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A really smart student intern I've had the privilege of working with (Jonathan Flack, GWU 2010) asked a really stupid question. "Why," he asked, "Do we give China everything it wants? Why don't we challenge them?"
This intern knows what's going on. He knows about our $2 trillion trade deficit, the manipulation of the Yuan, and dumping of steel pipes in the US markets. Of course, he also knows about human rights and Tibet. But most importantly, he knows that economically China is eating our lunch.
He wants to know why our government doesn't do something about it. He wants to know why we don't take them on, rather than giving them the Olympics.
It didn't take long for him to understand the answer. China isn't the only winner in this U.S. trade imbalance. US corporations win big too.
— Nike opens up sweat shops, makes sneakers in China for cheap, and sells them in America for $90 a pair. Who wins? Nike.
— Nortel and Sun help China develop web censoring equipment. Who's it good for? Nortel and Sun.
Our approach to China sadly indicates whose side our government is really on. The people need change. Big Business likes the status quo. The Obama administration is wrestling with priorities. Even my intern sees who's losing.
PS: What if we don't change the status quo? Check out my novel, 2044. 2044 starts where George Orwell's 1984 left off. The problem isn't Big Brother; it's Big Brother, Inc.


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April 5, 2014 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm Pacific Daylight Time
Just in time for the total lunar eclipse on April 15, Christine Arens presents her annual rundown of this year's eclipse cycles. Eclipse points are power points, and Christine will show how to time the full effects of each eclipse and describe how they may play out on the world scene.
Christine Arens, PTLMAFA, NCGR III, is a member of the Kepler Board of Trustees and is on the AFA Board of Directors. She is a highly-respected teacher of Astrology, and a certified professional Astrologer through WSA and AFA. Christine currently is the President of Friends of Astrology, the oldest astrological organization in the Midwest and fourth oldest in the United States.

subset: commoncrawl


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Forms Jobs
A big, tough kid stops a smaller kid on his way to school and threatens to hurt him unless he hands over his homework. The popular girls at school won't let anyone sit at their lunch table except their friends. These two bullying scenarios and others happen more often than most people realize. Seventy-four percent of 8-to-11-year-olds say teasing and bullying happen at their school. But what is considered bullying?
Many parents don't think bullying is as big of a problem as weapons or drug use but its effects can be severe and long-lasting. Every day, nearly 160,000 children miss school because they are scared of bullying, according to the National Education Association. Bullying doesn't only negatively affect its victims but also the bullies themselves.
Internet Safety 2011 [pdf/3.61mb/44p] - Power Point presentation on Internet Safety for Children and Cyberbullying
Bystanders - what you can do to stop bullying
Cyberbullying - how the Internet can be a tool for bullying
When your child is being bullied
When your child IS a bully
Also visit the Health Resources and Services Administration's web site Stop Bullying Now! Campaign, and find more resources at the National Crime Prevention Council.
Bullies: A Serious Problem for Kids [pdf/86kb/2p] - a brochure by the National Crime Prevention Council
Understanding Bullying and Cyberbullying
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Your opportunity to join #FSBConnect Networking and effectively develop and grow your business through our national network of events.
Events are held on regularly every first Thursday of each month.
Tickets cost £10* inclusive of VAT, payable in advance, and includes a light lunch and refreshments.
All welcome so why not bring a friend/colleague.
Join fellow business owners and entrepreneurs over lunch and refreshments in a friendly, informal environment at the Oak Royal Golf & Country Club in Chorley.
Attendees gather around tables and each will be given two minutes to promote their business and hear others do the same. You will then move to a second table where you can repeat the exercise to a fresh audience of potential clients or suppliers, all in a supportive, unpressured environment.
In addition, FSB representatives will be on hand to talk to you about ensuring you get the most from your FSB membership and of course time to mingle and circulate with your promotional literature and those all-important business cards! Details on joining #FSBConnect will also be available at the event, which is completely free.
Plenty of parking available at the venue.
We look forward to welcoming you! Don't forget to download our Business Networking -10 top tips
For general enquiries regarding the event please contact email@example.com
#FSBConnect Lancashire is one of many #FSBConnect events run across the UK. You can also join #FSBConnect for free and be sure to follow @FSBLancsCumbria for regular information to support your business.
