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Style Thief M.I.A. Claims the Grammys Stole Her Style
Outspoken sonic collagist/"Paper Planes" sing-songer/truffle fries enthusiast M.I.A. is alleging that the Grammys ripped off a recent stage set of hers. On Twitter, she proclaimed, "IM KEEPING A STEAL LOG THIS YEAR HERE THE ONE FOR JAN / FEB >MIA $500 : GRAMMYS $5000000."
Included in the tweet was a link leading to her seizure-inducing Tumblr, which showcases a side-to-side comparison between stills from M.I.A.'s January show in Sydney, Australia, and the Bob Marley tribute at last week's Grammys. It confirms nothing more than the sharing of neon right angles — if you watch video footage, M.I.A.'s set included a green 3D box while the Grammys' backdrop was a series of 2D rectangle-within-rectangle outlines that cycled through the colors of the Jamaican flag in various patterns throughout the halfhearted Marley salute.
A caption above M.I.A.'s comparison reads, "MY IDEAS CAME FROM MY LIFE. MY SET WAS BASED ON TAMIL HINDU TEMPLE. NOT BOB MARLEY." Well, there you go: you answered you own beef through contrast, Maya. Under the image reads another message: "IF U WANNA SEE THE REAL THING OR GET IT FIRST COME TO A M.I.A SHOW!"
It's not bad advice — an M.I.A. show would be a lot more fun than watch Bruno Mars shill a Sting-inspired single of his (alongside actual Sting) to "honor" a legend — but it's bullshit. And even if it weren't bullshit, M.I.A. has no room to complain about rip-offs. Her genius has always resided in found-art synthesis, her ability to go cultural shopping from around the world and produce dazzling outfits of sound.
The Tamil-British star has dabbled in dancehall, hip-hop, favela funk socca, freestyle, reggae, dubstep, house, rave, Baltimore club and Bollywood disco, among genres. She's interpolated works by the Clash, Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band, Suicide and Opal into her music. She's typically good at sourcing her inspiration, but her 2008 pop hit "Paper Planes" contains an uncredited reference to the chorus of Wreckx-n-Effect's "Rump Shaker" (you can hear her sing it without the machine-gun sounds and cha-chings in the non-album track "Hit That"). Additionally, her intentionally controversial video for "Born Free" owed major debut to Peter Watkins' 1971 film Punishment Park. Watkins could have looked that, cried theft and he'd have much more of a case than M.I.A. does in her Grammys claim.
And that is to say nothing about M.I.A.'s actual style, a globe-trotting mishmash of dollar-store chic and high fashion.
If anyone knows about the importance of borrowing to art, it's M.I.A. It hasn't stopped her from such hypocritical musings in the past, though, like when she called "mimic" Lady Gaga out in 2010 for copping the style of Grace Jones and Madonna, adding, "She sounds more like me than I fucking do!" M.I.A. is not exactly reliable when it comes to commentary on theft, despite her expertise.
[Image via Getty]


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I've been working on a class, and I recently (finally) figured out exactly what was wrong with a certain line of code. My string class variation I'm working on doesn't have enough spaces to hold the new string. The problem is it is a flexible array size, and when it overflows it crashes as a result of some special code in the original class I'm converting from.
Does anyone know an easy way to change the size of a string? I don't mind destroying the character array and starting a new one.
Thats the member function, and it overflows with this if I use oostring instead of a character array (oostring is a string class, I'm making a variation of it that acts as an integer, but has some weird manipulations made easier.):Code:
void ooint::intfcat(const char * Int1)
char Int2[1024];
strcpy(Int2, Int1);
The idea of the original string class was to make it so that it could expand when needed, but it isn't doing that here. Can anyone help me? The source is attatched, and basically all of it is intact at the moment with oostring renamed as ooint.Code:
100 1001 index out of range: 5 string: 31001
Assertion failed: 0 <= k && k < strlen(CString), file c:\program files\microsoft
visual studio\myprojects\oostring.cpp, line 103
Thanks so much! If you want more details on this, see the older thread: http://cboard.cprogramming.com/showt...threadid=29228

subset: commoncrawl


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The Delaware county sheriffs department announced the arrest of 24-year-old Cameron Wentz of Delhi, in Minnesota last Thursday. Wentz was wanted on a Delaware County Grand Jury Sealed Indictment Warrant, he was charged as a Fugitive from Justice, he waived extradition and was returned to New York. Wentz was arraigned Friday on the Sealed Indictment for 1st degree Robbery, 1st degree Burglary, Criminal Mischief & Petty Larceny, in connection with a burglary at a home in the Town of Tompkins in June 2012. Wentz was remanded to the Delaware County Jail without bail pending further court action.
State police at arrested 44-year-old Richard Sandell, of Texas. 24 year old Richard Sandell Jr. of Oklahoma & 25 year old Brynna Teague of Texas for criminal possession of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of marihuana. Troopers responded to the Fairfield Inn in the town of Dickinson, after a customer claimed he was in danger. Troopers interviewed that customer, his father and a woman in the room they had rented, the investigation revealed that all 3 possessed methamphetamines and marihuana. All 3 were arraigned and were remanded to the Broome county jail without bail.
The Delaware county sheriff's department arrested 19-year-old Nathan Phoenix of Walton on a charge of 4th degree Criminal Mischief. Phoenix was charged following an investigation into a trespass complaint, which occurred at 61 Conklin Road in the Town of Walton last Saturday. Phoenix is accused of driving a Jeep Wrangler on a snowmobile trail and doing damage to two gates placed by Maywood Snowmobile Club. Phoenix was released & will appear in the Town of Walton Court at a later date.
The annual Chenango county Toys for Tots campaign is underway for the 2013 holiday season. Campaign organizer Roger Barnhart explains:
(Roger Barnhart 11-5-13)
Barnhart said that business that are interested in hosting a Drop Off box can contact him at 226-3814, the first drop off boxes are scheduled to be set up later this week.
New York has joined with other states and the federal government in a $1.6 billion settlement resolving civil and criminal allegations that Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, promoted the sale and use of Risperdal and Invega for uses not approved by the FDA. The 2 medications are anti-psychotic medications approved by the FDA to treat schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder, & not for hyperactivity disorders. Johnson & Johnson has agreed to pay the states and the federal government more than $1.2 billion in civil damages and penalties to compensate Medicaid, Medicare, and other government programs for prescribing the drugs for issues other their approved usage.
Governor Cuomo detailed recent reforms in election night procedures for boards of elections to follow when closing polls & reporting unofficial election tallies. Cuomo signed legislation that authorized the use of portable memory devices to gather and transmit unofficial returns to the presiding Board of elections. The law also enables the consolidation of returns in poll sites with multiple election districts.
State police arrested 29-year-old Daniel Nichols of Windsor for DWI & aggravated unlicensed operation. The arrest resulted from a car & tractor-trailer accident on State Route 17 in Kirkwood. The investigation determined that Nichols was intoxicated when he crashed his car into the back of a stationary tractor-trailer that had pulled over. He was issued tickets returnable to the Kirkwood town court on November 12th.


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Funeral will be at 10 a.m., Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, at Kelley Heights/Darby Lane Baptist Church in Russellville.
Burial will be at Rock Springs Cemetery in Hector by Humphrey Funeral Service.
Visitation will be from 6-8 p.m., on Sunday, at the funeral home.
Internet obituary and online guest book are available at www.humphreyfuneral.com.


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Help make a difference for kids at the 24th annual Children's Miracle Ball benefitting Children's Miracle Network at Penn State Hershey Children's Hospital on Saturday, Nov. 23 at Hershey Lodge. The ball begins at 6 p.m. with a reception and silent auction, followed at 7:30 by dinner, dancing and entertainment provided by Group Du Jour.
In appreciation of their support of Children's Miracle Network throughout the year, Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine employees, Children's Miracle Network volunteers and Miracle Families have the opportunity to purchase tickets at a reduced rate of $125 per ticket. The regular ticket price is $175.
During the evening's program, Miracle Child Talan Evans will share his journey. Talan will be joined by Miracle Children Sean Brame, Sammy Hill and John Lauck, president and CEO of Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, to honor John Standley, chairman and CEO of Rite Aid Corp. Standley will be presented with the 2013 Miracle Innovator Award for his outstanding leadership and commitment to Children's Miracle Network Hospitals.
Children's Miracle Network would like to thank the event's top sponsors: The Rite Aid Foundation, Hershey Entertainment & Resorts, The Hershey Co., Highmark Blue Shield, Johnson Controls, Nabisco and Universal Media.
Dress is black-tie optional. To reserve tickets or donate an auction item, call the Children's Miracle Network office at ext. 6606. Visit PennStateHershey.org/CMN for additional information.


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(Dave M. Benett/Getty Images)
By Annie Reuter
It's perhaps an unlikely collaboration, but rumors are spreading (courtesy Page Six) that Paul McCartney and Kanye West are teaming up together in the studio and are working on new music.
Whether or not the world will get to hear their music is still to be determined.
Related: Kanye West's New Album Could Come This Fall, Single Even Sooner
It's no secret that both McCartney and West are fans of each other. Last October, during a Twitter Q&A, the Beatle admitted that one of the last albums he bought was West's.
Meanwhile, West has referred to himself as the Black Beatle.


text: Spoiler: response to PsychoPere There is a four-line sequence in the files that folks are theorizing belong to the final conversation with the starchild: "The Leviathans created you, didn't they?" "Tell me what you know about the Leviathans." "But you turned on the Leviathans. You harvested them." "Who is OLD TONGUE NAME OF HARBINGER?" The last one is weird, since it's part caps and the grammar is odd. If all this is true, I do hope it means we can call the Catalyst on his BS even if we can't actually do anything about it.


