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Ramsey Washington and W. S. Taylor, for the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Mr. Justice HARLAN delivered the opinion of the court
The plaintiff in error, a municipal corporation of Kentucky, insists that, by the final judgment of the court of appeals of that commonwealth ( 39 S. W. 836), sustaining the validity of certain taxation of its waterworks property, it has been deprived of rights secured by that clause of the constitution of the United States which prohibits any state from passing a law impairing the obligation of contracts. That is the only question which this court has jurisdiction to determine upon this writ of error. Rev. St. U. S. 709.
By an act of the general assembly of Kentucky approved May 1, 1886, the city of Covington was authorized to build a water reservoir or reservoirs within or outside its corporate limits, either in the county of Kenton or in any county adjacent thereto, and acquire, by purchase or condemnation in fee [173 U.S. 231, 233] simple, the lands necessary for such reservoirs, and connect the same with the waterpipe system then existing in the city; to build a pumping house near or adjacent to the Ohio river, and provide the same with all necessary machinery and appliances, together with such lands as might be needed for the pumping house, and for connecting it with said reservoir or reservoirs. Section 21.
The declared object of that legislation was that the city and its citizens might be provided with an ample supply of pure water for all purposes. To that end, the city was authorized and empowered, by its board of trustees, to issue and sell bonds to an amount not exceeding $600,000, payable in not more than 40 years after date, with interest at a rate not exceeding 5 per cent. per annum; such bonds not, however, to be issued until the question of issuing them and the question of the location of the reservoir or reservoirs, whether above or below the city, should first be submitted to the qualified voters of the corporation at an election held for that purpose, and approved by a majority of the votes cast.
By section 31 of that act it was provided that 'said reservoir or reservoirs, machinery, pipes, mains and appurtenances, with the land upon which they are situated, shall be and remain forever exempt from state, county and city tax.' Acts Ky. 1885-86, p. 317, c. 897.
A subsequent act, approved February 15, 1888, authorized the city, in execution of the provisions of the act of 1886, to issue and sell bonds to the additional amount of $400,000. Acts Ky. 1887-88, p. 221, c. 137.
The scheme outlined in these acts received the approval of the majority of the votes cast at an election held in the city, and thereafter bonds to the amount of $600,000 and $400,000 were issued in the name of the city, and disposed of.
The proceeds of the bonds were duly applied by the city in building water reservoirs, in constructing the requisite approaches, pipes, and mains, in acquiring the lands necessary for the reservoirs and for its approaches and connections, in erecting a pumping house and providing it with necessary machinery and appliances, and in buying land for a pumping house, [173 U.S. 231, 234] and the connection thereof by pipes and mains with the reservoirs.
The entire works, upon their completion, passed under the control of the city which managed the same until March 19, 1894, by the commissioners of waterworks, under the act of March 31, 1879, c. 121 (Acts Ky. 1879, p. 93); and since March 19, 1894, they have been controlled under the act of that date (chapter 100), by a board, subject to such regulations as the city by ordinance might provide. Acts Ky. 1894, p. 278. By the latter act it was also provided that the net revenue derived from its waterworks by any city of the second class-to which class the city of Covington belongs- should be applied exclusively to the improvement or reconstruction of its streets and other public ways.
When the above act of May 1, 1886, was passed, there was in force a general statute of Kentucky, passed February 14, 1856, which provided, as to all charters and acts of incorporation granted after that date, that 'all charter and grants of or to corporations, or amendments thereof, and all other statutes, shall be subject to amendment or repeal at the will of the legislature, unless a contrary intent be therein plainly expressed: provided, that whilst privileges and franchises so granted may be changed or repealed, no amendment or repeal shall impair other rights previously, vested'; and that 'when any corporation shall expire or be dissolved, or its corporate rights and privileges shall cease by reason of a repeal of its charter or otherwise, and no different provision is made by law, all its works and property, and all debts payable to it shall be subject to the payment of debts owing by it, and then to distribution among the members according to their respective interests; and such corporation may sue and be sued as before, for the purpose of settlement and distribution as aforesaid.' 2 Rev. St. Ky. p. 121.
This statute was not modified by the general revenue statute of May 17, 1886, which took effect September 14, 1886, and became part of chapter 68 of the General Statutes of 1888. It constitutes section 1987 of the revision known as the 'Kentucky Statutes of 1894.' Nor has it been changed by any subsequent legislation in Kentucky. [173 U.S. 231, 235] The present constitution of Kentucky, adopted in 1891, contains the following provisions:
By the Kentucky Statutes of 1894 it is provided:
In the year 1895 certain lands acquired under the above act of May 1, 1886, and constituting a part of the Covington waterworks, were assessed for state and county taxation, pursuant to the statutes enacted after the passage of that act, and conformably as well to the constitution of Kentucky if that instrument did not exempt them from taxation. The taxes so assessed not having been paid, those lands, after d e notice, were sold at public outcry by the sheriff (who by law was the collector of state and county revenue); and, no other bidder appearing, the commonwealth of Kentucky purchased them for $2,187.24, the amount of the taxes, penalty, commission, and cost of advertising.
The present action was brought by the commonwealth to recover possession of the property so purchased.
The principal defense is that the provision in the act of May 1, 1886, that the reservoir or reservoirs, pumping house, machinery, pipes, mains, and appurtenances, with the land upon which they are situated, 'shall be and remain forever exempt from state, county and city taxes,' constituted, in respect of the lands in question, a contract between the city of Covington and the commonwealth of Kentucky, the obligation of which was impaired by the subsequent legislation to which reference has been made.
Referring to section 170 of the present constitution of Kentucky, declaring that 'there shall be exempt from taxation public property used for public purposes,' the court of appeals of Kentucky, in this case, said: 'It was followed by necessary statutory enactments, which, however, could neither curtail nor enlarge exemption from taxation, as prescribed by the constitution; and accordingly, in section 4020, Ky. St., adopted for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of section 170, is the identical language we have quoted. As it was manifestly intended by both the constitution and stat- [173 U.S. 231, 237] ute to make subject to taxation all property not thereby in express terms exempted, it results that, unless the waterworks property of the city of Covington be, in the language or meaning of section 170, 'public property used for public purposes,' it must be held, like similar property in other cities, subject to taxation, and the special act of May 1, 1886, stands repealed. Assuming, as a reasonable and beneficial rule of construction requires us to do, that the phrase 'for public purposes' was intended to be construed and understood according to previous judicial interpretation and usage, there can be no doubt of the proper meaning and application of it, for in the cases cited and others, where the question of subjecting particular property of cities to taxation arose, the words 'for public purposes' had been held by this court to mean in that connection the same as the words 'for governmental purposes,' and so property used by a city for public or governmental purposes was held to be exempt, while that adapted and used for profit or convenience of the citizens, individually or collectively, was held to be subject to taxation; and, recognizing and applying that distinction, waterworks property of a city has been invariably treated by this court as belonging to the latter class, and consequently subject to state and county taxation. In our opinion, the property in question is, under the constitution, subject to taxation, and the statute enacted in pursuance of it operated to repeal the special act of May 1, 1886.'
However much we may doubt the soundness of any interpretation of the state constitution implying that lands and buildings are not public property used for public purposes when owned and used under legislative authority by a municipal corporation, one of the instrumentalities or agencies of the state, for the purpose, and only for the purpose, of supplying that corporation and its people with water, and when the net revenue from such property must be applied in the improvement of public ways, we must assume, in conformity with the judgment of the highest court of Kentucky, that section 170 of the constitution of that commonwealth cannot be construed as exempting the lands in question from taxation. In other words, we must assume that the phrase 'pu- [173 U.S. 231, 238] blic purposes,' in that section, means 'governmental purposes,' and that the property here taxed is not held by the city of Covington for such purposes, but only for the 'profit or convenience' of its inhabitants, and is liable to taxation, at the will of the legislature, unless, at the time of the adoption of the constitution of Kentucky, it was exempt from taxation in virtue of some contract the obligation of which is protected by the constitution of the United States.
The fundamental question in the case, then, is whether, at the time of the adoption of that constitution, the city of Covington had, in respect of the lands in question, any contract with the state the obligation of which could not be impaired by any subsequent statute or by the present constitution of Kentucky, adopted in 1891. If the exemption found in the act of 1886 was such a contract, then it could not be affected by that constitution any more than by a legislative enactment.
We are of opinion that the exemption from taxation embodied in that act did not tie the hands of the commonwealth of Kentucky, so that it could not, by legislation, withdraw such exemption, and subject the property in question to taxation. The act of 1886 was passed subject to the provision in a general statute of Kentucky, above referred to, that all statutes 'shall be subject to amendment or repeal at the will of the legislature, unless a contrary intent be therein plainly expressed.' If that act in any sense constituted a contract between the city and the commonwealth, the reservation in an existing general statute of the right to amend or repeal it was itself a part of that contract. Griffin v. Insurance Co., 3 Bush, 592. The city accepted the act of 1886, and acquired under it the property taxed subject to that reservation. There was in that act no 'plainly-expressed' intent never to amend or to repeal it. It is true that the legislature said that the reservoirs, machinery, pipes, mains, and appurtenances, with the land upon which they were situated, should be forever exempt from state, county, and city taxes. But such a provision falls short of a plain expression by the legislature that at no time would it exercise the reserved power of [173 U.S. 231, 239] amending or repealing the act under which the property was acquired. The utmost that can be said is that it may be inferred from the terms in which the exemption was declared that the legislature had no purpose, at the time the act of 1886 was passed, to withdraw the exemption from taxation; not that the power reserved would never be exerted, so far as taxation was concerned, if in the judgment of the legislature the public interests required that to be done. The power expressly reserved to amend or repeal a statute should not be frittered away by any construction of subsequent statutes based upon mere inference. Before a statute-particularly one relating to taxation-should be held to be irrepealable, or not subject to amendment, an intent not to repeal or amend must be so directly and unmistakably expressed as to leave no room for doubt; otherwise, the intent is not plainly expressed. It is not so expressed when the existence of the intent arises only from inference or conjecture.
The views we have expressed as to the power of the legislature under a reservation made by general statute of the right to amend or repeal are supported by many adjudged cases: Tomlinson v. Jessup, 15 Wall. 454, 457; Railroad Co. v. Maine, 96 U.S. 499 , 510; Railroad Co. v. Georgia, 98 U.S. 359 , 365; Hoge v. Railroad Co., 99 U.S. 348 , 353; Sinking Fund Cases, 99 U.S. 700 , 720; Greenwood v. Freight Co., 105 U.S. 13 , 21; Close v. Cemetery, 107 U.S. 466, 476 , 2 S. Sup. Ct. 267; Waterworks Co. v. Schottler, 110 U.S. 347, 352 , 4 S. Sup. Ct. 48; Louisville Gas Co. v. Citizens' Gas- Light Co., 115 U.S. 683, 696 , 6 S. Sup. Ct. 265; Gibbs v. Gas Co., 130 U.S. 396, 408 , 9 S. Sup. Ct. 553; Sioux City St. Ry. Co. v. Sioux City, 138 U.S. 98, 108 , 11 S. Sup. Ct. 226; Water Co. v. Clark, 143 U.S. 1, 12 , 12 S. Sup. Ct. 346. In Tomlinson v. Jessup, above cited, referring to the reserved power to amend and repeal, this court said: 'The object of the reservation, and of similar reservations in other charters, is to prevent a grant of corporate rights and privileges in a form which will p eclude legislative interference with their exercise if the public interest should at any time require such interference. It is a provision intended to preserve to the state control over its contract with the corporators, which, without that provi- [173 U.S. 231, 240] sion, would be irrepealable, and protected from any measures affecting its obligation. There is no subject over which it is of greater moment for the state to preserve its power than that of taxation. ... Immunity from taxation, constituting in these cases a part of the contract with the government, is, by the reservation of power such as is contained in the law of 1841, subject to be revoked equally with any other provision of the charter whenever the legislature may deem it expedient for the public interests that the revocation shall be made. The reservation affects the entire relation between the state and the corporation, and places under legislative control all rights, privileges, and immunities derived by its charter directly from the state.' So, in Railroad Co. v. Maine, above cited: 'By the reservation in the law of 1831, which is to be considered as if embodied in that act [one subsequently passed], the state retained the power to alter it in all particulars constituting the grant to the new company, formed under it, of corporate rights, privileges, and immunities. The existence of the corporation and its franchises and immunities, derived directly from the state, were thus kept under its control.'
In our consideration of the question of contract, we have assumed, in harmony with the judgment of the court of appeals of Kentucky, that the property in question was held by the city only for the profit or convenience of its people collectively; that is, in its proprietary, as distinguished from its governmental, character. There are cases adjudging that the extent of legislative power over the property of municipal corporations, such as incorporated towns and cities, may depend upon the character in which such property is held. Mr. Dillon, in his work on Municipal Corporations, says: 'In its governmental or public character, the corporation is made, by the state, one of its instruments, or the local depositary of certain limited and prescribed political powers, to be exercised for the public good on behalf of the state, rather than for itself. In this respect it is assimilated, in its nature and functions, to a county corporation, which, as we have seen, is purely part of the governmental machinery of the sovereignty [173 U.S. 231, 241] which creates it. Over all its civil, political, or governmental powers, the authority of the legislature is, in the nature of things, supreme and without limitation, unless the limitation is found in the constitution of the particular state. But, in its proprietary or private character, the theory is that the powers are supposed not to be conferred, primarily or chiefly, from considerations connected with the government of the state at large, but for the private advantage of the compact community, which is incorporated as a distinct legal personalty or corporate individual; and as to such powers, and to property acquired thereunder, and contracts made with reference thereto, the corporation is to be regarded quo ad hoc as a private corporation, or at least not public in the sense that the power of the legislature over it, or the rights represented by it, is omnipotent.' 1 Dill. Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.) pp. 107, 108, 67, and authorities cited.
If, however, the property in question be regarded as in some sense held by the city in its governmental or public character, and therefore as public property devoted to public purposes,-which is the interpretation of the state constitution for which the city contends,-there would still be no ground for holding that the city had in the act of 1886 a contract, within the meaning of the constitution of the United States. A municipal corporation is a public instrumentality, established to aid in the administration of the affairs of the state. Neither ts charter nor any legislative act regulating the use of property held by it for governmental or public purposes is a contract, within the meaning of the constitution of the United States. If the legislature choose to subject to taxation public property held by a municipal corporation of the state for public purposes, the validity of such legislation, so far as the national constitution is concerned, could not be questioned.
In City of New Orleans v. New Orleans Waterworks Co., 142 U.S. 79, 91 , 12 S. Sup. Ct. 147, after referring to previous adjudications, this court said that the authorities were full and conclusive to the point that a municipal corporation, being a mere agent of the state, 'stands in its governmental or public character in no contract relations with its sovereign, at whose pleasure its charter may [173 U.S. 231, 242] be amended, changed, or revoked, without the impairment of any constitutional obligation, while with respect to its private or proprietary rights and interests it may be entitled to the constitutional protection.' Chancellor Kent, in his Commentaries, says: 'In respect to public or municipal corporations, which exist only for public purposes, as counties, cities, and towns the legislature, under proper limitations, has a right to change, modify, enlarge, restrain, or destroy them; securing, however, the property for the uses of those for whom it was purchased. A public corporation, instituted for purposes connected with the administration of the government, may be controlled by the legislature, because such a corporation is not a contract, within the purview of the constitution of the United States. In those public corporations there is, in reality, but one party, and the trustees or governors of the corporation are merely trustees for the public.' 2 Kent, Comm. (12th Ed.) * 306. Dillon says: 'Public, including municipal, corporations, are called into being at the pleasure of the state; and while the state may, and in the case of municipal corporations usually does, it need not obtain the consent of the people of the locality to be affected. The charter or incorporating act of a municipal corporation is in nosense sense a contract between the state and the corporation, although, as we shall presently act of a municipal corporation is in no not, indeed, in favor of the corporation or rather the community which is incorporated, may arise under it. Public corporations, within the meaning of this rule, are such as are established for public purposes exclusively,-that is, for purposes connected with the administration of civil or of local government; and corporations are public only when, in the language of Chief Justice Marshall, 'the whole interests and franchises are the exclusive property and domain of the government itself,' such as quasi corporations (so called), counties, and towns or cities upon which are conferred the powers of local administration. Subject to constitutional limitations presently to be noticed, the power of the legislature over such corporations is supreme and transcendent. It may, where there is no constitutional inhibition, erect, change, [173 U.S. 231, 243] divide, and even abolish them, at pleasure, as it deems the public good to require.' 1 Dill. Mun. Corp. (4th Ed.) p. 93, 54.
In any view of the case, there is no escape from the conclusion that the city of Covington has no contract with the state exempting the property in question from taxation which is protected by the contract clause of the national constitution.
Perceiving no error in the record of which this court may take cognizance, the judgment is affirmed.
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Is It Really 'Gluten-Free'? FDA Sets New Limits
People with celiac disease can now trust that foods labeled "gluten-free" are safe for them to eat, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says.
The agency issued a final rule today (Aug. 2) that requires foods with "gluten-free" labels to limit their gluten levels to less than 20 parts gluten per million parts of food.
The new rule also says that gluten-free foods cannot contain any wheat, rye or barley, or any of their crossbreeds. If any ingredients derived from these grains are used, they have to be processed to reduce their gluten to amounts less than the new limits, according to a statement from the FDA.
"This standard 'gluten-free' definition will eliminate uncertainty about how food producers label their products, and will assure people with celiac disease that foods labeled 'gluten-free' meet a clear standard established and enforced by FDA," said Michael R. Taylor, deputy FDA commissioner for foods and veterinary medicine.
People with the intestinal condition celiac disease have to avoid eating foods that contain gluten, proteins that occur naturally in wheat, rye and barley. Eating cakes, pasta and bread made with these grains' flours can be life threatening for people with celiac disease.
"The only choice for the up to 3 million Americans living with CD is to adhere strictly to a gluten-free diet," said Virginia A. Cox, associate commissioner of the FDA's Office of External Affairs.
For these people, consuming gluten can damage the intestines, prevent the absorption of vitamins and minerals, and lead to a host of other health problems, she said.
Celiac disease is a condition in which the body's defense system reacts to gluten by attacking the lining of the small intestine, and currently has no cure. The symptoms include pain, diarrhea and weight loss.
The new gluten limit is the lowest level that can be detected in foods using available tools, and is consistent with the limits set in other countries, according to the FDA.
"This is a tool that has been desperately needed," Andrea Levario, executive director of the American Celiac Disease Alliance said. "It keeps food safe for this population, gives them the tools they need to manage their health, and obviously has long-term benefits for them." [How to know if you have celiac disease]
The new rules are an addition to FDA requirements for other food labeled as "free": "Salt free" or "sodium free" means less than 5 grams of salt per serving, and items labeled "sugar free" should contain less than 0.5 g of sugar per serving. Foods labeled "zero calories" should have less than five calories in each serving.
Manufacturers have one year to ensure their gluten-free labels are consistent with the FDA requirements. Foods that carry labels stating they're gluten-free, free of gluten, without gluten and no gluten, but fail to meet the set limits, would be considered misbranded and subject to regulatory action by the FDA.
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July 7, 2011, New York – In response to reports that the Obama administration had flown a Somali man accused of ties to terrorism to New York to face prosecution after holding and interrogating him at sea for more than two months, the Center for Constitutional Rights issued the following statement:
While we join with those praising the Obama administration for charging Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame before a federal court rather than a flawed and lawless military tribunal, and rather than holding him indefinitely without charge, we condemn the administration for holding and interrogating Mr. Warsame incommunicado for more than two months on a U.S. naval ship. Under our domestic and international law, he should have been treated like a civilian criminal suspect and brought to the U.S. for trial immediately.
Moreover, according to The New York Times, the administration did not notify the International Committee of the Red Cross of Mr. Warsame's capture until approximately two months after his detention. This is illegal and inexcusable. It means in effect that Mr. Warsame was disappeared for this period with all the attendant dangers such hidden detention engenders. It is reminiscent of early Guantánamo Bay and CIA "black site" detention.
We also question under what authority Mr. Warsame was captured and detained. The administration must clarify whether it claims authorization to capture and detain him under the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force. Such authority only extends to those involved with the 9/11 attacks, and his relationship to those attacks seems remote or nonexistent. Rather, it appears that the administration is stretching the meaning of that law to capture and detain, perhaps indefinitely, anyone it claims is a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world. Such actions undercut the important criminal protections to which every suspect is entitled. Those protections kick in upon arrest and not two months after the fact.
Even accepting the administration's argument of laws of war, it is illegal under any circumstance to hold people at sea except pending transfer to land and not for purposes of interrogation outside the law. That provision was written into the Geneva Conventions and U.S. military regulations, most likely in response to Japanese abuses of American prisoners aboard 'Hell Ships' in World War II.
The administration must answer a host of questions surrounding this action:
First are questions regarding the legal authority for Mr. Warsame's capture and detention.
- Under what legal theory and under what power was the administration operating to justify his capture and detention?
- If the administration claims authority under the AUMF, how would that have justified the detention given that there is supposed to be an explicit tie to 9/11 in those cases?
- Does the administration believe we are engaged in armed conflict in Somalia sufficient to trigger application of the laws of war? With the Shabab?
- If Mr. Warsame was purportedly held in connection with an armed conflict, what does the administration claim his status was under the laws of war?
- Does the administration claim that Congress has authorized armed conflict with the Shabab?
Second are questions concerning his treatment once captured.
- Under what authority does the administration claim it may hold a person beyond fourteen days without notifying the Red Cross?
- How long does the administration claim they may hold a person without procedural protections (e.g., access to counsel and being informed of the right to habeas corpus) before they are prosecuted?
- How can Mr. Warsame's Miranda waiver have been genuinely voluntary if he was only read his rights two months into his incommunicado detention and interrogation, even after a supposed "break"?
- Was Mr. Warsame allowed contact with his family?
- Separate and apart from authority to detain, what authority did they have to interrogate him?
Third are questions regarding how widespread is the practice under which Mr. Warsame was held.
- How many other people are floating around on U.S. prison ships?
- How many of those are unknown to the Red Cross?
The proper way to handle Mr. Warsame was the way the U.S. handled other pirate cases in 2009 and 2010: suspects were brought to the U.S. to face criminal charges in New York and Virginia within days of capture at sea. The Obama administration appears to have created a floating legal black hole, just as Guantánamo Bay was originally conceived: no Red Cross, no lawyers, no habeas – no rights.
The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.