*excludes Eventbrite booking feesClick to book your place online


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Moderator: Dan~
4. Alphabet, Deductive Logic, Duality and Reductionism
We would like to propose another effect of the alphabet in addition to the ones identified by McLuhan, M. and Logan (1977) [1] and McLuhan, M. and E. (1988) [2]. We suggest that another effect of the alphabet was to give rise to a form of duality, that is characteristic of Western alphabetic culture, namely constitutional duality.
Before establishing this connection, we need to differentiate between the different forms of duality. There is binary dualism such as distinguishing between being and non-being as in deductive logic, it is a duality which arises out of grammatical necessity. There is also a closely related duality, polarity duality, of opposites such up and down; left and right; forward and backward; hot and cold; good and evil; light and dark; and yin and yang. There is also constitutional dualism as (1) mind and body in the context of the philosophy of mind; (2) God and his creations or the physical universe; and (3) material reality and spiritual reality as described in many religions. Binary and constitutional duality are characteristic of Western alphabetic cultures. The third duality of polarity is found in all cultures. An example of polar dualities is the notion of yin and yang of Taoism found in many East Asian non-alphabetic cultures. Yin and yang are seemingly opposite but yet at the same time they are complementary, interconnected and interdependent. The very graphic design of yin and yang as represented in Taoism represents the intertwining of yin and yang as represented in this image: [insert image of yin/yang]
In Western binary and constitutional duality, the boundaries are impermeable and the two poles of the dual relationship are quite independent of each other unlike the relationship of yin and yang.
We believe that binary and compositional forms of Western dualism are interconnected and are the effect of alphabetic writing. Binary duality is an absolute presupposition of deductive logic and deductive logic is one of the effects of alphabetic writing as noted by McLuhan and Logan (1977) [1].
The connection between the alphabet, binary duality and constitutional duality is not a direct one but one that can be established if one first accepts that there is a connection between the alphabet and deductive logic as argued by McLuhan and Logan (1977) [1].
Alphabetic writing encouraged the development of deductive logic because the alphabet promotes representing spoken words with a linear combination of meaningless visual signs representing phonemes assembled in the correct order. Every spoken word is first analyzed into its constituent phonemes and then those phonemes are represented by the meaningless signs of the alphabet and arranged in a logical order. This created an environment in which arguments were assembled in a similar linear sequential logical order.
Rationality trumped poetics and so the arguments of the sophists were looked down on because they appealed to the emotions rather than the cold hard facts of a logical argument.
The pervasive use of uniform elements, the phonetic letters that the alphabet entailed, encouraged the additional visual matching of situational elements which formed the ground for Greek logic, geometry, and rationality. The idea of truth itself, the correspondence of thing and intellect, is based on matching…The Greek alphabet also provided both the model and the bias for classification, an essential development in Greek analytic thought during the period from 700 to 400 B.C.—especially for logic, science, and history. In addition to serving as a paradigm of abstraction and classification, the alphabet also served as a model for division and separatability. [1]
The Greeks applied the use of logic to create proofs of the geometric relationships that the Egyptians arrived at empirically. They were bedazzled with their new found technology of deductive logic to the point that a separation of rationality from common sense took place. [?!]
It started with Parmenides who used logic to argue that nothing changes because if A were to change into B, then A would not-be and since non-being cannot be (it is a logical contradiction) nothing changes. Parmenides argument used a form of duality that entails a binary either or division but then he uses deductive logic to conclude that nothing changes and hence laid the ground work for the emergence of substance/essence dualism, a form of constitutional dualism formulated by Plato.
The idea that nothing changes was clearly in contradiction to the common sense observation of the changes in one's everyday experiences.
Plato found a way to resolve this apparent paradox and the solution was to invoke a form of substance/essence dualism and thereby created two worlds. There is the essence world of the Ideal Forms that are never changing as Parmenides required and the everyday substance world that one perceives in everyday life, which Plato likened to shadows on the wall of a cave cast by the fire burning within the cave and do change as common sense reveals and demands. Plato took his cue from Parmenides who wrote "Whence it follows that all things to which men attribute reality, generation and destruction, being and not-being, change of place, alteration of colour are no more than empty words (http://philoctetes.free.fr/parmenides.htm) [5]".
