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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Round-robin formats at tennis tournaments can cause confusion but Serena Williams has an easy solution, just keep winning.
The American crushed Petra Kvitova 6-2 6-3 to complete her stroll through the Red Group at the season-ending WTA Championships, looking unbeatable in the process.
World number one Williams, looking to retain her title, has won all three matches at the Sinan Erdem Dome without a dropped set, leaving her rivals to scrap over the runners-up spot in the section.
China's Li Na is also unbeaten in the White Group after a 6-3 2-6 6-3 victory over Serbia's Jelena Jankovic on Thursday.
The world number five was forced to fight hard by Jankovic in the only match in the tournament to go the distance so far.
With second seed Victoria Azarenka playing her final match on Friday, Li is still not guaranteed to reach the last four as Jankovic will be expected to beat already eliminated Sara Errani.
Li leads the standings but she, Azarenka and Jankovic could all end up with two wins apiece.
"Matches are always tough with Jelena because she is a very different player. Today I was running a lot, forward and backward on the court," Li said.
"Now it is one foot in the semis but another foot still out of the door so I have to see how it goes tomorrow."
Italy's Errani has lost both her matches in straight sets and cannot qualify because Jankovic snatched a set from Li.
The scenario in the Red Group in terms of who joins Williams in the last four is a simple winner-take-all battle between Ktivova and Germany's Angelique Kerber on Friday.
Kerber beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2 6-2 to claim her first victory at the event, having lost all three matches in 2012.
World number four Radwanska will return home without even a set to her name but was not too concerned.
"I think it was a good year," she said. "Still top five, I'm very happy about that especially as I really played consistent tennis pretty much the whole year.
"Of course I've had some tough losses but altogether I will say it's been a good year."
Editing by Tony Jimenez


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A new report from the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a think tank in Washington, DC, shows that more than 1.2 million workers in Illinois would benefit from an increase to the federal minimum wage.
Increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour would give more than 28 million workers a raise while generating approximately 103,000 new jobs over three years, finds the new EPI report, How raising the federal minimumwage would help working families and give the economy a boost.
The report also provides an in-depth demographic analysis of minimum-wage and low-wage workers, along with state-by-state projections of how many new jobs would be created in each of the 50 states if efforts to raise the federal minimum wage are successful.
"Increasing the minimum wage in this country is shamefully overdue," said Rep. Jan Schakowsky of IL's 9th Congressional District. "Income disparity is the worst it has been since 1928 and continues to pose a major threat to our economy."
"The majority of Americans believe increasing the minimum wage should be one of the top priorities for Congress," said Rep. Schakowsky. The EPI report, she added, "shows that raising the minimum wage would benefit 28 million hardworking Americans across all races, ages, income and educational backgrounds."
EPI researchers show that raising the minimum wage would provide a substantial lift to the national economy and benefit workers still reeling from the effects of the recession, generating almost $40 billion in increased wages.
This additional spending power would be a useful tool to spur job growth, as employers would need to hire new staff to keep up with heightened demand for goods and services. In fact, an increase in the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour would result in a net increase in economic activity of approximately $25 billion, generating approximately 100,000 new jobs. This hike would have a positive impact across the country, with job creation in every state.
In contrast to prevailing myths about minimum-wage workers, raising the minimum wage would benefit millions of workers across demographic groups, not just teenage part-time workers. Almost 88 percent of workers who would be affected are at least 20 years old. Female and non-minority workers would benefit disproportionately from the increase; women comprise nearly 55 percent of those affected, and non-Hispanic white workers make up about 56 percent.
Angel Lopez, a Chicago Dunkin' Donuts employee earning minimum wage, is just one of over a million workers in Illinois who would benefit from an increased minimum wage. "If I earned closer to 10 bucks an hour, I wouldn't have to work two jobs," said Lopez.
Until recently, Lopez was working at two different Dunkin' Donuts stores, 32 hours a week at each one. Now he's down to 35 hours a week at just one store but he's looking for a second job, he said, because working one job on minimum wage "doesn't cut it."
"My paycheck is gone as soon as I get it," he said. "I can't even buy myself a new pair of shoes. It's either that or paying the light bill." Raising the minimum wage, he said, "would make a big difference for my family and for other working families like mine."
The report also provides a state-by-state analysis of the job creation and GDP impacts of raising the federal minimum wage. In Illinois, where legislation to raise the state minimum wage is currently moving through the General Assembly, raising the federal minimum wage would create close to 5,000 jobs and would add nearly $1 billion to our economy.
"Anyone who is willing to work for at least 40 hours per week should be able to afford a modest lifestyle without any help from charities or the government," said Sen. Kimberly Lightford, a sponsor of SB 1565, which proposes to raise the Illinois minimum wage from the current $8.25 an hour to $10.65 an hour by 2014. "The minimum wage should be a living wage."
The EPI report comes a few weeks after Rep. George Miller (D-CA), along with over 100 other House Democrats, introduced the "Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2012," which proposes to raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.80 per hour over three years, and peg it to inflation thereafter. Rep. Miller was accompanied by his colleage Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA), who introduced the same bill in the Senate.
"When we pass this modest increase, we should think of it as a down-payment on our commitment to assure that every hardworking American receives a living wage," said Rep. Schakowsky.
In July, the National Employment Law Project released another report on the minimum wage, which argues that the top minimum wage employers in the U.S., nearly all of which have been extremely profitable over the last few years, can afford to pay their employees more in order to hasten economic recovery.
For more information on efforts to raise the minimum wage in Illinois, please visit www.RaiseIllinois.org.
For more information on raising the federal minimum wage, please visit www.RaiseTheMinimumWage.org.

subset: commoncrawl


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As One Murdoch Company Struggles With Sexual Harassment Allegations, Another Murdoch Publication Debates Marital Rape
Blog ››› ››› MEDIA MATTERS STAFF
The sexism in Rupert Murdoch's world continues: Even as the media mogul's Fox News Channel is facing a torrent of sexual harassment charges, mostly directed at former CEO Roger Ailes, a website Murdoch owns posted a debate over the existence of marital rape.
Murdoch owns News Corp, which launched Heat Street in February, a digital media site catered toward "center-right and conservative audiences." On August 14, Heat Street posted a debate about marital rape between its own Louise Mensch, a former Conservative member of Parliament in the U.K., and Vox Day, a white nationalist blogger and WorldNetDaily columnist.
Vox Day, otherwise known as Theodore Robert Beale, has previously rejected the notion that America is a "melting pot" and advocated for returning to a "traditional white Anglo-Saxon Protestant culture" through ethnic cleansing.
In the debate, Heat Street head Mensch took the position that marital rape can exist in certain situations, when a spouse has clearly said "no." Vox Day claimed that the only way to "withdraw [sexual] consent from marriage is to divorce." Drawing some pushback from Mensch, Day argued that giving permanent consent in marriage is the same as signing up for the military, arguing, "You don't get to withdraw your consent and say, 'You know what, sergeant? I don't feel like going out running today. I'm withdrawing my consent.'" From the debate, posted on August 14 (emphasis original):
Vox Day: Yeah, I think it's quite obvious that it's not even possible for there to be anything that we describe as rape within marriage. I find it remarkable that someone would try and claim that it is beyond debate when this new concept of marital rape is not only very, very new but is in fact not even applicable to most of the human race. It's very clear, for example, in India it's part of the written law that it's not possible for, even if force is involved, there cannot be rape between a man and a woman. In China the law is the same.
LM: Mm-hmm (affirmative) but there's a difference between saying what the law is and saying what is morally right. You would agree that just because somebody says something is a law doesn't make it so. Let's just start with that basic principle.
Vox: There's huge difference between morality and legality. I'd be the first to agree with that. The fact of the matter is that the concept of marital rape hangs on consent and because marriage is and has always granted consent, the act of marriage is a granting of consent, therefore it's not possible for the consent to be withdrawn and then for rape to happen. In fact, the concept of marital rape is created by the cultural Marxists in an attempt to destroy the family and to destroy the institution of marriage.
LM: I'm going to say that that's patent nonsense. If you consent to something once it doesn't mean that you've given a blanket consent to it forever. We agree on the definition of rape – that rape is when one party forces sex on the other without their consent?
Vox: Yes.
LM: Good. We go that far. Your argument then hinges on the statement that to get married is to give an all time consent forever to sex with your spouse?
Vox: Exactly. It's no different than when you join the army. You only have to join the army once. You don't get the choice to consent to obey orders every single time an order is given. In certain arrangements, and marriage is one of them, the agreement is a lasting one and that's why it's something that should not be entered into lightly.
Vox: The only way that you can withdraw consent from marriage is to divorce.
LM: Who says?
Vox: That that was even settled under the English common law that if you were to say no at any time that was effectively equivalent to a demand for a divorce.
Vox: Where is the line drawn?
LM: It's simple. It's quite simple. The line is drawn very, very simply. If the woman says no and means no and I'm going to infer the wrath of eleventy billion feminists by saying there is a problem and all women know it with the no means no standard because quite often you can laugh, you can giggle, you can say, "No, come on" and you don't mean no and it's quite obvious from your tone and demeanor. I'm postulating where a woman has clearly said no, clearly meant it, she feels ill, has just had a huge fight with the man, and any number of such very obvious situations. The woman has said at that moment, even though they regularly have sex as a couple, she does not want to have sex and he forces himself upon her. That is clearly rape and it doesn't take away from the fact that she has an obligation in general to have sex with him and he with her. When you extrapolate that from every single time he feels like it, I see no justification in your argument so far for that leap.
Vox: Because there has to be a reliable standard. You're going to have to draw a line at some point between it's never okay and it's always okay. There is no line and in fact the way that we know that marital rape is bad law is because virtually no one is ever prosecuted under it. It's interesting.
The debate came as 21st Century Fox's Fox News Channel, another Murdoch-owned company, is facing sexual harassment claims. Former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson filed a "sexual harassment/retaliation" lawsuit against former CEO Ailes, who has a long history of sexist behavior, in July. Since then, 20 women have reportedly come forward to allege sexual harassment by Ailes.
On August 22, former Fox News host Andrea Tantaros also filed a lawsuit against Fox News and Ailes. Tantaros' complaint alleges that her "tenure at Fox News devolved into a nightmare of sexual harassment by Ailes, Fox News's then-President, and others, followed by retaliation by Ailes and others despite multiple ongoing complaints by Tantaros."


