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As a senior at Oglethorpe, my current goals involve deciding where I want to go with my life, which paths I wish to embark upon and which journeys I will undertake. Ironically, on a physical plane, my navigational abilities are not exactly "present." Maps and signs befuddle me, as do landmarks, and I can find myself getting lost in ways that are so bizarre as to be impressive… from a certain angle, that is. While my "impressive" skills at getting lost were no different at Georgia State's Modern Media Conference (it took me half an hour to find the cafeteria), in a deeper sense, there was some direction to be found—the type of direction that every college senior ultimately desires.
I chose to attend Georgia State's conference because of my editor position with The Tower literary magazine, as well as my internship with Oglethorpe's Pegasus Creative (the University Communication department's newly-launched student communications agency that gives us the opportunity to gain real world experience in a collaborative team environment). The conference, held September 28-29, was packed with more than 20 guest speakers from major media outlets such as CNN, ESPN, WSB-TV, HLN, and WXIA. I was accompanied by Director of Communications Renee Vary, Assistant Director Debbie Aiken '12, and Pegasus Creative's Web Content Development Intern Debra Bryant '12 (who also came on behalf of The Nightcap, the Evening Degree Program's newsletter.)
The four of us had numerous lectures to choose from, some headed by photojournalists, others by newspaper editors, and a few by the professors at Georgia State themselves. The variety of seminars offered went far beyond what I had anticipated, and I used up an entire booklet taking notes on what was discussed.
Throughout the course of the day, I was able to attend five sessions, ranging from a passionate lecture called "Get to the Damn Point!" (something which I have admittedly not done yet—read on!) to an informative presentation on what makes student government an exciting body to report on. (As a member of our school's SGA, this was especially topical for me!). Journalist and Editor Michael Koretzky ended the conference with several stories concerning his own experiences in the professional world; he encouraged the audience to "be fired for the right reason," before recounting several situations in which he was fired for just that.
So, what is the "darn" point of me writing this? Well, there are several points I wish to share with you—I had fun, I learned a lot, and I hope to have more opportunities like this in the future. Is this where I want to go with my life? Do I want to work in PR, journalism, broadcasting, or some other form of media? I don't know, but I now see them as options, which puts me a step closer to finding my way than I was before.


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India: Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, Srirangam, Tamil Nadu
The Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple or Thiruvarangam is a Hindu temple dedicated to Ranganatha, a reclining form of Hindu deity, Vishnu. Constructed in the Dravidian style of architecture, this temple is often listed as the largest functioning Hindu temple in the world. Its origins are not clear, but the temple has been mentioned in early medieval Tamil literature from the 6th to 9th centuries AD.Read More

subset: commoncrawl


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Honouring our poetic ancestors
to be blessed, throat, eye and knucklebone.
Honouring our poetic ancestors
|Oweynagat ('cave of the cats'), one of the many 'gateways to the Otherword' from whence beings and spirits were said to have emerged on Samhain.
|On All Hallows' Eve, Christians in some parts of the world visit graveyards to pray and place flowers and candles on the graves of their loved ones.
This is not the terrifying 'Game of Thrones' winter, which many of us now think of when we encounter those words, 'winter is coming'. This winter is inevitable too, but natural, and has not yet arrived although it's on the way. The double meaning doesn't hammer you over the head, but it's clear enough. Yet this is predominantly a poem about love. I've lived the love of the aged, still taking care of each other as best they can, still expressing love in romantic ways — such as dancing in the kitchen. I love the tenderness portrayed here.
And I love the poet's affection for both parents, in particular the portrait of the father 'at peace with the silence' of his beloved woods, or surrendering to the earth for a moment after his fall before pushing against it.
There's a quiet music in this poem, and a sureness of tone. As a work of art, I think it's beautifully realised.Winter is Coming was written for Mark's parents while they were still alive, and he later read it as part of the eulogy for his mother.
Knowing that I'm a poet, friends and acquaintances sometimes like to show me other people's poems, either to share their own pleasure in a find, or to see what I think of them. That's how I came to know of Mark Salo's poetry, when a neighbour said, 'Don't you think this is good?'Yes, I certainly did! And I immediately wanted to feature him here.
|Olive Trees with the Alpilles in the Background (1889), Vincent van Gogh
|Trees and Undergrowth (1887), Vincent van Gogh
|Pink peach trees ("Souvenir de Mauve"), Vincent van Gogh (1888)
|Undergrowth with Two Figures (1890), Vincent van Gogh
|Cypresses (1889), Vincent van Gogh


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This morning's moon seen through my window for skywatch Friday.
My thanks to the hosts of Skywatch Fridayhttp://skyley.blogspot.com/ for continuing to host this very popular Friday skywatch meme. If you would like to post your own photos or just enjoy looking to see the photographic offerings of others, please scroll down this page and look upon the right hand side to click on the skywatch logo to go to the meme. A happy Friday to all.


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Deborah Fox
Deborah Fox is the Artistic Director and founder, in 2005, of Pegasus Early Music, Rochester's early music concert series. She is a lutenist with a span of repertoire ranging from medieval to baroque music. She has performed with major early music ensembles and festivals from Newfoundland to Australia, including the Carmel Bach Festival, Glimmerglass Opera, Les Violons du Roy (Montreal), Spoleto Festival, Opera Atelier, Aradia, Tafelmusik, Concert Royal, Brandywine Baroque, Music of the Baroque and Callipygian Players, and others. She has made frequent trips to Australia to work with Pinchgut Opera in Sydney. She received the Certificate of Advanced Studies in Early Music at London's Guildhall School of Music, specializing in the improvised accompaniment practices of the seventeenth century. She performs as a regular member of the baroque chamber music ensemble Fioritura.


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In yesterday's faculty meeting, members of the Department of Medicine discussed a proposal for improving hospital care. In just the few days I have been a part of the department, the attention the faculty pay to patient outcomes is apparent.
My training is as a social scientist, not a health provider, but illness is often a cultural construct as well as a physical one. Journalist Anne Fadiman describes a dramatic example of this in her book, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.
In the tale of a Hmong family interacting with the western medical system, she suggests that much confusion and pain could have been avoided if doctors had taken the Hmong belief system into account. Medical anthropologist Arthur Kleinman suggests a simple way for physicians to see illness through the patients' eyes.
Tags: anthropology, clinical care


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Drivercleaner will work for you to ensure that your system is clean and running at full speed.
A bad driver installation can not only make your games run poorly it can also cause start up, stability and performance issues.
Driver Cleaner will help stop this from ever happening by Removing all traces of a devices previously installed drivers. Use Driver Cleaner every time you upgrade/change hardware or simply wish to install the latest or different that no conflicts or driver issues will occur keeping the system clean.Your hardware runs at it's optimal performance.
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Drivercleaner helps by removing all traces of previous drivers and ensures optimal system performance whilst reducing system crashes and errors. Avoids driver conflicts keeping the system safe and stable.
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- Top job on the new version, because I change my card every couple of months, Driver Cleaner is a life saver.
Brian, TorontoAwesome app guys, you have no idea how much time it saves me.
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Bharat gas offers various ways to book cylinder for its customers, one of which is Online booking.
Bharat Gas Online Booking
Online booking of Bharat Gas can be done from the official site of Bharat Gas. Here are the steps to order new cylinder/refill request -
- Log on to http://www.ebharatgas.com
- Bharat gas customers can register for the online customer service to get the registration id or the username and the respective password. During the time of registration, the user should create his/her own login and password.
- The login id and the password will enable the user to access all the information about Bharat gas and also to interact online. These should be done in a secure environment.
- The user can place the order for the refill of the cylinder on the site.
- Applicant should mention the date and time he/she desires the service of refill delivery.
- The online interface of Bharat gas also provides a history of earlier orders, it is sometimes useful to look at the previous order as Bharat gas deliver cylinder after at least 21 days of previous delivery.
- The user can get the reminder service as he/she will be reminded from time to time regarding different matters of the Bharat Gas.
After the online submission of the application for new connection/cylinder refill, the applicant will have to wait for the response. Once the response is received from the Bharat gas representative, you will be assisted to pick the nearest choice. You have to submit some of the required documents to complete new connection procedure.
For refilling of the gas cylinder one can call the nearest distributor, or can also make the online order booking. For more queries and information you can visit Bharat Gas New Connection
List of documents to be submitted for the Bharat gas connection are followed
You can also apply for the Bharat gas connection online but will need following documents for authentication.
- A photocopy of your ration card.
- A copy of your voter id card, passport copy as proof your identification.
- A copy of your electricity bill, telephone bill and a copy of your residential address.
- A copy of address proof or the house possession letters.
Now after submission of the above documents, your online booking application will be cross-checked and then the new gas connection will be allotted to you.
Steps to be followed after gas allotment
- After the completion you will have to collect your Subscription voucher and domestic gas consumer card.
- The domestic consumer card will be useful at the time shifting the gas connection or at the time of termination of the gas connection.


