m. in the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.
All events are free, and the public is invited to attend. For a full schedule of events, visit www.potsdam.edu/artsfestival.
The festival will culminate with the War Requiem performance on Saturday, May 4 at 7:30 p.m. in the Helen M. Hosmer Concert Hall at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music. The concert soloists include soprano Christine Goerke, tenor Donald George and baritone David Pittman-Jennings.
The concert is free, but due to limited seating, tickets are required. To reserve a ticket for the concert, contact the Community Performance Series Box Office at (315) 267-2277 or visit the office, located in the lobby of the Sara M. Snell Music Theater.
The week's highlights include:
• Monday, April 29: The Crane Chorus will have a public rehearsal from 7 to 10 p.m. in Hosmer Hall.
• Tuesday, April 30: Perick will lead a conducting masterclass with four Crane undergraduates, who will conduct excerpts of the War Requiem with Nancy Hull '84, piano, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in Snell Theater. The Crane Symphony Orchestra will rehearse with Perick from 2 to 5 p.m. and from 7 to 8 p.m., both in Hosmer Hall. The Crane Chorus will have an open rehearsal from 8 to 10 p.m. in Hosmer Hall.
• Wednesday, May 1: The chamber orchestra will rehearse from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. in Hosmer Hall. Maestro Perick will participate in a student question and answer session from 3 to 4 p.m. in the Ralph Wakefield Recital Hall. The Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra will rehearse from 7 to 10 p.m. in Hosmer Hall.
• Thursday, May 2: Visiting soprano Goerke will lead a vocal masterclass from 10 a.m. to noon in Wakefield. The chamber orchestra will rehearse from 2 to 4 p.m. in Hosmer, followed by a presentation led by Audio Engineer Emeritus Gary Galo on "Crane Chorus in the 20th Century," from 4 to 5:15 p.m. in Wakefield Hall. From 7 to 10 p.m., there will be an open rehearsal with the chorus and orchestra in Hosmer.
• Friday, May 3: The American Boychoir will present a concert from 1 to 2 p.m. in Hosmer Hall. Dr. Stroeher will offer a keynote lecture, entitled "Benjamin Britten's War Requiem as Parable Art," from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Wakefield Hall. The full dress rehearsal with the students, boychoir and soloists will be held from 7:30 to 10 p.m. in Hosmer Hall.
• Saturday, May 4: Dr. Stroeher will offer a pre-concert lecture in Wakefield Hall from 6:30 to 7 p.m., followed by the War Requiem concert from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in Hosmer Hall.
For those who cannot attend in person, audio from the concert will be broadcast live online, at www.potsdam.edu/academics/crane/streaming.
About the performers:
Since 2005, Maestro Christof Perick has been the general music director and chief conductor at the Bayerische Staatstheater Nürnberg and the Nürnberger Philharmoniker. Last season, Perick conducted the Nürnberg philharmonic concerts and the premieres of "Entführung aus dem Serail" and "Aïda." Furthermore, he conducted performance series of "Lohengrin" and "Der Fliegende Holländer" at the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden and concert series with the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, where he has been chief conductor since 2000. Perick has worked with such top orchestras as the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, the Houston Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Toronto Symphony and L'Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal. His engagements have included the Mostly Mozart Festival at New York's Lincoln Center and the Grant Park Music Festival of Chicago. He conducted the first ever U.S. tour of the Bundesjungendorchester, Germany's leading national Youth Orchestra. Perick is a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago and the San Francisco Opera.
Celebrating the rich 75-year history as America's premier concert boys' choir, the American Boychoir has long been recognized as one of the finest musical ensembles in the country. Capitalizing on its trademark blend of musical sophistication, spirited presentation, and ensemble virtuosity, the Boychoir performs regularly with world-class ensembles, including the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Boston Symphony, and is often featured with such illustrious conductors as James Levine, Charles Dutoit and Alan Gilbert. The American Boychoir is frequently invited to join internationally-renowned artists on stage, and the list of collaborators reflects the extraordinary range of the ensemble: from great classical artists such as Jessye Norman and Frederica von Stade to jazz legend Wynton Marsalis and pop icons Beyoncé and Sir Paul McCartney. Boys in fourth through eighth grades come from across the country and around the world to pursue a rigorous musical and academic curriculum at The American Boychoir School in Princeton, N.J.
Soprano Christine Goerke was the recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award in 2001, and has established an outstanding reputation with many of the world's leading opera houses and orchestras. She has sung much of the great soprano repertoire, beginning with the Mozart and Handel heroines and now moving into dramatic Strauss and Wagner roles. Goerke's recording of Vaughan Williams' "A Sea Symphony" with Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra won the 2003 Grammy Award for Best Classical Recording and Best Choral Performance. Her close association with Robert Shaw yielded several recordings, including the Grammy-nominated recording of Dvorak's "Stabat Mater." Other recordings include the title role in "Iphigenie en Tauride" for Telarc and Britten's War Requiem, which won the 1999 Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance.
Tenor Donald George and baritone David Pittman-Jennings are both associate professors of voice at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music.
The partnership of the Dorothy Albrecht Gregory Visiting Conductor Fund, established by Dorothy Albrecht Gregory '61, and the Adeline Maltzan Crane Chorus Performance Tour Fund, brings distinguished conductors to The Crane School of Music for festival performances by the Crane Chorus and Crane Symphony Orchestra, and funds travel for major performances to venues outside of Potsdam.
To find out more about the tradition of innovation at SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music, visit www.potsdam.edu/crane.
For more information about the Lougheed Festival of the Arts, which encompasses all forms of artistic expression, visit www.potsdam.edu/artsfestival.
Founded in 1886, SUNY Potsdam's Crane School of Music has a long legacy of excellence in music education and performance. Life at Crane includes an incredible array of more than 300 recitals, lectures and concerts presented by faculty, students and guests each year. The Crane School of Music is the State University of New York's only All-Steinway institution.