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James Thurber and E.B. White asked the question Is Sex Necessary? in the title of their humorous 1929 book. In the book Thurber and White set out to parody the pseudoscientific works flooding the market on the subject.
In his foreword to the seventy-fifth anniversary edition of the book, John Updike explored its origins. He recalled Thurber's own troubled marriage to former campus beauty queen Althea Adams. "Their union early encountered sexual disarray," Updike writes. Updike quotes Thurber's ungentlemanly if powerful testimony: "Sleeping with Althea is like sleeping with the Statue of Liberty."
Now comes Mark Steyn with a related question. Steyn asks, "Do you notice anything shrivelling?" He reports:
In the Netherlands, the most progressive nation in Europe, the land where whatever's your bag is cool, where naked women beckon from storefront windows, a certain ennui is palpable. Last week, the ANP news agency released a poll showing that the Dutch now derive more pleasure from going to the bathroom than from sex. It wasn't a close-run thing: eighty per cent identified a trip to the toilet as the activity "they enjoy the most"–or, as the South African newspaper the Witness put it, "The Bog's Better Than Bonking."
The serious thesis of Steyn's column is that "the developed world's massive expansion of personal sexual liberty has provided a useful cover for the shrivelling of almost every other kind." How so? "Free speech, property rights, economic liberty and the right to self-defence are under continuous assault by Big Government. But who cares when Big Government lets you shag anything that moves and every city in North America hosts a grand parade to celebrate your right to do so?"
A case in point is the shriveling of the right to free speech under the regime of campaign finance reform. For pornography, virtually no legal restriction survives. By contrast, political speech is subject to complicated regulations and restrictions. I took a stab at describing the phenomenon in the 2005 Standard column "Dream palace of the goo-goos." Writing in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Hans von Spakovsky provides a striking case study in "What's wrong with 'Hillary: The movie'?" It's a good question, as is the one Steyn asks in his Macleans column.


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Jeanie Franz Ransom in her own words: I'm a children's author who speaks at schools, libraries, and conferences about the writing life. I'm also a part-time counselor and full-time Starbucks coffee geek. I have one wonderful husband, three fantastic sons, and two quirky but highly entertaining Shelties. I live near St. Louis, Missouri, but will travel anywhere I'm invited.
My website: www.jeanieransom.com
Blogs: www.jeanieransom.com/blog
First act as Dictator for Life?
Build me a Starbucks. In my backyard. Open 24/7.
What kids lit character would you like to vote off the island?
Harry Potter.
What kids lit character would you share your last twinkie with?
Trixie Belden (One of my favorite childhood book characters.)
What TV family would you like to be adopted by?
Lassie's family.
Worst job in the universe?
Anything involving math.
Dream job for a day?
Magazine editor.
Marx Brothers or Three Stooges?
Three Stooges.
Clown V. Mime Deathmatch. Pick your winner.
It'd be a tie. Definitely.
Funniest dead person you'd like to meet?
Gilda Radner.
Best use for a book shaped object? (You know, one of those things sold as books but which should never ever have been published.)


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Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh has caught on to the chimes from, among others, Pulitzer Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman to mint a $1 trillion coin to work around the debt ceiling.
Limbaugh devoted a segment of his show today to slam Krugman and others that have begun to advocate the coin as a serious proposal to circumvent the debt ceiling if Congressional Republicans refuse to raise it by the "X date" that could come as soon as Feb. 15.
Limbaugh compared it to something a "banana republic" would do:
And Krugman said, "Yep, absolutely," and people are serious about this. People on the left think that this is a brilliant idea, including Paul Krugman. So, because of this, the Republicans have introduced a bill that would ban the creation of a trillion-dollar platinum coin. Now, folks, you have to admit that this is the kind of stuff that banana republics do.
I mean, this is absurd. But it has the support of leading leftist Democrat journalists and economists, such as Paul Krugman. A $1 trillion coin! A platinum coin that's worth probably 85¢ would just be said to be worth a trillion-dollars, and the government could spend it. It would be a trillion dollars we'd found, and we would have to print any additional money. It's a miracle.
Republican Rep. Greg Walden plans to introduce legislation that would ban the Treasury from minting high-value platinum coins.
You can listen to the full segment below, courtesy of The Daily Rushbo:


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john5Budding Enthusiast
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Last visited
About john5
Settling In Well
Profile Information
Ford Model
Focus1.6 TDCI Estate
Thanks for that, will have a look.
You may be on it there Stoney, where I live it rains a good 350 days a year, we did have some sun in 1987 :D. Thanks will get the panel off and have a look. cheers John.
Hi James Thanks for that, I haven't got a spare key ( keep meaning to get one ) this has been going on for a couple of days now, but since I put this post on it hasn't happened. Will see what happens ( watch this space :D) cheers John.
Tail Gate
john5 posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubHi My 55 plate Focus Estate opens the tail gate on it's own, this happens about 50 seconds after locking it when parked, or closing it and driving away. Any ideas on this cheers John.
john5 started following 12V Power Plug, Tail Gate, Oops!!!!!!!! and and 3 others
john5 replied to john5's topic in Ford Focus ClubHi Thanks for that I did think it would cost a bit. By the time it's been sprayed I will be a few bob down then. cheers John.
john5 posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubHi Can anyone tell me ( roughly ) the cost of the the panel from the front lights down, in the book they still call it a bumper, and are they colour coded. Thanks in advance. cheers John.
Egr Cooler
john5 posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubHi , I've got a Ford Focus Mk II Last year in October I had to have the EGR cooler replaced.Now 9 months later the car is showing the same symptoms as before & it's going into be checked this week.My question is ,is this likely to be a regular thing cos at £300+ it's no joke,or was it a faulty cooler put on & also someone told me that you can have them blanked off .Is this true?
Door Locking
john5 replied to john5's topic in Ford Focus ClubHi Thank you both for your replies you were both right. I had it looked at and it was caused by a connection, no problems now. cheers John.
Door Locking
john5 posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubHi When I unlock the doors, if I don't put the key in the ignition and close the door, after a little while it locks itself. Very good idea if I had forgotten to lock it when parked, but a nightmare if I left the key on the seat or somwhere, as I have no spare key. I wondered if it's possible to program it to stop this happening. cheers John.
Time To Reach Normal Temperature
john5 replied to lipso's topic in Ford Focus ClubYeah your right there, it takes mine about 8 miles at normal driving.
Tried the fuse and bending the metal strips in the socket out still no good, so back to square one. How much of a job is it to get out and replace. Cheers John.
Thanks for that will give it a go in the morning.
12V Power Plug
john5 posted a topic in Ford Focus ClubHi The 12v. power plug in the little pocket in front on the gearstick isn't working, how much of a job is it to get it out and replace it. cheers John.
No it was £35 out of a scrap yard, with a tyre that has 1000s of miles left on it.
Yeah I have got a full size wheel now, that's a good idea about the tyre weld, I will get a can. cheers John.


