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ROCK HILL, S.C. - The Class of 2011 graduated May 7 from Winthrop and departed with many hopes and dreams. Here are some of their stories.
College of Arts and SciencesA stint at the San Francisco General Hospital in Nayarit, Mexico, confirmed for premed student Cipriano Ayala that he was on the right career track. The biology major spent his time helping a general surgeon at the rural hospital, assisting in 23 surgeries and administering/removing sutures, among other tasks. Ayala, who's been accepted to the Medical University of South Carolina and hopes to become a board-certified physician, said the work taught him something valuable: "how to put the needs of a patient before anything else." This summer, biology graduate Kevin Ryan will strike out for Costa Rica, where he worked with Peter Phillips, professor of biology, to complete his undergraduate research on water quality in the country's biological corridor. He will work as a water quality intern at the University of Georgia's study abroad campus and assist with conservation efforts. Though Ryan does plan to attend graduate school, right now he said he is "happy to be helping with conservation efforts in a tropical watershed." Kathleen Brown, a mass communication major, finished Winthrop in three years. She will begin work full time as a producer for Fox News in Charlotte, writing scripts and lining up nightly shows after having worked there part time since the fall. She gained experience with coverage of two of the Charlotte area's biggest cases, including a Chesterfield County dog shooting and a child murder. She also interned at WYFF in Greenville and was an anchor on Winthrop Close-Up, a member of the Video Production Club and a photographer at The Johnsonian. Biology major James Tucker has enrolled in Wake Forest University's Ph.D. program for Molecular and Cellular Biosciences, where he wants to focus on cancer biology and immunology. His ultimate goal is to work for a university or health institute as a researcher in either field. Tucker noted that it was his undergraduate research that helped him "refine my future area of study." From parachutes to boiling flasks: Chemistry major Laura Augustine's road to Winthrop wasn't a traditional one. Augustine joined the military in September 2001, serving first as a parachute rigger and later a jumpmaster who led airborne operations. Forced to take general chemistry, she discovered a love for the subject. Soon Augustine will begin a full-time position with Pulcra Chemicals, headquartered in Rock Hill, as a chemist in the company's research and development lab. Amanda Benavides came to Winthrop as a political science major, but she'll be leaving with a degree in chemistry. Her work with Aaron Hartel, associate professor of chemistry, in his organic research lab inspired an unexpected passion for chemistry. Benavides is one of five chemistry graduates who have been accepted into the University of North Carolina-Greensboro's Ph.D. in Medicinal Biochemistry Program. Mass communication major Anna Douglas, award-winning former editor of The Johnsonian, will head to Australia for a year of traveling and work. Douglas fell in love with the country during her study abroad at Deakins University, and she will keep a blog, American Sees Oz, during her travels across the Outback. "My time at Winthrop – working at The Johnsonian, being a part of DSU, studying abroad – gave me the confidence to take the leap," she said. Elizabeth Jenkins, a sociology major, is embracing a future without firm plans. Jenkins, who won the 2011 American Legion Award, plans to join the Peace Corps after graduation and dedicate herself full time to service. Community service, in fact, has been a hallmark of Jenkins' time at Winthrop – she worked as a Resident Assistant, studied in Costa Rica and took a research trip to Nicaragua and completed an internship with the Boys and Girls Club of York County. Amy Rivers earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and will continue at Winthrop to earn a master's degree in biology. The Caskey Award winner plans to pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience. She loved everything about Winthrop, especially the faculty. "They are incredible and are not only professors but also mentors and friends. I know I would not have gotten this far without the constant support, help, gentle advice and love from my faculty." College of Business AdministrationDigital information design major Joel Bowen, just 19, plans to continue his work as lead web designer for the Geek Squad Academy with consumer electronics retailer Best Buy. Now responsible for all web development for the Geek Squad Academy brand, Bowen is training to become a project coordinator. He credits his professors with pushing him "to take active roles in leadership even as I learned" – a lesson that will serve him well in his career. Carrie Greene always loved the Internet, so Winthrop's Digital Information Design program seemed a perfect fit. She chose the web application design track. Greene was one of 28 Winthrop and York Technical College students to work at The Hive, a pilot project created by marketing firm RevenFlo to get students creating projects for real clients. She has accepted a position as an IT coordinator at Williams & Fudge in downtown Rock Hill.Graduation is bittersweet for ChrisJohn Smith, as it marks the end of her time at Winthrop as a student and a staff member. Smith, administrative specialist for the College of Business Administration, earned a degree in economics through Winthrop's Employee Education Assistance Program. She will leave Winthrop to work in financial planning at Prudential, and she will take the Certified Financial Planner exam at the end of the year. Business administration major Vy Tran will continue pursuing a career in healthcare management as a student in George Washington University's Master of Health Services Administration program. Involvement with Winthrop's campus ministry RUF taught Tran how to be part of a community and a professional organization. This lesson will prove useful to Tran, whose passion is creating "innovative solutions to improving population health." Richard W. Riley College of EducationAlison Howe, an early childhood major from Great Falls, S.C., took classes for nine years to earn her degree. She gave up her job as a teaching assistant at Great Falls Elementary School in order to fulfill the last requirements of her degree, particularly the internship. She is excited to enter education and is looking for a job to teach from kindergarten to third grade. The Winthrop experience for Corina Ellison meant outstanding faculty support. "I feel like I am prepared well for the classroom." The special education major spent her last few months at an internship at Crowder's Creek Elementary and will return to her hometown of Columbia, S.C. Physical education major Nathan Evers wants to teach physical education on the middle or high school level, as well as coach soccer or basketball. His educational training was very diverse, he said, which was invaluable. He has applications for teaching jobs in several cities across the Carolinas. College of Visual and Performing ArtsFor interior design major Mical Romano, graduation signals a time to return home to Maryland, where she will search for interior design positions in the Baltimore, Md., and Washington, D.C., metro areas. Over the summer, the Mildred Sullivan Award winner will study to become a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design: Green Associate (LEED GA).
[Back to Previous Page]


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Press Release
Fortune Anoints EMC Among Internet Elite
First-Ever Fortune e-50 List Proposes "Index of e-stocks With Potential to Upstage the Dow"; More Than 70% Are EMC Customers
EMC Corporation, the world's leading provider of enterprise storage systems, software and services, has been named among the 50 leading Internet companies by FORTUNE magazine in the first-ever Fortune e-50 index. Proposed in the upcoming December 15 issue as "a modern day antidote to the Dow Jones industrial average," the FORTUNE e-50 includes 50 companies that cover the spectrum of the Internet economy.
Many companies focused on e-commerce and Internet business models have recognized EMC Enterprise Storage systems and software as the tested and proven platforms required to build best-of-breed, information-centric infrastructures. Thirty-six of the companies on the FORTUNE e-50 index rely on EMC Enterprise Storage. In selecting EMC, FORTUNE writes, "its data storage systems are so essential to Internet efficiency that the company demands a spot on this list."
Michael C. Ruettgers, EMC President and CEO, said, "The FORTUNE e-50 is testament to EMC 's expanding role as one of the companies that makes the Internet tick. Our customers who are also on the list have one thing in common: they understand that establishing and sustaining a successful e-business requires more than savvy marketing. Sustained net success requires an IT infrastructure capable of withstanding extreme and unpredictable demand for reliable information access and rapid delivery of new applications. Leading e-companies like Amazon.com, eToys and Excite@Home have turned to EMC to ensure their Internet reputation is supported by a rock-solid information infrastructure."
The predominance of EMC customers on the FORTUNE e-50 echoes the results of other recently published lists of the leading companies of the new economy. Companies placing EMC Enterprise Storage at the core of their IT infrastructures made up 90% or more of the 1999 BUSINESSWEEK 50, WIRED Index, and BUSINESS 2.0 magazine's list of the 20 leading Internet companies.
Along with EMC, the FORTUNE e-50 index included many other companies driving the Internet economy ? "E-Companies" such as America Online, Yahoo and Priceline; "Net Communication Companies" like AT&T, MCI WorldCom and Qwest Communications; "Net Software & Service Companies" including Microsoft, Oracle and Exodus Communications; and "Net Hardware Companies" such as Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems and Intel. The entire index can be accessed at http://www.pathfinder.com/fortune/e50/int.html.
EMC Corporation, based in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, is the world's technology and market leader in the rapidly growing market for intelligent enterprise storage systems, software and services. The company's products store, retrieve, manage, protect and share information from all major computing environments, including UNIX, Windows NT, LINUX and mainframe platforms. The company has offices worldwide, trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EMC, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. For further information about EMC and its storage solutions, EMC's corporate web site can be accessed at http://www.EMC.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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Get cheap van insurance quotes in minutes from some the top UK insurers. In the UK, it is against the law to drive a van without the bare minimum of insurance cover, known as third party insurance. Failure to have the right insurance could result in your van being seized and you facing a large fine plus points on your licence which will increase your next van insurance premium. In the UK, it is the person that is insured to drive the van not the van itself.
Of course, "third party" cover is the bare minimum and it's likely you'll want to extend this to include "fire and theft" cover or even "fully comprehensive". In fact, fully comprehensive can often be cheaper!
Prices for van insurance vary greatly so it pays to shop around. The quickest way to obtain a large number of competitive quotes is to visit a comparison website. Just enter your details once and you'll be presented with a variety of quotes based on those details.


