text:
Abby had a great Christmas here at home with her Grandma and two of her aunts.
|"Hey, that dog looks like me!"
Her present from us was also an alligator, which (as you can see) she has already turned into a tripawd. (It was the very first thing she did.)
I did not think to squeak it in the store. Big mistake. I'd been looking at some other no-stuffing toys that had recycled water bottles inside, and I thought this was the same sort of thing. I thought it would just make that crinkling, cracking sound that empty water bottles make. Um, no. It makes these crazy noises, as captured in the following video. (Note: the *other* crazy noise is just my sister's laugh...)
|"No one can see me..."
|"For me??"
The day after Christmas, we took her to the beach and walked/ran like we used to, where we run for two minutes and then walk for three. (We hadn't done that in ages because Mike's knees have been bugging him, but he was ready to give it another try.) Well, even with the cancer, the lung mets, the tripawdness, the H.O. - she still was kicking my butt running! She's such a Warrior Princess! Toward the end she started to slow down and I was able to keep up with her (which was kind of a bummer).
In other Abby news, we are sticking with the 1/2 dose of Masitinib. Her GI tract just can't handle the full dose. Dr. V. said he talked to some other oncologists who have dogs on the 1/2 dose, so hopefully it will still be in there kicking some tumor butt.
In other non-Abby news (there's non-Abby news in my life??)... On Christmas Eve, my siblings and I recreated a photo of the six of us from 1974. We haven't changed a bit. No, because "a bit" would mean minor changes... (Note that I had to crouch to try to better achieve the look of the original photo.) The funny thing is that while looking for that original B&W photo, I realized I only have two (!!) pictures of me and my siblings together. How is that possible? Now I have three. :)
In a final bit of news, my sis Terry and I have done some more felting, but I couldn't share the pictures until the recipients had their little felted friends in their hands. Now I can finally share the photo of our latest creations: my sister's Jean's one-blue-eyed Husky, Roxie, and my brother and sister-in-law's sweet Golden, angel Dannie. Now everyone in the immediate family has a felted friend.
That's pretty much all the news that's fit to print. (There is other news re: the zoo -- we went the other night and the swamp monkeys were doin' it. But that is not fit to print.) Anyway, Abby and I already went to the beach today to begin her 14 Month Ampuversary celebrations. Not sure what else is on today's agenda. There will need to be a Flying Dutchman in her future, but that might not happen today. Soon, though, Ab! I promise!!
Happy, hoppy New Year everypawdy!! We wish you all good things in 2012!


text:
you ever wondered why stems grow upwards and roots downwards? Why
plants always seem to turn towards the light and climbing plants run up
the trellis rather than down?
The answer is simple: auxin. But
maybe not that simple, since plant hormones—and auxin is a plant
hormone—are regulated by complex combinations of various processes. Elke
Barbez, Jürgen Kleine-Vehn and Jirí Friml, connected to VIB and UGent
recently identified an important new link in the transport of auxin
through the plant, resulting in auxin being stored at specific sites.
The results were published by the journal Nature.
Auxin surrenders its secrets
was already interested in auxin in the 19th century. Only in recent
years, however, has the hormone started to relinquish its secrets,
thanks to intensive molecular research. Auxin is produced in the young,
growing parts of plants and then transported throughout the plant – to a
low-lying stem for example. The stem needs to straighten out as soon as
possible to be able to absorb the sun's rays efficiently; therefore
more auxin will be delivered to the underside of the stem than to the
topside, resulting in the underside growing faster and the stem
straightening out. For the same reason, plants in front of windows will
always turn to the light. This dynamic regulation of auxin transport
allows plants to take optimal advantage of local and changing
A new means of transport for auxin?
transport of auxin through the plant plays a vital role. And, from all
appearances, it is not a simple matter. The VIB researchers identified
an important new link and means of transport for auxin: PILS proteins.
PILS proteins are vital for auxin-dependent plant growth and regulate
the intracellular storage of the hormone. It is exactly this
compartmentalizing of auxin that seems functionally important for the
various developmental processes.
Growing crops more efficiently: the right amount of auxin in the right place
auxin levels at the right moment and in the right place result in
better growth and greater yields. Better regulation of auxin levels
would make plants grow more efficiently. The researchers hope to
contribute to the development of more efficient growing processes by
continuing to unravel auxin transport processes.
Source: http://www.vib.be/en/news/Pages/That-is-why-plants-grow-towards-the-light!.aspx

subset: commoncrawl


text:
One of the last parts of the Macintosh system software to be finished before freezing the ROM in September 1983 was the "clipboard manager", which was the code responsible for facilitating cutting and pasting information between applications. The clipboard manager provided some simple calls to access and manipulate the "clipboard", a memory buffer that held the last piece of data that was cut or copied. The trickiest part of the clipboard manager was the way it managed memory when the user quit an application.
The clipboard buffer was typically kept in the primary memory area that was available to an application, known as the "application heap". But when an application terminated, its application heap was deallocated, before a brand new heap was allocated for the incoming application. The clipboard manager had to take special measures to preserve the clipboard during this interregnum, when no application heap was available to hold it.
