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The Washington Post by N.C. Aizenman –
February 15, 2013:
Many young, healthy Americans could soon see a jump in their health insurance costs, and insurance companies are saying: It's not our fault.
The nation's insurers are engaged in an all-out, last-ditch effort to shield themselves from blame for what they predict will be rate increases on policies they must unveil this spring to comply with President Obama's health-care law.
Insurers point to several reasons that premiums will rise. They will soon be required to offer more-comprehensive coverage than many currently provide. Also, their costs will increase because they will be barred from rejecting the sick, and they will no longer be allowed to charge older customers sharply higher premiums than younger ones.
Supporters of the law counter that concerns about price hikes are overstated, partly because federal subsidies will cushion the blow.
The insurers' public relations blitz is being propelled by a growing cast of executives, lobbyists, conservative activists and state health officials. They increasingly use the same catchphrase — "rate shock" — to warn about the potential for price surges.
Aetna chief executive Mark T. Bertolini invoked the term at his company's recent annual investor conference, cautioning that premiums for plans sold to individuals could rise as much as 50 percent on average and could more than double for particular groups such as the young and healthy.
The danger of rate shock has also become the favored weapon of conservative opponents of the law, repeated in a drumbeat of op-eds and policy papers in recent weeks.
The argument is a powerful one because the success of the law, which was the signature domestic accomplishment of Obama's first term, depends on enough people signing up for insurance, particularly healthy people. The issue is surfacing as the most recent significant challenge in implementing the health-care overhaul.
Supporters of the law complain that the warnings amount to a smear attack by special interests and political partisans, akin to earlier claims that the law would allow bureaucrats to deny life-saving care to save money.
" 'Rate shock' is the new 'death panels,' " said Wendell Potter, a former head of communications for the health insurer Cigna who is now a critic of the industry. "They've chosen these words very carefully to scare people. It's the ideal term for what is, at its core, a fear-based campaign."
Yet even analysts who favor the law concede that it will result in higher costs for some young, healthy people.
Most of the new rules that could push up premiums will not apply to plans sponsored by large employers, only to those sold to individuals and small businesses. These policies will be available on insurance marketplaces, or "exchanges," that the law sets up in each state beginning in 2014, and that are ultimately expected to serve about 26 million people.
The law will require insurers to offer a generous package of benefits for exchange plans, including coverage of maternity care, prescription drugs and treatment for mental illness. It also caps customers' out-of-pocket expenses.
Many 20-somethings who buy their own insurance have plans that are considerably skimpier. So, under the new rule, they will be getting and paying for more, whether they want the added coverage or not.
Another key driver of higher prices: Insurers will no longer be able to turn away or charge more to people with preexisting conditions. Perhaps most significantly, insurers will be allowed to charge their oldest customers only three times as much as their youngest. In most states, older customers are paying at least five times as much.
The result: Older, sicker people will pay lower premiums. Younger, healthier people will pay higher ones to make up the difference. The price of a policy for a young, healthy man in, for instance, Milwaukee, could triple from $58 per month to $175, according to a survey of insurers released by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office.
Insurers argue that such increases could prompt many healthy young adults to opt out of coverage, skewing the insurance market so heavily toward the old and sick that it implodes.
The trade group America's Health Insurance Plans, or AHIP, is lobbying for the delay or suspension of some of the stricter standards that could increase rates.
"We want the system to be affordable because we want people to participate," said AHIP's president and chief executive, Karen Ignagni.
Supporters of the law note that it will provide many people with income-based federal subsidies to help buy insurance and say that this will more than offset the impact of the higher rates.
In four of five states he studied, more people will end up saving money than losing it, said Jonathan Gruber, an economist and key adviser to Obama during the debate over the health-care law. "The typical case I'm looking at is that roughly two-thirds of people are better off, once you factor in the tax subsidies, and one-third of them are worse off," he said.
"You're only worse off if you're young and not poor. And 'worse off' isn't even the right word to use, because you're still getting more generous insurance than you were before."
Larry Levitt, an expert on insurance with the Kaiser Family Foundation, supports that view. As a result of the subsidies, he said, 80 percent of all people — and over half of those under 30 — will pay less out of their own pocket for one of the fairly generous "Silver" plans sold on the exchanges than they would for an equivalent plan today.
But many 20-somethings today buy stripped-down insurance, and that changes the picture. Eighty percent would spend more on exchange policies in 2014 than they do on their current, often bare-bones, plans, even when subsidies are taken into account, according to the New York-based consulting firm Oliver Wyman, which does work for AHIP.
If these young and healthy people find the pinch to their wallets too painful, they could either go without insurance and pay a tax penalty or take advantage of a provision in the law that allows those younger than 30 to buy a high-deductible "catastrophic" plan that will presumably be cheaper.
Gruber doubts that either option will prove popular. The $1,600 or $2,000 annual price tag many will be facing on the exchanges is still an appealing deal, he said — especially in light of the nearly $700 minimum penalty they will have to pay for failing to get insurance by 2016.
Insurance executives are less sanguine that young people will buy insurance. They note that the penalty for not having coverage will be as low as $95 for many people in 2014.
They are pressing the administration to issue regulations that would bolster people's incentives to get insurance — for example, allowing plans to charge higher rates to people who don't sign up right away.
The insurers also want the administration to delay the rule that limits premiums for older customers, to allow customers with existing policies that don't meet the law's standards to keep them longer, and to repeal an excise tax that the law imposes on insurance companies, which they say will boost premiums only higher.
"We're very concerned about this," said Alissa Fox, a senior vice president at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, which represents 38 independent insurers.
Obama officials have declined to say whether they have the authority or inclination to grant the industry's requests. And time is running short. Although the exchanges won't officially open until Jan. 1, enrollment begins Oct. 1. Industry sources say premiums for the exchange plans will need to be set as soon as March and probably no later than July or August.
Some insurance executives say privately that they don't have high expectations of winning concessions in the next couple of weeks but they hope their public messaging around "rate shock" will at least head off what they fear could be a frenzy of insurer-bashing once premiums are announced this spring.
"Let's face it," said an executive at one company. "We're not exactly everybody's favorite industry."


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Argentina is generally seen as the big winner in the current U.S. wine market. Sales of Argentinean wines have surged at every price point led by the signature Malbecs, (something that I wrote about in a recent post). The big picture is great — perhaps the New World's biggest success story since Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc hit the scene.
Both Sides Now
The devil is in the details, however, and a more detailed analysis of Argentinean exports suggests that some parts of the industry are facing significant challenges. As usual, my source for news and analysis about wine in Argentina is WineSur, which reports that small wineries are really feeling the squeeze in the critical U.S. export market. (See the report by Gabriela Mazilia. )
Small producers are what economists call "price-takers." They cannot do very much to control the prices they receive on the export markets and they don't have much control over input prices, either. While a great many business decisions are theirs to take, some of the most critical factors are beyond their control. This is true for all businesses, of course, but more so for some than others.
Mazilia's report suggests that small Argentinean producers are feeling the squeeze from both sides of the market. Costs are rising rapidly, perhaps especially for the goods and services that winemakers require. Argentina's inflation rate is about 10% according to official statistics, but unofficial estimates put the number at about 25%, amongst the highest in the world today. Yikes! The Economist's Big Mac Index reports that Argentina's currency is much less undervalued now than a year ago even though the exchange rate has depreciated, which is consistent with rapidly increasing local prices.
Magnified Price Effects
Small producers would like to pass higher costs forward to consumers or backwards on to input suppliers, but neither of these options seems possible at this time. Mazilia's report suggests that export price increases of 5%-10% are possible for wines that retail in the USD 10-18 range, where Argentinean wines are seen as good values. Increases for more expensive wines are apparently out of the question — the market for $20+ wines in the U.S. is just too competitive, too filled with expensive wines selling a a discount.
One problem Argentinean exporters face is that every 10% increase in the price they receive is magnified in absolute terms as the wine passes through the supply chain. One producer cited the dismal math that a USD 1 increase in FOB export price translates into a USD 4 increase in retail prices. Here is an example from the WineSur report:
A case in point is the winery Sur de los Andes. The firm's owner and manager, Guillermo Banfi, announced: "In the course of this second semester we'll raise prices from 5 to 10%, in particular in our line of classic wines. We won't touch the prices of the great reserve line or of our icon wine. Margins have shrunk so much that there's no way we can keep absorbing the high increase in costs."
When asked how much of a margin of increase could be born by an Argentinian wine without losing market share, Banfi provided an example that illustrates the situation in the US, a reference market. "In the US, our wines in the USD 10-18 retail price segment sell very well – these are wines with an FOB price of USD 3-5. With an FOB price of USD 3, the consumer price is around USD 11. A rise of 5-10% would imply an increase of USD 1-2 in retail prices, which would have a negative impact on sales, since pricing is a very sensitive issue in this segment."
Not Much Wiggle Room
Small producers are caught in a squeeze without much room to wiggle. If they don't raise prices they will watch their margins disappear. If they do, well, they risk finding themselves in unfriendly market territory.
"The problem is that there will be a radical change of scenario for Argentinian wines in the USD 10-20 retail price range. Up to now, these wines have sold well because they are, on average, superior in quality to similarly priced European wines. But from now on, the gap in quality will be narrower, and we'll be competing with wines of similar quality and price, from regions with a longer standing presence in the market.
Turbulent Tide
It sounds like Argentina's small producers face an uncertain future, but this is nothing new. The great success of Argentina's large international wineries in the U.S. market has masked a churning pattern among smaller winemakers. Each year several dozen small wineries enter the U.S. market, but each year others are forced to exit as the turbulent tide advances.
International connections, effective distribution, economies of scale and brand prestige are always advantages in competitive international wine markets. The are especially important to Argentina's struggling price-taking small producers today.