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You know the story: A guy is crawling on the ground looking for something under a lamp post. His friend comes up and says "Oh, is that where you dropped your wallet?" The guy replies," No, I dropped it over there, but this is where the light is."
So, America has dropped its wallet and instead of going off and finding some new source of light (solar-powered? cheap flashlight made in China? "alternative" media?) we are trying to find it under a lamp post that was bought and paid for by some very wealthy and powerful people.
We actually have the choice to look elsewhere for our wallets (or for what you might call a reasonable explanation for our increasing impoverishment), but people seem to keep getting sucked into that highly controlled "staying-on-message" pool of light. What the hell is happening here?
Are we so much under the sway of the Myth Of Infinite Mobility that we continue to identify with the barons who are picking our pockets- the "winners" in our culture, the fulfillers of the myth?
Have we come to a point that we believe so little in the intrinsic nobility of service to the community that the only people whose efforts we will support are those seeking a tax break so they can open a hog farm in a "right-to-work" state?
Does the Myth of the Rugged Individual hold sway to a degree that we have completely lost the sense of "there but for the grace of god go I?" and therefore hold no group responsibility for the fates of those whom fate did not bless?
Follow your dreams? OK, no problem, but please remember that our fates are intertwined.
Also remember that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're not being followed.


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I've finally nailed down (I think, anyway) the Christmas menus. Christmas Eve will be coming and going as we take turns going to the Christmas Eve services and visiting with everyone, so that will be an appetizer meal. Recipes and pictures to come.
Most of the things I've chosen are because a) a lot can be done ahead of time, b) there's some healthy stuff thrown in (I know, who eats healthy on Christmas??), and c) it's good stuff!
Christmas Eve:
Onion souffle with melba toast
Dixie Caviar and Ro-tel dip with tortilla chips
Spicy Chicken on Pita Wedges
Marinated Asparagus With Pecans
Whatever frozen bite-sized appetizer looks good at Costco
Apple Pecan Bread
Lemon Custard Bites
Christmas Morning:
Pierogs (tradition in my husband's family)
Cheese Grits
Mini Quiche (so cheating and getting these at Costco)
Banana bread
Pumpkin bread
Coffee, Tea, OJ
Christmas Lunch:
Roasted Broccoli
Roasted Roots (carrots and parsnips)
Pyramid Potatoes
Green beans with lemon, garlic, and toasted almonds
Corn Casserole (I had to have at least one casserole)
The Famous Rolls
Birthday Cake (kidlet turns 1 on Christmas day!)
Pie of some variety
Christmas Evening:
Tuscan Vegetable Soup
Harvest Grains Ciabatta
The plan for all of the cooking:
Weekend before:
- Make the spicy chicken topping for the spicy chicken pita wedges and freeze
- Bake apple pecan, banana, and pumpkin breads and freeze
- Make and bake pierogs and freeze
- Since I need the ham for the pierogs, go ahead and bake it with the honey glaze, cut into slices, and freeze
- Assemble pyramid potatoes and freeze before baking
- Make rolls and freeze
- Bake more harvest grain ciabatta and freeze
Tuesday (23rd):
- Chop all onions I'll need and keep in baggies in fridge
- Make Dixie Caviar (it's actually better after a day or so)
- Make marinated asparagus (needs to sit overnight)
Wednesday (24th):
- Pick up birthday cake (sounds like a great job for the Hubs and kidlet!)
- Assemble onion souffle and refrigerate until ready to bake
- Make lemon custard bites and refrigerate
- Make green beans for Christmas Day
Late Afternoon
- Assemble pita wedges
- Bake onion souffle
- Throw some Velveeta and Ro-tel into a mini slow-cooker
- Bake appetizers from freezer
- Take top off of veggie tray (Seriously, I'm not doing all that chopping and washing. Costco is just as capable.)
- Assemble corn casserole and refrigerate
- Take ham, potatoes, pierogs, and breads out of freezer to fridge
Christmas Day:
For Breakfast
- Make cheese grits
- Heat up quiche and pierogs
- Set everything out
- Roast broccoli and root vegetables
- Put pyramid potatoes and corn casserole in oven to bake
- Heat up green beans, ham, and rolls
- Enjoy lunch!
Late afternoon
- Make soup & warm up bread
Having a plan breaks everything up nicely and allows me to not spend too much time in the kitchen while everyone is here. And it also ensures I won't forget anything!


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Formats and tools
- Unit Description
- Reconstruct the unit from the xml and display it as an HTML page.
- Assessment Tool
- an assessor resource that builds a framework for writing an assessment tool
- Assessment Template
- generate a spreadsheet for marking this unit in a classroom environment. Put student names in the top row and check them off as they demonstrate competenece for each of the unit's elements and performance criteria.
- Assessment Matrix
- a slightly different format than the assessment template. A spreadsheet with unit names, elements and performance criteria in separate columns. Put assessment names in column headings to track which performance criteria each one covers. Good for ensuring that you've covered every one of the performance criteria with your assessment instrument (all assessement tools together).
- Wiki Markup
- mark up the unit in a wiki markup codes, ready to copy and paste into a wiki page. The output will work in most wikis but is designed to work particularly well as a Wikiversity learning project.
- Evidence Guide
- create an evidence guide for workplace assessment and RPL applicants
- Competency Mapping Template
- Unit of Competency Mapping – Information for Teachers/Assessors – Information for Learners. A template for developing assessments for a unit, which will help you to create valid, fair and reliable assessments for the unit, ready to give to trainers and students
- Observation Checklist
- create an observation checklist for workplace assessment and RPL applicants. This is similar to the evidence guide above, but a little shorter and friendlier on your printer. You will also need to create a seperate Assessor Marking Guide for guidelines on gathering evidence and a list of key points for each activity observed using the unit's range statement, required skills and evidence required (see the unit's html page for details)
- Self Assessment Survey
- A form for students to assess thier current skill levels against each of the unit's performance criteria. Cut and paste into a web document or print and distribute in hard copy.
- Moodle Outcomes
- Create a csv file of the unit's performance criteria to import into a moodle course as outcomes, ready to associate with each of your assignments. Here's a quick 'how to' for importing these into moodle 2.x
- Registered Training Organisations
- Trying to find someone to train or assess you? This link lists all the RTOs that are currently registered to deliver BSBLED502, 'Manage programs that promote personal effectiveness'.
- Google Links
- links to google searches, with filtering in place to maximise the usefulness of the returned results
- Books
- Reference books for 'Manage programs that promote personal effectiveness' on fishpond.com.au. This online store has a huge range of books, pretty reasonable prices, free delivery in Australia *and* they give a small commission to ntisthis.com for every purchase, so go nuts :)
Elements and Performance Criteria
Elements describe the essential outcomes.
Performance criteria describe the performance needed to demonstrate achievement of the element.
1. Research and analyse employee health issues
1.1 Identify and collect information on employee health issues from appropriate internal and external sources
1.2 Review findings and their implications for the organisation and business objectives
1.3 Develop options for addressing identified health issues
1.4 Obtain support from senior managers for preferred option
2. Plan health and wellbeing program
2.1 Develop program scope and objectives in consultation with appropriate industry consultants, colleagues and managers
2.2 Plan and create administrative structure and resources for program
2.3 Establish program responsibilities and clearly communicate to all stakeholders
2.4 Plan communications and marketing strategies in conjunction with stakeholders
2.5 Establish suitable evaluation methods, develop an overall program management plan and communicate this plan to stakeholders
3. Implement, administer and monitor program
3.1 Prepare policy documents, implement and monitor strategies in conjunction with program team members
3.2 Provide appropriate support, assistance and mentors to relevant personnel
3.3 Implement and monitor tracking systems according to program guidelines
3.4 Reach program milestones within agreed timelines and provide regular progress reports to stakeholders
4. Evaluate program
4.1 Use agreed evaluation methods to assess effectiveness of program at specific stages
4.2 Communicate information from program evaluation process to stakeholders
4.3 Incorporate evaluation process and outcomes into continuous improvement strategies, enterprise agreements and future corporate plans


