text:
It's stevia time!
At least that's what food industry newsletters are saying. Regulatory barriers that once blocked many uses of this all-natural sweetener have fallen. The European Union approved the use of stevia in food late last year. In the U.S., the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave stevia a green light in 2008. Sales are soaring.
Stevia's charm? It's the only zero-calorie sugar substitute with a fresh, clean, green image. It comes from the leaves of the bushy stevia plant, a native of Paraguay. (It still grows wild there.) The other nonsugar sweeteners — saccharin, sucralose, and aspartame — all were born in a laboratory somewhere.
Lots of companies are part of the new stevia gold rush, but S&W Seed Co., in Five Points, Calif., may be the most interesting and entertaining.
"Our feeling is, we can use our advantages in soil, and climate, and weather, to make a natural, clean, good product that people really want right now," says Grover Wickersham, S&W's chairman.
I met Wickersham in The Village Pub in the town of Woodside. It's a Silicon Valley kind of place; a venture capital hangout.
Wickersham has one foot in this big-money part of California. He's a deal-making securities lawyer. But the other foot is firmly planted in the farmland of California's Central Valley. He's the son of a rancher. The main business of the S&W Seed Co. is growing and selling alfalfa seed.
When Wickersham heard about stevia a few years ago, the Silicon Valley side of him recognized its attraction to consumers. "It could be the biggest nonsugar sweetener. That's really big!" he says.
And his Central Valley side was pretty sure that California farmers could grow stevia better, and more profitably, than anyone else.
"California's famous for being able to grow pretty much anything as well or better than any other place in the world," he says, before taking a big bite of burger. "We may not be able to compete with all the things that they make in China, but one area where California does compete, really effectively, is agriculture."
Today, Wickersham's company has thousands of little stevia seedlings growing in a cavernous rented greenhouse south of Salinas.
"This is just the beginning of our spring planting. We're making more and more plants," says Koren Sihota, gesturing toward a carpet of green vegetation. Sihota is in charge of S&W's stevia project.
"How many plants?" I ask.
Someone else is visiting the greenhouse today, a bearded man in a floppy hat who has a longer history with stevia than almost anyone else in the United States.
His name is Clint Shock. He's a researcher Oregon State University. But when he first saw stevia, more than 40 years ago, he was working with the Methodist Church among poor farmers who lived along the border between Brazil and Paraguay.
Some of the farmers were growing stevia in their gardens. "They gave me some plants. They also explained where it grew in nature," says Shock.
A few years later, Shock went to those places where stevia grew wild, and picked up a whole truckload of plants. He started a plantation of them. But the business flopped. Shock blames marketing problems.
Now, decades later, he has another chance, working as a consultant for S&W Seeds.
The company is trying to turn this semiwild plant into an industrial crop at Silicon Valley speed. Sihota and his team are figuring out how to plant and harvest it mechanically. They're trying to breed new varieties of stevia, turning the plant into a better biological sweetness factory.
"Ideally, what we would want is very little leaf, with 10 times the sweetness," says Sihota. "One big plant that's got a lot of sweetness and we harvest it once."
That harvest — dried leaves that look like hay — goes to a big stevia processor named Pure Circle.
It's up to Pure Circle to extract the sweet compounds from these leaves and make something that tastes just like sugar.
As it happens, this is quite a challenge.
Paul Breslin, a psychologist of taste at Rutgers University and the Monell Chemical Senses Center, in Philadelphia, says people don't really think about how sugar tastes — how quickly they sense its sweetness, and how quickly it fades.
"But if you give them something that differs from [sugar], like something that just lingers way too long, they'll notice that immediately, and they'll say, 'That really lingers in my mouth!' "
Breslin proposes a little taste test with stevia.
We rip open two little green packets of it and mix the sweet powder into cups of hot water. Then we take five sips, one right after the other, to see if each sip tastes the same.
The first sip tastes sweet. But by the fifth sip, something funny happens. The sweetness somehow disappears.
It's a phenomenon called adaptation, Breslin says. It doesn't happen much with sugar, but it does with all of the zero-calorie sweeteners, including stevia.
Pure Circle, the big stevia processor, says it's working on ways to deal with this problem. Sidd Purkayastha, the company's vice president for global technical development, says stevia leaves actually contain a whole family of different sweet molecules, called steviol glycosides. So you can create mixtures of different molecules, tweaking the taste.
"We found that, as we bring together different steviol glycoside molecules, they start performing better, in many cases, and more like sugar," he says.
Maybe the perfect combination, he adds, is a mixture of stevia and regular sugar.
You'd have some calories, but a lot fewer than if you used only sugar. You'd have the sweetness that people crave. And you could still put these valuable words on the label: "All-natural."
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text: For Parents: Bicycle, In-Line Skating, Skateboard, and Scooter Safety Leave a Comment / By [email protected] / January 26, 2019 Safety statistics for bicycles, in-line skating, skateboards, and scooters Over 70% of children between the ages of 5 and 14 ride bicycles. In-line skating and skateboarding are also very popular among this age group. Although a great form of exercise, riding a bike, in-line skating, or skateboarding without protective gear can be dangerous. Next to motor vehicle-related injuries, bicycles injure more children than any other consumer product, according to the National SAFE KIDS Campaign. The most common (and often most serious) injury sustained with a bike, on in-line skates, scooters, or while skateboarding, is a head injury. Head injuries are the leading cause of death and disability in these types of crashes. Wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of death or injury and reduce the severity of the injury in the event of a crash. However, even with aggressive bicycle helmet programs and laws, approximately 55% of children don't always wear a helmet while bicycling. Wearing a helmet whenever riding a bicycle, in-line skates, or a skateboard should be an automatic habit. Helmets should fit properly on your child's head and also be fastened correctly. A properly-fastened and fitting helmet does not move around on the head. Teaching your children bicycle, in-line skating, and skateboarding safety could save lives. The importance of helmets Bicycling is very popular–in fact, it is estimated that 80 million Americans ride bikes of many different types. To participate in safe and enjoyable bicycling, cyclists of all ages should follow safe riding habits. Children and adults should always wear helmets when riding bicycles: According to SAFE KIDS, bicycle helmets have been shown to reduce the risk of head injury by as much as 85%. There has been a 54% reduction in the number of bike-related deaths since 1999. Which helmet to purchase Here are suggestions for purchasing a helmet: Helmets should be approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Snell Foundation, or the American Society for Testing and Materials. The helmet should fit comfortably and snugly. It should sit on your (or your child's) head in a level position and not rock from side to side. The helmet should have a chin strap and buckle to keep the helmet in place. The helmet should be made out of a hard outer shell and an absorbing liner at least one-half inch thick. Many children (and adults) resist wearing a helmet. Point out that athletes wear helmets for their protection, and, for children, suggest ways the helmet could be decorated to personalize it. Protecting children and adults from bicycle injuries Suggestions for preventing bicycle injuries: You can't control a bicycle that is too large. You should be able to straddle the bike and stand with both feet flat on the ground. Younger children may need to ride a bicycle with training wheels. A child must be able to stop the bike by using the brakes. Learn the proper hand signals for left turns, right turns, and stopping. Make certain you understand and observe all traffic signals and signs. Children who aren't yet coordinated enough to use hand signals and still maintain control of their bike should not ride in the street. Children should ride on sidewalks until they are at least 10 or 11 years old. Look left, right, and left again, before riding into traffic from a sidewalk, driveway, or parking lot. When riding on the street, children should be in a straight line near the curb, and be alert for car doors opening into traffic lanes. Both children and adults should ride with rather than against traffic. Children should not ride a bike at dusk or at night as this is when most fatal accidents happen. If a child is still outside when it turns dark, the bicycle light must be turned on and the child should be wearing light or reflective clothing. Make certain the bike has safety reflectors. All bikes should have reflectors on the front, rear, and wheel spokes. In-line skates In-line skating is another popular sport on wheels for many people. Even experienced in-line skaters can crash and sustain injuries. The following recommendations are from the National Safety Council (NSC) and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission: Always wear protective gear, such as elbow and kneepads, gloves, helmets, and wrist guards. Buy durable skates with proper ankle support. Always warm up your muscles before skating by skating slowly for 5 minutes or more. Skate with knees slightly bent to maintain balance. Practice stopping properly without losing balance. Always skate on the right side of sidewalks and other paths. Pass on the left and warn others that you are passing. Don't skate in the street, especially where there is a lot of traffic. Look for and avoid uneven pavement or other surface problems. Check your skates regularly for wear and tear. Make sure the wheels are tightened. Obey all traffic rules. Skateboards Skateboards are very popular among children ages 5 to 14. Skateboards should never be used on surface streets. Even experienced skateboarders can fall, so learning how to fall safely can help reduce the risk of severe injuries. The following are recommendations from the NSC regarding how to fall correctly: When losing your balance, crouch down on the skateboard so you have a shorter distance to fall. Try to land on fleshy parts of your body when falling. Try to roll as you fall, which prevents your arms from absorbing all the force. Try to relax, rather than remaining stiff when falling. Other safety precautions to take when skateboarding include the following: Wear protective gear, such as helmets, padding for wrists, elbows and knees, and closed-toe and slip-resistant shoes. Frequently check the skateboard for wear and tear. Only allow one person per skateboard. Don't hang onto bicycles, cars, or other vehicles while skateboarding. Carefully practice tricks in designated skateboarding areas. Don't skateboard in the street. Scooters Although scooters have been around since the 1950s, the popular new scooters are often made of lightweight aluminum, weighing less than 10 pounds. They have quickly risen in popularity and are the cause of more and more emergency room visits. Health officials have seen a dramatic increase in scooter-related accidents and injuries. Most of the injuries happen among boys under the age of 15. The most common injuries are fractures or dislocations to the arm or hand, followed by cuts, bruises, strains, and sprains. Almost half of all injuries tend to happen to the arm or hand, while about one-fourth are to the head and another fourth to the leg or foot. Deaths directly related to scooter accidents have also happened. The CDC recommends the same precautions for scooters as for bicycling and in-line skating. It is thought that many injuries might be prevented or reduced in severity if protective equipment is worn. Helmets can prevent 85% of head injuries, elbow pads can prevent 82% of elbow injuries, and knee pads can prevent 32% of knee injuries. Although wrist guards are effective in preventing injuries among in-line skaters, the protection they provide against injury for scooter riders is unknown, as wrist guards may make it hard to grip the scooter handle and steer it. Based on evidence of injury prevention effectiveness for other related activities, the following recommendations may help to prevent scooter-related injuries: Wear an approved helmet that meets safety standards. Use knee and elbow pads. Ride scooters on smooth, paved surfaces without traffic. Don't ride on streets and surfaces with water, sand, gravel, or dirt.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
40 Years of Valued Partnership
C 42 U | HERBERT KAUT | Tool and mould making
Since being set up in 1974, leading injection mould tool and plastics engineering specialist Kaut has relied on milling machines and CNC machining centres from Hermle AG
The chronology of the medium-sized business Herbert Kaut GmbH & Co. KG, Werkzeug- und Formenbau und Kunststofftechnik from Sigmaringen, D-72488, Germany, in many ways reflects the development stages of German machine tool manufacture. First established in 1974 by graduate engineer Herbert Kaut and today employing 75 staff, the company has steadily grown from its small beginnings and is now a leading precision engineering specialist. The unwavering focus of every department is fixed on the delivery of consistently high quality and added value services in the complementary business fields of tool and mould making (injection mould tools for thermoplastics and precision casting tools) and high-quality and increasingly complex plastic injection mould parts (injection parts with fabric inlays, filters, membranes and inserts). Since the company commenced trading, Herbert Kaut has set high standards for himself and his teams and made investments in the best available technology. He therefore sensed an opportunity therein and, in particular, in the concentration of sophisticated technologies and parts to get ahead of the competition. This is one of the reasons why Kaut has been training young recruits since the early days and has already helped in excess of 50 young people become qualified engineers; roughly 50% of them have remained with the company since completing their apprenticeship. Jürgen Sauter, master toolmaker and long-time mould making manager, says of the exemplified corporate philosophy: "The primary goal in both production areas is technology leadership and we therefore place particular emphasis on highly qualified staff, a modern machine portfolio and well equipped workstations. From brainstorming, through design and tool making to full-scale production and service, we close any gaps in the relevant process chain with high-quality equipment, and in doing so, develop long-term business relationships with both suppliers and customers."
From '70s drilling and milling operations…
A good example of this is the highly-valued 40 year relationship with one of the most important (machine) suppliers, namely with Maschinenfabrik Berthold Hermle AG from Gosheim, D-78559. Soon after the company began, Herbert Kaut acquired a Hermle UWF 800 universal milling machine in 1975, and a decision to add further capacity resulted in the purchase of a UFW 700 in 1978 and 1979. The acquisition of a UWF 850 machining centre in 1983 marked the company's entry into CNC technology. This was followed by investment until 1991 in a total of nine machining centres (UWF 700, 720, 850, 1000, 600 with an additional fourth axis, 1000, 851 and a second UWF 851). When Hermle launched the C-series at the end of the 1990s, thus introducing a new level of capacity and capability, Kaut grabbed this opportunity by the scruff of the neck and launched in 2000 its entrance into 5-axis/5-sided complete machining with a C 800 CNC machining centre. The youngest machine is the high performance, 5-axis CNC machining centre C 42 U, which was purchased in 2012. Herbert Kaut comments on the decision to identify Maschinenfabrik Hermle as a key partner and to establish the relationship over the years: "Milling is a fundamental metal-cutting technology for tool and mould making, and we've never been prepared to make any compromises on service. Looking back, we can say that we made the right decision and have built a partnership based on mutual trust, respect and support. Over the years we have always received valuable help, something that was very important at the start of the CNC era, particularly in the case of 5-axis technology. Trust in the delivered machines plays a major role for the implementation of all ultra-modern and highly complex machining technologies and is therefore crucial for the success of our company. Viewed from this perspective, Hermle has contributed significantly to our success and development over the past 40 years, which is reason enough to continue building on the innovative spirit and capabilities of this partner."
…to today's 5-axis-/5-sided complete/simultaneous machining
As a traditional manufacturing company with a high-tech portfolio, Kaut plans to maintain its leading position by using all but two - after having sold a CNC 850 and a CNC 700 machining centre - of its Hermle machines (the UWF 800/700 universal milling machines and the machining centres CNC 600/700/720/850/851/1000) for a diverse range of machining tasks in its tool and the mould making. Apart from a bit of maintenance the machines are still in regular daily use. Both the older CNC series machining centres and newer 5-axis C 800 and C 42 U machining centres are equipped with Heidenhain CNC controls. This has led to a wealth of experience in terms of learning, operating, programming and process management with members of staff showing a high level of acceptance of Hermle machines, which ultimately results in greater efficiency and quality. Jürgen Sauter comments on the quickening and relentless pace of progress in milling operations at Hermle machines: "As a provider of services to customers, which includes our own plastic injection-moulding technology division, we must always be able to utilise the full efficiency and performance of our equipment quickly and flexibly in order to fine-tune marketable product designs and meet customer requirements and deadlines. According to demand, we currently operate over single or multiple shifts and must not have any doubts about the reliability of the milling machines and machining centres. The service provided by Hermle is hard to fault and has never let us down in all the years of working together. In other words always providing complete support whenever and wherever it was needed. Furthermore, we have always profited from Hermle's innovative approach, a fine example of which is the high-performance, 5-axis C 42 U CNC machining centre."
C 42 U with ZM 160 additional magazine = 5-axis machining plus ratio effect
This machine is equipped with a ZM 160 additional magazine with 160 tools, which, when combined with the machine magazine, provides the operator with a total of 202 tools. Besides machine operators, the designers and programmers of the moulds and injection mould tools also reap the benefits of this. On the one hand, the extensive range of tools enables a certain level of standardisation when designing mould plates and parts and helps to reduce tool costs. And, on the other hand, the extensive range allows all the work, from roughing to finishing, to be carried out in one setup, thus reducing changeover and setup times and enabling unattended overnight machining. Finally, the machining centre equipped with a main spindle that can accelerate up to 25000 rpm can also be used for hard machining. In other words, many mould and tool parts emerge from the machine ready to install without the need for further treatment. The C 42 U machining centre is used for a wide variety of machining applications and materials (tool steel, CU, hard machining up to 60 HRC) and undertakes a key position in the company due to its 5-axis design, efficiency, production capacity, long-term accuracy and good size working range (based on an 800x 630 mm NC rotary table), which are backed by the said dependable service support.


