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Star Wars (film)
Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope) is a 1977 space opera film. It was the first film released in the Star Wars saga. The film happens 19 years after the formation of the Galactic Empire; construction has finished on the Death Star, a weapon capable of destroying a planet. Princess Leia Organa, leader of the Rebel Alliance, receives the weapon's plans hoping on finding a weakness, but unfortunately for her and the Rebel Alliance, she is captured and taken to the Death Star. Meanwhile, Luke Skywalker meets Obi-Wan Kenobi, who has lived all alone for years on the desert planet Tatooine. After that happens, Luke's home is burned while Beru and Owen Lars (his aunt and uncle) were inside, Obi-Wan begins Luke's Jedi training as they — along with Han Solo, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 — attempt to rescue the Princess from the Empire.
- Written and directed by George Lucas.
Opening CrawlEdit
- It is a period of civil war. Rebel spaceships, striking from a hidden base, have won their first victory against the evil Galactic Empire.
During the battle, Rebel spies managed to steal secret plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon, the DEATH STAR, an armored space station with enough power to destroy an entire planet.
Pursued by the Empire's sinister agents, Princess Leia races home aboard her starship, custodian of the stolen plans that can save her people and restore freedom to the galaxy....
Obi-Wan KenobiEdit
- Well, the Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It is an energy field created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us; it binds the galaxy together.
- I felt a great disturbance in the Force... as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
- [R2-D2 abruptly begins playing Leia's holographic message at Ben Kenobi's house]
- Luke Skywalker: I saw part of the message he was...
- Obi-Wan Kenobi: I seem to have found it.
- Princess Leia Organa: [in a hologram message] General Kenobi. Years ago, you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person, but my ship has fallen under attack and I'm afraid my mission to bring you to Alderaan has failed. I have placed information vital to the survival of the Rebellion into the memory systems of this R2 unit. My father will know how to retrieve it. You must see this droid safely delivered to him on Alderaan. This is our most desperate hour. Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You're my only hope. [looks to the side quickly, then crouches to end the message]
- Obi-Wan: [to Luke] You must learn the ways of the Force if you're to come with me to Alderaan.
- Luke: Alderaan? I'm not going to Alderaan. I've got to go home. It's late, I'm in for it as it is.
- Obi-Wan: I need your help, Luke. She needs your help. I'm getting too old for this sort of thing.
- Luke: Listen, I can't get involved! I've got work to do! It's not that I like the Empire, I hate it, but there's nothing I can do about it right now. It's such a long way from here.
- Obi-Wan: That's your uncle talking.
- Luke: Oh, boy, my uncle. How am I ever gonna explain this?
- Obi-Wan: [pleading] Learn about the Force, Luke.
- Luke: Look, I can take you as far as Anchorhead. You can get a transport there to Mos Eisley or wherever you're going.
- Obi-Wan: [resigned] You must do what you feel is right, of course.
- Cassio Tagge: Until this battle station is fully operational, we are vulnerable. The Rebel Alliance is too well equipped. They're more dangerous than you realize!
- Conan Antonio Motti: Dangerous to your starfleet, Commander. Not to this battle station.
- Tagge: The Rebellion will continue to gain a support in the Imperial Senate, until...
- Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin: [walking in with Darth Vader] The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away.
- Tagge: That's impossible! How will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?
- Tarkin: The regional governors now have direct control over their territories. Fear will keep the local systems in line. Fear of this battle station.
- Tagge: And what of the Rebellion? If the Rebels have obtained a complete technical readout of this station, it is possible — however unlikely — that they might find a weakness and exploit it.
- Darth Vader: The plans you refer to will soon be back in our hands.
- Motti: Any attack made by the Rebels against this station would be a useless gesture, no matter what technical data they've obtained. This station is now the ultimate power in the universe! I suggest we use it.
- Vader: Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
- Motti: Don't try to frighten us with your sorcerer's ways, Lord Vader. [Vader walks toward Motti, then slowly raises his hand] Your sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes or given you clairvoyance enough to find the Rebels' hidden fortr–– [grasps his throat as if he is being choked]
- Vader: I find your lack of faith disturbing.
- Tarkin: Enough of this. Vader, release him!
- Vader: As you wish. [drops his hand and Motti's head hits the table as he regains his breath]
- Tarkin: This bickering is pointless. Lord Vader will provide us with the location of the Rebel fortress by the time this station is operational. We will then crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke.
- [Han arrives at Docking Bay 94 and sees a familiar face]
- Jabba the Hutt: [in Huttese] Solo! Come out of there, Solo! Solo!
- Han Solo: Right here, Jabba. [Jabba and his henchmen turn around to see Han and Chewbacca] I've been waiting for you.
- Jabba: Have you now.
- Han: You didn't think I was gonna run, did you?
- Jabba: Han, my boy, you disappoint me. Why haven't you paid me? And why did you fry poor Greedo?
- Han: Look, Jabba, next time you wanna talk to me, come see me yourself. Don't send one of these twerps.
- Jabba: Han, I can't make exceptions. What if everyone who smuggled for me dropped their cargo at the first sign of an Imperial starship? It's not good for business.
- Han: Look, Jabba, even I get boarded sometimes. [accidentally steps on Jabba's tail, causing Jabba to yelp in pain] Did you think I had a choice? But I got a nice easy charter now; I'll pay you back, plus a little extra. I just need a little more time.
- Jabba: Han, my boy, you're the best smuggler I ever hired. So, for an extra 20%...
- Han: 15, Jabba, and don't push it.
- Jabba: Okay, 15%. But if you fail me again, I'll put a price on your head so big, you won't be able to go near a civilized system.
- Han: Jabba, you're a wonderful human being.
- Jabba: [orders minions] Come on. [Jabba's gang leaves with bounty hunter Boba Fett following behind.]
- Leia: Governor Tarkin. I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought onboard.
- Tarkin: Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life.
- Leia: [sarcastically] I'm surprised you had the courage to take the responsibility yourself.
- Tarkin: Princess Leia, before your execution, I would like you to be my guest at a ceremony that will make this battle station operational. No star system will dare oppose the Emperor now.
- Leia: The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.
- Tarkin: Not after we demonstrate the power of this station. In a way, you have determined the choice of the planet that will be destroyed first. Since you are reluctant to provide us with the location of the Rebel base, I have chosen to test this station's destructive power on your home planet of Alderaan.
- Leia: [shocked] No! Alderaan is peaceful. We have no weapons. You can't possibly–
- Tarkin: You'd prefer another target? A military target?! Then name the system! [stepping closer to Leia and pinning her against Darth Vader] I grow tired of asking this, so it will be the last time. Where is the Rebel base?
- Leia: [looks at Alderaan for a moment, then, resigned] Dantooine. They're on Dantooine.
- Tarkin: There. You see, Lord Vader? She can be reasonable. [to assistant] Continue with the operation. You may fire when ready.
- Leia: [panicked] What?!
- Tarkin: You are far too trusting. Dantooine is too remote to make an effective demonstration, but don't worry. We will deal with your rebel friends soon enough.
- Leia: No!
- Officer: Commence primary ignition.
- [The Death Star fires and destroys Alderaan]
- [Luke is training with his lightsaber and a laser remote aboard the Millennium Falcon]
- Obi-Wan: Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.
- Luke: You mean it controls your actions?
- Obi-Wan: Partially, but it also obeys your commands.
- [Luke gets shot by the remote]
- Han: [laughs] Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid.
- Luke: You don't believe in the Force, do you?
- Han: Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I've seen a lot of strange stuff, but I've never seen anything to make me believe there's one all-powerful Force controlling everything. There's no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. [Kenobi smiles] Anyway, it's all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.
- Obi-Wan: [gets up and takes a blast helmet] I suggest you try it again, Luke. Only this time, let go your conscious self and act on instinct. [puts the helmet on Luke, which covers his eyes]
- Luke: But with the blast shield down, I can't even see! How am I supposed to fight?
- Obi-Wan: Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them. [remote shoots Luke] Stretch out with your feelings! [Watches Luke succeed in blocking the lasers] You see? You can do it.
- Han: I call it luck.
- Obi-Wan: In my experience, there is no such thing as luck.
- Vader: He is here.
- Tarkin: Obi-Wan Kenobi? What makes you think so?
- Vader: A tremor in the Force. The last time I felt it was in the presence of my old master.
- Tarkin: Surely he must be dead by now.
- Vader: Don't underestimate the Force.
- Tarkin: The Jedi are extinct. Their fire has gone out of the universe. You, my friend, are all that's left of their religion. [An intercom beeps, which Tarkin answers] Yes?
- Intercom: We have an emergency alert in detention block AA23.
- Tarkin: The Princess? Put all sections on alert!
- Vader: Obi-Wan is here. The Force is with him.
- Tarkin: If you are right, he must not be allowed to escape.
- Vader: Escape is not his plan. I must face him, alone.
- Vader: Your powers are weak, old man.
- Obi-Wan: You can't win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.
- [Luke's X-wing is in the trench, and Darth Vader is having trouble getting a lock]
- Vader: [Gets a lock] I have you now. [Suddenly, one of Vader's escorts is destroyed.] What?!
- Han: YEAH-HOO!!! [The Millennium Falcon arrives on the scene.]
- Vader's Escort: Look out! [Vader's surviving escort panics and crashes into the trench, and Vader's ship is flung out into space]
- Han: You're all clear, kid. Now let's blow this thing and go home! [Luke shoots at the exhaust port and with the help of the Force]
- Officer: Stand by.
- [The Rebels and the Millennium Falcon fly back to Yavin IV]
- Officer: Stand by.
- [Just as the Death Star is about to fire, it explodes]
- Han: Great shot, kid! That was one in a million!
- Obi-Wan: Remember... the Force will be with you, always.
- A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...
Quotes about Star WarsEdit
- Well, I liked Star Wars. I thought Battlestar Galactica was such a close imitation of Star Wars, emphasizing the less attractive portions, that I was a little impatient with it.
- Isaac Asimov, as quoted in Southwest Airlines Magazine (1979)
- They don't exactly give you a course in acting in a science fiction movie, At one point I'm supposed to react to seeing my planet blow up. You know, there go my parents, my record collection, everything. What do I see? A hand waving to tell me where to look.
- Carrie Fisher, Time Magazine, May 30, 1977.
- Hidden Fortress was an influence on Star Wars right from the beginning. I was searching around for a story. I had some scenes—the cantina scene and the space battle scene—but I couldn't think of a basic plot. Originally, the film was a good concept in search of a story. And then I thought of Hidden Fortress, which I'd seen again in 1972 or '73, and so the first plots were very much like it.
- George Lucas, as quoted in The Secret History of Star Wars (2007) by Michael Kamiski, p. 48.
- I had the Star Wars project in mind even before I started my last picture, American Graffiti, and as soon as I finished I began writing Star Wars in January 1973... In fact, I wrote four entirely different screenplays for Star Wars, searching for just the right ingredients, characters and storyline. It's always been what you might call a good idea in search of a story.
- George Lucas, as quoted in Skywalking: The Life and Films of George Lucas (1983) by Dale 2 Pollock, p. 36
- My main reason for making it was to give young people an honest, wholesome fantasy life, the kind my generation had. We had westerns, pirate movies, all kinds of great things. Now they have The Six Million Dollar Man and Kojak. Where are the romance, the adventure, and the fun that used to be in practically every movie made?
- George Lucas, in Time Magazine, May 30, 1977
- Before Star Wars, the films that were box-office hits were The Godfather, Taxi Driver, Bonnie and Clyde and The French Connection - gritty, amoral art movies. Then suddenly the onus switched over to spectacle and everything changed... I don't know if that is a good thing.
- Simon Pegg as qtd. in "Twitter unimpressed by Simon Pegg's criticism of geek culture", Kat Brown, The Telegraph (19 May, 2015).
- Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker
- Harrison Ford as Han Solo
- Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia Organa
- Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi
- Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
- Kenny Baker as R2-D2
- Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca
- Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin
- David Prowse as Darth Vader
- James Earl Jones as Darth Vader (voice)
The Phantom Menace (1999) · Attack of the Clones (2002) · Revenge of the Sith (2005)
The Force Awakens (2015) · Rogue One (2016) · The Last Jedi (2017)
Solo (2018)
External linksEdit
- Star Wars quotes at the Internet Movie Database
- Star Wars at Rotten Tomatoes
- Star Wars at Filmsite.org


