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Otis's after-school tales seem to begin mid sentence, as if he is simply continuing our conversation left dangling that morning. It usually takes me a minute of two before I get the gist of what he's telling me, "...food science...heat and acid...so easy..." When I finally realize that Otis and his classmates had made ricotta that day and that he wanted to make it with me, "Of course, I'd love to!" I answer and we make ricotta right then and there.
Otis and I first made ricotta together a month or so ago and he was right - it is ridiculously easy to make and totally empowering for any do-it-yourselfer. Have you made your own ricotta? I'm guessing a lot of you have, but for those of you who haven't...you must give it a go!
QUICK RICOTTA inspired by the Edible Schoolyard
printable recipe
- 2 cups whole milk
- generous pinch of sea salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Finally, pour your milky mixture (curds and whey) through a cheesecloth stretched over the top of a bowl.
You can serve the ricotta immediately or let it continue to strain for up to an hour depending on how dry you like your ricotta.
That's it. Ricotta done!
There are all sort of wonderful resources for making ricotta. If you want to read more, check here, here and here...
printable recipe
We were in Bolinas staying at my mom's over the long weekend and Otis and I made another batch of ricotta yesterday morning. I decided to make an early lunch putting our fresh cheese to good use. Mom had broccoli sprouting in her garden, lemons finally ripening on her tree, and we had ricotta.... a bright, lemony veggie pasta seemed the thing.
- 6 loosely packed cups broccoli florets (I think asparagus could be wonderful in this pasta in the spring time)
- 1/3 cup good olive oil + a drizzle for serving
- sea salt
- 1 package dry pasta of your choice {GF folks: I used Bionaturae spaghetti}
- zest and juice of 2 lemons
- handful toasted pine nuts
- ground black pepper
- red pepper flakes
- fresh ricotta (see recipe above)
- optional: broccoli blossoms
Blanch your broccoli florets in the hot pasta water. Use a slotted spoon to remove the vibrant, tender veg and transfer them to a large mixing bowl. Toss broccoli with 1/3 cup olive oil and salt generously to taste. Set aside.
Return the water to a boil and cook the pasta until tender. While pasta is cooking, zest and juice lemons and set aside.
Add pasta to the broccoli florets, toss and immediately add pine nuts, lemon zest and juice to the mix. Season generously with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. If you think it needs it, add a little more lemon juice. Give the whole thing a sprinkling of red pepper flakes, if you like a little spice. Finally scatter fresh ricotta onto the pasta and give the whole dish another drizzling of olive oil. Add a few broccoli blossoms if you've got them.
Serve pasta warm or at room temp.
Feeds 4.


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By buying a car with the Autoguard Warranty you have made the right choice.
Present-day automobiles represent a high technical standard and offer a maximum in reliability. Nonetheless, costly damage to important and expensive module components can happen to anyone. With the Autoguard Warranty, you can play it safe just in case it happens.
Autoguard Premium Warranty
What is covered?
All mechanical and electrical components of the vehicle that were manufacturer's original fitments except those listed below:
Additional Items Covered:
- In-car Entertainment Systems
(Please note that these items will be covered up to 25% including VAT, of your claim limit on original manufacturer's equipment up to a maximum of £500) - Air Conditioning & Climate Control Systems
(Please note that these items will be covered up to a maximum of 40% including VAT of your claim limit up to a maximum of £800). - SAT NAV Equipment
(Please note that this item will be covered up to a maximum of 25% including VAT, of your claim limit up to a maximum of £500) - Additional Cover:
We will provide cover on the vehicle's catalytic converter provided an extra fee has been collected and your vehicle was under 5 years of age at time of purchase.
Components not covered:
- Gradual deterioration of performance of a component in line with the age and mileage of the vehicle will be classed as "wear and tear" and excluded from the guarantee.
- All bodywork and trim, seat belts (any part), glass (including heated screens and door mirrors), sunroof panels, fuel tank, wheels and tyres. Airbags or disposal of airbags.
- Minor fluid leaks, odours, external oil leaks, worn or perished seals.
- Consumable items such as, but not exclusively limited to; light bulbs, drive belts, wiper blades, brake linings, brake discs, cylinders, cables, glow plugs, split pipes, all hoses and key fobs.
- Blocked, porous or seized components - including seized brake callipers and calliper motors.
- Clearing or cleaning of fuel lines or components, contamination of fuel system either by incorrect fuelling or water ingress. Damage caused to any component by water ingress.
- Clutch components, unless mechanically failed.
- Electrical connections, wiring looms and batteries.
- Exhaust system, including but not limited to manifolds, mufflers, brackets and mountings. Including de-pollution or diesel particulate filters and systems and EGR valves.
- Cylinder block liners for vehicles over 3000 cc.
Autoguard Select Warranty
What is covered?
- Automatic & CVT Transmission
All components contained within the transmission casing - Brakes
Master cylinder, ABS wheel speed sensor, restrictor valve and servo. (Excluding seized callipers). - Casings
The following casings are only covered if their failure is a direct result of a failure of a covered component and will constitute part of the total claim subject to the policy limits. - Clutch
Release bearing, master and slave cylinders. (Excluding burnt out parts and wear and tear). - Engine
The rocker assembly, including hydraulic followers, inlet and exhaust valves (except carbonised, burnt, pitted and sticking valves), cylinder head gasket, camshaft and followers, timing gears and chains (excluding tensioner), oil pump, pistons and rings, con-rods, gudgeon pins and bearings, crankshaft and bearings, inlet manifold and ring gear - Engine Cooling System
Water pump, viscous fan coupling, thermostat and thermostat housing, expansion tank, heater matrix and coolant temperature sensor. (Excluding frost damage) - Engine Management (ECU)
Engine electronic control unit. - Front & Rear Suspension
Coil springs, upper and lower wishbones and ball and swivel joints. (Excluding bushes) - Fuel System
Throttle body, airflow meter, throttle position sensor, oxygen sensor, throttle potentiometer, map sensor, injectors, lift pump, mechanical fuel pump. Excluding breakdown as a result of contamination or failure to meet current emission legislation. - Steering (incl. power-assisted steering)
Steering rack and pinion, steering box, pump and idler box. (Excluding power steering belts, external links and joints, rubber boots, swivel pins and oil leaks) - Manual Gearbox
All internal components contained within the transmission casing. - Drive Axle
Internal crown wheel and pinion, gears, shafts, bearings and bushes, thrust washers and spacers, drive shafts, including constant velocity joints, hubs, universal joints and couplings. (Excluding gaiters) - Electrical System
Starter motor, alternator, coil, window and sunroof motors, electric window switches, sunroof switch, central locking motor, heater fan motor, indicator flasher relay, distributor, front and rear windscreen wiper motors, electrical fuel pump, windscreen washer motors, electronic ignition amplifier, thermostatically-controlled radiator fan motor, horn and tank sender unit. - Wheel Bearings
Front and rear wheel bearings for sudden and unexpected mechanical failure only. - Wheel Bearings
Should any authorised repair to any of the above components require essential replacement or topping up of lubricants, oils or coolant or replacement of the oil filter, these shall be covered as part of the total claim, within the policy limits. Gradual deterioration of performance of a component in line with the age and mileage of the vehicle will be classed as "wear and tear" and excluded from the policy.

subset: commoncrawl


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The fonds consists of records relating to his career as a journalist and to his family life in Victoria. It has been arranged in two series, Autobiography and Writing. The Autobiography series consists of Archies autobiographical works, which document his service in World War I and his family life and career. It has been arranged into three sub-series: All in A Lifetime, My Life in the Army, and Travel. The Writing series consists of his published and unpublished work, and background material for it. The series shows his interest in making new generations of Victoria residents aware of their citys history and aware of World War I history. It has been arranged into two sub-series: Articles and Stories, and Broadcasts. Records include typed manuscripts, clippings of Archies published articles, photographs including photograph albums, diaries, scrapbooks, war medals, and ephemera.
Wills, Archie