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This my first attempt at an alpha. Sheesh, these suckers can be time consuming! Hats off to those of you who design these for each of your kits!
I tried several different things but didn't settle until I did this one. I found the basic tutorial here on this blog. Though I did quite a bit of fiddling to get the final look of my alpha, as I wanted more of a flat look and also didn't want to limit people to using a specific drop shadow.
Below you'll find the two links to grab the goodies. The alpha is commercial use and also coordinate with the upcoming blogtrain, "The Birds and the Bees". The preview shows the alpha with a slight drop shadow, but the actual files don't have any shadowing.
Hopefully someone can use them.


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We've found enough fun, funky schoolbag options that your kids will hardly need any convincing to forgo yet another made-in-China licensed character in their possession.
*Agatha Ruiz de la Prada rocks prints on her backpacks! We love the poker hearts also available in a version for smaller trendanistas. ($24-36 at Little Jet Set, shown)
*The It Bag for boys this year has to be Room Seven's Spaceship Dog bag which is selling out before it even gets into stock. Fabulous, but not cheap. ($119.95 at The Silly Wagon)
A close second: Their I Want to be a Pop Star backpack featuring a crooning croc. ($98 at Little Dudes and Divas)
*Little kids love the modern Little Kids Backpacks from Dante Beatrix, if only they can get past the hurdle of choosing their favorite animal. Also available at Itty Bitty Ladybug. ($36, shown)
*Any kid will be delighted to zoom to school with a shiny Zid Zid Airplane bag at the ready. ($37.95, shown)
*Your little easy rider will look too cool toting the black nylon Biker Bag ($35) and matching insulated lunch pack. ($18 at Chocolate Cake Club)
*Barcelona-based Busquets makes a colorful floral Mariona Backpack for lucky girlie-girls. ($65 at Little Jet Set)
*As an alternative to backpacks, the mini messenger bags from Ellie Bellie Kids are beautifully handmade out of canvas. No polyester here, thanks. ($32, shown)
- The Silly Wagon: 15% off with code bookworm08
- Little Dudes and Divas: 10% off with code COOLMOMPICKS thorugh 8/31/08. Free shipping with $50 purchase, and free bib with any diaper bag purchase over $100
- Itty Bitty Ladybug: *10% off everything and free shipping on orders over $99 at Itty Bitty Ladybug with code COOLMOM10 through 9/15/2008
- Chocolate Cake Club: 15% off any order with code COOLMP through 9/15/2008
- Little Jet Set: 10% off any order with code COOLMOM through 9/30/2008
- Ellie Bellie Kids: 20% off regular-price items with code CMP through 10/1/2008


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Free Entry
Designed by architect, George David Payne, St Andrew's is an excellent example of Romanesque-Byzantine architecture. Features include magnificent stained glass windows by Brisbane artist William Bustard and Melbourne firm, Brooks Robinson. The Peace Chapel contains World War honour boards and a communion set used at Gallipoli. The arched tiered chancel, pipe organ, choir and fine ecclesiastical furniture are impressive.
This Heritage Listed Church is open during the week to the public between 11:00am and 2:00pm. Guided tours for groups are also available by appointment. St Andrews can also be used as a unique venue for your wedding.


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Deconstructing Obama: Avant-Garde Idiocy
Blog ››› ››› SIMON MALOY
The premise of Jack Cashill's new book, Deconstructing Obama, published by Simon & Schuster, is that President Obama's entire life is one massive fraud, as demonstrated (Cashill claims) by the fact that Obama almost certainly did not write the two memoirs that eloquently and movingly retell the president's life story. And I have to admit that Cashill's skepticism is contagious -- having read Deconstructing Obama, I find myself wondering whether it was written by Jack Cashill, or a sophisticated computer program meant to simulate the effects of low oxygen levels on the brain.
I've never encountered anything -- on the left or the right -- so aggressively stupid, so terminally self-unaware, so pathetically festooned with self-aggrandizing tripe as Deconstructing Obama. When not retreading the already well-worn ground of Obama's "radical" associates, Cashill describes at length his own journalistic expertise and gift for literary analysis -- praise that he unwittingly steps on when recounting his amateurish and nonsensical attempts at "detective work" into Obama's books and past. (At one point, Cashill faults his critics for not acknowledging "my frequent caveats about the limits of my knowledge.")
More than anything else, Deconstructing Obama is a bizarre book. It's a frayed string of conspiracy theories that loops and knots itself into a tangled mess. It's a disjointed harangue in which chapters seem to repeat themselves and an entire section is inexplicably devoted to Sarah Palin's "perseverance in the face of resistance." It's an intellectually and morally offensive screed in which 19-year-old Barack Obama's poetry serves as the launching point for an outlandish theory about Obama's grandfather bribing Barack Obama Sr. to pose as the future president's father. (Cashill's candidates for Obama's "real" father include Malcolm X and Jimi Hendrix.)
The allegation that animates this corpse of a book is that the true author of Obama's intensely personal autobiography, Dreams from My Father, is none other than Bill Ayers, the former Weatherman and current focal point for fringe right-wing obsessives. The "evidence" Cashill marshals in support of this claim is weak to the point of parody. Much is made, for example, of the frequency of nautical terms and metaphors in Dreams, even though "Obama gives little indication that he has any real experience with the sea or ships beyond bodysurfing at Waikiki." Ayers apparently served as a merchant seaman at one point, so... QED, I guess.
Much of the rest of his proof consists of random words that both Obama and Ayers use in their books and stories they tell that have tangential similarities. Cashill even claims early on that the superficial similarities between two sentences from Obama's and Ayers' memoirs are "almost enough to convict." He reprints anonymous emails from fellow travelers who share Cashill's conviction, as well as his deficiencies of expertise and common sense. The argument, I guess, is that if you get enough ignorant people talking about the same subject they'll somehow equal one expert.
What remains is Cashill cobbling together various fantastical explanations for the many holes -- logical and factual -- in his arguments, such as his take on Obama's updated introduction for the 2004 reprint of Dreams. In that introduction, Obama looks back on his creation and confesses to "wincing every so often at a poorly chosen word, a mangled sentence, an expression of emotion that seems indulgent or overly practiced." Cashill, however, argues that Ayers wrote the new intro and offers his "purely speculative" belief that Ayers "was telling those in the know that he could have done better with Dreams, that perhaps he allowed the nominal author too much leeway in what remained in the book. Ayers has an ego. All real writers do." But if Ayers' ego is that pronounced, why did he agree to write the book and not claim any credit in the first place?
Weaving its way through all this nonsense is Cashill's messianic belief that he has been cruelly and needlessly victimized in his self-described quest to ensure "the future of the Republic." And, ironically, by airing these grievances he provides perhaps the most compelling proof that his theory is irretrievably insane: even the right-wing press thinks he's a crank. In painstaking detail, he explains how the pillars of the conservative media -- the Weekly Standard, the National Review, the Washington Times -- all declined to give his Ayers ghostwriting conspiracy even a cursory examination. He writes of gaining admission to Grover Norquist's weekly Wednesday meeting of conservative muckety-mucks and being booed while making his case.
Cashill's theory has been almost completely ignored by the legitimate press. One notable exception was the New Yorker's David Remnick, author of The Bridge: The Life and Times of Barack Obama, who set aside a couple of pages of the biography to break down Cashill's "libel about Obama's memoir" and note the "particularly ugly pedigree" of denial of authorship accusations against black writers.
Deconstructing Obama is a peek into the right-wing's dank, dark ideological sub-basement. If it can be said to have any use, it is to demarcate the furthest extreme of the right's increasingly deranged antipathy towards the Democratic president.
- Network/Outlet
- Simon & Schuster
- Person
- Jack Cashill
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If I had to go back to row water (furrow irrigation), I wouldn't be farming today," says Doug Dunlap, who credits center pivots with helping to keep him in business in arid Arizona.
Dunlap, a fourth-generation crops farmer, owns Dunlap Farms in the Sulphur Springs Valley at Willcox in southeastern Arizona, an area bordering New Mexico and Mexico.
Dunlap and his brother, Darren, who operate separate farms, grow 4,500 acres of alfalfa, pinto beans, chile, corn, and milo in the high desert at 4,400 feet above sea level in Cochise County.
The farm fields are shadowed to the north by the picturesque Pinaleño Mountains and the Winchester range to the west.
Dunlap farms in 160-acre crop circles (one-quarter section), which allows crop production on 120-125 acres in the circle. The mountainous terrain can drop 20 feet from one end of a circle to the other.
Wells and rain are the main water sources. Most well water is pumped from a depth of 300 to 400 feet. The area averages 7 to 10 inches of rain annually.
Soil types vary across Dunlap's fields, from a Tubac sandy loam and Tubac clay loam on the north side of the farm near Bonita to a sandy Pima loam closer to Willcox. Center pivots allow him to adjust the irrigation based on rainfall and the various soil types.
The Dunlap family is among an entourage of farmers who brought their center pivot experience from West Texas in the late 1960s to this mostly row water (furrow and other types) irrigated Arizona community.
One of the first changes the Dunlaps made was to switch from row water to center pivots.
"Today, it would require about 20 irrigators and 20 pickup trucks to irrigate this farm with row water, including turning the water on and off," he says. "The labor savings with center pivots are huge.
"Pivots irrigate the ground more evenly; row water irrigated unevenly, especially near the lower levels in the field."
The bottom line: center pivot technology allows Dunlap to farm more efficiently and effectively. He estimates his water efficiency at about 90 percent.
Original pivot systems were designed for hilly ground that could not be row watered, he says. The systems had high impact nozzles, with 50 to 60 pounds of pressure per square inch (PSI), which increased soil compaction. Modern pivot systems can deliver 15 to 30 PSI.
Another change in pivot use in the Willcox area was placing the irrigation drop hoses closer to the ground. Today, drops are often 30 to 60 inches apart and hang two to three feet from the ground.
In corn, Dunlap places the drops 20 inches from the ground, which provides improved water delivery to the plants with less evaporation.
He uses Nelson and Senniger nozzles. Smooth spray pad nozzles break up the water into a fine mist for soils to better absorb water. A corrugated pad with large droplets is used on heavier soils.
Dunlap, who is proficient in center pivot technology, operates High Desert Irrigation, a Valley Irrigation dealership.
"We figured out years ago that, with center pivots, we make just as much money farming 120 acres as we would 160 acres, due to fewer expenses and reduced water use," he says.
Pivot irrigation works better than row water on all of his crops. Depending on rainfall, his average for a pivot-fed corn crop is 24-30 inches of water annually, 36-38 inches for alfalfa hay, 20-22 inches for milo, 24 inches for chile, and 18-20 inches for pinto beans.
Center pivot efficiency
Dunlap says center pivot use in his area boils down to efficiencies — which keeps more money in the grower's wallet.
"I get more uniformity with pivots versus row water. My crop yields are 15 percent to 20 percent higher with pivot irrigation."
Pivots also allow him to utilize minimum tillage.
"With row water, we had to get the land black, landplane it, and list it, which meant a lot of trips across the field," Dunlap says. "Now, we can disk the ground a couple of times and then plant corn."
An installed quarter-mile-long center pivot system costs about $70,000 on average, he says.
The pivot's speed is adjustable. A 16-hour complete circle applies about three-tenths inch of water.
Some herbicides, fungicides, and pesticides are chemigated through the pivot system, which is particularly effective on Dunlap's chile crop.
"I can apply water that includes a pesticide to kill nematodes in the chile," he says.
Center pivot irrigation is slowly gaining in popularity in the West. Acceptance has been slow for a number of reasons.
"A lot of land in the West is high dollar land, where growers don't want to leave land out of production (the circle corners)," Dunlap says.
"The cost of the center pivot is probably another factor, and the technology is still new to some people. But, the technology in new pivot systems is easy to operate."
Early problems with center pivots in the U.S. included tires becoming stuck in wet ground. Farmers in Cochise County have learned ways around that, including planting cover crops and utilizing minimum tillage instead of ripping the ground.
Drip irrigation is also catching on in the West, but Dunlap says it is not a good fit for his area due to the large numbers of gophers and mice that chew on drip tape.
Robert Call, University of Arizona area horticulture agent for Cochise County, says the Willcox area has about 500 center pivot systems, which irrigate about 90 percent of the county's crop acreage.
Pivot system water efficiency ranges from 80 percent to 90 percent, depending on the system setup and soil conditions, Call says. Systems can be automated and controlled by cell phone or computer.
"The efficiency factor depends on the drops, plus crop canopy height, wind, and cloud cover," he says. "During the summer monsoon (rainy) season, the sky can be cloudy until sunset."
Call says center pivots are adaptable to small grains, corn, hay, and other crops popular in the area.
Edward Martin, irrigation specialist, University of Arizona, Tucson, says, "One advantage that growers in Cochise County have is that most center pivot systems are fairly new and incorporate the latest technology. One person can manage several hundred acres at a time."


