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BOSTON (AP) — Boston Marathon suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded bomb-making instructions from an al-Qaida magazine, gathered online material on Islamic jihad and martyrdom, and later scrawled anti-American messages inside the boat where he lay wounded, a federal indictment charged Thursday.
The 30-count indictment contains the bombing charges, punishable by the death penalty, that were brought in April against the 19-year-old Tsarnaev, including use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill.
It also contains many new charges covering the slaying of an MIT police officer and the carjacking of a motorist during the getaway attempt that left Tsarnaev's older brother, Tamerlan, dead.
"Tamerlan Tsarnaev's justice will be in the next world, but for his brother, accountability will begin right here in the district of Massachusetts," Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley, whose jurisdiction includes Boston, said at a news conference with federal prosecutors.
The indictment provides one of the most detailed public explanations to date of the brothers' alleged motive — Islamic extremism — and the role the Internet may have played in influencing them.
Three people were killed and more than 260 wounded by the two pressure-cooker bombs that went off near the finish line of the marathon on April 15.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was captured four days later, hiding in a boat parked in a backyard in Watertown, Mass.
According to the indictment, he scrawled messages on the inside of the vessel that said, among other things, "The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians," "I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished," and "We Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all."
The Tsarnaev brothers had roots in the turbulent Russian regions of Dagestan and Chechnya, which have become recruiting grounds for Muslim extremists. They had been living in the U.S. about a decade.
But the indictment made no mention of any larger conspiracy beyond the brothers, and no reference to any direct overseas contacts with extremists. Instead, the indictment suggests the Internet played an important role in the suspects' radicalization.
Before the attack, according to the indictment, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev downloaded onto his computer the summer 2010 issue of Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qaida. The issue detailed how to make bombs from pressure cookers, explosive powder extracted from fireworks, and lethal shrapnel.
He also downloaded extremist Muslim literature, including "Defense of the Muslim Lands, the First Obligation After Imam," which advocates "violence designed to terrorize the perceived enemies of Islam," the indictment said.
Another tract downloaded included a foreword by Anwar al-Awlaki, an American propagandist for al-Qaida who was killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011.
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz of Massachusetts said Attorney General Eric Holder will decide whether to pursue the death penalty against Tsarnaev, who will be arraigned on July 10.
The indictment assembled and confirmed details of the case that have been widely reported over the past two months, and added new pieces of information.
For example, it corroborated reports that Tamerlan Tsarnaev bought 48 mortar shells from a Seabrook, N.H., fireworks store. It also disclosed that he used the Internet to order electronic components that could be used in making bombs.
The papers detail how the brothers then allegedly placed knapsacks containing shrapnel-packed bombs near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race.
The court papers also corroborated reports by authorities that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contributed to his brother's death by accidentally running him over with a stolen vehicle during a shootout and police chase.
The charges cover the slaying of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who authorities said was shot in the head at close range in his cruiser by the Tsarnaevs, who tried to take his gun.
In addition, prosecutors said that during the carjacking, the Tsarnaevs forced the motorist to turn over his ATM card and his password, and Dzhokhar withdrew $800 from the man's account.
At the same time the federal indictment was announced, Massachusetts authorities brought a 15-count state indictment against Dzhokhar over the MIT officer's slaying and the police shootout.

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What's Driving The Violence In Chicago
More than 500 homicides were reported in Chicago in 2012, 16 percent more than in 2011. After the murder of Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teen shot a week after attending the inauguration, more attention has been focused on urban violence.
Cheryl Corley, correspondent, NPR
Tio Hardiman, director, CeaseFire Illinois
Robert Sampson, author, Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect
This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Celeste Headlee, in Washington. Neal Conan is away. At the urging of local groups, President Obama went home to Chicago last week to talk about urban violence in a city that recorded more than 40 murders just last month, among them the high-profile killing of Hadiya Pendleton.
The bloody start to the new year following 2012, when homicides claimed the lives of more than 500 people in Chicago. So what's going on in the Windy City? How bad is it, and what does it tell us about violence in other cities? We're wondering: If you're involved in trying to reduce violence in your own community, tell us, what have you tried? Our number is 800-989-8255. The email address is firstname.lastname@example.com. Or you can just join the conversation by going to our website. It's npr.org, then click on TALK OF THE NATION.
Later on in the program, a modern Medal of Valor for the service people behind drone attacks, but first this tragic trend in Chicago. Joining us now from our bureau in Chicago is NPR's Cheryl Corley, who is the correspondent from Chicago for the national desk. First of all, welcome to the program, Cheryl.
CHERYL CORLEY, BYLINE: Thank you so much.
HEADLEE: You know, Chicago is not the worst city in the country for gun violence, it's not even in the top 10, and shootings have actually gone down by half there in the past two decades. So why so much attention on Chicago?
CORLEY: Well, I think because the - well, in part because it's the president's hometown, but also I think because unlike New York and L.A., there has been a spike in the number of homicides in Chicago in the last year. You mentioned the numbers, more than 500 last year. And as you also noted, that's a far cry from the number of murders that occurred here in the 1990s.
And so - but seeing the numbers reach again that 500 number, there were 506 last year, is just been really devastating to some communities here and the families here and really frustrating to city officials who had vowed to stem the gun violence that has been occurring in the city.
HEADLEE: So give us an idea of how that plays out actually on the streets and in the communities of Chicago. We heard earlier the voice of Shirley Chambers, who actually lost all of her children to gun violence. How does this play out in people's conversations?
CORLEY: Well, you know, it really depends on where you live because if you walk through some areas of Chicago - most areas of Chicago, they are very safe communities. Police often point out that overall crime in Chicago actually dropped by 10 percent last year and that, you know, it's a really safe community. But in a few neighborhoods, homicide has just really become an epidemic.
A few years ago, police calculated that the percentage of the city where these murders occur, just to give you an idea, is eight and a half percent of the city. So we're talking a small percentage of the city where we're seeing these homicides really occur and really causing so much havoc.
And there's been this outcry over the mass shootings that have occurred at Sandy Hook and elsewhere, and in Chicago you have these folks that have been dealing with crime in these neighborhoods and shootings that seem to occur almost daily, and they just say enough is enough.
HEADLEE: You know, we've heard a lot about the murder of Hadiya Pendleton in the South Side park last month. She was part of the inauguration proceedings in Washington, D.C. Her parents were part of the audience, sitting right next to Michelle Obama during the State of the Union address. Her killing was gun-related - gang-related, excuse me. Are gangs responsible for a lot of the gun violence in Chicago?
CORLEY: Well, Chicago police say yes. They put - they have said that 80 percent of the murders that occur in Chicago are gang-related. And part of the problem is that the gangs in Chicago have become very splintered. It's no - you know, you hear of, you know, in other cities, you know, one huge group and another huge group. In Chicago, you may have huge groups, but there's infighting among those groups now.
So you have people fighting over turf, you have people fighting over reputation, you have people fighting back in retaliation, which is something we heard about in the Hadiya Pendleton case, where reportedly these reputed gang members thought that they were going after other gang members who they thought had shot, you know, one of the defendants in this case.
HEADLEE: You know, I wonder what kind of new ideas are coming up. You know, obviously your mayor, Rahm Emanuel, has talked about this a great deal. But do they have new solutions, or are they trying things that have been used in Chicago for decades?
CORLEY: It's a little of both. They are, for instance, putting more police on the street. The police superintendant, Garry McCarthy, has shifted folks from desk jobs, put them out in districts. They've started what they call this kind of saturation patrol. They have a process where they might target particular gangs and, say, go after them for every little thing that they can in order to get shooting to stop.
The mayor has also talked about taking different approaches as well, trying to offer more after-school programs, things like that. There's a program called Safe Passage where schools and the police department actually go out on the street when school is either beginning or after school to make sure that kids can walk particular routes and make sure that they're safe.
So those are all sorts of things that are being tried in an effort to try to stem this violence in particular neighborhoods.
HEADLEE: I wonder if you get the sense, Cheryl, that they're trying to borrow on the advice of other cities. I mean for example, among the larger cities, New York, surprising many people, has the second-lowest rate of gun death for all big cities in the U.S. Are - is Chicago looking to New York for some guidance?
CORLEY: Well, I don't think so, not in the way that New York has said that it lowered its gun numbers. New York used a process it called Stop and Frisk, where it was able to stop folks and search them, and it said that, you know, what they were doing was stopping crime and gun deaths before it happened. That process is on the decline. A lot of civil libertarians and other folks filed a federal lawsuit, saying that they targeted Latino and blacks in that process. So I don't think Chicago wants to try that, but they are trying different sorts of things in order to get those numbers down, as well.
And I must point out, too, that although New York's numbers in murders and homicides were down, the other serious crimes were up. In Chicago, the other serious crimes like rape and burglaries and robberies were down.
HEADLEE: All right, NPR correspondent Cheryl Corley is staying with us. But this idea of gun violence as an epidemic, and also the one you were just talking about in terms of intervening in ongoing conflicts, when it's not a police officer intervening, it possibly is a violence interrupter. That's the approach of Cure Violence and CeaseFire Illinois, those are both organizations that are trying to address the gang problem in Chicago by engaging on the streets.