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By Patte Barth
Implementation of the Common Core State Standards is starting to get real, and the honeymoon is showing signs of being over.
Some headlines provide hints:
"Common Core standards drive wedge in education circles" -- USA Today, May 1, 2012
"Common Core nonfiction reading standards mark the end of literature, English teachers say" -- Huffington Post, Dec. 10, 2012
It doesn't seem like so long ago that national and state policymakers from both sides of the aisle were singing the praises of the Common Core. In just two years following their finalization, Common Core became the official standards in 46 states and Washington, D.C. The Obama administration encouraged -- although did not require -- adopting the standards in its Race to the Top competition as an indicator that the state was serious about graduating "college- and career-ready" students.
The conservative Fordham Foundation awarded the Common Core math standards an A- and the English language arts standards a B+. It called both sets of standards "solidly in the honors range" and "very, very strong," adding that they are "clearer and more rigorous than the standards currently used by the vast majority of states."
Educators across the country are now getting down to the work of aligning their practices to the new standards. It probably was inevitable that closer examination would reveal some previously unnoticed imperfections. But for school boards and their communities, it's hard to know whether the good in Common Core standards is greater than their perceived flaws -- or if it's time for morning-after regrets.
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Boss gray jacket from How To Get Away With Murder seen with Michaela Pratt (Aja Naomi King)
Michaela Pratt (Aja Naomi King) is seen with what looks like the gray Boss Jelenna Wool Jacket in How To Get Away With Murder, Season 3, Episode 4 - Don't Tell Annalise. Find Jackets, Clothing and Women's Fashion from How To Get Away With Murder below.
From Shonda Rhimes comes the sexy legal drama How to Get Away With Murder, a dark tale of betrayal and criminal conspiracies that play out in the courtroom. With her entire career and future on the line, Middleton Law School student Michaela Pratt (Aja Naomi King) might look chic in feminine floral prints and romantic lace, but she's hiding some ugly secrets.
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text:
U.S. freight carload traffic for the week rose 4.5% measured against the comparable week in 2013, while U.S. intermodal advanced 7.2%. Total combined U.S. weekly rail traffic was 557,253 carloads and intermodal units, up a significant 5.8% compared with the same week last year.
Eight of the 10 carload commodity groups AAR tracks on a weekly basis posted increases compared with the same week in 2013, also a significant sign of strong traffic, at least for the week. Gainers included nonmetallic minerals and products, up 20.9%, and petroleum and petroleum products, up 13.3% with 15,708 carloads, up 13.3 percent. Metallic ores and metals slipped 1.5%.
By contrast, Canadian freight carload traffic for the week ending Jan. 18, slipped 0.7%, though Canadian intermodal volume rose 2.6%. Mexican freight carload traffic for the week rose 6.0%, while Mexican intermodal volume gained 7.1%.
Combined North American freight carload traffic for the first three weeks of 2014 on 13 reporting U.S., Canadian, and Mexican railroads still trailed the comparable 2013 span by 1.7%. Combined North American intermodal volume for the first three weeks was in better shape, up a modest 0.7% compared to a year ago.


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Softek administers the fundamental principles that govern the development and management of software. Softek has teams of dedicated individuals that develop and improve the capability to manage software and intellectual assets and the team that endure sustained efforts to bring informed changes.
Softek attributes its success to its ability to manage requirements in both operational and development environments. Softek makes well informed decisions regarding changes and manage the evolution of the changes efficiently. Softek uses change managment and configuration tools to manage the development life cycle.
We takes initiative in process definition and effective communication and forms groups that work in tamdem with each other. We bind together the various tools and methods used in a process so that the end product is efficiently built and helps to maintain the momentum of the organization.


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I am trying to randomly place stars a fixed distance away from a fixed point in space so it creates a sphere-like formation. So far it seems to be working, as in the stars look like they're in a sphere (as shown in the picture)
Here is my algorithm:
randomly choose x, y and z positions so that it is between positive and negative 600
Normalize the Position, this means it will have a distance of one from the center of the sphere (this is where I'm not sure if its true, I'm trying to test but I am getting screwy values)
Then multiply the position by the distance away from the center that you want (again, i am getting screwy values testing but my math in the testing phase could be wrong)
Does the algorithm seem like it should work? The sphere to the left is what I'm creating, but I'm not sure if the distance from the center to each star is what I want


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Maybe most of you have already seen this, but HP has recently announced an SSF computer that is available with any one of several AMD EE SSF CPU's, including the EE SSF 3800+. It's also available with Intel's Core Duo T2050 CPU. The computer is called HP Pavilion Slimline s7600e. It can be seen here:
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopp ... n+Slimline
The box is fairly nice. It has the nVidia 6150/430 chipset, but HP failed to include the DVI functionality (why?) and the box has no 16xPCIe slot. Also, HP only ships DDR2-533 memory. I guess you have to build your own to get a real nice box?
This is the first instance I've seen of an AMD EE SSF 3800+ anywhere except in the hands of a reviewer. I was really beginning to wonder. Now, if AMD will just take the EE SFF 3800+ retail - pretty please with sugar on it!


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Mike Bloomberg Knows a Good One About the Irish
Ha, check out this zinger unleashed by short billionaire Michael "Mike" Bloomberg:
When speaking before the American Irish Historical Society Wednesday, the mayor recalled regularly spotting St. Patrick's Day revelers enjoying themselves with a drink or two. "Normally, when I walk by this building there are a bunch of people that are totally inebriated hanging out the window waving," he said. As the crowd began to react with a mix of laughs and jeers, the mayor continued: "I know, that's a stereotype of the Irish. But nevertheless we Jews from around the corner think this."
Ha, extra burn for delivering that line to the American Irish Historical Society! If he'd said that at the St. Patrick's Day parade he probably would have gotten hit with flying Guinness bottles, but in this case all the soused potato-peelers could do was hurl books and mutter incomprehensibly (in that brogue). Bloomberg has since explained that he was only referring to how Irish people get drunk and hang out windows, waving, that's all.
[Photo: AP]


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Whitehead Institute researchers have determined the mechanism used by c-Myc to increase the expression of all active genes in cancer cells. Elevated levels of c-Myc are linked to increased rates of metastasis, disease recurrence, and mortality in cancer patients. Guided by this new model, researchers hope to find ways to restrict c-Myc's activity to eradicate cancer cells that become dependent on c-Myc for their survival.
For a cancer patient, over-expression of the MYC oncogene is a bad omen.
Scientists have long known that in tumor cells, elevated levels of MYC's protein product, c-Myc, are associated with poor clinical outcomes, including increased rates of metastasis, recurrence, and mortality. Yet decades of research producing thousands of scientific papers on the subject have failed to consistently explain precisely how c-Myc exerts its effects across a broad range of cancer types. Until now, that is.
The prevailing theory emerging from this massive body of research has been that in tumor cells, c-Myc affects the expression of specific genes or sets of genes—that so-called Myc target genes are being selectively activated or repressed, leading to aberrant cellular behavior. Now, however, researchers in the lab of Whitehead Institute Member Richard Young are dispelling this commonly held notion, showing that elevated expression of c-Myc amplifies the activity of all expressed genes in tumor cells of multiple cancer types. It turns out that high levels of c-Myc send a tumor cell's gene expression program into overdrive. Transcription increases dramatically, allowing malignant cells to overwhelm factors that might normally hamper their growth and proliferation. This surprising finding, published in this week's issue of the journal Cell, provides a simple, elegant explanation for how a single protein can have such profound effect in so many and varied types of cancer. The newly revealed mechanism may also help scientists develop novel therapeutic approaches that disrupt c-Myc's activity.
"MYC is a key driver in most major cancers, but it has been notoriously difficult to drug," says Young, who is also a professor of biology at MIT. "Now that we know the mechanism by which c-Myc acts, we can go after the components of that mechanism as potential drug targets. This research creates an even stronger impetus to find a way to drug the thing."
One potential drawback to thwarting c-Myc's activity is the important role it plays in normal cell division. That role is so powerful that cells co-evolved an emergency death pathway to keep c-Myc expression in check. If c-Myc's production spins out of control in an otherwise normal cell, the cell immediately commits suicide through a process called apoptosis. But in cancer cells in which c-Myc is overproduced, this suicide pathway is compromised, allowing the cell to survive and proliferate.
"MYC is the most deregulated gene in cancer," says Charles Lin, a graduate student in the Young lab and co-author of the Cell paper. "It's been called a bad-boy, a Swiss army knife, and a jack-of-all-trades because, according to previous research, it could do everything under the sun in a cancer cell. But most of the different attributes ascribed to MYC are contradictory or seemingly incompatible."
Propelled by its earlier research that identified c-Myc as an important regulator of transcription in embryonic stem cells, the Young lab began to focus on c-Myc's activity within cancer cells. Lab members found that as the expression of c-Myc increases in these cells, the protein attaches to the promoters and enhancers of all active genes, thereby amplifying the active genes' transcription. The heightened transcription produces cells bloated with excessive RNAs and proteins capable of altering normal cellular functions. Researchers observed this phenomenon in cells from a host of cancers, including Burkitt's lymphoma, small cell lung cancer, multiple myeloma, and glioblastoma multiforme.
"The previous research now makes sense – finally!" says Jakob Lovén, co-author and postdoctoral researcher in the Young lab. "Our findings provide a way to unify everybody's seemingly conflicting data. I think that's really nice. Instead of saying 'you're all wrong,' we're saying 'you're all right, and here's why.' The model makes a lot of sense in terms of the biology that has been described so far."
With a better understanding of how c-Myc can wreak so much damage, the Young lab is turning its efforts to disrupting c-Myc's activity. Although cancer cells that overproduce c-Myc are associated with poor clinical outcomes, their reliance on c-Myc for survival may represent an Achilles' heel. When these "Myc-addicted" cells are deprived of c-Myc in vitro, even for a short period of time, they quickly die. Research in mice has shown that, Myc-addicted tumors deprived of the protein shrink dramatically. Despite c-Myc's necessary role in normal cell division, particularly in tissues with rapid cell turnover, such as the intestine and blood, these mouse studies have shown that if c-Myc activity is restored after a brief period, normal tissues quickly bounce back, while tumors are unable to regain their footing.
"So what we think now is that potentially, if drugs can tune down the levels of transcription just slightly, this might be catastrophic for the Myc-addicted cancer cells," says Peter Rahl, co-author and postdoctoral researcher in the Young lab. "You wouldn't need to abolish all transcription because that would be toxic to your other cells. So we're hoping that our model will show us ways to create a therapeutic window where the Myc-addicted cells just won't be able to adapt to lower levels of transcripts."
Explore further: Lymphoma therapy could deliver a double punch
More information:
"Transcriptional Amplification in Tumor Cells with Elevated c-Myc" Cell, September 28, 2012, in print.


