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AAUW Policy Director Eager to See Sen. Olympia Snowe at Convention
AAUW's 2013 convention was always going to be exciting for me — bringing together AAUW members, the Big Easy, Melissa Harris-Perry, and my dear friend Lilly Ledbetter. But now I'll have the added joy of hearing from one of my all-time favorite members of Congress and watching her receive a well-deserved AAUW Achievement Award on June 11.
Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME) retired in 2013 as the third longest-serving woman in congressional history and only the fourth woman to be elected to both chambers. Her legislative achievements made a big impression on me shortly after I got my start on Capitol Hill in 1997, when I was doing a lot of work with the House Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues. Snowe had moved on to the Senate by that time, but, as I became familiar with the history of the caucus, I learned that she had been instrumental in its founding. It was very clear that Snowe, along with founding co-chair Rep. Pat Schroeder (D-CO), made the caucus a bipartisan force to be reckoned with in the House. In fact, much of the progress that women enjoy today can be traced back to legislation passed during Snowe's decade at the helm of the caucus. These impressive achievements motivated me as a legislative staffer and influence me to this day in my firm belief in the importance of bipartisanship in the policy-making process.
One of the traits I have always admired about Snowe is that she stands by her principles, a task made more difficult in our increasingly poisonous political atmosphere. I strongly believe that moderate voices are essential if we want to return to a place of reasoned debate and intelligent discourse, and if we want to solve the big problems and truly make progress as a nation. Snowe provided one of the most important moderate voices in congressional history — that is not an overstatement. She reminds me of the strong, principled Republican women with whom I grew up, who fought for women's voices in the party and championed moderate policies. Snowe's tenure in Congress — as someone trying to do what's best not only for Maine but also for the country — in some ways parallels the work we do at AAUW. We continue to be a strong nonpartisan voice in the White House and on Capitol Hill. We know that compromise and collaboration are not dirty words but rather admirable efforts that produce the best policies.
One of the best compliments I have given to Snowe may sound a little odd: I've never really thought of her as a politician. To me, Olympia Snowe will always be a consummate legislator and advocate in the truest sense of the words. I can't wait to cheer for her as she speaks at our convention and hear what she has in store for all of us in her next act. You can bet it will be honest, genuine work that will be good for Maine, and good for women and girls too. I hope you'll join me.
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V Playlist: Lupe Fiasco, Jay-Z x Lana Del Rey x Urban Noize, Travi$ Scott And More
VIBE's Daily Additions to the 'Pod
1. Lupe Fiasco – "Jonylah Forever"
Lupe's been known to speak out against the violence that takes place in his hometown of Chicago. In wake of 6-month old Jonylah Watkins' death after being shot 5 times, Lupe weighs in with his lyrical opinion. The rapper took to his Twitter to express how he felt about the tradegy by writing, "She lives as long as we do. She will live forever. God bless your soul and the family you left behind. We Love You." The song features Lupe rapping about the possible future Jonylah could've had if she wasn't murdered. This goes beyond deep. Respect to Lu.

subset: commoncrawl


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text:
A Blu-ray Christmas? Don't bank on it
Credit crunch to hurt HD format's sales
There's little point in dreaming of a Blu Christmas this year, because the credit crunch looks set to sap consumer spending on the format, one market analyst fears.
In a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, Russ Crupnick, senior industry analyst at market watcher NPD, said that sales of premium-priced electronics, including Blu-ray, will suffer as consumers tighten their belts.
Consumers are "going to be more selective in their spending", he said, adding that consumers are likely to place a higher priority on buying, say, a games console or an HD TV than a Blu-ray Disc player.
Andy Parsons, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association's US promotions committee, was - unsurprisingly - a little more upbeat about the format's Christmas sales potential though. "We're hopeful even though things are getting a little tough out there, economically speaking," he told the paper.
But why be blue, Andy? If punters do indeed favour games consoles, they're likely to consider the PlayStation 3, which, conveniently, doubles up as a Blu-ray player.
That might be enough to swing sales in the console's favour over the cheaper Xbox 360.


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Lowell OK After Surgery
It seems that Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell's surgery on his right thumb went well. This is from The Boston Globe's EXTRA BASES, with my thanks. Here you go...
"According to a source, Mike Lowell was found to have a 95-percent tear in the radial collateral ligament in his thumb when Dr. Donald Sheridan operated on him today (Wednesday). The surgery went well, Lowell will return to his home in Florida tomorrow and will need 6-8 weeks of recovery. That will have him ready to resume baseball activities during spring training. What that means in terms of being ready for Opening Day is uncertain."
Knowing Mikey, he'll be ready...if he's not traded. I don't think any MLB team will include him in their plans until he proves in spring training that he's sound, healthy and ready to have a good season. But if that's the case, Theo, WHY TRADE HIM?? If he's right and feeling good, I WANT HIM TO BE OUR GUY AT THIRD. No ifs, ands or buts.
That's my quickie post for this 31st day of December, 2009, the last day of the decade. Wow, did that fly by! I hope you have a wonderful New Years Day weekend, all three days of it. Be careful on the roads and as always, BE WELL.
HAPPY NEW YEAR to one and all! See you next year!


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HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A judge in central Pennsylvania gave his approval Wednesday to a settlement of fraud charges against MoneyGram International Inc., including the establishment of a $100 million victim compensation fund.
U.S. Middle District Judge Christopher Conner accepted a deferred prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors and the Dallas-based payment services provider.
Prosecutors said the company turned a blind eye to scam artists and money launderers, and failed to act against agents linked to fraud schemes.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kim Daniel said the agreement included "a clear statement and acknowledgement of responsibility" and MoneyGram has agreed to cooperate with investigators. It has already paid $65 million, with the rest due early next year.
MoneyGram lawyer David Zinn noted the company has already made changes, including the replacement of its senior management team and stronger compliance and financial intelligence efforts.
Several of Conner's questions related to the restitution fund, which will be administered by a vendor chosen by the U.S. Postal Service. Daniel said oversight would ultimately be in the hands of the Justice Department.
If the company fulfills its obligations under the deal, after five years federal prosecutors will seek dismissal of the charges of aiding and abetting wire fraud, and failure to maintain an effective money laundering prevention program.
MoneyGram has agreed to structural changes, and to retain for five years a corporate monitor who will report to the Justice Department.
MoneyGram, based in Dallas, has about 275,000 locations in 190 countries, with independent outlets owned by agents who split fees with the company.
Federal prosecutors said company officials were aware that some agents were engaged in fraud but decided not to sever their relationship, and ended up profiting from the illegal acts.
The fraud included promising people large prizes, offering expensive items at very low prices, holding out false jobs as "secret shoppers" and making fake distress phone calls posing as family members in desperate for financial help.
Between 2004 and 2009, MoneyGram customers filed about 64,000 consumer fraud reports in the U.S. and Canada, with losses worth a combined $128 million.
Daniel said the investigation began with postal inspectors responding to complaints. At least 25 agents have been charged with related offenses in the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and
At the request of federal prosecutors, in 2009 the company closed 400 outlets thought to be involved in consumer fraud.
Information about the victim compensation fund will be posted on a Justice Department website. Victims can call 877-282-2610 in the United States or 317-324-0390 in other countries.
Justice Department's victim notification page:


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Researchers To Collar 52 Adult Moose in Northeast Minnesota
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Researchers plan to collar 52 adult moose in northeastern Minnesota starting this week in the second year of a high-tech study to determine why the iconic species is disappearing from the state.
The radio collars use GPS to transmit alerts when a moose dies. Biologists then try to rush to the carcass within 24 hours before it decomposes or scavengers destroy the evidence.
Michelle Carstensen of the Minnesota DNR says the idea is to replace the 22 adult moose among the 107 in the study that died over the past year. She says DNR biologists plan to start collaring 36 moose across northeastern Minnesota on Thursday, while researchers for the Grand Portage Band of Chippewa began collaring the first of 16 moose on the reservation for their own study Monday.