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This article ( second update ) will cover a custom installation type for AVG Antivirus Free Edition on a computer running Microsoft Windows. Before any installation attempt, download AVG Antivirus Free on your computer ( setup file ). Once you finished the download, locate the setup file, it should look like in this picture.
Open the setup file, wait a couple of seconds or minutes - the files will be extracted - you should see a similar window.
The ``AVG Software Installer`` will be your guide through the installation process. The first window will allow you to select the language, in this example - English.
The well-known License Agreement window, make sure that you read all the terms, if you agree click on ``Accept`` button.
This is the window that allows you to choose between ``Express`` and ``Custom Install`` setup type. Due to more flexibility, I will choose ``Custom Install`` and I will disable the ``AVG Secure Search`` feature. If you hate this feature and you want to install this antivirus without the AVG Secure Search - that`s how you do this. When you install the antivirus - don`t select this feature. Although I hate toolbars I will install the AVG Security Toolbar and decide later if I want to keep it.
Now you`re at the component selection section. It allows us to configure the antivirus by disabling any unnecessary service. Unless you really know what you`re doing, my advice is to leave them as they are. Click on ``Next`` to continue.
Depending on your computer configuration it will take a couple of minutes. There is also a note coming from installer:
Installation can take a few minutes. Feel free to do other things while you wait. Please be aware that the installation does close your browser tab so we do not recommend working online during the install. Click the Minimize to taskbar button and we will notify you when completed.
We`re almost ready, unless you have a good reason, leave the first option enabled ``Product Improvement Program``. The other two options are facultative - I didn`t want to receive emails from AVG and I answered at their question. Once you`re ready click on the ``Finish`` button.
You should be able to see the AVG Antivirus Free interface running for the first time. The main purpose of this article was to show you how to install AVG Antivirus Free but I believe that if would be very useful if you will update the antivirus database and perform a full system scan right after this installation. Make sure to keep your antivirus updated and perform regularly scans and you should be fine.


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We are working through the opening paragraph of a student's account of the Bayh-Dole Act. The account creates the opportunity for a discussion about the impact of Bayh-Dole and the strange spin that has become widely accepted about what Bayh-Dole has done. At times I find myself reading about Bayh-Dole as if it is some sort of whispering god of innovation and wealth rather than an odd law that makes a show about what federal agencies must include by way of patent rights in funding agreements but then don't have to enforce.
Now consider our next sentence:
However, the act did help universities license patents, creating positive economic benefits especially in the biotechnology industry.
There's much packed in here. It's the standard story. How on earth did Bayh-Dole help universities license patents? Bayh-Dole places the greatest restrictions on nonprofit patent management. It's difficult enough to license patents, especially exclusively–Bayh-Dole requires one to license patents with a fly on your forehead. Gack. How many times does a university licensing officer have to deal with questions about what "substantially manufactured in the U.S." means, or what information might be demanded for federal reporting, or what the effect of march-in might be, or that non-exclusive license to the United States to "practice and have practiced"? Might such things somehow help the proposed transfer of a patent monopoly from a university to a company? Bayh-Dole is a total crap (a term of art, here) when it comes to "helping" license anything. There are no incentives for companies to license a posi–a patent on a subject invention. I have never, ever heard a company representative go, "Oh, good! It's a federally funded invention–this is great news, as these licenses are always better than ordinary licenses." I'm willing to bet nothing of the sort has ever been emitted from the negotiation-hole of any company officer, other than as sarcasm, perhaps aided by over- much alcohol.
If Kirby's point is rather that "help" means "help themselves"–the act did help universities help themselves to patents to license–then there may be some true impact there. University administrators routinely claimed that Bayh-Dole vested ownership of inventions made with federal support outright with the institution that hosted the research (or, gave the institution first right to claim title, or the right of first refusal–the inventor had to offer the invention to the university). It was all made up rot, and the Supreme Court tossed the vesting claim in 2011 in Stanford v Roche. Not deterred in the slightest, university administrators immediately claimed that they now had to take ownership of all inventions upfront using present assignments of future inventions in order to comply with Bayh-Dole. That, too, is rot. What they had to do was comply with the standard patent rights clause–which they have *never* done. Not to be thwarted, however, there's now a move to get NIST (which is designated to fiddle with Bayh-Dole's implementing regulations and patent rights clauses) to change the standard patent rights clause to require universities to require potential inventors to assign inventions to the host university. It's like Road Warrior–things get beaten back only to reappear upside down looking in the windscreen.
For all of this, it appears that once university administrators had made the case that federal law mandated university ownership of inventions made with federal support, it was an easy move to argue that to be fair and equitable, a university must own all inventions whatsoever. This is akin to arguing that if one is going to loot one store, one may as well–in the interest of fairness–loot all stores. "Help" must mean "help themselves." Bayh-Dole incited looting of research findings to create monopoly positions where before there had been an expectation of general access. The monopoly positions then became the object of financial interest–licensing–rather than the use–practical application–of the underlying research finding. This trade (or attempted trade) in institutional patent monopolies, too, appears to have been an "impact" of Bayh-Dole.
Now about this claim of "positive economic benefits especially in the biotechnology industry." Reading most anything from AUTM or BIO or PhRMA, one would have to agree. The patent brokers and the company trade organizations love Bayh-Dole as they love the patent monopolies that have been created under the influence of the Act. "Positive economic benefits" is about as redundantly abstract as one can get. I'm not sure what "negative economic benefits" might be, but here "positive" functions as an intensifier for the already abstract "economic benefits." What might those "benefits" be? One benefit, clearly, is that health care products covered by patent monopolies can be offered at monopoly prices rather than reasonable prices. (Oh, yes, I know that it is reasonable to price at monopoly rates when one has a monopoly–but that's not the usage of "reasonable" in Bayh-Dole.)
Another is that less diligent investors may be separated from their money more readily with the prospect of a monopoly on an invention made with federal support. For such inventions, the luster of the backing of the federal government mutes the risk that the invention is just another bamboozle (a competitive grant award, often for millions of dollars, at a university that aspires to excellence, doing work in an area of public interest where there is a pressing need).
In addition, we might consider who the benefits go to. Clearly, patent attorneys and licensing administrators routinely benefit from university patent and licensing work. That's been the number one growth area for three decades. If there are more university patents, then more patent attorneys working with universities have got their livelihoods, whether anything is ever licensed. And if there are more university licenses, then university licensing officers have got their livelihoods, whether anything licensed is ever used or developed into a commercial product. And, of course, if once every decade or two there's a modestly big hit license, then the university administrators swim in slush money falling from the dismal skies for a long, long time. I suppose those are "positive economic benefits."
If we look at those "positive economic benefits" from a different perspective, they don't seem to have the same appeal. Monopoly prices for patent medicines means that the government pays out billions of dollars that it should not have to pay, that insurance costs are higher than they ought to be, pricing some people out of insurance and leading insurance companies to complicate their offerings to extract what profit they can. And creating a scarcity of access to research findings makes companies duplicate their efforts, running up costs, and makes companies invest in designing around posi, also running up costs. Those costs, in turn, make medical innovation more expensive, keeping new companies ("free enterprise") from readily participating in the biomedical marketplace–they have to have venture capital, they have to propose products with humongous market potential.
Thus, we don't have work on "orphan" diseases–stuff too small for venture capitalists to bother with. We once had a dialysis invention that could greatly reduce the cost of dialysis. We figured the product's potential income at about $80m. We even found a VC firm with a principal whose parent required dialysis. No luck. The firm wouldn't consider deals for companies proposing less than $100m in income. So, yeah, the "positive economic benefit" is that Bayh-Dole creates new barriers to entry, so that the only things worth pursuing with "private risk capital" are the things with patent monopolies. Even if one can't make a product, there's still a good chance to "monetize" the patent by selling it off to someone else who hasn't given up hope or sees the prospect of suing others if they let down their guard and use the invention without–the horrors–first dealing with a university bureaucrat.
I run through all of this just to show that the idea of "positive economic benefits" is not so simply a matter of everyone being happy about making money from patent monopolies. There are plenty of consequences that come along but aren't called out by the abstractions.
Here is a link to Part 3.


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Varieties incorporated in the MoreGrass portfolio are on the Irish recommended list or have proven performance on the ground under real conditions.
GROUND COVER, YIELD, PERSISTENCE, HIGH-LEAF/LOW-STEM ratio, RESISTANCE to POACHING and PLANT HEALTH are the key breeding targets and core traits of our varieties.
After 70 years of EXPERIENCE in the seed business, MoreGrass prefers to trust proven varieties and the knowledge of the Irish farmer, rather than rely upon any evaluations or profit index based on simulated models.
The proof will be in your field!


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Okay, so let's say you could pick to go anywhere in the world? Where would you choose?
Sorry, I'm just nosy like this, lol.
For me, I'm already going to be coming to Australia next fall (your spring) which I am SOOOO excited for. But other than that, I'd say I'd love to visit either England, Ireland, Greece, or Italy.[/i] Ah heck, probably [b]Scotland, New Zealand, Poland, or France too.
I love to travel I suppose...


