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It has become commonplace to say that Latin America was absent from the 2012 election campaign in the United States. It is understandable, because the region was mentioned only once in the candidates' foreign policy debate (by Governor Romney, when he referred to the potential of free-trade agreements in the hemisphere), and it got almost no attention in campaign speeches.
However, as with much conventional wisdom, the devil is in the definitions. If Latin America's impact on U.S. politics is viewed in terms of relations between governments, the statement is correct; if, on the other hand, the concept includes the public, then the region was present like never before in the elections.
It is time to think about Latin American policy within a broader framework than old-fashioned nationalism. The political borders of transnational societies in the United States and the rest of the hemisphere have little to do with their legal boundaries. Latin America and the United States do not start or end with the Rio Grande or the Caribbean Sea. With their many, non-exclusive identities, Latin American and Caribbean Diaspora populations are increasingly important in the United States and in their home countries. The rigid divide between "Latin America" and the United States needs to be revised.
A New Calculus
It is symptomatic that oft-proposed solutions to the most emblematic problems of inter-hemispheric relations (free trade, energy, immigration, organized crime, and Cuba) have been dependent on the balance of power in American domestic politics. Insofar as the vote of important U.S. Latino groups changed those political calculations, Latin America's role in the U.S. elections was extremely important. The emerging dynamic could have a major impact on U.S. policy toward the region.
By casting 71 percent of their votes for President Obama, few electoral blocs can claim more credit for Barack Obama's reelection than Latinos. This is the highest percentage of ballots Latinos have cast for a Democratic candidate since 1996, when Bill Clinton got 72 percent. Had Romney managed to match George W. Bush's 40-percent showing among Hispanics, he probably would be the president-elect today. Even more painful for the Republicans, Latinos are now 10 percent of the electorate and rising.
But the Republicans' problem with the Latino electorate is not just demographic; it is first and foremost ideological. Several Republican leaders made offensive statements on the immigration issue. For the rest of his life, Romney will regret his strident support of Arizona's anti-immigrant law, his promise to veto the Dream Act, and his "self-deportation" proposal for undocumented immigrants. Although Latino voters have numerous concerns—often very similar to those of the average voter—their sensitivity to the immigration issue is unique. They have common connections and histories with the immigrant population and the native countries of their social group. The discriminatory statements of conservative politicians against minorities, especially Hispanics, created a moral pressure within Latino communities to vote.
MSNBC's Steve Schmidt, who directed Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign, summed up the 2012 message for the Republican Party: if it does not change its attitude toward the country's new demographic reality, "it may be left wandering in the dark for a generation."
The Democrats cannot take the Latino vote for granted. Before this past summer, when the president signed the executive order authorizing temporary residence for more than 1 million young immigrants, Obama's approval rating among Latinos had fallen significantly to below 50 percent. Accordingly, immigration reform is now at the top of the national agenda.
If the Romney campaign's movement toward the center after the first presidential debate works as a prelude to a more general Republican repositioning, then the possibility of immigration reform getting passed in Congress is greater. The popularity of a reelected president tends to increase in the first year of the second term, providing Obama with more political capital. Additionally, the next discussion of immigration reform will occur in the context of modest Democratic gains in both houses of Congress, and a Republican Party that has been criticized for obstructionism, bias, and a resistance to compromise.
Few political acts would have a greater effect on U.S.-Latin American relations than the naturalization of millions of Hispanics over the next decade. President Obama announced that immigration reform would be a legislative priority in his second term during the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena. It is not only a domestic but a foreign policy promise. The countries that have the largest number of undocumented immigrants in the United States are the same ones that have free-trade agreements: Mexico, Central America, and Colombia. These are also the countries with the greatest need for a coordinated effort against organized crime and drug and arms trafficking.
Establishing a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented immigrants would make border control more manageable, and it would also lead to greater demand for the legal immigration of families and circular movement between the United States and immigrants' countries of origin. Comprehensive U.S. immigration reform would have a very significant positive impact on tourism, remittances, investment, and the voting preferences of expatriates from those countries.
Room to Maneuver on Cuba?
Another example of how changes in U.S. Latino groups can change the context of policymaking occurred in Cuban-American Miami. For years, Cuban-Americans have voted Republican for president and sent to Congress pro-embargo legislators like Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart, who oppose Cuban-American travel to the island, and Senator Marco Rubio, who has filibustered presidential nominations in retaliation for alleged "abuse" of people-to-people travel.
But Obama won a record share of the Cuban-American vote (47percent to Romney's 48 percent), showing the power of a new bloc of Cubans consisting both of recent immigrants and Americans of more distant Cuban descent. This bloc rejected the McCarthyist propaganda of the pro-embargo right-wing forces, enabling the president to campaign on more liberal U.S. policies toward the island.
For the first time, the election resulted in victories for candidates favorable to greater contact between the Cuban-American community and the island. In one closely contested House race, Democrat Joe García defeated Republican Rep. David Rivera, one of the most fervent supporters of the embargo. The evolution of García, a former director of the Cuban American National Foundation who now supports Cuban-American cultural exchanges, is evidence of the moderation now prevailing among a major component of the Cuban-American elite.
The same tendency was seen in the election to the Florida state legislature of José Javier Rodriguez, a Democrat who supports exchanges between the Cuban-American community and the island. Garcia will enter the House just as Rep. Ros-Lehtinen leaves the chairmanship of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, in line with the Republican caucus's term limits.
Outside of Florida, the elections had ambiguous results. In Texas, voters elected Republican Ted Cruz, a Cuban American who will join fellow embargo supporters Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in the Senate. On the Cuba issue, however, Cruz's victory is offset by that of Arizona Republican Jeff Flake, who has been the most consistent anti-embargo voice in the U.S. House in the past decade.
All told, Obama owes nothing to the pro-embargo lobbyists who accused his administration of "unilateral appeasement" towards Havana and paid for spurious campaign ads connecting the president with Raul Castro's daughter and Hugo Chavez. Now it's payback time. Anti-embargo groups should work to ensure that the virtuous cycle represented by increased travel and the creation of communities who are interested in new ties with Cuba can continue for four more years.
The messages that have been sent out from a more plural Miami, combined with greater flexibility in Obama's second term, offer the president more maneuvering room for a rational treatment of the Cuba issue. Taking Cuba off the State Department list of terrorist countries would be a symbolic first step in the right direction.
Cuba, as the rest of Latin America, was not absent from the election; the voters put it into play.


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Captain and Tennille, the popular 1970s married pop duo that sang of sharing forever and of love keeping them together, is splitting.
Cathryn Antoinette Tennille, better known as "Toni," has filed in an Arizona court to end her 38-year marriage to Daryl Dragon, or "The Captain." The two already are listed as ex-husband and ex-wife on their website, which says while their marriage appeared to be rock-solid, "almost all people naturally evolve over time, (and) sometimes hidden feelings start to be uncovered."
The divorce petition says the couple's marriage is irretrievably broken. They were married the same year their hit song, "Love Will Keep Us Together," earned a Grammy award for record of the year in 1975.
Tennille's attorney declined comment Thursday, and a call to Dragon's number in Prescott where the couple retired in 2008 went unanswered.
The two have no children.
The divorce petition asks that any community property, debt and obligations be equitably divided. It also states that neither Tennille, 73, nor Dragon, 71, is entitled to or in need of spousal support.
While Tennille has been active in Prescott, voicing over a promotional tourism video for the city in 2011, singing at local spots and training Australian shepherd dogs, Dragon's health kept him wanting to stay home. Tennille wrote in a blog in 2011 that tremors due to a neurological condition had made it difficult, if not impossible, for Dragon to play the keyboards and that he was embarrassed to go out in public.