text:
Sports & Fitness
Shop by Category
No activity creates memories like camping but if you're new, getting the right camping supplies can be a daunting task. You can take the questions and expense out of acquiring your camping gear by shopping BJ's Wholesale Club. We have the equipment that's right for you and you'll save money by buying your wholesale camping equipment at BJ's. Whether you're looking for tents, sleeping bags or cooking equipment, you'll find the gear to make your trip a memorable one when you shop BJ's.


text:
C.S. Lewis and Buddhism
Author: C.S. Lewis
Book: The Four Loves
"To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. "


text:
Chances are that there are dozens and dozens of ways to answer that question. The thing about childhood rituals is that they are passed among children, who tend to operate very locally--with their siblings, their schoolmates, their neighbo(u)rs. Words are invented, misheard, re-invented, borrowed and those changes don't travel far, but may be passed down to the children who are just a little younger, who later pass it down to the ones who are just a little younger, and so on.
Which is all to say, in the American idiom: Your mileage may vary when it comes to the playground terminology I'm discussing today.
But with that feat of (AmE) ass-covering out of the way, here's how you might have answered the question. In AmE, you'd probably shout dibs. In BrE, at least down here in the South, bagsy would do, though it might just be bags. (To get a feel for possible dialectal boundaries of this, see this thread at Wordwizard.) To put this in the verbal form, you can bags or bagsy something, but, as you can see from the OED examples, the spelling is hard to pin down:
[1946 B. MARSHALL George Brown's Schooldays xxi. 89 'What about you doing the gassing instead of me?' 'But I bagsed-I I didn't', Abinger protested. 1950 B. SUTTON-SMITH Our Street i. 25 [They] would all sit..'bagzing'. I bagz we go to the zoo.] 1979 I. OPIE Jrnl. 28 Mar. in People in Playground (1993) 129 I'm second, I just baggsied it! 1995 New Musical Express 28 Oct. 28 (caption) Mark Sutherland baggsys a window seat. 1998 C. AHERNE et al. Royle Family Scripts: Ser. 1 (1999) Episode 2. 52 Mam. I think I'll do chicken. Antony. Bagsey me breast.A verbal form of dibs is also widely reported (I dibsed it!), but I'd be much more likely to say I've got dibs on it or I called dibs on that.
But when I posted dibs/bagsy as the 'Difference of the Day' on Twitter, some BrE speakers questioned my translation, as they had understood (AmE) shotgun to mean the same as bags(y). But just as happens when words are borrowed from another language, the non-native users of the word have changed the meaning when they've adopted the word. And they have adopted the word, to some extent. Here's an example from a Twitter feed I follow:
timeshighered We hereby shotgun the rights to the phrase "I survived Twitocalypse 2010" - this time next year, we'll be millionaires!In fact, if I had read this tweet without already having had the discussion with BrE speakers about dibs and bagsy, I doubt I would have been able to make sense of it. What's happened? The BrE speakers have heard Americans say shotgun in a place in a situation in which they would have said bags(y), and didn't reali{z/s}e that there's more meaning to shotgun than just 'I stake a claim on something'. Shotgun very specifically means: 'I claim the right to sit in the front passenger seat of a vehicle.'
You can see this in another tweet:
An AmE speaker immediately knows which valuable commodity the Zombies are not interested in. In fact, because the claimed thing is understood, it would be redundant (not to mention ambiguous) to say call shotgun on the front seat. Note also that it's not a verb. To me, to shotgun something would be like to machine-gun something. One calls shotgun. And once one gets the seat, one rides shotgun, which originally meant (and still can mean) 'To travel as a (usually armed) guard next to the driver of a vehicle; (in extended use) to act as a protector' (OED).downrightcreepy I bet Zombies don't call shotgun on road trips.
Calling shotgun could be extended and used metaphorically, as in this Canadian tweet:
Can I call shotgun on the yoga cd pls?...but this usually is done as a sly reference to the childhood car-seat experience.
Or, at least, that's how it is for an AmE speaker of my generation. We have a special word for that sweet seat, with its status and its anti-emetic properties, because it was a central part of our lives in childhood. With the exception of a few urban cent{er/re}s, you'd expect any family to have a car--and more than one child to fight over the best seat in that car. Americans can also get a (AmE) driver's license/(BrE) driving licence by age 16 in most states (as compared to
By the way, I've left the Twitter window with the 'shotgun' search going. In the last hour, 50 people have used the word shotgun, often prefaced by I wish I had a. I'll sleep less well tonight.