The first thing we thought of was to write the clipboard to disk while we were between applications, which worked but was problematic because the Macintosh didn't have a fixed disk, so there might not be a floppy in the drive, or perhaps it was write protected. We also tried to copy the clipboard into the system heap, which persisted between applications, but the clipboard was often too big to fit there. Ultimately, we solved the problem by copying the clipboard to the stack, which was a large area in high memory used to hold application variables and run-time state like return addresses, where it stayed until it was moved into the application heap of the newly launched application.
A few weeks after the ROM was frozen, Apple put together a sales "roll-out" presentation to introduce the sales team to all things Macintosh, in order to prepare them to start selling the machine a few months later. There was lots of the usual sales hoopla, but the clear highlight of the event was the first-person training on the machine itself, where each salesperson would get to try out a Macintosh for the first time. A teacher guided them through a simple demo which let them learn to use the mouse and then try out MacWrite, MacPaint and the Finder.
The climax of the demo had them loading a MacPaint document, selecting an area and copying it to the clipboard, and then launching MacWrite and pasting the image into a MacWrite document, easily mixing text and graphics, which was very impressive back in those days. Susan Kare had drawn a terrific, detailed rendering of a sneaker for the Macintosh brochure, which was used as the graphic for the demo. They were supposed to select and copy the sneaker and then paste it into MacWrite.
I was invited to go to the sales presentation, but I couldn't, because I was still working frantically with the rest of the software team to finish the software in time to ship the following January. I was busy working in the afternoon when I received a panicked phone call from one of the sales guys involved with the presentation.
"We've got a problem!", he told me. "The sneaker demo is crashing. Not all the time, though, sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. It's impossible to predict when it will happen, but when it does, the crash is really bad - as soon as you quit MacPaint, the screen goes crazy and then it reboots. We're going to have to stop doing the cut and paste part of the demo unless you get us a fix soon."
I got off the phone and thought about it. I was describing the problem to someone when I suddenly stopped in mid-sentence, because I realized what was going on. After quitting the application, the clipboard manager would copy the clipboard to the stack. It subtracted the size of the clipboard from the stack pointer, and then moved the memory into the allocated space. I realized that around half of the time, the size of the clipboard would be an odd number, which would end up setting the stack pointer to an odd number, which was a perversely horrible thing to do. The Mac's 68000 microprocessor couldn't fetch memory from an odd address; it generated an error if you tried. But the stack is used for the basic operation of the processor, including error handling. An odd stack pointer would essentially drive the 68000 crazy, recursively faulting as it tried to handle exceptions. It worked around half of the time because statistically the clipboard size would be an even number around half of the time. But the other half would cause the flamboyant crash that was being described.
Once I understood what was going on, it was easy to fix by rounding up the clipboard size to an even number. Unfortunately, the errant code in question was in ROM, which was already frozen in immutable silicon. This was the first major bug that I knew of in the ROM and I wondered if we were going to have to spin another version. But Larry Kenyon had already figured out a sneaky technique to fix ROM bugs, by patching system traps. We had always figured to replace entire buggy system calls in that fashion, but Larry thought of a finer grain way to do it, by patching the first trap called before or after the problem area. Basically, we could grab control any time the system was invoked, and then add code to fix problems. I used Larry's technique to devise a patch that fixed the odd stack problem, and then he helped me incorporate it into the System file, so it was loaded when the system booted.
We made a floppy containing the new System file, which was flown out to the sales presentation with a sales manager who was leaving the next day. But it took a while for the fixed System to proliferate to everyone, so for the next few weeks I had to brace myself every time that I saw someone about to cut and paste between applications.


text:
UnNews:Sinkhole swallows flooded Milwaukee
|This article is part of UnNews, your source for up-to-the-picosecond misinformation.
25 July 2010
FORMER MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin -- One of only a few survivors was rescued from a sinkhole which swallowed the entire city of Milwaukee, in Wisconsin early today. The survivor, a man, when asked, "What happened?" said his Cadillac Escalade plummeted into the chasm that opened up during a deluge, but he just happened to be wearing a parachute, in case such a situation arose.
Lance Treankler, 25, said he was driving his new Escalade down the road on the edge of Milwaukee, when he noticed something odd: "The entire city was just, like, underground," he told AOL News in a phone interview today. Treankler said he didn't have much time to process what he was seeing. "I was trying to comprehend it," he said. "Then the road just collapsed under me, and I jumped out with my parachute on, landed on the bottom, and then climbed back out." He was one of few survivors in the city of an estimated population 700,000."
Treankler said he fell about 200 feet into the hole with his parachute half opened and lost consciousness for a few seconds because of the force of the impact. When he opened his eyes, all he could see was mud, telephone wires and water rushing at him from out of a sewage pipe. "I thought, 'I'm either going to get killed or die,' so I knew I needed to get out," he said.
The Milwaukee resident was climbing out the hole when a man standing above the gaping hole offered him a much-needed hand. He threw down a 200-foot rope that he just happened to have in case such a situation arose.