U.S. & World
Kim Kapin, a former spokesman for the City of Prescott, said he sought out Tennille and her "killer pipes" for the promotional video. He was surprised to hear back from Tennille's manager within a week of sending a script, he said.
"Toni was totally prepared and committed to being directed and giving us what we needed," Kapin said. "Not an ounce of pretentiousness."
The Captain and Tennille had 14 songs on the pop singles chart, with half of them in the Top 10. Their songs also included "Muskrat Love," ''Do That To Me One More Time," and "Shop Around." The duo also briefly hosted a variety show.
Before Tennille left the recording studio in Prescott where she touted the city's mild climate, roots as the state's territorial capital and cultural heritage on the video, Kapin asked her to sing a few bars of "Muskrat Love."
"That's where she drew the line — with a smile," Kapin said.

subset: commoncrawl


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Genre: Opera Language: Italian Age restriction: 16+ Intermissions: 2 Opening night: 22 October 2014
Our audiences will be seeing two different Manons, and we're trying to make sure that they are not carbon copies of one another. That said, there is only one production. The same goes for the role of des Grieux.
Libretto by Marco Praga, Domenico Oliva, Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa
after the novel L'histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost
Musical Director of the production: Mikhail Tatarnikov
Stage Director: Jürgen Flimm
Co-director: Mara Kurotschka
Stage Designer: George Tsypin
Costume Designer: Ursula Kudrna
Lighting Designer: Olaf Freese
Video Designer: Robert Pflanz
Producer: Dmitry Astafyev, Dr. habil.
Production is realised in cooperation with Deutsche Staatsoper (Berlin)
Manon Lescaut — Anna Nechaeva
Chevalier des Grieux — Fyodor Ataskevich
Conductor — Mikhail Tatarnikov
The opera Manon Lescaut is considered to be one of Giacomo Puccini's finest works.
Originally staged in Turin in 1893, it was the composer's first undoubted triumph. The libretto is based on the novel L'histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost, one of the first ever psychological novels, which was very popular throughout Europe.
The creators of the Mikhailovsky Theatre production, director Jürgen Flimm and designer George Tsypin, have kept the action in Paris but have changed the period, setting the events in the early twentieth century. In their vivid adaptation, the heroine is a budding movie star and her lover is also an actor, whilst her wealthy admirer is a Hollywood producer.
The set design for the show resembles film noir in style with its characteristic lighting contrasts and dramatic shadows. The striking costumes are very much in keeping with the cinematography of the 1930s and 1940s. The emotional content is unchanged, succinctly described by the director as: "One woman, two men — catastrophic consequences."
The action takes place in the 40ies of the 20th century in an American film studio
Act I
A crowded square. Young Rene des Grieux talks to his friends about love. He has never been in love and they ridicule him. Lescaut and his sister Manon arrive. Lescaut is escorting her to a convent. Des Grieux is enchanted by Manon's youth and beauty and asks her for a secret meeting.
The rich man Geronte, who also has designs on Manon, bribes Lescaut to arrange for Manon's abduction. Edmondo, a friend of Des Grieux, who has overheard the conversation, warns Des Grieux. As evening falls, Manon keeps her promise and meets Des Grieux, who persuades her to evade both the convent and her elderly admirer by running off to Paris with him instead. Lescaut is not disturbed by these events. He assures Geronte that poor des Grieux will never be able to provide for Manon and that she will therefore leave him.
Act II
Geronte's house. As Lescaut had fortold, Manon has given up Des Grieux and now lives as the rich mistress of Geronte. But Manon is already tired of the luxury; her thoughts turn to Des Grieux. Musicians invited by Geronte enter to amuse her. Guests arrive and are entranced by Manon's dancing. When Manon is left alone, Lescaut appears with Des Grieux. She throws herself Rene's arms. At first the two are full of reproaches but soon they renew their vows of love. Lost in their passion, they do not notice the sudden arrival of Geronte. Full of irony he confronts them before he angrily leaves. Manon has made up her mind to flee with des Grieux, but hesitates at the thought of leaving her jewels. She takes her time to snatch them up, they leave for the door but now it is too late. Soldiers called by Geronte have arrived and arrest Manon as a thief and courtesan.
Act III
A square near the harbour. It is dawn. Manon is in prison. She is about to be deported across the ocean — to a French colony in America. Through the cell window Manon speaks to her beloved. The guard appears, escorting a group of imprisoned women. The crowd makes brutal comments during the roll call of the prisoners. Des Grieux implores the captain to let him board the ship.
Symphonic Interlude
Act IV
A vast plain. Evening falls. Des Grieux supports the suffering Manon while they are making their way across the desert. She is exhausted and dying of thirst; she falls. Des Grieux can't help her. Manon is afraid of death. She asks Des Grieux to forgive her before dying in his arms.


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Brad Marchand scores twice in four-goal first period as Bruins roll
PITTSBURGH -- The Boston Bruins keep talking about fortunate bounces and a dash of luck, insisting the margin between themselves and the Pittsburgh Penguins is thin.
At the moment, it looks like a chasm.
Brad Marchand scored twice during a four-goal first period and the Bruins routed Pittsburgh 6-1 in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven series.
"It doesn't matter what the series is at right now," Marchand said. "If they get the next one, they're right back in it. The next one is the one that's most important."
It's a phrase the top-seeded Penguins repeated after losing Game 1 on Saturday night to fall behind in a series for the first time in the playoffs. The inspired play they needed never materialized.
Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin were held scoreless for the second straight contest to send the NHL's highest-scoring team slouching to Boston for Game 3 on Wednesday with its season on the line.
"Tonight was terrible, there's no other way to describe it," Crosby said. "A loss is a loss. It's frustrating. You don't like giving one like that. We really didn't do a lot of things to give ourselves a chance to win. This one we have to forget pretty quickly."
It won't be easy.
David Krejci, Nathan Horton, Patrice Bergeron and Johnny Boychuk also scored for Boston while Tuukka Rask stopped 26 shots. Pittsburgh's top-ranked power play went 0-for-2 and the Penguins were never in it after the Bruins scored three times in 17 minutes to chase Tomas Vokoun.
Brandon Sutter netted Pittsburgh's lone goal. Vokoun gave up three first-period goals on 12 shots before being replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury.
"We've gotten away from our game," Pittsburgh coach Dan Bylsma said. "We've gotten off our game plan."
The Bruins had more than a little something to do with it. Pouncing on every mistake -- of which there were plenty to choose -- Boston buried the Penguins early. Not bad for a team that needed an improbable third-period rally in Game 7 of the first round against Toronto to advance.
In the span of three weeks, Boston has morphed from a team hanging by a thread into one capable of bookending the Stanley Cup it won two years ago.
"Winning that Toronto series created some momentum from that," Bruins forward Milan Lucic said. "We've been able to keep riding that momentum. We need to keep pushing harder."
Another nudge or two would almost certainly send the Penguins toppling over.
Pittsburgh blamed its choppy play in the opener, including a rare fight by Malkin, on an eight-day layoff, stressing there was no need to panic.
Might be time to start now.
The previous 16 teams to go up 2-0 in the conference finals have advanced to the Stanley Cup finals. The Penguins managed to escape a 2-0 hole against the Bruins in 1991 on their way to the franchise's first championship.
These days Mario Lemieux is relegated to watching from the owner's box. At the moment, the view isn't pretty.
