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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Come to this!
Textile Helm
Via Yanko Design
Monday, June 22, 2009
Helmet Laws
One of the great impediments to bringing in a public bike share/rental program here in sydney is our anti bicycle helmet laws. The Danish parliament has just overturned an attempt by some misguided politicians to bring in helmet laws in one of the World's safest cycling countries. This at a time when Danish people are getting fatter and cycling less! Bringing in helmet laws would make cycling seem dangerous and lots of people would stop riding. Luckily it got voted down.
The United Kingdom's National Cyclists Organisation, succeeded in lobbying against a similar law and published a brochure that they sent to politicians in which they wrote 7 reasons to oppose a child helmet law:
1. The principal threats to children's lives are obesity, heart disease and other illnesses resulting in large part from inactivity. Cycling has a key role to play in preventing these illnesses. Less cycling through a helmet law would aggravate the situation.
2. Cycling is a healthy activity, and the likelihood of serious head injury is widely exaggerated.
3. Cycling becomes safer the more people do it. Encouraging cycling is by far the most effective way of reducing risk of injury.
4. Helmet promotion deters cycling and leads to poorer health.
5. The benefits of helmets are greatly over-stated.
6. Many other everyday activities could benefit more from helmet-wearing than cycling.
7. A helmet law would make it a crime for children to take part in a health giving activity.
Via Copenhagen
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Driver sought after two cyclists knocked down
Police are seeking a motorist who knocked down two women cyclists in Sydney this morning.
Police say the women, both aged 42, were hit from behind while riding south on South Dowling Street near Todman Avenue at Kensington about 6am (AEST) on Sunday.
The male motorist stopped and told the injured pair he would get an ambulance, but didn't return.
Other motorists stopped to help the women, who were treated by paramedics and taken to St Vincent's Hospital.
One suffered soft tissue damage and the other a suspected fractured elbow.
Investigators are looking for a man aged in his mid-50s, possibly of Mediterranean/Middle Eastern appearance, with dark hair and wearing a dark-coloured jumper or vest.
"He was driving a small white car, possibly Corolla-style with four doors," police said.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
Japanese Cycling Talent
Submission from Our Reporter in Alice Springs
Possum run down by painted bicycle
From Cazzbo's Mum
Best invention ever
Here is her finished assignment:
Then later I was checking my Facebook and saw this great link from my friend Gilbert.
Prof Wolff's praise for the bike won over listeners
Listeners to BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme were invited to vote in an online poll looking at the most significant innovations since 1800.
It was an easy victory for the bicycle which won more than half of the vote.
The transistor came second with 8% of the vote, and the electro-magnetic induction ring - the means to harness electricity - came third.
Interplanetary travel
Despite their ubiquity, computers gained just 6% of the vote and the internet trailed behind with only 4% of all votes cast. There were more than 4,500 votes cast in total.
People chose the bicycle for its simplicity of design, universal use, and because it is an ecologically sound means of transport.
GM foods came top of this poll with 26% of the vote, followed by nuclear power with 19%.
By contrast, the technology most would like to see invented was an Aids vaccine.
Alas, plans to ship long-suffering commuters to distant planets may need to be put on hold with only 15% voting for an interplanetary commuting transport system.
Half voted water treatment and supply systems as the technology to bring most benefit to society.
Another 23% thought that vaccinations deserved the honour.
Each of the technologies were nominated by a different expert, including writer Sir Arthur C Clarke, cloning expert Professor Ian Wilmut, and Professor Heinz Wolff.
Prof Wolff's praise of the bicycle held the most sway with voters which will come as a disappointment to Lord Alec Broers, this year's Reith lecturer.
His series of lectures - Triumph of Technology - prompted the vote.
In the first of his talks, he expressed surprise at the results of a similar survey.
It too ranked the bicycle above scientific breakthroughs such as electricity generation, the jet engine, the discovery of DNA and the invention of vaccinations.
Here are three more reasons that bikes are better
Bicycles don't damage the road
Bicycles don't get stuck in traffic
And this one, well it speaks for itself I guess
Here's a relevant comic sent in by Christa
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Share the road!
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
A taste of the toast
A Taste of The Toast from Michael on Vimeo.
Official: Cycling makes you 39% less likely to die
New research from the University of Sydney has indicated that more needs to be done to encourage safe cycling in Australia.
The results, published recently in the Medical Journal of Australia, show that despite the overwhelming health benefits associated with cycling, a dominant car culture and concerns about safety risks prevent many Australians from commuting by bicycle.
The findings come in response to a recent report into Victorian cycling injuries, which found that the number of cyclists treated for injuries has increased by 76 per cent over the past five years.
Conducted by Adrian Bauman and Chris Rissel of the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney, the study compared Australian cycling conditions with overseas examples to highlight the many areas in which local cycling infrastructure needs updating.
Previous international studies have observed a 39 percent reduction in the risk of all-cause mortality over 15 years in those that cycled to work each day. Commuting by bicycle also has mental health benefits and reduces cardiovascular risk, with lower rates of obesity occurring in regions with high cycling rates.
While there are currently more people cycling in Australia than five years ago, with an estimated one million new bicycles sold each year, many avoid commuting by bike as a result of the perceived risks involved.The study advocates better cycling facilities, the provision of separated bike paths and cycle lanes, lower driver speeds, and integrating cycling into public transport systems to encourage more Australians to access the health and ecological benefits of commuting by bicycle.


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Orly Levi-Abekasis
MK Calls on UN to Enforce International Law on Kidnapping'As the head of the United Nations, I expect you to act in accordance with the International Convention on Rights of the Child,' MK writes.
Initiative: 10% of All Building Projects for Public HousingBill to mandate transitionary apartments for families in desperate need of public housing picks up speed, supporters in Knesset.
State to Look Into Ethiopian Birth-Control ControversyDid Israeli officials trick Ethiopian immigrants into using birth control? And why is Depo Provera use so high?

subset: commoncrawl


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Now that we actually have some snow, running has become this huge challenge. There aren't sidewalks in my neighborhood, mostly just heavy traffic roads with shoulders that seem kind of dangerous in the summer, and are now covered in snow and therefore unusable. Dan and I planned to go on a run in town when he got home from work yesterday, but he wasn't in the mood and we had a bunch of errands to run, so the run was quickly forgotten. Today I am stranded at home with no car as usual, and have to leave for class as soon as Dan gets home, so I sucked it up and went for a run on my original running route from when we first moved here, the one I grew to hate because I ran it for weeks on end and became so bored.
Aside from Thanksgiving when I went on just a short run because I was sick, I haven't run that route in months, as I've ventured out onto the scary busy roads. I really didn't have a choice today. I noticed the snow on the roads is melting, so hopefully the shoulders will clear up soon and I'll have my freedom back.
The route is only 1.5 miles, and I briefly considered running it twice in a row to get just under the 3K distance, but immediately realized that I would not have the mental capacity to push past the boredom. I figured that 1.5 miles was better than nothing, and besides, I just discovered that you can get some workout DVDs on Netflix instant watch and took advantage of that (more on that later). Since the cold weather settled in, I've been having trouble even running a mile without a walking break to catch my breath, even with the use of my inhaler, so today's goal was to run the entire old route without stopping. And I did it! It got a little hard around the mile, mostly because I was running too fast again. Even though I realized in between the 3/4 and 1 mile marks and slowed down, I still hit the mile at 9:30. I finished the route in just over 13 minutes, which is a sub-9 minute mile pace.
That might explain some of why I'm having trouble running. On my old route, I know where each 1/4 mile is, so I can gauge my pace that way. On my new route, I don't really know where the miles are (just approximations) so I have no way of keeping my pace slow enough for my capabilities. I need to figure out how to get my watch to accurately gauge my speed.
So anyway, Netflix never fails to amaze me! I searched for "exercise" on instant watch, and with a little digging, discovered TONS of DVDs you can stream. Most of them are "The Crunch" something or other, so if you search for that you will find them easily. I did a 40 minute workout called "Crunch: Cardio Salsa" which was pretty awesome.
Giselle wanted to know if I was "looking to get into a latin-flavored fat burning zone," and indeed I was. The workout was fun, and went by really fast. The only problem was that it seemed only good for getting your heart rate up and burning calories, and maybe toning your legs a little, but wasn't something that would strengthen you in any remarkable way. The Richard Simmons workout I have has you moving your entire body a lot, and by the end my arms and legs are sore so I know my muscles were used. Anyway, I put a bunch of workouts in my queue and I'm excited to try them.


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An article in the red star which is lovely. I rarely say that about anything in the red star. OTTAWA—In her 60 years on the throne, Queen Elizabeth II has presided over 20 Parliaments in Canada, featuring 11 prime ministers and 11 governors general. What is it like to work for the Queen? An array of former prime ministers and governors general offer glimpses of working life under Her Majesty's rule.
Bono Meets Queen Elizabeth at Royal Academy Awards by IBTimesTV


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The first thing I thought of for introducing this concept was one of those videos that I have seen a lot of on TV recently (at least out here in Japan) where one particular thing in an image changes veeeery slowly over 20 seconds or so. However, I had really trouble finding a suitable video on the Internet (If you [know what I am talking about and] find one, please let me know!). So instead, I found a video of how a man's face changed over a number of years. The video uses morphing technology, and is presented below. It starts with the man as a one year old child and finishes with him as he is now (well actually in 2008, but for the purposes of the lesson...) a 36 year old man.
The second part of the lesson uses a "spot the difference" set of two images where one of the images has been changed. Students are told to find the changes and report on them as a group. There are nine changes, and I have provided both the unedited image and the one with the changes separately, as well as the answer sheet.
- Language level: Beginner - Low-intermediate
- Learner type: Any
- Time: 60~90 minutes
- Main activity: finding differences; discussion
- Topic: changes over time
- Language: present perfect; talking about changes
- Materials: Video clip and worksheet available here (.docx) and here (pdf) as well as the three image files for use in the second half of the lesson available as a zip here.
The video can be seen on YouTube here and the description reads:
All my bad haircuts from the 70s can be blamed on my mum and her selection of saucepans. Any after that are my own fault.The description thus provides a link to the software that he used, should any of you more adventurous teachers out there(!) like to try morphing your own face.
The program used for this was Sqirlz-Morph 2.0, which is free and simple to use. Google it or down load it here:
Lesson Plan
Part 1: Face Morph
- Print out the worksheet and images. (Alternatively, use the images from your computer attached to a projector)
- Start a discussion about what has changed about yourself since you were younger. E.g. I have lost my hair, I have gained a few pounds, I've grown a beard...
- Ask students to give some examples about themselves. If they find this difficult, ask them to compare themselves to when they were one years old!
- Show students the above video.
- Give out the worksheet and ask students to think of things that have changed about the man. Simple things are of course acceptable.
- After a few minutes, put students into groups so that they can pool their answers together. Tell them that the group that comes up with the most things will be declared the winners. Give them a few minutes to think of a few more answers.
- Ask groups how many changes they have found.
- Students then read and compare answers with other groups.
(Originally found here)
- Show the two pictures and let students think about what has changed. Let them know that there are 9 differences altogether.
- Ask students to write any changes they can see onto the bottom half of their worksheet.
- Collate answers in groups.
- Once a group has all the answers, they should take it in turns to tell you (meaning that all members get a chance to speak).
Student work will be uploaded soon.


