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Over the weekend the checkout woman at the farmer's market asked me if JD was named after his "father," or "whoops, your husband, boyfriend?" Clearly some dude helped make him. Yep.
JD was running away from me as I dug in my purse for my wallet. "Jack, Jack, come back here. Stand still. Don't move," I said. He didn't quite respond.
"Jack. Jack. Jack," I said in a sterner voice. "Get over here." He came over and handed me a random lemon. I handed the checkout woman the lemon. "I guess we'll take this lemon," I said, all flustered. "I'm gonna get a cracker, Mama," JD said. Before I could say anything two elderly women were squealing over how cute and polite my kid was for saying, "Scuse me, please," in a squeaky voice as he made a beeline for the free rice cakes on the coffee bar.
"So, Jack, is he named after his father, or whoops, your husband/boyfriend?" the checkout woman said. As I mentioned I was already flustered and I definitely paused before saying anything. I was just glad she didn't say is he named after his dad or direct the question to JD: "Are you named after your Dad?" DAD. DAD. DAD. Duh, it made me think of JD's dad. We talked about naming our son, Jack William. William for someone on his side. The "D" in JD is for Domenic after my grandfather (who died when my Dad was 18). I guess, I can tell JD one day, his father and I agreed on Jack. Then I started thinking about how JD's dad liked the name Chloe or Claire for a girl and how I liked Mia. "Mia reminds me of a soccer player," he said. We both liked Dylan—but I liked Dylan (Rose) as a girl's name. "I need a Dylan," he said with a smile. We had this name convo in my bed in my very narrow bedroom in NYC. The duvet was black and puffy. There were sun spots on the bed, panic in my heart, a sinking feeling I didn't know was good or bad in my stomach—and names on my brain. Smile. Funny the things you recall—when you recall them. How you'll always recall them. Know them like your own name, wonder if they were in a dream. If the dream was in color—or stained in the past, black and white forever and ever... "I got 4 crackas, Mom. Want one?" JD said and dropped one on the floor. "Don't eat that," I said, bending down.
"Actually, Jack is named after my mom, Jacklyn," I said. I smiled, signed my bill and left with three bags of produce and my son.
On the way home I couldn't help but wonder how even though modern families are on the rise and commonplace, most people still assume children have a mom and a dad. Then I wondered if I should have corrected this woman and maybe told her I was a single mom and his father was not involved and perhaps she should be more sensitive to me and her other customers who she knows nothing about—except for the fact that I buy large quantities of broccoli and grapes—and am the mom who says "Don't touch those nuts!" (No, JD to my knowledge has no allergies KNOCK ON WOOD!). Some of the shoppers must be choice moms, gay, widow/widowers, foster parents, right? Of course, right, but eh, my moment of why-are-you-asking-me-about-my-kid's-dad-and-making-me-remember-him faded away. It always does. Read The New Normal: Stay At Home Dads, Gay Parents and More.
We got home and made a strawberry, grape and green apple fruit salad dressed in that fresh lemon JD made me impulse-buy and cooked up some grilled cheeses. Deeee-lish!
What about you? Do you think I should have said something? Would you have? Is it OK to ask a stranger a harmless Q about their kid's parent(s)? I'm curious how you picked out your child's name too, so please share. This is a safe place. Pls be kind. XO
Friend me on Facebook & follow me on Twitter @JDSMOM2007. Order a copy of my single mom memoir, Rattled! or download it @ iTunes. Check out ChristineCoppa.net for more info.


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Copyright 5/8/2013 Publishers Weekly. Week ending 8/17/2014, powered by Nielsen Bookscan 5/8/2013 The Nielsen Company.
1. "Colorless Tsukuru Tazki and His Years of Pilgrimage" by Haruki Murakami (Knopf)
2. "Love Letters" by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine)
3. "The 6th Extinction" by James Rollins (William Morrow)
4. "A Perfect Life" by Danielle Steel (Delacorte)
5. "Tom Clancy Support and Defend" by Mark Greaney (G.P. Putnam's Sons)
6. "Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty (Putnam/Amy Einhorn)
7. "The Heist" by Daniel Silva (Harper)
8. "The Lost Island" by Douglas J. Preston (Grand Central Publishing)
9. "Invisible" by Patterson/Ellis (Little, Brown)
10. "The Goldfinch" Donna Tartt (Little,Brown)
11. "The Book of Life" by Deborah Harkness (Viking)
12. "Top Secret" by Griffin/Butterworth (Putnam)
13. "Top Secret Twenty-One" by Janet Evanovich (Bantam)
14. "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr (Scribner)
15. "Mr. Mercedes" by Stephen King (Scribner)
1. "America" by Dinesh D'Souza (Regnery)
2. "One Nation" by Ben Carson (Penguin/Sentinel)
3. "My Drunk Kitchen" by Hannah Hart (Dey Street)
4. "In the Kingdom of Ice" by Hampton Sides (Doubleday)
5. "The First Family Detail" by Ronald Kessler (Crown)
6. "Hard Choices" by Hillary Rodham Clinton (Simon & Schuster)
7. "Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. The Obamas" by Edward Klein (Regnery)
8. "Everything I Need to Know I Learned From a Little Golden Book" by Diane Muldrow (Golden Books)
9. "David and Goliath" by Malcolm Gladwell (Little, Brown)
10. "A Spy Among Friends" by Ben Macintyre (Crown)
11. "Grain Brain" by David Perlmutter (Little, Brown)
12. "Girlboss" by Sophia Amoruso (Penguin/Portfolio)
13. "Instinct" by T.D. Jakes (Hachette/FaithWords)
14. "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai (Little, Brown)
15. "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey (Thomas Nelson)
1. "W Is for Wasted" by Sue Grafton (Berkley)
2. "King and Maxwell" by David Baldacci (Grand Central Publishing)
3. "Deserves to Die" by Lisa Jackson (Kensington/Zebra)
4. "Concealed in Death" by J.D. Robb (Berkley)
5. "Rose Harbor in Bloom" by Debbie Macomber (Ballantine)
6. "Ready for Romance" by Debbie Macomber (Harlequin)
7. "Dark Wolf" by Christine Feehan (Jove)
8. "Something New" by Nora Roberts (Silhouette)
9. "Deadline" by Sandra Brown (Vision)
10. "Beautiful Day" by Elin Hilderbrand (Little, Brown)
11. "Bleeding Texas" by William W. Johnstone (Pinnacle)
12. "Takedown Twenty" by Janet Evanovich (Bantam)
13. "Inferno" by Dan Brown (Anchor)
14. "The Hexed" by Heather Graham (Mira)
15. "Outlander" by Diana Gabaldon (Dell)
1. "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand (Random House)
2. "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn (Broadway Books)
3. "The Best Yes" by Lysa TerKeurst (Thomas Nelson)
4. "Business Adventures' by John Brooks (Open Road Media)
5. "The Boys in the Boat" by Daniel James Brown (Penguin)
6. "Heaven Is for Real (movie tie-in)" by Todd Burpo (Thomas Nelson)
7. "Swan Point" by Sherryl Woods (Mira)
8. "How to Read Literature Like a Professor" by Thomas C. Foster (Harper Perennial)
9. "The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion" by Fannie Flagg (Random House)
10. "The Valley of Amazement" by Amy Tan (Ecco)
11. "Private L.A." by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan (Grand Central Publishing)
12. "10-Day Green Smoothie cleanse" by JJ Smith (Atria)
13. "Taking It All" by Maya Banks (Berkley)
14. "An Event in Autumn" by Henning Mankell (Vintage)
15. "The Healing Quilt" by Wanda E. Brunstetter (Shiloh Run Press)

subset: commoncrawl


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The wildlife biology concentration is a great opportunity for you to study wild animals, their habitat, and their management. You will develop a strong background in ecology and conservation.
Our faculty's diverse teaching and research interests span the ecological spectrum. Lessons in the classroom, practice in the laboratory, and experience in the field will prepare you for a career in wildlife biology and conservation.