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exceed $9.5 million
By Sean Ingram
One year ago, Russellville city officials were faced with approving a 2005 budget based on hope - of at least $400,000 in additional sales tax and other revenues to fund a budget totaling $8.82 million that included significant pay restructuring for police officers and $1,000 lump-sum bonuses for most other city employees.
Hope turned to prosperity Tuesday afternoon at City Hall as Alderman and Finance Committee Chairman Cliff Kirchner reported this year's revenues will exceed $9.5 million - 6.5 percent, or nearly $500,000 better than projected last December.
"We had a really good year, it looks like," Kirchner explained. "The revenues are really strong, particularly in sales tax. What's really good, too, is our (year-to-date) expenditures are down 5.8 percent. I'd like to applaud our department heads for keeping control of their expenses."
Kirchner went on to say the city's general fund bank balance at Nov. 30 stood at $1.69 million.
"What's really surprising is our cash balance," the alderman noted. "We're really excited about that. We are certainly doing better than other parts of the state and country. If you just drive around town, you can see all the economic growth we've got growing - particularly the new Wal-Mart (Supercenter) coming in - and a lot of other commercial business coming in. That just means more sales tax money for us, so it's a good trend."
Another revenue increase could come when the council meets for the final time this year at 7 p.m. Dec. 15. Aldermen will consider a new business resolution to modify the terms of its water usage with City Corp., Russellville's water utility.
"It's a new concept, and Mr. (Phil) Carruth can be credited for it," Mayor Raye Turner said, explaining the city uses and is charged for nearly $16,000 per month for water. "I would like to modify that so we receive credit up to $16,000, and we would pay anything above $16,000.
"We need to be good stewards of that money, and should update that (amount) every year and go back to the (previous year's) budget and abide by that amount. We have a cap, and we wouldn't be wasteful.
"If City Corp. is an arm of the city, then why are we paying for water?" Turner added. "Conway doesn't pay, Paragould doesn't pay. Any of the cities (in Arkansas) that have water, they do not pay. That would allow us to pay the $15,000 increase to (Pope County) 911."
Zoning items
The council's Dec. 15 agenda includes several items to be considered pertaining to zoning or rezoning:
n Under new business, an ordinance to amend the current zoning ordinance for signage in commercial zones;
n An ordinance to approve the final plat of Ashrook Estates Phase 1, located on Highway 7T/South Knoxville, submitted by Kurt Jones of Crafton, Tull & Associates;
n An ordinance rezoning property from M-2 to C-2 (commercial) at 201 S. Rochester, submitted by Earl Helton of the Bethel Worship Center;
n An ordinance rezoning property from C-4 to C-2 at 1000, 1010 and 1020 N. Arkansas and 1005, 1009, 1015 and 1023 N. Boston, submitted by Dow Dollar;
n An ordinance to amend Ordinance No. 1740, Russellville's zoning code, to remove the permitted use of car washes in C-4 zones;
n An ordinance to rezone for a car wash at North Arkansas and North Boston Avenues. Alderman Randal Crouch said C-4 relates to neighborhood and quiet businesses, so car washes should fall under C-2 commercial zoning and be taken out of C-4 requirements.
Other new business items to be considered during the council's Dec. 15 meeting agenda:
n A resolution to authorize Turner and City Clerk Kathy Collins to sign a memorandum of agreement with Carruth for the purposes of street improvements at 910 W. Main Place;
n A resolution to authorize Turner and City Clerk Kathy Collins to sign a memorandum of agreement with Aldona Standridge for the purposes of street improvements at 1519 S. Arkansas;
n An ordinance to amend the Russellville Police Department Wrecker Call Ordinance (No. 1853), to apply business location restrictions for wrecker businesses not on the RPD wrecker call list at this time. After discussion, aldermen agreed that two wrecker businesses in question should be included at the same time, or not at all.
n Discussion and review of capital requests per department;
n A resolution to reorganize the city council. Included in the resolution is to change the council's Finance Committee meeting from 5:15 to 5:45 p.m. the day of the regular council meeting; to allow public input from 5:45 to 6, then the council's regular meeting time would be moved from 7 to 6 p.m.
n An appointment to City Corp. Aldermen suggested they would also like a resolution to vote on to be made aware of appointments when they receive their packets prior to regular meetings. An earlier suggestion of being made aware of appointments 30 days in advance was also suggested.
Appropriations, pass-thrus and fund transfers to be considered by the council:
n $200 to fund additional phone expenses;
n $9,532 to fund gravel for Shiloh Road and additional building maintenance;
n $178,000 to fund real estate purchase for Con Agra project located in East End Industrial Park;
n $950 to fund year-end expenses;
n $3,327 to receipt reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and fund expenditures for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts at Hughes Community Center;
n $5,000 to receipt general improvement funds from state and distribute to Progressive Men's Club;
n To transfer funds to capital asset fund to cover purchase of animal control vehicle;
n $5,000 to receipt general improvement funds from state and distribute to Skateboard Park;
n $40 to receipt network license fees from Court Probation Services and fund expenditure;
n $6,203 line-item transfer to fund administrative personnel;
n $5,200 line-item transfer to fund Fire Dept. year-end overtime expenses;
n $20,500 line-item transfer from general fund to Police Dept.; and
n $5,100 line-item transfer from general fund, city attorney, to fund year-end budget shortages.
Attending Tuesday's agenda preparation and Finance Committee meeting were Aldermen Carruth, Crouch, Kirchner, Faye Abernathy, Ronnie Tripp and Robert Wiley; Mayor Turner; Collins; City Attorney Trey Smith; Animal Control Director Mike Vernon; Director of Public Works Morgan Barrett; Police Chief James Bacon and Fire Chief Dennis Miller.


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The yard's biggest value likely would be increasing CSX's ability to avoid routing all of its trains through the city's Howard Street Tunnel, with clearances too low to allow double-stack intermodal transport; the tunnel has been a contentious political issue in Baltimore for some time.
Mount Clare, south of Interstate Highway 95 near Washington Boulevard, is one of four sites that were considered by city officials, and while relatively small in size at just under 70 acres has been deemed by CSX to be adequate for the port's growing intermodal and rail traffic. CSX also reportedly held that the other existing sites were required as is to handle CSX's current train operations.
CSX says transfer station would be a state-of-the-art intermodal facility that would become the first in any East Coast port city to use zero-emissions electric crane technology. "As we do in every intermodal terminal development project, CSX has assured the state and city that we will engage the public and, to the best of our ability, address any concerns," CSX spokesman Robert Sullivan told local media.
Containers from the port destined for the Midwest would be delivered from the Seagirt Marine Terminal either via truck or or single-level trains still using the Howard Street Tunnel. They then would be transferred onto double-stacked trains. Containers destined for the port for overseas shipping would also be handled.
Funding would be provided by the state of Maryland and by CSX, with no federal funding envisioned at present, allowing the state to proceed outside the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act, which governs projects financed with federal dollars.


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San Francisco International Fashion Week | Cari Borja
Background on Cari Borja:
This Gen Art San Francisco Fresh Faces alum started her collection
while getting her doctorate in anthropology in Berkeley. After her
collection — a compilation of more than 40 outfits — was presented at
fashion week, a very pregnant Cari stepped out to receive an
overwhelming round of applause.
Photo Credit: Ling Kong
Key Takeaways: "I
was inspired by my daughter," Borja told us after the show. "She's two
years old and she dresses herself in [different] shapes and colors."
Borja captured youth through her choice of colors for the collection,
as well as with the playfulness of ruffled hems.
Photo Credit: Ling Kong
Gold sandals on every model, dangly earrings, bunches of tangled
necklaces and bracelets, gold necklaces with tassles. We also saw
various-sized pom-poms made of yarn and worn in the manner of flower
Photo Credit: Ling Kong
Add comment October 27th, 2005


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Then if you actually do REPLICATE later, your kids will be a surprise, as they should be.
A friend of mine absolutely shocked his mom that way. (Without actually having either a vasectomy or a Prince Albert, but saying he'd had the latter). And his retort to her shocked reaction was "Funny, you didn't have a problem with genital mutation when I was a child [cirp.org]".
Of course not. You didn't get mutilated.


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All prices are in All prices are in USD
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The Pendant will keep you safe wherever you go
"May Adonai bless you and guard you" - The Priestly Blessing, (Hebrew: Birkat Kohanim), also known in Hebrew as Nesiat Kapayim, (lit. Raising of the Hands), is a Jewish prayer recited by Kohanim during certain Jewish services. The source of the text is Numbers 6:23Â?27, where Aaron and his sons bless the Israelites with this blessing. This is the oldest known Biblical text that has been found; amulets with these verses written on them have been found in graves in dating from the First Temple Period.


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This is actually meant to be a follow-up to that old MP4 feedback thread, but as it's in the archives now I can't respond to it any more.
I think I mentioned that I was experimenting with MP4 for low-end encoding and sharing. For the high-end I was using a new MP4 codec (techies call it H.264) which delivered superior quality to regular MP4. I think I've found an even better codec now. The newest version of the DivX Codec (6.2.5) I find to deliver the same or better quality than MainConcept's H.264 v2 codec at higher bitrates (>1.5Mbps). I encoded a segment of a skating video in both formats and I found the DivX codec to have much more accurate color reproduction...and it also seemed to handle the fast motion of the skater noticeably better (not blocking/blurring the picture as much) than H.264 v2.
Now, note that this is not the Apple Quicktime version of H.264 (I've only tested that one on the "low-end"). This is the MainConcept version (.mpg) that I'm talking about.
I also experimented with encoding videos in Widescreen (720x400 - 16:9) format as well (since I have widescreens all over the place now...including on my computer). It stretches the picture a little bit but I prefer using this format because it offers more of a "movie" experience. Definitely livened up the ESPN2 broadcast when I did it
Yet another thing I tried is to upconvert a regular picture (normally 720x480) to 1280x720 (which is 720p HD). I get pretty decent results but of course the picture won't be nearly as sharp as true HD. I probably won't be doing that, though.
So I think this season, starting with the Campbell's Classic I will be encoding my favorite skating videos in DivX Widescreen format instead of H.264. (DivX Player is also free, unlike the H.264 player so it can be shared as well). For the other ones I may continue to use Windows Media format, or I might use DivX but encode at a lower bitrate. The good thing is that unlike ESPN/ESPN2, ABC tends to have a nice, vibrant, sharp broadcast picture so I tend to get my best results with ABC videos. Let's just hope that now with ESPN running ABC sports the picture isn't reduced to "ESPN quality".
Also did other little things but I don't think I need to expand on them...if I haven't lost you already