And we're joined by Tio Hardiman, who's the director of CeaseFire Illinois, and we reached him at his office in Chicago. Welcome to the TALK OF THE NATION, Tio.
TIO HARDIMAN: Yeah, I'm glad to be here with you.
HEADLEE: So I wonder: What do you think is driving this spike in gun deaths in Chicago? What's behind it?
HARDIMAN: Well, it's really more of the same. Cheryl pretty much hit it, hit all the main points, but what's going on in Chicago is you have the splinter groups, you have a lot of renegade activity going on where the guys don't want to listen to nobody, so they - everybody wants to be a tough guy, every other block.
And I've talked to a lot of young guys involved in the street life. A lot of them told me that retaliation is more of an instinct. It's nothing they even think about. If one of their friends is shot, they're going to retaliate, you know, nine times out of 10.
And we've had this media frenzy when it comes down to social networking. Believe it or not, a lot of guys are gangbanging on Facebook, YouTube, and some guys are under the impression the more violent content they post in their YouTube videos, the more, you know, people will view their videos, and then it leads to rival conflict in some communities throughout Chicago.
HEADLEE: We're speaking with Tio Hardiman, who is with Cure Violence and CeaseFire Illinois. Can you tell us a story, Tio, of a time when you feel like you've successfully stopped gun violence from happening?
HARDIMAN: Without a doubt. I had a grandmother that called us about two months ago because a guy shot her front windows out trying to kill her two grandsons. So she reached out to CeaseFire and the violence interrupters, and so they gave us the name of the alleged shooter. I sent my staff over to talk to this guy. He told us that he wasn't going to listen to anybody. So he came back at 5 o'clock the next morning and burnt up the grandmother's car, trying to lure her grandsons out of the house. So then I had to put the full-court press on this guy. And I went and got some guys from the streets that didn't work for CeaseFire per se but through the CeaseFire violence interrupters to talk to this guy. And we got him to put his gun down. And it all came down to one thing. The lady's grandsons had posted a picture of this guy on Facebook, and because the guy got beat up at a lounge about a week prior to him shooting up the house. And he couldn't catch the guys who beat him up, but he knew where the grandsons lived. And he really was mad about that, and he was going to try to kill those guys.
So we successfully mediated that particularly conflict, and as an end result, we've been following up on it for the last two months, and there hasn't been any more incidents with her grandsons and this particular individual.
HEADLEE: Holy cow.
HARDIMAN: So that's just one of the success stories out of 700-some conflicts we mediated in the year 2012.
HEADLEE: And our question for listeners is if you are involved in this effort in your community to reduce violence there, any violence, what have you tried? Right now on the line with us from New Haven, Connecticut, is Hashim(ph), I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Hashim, you started a radio station online for kids. How - why did you think that would work?
HASHIM: I actually took an experience from when I was younger in school. I felt like I wasn't being challenged and would sort of just goof around and get into trouble. And at the time we had Yale Broadcasting, WYBC, and we was able to - I was able to become a volunteer, and the disc jockeys there really became mentors to me.
So we started a program in New Haven, which a couple years ago was just the fourth dangerous city. Gun violence here was getting out of hand. And I just felt like the community should step up along with law enforcement, along with the education department. And it's turned out to work well. It started as an after-school program, and now it's part of the in-school and after-school curriculum.
But what it does is it gives kids an opportunity to learn and do it under a guise of being cool. We have partnered with Horizon Music Group and Elm City Records; they get a chance to go into the recording studio, do their rap stuff. But the - I guess the catch to it is they have to take either journalism or the computer technology courses.
We teach them audio production in the school. And it just takes their time. And that time that they get a chance to spend in school, learning something which is considered cool even by their friends, keeps them off the blocks, and it keeps them out of moments where something may happen and, you know...
HEADLEE: Idle hands, that's what they say, Hashim. That's, yeah, Hashim calling from New Haven, Connecticut. Thank you very much, and especially thank you for implying that radio is cool, Hashim. I appreciate that.
HEADLEE: Stay with us. we're going to have more with Cheryl Corley and Tio Hardiman in just a - just a short break, but we want to know: If you are working in your community, just like Hashim there in Connecticut, if you're trying to reduce violence of any kind, what are you trying, and how is it working? 800-989-8255. And you can send us an email to firstname.lastname@example.com. We'll be right back. I'm Celeste Headlee. This is TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
HEADLEE: This is TALK OF THE NATION. I'm Celeste Headlee in Washington. On Friday, President Obama spoke to an audience gathered in the Hyde Park Academy High School gym in the same Chicago neighborhood where he and his wife and daughters once lived. And while he was there, he called for common-sense proposals to make it harder for criminals to get guns, and he also focused a bit on the social climate where violence like Chicago's takes root.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: And so that means that this is not just a gun issue, it's also an issue of the kinds of communities that we're building. And for that we all share responsibility as citizens to fix it.
HEADLEE: So if you are involved, like the president says there, as a citizen trying to fix it, to reduce violence in your community, we want to hear your story. What have you tried? Give us a call, 800-989-8255. Our email is firstname.lastname@example.com. Or go to our website, npr.org, and then join the conversation by clicking on TALK OF THE NATION.
NPR's Cheryl Corley and Tio Hardiman are with us. He's director of CeaseFire Illinois; Cheryl Corley is a correspondent for the national desk based in Chicago. And now also joining us is Robert Sampson. He's studied for years how community can affect things, including violence, and he's a professor of the social sciences at Harvard, author of the new book "Great American City: Chicago and the Enduring Neighborhood Effect." He joins us now from a studio there at Harvard. Welcome back to TALK OF THE NATION.
ROBERT SAMPSON: Thank you.
HEADLEE: So you heard the president's remarks from Chicago on Friday. What stuck out of that speech for you?
SAMPSON: Yeah, it seems to me that President Obama was really suggesting a blend of policies at three distinct levels. First, as you noted, a focus on law, particularly gun laws. Secondly, I heard him speak about the need to support children, especially early childhood intervention. A child that drops out is going to be an adolescent who has a greater risk of being involved in crime and violence and many other negative outcomes.
And thirdly, focus on communities, really community-level supports. What we know, in Chicago but also in many other cities, is that violence, along with many other social ills such as low birth weight, infant mortality, early dropout from school, truancy and so forth, these tend to be concentrated in specific places. Violence, especially, is highly uneven.
As Cheryl noted earlier, it's not the fact that violence is somehow going up everywhere. In fact, violence is, overall, declining. What we're seeing, however, is that certain communities almost get locked into a vicious cycle, where it's very difficult to get out, and the factors related to that, among others, are high concentration of poverty related to racial segregation.
HEADLEE: Let me ask you about that, Robert, because I wonder if this is a chicken and the egg thing, maybe you can't even answer it, but what comes first? Is it the poverty and the unemployment, or is it the gun violence? Because gun violence, when gun violence goes up, that results in people leaving a community, businesses leaving a community. So which of these things happens first?
SAMPSON: That's an excellent question. That's one of the things that we've looked at in research. It's really hard to disentangle, actually, and that's why I referred to it as kind of a vicious cycle and a trap, really, that communities get into. We think happens is that both are important. It's hard to say it's just this.
So you get a cycle whereby you have high concentration of poverty and especially when it is related to particular groups. So for example in the United States, it's the case that African-Americans are disproportionately poor. But even if poor, they're much more likely than, let's say, a poor white to live in a poor neighborhood. And that's what we refer to as a concentration effect.
That then leads to all sorts of other conditions. Businesses are less likely to invest. People may be fearful of the violence and as you note move out, which then may make things worse. So what we try to think about is how to intervene in that social system.
But we do think, based on good evidence, that the characteristics of the communities do seem to have an independent effect. And likewise, fear among residents is a really important factor in - by the way, not just for moving out of a community, but fear is implicated in anxiety and other kinds of health-related issues.
HEADLEE: Yeah, sure. And we want to take a call here now from Keith(ph) in Philadelphia. And Keith, meet Tio, you guys both work with CeaseFire, only Keith works with CeaseFire in Philadelphia. Keith, what have you tried that you think works?
KEITH: Well, we're trying - we're working on, along with CeaseFire of Philadelphia, we're a community group, like I'm a committeeman, and the other guy named Angelo(ph), he's a community activist. And we've been - first we started standing on 32nd and York, that's a street in Philadelphia, a major district which has a lot of violence, a couple of people they've gotten killed on that corner.
And what we do, we stand out there with CeaseFire signs, and also we wrote signs that says, on the poster we wrote, talk it out, don't shoot it out. You know, and then we, you know, we kind of collaborated, and we decided to do some marches. And we've accumulated maybe about 20 to 30 people in these marches and also people are joining us daily.
And what we do, we walk around the neighborhood, and we walk on small streets where there's a lot of drug activity that's not a lot of - it's fine in some of the blocks, but it's not a lot of enforcement, I would say, not that it's anything against the police. It's just that, like, the blocks is just a lot of drug activity, and it causes the overspill of gun violence.