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The good news is that a political settlement of the Bahraini crisis – sponsored by the United States and acceptable to Iran – is beginning to take shape. The problem is that Saudi Arabia is not yet ready to play along.
Recent developments on the Bahraini crisis suggest that agreement on a political resolution, initiated by Washington and agreed to by Tehran, is gaining momentum. However, it appears that Saudi Arabia is not yet ready to sign on to the deal, encouraging elements in Manama over which it has sway to take a hard line against the nearly three-year uprising.
The details of the proposed six-point agreement were discussed in several meetings held in London in August attended by Crown Prince Salman bin Khalifa and the Secretary General of Wefaq Ali Salman, with American oversight. It would involve giving the Shia opposition a majority in parliament, which in turn would gradually be turned into a legislative, rather than simply an advisory, body.
The prime minister would still be appointed by the king, but must be approved by the legislature. And while the ruling family would retain sensitive ministerial posts such as finance, defense, interior, and foreign affairs in the government, the remaining portfolios would be given to the opposition. Finally, the regime would have to release all prisoners and facilitate the return of those employees laid off during the course of the uprising.
Today, there are three major currents in the Bahraini regime that are competing over what course to take in dealing the crisis: the Saudi-backed prime minister, Khalifa bin Khalifa, represents the hard-liners; the reform-minded crown prince favors a more conciliatory approach; King Hamad bin Khalifa plays the middle ground between the two.
The US plan was offered to the Iranians, who found it acceptable. It was not only that the Bahraini crisis was becoming a major burden on American interests in the region, but the Barack Obama administration was hoping to neutralize Iran's involvement in Syria in return for resolving the interminable Bahraini conflict.
But when the strike against Syria did not materialize, the Americans were no longer as enthusiastic about pushing their proposal, because they would not receive anything in return from the Iranian side. This allowed those who have the most to lose from a political settlement, such as Saudi Arabia, to take an uncompromising stand and reinforce the hard-liners' position in Manama, prompting them to unleash a major crackdown that has seen dozens of activists jailed under harsh sentences.
A meeting between the Bahraini and Iranian foreign ministers on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly gathering in New York – in which Manama's envoy asked the Iranians to return their ambassador to the kingdom – did not result in either side taking concrete steps. Today, progress in Bahrain remains hostage to developments in Syria and the power struggle underway in the region as a whole.
Via SyndiGate.info
© Al-Akhbar. All rights reserved


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Alain Rochat was one of the more consistent performers on the back end last year for Whitecaps FC. He believes he and his teammates learned many lessons and is confident that this year will be much different for the 'Caps. (Bruce Constantineau - The Vancouver Sun)
Players aren't hiding their expectations for the team's second season in Major League Soccer. With the personnel moves made in the off-season, the team plans to be in the thick of things from First Kick on Saturday, March 10, until the very end of the season. Marc Weber examines their chances in his article. (Marc Weber - The Province)
Winning is the priority for Whitecaps FC in 2012. According to many, that tone has been set off the field. (Tyler Green - 24 hours)
'Whitecaps FC Daily' with Peter Schaad is back in its usual 3:00 p.m. timeslot on TEAM 1410 sports radio! For those of you who may have missed past episodes, you can find them HERE!
The show airs every Monday to Friday at 3 p.m. PT on TEAM 1410.
You can always get your soccer fix every Sunday night from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. PT by tuning into 'Full-Time: Vancouver's Soccer Show' with Tyler Green and Mike Martignago on TEAM 1040.
West Coast Soccer Weekly is a new podcast hosted by Canadian Soccer News writers Pierce Lang and Michael McColl. For all things soccer on the best coast, including up to date coverage of Whitecaps FC, Highlanders, Men's and Women's Canadian national teams, and local community clubs be sure to listen in HERE!
Have you heard about 'The Soccer Show' with Nigel Reed and Bob Iarusci? Make sure to listen HERE!
The schedule for the 2012 Whitecaps Women's Soccer Series presented by Kia has been announced. The series highlights many local communities who proudly support the 'Caps. Check out the announcement to find out when and where Hope Solo and the Seattle Sounders Women will be making their heralded visit to face the Whitecaps women. (whitecapsfc.com)
We here at Vancouver Whitecaps FC hope you and yours enjoyed a fabulous Valentine's Day. We had a busy day in our offices celebrating the holiday, as we sent special Valentine's Day cards to Seattle Sounders FC, Montreal Impact, Portland Timbers, and LA Galaxy. Check out the video cards HERE! (whitecapsfc.com)
With a new coaching staff in 2012, acquiring talent and depth has been a key part of Martin Rennie's off-season plan. (Martin MacMahon - MLSsoccer.com)
The 'Caps were back at training in Burnaby yesterday. Training was the priority, but if you watch the video it seems that acclimatizing back to Vancouver weather was a bit challenging for the sun-bathed squad. (Brandon Timko and Zac Ratcliffe-whitecapsfc.com)
Don't forget that single match tickets are now on sale for the first six matches. Check out all the information on our website at whitecapsfc.com