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The Independent Investor: Why Baby Boomers Are Grumpy
You would think those born between 1946 and 1965 would have a lot to be thankful for. After all, the first wave of those baby boomers is finally eligible to retire in 2011. The recession appears to be over and jobs are beginning to make a comeback, even the stock market is performing well — so what's the problem?
The Pew Research Center's recent survey on baby boomers indicates that fully 80 percent are "dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today."
Quite a bit of that unhappiness can be traced to personal finances and negative economic views. That makes sense since boomers were hit harder than most segments of the population by the double whammy of declining stock prices and housing prices. For those laid off who are older than 50 years of age, it has been harder to obtain a new job. And even those who are employed argue that real income has stagnated over the last decade. As a result, the majority say their household finances have worsened and a higher portion of boomers than other ages have had to cut spending this year.
The current estimate of baby boomers in America is 79 million, about 26 percent of the total U.S. population. Although they still consider retirement age at 65, the typical boomer believes that old age doesn't begin until age 72, according to the survey.
Times have changed since the boomers came of age in the '60s and '70s. Back then, America was the land of honey and horizons seemed to stretch forever. Now, most boomers point to the huge national debt, the deficit, a lack of political leadership and lament that America is past its prime. They and their country are in decline, or so the story goes.
"My parents worked hard, saved, retired and enjoyed their golden years," said one disgruntled boomer, (who gave me the idea for this column).
"Why can't I do the same?"
Actually, there are a number of reasons why this time around it is different and most of the fault lies with us Boomers. Back in the day, our parents were part of a pension plan that included monthly retirement savings on the company's tab. My Dad was a machinist at SKF (a ball-bearing manufacturer) for 30 years and worked another full-time job at night. The pension contributions increased as his salary rose and as the number of years worked at the company increased. His pension was conservatively managed by trained professionals. It was also fairly easy to calculate the money he would be receiving on the first day of retirement and my parents planned for that.
Their mortgage was fixed and ended right around the time of retirement. Your parents also knew how and what their medical plan would be in retirement as well as Social Security benefits. Most costs were controlled, or at least somewhat contained while families lived frugally and spurned debt. Some did so successfully and enjoyed those golden years, others (like my Dad who died of a massive heart attack a few years after retiring) didn't do so well, but at least the results were fairly predictable.
We baby boomers wanted more.
We did away with pensions and took control of our own retirement in the form of deferred-retirement plans like 401(k)s and IRAs. The problem was that contributing to those plans was voluntary (unlike pension plans). And somehow there was always something more important to spend our money on. Besides it was much more fun to "flip houses and make a killing" than make those monthly contributions toward retirement.
Even those who did save only kinda sorta did it. Self-directed, deferred-retirement plans should have done exceptionally well in the period from 1982 to 2000. It was the greatest bull market in recorded history, but few actually put enough money in these plans to make a difference. By 2001, when some of us actually began saving more, we watched those savings first disappear during the Dot-Com bust and then again more recently in 2008-2009. As a result, retirement plans actually went nowhere in the last decade.
As if that wasn't a low enough blow, those of us who counted on our houses to bail us out — the "I can always sell my house" crowd — witnessed that store of wealth decline 30 percent in the last two years. Houses are not moving, or if they are, sellers are forced to take a cut depending upon the size and location of your home. For someone forced to sell, faced with the prospect of living on social security with insufficient retirement savings, there is definitely something askew with the American Dream. It is no wonder that Boomers are grumbling. Many feel their country's economic prowess has peaked and the promise of prosperity for all has been broken. Living the dream for many has turned into living a nightmare.
Maybe it was that old long-haired hippie in us that whispered we would live forever so why worry about retirement, or if we really had to, we could get by living in our old VW bus. It is only now that those romanticized notions are disappearing in the face of reality. But it is not too late. Maybe you can't retire at 65 but that may turn out to be a good thing. You can always start saving, and if I am right about the stock market this year, even first-time investors could make a substantial return on their money.
This country still holds promise for those willing to grasp it. No one is ever too old for that.
Bill Schmick is an independent investor with Berkshire Money Management. (See "About" for more information.) None of the information presented in any of these articles is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by BMM. Direct your inquiries to Bill at 1-888-232-6072 (toll free) or e-mail him at email@example.com. Visit www.afewdollarsmore.com for more of Bill's insights.
Tags: baby boomers, pensions, retirement |
The Independent Investor: And Now For That Deficit
President Obama speaks with Erskine Bowles, left, and former Sen. Alan Simpson in February before announcing their appointment to the deficit-reduction commission in this White House photo. |
The lame-duck Congress is finally getting to work. The president is horse trading with the Republican majority to extend the bush tax cuts before the end of the year. At the same time, the Obama budget deficit commission has released its findings and the full 18-member panel will vote on these proposals on Friday. Be prepared for some fireworks.
When the President Obama first appointed the bipartisan panel led by Erskine Bowles and former Sen. Alan Simpson, to come up with ideas to cut the exploding deficit, I wrote that we would have to wait until after elections before their findings would be revealed. Given some of the radical suggestions these deficit doctors have suggested I can understand why they are only now being revealed.
At long last the "untouchables" are on the table; those sacrosanct programs that no politician has had the guts to address in my lifetime. Taboo subjects such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, farm subsidies, defense spending and mortgage interest rate deductions are on the table. If accepted in its entirety (and it won't be), the plan would reduce the deficit by $3.89 trillion between 2012 and 2020. The current national debt is about $13.9 trillion.
Here are some of the high points. Our complicated tax system and tax brackets would be collapsed into three brackets – 12, 22 and 28 percent. Itemized deductions would be eliminated; capital gains would be taxed as ordinary income. Contributions to tax-deferred accounts would be capped at 20 percent of income or $20,000, whichever is lower.
Although the plan would reduce income tax rates, there would be a price to pay. Your mortgage interest deduction would disappear, gas would be taxed at a higher rate, the retirement age of Social Security would increase and benefits for both Medicare and Medicaid will be cut. Over on the corporate side, taxes would be reduced as well to 28 percent from 35 percent. But employer provided health care exclusions would be capped and phased out altogether by 2038.
Now before you take sides on what you like or dislike about the proposals, understand that just about every interest group, every age group, every demographic profile you can come up with will both gain and lose by these proposals. Lobbyists will trash those proposals that threaten their clients and promote those that don't. On an individual level, I who have just purchased a home (and therefore a mortgage) in Pittsfield while less than five years away from social security and Medicare, will want my representatives to vote against those proposals but vote for a reduction in my income taxes.
You, my dear reader, will have your own agenda and want the deficit reduction to play out in a way that benefits you but takes nothing away from what you already have now.
This would be a mistake.
Our deficit is out of control. Many Boomers, their heads stuck in the sand, believe that if we pretend to ignore it, the deficit will soon become the problem of our future generations. We have gotten into the habit both individually and as a nation of kicking the can down the road. We mouth statements like "I'm glad I'm not growing up in America today" or "kids today will just have to work harder" or "our generation supported them, now it's their turn."
Maybe prior to the financial crisis, that short-sighted attitude would have worked. Now, several trillion dollars in debt later, the hard, sober facts are that if we don't make the sacrifices now to reduce the deficit dramatically, the Boomer generation is going to get clocked at the time when they can least afford it — in retirement. We share a number of economic and social conditions that could quite easily put us in the same position as Ireland, Italy, Spain and Greece. It wouldn't take much for our big lenders, like China and Japan to go on a debt buyer's strike, especially if the deficit continues to grow.
Nations around the world have already warned us of this possibility. Actions to replace the dollar by a basket of currencies are simply another warning shot across our bow. If the deficit continues to rise while America once again backs away from the hard choices we have to make in deficit reduction, then we will all see a spike in interest rates that will make your hair stand on end. Those rates will drive the economy into a depression and the stock market to new lows. Your retirement savings will disintegrate and we baby boomers will be bagging groceries at the supermarket at age 85 — if we are lucky.
So what's it going to be?
Bill Schmick is an independent investor with Berkshire Money Management. (See "About" for more information.) None of the information presented in any of these articles is intended to be and should not be construed as an endorsement of BMM or a solicitation to become a client of BMM. The reader should not assume that any strategies, or specific investments discussed are employed, bought, sold or held by BMM. Direct your inquiries to Bill at 1-888-232-6072 (toll free) or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com. Visit www.afewdollarsmore.com for more of Bill's insights.
Tags: deficit, taxes, retirement |
The Independent Investor: Retire Later Rather Than Earlier
Over the last year, a number of baby boomers I know have explored the option of early retirement. Between the financial crises, the recession and the volatility of the stock markets, burnout has hit the over-60 crowd. They yearn for a less stressful life and believe that early retirement is the answer. My advice is don't do it.
The first factor to consider is whether you can afford to retire. The last two years have put a large dent in most tax-deferred savings plans. Some of that damage has been repaired, but by no means all, with most savers still down 20-25 percent from the peak value of their portfolios. All indications are that it will take several more years before the value of our investible assets fully recover.
"I still have my Social Security to fall back on," argued a 62-year-old engineer from a large Berkshire company, headquartered in the center of the county.
"Yes," I said, "but if you wait another eight years, you could pull in a heck of a lot more."
It is true that retired workers can begin collecting Social Security benefits at 62. But your benefits are reduced by as much as 30 percent if you do. Those born between 1943 and 1954 receive full benefits at age 66. The full retirement age increases gradually after that and for those born after 1960 the retirement age is now 67.
Take me for example: I'm 61, born in 1948, and plan to retire sometime after 70. Why?
Well, I could tell you I love my job, (which is true) and that I also love to write. Beyond that, it does not make any economic sense for me to retire before that. For every year I postpone retirement my Social Security benefits increase by 8 percent. A 32 percent increase in benefits over four years is not pocket change.
I also plan to continue working after I start claiming my benefits. Let's say Joe planned to retire next year, at 62. He can earn up to $14,160 without paying a penalty. Any more than that, however, and Social Security deducts 50 cents on every dollar from his benefits. If Joe waits until his retirement age of 66, his earnings limit climbs to $37,680 and the penalty for earning over that is reduced to 33 cents on the dollar. If Joe were to wait just one year longer, there would be no limit or penalty at all.
Since Social Security benefits are calculated based on your 35 highest years of earnings, and many of us are in our highest earnings years right now. It pays us to continue to earn more and bump up our earnings as much as we can.
There are also advantages if you are married. Spouses are entitled to Social Security payments of up to 50 percent of the higher earner's check provided they wait until full retirement age. Since it's still a man's world, I have made more than my wife throughout our working careers. Since we both work, we can claim spousal payments and individual payments and do so at different times.
My wife Barbara is 10 years younger than me. So let's says I retire at 70 percent. She can then claim a spousal payment of 50 percent at that time and then switch to payments based on her own work record a decade later. Those payments will be much higher because she chose to delay her own retirement until she was 70.
Today's boomers are in better shape, have less physically demanding jobs and higher salaries than any preceding generation before them. By working longer, we oldsters increase the productivity of the American economy, provide the workplace with leadership and creativity and reduce the burden of Social Security deficits and the high cost of Medicare on younger generations. Putting off retirement as long as you can makes a great deal of sense both individually and for the country overall. Who knows, you may live longer as well.
Tags: retirement |


