text:
There has been a fair amount of activity over on the Designers forum at Ravelry.com, tossing about the idea of a union. Again. The last time I posted on that forum it lead to death threats. That is not hyperbole. I do not post on that forum any more. But I have a few things to say on the issue (ok a lot of things but I will try to edit down to a few) so here they are, in no particular order.
I am pro-union. I grew up in a union household, and I was a proud member of TWU Local 764 for many years, where I was honored to be selected by my peers to serve as a shop steward and a member of a contract negotiating team. I am not tossing around the words 'proud' and 'honored' lightly - my union years were an important part of who I am today. I do not think a designers' union is a good idea for a variety of reasons, which if listed would take me well out of the edited post ballpark so I won't go on and on. But here's the biggie.
When I was a union member, the people who spoke on my behalf were people that I trusted, people that my peers and I had elected to speak for us, people that had gained the respect of the people on both sides of the negotiating table by acting responsibly, even through disagreements, even through the occasional scream-fest. There are several people posting on that thread who I would not trust to give me directions to the corner grocery store, let alone have a voice in how I run my business. No I won't say who they are - and they probably aren't who you are guessing. That's not the issue. The issue is before you follow someone into an endeavor that will take a lot of time and money and brain-space away from your own business and your own life, make sure that person is worth following. Do some research, don't just skim the threads and think you are making an informed choice. Follow who you like, but know who that is. Your name and reputation are at stake.
OK well maybe it's not a union, it's an association or guild or society. I have a little experience there too. I am a past member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Membership there is something that one aspires to - the barrier for entry is high. That's as it should be. It was not formed to educate aspirants (although there is a lot of education that happens once you are a member), and it was not formed to bring new people into the industry. It was and is a membership organization that self-selects to high standards, for people who are working professionals, who can then interact with either other and the industry at large to the betterment of all.
That's not the kind of society I see being talked about. I see a society or guild or union or whatever that pretty much anyone can join so it doesn't seem 'elitist', and that whoever screams the loudest - or has the most free time - will wind up leading. How do you think an organization like that will benefit the design community? More to the point, how do you think an organization like that won't actively hurt us as a whole by making us look like a collective of excitable idiots?
But back to the knowledge is power theme of this entry. I have heard over and over again that established designers don't share financial information because they are afraid of retribution from the big bad publishers. I call bullshit. I see people, new people trying to run a business in the needlearts industry and I tell them all kinds of things. I overshare. I'll tell you anything you want to know if I think you are running or trying to run a legitimate business, whether full time or part time, whether focused on traditional publishing or indie publishing. I worked hard and spent a lot of money and time acquiring my extensive network of contacts and information. I am not posting the results of that effort for all to see - but I am happy to share with those I look forward to working with as colleagues. If that's elitist I can live with that.
Anyway, believe it or not I DID edit this post down! And I hope that discussion on Ravelry and here and wherever else leads to some interesting discussions. All I am asking of anyone in this business is to look before you leap - then leap away!