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The chemistry of memory: New strategies for battling brain disease
Posted on 18. Oct, 2010 by perspective in Economic Impact, Features, Healthcare and Medicine
It has taken more than a decade for Regina Murphy and her colleagues to determine that sometimes it's actually better to rush things.
At least that's the case when those things are protein processes in the brain that can lead to devastating neurological diseases like Alzheimer's and Huntington's.
Murphy, the Smith-Bascom Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, is studying the kinetics of proteins and peptides that aggregate in the brain. Her work has helped to dramatically change the research paradigms that guide neurological drug development, creating new possibilities for therapies that could treat not only the symptoms of these diseases, but perhaps the actual causes.
Alzheimer's, the most common form of dementia, is a progressive and fatal brain disease that currently has no cure. Characterized by severe memory loss and confusion, the disease affects as many as 5.3 million people in the United States, according to the Alzheimer's Association. A new patient develops the disease every 70 seconds, and while the majority of patients are over age 65, as many as 200,000 people in their 30s, 40s and 50s are living with the disease.
Doctors do not fully understand the cause of Alzheimer's, though age, family history, and serious head injuries appear to be risk factors. Similarly, scientists do not know exactly what causes Alzheimer's at the cellular level, but they have linked the disease to a particular protein in the brain.
Imagine the protein, called the beta amyloid precursor protein (APP), as a chain. A few links of this chain make up an amino acid called beta amyloid. Enzymes work like a saw to "cut out" the beta amyloid section from the rest of the protein. When cut pieces of beta amyloid find each other, they bind into links called oligomers. These oligomers, or intermediates, grow as they find more and more beta amyloid copies, eventually forming a clump called a fibril that can measure around 1 micron long, which is visible in the brain tissue.
Rethinking the disease process
Patients with Alzheimer's have these beta amyloid fibrils, and for years, researchers and drug companies assumed that the fibrils were causing cell death and disease. However, in the late 1990s, Murphy and UW-Madison Chemistry Professor Laura Kiessling showed that in the case of Alzheimer's disease, the fibrils themselves aren't the problem. Rather oligomer "clumping" is the toxic part of the process. And, speeding up this intermediate aggregation into fully formed fibrils actually reduces overall toxicity in the brain.
Murphy, who has been a member of the UW-Madison faculty for more than 20 years, recalls visits to pharmaceutical companies where she met researchers trying to develop drugs intended to prevent fibrils from forming. "They weren't looking at whether they were just pushing everything back to the intermediate phase, which would have been worse since that's the most toxic stage, because it just wasn't accepted wisdom that the intermediates were bad," she says.
Murphy believes beta amyloid is still the main culprit in Alzheimer's since the intermediates appear to have a physical effect on the cell membrane of neurons, which is where the cell most actively transmits and receives signals. Neurons make up around 10 percent of all brain cells and are, says Murphy, the racehorses of our bodies. "They're fast and great, but they're touchy," she says, adding that neurons appear to be particularly sensitive to changes in their physical properties, resulting in cell death.
While some scientists have yet to believe that fibrils are not "bad actors" in and of themselves, the Alzheimer's research community has experienced what Murphy describes as a "sea change in how we think about the whole problem with these proteins." The new emphasis on beta amyloid intermediates has led to research into alternatives to therapies that prevent or target the fully formed fibrils.
Turning humans into mice
One alternative Murphy is studying in collaboration with UW-Madison Pharmacy Professor Jeffrey Johnson is another protein in the brain that could be used to protect neural cells from beta amyloid — and perhaps even prevent the onset of Alzheimer's disease.
In 2002, Johnson's lab published the results of experiments that injected mice with mutated forms of human APP. As in humans, the transgenic mice produced the damaging beta amyloid deposits in their brain tissues. Unlike in humans, the mice did not develop other signs of Alzheimer's, such as neurofibrillary tangles (aggregates of a different protein inside neurons) that lead to cell death. Instead, the mice produced an excess amount of another protein, called transthyretin (TTR), which appears to interact with beta amyloid and reduce its toxicity.
Murphy and Johnson have received almost $413,000 in federal stimulus funding from the National Institutes of Health to study how exactly TTR affects beta amyloid and how researchers can induce this interaction to perhaps prevent Alzheimer's from ever developing in brain tissue. "We want to find out how to turn a human into a mouse, basically," Johnson says.
While the experimental mice produced more TTR, human patients with Alzheimer's have decreased levels of the protein. High levels of TTR can either force — or totally prevent — aggregation of beta amyloid. While Murphy and Johnson don't understand fully why this happens, they are working on strategies to increase TTR levels to learn more.
Their many research questions include whether they can develop small molecules that can facilitate TTR and beta amyloid interaction and how much they should increase TTR levels to reduce beta amyloid toxicity. The answers to these questions could lead to the development of drug therapies to treat the actual Alzheimer's disease process, instead of only alleviating symptoms.
This highly innovative Alzheimer's disease research is likely to lead to an effective therapy for the disease, says sanjay Asthana, the UW-Madison Duncan G. and Lottie H. Ballantine Chair in Geriatrics and director of the Wisconsin Alzheimer's Institute and Wisconsin Comprehensive Memory Program. "Such a therapy will favorably alter the basic pathology of Alzheimer's, which could potentially slow the progression of the disease and, hopefully, one day prevent the disease from developing," he says.
In research that has the potential to make such a significant difference, Johnson says collaboration is key. "Combining expertise with those outside of your area is going to be the nature of science in the future," he says. "We have to cross those disciplinary bridges in order to move forward faster than we have been. The whole of our research is going to be greater than the sum of our individual parts."
Going beyond Alzheimer's
In addition to her work with Johnson, Murphy has received almost $300,000 from the National Science Foundation to study protein folding and aggregation in a set of rare neurological diseases, such as Huntington's disease. The Huntington's Disease Society of America estimates more than 250,000 people in the United States have it or have a significant risk of inheriting the devastating genetic brain disease, which gradually shuts down the neurons that control muscles and eventually destroys cognitive abilities as well.
Like Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's and related diseases are caused by sections of proteins in the brain that misbehave. The specific proteins and amino acids at work are different — the protein is huntingtin and the amino acid is glutamine — but despite the distinct challenges in her separate lines of research, Murphy approaches all of the proteins she studies like a chemist would approach any molecule or polymer. "These are biological problems, but some basic physical chemistry comes into play," she says. "I think this perspective allows me to bring a different dimension than a classically trained biochemist brings to these questions."
Ultimately, Murphy is driven by the fact that the basic behaviors of proteins have a direct, widespread effect on human health. "We're dealing with the fundamental physical chemistry of how these proteins — these molecules — behave, and why," she says. "And the biological consequences of these behaviors — disease — give us reasons to investigate beyond pure curiosity."