Marchand took advantage of a sloppy play by Crosby to give Boston the lead just 28 seconds into the game. Crosby attempted to flip a bouncing puck back into Boston's zone. Marchand casually flipped it out of the air, then streaked in on Vokoun before putting a wrist shot over Vokoun's glove.
The Bruins -- and Marchand -- were just getting started.
Boston poured in two more goals to rattle the Stanley Cup favorites and end Vokoun's run through the postseason. Not that Vokoun had much help from the guys in front of him.
Kris Letang failed to clear the puck at the end of a Boston power play and Torey Krug kept it in and fired a slap shot at the net. Neither Vokoun, Letang or Paul Martin could grab it and Horton reached down and tapped it in between a sea of sticks to make it 2-0.
Krejci's eighth goal of the postseason pushed it to 3-0, though his shot was the easy part. Jaromir Jagr and Bergeron took care of the hard part, dismantling Pittsburgh's defense with a series of slick passes that left the NHL's leading playoff scorer all by his lonesome in front of the Pittsburgh net.
"We were playing catch-up right from the start," Crosby said. "It's not a good feeling."
And it only got worse.
The score put an abrupt end to Vokoun's hot streak. The 36-year-old journeyman won six of his first seven starts after replacing a shaky Fleury in the opening series against the New York Islanders. He was hardly to blame for the loss in the opener against Boston, but Bylsma nodded at Fleury after Krejci's goal.
Fleury returned to a warm ovation, and for a moment it gave Pittsburgh a jolt. Sutter snapped a wrist shot over Rask's stick with 34 seconds left in the first period as the Penguins appeared to have life.
Marchand quickly snuffed it out, rifling a shot over Fleury's outstretched glove to restore Boston's three-goal edge.
That was more than enough. Way more.
The Bruins allowed five goals in a game only three times all season. The Penguins never even came close to getting two as the NHL's highest-scoring team had trouble getting out of its own way. Players collided, tripped over themselves and seemed unable to generate any kind of energy.
Boston squeezed away all the open ice Pittsburgh enjoyed while racing to the league's second-best record. The Bruins blocked shots, poke-checked and pushed the Penguins all over the ice.
The boos grew to a dull roar when Pittsburgh flubbed a second-period power play. They dissipated late, perhaps because so many left after Bergeron's goal made it 5-1 only 27 seconds into the third period. There's a chance it may be the last home game of the season. The Penguins need to win at least one of two in Boston to force a Game 5 in Pittsburgh.
Game notes
Krejci's 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) lead all scorers in the postseason … Pittsburgh adjusted its lineup before the game, scratching D Mark Eaton and RW Tyler Kennedy in favor of D Deryk Engelland and C Joe Vitale.
BOS leads 2-0
Game Information
- Referees:
- Dan O'Halloran
- Linesmen:
- Jean Morin
- Jonny Murray


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Every year more than two million U.S. couples walk down the aisle—to the tune of about $26,000 per wedding. That adds up to some scary math: Not only do these nuptials rake in billions for the wedding industry, they also call for serious environmental resources at every turn, from diamonds and paper to fuel and flowers.
A budding number of brides and grooms are now considering greener alternatives to conventional wedding elements. The latest studies by The Wedding Report, Inc., a research company that tracks and forecasts consumer trends in the industry, indicate that the number of weddings planned with environmental issues in mind is approaching roughly 10 percent. A poll conducted in 2010 for megastore David's Bridal reported that 78 percent of 501 women interviewed said they want to make some part of their weddings eco-friendly. "The whole idea of a green wedding really fits with the concept of marriage," says Kate L. Harrison, author of The Green Bride Guide and founder of Greenbrideguide.com. "A wedding is a celebration of a long-term commitment into the foreseeable future. Having a green wedding goes lock in key with that."
When couples are uncertain about where to start, Harrison advises beginning with one element—choose a recycled-paper invite, go with a natural park setting, order local flowers, forgo the wedding favors—then see if you can take another step. "These are little things," she says, "but they really add up." Another benefit: Picking wisely can cut a wedding's price tag by as much as 40 percent. The following are some choices that can help you save in more ways than one.
Jewelry "Diamonds are forever," as the slogan goes, but so might be the damage from getting them out of the ground. Instead of these gems, as well as mined gold and silver settings, consider family heirlooms and antiques, lab-made synthetic stones, and alternative metals like recycled platinum. If you can't live without a mined diamond, opt for one certified by the Kimberley Process, the best vetting currently available, ensuring that before the gemstone hits the market, it has met extensive safe-practice standards.
Venue When and where you get hitched is another key consideration. If you say "I do" during the daytime, for example, you can save on electricity to power lights. When picking a place to get married, check out locations that are LEED-certified by the U.S. Green Building Council, meaning they are, among other things, energy-efficient, water-saving, and built from environment-friendly materials. To find locations, visit the organization's website, which includes a searchable database. Look to nature centers, gardens, or historical sites; payment for your big day may directly support the organization's mission. Save fuel and carbon emissions by choosing a location central to your guests.
Guest list The number of people you invite to your celebration plays a big role in budgeting a wedding's environmental and financial costs. Scaling back your total headcount can be tough, but the savings are substantial—reducing your party's overall contribution to the more than six billion metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted annually in the United States, more than a quarter of which come from the transportation sector. Also, hosting fewer people means less of everything, from place settings and food to table decorations and porta-potties.
Invites What could better announce a couple's commitment to an earth-friendly union than an invitation made from recycled paper and soy-based ink, the latter of which requires less ink for the same print job and emits fewer volatile hydrocarbons, according to an EPA study. Take another step and go paperless altogether. Inform guests about your upcoming event and have them respond through a site like Paperless Post or by email. Consider the alternative: If all the country's matrimonial couples sent both a paper save-the-date and invitation card, the postal service would shuttle more than four million pieces of mail, contributing to the 71 million tons of paper and paperboard we consume each year.
Attire Few icons epitomize a wedding more than the dress, whether it's a fitted ball gown or a flowing sheath. By virtue of what the item is, you'll wear it only once. Instead of buying brand new, consider a dress worn by mom or grandma. Search for your frock at a secondhand or vintage store TheThriftShopper.com lets you plug in a zip code to find nearby locations). Or browse a place like The Bridal Garden, which offers deeply discounted off-the-rack dresses, then donates the proceeds to charity. After the wedding, give your dress to an organization like Brides Against Breast Cancer or pass it on to another modern bride via eBay.
Makeup For the bride and her attendants, it's all about looking beautiful, and makeup is a big part of that. Purchase natural cosmetics and water-based nail polishes. This is more important than you may think; many personal care products contain chemicals, such as endocrine disrupters, associated with health problems (see "Pandora's Water Bottle," March-April 2010). A recent FDA survey of 400 lipsticks found a sample that contained more than seven parts per million of lead—double the amount discovered in an earlier agency study—suggesting a worse and more widespread problem than previously thought. No upper lead limit has yet been set, but several U.S. senators have urged the FDA to establish one. In March Congress held a hearing on cosmetics safety—the first in three decades. To check where your current cosmetics rank, search the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep database.
Menu Foodies who care about the environment don't have to sacrifice taste. Look for a caterer who specializes in local or organic fare. Selecting edibles grown nearby saves carbon emissions generated from buying the same staples shipped from far away. If you live near one of the country's more than 7,200 farmers' markets, stop by and talk to the purveyors to see if they partner with or know of local caterers. As for the menu, limit lamb, beef, and cheese or nix them completely; pound for pound, their production emits the most greenhouse gases, according to an Environmental Working Group assessment. Finally, don't forget to factor in beverages, alcoholic or otherwise. Go for organic wine, wind-powered beer, and shade-grown coffee.
Flowers Beautiful bouquets go hand in hand with most weddings, and there's no need to toss them if you're trying to be green. Pick local, in-season blossoms—say, summer lilies in California or fall asters in the Northeast—instead of flying them in from Colombia, for instance, where more than half of the flowers sold in the United States each year are grown. Skip roses altogether; they are among the most chemically treated flowers. If you simply can't live without them, choose those okayed by a group like Florverde, a 16-year-old initiative in Colombia that promotes sustainable floriculture by monitoring, among other things, farming practices and pesticide use. If you have no attachment to flowers, get creative (or let others do it for you) with recycled paper, bouquets made of vintage buttons or broaches, and antiques for table centerpieces.
Favors When it comes to thanking your guests, do it with words or a gift to charity rather than a trinket. The memory of a simple, short toast by the bride and groom will likely mean more to friends and family than party mints, silver-plated frames, or candles. In lieu of purchased items, donate to a cause that you and your future spouse believe in; let your guests know with a note on each table. For help finding charities, check out the I Do Foundation, which works with nonprofits (including the National Audubon Society, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Rainforest Alliance). There's always the greenery route, too, offering your potted-plant centerpieces as takeaway gifts. Omitting a random token from your wedding reinforces to your guests that you care about the environment.
Photography Couples spend $2,000, on average, on wedding photographers. That's about eight percent of a typical wedding budget. To stop this from adding to your day's environmental costs, find someone who shoots digitally (almost all photographers do), then ask about other green practices. Many photographers these days give you the preferable option of receiving digital proofs rather than stacks of paper prints. Some recycle and resell old equipment. Others may print your final selections with vegetable- and soy-based inks.
Honeymoon Take your first trip as a married couple to a destination that's in line with your wedding choices. Honeymoon somewhere close, and you'll help curb carbon emissions (a 4,500-mile trip from New York City to Acapulco generates three tons of carbon dioxide). If you do fly, purchase carbon credits to offset travel emissions through a group like NativeEnergy or Carbonfund.org. When picking your accommodations, be sure to choose a genuine eco-lodge that's built from sustainable resources, supports area conservation efforts, employs local people, and uses energy-saving technologies like solar power.
This story originally ran in the May-June 2012 issue as, "Modern Bride."
With 50 centers and thousands of acres of land, Audubon offers many ideal places to host a green wedding. Here are five where you can tie the knot.
Dayton, Ohio: Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm, (937) 890-7360. Ask for Ardith Hamilton.
Brooklyn, New York: Audubon Center at the Prospect Park Boathouse, (646) 393-9031. Ask for Christina Kuhn.
Santa Fe, New Mexic: Randall Davey Audubon Center & Sanctuary, (505) 983-4609. Ask for Carl Beal.
Tiburon, California: Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary, (415) 388-2524. Ask for Gretchen Grani.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Schlitz Audubon Nature Center, (414) 352-2880, ext. 141. Ask for Julia Kathan.
To locate an Audubon center or chapter near you, search here.


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What is a tessellation?
Self-test: tessellation or not?
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Fish Tessellation for the Make-A-Fish Foundation
fish tessellation art gallery
Seal Tessellation in Dr. Seuss style
Click here to download an 8.5x11" PDF (300dpi) coloring-book page version of this fish tessellation.
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This tessellation is the result of using a
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When the last battle was over and the last secrets of the seven-book, 17-year journey were spilled, Jo Rowling did what grieving, grateful and emotionally exhausted people do: she ransacked the minibar.
She'd known from the start that Harry Potter would survive his ordeal; the question was how she would handle her own. This time a year ago, she was holed up on deadline in the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh to escape the bedlam at home, writing the climactic chapter in which her hero walks into the dark forest to give his life for those he loves. And while she knew that all would be well in the end, "I really was walking him to his death, because I was about to finish writing about him," she says. It's her favorite chapter in her favorite book but when she finished, "I just burst into tears and couldn't stop crying. I opened up the minibar and drank down one of those pathetic little bottles of champagne."
Rowling calls her time with Harry "one of the longest relationships of my adult life," her rock through bereavement, a turbulent marriage and divorce, single motherhood, changes of country, fear of failure and transcendent joy, on the day a wise man at Bloomsbury offered her $2,250 and agreed to print 1,000 books. When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows went on sale last July, it sold 15 million copies worldwide in 24 hours, breaking the record that had been held by each of the previous three books. (To put that in perspective, 2005's Half-Blood Prince moved more copies on its first day than The Da Vinci Code did in an entire year.) Meanwhile, the movie version of Book 5 Order of the Phoenix made $645 million, and plans for an Orlando, Fla., theme park were unveiled. Forbes magazine put Rowling second only to Oprah as the richest woman in entertainment, ahead of Martha Stewart and Madonna and as the first person to become a billionaire by writing books.
So the journey that began in 1990 finally ended in 2007, leaving Rowling a little more margin to savor ballet recitals and grocery shopping and intensive, often ingenious charitable work. A woman of high energy and a short fuse, she looks almost serene now, dressed in black with a long gray belted sweater, dark red nails and a funky black ring the size of a walnut. But as we sit and talk over coffee, you hear the longing when the conversation shifts back to Hogwarts, as though we've retreated to a safe place but can't stay there long. "I can only say, and many of my more militant fans will find this almost impossible to believe," she says, "but I don't think anyone has mourned more than I have. It's left the most enormous gaping hole in my life."
You can tell that she still doesn't give many interviews. She's funny and self-mocking and earnest by turns but always unguarded and unrehearsed, especially since now, after all this time, she can talk about the things she had to keep secret because her readers did not want their pleasure spoiled by knowing how things would turn out. "It's a massive, massive sense of release," she says, to be able to answer any question, tell the backstory in Web chats with obsessive fans who want to know the middle names of characters down to the third generation. She doesn't actually need to talk to Barbara Walters (who named her the most fascinating person of the year), because her fans know where to find her: her website, which includes news, a diary, a rubbish bin for addressing the more idiotic rumors, and answers to both the frequently and the never asked questions. She has them all in her head or her notebooks, with nothing to hide anymore.
It's not just Harry's secrets that can now be revealed. It is hers as well. The biggest mystery, appropriately, had to do with Rowling's own soul. As soon as her tales achieved fame, they were denounced by fundamentalist clerics from the U.S. to Russia to the Muslim world. The Pope warned about their "subtle seductions" that might "distort Christianity in the soul." One day when Rowling was shopping for toys in New York City, a man recognized her. Her voice gets hard as she recalls how he brought his face very close to hers. "He says, 'I'm praying for you,' in tones that were more appropriate to saying, 'Burn in hell,'" she says, "and I didn't like that 'cause I was with my kids. It was unnerving. If ever I expected to come face to face with an angry Christian fundamentalist, it wasn't in FAO Schwarz."
Through it all, Rowling didn't really fight back. Talk too much about her faith, she feared, and it would become clear who would live and who would die and who might actually do both. After six books with no mention of God or Scripture, in the last book Harry discovers on his parents' graves a Bible verse that, Rowling says, is the theme for the entire series. It's a passage from I Corinthians in which Paul discusses Jesus' Resurrection: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
It turns out that Rowling, like her hero, is a Seeker. She talks about having a great religious curiosity, going back to childhood. "No one in my family was a believer. But I was very drawn to faith, even while doubting," she says. "I certainly had this need for something that I wasn't getting at home, so I was the one who went out looking for religion." As a girl, she would go to church by herself. She still attends regularly, and her children were all christened. Her Christian defenders always thought her faith shined through her stories. One called the books the "greatest evangelistic opportunity the church has ever missed." But Rowling notes that there was always another side to the holy war. "At least as much as they've been attacked from a theological point of view," she says, the books "have been lauded and taken into pulpit, and most interesting and satisfying for me, it's been by several different faiths." The values in the books, she observes, are by no means exclusively Christian, and she is wary of appearing to promote one faith over another rather than inviting people to explore and struggle with the hard questions.