text:
Julie's Mistake Ch. 10byGrantLee©
Several days had passed since Roger and Jackson had relentlessly fucked Julie on the couch in her own home. The soreness that Julie had felt in her neatly trimmed pussy that was a result of Roger's massive penis was now gone, but she was not able to shake the feeling that her life was spinning entirely out of control. As she had found before, the physical part of her sexual trials were easier to get over than the mental part. The beautiful woman chastised herself over and over, not for submitting to the sexual encounter - she had convinced herself that she had no other choice – but for being overcome with a hot, searing sexual desire during the encounter. That was horrible enough for the young lawyer, but to actually meet the men's thrusts as they fucked her was something she could not accept about herself. She really couldn't be that deprived, could she, she wondered?
Her grief was further magnified because Jackson had not only witnessed her absolute sexual abandon with Roger – she had seen him masturbating while Roger fucked her relentlessly - but he had experienced her tanned, supple body, again, after Roger. And, if that wasn't enough, she had shamefully been worked hard by Gene Jackson and climaxed with him, too!
The tanned blonde blanched at the thought of her sexual wantonness. The mental image that she had of her muscular, tanned thighs being wrapped around Jackson's legs as he took her only seconds after Roger was too much for her. The thought of his pasty white beer-belly lying on her firm stomach between her naked thighs was nauseating to her. The recollection of the feeling of his long, stiff penis penetrating her wet vagina was also too much to bear. And the humiliation of him shooting his hot seed into her tight pussy while grunting loudly was equally shattering. The young lawyer recalled that it seemed to take forever for the man to empty the contents of his large testicles into the wet slit of Julie's vagina. She cringed at the thought of her lying there on the couch, legs spread, knees bent and bare feet on the couch, with this disgusting man between them, but her tight ass pumping up against him, draining his cock's thick fluid from his bouncing testicles.
She tried to reconcile her behavior by blaming her response on the alcohol, but she knew better. It seemed to her that she was changing ever so slightly. It concerned her that she now thought more about sexual intercourse than she ever had before. She cringed knowing that she sometimes shamefully thought back to the fucking that Roger had given her and realized that her thoughts caused her vagina had moistened to the point of her silk panties getting wet. She found herself wondering whether it was the sheer size of Roger's erect penis that gave her so much pleasure or whether it was simply the craven, animalistic nature of the act of them coupling. And there were times where she would awaken from a dream of her being fucked by one of the strangers at the madam's Manhattan apartment where she would be so sexually excited that she would be unable to go back to sleep. That was not like her at all.
Julie did know that she could not continue behaving the way that she was being led to behave. She had to stop it immediately. The only question was whether she could stop. After very serious deliberations, she finally came to the conclusion that she had to confront Hall about her concerns. She did this with great trepidation because she knew that he was not a man to be trifled with and because she knew that he had the one physical piece of evidence that could ruin her life. Still she felt a need to talk to him. Her heart fluttered nervously as she dialed his phone number.
***** The high heels clicked loudly on the marble floors leading to the CEO's office. The tall brunette did not know why she had been summoned to the office, but she knew that the business was one of her husband's law firm's largest accounts. She knew of some of the problems that he complained of about his work. He had told her that his position was tenuous at best at the firm. Since he was the sole bread winner in the family and they had two children about to start college, this was the source of some high stress for him. Consequently, some of the difficulties that they were experiencing in their marriage she attributed to his work.
Still, she had no idea why she was asked to meet at this office nor why the meeting was one with such an air of confidentiality. But, she knew that she would find out soon enough. She checked with the executive secretary and was told to have a seat. She walked over to a stiff backed leather chair and sat down at its edge, crossing her long shapely legs demurely. She smoothed her short skirt and fluffed the dark brown hair that cascaded around her pretty face and lay on her shoulders.
After several minutes, the secretary spoke.
"Mrs. Jackson, Mr. Hall will see you now."
Pamela Jackson rose and entered the large, paneled office through the open door. As she passed the threshold, the thick wooden door shut behind her. She walked toward the tall, middle-aged man who was standing behind the desk. His office was extremely luxurious. Behind him, through the large windows, was the city skyline.
He smiled at her and seemed to take her measure as she approached. He admired what he saw. She was a statuesque brunette, tall and shapely, quite the catch for any top law student, he thought. Hall knew that Gene and Pamela Jackson had been married since he was in law school, but he had never met the wife before. He was very pleased with what his eyes beheld.
Pamela Jackson exuded a ripely sensuous sexuality that was heightened by her maturity. She was probably in her mid-thirties, he thought, and kept herself in very, very good shape. "Hours at the gym" was the phrase that went through Hall's mind as he watched her walk in. What a shame, he thought, to be relegated to fucking a fat, disgusting bastard like Gene Jackson.
Pamela wore a high collared white blouse that was stiffly starched. Its long sleeves made it that much more businesslike. It was tucked into the dark brown skirt in an effort to appear perfectly professional and covered by a jacket that matched the skirt. However, the blouse was tight enough that it revealed her full jutting breasts that were set closely together beneath the cloth. The outfit was very conservative but also underscored the fact that the woman had a very narrow waist that flared to shapely hips and loins that had borne children years ago for the man to whom she was married. The skirt was the only part of the outfit that was less than perfectly conservative. The skirt itself was fairly tight and the hem was several inches above her knees. When she sat she revealed a broad expanse of thigh.
"Mrs. Jackson," Hall said with a nod of his head.
"Hello, Mr. Hall," Pamela replied. "Please call me Pamela."
"Pamela," Hall repeated. "Let's get right to the point. I received a call from you husband's firm. They've about had it with him."
Pamela Jackson felt her stomach begin to churn. This couldn't be happening, she thought. Not now. What would happen to all of them?
"I know that he's told me that the firm is having problems," Pamela interjected.
"No, Pamela, the firm isn't having problems. Gene Jackson's tenure as a lawyer there is coming to an abrupt end. That is the problem. They called me to see if I would object to them firing him."
"Oh, my, no!" was all that escaped the soft lips of the striking brunette.
"So, you see what sort of position that puts me in," Hall said with a scowl. "Frankly, if it affected only him, I'd say they should have fired him months ago. He's become a dead weight there."
Pamela's dark brown eyes widened and she looked at Hall, fearful of saying or doing anything. Why would he be talking to her that way?
"But I've become aware that he is not only dead weight, but he's also subject to being fired for just cause."
Pamela couldn't believe what she was hearing. How could that be, she wondered?
"What basis would the firm have to fire him for just cause?" Pamela asked.
"Well, right now they don't know they have 'just cause,'" Hall said. "I have the evidence that they'd need to do it, though. The evidence I have gives me a legal claim against the firm for employing him. All I'd have to do is tell them what I've got and I'm sure they'd be willing to fire him to escape their own liability. Do you know what that means?"
"Of course, I do," the beautiful wife responded. "At least I think I do."
"In case you don't, I'll fill you in." Hall stared hard at the face of the woman before him. He paused for effect. The woman's polished fingers were nervously playing with the top of her skirt as she sat before him. He knew she was mortified. He paused for several seconds. Then he continued.
"Mrs. Jackson, it would mean that he loses his equity in the partnership. He forfeits his ownership interest in the firm if he is fired for bringing the firm into disrepute."
"What would he have done to bring the firm into disrepute? She asked.
Hall ignored the question. "If he loses his ownership interest, then when he's fired, he leaves with nothing. If he's fired for cause, he doesn't even get severance pay. He loses his retirement. That means that you lose everything too, doesn't it?"
Pamela nodded slightly. Even a divorce from him would do her no good, she thought. He would have ruined them both. Still, she wasn't convinced that he would ever have done anything to harm their family.
"What … what could he have possibly done to warrant a firing?" she asked again.
"When he became difficult for me to reach during the day," Hall began, "I wondered why. Why was my business being neglected? When I was being billed for trips, what was he doing? I decided to have a private investigator try and determine that." Hall was lying, but he knew that Pamela had no way of knowing that.
"I was outraged to find out that when he went to Manhattan several weeks ago that he billed me for time that he spent with two young women at a whore house. He was cheating me on his bills while fucking two women at a whore house!"
Pamela gasped aloud. That bastard, she thought. They hadn't had sex in months and here he was cheating on her. She tried to act unconvinced, but she was shocked when Hall tossed some photographs into her lap of her husband fucking Julie in the presence of the red head.
The beautiful brunette immediately realized that the faces of the two women were obscured, but Gene's fat face was front and center. The first photo showed him getting his penis sucked, the second showed him fucking the blonde. She stopped looking at the photos and gasped out loud. Her hand went to her mouth. Then, she exploded in anger.
"That bastard," she cried. She tossed the photos back at Hall who quietly put them in his desk drawer as she rose to her feet before him shaking uncontrollably. "That bastard!"
"Sit down," he commanded. "Sit down, now. I don't care about your feelings! He's been screwing me and my company! I'm going to have him fired and put you both out on the street!"
Pamela dissolved. "Why would you do that?" she asked. "Why? I'll lose everything."
Hall rose and walked around his desk. "Stand up," he said.
Pamela complied. She turned to face him and stood at the edge of his large desk petrified of what he might decide to do to her family and her future.
"How do you think I like it when I find out he's been fucking someone while he's billing my company thousands of dollars? Tell me!"
"I … I don't . . . I don't know what to say," was Pamela's only response.
Hall stood only inches away from Pamela. His fury was feigned but palpable to the shocked woman.
Pamela felt herself frozen before him, fearful of the power he waged over her and her future. She was used to being around powerful men and knew that they could be extremely vindictive. Her heart beat furiously and her ripe lips were slightly parted. Her breathing was shallow. Then she felt his hand on the hem of her skirt. Pamela stood stock still as she felt it being raised over her fleshy, milky white thighs. She shivered when she felt his fingers reach the top of her thigh-high stockings and touch her garter belt. She found herself ashamed of the fact that she had worn such an item, but how was she to know?
Still she didn't resist. How could she? She was powerless.
As she felt her skirt being pushed up around her waist, she felt his hands began to undo the garter fasteners.
She looked him straight in the face. Her hands went to the side of his desk for support as she felt the backs of her thighs touching the cold marble of the desk top. She was afraid to look down but forced her brown eyes down. She was appalled to see her womanly thighs exposed. Her eyes followed his hands as they pulled the clips away from the garter belt. As they dangled helplessly off of her stockings, his hands moved to her peach colored silken undies.
Pamela uttered, "Oh, no, please," as she watched Hall's hands begin to tug at her panties. Despite her plea, the full bush that formed a triangle around her pussy came into view as her panties were forced down her creamy thighs and to her knees. Pamela watched in disbelief as the soft curls of her dark pubic hair was revealed. The thigh high stockings only accentuated the nakedness of her upper thighs and hips and showcased the triangle that formed their juncture. The sheer panties fell from her knees to the tops of her feet.
Hall began to undo his belt and trousers.
Pamela knew what was going to happen. She was going to get fucked!
Her beautiful brown eyes closed in resignation, her long eyelashes resting on the clear skin of her perfect face. In an instant, she felt his stiff penis against the naked skin of her belly. As she opened her eyes to see his manhood, she was struck by its length and girth. Yet she wasn't fearful of the size of it; but, the realization that she was about to break her wedding vows sent a shiver of fear through her shapely body. She had been expected to honor the vows and had always done so, but now she was put in a different position. She was fighting for her own existence.
As her mind swirled with these thoughts, Hall worked the buttons on her flimsy summer blouse, opening it quickly to her waist. He liked what he saw. Certainly she didn't have a young woman's hard abs, but her tits were very large and her stomach was flat and firm.
The woman's cleavage was very evident within the confines of her large bra. The soft flesh was succulent. Hall saw that the bra was fastened in the front between her large breasts. He immediately unhooked the bra and it fell open, spilling her womanly flesh from their confines. Goosebumps covered her large titties. His fingers found her nipples and worked them to a rubbery erection. Hall pushed the jacket and blouse off of Pamela's shoulders and her bra fell along side the garments. Now she was nude from the waist up.
Without realizing it, Pamela moaned aloud. "Ohhh." As he tugged and manipulated her nipples, her love hole began to moisten. Then it began to get very wet. It was uncomfortable for the woman to remain in her high heels, but as she moved her long legs in response to the tugging on her nipples she knew that she was very aroused. Her thighs were clamped together, but that just seemed to increase the heat she felt between them. Her large, fleshy melons were lifted up to his mouth. Both his hands were beneath the tits and her nipples were offered up to his mouth. He hungrily sucked on the tips of the tits and kneaded the sensitive flesh between his hands. The beautiful mature woman shuddered as an electric wave of pleasure was sent throughout her body.
Pamela moaned aloud, but tried to stay as hushed as possible. "Ohhhh. Ohhhh." Her hands tightly clenched Hall's upper arms.
Pamela felt her naked bottom being lifted and sat on the edge of the desk. She spread her luscious thighs revealing her full bush. Her large jugs jiggled erotically as she moved. The housewife bit her lower lip as she felt the head of his stiff cock push against the opening of her pussy. The muscles in her full firm thighs began to relax and she spread her legs as the man moved between them to gain access to the tight pussy awaiting him. She wanted to fight this man with all of her power, but her will crumbled before the sensuality of his touch.
"Will you help me?" she asked piteously as she felt him enter her pussy with the head of his dong. She looked into his eyes for any sign of an answer, but could find none. He pushed with more determination at the opening to her love hole. His cock began to enter her further pushing the warm pussy flesh further and further open.
"Will you help me, please," she asked again as she felt the full length of his rock hard cock slide into her warm, wet pussy, meeting only slight resistance. As she felt the thick tool enter her sheath, she knew no answer was forthcoming. It was futile. Her eyes rolled back and closed as she realized the abject submission to which she was now subjected.
She found herself pushed onto her back on the desk, only her long legs being held by Hall as he fucked the beautiful brunette's tight pussy in silence. Her sexy titties lay on her chest, nipples still erect, the flesh bobbling and jiggling with each thrust of his cock. The ceiling swirled above Pamela's head until she focused her eyes on the man at the edge of the desk having his way with her. What she saw were the leering eyes of a man mocking her with his grinning face. Why had she given in, she wondered? She looked at Hall's hairy abdomen as it rhythmically began to ram his male flesh into her tight little cunt.
The upraised columns of her upper thighs framed the picture of the man whose bestial, blood engorged member was sluicing in and out of her slit. He plunged into her deep and deeper in controlled, but forceful movements. She groaned as he plunged into her pussy each time. The length and thickness of Hall's sperm inflated penis was even greater than what Pamela had thought when she first saw it and it seemed to fill her little pussy and force her love opening wider with each thrust.
Hall's fucking did have an effect on the prone woman. The warm glow of fucking seemed to go from her clitoris to her cuntal lips to the deep inner passage of her vagina. As he systematically pounded her pussy, the pleasure mounted in electric spasms and spread throughout the woman's body.
Instead of simply being a receptacle of his lust, Hall began to sense her body betraying her. First, her round, womanly buttocks began to feel less tense to his touch. Then he noticed her ass cheeks beginning to circle very slightly in response to his fucking, starting a slow rhythm that matched his own thrusts.
As he fucked her deeper and deeper, his balls began to slap against her upturned ass cheeks. There was now the squishy sound coming from her pussy as he drove is cock into her. He was astounded when he looked into her eyes.
"Ohhh. Ohhh." Pamela now seemed to be totally out of control. Her beautiful face was flushed and she breathed hard as she began to fuck back. Her thighs were wide spread and tense and she received his cock thrust for thrust with a push back of her hips. The years of upper middle class respectability began to crumble before his eyes.
Pamela wrapped her legs around the back of Halls knees and he grabbed the fleshy cheeks of her ass with both hands, grinding relentlessly into the woman. He held her pussy immobilized momentarily while he pumped in and out of her pussy with a wild abandon. Then he released her ass and began to pull on the nipples which lay erect on her big tits.
Pamela exploded in orgasm. "Yesssss!" she cried. "Do it to me…, don't . . . stop! Urggggghhhh."