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苹果彩票网站是多少 www.qzeub.com.cn To increase business agility without incurring long-term capital costs, companies around the world are embracing cloud services, while seeking secure strategies on their journey to the cloud.Citrix Cloud Virtual Apps and Desktops Service can now manage and deliver virtual applications and desktops hosted on Oracle Cloud,?which enables business customers to provide their workforce with secure access to critical business apps, desktops and data on any device, while taking advantage of the scale, power and reliability of Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Classic.
Citrix Cloud Virtual Apps and Desktops Service delivers a superior, high-performance user access experience to virtual applications and desktops hosted directly in Oracle Cloud, enabling you to choose a 100% cloud-based deployment that leverages Oracle Cloud.?This empowers business customers to fully embrace the benefits of flexibility and scale offered by Citrix Cloud services.
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Oracle Cloud Marketplace is a one-stop shop for customers seeking trusted business applications and service providers offering unique business solutions.Oracle Cloud delivers enterprise-grade services at every level of the cloud technology stack including software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), and data as a service (DaaS).
To help business customers tackle the challenges of making the journey to the cloud and fully embrace the benefits of flexibility and scale that are possible through cloud services, the Citrix Cloud Virtual Apps and Desktops Service is now available in Oracle Cloud Marketplace.Oracle Cloud Marketplace offers new automated application installation features, enabling customers to easily deploy provider business applications from a centralized cloud interface.
Deploying Citrix on Oracle Cloud gives us greater deployment flexibility for providing our clients with secure access to Calypso apps and data.In addition to XenApp, we're able to use NetScaler Gateway, which includes extensive security enhancements and leverages the adaptability and scalability of Oracle Cloud.


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Its a bit nippy tonight…!!!
Guess what…? Yep! I,m on nights again! Another four nights of adventures into the dark wonder world of tiredness! Marvellous!
So far I,ve been kept waiting outside peoples houses in the small hours like some amateur burglar freezing the old nadgers off whilst waiting for the door to open!
Also the heater on the vehicle only kicks in on arrival at the A/E!
And I made the big mistake of getting my hair cut before going on shift…a number 1 shave! I thought it would make me look more efficient and streamlined but all it has done is freeze my brain cells further and highlighted my bushy eyebrows more!
Will post more later tonight on shift 2 if I thaw out!


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Milken: I was a big fan of Michael Milken in the 1980s but I eventually noticed that his many defenders on the Op-Ed page of the WSJ were making two arguments over and over again:
- What he did that was immoral wasn't illegal.
- And what he did that was illegal wasn't immoral.
I eventually just got tired of arguing both sides and gave up.
That said, Milken, unlike so many others, did serve a stiff sentence for his crimes and has done a lot of philanthropy since he got out of the jug. Further, his titanic career in the 1980s was built on far more than just criminality. His problem was not that he was a bad person but that he lacked the noblesse oblige that his talents demanded. "With great power comes great responsibility" were not the words he lived by. When you are that smart and that energetic (my favorite Milken story is that of the ambitious small-timer who after months of pleading finally got an appointment with Milken at 5:30 am Sunday, only to have Milken call back to say that he just realized that was the Sunday you set the clocks back an hour at the end of Daylight Savings Time, so could they reschedule for 4:30 am?), you have to hold yourself to higher ethical standards than those of ordinary Joes.
Milken is one of the major figures of our time and deserves a major biography by a major biographer. Ron Chernow, that means you!


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Dr. Kelley Allison touts value of 3D mammography
Dr. Kelley Allison, a radiologist and fellowship-trained mammographer with the Sentara Cancer Network, offered her reaction to recent news reports questioning the effectiveness of mammography as a tool to reduce the risk of dying from breast cancer.
The advent of new technologies has radically changed the screening and diagnosis of breast cancer in recent years. Digital mammography provides several advantages over analog films of old and has quickly become the standard of care for patients at Sentara breast imaging centers, according to Allison. 3D mammography is has also been introduced at Sentara as a key tool in the early diagnosis of breast cancer. A recent study published in the Journal of American Medical Association points to increased detection rates and decreased false positive results when 3D technology (tomosynthesis) is added to screening mammography.
While many women may be confused over recent reports and whether or not they should continue with the American Cancer Society and American College of Radiology recommendations of annual screening mammograms as an effective tool in detecting breast cancer early, Allison points to several concerns over the widely cited study out of Canada. One primary concern over the Canadian study was the technology used during the time of the study (early 1980s). Today's technology and subspecialized experts are making a big impact in the early detection of breast cancer, according to Allison.


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Vikings Rudolph Has Fractured Foot; Ponder to Start Thursday
Viking tight end Kyle Rudolph could miss about a month with a fractured foot he sustained Sunday at Dallas against the Cowboys. Rudolph caught 2 passes including a 35-yard touchdown Sunday before leaving with the injury. Rudolph has 30 catches for 313 yards and 3 touchdowns this season. Litchfield native John Carlson will likely fill in for Rudolph.
Viking head coach Leslie Frazier announced today that Christian Ponder will be their starting quarterback Thursday night against the Redskins. Ponder has thrown for 1,072 yards and 3 touchdowns with 6 interceptions for the Vikings this season. Josh Freeman and Matt Cassel are the other two options for the Vikings at quarterback. Cassel was the backup Sunday at Dallas with Freeman inactive.


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Aluminum Roofing Provides Safety Benefits
Your home should be like your own personal castle, and as such you need to make sure that it's well defended against all potential threats. Different kinds of roofing materials each come with distinctly different benefits when it comes to safety, and not all are equal in terms of how they will increase your security. The problem with many conventional roofing materials is that they're easily flammable and prone to flooding. Metal roofing materials tend to lack these problems. Of all of these,aluminum roofing reigns supreme as amongst the safest materials you can use for roofing.
Flooding is an issue with any kind of roofing, but less so with most metal roofing materials. Against this hazard, aluminum roofs do not disappoint. Aluminum roofing can be installed at a much lower pitch than other conventional materials, meaning that they can provide exceptional flooding prevention, even on roofs that are nearly flat. With a properly installed aluminum roof, you won't need to fear torrential rains or heavy storms.
Fire is one of the biggest concerns of any homeowner, and with good reason. A bad fire can devastate a home and anything in it. Here, aluminum roofing truly shines. Aluminum is not a flammable material, unlike asphalt based shingles or shake. Aluminum roofing also doesn't have any coatings on it, unlike other kinds of metal roofing materials. This makes aluminum exceptionally safe when it comes to fire hazards. Sparks or accidents which would set regular roofs ablaze wouldn't even bother an aluminum roof in the least.
Aluminum roofing costs a significant amount more than other kinds of roofing, but it definitely has its benefits. Among these, the additional safety and security you get to enjoy is paramount. It doesn't matter how long a roofing material can last if it will burn up in an accident. With an aluminum roof you get something that's exceptionally strong, light, and above all, secure.


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MIDDLEBURY — When Pierre Vachon set out to get a pair of tragedy/comedy masks tattooed on his upper arm last year, he had no idea that the venture would lead him to become a business proprietor in downtown Middlebury.
During the long hours in the tattoo chair, he got to know tattoo artist Christin Eaton, who was operating a fully licensed business out of her home.
"As she was tattooing me we were talking, and it just kind of fit," he said. "We thought, 'Why don't we open up a shop together?'"


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Product Instructions
Download our Product Instructions and Activity Guide:
Aligned to:
2.OA.2. Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies. By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.
2.NBT.5. Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.
2.NBT.6. Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.