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Get an access to all 98 items designed and developed by AS Designing team plus all the future items which will be released over the course of your club subscription. Price starting from $59.00

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Medical and conscientious exemptions are still allowed (see Student Immunization Form).
Student immunization records from a physician, public clinic, caregiver, or previous school are acceptable for school notification. Records must include specific month, day, and year for each immunization. Students will not be allowed to attend school until they are in compliance with current state health requirements. Please bring all immunization records when registering your child for school.
Immunization Information:
Student Immunization Form
Student Immunization Schedules
School Immunization Law in Minnesota
School Immunization Data
Park Nicollet No Shots, No School Immunization Initiative
If you have questions or need help with immunization resources, please contact your school.


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To experience the essence of Switzerland, forget Interlaken and Geneva, and head instead to Central Switzerland, to the lakeside village of Weggis in Canton Luzern.
In 1897, Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, was experiencing financial difficulties and in mourning; his daughter had just died of spinal meningitis, at age 24, back in the Clemens's home in Connecticut. Forced by financial pressures to go on a speaking tour to London, Twain, his wife, and two surviving daughters eventually retreated to Weggis in Switzerland, a village found on Lake Luzern. Seeking a low-cost place to regroup and mourn their loss, Twain stayed with his family for 10 weeks in a simple guesthouse, while he worked on his book, Following the Equator.
"I believe this place [Weggis] is the loveliest in the world, and the most satisfactory. The scenery is beyond comparison beautiful," he wrote in a letter that year. But he also noted, in his droll way, "Sunday in heaven is noisy compared to this quietness."
Weggis in Central Switzerland – bypassed by the tourist busses speeding from Zurich to Zermatt – is virtually the same today as it was when Twain and his family promenaded Weggis' lakeside footpaths 116 years ago. The town with a micro climate that allows palm trees to take root on the deep lake's shores, was a fashionable resort at one time, but has since become a bit tired and sleepy, and that, precisely, is its charm.
We arrived late one afternoon, without reservations, and grabbed two rooms at the four-star Hotel Beau Rivage Weggis. The hotel was a yellow-faced grand dame, solidly buergerlich with its sturdy leather furniture and slightly threadbare Persian carpets in the lobby. But it needed updating, including the clientele, who were entirely made of Swiss, German and English couples and widows in their mid 70s and up. But our room had French doors and shutters that clapped open to reveal a stunning view of the lake, and below us, a pool and chestnut-tree private garden led right down to the lake. The room cost 280 Swiss francs ($298) a night.
Dinner was heavy on butter-soaked wienerschnitzel (pan-fried breaded veal) and roesti (pan-fried grated potatoes) and tart red cabbage. My wife and daughter went into revolt, demanding lighter fare in the future, and later my Swiss friends told me the chic place to stay, particularly if food is important, is the five-star Park Weggis. But I personally rather liked the unpretentious, old-world feel of our Hotel du Lac.
The next morning, on a crystal clear day, we hiked up the raked lanes to the cable car station above the town. A benefits of Weggis – where 19 century-style paddle ships routinely halt at the village boat station and add to the time-stood-still air of the place – is that one of the greatest views in all Switzerland can be seen from Mount Rigi, as it rises behind the quaint lakeside village. A 20 minute cable car trip up the Rigi to Kaltbad, a mineral spa at the first station up the mountain, cost CHF 48 return, and on the way up the mountainside, staring down at the retreating lake, a crusty Swiss farmer explained to me the blue-green water was shaped like a cross, but finished off with a tale jutting into Canton Uri.
We emerged at the Kaltbad station with our cable-car cluster of hardy Swiss, with their walking sticks and dogs, and headed east along one of the hundreds of hiking trails. Twain climbed the Rigi by foot with a friend; wary of the then new-fangled cog-wheel cable car, they needed three days to reach the 6,000-feet summit. We walked for two hours each way along the ridge, past alpine pastures filled with yellow buttercups and bell-clanking cows, small farms, cascading waterfalls, and along paths lined by purple thistle.
There were times where we could do nothing but stop and wordlessly lean against the handrail and the precipitous drop; the entire range of Swiss Alps, from the Jungfrau and Eiger to the Matterhorn, was spread out lavishly across the horizon to the South of us, seemingly so close we could touch the peaks. As Twain wrote, watching the sun rise from the Rigi, "We could not speak. We could hardly breathe. We could only gaze in drunken ecstasy and drink it in."
At the midway mark, we sat on the outside terrace of a lonely mountain inn, and drank thirst-quenching apple cider and ate slices of dried Swiss beef. Back at the cable-car stop of Kaltbad, sweaty from our hike, we impulsively signed in at the Mineralbad & Spa that was built into the mountain. My daughter was highly amused by the Swiss Speedo I was handed – when did my physique start resembling a Weber grill? – but it was entirely worth the humiliation.
We entered the bubbling water and swam out through a flap into an infinity pool, breathing in the sharp alpine air, the sky and mountains sparkling all around us. In an interior room of the facility, we stretched our bodies out, bobbing on the surface of a shallow pool, our heads resting on the slate slabs behind us, staring up at the pyramid shaped roof rising to a skylight. This watery rest, almost like silent prayer in a temple, was followed by sips of cool spring water drawn directly from the local source, and a full-body oil massage, which involved hot stones and masseuses lifting us off the table in their arms, like we were babies. Bizarre but weirdly comforting. The spa and massage cost CHF 145 a head, not including the loaner bathing suit.
Our short stay in Weggis was made complete that final night, by dinner in the just reopened Park Hotel Vitznau, a fairytale hotel in the next village down the lake. Closed for years, it has been given a no-expense-spared makeover by Austria's construction and funds magnate, Peter Puehringer, who has his family office in the top floors of the white-faced castle. The 47 suites and rooms, apartments really, are behind sliding glass panels, have things like polished mahogany bathtubs, and are named after economists like Joseph Schumpeter.
The hotel had just opened a month earlier and we were all alone on the restaurant terrace, dining on a starter of seaweed bread and a wild mountain herb salad with the wonderful-tasting watercress anise. When the sun fell behind the mountains, and the air got nippy, the staff came out with candles and wrapped us in hairy blankets. My wife purred, "I feel like Anna Karenina."


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Sept. 8, 2005
Mike Chavez (Jr./Anaheim,CA) was named the Big West Cross Country Athlete of the Week for winning the UCSB Home Opener versus Cal Poly SLO and UCSB Alumni last Saturday. Chavez broke the 8,000m course record set back in 2003 by six seconds racing it in 24 minutes and 29 seconds.
Chavez finished 6th place All-Conference at last year's Cross Country Big West Championships. During his 2005 Track & Field campaign he set a personal best in the 1500m with the 4th fastest UCSB mark at 3:47.61, a NCAA Regional Qualifier.
He will next race at the Stanford Invitational along with the UCSB Men's team on Saturday, September 24th. A smaller UCSB squad will compete this Saturday at Central Park in Hunington Beach, CA at the Irvine Invitational.


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Wild Lime Cooking School uses wild bush food in fusion with Asian and Mediterranean cuisine. A two hour hands on class is followed by lunch with local wines. The venue is Worendo Cottages situated 90 minutes from both Brisbane and the Gold Coast at the wilderness end of Lamington National Park.
Public Classes are held monthly with private and corporate group bookings welcome at any time. Savour the flavours of wild Australia in a spectacularly scenic setting overlooked by the dramatic mountains of Lamington National Park-- cook with wild finger limes, lemon myrtle, warrigal greens, mints peppers, bush tomatoes and more, blended with exotic spices from far away. Let the food facilitate the sharing of the stories of its origins.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).