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BY STRIKING down a key section of the Voting Rights Act Tuesday, five justices of the US Supreme Court dealt a setback to fair elections in states with a documented history of racial discrimination. And in undoing this key protection of individual voting rights, they relied on a selective reading of the facts.
The section in dispute required nine states, plus a sprinkling of other counties and communities, to seek prior approval from the US Department of Justice for any changes to their election laws or apportionment plans. These jurisdictions were chosen via a formula indicating a record of suppressing black or Hispanic voter turnout, even through ostensibly neutral devices such as literacy tests. Five Supreme Court justices voted to invalidate that formula, on the grounds that it is outdated. Black voter registration and turnout rates, the majority points out, now rival those of white voters throughout much of the Deep South.
Yet lawmakers in many of those same states have shifted to subtler means of blunting the influence of nonwhite voters at the polls. And as dissenter Ruth Bader Ginsburg pointed out, the Voting Rights Act has thwarted any number of dubious schemes — such as leaving vacant legislative seats in black-majority areas unfilled, or abolishing municipal council districts in favor of at-large systems, or arbitrarily moving polling places out of minority neighborhoods.
It's true that the Voting Rights Act is nearly half a century old, and no one should presume that the existing law should be automatically extended into the indefinite future. But it hasn't been. Congress recognized that subjecting some states to greater scrutiny than others was an extraordinary step, so it has periodically reviewed and adjusted the law — most recently in 2006. The law already allows for the possibility that communities can change for the good; Congress built in provisions by which courts can release jurisdictions with good records from Justice Department scrutiny.
In its zeal to spare a small number of states a modicum of extra inconvenience when changing their election rules, the court majority fails to recognize what that scrutiny secures: fair elections. Rather than slamming the door entirely, the majority left open the possibility Congress could come up with new rules to determine which areas are subject to pre-approval by the Justice Department. Unfortunately, there are enough mechanisms to block progress in today's bitterly divided Congress that a new formula seems unlikely. But lawmakers reauthorized the Voting Rights Act by large margins in 2006, and a similarly resounding endorsement of the law is needed now.