HEADLEE: No, that makes sense. Thank you very much, that's a phone call from Keith in Philadelphia. They're kind of trying to fill in for the policemen walking the beat. You know, and I wonder, Cheryl, you know, one of the issues that many people, officials especially, have talked about in Chicago is even though they have a lot of gun regulations, most of the - many of the guns involved in crime in the city of Chicago come from the suburbs, implying that one would need to have federal regulations to have any kind of effect. What have you heard on that note?
CORLEY: Well absolutely not only from the suburbs but from states surrounding Chicago. They particularly point to Indiana, where the gun laws are a little different than they are in Illinois, and also for the city of Chicago. So I think that that's why the mayor and the police superintendent do indeed back the idea of federal gun laws and strengthening gun laws.
Part of the problem in Chicago, as you're alluding to, is the city does have very strict gun regulations. But a lot of the guns that come in and are used in a lot of these crimes, according to the police, are illegal guns that come from elsewhere.
HEADLEE: Tio Hardiman, you're with CeaseFire. I wonder if you think gun regulation is at least part of the solution.
HARDIMAN: No, my thing is this here: You know, everybody has a role to play, but a lot of these young people in Chicago have grown up in a culture of violence in their neighborhoods. And it's about changing the way they think in a lot of ways. Like currently, we're working with 1,100 high-risk individuals throughout Chicago right now.
And we're - we enrolled about 35 percent of the young men back into school. The other 30 percent, they're working now, and the remaining percentage of individuals, we're spending a lot of quality time with them to teach them they can unlearn violent behavior because it's passed down from generation to generation.
I was on CNN the other day, and I made a comment. I said, you know, I grew up Henry Horner Projects on the west side of Chicago, a building of 3,000 people. And if I was mad at you, 40 percent of the people in the building would be mad at you, as well, because I've kind of transmitted the way I think in the minds of the other people there.
So we have to do a lot of work in the behavior-change arena and not just CeaseFire, but CeaseFire is a proven model that works, backed up by the Department of Justice. But it's going to take all of us to do the work. So I believe in collaborating with everybody so we can really have an impact.
CORLEY: Celeste, I think...
HEADLEE: Go ahead.
CORLEY: If I could just add, Celeste, I think that that's the reason why, in addition to Tio's group, there are a lot of groups that are looking and thinking the same way. When the president came here, he met earlier with a group of young men who belonged to this program called BAM, which is called Becoming a Man, where they really focus on teaching these guys accountability, respect for women and things like that.
But a lot of the folks who called for the president to come to Chicago and to really address the whole issue of guns and urban violence said look, yes, we think there should be a focus on guns, but we also think that there has to be a focus on some of the root causes of this violence. So they were looking at things like education and employment and things like that that, that they wanted to hear some kind of plan from the president to address that.
HEADLEE: Well, let me bring that back to you, Robert Sampson, then. You're a professor of social sciences. This is something you've studied. And we're trying to talk about programs that actually work. So do we know that early education works to prevent future violence? Does community involvement? Does something like the caller who's walking around their neighborhood, does that work?
SAMPSON: Yeah, those are good questions. Let me address a couple ways. First of all, I think the issue of the expectations that kids have and the attitudes, as was just mentioned, is crucially important. If you don't expect to live to age 25, if you don't expect to have a job when you're an adult, then an insult today takes on a greater significance than it might otherwise.
And that's why I think that the - a sense in which much of the violence is rooted in insults and revenge. I mean, these are classic motives. And even with strict gun laws, that can be a problem. So we do need a multifaceted approach.
I think, on two fronts, the evidence on early intervention is mixed, but there are encouraging signs. And there's evidence, interestingly enough, that early childhood intervention with respect to education - so, for example, Perry Preschool Project - although the evidence on how it affects test scores is mixed, it turns out that kids do better in non-cognitive outcomes, sort of behavioral outcomes. In other words, do better in later life. So that's evidence to suggest that the more holistic approaches, we don't just care about test scores. We care about kids' development in the broadest sense.
So, yes, I think there's encouraging evidence there, and that's why I pointed to that second prong of President Obama's approach. The third one on community level interventions, evidence is also mixed, but I would say a couple of things. One, the evidence on policing now, I think, is zeroing in on the idea that certain policies - particularly what's known as hotspot policing, where you're targeting the policing in particular areas, and we have better data now, predictive analytics and other things where we can identify those areas - is promising. And that is also something that can be done without necessarily locking up more people.
HEADLEE: Yeah.
SAMPSON: At the non-criminal justice level, the evidence suggests that there is a strong relationship between community-level social characteristics that go beyond race and poverty - that is to say, not all poor neighborhoods are the same - the social networks and organizational ties that exist in communities, and particularly the shared expectations that residents have for getting involved. In our Chicago research, we show that that's directly related to lower violence - so programs that encourage both the community-level aspects and better criminal justice, particularly with regard to policing, I think have promise.
Of course, we also need to focus on the resources, such as housing, reduction of the concentration of poverty. And there's kind of a debate in the field as to whether it's best to go with more so-called person-based interventions - such as giving people vouchers to move out of a high-poverty neighborhood - or place-based interventions. I think it's somewhat misleading to see it as either-or. Both are needed.
HEADLEE: You're listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. Let's go to a call now, here. This is Amy in Oakland, California. Oakland has long been known as a relatively violent city. Amy, what do you do? What do you find that works in your community?
AMY: Hi. Right now, I'm working with a young man who has written a one-man show that's called "Cops and Robbers," and it's a very compelling show, partly because of who he is, the young man, whose name is Jinho Ferreira. He worked for many years as a rapper, a successful rapper with a hip-hop group called Flipsyde that did music that he was hoping would change the escalation of violence in his community. When he found that wasn't working, he decided to go into law enforcement.
So he's now working in law enforcement, and he's written an amazing - it's a full-length play, it's not a monologue - with 15 characters that tells the story of a police officer who kills a young black man in the community. And then we hear from the characters of the people who live in the community, law enforcement, a number of different media characters. And what's been so exciting is as we have performed this play at different places within the community - once at a theater at the very intersection where the journalist Chauncey Bailey was killed - our audiences are made up of law enforcement, educators, psychologists, social workers and a lot of youth, some youths who are involved in good programs, some youths who are still involved in the life, you know.
And what's so exciting is the discussions that happen after the play, and how these lengthy discussions get people who would consider each other adversaries talking to each other and understanding what's going on in the community from each other's point of view, and talking about how exciting it is to finally have an opening where they can understand each other and talk openly.
HEADLEE: That's - thank you very much, Amy. That's Amy in Oakland, California. And this kind of approach is something that people like Tio Hardiman use in CeaseFire. But I wonder, Robert, even for those people who are not victims or perpetrators of gun violence, I read an amazing statistic where it said 20 to 30 percent of kids in Chicago have witnessed a shooting firsthand. What kind of effect does it have on a generation? What's the difference in outcomes between a kid who witnesses real-live violence and the kid who doesn't?
SAMPSON: That's a huge problem. In fact, I think the figure may be even higher, according to some studies. Our research and that of others shows that exposure to violence in childhood is related to a number of later outcomes, including increased involvement in violence itself. That's often been referred to as the cycle of violence. It's also related to lower abilities, really, I mean, in terms of schooling and learning, so that kids that are exposed to violence, that are fearful, they tend to skip more school.
There's a recent study that even showed that having a homicide occur in your house was related to a drop in test scores if taken within days of that homicide. So the evidence has coalesced around the notion that this is a really serious problem. And, again, even if you are not directly a victim, living in an environment where you are afraid to walk outside, where you hear about what's going on, that then reinforces a lot of the negative behaviors and outcomes - mistrust, in particular.
Some of these communities, I think, what we see is such high levels of cynicism and distrust that it feeds a sense in which institutions are not working, which then causes people to pull back even more. So that's why I think we really need a multifaceted approach to reestablish the validity of key social institutions. And I would include in that the police. It's interesting to hear some of the different strategies in terms of engaging the police with the community, rather than the residents viewing the police as sort of an alien invading force.
HEADLEE: So I guess - we're going to have to end the conversation there. I guess there's no definitive answer on what works and what doesn't. That's Robert Sampson, professor of the social sciences at Harvard University, author of the new book "Great American City." He joined us from a studio at Harvard. Also with us, NPR's Cheryl Corley, a correspondent for the national desk, from our bureau in Chicago. And Tio Hardiman is the director of CeaseFire Illinois. He joined us from his office in Chicago. Thanks to all three of you.
CORLEY: Thank you.
SAMPSON: Thank you.
HEADLEE: Up next, a discussion of a new medal that is awarded to drone pilots. I'm Celeste Headlee. It's TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News. Stay with us.
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text:
Scale: Ceramic Forms and Photographic Landscapes
In ceramic artist Gerry Eskin's world, big is best. Although his primary interest remains ceramics, he has returned to an early interest, photography. Intrigued by digital imaging, Eskin creates large-scale panoramic prints of landscape imagery. While this exhibition features both ceramic and photographic media, all the pieces share an artistic theme of monumental scale.