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I currently use a mountain bike to commute to work but I am keen to switch to a bike more suited to commuting. I have been looking at road and cyclecross bikes but I am concerned the more horizontal seating position of these sorts of bikes would cause issue with my glasses; specifically, I would end up peering over the top of my lenses rather than through them. Is this a common problem? Do I need to worry?
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Yes, in most cases normal prescription glasses sit too low on the nose for the purpose of shielding the eyes in road bike position. And as the speed increases, the need for effective eye protection grows, too. Consider either:
Ordinary prescription glasses are sufficient but suboptimal. Although I agree that the best answer is to get bike glasses with prescription lenses or contact lenses, waiting to get optimal eyewear is no reason to avoid using a road bike. I wear prescription glasses and have not yet budgeted for cycling glasses, but I have not had any major problems.
Cycling glasses would make the biggest difference when you are riding above 20 mph. If you normally ride slower than this, or if you don't have the budget, then you can wait until later to get cycling glasses or goggles.
Several months ago, I finally switched to contact lenses, and they have made a huge difference. In particular, the wide field of view afforded by contacts with cycling glasses is much better than what I might hope for in all but the most expensive prescription cycling glasses. I believe that switching to contacts was much easier (and much cheaper) than trying to find prescription cycling goggles with a wide field of view.
I still think it's better to ride than to wait for the perfect solution, but getting contacts and a decent pair of cycling glasses was surprisingly easy. I switched to contacts primarily because of cycling, and I'm glad I made the change.
Eyeglasses, particularly those with relatively "low profile" lenses, will cause problems in an extreme aero crouch position. So it depends on the specifics of your glasses, the bike, and your usual riding position.
I'm extremely nearsighted and wear glasses that are about midway on the round/low-profile axis. I ride a touring bike (ie, a road frame) with a relatively high drop bar. On the hoods I have little trouble with my glasses. On the drops (which I rarely use) I have to tilt my head up a fair amount to see through the lenses, but can when needed. (I can generally see adequately to steer when peeking over the tops of my glasses.)
My bigger problem is seeing through the glasses AND my helmet mirror at the same time. Requires careful positioning of my mirror and some twisting of the head to see behind adequately while on the hoods, and it's a lost cause while on the drops.
I find that using a "Croakie" eyeglass strap helps a lot by keeping my glasses from sliding down my nose.
I've never heard of this being a problem for anyone... but I admittedly stick to the more upright-seated end of the bicycle continuum.
I suggest you try before you buy, of course, but you may also wish to look for a bike with a longer stem, so that if you find you have this trouble, you can raise your handlebars.
Cyclocross bikes should actually be a bit more forgiving of an upright stance than straight-up roadbikes.