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Having kept relatively mum on her infamous affair with former President Bill Clinton, Monica Lewinsky is now ready to divulge the intimate details.
The former White House intern, whose grandfather emigrated to El Salvador from Nazi Germany, is promising to reveal all in her new memoir --including Clinton's "insatiable desire for three-way sex, orgies and the use of sex toys of all kinds," a friend of Lewinsky told the National Enquirer.
Out for revenge, reports say she is getting paid a whooping $12 million for the tell-all.
"For years, Monica tried to protect Bill out of a misplaced sense of loyalty," a source close to Lewinsky told the Enquirer. "But she no longer feels that way, and her memoir is his worst nightmare."
The book will supposedly include love letters she wrote to Clinton as well.
"In them, she opened her heart about her love for Bill and how much happier she could make him," said the source. "Some of what she wrote was so raw that she never sent them."
A week ago, the New York Post reported that Lewinksy was shopping the tell-all around to different publishers.
"No one will hire her and she can't get a job because of Clinton," a sympathetic friend told The Post. "She needs to make money somehow."
As she approaches a milestone birthday, friends say Lewinsky has become a bitter single woman.
"She's facing 40 without a man in her life, a friend told blogger Perez Hilton, "and seething about the way her reputation was destroyed as the whole world watched."
Lewinsky revealed some details of the tryst her 1999 biography "Monica's Story," but until now has never given explicit descriptions of her relationship with the former Commander in Chief.
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Unit 13: Fashion show
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Grooming, fashion, daily routines, special occasions and outings; guided and free writing in the Target Language; written translation into English. The unit lasts for 6 days.
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ANIMAL DISCO : Max Hippo Jr
- Publisher: BANG BANG
- Genre: Entertainment
- Released: 12 Dec, 2011
- Size: 156.7 MB
- Price: FREE!
- App Store Info
DescriptionMeet Max! He's the first interactive 3D dancing animal on the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch! Come play with the lights, music, dance moves + more at the ANIMAL DISCO!
★ Create a unique dance mix for Max
★ Select dances in the order and timing of your choice
★ Max will perform the dance you create
★ Control the lights in the dance room
★ Select awesome dance songs
★ Play with Max to keep him dancing
★ Poke Max and he will fall off beat
★ Give Max an Ener-Gee Drink for an extreme energy boost!
★ Turn on the disco ball and Max will burst into a disco dancing fever
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "This app is terrific!"
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "So much fun! I can't wait to show this to my friends!"
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "If you like Talking Tom, you will love Max Hippo!"
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "I am grown woman and this dancing hippo made me laugh like a little one! Go Max!!!!"
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ "I can't wait to show my grandkids! They will love it!"
Get a sneak peak of Max's coolest dance moves on Youtube
Max Hippo's Ultra Famous Dance Moves:
★ Tubby Two-step
★ Club-Quake
★ Pudge Step
★ Dip'n'Dive
★ RoboMax
★ Jelly Roll
★ Coffee Grinder
★ Hippo Strut
★ Pony Ride
★ Point Pop
★ Wallow Whomp
★ Heat Wave
★ Thunder Squat
★ Jelly Belly
★ Stocky Rock
★ Hefty Hustle
★ Chunky Shuffle
★ Plump Bump
★ Whirlwind
★ Sprinkler
Max Hippo grew up downtown, near the city zoo. All his life he wanted to do just one thing – DANCE!
He comes from an artistic family, his mother Henrietta was a famous hippo ballerina.
Max loves pizza almost as much as his girlfriend, Maxine.
He aspires to dance like M. Jackson and is always the last cool cat to leave the disco.
People everywhere talk about his trademark moves. No other animals can strut their stuff like Max!
You will be amazed at all of his incredible moves. Max is certainly the greatest dancing hippo of all time!
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Follow Max on Twitter @MaxDiscoHippo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Like Max on Facebook
Enough Talk! It's time to get down dancin' with Max Hippo! Go make some moves of your own!
Bang Bang Games is the creator of unique family-friendly games and entertainment apps for iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
For questions, comments, or support, you can reach us at [email protected]
Thank you!


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The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century
Down and Delirious in Mexico City
The Aztec Metropolis in the Twenty-First Century
In 2002, Daniel Hernandez traveled to Mexico City, searching for his cultural roots. He encountered a city both chaotic and intoxicating, both underdeveloped and hypermodern. In 2007, after quitting a job, he moved back. With vivid, intimate storytelling, Hernandez visits slums populated by ex-punks; glittering, drug-fueled fashion parties; and pseudo-native rituals catering to new-age Mexicans. He takes readers into the world of youth subcultures, in a city where punk and emo stand for a whole way of life—and sometimes lead to rumbles on the streets.
Surrounded by volcanoes, earthquake-prone, and shrouded in smog, the city that Hernandez lovingly chronicles is a place of astounding manifestations of danger, desire, humor, and beauty, a surreal landscape of "cosmic violence." For those who care about one of the most electrifying cities on the planet, "Down & Delirious in Mexico City is essential reading" (David Lida, author of First Stop in the New World).
- Scribner |
- 288 pages |
- February 2011


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Phase transitions in tumor growth: II prostate cancer cell lines
José Llanos Pérez, Juvencio A Betancourt Mar, María P De Miguel, Elena Izquierdo Kulich, Mar Royuela García, Eduardo Tejera, José M Nieto Villar
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/011189
We propose a mechanism for prostate cancer cell lines growth, e.g., LNCaP and PC3 based on a Gompertz dynamics. This growth exhibits a multifractal behavior and a "second order" phase transition. Finally, it was found that the cellular line PC3 exhibits a higher value the entropy production rate compared to LNCaP, which is indicative of the robustness of PC3, over to LNCaP and may be a quantitative index of metastatic potential tumors.


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SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — U.S. Coast Guard crews searched Friday for a Washington state man who was reported missing from a Caribbean cruise.
Two ships and a plane took part in the second day of the search, which was centered about 85 miles (137 kilometers) northwest of Puerto Rico, Coast Guard spokesman Ricardo Castrodad said.
The man, identified as 42-year-old Jason Gregory Rappe of Olympia, Washington, was reported missing Thursday by his wife from the Holland America cruise ship Eurodam. A baseball cap belonging to the passenger was found on one of the decks and he is believed to have gone overboard.
"At this point, we are actively searching," Castrodad told The Associated Press. "We are hoping to find a survivor."
He said the Coast Guard had not decided how long it would search. He said such decisions are made on a case by case basis depending on such factors as the weather and the physical condition of the missing person.
The Eurodam was traveling from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands to the Bahamas when Rappe was reported missing.
The ship turned around to join the search, but Holland America spokeswoman Sally Andrews said the ship had since resumed its voyage. It was scheduled to return to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Saturday.


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The number of Danish emigrants is hard to determine. Some scholars suggest over 400,000 before World War 2. Most of those went to the USA, but also Canada, Australia and South America had many Danish immigrants.
Note that around 50,000-60,000 emigrated before World War 1 from Northern Schleswig-Holstein (towns like Haderslev, Aabenraa, Tønder and Sønderborg on the map). A region that was under German rule from 1864-1920 and named Sønderjylland in Danish.
If you're interested in professional research service then feel free to contact us. The initial consultation is free. You can get in touch with us via the Contact menu or the Live Chat at the bottom right of the website.


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By Valerie Volcovici
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pick to lead the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency told a Senate panel on Thursday that coal will remain important in the U.S. energy mix and that the EPA will be flexible in applying new pollution rules for coal-fired power plants.
Gina McCarthy, EPA's assistant administrator for air and radiation, was questioned by Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on the agency's plans to roll out regulations soon to curb carbon emissions from power plants, blamed for contributing to global warming.
The Boston native is seeking confirmation by the Senate to replace Lisa Jackson, who resigned as EPA chief in February.
"Coal has been and will continue to be a significant source of energy in the United States, and I take my job seriously when developing those standards to provide flexibility in the rules," McCarthy said.
Republican Senators John Barrasso of Wyoming and James Inhofe of Oklahoma, among others, quizzed McCarthy about the economic impact of its rules on states that rely on coal as a primary energy source, and about her feelings toward job losses when coal plants close.
Barrasso said rules that prevent new coal plants from being built and would potentially shut down existing coal plants are already causing "chronic unemployment" in Wyoming.
"How many more times will an EPA administrator pull the regulatory lever that will allow another mining family to fall through the EPA's trap door of joblessness, poverty and poor health," he said.
McCarthy, who leads the unit that is developing some of the emissions regulations, said the agency will give companies leeway to make changes to comply with those standards.
In their opening remarks, Democrats highlighted McCarthy's bipartisan background, including her work as chief environmental regulator for 2012 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts.
The hearing featured several rounds of questions by Republican lawmakers about transparency of the agency and the way it uses email accounts. Republicans suggested agency officials had used personal email to mask some of the agency's controversial rulemaking deliberations.
"There has been a pattern of abuse using personal email accounts at EPA," said Louisiana Republican David Vitter. "It is clear that this practice in many cases was used to hide information from the public."
Before leaving the agency, Jackson came under fire from Republicans for using a government-assigned email address under a fake name, Richard Windsor.
Emails written by Jackson using that account may not have been captured by Freedom of Information Act requests or made it to the national archives, according to lawmakers and a public interest watchdog group.
McCarthy said the inspector general of the EPA is doing an internal audit of the agency's communications. "We are doing everything we can to improve the system at the EPA," she said.
But McCarthy told the panel that she does not use personal email for agency business, and quipped that "One good thing about being 58 is I don't know how to use" instant messaging.
McCarthy also told lawmakers she recognized the need for cooperation between federal regulators and state and local authorities.
"I have worked for states and local communities. I understand the stress they are under," McCarthy said.
Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat who heads the committee, said McCarthy's nomination "should enjoy smooth sailing." No date has been set for a committee vote to forward her nomination to the full Senate.
If confirmed, McCarthy will be one of a team of officials dealing with divisive energy issues including climate change, hydraulic fracturing and determining the level of U.S. natural gas exports.
Ernest Moniz, Obama's nominee to lead the Department of Energy, had a confirmation hearing this week and Sally Jewell was confirmed on Wednesday as interior secretary.
(Reporting by Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Ros Krasny, Vicki Allen and Cynthia Osterman)


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Here you can see all the photoshoots of Mass Effect 2 on ACParadise. Click on a photoshoot to view more photos from it.
ACP, ACE, ACS are part of the ACParadise.com Network, Copyright © 2000-2018
""@acparadise @_4ng31 and I were just talking about how you guys treat your members right. Thanks for being the best cosplay site!""