text:
From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...This is the last of the Sponsored posts I've written on behalf of the National Pork Board. The board recently conducted a survey to identify food trends that are appealing to American cooks this holiday season. They found six recurring themes for their 2011 Pork's Perfect Paring's guide and asked cookbook author Jill Silverman Hough to develop a pork recipe to go with each of them. They also asked some members of the blogging community to provide recipes and holiday ideas for each of the themes they were highlighting. I focused my attention on the Smitten with Small Plates category and for the last three days I've featured pork dishes that work well as appetizers or small plate meals.
I think you'll all enjoy the recipes I'm featuring and the National Pork Board has a Small Plates gift set waiting for one of you. The gift set includes: $25 worth of pork coupons; Jill Silverman Hough cookbooks, including 100 Perfect Pairings: Main Dishes to Enjoy with the Wines You Love and 100 Perfect Pairings: Small Plates to Enjoy with the Wines You Love; an instant-read digital thermometer; tapas-style small plates and decorative skewers for holiday appetizers. If you'd like a chance to win, simply comment on one, or all three, of the recipes that are part of this promotion. Everyone can enter up to three entries to the drawing. The winner, chosen by a random number drawing, will be announced on Saturday, December 17th. Good luck! While I have received a similar gift package, the opinions in this post are 100% mine.
I decided to use pork tenderloin for the last of the dishes I wanted to make for this promotion. Pork skewers make great finger food and I thought the tenderloin could be made more festive with a cranberry glaze that would add some sweetness and seasonal color to the dish. I also wanted to brighten the final flavor, so I finished the skewers with an orange and cilantro gremolata that worked especially well with the cranberry glaze. These skewers are very easy to make. I hope you will give them a try. Here's the recipe.
Cranberry Glazed Pork Skewers with Cilantro and Orange Gremolata...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite
Marinade and Sauce:
1 cup cranberry juice
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons dried cranberries, divided use
1/2 cup thick teriyaki sauce
2 teaspoons Asian-style hot chili sauce (i.e. Sriracha)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/4 cup + 1 teaspoon lime juice, divided use
2 tablespoons finely chopped orange zest
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
4 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 (12 to 16-oz.) pork tenderloin
24 bamboo skewers soaked in water for 30 minutes
1) Trim pork tenderloin and remove silver skin. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut tenderloin lengthwise into four long pieces each about 1/2 inch thick. Flatten slightly, then cut each strip in half lengthwise. Cut each long strip crosswise into three pieces, each of which will be 3-1/2 to 4-inches long. You should end up with 24 pieces of pork.
2) To make marinade and sauce: Place juice, 1/2 cup dried cranberries, teriyaki sauce, hot chili sauce, salt, cornstarch and 1 teaspoon lime juice in jar of an electric blender. Puree. Place 1/2 cup sauce, reserved 1/4 cup lime juice and pork in a medium bowl, turning pork strips to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, place reserved 1 cup sauce in a small saucepan; bring to a boil over medium heat and stir until slightly thick and shiny, about 5 minutes.
3) To prepare gremolata: Finely chop reserved 2 tablespoons dried cranberries. Place cranberries, orange zest, garlic and cilantro in a small bowl. Toss to combine. Set aside.
4) To cook pork: Preheat oven broiler element. Thread 1 pork strip on each bamboo skewer and baste lightly with cranberry glaze. Place on a pan and broil skewers 6 inches from heat for 6 to 8 minutes, turning and glazing once.
5) To serve: Sprinkle pork with gremolata and sea salt, if using. Transfer skewers to individual serving plates. Yield: About 24 skewers.
Cook's Note: Be sure to sprinkle each pork skewer with gremolata. It is a necessary component of this dish.
One Year Ago Today: Coconut Macaroons
Two Years Ago Today: Warm Apple Pudding with Hot Caramel Sauce


text:
Microsoft recommends using the new Microsoft Edge for a fast, secure, and modern web experience.
Click here to learn how to download the Microsoft Edge web browser.
Built upon the all-new rider-first Matryx platform, experience complete control with rider-first dynamics, a snocross inspired cockpit, and class-leading power-to-weight the Indy XC Launch Edition brings precision and power to your rides setting the new benchmark for trail performance.
See your local dealer regarding Factory Choice options.
This is not an offer for credit and should be used for estimation purposes only based on the information you provided. You should not base your decision on this estimate alone. Title, registration, tax and other fees, and personal circumstances such as employment status and personal credit history, were not considered in the calculations.
One Piece Hooked
Riser Type -2.36 in. (60 mm) Fixed
Fuel Gauge - Electronic
Polaris® MessageCenter Gauge - Speedometer, Tachometer and Temp/Low Oil Light
Black / Stealth Gray
Indy Red / White Lightning
Black / Indy Red
Black / White Lightning
Hand & Thumb Warmers - Smart Warmers
Windshield - Choice of 1 of the following options: Handguards / MATRYX Mid Smoke / MATRYX Tall Smoke
Front / Front Track - WER® FORCE
Rear Track - WER® Velocity
Travel - 9.3 in. (23.6 cm)
Travel - 16.2 in. (41.1 cm)


text:
Abraham Lincoln is not just America's greatest president. To many, his very face is an emblem of America: honest, homespun, strong and sad, haunted, brooding and humorous.
So where does some famous Yale Law School professor get off writing a novel in which President Lincoln is accused of subverting the Constitution?
In Stephen Carter's new novel, The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln, the man we know as the Great Emancipator imprisons critics, invokes martial law, suspends the writ of habeus corpus, and throttles the press — all to win the Civil War.
Carter takes all kinds of liberties with history, beginning with that fateful night at Ford's Theatre, when John Wilkes Booth shoots Lincoln, and Lincoln ... survives? "I should begin by explaining that I am a big Lincoln fan," Carter says, laughing. "I think Lincoln was our greatest president; I have no question about that. But at the same time, there were a lot of things that Lincoln did during his presidency, in order to win the Civil War, that could be called into question. And so my idea was to write a courtroom drama that was crafted around that possibility. The path I sketch in my fiction is one possible path history might have taken."
At the center of Carter's story is a young woman named Abigail Canner, an Oberlin graduate who comes to the nation's capital intending to become a lawyer. Canner is African-American — at a time when there are just a few black lawyers in the entire country, and no women. "But she conceives this idea of wanting to be a lawyer, wanting to be involved in great events," Carter says.
He adds he developed Abigail's character to appeal to "that part in all of us, when we're young, that's ambitious and fresh and innocent and excited, and thinks the world's a just and fair place. And of course she goes out into that world and finds it's much more complex and dangerous than she imagined."
And the danger to President Lincoln in this book comes not from the cranky, mossbacked conservatives, but from the people who considered themselves progressive. Carter points out that the Republican Party of that era was the center of abolitionist activism, led by highly educated men who'd fought slavery all their lives and who resented Lincoln as an unlettered Western hick who wasn't moving fast enough to free the slaves.
"Even as the war progressed, and even as the Union began to win, he remained deeply unpopular," Carter says. "There were a lot of people, the leaders of his own party, who simply thought he was not morally as good as they were."
Carter says he doesn't think Lincoln should have been impeached — though his opponents in the book make a pretty good case. "If you look at the things Lincoln actually did, his administration shuttered opposition newspapers, locked up editors, court-martialed reporters at the front who wrote unfavorable stories, suspended habeas corpus, ignored court orders, declared martial law," Carter says.
"And for Lincoln, all of this was justified by his need to win the war. And that's the question, that in my novel, that the Senate has to confront. Did Lincoln have a justification for the various things he attempted to do that he said were necessary?"
Lincoln, of course, is a central character in the book — but he doesn't appear very often. Carter says it was both intimidating and enormously difficult to write dialogue for such an iconic figure. "One of the reasons that he ends up being in only about five scenes in the novel is precisely that I didn't want to stray too far from the record and bring the whole legion of Lincoln aficionados down on my head."
Carter's version of Lincoln tells a few funny stories that the real 16th president is known to have told. "Where he has to talk about other things, I tried to use the cadences that so far as I can tell were accurate," Carter says, adding that he learned those cadences by studying Lincoln's letters, speeches and accounts of conversations people had with him.
Fantastical depictions of Lincoln seem to be popular this summer; Carter says that while he hasn't seen the movie Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, he's planning to. "I think it might be fun. And the truth is, anything that gets people to take a real interest in Lincoln, I think is a good thing."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


