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AP A swift response by newly trained Libyan security forces to a June bombing outside the U.S. consulate in Benghazi may have led U.S. officials to underestimate the security threat in the country, The New York Times reported. "That the local security did so well back in June probably gave us a false sense of security," one U.S. official said. "We may have fooled ourselves." Security at the mission has come under scrutiny as the Obama administration has provided shifting accounts of what happened during the attack and whether security lapses were to blame. The U.S. had boosted security at the mission, following an April attack on the convoy of the U.N. special envoy for Libya, by upping the number of sandbagged defensive positions and giving Libyan security guards more training. Those efforts proved effective when militants attacked the mission with a homemade bomb in early June. But officials may have misread the threat, because afterward, the State Department did not express a need for more security, according to House Homeland Security Committee Chair Rep. Peter King. Get More at NBC News
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Rennard in Lib Dem legal threat
The Liberal Democrat peer at the centre of sexual harassment allegations has threatened legal action against the party after being suspended pending new disciplinary proceedings.
Former Lib Dem chief executive Lord (Chris) Rennard is facing investigation for bringing the party into disrepute by refusing to apologise to four women who complained about his behaviour, as recommended by an independent report which found last week that the allegations were credible but could not be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
In a lengthy and impassioned statement, Lord Rennard voiced his "regret" if the women had been hurt, embarrassed or upset by anything he did, but said he would not apologise for something he had not done, as it could leave him "defenceless" in any future civil action.
His dramatic suspension averted a potential test of the authority of Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, coming minutes before Lord Rennard was expected to attempt to return to his place on the party benches in the Upper House.
It was announced that the regional parties committee, which oversees Lib Dem disciplinary procedures, agreed at a meeting this morning to suspend his membership while he is investigated for bringing the party into disrepute.
A spokesman for Lord Rennard described the committee's decision as "extraordinary" and said the peer was "taking legal advice with a view to civil action against the party".
The spokesman added: "Lord Rennard would like proper consideration to be given to the statement that he made earlier today before there is any further action.
"He does not wish to see legal action between fellow Liberal Democrats, but his membership of the party matters more to him than anything apart from family and friends. Indeed he feels that the party is also his family.
"He believes that the suspension of his membership announced this morning should be lifted, that the party should now give him the report to which he is entitled and that Liberal Democrats should act in the best spirits of the party that he joined as a teenager."
Lord Rennard said he was "enormously distressed" by the escalating row and was too unwell to attend Parliament today.
He voluntarily withdrew from the Liberal Democrat benches while barrister Alistair Webster conducted his inquiry, but said chief whip Lord Newby had confirmed he was being readmitted following its conclusion last Wednesday. He had been expected to take his seat on the red benches alongside fellow Lib Dem peers today.
Mr Clegg set up a potential clash with his own peers - many of whom are known to sympathise with Lord Rennard - in a round of broadcast interviews this morning, in which he said he should not return to the Upper House until he said sorry, saying bluntly: "No apology, no whip."
The leader said Lord Rennard should apologise as a matter of "basic decency", and said re admitting him to the parliamentary party without such an apology would be "in defiance" of his authority.
But he acknowledged he did not have the power to block Lord Rennard's return, thanks to party rules which give the final decision on the withdrawal of the whip to a vote of the 99 Liberal Democrat peers.
His suspension was welcomed by Bridget Harris, one of the women who alleged she was harassed.
"I think Nick felt deeply responsible that all of this happened and technically, on paper, it felt like there was very little the leadership could do," Ms Harris, a former aide to the Lib Dem leader, told Sky News.
"But actually, as it has turned out today, there is something we can do. We can send a strong message that this kind of behaviour is not tolerated."
Lord Rennard said the party leadership had been "unwise" to demand an apology from him, and urged them to "let the matter rest".
In a statement of more than 2,600 words, the peer - who has worked for the party for 27 years and has been a member for 40 - said: "Courtesy has always been an essential part of my moral compass.
"If ever I have hurt, embarrassed or upset anyone, then it would never have been my intention and, of course, I regret that they may have felt any hurt, embarrassment or upset. But for the reasons given, I will not offer an apology to the four women complainants. I do not believe that people should be forced to say what they know they should not say, or do not mean."
Lord Rennard said he was told by Mr Webster last Wednesday that he had concluded there should be no further action against him. But he said the party had acted contrary to its own rules by refusing to give him a copy of the report.
"I have not spoken to, met with, or heard from Nick Clegg in 11 months," said Lord Rennard. "I would ask him, now that he has more knowledge of the facts, to ask for any threat to me to be withdrawn and to insist that I see the report, to which I am entitled, and to let me help him and my party again in future."
Lord Rennard said the strain of being chief executive, as well as a parliamentary investigation which cleared him of abusing expenses in 2009, had caused him "severe stress, anxiety and depression" and damaged his health. On learning of the allegations of improper behaviour towards women, he said that "the depth of depression I felt and the consideration of self-harm is difficult to describe".
Lib Dem president Tim Farron acknowledged
that the allegations "were not dealt with properly" when they emerged in 2010.
"I think that Lord Rennard and the four women in question are owed an apology because rumours circulated, and indeed complaints have been made, and were allowed to fester," Mr Farron told BBC Radio 4's PM. "It was not fair to him that they were not dealt with properly at the time but it definitely wasn't fair to the women."
Mr Farron said it was "only right and proper" that Lord Rennard now apologise, saying his concern about exposing himself to a possible civil action was "a red herring".
"Two of the women in question have been very clear today and stated that they had absolutely no intention of pursuing a civil case against Lord Rennard and they simply wanted an apology," he said. " There is a conclusion to this which would be much less messy if only he would do what is perfectly reasonable."
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman said Mr Clegg had made "an absolute pig's ear" of the issue.
She told Sky News: "I think it's been a terrible muddle. My sympathy is with those women who have complained and are left hanging."
Lib Dem peer Lord Greaves warned the party faced a massive internal crisis, and said it should set up a Northern Ireland-style "peace and reconciliation process" or face being badly damaged "for a generation".
"There is a huge chasm and each side is standing behind their own lines chucking grenades at the other and there is absolutely no dialogue going on," he told BBC2's Daily Politics.
Lib Dem international development minister Lynne Featherstone said Lord Rennard's expression of regret was not enough to bring matters to a conclusion.
"I am very sorry for Chris personally," said Ms Featherstone. "He is clearly in deep distress over this, but so are the women who have suffered over the years. On my part, I think an apology is in order and I think this is the inevitable ending to a procedure that has been protracted and to some extent unnecessary."
Elizabeth Peplow, former director of press and broadcasting for the Liberal Democrats under the leadership of Charles Kennedy, said: "The party has seriously lost its compass over this issue in the absence of any clear leadership which should have acted more swiftly and boldly to protect both the interests of the accused and the accusers.
"Rather than get at the truth, the party machine seems to have been blinded by what seems from the sidelines as a 'get Rennard' campaign.
"The party president's admission (on the PM programme) that he had spoken to 'the women' but not to Chris Rennard typifies this in a way which, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the case, leaves a sour taste and smacks of the kangaroo court Tim Farron said the party could not be accused of.
"The failure to allow Chris Rennard access to the report on him flies in the face of the laws of natural justice and has been compounded by the lack of any attempt to fully reflect on and accept at face value the regret his statement expresses at any hurt caused. To continue to press him to apologise further to allegations in a report he has not seen is ludicrous.
"Most fundamentally, there has been an extraordinary failure to communicate the principles of the lessons learned or advance conciliation in a way that would have helped both sides and ensures the party moves on properly.
"What is being done for instance to address the claim one of the women concerned has made that there were 10 Lib Dem MPs who made unwanted advances while she was working in the Lib Dem whips' office?
"Instead, in the absence of proper leadership, Chris Rennard has been thrown to trial by social media and treated with breathtaking illiberality by a party that prides itself on putting fairness at the heart of everything it does, but in fact has revealed a nasty, vicious core and of which, right now, I feel ashamed to be a member."

subset: commoncrawl


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It is possible that the main title of the report Trichotillomania is not the name you expected. Please check the synonyms listing to find the alternate name(s) and disorder subdivision(s) covered by this report.
Disorder Subdivisions
- None
General Discussion
Trichotillomania is characterized by an overwhelming urge to repeatedly pull out one's own hair, resulting in repetitive hair pulling and noticeable patches of baldness. The hair on the scalp is most often affected. The eyelashes, eyebrows, and beard can also be affected. In some cases, affected individuals chew and/or swallow (ingest) the hair they have pulled out (trichophagy), which can result in gastrointestinal problems. Trichotillomania causes significant emotional distress and often impairs social functioning. The exact cause of the condition is not known. Trichotillomania was previously classified as an impulse control disorder but is now considered an obsessive-compulsive related disorder in the latest version of the psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Version 5, American Psychiatric Association).
International OCD Foundation
PO Box 961029
Boston, MA 02196
Tel: (617)973-5801
Fax: (617)973-5803
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.ocfoundation.org
National Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health
Attn: Marion Mealing
9605 Medical Center Drive
Rockville, MD 20850
Tel: (240)403-1901
Fax: (240)403-1909
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.ffcmh.org
National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse
1211 Chestnut Street
Suite 1207
Philadelphia, PA 19107-6312
Tel: (215)751-1810
Fax: (215)636-6312
Tel: (800)553-4539
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.mhselfhelp.org
Mental Health America
2000 N. Beauregard Street, 6th Floor
Alexandria, VA 22314-2971
Tel: (703)684-7722
Fax: (703)684-5968
Tel: (800)969-6642
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/
National Alliance on Mental Illness
3803 N. Fairfax Drive
Suite 100
Arlington, VA 22203-
Tel: (703)524-7600
Fax: (703)524-9094
Tel: (800)999-6264
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.nami.org
NIH/National Institute of Mental Health
Health Science Writing, Press and Dissemination Branch
6001 Executive Boulevard
Room 8184, MSC 9663
Bethesda, MD 20892-9663
Tel: (301)443-4513
Fax: (301)443-4279
Tel: (866)615-6464
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/index.shtml
Trichotillomania Learning Center
207 McPherson Street,
Suite H
Santa Cruz, CA 95060-5863
Tel: (831)457-1004
Fax: (831)426-4383
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.trich.org/index.html
Genetic and Rare Diseases (GARD) Information Center
PO Box 8126
Gaithersburg, MD 20898-8126
Tel: (301)251-4925
Fax: (301)251-4911
Tel: (888)205-2311
Internet: http://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/GARD/
Locks of Love
234 Southern Blvd.
West Palm Beach, FL 33405-3099
Tel: (561)833-7332
Fax: (561)833-7962
Tel: (888)896-1588
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.locksoflove.org
North American Hair Research Society
Dept. of Dermatology Medical Center Blvd.
Walke University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC 27157
Tel: (336)776-2768
Fax: (336)776-7732
Email: [email protected]
Internet: http://www.nahrs.org/home/
For a Complete Report
This is an abstract of a report from the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD). A copy of the complete report can be downloaded free from the NORD website for registered users. The complete report contains additional information including symptoms, causes, affected population, related disorders, standard and investigational therapies (if available), and references from medical literature. For a full-text version of this topic, go to www.rarediseases.org and click on Rare Disease Database under "Rare Disease Information".
The information provided in this report is not intended for diagnostic purposes. It is provided for informational purposes only. NORD recommends that affected individuals seek the advice or counsel of their own personal physicians.
It is possible that the title of this topic is not the name you selected. Please check the Synonyms listing to find the alternate name(s) and Disorder Subdivision(s) covered by this report
This disease entry is based upon medical information available through the date at the end of the topic. Since NORD's resources are limited, it is not possible to keep every entry in the Rare Disease Database completely current and accurate. Please check with the agencies listed in the Resources section for the most current information about this disorder.
For additional information and assistance about rare disorders, please contact the National Organization for Rare Disorders at P.O. Box 1968, Danbury, CT 06813-1968; phone (203) 744-0100; web site www.rarediseases.org or email [email protected]
Last Updated: 2/20/2014
Copyright 1990, 1995, 2001, 2011, 2014 National Organization for Rare Disorders, Inc.