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Veteran Jones held out for series vs. Orioles
By Bryan Hoch and Gregor Chisholm / MLB.com
Jones was informed on Saturday afternoon that he did not make New York's 25-man active roster for the upcoming series, which starts Sunday night in Baltimore.
The 35-year-old Jones will remain with the Yankees and could eventually be activated after the ALDS, but for now, he'll have to sit back and wait for an opportunity.
"It's disappointing but I'm frustrated with myself more than anything," Jones said in the Yankees clubhouse shortly after being informed of the club's decision.
"I just didn't finish as strong as I wanted to finish. So I don't think I deserved to be on it. This is a really short series so we need to have guys that have a hot bat."
The Yankees' decision doesn't exactly come as a surprise considering Jones' prolonged struggles at the plate during the second half of the year. At the All-Star break, Jones was hitting .244 with 11 homers and 22 RBIs but the numbers went into a sharp decline from that point on.
Jones managed to hit just .142 with six extra-base hits and 12 RBIs the rest of the way. The production was even worse in September, which all but assured utilityman Jayson Nix and infielder Eduardo Nunez would both be chosen for the postseason roster.
New York's final 25-man roster for the ALDS is not expected to be officially announced until Sunday morning.
Yanks tab Pettitte for Game 2, Kuroda for 3
BALTIMORE -- Last season, the Yankees invited Andy Pettitte to throw a ceremonial first pitch before Game 2 of the American League Division Series against Detroit. This year, they'll be asking a lot more out of his left arm.
Pettitte will start Game 2 of the ALDS against the Orioles on Monday, Yankees manager Joe Girardi announced on Saturday, slotting the 40-year-old veteran into a role he has filled many times in his pinstriped career.
"I just told them, whenever they want me to pitch, I'll pitch," Pettitte said. "It really doesn't matter. I'm just excited to get back out there, you know? It's a long year and it was a hard-fought year to get here. These [Orioles] obviously pushed us hard in September, so it should be a good series and I'm just looking forward to getting after it."
Pettitte, who finished the regular season 5-4 with a 2.87 ERA in 12 starts, threw a bullpen session during Friday's workout at Yankee Stadium.
He would have been in line to pitch had the Yankees and Orioles needed to play a one-game playoff on Thursday in Baltimore to decide the AL East. Though Pettitte has said his legs have felt tired toward the tail end of his recent starts, he never had any doubt that he'd be back from his left ankle fracture in time for the playoffs.
"I always felt like I was going to get back, but I just knew it was going to be a rush job which obviously isn't a great feeling when you know the responsibility that you have," Pettitte said. "That was the only thing I knew. I knew I was going to get back because of how careful I was being. I was going to make sure I didn't have another setback. I was also trying to rush to get back because you wanted to have time to get prepared for this."
Game 2 has historically been Pettitte's territory; this will be the 16th Game 2 start in 17 seasons for the game's all-time winningest postseason pitcher. He won his last Game 2 start, in the 2010 AL Division Series against the Twins at Target Field.
Girardi said that the Yankees are setting their rotation to have right-hander Hiroki Kuroda pitch Game 3 at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday. Phil Hughes would pitch Game 4, if necessary, and Game 1 starter CC Sabathia would be available for a potential Game 5.
"We just felt that the extra rest would probably help [Kuroda]," Girardi said. "He would have been on his normal turn. We thought the extra rest would help him."
Kuroda was 16-11 with a 3.32 ERA in 33 starts this year for New York, but showed some signs of fatigue down the stretch as he completed a team-leading 219 2/3 innings -- his heaviest workload since coming to the Major Leagues.
"I'm really thankful and grateful for [Girardi's] consideration and I hope I can meet his expectations," Kuroda said through an interpreter. "I'm just hoping to be in the best mental and physical condition as possible for that game."
Teixeira recalls fallout from Maier game in 1996
BALTIMORE -- Mark Teixeira remembers watching young Jeffrey Maier pluck a Derek Jeter fly ball out of the sky on his television screen, changing the course of the last postseason series the Yankees and Orioles played against each other.
Teixeira was a 16-year-old sophomore at Mount St. Joseph's High School in Baltimore on the evening of Oct. 9, 1996, watching at home as he saw his Orioles suffer a 5-4, 11-inning defeat with some help from Maier, a 12-year-old who reached over the right-field wall at Yankee Stadium.
"I went to a Catholic high school and I had an announcement the next day that we had to pray for Jeffrey Maier and the umpire [Richie Garcia]," Teixeira said.
"Plenty of people were saying bad things about them, and our principal wanted to make sure that that talk wasn't heard in the halls. Four-letter words were not acceptable. It was kind of a lesson in forgiveness. That you have to move on."
Asked if all of the students abided by that lesson, Teixeira grinned and said, "Some of us."
Raised in Severna Park, Md., Teixeira grew up cheering for Cal Ripken Jr. and the O's while taking the Yankees' Don Mattingly as his first-base idol.
Obviously, his allegiances now are completely to the Yankees -- something Baltimore fans still burn about -- but the 16-year-old in him still remembers the pain of watching New York take control of the American League in '96.
"We had a team we thought was going to win it all that year, and one tough call changed the momentum of that series," Teixeira said. "Things kind of weren't the same after that."
As for Jeter, he said that "it's really been a long time" since someone in Baltimore has brought up the Maier game to him; not that he completely believes the city has forgotten about the incident.
"We would have beat 'em anyway," Jeter shrugged.
Bryan Hoch is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @bryanhoch and read his MLBlog, Bombers Beat. Gregor Chisholm is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, North of the Border, and follow him on Twitter @gregorMLB. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.


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I hate to never be so much of a usefull contributor to the TR crew but once again I come to you guys with a dilemma.
I recently slapped in my old Leadtek Winfast TV2000 xp expert in hopes of recording some older console gameplay. It has a coaxial input, FM radio input, a multi video input via a mini din 9 connector, and a 2.5mm port for the IR sensor.
Unfortunately I lost the mini din 9 cable, and thus lost composite video, S-video and RCA audio input on the card. Take a gander at that link there and you'll see the pinout and shape of the connector. I was wondering if anyone out there knew where I could find another one of these infernal cables. Ooooor if there is someone clever with solder and wiring to give me a tip on how to make my own.
This is really just a shot in the dark, but I thought I'd ask you guys. Thanks


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Stars attend Hobbit royal premiere
A host of stars have gathered in the West End for the royal UK premiere of the new Hobbit film.
The Duke of Cambridge will join them for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in London's Leicester Square and will attend alone as his wife Kate, whose pregnancy was announced last week, continued to rest at St James's Palace from acute morning sickness.
Sir Ian McKellen, Andy Serkis and Cate Blanchett, who reprise their roles from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and Office star Martin Freeman, who plays main character Bilbo Baggins in the JRR Tolkien adaptation, all attended.
They were joined by showbiz figures including boyband McFly, who braved freezing temperatures on the green carpet in front of hundreds of screaming fans.
Sir Ian, who plays the wizard Gandalf, said it was great to be in London for a film with a strong British presence.
He added: "Its cast is basically British and from the Commonwealth, Tolkien was an English writer, here we are in the capital city and it feels proper."
Australian actress Cate, who plays elf queen Galadriel, joked about the cold. "The weather is enough to drive anyone away but it is great to see so many fans," she said.
She wore a stunning white backless dress but had donned a black jacket by the time she went into the cinema for the performance.
Freeman admitted it was a challenge to star as The Hobbit himself, Bilbo Baggins, and he said he hoped fans would enjoy the film. He said: "I loved playing it. I really loved playing it.
"I hope people like it. There's nothing more you can do. It's in the hands of Peter Jackson and the editors."


