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Researchers at the DOE's Oak Ridge National Laboratory have designed and tested an all-solid lithium-sulfur battery with approximately four times the energy density of conventional lithium-ion technologies that power today's electronics.
The ORNL battery design, which uses abundant low-cost elemental sulfur, also addresses flammability concerns experienced by other chemistries.
"Our approach is a complete change from the current battery concept of two electrodes joined by a liquid electrolyte, which has been used over the last 150 to 200 years," said Chengdu Liang, lead author on the ORNL study published this week in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
Scientists have been excited about the potential of lithium-sulfur batteries for decades, but long-lasting, large-scale versions for commercial applications have proven elusive. Researchers were stuck with a catch-22 created by the battery's use of liquid electrolytes: On one hand, the liquid helped conduct ions through the battery by allowing lithium polysulfide compounds to dissolve. The downside, however, was that the same dissolution process caused the battery to prematurely break down.
The ORNL team overcame these barriers by first synthesizing a never-before-seen class of sulfur-rich materials that conduct ions as well as the lithium metal oxides conventionally used in the battery's cathode. Liang's team then combined the new sulfur-rich cathode and a lithium anode with a solid electrolyte material, also developed at ORNL, to create an energy-dense, all-solid battery.
The new ionically-conductive cathode enabled the ORNL battery to maintain a capacity of 1200 milliamp-hours (mAh) per gram after 300 charge-discharge cycles at 60 degrees Celsius. For comparison, a traditional lithium-ion battery cathode has an average capacity between 140-170 mAh/g. Because lithium-sulfur batteries deliver about half the voltage of lithium-ion versions, this eight-fold increase in capacity demonstrated in the ORNL battery cathode translates into four times the gravimetric energy density of lithium-ion technologies, explained Liang.
The team's all-solid design also increases battery safety by eliminating flammable liquid electrolytes that can react with lithium metal. Chief among the ORNL battery's other advantages is its use of elemental sulfur, a plentiful industrial byproduct of petroleum processing.
"Sulfur is practically free," Liang said. "Not only does sulfur store much more energy than the transition metal compounds used in lithium-ion battery cathodes, but a lithium-sulfur device could help recycle a waste product into a useful technology."
Although the team's new battery is still in the demonstration stage, Liang and his colleagues hope to see their research move quickly from the laboratory into commercial applications. A patent on the team's design is pending.
"This project represents a synergy between basic science and applied research," Liang said. "We used fundamental research to understand a scientific phenomenon, identified the problem and then created the right material to solve that problem, which led to the success of a device with real-world applications."
The study is published as "Lithium Polysulfidophosphates: A Family of Lithium-Conducting Sulfur-Rich Compounds for Lithium-Sulfur Batteries," and is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.201300680. In addition to Liang, coauthors are ORNL's Zhan Lin, Zengcai Liu, Wujun Fu and Nancy Dudney.
The research was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Vehicle Technologies Office. The investigation of the ionic conductivity of the new compounds was supported by the Department's Office of Science.


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subset: commoncrawl


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"We have to listen and observe," notes Jennifer Hope Kottler, when writing about energy issues ("Two Ears, Two Eyes, One Voice," August 2010). "It will be then, and only then, that we will be able to discern what God and God's people are calling us to do." During the summer months, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico received front-page attention; meanwhile, heat-related deaths and hospitalizations increased in communities from Oklahoma to Maine, but that received far less attention.
The world of energy is a world of disparities. Low-income families struggle to pay their heating bills during the winter, and then they suffer through summer heat waves. The poor need an energy justice program that will provide all people, in all nations, with adequate power that is safe, affordable, and sustainable, and the poor need to be heard. Are we listening?
Robert F. Murphy
Falmouth, Massachusetts


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- Press Release
- Sep 26, 2023
Dawn Gets Extra Time to Explore Vesta
NASA's Dawn mission has received official confirmation that 40 extra days have been added to its exploration of the giant asteroid Vesta, the second most massive object in the main asteroid belt. The mission extension allows Dawn to continue its scientific observations at Vesta until Aug. 26, while still arriving at the dwarf planet Ceres at the same originally scheduled target date in February 2015.
"We are leveraging our smooth and successful operations at Vesta to provide for even more scientific discoveries for NASA and the world." said Robert Mase, Dawn project manager based at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. "This extra time will allow us to extend our scientific investigation and learn more about this mysterious world."
The extension will not require any new funding, and will draw on financial reserves that have been carefully managed by the Dawn project. The flexibility provided by the spacecraft's use of efficient ion propulsion system allows it to maintain its originally planned Ceres arrival.
The extension allows for extra observations at Dawn's current low-altitude mapping orbit (average altitude 130 miles or 210 kilometers), which will now last until May 1. The additional time enables the gamma ray and neutron detector to build the best possible maps of the elemental composition of Vesta's surface and improve data for the gravity experiment, the two primary scientific investigations at the low-altitude orbit. The spacecraft's camera and spectrometer are also obtaining additional high-resolution images.
Additional time will also be spent in the planned second high-altitude mapping orbit later this summer. When Dawn arrived at Vesta in July 2011, much of the northern hemisphere was in shadow. But with the passage of time, more of that area will bask in sunshine.
"Dawn has beamed back to us such dazzling Vestan vistas that we are happy to stay a little longer and learn more about this special world," said Christopher Russell, Dawn's principal investigator at UCLA. "While we have this one-of-a-kind opportunity to orbit Vesta, we want to make the best and most complete datasets that we can."
Dawn's mission to Vesta and Ceres is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Dawn is a project of the directorate's Discovery Program, managed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. UCLA is responsible for overall Dawn mission science. Orbital Sciences Corp. in Dulles, Va., designed and built the spacecraft. The German Aerospace Center, the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, the Italian Space Agency and the Italian National Astrophysical Institute are international partners on the mission team.
More information about the Dawn mission is available at: www.nasa.gov/dawn and http://dawn.jpl.nasa.gov .


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A More Excellent Way
My beloved brethren and sisters, I want to speak to you today about what I consider to be one of the greatest challenges of our times—the need to pursue "a more excellent way." It was the Apostle Paul who said, "But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way." (1 Cor. 12:31.)
Why should we all seek to pursue "a more excellent way," and what does it mean? Finding "a more excellent way" means being totally converted to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and doing all that we can to fulfill those covenants we make in becoming His disciples.
The great prophet Alma, speaking of his own life and his conversion, said: "I have repented of my sins, and have been redeemed of the Lord; behold I am born of the Spirit.
"And the Lord said unto me: Marvel not that all mankind, yea, men and women, all nations, kindreds, tongues and people, must be born again; yea, born of God, changed from their carnal and fallen state, to a state of righteousness, being redeemed of God, becoming his sons and daughters;
"And thus they become new creatures; and unless they do this, they can in nowise inherit the kingdom of God." (Mosiah 27:24–26.)
Being converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ means to walk in a newness of life. It means learning to yield to the Spirit and responding to the things that the Lord expects us to respond to. It means caring for and serving others with deep, considerate feelings rather than pursuing the natural desires of our own lives. In our day and time there has been a great tendency to shrug off the things of the Spirit as we become more and more involved in worldly things. We seem to be living in a world where people give little thought to others, as they are busily caring for their own needs. As followers of Christ, we must live outside ourselves and lose ourselves in service to others.
I believe we ought to remember what King Benjamin said so long ago. He said:
"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father." (Mosiah 3:19.)
It was the great Apostle Paul who said, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Cor. 5:17.)
To find that "more excellent way," brothers and sisters, we must cast aside our old selves and our old habits and ways of thinking. We must first recognize how we should change, and then we must make those changes, thus putting on the new and beginning to live as we have never lived before—walking in a newness of life.
The Apostle Paul also said, speaking of our relationship to the Lord, "Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life." (Rom. 6:4.)
Throughout the world I personally have witnessed man's great tendency to think of himself without consideration of others. I believe with all my heart that we cannot come unto Christ unless we put on "a newness of life" in caring for those we love, in sharing the gospel, in keeping the commandments, and in honoring the covenants we have made. These are the things we must do now and better than we have ever done them before.
Our great prophet, President Ezra Taft Benson, has called upon each of us to read the Book of Mormon. He has not invited us to read this sacred record just to read the words. Through prayerful study of the Book of Mormon we can pursue that "more excellent way." Our prophet's motive in asking us to read the holy scripture is conveyed in the beautiful words of one of our hymns:
Abide with me; 'tis eventide.
Thy walk today with me
Has made my heart within me burn,
As I communed with thee.
Thy earnest words have filled my soul
And kept me near thy side.
O Savior, stay this night with me;
Behold, 'tis eventide.
(Hymns, 1985, no. 165)
Now, to each of you, I bear my witness that you who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are involved in a true work. This is the Lord's work. I want each of you to know that I sustain it with all my heart. I sustain those who preside over me—our great and living prophet, who is guided by our Father in Heaven, and his associates, who are indeed messengers of the Lord Jesus Christ. This work is true, and this is the way to come unto Christ and walk in newness of life!
My brothers and sisters, it has been a humbling experience for me to speak to you in this great conference. I want you to know that you have my love, my faith, and my prayers. I know that no people on earth have more capacity to be what the Lord wants them to be than those of you who are members of this great church.
I also want you to know that my life was changed more than forty years ago as I read the Book of Mormon. There is nothing on earth that has influenced me more profoundly than my testimony of this sacred record and the work to which it belongs. It has burned within my soul over the years with ever-increasing brightness, and I find great joy and satisfaction in walking in "newness of life" in my search for the "more excellent way."
And I find great joy and satisfaction in walking that journey with a beloved companion, and now with a posterity who seem to have caught the same vision.
May you have this experience, I pray humbly, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.