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CANNES, France — "A Touch of Sin," an early critical favorite among the films in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year, has been widely greeted as signifying a new direction for the Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke. The claim is only partly true. A martial arts movie of sorts, this is the first genre picture by Jia, 43, known for such contemplative dramas and documentaries as "Still Life" (2006) and "24 City" (2008), which reveal how the forces of modernization and globalization have affected individual lives in 21st century China.
But in many ways "A Touch of Sin," acquired this week for U.S. distribution by Kino Lorber, is not a departure at all. It simply finds a new form for themes that have underpinned Jia's films since his debut "Xiao Wu" (1997), about a small-town pickpocket struggling to adapt to the new black-market economy. As always, this is a filmmaker who assumes the role of witness and conscience in a society characterized by convulsive change and a growing amnesia. In an ever more materialist society, where a booming economy has swept many to prosperity but left untold others behind, Jia is unmistakably on the side of the have-nots.
CHEAT SHEET: Cannes Film Festival 2013
A tragedy with elements of pulpy action and black comedy, "A Touch of Sin" tells four stories of social inequity, each one building to an act of violence. A miner tries to hold corrupt village leaders accountable; a migrant worker, returning home, gets his hands on a firearm; a sauna receptionist, involved with a married man, endures a series of humiliations; a young man drifts from thankless factory job to thankless service-industry job. The cumulative portrait, filled with despair and rage, is of modern-day China as a breeding ground for murderous rage and desperate amorality.
"I was motivated by anger," Jia said at the beach at the Majestic Barriere hotel recently, speaking through an interpreter.
As in his other films — "Still Life," which takes place in an ancient town being demolished to make way for the Three Gorges Dam, or "The World," set in an Epcot-like theme park in Beijing — fiction is strongly rooted in documentary. Jia began with actual news stories of people pushed to the edge and resorting to fatal measures. (One segment refers to the suicides at the electronics manufacturer Foxconn, which have continued in recent weeks.)
PHOTOS: Cannes Film Festival 2013
"These are people who feel they have no other option but violence," Jia said. Though such events are not necessarily new, he added, they have been widely circulated and discussed in recent years on social-media platforms such as Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter.
"There's suddenly a big dose of violence in everyday life," he said. "But the problem is that new events keep coming, so old ones keep being forgotten."
Jia came of age in the 1980s, as China was yielding to an influx of previously banned music, art and books, and his movies have always been attentive to how young people absorb and find meaning in pop culture. His 2000 epic "Platform" traces the "open door policy" of the 1980s by following the members of a performance troupe from the provinces as they graduate from Maoist propaganda skits to break-dancing demonstrations.
But "A Touch of Sin" is his first film modeled on a popular genre. Jia started out, as he often does, with field work, interviewing people with knowledge of the events and visiting the regions where they took place (which included his home province of Shanxi, frequently depicted in his films), and the industrial city of Dongguan, known among other things for its thriving sex trade.
As he was writing the script, he realized that the stories he was telling were compatible with the wuxia, or martial arts, genre. ("A Touch of Sin" alludes to the director King Hu's 1971 wuxia classic "A Touch of Zen.") "For me, martial-arts movies are deeply related to politics," Jia said, adding that this was especially so with King Hu's films, which were often about "how individuals reacted to political oppression in the Ming Dynasty."
Jia started his career as a so-called underground filmmaker, making movies independently and without state approval, but since "The World" he has been able to work within the system while retaining his voice as an outspoken social critic. The Chinese filmmaker Lou Ye received a five-year ban from filmmaking for screening "Summer Palace," which partly concerns the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, at Cannes in 2006 without government approval. But the state-backed Shanghai Film Group is a co-producer of "A Touch of Sin" and the version of the film that screened in Cannes has been approved for theatrical release in China this year — to his surprise, Jia said.
If many recent Chinese films have shied away from overt social commentary, it may be less for political than economic reasons. "Chinese films have become so massively commercialized," Jia said. "You risk having to pass censorship and you also risk the film not selling well." He added that the most daring and political works of recent Chinese cinema could be found in the realm of documentary, which has boomed with the availability of digital technology, resulting in such major works as Wang Bing's "West of the Tracks" and Zhao Liang's "Petition."
"A Touch of Sin" has already sparked debate in the Chinese press, with much discussion about its scenes of extreme violence. "Violence has long been neglected in Chinese culture," Jia said. "We don't talk about it, we don't understand it. In a way movies can do a lot in terms of inspiring people to confront, to understand, to feel violence. If you don't allow violence to be discussed in movies, we're just going to become a more violent country."
Toward the end of the film, a woman in a traditional Chinese opera performance sings the line "Do you understand your sin?" Asked if there is a principal sin that the title refers to, Jia said: "It's about how we tolerate injustice, the gap between the rich and the poor. More than anything I think silence is a sin."
VIDEO: Upcoming summer films
ENVELOPE: The latest awards buzz
PHOTOS: Greatest box office flops


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Evaluation Time Is Nigh For Sioux Falls Public Pools 2013 Season
There still is time to get wet before the Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation Department closes the pools this year.Before they all look like the McKennan Park facility (above), you can still use the new season pass key fob to gain entry.
In fact, Jean Pearson who is Aquatics Director in Sioux Falls says some season passes are still being sold for this year.
Pearson says the new electronic pass method has been a success after an initial grind that occurs with any new system. Pearson said the employees and the patrons learned how to utilize the service.
One pass allows access for an entire family, which led to families bringing just one key fob. It is not necessary for each person to scan the card if you come as a group.
Pearson noted there was a constant theme of trying to make the experience better as the season progressed.
Pearson Says Pool Staff Was Determined to Improve
One aspect of the summer that was disappointing was beyond anyone's control. The weather put a damper on attendance and passes sold.
A few chilly days in both June and July prevented optimum use of the pools. Last year's hot and dry conditions were great for the pools by contrast.
Pearson Says Weather a Factor In Pool Usage
Four Sioux Falls city facilities are still open, though Drake Springs will close on Friday August 23. Laurel Oak Family Aquatic Center and Kuehn Pool will remain open through Sunday September 1. Pioneer Spray Park will also remain open until September 1.