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The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Moscow must pay more than $100,000 in damages to the collective Pussy Riot over a violent attack during the 2014 Olympics. "The attack has been established 'beyond reasonable doubt,' and that the situation in which the applicants found themselves during the attack was not compatible with respect for their human dignity," the court ruled. Read More »
Hundreds of works from the collection of the Ace Gallery are to be auctioned off, Art News reports, and used to pay debts run up by its founder since closing. Read More »
A NYT article looks at the rise in popularity of Hilma af Klint and some surrounding controversies, including an IP battle and questions over the artist's sole authorship of some works. "I have to shift my mind-set on how these are collaborative works and not Hilma works," says Guggenheim curator Tracey Bashkoff. Read More »
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Remove Hard Water Spots & Scale
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BAUDRY, MARIE-VICTOIRE, named de la Croix, sister of the Congregation of Notre Dame, teacher, and superior of the community (superior general); b. 12 Dec. 1782 in Pointe-aux-Trembles (Montreal), daughter of Toussaint Baudry and Élisabeth Truteau; d. 10 Nov. 1846 in Montreal.
Marie-Victoire Baudry went to school at the convent in Pointe-aux-Trembles. She entered the noviciate of the Congregation of Notre Dame at Montreal in 1799 and took her vows two years later under the name of Sister de la Croix. In 1802 she began to teach at the Saint-Laurent mission on Montreal Island, and in 1804 she was responsible for a class in the Lower Town mission at Quebec.
As a member of a community primarily devoted to teaching, Sister de la Croix should have spent long years in that activity. But she was called to take charge first of the mission at Pointe-aux-Trembles (Neuville) in 1809, and then of the one at Saint-François (Saint-François-Montmagny) in 1811. Seven years later she became novice mistress at the mother house in Montreal, an office she held until she was elected superior in 1822. At the end of her six-year term she was succeeded by Marie-Catherine Huot*, named Sainte-Madeleine, and was elected councillor; she retained that post until her death.
During her six years as superior, Sister de la Croix set up three new missions: Sainte-Marie-de-la-Nouvelle-Beauce (Sainte-Marie) in 1823, Berthier-en-Haut (Berthierville) in 1825, and Terrebonne in 1826. As the sisters of the Congregation of Notre Dame were not cloistered, requests for their services in teaching and bringing up children came from a number of quarters. The superior shaped the curriculum, in which the promotion of Christian values held a large place. For example, Sister de la Croix expanded it adding, as needed, the study of English, drawing, domestic science, and various other activities.
Through Sulpician Jean-Baptiste Thavenet, the financial representative in Europe of the Lower Canadian religious communities, the Congregation of Notre Dame was able to recover the annuities that had remained in France since the French revolution [see Marie-Louise Compain*, named Saint-Augustin]. Sister de la Croix had a hand in the attempt to establish the Trappistine nuns in Nova Scotia. In 1822 she welcomed into the noviciate three girls chosen by Father Vincent de Paul [Jacques Merle*], who wanted to organize a branch of the order. The following year the novices returned to Nova Scotia; they remained grateful to the Congregation of Notre Dame, and especially to the superior.
Sister de la Croix was endowed with sound judgement and a strong constitution. She could show kindness while insisting firmly on obedience to the rule and adherence to the practices then in effect in the community. As a result of an accident suffered in her girlhood she limped, and later she became deaf. Despite this double infirmity she attended the spiritual exercises of the community and visited all the missions. When she died, the bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget*, wrote to the community: "I always admired in the good Sister de la Croix a fervent zeal for maintaining discipline and the exact observance of your holy rules; she had an abundant share of the . . . evangelical simplicity that your devoted founder [Marguerite Bourgeoys*] bequeathed to you . . . . [God] had given her deep understanding of all that concerns your community." Sister de la Croix's name is linked to those who in succession accomplished great deeds in responding to the call of the church and of education.
ANQ-M, CE1-5, 12 déc. 1782; CE1-51, 12 nov. 1846. Arch. de la Congrégation de Notre-Dame (Montréal), Marie-Catherine Huot, dite Sainte-Madeleine, Journal et notes hist. [D.-A. Lemire-Marsolais, dite Sainte-Henriette, et] Thérèse Lambert, dite Sainte-Marie-Médiatrice, Histoire de la Congrégation de Notre-Dame (11v. en 13 parus, Montréal, 1941–), 6–8.
© 1988–2023 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Cite This Article
Thérèse Lambert, "BAUDRY, MARIE-VICTOIRE, de la Croix," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 4, 2023, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/baudry_marie_victoire_7E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
|Author of Article:
|Thérèse Lambert
|Title of Article:
|BAUDRY, MARIE-VICTOIRE, de la Croix
|Publication Name:
|Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 7
|University of Toronto/Université Laval
|Year of publication:
|Year of revision:
|Access Date:
|October 4, 2023


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Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – Former CIA Director John Brennan said Sunday that he is considering taking legal action to try to prevent President Donald Trump from stripping other current and former officials' security clearances.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," Brennan said he's been contacted by a number of lawyers about the possibility of an injunction in the wake of Trump's move to revoke his clearance and threaten nine others who have been critical of the president or are connected to the Russia probe.
"If my clearances and my reputation as I'm being pulled through the mud now, if that's the price we're going to pay to prevent Donald Trump from doing this against other people, to me it's a small price to pay," Brennan said. "So I am going to do whatever I can personally to try to prevent these abuses in the future. And if it means going to court, I will do that."
Brennan, who served in President Barack Obama's administration, said that while he'll fight on behalf of his former CIA colleagues, it's also up to Congress to put aside politics and step in. "This is the time that your country is going to rely on you, not to do what is best for your party but what is best for the country," he said.
Trump yanked Brennan's security clearance last week, saying he felt he had to do "something" about the "rigged" probe of Russian election interference. And he has said he may do the same for nine others, including a Justice Department official whose wife worked for the firm involved in producing a dossier on Trump's ties to Russia.
An executive order signed in 1995 by President Bill Clinton lays out the process for approving security clearances and describes a detailed revocation and appeal procedure.
Former Obama-era CIA Director Leon Panetta, who also served as defense secretary, said Sunday that Trump must abide by the executive order unless he decides to change or cancel it. Speaking on CBS' "Face the Nation," he said Trump's decision to revoke Brennan's clearance raises questions about whether he followed due process.
Brennan's legal warning came as other officials joined the growing chorus of critics – now more than 75 intelligence officials – denouncing Trump's security clearance threats, saying they have a right to express their views on national security issues without fear of punishment.
Retired Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George W. Bush and Obama, likened it to President Richard Nixon's use of a political enemies list.
Mullen told "Fox News Sunday" that while he doesn't agree with Brennan's decision to criticize the president, the former CIA director has the right to freedom of speech unless he's revealing classified information.
"It immediately brings back the whole concept of the enemies list," Mullen said, "and even before that, in the early '50s, the McCarthy era, where the administration starts putting together lists of individuals that don't agree with them and that historically, obviously, has proven incredibly problematic for the country."
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin agreed with Trump that Brennan's comments "really did cross a line."
But, he said, rather than pulling officials' security clearances, Trump should avoid politicizing the issue and simply deny them access to classified material.
"I don't want to see an enemies list," he said.
Colvin reported from Bridgewater, N.J.
(Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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Charles Darwin University eSpace research outputs are on the move. Our institutional repository now comprises CDU's Research Information System (RIS) and the CDU Research Webportal. This change in digital location is designed to better manage the research data and open access publications needs of the university and provides access to the most recent developments in research data and publication management for the discovery, citation and reuse of research outcomes. From within the Research Information System (RIS), researchers can store and maintain their research outputs and activities. Through the CDU Research Webportal research outputs from across the University can be shared and discovered. For more information, contact firstname.lastname@example.com
Use Advanced Search to search by multiple criteria.
Submit your research papers and data and make them available to the world.
Self Submission Portal


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From the dust of a gold mine to the dirt of a saloon, Call of Juarez: Gunslinger is a real homage to the Wild West tales. Live the epic and violent journey of a ruthless bounty hunter on the trail of the West's most notorious outlaws. Blurring the lines between man and myth, this adventure made of memorable encounters unveils the untold truth behind some of the greatest legends of the Old West.
© Rubigames. All Rights Reserved.