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What was it I wrote the last time I posted about Carrie Underwood? The article is here. And specifically:
Given the season he and the Senators have been having, Mike, um, is not invited (to the All-Star Game). Ottawa is so sh-t this year, there's actually talk that the team is in such trouble, they're looking to shake it up. And while she may pretend she's down with Canada, Country Bitch probably isn't trying to convince him to stay.
Mike has a partial no-trade clause. He can submit a list of 10 teams he will not play for. Needless to say, Mrs Fisher only has one she's pushing for. And Nashville can totally afford Mike Fisher. It's just that they never spend to their cap. Besides, at $4.2 million a year, is he worth it?
Someone said recently that Fisher's really a 3rd line centre on any other team, the poor man's Ryan Kesler if you will. In fairness to him though, he's played on a really, really terrible team for a long time. There's some skill and a lot of grit there. He just hasn't been able to use it in a thriving environment. With Nashville currently 4th in the conference, hoping for some playoff success, it might not be a bad acquisition.
If you're a Sens fan then, I wonder if you need to be worrying about this. Because before bedtime, don't you think Carrie's whispering these things to him every single night? Baby, I wish you could play for Nashville. Baby, Nashville would take care of you. Baby, we'd be so happy in Nashville. Baby we can raise our kids in Nashville…
And suddenly Mike Fisher plays for Nashville…?
Guess what?
Mike Fisher has been traded to Nashville. The LA Kings were also apparently interested in signing him. Both cities would have worked for his wife. Nashville is currently in 5th spot (as of press time) in the Western Conference. But they're only 2 points out of 8th spot, and 4 points out of 9th, which means they wouldn't make the playoffs. That's a tight swing. They need all the help they can get. But that price tag…
Suffice to say, he needs to produce.
Or not. I have no idea the expectations of hockey fans in Nashville. In Toronto, if a guy like Mike Fisher comes to town and doesn't score, suddenly we start calling him Mr Underwood, what are you good for?
Who's the biggest winner here?
Always. Who else?
She doesn't have to come to Canada anymore.
File photos from Wenn.com and Bauergriffinonline.com and Christopher Pike/Wenzelberg/Splashnewsonline.com


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LAPD Launch Manhunt For Ex-Cop Suspected In Shooting Of 3 Cops And Double Homicide
A manhunt is underway for ex-cop Christopher Dorner after three officers were shot this morning.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police have launched a massive manhunt for a former Los Angeles officer suspected of going on a killing spree, slaying a couple over the weekend and then ambushing two police officers early Thursday, killing one.
There were two separate overnight shootings about 60 miles east of Los Angeles in Riverside County that investigators believe involved former LA police officer Christopher Dorner, who's also the main suspect in the weekend killing of a couple whose bodies were found in Irvine. He was fired in 2008 for making false statements.
The first occurred in the city of Corona and involved two LAPD officers working a security detail, said Sgt. Alex Baez of the LAPD's Newton division. One officer was grazed.
Later, two officers on routine patrol in the neighboring city of Riverside were ambushed in their patrol car at a stop light, said Riverside Lt. Guy Toussaint. One died and the other was in surgery.
The Riverside officers shot overnight were not actively looking for Dorner, Toussaint said.
Police don't where Dorner is but think he left the area, he said.
"We're asking our officers to be extraordinarily cautious just as we're asking the public to be extraordinarily cautious with this guy. He's already demonstrated he has a propensity for shooting innocent people. We can't provide a lot of information now because we're trying to capture him," said Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "We don't know where he is. We're looking for the public's help to locate this guy. Anybody who sees him or believes they see him or his vehicle should call 911."
Dorner is wanted in the killings of Monica Quan and her fiance, Keith Lawrence, who were found shot to death in their car at a parking structure Sunday night, Irvine police Chief David L. Maggard said at a news conference Wednesday night.
Dorner, 33, implicated himself in the killings with a multi-page "manifesto" that he wrote that included threats against several people, including members of the LAPD, police said. They gave no further details on the document or its contents.
Autopsies showed that Quan and Lawrence were killed by multiple gunshot wounds in the parking structure at their condominium in Irvine, Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said earlier Wednesday.
Quan, 28, was an assistant women's basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton. Lawrence, 27, was a public safety officer at the University of Southern California.
The killings brought mourning and disbelief at three college campuses, Fullerton, USC, and Concordia University, where the two met when they were both students and basketball players.
Police said the U.S. Navy reservist may be driving a blue 2005 Nissan Titan pickup truck. His last known address was in La Palma in northern Orange County near Fullerton.
Dorner was with the department from 2005 until 2008, when he was fired for making false statements.
Quan's father, a former LAPD captain who became a lawyer in retirement, represented Dorner in front of the Board of Rights, a tribunal that ruled against Dorner at the time of his dismissal, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told The Associated Press Wednesday night.
Randal Quan retired in 2002. He later served as chief of police at Cal Poly Pomona before he started practicing law.
According to documents from a court of appeals hearing in October 2011, Dorner was fired from the LAPD after he made a complaint against his field training officer, Sgt. Teresa Evans. Dorner said that in the course of an arrest, Evans kicked suspect Christopher Gettler, a schizophrenic with severe dementia.
Following an investigation, Dorner was fired for making false statements.
Richard Gettler, the schizophrenic man's father, gave testimony that supported Dorner's claim. After his son was returned on July 28, 2007, Richard Gettler asked "if he had been in a fight because his face was puffy" and his son responded that he was kicked twice in the chest by a police officer.
Ellie Hall is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Washington, DC.
Contact Ellie Hall at email@example.com.
Got a confidential tip? Submit it here.


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Next Play
SETTING: 2 separate living rooms, one on each side of the stage. Callers on opposite side of stage from Person waiting for call to give sense of being in different place.
Person waiting for the call:(Speaking aloud to herself reading newspaper that says "President Finds Shoe")
I can't believe the President is calling to congratulateme for finding her lucky shoe.
(Phone rings. Person waiting for the call goes to answer it.)
Maybe that's her now. Hello.
Caller number 1:Hello, Eddie darling. Are you going to pick me up? It's eight o'clock!
Person waiting for the call:I'm sorry, there's no Eddie here. You have the wrong number.
(Hangs up phone. Phone rings again.)
Person waiting for the call:(Picking up phone.)
Caller number 2:Hi, how's the old ranch Eddie?
Person waiting for the call:Uh, sorry but there's no Eddie here. You must have the wrong number.
(Hangs up. Phone rings again.)
Caller number 3:Hello Eddie. Please come pick me up right away! I have an important meeting to go to!
Person waiting for the call:Sorry, but you definitely have the wrong number!
Person waiting for the call:Hello?
Caller number 4:Bonjour Eddie! Comment vas tu?
Person waiting for the call:Sorry, there's no Eddie here!
Caller number 5:Hello is Eddie there? Can you come over to my house and play? My dad just built this great treehouse!
Person waiting for the call:Listen, for the last time, there's NO EDDIE here!
Caller number 6:Hi, this is Eddie. Any calls for me?
Person waiting for the call:(Person waiting for the call moans and shakes her head in disbelief.)
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A message from the Shepherdstown Street Fest Board
October 14, 2013
2013 was a great year for SSF, and we could not have pulled it off without the help and support of so many people like you! Our Board met recently and has decided to take a year off with the......
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Kanye Played Three New Songs at Governors Ball
The Yeezus countdown continues.
We are rapidly approaching the release of Yeezus — eight days and counting — and still, the majority of our album knowledge comes from YouTube videos of face projections on random buildings across the world. In that light, maybe high-quality YouTube videos of actual concert performances will seem like an upgrade? (At least they aren't Vines. Six-second concert videos: not helpful!) Kanye played New York City's Governors Ball last night, and in addition to "Black Skinhead" and "New Slaves," he performed three more Yeezus tracks. We got 'em all below.
First up: "I Am a God," also known as "the screaming song," which will forever ruin civil behavior at spas and bakeries.
Then there is "On Site," which is helpful for understanding how little of a fuck Kanye gives.
And this one is still untitled, so we will call it the "Dying Birds" song until further notice.


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Dentist at center of hepatitis scare cedes license
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma oral surgeon whose filthy clinic conditions led to the testing of thousands of patients for HIV and hepatitis permanently surrendered his professional license on Friday.
Scott Harrington's two Tulsa-area clinics have been closed since March 2013, when state health officials urged about 7,000 of his current and former patients to get tested for the diseases because of unsanitary conditions discovered there.
Of the 4,202 patients who were tested at state clinics, 89 tested positive for hepatitis C, five for hepatitis B and four for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. But only one of those cases — a case of hepatitis C — was proven to have been contracted at one of Harrington's clinics, health officials said. Investigators said last September that it was nation's first known case of hepatitis C transmission between patients in a dental office.
State health inspectors say investigators found rusty instruments and potentially contaminated drug vials at Harrington's clinics, and that a machine designed to sterilize tools wasn't being used properly.
Harrington, who cooperated with the investigation, voluntarily surrendered his license to the state's dentistry board. His attorney, James Secrest II, said earlier this year that the investigation had been "very hard" on Harrington.
"This guy spent over 30 years in a career, and he's just watching it go away in a matter of hours," Secrest said in April. "His career has been ruined in Tulsa."
Harrington, 66, did not attend Friday's board meeting in Oklahoma City. Secrest attended the meeting but left without commenting.
Harrington has had to defend himself against several lawsuits, including a pending one filed by a Tulsa-area man who says his hepatitis C diagnosis was what led the state to shutter the clinics.
In his lawsuit, the patient says he found out he had been exposed to the disease after he donated blood in August 2012. Because his blood had been fine during a donation several months earlier, he surmised that he must have been exposed to the virus at one of Harrington's clinics, where he had been given drugs intravenously while having a tooth removed in July 2012.
Hepatitis C is a contagious liver disease spread primarily through contact with the blood of an infected person, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The virus is commonly spread through the sharing of needles in intravenous drug use, and symptoms can occur two weeks after exposure, according to the agency.
Associated Press writer Justin Juozapavicius in Tulsa contributed to this report.
Follow Kristi Eaton on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KristiEaton
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Sample Images of Previously Issued Driver's Licenses and ID Cards
After July 2009, these licenses and ID cards will no longer being issued. However, they are valid until they expire. If you want your license re-issued using our new format, refer to Obtaining a Replacement License. To obtain a new ID card with the new format, refer to ID Services.


