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Restoration or Cobbling Together?
"In summary, the "Liturgy of St. Tikhon" has no historical validity whatsoever. The "Liturgy of St. Gregory" can be traced back to that great saint only in a very attenuated way. The simple fact is, neither of these liturgies represents an authentic retur n to the pre-schismatic Orthodox worship of the ancient Christian west." – Father Michael Johnson, The Priest. A Newsletter for the Clergy of the Diocese of San Francisco. Issue No. 5, May 1996
January 15, 2008 - Posted by tuD | -- Anglican, Western Rite -- Tridentine Mass, Western Rite Liturgics, Western Rite Quotes | anglican, bcp, episcopalian, gregorian rite, liturgy, orthodox, orthodoxy, st. gregory, st. tikhon, western rite, Western Rite Liturgics
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The last, but certainly not least simple and sweet dessert (don't worry, there will be more!).
The last, but certainly not least simple and sweet dessert (don't worry, there will be more!). This past weekend my niece and nephews came over for a visit, they saw that I was baking and wanted to help. So we made these together. The only hard thing about these tasty babies is not to eat them all!
3 Eggs
6 oz Melted Butter
3/4 C Sifted Sugar
3/4 C Brown Sugar
1 C Sifted Cocoa
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/3 Sifted Flour
1/3 tsp Salt
3 oz of Cream Cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a square/rectangular pan
Cream together the butter and sugars
Add in eggs and vanilla extract, whisk until fully incorporated
Add in all dry ingredients and whisk until smooth pour into pan
After the batter has settled, take small spoon fulls of the cream cheese and place them all inside the batter (don't be afraid to push them below the batter as well, it'll just make it even tastier!)
Bake for 40 - 45 mins
Serve and enjoy!

subset: commoncrawl


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Angela is crazy about sweets. One day, she got a package with three pieces of candy. She got it for a month every morning. One day she met with the sender Greg, who offered her a job in his parents confectionery. She accepted and start to work with Greg. She fells in love with him but she's not sure in her feelings...
Strawberry Lollipop pg59
October 10th, 2010, 6:44 am
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Management Student Gets United Airlines Internship, Feb. 7, 2000
SOCORRO, N.M., Feb. 7, 2000 -- Two students in New Mexico Tech's Management Department will have an opportunity to spend the summer of 2000, and subsequent summers, working as interns for United Airlines in Portland, Maine.
"United offers a lot of internships, but this is the first one specifically for management students at Tech," said Dr. Peter C. Anselmo, Associate Professor of Management. "This will expose our students to the world, and introduce the world to our department, as part of an ongoing and never-ending effort to market the department and find real-world opportunities for our students."
Paul Torres of Socorro, a member of the Management Department Advisory Board, agreed. "I think it's great," he said. "(The program) will be very valuable for the students."
Anselmo said the student interns will spend the summer at the Portland International Jetport in Portland, Maine. The United operation at Portland also provides ground handling for TWA and Air Nova, an Air Canada express carrier. "The Jetport is very busy in the summer, because that area is a popular vacation/summer home spot for people on the East Coast," he said.
Management student
"We hope this will be the beginning of many internship opportunities for our students," he said. "Right now we're working on securing other internships with several large employers in New Mexico."
The United Airlines internships are being offered through Bob Stapp, United's General Manager for Customer Service in Portland, and a member of the New Mexico Tech Management Department's Advisory Board. Stapp's son, Ian Stapp, graduated from Tech in December with a Bachelor of Science degree in Management.
"He liked what he saw when he came down here, and is really sold on our degree," said Anselmo of the elder Stapp, who has been on the Advisory Board since October 1998.
Anselmo said the internship offer was the result of a meeting with department faculty and the board. "We were brainstorming ways to promote our students. Bob said, 'I'll hire two this summer. If it works out, we'll do it every year,'" said Anselmo.
Traditionally, student internship programs are "pipelines to the outside world" that very often lead to job offers, said Anselmo. "And that's the bottom line: Jobs for our graduates."
According to United Airlines, each internship is comprised of two major components, including basic job duties such as loading and unloading baggage, and assisting customers at the ticket counter and departure gate.
The second component involves spending regular, structured time with the general manager learning about management and personnel issues, organization culture, and work processes within a large, complex system.
Interns will be paid $8.75 an hour for a 30-hour week (an increase is pending). In addition, interns will be awarded one, free, round-trip pass to any United destination in the United States for each month of the internship. Even so, "The students won't be doing it for the money," Anselmo said. "They'll be trying to get experience and contacts."
Anselmo also is working to enlarge the Management Department Advisory Board from its present seven members to 12, including one Tech alumnus. "I hope to have this done by late spring, in time for the board's next scheduled meeting," he said. The board meets twice a year.
The department goal is to have a variety of internships to offer its students. "Take Bob Stapp, for example," said Anselmo. "He likes the unique degree we offer, and thinks that the skills and techniques our students learn here at Tech give them what they need to be successful in their working lives.
"First, there's Tech's basic science and math foundation, and then there's our own department curriculum with its strong emphasis on problem-solving," said Anselmo. "We do a lot of projects oriented toward developing cognitive, analytical skills that are both qualitative and quantitative," he said.
Tech management graduates, he added, have found jobs as systems analysts, financial analysts, stockbrokers, and accountants, among others.
"Nearly all of our graduates are doing well, and more than a few are doing quite well financially," said Anselmo. "One December graduate took a job with a starting salary that is higher than any of his professors are paid."
Tech students wanting additional information should contact Anselmo at 835-5438 or e-mail him at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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David Bowie Tribute Concert Expected to Include Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger
The music of the late David Bowie will be the focus of the latest in a series of star-studded tribute concerts organized by New York City entrepreneur Michael Dorf.
The show is scheduled to take place on March 31, 2016, at New York's Carnegie Hall, and the initial lineup for the event includes Heart's Ann Wilson, Cyndi Lauper, Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell, Jakob Dylan and longtime Bowie producer Tony Visconti.
According to Britain's Daily Star music legends Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger are now expected to take part as well.
Visconti, who worked on many of Bowie's studio albums, including the just-released Blackstar, will lead the house band at the concert, which is called "The Music of David Bowie at Carnegie Hall." A total of more than 20 artists are expected to take part in the event.
A message posted on the show's official website, MusicOf.org, explains that Bowie's unexpected death "has turned this tribute, which we have worked on for the past 7 months, into a memorial concert." The note adds that "this year's concert will certainly be remembered as a poignant celebration of his music by his friends, peers, and fans. We are all deeply saddened by this news."
In a new interview with Pollstar, Dorf reveals that prior to Bowie's death, the singer had been considering attending the show.
"Tony was in touch with David, and David was aware [of the 'Music Of' concert]," Dorf explains. "We were getting no promises…but we were getting indication that he thought it was looking really good and there was a pretty good likelihood that [Bowie] was going to attend."
Dorf also says that since Bowie's death, he's been "getting calls from all kinds of people who'd like to participate" in the show. In addition, he reveals that because the demand was so high for tickets to the now-sold-out concert, a second event is being considered.
"[I]f there's a way to add another day or something, we're exploring right now what else we can do," he reported.
As with previous "Music Of" shows, proceeds from the Bowie tribute will benefit various music education programs for underprivileged youths. This year's event is the 12th annual themed charity concert Dorf has helped organize in New York City.