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Peril in the parks
Early August: A woman and her young son are stranded for five days in a remote corner of Death Valley National Park in 117 degree-average heat; the boy doesn't survive. Late August: Two climbers fall in Grand Teton; one is airlifted from a ledge by helicopter.
The National Park Service is involved in thousands of search and rescue operations each year, at a cost of millions of dollars. Between 2004 and 2008, parks in the agency's three Western regions accounted for about 57 percent of the agency's search and rescues on average, and about 86 percent of its overall search and rescue costs, thanks to their popularity and challenging environments.
Although folks often get into trouble because they aren't adequately prepared, the Park Service generally doesn't charge for rescues. Doing so would introduce complex liability issues and could discourage people from seeking help when they most need it.
-- Sarah Gilman
SOURCES: National Park Service Search and Rescue Reports , 2004-2008; Travis Heggie, University of North Dakota adjunct professor and Director of the Great Plains Injury Prevention Research Initiative; Heggie, Travis W., PhD, Michael E. Amundson, BS. "Dead Men Walking: Search and Rescue in U.S. National Parks." Wilderness & Environmental Medicine Volume 20, Issue 3, pg. 244-249. Illustration: Sarah Gilman


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A security bug is allowing users to bypass new privacy controls introduced by Facebook-owned messaging service WhatsApp on iPhones this month, the service said Wednesday after users posted about the problem on social
The disclosure came as messaging and other applications race to improve security and privacy and as Facebook Inc. is addressing criticism for not safeguarding privacy.
WhatsApp's new privacy feature allows iPhone users to require Touch ID or Face ID — fingerprint or facial recognition — to open the app, but users were able to bypass those log-in methods by using the iPhone's "share" function to send files over WhatsApp.
Users can set verification to be required immediately upon log-in, meaning they would need to supply Touch ID or Face ID each time they open WhatsApp, or at intervals of up to an hour, allowing them to toggle between apps on the iPhone for that time period.
The security system fails when users select any interval option other than "immediately."
A user named "u/de_X_ter" wrote a Reddit post detailing the problem Tuesday. Reuters verified the bug.
"We are aware of the issue and a fix will be available shortly. In the meantime, we recommend that people set the screen lock option to 'immediately,' " a WhatsApp spokesperson said by email.
Last month, a user discovered a privacy flaw with Apple's FaceTime group video chat software, which allowed iPhone users to see and hear others before they accept a video call. Apple rolled out an iOS update to fix the issue.
Apple did not immediately respond to questions on whether a similar fix would be required for the WhatsApp glitch.
Credit : Voice of America (VOA)


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Rail logistics isn't easy. GeoMetrix just makes it seem that way.
GeoMetrix is a full-featured internet application for managing railcar fleets, product transloads, loading and offloading racks, railcar yards and the product rail supply chain. GeoMetrix brings order to fleet management and is the most effective tool on the market for shipments by rail.
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Industry leaders know they need more than just statistics. They need knowledge – and insight. They need the ability to communicate accurately and frequently with a variety of stakeholders, including operators, partners and customers. GeoMetrix allows you to do that – and more.Find Out More


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The Life Plan: How Any Man Can Achieve Lasting Health, Great Sex, and a Stronger, Leaner Body
Atria BooksClick Buy Now for Updated Price. Estimated Price: Free
This guy is for real— And he knows that it's never too late to transform your body
It's very likely that you have seen Dr. Jeffry Life before. And if you have, you might have thought, How can this seventy-two-year-old doctor have the body of a thirty-year-old? But his photos are very real, and you can look just as good as he does when you take control of your health.
Back in 1998, Dr. Life was sixty years old and a stereotype of the aging man: he was overweight with a noticeable gut and little muscle tone. Even though his own medical practice was thriving, and he thought he knew everything about men's health, the facts proved differently. His libido was low, which was ruining his self-esteem. He felt tired all the time, yet no amount of sleep made him feel well rested. It wasn't until a cardiologist read him the riot act that he even considered that change was possible. He then decided to make critical adjustments to his diet and lifestyle, and the results have been nothing short of astounding.
More than a decade later, Dr. Life continues to look and feel younger than ever. He knows that if he can make these changes to his body, his sex life, and his health, any man can. In this revolutionary book, he'll show how you can turn around yourhealth by using the very same program he success-fully created and follows to this day.
The Life Plan introduces a healthy aging lifestyle that any man can master, no matter what shape he may be in. It offers:
• An action-packed exercise program designed to make working out entertaining as well as improve heart health and increase muscle mass. His program taps into various disciplines—cardio workouts, resistance training, balance and core conditioning, martial arts, and Pilates.
• An easy diet, featuring delicious choices, that any man can follow, along with rules for eating out and sample recipes for the single or married guy.
• A simple nutrient supplement regimen highlighting the top supplements men may need to halt, and even reverse, the aging process.
• A prudent guide to male hormone replacement therapies based on the most up-to-date research.
• Lessons on how to get your doctor to provide the care you deserve.
• How to sidestep America's disease-based approach to medicine and fuel optimal health.
• And much more.
By following this program you can once again enjoy an active, clear-headed, sexually satisfying, vigorous, and health-filled life, while avoiding late-onset diabetes, heart disease, and other common illnesses and complaints of aging. For men seeking to make over their bodies and turn back the clock, The Life Plan delivers the keys to a fitter body, a stronger immune system, and a richer, fuller life.
Originally posted 2019-11-05 16:22:55. Republished by Blog Post Promoter


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The number one game in the iTunes App Store is a game about selling weed. Yes, really. The app, "Weed Firm," however, looks brilliant when compared to what comes next: it sits just above yet another fairly dumb, time-waster of a game called "100 Balls," reminiscent of beer pong. And that's followed "Toilet Time," which offers you quick games to play while you…um…go, as well as "Make It Rain," which tests to see how fast you can swipe to make the money fly.
Welcome to the Everyman's App Store.
Or, as some have put it, Idiocracy.
Idiocracy, or the App Store pic.twitter.com/yYZVqXSyKi
— Alexia Tsotsis (@alexia) May 16, 2014
@parislemon It's as if there were an App Store in the movie Idiocracy.
— Brian Herskovitz (@gadgetmanBrian) May 15, 2014
These games, the mobile equivalent to America's obsession with low-brow content along the lines of "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" or "The Real Housewives," aren't just popular in the U.S., but are making their way into the top charts of a number of English-speaking countries around the world.
Their popularity is reflective of many factors, including the increasingly shady app marketing techniques fly-by-night app developers are using to manipulate the top charts to unfairly boost their brain-damaging, disposable app above the next "Flappy Bird" or "Red Bouncing Ball" clone.
But their presence is also indicative of the changing nature of the App Store itself.
Today, smartphones are nearing saturation in developed markets, meaning these phones are now in the hands of a broader, more diverse group of people, both young and old, who won't necessarily share the same tastes as the tech elite whose punditry and personal recommendations about the "next great mobile app" used to matter more. (Cough, TechCrunch, cough.)
The App Store is for everyone, and, in droves, "everyone" likes tabloids and reality TV over literature and NPR.
Plus, let's not forget that, today, even kids have iPhones – heck, they practically require them for socializing. And they're going to play some pretty stupid games.
In fact, "Flappy Bird" creator Dong Nguyen once told us he believed that most of his players were school children.
This more "mature" market (which seems a hilarious word to use given the context of weed farming games and time-wasters for your bathroom breaks), is no longer downloading their first-ever apps onto their first-ever smartphones, which is why even apps as popular as Google Search, Pandora, WhatsApp, Pinterest or Twitter, are regularly out of the top 10 entirely, and often out of the top 20.
This schoolyard crowd may also have power to sway the App Store's charts in ways the broader industry has yet to fully grasp. Grade school trends over the years have had the power to move markets, but today, it's not toy stores selling out of Cabbage Patch Kids or Tickle Me Elmo dolls, but virtual store shelves restocking unlimited quantities of whatever this young crowd is goofing around with next.
But we can't blame the App Store's race to the bottom only on the ever-younger ages of iPhone users.
Maybe in today's high-pressure, information-saturated, always-on world, people are just looking for a little escapism. You've probably indulged too.
Judge ye not without looking at your own homescreen.