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Cheerleading Slideshows
Featured Topics
Browse Topics in Cheerleading Slideshows
What Would You LoveToKnow about Cheerleading Slideshows?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, our slideshows offer thousands upon thousands of words. Slideshows are particularly helpful when simply reading isn't enough. Cheerleading slideshows offer you an excellent opportunity to find the information you need about cheerleading in a short and succinct format!
Whether you're looking for galleries of cheerleaders or trying to find informative snippets of cheerleading life; cheerleading slideshows offer that information. More than that, having pictures to look at coupled with informative and helpful text can inspire your own ideas for your squad. Seeing how a particular stunt is performed can help you more easily try new cheerleading feats on your own.
While you're here, be sure to check out some cheers for elementary school cheerleaders as well as some more advanced cheers with motions. Better yet, go ahead and print out the slides, and use these cheers to help you lead your squad in doing the best and most creative cheers around. Slideshows are easy to print using the print button on the bottom of the picture.
If you're in a pinch and need that perfect cheer, you can simply visit a slideshow, print the cheer you want and go! You can also use these cheers for inspiration and change them to fit your squad's unique personality. That way you can spend more time doing the thing you love to do: cheering your favorite team on to victory!


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| Tropicbirds
Temporal range: Early Eocene to present
|Red-billed tropicbird (Phaethon aethereus mesonauta) with chick, Little Tobago
|Scientific classification
| Phaethontiformes
Sharpe, 1891
| Phaethontidae
Brandt, 1840
| Phaethon
Linnaeus, 1758
3, see text
Tropicbirds are a family, Phaethontidae, of tropical pelagic seabirds now classified in their own order Phaethontiformes. Their relationship to other living birds is unclear, and they appear to have no close relatives. There are three species in one genus, Phaethon. The scientific names are derived from Ancient Greek phaethon, "sun".[1] They have predominantly white plumage with elongated tail feathers and small feeble legs and feet.
Taxonomy, systematics and evolution
Tropicbirds were traditionally grouped in the order Pelecaniformes, which contained the pelicans, cormorants and shags, darters, gannets and boobies and frigatebirds; in the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the Pelecaniformes were united with other groups into a large "Ciconiiformes". More recently this grouping has been found to be massively paraphyletic (missing closer relatives of its distantly related groups) and split again.
Microscopic analysis of eggshell structure by Konstantin Mikhailov in 1995 found that the eggshells of tropicbirds lacked the covering of thick microglobular material of other Pelecaniformes.[2]
Recent research suggests that the Pelecaniformes as traditionally defined are paraphyletic too. The tropicbirds and the related prehistoric family Prophaethontidae are considered a distinct order, Phaethontiformes, not closely related to any other living birds. Some early studies in the last decade suggested a distant relationship to Procellariiformes, [3][4] but since 2004 they have been placed in Metaves, or in a lineage with no affinities with Procellariiformes, by the results of most recent molecular studies.[5][6][7][8]
Jarvis, et al.'s 2014 paper "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds" aligns the tropicbirds most closely with the sunbittern and the kagu of the Eurypygiformes, with these two clades forming the sister group of the "core water birds", the Aequornithes, and the Metaves hypothesis abandoned.[9]
Family Phaethontidae
- Genus Phaethon
- Red-billed tropicbird Phaethon aethereus (tropical Atlantic, eastern Pacific, and Indian oceans)
- Red-tailed tropicbird, P. rubricauda (Indian Ocean and the western and central tropical Pacific)
- White-tailed tropicbird, P. lepturus (widespread in tropical waters, except in the eastern Pacific)
Within the group, the red-tailed and white tailed are each other's closest relatives, with the red-billed a sister taxon of that group.
Phaethusavis and Heliadornis are prehistoric genera of tropicbirds described from fossils.
Tropicbirds range in size from 76 cm to 102 cm in length and 94 cm to 112 cm in wingspan. Their plumage is predominantly white, with elongated central tail feathers. The three species have different combinations of black markings on the face, back, and wings. Their bills are large, powerful and slightly decurved. Their heads are large and their necks are short and thick. They have totipalmate feet (that is, all four toes are connected by a web). The legs of a tropicbird are located far back on their body, making walking impossible, so that they can only move on land by pushing themselves forward with their feet.[10]
The tropicbirds' call is typically a loud, piercing, shrill, but grating whistle, or crackle. These are often given in a rapid series when they are in a display flight at the colony. In old literature they were referred to as boatswain (bo'sun'/bosun) birds due their loud whistling calls.[11]
Behaviour and ecology
Tropicbirds frequently catch their prey by hovering and then plunge-diving, typically only into the surface-layer of the waters. They eat mostly fish, especially flying fish, and occasionally squid.[10] Tropicbirds tend to avoid multi-species feeding flocks, unlike the frigatebirds, which have similar diets.
Tropicbirds are usually solitary or in pairs away from breeding colonies. There they engage in spectacular courtship displays. For several minutes, groups of 2–20 birds simultaneously and repeatedly fly around one another in large, vertical circles, while swinging the tail streamers from side to side. If the female likes the presentation, she will mate with the male in his prospective nest-site. Occasionally, disputes will occur between males trying to protect their mates and nesting areas.
Tropicbirds generally nest in holes or crevices on the bare ground. The female lays one white egg, spotted brown, and incubates for 40–46 days. The incubation is performed by both parents, but mostly the female, while the male brings food to feed the female. The chick hatches with grey down. It will stay alone in the nest while both parents search for food, and they will feed the chick twice every three days until fledging, about 12–13 weeks after hatching. The young are not able to fly initially; they will float on the ocean for several days to lose weight before flight.
Tropicbird chicks have slower growth than nearshore birds, and they tend to accumulate fat deposits while young. That, along with one-egg clutches, appears to be an adaptation to a pelagic lifestyle where food is often gathered in big amounts, but may be hard to find.
- ↑ Jobling, James A (2010). The Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird Names. London: Christopher Helm. p. 301. ISBN 978-1-4081-2501-4.
- ↑ Mikhailov, Konstantin E. (1995). "Eggshell structure in the shoebill and pelecaniform birds: comparison with hamerkop, herons, ibises and storks". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 73 (9): 1754–70. doi:10.1139/z95-207.
- ↑ Mayr, G (2003). "The phylogenetic affinities of the Shoebill (Balaeniceps rex)". Journal für Ornithologie. 144 (2): 157–175. doi:10.1007/bf02465644.
- ↑ Bourdon, E.; et al. (2005). "Earliest African neornithine bird: A new species of Prophaethontidae (Aves) from the Paleocene of Morocco". J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 25 (1): 157–170. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2005)025[0157:eanban]2.0.co;2.
- ↑ Fain, M.G.; Houde, P. (2004). "Parallel radiations in the primary clades of birds". Evolution. 58 (11): 2558–73. doi:10.1554/04-235. PMID 15612298.
- ↑ Ericson, G.P.; et al. (2006). "Diversification of Neoaves: integration of molecular sequence data and fossils". Biol Lett. 2 (4): 543–547. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0523. PMC 1834003. PMID 17148284.
- ↑ Hackett, S.; et al. (2008). "A Phylogenomic Study of Birds Reveals Their Evolutionary History". Science. 320 (5884): 1763–1768. doi:10.1126/science.1157704. PMID 18583609.
- ↑ Naish, D. (2012). "Birds." Pp. 379-423 in Brett-Surman, M.K., Holtz, T.R., and Farlow, J. O. (eds.), The Complete Dinosaur (Second Edition). Indiana University Press (Bloomington & Indianapolis).
- ↑ Jarvis, Erich D.; et al. (2014). "Whole-genome analyses resolve early branches in the tree of life of modern birds". Science. 346 (6215): 1320–1331. doi:10.1126/science.1253451. PMC 4405904. PMID 25504713.
- 1 2 Schreiber, E.A. (1991). Forshaw, Joseph, ed. Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds. London: Merehurst Press. p. 63. ISBN 1-85391-186-0.
- ↑ Green, J.F. (1887). Ocean Birds. London: R.H. Porter. p. 52.
- Boland, C. R. J.; Double, M. C.; Baker, G. B. (2004). "Assortative mating by tail streamer length in red-tailed tropicbirds Phaethon rubricauda breeding in the Coral Sea". Ibis. 146 (4): 687–690. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.2004.00310.x. (HTML abstract)
- Oiseaux.net (2006): Red-billed Tropicbird. Retrieved 4-SEP-2006.
- Spear, Larry B.; Ainley, David G. (2005). "At-sea behaviour and habitat use by tropicbirds in the eastern Pacific". Ibis. 147 (2): 391–407. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919x.2005.00418.x. (HTML abstract)
External links
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Phaethon.
|Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Tropic-bird.
- Tropicbird Identification by Don Roberson
- Tropicbird Photos by Brian Patteson
- Tropicbird videos on the Internet Bird Collection


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On July 14th I was the guest on Spooky Southcoast, a radio program out of New Bedford dedicated to the weird and paranormal. I had a great time talking with host Tim Weisberg about ghost stories, UFOs, and other interesting things that happen in New England.
If you weren't able to listen to the show live it is now archived on the Spooky Southcoast website.
I'll have a more substantive post later this week!