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Not forgotten
As aging Americans increasingly grapple with dementia, churches have a growing opportunity to minister to exhausted caregivers and to comfort the forgetful
As aging Americans increasingly grapple with dementia, churches have a growing opportunity to minister to exhausted caregivers and to comfort the forgetful
The 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre finds many leaders of the protest now laboring for Christ
My coffee meeting with the millennial YouTube star, sex ed celebrity, and social justice warrior
Pro-lifers reset the U.S. abortion debate, while Chinese Communists and the College Board punish disfavored citizens and students
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YIDA, South Sudan-When Ali Harun Saliman fled relentless bombing and looming famine in Sudan's Nuba Mountains seven months ago, the Episcopal pastor left nearly all his possessions but took the two things most dear: his family and most of his congregation.
For nearly five days, the pastor and 34 families from his local church trekked on foot through sweltering heat and torrential downpours to cross the border into South Sudan and settle here in Yida, a remote refugee camp just a few miles away from the volatile north-south border.
Less than two months after arriving, a familiar affliction followed. An Antonov bomber approached from northern Sudan and circled Yida three times before dropping its payload: four bombs that landed near the camp, and one that landed next to a thatched-roof school in the middle of camp.
Thankfully, the bomb didn't explode, but terror did: Refugees fled into the woods and the bush, some staying for hours. These days, foxholes dot the landscape of the camp's hot sand and red dirt-a constant reminder that danger lurks just beyond the horizon.
As many as 20,000 refugees live here in Yida, facing the harsh reality of starting over with few supplies and wondering if they'll ever return home. Most have fled here from the Nuba Mountains in the state of South Kordofan, a region just over the border in northern Sudan, after South Sudan declared its independence from Sudan in 2011.
The situation in the Nuba Mountains is reminiscent of the catastrophe in Darfur, where the Sudanese government executed an ethnic cleansing campaign against opposition forces and civilians during a conflict that began in 2003.
These days, local residents and outside observers say the government is conducting another campaign in the Nuba Mountains against forces who are sympathetic to South Sudan and who are demanding greater control of their own territory. The region is also home to many Christians-an open target for an Islamic government in the north that persecuted and killed Christians in South Sudan for decades.
That campaign has ensnared hundreds of thousands of civilians in pockets of the Nuba Mountains, forcing them to endure bombings, burned villages, rape, torture, and starvation. It's not the first time: During a similar campaign in the Nuba Mountains in the 1990s, as many as a half million residents died.
But while they've lived with bombardments and violence for decades, they can't live without food. More than a dozen refugees in Yida told me they fled the region mostly because they feared starvation. Constant bombings have kept farmers inside their homes or hiding in caves, leaving crops unattended and harvests ruined. In some areas, food isn't available. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, an organization that tracks food supply in vulnerable regions, estimated conditions would reach "near-famine" in the Nuba Mountains by this month.
Similar bombardments in Sudan's Blue Nile state have forced residents from their homes as well. Overall, the UN estimates that violence or hunger has displaced or severely affected some 350,000 residents in Blue Nile and South Kordofan since last year. As many as 150,000 live in refugee camps in South Sudan and neighboring Ethiopia. Meanwhile, the situation is worsening under the pressure of separate conflicts over oil fields and borderlines between Sudan and South Sudan that have grown violent in recent weeks.
On April 12, South Sudanese troops seized Heglig, a major oil installation in South Kordofan state, saying they were trying to defend against ongoing attacks from the north. Southern army spokesman Col. Philip Aguer said northern forces retaliated by dropping "many bombs" over Heglig. The spokesman said the bombing and clashes represent a "terrible escalation" in the north-south conflict. By April 16, the northern military had branded South Sudan "an enemy" and a spokesman for the northern government, Rabie Abdelaty, said Sudanese troops would take back Heglig by force: "This is war."
The worsening conflict stokes fears of a wider war that would endanger vulnerable civilians in both nations, especially along the border near the Nuba Mountains.
Mukesh Kapila, a former UN official who was outspoken about ethnic cleansing in Darfur, visited South Kordofan in March and offered a grim assessment to Reuters: "Sudan hosted the first genocide of the century in Darfur, and the second one is unfolding in Nuba."
Whether other international observers call the campaign genocide, the ongoing violence and starvation in the Nuba Mountains is a certain catastrophe that threatens worse casualties if the Sudanese government doesn't relent or allow humanitarian aid to flow to the region. In mid-April, Sudanese officials claimed that South Kordofan doesn't need food aid, but USAID estimated 200,000 to 250,000 residents are close to running out of food.
It's also a tragedy for the thousands flowing over the border into refugee camps with few resources. Here in Yida, refugees say they are low on critical supplies just weeks ahead of a rainy season set to begin by this month. Those rains will cut off supply routes to the camp. And while the United States has committed some $26 million to the UN to help refugees in the region, some say they aren't getting the resources they need to help themselves.
That's one of the striking dynamics in Yida: Though the refugees can't survive in the barren region without outside assistance (the nearest town is nearly three hours away by car), they long to work hard and care for themselves. Since coming here, they've built homes, a school, a market, and seven churches with materials they gathered in the surrounding bush-all while surviving on 30-day food rations that run low fast.
Saliman, after coming here with his congregation last September, is busier than ever in his work as a minister, writing sermons without the study materials he left behind and helping church members cope with loss and deprivation.
During an early morning meeting with six other pastors living in Yida, the ministers prayed for their churches and meditated on Jesus' words in Matthew 26: "The poor you will always have with you." Saliman talked about his own poverty-stricken congregation: "I encourage them to forget what is back in the mountains. Maybe the Lord will help them with the things they lost."
In many cases, the losses are overwhelming. Near the north side of the camp, Zara Tutu crouches under a tree and points to the small thatched hut she's trying to build for her eight young children. For now, she sits in a tiny patch of shade during the heat of the day when temperatures soar above 110 degrees.
The young mother says she and her children arrived here 20 days ago after walking 10 days to reach the camp. (She says her husband will join them soon.) Tutu describes constant shelling and aerial bombardment of her village in the Nuba Mountains by northern Sudanese troops. After months of aggression, she says food ran out: "I decided to bring my children here instead of allowing them to starve."
It wasn't an easy decision. Saving her children meant leaving behind her elderly father who wasn't strong enough for the trek. He insisted she take the children. "So I went and collected water, cooked food for him, and left," she says. "That's the grave for him. There's no way out."
Nearby, another recent arrival in Yida mourns the family she left behind. Crouching on the ground outside a hut, the elderly woman says she lost her daughter-in-law and a grandchild during a bombardment in the Nuba Mountains that destroyed her home. Her son said his remaining children wouldn't endure a long journey, so he sent his mother with another group of refugees. The group walked five days. She believes she won't see her family again: "It's not possible."
Some refugees manage to buy passage to the camp in a car or truck, but many say they can't afford a trip back to check on family. Hawa Haran and her five children came here by car three weeks ago but doubts they'll be able to return to visit the mother and brother she left behind. Haran already lost her husband last June when ground troops killed him during a village raid.
Hunched on a low stump outside a small hut, Haran's face bears the marks of loss. She stares into the distance when she speaks. Her eyes carry a mixture of shock, sadness, and resignation.
And the young widow is facing difficulties in the camp. She arrived a few days after aid organizations had distributed the latest 30-day food ration for each family. That means she's waited nearly a month for her own food supply. Neighbors are sharing their own small rations. It's not much, but Haran says supplies here are more plentiful than in Nuba: "I want to stay here so I can care for my children."
Children abound in the camp, including some who have come on their own. Refugee churches and aid organizations are struggling to make arrangements for a growing number of orphans and other unaccompanied minors. One refugee widow is caring for eight children who arrived without parents.
During the hottest part of the day, a group of children playing under one of the few trees in the camp seem resilient against the heat and deprivation of Yida. One little boy in a torn blue T-shirt can't remember how long he's lived here with his family, but he knows they walked three days before arriving. He also knows how much he's had to eat today: one cup of boiled sorghum. When asked if he'll eat dinner, he replies: "No, that's all for today."