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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The widow of the man who was driving a Porsche sports car that crashed and killed actor Paul Walker sued the automaker on Monday, claiming design flaws caused both men to die in a fiery crash in November.
The wrongful death lawsuit by Kristine M. Rodas says her husband was driving at 55 mph — not at unsafe speeds as law enforcement investigators determined — before it crashed last year. Roger W. Rodas was driving a 2005 Porsche Carrera GT capable of more than 200 mph, but his wife's lawsuit says the vehicle lacked a proper crash cage and safety features in the gas tank that would have saved both men's lives.
The lawsuit also contends that a failure in the car's suspension system forced it to careen out of control and strike three trees while driving down a street in Santa Clarita.
"The Carrera GT was unsafe for its intended use by reason of defects in its manufacture, design, testing, component and constituents, so that it would not safely serve its purpose," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages from Porsche Cars North America, which did not immediately return email messages seeking comment.
Kristine Rodas' attorney, Mark Geragos, said he hired the top experts in the country to evaluate the wreckage and crash. The results, he said, were an unbiased look at the accident that refutes an official investigation that determined the sports car was speeding at up to 94 mph when it crashed.
The results of an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and California Highway Patrol was released in March and concluded that it was unsafe speed and not mechanical problems that caused the crash. That investigation was aided by engineers from Porsche, who evaluated the wreckage of the rare car.
The differing opinions on the crash will likely be a part of any trial over the lawsuit, which could take years to resolve.
Roger Rodas was trained as a race car driver, according to his wife's lawsuit. He left behind two young children upon his death.
Walker, the star of the "Fast & Furious" film franchise, co-owned an auto racing team with Rodas named Always Evolving.
Walker's death occurred on a break in the filming of "Fast & Furious 7," and the actor's two brothers are helping complete action scenes in the film. The film's release has been delayed until April 2015.


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Supreme Court has range of options on gay marriage
By MARK SHERMAN
The waiting is almost over.
Sometime in the next week or so, the Supreme Court will announce the outcomes in cases on California's Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act.
The federal law, known by the shorthand DOMA, defines marriage as the union of a man and a woman and therefore keeps legally married gay Americans from collecting a range of federal benefits that generally are available to married people.
The justices have a lengthy menu of options from which to choose. They might come out with rulings that are simple, clear and dramatic. Or they might opt for something narrow and legalistic.
The court could strike down dozens of state laws that limit marriage to heterosexual couples, but it also could uphold gay marriage bans or say nothing meaningful about the issue at all.
A look at potential outcomes for the Proposition 8 case and then for the case about DOMA:
Q. What if the Supreme Court upholds Proposition 8?
A. This would leave gay Californians without the right to marry in the state and would tell the roughly three dozen states that do not allow same-sex marriages that there is no constitutional problem in limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
Such an outcome probably would trigger a political campaign in California to repeal Proposition 8 through a ballot measure, which opinion polls suggest would succeed, and could give impetus to similar voter or legislative efforts in other states. Proposition 8 itself was adopted by voters in 2008, but there has been a marked shift in Americans' attitudes about same-sex marriage in the past five years.
Q. What if the court strikes down Proposition 8?
A. A ruling in favor of the two same-sex couples who sued to invalidate the gay marriage ban could produce one of three possibilities. The broadest would apply across the country, in effect invalidating constitutional provisions or statutes against gay marriage everywhere.
Or a majority of the justices could agree on a middle option that applies only to California as well as Colorado, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New Jersey and Oregon. Those states already treat gay and straight couples the same in almost every respect through civil unions or domestic partnerships. The only difference is that gay couples there are not allowed to marry.
This so-called seven-state solution would say that the Constitution forbids states to withhold marriage from same-sex couples while giving them all the basic rights of married people. But this ruling would not implicate marriage bans in other states and would leave open the question of whether states could deprive gay couples of any rights at all.
The narrowest of these potential outcomes would apply to California only. The justices essentially would adopt the rationale of the federal appeals court that found that California could not take away the right to marry that had been granted by the state Supreme Court in 2008, before Proposition 8 passed.
In addition, if the Supreme Court were to rule that gays and lesbians deserve special protection from discriminatory laws, it is unlikely that any state ban on same-sex marriage could survive long, even if the justices don't issue an especially broad ruling in this case.
Q. Are there other potential outcomes?
A. Yes, the court has a technical way out of the case without deciding anything about same-sex marriage. The Proposition 8 challengers argue that the private parties defending the provision–members of the group that helped put the ban on the ballot–did not have the right to appeal the trial judge's initial decision striking it down, or that of the federal appeals court.
The justices sometimes attach great importance to this concept, known as "standing". If they find Proposition 8's proponents lack standing, the justices also would find the Supreme Court has no basis on which to decide the case.
The most likely outcome of such a ruling also would throw out the appeals court decision that struck down the ban but would leave in place the trial court ruling in favor of same-sex marriage. At the very least, the two same-sex couples almost certainly would be granted a marriage license, and Gov. Jerry Brown, D-Calif., who opposes Proposition 8, probably would give county clerks the go-ahead to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Q. Are the possibilities for the DOMA case as complicated?
A. No, although there are some technical issues that could get in the way of a significant ruling.
Q. What happens if the court upholds Section 3 of DOMA, defining marriage for purposes of federal law as the union of a man and a woman?
A. Upholding DOMA would not affect state laws regarding marriage but would keep in place federal statutes and rules that prevent legally married gay Americans from receiving a range of benefits that are otherwise available to married people. These benefits include breaks on estate taxes, health insurance for spouses of federal workers and Social Security survivor benefits.
Q. What if the court strikes down the DOMA provision?
A. A ruling against DOMA would allow legally married gay couples or, in some cases, a surviving spouse in a same-sex marriage, to receive benefits and tax breaks resulting from more than 1,000 federal statutes in which marital status is relevant. For 83-year-old Edith Windsor, a New York widow whose case is before the court, such a ruling would give her a refund of $363,000 in estate taxes that were paid after the death of her spouse, Thea Spyer. The situation could become complicated for people who get married where same-sex unions are legal, but who live or move where they are not.
Q. What procedural problems could prevent the court from reaching a decision about DOMA?
A. As in the Proposition 8 case, there are questions about whether the House Republican leadership has standing to bring a court case to defend the law because the Obama administration decided not to.
House Republicans argue that the administration forfeited its right to participate in the case because it changed its position and now argues that the provision is unconstitutional.
If the Supreme Court finds that it does not have the authority to hear the case, Windsor probably would still get her refund because she won in the lower courts, but there would be no definitive decision about the law from the nation's highest court and it would remain on the books. It is possible the court could leave in place appeals court rulings covering seven states with same-sex marriage: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont.