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Twisted Life
Hi, this is me again. I guess by the look of the page you are viewing you know who I am but another round of introduction will not hurt. I am em-em. I just graduated a few months ago. And this is my story.
I live in a small city so small that even the people in our country seldom heard of it but I am telling you it is a city; the city known as Panabo. I live here for my entire life. You might be imagining a city with huge buildings, buzzing cars and people walking every corner of the street trying to get to get to work. I hate to break your bubble but it is not really like that either. No tall buildings, few cars and fewer people walking the streets. I know what your thinking, if there are a few cars and even fewer people walking the streets then what is the means of transportation or better yet this must be a secluded city. Wrong again! We use tricycle as a means of transportation, no cab and definitely no bus just tricycles there are people who drive them and who ride them. Those who are riding have to pay of course. And the second guess being a secluded city? Nope! It is not. The city is actually found between two cities.
Social life in this city is not so great also. Nights are quiet. We have a club of course. A CLUB. To make an emphasis one club. However, it is not the upbeat kind that you can see people forming a line to get in. Just you know a small club that only few people come to. We also have A mall. Just one. No cinemas. No arcades. No carnivals. So what do people around here do for fun? Well, most of those outdoorsy type of people go to coffee shops with their laptops, go the beach which by the way is just a developing beach not the tourist spot material for NOW, go to that club that I mentioned, and go to the night market. And for the people who are the "indoorsy" type which is the category where I belong, we stay at home like the word "indoorsy" will not give you a hint. But yes, I stay at home not because I have no friends or that I am freak or have a strange religion nothing like that. I just like to stay at home because there is nothing fun to do. I have been here all my life and it is rare to find something that will capture my attention. So, I stay at home, read, cook, eat, sleep and hangout with friends.
Stop! No need to take pity. I love this kind of life. I mean it is summer after all there is no best way to spend a summer than to just lazy around all day and I get to do that. Before you doubt me and say how can we not take pity you when you are staying in a place that is only one step down from being a secluded town I will tell you this. I have also been out of this city, to the bigger cities in fact, I spent four years in a city that is an hour drive from ours; Davao city. That is where I studied college in a prestigious school I might add. I have lots of friends and a good family. But lots of friends and a good family doesn't mean no drama. Believe me my life doesn't lack of any drama. And I will give you all a treat or should I say a punishment in telling you all about it. Starting with four years in college until we reach the present. Don't worry too much though I will take easy on you who decided to waste your time on reading this and do it one day at a time. So be ready because in the next days to come I will tell you my story.


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From Chicago Sun-Times:
Bill O'Reilly has been brought low by the same process that afflicted Jerry Springer. Once respected journalists, they sold their souls for higher ratings, and follow their siren song. Springer is honest about it: "I'm going to Hell for what I do, and I know it," he's likes to say. O'Reilly insists he is dealing only with the truth. When his guests disagree with him, he shouts at them, calls them liars, talks over them, and behaves like a schoolyard bully.
I am not interested in discussing O'Reilly's politics here. That would open a hornet's nest. I am more concerned about the danger he and others like him represent to a civil and peaceful society. He sets a harmful example of acceptable public behavior. He has been an influence on the most worrying trend in the field of news: The polarization of opinion, the elevation of emotional temperature, the predictability of two of the leading cable news channels. A majority of cable news viewers now get their news slanted one way or the other by angry men. O'Reilly is not the worst offender. That would be Glenn Beck. Keith Olbermann is gaining ground. Rachel Maddow provides an admirable example for the boys of firm, passionate outrage, and is more effective for nogt shouting.


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It would not be so bad except it is r a i n i n g again today. This is a repeating performance around here for the past couple of weeks. The performance is getting a bit wearing. The cats do not like either daylight savings or the lack of sun. The fire will not even light as the atmosphere is bearing down all around. This is good day for hiding in doing something creative and not looking outside as well except for dog walking. This ritual cannot be denied.
What is bright in spite of the icky rain is a quilt I am doing for charity. It will get auctioned off sometime this year. Such quilts are fun as I get to choose the design of the quilting. No overall which is ok but can be boring. Most hateful of overall is meandering. My humble opinion.
This is the second quilt in which I have created a unique quilting design in the borders. Unfortunately I did not take a picture of the other one but do have my drawings so I can recreate it. Draw, draw, draw before turning on the machine. In both cases there were designs in at least one of the fabrics that I could use as a starting point. If you look carefully fabrics provide some interesting designs which can be simplified to become quilting designs. This one does have to go back on previous stitching so it is not something quickly stitched but it does make for interest in the borders. Using something that is fairly dense accomodates borders that have a bit of 'give' in them. Denser quilting takes up the slack. As well, tacking down the edges of the quilt with a curvy line that goes in and out of the edge helps with providing a big of give room with edges that want to 'wave' a bit. Here is a picture of part of the border(s) on the quilt.
I am using a blue/turquoise thread, Aurifil 50 weight, so the stitches are not too distinctive but with the travelling they do have definition. You can guess what part of the fabric inspired the quilting. Striking a balance between the beauty of a quilt and the stitching is important I believe. I consider this to be 'quilters embroidery'. It provides definition but does not takes over. I love to see a quilt side on to light so you can see the hills and valleys of the quilting. After all the quilt is the star in most cases unless you are competing for quilting work.
Time to get to work. The fire is finally going and providing some warm light of comfort to the grey day. This border takes patience but I think it is worth it.
Have a good day.


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Monthly Archives: January 2009
On the Difference Between Lawyers and Catfish
By David L. Brown Oops, today we learn that the stimulus bill that just passed the House of Representatives won't allow stimulus money to be spent on imported steel. That's like slamming the door on world trade, which is going … Continue reading
Posted in Economics, Law and Regulatory Issues, Politics, Satire, Irony, and Humor Comments Off on On the Difference Between Lawyers and Catfish
Congress Critters Wallow in Pork Barrel Trough
By David L. Brown It can be argued that this country got in the trouble it's in at least in large part through irresponsible government spending, private lending to unqualified borrowers and of course lots of Wall Street greed. So … Continue reading
Food Supplies Losing Race to Famine
By David L. Brown How thin is the line that divides world food supplies from famine? This thin: If China were to import another five percent of its total grain needs, it would completely eliminate all grain available in the … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture Issues, Desertification and Soil Loss, Economics Comments Off on Food Supplies Losing Race to Famine
Free Trade and Globalization: Utopian Dream
By David L. Brown Advocates of expanded free trade through elimination of tariffs and other economic barriers claim that more open trade would benefit people in developing nations. The failure of the ongoing Doha round of trade negotiations among exporting … Continue reading
Posted in Agriculture Issues, Economics, Essays and Opinion, Global Security Comments Off on Free Trade and Globalization: Utopian Dream
100-Year Drought Strikes Argentina
By David L. Brown The world is facing a famine crisis and few if any news reports acknowledge the looming threat. Now we learn that Argentina, which has been one of the world's few remaining food exporters, is stricken with … Continue reading
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It's Official—Antarctica Is Warming Too
By David L. Brown As climate change deniers continue to publicize bizarre and unproven statements suggesting that the world is cooling and that global warming is a "hoax," real scientists continue to discover evidence to the contrary. Most recently, in … Continue reading
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Misleading Questions About Climate Change
By David L. Brown The climate change deniers are in full bay these days. It seems I can't read a blog or even a news article without seeing the phrase "global warming hoax." Somehow this phrase has "gone viral," as … Continue reading
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Mexican Border War Heating Up
By David L. Brown One of the major problems facing the United States today is the fact that our First World nation is bordered by a Third World state, Mexico. The problem is magnified by the fact that Mexico is … Continue reading
Posted in Conflict and War, Global Security, Population Issues Comments Off on Mexican Border War Heating Up
A Realist Looks at the Year Ahead
By David L. Brown Good morning everyone. If you woke up this morning (as I presume you did since you are reading this) you were probably surprised to learn that we have entered a New Year, Anno Domini 2009. I … Continue reading
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Next week we'll be hosting a twitter chat using the #ShortSFF hashtag, so I don't want to dive too deeply into either story, but I have a few thoughts for now, and some questions I'd like to explore further.
First, Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land, in which planting the special seeds of the distant land Tikanu allows people to enter its library, speak (or email!) with the golems who tend it, meet with the fairies and ants who populate the garden, and perhaps even encounter dolphins and learn to defeat Leviathan. The story is delightful, and Tikanu is dangerous as well as beautiful, demanding effort to preserve and strengthen the land even as it gives gifts of food and lore. It is the land that so many children (and even adults) long for, but as with most manifestations of Faerie, it is to be entered with care and respect. After finishing the story, I want magical mint leaves!
In Because I Prayed This World, Alex Dally MacFarlane shows us a city covered with words, specifically love poetry written by and about (as far as I can tell) women. This city is set up for those excluded from The City of Ladies (a manuscript written by Christine De Pizan in 1405).
Questions crowd at Perrette's mouth like birds at a granary window. She selects the first. "What is this city?""A place for women who. . ." The woman's gaze slides away, to the women-shaped words on the door. Perrette wishes she could read that script. "Let me read from this poem: this woman's apron. It was written several centuries ago, by a woman named Hamda bint Ziyad." The woman says nothing for a while, only murmuring under her breath: reminding Perrette of her own murmurings, turning Latin to her own words. Then the woman speaks, and her words hold Perrette like a binding."My tears reveal my secrets
in a wadi with traces of beauty
rivers encircling gardens
gardens encircling rivers
among the gazelles, a sweet doe,
full of milk, has grasped my heart
her gaze keeps me from sleeping."The woman glances at Perrette. "Is that enough? There are more lines. . ."Perrette, her thoughts full of Barbe, says, "That is enough.""Think of this as Hamda bint Ziyad's city," the woman says. "And mine. And yours. It is for any woman who shares this love. I, meanwhile, would also love to know your name."
My own reading of this passage is that the city of words is a city for women who love other women. There is also mention in the story of another city of sound, for women who are illiterate but still part of these cities-which-are-not-Christine's.
I love the City in Because I Prayed This Word. I enjoy discovering new texts, discussing them with others (fancy that), and disappearing into pages and words and ideas. I studied Medieval European monasticism in college, so a story that opens with nuns illustrating The Lives of the Desert Fathers immediately intrigued me. It was a joy to be introduced to various characters in the story, watch them make connections, and eventually also find contacts outside the City in "our" world. I
Thoughts I haven't fully fleshed out but would love to discuss -
In Because I Prayed This World, the city is entered through doors. In Seven Commentaries, Tikanu is brought to our world via planting mint. Is there something to make either of leaving our world vs. bringing magic into our world, or of having a literal portal vs. infiltrating living things like a garden?
In both stories, connections made in the other world carry over into our world, and friendships are formed in our world. Harold adventures alone, and the children travelling to Narnia mostly travelled for their own development. When I was a kid, the adventures I wanted to have somewhere else weren't necessarily adventures I wanted to share with others. Where does this emphasis on community in our world come from?
I am struck that Seven Commentaries constantly builds and recruits new members. If you can be trusted with Tikanu, anyone can share some plants with you. Because I Prayed seems less about inviting new people in, but instead giving an often-persecuted subset a safe space. I think there are lots of jumping off points here to think about communities, but I'm not sure where to go with that, except I hope there's a city for lesbians who like working with their hands?