Rowling's religious agenda is very clear: she does not have one. "I did not set out to convert anyone to Christianity. I wasn't trying to do what C.S. Lewis did. It is perfectly possible to live a very moral life without a belief in God, and I think it's perfectly possible to live a life peppered with ill-doing and believe in God." And now she climbs into a pulpit of her own, and you can tell how much this all matters to her, if it weren't already clear from her 4,100-page treatise on tolerance. "I'm opposed to fundamentalism in any form," she says. "And that includes in my own religion."
She has certainly found her disciples. Critics can dismiss Rowling's grownup fans as "kidults," but especially as the series unfolded, her audience expanded far beyond children and her impact well beyond entertainment. In addition to some 300 wizard rock bands, reams of fan fiction and countless websites, the books have inspired outfits like the Harry Potter Alliance, an online group founded by Andrew Slack, 28, a consultant in Boston, around the rallying cry "The weapon we have is love." When Deathly Hallows was released, the group organized house parties from Australia to South America and coast to coast in the U.S. to raise awareness of genocide in Darfur, in a kind of "What Would Harry Do?" campaign. The parties featured performances by such bands as the Remus Lupins and the Moaning Myrtles and a podcast by Africa experts, including Joe Wilson, a.k.a. Mr. Valerie Plame. "We can be like Dumbledore's army, who woke the world up to Voldemort's return, and wake our ministries and our world to ending the genocide in Darfur," Slack urged Harry Potter Alliance members in tones of earnest camaraderie. In the days that followed, the student antigenocide coalition stand saw a 40% increase in sign-ups for high school chapters and a 52% increase in calls to its hotline, 1-800-GENOCIDE.
When asked about the group, Rowling practically levitates off the couch, spilling her coffee along the way. "It's incredible, it's humbling, and it's uplifting to see people going out there and doing that in the name of your character," she says. She's especially pleased by the group's choice of mission, and the old Amnesty International worker in her surfaces. "What did my books preach against throughout? Bigotry, violence, struggles for power, no matter what. All of these things are happening in Darfur. So they really couldn't have chosen a better cause."
But it's also one more example of how she will never really be in control of Harry again. She knows he's bigger than she is now and not always in ways she likes. Parents may need to let go of their children, but artists want eternal ownership, and you can feel her ambivalence or even something more fierce and protective at the prospect of legions of writers who want to take up Harry's story as their own. One declared at last summer's biggest Potterfest that, as Rowling had left the sandbox, it was open for all to play in. But this is no game to her. She can tell you exactly which character she was sketching on New Year's Eve 1990 at the moment her mother died. (It was Professor Sprout, McGonagall's "pragmatic foil," she says. "I was six months in, and I was finalizing the composition of the head table.") Knowing where you were when you first read Harry Potter, she says, is not the same as knowing where you were when you created him. If you can solve the puzzles and break the codes on her website, you can see her earliest drawings and edited manuscript pages and glimpse just how deep her devotion goes. "He's still mine," she says. "Many people may feel that they own him. But he's a very real character to me, and no one's thought about him more than I have."
He is also a billion-dollar media property and a global cultural figure. Now translated into 65 languages, the books have joined a canon that stretches from Cinderella to Star Wars, giving people a way to discuss culture and commerce, politics and values. Princeton English professor William Gleason compares the series' impact to the frenzy that surrounded Uncle Tom's Cabin before the Civil War. "That book penetrated all levels of society," he says. "It's remarkable how similar the two moments are." And he does not see this as a passing fad or some triumph of clever marketing. "They've spoken profoundly to enough readers that they will be read and reread by children and by adults for a long time," he says. Feminist scholars write papers on Hermione's road to self-determination. Law professors cite Dobby's tale to teach contract law and civil rights. University of Tennessee law professor Benjamin Barton published "Harry Potter and the Half-Crazed Bureaucracy," in the Michigan Law Review, which examined Rowling's view of the legitimacy of government. His conclusion? "Rowling may do more for libertarianism than anyone since John Stuart Mill." A Rutgers researcher named a rare rain-forest plant in Ecuador apparata after her verb apparate because it seemed to appear out of nowhere. French intellectuals debate whether the stories indoctrinate kids into free-market capitalism. In Turkey, the books were absorbed into the argument over Turkey's cultural geography: Is Harry a symbol of Western imperialism or of lost Eastern traditions of mysticism and alchemy? A seventh-grade teacher in Pakistan in November invited her class to compare the country's crisis to Harry Potter. The class immediately cast Pervez Musharraf as Voldemort and Benazir Bhutto as Bellatrix. "Potter is like a Rorschach blot," says Georgetown government professor Daniel Nexon, "for people articulating concerns about globalization in their cultural setting. It's incredibly significant that Potter even enters these debates."
And that is on top of the impact, even her critics acknowledge, of inspiring a generation of obsessive readers unafraid of fat books and complex plots. "They're easy to underestimate because of what I call the three Deathly Hallows for academics," says James Thomas, a professor of English at Pepperdine University. "They couldn't possibly be good because they're too recent, they're too popular, and they're too juvenile." But he argues that the books do more than entertain. "They've made millions of kids smarter, more sensitive, certainly more literate and probably more ethical and aware of hypocrisy and lust for power. They've made children better adults, I think. I don't know of any books that have worked that kind of magic on so many millions of readers in so short a time in the history of publications."
It was the end of a long January day when the last page of the last chapter was complete. Rowling had finished putting on the page numbers and found herself alone in her suite at the Balmoral feeling, she recalls, some "end-of-epic euphoria." So she danced around the room a bit and then in a fit of creative destruction took out her pen and wrote on the base of the bust of Hermes that stood in the window alcove, "J.K. Rowling finished writing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in this room (552) on 11th Jan 2007."
The ending, naturally, was the most controversial part of the book. It would have been so much neater just to kill Harry. "I've known that all along," she says, but that was never her plan. To her, the most noble thing, the real bravery, is to rebuild after a trauma. Some fans were disappointed that after all his adventures, Harry's greatest concern in the end is whether his son will fit in at Hogwarts. "It's a bittersweet ending," she says. "But that's perfect, because that is what happens to our heroes. We're human. I kept arguing that 'love is the most important force, love is the most important force.' So I wanted to show him loving. Sometimes it's dramatic: it means you lay down your life. But sometimes it means making sure someone's trunk is packed and hoping they'll be O.K. at school."
Rowling has some rebuilding of her own to do. Her time, she says, will be divided among her children, her charities and her writing. But she has only to look at George Lucas to appreciate that the pressure to return to Hogwarts will be ferocious and some of it self-inflicted. She's already had to cope with the pressure of not disappointing the fan closest to her: her daughter Jessica, 14. What will happen when her two younger children a decade from now discover the stories for themselves and know that Mom has the power to make more of them? "There have been times since finishing, weak moments," she says, "when I've said, 'Yeah, all right,' to the eighth novel." But she's convinced she's doing the right thing to take some time away, do something else. She's working on two projects now, an adult novel and a "political fairy tale." "If, and it's a big if, I ever write an eighth book about the [wizarding ] world, I doubt that Harry would be the central character," she says. "I feel like I've already told his story. But these are big ifs. Let's give it 10 years and see how we feel then." It's a pretty safe bet how her audience will feel. But we'll just have to wait and prepare to be surprised.
with reporting by Gina Elliott and Laura Fitzpatrick/New York and Laura Blue/London


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This weekend you can get my Noir/Lovecraftian mythos novella, CTHULHU, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR, free on Amazon!