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Status: Closed
Know more about this business than we do? Cool! Please submit any corrections or missing details you may have.Help us make it right
Be the first MLive.com user to add photos or videos of Mike's Tailor Shop
The owner is incredibly thorough about suit alterations. Over the years, he has helped make my off the rack stuff look so much better. He's also helped me extend the life of some garments by...
Seems like a nice tailor shop, but I haven't really had anything fancy done here. My hem on one of my pant legs fell apart and I needed it stitched back. Many places were quoting me 10-15 dollars....
Mike's Tailor Shop was founded in 1981. Mike's Tailor Shop specializes in Garment Alteration And Repair Shop.
Mike's Tailor Shop is located at 32909 Woodward Ave, Royal Oak, MI. This business specializes in Alterations & Tailoring. Mike's Tailor Shop is open Mon - Fri, 7am - 7pm; Sat, 7am - 5pm; Sun, closed and accepts American Express, Cash, Discover and Visa.


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- Preselected by women
Show examples of your life where you describe situations where women are attracted to you. No arrogance, simply describe facts and real events where women did show appreciation for you.
Ask for advice on this situation.
for instance:
the other day at work, this girl was flirting with me intensely. I noticed her before but I can't say why she suddenly decided to be so into me... Any idea? Does your level of attraction change during a month? Did you notice it change in you?
how do you feel when you are attracted to a guy?
You like having a crush then?
Do you feel you loose touch or control when you are in love?
- Leader of men
- Protector of loved ones
- Willingness to emote
Preselected by women?


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Monday, March 02, 2015
Rapid and Sensitive RT-QuIC Detection of Human Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Using Cerebrospinal Fluid
Christina D. Orrúa, Bradley R. Grovemana, Andrew G. Hughsona, Gianluigi Zanussob, Michael B. Coulthartc, Byron Caugheya
+ Author Affiliations aLaboratory of Persistent Viral Diseases, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA bDepartment of Neurological and Movement Sciences, University of Verona, Verona, Italy cCanadian CJD Surveillance System, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada Address correspondence to Byron Caughey, email@example.com.
C.D.O., B.R.G., and A.G.H. contributed equally to this study.
Editor Reed B. Wickner, National Institutes of Health
Fast, definitive diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is important in assessing patient care options and transmission risks. Real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assays of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and nasal-brushing specimens are valuable in distinguishing CJD from non-CJD conditions but have required 2.5 to 5 days. Here, an improved RT-QuIC assay is described which identified positive CSF samples within 4 to 14 h with better analytical sensitivity. Moreover, analysis of 11 CJD patients demonstrated that while 7 were RT-QuIC positive using the previous conditions, 10 were positive using the new assay. In these and further analyses, a total of 46 of 48 CSF samples from sporadic CJD patients were positive, while all 39 non-CJD patients were negative, giving 95.8% diagnostic sensitivity and 100% specificity. This second-generation RT-QuIC assay markedly improved the speed and sensitivity of detecting prion seeds in CSF specimens from CJD patients. This should enhance prospects for rapid and accurate ante mortem CJD diagnosis.
Importance A long-standing problem in dealing with various neurodegenerative protein misfolding diseases is early and accurate diagnosis. This issue is particularly important with human prion diseases, such as CJD, because prions are deadly, transmissible, and unusually resistant to decontamination. The recently developed RT-QuIC test allows for highly sensitive and specific detection of CJD in human cerebrospinal fluid and is being broadly implemented as a key diagnostic tool. However, as currently applied, RT-QuIC takes 2.5 to 5 days and misses 11 to 23% of CJD cases. Now, we have markedly improved RT-QuIC analysis of human CSF such that CJD and non-CJD patients can be discriminated in a matter of hours rather than days with enhanced sensitivity. These improvements should allow for much faster, more accurate, and practical testing for CJD. In broader terms, our study provides a prototype for tests for misfolded protein aggregates that cause many important amyloid diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and tauopathies.
Citation Orrú CD, Groveman BR, Hughson AG, Zanusso G, Coulthart MB, Caughey B. 2015. Rapid and sensitive RT-QuIC detection of human Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease using cerebrospinal fluid. mBio 6(1):e02451-14. doi:10.1128/mBio.02451-14.
This article is a direct contribution from a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.
Received 5 December 2014 Accepted 9 December 2014 Published 20 January 2015 Copyright © 2015 Orrú et al.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license, which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
nvCJD CONFIRMED TEXAS USA 2014
''The completed investigation did not support the patient's having had extended travel to European countries, including the United Kingdom, or travel to Saudi Arabia. The specific overseas country where this patient's infection occurred is less clear largely because the investigation did not definitely link him to a country where other known vCJD cases likely had been infected.''
Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas
Updated: October 7, 2014
CDC and the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) have completed the investigation of the recently reported fourth vCJD case in the United States. It confirmed that the case was in a US citizen born outside the Americas and indicated that the patient's exposure to the BSE/vCJD agent most likely occurred before he moved to the United States; the patient had resided in Kuwait, Russia and Lebanon. The completed investigation did not support the patient's having had extended travel to European countries, including the United Kingdom, or travel to Saudi Arabia. The specific overseas country where this patient's infection occurred is less clear largely because the investigation did not definitely link him to a country where other known vCJD cases likely had been infected.
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Confirmed Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (variant CJD) Case in Texas in June 2014 confirmed as USA case NOT European
Monday, November 3, 2014
National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center Cases Examined1 (October 7, 2014)
***6 Includes 11 cases in which the diagnosis is pending, and 19 inconclusive cases;
***7 Includes 12 (11 from 2014) cases with type determination pending in which the diagnosis of vCJD has been excluded.
***The sporadic cases include 2660 cases of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD),
***50 cases of Variably Protease-Sensitive Prionopathy (VPSPr)
***and 21 cases of sporadic Fatal Insomnia (sFI).
Thursday, January 15, 2015
41-year-old Navy Commander with sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease CJD TSE Prion: Case Report
Subject: *** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah's first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease aka mad cow type disease
what is CJD ? just ask USDA inc., and the OIE, they are still feeding the public and the media industry fed junk science that is 30 years old.
why doesn't some of you try reading the facts, instead of rubber stamping everything the USDA inc says.
sporadic CJD has now been linked to BSE aka mad cow disease, Scrapie, and there is much concern now for CWD and risk factor for humans.
My sincere condolences to the family and friends of the House Speaker Becky Lockhart. I am deeply saddened hear this.
with that said, with great respect, I must ask each and every one of you Politicians that are so deeply saddened to hear of this needless death of the Honorable House Speaker Becky Lockhart, really, cry me a friggen river. I am seriously going to ask you all this...I have been diplomatic for about 17 years and it has got no where. people are still dying. so, are you all stupid or what??? how many more need to die ??? how much is global trade of beef and other meat products that are not tested for the TSE prion disease, how much and how many bodies is this market worth?
Saturday, January 17, 2015
*** Becky Lockhart 46, Utah's first female House speaker, dies diagnosed with the extremely rare Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
*** ALERT new variant Creutzfeldt Jakob Disease nvCJD or vCJD, sporadic CJD strains, TSE prion aka Mad Cow Disease United States of America Update December 14, 2014 Report ***
Tuesday, November 04, 2014
Towards an Age-Dependent Transmission Model of Acquired and Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Transmission properties of atypical Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: a clue to disease etiology?
Sunday, July 06, 2014
Dietary Risk Factors for Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease: A Confirmatory Case-Control Study
Conclusions—The a priori hypotheses were supported.
*Consumption of various meat products may be one method of transmission of the infectious agent for sCJD.
The Akron, Ohio-based CJD Foundation said the Center for Disease Control revised that number in October of 2004 to about one in 9,000 CJD cases per year in the population group age 55 and older.
if not, why not...
Friday, November 30, 2007
Friday, January 10, 2014
vpspr, sgss, sffi, TSE, an iatrogenic by-product of gss, ffi, familial type prion disease, what it ???
Sunday, February 08, 2015
FDA SCIENCE BOARD TO THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION BOVINE HEPARIN BSE CJD TSE PRION Wednesday, June 4, 2014
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Use of Materials Derived From Cattle in Human Food and Cosmetics; Reopening of the Comment Period FDA-2004-N-0188-0051 (TSS SUBMISSION)
FDA believes current regulation protects the public from BSE but reopens comment period due to new studies
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Spreading of tau pathology in Alzheimer's disease by cell-to-cell transmission
Wednesday, January 28, 2015
Another new prion disease: relationship with central and peripheral amyloidoses
here we go again...
Self-Propagative Replication of Ab Oligomers Suggests Potential Transmissibility in Alzheimer Disease
Received July 24, 2014; Accepted September 16, 2014; Published November 3, 2014
Singeltary comment ;
Saturday, December 13, 2014
*** Terry S. Singeltary Sr. Publications TSE prion disease Peer Review ***
Diagnosis and Reporting of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Singeltary, Sr et al. JAMA.2001; 285: 733-734. Vol. 285 No. 6, February 14, 2001 JAMA
Monday, February 23, 2015
*** 20th BSE Case Raises New Concerns about Canada's Feeding Practices and Voluntary Testing Program; Highlights Importance of COOL
Saturday, February 28, 2015
*** BSE CANADA UPDATE Transcript - Technical Briefing to Provide an Update on Investigation of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy in Alberta February 27, 2015 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
*** Could we spot the next BSE?, asks BVA President
Discussion: The C, L and H type BSE cases in Canada exhibit molecular characteristics similar to those described for classical and atypical BSE cases from Europe and Japan. *** This supports the theory that the importation of BSE contaminated feedstuff is the source of C-type BSE in Canada. *** It also suggests a similar cause or source for atypical BSE in these countries. ***
see page 176 of 201 pages...tss
*** Singeltary reply ; Molecular, Biochemical and Genetic Characteristics of BSE in Canada Singeltary reply ;
ruminant feed ban for cervids in the United States ?
31 Jan 2015 at 20:14 GMT
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.
Terry S. Singeltary Sr.