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Real Estate CyberSpace Radio/TV is a service of the Real Estate CyberSpace Society. Opinions of the interviewees and presenters do not necessarily reflect those of the Society which assumes no responsibility for those opinions and comments. Guests and topics are selected on the basis of potential interest and value to members, but selection does not constitute endorsement. Information and opinions are from sources believed to be reliable but cannot be guaranteed.


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Day 3
By my third day of Bitcoin living last year, I was down three pounds. By the end of the week, I had lost five. That will not be the case this year. On Wednesday night, I had one of the best meals I've ever eaten, so extravagant that I lost count of the number of courses. And it only cost me .25 Bitcoin, plus a .07 tip.
But we'll get to that later. My morning was less royal. I needed to get into San Francisco from Mill Valley (the suburb I wound up in the night before); the bus most commuters take doesn't take Bitcoin. I used family points instead: my brother-in-law gave me a ride. A block from my office, I use a Bitcoin-bought CVS Gyft card to pick up a banana, a canned Starbucks iced coffee and some trail mix. Yay, breakfast! Gyft -- a Bitcoin-accepting intermediary that gives me access to dozens of stores through their gift cards -- is saving my life this week.
The first news to hit my Twitter stream when I get into the office is that the SEC has issued an "investor alert" warning people to stay away from Bitcoin. I call up Lori Schock, the director of the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy, which sounded the alarm. Schock says her office has been getting questions about Bitcoin and other currencies.
"We would never say don't invest in Bitcoin. I wouldn't say that as a regulator but I do want people to be really careful. Anything that makes the headlines and is shiny and new tends to get misused by people trying to separate people from their hard-earned money. New Bitcoin, old scams," says Schock. It's not the first time the SEC has issued a Bitcoin warning. Last summer, after taking down a Texas man running a Bitcoin Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of over 200,000 Bitcoin (worth millions of real-world dollars), the office warned investors to beware of virtual currency Madoff types. "We're trying to make sure the investing public is aware. This isn't going away any time soon. Just do a bit of due diligence before investing in Bitcoin. It's new, it's virtual. If you do run into problems, then what?"
You can always try filing a class-action lawsuit, for what that's worth.
Schock pointed out that many Bitcoin companies are based abroad -- like Mt. Gox -- making life more difficult for small investors when things go awry. Who do they turn to? "The challenge of getting your money back is grossly understated for any investor who runs into problems with a virtual currency," she said. "It's a good formula for fraud because it's so opaque."
The alert tells people to beware of guaranteed high returns and investment vehicles that aren't licensed or registered. Though some of Bitcoin's more fervent libertarians are drawn to Bitcoin because it allows the state, with its licensing and registration requirements, to be circumvented, none were happy when Mt. Gox swallowed their money. It also specifically warns people who already own Bitcoin that they may be targets for "fraudulent or high-risk investment schemes." Decentralized stock exchanges are sure to catch the SEC's eyes as they develop.
The SEC namechecks an oil-drilling company that wanted Bitcoiners to buy interest in its wells, without telling them how risky that investment was, and a shady "mobile technologies" company that announced it was developing a mobile Bitcoin platform to move its penny stock higher; the SEC suspended trading on the company shortly thereafter because of "questions about the accuracy and adequacy of publicly disseminated information about the company's business, revenue and assets."
"Scam artists may take advantage of Bitcoin users' vested interest in the success of Bitcoin to lure these users into Bitcoin-related investment schemes," says the alert. "Similarly, promoters may find Bitcoin users to be a receptive audience for legitimate but high-risk investment opportunities. Fraudsters and promoters may solicit investors through forums and online sites frequented by members of the Bitcoin community."
Watch out, Reddit and BitcoinTalk users.
Knowing I have a big dinner coming, I skip lunch and head to Bitcoin payment processing company Bitpay's newly opened office in SoMa. The Atlanta-based company decided it needed an office in San Francisco where the tech magic happens. There's just two people in the office at the moment; the bulk of their 35 employees are in Atlanta. The office reminds me of my visit to competitor Coinbase the year before in that it's in a residential loft with no mention of the office on the outside of the building. Except Bitpay has a better view, looking down on the Giants Stadium. Bitpay and Coinbase, along with UK-based Blockchain, compete to be the processors for merchants that want to accept Bitcoin, taking a tiny fraction of the purchases for their revenue. Coinbase and Blockchain also offer wallet services to consumers. Coinbase and Bitpay claim over 30,000 merchants each, but Coinbase, perhaps thanks to the million people using its wallets -- over 10 times more than last year -- is winning the investment capital game with over $20 million compared to Bitpay's $2.5. Since last year, Coinbase has moved into bigger, more professional digs.
I'm at Bitpay to meet with Paige Freeman, the company's vice-president of sales. She was one of the first five employees there having gone to Georgia Tech with the company's CEO. She's wearing a Casascius Bitcoin necklace engraved with the telltale 'B' logo on the front and on the back, a scannable code attached to an address on the blockchain. It's essentially a mobile wallet she can add more money to at any time. I don't ask her how much value she's carrying around her neck at that moment.
"It's a constant land grab to get as many companies as possible interested," she says, describing her job. I ask her how she decides which merchants to try to sway to the Bitcoin cause. "I typically look at the Bitcoin community and say, 'Where do you want to spend your money?"
And she notes that the companies who commit are often interested in the competitive advantage they might get from accepting Bitcoin. "The companies that aren't market leaders are more responsive," she says. "They want to do something different to give them a competitive edge."
I'm meeting Freeman in order to head to a "Women In Bitcoin" meet-up with her. ("That's so San Francisco," says my editor.) Freeman founded the group last year along with executive recruiter Helen Hua, who used to be at Bitcoin company Tradehill before it suspended operations after losing its banking thanks to banks being spooked by the complicated regulations around the virtual currency. "We were at a Bitcoin meet-up with 50 men and 6 women," says Freeman. "And we thought, 'Why don't we do a meet-up that encourages women to get involved in Bitcoin and feel comfortable talking about it?'"
They joked that their first one would be an empty table, but five or six people showed up, including one dude. Now they usually get twenty to twenty-five people at the meet-ups that happen in San Francisco every other month or so. They do usually get a few men, "who are there to help," says Freeman. Part of it is to give women their own space; Freeman says she's heard stories -- familiar from other technology conferences -- of women feeling uncomfortable about remarks made to them, though she has never felt that way. They hope they can attract new women to the overwhelmingly male Bitcoin community, help women already interested find jobs at Bitcoin companies, and just get more women interested in Bitcoin.
"Women are the spenders after all," says Freeman. "It's a lost opportunity not to include them." We walk to a bar five minutes away called MoMo's. It does not accept Bitcoin so I can't order anything. About 10 women had arrived by the time I left, and one man, a developer evangelist from Bitpay. One was an engineer at a hashing company based out of Oakland. Another was a newly-hired marketing director at a stealth Bitcoin company. She told me it was her first day on the job and so she didn't know much about Bitcoin. But then revealed she'd known about it for years because of colleagues who mined and that she was a bullish owner herself. Her humility cloaked her knowledge, and fell away with a little prodding.
It was proof both that the Bitcoin community is not solely male and that there aren't enough places in San Francisco that take Bitcoin. There are no downtown options if you want to go to a bar where you can pay for a glass of white wine with BTC.
Not to worry: I'm off to my extravagant dinner. I order a ride with my smartphone thanks to my BTC-paid Lyft gift card, and a PhD student who caters and Lyfts on the side picked me up and whisked me off to the Mission, not even realizing that her passenger had paid in Bitcoin. When you use payment intermediaries, Bitcoin becomes invisible.
I'm eating at an underground restaurant called Lazy Bear. My friend Marcia has been telling me about it for months. You have to reserve seats weeks in advance. They're given out by lottery. It's a set menu. Every dinner sells out. The approximately 50 people eating on this night were already there, sitting at two long tables lit by a beautiful old brass chandelier. When Marcia told me she scored a reservation for this night, I worried I wouldn't be able to take advantage of it. But when she asked lawyer-turned-incredible chef David Barzelay if I could pay my $110 tab with Bitcoin, he was open to it. As of this week, the underground restaurant takes the "underground currency"; two subcultures collide and cryptofoodies are born. "We're into being on the cutting edge," he told me after dinner.
The first time I lived on Bitcoin, I felt bat sh** crazy every time I told someone I could pay for things in Bitcoin, and only in Bitcoin. Now that people are more familiar with it thanks to the intense attention it's received over the last year, I feel merely eccentric when I make the request.
Dish after dish was delightful. If you've never had green chick peas, you are missing out. The meal lasted over three hours, and when the bill came, one of my dining companions loaded the website's Coinbase QR code so I could scan it with my smartphone and pay. Barzelay said he'd looked at both Bitpay and Coinbase, but went with the latter because he could start accepting Bitcoin immediately without waiting to be verified. Barzelay's underground pop-up restaurant is soon to go aboveground with a permanent location in the Mission, and he says he'll continue accepting Bitcoin, which means my neighborhood will finally have a place where I can pay for food and drinks with cryptocash.
"It's the best meal I've ever eaten on Bitcoin," I tell my companions. "This is probably the best meal anyone has ever eaten on Bitcoin," responds one.
I eschew a BTC-paid Lyft home, opting to walk. My very full Bitcoin belly can use the exercise.
NEXT: Day 4
Value of Bitcoin as of this post's writing: 1 BTC = $435 USD.
Day 1: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: Will It Be Easier?
Day 2: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: The Cryptocurrency's Youngest Miner?
Day 3: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: Eating Like A Crypto-King
Day 4: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: Where Ross Ulbricht Went To Trade Bitcoins
Day 5: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: Dropping Digital Dollars At A Strip Club
Day 6: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: Touring Wine Country With Virtual Money
Day 7: Living On Bitcoin A Year Later: The All-Bitcoin Start-Up With No Bank Account


