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This is a list painstakingly drawn after a group of western journalists voted in a survey to select women who have made their mark in the profession over a period of 100 years. The list definitely contains faces or names you know even if just one or two. But don't forget that the period of study was 100 years so there may be people you believe have done well in the past five or 10 years that are not on the list. Checkout the list.
The 22 Outstanding (Women) Journalists In The Last 100 Years
The first thing a lot of people do whenever a new list of "most outstandings" comes down the pike is check to see what the male to female breakdown is. In the case of NYU's "100 Outstanding Journalists in the United States in the Last 100 Years," culled from more than 300 nominees plus write-ins in a vote by the faculty at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU and an Honorary Committee of alumni, that final ratio is 78 men to 22 women. That's a little less than 1 woman for every 4 guys. In 100 years.
Of course, we're talking about the last 100 years in journalism; you'd hope that the breakdown would be a little more even if we were ranking outstanding journalists of the last 25 or even 10 years. And yet, as recently as this February, we were talking about how men still dominate in numbers in the writing world.
This is not to knock the outstanding male journalists on the list—they are, indeed, pretty outstanding, ranging alphabetically from James Agee to Bob Woodward. But let's take a moment to look at the women journalists, who, by sheer force of making their way onto this grouping in which fewer women are represented, seem inherently to have fought a harder battle to start with. Who made the cut? NYU lists the following 22 women and their qualifications:
- Christiane Amanpour: longtime and distinguished international reporter for CNN; now also works for ABC News.
- Hannah Arendt: a political thinker, author of The Origins of Totalitarianism, who reported the Eichmann trial for The New Yorker; those articles were turned into the book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil in 1963.
- Margaret Bourke-White: a photographer who was among the first women to report on wars and whose pictures appeared on the cover of Life magazine, beginning in 1936.
- Rachel Carson: a science writer whose 1962 book Silent Spring called attention to the dangers of pesticides and helped inspire the environmental movement.
- Joan Didion: a literary journalist, novelist, screenwriter, and memoirist, who helped invent "new journalism" in the 1960s and whose judgmental but superbly written articles have become standard texts in many journalism departments.
- Barbara Ehrenreich: a journalist and political activist who authored 21 books, including Nickel and Dimed, published in 2001, an exposé of the living and working conditions of the working poor.
- Nora Ephron: a columnist, humorist, screenwriter, and director, who wrote clever and incisive social and cultural commentary for Esquire and other publications beginning in the 1960s.
- Frances FitzGerald: a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who went to Saigon in 1966 and in 1972, published one of the most influential critiques of the war, Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam.
- Martha Gellhorn: a World War II correspondent whose articles were collected in The Face of War; she also covered the Vietnam War and the Six Day War in the Middle East.
- Katharine Graham: a publisher who took over The Washington Post after her husband's suicide in 1963, she resisted White House pressure during the paper's printing of the Pentagon Papers and the Watergate investigation; her memoir won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.
- Linda Greenhouse: a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter who covered the U.S. Supreme Court for The New York Times for more than 25 years, beginning in 1978.
- Jane Kramer: a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1964, writing mostly from Europe.
- Adrian Nicole LeBlanc: author of Random Family, the acclaimed nonfiction book published in 2002 about the relations of drug dealers in the South Bronx.
- Jane Mayer: an investigative reporter who has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1968; her 2008 book The Dark Side exposed the Bush administration's more questionable tactics in the war on terror.
- Mary McCarthy: a novelist and critic, McCarthy's essays appeared in publications like The Partisan Review, The Nation, The New Republic, Harper's Magazine, and The New York Review of Books from the 1940s through the 1970s.
- Anna Quindlen: a novelist, journalist and columnist, her path-breaking New York Times column "Public and Private," won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992.
- Marlene Sanders: the first female television correspondent in Vietnam, the first female anchor on a US network television evening newscast and the first female vice president of ABC News.
- Susan Sontag: an essayist, novelist and preeminent intellectual, among her many influential writings was "Notes on 'Camp,'" published in 1964; a human-rights activist, she wrote about the plight of Bosnia for The Nation in 1995 and even moved to Sarajevo to call further attention to the region.
- Gloria Steinem: a social activist and writer, Steinem co-founded the women's magazine Ms. in 1972.
- Dorothy Thompson: her reporting on Hitler and the rise of Nazism led to her being expelled from Germany in 1934; also a widely syndicated newspaper columnist, a rare female voice in radio news in the 1930s and the "second most influential woman in America," after Eleanor Roosevelt, according to Time magazine in 1939.
- Barbara Walters: a journalist, known for her interviewing skills, and host of many influential ABC programs, including the ABC Evening News and 20/20.
- Ida B. Wells: prominent civil rights activist whose 1892 editorial on the lynching of three black men earned her popularity; she wrote her autobiography Crusade for Justice in 1928.
Mitchell Stephens, professor of Journalism at NYU's Carter Institute, told The Atlantic Wire that 25 people voted on the list, most of them full-time or part-time faculty. The full-time faculty breakdown for the Institute is 11 female and 14 male, and both the current and previous directors are women.
Stephens said, "I am happy that so many of pathbreaking female journalists I grew up reading made this list. Still, I do wish the female to male ratio better approached that in life or in contemporary journalism. And someone might certainly argue that we could have subtracted someone here or added someone there. This was the result of a vote. It is intended to start a conversation not end it. And, alas, I fear this list, stretching back to people working in 1912, reflects the difficulty women had obtaining important positions in journalism for the bulk of the last 100 years."
Source: Theatlantic.com


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Did you know that the north magnetic pole is shifting at a rate of 40 miles per year? Most don't because it doesn't affect their lives. Unfortunately for Tampa International Airport it does! They're in the process of adjusting their runways.
It's not a major change (re-naming runways to account for the shift of Earth's magnetic north pole in accordance to FAA regulation), but it's enough to have the airport close certain runways for a period of time. All runways will eventually have to be closed too, to fix the shifting issue. Flying with more delays, yes!
But all I can think about when I hear magnets and airports and airplanes is, well, Lost. So if this changing of the runways can prevent a Lost-type event from happening (and the ensuing blue balls of false hope and disappointment), then by all means! [Tampa Bay Online via Pop Sci]

subset: commoncrawl


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We had a wonderful time in Rome Celebrating her b'day.
For the week we were there, we have been fully busy, we left our hotel after breakfast and was only back by midnight as we wanted to see as much as possible in these days.
And every evening we three had a relaxing dinner in one of the pleanty cozy places they have there with good food and wine.
Just sharing couple of pictures with you all.
Sis had send me so much things from there :-)
I think I have muffin cups for atleast 5 years :-)
If you ant to check out the recipe hopp over to this post.
Baking goodies etc.... which I got from Sis.


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NEW YORK – Dirk Nowitzki and Paul Pierce overcame slow starts to return to the All-Star game, while lengthy runs ended for Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan.
Nowitzki was chosen Thursday to his 11th straight All-Star game, despite his lowest scoring average since his second NBA season. Pierce has come on after a slow start caused by a foot injury and was picked for the 10th time.
But Garnett wasn't chosen after 14 consecutive selections, and Duncan was left out after 13 in a row. Other All-Star regulars such as Ray Allen and Amare Stoudemire will be home, giving way to five first-timers: Portland's LaMarcus Aldridge, Marc Gasol of Memphis, Andre Iguodala of Philadelphia, Indiana's Roy Hibbert, and Chicago's Luol Deng.
Also headed to Orlando for the Feb. 26 game are NBA assists leader Steve Nash of Phoenix, Tony Parker of San Antonio, Russell Westbrook of Oklahoma City, Kevin Love of Minnesota, Chris Bosh of Miami, Atlanta's Joe Johnson and Deron Williams of New Jersey.
Already voted to start by fans in the Eastern Conference were Orlando's Dwight Howard, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade of Miami, Chicago's Derrick Rose and New York's Carmelo Anthony. The West starters are the Lakers' Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin of the Clippers, and Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant.
Coaches voted for the reserves, and they had a tough task in this lockout-shortened season, when they were given only about 25 games to evaluate players. That threatened to make it tough for Nowitzki and Pierce, whose bodies weren't ready to go after the lengthy offseason and brief training camps, and have played below their usual standards.
"I think it's too early. I'm sitting on my couch when they announced the rosters and I'm floored. I didn't even know they had started the voting," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
But the coaches picked Nowitzki, the NBA finals MVP, even though his average of 17.6 points is his worst since he scored 17.5 per game in the 1999-00 season. The Mavericks shut him down for a few games to work on his conditioning, and even he wondered recently whether his streak would continue, given the depth of players in his position in the West.
"It was a tough road back to full health for me, but I am honored that the coaches thought enough of me to make me an All-Star," Nowitzki said in a statement. "It has been a privilege to represent the Mavericks organization over the last decade and I look forward to doing it again in Orlando."
Pierce has been a little better, winning last week's East player of the week award and hiking his average to 18.4 per game, but acknowledged during an interview on TNT before the Celtics played the Lakers that he was a little surprised to be picked.
But he'll go alone from Boston, a year after Garnett, Allen and Rajon Rondo went with him. Duncan was there last year, too, having never missed an All-Star game since entering the league in the 1997-98 season.
"They're getting older," Rivers said. "It's just, you know, change. It happens."
Age didn't stop Nash, averaging 10 assists and shooting 56 percent from the field. He became just the fourth player to earn an All-Star spot at 38 or older, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan and Karl Malone.
Coaches favored team success, with only Nash, Williams and Gasol getting picked from teams with losing records.
That left out All-Star hopefuls such as Milwaukee's Brandon Jennings, the Knicks' Stoudemire — who misses a chance to play near his Florida home — the Grizzlies' Rudy Gay and Golden State's Monta Ellis. Houston's Kyle Lowry also fell short in the West, where coaches picked three other point guards.
Minnesota's awful record last season nearly cost Love, though he eventually made it as an injury replacement. Putting up big numbers again and this time with the Timberwolves on the right side of .500, he was an easy pick.
"It's a lot of joy," Love said. "It's really a respect thing. I've had a great season thus far and we've had some success as a team. For me, it's definitely a big deal. I put in a lot of work these last three and a half seasons and I don't intend on stopping."
The snubbed players still have a chance if there is an injury. Commissioner David Stern chooses the injury replacements.
AP Sports Writers Jimmy Golen in Boston and Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.