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February 14, 2010
"Notable Quotes"
" To talk about "sceptics" as the ones who will "seize" upon "evidence" of flaws is unwittingly to make global warming into a matter of religion and not science. It's not the skeptics who look bad. "Seize" sounds willful, but science should motivate us to grab at evidence. It's the nonskeptics who look bad. It's not science to be a true believer who wants to ignore new evidence. It's not science to support a man who has the job of being a scientist but doesn't adhere to the methods of science."
Anne Althouse
Painting "True Believer" by Mardio Melo
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I'm having a big fascination with Owls lately. I just added these cute beige and gold owl earrings to my Etsy shop. They are a little different than the blue ones that I've sold in the past, but I think they're pretty cute!
Speaking of Etsy, last night I did a little holiday shopping (for myself) and I purchased this "So Delicious" Whipped Clean bath stuff. I cannot wait to try it!!


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by Chris MaGee
The one cinematic event that I'm most anticipating this summer... well, besides the Shinsedai Cinema Festival... is the North American theatrical release of Hayao Miyazaki's latest animated feature "Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea". To get me worked up about it even further Apple is now streaming a beautiful Quicktime trailer of the film featuring the voice talent of Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchett, and Frankie Jonas amongst other Hollywood heavy hitters. Re-titled simply "Ponyo" for this side of the pond the trailer is indeed beautiful, but it really plays up the messianic nature of little Ponyo, a goldfish who longs to be a human girl, instead of the the friendship she forges with Sosuke, a boy who lives in a seaside town... a friendship that's been the focus of all the other trailers for the film, both domestic and international.
Oh well... the folks in the U.S. don't really thrive on subtly I guess. Regardless, head on over to bask in the lush visuals at Apple before "Ponyo" hits North American theatres on August 14th. Thanks to Anime News Network for pointing the way to this.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
North American trailer for Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo" pops up at Apple
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We took a break from packing to go and see Camelot with Russ' parents at the Hale Theater. Russ played Arthur in his high school play (can you believe that?) We went to Joe's Real BBQ first and it was yummy. The play was great too.
I dared Russ to run through the fountain and he got nailed.


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|Volunteers at 24-Gun Battery Trail construction (Photos: KMTC)
A club that maintains 22 miles of trail within Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park near Atlanta will receive a National Park Service award for its extensive volunteer efforts leading up to and during last year's sesquicentennial events.
The NPS, in conjunction with the National Park Foundation, will bestow the 2014 George and Helen Hartzog Awards for Outstanding Volunteer Service at a June program in Washington, D.C.
The Kennesaw Mountain Trail Club will receive the volunteer group award. It is being recognized for:
-- Taking a large role in the park's commemoration last year of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain by recruiting, training and directing 500 volunteers who contributed 3,000 hours to make the visitor experience more enjoyable; and by raising more than $100,000 -- making it possible for prominent historians, authors, and performers to participate in commemorative events. The club also maintained a website intended to build interest and volunteer and sponsorship opportunities.
-- Working closely with the park staff, spending two years planning and constructing the reroute of the Assault Trail (above), to follow the approximate path that Union soldiers took to engage Confederate troops at Cheatham Hill and past the McCook monument, which sat alone on the ridge for years;
-- Building the 1.5-mile long 24-Gun Battery Trail, along the spot where Federal artillerymen opened up on Confederate positions in the heights above at the June 1864 clash;
-- Creating school programs to bring children into the park for interpretive sessions about the history of the battle and the Civilian Conservation Corps camp.
-- Creating the "Hunt for History" scavenger hunt and holding a movie premiere to generate public excitement about the sesquicentennial.
|Work along the 24-Gun Battery Trail (Photos: KMTC)
Members of the trail club, which was formed in 2002, have given about 28,000 hours of service. It has between 50 and 100 active members, with hundreds of other volunteers helping from time to time on work days.
Kennesaw Mountain's trails draw a range of visitors, from out-of-state war buffs to locals who enter the park from subdivisions to get some exercise. There are runners, walkers, horseback riders and hikers preparing for strenuous endeavors around the world.
The awards are named for former National Park Service Director George B. Hartzog, Jr. and his wife Nancy. In 1970, the Volunteers-In-Parks (VIP) was launched.


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Healthy cookies. Nope, you have read it correct, these are healthy cookies. Shall I repeat again: healthy cookies. If you take apart the ingredients, they would be like your typical carrot cake oatmeal with a hard boiled egg by the side. Okay, I do admit there is some (ahem) sugar in them too, but it comes from honey, so we can count that one onto the healthier side as well, right?
My friend A and me were having dinner together (and studying) before exams and when she was about to leave, she decided to pass by her boyfriend's house and bring him something. After all my suggestions were rejected, we came up with the idea of making cookies. Now, they had to be fast (she wanted to leave in half an hour), almost flourless (because my house, for once did not have cake flour), sugar-free (same problem) and well, good too (duh). A. said the dough looks like horse-fodder (comment of the boyfriend: "but it was nice horse-fodder though…)
I have had this recipe idea from Amy's Healthy baking for quite a while now, so in the end, it came out to this. The advantage of using honey is way less chilling time (8 minutes in the freezer are enough), resulting in a thick cookie that is crunchy on the outside and very chewy on the inside. I ate all the cookies she left me (which is why there are only that few on the pictures, that was all that was left!).
The dough is just melting the butter, mixing the liquid ingredients together, grating the carrot, stirring the dry ingredients into the wet ones and then in goes the carrot. The whole thing needs 8 minutes freezer time, then you can roll it into small balls, flattening them out with your palms a little, and place them onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. After 15 minutes, they are already done.
I thought they would get soggy the next morning but they didn't. Just as good as the night before and guess what, I ate them for breakfast. Can you judge?
With love from the student kitchen,
Healthy Carrot Cake Oatmeal Cookies
This is what you need
130 g instant oats
35 g whole wheat flour
35 g almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinamon
1 pinch nutmeg
1 pinch salt
2 tablespoons butter, melted and then cooled
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
100 g honey
1 medium carrot (70 g)
And this is how we do it
1. grate the carrot
2. In a bowl, whisk together oats, flour, almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
3. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the cooled butter (it should still be liquid), egg, vanilla and honey.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir with a spoon until just incorporated into a moist dough. Stir in the grated carrots.
5. Freeze the dough for 8 minutes, during that time, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F
6. Using a tablespoon, drop the cookies on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
7. Bake for 12-15. minutes (they are slightly underdone after that time but they will continue baking on the sheets a little after you take them out).
8. Let them cool down on the baking sheets and enjoy!
Recipe idea from Amy's Healthy Baking.
Cookies store in an airtight container for a few days.


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I still feel overcome by the amount of noise I hear. I am making an effort to not change the setting on my processor unless it is absolutely necessary. Communication is harder (you have to go backwards first to go forward). I get tired, both physically and emotionally.
A little encouragement from the Bible, today.
People say, "God doesn't pay attention to us. He doesn't care."
But how can you say that? Don't you know? Haven't you heard? The LORD is the eternal God, Creator of the earth. He never gets weary or tired. His wisdom can't be measured. He gives strength to those who grow tired and increases the strength of those who are weak.
Even young people grow tired and become weary, then stumble and fall. Yet, those who wait with hope in the LORD will be renewed. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and won't become weary. They will walk and won't grow tired.
-From Isaiah, towards the end of chapter 40.


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Dave Fotsch is the director of Boise Bike Share. Like many in the cycling community, he's disturbed by the two recent fatal bicycle accidents. "We want to make sure that this city is the safest city in the country to bicycle. Clearly, from what's happened in the last week or so, it's not."
Changes are on the way. The Ada County Highway District will be changing some downtown Boise streets from one-way to two-way and adding bike lanes.
Fotsch says the infrastructure does need to catch up a little to Boise's large cycling community. But, he says, no number of changes by ACHD can truly assure cycling safety.
"Out of the control of ACHD is drivers who need to be aware that there are cyclists everywhere, that there are pedestrians everywhere, and you just need to look out for us," said Fotsch.
Would more laws for drivers help that awareness?
Boise Police Deputy Chief Pete Ritter says not necessarily, considering there are already plenty of laws in place to make the roads safe for everyone. It's just a matter of drivers and cyclists following them. "If everyone is obeying the law, it usually makes the situation much safer."
Ritter is also an avid cyclist, who regularly rides his bike on Boise's roads. "I don't feel unsafe, but I do some things, I think that, probably every cyclist should do."
Those "things" include riding with traffic (that's the law), staying off sidewalks (but even if you are on a sidewalk, riding with traffic), wearing bright colors to make yourself more visible, wearing a helmet, and planning your route to avoid streets that are not bicycle-friendly.
Ritter says one of the streets where they see a lot of bicycle accidents is Fairview Avenue. He also says they see most of those accidents in driveways where cyclists are riding on the sidewalk and drivers don't expect to see them as they pull in.
Ritter says his son was in an accident with a car while cycling in Utah. He was wearing a helmet and that probably saved his life. So, while there is no cycling helmet law in Idaho, it's highly recommended you wear one.
Source: Ktvb