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Would you put a woot bumper sticker or window decal on your car?
I don't even know if Woot has these. But they should because I sure would! Heck I might even would put a giant woot decal down the side of my car as much money as this community has saved me.
35 Answers answer
Put all the different exclamation point in the corners of the windows... but seriously, I might actually put a nice clean lookin one :o
Absolutely! It wouldn't even look out of place next to my license plate.
Stickers do not touch my beautiful car. The only exception is the registration/inspection stickers.
@narfcake: Did you really get Woot! as a plate?
I'd get the Exclamation Point logo window cling if they made it. Bumper Stickers not so much. Even though I plan on driving this car into the ground I don't believe in bumper stickers.
@psaux: No, but it is custom.
It is toon related too, but I got it because all the good Animaniacs ones were taken. Six seasons + one movie, the show ended production in 2005.
@cowboydann: that's what I was trying to say, but for some reason I was at a loss for words :D
@miquinn: oh sorry that was supposed to be a reply to you :P Guess I clicked add a new answer instead. D'oh!
only if I got my car from WOOT!
I regularly wear a shirt that says Shirt.Woot in big letters on the bottom. Hell yeah I would use a Woot! bumper sticker, but I would have to be in for 3, cause $5 shipping for a bumper sticker is ridiculous.
Er...Nope. Don't attach bumper stickers to my car. Do have 2 that amuse me a great deal; I occasionally place them on a bookshelf. "Eschew Obfuscation" and "I'm out of hormones, and I have a gun." Wouldn't mind having the exclamation point to place on the 'gun' bumper sticker
Maybe a small window cling ! but I don't put bumper stickers on either. (Except for the Serenity one I had for a couple of months before the movie came out.)
I don't usually tell people about woot because then they would know how much I paid for their presents or where I got all this bizarre stuff.
I would totally do it. Or maybe an antenna ball in the shape of a woot exclamation?
Interesting sidenote on bumper stickers: You can always do a clean remove with if you use a blowdryer to melt the glue. I change stickers pretty constantly and it's a useful strategy.
There should absolutely be a Woot sticker and it should be styled like those destination ones that make you crazy because you don't really care where the person has been, but your brain has to try to work them out anyway. "OOB"? "HHI"? whatever! But a nice oval WOOT would tell the world where we spend all of our time!
Like others here, we simply don't do bumper stickers, but a window cling or even a window sticker would be ok. And perhaps they could come free once in awhile with your ordinary, everyday Woot!
Just want to get @Snapster's attention here :3 I'm curious if he would entertain the notion.
I would put Woot bumper stickers, clings, magnets, buttons, signs everywhere. I already decorate my home with the boxes. (The big Woot box on my car's roof rack got all mushy.)
I'm surprised that there aren't more Woot swag. There are more possible items they could put out than I can't think of right now.
Depends, how do i get rid of that unsightly faded bumper sticker i already have that i have not the slightest idea what was printed on it when i first put it on?
@zzzaap: Cold method - WD40. Good luck if it's really really really stuck on, though.
Warm method - Hair dryer around the perimeter, then from one corner with a razor, start peeling back with the hair dryer right over where you're peeling.
Hell yeah I would.
If they gave me one I would probably use it.
i second the hell yeah!
I'd be all for a window cling woot logo thing!
I have always been anti stickers on cars, but I would break my streak if Woot! put some out, or maybe sent out some in a BOC...(HINT HINT)
I would especially put one on my car if it wasn't obvious. Something only other wooters would recognize. Maybe a flying monkey...
Maybe a window cling if it would be a Woot monkey flying in front of the Woot logo.
@cowboydann: Ditto to that. Window cling would be cool, or even a magnet, but I don't put stickers on my car these days.
I don't even have the AAA stickers on my car (windows or bumper) but I would get and use woot! window clings.
Com'on @snapster! Go for it!
I would.. Love Woot!
window cling/decal, sure. i'd even go so far as to say it'd be cool to customize one as well, with triangles and squares.
The could send out little BOC logos with each BOC purchase so the old trend of could come back into style on the back of people's windows!
However, my slow internet would not allow me to be awarded with any of those logos.
@zzzaap: blow dyer set on high heat to melt the glue. Works every time.
Yeah. Some of us are doomed to be Bag-O-Crap-less so perhaps just letting us have one for a modest price. Or even a "gift with purchase".
I'm a go for the window cling type! Don't do bumper stickers. But if I got it for free... Yea I might put it on now that I know how to get it off when old and ugly.
NO! Absolutely NO stickers or decals ever get put on my car.
But, I would put one on my wife's car, and my teenage daughters car in a heartbeat !!!!