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Law School Discussion
Law Students => Current Law Students => Topic started by: gentlesea on February 12, 2007, 09:56:17 PM
Help me out
Post by:
February 12, 2007, 09:56:17 PM
Here are a few International law problems.
They are Sample questions of UN National Competitive Recruitment Examination, as publicized on: http://www.un.org/Depts/OHRM/examin/exam.htm
I am going to take the test 3 weeks later. Though I have a LLB, I am nervous about possible performance in the test since English is not my mother tongue and I have never learnt law in English. I am not sure what kind of answer would be generally satisfactory in this case. Could anyone kindly provide me with some sample answers of any of the questions? Thank you. :-)
FITZAL is a multinational company of the industrialized State of Kisumu which has, since 1965, owned and operated a chemical plant for manufacturing pesticides in the developing State of Homa.
On 15 February 1975, Homa experienced another mild earthquake which, as in four similar cases occurring between 1945 and 1975, affected more seriously the area along River Kuja. The chemical plant was built in 1964 along this river which passes through the territory of Homa and two lower riparian States of Rongo and Ahero. Because of the February earthquake, the chemical plant suffered a serious damage which resulted in the sudden and excessive release of pesticides and other chemicals into River Kuja. The nature of the pollution damage caused was such that Homa alone could not cope. Three days later the pollution from the FITZAL plant was threatening to cause similar damage in the two lower riparian States which had no knowledge of the accident in Homa. Their efforts to control and abate the pollution damage threatening them downstream were too late. The information they finally received from the local press reporting on the events in the FITZAL plant did not contain enough necessary details concerning the nature of the chemicals involved. Their efforts to get accurate information from the government of Homa were frustrated because they kept on receiving conflicting views from various government departments in Homa. One of the facts which they were able to gather was that the chemical plant was indeed built on an earthquake fault line along the river, which made it susceptible to the kind of damage it finally suffered in 1975.
Prompted by these events, Homa has now called a meeting in its capital city of Rupedhi with the two lower riparian States to negotiate a treaty for cooperation in the management and utilization of the Kuja river on which they all rely for fresh water and fish.
You have been hired as a consultant to help these States to negotiate and conclude such a treaty.
1. Outline some of the basic provisions which such a treaty should include in order to address certain specific problems brought out in the above event.
2. Outline briefly, the basic arguments which Rongo and Ahero may rely upon if they decide to bring a case against Homa in an international tribunal to which they have all conferred jurisdiction for such cases.
Re: Help me out
Post by:
February 12, 2007, 09:57:14 PM
Franconia and Blanconia are two neighbouring African States, members of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and of the United Nations. Franconia was under the colonial rule of Elbia until it became independent on 25 May 1960. Blanconia was under the colonial rule of Rosia until its independence on 12 July 1961.
On 30 September 1968, Franconia and Blanconia concluded a Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation, in which they agreed, inter alia, to settle all their disputes peacefully, particularly those relating to the interpretation and application of treaties. They also reiterated their acceptance of the OAU resolution of 1964 concerning respect of the inherited colonial boundaries under the principle of uti possidetis.
Elbia and Rosia had concluded a treaty on 28 August 1923, determining the boundary between their respective colonial territories of Franconia and Blanconia. A section of the border, situated near an administrative centre of Elbia and known as the Flania Triangle remained unsettled. For administrative convenience, it was agreed between the two colonial powers that the Flania Triangle be temporarily administered by Elbia until a definitive boundary could be reached. This agreement was inspired by the fact that the Triangle was an important grazing ground for one of the nomadic tribes of Franconia. However no further agreements were reached on this section of the boundary.
Upon independence, Franconia issued a notification of succession to all treaties concluded by Elbia, including the Treaty of 1923. Blanconia, on the other hand, declared a "tabula rasa" with respect to treaties concluded by Rosia.
The Temple of the goddess Blan, considered by the Blanconians to be the mother of their nation, is located in a special section of Flania. Every year since the colonial era, a number of Blanconians attended the pilgrimage to the Temple. In 1989 and given the increasing number of pilgrims to Flania, Franconia which continued to administer the area after Elbia, changed the rules and imposed restrictions on the number of pilgrims that would be admitted there. This provoked a public outburst in Blanconia. The people of Blanconia called on their government to take action since, in their view, Flania's Temple was part of their historical heritage. A strong protest was sent to Franconia by Blanconia against these restrictions. Franconia ignored the protest. In the meantime, in order to boost its decreasing popularity, the government of Blanconia decided to invade Flania on 25 August 1989 ant took control over it from Franconian administrators. In response, Franconia dispatched its armed forces to the disputed area and immediately referred the matter to the Security Council of the United Nations. The Security Council was convened on 26 August 1989.
1. Prepare a concise statement containing the arguments which the Permanent Representative of Franconia is likely to make in the Security Council concerning the case.
2. Prepare a concise statement containing the arguments which the Permanent Representative of Blanconia is likely to make before the Security Council in response.
3. In your view, what should the Security Council do on this question? Explain.
Petrolminus is landlocked State neighbouring two coastal States: the Republic of Fishfull and the Kingdom of Mineralia. The three States have ratified the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. (for the purposes of this question, assume that the Convention has already entered into force.)
On 15 May 1989, seventeen nationals of Petrolminus were arrested by the authorities of Fishfull while fishing in the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the coastal State, without permission. Their vessel was confiscated and its contents (tilapia fish which they have traditionally relied on for food) expropriated. The arresting authorities also claimed that the vessel used by the Petrolminus nationals in their illegal fishing polluted the area through excessive discharge of oil caused by a defect in the vessel. While the Petrolminus nationals in question were released and returned home, their vessel was detained by Fishfull authorities.
The Government of Petrolminus, having been informed of the incident, contacted the Government of Fishfull and suggested a meeting between them to deal with such problems which began to be of a recurring nature. In the Note to Fishfull, the Government of Petrolminus lamented the reluctance of both Fishfull and Mineralia to conclude with its appropriate bilateral agreements, in accordance with article 69 of the Law of the Sea Convention, to enable the nationals of the landlocked State to participate in the appropriate surplus of the living resources of the EEZ of the two neighbouring coastal States.
Petrolminus asserted, in particular, that, while the capacity of Fishfull to harvest tilapia fish in its EEZ was only 20%, the total allowable catch for that particular fish requires a harvesting capacity of over 67% as established by the scientific evidence provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This is to avoid under-utilization of that particular resource. Accordingly, the refusal of Fishfull to declare surplus with respect to tilapia fish and to allow Petrolminus to have access to such surplus was unreasonable and amounted to a violation of articles 61, 62 and 69 of the Law of the Sea Convention (Part V). Petrolminus demanded the immediate release of the vessel. The Government of Fishfull denied the assertions of Petrolminus regarding the surplus of the living resource and continued to detain the vessel.
Having failed to reach a settlement of these issues through direct negotiations between them, Petrolminus notified Fishfull of its intention to invoke the third-party procedures of Part XV of the Law of the Sea Convention against Fishfull. Both parties have made currently valid declarations under article 287 of the Convention, conferring jurisdiction to two different procedures under the article. Petrolminus conferred jurisdiction upon the International Court of Justice, while Fishfull conferred jurisdiction upon the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.
1. Outline how the disputes between Petrolminus (the Applicant) and Fishfull (the Defendant) should be handled under Part XV (full text made available to candidates for the examination) of the Convention, having regard to the substantive provisions of Part V (full text made available to candidates for the examination) of the Convention.
2. Which party, in your view, should prevail and on what issues?
Re: Help me out
Post by:
February 12, 2007, 09:57:29 PM
The Central Bank of the State of Bangbang concluded a contract with DETAILS International, a cement manufacturing company in the Republic of Tintin, for the supply of 510,000 bags of cement. The cement was needed by Bangbang for building a new army headquarters and for distribution to Government trading agencies to sell to the public.
Upon the conclusion of the contract at the offices of DETAILS on 15 December 1989, the Central Bank's negotiators made a down-payment of 10% of the total cost of the transaction in United States dollars as stipulated under the contract. The rest was to be paid thirty days following delivery of the cement, which was scheduled to take place during the month of June 1990. The parties agreed that the contract was to be interpreted and applied in accordance with the laws of Tintin and further stipulated therein that any disputes arising therefrom should be settled by a competent court in Tintin.
Delivery of the cement was made by DETAILS on 15 June 1990 as scheduled. But the Central Bank refused to pay the rest of the contract price, claiming that about 5% of the cement was damaged. DETAILS refuted this claim and asserted that the entire shipment was in good order. Six months later the Central Bank had not made any payments to DETAILS, claiming that the defective bags be replaced first.
Tintin had recently passed a Sovereign Immunity Act (in force prior to the date of the said contract), according to which sovereign immunity defence could only be granted if the transaction in question is undertaken as acta jure imperii (public act) and must be denied if the transaction, judged by its nature as opposed to its purpose, is a commercial one (acta jure gestionis). That law also stipulated that all cases arising from the application of the act are to be settled by the High Court of Tintin unless the parties otherwise agreed in a contract.
On 10 January 1991, DETAILS brought a case of breach of contract against the Central Bank of Bangbang, in the High Court of Tintin. The Central Bank refused to appear before the Tintin Court, claiming sovereign immunity. The Court proceeded to hear the case ex parte. DETAILS requested the Court to order the Central Bank to pay at least 95% of the remaining purchase price of the cement already delivered. For the enforcement of the judgement, DETAILS further prayed the Court to permit the seizure of the special bank account which the Embassy of Bangbang had maintained in Tintin for the payment of Embassy staff and for the rents of the Embassy premises.
1. As the lawyer representing DETAILS in the case, what arguments will you present to support your case, given the attitude of the Bangbang Bank?
2. What should be the decision of the Court in this case? Why?
Simple Machines


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Real-World Review
Is the 2013 Toyota RAV4 available as a hybrid?
No, the 2013 Toyota RAV4 is offered with just one engine -- a 2.5-liter 4-cylinder gasoline engine. There is an all-electric RAV4 that uses no gas at all -- but it's based on the previous generation.
Given Toyota's long list of hybrid vehicles, we think the RAV4 may eventually be offered as a hybrid. Still the new RAV4 gets decent fuel economy -- significantly better than the old one. Two-wheel-drive models were rated by the EPTA at 24 miles per gallon in the city and 31 mpg on the highway. That's an improvement of 2 mpg in the city and 3 mpg on the highway over the 2012 RAV4 with the 4-cylinder engine.
It's also just shy of the Mazda CX-5's 35 mpg on the highway, but 1 mpg better than the Honda CR-V in the city.
See more Toyota RAV4 reviews & videos
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The objective of this exercise is to start with the simple Kronig-Penney model and understand formations of bands and gaps in the dispersion relation that describes the motion of carriers in 1D periodic potentials. The second exercise examines the behavior of the bands at the Brillouin zone boundaries. Finally, a simplified tight-binding approach for 1D lattice has to be derived as part of the third exercise..
Cite this work
Researchers should cite this work as follows:


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Michael Vick Tells Congress to Make It Illegal to Attend Dog Fights [VIDEO]
Michael Vick is lending his support to a congressional bill that will penalize those who attend animal fights.
The Animal Fighting Spectator Prohibition Act would make attending an animal fight a misdemeanor punishable up to a year in prison. Under the act, bringing a child to an animal fight could cost an offender up to three years in jail.
Speaking on Capitol Hill, the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback acknowledged that seeing dogfights as a kid "had a huge impact on me."
Vick added that criminalizing animal fighting attendance would be an effective deterrent because if "you take away the profits, you can eliminate the problem."
Since being released from prison after serving 21 months for felony dog fighting charges, Vick has spoken out against dog fighting on behalf of the Humane Society.
Read on for a video of Vick's latest dog fighting remarks.


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1st race--
#2 AFFLICATION (5-2) Older gelding from Yakteen barn was run down across town last time but seems better over this track (romping 12-length win here one race back) and should be able to get clear on the front end. Tab in front-running style.
Yesterday's Result: LET'S GET CRACKIN finished second in 2nd race.
Live Longshot: EL NINO TERRIBLE (5th race)
ShowVivor: CAT BURGLAR (7th race)
Days Survived: 7
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Falling Box
after Martin Gardner
Ask someone to hold a box of matches about 8
inches (approximately 20 cm) over the table, then drop it so that it
falls on one end and stands. When he/she tries it, the box will fall
on its side. How to make it fly just right as you want?
Step Through: