text:
Become a City Producer
Interested in becoming a city producer? Great! It's a fun and rewarding experience. Many of our city producers have been doing it for years and say the team of worldwide colleagues is like a family.
The 48HFP city producer organizes cool and exciting film events and screenings for filmmakers, helps cultivate the local film community, and becomes a key player in one of the largest and most respected networks of independent filmmakers and producers around the world.
How It Works
48HFP producers are important business partners with the global 48 Hour Film Project organization. It's almost like running your own small business or franchise. We provide the training, guidance and support, and the 48HFP name and operational systems that have been successful in over 130 different cities all around the world.
Producers make money from the film screening events and sponsorships. They are responsible for the costs of running the events (things like theater rental, film mastering, etc.) and pay a producer's fee to the global 48HFP at the end of the event. It's a lot of hard work, there is some financial risk involved, but the vast majority of producers that follow our 48HFP business models and guidance are able to make a profit from their work.
Position Requirements
Our producers are individuals or organizations with strong ties to the local film community. They are filmmakers, producers, actors, event planners, film groups, and the makers and shakers of the indie film world. A successful producer candidate will have many of the following qualities:
- experience in and passion for the independent film/media industry
- excellent organizational and communication skills
- an existing network of personal and professional contacts with groups, businesses, and individuals in the film, media, and arts communities
- lives in or near the 48HFP city/metro area that they would be producing
- previous festival and/or event planning experience
- creativity and problem-solving skills
- comfortable with technology (email, social media, Skype, Dropbox, Word software, etc.- experience in film & photo editing is a plus)
- the willingness to put in the time and effort to make the 48HFP a great event for local filmmakers
- the determination to rise above challenges to become a successful city producer
The producer's duties and expectations include (but are not limited to) the following:
- overall organization and on-site management of all local competition events including Kickoff & Dropoff, Premiere and Best Of screenings, and industry networking events
- outreach via email, social media, attendance at events, etc. to individual filmmakers, film groups, professional organizations, and arts groups.
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Compensation & Benefits
As anyone working in the film industry probably already knows, the work of the producer can be tough, intense, and often thankless, while still being one of the most exhilarating and rewarding experiences of your life. In addition to that experience, the 48HFP is happy to offer the following benefits:
- revenue share of income from all screenings
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It is a great way to meet filmmakers in your city and to make a name for yourself.
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text:
Dr. Grumpy: "Hi, I bought this battery around Christmas, and it's dead now."
Counter guy: "Hang on, let me check it..." (connects a gadget to battery) "Hey, your battery is dead."
Dr. Grumpy: "Yeah."
Counter guy: "Were you able to start your car with this?"
Dr. Grumpy: "No."
Counter guy: "That's because it's dead."
Dr. Grumpy: "That's why I brought it in."
Counter guy: "Yeah, it's good that you did, because it's dead. Looks like it's under warranty. Did you want another one?"
Dr. Grumpy: "Yes."
Counter guy: "Okay. You'll need one, because this one is dead. It won't start a car."
Dr. Grumpy: "I'll just take a new one."
Counter guy: "Let me get you one. I wouldn't continue using this one, because it's dead."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Curated by Paul Haeberli
Welcome to Alpha 0.52 of GRAFICA Obscura, my evolving computer
graphics notebook. This is a compilation of technical notes,
pictures and essays that I've accumulated over the years. For
maximum enjoyment, check the viewing notes provided.
The GRAFICA Outpost
Come see experiments in progress in the GRAFICA Outpost. Rants, CGI hacks, the FIAT LUX conference
proceedings and many harmless distractions.
Future AdditionsThis material will be presented here in the future. In the mean time, please explore.


text:
Thank you so much for the warm welcome-back! As Sal would say, you guys rock socks! It feels great to Wing-It again! :)
Is it Halloweegan yet?... How 'bout now?... How 'bout now?... Now?... Now? Oh, come on! I am SO ready for it! *sigh* A couple of days ago I organized all the old Halloweegan posts into a neat index and it only made me long for the spooky season even more.
Speaking of neatly organized indexes, I also made one for the E.A.T World challenge and it was awesome to see just how many entries there have been so far! It's never too late to participate, there are no deadlines or rules and anybody is welcome to join us and play! :)
Anyway, have you ever been to Yellowstone National Park? Mr. Wing-It and I have been there five times and it never gets old! There was one disappointing trip when most of the animals were hiding and there wasn't much to see there for a couple of seasoned Yellowstone visitors like us, but that was the only time that it wasn't as exciting as it normally is. This year we weren't lucky enough to see bears or baby moose, but it doesn't take much to keep us entertained!
This year we were entertained by this dashing raven:
Isn't he handsome? He was happy to pose for the camera in exchange for peanuts, so I took lots of pictures of his shiny awesomeness. You can click on the pictures if you want to see their larger versions (clicking on them takes you to my flickr account)
Overexposed! I think this guy has pretty much perfected the Magnum. He was such a dashing raven that I even made a little video of him being a total rock star. It's 48 seconds long, and just in case you're at work - you might want to mute it because it has a fun song playing in the background! :)
**Blogger is now being a cretin and the video might not play properly**
**OK, I had to remove the video because it's messing up the whole blog. You can still watch it here though! :) **
We also saw this pretty crane that flew away seconds after I took the picture. His wingspan was huge, I wish I could have photographed that!
UPDATE: A-K just told me that this is actually a great blue heron. Thank you A-K! :)
Look at this tiny beaver! It's a terrible picture because I had to zoom in all the way and it was windy and shaky, but I still think you can see the cuteness all the way from here! :)
There seemed to be a shortage of buffalo this year. Every time we go there we get stuck in a buffalo-jam, but this year the roads were almost buffalo-free everywhere. The few buffalo that we saw looked a little sad, I think they were ready for springtime to come and melt the snow away.
The views in the northern part of the park were beautiful! Everything was white and snowy and shimmery!
It makes me wish it was winter already! Can't get enough of Yellowstone? Wish you were there? Maybe this will help - I made a separate page with Yellowstone pictures that we have taken through the years. There are baby animals, itchy buffalo, sleepy elk, some nice sceneries, and more Yellowstone goodness!
We are in Detroit now, and luckily we are leaving tomorrow - this city a far cry from the loveliness of Yellowstone. Did I mention that I am not a big city girl? *hermit*


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Michelle P. & Callie H., I'm totally itching for some Lucky Charms right now. Don't tell anybody.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Magically Delicious?
Monday, March 9, 2009
Michelle P. & Callie H., I'm totally itching for some Lucky Charms right now. Don't tell anybody.
53 comments | Post a Comment
- wegrit said...
Are those flames falling from his face (or possibly climbing up it...)?
- March 9, 2009 at 9:39 AM
- jengersnap said...
Aye, he be stealing me pot o'...self tanning cream? Sigh. Diversity strikes even the little fellas.
- March 9, 2009 at 9:44 AM
Those leprechauns are just plain wrong. The first one needs a good barber.
And the second one has been eating too much catsup and forgotten to wipe his mouth. (Oh, no! Maybe it's a vampire leprechaun and it's blood. Don't want to leave out too many minorities here.) - March 9, 2009 at 9:47 AM
- The Imaginary Reviewer said...
I had no idea that leprechauns were considered offensive...I guess the horror films about the murderous little Oirish person did nothing to help this.
Actually, I think the Irish people I know are more offended by the tendency of Americans to consider themselves "Irish" when they're actually 1/256th Emerald-Islander. - March 9, 2009 at 9:48 AM
- mamagotcha said...
That first one's not a leprechaun... it's clearly an Oompa Loompa.
- March 9, 2009 at 9:59 AM
- Feisty Irish Wench said...
The first one looks more like a teddy bear with a policeman's cap and flames on the chin.
And thankfully I really AM 50% Irish, I'm not TOO diluted. - March 9, 2009 at 10:06 AM
- Kara said...
I was thinking that the first one was an animal of some kind, but your description works, too.
- March 9, 2009 at 10:24 AM
A post related to my St. Patrick's Day! I love it! (that's also my birthday). Those poor.....leprechauns?
- March 9, 2009 at 10:29 AM
- Amy Siegert said...
The first little guy looks like he's wearing a police hat. Be he Officer O'Malley or Sheriff Seamus??
- March 9, 2009 at 10:31 AM
- Unknown said...
Those are the weirdest Leprechauns I've ever seen..
~Amy B - March 9, 2009 at 10:33 AM
I don't know, the first one is kind of cute. Not necessarily appetizing, but cute.