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Thanks Becky!
We are very lucky to have Becky as an intern in our design office for the Spring semester. We work her hard. She runs from winding yarn into balls and keeping our sample drawers in order, to swatching our stitch ideas to answering consumer e-mail. On top of all that, I asked her to write the bulk of this week's newsletter AND she's even got a secret design project going. You'll get to see the results in a few months. Thanks Becky!
It's Becky Snow's senior year in college, studying design.
Sounds like a win win to me! Becky, you are going to have so many people tell you that you have a dream internship. The really exciting part is that you know that AND that you are going to use this opportunity to springboard into the most wonderful career. I'll be watching. Good Luck!March 14, 2008
JanetD #
So young, so talented!March 14, 2008


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March 09, 2013
Cape Town Naked Bike Ride 2013 photos
Hundreds of semi-naked cyclists took part in the 2013 Cape Town Naked Bike Ride, to raise awareness for various causes, as well as to have a laugh and appreciate Cape Town's cycling set up. The ride began at Prestwich Memeorial and passed through Green Point and Sea Point, as well as various roads in Cape Town's city centre.
Messages being promoted by the cyclists included choosing bikes over cars, being more responsible with energy supplies such as oil, being more aware of cyclists on the road and not polluting the environment. Below are some photos, taken by Roy Barford.
The World Naked Bike Ride is a movement that began in 2004 and is now held in more than 50 cities around the world, mainly to promote human-powered transport.
It's definitely a weekend of cycling in Cape Town, with the 2013 Cape Argus Pick n Pay Cycle Tour due to start early tomorrow morning.


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Fetal Growth and Development
The baby growing inside you is changing and developing every day. Get a glimpse into this amazing process.
Monitoring Growth
By measuring your growing abdomen, your baby's rate of growth is assessed and any concerns are addressed. See a sample growth chart.
Take Those Vitamins
Folic acid and other vitamins are essential to the healthy growth and development of your baby. Here's why.
Your Baby's Life Line
The placenta is the life support system for your baby. Find out how it works.
Worrying About Birth Defects
Chances are great that you have a perfectly healthy baby, but worrying about problems is normal. Here's how to assess your risk.