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Story highlights
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were in 2009 convicted of Meredith Kercher's murder
In 2011, they were acquitted of the crime, but in March 2013 Italy's high court ordered a retrial
The retrial began in Florence Monday but has been adjourned until October 4
Kercher's body was found in 2007 in the Perugia flat she and Knox shared with two others
Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were not in the Florentine appellate court Monday for the opening day of their appeal against their 2009 convictions for the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher.
Knox and Sollecito were convicted of Kercher's murder in a highly divisive murder trial that, at times, pitted Americans against Italians who formed two camps. The "innocentisti" or those who supported Knox's innocence were convinced the Italian court was corrupt and spoon fed by a very successful public relations campaign out of Seattle, Washington.
The "colpevolisti" were those who thought Knox was culpable in either the murder or the perceived cover up. Kercher was found semi-nude in a student apartment she shared with Knox and two Italian women. In an early interrogation, Knox confessed to being in the house when Kercher was killed, describing her screams in vivid detail. She later retracted the confession and accused Perugia police of hitting her on the back of the head.
Giuliano Mignini, the Perugia prosecutor who won the original conviction and then lost the appeal also did not attend Monday's hearing, but almost everyone else from the original trials was there, including Patrick Lumumba, the Congolese bartender Knox originally accused of Kercher's murder. Lumumba attended almost every hearing of the earlier trials and his presence underscored the complexity of the case. "I am proof that Amanda Knox is a liar," he told CNN on Monday. "That's why I am here."
Lumumba spent several weeks in jail after Knox accused him of Kercher's murder, and he definitively won a defamation suit against her, for which she was ordered to pay €22,000 ($29,800) for his court costs. His lawyer Carlo Pacelli told the court Monday that Knox had not yet paid that fine.
There were even locals from Perugia who were fixtures in the public gallery during the original trials who made the trip to Florence to see the story through.
Amanda Knox: 'I'm afraid to go back' to Italy
Serious place
The presiding judge, Alessandro Nencini, and the assisting judge, Luciana Cicerchia, oversaw the proceedings in the austere Justice Palace in a nondescript suburb of Florence, far away from the tourist attractions like the Ponte Vecchio and Duomo.
Six lay judges and two alternates – who act more as conscientious objectors to bring the voice of the people to the judicial proceeding than as American-style jurors who have absolute voting power – were draped in sashes with the colors of the Italian flag.
The presiding judge, whose deep baritone voice filled the courtroom, interrupted the lawyers when they were long-winded, and had little patience for any distractions in the court.
Only once, when a journalist's mobile phone rang out the Rossini music used as the "Lone Ranger" theme tune – which gave prosecutor Alessandro Crini a momentary case of the giggles – did the mood lighten. The rest of the time, Nencini's court was a serious place.
The court is meeting to hear a new appeal by Knox and Sollecito, whose 2011 acquittal was overturned by Italy's Supreme Court based on what judges said were "shortcomings, contradictions and inconsistencies," writing in their final reasoning "too many questions remain unanswered." Half of all cases in Italy are altered some way during the appellate process, so Knox's case is not an anomaly.
Francesco Maresca, the lawyer representing Kercher, told CNN: "The high court ruling will be the guide the defense teams for Knox and Sollecito will need to follow to try to win another acquittal."
The session began with the judge reading out the facts of the case, beginning with the discovery of Kercher's semi-nude body in the apartment she shared with Knox in 2007, and ending with the Supreme Court's decision to overturn the acquittal.
Nencini also read the details of the Rudy Guede aspect of the case. Guede, an Ivory Coast native who was convicted in a fast-track trial for his role in Kercher's murder in 2008, has been definitively convicted for his role in the murder in the case, passing the first degree, appeal and high court, which is necessary for any case in Italy to be considered definitive. The court ruled that he was one of three murderers, but did not name the other two. Guede's sentence was reduced from 30 to 16 years on appeal meaning he will be eligible for parole in 2016. The discovery of Guede's fingerprints in Kercher's bedroom is what led to Lumumba's release.
Knox concedes being 'tone-deaf' in days after roommate's murder
Defense requests
Nencini then asked for the defense teams to list their requests for the court, which included retesting some of the crucial evidence in the case, like Kercher's bra clasp on which Sollecito's DNA was found, but which had been left for 47 days in the murder room before it was collected. The judge did not allow the retesting of the clasp.
The defense teams also asked that a suspect stain, which was referred to as the "sperm stain" on a pillow found under Kercher's body be tested. During the original trial, investigators chose to test a bloody foot print on the pillow instead of the stain because they presumed it was old stain, and most likely from Kercher's boyfriend. They also wanted to take another look at what they called the lack of evidence of a clean-up by Knox and Sollecito. The judge again denied the requests.
The judge did agree to accept three of the defense's requests. One was to retest a knife found in Sollecito's apartment with Knox's DNA on the handle and what was found to be Kercher's DNA in a groove on the blade. The blade sample was too small to retest, so the results were not considered valid by the original appellate court. The new appellate judge agreed to have another stain on the knife, which had never been tested, subjected to forensic review.
Aviello testimony
The new appellate court also ruled to accept the testimony from Luciano Aviello, a witness who testified in the first appeal. Luciano Aviello – who served time with Sollecito in jail – had written to the court to say that his brother Antonio had killed Kercher and that the knife he had used was buried in a garden in Perugia.
He testified in court: "My brother came in and sat on the sofa. The right arm of his jacket was ripped and he could see blood on his arm. My brother then pulled out a pocket knife and a set of keys. He was very afraid. He didn't want to create problems for me in Perugia. My brother was very emotional." He said that his brother then buried the murder weapon in a garden.
Aviello's brother is currently on the run, according to Perugia police who tried to find him to investigate the allegations. The defense asked that Luciano Aviello's testimony be heard again since Perugia police apparently did not investigate the mysterious claim. The new appellate judge also accepted a request to enter into evidence photos of Sollecito's bitten fingernails taken the day after the murder. A lawyer for Sollecito, Luca Maori, told CNN that the photos proved that Sollecito did not have enough nail to successfully pry off the clasp of Kercher's bra.
"He bit his nails," Maori said. "There is no way he could have unclasped the bra."
The court adjourned until Friday, October 4, when Aviello will testify and investigators from the RIS – Italy's department of defense staff information and security – in Rome will be given the mandate to retest the knife.
Knox says she will not attend the trial, but Sollecito is expected to attend some sessions, his father said.
An appeal verdict is expected by the end of the year.


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Ally previously worked as FFI's Deputy Director of Communications. Before this she worked in media management and PR for clients including comedians Eddie Izzard and Ed Byrne. She has also worked for Melbourne International Arts Festival, conservation organisation Greening Australia and the production company Roving Enterprises.
A collective of the world's leading conservation organisations is fighting for the survival of the Endangered Grauer's or eastern lowland gorilla.
Found only in the mountain and mid-altitude forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Grauer's gorilla is not only the largest of the four gorilla subspecies but also the largest primate in the world.
With their entire range consumed in conflict since 1996, important populations of Grauer's and their chimpanzee relatives have gone largely unmonitored. Different sources have offered varying population estimates since that time, but their true status is unknown.
Fauna & Flora International (FFI), the Jane Goodall Institute, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS), Conservation International (CI), the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International (DFGFI), and local conservation organisations have partnered with the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN), the Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Tourism (MECNT), national military and police authorities, and local communities to support the implementation of a recently completed IUCN Conservation Action Plan for great apes in the eastern DRC.
The action plan represents an important milestone in the conservation of great apes in the DRC, bringing together a large number of government and civilian stakeholders and a panel of ape conservation experts to identify essential actions to slow the decline of gorillas and chimpanzees in the region.
Dario Merlo of the Jane Goodall Institute said: "Conserving the remaining Grauer's gorilla populations, as well as chimpanzees in the area, requires a dynamic approach and the participation of all areas of society from national government to local communities."
Having identified and agreed on the need for a coordinated and consolidated approach, the in-country teams are now working closely, each taking the lead on a component of the plan while supporting the others with their expertise. One of the key activities identified is the need to assess the true status of gorillas and chimpanzees in the region.
The first-ever surveys of Grauer's gorillas were carried out in the late 1950s by George Schaller of WCS and John Emlen at a time when Grauer's gorillas were considered to be the same subspecies as the mountain gorilla. The initial surveys concluded that these gorillas were rare and rapidly declining due to habitat destruction, hunting for meat, and retaliation for crop raiding.
Subsequent surveys by WCS to establish a population estimate for Grauer's gorillas, which did not take place until 1994, included the Kahuzi-Biega National Park and its adjacent forests, the Itombwe Massif, and Maiko National Park. These surveys found that gorillas remained highly threatened, primarily from hunting and human settlement, and that several important subpopulations had been lost. Results of these surveys suggested that at the time the region supported approximately 17,000 gorillas.
"In the 1990s, carrying out surveys in this region was challenging, but we did not have to contend with the insecurity that followed. Comprehensive follow-up surveys have been impossible until now," said Dr Liz Williamson of the IUCN/SSC Primate Specialist Group.
Grauer's gorilla, Kahuzi Biega National Park. ©ICCN.
Andrew Plumptre of WCS said: "The Wildlife Conservation Society, Fauna & Flora International and the Jane Goodall Institute have designed a new scientific approach to survey this endangered ape across its 80,000 square kilometre range with, statistical help from the Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology. Together we will be testing a new survey technique that will allow improved future monitoring of this species in a more cost-effective manner. This design will allow us to be more confident about the impacts of the civil war in the DRC on Grauer's gorilla numbers."
Lilian Pintea of the Jane Goodall Institute said: "With support from Google, DigitalGlobe and Esri, we are also applying innovative, cutting-edge mobile mapping, satellite imagery, and cloud-based technologies to equip survey teams with high-resolution base maps and enable local communities to contribute to ape monitoring efforts."
Since 2003, several attempts have been made to survey parts of the Grauer's gorilla's range. While results from these preliminary surveys found that gorillas still exist at several key sites, they also documented what appears to be a severe decline of 50-80% since the 1990s.
Stuart Nixon of Fauna & Flora International said: "Today, the remaining Grauer's gorilla populations are small and localised and occur in regions of intense illegal mining activity and insecurity. Until we can complete the much-needed surveys, our best guess is that between 2,000 and 10,000 gorillas remain in around 14 isolated populations. Without a dedicated effort, the next 10 years will be marked by continuing local extinctions of this forgotten gorilla."
Classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the new surveys are vital to accurately assess Grauer's gorilla conservation status and to identify the highest priority populations for focused conservation efforts and long-term monitoring.
WCS and FFI will begin implementing the surveys this month.
Read the press release (PDF).
Main photograph: Grauer's gorilla, courtesy of African Natural Heritage/Peter Howard.