- March 9, 2009 at 10:38 AM
Wow. They just can't leave ANYTHING alone!
WV- mensmist. I'd write a sentence, but I don't think I need to. - March 9, 2009 at 10:51 AM
- Beppy said...
Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions. Cake! Everybody loves cakes! Cakes have layers. You know what else everybody likes? Parfaits. Have you ever met a person, you say, "Let's get some parfait," they say, "Hell no, I don't like no parfait"? Parfaits are delicious. Parfaits may probably be the most delicious thing on the whole damn planet!
- March 9, 2009 at 10:54 AM
- Unknown said...
That first one is just so wrong I don't even know where to start!
On the second one, I can't get past the obscene blobs they used for a border...they remind me of multicolored intestines or something. The "filler" on the hat actually looks like shallots/green onions. And those eyebrows.... !!! - March 9, 2009 at 11:05 AM
OMG, the cookie totally reminds me of Conan O'Brien! I miss Late Night already. Maybe if the producers pick up on it, it will be featured on the Tonight Show when he takes over in a few months.
- March 9, 2009 at 11:06 AM
- The Courteous Chihuahua said...
More like "Magically Demented"...
- March 9, 2009 at 11:14 AM
- Benjamin said...
Looks like somebody needs a hot towel and a splash of Barbasol...
The CCC strikes again!
-Benjamin - March 9, 2009 at 11:38 AM
- the ginabean said...
it's pretty neat how the decorator covered ALL her bases on that first leprechaun. wowzer.
i'm frightened of cake #2... - March 9, 2009 at 11:38 AM
- Viewtiful_Justin said...
Oh my. That second one looks miffed. I guess I'd be too if I knew I was gonna be eaten...
- March 9, 2009 at 11:39 AM
- Doublebanker said...
Flaming face....or a beard?
Daily Gif blog
DB - March 9, 2009 at 11:50 AM
- Scott Family said...
How about that magical uni-brow?
- March 9, 2009 at 11:57 AM
- Scott Family said...
shag carpet beard!!
- March 9, 2009 at 11:58 AM
- Pilgrim said...
Makes me want to watch Darby O'Gil and the Little People now.
Oh wait... they're not little people.
Oh wait...are they? Are they just short? No...I'M short.
Were Darby O'Gil's friends true leprechauns?
Great...now I've got to go Google it.
While eating some Lucky Charms. Magically Delicious, you know.
I'm so confused. Its hard to be politically correct ALL the time.... - March 9, 2009 at 12:49 PM
The first one is clearly one of the Black Irish.
- March 9, 2009 at 12:58 PM
- Squidley said...
Maliciously Delicious? :)
- March 9, 2009 at 1:07 PM
- Unknown said...
What, no rant about how terrible CCC's are? :P
Katharina - March 9, 2009 at 1:41 PM
- the un-bride said...
"ear-knob" is now officially my favorite word.
- March 9, 2009 at 1:54 PM
I agree, the second one looks more like a veggie tray with that lumpy border & the shallots for a hat! :P
The first one looks more like a Smurf than a leprechan.
WV: hagge - not much more I need to add to that. LOL. - March 9, 2009 at 2:06 PM
- Hungarican Chick said...
I had no idea chef hats came in a St. Patty's day theme... Maybe that first flamey-faced one will whip us up some erin-go-bragh potato alien plantain cupcakes.
- March 9, 2009 at 2:21 PM
- Scritzy said...
If I were presented with such a horrible excuse for a leprechaun cake, I would tell the giver to kiss my ...
Blarney Stone! - March 9, 2009 at 2:41 PM
- SexyIrishLeprechaun said...
I gotta say, I can appreciate wrecked cakes in the shape of Leprechauns, maybe more then most :P
- March 9, 2009 at 2:47 PM
- Heidi D said...
I think I'll pop on over to my neighborhood bakery and see what creations they have. Maybe I'll get lucky. ; }
I think I need lunch too, I am not so concerned by the way they look today...I just want to eat them...yup, definitely hungry. - March 9, 2009 at 2:52 PM
I think my wordver says it all: bulucch!
heh heh.
-Deb - March 9, 2009 at 3:42 PM
- J said...
Sadly, the worst thing about the first one was NOT that it was made of cupcakes.
- March 9, 2009 at 3:46 PM
- Valerie said...
I thought only ogres have layers! ;)
Valerie - March 9, 2009 at 3:58 PM
- Bee said...
"They've got layers, I tell you, layers. Like an onion."
Was that Shrek reference intentional or not? XDD - March 9, 2009 at 4:41 PM
the first is not only ethically diverse, but also symbolizes interfaith dialogue. Why else would you see earlocks on a Catholic icon? I wonder if it's kosher...
- March 9, 2009 at 5:14 PM
That first one appears to be hiding behind a piece of the orange shag rug from my first house. Perhaps he's just embarrassed that he overslept on the tanning bed this morning.
- March 9, 2009 at 5:45 PM
- sendingtheclowns said...
Now, where have I seen ears such as those on that first thing before??? Oh, yes! NOW I remember--they were on old Clementine, the cow. (She was a good old girl, that one...)
So I see that as long as Leprechauns are purely legendary /mythical, or what-have-you, pretty much anything goes as far as exact descriptions and such...but, Holy sheep sheet(!!!)--that second "cake" is 100% pure pitiful. There is no imagineable excuse for its existence whatsoever. Plug-ugly! I cannot even imagine anyone paying actual money for that hideousity!!
>^!!^< - March 9, 2009 at 7:26 PM
- SimsAI Curator said...
..AND he's wearing Goofy's hat! ^_^ I wish it had the long, black ears hanging down the side.
- March 9, 2009 at 7:55 PM
- Christina (BookTasty) said...
The first one is obviously Turk from SCRUBS in the episode where he was an "Irish Brotha'"! hehehe
- March 9, 2009 at 8:29 PM
They need to work from quality source art for accuracy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8 - March 9, 2009 at 9:00 PM
- Nonna said...
Both are hideous, but they probably taste good...
- March 9, 2009 at 9:01 PM
- Unknown said...
thought you'd like this. i'm not sure what it is? but i think it's a diaper cake. i mean, i hope, for your sake, and the worlds. oh, and it's for st. patties day, and i'm irish and my captcha right now says gumbo and i live in louisiana. isn't that cool?
http://cgi.ebay.com/ST-PATRICKS-DAY-DIAPER-CAKE-WITH-SIZE-2-DIAPERS_W0QQitemZ380109356374QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item380109356374&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205|66%3A4|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A200 - March 9, 2009 at 9:53 PM
the first one has a goofy hat:D
- March 9, 2009 at 10:08 PM
- Helen + ilana = Hi said...
Colm Meaney...........
well you asked what I think of when I think Leprauchan - March 10, 2009 at 12:10 AM
- twinkle teaches said...
I love the mean leprechaun. :)
tina - March 10, 2009 at 8:33 AM
The second one is a lecher-chaun. Ba-dum-bump. Thank you folks, I'm here all week.
- March 10, 2009 at 8:58 PM
- Susie said...
What about that last one makes me think of a vegetable platter? It's all carrots and celery and broccoli to me. Very appetizing on top of a cookie, no?
- March 11, 2009 at 1:22 AM
- Ellie... said...
HAHAHAHA !!!! I thought the first one too was an animal
- March 11, 2009 at 6:38 PM
The non-titular one of the two protagonists of the Artemis Fowl books by Irish children's author Eoin Colfer is a dark-skinned leprechaun, but her hair is auburn, not carroty (leprechaun is only a profession in those books, her species is elf). Not that that excuses the first one's beard or ears, or the second at all.
- March 12, 2009 at 1:54 AM
- Jacalyn said...
My husband thinks the second one looks genocidal...not just homicidal, but genocidal...
-Jax - March 12, 2009 at 3:21 PM
That one on the bottom looks like Mr. Mxyzptlk with a beard (sort of) and a green hat.
Bruce T. - March 12, 2009 at 7:04 PM
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Paleoconservatives. The American Conservative has become one of the more dynamic spots on the political Web. Writers like Rod Dreher and Daniel Larison tend to be suspicious of bigness: big corporations, big government, a big military, concentrated power and concentrated wealth.Rod Dreher has told his readers that the Catholic Church child-raping scandals are really the fault of liberals ("One wonders if the leadership of the national Catholic churches... assimilated any of this so-called progressivism in the way they thought about sexuality"); that he keeps a gun in his house because he's afraid of gay people; that he thinks a bride who shows a tattoo on her wedding day is a slut; that "I probably have, re: fundamental morals, more in common with the first 500 people I'd meet in Cairo, Damascus or Tehran than the first 500 people I'd meet in Park City, UT, during festival time," etc.