The UN's World Food Program (WFP) has been supplying food rations for the camp using international standards for refugee supplies. The Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse maintains a small compound and staff on site and distributes the food rations according to a distribution schedule dictated by WFP. Each 30-day food ration includes a supply of sorghum, beans, oil, and salt for each member of the family. (UN workers don't stay at the camp, citing safety concerns over recent violence in nearby cities, including the oil town of Bentiu.)
The program includes extra food supplements for nursing and pregnant mothers, and Samaritan's Purse operates a nutrition compound for malnourished children under age 5.
Some children have additional problems that often mirror the most common maladies experienced by adults in Yida: vomiting and diarrhea, pneumonia, and malaria.
Another aid organization, Doctors Without Borders, operates a small field hospital in Yida and an outpatient clinic that has seen as many as 700 patients a week. Two other relief groups, CARE and the International Rescue Committee, have also assisted with medical care and treatment for incidents of rape or violence in the camp.
But the most vulnerable patients remain malnourished children with weakened immune systems and little strength to fight infections and diseases. On a wooden cot near the front of a large white tent, a baby girl lies listlessly in the afternoon heat. She's 2 years old but weighs a little over 10 pounds. After a series of nutrition supplements, she's sitting up and eating a small piece of bread by the next morning, but significant challenges remain.
Good nutrition is critical to staving off a host of illnesses in both babies and adults, and refugees in the camp would like to improve their chances by doing something they're accustomed to doing at home in the Nuba Mountains: grow their own food.
Hussein Algumbulla is head of the camp's refugee council and meets with aid organizations and UN workers on behalf of the refugees. Algumbulla says he has been communicating with UN workers for weeks, asking them to bring seeds for planting crops. On the corners of the camp, refugees are clearing plots of land, hoping to plant small crops ahead of the rains to ensure they have more food next year.
The UN has resisted offering agricultural assistance, saying that Yida is too close to the north-south border. UN workers say the refugees should move to a pair of camps farther south (Pariang and Nyeel), saying they've set up agricultural and educational programs at both sites.
Though some refugees have relocated, most Yida refugees have balked at the request to move. Algumbulla gives a list of reasons: The refugees want to remain closer, not farther away, from their homeland in the Nuba Mountains in case a return is possible. Also, after visiting the sites, they say the land in the camps farther south isn't suitable for crops.
But there's another reason they think uprooting is unnecessary: The other camps aren't that far away. Pariang lies about 22 miles south of Yida. Nyeel is about 44 miles south. Aid workers estimate it would take Antonov bombers about 15 minutes to reach the camps from Yida. That makes a mass move less compelling, says Algumbulla: "There is no safe place."
UN officials say they haven't withheld critical emergency supplies from the refugees in Yida, but they do prefer they move south. Last year, Mireille Gerard, head of operations for the UN refugee agency in South Sudan, said the agency was trying to create "a pull factor" by offering better resources in the other camps.
In an email interview in April, Vivian Tan, a UN spokeswoman in Africa, emphasized Yida's close proximity to a volatile border and the bombings the camp has already endured. Tan said the organization doesn't want to encourage refugees-especially children-to stay in a dangerous spot. She said the UN hasn't asked the refugees to move farther south than the two alternative camps because they're already reluctant to move.
Meanwhile, seeds and school supplies aren't the only resources running low in Yida. Aid workers say that there isn't enough soap or latrine slabs in the camp-a deficit that could cause major health problems during the rainy season. Refugees also need mosquito nets to fight malaria in rainy months. Algumbulla says the timing for such supplies is critical before rain closes most transportation routes: "It's the final months for us."
In the meantime, the refugees in Yida are trying to carve normalcy out of upheaval. They've organized to appoint council members to address issues like health, education, food, and camp layout. (For example, a camp engineer helps refugees determine how far apart to build their homes in order to prevent fires from spreading from one thatched roof to the next.)
Though they have few supplies, refugees have built their own schools, and volunteers teach classes. A small chalkboard in the front of an open-air structure shows that the students have been learning basic addition and subtraction.
They've also built a rustic marketplace of small stalls with thatched roofs, and vendors sell a surprisingly wide array of products they've brought from home or purchased from trucks that pass through the area: wrenches and bolts, beans and other vegetables, hygiene products, cell phone batteries, and cups of hot tea. When nearly half of the market burned down in early April, other stalls remained open, and shopkeepers began planning new huts.
And then there are the churches: Refugee pastors have established seven churches in Yida representing four denominations (Episcopal, Sudan Church of Christ, Catholic, and Evangelical). Most pastors came with their church members, and quickly re-established their congregations, complete with meeting places for Sunday worship and sometimes daily prayer meetings.
On a mid-morning walk through the camp, Episcopal pastor Saliman gives a tour of his church's modest compound: As many as 300 people fill a large thatched hut with dirt floors on Sunday mornings, with more spilling from the back into the open air.
A smaller hut next door acts as a Sunday school room for children, where church members teach Bible lessons and sing songs with community children every afternoon. Saliman walks into an even smaller hut next to the church, and says: "This is the church office." The minister and church officers use the tiny room to hold meetings and pray for the congregation. Eventually, Saliman hopes to obtain a couple of chairs that the officers can share, but for now they sit in the dirt.
Saliman says the burdens of his ministry have grown in Yida. He grieves over being unable to do more to help orphans and widows in the camp: "We're just like them. We have nothing." He also misses some of the simple tools of ministry like books for study, a communion set, and supplies for the Lord's Supper. A crude table made of sticks and a used piece of canvas sits near the front of the church, waiting for the day the minister can serve communion again.
Still, Saliman is thankful to have a place to meet safely for now. In the Nuba Mountains, he says constant bombing made gathering in churches unsafe. "They didn't even give us time to pray," he says. "Sometimes we prayed in the mountains. Sometimes we didn't meet to pray at all."
These days, church members in Yida gather several times a week for prayer and worship, and during the week before Easter, Saliman delivered handmade invitations to other community members for a special Sunday service.
In a similar structure nearby, Ayub Hassan made Easter preparations as well. The pastor of the Sudanese Church of Christ fled here with his congregation after his village endured constant bombardment and a dwindling supply of food. On this morning, he's meeting with members of the youth group to plan music for the Easter service. One young man stands when visitors enter and asks about the possibility of obtaining Bibles for some of the teenagers.
Hassan says adjusting to camp life has been difficult for his church members. During their first weeks in Yida, he noticed many didn't come to Sunday services. He says he visited several absent members to check on them: "They said they didn't have enough soap to wash their clothes for church." It's a difficulty the pastor understands: "Sometimes you find you don't have the right clothes to stand in front of the people and speak to them."
The ministers are pressing forward, preaching, praying, visiting, and trying to share supplies with the most vulnerable members of the community. All the while, they think of the church members they left behind.
That's a burden that weighs heavily on Saliman: He says he wants to stay close to the border so he can return to visit church members still in the Nuba Mountains. He's already returned once, and is contemplating walking back again: "Now I've stayed here for a long time. That means there are many questions. They must wonder: Why did the pastor leave us?"
Even if the pastors are far away from their church members in Nuba, they continue to pray for them with devotion akin to the apostle Paul. That kind affection was obvious during the pastors' morning prayer meeting. Though they prayed for their churches and the needs in Yida, they spent even more time praying for those left behind. "We pray for the people of the Nuba Mountains," said one pastor. "Their life is very hard."


text: Letters The Long Wave By JOHN D. STERMAN See allHide authors and affiliations Science 18 Mar 1983:Vol. 219, Issue 4590, pp. 1276DOI: 10.1126/science.219.4590.1276-a JOHN D. STERMANFind this author on Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for this author on this site Article Info & Metrics eLetters PDF This is a PDF-only article. The first page of the PDF of this article appears above.