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Monarch RL
Featuring silky smooth travel in a new lightweight design, Monarch floats through bumps even better than before, turning rugged trails into tire-gripping velvet. The chassis is lean while maintaining the durability and adjustability needed to bite off huge chunks of burly trail action and epic cross country.
Euro: €282
Euro MSRP includes VAT
Some variations of this product featured on this page are not available for purchase and are installed on bicycles as original equipment only. See your dealer for details.
*Maximum Suggested Retail PriceFind a Dealer Product Matrix
Specifications for Monarch RL
|External rebound, 2 position compression (Open/Pedal)
|152x31mm, 165x38mm, 184x44mm, 190x51mm, 200x51mm, 200x57mm, 216x63mm
|Rebound Damping
|Rapid Recovery
|Solo Air
|Spring Adjust
|Air pressure via single schrader valve
|Shaft Material
|7075 aluminum
|Shaft Diameter
|Body Material
|Hard anodized, forged aluminum with sag gradients
|Body Finish
|Fast Black
|over R: Lockout
|Weight based on 165x38mm, standard air can, no hardware
|Retail Availability
|March 2014
- Sag Gradients™
Don't set your sag correctly, and you might as well be hopping onto someone else's bike. But why bust out plastic clips or rulers to keep your suspension fine-tuned? Our sag gradients are printed right on our fork's upper tubes and shock damper bodies making perfect suspension setup easy and accurate. So give mom back her plastic clip and ruler.
- Solo Air™
Solo Air is like a Buddhist monk. Its enlightened design lets you add air to your forks through a single Schrader valve, filling both the positive and negative air spring chambers simultaneously. So they're always in perfect equilibrium, like Yin and Yang. Giving you a plush, predictable ride you can set up in seconds, with the lightest weight air spring on the market.
Documents Available for Monarch RL
See more documents available for RockShox products.


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(Reuters) - Gas supplier Praxair Inc PX.N will buy NuCO2 Inc, a seller of beverage-grade carbon dioxide, from private equity firm Aurora Capital Group for $1.1 billion to capture some market share from Airgas Inc ARG.N in the high-margin packaged gas business.
Praxair bought 17 smaller gas distributors last year in a bid to better compete with Airgas, which commands a quarter of the $7 billion packaged gas market.
Praxair has a 12 percent share in the packaged gas business, which sells atmospheric gases, carbon dioxide, hydrogen, helium and acetylene in metal cylinders to customers requiring small volumes.
"This deal (NuCO2) fits in with Praxair's strategy of expanding its U.S. package gas business through acquisitions," Atlantic Equities analyst Colin Isaac said, adding that the acquisition will significantly increase the company's market share.
NuCO2 supplies carbon dioxide that is added to fountain soda and draught beer, and provides delivery services to restaurant chains, convenience stores and entertainment locations.
The acquisition, Praxair's biggest ever, is expected to be neutral or add slightly to its 2013 earnings per share, estimated at between $5.85 and $6.10.
"Acquisition multiples of 4.5 times sales and 9.5 times EBITDA look fair," Atlantic Equities' Isaac said.
NuCO2 is expected to generate full-year sales of about $250 million in 2013 and $115 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).
Praxair, valued at about $32.74 billion, expects 2013 sales of about $12 billion. The packaged gas business accounted for 29 percent of its $8.42 billion sales in the nine months ended September 30.
NuCO2 has 150 depots each serving about 1000 customers and 300 delivery vehicles.
"We plan to continue to grow the business in the United States, enhance distribution efficiency utilizing Praxair's competencies in logistics, and extend NuCO2's offerings to customers in other regions of the world," Eduardo Menezes, executive vice president of Praxair, said in a statement.
The deal, expected to close by the end of the first quarter, gives Aurora Capital more than twice the value of its $487 million investment in NuCO2.
NuCO2, which was taken private in 2008, withdrew plans for an initial public offering last July, more than two years after it first filed to list its stock.
The company was exploring a sale and had hired Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N) to run an auction, Reuters reported last month, citing sources.
NuCO2, like Praxair, has a micro-bulk beverage carbonation system that replaces traditional cylinders with an uninterrupted supply of on-site carbon dioxide, helping customers improve drink quality and avoid "flat" drinks.
Praxair shares were up a percent at $111.60 on Tuesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.
Reporting by Swetha Gopinath and Garima Goel in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane


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Promoting Healthy Teen Relationships
Preventing teen dating violence requires a comprehensive approach involving diverse partnerships working across multiple levels of the social ecology to influence the norms and behaviors of individuals, families, peer groups, community and government organizations, neighborhoods, and the society at large. Dating Matters™: Strategies to Promote Healthy Teen Relationships (DM), launched by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a comprehensive teen dating violence program that promotes respectful, nonviolent dating relationships among youth in high-risk urban communities.
Four local health departments that serve high-risk urban communities are implementing DM, which provides the opportunity to address gaps in research and practice by developing a comprehensive prevention program, developing an initiative that reflects the entire public health model, and engaging the local public health sector in teen dating violence prevention. The initiative supports communities as they implement prevention strategies in schools, with families, and in neighborhoods.
As part of DM, NACCHO developed the DM Guide for Informing Policy, which was designed to provide information about how to inform policy with the best available evidence. The DM initiative's comprehensive approach to teen dating violence prevention includes a range of prevention strategies, including youth and parent education and skill-development programs, educator training, communication strategies, policy strategies, and evaluation and surveillance for individuals, peers, families, schools, and neighborhoods.
Although informing policy development, implementation, and evaluation can be challenging, long-term work, policy interventions have the potential for sustained impact over time at a population level and are often an effective use of community resources. The policy process affords many opportunities to expand reach, to engage partners and other stakeholders to help raise awareness of teen dating violence, and to guide the articulation of broad, science-informed, mutual understanding of solutions throughout the community.
NACCHO is also involved in the DM Indicators Project, which focuses on collecting indicator data that can be used to detect the presence of teen dating violence within a community. Teen dating violence indicator data are summary statistics that can be used to quantify the incidence of teen dating violence, correlates of teen dating violence, and response to teen dating violence in a given community. The purpose of this project is to begin to see how accurate indicator data is at predicting teen dating violence perpetration and victimization.
The most optimal way to assess teen dating violence prevalence is with self-report methodology, however, expense and limited manpower preclude many communities from collecting self-report data. This project focuses on the collection of data from the fields of education, healthcare, and judicial/law enforcement. To aid DM grantees in collecting indicator data, NACCHO developed an issue brief on interagency data sharing, titled "Connecting the Dots: A Data Sharing Framework for the Local Public Healthy System."


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Yesterday the journal Nature published two items updating research on Saturn's venting moon, Enceladus. Readers may remember that about six months ago the Cassini spacecraft, on a flyby of the moon, detected plumes of water vapor and ice shooting into space from cracks in its surface. At the time, mission scientists speculated the geysers originated deep below the surface, possibly from a liquid aquifer or ocean. Because traces of organic compounds were also found in the plumes, some cautiously suggested that conditions below the surface may be suitable to harbor life.
Saturn's rings photographed by the Cassini spacecraft wide-angle camera on January 20, 2009. One of Saturn's moons orbits lower right. Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
The latest developments concern sodium chloride, or salt, a fundamental component of seawater on Earth. Cassini team members with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) at the California Institue of Technology reported the spacecraft detected salt in grains of ice within Saturn's outermost ring. However, another group of researchers using ground-based instruments did not find sodium in the plumes jetting out from the moon. Mission scientists say the evidence points to a deep water subterranean ocean on Enceladus. Others aren't so sure, and suggest some other source or sources may be responsible. Keyword: may. The current data are insufficient.
JPL manages the Cassini mission for NASA and its mission partners, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. On Wednesday JPL posted a news release describing the salt discovery. Abstracts of the Letters published in Nature are available here.
An interesting back story to the discovery of salt in one of Saturn's rings is that Cassini was supposed to end its mission in July 2008. NASA extended the project two more years, ensuring seven more close encounters with Enceladus.
The next flybys will happen in November.
Next stop: tbd
Banner bus photo credit: Dorothy Delina Porter


