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Sometimes it seems like I am in a never ending battle to clear space in my freezer. I am constantly trying to use things from my freezer to make some more room and then the next time I look I am out of free space again. This weekend I was looking through my freezer and I came across a stash of tomatoes that I had roasted during the summer when they were in season. I had roasted them up hoping to get the chance to use them in a pasta sauce which was fortuitous as I had recently been contemplating making an eggplant pasta. I was thinking that eggplant in a simple tomato sauce would be a nice flavour combo for pasta. Roasting vegetables adds so much flavour and I thought that it was only fitting to roast the eggplant since the tomatoes were roasted as well. With the main ingredients decided, I threw in some staples including onions, garlic, green peppers, etc. I decided to go with a Mediterranean flavouring for the sauce and spiced it with some oregano and smoked paprika. Of course I could not resist finishing the pasta off with some some cheese, in this case some crumbled feta.
Roasted Eggplant Pasta
- 1 eggplant (cut into bite sized pieces)
- 1 handful salt
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 onion (diced)
- 3 cloves garlic (chopped)
- 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes (I used roasted tomatoes)
- 1 green pepper (cut into bite sized pieces)
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup parsley (chopped)
- 1 pound pasta (gluten free for gluten free)
- 1/4 cup feta (crumbled)
- Toss the eggplant in the salt and let sit in a colander for 20-30 minutes.
- Rinse the salt off the eggplant and pat dry.
- Toss the eggplant in the oil, salt and pepper to coat.
- Arrange the eggplant in a single layer on a baking sheet.
- Bake in a preheated 400F/200C oven until tender, about 20-30 minutes.
- Heat the oil in a pan.
- Add the onions and saute until tender, about 5-7 minutes.
- Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and saute until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Add the eggplant, tomatoes, green pepper, oregano, paprika, salt and pepper and bring to a boil.
- Reduce the heat and simmer until the sauce starts to thicken, about 30-40 minutes.
- Meanwhile start cooking the pasta as directed on the package, timed to finish when the sauce will be done.
- Stir in the parsley and remove from heat.
- Serve the roasted eggplant sauce on the pasta and garnish with crumbled feta.
Roasted Eggplant, Red Pepper and Green Bean Pomegranate Salad
Imam Baildi
Roasted Tomato Pasta


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Day of the week | Hours |
Saturday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
Sunday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
Monday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
Tuesday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
Wednesday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
Thursday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
Friday | 10:00 AM - 9:00 PM |
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Care of the Baby in the Delivery Room
The birth of a baby is one of life's most wondrous moments. Few experiences compare to this event. Newborn babies have amazing abilities, yet they are completely dependent on others for feeding, warmth, and comfort.
Amazing physical changes occur with birth. When the baby is delivered, the umbilical cord is cut and clamped near the navel. This ends the baby's dependence on the placenta for oxygen and nutrition. As the baby takes its first breath, air moves into the lungs. Before birth, the lungs are not used to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide, and need less blood supply. The fetal circulation sends most of the blood supply away from the lungs through special connections in the heart and the large blood vessels. When a baby begins to breathe air at birth, the change in pressure in the lungs helps close the fetal connections and redirect the blood flow. Now blood is pumped to the lungs to help with the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Some babies have excess amounts of fluid in their lungs. Stimulating the baby to cry by massage and stroking the skin can help bring the fluid up where it can be suctioned from the nose and mouth.
Providing warmth for the newborn
A newborn baby is wet from the amniotic fluid and can easily become cold. Drying the baby and using warm blankets and heat lamps can help prevent heat loss. Often a knitted hat is placed on the baby's head. Placing a baby skin-to-skin on the mother's chest or abdomen also helps to keep the baby warm. This early skin-to-skin contact also reduces crying, improves mother-infant interaction, and helps mothers to breastfeed successfully.
Immediate care for the newborn
Health assessments of the new baby begin immediately. One of the first checks is the Apgar test. The Apgar test is a scoring system designed by Dr. Virginia Apgar, an anesthesiologist, to evaluate the condition of the newborn at one minute and five minutes after birth. The doctor or midwife and nurses will evaluate the following signs and assign a point value:
Activity; muscle tone
Pulse rate
Grimace; reflex irritability
Appearance; skin color
A score of 7 to 10 is considered normal. A score of 4 to 6 may indicate that the baby needs some resuscitation measures (oxygen) and careful monitoring. A score of 3 or below indicates that the baby requires immediate resuscitation and lifesaving techniques.
Physical examination of the newborn in the delivery room
A brief, physical examination is performed to check for obvious signs that the baby is healthy. Other necessary procedures will be done over the next few minutes and hours. These may be done in the delivery room or in the nursery, depending on the hospital policy and the condition of the baby. Some of these procedures include the following:
Measurement of the temperature, heart rate, and respiratory rate
Measurement of weight, length, and head circumference. These measurements help determine if a baby's weight and measurements are normal for the number of weeks of pregnancy. Small or underweight babies, as well as very large babies, may need special attention and care.
Cord care. The baby's umbilical cord stump will have a clamp. It needs to be kept clean and dry.
Bath. Once a baby's temperature has stabilized, the first bath can be given.
Footprints are often taken and recorded in the medical record
Before a baby leaves the delivery area, identification bracelets with identical numbers are placed on the baby and mother. Babies often have two, on the wrist and ankle. These should be checked each time the baby comes or goes from your room.
Care for the newborn after a vaginal delivery
Healthy babies born in a vaginal delivery are usually able to stay with the mother. In many hospitals, immediate newborn assessments including weight, length, and medications, and even the first bath are performed right in the mother's room. As quickly as possible, a new baby is placed in the mother's arms.
In the first hour or two after birth, most babies are in an alert, wide awake phase. This offers a wonderful opportunity for parents to get to know their new baby. A baby will often turn to the familiar sound of the mother's voice. A baby's focus of vision is best at about 8 to 12 inches--just the distance from the baby cradled in a mother's arms to her face.
This first hour or two after birth is also the best time to begin breastfeeding. Babies have an innate ability to begin nursing immediately after they are born. Although some medications and anesthesia given to the mother during labor and delivery may affect the baby's sucking ability, most healthy babies are able to breastfeed in these first few hours. This initial feeding helps stimulate breast milk production. It also causes contraction of the mother's uterus which can help prevent excessive bleeding.
Care for the newborn after a cesarean delivery
If your baby is born by a cesarean delivery, chances are good that you can be awake for the surgery. Only in rare situations will a mother require general anesthesia for delivery, meaning she is not conscious for the birth. Most cesarean deliveries today are done with a regional anesthesia such as an epidural or spinal. With this type of anesthesia, only part of the body is numbed for surgery. The mother is awake and able to hear and see her baby as soon as he or she is born.
Babies born by cesarean are usually checked by a nursery nurse or pediatrician right after delivery. This is often done right near you in the operating room. Because babies born by cesarean may have difficulty clearing some of the lung fluid and mucus, extra suctioning of the nose, mouth, and throat are often needed. Occasionally, deeper suctioning in the windpipe is required.
Once a baby is checked over, a nurse will wrap the baby warmly and bring the baby to you to see and touch. Many hospitals require babies born by cesarean to be watched in the nursery for a short time. All the usual procedures such as weighing and medications are performed there. Usually, your baby can be brought to you while you are in the recovery area after surgery.
Many mothers think that they will not be able to breastfeed after a cesarean. This is not true. Breastfeeding can begin in the first hours right in the recovery room, just as with a vaginal delivery.
Plan to have someone stay with you during your hospital stay after a cesarean delivery. You will have quite a bit of pain in the first few days and will need help with the baby.
When a baby has difficulty after birth
All the baby's body systems must work together in a new way after birth. Sometimes, a baby has difficulty making the transition. Health assessments, including the Apgar test performed right after birth, can help determine if a baby is doing well or having problems.
If there are signs the baby is not doing well, treatment can be given right in the delivery room. The doctor or midwife and other members of the healthcare team work together to help the baby clear excess fluid and begin breathing.
Babies who may have difficulty at birth include those born prematurely, those born with a difficult delivery, or those born with a birth defect(s). Fortunately, for these babies, special care is available. Newborn babies who need intensive medical attention are often admitted into a special area of the hospital called the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The NICU combines advanced technology and trained health professionals to provide specialized care for the tiniest patients. NICUs may also have intermediate or continuing care areas for babies who are not as sick, but need specialized nursing care. Some hospitals do not have a NICU and babies may need to be transferred to another hospital.
Having a sick baby can be stressful. Few parents expect complications of pregnancy or their baby to be sick or premature. It is quite natural for parents to have many different emotions as they try to cope with the difficulties of a sick baby. However, it is reassuring that today's advanced technology is helping sick babies get better and go home sooner than ever before. Further, it helps to know that although separation from a baby is painful, it does not harm the relationship between mother and baby.