Mark Pawlik, 46, says he reached over the edge of the growing sinkhole and helped pull the driver onto solid ground by his belt loop. Pawlik told AOL News today that he was driving his SUV when he saw the Escalade simply vanish from the road as the sinkhole opened and swallowed up the entire city.
"It's not every day you see a city disappear right next to you," he said.
President Barack Obama has declared Milwaukee a disaster area, and he has asked Congress to pass a bill to fill in the hole with billions of tons of dirt, bury everything, and start over.
Sources[edit | edit source]
- Mara Gay "Sinkhole Swallows an SUV in Flooded Milwaukee" AOL News, July 25, 2010


text:
(AllHipHop News) VH1 "Love & Hip Hop" star Mandeecees Harris was acquitted of sexually assaulting a teenager earlier today (February 8).
The Cliffview Pilot reports that jurors returned the verdict just after 4:00 PM, causing an outburst of cheers in court.
Mandeecees Harris was charged with having a sexual relationship with the daughter of his live-in girlfriend, in Lodi, New Jersey.
Prosecutors claimed that Harris received oral sex from the girl in September 2009 and April 2010.
Harris was arrested in 2010 and charged with aggravated sexual assault, criminal sexual assault and child endangerment.
Earlier this week, Harris took this stand to defend himself.
"I never had a relationship with her, she never extended herself," Harris claimed. "She didn't play basketball, she didn't play PlayStation, didn't want to go to the movies. She always walked around the house like she had an attitude. I never committed none of them asked to that girl in my life."
Not all those were in agreement with the verdict.
The teenaged victim's grandmother and aunt left the courtroom as the verdict was being read and promised that the "truth" would eventually come out.
Mandeecees Harris is not out his legal quandary just yet.
Harris is facing drug charges in Rochester New York, over claims that he trafficked $2.5 million worth of heroin and with cocaine between 2005 and 2012.
Mandeecees Harris, is the boyfriend of Yandy Smith, who also stars in "Love & Hip Hop" and used to manage rapper Jim Jones.
Harris also manages Vado and Webstar.


text:
Socialists Just Showed the Democratic Party How to Win Across the U.S.
Tuesday night's progressive electoral wave is proof that embracing a bold left agenda is the key to victory.
Miles Kampf-Lassin
Don't miss the special, extra-length issue of In These Times devoted entirely to the subject of socialism in America today. This special issue is available now. Order your copy today for just $5.00, shipping included.
One year ago, a wave of disbelief, gloom and rage washed across the country. A vile orange manifestation of America's darkest id had won the presidency, Republicans held control of all three branches of government, and new nightmares awaited.
Trump is still president, the GOP still has the House and Senate, and every day we witness new threats to the environment, the social safety net and — with an incoherent man-child's hands on the nuclear football — the very future of humanity.
But last night we saw a very different kind of wave, one that moves us towards a politics that rejects the horrors of Trumpism — and instead embraces a bold progressive vision for the future. Across the country, candidates running from the Left won — and many of them won big.
Larry Krasner, a civil-rights attorney who has represented activists from Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street, was elected as Philadelphia's new District Attorney in a 40-point blowout. Krasner ran on a platform of stopping mass incarceration, ending bail and civil asset forfeiture and explicitly renouncing Trump. Following his victory, he told Business Insider, "I think the Democratic Party should be madly wrapping its loving arms around progressives."
Maine voters overwhelmingly chose to expand Medicaid in a historic referendum that will provide health coverage to tens of thousands of residents who don't currently have it — a clear repudiation of Republicans' attempts to gut the program through their effort to repeal Obamacare. The referendum was supported by Our Revolution, the group that grew out of Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign and saw at least 21 of its endorsed candidates win this election cycle.
Meanwhile, left candidate Seema Singh Perez won a seat on the Knoxville, Tenn. city council, defeating her opponent 6,105 to 4,470 to become the city's first Indian-American council member.
Perez is a prime example of the new type of candidate blazing an electoral path for the Left in the era of Trump. After protesting the DNC for its bias against Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary, she chose to run for office for the first time this year, coming from a background in social work and healthcare — not politics. She's also an open socialist who won the endorsement of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a group that has seen massive growth since Trump's election, ballooning from 6,500 members in May 2016 to more than 30,000 today (the author is a member).
Perez joins 14 other DSA-endorsed candidates who won their elections yesterday. One of them, Lee Carter, defeated Virginia GOP House of Delegates Majority Whip Jackson Miller, one of the most powerful Republicans in the state, by running on a pledge to win single-payer healthcare and take big money out of the political system. After facing a campaign of red baiting, including a flier comparing him to Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, Carter scored an upset victory — even with little backing from the state's Democratic Party.
Socialists saw other big gains in Somerville, Mass., where two DSA members — Ben Ewen-Campen and J.T. Scott — won seats on the Board of Aldermen after beating incumbents. Overall, all seven candidates endorsed by Our Revolution, including Ewen-Campen and Scott, won in that city's elections.
In Cuyahoga County, Oh., DSA member Tristan Rader won his election to the Lakewood City Council. In Moorhead, Minn., Red River Valley DSA cofounder Kara Gloe won a School Board seat. And in Pittsburgh, Pa., district judge candidate Mik Pappas and county council candidate Anita Prizio — both endorsed by the local DSA chapter — beat out longtime incumbents.