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Artist Kevin Sudeith has renewed the most antiquated art, carving petroglyphs, and infused it with contemporary life.
Kevin Sudeith is a Minnesota-raised and New York-based artist with a masters degree in painting and a longtime fascination with rock art. Since 2007, he has carved his way across North America, living out of his van, depicting in stone the lives and stories of the people and places he visits.
"It is storytelling and documenting, in a lasting way, some of the cool stuff from our moment in time. My hope is that people see themselves in the images I carve and feel a place in history."
"Sudeith uses chisels and battery-powered tools to create bas-relief renderings that exhibited perspective, depth and detail."
—The New York Times
On The Road
From Berkeley, California to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Sudeith's travels have brought him in touch with communities both small (Ingomar, MT, Pop: 8) and large (Grand Rapids, MI). He works by invitation from friends and people he encounters on the road. His work explores the local culture, industry, and environment.
"It's about leaving little surprises for intrepid explorers -- a type of public art that takes place far away from high-traffic galleries and plazas."
Works on Paper
From his petroglyphs Sudeith makes a unique sort of work on paper called an impression. Wet paper, or in some cases paper pulp, is pressed over a freshly-painted petroglyph, creating a colorful, embossed negative—a sculpture in paper.
"The prints are the emissaries of the carvings back to town, or society."
Large Works on Paper
Later, in his studio, Sudeith prepares collages from paintings, photos of carvings, impressions, and stencils made from impressions. His goal is to inculcate the spatial relationships between the remote petroglyphs and the local works on paper.
Sudeith's petroglyphs are presented through an array of media: impressions, collage, photography, a database, and time lapse video. His videos docuement both the creation of the imagery as well as Sudeith's physical presence at the petroglyph site. The videos are designed bo be viewed briefly, like here, or slowly in a gallery space.
"Mr. Sudeith used chisels and battery-powered tools to create bas-relief renderings that exhibited perspective, depth and detail. Even a small carving could take up to a week to finish. He worked even in cold weather, and at one point contracted a bad case of poison ivy, and he loved it all."
"It's a question that obsesses artists, and many of the rest of us for that matter: how to make something that will endure, that will outlast the creator, that will keep his or her name on people's lips for years, perhaps generations, to come? Kevin Sudeith may have come up with the answer: Create your project out of rock."
"In a world exceedingly characterized by high-speed technology, virtual reality, and surveillance, Sudeith's carvings of human narratives — of human struggles and rewards — unfold slowly, both in their making and in that they're meant to be discovered rather than exhibited. The narratives on stone beg to be touched and felt, but for the most part are hard to access. The relative inapproachability of the works collides with an art world that believes it can access (and acquire) everything at its fingertips."
"Sudeith is working in what is perhaps the most archival artistic medium available to humankind: stone carving"
Hidden City: Unearthing Kevin Sudeith's Urban Petroglyphs
WNYC by Carolina A. Miranda.
Artist Creates Modern Petroglyphs
The Billings Gazette.
The Space Age Enters the Stone Age
Discover Magazine Visual Science.
Rock Star for the Ages
San Francisco Chronicle Ovations.
Alternative Rock
The Daily by David Knowles.
Artist's Work is Rock Solid
Contra Costa Times by Doug Oakley.
Petroglyphist Displays His Artwork on the Prairie
Kenmare News by Caroline Downs.
Modern-Day Petroglyphist Has Two Works-in-Progress on Hastings Mesa
The Telluride Watch.
Thank you!
Website design by Akil Grant.


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dbx® Professional Products Showcases The DriveRack® PX Powered Speaker Optimizer
September 14, 2009
dbx® Professional Products, a Salt Lake City-based manufacturer of professional signal processing products and a division of Harman International, is showcasing the DriveRack® PX Powered Speaker Optimizer. The PX is the latest in the acclaimed dbx DriveRack family of products, which provide flexibility, sonic excellence and intuitive control for performance applications. Specifically, the PX is designed to enhance and optimize the performance of powered speakers, all in an intuitive package that requires no special skills to operate.
Utilizing the highly acclaimed DriveRack technology, the PX is the first processor in the industry specifically tailored for powered speakers. Although powered speakers by definition require no amplifier or external processor, the DriveRack PX is an indispensable addition to any powered speaker setup, as it hosts a number of impressive features that offer louder, cleaner, better sound than had previously been possible from a powered speaker system.
An included dbx M2 measurement mic uses Auto-EQ to correct for audible deficiencies in the room environment. dbx's patented Advanced Feedback Suppression (AFS™) kills harsh feedback, allowing problem-free operation at higher sound levels, and the patented Subharmonic Synthesizer extends bass response for enhanced bottom end. The graceful PeakStopPlus™ Limiting protects the speakers without sacrificing overall sound quality.
Other included features increase versatility and ease of use. Intuitive out-of-box support for a host of JBL® and other popular powered speaker brands and models and support for either stereo or mono subwoofer models make the PX the turnkey processor solution for almost any possible powered speaker setup. The exclusive Setup, Auto-EQ and AFS Wizards make setup easy and fast, preserving the simplicity of the user's powered speaker system.


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IV. Death and Later Reputation
Left: "Mrs Humphry Ward," photograph by H. Walter Barnett. Source: frontispiece of Walters. Right: "Mrs Humphry Ward with some of the children of the settlement." Source: Hamel 146. [Click on the images to enlarge them.]
Mary Augusta Ward died of heart failure in London on 24 March 1920, after three months' illness, just a day after hearing that she had been granted her honorary LL.D. by the University of Edinburgh. She was buried in the churchyard at Aldbury, a short walk from her Hertfordshire country home, Stocks. Her husband, whose recent sudden illness must have added to the strain on her, was too ill to attend but survived her for another six years, and she was also survived by her three children. The youngest of these, Janet, who had married the eminent historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, grandson of Charles Edward Trevelyan of Wallington in Northumberland, published an affectionate biography of her mother three years later.
The day after she died, the Times obituary of Ward acknowledged that "[s]he had lived on into an age indifferent to the controversies and conflicts which were the basis and background of her best works." But, it added, "even before her death the tide had turned; and there was a growing tendency to accept or renew the earlier and more favourable judgement upon her novels" (20). Maybe, though only a year or so earlier the outspoken journalist, biographer and politician Stephen Gwynn had professed astonishment that writings with "no pretension to humour or to wit," and lacking "almost entirely the quality of suggesting passion" (7), should have been so popular, relegating her to the ranks of those whose output was just one step removed "from that uncongenial thing, the 'symposium' in a review" (9-10). A little later, when Janet wrote her biography, she too acknowledged that there had been a period of relative neglect:
It was as though she had lived through the period, some ten years before, when the public had tired somewhat of her books and younger writers had to a large extent supplanted her, until, towards the end, she found herself taken to the heart of her countrymen in a manner that had hardly been her lot in the years of her greatest literary fame. They loved her not only for all that she had done, but for what she was, divining in her, besides her intellectual gifts, besides even the tenderness and sympathy of her character, that indomitable courage that carried her through to the end, over difficulties and obstacles at which they only dimly guessed. They loved her for wearing herself out, at sixty-seven, in visits to the battle-fields of France, that she might bear her witness to her country's deeds; they loved her for all the joy that she had given to little children. Two months before her death the Lord Chancellor, making himself the mouthpiece of this feeling, had asked her to act as one of the first seven women magistrates of England, and later still, when she was already nearing the end, the University of Edinburgh invited her to receive the Honorary Degree of LL.D. These acts of recognition gave her a passing pleasure, and when she herself was beyond the reach of pleasure, or of pain, it stirred the hearts of those who went with her, for the last time, to the little village graveyard to see awaiting her, at the drive gate, a file of stalwart police, claiming their right to escort the coffin of a Justice of the Peace. (Trevelyan, Ch.XV)
Here, it is noticeable that the re-evaluation she describes is largely focused on Ward's personal qualities, rather than on the novels.
But, granted that there was at least some degree of reassessment in those last few years, how much of Ward's oeuvre actually survived her death? This deserves a more positive answer. U. C. Knoepflmacher pointed out long ago that we tend to separate the "middle-class, humanist, nineteenth-century tradition" too distinctly from the modern period (141). He sees some truth in Ward's own sense of herself as carrying on from where George Eliot left off. Noting the unmistakable similarities between Lady Connie and D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover, he suggests that we should be grateful to this continuity for rescuing the novel from the "standstill brought about by the formalistic tradition of [Henry] James, Conrad, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce" (158). Not everyone would agree, but it is always healthy and fruitful to have a compromise, and indeed some tension, between tradition and experiment.
In our own times, several factors have helped to put Ward on the literary map again. Easily the most important is Sutherland's biography, which brings out all those "difficulties and obstacles" at which her readers had "only dimly guessed," and brilliantly evokes the drama in her novels' publication histories. For instance, he recounts in detail both the travails of writing Robert Elsmere, and the phases of its reception, which culminated in nothing short of a "buying and reading mania in Britain, America and even Europe" (130), as people responded to its ideological iconoclasm. His chapters on the novel are entitled "The Elsmere Ordeal, 1884-1888," and "Elsmere Mania: 1888" respectively. He also sifts out the best of her work and explores its qualities, calling David Grieve "one of her handful of great works" (136), and recommending particularly Marcella ("one of Mary Ward's best," 146) and Helbeck of Bannisdale, the novel that "most readers consider her finest" (153). While he skates over the lesser-known titles, he does not forget to give a boost to the all-but forgotten Lady Connie ("surprisingly good.... a fine novel," 349), Missing and Harvest.
Then, Ward's reputation has been helped by a fairly recent willingness to understand her position on suffrage, to look at some of her heroines' struggles and to see in them "a searching, 'assaying' intellectual enterprise, which functioned in genuine recipcrocity with the evolving Woman Question" (Argyle 954). Important too is the fact that enthusiasts of this neglected novelist no longer have to plead for reprints, as Boris Ford did in 1990 in the London Review of Books, after reading Dinah Birch's review of Sutherland's biography. Ward's works are now available on the web, on Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive and so on, and can all be downloaded as e-books.
Finally, as for Ward's contributions in other spheres, Rosemary Ashton's research into education in Bloomsbury, and the handsome Bloomsbury Project on the web, give serious attention to her pioneering provisions for the children of working mothers, and handicapped children, in that part of London. Her influence here not only spread throughout the country but continues to be felt to this day. Perhaps nothing would have pleased her more than this. Stephen Gwynn had, after all, come to the conclusion that she would "sooner found an influential sect than write a supremely good book" (120). All the same, almost a hundred years on from his rather severe account of her, there is a growing feeling that her literary accomplishments should not be underestimated.
Related Material
- I. Childhood and Early Married Life
- II. Writing Career
- III. Philanthropy and Public Life
- The Mary Ward Centre
Argyle, Gisela. "Mrs. Humphry Ward's Fictional Experiments in the Woman Question." Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. Vol. 43. No. 4 (Autumn 2003): 939-957. Accessed via Jstor. Web. 4 November 2013.
Ashton, Rosemary. Victorian Bloomsbury. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2012. Print.
Birch, Dinah. "The Great Mary" (Review of Sutherland's biography of Ward). London Review of Books. 13 September 1990, 13-14. Online Archive. Web. 4 November 2013.
The Bloomsbury Project: Institutions: The Passmore Edwards Settlement. Web. 4 November 2013.
Gwynn, Stephen. Mrs. Humphry Ward. London: Nisbet, 1917. Internet Archive. Web. 4 November 2013.
Joannou, Maroula. "Mary Augusta Ward and the Opposition to Women's Suffrage." 1-24. Anglia Ruskin Research Online. Web. 4 November 2013.
"Mrs Humphry Ward: Her Art as a Novelist. Public-Spirited Activities." Times. 25 March 1920, p. 16. Times Digital Archive. Web. 4 November 2013.
Sutherland, John. Mrs Humphry Ward: Eminent Victorian, Pre-Eminent Edwardian. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990. Print.
Trevelyan, Janet Penrose. The Life of Mrs Humphry Ward. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1923. Project Gutenberg. Web. 4 November 2013.
Walters, John Stuart. Mrs. Humphry Ward: Her Work and Influence. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1912. Internet Archive. Web. 4 November 2013.
Last modified 4 November 2013


