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Josh Nathanson
Member since Dec 11, 2008
- Profile: /members/670-josh-nathanson.htm
- Comments: 17
Recent Blog Comments By Josh Nathanson
A New Wrist Pain
Posted on Aug 18, 2008 at 5:31 PM
@Jason -- whoa, acupuncture is junk science? Acupuncture has been practiced in the East for thousands of years to great success. It's really our own narrow-mindedness in the West that keeps us from taking advantage of alternative solutions. I had a personal experience with acupuncture that really... read more »
OOPhoto - If Object.Validate(), Why Not Object.Save()?
Posted on Aug 18, 2008 at 5:11 PM
The object doesn't have to know anything about saving itself - it just has to know exactly where to find that information, or, where to pass itself to complete the requested operation. I've found a good way to handle this is to pass in, via the object service, a pointer to your DAO to every instanc... read more »
Chase Bank - Worst And Seemingly Most Insecure Telephone Interface Ever!
Posted on Jul 21, 2008 at 1:59 PM
I wouldn't be surprised if they found out that asking people to say their numbers out loud, reduced the number of mistakes. It might be easier to make a mistake typing in a long number like an account number, than it is if you're reading it off a bill or something. These decisions are usually bott... read more »
Turning On Multiple Statements In ColdFusion 8 MySQL 4/5 Datasource
Posted on Jun 11, 2008 at 2:34 PM
Thanks for the tidbit Ben. I have always worked around this limitation in the past, but I absolutely need multiple statements for something I'm working on. I did a google search for "mysql 5 allow multiple statements" and your post came up.... read more »
Writing AJAX Return Value Logic On The Server
Posted on Apr 17, 2008 at 5:21 PM
@Adam, what do you think about an ajax call building html on the server and then sending it back to the DOM? The classic example is generating options for a select menu, or rows for a table. I just find this to be cleaner than sending back a bunch of JSON and then building the DOM elements in the ... read more »
JSON: Minor But VERY Important Detail Creating Syntax Error: Invalid Label
Posted on Mar 5, 2008 at 3:45 PM
Almost two years later and this post is still paying dividends. Luckily I didn't bang my head for too long before googling "invalid label". Thanks Ben!... read more »
DreamWeaver CS3 Slows Me Down
Posted on Feb 18, 2008 at 5:16 PM
I still use DW MX 2004. I finally got it working really fast with no delays or anything, so I don't feel the need to move to CS3. Some tweaking was necessary in the Preferences area to get it working fast, most notable turning off "Show contents of included file" in "Invisible Elements" preference... read more »
jQuery Reference Guide By PACKT Publishing
Posted on Oct 22, 2007 at 2:18 PM
Hey Ben and other jQuery'ers, Another fantastic book, while not specifically related to jQuery, is jQuery creator John Resig's book: Pro Javascript Techniques. Reading this book shored up many of the gaps in my understanding of JS, and John's enthusiasm for the subject is exemplified throughout, w... read more »
Using CASE Statements In A SQL UPDATE Query
Posted on Aug 30, 2007 at 3:11 PM
When I say simple values I mean you can't do something like this: CASE WHEN 1 THEN 'Where colval = 1' ELSE 'Where colval = 2' END In other words you can't change the structure of the query the way you can using dynamic CF.... read more »
Using CASE Statements In A SQL UPDATE Query
Posted on Aug 30, 2007 at 3:08 PM
It's amazing what SQL can do once you start digging into it. A little gotcha about CASE statements is that you can only return simple values in your THEN clauses. It's a little less flexible than using dynamic CF in your queries, but as long as you are only looking to return simple values the CASE... read more »
Ask Ben: Printing Shipping Labels With ColdFusion
Posted on Aug 24, 2007 at 7:24 PM
Oh I see, you are using an MS Word label template, never mind.... read more »
Ask Ben: Printing Shipping Labels With ColdFusion
Posted on Aug 24, 2007 at 7:23 PM
If you are just outputting formatted html, how about using cfdocument to generate a PDF? This is available on >= CF7 and a lot easier.... read more »
Tiny Change In ColdFusion Coding Methodology
Posted on Aug 24, 2007 at 7:17 PM
I pretty much lowercase everything as well. Even multi-word variable names and functions, unless the words next to each other have the same end/start letters, then I'll camel case the whole thing: i.e. "listtoarray" becomes "listToArray" Except for some reason, I still like to use a capital "A" on... read more »
ColdFusion Calendar Event Scripting (Inspired By Peter Bell)
Posted on Jul 30, 2007 at 5:51 PM
I happen to have a public-facing calendaring application, so I have had the pleasure of running up against all of these issues and more. The toughest one is a recurrence type of what I call "Monthly, same days of the week." That's not the greatest description, but it takes into account things like... read more »
Ignorance Rears Its Ugly Head Again
Posted on Jul 13, 2007 at 4:52 PM
It all comes back to CF's lack of marketing. I suppose CF has always provided a decent ROI for its owners (Allaire, Macromedia, now Adobe) without the slightest bit of marketing. Why spend money on advertising if you're making money without it? Because of this, CF is not "in your face" like a Mic... read more »
Learning ColdFusion 8: CFThread Part III - Set It And Forget It
Posted on Jun 4, 2007 at 1:01 PM
Thanks for the posts Ben. I'd never fully grokked threading concepts before and this goes a long way toward clearing things up for me.... read more »


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There are four places in the New Testament that refer to the "holy kiss"—Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; and 1 Thessalonians 5:26. In each instance, the Greek words denote a kiss which is sacred—physically pure and morally blameless. It was a common custom in most nations for people to kiss each other at meeting or parting to display their love, sincere affection, and friendship for each other. The kiss is called "holy" to distinguish it from a sexual one and from a hypocritical and deceitful one, such as Joab gave to Amasa (2 Samuel 20:9) or such as Judas gave to Jesus when he cried, "Hail Rabbi," and betrayed Him into the hands of His enemies (Matthew 26:49).
In New Testament times, the holy kiss was a sign of greeting, much like the modern handshake. For Christians, it further expressed brotherly love and unity. The holy kiss was especially precious to the new believers during the early church years, because they were often outcasts from their own families because of their new faith. These new believers gloried in the new spiritual kinship they had found among other Christians. Furthermore, the holy kiss from a Jewish Christian to a Gentile believer was evidence that the Gentiles were accepted fully into Christian fellowship, despite the teachings of the Judaizers, those who would return to the Mosaic law as their source of justification. So prominent were these false teachers in the early church that they even temporarily drew such a prominent Christian as Peter into their web of deceit (Galatians 2:11-13). The holy kiss between the Jewish and Gentile believers was done righteously in recognition that all believers are brothers and sisters in the family of God.
Whether or not the holy kiss should be a tradition we carry on today is not clear in Scripture. Whether or not our salutations to our brothers and sisters in Christ include the holy kiss, the important thing is that our greetings spring from real love and friendship, be characterized by sincerity, and represent true Christian fellowship.

subset: commoncrawl


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Workers' Craziest Sick Excuses
Employees who call in sick when they aren't really ill are far from alone.
A new study from CareerBuilder found that in the past year, 30 percent of employees have called in sick when they were feeling just fine.
Besides not feeling well, the research revealed that most common reasons employees call in sick are because they just don't feel like going to work or felt they needed to relax. Other popular motives included having doctor's appointments and needing to catch up on sleep or run errands.
Other employees had some more colorfulexplanations for their absences, the survey found, including:
While many employees see no repercussions for calling in sick when they aren't ill, others find out the hard way how much damage a white lie can do. The study shows that nearly 20 percent of employers have fired workers for giving a fake excuse.
Overall, 29 percent of supervisors have checked up on an employee to verify that their illness is legitimate, mostly by calling later in the day or asking to see a doctor's note. Other supervisors have had co-workers call to check on a suspected faker, while some have gone as far as to drive by the employee's house.
With the holidays right around the corner, businesses should prepare for an increase in employee sick days. More than 30 percent of the employers surveyed notice an increase in sick days around the winter holidays, with December being the most popular month of the year to call in sick.
The study was based on surveys of 2,494 U.S. hiring managers and human resource professionals and nearly 4,000 U.S. workers.
Follow Chad Brooks on Twitter @cbrooks76 or BusinessNewsDaily @BNDarticles. We're also on Facebook & Google+.


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Not saying that you're not. But comes a time in any conversation when the train of ideas comes to an end and awkward silence sets in. While none of these facts may end up as life changing to neither you nor your chatting partner, they are surely better than any other random topic you could revive the conversation with. And if you're going to do that, why not shift the chat in a more clever direction? Here you go then, 5 facts carefully selected for you from various fields of interest.
Every single cell in your body gets replaced
That is pretty much true with the only exception of your brain cells of course – the only type of cell in our bodies that sadly does not regenerate. That would explain why so many people seem to be unusually fond of protecting their own brain cells by not partaking in strenuous, stressful mental activity. But back on topic – every single type of cell in our body has its own life span. For example, red blood cells live for about 4 months, skin cells for 2 to 3 weeks, while some internal organ cells die in a matter of days. Naturally, the body does what is meant to do and replaces the dead cells with brand new, fully functional and ready to go ones.
A photon prepares for tens of thousands of years to launch to Earth
"Prepare" is a bit of an overstatement. What we mean here is that a photon literally travels for up to 200,000 years from the core of the Sun up to the surface. The radius of the sun is roughly 700,000 kilometers and the photons would surely take less if their trek to the surface would be straightforward. But considering they go through a long and tedious trip of constantly travelling in a direction before they're absorbed and released by an atom in a completely different, random direction kind of hinders their smooth and happy departure in outer space. And as a very anticlimactic end to the story, they take 8 minutes to reach the surface of the Earth.
Immortality exists, but only in jellyfish
There is a species of jellyfish found in the Mediterranean Sea and waters of Japan that can, in essence, be considered immortal. Known by either Turritopsis Dohrnii (that is, if you want to look even smarter) or simply the immortal jellyfish isn't literally immortal as you would think it is; instead however, it is the only animal capable of reverting completely to a sexually imature stage after having reached sexual maturity. So when this jellyfish is threatened by stress and physical assault or simply reaches old age, it can return to the polyp form that it once came from and give birth to a new polyp colony. And not only is it immortal, it is amazingly pretty looking too.
The direction brain teaser
It goes something along the lines of "If you keep going North, you will end up going South. If you keep going East, you will never end up going West." It's one of those things that has you spend several seconds trying to figure out whether the statement is valid or not, then a handful of minutes trying to figure out why. The answer is pretty simple – it's all perspective. Considering our planet's axis orientation and, inherently, its rotation around said axis, the Earth's North and South poles are the mostly static points in its motion.
The largest, longest storm in the solar system
More commonly known as the Red Spot on Jupiter. Surely you have seen it in the past but never thought much of it. This red spot is in fact a great anti-cyclonic storm – akin to a hurricane – that has been going on for at least 400 years – that's how long human kind has been observing it for. What is even considerably more staggering however ist hat considering the planet's mere size, the Red Spot is large enough to fit 3 entire Earths in its turbulent cillinder of stormy gases and particles. The reason it seems to be so persistent, according to scientists, is that the hurricane never touched land (as Jupiter is a gas giant with a small solid core) and that the storm itself is being kept alive by Jupiter's internal heat source.


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*************Texas - - February 11, 2010. History was made. 12 to 14 inches.
My Outdoor Wednesday with Susan, a Southern Daydreamer, is based on the unheard of happening for Texas.
It is hard to vision something this beautiful could cause so much damage and destruction.
All the following pictures are is just a glimpse of some of the damage.
These two are from my backyard.
This one from my neighborhood. I was so cold, I did not take time to get a good shot. But if you look close, there is a white truck under that big tree.
After what we went through and still going through, my heart goes out to those people in the eastern states.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Oudoor Wednesday
*************Texas - - February 11, 2010. History was made. 12 to 14 inches.
Posted by LV at 9:08 PM
Labels: outdoor Wed.
27 comments:
- Sandra said...
Hello:) Thank you for visiting my blog and leaving a comment on my post about former Pres. Bush's childhood home. :) I really appreciate it.
I am amazed at all that snow you got in this great state of Texas. Thankfully, my part of Texas didn't get snow like that. Did the white truck get any damage? You take care out there. Be careful. God Bless.
- February 16, 2010 at 10:25 PM
- Sunny said...
It's too bad that nature is so beautiful and destructive at the same time. That's quite a winter wonderland.
It has snowed all day here and continues tonight. Now they saw the temps are going to get colder. I can't wait for spring to arrive.
Stay warm, LV.
Sunny :)
- February 16, 2010 at 10:49 PM
- Personalized Sketches and Sentiments said...
Oh my! The snow is truly beautiful, but it really did do damage too!
Stay warm!!!
Blessings & Aloha!
(thank you as always for stopping in...I will do more blog reading tomorrow)
- February 16, 2010 at 10:49 PM
- Betsy Banks Adams said...
That snow is gorgeous --but the ice causes so much damage. We have 8 inches of snow here now---but luckily no ice nor any damage. I know it's so disheartening to see all of those trees so damaged. I'm so sorry, LV. It's been a crazy winter all over the country.
- February 16, 2010 at 11:01 PM
- Ebie said...
Oh no! That's a lot of snowfall though it looks so pretty.
Stay warm and take care.
- February 16, 2010 at 11:07 PM
- From the Old InkWell said...
OMG! That's amazing! Hope you doing well. Stay warm and dry!
- February 16, 2010 at 11:16 PM
- kat said...
oh my gosh, the snow is soooo beautiful but at the same time, it was destructive.
Thanks for the visit and comment anyway LV
Take care..wish, snow are all gone now.
- February 16, 2010 at 11:59 PM
- Regina said...
Beautiful winter scenes!
Awesome captures LV.
Happy Outdoor Wednesday.
"A Fun In The Sun"
- February 17, 2010 at 3:19 AM
- Old Time Cindy said...
The snow can be so beautiful, but you're right, so destructive, too. We've had a lot of snow, but nothing compared to last year's storm that damaged all our trees and left us without power for 9 days. I'm ready for spring. How about you?
Cindy at Lakewood
- February 17, 2010 at 7:02 AM
- Mary Bergfeld said...
I'm so glad that the storm damage didn't directly affect you. It's often hard to believe that anything as beautiful as these big storms can be so harmful. Stay warm and dry. Blessings...Mary
- February 17, 2010 at 8:30 AM
- ClassyChassy said...
Ready for spring yard clean-up? We have pretty sturdy trees in Michigan, but winter always takes its toll somewhere along the line!
- February 17, 2010 at 8:40 AM
- Ann said...
Texas sure made a statement this winter. It can sure snow anywhere in this beautiful country of ours. Beautiful snow.
Tin and sparkle
- February 17, 2010 at 10:34 AM
- The Muse said...
awwww...hate to see the ice/snow damage :(
the. winter has great beauty but there can be danger...and loss.
your shots show both aspects on this outdoor wednesday!
- February 17, 2010 at 10:41 AM
- Love Bears All Things said...
I am happy to note that you are blogging in your golden years. I think that is wonderful.
I've seen damage like this in winters paste when ice formed on trees and limbs fell on power lines. During one of our ice/sleet/snow/rain days in January, I watched ice forming on our pines, fearing we'd lose some of them. We have underground utilities so that wasn't a problem in our neighborhood. However, when the rain started, the ice on the tree melted and the limbs went back up to their normal height.
Thanks for sharing your outdoors with us.
Mama Bear
- February 17, 2010 at 11:08 AM
- Glenda/MidSouth said...
Great pictures. Yes, snow and ice an do a whole lot of damage! I am ready for Spring and sunshine.
- February 17, 2010 at 11:10 AM
- LADYHIGHTOWER said...
Amazing photos! Thanks!
- February 17, 2010 at 11:21 AM
- ♥ Kathy said...
That was a HUGE tree that fell :o Happy Outdoor Wednesday
- February 17, 2010 at 12:00 PM
- Heart2Heart said...
These are both beautiful and insightful to the degree of how damaging these storms can be, despite the quite beauty that lies beneath them. I love the first shot, so peaceful!
Love and Hugs ~ Kat
- February 17, 2010 at 12:52 PM
- Stephanie @ La Dolce Vita said...
Wow - that is something. And not what you expect to see in Texas, is it? I had missed the truck stuck under the tree until you pointed it out. We had a lot of snow yesterday, and some more on its way for tomorrow and Friday. I am ready for the thaw!
- February 17, 2010 at 3:12 PM
- Anonymous said...
Wow very awe inspiring. Snow can do crazy things. We are getting hit hard in Ohio as well.
Stay warm!
- February 17, 2010 at 4:33 PM
- Cindy said...
I am so sorry for all of the damage that was done by the snow. It is like many things in Nature. In the right place it is a pleasure and is useful to mankind, but in the wrong place or used wrongly, it is very destructive. Water and fire are also a good example of something so important to mankind, but with boundries. We love our snow up here in Manitoba, Canada. It is easily manageable, seldom does it do any real damage. Other than a car accident on a slippery road, snow has always been my friend. But truthfully, snow does not belong in Texas.
Thanks for visiting my blog and checking out my ice fishing photos. I admire you so much for blogging in your Season of life. Kudos to you!
Hugs, Cindy
- February 17, 2010 at 6:04 PM
- happily retired gal said...
Wow ... stunning shots of your wintry world! Sad about the damage caused by the storm. What a strange season it's been all over the world.
Hugs and blessings,
- February 17, 2010 at 6:21 PM
- ❀~Myrna~❀ said...
Beautiful Pics , but that was bad damage!
- February 17, 2010 at 6:46 PM
- farmlady said...
Thanks for all the photos. We had no idea how much snow you are getting down there. This is amazing!
Hope there was no one in that white truck when the tree fell...
- February 17, 2010 at 8:21 PM
- Eden said...
Hi LV!
Thank you for sharing those beautiful winter photos. Great shots! You always take good pictures. Love them all.
- February 18, 2010 at 3:51 AM
- Beth said...
Some beautiful pictures. Sorry to see the damage. But what a winter wonderland! I know it's a special treat when you get a snowfall in Texas.
- February 18, 2010 at 3:26 PM
- GratefulPrayerThankfulHeart said...
You sure have some amazing pictures here. I also loves the cloud pictures you posted. Those clouds did look angry!
Enjoyed visiting with you today!
Kindly, ldh
- February 20, 2010 at 1:39 PM


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Stem Cell Researchers Reprogram Normal Tissue Cells Into Cells With the Same Properties as Embryonic Stem Cells
Researchers at the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA were able to take normal tissue cells and reprogram them into cells with the same unlimited properties as embryonic stem cells, the cells that are able to give rise to every cell type found in the body.
The work, done in mouse models, appears in the inaugural June 7 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, published by Cell Press. UCLA researchers, working closely with stem cell scientists at Harvard University, took mouse fibroblasts, cells that develop into connective tissue, and added four transcription factors that bind to special sites on the DNA. Using this process, they were able to turn the fibroblasts into pluripotent cells that, in every aspect tested, were identical to embryonic stem cells.
The implications for disease treatment could be staggering. Reprogramming adult stem cells into embryonic stem cells could generate a potentially limitless source of immune-compatible cells for tissue engineering and transplantation medicine. If the work can be replicated in human cells, it may mean that a patient's skin cells, for example, could be reprogrammed to become embryonic stem cells. Those embryonic stem cells could then be prodded into becoming various cells types — beta islet cells to treat diabetes, hematopoetic cells to create a new blood supply for a leukemia patient or motor neuron cells to treat Parkinson's disease.
"If we can recreate this in human cells, it has significant implications for regenerative therapies," said study co-lead author Kathrin Plath, UCLA assistant professor of biological chemistry and a researcher with the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA (ISCBM). "Our reprogrammed cells were virtually indistinguishable from embryonic stem cells. We could find no evidence that they were different in any way. We were rather surprised at how well this reprogramming worked."
The finding also is significant in that this new technique could potentially replace a controversial method used to reprogram cells — somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), sometimes referred to "therapeutic cloning." To date, SCNT has not been done successfully in human cells.
"If we can successfully reprogram a normal human cell into a cell with almost identical properties to those in embryonic stem cells without SCNT, it may have important therapeutic ramifications and provide us with another method to develop human stem cell lines," said Dr. Owen Witte, ISCBM director and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. "Up until now, it's been unclear whether a cell could be reprogrammed back into an embryonic stem cell state without the use of SCNT, so that makes this a very important finding."
Studies published previously had shown that the four transcription factors that regulate expression of downstream genes and either activate or silence their expression could reprogram cells into cells with some pluripotent properties. But they differed from embryonic stem cells in that they could not differentiate into every cell type or support development of adult tissues.
"They had very limited developmental potential," Plath said. "We took a different approach, carefully selecting from our pool of cells the reprogrammed cells that highly expressed two genes we know are essential in embryonic stem cells."
Selecting cells that highly expressed the genes Oct4 and Nanog, which are essential to giving embryonic stem cells their unique characteristics, resulted in reprogrammed cells with much more powerful pluripotency, Plath said.
The reprogrammed cells were not just functionally identical to embryonic stem cells. They also had identical biological structure. In a cell nucleus, DNA — an organism's unique map or instructions — wraps around histones, which serve as a kind of scaffolding for compaction of the long DNA molecule. Histones don't merely package DNA. Chemical tags on histones determine which genes are expressed or shut off in the DNA. In the reprogrammed cells, the location of the chemical tags along the DNA chromosomes were identical to those found in embryonic stem cells and, just as importantly, dramatically different from those in the fibroblasts before reprogramming. The structure of the reprogrammed cells — down to the very small chemical tags that dictate gene expression — is highly similar to that of embryonic stem cells.
Plath and her colleagues are working now to recreate the cell reprogramming in human cells. It could take years to determine if the same results can be achieved.
About the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA
The Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine was launched in 2005 with a UCLA commitment of $20 million over five years. With more than 150 members, the ISCBM is committed to a multidisciplinary, integrated collaboration between scientific, academic and medical disciplines for the purpose of understanding adult and human embryonic stem cells. The institute supports innovation, excellence and the highest ethical standards focused on stem cell research with the intent of facilitating basic scientific inquiry directed towards future clinical applications to treat disease. The institute is a collaboration of the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center, the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, and the UCLA College of Letters and Science.
To learn more about the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine at UCLA, visit the institute's Web site at www.stemcell.ucla.edu.
Kim Irwin
(310) 794-2262
[email protected]


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What better way to start the week than with a swinging 60's Leonard?
I bought this beautiful candid photo on eBay. Leonard is wearing a groovy deep red Nehru jacket as he visits back stage at a performance of Macbeth. This was taken almost 50 years ago on January 12, 1969!
I loved the picture and that gentle smile so much, I made a black and white copy too, to see more detail. Leonard was one cool, cultured dude!


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Visited Yosemite? You May Already Be Infected With the Hantavirus
Nature: stirring, majestic, full of shit that can kill you.
Public health officials are warning 22,000 visitors to Yosemite National Park that they may have been exposed to the very deadly hantavirus. A third infected person, who visited Yosemite in July, died last week.
Originally, investigators thought only cabins in the Curry Village section of Yosemite had been affected, but the eighth infected person camped at the High Sierra Camp, which meant public health officials had to expand their warning.
The hantavirus is rare: there have been only 602 reported cases since it was discovered in 1993. But with 216 deaths, it has an impressive 36 percent mortality rate.
Hantavirus is mostly carried by deer mice. A 2010 study found that 18 percent of the mice tested in Yosemite had the virus, although transmission is still rare. To contract it, a person has to have been in contact with infected mice feces or urine, which adds an extra level of discomfort to those who get it.
And it basically looks like a flu. The CDC describes the symptoms as—
Fatigue, fever and muscle aches, especially in the large muscle groups — thighs, hips, back and sometimes shoulders ... There may also be headaches, dizziness, chills and abdominal problems, such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain.
But within four to ten days, things get more severe, with patients experiencing shortness of breath and coughing as the lungs fill up with fluid.
None of this should deter you from visiting our nation's gorgeous national parks. Just do your best to stay away from filthy rodents.
And if you are feeling extra paranoid, remember there's no shame in being an indoor kid.


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Helping athletes achieve their best through proper recovery.
Do you suffer from constant aches and pains? Feel like old injuries are lingering? Does it effect your performance and your enjoyment?
It's time to use Proven Recovery Techniques to get back to your best! And I don't just mean more stretching, rest or sleep ...
I explore skeletal alignment, whole body movements, daily positions that affect performance, exercise physiology and sport psychology.
It's about Making Movement Matter, from the inside out. Enjoy your body, your sport and most importantly your health! Book a free appointment to see what it's all about.


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A Minister was walking down the street when he came upon a group of about a dozen boys, all of them between 10 and 12 years of age.
The group had surrounded a dog. Concerned lest the boys were hurting the dog, he went over and asked "What are you doing with that dog?"
One of the boys replied, "This dog is just an old neighborhood stray. We all want him, but only one of us can take him home. So we've decided that whichever one of us can tell the biggest lie will get to keep the dog."
Of course, the reverend was taken aback. "You boys shouldn't be having a contest telling lies!" he exclaimed. He then launched into a ten minute sermon against lying, beginning, "Don't you boys know it's a sin to lie," and ending with, "Why, when I was your age, I never told a lie."
There was dead silence for about a minute. Just as the reverend was beginning to think he'd gotten through to them, the smallest boy gave a deep sigh and said, "All right, give him the dog."
Sunday, July 21, 2013
HUMOR: Winner!
Not mine. From here.


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Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of Brisbane's report on its shadow human rights fact finding mission to West Papua this year finds that there is no improvement in human rights in West Papua. It calls for action at the UN to investigate human rights abuses and for the Indonesian Government to negotiate with the United Liberation Movement for West Papua to find a pathway towards self determination.
"We will lose everything!" This was the grim prediction made by the four members of the Executive of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) when they presented their three year campaign strategy to a Brisbane meeting of representatives of solidarity groups from around the South Pacific in January 2016.
When ULMWP Secretary-General, Octovianus Mote, uttered these words on behalf of his colleagues, both the anguish of the people of West Papua and their grim determination to overcome their oppression was evident in his voice. Faced with becoming a small minority in their own land within a few short years and living with unrelenting intimidation and brutality at the hands of the Indonesian Government's security apparatus together with rapidly growing economic and social marginalisation, he stressed the need for urgent action to stop the violence in their land and to secure an international commitment to give their people a genuine opportunity to freely determine their future.
The message was clear. The situation in West Papua is fast approaching a tipping point. In less than five years, the position of Papuans in their own land will be worse than precarious. They are already experiencing a demographic tidal wave. Ruthless Indonesian political, economic, social and cultural domination threatens to engulf the proud people who have inhabited the land they call Tanah Papua for thousands of years
One week after the meeting in Brisbane, a two person delegation from the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission of the Archdiocese of Brisbane set foot on Papuan soil to speak to Papuans directly about their situation. The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Leaders Summit in Port Moresby in September 2015 had agreed to send a human rights fact-finding mission to West Papua, but the Indonesian Government has not allowed this to happen. One of the Commission's objectives in sending the delegation was to build relationships with the Church in West Papua for future collaboration on human rights and environmental issues. However, because of the Indonesian Government's unwillingness to accept a PIF mission, our delegation effectively became the first of a number of shadow human rights fact finding missions to West Papua from the Pacific.
You can download the full report from CJPC Brisbane here.
Read the Statement of the Catholic Women of West Papua in Response to the Visit of the Bishops' Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to the Diocese of Jayapura, Papua


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Austrian poet and novelist; born Dec. 13, 1828, at Vienna; died Dec. 30, 1876, at Meran; studied philosophy and history at the University of Vienna. In 1847 he took temporary charge of his father's business, and for a few years afterward was employed by the Nordbahn (Northern R. R.), resigning to devote himself to literature. During a short stay in Berlin he became a Roman Catholic (1857), and in 1858 took up his residence in Vienna, where he was well known as a writer and critic for the leading papers of the Austrian empire.
In 1864 Kuh was appointed professor of German language and literature at the Vienna Commercial College (Handelsschule), but was compelled by ill health to resign after a few years and retire to Meran. He published the following works: "Friedrich Hebbel" (Vienna, 1854); "Drei Erzählungen" (Troppau, 1857); "Gedichte" (Brunswick, 1858); "Dichterbuch aus Oesterreich" (Vienna, 1863); "Ueber Neuere Lyrik" (ib. 1865); "Adalbert Stifter" (ib. 1868); "Zwei Dichter Oesterreichs" (Budapest, 1872); "Biographie Friedrich Hebbel's" (Vienna, 1877). Together with G. Glaser he published the "Gesammelte Werke von Friedrich Hebbel" (Hamburg, 1864-68), and with F. Pachler the "Nachlass" of Friedrich Halm (Vienna, 1872). The "Wiener Jahrbuch für Israeliten" contains some of his poems. Kuh's correspondence with Theodor Storm was published by his son Paul Kuh in vol. 67 of "Westermann's Monatshefte" (1889-90).
- Meyers Konversations-Lexikon.


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The paper titled "ESPIRiT—an eigenvalue approach to autocalibrating parallel MRI: Where SENSE meets GRAPPA" co-written by Associate Prof. Michael Lustig, his graduate student Pat Virtue, and alumnus Mark J. Murphy (Ph.D. '11 advisor: Kurt Keutzer) has been named the most-cited Magnetic Resonance in Medicine article from 2014. The article bridges the gap between the two main approaches for parallel imaging (SENSE and GRAPPA) allowing the reconstruction of images from undersampled multicoil data. It presents a new autocalibration technique combining the extended reconstruction of SENSE with GRAPPA-like robustness to errors.
Authors of the paper are listed as Martin Uecker, Peng Lai, Mark J. Murphy, Patrick Virtue, Michael Elad, John M. Pauly, Shreyas S. Vasanawala, and Michael Lustig.


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Toshiba will discontinue its HD DVD products, it said Tuesday, handing victory to rival high definition disc format Blu-ray Disc.
The company will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.
It will reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail markets and aims to cease the businesses altogether by the end of March.
But the Japanese electronics giant pledged to provide full product support and after-sales service for owners of Toshiba HD DVD products.
Recent changes in the market prompted the decision, Toshiba said. Early this year, Warner Bros. said it would stop issuing movies on HD DVD in the coming months and rely exclusively on Blu-ray Disc. The Hollywood studio was one of three major studios remaining in the HD DVD camp, and its defection created widespread belief that the battle between HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc was now over.
More recently, major U.S. retail chain Wal-Mart announced it would phase out the sale of HD DVD products, moving to exclusivity with Blu-ray Disc. Electronics retailer Best Buy also said it would back Blu-ray Disc, but it did not say it would stop offering HD DVD.
Warner made its decision based on consumer confusion and indifference to high definition movies, an indifference that cost Hollywood in lost revenue, it said. Wal-Mart said U.S. customers preferred Blu-ray Disc movies and hardware. Blu-ray Disc is the high definition disc format championed by Sony.
"This once again shows why incompatible and mutually exclusive formats should be avoided at all cost by the industry," said Carl Gressum, a senior analyst at Ovum. "It reduces profitability and delays customer adoption."
"The big question is, however, the impacts on Toshiba as an electronics company," he added. "It has after all bet its disc media business on HD DVD, as well as gone for HD DVD integration into some of its laptop PCs. The channel has inventory to clear, and demands from owners of HD DVD players."
Toshiba said its decision came after careful analysis of the long-term impact of continuing the format war, and said a swift decision was called for to help the high definition market develop.
The company also pledged to remain a player in the high definition market. Developing HD DVD created many assets for Toshiba and its partners, which include Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Universal Studios, the company said. Toshiba plans to work with these companies to seek future business opportunities.


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Spring Football
Dahlberg: Predictably, another gamble lost in AAF failure
Charlie Ebersol was sure his new football league was different, even as it ventured into the dark hole that had swallowed up ventures like his before.
I talked to him in November, before uniforms had even been ordered and one game had aired. The Alliance of American Football league was well financed and for real, he said, and ready to put on a show for a country supposedly starved for more football.
"There is a massive amount of people in this country who watch only one sport on television and that league (the NFL) only plays a set period of time," Ebersol said. "They stop watching sports on TV the day after the Super Bowl and don't come back until the NFL returns."
It all sounded good, maybe too good. Ebersol talked about television contracts, 50 people already working on technology alone in the league's San Francisco office and a gambling deal with MGM Resorts that would take advantage of the explosion in sports betting around the country.
A little more than four months later, it's a wrap for the AAF. Put together in little more than a year, the league lasted only eight weeks.
Turns out Americans weren't all that hungry for spring football, at least the second-tier product put on the field by the AAF. The market for minor league spring football was minuscule, if not nonexistent.
And a league that claimed to have learned from the past will become another case study for those in the future.
The question now becomes, is Vince McMahon paying attention?
The WWE chief honcho plans to unveil the latest pro football league next spring under the banner of the XFL, another failed league. According to published reports, McMahon recently sold $272 million worth of WWE stock to fund the effort and plans to invest as much as $500 million to keep it going in its formative years.
Big money, and even bigger plans. For less than the price of an NFL franchise, McMahon envisions owning an entire league.
But will he build one that people care about enough to actually watch? Well, as I pointed out in November after talking to Ebersol, the track record says no.
A look in the stands at any of the AAF games should make any potential investor — or player — in a new league cautious. A look at the television ratings should send them fleeing to the next big thing somewhere else far, far away.
The AAF wasn't exactly a grand experiment, no matter what its founders said. Recent history is littered with leagues like the USFL, XFL and WFL that launched to great fanfare only to go under amid fan indifference and financial sinkholes.
Spring football doesn't work, and minor league football isn't an appealing product. No one can go head to head with the NFL and, as the AAF found out, no one particularly cares about the NFL's castoffs.
The marketing genius of the WWE isn't enough to overcome that. Neither is sports betting, which AAF had counted on to ensure the league's survival.
The AAF was supposed to be different, but it really wasn't. Take away celebrity coaches Steve Spurrier and Mike Singletary and there wasn't a recognizable face in the league for fans.
The game plan wasn't to take on the NFL, but rather to become a development league for it. But the NFL wasn't terribly interested, and its players' union didn't embrace the idea of players taking a beating over two seasons instead of one.
The AAF got a temporary lifeline with a cash infusion from Tom Dundon, who also owns the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. But in the end, Dundon's deep pockets weren't enough as it became apparent that the league model simply wasn't going to work.
And the dream of Ebersol and co-founder Bill Polian, the former NFL executive who built a Super Bowl winner with Indianapolis, was over barely two months after it began.
"I'm extremely disappointed," Polian told The Associated Press. "On one hand it was kind of our wildest fantasies come true. It all came true and now it's all come crashing down."
MORE: Stellino: Why did The Alliance crumble?
In the end, the collapse of the AAF was as inevitable as it was predictable. The appetite for football is not insatiable, it seems, when the football is not at the highest level.
The AAF is gone, and those betting it wouldn't last a season might be the only winners. Those funding the league certainly weren't, and the players themselves never got to cash in on their three-year contract or the promise of one year of tuition that the league said it would pay for those who didn't finish school.
In the end it was just another bad bet for everyone involved.


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Google Power Search: How to Search Just One Web Site
There's a lot more you can do with Google than just search the Internet. Instead of searching the entire Internet, you may be more interested in seeing search results from just one web site. To do this, go to http://www.Google.com and enter the word "site:" followed by a colon (:) followed immediately (with no space) by the web site's address. Next, add a space and then the word(s) you wish to search for. It should look something like this:
site:xxx.com search-term
Notice the web site's address is given without the letters "http", without the colon, without the slashes and without "www."
For instance, perhaps you only want to search the web site of the Indiana Genealogical Society at indgensoc.org to see what databases the society has for Pike County, the county where your ancestors lived. To do so, go to http://www.Google.com and enter:
site:indgensoc.org "Pike County"
Note in the above example I placed the words "Pike County" inside quote marks. That isn't absolutely necessary but does tell Google to narrow the search down and to display only web pages on the indgensoc.org web site that contain the word "Pike" followed by a space and then followed by the word "county." No other variations are allowed. (Upper and lower case is ignored, however)
Notice that all results displayed point to the indgensoc.org web site and to only the web pages that have the words "Pike County" in them. The words "Pike County" are also shown in bold text.
Another use might be when you decide to buy a new scanner and you vaguely remember seeing an article some time ago in this newsletter about scanners. You go to http://www.Google.com and enter the following:
Again, all results displayed point to Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter and to only the web pages that have the word "scanner" in them.
This is a great way to find an article that you read a long time ago on a site, and want to find it again. Sometimes Google Search works better than an embedded search right on the website itself.


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|August 29, 2008, 11:20 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: March 29, 2007
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 1,391
Ft. Riley range location
I registered my guns on Ft. Riley, and the MP wasn't helpful as to what range I go to or any other information except to keep the gun in the trunk and the ammunition in the glove box and always have the registration card whenever I have the gun on post.
Any information would be greatly appreciated!
How could you have a slogan like "freedom is slavery" when the concept of freedom has been abolished?
|August 30, 2008, 04:39 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: October 4, 2005
Location: Ct.
Posts: 546
I haven't been to Ft. Riley since I ETS'd back in 2004. But yes there is a free public, outdoor 100yd range. It's past most of the ranges on the range road. Call range control, and ask them for directions. They have targets there, you just need to bring your own ammo and hearing protection. Also remember that the range officer is a volunteer, so don't give him any crap. By the way, never buy a gun from that little pawn shop in Ogden. The guy is real nice till he swipes your credit card. As soon as he has your money, he wants nothing to do with you. I seriously thought about throwing a brick through his window on my last night on base. Never did, but if you want to for me, go ahead.
There are many things in life that are out of my control. Recoil isn't one of them.
|September 1, 2008, 06:05 AM
Senior Member
Join Date: September 1, 2007
Location: S.Indiana
Posts: 252
Was there several years ago. After I got out of the service, I didnt want to leave. The hunting areas around Milford Lake were super. Just be careful come Pheasant and Deer seasons, woods get real crowded. Between hunting and fishing, we didnt buy a lot of meat. Freezer was always full. If you want to hunt Milford, pick up a Lake map. Most areas are marked. Make sure you are legal. When I was there, DNR did their job. We would see them every other time we were out. Kudos to them.
If you are just looking to do some range time, I am not sure.
|September 3, 2008, 12:57 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: February 27, 2006
Location: Lane County Oregon
Posts: 2,547
I'd try Outdoor Rec (785)239-2363
The number you really need is Range Control....
Found it 785-239-4516.
U.S Army, Retired
Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do. -Potter Stewart
|September 3, 2008, 02:08 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: March 29, 2007
Location: Raleigh, NC
Posts: 1,391
Thanks for the RC number, they are going to email me all the information I need.
Unfortunately for me, my dad didn't introduce me to hunting. I went through the hunter safety course, but never went hunting, so I don't imagine it is something I am going to do. I mainly kill paper.
Hmm... Ogden. There is two gun dealers in Ogden now. Pat's and Barry's Automotive. Yeah, he fixes cars AND sells guns now By the timeline I would say you were talking about Pat's. Don't impulse buy from him and research what you are looking at and you should be fine.
How could you have a slogan like "freedom is slavery" when the concept of freedom has been abolished?
|September 3, 2008, 06:54 PM
Senior Member
Join Date: July 10, 2008
Location: Columbus, OH
Posts: 671
It's Range 9, the POW range.
And it goes out to 300 meters, not 100.
Things have probably changed since I was last there in early 2001.
Used to be that you needed to show the range NCO your PMO registration slip for your guns. The range provided targets and target stands, tables, and chairs.
It was the best thing about Fort Riley.
That and the Taylor Special at the Hillside Cafe in Ogden...with a big glass of iced tea.
Once you've got your sights adjusted to the ammunition you have, step away from the bench. In competition or the field...there are no benches.
|fort riley , pistol range
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15 comments:
Blu like a dream!ReplyDelete
i need jacqueline! and mostly because that's my name and i love it <3ReplyDelete
Beautiful swatches! My favorites have to be Neely, Blu, and Julie!ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 29, 2013 at 10:40 PM
Just gorgeous!!! As always, I love your swatches :) :)ReplyDelete
Pastels are perfect for spring and summer! Great review!ReplyDelete
Wow!!!Love this pastel collection. They are indeed perfect for spring. I wish I can have all them. Gotta save now....ReplyDelete
I almost love every one, they're gorgeous and I really long for the spring!!ReplyDelete
Absolutely gorgeous - wish there was a Zoya store here!ReplyDelete
At first, I wasn't impressed but after your swatches I love 'em all. The dots are gorgeous.ReplyDelete
gorgeous!! :)ReplyDelete
Neely and Piaf looks gorgeous :)ReplyDelete
those colors are all so pretty :DReplyDelete
Several of these are lovely, but I don't feel the need to rush out and buy/order them. I kind of feel that these colors have been done... a lot.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousJanuary 30, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Lovely swatches. I'd go for Blu and Julie :)ReplyDelete


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The Significance in History of this Year's Finals
If the Flakers lose, this would be the 3rd time Bean loses in a Finals' series he's been favored (2004 & 2008). That means in 7 Finals appearances he's lost almost half of them. This title would give Ray and Paul 2 apiece, or 2 less than Bean. People always talk about time and place playing such a huge role (like if Bernard King was on those Flakers teams in place of James Worthy wouldn't King be in the HOF by now?). Therefore I think the argument could easily be made that if you had substituted Ray and (especially) Paul on those LA teams that won it from 2000-2002 the results would very likely have been the same. Remember Shaq was the most dominating player in the game (especially the first 2 of those titles).
Does this mean that I'm insinuating that Paul and Ray are better than Bean? No. However for all those (I mean you ESPN) that salivate over the Bean-MJ comparisons, Michael won 5 MVPs, never lost in the Finals and only lost one series between 1991 and 1998 (his comeback attempt in 1995 to Orlando). In other words when he was favored he got it done. Bean's got one MVP (which he shouldn't have gotten that year- Chris Paul and Kevin Garnett should've won that award over him, way to give him a lifetime achievement NBA MVP award). Are you starting to see the light that Ray and Paul are closer to being as good as Bean then Bean is to Michael? That's my point. And a championship for the Celtics would legitimatize that point.
This would also mark the 3rd time that Whistling Phil will have lost in the Finals when he's been favored. Did Red ever lose that many?
The bottom line is the significance of this Finals matchup is pretty big in the recent history of the NBA. I for one, would feel really validated with my beliefs when the Celtics win. Go C's! Get Banner 18.


text: On 11 December 2007, the ARIN Board of Trustees, based on the recommendation of the Advisory Council and noting that the Internet Resource Policy Evaluation Process had been followed, adopted the following policy proposal: Policy Proposal 2007-25: IPv6 Policy Housekeeping This policy proposal has been incorporated into version 2008.1 of the ARIN Number Resource Policy Manual (NRPM) which is effective 14 February 2008. NRPM version 2008.1 supersedes previous versions. See Appendix A of the NRPM for information regarding changes to the manual. The NRPM can be found at: http://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm.html Appendix A can be found at: http://www.arin.net/policy/nrpm_changelog.html Regards, Member Services American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN)


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(visited by Helmut Resch and Babs Coleman)
27-Apr-2008 -- This is the 23rd of a series of 83 confluence visits during our voyage from Nigeria to Europe and back to Nigeria around the entire African continent. It all started on 28 January at 11N 5E.
Story continues from 8N 9W.
From Faranah we took the road towards Mamou and approximately 40 km onwards the road by-passes the Confluence by 3.8 kilometres. We continued and found a kilometre further the first track to get into the direction of the Confluence; but this track ended with still four kilometres to the Confluence.
The next unsuccessful attempt ended also 4 km from the Confluence. On the way back towards Faranah, 6 km from the Confluence, we found a turn-off which lead us to the village Daganja. We drove through the village and on the other side we found a track, which lead us 2.4 km to the Confluence, then the track turned in the opposite direction.
Very frustrated not to achieve our goal, we went back to the village, and asked the village chief for permission to put up our camp for the night in the village. We got a nice place allocated next to the soccer field. There was still sufficient time to make the 2.7 km to the Confluence. We got some boys from the village to accompany us and off we went up and down the hills.
We must have walked more than 4 km before we reached the Confluence. The next morning we left Daganja and headed north to the Fouta Djallon highland, spending a couple of days exploring the area and visiting some waterfalls before we continued further north to Senegal.
Continued at 13N 14W.


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A confidential Internal Revenue Service legal memo says tax returns must be given to Congress unless the president takes the rare step of asserting executive privilege, according to a copy of the memo obtained by The Washington Post.
The memo contradicts the Trump administration's justification for denying lawmakers' request for President Trump's tax returns, exposing fissures in the executive branch.
Trump has refused to turn over his tax returns but has not invoked executive privilege. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has instead denied the returns by arguing there is no legislative purpose for demanding them.
But according to the IRS memo, which has not been previously reported, the disclosure of tax returns to the committee "is mandatory, requiring the Secretary to disclose returns, and return information, requested by the tax-writing Chairs."
The 10-page document says the law "does not allow the Secretary to exercise discretion in disclosing the information provided the statutory conditions are met" and directly rejects the reason Mnuchin has cited for withholding the information.
"[T]he Secretary's obligation to disclose return and return information would not be affected by the failure of a tax writing committee . . . to state a reason for the request," it says. It adds that the "only basis the agency's refusal to comply with a committee's subpoena would be the invocation of the doctrine of executive privilege."
The memo is the first sign of potential dissent within the administration over its approach to the tax returns issue. The IRS said the memo, titled "Congressional Access to Returns and Return Information," was a draft document written by a lawyer in the Office of Chief Counsel and did not represent the agency's "official position." The memo is stamped "DRAFT," it is not signed, and it does not reference Trump.
The agency says the memo was prepared in the fall. At the time, Democrats were making clear they probably would seek copies of Trump's tax returns under a 1924 law that states that the treasury secretary "shall furnish" tax returns to Congress.
Precisely who wrote the memo and reviewed it could not be learned. The agency says IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig and current chief counsel Michael Desmond, who was confirmed by the Senate in February, were not familiar with it until a Post inquiry this week. The IRS says it was never forwarded to Treasury.
Executive privilege is generally defined as the president's ability to deny requests for information about internal administration talks and deliberations.
On Friday, Mnuchin rejected a subpoena from the House Ways and Means Committee to turn over the tax returns, a move that probably will now lead to a court battle. Mnuchin has criticized the demands as harassment that could be directed against any political enemy, arguing Congress lacks a "legitimate legislative purpose" in seeking the documents.
Breaking with precedent, Trump has refused to provide tax returns, saying without evidence they are under audit.
Mnuchin and other senior staff members never reviewed the IRS memo, according to a Treasury spokesman. But the spokesman said it did not undermine the department's argument that handing over the president's tax returns would run afoul of the Constitution's mandate that information given to Congress must pertain to legislative issues.
The spokesman said the secretary is following a legal analysis from the Justice Department that he "may not produce the requested private tax return information." Both agencies have denied requests for copies of the Justice Department's advice to Treasury.
Some legal experts said the memo provides further evidence that the Trump administration is using shaky legal foundations to withhold the tax returns.
"The memo is clear in its interpretation of the law that the IRS shall furnish this information," said William Lowrance, who served for about two decades as an attorney in the IRS chief counsel's office and reviewed the memo at the request of The Post.
Daniel Hemel, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School who also reviewed the memo for The Post, said the document suggests a split over Trump's returns between career staffers at the IRS and political appointees at that agency and the Treasury Department.
"The memo writer's interpretation is that the IRS has no wiggle room on this," Hemel said. "Mnuchin is saying the House Ways and Means Committee has not asserted a legitimate legislative purpose. The memo says they don't have to assert a legitimate legislative purpose — or any purpose at all."
The administration has resisted a range of House inquiries, although a federal judge on Monday ruled the president's accounting firm must turn over his financial records to Congress.
Treasury Department officials said there had been extensive discussions about the tax return issue, with one official saying the issue put the agency in a difficult spot because Trump has predetermined the outcome — and because Mnuchin is a Trump ally who was the finance chair of his 2016 campaign.
"The decision has been made," this official said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. "Now it's up to us to try to justify it."
Trump has told advisers he will battle the issue to the Supreme Court, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump recently has argued that the tax returns were an issue in the 2016 election but that because he won they should no longer be of concern.
Last week, Mnuchin told a Senate panel that Treasury Department lawyers held an early discussion about disclosing the tax returns long before Democrats officially demanded the documents in April. He did not reveal details of that deliberation or say what, if any, legal memos he had reviewed.
Some legal experts have held that the law is clear in giving Congress the power to compel the provision of the returns. But other former government lawyers, including two who served in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations, have argued that the law is unconstitutional and could lead to widespread abuses of taxpayer privacy for political aims.
The IRS memo describes how and why Congress has the authority to access tax returns, explaining the origin of the provision and how it has been interpreted over the decades.
It highlights the special powers given to three committees for compelling the release of tax returns: the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee, and the Joint Committee on Taxation. Other congressional committees, the memo emphasizes, do not have the same authority.
When it comes to the Ways and Means Committee, the obligation to divulge the returns "would not be affected by the failure" to give a reason for the request. By contrast, other committees "must include a purpose for their request for returns and return information when seeking access," the memo states.
"One potential basis" for refusing the returns, the memo states, would be if the administration invoked the doctrine of executive privilege.
But the IRS memo notes that executive privilege is most often invoked to protect information, such as opinions and recommendations, submitted as part of formulating policies and decisions. It even says the law "might be read to preclude a claim of executive privilege," meaning the law could be interpreted as saying executive privilege cannot be invoked to deny a subpoena.
Earlier this month, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service published a review of Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code that found the code "evinces no substantive limitations" on the Ways and Means Committee's authority to receive the tax returns.
But, the CRS report added, the committee's authority "arguably is subject to the same legal limitations that generally attach to Congress' use of other compulsory investigative tools," including the need to serve some "legislative purpose" and not breach constitutional rights.
Damian Paletta contributed to this report.


text: About Us by adminDev 06/24/2014 Support Creation Studies Institute (CSI) CSI a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization entirely run by a board of directors committed to the message of creation. We rely on God our Creator to keep our ministry in service. We believe God does this through the prayers and financial support of the community. Members and donors are vital to this ministry as a means of support. Please consider partnering with us and investing in a ministry whose heart is to reach the lost, transfrom lives and expose the lies of evolution. CSI is a member of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA) Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability ECFA is an accreditation agency dedicated to helping Christian ministries earn the public's trust through adherence to seven Standards of Responsible Stewardship. Founded in 1979, ECFA provides accreditation to leading Christian nonprofit organizations that faithfully demonstrate compliance with established standards for financial accountability, fund-raising and board governance. A message from ECFA: Members include Christian ministries, denominations, churches, educational institutions and other tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization. See CSI's Member Profile Ways you can donate: 1. By Mail:Creation Studies InstituteP.O. Box 666837Pompano Beach, FL 33066 Make checks payable to "Creation Studies Institute" 2. By Phone:Phone: 954-771-1652 Free: 1-800-882-0278 3. Online: Donate Here THANK YOU!


text:
Vegan Sauteed Slivered Brussels Sprouts Over Wild Rice Cakes
- Yield: 4 servings
- 1pound Brussels sprouts, bottoms and outer 500g leaves trimmed
- 2tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 2 onions, thinly sliced
- 3cloves garlic, sliced
- 1 1/4teaspoons salt, divided
- 1/2teaspoon dijon mustard
- 1/2cup firm or extra-firm silken tofu
- 2cups cooked mixed wild and brown rice
- 2tablespoons chopped chives
- 1tablespoon chopped basil
- 1tablespoon minced Italian flat-leaf parsley
- 1/8teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/3cup fresh bread crumbs
- canola oil
- 2tablespoons pine nuts, lightly toasted
Preheat oven to 200 F
1. Finely slice sprouts about 1⁄16-inch thick. Separate slices into shreds and set aside.
2. Place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat and let pan get hot. Add 1 tbsp of the olive oil and tip pan to coat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Stir in garlic, 3⁄4 tsp of the salt and mustard and cook, stirring often, until onions are golden and caramelized, about 20 minutes.
3. In a blender, purée tofu until smooth. In a bowl, gently fold together puréed tofu and rice. Mix in chives, basil, parsley, black pepper and remaining 1⁄2 tsp of salt. Place bread crumbs in a shallow bowl and, using a tablespoon, drop rice mixture into bread crumbs, patting gently to form a cake. Press additional crumbs on top and use a small spatula to transfer cake to a plate lined with waxed paper. Repeat with remaining rice mixture.
Excerpted from 350 Best Vegan Recipes by Deb Roussou © 2012 Robert Rose Inc. www.robertrose.ca Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved.


text:
Gmail Has Its Nose in Your Colon
Once again, a video meant for internal use only has been leaked to the web. This time, it's from Microsoft which is hyping Office 365 and it's called Gmail Man. With a catchy tune and the questionably suitable lyrics "Probing every sentence and all your punctuation. Got his nose in every colon and every situation," the video attempts to portray Gmail as abusing one's privacy.
The video was played in front of an audience of 15,000 at Microsoft's annual Global Exchange sales conference held July 20.
While the video is somewhat humorous even if it stoops to silly fifth grade boys bathroom humor, it shoots itself in the foot. The video argues Microsoft 365 is a business application that, unlike Gmail, carries no ads. Perhaps the creators of the video should have realized Google has a business solution as well and one of the features of that solution is the ability to disable ads.
Topic: Spoofs


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Deb singing "Que Sera Sera" on 26th June 2019
Latest comments
22.08 | 03:38
So happy to be attending 9 performances this year at various aged care facilities. Looking forward to the Christmas concerts in November and December.
22.10 | 01:29
It's so good to be back at choir rehearsals in a bigger room and a more modern piano. We've all managed to sing with masks on as well. Looking forward to our first performance on 17th November 2021.
03.05 | 14:07
There have been 55,000 viewings of the caring choir website. It can't all be the singers. I do enjoy viewing some of our performances, and indeed our rehearsals too.
07.12 | 08:11
When is the choir going back raquel


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I maintained my resolutions, but you haven't. You promised great things, and none happened.
The only good obtained has been through hard work, sacrifice, stubborn optimism and pondered choices. All of which reside uniquely within ourselves. We've matured out of the difficulties that 2010 presented. On a personal level, the hardships of the past year allowed me to find my voice, and through its expression, I have grown. I don't feel belittled, dear 2010, instead I feel stronger and more confident. So for that I thank your obstacles and bad turns, because through many of them I have been elevated, empowered and emancipated.
Tonight I will welcome 2011 with a smile, red knickers and lots of champagne. I will eat lentils (carriers of money) and 3 white grapes at midnight for good luck. I will toast to my family, the rock upon which all my steadiness stands. I will thank God for his love and constant attendance to my prayers.
I will bid farewell to Tessa, Renee, Mario, Corso, Piero, Aldo, Pietro, Suso, Tiberio, Claude, Mario, Arthur, Tony, Sandra & Raimondo, Angelo, Furio, Tom, Lynn, Jill, Dino, Dennis and Blake and all the many others that left us during 2010. And I will shoot fireworks, hoping they might see them from heaven.
Addio, 2010...
Benvenuto 2011 !
Addio, 2010...
Benvenuto 2011 !