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High-tech Homes Make Everyday Living Simpler
If you find yourself wondering how you ever got along before your smartphone, laptop and GPS, you're not alone. Technology is so much a part of how we go about our days that we often take it for granted. However, in many cases, houses haven't caught up to the same technological standards as the gadgets people carry with them 24/7. But that's all about to change, as new ideas begin to revolutionize the way we view our homes.
Technology can do two things: First, it can make everyday tasks simpler and faster. Second, it can enable us to do things that weren't possible before. So when it comes to your home, having technology on your side can make a big difference — in terms of time, energy and money savings. If you want your home to join the world of high-tech living, consider these solutions:
Entertaining made easier
Part of the fun of owning a home is inviting friends and family to come over. Because everyone has a busy schedule these days, planning and hosting a party needs to as easy as possible. With the help of some smart new audio systems, setting the mood with music is a snap. Bluetooth-streaming stereos like iLuv's MobiRock let you control the music from wherever you are, right from your smartphone — no more having to leave your conversation to go turn the music up or down or switch to a new track. The Aud 5, also from iLuv, features a dock that accommodates Lightning, the next generation connection port on the latest iPhones and iPods. Since you can charge your device while using Bluetooth to control it, there's no worry about the music stopping in the middle of your party.
Staying secure
Protecting belongings and family in the home has been a priority since time immemorial, but now there are far better ways to do it. While everyone wants protection, in the past state-of-the-art home security technology has been well out of many homeowners' budgets. But that was then — today, protecting your home is becoming much more affordable, and the average homeowner can install high-quality security cameras that make it easy to always keep an eye on your property. Polaroid's line of Wireless IP security cameras include both indoor and outdoor models, can be operated via computer or smart-phone and even let you send snapshots via email. Whether you just want to check in while you're at the office or during a weekend getaway, security cameras make it easier to know that your home is safe.
The automated home: It's inevitable
A few hours into what's supposed to be a relaxing vacation, you'll wonder, "Did I leave the lights on?" or "Were the window shades left open?" The stress of not knowing — and not being able to do anything about it — might soon be a thing of the past. Reasonably priced home automation systems that allow you to take care of those little household chores remotely are already available. TaHomA, from Somfy Systems, enables you to schedule and supervise window coverings, lighting and thermostats. Using an iPad, iPhone or computer, you can make adjustments from within or outside the home in just a few clicks.
Technology has changed virtually every facet of business and communication — it only makes sense that our homes will be the next frontier of innovation. As you consider all the ways to make your life simpler, keep in mind that a high-tech solution will be able to help, now and in the future.
This article is courtesy of Brandpoint.


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The Transfiguration of Christ is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on August 6.
Jesus had gone with his disciples Peter, James, and John to Mount Tabor. Christ's appearance was changed while they watched into a glorious radiant figure. There appeared Elijah and Moses, speaking with Jesus. The disciples were amazed and terribly afraid.
This event shows forth the divinity of Christ, so that the disciples would understand after his Ascension that He was truly the radiant splendor of the Father, and that his Passion was voluntary (Mark 9:2-9). It also shows the possibility of our own theosis.
This event was the subject of some debates between Gregory Palamas and Barlaam of Calabria. Barlaam believed that the light shining from Jesus was created light, while Gregory maintained the disciples were given grace to perceive the uncreated light of God. This supported Gregory's larger argument that although we cannot know God in His essence, we can know Him in his energies, as He reveals Himself.
Accounts of the Transfiguration are found in the Bible: Matthew 17:1-8, Mark 9:2-9, Luke 9:28-36, and II Peter 1:16-19.
Celebration of the feast
Like all feasts of the Master, the Transfiguration is a vigil-ranked feast, though in parish practice a full All-Night Vigil is usually not celebrated. Typically, Great Vespers is conducted on the eve of the feast, and on the morning of the feast, the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom celebrated, traditionally preceded by the Matins service.
The Vespers service includes the readings: Exodus 24:12-18, 33:11-23, 34:4-6, 8; I Kings 19:3-9, 11-13, 15-16. The Matins service includes the reading: Luke 9:28-36. And the Divine Liturgy: II Peter 1:10-19; Matthew 17:1-9.
It is believed that Christ's transfiguration took place at the time of the Jewish Festival of Booths, and that the celebration of the event in the Christian Church became the New Testament fulfillment of the Old Testament feast. Presently it is celebrated on the sixth of August, forty days before the feast, Elevation of the Holy Cross. Just as Peter, James, and John saw the transfiguration before the crucifixion so that they might know who it is who will suffered for them, the Church connects these two feasts to help the faithful understand the mission of Christ and that his suffering was voluntary.
The feast of the Transfiguration of Christ once belonged to the season of Great Lent, but may have been considered too joyous for that time. Saint Gregory Palamas, a great teacher of the Transfiguration, is now celebrated on one of the Sundays of Lent instead.
In Greece and Romania the harvest season traditionally began on the Transfiguration. Grapes, in particular, were not eaten before August 6. In some parishes, the first grapes would be brought to church for a blessing and distributed to parishioners.
- You were Transfigured on the Mount, O Christ God,
- Revealing Your glory to Your disciples as far as they could bear it.
- Let Your everlasting Light shine upon us sinners!
- Through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Giver of Light, glory to You!
Kontakion (Tone 7)
- On the Mountain You were Transfigured, O Christ God,
- And Your disciples beheld Your glory as far as they could see it;
- So that when they would behold You crucified,
- They would understand that Your suffering was voluntary,
- And would proclaim to the world,
- That You are truly the Radiance of the Father!
Forefeast hymns
Troparion (Tone 4)
- Come, you faithful, let us welcome the Transfiguration of Christ,
- And let us joyfully cry as we celebrate the prefeast:
- "The day of holy gladness has come;
- The Lord has ascended Mount Tabor
- To radiate the beauty of His divinity."
Kontakion (Tone 4)
- Podoben: "Today You have shown forth..."
- Today all mortal nature shines with the divine Transfiguration
- And cries with exultation:
- "Christ the Savior is transfigured to save us all!"
External links
- The Holy Transfiguration of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ OCA web site
- The Holy Transfiguration of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ GOARCH web site
- Transfiguration - The Orthodox Faith, by the V. Rev. Thomas Hopko
- Icon of Transfiguration
- Sermon on the Transfiguration - Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica
- Fixed Great Feasts, Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Church Calendar
- August 19, 2014: Orthodox Menologion Online, Orthodox Lithurgical Commonwealth


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The ZX family gets a fresh update for the season with a colourful suede and mesh design. These men's Shoes feature a TPU heel clip and a lightweight EVA midsole for lasting comfort.
* Air mesh and shiny mesh upper with suede overlays * Breathable mesh lining * EVA midsole for lightweight cushioning * TPU heel stabilising clip * Grippy rubber outsole


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Google Glasses: Frightening Or Fantastic?
The buzz is building about the news that, as The New York Times has reported, there soon may be "Google glasses" that can "stream information to the wearer's eyeballs in real time."
Yes, by the end of the year Google may be selling spectacles that come with a small screen that in theory will allow users to get information about nearby locations, the weather, friends who might be close by and other things. They're reportedly going to cost between $250 and $600.
Sounds cool, right?
Well, PCWorld's Damon Brown calls the glasses a "prescription for disaster." He's worried about how what might happen if someone tries to drive while wearing them, and about how much more information they'll be transmitting to Google about where you are, what you do and what you see.
The Atlantic's Rebecca J. Rosen raises the issue of how those of us who aren't wearing such glasses will be able to rest easy that we're not being recorded by those who are.
Still, since so many of us carry around devices that already let us connect to the Web from almost anywhere, is having something that brings the information right to your eyes that much different?
Or, is it just one more step toward a Terminator-type world?
Here's a question:


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Twice a week, local seniors in Warrenton, Virginia, flock to a hip new dinner spot called the Bistro on the Hill for good food, a great view, and musical accompaniment by a retired piano player from a nearby Nordstrom's.
Only "The Bistro" is no stand-alone restaurant. It's the cafeteria of Fauquier Hospital, one of a new group of "patient-centered" health facilities focused on meeting more than just people's medical needs. Fauquier is one of about a dozen U.S. hospitals certified by a group called Planetree, which sets strict standards for patient-centered care.
And when it comes to patient-centered care, food is more than just something you eat.
"We believe that food is nurturing," says Zach Erickson, Fauquier's director of nutrition services. And for many hospitalized patients, "we [food servers] are the best distraction they have throughout the day, I like to think."
That's right from Planetree's checklist, which calls for highlighting the "nutritional and nurturing aspects of food." It's not the kind of hospital where you'll find a McDonalds, that's for sure. And you don't have to pay extra to get it.
At Fauquier, the food starts, literally at ground level, at the hospital's "culinary healing garden," located just outside the Bistro, overlooking the hospital's million-dollar view of the Virginia countryside.
Even in early May, food service staff are harvesting fast-growing lettuce (including what they call "'rocket arugula," because it's rocketed out of the ground," says Erickson) that will be used in the coming hours in the cafeteria's salad bar as well as in patient meals. There's also the essential herbs, like oregano, dill, sage, and chives. The all-organic garden (even the wood trellises are untreated to prevent chemicals from leaching into the ground) is also home to ripening strawberries, tomatillos, spinach, and the lavender used for for aromatherapy.
What's not grown in the garden is purchased as locally as possible, Erickson says. "We believe the shorter the food chain, the better the food."
And Erickson, a trained chef, says a lot of effort goes into keeping the meals as healthy as possible. "It's important that the things we provide we can feel are wholesome, and devoid of anything that might cause harm to the body. So we take no shortcuts." For example, he says, "we make all our salad dressings from scratch; so no additives, no preservatives, no transfats, no hydrogenated oils."
You also won't see the typical food carts loaded with cardboard chicken and soggy carrots being pushed around the halls at Fauquier. All the meals are cooked to order for each patient. And almost all the orders are placed in person, rather than by phone.
Erickson says there's a reason he wants his staff to go and see patients in person.
"You get so many more cues about that patient that you wouldn't have picked up on the phone," he says. "You'll find out that they're having trouble with an arm, or they've having trouble physically that's going to make whatever they're ordering difficult and at that point you're going to make suggestions to better improve their experience."
So beyond the hype, how's the food?
Most folks we chatted with gave it two thumbs up.
"I like the food here," says Eleanor Reed, who makes it a point to attend the senior dinners at the Bistro when her schedule allows. "It's pretty good."
And Joe Kennedy, who was getting a late lunch while his daughter was being tended to in the emergency department, was most impressed with the service.
"She's got the Mongolian wok going for me right now so I've got to compliment them on that," he said. "I thought I was gonna get a sandwich or something that was pretty prepared and instead they're making it for me while I wait, so it's wonderful."
Do they make any money on the food? Nah, says Erickson. The meals on seniors nights go for $4.50 a plate. And a lot of the garden work is donated by the community and supported by farmers' markets.
Copyright 2016 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.


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Birthday tells the story of young children, on their birthday, waiting to travel with Father Time from Heaven down to Earth.
Illustrated with five gentle watercolor pictures by Heather Jarman. Printed in color throughout on recycled paper and using vegetable based inks.
Recommended for ages 3-6, Paperbound, 11 1/2" x 8", 12 pps.