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I've been looking forward to the music video of Lady Gaga's much-hyped single "Born This Way" for several weeks, so, when it premiered Sunday on Vevo I really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, "Born This Way" just doesn't have the twisted, Mad Hatter brilliance of Gaga's "Bad Romance" video or the movie-pastiche playfulness and queer pleasures of "Telephone" (featuring Beyonce).
What "Born This Way" does share with earlier Gaga videos is an unabashed willingness (nay, insistence) to push the already elastic envelope of music video propriety, a penchant for dancing around in her underwear and a clear, but not completely realized, desire to blur the boundaries between pop rock and video art.
"Born This Way" refers to the idea that homosexuality is the result of nature not nurture, something Gaga emphasizes both through her lyrics ("No matter gay, straight or bi, / Lesbian, transgendered life / I'm on the right track baby / I was born to survive") and with the neon pink triangle that opens and closes the video. But visually, she seems more interested in metaphors of childbirth and Motherhood (capital "M" intended) than in dwelling on images of queer pride.
The video opens with Gaga herself framed as a primal Mother Goddess (backed by Bernard Herrmann's score from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, by the way). "This is the manifesto of Mother Monster," her voiceover intones, weaving together an origin myth accompanied by visceral and graphic birthing imagery, as pale heads covered in a viscous fluid emerge from between her legs:
Utilizing a Rorschach blotch kind of video effect, "Eternal Mother" Gaga mirrors herself so that her left and right sides merge and split, creating an explicit labial image. What's fascinating about this bold genital imagery is how it parallels feminist attempts, primarily in the 1970s, to highlight the power of female sexuality through symbolic or literal engagement with female bodies and bodily fluids in art (see Judy Chicago's The Dinner Party, Chicago and Miriam Schapiro's Womanhouse, Carolee Schneeman's Interior Scroll, Kiki Smith's early work and many others). Equally compelling, at least visually, is Eternal Mother's second birthing: Gaga delivers a futuristic, black machine gun, a "birth of evil" which "splits [her] in two."
As bullets rain around Gaga, the music swells and the camera shifts to an aerial view of myriad semi-nude dancers bent on all fours. And then Lady Gaga starts singing–and the fun's abruptly over. I have so many questions for the primal Mother Monster but the video's remaining four minutes–featuring gooey severed heads, inexplicably tuxedoed zombies and Gaga's sequined bikini mud-wrestling troupe of dancers–leave me no outlet for them.
In many ways, I think Lady Gaga is shackled by her pop diva inheritance. While Madonna's legacy compels pop stars like Gaga to take risks, the risks she clearly wants to take–more existentialist than erotic–don't mesh well with the relentless and peppy superficiality required of top-40 hits.
"Born This Way" is like the love child of a three-way between Michael Jackson's "Thriller," Madonna's "Vogue" and artist Matthew Barney's trippy, bodily fluid-filled five-part Cremaster Cycle (a work Gaga also emulates in "Bad Romance"). The video is unequivocally bizarre, but the problem isn't its strangeness but the blandness of the lyrics. This is awfully ironic considering that "Born This Way" is supposed to be Gaga's gay pride anthem, but perhaps it's why "Born This Way" falls short: Where other Gaga videos have exceeded the expectations of their pop-standard text (the lyrics are full of repetition and catchy refrains, but the videos are far more dynamic), in this latest incarnation the most compelling parts of the video seem to have little or nothing to do with the lyrics.
Eternal Mother may not be the only one splitting herself in two.
Photo from Flickr user Naomi Lir under Creative Commons.


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VLBI Tutorials
Tutorials for the Very Long Baseline Array
CASA is offering increased VLBI support through a collaboration with the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE). The below VLBI CASA tutorials introduce the CASA environment and touch upon the visualization, calibration and imaging capabilities available, along with the scripting methods so that you can create your own calibration scripts for your own data.
VLBI processing in CASA has been extensively tested with EVN and VLBA continuum data. Other use cases and telescopes are still being verified. Feedback on results (also successful ones) and missing or optimizing functionality is very welcome at casa_feedback_at_nrao.edu.
For the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project, one of three certified pipelines is based on CASA. This 'rPicard' pipeline has since evolved into a generic all-purpose pipeline for VLBI processing. While rPicard is not supported by the CASA team, users can find more information in this paper.
CASA tutorials
CASA tutorial: ENV Continuum Imaging & Calibration
CASA tutorial: EVN HI Spectral Line
Credits: These CASA tutorials represent publicly available materials developed by scientists from the University of Manchester, the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE), and the University of Pretoria/SARAO through funding from Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA). The materials are based upon a workshop developed by Anita Richards (University of Manchester) in 2016. The subsequent update has been conducted by Jack Radcliffe (SARAO/ University of Pretoria), which has been influenced by Des Small's (JIVE) EVN CASA tutorial, based on AIPS material provided by Minnie Mao. When starting with archival EVN observations, this EVN CASA tutorial explains the required steps for converting the data into a Measurement Set (in the EVN Continuum tutorial these steps are not complete). Thanks to Ilse van Bemmel (JIVE) for making these materials available for the CASA Guides.
Old AIPS tutorials
While implementation of VLBI data processing is an ongoing effort in CASA, we also include below two old AIPS tutorials on this topic.
AIPS tutorial: Simple Self-Calibration
AIPS tutorial: Spectral Lines and Astrometry


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Title: Hurricane Katrina Relief Amendment
Vote on a motion to suspend paragraph 4, Rule XVI and allow for a vote on an amendment to increase the federal governments financial aid package to the victims of Hurricane Katrina by providing food assistance, bankruptcy relief and tax help.
NOTE: This is not a vote on the passage of the amendment, but rather a vote to determine if the amendment violates senate rule xvi, #4. The rule requires that amendments to appropriation bills are relevant to the appropriation topic at hand and do not propose new general legislation.
Title: Hurricane Katrina Relief Amendment


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Happy Monday!! These 6 snapshots pretty much sum up my week last week.... design projects, furry faces and dreary weather! Oh, and LOTS of coffee! ;)
This week is probably going to be filled with much of the same... I'm finishing up a few new blog designs (will be sharing soon) and we have a few new projects in the works for Hello Monday! Mr. B and I will be moving soon... FINALLY! The whole process has been much slower than we thought, but none the less, we're excited! Trying to find a decent home to rent 600+ miles away is really hard to do. Just sayin'.
So what's been going on in your life lately?
Are you liking the new look over here? Or not so much??
19 comments:
sounds a lot like my weekend ;)ReplyDelete
LOVE design books!!
dreary weather, cute animal faces and lots of coffee... how'd you know the summary of my life!? ;) cute picutesReplyDelete
I'm loving this new look! :) And those sweet furbaby faces!!ReplyDelete
how cute!! i love your little kitty!!ReplyDelete
drop by allister bee soon!
thanks for the blog love! this site is beautiful! do you use Wordpress?? i'm thinking about switching over to them. and did you buy your domain name from GoDaddy?? sorry for all the questions... i just adore your blog! maybe we can follow each other?!ReplyDelete
xo!!! vanessa (the gal)
i love the new look! and i'm so happy for you- when are you moving?!ReplyDelete
Love these images! Good luck finding a place to live. I'll be thinking of you! :)ReplyDelete
YES! I love the new look! And can that cupcake be any cuter?ReplyDelete
Such sweet pets! :)ReplyDelete
loving the new look! sounds like a busy week. mine was full of coffee too!ReplyDelete
Yay for Dunkin Donuts, cupcakes, and furry faces. I love all of them. :) Hope everything goes well with househunting and designing! Can't wait to see the results. :) Happy Monday!ReplyDelete
I love your furry friends! So cute! Loving the new look, too!ReplyDelete
Love your Instagram shots :)ReplyDelete
Congrats for the move, happy for you!
I don't want you to move :-( But... I know its for the best! And I know you will be back ;-)ReplyDelete
Love the new design/layout... but what else is new. :-)
Aww... look at your fur babes, I just want to snuggle them!ReplyDelete
Yeah for productive weekends (with lots of coffee, of course!)
ps. Excited for the big move! Can't wait to see the new space :)
Congrats on the move! Very exciting! Love the cupcake pic :)ReplyDelete
love your new look! congrats on your move.ReplyDelete
I'm in love with your cat! I love that face and it's markings! Where are you moving to?ReplyDelete
Awww, look at that sweet face. Where are you moving to?ReplyDelete
Thanks for stopping by! Your comments make me smile!!
I try my best to respond to questions/comments via email.
If you're using a Blogger account, make sure you can get emails and you're not a "no-reply" blogger. ;)
Have a great day!!