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Oil breaks $40 barrier for first time in six years, which is very important news for our hemisphere.
Menem vows to reveal evidence that could shed light on AMIA attack
The defence of Menem today requested the Federal Oral Court No. 2 (TOF 2), that is leading the investigation into the cover-up of the 1994 deadly attack, to have the Senate withdraw Menem's state secrets privilege warning the release of the information "could affect" the interests of the Nation and "the breaking of peaceful coexistence" with other countries.
Argentineans Launch Petition against "Donald Trump" Wall with Paraguay
Locals Dry [sic] Infrastructure as Wasteful, Bad for Relations
Bolivian Police Drag Indigenous Protesters Out of Their Homes
Guaraní Pledge to Resist Evo's Oil Exploration on Their Lands
Translation: Merkel reminds Rousseff that Germans want to get paid. Merkel calls for a free trade accord between the Europe Union and Mercosur. During the "surprise" visit,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Brazil's government on Thursday to further open its markets to foreign companies, and said she saw an opportunity to reach a free-trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc. Merkel is on a two-day visit to Brazil with a large delegation of government officials and representatives from German companies.
Study: Chile likely to draw from stabilization fund due to copper price drop
Colombia slashes gold holdings by two-thirds amid July rout
The reason for and timing of the move are not known, but it came as institutional and speculative investors pulled more cash en masse from commodities, ending a decade-long boom, as the stock market crash in China reignited concerns about demand from the world's biggest consumer of industrial raw materials.
Obama Plays the Clinton Vietnam Card to Normalize Relations With Cuba, but Turns it On Its Head
Before restoring full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, President Clinton eased a majority of the economic sanctions. A mistake. However, by the time he did this, the Soviets were mostly gone from Vietnam; Vietnamese forces had pulled out from Cambodia and replaced with a UN peacekeeping force; and thousands of former South Vietnamese officials had been freed from political prisons and exiled to other nations including the United States.
What ultimately made it politically palatable for Clinton to remove sanctions was a 1993 Senate Select Committee report on POW matters that afforded Clinton the domestic political cover he needed to move forward to ease sanctions. Vietnam also started to return POW remains and allowed U.S. inspectors as part of the Joint Task Force for Full Accounting (JTF-FA) to visit various places throughout the country to investigate POW/MIA claims.
Ecuador Protests: Correa's Oil Crisis, Policies Could Spell End Of Latin America Success Story
Ecuador's Cotopaxi volcano roars back to life, locals speak of lava flow fears and damage to tourism
Prosecution requests impeachment of Guatemala president Otto Perez
IMF Considering Adjusting Some Measures Under Deal With Jamaica
International Monetary Fund (IMF's) Mission Chief to Jamaica, Dr Uma Ramakrishnan says the fund is considering relaxing some of the targets under Jamaica's economic support programme
Miguel Ángel Jiménez Blanco, Mexican who led search for mass graves found shot to death
Activist's group had unearthed 129 bodies in Guerrero, where students went missing last year.
He worked for the politically active group called the Union of Towns and Organizations of the State of Guerrero (known as UPOEG)
Previously Deported Illegals Caught Smuggling Thousands of People Across Border
3-Time Deported Top Mexican Drug Trafficker Caught Illegally Re-Entering Texas
Investigation Lifts a Cloud Over President of Mexico
A seven-month conflict-of-interest investigation into the purchase of luxury homes by President Enrique Peña Nieto's wife and his finance minister from a government contractor found no wrongdoing, Mexico's comptroller said Friday.
Why am I not surprised? China's Building a Huge Canal in Nicaragua, But We Couldn't Find It
Turkey's new direct connection to Panama may facilitate terrorist financing for Hamas
Turkey and Panama have no international trade to speak of, raising questions as to why, of the 28 countries not served by the airline, is Turkish Airlines expanding to Panama.
Likewise, New nonstop flight from Dubai to Panama a terrorist financiers' dream? (h/t JC)
Financiers for Hezbollah and a number of other sanctioned Middle East terrorist groups must be jumping up and down for joy, for their jobs will become much easier. The amount of international trade between Panama and the Middle East is nominal, but the nonstop flights will greatly facilitate both illicit (i.e. money laundering) transactions, and terrorist financing operations.
Expect more of that if Obama's Iran deal goes through.
Rogelio Livieres Plano, ousted bishop in Paraguay, dies at 69
The migrant nation
Urbanisation in Peru has brought citizenship but also a host of problems
Peruvian newspaper cancels cardinal column after papal 'plagiarism'
Peruvian newspaper says it will not publish any more articles by Roman Catholic cardinal Luis Cipriani after papal plagiarism revelations
Now Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani has been unceremoniously dumped from his occasional column at El Comercio, Peru's oldest privately-owned newspaper, after his writings were proved to include plagiarised words of popes.
Governor Luis Fortuño On The Lessons The US Must Learn From Puerto Rico
The former Governor of Puerto Rico explains that "bottom line, you can never tax yourself out of a hole."
Hurricane Danny Has Begun Its Weakening; Drought Relief For Leeward Islands, Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico?
Good luck with that: Venezuelans Launch Mises Institute to Take Down ChavismoLibertarians Offer Ideological Cure to Economic Crisis
The week's posts and podcast:
Nicaragua: Where's the canal?
The Falklands: Pope Francis, what fresh hell can this be? UPDATED
Somebody tell Al Sharpton Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens
Venezuela: Cuban doctors stuck in limbo, as the country collapses
Cuba: Air-travel, credit cards next . . . by executive action?
Menendez on Iran: Failure Theater, or not?
Cuba: "Who fears the billboard?"
"Culture is how we pass the time between hypocrisies."
Mexico: @Leon_Krauze looks at the big White House
Podcast: Cuba, marches in Brazil & other US-Latin America stories of the week


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House GOP: Approval Of Special Olympics Torch Run Trumps Obama Address
It became clearer today why John Boehner this week became the first U.S. House Speaker in the nation's history to turn down a president's request to address a joint session of Congress.
The House has pressing business Wednesday evening, when President Obama asked to speak to members of Congress about his plans to goose the stagnant jobs market.
Pressing, as in:
Considering the extension of the "Generalized System of Preferences."
Contemplating the Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011.
And authorizing use of the Capitol grounds for a Special Olympics torch run.
At least that's what's listed on next week's House agenda released this afternoon by Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.
The agenda wouldn't, of course, mention the GOP presidential debate that's also scheduled Wednesday.
It does, however, indicate that the president will be speaking to the joint session at 7 p.m. on Thursday, when the important Wednesday business of the House will be history.
Have a look at the schedule here:
The pertinent information, from Cantor's schedule:
On Monday, the House is not in session.
On Tuesday, the House will meet at 10:00 a.m. in Pro Forma session.
On Wednesday, the House will meet at 2:00 p.m. for legislative business. Votes will be postponed until 6:30 p.m.
Legislation Considered Under Suspension of the Rules:
1) H.Con.Res. 67 - Authorizing the use of the Capitol Grounds for the District of Columbia Special Olympics Law Enforcement Torch Run (Sponsored by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton / Transportation and Infrastructure Committee)
2) H.R. 2061 - Civilian Service Recognition Act of 2011 (Sponsored by Rep. Richard Hanna / Oversight and Government Reform Committee)
3) H.R. 2832 - To extend the Generalized System of Preferences, and for other purposes (Sponsored by Rep. David Camp / Ways and Means Committee)
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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PALM CITY, Fla., Feb. 16 (UPI) — U.S. officials said a plane was escorted from restricted air space in Florida, where President Obama is spending President's Day weekend at a gated golf club.
Army Lt. Col. Mike Humphreys said an F-16 jet and a U.S. Coast Guard helicopter intercepted a Cessna 152 around noon EST Saturday, as it entered restricted flight space over Florida's Treasure Coast, the Los Angeles Times reported. The military escort forced the light plane's pilot to land at Witham Field in Stuart, Fla., the newspaper said.
The Federal Aviation Administration said it is investigating.
Obama is staying at The Floridian National Golf Club, an exclusive golf club owned by Democratic donor and Houston Astros owner Jim Crane, located on the St. Lucie River. The president and several friends and administration officials have set up camp at the club for the holiday weekend, while first lady Michelle Obama and the couple's daughters were off to Colorado for a ski trip, the White House said.
The president played a round of golf Saturday under sunny skies with temperatures in the 70s. His golf partners included Crane, outgoing U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, campaign fundraiser Tony Chase, longtime Obama friend Dr. Eric Whitaker, and Milton Carroll, chairman of CenterPoint Energy and an Obama campaign donor.
Obama may have gotten a few pointers from acclaimed golf coach Butch Harmon, a longtime presidential swing confidante.
"I've played golf with Ike, Nixon, Ford and President Bush 41," Harmon told Golf Digest. "I know the president is a real keen golfer. I'm looking forward to it. It should be fun."
Asked what advice he would have for the president having seen his swing on television, Harmon — who once worked as swing coach for Tiger Woods — told CNN he'd advise the left-handed swinging Obama to turn his hips more on his backswing.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).


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Just build AOSP - Fluoride is there by default.
Instructions for Ubuntu, tested on 15.10 with GCC 5.2.1.
sudo apt-get install libevent-dev
sudo apt-get install ninja-build
or download binary from https://github.com/ninja-build/ninja/releases
Get sha1 of current version from here and then download corresponding executable:
wget -O gn http://storage.googleapis.com/chromium-gn/<gn.sha1>
i.e. if sha1 is "3491f6687bd9f19946035700eb84ce3eed18c5fa" (value from 24 Feb 2016) do
wget -O gn http://storage.googleapis.com/chromium-gn/3491f6687bd9f19946035700eb84ce3eed18c5fa
Then make binary executable and put it on your PATH, i.e.:
chmod a+x ./gn sudo mv ./gn /usr/bin
mkdir ~/fluoride cd ~/fluoride git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/bt
Then fetch third party dependencies:
cd ~/fluoride/bt mkdir third_party cd third_party git clone https://github.com/google/googletest.git git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/libchrome git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/modp_b64 git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/external/tinyxml2
And third party dependencies of third party dependencies:
cd fluoride/bt/third_party/libchrome/base/third_party mkdir valgrind cd valgrind curl https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/base/+/master/third_party/valgrind/valgrind.h?format=TEXT | base64 -d > valgrind.h curl https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/base/+/master/third_party/valgrind/memcheck.h?format=TEXT | base64 -d > memcheck.h
Fluoride currently has dependency on some internal Android projects, which also need to be downloaded. This will be removed in future:
cd ~/fluoride git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/core git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/hardware/libhardware git clone https://android.googlesource.com/platform/system/media
We need to configure some paths to make the build successful. Run:
cd ~/fluoride/bt gn args out/Default
This will prompt you to fill the contents of your "out/Default/args.gn" file. Make it look like below. Replace "/home/job" with path to your home directory, and don't use "~" in build arguments:
# Build arguments go here. Examples: # is_component_build = true # is_debug = false # See "gn args <out_dir> --list" for available build arguments. libhw_include_path = "/home/job/fluoride/libhardware/include" core_include_path = "/home/job/fluoride/core/include" audio_include_path = "/home/job/fluoride/media/audio/include"
Then generate your build files by calling
cd ~/fluoride/bt gn gen out/Default
cd ~/fluoride/bt ninja -C out/Default all
This will build all targets (the shared library, executables, tests, etc) and put them in out/Default. To build an individual target, replace "all" with the target of your choice, e.g.
ninja -C out/Default net_test_osi.
cd ~/fluoride/bt/out/Default LD_LIBRARY_PATH=./ ./bluetoothtbd -create-ipc-socket=fluoride