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I don't have a hard count on this, but I'd be willing to bet that nobody has his name attached to more flicks of the "Could have been great BUT..." variety than producer/director/B-Movie legend Roger Corman. I know, it's a statement that only makes sense--when you've got your fingers in as many low-budget horror and action flicks as Corman, if even a small percentage falls into that just-made-up category, you're going to be king of the hill. But Corman has a well-documented genius for finding proprerties with amazing potential, even if they falter in execution. For every certified masterpiece like House of Usher or Peter Bogdonavich's Targets, for every grade-z bomb like Vampirella or Attack of the Giant Leeches, he's got at least one or two on his resume that aren't really bad, but could have been so much more.
Today I'm ready to add Carol Frank's 1986 psi-spiced slasher Sorority House Massacre to that latter category. Like many Corman-touched efforts, in between all the bad acting and sometimes laughably cheesy filmmaking flourishes, this movie has enough interesting plot developments and occasionally successful creepy scenes to make you wonder just how good it could have been with just a little tweak here and there. It's not a bad way to spend a near hour-and-a-half, by any stretch, but it's easy to see how it might have bumbled over the line into B-movie greatness, if only...
The flick opens like such a blatant Halloween rip-off--from the imposing front-view of the titular sorority house walkway to the just-this-side of copyright infringement music-box theme--I was wondering if Frank was ironically referencing the earlier film, setting up for a wink-wink nudge-nudge self-aware horror comedy long before Craven Scream-ed it into the dirt. The rather amazing animated blood-splatter opening title seems to bolster this notion. However, for the rest of the runtime the movie plays pretty much straight with its premise.
Beth (Angela O'Neill, sporting an impeccably 80s Alex P. Keaton hairstyle) whispers portentiously, "It must have all started the moment I entered the house...", we get a nice point-of-view tour of the empty sorority house, sunlight flooding the rooms in a dreamlike haze, the camera swooping in and out of eerily abandoned rooms before coming out onto an upper landing to peer down at a little girl standing in the front foyer--actually a rather nicely done sequence, which palliates the nothing's-really-happening opening somewhat. We then see that the dreamer is not Beth, but Bobby (John C. Russell), a guest of the aptly named Peligro Valley State Mental Hospital. After he's tied down by a couple of creepy looking orderlies, it's time to check in on Beth again.
Beth has come to stay with her friends at the local college after the sudden death of her aunt, who raised her from the time she was 5 years old. As soon as she moves into a temporarily empty room (decorated to the rafters with sexy Police-era Sting posters) she takes a nap and starts the second dream sequence, which is actually even better than the first. A creepy trio of little girls sit outside a familiar-yet-unfamiliar house, one of them playing with a dollhouse that looks EXACTLY like our sorority! In keeping with their kinda cool "Greek Fates" set-up, the girls warn Beth not to go into the house, which of course she does anyway. Inside, she finds the table set for dinner, with four EXTREMELY CREEPY LITTLE GIRL MANNEQUINS sitting around it in old-fashioned clothes. At one place-setting, a huge Bowie knife. Suddenly, blood drips from the ceiling, splashing in the water glasses and dripping down the candles. It's actually pretty unsettling, and again offsets the "when's the *real* movie gonna start" jitters. The capper where she hears a child crying upstairs and goes up to investigate elevates it almost to successful surrealist mind-fuckery.
So Beth is staying with her sorority-sister girlfriends, who all seem to be studying psychology at the local college. After yet ANOTHER creepy surreal nightmare--this one while she's wide awake, involving a rather awesome low-tech mirror effect--Beth tells her sisters all about it. We're then treated to quite an array of pseudo-psych babblings from all involved, and there's a lot of talk about how some researchers suggest that brain waves can be transmitted over distance like radio, particularly between members of the same family. As it turns out, Psycho Bobby was locked up for trying to murder his whole family, and succeeding except for one little five-year-old girl. And before you can say "Michael Meyers wants his backstory back," Bobby has escaped and is being drawn across country as if by some radio tracking device...
So this is par for the course--Corman-associated productions have NEVER placed a big premium on originality, and for what it's worth, Frank (directing from her [?] own script) does give us those nice dream sequences and some welcome dumb humor to sweeten the taste of the Ripoff Souffle. For instance, when smart and serious sister Linda (Wendy Martel) gets to class and learns they'r having a short test on Deja Vu, she rolls her eyes and quips, "Great--a Pop Psychology Quiz!" Also, immediately post-Beth's third nightmare, flighty airhead Sara (Pamela Ross) sits through a literature class in which the teacher drones, "This author uses foreshadowing and repetition to move the plot forward..." That's meta, bitches!
But for a B-movie pleasure-seeker like me, the real fun lies in the awesomely, gleefully dated 80s fashions and decor that permeate the film. From fashion-plate Cindy's primary-color jumpsuit/dresses (the envy of *all* the girls) to Sara's Carmen Miranda-meets-Cyndi Lauper style of dress to the Patrick Nagel prints and posters of Twisted Sister on the same wall in the same bedroom, I just couldn't wipe the nostalgic grin off my face. Bonus points for not one, not three, but TWO getting-dressed montages, the greatest of which occurs once Beth and her friends are left alone in the house for a long weekend (dun-dun DUN!) and decide to try on all of Cindy's expensive clothes. You want 80s synth-rock with shots of neon-clothing flung gleefully through the air, all while providing the gratuitous nudity you crave? You got it, buddy!
As often happens in cases like this, the girls invite a quartet of boys over for the weekend, ostensibly to help them set up some decorations in the yard for an upcoming "pow-wow," but really just to bolster the body count. Frank miscalculates perhaps by trying to play the revelation that Beth is Bobby's sister and he's coming to finish the job for as much suspense as possible--you'd have figured this out long since even if you *hadn't* seen Halloween and its sequels (and let's face it, if you're watching Sorority House Massacre, YOU HAVE). The kills are nothing to write home about, though I admit that when resident Blair-in-Facts of Life bitchy sis Tracy (Nicole Rio) caught Bobby's butcher knife right between her bodacious, recently bared bosoms for a long, strangely bloodless shot, my interest was piqued, IYKWIM. People get killed, Beth brings up more repressed memories and survives thanks to her strange psychic radio connection with Bobby, and it all ends up about how you'd expect.
So we have a few good things here, but the movie really falters when it comes to the big climactic battle with the killer, which keeps it from being an overall success. The nonsensical teleportation ability of the killer might be let slide (he climbs up a fire ladder which the girls then drop off the building, and once he's recovered from the fall, appears at the 2nd story window again, with no explanation of how he got back up there), but what really sinks it is the non-acting of the threatened college students here. I mean, I don't ask a lot from my knife-fodder in an 80s slasher, but I would like them to at least *pretend* they might be in danger, and might be more than a little concerned about this fact. Here, everyone deadpans their way through every close friend's death, a life-long buddy's bloody demise apparently no more affecting than learning they're no longer offering the McRiblets at your local eatery.
when Tracy gets her unrequested sternum piercing, she happened to have been in flagrante delicto with her boyfriend in their teepee. The boyfriend runs back to the house (naked--we get some nice streaking butt shots for the ladies), and emotionlessly informs the others inside, "Tracy's dead." Not shock-emotionless either, just matter of fact, "This is my line and I'm gonna say it now" delivery. Same goes for Beth when one after another of her friends get offed...no reaction, no emotion, no tears...not even a SCREAM in some cases for Christ's sake. It's like everyone was either stoned or performing under hypnosis, or else just so bored and sick of the whole movie-making enterprise they just stopped trying. And *that* attitude is sadly infectious.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Sorority House Massacre (1986): or, Nagel, Nightmares, and a Near-Miss
Posted by The Vicar of VHS at 11:00 AM
Labels: '80s, 1-2 Thumbs, Dolls Dummies and Puppets, Psychic Psychos, Psycho Killer
2 comments:
- Tenebrous Kate said...
Sounds like a frustrating near-hit for the slasher crowd, Vicar. Sorry to hear about the frog-kissing--hopefully the next one will turn out to be a princess (or at least a naughty nun).
Interesting tidbit of the moment--Carol Frank is, in fact, a woman, and was chosen for the project after the also-Corman-backed, also woman-directed, feminist-ish "Slumber Party Massacre" was a moderate hit.
>>everyone deadpans their way through every close friend's death, a life-long buddy's bloody demise apparently no more affecting than learning they're no longer offering the McRiblets at your local eatery
Hey now! Just because it doesn't upset you doesn't mean that the absence of the McRib sammich hasn't profoundly affected the lives of others! Witness The McRib Locator. Also, mention that most covetable of fast-food menu items to Baron XIII sometime and you'll get treated to an "I remember the day when JFK got shot"-scale monologue ;)
- April 2, 2009 at 12:38 PM
- dragonmanes said...
I couldnt be bothered with this cheap cashin on the Slumber Party series. It liberally borrows from all of the successful (and even unsuccessful) slashers that came before it, the acting is dreadful, and apparently all of the characters are mentally challenged since the college girls are all easily in their mid-thirties. I applaud Cormon for striking when the iron was hot, but I dont think I could ever watch this flick again.
- April 2, 2009 at 12:50 PM


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Third Earthquake in a Week Rattles East Texas
The small town of Timpson, Texas, is starting to get used to this whole earthquake thing.
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 2.4-magnitude quake shook the town about 3 a.m. this morning. It originated on the west side of town.
That makes three earthquakes this week to hit near Timpson -- and today's was the smallest of the three. On Monday a 4.1-magnitude earthquake hit about two miles northwest of the town, followed by a 4.3 quake just a few hours later.
Three earthquakes hit the same area in a week back in January and February. This makes at least 12 earthquakes in the East Texas area since May of 2010.


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Corey Garmon is back in the United States, hailed as a hero after being injured in Afghanistan almost a week ago.
Corey Garmon is back in the United States, hailed as a hero after being injured in Afghanistan almost a week ago.
Corey, an Army soldier from Sardis, arrived Sunday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.
He underwent an eight-hour surgery Monday, his father, Chris Garmon, said.
He remains heavily sedated and has a breathing tube that helps him rest as the healing begins.
Corey, 24, was injured Wednesday when an IED exploded while he and his squad were approaching a compound outside Kandahar. Five of eight squad members were injured. Garmon's left leg has been amputated below the knee, and he has two broken bones in his right leg.
His left arm is damaged, and his right cornea is bruised. He has numerous soft-tissue injuries from shrapnel.
He is scheduled for surgery every other day all week, his father said.
"He's physically strong," his father said. "He is a miracle."
Garmon said the mother and the wife of Josh Wetzel, an injured soldier from Glencoe, met Corey when he arrived at Walter Reed on Sunday. The women met Garmon and his wife, Lori, when they arrived at the hospital from Alabama early Monday.
As Corey was taken from the helicopter at the hospital, Wetzel's mother, Cathi Hayes, and his wife, Paige Wetzel, took some pictures and sent those to Corey's parents while they were trying to make their way to Maryland.
Facebook pages — Prayers for Josh Wetzel and Prayers for Corey Garmon — have been created for the soldiers.
Wetzel's has more than 13,000 members, and his family has been able to update almost daily about his condition.
Wetzel, a U.S. Army specialist, was injured May 31 in an IED explosion while serving in Afghanistan. Wetzel underwent surgery, and both his legs were removed — one at the knee and the other just below the knee.
He later was brought to Walter Reed Army Medical Hospital.
His mother and wife have been by his side almost constantly as he continues to improve.
Hayes wrote an update about Corey on her son's Facebook page, requesting prayers.
"We were able to both be with him (Corey) in the ICU for his initial tests and assessment, because Josh's dad and step-mother arrived just before the ambulance ... Josh felt led to go pray over Corey, so he got into his wheelchair and headed to the ICU. We gathered around Corey's bed and Josh led us in prayer for healing for Corey, strength for the family and praise for the miracle of the approval allowing Corey to stay here ... God is performing miracles here at Bethesda, Md., and we have front-row seats."
Garmon said Hayes met him and his wife when they arrived at the hospital about 3:15 a.m. Monday, and Paige Wetzel stayed with them until about 6 a.m.
"She gave us a heads-up about what to expect," he said. "We are so thankful for what they have done for us, and we appreciate it so much. We are so grateful for all the support we've had from them and everyone in Sardis and Etowah County."
Corey is a 2007 graduate of Sardis High School. Both his parents teach in the Etowah County Schools system.
A fundraiser already is set up for Saturday in Sardis.
A tent will be set up in front of Holland Motors, on U.S. Highway 431 in Sardis City. A road block will be at the intersection in front of the high school and at the four-way stop by Farm Town, all from 8 a.m. to noon.
Those who have established the fundraiser on Saturday wrote, "Corey and his family need prayers but this would also be a great way to help support his family as they are in Maryland comforting him. As we all know this is a costly expense for his family, and our community needs to stand up and support a courageous man who fought so hard to support our freedom."
A fund also has been set up at Alabama Teachers Credit Union. Donations can be made at any branch to a fund established in Corey's name, or a donation can be mailed to Alabama Teachers Credit Union, P.O. Box 1400, Gadsden, AL 35901.