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2012 Hooding Remarks
George Will
June 4, 2012 — As Prepared
Dean Russel, distinguished faculty and guests, and especially you degree recipients who today are being formally initiated into the global 1 percent — more about which in a moment.
It is my privilege to inflict upon you the last lecture you must endure at Princeton. The last, and briefest. Brevity is not only the soul of wit — and the essence of lingerie — it is mandatory on occasions such as this, when the speaker stands between eager young people and the world that is, they are sure, their oyster.
The world is, indeed, a welcoming place for you to whom Princeton has given a large ability to add value to the world, which you will soon do. What I want to urge upon you is a particular stance toward the American society, or whichever society you come to call home. The stance I recommend — for your sake, and for society's sake — is one of modest elitism suitable to the intelligentsia in a democratic society.
My theme today is your relationship, and that of the elite you have joined, to a democratic society. My point is not to celebrate democracy; we have quite enough of such celebration already. Rather, my point is to urge you to keep in mind that you will do your life's work at the sufferance of democracy. So you should be prepared to consider how the people — the demos — perceive you.
Let me begin retrospectively.
When I graduated from Trinity College — 50 years ago this week — the baccalaureate speaker was my father, Frederick L. Will, a professor of philosophy at the University of Illinois. He took as his text, and took aim at, the just-published Webster's Third International Dictionary. It was more permissive — you might say more democratic — than Webster's Second edition. The Third International Dictionary's philosophy was:
If people have begun treating as interchangeable some words that really are not, well, let the people have their way. Vox populi, vox dei, and all that.
My father was particularly incensed that the new dictionary treated "disinterested" and "uninterested" as synonyms. My father thought the editor of the dictionary should be taught the difference by being hauled in front of an uninterested rather than a disinterested judge.
Today the democratic approach to the English language is causing the disappearance of the distinction between adjectives and adverbs. I do not know if you watch ESPN — I watch little else — but if you do, you constantly hear it said that some baseball player is pitching "excellent" — not "excellently" — and that some quarterback is passing "accurate" — not "accurately." It will be just a matter of time, and not much time, before anyone insisting on the distinction between adjectives and adverbs, or between "disinterested" and "uninterested," will be stigmatized as an elitist.
In fact, it is elitist to defend standards that are dismissed as out of date. As has been well said, standards are always out of date; that is why they are called standards. Which is why it is the business of elites to uphold them.
Elitism is not a vice; it is not even optional. The question in any society is not whether elites will rule; rather, the question is which elites will rule. Today, with momentum imparted by Princeton, you ascend into the nation's and the world's intellectual upper crust. But this lofty position is not as secure or enviable as it was for preceding generations.
In the 44 years since I received my Princeton Ph.D., one of the most striking developments has been the estrangement of the academic world from the larger American society that still sustains academia, but might not do so forever. This estrangement derives, in part, from the fact that the interests of the intelligentsia, and the language in which these interests are discussed, have become unnecessarily unintelligible — even to educated laymen.
Increasingly, the intelligentsia seems to have gone to earth on campuses, where it talks to itself, and only to itself, in the private language of a clerisy. Hence mutual incomprehension has grown between the academy and the society. As a result, each side adopts an adversarial stance toward the other. This is unhealthy and unnecessary.
It is unhealthy because unless society maintains respect for what the intelligentsia is doing, society will not generously use its surplus to sustain the intelligentsia. And an adversarial stance is unnecessary because, no matter how recondite your labors may be, and no matter how arcane some of the language you use in those labors, it must be possible to communicate to the supporting society why its support is merited.
Most of all, you should be able to communicate the sheer fun of the intellectual life. Concerning this fun, let me give an example concerning something that was, I dimly recall, important to my life at the Graduate School in the mid-1960s. That something was beer.
The founder of one of Princeton's sister institutions, the University of Pennsylvania, Ben Franklinm said, "Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy." Perhaps.
Be that as it may, it is arguable that civilization — of which Princeton is, of course, the pinnacle — was created by beer. Indeed, the Discovery Channel has so argued in a program titled "How Beer Saved the World." Watching it, the scales fell from my eyes.
The argument begins with some actual evidence that humanity, which had its priorities correct from the start, began brewing beer before it began baking bread.
For 3 million years, give or take a bunch, human beings went about the business of evolving from lower primates. And they did so without the assistance and comfort of alcohol.
By about 100,000 years ago they were recognizably human, more or less, but had not developed agriculture. To find food, they had to keep moving around as hunter-gatherers to find food. Occasionally they gathered wild barley.
One day, according to the beer-centric theory of civilization, when some hunters were away hunting, rain fell on some barley they had stored in clay pots. The rain made the barley soggy, which was bad. But it also — with the help of natural sugars and other ingredients of the grain — started fermentation, which was very good indeed.
The hunters came home thirsty from their exertions. They took a sip of the fluid in the clay pots. And humanity's era of involuntary sobriety came to an end, forever.
One sip led to another, and to the desire for a steady supply of beer. This required lots of barley, which required systematic agriculture. So humanity foreswore its nomadic ways, settled down, and developed the plow and irrigation.
And humanity developed the wheel for carts to get surplus barley to markets.
And humanity developed writing to record such commercial transactions at the markets.
And humanity developed mathematics to enable land sales and other commercial computations.
Eventually, humanity even developed the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
All this to keep the beer flowing.
An inscription on an Egyptian tomb says that 1,000 jugs of beer is about the right amount to take into your tomb as provision for the afterlife. The toiling masses who built Egypt's pyramids were paid in beer chits; these were sort of early debit cards. Beer was not only a staple food and a kind of currency, it also was a medicine. Traces of the antibiotic tetracycline were found by puzzled archeologists in mummified bones in Egypt. Yes, several millennia before tetracycline was invented — or so we thought — in 1948, it was a residue of beer.
Beer also rescued the Middle Ages from one of that era's worse scourges — water. Living long before the formulation of the germ theory of disease, people in the Middle Ages drank pond water fouled by human sewage, defecating ducks, butchers' offal and other unhealthy stuff.
Brewing, however, removed many micro-organisms that made people sick. So people back then drank an average of 300 liters of beer a year — six times today's consumption by American adults.
Speaking of America, this nation was, of course, founded on beer. Within two years of the founding of Jamestown in 1608, that settlement wrote to London asking that a brewer be sent out because "water-drinkers" were no basis for a colony.
The Mayflower, which set out for the New World carrying a lot more beer than water, was actually searching for a landing much farther south but it put passengers ashore in what would become Massachusetts because, according to William Bradford's journals, "our victuals being much spent, especially beer."
America also was founded by brewers of beer — including Sam Adams, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The greatest Princetonian, James Madison, who arguably was Princeton's first graduate student, relaxed his aversion to big government enough to suggest that the federal government should run a national brewery as a means of weaning Americans off whisky.
Beer was crucial to the American Revolution because taverns were the Internet of the day — a communications network. It was in Boston's Green Dragon tavern in 1773 that some beer-drinking patriots decided to go down to the harbor and toss cases of tea into the water.
The new nation needed a national anthem and got one when Francis Scott Key put new words to an old drinking song. The song, which everyone knows is difficult to sing, sometimes had served as a sobriety test: If you could sing it, you could have another tankard of beer.
Before milk was pasteurized, beer was. Beer could spoil because it was alive. It contained a hitherto unknown life form, bacteria, which could make beer sick — and people, too. Hence the cornerstone of modern medicine-germ theory flowed, so to speak, from beer.
So did the factory system, for which Henry Ford is mistakenly given credit. The factory system was devised for the production of beer bottles, which led to the automation of the glass industry. This hastened the end of child labor, which was especially prevalent in that industry.
Lager became America's favorite beer, and because lager must be brewed slowly and cold, the national thirst for beer spurred the invention of refrigeration, which solved mankind's perennial problem of food storage.
Making brewing more efficient led to a supply of beer that exceeded demand. So, to enlarge demand, beer gave rise to advertising, which led to the television series "Mad Men."
I could go on, but you get my point.
I have just assigned to beer the role usually played by God — that of being the first cause of all good things, any list of which would certainly include Princeton. But my brief and beer-centric history of civilization is intended to be playful in order to underscore the point that the life of the mind should be fun — even playful.
And the fun should be infectious: The world beyond the gates of our campuses, the world of taxpayers and other supporters, should be able to see that what they are supporting — what they are making possible — is pleasant and attractive.
Now, in my history of civilization as a by-product of beer, I have exaggerated somewhat and simplified a bit. Never mind. The things I have just said about beer and everything else may be true or may be false or may be a bit of both. But all the propositions I just uttered are testable.
Testable by inquiring minds, of the sort Princeton produces — minds weighing evidence from the physical and social sciences. And, because I have cast beer in a role competitive with the Deity, the minds of theologians should be involved. All those minds should be able to explain to the interested society what they are working on and why it matters.
Which is why I hope that you will consider it your vocation to reconnect America's intellectual One Percent with the nation's civic life. A lot depends on this reconnection, including the nation's willingness to devote a generous portion of its scarce resources to the institutionalized elitism of its great teaching and research institutions, including Princeton.
I do not know what brought each of you to Princeton. I know that my connection began for reasons that perhaps were not properly serious. My connection to Princeton began because of the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies.
In the spring of 1964, while finishing my second and final year at Oxford, I successfully applied to a distinguished law school, and to the Princeton philosophy department's doctoral program. I had been in England for two years and was ravenous for baseball, so I chose Princeton because it is located midway between two National League cities. Otherwise I would today be a lawyer. Talk about life's close calls.
I intended to be an academic, and briefly was, until I turned to journalism — or, as my professor father put it, before I sank to journalism. For many of you, your professional trajectory is clear. For others, there will be unanticipated destinations.
All of you, however, will, I hope, feel one constant. I hope you will feel forever connected to Princeton — and especially to your academic departments — by cords of affection and gratitude.
There is a way for you to reciprocate Princeton's affection for you, and to repay your intellectual debts to this institution. It is by remaining involved with the University here, and with others who have gone forth from the Graduate School to seed the world with trained intelligence.
Fifty years ago, when Yale conferred upon President Kennedy an honorary degree, Kennedy said: Now I have the best of possible combination — a Harvard education and a Yale degree. The president was mistaken.
You receiving your hoods today have the best the world has to offer — a Princeton degree attesting to a Princeton education.
Let your good fortune be manifested in your endless involvement with this University.
That said, only this remains to be said: Congratulations. Enjoy your membership in the intellectual 1 percent.
Now, go forth from here and have a beer. You have earned it.


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One of the big environmental stories of 2012 was the record melting of sea ice in the Arctic, which reached its smallest extent this summer since satellite data began being kept in the late 1970s. But it's not the Arctic alone that's reacting to manmade climate change by transforming into a large puddle. On the other end of the Earth, the continent of Antarctica contains enough ice to swamp just about every coastal city on the planet were it all to melt. The Arctic is transforming before our eyes, but it's changes in Antarctica that could make Waterworld into a documentary.
(PHOTOS: The Best Satellite Views of the Earth)
That day is still in the distant future—in fact, sea ice in Antarctica has actually increased in recent years, as more powerful northward winds refreeze ice on the continent. But as a new study published in Nature Geoscience shows, temperatures are on the increase in the massive West Antarctica Ice Sheet (WAIS)—and so is melting.
Using data from Byrd Station, a scientific outpost in West Antarctica, researchers from Ohio State University and other institutions have report that average annual temperatures in the region have risen by 2.4 C (4.3 F) since 1958. That's nearly twice as much warming as had been previously estimated, and the data shows for the first time an increase in warming trends during the summer. The timing of the temperature increase is particularly alarming because while temperatures in Antarctica remain well below freezing for nearly the entire year, the Antarctic summer is when any melting is likely to occur—just as it does in the Arctic.
(LIST: Top 10 Green Stories of 2012)
As lead author David Bromwich put it in a statement:
Our record suggests that continued summer warming in West Antarctica could upset the surface mass balance of the ice sheet, so that the region could make an even bigger contribution to sea level rise than it already does.
Even without generating significant mass loss directly, surface melting on the WAIS could contribute to sea level indirectly, by weakening the West Antarctic ice shelves that restrain the region's natural ice flow into the ocean.
Today melting from the WAIS adds only a few millimeters to the ongoing global sea level rise. But there is potential for much, much more—if all the ice in the 10 million sq. mile WAIS were to melt, it would be enough to add 3.05 m (10 ft.) to sea levels. To put that in perspective, all the warming the world has experienced since the Industrial Revolution has cause sea levels to rise by a few inches. That's scary, world-changing stuff.
(MORE: Why Seeing Is Believing—Usually—When It Comes to Climate Change)
Fortunately, even though West Antarctica now seems to be one of the fast warming spots on the planet, it's still very, very, very cold, so the melting that's happening today remains minimal. That means major melting in the WAIS—and the major sea level rise that would go along with it—is still decades into the future, if not much longer. But as this new study shows, that day could come sooner than we think. Happy holidays!
MORE: Global Warming: An Exclusive Look at James Hansen's Scary New Math