subset: commoncrawl


text:
September 2003
Today is Botswana National Day and Guinea-Bissau Independence Day.
Apparently, Mr. Choyce has plans for developing housing on the block immediately east of Fantasy, financed in part with our HUD money
The gas and electric company is installing new service along Pardee.
Sadly, the owner of the Missouri Bar has died.
Sunday afternoon, Potter Creek hosted another elegant, catered, garden-party.
Ah, . . . will the h'orduerves, wine, champagne and cake never end?
What will become the Potter Creek Hazardous Material Users Map is now up at
My Neighborhood's Hazardous Material Users.
Initially, the users will be marked with a red dot at their approximate position within their block. When I receive more detailed information, the red will fill-in their entire lot.
So now just where is our namesake, Potter Creek? According to a City of Berkeley, Department of Engineering, 1990 Map it runs underground in a 2ft culvert entering Potter Creek, the neighborhood, at the southeast corner of San Pablo and Heinz, runs along Heinz and directly under the Scharffen Berger factory, turns southwest at just before the corner of Heinz and 7th, and leaves Potter Creek at Potter Street and the railroad right of way.
Thank you David, Peter, and Melody.
Seattle Post
reporter, Robert McClure offers
"High Level of PBDEs Found in Breast Milk"
at MSNBC.com "Chemicals used to prevent fires in everyday items such as furniture and computers -- and known to cause developmental problems in test animals -- have been measured in women's breast milk at troubling levels, says the first national study of the phenomenon."
And, see our 9/6/03 post.
The Washington Post reports
China's Hippies Find Their Berkeley.
Oh, . . . well.
that Bayer stock rose after the Baycol court decision in their favor.
A look at British air-war strategy-and-tactics in the mid-East can be found in
COIN: Taking up the White Man's Burden, Airpower and the British Empire, 1919-1938.
Though the story has a definite political view and an attitude, it puts our time into perspective. It also has some great aircraft and armor profiles.
The APOC (Asphalt Products Oil Corporation) property that is not part of the proposed, but now temporarily withdrawn, Berkeley Bowl site is a rectangle bordered on the north by the proposed Berkeley Bowl facility, on the south by Ashby Avenue, on the east by the RR tracks, and on the west by 9th Street. This parcel of land includes the asphalt processing facility and offices. The site, in the past, stored and processed petroleum, had at least one explosion and fire, and has used asbestos in fire-proofing asphalt-products.
One of the leading proposed uses of this site is as a low-cost housing complex. I question such a use without a CAREFUL AND THOROUGH study of the property's toxicity.
Years ago, at a community meeting, city representatives named APOC (Asphalt Products Oil Corporation) as one of the three most environmentally threatening properties in our neighborhood.
In a recent conversation with the architect of the now withdrawn Berkeley Bowl project, I was told that the Berkeley Bowl property extends from the Sharffen Berger parking lot east to Ninth Street and from Heinz Street south to the APOC facility. This includes the APOC storage lot--a lot that for years was used for the storage of petroleum products. It would seem that if the Berkeley Bowl project ever goes forward, a hard look should be taken at the envorimental effects of the years of storage as well as the present and past effects of APOC's next-door facility.
For an hour or so it was "Old Home Week" at the Bakery Cafe on 9th and Parker, as Merryll, Ospy, Ed, Marvin, and Rick were together again.
Today is Mexico Independence Day and Papua New Guinea Independence Day
The Material Safety Data Sheet for an APOC (Asphalt Products Oil Corporation) can found on the
Note that the address for the Corporation is Long Beach, California--however, APOC is a registered hazardous materials user with the City of Berkeley.
Yesterday, I gave a from-high-school friend a tour of Potter Creek. An ole fart, he was as interested in Ed. Jones & Co. as he was in Scharffen Berger. (If there is interest, we should give proper tours.)
Today is Costa Rica Independence Day, El Salvador Independence Day, Guatemala Independence Day, Honduras Independence Day, Nicaragua Independence Day, and Battle of Britain Day 1940.
If Berkeley Bowl's market and warehouse are built on the property they've purchased in Potter Creek, they will butt up against APOC (Asphalt Products Oil Corporation.) A facility which is now in production, stores and processes petroleum, has had at least one explosion and fire, and has used asbestos in fire-proofing asphalt-products.
Ed. Jones & Co. reads the sign at the engravers on 8th Street and judging by their use of punctuation they're Old School. They are a family owned business that has a history going back to the 1800s. I greatly appreciate their presence in Potter Creek.
Not as exuberant, but original, is
"Bred for Power"
by the new New York Times reporter, David Brooks.
Today is a Spare the Air day.
Rick Auerbach is back in town and it was good to see and talk to him last night. Rick's a very important part of our neighborhood. But then, so is Sally.
On the Second Anniversary of 9/11, MSNBC.com offers
"Study Sees Trade Center Health Issues: Air Samples Show 'Chemical Factory' at Ground Zero."
Among the substances inhaled were glass particles which can move through the lungs into the bloodstream and heart.
John Philips hopes to have their building finished in November and offered "Then it will no longer be a DuPont billboard."
Work has begun on the Scharffen Berger café.
Today is a Spare the Air day.
German actress, photographer and film-maker, Leni Riefenstahl died Monday. She was 101 years old.
I came down 8th yesterday mid-day and thought there was a fire in the 2800 block--there wasn't, it was just a quarter-block of drifting smoke.
I'd like to thank the half-dozen or so people who have given me information about environmental abuse in Potter Creek and would encourage others with information to email me at
Your environment isn't an abstraction, it is your neighborhood, your property, your business, your children, you.
Yesterday morning, I was slowed in my drive to the bank by parents dropping off their children at Ecole Bilingue on 9th and Heinz. But there is something basic and wonderful about moms dropping off kids, even if it slows traffic. I don't understand the neighbors' objection to this small inconvenience. Rather than being annoyed, check out the Scene. (The crossing guards are particularly classy and noteworthy.)
David and his Lab, Gracie, came to visit last night. Gracie found her stick much more interesting than me. I'm trying not to take it personally.
Ah, . . . the printer's-ink-like-stink is back. I thought I'd go to Travlin' Joe's for corn-waffles. But since he's closer to it than me, I'm going to skip it.
Peter Finn and Susan Schmidt of the
Washington Post
offer "Al Qaeda Plans a Front in Iraq: Strategy Shift May Signal Weakness" at
Then again, was a pair of what appeared to be F-14s circling our three bridges for an hour or so yesterday a standing patrol?
Swami Ron hopes to keep you out of trouble with "You judge a man first by what he does, not what he says and a woman first by what she says, not what she does."
Benjamin Siegel was a capitalist visionary but a lousy money manager . . . , and a criminal sociopath. Check out the movie, Bugsy.
A favorite composer of mine, Charles Ives, wrote in notes to his small composition Gup, the Blood or Hearst! Which is Worst? "Gup-a prominent criminal gets the gallows; Hearst-another prominent criminal gets the money."
Barbara Bush, another favorite person of mine, is supposed to have offered "Clinton lied. A man might forget where he parks or where he lives, but he never forgets oral sex, no matter how bad it is."
Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers (PBDEs) are found in many household items and increasingly in our blood--they are persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic.
"Rapidly Rising PBDE Levels in North America"
explains why and more. This story appears on the
Environmental Science and Technology
For more articles, see
Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers.
West County Times
"Where We Live" features Berkeley and Albany.
West County Times
also offers
"U.S Contines to Shed Jobs"
by Peter G. Gosselin of the
Los Angeles Times
"Universal Faces the Music by Cutting CD Prices"
Los Angeles Times
' Jeff Leeds.
Berkeley High's principal has canceled our opening football game because of possible violence between attending adults of South Berkeley and North Oakland.
Geoff, fellow record and motorcycle collector, is a regular visitor to Potter Creek,
sometimes on his limited edition Ducati
Richards and Michael Haley before they found the Buttercup
(see 8/8/03 post)
August 2003
So far this month, Scrambled Eggs and Lox pages have received over 2400 visits. The page most visited after "Almost Daily Posts" is "People and Their Places."
Immediately to the west and upwind of OSH is APOC or Asphalt Products Oil Corporation. Potter Creek lore has it that this firm some time ago made a petroleum-based waterproofing material, the manufacture of which involved high-temperatures and product-transfer. That would explain the odor, if they are now engaged in similar manufacturing processes. (Maybe not a new stink?)
At 11:45 PM on Monday, 8/25/03, the air in the 2700 block of 8th street was filled with a burning-rubber-like odor. More than unpleasant, it was physically irritating.
Two "small bombs" exploded at Emeryville's Chiron Corporation this morning around 3:00AM and 4:00AM. No one was injured and damage was confined to a blown-out window. A third explosion was reported at 7:00AM.
Ah, a New Stink!
About 9:00 yesterday morning, something I've only smelled while passing the refineries on Highway 80 found it's way into Potter Creek. It's an odor I associate with petroleum-cracking, but it surrounded the entrance to OSH on 9th Street--there was a tanker-like-truck unloading at a facility roughly opposite the driveway.
And over the weekend, I talked to my next-door neighbor-for-a-decade who recently moved to the Southwest but was here for a visit. "What's the best thing about it?" I asked. "I guess . . . the air. I don't feel tired all the time and when I am tired I don't feel wrung out, just tired. I don't wake up congested and with a headache either."
Which reminded me of a conversation I had here months ago with a New Yorker who lived on Long Island. While waiting for our breakfast at Bacheeso's, we began talking. "I love the weather, but how can you breath this air. I was on Ashby at the stoplight and the whole corner smelled of gasoline."
Mike Taugher of the
West County Times
"Audit Looks at Clean-Air Exemptions."
And John Markoff of the
New York Times
appears with
"SoBig May Aim to Spew Spam."
Yesterday, there was a great lemonade-stand in the 900 block of Grayson. Lemonade was 25 cents a cup and you could also buy cookies. The lemonade was VERY GOOD!
Sharffen Berger's café will serve breakfast and lunch, and will specialize in chocolate desserts and drinks. There will also be out-door seating--construction will begin presently. (The facility will be available for special evening events.)
Sunday night, Potter Creek hosted a wonderful garden party.
Andrew and his
1968 Norton Commando
This isn't a particularly small Norton, it's a particularly large Andrew.
Who ARE these guys? WHY . . . ARRGH! They're my neighbors.
In the '50s and '60s there was a group called "The Ray Charles Singers." They recorded very mid-American material for American Decca--not unlike Lawrence Welk's. In Berkeley, in the '60s, we carried their records at Campus Records on Telegraph Avenue. They didn't sell at all in Berkeley, but we stocked them out of deference to our Decca rep--a former liquor-salesman immaculately dressed in Italian silk-suits. Also, Albert the owner, would sometimes try out some "straight-kid," from maybe Hayward, in an attempt to broaden sales. It was such an employee who took a well-dressed, elderly Black-woman to the Ray Charles Singers section. "No" she protested "I want OUR Ray Charles." Actually, we all thought of him as our Ray Charles. Well, maybe not that kid.
(For more about that time, read
"Back in The Day: Selling Records on Berkeley's Telegraph Avenue.")
Brian Krebs of the Washington Post offers his excellent report
"Experts Race to Contain SoBig."
I question the City of Berkeley Parking Enforcement policy of ticketing a business's vehicle while parked in front of their business after loading. Seems a contradiction, especially when another one of our leading businesses is allowed to effectively block all thru traffic on the street in front of their facility while unloading.
Are Berkeley's city polices controlled by a "good ole boy" network of ex-radicals? Nah, nobody controls nothin'.
The same school of thought that offers "If you can ask the question, you already know the answer" would suggest that "If in Berkeley everything is political, nothing is political."
Or not.
Berkeley PD Motor-officer Ben Cardoza was the victim of a hit-and-run on the afternoon of 8/20/03. He and his motorcycle were run down on Ashby and Wheeler by a white Chevy Caprice. He was hit so hard "His motorcycle seemed to explode into the air" said one witness.
And where was that detergent-like, and irritating, smell coming from last-night around 7 to 8 o'clock on a west-wind. (It gave me a headache after twenty or so minutes.) Years ago, I used to think it came from Colgate-Palmolive. But Colgate isn't there anymore. And who still is? Well, NS&C for one--maybe only. (The residents in the 2800 block of 8th are bothered by it much more regularly.) Let's see, combine that odor with the diesel fumes from the railroad-trains, the printer-ink-like smell, rubber-dust from cars and trucks on the freeway, vehicle-emissions from the freeway, fumes from bunker-fuel in ships in the harbor, and any other up-wind polution.
Damn, one swell cocktail!
(Oh ya, the sometimes-west-wind pushes this into the Valley. So don't worry, we just create it. We don't always have to breath it.)
In Devil in the Blue Dress, one of my favorite fictional detectives, Easy Rollins, is offered some advice by a hardened hoodlum. It goes something like "As soon as you step out your door, you're mixed-up-in-it. Thing is to be mixed-up-in-it at the top."
I see that Bayer has a brand-new American Flag flying atop the old Colgate building. I've always thought of our flag as a symbol of the People and not the current government--notice that the flag doesn't change when one group of scoundrels leaves office and another comes in. I'd like to see the City of Berkeley Flag flying below Old Glory--seems even the Tribe of Berkeley has a symbol.