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C4SS has teamed up with the Distro of the Libertarian Left. The Distro produces and distribute zines and booklets on anarchism, market anarchist theory, counter-economics, and other movements for liberation. For every copy of Charles T. Sprading's "Liberty Against Authority" that you purchase through the Distro, C4SS will receive a percentage. Support C4SS with Charles T. Sprading's "Liberty Against Authority".
$2.00 for the first copy. $1.50 for every additional copy.
This classic text is drawn from the Introduction to individualist anarchist Charles T. Sprading's anthology Liberty and the Great Libertarians (1913). Sprading's anthology was a key early source for popularizing the term "libertarian" among American antistatists.
"THE NATURAL LAW OF EVOLUTION, OF DEVELOPMENT, IS VARIATION, DIFFERENTIATION; statute law is intended to produce similarity and uniformity. . . . In the animal world, when the law of variation produces an animal differing somewhat from its kind, whether it be in different physical characteristics, to more perfectly adapt it to its environment, or in the addition of new organs to adapt it to a different environment, it is permitted by others of its species to live and propagate its kind, and often produces an entirely new and higher type of animal. But how do upholders of statute law act towards those who differ from them? Let the treatment accorded a Jesus, a Bruno, a Ferrer, be the answer. Statute law is not based on natural law; they are the antithesis of each other. . .
"THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERISTIC OF THE MILITANT CLASS IS PARASITISM: the power and the ability to destroy, to wage war and levy tribute, to impose arbitrary restrictions and collect taxes, to take and to consume; in short to govern. For countless ages the industrial class has been oppressed and despoiled by the militant class, but now it is coming into its own, and holds the future of the race in its hands. The industrial class possesses one power that is distinctively and exclusively its own: it is an economic power: the industrial class produces all, builds all, exchanges all. The realization of its irresistible power and the knowledge of how to use it will bring its emancipation. When the workingman realizes that war does not benefit him, but robs him, the militant class will not be able to hire him or force him to go to war; and if the industrial class refuses to use its economic power for the benefit of militant parasites, one of these classes must disappear—and it will not be the industrial!"
The introductory essay reprinted in this booklet is the Introduction to Charles T. Sprading's anthology, Liberty and the Great Libertarians: An Anthology on Liberty, a Hand-book of Freedom (1913). The text in this booklet, originally written in 1913, is based on the public-domain copy of Sprading's first, self-published edition, in the Internet Archive at archive.org. Charles T. Sprading (1871-1959) was a transitional figure in American libertarian writing. Born a generation later than leading individualists and mutualists such as Benjamin R. Tucker (1854-1939) and Dyer D. Lum (1839-1893), it fell to Sprading, along with Clarence L. Swartz (1868-1936), Laurance Labadie (1898-1975), and a few other writers of their cohort to keep the torch of individualist anarchism alight during the dark years of the interwar period. Sprading, working together with Swartz, joined a series of Anarchist discussion groups in Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Liberal Club and the Libertarian League. Liberty and the Great Libertarians, one of his earliest books, was an anthology collecting arguments, shorter quotations, and biographies, on about thirty thinkers whose work touched on anarchism, individual liberty, or freethought, including William Lloyd Garrison, Tucker, Spooner, Kropotkin, Josiah Warren, and William Godwin, alongside quotes from Paine, Jefferson, and Lincoln. His book, along with the activity and publishing of the Libertarian League, played a major role in keeping the literature of anti-statism active after the retirement of Tucker and the death or exile of many other leading Anarchist figures; they also played a major role in popularizing the term "libertarian" among American anti-statist writers. Sprading continued writing and publishing until his death in 1959, with works such as Equal Freedom and Its Friends (ca. 1920), Mutual Service and Cooperation (1930), and Real Freedom (1954).