Other places DSA-endorsed candidates won include Cheektowaga, Peekskill and New York, N.Y., New Haven, Conn., Pleasant Hill, Ia., Billings, Mont. and Upper Darby, Penn.
These victories are not anomalies or flukes. Rather, they prove that embracing an explicitly socialist politics does not prevent candidates from winning in 2017. If anything, the socialist tag can show voters where candidates stand and what their values are. As Lee Carter explained to The New Republic, "If you're to the left of Barry Goldwater, Republicans are going to call you a socialist anyway, so you may as well just own the label."
As the Democratic National Committee (DNC) purges a number of Bernie Sanders-aligned members from leadership, and longtime Democratic operatives scold the party for straying too far from the ever rightward-moving "center," Tuesday's election results show that the Democrats' problem isn't a shift to the Left: It's the party's refusal to change.
A newly released poll shows that, nationally, the Democratic Party has hit its lowest point in favorable views in 25 years. Democrats have reason to be relieved after avoiding a potentially dispiriting loss in the Virginia governor's race, while also coming out on top in New Jersey with Phil Murphy's gubernatorial victory and Bill de Blasio's re-election as mayor of New York City. However, this poll is a reminder that the party has a long way to go to work back from its lowest level of power since the 1920s.
Democrats must read the red tea leaves and realize that policies that improve people's lives — such as universal healthcare, tuition-free college, affordable housing, higher wages and real criminal justice reform — are not just popular: They're winning issues.
And despite many establishment pundits' obsession with spotlighting a supposed class versus identity politics divide in the Democratic Party, the election results also showed that progressives from all backgrounds can win.
In Hoboken, N.J., Ravi Bhalla became the nation's first Sikh mayor after facing a racist opposition campaign that featured fliers fear mongering over "terrorism." Minneapolis elected Andrea Jenkins, the first transgender woman of color to the city council.
Black Democrat Justin Fairfax won his race for Lieutenant Governor in Virginia in a showdown with a Trump-like Republican opponent who exclaimed at a rally, "We are going to take back Virginia the way this president is going to take back this country!" Virginia also elected the first openly transgender woman to its state legislature, Danica Roem. And in Charlotte, N.C., Democrat Vi Lyles overcame a smear campaign to become the city's first woman of color mayor.
Since last year's election, some things have remained unchanged in the political landscape. The Republican Party has still thrown their lot in with an imbecile president posing as a populist. And the Democrats, in many ways, are still coming to terms with the meaning of the party's loss and trying to chart a new way forward.
Tuesday was the clearest signal yet of what the Democratic Party must do if it hopes to build from the energy and activism that has blossomed in response to Trump's election: Run candidates with bold left agendas. Support them. Don't be afraid of the S-word. And leave Third Way centrism in its tomb.
The path to victory is being charted. The choice of whether to follow it is up to the Democrats now.
Donate $20 or more to In These Times and we'll send you a copy of Let This Radicalize You.
In this new book, longtime organizers and movement educators Mariame Kaba and Kelly Hayes examine the political lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath, including the convergence of mass protest and mass formations of mutual aid. Let This Radicalize You answers the urgent question: What fuels and sustains activism and organizing when it feels like our worlds are collapsing?
We've partnered with the publisher, Haymarket Books, and 100% of your donation will go towards supporting In These Times.
Miles Kampf-Lassin, a graduate of New York University's Gallatin School in Deliberative Democracy and Globalization, is a Web Editor at In These Times. Follow him on Twitter @MilesKLassin


text:
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text:
|Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt
Quilt top measures 47 inches x 58 inches
(solid fabric is Robert Kaufman Kona in White)
Single Irish Chain Scrap Quilt - A Finished Quilt
More RPQ Scrap Quilts
More RPQ Irish Chain Quilts
|Scrappy Irish Chain Quilt
That is spectacular! I always feel that the normal way of putting them together has too much background. I love this.ReplyDelete
funnily enough I was looking just today at various irish chain quilts on line and none of them really got me excited. And now you show this one and I love it. And great color choices as usual. This quilt just makes me happy looking at it.ReplyDelete
I really like how you matched colors at points. Looks great. A easy but intense way to use all those wonderful varieties of fabrics we always end up with.ReplyDelete
I adore this! I bet it was so complicated to make but it is so beautiful!ReplyDelete
I was looking at this trying to figure out how you'd done it. I take my hat off to you - if I did that there would be loads of hair pulling / unpicking for sure!ReplyDelete
OMG at first it looked so simple then I worked it out ( took a while ) and it is so complicated. Respect! Love it xReplyDelete
What size are the inner squares? I tried to calculate but can't figure out my geometry.ReplyDelete
So basically it's a granny square? I'd love to try one of my own. This is beautiful!ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
I have done a couple and yes its like a jigsaw puzzle, however love the way its done on point. Any tutorial for doing on point, pleeeease.ReplyDelete
Yes, please, Rita!Delete
so pretty, rita! I love how similar the two patterns are. Sometimes it just takes a different setting or use of colors to totally transform a pattern.ReplyDelete
Love your quilt!ReplyDelete
VERY lovely, Upon careful examination, I can see absolutely that this was a brain challenge. You did work this out very nicely, and it looks neat and tidy. This is certainly one I could try. There is not any one of us that does not have 99 different fabrics. For real. And even if we were hoarding it, there is not much to borrow for just one block. I like varied fabrics too.