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Font Glossary
|The margin nearest to the spine of a book.
|Back Matter:
|Material, such as indices or appendices, that comes after the main text of a book.
Also called "end matter".
|Ball Terminal:
|A round shape occurring at the end of a stroke as in a, c, f, and r.
|The imaginary horizontal line along which characters appear to sit (or align).
|Similar to the spur, and can be found on L,T and E.
|A pattern of elements (e.g. laser printer dots, or pixels on a computer screen)
which make up a character, graphic element, or image.
|See Bold Type.
|Black/Broken Letter:
|Gothic fonts, Schwabacher and Fraktur fonts are examples of black letter fonts.
The curves and the lines of such characters are most often twice 'broken'.
|The rectangle on which a typeface is fitted.
|Body Size:
|The size of a typeface character. Includes ascenders and descenders as well as a certain amount of space above the character.
|Bold Type:
|A version of a typeface heavier than the normal weight, characterized by thicker strokes, often used for emphasis.
|The round or elliptical main structural element of letters such as C, G, 0 Uppercase,
and b, c, e, o, p in the lowercase. Also sometimes called eye.
|A rectangle enclosing text or illustration.
|The joining of a serif to the main stem in an unbroken curve.
|A character, usually circular, often used to demarcate items in a list.


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In our pursuit to become a one stop sword shop we are proud to present our Sword Parts Collection. This category focuses primarily on Japanese sword parts and fittings. We carry everything from grade 1 Samegawa to Japanese imported Ito and Sageo.
Free Ground Shipping on all orders over $125* >>See Detail<<


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Search Constraints
Filtering by: Date 1771/1796 Remove constraint Date: 1771/1796 Format (Digital) TIFF Remove constraint Format (Digital): TIFF Format (Original) Manuscripts Remove constraint Format (Original): Manuscripts Type Text Remove constraint Type: Text
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Creator: Third Presbyterian Church (Philadelphia, Pa.) Date: 1771/1796 Contributing Institution: Presbyterian Historical Society Description: Inscribed as "The Pine Street Presbyterian Church Committee Book," this bound volume contains the minutes of the meetings of trustees of Third Presbyterian from 1771 to 1796. Each entry includes the date, place, members present, and business discussed. Topics of the meetings generally include the collection of pew rents, settlement of financial accounts, improvements to the buildings and grounds, and management of charitable funds, as well as more specific entries such as the seasonal adjustment of service times and adoption of a new version of the Psalms. Of particular interest are the minutes pertaining to the call for George Duffield to serve as their new pastor, and the resulting rift with First Presbyterian Church. The bulk of the minutes end on page 168, and pages 174, 175 and 176, which list the books and verses read from during services, are written upside down, so run in reverse chronological order. Note: Prior to 1797, the Trustees were called "the Committee." View Full Item at Presbyterian Historical Society


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Wednesday, January 16, 2013
Capturing the Moment - Meeting Mac
33 comments:
Such precious photos and memories (makes me think of my c-section and days in the hospital). Thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
These are amazing. All of them. So real and honest baby mac looks exactly the same still :)ReplyDelete
Seriously really cute newborn (and I don't honestly think that very often!) Great photos!!!ReplyDelete
His little feet on your mouth = me tearing up big time over here. Those first days in the hospital are so magical and surreal and scary! I'm glad you shared---you look amazing, like a proud and happy mama, as you should!ReplyDelete
I love these - I agree with you about birth photography, I think done right it's one of the most beautiful things out there. But these photos still capture your strength and joy fresh & new and so beautifully. Love them.ReplyDelete
Gorgeous photographs! What special moments to have captured. Mac was, and still is, just so precious.ReplyDelete
I felt the exact same way about the first pictures of myself with Blaire but went through the same change of feelings you did. Funny how time (and the loss of some swelling and baby weight!) can change your perspective.
Wonderful pictures- and you look great! I was also given a lot of fluids during labor and was totally swollen for several days after. Unfortunately, I did not want to be in many pictures so I only have a few of me. Next time I'll suck it up and just smile :)ReplyDelete
I got tears in my eyes looking at your beautiful pictures. So special.ReplyDelete
These photos are so sweet and beautiful. I love the ones of you with his tiny little feet and the last one is just PERFECT.ReplyDelete
These are wonderful photos!!! I'm sure you'll cherish them forever. I wish I had done this. I did not take one photo of Jackson and I in the hospital. I too had a c-section and I could hardly get out of bed, much less put on make-up. So I didn't want my picture taken. Looking back, I really regret that decision. Oh well, live and learn I guess. :-)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 16, 2013 at 10:42 AM
Such gorgeous photos! And even after all of your talk about the way you looked, I didn't see any of that. I just saw a beautiful new mama, dad, and their precious newborn baby. And the baby feet. OMG, the BABY FEET. Love.ReplyDelete
tear! Man that boy has grown! I second your words of wisdom on the birth photography. I did it and would do it again in a heartbeat.ReplyDelete
You do have a wonderfully thoughtful hubby for taking over the camera for you. From one photo junkie to another, I understand how much photo mean and he just scored some major cool points from me ;)
Beautiful, Sara!!ReplyDelete
What BEAUTIFUL pictures!!! The one of your dad (?) holding Mac and kissing you on the forehead seriously brought tears to my eyes...gah!!! We did hire a birth photographer and it was the best decision I made (not to make you feel worse about not getting one). There are lots of pictures where I am not picture-ready, but the story it tells is amazing. Do it next time! It's totally worth it!!ReplyDelete
Oh my...the photos are beautiful and your words are so precious! I am so, so, SO glad you are at a point that you can enjoy these photos because they are breathtaking and priceless. What treasured moments for your family. Annnndddd...you might have just added one more thing to my to do list! Love.ReplyDelete
Ps...his wrinkly feet....I die.ReplyDelete
I love these pictures! Thank you so much for sharing. They definitely made me tear up to see your family increased by one. The idea of a photo session to capture those moments the next day is such a great one! And without the blood everywhere. ;)ReplyDelete
I think you look lovely, and I can totally understand how you'd feel self conscious. In moments as absolutely priceless and once in a lifetime as this though, it's easier to deal. It would be like not having a photographer at your wedding. You can't see things beyond your perspective and it's too hectic to remember it how you want to. Photography is such a blessing in those times. I'm sure if I ever had kids I would want a photographer too, even though I know I'd be UBER self conscious (I'm SUPER self conscious in every single photo taken of me anyway, I delete most of them). Wonderful photos of such precious moments!ReplyDelete
My heart is absolutely melting. Tell you a secret? I wish I had newborn pictures taken but I had this unreal fear that my baby would be a horrendous alien looking newborn so I psyched myself out. I didn't even allow visitors except for family for that same reason. I wish I did things differentlyReplyDelete
These photos are perfect.ReplyDelete
You are stunning.
Your sweet baby boy is precious.
Your husband looks happy and proud.
You're so smart to hire someone to take these, you'll cherish them!
These are so sweet! Awww. Little Mac! Oh I want a newborn now.ReplyDelete
Sara, these photos make my heart melt! Thank you for sharing such personal photos. I could feel the intense love in each moment.ReplyDelete
You look radiant and beautiful! Thank you for sharing- there is so much love in these photos.ReplyDelete
Girl, you are crazy -- these photos are amazing!! The one with your Dad (I think?) did me in. Love every single thing about these pictures.ReplyDelete
Sara, These are amazing, perfect photos that capture your new family of three and you will get to treasure them forever....I'm so jealous I didn't have these done!!!ReplyDelete
I'm so glad you posted these!! Such a special time and you are so lucky to have them! I was similar to you - no WAY was it getting documented (even though I love looking at other women's photos). Now in retrospect, it is one of my only regrets. I even tell friends who are pregnant that even if they aren't sure they want them, to at least have their partner take lots of pics and they can decide who (if anyone) will get to see them.ReplyDelete
I only have 3 pictures from labour and delivery. An awful one of me trying to breastfeed for the first time, Luca on a table and the scale. Oh and the clock. That's it. None of him coming out, none of him on my chest for the first time being cleaned up...etc.
I wish we had those pics and should have had the foresight to at least get pics like you did. They are so special!!
PS you look a like a beautiful, brave woman who just did the most amazing thing she'll ever do :-)
Great photos, love his hat! Doesn't that seem forever ago???ReplyDelete
Boo, you whore, now I'm crying. These are beautiful and perfect and beautiful.ReplyDelete
I love you guys!
Such beautiful beautiful photos. He is to sweet and tiny and you look so proud. I was doing yoga last night and just reflecting on what my body has been through and how amazing the birthing process really is. There are days I still don't believe what we went through to bring E into the world. And next time I am FOR SURE getting someone else in there with a camera. We had complications so it was all a blur but I remember being so happy and emotional when we first got to meet him and I wish we had those photos to remember it all!ReplyDelete
These pictures are amazing and the emotions are so apparent...I love them! Doesn't that seem like ages ago?! He was sooo tiny!ReplyDelete
These photos brought tears to my eyes. You look so incredibly happy in them.ReplyDelete
These are so beautiful! I get such a lump in my throat when I see images like these that are so real and joyful. It's kind of a motivator to think about doing it again since our little one went straight to the NICU after birth. So, thank you.ReplyDelete
there is so much joy and so much love in these pictures that i just teared up. what a precious memory you have forever in print. these are amazing.ReplyDelete