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© 2014, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Mouse's Corner: Cloth Books
© 2014, Wendy Runyon of Musings of a Bookish Kitty. All Rights Reserved. If you're reading this on a site other than Musings of a Bookish Kitty or Wendy's feed, be aware that this post has been stolen and is used without permission.
20 comments:
I don't think I've ever seen a cloth book but I think they're a great idea!ReplyDeleteReplies
Kathy - They really are! These you can just throw in the wash if they get dirty. :-)Delete
I think they are great--perfect for the toddler because the pages don't tear!ReplyDeleteReplies
Jenclair - Yes, exactly! They can take a good toddler beating, that's for sure.Delete
Oh my god - I think those books look gorgeous! I don't think I've heard or seen of a cloth book before, but I LOVE them!ReplyDeleteReplies
Athira - Aren't they though? I really like them too.Delete
I love cloth books! I remember the first cloth book I bought for my eldest is on numbers, and she loved saying out the numbers out loud as she flipped open those little "pockets" that shown the no. of items. Now it's my youngest who loves them. :)ReplyDeleteReplies
Melody - My daughter has a numbers and alphabet cloth books my mom made for her also, and she loves them as well. :-) It sounds like your family is getting good use out of the ones you have!Delete
Cloth books are hard to find -- this one is lovely.ReplyDeleteReplies
Diane - Are they? I can't say I'm completely surprised. I guess it's good my mother doesn't mind sewing a few together for Mouse. :-)Delete
These are wonderful and will be such a nice keepsake for your daughter to treasure.ReplyDeleteReplies
Kathleen - I think so too. They are extra special since Grandma made them for her. :-)Delete
I've never had a cloth book but wow your mom is sure talented to put one together. They look beautiful and what an amazing keepsake for Mouse!ReplyDeleteReplies
Darlene - She says it is easy, but I agree, I think she's pretty talented! :-)Delete
Those cloth books are so special! Very nice!ReplyDeleteReplies
Naida - I wish I was better at sewing. The things I could make!Delete
I love them! I'm not sure I've ever come across any - at least since the Tornado got here or if I did they were so expensive I didn't up buying them. He would absolutely have loved them though. What a great thing for Mouse to have!ReplyDeleteReplies
Katherine - I haven't really shopped around for them, and so am not sure how much they run for. I guess it's good my mother was able to make Mouse's.Delete
- AnonymousFriday, June 06, 2014 7:45:00 PM
Gage received a few cloth books but he never really took to them. But they weren't as cool as Mouse's. Way to go Grandma!ReplyDeleteReplies
Stacy - Mouse wasn't too excited about them when she first got them, but her interest grew the more she was exposed to them and the the more the stories became familiar to her.Delete
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Staying Protected On The Internet
By Dan Munson
In the world today everyone uses the internet. It is important to keep social media accounts safe, payment accounts safe and also the devices in your home that are connected to the internet. You have shared so many personal information on your social media that it is very important to keep them secure. A hacker can use these personal pieces of information or private messages to blackmail you. If a hacker can get access to your payment accounts he can steal all your hard-earned money in seconds. Moreover, he can make illegal purchases on the internet using your name which will cause more troubles for you. A hacker can hack into your home network and get access to your devices that are connected to the internet. If he gets access to those devices like your webcam, smart speakers, computer, smartphone then he can access your personal files that can get you compromised. It is very important to know how to keep yourself protected while using the internet. In this article, we will discuss some of the ways that can make you safe and secure while you browse the internet.
Give a strong password and keep changing it
It is very important to use a strong password to keep your account safe from the attacks of the hackers. There are many techniques they can use to hack your password and if you don't use a strong password you will be making things very easy for them. There are some characteristics of a strong password that you must follow like using a combination of capital letters, small letters, numbers, and special characters. Make sure that there are at least eight characters in the password making it harder to be hacked. You can change the password monthly so it is more secure from attacks.
Avoid unknown emails and unknown friend requests
One of the ways a hacker uses to hack your network or your profile is by sending you a malicious file that contains a virus and as soon as you click on the attachments you would be activating the virus and he would get access in your system. To prevent this, what you can do is avoid spam messages and immediately delete them. Also, it is best to not add unknown people to your social media as they can be hackers who can see your personal information and use them to hack your accounts.
Boosting your security
To be secure you can start using anti-virus and cybersecurity software. If you are thinking that what is cybersecurity, it is the branch that deals with securing your network on the internet from hackers. The software can protect your network from any kind of hacking. You can also add a firewall to your network to provide more security to your network. These technologies make it harder for a hacker to get into your system. It is important to regularly update them so they can give the best performance to defend your network.
Browse safely and do not browse unknown websites
Many websites on the internet are scam and fraud. make sure that you do not browse any website that is not secured. There is a padlock sign on the left of the place where there is the URL of the website. That sign indicates that the website is secure and you can browse safely on those sites.
Share selectively on your social media
it is important that you select wisely on your social media so the hacker can't get many clues. A hacker would be keeping an eye on social media profile of yours to collect information so he can hack into your account. This technique is called social engineering where the attacker uses what he knows about you and how your mind works to hack the system. Being a smart user can keep you safe from getting hacked.


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The WireHose frameworks are designed to help you build content management and portal applications faster. You can use them to build new applications from scratch, or you can add WireHose functionality to an existing codebase, usually without subclassing WireHose objects.
Xcode templates
WireHose provides Xcode templates for creating new WireHose applications and frameworks. It also includes templates for rapidly building new channels, channel factories, taggable and indexable entities, as well as components for rendering and editing channels and resources.
Using interfaces instead of subclassing
WireHose defines several Java interfaces which you can implement, enabling you to add WireHose support to your existing enterprise object classes. WHEnterpriseObject provides methods for automatically discovering entities which implement an interface, and performing fetches against all entities which support a given interface. WHFetcher defines an interface for fetching, caching and retrieving objects based on an entity name or interface, and WHCachingDataSource provides a default implementation, which also doubles as an EODataSource so you can use it to drive display groups. Most interfaces provide a default implementation, so the amount of code you need to write to support a particular interface is minimal.
Creating entities at runtime
WireHose makes extensive use of entity inheritance, taking advantage of the fact if an entity is not visible at runtime, any database rows described that entity are simply unavailable to the application. This is a simple but effective way to partition objects between separate application instances which share identical codebases and differ only in configuration files or launch arguments. For example, if you are deploying multiple news portals, users connecting to the Seattle portal should only see Seattle-area traffic cams, and Portland users should only see Portland-area traffic cams, but both should have access to national newsfeeds.
WHEnterpriseObject provides several methods for dynamically creating subentities at runtime, so you don't have to manually model many common types of inheritance in EOModeler. These methods are especially convenient for horizontal and single-table inheritance.
WHEnterpriseObject also includes special support for "affiliate-based inheritance", which is used by many WireHose entities. In this approach, you define an attribute on your base entity called "affiliate". This attribute is used with a restricting qualifier to identify subentities. WHApplicationHelper and WHTag use a "default affiliate" to determine which subentity should be used. WHApplicationHelper also lets an application access multiple affiliates simultaneously, and WHEnterpriseObject can automatically create subentities for all available affiliates.
Database independence
WHEnterpriseObject makes it simple to switch between databases when an application is launched. EOModel connection dictionaries can be replaced on the fly through command-line arguments, so you can use a different database during development versus deployment, or deploy multiple instances of the same application against multiple database backends. WireHose also makes extensive use of attribute prototypes so models don't have to be modified even when switching between different database vendors. In addition, since databases vary in how boolean values are supported, WHEnterpriseObject provides utility methods which transparently set and retrieve booleans, whether the columns are defined as INT, BOOLEAN or CHAR.
Starting content used with permission of Gary Teter. WireHose and the eyeball-and-arrows logo are trademarks of Gary Teter.


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Dumoran, Eusebio Jr. Ponce is running for Municipal Mayor in the 2022 Philippine elections. He is running in Placer. He is campaigning for election as the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino Lakas ng Bayan candidate. He is listed as #1 on the ballot, and will be running under the PDPLBN banner.
This candidate is running for the position of Municipal Mayor. The mayor is responsible for supervising all programs, projects, services, and activities of the municipal government, enforcing all laws and ordinances related to governance of the municipality and the exercise of its corporate powers, maximizing resource and revenue generation, and ensuring the delivery of basic services and the provision of adequate facilities.
This profile was generated with the help of OpenAI GPT-3 and reviewed by Rappler Research for accuracy.