Also, Dreher defines his visits to the gym as "living out a conservative principle of taking personal responsibility and making hard but necessary changes to live within my means." Here's Dreher on integration: "People -- black, white, brown, rich, middle-class, poor, Christian, secular, etc. -- naturally want to be around people like themselves." And Lord, how he hates gay people.
I've been covering this guy for years, and if there's a more miserable, small-minded God-botherer out there I hope I never come across him. This is Brooks' leadoff hitter.
Daniel Larison's all right. I assume Brooks included him as a red herring.
Lower-Middle Reformists. Reihan Salam, a writer for National Review, E21 and others, recently pointed out that there are two stories about where the Republican Party should go next. There is the upper-middle reform story: Republicans should soften their tone on the social issues to win over suburban voters along the coasts.This sounds more reasonable than the Salam I've read, who believes that to reform American culture the Right Sort must "outbreed the people you hate most"; compares the fining of BP for environmental crime to the slaughter of Native Americans; argues that flexible work arrangements for women in the workplace are the real tyranny, and woman-stay-home-take-care-of-baby the real freedom, etc. Plus he writes shit like this:
This leads me to my central fixation, which is the notion that most of our political and social conflicts are best understood as gang wars between people with different kinds of capital — people with cultural capital waging war on people with economic capital, or people with erotic capital deploying it to gain access to economic or cultural or social capital, and so forth.This guy deserves not a plug in the Times, but a wedgie.
Ramesh Ponnuru of National Review has argued for family-friendly tax credits and other measures that reinforce middle-class dignity.When it was pointed out to him that Red State family dysfunction was worse than Blue State family dysfunction, Ponnuru blamed it on black people. He is also the author of a book called The Party of Death: The Democrats, the Media, the Courts, and the Disregard for Human Life.
Soft Libertarians. Some of the most influential bloggers on the right, like Tyler Cowen, Alex Tabarrok and Megan McArdle...Aaaaagggh! I give up. This reminds me of that bit from Annie Hall: "They give awards for that kind of music? I thought just earplugs."
UPDATE. I guess I should point to some McArdle Greatest Hits for the out-of-town crowd. OK, here's McArdle on why helping is futile ("It's all too common for well-meaning middle-class people to think that if the poor just had the same stuff we do, they wouldn't be poor any more"); on who the real victim is between the riches and the poors ("I doubt Occupy Wall Street will be assuaged by learning that the top 0.1% now only receive 8% of the income earned in the US, even if that number is the lowest it's been since 2003"); on how the exportation of manufacturing jobs to Chinese slave labor camps and resulting loss of jobs in the U.S. is a great trade because we get cheap crap ("I say to people, 'Why are you upset that the Chinese want to give us excessively cheap goods?' This is like a free gift from them to us. And we should be like, thank you, happy birthday!"); why giving health care to geezers is a big rip-off ("Moreover, as a class, the old and sick have some culpability in their ill health"), etc.
UPDATE II. Commenter mortimer makes a point about Brooks' full list: "Heather Mac Donald is 56, Tyler Cowen is 50, Dreher is 45, and most of the rest of Brooks' "young writers and bloggers" are in their mid- to late 40's. Even little Janie Galt is about to turn 40. .. If these boys and their ideas get any longer in the tooth they'll have to be put down."
Yeah. Despite Brooks' guff about how "these diverse writers did not grow up in the age of Reagan and are not trying to recapture it," they all clearly proceed from Reaganite premises: The market is the ultimate good, the poor are poor due to cultural rather than economic factors, and you better be nice to the fundamentalists because they're loaded.
But what really young jacks could Brooks have included? There's always the Kids from McArdle, Jane Galt's replacement crew during her frequent vacations, including Courtney Knapp, author of "Let's Abolish Tipping" (though to be fair she just wants to social-engineer the restaurant world, not stiff waiters for thought crimes like the Go Galt crowd), Tim B. Lee, who thinks toll roads are slavery, Katherine Mangu-Ward, who applauds the "university" Wal-Mart created for its employees (she went to Yale) and wonders why we consider jobs in America better than jobs in China, et alia. Brooks wouldn't have to worry about them growing out of it -- as long as wingnut welfare exists, they'll have no motivation to do so.


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Panetta Reassures Afghans On U.S. Training Role, Possibly Beyond 2014
The bulk of the U.S. military force in Afghanistan is slated to leave the country by 2014. But the Pentagon is willing to keep some Americans there to train Afghan forces, according to a report by NPR's Tom Bowman.
Here's Tom's report for NPR's Newscast:
"Afghan Defense Minister Adbul Rahim Wardak says his country is looking for an enduring long-term relationship with the United States. And part of the relationship centers on training and equipping Afghan soldiers and police."
"The U.S. already has spent billions of dollars doing just that. But Afghan interior minister Bismillah Khan, speaking through an interpreter, told reporters there are still gaps."
"'We did receive assurances especially from the secretary of Defense that this training gap and this equipment gap will be filled,' Khan says. 'Again, he reiterated his commitment, particularly as we approach 2014 and past 2014.'"
"A senior Defense official confirmed Panetta has indicated a willingness to help the Afghans."
Panetta hosted Afghan officials in Washington Tuesday — an event that the Afghans reportedly used to urge the Pentagon not to leave their country entirely. Afghanistan is supposed to take full responsibility for its security after 2014.
The news that America might extend its role in Afghanistan after it ends its current combat mission comes after several months of reports of attacks on international forces — including some that were carried out by Afghan soldiers.
This past January, a member of Afghanistan's army killed four French soldiers who were in the country on a training mission — an event that led France to "suspend its training operations in Afghanistan and say it may withdraw all its forces from the country," as Mark wrote for The Two-Way.
That incident coincided with a New York Times report on a rise in deadly attacks by Afghan soldiers on U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan.
If it comes to pass, a sustained U.S. training effort in Afghanistan could mirror the approach to withdrawing American troops from Iraq, which was completed last December.
According to a BBC report marking that event, "The only US military presence left in Iraq now is 157 soldiers responsible for training at the US embassy, as well as a small contingent of marines protecting the diplomatic mission."


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I do not know exactly how to characterize the class of proofs that interests me, so let me give some examples and say why I would be interested in more. Perhaps what the examples have in common is that a powerful and unexpected technique is introduced that comes to seem very natural once you are used to it.
Example 1. Euler's proof that there are infinitely many primes.
If you haven't seen anything like it before, the idea that you could use analysis to prove that there are infinitely many primes is completely unexpected. Once you've seen how it works, that's a different matter, and you are ready to contemplate trying to do all sorts of other things by developing the method.
Example 2. The use of complex analysis to establish the prime number theorem.
Even when you've seen Euler's argument, it still takes a leap to look at the complex numbers. (I'm not saying it can't be made to seem natural: with the help of Fourier analysis it can. Nevertheless, it is a good example of the introduction of a whole new way of thinking about certain questions.)
Example 3. Variational methods.
You can pick your favourite problem here: one good one is determining the shape of a heavy chain in equilibrium.
Example 4. Erdős's lower bound for Ramsey numbers.
One of the very first results (Shannon's bound for the size of a separated subset of the discrete cube being another very early one) in probabilistic combinatorics.
Example 5. Roth's proof that a dense set of integers contains an arithmetic progression of length 3.
Historically this was by no means the first use of Fourier analysis in number theory. But it was the first application of Fourier analysis to number theory that I personally properly understood, and that completely changed my outlook on mathematics. So I count it as an example (because there exists a plausible fictional history of mathematics where it was the first use of Fourier analysis in number theory).
Example 6. Use of homotopy/homology to prove fixed-point theorems.
Once again, if you mount a direct attack on, say, the Brouwer fixed point theorem, you probably won't invent homology or homotopy (though you might do if you then spent a long time reflecting on your proof).
The reason these proofs interest me is that they are the kinds of arguments where it is tempting to say that human intelligence was necessary for them to have been discovered. It would probably be possible in principle, if technically difficult, to teach a computer how to apply standard techniques, the familiar argument goes, but it takes a human to invent those techniques in the first place.
Now I don't buy that argument. I think that it is possible in principle, though technically difficult, for a computer to come up with radically new techniques. Indeed, I think I can give reasonably good Just So Stories for some of the examples above. So I'm looking for more examples. The best examples would be ones where a technique just seems to spring from nowhere -- ones where you're tempted to say, "A computer could never have come up with that."