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"Prison Break, The Next Generation"
Story treatment for a new TV pilot
Written by the Republican party
In order to best communicate one of our core messages - that Obama and the Democrat party, by closing Guantanamo, will allow freed terrorists to wreak havoc on American soil and destroy the values that Americans hold dear - we have decided to explore a new media platform, the prime-time television drama. What follows is our proposal to reboot a popular Fox show, "Prison Break." The finale aired earlier this month, but now the story continues:
A year has passed. Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell, the runty one-armed pervert, was captured and returned to Fox River, the prison from which he escaped, but now his spirits are lifted when he learns that the Democrat party is shipping all the Guantanamo terrorists to his cell block. He watches the policy announcement on TV; the president, munching an arugula whole wheat sandwich smeared with French Dijon mustard, promises Americans that "no terrorist will ever escape from Fox River, as long as their guards show them the empathy they deserve." T-Bag, who has sketched the prison's infrastructure on the palm of his one remaining hand, cackles knowingly.
Within weeks, T-Bag has plotted the new prison break. He persuades the terrorists that they can simply walk out the door when the guards are busy doing the homework that is required for their federally-mandated Marxist re-education classes. Ten terrorists manage to walk out before the guards look up from their texts of Das Kapital. The escapees promptly flee to an affluent white suburb, car-jack a Hummer from a svelte blonde mother of three blonde toddlers, shoot up a statue of Ronald McDonald, crash the vehicle into the great room of a McMansion, and upon exiting they swipe a fresh apple pie that's cooling on the kitchen windowsill.
While the president dithers in the White House, falling into a stupor after drinking too much Honest Tea, the escapees commander a TV station and announce on camera to a fearful nation that henceforth all Little League games shall begin with a reading of the Koran, that all football cheerleaders shall be covered from head to toe, and that the president shall immediately free all remaining prisoners at Fox River. The deadline passes without a presidential response, so the terrorists steal a giant American flag from a car dealership, convert it into a magic carpet, and crash it into the Statue of Liberty.
When there is still no response, the terrorists go to DEFCON 5. They tunnel onto the set of American Idol, where they proceed to sing and dance. They announce that the viewers at home will no longer be permitted to vote. Then they waterboard the judges on camera until the judges agree to award the terrorists top prize. This episode is the last straw for millions of Americans. They clamor in vain for a White House response. All seems lost...
Until Michael Scofield, the hero of the Prison Break series, miraculously breaks out of his coffin and claws six feet to the surface. He died in the series finale - or so we all thought! In truth, he had only been playing dead, biding his time, waiting for a moment when he could save his country. Caked in dirt, he hitchhikes to the nearest town, borrows a cellphone from a smitten svelte blonde, unrolls the strip of paper that he had secreted under his thumbnail, glances at the number, and calls the only person left in America who can help him win.
"It's me...This isn't over...whatever you need, Mr. Cheney."
A statement about "Prison Break, The Next Generation"
By the Democratic party
Oh my, oh dear, what will happen to us if this kind of Republican message is disseminated? Goodness gracious, whatever can we do?
Granted, the Republicans have never offered a shred of evidence to suggest that a terrorist would ever be able to escape from an American "supermax" prison; that, in fact, no American inmate has ever escaped from a supermax prison; that, in fact, convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui has been serving a life sentence in a supermax Colorado prison since 2006; that, in fact, several other terrorists, including Richard "Shoe Bomber" Reid, are already serving time in that facility. And, granted, we Americans safely transferred nearly half a million Nazi and Axis prisoners to American soil during World War II, and we guess maybe that's worth pointing out since everyone seems to have forgotten. And granted, the polls overwhelmingly report that most Americans no longer perceive the Republican party to be stronger on national security than our party. And granted, the polls show that the president has landslide support and that the Republicans are talking only to their base.
But still, what are we to do? What if we stand up for ourselves on this Guantanamo issue - and the Republicans yell back at us and call us names? Our knees hurt from the shaking. No, no, it's better that we crumble like wet tissue and declare that we too want to stop terrorists from living on our soil. Speaking of tissue, does anybody have one? We're about to cry.


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为了使您在Abcam官网的浏览体验更顺畅,请使用最新版本的浏览器比如 Google Chrome
Synthetic peptide corresponding to Human Relaxin 1 + 2 aa 135-165 (C terminal) conjugated to Keyhole Limpet Haemocyanin (KLH). Other DB link=P04090
Database link: P04808
Our Abpromise guarantee covers the use of ab116292 in the following tested applications.
The application notes include recommended starting dilutions; optimal dilutions/concentrations should be determined by the end user.
|1/100 - 1/500. Predicted molecular weight: 21 kDa.
|1/10 - 1/50.
ab116292 has not yet been referenced specifically in any publications.
Please note: All products are "FOR RESEARCH USE ONLY AND ARE NOT INTENDED FOR DIAGNOSTIC OR THERAPEUTIC USE"


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Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart: Miku Sushi Date Night!
The cast of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse grabs food and drinks at Miku Sushi in Vancouver, Canada on Friday night (August 14).
Pictured: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Ashley Greene, Kellan Lutz, Nikki Reed, Elizabeth Reaser, and newbies Xavier Samuel and Bryce Dallas Howard.
Catalina Sandino Moreno and Jack Huston recently joined the cast but so far, no sightings. Also pictured below is a solo Xavier strolling along with a coffee in hand.
FYI: Taylor is wearing PF Flyers "Albins" sneakers.
15+ pictures inside of the Eclipse cast's sushi night…


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BANGKOK (AP) — Asian stock markets headed lower Tuesday as investors turned cautious before U.S. earnings season kicks off this week.
Investors will get a feel for corporate America's outlook as earnings reports start coming. Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. will launch the reporting season for the fourth quarter of 2012 on Tuesday after U.S. markets close. Events during the quarter such as Superstorm Sandy, the presidential election, and worries about the narrowly avoided "fiscal cliff" could lead to some unexpected results.
Japan's Nikkei 225 index fell 0.5 percent to 10,548.56 as the yen crept upward against the U.S. dollar. The rebound in the yen led to some investors to sell export shares that had surged as the currency weakened in recent weeks. Isuzu Motors Co. fell 3 percent while Mazda Motor Corp. lost 3.9 percent.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell 0.4 percent to 23,239.64. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.4 percent to 2,003.35 and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 shed 0.1 percent to 4,712.70. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand fell, while Indonesia and the Philippines rose. Mainland Chinese shares were mixed.
Major indexes surged last week after U.S. lawmakers passed a bill to avoid a combination of government spending cuts and tax increases that have come to be known as the fiscal cliff. The deal, however, remains incomplete. Politicians will face another deadline in two months to agree on more spending cuts.
"The looming budget battle in the US has also prompted some hesitancy to buy risk assets," said analysts at Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong.
Benchmark crude oil contract for February delivery was up 9 cents to $93.27 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 10 cents to close at $93.19 a barrel on the Nymex on Monday.
In currencies, the euro rose to $1.3129 from $1.3112 in New York late Monday. The dollar fell to 87.65 yen from 87.84 yen.
Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson


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ATLANTA (AP) — Wichita State's Malcolm Armstead went 0 for 6 in the first half, but he finally got on the board with a driving layup early in the second.
The Shockers are doing everything they need to do tonight except shoot well. They'll probably need to knock down a few more 3-pointers to hold on, but this is starting to look more promising for them — with Russ Smith picking up his third foul.
Looks like Rick Pitino is leaving Smith in for now.
— Noah Trister — — http://twitter.com/@noahtrister
NCAA Finals Watch follows the Final Four games and all the activities surrounding the event as seen by journalists from The Associated Press from across Atlanta. It will be updated throughout the day with breaking news and other items of interest. Follow AP reporters on Twitter where available.