This morning, as I opened the carefully wrapped Czech-mil-spec shirt from Sportsman's Guide, I was amazed by the thought and care taken in packaging this new, but three-for-twelve-dollar, item. Stays, clips, pins, and cello-wrap protected the tan, cotton-blend shirt. As a kid, after WWII, one of the wonders of life was going through an Army surplus store. There was a lot of real good, inexpensive stuff then because after the War there was enormous surplus. Through the years the surplus store faded away in the Bay Area. But in Minnesota they have Sportsman's Guide and we have
Definitely check it out!
Peter and Geralyn are relatively new to our neighborhood, yet they make maximum use of Potter Creek. They not only live here but both work here within easy biking distance, enjoy west-Berkeley's restaurants, study at one of our schools and generally are out-and-about. These, and other, new residents seem to fully use and enjoy Potter Creek.
In the way that the town-square "makes" a town, a park "makes" a neighborhood. We don't have one. And soon we won't even have the smallest green-space.
Perhaps a real solution to the parking problem in this area is an underground garage. With a park on top? Nah, this isn't Emeryville.
Somethings from a west-Berkeley Sunday bike-ride.
"The Bay Area's News Station,"
broadcast the sign on the side of the Channel 4 mobile-unit at the Marina--must be a different Channel 4.
"Positive. Thinking. Produces. Winning. Achievements. 63 Degrees."
flashed a sign, word-by-word, in Bayer's Northgate parking lot.
Overwhelmed by the beauty of the bayscape just south of Skate's, I'm perversely reminded of a friend's comment as we drove through the Redwoods up at Kary Mullis'. "You see one tree, you've seen em all!" (Of course, his idea of nature was the grass-strip between his apartment building and the street.)
Have a crab sandwich with everything, and a Steward's--Since 1924--Root Beer at the Sea Breeze.
Today is Gabon Independence Day and Indonesia Independence Day
A couple of my neighbors mentioned that they recently started riding bicycles. More than twenty years ago, the boss-man at
Advance Heli Welders
regularly rode a lightweight around the neighborhood.
The Canned Food Store just got in Zentis Belfutta Raspberry Preserve--made and packed in Germany.
In the '50s, even as a white-boy in the mid-West, I knew that Jerry Lee Lewis had Soul. I just rediscovered him on the CD, Jerry Lee Lewis (Sun-37102). Among other tunes, it has "Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On." "Little Queenie," "What'd I Say," "Sweet Little Sixteen," and "Great Balls of Fire." Border's, Emeryville has some for $5.99.
But then again, I did go to Jazz at the Phil in my zoot-suit, fedora, and blue-suede shoes--I was by no means the best-dressed person there.
More biker-wisdom from my Harley and Goldwing buddies.
Always remember you're unique. Just like everyone else.
Some days you are the bug; some days you are the windshield.
Generally speaking, you aren't learning much when your lips are moving.
The quickest way to double your money is to fold it in half and put it back in your pocket.
Never test the depth of the water with both feet.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side and a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
(For a story about
Advance Heli Welders see
People and Their Places
My Harley and Goldwing buddies offer about consequences "Life isn't like a box of chocolates . . . it's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today might burn your ass tomorrow. "
Today is Congo National Day, India Independence Day, and Korea National Day.
It's only a guess, but I bet Kava's Mom put on one grand Persian feast last night.
One of our neighborhood's manufactures, engaged in an email exchange with a customer, was at a loss to explain Potter Creek, especially its smells. Exasperated, he offered Scrambled Eggs and Lox URL. At the end of the day he received a reply something like "I spent hours reading the pages of this site. Who IS this guy?"
(Of Persian cuisine I wrote on
"Persian Cuisine has taught me about the perfume of food--not the smell or taste--but the fragrance.")
I have been told officially that one of Potter Creek's largest businesses takes my environmental observations seriously. If they think they might be involved, engineering meetings are called and special monitoring is done.
One of Potter Creek's scientists recently offered "Science is like medicine, you can get a lot of different opinions."
While I was at the stop sign on Acton and Delaware, a bicyclist blew the sign, cut off a pedestrian, and, without signaling, made a left turn in front of a SUV that had stopped and was proceeding through the intersection. Sh####t! (Well, maybe he was one of those rubber people who bounce off of stuff unharmed.) My bicycling experience in west-Berkeley has been that motor-vehicle operators are generally aware of bicyclists and are even courteous. But there was that Gimmey pickup driver in Emeryville.
In my head, the Berkeley Bowl expansion and the Berkeley Bowl unionization are separate issues. You can have unionization with expansion and you can have unionization without expansion. You can have expansion with unionization and you can have expansion without unionization. It's simple--politics make it complex.
The Canned Food Store now has Ocean Prince Fish Steaks in Louisiana Hot Sauce; a little dry-red, some onion-rye corn-bread and fish steaks in hot sauce. Hmmm! They also have Zentis Belfutta Black Currant Preserve made and packed in Germany; peppers and eggs and corn rye-bread toast with black currant preserve and Italian roast. Hmmm!
Gary Williams, my UPS Man, gave me a five-minute dissertation on the use of the N-word within and outside the Black Community. Problem is, I can't print it.
Months ago Jerry, one of Potter Creek's enterprising recyclers, told me about the dangers of the pink flower that recently freaked-out the kids in Peoples Park when they chewed it. If I'd listen to him then and posted it, maybe . . . well, I didn't.
(Oh ya, the Zetis Black Currant Preserve comes in a funky, reusable jar. And, . . . I made the peppers and eggs for Fast Eddie Saylan--he loved it. Fast Eddie owns 927 Grayson. A former B-24 waist-gunner, and now really older than dirt, he just redid his 927 property, which is for lease.)
An informative story about living conditions of our fighting men and women in postwar Iraq can be found in the
The New York Times.
This morning at the stop light, crossing San Pablo at Dwight Way to get my German Farmer's Omelet at Bacheeso's, I came across a sexy little powder-blue motor-scooter ridden by a fully-helmeted woman. "Honda?" I asked. "No, Kymko, made in Taiwan" I heard through her visor. "I had a Vespa, went to Mexico on it " I said and continued to breakfast. In fact, in the late '50s, in some surreal imitation of "On the Road ," Haley and I did ride a Vespa 175 Grand Sport two-up from the Bay Area into Mexico. I remember that it started raining early in the morning outside of Big Sur. We could stay in the camp ground and get wet, or go on the road and get wet. We chose the latter and continued down the coast. That's probably a good story.
Even in July's hazy, lazy days, "Scrambled Eggs and Lox" pages received over 2000 visits. The page most visited was the "July Almost Daily Posts" followed by "People and Their Places," the "May and June Almost Daily Posts" and "My Neighborhood's Hazardous Materials Users." If all four "Jerry Victor's Viper" pages are lumped together, they replace "People and Their Places" as second.
Patrick Kennedy has "withdrawn" his San Pablo Avenue project.
A preliminary laboratory test of a dust sample from my office shows particles of SIO
-silicon; under a microscope, glass.
Potter Creek lore has it that pesticides were developed in the '50s by a Hyman Laboratory in a facility at the end of 8th Street. I have been able to confirm that a Julius Hyman invented the pesticides chlordane, aldrin and dieldrin. If any one can confirm that this Julius Hyman was the Hyman of Berkeley or that development was done at the Berkeley Hyman Laboratory, please email me at
Today is Singapore National Day.
Ahhh, . . . Saturday morning. The air's fresh and I smell breakfast. 'Have ta go to
Travlin' Joe's
and get some food.
Stephanie Fleming was named Berkeley PD's first female captain.
George Avalos of the
West County Times
California's Job Slump Worsens: The job slump in California -- which accounted for half of the jobs lost in the country during July -- shows no signs of easing its grip on the Bay Area's fading economy.
Bay Area Continues to Lose Jobs : The regional job slump jolted the Bay Area and California during July. In a bleak update on the California economy, the government reported that employment losses continued in the state and the Bay Area in July.
Modern toilet paper was invented in 1857 by American, Joseph Gayetty.
The Buttercup and The California Breakfast
And just what is The California Breakfast that Richards and Mike Haley invented? Well, it's most likely the eggs-breakfast that you now have when you eat out.
(But, as breakfast is the lowly meal, you probably haven't even thought about that.)
Yet, it's important to remember that Richards and Mike Haley not only developed The California Breakfast but they made breakfast a proper and respectable meal out.
Mike, as long as I can remember, loved his morning meal best. When we lived together on Carl Street in San Francisco in the '50s, Mike would sometimes make breakfast for both of us, and I too came to love this meal.
Years later, when Mike and Richards lived together, Richards would make Mike's favorite, adding her own Georgian touch. An excellent cook from the South, Richards was well aware of the hearty country breakfast.
So in the '70s, when they bought the Buttercup Bakery and Coffee Shop on College Avenue and made it into a bakery and restaurant, it was only natural for them to make it into a breakfast-restaurant. (Understand, at that time there were coffee-shops and diners but not proper breakfast restaurants.) Simply, Richards knew about the Southern country breakfast and Mike loved breakfast best. This was the start.
If there was an exact moment when The California Breakfast Out came into being I suppose it was when Richard's started making Michael's favorites for the restaurant: Fresh-eggs, quality meats, home-fries with onions and sour cream, and a good toasted-bread were part of Michael's morning meal at home. (Occasionally I was at their house at breakfast time and it was always a treat.)
Then, I suppose if you own a bakery-restaurant it's natural to offer fresh baked-goods with the meal: And early-on you could substitute a pastry for toast. Bagels and croissants were also offered, but bagels and croissants were still popularly thought of as foreign food and breakfast is a very American meal. Also, it is important to remember that at this time breakfast out was pretty much a meal you had--often rushed--before your day's work. It was not so much a special meal--and social event--as it was just a way to get food before working. Kruse Plumbing was then down the street, and I remember some of the original customers were plumbers having breakfast before going to a job. There were also truck drivers who stopped before their run as well as milkmen taking their break.
(Perhaps the fruit garnish was added when it became apparent to all that breakfast was now social, even special.)
So there you have it; The California Breakfast Out. Was this just a variation of the country breakfast that, through good-timing, people found pleasure in eating in a restaurant? Is California Cuisine just fish and under-cooked vegetables?
Of course not.
Many people, other than Mike and Richards, were involved in making the Buttercup. Moe Moskowitz lent money and support, Mary Guenther provided heart and soul, Karl Mullis provided color and was a hard worker, Suze Orman found-herself and brought loyal customers, and Nancy Lawrence at Wells Fargo Elmwood was simply indispensable. She was always there. (Oh, Nick Victor, with failing health and eyesight, and preoccupied with his business and building two large warehouses, took time to give sound, solid business advice. ) Me? It was a place to hang out.
Eric Pianin of
The Washington Post
Clean Air Ruling Blames Ohio Edison
Decision could affect future enforcement efforts.
This is the Italian edition of Kate and Sarah Klise's book,
Trial by Journal.
You can read it in
And where's the common sense in this? My neighbors have their annealing oven on at night, close to their six-pack of hydrogen cylinders, with no one present. "Been on at night as long as I've been there" offered an employee.
I just had a piece of beautifully-baked, flawless, flowerless-chocolate-cake made with Sharffen Berger's semi-sweet chocolate. It was served with a homemade fresh-raspberry sauce.
"Ooooooh, . . . yes, Yes, YES!"
The Buttercup and The California Breakfast
(see the 8/8/03 post)
Corey Lyons of the
West County Times
"Residents Find Living is Easier Elsewhere"
"In a sort of gold rush in reverse, more people left California in the late 1990s than moved in from other states . . . . "
As recently as a year ago I have seen sulfur-colored discharges into the atmosphere, late at night in the northwest. And, it has long been held that low-grade nuclear-waste was stored in the building at the end of Pardee at 7th. Something like this was confirmed by signs wired to the gate next to the guard-house as well as by talks with community activist, Rick Auerbach.
It seems obvious that Science of itself is not necessarily friendly to the environment. Neither is it environmentally unfriendly. But stories have been told that over the years facilities in Potter Creek have been irresponsible; that some have placed medical waste in City of Berkeley dumpsters or have dumped hazardous and toxic materials into these containers. A story that persists is that a large corrugated metal structure, now a parking lot, was used for anthrax experiments years ago. This is Potter Creek Lore. For instance, I have not been able to confirm that DDT was developed in a neighborhood lab. (My information is that it was invented in Switzerland in the '30s.) If anyone has relevant
information about environmental abuse in our neighborhood please email me at
The Buttercup and The California Breakfast
(see the 8/8/03 post)
The Grocery Outlet has
Danish Choice Preserves
at a discount price. Made in Poland from a Danish recipe, it's European in flavor and aroma. The Grocery Outlet has Apricot, Plum, Strawberry, and Raspberry Preserves and Orange Marmalade.
For information about this page or to be put on the mailing list, email