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KC's Kendall to have season-ending surgery
Extensive shoulder tearing shelves catcher until at least April
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com
As a result, the Royals' catcher will undergo surgery to repair extensive damage in his right rotator cuff on Friday and will miss the rest of this season. He is expected to be out eight to 10 months.
The severity of the injury was revealed in an MRI on Monday. The surgery will be performed in Los Angeles by Dr. Neal ElAllatrache.
Backup Brayan Pena started at catcher on Wednesday night against the Rangers for the second straight game. He will divide the catching duties with rookie Lucas May, just brought up from Triple-A Omaha.
Although Royals manager Ned Yost said he hoped to have Kendall back "by the spring," even just eight months would carry through the first month of the 2011 season in April. Kendall will be in the second year of his Royals contract.
Kendall started 118 of the Royals' 132 games. He was an iron man behind the plate, missing just five of 90 games to the point where he was injured on July 17, sliding into second base on a steal in the first inning against Oakland at Kauffman Stadium. Even then, he continued to play regularly.
"We gave him a cortisone shot, it felt better and we went to Oakland two weeks later and he had a check swing and that's when he totally tore it," Yost said. "We decided now is the time to do it so, hopefully, it gets him ready to go by the end of Spring Training for Opening Day."
Kendall, who became the Royals' No. 2 batter in the lineup, was hitting .256 with 18 doubles and 37 RBIs. Behind the plate, he was credited with throwing out 31 of 131 would-be basestealers, or 21.7 percent.
"His throwing percentage is still remarkable when he got to the point where he couldn't even raise his arm. He was catching and would have to take his glove to push his arm back into a throwing position and was still throwing runners out," Yost said. "It just shows you the mentality and the makeup of Jason Kendall. I think he would have played out the year if the training staff hadn't just hog-tied him and made him have an MRI."
Pena this season had started just 14 games at catcher prior to Wednesday night. May had no Major League experience at all.
"Pena will probably play four days a week and Lucas May might play three. Brayan may play five and Lucas two," Yost said. "And there'll be weeks when Lucas will play four and Brayan will play three. We'll kind of just mix it up and get a good look at both of them."
It's possible another catcher could be brought up from the Minors later, he said.
Kendall was stubborn about staying off the field and eventually giving in to surgery.
"He was very stubborn with the trainers, just 'Don't dig, don't poke, don't pull, just get me ready to play,' " Yost said.
Finally head athletic trainer Nick Kenney talked him into Monday's MRI.
"He tore his rotator cuff and it curled back in there. It just amazes me, the toughness of this kid," Yost said.
"In Cleveland, he threw out two of three runners, but he literally couldn't lift his arm anymore. It got to where he was catching the ball and his glove literally was pushing his hand up. Once he got it up, he could throw it. And he'd push his hand up on his bat so he could swing. They just don't make 'em like that anymore."
Kendall's season is over but ...
"He'd be playing today if it was up to him," Yost said.
Dick Kaegel is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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Players opt for Spring Training over Classic
By Alden Gonzalez / MLB.com
TEMPE, Ariz. -- A decorated Team USA roster already has its back against the wall in the World Baseball Classic; a 5-2 opening loss to Mexico makes Saturday night's game against Italy a must-win. The result had little to do with talent -- more so with the reality and randomness of tournament play -- but it was another reminder of an underlying theme in the World Baseball Classic: American participation simply isn't as high.
Look no further than the star-studded Angels. Mike Trout opted to focus his time on preparing for his sophomore year; Josh Hamilton wanted no part of it after an offseason of transition; and Jered Weaver would've only considered it if he didn't end 2012 with a sore shoulder.
"The guys they want out there are the guys that throw 220-plus innings," Weaver, who played in the Pan-American Games of 2002, told reporters on Wednesday. "Those guys want the down time in the offseason to recuperate. As great as it would be to wear the red, white and blue … it's a tough thing to have to be ready for."
Major League front offices and coaching staffs are most reluctant to hand over their starting pitchers because their arms are counted on for so many innings and due to the injury risk tied to the heightened intensity of the Classic.
But Major League players in general, particularly in a country where baseball is most important from April to October, just have different priorities.
"I think it's going to be a little bit difficult to convince certain guys," Angels designated hitter Mark Trumbo said, "because at the end of the day, it's cool, but when it really counts is during our regular season."
"World Baseball Classic is great," catcher Chris Iannetta added, "but the most important thing is the season."
The only Angels participant is Dominican shortstop Erick Aybar, with Minor League reliever Fernando Cabrera (Puerto Rico) and first baseman Efren Navarro (Mexico) also taking part. Chris Iannetta, who played in the '09 Classic, doesn't believe anything can be done to make Major Leaguers more eager to participate.
The only timing that makes sense still isn't ideal.
"Our season's so long, our offseason's so short," Iannetta said. "Every part of our season is extremely critical. You can't do it in the middle because then you take time away from the continuity of the sport. ... You're obviously not going to do it in the playoffs, and then in the offseason, it would be really tough, just because guys aren't really in game shape. The only viable time is during Spring Training, and it's the beginning of the season, so there's a myriad of reasons why guys don't play."
After homer, Pujols knows he still has work to do
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Albert Pujols was asked the fitting, predictable question after coming out of Saturday's game against the Rockies.
"Any sense of relief to get the first home run out of the way?"
The Angels' first baseman scoffed, demonstratively yet playfully.
"I don't think of that," Pujols said. "I hit seven home runs last spring and had my worst start to a season. I come down here just to get my quality at-bats and get in games and get my legs in shape and my timing on, and hopefully by Opening Day get it going. Obviously, you always want to have a good Spring Training. You always want to swing the bat well, but in the end, as long as you get your work, I think that's the most important thing."
Starting his second Cactus League game -- and first since Tuesday, with both coming as the designated hitter as he works through offseason knee surgery -- Pujols got a 2-0, inside-corner sinker from Rockies starter Juan Nicasio and turned on it, skying a towering homer over the left-field fence to notch his first hit of the spring.
But a mere Spring Training homer isn't a sign that Pujols' Hall of Fame-caliber timing is back.
It isn't -- and it probably won't be at peak form until the regular season is a few weeks old.
"Usually, to me, it's probably by the middle of April when I feel really good," Pujols said. "So the first couple of weeks of April, I try to fight and get my hits here and there."
Pujols went 0-for-3 in his debut, striking out and hitting two slow rollers. On Saturday, he struck out on a checked swing in his first plate appearance, homered in his second and grounded into a 5-2-3, bases-loaded double play in his third.
Once again, the opposing team agreed to allow the Angels a courtesy runner in case Pujols needed to run the bases.
The 32-year-old slugger isn't ready to run full speed just yet, but he continues to make progress. After the game, Pujols ran the bases for the first time in one of the back fields at the Tempe Diablo Stadium complex. He said his surgically repaired right knee has "no pain at all," but isn't sure when he'll play first base in a game.
"Right now, I'm just happy to get my at-bats," said Pujols, who's expected to be ready by Opening Day. "We have a pretty good game plan. I don't want to rush this thing. I'm taking some ground balls and that's what I need."
Relievers Madson, Burnett both progressing
TEMPE, Ariz. -- There will be noticeable progression from the Angels' two new relievers next week, with Ryan Madson slated to return to the mound on Monday and Sean Burnett probably appearing in his first Cactus League game by Wednesday.
Madson's recovery from April 2012 Tommy John surgery came to a halt after a Feb. 1 setback due to elbow soreness, but the 32-year-old right-hander has progressed far enough in his program to throw another bullpen session.
After that, his rehab schedule is a little hazy.
Madson, all but guaranteed to start the season on the disabled list, previously estimated he'd need just under 10 bullpen sessions before being game ready, which may not leave him enough time to get into Cactus League action before the Spring Training schedule runs out. The Angels are still hopeful that Madson will be available at some point in mid-to-late April, but Madson isn't getting ahead of himself.
Monday's session is all about getting reacclimated.
"Just getting familiar with the mound again, and the mechanics and the slope and throwing to the catcher [on a downward plane], trying to get some timing and some coordination, mechanics and feel," said Madson, who was shut down after his fourth bullpen session of the offseason.
Burnett was shut down because of lower back stiffness on Feb. 18, but said he hasn't felt any pain in that area in "a week and a half, two weeks." The Angels' training staff has been extra cautious with Burnett's recovery, mainly because he has more than enough time to be ready by Opening Day.
The 30-year-old left-hander will throw a simulated game Sunday, then make his spring debut a few days later.
"I've been around long enough to know what I need," Burnett said. "If I start tomorrow with the simulated game, I'll get plenty of outings and probably just as many as any year before, if not more. I'm right on track. I'm not going to miss anything."
Scioscia away from team due to death in family
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Angels manager Mike Scioscia was away from the team for Saturday's game against the Rockies, flying back to his native Pennsylvania on Friday night to deal with a death in the family.
Scioscia, almost never absent, is expected back for Sunday's game against the Royals.
Bench coach Rob Picciolo took over in Scioscia's place, managing a lineup that had an everyday player at every position except shortstop -- Andrew Romine started, with Erick Aybar taking part in the World Baseball Classic -- and Albert Pujols serving as designated hitter.
"You always want Mike around, of course, but we've done this before," Picciolo said after Saturday's tilt. "I'll go text him right now and give him a report on the game."
Worth noting
• Prospect Andrew Taylor, the lefty reliever who was with the Angels as a September callup last year, hasn't appeared in a game since Feb. 27 due to tightness in his shoulder. The 26-year-old had a hard time getting loose for his first two Cactus League appearances and hasn't picked up a baseball since. He'll see a doctor on Saturday and could undergo an MRI on Monday.
Asked about concern that it's a rotator cuff issue that would require surgery, Taylor said: "I'm not too worried about that right now. I guess we'll see what the doc has to say."
• Veteran lefty reliever Mitch Stetter threw a shortened bullpen a few days ago and was scheduled to throw a regular session -- all fastballs -- on Saturday. The 32-year-old was told he'd need about five bullpen sessions before appearing in his first game of spring. Stetter, who posted a 4.08 ERA in 132 relief appearances with the Brewers from 2007-11, has been out with a bulging disk in his back.
• Here's what Ryan Madson had to say about legendary Yankees closer Mariano Rivera, who announced on Saturday that he'll retire after the 2013 season: "I think everyone looks up to him, whether you're a pitcher or a hitter. I look up to him just for the way he goes about his business, what he's done, his accomplishments and the length of time he's been dominant. It's hard to be that dominant for one year, never mind however many years it's been."
Alden Gonzalez is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Gonzo and "The Show", and follow him on Twitter @Alden_Gonzalez. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