text:
MINGO JUNCTION - Village Council approved Tuesday the purchase of a trash compactor, which will save the village more than $40,000 a year and allow village workers to spend more time on other jobs.
Village Administrator Charley Bowman said the village will pay $800 a month in lease fees for the Ewusaik property in the 1900 block of Commercial Avenue, which will include the land, construction of a concrete pad, providing electrical service and maintenance of the compactor for the village. The fee also will include the hauling of the compacted garbage to a landfill.
Bowman said the village doesn't have a signed agreement yet, which led Councilman James Morrocco to vote against the purchase of the trash compactor. Morrocco said the agreement should have been signed first before the compactor purchase.
Village Clerk John Angelica said the village will save $42,000 during the first year with the trash compactor - $26,000 in landfill costs and $16,000 in maintenance of equipment. The village will now only need one garbage truck, instead of two.
Bowman said the village also will be able to reclaim 32 man-hours per week. He said village workers who normally transported the garbage to a West Virginia landfill now will be able to do other work in the village, such as cutting grass.
Council, with the exception of Morrocco, voted to purchase the trash compactor for $63,500 from Refuse Equipment and Truck Services Inc. of Ashtabula. Bowman said the purchase was done without competitive bidding because the equipment is unique and not readily available at a better price.
Mayor Ronald DiCarlo said he visited a similar operation in Toronto. He said there was hardly any odor.
Bowman said the compactor will be washed out on a regular basis.
"There isn't much odor with it," he said.
Councilman John Fabian said he believes there will be considerable savings with the trash compactor.
Morrocco did say he believes the trash compactor will be a great asset to the village.
Bowman also announced a council finance committee meeting at 2 p.m. on Nov. 26 to discuss the 2013 budget and the need for water and sewer rate increases. He will meet with council at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 27 to outline the increases and council, at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Nov. 27, will hear the first reading of an ordinance stating the water and sewer rate increases. A public meeting has been scheduled for 7 p.m. on Dec. 4, when an explanation of the increases will be given to residents, Bowman said.
Councilman Michael Herrick updated council on work being done to eliminate streetlights as a cost savings.
Herrick said James Huggins Jr. of AEP is using company maps of the streetlights and will make a recommendation of which lights should be turned off.
Herrick said the village pays about $50,000 a year for 579 streetlights.
Herrick said there are two factors to be considered with turning off the lights. He said the first is a cost savings, and the second is safety. He said lights will be kept on at intersections.
"Not all the lights will be turned off," Herrick said.
Council previously said residents can pay AEP directly for a light to be installed outside homes.
Council also approved an ordinance for James White Construction of Weirton to do emergency repairs on sewers on Helenka Drive and George Street and emergency repairs on equipment inside the sewage treatment plant. The cost is $48,500. Bowman said the repairs have to be made before winter weather.
Council also approved an ordinance transferring $11,500 around in various village accounts. The ordinance includes transferring $9,000 so the village can purchase fuel for the remainder of the year.
Fire Chief John Wright said a recent spaghetti dinner fundraiser for the senior center generated about $3,000.


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Perhaps this is stupid question.
Let $\mathcal{M}$ be a symplectic manifold in $\mathbb{R}^4$ of codimension 2 with the symplectic 2-form $dx_1 \wedge dy_1 + dx_2 \wedge dy_2$. Suppose that $\mathcal{M}$ intersects the $(x_2,y_2)$-plane perpendicular in the origin. Does there exist a symplectic transformation $(x_2,y_2) \mapsto (\hat{x}_2,\hat{y}_2) $ such that for an open neighbourhood of the origin in $\mathcal{M}$ the $ \hat{x}_2,\hat{y}_2$ are constant zero?
Or is this complete nonsense?


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Marriage Thursday
By Rebecca Teti
Thursday: Marriage
(Join each day's Coffee Talk discussion: Mon: Parenting; Tues: Open Forum; Wed: NFP; Thu: Marriage; Fri: Education; Sat/Sun: Changing Roles)
Struggling in your marriage? Have some relationship advice to share? Have a marriage success story to share? Have a man/woman question? This weekly thread is the place to do it.
Come on in and join the conversation!
This really doesn't have anything to do with marriage, but I am asking for prayers for the homeowners on Staten Island, the Jersey Shore, and other low lying areas who were flooded yet again last night after the nor'easter hit. It's so sad. Although the flooding was not as bad as when Sandy hit, it was still pretty bad.


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Your Health
Thriving Gut Bacteria Linked To Good Health
There's no magic elixir for healthy aging, but here's one more thing to add to the list: good gut health.
A study published in the latest issue of Nature finds diet may be key to promoting diverse communities of beneficial bacteria in the guts of older people.
To evaluate this, researchers analyzed the microbiota, or gut bacteria, of 178 older folks, mostly in their 70s and 80s.
Some of the people were living in their own homes, and their diets were rich in fiber, fruits, vegetables, grains, poultry and fish.
Others were living in long-term care facilities or nursing homes where the typical diet was much less varied. "Mashed potato and porridge were the only staples in this diet type that were consumed daily," explains Paul O'Toole of the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre at University College Cork in Ireland. Meals were supplemented with puddings, cookies and sugar-sweetened beverages such as tea.
O'Toole's team found that people living independently, who had the most diverse diets, also had more varied gut bacteria. And they also scored better on clinical tests measuring frailty and cognitive function. In other words, "they were healthier older people," says O'Toole.
There may be many factors at play here, but O'Toole thinks diet is key. "We were surprised that the correlations between microbiota and health came out so strongly," O'Toole says.
There's an explosion of research into the gut microbiome as scientists fine-tune methods to analyze bacteria in the gut, and with that comes an emerging body of evidence that diversity of gut bacteria is important.
"What we're only now beginning to realize is that there's very close interaction between the bacteria within GI tract and human health and disease," says Ilseung Cho, a gastroenterologist at NYU School of Medicine.
Beneficial bacteria do a lot for us, says Cho. They help with digestion, help our bodies make vitamins, and also likely help support a strong immune system.
But they also have to compete with the harmful bacteria. That's why we want a variety of the good kind in our guts.
"If you have a lot of diversity and one bacteria that's doing something good is knocked out," explains Cho, "then you may have other bacteria that can compensate for that loss."
These new findings are not proof that diverse microbiota lead to better health. But experts say this paper is important because it establishes a link.
"Is it really that diet is altering the health of individuals through altering the gut microbiota?" asks Gary Wu of the University of Pennsylvania. "Or is it that people who are not as well tend to be housed in long-term care facilities?" It's possible that the lack of bacterial diversity isn't the cause of illness, but a sign of sickness.
Wu says it will take additional studies to unravel cause and effect. Nonetheless, he says, this new Nature paper is intriguing.
"I think there's growing evidence that diet is very important in regulating the composition of the gut microbes," says Wu.
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Please consider the following:
Manipulate[Plot[Sin[x (1 + a x)], {x, 0, 6}], {a, 0, 2}];
Now, I would like to change the background colour to yellow. I tried the following, but in this case the nice looking rounded corners of the manipulate element get lost:
Panel[#, Background -> Yellow] &@
Manipulate[Plot[Sin[x (1 + a x)], {x, 0, 6}], {a, 0, 2},
Paneled -> False]
Maybe somebody has a better idea.
The background colour of
Manipulateis by default grey.
In addition the graphical element in which the
Manipulate is embedded has rounded corners
which I would like to keep. Applying my approach will change the colour but I loose the rounded corners.


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I have a problem in computing (i.e. classify) a factor group.
For example The group Z*Z*Z/<(3,6,9)> is isomorphic to Z_3*Z*Z. I can show this by contructing a homomorphism f
f(a,b,c) = ( a mod 3 , 2*a - b, 3*a - c )
and then show that Ker(f) = <(3,6,9)>. It is not hard to see that Im(f) = Z_3*Z*Z.
But how would I compute e.g. Z*Z/<(9,12)> ?
I guess I could create a function f(a,b) = ( a mod 9, 4*a - 3*b ).
then Ker(f) = <(9,12)>, but what is the image?


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