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This is one local election that's going to get national attention.
With Mark Sanford's victory in the Republican runoff Tuesday night, South Carolina's May 7 congressional special election will be packed with enough scandal, redemption, and gender-war themes to fill a telenovela. To sweeten the pot, polls show that the Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Colbert Busch (sister of talk-show host Stephen Colbert), might have a real shot at winning what has traditionally been a safe Republican seat. Fasten your seat belts—this is going to be a wild four-week ride.
The view from outside South Carolina too often sees Lowcountry politics as a strange circus, a perspective confirmed for some distant observers by the elevation of Mark Sanford from the Appalachian Trail–hiking governor to a serious contender for his old congressional seat. Holding his primary-night victory party at a barbecue joint called Sticky Fingers didn't exactly help his cause to be taken seriously again.
But Sanford deserves to be taken seriously and seen as many of his former constituents see him—not as a stereotypical philandering Southern politician (à la David Vitter, Edwin Edwards, and Bill Clinton), but as an uncommonly unpretentious political figure who has a long record of fighting for fiscally conservative causes and freely admits his moral failing with the woman who is now his fiancée. He has been humbled and now exhibits an empathy for the fallen he did not possess previously. This is the dynamic that has driven Sanford's resurgence—along with a campaign-cash advantage and a high name ID—not a local disregard for his disgrace. The baggage is real and heavy, but it doesn't define him entirely.
That said, he's facing a formidable opponent who will make this the most competitive South Carolina congressional election in recent memory. Colbert Busch is best known nationally for being the sister of Stephen Colbert, himself a hometown hero. Locally, Colbert Busch has earned her stripes through a career in local public service, including serving as chairwoman of the Maritime Association of the Port of Charleston, the South Carolina International Trade Conference, and the local chamber of commerce. These in-state bona fides will be helped by a national fundraising base boosted by her brother's fame and by an expected high youth and female turnout on Election Day. "From all accounts, she's well known, well liked, and well respected," says South Carolina Republican strategist Hogan Gidley. "That goes a long way here in South Carolina and could trump party loyalty as a motivator."
But here's the cold reality check: Democrats haven't been able to do much better than 35 percent of the vote in recent congressional races. The rigged system of redistricting makes her already uphill climb that much steeper.
The First District's conservatism will come up against Sanford's presumed problem with the women's vote, compounded by the obvious point that he is running against a woman and that any negative attacks will backfire.
"It's going to be virtually impossible for Mark Sanford to attack Colbert Busch," says Gidley, who worked on state legislator Larry Grooms's competing conservative campaign in the first round of the GOP primary. "It's extremely tricky political territory for several reasons. One, Sanford can't effectively execute an apology tour and consistently be on the attack. Two, any political attack on Colbert Busch would be used against Sanford and the party as proof of a perceived 'war on women.' Three, we have a huge problem right now with the women vote—so any candidate perceived to be one who disregards women is going to face issues getting votes. Sanford could overcome these things … But it will be very difficult in the current political climate."
All this is true, but arguments that Sanford's final-round GOP primary competitor Curtis Bostic would have been a better alternative don't pass the smell test. A staunch social conservative, Bostic had plenty of his own baggage, including not actually living in the district and getting caught up in an alleged human-trafficking ring. Southern conservative stereotypes aside, Sanford has always presented a profile more fiscal conservative than social conservative, adopting a more inclusive live-and-let-live attitude than that of many of his contemporaries, even before his self-inflicted scandal imploded.
Colbert Busch's chance is also improved by the unusually self-selecting nature of a special election. "Republican voters probably won't vote for Colbert Bush, but they sure might stay home," says Gidley. "In fact, many First District Republicans are fine with a Colbert Bush victory, because they reason that in about a year, we'll have a strong chance to take back the seat—and this time nominate a conservative who doesn't have the professional and personal baggage that Mark Sanford does."
The good news is that the voters of South Carolina's seaside First District, which includes my hometown of Charleston, will have a real choice and a competitive congressional election in one month's time. Washington will be watching closely. The issues won't just be personality, they will be matters of policy that are too easily overlooked from a national perspective. There is actually a decent chance that this race will be unusually substantive and civil—and that's a welcome change from the kind of hyperpartisan food fights that usually subsume our elections. So put your preconceptions aside—if you like politics, the only congressional campaign currently in the country will be one to savor.


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fort•night (?f?rt?na?t, -n?t) n. a period of fourteen nights and days; two weeks.
The Bishops in the United States have asked Catholics to join them in fourteen days of prayer starting on June 21 (the eve of the Feast of Sts. Thomas More and John Fisher and leading up to Independence Day on July 4. Here are seven ways you can participate in this Fortnight for Freedom.
#7 Watch and Share the CatholicVote video on the Fortnight for Freedom
#6 Fast for Religious Liberty
Make a sacrifice. Give up something. Fast.
St. Thomas More gave up his life. We can willfully give up one of our comforts in hope that God will use this sacrifice to protect our liberties.
#5 Read Archbishop Chaput's warning for Catholics: "We need to wake up"
"There's a special lesson in our current situation. Anyone who thinks that our country's neuralgic sexuality issues can somehow be worked out respectfully in the public square in the years ahead, without a parallel and vigorous defense of religious freedom, had better think again."
#4 Understand the connection between religious liberty and defending natural marriageCNA / Addie Mena
"If same-sex marriage continues to gain ground in our law and culture, we'll see an increased erosion of religious believers' freedom to witness to their faith. And if that happens, we all lose out. A robust pluralism of diverse views will give way to an increasingly homogenized public life." -Kim Daniels
Read the rest of the article now
#3 Ask you pastor to preach on religious liberty.
(Show him the resources available at fortnight4freedom.org)
#2 Donate to an organization fighting for religious liberty in our courts
You can donate to the Becket Fund, Thomas More Society, Alliance Defending Freedom, Thomas More Law Center, The American Center for Law and Justice, The Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund, and of course the CatholicVote.org Legal Defense Fund.
#1 Pray for Religious Liberty
And our shepherds have given us great prayers to chose from. Among them:
The Litany of Liberty (PDF) (the title alone should have your attention and interest
Prayer to St. Thomas More (PDF) – he allowed himself to be put to death by the king rather than renounce the Catholic faith
Prayer to Our Lady of Gaudalupe (PDF) – Patroness of the Americas and the Unborn
Prayer to Mary Immaculate (PDF) – Patroness of the United States