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Phillies finish deal for Park
Paul Hagen reporting ...
Righthander Chan Ho Park said in a press conference in Seoul today that he has agreed to a 1-year contract with the Phillies. The deal is pending a physical, much like the agreement with leftfielder Raul Ibanez.
According to the Korea Times, Park, 35, will have a base salary of $2.5 million with incentives that could push the total package to $5 million.
There had been reports that the Phillies were close to coming to terms with Park to improve their bullpen. However, the pitcher said he opted for the Phillies in part because they viewed him as a starter.
"I was a little worried about the Citizens Bank Park, the home of the Phillies, which is hitter-friendly," he said. "But as they considered me a starter, I signed with Philadelphia."
Cole Hamels, Brett Myers and Joe Blanton will fill three spots in the rotation. If Jamie Moyer re-signs, that would leave Park to compete with J.A. Happ, Kyle Kendrick and Carlos Carrasco for the fifth spot.
He was 4-4, 3.40 in 56 appearances for the Dodgers last season, but had a 2.16 ERA in five spot starts.
"Five teams (Giants, Diamondbacks, Royals, Blue Jays, Phillies) contacted me and the Phillies made the biggest efforts among them," Park said. "I selected Philadelphia because they are the World Series champions and have high expectations for a playoff berth next season."
Also on High Cheese on this busy morning ...
Look for more later as Chase Utley meets with the media for the first time since his hip surgery. Got a question for Chase? Dave Murphy wants to know what you think the media should ask.
Plus, Chris Coste makes his first public comments on the trade the Phillies made last week to bring in another backup catcher.


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- Home
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- Our services
- Specialised laboratory services
Specialised laboratory services
In addition to its research activity, the ESRF has significant equipment and developed considerable off-line expertise centred in specialised support laboratories, all of which are available to commercial clients.
Long trace profiler
A custom-built laser instrument measuring the deflection by the mirror of a scanned beam with an optoelectronics sensor giving a lateral resolution of 2 mm over a range of 1.5 metres with a slope error precision better than 0.2 µradian rms. Specific software developments permit, for example, the automatic figuring of benders towards a programmed elliptical shape.
More information about the long trace profiler
The Crystal Laboratory
Charged with manufacturing perfect crystal monochromators for all ESRF beamlines. Most crystals are made from top purity silicon float zone ingots 100 mm in diameter and up to 1 m long that can be obtained from industry. The task is then to transform these ingots into objects, sometimes very complex, of various sizes and shapes.
More information about the crystal laboratory
The Multilayer Laboratory
Charged with of the development and the production of multilayer coatings for X-ray optical devices. The core of the laboratory is a sputter deposition facility where substrates up to 100 cm long and 15 cm wide can be coated with multilayers of desired repetition period and lateral thickness gradient. If necessary, depth-graded layered structures can be deposited to tailor the obtained reflectivity profile.
More information about the multilayer laboratory
Scientific and engineering expertise
For any service that relates to synchrotron X-ray studies conducted at the ESRF, including interpretation of study results, consultancy work, training on a particular synchrotron technique or any other service, the BDO is able to offer you the expertise of ESRF scientists and engineers.
Should you be interested by any of the above, please contact the Business Development Office.


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Top of the World Floral Trims
Top of the World Floral Trims
Sale Sold out
Regular price €3.00 EUR
Regular priceUnit price per
Sale price
This is a listing for a one sticker sheet on a soft and buttery premium matte paper.
The size of each sheet measures to approximately: 3.6 x 4.8 inch.
- There might be some slight color difference between your screen and the actual stickers


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IYA2009 Official Product
SkyScout - Personal Planetarium
About the size of a camcorder and weighing less than 300 grams, the SkyScout utilizes a consumer-friendly "point and shoot" GPS technology that enables stargazers to instantly identify and/or locate over 50,000 celestial objects in the sky with the press of a button and listen to commentary on the object and its history. The SkyScout also has a "locate" feature that allows users to select an object they wish to view (i.e. Mars) and the SkyScout, using illuminated arrows in the viewfinder, will point the user to the object.
By IYA2009 Global Sponsor:
National Nodes: 148
Organisational Nodes: 40
Organisational Associates:33
National Websites: 111
Cornerstone Projects: 12
Special Task Groups: 11
Special Projects:16
Official Products:8
Media Partners:22


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NEW YORK— Leading representatives of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation announced Wednesday that the month of October would officially be known as WNBA Awareness Month, and commemorated the occasion by donating $80 million of their funds to promote the early detection and ultimate eradication of the all-female basketball league.
Ambassador Nancy G. Brinker of the Komen Foundation was accompanied at the press conference by WNBA survivor Rebecca Lobo, long-suffering WNBA president Donna Orender, and Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie, who has been battling the league for 11 years.
Brinker noted that the WNBA has always been a primary concern for the breast cancer community, and said she is committed to using the full force of her breast cancer organization to rid the nation of the dreadful professional league at its every stage—from its earliest possible appearance in training camp, to preseason and the playoffs, and even during its more-invasive Finals stage when the league is at its most aggressive.
"What we plan to do this October is start a national dialogue about the WNBA," said Brinker, wearing the orange ribbon she introduced that morning to signify the fight against the league. "What is the WNBA? Who is primarily affected? Is somebody you love, be it your daughter or your wife, causing you to suffer through it? Why, despite going into annual remission, does it reoccur every year, seemingly without warning? How can we be more vigilant and nip this thing in the bud before the season even starts?"
"The sooner we address these questions, the sooner we can fulfill our vision of a WNBA-free world," she added.
According to a report compiled by the nation's top breast cancer awareness organizations, the most frightening aspect of the WNBA is how many people, especially its players, are unfamiliar with the warning signs of the league. Because of this ignorance, the report states, the WNBA can be difficult to detect early, often appearing no more malignant than a woman's college basketball game.
However, upon closer examination, significant abnormalities become apparent: cells of fans clumped together in an otherwise empty arena causing a discharge of uninspired cheers; the league's orange-and-white ball appearing discolored (which, experts say, often leads to humiliation amongst those who play with it); and fatiguing spells of missed shots and boring layups that only metastasize as the season goes further along.
"The main thing that people need to know is that even though the WNBA moves slowly and methodically, it will continue to spread if it's ignored," said Samantha Gallagher, president of the Northeastern Breast Cancer Coalition. "Before you know it, a full-blown professional women's basketball team will have developed in Toronto, and at that point the odds of fighting it are slim to none."
Gallagher added that statistics indicate the WNBA is the second leading killer of interest in professional sports in the United States behind Major League Soccer.
In 2007 alone, she said, 320,000 people finally succumbed to the WNBA.
"The fact that I am standing here today is a miracle," former New York Liberty forward Rebecca Lobo told reporters. "When I first noticed the small crowds, the poor television ratings, and the overall lack of support, I thought it was all my fault, which I now know was ridiculous. But even though the league ravaged my entire mind and body, I never curled up in a ball and asked myself, 'Why me?' I just kept on playing."
"Now I hope that, by spreading awareness, I can warn little girls everywhere about how harmful the WNBA can be," Lobo added. "Hopefully nobody will ever again have to suffer the way I did."


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Meet Modular Green Roofing
Living roofs, also sometimes called green roofs, are pretty awe-inspiring. The thought of all those living plants perched on top of a structure, providing shelter below to the residents and above to animals looking for habitat, is amazing. And there's been some very impressive architecture integrating green roofs in recent years, showing how flexible they can be, from very stark, sleek, modernist designs to more earthy hobbit holes.
But one thing about green roofs can be intimidating: at first glance, they look like a lot of work to install. Multiple layers of material need to be put in place to create an adequate structural roof membrane and a substrate for the plants, and then the plants need to be established and allowed to grow. It can take months to finish construction, and the process is far longer than that of traditional roofing projects.
Or is it? Thanks to modular technology, the length of time required to install a green roof, and get it looking green, is changing. Several companies including Urbanscape and LiveRoof have seized on the green roof market to develop products designed for rapid installation in remodeled buildings as well as new projects, and one of them might be right for you if you're considering a green roof.
The modules work in very similar ways. Essentially, the companies build each segment of roof in a tray; imagine, if you will, a flat from your nursery. The tray includes the necessary components for the living roof, and the company starts seeing and nurturing the plants so they'll be full-grown at the time of installation. The trays are installed over a root membrane, which prevents root penetration of the underlying roofing material, and they're fitted together to create a smooth, even surface. If necessary, the roof can be outfitted with a drainage system, as well.
Much like sheets of turf (in fact, some companies ship their roofing in turf rolls instead of trays), modular green roofing can be cut to shape and size. This means it can be used on roofs of nonstandard size and pitch, including projects that curve or feature unusual shapes like circules. The ability to cut through the modules to customize them allows for very snug fits, creating even, tight seals with minimal chances for leakage. You can even consult with the company's landscaping service for custom plant orders and other features.
Specific design and installation styles vary by manufacturer, but green roof modules distinguish themselves by the rapidity and ease of installation they offer. Depending on the size of the roof, a team of roofers can complete a gorgeous fully grown-out green roof in a matter of days, which is a far cry from usual lead times on living roof projects. This eliminates much of the need for early intensive watering and maintenance to keep the roof in good condition while the plants get established, and it allows builders to skip the stage of an ugly, partially-grown roof woefully waiting until it matures.
These modules are also compatible with hardscaping like fountains, pavers, and gravel pathways. If your Phoenix landscaper is working with you on a green roof project that's also an outdoor space, installing modules is no obstacle to getting the look you want.
Some companies recommend the use of a certified technician to install their products, while others provide DIY instructions or guides for roofing firms so they can install the modules. For homeowners and small business owners thinking about a green roof but intimidated by the cost and complexity of installation, modules might just be the solution!
Katie Marks writes for Networx.com.
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