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In UK, Twitter, Facebook rants land some in jail
One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should "go to hell." A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.
One teenager made offensive comments about a murdered child on Twitter. Another young man wrote on Facebook that British soldiers should 'go to hell.' A third posted a picture of a burning paper poppy, symbol of remembrance of war dead.
All were arrested, two convicted, and one jailed - and they're not the only ones. In Britain, hundreds of people are prosecuted each year for posts, tweets, texts and emails deemed menacing, indecent, offensive or obscene, and the number is growing as our online lives expand.
Lawyers say the mounting tally shows the problems of a legal system trying to regulate 21st century communications with 20th century laws. Civil libertarians say it is a threat to free speech in an age when the Internet gives everyone the power to be heard around the world.
'Fifty years ago someone would have made a really offensive comment in a public space and it would have been heard by relatively few people,' said Mike Harris of free-speech group Index on Censorship. 'Now someone posts a picture of a burning poppy on Facebook and potentially hundreds of thousands of people can see it.
'People take it upon themselves to report this offensive material to police, and suddenly you've got the criminalization of offensive speech.'
Figures obtained by The Associated Press through a freedom of information request show a steadily rising tally of prosecutions in Britain for electronic communications - phone calls, emails and social media posts - that are 'grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character - from 1,263 in 2009 to 1,843 in 2011. The number of convictions grew from 873 in 2009 to 1,286 last year.
Behind the figures are people - mostly young, many teenagers - who find that a glib online remark can have life-altering consequences.
No one knows this better than Paul Chambers, who in January 2010, worried that snow would stop him catching a flight to visit his girlfriend, tweeted: 'Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your (expletive) together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high.'
A week later, anti-terrorist police showed up at the office where he worked as a financial supervisor.
Chambers was arrested, questioned for eight hours, charged, tried, convicted and fined. He lost his job, amassed thousands of pounds (dollars) in legal costs and was, he says, 'essentially unemployable' because of his criminal record.
But Chambers, now 28, was lucky. His case garnered attention online, generating its own hashtag - (hash)twitterjoketrial - and bringing high-profile Twitter users, including actor and comedian Stephen Fry, to his defense.
In July, two and half years after Chambers' arrest, the High Court overturned his conviction. Justice Igor Judge said in his judgment that the law should not prevent 'satirical or iconoclastic or rude comment, the expression of unpopular or unfashionable opinion about serious or trivial matters, banter or humor, even if distasteful to some or painful to those subjected to it.'
But the cases are coming thick and fast. Last month, 19-year-old Matthew Woods was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for making offensive tweets about a missing 5-year-old girl, April Jones.
The same month Azhar Ahmed, 20, was sentenced to 240 hours of community service for writing on Facebook that soldiers 'should die and go to hell' after six British troops were killed in Afghanistan. Ahmed had quickly deleted the post, which he said was written in anger, but was convicted anyway.
On Sunday - Remembrance Day - a 19-year-old man was arrested in southern England after police received a complaint about a photo on Facebook showing the burning of a paper poppy. He was held for 24 hours before being released on bail and could face charges.
For civil libertarians, this was the most painfully ironic arrest of all. Poppies are traditionally worn to commemorate the sacrifice of those who died for Britain and its freedoms.
'What was the point of winning either World War if, in 2012, someone can be casually arrested by Kent Police for burning a poppy?' tweeted David Allen Green, a lawyer with London firm Preiskel who worked on the Paul Chambers case.
Critics of the existing laws say they are both inadequate and inconsistent.
Many of the charges come under a section of the 2003 Electronic Communications Act, an update of a 1930s statute intended to protect telephone operators from harassment. The law was drafted before Facebook and Twitter were born, and some lawyers say is not suited to policing social media, where users often have little control over who reads their words.
It and related laws were intended to deal with hate mail or menacing phone calls to individuals, but they are being used to prosecute in cases where there seems to be no individual victim - and often no direct threat.
And the Internet is so vast that policing it - even if desirable - is a hit-and-miss affair. For every offensive remark that draws attention, hundreds are ignored. Conversely, comments that people thought were made only to their Facebook friends or Twitter followers can flash around the world.
While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that First Amendment protections of freedom of speech apply to the Internet, restrictions on online expression in other Western democracies vary widely.
In Germany, where it is an offense to deny the Holocaust, a neo-Nazi group has had its Twitter account blocked. Twitter has said it also could agree to block content in other countries at the request of their authorities.
There's no doubt many people in Britain have genuinely felt offended or even threatened by online messages. The Sun tabloid has launched a campaign calling for tougher penalties for online 'trolls' who bully people on the Web. But others in a country with a cherished image as a bastion of free speech are sensitive to signs of a clampdown.
In September Britain's chief prosecutor, Keir Starmer, announced plans to draw up new guidelines for social media prosecutions. Starmer said he recognized that too many prosecutions 'will have a chilling effect on free speech.'
'I think the threshold for prosecution has to be high,' he told the BBC.
Starmer is due to publish the new guidelines in the next few weeks. But Chambers - reluctant poster boy of online free speech - is worried nothing will change.
'For a couple of weeks after the appeal, we got word of judges actually quoting the case in similar instances and the charges being dropped,' said Chambers, who today works for his brother's warehouse company. 'We thought, `Fantastic! That's exactly what we fought for.' But since then we've had cases in the opposite direction. So I don't know if lessons have been learned, really.'
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Mr. President, last month, the Prime Ministers of eight Central and Southern European countries met in Sofia, Bulgaria, for their first meeting in what has been dubbed "the Decade of Roma Inclusion." This initiative is designed to spur governments to undertake intensive engagement in the field of education, employment, health and housing with respect to Europe's largest, most impoverished and marginalized ethnic minority, the Roma. The Open Society Institute, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations Development Program, all supporters of this initiative, hope that this effort will result in meaningful improvements over the course of a 10-year period.
In December, a donors' conference pledged $42 million for a Roma Education Fund. But the real goal is to get governments to give more help to their own people from their own budgets, as well as to make better use of the funds already available from organizations like the EU.
The fact is that Romani riots in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, in 2002 and in eastern Slovakia last year should be a wake-up call for governments with significant Romani communities. These countries cannot afford to ignore the crushing impoverishment and crude bigotry that so many Roma face on a daily basis. The Decade of Romani Inclusion is all well and good, and I commend the governments that are participating in this initiative. But much more needs to be done to truly advance Romani integration. It must start with a message of tolerance and inclusion from the highest levels of government.
Unfortunately, too often the voices that are heard are those spreading crude stereotypes and inter-ethnic hatred. I am particularly alarmed by what appears to be an increase in anti-Roma statements in Bulgaria.
Last summer, the head of one of Bulgaria's leading trade unions, Konstantin Trenchev, broadly characterized all Roma as criminals, and then called for the establishment of vigilante guards to deal with them. More recently, Ognian Saparev, a Member of Parliament from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, dismissed the significance of reports that the Mayor of Pazardzhik has trafficked Romani girls for the benefit of visiting foreigner diplomats. Saparev reportedly claimed that the statutory rape of these girls shouldn't be considered a crime because Romani girls are "mature" at age 14. Significantly, Saparev also gained headlines last year for publishing an inflammatory article about Roma in which he argued they should be forced to live in ghettos.
Even worse statements have come from Russia. Yevgenii Urlashov, a city official in Yaroslavl, recently characterized all Roma as drug dealers and called for them to be deported. Not to be outdone, fellow municipal legislator, Sergei Krivnyuk, said, "residents are ready to start setting the Gypsies' houses on fire, and I want to head this process."
Although nongovernmental human rights groups have condemned this anti-Romani rhetoric, other leaders in Bulgaria and Russia have largely remained silent. But it is critical that public leaders, from all walks of life, speak out against such hate mongering.
Speaking on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, Polish President Kwasniewski noted that "complete extermination was also [intended] to be the fate of the Roma community." It will not do, 60 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, to stand by in silence while Roma are crudely caricatured as criminals, just as they were by the Nazis. And we must not stand by in silence when a member of Parliament dismisses the criminal act of trafficking of children, simply because they are Romani.