His ceramic works include massive platters painted with geometric designs inspired by ancient Anasazi pottery; towering columnar forms; and massive anthropomorphic vessels whose shape is informed by Middle Eastern sarcophagi. His photographic panoramas depict spectacular geological formations and desert landscape vistas near Moab, Utah. The ceramic pieces and photographic panels create an environmental installation evoking sacred mountain landscapes and their relation to burial rituals and the spiritual function of ceramic forms.
Download the gallery guide for this exhibition.
View photos from the exhibition opening at www.marktade.com/node/291


text:
In response to recommendations by the University's Diversity Working Group,
President Shirley M. Tilghman has implemented a number of changes
intended to make Princeton a more diverse and welcoming workplace for
people of all backgrounds.
"One of the working group's key recommendations was that Princeton
should increase its administrative capacity and leadership in areas
related to staff diversity," she said in an e-mail message to faculty
and staff. "Provost [Christopher] Eisgruber and I agree with this
recommendation, and we are accordingly providing new resources that we
expect will improve communication and outreach regarding
diversity-related issues and will increase Princeton's ability to
recruit, hire and retain a more diverse staff."
The changes involve:
- Promoting Terri Harris Reed, associate provost for institutional equity, to the position of vice provost for institutional equity and diversity, effective immediately.
- Creating two new positions -- one in the Office of the Provost and one in the Office of Human Resources -- to create the additional administrative capacity to support Princeton's diversity-related initiatives.
- Providing the Diversity Working Group with resources to audit Princeton policies and practices that enhance or inhibit the University's diversity-related goals.
The Diversity Working Group was formed by Tilghman in fall 2004 to
identify strategies and potential barriers that affect the recruitment,
hiring, retention and promotion of a diverse work force at Princeton.
The group, which has focused its efforts on people of color among
non-faculty employees at all levels, issued an interim report
last fall that described several initial steps the University could
take to increase the diversity of its staff. The report also
recommended efforts to ensure a long-term commitment to supporting a
staff that reflects a broad range of talents and perspectives.
In her e-mail, Tilghman noted that several of the recommendations in
the group's interim report were implemented immediately. For example,
the University's new diversity Web site is up and running, providing information to help facilitate diversity-related initiatives on campus.
The University also has launched an expanded mortgage program
for low- to moderate-income employees that has generated an
enthusiastic response. In addition, the Office of Human Resources,
under the leadership of Vice President Lianne Sullivan-Crowley, has
developed a broad range of new training programs intended to ensure that employees from all backgrounds have an opportunity to flourish at Princeton.
Tilghman said the interim report has "catalyzed ongoing discussions
around campus," including serving as a focus for meetings of the
president's cabinet, the Administrative and Academic Managers Group and
the Council of the Princeton University Community. These new
changes are the result of the working group's recommendations and
positive feedback on its proposals from across the University.
"The Diversity Working Group's interim report noted that the associate
provost for institutional equity has provided leadership that is
critical to the visibility and vigor of the University's efforts
regarding diversity," Tilghman wrote in the e-mail. "Vice Provost
Reed's new position will underscore the significance of diversity in
her portfolio and will recognize the expanded leadership
responsibilities that she will carry in the future."
Reed has been a member of the provost's staff since September 2004. She
previously served for a year and a half as assistant dean for graduate
education in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International
Affairs. She also has 20 years of administrative experience at the
University of Maryland, the University of Chicago and Oberlin and
Calvin colleges.
In her current role, Reed functions as Princeton's affirmative action
officer. She works with the offices of the dean of the faculty and
human resources to develop and improve programs to increase Princeton's
ability to attract, hire and retain a diverse work force and works with
several other offices to advance Princeton's vision of inclusiveness
for all of its members. She also serves as liaison to the University
ombuds office.
In her expanded role, Reed will supervise the director of equal
opportunity programs and services, the new position in the Office of
the Provost. This person will have primary responsibility for ensuring
compliance with nondiscrimination laws and will play a central role in
the development of programs and services that support the University's
commitment to equity, diversity and community in a context of academic
excellence. As part of her responsibilities to oversee efforts designed
to make Princeton accessible to and inclusive of all persons, Reed also
will supervise the newly created Office of Disability Services.
"Terri has provided essential leadership in our efforts to provide a
work environment where employees of all backgrounds can thrive," said
Mark Burstein, executive vice president, who co-chairs the Diversity
Working Group with Janet Dickerson, vice president for campus life.
"Her promotion will not only increase the authority invested in this
effort, but will also locate the University's diversity initiatives
within the context of other important initiatives such as disability
The added position in the Office of Human Resources will help to improve
the University's capacity to retain and recruit individuals from
minority backgrounds by expanding and enhancing relationships with
community partners and with minority-serving agencies and professional
organizations. It will report to the vice president for human resources.
The Diversity Working Group is in the final stages of selecting a
consulting firm to conduct a systematic assessment of the cultural
norms that support and drive behaviors impacting diversity goals as
well as of staff perceptions about their experiences at Princeton. The
goals of the audit are: to improve employment policies and practices,
so that individuals from all racial and ethnic backgrounds have an
equal chance of participating and thriving in the University's work
environment; and to create a work environment that manages the
challenges and takes full advantage of a work force of individuals with
differing perspectives and talents.
The Diversity Working Group also is continuing its other work and
expects to submit a final report to Tilghman by the end of the summer.
The group encompasses 20 staff members and administrators from a range
of departments, levels and backgrounds.


text:
Tooth Fairy inflation flies high
NEW YORK Days of finding a quarter under your pillow are long gone. The Tooth Fairy no longer leaves loose change.
Kids this year are getting an average of $3.70 per lost tooth, a 23 percent jump over last year's rate of $3 a tooth, according to a new survey by payment processor Visa Inc., released Friday. That's a 42 percent spike from the $2.60 per tooth that the Tooth Fairy gave in 2011.
Part of the reason for the sharp rise: Parents don't want their kids to be the ones at the playground who received the lowest amount.
"A kid who got a quarter would wonder why their tooth was worth less than the kid who got $5," says Kit Yarrow, a consumer psychologist and professor at Golden Gate University.
To avoid that, Brian and Brittany Klems asked friends and co-workers what they were giving their kids. The Klems, who have three daughters and live in Cincinnati, settled on giving their 6-year-old daughter Ella $5 for the first tooth that fell out, and $1 for any others. They say that $5 was enough without going overboard. They didn't want other families to think they were giving too much.
Then Ella found out that one of her friends received $20 for a tooth.
"I told her that the Tooth Fairy has only so much money for every night, and that's how she decides to split up the money," says Brian Klems, 34, a parenting blogger and author of "Oh Boy, You're Having a Girl: A Dad's Survival Guide to Raising Daughters."
Confused about what to give?
Ask other parents what they're giving, says Jason Alderman, a senior director of financial education at Visa. That can at least get you in the ballpark of what your kids' friends are getting, he says. Alderman gave his two kids $1 a tooth.
"I think we were on the cheap side," he says. Other families gave about $5 a tooth. One family gave their kid an antique typewriter. "I have no idea how they got that to fit under the pillow," he laughs.
Visa also has a downloadable Tooth Fairy Calculator app that will give you an idea of how much parents in your age group, income bracket and education level are giving their kids, says Alderman.
The calculator is also available on the Facebook apps page.
How much kids are getting from the Tooth Fairy depends on where they live. Kids in the Northeast are getting the most, according to the Visa study, at $4.10 per tooth. In the west and south, kids received $3.70 and $3.60 per tooth, respectively. Midwestern kids received the least, at $3.30 a tooth.
Then there are the heavy hitters.
After losing her first tooth, 5-year-old Caroline Ries found a $100 bill under her pillow, along with a brand new My Little Pony toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste.
But there was a catch. Her mother, Nina Ries, also left a note saying that the $100 had to go straight to Caroline's college fund. The Tooth Fairy would give her another $20 to spend anyway she likes if she brushes her teeth every day after lunch for a month. She did, and 30 days later Caroline found $20 under her pillow.
Ries, a 39-year-old lawyer and owner of Ries Law Group in Santa Monica, Calif., says that $120 is a lot to give, but she believes that she is teaching her daughter that education and taking care of your teeth is important. Ries says her friends give their kids about $20 a tooth.
That's way more than the $1 Ries used to get for losing her teeth as a child.
"It's incredible inflation," she says.
The Visa survey results are based on 3,000 phone interviews conducted in July.


text:
At least 60 people are dead in Iraq after a wave of car bombs in mainly Shi'ite areas of Baghdad as Muslims observe the end of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr. Scores more are reported wounded.
The attacks come amid an especially violent Ramadan for Iraq. The BBC reports that more than 650 people have been killed since the start of the annual Islamic fasting period. The news agency says in the latest attack, 11 bombs have ripped through cafes, markets and restaurants in at least nine different Baghdad districts.
The Associated Press reports that most of the bombings occurred within an hour of each other, suggesting they may have been coordinated. No group has claimed responsibility.
Police said the worst of the attacks on Saturday killed eight people in a single neighborhood north of the capital.
The BBC says:
"Other attacks were reported in the Shia holy city of Karbala, 80km (50 miles) south of Baghdad, and Nasiriya, 375km (230 miles) south of the capital.