text:
Mostly Cloudy
From 'Argo' to 'Zero Dark Thirty' to 'Lincoln,' politically focused films are battling it out for the Best Picture Oscar this year, and many have done well at the box office, too.
CLICK HERE for LIVE STREAMING VIDEO of the 85th Academy Awards coverage. Make sure to bookmark this link to follow along tonight: http://bit.ly/Xuze25
With Washington stuck in gridlock, tied up in the latest battle to rescue the federal budget, the last thing many people might want to do is watch a two- or three-hour movie about politics.
Unless you're in the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
From "Argo" to "Zero Dark Thirty" to "Lincoln," politically focused films are battling it out for the Best Picture Oscar this year, and many have done well at the box office, too.
So, with the Oscars coming up on Sunday, here is a roundup of politically inspired movies that have been nominated or won, past and present:
THE 2013 NOMINEES "Argo" Nominated for seven Academy Awards, "Argo" may be considered Ben Affleck's biggest achievement as a director. But although the real-life rescue thriller is nominated for Best Motion Picture, Affleck himself failed to get a nomination for Best Director -- seen as a slight by many critics and an omission that could affect the film's chances for the big award. The movie takes place in 1979 revolutionary Iran, where, after 52 Americans were taken hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, six other American diplomats try to escape the country with the help of the CIA, the Canadian government and a Hollywood film team.
"Zero Dark Thirty" Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Director with "The Hurt Locker" in 2008, a film about a U.S. Bomb squad in the Iraq war. Bigelow continued her theme of post-9/11 politics in "Zero Dark Thirty," an account of how Osama bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs in Abbottabad, Pakistan. However, she has faced criticism for her depictions of torture in the film. Sen. John McCain called the movie "misleading" and "grossly inaccurate" for what he felt was the suggestion that torture helped lead to finding bin Laden. He, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Carl Levin even wrote a letter to the CEO of Sony Pictures, expressing their disagreement with what the movie portrayed as fact. And, like Affleck, Bigelow was not nominated for this year's Best Director award, even though the film received five other nominations.
"Lincoln" Daniel Day-Lewis appears to be the odds-on favorite to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Honest Abe in Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln." The film, which received 12 Academy Award nominations, has been touted as a history lesson about what actually took place in the days leading up to the passage of the 13th Amendment. But the congressional delegation from Connecticut has challenged the film's depiction of history. In the key scene where Congress votes on whether to end slavery, two members from Connecticut are depicted as voting against the amendment. But current Rep. Joe Courtney says that is wrong, that the state's lawmakers actually voted unanimously in favor of ending slavery. He sent a letter to Spielberg expressing his dismay and hopes the movie will be changed ahead of its release on DVD on February 26. And in case it doesn't get changed, just for the record: Connecticut wasn't cool with slavery. Now, Mississippi on the other hand ...
PREVIOUS WINNERS AND NOMINEES "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939) This 1939 film, which won one Oscar and was nominated for 10 others, is probably the one movie you've heard grandparents talk about when they complain that today's Hollywood isn't like what it used to be. Jimmy Stewart plays Jefferson Smith, the everyman who is suddenly thrust into the U.S. Senate. In the movie's climatic scene, Stewart's character launches into an actual filibuster (sound familiar?), a favorite tactic among current GOP senators. Stewart's fictional filibuster, where he talked for 24 hours straight, was done to stop a bill that would have stolen land intended for a boy's camp. That's a slightly different crusade than, say, holding up the Chuck Hagel nomination.
"The Manchurian Candidate" (1962) "The Manchurian Candidate," nominated for two Oscars, debuted at the height of the Cold War and was nominated for two Academy Awards. Frank Sinatra played Maj. Bennett Marco, who discovers that one of his fellow American POWs was brainwashed by the communists. Although the story is more than a half-century old, the political intrigue and paranoia over communism could easily be replaced with the current fear over Islamist terrorism.
"All The President's Men" (1976) There's nothing more exciting for Hollywood than movies about young people trying to upset the system. When "All The President's Men" -- which won four Oscars and was nominated for four more -- came out in 1976, just about everyone had heard of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post reporters responsible for uncovering the Watergate scandal and forcing the resignation of President Richard Nixon. The film, which provided context and drama about how the reporters brought down the most powerful man on Earth, also inspired countless young men and women to become journalists in the pursuit of truth.
"JFK" (1991) Since this is an Oliver Stone project, most didn't expect a Lincoln-esque biopic of the nation's first and only Catholic president. "JFK," which won two Oscars and was nominated for another six, centered around New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, played by Kevin Costner, and his investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In typical Stone fashion, history gives way to conspiracy.
"Malcolm X" (1992) Director Spike Lee rarely shies away from difficult subjects such as race in America. His 1992 film "Malcolm X," considered one of his best films, told the story of one of America's most complicated and controversial civil-rights icon. It was also a statement on the state of American race relations. Denzel Washington, who played Malcolm, was nominated for Best Actor. The film's only other nomination was for Best Costume Design.
"Nixon" (1995) Anthony Hopkins' performance as "Nixon" in this 1995 film was one of his best, helping the movie earn four Oscar nominations. Oliver Stone followed up the success of JFK with this biopic in which he tries to understand Nixon's psyche, from his days as a young man to his eventual resignation as president of the United States.
"Bowling for Columbine" (2002) With the recent shootings in Aurora, Oak Creek and Newtown, the debate over gun violence has been reignited. But before those tragedies, there was the 1999 shooting in Columbine, where 15 people died. Michael Moore directed the documentary "Bowling for Columbine," which took a hard look at the gun culture in America and won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.
"Good Night, and Good Luck" (2005) Before Affleck got his taste for directing, it was actor-turned-director George Clooney who was receiving praise for his work behind the camera. With Clooney as director, this 2005 film -- nominated for six Oscars -- tells the true story of journalistic icon Edward R. Murrow in his battle against Sen. Joseph McCarthy during McCarthy's red scare. McCarthy was a senator who wanted to root out what he suspected as communist elements in the U.S. Murrow was one of the most visible TV journalists to stand up to McCarthy and his tactics, and he represented the beliefs of those who felt McCarthy was on a political witch hunt. Recently, some Democrats compared Texas freshman Sen. Ted Cruz to McCarthy for his unsubstantiated claims that defense secretary nominee Hagel had received money from Saudi Arabia and North Korea.
"Syriana" (2005) Before 9/11, many Americans weren't typically interested in politics abroad. But after that tragic event and the subsequent invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, everything changed. The 2005 film "Syriana" -- which won Clooney a Best Actor award and was nominated for another Oscar -- was a gripping political thriller based around the No. 1 currency in the world: oil.
"Frost/Nixon" (2008) Richard Nixon's term as president has been great fodder for Hollywood. Maybe it's the jowls. Or maybe it's the fact that someone so powerful could have fallen so far. In "Frost/Nixon," nominated for five Oscars, Frank Langella plays Nixon after he resigned from the presidency. Langella squares off against talk-show host David Frost, played by Michael Sheen, and reveals Nixon at his most cunning and vulnerable.
"Milk" (2008) Harvey Milk was California's first openly gay elected official, serving on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. Sean Penn plays Milk in this Gus Van Sant film about the late gay rights advocate and leading figure in the LGBT movement. The movie won two Oscars and was nominated for another six.


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Gilbert will pay $50 million for the site of the halted construction and three other neighboring buildings. He has plans to make it a very different neighborhood and monumental disaster is about to transform downtown Detroit.
Story: Wayne County jail project evidence under preservation order
Entertainment, retail, housing planned for site
Rock Ventures is expected to build a billion-dollar entertainment and retail complex along with housing, lofts, town homes and apartments on two full blocks.
On Wednesday, the Wayne County Commission will hold a joint meeting with the county Building Authority. During the meeting, the RFI Committee -- a seven-member board assigned the job of getting a new jail out of the money available -- will present its plan.
Local 4 has learned Rock Ventures will buy the failed jail site along with two old Wayne County jails on Clinton Street and the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center for $50 million. That will be added to the $50 million the county did not use after stopping jail construction and then try to cobble together bond sales from the remaining $100 million in bonding authority to build a $200 million renovation kitty.
The plan moves the failed jail to its new home -- the former Mound Road Correctional Facility -- to construct a justice center.
Wayne County will salvage as much as possible from the failed jail project, which includes the jail pods already installed on Gratiot Avenue and the 100 others still stored downriver.
Story: Wayne County jail pods sit in the sun
The county also will have 2,600 cells -- the original number needed -- and while the new Mound Road facility will not have all the bells and whistles of the downtown jail, it will come with courtrooms, making operations more efficient.
The Building Authority and the County Commission are not going to be voting on this plan on Wednesday. They merely will be asked to allow the RFI Committee to take 90 days to pull all of the assorted details together for a final plan. At that point the county will ask for this vote.
Copyright 2013 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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+ Riverview Rams qualify for state meet
Madison Schmidt, Kehtura Merrick and Alison Gollnick captured regional titles to lead the Riverview High girls track team to a third-place finish at the Class 4A-Region 2 meet April 24, at Leto High.
The boys team finished fifth.
The top-four finishers in each event earned a berth in the Class 4A state finals May 4, at the University of North Florida.
State qualifiers include:
Willie Smith (shot put)
Travis Amuso (pole vault)
Charisa Powell (long jump)
Juhnae Richardson (long jump)
Gabrielle Falco (long jump)
Richie James (triple jump and 400)
Merrick (discus)
Gollnick (shot put)
Schmidt (pole vault)
Boys 4x400 relay
+ ODA track teams post top-11 finishes
The Out-of-Door Academy boys and girls track teams sent four athletes to the Class 1A state finals April 26, at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
All four athletes posted top-11 finishes in their respective events. Senior Ashtin Frank also set a new school record, clearing 10 feet, 6 inches in the pole vault.
Results Include:
Madison Shaw (100 hurdles, eighth place)
Catherine Williams (triple jump, 10th place)
Tre Gregory (pole vault, 11th place with an injured hamstring)
Frank (pole vault, fifth place)
KUDOS: Sarasota Crew
The Sarasota Crew boys and girls teams defended their titles at the Florida Scholastic Rowing Association Sweep Championships April 27 and April 28, at Nathan Benderson Park.
The Crew scored a combined 574 points to top rival Winter Park (496 points) and capture the overall team title.
Individual event champions include:
Girls 1st Varsity 8+
Boys 1st Varsity 8+
Girls 3rd Varsity 8+
Girls Freshman 4+ Petite
Boys Freshman 8+
Girls 2nd Varsity 8+
Boys 2nd Varsity 8+
STANDOUT PLAYER: Jammeria Higdon
Track and Field | Sarasota High
12.18 — The time in seconds it took for Higdon to win the 100-meter dash.
15 — The number of individual first-place finishes Higdon has posted so far this season.
2 — The number of events Higdon qualified for at the Class 3A-Region 3 meet April 25, at Charlotte High.


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Robots: Robolution Capital
In this episode Per talks to robotics enthusiast and investment fund manager Renaud Champion. Champion is co-founder of the professional investment fund Robolution Capital, that focuses on investing in service robotics in the European market. Champion believes that service robotics has great growth potential, both in the professional and the domestic market. With a target of 60 million euros in funding, he is actively trying to promote development by building an effective ecosystem for robotics, including entrepreneurs, investors, advisers and users. In the interview he also shares some thoughts on what he looks for in a potential investment, as well as his views on the European robotics market, vs. that in the US and Asia.
Syndicated 2013-01-25 07:00:00 from Robots - The Podcast for News and Views on Robotics


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Southwest Florida rowing boosters will attend the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam this month in preparation for hosting the 2017 international competition at Nathan Benderson Park.
It has been about a year since Sarasota-Bradenton's Benderson Park was chosen to host the 2017 World Rowing Championships by the 137-member International Federation of Rowing Associations Congress, or FISA.
Local tourism officials, Suncoast Aquatic Nature Center Associates personnel and representatives from several other local organizations, including the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee and Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, will visit Amsterdam, attending meetings with international officials, raising awareness about the Sarasota-Bradenton area and the park, and trying to lure athletes to train at Benderson Park before the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil.
Virginia Haley, president of Visit Sarasota, the county's tourism agency, and Nicole Rissler, director of sports for Visit Sarasota, will attend the 10-day rowing competition that begins Aug. 24. Elliott Falcione, executive director of the Bradenton Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, Sean Walker, the Bradenton Area director of sports, Cihan Cobanoglu, the dean of the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee's College of Hospitality and Technology Leadership, and Mark Stuckey, vice president of special projects and development for the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, will also go, along with Paul Blackketter, chief operating officer of SANCA, the nonprofit behind operations at Benderson Park.
"It's important for us to take in another world rowing championships to understand the logistics and how it works," said Nicole Rissler. "It's just as important for us to promote our destination, both from a spectator standpoint and from a team and parent perspective, so these athletes know what they'll see when they come to Sarasota."
When the championships come to Southwest Florida in three years, some 42,000 athletes and supporters are expected visit Sarasota and Manatee counties, pumping an estimated $13 million in direct spending into the regional economy.
It also will mark the biggest single-event draw to the region in history, expected to boost restaurants, hotels and vacation rentals, stores and attractions, and international media attention.
Michael Klauber, owner of Michael's On East restaurant and chairman of Visit Sarasota County's board of directors, will observe the food preparation and service in Amsterdam.
"We have so many hotels in the Sarasota area that offer limited service for food," Klauber said. "But we're required to serve 5,000 calories a day to the athletes when they're here, which means a hot breakfast and a hot dinner at their hotels. I'll be monitoring how the hotels and rowing park are serving food through the event."
Falcione said Amsterdam will be a learning opportunity, but Southwest Florida already has skills and infrastructure that appeals to those who plan to travel here in 2017.
"When you have an airport that's 12 minutes away and hotels within a 20-minute radius, that's hard to find around the globe," Falcione said.
Tourism officials will visit the event's sponsored hotels, which are about a half-hour bus ride from the rowing facility. Cobanoglu, from USF, will join them.
Host cities have turned to catering companies to deliver approved food to limited service hotels, a model that Sarasota and Manatee counties would likely use, Cobanoglu said. USFSM students plan to create menus for athletes that hotels and catering companies can use. This spring, a sports tourism class begins at the college, where students will plan other aspects of the World Championships.
In Amsterdam, Cobanoglu says he will talk to volunteer managers about how race officials use students and universities. He plans to visit the acclaimed "Hotelschool The Hague," a Netherlands hospitality college that is working with the world championship leaders.
Three Sarasota County sheriff's deputies will also travel to Amsterdam to work with FISA officials on security training.
Sarasota County is funding the trips for Haley and Rissler and two of the three deputies, said Jamie Carson, spokeswoman for Sarasota County.
The trips are funded through tourism development tax funds. The third deputy's trip is being paid by the Sheriff's Office. Cobanoglu's trip will be covered mostly by private funds from the university. Manatee County will fund Falcione and Walker's travel expenses, Falcione said.
Stuckey, with the airport, will meet with rowing teams to provide travel information about carriers that serve the Sarasota-Bradenton market, said Frederick "Rick" Piccolo, airport president and CEO.
He will meet with the group that operates the Amsterdam International Shiphol Airport about the event's impact on scheduled commercial traffic, charter flights, and general aviation, he said, as well as how the airport prepared for increased traffic and transportation, car rentals and security requirements.
International rowing officials confirmed last month that the 2017 world championships will be held from Sept. 24 to Oct. 1.
Southwest Florida to send delegation to world rowing championships in Amsterdam
Southwest Florida rowing boosters will attend the 2014 World Rowing Championships in Amsterdam this month in preparation for hosting the 2017 international competition at Nathan Benderson Park.


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In a stunning development, the Samsung Group has literally replaced all of its most senior executives, according to a report by the Korea Herald.
The Samsung Group is South Korea's largest chaebol, consisting of over fifty companies including Samsung Electronics, Samsung Heavy Industries, Samsung Petrochemicals, Samsung Medical, and Samsung Life Insurance. It also owns Sungkyunkwan University.
All of its most senior executives over age 60 were replaced, except for two Presidents who were promoted to Vice-Chairs. Twenty-five Presidents and Vice-Chairmen out of forty-six were replaced with younger executives.
"Age was the biggest criteria in the reshuffle," Yoon Soon-bong, Vice-Chair of the Samsung Group was quoted as saying at a press briefing.
The Group is desperate to reorganize after the resignation of its former Chairman Lee Kun-hee last April in the wake of a corruption scandal that led to his indictment on tax evasion and breach of trust charges. He was eventually convicted and handed a suspended prison sentence. The shuffle sets the stage for Lee Jae-yong, Lee Kun-hee's son, to take over as Chairman of Samsung Group in the near future. The position of Chairman of Samsung Group is currently unfilled.
Samsung Electronics, the most important of all Samsung companies, is to be split into two divisions. It was previously organized loosely into Digital Media, Semiconductor, Telecommunications Network, and Digital Appliance groups.
Device Solutions Division
This division will be led by current Samsung Electronics Vice-Chair and CEO Lee Yoon-woo. Focusing mostly on component level products, it will be the world's top supplier of NAND flash memory, DRAM chips, and LCD panels for laptops, computer monitors, and televisions.
Other key areas are optical disc drives and hard disk drives, radio frequency transceivers, CMOS image sensors, and numerous other semiconductor components.
Samsung Electronics is currently the only profitable DRAM manufacturer in the world.
Digital Media and Communications Division
This division will be led by Choi Gee-sung, currently President of Telecommunications for Samsung Electronics. The primary focus will be on consumer electronics. This division will be the world's second largest supplier of mobile phones at 17.1 percent, second only to Nokia.
Samsung Television is currently the world's number one television brand. Samsung monitors, computers and printers will also be sold and marketed through this division.
Samsung is also a leader in digital cameras, digital camcorders, DVRs, Blu-Ray and DVD players, and MP3 players.
Samsung Group's home appliances company, including air conditioners, fridges, and air purifiers was recently incorporated into Samsung Electronics, and will be slotted into this division.
Further streamlining of manufacturing operations and other changes are expected to follow in the next few weeks. Samsung has major facilities in South Korea, China, Mexico, Brazil, Hungary, Indonesia, Slovakia, and the Philippines.
Next week Samsung is expected to reshuffle and reassign other executives in order to fill gaps created by these changes. It has already been announced that salaries for approximately 1600 executives in 59 affiliates will be cut anywhere from 10 to 20 percent.
"There has been a sense of crisis in the company for more than a year," said one anonymous manager. "Radical change is in store."