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Crowley Opens Full-Service Project Management and Logistics Solutions Office in Singapore
Because of changing market conditions and a commitment to proactively support the global needs of its customers, Crowley Maritime Corp.'s solutions group has expanded its presence in the Asia Pacific market by opening a new project management office in Singapore.
The office is located at 77 Robinson Road on the 34th floor of the Robinson Building and can be contacted at +65 6809 2160. William Hill, PMP, has relocated from Crowley's Anchorage office to Singapore where he has assumed the position of director, business development, and will manage the project support office. Hill has been with Crowley for more than six years as director, projects and director, business development, in Alaska working numerous sealift and marine projects for major oil, gas and Engineering, Construction and Procurement Management (EPCM) customers.
Crowley's expansion allows the company to better support customers in the oil and gas mining; ECPM; and Engineering, Procurement, Installation and Commissioning (EPIC) industries, who are increasingly embarking on large-scale onshore and offshore projects and require additional support and resources including full-service project management and logistics solutions.
"We've seen an increase in customers requiring service in the region and as part of our commitment to consistently evaluate and expand service offerings to meet such needs, we have decided that a physical location with local personnel in Singapore was necessary," said Hill. "It will allow us to not only have in-person management of our assets in the area, but will also provide better, more timely communication with our current and potential customer base."
In addition to the newly opened solutions office in Singapore, Crowley subsidiary TITAN Salvage also maintains a local presence with a 45,000 square-foot site west of the city, allowing for more rapid emergency response in the region.
Crowley's solutions group is a Project Management Organization (PMOrg), providing marine solutions as a prime contractor for the energy and resource extraction industries. This specialized team, which has its main Project Management Office (PMO) in Houston, Texas, provides turnkey marine solutions through the company's diverse capabilities, assets and world-class project management skills. The solutions group allows Crowley to provide greater value to customers with multifaceted marine and offshore construction-related projects. For more information visit www.crowley.com/solutions.
Jacksonville-based Crowley Holdings Inc., a holding company of the 122-year-old Crowley Maritime Corporation, is a privately held family and employee-owned company. The company provides project solutions, transportation and logistics services in domestic and international markets by means of six operating lines of business: Puerto Rico/Caribbean Liner Services, Latin America Liner Services, Logistics Services, Petroleum Services, Marine Services and Technical Services. Offered within these operating lines of business are: liner container shipping, logistics, contract towing and transportation; ship assist and escort; energy support; salvage and emergency response through its TITAN Salvage subsidiary; vessel management; vessel construction and naval architecture through its Jensen Maritime subsidiary; government services, and petroleum and chemical transportation, distribution and sales. Additional information about Crowley, its subsidiaries and business units may be found on the Internet at www.crowley.com.