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Blooming Corpse Flower Causes Stink, Draws Crowds
A corpse flower — a colossal, person-sized plant that has an outsize personality and smell to match — is creating a malodorous spectacle this week at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Hundreds of people lined up to get a glimpse and a horrifying whiff of the aptly named corpse flower, which sends out a stench of rotting flesh during its mere hours-long bloom.
"You've heard about charismatic megafauna? Well, this is charismatic megaflora," said Doug Ewing, greenhouse manager at the university's department of biology, and the nauseous bloom's caretaker, who described the giant tuber as the panda bear or elephant of the plant world.
"It's put on a really good show," Ewing told OurAmazingPlanet.
The Amorphophallus titanum is native to the steamy jungles of Sumatra in Indonesia. At nearly 5 feet (1.5 meters) tall, the Seattle bloom is positively dainty compared to the 10-foot (3-m) monsters that can grow in the plant's native land.
The specimen on display had been dormant since 2003. Finally, as dusk began to fall on Wednesday (June 8), the titanum — an extremely distant relative of the potato — began to make its stinky move.
Ewing said the plants typically open at night, spewing forth the smell of death and decay as a come-hither scent to carcass-loving beetles, which flock to the titanum thinking a feast of rotten meat awaits.
By the time the beetles discover the hoax, they are trapped inside the sneaky tuber. Then, as the smell slowly subsides, the plant's structure relaxes, allowing the beetles to escape through exits coated with pollen, which the beetles carry off to another titanum wearing a death-scented disguise.
It may repeatedly disappoint a bunch of beetles, but the elaborate plant reproduction strategy works.
So what exactly does a corpse flower smell like? Different to different people, Ewing said, "but it's a powerful, nauseating aroma. Just unplug your refrigerator, and a week later, open the door."
To avoid disrupting the titanum's progress, Ewing kept the lights off in the greenhouse overnight. Around midnight, as the stench was approaching its peak, Ewing shone a flashlight on the top of the spadix, the plant's central structure, revealing a ghoulish sight.
"You could see this whitish vapor coming up off of the spadix," Ewing said. "How spooky is that?!"
Ewing is an experienced titanum wrangler — this week's bloom is his fifteenth — but the reeking plants are unpredictable and full of surprises, he said.
Although the noxious spectacle kept Ewing at the greenhouse overnight, he enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to show off the huge and bizarre plant.
"It really makes people stop and look, and then they start asking questions," Ewing said. "It's such a wonderful stinking soapbox for us to use to talk about biology — so we're trying to milk it."
Andrea Mustain is a staff writer for OurAmazingPlanet, a sister site to LiveScience. Reach her at email@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @AndreaMustain.
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text:
environ -- user environment
extern char **environ;
An array of strings called the environment is made available by execve(2)
when a process begins. By convention these strings have the form
``name=value''. The following names are used by various commands:
BLOCKSIZE The size of the block units used by several commands, most
notably df(1), du(1) and ls(1). BLOCKSIZE may be specified
in units of a byte by specifying a number, in units of a
kilobyte by specifying a number followed by ``K'' or ``k'',
in units of a megabyte by specifying a number followed by
``M'' or ``m'' and in units of a gigabyte by specifying a
number followed by ``G'' or ``g''. Sizes less than 512
bytes or greater than a gigabyte are ignored.
COLUMNS The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal.
Utilities such as ls(1) and who(1) use this to format
output into columns. If unset or empty, utilities will
use an ioctl(2) call to ask the terminal driver for the
EDITOR Default editor name.
EXINIT A startup list of commands read by ex(1) and vi(1).
HOME A user's login directory, set by login(1) from the password
file passwd(5).
LANG This variable configures all programs which use setlocale(3)
to use the specified locale.
LC_ALL Overrides the values of LC_COLLATE, LC_CTYPE, LC_MESSAGES,
LC_MONETARY, LC_NUMERIC and LC_TIME.
LC_COLLATE Locale to be used for ordering of strings.
LC_CTYPE Locale to be used for character classification (letter,
space, digit, etc.) and for interpreting byte sequences as
multibyte characters.
LC_MESSAGES Locale to be used for diagnostic messages.
LC_MONETARY Locale to be used for interpreting monetary input and formatting
LC_NUMERIC Locale to be used for interpreting numeric input and formatting
LC_TIME Locale to be used for interpreting dates input and for formatting
MAIL The location of the user's mailbox instead of the default in
/var/mail, used by mail(1), sh(1), and many other mailclients.
NLSPATH List of directories to be searched for the message catalog
referred to by LC_MESSAGES. See catopen(3).
PAGER Default paginator program. The program specified by this
variable is used by mail(1), man(1), ftp(1), etc, to display
information which is longer than the current display.
PATH The sequence of directories, separated by colons, searched
by csh(1), sh(1), system(3), execvp(3), etc, when looking
for an executable file. PATH is set to ``/usr/bin:/bin''
initially by login(1).
PRINTER The name of the default printer to be used by lpr(1),
lpq(1), and lprm(1).
PWD The current directory pathname.
SHELL The full pathname of the user's login shell.
TERM The kind of terminal for which output is to be prepared.
This information is used by commands, such as nroff(1) or
plot(1) which may exploit special terminal capabilities.
See /usr/share/misc/termcap (termcap(5)) for a list of terminal
TERMCAP The string describing the terminal in TERM, or, if it begins
with a '/', the name of the termcap file. See TERMPATH
below, and termcap(5).
TERMPATH A sequence of pathnames of termcap files, separated by
colons or spaces, which are searched for terminal descriptions
in the order listed. Having no TERMPATH is equivalent
to a TERMPATH of ``$HOME/.termcap:/etc/termcap''. TERMPATH
is ignored if TERMCAP contains a full pathname.
TMPDIR The directory in which to store temporary files. Most
applications use either ``/tmp'' or ``/var/tmp''. Setting
this variable will make them use another directory.
TZ The timezone to use when displaying dates. The normal format
is a pathname relative to ``/usr/share/zoneinfo''. For
example, the command ``env TZ=America/Los_Angeles date''
displays the current time in California. See tzset(3) for
more information.
USER The login name of the user.
Further names may be placed in the environment by the export command and
name=value arguments in sh(1), or by the setenv command if you use
csh(1). It is unwise to change certain sh(1) variables that are frequently
exported by .profile files, such as MAIL, PS1, PS2, and IFS,
unless you know what you are doing.
cd(1), csh(1), ex(1), login(1), sh(1), execve(2), execle(3), getenv(3),
setenv(3), setlocale(3), system(3), termcap(3), termcap(5)
The environ manual page appeared in 4.2BSD.
FreeBSD 5.2.1 April 12, 2003 FreeBSD 5.2.1


text:
The closing of America's national parks was among the most emotionally charged aspects of the 16-day federal government shutdown. As party leaders raced to make a deal to reopen the government and avert a default, House Republicans were accusing the head of the Park Service of trying to make the shutdown "as painful and as visible as possible."
It's a shame that the parks, usually a source of national pride, became rhetorical pawns amid a national embarrassment. But while the parks still have the country's attention, it's worth clearing up some myths about them.
1. The parks' financial problems are over now that the government shutdown has ended and tourism has resumed.
The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees estimated that while all the national parks were closed, lost tourism dollars amounted to $76 million a day — $450,000 of which would have gone directly to the parks in the form of entry fees and other charges.
But entry fees, which are kept low to ensure access for everyone, cover less than 6 percent of park upkeep costs.
The federal government makes up most of the rest, and year after year, Congress votes to give less and less. The National Park Service budget is 15 percent lower than it was a decade ago in today's dollars, 13 percent lower than three years ago. Sequestration cuts have made the situation even worse.
The consequences are real. A $180 million slash in funding for 2013 meant that the parks fielded 1,900 fewer staff members. That translated into fewer ranger hikes and campfire programs, roads left unrepaired, restrooms cleaned less often, visitor centers closed, openings delayed and staff positions left vacant.
For example, Everglades National Park has 17 job openings it can't fill, including deputy superintendent, chief law enforcement ranger, wildlife biologist and water scientist.
You don't have to know much about water-quality issues in the Everglades, situated just downstream from massive-scale agriculture, to appreciate the value of a water-quality specialist there.
Parks are forced into anguished trade-offs: hire that water expert or keep rangers in the field to protect and guide visitors?
2. States should take a bigger role in managing the parks.
The government shutdown prompted renewed calls to let states run the parks. An article in American Thinker was typical: Because of a vested interest in tourism dollars, states would never allow parks they controlled to close. "In fact, many of [these] parks and monuments could probably, in a pinch, be manned by volunteers who love the history and the natural beauty of their state."
Probably not. The ability of Utah and a few other localities to cobble together enough money to reopen parks during the shutdown does not speak to states' ability to keep parks going long term. States have fiscal problems of their own. As for volunteers, they would need a whole lot of training before they could step in and manage a park.
And as much as I applaud Utah for getting its parks reopened, let's remember that it's a state eager to plunder its public lands for coal, uranium, natural gas and off-road recreation.
If Utah gets its way, Coal Hollow Mine, on the stoop of Bryce Canyon National Park, will soon be allowed to expand its strip-mining operation on 3,500 acres of public land. Utah also fought the establishment of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.
This is one state government that I'd rather not see managing national parks.
3. The national parks are wild places.
From the beginning, when California's Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias were designated to be preserved for "public use, resort, and recreation," the parks have sought to balance protection of natural landscapes with an interest in making them accessible to visitors. Roads, hotels and concessions have made the parks progressively less wild.
And other projects, such as the damming of Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley in 1923 to improve San Francisco's water supply, further tamed the land.
The national park mission has also expanded over time, moving beyond wilderness preservation. Today, the system's 401 units comprise a remarkable inventory that includes national monuments, battlefields and urban recreation areas, such as Maryland's Greenbelt Park.
4. Wildlife within the national parks is managed for the enjoyment of visitors.
Every park that harbors animals delivers warnings: Watch from a distance. Yet every year, more than a few visitors approach those animals with an assumption of safety because they seem to confuse national park with theme park.
In one video posted on YouTube last year, a man is heard encouraging kids toward a bison in Yellowstone with the assurance: "He's friendly." The bison proceeds to charge a terrified child.
Wildlife management in the parks emphasizes conservation rather than tourism.
The Park Service tries to protect all its animals — particularly rare, threatened and endangered species — and their habitat. It also ventures into population control when human influences produce unnaturally high numbers of a particular species.
But when human health and safety become issues, priorities have to shift.
When people get hurt, animals may be destroyed or relocated. That's sad, because most dangerous encounters could be avoided if tourists were content with a pair of good binoculars or a telephoto lens.
5. The national parks are timeless preserves.
The notion that the parks must be "unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations" is etched in the act of Congress that established the Park Service in 1916. The agency does a remarkable job, but it has an impossible mission.
Visitor impact can been seen in places such as Yellowstone's Morning Glory Pool. Once a striking blue color, it has been dulled and discolored over the years by coins and trash. Recently, native rock art in Joshua Tree was spray-painted by vandals, as were majestic cacti in Saguaro National Park.
More dramatic changes could be ahead. Glacier could lose its glaciers and Joshua Tree its Joshua trees within this century because of climate change.
Air pollution, which already obscures iconic views across the Grand Canyon, threatens animal and plant health. Development in the areas surrounding parks — for residential neighborhoods, mining, forestry and other purposes — is fragmenting the habitat of threatened species that don't pay heed to park boundaries. Now, a giddy rush to frack natural gas wherever it may lurk poses new risks.
Members of Congress offered passionate rhetoric about our national parks these past two weeks. Let's see if they can muster the will to help achieve some semblance of the parks' mission.
Robert Earle Howells, a Southern California-based writer, contributed to "Secrets of the National Parks" and "The 10 Best of Everything: National Parks." This column first appeared in The Washington Post.
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text: Okay ladies. Before you completely freak out, I have some bad news. That scooter nail you're looking at? That was painted by freehand. I'm not kidding. Is that not insane? I have yet to find any mass produced scooter nail art but this was such a beautiful and fun manicure, I just had to post it. The nail artist is Sonoma Bento of Sonoma Nail Art in I believe Santa Rosa, California. She created the nail polish especially for Revolution Moto in Santa Rosa and it's for sale in their scooter shop. So if you're lucky enough to live in that beautiful part of the world, do go in and get yourself scootered up nail wise. Then send us photos.