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Meat & Poultry
Category Main Page
Articles & Reviews
Main Nibbles
Main Page
Articles & Reviews of Foods From A to Z
Product Reviews
Main Page
Food, Beverages, Books,
News & More
Caitlin Barrett is a beef-eating member of THE NIBBLE editorial staff.
October 2005
CAPSULE REPORT: With growing the interest in USDA certified organic beef, grass fed beef and all natural beef, our resident beef specialist investigated the differences—both academic and "on the hoof," and tasted her way through some of the leading producers. Below, an evaluation of organic versus natural beef.
Until not so long ago, decisions about beef buying fell out along a few specific dimensions: cut preferences, preparation preferences, budget, desired accompaniments. However, a relatively new consideration has entered the decision matrix: specialty beef options. The world of specialty beef is a somewhat complex one...but like most things in the world of food, after a little bit of education, the complexity starts to melt away.
Specialty beef splits into two broad camps: natural beef and organic beef.
According to the USDA, natural beef has no artificial ingredients or colors and is only minimally processed (i.e. ground). Beef that is labeled "Natural" may or may not have been fed animal by-products, allowed to graze, treated with hormones, or treated inhumanely.
Many companies, such as the ones discussed below, take the "Natural" label seriously and engage in responsible and humane practices. They are mindful of welfare of their animals and the farmers that raise them, as well as the environment. Still, there are companies who take advantage of this loose definition and label meat "Natural" that has been fed animal products and pesticide-ridden grain. With all natural products, it is important to familiarize yourself with the company to confirm that you are buying something wholesome and healthy, as the natural label often tells you very little about the conditions that product actually comes from.
Two companies who have earned reputations for conscientious production of high quality meats that are not USDA-certified organic, yet meet their own self-policed standards for natural quality, are Coleman Natural and Niman Ranch.
Coleman Natural Products
Five generations ago Coleman Ranches were founded in Colorado. In those days, cattle raised without the use of hormones or antibiotics was the norm, but Coleman Natural Meats continues this family tradition today. The company's chairman, Mel Coleman, Jr., is an advocate for the entire natural and organic beef industry: He headed a successful effort that lead the USDA to create special labeling standards for natural beef. Though Coleman's products are natural (not organic), they do work closely with the Organic Trade Association and the Organic Food Alliance and these alliances are evident in the quality of their meat. They use no artificial ingredients, preservatives or fillers; all of their animals are fed a vegetarian diet and they use organic ingredients wherever it is possible.
Niman Ranch
Northern California's Niman Ranch has been raising livestock for over 30 years. They raise cattle on their original ranch in Marin County, right across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, but work with over 300 independent family farmers across the U.S. who share the values of Niman Ranch. None of the livestock are fed antibiotics or growth hormones and are raised in a caring environment that ensures each animal will have no need to compete for food and water. They are never fed any meat or meat by-products. On average, a cow on Niman Ranch eats more conscientiously than the average American. There is a very good reason that you will find Niman Ranch meats listed by name on restaurant menus: this is some of the best meat in the world.
Organic beef has some similarities to natural beef, but several key differences that are critically important to people who prefer organic products. In order to be labeled organic, a company follows a set of very strict guidelines outlined by the USDA. These guidelines include restrictions on everything from what livestock eat (their meals and straw bedding must also be organic) to how the animal is treated. Organic is a philosophy as well as an environmental and health concern: many who purchase organic meat are doing so to support organic farming and the environment, but many others are catching on to the fact that organic meat also translates to high quality. Organic means will bear a USDA organic seal that ensure that the meat is from a certified-organic producer.
Two prominent producers are Dakota Beef and Organic Prairie Farms, both collectives of independent family ranchers.
Dakota Beef
Dakota Beef works closely with not just producers and distributors but with also with chefs and retailers to ensure that their beef is treated within their stringent standards of care. Many of the ranchers in the Dakota Beef program are pioneers in the organic food movement and have been advocates of the need to treat cattle humanely, to reduce stress and to improve the quality of the beef they produce. Dakota Beef was founded in 2000 by Scott Lively who managed to do what no one in South Dakota had done before: he banded together with local ranchers who were already producing organic meats and together they worked out a strategy to turn the mainstream market onto organic beef. For more information visit Dakota Beef Company.
Organic Prairie
Organic Prairie began producing meat without the use of antibiotics, synthetic hormones, or pesticides almost 10 years ago, years before there was even an organic label. They insisted on third-party certification before the government body was even in place (USDA certification began in 2002), and were the first to ban animal by-products from their cattle's diet. In short, they were true pioneers in the organic meat industry. Organic Prairie meats are available at retailers nationwide. For more information visit Organic Prairie.
Beyond the broad groupings of Natural and Organic, there will always be variations producer to producer—based on breeds, genetics, feed, pasture, and numerous other conditions.
To get a flavor for just how different the beef could be, we tasted a sampling from the producers above: Coleman Natural and Niman Ranch representing natural, Dakota Beef and Organic Prairie representing organic. We also through in some quality meat from our supermarket, that was neither natural nor organic, as a benchmark.
For our sampling, we chose two versatile cuts of beef: skirt steak and ground chuck 80% to 85% lean, just enough fat for a juicy burger. These meats made the most sense to us simply because we use them most often, and the products we use the most often are the ones we want to taste the best.
We cooked the meats simply so as to not mask their flavors:
The results were surprising. We enjoyed the natural meats the best, followed closely by the organics. The regular supermarket meat also scored well. The bottom line? All of the beef was very good, and what you like will prefer upon your individual preferences—as with ice cream, wine, cheesecake, or any other food. So to find the beef that you'll love above all others, taste them all.
Tasting Notes
Niman Ranch
Coleman Natural
Dakota Beef
Organic Prairie
*Umami: a taste sensation that is meaty or savory
We'll keep on tasting. Look for more results in this section of THE NIBBLE.
Do you have a favorite producer of natural or organic beef? Click here to tell us about it.
© Copyright 2005-2023 Lifestyle Direct, Inc. All rights reserved. All images are copyrighted to their respective owners.


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(WOMENSENEWS)— More bike lanes would help.
That's one of the messages that female cyclists are amplifying ahead of the March 20 annual summit of the League of American Bicyclists in Washington, D.C., one of cycling's leading advocacy organizations.
A few hours before the summit begins, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals is teaming up with the Alliance for Biking and Walking to present a national women's cycling forum.
"Because the national bike summit is such a gathering point for folks interested in bike advocacy, we thought this would be a perfect venue to elevate the discussion," says Carolyn Szczepanski, communications coordinator at the Alliance for Biking and Walking, based in Washington, D.C. "We'll be talking about next steps and best practices and how we move forward in creating an advocacy movement, infrastructure and policies that encourage more women to bike."
A six-member panel will discuss the issue, and organizers will be tweeting the event live and recording it for posting on the Women Cycling Project website.
"Ultimately," Szczepanski says, "we hope that this will be the launching pad to develop that site into a more comprehensive, dynamic resource for women."
When the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals surveyed 13,000 women in 2010 it found that of 14 concerns listed, the top one, at 73 percent, was distracted driving by motorists, followed by eight other motor vehicle-related concerns.
Fear of having a bike stolen was in the middle at 33 percent. Fear of an attack by a stranger was near the bottom, at 13 percent.
When the women were asked what factors would cause them to increase their cycling, the top two answers were "more bike lanes" and "completely separated off-road cycling paths."
In many European countries, these amenities – some would say necessities — are much more common, and so are female cyclists. In the United States women take just under a quarter of bike trips, according to 2009 data from the National Household Travel Survey, a program of the Federal Highway Administration, while in Europe women are more equal, reaching parity with men in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Kit Keller, executive director of the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals, based in Cedarburg,Wisc., says if U.S. cyclists had more navigable routes women would benefit disproportionately.
"We provide a range of options to get to the same destination by car," says Keller. "You can take an expressway if you feel comfortable driving in fast traffic, but if you have a lot of stops to make along the way you might take an arterial, or if it's a Sunday drive you might just go out on a country road. We really need to be doing that as well for cycling. This approach would encourage more women to cycle because it's probably not rocket science that women tend to be more risk-averse than most men."
Early Supporters
Since the bicycle was invented and adopted in the latter half of the 19th century, women's rights leaders have been cheering it on.
In 1896 women's suffrage leader Susan B. Anthony, said, "I think [the bicycle] has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives a woman a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. The moment she takes her seat she knows she can't get into harm unless she gets off her bicycle, and away she goes, the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood."
But many aspects of the cycling world remain male dominions.
Just ask Tania Castillo, a 19-year-old who works as a mechanic at the West Town Bikes, a shop in inner-city Chicago. "You have to put up with a lot of sexism," she says, referring to customers who come into the shop and ask her to call someone to help fix their bikes. "'I tell them, 'I work here. Can I help you?'"
Castillo says she doesn't blame these customers, who are just not used to seeing a female mechanic. She adds that her male co-workers are very supportive and readily share their knowledge with her.
Castillo was recently in New York for the "Recycle a Bicycle Youth Bike Summit," which drew hundreds of youth and adult participants from around the country to share ideas for getting more young people riding safely and leading others in their communities to do the same.
Among the presenters were half a dozen members of the Girls' Bike Club in Chicago, which teaches girls basic bike repair and runs group rides.
Chicago is known as one of the best cycling cities in America, with many bike lanes striped on main streets, plus separated bike lanes in a few places, including along Lake Michigan.
A Girls Club
The Girls' Bike Club is one of many programs supported by West Town Bikes, a nonprofit youth advocacy.
Before becoming a staff member at West Town Bikes, Castillo was an intern with the organization. Through that connection, she helped organize the Girls Bike Club.
Shacora Hawkins, 15, went through an apprenticeship at the bike shop, volunteers there now and calls herself "a founding mother" of the girls' bike club. "What I love to do for bike club is recruit," she says. "I have my own dance group, so everybody who's a part of my dance group is a part of girls' bike club. I try to make them come every Wednesday, right after school."
She says if her friends aren't interested in cycling, she lures them in with the promise of earning community-involvement credit hours toward high school graduation, something many schools require.
Castillo says they're recruiting for a girls-only workshop in bike mechanics and repair, so they can feel safe and not intimidated by a bunch of guys. "Let's face it; when there's one girl in a workshop full of guys, how would you feel? Intimidated."
Hawkins says the workshop will help boost girls' confidence by knowing more about their bikes so they can make repairs on their own and feel knowledgeable going into a male-dominated bike shop. And both young women say cycling itself is a big self-esteem booster, even allaying fears of crime and concern for their physical safety.
Before she was a volunteer at West Town, "I would ride my bike but just in my neighborhood, like to the store and back," Hawkins says. "But when I started working at West Town and riding in groups, I got more confidence to ride anywhere I wanted."
Castillo says her mom didn't want her to bike at night, but now she rides day or night, feeling safer biking than walking. "I can make a quick getaway," she joked.
The girls' bike club has adopted a call-and-response for their group. "How do you ride your bike?" they shout. "Like a girl!" they answer.
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Melinda Tuhus is an independent journalist based in New Haven, Conn.