Cthulhu's partner, Dagon, has been found floating dead in the water at the docks. The Elder Gods have given him three days to find Dagon's killer, or Cthulhu is going to take the fall for it. Starting on the trail of a femme fatale that had hired Dagon, Cthulhu begins searching for the Pnakotic manuscripts and finds himself on everyone's hitlist. Navigating a web of lies and betrayal, he becomes involved with a rogue's gallery of untrustworthy Old Ones who are after the coveted Silver Key. As things hurtle towards their inevitable conclusion, he discovers to what deadly lengths the others will go to obtain the Key.
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December 2022


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Tired of listening to Agent Cameron and his foreign secretary William Hague trying to pick a fight with Iran and ratcheting up sanctions aimed at ruining that country's economy and hurting innocent Iranian women and children, I asked my MP, Henry Bellingham, to table the following written Parliamentary Question (PQ):
"Israel refuses (unlike Iran) to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and open its nuclear programme to international inspection. It has not signed the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. It has signed but not ratified the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty, similarly the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Israeli regime continues to defy international law and UN resolutions with its illegal occupation, ongoing confiscation of Palestinian lands, destruction of homes, arrest and imprisonment of civilians, its inhuman blockade of Gaza and many other crimes against humanity – including lethal assaults on peaceful shipping on the high seas bringing humanitarian aid. Instead of rewarding Israel with pledges of everlasting protection and special trade agreements, should not Britain and the international community now discharge their obligation to make Israel accountable?"
Mr Bellingham said he would have to 'tweak' the question, presumably to fit the approved format. In the process the emphasis on Israel's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons of mass destruction was mysteriously lost. This was the result:
Mr Bellingham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps he is taking to encourage Israel to (a) sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and (b) open its nuclear programme to international inspection. [126611]
Alistair Burt: The British Government supports fully the universalisation of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty (NPT). We have called on Israel and other non-signatories to join the NPT as non-nuclear weapons states. We have also called on them to agree a full scope Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In 2009 the IAEA concluded that nuclear material, facilities or other items to which safeguards were applied in Israel remained in use for peaceful activities. The UK accepts these conclusions. We have a regular dialogue with the Israeli Government on civil nuclear and counter proliferation issues. [my italics]
What does Mr Burt, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, mean by including Israel among the "non-nuclear weapons states"? Is he seriously telling Parliament and the world that Israel has no nukes?
He sidesteps the taboo subject of Israel's hundreds of nuclear warheads, which have never been subject to international safeguards, while he and his colleagues enjoy their sport of punishing Iran, which is properly signed up to the NPT and has no nuclear weapons.
Burt, being a former officer of the lobby group Conservative Friends of Israel, is a rabid admirer and supporter of that racist entity, as are Hague and Cameron. All three, according to theyworkforyou.com, voted "very strongly" for the Iraq war which, for the majority of the British public, was the acid test of how far they can be trusted in government.
My understanding of the Israeli nukes situation is that in 2009 the IAEA again called on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation Treaty, open its nuclear facilities to inspection and place them under comprehensive IAEA safeguards. And again Israel declined.
The IAEA's report 'Israeli nuclear capabilities' states: "The IAEA applies safeguards in Israel pursuant to an INFCIRC/66-type safeguards agreement of 4 April 1975 concluded between the IAEA, Israel and the United States of America (INFCIRC/249) which was extended by a Protocol of 28 September 1977 (INFCIRC/249/Add.1). The Agreement relates to an agreement of 12 July 1955 on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy between the Governments of Israel and the USA. Israel has not concluded an Additional Protocol to its safeguards agreement."
The Agency's verification of Israel's activities, unlike those of States with a comprehensive safeguards agreement, is limited to the materials, equipment and facilities Israel chooses to specify in its safeguards undertakings. The IAEA concluded in 2009 that the items specified by Israel were for peaceful purposes but made clear that it was unable to list all the nuclear facilities which could be subject of safeguards if a comprehensive agreement were in force.
Quite obviously, in the case of Israel the IAEA's monitoring has been woefully insufficient. On 7 April 2010 the Director General wrote to all IAEA member states, including Israel, about a resolution adopted by the General Conference on 18 September 2009. The letter said the resolution expressed concern about Israeli nuclear capabilities and called on Israel "to accede to the NPT and place all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA safeguards". It also urged the IAEA Director General to work with the concerned States towards achieving that end and report on the implementation of this resolution to the Board of Governors and the General Conference.
Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, in his response, called the resolution "politically motivated" and said it attempted to divert attention from the real proliferation challenges of the Middle East, namely non-compliance by Iran and Syria with their NPT obligations. According to him the resolution was incompatible with basic principles and norms of international law. "It is the sovereign right of any state to decide whether it consents to be bound by any particular treaty," he wrote.
Imagine if Iran had said that…
While claiming that Israel values the non-proliferation regime and acknowledges its importance, Lieberman said that "attempts to single out Israel… harm the professional standing of the IAEA" and that co-operation with the resolution was "unjustified". He wanted it removed from the IAEA's agenda.
Misleading Parliament is a serious offence. The Foreign Office minister ought to withdraw any suggestion that Israel has no nuclear weapons. I have asked Mr Bellingham to obtain a much fuller reply addressing the weapons issue. He says he will "see what further question can sensibly come out of this and table it in due course".
A second PQ, asking why the British government hasn't made friends and developed trade with Iran instead of declaring economic war and plotting a shooting war, seems to have gone missing.
It's all so reminiscent of the unpleasantness in 1953 when Dr Mossadeq refused to do Britain's bidding. Will we never learn?


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Support Opportunities
Supporting CiTH - What's in it for the Industry?
- Participate and present your products and research in a large exhibition to an international audience
- Stimulate and discuss new research: Use the unique debates concept to stir discussion and create awareness
- Encourage and promote education and public awareness
- Cooperate and network with world opinion leaders in the fields of Thrombosis and Hemostasis
- Support and assist world opinion leaders to reach the best clinical recommendations for current therapeutic dilemmas
- Inform and update international participants on clinical and technological developments
For further information, please contact the Congress Secretariat:
c/o MCI Geneva
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Geneva 13
Tel. +972 73 706 6950
Fax. +972 3 725 6266
|It is the Sponsors' and Exhibitors' responsibility to comply with the local authority's regulations, EFPIA (European Federation of Pharmaceuticals Industries & Associations) www.efpia.org and IFMPA (International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations) www.ifpma.org Code of Practice on the Promotion of Medicines.


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SACRAMENTO, CALIF., Oct. 17, 2012 -- The Sacramento Kings today exercised the 2013-14 contract options of center DeMarcus Cousins and guard Jimmer Fredette, according to Kings' President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie.
"We're looking forward to seeing DeMarcus and Jimmer play this year and continue to grow, improve and help this team be successful," said Petrie.
Cousins, who is currently in his third NBA season, averaged 18.1 points (.448 FGs, .143 3FGs, .702 FTs), a team-high 11.0 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.2 blocks per game last year through 64 outings, of which he started 62. He has amassed career averages of 15.9 points (.439 FGs, .156 3FGs, .694 FTs), 9.7 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.2 steals and 1.0 blocks per game over 145 contests, of which he started 124 in two seasons. Cousins was selected by the Kings as an undergraduate out of Kentucky with the fifth overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft and was named to the 2010-11 NBA All-Rookie Team.