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Expert's Rating
Our Verdict
If you're looking for an iPad stand, you face a plethora of options and possible features. Will you be using the stand to hold the iPad for FaceTime and video viewing, or will you just be surfing and typing? Do you need to be able to prop up the iPad in both portrait and landscape orientations, or will one or the other suffice? Is one position enough, or do you need a stand that adjusts to multiple angles? Do you need a stand that will accommodate an iPad in a bulky case?
But perhaps the most important characteristic of an iPad stand is whether it's made to stay on your desk or to be carried with you. I tested seven portable iPad stands small enough to fit in your laptop or tablet bag.
Maximo iU-AS1 iUp Anodized Aluminum Stand
Maximo's $50 iU-AS1 iUp Anodized Aluminum Stand (3.5 of 5 rating) is constructed of brushed aluminum with nonskid silicone feet and protective silicone cushioning everywhere the iPad comes in contact with the stand. The iUp works with any iPad model, bare or in a slim case, and in landscape or portrait orientation. The iUp feels quite sturdy, and I was able to tap and type on the screen without fear of it toppling over.
The stand consists of two pieces that you can assemble in two different ways to get different angles: roughly 45 degrees or a more-upright 60 degrees. The former is comfortable for on-screen typing, while the latter is good for video-watching or working with an external keyboard.
All of the iPad's ports and buttons are accessible while you're using the iUp; a cutout at the bottom lets you charge and sync your iPad even in portrait orientation. At just 11.7 ounces, the iUp is lightweight, and, when disassembled, its two pieces nest together to take up less space in your bag.
The iUp comes with a thin pouch that fits both the stand and an iPad, but the pouch looks and feels cheap. The company also offers, as a separate purchase, an adapter for car and wall mounting.
The iUp doesn't do anything fancy, but it's sturdy, lightweight, portable, and attractive.
Satechi R1 Arm Hinge Holder Stand
Satechi's $50 R1 Arm Hinge Holder Stand (4.5 of 5 rating) is constructed of brushed aluminum and has not one but two hinges. A thin layer of silicone on the bottom—and any spot the iPad would touch—prevents slippage and scratching. The unique design lets you use your iPad in landscape or portrait mode. Any model of iPad fits, including an iPad in a thin shell case.
Once in place, your iPad feels quite sturdy, handling tapping and typing without much shaking. The R1 also works great for browsing the Internet, watching videos, and video-chatting. All ports and buttons are fully accessible. You can position the R1 to hold your iPad at every conceivable angle, from totally flat to completely vertical. And the stand works well if you use your iPad with an external keyboard.
What really makes the R1 special is its design and Apple aesthetic. The moment I plopped my iPad into the R1, I had the sensation of looking at a tiny iMac. The shiny hinge ends even resemble the ends of Apple's wireless keyboard.
The R1 folds down flat, with no disassembly required. It comes with a thin, velour drawstring pouch to protect it—and, perhaps more important, your other gear—when you toss the stand in your bag. At 12.5 ounces, it's a bit heavier than the iUp, but it's still quite light for a metal stand. With its sharp looks and infinite angle options, you can't go wrong with the R1.
Kubxlab Mona iPad Stand
Kubxlab's $30 Mona iPad Stand (3.5 of 5 rating) is a plastic stand that's very small when folded, so it's especially portable compared to metal stands. In fact, it's barely larger than a pencil with a walnut on the end, letting it fit into even a small purse. However, the Mona's tiny size comes with trade-offs. For instance, you attach the Mona to the sides of your full-size iPad—it doesn't work with the iPad mini—using tiny, handlike grips, and the fit on my third-generation iPad was so tight that the grips actually pulled up the edges of my iPad's protective screen film.
The Mona lets you prop up your iPad in portrait or landscape orientation. In the latter orientation, however, the Mona's grips, which can be attached only along the iPad's longer edges, make the iPad tilt to one side or the other slightly. This may not bother you, but it did bother me.
Alternatively, you can lay the Mona flat on your desk and rest the iPad on top of it for a low typing angle, but in this position the iPad is resting loosely on the stand. The tablet won't fall over if you tap on its screen, but if you tap too firmly too close to the edge of the screen, the iPad will fall to the side. The Mona is really optimized for portrait orientation, which it handles nicely and at a multitude of angles—you choose the angle by positioning the grips higher or lower on the iPad.
The Mona itself doesn't block any of the ports or buttons, but since the iPad rests on its own bottom edge while propped in portrait orientation, you won't be able to access the tablet's Lightning-connector or dock-connector port for charging or syncing purposes.
Kubxlab claims the Mona is designed for use with the original iPad or the iPad 2, but it should work with any model. However, because it grabs the edges of your iPad, the Mona doesn't work with an iPad in a case.
The Mona is more cute—cheeky, even—than elegant, and it's super-portable. However, I recommend it only for someone who needs to set up their iPad primarily in portrait orientation. It might also also make a good supplement to Apple's Smart Cover, which can prop up an iPad only in landscape orientation.
FrameShift iPad Stand
Created by DarwinMachine and distributed by Insanely Great Products, the $99 Frameshift iPad stand (4 of 5 rating) is an unusual model. At just 5.4 ounces, it's surprisingly lightweight for a metal stand, and it's attractive if you like an industrial look. It comes in three brushed-aluminum shades (red, blue, and black) and sports black, rubbery cushions everywhere the stand touches your work surface or your iPad. The company sells two versions: one for the original iPad and another for newer models. (You can also get a $79 iPad mini version; and the $159 FrameShift Pro is designed for point-of-sale or business display.)
The FrameShift folds flat for storage and can be configured for any angle from completely flat to 90 degrees by simply moving the back arm. My iPad felt quite sturdy in the FrameShift, whether in landscape or portrait orientation—you won't tip it over with even vigorous onscreen tapping. All buttons and ports are fully accessible, and the stand is open enough at the bottom, and raises your iPad enough off your work surface, to allow you to connect your charge/sync cable while the iPad is in place. However, the stand won't accommodate an iPad in a case.
While the FrameShift doesn't have any bells or whistles, it's a solid contender: It looks sharp, weighs little, holds your iPad securely in most any position, and allows full use of the iPad for multiple purposes. The major downside to the FrameShift is its price: It's double that of the next-most-expensive models here, and many times the price of the cheapest.
Ethic WingStand
The least expensive, smallest, and lightest stand in this roundup is the $15 WingStand (3.5 of 5 rating). It's actually two separate, tiny pieces of plastic—available in white or black—cleverly designed to snap together for storage and small enough to slip into your pocket. Pull the two pieces apart, and they form two "feet" that hold your iPad (or iPhone or iPod touch) in portrait or landscape orientation at a single, roughly 75-degree, angle.
Used alone, the WingStand can prop up an iPad for screen viewing, though it's not sturdy enough for for you to tap the screen in this position. Its true purpose is as a stand for using Apple's Bluetooth Wireless Keyboard with your iOS device. The WingStand's two pieces are designed specifically to clip onto the round, rear edge of that keyboard—once you snap or slide the two pieces onto that cylinder, you get a very secure stand for your iPad or iPhone.
When your iPad is sitting in the WingStand, all the tablet's buttons and ports are accessible—unless the iPad is in portrait orientation, in which case the keyboard blocks the iPad's Lightning- or dock-connector port. The WingStand's fit is snug, so don't count on being able to use the WingStand with an iPad case.
Of course, the biggest limitation of the WingStand is that it works only with Apple's keyboard, which makes the stand a bit of a one-trick pony: I recommend it only if you plan to type frequently using Apple's Wireless Keyboard. If you fall in that select group, the WingStand's low price and ultra-portability make it a winner.
Rain Design iSlider
Rain Design's $50 iSlider (4.5 of 5 rating) clearly aims for the Apple aesthetic. Its packaging looks much like that of an Apple product, and when folded up, the stand bears a passing resemblance—shape-wise—to Apple's Magic Mouse.
When you first take the iSlider out of the package, the entire thing appears to be constructed of Mac-style brushed aluminum, but once you open the stand, you can see that the metal part is the base, while the rest of the stand—which stores inside the base for travel—is black plastic and metal. The stand weighs in at just 8 ounces.
Slide out that black part, and you then lift the back section of the stand (the part that supports your iPad) on its hinge until the back is at the desired angle. You then slide the back section in toward the base until the former rests on the latter for support. The rear surface of the back section is ridged, which allows you to position that section at over a dozen different angles ranging from about 20 degrees (nice for onscreen typing) up to roughly 80 degrees from horizontal. The iSlider easily accommodates any model of iPad, including the iPad mini, in either landscape or portrait mode.
One of the iSlider's advertised features is the capability to hold your iPad while it's encased in Apple's Smart Cover or Smart Case. The stand even comes with a silicone adapter for each to ensure a custom fit. This extra space also accommodates other slim-to-medium cases. The downside of this approach is that a bare iPad is pretty loose in the iSlider. This may not bother you, since the iPad still feels secure, but if you do a lot of hard tapping toward the bottom of the screen, the iPad can wobble a bit.
The iSlider works well with an external keyboard, and all connections and buttons are freely accessible; a special cut-out at the bottom of the iSlider's cradle even allows you to connect the iPad's dock/sync cable. Rain Design includes a form-fitting, faux-leather carrying pouch. As long as you don't mind a bit of wiggle room, the iSlider is a solid portable option.
HumanToolz Mobile Stand for iPad
If you want light and portable, it doesn't get much lighter and more portable than HumanToolz's $50 Mobile Stand for iPad (3.5 of 5 rating). This slim, 2.5-ounce frame snaps onto the back of your bare, full-size iPad. It's made of an aluminum alloy that matches the back of the iPad. The stand is compatible with Apple's Smart Cover but is fully functional without it.
Once the frame is in place, simply swing out the arm on the back to place your iPad nearly upright (at a roughly 85-degree angle) in portrait orientation. Alternatively, you can use your iPad in landscape orientation at any angle from about 30 degrees (for on-screen typing) up to about 85 degrees (for screen viewing), though the stand is most stable at lower angles. And if you want your iPad to rest totally flat, you just fold the Mobile Stand flat against the back of the tablet.
With the stand attached to your iPad, all buttons and ports are fully exposed—even the camera is unobscured. In portrait orientation, however, the bottom of the iPad rests on your work surface, so you won't be able to connect your charge/sync cable.
In my testing, the Mobile Stand worked great with an iPad 2. However, even though the company's website claims that the stand should also fit the third- and fourth-generation iPads, I was unable to get my third-generation model to fit into the stand properly. Even when I tried to (gently) force it to fit, I couldn't get the stand to snap into place—I could use the stand, but only three corners would hug the iPad at a time. If you have an iPad 2, however, the Mobile Stand is a perfect fit and a solid stand.
Bottom line
With computing and computing accessories, you must often make a trade-off between portability and functionality. The least-expensive options I tested, the $15 WingStand and the $30 Mona iPad Stand, both plastic, take up the least amount of space in your bag. But they're also the least flexible in terms of how you can use them. Still, if either of them does everything you need in an iPad stand, they offer great value.
If, on the other hand, you need a greater range of positions and angles, or a sturdier construction, you'll want to step up to one of the metal options. If it weren't so much more expensive than the others, my personal favorite would be the FrameShift for its light weight, elegantly spare form, and flexibility. But as much as I like it, I can't say that it's twice as good as the others. For $50, Satechi's R1 is just as solid, flexible, and attractive (if in a different way), though it's also a bit heavier. HumanToolz' Mobile Stand is lightweight and flexible, but it fits only the iPad 2 well. For me, the best overall blend of value, weight, and versatility is Rain Design's $50 iSlider.
[Editor's note: You can also check out our other reviews of iPad stands.]