Another went off near a Shia mosque in the northern city of Kirkuk."
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Zig Zag Pillow by Malka Dubrawsky from the book Fresh Quilting |
The yet to be born baby is a little boy and although I have used some floral and pink prints I do think this baby quilt is gender neutral. The quilt backing is a solid fabric in yellow (which really accentuates the quilting lines!), and I have used a blue fabric with white polka dots for binding.
Ready for posting together with wishes of a safe and healthy arrival.
COPYRIGHT: Do not copy or use any content or photos from my blog without my written permission.


text:
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Ace of Cakes Gets Lost!
Sunday, February 15, 2009
I frequently get asked if I've heard of or watch Ace of Cakes. Heh. Guys, I write a cake blog. If it's even remotely cake-related, I've probably heard of it. Safe cupcake amendment in Texas? Check. Cake puppet singing Karen Carpenter? Check. Ace of Cakes? Checkity check. And yes, I do love Duff and the gang. In fact, one of the few reasons I'm happy to have cable again (we went without for a few years) is that I can start catching up on all the episodes I've missed.
Anyway, I've been waiting for just the right Charm City creation to feature here on Sunday Sweets, and I think I've finally found it. Not only is it a cool cake, it also brings together two addictive shows: Ace of Cakes and LOST.
Check out what Duff & Co. created to help the cast of LOST celebrate their 100th episode:
Neat, huh? There's the computer terminal (probably with the famous numbers on it, but I can't quite tell), a suitcase, a gun, the whole cast, and of course my favorite: a four-pack of Dharma beer.
Hey, there's even a little crashed plane on the side! Nice. But, uh, guys? Shouldn't the plane be snapped in two, with the tail section on the other side of the island? Hmmm? ;)
Here's a nice detail shot:
And the big group shot with both casts:
All of these photos are from Jorge Garcia's blog, by the way. Be sure to check there for a few more photos not posted here, and many thanks to Rachel K. for being the first to tell me about it!
66 comments | Post a Comment
- Colleen said...
Love his show and something about him and his whole crew totally crack me up every time I watch him.
And of course even the ones that are "off" are spectacular.
I would love to buy a cake from him but they are way out of my price range and the fact that I'm in California kinda makes it impossible.
Thanks for featuring his cake on your blog, I was waiting to see one of his on here.
~Colleen (cyberrblue.wordpress.com) - February 15, 2009 at 9:41 AM
- weirdmom said...
I love this cake! There is a nice close-up pic of this in TV Guide and yes, the numbers are on the computer screen.
- February 15, 2009 at 9:45 AM
- HorribleLicensePlates said...
I think I can see Sayid!!!
- February 15, 2009 at 9:53 AM
I don't know, it looks a little out of scale to me. But I'd still eat it!
Angie (from over at www.HalfAssedKitchen.com) - February 15, 2009 at 9:55 AM
- Jessica said...
I saw this on the latest issue of TV Guide a few days ago, but they didn't show the entire thing. It's awesome; love it!
- February 15, 2009 at 10:05 AM
- Calandra said...
Oh man, I love Lost! Best show on TV in my opinion. To see my two favorite things (cake and Lost) combined just makes me immensely happy.
- February 15, 2009 at 10:09 AM
Now that is a freaking cake! I love it! I could use something like that for my rock n' roll wedding! You are very talented at cake making! Great post!
- February 15, 2009 at 10:13 AM
- Lucy Diamond said...
That is fabulous! Especially love the cake-Hurley - spot-on!
- February 15, 2009 at 10:15 AM
- Laura Marchant said...
wow, look at that detail.
- February 15, 2009 at 10:22 AM
- The Echols said...
- February 15, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Sorry folks, but I have to admit I'm not a big ACE of CAKES fan. WAY too much touching of the frosting with bare hands. I swear on one show I saw someone brush a piece of hair out of her face and then go right back to molding fondant. I have to say that this is the show that has gotten me to gag whenever I think of eating fondant. To me eating one of their cakes would be like eating playdough (not in flavor, but in the amount of touching that has been done to it)
- February 15, 2009 at 10:42 AM
How awesome. I'm a major lost fan. I can't believe I missed this episode of Ace of Cakes....well, yes I can, I don't have cable, but still. LOL
- February 15, 2009 at 10:48 AM
- Rebecca said...
Am I the only one who hates Ace of Cakes for their over use of fondant and how every cake just looks cartoony? I am always like so where is the cake? Can you eat that? I don't think you can eat that. And Duff is a cocky jerk.
- February 15, 2009 at 11:05 AM
- Tabitha (From Single to Married) said...
Very cool!!
- February 15, 2009 at 11:14 AM
Here's my problem with Ace of Cakes: They're not really doing much with cake, are they? They're just making sugar sculptures. If it was called Fun with Fondant, I'd be more of a fan. But I agree with Lorelai, the thought of eating something that's been sculpted that much by sweaty human hands if pretty gross.
- February 15, 2009 at 11:54 AM
- Aloha Ya'll! said...
They didn't only make a cake for "Lost" while they were here in Hawaii. They also made a cake at Schofield Barracks (an Army post here) to honor the soldiers while they were here. It was a helicopter with working rotors and lights. We got to go see them in action and met Duff, Mary Alice and Geof.
- February 15, 2009 at 11:58 AM
I would hardly call most of what they do cakes (at least what is actually seen on the show). If you watch the show, they mostly use Styrofoam, pipes, wood, and fondant to do a lot of the showy "cakes". Cake, by the nature of its name, is cake; something you can eat. I am sure someone out there likes to eat cardboard with icing on it, but not me.
- February 15, 2009 at 12:07 PM
Here in Baltimore, there are dozens of bakeries that do excellent cakes with all the frosting you want, but there is only one CharmCityCakes. Their creations are crazy,unique, fondant covered wonders but they also taste great. And believe me, Duff is EXACTLY what you see on the show. (Most) everyone finds him to be adorable and crazy likable.
- February 15, 2009 at 12:16 PM
- Susie said...
They really are incredible!
- February 15, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Yeah - maybe because I'm not a LOST fan, but I'm not feeling this cake either. I like Ace of Cakes though and could think of at least a dozen other cakes that I think are awesome.
I agree with the other poster, the scale is way off. People smaller than beer cans, plane even smaller than the people? And then all the people are just standing around on a cream base that is supposed to be sand I guess? I think I might have liked it better without the figures. Everything else works in scale - the computer, beer, suitcase, gun etc.
Ok, oh well - I do appreciate the effort that went into this. I do love Duff's cakes usually! - February 15, 2009 at 12:42 PM
- ~Amy said...
OMG, coolest cake EVER!!!! I love cake, Duff and Lost! It's a perfect world!
- February 15, 2009 at 1:42 PM
I love Lost, and this cake is awesome as usual.
I think Charm City makes gorgeous cakes, but I haven't seen them use frosting once. They have therefore never made a cake I would actually consider eating.
When they made the ear cake for that doctor and he cut into it, the cake itself looked very dry and crumbly. - February 15, 2009 at 1:44 PM
While not a wreck, I certainly wouldn't call that a great success. Yes, it does what it is supposed to, but it is not attractive at all.
- February 15, 2009 at 1:52 PM
- Scritzy said...
Awesome cake!
I love Sunday Sweets. It restores my faith in fondant, frosting and flair. - February 15, 2009 at 2:00 PM
- bpddjeoomon said...
I guess I'm also in the minority of commenters here that don't like Ace of Cakes. I did really like it for a while in the first season. I would try to convince my friends to watch it and everything. Somewhere along the line I just stopped watching until one day a friend of mine called and asked why she never listened to me "because Ace of Cakes is awesome." I turned it on to watch with her and found that I had no idea why I liked it in the first place. Like the other commenters here have said, the cakes are really cartoony (except the Harry Potter one, that one was awesome...EXCEPT the stupid cat they randomly put in there!), there is never enough cake, I can NEVER believe how much people spend on them (it says on their website they require a MINIMUM $1000 order, so even the people that walk out with a cake that looks like a cartoon and will feed less than 10 people spent $1000 or more), and Duff comes across as a jerk (obviously I don't know him in real life, so I don't want to call him a jerk if that's only how he's coming across on tv).
Bleh. - February 15, 2009 at 2:15 PM
- Photographer Leia said...
I love Ace of Cakes. Almost everyone on that show reminds me of people I went to art school with.
- February 15, 2009 at 2:39 PM
Hooray, we finally made your blog! And for a good reason!
Thanks for posting the cake! I can't wait to tell everyone at work tomorrow. We had an amazing time in Hawaii and it was such a thrill to meet the Lost cast and crew.
Hey Biff, to answer your question, it was almost all cake. The island, computer, and suitcase were all completely made of cake. The water was poured sugar. Pretty much the whole thing except the support to hold up the tree and the coconuts was edible.
Thanks for the shout out!
Mary Alice
Charm City Cakes
malice_AT_charmcitycakes.com - February 15, 2009 at 2:47 PM
I *love* this cake!! Not only is it from Duff, it's a LOST cake!!! I love the little Hugo/Hurley figurine. Yea Duff and Staff for a super cool cake!!!