text:
* Fed will buy $2.75 bln to $3.5 bln in notes due 2020-2023
* Yields edge higher as September Fed tapering seen
* Payrolls data will help guide views of Fed bond buy
By Luciana Lopez
NEW YORK, Aug 23 (Reuters) - Yields for U.S. Treasuries
traded near two-year highs on Friday, with investors reluctant
to break out of recent ranges given uncertainty around when the
Fed might slow its massive bond-buying program.
Benchmark yields have risen to near 3 percent but have
failed to break that barrier, as markets increasingly see the
U.S. Federal Reserve slowing its so-called quantitative easing
program as soon as September.
But while policy meeting minutes released this week did
little to derail views of a start date at the Fed's Sept. 17-18
meeting, that document also did little to cement such an
outlook, either.
"We need some sort of catalyst to really push us through
higher (yields) from current levels," said Kim Rupert, managing
director of fixed income analysis at Action Economics in San
The benchmark 10-year note traded up 2/32 in
price on Friday to yield 2.885 percent, from 2.894 percent late
on Thursday. Benchmark yields reached 2.936 percent on Thursday,
marking the highest since late June 2011, according to Reuters
The 30-year bond traded up 10/32 in price on
Friday to yield 3.857 percent, from 3.876 percent late on
Without a catalyst of some sort, Rupert said, investors are
largely focused on the next Fed meeting and the non-farm
payrolls data for August, due for release on Sept. 6, which
could help clarify what policymakers might do.
The jobs data will be a key gauge of the health of the U.S.
labor market. With policymakers looking for an unemployment rate
closer to 6.5 percent, strong gains in jobs could help convince
the Fed that the U.S. economy - the world's largest - is ready
to be weaned off the bank's support.
The Fed has repeatedly said any decision about tapering its
$85 billion per month in purchases of Treasuries and
mortgage-backed securities will be data-dependent - a view
reinforced by the meeting minutes this week, some analysts said.
"We view the minutes as remarkably short of details for a
committee that allegedly is about to taper," wrote U.S.
economist Michael S. Hanson of Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
"Thus, we see the Fed making a game-day decision at their
next meeting in September," he added.
As part of its ongoing stimulus program, the Fed will buy
between $2.75 billion and $3.50 billion in notes due 2020-2023
on Friday.
The Treasury's sale of $98 billion in new two-year,
five-year and seven-year debt next week could add pressure to
bond yields in the near term. Many investors have chosen to
avoid taking new positions because of uncertainty leading into
the Fed's September meeting.


text:
McLean, VA (PRWEB) August 12, 2013
Octo Consulting Group's very own, Ben Davies was announced the winner of the 2013 Government Contracting CFO of the year Award. Ben holds a BS in Commerce from the University of Virginia and is a licensed CPA in the state of Virginia. He has 15 years of experience within the accounting, finance and M&A fields. During his career, he has overseen a variety of functions including merger due diligence, financial planning, accounting, contracts, human resources and internal operations.
Ben joined Octo Consulting Group in 2011 to assume responsibility for building out the growing company's operational infrastructure. During his time with Octo, Ben has led the implementation of various departments such as HR, Accounting, Contracts, and Operations. Octo Consulting Group has had the benefit of using Ben's experience to build their internal departments and use his operational guidance to move forward from being a small business in the northern Virginia region.
Prior to joining Octo Consulting Group, Ben was a Senior Manager in Ernst & Young's Transaction Advisory Services (M&A) group. In this position, Ben was responsible for leading M&A consulting projects for acquisitions ranging from $20M to over $1B in transaction value across a number of industries, which included Government Contracting. Prior to Ernst & Young, Ben held finance positions at Dominion Resources in the FP&A, Strategic Planning and M&A departments, where he held lead roles on a number of high profile company projects. Most notably, Ben was the finance lead for several M&A valuations, performing asset performance reviews and the analysis that lead to Dominion's divestiture of its Telecom Unit. Prior to Dominion, Ben worked three years in Ernst & Young's audit group where he performed audits on several private and public companies.
Read more about Ben Davies in the "CFO of the Year 2013: Government Contracting Winner" article by Washington Business Journal.
About Octo
Founded in 2006 as a fresh alternative to the traditional consulting firm, Octo Consulting Group is an SBA certified 8(a) small business and is a leading provider of technology and management consulting services to the Federal government. Our approach frees consultants to deliver the results IT leaders in government and business need to improve performance and accomplish their missions. Ultimately, it translates into faster timelines, lower costs, intelligent solutions, measurable outcomes and happier people.
For more information, visit http://www.octoconsulting.com.