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Read the full story here Web Link posted Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 12:00 AM
Town Square
Atherton seeks bigger cuts to shore up budget
Original post made on Mar 10, 2009
Read the full story here Web Link posted Wednesday, March 11, 2009, 12:00 AM
Comments (10)
a resident of Atherton: other
on Mar 10, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Here is an idea...drop the police department and have the Sheriff's Office take over. It would save alot of money. All the town would have to do is pay for the one or at the most...two deputies to cover the area. Woodside and Portola Valley do this and it works just fine. They are even wealthier that the Athertonians. Get smart and fiscally responsible...that is your job after all.
a resident of another community
on Mar 10, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I'm using anonymous because I don't want Atherton's finest to come break my door down even though I no longer reside in its jurisdiction.
Fiscally responsible has a point.
On a per-capita basis Atherton spends twice as much as Menlo Park. One would have to ask what gives?
a resident of Atherton: Lloyden Park
on Mar 10, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Atherton spends a ridiculous amount of money on the police dept. Sure they get great service but really folks...crime is very very low and the money saved would be huge. The service received from a contracted agency such as the Sheriff would be more than adequete if not better. The level of experience of a deputy who works in the jails and in some pretty seedy and also affluent areas exceeds the exposure an atherton cop gets in his entire career. No bashing here...just the truth. Lose the PD and save millions for other projects.
a resident of Atherton: Lindenwood
on Mar 10, 2009 at 8:41 pm
With bad times comes fresh thinking.
The Atherton PD's annual budget is $4.3 million works out to about $20k per household. Can we really afford that?
a resident of Atherton: Lloyden Park
on Mar 11, 2009 at 10:47 am
I have been saying this for years and years! Atherton does NOT need a police dept. Sure they are spoiled with the one they have but it is way to expensive. The Sheriff provides contract services to most of the coast, woodside, portola valley, ladera, unincorporated menlo park, unincorporated redwood city and unincorporated parts of atherton. Don't think that the service Woodside and Portola Valley is anything less than 5 star either! This would be the most cost effective thing to do. If the residents want a car to say Atherton on it the Sheriff's office can easily do that...just like Contra Costa County and Santa Clara County do with areas like Atherton. The City Counsel needs to wake up and get real. They would save millions and millions of dollars. Then the town could fix all roads and areas that flood with a whole lot of money left over. This is the financial stewardship the counsel members should be focusing on.
a resident of Atherton: West Atherton
on Mar 11, 2009 at 5:03 pm
[Removed due to excessive posts by the same poster]
a resident of Atherton: West of Alameda
on Mar 12, 2009 at 8:18 am
[Removed due to excessive posts by same poster]
a resident of Menlo Park: Menlo Oaks
on Mar 12, 2009 at 9:19 am
I am a life long resident of Menlo Park, and as you probably know, we have the same issue over here. There HAS to be some type of grassroots effort to cut these city bloated budgets. Most of our expenditures are "nice to haves", and I think the economic turmoil has forced us all to start looking at the "fat" in our cities. There is absolutely nothing wrong with outsourcing items, or cutting items, if we as citizens are paying too much. This is the right thing to do, it is within our right as taxpayers. Our #1 problem though is not the city employee themselves, it's the government Unions. Track the history of some of these contracts, you would fall on the floor with the out of line pensions, benefits, vacation days, overtime....the list goes on. We need a citizen revolt!
a resident of Atherton: West Atherton
on Mar 12, 2009 at 3:10 pm
I've served on many boards.
Rarely have seen such a train wreck as I saw during the Council's recent discussion the Town's budget.
While you are debating on whether or not to keep the police department, think about outsourcing the finance department.
[Portion removed] That new gal seems incapable of making a coherent presentation. Every time I look at the agenda she's asking for money to buy a new software package or to hire a consultant for what the Town paid her to do: writing an investment policy, collecting business taxes, setting user fees. What's next hiring a consultant to make good decisions?
Yes, I subscribe to the belief that town government should be run like a business. That's why the Town should adopt a simple straightforward policy: to acquire the services of the highest value irrespective of source.
Its as simple as that folks.
a resident of Atherton: other
on Mar 12, 2009 at 3:25 pm
If you've ever looked at the Police Blotter, not just for amusement, you'll get a sense of what is asked of Atherton's Finest. If there is a change in service provider, everyone will need to understand what services they can reasonably expect. Probably not everything the current officers are willing to do for us!
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Dotcom wins right to sue NZ police, spy agency
The New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau (NZGB) will have to reveal secret details of their surveillance of Kim Dotcom, in an unprecedented ruling from a High Court judge.
Justice Helen Winklemann has ordered "discovery" of documents related to the Dotcom operation.
Today's ruling also allows Dotcom to pursue the police and GCSB for damages.
The foreign spy agency must disclose anything they shared with other intelligence agencies in the "Five Eyes" intelligence alliance — made up of the US, Australia, UK and Canada. And they must reveal if they carried out surveillance on Doctom's wife Mona and his co-accused Bram van der Kolk.
Winkelmann has also ordered Detective Superintendent Mike Pannett — a police liaison officer in Washington — swear an affidavit if he watched a "live feed" of the raid on Dotcom's Coatesville mansion on January 20 from the FBI's multi-agency command centre.
If he did, he should provide details to identify the source of the feed, the locations and events being filmed and the time he watched it. Police said on Thursday there was no live feed. But they have declined to comment further on the ruling.
Details of a briefing between Anne Toohey, of Crown Law, and other key players and a later video conference, at the OFCANZ office, in November last year, will also have to be handed over.
Dotcom's lawyers have been asking for documentation on the briefings "but no response has been received," the judge said.
The officer in charge of the operation, Detective Inspector Grant Wormald, must also reveal where and when stationary cameras were placed close to Dotcom's home. The police must disclose if any third parties were involved in setting them up.
Justice Winklemann also wants disclosure of an "in-depth" FBI presentation on the investigation.
The live feed was revealed in a February edition of the police's in-house magazine Ten One.
Winkelmann noted that an affidavit given by Wormald stated "that there was no live coverage of the operations going on at the Dotcom mansion."
She said this contradicted "earlier" evidence he had given at a hearing.
Wormald is already facing questions over testimony he gave the court, saying no other agency had spied on the Megaupload entrepreneur.
Lawyers for the prosecution have argued that some of the information sought is "too broad" and will damage their relationship with the FBI. Revealed details of GCSB activities would also compromise national security and reveal information sharing protocols and practices with intelligence allies.
"Footage of the events, if it exists, would be relevant to assessing the nature of Police actions on site at the Dotcom mansion," Winkelmann said.
She wants to know when Pannett watched the live feed, from where — and who else was there.
The judge also wants to know if anyone else was caught up in GCSB's illegal spying, noting Dotcom believes he was being surveilled much earlier than the spy agency has admitted to.
Senior lawyer Stuart Grieve QC has been given security clearance to look at the secret spy documents on behalf of Dotcom. He was appointed by the court in October.
The latest ruling is another milestone in Dotcom's bid to challenge extradition to the US on copyright infringement charges.
His lawyers have already proved that GCSB's surveillance of the mogul was illegal, and search warrants for the January raid were invalid.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister John Key, who is responsible for the GCSB, said: "We don't comment on court judgements."
The office of the Attorney-General would also not comment while the case is before the court.
Fairfax NZ
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text: I took Friday as a 'personal' day for me. I left Springfield, drove to just east of Joplin and headed to Bella Vista,AR, Bentonville, AR, Siloam Springs,AR, Colcard, OK, back across the line to Rogers, AR, Pea Ridge, AR, and last stop was Holiday Island, AR. I had decided to see if I could come up with a mini quilt shop hop in one day that would work if a group of friends wanted something to do in one day. Wanted to go to War Eagle but there was an accident with a boat that had Highway 12 blocked and traffic was backed up several miles and couldn't get out there that way. I turned around and then drove to Pea Ridge, AR. Always thought Pea Ridge was the Civil War battlefield area, never really thought it was a real town. Well it is and there was my greatest find. The quilt shop there had a wonderful man, Harold, and he was quilting with a Gammill Statler. He had lots of everything, even a fabric that I had been looking for, he had 2 yards left. Then he gave me a nice discount on top of another discount and said if I come back (which I will), I would get 20% off anything. Most of the shops give 10% of if you are a quilt guild member or Project Linus contributor. The store in Holiday Island, AR, was super nice, too. Accidently took the 'scenic route', another word for kinda lost, but found it taking the long way into Holiday Island. I was heading towards Eureka Springs, took 187 to Holiday Island, should have took 23N but again, didn't know just where it was, but it was a super nice shop. The long way took me to a town called Beaver, it is where Table Rock turns in to Beaver lake. There is an old wooden one-lane bridge for traffic. The whole area on the lake is beautiful and scenic. Crossed the bridge and proceeded to wind around here and there and finally found the quilt shop. I told her of my scenic route. She said that I was lucky, due to the high waters, the bridge had been closed for months and just deemed safe by the Army Corps of Engineers this past Monday. Then headed home content in the knowledge that going to the Branson/Kimberling City area on Friday of a holiday weekend sucked as I watched miles of bumper to bumper traffic heading southward on Highways 13 and 65 as I was going north. My biggest treat was eating AQ Chicken in Springdale. No one makes better chicken. Have a great 4th of July!


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Martinis were invented in Martinez! Who knew? Probably everybody in Martinez since the Gold Rush in 1848. Let's celebrate with a, wait for it … shaken or stirred martini at the aptly named Martini Festival this weekend!
'Shaken or Stirred'
Welcome to the third annual Martini Festival, "Shaken or Stirred," from 6:30 to 10 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Plaza Ygnacio Fountain at City Hall, 525 Henrietta St. in Martinez, the birthplace of the martini.
There will be martinis, delights from local restaurants, music by Big Cat Tolefree & The Hypnotics, dancing, horse-drawn carriage rides, contests, a silent auction and more martinis.
For ticket information, visit www.themartinifestival.com. Tickets cost $65 each or $120 per couple.
End Alzheimer's walk
If only it were that easy. Join the Walk to End Alzheimer's at 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 6, beginning in Civic Park, at the corner of Civic Drive and Broadway in Walnut Creek.
Similar walks will be held across the United States this fall. Visit www.alz.org to register or donate funds to support the cause.
The national Alzheimer's Association organization uses 70 percent of annual revenue for care, support, research, awareness and advocacy activities.
Help out at your local Alzheimer's Association as an individual (teen, adult or senior) or part of a family, team, group of employees or company. Contact Tessie Calligeros at firstname.lastname@example.com to find out where your skills are needed.
Philanthropy Awards
The Contra Costa Council's Social Responsibility Task Force has announced eight individuals and organizations that will be honored at the second annual Contra Costa Philanthropy Awards breakfast from 7:30 to 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 8, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 45 John Glenn Drive in Concord.
Register early for the breakfast at www.contracostacouncil.com. For more information, contact the council office at 925-246-1880 or email email@example.com.
The Philanthropy Awards program recognizes individuals, businesses and service organizations that have made significant contributions of time, leadership and financial support to benefit Contra Costa residents.
The nonprofit organization serves Contra Costa County and Alameda County children with Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship certified instructors and a licensed physical therapist, who, along with volunteers, serve 48 children a week at the ranch in Orinda, specially leased from PG&E and with the support of Chevron.
"Come and help us honor our 2012 award recipients, who are helping make our community a better place in which to live," said Contra Costa Council president and CEO Linda Best.
The event will feature a keynote address by Elaine Taylor, president and founder of The Taylor Family Foundation (www.ttff.org). The foundation's mission is to preserve the wellness and enhance the quality of life for children in Northern California living with life-threatening and chronic illnesses and developmental disabilities, and youth at risk, through unique therapeutic experiences and support.
Mark Hughes, founder and co-chair of the task force and chair of the awards event committee said, "The Contra Costa Philanthropy Awards help build awareness and inspire many more organizations to learn how to get more involved in this work, which can transform companies and make a true difference in our communities."
A prestigious panel representing all sectors of the community and government was formed to make the award selections. Judges included Contra Costa Supervisor Federal Glover; Jim Becker, vice president of community investments, Richmond Community Foundation; Linus Eukel, executive director, John Muir Heritage Land Trust; Angie Coffee, senior managing director, private business banking, First Republic Bank; and Mark Hughes, manager of public affairs, Phillips 66 Rodeo Refinery.
Rappelling for a cause
Master Daniel Tomizaki raised more than $2,000 in one week this summer as part of the Over the Edge rappelling fundraiser to benefit Special Olympics. Participants rappelled down the 38-story Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Francisco, enjoying spectacular views of the city in addition to raising funds for a good cause.
Tomizaki's Champions Kung Fu Institute in Concord has a history of community involvement, including fundraisers for the Bay Area Crisis Nursery, Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, and Japan-Aid with the American Red Cross.
'Captured' at Bedford
The Bedford Gallery features "Captured: Specimens in Contemporary Art" exhibition through Nov. 18.
"Looking to traditions as diverse as taxidermy, specimen boxes and the cabinet of curiosities, this exhibition will address the changing nature of our relationship with the natural world, and encourage viewers to consider the questions 'what is a specimen, what do they tell us, and why are they important to both artists and scientists,'" says Bedford curator Carrie Lederer.
The gallery welcomes 2,000 K-12 children a year for school tours on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings before the gallery is open to the public.
Docents bring art alive and encourage future artists with hands-on art projects. To schedule a group tour, email firstname.lastname@example.com.
The gallery is open noon to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays, and from 6 to 8 p.m. when there are evening performances at the Lesher Center for the Arts, 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. The first Tuesday of each month is free.
For more information, visit www.bedfordgallery.org.
Author talk
The Clayton Valley Woman's Club will welcome guest speaker and local author Judith Marshall at its Oct. 9 meeting.
Her book, "Husbands May Come and Go, but Friends are Forever" won the Jack London Prize awarded by the California Writers Club.
Her column, "Fashion Over Fifty" is a hit in the Clayton Pioneer.
The combined meeting and luncheon begins at 10 a.m. at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, at the corner of Ygnacio Valley Road and Alberta Way in Concord.
For information, call 925-672-9448.
Squadron record
The Concord-Diablo Rotary's Picker Squadron gleaned more than 1,000 pounds of fruit in an hour and 20 minutes, putting the group at more than 9,000 pounds collected for the year. Each pound over 4 tons is a record.
The bounty will be divided among the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano, Monument Crisis Center, Share, Salvation Army and the homeless shelter, all located in Concord.
If you have fruit trees to be gleaned, contact Edi Birsan at 925 798-3537 or firstname.lastname@example.com
Concord cook
Concord resident Priscilla Yee is featured in this month's Taste of Home magazine for her recipe for Summer Corn Salad.
Taste of Home receives tens of thousands of recipes each year, and Yee's was chosen to be featured in the magazine and online.
Taste of Home decided Yee's recipe is the perfect way to take advantage of fresh, seasonal produce.
Get the recipe at www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/Summer-Corn-Salad.
"Good Neighbors" is compiled by Faith Barnidge. Send club and organization news, Scouting items, notices of awards and other submissions to firstname.lastname@example.com.