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Nearly 2.7 billion trips taken during the quarter in the U.S., the "sixth consevutive quarterly increase," APTA said. All major modes registered gains.
APTA said heavy rail use rose 2.5%, paced by gains in 11 of the 15 systems APTA measured. Eighteen out of 28 so-called "commuter rail" (or regional passenger rail) systems reported ridership increases, with ridership up 1.7%. Bus ridership rose about 1%, APTA said.
"Since nearly 60 percent of the trips taken on public transportation are work commutes, public transit is a vital service for cities and towns nationwide," said APTA President and CEO Michael Melaniphy.
"In some areas of the country, local and regional economies are rebounding, and not surprisingly, public transit ridership is up in regions where jobs are increasing and employment is up," Melaniphy continued.
Moreover, "Even though gas prices declined in the second quarter, more people decided to take public transportation. This goes to show that there is a growing public demand for public transportation services and the next Congress and President must address this issue," he said.


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FITSUGAR SNEAK PEEK: Relax Already!
Hey gang - Get excited because FitSugar is coming soon! See below for a sneak peek:
Jessica Biel spends a lot of time walking her dogs. Maybe she is doing it to relieve some of the stresses of being named Sexiest Woman Alive.
Here are some tips for simple ways to lower your stress to a level that you (and everyone else around you) can handle:
- Take Fido for a nice long walk. Your adorable four-legged companion is desperate to spend time with you so go outside to make both of you happier. Besides, Fido makes you smile, that is why you got a dog in the first place, right?
- Antioxidants, antioxidants, antioxidants! A big 'ole glass of pomegranate juice or green tea is not only delicious and de-stressing, but it also detoxifies. What's better than that?
- Get off your butt! Kinetics generate positive energy. If you're feeling stressed, hop on the treadmill and tune your iPod to motivating music…try Led Zeppelin's Ramble On to keep you rambling on.
- Write in a journal. Get your thoughts out in a personal way. Sometimes it just helps to have your thoughts, worries and stresses out there. Don't forget to include all your fabulous happenings too!
- A quick and easy de-stressor that everyone should have on hand is Bach Rescue Remedy. A few quick drops of this gentle flower essence under the tongue or in a small glass of water will bring anyone's stress level down. You can use it on your dog, your children, your husband… the options are endless. A bonus is that it's small enough that I always carry a bottle in my purse.
Want to have Jessica Biel's body but don't know how to get it? Need to learn how to de-stress the healthy way? Itching to discuss whether eating organic is worth it or totally over-hyped? Read about all of this and more on our next site, FitSugar!
FitSugar is coming soon. Sign up to recieve an email notification as soon as we launch!


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Do you think the Sorting Hat is a secret? In PS, Ron has that whole issue where he wonders what he'll have to do and then he's like "Oh, we just have to try on a hat!"
So...why didn't he know? Is he just ignorant? Or is it a secret from the little kids to make it more exciting?


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Red Sox to go with 11 pitchers in ALDS
By Ian Browne / MLB.com
BOSTON -- Though the Division Series roster does not need to be submitted until Thursday, Red Sox manager John Farrell sounded as if he already knew how his 25-man roster alignment would look.
The one thing he confirmed Wednesday afternoon was that the Red Sox would go with 11 pitchers. In previous years, the Red Sox sometimes deployed just 10 pitchers in the Division Series.
Why 11 instead of 10?
"It's more staying with what our strengths have been," Farrell said. "This wasn't in reaction to Texas being eliminated. This is going back and forth with [general manager] Ben [Cherington] and others on what is the 25th player, who is it, how we envision that person being used. You start to get multiple moves down the line, and then you begin to weigh what's more important, and to me, protecting the downside of something unforeseen happening on the mound, and pitching-wise, I don't want to disrupt that."
That means the Red Sox will go with five bench players. The definites would seem to be David Ross, Mike Carp, Jonny Gomes and Xander Bogaerts. Quintin Berry, who is known for his speed, is likely to be the final bench player.
The defensive versatility of Carp, Daniel Nava and Bogaerts made it easier for the Red Sox to go with an extra pitcher.
"The one challenge for the roster is we're heavy in outfielders, and I will tell you that," Farrell said. "That's where a lot of the decision-making centered around, is that extra player and knowing that either a pinch-runner or pinch-hitter, they're outfielders. We were just making sure that we weren't too thin on the infield."
The Red Sox will go with a four-man rotation and seven relievers. Koji Uehara, Junichi Tazawa, Craig Breslow, Ryan Dempster and Brandon Workman are all but certain to make the roster. The bubble candidates in competition for the final two spots? Lefties Franklin Morales, Matt Thornton, Drake Britton and Felix Doubront.
Lester tabbed for Game 1, Lackey to start Game 2
BOSTON -- The Red Sox started their season with Jon Lester on the mound back on April 1. So perhaps it's only fitting that the lefty also opens the second season -- the one everyone will be watching.
Manager John Farrell has tabbed Lester to open Friday's Game 1 of the American League Division Series at 3 p.m. ET on TBS against either the Cleveland Indians or Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.
When you combine Lester's experience in October and the way he has pitched down the stretch, the decision was a no-brainer for Farrell. In his 13 starts since the All-Star break, Lester is 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA.
"It's probably been assumed by many that he would go Game 1 for us, and he'll do just that," said Farrell. "He's been outstanding in the second half, and the last eight starts that he's put together for us, he's been very strong, and he'll lead the way for us from a starting standpoint."
John Lackey, who has pitched far better at Fenway this season (6-3, 2.47 ERA) than on the road (4-10, 4.48 ERA), gets the nod in Saturday's Game 2.
Clay Buchholz, who put up glittering numbers in his abbreviated season, will pitch Monday's Game 3 on the road.
"I'll pitch whenever they want me to," said Buchholz. "It's the first game on the road. The last couple of years, I've felt comfortable on the road. Obviously I'd like to pitch in front of the fans here, but you've got to win in both places anyway. Hopefully we can do well in these first two games here and take it from there."
Jake Peavy, the bulldog righty who was acquired just prior to the July 31 non-waiver Trade Ddeadline, starts Game 4 if necessary.
Honored and excited about getting the nod for Game 1. Is it Friday yet? LETS GO!!!!! #NVRQT- Jon Lester (@JLester31) October 2, 2013
"I think the rotation couldn't set up any better than the way it sets up," said Peavy. "Jonny Lester's been a horse here all year. He made every one of his starts, he led this team in innings, he pitched as well as anyone in the second half in baseball really. He deserves to be the guy going out there. And I think Lack right behind him, I think that the way that things are shaking out to set up is the right way."
Dress rehearsal draws nearly 4,000 fans at Fenway
BOSTON -- For one day, the Red Sox were divided into the visiting "blue" team and the home "red" team.
Clay Buchholz pitched against batterymate Jarrod Saltalamacchia and gave up an RBI double in the top of the first. Jake Peavy struck out the side in the bottom of the first, capped by a fastball he blew by David Ortiz.
The Red Sox invited fans to their intrasquad competition on Wednesday, which started at the precise time (3:07 p.m. ET) that Friday's Game 1 of the American League Division Series will begin on TBS. The game lasted 5 1/2 innings.
With four days off between Sunday's regular-season finale and Friday's Game 1, this was a way for manager John Farrell to try to keep his team at gamespeed.
"We had our lineup see live pitching," said Farrell. "We got the guys to the mound that we needed to get full speed work, and they were able to accomplish that."
Despite the fact the intrasquad contest was played in the middle of a work day, about 4,000 fans came out to Fenway to watch.
Fan saw Quintin Berry, likely to earn the 25th spot on the roster, make a tremendous diving catch in right field. They also saw several of the team's key pitchers get some work, including Koji Uehara, Craig Breslow, John Lackey and Ryan Dempster.
Franklin Morales and Felix Doubront, who are competing for spots in the bullpen, each threw an inning.
"It was funny, hitting and looking around, we had nine on each side, that's 18. We have 18 good ballplayers," said Jonny Gomes. "This team is pretty deep. I think you saw that today."
They also have a passionate fanbase that revels even in watching a practice game.
"Our fans have been with us since Jump Street," said Gomes. "It's cool that they took some time out of their day to watch us play. They got to see a little behind the scenes today. That was pretty cool."
Playoff spotlight to finally shine on Breslow
BOSTON -- One thing that happens in the playoffs is that vastly underrated players start to get noticed. Perhaps no one on the 2013 Red Sox has done more and gotten less attention for it than lefty reliever Craig Breslow.
In 61 appearances this season, Breslow has a 1.81 ERA while holding opponents to a .228 batting average.
Breslow bounced back and forth from the Minors until 2008, but he has been one of the more consistent lefty relievers out there the last few years.
This is the first time Breslow has been on a postseason team.
"Beyond knowing that I wanted to play in the postseason, I didn't really think about how long it would take," Breslow said. "I thought about the commitment the organization was willing to make to me, the commitment the organization was willing to make to get things going in the right direction and the core group of players and how quickly I felt that they should be able to turn things around."
Though he does not get the accolades of many of his teammates, Breslow -- who was acquired by the Red Sox on July 31, 2012 -- has played an important role in that turnaround.
For the Red Sox, it was a no-brainer to sign Breslow to a two-year deal this winter.
"He's experienced in Boston," manager John Farrell said. "You look at his career numbers, his track record, he's been a very consistent reliever. He hasn't been just a situational type of lefty. There's a lot of dependability in the person and the performer. All of those things added up to make it a very clear decision to include him and bring him back on the contract that he is."
Well-rounded Victorino a revelation for Farrell
BOSTON -- Judging by the fact the Red Sox signed Shane Victorino to a three-year, $39-million contract over the winter, the team obviously thought he would be a good fit. But manager John Farrell acknowledged that Victorino had even surpassed his expectations.
"The way he plays the game, yes," Farrell said. "That's something that, in a short look, you can see the flash of defense or you can see the bat speed in an at-bat. The decision-making inside the game and how he responds to execute in those situations says a lot more about the guy that you can only get a feel for over time.
"That's to see him in different types of game situations where typically he's going to make the right decision and execute to that. And he's got a skill-set that's complete. He can run, he can throw, hits for average, hits for power. He's had a very good year for us."
Victorino has given the Red Sox dependability in the No. 2 spot in the batting order and in right field. And he has played through a barrage of nagging injuries, never complaining about them.
"He's added a grit to this team that we've seen repeatedly with the pain threshold in which he's played with," Farrell said. "He's been banged up for a lot of the year, but it hasn't forced him out of the lineup for really extended periods, and he gives us a well-rounded player both offensively and defensively in that 2-hole. He can play the small game. We've seen his ability to drive the ball out of the ballpark. He's a smart baseball player. He keeps things lively in the clubhouse, as I'm sure you all have seen. He's been a very good addition to this club."
Ian Browne is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Brownie Points, and follow him on Twitter @IanMBrowne. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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A collection of paintings by Britain's most violent prisoner, jail-made toys, signed Great Train Robbery memorabilia and autographed items from Yasser Arafat will soon be falling under the hammer... in Tring.
They will be sold to the highest bidder at Tring Market Auctions on Saturday.
Managing director Stephen Hearn – who is also mayor of the town – said: "We have got all these criminal associated people who are all in the same sale."
The paintings – which have titles like Insanity, Bedlam University, and Prison madness – are by Charles Bronson, who has been dubbed the 'most violent prisoner in Britain'. They are expected to fetch between £30 and £100 each.
It has been reported that Bronson is selling off his art to pay for a holiday for his mum, who was angry when he attacked 12 prison guards.
Bronson is currently serving life for multiple offences including armed robbery.
The 61-year-old has been in jail for most of his life and has a reputation for being a difficult inmate – having taken numerous hostages.
The Tottenham Hotspur fan reportedly attacked the guards at HMP Woodhill in Milton Keynes last month while smeared with butter after his team's arch-rivals Arsenal won the FA Cup.
Mr Hearn said the paintings would be a good conversation-starter and praised them for being 'different'.
He said: "If it's a bit different, people are interested. If it is run of the mill, there's not quite the same interest that there was some time ago.
"Everything has got to be a bit different – that's the period we are living in.
"Perhaps run of the mill shows the life one has experienced in the last five years and people want something to escape from it.
"If you have one of those hanging on your wall, it's a bit different to having a picture of a landscape with a bunch of flowers in the middle of it. What's different about that? Nothing."
The toys on sale at Saturday's auction – two model metal lorries – were made at HMP The Mount in Bovingdon.
Mr Hearn said: "I have no idea why they were making toys – perhaps in a workshop for training.
"They are certainly very heavy and very substantial.
"You would not want your child to be run over by them, let alone play with them.
The Great Train Robbery memorabilia is signed by Ronnie Biggs and the other perpetrators of the notorious 1963 heist.
The items – expected to fetch between £800 and £1,000 – include a 1960s Tring street map signed by raid organiser Ronald 'Buster' Edwards and fellow robber Tommy Wisbey.
It is believed that the gang may have considered hiding in a safe-house in the town after stopping the train near Cheddington and escaping with £2.6m that was on-board.
But instead the 15 robbers hid in Leatherslade Farm after escaping via a truck beneath Bridego Railway Bridge.
Evidence found at the farm would later lead to the arrest and conviction of most of the robbers.
A magazine cover signed by detective Jack Slipper, who first arrested Ronnie Biggs in 1963, is among the collection of items being auctioned off.
The collection has come from an associate of Mike Gray, who was a friend of Biggs until his death aged 84 in December.
Biggs escaped from Wandsworth Prison in 1965, 15 months into his sentence, and became famous after being discovered in Brazil nine years later.
The Yasser Arafat items – expected to fetch between £150 and £200 – include signed books, papers and artefacts.
Arafat, who was the first president of Palestine for 10 years until his death in 2004, is largely seen as a freedom fighter by Palestinians and a terrorist by Israelis.


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Excavation History and Methods
The fossil site at Thomas Farm was discovered by Clarence Simpson of the Florida Geological Survey in 1931, who found fossils on the spoil pile of a well dug by Raeford Thomas. Florida Geological Survey crews excavated at the site until January 1932. The recovered specimens were sent to famed paleontologist George G. Simpson, then of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Simpson recognized the fossils' significance and quickly published the first scientific paper on the site in 1932.
Thomas Barbour of Harvard University purchased the fossil site and the surrounding 40 acres in the late 1930s and deeded it to the University of Florida, with the provision that field crews from Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) could continue to collect fossils there. MCZ field crews led by Ted White conducted the first large scale excavations at Thomas Farm, which continued until the early 1950s. The site then was worked cooperatively until about 1960 by the MCZ and the University of Florida (spearheaded by Walter Auffenberg, Pierce Brodkorb, and Robert Bader of the UF Department of Biology; specimens curated in the Florida Museum of Natural History collection) and the Florida Geological Survey (led by Stanley Olsen, who had previously worked at Thomas Farm for the MCZ). Auffenberg and Brodkorb were the first to do extensive screen-washing at the site, which proved to have a remarkably rich fauna of small vertebrates (frogs, toads, newts, sirens, lizards, snakes, birds, bats, rodents). From 1960 to 1980, relatively little field work was done at Thomas Farm, although the Florida Museum's paleontologists were keeping very busy at other sites.
The next major phase of excavation at Thomas Farm began in 1981, when UF graduate student Ann Pratt and co-workers established a permanent grid system and were the first to measure detailed locations and orientations for bones in the site. Many tons of sediment from the site were screen-washed to recover small vertebrate fossils. Pratt's research led to a much-improved understanding of how the site was formed, and how animals became fossilized there.
From 1992 to 2004, Bruce MacFadden operated an annual volunteer dig at Thomas Farm known as Pony Express. This highly successful effort yielded, among other treasures, abundant exhibit-quality specimens of all three species of 3-toed horses, the very small Archaeohippus blackbergi, the medium-sized Parahippus leonensis, and the relatively large Anchitherium clarencei.
Field work at Thomas Farm has continued vigorously through the present, with at least one major field season per year. David Steadman of the Florida Museum of Natural History is currently in charge of the fossil excavations at Thomas Farm. Beginning in 2005, he has run an annual program in the springtime known as the Hummingbird Challenge. (What greater challenge could there be in the study of fossil birds than to recover the tiny bones of a hummingbird?) See details about participating in a Hummingbird Challenge.
Despite over 80 years of excavations, and the recovery of hundreds of thousands of fossils, a large volume of fossil-bearing sediment remains untouched at Thomas Farm. The good news is that we are in no hurry. Our current excavations are meticulous, using the grid system established in 1981, and removing sediment at depth intervals of only 10 centimeters (4 inches). All sandy sediment is saved and screen-washed, either on site, or at Florida Museum.
New species continue to be found and described from Thomas Farm on a regular basis. The discovery and excavation of important specimens of rare taxa also still occur routinely. For example, relatively complete skulls of the huge bear-dog Amphicyon longiramus and the small alligator Alligator olseni were found during the past several years, as well as specimens of many undescribed species of birds.


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Train's Pat Monahan performs at the GRAMMY Museum
Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
On The Right Track
Alternative rockers Train were the featured guests at An Evening With Train at the GRAMMY Museum on July 19. The San Francisco-based band, which includes vocalist Pat Monahan, guitarist Jimmy Stafford and drummer Scott Underwood, took the stage before an intimate audience of 200 to discuss their career, musical influences and most recent album, Save Me, San Francisco.
GRAMMY Foundation and MusiCares Vice President Scott Goldman moderated the discussion, which was followed by a special performance and a meet-and-greet opportunity.
Asked about when he knew he wanted to be a professional musician, Monahan said: "When I was really young I went to an Aerosmith concert and Joey Kramer threw a drumstick into the crowd. It hit me right in the chest. I felt like I was knighted."
The band also shared some of the lessons they've learned during their career. "We learned the hard way that success does not equal happiness," said Underwood. "You have to find happiness along the way, or you're just not going to find it."
"Winning a GRAMMY is an amazing thing, absolutely an amazing thing. But what we've learned is that the journey there — the journey to get to that place — is way better. Way better," said Monahan.
After forming in 1994, Train toured with the likes of Barenaked Ladies and Counting Crows, and in 1998 released their self-titled debut featuring the hit "Meet Virginia." In 2001 the band released Drops Of Jupiter and the title track won a GRAMMY for Best Rock Song. "Hey, Soul Sister," a single from Save Me, San Francisco, has gone triple platinum and reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Upcoming events at the GRAMMY Museum include An Evening With John Mellencamp (Aug. 17), American Express Presents The Drop: JP, Chrissie & The Fairground Boys (Aug. 23) and Reel To Reel: The Love Project Journey (Aug. 25).
For more information on the GRAMMY Museum, visit www.grammymuseum.org.
Click on the "GRAMMY Museum events" tag below for links to other GRAMMY News stories in this series.