text:
The Conference will focus on education for forcibly displaced children from Syria and other conflict areas in the Middle East in schools and refugee centres in host and transit countries. The objective of the meeting is exchanging information and experiences, identifying challenges and good practices at system and classroom levels; recommending policies and strategies to ensure access to quality education to all refugee and migrant children.
More information:


text:
At age thirteen I adopted my Three-Fold Philosophy of Life: Be Nice, Drink Milk, and Brush Your Teeth.
I announced it to my friend Bear one summer afternoon as we dangled our legs from the tree house high in the pines of his backyard. He laughed and repeated it back like a drill sergeant. "Be nice! Drink milk! Brush your teeth!" It was my first assertion of a faith uniquely my own.
I shared my Three-Fold Philosophy of Life with my step-father, John. At the time, our family was heavily involved in the born again Christian church, every aspect of our lives held under the scrutiny of Biblical law. For John, I adapted my philosophy a bit, employing spiritual metaphor. "Be Nice means do unto others as you would have them do unto you," I explained. "Drink Milk means you should nourish your spirit with the manna of the Holy Ghost. And Brush Your Teeth reminds us to take care of our bodies, for they are the temples of the Lord."
John was very impressed.
The truth was, I adopted the credo Be Nice out of loneliness and a desperate need for people to like me. I vowed to Drink Milk because our family was so poor we ate leftover vending machine food donated to us by the church. I became obsessed with brushing my teeth after developing gum disease as a result of poor nutrition.
I left behind those born again beliefs years ago, and I no longer drink milk, having developed a lactose intolerance. Yet while the tenants of my Philosophy may have changed, the spirit remains the same. I do my best to be nice to give to the world and share my gratitude at each new day, hoping not only for love in return but to transform myself through the giving. I nourish myself with healthy food for mind, body, and spirit. And, yes, I brush my teeth, but more importantly, I focus on clearing my mind and soul of negative emotions that no longer serve me.
There are lots of ways to cope with the hardships of life. I could have numbed myself through an unhappy childhood with alcohol or drugs; I could have fostered resentments against those who had more than me. But I believe life is about choice. Whatever life hands me, I should embrace it and use it to my advantage, cultivating beliefs that encourage vitality and health. I believe this choice is a gift to the world, and to myself.
If you enjoyed this essay, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to This I Believe, Inc.


text:
Among top TV and film comedians, Ms. Goldberg comes off as the near-perfect host in People Pop Profiles when respondents were asked, "Would you attend or watch an event featuring this person?"
Ms. Goldberg was golden, rating higher than Mr. Crystal had.
Though not on par, Rosie O'Donnell and Jerry Seinfeld would be pretty good contenders as well. Now retired from a number of venues, Mr. Seinfeld has a lot of time on his hands and could be a future choice. Already prepping for more awards-hosting stints, Ms. O'Donnell showed off her stand-up comedy roots as master of ceremonies at the recent Grammy broadcast.
Late-night TV hosts Jay Leno and David Letterman came in behind other stars as potential hosts. Mr. Letterman, of course, hosted the Oscars some years back to


text:
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- Woman/
- Yvonne LéonYvonne Léon/
Yvonne Léon Women's
There's just something fabulously Parisian about everything that Yvonne Leon touches, whether it's her decadent and innovative aesthetic or the beautiful old world craftsmanship from her fine jewellery studio in Paris. Famous for her 'dessous d'oreille' earring (which means under the ear for you non-French speakers), the designer turns her hand to rings, earrings and necklaces and we just want all of them.
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text:
Well done, T-Mobile (although I still have no plans to switch)
Posted by Dan January 21st, 2009 at 11:31am In Adverts
Remember when you were a kid and you thought that being grown up just meant driving cars and not having to go to school? And if you wanted to be a ballet dancer/astronaut/rock star, that was a perfectly reasonable career path?
Well, we all grew up. And adult life has a lot more chatter about 401ks and joint pain than anything else.
So that's why I love this T-Mobile ad — it's comes from an alternate reality where everyday people do just break out into song and dance.


text:
Two teenage boys eye rows upon rows of sneakers, sizing each up for rarity and signs of use. One of the boys points to a pair of limited-edition Nike Yeezys and said he is buying them for a friend. "How … Continue reading
Tag Archives: cheap jordan shoes
Jordanians' interest foremost in Kingdom's handling of Syrian crisis — King
Following is the official translation of His Majesty King Abdullah's speech at the graduation ceremony of the 26th Class of Mutah University's Military Wing on Sunday: In the name of God, the Most Merciful, the Compassionate, Dear Brothers and Sisters, … Continue reading
Kanye West compares himself to Michael Jordan, Steve Jobs
No one has ever accused Kanye West of being modest. And in a New York Times article published Tuesday, the 36-year-old rapper was anything but humble. West — who will soon become a father for the first time with girlfriend … Continue reading
Spurs come out hot, Randolph cold in West finals
Mike Conley wouldn't let Zach Randolph take the blame for the Memphis Grizzlies' blowout loss in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals. No one on either team expects him to play so poorly the rest of the series. Tony … Continue reading
How Bow Wow learned not to wear Allen Iverson's shoes around Michael Jordan
Over the years, basketball fans have become accustomed to considering Michael Jordan as a fairly vindictive and flawed person, not just an unimpeachable legend of the game. From his infamous Hall of Fame induction speech to more intimate profiles, Jordan … Continue reading
James has 27, Heat top Bucks 110-87 in Game 1
LeBron James has never taken fewer shots in a playoff game than he did on Sunday night, which at first glance might seem like a good thing for the Milwaukee Bucks. It was not. James scored 27 points on 9 … Continue reading
Drew counting on Hawks to be rested for playoffs
Larry Drew has no regrets about his decision to rest Atlanta's starters in losses to Toronto and the New York Knicksto end the regular season. The losses ended the Hawks' hopes of landing the No. 5 seed in the Eastern … Continue reading
Jordan nears deal to coach Rutgers
A person familiar with the situation tells the Associated Press that Eddie Jordan is nearing an agreement with Rutgers to replace Mike Rice as coach. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Jordan and Rutgers interim athletic director Carl … Continue reading


text:
If you've arrived here today via Mary Baker's Central Coast Wine Blog, welcome!
I hope you'll take a moment to look through some of my recent posts. If you find it interesting, please consider subscribing to my blog, either via e-mail or my RSS feed.
Thanks again for stopping by!
For my regular readers, here's a link to the first post in Mary's three-part interview with me.


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AC to DC Power Supply (in-line) 100 – 240 V 50/60 Hz input, 12 VDC 3.0A output, right angle coaxial DC plug. Supplied with 3-pin IEC cord for use in North America and Japan. Included accessory with the PIX-E5, PIX-E5H...View full product details
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Universal, in-line AC-to-DC power supply with detachable IEC power cord for Sound Devices mixers and audio recorders. Input: 100–240, 50/60 Hz; output 12 VDC, 3.75a output on Hirose 4-pin connector. Includes 3-pin IEC connector for use in North America and...View full product details
Highly versatile and portable, Sound Devices' MM-1 is a single-channel, portable microphone preamplifier with a powerful headphone monitoring function. Proven in mission-critical applications, the high-performance microphone preamplifier uses a transformer-balanced input and output with a bipolar ±15 volt power supply...View full product details
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Discussion in 'Acer Iconia Tab A500 Forum' started by slidersfan2, Jul 28, 2011.
It is supposed to arrive tuesday because its sold out everywhere. Im so happy.
That's exactly what i did last week and I got my Acer shipped to my house the next day at no extra cost. The Iconia is working great, and I just love it. Today's the last day for the Staples $100 off coupon, so I'd jump on this offer if you're thinking of getting a tablet.
Staples Coupon Code 11769
They were out of stock @ my local Staples so I called 1-800-378-2753 and they honored the coupon over the phone. Ordered on Thursday received on Friday.
I already had one bought at my local Walmart $399, last week then found Staples coupon, called Walmart for a price match but they wouldn't. Called Office Depot and they would.
Since I live 40+ miles from either Staples or Office Depot then I ordered from Staples.
Of course the one that I purchased at Walmart is going back.
I found a store that had 2 in stock today and got mine.
I went to the nearest staples on monday and the guy told me every store staples within like 25 miles of that one was out, they were out online, and my only option was to go to best buy and hope for a price match...I then found 2 Staples locations locally that both had 1 Iconia in stock, but the closest one sold it before i got there so i ended up driving 30 minutes to the only Staples in the area that had one..but I can't complain, $299 was a steal!
I sold my s7 slim for 170 because of this coupon. I went around the entire city of philadelphia and its suburbs for 2 days looking and calling and no one had a Iconia in stock. After much confusion I finally found one store that had 1 left and I brought. I LOVE it too
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More poetry from the master of ignoring important things...
He Needs To Stay On Top Of His Studies
- by Robert Priest
- Rating:
- Published: 9 May 2012
- Updated: 9 May 2012
- Status: In Progress
A collection of poetry from a bored and procrastinating college student.
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This sea front cottage offers uninterrupted sea views from most of the rooms in this lovely, family sized, seaside cottage. Cross the road and walk onto the beach for a traditional seaside holiday. Shell Seekers Cottage is situated close to the town centre, which offers an excellent choice for those wishing to dine out in the town or visit the many trendy cafés and the bar dedicated to craft beers all within easy walking distance. 3 minute walk to the leisure centre offering swimming pool, gym, and a range of sporting activities. Day trips include Honeysuckle Farm, just on the outskirts of Hornsea, which is ideal for young families, The Deep, which is the world's largest submarium and is full of exotic deep-sea creatures is in the port city of Hull, Bempton Cliffs RSPB Nature Reserve, and the famous Mr Moos ice-cream parlour together with the lovely county town of Beverley, with its twice-weekly markets and annual world-class music festival. To the north, the Yorkshire coastal resorts of Scarborough, Bridlington and Filey are close by. It is approximately a 15 minute walk to Hornsea Mere, which is the largest freshwater lake in Yorkshire, for yachting, boating, walking and birdwatching. You can also enjoy Hornsea Freeport for shopping and an 18-hole golf course is within 2 miles. Sea fishing available (licence required). Beach 20 yards. Shop, pub and restaurant ¼ mile.
Cottages.com .
Spring Mill Earby
BB94 0AA Barnoldswick
England and Wales 00965389
cottages4you Spring Mill Stoney Bank Road Earby Lancashire BB94 0AA UK
VAT Reg No GB598229977


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FINDLAY, OH – Primrose Retirement Community of Findlay has hired former Sales Director April Mangett to be their new Executive Director. She began her duties on June 15 and in this capacity Mangett will oversee the day-to-day operations of the community.
Mangett has Bachelor of Arts degrees in public relations and communications from Heidelberg University. She has been with Primrose since February of 2014, and prior to that, worked in skilled nursing, assisted living, independent living and home health for 12 years.
"I am excited to take my career to the next level while being able to remain at Primrose caring for our residents," Mangett said. My daily commitment is to ensure that each resident feels safe, connected and valued," she added.
Primrose Retirement Community of Findlay, located at 8580 Township Road 237, consists of 36 independent living apartment homes, 32 assisted-living apartment homes, and twelve townhome villas.
Primrose Retirement Communities, L.L.C., headquartered in Aberdeen, South Dakota, provides high-quality independent and assisted living communities across the country and specializes in personalized services and resident-focused care.
For additional information, please contact Dan Smilloff, Communications Manager, at firstname.lastname@example.com or by calling 605-226-3300 ext. 3982.