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Cities and cars share a conflicted relationship these days. Environmental concerns, growing traffic congestion and an urban design philosophy that favors foot traffic are driving many cities to try to reduce the number of cars on the road. In cities such as Seattle, Chicago, Toronto and Boston, some people go so far as to claim there is a "war on cars."
That's a phrase that has popped up around the country as cities spend more transportation dollars on transit; add streetcars, bus and bike lanes; raise parking rates; install "traffic calming" measures; and increase traffic enforcement with cameras. Advocates of these changes say they give people more options and make cities safer. But some motorists feel like they're under attack.
Heated Rhetoric
In Washington, D.C., where 9th Street NW meets I Street NW it's a one-way street with three lanes of traffic. The right lane is labeled with giant letters on the pavement: BUS ONLY. The bus lane is among changes in recent years in Washington and other places that are making room for other forms of transportation, not just cars. It's a source of tension with some drivers, especially cab drivers, who are often stuck in congested street lanes with empty bus lanes right alongside them.
Lon Anderson, chief spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, wrote an op-ed in 2010 about what he called a "war on drivers" in Washington. He says he sees it in the more than 1.6 million parking tickets issued annually in the city, not to mention increasing automated enforcement, red light cameras and speed cameras.
"Welcome to Washington, D.C. Please just open your wallets and be charitable. And if you don't, we'll still get you," he says in jest as he spots a speed camera behind a sign welcoming visitors to the nation's capital.
Anderson contends that these cameras are installed for reasons other than safety. He accuses the city government of balancing its budget "on the backs of motorists."
Political consultant and Washington resident Chuck Thies, who has written about what he calls the "war on automobiles" for the Huffington Post, says, ultimately, that war is over resources.
"Transportation dollars are few and far between," he explains. "If you're a bicyclist, perhaps you want it for a bike lane or more bike racks. If you're a motorist, perhaps you want it for more highways or the roads to be improved."
Some cyclists, and other nonmotorists, may have a negative attitude toward cars. But Thies, a cyclist who for years didn't own a car, says critics need to face the reality: We can't get rid of cars. They're essential to the economy, he says.
"[Cars are] the predominant form of transportation in America. In fact, it's something that we can't live without," Thies says. "When you get a refrigerator delivered ... they don't bring it on a bicycle. ... They bring it in an automobile. It's easy to vilify the automobile, but it's not productive."
Still, on the other side of this argument, cyclists often express concerns about the difficulties of sharing the road with four-wheeled commuters.
"If you ride your bike around the city enough, you certainly feel like they're at war with you as opposed to you being at war with them," says Washington cyclist Martin Vieiro. And if there is a war, some people argue, cyclists and pedestrians are the ones who suffer casualties.
Cast about North America and in just about any city you'll find heated rhetoric about urban transportation.
In Toronto, the mayor pledged to end a so-called war on cars. In Seattle, the phrase has been aimed at all kinds of city plans, including lower speed limits in residential areas. It's also been used in Chicago to label bus lanes and a "congestion fee" at parking garages.
In Boston, a local columnist for The Boston Globe accused the mayor of waging war with a proposal to turn parking spaces into tiny parks called "parklets." Some even accuse the U.S. federal government of waging a war with money that helps cities make these kinds of changes.
The History Of Cars Vs. Jaywalkers
The "war on automobiles" is not just a 21st century phrase. It's nearly as old as the car itself. In 1909, The New York Times reported that a Georgia town waged a "war on automobiles" by banning them.
Peter Norton, a technology historian at the University of Virginia and author of Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City, says America did eventually welcome the automobile. But it was not an instant love affair. In fact, he says, cars were initially greeted in cities with hostility and militaristic language.
"Today a lot of people think it makes sense that cities made space for cars because streets are for cars. But the attitude then was, 'No streets are for everything except cars,' " Norton explains. "Mothers told their children to play in the streets at that time, and they did and it was normal. And when a child was struck by a car at that time, people didn't blame the parent. They blamed the motorist."
Norton says people had to be retrained before motorists were given right of way. That took a public relations offensive. One tactic involved ridiculing people who walked in the street as "jaywalkers."
According to Norton, "jay" used to be city slang to describe people from rural areas, and "jaywalker" was an insult directed at people who bumped into other pedestrians because they were distracted by all the city sights.
But with the advent of the automobile in cities, a new meaning emerged. In campaigns to clear city streets for vehicles, "jaywalker" was newly directed at pedestrians who were walking in the street and getting in the way of cars.
"In a number of cities, they had clowns dressed up to look like uneducated rural people with sandwich board signs that would say things like 'I'm a jaywalker.' And they would walk around looking like idiots," Norton says. "In a parade in New York City, they had one of these characters repeatedly rear-ended by a Model T to the delight of onlooking crowds."
Ridiculing pedestrians in parades may not be as common today, but Norton says the current debates about cars and cities echo discussions from a century ago. It's not obvious, he says, "because the success of the automobile-age vision of the city street was really complete for a few decades."
Getting Out Of The Car Lane
Back in Washington, D.C., Harriet Tregoning, the director of the city's Office of Planning, says the nation's capital is shifting away from decades of car-focused transportation planning.
"We've begun more than a decade-long effort to rebalance our transportation system, in part because we just don't have the capacity in the city to accommodate everyone who wants to be here to work or to live if everyone was always in an automobile for every trip," Tregoning says.
According to Sam Zimbabwe, associate director for policy, planning and sustainability at the city's Department of Transportation, automated tickets are about safety. He says the city raised raising parking meter rates to encourage more turnover in street parking spaces.
Overall, city officials say, they're trying things out — experimenting, innovating. Washington's bus lanes are supposed to create space on the street to move lots of people. But they don't work perfectly, Zimbabwe says, and they may be removed. Bike lanes on Pennsylvania Avenue were restriped three times before the city settled on the current plan.
Those bike lanes, and an anticipated new streetcar line, give people more choices. And choices, Tregoning says, enhance the vitality of street life for city residents, not just suburban commuters. As for a war on cars, she says she knows of no such war.
"People are using these other transportation modes, and it's making it possible for restaurants and other businesses to open in all kinds of neighborhoods throughout the city," Tregoning says. While she loves cars and owns one herself, she adds, "It's also great to get out of them every once in a while."
It's difficult to measure whether commuters are actually getting out of their cars in the Washington region, one of the most congested areas in America. But Tregoning points out the city's population has grown by tens of thousands in the past several years. At the same time, there are 3,000 fewer registered vehicles, and the number of cyclists in the city is up. Capital Bikeshare, a bike rental program that began two years ago, just celebrated its 2 millionth ride.
Right now, the city estimates half of the trips made in the nation's capital are made without a car. The mayor's sustainability goal is for 75 percent of trips to be made without one by the year 2030.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Obama's drone guidelines leave unanswered questions
May 25, WASHINGTON (AP) — National security experts say it's imperative to leave some room in the guidelines, given the evolving fight against terrorism. But civil rights advocates argue too little has been revealed about the program to ensure its legality, even as the president takes steps to remove some of the secrecy.
President Barack Obama left plenty of ambiguity in new policy guidelines that he says will restrict how and when the U.S. can launch targeted drone strikes, leaving himself significant power over how and when the weapons can be deployed.
"Obama said that there would be more limits on targeted killings, a step in the right direction," said Kenneth Roth, executive director at Human Rights Watch. "But a mere promise that the US will work within established guidelines that remain secret provides little confidence that the US is complying with international law."
An unclassified version of the newly established drone guidelines was made public Thursday in conjunction with Obama's wide-ranging address on U.S. counterterrorism policies. Congress' Intelligence committees and the Capitol Hill leadership have been briefed on the more detailed, classified policies, but because those documents are secret, there's no way of knowing how much more clarity they provide.
The president has already been using some of the guidelines to determine when to launch drone strikes, administration officials said. Codifying the strictest standards, they argue, will ultimately reduce the number of approved attacks.
Among the newly public rules is a preference for capturing suspects instead of killing them, which gives the U.S. an opportunity to gather intelligence and disrupt terrorist plots. The guidelines also state that a target must pose a continuing and imminent threat to the U.S.
However, the public guidelines don't spell out how the U.S. determines whether capture is feasible, nor does it define what constitutes an imminent threat. Former State Department official James Andrew Lewis said Obama must retain some flexibility, given the fluid threats facing the U.S.
"The use of force and engagement of force always require a degree of discretion," said Lewis, now a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "We don't want to change that."
The guidelines also mandate that the U.S. have "near certainty" that no civilians will be killed in a strike. Civilian deaths, particularly in Pakistan, have angered local populations and contributed to a rise in anti-American sentiments in the volatile region.
Shahzad Akbar, a Pakistani lawyer who has filed many court cases on behalf of drone victims' families, said that while he appreciated Obama's concern about civilian casualties, he wasn't confident the new guidelines would change U.S. actions.
"The problem remains the same because there is no transparency and accountability for the CIA because it will remain inside the system and not be visible to outsiders," he said. Obama, in his most expansive discussion of the drone program, said in his speech Thursday to the National Defense University that he is haunted by the unintentional deaths. But he argued that targeted strikes result in fewer civilian deaths than indiscriminate bombing campaigns.
"By narrowly targeting our action against those who want to kill us, and not the people they hide among, we are choosing the course of action least likely to result in the loss of innocent life," Obama said.
Administration officials said the new guidelines are applicable regardless of whether the target is a foreigner or U.S. citizen. Polling suggests the American people broadly support the use of drones to target suspected terrorists in foreign countries, though support drops somewhat if the suspect is a U.S. citizen. A Gallup poll in March found 65 percent of Americans favor using drone strikes in other countries against suspected terrorists, while only 41 percent favored the use of drone strikes overseas against U.S. citizens who are suspected terrorists.
Despite the public support, Obama has come under increased pressure from an unusual coalition of members of Congress of both parties who have pressed for greater transparency and oversight of the drone program.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Intelligence committees, said he would review the guidelines to ensure they keep "with our values as a nation," but indicated lawmakers may ask for additional overtures.
"I commend the president for his effort to define the boundaries of U.S. counterterrorism operations and for stating a commitment to increased accountability," Udall said. "While this is helpful and important, more needs to be done."
Relevant congressional committees are already notified when drone strikes occur. But it's unclear how the administration, under Obama's new transparency pledge, will handle public notifications, particularly when Americans are killed.
The public only knew about the deaths of three Americans by drone strikes through media reports and the fourth when Attorney General Eric Holder disclosed it in a letter to Congress on the eve of the speech.
Under current policy, the official U.S. figures of number of strikes and estimated deaths remain classified. According to the New America Foundation which maintains a database of the strikes, the CIA and the military have carried out an estimated 416 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen, resulting in 3,364 estimated deaths, including militants and civilians. The Associated Press also has reported a drone strike in Somalia in 2012 that killed one.
The think tank compiles its numbers by combining reports in major news media that rely on local officials and eyewitness accounts. Strikes in Pakistan spiked in 2010 under Obama to 122, but the number has dropped to 12 so far this year. Strikes were originally carried out with permission of the Pakistani government of Pervez Musharraf, though subsequent Pakistani governments have demanded strikes cease.
The CIA and the military have carried out some 69 strikes in Yemen, with the Yemeni government's permission.
Associated press writer for human rights observers – contributed to this report.
Category: International