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Sunday, July 13, 2014
Great news!
Heard at this morning's Cat & Class Committee meeting -- Melody Lembke is planning a new edition of Cataloging Legal Literature or as I always call it, the law cataloger's bible. Woo hoo!
Posted by Ellen McGrath at 11:26 AM
2 comments:
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Scott Moss, a law professor at Marquette University Law School, dissects the bomb scare case against the two men arrested for putting up neon light signs promoting a cartoon.
"The criminal law the prosecutors cite declares it a felony to "place any hoax device ... with the intent to cause anxiety, unrest, fear or personal discomfort to any person." It defines "hoax device" as one "that would cause a person reasonably to believe … [it] is an infernal machine[,] ... [a] device for endangering life or doing unusual damage to property, or both, by fire or explosion...."
In other words, the prosecutors have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendants -- two guys hired by marketers for a cartoon show -- actually intended to create a bomb scare by putting up those light boards. The prosecutors also have to prove that reasonable people would've thought the light boards were bombs...
Here's one thing the two men are guilty of doing: They ticked off a lot of important public officials who now are deeply embarrassed that they virtually shut down a major city after mistaking lit-up cartoons for the Second Coming of Osama. Those officials' upset is understandable, but fortunately, in this day and age, embarrassing even the most well-intentioned mayor doesn't justify felony charges -- at least not in America...
My bet is that we will see a quick guilty plea to some exceedingly minor charge -- perhaps the underwhelming charge of "disorderly conduct," which the Attorney General already has thrown in along with the felony bomb scare charges. Procuring a plea to a minor offense is a common tactic of bad-egg prosecutors who bring legally dubious but politically necessary felony charges.
That sort of prosecutorial overreaching is exactly what happened to wrongly prosecuted Chinese-American physicist Wen Ho Lee.
In 1999, Lee was arrested and locked in pretrial solitary confinement for almost a year on serious national security charges -- leaking nuclear secrets to China. When the charges proved baseless, the government, rather than just admit error and free Lee, instead negotiated a plea of "guilty" on a trivial charge of not following proper procedures for handling sensitive information.
Wen Ho Lee and the Boston Two are victims of one of the darkest possibilities in our criminal justice system: prosecution as political persecution, when politicians and police need a scapegoat for their own failures."


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Deputy Prime Minister H.E. Sok An, Minister in Charge of the Office of the Council of Ministers holds a press conference at Phnom Penh International Airport yesterday, prior to his departure to attend the 34th World Heritage Committee's meeting to be held in Brazil on July 25.
On the occasion, H.E. Sok An told the reporters that we have already prepared all documents related to the preservation and conservation of Cambodia's Preah Vihear Temple to submit the World Heritage Committee.


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I love giving myself a recycling challenge. One of my favorites is to see if I can make a piece of jewelry using a minimum number of new findings. That's how this little cookie cutter bracelet came to exist.
To make this bracelet, I started with a tiny aluminum cookie cutter. The poor thing had been squished and was a little flat to begin with. No worries though, this made it the perfect surface to which to adhere a red "self starter" typewriter key. A couple of drops of E6000 and it was all set to go. I used a metal hole punch to punch a hole in each end, and attached a toggle from an old handbag and pieces from a thrift store chain. I made the bead dangles from reclaimed beads as well. In the end, I added 5 new jump rings and 4 new headpins.I found both at yadannabeads.etsy.com. Everything else was made from vintage or recycled components.
I'm not sure how certain pieces become "keepers" for me, but this one has. It's fun and quirky and I really enjoy wearing it.
Until next time!
Leaving you with this quote:
"Nothing is more effective than sincere, accurate praise, and nothing is more lame than a cookie-cutter compliment." - Bill Walsh
(Actually, if I were wearing this bracelet, I would be thrilled to receive a cookie-cutter compliment.)


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Valentine's day Challenges:
- Create a Valentine's card on animoto or goanimate
- Recreate a scene in Xtranormal between 2 famous couples - could be historical couples like Romeo and Juliet or present day couples from a romantic movie that you like.
- Do a research project about famous historical couples and present it either through glogster or capzles.
- Go into the origins of St. Valentine's Day and create a short movie on it using Movie Maker or just scrapblog
- Record a Valentine's message using Vocaroo
- Write a poem or choose a poem and then perform it (audio or Video)
- Research and send us the stories of a couple from your own culture using one of the web 2.0 tools of your choice.
- Prepare a crossword puzzle using justcrosswords
- Create a mini-dictionary using wordwizard.
- Create comic strips. You can use the followings.Make Beliefs Comix - Two, three and four panel comics that you can create in multiple languages.
Comic Strip Generator - You can upload photos or use web images in addition to their library of ready-to-use images
Garfield - you can create comic strips or (in Comics Lab Extreme) comic books
ToonDoo - the site allows students to share their comics, comment on other comics, and even save and edit a copy of a comic


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Wednesday, April 1, 2009
It was just pointed out to me in the comments on my last post that I totally fell for Joerg's April Fools. I've always been gullible, but I'll stand by my rant just the same.
Posted by J. Wesley Brown at 12:44 PM
2 comments:
- none said...
ha-ha.. all in good fun!
- April 1, 2009 at 1:35 PM
- Andrew said...
This is inexcusable. We rely on your blog for all of our fact checking.
The LA TIMES
Dusseldorf Photography School of Dusseldorf
- April 1, 2009 at 5:20 PM
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By Dave Woods
Joplin Globe new media and marketing manager
BRANSON, Mo. — Jason Hughes and his four performing brothers come by their love of music and entertaining naturally.
"My dad was a great singer and played the accordion and guitar by ear, and my mother was quite an accomplished clarinetist," the 39-year-old father of seven said. "My mother and father loved to sing and play. They didn't do it for a living; they just really enjoyed it a lot."
As children, the Hughes brothers' parents encouraged their boys to learn musical instruments, unafraid of a percussive clan.
"They kept a box full of rhythm instruments in the closet and would pass them out to all of us when we were just little," he said. "We would play the (wooden) block and the triangle. It was a noisy household."
In the Hughes family, they learned to love entertaining at an early age.
"People would ask us to sing for this or that," Hughes said. "Somebody would see us singing together and ask us to do something else."
Eventually, Mom and Dad Hughes stepped off stage and moved behind the scenes, leaving the performing to their talented boys. That was 30 years ago.
Today, the five performing brothers, their wives, dozens of kids and four adopted siblings — more than 40 in all and growing all of the time — bill them selves as "America 's Largest Performing Family." The fertile Branson brood entertains visitors at The Hughes Brothers Theater through Dec. 18 with a special Christmas show and the promise of another new offering next year.


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via There's nothing blooming around me yet except for the skunk cabbage. There's no grass showing either but the thaw continues and my gutters are finally clear of ice. I hope your weekend is shaping up nicely, no matter what the weather. I have a zillion things to do so I'd better get started. xo
Saturday, March 8, 2014
Spring is In The Air
3 comments:
- Pat said...
It's finally warm here. 62 degrees and I've been out washing my car. Hang in there. Spring is on it's way to you :)
- March 8, 2014 at 3:15 PM
- Candice said...
What a lovely, hopeful photo.
- March 8, 2014 at 7:34 PM
- Karen said...
It's very warm here this weekend. Teasing us with spring.
Enjoy your weekend.
- March 8, 2014 at 9:53 PM
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Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Screw you, John: Democratic Sen. John Kerry, whose baffling explanation of votes on
"I think we're in a very different situation," Kerry told reporters. "I'm going to vote for this ... I think this money is important to our being successful and to the completion of the process."
Bush's request is expected to be approved by lawmakers despite concerns in the U.S. Congress about record federal budget deficits.
How to blow $82,000,000,000: Senator Byron Dorgan convened a hearing to shed light on the recent revelations of contractor corruption in
Senator Dorgan: "To see this kind of waste and this kind of corporate culture say, 'What the hell, it's just the American taxpayer- stick it to 'em...' Shame on them, shame on them. And shame on those who refuse to investigate... if we're paying $2.60 today for gasoline [in
Details of the corruption:
Halliburton has reportedly overcharged us $100 million dollars for fuel. They charged the
Halliburton charged for 42,000 meals per day when it only delivered 14,000 per day. "That's not a snafu, that's cheating," said Dorgan. No, Senator, that's not cheating. It's theft.
Buyers were instructed to purchase from 'preferred suppliers' using purchase orders less than $2,500. (because these were not audited)
Instructed not to use spreadsheets to avoid generating any kind of electronic trail.
KBR managers frequently used phrases like, "don't worry about the price, it's cost plus".
Cost Plus contracts gave no motivation to keep costs down since the higher the price, the more $$ they made.
Halliburton has 'earned' $9 billion in
Stealth DoD budget increase: The Bush administration asked Congress on Monday to provide $82 billion to cover unbudgeted costs in the global war on terrorism, but the request includes funds for a long-planned military reorganization and for activities such as tsunami aid that are seemingly unrelated to terrorism.
The president's supplemental request seeks $42.5 billion that would pay for military activities in
The request includes $3 billion that is unrelated to the wars in
Among the extras is $5.3 billion to pay for a restructuring of the Army and, to a lesser degree, the Marine Corps. The administration chose to not include those items in the $419.3 billion defense budget for 2006 that Bush submitted to Congress last week.
That omission has raised bipartisan concerns among members of Congress, who criticized the president for using the supplemental request to further bolster an already escalating defense budget, and to fund programs that are unrelated to military operations.
This speaks for itself: With military costs since Sept. 11, 2001, now expected to exceed $300 billion, the Pentagon is spending more per soldier to fight in
According to government figures, the war in
On average, the government spent a similar amount monthly on the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1975, according to figures, adjusted for inflation, from the Congressional Research Service.
The Bush administration has been financing the wars through a series of emergency spending measures, all paid for with borrowed money. Including reconstruction spending, those have totaled $228 billion in approved spending.
The latest emergency proposal, $81.9 billion, includes $74.9 billion for the Defense Department. It includes some $12 billion that was requested to replace or repair worn-out and damaged equipment, including $3.3 billion for extra armor for trucks and other protective gear underscoring a sensitivity to earlier complaints by troops.
The total request exceeds the annual defense budget of every other country in the world, according to figures supplied by the Center for Defense Information. The organization says