- February 15, 2009 at 2:49 PM
This is cool, but I'd like a Heroes-themed cake!
- February 15, 2009 at 2:52 PM
I want this as a wedding cake.
That doesn't make me an crazy Lost fan does it? Does it?! - February 15, 2009 at 3:03 PM
I have to admit, even tho' the cakes are creative, beautiful, and sometimes genius... the all look kinda nasty. Like, I never see them bake an actual cake. Is it from a mix or from scratch? Do they do fillings like strawberry or lemon? Then they roll the fondant with their fingers... and I can't help but think it tastes like the sweat from their hands.
Which brings me to another point... who eats fondant? I mean, it looks good, but can you eat it? No. You gotta peel off the fondant first. There was one cake, the elephant one, where they just covered some Styrofoam to look like a pachyderm and then just cut of some sheet cake to spread around the base. That's cheating!
Don't get me wrong, I like the show. I know that traditional frosting has limitations and that fondant lends to endless possibilities. But just once, I'd like to see them bake an equally beautiful cake that looks good enough to eat, too. - February 15, 2009 at 4:57 PM
- Robin said...
Dear [deity of your choice], that's precious. I wonder if the cast members got to eat their fondant doppelgangers. (Tiny Sayid is adorably badass.) I love how creative the Charm City gang is.
For those complaining about the wonky scale: It's an artistic interpretation of a TV show in cake form, not an O-scale model train. What happened to your imaginations? Yeesh!
Also? Mary Alice drive-by! I luff her. (And Geof and Ben.) It's like a second-hand brush with fame. :) - February 15, 2009 at 5:31 PM
- Dennis said...
I'm sorry, but this seems like a pile-of-toys style wreck.
- February 15, 2009 at 5:32 PM
- Allie said...
I watch Ace of Cakes all the time and I have to say I also question how much of the cake is actually edible?! Today I was watching the show and they were making a Harry Potter cake...I saw a ton of styrofoam, wood, cardboard and of course a ton of fondant...so disappointing! I would love to see them make a cake made only of cake and decorated with frosting not fondant! Then I might be intersted in paying $1,000 for something that would be delicious!
- February 15, 2009 at 5:44 PM
I'd probably appreciate this cake more if I was a Lost fan, but considering I've never seen a single episode. . . Oh, well.
What really intrigued me was the article on Texas's safe cupcake legislation. I don't know if it's pronounced the same way as the candy company, but does anyone else see the irony in a nutrition professor with the last name of Nestle? Haha :D - February 15, 2009 at 5:56 PM
- Das Mutter said...
They could just make me a Sawyer cake and I would be quite fine. Fine oh fine! LOVED this! Thanks for sharing!
- February 15, 2009 at 6:28 PM
- Amy said...
Gotta love Duff! He's so very jolly. :)
- February 15, 2009 at 7:04 PM
- Dorothy said...
I like the cake and I watch Ace of Cakes almost religously. But, I had to send an email to them and tell them they should (just for the sake of us watching) show them WASHing thier hands once in awhile. I agree that there is way too much playing around and touching their face, etc. and going right back to touching something they expect someone to EAT!
- February 15, 2009 at 7:48 PM
- Donna M. said...
I just love love love Ace of Cakes. My dream is to get a Duff cake for some occasion.
I'm SO glad you featured them in Sunday Sweets. Now I think Duff needs to create a wreck just for the blog. You reading this Duff? *g* - February 15, 2009 at 8:35 PM
- Lisa Chin said...
Lost Ace of Cakes Cake! That is so cool! I think the little plane is suppose to be the drug dealers plane? I wonder if this episode has aired? I don't remember seeing it but I have missed a few Ace of Cakes lately.
- February 15, 2009 at 9:31 PM
- Nikoli said...
Cross pollenating the tv and interwebby! CharmCityCakes is cool! But I am quite surprised the Millennium Falcon cake didn't make the cut before this one. THAT was amazing. And hell yeah! Mary Alice commented! Party on Garth!
- February 15, 2009 at 9:35 PM
I am in love!! We are Losties here @ this house and miss satellite bc of Food Network, so to see this- I'm on cloud 9! tfs!!
- February 15, 2009 at 11:20 PM
- Miss Kolleen said...
i like Ace of Cakes, I love LOST, but Duff reminds me of my ex- boyfriend. And that is not a compliment at all. The way he laughs is dead on. Its awful.
- February 15, 2009 at 11:22 PM
- ROXYMUZAK said...
This is related to an older post, but I thought you might like to see this animated gif my friend ZS made:
Frightening, no? - February 15, 2009 at 11:23 PM
- A F said...
I'm going to leap to their defense and say that that little plane is actually Kate's toy plane from the episode where she killed her childhood sweetheart in the car crash, not the crashed plane they were on. Yeah, I am that geeky abou the show. I love LOST! This is a fab cake!
- February 15, 2009 at 11:54 PM
- Annaca said...
My 2 ultimate TV shows: LOST and Ace of Cakes. I was super excited when I saw this on Jorge's blog. Plus, how sweet is it that Mary Alice commented! Thanks for posting this cake Jen, you made my day :)
- February 16, 2009 at 12:17 AM
This looks SO cool!!! I LOVE it!!! The Dharma Beer is my favourite!
- February 16, 2009 at 2:48 AM
- Jo said...
That is one cool cake. Loving the characters! my favourite is Hurley. Seems a shame to eat it.
- February 16, 2009 at 7:01 AM
This is awesome. I didn't know Jorge Garcia had a blog. I have such a bizarre crush on that dude.
- February 16, 2009 at 10:01 AM
I really can't believe the anger people are feeling towards Charm City Cake's creations and feel the need to jump in.
Sure, it would be awesome if they could create super-intricate 3d models out of nothing but frosting and cake and therefore have everything on the board edible, but would you like to give it a try? Most of the things they make you *could not* make out of cake unless you had a million different support rods and such. Think of most of the things are really intricate caketoppers. You don't eat the little bride and groom, so why would you eat the dragon?
Also, frosting is simply ugly in 99% of the case. That's why the wrecks we see every day are almost always frosted, while the Sunday Sweets are almost always using fondant.
Furthermore you can eat fondant just fine, and if it's the right brand or homemade, it can actually taste pretty good. The reason you've heard you shouldn't eat fondant is that your bakery used a really low quality kind that tastes terrible *cough*Wilton*cough* and didn't want you to know and so told you it was inedible and should be peeled off.
Finnnnally, are you seriously complaining about them working the fondant with their hands? Have you never eaten freshly made bread or anything else made by someone else's hands? - February 16, 2009 at 10:35 AM
I don't understand why people are being so bitchy about Ace of Cakes... get your facts straight at least... you're complaining about fondants - you know all those "Sunday Sweets" that are posted? Made with fondant. I think they also ice all their cakes first in buttercream (?) and then fondant.. but honestly, I don't think you could make cakes that look that smooth without using fondant - and I don't know how else you suggest them putting it on the cake other than with their hands?!
To cijimcbride: While I'm not sure if they make the cakes from scratch (I assume so though) they come in all these flavours:
Also, I don't know where you got that info.. but, yes you CAN eat fondant. And that elephant cake you're referencing? Was for a ZOO, who specifically requested the elephant NOT be eaten as the zoo passing around pieces of slaughtered elephant cake to it's guest would be highly inappropriate, which explains the sheet cakes. Geez. - February 16, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Gah! I absolutely detest Ace of Cakes, they're unsanitary and I think they all act like they're on quaaludes. :| blah -
They cut styrofoam in the bakery, which is nasty and toxic, they cut wood in there too and the girls hair hangs down all over the cakes and has anyone else seen the episode when they're icing big cakes and get into a big icing fight, wiping icing all over each other's arms, then go back to icing the cakes!!! - February 16, 2009 at 10:44 AM
- Missy said...
Yay for Ace of Cakes - love that show!
My original comment was going to be that Charm City Cakes knew about you; I found cakewrecks a few months ago due to a posting by Mary Alice on their blog!
As far as the hygiene issues, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. We see 30 minutes out of the hours they spend working each week. Who wants to see them wash their hands multiple times per episode? That would be boring! - February 16, 2009 at 12:41 PM
- Kristin aka Trekkie Gal said...
Actually, the little plane on the side should be snapped into THREE pieces. ;)
- February 16, 2009 at 2:03 PM
- D. Moe said...
I'll utterly and delightfully surprised to see Cakey-oke on this blog since I made it. (I'm vibrating with delight to think that maybe even Mary Alice clicked on it!)
The rest of the series (moved from the defunct SuperDeluxe.com) is here: http://www.vimeo.com/album/65000 - February 16, 2009 at 2:12 PM
I have to agree with the minority as well. I don't see anything special about Ace of Cakes. Most of the Sunday sweets are fantastic cakes, but I don't get Charm city. Too cutesy, too cartoony, and to watch the show is torture. Just seems like everyone plays to the camera too much. But I also think I am so tired of "reality shows" Remember when food network used to show shows with real chefs who cooked?
- February 16, 2009 at 2:46 PM
I live in Baltimore, so I am extremely happy to see Charm City Cakes featured here.