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CLEVELAND -- Demetrius Treadwell scored 13 points and top-seeded Akron, its season nearly wrecked by a player suspension, beat Ohio 65-46 on Saturday night to win the Mid-American Conference championship and the league's automatic spot in the NCAA tournament.
One week ago, the Zips (26-6) were in danger of seeing a special season crash when point guard Alex Abreu was arrested on drug trafficking charges. But Akron's players rallied around coach Keith Dambrot and the Zips, playing in their seventh straight MAC title game, are back in the NCAA brackets for the third time in five years.
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Treadwell added 10 rebounds and was named the tournament's most outstanding player. Chauncey Gilliam also scored 13 points, Nick Harney had 11 and Zeke Marshall 10.
Ohio's D.J. Cooper, the MAC's Player of the Year, missed all eight field-goal attempts and scored just 3 points. The Bobcats (24-9) shot just 1 of 20 on 3-pointers and 33 percent overall from the floor.
In the final minute, the fiery Dambrot, who acknowledged being drained by Abreu's stunning arrest, put on his suit coat and shook hands with his staff. When the horn sounded, Akron's players danced onto the floor of Quicken Loans Arena to celebrate a win they wrapped up with tough defense.
Akron held Ohio to 19 percent (5 of 27) shooting and just 17 points in the second half.
Cooper was bottled up all night. The only Division I player to record 2,000 points, 900 assists, 600 rebounds and 300 steals in his career, he never got going and was taken out in the final three minutes with the game out of reach.
Cooper scored his first points on two free throws after Treadwell, who wore orange polka-dotted socks and red sneakers for the final, was called for a technical with 17:37 left. The shots gave Ohio the lead, but the technical seemed to fire up the Zips, who got a basket inside from Treadwell and went on a 9-0 run to open a 40-33 lead on freshman Carmelo Betancourt's steal and layup.
The Bobcats were still within 42-37 when the Zips went on a 10-4 spurt to open a lead they would never give back.
With Akron up 54-42, Treadwell scored on a gorgeous up-and-under layup, a basket that sent Akron's student section into a frenzy. It's been a tough week for everyone around the Akron program following the arrest of the popular Abreu, who was charged with possession and felony trafficking after police said he accepted a package containing five pounds of marijuana.
The suspension threatened to squelch a season like no other for the Zips. They won 19 straight games, nearly got into the AP Top 25 and were picked by some experts to be the mid-major team to watch in the NCAAs, just as the Bobcats were a year ago when they knocked off Michigan and South Florida to make the national quarterfinals.
Now, it's Akron's turn to cause some of their own March madness.
Reggie Keely scored 19 points to lead Ohio, which opened the game 11 of 17 from the floor but went just 7 of 37 the rest of the way.
Cooper, who came in averaging 14.4 points and scored 21 in the semifinal win over Western Michigan, went scoreless in the first half and attempted only one shot -- a 3-pointer that rattled out.
Still, the Bobcats led 29-26 at the half after T.J. Hall dropped a layup at the horn.
With Marshall, Akron had a substantial advantage inside and the Zips didn't waste any time getting the ball to their big man, who scored the Zips' first five points and seemed more engaged than he was in the first half of Friday's semifinal.
Ohio answered with Keely, a 6-foot-9 senior. He made his first four shots and wasn't intimidated by Marshall, taking it right at Akron's center and scoring 14 first-half points.
Offutt scored on a drive and the Bobcats went on 10-0 run, doing it with Cooper as more of a decoy than anything else.
Trailing 25-16 and appearing on the verge of being in serious trouble, the Zips started driving to the basket and went on a 10-2 run to pull within one and were only down 29-26 at half.


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This is the second column in a series addressing the challenges of early case assessment in the era of e-discovery. View the first column here. In the first column, I described how the high stakes of e-discovery have transformed early case assessment into a data management exercise, with the logistics of preservation, collection and review taking precedence over trial counsel's traditional role in developing and implementing a successful litigation strategy. In this column, we consider how in-house counsel can ensure that the nuts and bolts of e-discovery do not distract your company's outside counsel from the most critical task in early case assessment—finding the path to a successful litigation outcome for your company.
The numerous headline-grabbing sanctions awards for corporate e-discovery breaches have no doubt served a beneficial purpose by heightening in-house counsel's attention to implementing an early and effective litigation hold. Unfortunately, the risk of sanctions also has distracted in-house counsel from what should be the primary focus in all stages of litigation—developing and executing a strategy to win the company's case. Your company's outside counsel are client service providers, and as in house counsel, you are the face of the client. If your primary focus in the initial stages of litigation is e-discovery risk management, then your trial counsel will follow your lead to deliver the services you value most. However, nobody ever won a case by building a perfect litigation hold, and it is your job as in-house counsel to ensure that your senior trial counsel deliver the services that your company values most—a winning litigation strategy.
The reality of contemporary complex litigation is that in-house counsel's initial attention may be occupied with e-discovery risk management no matter how much you might prefer to focus on broader strategic issues. Implementing a litigation hold in even a moderately complex case may require substantial effort by in-house counsel to liaise between outside counsel and potential electronic data custodians and to retain and supervise the work of one or more e-discovery vendors. When in-house counsel's resources are stretched thin, the challenge is to maintain trial counsel's focus on winning the case, even while your attention is directed elsewhere.
The good news is that these two tasks—proactive management of e-discovery and trial strategy—do not have to be pursued on separate, conflicting tracks. As in-house counsel, you can help maintain trial counsel's focus on the big picture case issues by establishing some basic parameters at the outset of the case.
1. You should ensure that your company's trial counsel interview the key fact witnesses before outside counsel begin custodian interviews for e-discovery case assessment. Especially in litigation where in-house counsel already have extensive background on the events giving rise to the suit, you may be tempted to skip this initial stage and may suggest that trial counsel should rely on you to provide a download of the relevant facts. However, one of the most critical steps in initial case assessment for any significant litigation is the face-to-face communication between trial counsel and your company's key fact witnesses. Initiating that process as soon as possible will ensure that trial counsel are engaged and focused on key strategy decisions before their attention is diverted by the minutiae of e-discovery, and that your company's trial counsel have the necessary insights into the case to devise an e-discovery plan that complements and contributes to your company's broader litigation strategy.
2. In-house counsel should require that a member of the trial team participates in the e-discovery custodian interview of any likely deponent or trial witness. This may seem to contradict the previous objective to avoid distracting your company's trial team from their strategic focus. However, any substantive contact with your company's likely deponents, especially early in the litigation, is an important communication that warrants the involvement of trial counsel. Witnesses who have had no prior opportunity to communicate with outside counsel may provide information or raise questions or concerns about the litigation that trial counsel will need to hear and explore. These witnesses will also look to outside counsel to explain how their knowledge of the dispute relates to the company's defenses and to explain "what this case is all about". This narrative is a critical part of witness preparation that happens long before depositions are scheduled and cannot be entrusted to an attorney or consultant who has only a limited understanding of your company's case. These initial contacts between the witness and outside counsel set the tone for all future communications and deposition and trial preparation.
3. In-house counsel should set an early deadline for trial counsel to present their initial assessment of case strategy. Litigators work by deadlines, and the best way for in-house counsel to ensure that the logistics of e-discovery do not distract outside counsel from devising and implementing the company's case strategy is to give trial counsel a deadline that makes the strategic assessment as immediate and as pressing a concern as the adequacy of the company's litigation hold.
These guidelines assume that your company actually has identified the attorneys who will be responsible for trying the case at the outset of litigation. Of course, the reality is that your company's case probably will settle before trial, just as the vast majority of civil disputes are resolved without trial. However, it is an often-repeated maxim that the best way to avoid trial is to be trial ready. The first step in trial preparation is identifying the counsel with personal responsibility for presenting the case at trial and tasking them with leading your company's trial preparation. No matter how pressing your concerns as in-house counsel to ensure your company's compliance with its e-discovery obligations, your primary task as in-house counsel remains selecting, engaging and directing the skilled trial counsel who will work with you to chart the path to victory for your company.