Edit: I agree with the first two comments below, and was slightly worried about that when I posted the question. Let me have a go at it though. The difficulty with, say, proving Fermat's last theorem was of course partly that a new insight was needed. But that wasn't the only difficulty at all. Indeed, in that case a succession of new insights was needed, and not just that but a knowledge of all the different already existing ingredients that had to be put together. So I suppose what I'm after is problems where essentially the only difficulty is the need for the clever and unexpected idea. I.e., I'm looking for problems that are very good challenge problems for working out how a computer might do mathematics. In particular, I want the main difficulty to be fundamental (coming up with a new idea) and not technical (having to know a lot, having to do difficult but not radically new calculations, etc.). Also, it's not quite fair to say that the solution of an arbitrary hard problem fits the bill. For example, my impression (which could be wrong, but that doesn't affect the general point I'm making) is that the recent breakthrough by Nets Katz and Larry Guth in which they solved the Erdős distinct distances problem was a very clever realization that techniques that were already out there could be combined to solve the problem. One could imagine a computer finding the proof by being patient enough to look at lots of different combinations of techniques until it found one that worked. Now their realization itself was amazing and probably opens up new possibilities, but there is a sense in which their breakthrough was not a good example of what I am asking for.
While I'm at it, here's another attempt to make the question more precise. Many many new proofs are variants of old proofs. These variants are often hard to come by, but at least one starts out with the feeling that there is something out there that's worth searching for. So that doesn't really constitute an entirely new way of thinking. (An example close to my heart: the Polymath proof of the density Hales-Jewett theorem was a bit like that. It was a new and surprising argument, but one could see exactly how it was found since it was modelled on a proof of a related theorem. So that is a counterexample to Kevin's assertion that any solution of a hard problem fits the bill.) I am looking for proofs that seem to come out of nowhere and seem not to be modelled on anything.
Further edit. I'm not so keen on random massive breakthroughs. So perhaps I should narrow it down further -- to proofs that are easy to understand and remember once seen, but seemingly hard to come up with in the first place.


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This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Melissa Block.
And I'm Audie Cornish. President Obama has arrived in Japan on a weeklong trip that will also include stops in South Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. Along with trade talk, President Obama will be trying to reassure leaders that the U.S. will not abandon them. That's important because China is becoming more assertive in disputes with its neighbors.
NPR's Anthony Kuhn reports on the Obama administration's efforts.
ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE: China's growing might and its increasing willingness to use it is giving rise to two strategic concerns that the president will address on this visit. The first is Japan's concern that the U.S. will fail to back its ally in order to avoid being drawn into a confrontation with China. Kunihiko Miyake is a former diplomat and director of research at the Canon Institute of Global Studies in Tokyo. He says that this concern has become more acute as China has sent more warships to patrol the disputed Senkaku Islands which China calls the Diaoyus.
KUNIHIKO MIYAKE: I think for the first time since 1945 the ordinary people found, finally in a sense, that they are having potentially a physical threat in the southern parts of Japan.
KUHN: Miyake adds that some Japanese feel that the U.S. already has its hands full with other conflicts as in Ukraine and Syria.
MIYAKE: And especially now the sequestration is going on in the United States and the U.S. military is shrinking and you have more troubles in Europe and the Middle East. So will the United States really help Japan in the case of, for example, any showdown between Japan and China over the islands in the south?
KUHN: The second concern is that the U.S. will be drawn into a conflict with China. China argues that the U.S. should not let the tail wag the dog; that is, let smaller countries disputes with China become problems between Beijing and Washington. Yuan Peng is an expert on the U.S. at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, a government think tank in Beijing. He argues that the U.S. needs to base its Asia policy on relations with the region's main power, China, and not on a collection of Cold War era alliances aimed at containing China, something which Washington admits is impossible anyway.
YUAN PENG: (Through interpreter) We need to first decide on guidelines and frameworks for U.S. and Chinese behavior. Then, we need to constrain and manage America's allies so that they serve and obey the larger framework of U.S.-China relations.
KUHN: So what'll it be, asks Yuan Peng. Will the U.S. treat China as a partner and work with it to keep the peace in Asia?
PENG: (Through interpreter) Or will it treat China as a rival, strengthening its alliance with Japan in order to constrain China? That's the strategic choice the U.S. faces. Unfortunately, it appears that the U.S. is responding to China's rise by beefing up its alliance with Japan.
KUHN: But Jeffrey Bader, a former national security council Asia expert during President Obama's first term, says that the U.S. will not be dragged into a conflict between China and its neighbors and it will not write blank checks to U.S. allies, allowing them to provoke China.
JEFFREY BADER: We don't do that. We talk to the Japanese and the Filipinos very candidly both about our commitments under our alliance and about what would be discreet and proper behavior.
KUHN: On the other hand, says Bader, who is now with the Brookings Institution, while China might like to see the U.S. military alliances wind up in the dustbin of history, that's not going to happen.
BADER: I see no contradiction between having strong alliances and having a sound and constructive relationship with China. There are going to be tensions and frictions between these two objectives, but that doesn't mean that you can throw one overboard in favor of the other. You have to have both.
KUHN: On trips to Asia ahead of the president, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel have already done the heavy lifting of reassuring U.S. allies and taking some heat from Beijing in response. In comments published today in Japan's Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper, President Obama said that the U.S.'s defense treaty with Japan covers the Senkaku Islands and that the U.S. opposes any efforts to resolve the dispute by force. He didn't mention Washington's standard line, which is that the U.S. takes no sides in the territorial dispute.
Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Seoul. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


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Excerpted from the new book, This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, Edited by Sarah van Gelder and the staff of Yes! Magazine
"We fail to understand why we should have to pay the costs of the crisis, while its instigators continue to post record profits. We're sick and tired of one injustice after another. We want human dignity back again.
This isn't the kind of world we want to live in, and it's we who have to decide what world we do want. We know we can change it, and we're having a great time going about it."
—From #HowToCamp by the Spanish indignados, whose occupations in cities throughout Spain helped inspire Occupy Wall Street
Something happened in September 2011 so unexpected that no politician or pundit saw it coming.
Inspired by the Arab Spring and uprisings in Europe, sparked by a challenge from Adbusters magazine to show up at Wall Street on September 17 and "bring a tent," and encouraged by veteran New York activists, a few thousand people gathered in the financial district of New York City. At the end of the day, some of them set up camp in Zuccotti Park and started what became a national—and now international—movement.
The Occupy movement, as it has come to be called, named the source of the crises of our time: Wall Street banks, big corporations, and others among the 1% are claiming the world's wealth for themselves at the expense of the 99% and having their way with our governments. This is a truth that political insiders and the media had avoided, even while the assets of the top 1% reached levels not seen since the 1920s. But now that this genie is out of the bottle, it can't easily be put back in.
Without offices, paid staff, or a bank account, Occupy Wall Street quickly spread beyond New York. People gathered in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, Atlanta, San Diego, and hundreds of other cities around the United States and claimed the right of we the people to create a world that works for the 99%. In a matter of weeks, the occupations and protests had spread worldwide, to over 1,500 cities, from Madrid to Cape Town and from Buenos Aires to Hong Kong, involving hundreds of thousands of people.
The Occupy Wall Street movement is not just demanding change. It is also transforming how we, the 99%, see ourselves. The shame many of us felt when we couldn't find a job, pay down our debts, or keep our home is being replaced by a political awakening. Millions now recognize that we are not to blame for a weak economy, for a subprime mortgage meltdown, or for a tax system that favors the wealthy but bankrupts the government. The 99% are coming to see that we are collateral damage in an all-out effort by the super-rich to get even richer.
Now that we see the issue clearly—and now that we see how many others are in the same boat—we can envision a new role for ourselves. We will no longer be isolated and powerless. We can hold vigils all night when necessary and nonviolently face down police. We are the vast majority of the population and, once we get active, we cannot be ignored. Our leaders will not fix things for us; we'll have to do that ourselves. We'll have to make the decisions, too. And we'll have to take care of one another—provide the food, shelter, protection, and support needed to make it through long occupations, bad weather, and the hard work of finding consensus when we disagree.
By naming the issue, the movement has changed the political discourse. No longer can the interests of the 99% be ignored. The movement has unleashed the political power of millions and issued an open invitation to everyone to be part of creating a new world.
Historians may look back at September 2011 as the time when the 99% awoke, named our crisis, and faced the reality that none of our leaders are going to solve it. This is the moment when we realized we would have to act for ourselves.