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NXNE 2012 (Thursday, June 13, 2012)
While these shows are fresh in my mind I want to get some quick notes down. I'm a nerd for not wanting to throw my full reviews out of sequence, so there'll be a fuller accounting of the night by and by that'll include even more details and recordings.
8 p.m.: Boxer The Horse @ El Mocambo (upstairs)
The first thing that struck me about Charlottetown quartet Boxer The Horse is that they still look fairly young — dapper vocalist/guitarist Jeremy Gaudet looked like he could have stepped away from some Rushmore-like private school to play with the band. The second thing that struck me as he began to sing is that accounts of Gaudet's Malkmus-ness are not inapt. But it would go too far to call them especially Pavement-y — the impression that he leaves is far closer to, say, "Jenny and the Ess-Dog" than "Two States". Which is to say that the band is working for a more straight-up rock'n'roll recipe book than something slanted and enchanted.
Closer observation also hinted at some other influences. Gaudet's economical body language — a wagging finger here, a hand on hip there — suggest, say, the archness of Jarvis Cocker. Some sublimated anglophilic tendencies were revealed when the band touched on both Edwyn Collins' "A Girl Like You" and some Billy Bragg. Note to young bands: in a showcase-style set where you're trying to show what's special about you, doing even one cover is questionable, but having two in the setlist is way too much.
The third — the above-mentioned Billy Bragg — came as a means for Gaudet to fill some time while guitarist Andrew Woods changed a string, so maybe that one can be written off to bad luck. The band was actually having a bit of a tough time in that regard, as bassist Christian Ledwell blew a string as well, forcing him to dash off stage mid-song to go hunting for a replacement.
When everything was in order, there were some good moments, and on the whole I dug the band. Definite potential being demonstrated, but it's not quite rounded out yet. Hopefully next time I see them, they have more of their own songs at hand then they have time to play.
Listen to a track from this set here.
9 p.m.: Jane's Party @ El Mocambo (upstairs)
Admittedly, I was sticking around to see local quartet Jane's Party because I was on hand for the bands in the timeslots before and after — although I had no particular preconceptions about them. They turned out to offer a slick retro-pop sound, with shades of, say, The Elwins cut with hints of soulful dad-rock.
Though there was an possibly-admirable lack of toughness in their approach, the restraint sometimes leaned a bit too far into bloodlessness. They have a good line in vocal harmonies and were nimble in switching instruments around, although none of the switches seemed to introduce any different flavours. Ultimately, this is a fine-enough band, but not particularly compelling to me. A little too safe and desexualized, and while there are some nice arrangements, none of the songs seemed to be about much that was really interesting.
None of these are fatal flaws, and in current market conditions they could do well for themselves with what they have already — although I'd hope that they have the time to get a little deeper.
10 p.m.: Carnivores @ El Mocambo (upstairs)
Atlanta's five-piece Carnivores, meanwhile, hit much closer to my sweet spot. Admittedly, there might not be anything more boundary-pushing with their throwback farfisa-y garage rock, but it's what I dig. A little sadly, as sometimes happens at these things, the band from the furthest away had the smallest turnout, though they were the best thing I'd seen at the El Mo on this night.
With vocals by committee, the band has a sound as vintage as the fringe on keyboardist Caitlin Lang's shirt. Her keyb sound underpinned the hazy guitars surrounding it, for a Nuggets-y feel that was more prominent than any "Southern" signifiers, though there is a long history of obscuro garage rock combos from down that way. In one sense, it almost felt as if working in that oeuvre, the band was some sort of time-displaced forerunner of a less straitlaced/more goofy regional blend — which is to say they probably sound a bit like some of the bands that influenced the B-52's.
Listen to a track from this set here.
11 p.m.: Grass Widow @ The Garrison
In the middle of a relatively high-profile bill, a nice full room at The Garrison for San Francisco's Grass Widow. Celebrating the release of Internal Logic (which was being sold at the merch table on vinyl and cassette), it seemed like there were some more people out to see the band than the last time they passed through town. I must confess: it's rather telling that I have very strong memories of The Raincoats, for whom they opened, but not much mental residue from their own set, which was a bit lacklustre. Perhaps I'm plagued by enjoying the platonic version of the band heard on their albums rather than the sloppier version that works in the flesh.
My memories of this show will be stronger, but it was still not an immaculate set. I am, of course, always an advocate for the shit-happens minor imperfections of live performance, but whether it was being at the end of their tour, or residual border exhaustion, the band was at about the far end of how sloppy I'd want to see a band playing. There were moments of great alchemy — a locked-in instrumental groove here, knee-wobbling three-part harmonies there, but there were also muffed guitar solos, dropped beats and the like to boot.
Those calling-card vocal interweavings are also a bit hard to get right on stage, especially in a quick-set-up festival setting. I was shaded to the side in the PA's sweet spot, so it mostly seemed all right for me, but there were people in the crowd shouting for more vocals throughout. All told, I'm still waiting to have my best-ever live experience with Grass Widow — but I like them enough that I'm eager to see them come back any time.
Listen to a track from this set here.
Midnite: The Nils FC @ Bovine Sex Club
There was a pretty substantial line when I left The Garrison, presumably to catch the next couple next-wave big-buzz bands on the lineup — but I was scurrying for a date with history. This time, the TTC wasn't on my side, and it was about a quarter-past when I got in through the door at The Bovine. There was a good crowd on hand, and definitely the first one I've seen at NXNE that I've felt at the young end rather than the old.
I must confess that I don't know much about Montréal's power-pop-via-punk The Nils — but I did know that founder/vocalist Alex Soria committed suicide back in '04, so I wasn't really sure what to expect from the band. It seems that this is a case where the band on stage knows that they're not the original thing and aren't trying to pass themselves off — although the festival has them billed as The Nils, Alex's brother Carlos Soria (bass) was at pains to tell the crowd that they were The Nils FC, and they were doing this for love, not money. (That said, they also wanted to sleep in a hotel and not someone's floor, so in the best punkrock tradition, they were hawking t-shirts from the stage during their last song.)
So I don't know if they were bona fide, but they were pretty good. Convened here as a quartet, I don't know any of the other members' relationships to the band's various incarnations, but they were in sync as a unit. Guitarust Marko Donato split vocal duties with Soria and the lineup was rounded out by Phil Gravedigger (guit) and Sebastien de Champlain (drums). They played with the devotion and energy that proved punk ain't a young man's game, and it was just rough enough to feel like a properly ragged tribute to Alex Soria's memory.
The Nils FC play again at The Great Hall on Saturday, June 16 @ 1AM
1 a.m.: Ivan Julian @ Bovine Sex Club
That was a satisfying excursion, but the main reason I'd come to The Bovine was to witness NY punkrock legend Ivan Julian. Julian was one of the guitar turbines that powered Richard Hell's Voidoids, creating some of the best rock music of all time. In the 90's, he was noted for his sideman work, most prominently with Matthew Sweet. And along the way, he's had some groups and worked as a producer, but never quite made a name for himself as a frontman. Seeing his name when I was going through the festival's listings, I was surprised there wasn't more chatter about his appearance, but I must confess that going in, even I wasn't sure if he'd have what it takes to pull it off as a solo performer.
That would turn out to have been utterly misplaced. Although his singing voice ranges closer to "functional" than "elegant", it fits the material well — and Julian was a live wire on stage with real presence — his face filled with emotion as he played before dramatically dropping to his knees. he also knew how to get the crowd onside, leading off with a fast version of "Love Comes in Spurts" before presenting some of the newer material from his revent Naked Flame album. Julian had some years on the members of his backing band, but they were all slashing foils and there was no shortage of dual guitar interplay. Stunning virtuosity, natch, but also real passion. A fabulous set, and I was rather glad that I went.
Listen to something old and something new from this set here. And n.b.: Julian plays again, tonite (June 15) at midnite at The Velvet Underground.


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Streaking clubs collide in the playoffsby Staff Writer / Vancouver Canucks
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The dates are yet to be confirmed, but Manitoba will face the Syracuse Crunch in what will surely be an exciting North Division Semi-Final. Like the Moose, the Crunch have excelled in the latter half of the season, posting an impressive 20-2-0-5 record since February 1st. Though Manitoba registered a league-high 10-game winning streak through March, Syracuse recently trumped the club's record by notching 11 straight wins through to April 6th.
In addition to those hot streaks, the Moose and Crunch split a heated four-game season series highlighted by a final fight-filled battle at the MTS Centre on January 25th. The Moose beat the Crunch for the second consecutive game that night, adding fuel to Syracuse's already-stoked fire heading into this first-round match-up. Having missed the playoffs last season, the Crunch's most-recent playoff memories are unpleasant: in the 2006 North Division Semi-Final, the higher-seed Crunch squandered a two-game series lead by suffering four straight losses to the Moose.
Manitoba's playoff roster has changed plenty in the past two seasons, but it's the current club's fluctuating line-up that has made headlines all year. Since the start of the season, 48 different players have suited up to play for the Moose, while an additional three signed on but never dressed in a game. Those 48 players give the Moose the third-largest season roster of any AHL team this season and the most-extensive line-up in franchise history.
Despite the injuries, recalls, and re-assignments, the Moose have stayed above .500 all season and set new standards along the way. A franchise-high eight-game road winning streak has been entered into the record books, as has the club's record-tying 10-game overall winning streak and 13-game point streak. On an individual note, rookie goalie Cory Schneider found his game in the latter half of the season, notching nine straight wins (tying a Moose record set by Johan Hedberg) and earning AHL Rookie of the Month honours in March.
Though a handful of other records are up for grabs in the three remaining regular season games, Manitoba is focused on grasping home-ice advantage for their playoff series vs. Syracuse. Like the Moose, the Crunch have iced over 45 players this year and have had time to tweak their roster heading into the post-season. Like the Moose, the Crunch's roster has also been reinforced by the elimination of their NHL affiliate, the Columbus Blue Jackets, who sent AHL All-Stars Joakim Lindstrom and Clay Wilson, as well as four others, back to Syracuse.
For Manitoba, a long season and a long roster will ideally result in a long playoff run. Clinching a playoff berth was step one, securing second place in the North Division is step two, and crushing the Crunch in the North Division Semi-final is step three. After that, it's step-by-step, game-by-game on the path to the Calder Cup.
4 - Consecutive seasons Manitoba has made the playoffs
6 - Michael Grabner needs six points to set a new franchise record for points by a rookie
7-2-0-1 - Moose's record in last ten games
45-26-2-4 - Manitoba's record this season
48 - Number of players that have suited up to for the Moose this season