text:
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Honda Tweaks Pilot SUV for 2012
Honda is giving its popular Pilot SUV a host of new features and updates for the 2012 model year.
The big news for the new Pilot is a boost in fuel economy thanks to some clever tweaking by Honda engineers. The 2012 model can get up to 18 miles per gallon in the city and 25 on the highway (17/24 for four-wheel drive models), an increase of one mile per gallon in the highway and two in the city. this makes the Pilot the gas-sippingest eight passenger SUV around.
In order to pick up those extra miles per gallon, some of the engine's internal components were treated to a special coating that reduces friction and boosts fuel economy. Honda even switched out the Pilot's motor oil for a new formula that aids efficiency.
Part of the fuel economy improvements can even be seen from the outside. The new front end might not look much different from the current model, but a couple of nip/tuck changes make the new Pilot more aerodynamic, allowing the new model to cut through the air as it rolls past gas stations.
Beyond aerodynamics, Honda made a few of other cosmetic changes to the exterior. The 2012 Pilot has a new chrome three bar grill, revised headlights and a new set of optional 18-inch wheels.
On the inside, the Pilot will now come with one of three different media displays based on trim level. Entry level models get a simple, calculator-like read-out of basic information like radio channels and the time.
Mid-level models without navigation will get Honda's relatively new i-MID media system. The i-MID allows drivers to sort through car information, media info and even set a unique wallpaper for the video display.
Top trim models with navigation get a system that includes 15 gigabytes of memory for storing music, a backup camera and a voice recognition system that understands three languages.
Honda says the new Pilot is also more comfortable and quieter than the 2011 model. The 2012 Pilot is fitted with a full set of acoustic glass and sound deadening foam that will keep cabin noise to a minimum, while some minor changes to the suspension will keep vibrations down.
The 2012 Honda Pilot is available now in dealerships nationwide.


text: On Wed, 6 Nov 2002, Jim Lux wrote: > > > > > b) Uptime, measured as (total time systems are booted into the OS and > >available for numerical tasks/total mount of time ALL systems have been > >around). > > > >This means that if you have 9 systems booted and a hot spare, the best > >you can count for uptime is 90%. It also means that if a system crashes > >in the middle of the night and you don't get around to fixing it until > >the next day, you lose eight or twelve hours, not the ten minutes it > >eventually takes you to fix it after discovering the crash, pulling the > > > If the cluster were claimed to have 9 processors worth of processing > capability, and the OS and scheduler allow transparent use of the hot > spare, then, you could get 100% uptime as long as you only had 1 failure. Well sure, but then I can claim that my ganesh cluster (which currently has only 13 nodes out of 16 running) is really only a "12 node cluster". My OS and scheduler (the latter being "me":-) not only allow transparent use of the hot spares, they allow transparent use of the hot spares even when one of the 12 nodes hasn't died yet and I get to count that time up against eventual node death. So now I can laugh at mere nines of uptime -- I'm well over 100%! Well over 100% cumulative duty cycle, too. Hooray! I'm now even more efficient that CTC! Of course this isn't correct, I really have 16 nodes and think keeping hot spares sitting around idle is silly. I could choose to leave one, two, or even four idle but configured and call them "hot spares" to pump up my "uptime" if my goal was to show that I can keep at least 12 nodes running out of a pool of 16 or to be able to issue a nifty press release about "99.99846% uptime". For the purpose of getting work done -- a moment of reflection will surely convince you that this is a cosmically silly and somewhat dishonest thing to do:-). For people interested in getting work done, the ONLY THING THAT MATTERS is the aggregate work accomplished during the useful lifetime of the cluster, which (as has been discussed repeatedly on this list) is somewhere in the ballpark of two or three years. (Some claim only one year and can even back up the claim with some real numbers; some -- like me -- use nodes for as long as five years anyway because any CPU that ain't dead yet can still contribute cycles, and there are all sorts of opportunity cost and infrastructure nonlinearities that make simple answers for the ideal optimax wrong;-) If one has 10 nodes and deliberately leaves one node idle, the MOST work one can get done is 90% of the work one could have gotten done with all 10 nodes cranking away all of the time. Sure, you can lose any one node and not get any WORSE, but you achieve this at the expense of basically being bad all the time. It can be sliced and diced any way one wants, but the bottom line is that one has wasted 10% of the resource even BEFORE a failure occurred, and one will never, ever, recover the work that could have been done by the deliberately idled node. The real failure is in the brain, which left a valuable system, already paid for, doing no work while its useful lifetime and time under warranty frittered away. For this reason, in my opinion, one counts hot spares as a dead loss FROM THE BEGINNING in any fair (that is, not deliberately stupid) assessment of cluster "uptime". One does not get to "pad" one's uptime just because one can quickly insert a node you've paid for but are leaving idle (that is to say, DOWN) unless/until you can show that there exists ANY circumstance where you are likely to get more net work done, per dollar spent, that way instead of just artificially bumping some otherwise irrelevant numbers. CBA, CBA, CBA, with a clear statement of one's work goals and one's total means to accomplish them. That's the only way to do fair comparisons. Otherwise we might as well all buy Crays, because they are big, expensive, and come with hot and cold hardware elves. Well, maybe we might as well NOT all buy Crays because most of us just plain can't afford them! I think that one can make a strong economic case for NEVER purchasing a service contract for a cluster, and NEVER buying and holding idle spare parts (beyond, perhaps, a hard disk and DIMM or two), and for (in fact) having the cluster "eat its own dead" -- using dead nodes to repair nodes as they die and gradually permitting the number of nodes to shrink. This is because of Moore's Law, which rather brutally punishes node repair compared to purchasing new nodes pretty much anytime after the typical one year warranty of a node expires. This is probably a bit too extreme for true optimax behavior -- replacing a memory DIMM or a power supply or a hard drive for order of $100 or less to get another year's use out of a node is almost certainly worth it in the first or second year of a node's existence, but maybe by the third and certainly by the fourth it is a waste of time and money -- you're better off putting the $100 into the kitty for a new node that is likely 8x as powerful as the node you're replacing. Now, before anyone brings it up, I will cheerfully admit that there are SOME cases of parallel computation that really might get unhappy if the cluster is supposed to have "16" nodes and one dies and the number available goes to "15" (or 256 nodes goes down to 255 or whatever). Those cases are rare, of course, and invariably are fine grained synchronous cases where the computation itself globally fails when any node goes down (so "failover" mechanisms other than checkpointing of the code itself are a waste of time) but they exist. EVEN THEN one would have to do the CBA to convince me that hot spares are a net-productivity-increasing investment, but at least then I'd be willing to accept the possibility, especially if the computation was using all (say) 256 nodes and couldn't be restarted from its last checkpoint until there are 256 nodes to run on again. In all other cases, especially in the typical coarse grained or embarrassingly parallel applications or applications that don't use all N nodes of the cluster anyway, I'd just have to say "Is that a Sears poncho or a real poncho? Hmmm. No fooling." rgb -- Robert G. Brown http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/ Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305 Durham, N.C. 27708-0305 Phone: 1-919-660-2567 Fax: 919-660-2525 email:rgb at phy.duke.edu _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf


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Stowmarket: Teenager arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm
PUBLISHED: 12:50 24 December 2012
DETECTIVES are appealing for witnesses to a fracas in the car park of the Queen's Head public house in Station Road West, Stowmarket, in which a 43-year-old man sustained cuts to his face.
The incident happened between 10.30pm and 11pm on Friday.
A 19-year-old man from Stowupland was subsequently arrested on suspicion of wounding/ GBH.
The 43-year-old was taken to the West Suffolk Hospital where his cuts were treated, before he was discharged.
The 19-year-old suspect was interviewed before being bailed to return to police on January 30, pending further enquiries.
Officers are keen to speak to anyone who was in the area around this time who may have seen any part of the incident. If you can help please telephone Detective Constable Kevin Rolt on 101.


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Book Report: The rise and fall of empires
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert...Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The long and level sands stretch far away.
--Ozymandias by Percy Shelley
The notion of the decline of the West didn't all begin with Oswald Spengler. Poets and philosophers have been writing about national decline for ages as the famous poem above, written in 1817, attests.
Over the past few years, professors from four continents have met in various venues, including the University of Wisconsin-Madison to discuss, then write essays about their take on whether or not the United States is on the brink of decline as top dog in the world to be succeeded by emerging powers like Brazil, Russia, India and China.
And how about the European Union? Will its organization allow it to regain the hegemony enjoyed earlier by parts of it like Britain and France?
Subtitled "Spain's Retreat, Europe's Eclipse, America's Decline" the essays have been published and take a look backward at countries that declined because of the erosion of their economics that prevented their ability to field a strong military presence, their insistence on misusing what was left of their military, their diplomatic breakdowns, their inability to keep under control their colonial relationships.
It's all pretty scary when the comparisons with today are made. The book "Endless Empire" edited by Alfred McCoy, Joseph M. Fradera, and Stephen Jacobson (University of Wisconsin Press, $29.95 paper) is without doubt an important contribution to world diplomacy and a credit to the University of Wisconsin Press for publishing it.
Speaking of empires, there's always the Third Reich, which Adolph Hitler said would last a thousand years. Der Fuhrer should have read more Percy Bysshe Shelley and less Friedrich Nietzsche.
In "Hitler's Berlin: Abused City" (Yale University Press, n.p.) the late German historian Thomas Friedrich claims that Hitler had a love-hate relationship with Berlin. As an Austrian farm boy, he was appalled at the licentiousness of post-war Berlin, the center of a young empire.
Ah, but he liked those buildings, those big, big buildings. So much so that he took Albert Speer under his wing and encouraged him to design an even bigger Berlin, a pipe dream from which we thankfully awoke.
And so have the Berliners. On a recent tour of the great city, with its gates and its domes and the zoo that fed many taxpayers in 1945, we were somewhat amazed at our tour guide, who told us wide-eyed tourists that Berlin ain't what she used to be. Once the juggernaut of Central Europe, the town that took all the Turkish emigrees they could to do their scut work, is now an economic disaster. Since the Wall went down, the old Soviet Union pulled out all of its factories in East Berlin, unemployment is up, salaries are down.
On the bright side, she said that rooms at famous hotels like those on the Kurfurstendamm start at $1,500 per night and only tourists from overseas go there. "Breakfast is included. I'm sure it's a good one," she said bitterly.
Dave Wood is a past vice-president of the National Book Critics Circle and former book review editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Phone him at (715) 426-9554.