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We strive to fulfill orders within 3-5 working days. When we are really busy we may take a day or two longer. Please, if you email us on a Friday, we won't get your e-mail until Monday (we stubbornly insist on having days off). If we are behind, it may be a few days before we respond. We are a small operation so please be patient.
Priority Mail is not a time-guaranteed service. While it usually takes 2-3 days, there is no refund if it takes longer.
Tracking Numbers
When you place the order you will receive a confirmation e-mail, as well as an e-mail when we ship. US domestic orders will receive a tracking number (except for stickers/buttons and single card orders) .
Domestically we ship US Postal Service and UPS.
Internationally we ship via the postal service.
If you would like to ship UPS please contact their website WWW.UPS.Com and arrange for a pickup at our address using your account number. Our pick up address is
51005 State Rte 20
Rockport Wa 98283
United States
International customers are responsible for any VAT or import duties / fees on their order.
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Ideally you should receive your order within a week of shipping. If the link to the tracking number is not working, occasionally they only track at delivery. Don't panic if you got a tracking number and the link isn't working immediately.
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We do not provide tracking for international orders. We can get you a customs number but have found the cost of shipping internationally with tracking is prohibitive.
The minimum transit time for international shipping is 3-4 weeks (even to Canada).
We have had shipments to China take up to 8 weeks. If you haven't gotten your order within 4 weeks of the shipping confirmation send us a quick e-mail.
Shipping costs are carrier calculated and are linked through the chosen carrier website.
Shirt Returns
If there is an issue with size on the t-shirts we will accept returns but not exchanges. The price of the shirt will be refunded to you (less the shipping costs) When the return is received in new condition (must not be worn or washed) the account will be credited. Please enclose the name the order was placed under and your order number with the return.
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If you have given us an incomplete/ incorrect address and your item is lost and/or returned, we will require that you send us the money for the reshipment. Minimum charge for a reshipment is 1.99+
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We will issue refunds for customers who aren't completely satisfied with our products, but we require that you ship the product back to us before we will process the refund, less the shipping . Please include the original invoice or order number. For items with free shipping there is a 30% restocking fee.
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Read the full article here by The Oatmeal - Comics, Quizzes, & Stories


text: There are presented popular hotels of Valencia of five star category in this section. In this system you can book a variety of hotels without a fee. Here you can find a room in any five star hotel that suits you by the price and location, see photos and extra services of five star hotel.


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During her grilling before Congress last week, General Motors CEO Mary Barra insisted the new General Motors is different and better than the old one.
So as GM begins to fix nearly 2.6 million vehicles for an ignition-switch defect that has been linked to at least 13 deaths, we decided to put that claim to the test.
Exactly how new is the new GM?
NBC's Saturday Night Live answered with a parody version of Barra's explanation:
"I can't speak to how the old GM would handle an issue like this," said cast member Kate McKinnon as Barra in front of the skit's congressional panel. "I can only speak to how the new GM would handle it. ... It's actually the new GM starting ... NOW! ...
"The first rule in new GM is you never talk about old GM."
But we want to talk about both the old and the new GM. How new is it, exactly?
Starting with the actual products GM produces, the cars, we ask Director of Auto Testing for Consumer Reports Jake Fisher: How new are new GM cars?
"The new GM is extremely different from the GM from before," Fisher says. "When we look at the products, the ones that have come out in post-bankruptcy have been far better in performance than what we saw before."
Consumer Reports and Fisher have not historically been fans of GM. Fisher says the automaker is haunted by the zombies of the past — cars that are still in production that were designed before bankruptcy.
"There are the new vehicles that are right at the top," Fisher says. "So when I look at large cars, the Impala, it's the best car. Not the best American [car], but the best car in that category. So when you look at those other vehicles that have been around for longer, they're kind of midpack. They're not at the top like the new ones."
Next we ask a balance sheet expert, David Whiston, senior equity analyst at Morningstar investment research firm. He says the question of whether GM's financial situation is really new is complicated.
"In some ways it's quite new and better, and in some ways it's still the old bureaucracy," Whiston says.
The company has embarked on several key reforms that should make it more profitable, he says. The different divisions are more integrated. For instance, they take the architecture for one car and then sell it around the globe.
"That should lead to a lot more economies of scale, a lot less waste," Whiston says. "They're going to save hundreds of millions in logistics costs by having more of their parts plants ... actually be right next to the assembly plant, rather than, say, a thousand miles away."
Whiston says even if the company is fined by the government and faces expensive lawsuits and billions in recall costs, GM has the money to cover the losses.
"That's a lot of money," Whiston says. "There's a lot of uncertainty, and Wall Street hates uncertainty."
To learn about the structure of the "new" company, we turn to Stephanie Brinley, who's an analyst with IHS Automotive. Brinley says GM's culture has improved.
"Especially when you take it to a really long time period, and you say 20 years," she says, "there is less arrogance within the company. They're more responsive."
Brinley says the company tended to be more cost-conscious and less attuned to the whims of consumers.
"There were points in their history where the cost accountants had stepped in and said, 'We can't quite spend that much money on some sort of thing,' " she says.
The final thing to look at is GM's image. Has it changed? After weeks of controversy and testimony, jokes and bad press, the company's image seems to reflect the old GM, and that picture may stick around for quite a while.
Copyright 2024 NPR


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Joao and I went to Sao Paulo's Mercado Municipal last weekend – the one Anthony Bourdain visited in one episode of "No Reservations"; btw, I've read he said some mean things about the city. I hope he never comes back, thank you very much.
Mercado Municipal is a very traditional market, full of lots of types of food and ingredients, but it was my first time there. I went crazy with all the spices, nuts, fruits and veggies, cheese, olives... I got home with several new ingredients to cook and bake with. And an emptier wallet, too. :)
My first choice was some delicious dried apples I'd bought there– they were so good I was glad there was a lot more than the amount called for in the recipe. :)
I found these bars here and used a different pan to make them. Make sure you use a warm knife to slice the bars, so you won't mess up the topping like I did.
Toffee apple shortbreads
from Delicious magazine
Shortbread base:
110g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
40g caster sugar
175g all-purpose flour
10g cornstarch
100g dried ready-to-eat apples, finely sliced
450g firm dulce de leche*
200g dark chocolate, chopped and divided
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF. Grease and line a square 20cm (8in) baking pan, leaving some paper hanging out of the pan on at least two sides (it will make unmolding easier).
To make the shortbread base, cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Sift in the flour and cornstarch and, using a rubber spatula, then your hands, work to a dough. Place in the pan and use your fingertips to roll out flat and into the corners – if you have much too warm hands you might try it with the back of a spoon, lightly dusted with flour.
Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. Set aside to cool.Scatter the apples over the cookie base, spread over the dulce de leche and level out. Chill in the fridge for 1 hour.Melt 150g of the chocolate in a glass bowl over barely simmering water. Remove the bowl from the pan and quickly wipe the water with a kitchen tower – no water should be in contact with the chocolate. Add the remaining 50g of chocolate and beat well to melt it. Pour the melted chocolate over the caramel and apples, then spread evenly. Set aside to cool at room temperature for about 2 hours or until set. Remove from the pan and cut into squares.
* you can warm the dulce de leche into pouring consistency prior to adding it to the cookie base.
Makes 16 squares


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I was planning on selecting another photo. I really like Crimson Beetroot and fits perfectly into this month's theme. I am talking about the monthly photography event CLICK. Jai & Bee are calling the theme this month Au Naturel, I call the series of these photos RAW.
My calendar this year displays a selection of photos I took throughout 2007 in their purest form - RAW ... or Au Naturel.
I decided to go against Crimson Beetroot. As April progressed I started getting several mails from many of you who have my calendar hanging on your walls. Not only was I touched by your compliments but the mails helped me make another decision.
I have the same calendar here at home and a few of my closest friends and family have also received it as presents, so April's photo was popping down at me in all its glory everywhere I went.
You guessed it! April's photo is "red currents in a black bowl" you see above. I like the bright red and the way the berries pop right out of the shot. All in all the shot is perfect for this months theme.
- Camera: Nikon D70s
- Lens: Nikkor 18-70mm
- Tripod: Bilora 1211
- Focal Length: 70 mm
- Exposure Time: 1/40s
- Aperture: f/4.5
- Lighting: Natural from right using a bounce on the left.
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


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Highlighting modern American and European works from the museum's permanent collection, this exhibition considers not only the expressive language of color, but in particular how color carries the potential to alter our experiences—perceptually, emotionally, and spiritually.
Sponsored in part by the Illinois Arts Council, a State Agency
The installation focuses on several stylistic movements, including the German expressionist Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) artists who believed in the spiritual qualities of color, evoking a mystical significance through brilliant hues. Other artists, like the Color Field painters of the 1950s and 1960s, investigated the functions of pure color—how the placement of solid, flat areas of pigment can create both dynamic and subtle movement. Meant as an overview of different techniques and approaches to using color, the exhibition includes works by Karel Appel, Max Beckmann, Gabriele Münter, David Park, among others.
Curator: Kathryn Koca Polite


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From The Hamilton Beach Test Kitchen
Added by Pat
Serves: 1
Test Kitchen Tip: This recipe was created using "soda jerk jargon" from the days when local drugstores had soda fountains and the soda jerk was the clerk who made your order. If you were cool, you ordered using the same jargon. Click this link to find out more about Soda Jerk Jargon.


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Fishy Fingers Soap
Regular price $5.99The ultimate soap for removing the smell of fish, bait and berley from your hands.
- Removes fishy smells from your hands
- Ideal for use at the filleting bench, boat and in the kitchen
- Natural ingredients
- NZ made
At Hamills, we want to keep it as easy as possible for you, so we offer:
- Free shipping on orders over $199.99 to New Zealand non-rural addresses. A $5 rural surcharge will apply to rural addresses for orders over $199.99.
- For all orders under $199.99 for NZ deliveries, we charge the following flat rates:
- North Island - a flat rate of $8.50 to non-rural addresses and $13.50 to rural addresses (some heavy items may incur additional charges. We will advise before shipping).
- South Island - a flat rate of $9.99 to non-rural addresses and $14.99 to rural addresses (some heavy items may incur additional charges. We will advise before shipping).
Please note there are a handful of oversized/heavy items that may incur additional shipping costs. If this is the case with your item, we will advise you of the cost before dispatching.
We ship internationally. All our international delivery costs are determined by destination, and the size of your parcel.
Displayed pricing applies to New Zealand resident customers (NZD) only. International orders will be processed in the New Zealand dollar.
International shipping rates will be displayed upon checkout. Any applicable customs charges or local taxes are the responsibility of the customer and is not covered in your purchase price by Hamills Taupo.
We offer two shipping options: non-tracked or tracked. By selecting the non-tracked option, you agree to carry the risk associated with the parcel's travel.
We also offer a tracked DHL Express option. Pricing will be available at checkout.
When an order is shipped outside of New Zealand you may be charged duties or taxes by your local government before the items will be released to you, as these are beyond our control please check with your local customs department prior to ordering should you have any concerns. These charges are not the responsibility of Hamills Taupo.
Please Note: If your order contains any clearance items this may delay the dispatch of your order.
Orders will be processed Monday – Friday.
We know you're going to be super keen to get your new purchase so that's why we process and dispatch orders as soon as we can. Actual delivery time will depend on your location.
Once your order has been processed and dispatched, indicative delivery times are as follows:
- North Island orders: 1-3 working days from dispatch.
- South Island orders: 2-5 working days from dispatch.
Orders will be processed Monday – Friday.
Unfortunately, overnight or Saturday deliveries cannot be guaranteed.
We are unable to post to PO Box addresses.
We know you're going to be super keen to get your new purchase so that's why we will dispatch orders usually within 24 hours of being received. Actual delivery time will depend on your location (see below).
Once your order has been processed, indicative delivery times are as follows:
- 7 - 14 working days.
- Rural delivery or remote locations can take just a little longer so please allow an additional 2 working days.
- Please Note: If your order contains any clearance items this may delay the dispatch of your order. Covid has created increasing delays to some areas. Please be patient.
There are some products that we are unable to sell online but we are still able to ship nationwide. We can accept payment by credit card over the phone or via bank transfer.
As these items may be age or license restricted, you will be required to complete a Firearms Mail Order Form before we can release the goods. Please contact us in the shop 07 378 7779 or flick us an email email@example.com and we would be happy to talk you through the process.
We can only deliver firearms and ammunition to the following addresses:
- The licence holders address (this must match your firearms license and you must be home to receive the delivery)
- Your local firearms dealer (please ensure you have their permission for us to deliver your item to them. They may charge a collection fee to you direct on pick up).
For online sales of firearms and ammunition, we are required by law to have a police officer check in person that your firearms license is valid.


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Bosphorus Watch Strap - Vintage Vachetta
Full Grain Leather
Free Shipping with DHL Express / Fedex
Handmade in Turkey
We are pleased to note that the items you select from our "Ready To Ship Category" are handcrafted treasures, pre-prepared for your enjoyment. Upon purchasing Bosphorus Leather Next-Day Shipping product(s), your order will be dispatched the following day via DHL Express or FedEx/TNT Express Carrier. (Please note that orders placed on Saturdays will be shipped on Mondays as delivery services are unavailable on Sundays.)
Upon shipment, a tracking number will be provided, allowing you to monitor your order's journey online.
Every product in the Bosphorus Leather Store is a handcrafted masterpiece, with some items also being hand-dyed. As we do not maintain a ready stock, the crafting of your order begins post-purchase, typically requiring nearly 30 days to be ready for shipment. This duration may slightly vary depending on the specific item, customizations, and additional features requested. Once ready, the shipping period generally spans 2-5 business days to reach your doorstep, as stated by the delivery companies.
Post-purchase, your order, denoted by a unique order number (ID), is placed on our Production List, monitored closely by our skilled artisans and dedicated staff. Following a thorough Quality Control Process, your order is shipped via DHL Express or FedEx/TNT delivery services, and a tracking number is provided for online tracking.
Each Bosphorus Leather product is meticulously packaged in its protective dust bag and original box, adorned with our brand logo and name, ensuring it arrives in pristine condition.
For expedited delivery, we kindly request you to provide your phone number, email address, postcode, and accurate address while placing your order.
Refund Policy
At Bosphorus Leather, we prioritize your satisfaction above all else. Our aim is to provide a transparent and hassle experience, ensuring that you feel confident in your purchases with us.
How to Initiate a Refund:
Video Recording: To streamline the refund or replacement process, please record a video of the unboxing experience as you open the package from the delivery company.
Alternate Option: If capturing a video isn't feasible, please send us clear photos of the item showcasing any defects within a reasonable timeframe.
What Happens Next?:
Once we receive and verify the defect in your Bosphorus Leather item, we'll promptly proceed with your preferred resolution. This could either be dispatching a replacement to your address or processing a refund, depending on your choice and availability.
Our Commitment:
Your trust is paramount to us, and we're dedicated to ensuring a smooth and fair refund process should any issues arise. Our policies are designed with your convenience in mind, and we're always here to assist you every step of the way.
Thank you for choosing Bosphorus Leather. We value your patronage and look forward to serving you with excellence.
Bosphorus Leather's Warranty Policy is designed to be as straightforward as our Refund Policy. Our warranty covers all products for a period of two (2) years from the date the Buyer receives the Product.
During the warranty period, Bosphorus Leather commits to replacing, at no additional cost, any Products deemed faulty by the Buyer, as well as repairing any operational malfunctions reported by the Buyer.
In every case, Bosphorus Leather retains the right to verify any reported defects through any means or methods deemed necessary, without any obstruction from the Buyer to the personnel designated by Bosphorus Leather for such verification. This warranty does not extend to faults or damages caused by the Buyer's negligence or misuse. For more information on Product Care.
We pride ourselves on a customer-centric after-sale policy. In our quest for customer satisfaction, we have even replaced products for minor issues such as natural leather wrinkles and scratches. Rest easy knowing that Bosphorus Leather is committed to ensuring a seamless and satisfying ownership experience.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) – A pair of constitutionally questionable measures and legislation designed to crack down on no-fault auto insurance fraud are among about 150 new Florida laws going into effect Sunday.
A law that bans state and local governments from hiring companies that do business in Cuba and Syria already has been challenged in court and a federal judge has at least temporarily put it on hold.
Another statute that permits inspirational messages, including prayers, in public schools has drawn threats of lawsuits. Legal action, however, may not be necessary to negate the law because it gives local school boards the option of implementing it.
"Nobody's going to do it," said Wayne Blanton, executive director of the Florida School Boards Association. "We are telling them it will be costly and not worth the effort."
Some of the other laws with July 1 effective dates would enlarge Gov. Rick Scott's power over state rule making, restore tax credits for renewable energy and expand online learning for elementary school students.
There are also tax breaks for businesses and new laws that increase penalties for human trafficking and video voyeurism. Another law will require student-athletes who suffer head injuries to be pulled from competition until cleared by doctors. The state's new $69.9 billion budget also goes into effect.
The changes to auto insurance affect the state's personal injury protection – or PIP – coverage. Since 1972, Florida motorists have been required to buy such coverage to make sure anyone injured in a crash gets money to treat their injuries without delay. A driver's insurance company is required to pay up to $10,000 for medical bills and lost wages no matter who is at fault.
Bogus claims and faked accidents, though, are largely responsible for a $1.4 billion increase in PIP costs since 2008, state officials say.
The new law puts a 14-day limit on seeking treatment after a crash. Benefits also are capped at $2,500 unless a doctor, osteopathic physician, dentist or a supervised physician's assistant or advanced registered nurse practitioner determines there's an "emergency medical condition." Chiropractors cannot make that determination.
After the inspirational messages law was adopted, local school districts were warned by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida that adopting policies permitting student-led inspirational messages would "very likely lead to prolonged litigation." Any district that adopted the measure could be on the hook for hundreds of thousands in legal fees.
Americans United for Separation of Church and State also is prepared to take legal action, said Alex Luchenitser, the group's associate legal director. The law doesn't use the word "prayer" but it still invites government-controlled prayer, Luchenitser said.
"I don't think it's going to happen," said the ACLU's Florida executive director, Howard Simon. "For all of the efforts of our Legislature to try to entice school officials into joining their religious crusade, school officials are smarter than legislators."
The law's sponsors, though, remain confident it will be implemented. Rep. Charles Van Zant, a Keystone Heights Republican who carried the bill in the House, said some school officials have told him they'll push for allowing inspirational messages but he declined to identify them.
Sen. Gary Siplin, an Orlando Democrat who is the law's prime sponsor, said he expects it to be an election issue for school board members.
"I would assume they don't want to tell parents their children can't pray in school," Siplin said.
The Cuba-Syria law is already in court: Odebrecht Construction Inc., a Coral Gables-based subsidiary of a Brazilian engineering conglomerate, challenged it in a Miami federal court. The lawsuit contends the Florida statute violates the U.S. Constitution, which gives the federal government, not individual states, power to set foreign policy.
District Judge K. Michael Moore agreed, and on Monday he issued a temporary injunction, saying Odebrecht likely will prevail at trial.
Odebrecht has been involved in state and local contracts totaling $3.9 billion since 1990 while another subsidiary has been working on a project to expand a Cuban port. That could result in the Florida firm losing its state and local government business.
Even Scott expressed doubt about the law's constitutionality. The Republican governor wrote in a signing letter that it could not go into effect unless a federal law is passed allowing the states to impose such sanctions. Scott, though, backtracked and said he'd defend the law after his letter caused an uproar in South Florida's reliably Republican Cuban-American community.
Moore's ruling was the latest in a series of court decisions that have gone against state laws passed in the last two years by the Republican-led Legislature. Others include laws requiring public employees to contribute to their pensions, privatizing prisons, barring doctors from asking patients if they own guns, restricting voter registration drives and requiring welfare applicants to be tested for drugs.
Another of the new laws responds to a Florida Supreme Court ruling that Scott exceeded his authority when he ordered state agencies to freeze rule making so his office could first review and approve or reject proposed rules. The new law gives Scott the power that the high court said he lacked. Environmentalists and other critics say that will make it harder for the public to challenge proposed rules.
The renewable energy measure became law without Scott's signature but he rejected requests by tea party activists for a veto out of deference to lawmakers and Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, a fellow Republican.
One of Putnam's top legislative priorities, the law restores expired tax credits and other incentives for renewables. Tea party opponents claim the credits will put the state in the position of choosing winners and losers in the energy field, which Putnam denies. Some renewables advocates also have criticized it for repealing a requirement that electric utilities set renewable energy goals.
Another new law will let the Florida Virtual School expand part-time offerings to children in kindergarten through third grade and lift a requirement for students to spend at least a year in a regular public school before enrolling in Virtual School classes. That's expected to benefit home-schooled children.
A tax-cutting law totaling nearly $120 million will be going into effect. It includes a small reduction in the state's corporate income tax as the result of doubling the exemption to $50,000. The law that Scott touts as part of his "jobs agenda" includes tax breaks targeted to specific industries and for purchases of machinery and equipment. Another section reauthorizes the popular back-to-school sales tax "holiday" by exempting purchases of certain school supplies and clothing between Aug. 3 and Aug. 5.
A separate new law scales back an increase in the unemployment compensation tax paid by employers, which is expected to save them $800 million over three years. It also revamps the system into a "reemployment assistance" program including job training for unemployed workers who score low on a skills test.
Maximum penalties will double from 15 years to 30 years for human trafficking and increase from one year to five years for video voyeurism – the secret recording of another person while naked or in some state of undress.
The head injury law also requires that parents or guardians sign an "informed consent" form about the dangers of concussions before a student can join a team.
The budget includes a $1 billion increase for public schools, although that's not enough to make up for cuts they received a year ago. It also slashes state support to public universities by $300 million.


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How to End Corporate Rule:
- Boulder Votes to Free Its Electric Company
- Share
Boulder Votes to Free Its Electric Company
Running their own utility means sun and wind energy instead of coal.
The city of Boulder, Colo., has won the right to take its power supply—and carbon emissions—away from corporate control. The change for Boulder came in November when voters passed two ballot measures that allow the city to begin the process of forming its own municipal power utility.
The city's current electricity supplier, Xcel Energy, is a large corporation that sources more than 60 percent of its power from coal. Colorado climate activists tried for years to persuade Xcel to transition from coal to renewables, arguing that the state's plains, mountains, and 300 days of annual sunshine give it abundant potential for the development of wind and solar power. But they found Xcel's take-up of renewables was frustratingly slow. Xcel is investing $400 million in its coal-powered plants, and its plans for renewables stops at just 30 percent in 2020, with no further increase until 2028.
Boulder has long cherished the goal of becoming a leader in tackling climate change. In 2002, the city council passed the Kyoto Resolution on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. In 2006, residents voted for the nation's first city carbon tax to achieve those targets.
City officials were increasingly skeptical about the corporation's willingness to meet their clean energy goals. Analysis showed a municipal utility could work, while prioritizing climate change action over profits to shareholders.
"Municipalization"—the legal process whereby the city would form its own utility company—has been on the table since 2004. When Xcel countered with the offer of an ambitious city-wide smart grid in 2008, Boulder accepted. But Xcel and its partners didn't do a cost-benefit analysis prior to starting the project, and the portion of the costs consumers would pay rose from a projected $15.3 million to (at last count) $44.8 million.
Meanwhile, the corporation's reliance on coal affected its use of wind power. Coal plants can't be switched on and off as the wind blows. So when there was more electricity generated than needed to meet consumer demand, Xcel would curtail its wind power purchases in favor of selling power from its own coal plants.
As Xcel's 20-year franchise with Boulder came due for renewal, city officials were increasingly skeptical about the corporation's willingness to meet their clean energy goals. Analysis showed a municipal utility could work, while prioritizing climate change action over profits to shareholders. In 2011, the city drafted two ballots for voter approval: Ballot Issue 2B would increase the utility occupation tax to fund the planning process. Ballot Issue 2C would authorize the city to form the utility and issue bonds to buy the distribution system—providing that the new municipal utility's rates would be equal to or less than Xcel's.
Thus began a closely fought battle between corporate money and grassroots activism. Xcel financed a "vote no" campaign to the tune of nearly $1 million, buying extensive (and some said, misleading) advertising and hiring door-to-door canvassers.
One development that climate activists found particularly galling was when Leslie Glustrom, research director for climate group Clean Energy Action, was banned from carrying out her watchdog role at the Public Utility Commission—which regulates Xcel.
But the "yes" campaign for 2B and 2C drew on Boulder's strengths—it's a college town populated with progressives and technical experts, a hub for clean energy start-ups and atmospheric research. The campaign support group, RenewablesYes, was able to assemble an impressive and all-volunteer "Citizen Technical Team" who worked out a model that used solar, wind, and electricity use data to analyze Boulder's electricity mix. Then they publicized their analysis—that a local energy utility could reduce the city's carbon emissions by 66 percent, increase its use of renewables to 40 percent, and keep rates the same as, or lower than, those charged by Xcel.
Boulder residents plant sunflowers at the gates of the Valmont coal plant which is scheduled to close. Photo by Zane Selvens.
The list of endorsements for 2B and 2C grew, and eventually included dozens of elected officials, a roster of businesses, three local newspapers, and over 1,000 residents. Political action organization New Era Colorado put additional vitality into the effort by mobilizing young people, who worked phone banks and pounded the pavement to counter Xcel's advertising.
The ballot measures passed by a whisker—a major victory given that the corporation outspent the grassroots campaign 10-to-1. Ken Regelson, a leader in the campaign, thinks that community organizing tipped the balance. Personal contacts with voters, he says, "are worth more than a utility can spend."
Municipal utilities aren't the untested experiments Xcel's "vote no" campaign made them out to be—there are more than 2,000 public utilities serving 46 million customers in the United States. While some of these utilities are in small or rural markets, Boulder is a big, growing market—it generates at least $100 million in annual revenue for Xcel. The revolutionary potential of Boulder's ballots is that producing renewable energy for a municipal utility could keep millions of dollars in the local economy instead of exporting them to the headquarters of an investor-held company.
Boulder officials estimate it will take three to five years to create the power and light utility. Climate change activists working on the plan hope it will be a successful model for other cities. "Everything we are doing," says Ken Regelson, "we plan on sharing as widely as possible … there are lots of lessons to learn and share." As Boulder works out the details, other cities are watching. They may already be planning to "go Boulder," ditch the corporation, and take control of their own local power.


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Guest Post, Caroline Henry – La Fine Bulle a perfect place to relax and discover new Champagnes in Epernay
Epernay lies in the centre of the Champagne region and is considered to be the capital of this wine region. It is sleepy little town situated at the banks of the Marne River at the cross roads of the 3 of the 4 sub regions – La Vallée de la Marne, Les Montagnes de Reims and La Côte des Blancs. It has been the home of the major Champagne Negotiants since the early 19th Century and still today one can visit the famous Champagne Houses on the Avenue du Champagne.
The bar offers a choice of 5 growers Champagnes by the glass, and changes the selection on a weekly basis. They have partnered up with 25 growers representing the main subregions in Champagne including de Côte des Bar in the Aube. Their by the glass selection tries to reflect the different styles of Champagne and the focus ranges from showing off a single variety (eg Blanc de Blanc, Blanc de Noir) to showing the characteristics of the different regions. And the selection always includes one rosé. Glass sizes are 10 ml (€5.50) and 14ml (€6.50). Alternatively one can opt for a flight – here one can either choose to taste the 4 whites or to include the rosé as well and have a tasting of the 5 featured Champagnes. The flights come in 2 sizes, 5 ml tasting (€12 or €14) or 10 ml tastings (€20 or €26). The featured Growers Champagnes are also available by the bottle for the very reasonable price of €35.
La Fine Bulle also offers a glass of Champagne by a major brand for around €9 and again the proposed brand will change on a weekly basis. Further by the glass selections include Kir (peach, blue berry and raspberry flavours are available), Coteaux de Champenois, a still red wine from Pinot Noir or Pinot Meunier from the Champagne area, Ratafia, Champagne's version of the aperitif Pinot de Charentes or Marc de Champagne, the local spirit.
2 Comments
this looks amazing and like the way it is written.
very nice blog as well-
thanks! If you're ever in Epernay, you should definitely stop into La Fine Bulle for a degustation


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In Ukraine, A Daughter Takes Up Her Mother's Cause
Evgeniya Tymoshenko has her mother's looks — minus the trademark blond braid that makes her mother, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, quickly recognizable.
But the younger Tymoshenko says she's not a politician. She never imagined herself testifying on Capitol Hill, getting face time with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at a prayer breakfast, or speaking to reporters at a K Street lobbying firm.
"I had to start participating in this process since my mother's arrest, actually, and I became her public defender since August; and I was able to see the really shameful process against her and other ex-politicians, opposition politicians," Evgeniya Tymoshenko says.
The United States has described the case against Yulia Tymoshenko as politically motivated. She served twice as prime minister, first for a brief period in 2005, and then from 2007 until 2010.
But after losing the presidential election in 2010, she was prosecuted for her role in negotiations with Russia over gas sales when she was prime minister. She was convicted last October and has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Tymoshenko's daughter says she's being held in harsh conditions.
"Her cell is always lit 24 hours a day and she's under video surveillance, which they say is for her own safety but it's obviously just to put more psychological pressure on her," Evgeniya Tymoshenko says.
Though the 31-year-old worries about her mother's health, she says the former prime minister won't be broken, and is even winning over her prison guards.
"Her fiery character and her courage, political courage is what charges people to fight for their rights; and that's what happened during the protests she organized," she says.
Rise To Power
Back in 2004, Tymoshenko did whip up the crowds to protest fraudulent elections in what became known as the Orange Revolution.
She seemed an unlikely reformer, having amassed a fortune in the 1990s in the shady energy sector. A former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Steven Pifer says there were lots of questions about her then.
"I remember having a conversation with a Ukrainian in 2000 or 2001, and I said, 'Explain to me how you see Yulia Tymoshenko.' And the response was, 'Well, maybe she stole her millions already, but she actually now appears to want to do something good for the country. She wants to give something back,' " Pifer says.
Pifer, now with the Brookings Institution, says that in recent years the U.S. has worked well with her, and credits her with cleaning up Ukraine's energy sector.
But now, a man she bitterly opposes, Viktor Yanukovich, is president, having defeated her two years ago. Pifer says Yanukovich might be pursuing the case against her because of personal animosity, but it's backfiring.
"Her poll ratings were single digits, her party was in single digits, and she was kind of off the radar screen," he says. "What's happened with the trial last year is they've now sort of put her back on the front page, so it's had this ironic effect in terms of bringing her back in the spotlight."
And it's made Ukraine's relations with the West more complicated, because the case is seen here as one of many examples of backsliding on democracy. The picture Tymoshenko's daughter is painting sounds like a new Stalinist regime in Ukraine.
"I know that my phones are tapped and that somebody is watching me wherever I go," she says. "Obviously I feel pressure because my relatives, even my grandfather, is under investigation now."
Still, Evgeniya Tymoshenko, who spent nearly a decade in London and married a British rock singer, plans to stay in Ukraine and fight for her mother's cause. Her father received political asylum in the Czech Republic.


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Why Voting In 2016 Matters
THE NEW ANT and the Grasshopper, Two Versions:
The ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER
This one is a little different…. Two Different Versions …
Two Different Morals
The ant works hard in the withering heat all summer long,
building his house and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant is a fool
and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the ant is warm
and well fed.
The grasshopper has
no food or shelter, so he
dies out in the cold.
Be responsible for yourself!
The ant works hard
in the withering heat and the rain all summer long, building his house
and laying up supplies for the winter.
The grasshopper thinks the ant
is a fool and laughs and dances and plays the summer away.
Come winter, the shivering grasshopper
calls a press conference and demands to know why the ant should be
allowed to be warm and well fed while he is cold and starving..
and ABC show up to
provide pictures of the shivering grasshopper
next to a video of theant
in his comfortable home with a table filled with food.
America is stunned by the sharp contrast.
How can this be, that in a country of such wealth, this poor grasshopper
is allowed to suffer so?
Kermit the Frog appears on Oprah with the grasshopper
and everybody cries when they sing, 'It's Not Easy Being Green
Occupy the Anthill stages a demonstration in front of the ant's house where the news stations film the SEIU group singing, We shall overcome.
Then Rev Al Sharpton's assistant
has the group kneel down to pray for the grasshopper
while he damns the ants. The Reverend Al can not attend as he has contractual commitments to appear on his MSNBC show for which he is paid over two million dollars a year to complain that rich people do not care.
President Obama condemns the ant and blames
President Bush 43, President Bush 41, President Reagan, Christopher Columbus, and the Pope
for the grasshopper's
Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid exclaim in an interview on The View that the ant has gotten rich off the back of the
grasshopper and both call for an immediate tax hike on the ant to make him pay his fair share.
Finally, the EEOC drafts the Economic Equity &
Anti-Grasshopper Act retroactive to the beginning of
the summer.
The ant is fined for failing to hire a proportionate number of green bugs and, having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, his home is confiscated by the Government Green Czar and given to the grasshopper .
The story ends as we see the grasshopper
and his free-loading friends finishing up the last bits of the ant's food while the government house he is in, which, as you recall, just happens to be the ant's old house,
crumbles around them because the grasshopper doesn't maintain it.
The ant has disappeared in the snow, never to be seen again.
The grasshopper is found dead in a drug related incident, and the house, now abandoned, is taken over by a gang ofspiders who terrorize the ramshackle, once prosperous and peaceful, neighborhood.
The entire Nation collapses bringing the rest of the free world with it.
Be careful how you vote in 2016.
"What Kind Of Society Are We Leaving Our Kids' Available here.
This is one man's opinion.


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(AP) — This is your brain on sugar — for real. Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.
After drinking a fructose beverage, the brain doesn't register the feeling of being full as it does when simple glucose is consumed, researchers found.
It's a small study and does not prove that fructose or its relative, high-fructose corn syrup, can cause obesity, but experts say it adds evidence they may play a role. These sugars often are added to processed foods and beverages, and consumption has risen dramatically since the 1970s along with obesity. A third of U.S. children and teens and more than two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight.
All sugars are not equal — even though they contain the same amount of calories — because they are metabolized differently in the body. Table sugar is sucrose, which is half fructose, half glucose. High-fructose corn syrup is 55 percent fructose and 45 percent glucose. Some nutrition experts say this sweetener may pose special risks, but others and the industry reject that claim. And doctors say we eat too much sugar in all forms.
For the study, scientists used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, scans to track blood flow in the brain in 20 young, normal-weight people before and after they had drinks containing glucose or fructose in two sessions several weeks apart.
Scans showed that drinking glucose "turns off or suppresses the activity of areas of the brain that are critical for reward and desire for food," said one study leader, Yale University endocrinologist Dr. Robert Sherwin. With fructose, "we don't see those changes," he said. "As a result, the desire to eat continues — it isn't turned off."
What's convincing, said Dr. Jonathan Purnell, an endocrinologist at Oregon Health & Science University, is that the imaging results mirrored how hungry the people said they felt, as well as what earlier studies found in animals.
"It implies that fructose, at least with regards to promoting food intake and weight gain, is a bad actor compared to glucose," said Purnell. He wrote a commentary that appears with the federally funded study in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers now are testing obese people to see if they react the same way to fructose and glucose as the normal-weight people in this study did.
What to do? Cook more at home and limit processed foods containing fructose and high-fructose corn syrup, Purnell suggested. "Try to avoid the sugar-sweetened beverages. It doesn't mean you can't ever have them," but control their size and how often they are consumed, he said.
A second study in the journal suggests that only severe obesity carries a high death risk — and that a few extra pounds might even provide a survival advantage. However, independent experts say the methods are too flawed to make those claims.
The study comes from a federal researcher who drew controversy in 2005 with a report that found thin and normal-weight people had a slightly higher risk of death than those who were overweight. Many experts criticized that work, saying the researcher — Katherine Flegal of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — painted a misleading picture by including smokers and people with health problems ranging from cancer to heart disease. Those people tend to weigh less and therefore make pudgy people look healthy by comparison.
Flegal's new analysis bolsters her original one, by assessing nearly 100 other studies covering almost 2.9 million people around the world. She again concludes that very obese people had the highest risk of death but that overweight people had a 6 percent lower mortality rate than thinner people. She also concludes that mildly obese people had a death risk similar to that of normal-weight people.
Critics again have focused on her methods. This time, she included people too thin to fit what some consider to be normal weight, which could have taken in people emaciated by cancer or other diseases, as well as smokers with elevated risks of heart disease and cancer.
"Some portion of those thin people are actually sick, and sick people tend to die sooner," said Donald Berry, a biostatistician at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The problems created by the study's inclusion of smokers and people with pre-existing illness "cannot be ignored," said Susan Gapstur, vice president of epidemiology for the American Cancer Society.
A third critic, Dr. Walter Willett of the Harvard School of Public Health, was blunter: "This is an even greater pile of rubbish" than the 2005 study, he said. Willett and others have done research since the 2005 study that found higher death risks from being overweight or obese.
Flegal defended her work. She noted that she used standard categories for weight classes. She said statistical adjustments were made for smokers, who were included to give a more real-world sample. She also said study participants were not in hospitals or hospices, making it unlikely that large numbers of sick people skewed the results.
"We still have to learn about obesity, including how best to measure it," Flegal's boss, CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden, said in a written statement. "However, it's clear that being obese is not healthy - it increases the risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and many other health problems. Small, sustainable increases in physical activity and improvements in nutrition can lead to significant health improvements."


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Trac is a '''minimalistic''' approach to '''web-based''' management of
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text:
Dog Poet Transmitting.......
May your noses always be cold and wet.
It's not necessary to link any one of the many, totally bullshit, Crass Media stories about Syria, supposedly arming missiles with chemical weapons to use on their own people. All this has come about because of the near total ownership of the Crass Media, by the ZioNAZI-Ogre and their near total control of the U.S. Department of State and the Department of Defense. Obviously there are dark and damning video and voice recordings of Hilarious Clinton and Leon Panetta. It is possible that Hilarious's doggie style diplomacy, is accented by the endemic corruptions of Wild Bill Clinton ...but we have to assume she's been mainlining many and varied, toxic corruptions on her own as well.
Big oil and Big banking are behind all of the genocide and mass murder of recent times. That's the tie-in to the destruction of every nation that wanted to shift trading in dollars to other currencies, or wanted to set up their own currencies and banks, instead of using a Rothschild bank. It's obvious how good it is for the welfare of a country when they go after The Central Banks or kick out the oligarchs; witness Iceland and Russia. You may be sure that there are any number of behind the scenes transitions, under consideration around the world. Mr. Apocalypse is working on all of this as well.
The pedophilia department at Mr. Apocalypse LTD, is working over time on the skells at the BBC and sundry locations. Now we learn just a little more about Satanist Jimmy Wales and The Synagogue of Satan. At the beginning of the video, doesn't it look and sound like the fellow doing the reporting is sitting on the toilet? No reflection on the cat. We all got to go sometime. It's probably not the case but the sound effects are impressive.
There is some very interesting news about sex lately and I'm only linking to a very few, there and here. I guess the strangest part is how very much she looks like Sarah Palin. I have to admit that this is a terrible dilemma to be in (not the looking like Sarah Palin part, well, maybe that too). We are hearing about and witnessing some truly bizarre thing and you can lay all of this at the door of Mr. Apocalypse.
Here is an article that really says it all, about who is behind so many of the awful trends going on. Now, I recognize the profane nature of organized Christianity but what I find puzzling is why Mikey Weinstein and company, from Inferno.Org, are out to sabotage the Christian fundieland schematic, when that constitutes the largest demographic of their robot army. Of course, this grandstanding, self promoting, self satisfied, celebrity seeking doofus, is writing a book.
Serious madness is afoot, as the terminal virus of Political Correctness, runs amok through the ruins of a dying empire. How seriously crazy it has all gotten, is exemplified in the comments that follow this creative effort of indisputable truth. The ink black darkness, in the souls of the committed materialists, is a frightening wonder to behold. You keep thinking they can't get any lower but somehow they manage it and don't blink an eye when engaged in it. How did such a number of us get like this? I'll say it again, when the transformative force of the age, begins to descend down from the inner planes, it sweeps out all of the long resident, malignant entities that have been operating like conning towers, through the butt ugly moments of this departing cycle. They are forced out and down, into human form.
In times of runaway materialism, the self aware consciousness, of some amount of people; a distressingly ample amount, is not rooted in a sustaining awareness of self, so as to protect the individual from telepathic invasion, followed by possession. It's like leaving your car parked on a Detroit street with the keys in it. This analogy is accurate and has been echoed by others in former times; not the same analogy but, with the same point being made. If you are not the master of yourself, you will be the slave of another. This should go without saying. If you are a slave to appearances and the electronic and otherwise generated imagery of the false world, then you are a slave to those generating the imagery. We can see the truth of that in the wholesale acceptance by Mr. and Mrs. Dumbass, of whatever absurd claptrap, is being generated by the cabin boy politicians and their pederast overlords. I know, Bend over and Wait.
One has to keep in mind that the majority of what is going on at the moment, are acts of desperation. All the despicable stealing and unnecessary, over the top, acquiring by the super rich, is about having your hands on the control mechanisms of the culture. It's about high end, panic rooms and underground bunkers, in remote locations, to weather the result of conditions brought about by them, or natural forces reacting to them. The violent and parasitical activities of that shitty, little country in the Middle East are about desperation. The litany of laws, designed to oppress and deprive, are all about desperation. By this time, alert observers are aware that Mr. Apocalypse, is an actual working force and is dragging hidden information and nefarious deeds, kicking and screaming, out into the hard daylight of exposure, to the eyes of the world and... where those eyes are attuned not to see, or are deceived in the impressions that they draw, Mr. Apocalypse is reorienting their perspective. It might not seem that way at the moment, because notice of this, is being concealed by those who took control of the Crass Media for that very reason.
Once you control the money supply, your agents can buy up all the necessary industries, to accessorize their march for world domination. They've been at this for quite awhile. Multinationals are hooked up in a cooperative effort to head the cosmic awakening off at the pass. However, since it is a cosmic event, good luck with that, you're going to need it and... since it is a cosmic event, luck's not going to have much to do with it.
One of the primary weapons of The Dark Side, is our despair and propensity for deception, based on pandering to basic human appetites, which are being ramped up by a relentless full scale sensory assault. Despair is a killer. You feel overwhelmed by appearances, which are confirmed by events and the perceptions of your fellows. The jobs and homes are being disappeared, while the resources of the populace are deposited into the pockets and bank accounts of the super rich. The politicians feed off of the promise of payouts to come. No good man or woman have been allowed to stand in opposition. They get marginalized, censured and setup, slandered and picked off, by those who have had the run of things for so long that they look upon it as some kind of droit de seigneur' "take my wife, please".
Things are not what they were. We're in last gasp country, as one age leads into another and all of the institutions and infrastructure that have been, are tumbling and transforming, into what is to be. This is why rampant and pervasive corruption are the OS of the times, a sort of Windows Decadent. Things fall apart or move into the No Exit Zone, like Windows 8. There is no logical or sensible reason for this. New and improved is no longer a reality, though it seldom was in any case. Look at the new Window's Surface tablet, with it's screen cracking and peeling away.
The rulership regent of The Surface Plane is changing. The reins of power are being handed over from one to another and all of those so terminally reliant upon the former, are finding themselves on the field of Morannon. From Pelennor to Morannon, it goes ...and in the end, the agents of the darkness lose their minds and spin off in panicked flight, crying out for the stones and The Earth to cover them. Yes, my precious.
Well, one more stirring call to optimism, preceded by so many examples of why we shouldn't be optimistic. The shitheels like Soros and his ilk are still hammering away at what they don't want to see but see they will; one way or another. Sooner or later the word gets delivered to all of the stooges and wooden puppets, who don't know their posterior from a post-hole.
Hang in there.
End Transmission.......
'Camouflage' is track no. 8 of 8 on Visible and The Critical List's 1987 album
'La Vierge Sperme Danceur'
About this song (pops up)