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Couple of weeks ago, with an itch to see a summer film, though the offering so far seems lackluster, we were this close to seeing Super 8 when a review in The New York Times by Manohla Dargis lead us to, of all places, Bad Teacher. According to Ms. Dargis, this film was one step away from a Carole Lombard screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks. Clearly, someone drank the Kool-Aid or some kind of liquid substance before seeing this film, that not being me. Dumbstruck, we sat through the movie wondering what the attraction was for Manohla. Have I become such a fuddy duddy post mid-life crisis? The answer is no. The movie is kinda lame at best and making loveable Cameron Diaz incredibly unlikeable, is not a plot point, rather, there is no point and little plot. Sadly, Ms. Diaz is suffering from whatever Jennifer Aniston has…bad choices disease.
Today's review by A.O. Scott about Horrible Bosses makes me wonder, "What is in the water cooler at The New York Times building, or at least where the movie reviewers sit?" Mr. Scott goes on and on about Horrible Bosses, which from the previews alone makes me realize that poor Ms. Aniston has no hope of establishing a respectable career in her waning years. The premise alone: wanting to kill your boss, is perhaps evidence that our society is at the brink of extinction. Well, surely not distinction. If the word kill is the major motivation for the lead character, then I say pass on developing this movie. At least for the sake of our children. Years ago I was in a development meeting at Paramount and the discussion was to do a movie about a loveable murderer. The group in the meeting were so reluctant to have the lead be intrinsically unlikeable for the sheer fact that he kills people. Though I chimed in and reminded the group about the success of Prizzi's Honor, that film with Jack Nicholson about the two hit men, one being a women, who fall in love only to discover they have to kill each other. And we all know how successful that remake, Mr. & Mrs. Smith starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie was, and did at the box office. The overall thought then was, you need to have amazingly likeable stars so that the audience will forgive them, no matter what. And that my freind still holds true. And (B) no one in the cast of Horrible Bosses can hold a candle to Nicholson, Kathleen Turner (especially back then), Pitt or Jolie. Sorry Jennifer. I am sad to have to say that, as I really did love you in Friends.
While we are on the topic of movie reviewers and The Times, I wanted to recommend seeing the documentary Page One: Inside The New York Times, which depicts the newspaper as a lioness fending for her cubs. I walked out of the theater with unending respect for David Carr and Bill Keller, Executive Editor. Then decided to read the review of the film that was featured in The New York Times by a writer named Michael Kinsley. I was aghast at how much he hated this film. His big notice was that there was no cigarette smoking in the editorial meetings. He calls the movie a mess, no less. Why such disdain? It makes me re-think where to go and get my movie reviews.


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SANTA CLARA – In a convincing example of the viability of open source networking, cloud provider DreamHost saved 70% in capital and 40% in operational costs by replacing VMware's NSX SDN with open source alternatives.
In a presentation at the Open Networking Summit here, suppliers Cumulus Networks and Akanda – a DreamHost spin-out NFV business -- said the cloud provider replaced NSX due to scaling and Layer 3 support issues. DreamHost did not speak and was not present during the presentation, but posted a blog entry on the project here last Friday.
+MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: DreamHost report shows common types of government requests for information+
The project involved DreamHost's DreamCompute public cloud compute service, which is based on OpenStack and Ceph object store and file system. The core networking requirements for DreamCompute are Layer 2 tenant isolation, IPv6 and 10G+ "everywhere."
DreamHost has about 400,000 customers.
The first generation of the DreamCompute networking infrastructure included Nicira's NVP network virtualization software for Layer 2 isolation, and Cumulus Linux as the network operating system running on white box switches. Layer 3 requirements were not met by Nicira NVP nor by software routing vendors who did not understand cloud, said Mark McClain, Akanda CTO.
The second generation of the DreamCompute network include Layer 3 capabilities in VMware NSX, which acquired Nicira, renamed the NVP product and enhanced it. But in a bake-off with the Astara open source network orchestration service for OpenStack – which was developed by DreamHost -- Astara comes out on top and, with some enhancements, allows DreamCompute to scale to over 1,000 customers and thousands of VMs.
"Honestly, we expected Astara to lose this challenge," states Jonathan LaCour, DreamHost vice president of cloud and development, in his blog. "However, Astara absolutely came out victorious, offering a significantly better experience and more reliability."
In the third generation of the DreamCompute infrastructure, NSX was found to have scale limitations of 1,250 tenants. Open vSwitch was slow and unstable, and the software was difficult to debug and operate, the presenters said. As a result, NSX was replaced for Layer 2 isolation by hardware accelerated VXLAN in the switch and hypervisor, and by Astara for Layer 3-7 service orchestration.
Cumulus Linux remained as the physical underlay for the DreamCompute network.
Astara virtual network appliances allowed for easy scale, while VXLAN tunnels scaled "massively," presenters said. Astara also simplified OpenStack Neutron networking deployments by requiring fewer Layer 2, DHCP and advanced services agents, and is generally easier to operate because it, VXLAN and the Linux networking stack on DreamCompute switches are "open" and familiar, presenters said.
"As far as performance and scale, DreamCompute is breaking through those limits we met with VMWare NSX," LaCour states in his blog. "This is largely due to reductions in complexity, thanks to management and automation through OpenStack and Astara."
VMware wouldn't comment specifically on the DreamHost project but through a spokesperson said it is "very happy with the success" NSX has had in some of the largest OpenStack environments in the world, "as well as our track record in open networking through things like the Open vSwitch project."
DreamHost's project mirrors that of other cloud and Webscale providers, like Google and Facebook, that have opted to develop their own networking solutions to overcome the limitations of commercial offerings, and reduce capex and opex. That open source provides such a significant capex improvement over commercial products should perhaps come as no surprise.
But the opex reduction might be the proof point that familiar open source code, customized for specific operator requirements, is just as capable – if not more so – than commercially available, vendor-integrated products.


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Look at these dunes! The sand is beginning to blow across the road right at this bridge.
Hills and windmills.
Weird roadside barriers. Are these to prevent vehicles from escaping across the border and onto the road?
Rocks when climbing the grade into San Diego County.
Freeway closed for a truck wreck.
Overturned truck. Oh bother. Wind or sudden steering input? Either way, bad day for one truck driver.
Icy bike.
Mom for Mitt.
Waffle House. Because Arizona is in the (racist) South.
Cool Coyote/Roadrunner style terrain.
I-8 is flat, then approaches this wall of mountains near the CA/AZ border.
Panorama of the Fortuna Foothills.


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Is It Healthy: Cooking Spray
Can the key to healthy cooking be found in an aerosol can? There are pluses and minuses to using cooking spray.
Using cooking spray as a replacement for oil and butter can help cut back the calories. Since butter and oil have 100 to 120 calories per tablespoon (respectively), switching to a spray can mean fewer calories (and grams of fat) in your cooking.
Many brands use actual oils (such as olive and canola) as the primary ingredient, others rely on other types of oil and artificial flavorings– check ingredient lists on your brand of choice.
When used in a nonstick pan, a light coating of spray can allow for grilled cheese, French toast and eggs that aren't glued to the pan. Spray is also good option to help give oven-baked breadings a crispier crust. A neutral flavored spray (like canola oil) can also be used to grease baking dishes and cupcake pans.
The calories will go down but cutting out butter or olive oil in cooking will create a flavor deficit that a spray can't seem to satisfy.
It's also a common misconception that these types of spray are completely free of calories and fat – they aren't. A serving is typically measured by a spray lasting a fraction of a second; a longer spray means more calories, and most people spray for more than one second.
It's also common for cans to be filled with additives like soy lecithin (a no-no for soy folks with soy allergies) and propellants like nitric oxide. Propellents called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were once commonly found in spray cans but are now used less often. Excessive exposure to CFC is harmful to your health and the environment so check those labels and looks for CFC-free brands.
The Verdict: A spray here and there won't do you any harm, but don't get too trigger happy! Consider ways to incorporate measured amounts of real cooking oils into your daily routine as well.
Dana Angelo White, MS, RD, ATC, is a registered dietitian, certified athletic trainer and owner of Dana White Nutrition, Inc., which specializes in culinary and sports nutrition. See Dana's full bio »