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DETROIT - "Ten million. Five million."
That was the refrain that jurors heard over and over today from Tom Hardiman, president of A & H Contractors, who testified that he lost two lucrative contracts totaling $15 million when he failed to give Bobby Ferguson his requested cut on the deal. It was a costly mistake that Hardiman would not make again.
Hardiman testified that in 2003 Ferguson came to his house to discuss a bid proposal his then company Lakeshore Engineering Services had made for a $10 million Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) contract to rehabilitate sewers and outfalls. Ferguson told Hardiman that he should be cut in for 25 percent of contract 1361 for being "a black guy." When Hardiman told Ferguson they already had their team in place for the contract, Ferguson replied "It still has to go across the mayor's desk."
Kilpatrick trial: 'I didn't want to upset Bobby'
After consulting with business partner Avinash Rachmale, Hardiman came back to Ferguson and offered him 10 to 12 percent instead of 25 percent. To which Ferguson is said to have responded "Ok. We'll see."
Hardiman said he began to worry about the $10 million contract and an additional $5 million water contract they had bid on when things failed to proceed in typical fashion. Hardiman said he made repeated inquiries as the what was going on with the contracts and was told only that they were "just sitting on Victor Mercado's desk."
The witness even approached Kwame Kilpatrick's mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, whom he had met in the mid-1980s when she was a state representative. Hardiman recalled her telling him "My son said 'I love you. I handle city business and you handle the government business. Let me handle city business.'"
Hardiman went so far as to enlist the services of Bernard Kilpatrick's Maestro Associates to check into the status of the two contracts. Despite paying Maestro Associates $2,500 in consulting services, Bernard never did tell Hardiman what had happened to them.
Lakeshore Engineering ultimately learned that they had lost both contracts. The $10 million contract ended up with Inland Waters. Bobby Ferguson was on their team.
After that, Hardiman felt he had no option but to turn to Ferguson.
"All other avenues had failed so I had nothing to lose by going to Bobby," said the witness.
In December 2004, Lakeshore teamed with Ferguson and Lanzo Lining to submit a bid proposal for a $20 million DWSD water contract. They agreed that if they got the contract, they would split the profits three ways.
The team was awarded the contract, WS 849, on March 24th, 2005 and was advised by DWSD that they could begin work immediately. Angelo D'Alessandro, Lanzo head, and Ferguson were at odds on how to breakdown the work. Both wanted to take the same line items. D'Alessandro approached Ferguson with a figure of $400,000 to $500,000 just to let Lanzo have the work. Ferguson refused saying he could make more money. Ferguson was ultimately offered more than $1 million to walk away from the job.
In September 2005, Hardiman approached Ferguson about two change orders they wanted. One was for an additional $6 to $8 million on contract 849 and the other was for an asbestos contract for $1.5 million. Hardiman explained that he knew that Ferguson had the necessary city relationships and wanted to ensure his company wasn't blind-sided like with the two cancelled contracts.
Ferguson agreed to help with the change orders but charged 5% on the contract orders for levying his contacts. His total take on the change orders was $450,000 including $25,000 cash that a panicked Hardiman rushed to Ferguson's offices.
"I did not want to upset Bobby Ferguson," explained Hardiman.
Some time later, Lakeshore Engineering and various partners won DWSD water contract 2014. Ferguson approached Hardiman at his offices and told him that he needed to include his company Xcel Construction on the project. When the witness asked why, Ferguson simply said "because they need to help you out." Despite balking at Ferguson's initial request for $400,000 for doing nothing, Hardiman said he caved because he was still haunted by the lost contracts.
Hardiman recounted how Ferguson's associate Calvin Hall would come to his offices, sit in on meetings and request payment. "You're a parasite," Hardiman said he would tell a mild-mannered Hall.
In the period between January 1st 2007 and November 10th 2011, Hardiman's A & H Contractors paid Xcel construction more than $620,000.
When a change order came up on contract 2014 to do more work on 7 streets in an east side development that should have gone to A & H Contractors, the witness testified that Ferguson nudged his way into the deal walking away with 4 streets and leaving A & H with the remaining 3. And for that, Ferguson Enterprises was paid $1,437,304.73.
Finally, Hardiman talked about Ferguson's shenanigans on water contract 865. Lakeshore Engineering along with D'Alessandro Contracting and others submitted a bid proposal for the contract for sewer repairs on the east side of Detroit. They had asked Ferguson to join but he was already with Inland's team. When Lakeshore was awarded the grant, however, Ferguson wanted in.
Hardiman testified to receiving a call while he was out-of-town by an upset D'Alessandro who told him that Ferguson was on his site and demanding that he leave. Hardiman asked Ferguson to let D'Alessandro complete the work but Ferguson staunchly refused. Hardiman ended up asking D'Alessandro to stop to let Ferguson take over.
US attorney Mark Chutkow asked the witness what Ferguson said he'd do if he didn't get D'Alessandro off the job site.
"I will shut these effin' jobs down."
And Hardiman knew from experience that was a promise Ferguson was in a position to make good on.
Court reconvenes at 9 a.m. Monday.
Copyright 2012 by ClickOnDetroit.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text: Ok, this is a pretty simple question on the surface, but actually think about it... If you were in control of the Stargate franchise... where would you take it for a new show? SG-1 was pretty amazing for 8 seasons, then died off in my opinion... and then Atlantis took the reigns and ran quite successfully for a while, while sadly, Stargate Voyager... ahem, Stargate: Universe, seemed to be doomed from the getgo... So, where would you like to see Stargate go? I'm sure there's plenty more stories to be told in the Stargate mythos, so where would you take it? M


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CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - A multi-million-dollar corporate donation will help scientists at the University of Wyoming take an extremely close look at oil and gas deposits. Gov. Matt Mead and university officials announced the $4.4 million donation from the New York City-based Hess Corp. on Friday. State funding will match the donation.
The money will go toward equipment to study oil and gas deposits at the nano scale. That's an even smaller scale than microscopic. Nano resolution means being able to look at objects smaller than a virus. Mohammad Piri with the UW School of Energy Resources says imaging at that scale can help scientists better understand how oil and gas flows through rock. That in turn could help oil and gas companies discover new extraction techniques.


text: On 26 Aug 2008, at 2:29 pm, Perry E. Metzger wrote: > I think part of the issue is that most people doing scientific > computing don't have computer science backgrounds, which is a > shame. There is an unwritten recruitment rule, certainly in my field of science, that the programmer "must understand the science", and actually being able to write good code is very much a secondary requirement. I think this grew out of the last 20 years of exponentially increasing computer power which meant that in many fields you could write crappy code and just wait for hardware improvements to make it faster. This is particularly the case in fields such as bioinformatics where the field came into existence since the days of very limited memory and very slow machines, so they never experienced the world when writing tight code was essential (I started programming in 1984, so I can barely remember those days either). This is further hindered by the fact that no-one doing a masters in Bioinformatics learns a compiled language. They learn things like Java, R, perl, python and ruby. There is light at the end of the tunnel, though. I'm beginning to see signs that people are starting to be hired primarily as programmers, and not scientists. This is usually in areas where the scientists have hit a brick wall in terms of performance, and with exponentially increasing data quantities, had nowhere else to go. I expect this to gradually expand over the next couple of years, but there's going to be a lot of pain in the meantime - particularly for those of us building and running the systems, who will tend to get the blame when we supply a 10,000 core cluster and the scientists find their code doesn't run any faster than it does on the current 1,000 core system. "It's a more powerful system, it must be your fault it's not working" Tim -- The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is operated by Genome Research Limited, a charity registered in England with number 1021457 and a company registered in England with number 2742969, whose registered office is 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE. _______________________________________________ Beowulf mailing list, Beowulf at beowulf.org To change your subscription (digest mode or unsubscribe) visit http://www.beowulf.org/mailman/listinfo/beowulf


text:
Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6), Dwyane Wade and Mario Chalmers sit on the bench during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals basketball game against the San Antonio Spurs, Thursday, June 6, 2013 in Miami. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
by Brian Mahoney
AP Basketball Writer
MIAMI (AP) — Back with a blowout, and no, the Miami Heat didn't need LeBron James to do more.
Not when Mario Chalmers and everyone else did everything right.
Chalmers led the charge and James broke out to finish it with a flurry as the Heat used a 33-5 run to blow away the San Antonio Spurs in a 103-84 victory Sunday night that evened the NBA Finals at one game apiece.
James missed 10 of his first 13 shots and the Heat trailed by a point late in the third quarter before unleashing the lethal brand of basketball that led them to a franchise-record 66 wins this season.
Chalmers finished with 19 points, and James had 17 points, eight rebounds and seven assists while shooting only 7 of 17 from the field.
The Heat made 10 of 19 3-pointers and got 13 points from Ray Allen, and 12 points and 10 rebounds from the previously slumping Chris Bosh.
Danny Green made all six shots, including five 3-pointers, and scored 17 points for the Spurs. They host Game 3 on Tuesday night.
Tony Parker had 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting for the Spurs, who were so precise in their 92-88 victory in Game 1 but threw the ball all over the white-surrounded court Sunday, committing 17 turnovers that led to 19 Miami points.
Tim Duncan shot 3 of 13 and finished with nine points and 11 rebounds.
James insisted he wouldn't force himself to do more after he had a triple-double in Game 1 but never seized the opportunity to take control of the scoring.
He didn't need to. Not with Chalmers making big shots, the Heat's defense forcing the Spurs to look shaky all over the floor, and a barrage of second-half 3-pointers.
James finally got some openings late, hanging from the rim an extra second not long after a sensational blocked shot freed him up for a fast break.
The often-maligned Chalmers is often found in Heat highlights being yelled at by James or another Miami veteran. But he's as cocky as any of the superstars in Miami, and he has the big-moment plays to back up his bravado, from a tying shot for Kansas in the 2008 NCAA championship game to his 25 points in Game 4 of last year's finals.