I've got to say...I'm really puzzled by all the hate for CCC. First of all, they don't only do cartoony cakes. I'm presuming the people criticizing them for that have never taken a look at their site and all the classic cakes they do. Second, how much of the work they do wld really be posible without all the fondant? Also,good quality fondant isn't the nasty rap that low quality fondant is, and I'm pretty sure thy aren't using bad quality fondant for the prices they charge. Oh, and the ones that are mostly made of styrofoamand pipe and varius other things? Those were made like that because the clients have *asked* for them to be made that way, like the HP cake and the elephant cake. You can't fault them for doing what they were asked to do, right?
And 'm laughing at the fact that someone thinks CCC's cakes are too cutesy and cartoony. Uh...you *did* see the baby dragon cakes on Sunday Sweets, yes?
They actually do do quite a lot with the cake itself, pretty much every episode I'seen has involved a lot of carving of the cakes, not just fondant work.
Mybe Im biased, because I think frosting is usually completely digusting, but I'd muh rather have one of Duff's cakes with all the fondant than an iced one. All the best cakes are done in fondant rather than icing, anyway.Things like this:
http://media.photobucket.com/image/twilight%20cake/shelleymurdock/032.jpg?o=14 are what can hapen when people try to ue icing instead of fondant. Nasty. - February 16, 2009 at 9:38 PM
- Jessi said...
A tiny edible Desmond! *sigh*. I love him.
- February 16, 2009 at 9:49 PM
- Bethany James Leigh Shady said...
this cake ruled (i should know since i actually ate some). ace of cakes rules. jorge rules. i rule.
- February 16, 2009 at 10:38 PM
At first I thought this was a pick of a wreck. So funny to read how others feel the same as me. We watch Ace of Cakes here at my house just to laugh at the ridiculous "cakes" they make. They look horrible and we just cringe at all that touching and manipulating that is done, one cake took 40 hrs they said?? Never see them even refrigerate the things. I feel sort of sad for the customers when they see the cakes, all that money they paid, lol. The staff seem nice enough on the show, but it's like they're not in on the joke or something. I watch to hate, it's entertaining.
Mona - February 18, 2009 at 1:02 AM
- Momof4 said...
Thanks for the link to Jorge Garcia's blog. I was unaware that it existed. DH & I are huge LOST fans. I've spent hours reading Jorge's backlog of blogs. The guy is hilarious and I love his blog!
I've been a regular Cake Wrecks reader for several months now. Keep up the good work. :-) - February 18, 2009 at 9:21 PM
very nice cake, first i see like that Fred Smilek is the acting president of the Society to Save Endangered Species. It was founded two years ago by Fred Smilek along with his two best friends Charles and Jonathan. http://www.fredjsmilek.com
- February 26, 2009 at 3:13 PM
- ArchangelDecker said...
Love the blog, but hate Ace of Cakes. They are seemingly unable to produce ANYTHING that isn't covered in fondant, or does not have a plethora of styrofoam, wood, and/or non edible items.
If I am going to pay over a thousand dollars for a cake, it had damn well better be made out of CAKE and ENTIRELY edible!
Duff needs to look up Sylvia Weinstock. (http://www.sylviaweinstock.com/index_fl4.html).
THAT is how cake should be made. - February 27, 2009 at 11:39 AM
- Luis Corkern said...
- June 15, 2009 at 3:41 PM
I wish I could've worked on this cake...then the characters would look more like the real people and have a bit more 'life' to them. I love LOST...and I like Ace of Cakes...but I don't like their sugar figures. I've seen, and can do, much much better sugar sculpting.
- May 5, 2010 at 3:53 PM
- Cupcakes Lady said...
Very cool. How long does that take do you think? Im guessing, a long long time xx
- October 13, 2010 at 10:05 AM
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A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.
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Superchargers 101
A normally-aspirated 5.0L engine compresses just 3.75L-4.5L, lowest at high rpm. A supercharger ensures not only complete cylinder filling, but filling under pressure so that, with 8psi boost, around 1500cc can be squeezed in. Efficient atomization of the air/fuel mixture passing through the supercharger enables a cleaner burn so a leaner mixture can be used. The smoothness resulting from complete cylinder filling and efficient atomization reduces shock loading on bearings and bores, reducing wear for equivalent loads.
Downsides are that driving a supercharger consumes power; when air is compressed there is a heating effect which can counteract the benefits of compression; a supercharger requires space; and it is generally cheaper to fit a bigger engine.
The first patent application for a supercharger was by Rudolf Diesel in 1896. A supercharged car won its first motorsport event in 1908 and 100mph replicas of it were the first supercharged cars offered for sale. Superchargers developed rapidly with aero engines during the First World War and in the 1920s, a supercharger was the ultimate performance option on Mercedes SSKs and Bentleys, de rigeur for Grand Prix racers. 1930s Mercedes and Auto Union GP cars were using boost pressures up to 38psi through twin-stage supercharging. Post-war, supercharging became common for boosting torque on truck engines and a popular go-faster mod for smaller cars. It faded out of use as turbochargers took over in Europe. In the USA now, aftermarket superchargers are fitted to everything from motorcycles to hot rods, Mazda Miatas to Cobras.
How it works
A supercharger is an air pump. Turbochargers are air pumps driven by exhaust gases; here we are concerned with mechanically-driven superchargers. Early types were driven at engine speed directly off the front of the crankshaft; many used gear drive. Chain drive has also been employed, but belt drive is most common.
Until the 1930s, most superchargers pushed air through the carburetor into the engine, but leaks and heat build-up made placing the supercharger between carb and engine preferable. A blow-off valve is essential to absorb shock from a backfire; drives should always have shock absorption built in.
The Roots-type supercharger employs two precisely-engineered rotors turning in opposite directions, pulling air from one side of their housing and pushing it out of the other. The rotors are driven by gears in a separate lubricated chamber and do not quite touch each other or the housing walls, so friction is low. However, leakage can be considerable so competition blowers are often fitted with PTFE lip seals requiring frequent replacement.
General Motors developed helically-shaped (spiral) rotors to reduce the howling noise. The number of lobes on each rotor can be varied; Derek Chinn has found that two-lobe rotors give good low-down torque but power drops off at higher revs, four lobes are much stronger at the top end, while the three-lobe offers a good compromise.
The vane supercharger, unlike the Roots, compresses air as well as pumping it. It has a simple cylindrical body with inlet and outlet ports side by side. Turning inside the cylinder is an eccentrically-mounted drum. As the drum rotates, four flat steel vanes divide the space outside it into four separate chambers, each of which is squashed by the eccentric movement of the drum as it takes air from the inlet port to the outlet.
Vane compressors generate higher boost with less wastage; up to 30psi from Zoller blowers on pre-war MGs. Post-war, the concept was adopted by Christopher Shorrock, who made two sizes, C75B and C142B, aimed at 1000-1500cc and 1500-2000cc engines.
Centrifugal blowers are more suitable for aero engines, offering maximum boost at high revs but little lower down: use on BRM racing cars did nothing for their drivability. In 1958 Oberhausen of Atlanta launched an electric centrifugal supercharger running at 15,000rpm, providing 5psi boost; ideal for operation by a kickdown switch, it was offered as a DIY kit.
Plunger pump, or piston pump, blowers, operating on the same principle as a single cylinder engine, have been used, especially on two-strokes. Modern computer-controlled engineering has made more complex designs economically viable, including a Wankel-like two-lobed rotating piston in a rotating cylinder by KKK. Sprintex uses a screw compressor, in which a 'male' rotor with spiral lobes meshes with a 'female' rotor with spiral flutes, offering both pumping and compression; a similar Autorotor kit has been developed for classic MG and Mini applications (www.hi-flow.com). Volkswagen used a G-shaped spiral rotor oscillated by an eccentric drive within a fixed G-shaped spiral: driven to 10,200rpm, the small G40 unit generates over 10psi boost.
Classic Applications
Bolt-on supercharger kits were sold in the 1950s for cars from MG Y-type on, offering 20-25% boost in power and top speed. Austin, Austin-Healey, Bristol, Citroen, Fiat, Ford, Hillman, Land-Rover, MG, Mini, Morris, Panhard, Peugeot, Renault, Riley, Rover, Simca, Standard, Triumph, Vauxhall and VW installations were offered into the mid 1960s.
The days of cheap blowers at government surplus sales are over. If you find a supercharger kit secondhand, check it turns freely with no bearing noises, the inside of the housing is not badly scored, the trunnions are not loose and the vanes are securely rivetted. Adapting a secondhand supercharger from another car looks appealing, but you will need to make all the manifolding, brackets and drive pulleys and experiment with airflow, tuned lengths etc – not quick or cheap, but fun if you are so inclined.
Fitting a supercharger to a standard engine with below 8.5:1 compression ratio should require no modifications, though valve seats, guides, head gasket and cooling system (water and oil) will come under extra strain. On higher-tuned engines you must reduce the compression ratio, regrind the camshaft and revise the distributor advance curve. Of course, for ultimate performance from a supercharged engine (at the expense of fuel consumption and some flexibility), further modifications can be made.