The Truth is Out: The System is Rigged in Favor of the Wealthy
One of the signs at the Occupy Seattle protest reads: "Dear 1%. We were asleep. Now we've woken up. Signed, the 99%."
This sign captures the feeling of many in the Occupy movement. We are seeing our ways of life, our aspirations, and our security slip away—not because we have been lazy or undisciplined, or lacked intelligence and motivation, but because the wealthiest among us have rigged the system to enhance their own power and wealth at the expense of everyone else.
Critics of the movement say they oppose the redistribution of wealth on principle. But redistribution is exactly what has been happening for decades. Today's economy redistributes wealth from the poor and middle class to those at the top. The income of the top 1% grew 275 percent between 1979 and 2007, according to the Congressional Budget Office. For those in the bottom 20 percent, income grew just 18 percent during those twenty-eight years.
The government actively facilitates this concentration of wealth through tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy, and bailouts for giant banks and corporations. These entities also benefit from mining rights, logging rights, airwave rights, and countless other licenses to use common assets for private profit. Corporations shift the costs of environmental damage to the public and pocket the profits. Taxpayers bear the risk of global financial speculation while the payoffs go to those most effective at gaming the system. Instead of investing profits to provide jobs and produce needed goods and services, the 1% put their wealth into mergers, acquisitions, and more speculation.
The list of government interventions on behalf of the 1% goes on and on: Tax breaks favor the wealthy, global trade agreements encourage offshoring jobs, agricultural subsidies favor agribusiness over family farms, corporate media get sanctioned monopolies while independent media gets squeezed.
The people who go to work producing things we need—the middle class and working poor—pay the price for all this. Speculative profits act as a drain on the economy—like a hidden tax. This hidden tax is one of the many reasons the middle-class standard of living has been slipping.
This lopsided division of wealth corrupts government. Few among the 99% now believe government works for their benefit—and for good reason. With the 1% commanding an army of lobbyists and doling out money from multimillion-dollar campaign war chests, government has become a source of protection and subsidies for Wall Street. No wonder there isn't enough money left over for education, repairing roads and bridges, taking care of veterans and retirees, much less for the critical transition we need to make to a clean energy future.
The system is broken in so many ways that it's dizzying to try to name them all. This is part of the reason why the Occupy movement hasn't created a list of demands. The problem is everywhere and looks different from every point of view. The one thing the protesters all seem to agree on is that the middle-class way of life is moving out of reach. Talk to people at any of the Occupy sites and you'll hear stories of people who play by the rules, work long hours, study hard, and then find only low-wage jobs, often without health care coverage or prospects for a secure future.
And many can find no job at all. In the United States, twenty-five million people are unemployed, underemployed or have given up looking for work. Forty-five percent of those without jobs have been unemployed for more than twenty-seven weeks. Some employers won't hire anyone who is currently unemployed. Meanwhile, the cost of health care, education, rent, food, and energy continues to rise; the only thing that's falling is the value of homes and retirement funds.
Behind these statistics are real people. Since the Occupy movement began, some who identify themselves as part of the 99% have been posting their stories at wearethe99percent.tumblr.com. Here's one: "I am a lucky one. I have enough money to eat three of four weeks of the month. I have been paying student loans for fifteen years and still no dent. My husband lost his job…Last year I took a 10 percent pay cut to 'do my share' and keep layoffs at bay. I lost my house. I went bankrupt. I still am paying over one thousand dollars in student loans for myself and my husband and that is just interest. We will not have children. How could we when we can't even feed ourselves? I am the 99%."
Another personal story, by a sixty-year-old, reads, "Got laid off. Moved two thousand miles for new job. Pays 40 percent less than old job. Sold home at a loss. Filed Chapter Eleven. Owe IRS fifty thousand dollars. Fifteen thousand dollar per year debt for son's tuition at state university. Seventy-five percent of retirement funds shifted to the 1%! I am the 99%!"
The website contains thousands of stories like these.
Now that we know we are not alone, we are less likely to blame ourselves when things are hard. And now that we are seeing the ways the system is rigged against us, we can join with others to demand changes that will allow everyone to thrive.
We the People Now Know That We Have the Right, and the Power
The power of the Occupy Wall Street movement is rippling out far beyond the people camped at Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, and even beyond the occupation sites springing up in cities around the world. This movement is reaching people who are carrying a protest sign for the first time, including some conservatives, along with union members who have been fighting a losing battle to maintain their standard of living.
Hundreds of thousands have participated in the protests and occupations, millions support the occupations, and tens of millions more support their key issues. Polls show that jobs continues to be the issue that most concerns us, yet the national dialogue has been dominated by obsession with debt. While just 27 percent of Americans responding to an October 2011 Time Magazine poll held a favorable view of the Tea Party, for example, 54 percent held a favorable view of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Of those familiar with the protests, large majorities share their concerns: 86 percent agreed that Wall Street and lobbyists have too much power in Washington, DC, 68 percent thought the rich should pay more taxes, and 79 percent believe the gap between rich and poor has grown too large.
The movement has been criticized for its diversity of people and grievances, but in that diversity lies its strength. Among the 99% are recent graduates and veterans who can't find work, elderly who fear losing their pensions, the long-term unemployed, the homeless, peace activists, people with a day job in a corporate office who show up after work, members of the military, and off-duty police. Those involved cannot be pigeonholed. They are as diverse as the people of this country and this world.
The movement has also been criticized for its failure to issue a list of demands. In fact, it is easy to see what the movement is demanding: quite simply, a world that works for the 99%. The hand-lettered protest signs show the range of concerns: excessive student debt; banks that took taxpayer bailouts, then refused to help homeowners stay in their homes; cuts in government funding for essential services; Federal Reserve policies; the lack of jobs.
A list of specific demands would make it easier to manage, criticize, co-opt, and divide the movement. Instead, Occupy Wall Street is setting its own agenda on its own terms and developing consensus statements at its own pace. It's doing this in spaces that it controls—some in parks and other public spaces, others in union halls, libraries, churches, and community centers. On the Internet, the movement issues statements and calls to action through Twitter, Facebook, and its own Web sites. From the start it was clear that the movement would not rely on a mainstream media corrupted by corporate interests.
The Occupy Wall Street movement does not treat power as something to request—something that others can either grant or withhold. We the people are the sovereigns under the Constitution. The Occupy Wall Street movement has become a space where a multitude of leaders are learning to work together, think independently, and define the world we want to live in.
Those leaders will be stirring things up for years to come.
This Is What Horizontal Power Looks Like
When political parties talk about building a base, they usually mean developing foot soldiers who will help candidates win election and then go home to let the elected officials make the decisions. The Occupy Wall Street movement turns that idea on its head. The ordinary people who have chosen to be part of this movement are the ones who debate the issues, determine strategies, and lead the work.
Working groups take care of practical matters like food, sanitation, media, meeting facilitation, and receiving packages from supporters. Other groups discuss the issues, create arts and culture, debate tactics, and consider whether to issue demands. In Zuccotti Park, the Consciousness Working Group set up a permanent sacred space for prayer and meditation; spiritual leaders from various faiths show up to lead observances.
The early weeks of the occupation coincided with Yom Kippur, and a thousand Jewish activists participated in services across from Zuccotti Park. They erected in the park a sukkah, a temporary hut built to represent the impromptu housing Israelites used in the desert when escaping Egypt. Because the building of structures at Zuccotti Park is forbidden, this was an act of civil disobedience.
At the center of this movement are general assemblies, where decisions are made by consensus. Facilitators are charged with managing the process so that all have a chance to be heard and everyone has a chance to express approval, disapproval, or to block consensus by means of hand signals.
The use of the people's microphone is a central feature of the general assemblies. To use the people's mic, a person first grabs the attention of the crowd by shouting, "Mic check!" Then, he or she begins to speak, saying a few words at a time, so that others can shout the words on to those behind them in the crowd.
Originally developed as a way to circumvent bans on amplification at many occupation sites, the people's mic has developed into much more than that. It encourages deeper listening because audience members must actively repeat the language of the speaker. It encourages consensus because hearing oneself repeat a point of view one doesn't agree with has a way of opening one's mind. And it provides a great example of how community organizing works best when it's people-powered and resilient. This technique allows crowds of thousands to communicate, and also allows groups involved in direct street action to make democratic decisions on the fly.
The occupation zones are not just places to talk about a new society. They are becoming twenty-four-hour-a-day experiments in egalitarian living. Without paid staff or hierarchies, everyone gets fed, laundry gets done by the truckload, disagreements get facilitated, and those arrested are greeted by crowds of cheering supporters when they get out of jail.