text:
It's difficult to hide from an enemy when you're inside an enormous ship, or part of a vast Naval fleet. And yet many ships in history have been well-camouflaged, despite a distinct lack of cloaking devices. Here are some of the most amazing examples.
USS West Mahomet (a steel-hulled cargo ship of the U.S. Navy, 1918-1919, but used as a merchant vessel under the name SS West Mahomet between 1919 and 1930. Scrapped in 1938.)
(via U.S. Navy)
The beginnings
Between the 16th and the late-19th centuries some ships might had cannon ports hidden by painted canvas, or extra cannon ports painted. In the Civil War and later the German and French ships were being painted gray.
(Pictured: CSS Atlanta, 1862, via U.S. Naval Historic Center)
The USS Narkeeta (a Wahneta Class District Harbor Tug, launched in 1892 and decommissioned in 1923.)
It had an experimental "brickwork" camouflage scheme in 1892.
(via Navsource)
HMS Adventure (a scout cruiser of Royal Navy, 1904-1919, scrapped in 1920)
(via The Imperial War Museums)
USS Nebraska (Virginia-class pre-dreadnought battleship of the U.S. Navy, launched in 1904, scrapped in 1920)
(via National Archives and Records Administration and Naval Historical Center)
RMS Mauretania (originally an ocean liner, launched in 1906, but during WWI it transported troops and used as a hospital ship. Retired in 1934, scrapped in 1935.)
(via Toshism, Merseyside Maritime Museum and Military Photos)
The transatlantic Olympic-class ocean liner RMS Olympic, the brother of the Titanic and Britannic (launched in 1910, used as a troopship between 1915 and 1919. Retired in 1935.)
In 1917 the British Navy added a multi-coloured camouflage to make the ship more difficult to identify and target.
The RMS Olympic was known as "Old Reliable", it would carry over 200,000 troops to and from the fighting fronts during WWI.
(via Wikimedia Commons and the Canadian War Museum, a painting of Arthur Lismer)
SS Empress Of Russia (built as an ocean liner in 1912-1913, refitted as an Armed Merchant Cruiser of the British Army during the WWI, but after the World War it was used as an ocean liner again. Scrapped in 1945.)
(via The University Of British Columbia)
USS Leviathan (originally built in 1913 as an ocean liner named Vaterland. In 1917, it was renamed Leviathan, and used as a troopship. After World War I it was used by the American shipping company United States Lines until 1934. It was sold for scrapping in 1938.)
(via Naval Historical Center)
USS K-5 (a K-class submarine of the U.S. Navy, launched in 1914, sold for scrap in 1931.)
It had a zebra camouflage in 1916 for a short time.
(via Navsource)
HMS Polyanthus (an Aubretia class sloop of the Royal Navy, launched in 1917 and sold in 1921 to a shipping company)
(via Imperial War Museums)
HMS Rocksand (a minesweeping sloop of the Royal Navy, used between 1918 and 1922.)
(via Public Domain Review)
HMS Argus (an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy between 1918 and 1944. After the WWII it became an accommodation ship and sold in late 1946 for scrap.)
(via Naval Historical Center)
USS Alloway (a cargo ship of U.S. Navy, 1918-1919)
(via Public Domain Review)
HMS Adventure (a minelaying cruiser of the Royal Navy, launched in 1924, sold for scrapping in 1947)
It was the first ship built for service as a minelayer and the first warship to use diesel engines.
(via Imperial War Museums)
USS Northampton (a heavy cruiser of the U.S. Navy, commissioned in 1930, sunk in November 1942)
It had a false bow wave camouflage.
(via U.S. Navy)
Gloire (means Glory, a light cruiser of the French Navy, launched in 1935, scrapped in 1958)
(via Imperial War Museums)
HMAS Yarra (a Grimsby class sloop of the Royal Australian Navy, launched in 1935 and sunk by Japanese cruisers in 1942)
(via Australian Navy)
Tirpitz (a Bismarck-class battleship of the German War Navy Kriegsmarine, commissioned in 1941, sunk by Royal Air Force bombers in November 1944)
(via Wikimedia Commons)
USS Hancock (an Essex-class aircraft carrier of the U.S. Navy, used between 1944-1947, but modernized and recommissioned in 1954. Sold for scrap in 1976)
(via Naval Historical Center)
Bonus: HSwMS Helsingborg (a Visby-class corvette of the Swedish Navy, launched in 2003, in service from 2009)
(via Jesper Olsson)


text:
WINNIPEG, Manitoba – Ondrej Pavelec made save after save, fending off the Boston Bruins.
When it was all over, he had stopped 39 shots, and Bryan Little scored to help the Winnipeg Jets beat the Boston Bruins 2-1 Tuesday night, ending Boston's 15-game 15 game stretch in which it earned 29 of a possible 30 points.
"We know if we're going to stick with the plan, if we're going to play the way we want, that we can beat everybody," Pavelec said.
The Jets (12-11-4) moved above the .500 mark for the first time this season, and have won six of their last seven home games.
Little scored 94 seconds after Shawn Thornton tied the game for Boston. He controlled the puck off a neutral-zone faceoff, went the length of the ice and beat Tuukka Rask to the glove side.
"It was the loudest I've ever heard the arena," Little said. "It was unbelievable."
The goal came just six seconds after David Krejci drove Jets defenseman Mark Stuart into the end boards from behind. Krejci and Zach Bogosian were in the penalty box for offsetting roughing minors after the hit, which left Stuart face down and motionless on the ice. He later returned to the game.
Jets coach Claude Noel chose not to comment on the hit, saying he would let the league decide whether it was dirty. The rest of his postgame comments consisted of nothing but praise for his players.
"We're getting a lot of good games from a lot of people," Noel said. "It was goaltending, defense and forwards. Just smart, responsible play."
Pavelec withstood a flurry of shots in the final minutes of the game to preserve the lead. Rask made 33 saves for the Bruins.
The Bruins tied the game three minutes into the third, when Jets forward Jason Jaffray turned the puck over in his own zone and Thornton tipped in a shot from a bad angle by Daniel Paille.
"It was one of those nights when they weren't going in," Thornton said. "We generated enough chances to probably win this game. The last month or so they've been going in. Tonight they didn't."
Boston was coming off a Monday night win in Pittsburgh, but Thornton refused to use the back-to-back games as an excuse.
"That's all mental as far as I'm concerned," he said. "I think it's pretty easy to get through as long as you're strong mentally."
Jets captain Andrew Ladd opened the scoring late in the first period with a perfect snap shot to the top corner from outside the left faceoff dot past Rask's blocker.
The Bruins had the better chances in a scoreless second period, but Pavelec made several acrobatic saves. The best of his 17 saves in the period came off Krejci as he slid across his crease to prevent the tying goal.
Each team failed on two power plays in the second period.
Notes: Boston F Tyler Seguin was scratched from the lineup after missing a team meeting Tuesday morning. ... Pavelec's assist on Ladd's goal was his second in 143 career NHL games... Bruins D Johnny Boychuk left the ice in pain after blocking Bogosian's shot in the second period, but returned shortly after... The Bruins beat the Jets 4-2 in Boston on Nov. 26.


text:
EV-71 Disease caused 52 deaths in Cambodia
VIETNAM – A deadly form of a common childhood illness has been linked to many of the mysterious child deaths in Cambodia that caused alarm after a cause could not immediately be determined, health officials said Monday.
Lab tests have confirmed that a virulent strain of hand, foot and mouth disease known as EV-71 is to blame for many of the 59 cases reviewed, including 52 deaths, according to a joint statement from the World Health Organization and Cambodian Health Ministry. The numbers were lowered from the initial report of 62 cases.
EV-71 is a virus that can result in paralysis, brain swelling and death. Most of the Cambodian cases involved children under 3 who experienced fever, respiratory problems that quickly progressed and sometimes neurological symptoms.
Hand, foot and mouth disease has been raging across Asia, and usually causes a telltale rash. WHO spokeswoman Aphaluck Bhatiasevi said rashes were seen in only a few of the Cambodian cases, and it's possible that steroids administered by doctors could have masked the symptom.
The lab results also identified other diseases in some cases, including mosquito-borne dengue fever and Streptococcus suis, a germ commonly seen in pigs that sometimes infects people, often causing meningitis and hearing loss, Bhatiasevi said.
Hand, foot and mouth disease is spread by sneezing, coughing and contact with fluid from blisters or infected feces. It is caused by a group of enteroviruses in the same family as polio. No vaccine or specific treatment exists, but illness is typically mild and most children recover quickly without problems.
The virus gets its name from the symptoms it causes, including rash, mouth sores and blisters covering the hands and feet. Many infected children are not sickened at all, but remain capable of spreading it to others.
Neighboring Vietnam has been battling a surging number of hand, foot and mouth disease cases for the past few years, with EV-71 also wreaking havoc there. Last year, the disease sickened more than 110,000 people in Vietnam and killed 166, mostly children whose immune systems were not strong enough to fend off the infection.
China is also experiencing an outbreak, and more than 240 people have died of the disease there this year, according to China's health ministry.
The Cambodia investigation is continuing, but the H5N1 bird flu virus, SARS and Nipah — a deadly virus usually spread by fruit bats or pigs — have all been ruled out.
Category: Health alert


text:
In recent years, parallel to the wide acceptance of the concept of lifelong learning as a guiding principle for education development and reform, some more pragmatic and operational approaches have been adopted to implement lifelong learning and an example of these approaches is the building of a 'learning community', 'learning city' or 'learning region'. Although the concept of learning cities has been generated in developed countries, facilitated by the OECD since the early 1980s and the European Commission since 1990s, it is now rapidly spreading to the developing countries. In fact, in more and more countries, there are local-level authorities which claim to be learning cities/regions/communities, and the building of learning cities/regions/communities has become a considerable world-wide phenomenon.
Studies have shown that the creation of learning cities has become an effective instrument to promote lifelong learning in the international community despite the various challenges. The goal of establishing lifelong learning systems or building learning societies cannot be achieved only by the efforts of national governments, and cities/regions/communities have a crucial role to play. If a Member State aspires to build a learning society or develop a lifelong learning system, they may use the brand of 'learning cities', 'learning regions' or 'learning communities' to mobilise or encourage their local authorities. In 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world's population lived in towns and cities. As the urban population of the developing countries, in particular in Africa and Asia, will increase significantly in the years to come, it is time now for the international community to anticipate the learning needs of citizens in the fast growing urban communities.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. 2012. Global Learning Cities Network: Terms of Reference. Hamburg: UIL.


text: A long and bitter presidential election comes to a close Tuesday when Americans choose between a second term for President Barack Obama and a new direction with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. CNN's reporters, correspondents, analysts and anchors share what they'll be watching for that might tip off how the election will go: Acosta: Romney's make-or-break state It's been called Obama's election "firewall." But truth be told, it's looking more and more like Romney's make-or-break state. Consider the day's agenda. Late Monday, the Romney campaign revealed the GOP nominee and running mate Paul Ryan will make public appearances in Cleveland on Election Day in one last push for undecided voters. No other state can make the same claim. What other state can boast an event in which the Romney campaign plane pulled into an aircraft hangar before thousands of cheering supporters? That bit of grandiose stage crafting was pulled off by the Romney campaign in Columbus on Monday night. Romney breaks tradition with Election Day campaigning Despite the campaign's confidence in winning Ohio, a Republican source close to Romney's operation in the state said the result there will be "close, very close." It might come down to Romney's opposition to the U.S. auto bailout. His "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" op-ed in The New York Times in 2008 (a headline he did not write) may prove to be his downfall in Ohio, where one in eight jobs are tied to the auto industry. Who would have thought a newspaper column, not Romney's business career nor his record as governor of Massachusetts, would have the potential of denying him the White House? Romney tried to mitigate the impact of the auto issue by making a discredited claim at an event in Ohio that Chrysler was considering moving all of its Jeep production to China. His campaign then continued to tell that story, in various renditions, in ads in the state to stinging reviews from the state's newspapers. Election riddles solved Bash: Unexpected GOP struggles in Senate The neck-and-neck presidential race might be dominating headlines, but there are a lot of rich dramas playing out across the country in the battle for control of the Senate. Heading into Election Day, there are nearly a dozen true toss-up races that could go either way. Republicans hold 47 seats. To retake control of the Senate, the GOP needs a net gain of four. With 23 Democratic seats up for grabs in a terrible economy, it seemed like a no-brainer that Republicans would be able to flip four. But it's now a struggle for the GOP. The central reason is that Republicans are defending several unexpected races on their own turf. Indiana's Senate race is going to be one of the evening's early bellwethers to determine the balance of power in the Senate. GOP candidate Richard Mourdock's poll numbers plummeted in this red state after he awkwardly said a few weeks ago that pregnancy from rape is a gift from God. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET, and if Democrat Joe Donnelly wins, it will set Republicans back – especially since the GOP already expects to lose the seat vacated by retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe in Maine. The state's popular former governor, independent candidate Angus King, is on track to win there. Controversies dim GOP hopes to take over Senate Here are three other nail-biters I'll be watching: Virginia: With more than $80 million spent so far, it's the most expensive Senate race in the country. Former GOP Sen. George Allen is trying to get his seat back after a narrow defeat six years ago. The man who beat him, Jim Webb, is retiring, and former Gov. and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine hopes to keep the seat in Democratic hands. Montana: Neither Republicans nor Democrats will even privately predict which way this one will go. Incumbent Democrat Jon Tester is trying to hold on for a second term in this red state. GOP challenger Rep. Denny Rehberg started out the race about 1% ahead in the polls. Now, $50 million later, they're in the exact same place – a 1% differential between them. Massachusetts: Going into Election Day, Republican strategists were pessimistic about holding onto this red seat in the traditionally blue state. GOP Sen. Scott Brown had fallen behind his well-funded Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren – a liberal icon who was the president's former consumer advocate. Brown's win in the race to fill the late Ted Kennedy's seat stunned the political world, and he insists he'll surprise everyone again. But the president is expected to take Massachusetts by double digits – and with him at the top of the ticket, it may be hard for Brown to beat back a Warren win. Borger: How will the white vs. nonwhite vote split One important indicator I will be looking at Election Night is the question of ethnicity – and how the white vs. the nonwhite population splits. In the 2008 election, 74% of the electorate was white. That percentage has declined recently because of the growth in the Hispanic and voting African-American population. Given the ongoing Republican trouble with Hispanic voters and the assumption that African-Americans will, once again, vote overwhelmingly for the president, Romney needs a strong white turnout to help propel him to victory. In an analysis by Republican pollster Bill McInturff, the question of the white/nonwhite divide is called the most "critical" of the election. His analysis shows that if the white percentage of the electorate drops to 72%, Obama will probably win the election. Do the math: CNN racial bloc voting calculator One key to watch is how the white vote itself splits between Obama and Romney. In the latest national poll CNN/ORC International, taken from Friday to Sunday, Obama received 40% of the white vote, while Romney got 57%. In 2008, Obama received 43% of the white vote, which means he is polling less than that currently. Crowley: Virginia suburbs and I-4 corridor The first thing I'll watch is the exit polls to see who's voting and where – in particular, heavy Latino turnout in Colorado, Nevada, Virginia and Florida could indicate Obama wins those states. Then, it's Virginia, Florida and Ohio. I'll watch the Virginia suburbs of Washington, particularly the female vote. Romney won't win here, but he has to hold down Obama's numbers while running up his own score in the rural area. Romney has to win Virginia. Florida is all about the Interstate 4 corridor. North of it votes Republican, south of it Democratic. The I-4 corridor decides. Everyone will tell you to watch Lake, Stark and Hamilton counties in Ohio. There are good reasons to watch all of them, reasons no doubt delineated by my colleagues. But for me, it's all about Ottawa County, which has correctly picked the presidential winner in Ohio since 1944. That's a better record than pollsters. I'll watch Ottawa. Hamby: How goes Pasco? Polls begin to close in Florida at 7 p.m. ET, and a handful of counties will report their absentee and early vote tallies immediately. Once that happens, political pros in Florida will be anxiously refreshing election board websites in a handful of those counties – Pinellas, Duval, Orange – in search of early clues about which way the state is trending. Track county-by-county results: Florida One of them is Pasco County, outside Tampa. Officials there are diligent about posting returns as quickly as possible. The county has a slight Republican tilt, but Obama won the early and absentee vote there in 2008 despite losing the county on Election Night. For Democrats, it was a promising sign that Obama was well on his way to being competitive statewide, even in GOP-leaning areas. In 2004, George W. Bush beat John Kerry in the Pasco early/absentee vote by eight points. Bush ended up winning the county by 10 points. In a shift four years later, Obama beat John McCain by five points in the early absentee vote. He ultimately lost the county – but only by 3.5 points, thanks to the votes the campaign banked early. If Obama is losing Pasco by more than that Bush/Kerry margin by the time the first returns are posted, it could be a tough night for Obama in Florida. "If you are looking for good news for Romney out of Pasco, if they have a 10- to 12-point lead in the absentee and early vote, that probably portends that they are going to have a really good night in suburban counties," said one top Florida Democrat. King: The suburban vote and who votes in the swing states A narrow and then a more global point: • Watch the vote in the suburbs around Cleveland and Columbus, Ohio, and in northern Virginia. These are two early-closing states; if Romney is holding his own in the suburbs, we have a competitive night. If not, it could be effectively over before we get to the Central Time zone. • Who votes determines who wins: The composition of the electorate in the swing states is the first and best clue. Does the electorate look like 2008? If so, then Obama is likely on a path to victory. But if the percentage of African-American, Latino and younger voters is down just a bit – and the electorate looks, say, more like the 2004 presidential election – then Romney has a shot. Preston: What happens afterward? It goes without saying that we are all looking at turnout in the key battleground states – can Romney and Obama get their respective bases to show up at the polls and at the same time, convincing the independent voters to vote for them? What is piquing my interest is not only what happens in the next few hours but what will be the political climate for the next president-elect. Washington is already polarized, and there are great challenges facing Congress before the end of the year. Whoever wins the presidency and the parties that control the House and the Senate need to put the bitterness of this election behind them and work together. The big question: Can they do that? Steinhauser: Can Romney broaden the electoral map? This election will be won or lost in the battleground states. Or will it? Romney's presidential campaign is making a last-minute push in two states that should be safe for Obama: Pennsylvania and Minnesota. Romney campaigned in Pennsylvania on Sunday and goes back to the Keystone State on Election Day. Running mate Ryan campaigned in Pennsylvania on Saturday and in Minnesota on Sunday, and the campaign's up with ads in both states. Is this a head fake by the Romney campaign, or does it see the tightening public opinion polls in both states as evidence it might be able to turn Pennsylvania and Minnesota from blue to red? The Romney campaign says it's playing offense. The Obama campaign says the move is a sign of desperation by the Romney camp. We'll find out who's right on Election Night. Yellin: Will voters send a clear message? Have you heard? The early voter was this year's soccer mom – the must-have vote both sides fought over. Obama appears to have won most of the early vote but not at the same margins as 2008, leaving Team Romney a window it says it can pry open. Now it's about who turns out: Will the president recreate the same coalition as he did in 2008? This is a euphemism for how white the voters will be on Election Day. If enough Latinos and African-Americans vote, Obama gets a second term. If they don't, it's President Romney. I'm not a fan of reading tea leaves to guess where this will end. Can't we wait till the votes are counted? I'll be watching for what voters are saying at the ballot box. I know – so old-fashioned. Will whoever becomes president have a mandate? And to do what? In 2008, it was pretty clear that Americans wanted change – a change from the Bush years. In 2010 – the tea party midterms – they wanted less spending, smaller government. It's not clear what the mandate might be after this campaign. Do Americans want the government to do more or less to help with tough economic times? The next president will confront tax reform and deficit reduction and changes to our health care system. These are huge issues that could prompt more gridlock in Washington – unless there's a clear message from voters. Do voters want compromise in Washington? If so, when it gets right down to it, are they willing to compromise on the issues that matter most to them – debt or taxes or reforming Medicare? There's the rub. Results: See the races as they are projected


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One Click Clusters
Quickstart and conceptual overview for launching one-click, auto-configuring clusters.
If you are already running on one of the science clouds, you could launch and use a cluster right this minute. Or you could run your own cloud (the software is free and open source).
Cluster Quickstart:
(you are here)
Cluster Guide:
Features (#)
Launch heterogeneous clusters of auto-configuring VMs with one command
No private keys need to be on images at the repository, you can collaborate openly and share them freely
Configuration tasks that are sensitive to (the changing) network and cryptographic identities are automatically managed upon boot
Shared, secure information context created for all launch members
Data may be sent to cluster's context by remote client for consumption by the nodes
Inside VM, you can attain context information without knowing about any messaging code/protocols
Information from VMs is available to remote client via secure path (for example generated SSHd host keys)
Common tasks are implemented (optional) like populating /etc/hosts with all cluster member addresses and setting up SSH host-based authentication across all accounts
Background (#)
Using the "--cluster" option, the cloud client can direct the workspace service to launch any number (and any type) of workspaces simultaneously. Something called the context broker will work behind the scenes to make sure each node has the information they need to play their various roles.
You can bring up the exact cluster you need whenever necessary. It's portable across clouds, too. If you need to make some updates you can re-launch from a new template image (that you already tested at small scale). You can also customize files on a per launch basis to make the cluster have different policies or behaviors. You can even direct the same image file to take on different roles depending on what the context broker tells it.
No private keys need to live on the images in your cluster before they are booted. This means you can freely collaborate on useful setups and distribute them openly over the internet to end users.
Example (#)
If you have access to a science cloud and see the 'base-cluster-01.gz' image in your personal repository directory, you can launch the cluster yourself. You will need a cloud client 009 or later.
There are four steps to the example:
- Edit the access policy to install on the cluster (dictate the grid-mapfile contents)
- Run one command to launch the cluster
- Run one scp command to get the cluster's auto-created credential so local job submission tools can trust it
- Export an environment variable that will point tools to the credential directory
Now you can submit remote work: you have a Torque PBS cluster fronted by GridFTP and GRAM.
Steps #1, #3, and #4 are particular to the example cluster, to configure security settings for GridFTP and GRAM.
SSH trust is already setup for you as part of #2. The nodes have been configured to trust your SSH key for logins. You trust each nodes' generated SSH host keys.
Super-quick start (#)
The guide on this page below contains inline explanation of the commands and what's happening. But if you'd just like to get going with the sample, here is what you need to do:
- Edit samples/base-cluster.xml to include your DN in the gridmap field
- Run ./bin/cloud-client.sh --run --hours 1 --cluster samples/base-cluster.xml
- Wait a few minutes
- At exit, note the hostname printed for "[[ head-node ]]"
- Configure local tools to trust the cluster:
scp -r root@HEADNODE-HOSTNAME:certs/* lib/certs/
export X509_CERT_DIR=`pwd`/lib/certs
There is a full sample of commands and output here.
Now you can send work. You have your very own, working:
- Torque installation for distributing work across the cluster
- GRAM4 (backed by Torque) installation at "https://HEADNODE_HOSTNAME:8443/wsrf/services/ManagedJobFactoryService"
- GridFTP server on standard port 2811 of the headnode
- RFT service at "https://HEADNODE_HOSTNAME:8443/wsrf/services/ReliableFileTransferFactoryService"
Some notes:
- Any user account (including root) can freely SSH across the cluster to corresponding account
- The "/home" directory is mounted from headnode to each compute over NFS
- You should map your DN to the 'jobrun' account (like the sample value in base-cluster.xml)
To make your image(s) auto-configure your own software choices, see How do I make images of my own do this?. While this will take more than "one click" to set up, our alpha users have had successes in short order. You can run and auto-configure pretty much any type of software/application that will run on a normal cluster.
Example walkthrough (#)
We assume, like with single VM launches you've done, you have run grid-proxy-init. See the main quickstart page for more information.
We've put a full sample of commands and output here for reference. What follows is a walkthrough of everything that happens.
* Configure the grid-mapfile contents you want: (#)
Edit samples/base-cluster.xml, find the "<data name="gridmap">" tag and add your DN. This cluster has a generic account called "jobrun" you can map to (follow the example).
Notice we are requesting one head node and two compute nodes. This particular cluster can launch with only one head node but any number of compute nodes.
* Launch the cluster: (#)
Now you can launch:
Some information is printed (including the assigned IP addresses), just like with single launches. We quickly move to this output:
Launching cluster-001... done. Waiting for launch updates.
This is the first of two waiting periods, this is when the images files make their way to the hypervisors and it will take a few minutes. The next waiting period is much shorter.
While you're waiting, make a mental note of the handle. This will look something like "cluster-001". This is just like "vm-001" for non-cluster launches, you can use it to manage things, for example terminate ("./bin/cloud-client.sh --terminate --handle cluster-001")
* Launched: (#)
Information starts to come in:
- cluster-001: all members are Running - wrote reports to '/tmp/cloud-client/history/cluster-001/reports-vm'
Everything is now "Running" which really means the VMs are all at least booting. If there was a problem, an error notice would print to the screen and the "reports-vm" directory that is listed here would have all the details on any errors.
Information is archived in that directory for successes, too, but you typically only need the hostname to log into or submit jobs to. That hostname is printed to the screen and also always available by looking at your history/cluster-001/run-log.txt file.
* Contextualization status: (#)
Next up, we wait for contextualization. Shown here is the waiting message along with the result. It takes much less time than the previous wait.
Waiting for context broker updates. - cluster-001: contextualized - wrote ctx summary to '/tmp/cloud-client/history/cluster-001/reports-ctx/CTX-OK.txt' - wrote reports to '/tmp/cloud-client/history/cluster-001/reports-ctx'
What 'contextualized" means is that every node has:
- gotten in contact with the context broker
- provided data to the context broker, e.g. SSH public key
- gotten all necessary information from the context broker
- successfully called the just-in-time configuration scripts
- reported back to context broker that no error occured (ready to go)
Contextualization reports are available at the listed reports directory but like the launch reports, you don't really need to pay attention unless there was an error. If there is an error, the error reports are written to the reports directory and the cluster is backed out. These error reports include all logs of each context agent (all output leading up to the problem, non-errors included too).
* No security gap with SSH logins: (#)
The last thing you will see before the client exits:
SSH trusts new key for hostname1.cloudurl.edu [[ head-node ]] SSH trusts new key for hostname2.cloudurl.edu [[ compute-nodes #0 ]] SSH trusts new key for hostname3.cloudurl.edu [[ compute-nodes #1 ]]
That final SSH message means that the client retrieved the SSH public keys from the context broker -- they are installed already to your local known_hosts file. Which mean you can take an address and log in as root:
... and you do not get "The authenticity of host 'xyz (188.8.131.52)' can't be established" messages anymore.
This relieves you of that pesky 'y' keystroke to accept the key -- and no more "WARNING KEY HAS CHANGED" messages when you've been given an IP that's been seen before. But this importantly means the gap is closed on possible man-in-the-middle attacks. Through secure channels end to end, the client is able to know the public key that each instance generated at boot.
You can turn off this auto-configuration of your known_hosts file by removing the "ssh.hostsfile" configuration from the conf/cloud.properties file. Also, to support large virtual clusters, there is an option to only get this SSH adjustment for specific nodes you care about logging in to directly. For example, you may have 100 compute nodes on a NAT'd network behind the edge nodes. You wouldn't care about known_hosts adjustment for those so you can turn that off on a case by case basis.
* Configure grid tools trust: (#)
Before submitting to the cluster, we need the grid tools to trust the middleware on the headnode. The head node has been configured to create a self-signed host certificate. Grab it and add it to the embedded trusted cert directory like this:
Make grid tools trust that host certificate:
* Result: (#)
You now have your own, working:
- Torque installation for distributing work across the cluster
- GRAM4 (backed by Torque) installation at "https://HEADNODE_HOSTNAME:8443/wsrf/services/ManagedJobFactoryService"
- GridFTP server on standard port 2811 of the headnode
- RFT service at "https://HEADNODE_HOSTNAME:8443/wsrf/services/ReliableFileTransferFactoryService"


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Shoe Lace Sizing Chart
Lace Lab Shoe Lace Sizing Chart*
|Number of Eyelets
|Lace Length
|3 Eyelets
|30 Inches
|4 Eyelets
|36 Inches
|5-6 Eyelets
|45 Inches
|6-7 Eyelets
|54 Inches
|7-8 Eyelets
|63 Inches
*Sizing varies from shoe to shoe. Please use this chart as a rough estimate. For best results, please measure the length of your original laces. If you are between two sizes using our chart, we recommend choosing the shorter length for most applications.


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She's So Lovely1997 Drama | Suspense/Thriller | Romance
Written by the late John Cassavettes in 1987 and filmed by his son Nick a decade later, the comic drama She's So Lovely (originally and more appropriately titled She's De Lovely in honor of the Cole Porter composition central to the movie) stars real-life couple Sean Penn and Robin Wright-Penn as Eddie and Maureen, a young husband and wife whose relationship is strained by Eddie's frequently irrational behavior. When a run-in with a slimy neighbor (James Gandolfini) leaves the pregnant Maureen beaten and bruised, Eddie goes on the warpath, and his violent actions land him in a mental institution. Upon his release a decade later, he discovers Maureen has remarried (to a construction manager portrayed by John Travolta), had two more kids, and moved to the suburbs. Regardless, he resolves to win her back. A kind of reworking of the Cassavetes Sr. masterpiece A Woman Under the Influence, She's So Lovely marked the second film directed by Nick after Unhook the Stars.~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide


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Jacob Burnett '15 – "From the very beginning, our state and national constitutions and laws have laid great emphasis on procedural and substantive safeguards designed to assure fair trials before impartial tribunals in which every defendant stands equal before the law. This noble ideal cannot be realized if the poor man charged with crime has to face his accusers without a lawyer to assist him."
Supreme Court Associate Justice Hugo Black wrote these words into law when authoring the decision in Gideon v. Wainwright. In essence, the Supreme Court dictated that every individual charged with a crime has a fundamental right in our justice system to an attorney. It gave color to the spirit of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments to the United States Constitution – rights enjoyed by all citizens.
This summer, I have had the opportunity to participate in the Criminal Law Internship Program (CLIP) through the Public Defender Service (PDS) in Washington D.C. PDS embodies these fundamental tenets of our justice system. I am an investigative intern that, as my title implies, investigates crimes on behalf of an attorney that represents indignant clients. Due to closed discovery, PDS receives very limited information involved in a case. To fill that void, Staff Investigators, other interns, and I perform crime scene investigations, canvass for evidence, serve subpoenas, take statements, find witnesses, attend court hearings, develop defense theories, and perform any other task that arises during an investigation. I've also had the opportunity to sit in on seminars regarding forensic evidence, flaws in eyewitness identification, legal writing, and many more. Therefore, my internship has provided me with a two-pronged wonder world: hands-on investigation and education on the inner workings of the criminal justice system.
I was assigned to a trial division attorney to investigate Felony 1 cases. It has given me a brand new appreciation for all the work that goes into trial preparation. It also taught me more about myself, humanity, social justice, and passion than any textbook or class could attempt to address. Honestly, if you were interested in a typical office or corporate law job with a regular 9-5 schedule, this internship was not for you. I accomplished all my work first hand. It wasn't from a distance. I canvassed crime scenes more than I completed office work.
Along with this assignment, I had the opportunity to work in the Special Litigation Department at PDS. This department works on numerous projects that are not necessarily tied to trial. The attorneys work on impacting policy, writing amicus briefs, and many other projects. I had the opportunity to work on a Car Forfeiture program. In essence, I helped identify owners of formally repossessed vehicles and work on reuniting these people with their vehicles. Unlike other interns, I also had the opportunity to work in the appellate division as well. My intern partner and I searched for newly discovered witnesses and evidence to help an appellate attorney win a new trial for our client.
All of us have sat through a "Law and Order" episode or one of its sister shows. We root for the good guy prosecutor who has overwhelming evidence against the defendant. We shake our head at the slimy defense attorney who represents the obviously guilty individual. Sometimes I receive unenthusiastic responses, morose facial expressions, or snide remarks about my work when I inform people where I am interning. However, through my work at PDS, I have learned that the world of criminal law presents a mosaic of mess – often times substantially, racially, and economically poisoned. More often than not, the evidence is not clear and convincing. If it is, many people decide to plea and not go to trial. It is my job to work to ensure that the government does their job and does not send an innocent person to jail or violate their fundamental liberties.
I work for convicted felons, accused felons, and prisoners. However, they are more than these labels; they are people. I spend my time in poor communities and jails. And I couldn't be more honored. These individuals have trusted me with their liberty. I would want nothing else to ensure that justice is attainable and contingent upon culpability and not wealth. It further demonstrates my belief that basic humanity demands dignity. This experience has strengthened my belief that we all are more than the worst thing we have ever done. I have met some of the most selfless people behind jail bars.
We live in a country where an individual is twenty-two times more likely to receive the death penalty if they are black. We live in a country where an individual is eight times more likely to receive the death penalty if the victim is white. We live in a country where one in eight individuals on death row have been exonerated. We live in a country where the justice system treats you more fairly if you are rich and guilty than poor and innocent. My job at PDS has given me the tools to ensure that the words written on the façade of the Supreme Court, "Equal Justice Under Law," represent more than mere letters inscribed in concrete. The safeguards in place under our constitution protect the rights experienced by the guilty and innocent alike – people like you and me.
It will be difficult when I return to Wabash for the fall semester and people ask me how my summer was because it is indescribable. I will not be at a loss for words to paint a picture for those who are interested, but describing my experience robs it of the veracity embodied through living it. Words cannot capture the work I have accomplished, people I have met, and the life I have lead these past twelve weeks.
Last summer, I started a journey working for the disenfranchised as an intern at the Legal Aid Society of Louisville. Overall, I have had another opportunity to explore the practice of ruthless empathy. I would not have had this experience without the generous funding of the Harold M. and Margaret R. Coons Public Service Internship grant, the F. Michael Cassel award, and the funding I've earned as a summer Research Assistant for Assistant Professor of Political Science Dr. Burch. Without this funding, I would not have had the chance to work at PDS or live and work in a city I haven't been to before now. I am forever indebted to these funders for their generosity.


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Tag: positivity and MS
Why I took time out to focus on my health
Hello neglected blog of mine! Sorry, I've not been around for so long, I hope I didn't worry anyone! I know I always feel concerned for any chronic illness bloggers I haven't heard from in a while.
I am doing … Read the rest


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Meredith & Matt: Details & Florals
Despite a delayed ceremony due to a line of thunderstorms that came through, Meredith & Matt had a beautiful outdoor ceremony at Williamsburg Winery on May 14, 2016. After all, they say rain on your wedding day is good luck! And if the double rainbow that appeared over their ceremony location is any indication, theirs will be a blessed marriage. I was honored to get to work with Megan Vaughan again as her second shooter. To see more from this wedding, see Megan's blog post at http://www.megan-vaughan.com/blog/. (These are my selected images and my edits.)Read More