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I've been extremely busy the last few weeks. Today, a friend pointed out that I have no February blogs posts. But, it isn't too late if I upload something tonight! Challenge accepted.
Last week, my son told me he needed artwork for a Don Quixote sock puppet show he was doing at school. Due the next day! He wanted artwork with two sides, on a stick, so he could flip a windmill around to change it into a giant!
He looked on the internet, but couldn't find any suitable art. So, below, I present the fastest completed artwork I've ever created. Little planning. No erasing.
Click on each to enlarge. I'm posting these for use by anyone who might need them. The silhouettes match up. Just cut 'em out and glue them to each other. Here are some key words to help others find this site-- Don Quixote fights windmill. Windmill changes to Giant artwork. Technically incorrect windmill. Hairy armpit giant.
Monday, February 28, 2011
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Alabama's own Patterson Hood, singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy, R&B king Brian McKnight, comedian Gallagher and his "Last Smash" tour, and singer Aaron Neville will grace UAB's Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center in 2013.
This season the Alys Stephens Center also will pair artists audiences know and love to create evenings of unforgettable music and art. These dynamic duos will include Chick Corea and Gary Burton with Harlem String Quartet; Mary Chapin Carpenter and Shawn Colvin; Preservation Hall Jazz Band and The Del McCoury Band; and the Viva Health Starlight Gala featuring Amy Grant and Vince Gill.
Shows will begin in January 2013, and the season will culminate with the Viva Health Starlight Gala on June 6. For a full schedule of all shows presented by UAB's Alys Stephens Center, visit www.AlysStephens.org.
UAB's Alys Stephens Center will continue its mission to curate and create community arts experiences with "Lux Somnia: Light Dreams," a free festival of art, technology and community set for Friday, May 3, with a rain date May 4. For this groundbreaking event, the entire southern façade of the ASC building will be wrapped and transformed into a giant projection screen. Innovative local artists, spearheaded by Birmingham painter, sculptor and digital projection artist Jean-Jacques Gaudel, will use UAB's Alys Stephens Center as a canvas for digitally projected light dreams. The event's centerpiece will be an Architectural Mapping Projection show designed specifically for the building. The evening also will feature an illuminating dance piece created by acclaimed choreographer Mary Foshee, the premiere of a giant interactive video game designed by the UAB School of Engineering, interactive VJ'ing by ArtPlay students, live music from Blue Galaxy String Ensemble and more.
The ArtPlay Parlor Music Series will continue with California Guitar Trio, pianist Charlie Albright and another heavenly pairing, violinist Noé Inui and pianist Vassilis Varvaresos. The ArtPlay Parlor Music Series, presented by Patty McDonald, features exciting and innovative artists performing in the intimate setting of the grand parlor of the beautiful Victorian mansion known as ArtPlay, the ASC's home for education and outreach.
|For tickets, a copy of The Center Magazine or more information, call 205-975-2787 or visit www.AlysStephens.org.
ArtPlay also will present two shows at the Alys Stephens Center: "Lessons Well Learned," an original production by the teenagers of the Make It Happen Performing Ensemble celebrating Black History Month, and "Play," a whimsical contemporary ballet to be performed by an adult ArtPlay Studio Ensemble, set to several movements from the Camille Saint-Saëns musical suite "The Carnival of the Animals."
Ticket packages are on sale now, and single tickets will go on sale Dec. 3. Choose three or more shows and create the "It's Your Choice" package to save 15 percent off the total price. Selected performances will feature $20 student tickets. For tickets, a copy of The Center Magazine or more information, call 205-975-2787 or visit www.AlysStephens.org.
More than just a stage for presenting programs, the Alys Stephens Center is a community arts classroom, laboratory, public forum and cultural center for the state. This season the Alys Stephens Center's focus on presenting great artists has broadened to include original arts programming. The Center Magazine is published twice yearly, with stories and information about the coming season and performances, works being created and commissioned, the latest news on arts education in the community and the growth of the arts and cultural district at UAB.
Looking ahead, the Alys Stephens Center will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement in 1963 and the events of that year with two spectacular events: Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame inductee Eric Essix's "Evolution" on Sept. 19, 2013, and the ASC's first-ever commission and world premiere of a work, "A More Convenient Season" by composer Yotam Haber, on Sept. 21, 2013.


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Abortion Information
If you're considering abortion as one of your options, this information will help you understand all you need to know to make your choice.
Facing an unplanned pregnancy is difficult. We want to ensure you are thoroughly informed about all of your options before you make a decision.


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TROY — Beaumont Hospital in Troy was named one of the nation's 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals by Truven Health Analytics, a national health care consulting firm that provides information and solutions to improve cost and quality.
Beaumont was recognized for being a top performerand a leader in cardiovascular care for the two most common cardiovascular conditions: heart attack and heart failure, and the two most common interventions: percutaneous coronary intervention and coronary artery bypass grafting.
This is the third time Beaumont in Troy has been named a winner for cardiovascular care, in the annual study conducted since 1999.
"This award was accomplished through the efforts of a dedicated team of cardiovascular doctors, nurses, technicians and administrators who are committed to doing what's right for our patients," said Douglas Westveer, M.D., chief of Cardiology at Beaumont.
Truven Health Analytics researchers analyzed 2011 and 2012 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review data, 2012 Medicare cost reports, and 2013 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Hospital Compare data.
The Truven Health 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals study evaluates performance in key areas: risk-adjusted mortality; risk-adjusted complications; core measures; or a group of measures that assess process of care; percentage of coronary bypass patients with internal mammary artery use; 30-day mortality rates; 30-day readmission rates; severity-adjusted average length of stay; and wage-and severity-adjusted average cost.


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[The Umpteen Millionaire Club is our series which puts forth book club discussion questions for Fantagraphics titles. The Comics Journal interns Keith Baralato, Eli Powell, and Evans Winters put together this set of questions. – Ed.]
Today Is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life is a graphic memoir by Ulli Lust, set in the 1980s, which recounts her journey from Vienna, Austria, down through Italy, finally arriving on the island of Sicily. Seventeen-year-old "Ulli" lives on the streets, traveling with nothing but her best friend Edi, a sleeping bag, and barely enough money to buy a coffee. This rebellious young woman lives a life free of possessions or concern for the future as she interacts with fellow vagabonds, junkies, prostitutes, and even the Sicilian mob.
Discussion Questions:
- What motivates Ulli to travel?
- Early on, Ulli states that she wants to "accumulate as much experience as possible, to meet as many people as possible" (34). How successful is she in this goal?
- How does Ulli's life on the streets differ from the people she meets who are more permanently rooted in poverty, homelessness, drugs, and hustling?
- What impact do the people she meets have on her? (List of Characters: Edi, Andreas, Dieter, Guido, Frankie, Gino, Paolo, Marc, etc.)
- How does Ulli's gender affect her position as a traveler?
- What purpose do Ulli's journal entries serve?
- How does Ulli's vision of herself and/or what she will become match up with how you viewed the character?
- How does Lust use metaphorical imagery to tell her story? What effect do these techniques have on the reader as far as understanding Ulli's inner life/experience?
- Does Ulli live as if today is the last day of the rest of her life? How does her attitude toward this idea change throughout the story?
- On the last page of the book, why does Ulli crawl out of her bed onto the floor to sleep? What does the bed symbolize for Ulli?


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This job posting is no longer active.
Revera is a leading owner, operator and investor in the senior living sector. We offer seniors' apartments, independent living, assisted living, memory care and long term care. We understand how to create the best experience for people living in a Revera home. We believe everyone should have the opportunity to live a life of purpose, and we create environments that make that possible.
Our mission is to celebrate the human spirit in every way possible – and that applies to both our residents and our employees. There's a lot that goes into being a member of our team – and there's a lot that you'll get out of the experience too. We go the extra mile to ensure that each member of our staff feels safe, secure, enriched and empowered in their role. So that everyone under our roof is given the opportunity to thrive, grow and make the most of every day.
Vaccines are a proven, safe and powerful weapon in our battle against COVID-19. Now that vaccines are widely available and recognizing that many of our staff are already vaccinated, vaccination will be a condition of employment for new hires, except when impossible due to legitimate, established exceptions. The vaccine must be a two-dose COVID-19 vaccination series approved by Health Canada. This is one more important step to protect both our residents and staff as we continue to battle this deadly virus.YOU make a difference If you want to feel like you are making a difference every day, you've come to the right place. Our residents are unique and special, and so are our employees. By working in our homes, you can help create memorable experiences for our seniors. Revera's person-centred approach offers security and peace of mind to both residents and family members. We believe we work in our residents' homes, and care passionately about providing excellent care, with state-of-the art facilities and vibrant, welcoming communities. For many of us, providing care is more than a career — it's a calling. The Opportunity Are YOU ready to enrich lives? We are looking for an experienced Registered Nurse to join our team. Reporting to the Director of Care, your expertise and careful administration of resident care will help ensure we retain our reputation for delivering the best in person-centred care for seniors across Canada. This role includes: • Fostering relationships with residents and families to ensure plan of care is resident focused and carried out; • Managing, evaluating, and facilitating residents' plan of care through collaboration with the resident, family members and the interdisciplinary team; • Participate in residents' care conferences; • Collaborating with the Director of Care in facilitating resident move-in and transfers; • Ensure safe medication administration according to regulatory requirements and Revera's policies and procedures, including delegating medical administration to Unregulated Care Providers such as Personal Support Workers or Health Care Aides; • Complete Clinical Assessments that ensure appropriate resident care; • Liaise with interdisciplinary team and external care providers to facilitate best plan of care for each resident; • Lead and support Personal Support Workers and Health Care Aides in your home area to maximize resident care. What YOU bring • Current registration as a Registered Nurse in applicable Province • Education and experience in gerontology, rehabilitation, community/complex/long term care an asset • Experience working with seniors and unregulated care providers • Strong assessment, documentation, communication and critical thinking skills • Strong written, oral and time-management skills, including demonstrated experience delegating tasks to Personal Support Workers / Health Care Aides • Proficiency with Technology including: Electronic Health Records, Electronic Medication Administration Records, Online Applications • Current Basic Cardiac Life Support and First Aid certification • Current (within 6 months) Vulnerable Position/Sector Check (VSC) What we offer • Support from your Regional and National teams • State-of-the-art technology to help you do your job better • Benefits and Pension Package • Exceptional work/life balance Ask yourself if what you're doing today is getting you closer to where you want to be tomorrow. Join us in celebrating the ageless spirit of people. Apply today!
Revera is committed to ensuring that all employment practices are inclusive. As an organization we are committed to providing and arranging accommodation for candidates upon request.