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Bus services are facing the axe as councils struggle to fund free travel for elderly people.
Government funding for free, off-peak travel for elderly and disabled people has fallen by 39% since 2010, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).
It added that councils are being increasingly forced to subsidise this concessionary travel at the cost of other essential services.
The LGA said that Buckinghamshire, Cumbria and Somerset were among county councils cutting back on services due to funding problems.
Peter Box, the LGA's economy and transport board chairman said: "The concessionary fares scheme provides a lifeline for our most vulnerable residents to go shopping, pick up medication, attend doctor appointments or socialise with friends. However, it is now under real threat.
"Years of underfunding of the scheme forces councils to spend millions of pounds of taxpayers' money to subsidise the scheme. This is now impossible with councils having to make savings while struggling to protect vital services like adult social care, protecting children, filling potholes and collecting bins."
He went on: "Councils know how important buses are for their communities and local economies and are desperate to protect them. Instead, many across the country are reluctantly taking difficult decisions to scale back services and review subsidised routes.
"The way the concessionary travel scheme is funded by Whitehall has long been unfit for purpose and has not kept up with growing demand and cost. Unless the Government commits to fully funding concessionary fares, elderly and disabled people will be left stranded with a free bus pass in one hand but no local buses to travel on in the other."
Sustainable transport organisation Sustrans said: "With one in four households in England without a car (more than five million homes in total) it is essential that we see more investment into affordable alternatives, including buses.
"Young people, jobseekers and older people all need affordable and reliable bus services to access education, employment, leisure facilities and other services."
A Government spokeswoman said: "We know that bus services are vital for many older and disabled people. That is why the right to free travel is enshrined in law and government provides funding to meet the cost of subsidising off-peak travel for these groups.
"In addition, the Department for Transport provides funding to bus operators to help more services run and keep ticket prices down. The current level of this funding is protected until 2015/16."


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At Boston Marathon, a vicious act of terror (Other Views)
You can hardly imagine a more innocent public venue than a marathon, where most participants run solely for the love of the sport after devoting untold hours to building their endurance and strength.
So naturally you can hardly imagine a more vicious blow to our collective sense of peace and security than the sort of terror attack that rocked the nation Monday in Boston.
We write this while the details of the bombings are only beginning to be confirmed, and with no knowledge of whom the perpetrator might be. But whatever the particulars of his grievance, his broader purpose -- to harm as many innocent people as possible while sowing fear in everyone else -- is unmistakable.
And as often is the case when someone without scruples seeks such ugly ends, he has been too tragically successful in his quest.
Every major city in our nation plays host to marathons or lengthy bicycle races. What precautions and inconveniences will the organizers of those competitions now feel obliged to impose on those who participate or attend -- and to what actual usefulness?
Such attacks may shock us to the core because of their mindless cruelty, but our society -- resilient and fundamentally stable -- ultimately shakes them off and moves on.
In terms of style and venue, Monday's attack seems to have similarities to the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta, which killed one person (another died of a heart attack) and injured more than 100.
The terrorist behind that assault, Eric Rudolph, would unfortunately go on to set other bombs elsewhere and hurt other innocent people before being corralled and arrested finally in 2003.
Let us hope for a far quicker resolution to the crime in Boston. And let us also hope that the injured survivors of the attack are able to heal in time, too -- in body to the extent possible, of course, but also in spirit.


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Whales make great Nautical Decor!
Whale décor is popular with Nautical minded people!
Whales are fascinating mammals. I researched them several years ago when I became interested in carving one. I was inspired by a trip I made to the San Francisco Maritime Museum. And a whale watching trip to Bar Harbor Maine.
On our whale watching trip we took a boat out to where whales "hang out". The sea was like a lake, hardly a ripple. The whales came to say hello! They were humpbacks! They bobbed and flipped and put on a real show.
Whales grow to 110 feet and weigh up to 150 tons. You don't need one to step on your toe, that's for sure.
The first whale I carved was a sperm whale. I liked the shape and their size—they are one of the largest whale and can also dive deeper than any other whale—diving over 9000 feet in pursuit of prey. They are now protected due to the over hunting by whalers in the 1800's. Here is a photo of the whale I carved. "He" is a little smaller than a full size humpback. My whale is about 40 inches wide and weighs about 12 pounds.
After a few trips to the San Juan Islands in Washington State, I decided to carve Orca Whales. These whales have beautiful form and coloring. They have a tall dorsal fin and a black back, white chest and sides, and a white patch above and behind the eye. They are also called Killer whales but are actually more closely related to other dolphins than to whales.
Recently I was hired by Baleena Bay Pewter Company to do a sign for them. I designed a double sided sign with their name on each side and my sperm whale carving on each side too. I think it turned out pretty good!


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A love of pattern, color, and texture runs through all of Eleanor's work. Her designs celebrate traditional British fabrics, reinterpreting them in a contemporary context. Her practice includes large-scale projects, bespoke and commission work, mill-woven design and design consultancy. All of the design work, sampling and bespoke hand-weaving is carried out at Eleanor's studio in South East London.
Eleanor produces a woven blanket collection each winter. The designs are developed and sampled by Eleanor on her dobby loom in the London studio and the production runs are then woven up at a small traditional mill in Wales. All of the blankets are woven in 100% pure new wool and have a blanket stitch edging.
Alongside her own work, Eleanor is also an associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins.


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Google Creating Wireless Network, But For What?
By Amir Efrati and Anton Troianovski
Google is trying to create an experimental wireless network covering its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, a move that some analysts say could portend the creation of dense and superfast Google wireless networks in other locations that would allow people to connect to the Web using their mobile devices.
First, the facts: Google last week submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission, asking for an experimental license to create an "experimental radio service" with a two-mile radius covering its headquarters.
However, Google's small-scale wireless network would use frequencies that wouldn't be compatible with nearly any of the consumer mobile devices that exist today, such as Apple's iPad or iPhone or most devices powered by Google's Android operating system. The network would only provide coverage for devices built to access certain frequencies, from 2524 to 2625 megahertz.
Those frequencies, which could work well in densely populated areas, could be important in the future because mobile operators in China, Brazil and Japan already are building wireless networks using them, meaning that compatible devices eventually will be manufactured, said Walter Piecyk, a wireless-industry analyst at research firm BTIG.
A Google spokeswoman on Wednesday declined to comment on the purpose of the application, saying the company regularly experiments with new things.
Much of Google's application is confidential, but it does say that the first "deployment" of the experimental network will occur inside a specific building on Google's campus. That building houses the Google Fiber team, which is part of the Google Access unit that has introduced high-speed wired Internet and video in Kansas City, Kan., with plans to expand to Kansas City, Mo., and other cities in the future.
Google Access also is rolling out free Wi-Fi service for New York City's Chelsea neighborhood, and Google also maintains a free Wi-Fi service for the city of Mountain View.
According to the application, first spotted by wireless engineer Steven Crowley, Google said it would be using wireless frequencies that are controlled by Clearwire Corp., a wireless broadband provider. That means the frequencies are part of what's called "licensed spectrum" and can be more reliable than Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi is unlicensed, meaning it can be used by anyone.
Google currently doesn't have control of licensed spectrum.
"The only reason to use these frequencies is if you have business designs on some mobile service," Crowley said.
It's unclear whether Google would build such a service for internal use only or as part of a potential offering for consumers, and very few devices on the market today are compatible with the frequencies.
Clearwire on Wednesday declined to say whether it was working with Google on the trial. Companies testing technology on Clearwire's spectrum typically coordinate with Clearwire when doing so, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Piecyk of BTIG said Google's experimental network could mean that it plans to introduce a wireless service to customers of its Google Fiber product. In other words, people in Kansas City who sign up for high-speed Internet would be able to receive wireless service anywhere in the city for future tablets or other devices that would be compatible with the network. Google could have its Motorola hardware unit build devices that work on the Clearwire-controlled frequencies, he said.
That would be an extension of a business model currently being developed by cable companies such as Time Warner Cable Inc., which are setting up Wi-Fi hotspots in the cities they serve and offering free wireless access to their customers.
Google's creation of a small-scale wireless network comes on the heels of discussions it had last year with Dish, the satellite-TV provider, to partner on a broad wireless service.
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Software giant Adobe has officially taken the wraps of Creative Suite 6, its latest collection of media design, production, and workflow applications targeting creative professionals — and more than a few ambitious amateurs. If you read a magazine, watch TV, surf the Web, or run apps (whether on computers or mobile devices), it's almost impossible to avoid material that's been processed (often heavily) with Adobe software. Tools like Adobe Photoshop literally set the standard for digital media creation — "Photoshop" became a verb long ago — and Adobe CS6 looks to extend the company's dominance in parts of the media creation market. And perhaps Adobe's most ambitious play with CS6 is Creative Cloud, a subscription-based offering that lets users tap into everything in the entire range of Creative Suite 6 — and more — for prices as low as $50 a month.
Has Adobe hit on a winning formula that will help stabilize its revenues between monolithic releases of its flagship applications? Or will the Creative Cloud actually wind up hurting Adobe's revenues — and perhaps frustrating its long-term customers?
What's in Creative Suite 6?
Creative Suit is an enormous set of discrete products lumped together under one banner. Of course, the problem with product bundles is that not everybody needs every product all the time. Some Adobe customers are only interested in one particular thing — say, Photoshop or Acrobat Pro — while others might want a set of applications geared toward print production (say, InDesign, Photoshop, Acrobat, and Illustrator) and have no interest in apps made for video, audio, or Web production. So the Creative Suite name has always been a little misleading: Adobe has always offered individual apps, as well as subsets of the full Creative Suite pantheon aimed at particular uses or industries.
So what's in Creative Suite 6? All the high-end, industry-standard apps people have come to expect from Adobe: Photoshop (and Photoshop Extended), Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat X Pro, Flash Professional, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Premier, After Effects, Audition, and Encore, along with the helper services Bridge and Media Encoder. Most of these applications are so mature — and so complex — that thick books are published about every release to help users get the most out of them. They're not beginner-friendly and sport complex interfaces designed to let pros move quickly, but create a steep learning curve. Plus, there's the sheer number of programs, many of which have overlapping functions — if you don't know whether you need Premiere or After Effects to finish up your video, you probably aren't in Adobe's target market.
Adobe has thrown two new apps into Creative Suite 6: Prelude (basically a tool to rapidly bring heaps of files, like stills and videos, into a workflow with logging, tagging, and metadata); and Speedgrade, which enables video editors to apply the Lumetri Deep Color engine to video, as well as many other color grading features.
Show me the money
Many consumers these days are used to paying $1.99 for apps — or, in Mac users' case, $39.99 for a whole operating system. In comparison, Adobe charges dinosaur prices for its programs. The Standard edition of Photoshop CS6 a whopping $699 (upgrades are $199); InDesign also runs $699 by itself, with upgrades priced at a eye-blinking $399. Illustrator is $599 on its own, with $199 upgrades. Acrobat X Pro is practically a bargain at $449, with a $199 upgrade. Buying into Adobe's pro-level applications quickly gets into four figures.
So, Adobe offers Creative Suite 6 in four bundles. The Design Standard bundle includes Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, and Acrobat Pro X for $1,299 — and upgrades from previous versions at a mere $299. You see the pattern: the buy-in is expensive, but cheaper than all the apps individually and the "savings" comes in upgrades, where upgrading a bundle cam be cheaper than upgrading an individual program in that bundle.
Similarly, there's a Design and Web Premium bundle, which includes Photoshop Extended, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash Professional, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat Pro ($1,899, upgrades $399). Compare that to individual prices for apps: Photoshop CS6 Extended is $999 ($349 upgrade), Flash Professional is $649 ($119 upgrade), Fireworks is $299 (with $149 upgrades), and Dreamweaver is $399 ($119 upgrade). This collection essentially replaces the separate Web Premium group Adobe offered with CS5.
Overwhelmed yet? There's more. Consider the Production Premium bundle, aimed at video producers: Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Flash Professional, Illustrator, Photoshop Extended plus those two new apps Prelude and Speedgrade. It's also $1,899 up-front, but upgrades are $179. Compare that to the price of the apps: Premiere Pro is $799 (upgrades $179) and Audition is $349 (upgrades $99). Prelude and Speedgrade are new, so there's no upgrade pricing: folks who want those on their own will be paying $399 and $999, respectively.
And how much for the whole megillah? That's $2,599 up front, with upgrades for $525. The CS6 Master Collection includes all the suite components (except the standard Photoshop; you get Photoshop Extended) plus tools like Flash Builder 4 that are only available in Master Collection or on a separate subscription.
What's missing? Adobe has nuked Flash Catalyst and Contribute: both were part of Creative Suite 5. Flash Catalyst has been retired now that Adobe has backed way from Flash on mobile (meaning that making rich Internet apps via Flash is now a thing of the past), while the Web site management tool Contribute has been shelved in favor of Adobe's new Muse product line — which you'll note isn't part of the even the Master Collection. Also, Flash Builder 4 and Acrobat X will look awfully familiar to users of Adobe CS5: they haven't changed. Adobe says they'll receive updates later.
It should be noted these prices are full retail: qualifying educators and students can pick up the Design Standard collection for $449; the Design and Web Premium and Production Premium collections are $599, while the Master Collection runs $999.
Creative Cloud
Adobe is taking its biggest change with Creative Suite 6 with Creative Cloud, which offers all the applications in the Creative Suite 6 Master Collection — plus a lot more — for a subscription fee: $75 a month straight-up, $50 a month if you're willing to subscribe for a year, and as low as $30 a month for folks purchasing an upgrade from Creative Suite CS3 or later. There's also a separate multi-user "team" subscription for $70 a month.
Adobe isn't quite new to subscription software: it introduced Subscription Editions of selected CS5 and CS5.5 applications. And Adobe will continue to offer subscriptions to selected programs: folks who only want Photoshop can subscribe to Photoshop CS6 Extended for $30 per month (or $20 a month for an annual contract). At that price, a user would have to subscribe to Photoshop Extended for over four years before they paid the equivalent of an up-front perpetual license for the same software.
But Creative Cloud is offering a bunch more than the whole of the Master Collection on a subscription basis. It also includes access to a preview version of Adobe Edge, an HTML5-based animation program that Adobe hopes will take the place of Flash in developing rich Internet applications. Creative Cloud also includes access to Adobe Muse, a visually-oriented Web design application Adobe also debuted last summer. With Creative Cloud, Muse gets its official 1.0 release, and also gets a boost with Business Catalyst, a content management system and Web hosting platform that's designed to work with Muse — Dreamweaver may find its days are numbered.
But that's not all: Creative Cloud subscribers also get access to 20 GB of online storage, which enables users to sync projects and media across disperse workgroups and freelancers (via the Creative Cloud Connection sync tool); TypeKit Web fonts; plus, Adobe will eventually add Lightroom 4 to Creative Cloud. And, as a bonus, Creative Cloud users get Adobe's full range of Photoshop Touch applications for tablets.
Just looking at the dollar signs, the message is clear: Adobe wants customers to stop buying monolithic, boxed (or downloaded) software with perpetual licenses and start subscribing to software on a month-to-month (or year-to-year) basis. Stop paying Adobe on time, and customers lose access to the software. But customers also don't face Creative Suite's up-front sticker shock — prices many consumers more closely associate with cars than software.
Hoping for a cloudy day
The fact that Adobe can literally charge thousands of dollars for licenses to its software speaks to the company's role in professional media production: simply put, Adobe software has largely set the standard in many creative and production fields. Adobe it not exactly without its failures (like mobile Flash) and competition — Apple's Final Cut Pro has made tremendous inroads in video and film production, and the pro audio and soundtrack world is still dominated by the likes of Pro Tools, Logic, and Digital Performer. But Adobe remains a major player.
The problem with making expansive, monolithic software is that revenue streams get very bumpy. Let's say you're a company like Adobe, and you can coordinate the release of more than a dozen complex applications at more-or-less the same time once every two years. (The "more-or-less" is directly applicable to CS6: some apps are available now, while others will be along in the next month.) The sales model means the company gets a surge of income when a new version is released, but revenue from new licenses trails off just when expenses for creating the next version really start to ramp up. A new release translates to a handful of tremendous quarters (and happy investors), followed by middling-to-lackluster revenue (and grumpy investors) for a long time while the next update is in the oven.
Adobe has tried to smooth out that process by getting into consumer products that sell more consistently throughout the year; after all, every camera and scanner that comes with programs like Adobe Photoshop Elements puts some money into Adobe's pockets. Adobe also makes some money on software licenses: Postscript doesn't dominate publishing like the old days, but Adobe's proprietary PDF format has, for better or worse, become a de facto standard for document exchange and print production. But still: the revenue ups-and-downs of Adobe's traditional application model — and the grumpy investors that go along with it — haven't gone away.
With Creative Cloud, Adobe is aggressively trying to induce its high-end, big-spender customers — as well as educators — to switch to a pricing model that provides constant, consistent revenue to the company. The more professional customers Adobe can convert over to subscription pricing, the more it can smooth out the bumps in its revenue. And Adobe is dangling a lot of carrots in front of customers. Creative Cloud isn't just access to the Master Collection without the shocking sticker price: it's the Master Collection plus many other useful goodies.
However, the strategy will likely have some short-term cost. The Adobe CS6 Master Collection retails for $2,600. At annual rates, Adobe won't earn that much money off a subscriber to Creative Cloud for more than four years. If Adobe were to release a Creative Suite update in the meantime, the conversion gets even more grim: over five years before Adobe recoups the cost of an initial sale an an upgrade.
In the long term, subscription pricing is very appealing to Adobe. Customers will be highly motivated to maintain their subscriptions because, if they don't, they lose access to the Adobe apps. No more making do with an ancient version of Photoshop that still runs on that retired desktop system in the other room. And customers are pretty likely to subscribe to the entire Creative Cloud suite rather than just a single app.
The subscription software model has been successful in many business environments: payroll, inventory, customer management, inventory tracking, personnel management. And similar applications have been offered on a subscription basis for decades. However, with Creative Cloud, Adobe is taking a chance that creative professionals are ready to make the leap to subscription software. Folks who run their creative businesses like, well, businesses — ad firms, production houses, studios — probably won't have many issues. For them, Creative Cloud represents up-front savings and similar long-term costs to Adobe's current business model. But individual and small businesses may balk: few artists want to rent paintbrushes, only to have them taken away during a tough month.


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BORN IN THE USA?WorldNetDaily Exclusive
Congressman on birth certificate: 'There's 1 we haven't seen'
Speech on babies' share of national debt references presidential-eligibility dispute
U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, appears to have suggested he's not entirely satisfied that all the questions about President Obama's eligibility have been answered fully.
The issue came up as he talked about the national debt in a recent address in Congress, televised by C-SPAN and posted on YouTube:
The congressman referred to the estimated $44,000 that each child born in the United States owes at the moment of birth as his or her part of the federal debt.
"We worry about them carrying a student-loan debt … maybe $40,000 in student loans," he said. "We'll, I'd be happy to take that $40,000 loan and a guarantee of a college degree and think that child could pay that off."
But for the $44,000 in federal debt obligations, all the individual gets is access to citizenship in the United States of America, he said.
"Little baby with ink on their foot, stamped right there on the birth certificate – there's one in this country we haven't seen," he said. "But the footprints on those we have seen. Those little babies owe Uncle Sam $44,000."
A WND request of King's office did not generate an immediate explanation of what the congressman meant by "one … birth certificate".
But on a Washington newspaper forum that referenced the remark, the assumption was King was referring to Obama's birth certificate. And the derision there put those who have raised questions about Obama's eligibility in a bull's-eye.
"Count on those wacky birthers to provide us with scads of rollicking entertainment," said one contributor.
"I wonder if he dreamed about becoming a crank when he grew up," said another.
But another poster suggested there need to be some answers.
"Rep. King cannot see what is not," he wrote. "[There] are … many valid quesetions that Rep. King & all should be asking and demanding answers."
WND has reported on a number of leaders – political and otherwise – who have raised similar questions.
Rep. Bob Inglis, R-S.C., for example, said Obama was born "not in Hawaii." He gave the answer during a tongue-in-cheek "interview" on the satirical Colbert Nation show.
|The Colbert Report
|Mon – Thurs 11:30 p.m. EDT / 10:30 p.m. CDT
|South Carolina's 4th District Primary – Bob Inglis
Inglis was being grilled about whether he was a conservative.
"Are you conservative enough for the 4th District?" Stephen Colbert asked.
"I sure hope so," Inglis responded.
Inglis noted he had been endorsed by the National Rifle Association and the Christian Coalition.
Then Colbert said, "Complete this sentence. 'Barack Obama was born in …'"
"Oh," said Inglis, "Not Hawaii."
Only weeks ago, the mayor of Champaign, Ill., Gerald Schweighart, said Obama should produce his birth certificate.
The mayor was asked about Obama and responded he doesn't think he's "American."
"If you are not willing to produce an original birth certificate, then you've got something to hide," he said. "If he doesn't have something to hide, produce it."
The mayor joined Tennessee state Senate speaker Ron Ramsey, Hawaii state Sen. Will Espero, Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., and many others with similar questions.
Ramsey said, "I don't know whether President Obama is a citizen of the United States or not. I don't know what the whole deal is there."
But Ramsey also said he doesn't believe citizens are concerned about Obama's citizenship status.
"But I'm going to tell you something," he said. "When you walk out on the street down here, people don't really care about this issue."
There also have been efforts to raise the question of Obama's eligibility at the state and national levels. Several state legislatures are working on proposals that would require presidential candidates to submit proof of their eligibility. Among the states where election qualification or eligibility requirements are being considered or developed include Oklahoma, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia and New York.
Hawaii state Sen. Will Espero
Hawaii state Sen. Will Espero, a Democrat, has suggested that legislation could be adopted to release Obama's birth records and satisfy critics.
While Espero said he believes Obama was born in Hawaii, he explained, "My decision to file the legislation was primarily a result of the fuss over President Obama's birth records and the lingering questions," Espero said.
Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze
Oklahoma state Rep. Mike Ritze sponsored a proposal to demand eligibility documentation from candidates for political office, including the president. Ritze, who says he regularly gets questions from his constituents about Obama's eligibility, said an "ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" on the issues of candidate qualifications and eligibility.
U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla.
In March 2009, Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., proposed H.R. 1503, known as the Presidential Eligibility Act. It is still pending in a House committee and has nearly a dozen co-sponsors, including Reps. Dan Burton, R-Ind.; Ted Poe, R-Texas; Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; John Campbell, R-Calif.; John R. Carter, R-Texas; John Culberson, R-Texas; Bob Goodlatte, R-Va.; Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas; Trent Franks, R-Ariz.; Louie Gohmert, R-Texas; and Kenny Marchant, R-Texas.
The measure seeks to "amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to require the principal campaign committee of a candidate for election to the office of President to include with the committee's statement of organization a copy of the candidate's birth certificate … to establish that the candidate meets the qualifications for eligibility to the Office of President under the Constitution."
Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen
Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, said the controversy over Obama and his birth certificate has raised questions.
"It just makes sense and will stop any controversy in the future to just show you are a natural born citizen," she told the Arizona Capitol Times.
Arizona state Rep. Judy Burges
Arizona state Rep. Judy Burges, R-Skull Valley, told WND she has been getting questions from other states about H. 2442, a proposal she sponsored to require future presidential candidates to show they are qualified under the U.S. Constitution's demand for a "natural born citizen." The bill is co-sponsored by some three dozen lawmakers who also want state officials to independently verify the accuracy of documentation.
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga.
Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., sent a Dec. 10 letter to the White House formally requesting that President Obama address questions about his place of birth – and thus, whether he is qualified to be president. Deal, who is running for governor, said several months ago he would ask Obama to prove his eligibility.
"I have looked at the documentation that is publicly available, and it leaves many things to be desired," Deal said in November.
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin
Even Sarah Palin, former vice-presidential candidate and best-selling author, affirmed that questions about Barack Obama's eligibility for office are legitimate.
"I think it's a fair question, just like I think past association and past voting records – all of that is fair game," Palin said. "The McCain-Palin campaign didn't do a good enough job in that area."
Former House majority leader Tom DeLay
In October, former House majority leader Tom DeLay offered his views on Obama's birth, saying, "Why wouldn't the president of the United States show the American people his birth certificate? You have to show a birth certificate to play Little League baseball. It's a question that should be answered. It's in the Constitution that you have to be a natural born citizen of the United States to be president."
U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo.
Asked whether he believes Obama is eligible to be president, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said, "What I don't know is why the president cannot produce a birth certificate. I don't know anyone else who can't produce one. I think that's a legitimate question."
U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz.
U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., said he believes Obama was born in the U.S., but he also said he thinks the president is trying to hide something:
"I believe he's a natural born citizen of the United States. Therefore, even if he acts un-American and seems to go against American interests, he's still an American-born citizen," he said. "All that being said, probably Barack Obama could solve this problem and make the birthers back off by simply showing … his long-form birth certificate."
Because that isn't happening, "There's some other issue there."
"I don't know what it is that he doesn't want people to see the birth certificate. I don't think it has to do with his natural-born citizenship," Franks continued. "He's spent an awful lot of money to keep people from seeing the birth certificate. … I think it has to do with something else."
Feminist icon Camille Paglia
Even feminist icon Camille Paglia, a Salon.com columnist who earlier wrote about the ambiguities of President Barack Obama's birth certificate, told a National Public Radio audience that those who have questions about his eligibility actually have a point. "Yes, there were ambiguities about Obama's birth certificate that have never been satisfactorily resolved. And the embargo on Obama's educational records remains troubling," she wrote.
New Hampshire State Rep. Laurence Rappaport
In September, New Hampshire State Rep. Laurence Rappaport, R-Colebrook, said he was tired of telling his constituents that he's not sure of Obama's eligibility to serve as president. He met with New Hampshire's secretary of state, William Gardner, who oversees the state's elections, to demand answers.
"Regardless of where he was born, is he a natural born citizen as required by the Constitution? I don't know the answer to that," Rappaport said. "My understanding is that … a natural born citizen had to be someone with two American parents. If that's true, his father was a Kenyan and therefore a British subject at the time. Then there's the issue: If he was born out of the country, was his mother old enough at the time to confer citizenship?
"I expect somebody to come up with the legal answers to this," Rappaport told WND, "and so far that hasn't happened."
Former Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz.
In his Jan. 26 appearance on "Hardball," former Rep. J.D. Hayworth was asked by Chris Matthews, "Are you as far right as the birthers? Are you one of those who believes that the president should have to prove that he's a citizen of the United States and not an illegal immigrant? Are you that far right?"
Hayworth replied, "Well, gosh, we all had to bring our birth certificates to show we were who we said we were, and we were the age we said we were, to play football in youth sports. Shouldn't we know exactly that anyone who wants to run for public office is a natural-born citizen of the United States, and is who they say they are?"
"Should the governor of Hawaii produce evidence that the president is one of us, an American?" Matthews asked. "Do you think that's a worthy pastime for the governor of Hawaii right now?"
"No, I … Look, I'm just saying the president should come forward with the information, that's all," said Hayworth. "Why should we depend on the governor of Hawaii?"
A video of the interview follows:
Prominent commentators
A prominent array of commentators, including Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage, Mark Levin, Lou Dobbs, Peter Boyles and WND's Chuck Norris and Pat Boone have all said unequivocally and publicly that the Obama eligibility issue is legitimate and worthy.
Longtime New York radio talker Lynn Samuels did the same. "We don't even know where he was born," she said. "I absolutely believe he was not born in this country."
WND has reported on multiple legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some of the lawsuits question whether Obama was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Further, others question his citizenship by virtue of his attendance in Indonesian schools during his childhood and question on what passport did he travel to Pakistan three decades ago.
Adding fuel to the fire is Obama's persistent refusal to release documents that could provide answers and his appointment of lawyers to defend against all requests for his documentation.
While his supporters cite an online version of a "Certification of Live Birth" from Hawaii as his birth verification, critics point out such documents actually were issued for children not born in the state.


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As we close another year of business, it always seems appropriate to take a quick look back before we look forward. On the engineering and design front, it was another year of cautious optimism for EC&M's Top 40. Although many key players saw a slight uptick in their backlogs, they didn't feel any real recovery would hit until 2012. This same line of thinking is held by the architectural community. Architecture firms continue to report a high level of volatility in the design services sector. As such, the Architecture Billings Index hovered right around 50 for the year, reflecting little to no growth. On the construction front, it was another year of playing the real life game of Survivor for EC&M's Top 50. This bruised and battered group lived by a new set of rules in 2011: implement lean construction practices; do not purchase major construction equipment; and maintain/reduce staffing levels. For the electrical contracting community as a whole, we see an employment level sitting about 150,000 less than it was back in early 2007. Although the lack of single-family construction projects has a lot to do with this reduction, a slowdown in public projects — now that stimulus funds are drying up — isn't helping either. So it appears we might be in for another rough year, especially with economists and forecasters throwing out phrases like "stalled recovery," "budget shortfalls," and "recessionary forecast." But let's not get depressed just yet. Some economic indicators are actually moving in the right direction, albeit rather slowly. Following are a few examples of markets that are expected to show some promise next year.
In the industrial sector, capacity utilization rates are getting closer to the magical 80% figure, at which time factories typically begin retrofitting existing lines or expanding their facilities. Machine tool orders hit a level of $606.6 million in September — the second highest monthly dollar total in the last 15 years! Year-to-date total of $4.1 billion is up 91.9% as compared with 2010. NEMA's Electroindustry Business Confidence Index on current conditions reflects optimism, and its future reading is also positive.
The multifamily housing market has performed well of late and should continue to do so in the coming year. Reed Construction data is forecasting multifamily starts to rise 21.4% in 2012 and another 26.6% in 2013. McGraw-Hill Construction is forecasting an 18% increase in construction start dollars in 2012 on top of a 13% increase this year.
It also appears the building alteration/retrofit market will play a key role in the recovery effort. Building owners continue to seek out ways to be more energy efficient and should be open to projects that can help them reduce their energy costs. A big boost in this segment came on December 2, when President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum announcing a $4 billion investment for energy upgrades of federal buildings, which includes a $2 billion commitment from the private sector. The goal is to upgrade energy performance by a minimum of 20% by 2020 in 1.6 billion square feet of office, industrial, municipal, hospital, university, community college, and school buildings throughout the country. The strategy is to use Energy Savings Performance Contracts to pay for up-front costs, at no cost to taxpayers. Lighting system upgrades will inevitably be the bread and butter type work in this sector.
The power transmission market is another area that appears poised for growth. The Brattle Group, an economic consulting group based in Cambridge, Mass., thinks the line construction business is in the early stages of a 10- to 20-year boom. The two real drivers are the need to increase reliability of the national grid and the need to deliver large amounts of renewable power generation to population centers.
For a more in-depth analysis of our 2012 construction forecast, turn to the cover story on page 14. Happy New Year!


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With a new school year around the corner I thought I would write a few posts to get us focused and encouraged on on homeschooling our little blessings. I have been working on the school room and looking for new ways to set it up differently, to be more functional and beautiful this year so I looked around online and found some inspiration:
Tiany has a wonderful sunfilled, happy space.
I like the peaceful colors here from Sheri's homeroom makeover at Green and Crunchy.
Love the spaciousness of this room here at School on a Hill.
Counting My Pennies had some good organizing ideas--love how the books are all lined up.
This reading nook by Mamamonk for the school looks cozy and she was so creative with this tree mural.
Even Nester has a tidy and chic space.
How could I forget this writing center from The Write Start.
I thought this picture was probably pretty accurate for many homeschoolers:
Happy planning!


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SXSW 2010: Playing with Place - Location-aware games
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Editorial, Features, GPS, Video Games,
Katheryn started off the session giving us geo location coordinates that only a machine would love. Her followup to this was the context matters; our location around a place and who is around that space with us. There is also excitement around discovery with geo. An example could be geocache games which created back in the old old black and white LCD "latitude and longitude" GPS units and have worked their way into the App stores of the iPhone and Android handsets.
Although location is in its infancy, Foursquare has opened their APIs and sites like gatsby.com are using location data + user preferences to send SMS messages to those who are in proximity with one another and could potentially benefit in meeting up in real life. While this leads to privacy issues, it is opt-in and could let "regular strangers" connect and communicate in ways that they might night work up the courage to in the physical world.
Click to continue reading SXSW 2010: Playing with Place - Location-aware games
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The Tell-a-Vision project awards Ball State University students with the opportunity to design and create world-class, cutting-edge digital media projects. Co-sponsored by the Virginia Ball Center and the Center for Media Design, the 2004-05 winners include two $18,000 awards and five small project awards of $500 each.
The Asyntaxis team created what they call a H.I.V.E., a Hyper Interactive Virtual Environment, which is, practically speaking, a portable, interactive, 360-degree theater space powered by five computers and a series of integrated motion sensors and cameras. Visitors to the Asyntaxis H.I.V.E. find themselves surrounded on all sides by a visual sculpture created by artist Ross Miller. The sculpture, responding to input from motion sensors, actually changes and moves based on the number of people in the room and where and how the people are moving.
Institutions developing permanent interactive facilities similar to the Asyntaxis H.I.V.E. often spend more than $100,000 dollars. The Asyntaxis team, though, has developed a plan that allowed them to create their facility for well under $18,000. The H.I.V.E. is a unique venue for not only interactive art but also other kinds of content. For example, the H.I.V.E. could be adapted as an interactive gaming environment, a platform for demonstrating processes or architectural designs three-dimensionally, or an interface for visually managing and manipulating complex data.
Team Leader: Nathan Bolt, Art
Business Manager: Laura Huffman, Telecommunications
Art Director: Ross Miller, Art
Technology Coordinator: Adam Gray, Computer Science
Music Composition: Aaron Brocken, Music Engineering Technology
Faculty Advisor: John Fillwalk, Art
The Catalyst team worked closely with the Minnetrista Cultural Center, which matched their Tell-a-Vision Award with equal funds. The team used high definition video cameras to document the fabrication and installation of Catalyst, a massive sculpture of limestone, steel, and dichroic glass commissioned for Minnetrista by the late Virginia Ball and created by Indianapolis area sculptor Beverly Precious.
The footage the team shot was used in several ways. It was incorporated into a short documentary film that visitors to the Minnetrista Center can view in Minnetrista's new digital theater. It was incorporated into an interactive touch screen exhibit where visitors can learn even more about the sculpture, its creators, and the ideas behind it. Much of the content from the interactive exhibit was made available online as well. And all of the many hours of video that the Catalyst team captures was archived as a historic record of the genesis of Catalyst.
Team Leader: Jessica Abbott, Telecommunications/Business
Business Manager: Elizabeth Stebbins, Telecommunication (Sales)
Technology Coordinator: Robert Seaton, Computer Science
Videographer: Chad Cooper, Telecommunications
Composer and Music Editor : Jeremy Fair
Graphic Designer: James Ratliff, Art (Design and Painting)
Head Writer: Lydia Storie, Telecommunications/English
Faculty Advisor: Nancy Carlson, Telecommunications
Chinese Fairytale Project
Xiaoge Chu
Faculty Advisor: John Fillwalk.
Xiaoge Chu is a graduate student in the School of Art's Electronic Art program. He recently won the Center for Media Design Award for Work in Electronic Arts for his short film The Hallucination. This summer, he will use his small project grant to support his creation of a new series of six short impressionistic films based on ancient Chinese fairytales. Stylistically, these films will merge traditional Chinese visual art styles with the tools and techniques of contemporary digital art. His summer will include a trip to Los Angeles, where he will be capturing water footage for his films.
3-D Project
Vincent Manganello
Faculty Advisor: Charles Jones
Vincent Manganello is a graduate student in the Digital Storytelling program. His project will make use of a process created by local photographer Dan Allen to create 3-D stills from video. He plans to create three specific images, the first from a popular movie, the second from vintage newsreel footage, and the third from original footage of Ball State University shot from an airplane.
Glove Controller
Aaron Brocken
Faculty Advisor: Keith Kothman
Aaron Brocken recently earned a Bachelor's degree in Music Engineering Technology, and he will return in the fall to pursue a graduate degree in the same area. His glove-based controller will allow him to manipulate sounds during live electro-acoustic music performances. Certain controls normally found on the mixing board will be relocated to the glove controller, where what was once a slider-controlled sound can become a sound controlled by finger bend and what was once a dial-controlled panning process can be controlled by a twist of the wrist. Aaron will also be composing music specifically for performance with the glove, which he hopes to premier this fall.
Family Documentary Project
Michael Fornicoia
Faculty Advisor: Laura O'Hara
Michael Fornicoia is a sophomore Telecommunications major who recently completed a meta-documentary about a group of students creating a film for the Red Cross about disaster recovery. He is using his small project grant to create a short documentary film about life in his large family, focusing on the way the family system supports family members at different stages of their lives. His hope is that the film will be useful to churches or other social services organizations interested in family issues.
Indiana Project
Nils Jaeger
Advisor: Pam Harwood
Nils Jaegar is completing a Master's degree in architecture. He will use his project funds to support his creation of a DVD about the landscapes of Indiana. He will both digitize archival materials from the BSU library and capture original footage about agriculture, the gas industry, the limestone industry, and the auto industry in Indiana. It is his hope that the completed project will be of interest both to architecture students studying Indiana as a physical and cultural environment as well as to those who, like Nils when he arrived from Germany, knew very little about Indiana's history and culture.


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