:-) as always, still inspiring me, Rita.
What a great looking quilt! It does look a lot like granny squares, and I can see how this could be modified to an alternate approach for doing those -- it would just take even more organization and thinking through.
I'm wondering how you did your corner triangles too.
clever!! clever!! and stunning!
tutorial please!!
Oh Rita! This is lovely! Any chance a tutorial might follow????
Amazing, as usual, Rita!ReplyDelete
I especially like this one; I might have to try making a similar one. A tutorial would surely help, pretty please!ReplyDelete
I read through your posts carefully and slowly and noticed with the second photo how you put this pattern together. Just when I realized WOW - what a lot of organizing you mentioned that it was. But that's part of the fun & challenge. This is just beautiful, Rita! You put colors together so well. Thanks for sharing.ReplyDelete
Wow! Scrappy happy!ReplyDelete
I really like this! It looks like a square in the middle with squares on the outside. Are they 2.5 in.? Beautiful!!!ReplyDelete
I would love the measurements of the large and small squares! This one is perfect and oh so stunning!!ReplyDelete
Mesmerising! Deceptively simple, yet so complex. Perfect balance!ReplyDelete
Such a fun pattern and lovely quilt! Awesome job!ReplyDelete
How many hours did you spend actually piecing the quilt top together? Probably a million.
Looks great! Fantastic take on a classic.
Wow what a great idea for piecing this. I admire your patience. "Paged" back to this post after seeing the finish. Started with Instagram.ReplyDelete
Hello. Can you please tell me where you found the black and white striped fabric you used for the binding? Thank you.ReplyDelete
Right now you will find some black/white stripe fabric in stock at Fabric Bubb: http://www.fabricbubb.com/Black%20Stripe%20Eigth%20inchDelete
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment! I really appreciate it.
Comments are published after review.
Feel free to ask questions and I will answer either here or by email, as is appropriate.


text:
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A regional garbage collection agency has tossed out plans to build a mega-landfill for Los Angeles' trash less than two miles from Joshua Tree National Park in the remote Southern California desert.
Increased recycling and new waste treatment technologies have reduced the need to open the 4,000-acre landfill on former mining land in Eagle Mountain, David Rothbart, a supervising engineer with the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, said Friday.
It had been opposed in court for more than 20 years by local farmers and environmentalists, who pointed out that the dump would be surrounded on three sides by the park, a national treasure known around the world for its bizarre, spindly-armed Joshua trees.
Opponents argued the landfill and associated train and truck traffic around the dump would wreak havoc on the delicate desert ecosystem and attract scavengers like ravens, which snack on the hatchlings of desert tortoises, a federally threatened species.
"We're elated over this and now it's really time for us to make Joshua Tree National Park whole and our community whole again and not have these projects hanging over our heads for years," said Donna Charpied, a jojoba farmer who, along with her husband, filed the first lawsuit to stop the landfill more than two decades ago.
The park, she said, is "Southern California's best dress suit and we shouldn't put any spots on it."
At capacity, plans called for 20,000 tons of garbage to be shipped to the landfill by train each day — enough to fill 375 freight cars — for a period of 117 years.
"We would have opposed this forever and I think it's a very wise decision by them," said David Lamfrom of the National Parks Conservation Association, which opposed the deal in court for more than a decade.
The battle over the landfill traces its roots back to the 1940s, when mining company Kaiser Steel began mining iron ore near what was then Joshua Tree National Monument as a way to feed shipbuilding and other war efforts.
Mining activity at the iron ore pits in Eagle Mountain boomed and a small village sprang up to house the workers.
By the early 1980s, however, mining activity had slowed, and Ontario-based Kaiser Ventures pitched a proposal in 1987 to turn the pits into a landfill.
The mining community, built in 1948 by the storied industrialist Henry J. Kaiser for his workers, is now one of the country's best-preserved ghost towns.
The Charpieds, and then environmental groups, joined together to fight against the landfill in litigation that lasted years. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010, but it declined to hear the case.
In 2000, the Los Angeles sanitation agency entered escrow with plans to buy Eagle Mountain for $41 million from the Kaiser Ventures subsidiary Mine Reclamation Corp., which had secured rights-of-way and developed the property for use as a landfill.
Terry Cook, executive vice president and general counsel for Kaiser Ventures, did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
In 2011, however, the subsidiary went into bankruptcy and the regional garbage agency began to reassess its needs based on increased recycling and new waste disposal technologies.
The agency is aiming for a 75 percent recycling rate, greatly reducing its need for new mega-dumps. The district serves 5.4 million people over 815 square miles.
"Things have changed in LA County," said Rothbart. "There isn't this crisis as far as landfill capacity that there was in 2000."