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I'm not feeling particularly profound today as far as horror goes. It's an off day, I'm tired, and the story telling drive feels like it's escaped me for today.
Spend days slogging your way through the "Teen Screams" section on Netflix like I just did, and a film like "The Hazing" comes as nothing short of a revelation. In a world where it seems like people have forgotten how to make "fun" horror movies on small budgets, it does everything right, for a myriad of reasons.
This is definitely a movie.
This week the gang sits down to watch a remake that wasn't good enough to be released in theaters. Yes my friends it's the long awaited, by only me I think, remake of "Night of the Demons". This should work out well.
In the wake of the recent "Night of the Demons" remake, I thought we'd take a quick look at the original, one of my go-to Halloween themed movies. On Halloween night, 10 teenagers gather for a party at an old abandoned funeral parlor hosted by Angela (Mimi Kinkade) and Suzanne (Linnea Quigley).
I'm pretty sure 75% of the new "Night of the Demons" trailer has already made it's way to the internet but I'm 100% sure the parts with the boobs being ripped off and crap is all new. Those are the kinds of things that usually stick in ones head for a while.
The fine people behind the upcoming "Saw 3D" release have put out a pretty dandy 3D poster that will blow your little peepers out of their sockets. There's also a solid chance this will be the best part of this movie, so enjoy it while it lasts.
"Dexter Early Cuts: Dark Echo", which is a brand spanking new animated webisode found it's way to Comic Con and the internerds are all a flutter. The web series gives us all a chance to see what went on in our favorite serial killer's life before the show started. In episode three he goes out an buys all those cool cabana shirts.
Fresh from Comic Con comes news that Guillermo del Toro is going to be making a "Haunted Mansion" movie based on the Disney ride. I can't even begin to explain how excited I am about this but apparently they aren't going to be asking Eddie Murphy to join the cast. Am I the only one who enjoyed the last one? I can't be alone here.
In order to build up the hype around it's estimated 2014 release the fine people behind the "Night Of The Demons" remake have released a poster. Alright the 2014 thing is kind of bullshit, it just feels like we've been talking about this masterpiece forever now. You can't rush Shannon Elizabeth and her perfection.
If you loved "The Mutant Chronicles", and honestly who didn't, you'll be excited to know that its creator Simon Hunter is currently working on a new a new flick titled "Safe House". I'll be honest, I didn't like "The Mutant Chronicles" and I could care less about this, but I thought I should post one thing that didn't come out of Comic Con.
The most anticipated, and let's be honest, probably best, horror film of 2009, Halloween 2, has been rated R by the MPAA for "strong brutal bloody violence throughout, terror, disturbing graphic images, language, some crude sexual content, and nudity" . To me, that's a Tuesday. You know the funny thing about horror fans? For all their griping and bitching, you know they're gonna be there opening weekend for this. Even mice are smart enough not keep touching the feeder bar if it keeps electrocuting them. Maybe that's why I think people decrying the flick are just doing it to get attention...ERIC.
Night of the Demons, or, as I call it be "Night of the Semens", because I will undoubtedly be masturbating to Diora Baird as soon as it hits DVD, has sadly been pushed back from October 9 to February 2010. Hold tight, L'il Louis...hold tight.
Simon & Schuster has staked out September 29th for the release of their Hellraiser/Clive Barker tribute book Hellbound Hearts, featuring Cenobite tales from Neil Gaiman, Steve Niles, Richard Christian Matheson, Mike Mignola and, um, Mick Garris, who's pinning a story called "Hellbound Hollywood", which I'm pretty sure is based on a Stephen King short story. Probably "Trucks".


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The United States Congress could provide the nation's farmers a timely Christmas present by passing a farm bill before the holiday recess.
"The U.S. House of Representatives set out to get a farm bill done on time (before the 2002 Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 expired September 30)," said Representative Collin Peterson, D-Minnesota, and chairman of the House Agriculture Committee.
Peterson, speaking via telephone hookup to the seventh annual Texas Commodity Symposium in Amarillo this week, said the bill "got bogged down in the Senate. It's a petty good bill, not perfect, but nutrition, conservation and renewable fuels will be happy with it."
He said the Senate version of the bill is close to what the House passed and is bi-partisan. The problem, he said, was attempts to attach amendments to the bill. "They're trying to limit amendments and appear to be close to a deal. We hope to see an agreement next week."
Larry Combest, retired Texas Congressman, one of the chief authors of the 2002 legislation, who continues to work for responsible farm legislation through a newly formed Southwest Ag Council and with Combest Sell and Associates, predicted Senate passage before Christmas.
"They will not get conferees together before January, however," Combest said. Best estimate, he and Peterson agreed, would be in January with a final bill ready to send to the White House by early March.
Peterson, responding to a question by Plains Cotton Growers, Inc. executive vice president Steve Verett, said the process could stretch out until late March or early April before Congress would be forced to push for extension of current law. The dairy program, however, will be extended, he said. "The dairy price support program expires December 31 and if we do not extend the program it reverts back to permanent law."
Combest said the next budget cycle, in late February, would be the next catalyst to push Congress to either pass a new bill or extend the current one.
Both Peterson and Combest expect a payment limitations proposal to pass the Senate. They said efforts to defeat the proposal will continue but chances of it passing will be good. "USDA is fixated on payment limitations," Peterson said.
"We will not accept it. They (Grassely and Dorgan) are off on the wrong track and are playing politics."
He said more legislators support limiting payments on non-farmers. "But southern farmers can't live with payment limitations," he said.
Even if Congress passes a bill it still faces threat of a presidential veto. "That's a problem," Peterson said. "He threatened to veto the bill in 2002 but he did not and took credit for it. I hope to have a discussion with the president."
Combest said many of the same advisors that opposed the 2002 bill are still in the administration. "Many are not. I hope the President who signed the 2002 bill will step up and sign this one."
Peterson said the bill will face other hurdles in Ways and Means where many committee members are "not keen on agriculture."
Peterson said an energy bill may make it through both houses before the farm legislation. "We're negotiating for an increased renewable fuels standard (above 9 million gallons per year, up from the current 7 million). We can get to 9 million in 12 to 18 months," he said.
Peterson said he remains optimistic that congress will pass a farm bill to "preserve the safety net and increase conservation and nutrition programs."
email: [email protected]


text: Global mobile ad revenue to grow 80% this year Published on June 14, 2013. New York—Worldwide mobile ad revenue is expected to reach $15.82 billion this year, an 80% increase over the $8.80 billion logged in 2012, according to a forecast by marketing consultancy eMarketer. Of that amount, Google Inc. will continue its mobile ad revenue dominance, accounting for $8.85 billion, or 56% of the total. Facebook Inc., which entered the mobile ad business last year, was forecast to log a bit more than $2.04 billion in mobile ad revenue this year, up from $47.0 million in 2012, while Twitter will see its mobile revenue jump to $31.0 million this year from $14.0 million, eMarketer said. Google also leads in all digital ad spending worldwide, gaining $32.73 billion in 2012, or just less than 32% of the global total. eMarketer forecast that Google will increase its market share this year. Most Popular In this article: BtoB


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Ayala / Makati Site
Job Description:
- Handle inbound customer services support calls from established customer
- Cross sell value added service or products that are offered by the company
- Provide consistent superior service to every customer by utilizing all available tools and resources
- Maintain productivity at define proficiency levels in compliance with department policy and procedures
- Demonstrate a desire and initiative to continue learning new and relevant products and technical information as products evolve
Job Requirements:
- You must have completed at least high school diploma, preferred with a Bachelor's Degree or College Degree in any field.
- Must have good communication skills
- Flexible to changes and has a sense of urgency
- Time management skills and can work under pressure
- Must be willing to work in Ayala, Makati area
- Must be willing to working in shifting schedules
- Experienced on a voice account preferred
- Must be willing to start immediately
Salary: Login to see salary
Recruitment Office:
Walk-in applicants are also welcome to visit our office from Monday-Friday 9am-5pm
Unit 302 Archerub Building, 144-146 Timog Ave., corner EDSA, BRGY. Sacred Heart, Quezon City. Across the road from GMA Network and walking distance from MRT
To apply with FB CHAT, send [name], [mobile], [education], [location], [optional BPO experience] and kindly wait for our HR team to respond.
To apply via email send application and resume to firstname.lastname@example.com
All applicants need to bring copies of resume and valid photographic identification for processing.