text: Artist: Run-D.M.C. Album: Back From Hell Song: What's it All About? Typed by: OHHLA Webmaster DJ Flash [Run] I would like to throw "Rock Box" in the start of this one.. {*Jam Master Jay obliges with the cut.. "Run.. Dee.. Run.. D.. M.. C.." "Here we go again!" -> Chuck D*} "What's it all about?" (4X with stutter repeats) [Run] Livin in the city - the crack the mack and all that Easy does it, is it was it the black or white that Friday night in those racist places - let's get it right Ah to the maximum, and keep askin 'um when the city gonna fix where the BLACKS are from And every day around the way another one got bucked in his head - from a gunshot No chance in advance for the ambulance Cause he was just another victim of the circumstance A brother died, the mother cried, it was a pity But that's how it goes down when you're livin in the city {*Jam Master Jay cuts "What's it all about?" samples*} [D.M.C.] Just a hard rock, call him a hard rock in the metropolis there's no stoppin this Can't agree with society poppin this Disagree with the plea when they coppin it Some men pretend the end will come soon They gather what they can and them BOOM You played yourself, you made your wealth; the deal was dealt - now your health is in question Three Card Molly, hoodlums - who are we? Pollution, prostitution, In God We - - need a solution, revolution, substitution for the thing's that we're abusing Pity the city, for the people livin out on the streets Yo we homeless, the homeless need to eat There's no progress for the rest God bless for less {*Jam Master Jay cuts "What's it all about?" samples*} (*musical breakdown*} [Run] What it is? [DMC] What's it all about? [Run] Whassup G? [DMC] What it be? [Run] How you livin HOMELESS PROBABLY Mandela's free [DMC] and they're rollin with D [both] In history you cannot see em like they cannot see me [Run] The Berlin Wall [DMC] It all had to fall [Run] They said no but.. [Jay] "Yo!" "Yes y'all!" [Run] The people that spoke were never provoked and now it's tumblin down Freedom of speech for each [DMC] Now how that sound? [Run] Try to stop me from sayin what I want to say My funky rhyme I never quit until the break of day NOW HERE WE GO as I flow and show and kick [DMC] Infor-mation, teach and ? reach inside the nation and be a.. SEER CAUSE I'M REASON WITH RUN [Run] And now that the point is out Let the jam slam my man and tell me what's it all about? {*Jam Master Jay cuts "What's it all about?" samples*} (*musical breakdown*} [D.M.C.] I flex my muscle, what I must do is bumrush you, FUCK YOU I'll crush you The Ku Klux Klan is fucked up And every good man'll understand Beginnin and winnin, from the first fuckin vocal I spoke to you, I ain't no joke to you I do what I want to do If you don't like what me and my crew is doin then FUCK YOU What I do and what I done with Jay and Run None could ever become, to sum it up bum.. get off my DICK and out my KINGDOM (Yo yo D tell em where you're from) Straight from Hollis, Queens I'm still eatin collard greens and I'm doin the same things I ain't never goin out suckers.. punk motherfuckers! What's it all about? (*musical breakdown*}


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This is Part 1 of a 5-part series: Africa's Endangered Peoples
Parts 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 / 5
One hundred thousand Bushmen are spread across southern Africa, with many in Botswana. They're the indigenous people of the region, having survived the arid environment for thousands of years by hunting animals and gathering wild plants and roots.
In 1961, Botswana's government established the Central Kalahari Game Reserve [CKGR] to protect the Bushmen's traditional territory and the country's game.
But since the 1980s, the authorities have been pressuring the Bushmen to "modernize" and abandon their traditional way of life and to leave their ancestral home in the CKGR.
"The first government noises about having to get the Bushmen out of the reserve came shortly after a very large deposit of diamonds was discovered in the reserve," says Jonathan Mazower of Survival International, an organization lobbying for the rights of tribal peoples worldwide.
Mazower's spent a long time working among the people of the reserve. He says, "We and many other observers have long believed that the government's intention to force the Bushmen out of the reserve was related to the fact that there were rich diamond deposits in the reserve."
Botswana authorities deny this, saying they merely want the Bushmen to live better by adopting "civilized" ways of life, such as being educated. The authorities insist that humans and animals can't coexist in harmony because they're competing for scarce resources.
"This ignores the fact that wild animals and Bushmen have lived in balance together for many, many generations," says Smith Moeti, who was born in the CKGR.
Forced evictions
In "three big clearances," in 1997, 2002 and 2005, says Survival International, the government forced almost all Bushmen out of the reserve. According to the NGO, "Their homes were dismantled, their school and health post were closed, their water supply was destroyed and the people were threatened and trucked away."
The state established three "relocation camps" outside the reserve and "dumped" the Bushmen there, says Mazower. The government argued that the Bushmen had access to better facilities in the camps, like a school and clinic.
But Mazower describes them as "thoroughly depressing" places where the Bushmen were "all squashed on top of one another." He adds, "The hunting and gathering in the immediate vicinity of the camps soon became exhausted and the Bushmen therefore had no means of feeding themselves. Secondly, there were very few jobs, so people had nothing to do, and entirely predictably … most of the Bushmen turned to drink or violence."
Since they've lived in the camps, HIV-infection rates among the Bushmen have soared.
No water and hunting
In 2002, in an "act of desperation," says Moeti, the Bushmen took the Botswana government to court to compel it to allow them to return to their land in the reserve.
In 2006, the Bushmen won the case. But their battle was just beginning.
The state immediately argued that the judgment applied only to the 189 Bushmen whose names appeared on the court action. Mazower says, "They made it very difficult for anyone whose name was not on that list to go back (into the reserve); they made it difficult for the children of the people who were on the list to go back, especially the older children."
The government also prohibited the Bushmen from using a borehole in the park, depriving them of a vital source of water. The authorities maintained the water was for animals only.
Moeti remembers government security forces preventing aid workers from accessing the CKGR to help thirsty Bushmen.
"They actually attempted to go into the reserve to give water to people like my grandmother. But the government made a roadblock to stop people from going into the reserve to rescue people who were dying of thirst," says Moeti.
His grandmother died while wandering in search of water. The government denies responsibility for any Bushmen deaths.
The authorities also refused to issue permits to the Bushmen to hunt in the park and then arrested a number of them for illegally killing animals.
"Clearly the inference of all this is that the government wanted to make it as difficult as possible for any Bushmen to go back to the reserve and to restrict their numbers as much as they could," Mazower comments.
So, despite their court victory, and deprived of water and food, the Bushmen had no means of survival in the CKGR. Many began abandoning their traditional home.
Bushmen victorious in new court case
In 2010, however, the Bushmen took further legal action against the Botswana government, demanding access to the borehole in the reserve. In January, the country's Appeal Court ruled that the Bushmen could use the borehole and also sink new ones in the CKGR. The judges described the Bushmen's plight as "a harrowing story of human suffering and despair."
The Botswana government says it will abide by the court ruling. Mazower says, "There have been a few indications that they may be looking at ways to help the Bushmen establish these boreholes, get them working again. If they are actually doing that, that's an encouraging sign."
But in the continued absence of water and hunting rights, the Bushmen have yet to move back into the reserve. Mazower says "at least (the state is) not doing anything which seems positively obstructive. So I think at the moment we're in a bit of a waiting and watching phase to see just what's going to unfold over the next couple of months."
Moeti says the Bushmen "just want to leave the camps and be left alone to be self-sufficient, like we've always been," and don't expect "government charity." He says, "Obviously we cannot depend on the government providing services to us. Rather, what we concentrate on is for us to find funds to re-commission the borehole."
Balance the old with the new
Survival International hopes the outcome of the recent court case leads the Botswana government to realize that the Bushmen have the right to decide how and where they want to live.
"Give indigenous peoples the space to adapt their cultures to outside forces in the same way as everyone else's culture adapts all the time," says Mazower.
Moeti says his people have "no problem" with "modernizing to a degree" – which includes being formally educated and using health clinics – while at the same time retaining the "basic elements" of their tradition, like hunting and gathering in the CKGR.
"They can feed themselves that way, rather than rely on government handouts in relocation camps," says Mazower.
Moeti is convinced the Bushmen will be able to balance "civilizing" with their traditional way of life. He, for example, is maintaining his traditions while studying at university in Botswana's capital, Gaborone.
But "no matter what happens" in the near future, says Moeti, Bushmen like him will "always resist eviction from our natural home, even if there is a high price to pay."