Lamfrom, the environmentalist, said the turbulent history of the desert wilderness nearly 200 miles east of Los Angeles encapsulates the changing priorities of the nation over a span of decades.
Once the seat of a busy mine to fuel the war effort and then a would-be landfill as LA's population boomed, the region is now increasingly coveted as a tourist magnet and a hot spot for the booming solar energy industry.
With two solar plants going up within view of the proposed dump site, those changing economic priorities ultimately played a role in the landfill's demise, Lamfrom believes.
"I think people realized it was no longer really needed and no longer fit in this part of the world," he said.
"There's so much going on in the California desert. I keep telling people it's the center of the universe, but they don't believe me."


text:
ORLANDO, Fla. — The discovery of intelligent aliens would be mind-blowing in many respects, but it could present a special dilemma for the world's religions, theologians pondering interstellar travel concepts said Saturday (Oct. 1).
Christians, in particular, might take the news hardest, because the Christian belief system does not easily allow for other intelligent beings in the universe, Christian thinkers said at the 100 Year Starship Symposium, a meeting sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to discuss issues surrounding traveling to other stars.
In other words, "Did Jesus die for Klingons too?" as philosophy professor Christian Weidemannof Germany's Ruhr-University Bochum titled his talk at a panel on the philosophical and religious considerations of visiting other worlds.
"According to Christianity, an historic event some 2,000 years ago was supposed to save the whole of creation," Weidemann said. "You can grasp the conflict." [10 Alien Encounters Debunked]
Here's how the debate goes: If the whole of creation includes 125 billion galaxies with hundreds of billions of stars in each, as astronomers think, then what if some of these stars have planets with advanced civilizations, too? Why would Jesus Christ have come to Earth, of all the inhabited planets in the universe, to save Earthlings and abandon the rest of God's creatures?
Aliens and religion can still coexist
Weidemann, a self-described protestant Christian, suggested some possible solutions. Perhaps extraterrestrials aren't sinners, like humans, and therefore aren't in need of saving. However, the principle of mediocrity — the idea that your own example is most likely typical unless you have evidence to the contrary — casts doubt on this, he pointed out. [10 Wildest Ways to Contact Aliens]
"If there are extraterrestrial intelligent beings at all, it is safe to assume that most of them are sinners too," Weidemann said. "If so, did Jesus save them too? My position is no. If so, our position among intelligent beings in the universe would be very exceptional."
Another possibility is that God incarnated multiple times, sending a version of himself down to save each inhabited planet separately.
However, based on the best guesses of how many civilizations we might expect to exist in the universe, and how long planets and civilizations are expected to survive, God's incarnations would have had to be in about 250 places simultaneously at any given time, assuming each incarnation took about 30 years, Weidemann calculated.
Religious food for thought
If God truly became corporeal and took human form when Jesus Christ was born, this wouldn't have been possible, Weidemann said. [How Astronomy and Religion Intersect]
Rev. Thomas Hoffmann, a protestant pastor in Tulsa, Okla., said that the issues Weidemann raised were "really on target."
"If life is discovered elsewhere, unfortunately we need to have more discussion about it," Hoffmann said. "I think this is a very robust conversation we need to have."
While the discovery of extraterrestrial intelligence would likely spur profound soul-searching for people of all faiths, many of the world's religions might have an easier time accommodating the knowledge than Christianity, said theologist Michael Waltemathe, also of the Ruhr-University Bochum.
"It seems to be only a problem of Christianity," Waltemathe said.
In Islam, for example, Muhammad was a prophet, or messenger of God, not God incarnate, so additional prophets could have simultaneously visited other planets to save extraterrestrial species, he said. And Hindus already believe in multiple deities, so accommodating more to guard over alien civilizations may not be difficult.
Ultimately, though, the discovery of intelligent aliens isn't likely to pose a serious crisis for Christianity, either, Hoffmann said. After all, the religion has survived challenging scientific revelations before.
"Religion is essentially conservative," Hoffmann told SPACE.com. "You can put almost anything in its face and it's going to shake out a little bit, and then it's going to drop right back down. We've seen this happen historically."
You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz on Twitter @ClaraMoskowitz. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.


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A business may build a better reputation as a good corporate citizen by donating $100,000 to ten charities, as opposed to $1 million to one charity, suggested University of Missouri anthropologist Shane Macfarlan. Contrary to earlier assumptions in theoretical biology, Macfarlan's research found that helping a greater number of people builds a positive reputation more than helping a few people many times. The results of this research can offer guidance to businesses and politicians on how to improve their public images.
"Good reputations are good business. For example, buyers tend to purchase from merchants with numerous positive ratings on internet-based commerce websites, such as Amazon and eBay," said Shane Macfarlan, post-doctoral anthropology researcher in MU's College of Arts and Science. "Beyond the realm of commerce, the power of a positive reputation may have influenced the evolution of language and cooperation in our species. In our study, we found that an individual's reputation improves more after helping a greater number of people compared to performing a greater number of helpful acts for fewer people."