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4/16/13 – Current Allan Thomas/Black Bamboo Recordings news from the north shore of Kauai, Hawaii – 22 degrees north by 159 degrees west.
*Radio Play Updates:
AT's latest release 'Deep Water' continues it's journey on the airwaves at various locals around the world. A sampling:
The French radio show 'Crossroads' of Radio Arverne has been playing 'The Longest Ride' www.radioarverne.com
The Polish radio show Markomania is playing 'The Longest Ride' http://www.lpmn.pl/markomania.php?s=2012&t=125
DJ Martin of the Berlin, Germany based NBT Music Radio is spinning various 'Deep Water' CD tracks.
Longtime Hawaii and now Japan DJ Kamasami Kong is playing assorted 'Deep Water' tracks on his Pacific Oasis show. FM Cocolo Japan broadcasts all of Kansai including; Kobe, Nara, Kyoto and Osaka http://www.cocolo.co.jp/
DJ Jahwaiian Jerry from California's Humboldt county KMUD community radio has been playing several Allan Thomas CD tracks on his Coconut Wireless show. http://www.kmud.org/docs.kmud.org/KMUDGrid.pdf
DJ Brian Elie of northern California's Humboldt county KMUD community radio, aired 'It All Comes Down To Love' on his Brian's World show. The 35 year veteran community radio host spins a wide variety of you-name-it sounds, including blues, jazz, folk, reggae, R&B Brazilian and more. http://www.kmud.org/docs.kmud.org/KMUDGrid.pdf
Dj's Andrew and Loui have been playing the AT live-on-air version of the Curtis Mayfield and the Impressions song 'People Get Ready' on their Himeni O Hawai'i show on Kauai Community Radio KKCR http://www.kkcr.org/
*In Other News:
Peter Holmstedt of the independent A&R, promotion and marketing company, "Hemifrån" – based in the heart of Sweden – will release his 4th theme-based compilation of singer songwriters on 4/30/13. Titled 'The Golden Demon – New Songs About Chaos & Transition', the two-disc record is a song cycle about all the changes in the world today. Songwriters from near and far took part. Included in this compilation will be the never-before released 1980 Allan Thomas recording of 'How Long Can This Go On?'. Originally produced and now re-mixed by Stephen Barncard, the song features Allan on lead vocals and electric rhythm and fill guitars, plus members of his early eighties occasional gigging and recording group the Santa Monica Bay Band, including Pete Wasner (Lowell George, Vince Gill) keyboards, Armando Compean (Johnny Winter, Lowell George) bass, and Mike Buono (Quincy Jones) Drums. With David Anderson and Michael Lanning (George Harrison) on backing vocals. This multi-artist CD will be promoted throughout Europe and elsewhere to over a 1,000 purveyors of music, including radio stations, internet radio stations and magazines both in print and online. Thanks for including yours truly Peter.
http://www.hemifran.com/ http://www.hemifran.com/news.html http://www.hemifran.com/releases.html
*Pedal steel firebrand, and one-time AT songwriting partner Chris Templeton, flew Stephen Barncard and yours truly to Portland Maine for the mastering session of Chris' 2nd album 'The Tapper'. Mastering took place at Bob Ludwig's Gateway Mastering, and had to be one of the most remarkable audio experiences ever for Steve, Chris and AT. The affable Mr Ludwig is regarded as one of the masters of mastering and we were honored to watch him work in his custom room. Can't remember hearing recorded music sound so crystal clear and rich, with the full audio spectrum represented in fine detail through Bob's custom monitors. It was also great to discover Portland and its many charms!
'The Tapper' CD features Chris playing his innovative custom Tapper pedal steel guitar with an impressive lineup of world-class backing musicians, including pedal steel legend Buddy Emmons, and the amazing Victor Wooten bassist for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones.
http://www.thetapper.net – http://thetapper.bandcamp.com/album/the-tapper – http://www.gatewaymastering.com
*Black Bamboo Studio News:
As yet untitled AT studio album #6 is now in progress, with three tracks in production since January 1st 2013.
Longlongtime music cohort and guitarist extraodinaire, Bryan Kessler (Hawaiian Style Band) was kind enough to fly over from Oahu with his new PRS JA-15 jazzish electric guitar to record on two new tracks for CD #6. BK took the time to write out a chart of the first tune and newest member of the AT canon: 'Good To Go'. Utilizing the studio's new ground-level 25'x35′ tile floor room, we set up the Carr tube amp and a Sanken CU-44X condenser mic near the amp's grill. For the room sound we employed the workhorse mic of the studio – the Neumann U87, about 6′ away from the amp. With the use of 100′ custom guitar and mic cables run from the upstairs studio/control room to the amp and mic's downstairs, we were able to comfortably record up in the control room and remain in the zone. As is our usual recording style we worked for hours, arranging as we go, always making sure to leave me with plenty of takes for coverage for later when editing. The next day we eschewed the amp set up and plugged that PRS direct into the Neve mic pre for Bryan's sweet lead melody and rhythm guitar parts on the as yet Untitled Instrumental in C. That guitar wound up sounding quite impressive direct as well. Mahalo BK.
Mr Kessler generously loaned BB Studios his two-channel Brent Averill Neve 1272 mic pre. With our own almost duplicate two-channel 1272 BA Neve module, we now have four channels of Neve power, plus 4 channels Focusrite mic pre's right here in the uplands of Kilauea. These particular pre's were originally recommended by past A&M Studios engineer Mike Morongel back in the 1992 Kauapea road iteration of Black Bamboo Studios. These solid state pre's have been the heart and soul of much of our vocal and guitar work throughout the intervening years. We are lucky to have another A&M Studios engineer alumni Gary Meyerberg, who now resides on Maui, to occasionally service these venerable pieces of recording gear.
*Live Performance News:
*The old 1960 Jimmie Jones/Otis Blackwell hit 'Handy Man', found its way back onto my set list after taking a mysterious 20 year hiatus from the repertoire. Using JT's stellar acoustic guitar arrangement as blueprint, and a capo on the fourth fret seems to be the magic combo for the vocal to ride on. Always loved the double-entendre sentiment of the lyric, and it's still big fun and way challenging to try to nail those falsetto parts in the chorus.
*Random Reviews:
1/8/12 – Honolulu Star Advertiser – John Berger review of 'Deep Water': A requiem for pro surfer Andy Irons is one of several memorable songs on this recent project by Kauai resident Allan Thomas. "May you rip in peace, brother Andy, in waves that never end," he sings in "The Longest Ride," no doubt expressing the feelings of Irons' family, friends and fans.
Several of Thomas' musical arrangements evoke memories of Steely Dan's early work. Other songs stand out on the strength of Thomas' lyrics. Take "The Downturn," a horrifying look at the continuing aftermath of America's economic meltdown. Or "Monkey Business," where he assumes the persona of a burned out drug smuggler. A third song "Soldier Of Misfortune," is neatly constructed around a clever mutation of an age-old phrase.
Thomas harks back to the beatnik poets of the late 50′s with "Other Than That," an acerbic shopping list of personality flaws and unidentified annoying people which he recites over brisk percussion tracks.
The title tune is a gentle love song reminiscent of Dan Fogelberg, as Thomas compares the emotions stirred by a first kiss to "diving into deep water from the highest cliff." He also explores the toxic fallout of bad relationships with a dark philosophical tune, "Everything Happens For A Reason."
Keys and Chords, a music website and magazine based in Belgium reviews 'Deep Water':
*AT CD's & Downloads Available @:
Anyone wishing to purchase a copy of the 'Deep Water' compact disc directly from Black Bamboo Recordings can always e-mail us @ firstname.lastname@example.com or send a check for $12.00 plus $3.00 shipping & handling per CD in USA – and $12.00 plus $5 for S&H outside USA to: Black Bamboo Recordings – po box 785 – Hanalei, HI. 96714 – USA
For those interested in purchasing more than one copy of 'Deep Water' – or any of Allan's other CD's for that matter – we are offering discounts of $10.00 each CD plus shipping.
Aloha for now…