text:
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Attitudes Toward Dice
I recognize that I have a higher than normal tolerance for letting the dice fall where they may, but I share Noisms's bafflement at fudging the dice. I think there are many perfectly valid reasons for not rolling dice to determine the outcome of an action in a RPG, but, if one is going to roll dice, why not accept their results?
40 comments:
I sometimes ask the dice for advice but then make my own decision. Maybe I'm not really sure how I want things to play out, so I inject some randomness. Then I might look at the results and decide I don't want to do exactly what they say, but use that in some way to make my decision.
For example, I might roll a skill check when a player asks to do something. That skill check will say success or failure. I could interpret that yes/no result into how well they succeeded or failed. Or, I could decide that a failure is a success on this action, but has some ramifications downstream. They failed the lock pick. I don't want them to be locked out, so they might be able to open the door, but it notified folks on the other side. Or they broke the mechanism and now it's completely unlockable.I grew up on Runequest, a game where it is not a question of "If" but "When" PCs will be maimed and/or killed. My players (currently comprised of a few of the RQ group from back in the day) know that no fudging occurs when I GM. This has the unfortunate quality of negatively impacting PCs more often than bad guys, but no one minds.
I agree with the statement that if you are going to roll dice, why would you avoid the result?I agree, James. No matter how clever DMs think they are when it comes to fudging, players can quickly figure out the difference between DMs who let things fall where they may (whatever the consequences) and DMs who frequently "massage" the dice into getting the outcome they want.
One of the great benefits of dice is that they allow for fresh and unpredictable outcomes, whereas if the DM chooses everything he or she tends to choose things predictably."while one may wish to consult an oracle out of curiousity, one don't neccessarily feel bound (nor see a reason to be bound) to take their advice?"
On the other hand, RPG players often expect to play a roleplaying game, and the oracle defense doesn't work in Vegas or Atlantic City for a reason. :)- AnonymousFebruary 25, 2010 at 7:05 PM
I totally agree, and DM the same way. Yes, I will let monsters kill the party (I do straight-up combat where a hit is a hit, and if you're dead, you're dead), but if a spear trap does 1d6 worth of damage and I roll a d6, I might have it simply do 4 damage if that's what it takes to get the party to be careful. Of course, if it hits a warrior who can take the damage, it will deal the full six.
That said, if I roll a low damage (say, one) I may add significant effects to make it MORE of a warning that 1 damage would be--perhaps it makes such a ruckus that it increases the chance of a wandering monster, for example.
I totally understand playing it totally straight, however--no need to convince me of its merits. I wouldn't mind playing in a game like that, but it is too much emotional baggage for me to DM it. Perhaps with a different group of players (ones who all have significant DMing experience of their own, for example), it would be a different case.
Either way, good post James! Thought provoking. > but, if one is going to roll dice, why not accept their results?
I believe you are a fan of random tables, yes? Do you ever get a result from a table that doesn't fit, or isn't awesome enough or for some other reason you decide to reject? If the answer is yes (and I'm pretty sure I've read that specific advice from you) then
1) that is your answer to "why fudge?"
2) you're a no good dirty dice fudger :)
The occasional dice fudger likes the spontaneity and creative generation of random dice. But once in a while the dice come up with a result that is way unfun. When that happens they reroll.I used to fudge dice a heckuva lot more when I was younger than I do anymore. Mostly because I used to have a thing for playing modules "as written", and then running modules that were too arbitrary about calling for saving throws to damage/kill off the party for no real good reason. Nowadays I would just roll my eyes at the text and ignore it, but back in the day I didn't have the experience to do that. So I'd fudge the dice instead.
These days I only fudge dice when I've got more than a binary decision to make with the roll and I don't like the result I get. Rolling for wandering monsters, for example. I roll orcs and, well, I'm bored with orcs tonight so screw it and add one to the roll. Or I'm rolling on the random treasure table and have somehow managed to roll the same potion I gave out last time - screw it, subtract one from the roll. Or I've got a random table of effects for a set of pools and the same curse has now shown up for the third time in three rolls - screw it I'm picking one of the other curses.
But yeah - "never roll dice if you're not prepared to accept a negative outcome" is a damn good rule of thumb. I will say, though, that depending on the game I will sometimes call for skill checks from a player that I'm going to ignore anyway because I've already decided that the skill value the character has is enough to succeed. But I have players who feel cheated if they don't get to roll the dice for skill checks. So I let them roll. But that's more of an issue I have with point-based skill-list games and how they tend to implement knowledge checks than anything else.I roll all mine in the open. It can add a lot of drama, especially since I do not ignore results. Great moments have happened where I kill a character on anything but a one on damage dice and WoW! I roll a one!
That happened during one of our games last year. It's very exciting as everyone watches the dice roll - much more exciting than waiting to hear what the GM announces from behind the screen. :)
No matter how clever DMs think they are when it comes to fudging, players can quickly figure out the difference between DMs who let things fall where they may (whatever the consequences) and DMs who frequently "massage" the dice into getting the outcome they want.
I think this is an important point when thinking about whether you're going to fudge the dice or not in your game.I agree James. At least for me, D&D is a game. I realize there are different sorts of games out there, but the way in which it is a game for me is that dice are the tool for deciding outcomes that are subject to chance. Once you take away the dice as that tool, you have a storytelling situation in which the "referee" is not a referee so much as the narrator who decides what happens. At that point (speaking for myself only) it ceases to be a game.
ReplyDeleteI believe you are a fan of random tables, yes? Do you ever get a result from a table that doesn't fit, or isn't awesome enough or for some other reason you decide to reject? If the answer is yes (and I'm pretty sure I've read that specific advice from you) then
1) that is your answer to "why fudge?"
2) you're a no good dirty dice fudger :)
I can't speak for Noisms, but when I talk about "fudging," I'm not talking about rolls on extraneous tables of dungeon dressings or even wandering monsters. I'm talking about things pertaining to character action, such as attack rolls, saving throws, checking for secret doors, etc. I guess I distinguish between "minor" and "major" uses of dice, if that makes sense, and I try very hard never to fudge major uses of them.I'm coming around to the roll-dice-in-the-open philosophy. Not something I wanted to be dogmatic about -- a logistical problem in the past was needing to have the screen up to hide maps, monster rosters, combat tables, etc. As I get to a point where I can run most of my gaming just mentally, that goes away, and I find myself just accidentally with no screen and thus rolling in the open.
I find it actually takes a lot of the burden off my shoulders as DM. No mental energy tied up in "fudge this one, not that one, how much, how many hp does the fighter have left, what's a reasonable faux number that would be believable, etc., etc." It makes it more lightweight, fun, in-the-moment.Hey James,
A great topic, and thanks for bringing it up. I think people always have to remember that it is just a game, and if some-one is occasionally fudging their dice, well thats their perigative. I think that they can get defensive sometimes, because there are times when it comes across that if you don't follow all the dice rolls (or if you don't constantly rely on random tables) your playing a lesser game. I'm not implying you btw but sometimes others can come across a little that way.
For myself, I love random tabels less for the randomness though, and more for the ideas they provide. I think I use them like some other people have mentioned..see what the dice say, and then mayybeee change it if I thought a different result would be interesting to explore, or would be more appropriate given the situation.
As for combat rolls, only when I was young, I still don't know exactly why? Although to be honest I'm soon starting a game for all new players soon, and it will be tempting to give them second chances to keep them alive a little longer...but I swear i will try to resist the urge to fudge.
word verification: subeat....now I want some subway dammit."What do you think about systems that allow players to "force" a fudge? Like fate points that the player spends to make the DM reroll a result, for instance."
But those are defnitively not fudging, they're just another resource, except out-of-character. Might as well call them a "potion of defense" or something.
As I wrote a year ago: http://deltasdnd.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-action-points.htmlWell, I have another use for dice that doesn't involve a definite outcome by its score. Psychology. I roll the dice behind the screen, nod or seem interested in the result, and tell the player everything is quite and come- or say nothing at all. It freaks them out everytime. Meanwhile, I rolled for no other reason than to mess with their minds. Is a random monster lurking just around the corner, or worse? Not really. What did I roll, it did not matter in this case. Recommended for COC or horror-like sections of any D&D game.
ReplyDeleteI game with my kids a lot right now, and I do fudge the rolls from time to time- but I try to avoid rolling in critical situations. I don't need to make my 6 year old cry, really.
with adults I roll in the open, although I am fond of a "one reroll per session, per player" kind of rule it helps to keep folks from turteling up.I game with my kids a lot right now, and I do fudge the rolls from time to time- but I try to avoid rolling in critical situations. I don't need to make my 6 year old cry, really.
Yeah, I can see that. If I were gaming with children, or perhaps demoing a game I might treat things differently. It would be the same if I was playing some other type of tabletop game.The only rolls I used to keep hidden were for stuff that the character's couldn't be sure about.
But then when I started playing open secrets (where the players know the dire and terrible secrets of the other characters and can play to them), it made sense that I should also trust my players to react appropriately when the dice revealed the discovery of a secret door that wasn't there (or the failure to discover a secret door that may have been there).
If the players put their characters in a situation where a single element of bad luck kills their characters then they have come up with a bad plan. If the gamemaster forces them to do so, then they have come up with a bad adventure. Similarly if an entire epic quest hinges on a single dice roll, this is also an element of bad design. If the element involved is vital to the quest there should be no chance of failure in obtaining it and thus the dice shouldn't be rolled, any more than the dice should be rolled for walking across a smooth floor.
And sometimes ignoble deaths happen. To quote a notable bard of yore, those sling's and arrows of outrageous fortune sometime hurt. It makes the heroic deaths mean something more. [But given the advantages that player characters have over non-player characters in most games this means the player got out of his or her character's depth.]
Remember that when the Lady turns Her face from you, it is probably an omen that it was a bad idea in the first place, and you should run away and try something else. Of course, if you only have a single story track planned this may not be possible. But then why aren't you just reading your players a story?
As Donagar would say, "May the Lady go with you!"- AnonymousFebruary 25, 2010 at 11:08 PM
Good advice. I also roll die openly, & let them lay as they may, be it for good or bad. I don't fudge any die roll that pertains to the fate of a PC, whether it's to their benefit or not. To me, it always seemed a wee unfair.
Now if I sense a player is having a rough patch of luck, I might choose to give him a break - but I always choose to do so without the use of dice. My philosophy: Once they're rolled, that's it. Accept what the dice reveal & move on. On the extremely rare occasion I'm on the other side of the table, I'm known for rolling some of the most god-awful character stats anyone could ever have - regardless of game.
As for random tables, I'm an admitted control freak when designing an adventure. The only tables I randomly roll on are treasure tables, & wandering monster tables of my own design. Everything else I pick & choose at my leisure. As James says, it's important to distinguish between dice rolls which have different sorts of consequences - i.e. between those which pertain to character action and those which don't. (James calls them minor and major uses of the dice. Sounds like good descriptors to me.)
Fudging I would argue is always wrong, but there are lesser degrees of wrongness. If you fudge on a random treasure generation table it's a minor use of the dice and hence a minor wrong (and one you might be comfortable with), but fudging saves is a major wrong and should be avoided at all times.To expand just a bit on Ed Ross's "psychology" answer, sometimes you want to create tension for the players even when you don't get to experience it yourself. Obviously, over-using this device could render it pointless, but I would still argue that it can be useful to let the players think that an outcome you planned all along is happening at random.
ReplyDeleteI think the "distinction" mentioned above is just the classic issue of the DM having multiple jobs: (1) Pre-game setting up adventures and campaigns; (2) In-game acting as referee an adjudicator.
In case (1) setting up dungeons is obviously, and explicitly in the books, a combination of DM creativity and dice-rolls to jog the imagination. In case (2) there's a strong argument, again bolstered by the core rulebooks, for letting the dice fall where they may.
Obviously James is, correctly, talking about use of dice during active gameplay."If the players put their characters in a situation where a single element of bad luck kills their characters then they have come up with a bad plan. If the gamemaster forces them to do so, then they have come up with a bad adventure. Similarly if an entire epic quest hinges on a single dice roll, this is also an element of bad design. If the element involved is vital to the quest there should be no chance of failure in obtaining it and thus the dice shouldn't be rolled"
I think this sums it up.
I get that some GMs-groups-campaigns have evolved to the point where fudging, for the purposes of avoiding not-fun outcomes, has become embedded in the expected conventions of play. In these groups, failure to fudge in the expected circumstances amounts to a breach of trust.
I'll always defend each individual groups' right to find their own truth. Who am I to know what's fun for some other group and what won't be? I can't.
But to me, allowing yourself the option of fudging means you're denying yourself an opportunity to become a better GM. If your game hits a flat spot because of a bad roll/s, that tells you something if you'll let it. It tells you that either a) those rolls shouldn't have been made, or b) you should have been better prepared for them going bad.
And maybe next time you face a similar situation you'll handle it so that it ain't no-fun. It might even be the highlight of the night.> use of dice during active gameplay.
What? No random charts are used during game play? Wandering monsters aren't rolled for during active game play?
> there's a strong argument, again bolstered by the core rulebooks, for letting the dice fall where they may.
Actually, DM intervention and fiat are taught.
From X1
"The DM should use logic when rolling wandering monsters. If the monster rolled is highly unlikely for the terrain type (for example, a plesiosaurus in a non-lake hex) the DM should either roll again or choose a different wandering monster. If the monster is either much too strong or much too weak for the party, the DM may change the number appearing or the monster's hit point sto provide a suitable challenge for the party.
From DMG
"They are willing to accept the hazards of the dice, be it loss of items,
wounding, insanity, disease, death, as long as the process is exciting. But
lo!, everytime you throw the "monster die" o wandering nasty is indi-
cated, and the party's strength is spent trying to fight their way into the
area. Spells expended, battered and wounded, the characters trek back to
their base. Expectations have been dashed, and probably interest too, by
random chance. Rather than spoil such an otherwise enjoyable time, omit
the wandering monsters indicated by the die"
Also from that august tome.
"In closing this discussion, simply keep in mind that the dice are your tools."
DM's tools, not the DM's master.
I'm actually in the roll in the open don't fudge camp (and also in the pych out fake roll camp). But, once again, people are suffering selective memory and/or practicing historic revisionism.
> I distinguish between "minor" and "major" uses of dice, if that makes sense, and I try very hard never to fudge major uses of them.
Stronger argument, (and the one I see the rules actually promoting). But, how do you decide what is minor and major? Is fudging encounter roll cause party is so beat up it can't handle fight, major? What about changing results from orcs to something interesting cause been fighting orcs all day?
Is not fudging a treasure roll that would give character gamebreaking powerful magic major?
Is not open doors attempt vs door to empty room minor?
Different DM's judge major/minor differently and thus you get a spectrum of when they fudge.- AnonymousFebruary 27, 2010 at 5:03 AM
Norman Harman, I argued the toss (ha) over at Noisms with those quotes from the DMG etc. in mind, and it's nice to see someone quoting them back. I have a strong memory of the DMG and Dragon magazine telling me quite explicitly the dice were mine to command, not vice versa. And I've never received complaints from players - not in 25 years - for using my judgement to make the game more fun when the dice tell me it won't be.
ReplyDelete But, once again, people are suffering selective memory and/or practicing historic revisionism.
Or could it be that some of us are explicitly rejecting exactly the kind of advice Gygax is offering up in the DMG? I won't speak for anyone else, but I know I am. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm deeply ambivalent about AD&D and consider it to have canonized many trends I dislike in gaming, including the notion of the referee as a narrator or storyteller. I prefer a (generally) more objective role for the referee and letting the dice fall where they may in play is an important part of that.
I certainly make no claim that this approach is "truer" or "better" than any other. Nor do I claim the authority of Gygaxian Holy Writ to support it. Indeed, I readily acknowledge that my approach is contrary to what Gygax wrote in many places throughout the 1e era, including in the DMG. That's not revisionism; that's me saying that, much as I admired the man and honor his memory, I still often disagree with him. I suspect I'm not alone in feeling this way.
It's funny, because normally old school bloggers get slammed because we've supposedly made an idol out of Gary. Now we're getting hit because we're not being sufficiently deferential to what wrote in various places. Neither my post nor that of Noisms invoked Gygax or any other illustrious name to support our opinions, so, disagree with our positions all you like, but why start quoting chapter and verse to us? I'm not sure how that's relevant.- AnonymousFebruary 27, 2010 at 8:50 AM
considering the post that follows this one, it seems kind of relevant to me...
ReplyDelete @James you did not read my post very clearly (or I wrote it very confusingly).
First I agree with you (and Noisms) as far as fudging dice go as I stated in last post. I disagree (strongly) with Noisms claims that the books tell us Fudging is wrong. I strongly disagree that there is one or a right way to play.
> Neither my post nor that of Noisms invoked Gygax or any other illustrious name
Yeah, neither did I. Noisms brought up rulebooks Not me. I simply provided examples that contradicted Noisms claims as to what they said. I mentioned sources NOT AUTHORS. [I didn't even mention what edition of DMG So, you either recognized the passage, the writing style or made educated guess.]
You've addressed the parts of the comment in response to Noism's rulebook claim but have ignored my questions as to where this grey line of "ok to Fudge" / "not ok to Fudge" lies for the non-fudging, objective DM.You've addressed the parts of the comment in response to Noism's rulebook claim but have ignored my questions as to where this grey line of "ok to Fudge" / "not ok to Fudge" lies for the non-fudging, objective DM.
For me, the line is drawn at the table. I don't fudge dice once my players and I sit at the table together and start playing. For me, it's at least partially a matter of courtesy: if a player fudges his dice rolls, we generally call that cheating, right? I think the same thing applies to referees, even when doing so goes against the players. It's the referee's job to be impartial, after all.If something in a game could be left up to the GM's discretion anyway but they either aren't good at or don't want to improvise and choose to roll on some table ("is this door locked or not?" etc) then I think it's a waste of time doing that and then "fudging" the result, but ultimately it doesn't really matter too much.
If it's something the players assume is being done fairly and is entirely dependent on the game's rules and a dice roll (attack, damage, saves, etc) then things start breaking down if the GM isn't playing honestly. How much it breaks down depends on the group and individuals.
As for the primacy of gaming advice in various RPG... there's a lot of fantastic things in the books (new and old) but there's also some not-so-good stuff as well. Any advice that someone at the table should pretend that they're following the rules of a game but secretly they don't... that's a really poor game design pattern.Actually, I've got to apologize for my comment 2 steps up, it was overly snide and Norman had a reasonable textual point on the DMG.
While I tend to mentally focus on passages like, "Now and then a player will die through no fault of his own... In the long run you should let such things pass as the players will kill more than one opponent with their own freakish rolls at some later time," (DMG p. 110), on further reflection it appears true that more ink is spilled in the DMG on opportunities to fudge things than otherwise.
And truthfully, I think that's a mistake (i.e., one of those Gygax-AD&D-off-the-rails issues). In retrospect I think that opens the door to far too much wasted mental energy: "When do I start? When do I stop? How much is too much? What counts as 'do something stupid' to warrant player character death?"