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to consider an energy-saving lighting solution as well adjustability. The halls are used around the clock, so it's not possible to set predefined times for the lights to switch on and off."
- Jussi Kivikoura, Project Manager, VR
VR is a state-owned railway company in Finland. Its new maintenance hall spans 17,000 m2, with six tracks running through it. Philips was given the task of providing powerful and well-placed lighting so that engineers can carry out their work easily.
VR's old maintenance hall was a dark and dirty place, with outdated lighting. For the new hall, a more comfortable enjoyable work atmosphere was desired. VR began making this a reality, with a carefully selected color scheme. Lighting was the next step, and the company wanted a system that would be eco-friendly and easy to clean, while providing optimal visibility and comfort.
LED lighting provided an express solution. For high-bay lighting, GentleSpace LEDs were suspended from the ceiling. These next-generation luminaires create a comfortable workspace with clean, bright light. In addition, their long life cycle means that no one will have to venture up to the high ceilings to maintain them for a long time.
To provide clear visibility by the side of train tracks and under the rails, Pacific LED luminaires were installed. Their smart, durable construction makes them easy to clean, maintain and upgrade. The new industrial lighting has been carefully placed to create optimal visibility for workers. In addition, smart controls mean the lights dim automatically when there is enough daylight present, or when there is no movement in the area.
The new lighting provides a comfortable, safe workspace for engineers, and fulfils all environmental requirements. Through the energy and maintenance savings it provides, the investment will be paid back within three years.


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Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition Earns National Award for Exceptional Immigrant Integration Initiatives
WASHINGTON – The Migration Policy Institute's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy announced today that the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition (MIRA), is one of four recipients of its 2013 E Pluribus Unum Prizes for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives. The national award honors MIRA's New Americans Integration Institute for its work to help newcomers contribute more fully to the economic, civic and social fabric of the United States.
The New Americans Integration Institute, launched in 2011, works through policy-oriented research, training and stakeholder partnerships to support the development of policies and programs that create and strengthen effective integration pathways for immigrants across Massachusetts. The Institute's primary areas of work include promotion of citizenship, immigrant entrepreneurship and employment pathways for immigrant professionals, as well as the removal of barriers to educational access, from early education and child care through higher education. MIRA built the foundation for the Integration Institute when it led efforts from 2007-2010 to bring communities across Massachusetts together to create and push for implementation of a New Americans Agenda that included 131 recommendations for improving the integration of immigrants and refugees in the Commonwealth.
The E Pluribus Unum Prizes program, established in 2008 by MPI's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy with generous support from the J.M. Kaplan Fund, seeks to encourage the adoption of effective integration practices and inspire others to take on the important work of integrating immigrants and their children so they can join and contribute to the mainstream of U.S. society. MIRA's work is guided by an understanding that the success of U.S. and state immigration policy is directly linked to how well immigrants integrate into their communities.
The 2013 E Pluribus Unum Prizes winners will be honored tonight at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., with a keynote address by U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez, author of the recent Still Dreaming: My Journey from the Barrio to Capitol Hill. The national award is accompanied by a $50,000 prize.
"The success of U.S. immigration policy ultimately turns on the effectiveness of immigrant integration," said Margie McHugh, who co-directs the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. "MIRA and its New Americans Integration Institute offer an important example of the critically important role that state policies and practices play in ensuring successful integration and the role that a talented policy organization can play in helping numerous state-level actors come together to solve tough problems."
Said MIRA Executive Director Eva Millona: "Even when federal immigration reform is enacted, corresponding state and local responses will be necessary to assist immigrants, community-based organizations and service providers. We created the New Americans Integration Institute to facilitate and advance integration efforts in key areas where significant gains are currently possible at the local level. We are honored to win the E Pluribus Unum Prize and hope our efforts will provide a model for others doing this work."
"MIRA's Integration Institute provides a mechanism for galvanizing action by state, private-sector, academic and non-profit stakeholders to put effective immigrant integration policies and practices in place," said MPI Senior Vice President Michael Fix, who co-directs the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy. "By serving as an incubator for partnerships and projects across public agencies and leading community organizations, it is helping the state build the infrastructure necessary to respond to federal immigration reform when it occurs — infrastructure that is quite weak in many parts of the United States."
The other 2013 winners of the $50,000 E Pluribus Unum Prize are the Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School, a Washington, D.C.-based adult-focused charter that provides adult basic education and workforce training to more than 3,000 immigrants and refugees annually; and Neighborhood Development Center, a St. Paul, MN community development organization that connects immigrant and native-born ethnic communities to revitalize inner-city neighborhoods in the Twin Cities. The Prizes program's 2013 Corporate Leadership Award goes to Kaiser Permanente for its dedication to providing linguistically and culturally competent health care and expanding such efforts in the health care industry more broadly.
Winner highlights can be found at www.integrationawards.org. For more information or to set up interviews, contact Michelle Mittelstadt at 202-266-1910, [email protected].
The Migration Policy Institute is an independent, non-partisan think tank in Washington, D.C. dedicated to the study of the movement of people worldwide. MPI provides analysis, development and evaluation of migration and refugee policies at the local, national and international levels. For more, visit www.migrationpolicy.org.
MPI's National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy is a crossroads for elected officials, researchers, state and local agency managers, grassroots leaders and activists, local service providers and others who seek to understand and respond to the challenges and opportunities today's high rates of immigration create in local communities. For more on the center's work, visit www.migrationpolicy.org/integration.


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- Main, Ambler and HSC: 215-204-1234
- All other: 9-1-1
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Receive emergency alerts via email, text and/or phone for incidents on and around Temple's campuses. Sign up today for TU Alert and follow @TempleAlert on Twitter to receive updates.
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TU Ready is Temple's emergency management and continuity program. Learn more about how you can be prepared.


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(AP) — Tel Aviv residents say they heard an explosion following an air-raid alert across the city, raising fears of a Gaza rocket strike on Israel's commercial capital.
Israeli authorities were trying to determine where the rocket may have landed on Thursday. Eli Bean, the head of Israel's rescue service, says no injuries have been reported.
Israeli military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yoav Mordechai says nothing landed on the ground, raising the possibility it fell in the sea.
A strike on Tel Aviv would be the first time Gaza rocket squads have reached the city and that would mark a significant escalation.
Israel has been threatening to widen a military offensive launched on Wednesday against Gaza militants.


text: In Sept. 2018, I went on a 10-day trip to France with my wife and my Dad. 2 days in Paris, followed by a 6-day, 7-night river barge cruise on the Canal du Nivernais through the wine-growing region of Burgundy. It was the experience of a lifetime. Phenomenal food, wine, Paris with my wife, the beautiful scenery of Burgundy from the deck of the Hotel Barge Luciole, and 10 days of relaxation. Beyond that, the trip will always hold a special place in my heart, as it was the last trip ever with Dad, who passed away in August 2020, less than 2 years later.Read More


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Home Page Chess Life Online 2009 April Live From Nashville: Coaches Interviews
|Live From Nashville: Coaches Interviews
|April 6, 2009
Watch video interviews with coaches at the SuperNationals, including author and movie inspiration David MacEnulty. Ted Danson's character in "Knights of the South Bronx" was based on MacEnulty. Also among the interviewees is American Chess Academy coach IM Armen Ambartsoumiam, who is also a World Youth coach.
The Basics From Nashville: See the final standings, the official website, the USCF Vimeo page and the SuperNationals video contest page.