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Family room needs a makeover
Our family room is in our finished basement. It has dark outdated paneling and poor light. It has carpeting that is over 30 years old. It was damaged from flooding six years ago, when the retention pond in South Elgin broke and flooded the entire neighborhood, and our basement. We just dried the carpeting out, and laid it back down, as our insurance does not cover flood damage. It is full of mold. I have to sleep down here too and it is not healthy for me.
It is all one big room, in an L shape. Part family room and part bedroom. The bottom part of the L, has my bed, dresser, night stand, two file cabinets, a computer desk, a cloth wardrobe, and my parent's china cabinet. The longer part of the L has two cloth wardrobes, desk, love seat, two chairs, another couch, a shoe rack, my treadmill, two end tables, two televisions. There is not any storage, or closets, or room dividers. It looks very cluttered. We have extension cords draped across the carpet. It is hard to use the family room as a comfortable, enjoyable family room, because of the condition it is in. My elderly parents live here too, they are both 89. The room has very dark paneling and poor light. There is not much entertainment in this family room, due to its condition. Dad and I love to watch football and hockey games together. My dream is to have a place where my parents and I can invite family and friends over to visit, and to watch the games on a big-screen TV.
Design by Littman Brothers
Budget: $5,000
The outdated paneling on the walls, along with the carpeting creates a very dark space. The room is long and narrow in an "L" shape. Because the space is small to begin with, it is important to be minimal and purge a lot of the extra furniture and items that are being stored in the room. I would suggest painting the paneling white to brighten the space. Replace the flooring with a faux wood and add an area rug to create a warm atmosphere.
To update the lighting, I would use brand Quoizel Lighting's Downtown Collection. Two semi-flush mount lights go over the bedroom and living room coffee table. The one for the bedroom is smaller than the one in the living room area. Floor lamps and table lamps in both areas will accent the spaces and create additional lighting.
• Semi-flush pendant for the living room area: Quoizel Lighting Downtown Collection model DW1824C.
• Semi-flush mount for over the bedroom area: Quoizel Lighting Downtown Collection model DW1717C.
• Table lamps for both the nightstand in the bedroom area and side tables in the living room area: Quoizel Lighting Downtown Collection model DW6326C.
• Floor Lamp for the living room area next to a sofa: Quoizel Lighting Downtown Collection DW9361C.


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Spartanburg: DELANEY'S IRISH PUB, 117 W. Main St., 573-0051: Spencer Rush. 9 p.m.
Spartanburg: DELANEY'S IRISH PUB, 117 W. Main St., 573-0051: Spencer Rush. 9 p.m.
Spencer Rush has been involved in the Upstate music scene for some time, offering a passionate brand of folk-pop that draws from influences that range from Elton John to Journey. The Greenville-based singer-songwriter's releases include a 6-song EP that was produced by Noel Golden, who has worked with such artists as Matchbox 20 and Edwin McCain.
Spartanburg: GROUND ZERO, 3052 Howard St., 948-1661: Lionize/Beitthemeans/Tusker. 8 p.m. $10.
Hailing from the Washington metro area, Lionize is a powerful four-piece outfit that cranks out reggae-infused, groove-oriented rock 'n' roll. The group, which notably played Bonnaroo and the Vans Warped Tour in the same year, has just released a new album, "Superczar and the Vulture."
Spartanburg: CRIBB'S KITCHEN, 226 W. Main St., 585-7397: Freddie Vanderford & Friends. 8 p.m.
Freddie Vanderford is a skilled harmonica player and guitarist who surrounds himself with some of the best musicians in the Upstate. In 2010, the Buffalo native was presented with the Jean Laney Harris Folk Heritage Award for "maintaining and sharing the tradition of Piedmont blues harp."
Spartanburg: MAIN STREET PUB, 252 W. Main St., 573-1165: Aaron Whisnant. 9 p.m.
Even without a backing band, Aaron Whisnant is able to create musical magic. The Spartanburg native, who rose to prominence as a member of Albert Hill and Dezeray's Hammer, is a talented singer-songwriter with a particular knack for producing shimmery pop-rock.
Greenville: SMILEY'S ACOUSTIC CAFE, 111 Augusta St., 864-282-8988: J. Michael King & the Catfish Po-Boys. 6 p.m.; The Bad Popes. 10 p.m.
Composed of some of the Upstate's finest musicians, the Bad Popes deliver Western swing-flavored Americana. The Greenville-based group released an excellent sophomore album, "Town and Country," earlier this year.


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The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board had planned to debate Superintendent Bernard Taylor's proposal to turn parts of Baton Rouge into "attendance regions" on Thursday but instead the board will take that issue up at a still-to-be-scheduled special meeting later this month.
The attendance region proposal was on the original agenda for Thursday's meeting, a "Committee of the Whole" meeting, set to start at 5 p.m., but it was pulled late Tuesday. Also pulled from the agenda were related items calling for applications to create six new charter schools in Baton Rouge — five of them are currently on campuses run by the state's Recovery School District — and to hire a third party to evaluate the applications.
In an interview Wednesday, Taylor said he made the changes after consulting with School Board President David Tatman. Taylor said the agenda for Thursday's meeting has several other items likely to take time, so they decided it was better to discuss the attendance region issues on another night.
"Given the enormity of this change and to make sure there is sufficient time to ask questions, we thought it best to do it by itself," Taylor said.
He said he wants the special meeting to discuss the attendance regions held before Feb. 21, which is when the School Board is holding its regular monthly meeting, but board members are still figuring out which night would work best.
Thursday's meeting still has plenty left for board members to discuss. The agenda includes a discussion of where to relocate students during the two-year rebuilding of Lee High School as well as updates on employee health care spending and school safety.
In a series of community forums in November, Taylor suggested reconfiguring and remodeling dozens of public schools in four areas of the parish with boundaries that would erase the neighborhood zones of the elementary and middle schools in those regions.
Three of those regions — Capitol, Glen Oaks and Scotlandville — are in north Baton Rouge. Taylor revisited those communities during the past two weeks during a second set of forums. He has altered some of his initial proposals based on the feedback he received in November.
Taylor has postponed announcing plans for schools in the fourth area, located in the southeast part of the parish, which he calls the Woodlawn region.
Taylor said he first wants to conclude discussions he is having with the state Department of Education about the possible return of one or more schools in north Baton Rouge that were taken over by the department for chronically low academic performance. He said he likely will have a forum in the Woodlawn area sometime in March.
Under Taylor's plan, the school system would set up regional "marketplaces," pitting school against school in a competition for students and the per-pupil funding that comes with those students.
In the affected regions, public schools would no longer draw students primarily from the neighborhoods surrounding their schools. Instead, students living in multiple neighborhoods across a much larger geographical area would select a school from a menu of options.
The regional menus would include new magnet schools, charter schools, schools with new grade configurations and a range of new but yet-to-be-determined programs and themes. These menus also would include several schools now run by the state's Recovery School District.
Taylor said he is still talking to state and RSD leaders, particularly RSD Superintendent Patrick Dobard, about how this will work.
The plan would take three schools RSD runs — Capitol High School and Crestworth and Glen Oaks Middle schools — and plug them into new feeder patterns, which Taylor is calling "families of schools." For that to work, Taylor said, the parish school system would assign students to the three schools, guaranteeing them enrollment if RSD would agree not to recruit students from outside those schools' attendance region.
"We're waiting to get guidance to see if the policy of (the Department of Education) will allow that to happen," Taylor said.
"I hope it will happen."
Taylor said he is willing to move forward with a "Plan B" if he can't reach an agreement with the RSD.