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Robert Wetzlmayr
I really like the simplicity of this method. But, sorry folks for spoiling the party, this has been discussed many times before. Nevertheless, the method deserves exposure.
Occurences of prior art:
- Justin French's article on Stylesheet Sanity
- Jon Hicks personal site
/* Highlight the section you're in and on rollover: */ #about #n-about, [...]


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How to Get Federal Disaster Assistance
How do you file for federal aid when a hurricane, earthquake or other natural disaster strikes?
Here are the steps to follow.
Are You In An Official Disaster Zone?
When local and state resources are overwhelmed by a severe disaster, your state's governor will request that the president issue a Major Disaster Declaration. This is the only declaration that can activate a range of federal assistance programs for individuals and families. Assistance may include temporary housing, low-interest loans and grants, counseling for post-disaster trauma and other services.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, doesn't activate all of its assistance programs in every natural disaster. It largely depends on the nature of damages reported by your state.
To qualify for federal disaster assistance, your losses must have occurred in an area covered by a Major Disaster Declaration. If you have online access, you can quickly determine this at FEMA's 2011 Federal Disaster Declarations Web page.
Make an Insurance Claim
After determining whether you are in a major disaster area, you should file an insurance claim with your home and/or auto insurance company for any damages incurred. Failure to file an insurance claim may affect your eligibility for federal assistance because by law, FEMA cannot provide money for losses that are covered by insurance.
Once you file your claim, FEMA may be able to provide some assistance in the following circumstances.
- Delayed insurance settlement: If your settlement is delayed longer than 30 days, FEMA may loan you some money. It will expect you to repay the loan when your settlement arrives. How to file: Write FEMA with a full explanation and insurance claim number, the date of the claim and documentation.
- Your insurance settlement falls short: If the maximum payment from your settlement doesn't cover your disaster-related needs, FEMA may help make up the difference. How to file: Write FEMA with a full explanation and complete insurance documentation.
- Additional Living Expenses exhausted: If you've exhausted your insurance company's maximum loss-of-use settlement, FEMA may be able to help with your disaster-related temporary housing needs. Write them with explanation and documentation.
Types of Federal Disaster Insurance
There are two types of direct federal disaster assistance available: housing needs and nonhousing needs.
Housing assistance includes temporary housing and money to help repair or replace your primary residence. To qualify for housing needs assistance, you or someone living with you must be a U.S. citizen, noncitizen national or qualified alien; your home must be your permanent residence; and you must have been living in the home when the disaster hit but not currently able to due to damage from the disaster.
Nonhousing needs include medical, dental and funeral costs; clothing and household items; tools; home fuel; disaster-related moving and storage; and replacement of a disaster-damaged vehicle. In order to qualify for these, you or someone living with you must be a U.S. citizen, noncitizen national or qualified alien; you must have serious disaster-related needs and expenses; and you must have accepted all assistance for which you are eligible from insurance proceeds and Small Business Administration, or SBA, disaster loans.
The SBA provides federally subsidized disaster loans to repair or replace homes or personal property of qualified homeowners and businesses. SBA loans comprise the lion's share of federal disaster assistance.
Additional forms of direct federal assistance include crisis counseling; disaster unemployment assistance; legal services, including assistance with insurance claims; and special tax consideration that enables you to deduct a casualty loss that exceeds 10% of your adjusted gross income on your federal tax return for the current or previous tax year.
What's Next
Once you've applied for federal disaster assistance, you can check the status of your application within 24 hours via the same method you applied. FEMA will also mail you a copy of your application along with a detailed guide that walks you through the assistance process.
An inspector working with FEMA will contact you 10 to 14 days after your application to schedule a time to visit your home and inspect the disaster-related damage. There is no charge for this inspection, but you must be present during the inspection and prepared to offer the inspector proof of ownership and occupancy.
Do You Qualify?
Inspectors submit their report to FEMA but play no role in determining your eligibility for assistance.
It will take FEMA about 10 days to review your inspection. If you qualify for a grant, FEMA will send you a check by mail with a letter explaining how you are to use the money (you'll receive this via direct deposit if you supplied your bank routing number on your application).
The grant is tax-free and does not require repayment. However, you cannot give it to someone else and you must use it as specified by FEMA. If you don't, you won't be granted any additional assistance and you may be asked to pay it back.
If you do not qualify for a grant, you'll receive a letter explaining why. You have the right to appeal. Appeals must be written and mailed within 60 days of receiving FEMA's decision.
In a third scenario, FEMA may send you an application to apply for a loan through the Small Business Administration. You must complete and submit the SBA loan application to be considered for a loan as well as certain types of grant assistance. If the SBA then determines that you do not qualify for a loan, it will automatically refer you back to FEMA for grant assistance.


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This 2012 photo shows Yellow Dogs band member, guitarist Soroush Farazmand at the Death By Audio performance space in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Danny Krug)
by Colleen Long
Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — The surviving members of an Iranian indie rock band said Wednesday they are "paralyzed with grief" over the shocking shooting deaths of their drummer and guitarist and another friend at their Brooklyn apartment.
Siavash Karampour and Koory Mirzeai of the Yellow Dogs weren't home when a gunman opened fire at their Brooklyn row house on Monday. But fellow band members and brothers Arash and Soroush Farazmand were shot to death, along with their roommate Ali Eskandarian, by an ex-member of another Iranian band, the Free Keys, police said. The gunman then shot himself on the roof.
The band members said they met in Iran in 2006, and worked together to build an underground venue where they would play shows. They were striving to make a community in the U.S. after moving to New York to have more freedom to play. Their apartment was a hangout for artists, friends and musicians.
"For now, it's impossible to even manage a future without our friends, and no explanation can make sense or begin to justify what has happened in our lives," Karampour and Mirzeai said in a statement. "To say we are heartbroken does not come close.
"These are they darkest hours of our lives. We are in shock, awe, blinded with rage and paralyzed with grief," they said.
Gunman Ali Akbar Mohammadi Rafie, 29, was carrying about 100 rounds of ammunition in five magazines when he set out on the bloody rampage through the apartment, police said.
Afterward, investigators recovered 81 unfired rounds, some of them in magazines stashed in a guitar case found on an adjoining rooftop.
Records show the Spanish-made assault weapon was purchased by someone else at an upstate New York shop that went out of business in 2006. The shooter's roommate allowed them to search their apartment in Queens. No more weaponry was found, but investigators seized his computer to study it for clues about how he may have obtained the rifle and more about his motive.
Rafie joined the Free Keys after the bass player couldn't get a visa, and the band came to the U.S. in December 2011. Free Keys member Pooya Hosseini said in the statement the band stopped working with Rafie in 2012 due to "personal and musical differences."
"It became clear very quickly that he was not a natural fit within our friends, and his personal views conflicted with our approach to art and to the world," he said.
The Yellow Dogs came to New York in 2010, after they were the subject of a 2009 film, "No One Knows about Persian Cats," which told the semi-fictional tale of a band that played illegal rock shows there. The other victim, Eskandarian, was a singer-songwriter who toured with the Yellow Dogs. A 22-year-old artist was also injured in the shooting.
Eskandarian, 35, had just finished his memoir. Arash Farazmand, 28, had just received political asylum and his 27-year-old brother was working on new band material, according to the statement.
"Everything we had hoped and worked for was finally coming true … the future was so incredibly bright," they said.
A memorial service is currently being planned.