text:
Your purchasing resource center
The heart of any office, the copy machine, has evolved a lot in the past 50 years. Today there are more choices when it comes to a business printing solution. Getting a great deal and a low price all depends on being knowledgeable and comparing prices. Browse hundreds of our buyer's guides and articles with valuable buying information and how-to's.
Buyer's Guide
Our informative Buyer's Guide has everything you need to know to buy smart.
READ OUR DIGITAL COPIERS BUYER'S GUIDEArticles
- Real-world Copier Prices
- Copier Prices By Printing Speed
- Copier Ratings and What You Need to Know
- Canon Copier Review
- Finding a Used or Refurbished Copier


text:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who's leading the push to restore an assault weapon ban, acknowledged on Sunday that the effort faces tough odds to pass Congress and she blamed the nation's largest gun-rights group.
Feinstein, D-Calif., on Thursday introduced a bill that would prohibit 157 specific weapons and ammunition magazines that have more than 10 rounds. The White House and fellow Democrats are skeptical the measure is going anywhere, given lawmakers who are looking toward re-election might fear pro-gun voters and the National Rifle Association.
"This has always been an uphill fight. This has never been easy. This is the hardest of the hard," Feinstein said.
"I think I can get it passed because the American people are very much for it," Feinstein said of the measure that follows a similar measure she championed into law 1994 but expired a decade later.
She acknowledged, however, the NRA's political clout.
"They come after you. They put together large amounts of money to defeat you," Feinstein said.
She also said the group was a pawn of those who make weapons.
"The NRA is venal. … The NRA has become an institution of gun manufacturers," she said.
The NRA disputed her characterization.
"The NRA is a grass-roots organization. We have more than 4 million dues-paying members and tens of millions of supporters all across this country. Our political power comes from them. Decent and logical people would understand that," spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said.
The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to take up the proposal on Wednesday and hear from the NRA's CEO and senior vice president, Wayne LaPierre. Mark Kelly, the husband of former Rep. Gabby Giffords, D-Ariz., who was shot in an assassination attempt, also plans to testify.
Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, the GOP vice presidential nominee in 2012, said Congress should focus on the causes of violence and not the weapons alone.
"We need to look beyond just recycling failed policies of the past. … Let's go beyond just this debate and make sure we get deeper. What's our policy on mental illness? What's going on in our culture that produces this kind of thing? You know, we need to have that kind of a discussion and debate," Ryan said.
Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also urged lawmakers to consider mental health issues.
"When I hear some of this conversation, I think that we're looking at symptoms, we're not looking at the root causes," she said. "And I understand the senator's passion for this, but I got to tell you, an assault ban is not the answer to helping keep people safe."
New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who favors the assault weapons ban, expressed skepticism that it would be returned to law.
"It's probably a heavy lift in Congress," he said.
In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Conn. In December, President Barack Obama has pushed to expanded background checks, restoring the assault weapons ban and banning high-capacity ammunition magazines. But members of his own party may thwart his hopes.
Feinstein appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" and CNN's "State of the Union." Ryan was on NBC's "Meet the Press." Blackburn and Kelly were on CBS.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Copyright 2013 Capitol Hill Blue


text:
About the Sandler organisation
In 1967, David Sandler developed the Sandler Selling System, the methodology behind it and the concept of "reinforcement training" for substantive change and lasting success.
David Sandler was a true visionary who was far ahead of his time. Since his revolutionary methodology was founded on basic principles of the psychology of human behavior, it has stood the test of time.
The current proof of our ongoing success lies in the success of tens of thousands of our clients, whose lives and careers we continue to transform every year.
Using the foundation of the Sandler Selling System, we are continually creating new sales, sales management and leadership programmes for small- and mid-sized companies as well as FTSE 250 organisations.
Our programmes are so effective in part, because they're so adaptable, and can be customised for application to any industry or organisational structure.
Dave Mattson, our current CEO and President, worked closely with David Sandler in the early days of our organisation, and assumed leadership in 2007.
Under Mattson's leadership, the Sandler organisation expanded domestically and internationally to over 250 offices in 27 countries around the world. He added numerous program offerings to Sandler's training portfolio, including Enterprise Selling, Leadership, and Customer Service programs, along with Sandler Certification, the first measurable, skills-based sales certification in the industry.


text:
This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon. Eight-point-two percent, that's the number economists and politicians are looking at closely. It is the unemployment rate for the month of June. The U.S. Labor Department reported that the economy added only 80,000 jobs last month. As the economy continues its very slow recovery, it's worth asking, is the jobs report always the best indicator? NPR's Sonari Glinton has more.
SONARI GLINTON, BYLINE: Every month here on NPR, we do a bunch of stories about the employment figures. And after a while, regardless of what the actual employment number is, it sort of feels like we've sung this song before. It's from an old familiar score.
RENEE MONTAGNE, BYLINE: The Labor Department released its jobs report, and January - it turns out - was a very good month...
DAVID GREENE, BYLINE: ...69,000 jobs last month, far fewer than most forecasters were expecting.
ROBERT SIEGEL, BYLINE: The government's employment report for December showed 200,000 jobs added to payrolls.
MELISSA BLOCK, BYLINE: ...and they said unemployment would be higher than they previously thought.
GLINTON: More than expected, less than expected. This was one of the few months where economists' expectations came close to the reality. The forecasts were for 90,000 jobs. The Labor Department says the economy gained 80,000. But that was this time.
PAUL ISELY: Well, I mean, there's lots of reasons that we're wrong.
GLINTON: Paul Isely is a professor of economics at Grand Valley State University.
ISELY: Right now, what we're seeing is the potential for the seasonal adjustment to be off by a little bit. And it doesn't have to be off by much to cause these numbers to go way array.
GLINTON: You see, the employment numbers we get, how many jobs were added, well, they're adjusted each month. Employers pick up a whole lot of workers for the holidays in December, and factories tend to shut down in the summer time. Economists account for those seasonal changes so we can get a clear picture of what's happening each month. Paul Isely says things have changed since the Great Recession, but how we adjust for those seasonal factors, that hasn't changed.
ISELY: So it gives people this thought process of, oh, it's the beginning of the year and look at how big the job numbers are. We're really accelerating out of this recession and we're going to go gangbusters.
GLINTON: And then, in the middle of the year, people go...
ISELY: Oh, it's so bad. And because it's bad, I need to draw back. And it can have some real affects on how businesses and people plan for the future.
GLINTON: Isely says the jobs picture is probably a lot less volatile than we think. Mark Vitner agrees. He's an economist with Wells Fargo. He says when you back at last year, as a whole, things were steady. But in the heat of last summer, people were, well...
MARK VITNER: ...freaking out that the - that we were on the verge of another recession. And I think the same thing may play out this year, that we'll see that we didn't - that we shouldn't have been as optimistic about the apparent pickup in hiring that we saw earlier this year. And that the fear of a slowdown in the second quarter is probably overblown.
GLINTON: That all raises the question: Are us economics geeks missing the forest for the trees? Linda Barrington is a labor economist at Cornell University.
LINDA BARRINGTON: When we look at the monthly unemployment number, we are not just looking at the leaves instead of the forest. We're trying to predict the shape of a specific leaf.
GLINTON: Barrington says there's a really big question nobody is asking about this recovery. It's our third jobless recovery in 20 years. Why do we keep having them?
BARRINGTON: What's changing in the restructuring of jobs in the U.S. that is making it harder and harder for people to get back on their feet after a recession has hit? We're not going to answer that by looking at this month's numbers by everybody holding their breath to see what Friday's number is going to be.
GLINTON: Try changing that in an election year.
Sonari Glinton, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.


text:
Ruth's first entry is below, and you can continue reading tomorrow here.
These hands are ninety-three years old. They belong to Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. She was so frail that her grand-daughter had to carry her onto the set to take this photo. It's a close-up. Her emaciated arms emerge from the top corners of the photo and the background is black, maybe velvet, as if we're being protected from seeing the strings. One wrist rests on the other, and her fingers hang loose, close together, a pair of folded wings. And you can see her insides.
The bones of her knuckles bulge out of the skin, which sags like plastic that has melted in the sun and is dripping off her, wrinkling and folding. Her veins look as though they're stuck to the outside of her hands. They're a colour that's difficult to describe: blue, but also silver, green; her blood runs through them, close to the surface. The book says she died shortly after they took this picture. Did she even get to see it? Maybe it was the last beautiful thing she left in the world.
I'm trying to decide whether or not I want to carry on living. I'm giving myself three months of this journal to decide. You might think that sounds melodramatic, but I don't think I'm alone in wondering whether it's all worth it. I've seen the look in people's eyes. Stiff suits travelling to work, morning after morning, on the cramped and humid tube. Tarted-up girls and gangs of boys reeking of aftershave, reeling on the pavements on a Friday night, trying to mop up the dreariness of their week with one desperate, fake-happy night. I've heard the weary grief in my dad's voice.
So where do I start with all this? What do you want to know about me? I'm Ruth White, thirty-two years old, going on a hundred. I live alone with no boyfriend and no cat in a tiny flat in central London. In fact, I had a non-relationship with a man at work, Dan, for seven years. I'm sitting in my bedroom-cum-living room right now, looking up every so often at the thin rain slanting across a flat grey sky. I work in a city hospital lab as a microbiologist. My dad is an accountant and lives with his sensible second wife Julie, in a sensible second home. Mother finished dying when I was fourteen, three years after her first diagnosis. What else? What else is there?
Charlotte Marie Bradley Miller. I looked at her hands for twelve minutes. It was odd describing what I was seeing in words. Usually the picture just sits inside my head and I swish it around like tasting wine. I have huge books all over my flat; books you have to take in both hands to lift. I've had the photo habit for years. Mother bought me my first book, black and white landscapes by Ansel Adams. When she got really ill, I used to take it to bed with me and look at it for hours, concentrating on the huge trees, the still water, the never-ending skies. I suppose it helped me think about something other than what was happening. I learned to focus on one photo at a time rather than flicking from scene to scene in search of something to hold me. If I concentrate, then everything stands still. Although I use them to escape the world, I also think they bring me closer to it. I've still got that book. When I take it out, I handle the pages as though they might flake into dust.
Mother used to write a journal. When I was small, I sat by her bed in the early mornings on a hard chair and looked at her face as her pen spat out sentences in short bursts. I imagined what she might have been writing about; princesses dressed in star-patterned silk, talking horses, adventures with pirates. More likely she was writing about what she was going to cook for dinner and how irritating Dad's snoring was.
I've always wanted to write my own journal, and this is my chance. Maybe my last chance. The idea is that every night for three months, I'll take one of these heavy sheets of pure white paper, rough under my fingertips, and fill it up on both sides. If my suicide note is nearly a hundred pages long, then no-one can accuse me of not thinking it through. No-one can say; 'It makes no sense; she was a polite, cheerful girl, had everything to live for', before adding that I did keep myself to myself. It'll all be here. I'm using a silver fountain pen with purple ink. A bit flamboyant for me, I know. I need these idiosyncratic rituals; they hold things in place. Like the way I make tea, squeezing the tea-bag three times, the exact amount of milk, seven stirs. My writing is small and neat; I'm striping the paper. I'm near the bottom of the page now. Only ninety-one more days to go before I'm allowed to make my decision. That's it for today. It's begun.