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Testimony to the House Committee on Ways and Means
Stephen C. Goss, Deputy Chief Actuary Office of the Chief Actuary
Social Security Administration
June 10, 1999
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to describe the work of the Office of the Chief Actuary in assessing the plans to reform Social Security that have been developed by Members of Congress.
The Social Security Act requires that the Board of Trustees report annually to the Congress providing the expected operations and status of the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) and Disability Insurance (DI) Trust Funds for the next 5 fiscal years and "a statement of the actuarial status of the Trust Funds." The Office of the Chief Actuary works with the trustees in the development of this annual report of the financial status of the program under present law.
In addition, the Office of the Chief Actuary provides to the Administration and to the Congress estimates of the financial effects on the Social Security (OASDI) program of potential or proposed legislation. The mission of the Office of the Chief Actuary is to provide objective analyses that will permit policymakers to make informed decisions about the future of the Social Security program.
Current Financial Status of The Social Security Program
The Social Security program currently provides monthly benefits to more than 44 million individuals. The primary source of financing is a payroll tax on the nearly 150 million workers in covered employment. Tax revenue currently exceeds the cost of the program, so the trust funds are growing. Trust funds are currently almost twice the size of the annual cost of the program, and growing.
Based on the intermediate assumptions of the 1999 Trustees Report, tax income to the OASDI program is expected to exceed cost until 2014. The combined OASI and DI trust funds are expected to continue growing until 2022. The combined trust funds are then expected to decline until they are exhausted in 2034.
At the point of trust fund exhaustion in 2034, continuing tax income is expected to be equal to 71 percent of the cost of the program.
Measures for Evaluating the Long-Range Actuarial Status of Social Security
The Social Security program is a complex system developed more than 6 decades ago to provide monthly benefits that offer what has been referred to as a "floor of protection" against loss of income due to retirement, death, or disability. The program provides a blend between individual equity and social adequacy that has evolved through the judgement of several generations of policymakers.
Both Annual Trustees Reports and estimates by the Office of the Chief Actuary for legislative proposals focus primarily on the financial status of the OASDI program. Because current program financing is expected to be adequate for the full payment of benefits on a timely basis for over 30 years, I will describe the criteria used for evaluating the "actuarial status" of Social Security over the long run.
The actuarial status of the OASDI program is evaluated over a 75-year, long-range projection period. This period provides a view of the adequacy of financing over the entire lifetime of virtually all current participants in the program, from the oldest beneficiaries to the youngest workers. This period also provides the opportunity to view the full, mature financial effects of legislative proposals that may take decades to become fully implemented.
The most fundamental criterion for evaluating the financial status of the OASDI program is its ability to pay full benefits in a timely manner. The inability to do so is indicated by expected exhaustion of the trust funds within the 75-year period.
Perhaps the most commonly used measure of long-range solvency of the OASDI program is the actuarial balance. This measure indicates the size of the difference between expected financing and cost for the program over the 75-year period, on a summarized present-value basis. An actuarial balance of zero indicates that financing over the 75-year period is equal to the expected cost of the program, with enough left over for a trust fund balance at the end of the period equal to the annual cost of the program.
The actuarial balance is expressed as a percentage of taxable payroll over the 75-year period. Under the intermediate assumptions of the 1999 Trustees report, the estimated actuarial balance is -2.07 percent of taxable payroll. Because this balance is negative, it is referred to as an actuarial deficit.
An additional important measure for evaluating the actuarial status of Social Security is the stability of the financing at the end of the 75-year period. Financial stability is achieved at the end of the period if total program income is sufficiently meets the costs of the program and maintains stable trust fund reserves. Stability of trust fund reserves means that the trust fund balance expressed as a percentage of the annual cost of the program (the "trust fund ratio") is essentially constant.
At the request of the Chairman and other Members of Congress, the Office of the Chief Actuary has assessed a number of plans to reform Social Security. While many of the plans would bring the Social Security program into long-range actuarial balance, the plans are all different to some degree. The Office of the Chief Actuary will continue to work with the Administration and the Congress as policymakers develop and consider these, and any additional plans, for addressing the long-range financing issues facing the Social Security program.


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Kern-Stabi fork stabiliser 60-108 Kawasaki VN 750 Vulcan from 19932.553
More Views
Kern-Stabi Fork Brace
Prevents torsion of the fork.
- Prevents oscillation
- Prevents the fork from wobbling
- Therefore, much higher riding safety and targeting accuracy
- Extremely light and very stable
- High-strength special aluminium
- Polished to a high lustre (if no colour is specified), black or gold anodised for some models
- Fork must NOT be disassembled for mounting
- Stress-free mounting thanks to longitudinal adjustment of 3 mm maximum
- The dimensions specified in the description or in the drop-down box indicate the inner diameter and the distance between the rods.
- Versions with an A behind these dimensions have a clamp for fixing fork boots
Permission (in Germany):
With TÜV part certificate.
The installation must be approved through testing by the TÜV, Dekra, GTÜ, etc.
Their certification must then be carried while riding as proof , similar to an operating permit.
At the earliest opportunity (registering, un-registering or making other changes) it should then be added to the bike papers.
Price each
For our Swiss customers:
Please note, that due to the Swiss traffic regulation you'll need a valid allowance certificate which will be issued by our Swiss shop assistants and will NOT be delivered with the article.
Write Your Own Review
- Passt nicht
- Top Teil !
Lieferung und Service tadellos!
- falsche Grösse