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"Every time you look up at the sky, every one of those points of light is a reminder that fusion power is extractable from hydrogen and other light elements, and it is an everyday reality throughout the Milky Way Galaxy." –Carl Sagan
(This post is coauthored by Dr. Peter Thieberger, Senior Physicist at Brookhaven National Laboratory.)
A cheap, clean, efficient and virtually limitless source of energy would be just what our world needs right about now. The cheap sources — coal, oil, and gas — are dirty, destructive, and limited, while the clean sources — wind and solar — are expensive and inefficient. Nuclear power is abundant and efficient, but with the dangers of radioactivity (and Fukushima still fresh in people's minds), it clearly isn't an ideal solution either. What would be ideal, rather than the current nuclear fission power we use, would be nuclear fusion, where lighter elements are fused together into heavier ones. Unlike a nuclear fission reaction, neither the original reactive material nor the products are radioactive in most instances of nuclear fusion.
Nuclear fusion is responsible for the most powerful release of energy ever generated on our planet: the Tsar Bomba, above. No other known reaction (that doesn't involve antimatter) is capable of generating as much energy from a given amount of matter as nuclear fusion can, in the entire Universe.
Of course, a reaction like the Tsar Bomba is not what we want when it comes to meeting our energy needs. Perhaps more pointedly, we'd like to have controlled nuclear fusion, where we can control the rate of fusion and harness practically all of the energy generated from the reactions. To accomplish this, all you'd need is two atomic nuclei whose initial states have more total mass than the final fused nucleus will — which is possible thanks to binding energy — and you can, in principle, have nuclear fusion between those two elements.
Nuclear fusion happens all around us in the Universe: it's the very process that powers every single star visible to your naked eye in the sky.
This even includes our own Sun! By combining hydrogen atoms into heavier isotopes and then into helium, one mere milligram of hydrogen fusion in the Sun generates as much energy as over 300 pounds of TNT! Of course, this is hard to do: you need the temperature in the core of your star to rise above 8 million Kelvin in order to fuse hydrogen into helium, and you'd need temperatures even higher than that (on the order of 100 million Kelvin) to fuse helium into heavier elements!
All of our successful attempts at generating nuclear fusion here on Earth require similarly high pressures and/or temperatures to those found at the core of each and every fusion-powered star. In mainstream physics, there are three types of setups verified to create nuclear fusion, all of which are working towards the (metaphorical) holy grail goal of the breakeven point. If you can reach and go beyond that point, you'll produce more usable energy from your setup than you put into it in order to create the fusion reaction.
But recently, attempts to create nuclear fusion with a relatively low-pressure, low-temperature experiment — what's commonly known as cold fusion — have been making a lot of noise.
In the past, claims of cold fusion have been unable to be scientifically reproduced under controlled conditions, but it is universally recognized that if cold fusion could be achieved, it would be amazingly useful as a clean, cheap, safe, abundant energy source. Last week, this site expressed some healthy skepticism about the latest sensational claims concerning Andrea Rossi's claimed cold fusion device: the Energy Catalyzer, or e-Cat.
Briefly, here's what the e-Cat claims to do.
They start with nickel powder — ordinary nickel as found on Earth — and combine it with hydrogen gas under modest pressure. You will see claims that this is high pressure, but in the world of physics, the claimed 25 times our normal atmospheric pressure (or even 100 or 1000 times) isn't anything spectacular. (For comparison, inertial confinement fusion compresses hydrogen to be about a factor of 20 denser than solid lead to obtain fusion, in line with well-understood physics.)
The nickel and hydrogen mix, under pressure, is heated through simple electrical currents in the presence — it is claimed — of a "secret mix" of catalysts.
And it's claimed that a nuclear fusion reaction takes place between the nickel and the hydrogen, producing copper! The relevant part of the periodic table of the elements is shown below.
This claim is made for two reasons:
- There is anomalous heat/energy being generated by the device, as evidenced by water that has been heated and/or boiled by the e-Cat. This heat is measured by outside observers and cannot be accounted for, completely, by the external power input.
- A sample of the claimed products of the reaction was made available, which contained some nickel powder, but about 10% of the sample was copper, claimed to be completely generated from an initial sample that was 100% nickel.
Right here, this very site claimed that these results were probably faked, and now we're going to show you the physics of why these claims are definitely untrue.
There are five known stable isotopes of Nickel, and here on Earth they are found in the percentages shown in the chart above. These isotope ratios are the same on Earth as they are in meteorites and in the Sun, and are pretty universal to any sample of nickel naturally found here on Earth.
If you want to create copper from any of these elements by adding a proton (hydrogen nucleus) to them, here are the reactions you're looking for:
- 58Ni + 1H → 59Cu*,
- 60Ni + 1H → 61Cu*,
- 61Ni + 1H → 62Cu*,
- 62Ni + 1H → 63Cu*,
- 64Ni + 1H → 65Cu*.
That doesn't look so prohibitive, does it? Of course, there is the fact that you've got to overcome the tremendous Coulomb barrier (the electrical repulsion between nickel and hydrogen nuclei), which — according to our knowledge of nuclear physics — requires temperatures and pressures not found naturally anywhere in the Universe. Not in the Sun, not in the cores of the most massive stars, and (to the best of our knowledge) not even in supernova explosions!
From both an astrophysics and a nuclear physics standpoint, we can conclude that these reactions are not happening, and that they're certainly not happening at the incredibly low energies claimed by the e-Cat team. Let's look at the astrophysics first.
This is the Sun, known to contain a significant abundance of nickel, and to primarily be composed of hydrogen. Given the pressures and temperatures present in the Sun, you might expect any or all of the fusion reactions mentioned above to happen. But when we look at the Sun, we see that there is a much larger amount of nickel than copper, with no evidence that any of the Sun's nickel has, over the 4.5 billion years of the Sun's life, been fused into copper; there's something like more than 100 times as many nickel atoms as copper atoms.
But it is worth noting that there are stars that form copper from nickel, but they do not do it by adding protons. When our Sun runs out of hydrogen fuel, it will expand, becoming a red giant, and begin burning helium atoms into the element carbon. While the Sun will be capable of creating a few elements heavier than carbon, such as nitrogen, oxygen, and (probably) neon, that's the end of the line for the Sun. But significantly more massive stars can go farther.
If a star is at least eight times as massive as our Sun, not only are copious amounts of neon produced, but the pressures and temperatures are high enough to burn neon into still heavier elements. By combining a helium nucleus with the element neon, these very massive stars can produce the element magnesium plus a free neutron. Those neutrons, since they're uncharged (and do not have to contend with the repulsive Coulomb force between atomic nuclei), can interact with a nickel nucleus, which can capture it. Two of these cases are very important: where Nickel-62 and Nickel-64 capture a neutron. Here's why.
Add a neutron to Ni-62 (or Ni-64) and it becomes Ni-63 (or Ni-65). But both of these isotopes are unstable, and will β-decay, forming copper. More specifically, they undergo the reactions shown below.
- 62Ni + 1n → 63Ni* → 63Cu + β– + γ + ν ̅e,
- 64Ni + 1n → 65Ni* → 65Cu + β– + γ + ν ̅e,
where ν ̅e is an anti-electron neutrino. This is vital for copper, because these are the only stable isotopes of copper in the Universe, and because this is the primary way the Universe's copper is made!
When these stars then go supernova, they eject these elements out across the Universe, and that's where — to the best of our knowledge — all of the copper on Earth comes from. And it comes in a 70-30 ratio: 70% copper-63 and 30% copper-65, naturally.
In other words, even the most massive stars, at the incredible pressures and temperatures found at their cores, cannot fuse nickel and hydrogen nuclei together. From the point of view of astrophysics, the claims of cold fusion do not hold up.
But who knows; maybe there is some "magic secret catalyst" that could make this reaction happen? It couldn't be anything like an atom, an atomic nucleus, an electron, a neutrino, or anything else present in the Sun, because then it would happen there, too. (However, it's worth noting — at this point — that Focardi's original experiment claimed to have no catalyst, which means Ni + p → Cu should have definitely happened in the Sun for at least one of the isotopes, changing the isotopic abundance from what is observed.)
But it isn't happening, and the above picture pretty much proves that it isn't happening. Here's why. Remember the conceivable nuclear reactions we talked about, above, for nickel fusing with hydrogen? The problem is, for all of the five isotopes, the product is unstable (which is why they were marked with asterisks), and will radiate. Let's finish the reactions, and show how:
- 58Ni + 1H → 59Cu* → 59Ni + β+ + γ + νe,
- 60Ni + 1H → 61Cu* → 61Ni + β+ + γ + νe,
- 61Ni + 1H → 62Cu* → 62Ni + β+ + γ + νe,
- 62Ni + 1H → 63Cu* → 63Cu + γ,
- 64Ni + 1H → 65Cu* → 65Cu + γ.
So three of these hypothetical reactions — which, remember, represent over 95% of the total initial nickel — will decay back into nickel, releasing β+ particles (i.e., positrons), gamma rays and neutrinos, while the other two will produce stable copper, along with γ-radiation.
First, let's take a look at what positrons do.
Since they're being created inside of normal matter — which is made up of nuclei and electrons — these positrons will annihilate with electrons, producing two high-energy photons of 511 keV of energy (kilo-electronVolts) apiece, or two gamma rays (γ-rays).
In other words, in short order, all of the possible fusion reactions will produce γ-radiation. While the γ-rays from these reactions can come in a wide variety of energies in theory, from as small as a few dozen keV up to a maximum of a few MeV (Mega-electronVolts), we are guaranteed that we will at least be producing copious amounts of 511 keV γ-rays. And what does it take to stop γ-radiation?
Unlike α-particles, your skin won't do it. Unlike β-particles, a thin sheet of aluminum (or even lead) foil won't do it. For very energetic particles like γ-rays, you need a lot of shielding to protect you from them, because the only way to shield yourself from γ-rays is to put enough material between the source of these γ-rays and yourself to sufficiently reduce the intensity.
It normally takes a substantial amount of material — whether it's a foot of lead, a meter of concrete, or a few meters of water — to sufficiently protect you from high-energy γ-rays. For example, in large nuclear fission reactors, there's usually a big setup like this.
Why is all this necessary? A huge amount of shielding is needed so that this high energy γ-radiation doesn't irradiate you. Without any shielding, γ-rays can travel through many kilometers of air unimpeded. And you know what happens when you get hit by large amounts of γ-rays?
Right, you'll turn green with giant muscles!
Or, perhaps, if you don't live in a comic book, you'll start experiencing the effects of acute radiation syndrome, an extremely nasty way to go. So in these e-Cat experiments of Rossi and Focardi, how much shielding are they using, and how good is that shielding against γ-rays?
With only 2″ of lead shielding, it is true that more than 96% of the γ-rays will be blocked. But that is horrible for nuclear physics; if more than 3% of the γ-rays were to get through the shielding, they would be easily detectable with even primitive equipment, and deadly to a human bystander within minutes. But the expected γ-radiation was not detected — even with sensitive equipment — during these tests!
So what's been going on here? After all, they claimed to produce copper from nickel and hydrogen, and they claimed to have detected large amounts of excess heat that cannot be explained by the input power alone. Have the laws of nuclear physics been circumvented on both the reactants side and on the products side?
Or was the whole thing faked, with natural copper powder added to natural nickel powder and passed off as "products" of the reaction? (Remember, from above, that copper is naturally found with 70% Cu-63 and 30% Cu-65 isotopic abundance.) What do you suppose was the ratio of copper "created" by this e-Cat? Analysis of the "final sample" showed that it contained the exact same 70-30 split of copper-63 to copper-65 found in nature. If you're not convinced that this is very suspicious as well, you may also want to consider that even if 100% of the initial nickel-62 and nickel-64 was fused with hydrogen into copper, you'd get less than half the copper (4.5%) in your products compared to what was claimed (10%). Furthermore, — assuming hydrogen was the fuel — no more than 1% of the total final sample could have been transmuted into copper-65 given any conceivable chain reaction involving nickel nuclei and hydrogen, compared to the claimed 3%.
In fact, the entire "observed" effect of having your system continue to generate heat even after it's been turned off is remarkably simple to rig.
Much easier than hiding a person inside a mechanized chess machine, don't you think?
With other companies now trying to capitalize off of this speculative, unverified and highly dubious claim, it's time for the e-Cat's proponents to provide the provable, testable, reproducible science that can answer these straightforward physics objections. Independent verification is the cornerstone of all scientific investigation and experiment, it's how we weed out all sorts of errors from miscalibration to contamination, and how we protect ourselves from unscrupulous swindles. Given everything that we know, as others also demonstrate (thanks, Steven B. Krivit), it's time to set aside the mirage of Nickel + Hydrogen fusion and get back to work finding real solutions to our energy and environmental problems.