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Maggie's World 005: You Have an Indexed Collection. Now What?
It's one thing to have an inventory of what you've collected. It's quite another to take care of your collection. Collection care can involve bagging, boarding, boxing—and even more.
Some challenges are easier to deal with today than they were in the past. Around 1950, my mom made gifts that consisted of a number of homemade "storage bags": pockets made by trimming cellophane (or was it Pliofilm?), folding it, and then sealing the results with an iron. Hefty, Ziploc, Baggies, Glad, and, of course, Mylar—none of those protections were available for comics in the Golden Age. In fact, those of us who collected comic books for frequent rereading in the 1940s had limited storage options. Mom and Dad made a sort of comic book binder out of black matting board "bound" with "plastic-coated," "self-stik," "cloth"—Mystik Tape—and they'd then use rubber bands through each copy's stapled centerspread to "bind" the issue into the holder. As you can imagine, those binders were not particularly gentle to the comics—but it protected them moderately well and kept series together.
Mind you, Walt Kelly's Peter Wheat bread-premium comics offered a special challenge, because they didn't have glossy cover stock as an extra protection. And more than one story was part of a serial. So Mom solved it the way book publishers did: She made each issue into its own sewn signature and bound the lot into its own volume.
That's how it was. The Golden Age comics that bring biggest bucks today are those that—unlike my comics—were put away after one reading (or less), untouched, in one or another form of dark, dry, cool storage. The few Golden Age comics I still own from those early days suffered different treatment. They were much loved, much handled—and much damaged.
Moreover, even by the mid-1950s, there was no easy way to access comics without damaging them. To this day, I recall showing a friend a copy of EC's MD—and cringing when the cover split up the spine as my friend opened the issue. Plus, I kept my comics standing on my bookshelf like other magazines: upright. Every time I took a copy out or replaced it, the cover scratched the other covers ever so slightly as it pushed and pulled against its neighbors.
Then, as time went on and comics collectors began to contact each other, they started to use plastic bags to store their magazines; a few manufacturers began to customize the bags to fit the different sizes of comics. And comic books turned out to be relatively easy to store that way compared to some other collected material. For example, the pulp magazines that provided the first story of such classics as Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan (The All-Story, Oct. 1912) and Johnston McCulley's Zorro (All-Story Weekly, Aug. 6, 1919) usually survive today only in tattered form. A look at the covers of the Fall 1947 and the Fall 1948 Planet Stories reveal a few of the disadvantages of the pulp magazine format. The pages and covers were untrimmed, and covers overlapped the pulp paper interiors, bending, creasing, and tearing. Some collectors actually cut the untrimmed pages. Some (shudder) reinforced the fraying cover edges with tape.
(Why would anyone care to preserve these issues? After all, judging from the covers, the most important contents of those two Planet Stories issues were clearly tales by Emmett McDowell, Erik Fennel, Vaseleos Garson, Bryce Walton, A.A.O. Gilmour, and Basil Wells. But, as it happens, that 1947 issue contains the first printing of the classic Ray Bradbury tale "Zero Hour," and the 1948 issue includes the first printing of his similarly classic "Mars Is Heaven." But it's unlikely you'll find any copy of either issue with a pristine cover.)
Comics, books and magazines are not, of course, the only creations that people collect today. Wax cylinders, Edison discs, shellacs, LP records, a variety of tape configurations, picture discs: Preserving each sound-recording format has its challenges. (I recall hearing of the horror experienced by a Cleveland collector of long-playing records; he had a "minor" house fire in the 1970s. The fire was quickly brought under control, and there seemed to be little damage. But the heat had been enough to seal his expensive plastic record liners to the discs. That was the end of his collection.)
Books, records, cards, original art, comics, or magazines—paper storage is all about the plastic. (Following a flood several years ago at the Eclipse Comics offices, cat yronwode commented that plastic bags had been more important to her collection than insurance.) Plastic lets collectors handle treasures with the least damage, even while it provides a barrier to bugs, dust, and jammy hands. And collectors whose focus is on investment, rather than rereading, even go after a third-party grading service for their most precious items so as to establish and maintain the finest condition.
Collectors began to increase protection of their comics by inserting specially cut cardboard into the bags. And, once bagged and boarded, comics could be clearly identified by labeling the bags, writing on the labels what would damage the comics if written on the cover.
(By the way, people who love books and reading are sometimes called "bookworms"—and Googling the term brings up word games, readers' groups, and the like. There was even a British comics character (a boy who loved to read) that appeared in Fleetway's Whoopee! in the 1980s. Chances are that most modern comics collectors have never even seen the damage caused by a real bookworm. After all, a plastic bag will keep the paper safe from the assortment of paper-chomping larvae that can otherwise tunnel through precious pages.)
Then, it's just a matter of keeping comics away from the enemies of paper, from aging newsprint to shiny coated stock: heat, light, moisture, air, and acid. Each of those will activate chemical changes that attack the fragility of paper. And most of us also opt for putting our comics in boxes.
Don and I used to store some of our comics and other magazines in so-called "chicken boxes": waterproofed cardboard boxes used to ship frozen chicken to grocery stores. As I recall, it was comics historian and artist Craig Yoe who called our attention to those devices, which were sturdy and easy to label, stack, and move. But in the case of boxes, too, specialized cases designed specifically for comic books and comics magazines became standard from sources of collectibles supplies. Collectors today can easily check catalogs and online listings for what will best serve their purposes. (I encourage you to keep in mind that so-called "longboxes" are not designed for easy lifting when filled with comics packed tightly. Hernias are no fun.)
So . . .
Bags, boards, and boxes are part of the standard arsenal used by those who are determined to protect their collections. Insurance, secure storage sites, and similar considerations are bonuses for some, but almost all of today's comics buffs look to plastic and boxes for peace of mind.
A Closing Thought
A variant form of boxing used to be widely used, and librarians around the country still mourn the loss of "Magafiles" (U.S. Pat. No. 2337607) made by The Magafile Co. of St. Louis. They haven't been available for many years; we began buying ours more than three decades ago. But note: Patents are granted for a limited term. Utility patent rights are usually for up to 17 years from the granting of the patent; design patent rights are for up to 14 years from the granting of the patent. All of which is to say that (to my nonlegal mind) anyone should be able to construct these magazine files. There are probably still librarians out there who would love the opportunity to put their documents in these holders. (We stored our Silver Age comics in files size 4D—but they came in a variety of holders.) The design meant the files could safely store one comic book or many on ordinary bookshelves. Come on, folks! Who out there will be the first to bring back this sort of comics boxes?
No matter what, though, the motto for collectors might be: Just in case, encase!
Maggie's World by Maggie Thompson appears the first Tuesday of every month on Toucan!


text: Homosexual Behavior See also Adultery; Sensual, Sensuality Sexual association of individuals of the same gender. God forbids sexual activity of this kind. Bring them out unto us, that we may know them, Gen. 19:1–11 (Moses 5:51–53). Thou shalt not lie with mankind; it is an abomination, Lev. 18:22 (Lev. 20:13). There shall be no sodomite of the sons of Israel, Deut. 23:17. They declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not, Isa. 3:9 (2 Ne. 13:9). Men burned in their lust one toward another, Rom. 1:27. Abusers of themselves with mankind will not inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. 6:9–10. The law is not made for a righteous man, but for them that defile themselves with mankind, 1 Tim. 1:9–10. Those who go after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 1:7.


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Wild Flower Botanical Garden is located beside the Namhan River and has very good view.
The garden has various garden of wild flowers, herbs and ponds. Personally I cannot recommend to visit except enjoying good view of Namhan River.
For more information, visit http://www.nemunimo.co.kr/ (Korean only)
Korea is one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world with over five thousand years of history. According to the original creation myth, the world we live in today is the work of the Heavenly Prince Hwanung, whose father was the King of Heaven.The Heavenly Prince asked his father to give him some land to govern, so the Father sent him down to Mount Taebaek. With him the Prince brought the Minister of Clouds, the Earl of Rain and the Chancellor of Wind. They also brought three thousand helpers.Under the shade of a sandalwood tree the Prince founded a holy city called Sinsi, the City of God. He put his Ministers in charge of three hundred and sixty areas of human culture, teaching them to grow crops and to make laws concerning what is good and what is evil.A tiger and a bear living in a nearby cave saw this city and desperately wanted to become human. Every day they came to the sandalwood tree at the center of the city to pray fervently for becoming humans.Hwanung saw their devotion and gave them instructions to remain in the cave and fast for one month, eating nothing but garlic and mugwort. The tiger was too impatient to stand the long and boring days in the cave, so he gave up and left, but Bear maintained the fast. At the end of the month she was transformed into a beautiful woman who became the mother of the Korean people.Her first son was Don-gun, the First King of the Korean people. When Don-Gun passed on the throne to his own son, he became a Mountain God. It is interesting that mountain gods are still worshipped today in Korea.Text by Steve Smith.


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YPSILANTI, MI—Due to outside influence and unforeseen events, the having-one-beer plan that 29-year-old Keith Flemming devised at the outset of Monday evening went awry.
"This is a one-beer night," Flemming told his friend Sam Galveston as the two approached their usual booth at Fitzgerald's Tavern. "I wanna be in bed early, so I have time for a quick drink and some laughs, but that's it. I'm not going on a tear or anything."
Flemming, a sales representative for a boutique food packager, ordered a round of Bud Lights at 7:30 p.m. As the two friends drank their beers and discussed their summer-vacation plans, Flemming was well-positioned to meet his goal of being in bed by 10 p.m.
Shortly before requesting the check, however, Flemming briefly placed Galveston in charge of the itinerary.
"I gotta take a leak," Flemming said. "You know what they say about beer: You don't buy it, you rent it."
While Flemming was in the restroom, Galveston ordered a second round for the pair, thus causing Flemming's plan for the evening to go slightly askew.
"Well, I can't let this to go to waste," said Flemming, holding the beer up and chuckling. "After this, though, I have to get out of here. I gotta be up at 6 in the morning. Big day. Inventory."
Had events not conspired against him, Flemming could well have finished his second beer and still arrived home before 9 p.m. His plan was thwarted, however, when Gary Greely, a longtime acquaintance of Flemming and Galveston, approached the booth.
"Gary! Long time no see," Flemming said. "I gotta take off soon, but let me get you a beer first. We got some catching up to do."
Two hours and an unforeseen buyback later, the early-to-bed plan Flemming had established at the beginning of the evening was in serious jeopardy.
Flemming purchased "one last round" for the table at 10:35 p.m., but in order to get home for his revised bedtime of 11 p.m., Flemming drank the beer in 10 minutes—an act that caused further wavering in his resolve to leave the bar.
"Guys, I really should get going, I guess," said Flemming, slurring his words. "I really should probably… I got something I gotta do tomorrow, something at work early."
Flemming stood and began to gather his belongings and say goodbye to his friends. Greely, however, began to chant "shots," and the plan for the evening went off-track again.
"No Jaeger, though, man," said Flemming, returning to his seat. "Last time I drank Jaeger, I was hung over for days. No way."
"All right, but if I puke, you're cleaning it up!" Flemming added.
The three finally said their goodbyes and parted at 2:00 a.m., whereupon Flemming completed his evening in a manner wholly unanticipated—by vomiting, drinking several glasses of water, and falling asleep fully clothed on top of his covers.
"I only went to work today because I couldn't miss inventory," Flemming said Tuesday morning. "I don't even remember getting home last night. I know I didn't drive, because my car wasn't around this morning. I guess I took a cab. Christ. Honestly, that's the last time I do that. Next time, I'll go to the bar and hang out, but I'll just have a soda."


text: Apple and Google are appealing to U.S. President Barack Obama to reject proposals to allow encryption "back doors" in mobile devices.A letter signed by Apple and Google to be sent Tuesday is aimed at protecting privacy and limiting law enforcement access to encrypted data, according to a report in The Washington Post."Strong encryption is the cornerstone of the modern information economy's security," the paper quotes the letter as saying.Over 140 technology companies, technologists and civil society groups also signed it, calling on the president to not "in any way subvert, undermine, weaken or make vulnerable" security software.Apple and Google did not immediately reply to a request for more information about the report.The signatories include three people on a five-member panel appointed by Obama to review government surveillance programs following the leaks by former contractor Edward Snowden, the paper said.Kevin Bankston, policy director at the New America Foundation's Open Technology Institute, organized the letter, according to the article, which he posted on Twitter.The development follows a request from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to the U.S. Congress to mandate encryption workarounds in smartphones as a tool to prevent serious crimes. The appeal has drawn criticism from lawmakers such as U.S. Representative Ted Lieu, a Democrat from California, who called the idea "technologically stupid."Michael Daniel, the White House's cybersecurity coordinator, said in March that there is "no scenario" in which the U.S. government wants weaker encryption.But the president and administration officials including FBI director James Comey have raised concerns about encrypted data that is beyond the reach of law enforcement.Last year, Apple and Google added more data protection to mobile devices, with passcode-based encryption for iPhones and iPads running iOS 8 and default data encryption in a new version of Android."If you have a back door, somebody will find it, and that somebody may be a bad guy," Vinton Cerf, Google's chief Internet evangelist and the co-creator of TCP\/IP, said in a speech earlier this month. "Creating this kind of technology is super, super risky."Tim Hornyak covers Japan and emerging technologies for The IDG News Service. Follow Tim on Twitter at @robotopia.


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Dr. Jerome Corsi will be LIVE on 'The Urban Infidel Show' Saturday, May 28 from 8:00 - 9:00 PM Eastern
Jerome Corsi, Ph.D., author of 'Where's the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Obama is Not Eligible to be President' will be my guest on Saturday, May 28th from 8:00 to 9:00 PM Eastern. We will be taking your calls!
Call in number: (619) 639-4720Buy the book. It is an absolute must-read. Buy it, read it and give it to as many people as you can.
Listen to internet radio with urbaninfidel on Blog Talk Radio


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Central Park Posters
Manhattan's Central Park is a place of nature in a metropolis flooded by neon lights, metal and glass skyscrapers and busy men. The place has been the subject of countless home décor products. It is no wonder, since the proximity to the metal jungle of the city makes the contrast even further exacerbated. As such, Central Park art prints and canvas art have always been a favorite of people wanting to capture the town in its essence, with the contrasts and the weirdness it presents.
Central Park in popular culture
Central Park in New York hasn't permeated solely the TV sector in media coverage; it has also been the subject of poster materials and other printed items. It is of course, the domain of the best photographers and visual interpreters to see a good poster that attracts your attention, Most of the times the attention falls on the way the city is seen as a contrast between urban life and the pseudo jungle at its core.
Get a piece of Central Park yourself
A good poster can give you an intimate insight on the way Central Park has developed and the beauty it bestows on an apparently barren industrialized monolith of steel and concrete. With a poster, you too can have a piece of this beautiful landscape and make yourself acquainted with the life of Manhattan. There's no reason not to trust a poster in its depiction as the locals have always known what to look for and where to search for it.


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Wordpress Cloudkul Platinum Plan: Migrate or Set Up your Wordpress Website on AWS which help you to optimize and secure your store with some extra features with Cloudkul Platinum Plan.
Wordpress Cloudkul Platinum Plan Features -
- Analysation for better Performance
- Optimization with Super Powerful Tools
- Improved and Fast Performance for System
- PhpMyAdmin
- Mail Integration
- DNS Mapping
- CDN Integration
- Website Modification Report
- SSL Integration
- AWS Automatic Backup
- Resource Monitoring Notification
SFTP : The SFTP allows you to transfer files over SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) using SSH version 2. After authentication, a connection is established between your local system and remote server so you can transfer your data files & directories. It also enables you to resume file transfer if any interruption occurs. For more details you can refer SFTP
LAMP : LAMP stack is a popular open source web platform commonly used to run dynamic web sites and servers. LAMP includes Linux, Apache, Mysql & PHP/Python/Perl and very popular platform of for development and deployment of high performance web application. For more details you can refer LAMP
PhpMyAdmin : phpMyAdmin is one of the most popular applications for MySQL databases management. It is a free tool written in PHP. Through this software you can create, alter, drop, delete, import and export MySQL database tables. You can run MySQL queries, optimize, repair and check tables, change collation and execute other database management commands. For more details you can refer PhpMyAdmin
SSH : SSH stands for secure shell and it is used for providing encryption for network services like remote login or remote file transfers. It can also be used for wide range of other services like secure remote command execution, keys and password authentication, access control and port forwarding etc. For more details you can refer SSH
Mail Integration : As we know most of the ecommerce stores need specific mailing solutions to send mails to their clients, vendors and other users but it's a very hectic task to integrate the mail settings within your ecommerce store. In Mail Integration package we help you to integrate your present email services or new mail services with the specified ecommerce store. For more details you can refer Mail Integration
DNS Mapping : In DNS Mapping, we will provide you the feature to map your website with your existing domain. To map your domain with your website, we need your DNS panel credentials or for security reasons if you don't want to share your credentials then for sure we can assist you to do the same. For more details you can refer DNS Mapping
CDN Integration : Content Delivery Network is a system of Distributed servers that delivery content to an end user as per the geographical location of the user. CDN helps to speedup the delivery of content of websites with high traffic and global reach. As much user is closer to the CDN, faster the content will be delivered to the user. In CDN, servers nearest to the endpoint user respond to the request. CDN copies the content or pages of a website to a network of servers that are dispersed at geographically different locations around the world. CDN follows the concept of caching and provide cached content from the server which is located nearest to the user. For more details you can refer CDN Integration
Website Modification Report : We provide a special add-on script in your Linux Server which helps you to detect the hacking attacks on your application end. Most of the firewalls either work on Port or on IP address and protect the Network traffic accordingly but Our script detects all the modification throughout the code of your application and notify the concerned person at right time.. For more details you can refer Website Modification Report
SSL Integration : SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer.It is a transport layer protocol which is used to establish a secure connection between server and client.When you visit a ssl integrated website the connection between your browser and the website is secure. The transmitted data are all in encrypted form. For more details you can refer SSL Integration
AWS Automatic Backup : data is the heart of the enterprise, it's crucial for you to protect it. And to protect your organization's data, you need to implement a data backup and recovery plan for all the server. You can backup the data on your EBS volumes by simply creating a snapshot of it. EBS Active snapshots contain all of the information needed to restore your data (from the time the snapshot was taken) to a new EBS volume. For more details you can refer AWS Automatic Backup
Resource Monitoring Notification : Server Resources like CPU, RAM, Disk Space, Load Average etc. are very critical components for any kind of Server either its web server or database server because they are the basic components for the execution and processing. We provide resource Monitoring on various components which are as follows-:
- Server Load Average
- Used and Free RAM
- Disk Space
- Inode Space
For more details you can refer Resource Monitoring Notification
Wordpress Cloudkul Platinum Plan Support -
For any query or issue please create a support ticket here http://webkul.uvdesk.com/
After the completion of Server Setup we will provide the limited period Support to the customer so that he or she can check and ensure the configuration. Our Support Period includes the SLA of around 12 Hours and covers only issues regarding the Server Setup and Configuration (Issues Regarding Application or Modules are not included in this support).Details are given below-
- Support Period of 30 days
- SLA will be 12 hours
- Mode of Communication are Ticket, Email and Chat


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Researchers have shown before that low vitamin D levels are linked with psychiatric disorders like major depression.
Now, a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry signals the importance of testing those who suffer from psychotic symptoms—delusions (fixed and false beliefs) and hallucinations—for vitamin D deficiency.
A group of researchers led by Dr. Barbara L. Gracious, a psychiatrist at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, presented data at that meeting showing that adolescents who were vitamin D deficient showed a fourfold (400 percent) increased rate of psychotic symptoms, compared to other adolescents with normal vitamin D levels who sought psychiatric treatment at the University of Rochester, in New York.
In other words, in the group of adolescents asking for psychiatric help that Gracious studied, low vitamin D was very, very powerfully connected to the likelihood that they would report symptoms like delusions (like paranoia) or hearing voices or seeing visions.
Delusions and hallucinations are among the most serious symptoms we psychiatrists treat. And the idea that vitamin D deficiency could be so substantially linked to psychotic symptoms is a tantalizing prospect. It suggests that it is time to routinely measure the Vitamin D levels of those complaining of such symptoms.
When vitamin D levels are found to be low, they should, of course, be corrected. Whether or not this will lessen psychotic symptoms remains to be definitively proven.
The vitamin D-mental health connection is particularly interesting given the fact that millions of Americans report symptoms of seasonal affective disorder—depression that typically seems to recur each late fall, or early winter—when exposure to sunlight is limited. Vitamin D plummets, of course, when people are deprived of sunlight.
Gracious' findings are yet another reason why psychiatry would be wise to drop all resistance to considering the impact of vitamin and nutritional deficiencies of one kind or another on mental well-being.
We know, after all, that Deplin, an altered form of folic acid that can reach the nervous system without being metabolized, shows powerful promise in the treatment of mood disorders. Indeed, Deplin, which I have written about on FoxNews.com before, is already approved by the FDA as a "medical food" that can be used to treat depression. We also know that taking high doses of fish oil can impact mood and may significantly decrease aggression.
These findings on vitamins and other nutrients come at a time when psychiatry's traditional medications—like serotonin reuptake inhibitors and antipsychotic medications—are under siege. Recent studies have questioned whether many of these agents are any better than placebos. A large study of the very common use of the antipsychotic Risperdal in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) showed it had essentially no value at all. Yet, such medications can be very, very expensive and can have very serious side effects, including movement disorders, suicidal thinking, cardiac abnormalities and significant weight gain.
I am not saying that traditional psychoactive medications are not important. Used judiciously, with expertise, in the right patients, they can be lifesaving. I'm certain of that. But it is time to open our minds to treatments based on vitamins and other nutrients, as well as other alternative ways of affecting the brain, like repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS, about which I have also written at FoxNews.com).
It is possible that a large percentage of those who now suffer from major depression, for example—even when that depression is severe enough to spark psychotic symptoms—could soon be most effectively treated with psychotherapy, magnetic therapy and nutritional/vitamin therapy. That's would represent a massive shift in the way psychiatry treats that illness. And other illnesses may be no different.


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Columbus lost a huge one in court this week, and it wasn't even close. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a 2012 Muscogee County Superior Court decision protecting trees along Georgia rights-of-way is invalid.
The 2012 decision had handed a victory to the city of Columbus in its suit against billboard companies and the Georgia Department of Transportation over the issue of outdoor advertisers cutting trees along I-185.
What really escalated the longstanding debate between outdoor advertisers and Georgians who prefer seeing trees to billboards is a 2011 state law that lets advertisers cut trees from along state highways in exchange for payment to the state of the appraised value of the trees. The law also broadened the area around a billboard that could be cut. Another point of contention was a DOT program under which the cost of taking down old billboards is credited toward fees for putting up new ones.
It was that policy that gave Columbus at least a partial victory in the 2012 case, when the Superior Court ruled that the "take-down" credit program violates the state constitution by granting the billboard industry a gratuity.
On Monday, the state's highest court emphatically disagreed. The ruling cited a clause in the 2011 law: "The General Assembly finds and declares that outdoor advertising provides a substantial service and benefit to Georgia and Georgia's citizens as well as the traveling public."
It also cited its own precedent in a 2002 case which denied the plaintiffs' claim that a "decision to allow the cutting of trees on public property in exchange for information on billboards and the payment of the value of the trees amounts to an illegal gift under our constitution."
There are couple of points here that many of us no doubt find legitimately debatable. The first, of course, is the idea that billboards on public -- i.e., taxpayer-purchased -- rights-of-way constitute a "substantial service and benefit" to Georgia and her citizens. (We'd be more inclined to say that about the trees.)
There's also a valid debate about whether the value of the billboard "information" the court cited in its 2002 ruling legitimately outweighs the value, "to Georgia and Georgia's citizens," of the trees cut -- again, on public rights-of-way -- to display it. And if the DOT's program of granting credits to outdoor advertisers for doing what they're obliged to do already isn't a "gratuity" (read: sweetheart deal), maybe we don't really want to know what is.
The Supreme Court ruled only on the narrow question of whether the 2011 law is constitutional. Sadly, the decision that it is means the same legislature that passed the law would have to undo it.
We're not holding our breath. And we're left wondering, again, just whose interests the Georgia General Assembly represents.
Read more here: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2013/05/07/2494275/billboard-ruling-major-setback.html#storylink=cpy
Columbus lost a huge one in court this week, and it wasn't even close. The Georgia Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that a 2012 Muscogee County Superior Court decision protecting trees along Georgia rights-of-way is invalid.


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Expert's Rating
- Highly responsive touchscreen
- Android OS offers great flexibility
- No standard headphone jack
- Fair battery life
Our Verdict
The G1 has great call quality and does a good job of melding hardware with the Android operating system.
At first glance, the T-Mobile G1 ($179 with a two-year contract) doesn't seem to merit much attention. It looks like just another bland, HTC-manufactured phone. But use the G1–the first phone to run Google's Android operating system–for 5 minutes, and you'll start to see why it's one of the best-designed phones you can buy. Not only is the G1 intuitive to use, but its customization options (via Android) makes it a tweaker's delight.
View a video of the T-Mobile G1 in action.
Setup: From the start, the G1 offers a different, more intuitive smart-phone experience. At boot-up, the phone displays a cartoon graphic of an android, with an animated finger pointing at the android and instructions to "touch the android to begin."
The ensuing screens are clearly presented, and walk you through the speedy setup process. You'll need a Google account, the phone explains, for automatic syncing of your contacts, calendar, and e-mail with your Web-based Google data.
If you don't already have an account, you can sign up directly from the phone. Otherwise, sign in to link your existing Google account and the phone. After the initial, over-the-air synchronization finished, my Google e-mail and calendar info was available to me on the phone, and the phone was ready for use.
Design: The phone itself has a candybar design with a matte black finish and slightly rubberized plastic back. It's narrower than its chief rival, Apple's iPhone, but slightly thicker (the G1 measures 4.6 inches by 2.2 inches by 0.6 inch, and weighs 5.6 ounces). The 3.2-inch capacitive touch-screen display dominates the front face of the phone; the physical buttons on the phone are well chosen and clearly labeled.
The lower fifth of the phone holds an easy-glide trackball (similar to the trackball found on RIM BlackBerry devices) and five buttons: a green talk button to activate the phone itself; a home button to return you to home screen; a back button to move to the previously viewed screen in the browser and throughout the phone; a red end button; and a rectangular, context-sensitive menu button. This last button is conveniently situated beneath the screen (double press the button to quickly release the screen lock; hold it down for a couple of seconds to get a shortcut screen to recently used applications) and directly above the trackball.
A full QWERTY keyboard hides beneath display; when you press the middle left part of the phone, the display smoothly slides up. At the same time, the phone automatically rotates the screen's orientation from vertical to horizontal; you have to use the horizontal orientation for data entry tasks, as the phone lacks an on-screen keyboard (unlike the Apple iPhone 3G or the RIM BlackBerry Storm).
The roomy backlit keyboard made typing easy, though the buttons felt a bit too flat for my comfort (because the flat buttons butt up against the rim of the phone, pressing the bottom row of buttons was sometimes difficult; the same issue arose with the buttons at the far right). My right thumb had to work harder than my left because, in effect, the keyboard was deeply inset (my thumb had to reach around and over the bottom fifth of the phone to reach it).
The only other physical buttons on the phone are a volume rocker switch on the upper left side, and a dedicated camera shutter button on the right side. A microSD Card slot is hidden on the left of the phone; to access it, you open the screen and press a subtle tab; the card then pops out of the side (warning: you'll need fingernails to get it to pop out easily). T-Mobile includes a 1GB card; the device has been tested with up to 8GB microSD Cards, and should support 16GB cards when available.
The rear cover pops off to reveal the unit's battery and SIM card. Because (like other HTC-designed handsets) the phone lacks a standard dedicated headphone jack, you have to use the included wired stereo headset, which plugs into the proprietary jack at the phone's base–the same jack that the charger plugs into. T-Mobile plans to offer a converter at extra cost, but the dongle approach seems as bothersome and inelegant as the original Apple iPhone's nonstandard headphone jack was. It's too bad, because the phone is certainly a capable media player.
Phone Use: The phone feels good in the hand, and it sounded great when I tested it. I received both 3G and EDGE network coverage in the San Francisco Bay Area; audio was clear, with no background noise or hiss.
In the PC World Test Center, the battery lasted for 5 hours, 51 minutes of continuous talk time–23 minutes longer than the iPhone 3G. In my hands-on use, the battery drained a bit faster than I had expected, though: After an hour of use (including phone calls, and music and application downloads), the battery had drained by 31 percent.
The Dialer application is simple to use. The on-screen buttons are well-spaced, and I had no difficulty using the app one-handed. Unlike with the iPhone 3G, I didn't accidentally trigger buttons by running my finger over the screen. I particularly liked the streamlined process for entering contact data, and the freedom I had to customize a contact's info to match the fields I wanted to fill. The Voice Dialer worked well when I tried it in a quiet environment.
Hardware and Software Integration: As with Apple's iPhone and its software, the integration of the G1's hardware with the Android software is crucial. Here, both the phone and Android shine: Thanks to its trackball and its slide-and-glide gesture-capable touch screen, the G1 had particularly intuitive and smooth ergonomics. Displays behaved as my fingers seemed to expect them to–except that I couldn't swipe left-to-right to scroll through pictures in my photo library, as I could with an iPhone 3G. The touch screen was usually highly responsive, but sometimes when I'd touch a hypertext link in the browser, I had to press twice for it to take. I liked being able to use my finger to drag open the Notifications status to see additional details about incoming text, instant, voice, and e-mail messages; and calendar events.
As the first Android device, the G1 teems with potential, and exploring the new interface is fun. Google's own clean, simple Web design has clearly informed much of Android's interface–and how you interact with the applications. You can tweak and customize everything, either through the deep and varied Settings options or through suitable apps.
The opening home screen consists of a myFaves icon at the upper left, an analog clock icon in the middle, and four primary applications: Dialer (also known as the phone), contacts, browser, and maps. Hold your finger down on an app, and the phone will vibrate once and release the icon so that you can move it to another spot on the screen.
Swipe your finger to the right, and the wallpaper continues onto a second home screen, with a Google search bar permanently fixed at its top. Press or drag the tab at the bottom of the screen (in vertical orientation; in horizontal orientation, the tab shows at right) to reveal the other applications. The icons, arrayed in rows of four, will include all of your applications. Apps are arranged alphabetically; the icons are smaller and slightly less distinctive than on the Apple iPhone, but they're comparable to what you'd see on a Palm OS or BlackBerry OS device. Hold your finger down on an icon to duplicate the icon on the home screen.
The phone has both assisted GPS and GPS. The Google Maps app built-in uses both, but in my casual tests in San Francisco, it didn't exhibit the same level of accuracy in picking up my location as an iPhone 3G's Google Maps app did.
At launch, the G1 doesn't support the stereo Bluetooth profile, according to T-Mobile; however, the phone may support stereo Bluetooth at some future time.
Applications: The phone comes with a number of apps preinstalled–and you can add tons more via the Android Market. The versatile IM lets you configure instant messaging with AIM, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger, and Yahoo Messenger. Because Android permits multitasking–and no app actually closes–you can receive IMs after you've left the IM app to browse the Web, for example. (With the iPhone, you won't get your messages if you leave the IM app, and you have to log in again each time.)
Mail from Gmail gets its own icon, but you can set up other POP3 and IMAP e-mail accounts as well, in just a couple of steps (the software automatically configures the server settings). The calendar syncs with your Google Calendar. I had no trouble viewing the various calendar entries I'm privy to, or adding an entry to my calendar, but I couldn't add an entry to other Google Calendars that I have rights to. And bizarrely, Android has no Google Docs support at launch; the only way you can access Google Docs is through the Web browser–a bit of a pain. You can view Microsoft Word and Excel documents through Gmail, but you can't save and view these docs through the Web browser. Similarly, you can open and read PDF files received through Gmail.
The Web browser handled much of what I threw at it, but it balked at some tasks (for example, it lacks in-browser Flash support). I missed having discrete forward and backward controls (you can go back only by clicking the universal hardware back button) and an option for offline viewing (as on a Palm OS-based Treo), but adding and retrieving bookmarks was simple.
Multimedia: The Amazon MP3 app is a useful alternative to iTunes, and music downloaded quickly and easily. I could queue up the DRM-free tracks for download, which occurred in the background as I did other things with the phone. Unfortunately, the selection is less extensive than the one on iTunes.
The music player application is easy to navigate, and great for finding and playing back music. Music sounded okay when piped through the built-in speaker (on a par with the iPhone 3G's speaker). But the lack of a standard headphone jack limits the G1's potential as a music player.
The camera app is a big disappointment. Though the device has a 3-megapixel camera, it lacks a flash, a zoom, and any controls for adjust image quality, white balance, or the like. There's no camcorder, either, though T-Mobile says that the imaging sensor can capture video if someone writes a video capture app and offers it on the Android Market.
Final Analysis: T-Mobile's Android-based G1 isn't especially sexy or eye-catching, but it does a lot of things right. It's a strong first-generation Android device, but the absence of a standard headphone jack, a video camera, and Google Docs (and support for Word and Excel) at launch are notable detractions. Still, I would recommend this versatile phone over countless other smart-phones; Android's intuitive ease-of-use raises this phone above most Windows Mobile- and BlackBerry-based devices.


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AUBURNDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Coca-Cola Co. says it is spending $2 billion to support the planting of 25,000 acres of new orange groves in Florida, a move officials are lauding as a major investment in the Sunshine State's citrus industry.
The announcement is being made at a late-morning news conference at Coca-Cola's juice production plant in Auburndale. Details were released in advance to The Associated Press.
Coca-Cola owns the Minute Maid and Simply juice brands.
"It's an investment in a market that's very important to us," said Steve Cahillane, the president of Coca-Cola Americas.
Some 5 million new trees will be planted in the new groves, believed to be the largest citrus addition in the state for at least 15 years. The groves will be located in Polk, DeSoto and Hendry counties in central Florida.
Company officials say the new groves and resulting juice production are expected to add about 4,100 jobs to Florida's economy.
The move also is seen as a boost to historically declining acreage devoted to citrus production in Florida. During the state's past housing boom, many citrus farmers sold their land to developers. Since 1997, total citrus acreage has fallen by 25 percent, from 600,000 acres to 450,000 acres, because of the disease, pests and other pressures, according to Florida Citrus Mutual.
Coca-Cola officials said that the Florida Citrus Commission is working on an economic study centered on the company's investment, and that a preliminary draft shows that over the course of 25 years the expansion will add more than $10.5 billion — or $422 million per year — to Florida's economy. Company officials said Coca-Cola buys a third of all Florida oranges.
Coca-Cola reported its first-quarter results in mid-April; they topped Wall Street expectations as sales volume rose in emerging markets. Shares of Coca-Cola Co. rose nearly 6 percent to $42.37 and touched their highest point since the late 1990s.
Cahillane said that the company also purchases juice from Brazil, Florida's biggest competitor in the juice industry. He said that different harvest times in each location allow the company to give customers "consistent, great tasting juice." About 90 percent of Florida's oranges are used for juice; by contrast, the majority of California's orange crop is sold as fresh fruit. Florida is second in the world for orange juice production, behind Brazil.
Under the program, two Florida growers will each plant 12,500 acres.
Bill Becker, president of Peace River Citrus Products in Vero Beach, is one of the growers. He said the new trees will be planted on land that once held citrus groves or on lands that are currently idle.
"It's a big help to the entire industry and to the state, for that matter," said Becker, adding that the research being done in Florida about the deadly citrus greening disease has bolstered the company's confidence in the long-term health of the state's citrus industry.
"Without some of the research that we're conducting now, they'd probably be less enthused about planting," he said.
Becker said he hopes that Coca-Cola's investment will reverse the trend of declining citrus acreage in Florida.
The state's citrus crop suffered huge losses this past season due to warm, dry weather, too much fruit on each tree and citrus greening disease.
According to the Florida Citrus Mutual, the citrus industry directly and indirectly contributes some 76,000 jobs in Florida.


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No matter what style or size you have there are area rugs that can suit. Chosen primarily for decoration purposes, area rugs also help make the floor more comfortable to walk on and can even help insulate to keep the room warmer. Area rugs are popular in rooms with tile, laminate or hardwood floors because they need some extra comfort and warmth for the people who come in and out.
If you want to add area rugs to your home, it is important to choose the right sizes and shapes for each particular purpose.
In a large room, such as the living room, area rugs can be used in two different ways. First of all, you can get a very large area rug such as a hand-knotted Oriental design that covers the majority of the floor. Secondly, you could get separate smaller rugs to delineate different sections of the room.
For example, place one of your area rugs between the couches on the television side of the room to create a cozy watching nook and other area rug on the other side where stately chairs cluster around fireplace and bookshelves.
Area rugs are often used in kitchens and bathrooms to provide a comfortable place to stand that is both easier on the feet and absorbent of any spills or humidity. Of course, these rugs also do a great job at decorating the rooms with more color and style. To invite people into your home and gives the impression of welcoming, you might consider rugs that match one after the other.


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ARCADIA, Kan. — Three winning tickets for last weekend's record $656 million Mega Millions drawing were sold, but no person has stepped forward to claim the prize. However, one dog has.
Princess, a golden retriever-poodle mix from Arcadia, Kansas, walked into her local lottery precinct with a verified winning ticket tucked in her collar. That would hypothetically award the dog $218 million before taxes.
"We were just shocked," said Kristie Thornbug, the clerk who verified the ticket. "The dog's collar gives a name but doesn't give any contact information for the people who may own the dog. As far as we know, this is the dog's winnings."
The dog is currently being held at the facility until any owners show up to claim it. To protect against false claims, authorities will not hand her over until visual proof, as well as papers detailing Princess's medical check-ups and shots records are provided.
Mega Millions officials are scratching their heads and hoping a legitimate owner steps forward. If no owners step forward, this would provide an unprecedented problem for the multi-jurisdictional lottery game. No dog has ever been awarded winnings on a nationwide lottery. However, towns in Texas, Mississippi and Georgia have given local-based lottery or instant game winnings to several animals in certain circumstances before laws were eventually enacted to prohibit the practice. One notable example is a domestic cat in Jacksonville winning $3 for successfully revealing a match on a scratchcard in 1983.


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Leftovers… what to do with them is always the question. If you love risotto, you know the leftovers are generally a gummy, sticky mess. But add a couple key ingredients and this "leftover mess" can become something beautiful on it's own!
The other night my friend requested these little cakes so I whipped them up with some leftover saffron risotto and served them on top of some mushroom gravy. They went over very well! It doesn't mater what kind of risotto at all. Choose a sauce to serve with them depending on what you have on hand. Some of my favorites to use are mushroom gravy, tomato sauce, alfredo sauce, vegan nacho cheese, and any kind of aioli. Definitely give these cakes a try next time you've got leftover risotto.
Risotto Cakes
leftover risotto (here's one of my recipes)
a couple tbsp. flour (gluten free or all purpose)
a couple tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup breadcrumbs (I like gluten free panko best for an extra crunch)
In a large mixing bowl, mix the leftover risotto. If you have any large chunks of veggies in it, cut them up a bit and add back in. If the risotto is wet, add a bit of flour until you can form it into patties. If the risotto is too dry, add a bit of olive oil. Form patties and press in the breadcrumbs on both sides.
In a large skillet, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil and fry the cakes until lightly browned on both sides. Serve immediately with my mushroom gravy or your favorite sauce.


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Volvo ECU Remapping
We have long been involved in tuning the engine ECU on diesel powered Volvo cars. ECU Remapping can liberate torque and power on all diesel Volvo models. Remapping the ECU on your Volvo will not only bring a higher state of tune, it will remove the flat spots and increase throttle response as well as make the power delivery smoother and more immediate.
We can remap the engine ECU on all Volvo models including the VC30, C70, S60, S80, V40, V50, V60, V70, XC60, XC70, &XC90.
[table id=43 /]


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Two football player high school students in Connecticut are charged with the second-degree sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl. The allegations come amid other complaints of hazing at the school, but Torrington High School officials insist that these are individual instances and not a part of a larger cultural problem.
But whether or not the alleged rapists Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, both 18, are maverick sexual assailants isn't really the cultural question. Rather, the fact that students in the neighborhood and the school have taken to Twitter blame the young girl and not the alleged rapists highlights a broader rape culture that assumes men are only haphazardly involved in sexual assault, but it is usually the victim's fault:
"If you look at crime statistics these things happen everywhere and we're not any different than any other community," said [Athletic Director Mike McKenna].
But on social media in recent weeks, dozens of athletes and Torrington High School students, male and female, have taunted the 13-year-old victim, calling her a "whore," criticizing her for "snitching" and "ruining the lives" of the 18-year-old football players, and bullying students who defend her.
The Connecticut Register-Citizen highlights some of the offensive tweets about the girl:
"I wanna know why there's no punishment for young hoes," asked "@asmedick." That comment was reposted three times.
Twelve days after the alleged incident, "@AyooWilliam" tweeted, "You destroyed two people's life." Another responded, "I hope you got what you wanted."
"Sticking up for a girl who wanted the D and then snitched? have a seat pleaseeee," wrote "@ShelbyyKalinski."
As the case in Steubenville proved, social media has brought a whole new slew of evidence to sexual assault allegations, particularly among young people. Unfortunately, the lesson some news outlets take from this is that Steubenville was "a cautionary tale for teenagers living in today's digital world." In reality, social media helps to underline a very real problem: A victim-blaming rape culture that is inclined to take the side of the assailant instead of the victim.
(HT: Raw Story)


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Recently by Frank Holmes: All Signs Pointing to Gold
Last weekend marked the official start of the holiday shopping season in the U.S., so for the next month, consumers will be enticed with daily deals on the latest fads, such as one-cup coffee makers, tablets, flat screens and cashmere sweaters.
According to the latest survey from the Consumer Electronic Association, about 60 percent of adults plan to shop in stores or online during the holiday weekend, with the average person indicating they'll fork over $218 for gifts and merchandise from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday.
This is a sharp increase from 2011, where shoppers said they'd spend $159.
For the ultimate gold lover on your shopping list, one amazing purchase you can nab is a Christmas tree complete with Disney characters and gold leaf ribbons made of 88 pounds of pure gold from a jewelry store in Tokyo, according to Reuters.
The ornamental tree will set you back $4.2 million, but there's also a smaller version available for $243,000.
But that's not the only thing that has grabbed my attention this holiday season. Here are 5 other amazing consumer trends that are happening around the world.
1. Fifth Avenue no longer the world's most expensive retail location
The New York strip boasting high-end shopping, including Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton, Hugo Boss and Fendi, has been knocked from its No. 1 position as the retail area with the top rental rates around the world. Hong Kong's Causeway Bay area commands more per square foot than any other place on the globe, according to a report from Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate firm.
Tourists and mainland China residents have been flocking to Causeway Bay to shop at places including Burberry, Coach and Gucci that are among its Times Square's 230 shops located on 16 floors. Shoppers can also head to Causeway Bay's Fashion Walk, which features local fashion designers and trends catering to a young and fashionable crowd.
2. China set to be the second largest luxury market by 2017
With sales of luxury goods including designer handbags, clothes, jewelry, fine wine and spirits growing 18 percent every year in China, the country is on track to surpass Japan, Italy and France as the biggest luxury market in the world. While the U.S. is still projected to remain the top country in luxury-goods sales, consumers in Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) have been closing the gap. Luxury sales in BRIC countries made up only 4 percent of the total in 2007, but at the end of 2012, it's expected to be 11 percent.
3. Viva Macau is gaming capital of the world
The city of Macau, which is the only Chinese territory where casino gambling is legal, is the world's largest gambling town. In 2011, casinos took in $33.5 billion, five times more than the establishments in Las Vegas.
With a population of 500,000, the city's average citizen makes more than the average person in Europe. Over the last decade, Macau has grown by 19 percent a year-twice as fast as mainland China. It continues to see a whole lot of money that's ready to burn, to quote Elvis Presley, and American casino companies have been clamoring for a piece of the action. Steve Wynn opened a casino in Macau in 2006 and now makes most of his profits there, says The New Yorker. Sheldon Adelson built Sands Macau in 2004, and later opened a $2.4 billion Venetian Macau which houses the largest casino floor in the world. In September 2012, Adelson unveiled plans for The Parisian, which will have 3,000 rooms and a 50 percent scale replica of the Eiffel Tower.
4. Inexpensive Indian Aakash 2 could revolutionize tablet industry
A 7-inch Android tablet developed in India may present stiff competition to the more expensive counterparts made by Apple and Google, potentially making all tablets a little less expensive in the future.
Datawind's Aakash 2, with 512MB of RAM and 800 x 480 pixel resolution, was developed as an affordable way to get technology, especially e-books and the Internet, into the hands of students in India. Deployed by the government in post-secondary schools, the Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development subsidizes some of the cost, making the tablet available to college students for $35. To help students access the Internet on the tablets, the government has been working to connect 600 universities and 1,200 colleges with broadband and Wi-Fi.
5. Emerging market residents don't need a bank account to pay with their mobile wallet
A lack of financial infrastructure is making phone-based payment systems attractive in some emerging markets around the world. Due to the growing number of cell phones in the Philippines along with overseas Filipinos who send money back to their families, the mobile money payment business offered by Smart Communications and Globe Telecom has been consistently growing in recent years.
M-Pesa has been successful in Kenya, allowing people without bank accounts to move funds quickly via mobile money transfers. Increased security and convenient access to money are among the biggest benefits, especially for those living in rural areas
U.S. firms are making sure they aren't left out of this growing business: In 2011, San Francisco-based Visa purchased South African firm Fundamo, which provides mobile phone-based payment services in the underbanked emerging markets in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Just as the love of gold is intertwined throughout the East and the West these days, globalization is making the world more connected than ever.
Soon, "keeping up with the Joneses" may no longer refer to only the neighbors who live on our block. In emerging markets, supportive government policies, rising wealth and access to innovative technology may be an influential source for future Black Friday purchases in the U.S.
Reprinted with permission from Money Morning.
Frank Holmes is chief executive officer and chief investment officer of U.S. Global Investors Inc. The company is a registered investment adviser that manages approximately $4.8 billion in 13 no-load mutual funds and for other advisory clients. A Toronto native, he bought a controlling interest in U.S. Global Investors in 1989, after an accomplished career in Canada's capital markets. His specialized knowledge gives him expertise in resource-based industries and money management.


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God Bless
July 04, 2007
It was on July 4, 2006 that my mom passed away, and so I've had a year to think about it, accept it, and sometimes forget that she's not around. Just a week ago my wife was showing me some handbags for sale at a charity event and I said "My mom would like that one." It was a kind of wild African pattern and she probably would have liked it. But it was still a weird feeling to think of her in the present when she has already passed.
I still get occasional emails and postings on this site. I hope it can be a valuable resource for others, either people who knew my mother or those who have cancer in their family. I've written about as much as I ever want to write about cancer for a while, so for new visitors I have marked a set of posts below as highlights. These are the items that I think may be most useful for anyone trying to understand the process or sort out their own feelings. I encourage you also to leave your comments on the blog by clicking on the comments link below any posting.
God bless everyone. Think of my mom today. And God bless Mary.
Note: I inadvertently let the domain name TuesdaysWithMary expire, breaking many of the links to photos and posts. I have fixed these now.
You can view the site using the navigation at the top and on the left hand side, or by using www.zurlocker.typepad.com/mary
- Introduction - Why I wrote the blog
- Fast Facts about Ovarian Cancer - Sobering statistics
- Hurt - A Johnny Cash song summarized my feelings
- Long Dark Drive - Me and my thoughts driving from Miami in January
- What Do You Think of All This? - Visiting in the hospital
- Closure - Me, my mom and Bob Marley
- A Good Day - A conversation with my sister
- Good News - Back in Florida with my wife in February
- CA-125 Scores - The ups and downs
- Back in the Swing - My mother had a short recovery in April
- Palm Sunday - My mother is solemn but doing well
- Easter Monday - My mother outlives doctors' predictions
- Faith - My parents consider more chemo
- Sister Mary Jane - My views on medical marijuana
- Hospital again - Another trip back
- Decision - Deciding to abandon chemotherapy
- Back Home Again - With kind words from my mom's doctor
- The Beginning of the End - One more trip to Florida
- Taking a Trip - Understanding the final days
- The Last Goodbye - Final words to my mom
- Waiting - Camped out at my parent's house
- The Last Breath - And the saying of the rosary
- Funeral - Including a memorial tribute
External Resources


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A voluntary recall for blood pressure medication that may contain a potentially cancer-causing impurity in humans has been expanded. It's the latest in dozens of recalls for blood pressure medication since last July.
Teva Pharmaceuticals USA is expanding its April 25 recall for losartan potassium tablets because they may contain N-Nitroso-N-methyl-4-aminobutyric acid (NMBA) at levels higher than the FDA's acceptable exposure limit.
The expanded recall involves six lots of bulk losartan potassium USP Tablets. Two lots are of 50 mg strength and four lots are of 100 mg strength.
The bulk lots were sold to Golden State Medical Supply, Inc., packaged under GSMS's own label and distributed in retail bottles of 30, 90 and 1000 tablets, according to the company. A full list of these is available at this link.
The FDA has stated throughout these recalls that the risk of developing cancer by taking these recalled medications over a long period of time is extremely low, but the risk is still there.
"The FDA calculated that if you took the very highest dose of one of the affected medicines over four years, and you took the medicine that was the most contaminated, the risk is an additional one case in 8,000 people," said Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a video statement earlier this year.
Patients have been consistently advised to not quit their blood pressure medication until they talk to a doctor about alternatives.
People wishing to return their medications are advised to contact Teva's product recall processor. Contact Inmar at 877-789-2065 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, Monday – Friday or email Inmar at email@example.com. Teva says Inmar will provide the materials needed to return the medication and get instructions for reimbursement.


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Elephant, Ranger Protections Endorsed—But Do They Have Teeth?
Motions passed amid spike in African elephant poaching.
Amid an unprecedented spike in African elephant poaching, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) last week passed two motions it hopes will bolster protection for elephants and the park rangers who look after them.
The motions were approved without debate at the World Conservation Congress in Jeju, South Korea. (Related: "In War to Save Elephants, Rangers Appeal for Aid.")
The highest recorded rate of elephant poaching in a decade occurred in 2011, with tens of thousands of the animals slaughtered, their ivory smuggled out of East African seaports en route to East Asia. A 1989 CITES treaty banned international trade in elephant ivory.
One motion calls on all countries with African elephants to "prioritize the protection and conservation of elephant populations" and to ensure adequate legislation, penalties, and incentive programs for local people living among elephants.
Mary Rice, head of the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency, said by email that she has concerns about the elephant-protection motion, which "does not call for curbing the ongoing international illegal trade in ivory through coordination with key authorities such as INTERPOL."
"This is crucial for tackling illegal wildlife trade, which is serious transnational organized crime."
In the second motion, Africa's rangers asked the IUCN leadership "to encourage member states, governments, civil society, and local and international NGOs and foundations to provide support for the initiative of improved wildlife-resource protection."
The IUCN also made the unusual move of calling for a "high-level" meeting of conservationists as soon as possible to "recommend urgent measures" to stop the killing of elephants. (See pictures of ivory poaching in National Geographic magazine.)
"Road Is Long" for Protecting Rangers
Tim Snow, whose organization, the Game Rangers Association of Africa (GRAA), sponsored the motion to fund new training programs and equipment for rangers, said he's delighted that the IUCN has recognized the issue of protecting rangers.
But, he said, "The crux is that the IUCN motion has merely exposed the problem and elevated it to international awareness levels."
Already this year, increasingly well-armed and violent poachers have killed dozens of rangers in Africa, many of whom lack adequate training or equipment with which to respond.
"We don't just need more guns, we don't need escalating warfare—we need more trained rangers on the ground, so you can let people qualified to deal with the problem deal with it," Snow said.
"That should be the status quo in all conservation areas, not just [those] with rhinos and elephants," he added.
The first step, he said, will be for the GRAA to work with IUCN's regional offices to survey the current standard of ranger training in their areas, and then begin to work out what needs to be improved.
But helping out with the survey will likely be the IUCN's only financial contribution to keeping rangers safe, Snow said.
"We as rangers in GRAA will have to continue to fight for the support we need.
"The load is still heavy, and the road is long. And the problem is real."
Cameroon Boosting Ranger Force
At least one government isn't waiting for new ranger training programs.
Cameroon has already padded its ranger force and increased the days of a ranger's military training from 45 to 120, Ngole Philip Ngwese, Cameroon's minister of forestry and wildlife, said during a press briefing last week in Jeju. About 500 rangers will soon be graduating from that course.
The boost is in response to an incident in January, when "poachers of a different class, extraordinarily violent, well equipped and well trained" entered Cameroon's Bouba Ndjidah National Park on horses and camels, Ngwese said.
The Sudanese poachers, individually skilled in killing elephants and removing their ivory, slayed 200 animals. (See a graphic of where ivory poaching occurs in Africa.)
The ten rangers, or "ecoguards," on duty could not stop the surprise attack, and the government had to call in elite members of the army who drove out the poachers within a month and are still monitoring the situation.
"Our ecoguards are not as trained and equipped as these people who came to massacre the elephants—obviously they had the upper hand," Ngwese said.
The increased ranger training will also ideally save human lives—between two to three ecoguards are killed on duty each year in Cameroon.
Local People Need Incentives
The poachers who invaded Cameroon were also successful because they could melt in among the local people, to whom they gave meat from the killed elephants, Ngwese said.
But some locals also saw the elephant deaths "as a relief," he said.
That's because elephants sometimes wander outside park boundaries, destroying villagers' crops and homes and even killing people.
That's "something we in the West have to keep in mind," said Matt Lewis, senior program officer for African Species Conservation at World Wildlife Fund.
"I always tell people, put yourself in their shoes"—a rural villager may have to walk several miles to a watering hole, only to be killed by an elephant, he said.
"It's easy to love [elephants] from afar, [but] it's a lot more difficult when they're your neighbors."
That's why it's key that the motion to protect elephants also calls upon "African elephant range states to ensure that local communities reap benefits as well as bearing the costs of living with elephants," Lewis noted.
But IUCN's role in working with countries to create incentives for people to live with elephants "is a bit more tricky," Lewis said.
"IUCN doesn't have any power to make sure this really happens. What IUCN has done in the past on similar issues is to develop standards, or 'best practices' for conservation, which they can then encourage the [African elephant] range states to follow," he said.
One example, Lewis suggested, could be setting up guidelines for a mechanism to share profits from tourism or sustainable hunting of elephants with communities that live around protected areas.
Preempting Elephant Conflicts
Cameroon's Ngwese also noted that governments need to take steps to preempt elephant-human conflicts.
He said he's "really impressed" by a new initiative in Kenya that fences large tracts of protected areas to keep elephants from straying onto private land.
Fencing is "incredibly expensive," said Lewis, although "it's possible to fence around populated areas preventing elephants from entering but still allowing them to move where they need to go, and protect people at the same time."
Ngwese said he's "looking forward" to putting in place similar measures.
Overall, there's a lot to be done to make sure governments and organizations put the motions into action, the GRAA's Snow said.
IUCN Motions "Pathetic," Expert Says
Because IUCN is an organization of voluntary members, its motions lack the teeth of an international treaty—they serve primarily to raise awareness.
That doesn't sit well with some conservationists, including Nairobi-based Richard Leakey, a former grantee of the National Geographic Society, of which National Geographic News is a division.
"That's the best IUCN can come up with?" Leakey said with irritation.
He said the language of the motions is couched in "pathetic" diplomatic terms that do not have any real power to halt the decline in elephants, which, according to Leakey, may be gone in some African countries in five years.
"We're sitting about piddling while Rome burns," he said. "I mean really, why don't they come up with a resolution that all member states should never again trade in any ivory because it's a disaster for the species?
"It seems to be a classic example of why international bodies like IUCN and CITES have served their purpose," Leakey added. "Just like at the grocery store, when your shelf life is over, you're discarded."
For more on the elephant-poaching crisis, see the investigative report in the October issue of National Geographic magazine on newsstands, the magazine's website, and the National Geographic iPad app.


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The Classic FM Christmas playlist
Christmas on Classic FM
Christmas features
"Once in a generation talent" – 12-year-old treble Malakai Bayoh sings 'Walking in the Air' with Aled Jones
What makes the perfect Christmas carol? We asked choral composing legend John Rutter...
Christmas music, carols and songs
In medieval times, the word 'carol' referred to a round dance with musical accompaniment ('carole' in French). It later developed into a song form of verses and a refrain.
Not all the original texts had Christmassy words but many were associated with Mary, Advent and Christmas. The term has since come to be applied to all Christmas songs, whether or not in carol form.
Christmas Carols were introduced to formal church services by St. Francis of Assisi.
'One of the oldest printed English Christmas carols is the Boar's Head Carol, sung as the traditional dish is carried in on Christmas Day at Queen's College, Oxford; it was printed in 1521.' (Oxford Dictionary of Music)
Christmas carol fans will be pleased that they were not alive between 1649 and 1660, when Christmas carols were banned by Oliver Cromwell. He thought that worship should be solemn, and so Christmas was only celebrated in England by a simple service at that time.
'Silent Night' was written in 1818 by Austrian priest Joseph Mohr. He was told the day before Christmas Eve that the church organ was broken and would not be repaired in time for the Christmas Eve service so he wrote a carol that could be sung by choir and guitar. The result - 'Stille Nacht'.
English church musician W.H. Cummings adapted a theme from Mendelssohn's choral work Festgesang for the Christmas carol Hark! the Herald Angels Sing.
In a carol symphony, four movements are held together by one main carol and other carols are used for secondary themes. The first composer to write a carol symphony was Victor Hely-Hutchinson (1901-47), who was born in South Africa but lived in England for most of his life. His carol symphony begins with 'Adeste Fideles' followed by 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen', the 'Coventry Carol' and a touch of 'The First Nowell'. Finally, the symphony finishes with 'Here We Come A Wassailing' and 'Adeste Fideles'.


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Memorial Day is a week away, time to celebrate the Red, White and Blue!
And I'm joining my blogging friends to share some floral inspiration and Monday Morning Blooms! You'll find my floral friends' links to their blooming creations at the bottom of this post.
Thank you for joining me for a little flower therapy this morning. Our challenge for this week's edition of MMB was to use blue and white vessels or dishes with flowers. I also used a pop of red for a patriotic nod to Memorial Day!
If you're a reader of my blog, you may have noticed I have *slight* dish addiction. I don't discriminate. . .I love both new and old dishes alike!
Blue and white floral salad plates were found at Pottery Barn a couple of years ago. New, with a vintage appearance from a crackle glaze and transferware-inspired floral motif.
And I'm weighing in on transferware love!
What is transferware? Nancy Roberts at Nancy's Daily Dish:
Transferware is a timeless, decorative art form of pottery. It is the term given to pottery which has had a pattern applied to it by the transferring of a design from an inked, hand engraved, warmed copper plate to a wet tissue paper and then onto the body of pottery it decorates. Transferware is most commonly found on earthenware, but also on ironstone, porcelain and bone china. The majority of transferware was produced in the Staffordshire region of England.
Although more blue was produced than other colors, colored transferware became popular in America in the 1830s and was exported in red, pink, purple, cranberry, brown, black, green, yellow, gray and various combinations of colors. Feast your eyes on all these beautiful pieces in Nancy's shop, here.
My blue transferware pieces are a hodge podge, picked up over time. Pieces a little shabby and time-worn. . .
Pieces with crazing. . .
Gravy boats that are chipped. . .
Tureens and sugar bowls with missing lids.
All perfectly imperfect to serve up flowers!
The first flush of Endless Summer Hydrangeas have arrived, a cause for celebration!
They've really opened up since last week when I cut a few first blooms for this table. They're joining Japanese privet, red and white tulips and red alstroemeria from the grocery store.
A pair of gardening gloves hold a napkin and provide a pocket for assorted vintage flatware, a fun addition for a garden club lunch or tabletop fun in Potting Shed.
I'm always on the look out to add a blooming fork or spoon to my collection, especially when I can pick one up for a dollar or two at an antique mall.
Time to fly the flags. . .
Celebrate the Red, White and Blue!
Visit my talented blogging friends to see their beautiful floral inspiration this week:
Pam at Everyday Living
Shirley at Housepitality Designs
Lidy at FrenchGardenHouse was unable to join us this week. She'll return to join us on June 3rd.