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Rural author Wendell Berry once wrote of the farmer, "He has seen the light lie down in the dung heap and rise again in the corn." These words have sharply clarified for me the agricultural lifecycle—or even better, light cycle. Plants convert solar energy into food for animals (ourselves included), Then the wastes from those animals, along with dead plant and animal bodies, "lie down in the dung heap," are composted, and "rise again in the corn."
This cycle of light is the central reason that making compost and using it is such an important link in organic food production: It returns solar energy to the soil. In this context, such common compost ingredients as onion skins, hair trimmings, eggshells, vegetable parings, and even burnt toast are no longer seen as garbage, but as sunlight on the move from one form to another.
By making use of such substances, composting enables us to have large amounts of "dung" for our gardens without necessarily passing most of the ingredients through an animal first. It also greatly speeds up the earth's own soil-building processes to achieve results in months instead of centuries.
The benefits of using compost are so great that it's no exaggeration to call it the key to soil fertility. The end product of composting is humus, the broken-down organic matter that is the basis of soil life. In a single teaspoon of fertile soil, there are billions of microorganisms that perform numerous functions. They change nutrients into a form your plants can use, provide an ongoing flow of that food, and bind earthen particles into small aggregates, helping to build a friable soil.
Other composting benefits:
Controlled pH. Acid or alkaline soil can lock up many nutrients, making them unavailable to plants. The regular addition of compost balances the soil, helping to bring it to the crop-favoring pH range of between 6.5 and 7.5.
Heat absorption. Finished compost helps darken most soils, allowing for better absorption of heat from sunlight—which can actually extend your spring and fall growing seasons.
Drainage, water retention, and aeration: The more air it gets, the quicker it cooks. Drainage, water retention, and aeration. Imagine the life of a root, ever tunneling in search or water and food. In clayish soil, roots have trouble making headway, so they become shallow and can't reach the food and water reserves deeper down. Their oxygen supply is also easily cut off in the tightly packed soil.
Sandy soil causes a different problem; it's like a long stretch of good road with no place to get food and water. Nutrients and moisture simply percolate down out of reach.
So we want it all—good drainage, good water retention (even though the two sound almost contradictory), and openness to incorporate air. Again, humus is the cure-all. It opens up packed soils and binds together loose ones. Acting like a sponge, humus helps hold moisture, food, and air so plants can have access to all of them at will.
Nutrient retention. Chemical fertilizers provide quick-fix doses of three major nutrients: nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Since such garden additives are highly water-soluble, plants can take them up quickly—but they can also be easily washed away by rain or irrigation. In fact, it's estimated that from 25 to 85% of the chemical nitrogen applied to soil and 15 to 20% of the phosphorus and potassium are lost to leaching.
Humus holds those water-soluble nutrients inside itself, keeping them safe from run-off and releasing them slowly to plants. (Even better, the soil microorganisms in humus release nutrients more slowly during cool weather when crops are growing most slowly and more quickly during warm weather when plants are growing most actively.)
Free-choice feeding. The way in which roots and humus directly interact is probably the most fascinating argument that I know of for the use of compost. It's a miraculous process whereby plants choose their own diet.
You may have seen the words cation exchange on a soil test. Cations are positively charged molecules of different minerals like ammonium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. Since opposites attract, the negatively charged molecules of humus (and, to a lesser extent, clay as well) attract and hold the positive cations.
When a searching root comes along, surrounded by positive hydrogen ions, it strikes up a friendly exchange with the humus (or clay) molecules: The root trades its hydrogen ions for the nutrient ions of its choice. Thus humus allows plants to choose what nutrients they need.
And more. Compost also helps control nematodes and soil diseases, attracts soil building earthworms, helps plants produce their own growth stimulators, helps fix heavy metals and other toxins in the soil (instead of letting them be absorbed by the crops), adds trace minerals to the soil, and makes plants hardier and more resistant to insects and diseases. It can even be used as a healing poultice on tree wounds!
Finally, compost can be made virtually without cost at home, by mimicking the earth's recycling system. Chemical fertilizers, on the other hand, cost money and use nonrenewable fossil fuels (both as ingredients and in transporting and manufacturing).
Step #1: Choosing a site
Well, are you convinced? I hope so, because composting really is the backbone of good horticulture.
If you are ready to start your own pile of black soil magic, the first concern is location—where you'll build your compost pile. Consider these suggestions:
1. Try to locate your pile near your garden. A wheelbarrow loaded with compost is heavy.
2. If you're going to be adding some compost-building ingredients by vehicle, try to build your pile in a spot you can drive to.
3. Wetting the pile will be a lot easier if it's near a water source.
4. A good deciduous shade tree near the pile can provide some shelter from heavy thunderstorms and excessively hot summer sun; it can also let warmth-boosting fall and winter sunlight through. It'll even provide leaf material! However, evergreens (which have acidic needles), walnuts (which exude a toxin through their roots), and eucalyptuses (which have resinous leaves) are not good choices.
Step #2: Building a bin
You'll need something to put your ingredients in; actually, a straight-sided pile can be constructed with no bin or supports, and is a perfectly acceptable way to compost.
But it takes time to shape a freestanding pile; being able to toss the makings into a container can really speed the process along. In addition, if your neighbors are close they may voice aesthetic objections to a freestanding pile of decomposing materials. In that case, you can compost incognito by using an attractive homemade or commercial bin. Privacy fencing (plant or wire) might also help shut out easily offended eyes.
The creative scrounger will find that numerous materials make good bins—boards, poles, screen, wire, old pallets, concrete blocks, snow fencing, and hay bales all will serve well. At the other end of the spectrum are the fancier $70 to $200 commercial composters you can buy through garden supply catalogs.
Somewhere between total scrounging and total spending are the two composters we designed at MOTHER EARTH NEWS. (Our Compost Box Construction Diagram has assembly details.) The "quickie" version is a mobile pen made of hogwire panels. This low-cost model allows you to make a pile and then easily move the pen when you want to start a new pile or turn the old one. The "uptown" model is meant to be more aesthetically acceptable, yet still entirely practical. Although you could build it with just one bin (the design is basically modular), you'll do better if you build more than one enclosure so you can turn compost from one bin to the other. Better still, build a three-bin version so you can turn two half-decomposed "side" piles into the middle bin to finish cooking!
Any pile, freestanding or contained, should be at least 3' X 3' X 3' to insure sufficient mass for the composting process. I find 4' X 5' X 5' ones even better. The bottom of the pile should be exposed to the earth, and the top should be covered with black plastic or a waterproof tarp to protect it from rain and drying sun. Contained piles should also have enough open spaces on the sides for good air circulation.
Step #3: What goes in
So many types of organic matter can be composted that it's easier to list what shouldn't be put in a compost pile. Here's a partial list of what not to use:
Cat feces. While almost every other kind of animal manure makes an excellent compost ingredient, cat feces can contain a parasite (Toxoplasma gondii) or roundworm (Toxocara cati). Either of these organisms can spread serious disease to pregnant women, unborn babies, and children.
Grease and fat. OK in small amounts, but too much will clog up the composting process.
Coal, coal ashes, and barbecue briquettes. These have overly high amounts of iron and sulfur (and who knows what else in the briquettes).
Diseased plant matter. Actually, you can place diseased plants in the center of a compost pile that will be prepared in the hot method—where temperatures reach a pathogen-killing 140°F. Otherwise, burn them before composting.
Polyester, plastics, and other synthetics. They just don't rot.
Urban floor sweepings. In high-traffic areas, these can contain as much as 500 parts per million of lead.
Food preserved with BHT. Research has shown that even very small amounts of this antioxidant can alter plant growth profoundly.
Overly bulky or hard material. Cornstalks, sunflower stalks, nutshells, sticks thicker than a pencil, large bones, and oyster and clam shells should be shredded or pulverized before composting. If you can't do that, put them in a long-range pile of their own.
Sludge. Commercially reprocessed is an increasingly popular soil amendment and is almost certainly pathogen-free, but I'm concerned about the heavy metals and insecticides it may contain.
And what are good compost makings? Well, for starters, how about these:
Plant residues (preferably nonsprayed), such as kitchen and garden wastes, weeds, grass clippings, leaves (go light on those from eucalyptuses, walnuts, and evergreens), straw, hay, hedge clippings, seaweed, aquatic plants, and green manure crops.
Commercial wastes, such as buckwheat hulls, rice hulls, molasses-making residue, spent hops, fruit processing wastes, commercial fishing scraps, lake dredgings, sawdust, feathers, wood ashes (in moderation), utility-company tree trimmings, and vegetable or dairy wastes from grocery stores.
Home wastes, like eggshells, hair, wool scraps, etc.
Manures from horses, fowl, cows, pigs, sheep, etc. These are even better if they're mixed with straw (i.e., used stall bedding).
Step #4: Recipe for success
Once you've assembled lots of appropriate organic matter from the "compost pile shopping list" above, you're just about ready to start cooking. The funny thing is, though, there is no one way to make compost. Indeed, there are almost as many methods as there are experts to advocate them.
It's like baking bread: There are thousands of different recipes, but all of them have in common some basic practices and vital main ingredients. Se before you build that long-awaited heap, let's quickly review the six essentials of successful composting:
Nitrogen: For a compost to cook properly and to have maximum value for plants, it needs nitrogen, the element that promotes leaf growth. Good sources of N are pig, chicken, sheep, horse, and cow manure (ranked in descending amounts of nitrogen); fresh green plant wastes; and blood, bone, cottonseed, hoof, horn, and alfalfa meals (readily available from garden-supply centers, but somewhat costly).
Carbon. The vast bulk of any compost pile should be carbonaceous material: dried leaves, hay, straw, partially dried garden gleanings, shredded stalks—almost any dried organic matter. This is the key humus building material and the substance that binds nitrogen (an otherwise ephemeral element) into the compost.
Air. Although organic matter can decay anaerobically (without oxygen), it will do so more quickly, will retain more nutrient value, and for that matter cook with much less stink if it composts aerobically (with oxygen). To provide good airflow to a pile, you should, if possible, place thick, hollow material like cornstalks and sunflower stalks at the bottom of a pile. Also, be sure that any compost bins or pens have perforated sides.
Once the pile is built, you can try poking holes in numerous places with poles or branches to increase aeration—although I've never noticed that this technique made much difference. You can try using a "compost aerator," a pole with a flap like a toggle bolt that opens up when you pull it up out of your pile (available from garden-supply companies). I've never used one myself. Or you can just break down and use the age-old method of adding oxygen to a pile by turning it. Periodically, take a garden fork and turn the pile—upside down and inside out—on an adjacent spot.
Water. A compost pile needs moisture to cure. However, too much water will drown out the air and stop the process. The ideal heap, then, is damp but not soggy.
Mass. As pointed out earlier, a compost pile needs to have at least a cubic yard of bulk to heat up properly. And up to a point, the bigger the better; a pile can hardly be too long or wide, but one that is too tall (say over five feet high) may mash down and squeeze out air.
Beneficial microorganisms. These are the guys who actually do all the work. You can buy beneficial bacteria packets to inoculate your compost, but these little fellows are pretty much everywhere and will thrive if you give them an environment they like. One simple way to inoculate your piles for free is to occasionally sprinkle some good garden soil—or compost from a previous pile—on the one you're constructing.
Step #5: Layering
Now that you know the six essential ingredients of a good compost pile, you need to know how to combine them. The basic technique is simply to alternate layers of nitrogenous and carbonaceous materials. If your pile is all carbon or all nitrogen, your bacteria's diet will be too far out of whack for them to do their job.
The ideal carbon-to-nitrogen ratio is about 25 to 1, but you'd need all sorts of time and charts to figure out how to achieve that precise ratio out of the materials you may have on hand. It's easier—and perfectly effective—to just take some ingredients from the carbon list and some from the nitrogen list and layer them, experimenting with proportions until you find what works for you.
In a nutshell, then: 1) Lay down some stalky material, preferably on bare soil you have forked up some to allow easier passage for bacteria and earthworms. 2) Fork on a layer of carbonaceous material. 3) Fork on a layer of nitrogenous matter. Each layer—N or C—should be about 2" to 8" thick. And fluff it up as you add it to promote airflow. 4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 until you've finished building your pile. Sprinkle on a spadeful or two of soil or cured compost occasionally, and if your materials seem dry, spray on some water periodically as you work. 5) Cover the pile with a waterproof tarp to protect it.
I mentioned that you'll have to experiment to find the best ratio of materials. One of my "old reliable" combinations, if you'd like to try it, is alternating in a 5-5-2 pattern: a 5" layer of green matter, a 5" layer of dry matter, and a 2" layer of manure. But, contrary to some opinions, good compost piles can be made with all vegetative matter and no manure. Just make sure you have enough nitrogen (here's where something like blood meal or human urine is invaluable).
Step #6: Check your progress
If all goes well, in about four or five days the interior of your compost pile should have heated up. Indeed, before long a hand poked inside the heap will get uncomfortably hot.
If that happens, congratulations! Your compost is cooking! If your pile doesn't heat up, something's wrong. First check to see if the pile is too wet or too dry. If it's too soggy, turn it, adding more dry material as you do. If it's too dry, wet it.
Assuming the pile is properly moistened and isn't too compressed for good air circulation, your problem is that the compost mixture needs more nitrogen. So turn the pile, adding more nitrogenous matter.
Step #7: Turning compost
There's one last step to making compost: turning the pile. Here you have some choices. If you want to get your compost quickly, you'll turn the pile every time it's most intense heat (104° to 170°F) starts to drop—about every three to five days. That will add more oxygen and kick up the process. Keep that up and you should have finished compost in two months or less. If all the ingredients have been finely shredded, thinly layered, and turned every three days, it's even possible to make usable compost in two weeks!
If you want your compost in a medium amount of time, turn the pile approximately six weeks after you make it and again six weeks later. Your humus should be ready four to six months after you started it.
And if you're long on patience and short on turning time, just leave the mound alone. Such a slow pile should be ready to use after a year (or even a little longer).
Time is not the only consideration here—there are raging debates about whether "quick" or "slow" compost is better. Since quick-cured piles get well above the pathogen-killing temperature of 140°F, they're the way to go if you want to compost diseased materials (or kill weed seeds).
On the other hand, slow-pile advocates claim that cold-cured compost (which cooks at around 100°F) retains more nutrients.
So relax, dig in, and don't be afraid to experiment. Whichever way you decide to compost, you'll be making the best soil builder your garden could have. You'll also be participating in the light cycle that connects all life on this planet—plant, animal, and even human. As Leandre Poisson has pointed out, we ourselves are "light's ultimate art."
Any Way You Stack It...
The great thing about organic decomposition is that it's always ready to start without you. However, if you want to be assured of consistently composted material on a regular basis, you'll need to take the matter into your own hands and provide a setting in which the breakdown process can occur under the best conditions and with your supervision.
Fortunately, compost doesn't ask much in the way of accommodations, so depending on how much you're willing to spend, your bin can be as unassuming as a simple wire enclosure or as fancy as the covered "post-and-beam" model.
If you're short on time and not ready to spend much money on a composter, "quickie" versions such as the one in our Compost Box Construction Diagram are right up your alley. It'll take about $40 and less than two hours to put together, and it's made of a 16'-long, 1/4"-wire stock panel hacksawed into 48" X 52" sections and clipped together at the corners with quick-connecting chain links. To ease the chore of filling it up, one of the wire sections can be cut in two, halfway up its 4' height, and similarly linked at the horizontal split to make a hinged flap that you can secure at the top with a couple of snap hooks.
Since the panel's wire openings are 2" X 8" at the bottom and increase to 6" X 8" toward the top, it's necessary to line the walls with cage fencing (or some other product with openings no larger than 2" X 4"). This inner grid can be secured to the outer with baling wire or leftover strands from the trimmed-down panels. To put the lid on the kettle, just invest a couple of bucks in a 5' X 7' polyethylene tarp and some S hooks or rope to keep the heavy rain off your working pile. Then when it comes time to start a new heap, simply open one corner of the enclosure, remove it, and set it up at a different location.
The "uptown" model shown in our diagram costs considerably more—perhaps as much as $200, depending on where you get your materials—and is nothing less than a weekend project. In return for this investment, though, you'll get a sturdy and attractive compost crib that's been specifically designed for ease of use.
Our version has two bins, although it could be built as a single or a triple, depending on your compost rotation schedule. Its front doors hinge both down and outward, the ventilated partition between the bins can be lowered in stages, and the front center-posts fold down against the ground. Fully opened, with the framed covers flipped back on their supports, each stall is surprisingly accessible for routine turning.
The diagram indicates the number and placement of hinges, fasteners, hooks, and other hardware. The front 4 X 4 posts should be sunk 2' into the ground if possible, leaving 5' exposed at the front and 4' at the rear. All posts are centered about 54" apart. The wall panels are 2 X 4s notched at the ends to make bolted together half-lap joints; they're secured to the posts with 40d spikes driven into the wood and bent to form slip-out hook-and-eye fasteners. Cut sections of dog-pen wire are stapled to the frames.
The tarp covers are framed in 2 X 2s, which are half lap-jointed like the wall panels. Each lid has two support ribs that are lapped and bolted in place. Wooden struts fastened to the cover frames hold them up or support them when they're flipped back, but normally they're just tied to looped spikes fastened to the centerposts.
If you take the time to build either version now, you should have a ready supply of valuable organic material available by next spring.
Earthy Compost Books
The Rodale Guide to Composting by Jerry Minnich, Marjorie Hunt, and the editors of Organic Gardening Magazine; $17.95 postpaid from Rodale Press (An updated edition will be published in January 1992.)
Let It Rot (Updated and Revised Edition), by Stu Campbell, $8.95 from Storey Communications.