Cynics might question the importance of this deepening sense of community. But people who have lived in a competitive, isolating world are tasting a way of life built on support and inclusion, in some cases for the first time. They are sharing the risk of police beatings, arrests, and pepper spray, and the hardship of sleepless nights in a rainy or snowy park. The resulting bonds create strength, solidarity, and resolve. Visitors report being surprised to see smiles instead of anger. This is a movement where you often hear the words, "I love you."
That experience of community is not easily forgotten, and it deepens the yearning for a new culture; one that is radically inclusive, respectful, supportive, and horizontal.
What Next?
The organizers of the September 17 occupation say they weren't planning for an occupation that would go on week after week. It just hadn't occurred to them. And no one can say where things will go from here. Harsh weather could drive people away. Other hazards could undercut the movement. Police violence could frighten away would-be protesters, or it could galvanize the movement, as did the pepper spraying of unarmed women in Manhattan and police violence against occupiers in Oakland.
Another threat to the movement is violence on the part of the occupiers themselves, which would be used to justify police action and likely turn press coverage against the occupations. With increasing tensions and exhausted protesters, the nonviolent discipline of this movement will be severely tested.
Violence could also come from provocateurs seeking to discredit the Occupy movement. Within a month of the movement's launch there was a case of an admitted provocateur, an assistant editor at the right-wing magazine American Spectator, who tried, without success, to get Occupy and anti-war protesters to join him in pushing past security guards at the Smithsonian Museum of Air and Space in Washington, DC. Fortunately, the crowd refused to follow. Security guards responded by pepper spraying protesters, and the museum was closed for some hours. Most news reports attributed the scuffle to Occupy Wall Street protesters.
But the movement has important strengths that add to its resilience. It is radically decentralized, so a disaster at any one occupation will not bring down the others; in fact, the others can take action in support. There is no single leader who could be co-opted or assassinated. Instead, leadership is broadly shared, and leadership skills are being taught and learned constantly.
What's more, the autonomous groups within the movement that plan and carry out direct actions of all sorts are extremely difficult to contain. By choosing the targets of their actions wisely, they can further draw attention to institutions whose behavior calls into question their right to exist. When the legitimacy of large institutions crumbles, it is often just a matter of time before the support of government, stockholders, customers, and employees goes away, too. There is no institution that is "too big to fail." This is one way that nonviolent revolution happens.
New support is flowing in, some from unexpected sources. A group of Marine veterans has formed OccupyMARINES, which will work to recruit police and members of other branches of the military to support the occupations, and to nonviolently protect protesters from police assaults. The Marines also plan to help the occupations sustain themselves through cold weather. The group was inspired by a viral video showing Marine Sergeant Shamar Thomas dressing down the police for brutalizing protesters. "There is no honor in this," he shouted at the police. The wounding of Marine veteran Scott Olsen, who at twenty-four years old had already served two tours in Iraq, has further fired up fellow Marines. Olsen was critically injured by a police-fired projectile in an Oakland police action against occupiers.
Police, though often shown cracking down on occupations, have also expressed sympathy with the movement. In Albany, New York, state and city police declined to follow orders from the mayor to arrest and remove peaceful protesters. "We don't have those resources, and these people were not causing trouble," an official with the state patrol told the Times Union newspaper.
Will there come a time when there is no one willing to enforce orders to evict members of the 99% from occupation encampments—or from their homes, for that matter? And if popular support grows, will elected officials look to ally themselves with the movement, rather than suppress it? The fact that these are even questions shows how radically things have changed since a few hundred people occupied Zuccotti Park on September 17, 2011.
Whatever happens next, Occupy Wall Street has already accomplished something that changes everything. It has fundamentally altered the national conversation.
"A group of people started camping out in Zuccotti Park, and all of a sudden the conversation started being about the right things," says The New York Times columnist Paul Krugman. "It's kind of a miracle."
Now that millions recognize the injustice resulting from the power of Wall Street and giant corporations, that issue will not go away. The central question now is this: Will we build a society to benefit everyone? Or just the 1%?
The world becomes a very different place when members of the 99% stand up. The revolts in Egypt, elsewhere in the Middle East, and in Europe belie the story that popular uprisings are futile. The people occupying Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan and in cities across the country have showed that Americans, too, can take a stand.
People who've experienced the power of having a voice will not easily go back to silence. People who've found self-respect will work hard to avoid a return to isolation and powerlessness; the Occupy Wall Street movement gives us reason to believe that we the people can take charge of our destinies. The 99% are no longer sitting on the sidelines of history—we are making history.
Click here for more from This Changes Everything.
Sarah van Gelder is co-founder and executive editor of YES! Magazine.
This Introduction is excerpted from the book This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement edited by Sarah van Gelder and the staff of YES! Magazine and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. The Introduction is available for free copying and reproduction under a Creative Commons Attribution NoDerivs (CC BY-ND) license, which allows for redistribution, commercial and non-commercial, as long as it is passed along unchanged and in whole, with credit to its original publication in the book, This Changes Everything: Occupy Wall Street and the 99% Movement, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2011.


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Lamb From Farm to Table
Sheep is the oldest domesticated meat species. Sheep have been raised by humans beginning about 9,000 years ago in the Middle East. In many countries, lamb (a young sheep) is the major source of protein. Many Americans think of lamb as a springtime food, but it can be enjoyed year-round. The following information answers many questions callers have asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Meat and Poultry Hotline about lamb.
What is the difference between lamb and mutton?
Sheep (Ovine) carcasses are classified as lamb, yearling mutton, or mutton depending on their age as evidenced by their muscles and bones. For the purpose of this fact sheet we will be discussing lamb. The flavor of lamb is milder than mutton. Lamb is produced from younger animals, typically less than a year old, and mutton is produced from older animals. Most lambs are brought to market at about 6 to 8 months old. A lamb weighs about 140 pounds and yields approximately 46 to 49 pounds of edible lean retail lamb cuts, semi-boneless.
If the phrase "Spring Lamb" is on a meat label, it means the lamb was slaughtered between March and October. The term comes from olden times, when lambs born in harsh winter weather would have little chance to survive until the next year. Today, with more protected animal husbandry conditions, enjoying "lamb" is not confined to a particular season of the year.
How are lambs raised?
Lambs are nursed by their mothers and when they are weaned, gradually begin feeding on pasture or coarsely ground grain. They are fed hay and feed consisting of corn, barley, milo (a type of sorghum), and/or wheat supplemented with vitamins and minerals. Lambs are usually "finished" (grown to maturity) in feedlots where they are fed specially formulated feed. While most lambs are finished on grains, some lambs are raised on pasture and are finished on grass. Grass-finished lamb is usually distinguished on the label.
How is lamb inspected?
All lamb found in retail stores is either USDA inspected for wholesomeness or inspected by state systems which have standards equal to the federal government. Each lamb and its internal organs are inspected for signs of disease. The "Passed and Inspected by USDA" seal ensures the lamb is wholesome and free from disease.
What does the grade mean?
Grading for quality is voluntary. A processing plant may request to have its lamb graded for quality based on traits such as tenderness, juiciness and flavor. USDA-graded lamb sold at the retail level is Prime, Choice and Good. Lower grades (Utility and Cull) are mainly ground or used in processed meat products.
Lamb quality grades take into consideration maturity (lamb, yearling mutton and mutton), conformation, and the palatability-indicating characteristics, such as fat streaking within the flank and firmness of the lean. Most of the graded lamb sold in supermarkets is USDA Choice; 80% of the American lamb supply is USDA Prime or USDA Choice. The protein, vitamin and mineral content of lamb are similar in all grades.
How is ungraded lamb different?
All lamb is inspected for wholesomeness; however, since grading is not mandatory, the overall quality of ungraded lamb is unknown - it may be higher or lower than USDA-graded lamb found at retail. Since the quality of lamb varies according to the age of the animal, it is advisable to buy lamb that has been USDA graded since age is taken into consideration.
Can hormones and antibiotics be used in lamb raising?
Yes. Hormones and antibiotics approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are permitted to be used in lambs slaughtered for meat. Antibiotics may be given to prevent or treat disease in lambs and hormones may be given to promote efficient growth. A recommended withholding period is required from the time antibiotics are administered until it is legal to slaughter the animal. This is so drug residues can exit the animal's system. FSIS samples lamb carcasses at slaughter and tests for residues. FSIS laboratory results above the tolerance limit set by FDA are considered a residue violation and are investigated by FDA or the state.
What to Look for When Selecting Lamb
When shopping for lamb, look for meat that is fine textured and firm that has red coloring and white marbling (white flecks of fat within the meat muscle). The fat trim should be firm, white and not too thick. The USDA quality grades are reliable guides.
Retail Cuts of Fresh Lamb
There are five basic major (primal) cuts into which the lamb carcass is separated: shoulder, rack, shank/breast, loin and leg. It is recommended that packages of fresh lamb purchased in the supermarket be labeled with the primal cut as well as the product, such as "shoulder roast" or "loin chop."
What is a rack of lamb?
The "rack" is the primal cut, more commonly known as the rib. The rack contains 9 full ribs and can be split (along the backbone) into two lamb rib roasts. A "lamb crown roast" is made by sewing two rib roasts together to form a circle or crown.
What is a lamb chop?
Chops can come from various primal cuts. "Loin" chops come from the loin and "rib" chops come from the rack (or rib); these are the most tender and most expensive chops. "Blade" and "arm" chops (from the shoulder) and "sirloin" chops (from the leg) are less expensive but may be just as tender.
How much lamb is consumed?
According to USDA's Economic Research Service, each American eats about 0.7 pound of lamb yearly.
What does "natural" mean?
All fresh meat qualifies as "natural." Products labeled "natural" cannot contain any artificial flavor or flavoring, coloring ingredient, chemical preservative, or any other artificial or synthetic ingredient; and the product and its ingredients are not more than minimally processed (ground, for example). All products claiming to be natural should be accompanied by a brief statement which explains what is meant by the term "natural."
How and why is some lamb aged?
Lamb is aged to develop additional tenderness and flavor. Usually only the higher quality, more expensive primals, such as racks, ribs, and loins are aged, and these are mainly sold to restaurants. Aging is done commercially under controlled temperatures and humidity. Since aging can take from 10 days to 6 weeks under controlled conditions, the USDA does not recommend aging lamb in a home refrigerator.
Why is lamb called a "red" meat?
Oxygen is delivered to muscles by the red cells in the blood. One of the proteins in meat, myoglobin, holds the oxygen in the muscle. The amount of myoglobin in animal muscles determines the color of meat. Lamb is called a "red" meat because it contains more myoglobin than chicken or fish. Other "red" meats are beef, veal and pork.
Additives are not allowed on fresh lamb. If it is processed, additives such as MSG, salt or sodium erythorbate must be listed on the label.
Dating of Lamb Products
Product dating is not required by federal regulations. However, many stores and processors may voluntarily date packages of raw lamb or processed lamb products. If a calendar date is shown, immediately adjacent to the date must be a phrase explaining the meaning of that date such as "sell-by" or "use before."
Except for "use-by" dates, product dates don't always refer to home storage and use after purchase. "Use-by" dates usually refer to best quality and are not safety dates. Even if the date expires during home storage, a product should be safe, wholesome and of good quality if handled properly and kept at 40 degrees F or below. If the product has a "use-by date," follow that date. If the product has a "sell-by" date or no date, cook or freeze the product according to the recommendations in the "Storage Times" section of this publication.
Rinsing Lamb
There is no need to rinse raw lamb before cooking because this creates a cross-contamination hazard. Any bacteria which might be present would be destroyed by cooking.
How to Handle Lamb Safely
Raw Lamb. Select lamb just before checking out at the register. Put packages of raw lamb in disposable plastic bags, if available, to contain any leakage which could cross-contaminate cooked foods or produce that will be eaten raw such as salad.
Take lamb home immediately and refrigerate it at 40 degrees F or below. Use ground lamb or stew meat within 1 to 2 days; lamb chops, roasts, and steaks within 3 to 5 days or freeze at 0 degrees F or below. If kept frozen continuously, it will be safe indefinitely.
It is safe to freeze lamb in its original packaging or repackage it. For long-term freezing, overwrap the porous store plastic with storage wraps or bags to prevent "freezer burn," which appears as grayish-brown leathery spots caused by air reaching the surface of food. Cut freezer-burned portions away either before or after cooking the lamb. Heavily freezer-burned products may have to be discarded for quality reasons. For best quality, use frozen lamb roasts, steaks and chops within 6 to 9 months; ground lamb, 3 to 4 months.
Ready-Prepared Lamb. For fully cooked, take-out lamb dishes such as Kabobs, Gyros or Chinese food, be sure they are hot at pickup. Use cooked lamb within 2 hours (1 hour if the air temperature is above 90 degrees F) or refrigerate it at 40 degrees F or below in shallow, covered containers. Eat it within 3 to 4 days, either cold or reheated to 165 degrees F. It is safe to freeze ready-prepared lamb dishes. For best quality, use within 2 to 3 months.
Safe Thawing
There are three safe ways to thaw lamb: in the refrigerator, in cold water, and in the microwave. It's best to plan for slow, safe thawing in the refrigerator. Ground lamb, stew meat and steaks may defrost within a day. Bone-in parts and whole roasts may take 2 days or longer.
Once the raw product thaws, it will be safe in the refrigerator before cooking for 3 to 5 days (roasts, steaks and chops) and 1 to 2 days for ground lamb. During this time, if you decide not to use the lamb, you can safely refreeze it without cooking it first.
To thaw lamb in cold water, do not remove the packaging. Be sure the package is airtight or put it into a leakproof bag. Submerge the lamb in cold water, changing the water every 30 minutes so that it continues to thaw. Small packages of lamb may defrost in an hour or less; a 3- to 4-pound roast may take 2 to 3 hours.
When thawing lamb in cold water or in the microwave, plan to cook it immediately after thawing. Never thaw on the counter or any other location at room temperature. Leaving food out too long at room temperature can cause bacteria (such as Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella Enteritidis, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter) to grow to dangerous levels that can cause illness.
Foods defrosted in the microwave or by the cold-water method should be cooked before refreezing because they may potentially have been held at temperatures above 40 degrees F, where bacteria multiply rapidly.
It is safe to cook frozen lamb in the oven, on the stove or grill without defrosting it first; the cooking time may be about 50% longer. Do not cook frozen lamb in a slow cooker.
Marinate lamb roasts, steaks or chops in the refrigerator up to 5 days. Lamb cubes or stew meat can be marinated up to 2 days. Boil used marinade before brushing on cooked lamb. Discard any uncooked leftover marinade.
Storage Times
Since product dates aren't a guide for safe use of a product, how long can the consumer store the food and still use it at top quality? Follow these tips:
- Purchase the product before the date expires.
- Follow handling recommendations on product.
- Keep lamb in its package until ready to use.
- Refrigerate lamb roasts, steaks and chops 3 to 5 days (ground lamb or stew meat, 1 to 2 days); and 3 to 4 days after cooking.
- If product has a "use-by" date, follow that date.
- If product has a "sell-by" date or no date, cook or freeze the product by the times recommended above.
- Once a perishable product is frozen, it doesn't matter if the date expires because foods kept frozen continuously are safe indefinitely.
- For best quality, use frozen lamb roasts, steaks and chops within 6 to 9 months; ground lamb, 3 to 4 months.
Safe Cooking
For safety, the USDA recommends cooking lamb patties and ground lamb mixtures such as meat loaf to a safe minimum internal temperature of 160 degrees F as measured by a food thermometer. Cook all organ and variety meats (such as heart, kidney, liver and tongue) to 160 degrees F. Cook all raw lamb steaks, chops and roasts to a minimum internal temperature of 145 degrees F as measured with a food thermometer before removing meat from the heat source. For safety and quality, allow meat to rest for at least three minutes before carving or consuming. For reasons of personal preference, consumers may choose to cook meat to higher temperatures. For approximate cooking times for use in meal planning, see the following chart.
Times are based on lamb held at refrigerator temperature (40 degrees F). Remember that appliances and outdoor grills can vary in heat. Use a food thermometer to check for safe cooking and doneness of lamb.