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Two final floral photos and we're done on this tour.
Birds and Buds...eagles and gardening...bird-watching and digging in the dirt...these are all beautiful things...
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Garden Tour in Seattle neighborhood
Two final floral photos and we're done on this tour.
10 comments:
Thanks for posting your pics of this tour! I wanted to go on the Lake Forest Park tour, but we ended up going away to Vancouver that weekend.ReplyDelete
There's a West Seattle one coming up, also the Seattle Tilth Urban Farm tour. Those both look interesting. I want chickens too.
I can't believe that summer has come to Seattle! Great pictures. Gosh, I love living in Seattle.ReplyDelete
This looks like an awesome tour, Aerie-el. I too love how the grasses are artfully placed and look like running water. I want that small house! That blue pot with the face is way cool. I hope you can find one like it. The rock/mortar birdhouse is probably pretty heavy but it looks so cool. I like the English Laurel limbed up like it is. I do this with my Rhododendrons and plant under them. Total eye candy tour. I bet you came away with lots of ideas. Thanks for posting.ReplyDelete
What a fabulous tour! That first small house is gorgeous, don't show my chickens, they'll want an upgrade ;) I really like that stone-clad bird house. It does seem like it might get quite heavy, but on the other hand it probably holds up to the elements very well. As for goats, I soooooo want goats. That big chap with the horns is quite a handsome devil!ReplyDelete
What a beautiful Mountain Laurel. I would love to have that container too! Garden visits are so fun.ReplyDelete
Oh how interesting! I love that first shot - it really catches the eye how they planted the colours under those steps!ReplyDelete
Wow breathtaking creations. Lovely and inspirational. Chapeau bas!ReplyDelete
I enjoyed going on the tour with you. I like seeing what others are growing and what yard art they have. It looks like you got some good ideas from these gardens.ReplyDelete
Thank you. I enjoyed the tour.ReplyDelete
I enjoyed the tour immensely. I like seeing the world though your eyes. Thank you.ReplyDelete


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Yes, YES YES! YES! YES! Great stuff in The Bronx last night as the Yanks beat their nemesis Angels 5-2 to advance to the World Series for the first time in six years. Lefty was simply outstanding, going 6 1/3 strong and allowing 7 hits, a walk, 1 run earned, and fanning 6 on 99 pitches/64 strikes. From the beginning, he was smooth, efficient, and in control of all his pitches. His curve was particularly sharp and he used it with precision to both get ahead and strike out Angel batters. JD broke through with a two-run single to give the Yanks a 2-1 lead in the fourth that they would never relinquish, and the team took advantage of a couple Angel errors in the eighth to tack on crucial insurance runs after the Angels cut the lead to one off Mariano.
The game started with the Yanks stranding six runners in the first three innings, not unlike Game 4. That hurt, for they trailed 1-0 in the third as Mathis led off the third with a double, and Abreu's two-out single scored him. But the Yanks broke through in the fourth with a terrific rally off Saunders. Cano came back from 0-2 to work a walk, Swish singled, Melky bunted them over, Jeter worked an eight-pitch walk, and JD lined a 2-1 fastball to left center, 2-1 Yanks. After struggling in the ALDS, JD really came around in the ALCS, batting .300 with 5 RBI. Teixeira's infield single re-loaded the bases, and Saunders walked A-Rod on a close 3-1 fastball inside, 3-1 Yanks, ending Saunders's night after getting worked over for 30 pitches in the fourth. But Oliver entered and got Jorge to ground into an inning-ending 4-6-3 DP, clipping the threat short in a still productive fourth.
Andy kept the Angels in check, getting a 4-4-3 DP to end the fifth. The Angels threatened in the sixth with a two-out rally when Hunter got an infield single on a slow roller to A-Rod, and Vlad blooped a double to right on a pitch down and away, one that only Vlad would consider tantalizing, second and third. But Pettite got Morales on a comebacker off his glove and right in front of his face to escape.
After Teixeira's 5-5-3 DP ended the sixth, Lefty got Kendrick on a liner to Swish, then gave up a single to Rivera, ending his night and earning a standing ovation from a raucous Yankee Stadium crowd. Joba entered and was sharp, getting Mathis on a grounder that took a bad hop and bounced up hard on Jeter but thankfully careening right to Cano, standing on second, for the second out. As I reminded my daughter as we watched, that is why players move and move to the ball when it is hit–you never know what can happen. Joba then got Aybar on a 6-3 to end the seventh. A-Rod smoked a single up the middle to start the seventh but Jorge's second DP ball erased him.
Mariano entered for a six-out save in the eighth. Figgins started with a typical Mariano garbage hit, a bloop barely past the reach of a sprinting Jeter in shallow left. Teixeira made a great diving stop on Abreu's grounder, 3U and Figgins to second. Hunter grounded out to Cano on what could have been an RBI single, but Cano was cheating toward the middle to hold Figgins, two down. Vlad scored the first postseason run off Mariano in New York in ages, singling through the hole on the right side, 3-2 Yanks, but Mariano got Morales on a 4-3 to end the inning.
The Yanks got big insurance runs in the bottom half. Cano worked a four-pitch lead-off walk off Santana, Kazmir entered and Swish bunted, but Morales's throw bounced off Kendrick's glove at first, Swish safe. Melky bunted and Kazmir floated one well over the leaping Kendrick into right field, scoring Cano 4-2. Jeter grounded out to Kazmir, JD walked, and Teixeira ripped a long sac fly to center, scoring Swish, 5-2 Yanks. A-Rod walked again, but Weaver got Jorge looking, ending a chance to completely blow it open.
But honestly, that was that, for I knew like most others that Mariano wasn't going to allow more. He buzzed through the last three, getting Kendrick on a 3U, Rivera on an F8, and fanning Matthews Jr. to end the game and ALCS.
In a spirited late-night chinwag with Frank the Sage, we paid considerable respects to the fallen Angels, truly a tough team. The Sage put it well when he said that, with all due respect to the Red Sox, it is the Angels who have been the Yanks' biggest nemesis this decade, certainly in the playoffs. It is the Angels beyond whom the Yanks could not advance come October. In the immortal words of Inspector Clouseau, Not anymore. This was a tough series win, one well earned, and one that I and a good many of us knew had to occur. The Yanks had to get past the Angels, they had to solve their playoff nemesis just as the Angels had to and did solve theirs in Boston. That New York did, and they did it with good pitching and some timely hitting. They will need to improve their RISP hitting against the Phillies, going 2-8 last night but stranding 12. They also played good defense (including getting a great 9-3 DP from Swish doubling off Vlad in the second) and committed far fewer mistakes than the usually mistake-free Angels. But pitching won the series, with the Yanks holding Figgins to .130, Abreu to .160, Morales to .167, and Rivera to .200. That's simply outstanding.
The Big Guy got the ALCS MVP, although it could easily have gone to A-Rod or could have been shared between the two. Regardless, C.C. was money, as was A-Rod. Kudos to Melky (.391) for having a heck of an ALCS, too.
Not to be overlooked in all the mirth, what a great way to open the new digs, getting to the World Series in its first year. Honestly, although I had a few worries about some of the super-rich and their selective presence draining from the atmosphere, the new Stadium sounds an awful lot like the old one–LOUD.
I have to confess to being tempted to advocate pitching C.C. last night to seal the deal. But truly, who better to have going on the mound than the man who is now the winningest postseason pitcher in the history of the game? Pettite's gem earned him his 16th playoff victory, the most ever. The guy is flat-out money, and was dominant when he had to be. I can't say enough about Lefty; great performance in what has been a great year for him. Great move bringing him back; great.
Back to the World Series for the first time since 2003, and it starts Wednesday night. Although I am still under the weather, I am feeling a bit better, and may open up the Digital Living Room Wednesday night. Funny how a trip to the World Series changes one's outlook.
Enjoy it, Yankees fans. We have been blessed thus far this year, and I don't think it ends here.
[Edit: Thanks to everyone for stopping by The Heartland lately. Last week, there were over 2,000 site visits, well more than usual. I greatly appreciate that people come here to discuss baseball, and it still honestly surprises me that this blog has drawn any sort of attention despite my lack of spare time. Thanks a lot, really.]