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NEW YORK – Chipotle says its profit rose 15 percent in the third quarter as more customers flocked to its restaurants for burritos, tacos and bowls.
The Denver-based company said sales at restaurants open at least a year, a key metric, rose 6.2 percent in the period, driven by higher customer traffic. The sales jump follows a 4.8 percent increase a year ago.
Chipotle, which has more than 1,500 locations, has surged in popularity because customers see it as being a step up from traditional fast-food chains such as Burger King and Wendy's. People also like that they can customize their orders, dictating which ingredients they want on their orders.
The company's healthy sales performance is in contrast to the performance of several major food companies including McDonald's in recent quarters, which have cited the challenging economy for underwhelming sales results.
But some companies seem from insulated from such outside factors. Starbucks, for instance reported a surprisingly strong 9 percent sales increase at locations open at least a year in its most recent quarter.
As for Chipotle, the chain's "Food With Integrity" ethos has also helped it cultivate a powerful marketing message. It recently generated buzz online with a cartoon video depicting a dystopian world where big food companies fatten chickens with injections and keep cows stuffed in crates. By contrast, the video depicted Chipotle's food as being homemade from fresh ingredients.
The video got more than 7 million hits on YouTube.
For the quarter, Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. earned $83.4 million, or $2.66 per share. That's up from $72.3 million, or $2.27 per share, a year ago. Analysts expected $2.78 per share.
Revenue rose 18 percent to $826.9 million, topping the $820.3 million analysts expected.
For the year, the company said it expects sales at restaurants open at least a year to grow by a mid-single-digit percentage. For 2014, it forecast low-single-digit growth, excluding any menu price increases.
Its stock rose almost 2 percent in after-hours trading.
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Border Patrol's New "Run-and-Hide" Strategy
Frank Crimi in FrontPage
Now in a case of life imitating comedic art, the Obama administration is instructing Border Patrol agents to "run away and hide" when confronted by an "active shooter," an armed individual opening fire in public places.
The new "run-and-hide" directive for agents in US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) was issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the form of a mandatory computer training course on the proper protocol to be used when confronted by active shooters.
That appropriate conduct, outlined in an hour-long video entitled "IS-907- Active Shooter: What You Can Do," consists of three specific options available to Border Patrol agents: Evacuate, Hide Out, and, if that fails, Take Action.
Unfortunately, the DHS definition of "taking action," according to Border Patrol union officials, is to "act aggressively and throw things at the shooter," a plan that could prove unworkable given that the DHS did not specify what thrown objects would prove adequate in stopping a hail of gunfire.
Nevertheless, if the gunman is not subdued by an avalanche of tossed shoes, belts, or badges, the DHS then advise the Border Patrol agents to "call law enforcement and wait for their arrival," a somewhat puzzling directive given those Border Patrol agents are under the impression they themselves are armed law enforcement professionals.
After all, these Border Patrol agents spend 12 weeks training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in New Mexico, where they are instructed in such things as criminal law, immigration law, arrest techniques, self defense, and firearms.
Yet, despite being assigned upon graduation from FLETC a semi-automatic pistol, a fully automatic assault rifle or a shotgun to carry out their duties, the Obama administration apparently believes them insufficiently prepared to utilize those weapons and that training in taking down a crazed gunman firing on innocent civilians.
That downgraded assessment of their abilities comes despite Border Patrol agents — in addition to tracking groups of illegal aliens coming into the United States — being responsible for apprehending heavily armed Mexican drug cartel members operating along the US-Mexico border.
Not surprisingly, then, the DHS "run away" policy is not sitting well within the rank and file of the Border Patrol, including the country's largest Border Patrol union with 3,300 members, Local 2544 in Tucson, Arizona.
In statements posted on their union website, union leaders have characterized the DHS guidelines as "downright insulting," adding, "It's nice to know if we should encounter such a situation, stop a shooter and save countless lives, we can look forward to being disciplined or fired by the Border Patrol because we should have run away to hide."
As one former law enforcement investigator and current security consultant wondered, perhaps rhetorically, "Are the lunatics now running the asylum?"
Of course, the Obama administration's diminished view of the role played by Border Patrol agents neatly dovetails with its overall disinterest in promoting the US Customs and Border Protection agency's role in securing the nation's borders.
That disinterest was most recently on display with the Obama administration's announcement that it is moving to close nine Border Patrol stations across four states.
While the CBP has maintained closing the stations is being done in order to reassign agents to higher priority areas closer to the border, critics warn the closures will undermine efforts to intercept drug and human traffickers in well-traveled corridors north of the US-Mexico border.
As Bob Dane, communications director with the Federation for American Immigration Reform has said, the Border Patrol station closings are just "part of the systematic dismantling of both border and interior enforcement. It complements the non-enforcement policy of (the Obama) administration."
The non-enforcement immigration policy of the Obama administration was witnessed most recently by President Obama's executive order to stop the deportation of over 800,000 young illegal aliens; and his directive to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to "selectively enforce" the parts of Arizona's immigration enforcement law, SB 1070, that were recently upheld by the Supreme Court.
Yet, as fully committed as the Obama administration is to not enforcing the country's immigration laws, it is equally committed to making life a more pleasurable experience for those who find themselves in the country illegally.
To that end, in this year alone, the Department of Homeland Security announced the appointment of the nation's first "public advocate" for Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and its revised standards for treating illegal aliens housed in the country's detention facilities, changes which included providing taxpayer-funded access to "hormone therapy" for transgendered detainees.
So, given the Obama administration's desperate desire to run away from America's illegal immigration problem, it makes sense that it would now instruct America's Border Patrol agents to run away from their professional responsibilities of protecting public safety.
Yet, while the DHS "flee to safety" policy may provoke a mixture of derision and amusement, it should be noted that a variation of this policy has already been in effect, one that resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry, the centerpiece of the Fast and Furious operation.
Specifically, the Justice Department recently revealed that Terry and a contingent of federal agents initially fired bean bags — not bullets — at a group of heavily armed drug cartel members south of Tucson, Arizona, in December 2011, an exchange in which Terry was shot and killed.
That information, which came in a statement issued by Attorney General Eric Holder, also read, "Agent Terry served his country honorably and made the ultimate sacrifice in trying to protect it from harm."
Unfortunately, Terry's heroic effort to protect his country was delivered in the form of a bean bag, a "weapon" that the Department of Homeland Security would undoubtedly find a suitable standard issue for all Border Patrol agents.


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Well, I'm 0 for 2 in lotteries for 2008 ultra. The Hardrock lottery was held yesterday and I came up a wee bit short. After the HRH board draws the names of the 140 guaranteed entrants, they pull the remainder of the names to order the wait list from which additional applicant gain entry as current entrants withdraw. Each year, folks from approximately the first 20 spots on the HRH waitlist have a realistic shot of getting in the big dance. I was not pulled in first 20 wait list draws; in fact, I was not pulled in the first 200(!?) wait list spots. Instead my name was pulled for spot 210 on the wait list out of a total of 214 people on the wait list. Only Justin Walker, Mandy Calvert, Zach Markham, and Chuck Cofer had worse luck than me.
Congratulations to everyone who DID get their name drawn for entry or a top slot on the wait list! When I get a chance I'll take a look at the entrants list and let y'all know what I think. With names like Jurek, Skaggs, and Africa at the top of the wait list, there could be some fast times at HRH 2008.
Update – 2/4 12:30 PM
I just sent in my official withdrawal from this year's MMT 100. As I previously wrote, I would only run MMT if I got into Hardrock. As I did not, I'm sticking to my word and am opting not to run MMT (I would not be in shape to "race"by MMT anyway). Instead, I'll be pacing ultra stud Mike Mason.


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Mercedes-Benz E350 Parts
- Mercedes-Benz
- Suspension
- Mercedes-Benz
- Engine
- Mercedes-Benz
- Steering
- Mercedes-Benz
- Fuel System
About Mercedes-Benz E350
The Mercedes-Benz E350 is a mid-sized luxury sedan with many luxury options and styling that fans have come to love. An E-Class Mercedes is considered an executive car with the ""E"" originally used as a suffix nomenclature for older Mercedes models of the 1950s era. The W210 chassis E-Class was available from 1996 to 2002, the W211 was brought to the US in 2003 and continued on to 2009 eventually being replaced with the new W211 platform. A W211 Mercedes E-Class was featured in the ""Men in Black II"" movie that came out in 2002, before the E-Class was available for the US market. The W211 E-Class underwent some design changes for the 2007 model year fixing some technical issues and making the Pre-safe option standard. In 2010 the new W212 platform was brought to the US, the luxury sedan was totally redesigned and offered some new technology features. The cool newly added features for the 2010 model year included; blind spot monitor, lane keeping assist, Pre-safe with attention assist and Night View Assist Plus. With an array of new features and updated styling, the Mercedes-Benz E350 quickly became strong competition for the BMW 5-series. Youll find that a Mercedes E350 can easily seat five, giving its passengers a smooth and comfortable ride with luxury that you have come to expect from Mercedes.
Mercedes-Benz E350 Parts at FCP Euro
Your luxury sedan needs to be well taken care of, protect your investment with European replacement car parts from FCP Euro. Shop our Mercedes-Benz E350 parts catalog and find a large selection of aftermarket and OEM parts. Looking for Mercedes E350 accessories online? No problem, were always adding new accessories to our website to let you add a personal touch to your car. FCP Euro has everything to keep your E350 well-maintained with replacement filters, oil, spark plugs, cabin air filters and just about anything else you could think of when it comes to total car care. Discover the difference that over 25 years in the replacement car parts industry makes by shopping on FCP Euro.


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Wait, where have all these blog posts come from? The madness of my mind surprises even myself at times.
Lately, I have not had a lot of time to keep up on my blogging adventures. Little things such as everyday life kind of get in the way. Earning a living, family dealings, going outside and actually having a life, etc. It sometimes gets kind of hard to keep up on things. So I apologize to my readers out there if my postings have been sporadic at best, and commenting back has been hit or miss. Things have calmed down a bit and I will be dropping by to see what you all are up to very soon. In the meantime, I just want to offer a big thanks to all that have stayed with me along the way through all of my gluttonous meals, drunken exploits, and rantings of NYC craziness.
I just happened to take a peek at my WordPress stats and tools to see what has been going on. The spam filter is working and caught a bunch of junk, I had a few plug-ins to update, and then I noticed one big thing that caught my eye. I had hit 400 blog posts! Holy crap when did that happen? Now, I know it's not a huge number to many bloggers out there who seemingly have a ton of time to post something almost every day, but to me that's something to celebrate a bit. I remember when I started this mess of a blog I had no clue what I was doing. I had a vision of the niche I wanted to develop for myself and it had to be unique. After all, you don't find too many male bloggers out there with a lifestyle, food, and humor blog all rolled into one. Along with the 400 posts are also thousands of comments that have accumulated along the way. Again, I thank all who have read and commented. I am humbled that some actually enjoy this mindless babble.
Hopefully, I can hit the next 100 posts and people will still like what I am doing here. Even if I will need to post shots of myself in assless chaps, or pics of my junk to keep your attention. This fame whore will earn it, baby! Continue reading You just can't fix stupid, and more blogging nonsense in NYC!


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Mercedes all electric SLS AMG E-Cell Gullwing to enter production
At the 2011 Detroit Auto Show Mercedes-Benz has announced that its SLS AMG E-Cell, which was first unveiled as a prototype last year, will go into production. Part of Mercedes-AMG's "AMG Performance 2015" strategy that aims to continually reduce fuel consumption and emissions, the battery-electric drive gullwing super sports car, which generates 392 kW (525 hp) and 880 Nm (649 lb-ft) of torque via four compact electric motors positioned near the wheels, will be available to order from 2013.
The all-electric SLS AMG E-Cell can go from 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 4 seconds, which isn't far off the pace of the 6.3-liter SLS AMG that does it in 3.8 seconds thanks to its 420 kW (571 hp) V8. The planned production model looks to be largely unchanged from the prototype with the same liquid-cooled, 48 kWh lithium-ion battery pack, redesigned instrument cluster and center console and multilink suspension with pushrod damper struts. The production version will also offer AMG ceramic composite brakes, which are 40 percent lighter than the conventional, grey cast iron brake discs, as an optional extra.
Mercedes-Benz hasn't released all the details about the car just yet though – most notably, the range of the vehicle, how long it takes to charge and the price.