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Japan's FujiFilm is suing Google's Motorola Mobility subsidiary over four patents associated with digital camera and photo technology in cellphones.
The lawsuit has its roots in April 2011, when FujiFilm says it first notified Motorola that it believed the cellphone maker was infringing on the four patents. The companies held a number of face-to-face meetings, according to FujiFilm. The matter was apparently not resolved to FujiFilm's liking and that led to this week's lawsuit.
The patents in question include:
U.S. Patent 6,144,763, which covers the capturing of color pictures by a cellphone and their conversion to monochrome images;
U.S. Patent 6,915,119, which addresses a "telephone and data transmitting method." FujiFilm alleges a number of Motorola devices infringe on this patent through their use of Bluetooth or Wi-Fi as a means to communicate with a computer or other device;
U.S. Patent 7,327,886, covering the facial detection system included in some Motorola cellphones; and
U.S. Patent 5,734,427, concerning the processing of a high-resolution image into a lower-resolution image for display on an electronic viewfinder.
The lawsuit alleges a number of Motorola handsets infringe some or all of the patents, including the Droid X, X2, 2 Global, Bionic, 3, Pro; and the Atrix 2, Electrify, Photon 4G, XPRT, Defy, Cliq 2 and Titanium handsets.
In its complaint, FujiFilm asks the court to find infringement in its favor, for Motorola to pay damages to be decided at trial and for Motorola to pay FujiFilm's legal costs.
FujiFilm, Motorola Mobility and Google could not immediately be reached for comment.
The case, number 12-03587, was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose.
Martyn Williams covers mobile telecoms, Silicon Valley and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Follow Martyn on Twitter at @martyn_williams. Martyn's e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com


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Although what we get is faithful to the plot of the blockbuster book (I'm sure many tweens will love this adaptation), it does not feel like the truth of two particular teen cancer patients in love as the book told it. For one thing, the two leads have the preppy shine of J. Crew models, in spite of the cannula in Hazel's nose throughout the film. As the story begins, Hazel has metastatic thyroid cancer and Gus is cancer-free after a bout with osteosarcoma that claimed one of his legs.
It is Hazel's self-aware quirkiness that makes TFIOS (the book) so appealing. There is nothing vacuous or blank slate-ish about her; she is not a grown-up's stereotype of what teenagers are like. Green doesn't pander to his readers or assume they are intellectually unsophisticated. Throughout the book, it is clear how smart, nerdy and interesting she is. And yet, in spite of Hazel's maturity, she is still sometimes a normal teenager who wants her parents to be ok after her death, but says grouchy, even mean things, when pushed.
In the movie, however, Woodley often does play Hazel as a blank slate. You can't help but like and feel for Woodley's Hazel, of course, because she's an excellent actress giving it her all playing a cancer patient. But all of Hazel's ragged edges, angles and complexity in the book are replaced by a certain generic Hollywood quality that feels intentional.
As I learned from CBS Sunday Morning's clip on John Green last Sunday, Woodley has been styled throughout the movie in accord with Green's real-life inspiration Esther Earl. She was a teenager Green knew who died of thyroid cancer several years ago. In the film, Woodley has her short hair and her girl-next-door looks. But Hazel in the book was psychologically edgier, wittier and sharper than Woodley's performance suggests. She was above all not a bland kid dying of cancer, but a very specific one with interesting tastes and turns of phrase.
Several critics have noted Elgort is in over his head in the role of Gus. Gus wants to be remembered by millions?he wants things in the world to mean something, he fears oblivion. He likes metaphors. But in addition to being witty, deep and romantic, Gus is also supposed to be a hot and cocky 18-year-old ex-basketball player and the latter is how Elgort plays him. Part of the problem with Elgort in the film is actually one of make-up, not acting?he has glowing skin and he simply looks too healthy. The depth falls by the wayside a bit, but in his appeal to type rather than specificity, he fits with Woodley's performance and they do have chemistry. A number of comparisons have been made between TFIOS and Erich Segal's adapted hit Love Story?Elgort plays Augustus slickly, a little bit like Ryan O'Neal played Oliver Barrett IV.
A preoccupation with finding meaning in the face of death makes the novel interesting in spite of its central premise. Thankfully, even though the characters have been rendered generic, the movie keeps some of this interesting intellectual engagement, probably because the plot completely hinges on this engagement. The main plot of TFIOS turns on Hazel's favorite book, a cancer book called An Imperial Affliction. She shares the book with Augustus at the start of their relationship.
An Imperial Affliction ends mid-sentence, as the late great writer David Foster Wallace's first novel did. The fact that the book stops mid-sentence is one of a series of allusions in TFIOS to Wallace, as well as the themes of many of his writings (including his famous Kenyon commencement speech). And interestingly, the author of the fictional novel, Peter Van Houten (Willem Dafoe), turns out to be a troubled alcoholic with an interest in thought experiments and philosophy, as Wallace was. Hazel wants know what happened to the other characters after the main character died in her book, and tries to get answers from Van Houten.
The scriptwriters are the same ones who wrote last year's The Spectacular Now (which I have raved about before) and what they have written is a reasonably smart, capable script. All its best lines are from Green's book. Green consulted on the film. The movie is a romantic tearjerker that elicited tears from me and lots of others in the theater. But the film doesn't quite manage to convey why the book was so astonishingly good. Why it is has an overwhelming number of fans, both young and older. Somehow, a scene in the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam that works fine in the context of the book?because the book stresses the philosophy that all we have is our ordinary lives now, in this moment, not whether history remembers us? seems unduly manipulative and a little cheap, possibly taken out of that philosophical context.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed the adaptation of The Fault in Our Stars?at least I did while I was watching it, before I gave it additional thought?and no doubt many people will enjoy it more than I did. But unless you are already an ardent fan of the book and therefore feel a strong urge to see the movie, the book is more worthwhile (and also cheaper) than seeing the movie right now in the theaters.
Have you read the book or seen the movie? What did you think?


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Purported transcript suggests all US checking accounts vulnerable to remote theft by Etrade fraudsters, 21 July 2009
From WikiLeaks
Unless otherwise specified, the document described here:
- Was first publicly revealed by WikiLeaks working with our source.
- Was classified, confidential, censored or otherwise withheld from the public before release.
- Is of political, diplomatic, ethical or historical significance.
Any questions about this document's veracity are noted.
The summary is approved by the editorial board.
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- Release date
- August 28, 2009
This is a purported transcript from a trial hearing that took place on July 20 and 21st, 2009 in California. Etrade, claims this transcript is part of a fraud.
If true, the importance of these court transcripts is that they show the US company ETrade allows their account holders to transfer money out of other people's accounts, held at other banks, without those account holders' knowledge, permission or verification.
ETrade is the most used on-line stock-trading company. It also provides banking services such as checking accounts.
Secondly, these transcripts show that ETrade does not always know the identity of its own account holders.
The name of the ETrade witness is given, under oath, in the transcripts as Lynn Dewhurst-McBurney.
Our source states that ETrade is lobbying strenuously to cover up the fact that they are so easily used by money launderers and that their banking protocols put at risk all U.S. citizens who carry a checkbook from any bank. ETrade must be called on this today before more people are victims of their fraudulent practices.
The FBI has also issued[1] a fraud warning in respect to ACH, the "Automated Clearinghouse". Quite similar to the fraud used in the Etrade case, it relies on no proper verification mechanisms being in place to determine legitimacy of transactions from bank accounts.
Further information
- Context
- United States
- Company
- ETrade


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So what's it mean for computer users now that Microsoft and Yahoo today finally are announcing their long-anticipated marriage of Microsoft's Bing search engine and Yahoo's premium search advertising tools? Will this change our lives?
Actually, I think this partnership will mean far more for Microsoft and Yahoo and their corporate balance sheets than it will for those of us who are technology consumers, and here's why.
1) Will search get better due to the deal between the two companies? Now I don't have a crystal ball, but I tried Bing, I played with Bing, I experienced Bing, but Bing, you're no Google search. Yes, it has some cool features, like bringing up found items in new and useful lists that are highly targeted for users, but there's this little problem that no amount of money and advertising can change — people's habits. And my habit, like the habit of tens of millions of computer users around me, is to call up Google whenever and wherever I have to search, every time. It's like a mother's love — it's there forever.
2) Will Yahoo go to the dogs now that it's linked itself in a partnership deal with the slow, hard-to-steer, behemoth known as Microsoft? I do think there are more risks for Yahoo here than there are for Microsoft. Remember when the huge cable TV conglomerate Time Warner Inc. merged with the original America Online (AOL) Internet provider back in 2000, thinking it was the wave of the future and all of humanity would follow in a sea of dollar signs and goodwill? And do you know where they are now? Time Warner is spinning off AOL, which has been struggling for years, as it continues to try to figure out just what to do with it. Before teaming with Time Warner, AOL was the king of the Internet, as we all clamored to have slow, software-laden Internet access at $2.99 an hour like the good consumer lemmings we were in those days. But then cheaper, faster access arrived with DSL, cable and all-you-can-use plans, but AOL and stodgy Time Warner couldn't react quickly enough. There's a lesson here. Bigger isn't always better. I read that in a fortune cookie. I could have saved Time Warner and AOL a lot of money if I'd have told them that. Hey, Microsoft and Yahoo, are you listening? Editor's Note: This article was corrected at 8:38 a.m. PT on July 29.
3) Are there privacy concerns I should be worried about from this deal? That depends on the fine print, and that we'll have to have to check carefully to be sure what Microsoft and Yahoo want to do with all the consumer data they'll be able to collect from our searches. This is already an issue with Google and other search engines as we continue to make our way through this still relatively new global Internet adventure. When we use "free" services like search on the Internet, whether through Google or Yahoo or Bing or whatever, there really is no "free." Someone somewhere is using the spoils of the search – our preferences about what we are looking for – for marketing, for potential revenue enhancement and to help them in their businesses. It's an acceptable risk to us as consumers only when we know what the rules are. Somehow, though, we usually don't ask what those rules are ahead of time. Maybe we should get that information up front this time.
4) Will this Microsoft-Yahoo partnership be enough to knock Google from its perch as the king of search for savvy consumers? I doubt it, and here's why – I just don't see Microsoft and Yahoo, even with the new Bing search engine as its mascot, coming anywhere near Google with the kinds of innovations that make us all excited and Googly. There's Google Earth. Could Microsoft or Yahoo have thought of that? And there's Google Voice. OK, it's still a fledgling effort, but it is interesting and innovative, and users are lining up early to try to get a Google invite to test it out and take it for a ride. What always amazes me is how the Google tech folks are always introducing fascinating new technologies that they can bring to users in ways that no one has else has yet imagined. OK, they haven't found an answer for world peace or the vaccine for swine flu yet, but you never know. I'm just not sure that Microsoft still has any of that kind of turn-on-a-dime mentality anymore. And that's why this partnership may not help search-loving consumers or Yahoo as much as the new partners believe it will.
In Video: Microsoft Signs Search Deal with Yahoo
(Todd R. Weiss is a freelance technology journalist who formerly wrote for Computerworld.com . Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TechManTalking )