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There has been a lot of debate about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints statement on immigration. Those that demand Justice and those the demand Mercy. I think in this debate we need to be mindful of a parable told by Boyd K. Packer
Let me tell you a story--a parable.
There once was a man who wanted something very much. It seemed more important than anything else in his life. In order for him to have his desire, he incurred a great debt.
He had been warned about going into that much debt, and particularly about his creditor. But it seemed so important for him to do what he wanted to do and to have what he wanted right now. He was sure he could pay for it later.
So he signed a contract. He would pay it off some time along the way. He didn't worry too much about it, for the due date seemed such a long time away. He had what he wanted now, and that was what seemed important.
The creditor was always somewhere in the back of his mind, and he made token payments now and again, thinking somehow that the day of reckoning really would never come.
But as it always does, the day came, and the contract fell due. The debt had not been fully paid. His creditor appeared and demanded payment in full.
Only then did he realize that his creditor not only had the power to repossess all that he owned, but the power to cast him into prison as well.
"I cannot pay you, for I have not the power to do so," he confessed.
"Then," said the creditor, "we will exercise the contract, take your possessions, and you shall go to prison. You agreed to that. It was your choice. You signed the contract, and now it must be enforced."
"Can you not extend the time or forgive the debt?" the debtor begged. "Arrange some way for me to keep what I have and not go to prison. Surely you believe in mercy? Will you not show mercy?"
The creditor replied, "Mercy is always so one-sided. It would serve only you. If I show mercy to you, it will leave me unpaid. It is justice I demand. Do you believe in justice?"
"I believed in justice when I signed the contract," the debtor said. "It was on my side then, for I thought it would protect me. I did not need mercy then, nor think I should need it ever. Justice, I thought, would serve both of us equally as well."
"It is justice that demands that you pay the contract or suffer the penalty," the creditor replied. "That is the law. You have agreed to it and that is the way it must be. Mercy cannot rob justice."
There they were: One meting out justice, the other pleading for mercy. Neither could prevail except at the expense of the other.
"If you do not forgive the debt there will be no mercy," the debtor pleaded.
"If I do, there will be no justice," was the reply.
Both laws, it seemed, could not be served. They are two eternal ideals that appear to contradict one another. Is there no way for justice to be fully served, and mercy also?
There is a way! The law of justice can be fully satisfied and mercy can be fully extended--but it takes someone else. And so it happened this time.
The debtor had a friend. He came to help. He knew the debtor well. He knew him to be shortsighted. He thought him foolish to have gotten himself into such a predicament. Nevertheless, he wanted to help because he loved him. He stepped between them, faced the creditor, and made this offer.
"I will pay the debt if you will free the debtor from his contract so that he may keep his possessions and not go to prison."
As the creditor was pondering the offer, the mediator added, "You demanded justice. Though he cannot pay you, I will do so. You will have been justly dealt with and can ask no more. It would not be just."
And so the creditor agreed.
The mediator turned then to the debtor. "If I pay your debt, will you accept me as your creditor?"
"Oh yes, yes," cried the debtor. "You save me from prison and show mercy to me."
"Then," said the benefactor, "you will pay the debt to me and I will set the terms. It will not be easy, but it will be possible. I will provide a way. You need not go to prison."
And so it was that the creditor was paid in full. He had been justly dealt with. No contract had been broken. The debtor, in turn, had been extended mercy. Both laws stood fulfilled. Because there was a mediator, justice had claimed its full share, and mercy was fully satisfied.
Each of us lives on a kind of spiritual credit. One day the account will be closed, a settlement demanded. However casually we may view it now, when that day comes and the foreclosure is imminent, we will look around in restless agony for someone, anyone, to help us.
And, by eternal law, mercy cannot be extended save there be one who is both willing and able to assume our debt and pay the price and arrange the terms for our redemption.
Unless there is a mediator, unless we have a friend, the full weight of justice untempered, unsympathetic, must, positively must fall on us. The full recompense for every transgression, however minor or however deep, will be exacted from us to the uttermost farthing.
But know this: Truth, glorious truth, proclaims there is such a Mediator.
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." (1 Tim. 2:5.)
Through Him mercy can be fully extended to each of us without offending the eternal law of justice. (From "The Mediator," Ensign, May 1977, pp. 54-56)
I think that we need to remember that in order for their to be MERCY there must be a mediator or someone to pay the demands of JUSTICE.
In the debate over immigration we know what the demand are for Justice are. What we don't know is who willing pay the demands of Justice in order for their to be Mercy.
Just something to think about.


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Belliard Re-Signs
Interesting... It'll depend on how much the cash outlay is, but this is an interesting move. I like the guy, and he's played well, but 2B never age particularly well, and nobody looks at Belliard and thinks "athlete." (Of course, his larger size might be a reason why he could outlast the typical waif-like second basemen?)
Still, he's a solid player, and he's proven himself to be valuable, zipping all over the infield.
I wonder, though, what, if anything, this means about their upcoming decision on Felipe Lopez? The terms of the deal'll let us know.
I'll have more as we know more!
Color me meh. It's not that Belliard's a terrible player. I'm just worried about him falling off the cliff. And since it was so 'easy' to find a player like him floating around before spring training -- and it seems like there's always a player like him who's squeezed out by numbers -- might this money have been better spent elsewhere? (Especially since Bowden's strength is supposedly the ability to pick up players like him)
It's not that it's a bad deal for a player like Belliard. He'll give $3.5 million of production in one year of starting alone. It's just that if he's a backup, and given the Nats needs at other positions, maybe there was a better way than spending it on a utility infielder? SIGN MCGEARY AND SMOKER1!!!!1!!
The major-league minimum salary is climbing. I can't remember the rise, but it's going to be about $500K fairly soon. If you factor that in to the Belliard equation, it's not a terrible deal, if you assume he can keep up his production.
I cannot decide whether Belliard's signing says more about the malleability of the organizational plan (hereinafter, of course, "The Plan") or says nothing about The Plan, or whether the two are functionally the same thing when discussing The Plan. Is it overly cynical to postulate that just about every transaction, statement, manuever, or movement will be construed by some as not only in light of The Plan, but also in furtherance thereof? Hell, I swear Stan Kasten could announce tomorrow that he's going out for the role of the King of Siam in a community production held at the local middle school and a sizable contingent would note he's doing so as a calculated measure to gain in-roads in terms of Far East talent accumulation. Does signing Belliard to a two-year contract extension say anything at all about team-building? Must it?


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Parents have a legal responsibility to ensure that their children are educated. Most parents choose to delegate this responsibility to a school. The law states: "The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable; a) to his age, ability, and aptitude, and b) to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise." It is the last two words of this statement that entitles parents in the UK to lawfully home educate.
Deciding to home educate is a big decision for a family and one that is taken for a variety and complex set of reasons. This may be because you feel your child is too young to start, they may be at school and being bullied or have particular needs that are not being met, you may feel that the environment in a school will not enable you child to learn, you may not like the idea of your child being tested at a young age. Whatever the reason it is not one taken lightly.
Home education can and does take many forms, as parents you have autonomy over the way this is delivered, you can choose the method most appropriate for your child(ren). You my decide on a structured approach for some or all the time with lessons and workbooks, or a more autonomous approach, which means that the child takes charge of their own learning. Although this may seem like a riskier path to take it is exactly the path that your child follows until they reach school age. We don't teach out child to sit up, to stand up. to walk or to play they learn this by their own means.
In most school environments, children are taught much of what they learn. The subjects are taught using the framework of the National Curriculum, a set of guidelines which outlines what should be covered at each 'key stage'. How a school chooses to follow the National Curriculum varies greatly. Some take a topic lead approach. and then apply each area of the National Curriculum for example food, in history you could look at what people were eating 100 to 200 years ago, geography what food is grown in different parts of this county and the world, science how and what plants need to grow and so on. Others will teach each subject in isolation with no cross curricular activity at all.
Whatever you think of the National Curriculum and how your local school applies it, a child has little or no autonomy. If they are not interested in a particular subject or topic and find themselves switching off, you have to hope that they will switch on again when they are interested. If they don't learn to read at the age set down in the National Curriculum will they get extra help later and will this make it harder for them to engage at later key stages?
Allowing your child some or complete autonomy may feel like a huge leap of faith, so why do we feel like that? Have we become conditioned to believe that they only way to learn now is by sitting in a room at a desk? That all the learning taking place needs to measured regularly to ensure that learning is actually taking place, that we cannot trust our teachers to enable this? There are so many ways of learning, if that happens entirely outside of a school, the route is tailored to the needs of the learner as opposed to the education establishment, where they are governed by the teacher(s) and the ethos of the establishment.
For our family we decided that home education was for us. I worked for a while in a local school primarily to get to know more people in the village and whilst I achieved this aim, I also got to know the national curriculum. I completed my own schooling before this was introduced fully, so had no personal experience of it. For me, the National Curriculum, the monitoring and the testing was not a framework or method that I could reconcile with at all. I had assumed from what I had read and heard in the media that it is child centred and that each child can and will be able to learn at their own pace. My own experience in my local schools was that this was far from the case. The emphasis was on how the children could be taught to improve or sustain good results for the school. So what else? My issue with the local schools was the National Curriculum, there were no schools near to me that used any other curriculum unless I was prepared to travel 40 + miles (one way) to our nearest Steiner school. I knew that you could Home Educate, I had had a friend whilst at school who was home educated and I had met children where I live who were home educated, so I set about doing some research. I looked on the internet for local groups, for useful websites, for information on how other families went about it. I discussed it at length with my husband. I would never have taken this path if one or other of us had any doubts, it was very important to me that we both on board 100% from the start. I did decide first that I wanted to follow that route, rather than suggesting this to my husband this was the route we should take, I opened the discussion as to what path our children's education should follow. I didn't present him with a fait accomplit. We follow an autonomous route at the moment, this could change as the children get older, for now it works for us.
If you are considering home education and you have concerns, fears and questions they will be valid. Write them all down and do some research, if does not allay your fears and concerns maybe it is not for you and your family. If your family is two adults and your children, do discuss it! If you do decide to follow that path then I hope that it will be an inspirational and enjoyable way.


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They aren't empty. They are inhabited by people slightly out of phase with our reality who are victims of failed Chinese time travel experiments.
Now that I read this and research this topic, my dream comes back to mind and it is making me very nervous. very very nervous.
Originally posted by seabag
reply to post by scottlpool2003
China have been buying up African land for a long time. Britain used to when they colonized over there for the purpose of mines. The mines dried up, Britain moved out and now China see it as a great asset as it is full of natural resources that have not been procured. I saw a documentary on it a while back, I forget what it was called though.
The claims were something along the line of China are going over to Africa, and in return for them building things like these cities, they are employing Africans in poorer regions.
As another poster said, it's a perfect way to claim the land for themselves.
Ahhh…well that makes sense.
Although aside from China, I've never seen anyone build an entire city at a single time. From a development standpoint, typically you'd have people on lease ready to move in before you even break ground. The buildings in China have been there for years and still no residents or tenants. That's billions spent in advance with no money coming in....just seems odd. Maybe they just have money to burn.
Precisely.. aside from China... it was China who built them??
China did this to prop up their building of new homes/buildings, to inflate their growth.
Originally posted by seabag
How does a mayor show growth in his city by building in AFRICA?
The jewel in Angola's post-war reconstruction crown, Kilamba is the star of glossy government promotional videos which show smiling families enjoying a new style of living away from the dust and confusion of central Luanda where millions live in sprawling slums.
But the people in these films are only actors, and despite all the hype, nearly a year since the first batch of 2,800 apartments went on sale, only 220 have been sold.
well some of those ghost cities in china are actually being inhabited based on news sources
Originally posted by seabag
reply to post by Meekbot2000
maybe they believe that a pole shift would result in china becoming inhabitable?
Then why did they spend billions on 'ghost cities' in China?
They even have giant structures that can be seen from outer space.