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2012 Honorees
Patrick O'Neill
Click to view New Jersey Milken National Notification Video
Patrick O'Neill was born and raised in West Long Branch, NJ by his parents who were both educators. He attended Shore Regional High School where he was actively involved in numerous extra-curricular activities. He lettered in basketball, baseball, and football in which he still holds the record for most passing yards in a game. Patrick continued his education at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Florham Park, NJ earning a BA in Psychology and an MA in Elementary Education. While at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Patrick was a member of the football team in the leadership role of quarterback. He was also an active member of the Sigma Chi Fraternity in which he spearheaded fundraising events for their philanthropy.
Patrick was hired in 2004 as a fourth grade teacher at Ocean Township Elementary School and has filled that roll to this day. At Ocean Township Elementary School, he is a member of the school safety committee, heads a new anti-bullying campaign, and a new literacy program. At the district level, he is helping formulate the writing curriculum, report card revisions, and technology infusion. He is also an assistant football coach at Ocean Township High School.
Patrick believes that school should be a welcoming and interesting place to spend the day. By providing a safe, accepting, and stimulating environment, children will be free to expand their capabilities in academic and social areas. He feels that giving students a strong framework in social, academic, and emotional components of the school day will allow them to become mature, independent, responsible individuals. Patrick firmly believes that all children want to succeed, want to learn, want to belong, want to be recognized as capable, and most importantly, all children can succeed.
He currently resides in Ocean Township, NJ with his wife Traci and twin sons Patrick and Tyler.


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Friday, April 19, 2013
1981 - 7-Eleven promo mini comic
From mycomicshop.com:
7-Eleven Spider-Man and Spider-Woman (1981) is a mini promotional comic distributed by 7-Eleven.
24-page, 3" x 4-1/2" full-color mini-comic.
Comic story plus kid's puzzle pages, etc.
This comic is not bound and stapled in the conventional mode, but rather comes as a 24-page fold out.
Posted by Jason Shayer at 12:30 AM
Labels: 1981, 7-Eleven, Grizzly, Kraven the Hunter, Man-Ape, Marvel Comics, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman
5 comments:
Wow, never saw that before. I've got the Spidey comicReplyDelete
for some laundry detergent (was it All? Cheer?) and the Dallas Cowboys, and the X-Men Texas State Fair comic. Weird stuff!
The 1980s were a bit odd in my ways! :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousApril 19, 2013 at 4:08 PM
Ape-Man looks alot like Man-Ape.ReplyDelete
I like Ape-man better (but then I'm a big Kinks fan, too).
Once again, something I've NEVER seen, wow, thanks jason.
Hey Starfoxxx, nice catch!ReplyDelete
I actually won one of the full sized comics from 7-11 at the time of this promotion(and surprisingly still have it). The Slurpee cups had a false bottom that you removed to find a cardboard coin that told you whether you were a winner or not. Amazing what silly stuff I will remember 32 years after the fact.ReplyDelete
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HHMI scientists peel back some of the mystery about how cells are able to turn off genes selectively.
A team of Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) scientists has peeled back some of the mystery of how cells are able to turn off genes selectively to control critical events of development. The new insights arise from the first clear molecular images of the structure of Dicer, an enzyme that enables cells to dissect genetic material precisely.
The finding, which is reported in the January 13, 2005, issue of the journal Science by an HHMI research team at the University of California, Berkeley, provides scientists with new information about a mechanism that enables cells to silence genes, a process that governs key developmental events ranging from brain development to stem cell differentiation.
The Giardia Dicer is smaller than the Dicer found in other eukaryotes and we don't know why that is. What do the bells and whistles on the human enzyme do?
Jennifer A. Doudna
The study was led by Jennifer A. Doudna, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the University of California, Berkeley. Doudna's research team used x-ray crystallography to assemble a detailed three-dimensional picture of an enzyme known as Dicer. In cells, Dicer jumpstarts RNA interference, a process that causes genes to be turned off and which, in turn, prompts a host of key developmental events.
With the structure of Dicer solved, Doudna's group showed that the enzyme is more than a molecular cleaver -- it also carefully measures and snips strands of RNA into precise increments. When Dicer cleaves large strands of RNA into smaller fragments, it initiates the process of RNA interference, which can turn genes off and thereby dictate key developmental events.
"The bottom line we've learned from the structure is that Dicer is a molecular ruler," Doudna explained. "It gives us a lot of insight into how the mechanism works."
Dicer, which is ubiquitous in the cells of higher animals, including humans, is a widely studied molecule. It was first discovered in 2001 by Gregory J. Hannon, an HHMI investigator at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and has become a powerful laboratory tool to study cancer and other developmental events through its ability to harness the RNA interference pathway and selectively switch off genes.
"We knew what the protein did," said Hannon. "We knew it was an enzyme and that it recognized double-stranded RNA and cut it into pieces. But we didn't have any clue how Dicer made the measurement and figured out where to make the cut."
Doudna and her colleagues solved the structure of a Dicer enzyme obtained from the parasite Giardia intestinalis using x-ray crystallography, a technique that enables scientists to construct pictures of biological molecules in superb three-dimensional detail. When crystal samples of molecules like Dicer are exposed to x-rays, the x-ray beams are scattered in a way that helps researchers define the overall structure of the crystallized protein, as was the case with Dicer. Knowing how the atoms of specific molecules are arranged permits researchers to tease out their functional features and show how they go about their business inside a cell. In the case of Dicer, it shows how the enzyme recognizes RNA and snips it into precise increments.
"The fact that it makes these specific sized RNAs is important to the process," Doudna said. The small RNA fragments created by Dicer are then assimilated into large multiprotein complexes and guide those molecules to destinations in the cell where they turn off genes.
"The size of these small RNAs is a determinant of their function," Hannon explained. "If the RNAs are too big or too small, they don't make it into the effector complexes."
Through its role in helping cells to turn off gene expression, Dicer is believed to be instrumental in initiating some of the critical processes of development. For example, scientists speculate that the RNA interference pathway plays a role in prodding blank-slate stem cells down developmental pathways to become specific kinds of cells or tissues. It may also play roles in maintaining cells, rearranging genomes and laying down the architecture of the brain, for example.
In the lab, Dicer is used in mice to switch off any combination of genes -- either in targeted or in random fashion -- to infer a gene's function, a capability that may be especially useful in understanding cancer and developing improved cancer therapies. Using the enzyme, it may be possible, Doudna explained, to "change silencing in cells to turn off genes that may be active in cancer development. Lots of companies and laboratories have been betting on this."
Dicer enzymes are found in all cells of higher animals, suggesting that it has an ancient evolutionary heritage. Because of its ability to recognize double-stranded RNA, scientists think Dicer's original function may have been to defend cells from certain kinds of viruses.
Having an image of Dicer from Giardia intestinalis, Doudna noted, will help scientists better understand its role across biology.
"From an evolutionary standpoint, it is very interesting," said Doudna. "What is this enzyme used for in Giardia? We don't know. The Giardia Dicer is smaller than the Dicer found in other eukaryotes and we don't know why that is. What do the bells and whistles on the human enzyme do?"
Knowing Dicer's structure, scientists can now begin to tease out the mysteries of how Dicer functions, Doudna said. In particular, scientists would like to know how Dicer is involved in downstream events, how it hands off the cleaved RNA and directs it to the right gene targets.
Resolving the structure of Dicer, Doudna noted, was a technical challenge as the crystals are small. But she said that the work was facilitated by access to the HHMI-supported crystallography beam lines at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Advanced Light Source. The synchrotron at the Advanced Light Source is capable of generating beams of x-rays to very specific wavelengths, which was critical in determining the structure of Dicer.
Additional authors of the new Science paper are Ian J. MacRae, Kaihong Zhou, Fei Li, Adrian Repic, Angela N. Brooksand W. Zacheus Cande of the University of California, Berkeley and Paul D. Adams of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.