For example, a politician hoping for reelection may wish to back legislation that benefits many people, as opposed to giving tremendous help to a smaller group, noted Macfarlan. Political scientists recently contacted Macfarlan about applying his findings to public figures and their attempts to build positive reputations.
In his research, Macfarlan studied the work habits and reputations of men in a remote village on the Caribbean island of Dominica. The isolation of the village reduced outside influences on reputation and allowed the study to focus solely on the effects of specific behaviors on social standing.
On the island of Dominica, the men were all involved in the production of bay oil, a tree leaf extract used to make cosmetics by companies such as Burt's Bees. Bay oil production is labor intensive, so village men require assistance from each other. Macfarlan identified why some men attracted both many volunteer helpers and the respect of their peers, while other men had few helpers and little regard in the community.
"Helping numerous other men led to individuals achieving higher regard among their peers," Macfarlan said. "However, other men, who helped a smaller number of people, would end up with a worse reputation, although both men performed a similar total number of helping acts. Moreover, men with the best reputations received a greater amount of assistance from a greater number of people when they needed it most, whether it was in agricultural production or assistance after disasters, such as hurricanes."
Previously, researchers creating computer models of reputation-based cooperation had only considered the effect of the number of acts of cooperation on reputations, not the breadth of cooperation. Macfarlan's real-world observations of how reputations are built could lead to improvements in modeling human social interaction.
The study, "Cooperative Behavior and Pro-social Reputation Dynamics in a Dominican Village," was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Proceedings B is the Royal Society's flagship biological research journal, dedicated to the rapid publication and broad dissemination of high-quality research papers, reviews and comment and reply papers. The scope of the journal is diverse and is especially strong in organismal biology.


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Puts Fox In Charge of the Henhouse … Again
The party line is that Obama's new pick for SEC boss – Mary Jo White – will be tough on Wall Street.
For example, the Wall Street Journal writes:
Obama Taps Ex-Prosecutor Mary Jo White, Portending Increased Policing of Wall Street
In reality, this is putting the fox in charge of the henhouse.
White used to represent Morgan Stanley, and blocked an insider investigation into Morgan Stanley boss John Mack.
The truth is that all of Obama's appointments have been in bed with the big banks … and none of them have "gotten tough" on Wall Street once they were appointed:
- Before Obama was sworn in for his first term, he nominated Geithner and Summers to the top economic posts … two of the guys most responsible for causing the economic crisis in the first place
- He appointed as head of the derivatives-regulating CFTC Gary Gensler … one of the guys most responsible for allowing derivatives to go unregulated and to crash the economy
- Obama replaced Summers with Wall Street insider Gene Sperling, and appointed JP Morgan exec William Daley as his chief of staff
- Obama replaced Geithner with his chief of staff … consummate Wall Street insider Jack Lew
- He named as the head of the Department of Justice a former lawyer for the big banks, who brought in other lawyers for big banks to oversee Wall Street
In other words, Obama – like Bush – has let Wall Street get away with crime because he has appointed government officials who are in bed with Wall Street.
The SEC has been shredding documents around the clock to cover up Wall Street fraud. Senior SEC employees spent up to 8 hours a day surfing porn sites instead of cracking down on financial crimes (the same thing happens at Treasury and other government agencies.)
Nothing will change under Mary Jo White.
While some die-hard Obama supporters hoped that things would change in his second term, or that Obama was naively believing the advice of bad advisers, former IMF chief economist Simon Johnsonnoted in 2009 that Obama knows exactly what he's doing:
Many people assume that Obama doesn't understand that his economic team – Summers, Geithner, Bernanke, Gensler and the boys – are preserving the status quo, and failing to make the fundamental reforms needed to stabilize the economy.
They assume that the economy is a mysterious subject for experts, and that Obama innocently thinks his team is doing good for the American people.
But professor of economics and former chief IMF economist Simon Johnson isn't buying it.
As Johnson and James Kwak write today in the Washington Post:
During the reign of Louis XIV, when the common people complained of some oppressive government policy, they would say, "If only the king knew . . . ." Occasionally people will make similar statements about Barack Obama, blaming the policies they don't like on his lieutenants.
But Barack Obama, like Louis XIV before him, knows exactly what is going on.
Indeed, Obama was bought and paid for many years ago, and he has pimped out the American peopleever since.


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Wine Basics
Wine Basics
If you're looking to get more out of tasting wine, remember the three S's: swirl, sniff, and sip. Start by swirling the wine in your glass. This releases the aromas and allows you to observe the color and viscosity of the wine. (Sparkling wine is an exception; swirling it will only release the carbonation.) Next, sniff. Put your nose to the glass and inhale deeply. See if you can pick up notes of various fruits, spices, herbs, or flowers. Finally, take a sip – but don't swallow immediately. Let the wine come in contact with all of your taste buds. You can also aerate the wine by drawing air into your mouth. This further releases the flavors and allows the aromas to reach your nose.
Storing Wine
Wine should be stored in a dark room at about 55° F. A temperature-controlled wine cooler is a great option, but a basement or closet works as well. Be sure to store the bottles on their sides or pointed downward so that the wine comes in contact with the cork. This will keep the cork from drying out and prevent air from entering the bottle.