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Tag: Bianca Jagger
It's not just the poor who get hit with penalties over our immigration policy. Bianca Jagger, anti-death penalty and human rights activist, just got hit with eviction from her New York City apartment because of it.
Bianca rented the apartment for 20 years. She battled the landlord the past several of them, since she sued him for mold damage. The court has ruled against her and appeals are over. The Sheriff came to move her things to storage. The reason:
[The landlord] argued that the 18th-floor apartment couldn't be Jagger's primary residence — a requirement for occupying a rent-stabilized unit — since she was in the U.S. on a tourist visa that required her to show that she intended to leave after a temporary stay. The state Supreme Court's Appellate Division agreed in October, noting that Jagger, who is a British citizen, keeps at least one luxury apartment in London.
(19 comments) Permalink :: Comments


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How do you convert from 1 measurement unit to another unit? Say from kilometers to miles.
I can always look it up on that fridge magnet. This one local realtor likes to send me freebies like the fridge magnet with the common conversion factors.
If you don't have a handy fridge magnet, you can try the units command-line utility program.
To install it on a Debian system, enter:
# apt-get install units
# units 60km miles * 37.282272 / 0.0268224
It tells you that 60 kilometers is equivalent to 37.282272 miles.
The second line (beginning with the '/') is somewhat confusing. It is saying, 60 km = 1 / 0.0268224 miles.
Running units in verbose mode makes it clearer.
# units -v 60km miles 60km = 37.282272 miles 60km = (1 / 0.0268224) miles
If you like to put spaces in your search parameters, remember to enclose it with quotes.
# units '60 km' miles * 37.282272 / 0.0268224
If you just want to know the conversion factors, do this:
# units km miles * 0.62137119 / 1.609344
Very quickly, you know:
1 km = 0.62137119 mile, and
1 mile = 1.609344 km.
To many people, installing units and learning all that syntax may be a little too much work.
You can google the answer.
Simply bring up your web browser and go to the Google search page.
Enter this to search:
60 km in miles
The top item returned is the answer you are looking for.
Google Everything.


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Logo Design in Vector or Pixel format ?
The guys from TheLogoFactory tried to explain what's the difference between making logo in vector and raster file format. This video could be very useful for beginners or clients, who are not so familiar with the process. Watch the video to understand some of the basics in the logo design.Keep Reading →


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Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's New Zealand mansion is more than just extravagant — it's actually the most expensive property in the country. The 25,000-sq.-ft. (2,300 sq m) estate in Coatesville, 15 miles (24 km) northwest of the country's largest city, Auckland, was on the market for $24 million. Dotcom rents the place for more than $24,000 a month, according to Reuters.
Next Mega Estate


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Study finds fasting may help reduce negative side effects of chemotherapy
Valter Longo and colleagues proposed that a treatment used to prolong life in some laboratory organisms could offer protection against the negative effects of chemotherapy. That treatment is fasting, a special type of dietary restriction. Dietary restriction provides adequate nutrition at lower-than-average calories, either through special daily meals or intermittent fasting.
In some of the earlier studies of dietary restriction in animal models, researchers measured resistance to stress as a way of predicting potential impact on lifespan and health. Successful resistance to short-term stress caused by reduction in calories typically correlates with longer life and better health. Researchers have also found in some models that fasting for relatively short periods of time – or months of dietary restriction – actually enhanced normal cells' resistance to stress, but did not have an effect on cancer cells.
Based on these observations, Longo and colleagues hypothesized that they could use this "differential stress resistance" induced by fasting to reduce chemotherapy-related stress on normal cells, without jeopardizing the treatment's efficacy for killing cancerous cells. Initial results in mice were encouraging: the mice survived and the chemotherapy was still effective. A subsequent but still very preliminary clinical study showed that patients who fasted in conjunction with chemotherapy reported fewer side-effects without loss of efficacy. The clinical study has been expanded to an early phase clinical trial.
Raffaghello L, et al. Fasting and differential chemotherapy protection in patients. Cell Cycle 2010 9: 4474 – 4476.
Lee C, Longo VD. Fasting vs. dietary restriction in cellular protection and cancer treatment: from model organisms to patients. Oncogene 2011 30: 3305 – 3316.


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As the leaves change and fall off the trees many of the restaurants in Vail close their doors until winter. You can rely on the French Deli in Lionshead Village to stay open. With a simple menu consisting mainly of made to order sandwiches they also have breakfast items as well as home made soups and quiches. Located just steps from the gondola the French Deli is the perfect place to get an espresso and egg sandwich before hitting the slopes or warm up with a cup of hot soup and some fresh, French bread.
Sorry for the picture quality. They were taken with my phone.
~ Darci


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Texas district attorney, wife slain in their home
Published 12:00 am Monday, April 1, 2013
KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) — Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland took no chances after one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down two months ago. McLelland said he carried a gun and was extra careful when answering the door at his home.
"I'm ahead of everybody else because, basically, I'm a soldier," the 23-year Army veteran said in an interview less than two weeks ago.
On Saturday, he and his wife were found shot to death in their rural home.
While investigators gave no motive for the killings, Forney Mayor Darren Rozell said: "It appears this was not a random act."
The slayings came less than two weeks after Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by an ex-convict, and a couple of months after Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was killed in a parking lot a block from his courthouse office. No arrests have been made in Hasse's slaying Jan. 31.
McLelland, 63, is the 13th prosecutor killed in the U.S. since the National Association of District Attorneys began keeping count in the 1960s.
Sheriff David Byrnes would not give details Sunday of how the killings unfolded and said there was nothing to indicate for certain whether the DA's slaying was connected to Hasse's.
Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19. Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later about 100 miles from Kaufman.
McLelland himself, in an interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.
The weekend slayings raised concerns for prosecutors across Texas, and some were taking extra security precautions. Byrnes said security would be increased at the courthouse in Kaufman but declined to say if or how other prosecutors in McLelland's office would be protected.
Harris County District Attorney Mike Anderson said he accepted the sheriff's offer of 24-hour security for him and his family after learning about the slayings, mostly over concerns for his family's safety. Anderson said also would take precautions at his Houston office, the largest one in Texas, which has more than 270 prosecutors.
"I think district attorneys across Texas are still in a state of shock," Anderson said Sunday.
McLelland, elected DA in 2010, said his office had prosecuted several cases against racist gangs, who have a strong presence around Kaufman County, a mostly rural area dotted with subdivisions, with a population of about 104,000.
"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," he said.
In recent years, the DA's office also prosecuted a case in which a justice of the peace was found guilty of theft and burglary and another case in which a man was convicted of killing his former girlfriend and her 10-year-old daughter.
McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere, even to walk his dog around town, a bedroom community for the Dallas area. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.
"The people in my line of work are going to have to get better at it," he said of dealing with the danger, "because they're going to need it more in the future."
The number of attacks on prosecutors, judges and senior law enforcement officers in the U.S. has spiked in the past three years, according to Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County, Calif., district attorney's office who tracks such cases.
For about a month after Hasse's slaying, sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway, said Sam Rosander, a McLelland neighbor.
The FBI and the Texas Rangers joined the investigation into the McLellands' deaths.
McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. The couple had moved into the home a few years ago, Rozell said.
"Real friendly, became part of our community quickly," Rozell said. "They were a really pleasant, happy couple."
Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writers Michael Graczyk in Houston, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report.