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Brussels — The U.S. is expected to broaden its ban on in-flight laptops and tablets to include planes from the European Union, a move that would create logistical chaos on the world's busiest corridor of air travel.
Alarmed at the proposal, which airline officials say is merely a matter of timing, European governments held urgent talks on Friday with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The ban would affect trans-Atlantic routes that carry as many as 65 million people a year on over 400 daily flights, many of them business travelers who rely on their electronics to work during the flight.
The ban would dwarf in size the current one, which was put in place in March and affects about 50 flights per day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East.
Chief among the concerns are whether any new threat prompted the proposal and the relative safety of keeping in the cargo area a large number of electronics with lithium batteries, which have been known to catch fire. American officials were invited to Brussels next week to discuss the proposed ban, the EU said.
European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said the EU had no new information about a specific security concern.
U.S. officials have said the decision in March to bar laptops and tablets from the cabins of some international flights wasn't based on any specific threat but on longstanding concerns about extremists targeting jetliners.
Experts say a bomb in the cabin would be easier to make and require less explosive force than one in the cargo hold. Baggage in cargo usually goes through a more sophisticated screening process than carry-on bags.
Jeffrey Price, an aviation-security expert at Metropolitan State University of Denver, said the original ban focused on certain countries because their equipment to screen carry-on bags is not as effective as machines in the U.S.
A French official who was briefed about Friday's meeting said the Americans announced they wanted to extend the ban, and the Europeans planned to formulate a response in coming days. The official said the primary questions revolved around when and how — and not whether — the ban would be imposed.
The official spoke only on condition of anonymity to discuss the plan.
Jenny Burke, a Homeland Security spokeswoman, said no final decision has been made on expanding the restriction.
But Homeland Security officials met Thursday with high-ranking executives of the three leading U.S. airlines — American, Delta and United — and the industry's leading U.S. trade group, Airlines for America, to discuss expanding the laptop policy to flights arriving from Europe.
Two airline officials who were briefed on the discussions said Homeland Security gave no timetable for an announcement, but they were resigned to its inevitability. They spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the meeting publicly.
The U.S. airlines still hope to have a say in how the policy is put into effect at airports to minimize inconvenience to passengers. The initial ban on passengers bringing large electronics devices into the cabin hit hardest at Middle Eastern airlines.
Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, this week cited the ban on electronics as one of the reasons for an 80 percent drop in profits last year. It said the ban had a direct impact on demand for air travel into the U.S. and it faced rising costs from introducing complimentary laptop loans to some passengers.
Alain Bauer, president of the CNAPS, a French regulator of private-sector security agents, including those checking baggage and passengers in France's airports, predicted "chaotic" scenes initially if the ban was instituted.
"Imagine the number of people who carry their laptops and tablets onto planes — not just adults, but also children," he told the AP.
He said it would slow passage through security checks as people try to negotiate a way of keeping their laptops.
"It's not like losing your water bottle or your scissors. It will take more time to negotiate," he said.
"You need a lot of time to inform them and a lot of time for it to enter people's heads until it becomes a habit," he said. "After a week of quite big difficulties, 95 percent of people will understand the practicalities."
The head of the International Air Transport Association said recently that the electronics ban is not an acceptable or effective long-term solution to security threats, and said the commercial impact is severe.
An industry-backed group, the Airline Passenger Experience Association, said the U.S. government should consider alternatives. That could include routinely testing laptops for chemical residues associated with bombs, requiring owners to turn on their devices, and letting frequent travelers keep their electronics with them.
The group's CEO, Joe Leader, noted that airlines have reduced service by more than 1 million long-haul seats in the 10 Middle Eastern and North African cities affected by the March policy. If it spreads to Europe, "it's simply a matter of time" before laptops are banned in the cabins of domestic U.S. flights, he said.
At the Delta area of the Cincinnati airport, a sign warned passengers that beginning Friday on flights returning to the U.S. any electronic devices other than a cellphone would have to be placed in checked baggage. The airline flies between Cincinnati and Paris.
A Delta spokesman said the sign was posted in error by an employee at the airport. Asked if Delta had anticipated that the in-cabin ban on larger electronics would go into effect this week, the spokesman declined to comment.
Leicester reported from Paris. Alicia Caldwell in Washington; David Koenig in Dallas; and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed.


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TripAdvisor Review written on October 2016 by Kathleen (Australia)
My run was with Jean-Charles. I felt comfortable with him straightaway. The tour took us from Gare de Lyon to the Place de la Concorde, passing a lot of well-known sights (but also including some I didn't know of, or hadn't seen before). […] I highly recommend Paris Running Tours and hope to do another tour myself next time I'm in Paris.
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Went to Paris and Amsterdam for my husbands birthday. I planned our 9 mile running tour with out telling my husband til the last minute. Jean-Charles was our guide and I have to say this was the most fun I have ever had on a tour. We learn so much about Paris, the miles flew by. Jean-Charles was such a easy person to talk too, he even researched a question I had about the country side and emailed later the answer. I would love to run again the next time I come! Oh and the photos he took of us were wonderful. By far the most memorable part of my vacation
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Jean-Charles took us for a 9 km run through streets, passages, parks, bridges and even buildings of Paris. We enjoyed it immensely, especially the small details about the city and landmarks where you can still see and feel the long and diverse history of the country.We have tried running tours before, and this is definitely not our last!
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TripAdvisor Review written on August 2015 by Lauren (USA)
I thoroughly enjoyed my running tour with Jean-Charles! I selected the long tour and I got more than I expected, which was great! I got to see so many different parts of the city and sites during our 10+miles. It was also a great way to plan the rest of my trip. Jean-Charles ran at my speed (slow) and we paused to chat about the sites. Loved that he captured photos of the journey. He also had a map of our trip plotted for me. Highly recommend Paris Running Tours!
« We've been running with you since 2008 »
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Well, Hola Everyone!
It's been a while since I posted here as things have been in flux with my life. Job has been a bit stressful lately, but that seems to be the story with most of us toiling in the corporate world. Still waiting with bated breath for that big Powerball win. What's up with that shizz anyway? Sparky wants to get paid, dammit!
Anyway, I decided to get back to writing here and offering up my chicken scratch for your consumption. Just about a month ago I ran in the Cupid's Undie Run for charity. It was damn cold that Valentine's Day weekend with frigid temps and wind gusts that would make even Santa Claus freeze his snowballs off. Even so, we persevered and ran along the West Side Highway on that cold but thankfully sunny day in our undies. Sure, I did sport my red heart decorated boxers, red Deadpool shirt (because it was a love story!) and red top hat, but I also cheated a bit and wore a terrifically warm fluffy red robe that I earned as an award for my fundraising. Heck, as long as I earned that thing I was going to wear it! No freezing my coconuts off for this kid! Needed any heat source possible on this day. Continue reading Frozen coconuts for a cause at the NYC Cupid's Undie Run!