Approximate Lamb Cooking Times ( Degrees F)
Cut of Lamb | Size | Cooking Method | Cooking Time | Minimum Internal Temperature and Rest Time |
Lamb Leg, Bone-In | 5 to 7 lbs. | Roast 325 degrees | 20 to 25 min./lb. | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Lamb Leg, Bone-In | 7 to 9 lbs. | Roast 325 degrees | 15 to 20 min./lb. | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Lamb Leg, Boneless, Rolled | 4 to 7 lbs. | Roast 325 degrees | 25 to 30 min./lb. | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Shoulder Roast or Shank Leg Half | 3 to 4 lbs. | Roast 325 degrees | 30 to 35 min./lb. | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Cubes, for Kabobs | 1 to 1½ thick" | Broil/Grill | 8 to 12 minutes | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Ground Lamb Patties | 2" thick | Broil/Grill | 5 to 8 minutes | 160 degrees F |
Chops, Rib, or Loin | 1 to 1½" thick | Broil/Grill | 7 to 11 minutes | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Leg Steaks | ¾" thick | Broil/Grill 4" from heat | 14 to 18 minutes | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Stew Meat, Pieces | 1 to 1½ thick" | Cover with liquid; simmer | 1½ to 2 hours | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Shanks | ¾ to 1 lb. | Cover with liquid; simmer | 1½ to 2 hours | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
Breast, Rolled | 1½ to 2 lb. | *Braise 325 degrees | 1½ to 2 hours | 145 degrees F and allow to rest for at least 3 minutes |
*Braising is roasting or simmering less-tender meats with a small amount of liquid in a tightly covered pan.
Refer to the microwave's oven manual for microwaving lamb and check it with a food thermometer.
Partial Cooking
NEVER brown or partially cook lamb to refrigerate and finish cooking later because any bacteria present wouldn't have been destroyed. It is safe to partially cook or microwave lamb immediately before transferring it to a hot grill or conventional oven to finish cooking.
What is the yield of cooked lamb?
After cooking bone-in lamb leg or roast, one pound of raw weight will yield 8 to 9 ounces of edible meat. Ground lamb or boneless cuts will yield about 10.5 ounces of edible meat.


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Get in touch with us to receive a free no-obligation architectural design quote.
We are the best loft conversion specialists in Alfold Crossways GU6 8 for homeowners looking to turn their loft space into a more useable area. This can add significant value to the property and also help you make the most of this extra area in the house. The converted loft could be transformed into another bedroom, an office, a gym, a child's playroom, or other work and rooms you might need to use it for.
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In many cases, the client will choose to turn the area into an extra room for guests or so children can have their own loft spaces instead of sharing. You might like to include an en suite bathroom or a large storage section in the design to really make the most of the space. Other types of loft-conversion ideas could include games rooms, home offices, relaxation areas, art studios, and plenty of other options.
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TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) Gov. Sam Brownback has established a special panel to highlight and promote charitable work by Kansans throughout the state, the nation and the world.
Brownback announced creation of the Kansas Humanitarian Commission on Tuesday. The panel will be chaired by Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer and Ashleigh Black, who will choose the other seven members.
Colyer is a plastic surgeon and has volunteered to aid victims of violence in several war zones around the world. Black is the associate director of the Center for Global Health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
The commission will develop a nominating process for the Kansas Governor's Humanitarian of the Year awards, which will be presented each fall.


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text: Post Lanterns sit atop a post or pier to create additional lighting in outdoor spaces. Post lanterns are available in either post mount or peir mount styles. Add a stately exterior accent with a post lantern designed to suit your style and lighting needs. Choose from wide variety of post lanterns to bring a new look to the outside of your home.


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Zineth delivers us with a spanking new single and we're excited for this lovely new effort tagged "Be There".
The brand new single serves us with a very sweet and interesting vibe and we totally love the energy, rhythm and vibe this new single presents to us.
Without further ado, get the brand new audio below without wasting any time, share and also enjoy.


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The Lawgical Promise guarantees our members are pre-screened to verify their qualifications.
Send these results to your email
The state does not permit private bail agents to deal in bail bonds. Please contact your local court or the jail in which the person is held for more information about release.


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The Dos and Don'ts of At-Home WaxingYou must read this waxing guide before attempting anything from a DIY Brazilian Wax to leg waxing, or waxing your eyebrows at home |
While at-home waxing is convenient, there are definitely rules for the at-home hair removal life. So as to avoid ingrown hairs, burns and possible bruising, it's important to know your DIY waxing basics. So before you try that eyebrow waxing kit you just bought, read these essential at-home waxing tips so you wind up with smooth, hair-free skin — not ingrown hairs and frustration from a botched leg waxing or at-home bikini wax treatment.
Image via Imaxtree
SEE NEXT PAGE: At-Home Waxing Do: Prevent Ingrown Hairs by Exfoliating and Moisturizing
Older comments
Will never wax anything!
by EricaC123 Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 04:37PM Report as inappropriate
I learned a few new tips for whenever I use my at home wax kit. It's a Gigi and it's amazing!! And yes, letting professionals do the brazilian for you is way easier!
by Lamexicana1 Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 10:21PM Report as inappropriate
Great article with some very good tips, if you're face is really red afterwards, I always hold ice or a cold compress. Also because it gets REALLY hot where I live, I've noticed it's better to wax at night because your skin has several hours to recover, without makeup or sunscreen, both of which can irritate freshly waxed skin.
by RoleModel Thursday, August 16, 2012 at 03:58PM Report as inappropriate
Not for me too messy in my hands.
by beautybody Wednesday, April 4, 2012 at 11:26PM Report as inappropriate
Great tips, but not good enough to get me to wax though!
by powerwoman033 Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 11:34PM Report as inappropriate
awesome tips if I'm ever brave enough to try waxing at home
by sportimonki13 Tuesday, January 17, 2012 at 08:36PM Report as inappropriate


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Le TRENCH COAT!
And this was 2 steps away from where I'm staying - impossible to miss. In fact if you are in Paris right now you can not miss le trench coats all over, like here going into the Opera Metro (ligne 8, 3, 7)Who knows how long Burberry has been making le Trench?
Trench coat: impermeable sport coat with a belt.
Collar: part of the clothing that surrounds the neck.
Lapel: folded up part of the collar falling on the chest.
Belt loop: vertical attach into which slips a belt.
Flap pocket: pocket provided with a lapel.
Sleeve loop: attach into which slips a sleeve.
Belt: accessory allowing to maintain and adjust a clothing.
Button: piece being used to attach a clothing or as a decoration.
Storm patch: yoke on the front and the back.
All this from infovisual.
A little French intro is required as well from French Wiki:
Un trench-coat est un manteau imperméable généralement descendant jusqu'aux mollets, utilisé par plusieurs armées pendant la Première Guerre mondiale et la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Bien qu'à l'origine ce soit un vêtement masculin, il est aussi porté par les femmes. My computer gave up on translating that but I know some expert PBers will come to the rescue rapidement s.v.p.! By the way the belt is usually tied here never belted.
One girl carrys her trench casually over her arm, while the biker wears hers-I have seen this often.
Be sure, after you rush out to buy your trench to release the vent stitch in the back! Sadly this girl did not. Dommage
Trench coat + big bag + les slims (narrow jeans) + Converse-like shoes.


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Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, as chairman of the Helsinki Commission, I watched for several years as the human rights situation in Slovakia deteriorated under the leadership of former Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar. I saw how the fledgling democratic institutions of that new country were undermined, how parliamentary and constitutional processes were threatened, and how the rule of law was slowly but surely choked. I, joined by colleagues from the Commission, raised these issues time and again with Slovak officials, as did other officials of the U.S. Government. Unfortunately, Mr. Meciar was not very receptive to our arguments.
As it happened, however, the fate of the democratic process in Slovakia was not left to the tender mercies of Vladimir Meciar. A year ago, the people of Slovakia took matters into their own hands. In an election carefully monitored by the OSCE, voters returned to office a coalition government that ended Meciar's increasingly authoritarian rule.
Initially, this broadly based, some might even say weak, coalition seemed to stand only for one thing: it was against Meciar. But in the year that has passed, we cannot say that this government is not simply united in its opposition against the former regime, it is united in its commitment for democracy, for the rule of law, for a free market economy, for a transparent privatization process that is accountable to the people, and for a community of democracies dedicated to the protection of their common security.
Mr. Speaker, the process of transition that Slovakia struggles with today is not an easy one. In fact, many of the commemorations held this month to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of communism have focused on just how difficult this transition has been, including for Slovakia's closest neighbors. In spite of this, the Slovak Government has proceeded to make some very tough decisions this year. I am particularly impressed by the willingness of Prime Minister Dzurinda to make decisions that, while necessary for the long term, economic well-being of his country, may be very politically unpopular in the short term. That takes courage.
I know, of course, that Slovakia still has a lot of work ahead. As in most other European countries, there is much that should be done in Slovakia to improve respect for the human rights of the Romani minority. But there is much that Slovakia has accomplished in the past year and, especially as someone who has been critical of Slovakia in the past, I want to acknowledge and commend those achievements. Mr. Speaker, I hope others will join me in sending this message and will support H. Con. Res. 165.