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Romanesca, Italian Butter Bean, and Gorgonzola Gratin
This delicious Fall gratin with creamy fresh Italian Butter Beans, green and firm Romanesca, and tangy Gorgonzola was inspired by my trip to the SF Ferry Building Farmers Market last weekend. While I love Romanesca, I wouldn't have noticed the beans without Chef Eric's recommendation.
The Romanesca is the most amazing looking vegetable:
I discovered it last year and you can read more about it in this post from last November.
There's really no need for a formal recipe here. The Italian Butter Beans were podded and boiled until tender (approx. 15mins), cooled, then I removed the outerskin (like one would with a fresh fava). The Romanesca was cleaned and cut into small pieces and sauted gently with minced garlic and olive oil. Added the beans for one minute then put the mixture in a small gratin dish with some cooked rice underneath. As a side dish, the rice wouldn't be necessary, but this was a main for me. I think soft polenta (keeping with the Italian theme) would have been a much better choice and I would have preferred some tasty mashed potatoes or sliced sauted potatoes to the rice. ) Topped with crumbled Gorgonzola and placed under the broiler for 4-5 minutes, this made a wonderful little supper.
Vegans, you may remember my recent call for a Vegan Stilton. My trusty vegan pal VK discovered a Canadian Blue Soy Cheese, which I sampled this weekend, along with their Vegan Feta. Although the texture wasn't right, I was quite surprised at how well the Blue Soy Cheese reproduced that Blue Cheese taste.
Definitely good enough for a cheese lover to eat alone on crackers:
So the question now is: does it melt?
VK found these soy cheeses at Rainbow in SF. I haven't seen them elsewhere, so let us know if you have a source.
Here's the feta with cracker:
Also, very good. I'd love to hear about favorite vegan cheeses in the comments, so bring it on!


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Physical Sciences
Research Highlights
June 2009
A Window on Hydrate Lattices
Approach seeks most stable molecular scaffolds to hold renewable energy
Researchers use an innovative model to identify the most stable water molecule lattices for energy storage. Enlarge Image.
Results: There's a lot more to water than meets the eye. Water molecules form three-dimensional empty cages organized in a lattice with the potential to store large amounts of natural gases. Gases such as hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide can be fit as "guest" molecules inside these "host" cavities. But water molecules can be arranged in millions of ways in the basic unit cell, and scientists need to know those arrangements that are energetically more stable compared to others, because lower-energy, stable arrangements have the greatest potential for storing energy.
With millions of possible combinations, finding the ones that are lower in energy becomes a challenge of staggering proportions. Now a computer model built by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Russian Academy of Sciences allows scientists to rapidly pinpoint the most stable structures and use them to model those systems that hold promise for energy storage.
Why it matters: At high pressures and low temperatures, like those found in permafrost or on the ocean's floor, water molecules organize into complex hydrate lattices that are held together by hydrogen bonds. Because these lattices are so complex, even sophisticated computer models struggle to find the lattices of most interest to researchers.
Previous methods used to analyze lattices relied on a "top down" approach. Under those methods, researchers started with the known arrangement of the oxygen atoms and randomly selected the positions for the hydrogen atoms to build a network that obeyed certain rules. That approach had several drawbacks. It was based on statistical sampling, which required very large unit cells to be effective. Then too, the resulting structures could be more theoretical than practical, meaning they might not exist in reality. Even more problematic, the model couldn't guarantee that the most appropriate structures would even be found.
The new approach starts from the bottom, by looking at the building blocks of the hydrate lattices and the characteristics needed for stability. Researchers then use these blocks to build the more complex lattices. This approach ensures that the resulting structures meet all requirements for stability.
Methods: The computer model screens quickly through all possible configurations of the water cages that are used to build the hydrate lattice by calculating the energy necessary to hold each collection of water molecules together. Some arrangements require very large amounts of energy to make. These are discarded. Others need less energy to build. These are most likely the arrangements that would actually exist.
PNNL chemist Dr. Sotiris S. Xantheas and colleagues Dr. Soohaeng Yoo, also at PNNL, and Dr. Mikhail Kirov of the Russian Academy of Sciences had previously applied this approach on a smaller arrangement consisting of a hollow cage of 20 water molecules. They narrowed an initial list of 30,026 possible arrangements down to 64, which were most likely to be the more stable ones. The most recent calculations involved hollow cages of 24 water molecules. The model refined the list of over three million structures down to just 321. With the use of the supercomputer at EMSL, the Department of Energy's national scientific facility at PNNL, the team performed detailed electronic structure calculations to further refine those arrangements. The researchers were then able to computationally build up the unit cells into a three-dimensional structure I (sI) hydrate lattice that is capable of holding the alternative energy source hydrogen as well as natural gases.
The work provides realistic models for the hydrate lattices and allows researchers to understand the underlying intermolecular interactions that are responsible for storing "guest" molecules in these "host" lattices.
What's next: Water molecules form hydrate lattices in three types of structures, labeled sI, sII, and sH. The current work modeled the sI hydrate lattice. In the future, the researchers hope to model the sII hydrate lattice, for which the unit cell is made from 16 units of hollow cages with 20 water molecules each and 8 units of an even larger hollow cage of 28 water molecules that can have over 60 million possible arrangements. The (sII) hydrate has been reported to meet current Department of Energy's target densities for an on-board hydrogen storage system.
Acknowledgments: DOE's Office of Basic Energy Sciences funded the research of Dr. Xantheas and Dr. Yoo. The Russian Academy of Sciences funded the research of Dr. Kirov. The research was done using computational resources at DOE's EMSL, a national scientific user facility at PNNL.
This work supports PNNL's mission to strengthen U.S. scientific foundations for innovation by developing tools and understanding required to control chemical and physical processes in complex multiphase environments.
Reference: Yoo S, MV Kirov, and S Xantheas. "Low-Energy Networks of the T-Cage (H2O)24 Cluster and Their Use in Constructing Periodic Unit Cells of the Structure I (sI) Hydrate Lattice." Communication to the Editor, Journal of the American Chemical Society 131(22):7564-7566. The paper was recently highlighted in the "Science & Technology Concentrates" section of the June 1, 2009, issue of Chemical and Engineering News.