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There is only one Green party and in this election we can make a difference
Darren Johnson
The Guardian, Thursday 29 April 2010
Your article about eco policy in the election campaign did not mention the Green party's policies (Last chance to save planet, say parties vying for green vote, 26 April). You focused on the two parties who'd launched their green manifestos the previous day, but comparing only Labour and Lib Dem eco policies was a bit like assessing which of two bald men was the best advert for a comb.
The article describes the Lib Dems' "£400 eco cashback scheme for new double glazing, boilers or solar panels". Had you compared this with the Green party's manifesto, you would have discovered that to meet the right CO2 targets, we need a £4bn-a-year programme to ensure all UK homes are energy-efficient. Similarly, the Lib Dems' "pledge to redirect £3.1bn" to green job-creation; but we believe that to achieve the necessary emissions reductions the UK would need a £44bn investment package, creating over a million green jobs.
And the article did not consider the parties' track record: for example, while the Lib Dems say they want more renewable energy, they have opposed windfarm proposals in Cornwall, Cumbria, Devon and Worcestershire. You say the Lib Dems would tackle aviation emissions, but don't point out that they've avidly supported airport expansions in Birmingham, Carlisle, Exeter, Liverpool, Manchester and Norwich.
And on their proposed fiscal measures to reduce road traffic, you don't say that they have voted against such schemes in Edinburgh, Manchester and York; not to mention that they've supported new road-building, from Newbury to the M74 and the proposed new Lancaster bypass.
You note that the Lib Dems say they want a zero-carbon economy by 2050. It would have been reasonable to observe that even if the Lib Dems' policies and practice were capable of achieving this, the target is in fact 20 years too late to satisfy the science. Perhaps the most reliable thing Nick Clegg says in the article was this: "Choose the only party that was taking a stand on saving the planet well before it became fashionable." On behalf of the Green party I'd like to say: thank you, Nick.
Meanwhile, what of Labour? Yes, it passed the Climate Change Act; yet it has attached to it the wrong targets and the wrong policies. But as you reveal, Labour is weaker than the Lib Dems on aviation, road-building, coal and nuclear. And Labour wants just 5,000 eco trade apprenticeships, whereas the Green party has identified a need for 350,000 training places.
On a proper comparison, one would surely have to conclude that there is still only one Green party. And this time, in places like Brighton, Norwich and Lewisham, the Greens are in with a real chance of a breakthrough, according to pollsters YouGov and ICM. If even a few Greens are elected they will be influential – able to cut through Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative greenwash in the House of Commons and force the debate to get real.
Thursday, 29 April 2010
The main parties are spouting greenwash – we are the real deal
Posted by Graham Crawford at 06:52:00


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Many people around our great state are thrilled that summer has finally arrived. Though it's not official for a few weeks, evidence is everywhere. Joggers and bicyclists are out on the trails and paths. Ball players and golfers are swinging away in the warm weather. Boats are suddenly appearing on the water and outdoor music festivals are underway at the various venues throughout the area.
Before you know it, we will be talking about the Woodward Dream Cruise
and then, just like that, summer will be winding down and everyone will
be looking forward to football season.
I mention all this because time has a way of getting away from us. I
believe we've all heard the expressions, "You're wasting my time" and
"Time is money." There are a lot of things money can buy, but time is
definitely not one of them. But even though we aren't able to buy time,
most of us can improve how we manage it. That's significant because
money management and time management go hand in hand.
People often ask me when they should start saving for their retirement.
The fact is, it's never too early, especially since time has a way of
simply getting away from us.
For example, setting taxes aside and using a purely hypothetical growth
rate of 6 percent, lets take a look at what could happen with two
individuals, both aged 21.
Suppose one begins saving $100 per month. The other delays saving for 10
years and doesn't begin saving until age 31. In other words, one has a
10-year head start.
Remarkably, the one who began saving at age 21 has nearly double the
amount in his nest egg at age 65 than his buddy who waited 10 years. In
other words, the disciplined one who began saving at age 21 used time to
his advantage.
Mathematicians, economists, financial advisers and bankers all know the
amazing value of compound interest. They understand how time tends to
enhance the value of money.
The bond market can illustrate another example. A 10-year bond these
days would pay you somewhere in the neighborhood of 2.5 percent. But if
you could commit your investment to a 30-year bond, you'd get around 3
percent. That may not sound like much, but the difference is
There's no such thing as saving too soon or too little. No matter the
amount, if you can save on a regular basis, you will be rewarded. And
the sooner you start, the sooner you can reap the benefits of two great
allies. Compound interest and time.
Remember, time cannot be bought or replaced. Once it's gone, it's gone forever.
As life expectancies increase, it's a challenge to make certain that
your income lasts as long as you do. That's why it's so critical to do
everything in your power to grow a sizeable nest egg. And a good path to
achieving that goal is to start early, stay on course and manage
The earlier you start saving, the more you're using time as an ally.
Seasons go fast, so enjoy them to the fullest. Because once they're
gone, they're gone forever. No amount of money can bring back time; but
time can help you enjoy many more seasons as you go through life.


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I think the Elf on the Shelf is a product of Satan. There. I've said it.
I know, I know, the last thing this world needs is another Elf on the Shelf-hating blog, not when we already have the quintessential , gold standard from Jen at People I Want to Punch in the Throat: http://www.peopleiwanttopunchinthethroat.com/2011/12/over-achieving-elf-on-shelf-mommies.html
Let's face it- Jen made it ok for us to hate this f*cking Elf. A hatred for which I am, completely, on board.
Today, I read this other blog on Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matt-pelc/how-the-elf-on-the-shelf-ruined-our-christmas_b_4435749.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular about how the Elf has- LITERALLY- ruined Christmas for his family due to his daughter being completely heartbroken over the departure of the Elf . The kid was on a crying jag until mid-January!
The Elf on the shelf, if you live under a rock or shun all commercialism (and who could blame you), is a
Elf doll that you buy for approximately$30… and this thing terrorizes your kids for the Holiday Season.
You can get an Elf that is gender specific and suitable to your race or ethnic background… Megan Kelly will, undoubtedly, oppose this concept.
The concept of an elf, either on or off a shelf, is not a new one. There are reports of little Elf dolls in the 60's and even earlier.
They would "come to visit" for Christmas and they would return year after year. But they didn't overstay their welcome, they didn't rat you out to Santa and they didn't create mayhem.
The Elf of today is a creepy little jerk. He has big eyes who are always eye-balling you. Long- probably- FAKE eyelashes.
Rosy cheeks and a smug grin. This little bastard is ripe for a beating.
I don't have kids, so I guess I must be "missing the magic." For me, it seems this Elf is just a major pain in the ass.
Let's review the rules, which, I admit, I wasn't entirely familiar before doing my research, but have since made me hate his guts even more.
Rule #1- The Elf's main job is to monitor the behavior of the family rug rats. (Stalker)
Rule #2- The Elf flies back to the North Pole every night to make his report to Santa Claus. The Elf reports when the kid has been bad. (Narc)
Rule #3- The Elf stays in your house from the day after Thanksgiving until Christmas Eve. (Freeloader)
Rule #4- The children cannot touch The Elf or speak directly to the Elf. (Diva)
Rule #5- If The Elf is touched, the Christmas magic will be completely erased from the Elf. (Drama Queen)
Rule # 6- The Elf's position has to be changed every day. (High Maintenance)
As an added bonus, although, not really a RULE… The Elf is encouraged to "get into mischief" overnight. Because flying to the North Pole EVERYNIGHT doesn't fill up this little jackhole's time, The Elf has to mess up stuff in your house because… IT'S FUN!!!
I have a few problems with the whole Elf scam.
1) At the holidays, arguably, the busiest time of the year, this Elf heaps additional work on parents. And let's face it- it's probably the Mom who has to do all of the Elf moving, etc.
2) Kids get attached to stuff. The fact that my nephew spends the ENTIRE YEAR reenacting The Grinch- stealing everyone's stuff, and taking "the last can of Who-Hash" indicates kids do not let anything go. So when The Elf has to "leave," they get pissed, which in turn makes the parents pissed or feel like crap and someone could end up getting a spanking.
3) It's really great to illustrate to kids, who are supposed to be on their best behavior, that it's OK for The Elf to, you know, knock over the plant , get a BJ from Barbie or wrap your toilet in wrapping paper. Way to be a role model, Elf.
Ain't nobody got time for that
4) The amount of work / stress The Elf creates for parents to come up with some kind of activity for The Elf to do. It's hard enough to keep your kids busy on a snow day.
5) The guilt and panic The Elf creates when the parents forget to move this little jerk overnight. I can't tell you how many Facebook posts I see of "Oh crap, I forgot to move Chippy last night! I'm the worse Mom!!!" F*ck Chippy- tell that little jerk to get off his lazy ass and move himself.
But here is my biggest problem with The Elf. He's an unnecessary middle-man.
Why does Santa need a middle man or a proxy? A $30, work-creating, judgmental, guilt-inducing proxy, I might add.
This guy normally has things covered, no?
As the song goes "He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows if you've been bad or good… "
Why do we need this Elf? Why is Santa no longer enough of a threat?!?!?
Growing up, when we misbehaved my mother would spit, through clenched teeth "Santa Claus is watching you."
Santa Claus is going to beat your ass when we get home
Hello??!!? This statement in and of itself is creepy enough to have had me checking under my bed before going to sleep.
I recently posted a comment on a friend's Facebook status about The Elf on the Shelf that "Why is Santa Claus no longer enough of a threat?"
One of her friends commented "IT'S NOT A THREAT! IT'S SOMETHING FUN TO DO WITH YOUR CHILD!!!" Yes, I can see by your aggressive, angry typing that you are having a LOT of fun, lady! Hahaha
Suggestive Horseplay with Fruit
Get out your glue gun, this jerk needs a house
Reenacting Timeless Hollywood Films
Mocking The Boy in the Plastic Bubble
Mmmm, can't get enough feces in my cookies
My all-time favorite "Elf" related picture
So this is my two cents on that creepy little f-er. He must be stopped.
Let's get back to the things that matter at Christmas time: cookies and booze.
Happy Holidays!! xo