Fredette, who is currently in his second NBA season, finished his rookie campaign averaging 7.6 points (.386 FGs, .361 3FGs, .833 FTs), 1.2 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game through 61 outings, of which he started seven. He was selected by Sacramento as a senior out of BYU with the 10th overall pick in the 2011 NBA Draft.
About the Sacramento Kings: Maloof Sports & Entertainment includes the Sacramento Kings and Sleep Train Arena. Owned by the Maloof family with long-term partners, the organization is committed to being a contributing member of the community. Teaming up with local leaders and nonprofit organizations to give back to those in need throughout the region, MS&E has donated more than $20 million in cash and in-kind donations to more than 200 charitable entities over 13 years of Maloof family ownership. For more information, please visit Kings.com or call 916-928-0000.


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Kolarov considering Man City future
Manchester City defender Aleksandar Kolarov wants more regular football and admits he has been speaking to his agent about his situation at the Etihad Stadium.
The Serbia international is behind Gael Clichy in the pecking order at the new Barclays Premier League champions.
He made only 12 league appearances this season, and while he insists he is happy at City he wants greater involvement next season.
"I am in constant contact with my agent, so we will soon see what happens," he told the Corriere dello Sport.
"I am very happy here in Manchester, but my goal is to play with greater regularity. I said it to (Roberto) Mancini.
"Money has nothing to do with it and I have no problem with wages.
"It's simply that I would like to be able to feel more of a regular."


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- Description
- Architect & Product Resources
Built for ready for service and serviceability, these heavy-duty trash receptacles with 40 gallon capacity are rugged and resilient. Popular vertical style slat design steel receptacles with flared top accent featuring a locking side access door and available with either a flat top or rain bonnet lid. The hinged key locking side door allows ergonomic access to the included steel liner, offsetting the need for any strenuous lifting, making routine service simple and safe. Great for high volume traffic areas, these all-steel 40 gallon trash receptacles are finished in a UV stabilized, corrosion resistant powder-coating, promising superior performance throughout the years.


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Frankfort Semester Internships
The Frankfort Semester Internship Program is a major AIKCU (Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities) initiative that seeks to enhance students' academic, civic, and professional skills through internship experiences, public policy symposia, academic seminars, and exposure to the ideas and perspectives of a variety of notable citizens. Participating students live, work and study in Frankfort during the spring semester under the guidance of AIKCU intern coordinator Richard Wilson, a longtime higher education reporter and bureau chief for the Louisville Courier-Journal and a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame.
AIKCU interns have worked in the legislative arena directly for legislators — responding to constituent inquiries, assisting in the crafting and passage of legislation, tracking bills, and performing other duties integral to the legislative process — as well as for lobbying firms, associations, and in a variety of state agencies.
The 30 hour per week internship is enhanced by an academic component consisting of two upper-division evening seminars. Interns will be eligible for up to fifteen hours of classroom credit in accordance with their home campus's policies. Interns receive a monthly living stipend during their internship experience.
Interested students may apply online or download the 2014 Frankfort Semester Internship Application (pdf).
Washington Center Program
Sponsored by The Fund for American Studies.
Do you have plans for this summer? Have you thought about spending 8.5 weeks in Washington, D.C. completing an internship and earning credit from George Mason University?
The Washington Center Program offers opportunities to experience and explore the nation's Capital. The goal of the program is to allow students to investigate issues of critical public policy importance.
Internship Experience
Spend your summer gaining real-world experience that will help set you apart when it comes time to find your first job after graduation. Here are some examples of intern projects that you could work on this summer:
- Develop a strategic marketing plan for your client who is lobbying for a bill on Capitol Hill.
- Organize leadership training activities for at-risk youth.
- Attend a Congressional briefing and write a summary for your manager.
- Cover a press conference at the National Press Club.
- Research data for a report on bio-terrorism threats and other national security concerns.
- Plan and develop a social media campaign for crime prevention awareness.
- Attend a strategy meeting with coalition groups advocating for clean energy policies.
- Make media pitch calls on behalf of a client who is promoting her latest book.
- Work on cultural fair for newly arrived immigrants from Africa.
- Serve as a call screener for a radio talk show.
- Help prepare a briefing book for your boss, who will be testifying in an important Congressional hearing.
- Brainstorm ideas for a Congressional candidate's latest television commercial.
- Coordinate logistics for a conference with scholars from prestigious think-tanks.
Program Areas
- Politics, Public Policy & Economics
- International Affairs & Economics
- Journalism, Communications & Public Relations
- Corporate Business & Governmental Affairs
- Non-profit Sector & Community Service
In addition to an internship and classes, our program provides housing in furnished apartments in downtown D.C., planned social activities, professional development seminars, and numerous opportunities for networking.
Application Instructions
For more information or to start an application, please visit DCINTERNSHIPS.org.
For further information, please check with the Dean of the College or the Director of Internship Programs.
Study Abroad
English-Speaking Union Student Scholar Program
Each summer, the English-Speaking Union in Kentucky sends several students from the state to study in England and Scotland. This is a 3-4 week program with all expenses paid. Students need only provide spending money. Two students from Alice Lloyd College will be allowed to apply.
The Kentucky Branch of The English-Speaking Union will award a limited number of scholarships to qualified Kentucky college students and Kentucky middle and high school teachers for courses offered at institutions in the United Kingdom in the summer of 2015. Scholarship awards will include tuition, lodging and two meals daily for three-week courses at the institutions chosen by the scholarship winners. Scholarships also include one week's lodging in London and a cash allowance which may or may not cover the costs of travel and incidentals (in 2014, the allowance was $1,800).
Scholarship awards are made by the Kentucky Branch's Scholarship Committee after reviews of information submitted by the applicants and interviews with the finalists.
Student Scholarships: Student scholarships will be awarded for studies in English Literature, History and Social Sciences at Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh University for the summer of 2014. All students must be at least a junior with one year to complete at their home institution as an undergraduate after they return from the aforementioned British university of their choice.
College students must submit their applications through their college representatives. Click here to view contact information of college representatives. Each participating university holds internal competitions to select no more than two students to send to the state-level competition. Every campus sets its own internal deadline, but the applications for the state-level competition must be received by November 20, 2015 by the Branch Scholarship Coordinator, whose address is below.
Emil Jeffers
Branch Scholarship Coordinator
4230 Lynnbrook Drive
Louisville, KY 40220
[email protected]
The student application form can be found here (downloadable pdf).
Find out more information about this program by visiting this page for the British University Summer School Fellowships.
International Enrichment/Semester in London Program
The Semester in London Program provides students the opportunity to study in London for one semester. Participants complete a three-hour course in British Life and Culture and several additional credit hours in courses ranging from Shakespeare to Seminar in International Business. For further information regarding these programs, please check with the Dean of the College or the Director of the International Enrichment Program.
The existence of this program is dependent upon sufficient funding.
Missions Abroad
Many of our students have participated in mission trips to various locations in Central and South America, as well as in the Caribbean. For more information about mission opportunities, please contact our BCM Director, Matthew Stewart, at email@example.com.
Public Speaking at ALC
From the Campus Crusaders, who represented Caney Creek Community Center on their fundraising tours of the United States, to the dozens of students who address convocation audiences today – there is a long and rich tradition of public speaking at Alice Lloyd College.
Students begin their exposure to public speaking through the general education program and continue to present in many classes throughout their college tenure.