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TBBA Basic Sourdough - Flour Comparison
Now that I have made a few decent loaves of SD in a row using Reinhart's Basic Sourdough formula, I have been eager to experiment. However, I thought I'd start simply by doing a white flour comparison so things wouldn't get too out of hand for a beginner like me! I doubled the recipe to make four loaves and used my usual KAF Organic AP for two and Shipton Mill Traditional Organic All Purpose, which I picked up during our trip to England in June, for the other two loaves. I used exactly the same procedures for all of the loaves, even down to the amount of water. They all came out tasting very good, though the Shipton Mill flour definitely soaked up more water and had a tighter crumb. It also produced a milder tasting, slightly sweeter loaf.
My makeshift batard rising couche: jars of peanut butter supported by rolled up towels and covered by a disposable plastic tablecloth draped over cooling racks. Here, one loaf is covered and one isn't.
KAF AP on the left and the ever so slightly smaller Shipton Mill AP on the right. Not much difference on the outside!
KAF AP crumb on the left and Shipton Mill AP crumb on the right. I'm not a great photographer (to say the least!) but I think you can see the larger holes of the KAF loaf.
I don't know if anyone else here at TFL has had a lot of experience with Shipton Mill flour, but I got it since it is what Richard Bertinet uses... and we were in England anyway... and I wanted to see the mill... If I lived in England within say, 50 miles or so of Shipton Mill, I'd probably make the trip to buy their flour. However, since I live in the USA I wouldn't say it's worth trying to special order or anything.


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Despite the author's vehemently expressed contempt, popular culture enthusiastically embraced the imagery and themes of A Clockwork Orange – especially once Stanley Kubrick turned it into a notorious film in 1972. The distinctive language of the book, which had earlier captivated Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, found favour with David Bowie at the height of his popularity. He used the term 'droogie' in 'Suffragette City', a song from his 1972 Ziggy Stardust album, while opening concerts with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, as used in the film's soundtrack. Bowie was also among the first to appropriate the look of Kubrick's version, which inspired his stage costumes of the era. Later in the 1970s, the Korova record label took its name from the novel's 'milk-plus mesto' bar; names taken directly from A Clockwork Orange include those of Sheffield-based bands Heaven 17 (the film has The Heaven Seventeen at number 4 in the charts with 'Inside' and, later, Moloko – one of the words Burgess transliterated from Russian, where it means milk. He also referenced the Soviet state record label, Melodia, through Alex, as a record shop: "the disc-bootick I favoured... a real horrorshow mesto and skorry, most times, at getting the new recordings."
The official soundtrack gave another twist to Burgess's vision – Kubrick gave it the same prominence and single-minded attention to detail as he had the film's overall design. He was contacted by electronic music pioneer Walter (later Wendy) Carlos, who he then commissioned to interpret the score on Moog synthesiser. For the main theme, 'March from A Clockwork Orange', Carlos and collaborator/producer Rachel Elkind used the choral movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, with the vocal part featuring the first known recording of a vocoder. This appeared alongside other electronic re-workings of Beethoven, Elgar and Rossini, which built on the success of Carlos's earlier ground-breaking experiment in applying modern technology to classical standards, 1968's celebrated album Switched-on Bach. The original songs on the soundtrack included 'Timesteps,' described by Carlos as an "autonomous composition with an uncanny affinity for Clockwork" and which is "still considered one of the landmarks of electronic music." Not entirely satisfied with the official album which accompanied the film, as it excluded much of what they had recorded, Carlos and Elkind shortly released their own score for A Clockwork Orange, which "brought together all the music that Wendy suggested, arranged and / or composed for this remarkable film."
|Wendy Carlos in her New York studio
|The Simpsons, among other representations of A Clockwork Orange


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Last month, Nakamachi Street in Matsumoto put on a lively, hands-on "Japanese Culture Experience" event where visitors could try all sorts of traditional Japanese crafts and activities. Over 150 international tourists and foreign residents came over the course of the two-day event making Nakamachi one lively place to be!
To add to the atmosphere, the main activities were held at the beautiful Kurassic-kan, a former sake brewery that was turned into community center. Here, visitors eagerly learned how to fold origami into intricate shapes, write their names in Japanese characters using calligraphy brushes, and enjoyed the grace of the Japanese tea ceremony. Outside in Kurassic-kan's plaza, Matsumoto's resident ninja taught kids how to shoot down imaginary enemies with ninja blowgun darts and the city's one-and-only rickshaw puller offered people shorts rides and photos on his rickshaw.
Visitors also got to try wearing yukata/kimono (thanks to Matsumoto's Hanakomichi kimono rental service), bang out thundering drum beats with the big taiko drums set up outside, play with all kinds of old-fashioned toys like stilts and kendama, and even taste Nakamachi's specially brewed sake!
That's still not all — several shops in Nakamachi had their own activities like trying on geta (a traditional Japanese form of footwear), local food and drink tastings, and trying out the shamisen. One shop taught people how to play a traditional geisha game called konpira fune-fune which is a simple yet challenging concentration game where players must tap a saucer and pillow in the correct pattern along to the beat of shamisen music.
Personally, I went to the event on both days, and even though I've been living in Japan for a few years now, I still got to try many new things: Kimono, rickshaw rides, geisha games, ninja blowguns… But, although all the activities were engaging and fun, perhaps the best part was meeting new people from all over the world and interacting with the Matsumoto locals! I met a cyclist from Andorra (that tiny country between Spain and France) who had bike all the way from Aomori, a photographer from India, tourists from Egypt, and a researcher from England.
In the end, the whole event became more than just an event about sharing Japanese culture — it was a great international culture exchange opportunity for everyone! Let's just hope we see more events like this in Matsumoto and other places in Nagano in future 🙂 Thank you Nakamachi!


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For many people the news that Kate McCann is now a suspect may seem very suspicious. But unlike British law, Portugal does not operate under the same definitions. Here's an explanation of what becoming an arguido or formal suspect means:
Becoming an arguido or formal suspect provides certain legal rights under Portuguese law. An arguido is a person of interest to the inquiry.
It provides certain legal protection that is not extended to a witness, including the right to remain silent during questioning and the right to legal representation.
It is not uncommon for people caught up in criminal investigations in Portugal to declare themselves arguidos in order to receive this protection.
A person can ask for arguido status if they feel the line of questioning is implying that they are a suspect.
So far the only formal suspect in the McCann case is British expatriate and former property developer Robert Murat, 33.
He was named under Portuguese law as having arguido status on May 15 but he was not charged, or even formally arrested.
Once someone is an arguido they can be arrested, but only if there is sufficient evidence.
Becoming an arguido can also limit freedom of movement and force the suspect to be in regular contact with police.
Murat had to report to police every five days and could not leave the country.