text:
"Why do the bubbles rise like that?" Daniel asks as he watches his mother stir a boiling pot of noodles. As she explains how water turns into steam, he grates cheese and measures it into a bowl on the counter.
Together, Daniel and his mother planned this meal of spaghetti, salad, and bread. He has already mastered muffins and mashed potatoes. Tonight, with a little help from his grown-up assistant, he is making a meal. Daniel has spent the last half-hour measuring spices, washing lettuce, reading labels, and drizzling olive oil on a loaf of bread.
Dinner may have taken a few extra minutes to get on the table, but Daniel, a second grader, is learning a skill many adults haven't mastered: how to cook a healthy meal.
What Kids Learn in the Kitchen
Certainly, it is easier and faster to do it yourself. So why encourage your school-age child to join you in the kitchen? Because the lessons learned there can be a benefit both at home and in the classroom.
Cooking teaches kids about eating well.
Kids are usually receptive to conversations about nutrition. Planning a menu can become an opportunity to explain smart food choices. Take the time to discuss the different food groups and encourage your kids to experiment with foods they might not otherwise try. Kids who have a hand in making the vegetables might be a little more willing to sample them at the table.
Sharing food means sharing memories and good conversation.
Grandma's secret zucchini bread recipe can be your chance to pass on a little bit of family lore. Did you love peanut butter and banana sandwiches when you were 7? Tell your child about the kind of foods you liked as a kid. The kitchen is also a place to ask thought-provoking questions like: To make a really colorful dinner, which foods would you include?
Cooking can also foster responsibility.
Kids start out learning to follow recipe directions and then they learn to clean up after themselves when the project is completed. Learning how to safely handle kitchen equipment is an important part of learning to cook. Kids need safety reminders and help with following the steps in a recipe, but they can learn to clean up spills as they happen and to put things back where they belong.
Your kitchen is a learning lab.
As kids learn to crack eggs and stir sauce, they also gain new science, language, and math skills. Basic math skills ("are we putting in more salt or baking soda?") and sequencing skills ("what is first…next…last?") give way to fractions ("is this ¾ of a cup?") as your child gains confidence in the kitchen. Reading recipes can improve reading comprehension, and something as simple as salt sprinkled on an ice cube demonstrates basic science principles.
What Can Younger Kids Do?
By the time kids are in elementary school, they have the coordination to complete a lot of simple kitchen tasks, such as:
- mashing potatoes or bananas
- peeling apples (use a safe peeler instead of a knife)
- sifting and stirring ingredients
- spooning batter into a pan or muffin tin
- kneading dough
- rolling cookie dough
- using cookie cutters
- spreading on toppings, such as grated cheese
Working together in the kitchen can be a great way for siblings to connect, though having more than one child to manage can make it a little more challenging for parents. Try to give each child an equal number of fun tasks, and encourage patience, cooperation, and teamwork. For instance, if the kids like cracking eggs, tell them how many you need and let them divide them equally. If there's an extra, you get to crack it.
For true beginners, a good way to start might be with breakfast. On a morning when no one is in a hurry, make something simple that you know your child likes. Pick a recipe with no more than five ingredients, like French toast, pancakes, eggs, or muffins.
It pays to do a little prep work before you start. Set up a sturdy stool or chair where your child can stand and reach the counter. Set out the recipe and ingredients you will need, the measuring cups and spoons. It's always a good idea to have extra ingredients on hand, just in case of a mishap.
What Can Older Kids Do?
Older school-age kids are probably ready for a challenge. Let them take the lead on choosing and preparing a more involved dish, starting with making the grocery list.
Be the assistant in the kitchen when needed, and supervise if your child needs a lesson in using any unfamiliar cooking equipment. Closely monitor or take over any work that requires the stove, oven, or knives. And don't forget to shower the chef with compliments when you taste the finished product. After creating one dish solo, your child might want to take on an entire meal or some other challenge, such as doubling a recipe or cutting it in half.
Managing the Mess
Whenever you have kids in the kitchen, you're inviting some extra mess. Some parents will be comfortable with a little disorder. Others will feel their blood pressure rising with each little spill. You'll take the fun out of it if your child is overly fearful of making a mistake. But it's reasonable to set some ground rules. Let kids know that spills will happen, but that it's not OK to be careless and messy on purpose.
Parents also need to find their own comfort zone with regard to how much experimenting they'll allow. Would you let your child veer away from the recipe or take charge of a step that could doom the dish? Strive to make the experience a bit of an adventure, but you don't have to overdo it. You can satisfy kids' curiosity in simple ways — just by letting them taste the difference between salt and flour or by comparing the scents of vanilla, cinnamon, and ginger.
Your Budding Chef?
A child who shows a real interest in cooking might be ready to tackle more advanced cooking techniques. It takes practice to garnish, drizzle, and zest, but learning these skills will be fun for a kid with culinary interests.
If your child wants more expertise than you can provide, consider cookbooks, DVDs, and cooking classes for kids. Who knows — you could be raising the next Julia Child or Emeril Lagasse!
source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/nutrition_fit/nutrition/kids_kitchen.html#


text:
Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
I probably would not have taken this route if not for the following line in a supposed "apology" directed to Pim after "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. was caught having stolen Pim's delightful photo of her homemade pop tarts.
To quote:
"Whenever I use a cartoon, recipe etc...I always give credit and I NEVER THOUGHT anything about this before."
Oh Really?
Perhaps "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. has forgotten about this photo
it's a panforte I made back in December 2006
that apparently is the spitting image of one "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. "made" in December 2007
Time to recall "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr.'s "apology"
"I always give credit and I NEVER THOUGHT anything about this before."
Not only is this an issue of copyright infringement, this is also an issue of fraud - he is passing off this photo not only as his own work but as an example of what his "original" recipe would look like.
In case there are apologists (or alter ego's) out there that want to claim that this is a
"Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. claims that he was inspired to make this dish in New Orleans.
Actually, the photo has been ripped from the site: Eat with Me
You'll notice that the photo has been cropped and saturated to alter the colour - something that "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. claimed to Pim that he doesn't do.
This is supposed to be a sweet tart "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr whipped up for his sold out class at The Culinary Center Of Overland Park.
It too was shamelessly stolen from the site: Last Night's Dinner
It's actually a photo of a goat cheese and tomato tart - certainly not a sweet tart.
"Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. claims he "made" this sweet tomato bread pudding at his Heirloom Tomato Seminar .
Sorry to disappoint, it's actually a very savoury tomato, spinach bread pudding from the site: Beans and Greens
One more for good measure and this surely should give you a laugh
The photo is claimed to be that of "My wife Lisa's Salsa recipe"
Perhaps there are questions on the identity of "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr.'s spouse - I know I wouldn't be admitting to it - the photo actually comes from the site: Stainless Steel Droppings
5 minutes browsing and 4 more cases where copyright has been infringed, images misappropriated and fraud committed.
So what can we do - I can only repeat the advice of Pim
"By the way, these thieves don't usually strike just once, so you might want to check his archives and see if he's stolen from you too."
Thank you to all the support shown by fellow bloggers and the general public on this issue - do check out Jen's and Columbus Foodies posting on the matter.
"Chef" Jasper. J. Mirabile Jr has indeed closed his blog off as an invite only blog - no wonder really, if you look at the comments in the space of 15 minutes two more incidents of plagerism were found.
I notice that the sockpuppets are still active on Pim's post so this next one is for them
The following is a post "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr. WROTE for the August Issue of 435 South - The Magazine of the South Johnson County. It is all about his experience at a local blackberry farm.
All good and well, except the text has mostly been taken from this site: Picktnproducts
The quotes he attributes to Cy and Dee were in fact spoken by Tammy Algood, "food expert and spokesperson for the statewide Pick Tennessee Products campaign"
Geography isn't my best subject but I'm sure that Kansas and Tennessee are two different states.
Please remember this is an article he wrote for a magazine that was lifted from The Tennessee Department of Agriculture - to truly highlight how much was lifted - the yellow text indicates all the lifted content, the normal text is what "Chef" Jasper J. Mirabile Jr actually wrote.