Making Wine
"The vineyards are like the music that a composer writes. As winemakers, we interpret that music." – Bernard Delille, Biltmore Winemaker (retired)
The fall season marks the beginning of the winemaking process. During harvest, grapes are picked by hand and brought back to the Winery for destemming and crushing (where grapes are turned into must). The must is then pressed and transferred to tanks to begin fermentation. The pressing technique varies for red wines and white wines. The must for red wines is transferred directly to the tanks for fermentation and will be pressed before going into barrels. By fermenting with their skins on, it helps to extract color, additional flavors, and tannins. White grapes, meanwhile, are pressed before fermentation to release their juice. This juice is then transferred into a tank to start the fermentation process.
After fermentation is complete, most red wines and a few white wines will be transferred to barrels for aging. This process – lasting anywhere from six months to two years – imparts unique flavor characteristics to the wine. Once aged, the wine is blended, bottled, and, finally, enjoyed.
Welcome to Biltmore Wines
All Shipments are subject to additional verification.


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TV Dinners and Fine Wine Swanson Has You Covered
Turkey dinner with cranberry sauce and apple pie; the traditional Swanson TV dinner. Since 1953 Swanson has been synonymous with bachelor living, working families and modern convenience. In 1985 the Swanson family purchased 100 acres between Silver Oak and Opus One. W Clarke Swanson planted Merlot in the heart of Cabernet country, CA and that gamble paid off. Swanson built a reputation with quality Merlot and now expands that production to Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese, Petite Sirah, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, and a few red blends.
While Swanson TV dinners have become equated with microwaves and convenience, the wines have proven themselves to be associated with quality. Recently selected as one of the top 100 wines of the world and winery of the year, 2010 by Wine & Spirits Magazine, Swanson is a winery to be considered on your list of top contenders. The three wines reviewed here will be released in the spring.
You've had the dinner, how is the wine?
Visit Swanson Vineyards on the internet www.swansonvineyards.com
The NectarView
2009 Swanson Pinot Grigio
Pinot Grigio to me is usually either crisp thin and tart, or slightly flabby but still light on fruit. The 2009 100% Napa Valley Pinot Grigio (13.6%ABV) is a nice balance of flavor, fruit, and mouth feel. 100% stainless steel fermented to bone dry with no malolactic fermentation, the sip reveals a nicely structured wine that is pleasing to the palate without being flabby or tart. Flavors of melons, lychee and citrus are softly interwoven. At $21 this is typically more than I would pay for a Pinot Grigio. Give this wine a try at the tasting room (or order it by the glass) before committing to the whole bottle. 3+/5
Scores on Cellar Tracker are 89 points from 3 different reviews
2007 Swanson Merlot
It's no secret I love a well made Merlot. I love the combination of aromas and soft subtleties of fruit that can often times have flavors of coffee, cherry, and chocolate. Merlot makes for a great dinner pairing or just relaxing in the evening. The $36 Swanson Merlot is sourced primarily from their Oakville estate vineyard. Winemaker Chris Phelps gave the fruit a cold soak extended maceration before laying it down for 20 months in 40% new French and American oak. The color in the glass has a fairly dark plum center and soft colors of muted ruby at the edges. The aroma out of the glass is a bright combination of fruit, licorice, and cola. From what I've seen and smelled the anticipation was very high. This wine, on the sip, lived up to the expectations. The fruit was slightly thin on the front palate but opened up to a medley of flavor. I loved the play between cola and coffee and the fruit flavors were not over the top but nicely balanced. This merlot also boasted some modest muscle with a hint of thickness on the finish. At $36, worth the price for merlot lovers. 4/5
2007 Swanson Alexis Cabernet Sauvignon
The 07 Swanson Alexis stands tall above everything else. Literally…the bottle is like two inches taller than your standard wine bottle. Do you get more? At $75 you should, but sadly it's just a marketing play. The pedigree here is strong; 26 day extended maceration, 22 months in 60% new French oak, Napa Valley fruit from Schmidt Vineyards and a moderately tame (for California) 14.8%ABV. The Alexis is 81% Cabernet and 19% Merlot. The swirl showcases the deep color of the fruit but the wine is not opaque. Like the merlot, the aromas jump out of the glass. This wine is deep and lush with a bouquet of dried flowers, baking spices, dark berry fruit, and subtleties of toasted oak. On the sip, I was surprised by the soft strength of the wine. For a young bold California Cabernet, Alexis is very approachable and velvety while still offering well integrated tannin that you would expect. I would expect this wine to be in its prime in just about 5 years. I liked the wine but I didn't LOVE it and for $75, I need to LOVE it to recommend it. From a quality perspective, the Swanson Alexis is an extremely well made wine with great aroma and flavor. Proceed with caution even with a 4/5 score.
Only 500 ½ cases of this wine were produced so chances are your only experience will be at the tasting room or very select restaurants.
Previous vintage of this wine scores 92 points with 3 reviews on Cellar Tracker.
Wines were provided as an industry sample with the intention to review and for fun…here is a flashback to the 80's with some TV Dinners by ZZ Top!
Tags: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Grigio


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