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Have you ever stared at something so long that it looks
completely different? I do this with words. I think that's a new
level of zoning out. Sometimes when I do this, it completely
changes my perspective. Not all that often, mind you, but it does.
Lately, I've been getting hit with a lot, that's been altering my
I've been spending a lot of time in downtown St. Petersburg.
It's not as if I haven't lived here for 8+ years, and it's not as
if I haven't been downtown nearly a million times. Because of
friends living downtown, I'm seeing parts of it that I've never
seen before. I'm always amazed at what exists, right under my nose
-- but I just haven't taken the time to see it. So now, it's
starting to look completely different.
Like many downtowns across the country, ours has had its
moments. There were department stores downtown, factories, big
business. I've always wanted to research some of the buildings
downtown, especially the Studebaker Building, which I used to drive by
nearly every day when I lived on the other side of town. And then
there's the nation's first open-air post office, which, honestly --
these pictures don't do justice. The inside of the post office
reminds me of old time banks and Westerns -- loaded with
beautifully stained wood and remembrances of teller windows. Some
of these buildings have been standing for a long, long time --
constructed not long after the turn of the century, which for this
area is nearly ancient.
Also, like many downtowns, St. Pete seems to constantly undergo
some form of revival. New places move in; old ones move out. Things
get rebuilt or renovated, torn down, and new life comes in to
change the look and feel of it all. The more time I spend down
there, the more I like it. There are old bars and restaurants,
beautiful scenery, and the old stately architecture. I've posted
pictures of the banyan trees, the Dali and Mahaffey Theater, the
Pier, and a few of the marina as well. I'm running out of time to
explore here -- at least while I'm still at school. I've set a
loose goal for myself, of visiting every building between Beach
Drive and 34th street on Central Avenue. I wonder how close to that
I can get with this crazy schedule.
We're in Week 10, which means midterms are over here at
National, and I'm looking at finals for Western States. I can't
believe how quickly things have passed. I keep going back and forth
about jobs and locations and being excited about being out in
practice and clinic and a million other things. I was forwarded a
list of job openings all over the country, towards the end of last
week. I couldn't help but look -- thinking that it was all very
premature, and yet I'm being told that I SHOULD be looking right
now. I'm still thinking it might be a little presumptuous.
And of course, this week I have to turn in a sample business
plan. It's hard to anticipate things like that when you have no
idea where you'll be. Of course, I could go anywhere. The question
becomes where, and when, and how, and why. We've all talked about
setting up our own practices -- well, most of us have. Some, I
think, are planning on joining practices and others might just
associate for a short period of time. When I thought I had a clear
plan before, now I'm not so sure. Life sometimes gets in the way of
plans. John Lennon said something like, "Life is what happens when
you're busy making plans." For right now, I'm only making immediate
plans, with the rest in the background.
Maybe I just need a change in perspective.
OK, I realize it's midterms and probably not that happy of a
week, but remember--we're now over halfway done with this tri. At
the very least, we're checking off boxes and meeting milestones.
That alone, is an accomplishment.
Also for those that just received board scores back,
Congratulations. Just getting to this point is a HUGE
It's a big week down here for Tri 6. Those taking an elective
(not me) have 6 exams. The rest of us have 5. Three of those exams
are for different radiology courses--which are admittedly not my
forte. Sometimes all the radiopaque and radiolucent areas look like
blobs, swirls, and blurs, rather than tumors, cysts, and sclerosis.
I'll do what I can. Sometimes that's all we can do. Do what we can
and hope for the best. Maybe by the end of my education, I'll be
conditioned to be prepared for the amount of exams at midterms and
finals. Right now though, it's still a shock. I would much rather
have one exam a week. Wait. Let me think about that some more.
Maybe not.
The master's program is going fairly well. There's a LOT of
work, but I'm learning a tremendous amount. One of the most
difficult tasks was trying to redesign and interpret the functional
medicine tree--which basically outlines all the factors involved in
considering a patient and their conditions. I ended up redrawing
the entire tree and turning it into more of a schematic, adding a
bunch of stuff in there. It's not pretty, but I'll include that
here for your perusal. Let me know what you think. I'm definitely
open to feedback. Did I leave anything out?
(Click image for full size version.)
That's it from me. Good luck with midterms and everything else
you have going on. We'll see you next week. You'll be fine.
Everything's gonna be fine.
I'm writing to you all from a newly formatted laptop--not a new
laptop, but a newly formatted one. I've spent a fair amount of the
last week working on my computer. Today I finally gave up, in
disgust, and recovered Windows. I'm still trying to get access to
all of my old files (now my external hard drive isn't working).
It's definitely Mercury in Retrograde!
Midterms are winding down. We have one more this week and then a
"mid-term" exam next week as well. This week should prove to be
interesting, given that we have the 4th off. I'm
sure there will be cookouts and beach trips and fireworks of some
Last week we had Botanical Medicine and Pharmacology. Boy, am I
glad those are over! I'm still in Love with Botanical Medicine. I
feel like I could never know too much. My hope is to do some more
research on constituents to make sure none of the toxic ones get
into my medicine. That's the thing with being your own pharmacist.
Even though it's amazing to be able to make your own medicine, it
comes with responsibility. Fortunately, for most herbs (not all--be
careful!), the toxicity is low and it either takes a whole lot of
herb to cause damage, or the toxic effects are minimal.
Saturday, Grey and I went to Downtown St. Pete for Pride! We
have a number of friends in the LGBT community. It's been a
tradition for the last 4 years for me to go, in support, and now
Grey has been going for the last 2 years. We missed the parade due
to rain, but we caught up with friends afterwards. I'm always
impressed at how things go during Pride. Everyone comes out, and
for the most part it's an extremely positive experience. I'm
thinking that next year maybe the school should have a booth at the
parade. I should probably talk to someone about that. There are a
lot of health care vendors and educational booths there. It would
be a great opportunity to expand our reach.
This week's picture is of my Mullein. Admittedly, I have been
running like a mad crazy woman, since I moved into my place and I
haven't planted anything else or set up my garden. I honestly have
no idea when I'll have time (maybe I should work on that this
weekend). But, the Mullein is flowering, and it's lovely. I'm
Have a great 4th of July, everyone. Enjoy
Independence and whatever that means for you!
I'm not sure I can ever top last week's blog. Special thanks to
my classmates for the inspiration. We're already talking about a
Midterms are upon us and we are in the throes of studying. While
many of us are pulling all-nighters (and some all-weekenders), I
feel like I need to remind everyone how important sleep is. I have
been suffering from insomnia--for weeks. I'm not one to spend a
whole lot of time sleeping, normally--but ever since my move, I've
been sleeping less and less. So, I thought I'd share some of my
tips for working on sleep. Here we go (see, I put you to sleep
Clear Your Space
This is the absolute most important tip I could give, and the
one I've benefited most from myself. Make sure there's as little in
the way as possible. Get rid of the clutter; get rid of the dirty
clothes (I know there's no time for laundry--it's midterms!); get
rid of anything in your space that isn't conducive to sleep. This
includes workout equipment, study materials, etc. Granted, if the
only space available is the bedroom, some concessions can be made.
Cover it up. It also helps to remove the TV, if at all
Set the Mood
Make it dark--REALLY dark. I had way too much light coming into
my space, so I acquired some light blocking curtains. I still see
daylight in the morning, but at least I don't feel like I'm looking
at the surface of the sun. Also, making sure the bed is the most
comfy place to sleep in the house is key. The only place I was
falling asleep, was the couch.
Set Up a Routine
Whatever it is, make a routine for going to bed. Brush the
teeth, wash the face, turn on some chill-out music--whatever works
to get calmed down. Try not to turn on the TV. Some people like to
work out in the evening. I can't work out and sleep within a few
hours of each other. If I'm going to go to the gym at night, it has
to be before 8pm. Working out helps with energy during the day and
also with sleep at night, but it's not a good idea right before
No snacking within a couple of hours of bed. It's bad for the
metabolism and having sugar spikes when it's time to calm down is a
no-go. Don't try to sleep within 2-3 hours of eating.
Last but not least, if sleep is still a real struggle, there are
some fantastic herbs that will help with sleeping. Some old
standbys are catnip, chamomile, and valerian. Other than the
chamomile (be careful those with ragweed allergies), I tend to
avoid Catnip and Valerian. I avoid Catnip because I have to fight
the cats for it, and Valerian because of the side
I made a nice herb/tonic with rhodiola (adaptogen for stress),
lemon balm (nervine, sedative), and white peony (nervine, calming
agent). It knocked me right out. It was just enough sedation and
calming for me to have two doses and then it reset my clock, and
now I'm sleeping better. I also didn't wake up with the "hangover"
that Valerian is apt to give.
Remember that sleep is extremely important for
memory--especially good sleep. We need those four phases of sleep
to be able to, not only replenish our bodies, but also our
So, until next week -- Happy Sleeping (and Studying).
What do you do when you haven't seen daylight for the last
several days and have to take lovely pictures for the blog? You
take them of your back "yard." If I look out my patio door, this is
what I see. Of course, I never look out my patio door. I never even
go out my patio door. But today, I did--so I could take some lovely
pictures for all of you.
It's time for midterms. It's REALLY time for midterms. Now is
the time, not only for studying, but also for making sure we take
care of ourselves. Different tris have different schedules. I know
I've mentioned some of our heinous exam schedules before. This
midterm schedule isn't too bad, but that doesn't mean it won't be
For the last, I don't know how many days, I've been studying and
working on E&M: Cervical notes. I'm already on my third pass of
them, and I still don't feel like I know anything. This is how it
goes when there's a HUGE amount of information on one exam. It's
easy to get discouraged. It's easy to get overwhelmed when it comes
to exam times. It's REALLY easy to neglect the Self and the
So, with that in mind, I offer this bit of advice for midterms
(and finals).
• After the DC Degree
• Botanical Medicine
• 1 Year at National
• Marketing Project
• First Week in Student Clinic
To read older blog posts, scroll to the bottom and click the "Older Posts" button.