text:
Tel: 020 8853 1000
Cash & Carry Supplier of Foods & Drinks Wholesale & Retail
Delivery Now Available!Click here to order with us
Delivery & Click & Collect
For all Ades stores Opening Hours please click here
We value our customers and understand how important it is to treat the data we capture correctly. We do not, nor will we ever sell, rent or loan any data to 3rd parties. Please see our privacy policy for further informations. We use cookies to enhance your journey around the website, it allows us to show you products that we believe may be of interest to you. We do not hold or store your credit card details on this website.
We do delivery to all UK residential addresses. We have a driver covering a route each week for our Wholesale customers and DPD standard delivery for all our retail customers. As an wholesale/retail customer, you could also place your order and request for "click & collect" service.
Yes we do, we can deliver to a number of your stores. Just let us know the details and we'd be happy to assist you.
Our delivery hours is 9am to 6pm, Monday - Friday.
We accept Visa debit or credit card, Visa Electron cards, Mastercard, Maestro and JCB. We take every reasonable care to ensure that your order and subsequent transactions are conducted in a secure environment. Your credit/debit card details will be encrypted to minimise the possibility of unuthorised access. We will let you know if products are not available for any reason after we have accepted your order. We will refund amounts already paid by way of a credit to your credit or debit card or credit your account.
You can be totally confident when you shop with Adesfoods.com, online or on your mobile (coming soon). Our Secure Server Software encrypts your credit/debit card information to ensure your transactions with us are private and protected as they travel over the Internet. We only accept orders from Web browsers that permit communication through Secure Socket Layers (SSL) technology. This means you cannot accidentally place an order through an unsecured connection. A copy of our privacy policy can be found at Privacy policy. Further questions about payment and checkout Click here to contact us for more information.
We aim to always show the same price online as we do in store. Although there may sometimes be discrepancies as we advertise promotions one day in advance in order to show you upcoming deals. The price you'll pay for products is the price of the product on the day of collection across both online and in store purchases. I've seen a promotion / offer in store, can i get the same deal online? We're sorry the promotions available in store are not always available online, but we are doing our best to match store promotional prices, however this isn't always possible.If there is a multi-save or promotional price on a product it will be shown when you place an order, meaning the price you see is the price you pay.
Once you've checked out, you'll receive a confirmation e-mail, detailing all the products, quantities and prices in your order. If you chose to collect from one of our store, when you arrive at your selected collection store, handover your proof of purchase or give your purchase number to someone at the click & collect service desk. The sales order processor will give you your products with a full delivery note with details of all the products you've bought, including substitutions and unavailable products once they see your proof of purchase. If you have any queries about substitutions or out of stock items, you can ask your sales order processor. Alternatively, please call our customer service team on 0208 853 1000* or click here to email our customer service team. Can i add items to my order once in store? Yes you can, but you will have to join the queue system and pay for those items. Due to the number of people shopping, we won't be able to bypass any customer to serve you.
How do i log in as wholesale customer? To log in as a wholesale customer, first you must register with us in-store. Click here to see our registration process. If you are already an Ades wholesale customer and do not have the code provided to you at the time your account was created, please contact the sale department 0208 853 1000* for your code. Alternately, click here to email the technical department for your code. If you already have your code, click here to submit the code. Once submitted and the code is correct, it will take you to the online registration page, where you can set up your online account, which you can use when placing your order. I am having problems signing in to my account. First, check that you've entered the correct email address and password. If you've forgotten your password then please click on the 'Forgot your password' link If you've changed your email address recently, then you may need to update your account details. To do this, sign in on our website using your old email address and password, then click on the 'My Account' link at the top of the page. When i tried to sign in to the website, i got returned to the same page. When this happens, you'll need to verify that your browser is accepting cookies. To check this in Internet Explorer (on Windows), select the tools option from your web browser. Then, select 'Internet options', go to the privacy button, and set it to 'medium'. If you have any queries on how to check this please contact us on 0208 853 1000* and select Option 403 to speak to our Technical Department. I am having problems connecting to the website. Try connecting to another website. If you can connect to other websites but not Adesfoods.com, please check that you're typing in the correct address: https://adesfoods.com/ Please also make sure you aren't clicking on an out-of-date bookmark or favourite. If you still can't connect, then call your Internet Service Provider for assistance. I am having problems adding and removing items from my basket. Delete your temporary internet files and your cache. For more information on how to do this, have a look in the help section of your web browser or in the settings on your mobile if you're using the app (coming soon). Errors appear when i tried to confirm my order at the checkout. If you can't check out, you may see one of the following error messages.
Sorry, the card number you have entered is invalid. If you see this message, make sure you're using a valid card type and entering the card number correctly, without spaces. Remember, Ades doesn't accept American Express. The security code entered is invalid. We ask for the security number from your payment card to prevent your account being used fraudulently. On most cards, the security code is the last 3 digits printed on the signature strip. The expiry date entered is invalid. If your card expires at the end of the current month it may not verify on the site. This is because it may expire before we take payment and we won't be able to verify your new card, as it won't be activated until your current card expires The issue number you supplied is invalid. We only need issue numbers for Maestro cards. If your card is Visa or Mastercard please don't enter an issue number - just leave the box blank. There has been a problem confirming your order Please try and process your order again. If this doesn't work, please refer to your browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Safari) support to delete your browsing history and clear any temporary internet files and cookies, in case these are causing the issue. Your card has not been authorised There has been a problem authorising your card. We would advise you to contact your issuing bank to resolve this. If your card issuer can't help, please refer to your browser (e.g. Google Chrome, Safari) support. Delete your browsing history and clear any temporary internet files and cookies, in case these are causing the issue. From time to time we experience temporary problems with the website. We're not perfect. But when there's an issue, we're working hard to fix it fast, so come back very soon.


text:
Logistics Sustainable Process Design
Environmental sustainability is of paramount importance today. A company's "social license to operate" is closely connected to its environmental performance.
SGS's technical experts know this and provide sustainable process design services to meet the continuing challenge of reducing environmental impact.
SGS can help you to realize the cost savings related to increased efficiency and recovery gains as a result of taking sustainability into account from the start of your process design. From the outset, we design your processing flowsheet to be sustainable as opposed to recommending "end-of-pipe" strategies. Our green process design services include:
- Variability testing
- Bench scale review & testing
- Custom process design
- Float-sink / washability testing
- Cyanide destruction and thiosulfate leaching
- Neutralization and precipitation technologies
- Process water recycling
- Water treatment services and high density sludge precipitation
- Acid rock drainage predictive testing
- Strategies for recycling high tech goods such as solar panels
- Mineral, metal and phase separation strategies
- Process audit and optimization
SGS's internal environmental policy insists that sustainable environmental practices are given top priority. SGS is a co-signee to the CIM Environmental Policy Statement, which promotes environmentally sustainable operations in the mining and exploration industries. Contact SGS to work with a partner that understands your need for sustainable industrial process development and gives you options.


text:
In the final months of his life, Richard Nixon quietly advised President Bill Clinton on navigating the post-Cold War world, even offering to serve as a conduit for messages to Russian President Boris Yeltsin and other government officials, newly declassified documents show.
Memos and other records show Nixon's behind-the-scenes relations with the Clinton White House. The documents are part of an exhibit opening Friday at the Nixon Presidential Library, marking the centennial of his birth.
Clinton has talked often of his gratitude to Nixon for his advice on foreign affairs, particularly Russia. In a video that will be part of the exhibit, Clinton recalls receiving a letter from the 37th president shortly before his death on April 22, 1994, at a time when Clinton was assessing U.S. relations "in a world growing ever more interdependent and yet ungovernable."
"I sought guidance in the example of President Nixon, who came to the presidency at a time in our history when Americans were tempted to say, 'We've had enough of the world,'" Clinton says in the video. "But President Nixon knew we had to continue to reach out to old friends and to old enemies alike. He knew America could not quit the world."
The documents from late February and early March 1994 show Nixon, then 81, in his role of elder statesman. It was two decades after he left the White House in disgrace during Watergate.
The exhibit is an attempt to present a fuller picture of Nixon. It includes the wooden bench he often warmed as a second-rate football player in college, and illustrates events often eclipsed by the scandal that drove him from office.
Media reports from the time discussed interaction between Nixon and Clinton before his trip, including a phone call. The records, provided to The Associated Press by the library, fill in the backstory, detailing Nixon's advice as well as his willingness to assist U.S. interests abroad.
They include a confidential National Security Council memo from a senior Clinton aide who spent three hours with Nixon, shortly before the former president would make his 10th, and final, trip to Russia that year.
The aide, R. Nicholas Burns, writes that Nixon is generally supportive of White House policy on Russia but thinks the administration has not been tough enough when it comes to Russia's dealings with its neighbors. Nixon also advises that U.S. aid to Russia should be linked to U.S. security aims, such as nuclear balance and a reduced threat from the Russian military, rather than emphasizing the value of domestic reforms there.
Nixon also offered to carry messages to Yeltsin and others as his own, the memo says.
The documents, released through Clinton's presidential library for the exhibit, also include talking points Clinton apparently used in his call with Nixon.
Nixon's trip to Russia was followed closely in the media, in part because Yeltsin froze the former president out of the Kremlin and took away bodyguards and a limousine the government had provided for him after Nixon held meetings with Yeltsin adversaries.
Yeltsin later backed off and urged Russian officials and parliament members to meet with Nixon.
In another glimpse into their relationship, a handwritten note will be on display from Nixon to Clinton that praises the former Arkansas governor's 1992 presidential campaign that helped put him in the White House. Nixon said the campaign was one of the best he had ever witnessed.
"The strongest steel must pass through the hottest fire. In enduring that ordeal you have demonstrated that you have the character to lead not just America but the forces of peace and freedom in the world," Nixon wrote.
Clinton in his younger days was no fan of Nixon — as a college student in the 1960s, he opposed escalation of the Vietnam War. And his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, was a young lawyer advising a House committee when she helped draw up impeachment papers against Nixon.
But Clinton's views changed. He led the nation in paying tribute to Nixon at his funeral in California in April 1994, declaring, "May the day of judging President Nixon on anything less than his entire life and career come to a close."
He later told interviewer Larry King that he was deeply grateful for Nixon's counsel since he took office and wished he could call the former president for advice.
Clinton echoed that statement in the video tribute.
"After he died, I found myself wishing I could pick up the phone and ask President Nixon what he thought about this issue or that problem, particularly if it involved Russia. I appreciated his insight and advice and I'm glad he chose, at the end of his life, to share it with me," Clinton says.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2013 Capitol Hill Blue