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MDS makes every effort to publish accurate information on the website. "Google Translate" is provided as a free tool for visitors to read content in one's native language. Translations are not guaranteed to be 100% accurate. Neither MDS nor its employees assume liability for erroneous translations of website content.
Contributed by Prof. Alberto Albanese, MD
Professor of Neurology
Istituto Neurologico C. Besta
Milano, Italy
Click here to watch videos depicting dystonia (Members Only)
Dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by sustained or intermittent muscle contractions causing abnormal, often repetitive, movements, postures, or both. Dystonic movements are typically patterned, twisting, and may be tremulous. Dystonia is often initiated or worsened by voluntary action and associated with overflow muscle activation.
The physical sign of dystonia is identified by the observation of dystonic postures and movements and of conditions that specifically activate, increase or decrease this phenomenology. A typical example is when a tactile stimulus or a voluntary geste (known as a sensory trick or geste antagoniste), such as touching the affected or an adjacent body part, can reduce the dystonia. These features are observed in a variety of dystonia syndromes.
The neural mechanism underlying dystonia involves many regions of the central nervous system (particularly: the basal ganglia, cerebellum, supplementary motor areas and sensorimotor cortex) leading to impaired inhibition, abnormal plasticity and sensorimotor dysfunction. Different levels of functional impairment lead to varying degrees of observed clinical severity.
The clinical characteristics of dystonia include: age at onset (from infancy to late adulthood), body distribution (focal forms affect a single body part, segmental affect contiguous body parts , generalized forms involve the trunk and two other body regions), and temporal pattern (disease course static or progressive and variability related to voluntary actions or to diurnal fluctuations). Dystonia can be isolated or combined with another movement disorder, such as parkinsonism or myoclonus, or can be associated to other neurological or systemic manifestations.
Isolated dystonia with onset in childhood tends to progress to generalization, whereas dystonia arising in adulthood usually remains focal or segmental. Some focal/segmental dystonia syndromes have specific names, as they were originally considered independent diseases: blepharospasm, resulting in repetitive forceful eyelid closure; spasmodic dysphonia affecting speech; tongue, jaw opening and jaw closing called oromandibular dystonia; cervical dystonia or torticollis involving the neck.
Focal dystonia may also be task-specific, for example, writer's cramp is a dystonia affecting the hand/arm during the act of writing. Other examples of task specific dystonia include musician's dystonia that can affect the body part involved in playing an instrument.
There are many causes of dystonia. The etiological classification considers two main lines: evidence of nervous system pathology and whether dystonia is inherited or acquired. In many cases of isolated dystonia there is no evidence of degeneration or structural lesion (e.g., DYT1, DYT6; formerly called "primary" dystonias). Otherwise, there may be evidence of a static structural lesion causing dystonia, as in the case of dystonic cerebral palsy following perinatal brain injury, or of progressive degeneration (e.g., PKAN, PLAN; formerly called "dystonia plus").
Inherited dystonias can have all sorts of transmission patterns; acquired dystonias recognize a variety of causes (perinatal brain injury, infection, drug, toxic, vascular, etc.); idiopathic dystonias (whether sporadic or familial) are genetically unclassified forms, considered to be related to yet undiscovered genes.
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By Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Women helped propel Barack Obama to the White House in 2008, but their flagging enthusiasm for him reflected in recent polls has created uncertainty about who will capture the female vote in Tuesday's election.
Four years ago, women voters supported Obama over Republican John McCain by 56 percent to 43 percent. Among men, the Democrat led McCain by just 49 percent to 48 percent.
But women's enthusiasm for Obama as president has slipped this year, making his road to re-election more difficult.
He is narrowly favored to win the female vote, but in many national polls, the incumbent's lead over Republican Mitt Romney among likely women voters has dipped to single digits. Reuters/Ipsos polling data last week had it at nearly 5 percentage points. He trailed among likely male voters by about 6 points.
Republicans point to Romney's gains with women since his strong performance in the first presidential debate on October 3.
Marguerite Hunsinger, 59, of Flagler Beach, Florida, who had been undecided, said the debate shifted her to Romney's camp.
"I'd been very, very skeptical about Romney," said Hunsinger, a self-described homemaker. "And I just thought he acted very presidential and capable, and he had answers that I agreed with more."
In contrast, she said Obama "was like asleep. ... It felt like he was just wasn't there."
Romney's camp accuses Democrats of condescending to women by overemphasizing issues like contraception when polls show men and women both care more about jobs and the economy.
Democrats note that Obama continues to hold significant leads among women in the decisive swing states and say the women's vote will help propel him to victory.
Women comprise more than half of the U.S. electorate, and in presidential elections, about 7 percent more women vote than men.
Democrats insist that Obama outshines Romney on many issues important to female voters, from healthcare to education, equal pay and fair taxes.
Evelyn Miranda, 47, of Hialeah, Florida, said she had been undecided, but recently embraced Obama because of his positions on social issues and insistence that the wealthy pay higher taxes.
"He wants to tax people more who make more money. I am really for that a lot," she said.
Miranda, an artist and teacher, also said she worried that Republicans might ban abortion, a position with which she disagrees after experiences with student sexual abuse survivors.
Obama's current support margin among women is not only below his own 2008 performance but that of Al Gore in the 2000 election. Gore, then the Democratic vice president, narrowly won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush.
"Certainly, team Obama would like to see their national margin among women higher," said Tufts University political scientist Richard Eichenberg, who is tracking this year's gender gap and estimates Obama's lead among women nationally at 8 percentage points.
"In 2008, he had an extra cushion when he won big (+13 among women), and Gore won narrowly with +11. So I think that they would like that 8-point number a little higher," Eichenberg said.
But Obama's standing among women remains strong in the battleground states he will need to clinch all-important electoral votes. "He leads among women by large margins in virtually all the swing states," Eichenberg said.
For example, in Ohio, Eichenberg noted polls during October showed Obama with a 12-point lead among likely women voters.
Romney's solid showing - and Obama's poor one - in the first debate in Denver upended the presidential race. Obama had been building a lead before he and Romney first went head-to-head. Romney has since gained steadily in the polls.
For the week ended September 30, just before the debate, Reuters/Ipsos poll data showed Obama leading Romney by 52 percent to 41 percent among a sample of 1,022 likely women voters. He also led among likely men voters, by 47 percent to 44 percent.
Last week, Obama led Romney among likely female voters by 48 percent to 44 percent, and trailed among likely male voters by 50 percent to 44 percent, the Reuters/Ipsos data showed.
Obama's team has courted women with ads stressing his support for equal-pay legislation, abortion rights and contraceptive insurance coverage. The Democratic National Convention featured high-profile women emphasizing those issues.
They slammed Romney for shifting positions on abortion and contraceptive rights since his 2002 election as governor of Democratic-leaning Massachusetts and for failing to support Obama-backed legislation easing the way for women to sue over workplace pay discrimination.
But some analysts said that approach might help explain Obama's flagging support, in a year when economic problems and a high jobless rate worry voters.
"The Democrats have been very focused on what we call the particularistic concerns of women, such as abortion, equal pay and contraception," said Lara Brown, a political scientist at Villanova University.
"I'm wondering if the women who are migrating toward Romney, they're just saying to themselves, 'Abortion and birth control and equal pay are not my issues, what I'm more concerned about is the overall state and health of the economy.'"
Marion Kirschner, 33, of Delaware, Ohio, placed herself among those voters.
The Romney supporter called herself "kind of liberal" on social issues like abortion and gay marriage rights - which Romney opposes - but said government should focus elsewhere.
"I think the government should worry about the economy, domestic issues and foreign policy. That is more important to me than social issues," said the married mother of 17-month-old twins, who works at an aviation company.
Vicki May, 43, of Colonial Heights, Virginia, said she hoped Romney would improve the economy, while expressing anger with Obama.
"I've been out of work for three years and I haven't been able to find anything," she said. "They keep saying there are jobs out there, but I haven't noticed."
(Editing by Alistair Bell, Marilyn W. Thompson and Peter Cooney)