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I have been eagerly awaiting this collection ever since I saw that first leaked picture months ago. Duochromes are my true love, and duochromes from China Glaze couldn't be anything other than amazing. Now, here we are in the first week of August and the New Bohemian collection is finally here in all its shiny, reflective, chrome-like, color-changing glory. The colors are:
China Glaze Deviantly Daring. Turquoise-teal-blue-green duochrome metallic with gold shimmer accent. This is the brightest and most richly colored polish in the collection. It's also the most opaque. The duochome in it isn't as strong on the nail as it is in the bottle, but there's still a modest amount of color shift. The chrome finish on this is stunning combined with saturated blue-green color.
China Glaze No Plain Jane. Ironically, this one looks like the plain Jane of the collection to me. It's a purple metallic with subtle duochrome, very similar to Deborah Lippmann Private Dancer / Nails Inc Cheyne Walk. However, it seems to lack the same strength of blue-purple and gold duochrome that the others have. I see a little orange shift with some gold at the edges, but it's not strong. It's also a little too sheer (at three coats here) for my taste.
China Glaze Rare and Radiant. Another Péridot dupe. Gorgeous, though. Great formula, bright, shiny, reflective finish, strong duochrome. Definitely worth getting if you don't already have Chanel Péridot.
China Glaze Swanky Silk. Beautiful pink, gold, and green chrome-finish duochrome. Another duplicate color; this one looks like Deborah Lippmann Sugar Daddy / Nails Inc. Stratford. I loved those two colors, I love this one. Nicest formula of the three, though the color is practically the same.
China Glaze Unpredictable. A blue-green-gold-teal chrome-finish duochrome. It's like a mixture of Deviantly Daring and Rare & Radiant. Makes me think of mermaid tails or Emerald Ash Borer beetles. Really strong duochrome on this one and very shiny.
China Glaze Want My Bawdy. Maybe it's just my eyes, but I can't see any duochrome in this one. I don't know if it's supposed to have any, but the rest of the colors in the collection do, so I assumed it would. It's shiny ad colorful at least. It's a little bit like OPI Into The Night from the Spiderman collection, just more sheer and a bit brighter/cleaner. I like the name, it makes me think of Majestic and Jessica.
The formula on these was good, but a bit on the sheer side. None of them were too runny or too thick and they all applied very smoothly, but I needed to do three coats of each for complete opacity. The only exception is Deviantly Daring which was completely opaque in two coats (but I did three anyway). I had the best results waiting for each coat to partially dry before applying the next one. The dry time on these is really fast, even without topcoat. And the brushstrokes do mostly disappear after they're completely dry.
I have slightly conflicted feelings about this collection. Without taking into consideration any of the other similar colors released this year and viewing just this collection by itself, I think it's perfect. But, having already seen several duplicate colors released recently (and with a few more potential dupes on the way), I wish there were more colors in here to make up for the clones. I suppose this is both good and bad- good if you didn't want to shell out major cash on the Chanel and Lippmanns (and to a lesser extent, the Nails Inc. ones), bad if you've already purchased those and now a cheaper option with a better formula is available.
Regardless of the dupes, I do still think this is a great collection. I love the colors, I love the shiny chrome finish, I love the formula. I think No Plain Jane should have more duochrome flash to it, but otherwise they're all very good. Fantastic, even. The shiny chrome-like finish on them is very pretty and doesn't have the streaking and chipping problems that older chromes have.
The China Glaze New Bohemian Collection is available now. Word of warning: This collection is limited edition, so you may want to go check it out sooner rather than later.
(This was sent for review.)


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Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson – courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
Dear World. When you come to Vancouver next March for Velo-City Global 2012, please don't judge all of Canada by what you see in Vancouver. Not all of Canada requires a shower at their workplace in order to ride a bicycle. Not everyone in the Great White North wears skin-tight lycra clothing on their bicycles and requires extensive cycling gear.
I have nothing against people who wear "cycling gear", but it just isn't representative of a solid citizen bicycle culture when people are decked out in skin-tight bicycle gear. Cities with successful, established bicycle cultures will invariably feature regular people in regular clothes on everyday city bicycles.
Vancouver has made some great progress in various areas of sustainable development and bicycle infrastructure. But when I visit Vancouver, there seems to be a common belief that you can't ride your bicycle to work if the office doesn't have a shower or indoor parking.
Perhaps this belief comes from the fact that it often rains in Vancouver and people believe that extensive gear is required to ride in the rain (not true). Or perhaps it's a side effect of the mandatory all-ages helmet law that was enacted by the Province of British Columbia in 1995 – "if we are required to wear a helmet, we might as well wear all the other gear too".
That gear-crazed cycling culture that I have seen in Vancouver is starkly evident in the upcoming Velo-City Global 2012 Conference preview video. The spokesperson in the video is Skip Swain – Vice President of Sales from Norco Products Ltd.
Velo-City Global 2012's first mistake was to ask someone who sells bicycle accessories to create a promo video for a Velo-City conference. Skip was dressed as if headed for an off-road mountain bike excursion while he was promoting Velo-City Global 2012 as "the premier conference on commuter cycling".
Promoting your city as a great cycling city requires highlighting people who are using bicycles in their regular clothes. People who are considering using their bicycles for transportation want to see people they can relate to. The average office worker can't relate to someone who wears full-on "cycle gear".
Vancouver has failed miserably in marketing bicycles to everyday people in this Velo-City Global 2012 promo film.
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
Skip goes on to interview various "cyclist commuters" and a "cycling enthusiast" to talk about how great Vancouver is for bicycling. The interviews seem scripted and cheesy. To spare you the torture of watching this video, I took a few snapshots of Skip's interviewees.
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
The first interviewee in this video wearing regular clothes didn't come until 3:34 in the video. Thank you Peter Judd – a City of Vancouver Engineer – for representing regular everyday citizen bicyclists all over Canada:
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2012
The promotional video for the 2011 Velo-City Global Conference in Seville, Spain was much different than Vancouver's disaster of a film. It features regular everyday people on bicycles. Here are a few snapshots from that preview video:
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2011
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2011
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2011
Video courtesy of Velo-City Global 2011
Even better is the Copenhagen Velo-City Global 2010 preview video – or similarly, Mikael's brilliant "City of Cyclists" music video.
The purpose of the Velo-City Global conference is to bring together the leaders who are shaping our future cities by introducing bicycles to the urban landscape, as well as to promote the progress made in the host city.
Vancouver has failed miserably at promoting bicycles as a means of transportation and at promoting Vancouver as a great place for using bicycles. Perhaps they should have sent the cameras to Toronto to film everyday people on bicycles:
Photo of Toronto rush hour by James Schwartz / The Urban Country
In Vancouver's defense, they created the film in February, so it wasn't exactly "prime weather" for people in regular clothes. But they still could have done much better.
Vancouver has just 11 months remaining to redeem itself before the conference arrives. I hope they put a bit more thought into the next Velo-City Global 2012 promo film.
And if there truly are no bicyclists in Vancouver wearing regular clothes, then I hope the visiting delegates that attend Velo-City Global 2012 will teach Vancouver what it takes to establish a true bicycle culture featuring everyday people in their regular clothes.
Thanks Mike from Luxembourg for asking for my thoughts on the Velo-City 2012 feature video a few weeks ago. This topic was also covered by our friend Ryan over at The City Cyclist.
James D. Schwartz is the editor of The Urban Country. You can contact James at email@example.com
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I knew the time would come, sooner or later, when one of my bikes would be rendered inoperable by a mechanical I could not fix. I was hoping that time would come later rather than sooner, but sure enough, yesterday I discovered a broken spoke in the rear wheel of my mountain bike (on the cassette side.) In addition to this broken spoke are several loose spokes, and a severe wobble that tells me this wheel is not far from total collapse. I'm a bit frustrated with my options. I can't replace the spoke because I don't have a tool to remove the cassette, and even if I did, the wheel is so out of true that I shouldn't ride it anyway. I could go online and buy a new wheel, which is probably what I will do. But how do I install a new cassette? Is this something I'm going to have to figure out how to do myself? Am I going to have to buy tools? I am not happy. Not happy at all.
In the meantime, I can't ride my mountain bike. I don't like to ride Pugsley on wet roads — the result is not unlike taking a shower in a fountain of grit. Which leaves me with my road bike. I never ride my road bike in the winter. Juneau's heavy precipitation and continuous freeze-thaw cycle guarantee a constant mess of ice, slush, gravel and mud all over the pavement. A bike with skinny tires and no studs - though considerably faster - just isn't worth the risk. But today I wavered on my "No Road Bike In The Winter" rule. Although it still drops below freezing at night, we're at the tail end of nearly a week of temperatures in the 30s and rain. I thought maybe, just maybe, the rain had scoured enough of the slush to make skinny tires viable.
For a couple miles, I felt almost unbelievably light and fast, like I was riding on a cushion of air. But then I came to the end of Fritz Cove Road and the beginning of the slush and gravel surface of the highway shoulder. I cut a narrow groove at least an inch deep, but the tires seemed to hold decent traction beneath the goo, so I continued.
Farther out the road, conditions deteriorated. The slush became deeper, and soon it was coated in a thin veneer of crunchy ice. As I was coasting down the long hill toward the Shrine of St. Therese, I inadvertently rolled onto a solid layer of wet pack ice. When I realized this, my heart jumped into my throat. I knew braking would be suicide — pressing the brake pads against the rims all but guaranteed the wheels would slip out. So I did the only rational thing I could do: I screamed. Then I death-gripped the handlebars and straight-lined it all the way down the hill. Eeeeeeeee!
By providence or sheer luck, enough gravel was embedded in the hard ice to keep my tires upright. As soon as I reached a more level section of road, gravity generously slowed my death plunge and I was able to veer into a narrow track scraped bare by traffic. Scary! It was perhaps the scariest thing I have done on a bicycle all winter — certainly more frightening than any of my Pugsley ridge descents so far.
Then, on the way home, I got a flat tire after running over a particularly sharp chunk of road salt. I only had a patch kit with me; my hands went completely numb while I waited for the glue to dry at glacial pace in the cold air. I began to rethink my rethinking of the "No Road Bike In The Winter" rule. Which means I'm down to one bike.