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At this point, I can only laugh. Totally predictable.
As the national government under Prime Minister Noda (who looks like a popular manga character Patalliro, except Pata is extremely smart) prepares to declare a cold shutdown "state" and is about to become the laughing stock of the world, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency is busy rewriting the definition of "leak".
Tokyo Shinbun reports that NISA has decided to basically "nullify" the leaks of contaminated water from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant in the past, and declare that there will be no leak in the future either, even if there is actually a leak or deliberate discharge. Why? Because NISA says so.
From Tokyo Shinbun (via Asyura, so that the link doesn't disappear; 12/16/2011):
保安院 海への汚染水 ゼロ扱い
NISA considers the amount of contaminated water into the ocean to be zero
There have been several leaks of water contaminated with radioactive materials from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant. Tokyo Shinbun has found out through own investigation that the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has treated the amount of the leaks as "zero" from a legal [or regulatory] point of view, because it was a "state of emergency". The Agency has said it will treat the future leaks and deliberate discharges into the ocean the same way. The national government is scheduled to declare a "cold shutdown state" on December 16, but we are suspicious of the government's position that seems to ignore the suppression of the radioactive materials released from the plant, which is one of the important conditions [of the cold shutdown "state"].
The Nuclear Reactor Regulation Law specifies that the operator needs to set the maximum amount of radioactive materials released into the ocean for each nuclear power plant (total emission control). In the case of Fukushima I Nuke Plant, the maximum amount allowed is 220 billion becquerels per year for radioactive cesium. The amount is set to zero again at the beginning of a new fiscal year.
However, a leak of highly contaminated water was found on April 2 near the Reactor 2 water intake, and TEPCO conducted a discharge of low contamination water that was stored in a tank inside the plant buildings to make space to store the highly contaminated water.
This leak and the discharge alone released radioactive materials outside the plant to the tune of 4,700 terabecquerels (according to TEPCO's estimate), already more than 20,000 times as much as the maximum amount allowed.
Both domestic and foreign research institutions have disputed TEPCO's estimate as "too low".
On December 4, the water that contained 26 billion becquerels of radioactive strontium was found leaking into the ocean from the apparatus that evaporates and condenses the treated water.
Furthermore, the storage tanks that are set up inside the compound are expected to become full in the first half of the next year. The water in these storage tanks also contains radioactive strontium. TEPCO is contemplating the discharge of the water into the ocean after further decontaminating it, but facing the protest from the fisheries associations the company has said it will postpone the discharge for now.
Responding to the questions from Tokyo Shinbun, NISA emphasized that responding to the accident came first, and Fukushima I Nuke Plant was in a "state of emergency" where it was not possible to stop the leak, due to the damage the plant had sustained, and that was the reason for not applying the rule of "total emission control" and treating the 4,700-terabequerel leak as zero leak.
The special treatment under the "state of emergency" will last until the accident winds down, according to the Agency; but it was vague as to how long the special treatment will last, saying "it will be decided in the future discussions".
The Agency said even if the treated water that contains radioactive materials is released into the ocean, the Agency will continue to treat it as zero release.
Well, why should NISA stop at the water leak? They should simply declare that there was no emission of radioactive materials in the air, because the plant was in a state of emergency and in no shape to prevent the emission.
The national government declaring a cold shutdown "state" on broken reactors without even knowing where the corium has gone; government experts declaring 20 millisievert radiation is totally OK after one-month deliberation; the government agency declaring there was, is, will be no contaminated water leak or discharge from Fuku-I even if there was, is, will be a leak or discharge.
Gone nuts.


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Blend mode example in Chrome Canary. Image: Screenshot/Webmonkey.
Chrome's experimental Canary channel and Safari's WebKit nightly builds both now support all of the Photoshop-inspired blend modes for CSS Shaders, part of Adobe's effort to bring Photoshop-style filter tools to the web.
To see the new blend modes in action, grab a copy of the latest Chrome Canary or WebKit nightly builds, enable the CSS Shaders option in
about:flags and point your browser to Adobe's sample code over on Codepen. Previously, CSS Shaders required a special build of WebKit [Update: As Adobe's Alan Greenblatt points out in the comments, CSS shader support has been in Chrome stable since v25 (you still need to enable the flag). But if you want to play around with these new blend modes then you'll need Canary (or a WebKit nightly).]
The new blend mode support is part of Adobe's CSS Shaders proposal, which recently became part of the W3C's CSS Filter Effects specification. There are two types of shaders in the spec, CSS fragment shaders, which provide features similar to what Photoshop's blending modes offer, and CSS vertex shaders, which handle the 3D animation filters we've showcased in the past.
The blending modes currently available include all the familiar options you'll find in Adobe Photoshop, such as multiply, screen, overlay, luminosity and other photographer favorites.
For more details and links to the corresponding specs, be sure to check out this post from Max Vujovic, who is working on the CSS Filters implementation in WebKit and Blink.
As the CSS Filter Effects specification progresses through the standardization process (and stabilizes), hopefully other browsers will add support as well.


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BARCELONA—The Windows Phone market share in the U.S. is so bad, it had to pick on poor BlackBerry to make itself feel better. At least, that's what happened at a Sunday event before Mobile World Congress. In a darkened event space at a swanky hotel, a Microsoft video boasted, "We've overtaken BlackBerry." The packed crowd of journalists roared, and even Microsoft exec Joe Belfiore couldn't help but smile with slight embarrassment.
Belfiore recovered and talked further about how 2013 was "the year we ate our vegetables." Last year's goal for Windows Phone was clear, he said: "We had to build volume." This year's goal? To find more traction beyond U.S. soil.
The Windows Phone volume that occurred in 2013—91 percent year-over-year growth per IDC data, said Belfiore—is actually impressive once you study the numbers. It includes 59 percent growth in Western Europe, and 76 percent growth in Central Europe. Most striking, however, is the growth in emerging markets: 148 percent in Latin America, and 758 percent in the Middle East and Africa.
And then there was the measly 9 percent growth number from Microsoft's home country. "The U.S. remains a challenge," Belfiore said.
Microsoft's response to the U.S. snub is healthy, though: It's taking its toys and looking for other friends to play with. In detailing new developments for Windows Phone, the company clearly has its eye on the needs of the emerging markets. Belfiore noted, for instance, the success of the low-cost Nokia Lumia 520 in those regions.
Belfiore also plugged the Windows Phone app store, noting it had 245,000 apps and counting, with about 500 added daily. One of the apps coming soon will be Facebook Messenger, and Belfiore promised more name-brand apps to follow.
Windows Phone update coming this spring
But the next Windows Phone update said far more about Microsoft's new direction. First, it would be inclusive, with all Windows Phone 8 devices "technically available to get" the upgrade this spring, Belfiore said.
As part of what Belfiore called "a high-volume focus" (i.e., more and cheaper phones), he detailed plans to support three Qualcomm SoCs: the Snapdragon 200, 400, and 400 LTE. The company will also support more cellular standards—such as TD-SCDMA, TD-LTE, and SGLTE—to cover emerging markets. And Microsoft will also allow softkeys and dual-SIM design, apparently in response to requests from hardware partners who wanted to reuse Android devices for the Windows ecosystem. The Windows Phone camera button, for instance, once required, would instead be optional.
Belfiore also announced the launching of a new site for Windows Phone developers called the Windows Hardware Partner Portal. Intended to be a one-stop shop for drivers, development tools, licensing and other processes, the site is live now but not fully populated, he noted.
Finally, the upgrade would fill some networking holes on the enterprise level, adding support for VPNs and enterprise Wi-Fi, for instance.
As a segue to fellow executive Nick Parker's part of the presentation, Belfiore waved the Windows phone he'd been using to control his slides. "I'm using a Qualcomm reference design. It's not a phone that will come to market, but it is dual-SIM." It looked like a Windows Phone, but was it, perhaps, the low-cost "Normandy?" As journalists raised their cameras to snap photos, Belfiore cautioned, "Don't ask me for a demo. There's other stuff on here I can't show you." (See more from Belfiore on all of these developments in his blog post from earlier Sunday.)
Parker, who heads up the OEM division for Microsoft, declared the company "open for business" on Windows Phone. He said new partners would include "white labels" who would brand the Windows Phone UI as their own, or operators who want to make their own phones.
The list of new partners Parker flashed on the screen was distinctly Asian. Recognizable names included HTC, Huawei, LG Electronics, Samsung, and of course Nokia (which is Finnish). Lesser-known partners included Longcheer, Lenovo (which sells phones, but not in the U.S.), and Xolo, as well as Foxconn.
But what we all really want to know, of course was where Android fit into all of this—especially if the phone came from Nokia. Belfiore, holding his mystery phone tightly, noted that Microsoft had not completed its acquisition of Nokia. "What they do, some things we may be excited about," he responded, "and some things we are not as excited about." Parker, possibly wishing to downplay Nokia's importance, added that the company works with many OEMs.
Belfiore summed it up perfectly in his closing response: "We need to grow where we can, and improve the ecosystem." And what the U.S. market wants is no longer Microsoft's biggest priority, apparently.


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As web 3.0 is the emerging trend in today's world so i want to know what are the main features of web 3.0 comparison Web 2.0
There is no such thing as web 3.0 (and web 2.0 was just a silly buzz word). All kinds of things are happening on the web now, not necessarily related, such as web apps, flat design, responsive design etc. You can't capture all that in a buzz word. Leave that sort of thing to lamebrain marketers.
For software versioning, changes such as 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0 etc. signify that the new version of the software has major changes from the previous version.
"Web 2.0" or "Web 3.0" is more concept than anything specific as there was never a "Web 1.0"
Web 3.0 was a silly idea for making database designs much more flexible by totally ignoring normalisation and other rules for proper database design. It never amounted to anything much.
Web 2.0 on the other hand (accessing the server via ajax so as to not reload the entire page) is now a significant part of many web designs.
Lots of other things used those terms for marketing purposes without really being anything to do with the specific processes labelled as web 2.0 and web 3.0
There is nothing special that we call as web 3.0, this is mere acknowledging the latest technologies and their versions, as we all cannot find anything for Web 1.0
Web 2.0 uses the read write web, blogs, web applications, rich media, viral media, tagging or Folksonomy while sharing content and focusing on communities.
The Web 3.0 standard uses semantic web, drag n drop mash ups, widgets, user behavior or Me-onomy, advertisement, user engagement, consolidates dynamic content and focuses on individuals
I do not think that there is any kind of serious tools available for this version it may be a new version but mostly rumours are spread.