Public speaking prospects abound for interested students, including opportunities to introduce speakers, organize and present at student events and convocations, lead school groups and other guests on campus tours, host radio programs, and represent ALC student organizations at state, regional, and national conferences. Students may also participate each spring in the James V. Mongiardo Public Speaking Competition, one of the college's endowed awards.
Community Service and Continuing Education
Alice Lloyd College has always maintained a strong commitment to community service. In serving this purpose, many cultural convocations and workshops are open to full participation by the larger community.
Many people benefit from ALC's continuing educational opportunities: the senior citizen who enjoys learning new and creative uses of leisure time; the housewife who wants to continue her education; and the employee who wants to pursue a degree for job advancement.
The community has access to all the Appalachian resources housed in the McGaw Library and Learning Center. The resources may be used by high school Appalachian studies programs or for scholarly research.
Questions? Please contact:
Nathan Hall, Director of Career Services
Phone: (606) 368-6136
E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Prints and Drawings Store
When I was a kid I had a bad habit of not turning in my homework. Sometimes that was because I didn't do it in the first place, but just as often it was because once it was done the box in my brain got checked and I'd forget it at home or lose it. Over the last several years I have on occasion done prints of my work for shows or because someone was interested in an image but couldn't afford to buy an actual painting. I moved last Spring and found that my cabinet of flat files needed lightening. So I am now turning in my homework. Just in time for Christmas. Help me lighten my flat files.
Posted by Anders Brekhus Nilsen at 9:19 AM 1 comment:
Labels: Print and Drawing Store
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Demons in the Spring
I'm doing a reading and slide show this Friday at 7:30 at the Book Cellar here in Chicago (4736 North Lincoln) for the release of the paperback of Joe Meno's Demons in the Spring. Also reading are Joe himself, and two of the other (brilliant) illustrators in the book, Nick Butcher and Jon Resh. I'll be doing a couple of stories about gods, one of whom has a peculiar revelation while walking around in Wisconsin. In keeping with the theme of my illustrations for the book, the theme of my primary contribution is aquatic. Below are two of the accompanying slides.
Posted by Anders Brekhus Nilsen at 11:42 AM No comments:
Labels: Book Cellar, Demons in the Spring, Joe Meno, Jon Resh, Nick Butcher, Poseidon
The end of the line
The last issue of Big Questions is at the printer, and is supposed to be out in time for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival, December 4th. In honor of the end, here's a glimpse of the beginning. This was in the first issue.
Click here for some other images, and some nice words about the whole big mess of a story that is about to conclude.
Click here for some other images, and some nice words about the whole big mess of a story that is about to conclude.
Posted by Anders Brekhus Nilsen at 10:52 AM 2 comments:
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
That election was F#$%ing depressing. So let's talk about Halloween instead
More pictures here.
Posted by Anders Brekhus Nilsen at 9:38 AM No comments:
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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text:
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
Photos: Dillards' Going Away Party
31 comments:
- AnonymousNovember 3, 2015 at 7:13 PM
is jill expecting againReplyDelete
Love all of you. Anxious to hear about Jessa and Ben's gift from God.ReplyDelete
Is it the same flim crew from 19 KidsReplyDeleteReplies
Hopefully it is the same crew. They were part of the Duggar family from the very beginning. Can't wait to see the new episodes with Jill and Jessa. It still sucks that 19 kids and counting was canceled, but answered prayers and provided for that wonderful loving family. May God bless every single member of the family. <3 ^_^Delete
Whoops to you! The Duggars don't call it Potluck because Jim Bob doesn't believe in Luck :)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 3, 2015 at 7:38 PM
God Bless you all .... :>)ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 3, 2015 at 7:56 PM
I was a big fan of the show. But I do wonder like a lot of people, where Jill and Derik get the money or time off to always come home. They seem to travel more than they stay, especially since they were asking for money to fund the trip.ReplyDelete
GOD bless your family and stay blessedReplyDelete
Miss y'all... Hoping God blesses your ministry as you reach out and encourage others..ReplyDelete
I pray that God will now keep the Duggar Family less attacked from outside haters wanting to stir up trouble. And if not, that they still remain a family united under God.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 3, 2015 at 9:47 PM
such a beautiful familyReplyDelete
LOVE you Duggars!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 3, 2015 at 10:27 PM
I really wish we could get an update on sweet Anna.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 12:45 AM
Kenzi is adorable... we pray that there return goes well and everyone is safe and happy... cute family...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 12:46 AM
Wow i wish i could've been at that party its looked like so much fun plus i would love to meet the dugger familyReplyDelete
how is Josh and Anna doing hoping they r still together what was the name of their last baby praying they can forgive and be happy togetherReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 7:43 AM
So it looks like just extended family and film crew attended?ReplyDelete
You know what I pray? I pray Josh is getting real clinical help to stop his proclivity's for the perversion in his mind. I pray that he did not pass an STD to sweet Anna or to their precious newborn. I pray that Anna in know way feels guilt about Josh's horrendous acts. I pray for their children and how going forward with Josh back in their lives will affect them. I pray he never acts on those perversions again.ReplyDelete
I pray for the innocents affected by Josh and will always wonder if his parent's truly did right by him as a teenager.
I think haters is a ridiculous term to place on people who disagree with what the Duggar's stand for or people's reactions to Josh. We can be repulsed and disgusted without hating.
The trouble was made by the Duggar's, and Josh added more fuel to his fire.
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 10:47 AM
What happened to Derrick's stepfather? Something seems wrong with him...ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 3:25 PM
Thank you for sharing the beautiful photos. The fellowship meal looked fun!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 3:51 PM
Mr. Byrum, Derick's stepfather is just fine, IMO. He seems to want nothing to do with this "dog and pony show" that is the Duggars and their TV "ministry." The man is a wise one.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 3:54 PM
I truly believe that the Dillards are well intentioned in their faith. However, it is insulting to all Christians, including Catholics, when their personal relationship with Christ is deemed less worthy than that of the Dillards, Duggars or Seewalds.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 4, 2015 at 11:02 PM
Thank you so much for sharing!! Have a safe trip!!ReplyDelete
Please let Anna know to hang in there!! No one is perfect and we need to stand by our marriage vows.
Basic Protestant Vows
"I, ___, take thee, ___, to be my wedded husband/wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part, according to God's holy ordinance; and thereto I pledge thee my faith [or] pledge myself to you."
I understand its hard but if you believe in God. Then, you believe in your marriage vows. I've been marred 24 years and thank God for helping me thru the hard times. Now we are happier and stronger both in our marriage and faith. Stay strong. :)
Also, congratulations to the new addition to the family!!! Babies truly are a blessing!!Replies
- AnonymousNovember 5, 2015 at 12:28 PM
I am a devout Catholic...these are not Protestant vows... They are Christian vows. I spoke these vows during our marriage Mass nearly 23 years ago.Delete
- AnonymousNovember 14, 2015 at 3:34 PM
I have been happily married fo 40years it has had nothing to do with any god or any other entity just being honest with each other and equal partners I am hoping that Anna finds happiness with someone worthy of her who will treat her with respect and as an equal She didn't get out of her marriage Josh did that all on his own.Delete
- AnonymousNovember 5, 2015 at 2:39 PM
Josh broke those vows. Anna now has to protect herself and her children, however God leads.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousNovember 5, 2015 at 5:26 PM
Another going away party?ReplyDelete
Thanks for leaving your comments! We answer as many of your questions as we can, but due to the number of comments we receive daily, we are unable to answer every one. Our aim is to post all points of view, but we do not post anything that is profane, insulting, derogatory, or in poor taste.


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Nicest Mean Person Ever PNG File download (this is not a SVG file)
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