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Does anyone know of a replacement to this program? For some reason I seem to have found a bug in the 32 and 64bit edition where it doesn't seem to perfectly clone the files the way it should be.
I've tested multiple times and can re-create it consistently.
I want something which I can set up multiple pairs of folders to sync which I can then set Windows task scheduler to run the job from time to to time. I specifically use the echo function which is basically should be just making a precise copy of a folder from one directory to another location.
Can anyone recommend anything? I'd prefer graphical based (not robocopy)
It specifically needs to DELETE any files in the destination directory which aren't on the source directory (which Sync Toy seems to have a problem with)


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Is it Beer or Chocolate?
A new finding is causing researchers to believe that chocolate was accidentally discovered around 1100 B.C. by beer makers in Central America. This date puts chocolate discovery 500 years earlier than originally presumed.
I find it completely fascinating that two of my favorite things go hand-in-hand like this. To commemorate this discovery I thought it would be fun to see if you know your chocolates from your beers. I'm going to list a bunch of different brands and you tell me if it's a beer or a chocolate. Think you're up for the challenge? Source
Is it Beer or Chocolate?


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Simple Packet Sender (SPS) is a Linux packet crafting tool. It supports IPv4, IPv6 including extension headers, and tunneling IPv6 over IPv4. It does not require pcap. It features packet crafting and sending one, multiple, or flooding IPv4 and IPv6 packets of type TCP, ICMP, or UDP (or cycling through all three). All values within an Ethernet frame can be modified arbitrarily. It supports IPv4 header options, TCP header options, and TCP, ICMP, and UDP data as well, input from either a keyboard as UTF-8/ASCII, a keyboard as hexadecimal, or from a file. IPv6 support includes hop-by-hop, "first" and "last" destination, routing, authentication, and encapsulating security payload (ESP) extension headers. For those without access to a native IPv6 network, IPv6 packets can be transmitted over IPv4 (6to4). Packet fragmentation is available for IPv4, IPv6, and 6to4. The assumed maximum transmission unit (MTU) can be changed if unusual fragment sizes are needed. IP addresses and port numbers can be randomized.
A tool for chatting and exchanging anonymous email and files securely.
A no-cost version of the Arkeia Virtual Appliance for use in VMWare environments.


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Oume plum park is one of the largest park of plum flowers in the Kanto area. We can enjoy red, pink and white pkum flowers with a good smell. Traditionally, Plum flowers are the symbol of the end of cold winter in Japan. This year, it has been very cold days until the middle of March, so we at last see the flowers in the end of March. Anyway many people came here to see the flowers.
Tama area is the name of the western part of Tokyo Metropolis. It consists of 26 cities, 3 towns and a village. A lot of people (about 4 milion) live in a eastern half part of the area. However, there are many mountains in the western part of Tama area, and there are very little flat land. Many hiking spots are in the western area, so you can enjoy walking on the trail, camping, and so on. If you see the beautiful mountain scene, you may not believe this is also in Tokyo.


text: Crosslisted in Slavic Dept., Dept of Comparative Literature, Linguistics, Folklore, Theater, Semiotics, Cognitive Science. The course deals with several important areas of contribution of the Prague School toward 20th century history of thought: linguistics, literary theory and semiotic approaches to other arts, such as visual art, drama, cinema, as well as areas like translation theory, literary history and perception. The linguistic part of the course will concern itself with the fundamentals of phonology, structure of language, semantic approach to syntax, functional sentence perspective, linguistic stylistics, theory of speech acts and predominant theories of signs. The general and literary part will deal with semiotic approach to art, theory of systems, theory of literary and poetic language, aesthetic function, norm and value, functional model of language and communication, various aspects of theory of aesthetics, relationship between literature and visual arts, folklore, film and last but not least, the course will include the theory of drama, translation and response to verbal art. Since so many concepts developed by this school have become a critical part of modern linguistic and semiotic thinking and so many names (Jakobson, Trubeckoj, Mukaovsk, Mathesius and many others) have become commonplace, this course serves as a basic introduction into both modern linguistic and literary analysis and semiotic theory. Prerequisites: Interest in theory. Requirements: Regular attendance and participation, timely completion of written assignments (reports or exercises), paper


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Carrie Underwood can breathe a sigh of relief: She's just been given the A-OK from Julie Andrews regarding her role as Maria von Trapp in the upcoming live television production of The Sound of Music.
"Fifty years later, it's time somebody had another crack at it," Andrews told Zap2it. Andrews was not the first to perform the role–that belongs to Mary Martin, who performed it on Broadway in 1959–but Andrews' rendition in the Academy Award-winning 1965 film The Sound of Music is certainly the most famous.
"I had the best time of my life doing it, and it did wonderful things for me," Andrews continued. "I think it's great that it's being done again, but doing it live must be so daunting for Carrie."
"I do hope it works for Carrie, because she's lovely and I'm a fan. I wish her well."
Related: Carrie Underwood Isn't Trying To Be Julie Andrews In Sound of Music Remake
The three-hour live production of The Sound of Music airs Thursday, December 5 at 8pm ET on NBC. A soundtrack of the production will also be available on December 3, and details on that release can be found on the Sony Masterworks website. A DVD of the live production is then scheduled for release December 17.


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Europe's Joey Tempest in "The Final Countdown"
Europe In 3, 2…1
Welcome to Forgotten Videos. For some, these videos are forgotten, for others just filed away, and for others still, a totally brand-new discovery. Whichever category you fall into, each week we'll feature a video that's possibly been collecting dust when what it really deserves is a fresh look. Or vice-versa…. We're not here to judge, we just want to take you on a little trip down memory lane. Yep, you'll remember when hair was really that big, when drums were that up front in the mix, when video was young(er) and so were you.
"The Final Countdown"
The introductory keyboard riff to Europe's "The Final Countdown" is arguably one of the most recognizable rock keyboard riffs ever. Go ahead, try and get it out of your head.
Emerging from the neutral country of Sweden, Europe ascended to popularity in the United States appropriately during the height of the Cold War in the mid '80s. Penned by frontman Joey Tempest, the title track to Europe's third album seemingly served as a viable alternative for escaping a world on the verge of nuclear warfare, with post-apocalyptic allusions in the form of departures to Venus and light-year-long searches across the universe for many "things to be found."
The video almost tricks viewers into believing the end is actually near with the inclusion of vast wastelands, dramatic skyline views, dark control rooms, and countdown clocks. But armed with spotlights, fireworks and healthy coiffures, the Swedish rockers explode onstage to the roar of the crowd, as if they are either oblivious to the countdown and impending doom, or they're happy to bring on the apocalypse.
"The Final Countdown" was Europe's first song to launch into the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 8 in 1987, and impressively catapulted to No. 1 in 25 countries. Europe had become Sweden's most recognizable export this side of ABBA.
Unfortunately, Europe's final countdown to obscurity elapsed in 1991 when Nirvana's Kurt Cobain and his flannel-wearing friends ushered in a new sound and style that had little to do with keyboards and hair care. As a result, Europe left solid ground in 1992 only to later reemerge for a special outdoor performance of "The Final Countdown" as the calendar turned from 1999 to Y2K on New Year's Eve in Stockholm.
The band — featuring Tempest, drummer Ian Haugland, bassist John Leven, keyboardist Mic Michaeli, and guitarist John Norum — mounted a full-scale comeback with a new studio album, Start From The Dark, in 2004, and has since released Secret Society (2006), Almost Unplugged (2008) and Last Look At Eden (2009) while continuing to tour, mainly in the UK.
As the band forges on, "The Final Countdown" has passed 17 million views on YouTube, maintains constant footing on the iTunes rock singles chart (currently No. 10 as of this writing), and continues to be played at sporting events worldwide.
What is it about "The Final Countdown" that has continued to resonate with listeners for 25 years?
"I think people around the world have different ideas what the song means to them," opined Tempest in a recent interview.
Or perhaps AllMusic.com's album review sums it up best: "One of the most glorious launches in history, the title track for the thrice-platinum The Final Countdown is so bombastically brilliant, such glorious garbage, that this nuclear hair assault could only spew from the vacuous '80s…. You could live without [it,] but why?"
Have you gotten the keyboard riff to "The Final Countdown" out of your head yet? Got any Forgotten Video recommendations? Leave us a comment.


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[RELATED: Learn why you NEED a content marketing plan at our autumn content marketing boot camp.]
"Watchdog reporting is critical not just in big, high-profile sagas but also in coverage of government at any level, down to the small-town city hall. The Pew poll, however, is no reason for news outlets to uncork the champagne. The public takes a pretty dim view of some aspects of press performance."
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My Dresden Plate quilt is DONE! I posted a few months ago that I needed help deciding how to lay out this - what sashing, etc. I'm so pleased with all your help and the results! I handpieced the plates and the corner pieces and then quilted on my longarm. The SID on the longarm is WAY too hard but I was into it too far to take it out. Next time I'll do something else.
So - whatcha think? :mrgreen:


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Connectivity Issue Archive
Apple Canceled the Release of iOS 4.2!
November 12, 2010
I am feeling a bit sad about all the Apple Mobile users, as Apple has canceled the launch of the iOS 4.2 today. Apple was supposed to launch the iOS 4.2 on Friday 12th of November 2010, but canceled it at the last minute. The reason behind the cancelation was iPad Wifi issue. I know


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Kick Drop: Nike Air Force Max 2013 "Area 72″
Get ready to cop the real Space Jams coming out of the Nike "Area 72″ Collection.
The Nike Air Force Max 2013 "Raygun" gives us a a bit of Marvin The Martian steez, with Nike's Raygun on the tongue, a grey base, "white matter" speckle detail, and Galaxy print lining. The shoe is rounded out with a dope glow-in-the-dark sole as well to give it a real space-age finish.
The Area 72 "Rayguns" are expected to drop next week on Valentine's Day. Ladies, this is what you need to be getting your man.
Respect to Sole Collector for the images. Click through the gallery for some more looks. —Keenan Higgins