On the road
Though power is not noticeably increased below 2000rpm, the benefits of a vane supercharger kit on an small engine are felt as soon as you start up. It quickly demonstrates its improved balance with smooth power delivery that can make a four-cylinder engine feel almost as silky as a six. Where the supercharger is most appreciated is on long inclines, where it really does feel as if a samller engine has been replaced by a larger one.
Published Dec 7th, 2015


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By TOM MURPHY and CATHERINE LUCEY
Associated Press
That little voice nagging you to put down the cake and lace up the running shoes is increasingly coming from your employer and is likely to grow louder with a looming change under the federal health care overhaul.
More companies are starting or expanding wellness programs that aim to reduce their medical costs by improving their employees' health. They're asking workers to take physical exams, complete detailed health assessments and focus on controlling conditions such as diabetes. Along with that, many companies also are dangling the threat of higher monthly insurance premiums to prod workers into action.
The Affordable Care Act is one reason the programs are spreading. The federal law calls for a 40 percent tax on expensive benefit plans starting in 2018, and many companies that offer employer-based coverage already have begun looking for ways to lower costs and avoid that tax.
"It is a very powerful … visible wake-up call to all employers," said Helen Darling, chief executive of the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit organization that represents large employers on health care issues.
Businesses see wellness programs as a win for themselves and their workers. But studies have shown that the programs have a limited ability to reduce costs. They also raise concerns about privacy and discrimination against older workers or those who are more likely to have chronic conditions.
Penalties also can hit lower-wage workers harder than they would executives because premiums already consume a larger portion of those workers' paychecks.
"The top-line concern is that it has a huge potential to be discriminatory," said Lydia Mitts, a health policy analyst with the nonprofit Families USA.
Benefits consultants say federal regulations help guard against that. Companies can be penalized under the overhaul for offering coverage that is considered unaffordable.
Businesses also are required to offer alternatives that help workers avoid penalties like a higher premium because they can't meet a wellness program goal.
Despite employee concerns, the idea of prevention as a way to reduce health care costs has been largely embraced by employers, who provide the most common form of health insurance in the U.S.
For years, they have offered gift cards, cash and other rewards to employees who agree to get physical exams, fill out health assessments or take other steps to monitor their health. The goal is to at least make workers more aware of their health, and it worked for Roy Simmons, a 55-year-old nuclear power plant manager for energy provider Dominion Resources Inc.
Dominion started offering a $400 premium credit a couple of years ago for employees who agreed to have a health assessment, so Simmons had basics such as his weight and cholesterol measured. He then forgot about the numbers until a reminder arrived last year. Another physical told him he had gained 40 pounds and his cholesterol was up.
"That was a bit of a wake-up call for me," said Simmons, who manages a Dominion plant near Williamsburg, Va. "I didn't know it had happened to me. I know that sounds stupid, but I wasn't paying attention to it, and it just snuck up on me."
Simmons cut junk food from his diet and asked his college football-playing son to become a workout partner over the summer. He has since dropped the weight.
Benefits experts say companies haven't seen enough cases like Simmons', in which an incentive helps nudge an employee to participate in a wellness program, so some employers have started using penalties.
These penalties most often stick employees who do not participate with larger premiums or deductibles, but they also can come in the form of a straight monthly surcharge, deducted from paychecks.
A survey of nearly 600 large U.S. companies by benefits consultant Towers Watson found that 22 percent of companies that use financial incentives to encourage wellness program participation structured them as penalties. That's up from 18 percent last year.
"There's going to be more of your skin in the game," said Michael Wood, a Towers Watson senior consultant. "If you help us control costs, uses the system wisely, you will be rewarded."
Companies also are moving beyond rewarding or penalizing employees simply for participating. More are requiring workers to reach a health goal such as improved blood pressure, said Beth Umland, director of health and benefits research for the benefits consultant Mercer.
Whether the various versions of wellness programs are achieving their intended effect _ reducing a company's health costs _ is a matter of debate.
The average annual premium for employer-sponsored family health coverage topped $16,000 last year, according to the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health care issues. Employers, who pay most of that bill, have watched that figure climb faster than inflation for years, and it has more than doubled since 2002.
Rand Corp. researchers studied several years of data from a PepsiCo wellness program to determine how it affected health care costs. They reported in the January issue of Health Affairs that disease management programs, which helped people with chronic conditions, reduced hospital admissions and lowered costs.
But programs that simply tried to make employees live a healthier lifestyle did not, and the researchers said companies should not assume those programs will lower costs.
At the same time, the programs have begun generating a backlash from employees.
Last fall, faculty and staff at Penn State University objected to new wellness requirements that the university was eventually forced to modify. After significant pushback, the university said it would not institute a $100 monthly charge for people who failed to complete a series of activities, including a detailed online questionnaire.
"They asked about pregnancy, they asked if men were doing testicular exams, they asked about depression, they asked about violence in the home," said Matthew Woessner, a professor of political science at the Harrisburg campus. "It was an incredible invasion of privacy."
CVS Caremark Corp. employee Roberta Watterson has filed a lawsuit in California against her company over a wellness program that offers a $600 annual premium break for participants.
The cashier's lawsuit accuses the company of asking personal questions in its survey, including whether its employees are sexually active. Watterson also alleged that blood work performed in the exam is used to flag employees who are at risk for certain conditions. She declined to comment on her case.
CVS spokeswoman Carolyn Castel said the company offers a lower premium for employees who complete a health assessment and screening. She said an outside company designed the questionnaire her company uses, and CVS had asked it to "remove certain questions" before Watterson filed her complaint.
She also said CVS management cannot see employee-specific information compiled in the wellness exams.
Having an outside business run the wellness program is a common way for companies to counter privacy concerns. The vendor can tell a company about trends, such as whether it has a lot of employees with high blood pressure, so the employer can implement programs to address that. But it is not supposed to share details about individual employees.
State and federal laws are designed to prevent employers from seeing employees' specific responses or health statistics.


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Buddha with Glowing Candles Hamper
A Buddha bathed in the glow of beautiful candles is an endearing sight to the eyes. Treat your loved ones to this by gifting them this hamper containing a buddha head(15 cm) and 2 ball candles(5 cm). This gift will be loved and appreciated and is worth investing in.
Product: Buddha hamper
Theme: Buddha hampers
Contents: buddha head(15 cm) + 2 ball candles (5 cm)
Product Weight: 450gm
Package Weight: 500gm
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Country of Origin: India
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With the above details given in the description & Key features, Customer is made fully aware that the mastheads or titles of any publication is only for fun purpose, and the product is fake / spoof product and not real newsprint, thus any misrepresentation is strictly prohibited. All the content/specifications that are provided by the customers are for creating fun moments in the form of gift.
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We now invite you to join us for part 1 of our 5-part series entitled "Dirk Schröder: Expanding Limits – Living Full of Light" on Between Master and Disciples.
A travel journalist, author, photographer, and lecturer, Dirk Schröder has been experimenting with
and conducting research into living food-free since 2004. He is the author of the book "Nourished by Light, Expanding Limits- Living Full of Light," as well as the recently completed "Good-bye to Eating, Nibbling is OK." In these books, he documents his personal journey, including discussions with spiritual healers, medical doctors, fasting specialists, and pranic living experts, Dr. Michael Werner and Jasmuheen. Born in Altena/Northrhine-Westfalia, Germany in 1954, Dirk Schröder has always been interested
in expanding the limits of the human mind and body. In fact, it was this interest that led him to resign
from his first job.
Herr Schröder(m):
I studied electrical engineering and am an engineer. I have always wanted to do something that benefits other people. I landed at Siemens and had an employee who had been there since his apprenticeship. I worked with him until he went on retirement. I saw what had happened to this man. It was such a negative model that I said to myself, "No, Dirk, you do not want to end up this way." And then my career changed rapidly. I resigned. I decided to write travel guides, and no one would have believed this because I always got a 4 or 5 in my German language. And my parents, the people around me,
threw their hands up in dismay, saying, "What is the matter with him?"But I got such a joy from this idea. To travel around a country for weeks and months, exploring down to the smallest detail. At that time, I had a girlfriend who was good in languages and so she could correct my grammar and I said,
"Okay, we'll do it."And since then my life had really changed. I have done things that gave me pleasure.
In the beginning I made no money, but I was just happy with what I was doing.
And so I have realized that it is important to do what is right and consistent for me.


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Our long time sheep shearer called two weeks ago to say that due to physical problems (the dangers of farming!) he's been forced to retire. I have no idea who is going to shear our sheep from now on, and I'm pretty proud of myself for not totally freaking out (yet). We still have a little time to figure out that problem.
Friday Farm Fixes Part Two


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Hyun-Jin Ryu (13-5, 3.02) vs. Patrick Corbin (13-6, 2.97).
The magic number is 6. The World Series champion Giants are one game away from post-season elimination, completing their slide from first to (likely) worst within a season. Kind of like a reverse-Red Sox. The Dodgers are in line to clinch the division as early as this weekend, which will kick off a celebration that will make the above pictures look like a warmup. It's getting nearer. Can you feel it?


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