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Rule #1 - Be Patient - Rule #2 - Don't ask when, if you don't contribute - Rule #3 - You have coding skills - LinuxMCE's small brother is available: http://www.agocontrol.com
Hi,I would like to use Z-wave for doorcontacts and maybe also movement sensors. And have been looking at the different z-wave products. Maybe I have overlooked something, but I did not find any switches that can be placed behind the old on/off switch so that the old switch and LinuxMCE can switch the lights. Reason for keeping the old on/off switches are that the Merten & co don't look like those I have got and I would really not like to change all switches in my house
Have you got any suggestions ? Or do I have to use PLCBUS or other things ?
And another question - what happens when the battery of a Z-wave product is empty ? Is the device shown as missing or does LinuxMCE tell me to replace batteries (that would be nice ) ?
yeah, merten lacks a mains powered remote switch. ACT has one but it feels very "wobbly", not comparable to the quality of merten.
I'm looking into EnOcean at the moment. I really like their battery-less RF remote switches.
lazy guy! ZDW232 and ZDM232 :-)
@Viking: I will send battery level events soon (to be handled soon :-) ) and orbiter popups when the level drops too low..


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It's Sunday in Volos, a fishing village nestled in a large bay in central Greece, and fishermen display their daily catch, which this day includes codfish, sardines and octopus.
Prices have been slashed, but customers are few.
Fisherman Christos Xegandakis laughs bitterly. He says business is so bad, it's time to start swapping goods.
"Give me two kilos of potatoes, and I give you a kilo of fish," he says. "Why not?
Indeed, many in debt-ridden Greece — where radical austerity measures have led to soaring unemployment, business closures and a credit crunch — are doing just that: turning to a simpler form of commerce, bartering.
And in Volos, a barter system is also fostering a new sense of community.
Seeking Self-Sufficiency
In Greek mythology, Jason set sail from Volos in search of the Golden Fleece. More recently, the town of 100,000 people was one of the country's most industrialized.
But the recession hit its cement and steel factories hard, and now unemployment there tops 20 percent — higher than the national average.
A local veterinarian's office and shop serves as an informal community center. In this time of crisis, Volos residents come not only for their pets but also to exchange advice and information.
Teacher Alexandra Tsabouris firmly believes in self-sufficiency, as her parents did during World War II.
"If you have a garden, if you cultivate things, if you reduce your needs, if you don't have needs anymore, only in this way," she says.
Liana Papanaum, who lost her job as a secretary, has chosen a more communal approach to make ends meet.
"For example, I have a young couple near me, they have two small children. So I say, 'Could you please do the ironing for me, and I will teach English to your ... children?' " she says.
Growth In Barter Network
Volos is also one of several Greek towns with a more formal type of barter network, which uses a currency called Local Alternative Unit, or TEM in Greek. One TEM is equal in value to one euro.
People sign up for free on the barter network's website, where they can post ads on what they can offer or what they want. Members exchange goods and services — for example, English and computer lessons, baby-sitting and plumbing repairs, medical visits and car-pooling — amassing TEM credit into an online account.
Some shops also accept TEMs, in the form of vouchers that function like checks.
Optician Klita Dimitriadis explains how it works. On a pair of 100-euro glasses, she'll take 30 percent in the alternative currency. She needs the 70 euros, she explains, in order to pay her employees, taxes and rent.
Dimitriadis then spends her TEMs at a monthly open-air farmers market, or in exchange for other services.
Over the past year, TEM members in Volos have grown from a few dozen to more than 500, and the movement has attracted Athens' attention. In September, parliament passed a law giving barter networks nonprofit status.
Substitution For The Welfare State
The Volos municipality also actively encourages the TEM network. Mayor Panos Skotiniotis says initiatives like these are particularly valuable at a time when the economic crisis is dismantling so many social benefits.
"This is a substitution for the welfare state, and that is why this municipality is encouraging it and wants it to grow," he says.
The municipality has printed leaflets explaining the barter system and has promoted panel discussions.
Christos Papaioannou — one of the TEM network's founders — says the worse the crisis becomes, the more people feel confused and at a loss.
"When they lose their jobs, the whole world collapses, they have to believe in themselves, not in the power of money and their employer," he says.
And more and more people are joining the network, Papaioannou says, because it offers a sense of community and self-respect.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.


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Have you ever seen liver and onions on a diner menu? If so, we're guessing you said "yuck" and ordered something else.
But did you know that there's one liver you don't have to order? It's always right inside your abdomen, up under your ribcage, and it's very important to your health.
What Does the Liver Do?
Your liver is the largest solid organ in your body. By the time you're grown up, it will be about the size of a football. The liver does many jobs, but here are three big ones:
- It cleans your blood.
- It produces an important digestive liquid called bile.
- It stores energy in the form of a sugar called glycogen.
How Does the Liver Clean Blood?
The liver helps you by taking toxins (substances in the body that are actually like poisons) out of your blood. Wait! Why do you have toxins in your blood in the first place? Sometimes your body produces them as part of its normal function, like breaking down protein, a component in foods such as meat and nuts.
The liver also cleans blood that has just been enriched with vitamins and minerals during digestion. After you've eaten something, the vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from the food pass from the intestine into the blood. Before going out to the rest of the body, the nutrient-rich blood makes a stop at the liver.
The liver processes the good stuff into forms that the rest of the body can use. Waste or stuff your body doesn't need can be carried by bile back into the intestine and out of the body when you poop. Other waste processed by the liver goes through your blood to your kidneys and out in your pee.
And, if you ever accidentally ate something that was harmful, your liver would try to break it down and clear it out of your system. But don't put your liver to the test! Steer clear of poisons and other harmful stuff..
What's Bile?
As you probably know, the digestive system does more than just move food through your body until it's time for a trip to the bathroom. During digestion, your body takes everything your body needs from the food you eat. Fat is one of the things the body gets from food.
Bile, a digestive juice produced by the liver, helps the body absorb fat into the bloodstream. You'll find this thick, yellow-green substance in the gallbladder, where it's stored until the body needs some to digest fats.
What's Glycogen?
The liver also helps the body use carbohydrates (carbs), another important component in food. Carbohydrates are found in lots of foods, such as bread, fruit, and milk. The body breaks down most carbs into a type of sugar called glucose, which is the main source of fuel for our cells. Glucose stored in the liver is called glycogen.
Glycogen is like your backup fuel. When the body needs a quick energy boost or when a person's blood glucose level drops the liver breaks down glycogen and releases glucose into the bloodstream.
What Else Does the Liver Do?
Your liver doesn't stop there. It has a hand in making cholesterol, which you might think of as bad, but your body needs some of it. And the liver helps with blood clotting, which is what helps you stop bleeding not long after you get a cut.
You should thank your liver next time you take some medicine, too. For example, when you take a pain reliever for a headache, the liver takes the active ingredient and breaks it down so your body can use it to make your headache go away!
How Can I Take Care of My Liver?
Now that you know how much your liver does for you, you're probably wondering what you can do for it. It's easy, really. Living healthy is the best way to care for your liver. The liver can be damaged if a person is very overweight or drinks too much alcohol. So be active, eat right, and your liver will keep on loving you back!