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The Democratic Party of Japan, Japan's leftist opposition party, seems intent on continuing its long history as an opposition party, having announced that it will "solve" Japan's impending economic collapse under the weight of an unrealistically generous pension system by raising income taxes for all Japanese by a staggering 15%.
The plan, part of their election manifesto, would see a uniform 15% increase in income taxes (disguised as a pension plan) across all of Japan's already hard pressed workers, irrespective of earnings; the cash would apparently be earmarked for squandering by Japan's rapidly growing elderly population.
The policies favoured by the ruling coalition are more concerned to avoid any further strangulation of Japan's fragile economy with excessive taxation, and center on reductions in the amount of pensions payable, though there is some doubt they have the capability to undertake serious reform.
It seems no matter what incompetence the LDP is capable of mustering, the opposition parties are capable of worse, a pattern which seems set to ensure the LDP's almost uninterrupted 50 year reign is to continue…
Via 47news.


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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009B-0360
PI: Kimberly A. Herrmann, Lowell Observatory, email@example.com
Address: 1400 West Mars Hill Road, Flagstaff, AZ 86001, USA
CoI: Robin Ciardullo, Penn State University
Title: The Stellar Kinematics of Outer Disks: Evidence for Halo Substructure?
Abstract: \centerlineLook at a spiral; what do you see? Stars zooming `round in the galaxy! \centerlineTheir motions indicate total mass, but how much is DM, stars, and gas? \centerlineStudy motions in and out; first find monochromatic stars- that's my kind. \centerlineFind us, get our velocities, then: determine disk mass! I'm a PN! Rotation curves indicate the total mass of spirals, but halo mass profiles cannot be decoupled from the visible disk mass using rotation curves alone. To break this disk-halo degeneracy, we have been using planetary nebulae (PNe) to measure the z-component of the stellar velocity dispersion in the disks of face-on spirals. These measurements of \sigma_z, coupled with straightforward assumptions, have yielded disk surface mass estimates over several scale lengths (h_R) in 6 spirals. We find that in the inner regions of galaxies (R < 3.5 h_R), the values of \sigma_z are consistent with those expected from a constant mass-to-light ratio (M/L), constant scale-height disk. However, in the two galaxies with data beyond this limit, \sigma_z flattens and becomes constant with radius. We have interpreted this as evidence for the existence of discrete cold-dark-matter subhalos which heat the outer disk and cause it to flare, but an increasing disk M/L may also contribute to the behavior. To investigate this phenomenon more thoroughly, we are proposing to extend the surveys of two additional galaxies, M74 and IC 342, to R > 8 h_R. Last year we imaged M74 and two fields of IC 342 with the wide-field Mosaic camera on the KPNO 4-m telescope. This proposal is to perform follow-up spectroscopy on ~500 outer PNe in the two galaxies with WIYN/Hydra.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2009B-0360


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The Texas Instruments TXS4558 Evaluation Module (EVM) is designed to showcase the TXS4558, a complete dual-supply standby Smart Identity Module (SIM) card solution for interfacing wireless baseband processors with two individual SIM subscriber cards to store data for mobile handset applications. This device is targeted to GPIO control and communication, where GPIO signals are used to switch between SIMs and SIM modes, allowing a single interface to support two SIMs.
This EVM includes two sockets for SIM cards, as well as test points interfacing all device signals. Jumpers, connectors and test points are all labeled with device signal names.


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Some day I will take my hybrid car on a 20-mile drive, get out and take my hybrid bike, unfold it, put in my hybrid skate board with Segway-like software into the basket along with the back pack. Each item is made out of carbon nanotube composites, so they are strong and light. The deluxe model skateboard would be pricey, but the wheels slide inside, so that it becomes a skid board. I take my hybrid bike down the bike trail on the beach and ride down to a coffee shop. I slide my super-thin wireless device out of my wide shirt pocket and read for a while. It is coated with solar paint to absorb and convert light of any sort into electricity.
The bike can fold up and go into the back pack, which is very light due to the ultra strong carbon composit material developed from super strong carbon nanotubes. Jump on the skate board. Each push recharges some of the battery which is super dense with electrons, due to the nanotube layers sandwiched into the lithium battery. The nanotubes increase the surface area and permit huge numbers of electrons to packed into fairly small battery pack.
Now there is a robot "dog" being developed that can carry over 350 lbs. There are several women in Boston with bladders grown from their own stem cells.


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Document Type
Publication Date
Elsevier B.V.
It is commonly assumed that identification with a social group is constant throughout the play of a one-shot game in the absence of feedback. We provide evidence which challenges this assumption. We direct subjects to play one of two versions of the prisoner's dilemma game. These versions are distinguished by the relative attractiveness of the uncooperative action. We refer to the version with a relatively attractive uncooperative action as the Easy Game and the other as the Difficult Game. We find that for the subjects who play the Difficult Game, their change in group identification is significantly related to their action selected. No such relationship exists within the Easy Game. Additionally, we find that the change primarily occurs after the action is selected rather than upon inspection of the game. We discuss the implications of our findings to settings both inside and outside of the laboratory.
NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in The Social Science Journal. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in The Social Science Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2, (2013) doi:10.1016/j.soscij.2012.12.002
Recommended Citation
Smith, John, and Katerina Bezrukova. "Toward an Understanding of the Endogenous Nature of Group Identification in Games." The Social Science Journal 50.2 (2013): 204-12.


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- Home
- Programs
- Meet Us
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Curtis Tenney, MSLS student, wins 2017 ACRL Scholarship
Curtis S.Tenney is a graduate student in the Library Science program.
The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) recently posted their 2017 Scholarship Winners. The School of Information Science is proud to announce that among those in the Library Science Student Scholarships category is University of Kentucky MSLS candidate Curtis Tenney.
Mr. Tenney will be attending the 2017 ACRL National Conference in Baltimore, Maryland this March. Carla Hayden, the current Librarian of Congress, is among the keynote speakers for this year's conference.
A division of the American Library Association (ALA), ACRL is the "higher education association for librarians," and "develops programs, products and services to help academic and research librarians learn, innovate and lead within the academic community." For more information on ACRL including how to join, conference details, and scholarship opportunities, visit http://www.ala.org/acrl/.
Congratulations to Mr. Tenney for being named an award winner this year!


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For John Feierabend, the lack of attention to musical development in television programs for children has long been a major concern. His answer to that problem? The Little Red Caboose, a half-hour television show with the primary purpose of developing and nurturing musicality in young children, is planned to debut in the fall of 2003.
When people think about education in the humanities and the liberal arts, they may not associate it with a profitable business career. Richard J. Cardin '62 is on a mission to change that.