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GM Gives Michigan Tech 3 Hybrid Vehicles for Research and Education
By Jennifer Donovan | Published
General Motors has donated two Saturn Vue hybrids and a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid—the Chevy that a top GM executive drove to Washington, DC, last spring to meet with Congress—to Michigan Technological University. The vehicles will be used for research and education.
"The donation of these vehicles from GM will enable us to further our research in reducing fuel consumption and emissions, including enabling near-zero emissions for biofueled vehicles," said Jeff Naber, a professor of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics at Michigan Tech and a lead researcher and director of the Advanced Internal Combustion Laboratories at Michigan Tech.
The Saturns will be used to find ways to minimize the impact that ethanol blend fuels have on cold-start emissions, Naber said. Research will be conducted in Michigan Tech's climate controlled facilities with combustion and emissions instrumentation and will include investigation into higher cranking speed, improved fuel control and variable valve actuation, he went on to say.
The Saturns and the Malibu will also be used for hands-on instruction in an advanced propulsion technology course for engineers being offered in Detroit this fall by Michigan Tech, AVL and the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD). Naber is the lead faculty member for the course, modeled after a breakthrough course that the University, GM and ESD offered to displaced automotive engineers last spring. The new course is offered with full tuition support via federal funds through the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth and the Michigan Academy for Green Mobility.
"Feeling the full force of the economic pressures that the auto industry and state of Michigan are facing, General Motors has needed to look for creative ways to partner with great universities like Michigan Tech," said Terry Woychowski, vice president global vehicle program management at GM and a Michigan Tech alumnus. "We have enjoyed a long-term partnership in many areas, with powertrain development being a particularly successful area of research and development. Our recent collaborative effort to deliver advanced propulsion training to displaced engineers was an excellent example of that partnership. The donation of these state-of-the-art hybrid vehicles is a natural extension of that partnership and supports the ongoing research, development and education that is required as we boldly move forward in the re-invention of the automobile."
Bill Predebon, chair of mechanical engineering-engineering mechanics at Michigan Tech, praised GM for its donations. "The gift of the hybrid vehicles to Michigan Tech is an example of GM's commitment to educating the future workforce of Michigan and the US in the technology needed for advanced hybrid and electric vehicles," he said. "This is particularly significant given the difficult economic times that face our nation."
Michigan Technological University is a leading public research university, conducting research, developing new technologies and preparing students to create the future for a prosperous and sustainable world. Michigan Tech offers more than 130 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in engineering, forestry and environmental sciences, computing, technology, business and economics, natural and physical sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences.
Michigan Technological University is a public research university, home to more than 7,000 students from 54 countries. Founded in 1885, the University offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science and technology, engineering, forestry, business and economics, health professions, humanities, mathematics, and social sciences. Our campus in Michigan's Upper Peninsula overlooks the Keweenaw Waterway and is just a few miles from Lake Superior.


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Difference between revisions of "George Bernard Shaw"
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'''George Bernard Shaw''' (known as Bernard Shaw) (1856-1950) was an Irish writer
'''George Bernard Shaw''' (known as Bernard Shaw ) (1856-1950) was an Irish writerplaywright , born in [[Dublin]]. He was a lifelong [[socialist]] and a member of the [http://www.fabians.org.uk/ Fabian Society]. He was also a proponent of [[eugenics]].<ref>[http://medinfo.ufl.edu/other/histmed/stoyan/slide10.html University of Florida; Language of eugenics]</ref> Many of his plays had social themes, including ''Major Barbara'' and ''Pygmalion''; the latter was the inspiration for the musical ''My Fair Lady''. Also among his many plays were ''Arms and the Man'', ''The Devil's Disciple'' and ''Saint Joan''. In 1925 he was awarded the [[Nobel Prize]] for Literature.
Revision as of 15:00, 19 January 2013
George Bernard Shaw (known as Bernard Shaw or GBS) (1856-1950) was an Irish writer, playwright and music and drama critic, born in Dublin. He was a lifelong socialist and a member of the Fabian Society. He was also a proponent of eugenics.[1] Many of his plays had social themes, including Major Barbara and Pygmalion; the latter was the inspiration for the musical My Fair Lady. Also among his many plays were Arms and the Man, The Devil's Disciple and Saint Joan. In 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
As a child Shaw attended the Church of Ireland, an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. Until he was thirty or so, Shaw called himself an atheist. He became one, he later quipped, before he could think.[2] In the 1890s, Shaw repudiated atheism. In his 1931 play, "Too True to be Good," One of Shaw's characters delivers a speech sometimes taken to be Shaw's own view:
|THE ELDER [rising impulsively] Determinism is gone, shattered, buried with a thousand dead religions, evaporated with the clouds of a million forgotten winters. The science I pinned my faith to is bankrupt: its tales were more foolish than all the miracles of the priests, its cruelties more horrible than all the atrocities of the Inquisition. Its spread of enlightenment has been a spread of cancer: its counsels that were to have established the millennium have led straight to European suicide. And I—I who believed in it as no religious fanatic has ever believed in his superstition! For its sake I helped to destroy the faith of millions of worshippers in the temples of a thousand creeds. And now look at me and behold the supreme tragedy of the atheist who has lost his faith—his faith in atheism, for which more martyrs have perished than for all the creeds put together.[3]
But in renouncing materialism, Shaw did not embrace theism, but Nietzschean "Vitalism." Shaw proselytized a mystical "Life Force," which he regarded as an impersonal "will" manifested in the sex drive and evolution, leading toward the development of god in the form of a Nietzschean "Superman."[4] In a 1907 lay sermon at Kensington Town Hall in London, Shaw exhorted:
|When you are asked, "Where is God? Who is God?" stand up and say, "I am God and here is God, not as yet completed, but still advancing towards completion, just in so much as I am working for the purpose of the universe, working for the good of the whole of society and the whole world, instead of merely looking after my personal ends."[5]
"In truth, Shaw didn't believe in an existing God at all," concludes Gary Sloan. "What he believed was that evolution, eons hence, will produce a godlike race in which the life force will consummate its quest for godhead."[6]
Shaw began his education by reading John Stuart Mill, August Comte, Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer, and was converted to socialism by Henry George's Progress and Poverty. Moving on to Karl Marx's Das Kapital, he began preaching socialism with the utmost zeal and enthusiasm[7] at socialist rallies, or just standing on soapboxes at Speaker's Corner in London's Hyde Park.[8]
After reading the first Fabian tract, Why are the many poor? in 1884, Shaw joined the Fabian Society, which, he wrote, "set up the banner of Socialism militant."[9] He began writing Fabian tracts, and personally converted Sidney Webb to socialism, recruiting him into the Fabian Society.[10]
At the invitation of Stalin, Shaw visited the Soviet Union[11] in 1931, at age 75.[12] He became a loyal apologist for Stalinism, reporting the Gulag to be a kind of luxury vacation spa, its large population due solely to "the difficulty of inducing [prisoners] to come out... As far as I could make out they could stay as long as they liked."[13] On the last day of his pilgrimage, he said, "Tomorrow I leave this land of hope and return to our Western countries of despair."[14]
In 1933, Shaw wrote a Letter to the Editor of the Manchester Guardian, denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's exposé of Stalin's Terror Famine as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word apologia for Stalin's mass murders, in which he expressed sympathy for the "unfortunate Commissar" who "found himself obliged to put a pistol in his pocket and with his own hand shoot" disobedient workers, "so that he might the more impressively ask the rest of the staff whether they yet grasped the fact that orders are meant to be executed." Shaw went on to attack the rule of law, in favor of the arbitrary rule of men, adding:
|[T]he most elaborate code of [law]... would still have left unspecified a hundred ways in which wreckers of Communism could have sidetracked it without ever having to face the essential questions: are you pulling your weight in the social boat? are you giving more trouble than you are worth? have you earned the privilege of living in a civilized community? That is why the Russians were forced to set up an Inquisition or Star Chamber, called at first the Cheka and now the Gay Pay Oo (Ogpu), to go into these questions and "liquidate" persons who could not answer them satisfactorily.[15]
In 1936, Shaw publicly defended Stalin's Great Terror, saying, "Even in the opinion of the bitterest enemies of the Soviet Union and of her government, the [purge] trials have clearly demonstrated the existence of active conspiracies against the regime... I am convinced that this is the truth, and I am convinced that it will carry the ring of truth even in Western Europe, even for hostile readers."[16] Shaw likewise defended Stalin's mass executions, scolding, "we cannot afford to give ourselves moral airs when our most enterprising neighbor... humanely and judiciously liquidates a handful of exploiters and speculators..."[17] In 1949, he even wrote a defense of Stalin's pseudo-scientific Lysenkoism.
In addition to socialism, Shaw was an advocate of eugenics. "Extermination must be put on a scientific basis if it is ever to be carried out humanely and apologetically as well as thoroughly," he wrote. "[I]f we desire a certain type of civilization and culture we must exterminate the sort of people who do not fit into it.[18] In one public address, recorded in a March 5, 1931 newsreel, Shaw gave expression to the Nazi doctrine of "life unworthy of life" (Lebensunwertes Leben):[19]
| You must all know half a dozen people at least who are no use in this world, who are more trouble than they are worth. Just put them there and say Sir, or Madam, now will you be kind enough to justify your existence?
If you can't justify your existence, if you're not pulling your weight, and since you won't, if you're not producing as much as you consume or perhaps a little more, then, clearly, we cannot use the organizations of our society for the purpose of keeping you alive, because your life does not benefit us and it can't be of very much use to yourself.[20]
One of Shaw's long-term obsessions was mass murder by means of poison gas. In a 1910 lecture before the Eugenics Education Society, he said:
|We should find ourselves committed to killing a great many people whom we now leave living... A part of eugenic politics would finally land us in an extensive use of the lethal chamber. A great many people would have to be put out of existence simply because it wastes other people's time to look after them.[21]
In the BBC's weekly magazine, Shaw made a 1933 "appeal to the chemists to discover a humane gas that will kill instantly and painlessly. Deadly by all means, but humane not cruel..."[22] His appeal would shortly come to fruition in Nazi Germany. As Robert Jay Lifton notes in The Nazi Doctors, "The use of poison gas—first carbon monoxide and then Zyklon B—was the technological achievement permitting 'humane killing.'"[23]
Shaw admired not just Stalin, but Mussolini and even Hitler.[24] He despised freedom, writing, "Mussolini... Hitler and the rest can all depend on me to judge them by their ability to deliver the goods and not by... comfortable notions of freedom."[25]
In the midst of the Battle of Britain, when the Wehrmacht, having routed the British at Dunkirk, was poised on the English Channel and the Luftwaffe was bombing London nightly, Shaw was asked what he would do if he were Prime Minister, if the Nazis invaded. Shaw replied, "Welcome them as tourists."[26]
Shaw has also been criticized as anti-Semitic: he once exhorted Jews to "stop being Jews and start being human beings."[27]
Unlike most eugenicists, who recoiled in horror from the implications of eugenics after World War II, when the horrors of Nazism were exposed to the world, Shaw continued to advocate it, writing in 1948 that we should enslave "a considerable class of persons" who, according to him, "cannot fend for themselves." Placed under "tutelage, superintendence, and provided sustenance," such people, says Shaw, "make good infantry soldiers and well-behaved prisoners." His prescription: "Reorganize their lives for them; and do not prate foolishly about their liberty."
Shaw continued to advocate mass murder, calling it "kindly but ruthless judicial liquidation" -- not for murderers, but for "the criminal you cannot reform" –- career criminals, even those who commit petty crimes.
In addition to recidivists, the death penalty should be applied, he wrote, to "idiots" and "morons": "Do not punish them. Kill, kill, kill, kill, kill them." Shaw admitted that most of these people are "quite incapable of committing a murder," but argued that "the increase or decrease of crime is not the point at issue." They should be killed, according to Shaw, simply because they are incapable of "paying their way."
Clarifying that he was advocating mass murder, Shaw added that "on this principle we shall liquidate many more human nuisances than at present if we are to the weed the garden thoroughly."
Most ominously, among those Shaw marked for death were people he called "ungovernables" and those who are incapable, according to Shaw, of "discharging their social duties." (These labels perhaps cover those who do not acquiesce to slavery and mass murder.)[28]
- ↑ University of Florida; Language of eugenics
- ↑ Sloan 2004
- ↑ Bernard Shaw, "Too True to be Good," (Samuel French, Inc., 1935) ISBN 0573601518, p. 99
- ↑ George Bernard Shaw, Act III: "Don Juan in Hell," Man and Superman (Brentano's, 1916), pp. 71-142
- ↑ George Bernard Shaw, "The New Theology," Christian Commonwealth, May 23 and 27, 1907
- ↑ Sloan 2004
- ↑ Henderson 1911: 102-104.
- ↑ Mazer
- ↑ G. Bernard Shaw, "Fabian Tract No. 41: The Fabian Society, Its Early History," (Fabian Society Reprint, 1899)
- ↑ Henderson 1911: 102-106.
- ↑ Mazer
- ↑ "Review: The Lure of Fantasy: Bernard Shaw, Volume III, by Michael Holroyd," The Economist, October 26, 1991
- ↑ Hollander 1998: 146
- ↑ Hollander 1998: 38-39
- ↑ Shaw 1933
- ↑ Arnold Beichman, "Death of the Butcher," Hoover Digest, 2003 No. 2
- ↑ Hollander 1998: 152-153
- ↑ Shaw 1933
- ↑ Dr. Stuart D. Stein, "Life Unworthy of Life" and other Medical Killing Programmes, University of the West of England
- ↑ Edvins Snore, The Soviet Story (Clip)
- ↑ The Daily Express (London), March 4, 1910, quoted in Dan Stone, Breeding Superman: Nietzsche, Race and Eugenics in Edwardian and Interwar Britain (Liverpool University Press, 2002) ISBN 0853239975
- ↑ The Listener (London), February 7, 1934
- ↑ Robert Jay Lifton, The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide (Basic Books, 1986) ISBN 0465049052, p. 453
- ↑ "Shaw Heaps Praise Upon the Dictators: While Parliaments Get Nowhere, He Says, Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin Do Things," From an Address By George Bernard Shaw, The New York Times, December 10, 1933
- ↑ Hollander 1998: 169
- ↑ Thomas Sowell, "Pacifism and war," Jewish World Review, September 24, 2001 (7 Tishrei, 5762)
- ↑ Shaw Society of America, The Shaw review, Volumes 3-4 (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1960), p. 13
- ↑ George Bernard Shaw, "Capital Punishment," The Atlantic, June 1948.
External Links
- George Bernard Shaw Biography and works at The Literature Network
- What Liberals Say - George Bernard Shaw, Accuracy In Media
- Gary Sloan, "The Religion of George Bernard Shaw: When Is an Atheist?," American Atheist, Autumn 2004
- Archibald Henderson, George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775
- Cary M. Mazer, Bernard Shaw: a Brief Biography, University of Pennsylvania
- Paul Hollander, Political Pilgrims: Western Intellectuals in Search of the Good Society (New Brunswick, N.J: Transaction Publishers, 1998) ISBN 1560009543
- George Bernard Shaw, Preface, "On the Rocks" (1933)


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It's that time of year again! The 2011 Cooking School Schedule is now available. This is the perfect time to plan a fantastic Texas Hill Country Vacation to one of our renowned Cooking Schools. Chef Sebastian has added 4 new classes that include Sauces 101, Southwestern Cuisine, Southern Italian, and American Fall Classics. Even if you have attend a cooking school before don't let that detour you. We are always adding recipes and creating ways to take the everyday recipe to the next level. This is a great gift idea for that home cook you know. Call for reservations or Gift Certificates. 2011 Three Day Cooking School Schedule
Tags: Chef Sebastian, Cooking Classes, cooking school, Italian Cooking Classes, Learning Vacations, southwestern cuisine


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By Stephen Addison
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister David Cameron must shed his elitist image and connect with ordinary voters, a senior party member said on Saturday, after the anti-EU UK Independence Party scored major gains in local polls at the expense of the ruling Conservatives.
Discontent with immigration levels was a key factor behind UKIP's dramatic victory in Thursday's local council elections, in which it won over 25 percent of votes and recorded the best result for a party outside the big three since World War Two.
Cameron, who once called UKIP supporters "fruitcakes and closet racists", conceded his party had to work to win back disaffected voters, and he will try to regain the political initiative next week by outlining new measures on immigration.
"We need to show respect for people who've taken the choice to support this party and we're going to work really hard to win them back," he said.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage demanded big cuts in immigration during his campaign, playing on public concerns about the prospect of large numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians coming to Britain after they have full rights to work in the EU next year.
On Wednesday, Cameron's coalition government will outline measures to restrict the welfare benefits available to immigrants, particularly in the field of health.
But for the leader, who like several key advisers attended one of Britain's top private schools Eton College, the problem is one of image as well as substance.
David Davis, a senior Conservative who challenged Cameron for the party leadership in 2005, said he risked appearing "out of touch" with voters he must win over if he wants to be re-elected in a national ballot in 2015.
"The fact is that if we want to win the next election, we have to break this impression of being privileged and out of touch," Davis wrote in the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
"That means more straight talking and fewer focus groups ... and please, please no more Old Etonian advisers."
The opposition Labor party has long accused Cameron's inner circle of being "posh boys", and the issue resurfaced last month when Jo Johnson, brother of London Mayor Boris and Cameron's friend at Eton, was named head of the government's policy unit.
Davis also argued for bringing forward a referendum on membership of the European Union, something Cameron has already promised to do if he wins in 2015 and after he has renegotiated Britain's position within the bloc.
Cameron may now go one step further and enshrine that pledge in law, ministers have hinted.
His Liberal Democrat coalition partners - one of Europe's most pro-EU parties - would not allow him to simply introduce a government bill to that effect but, the ministers say, there may be ways around that obstacle.
According to Davis, UKIP's policies on law and order, immigration, taxation, foreign affairs and Europe were like those of a simplified 1980s Conservative manifesto.
"So the electoral answers are Conservative ones," he wrote, "but the test of our response is less about how right-wing we are than how relevant we are to ordinary people."
(Editing by Mike Collett-White)


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Attrition and Engagement Studies
Investigators at the Center for Psychotherapy Research are engaged in several attrition studies designed to understand why patients in community settings who suffer from depression often do not continue their treatment regimens.
Depression is one of the most common disorders in Community Mental Health Centers. A recent census of Northwestern Human Services of Philadelphia (NHSP) showed that more than 50 percent of consumers are diagnosed with some type of depression. Furthermore, empirically supported treatments for depression suggest the most effective therapy requires 8-16 sessions.
Despite decades of investigating factors contributing to attrition, obstacles to the delivery and success of treatments remain poorly understood and effective methods to engage and retain patients in treatment are lacking. Although early treatment withdrawal has repeatedly been linked to placement on a waiting list, economic disadvantage, minority status, or limited education, interventions addressing such factors have not increased retention. Remarkably, consumers disengage from mental health services at a rate comparable to that found over 50 years ago. Moreover, research has focused almost exclusively on dropout during treatment, although more than 60 percent of consumers initiating contact with a mental health clinic withdraw prior to treatment onset. Since most consumers disengage from services during the initial contacts with the agency, it becomes essential to understand why someone requesting service does not follow through. Ultimately, understanding and improving retention rates for consumers with depression could prove most beneficial to effectively implementing these treatments in the community mental health setting.
Engagement and Attrition in Community Health Settings - Two pilot studies are being conducted to focus on attrition during the engagement phase (i.e., no show after intake) and on attrition from treatment itself.
The specific aims of this study are to:
- Examine qualitatively and quantitatively the nature of initial engagement in treatment and subsequent retention/attrition with an eye towards potential modifications in empirically-supported psychotherapies for major depressive disorder that could be made to increase their relevance and success to a community mental health population.
- Systematically assess attrition after intake as well as during treatment itself,
- Examine the impact of various manifestations of attrition on identified correlates and contributors, and
- Incorporate consumer perceptions into all assessments and intervention development.
Early Engagement in Community Mental Health Treatment - This attrition study seeks to identify and empirically confirm factors that predict dropout within depressed adult consumers of community mental health services.
The specific aims of this study are to:
- Assess the perceptions of consumers about attrition at various points in the process of engagement, and
- Identify explicit consumer, staff, setting, and community factors predictive of attrition.
Principal Investigator: Marna S. Barrett, PhD (NIMH funding)
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Six Auburn football players were selected as part of the SEC Coaches preseason all-conference teams released Thursday.
Running back Tre Mason, who rushed for 1,002 yards in 2012, and center Reese Dismukes, a third-year starter on the offensive line, were selected for the second team offense. Placekicker Cody Parkey and punter Steven Clark, both seniors, were second-team honorees as well.
Named to the third team were tight end C.J. Uzomah and defensive end Dee Ford.
This marks the 11th straight year of the SEC Coaches preseason all-SEC team. Eleven of the 14 SEC schools had a representative on the first team, while every institution had at least two players named to one of the three units.
Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players.
Auburn's season opener is Saturday, August 31, at Jordan-Hare Stadium versus Washington State in a 6 p.m. Central kickoff.
INFORMATION SOURCE: Auburn Athletics Dept.


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We work with the Bureau of Land Management to make sure that once lands are protected they stay wild. We also help guide the BLM to keep oil and gas drilling away from wild lands.
Conservation Lands
The National Landscape Conservation System has many spectacular lands in it. We work to make sure that these lands are properly managed to guarantee their wildness lasts for generations.
Oil and gas drilling
We work with the Bureau of Land Management to make sure that the wildest lands that they manage are kept off limits to oil and gas drilling. We help guide them to places that are more suitable.
Stay current on legislation moving in Congress, issues affecting wilderness and wilderness designation campaigns with our Notes from the Hill.
Wilderness is a precious resource with many human, natural and economic benefits that we need to protect.
Be the first to hear about important campaigns, victories and features related to enjoying and protecting wilderness by joining our email and mobile WildAlert network.


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Information for Students
Welcome to the UAF BSW Program!
Please choose from the links to the left to learn more about the UAF Social Work Program and opportunities available to our students.
Check out our link to the BSW Student Manual for more in depth information about our program requirements.
For further questions you can call the social work department directly at (907) 474-7240.


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Good point about the money. That changes the complexion of the issue to Poile making either a business (read: money) decision or a hockey decision on whether or not to match the offer sheet. The Preds' owners may not care much for shelling out that dough for a guy who will depart after one year's service, but if Poile can sell it in terms of the money they will lose in attendance and market damage by letting Weber go for nothing but low 1st-rd picks and admitting to fan that it's back to the rebuild drawing board, then I think he can get the owners to agree to pony up the cash to pay Weber. It's either shell out the cash or risk destroying what they've been trying to build for how long? Just as they're starting to see daylight in terms of solidifying their fanbase?ODB wrote:I don't think so Lancer. I think if Nashville matches they can not trade Weber for a year. That means they would have to eat about 25 million in cash before they could make a trade. I can't see ownership doing that. They would basically be dolling out 25m to trade Weber for a fair return. Though if they did it would sort of fuck Weber because he has no NTC, NMC. Philly gave their word they would add it in after. If Nashville matches they won't add in shit! Nashville could match and trade him to some shit ass city. Worse than Nashville? I don't know. Ha, if I was a billionaire and a player fucked me like this I might just pay him his money and BURRY HIM IN THE MONORS FOR THE REST OF HIS CAREER… lol.Lancer wrote:If Weber really wants out of Nashville, it doesn't hurt Poile to match the offer anyway. Right now, until he matches, his only real trading partner is Philly. Even with a NMC/NTC, it opens the market to more teams than just Philly and Poile could get more than he will now. His agent said Weber would 'be professional' if the Preds matched it so you know he would show up and play next season so it's a matter of what Poile could get for him next year.
I do however believe they can trade Weber to Philly now, during the week window but I can't see Philly giving much. Why when you know you have him for 4 late 1st rounders?
Yeah, not having a NMC/NTC on the offer sheet makes life so much better for Poile as he doesn't have to get Weber's consent for a trade to wherever Poile can get the best return. I wonder how Weber feels about Long Island?


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Aetna Life Insurance Company has agreed to pay a $1 million fine for violations in Washington state.
The Washington state Office of the Insurance Commissioner said Thursday that Aetna's violations included issuing unapproved insurance policies and failing to file legally required documents. The office says the Connecticut-based company has agreed to pay the fine.
Aetna said in a statement that it sometimes makes mistakes. The company says it self-reported information to Washington state regulators and proposed a corrective action plan more than a year ago. Aetna says it is disappointed by the size of the fine given the company's self-reporting and cooperation.


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This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Orem • Salem Hills coach Scott Haney already had his ace.
Colton Hill has been the Skyhawks' No. 1 pitcher for the past three seasons. But Haney still was looking for a player to step up and win that second spot entering this season.
That man was on the bump and in a jam Thursday evening with Salem Hills looking for a win to put the school in the Class 4A baseball state title game.
Garret McEwan had given up a leadoff triple to Maple Mountain's Jonah Flinders then watched as Flinders scored and the Golden Eagles loaded the bases in the first inning.
McEwan thought back to the Little League advice from his father to just breathe deep. He reared back, and as he's done all year long for the Skyhawks, he got the job done.
"He came out and pitched his heart out," Haney said.
McEwan pitched six innings in a 7-2 win over Maple Mountain at Utah Valley University. His 10th win of the year kept his team undefeated in the tournament and secured a place in Friday's state championship.
"We're in the driver's seat now," McEwan said. "We decide our own fate."
Hill stepped to the plate with the game knotted at 1-1 in the second inning. He had taken Maple Mountain pitcher MaKay Nelson deep to center in the first, and he was looking for a fastball he could turn on with the bases loaded.
"I just thought if I get that fastball again, I need to be quicker, turn on it," he said. "The second at-bat, he threw me a curveball first, and then I just knew the fastball was coming."
Hill got every bit of the pitch, lifting it over the right-field wall for a grand slam.
"I saw Colton swinging, and I knew it was getting out," McEwan said. "I jumped high I think I hit my head on the dugout."
Maple Mountain's K.J. Hall appeared to answer back with a three-run shot of his own in the bottom of the third inning. But in a delayed call, the blast down the left field line was ruled foul. Hall then popped out to left to end the inning, leaving two stranded.
Maple Mountain cut the deficit when first baseman Arik Mack, who went 2 for 3 with a walk, drove in his second run of the game.
But the Skyhawks, the state's leader in extra-base hits, answered back. Salem Hills put together a pair of two-out singles in the top of the sixth inning. Then shortstop Taylor Snyder made the Golden Eagles pay with a double to the wall that drove in two.
"The best thing this team does is when the other team scores, we come back and score," Haney said. "They just have a knack for deflating the other team."
Salem Hills, meanwhile, is sky high and just one win away from winning it all.
"It's crazy. This is the stuff you work for when you're 11, 12 years old," Hill said. "To be one win away is surreal."
Twitter: @aaronfalk
Class 4A state tournament
P Friday at Utah Valley University
Title game*
1:30 p.m. • Salem Hills vs. Maple Mountain
* if Salem Hills loses the 1:30 p.m. game, a winner-take-all title game would follow at 8 p.m. if the Class 5A tournament also needs a winner-take-all game or 20 minutes after the conclusion of the 1:30 game if 5A does not need a second game.


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xn wrote:Mongoose42: benissimus and Ulpianus are quite right. I particularly agree with Ulpianus' ninth point.
klewlis: I envy your ability to learn by listening — I find it quite difficult to learn that way.
Mongoose42 wrote:Where can I find the Learn Latin Now! software?
Evito wrote:In our own languages we prolly chop up sentences too, only we do it so quickly we do not even notice anymore.
Latin needs to be chopped up so often because only the true literature and best texts were preserved (simpleness had no place then), which are the reason sentences are often so long.
mariek wrote:klewlis wrote:I have the Learn Latin Now! software, ...
Hmmm.. this sounds interesting. How much Latin does this software cover?
benissimus wrote:Sometimes picking apart a sentence is the only way to figure out what something means when you are a beginner....l


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Mixed-use development has been a hot topic in the U.S. for the past few years. But in the race to get projects done quickly, developers may have lost touch with what makes such environments thrive. The result is that very similar projects across the country are missing one of the key ingredients that make mixed-use work: a connection to what's already there. So as the pace of development slows, it might be a good time to stop and take stock of what's working and what's not. And it also might be an opportunity to study overseas — particularly Asia — where many architects say mixed-use is being done better than anywhere else.
For example, consider Xintiandi, or New Heaven and Earth, a 645,800-square-foot mixed-use complex completed seven years ago in Shanghai. The development, which in 2003 received an Award for Excellence from the Urban Land Institute, is cited by architects as one of the best examples of mixed-use anywhere in the world.
"It's one of the nicest places to just meander through," says Dawn Clark, principal in the Seattle office of architecture firm NBBJ. "There are all sorts of little buildings, restaurants and shops. You have a sense of an older connection to that place."
Architects say Xintiandi skillfully combines retail, entertainment, residential and hospitality uses and blends together old and new architecture, making the project feel like a natural part of its urban environment. That's in stark contrast to many clearly manufactured mixed-use complexes in the U.S. that appear as if they've been dropped from the sky out of nowhere, according to Ming Zhang, a principal with MulvannyG2, a Bellevue, Wash.-based architecture firm.
Xintiandi sits in the center of Shanghai, one block away from a major subway station and is in the middle of a steady flow of traffic. The South Block of the project, which houses shopping, entertainment and residential uses, is designed in a modern style. Meanwhile, the North Block uses restored Shikumen houses, a kind of tenement building unique to Shanghai, to provide an array of high-end boutiques and restaurants. In addition, Xintiandi is connected to a 473,600-square-foot public park, complete with trees, shrubbery and a man-made lake. Project developer Shui on Land, a Chinese firm, "took traditional Shanghai row houses and made [the area] into a pedestrian, people-friendly retail experience," says Zhang. "It's blended into the fabric of the city."
Ideally, that's what developers of mixed-use centers in the U.S. strive for. Yet oftentimes, they go about the task the wrong way, says Karl Kalcher, managing director with MindFolio Ltd., a London-based consulting firm. Aside from hewing too closely to existing models, another mistake, in Kalcher's view, is when developers place uses next to each other horizontally, rather than stacking them vertically. "When you set the uses side by side, you are not creating a true mixed-use [environment], which is really what a city fabric is. It's sort of organic and messy," says Clark.
Perhaps one of the biggest challenges U.S. developers face comes down to the old mantra of "location, location, location," according to Marios Savopoulos, principal and director of design with Perkowitz + Ruth Architects, a Long Beach, Calif.-based architecture firm. A successful mixed-use development needs existing traffic and a public transportation network to function properly, he notes. Mixed-use won't work in a suburban location that lacks an existing draw for people. Because developers overseas often have to deal with land constraints unknown to U.S. builders, they have been more successful incorporating these lessons into their projects, which is why U.S. companies would do well to follow their lead, says Roy H. Higgs, CEO and senior partner with Development Design Group, a Baltimore-based architecture firm.
Higgs also thinks the way U.S. companies are structured may play a role in the conservatism in how mixed-use is being applied. "In my view, the proliferation of REITs has, to a significant degree, led to the death of innovative real estate development," he notes. "It's been copycat, copycat, copycat. But over a number of years we have made the point quite forcefully that some of the more innovative developments have been occurring outside of the U.S."
Within city limits
Placing a mixed-use project in the middle of an existing urban center provides several major advantages. In best-case scenarios, projects can be part of larger redevelopment schemes where developers have control over multiple plots of land or are working in concert (rather than competing) with developers of nearby sites. Indeed, a lot of overseas mixed-use complexes tend to be created as part of larger redevelopment efforts, Clark says.
For example, several years ago, the Spanish firm Riofisa won a public competition to redevelop the Principe Pio transit station in Madrid. The firm added 410,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space to the 129-year-old structure. But, because it had to remain respectful of the original architecture, Riofisa managed to make its contemporary spin on the design of the retail and entertainment components fit within Madrid's existing aesthetic, according to Savopoulos.
"They respected and complemented the initial historic building," he says. "It didn't feel like Disneyland, it was authentic." (Principe Pio was completed in 2004. RTKL Associates, Inc., a Baltimore-based global design firm, served as the architect on the $130 million project.)
In addition, the scarcity of land in most urban environments places pressure on developers to come up with innovative ways to make the uses coexist in one space. One of the best examples of a successful mixed-use complex with a rather small footprint is another Shanghai property, the Grand Gateway Plaza, according to Greg Carpenter, principal in charge of design focusing on China and the Middle East with MulvannyG2.
The 3.3-million-square-foot Grand Gateway, developed by Hang Lung Properties, combines 1.1 million square feet of retail space, two 52-story office buildings and two 34-story residential towers on a 12-acre site in the commercial hub of Shanghai. A glass-domed atrium serves as the centerpiece of the project, with the taller office and residential towers flanking its sides. Among its other advantages, the Grand Gateway benefits from its location above one of the busiest subway stations in the city, which provides it with a steady flow of traffic. The project, designed by Seattle-based Callison Architecture, was completed in 2005 and cost $605 million to complete.
"In China, the land uses are extremely efficient because the price of land is very high," says Ahsin Rasheed, senior partner and director of planning with Development Design Group. "But in the U.S., we do a single-story town center, adjacent to that we will do a residential [component] and there will be a parking lot somewhere in between. We are very comfortable to do those things because we have a lot of land, but that is a short-term approach. The more and more we spread out horizontally, the more walkability becomes a difficult phenomenon."
Mixing and Matching
Providing a sufficiently diverse mix of uses also plays an important role in the success of a final project, according to Clark. For example, Development Design Group is currently working on Akkoza, a mixed-use development in Istanbul. When completed, the project will include not only four million square feet of residential space and more than 753,000 square feet of retail, but a hospital, several private schools, an amusement center, an open-air festival park, tennis and basketball courts and a fitness center, among other components. The project, which is being developed by the Turkish firm Garanti Koza, began construction in 2006.
Often, such diversity of uses springs from sheer necessity, according to Higgs. In many parts of the world developers don't have a large number of national or international retailers to choose from, so they are forced to work with a handful of established chains and populate the remainder with non-retail uses, including fitness centers, movie theaters, music and comedy clubs, libraries and, in some cases, health clinics. This variety often results in more dynamic centers offering residents and workers true convenience, architects say.
"A few residential units on top of a shopping center don't make a mixed-use center and they don't give you relevance," says Clark.
Weaving entertainment and sports components into mixed-use properties provides a draw for additional traffic. At another of Development Design Group's upcoming projects in Istanbul, the firm will combine a 15,000-seat basketball arena for the popular Fenerbahce sports club with 269,000 square feet of retail and entertainment space, a 215,300-square-foot office tower and a 240-room hotel. The center is being designed in such a way that it will draw people every day of the week not only on game days, Higgs says. The sports arena can accommodate a variety of cultural events. Meanwhile, the retail component of the development will feature movie theaters and an Olympic-size swimming pool, as well as a family entertainment center.
Fenerbahce Ulker City is being developed by the Turkish Ulker Group and will open in 2010.
Reason to Hope
The good news for U.S. developers is that some of them have already begun adopting the trends outlined above. New York City-based Related Co.'s 2.8-million-square-foot Time Warner Center in Manhattan, for example, takes advantage of its location at a busy intersection in the heart of the city to lure both local residents and visitors from abroad, according to Clark. And Rasheed points to Atlantic Station, a 15-million-square-foot redevelopment project in midtown Atlanta, as a mixed-use complex that takes advantage of vertical integration in a city that is best known for its urban sprawl.
The trick going forward, however, will be trying to make such innovative projects the rule, rather than the exception, according to Zhang. "They've [foreign developers] practiced that for a long, long time. A lot of their development is very compact; it's mixed with hotel, residential and office components and it's very closely connected with the public transportation system."


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So after a lot of planning for a good-sized group, the Colorado Spring Hang ended up being only three - Mustardman, MrsMustardman and me. But it was still a great trip to a beautiful area!
Low of 28F. I used the DIY 1.1 oz sil hammock, Winter Yeti, GoLite Ultra 20 short, and of course the HF buff!
My trip report is posted here:
Mustardman took a lot of pics during the trip as well, and his probably came out much better than mine. I just point and click but he knows what he's doing!
It was great hiking with him and MrsMustardman, and I have a feeling they have a Bushbuddy in the near future!


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Today's Meditation
Read Zephaniah 3:14-20
The LORD, your God, . . . will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing.
-Zephaniah 3:17 (NRSV)
My niece played in a basketball program at a local church. During a game that we attended, one of the fathers became upset about the officiating, as well as the performance of his daughter and the other players. He became increasingly vocal as the game progressed, and he eventually shouted at the other parents who were trying to calm him down. After the game, my wife expressed concern that our niece had been disturbed by the noise off court. The young girl responded, "All I could hear was cheering!"
We encounter a lot of "noise" as we try to live as God has called us to. Many voices scream that life is not fair or that we are doing everything wrong. As we follow God as faithfully as we know how, we, like my niece and like the Jews of Zephaniah's time, can learn to tune out negative voices and to listen to the voice of God, who loves us and always cheers us on.
Donald E. Lott
(Georgia, USA)
Prayer: Dear Lord, teach us to recognize and listen to your voice. May we hear you encouraging us as we follow your leading in our lives. Amen.
Thought for the Day: Listen to the voice of God, who seeks our good and cheers us on.
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text:
Reading Comprehension Practice Test 4
Passage For Question 1 to 9
The fossil remain of the first flying vertebrates, the pterosaurs, have intrigued paleontologists for more than two centuries. How such large creatures, which weighed in some cases as much as a piloted hangglider and had wingspans from 8 to 12 meters, solved the problems of powered flight, and exactly what these creatures were-reptiles or birds- are among the questions scientist have puzzled over. Perhaps the least controversial assertion about the pterosaurs is that they were reptiles. Their skulls, pelvises, and hind feet are reptilian. The anatomy of their wings suggests that they did not evolve into the class of birds. In pterosaurs a greatly elongated fourth finger of each forelimb supported a wing like membrane. The other fingers were short and reptilian, with sharp claws, In birds the second finger is the principle strut of the wing, which consists primarily of features. If the pterosaur walked or remained stationary, the fourth finger, and with it the wing, could only turn upward in an extended inverted V-shape along side of the animal's body. The pterosaurs resembled both birds and bats in their overall structure and proportions. This is not surprising because the design of any flying vertebrate is subject to aerodynamic constraints. Both the pterosaurs and the birds have hollow bones, a feature that represents a saving in weight. In the birds, however, these bones are reinforced more massively by internal struts. Although scales typically cover reptiles, the pterosaurs probably had hairy coats. T.H. Huxley reasoned that flying vertebrates must have been warm – blooded because flying implies a high internal temperature. Huxley speculated that a coat of hair would insulate against loss of body heat and might streamline the body to reduce drag in flight. The recent discovery of a pterosaur specimen covered in long, dense, and relatively thick hairlike fossil material was the first clear evidenced that his reasoning was correct. Efforts to explain how the pterosaurs became air-borne have led to suggestions that they launched themselves by jumping from cliffs, by dropping from trees, or even by rising into light winds from the crests of waves. Each hypothesis has its difficulties. The first wrongly assumes that the pterosaur's hind feet resembled a bat's and could served as hooks by which the animal could bang in preparation for flight. The second hypothesis seems unlikely because large pterosaurs could not have landed in trees without damaging their wings. The birds calls for high waves to channels updrafts. The wind that made such waves however, might have been too strong for the pterosaurs to control their flight once airborne.
Question 1
It can be inferred from the passage that scientists now generally agree that the
- enormous wingspan of the pterosaurs enable them to fly great distances
- structure of the skeleton of the pterosaurs suggests a close evolutionary relationship to bats
- fossil remains of the pterosaurs reveal how they solved the problem of powered flight
- pterosaurs were reptiles
- pterosaurs walked on all fours.
Correct Answer : D
Question 2
The authors views the idea that the pterosaurs became airborne by rising into light winds created by waves as
- revolutionary
- unlikely
- unassailable
- probable
- outdated
Correct Answer : B
Question 3
According to the passage, the skeleton of a pterosaur can be distinguished form that of a bird by the
- size of its wingspan
- presence of hollow spaces in its bones
- anatomic origin of its wing strut
- presence of hooklike projections on its hind feet
- location of the shoulder joint joining the wind to its body
Correct Answer : C
Question 4
The ides attributed to T.H. Huxley in the passage suggest that he would most likely agree with which of the following statements?
- An animal's brain size has little bearing on its ability to master complex behaviors.
- An animal's appearance dramatically over a period of time.
- Animals within a given family group are unlikely to change their appearance
- The origin of flight in vertebrates was an accidental development rather than the outcome
- The pterosaurs should be classifieds as birds, not reptiles.
Correct Answer : B
Question 5
It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is characteristic of the pterosaurs?
- They were unable to fold their wings when not in use.
- They hung upside down from branches as bats do before flight
- They flew in order to capture prey
- They were an early stage in the evolution of the birds
- The lived primarily in a forest like habitat.
Correct Answer : A
Question 6
Which of the following best describes the organization of the last paragraph of the passage?
- New evidence is introduced to support a traditional point of view
- Three explanations for a phenomenon are presented, and each is disputed by means of specific information.
- Three hypotheses are outlined, and evidenced supporting each is given.
- Recent discoveries are described, and their implications for future study are projected
- A summary of the materials in the preceding paragraphs is presented, and conclusions are drawn.
Correct Answer : B
Question 7
It can be inferred from the passage that some scientists believe that pterosaurs.
- lived near large bodies of water
- had sharp teeth for tearing food
- were attacked and eaten by larger reptiles
- had longer tails than many birds
- consumed twice their weight daily to maintain their body temperature
Correct Answer : A
Question 8
Which of the following is the principle topic of the passage?
- What causes labor market pathologies that result in suffering
- Why income measures are imprecise in measuring degrees of poverty
- Which of the currently used statistical procedures are the best for estimating the incidence of hardship that is due to unemployment
- Where the areas of agreement are among poverty, employment, and earnings figures
- How social statistics give an unclear picture of the degree of hardship caused by low wages and insufficient employment opportunities
Correct Answer : E
Question 9
The author uses "labor market problems' in lines 1-2 to refer to which of the following ?
- The over all causes of poverty
- Deficiencies in the training of the work force
- Trade relationships among producers of goods
- Shortages of jobs providing adequate income
- Strikes and inadequate supplies of labor
Correct Answer : D
Passage for Question 10 to 15
How many really suffer as a result of labor market problems ? This is one of the most critical yet contentious social policy questions. In many ways, our social statistics exaggerate the degree of har-ship. Unemployment does not have the same dire consequences today as it did in the 1930's when most of the unemployed were primary bread-winners, when income and earnings were usually much closer to the margin of subsistence, and when there were no countervailing social programs for those failing in the labor market. Increasing affluence, the rise of families with more than one wage earner, the growing predominance of secondary earners among the unemployed, and improved social welfare protection have unquestionably mitigated the consequences of joblessness. Earnings and income data also overstate the dimensions of hard-ship. Among the millions with hourly earnings at or below the minimum wage level, the overwhelming majority are from multiple-earner, relatively affluent families. Most of those counted by the poverty statistics are elderly or handicapped or have family responsibilities which keep them out of the labor force, so the poverty statistics are by no means an accurate indicator of labor market pathologies. Yet there are also many ways our social statistics underestimate the degree of labour-market-related hardship. The unemployment counts exclude the millions of fully employed workers whose wages are so low that their families remain in poverty. Low wages and repeated or prolonged unemployment frequently interact to undermine the capacity for self-support. Since the number experiencing job-lessness at some time during the year is several times the number unemployed in any month, those who suffer s a result of forced idleness can equal or exceed average annual unemployment, even though only a minority of the jobless in any month really suffer. For every person counted in the month unemployment tallies, there is another working part-time because of the inability to find full-time work, or else outside the labor force but wanting a job. Finally, income transfers in our country have always focused on the elderly, disabled, and dependent, neglecting the needs of the working poor, so that the dramatic expansion of cash and in kind transfers does not necessarily mean that those failing in the labor market are adequately protected. As a result of such contradictory evidence, it is uncertain whether those suffering seriously as a result of labor market problems number in the hundreds of thousands or the tens of millions, and hence, whether high levels of joblessness can be tolerated or must be countered by job creation and economic stimulus. There is only one area of agreement in this debate-that the existing poverty, employment, and earnings statistics are inadequate for one of their primary applications, measuring the consequences of labor market problems.
Question 10
The author contrasts the 1930's with the present in order to show that
- more people were unemployed in the 1930's
- unemployment now has less severe effects
- social programs are more needed now
- there now is a greater proportion of elderly and handicapped people among those in poverty
- poverty has increased since the 1930's
Correct Answer : B
Question 11
Which of the following proposals best responds to the issues raised by the author ?
- Innovative programs using multiple approaches should be set up to reduce the level of unemployment.
- A compromise should be found between the positions of those who view joblessness as an evil greater than economic control and those who hold the opposite view.
- New statistical indices should be developed to measure the degree to which unemployment and inadequately paid employment cause suffering.
- Consideration showed be given to the ways in which statistics can act as partial causes of the phenomena that they purport to measure.
- The labor force should be restructured so that it corresponds to the range of job vacancies.
Correct Answer : C
Question 12
The author's purpose in citing those who are repeatedly unemployed during a twelve-month period is most probably to show that
- there are several factors that cause the payment of low wags to some members of the labor force
- unemployment statistics can underestimate the hardship resulting from joblessness
- recurrent inadequacies in the labor market can exist and can cause hardships for individual workers.
- A majority of those who are jobless at any one time do not suffer severe hardship
- There are fewer individuals who are without jobs at some time during a year than would be expected on the basis of monthly unemployment figures
Correct Answer : B
Question 13
The author states that the mitigating effect of social programs involving income transfers on the income level of low-income people is often not felt by
- the employed poor
- dependent children in single – earner families
- workers who become disabled
- workers who become disabled
- full-time workers who become unemployed
Correct Answer : A
Question 14
According to the passage, one factor that causes unemployment and earnings figures to overpredict the amount of economic hardship is the
- recurrence of periods of unemployment for a group of low-wage workers
- possibility that earnings may be received from more than one job per workers.
- Fact that unemployment counts do not include those who work for low wages and remain poor
- Establishment of system of record-keeping that makes it possible to compile poverty statistics
- Prevalence, among low-wage workers and the unemployed, of members of families in which other are employed
Correct Answer : E
Question 15
The conclusion stated about the number of people who suffer as a result of forced idleness depends primarily on the point that
- in times of high unemployment, there are some people who do not remain unemployed for long
- the capacity for self-support depends on receiving moderate-to-high wages
- those in forced idleness include, besides the unemployed, both underemployed part-time workers and those not actively seeking work
- at different times during the year, different people are unemployed
- many of those who are affected by unemployment ae dependents of unemployed workers.
Correct Answer : D


text:
Libertarian Heresy
You don't often find Commonweal hunting heretics. In the latest issue, Daniel Finn takes aim at Fr. Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute and other Catholics who force fit Catholic social teaching into free market ideology. Sirico, he says, "uses his tendentious view of law and morality to conclude that raising taxes to help others is unchristian, since citizens have no choice but to pay the tax... One wonders if this conviction hasn't been engendered by a libertarian view of government actions, where such redistribution is always immoral." Commonweal isn't alone in recognizing this distortion of Church teaching, which has always recognized the authority of government to balance private property rights with the "universal destination of goods." There is a silent majority of orthodox Catholics who resent Acton and other Catholic think tanks that are so well-funded by wealthy pro-big business donors that they're able to drown out genuine Catholic social teaching. Finn thinks its time that "neoconservative Catholics inquire into the influence of libertarianism on their work and, most importantly, that they make Catholic moral theology the standard for judging right-wing claims about morality in economic life-and not the other way around." READ MORE >
Greed and ruthless pursuit of profits to blame for banking fiasco
This article gets Catholic social teaching right, and exposes the fallacy that 9/11 restored us to moral clarity: "'Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of Lehman Brothers' fall is that it comes almost seven years to the day after 9/11... For all the talk of pulling together in the wake of the terrorist attacks that shook America to the core and supposedly set our priorities straight, Wall Street rushed headlong back to its mindless pursuit of profits and speculation without consideration for the consequences of its actions... At some point, society has to figure out that the way an investor earns his money is even more important than the amount of money he makes. This is why human beings were vested with moral sentiments, so they could distinguish the quality of human conduct from the quality of its results... It is incumbent upon the gatekeepers of capital ... to bring discipline to the system. This will require a rethinking of their priorities and a willingness to add to their investment calculus, considerations that exceed their own narrow interests about short-term investment returns.'" READ MORE >
On The Road Through Nothingness
It's rare to see a positive story about the Catholic Church in the mainstream media, especially in newer online-only publications like Slate, but Harold Fickett, a Godspy contributing editor, managed to publish an essay there recently about the Clear Creek Monastery, a new and growing contemplative Benedictine monastery in Kansas, and the wider story of how Catholic religious communities are attracting young people. It could be that the critical success of the three-hour documentary, Into Great Silence, which had a long run at Manhattan's Film Forum in 2007, left an impression on the editors. The appeal of that movie is captured in Harold's ending: "From its rich liturgical rites to the pastoral details of its life as a working farm, as the monks raise sheep, make furniture, tend their orchard, and care for a huge vegetable garden, Clear Creek is what a monastery is meant to be—a sign of paradise. Father Anderson says, 'We were only a bunch of bums, but by becoming nothing, you can be a part of something great.'" READ MORE >
Anglican bishops decry the 'new creed' of extreme capitalism
A trillion for the Iraq War, almost as much to rescue Wall Street, but basic health care for all is too expensive? Why aren't Christian leaders in the U.S. saying as much? In England it's a different story: "[T]he Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, warned in a magazine article that modern devotion to the free market is a form of idolatry and that Karl Marx was morally right in his analysis of the power of 'unbridled capitalism.' He believes that Marx's economic theories, as implemented by authoritarian state regimes, have proved equally wrong and harmful to unfettered market ideology, but that the protest against a greed-driven system is one that should be taken seriously." READ MORE >
Benedict's Discomforting Message
"Benedict directly challenged an assumption so many Americans make about religion: that it is a matter of private devotion with few public implications. Not true, said the pope. 'Any tendency to treat religion as a private matter must be resisted,' he told the country's Catholic bishops Wednesday. 'Only when their faith permeates every aspect of their lives do Christians become truly open to the transforming power of the Gospel.' That is a demanding and unsettling standard for the right and the left alike... This is the thinking of a communitarian counseling against radical individualism... Perhaps it is the task of the leader of the Roman Catholic Church to bring discomfort to a people so thoroughly shaped by modernity, as we Americans are. If so, Benedict is succeeding." READ MORE >
Tom Wolfe and a cognitive neuroscientist discuss status, free will, and the human condition
An interview with Chris Hedges: "I don't believe in atheists"
"…Not believing in sin is very dangerous. I think both the Christian right and the New Atheists in essence don't believe in their own sin, because they externalize evil. Evil is always something out there that can be eradicated. For the New Atheists, it's the irrational religious hordes. I mean, Sam Harris, at the end of his first book, asks us to consider a nuclear first strike on the Arab world. Both Hitchens and Harris defend the use of torture. Of course, they're great supporters of preemptive war, and I don't think this is accidental…" READ MORE >
Pope: Why the 'dual-unity' of man and woman is important
"[it] is based on the foundation of the dignity of every person, created in the image and likeness of God, who 'created them male and female' (Genesis 1:27), as much avoiding an indistinct uniformity and flattened-out and impoverished equality as an abysmal and conflictive difference … This dual-unity carries with it, inscribed in bodies and souls, the relation with the other, love for the other, interpersonal communion that shows that 'the creation of man is also marked by a certain likeness to the divine communion.' When, therefore, men or women pretend to be autonomous or totally self-sufficient, they risk being closed up in a self-realization … which in fact reduces them to an oppressive solitude." READ MORE >
Bob Guccione Jr. finds his way back to church
"For Gooch, an erstwhile altar boy who describes himself as 'a lazy but devout Catholic,' science is incomplete without the contemplation of faith. 'I have no trouble whatsoever accommodating, side by side, the ideas of multiple universes and the Immaculate Conception...'" READ MORE >
Holy See Denounces Misuse of Protection Principle
The Vatican continues to take every opportunity to discourage preemptive war: "The use of violence to resolve disagreements is always a failure of vision and a failure of humanity. The responsibility to protect should not be viewed merely in terms of military intervention but primarily as the need for the international community to come together in the face of crises to find means for fair and open negotiations, support the moral force of law and search for the common good," Also see this statement. READ MORE >
The Fleecing of America
Yes, greed fueled the crisis, but Cohen pinpoints what's unique about our penchant for financial manias: "...the U.S. economy is being socialized to the tune of $700 billion ($2,000 for every man, woman and child in the country) as a result of a giant mortgage-related Ponzi scheme... Let's be clear: this is an American mess forged by the American genius for new-fangled financial instruments in an era where the mantra has been that government is dumb and the markets are smart and risk is non-existent." READ MORE >
Ironic Speculation: Investment banks seek protection against short-selling
In an effort to slow panic selling, the SEC will try to force hedge funds to disclose their short selling positions. What's ironic is who's cheering the agency on: "Morgan Stanley and Goldman are the only two of the formerly five major Wall Street brokerages standing alone, and that is believed to have made them targets of speculators... Last week Lehman was the subject of a massive sell-off that eroded confidence in its business and sparked a funding crisis that ultimately led to its demise. 'It's very clear to me we're in the midst of a market controlled by fear and rumors, and short sellers are driving our stock down,' Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack said in a memorandum to employees Wednesday. 'You should know that the management committee and I are taking every step possible to stop this irresponsible action in the market.'" READ MORE >
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text:
... But here we are, working our way down the driveway,
one shovelful at a time.
We toss the light powder into the clear air.
We feel the cold mist on our faces.
And with every heave we disappear
and become lost to each other
in these sudden clouds of our own making,
these fountain-bursts of snow.
This is so much better than a sermon in church,
I say out loud, but Buddha keeps on shoveling.
This is the true religion, the religion of snow,
and sunlight and winter geese barking in the sky,
I say, but he is too busy to hear me.
He has thrown himself into shoveling snow
as if it were the purpose of existence,
as if the sign of a perfect life were a clear driveway
you could back the car down easily
and drive off into the vanities of the world
with a broken heater fan and a song on the radio.
—Excerpt from Shoveling Snow with Buddha by Billy Collins
"February" was, I think, number 2 or 3 on the list of reasons to move to California. Here we just sing nostalgically about shoveling snow.
Volti gives three performances this weekend—Friday in Berkeley, Saturday in SF, and Sunday in Marin—which include the premiere of Yu-Hui Chang's setting of Billy Collins' poem above, along with music by Orlando Jacinto Garcia, Felipe Perez Santiago, Jean Ahn, and Mark Winges. Details here.
If you're snowed in, stay warm. Bay Area folks have no such excuse.


text:
CHANNAHON – The Village Board gave approval for a partial site plan Monday that would allow SouthField Community Church to begin breaking ground for its new 13,300-square-foot multipurpose building that will be used for worship, ministry-based education and fellowship activities.
The final engineering, photometric plans, landscaping and monument signage has yet to be approved, but the church plans to break ground this year. The approval was granted, contingent on the final approval of the engineering plans and the church setting aside a 20-foot utility easement along Route 6 for potential water lines.
Two residents voiced concerns about the development at a recent planning and zoning meeting, according to Channahon's director of community development, Mike McMahon. One resident asked that the church's sign not be as bright as a sign recently put in place for another nearby church. McMahon said the SouthField church is not planning on installing a running message board sign, so it will not be as bright.
The other resident, who lives nearby, was concerned about parking lot lighting and requested some buffering for the homes to the southwest. McMahon said the church will submit photometric plans that must be approved by the board when the time comes.
The church's 14 acres of land is on the east side of Route 6 near Dove and Tombstone drives, across from Turnstone Boulevard. Church officials may return in spring 2014 to seek approval for the remaining work. The congregation bought the property in 2004 and has been meeting at Channahon Junior High since 2008.
Also Monday, auditor Ed Marso, partner at Wermer Rogers Doran & Ruzon, told village trustees his audit of village finances showed "no findings."
"You're looking well," Marso said. "All your funds have positive balances, which is kind of unusual ... and is to be commended."
The positive balances in the funds are healthy but not extravagant, Marso said, and the village is in a position in its general fund to have 187 days' worth of cash reserves, which he described as "right on the money."
Marso also commented on the $479,000 shortfall in revenues in the waterworks fund and said at that rate, it would be six years before the village "hits the wall" on that fund.
Also at Monday's meeting, trustees:
• Approved hiring Kane, McKenna and Associates Inc., to again prepare the annual TIF report for the village, at a cost not to exceed $2,500.
• Approved payments for repairs to the Spruce Street lift station generator in the amount of $5,095.
Trustee Scott Slocum was absent from Monday's meeting.