text: Hi guys, maybe I have found a bug in the remoting.inc.php file. I have checked twice the server_ip table in my multiserver setup configuration and it is empty. I would like to get the server_id using the server_get_serverid_by_ip API method but if the table is empty I don't get anything. What have I to do? Thanks


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During the past few years, I have been asked when I'm going to write another book. Hard on the heels of that question came an unsolicited request. When you do, include your newspaper columns. Years ago, I was told I should write a book about the importance of leaving a legacy for future generations. As a friend of mine is wont to say, "I listened...and took it all seriously."
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by Riddimstream
ad's Record is proud to present the Queen of Reggae music, Marcia Griffiths, with the first smashing single 'What Kind of World' from her upcoming album, Timeless.
Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Comments.
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Over the years there are a lot of good Dancehall and Reggae music
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May 23, 19 09:10 PM
The Skints Swimming Lessons Hit #1 on Billboard - London based Reggae band The Skints' album "Swimming Lessons" has debuted at number #1 on the Billboard Reggae album chart.
May 23, 19 07:24 PM
Yow Icon We go get a We go get a We go get a Conquer the globe, every gal wah take we outta we clothes Badman nuh bore nose A nuh our fault we hot like
May 23, 19 07:11 PM
Trodding on his legendary father's musical trail, singer-songwriter Garnet silk Jr teamed up with reggae recording star Jesse Royal on his latest music
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ByJeff Elder
Video: Study Shows Robots Will Impact Workforce by 2025
Will robots ease our toil or become a tool for automation and oppression? People who care about technology seem sharply divided, and passionate, about the topic.
The Pew Research Center asked 1,900 technology experts if robots will help or hurt the workforce over the next 10 years. Nearly half (48%) envision a future in which robots displace significant numbers of workers. The remaining 52% say automation will not displace more jobs than it creates by 2025.
But the numbers were just the starting point for some heated opinions.
"We, as a society, have a lot of decisions to make," said study co-author Aaron Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Internet Project. "There's going to be a lot of debate."
The importance for public policy and education to prepare for a more mechanized future was a key theme in the responses.
"Over the last several years I have found it very curious that article after article on robotics and self-driving cars have skipped over the huge impact all of this will have on jobs," said Garland McCoy, president and founder of the Technology Education Institute think tank. "The wave after wave of disruptive technology coming from the West Coast is crashing headlong into the policies, lobbyist and special interest of the East Coast."
Robotics will permeate wide segments of daily life by 2025, with huge implications for industries such as health care, transportation, and manufacturing, most respondents wrote. They also agree that education is not preparing future workers for this new world.
The optimists cited a few broad themes, saying that historically technology has been a net creator of jobs, new types of work will emerge, technology will free us from drudgery, and we will have the power to choose how we apply robotics to the labor force. Pew identified J.P. Rangaswami, chief scientist for Salesforce.com, as representative of the respondents who see robots helping man.
"Driven by revolutions in education and in technology, the very nature of work will have changed radically," he said.
The pessimists were concerned that the coming wave of innovation will threaten all aspects of the work force, that far more workers will be displaced, and that political and economic institutions are poorly equipped to handle the hard choices presented by robots. One tech leader cited a Harry Potter villain as representing the fearsome future of technology in the workplace.
"Automation is Voldemort: the terrifying force nobody is willing to name," said Jerry Michalski, founder of the think tank REX, which focuses on the future. "We hardly dwell on the fact that someone trying to pick a career path that is not likely to be automated will have a very hard time making that choice."
A key topic laying out this debate between the positive and negative effects of automation was the impact of driverless vehicles.
Some said truck drivers and taxi drivers will lose their jobs and the auto industry will be hurt. Others, like Silicon Valley veteran educator and writer Howard Rheingold, welcome that change.
"I, for one, welcome our self-driving automobile overlords," Rheingold wrote. "How could they possibly do a worse job than the selfish, drugged, drunk, and distracted humans who have turned our roads into bloodbaths for decades?"
In a section titled "Out of the box responses," Judith Donath, a fellow at Harvard University's Berkman Center for Internet & Society, imagined a future where human interaction is an expensive luxury: "Live, human salespeople, nurses, doctors, actors will be symbols of luxury, the silk of human interaction as opposed to the polyester of simulated human contact."
And Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), pointed to the likelihood of RoboCop-like policemen on city streets. "They will likely have both infrared detection as well as the ability to see through solid materials and detect heat signatures," he said. "Several incidents of attacks on robots will be reported."
The expert predictions came in response to questions asked by the Pew Research Center Internet Project and Elon University's Imagining the Internet Center in an online canvassing conducted between November 25, 2013, and January 13, 2014. Pew invited more than 12,000 experts and members of the interested public to share their opinions.


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Chara, Iginla rally Bruins past Ducks 3-2 in SO
BOSTON (AP) — Zdeno Chara scored the equalizing goal on a power play with under 3 minutes remaining in regulation before Jarome Iginla had the lone goal in a shootout to rally the Boston Bruins past the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 on Thursday.
Carl Soderberg scored his first NHL goal and Tuukka Rask made 21 saves for the Bruins, who mustered only one shot on goal in the first period. They never sustained much of an offensive attack but still managed to snap a two-game skid.
Devante Smith-Pelly scored less than 2 minutes into the game, Mathieu Perreault had a goal and an assist and Jonas Hiller stopped 21 shots for the Ducks. But they went 0 for 4 on the power play, dropping the league's worst unit to 7.3 percent (4 for 55).
New York's Henrik Lundqvist made 29 saves in his 47th NHL shutout as the Rangers won their second straight game and first at home with a 2-0 victory over the lowly Buffalo Sabres.
Lundqvist made a late third-period save with the top of his helmet, deflecting the puck into the crowd, and then robbed Marcus Foligno with 1:20 remaining.
Derick Brassard scored a power-play goal in the first period, and Chris Kreider netted his second in two games in the middle period to give Lundqvist the only offense he would need to post his third win and second shutout this season.
At Glendale, Arizona, Mikkel Boedker scored the lone shootout goal in the fifth round to lift the Phoenix Coyotes over the Nashville Predators 5-4.
Thomas Greiss made 36 saves and stopped all five shootout attempts for the Coyotes, who rallied from a 3-0 deficit.
Jordan Szwarz scored his first NHL goal and Derek Morris and Shane Doan also scored for Phoenix, which has points in 10 of its past 11 games.
David Legwand had a goal and two assists — all in the first period — and Matt Hendricks, Eric Nystrom and Paul Gaustad also scored for the Predators.


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Frank Hannigan, former USGA leader, dies
FAR HILLS, N.J. (AP) Frank Hannigan, a former executive director of the USGA who offered blunt opinions on television and in print long after he retired, died Saturday morning.
The USGA did not disclose a cause of death. He was 82.
Hannigan, who joined the USGA in 1961, was executive director from 1983 to 1988. Among other things, he was responsible for getting Shinnecock Hills back into the U.S. Open rotation in 1986. One of the original five clubs when the USGA was founded in 1895, it had not held a U.S. Open in 90 years.
Hannigan worked as a rules expert for ABC Sports, and later wrote columns for Golf Digest.
USGA executive director Mike Davis said Hannigan's contributions were immense. He said Hannigan's passion left a legacy for the USGA.


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Israel News - Stay Informed, Pray Informed
Pro-Israel Christian media consultant Brian Schrauger has been an invaluable contributor to Israel Today and a number of other publications since coming to the land to gain a firsthand perspective of the conflict.
In order to achieve a more balanced view of the situation, Schrauger had been living in the Bethlehem suburb of Beit Jala amongst Palestinian Christians.
Late last week, Schrauger was informed in no uncertain terms that he had overstayed his welcome. Having failed to convert this prolific social media activist and regular news commentator to their way of thinking, the Palestinians effectively told Schrauger to get out, or else.
There is a full report on the incident and an interview with Schrauger over at The Times of Israel.
One of the primary reasons Schrauger originally came to the Holy Land was to attend the Christ at the Checkpoint conference hosted in Bethlehem earlier this year. Tellingly, while Christ at the Checkpoint bills itself as a platform for true dialogue between Zionist and anti-Zionist Christians, it is believed that people involved with the conference were behind the complaints against Schrauger that were filed with the Palestinian police.
In fact, Rev. Stephen Sizer, one of the chief organizers of Christ at the Checkpoint, later taunted Schrauger on Twitter, asking, "did you enjoy PA hospitality?" Not a very Christian attitude, to say the least.
The episode raises questions about whether or not Christ at the Checkpoint can be taken seriously as a forum for a free exchange of opinions and views leading to reconciliation, as it claims to be.
True, the conference did feature one or two speakers that could be considered dissenting voices from the popular Palestinian Christian narrative. But what is clear from Schrauger's trials is that those views are not welcome outside the carefully orchestrated framework of Christ at the Checkpoint.
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