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Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright who led a revolution to bring down the country's communist regime, died Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic. He was 75.
Havel's close friend, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, was born in Czechoslovakia. She says he fit right in the center of the modern history of Eastern Europe.
"He was an active dissident and a believer in human rights throughout his entire life ... even under the most desperate communism," Albright tells weekends on All Things Considered host Guy Raz. "[He] was there in order to lead his country in the Velvet Revolution and in a remarkable time of integration into the West."
Though often jailed as a dissident, Albright says Havel was not someone who took himself too seriously, and was, in fact, reluctant to take on the role of president in 1989. But his important role in the dissident movement made him someone the people looked up to, she says.
"He saw the world through the eyes of an artist and a moral human being," she says. "[His stature] was of newness and morality and a spirit of what the future could be about."
Albright remembers Havel as a wonderful person that you could a have any type of discussion with, but also as a jazz lover. She recalls a trip to Prague in 1994 where Havel shared that love of jazz with President Bill Clinton.
"We had official meetings and then we all went to this great jazz club," she says. "President Havel gave President Clinton a saxophone and they all stood there playing. [Havel] didn't have a lot of rhythm, but he loved the music."
Albright hopes Havel will be remembered for bringing opportunity and possibility back to the Czech people. The Czech Republic is much different today than the country she and Havel grew up in, she says, but for young people, he personifies what is possible for a small country.
"He is one of the most important figures of the 20th century in terms of his understanding of humanity, human rights, democracy, principle [and] morality," she says. "To the extent that people want to identify with that, they will see him as a great hero."
Now, unlike many of his comrades on the left, Czech leader Vaclav Havel also supported the Iraq invasion. He saw it through the prism of his own country's liberation from communism. In November 1989, as the communist regime collapsed, he stood on a balcony in Prague's Wenceslas Square where he addressed thousands of people gathered.
RAZ: Vaclav Havel died today at the age of 75. He stands among the giants of the late 20th century. Havel was a playwright and artist, but most importantly, a dissident in his native Czechoslovakia. He coauthored the seminal document known as Charter 77. It called for political reform, and his activities landed him in jail several times.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was a friend. And when I spoke with her earlier today, she explained where Havel fits into the history of the end of the Cold War.
MADELEINE ALBRIGHT: I think he fits into the center of it, because he was an active dissident and a believer in human rights throughout his entire life and fought for human rights even under the most desperate communism and was there in order to lead his country in the Velvet Revolution and in a remarkable time of integration into the West.
RAZ: He was, of course, a dissident and jailed, but primarily he was playwright. He was an artist who was political, but he wasn't a politician. And it makes you wonder whether he was almost reluctant to take on the role of president after 1989.
ALBRIGHT: He was reluctant. And he was not somebody who took himself terribly seriously, but he saw the world through the eyes of an artist and a moral human being.
RAZ: What happened in 1989? I mean, was he sort of the only figure that the whole country could coalesce around? I mean, was he kind of forced into this role?
ALBRIGHT: Well, I mean, he had played a very important role in the dissident movement and had been, in many ways, somebody that the people looked up to, the Charter 77 people. And he was there at the time when the crowds assembled in Wenceslas Square, and he was on the - in this balcony along with former President Dubcek. And clearly, even though there had been this other figure there, he never kind of had that same stature that Vaclav Havel did, which was a newness and morality and a spirit of what the future could be about.
RAZ: You knew him. Of course, your roots are Czech, Madam Secretary, as well. What was Vaclav Havel like as a person?
ALBRIGHT: He was wonderful. He was somebody that you could have any kind of a discussion with, and he loved jazz. And when I was still secretary, I was a U.N. ambassador in 1994 when I went to Prague the first time with President Clinton. And when President Clinton got off the plane and President Havel was at the bottom of the steps and we had official meetings. And then we all went to this great jazz club where President Havel gave President Clinton the saxophone and they all stood there playing. And the truth is that President Havel didn't have a lot of rhythm, but he certainly loved the music.
RAZ: How do you think he will be remembered by the Czech people?
ALBRIGHT: I hope that he will be remembered as somebody that really raised again the opportunities and possibilities for the Czech people who - I mean, I grew up in a - with different kind of stories in terms of the Czechoslovakia that my parents knew between the wars. And Vaclav Havel did too. And so - and a lot of the young people in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic didn't know all that.
And Havel, for them, personified what was possible for a small country. He is one of the most important figures of the 20th century in terms of his understanding of humanity, human rights, democracy, principle, morality. And to the extent that people want to identify with that, they will see him as a great hero.
RAZ: That's former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright on her friend Vaclav Havel. The one-time Czech president died today. He was 75. Secretary Albright, thank you so much.
ALBRIGHT: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Unwrap candy bars and place face down on waxed or parchment paper; set aside.
In a microwave-safe bowl, combine caramels with butter. Heat in microwave on HIGH heat for about 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds until completely melted.
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UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council warned Yemen's former president and vice president on Friday that they could face possible sanctions along with others reported to be interfering in the country's democratic transition and undermining the national unity government.
A presidential statement approved by all 15 council members said the Security Council is ready to consider non-military sanctions if such actions continue.
It expressed concern at reports of meddling in the transition by members of the former regime, former opposition, and other opponents of the current government, singling out former President Ali Abdullah Saleh and former Vice President Ali Salim Al-Beidh.
Yemen has been struggling with a transition to democracy since Arab Spring protests a year ago forced Saleh to step down after 33 years as president. A transitional government led by President Abed Rabbu Mansour Hadi is trying to promote national reconciliation, draft a new constitution and hold elections.
Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said the statement was a clear message to Saleh "that the actions that he and other are taking to undermine this process will not be tolerated."
Lyall Grant said that during a Security Council mission to Yemen three weeks ago members heard concerns about Saleh and other "spoilers" undermining a national dialogue conference, which Hadi has scheduled to start on March 18.
"What he should not do is undermine the political transition, the national dialogue, which is fully supported by all the international community," Lyall Grant told reporters. "What we are saying is that we are giving our full weight behind that process, and we will not tolerate individuals of whatever stature undermining that process."
The council statement also expressed concern about reports "of money and weapons being brought into Yemen from outside for the purpose of undermining the transition."
Last week, Yemen asked the council to investigate a ship that Yemeni authorities said they seized with a cargo of Iranian-made bomb-making material, suicide belts, explosives, Katyusha rockets, surface-to-air missiles, rocket-propelled grenades and large amounts of ammunition. Hadi had previously sent a message to his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, calling on him to stop sending arms to Yemen and quit supporting a southern separatist movement.
Lyall Grant said the Security Council has asked the committee monitoring sanctions against Iran to investigate the weapons seizure.
The council statement reiterated the need for the transition to be "underpinned by a commitment to democracy, good governance, rule of law, national reconciliation and respect for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all people in Yemen."
It urged the government to pass legislation on transitional justice to support reconciliation without delay.
The council emphasized the need for all segments of Yemeni society to be included in the national dialogue conference and called on all parties to honor the benchmarks and timetable in the transition agreement which call for the national dialogue to lead to a constitutional referendum and elections by February 2014.


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The crew, gun, and tracked vehicle come from a Monogram and Tamiya kits, I believe. I made the walls and rocks from hydrocal and the vegetation from Woodland Scenics foam I constructed solid walnut base from wood I had milled to hold a piece of 5/8 inch plywood base and accomodate a 1/4-thick plastic cover.
Some time in the 1980s this and the companion diorama entered the collection of the Forbes Museum of Military Miniatures in Morocco. I have since heard that the museum has closed, and I have no idea what happened to these examples of my work [GPL].
Airplanes World War II Scenes and Dioramas


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Gladius Roleplaying Game
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Topic: Gladius Roleplaying Game (Read 4385 times)
Posts: 5
Gladius Roleplaying Game
March 12, 2010, 08:13:51 PM »
Here, I'll give the description of the game that I posted on Facebook a little while ago...
"The Gladius pen & paper role-playing game is designed to be simple, and easy-to-use, for people who just want to build their character and go, and likewise for gm's who don't want to worry about things like game-balance and just want to plan adventures, write npc's, environments, and magical items without having to become a rules lawyer.
In short Gladius handles all of the numbers and statistics and leaves the players and GM to imagine and have fun, but it does so without losing the depth of play required to make it an enjoyable game."
Right now everything is medieval fantasy flavored but I have plans in the works to write resources for modern and sci-fi settings as well. The full and up-to-date resources for players and GM's can be viewed for free at my website,
Callan S.
Posts: 3588
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #1 on:
March 13, 2010, 07:58:18 PM »
Hi, welcome to the forge!
Do you have any playtest accounts you'd like to give, showing what happened fictionally and also what the people at the table did? Doesn't have to be long, just a sentence or two is good.
Philosopher Gamer
Posts: 5
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #2 on:
March 15, 2010, 03:49:23 PM »
Well, lets see... I ran a complete campaign with a group of four players long enough for them to advance from level 1 all the way to 12. And this was before each adventure was worth one level, usually they would level once every other session rather than once per session as it is written now.
The main reason I retired the group was because there was simply too much, "stuff," that they had, that I had to keep track of. When we began the campaign the players immediately started conquering towns and killing people since the area they were in was almost defenseless due to invading hordes of monsters. I wasn't so worried about the campaign being a, "long runner," or not at the time, I mostly wanted to have fun, see what the players would do, and see where the game went and whether or not I had a good system that I should develop further, and whether or not we would keep playing and even turn the campaign into a more serious game.
So I allowed them to basically take control of a small horde of peasants with pitchforks, (the inhabitants of the towns that they conquered.) The system handled it nicely enough, I adjusted the encounters so that they could handle the players' power increase and it was only a small horde so it didn't really overpower the players, they eventually each wanted their own dragon mount, and their own individual pets and this worked out okay though it bogged down combat a tiny bit, the real problem arose however when I let them take control of a major city and suddenly they had a real army. I tried to write some simple rules to handle combat on a massive scale but I didn't come up with anything that really seemed fun to play, and I eventually decided that I wasn't going to write more complicated rules to handle massive units of monsters and I was going to stick to play-testing the rules that I already had as they were actually working pretty well.
So to the dismay of at least one player I wrote each adventure so that the armies were off in the background or were unable to participate, (for whatever reason,) while the adventures centered on the players and their various, "pets." Eventually I decided to end the campaign when I noticed other people in our group getting anxious to run their own games, and because each session I wrote was more difficult to exclude their army than it was the time before and because I needed to take a break from GM'ing to refill my inspiration well.
The only problems I had running this campaign were that in the first sessions the players were, "bursting," too much, (blowing all their abilities in the first couple turns and prematurely terminating the encounters,) and the special abilities made the standard attacks look like kitten scratches. Some of the players didn't have damaging special abilities, they took buffs or summons instead, so they were very disappointed when they had to resort to standard attacks when their comrades were reaping the rewards from their buffs and dealing ten times as much damage.
After about the fifth session or so I had to tone down the special abilities so that they were closer in power to the standard attacks, lower the starting ability scores so that they were 1 to 4 instead of 1 to 8, and I had to altogether remove one ability called, "Slash and Dash," which was a free action that recurred on hit creating, (with the help of a min-maxed attack using an ability score of up to 8 at that time,) would just about never miss and therefore created an infinite damage loop. It was a cool ability and I have tried many variants of it with not much success. I also had to limit the players to taking only abilities with power values equal to one plus their level divided by five.
After I made these changes the battles began looking somewhat as I had imagined them and everything seemed to be under control.
The only other problem I had was not really a game-balance problem but due to there not being any classes I had a bunch of players with the same abilities but with entirely different initial designs. I fixed this, (hopefully,) when I put the website up, by adding new abilities to support different and more diverse character designs, and by linking each ability to a specialty, (initially only a few abilities were tied to a character specialty, and now they all are.)
Overall I call this campaign a success even though I made at least one GM'ing mistake, (allowing the players to have an army rather than leaving them with a horde of peasants,) and I am currently working on starting a new one with possibly some new players. I am also contemplating starting a forum game, and I could probably do both simultaneously since it only takes a few minutes to plan for a session.
Posts: 5
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #3 on:
March 15, 2010, 03:53:16 PM »
Sorry... I was actually trying to make it, "short."
Callan S.
Posts: 3588
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #4 on:
March 15, 2010, 04:23:11 PM »
No no, more info is useful - any play account is useful. Thanks for that!
Were you heading the campaign toward any particular climax? If so, were you doing that manually as GM, or do you have mechanics that actually determine when a campaign ends?
If not, how about the climax of each session - I dunno, save the princess, save the town, destroy the summoning alter, whatever. Do you manually guide the game session towards that climax (which is pretty traditional to do in roleplay) or have mechanics that determine how close and when the climax of the session happens?
I mean, if you take it that each battle is the smaller picture, the larger picture had no rules for it at all and was kind of up for grabs - and the players went off with this whole army thing. Which is kind of beyond the scope of your mechanics, I think you even say so yourself.
Your mechanics actually seem, from my skimming read, to cover the smaller picture pretty damn tightly. But play seemed to be dipping into the larger picture - either the climax for the nights session, or with the army even bigger picture, the climax for the entire campaign! And it had no rules to cover it. And yeah, the players are doing a bunch of stuff that requires rules, but dang, they don't expect to do the work of making them, they not only punt that onto you but look askance if you don't include the army stuff they invented. I know the feeling!
That's my brief overview. Was it helpful in some way or another?
Philosopher Gamer
Posts: 5
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #5 on:
March 15, 2010, 05:31:09 PM »
To be honest this was actually a step out of my comfort zone, I usually put years of thought into my worlds, npc's, and plots, and in to each campaign I run as well. This one was... well, it was kind of an experiment on multiple levels, I wanted to see where the players would go and what they would do and develop it from there.
After a little while though they didn't seem to be feeding me enough exploratory spirit to build the sessions from so I started helping them out by writing snippets about potential directions they could go in after each session ended and letting them choose one. That way I could design that session during the following week and have it ready for them to play by the following weekend.
After a few sessions I started to conceive a master plot which I allowed to run behind the scenes without the players noticing until the climax. They didn't unfortunately reach the BIG bad guy because of one completely unexpected action that one of the players took that allowed him to achieve his goal and go unnoticed, but they did encounter his second in command which made for a pretty amazing climax anyways. They didn't seem that interested in the, WHY of any of it and since they weren't demanding answers I just let it end and saved the, (now much more powerful,) bad guy for another day.
This campaign was actually more of an excuse to play games than it was a serious game, but we held it together because it seemed like they were having fun, and I was having fun building encounters for them.
As far as mechanics go, I like to write games that only handle one aspect of reality, (combat in this case,) and that the, "larger picture," as you put it should either belong to the participants, or it should be handled by a separate system, or possibly even written into the setting itself. I have contemplated writing systems to handle storytelling and role-playing for instance but so far I haven't actually seen the need. Combat on a massive scale I believe should definitely be it's own system, as massive simplifications would be required to make it playable and then we have to find a way to make it fun and... well, then you are really getting into writing another game entirely.
In addition to this I believe smaller scale, "adventurer," combats actually fall somewhat in a different genre as these stories will seriously emphasize a few, "heroes," which make soldiers and uniform units look kind of insignificant or the other way around. As it stands I think my future campaigns will end when the players become influential enough to actually control such a large force, and their characters will become part of the setting for our next go-around as npc's or they may choose to graduate to a different game system where they command armies. Mostly I plan to be sure that the players have a better idea of what to expect going in.
And yes it was helpful thank you,
Callan S.
Posts: 3588
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #6 on:
March 16, 2010, 12:54:02 AM »
Well, I dunno - your bigger picture seemed to get frayed. If you contrast that against your battles, they sounded like they ran nice and smoothly due to the rules you'd written for them. Just leaving the bigger picture to the participants to support didn't seem to work out nearly as neatly?
Philosopher Gamer
Posts: 5
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #7 on:
March 16, 2010, 02:29:55 PM »
Well, do you have any suggestions? I mean, I could have reduced massive combat to a few charisma vs. charisma rolls, or as I said before, I could have used a different system to handle it. The only problem is that I wouldn't know which one to use, so I am left with the lone option of writing my own system which at the time I was not prepared to do. So if I did write this how do you think it should work? My original thought was to do everything in units, with a battle-grid similar to the way I handle combat normally.
Callan S.
Posts: 3588
Re: Gladius Roleplaying Game
Reply #8 on:
March 16, 2010, 08:26:20 PM »
Well I'd actually instead decide how I wanted the ending to go. Do you want it to go to giant army stuff? Roughly how do you want it, in terms of the big picture, to end?
After that we can look at rules for it.
Philosopher Gamer
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The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA), which for 18 months has battled for cleaner air in California (and more corn sales), now wants to "clean the air" of a few misunderstandings about fuel prices.
It's not ethanol that's driving up the price of gas at the pumps, NCGA leaders say. It's a shortage of petroleum.
The Environmental Protection Agency on June 12 denied California's request for a waiver on federal Clean Air Act requirements for oxygenates in motor fuel. The waiver would have eliminated both grain-based ethanol and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), which is derived from natural gas, as a fuel additive in the nation's largest state.
Following EPA's denial of the California waiver, many ethanol opponents renewed the claim that the action would drive California gas prices higher. NCGA says nothing could be further from the truth.
"It is unfathomable that California refiners are going to suffer price discrimination at the hands of ethanol producers," said John McClelland, NCGA director of energy and analysis. "Prices of ethanol in California will reflect Midwest prices plus transportation.
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Blame the short supplies of oil on OPEC. Short supplies of natural gas have driven up MTBE prices resulting in higher gas prices to consumers, McClelland says. "Ethanol historically follows the price of gasoline closer than the price of corn because ethanol is sold into the fuel market where it competes with other fuel components. However, ethanol competes with gasoline and gasoline components. This competition tends to moderate gasoline prices in areas where ethanol is used. That means savings for consumers."
Also to blame for high gas prices in California are the state's laws requiring gasoline sold within the state to be "boutique fuels," manufactured for specific markets, McClelland says. "This has been a state requirement, not one mandated by the Clean Air Act. This has much more to do with the price of gasoline to consumers than the cost of the ethanol being put into that gasoline."
He cites other advantages to ethanol.
"There's enough ethanol to go around," he said. "Farmers are investing in this nation's energy strategy by building ethanol plants that produce 40 percent of the 1.6 billion gallons of ethanol made in 2000. Production that year used 600 million bushels or corn, only 6.5 percent of the crop."
He projected the ethanol industry will produce 2 billion gallons of ethanol this year. "With corn stocks in excess of 1.7 billion bushels, there is more than enough corn to produce ethanol."
NCGA insists transportation shouldn't be a problem, either. "Filings required by California environmental laws indicate that virtually all refineries in southern California are ready to use ethanol," McClelland said. "They will get it by ship, and transport it to terminals where there is going to be plenty of storage available in tanks that once held MTBE."
NCGA also says denial of waiver means nearly 600 million gallons of clean-burning ethanol could be used annually in California. The association's estimates show that about 230 million bushels of corn will be used to produce the ethanol needed by California motorists and could boost the value of the nation's corn crop by as much as $1 billion annually.
"The decision by President Bush is a tremendous victory for clean air, consumers and corn farmers," says Gary Marshall, Missouri Corn Growers Association CEO. "California will start using clean-burning ethanol as they phase out of MTBE, which has fouled their drinking water. Consumers will benefit through lower prices at the pump because ethanol has twice the oxygen content of MTBE.
"Corn farmers will benefit through a boost in ethanol production in farmer-owned plants, and an increase in the overall value for our crop."
Don Fischer, MCGA president and Corder, Mo., farmer, says: "The administration's denial of the waiver sends a clear message: The oxygenate provisions are working and are necessary for clean air. Corn growers have received the green light they have been waiting for, and are ready to make the investments needed to expand ethanol production."
According to producer-group statistics, there are currently 56 farmer-owned U.S, facilities that produce over 2 billion gallons of ethanol annually.
Ethanol industry observers say U.S. annual ethanol capacity is expected to increase to 3.5 billion gallons per year by the end of 2003.