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Animal-Free Recombinant Human IL-7
Description | IL-7 is a hematopoietic growth factor which affects primarily early B and T cells. Produced by thymic stromal cells, spleen cells and keratinocytes, IL-7 can also co-stimulate the proliferation of mature T cells in combination with other factors such as ConA and IL-2. Human and murine IL-7 is cross-species reactive. Recombinant human IL-7 is a 17.4 kDa protein containing 153 amino acid residues. |
BiologicalActivity | The ED50 was determined by the dose-dependent stimulation of the proliferation of murine 2E8 cells is ≤ 0.5 ng/ml, corresponding to a specific activity of ≥ 2 x 106 units/mg. |
Authenticity | Verified by N-terminal and Mass Spectrometry analyses (when applicable). |
Endotoxin | Endotoxin level is <0.1 ng/ µg of protein (<1EU/ µg). |
Protein Content | Verified by UV Spectroscopy and/or SDS-PAGE gel. |
Storage | -20°C |
Precautions | Animal-Free Recombinant Human IL-7 is for research use only and not for use in diagnostic or therapeutic procedures. |
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Mont Sutton Ski Resort Guide
7 pm 24 Mar 2017 (local time) Weather Forecast for Mont Sutton at m altitude issued:
Mont Sutton
Use the buttons below to tell us…
Mont Sutton Ski Resort Guide
Slope Stats
- Acres of ski:174
- Pistes:60
- Snowmaking:60%
- Halfpipes:-
- Terrain Parks:1
- X-Country:-
- beginner20%
- intermediate45%
- advanced35%
A dream destination like no other, Mont Sutton is one of Quebec's major ski resorts. With 60 runs and 204 intersections in all categories, the downhill choices are virtually unlimited. You will be charmed by the ambience in the chalets, bed and breakfasts and hotels that make Sutton a welcoming spot that's in harmony with nature. The quiet beauty and cachet of the Eastern Townships make Sutton a leisure destination that's not to be missed. For further information on activities at the station, promotions and lodging packages visit montsutton.com
- Nearest Airport:Montreal
- Nearest Train Station:-
- Tourist Office Phone:+14505382545
- Tourist Office Website:www.montsutton.com
- Slopeside accommodation:-
- 4
- 1
Announcements & News from the Mont Sutton ski resort manager
- XTRAIL Race at Mont SUTTON
On May 28, 2016, be ready for the XTRAIL RACE at Mont SUTTON! Mont SUTTON, Parc d'environnement naturel de Sutton (PENS) as well as Les Sentiers de l'Estrie, present the XTRAIL Race SUTTON!
The XTRAIL will be held in beautiful hiking trails! You'll have to negotiate with roots, rocks, mud, streams... You can admire beautiful scenery in the mountains. A fabulous race in an enchanting setting as well as in a festive atmosphere! Welcome to everyone !
Details, registration and schedule of the day: montsutton.com/activities
- XMAN RACE at Mont SUTTON
On June 4 and 5, 2016, the obstacle race XMAN will take place at Mont SUTTON! The XMAN is an obstacle race done by foot in an extreme environment and in an extreme atmosphere! You find road running boring? You want to challenge yourself both physically and mentally in something new? Running without a goal is meaningless to you? You like CrossFit? You like challenges? You feel you're not up to running but the rest of your buddy is screaming to do something beyond its limits? You like weight training in the gym, but have yet to prove your friends you are truly strong in real life and not just to pull and push metal plates? You are an experience runner that needs something new and challenging? You like mud? You like being dirty? You like surprises? You are not scared of little scratches? You'd like to tell your friends and family that you're an XMAN?
Details and registration: montsutton.com/activities
- Swiss National Day at Mont SUTTON
Every summer, the Federation of Swiss Societies of Eastern Canada Inc. organizes an imposing celebration at Mont SUTTON, at the main chalet Alt.400m. This year, the National Holiday of Switzerland celebration will take place on Saturday, July 30. This special day is the perfect opportunity to find out more about this culture; the Swiss National Day celebration at Mont SUTTON is the most important one after the one taking place in Switzerland. A wide variety of activities and shows are scheduled all day and will continue till late at night. Rain or shine, the day will be unforgettable for all the family. Details : montsutton.com/activities
Every weekend from September 17 to October 16, 2016, celebrate fall during the Mont SUTTON fall festival, a festival of hiking and nature! On the program, among others activities: chairlift ride, guided hikes, many workshops about nature, craft for kids, music and BBQ at the foot of the hill, and much more!
Details: montsutton.com/fall
For the program during the winter, please visit www.montsutton.com/activities.
Latest Snow Reportview full snow report
- Issued:24 Mar
- Last Snowfall:22 March 2017
- Snow Depth (upper):85cm
- Snow Depth (lower):60cm
- Piste:Excellent
- Off-piste:Packed
Today's Weather (740 m)view full snow forecast
night | 10 | -1 °C | F-Level 250 m | |
AM | 20 | -4 °C | F-Level 0 m | |
PM | 15 | -5 °C | F-Level 0 m |
Resorts close to Mont Sutton include:
- Owls Head 15km
- Jay Peak 21km
- Ski Bromont 23km
- Mont Orford 35km
- Smuggler's Notch 61km
Mont Sutton Location Maps
(Also see our detailed Weather Map around Mont Sutton, which will give you visual overview of current and future snow conditions)
Visitor Reviews of Mont Sutton
Olivier from Canada writes:
Je vous encourage fortement a y aller. cette année, il est tomber plus de 400 cm à la base de la montagne, de neige au 25 Février 2010. Il vient de neiger 125 cm de neige à la base, et il tombe généralement 60 cm par semaine!:D

subset: commoncrawl


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This list includes the minimum items that should be in a patrol box for preparing patrol meals. It will also include a set of condiments, but you need to be careful they don't stay there too long! This list assumes that each patrol member brings their own personal gear. Can you post a pic or list if what goes into your bucket concept? Footwear for Camping Gear List Gear Suppliers Hammocks Hiking Poles Lights and Lanterns Outdoor Clothing Patrol Boxes Reflector Ovens.
Camp Box Supply List Archive.org file. Inventory of a camp box. Date Visited: 2015-06-15. Patrol Box Offsite link. Downloadable PDF file. Plans on how-to. Quartermaster's Checklist for Car-Camping. Patrol Box Staples (Check before shopping for food): Bug Juice, Hot Cocoa. Small Packages of Sugar & Flour. These are not your everyday patrol boxes. First, they are aluminum which makes them lighter and more durable than wood. After years of camping experience by many in the troop, we designed and had someone fabricate these quality aluminum patrol boxes.
Explore scoutmastercg.com's board Chuck Box on Pinterest, the world's catalog of ideas. See more about Camping Kitchen, Camps and Corrugated Plastic. Includes SUPPLIES LIST & CUT SHEET! Learn how to build your own camp kitchen chuck box so you can be the gourmet chef you are at the campground! See more about Boxes, Scouts and Chuck Box. Patrol Box Wash Station Plans, an extension of the camp kitchen. Wooden Camping Chuck Box great list.
Patrol Boxes, Chuck Box, Kitchen Box, Portable Camp Kitchen, Grub Box
Here is the design Troop 21 decided upon for it's new Patrol Kitchen boxes. The goals for this box were: It is intended to be used to prepare food for cooking. Note the following list of extra features that this box has. Laminate on the surfaces for easy cleanup.


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We Make it Easy to Get Down to Business
Looking for a space to host your next meeting, seminar, trade show or fundraiser? Lombardo's is the perfect venue for your Greater Boston corporate events! We know how important your corporate event is. Sometimes there are clients to impress, employees to train or important issues to discuss. Whether it's a holiday party, meeting or any other occasion, Lombardo's is the perfect event venue for events from 50 – 1,000 in the Greater Boston area.
At Lombardo's we have perfected the art of hosting corporate events. From our creative menus to our unique, upscale atmosphere, we offer the excellence that many companies are looking for in a venue. Our knowledgeable and experienced staff at Lombardo's can assist in coordinating all of the details of your event including audio visual, teleconferencing and WiFi to ensure that your image of professionalism is preserved at every moment. You can count on Lombardo's to create a worry-free event for you all while meeting your budget.
Convenient Location
Lombardo's is easily accessible from all major routes. We are located just minutes from Downtown Boston and Logan International Airport and offer an abundance of free parking to you and your guests. The newly renovated Comfort Inn next door offers comfortable accommodations and relaxing atmosphere.
Click here for turn-by-turn directions.
Other Events
Looking to celebrate your Wedding or other Social Event in the area? Look no further! Lombardo's offers the same quality services to accommodate a variety of other large events.
View our Brochure
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Recent Tweets
Did you know Lombardo's has been a family business for over 90 years? And it all started with… instagram.com/p/BRgeyHBDToS/
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One of our favorite events of the year #winterfest 🎉❄ Follow us on Facebook for a live cooking… instagram.com/p/BQl94PpD7AJ/
Celebrating the best way we know, with dogs and chocolates of course 💖🐾💖🐾… instagram.com/p/BQf0Lu0AS5T/
Tomorrow, let it snow like the confetti in Houston ❄💙❄❤ We will be closed Thursday due to the… instagram.com/p/BQRHTeQgN8g/


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Got a product question? We're happy to help!
Be sure to contact our Customer Support for Product Questions.
Please allow 24-48 hours for a Response.
I have to say how happy we were to receive the rings, they were just the right size and what we wanted. thank you so much, they are BEAUTIFULRead More ->
Let me tell you about the positive experience I had with your store. The ring I received looked even better when I got it than when I saw it on the...Read More ->
I received the ring this morning IT IS GORGEOUS... thank you thank you. -Linda Halloran Milton, NHRead More ->
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Magnolia Home Breakfast Table
- Name: Breakfast Table
- Collection: Magnolia Home
- Vendor: Magnolia Home
- Comment: Price may vary based on option(s) selected.
- Dimensions: 54"L x 54"D x 30"H
- Construction: Table Top: Solid pine and pine veneers
Table Base: Steel tubing - Finish: Barn Door & Jo's Black
- Origin: Made in China
- Recommended Care: Wood: Dust with a soft, dry cloth and apply a
quality cream polish to wood surfaces 3-4 times a
year (avoid non-wood surfaces). Dab wet spills
with a dry cloth.
Metal: Dust with a soft, dry cloth. Immediately dab wet spills with a dry cloth.
Jordan's Furniture recommends purchasing our Furniture Protection Program. - Warranty: 1 yr against all manufacturer's defects


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This location is shown only to members
Bring a drink, or buy one at Panera, right next door!
We had a wonderful guest speaker in October who filled the entire two hours with stories and answering your questions, thank you so much Janice and Char! We did not get to our planned topic so we are simply going to continue our discussion of death, dying and the afterlife this month!
My Grandpa died 14 years ago and it was horiffying seeing him there as a stif. Ever since then i have been scared of dying, But death seams inevitable i know i cant escape it but i am still afraid. What do i do? Do i keep running from death? Or do i face my fears and greet death like an old friend and depart this world for the afterlife.
Yours Truely...........
November 23, 2012
The Yule celebration mentioned will take place Friday December 14th at 7pm and is being hosted by the Interfaith Esoteric Fellowship (although several meet up memebers are also IEFC members these are not the same thing!) As this is at a private residence I will not publish the address here. As I said in the Nov meet up - if you are interested please message me privately.
December 5, 2012
We are neophyte's to wicca. We are just learning, but extremely excited by the prospects and new way of life.
Much more soothing and relaxing than what we have had in the past....
Looking very much forward to meeting those of more experience than us so that we can learn quicker and maybe gain some friends in the deal....
November 26, 2012
New to the group, tomorrow is way too soon for us, but maybe next month.....
In the mean time, hopefully we can connect and talk with some of you.
November 26, 2012
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BRIEF-Decisely announces $60 mln funding commitment
* $60 million funding commitment from two sigma private investments, Epic Insurance Brokers And Consultants, a portfolio company of Carlyle Group Source text for Eikon:
* Police probing derivative contracts from 2007 - source
* Verona city seeking negotiated settlement
* Merrill Lynch declines immediate comment
ROME/MILAN, Oct 3 Italy's financial police have seized 15 million euros ($20.4 million) from Bank of America Merrill Lynch as part of a probe into alleged fraud involving derivative contracts with the city of Verona, the police said on Thursday.
The seizure, which took place at the bank's Milan headquarters, was ordered by Verona prosecutors, a police spokesman said.
"The seizure ... is linked to allegations of hidden commissions in the underwriting of derivative contracts dating back to 2007," a source at the tax police in Verona told Reuters.
The overall amount of the contracts in question was 256 million euros, the source added.
Merrill Lynch, which was bought by Bank of America in 2009, declined immediate comment.
A lawyer for the city of Verona said the city council was ready to reach a settlement with the U.S. bank.
"The administration is ready to seek a negotiated settlement with the counterparty to better safeguard the financial position of the city regardless of future legal developments in the criminal case," Tommaso Iaquinta told Reuters.
The city reached an out-of-court settlement with Italian lender UniCredit on derivative contracts earlier this year.
The seizure is the latest in a series of disputes over derivatives deals between cash-strapped Italian local authorities and banks they accuse of not being transparent in their dealings.
In June Italian region Piedmont reached a settlement with Merrill Lynch over two derivative contracts worth about 1.8 billion euros.
In December 2012, an Italian court found Deutsche Bank , Depfa Bank, JP Morgan and UBS guilty of fraud for mis-selling derivatives to the city of Milan. The banks have denied any wrongdoing.


text: Today when we were guest hosting the Amy Oliver Show, Mary from Colorado Springs called in and shared with us that there will be a vote to repeal the Healthcare law this Wednesday. Mary then also sent an email to us with a wonderful information and INSPIRATION! The following is Mary's email and we ask… read more


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Your Store:
See if this part fits a specific vehicle.
Material: | Steel |
Outside Diameter: | 15.68 in |
Tooth Pitch: | 10 in |
Tooth Quantity: | 155 |
Weight: | Yes |
Do you have questions about this product?
Ask a question, get answers from real customers and in-house experts. For further assistance, please review your support options on our Contact Us page.
Can this be used with a stage 2 torque converter1 answer
This ATP Automatic Transmission Flex Plate - part# 04666 is vehicle specific. For assisting you further, please provide the year, make, model and engine size of the vehicle. You may also call us at: 1-877-238-2623 or visit the nearest Advance Auto Parts store and one of our Parts Pros will gladly assist you with any questions or concerns you may have.


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Customizable double-sided business cards are available in three card sizes. The cards are printed on acid free papers, and customers can select from 8 different paper types. All cards are made and printed in the USA.
Medium Options Include:
White - 100# Matte
Pearl - 100# Iridescent
Cream - 100# Matte
Platinium - 110# Silvery Metallic
Eggshell - 100# Textured
Gold - 110# Golden
Linen - 90# Speckled
Indestructable - Recyclable & Water Resistant
Create a professional image for your business with business cards.
Handyman themed business cards for handymen, repair men and individuals who fix things.
Small Business Resource | Logo Designs | Stock Photos


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Asked by tootoobusy at 1:40 PM on Jun. 18, 2011 in Crazy for Credits
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text:
Ginger Dressing
- Total Time:
- 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
How to make this recipe
In a blender, puree the ginger, shallot, vinegar, mayonnaise and soy sauce. With the machine on, add the vegetable oil and blend until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.
Miso Dressing Add 2 tablespoons white miso paste.
Sesame Dressing Add 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds and 1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil.


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Discussions |
Academic Rigor |
Dorm Life |
Food and Dining |
Bang for the buck |
Clubs and Activities |
Campus Safety |
The only reason why I put less than 5 stars here is because--as with all colleges--you really must put forth your own effort to learn. The teachers here are amazing, as are the course subjects, but your education is still in your own hands.
To find more tips for prospective students, what to do for fun and whether this school is great for a particular type of student read the 99 reviews for University of Denver
Curious about something that isn't answered here? Feel free to ask University of Denver a question
University of Denver really makes it feel worth the money. Not only are professors and classes actually interesting and inspiring, but the University offers a lot of extra amenities and activities that other colleges don't. Though expensive, it's doable with the generous scholarships they give to good students.
Read MoreIt has a great campus. It's good for the city life. The professors are really understanding and they have a great study abroad program.
Read MoreThe University of Denver does many things right but has areas of improvement. Small class sizes, a beautiful campus, and great academics (depending on major) are standout positives. There are lots of opportunities to get involved and many resources to take advantage of.
Read MoreWonderful campus and excellent environment to live in and learn. Colorado is a fantastic state. The education you'll receive is prime.
Read MoreDU is a tight nit community dedicated to the public good. The possibilities are endless here for any dream you are working for. What you put into your experience is what you will get out.
Read MoreWith it's enormous pricetag, DU may seem rather intimidating at first, but it is worth every penny. The smaller class sizes, accessible professors, and friendly community of students make it a very welcoming place to study. When you're not studying, there is always plenty to do because there are always plenty of activities on campus, in the big city of Denver, or in the mountains that are just a short trip away.
Read MoreAny advice for incoming freshman?
Read MoreThe campus is absolutely wonderful, and the school itself does an excellent job of blending education and fun. The people were very friendly and always willing to help. If you are interested in a study abroad program, this is definitely the place to go.
Read MoreThis is a university that does everything it can to push you and help you in the right direction. I've never been to a place that has so many services to help tutor and get you to an a grade. Also this expects a lot from you and strives to see you at your best, I love it.
Read MoreThe University of Denver is a challenging and advanced school. Students are constantly working towards their goals with the help of great professors and faculty members. There are several great programs here at the University of Denver.
Read More


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v.3.12 rev.1
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Rubber Keychain Litchi DE Hikari Club: Kaneda Riku
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Original (anime):
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Character name: | |
Release date: | Late March, 2012 |
Figure type: | Charm / keychain |
Material: | PVC, ABS, Metal |
Height: | 80 mm |
Manufacturer: | Dive |
Series: | Rubber Keychain Litchi DE Hikari Club |
Manufacturer price: | 714 ¥ |
Owners: | 0 |
These pictures were taken by Dive or authorized person. Please visit manufacturer's home page in order to learn more. © USAMARU FURUYA2006. © Usamaru Furuya/ Litchi Hikari Club Project 2011. All rights reserved.
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Partial Least Squares Regression
A simulated dataset for demonstrating the performance of a plusminusFit
1 |
A data frame with 201 observations, 200 input variables (X) and one response variable (Y).
Richard Baumgartner (firstname.lastname@example.com)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions? Tweet to @rdrrHQ or email at firstname.lastname@example.com.
Please suggest features or report bugs with the GitHub issue tracker.
All documentation is copyright its authors; we didn't write any of that.


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Which Joe gave his name to 'sloppy joes'? We look at five interesting sandwiches and their lexical origins.
Synonyms of scare in English:
See definition of scare
1'the thought of what might happen scared her'
frighten, make afraid, make fearful, make nervous, panic, throw into a panic
terrify, petrify, frighten to death, scare to death, frighten someone out of their wits, scare someone out of their wits, scare stiff, scare witless, frighten the living daylights out of, scare the living daylights out of, frighten the life out of, scare the life out of, scare the hell out of, strike terror into, fill with fear, put the fear of God into, make someone jump, make someone jump out of their skin, make someone's hair stand on end, give someone goose pimples, make someone's blood run cold, chill someone's blood, send into a cold sweat, make someone shake in their shoes
startle, alarm, give someone a fright, give someone a turn
shock, appal, horrify
intimidate, daunt, unnerve
informal give someone the heebie-jeebies, scare the pants off, scarify, make someone's hair curl
British informal throw into a blue funk, put the wind up
Irish informal scare the bejesus out of
North American informal spook
vulgar slang scare shitless, scare the shit out of
archaic fright, affright
1'you gave me a scare—how did you get here?'
fright, shock, start, turn, jump
informal the heebie-jeebies
We take a look at several popular, though confusing, punctuation marks.
From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, discover surprising and intriguing language facts from around the globe.


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Trump, show us you'll stand up for workers
Photo credit: AP/Michael Dwyer
From CNN:
by Senator Elizabeth Warren
Over the past eight years, President Barack Obama has advanced strong executive actions and federal rules that have provided millions of people with better wages, better benefits and stronger protections in the workplace. On Friday, a new president will move into the Oval Office. He will face a stark choice -- expand on those efforts or destroy them.
Despite years of flat wages and exploding fixed costs such as housing, education and health care, Republicans in Congress have long refused even to consider legislation to create new economic opportunity for families. Initiatives such as raising the federal minimum wage and guaranteeing paid family leave for workers have languished despite bipartisan, state-level initiatives and broad support for these kinds of policies among Americans of both parties.
Faced with this dereliction of duty, Obama and his Labor Department have done what they can for workers. It hasn't been enough to shore up a crumbling middle class, but it's been a lot.
They acted to improve wages. By expanding overtime pay to more than 4 million Americans, the new labor rules would put as much as $1.3 billion a year in the pockets of workers. They bumped up the minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10 an hour, providing an estimated 200,000 low-wage workers with a raise.
They required government contractors to provide workers with up to seven paid sick days per year, which increased this emergency time-off option for more than 1 million workers. They prohibited federal contractors from denying jobs to otherwise qualified workers based on gender identity or sexual orientation and expanded equality in the workplace. They even finalized a long-delayed rule to protect workers exposed to silica dust from contracting horrible diseases such as silicosis, lung disease and cancer. These and other actions over the last several years have made a big difference to families across this country.
Every one of these rules could have been passed by Congress, but because Republicans refused to help, they were accomplished instead by rule making and executive orders. This left industry advocates free to challenge the new provisions in court.
Today, many of these initiatives are in jeopardy. A federal judge in Texas recently issued a decision at least temporarily blocking new overtime pay requirements for millions of workers -- a legal fight that will drag into the new administration. In fact, every single one of these requirements to help workers could be reversed by the new President.
Paid sick days, a higher minimum wage and discrimination-free hiring for federal contractor employees? Gone. Protections from dying of dangerous silica exposure on the job? Out the window. Getting paid for overtime for the hours you actually work? Promises turned to dust.
Donald Trump doesn't need to reverse these gains. After all, he won the presidency while arguing that he would stand up for workers and promising millions of "high-paying jobs" for working-class Americans. But now he's pulling a fast reversal. The President-elect has already promised to "cancel immediately," "eliminate" or "repeal" Obama's executive orders and agency regulations. If he follows through on that promise, many of these worker benefits will be obliterated.
The political campaign is over, and Trump is poised to assume the presidency. When it comes to the economic futures of millions of working families, the stakes could not be higher. Americans will judge the President-elect not by his past promises but by his future actions.
There are Americans busting their tails working full-time jobs and still living in poverty, Americans who log massive hours and depend on overtime payments to put food on the table, Americans who can't take a day off to care for a sick child without getting fired, Americans who've been denied good jobs because of who they are or who they love, Americans who've watched co-workers die horrific deaths from silica exposure.
Now it's time for Donald Trump to show his true colors. Will he stand with working people? Or will he toss them overboard and cozy up with corporate CEOs and congressional Republicans who are peddling the same tired old anti-worker plans?
We welcome your comments on the IWJ blog and encourage open discussion about important issues around worker justice and the unemployed. Disagreements are fine, but mutual respect is a must. Profanity, slander or abusive language will not be permitted. IWJ reserves the right to delete comments that violate this spirit of respect.
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MIT is at the forefront of cutting edge research related to sustainability. Every day, faculty and students are discovering new perspectives, knowledge, and solutions around the most pressing challenges of sustainability. Feeding off the core collaborative nature of MIT, researchers approach problems through an interdisciplinary lens that brings together the power of science, technology, policy, planning, and more. For example, while materials science and water researchers are working together to develop cost-effective water filters for desalination to address the global water crisis, computer science and aeronautics researchers are developing algorithms for "mobility on demand," a one-way vehicle-sharing system, that could dramatically cut transportation emissions.
Moving forward, the Office of Sustainability will continue to build strong partnerships with the labs, centers, and programs at MIT to advance innovative research opportunities that address the sustainability challenges of our campus, local, and global communities. Below is a selection of research-related resources:
Undergraduate Research
The Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP)
UROPs are unique opportunities for MIT undergraduates to partner with faculty and staff on sustainability-research projects, especially to pursue. Students have the chance to work on established cutting edge research projects or to pursue their own ideas. The MIT Energy Initiative works with the UROP program to support energy research. Find out more about MITEI's program here.
Departments, Labs, & Centers
Below are examples of departments, labs, and centers leading innovative research projects and initiatives related to sustainability.
City Farm - Changing Places Group
A group within the MIT Media Lab, City Farm is exploring what it means technologically, environmentally, and socially to design industrially scalable agricultural systems in the heart of urban areas.
City Science Lab
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I don't know if this issue has gotten much press over on the west-side of the state. The state of Washington is proposing to convert I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass to a toll road with a four dollar toll. You remember when we had the great gas tax debate there was a lot of anger in western Washington about sending gas tax dollars for roads in eastern Washington. One of the solutions to this was to implement toll roads so that the user pays. This will get eastern Washington to pay their fair share. There have been editorials over here supporting the proposal even though it will cost people from here to travel to Seattle. But it is fair and hopefully will end the debates about gas tax dollars going east. The problem with the proposal is the toll is to small. Four dollars. It should be at least 5 and maybe 10 dollars. I-90 would be the only cross-cascade toll road, shifting even more traffic onto Highway 2. Other passes would also be impacted as drivers shift to avoid tolls. All cross-cascade routes should be turned into toll roads. Here are two links....one for a survey site to express your opinion.....hopefully support for the proposal. The other link is to a Seattle Times article on the proposal. http://www.watollingstudy.com/ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cg...ion_id=2002111777&slug=tolls20m&date=20060620
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal Are you joking? You want to voluntarily give your money to the state? Very surprising to read a post like this, especially at a time when gas prices are so obscene. Be careful what you wish for. After living a few years in Boston I can tell you that tolls really add up. Plus they cause huge traffic delays. Even the electronic "fast track" ones! And once the flood gates open with 1 toll route, others will follow. Also, isn't it a bad idea to divert traffic from a 37-lane super highway to a 2-lane state route? I can think of all sorts of reasons why it is better for the average Seattleite to take I-90 from a conservation/sustainability viewpoint. DONT JERSEY WA! LOL Personally, I feel the government does such a crappy job utilizing our tax dollars it is my personal goal to make sure they get as little as possible. I am definately going to be proactive in opposing this.
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal If you like toll roads, Florida has a lot of them. All major highways leading into and out of International Airports have toll gates. And once you get on, there is no way off except through the gate. :beathead:
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal It would be terrific as you said to have the locals pay for local roads. The problem is, there's little trust I have in the state's limiting the toll revenue to strictly local/regional road maintenance. In other words, you can't be sure that money is going where you think it should, and more likely than not you'll end up paying just as much tax elsewhere. Tolled AND taxed. You give in to the toll and watch the state gov's promises vanish.
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal Cripes, there's enough traffic going in both directions on any normal day that a toll would make the traverse over the pass miserable. I can barely tolerate traffic jams in the Seattle metro area; having to sit in a half-hour line to get through a toll after a day of fishing on the east side would tend to kill the afterglow. And having to wait in traffic just to go skiing would suck. Also, the absolute last thing they need to do is encourage more traffic on Highway 2. No one in their right mind goes that way to come west on a weekend anyway, because all the population growth in Monroe and environs often makes Highway 2 from High Bridge down more constipated than many urban freeways during weekday rush hour. A toll on Snoqualmie would just make that worse. As someone who grew up east of the mountains and lives west, I'd like to think we are all in this together.
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal The proposal is to have so sort of fast pass system to pay. So only those without a pass would have to stop. Unfortunately, the current proposal is only for I-90. I think all the passes should be converted to tolls. Otherwise your right.... Highway 2 will turn into a parking lot with all the eastsiders heading west. In all fairness to the state they are just trying to respond to public demands. Remember last time the gas debate went on....the folks west of the Cascades were very angry about paying for roads in eastern Washington. The toll proposal if you go to the web site is an attempt to get the user to pay and refining that to a region. It all might be mute in 20 years. Oregon is heading towards a system where a GPS keeps track of where your driving and charges you accordingly. The problem is that most of us couldn't afford to pay a lump sum at the end of the year. So they are talking about a gas tax....and then an accounting adjustment at the end of the year when you file your state income taxes. That would be tough in Washington for obvious reasons.
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal Didn't we just pass a $0.03 tax gas that just recently went into effect? I would consider that a use based tax. I am not necessarily opposed to tolls, but in most cases they are implemented to pay for a new service. In WA it was most recently used to pay for the addition of bridges. How many of you remember having to take the ferry across from Biggs, OR? (Not me, I am not that old!) But ferry service in Entiat was still running as late as the early 70's I believe. CA has implemented tolls on Express Ways in order to create a premium service, i.e. the ability to drive on less crowded tollways. Although so many people in So Cal use the service I am not sure how much faster it is anymore. We certainly have a conundrum in WA with the fact that we pay no state income tax. It becomes difficult, given population growth estimates, to have a clear picture of where the money is going to come from for infrastructure expansion. And, frankly, this is not just a Westside problem as I believe that the Spokane area is growing nearly as rapidly as Metro King County. Jim
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal It's not to bad in the summer time as if you did some checking things out you can make it over Snoqualmie pass with out driving the Freeway. I know as I did it last summer. I had to check a lot of maps but in the end I found a way. Jim........Just a back road driver:hmmm:
NFR-I-90 Toll Proposal why dont we just take eastern wash. and north idaho and make our own state that way us dry siders dont have to worry about the wet siders bitchin' about "all the dry siders" using up your tax dollars to fix our roads. What about our tax dollars used to fix your roads? the d.o.t. is a state office and most of the tax dollars go into a general fund for roads. the toll on the pass is the worst idea that our crook of a govenrer has ever come up with to pad her pockets some more. she stole the election why not more of our money. washington already has one of the highest gas taxes in the country, where is that money going? just my $.02!! ok maybe more than $.02. just one of the dry siders, roadhog :thumb:
Roadhog: If we could make our own state here in the inland empire we would have one of the most beautiful places around, but alas I think we would be bankrupt. Unfortunately your comment about our gas taxes going to the west side is only correct in this last year and the next couple of years to come. For decades we in the dry side have consistantly been the recipient of more road tax money from the state than we have ever paid in. The facts are in the population base the westside has way more people than roads we have more roads than people. We can cry the blues all we want but we need to play nicey nicey with the left side of the state so we can exist over here. As far as the toll goes I think it will happen the pass needs millions of $$ in repair and maintenance and the entire state will resist another gas tax increase to pay for it. By the way there Mr. Hog it was nice fishing with you over the weekend,too bad you left early I found a spot even you could have caught fish . You better get a little more serious about fishing, with your wifes zeal she is going to be a way better fisher than you.:thumb: Blessings jesse clark
It's a funny thing. I have relatives in Eastern WA who think they are subsidizing Western WA with all of our new stadiums we have to keep building and that sort of nonsense.
There's one problem with that. Eastern Washingtonians don't pay to subsidize the public cost of sports stadiums on the West side unless they come over here to stay in hotels in King County and/or go to sporting events, since the taxes used to repay the public bonds that were floated to pay part of the costs of building places like Safeco and Qwest, as well as the cost of retiring the Kingdome debt, are all LOCAL taxes on lodging (i.e., hotels/motels) and admission to the sporting events themselves (i.e., tickets). So tell your relatives that if they don't want to pay taxes to support these stadiums, don't stay in King County and don't go to any games.
Seattle needs to be it's own state. Most of the outlying areas in Western Washington would takes sides with central and eastern Washinton when it comes to matters of government and politics. King County, for example, is a miniature view of the state as a whole. We in eastern King County are not well represented by the County Council bureaucrats in Seattle. If you guys east of the Pass cecede, take me with you!
Mr Snort: It is true we Eastern Wa residents do support those on the West side in the areas you mention the two super stadiums, the behemoths of lavish sporting life in Washington. But over all it is we dry siders who benefit the most from the population and mega buck salaries you'all have there in the left side . I spend some time on the road and it doesn't take much to realize that I can often drive on a state highway from somewhere to nowhere here in E'Wa and see only a few hundred cars all day. We can't build these highways in the palouse and down into the southeast part of the state without revenue from somewhere else. So I want to thank you for building that nice road that gets me to the Grand Ronde every fall to catch those beautiful steelhead.:thumb: Just don't go gettin' the notion that just because you help support us you can come over and catch all of our fish.:ray1: Blessings jesse clark


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Sunday, September 13, 2009
You're going to shove what where how hard?
As soon as instant replay hit the grand slams, tennis became fair, clean, and a little boring. Sort of like one Sampras match after another, only of interest to those of us who play. And while I get my kicks out of ogling this guy or another (because nowadays only the astonishingly beautiful are allowed to play), I could do with a little more overt personality. It's hard to get totally invested in a side when it's just nice versus nice.
The last great character, Marat Safin, retired this week. Safin had a combination lethal serve, deadpan delivery, and unpredictability. He once dropped his shorts and mooned the crowd after a bad call. Call me tasteless and juvenile, but I'm really going to miss him.
Because, you know, tennis is much, much more than just shoving the ball from one side of the net to the other. It's poker, chess, gymnastics, track, but most of all, it's a game of nerves. One man or woman out there against all odds.
So, you go Serena. I never liked to watch you play before, but now I can't wait. You might try once more to put your game face on, but we'll know exactly what's behind it.
43 comments:
I was watching yesterday when It happened. Overofficiating, temper tantrum, cool, I thought. I grew up on Nasty Nastase.
Although the commentary in the booth between McEnroe and Mary Carillo when he suggested that it's always a good thing when women players take a few years to go off and have babies and find themselves, was almost as good. She sounded like she might shove what where how hard herself.Does all this come in categories: stiring, wit (ironic & sardonic), bullying, and self-indulgent tanrums?
I always find it mesmerising to watch as LLeyytton pulls himself off the canvas with his utlimately corroding brand of psychologising.
Confidence and self-belief ultimately blind-side good behaviour.- AnonymousSeptember 13, 2009 at 3:49 PM
If no one demands they grow up, many won't. Has an entertainment value, however.
GG A footfault was called on 0-30 second serve when Serena was down a set and about to lose the second. So Serena said something to the linesperson to the effect of "If you're wrong, I'll take this effing ball and shove it down your mother effing face." (In pure anglo-saxon or germanic words, depending on which etimology you subscribe to.)
Linda's right, vintage Nastase.Petrea;
The call stands because it was made and can't be reviewed. It might even have been correct - it just looked close to me.
Footfault calls are often thought of as chicken___ in big matches and especially on important points. It's kind of like NBA basketball where certain calls are just not made at the end of a close game. The referees who are responsible for calling footfaults don't really like to do it because it's very technical and often the player doesn't know they're doing it. After yesterday's match, there's now talk of using automated techniques to call footfaults as they now do to call the ball in or out of bounds - so it will no longer be up to the referee.I used to go to the National Junior Hardcourt Championships in Burlingame. The kids had learned to use certain words, like "fudge", to replace cussing. One guy kept saying "nails" everytime he messed up. At one point he elaborated, "Nails, that's tough." There were a lot of outbursts, but always in code.
ReplyDeleteI feel puzzled by this, but unsure how to express it. Or whether to bother ...
If I park in a 1 hour zone and get pinged for being 1 minute over, what rights/obligations do I have?
If I drive in a 40kph zone and get pinged for travelling at 45kph, what rights/obligations do I have?
Is this the rule of law (yes!)? Do we accept the ruling of whatever adjudicator is empowered in that jurisdiction?
Is there any element required here to accept the obligations of being a role model?
Is there any obligation here to accept that we are in the w-r-o-n-g?
Or is bad behaviour an acceptable element of competition? Is winning and the pot of gold the only focus?
What if this occurred in the business arena? Which it did last October ...
What if this occurred in the political arena? Which it did in Florida in 2004 ...
What if this occurred in the military arena? Which it did at Abu Ghraib ...
Is brinkmanship, foul language, and aggression an acceptable form of life to you.
To you ... to each of you ... the individual you ... ?
I support the rule of law. The rule of the majority, even to my own disadvantage. I thought that was what democracy was. I thought that was what being civilised was. That moving from childhood to adulthood involved the acceptance of the two-edged sword of maturity.Hi AH. Thanks for popping over to my block and leaving such a nice comment. I didn't see the tennis, so I can't really comment - except to say that I abhore bad manners (well I AM English, so it's inbred!)
I've been catching up on your posts. Your sculpure post made me laugh. It reminded me of a sculpture I made years ago of my dad - he had an extra joint in his leg when I'd finished!
I didn't realise the fires were so close to you - glad you were safe.
Thanks for a great blog.
LizI didn't see any of this "fun", but have heard various reports.
As any athlete knows, there are times that ticky-tack fouls are called, there are times they are not. Generally accepted rule is when you are in the situation Serena was in, you don't mess with the game---let them play. So unless she's hucking the raquet AT you, leave her alone and leave the foot-faults alone too. As when Michael Jordan would take 4 steps to get to the hoop and it was not called---that's just the way it is.
Unless of course, someone had money riding on the match and this line judge was in cahoots with someone over money.
and AH---I love the image of raquet abuse...in such a pedestrian sport as tennis too! Then again, my feeling has always been---if you want to abuse something, go ahead, just don't make watch!I once owned a Pancho Gonzales tennis racket that I purchased with blue chip stamps. A passing fad for me but may I suggest you follow the link. His is a very interesting story
ReplyDeleteIt's been a long time since I watched tennis matches. I'm completely confused by the idea of a "fault" that does not get called when the match is close and near the end. Maybe I should ask, what's the consequence of the foot-fault being called, when the athlete it's called against does not have a meltdown and simply accepts the call?
ReplyDeleteA footfault is when the server steps on the baseline or into the court before striking the ball. The consequence is that it's like a serve that's hit out or into the net. You get two tries to serve to put the ball in play. A footfault costs you one of those tries. If you footfault on your second serve, it's a point for your opponent.
In Serena's case, it appears that she hit the ball while both feet were off the ground and then landed in the court. That is ok. If your foot doesn't hit inside the court before you hit the ball, it's not a footfault.
If they installed an electronic footfault detector, it would slow the game down because there would be more footfaults than are currently called. But after awhile, the players would get used to standing further behind the line when serving. They would adjust.Let's go to the rulebook:
The Rules of Tennis
The Singles Game
8. Foot Fault
The Server shall throughout the delivery of the Service:
a. Not change his position by walking or running. The Server shall not by slight movement of the feet which do not materially affect the location originally taken up by him, be deemed "to change his position by walking or running".
b. Not touch, with either foot, any area other than that behind the base-line within the imaginary extensions of the centre-mark and side-lines.
USTA Comment: The key to understanding this rule is to realize that the Server's feet must be at rest immediately before beginning to serve. Immediately thereafter, the delivery of the service begins with any arm or racket motion, and ends when the racket contacts the ball (or misses the ball in attempt to strike it).
If either foot touches the Court, including the baseline, or the imaginary extension of a line specified in Rule 8b. after his feet are at rest but before he strikes the ball, he has committed a foot fault.
There can be no foot fault if the Server does not attempt to strike at the ball. As long as the Server makes no attempt to strike at the ball, it is immaterial whether he catches it in his hand or his racket or lets it drop to the ground.
USTA Comment: This rule covers the most decisive stroke in the game, and there is no justification for its not being obeyed by players and enforced by officials. No official has the right to instruct any umpire to disregard violations of it. In a non-officiated match, the Receiver, or his partner, may call foot faults after all efforts (appeal to the server, request for an umpire, etc.) have failed and the foot faulting is so flagrant as to be clearly perceptible from the Receiver's side.
It is improper for any official to warn a player that he is in danger of having a foot fault called on him. On the other hand, if a player asks for an explanation of how he foot faulted, either the Line Umpire or the Chair Umpire should give him that information.Serena is a giant bully and she had it coming! But yea, gimme some damn personality anytime. Djokovic has got some, I hear he does wicked impersonations of fellow players. But Federer? Geesh, he is great, but his whole giant "RF" logo. How come it's not on his ass as well? but I am stunned Del Petro ousted him. But they all go down eventually. Gimme more mad McEnroe! Nutty Nastase! Remember that Brazilian player of a few years back? Forgot his name, great sense of humor, think he had a coke habit..
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the explanations.
If I follow correctly, it means that Williams' opponent would have been serving next, and Williams would have been one point away from losing?
Now that I have a better grasp of the issue, I have to say that for entertainment value, Ken Mac probably has it right: more controversy, less certainty sounds like more fun than an electronic fault-finder.Oh Jean. Let's not let a good thing die. Serena was two points away from losing the game, the set, and the match. Her first serve must have been out, and her second serve, being a foot fault, was a point for her opponent, leaving her one point from losing the game, set, and match. Her outburst then cost her another point, because she'd been warned earlier for abusing her racquet. That last point ended the game, the set, and the match.
ReplyDeleteThere were players I always felt if they had one more touch of the ball before the game was over, they could still win. Great ones have come back when they are in the last set, down 3 games and serving. When Jimmy Connors was in that position, no one left the stadium. Serena is also one of those who, particularly in the past couple of years have become one of those. To be two points away from winning a game an staying it the play, and to be called for a foot foul, and already have an earlier call for racket abuse, in a Grand Slam match worth $1.8 mil. . . Can't we cut some slack for a tick tack foot fault call? People have been getting away with those for years. Personally, as a Saint, the most I have said on a court, in a fit of dismay over play was Oh Shostakovitch or Oh, Frappe, instead of the S--- and F--- words. But, it is nice to be in company where people can be so controlled, and wag their fingers at those caught in those moments. It also makes me feel good knowing those people have never slung invective at their loved ones.


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FrenchPod101.com is an innovative and fun way of learning the French language and culture at your own convenience and pace. Our language training system consists of free daily podcast audio lessons, video lessons, French Word of the Day, a premium learning center, and a vibrant user community. Stop by FrenchPod101.com today for a Premium 7-Day Free Trial and Lifetime Account to even more fun, fast and easy French lessons!
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Learn French with FrenchPod101.com! You've been texting with your new French flame all afternoon, but he still hasn't made any plans with you for the weekend. You're getting frustrated, so you decide not to wait around any longer. You call your French girlfriend and make plans to meet for dinner tonight at the corner bistro. [...]
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Caroline Feraday and Claire Bullivant on Brits in Hollywood, and Hollywood through the eyes of Brits.


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Slim Fit Life
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£5 per class
12-Jul-16 to 12-Jul-21
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We are a friendly ladies only gym now offering Yoga classes at the folllowing times:
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Dude, just chill. Normality is a mere illusion! Enough philosophy. This rich tobacco and icy menthol ejuice flavor will leave you refreshed and ready to lay back and relax.
The Founder's Collection
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Menthol tobacco. Very nice complex tobacco, with a little menthol to round it out.
No way in hell I'm going to drip this. If your into tobacco flavors though it might be your cup of tea.
Pretty good...coming off of menthol cigarettes, I can taste the tobacco and menthol on this one. Enjoyable! Will buy this!
First menthol/tobacco I've received from you that I like! Nice and smooth, subtle and not overpowering.
If you like menthol this is really good, it doesn't really taste like tobacco imo
Definitely positive that tobacco was on my "do not send" list, but gave this a shot. It tasted like awful with a lingering fishy aftertaste. I'm not kidding. Fish. Wtf.
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Family Paint Night
Family Paint Night
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Temecula: Saturday, March 25th
Menifee: Friday, March 10th
Time: 6-8:30pm
Price: $35 per person
Ages: 6+
We are launching Family Paint Night! Each class has a specific project on canvas or pottery. Come with the whole family! The instructor goes step by step and provides all brushes, acrylic paints, and materials. Please arrive 5-10 minutes early to allow yourself time to get settled.
Deposit is $15. This amount will be deducted from the total class fee at the beginning of the class.


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In the spring of 2015, The Union Station Redevelopment Corporation launched a […]
by Martin Amis
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The Evolution of the Web - 1 views
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Internet Explorer is a browser that is nearly as old as the Internet and the browser is going to be moving on to its 10th iteration here in the near future. In this post, we take a look back at all of the versions of IE, and give a brief look at each version of the platform and what it brought to the table in terms of functionality and support.
Internet Observatory - 3 views
Internet Observatory is a free service that monitors global traffic 24 hours a day in several regions of the world. Unlike ipoque's Internet studies that have been a reliable source for Internet traffic statistics ever since they were first published in 2006, Internet Observatory is not jus a snapshot of Internet traffic patterns during a certain time period. It is traffic statistics in real-time. But see yourself.
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With the grandiose bluster that only an aging juggernaut can pull off, Microsoft has detailed the Internet Explorer Performance Lab and its extraordinary efforts to ensure that IE9 is competitive, and that IE10 is the fastest browser in the world. Here's a few bullet points to reel you in: 140 computers, 20,000 tests per day, over 850 metrics analyzed, and a granularity of just 100 nanoseconds.
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I have spent a lot of time throughout the years researching and collecting facts and stimulus materials on the topic of Computer Viruses. Recently when I was watching my regular TED talk on my phone I watched this talk by Mikko Hypponen. I found it fascinating for the way in which he not only explores and shows some of the history of viruses but also talks of the social and ethical implications of the contemporary viruses being releases. He explores the use of viruses from a cyber-crime and organised-crime perspective.


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Pergolino - Bianco Veronese 2016
Italian White WineIn Stock
Producer Information
Key Information
- AppellationVeneto IGT
- BrandPergolino
- RegionVeneto
Other Information
- Food MatchMild Fish
- Grape TypeGarganega
- Grape TypeTrebbiano Toscano
- Quality DesignationIGT
- Vintage2016
- WinemakerLorenzo Caramazza
Light, lemony colour with a youthful rim.
Perfumed with a lovely fresh white flower, almond and citrus nose giving way to ripe but crisp melon and a touch of white peach on the palate.
The finish is lifted and aromatic.
60% Garganega, 30% Trebbiano d`Abruzzo, 10% Chardonnay.
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Gonzo Matt (Taibbi) deconstructs the emergence of the presumptive Dumbo presidential nominee and proclaims the demise of the GOP with the rise of Der Blödmann. In the outpouring of Gonzo Matt's scorn, you find nuggets of political insight. If this is (fair & balanced) irreverent punditry, so be it.
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R.I.P., GOP: How Trump Is Killing The Republican Party
By Gonzo Matt (Taibbi)
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Indianapolis, Indiana, May 3rd, 2016, a little before 8:30 PM Texas Senator Ted Cruz strode onstage beneath a gorgeous stained-glass relief in the city's Union Station. The hall was doubling as a swanky bar for an upscale local hotel, and much of the assembled press was both lubricated and impatient. The primary had been called for Donald Trump more than an hour before. What was the holdup?
"God bless the Hoosier State!" Cruz said to whoops and cheers after he finally emerged. He was surrounded by a phalanx of American flags, family members and his gimmick running mate of six and a half days, Carly Fiorina, who stared out at the crowd with her trademark alien-abducted smile.
Cruz glanced back and forth across the room with that odd, neckless, monitor-lizard posture of his. He had to know the import of this moment. Nothing less than the future of the Republican Party had been at stake in the Indiana primary.
A Cruz loss effectively meant ceding control of the once-mighty organization to Trump, a seemingly unrepentant non-Republican more likely to read Penthouse than the National Review.
Before the vote, Cruz put it this way: "We are at the edge of a cliff, staring downward."
Now, Cruz was over that cliff, having been trounced 53 to 36 percent in his last-gasp effort to keep Trump from the nomination. In a detail the film-buff candidate Cruz would appreciate, he left Indiana with the same number of delegates as future senator John Blutarsky's grade-point average in Animal House: zero-point-zero.
Still, Cruz looked like he was ready for the "Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?" speech. He was going to fight.
"Will we hold fast to our founding values of rewarding talent, hard work and industry?" he asked. "Or will we continue on that path of creeping socialism that incentivizes apathy and dependency?"
The crowd roared.
"Will we keep America safe from the threats of nuclear war and atomic terrorism?" he thundered. "Or will we pass on to future generations a land devastated and destroyed by the enemies of civilization?"
More raucous cheers.
Cruz smiled. If he has a good quality, it is that he's not easily deterred by criticism. As he took the stage that night, he surely knew that former Speaker of the House John Boehner had recently called him "Lucifer in the flesh," and that fellow senator Lindsey Graham had said, "If you kill Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody could convict you." Likewise, when it was revealed Cruz once stated that one has no inherent right to "stimulate one's genitals," his college roommate Craig Mazin popped up to call him a hypocrite who'd whacked it plenty in college.
During the campaign, surprising numbers of Americans were even willing to believe Cruz might also be the Zodiac Killer. The infamous Bay Area murders began two years before Cruz was born, but 38 percent of Floridians at one point believed Cruz either was or might be the Zodiac.
Were they serious? In an age when Donald Trump is a presidential nominee, what does "serious" even mean? In any case, the cybercomics who fanned the flames of the Cruz-Zodiac meme will someday be first-ballot entrants in the Trolling Hall of Fame.
Finally, on the morning of the Indiana primary, Cruz woke up to hear opponent Trump babbling that Cruz's own father had been hanging out with Lee Harvey Oswald before the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a bizarre take on a ridiculous National Enquirer story that Trump, of course, believed instantly. Trump brought this up on "Fox and Friends," which let him run the ball all the way to the end zone. "I mean, what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald, shortly before the death before the shooting?" Trump asked. "It's horrible."
American politics had never seen anything like this: a presidential candidate derided as a haggardly masturbating incarnation of Satan, the son of a presidential assassin's accomplice, and himself an infamous uncaptured serial killer.
Despite the media humiliations, Cruz talked passionately of his supporters' resolve. "Just a few days ago, two young kids, ages four and six, handed me two envelopes full of change," he said. "All of their earnings from their lemonade stand. They wanted the campaign to have it."
The crowd cooed: Awwww! There was no way he could quit now and let those kids down. Except that moments later, Cruz did just that, announcing he was suspending his campaign because "the path to victory has been foreclosed." Then he fled the stage like he was double-parked.
The air vanished from the ballroom. Cruz supporters went nuts.
Nooooo! they screamed, hugging each other and crying. Many volunteers were from faraway states. They expected to be continuing on somewhere the next morning. Now they were all basically fired.
"What the fuck do we do now?" whispered one.
The pundits present were less emotional. "Does he get to use the lemonade money to pay campaign debts?" wondered one.
As ignominious an end as this was for Cruz, it was a million times worse for the Republican establishment.
The party of Nixon, Reagan and two Bushes had needed a win by Cruz, a man not just disliked but loathed by the party elite, to stave off a takeover by Trump.
And yet Cruz's main pitch to his voters had been that between himself and Trump, he was the one less connected to the Republican Party. "Cruz is the true outsider," was how one supporter put it in Indiana.
Cruz volunteer Dan Porter seemed stunned with grief after the results came in, but his sadness was reserved for Cruz, not the Republican Party. He couldn't seem to wrap his head around the fact that so many people had voted for Trump, a man who'd "been a Democrat his whole life," while a dedicated constitutionalist like Cruz had been so roundly rejected.
So lost in thought that he stared at the carpet as he spoke, he gave just an incidental shake of the head when asked what the future of the GOP would be now. It was as if the question wasn't even that important.
"Oh, there won't be a Republican Party," he said. "It's basically over."
Cruz had at least won nearly 600 delegates and had passionate supporters shedding real tears for him at the end. But nobody anywhere was crying for the Republican Party. Even Custer had a less-lonely last stand.
Trump, meanwhile, spent the night basking in voluble self-admiration from Trump Tower in New York. This is becoming his victory ritual. The lectern from which he spoke said it all: TRUMP ' VICTORY IN INDIANA NEW YORK CITY.
Trump's naked disdain for the less-glamorous American flyover provinces he somehow keeps winning by massive margins continued to be one of the livelier comic subplots of the campaign.
From seemingly wondering if Iowans had eaten too much genetically modified corn to thanking the "poorly educated" after his Nevada win, Trump increasingly doesn't bother to even pretend to pander. This, too, is a major departure for the Republican Party, whose Beltway imageers for decades made pretending to sincerely prefer barns and trailers to nightclubs and spokesmodels a central part of their electoral strategy.
Not Trump. Hell, he went out of his way to brag about being pals with Tom Brady in the week before the Indiana primary, and still won by almost 20 points. Given the level of Colts-Patriots antipathy, this is a little like campaigning in Louisiana wearing a BP hat, or doing a whistle-stop tour through Waco with Janet Reno.
After his crushing win, Trump gave a breathless victory speech. It was classic Trump. "The people of Indiana have been incredible," he said. "I campaigned and I made lots of speeches and met lots of incredible people... You don't get better. The crowds got bigger and bigger... I didn't want to leave... We had a tremendous victory tonight... Boy, Bobby Knight was incredible."
He had a few choice words for the GOP leadership. "I want to thank and congratulate the Republican National Committee, and Reince Priebus," he croaked, as his heavily-made-up, Robert Palmer-chicks collection of wives and daughters twisted faintly in a deadpan chorus behind him.
"It is not an easy job, when you have 17 egos," Trump went on, smiling. "And now I guess he's down to one."
The crowd roared. The RNC had kissed Trump's ring. That was it, right there, the death of the modern Republican Party.
After 9/11, it felt like the Republicans would reign in America for a thousand years. Only a year ago, this was still a party that appeared to be on the rise nationally, having gained 13 Senate seats, 69 House seats, 11 governorships and 913 state legislative seats during the Obama presidency.
Now the party was effectively dead as a modern political force, doomed to go the way of the Whigs or the Free-Soilers.
After Indiana, a historic chasm opened in the ranks of the party. The two former President Bushes, along with Mitt Romney, announced they wouldn't attend Trump's coronation at the convention in Cleveland. Additionally, House Speaker Paul Ryan refused to say he would support the nominee.
There were now two Republican Parties. One, led by Trump, was triumphant at the ballot, rapidly accruing party converts, and headed to Cleveland for what, knowing the candidate, was sure to be the yuugest, most obscene, most joyfully tacky tribute to a single person ever seen in the television age. If the convention isn't Liberace meets Stalin meets Vince McMahon, it'll be a massive disappointment.
From there, this Republican Party would steam toward the White House, which, who knows, it might even win.
The other Republican Party was revealed in the end to be a surprisingly small collection of uptight lawyers, financiers and Beltway intellectuals who'd just seen their chosen candidate, the $100 million Jeb Bush, muster all of four delegates in the presidential race. Meanwhile, candidates whose talking points involved the beheading of this same party establishment were likely to win around 2,000.
Like French aristocrats after 1789, those Republicans may now head into something like foreign exile to plot their eventual return. But whether they will be guillotined or welcomed back is an open question.
This was all because they'd misplayed the most unpredictable and certainly most ridiculous presidential-campaign season Americans had ever seen.
On the one hand, they'd been blindsided by Trump, a foulmouthed free-coverage magnet who impulsively decided to make mocking the Republican Party mullahs his pet project for the years 2015-2016.
But they were also undone by a surge of voter anger that was in significant part their own fault. In recent years, the Koch brothers/Tea Party wing of the GOP had purged all moderates from the party, to the point where anyone who was on record supporting the continued existence of any federal agency, said Mexicans were people, or spoke even theoretically about the utility of taxes was drummed from the candidate rolls.
Their expected endgame here was probably supposed to be the ascension of some far-right, anti-tax, anti-government radical like Scott Walker, or even Cruz.
Instead, this carefully cultivated "throw the bums out" vibe was gluttonously appropriated by Trump, who turned the anger against the entire Republican Party before surging to victory on a strongman's platform of giant walls, mass deportation and extravagant job promises that made the moon landing or the Bernie Sanders agenda of free college look incrementalist in comparison.
One could say this was just a calamitous strategic misread on the part of the Koch-brothers types. But another way to look at it is that this was the inevitable consequence of the basic dynamic of the party, which by the end was little more than a collection plate for global business interests that were, if not foreign exactly, certainly nationless.
There was a time in this country and many voters in places like Indiana and Michigan and Pennsylvania are old enough to remember it when business leaders felt a patriotic responsibility to protect American jobs and communities. Mitt Romney's father, George, was such a leader, deeply concerned about the city of Detroit, where he built AMC cars.
But his son Mitt wasn't. That sense of noblesse oblige disappeared somewhere during the past generation, when the newly global employer class cut regular working stiffs loose, forcing them to compete with billions of foreigners without rights or political power who would eat toxic waste for five cents a day.
Then they hired politicians and intellectuals to sell the peasants in places like America on why this was the natural order of things. Unfortunately, the only people fit for this kind of work were mean, traitorous scum, the kind of people who in the military are always eventually bayoneted by their own troops. This is what happened to the Republicans, and even though the cost was a potential Trump presidency, man, was it something to watch.
If this isn't the end for the Republican Party, it'll be a shame. They dominated American political life for 50 years and were never anything but monsters. They bred in their voters the incredible attitude that Republicans were the only people within our borders who raised children, loved their country, died in battle or paid taxes. They even sullied the word "American" by insisting they were the only real ones. They preferred Lubbock to Paris, and their idea of an intellectual was Newt Gingrich. Their leaders, from Ralph Reed to Bill Frist to Tom DeLay to Rick Santorum to Romney and Ryan, were an interminable assembly line of shrieking, witch-hunting celibates, all with the same haircut the kind of people who thought Iran-Contra was nothing, but would grind the affairs of state to a halt over a blow job or Terri Schiavo's feeding tube.
A century ago, the small-town American was Gary Cooper: tough, silent, upright and confident. The modern Republican Party changed that person into a haranguing neurotic who couldn't make it through a dinner without quizzing you about your politics. They destroyed the American character. No hell is hot enough for them. And when Trump came along, they rolled over like the weaklings they've always been, bowing more or less instantly to his parodic show of strength.
In the weeks surrounding Cruz's cat-fart of a surrender in Indiana, party luminaries began the predictably Soviet process of coalescing around the once-despised new ruler. Trump endorsements of varying degrees of sincerity spilled in from the likes of Dick Cheney, Bob Dole, Mitch McConnell and even John McCain.
Having not recently suffered a revolution or a foreign-military occupation, Americans haven't seen this phenomenon much, but the effortless treason of top-tier Republicans once Trump locked up the nomination was the most predictable part of this story. Politicians, particularly this group, are like crackheads: You can get them to debase themselves completely for whatever's in your pocket, even if it's just lint.
That's why the first rule of any revolution is to wipe out the intellectuals. Trump is surely already dreaming of the vast logging camp he will fill with the Republican thinkfluencers who are at the moment making a show of being the last holdouts.
Not surprisingly, in the past weeks, there was an epidemic of Monday-morning quarterbacking among the Beltway punditocracy, as GOP cognoscenti struggled to cope with the reality of Trumpism.
There were basically two responses among the tie-and-glasses sect of Republicans to the prospect of kneeling before the philistine Trump: In the minority stood New York Times lonely-hearts moralist David Brooks, who took the remarkable step of looking at Trump's victories and wondering what part of this unraveling could be his own fault. In Brooks-ian fashion, this essentially noble response came out as painful pretentious comedy. He concluded that the problem was that upper-crust conservatives like himself hadn't spent enough time getting to know the dirtier folks below decks.
Instead of "spending large chunks of my life in the bourgeois strata," Brooks promised to "go out into the pain" and "build a ladder of hope" by leaping across "chasms of segmentation."
Translated into English, this might have meant anything from trying the occasional domestic beer to actually hanging around the unemployed. But at least Brooks recognized that on some level, the rise of Trump pointed to a connection failure in the Republican kingmaking class.
No others among his conservative brethren saw it that way. Most Republican intellectuals recoiled in blameless horror from the Trumpening, blaming everything from media bias to the educational system for his rise. Some even promised to degrade themselves with a vote for Hillary Clinton before ever supporting Trump.
George Will of The Washington Post might have been the loudest objector. Will increasingly seems like a man who is sure history will remember him for his heroic opposition to Trump, and not for those 40-plus years of being an insufferable spinster who writes bad columns about baseball to prove his ties to the common man.
His diatribes against Trump, a "coarse character" who reads the National Enquirer and brags about the size of his "penis" (one could almost feel the pain it caused Will to have to commit this word to paper), took on an almost religious character.
Just before Indiana, Will began treating the nomination of Trump like a forest fire or a SARS outbreak, something that with the right spirit of sacrifice could be contained with minimal loss of life, and perhaps only four years of a Hillary presidency.
"If Trump is nominated," Will wrote, "Republicans working to purge him and his manner from public life will reap the considerable satisfaction of preserving the identity of their 162-year-old party."
But the crowning effort on the right-wing snobbery front came from none other than British blogging icon and noted hairy person Andrew Sullivan. The aforementioned came out of semiretirement to write a 7,000-word jeremiad for New York magazine about how Trump was the inevitable product of too much democracy.
The CliffsNotes summary of his monstrous piece, "Democracies End When They Are Too Democratic," might go something like this: When I read Plato in grad school, I learned that in free societies the mob eventually stops deferring to the wisdom of smart people, and therefore must be muzzled before they send Trump to wash the streets with our blood.
Sullivan's analysis was a balm to the decades of butt-hurt that await the soon-to-be-ex-elite of the Republican Party. It blamed Trump's rise on everyone but Republican intellectuals: Obama, Black Lives Matter and even "the gay left, for whom the word 'magnanimity' seems unknown."
"A struggling white man in the heartland is now told to 'check his privilege' by students at Ivy League colleges," Sullivan wrote, in a sentence that would probably be true enough, if those two groups ever interacted. Sullivan was right that white conservatives in places like Indiana hate Ivy Leaguers and Black Lives Matter and the gay left and safe-spacers and feminists and all the other mocking, sneering, atheistic know-it-all types from cosmopolitan cities who scoff, as Obama famously did once, at their guns and their religion.
But they also hated all of those people eight years ago, 16 years ago, 30 years ago. What's new about the Year of Trump is that they have now also suddenly turned on their own party. Why?
Sullivan basically ignored this question. The closest he came to an explanation was a passage saying that "global economic forces" hurt blue-collar workers in particular, forcing them to compete with lots of other unskilled and basically fungible human beings around the world. Which made them, he guessed, pissed off.
This avalanche of verbose disgust on the part of conservative intellectuals toward the Trump voter, who until very recently was the Republican voter, tells us everything we need to know about what actually happened in 2016.
There never was any real connection between the George Wills, Andrew Sullivans and David Brookses and the gun-toting, Jesus-loving ex-middle-class voters they claimed to embrace. All those intellectuals ever did for Middle America was cook up a sales pitch designed to get them to vote for politicians who would instantly betray them to business interests eager to ship their jobs off to China and India. The most successful trick was linking the corporate mantra of profit without responsibility to the concept of individual liberty.
Into the heartland were sent wave after wave of politicians, each more strident and freedom-y than the last. They arrived draped in the flag, spewed patriotic bromides about God, guns and small-town values, and pledged to give the liberals hell and bring the pride back.
Then they went off to Washington and year after year did absolutely squat for their constituents. They were excellent at securing corporate tax holidays and tax cuts for the rich, but they almost never returned to voter country with jobs in hand. Instead, they brought an ever-increasing list of villains responsible for the lack of work: communists, bra-burning feminists, black "race hustlers," climate-change activists, Muslims, Hollywood, horned owls....
By the Tea Party era, their candidates were forced to point fingers at their own political establishment for votes, since after so many years of bitter economic decline, that was the only story they could still believably sell.
This led to the hilarious irony of Ted Cruz. Here was a quintessentially insipid GOP con man culled straight from the halls of Princeton, Harvard, the Supreme Court, the Federal Trade Commission and the National Republican Senatorial Committee to smooth-talk the yokels. But through a freak accident of history, he came along just when the newest models of his type were selling "the Republican establishment sucks" as an electoral strategy.
Cruz was like an android that should have self-destructed in a cloud of sparks and black smoke the moment the switch flipped on. He instead stayed on just long enough to win 564 delegates, a stunning testament to just how much Republican voters, in the end, hated the Republican kingmakers Cruz robotically denounced.
All of these crazy contradictions came to a head in Indiana, where Cruz succumbed in an explosion of hate and scorn. The cascade started the Sunday night before the primary, with a Cruz stump speech in La Porte that couldn't have gone worse.
Things went sideways as Cruz was working his way into a "simple flat tax" spiel, a standard Republican snake-oil proposal in which all corporate, estate and gift taxes would be eliminated, and replaced with a 10 percent flat tax and a 16 percent consumption tax. Not because the rich would pay less and the poor would pay more, but because America and fairness, etc. He was just getting to his beloved money line, claiming, "We can fill out our taxes on a postcard," when a 12-year-old boy interrupted with cries of "You suck!" and "I don't care!"
Cruz couldn't quite handle the pressure and stepped straight into the man-trap the moment presented. He lectured the kid about respecting his elders, then suggested the world might be a better place if someone had taught a young Donald Trump that lesson. It was a not-half-bad line of the type that the Harvard lawyer is occasionally capable. But Cruz couldn't help himself and added, "You know, in my household, when a child behaves that way, they get a spanking."
Boom! Within hours the Internet was filled with headlines about how Ted Cruz had suggested spanking someone else's 12-year-old for telling him he sucked.
This was on top of the ignominy of having already called a basketball hoop a "ring" while giving a speech on the gym floor in Knightstown, the home of the fictional Hickory team from "Hoosiers." No American male would call a basketball hoop a ring, and even a French immigrant would know better than to do so in Indiana, but this was the kind of run he was on.
The rest of the race was a slapstick blowout. Carly Fiorina fell off a stage, and Cruz's wife, Heidi, actually had to answer a question from a Yahoo! reporter about her husband being called the Zodiac Killer. Heidi Cruz calmly responded that she'd been married to Ted for 15 years and "I know pretty well who he is." This, of course, was exactly what the wife of the actual Zodiac Killer would say, making for a perfectly absurd ending to a doomed campaign.
As anyone who's ever been to high school knows, there's no answer to "You suck!" When a bully pulls that line on you, it's because he can smell the weakness: the Jonas Brothers album in your closet, your good grades, your mantleful of band-camp participation trophies, whatever. When the mob smells unorthodoxy, there's no talking your way out of it. You just have to hold on for dear life.
Trump has turned the new Republican Party into high school. It will be cruel, clique-y and ruled by insult kings like himself and Ann Coulter, whose headline description of Cruz ("Tracy Flick With a Dick") will always resonate with Trump voters more than a thousand George Will columns.
And anyone who crosses the leader from now on will be fair game for the kind of brutal fragging Cruz and his circle experienced in Indiana. Dissenters will be buried under a cannonade of abuse coming from everywhere: Trump, other politicians, reporters, Internet memers, 12-year-olds, everyone. Add tough economic times to the Internet, and this is what you get: Nationalist High.
Indiana was the end of an era. As Fiorina moved through a pancake house on primary morning, her supporters meekly bowed and curtseyed as though she were the Queen Mother, calling her ma'am and showing off the small-town civility and churchy hospitality that was once a defining characteristic of Republican campaign-trail events. In the Trump era, this seems likely to be replaced forever by the testosterone-fueled diss-fests that had undone Cruz in this state.
"People don't care about civility anymore," said Cruz supporter Julie Reimann with a sigh. "It's another sad state of affairs, and when you see it across the Midwest and in our small towns, it's like, 'What has happened to us? Why are we so mean?' "
The real question might be, "Why weren't we meaner before?"
Politics at its most basic isn't a Princeton debating society. It's a desperate battle over who gets what. But during the past 50 years, when there was a vast shift in the distribution of wealth in this country, when tens of millions of people were put out of good, dignified jobs and into humiliating ones, America's elections remained weirdly civil, Queensberry-rules reality shows full of stilted TV debates over issues like abortion, gay marriage and the estate tax.
As any journalist who's ever covered a miners' strike or a foreclosure court will report, things get physically tense when people are forced to fight for their economic lives. Yet Trump's campaign has been the first to unleash that menacing feel during a modern presidential race.
Some, or maybe a lot of it, is racial resentment. But much of it has to be long-delayed anger over the way things have been divvied up over the years. The significance of Trump's wall idea, apart from its bluntly racist appeal as a barrier to nonwhite people, is that it redefines the world in terms of a clear Us and Them, with politicians directly responsible for Us.
It's a plain rebuttal to the Sullivan explanation for why nobody between the coasts has a decent job anymore, i.e., that there are "global economic forces" at work that we can no more change than we can the weather. Trump's solutions are preposterous, logistically impossible and ideologically vicious, but he's giving people a promise more concrete than "tax cuts will stimulate growth that will eventually bring jobs back." He's peddling hope, and with hope comes anger.
Of course, Trump is more likely than not to crash the car now that he has the wheel. News reports surfaced that Donald Trump, unhinged pig, was about to be replaced by Donald Trump, respectable presidential candidate. No more schoolyard insults!
Trump went along with this plan for a few days. But soon after Indiana, he started public fights with old pal Joe Scarborough and former opponents Graham and Bush, the latter for backtracking on a reported pledge to support the Republican nominee. "Bush signed a pledge... while signing it, he fell asleep," Trump cracked.
Then he began his general-election pivot with about 10 million tweets directed at "crooked Hillary." With all this, Trump emphasized that the GOP was now mainly defined by whatever was going through his head at any given moment. The "new GOP" seems doomed to swing back and forth between its nationalist message and its leader's tubercular psyche. It isn't a party, it's a mood.
Democrats who might be tempted to gloat over all of this should check themselves. If the Hillary Clintons and Harry Reids and Gene Sperlings of the world don't look at what just happened to the Republicans as a terrible object lesson in the perils of prioritizing billionaire funders over voters, then they too will soon enough be tossed in the trash like a tick.
It almost happened this year, when the supporters of Bernie Sanders nearly made it over the wall. Totally different politicians with completely different ideas about civility and democracy, Sanders and Trump nonetheless keyed in on the same widespread disgust over the greed and cynicism of the American political class.
From the Walter Mondale years on, Democrats have eaten from the same trough as Republicans. They've grown fat off cash from behemoths like Cisco, Pfizer, Exxon Mobil, Citigroup, Goldman and countless others, companies that moved jobs overseas, offshored profits, helped finance the construction of factories in rival states like China and India, and sometimes all of the above.
The basic critique of both the Trump and Sanders campaigns is that you can't continually take that money and also be on the side of working people. Money is important in politics, but in democracy, people ultimately still count more.
The Democrats survived this time, but Republicans allowed their voters to see the numerical weakness of our major parties. It should take an awful lot to break up 60 million unified people. But a few hundred lawyers, a pile of money and a sales pitch can be replaced in a heartbeat, even by someone as dumb as Donald Trump.
[As Rolling Stone's chief political reporter, Matt Taibbi's predecessors include the likes of Hunter S. Thompson and P.J. O'Rourke. Most recently, he has written The Divide (2014). Taibbi received a BA (journalism) from Bard College.]
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