Plato with help from Parmenides separates percepts from concepts and this dualism becomes enshrined in Western philosophical thought. Parmenides version of binary dualism and his use of deductive logic led to Plato's constitutional dualism of the world of Ideal Forms and the everyday world of perceptions. These two domains are not opposites just as mind and body are not opposites in mind/body dualism. But what is being suggested here is that Plato's constitutional dualism resolved the paradox that there is no change in Parmenides world whereas change is the pervasive property of the world of every day experience.
Parmenides and Plato's dualities had the unfortunate effect of killing off the empirical spirit of the pre-Socratics like Anaxagoras, Anaximander and Heraclitus. Heraclitus proclaimed "The things of which there can be sight, hearing and learning—these are what I especially prized (the very opposite of Parmenides' position). Men who love wisdom should acquaint themselves with a great many particulars. Seekers after gold dig up much earth and find little".
Anaxagoras having observed that meteorites that came from heaven were made of rocks concluded that heavenly bodies were also composed of rocks. Anaximander on the basis of observing the gills on a miscarried human fetus argued for evolution more than 2000 years before Darwin. The empirical spirit of the pre-Socratics was undermined by the logical arguments of Parmenides and Plato. Even Aristotle contributed to the undermining of empiricism. He argued against inertia saying that an object dropped from the mast of a ship would fall behind the mast in the opposite direction of the ship's motion. If he only had climbed to the top of a mast and performed the experiment or asked a mariner to do it he would have discovered that his argument was wrong. These were the roots of the duality that divided the world into two spheres, the one perceived and the one conceived.
The tradition of duality even survived the scientific revolution and empirical spirit of Galileo, Borelli, Brahe, Kepler and Newton. Descartes, himself a mathematician and scientist, whose development of analytic geometry led to Newton's calculus, divided the world into two domains the material and the spiritual.
Cartesian duality paralleled Plato's division of the two realms, the material world of every day experience and the realm of Ideal Forms. Like Parmenides who wanted to have an unchanging element in his worldview, Descartes divided the ever changing material world from the spiritual world of Mind, Soul and God and this contributed to the mind-body problem that persists to this day.
Another effect of alphabetic writing and deductive logic is the notion of the linear chain of cause and effect and hence reductionism, whereby all phenomena can be reduced to a simpler or more basic one implying that the whole is merely the sum of its parts just as the alphabet reduces all words to their basic phonemes.
After spending the next eleven years in Alexandria, he then decided, at the age of around 38, to investigate the philosophical teachings of the Persian philosophers and the Indian philosophers.[6] In the pursuit of this endeavor he left Alexandria and joined the army of Gordian III as it marched on Persia...[~240 CE]
According to Porphyry, in 232, at the age of 28, Plotinus went to Alexandria to study philosophy:
"In his twenty-eighth year he [Plotinus] felt the impulse to study philosophy and was recommended to the teachers in Alexandria who then had the highest reputation; but he came away from their lectures so depressed and full of sadness that he told his trouble to one of his friends.
The friend, understanding the desire of his heart, sent him to Ammonius, whom he had not so far tried. He went and heard him, and said to his friend, "This is the man I was looking for."
From that day he stayed continually with Ammonius and acquired so complete a training in philosophy that he became eager to make acquaintance with the Persian philosophical discipline and that prevailing among the Indians".[9]
Pandora wrote:Philo of Alexandria (20 BCE - 50 CE)
... back to Christine Hayes - on duels among different interpretations of Divine Law (in 1st century CE) in an attempt to resolve cognitive dissonance.
Pandora wrote:Those were some interesting times. I keep getting surprised by a realization of just how much free time some men must have had at the time to come up with all these ideas. Actually, I've always suspected that a potential birthplace of philosophy might have been a market place where men sat all day and gossiped about all kinds of bullshit. Well...that's just my impression anyway.
MagsJ wrote:Didn't Philosophy naturally arise with the beginning of the thought process? although I do think that the raging hormones of youth does cloud better judgement and deeper thought processes.
I doubt it needed to be invented, but a nice thought of men (and women) contemplating whilst cotching.
felix dakat wrote:MagsJ wrote:Didn't Philosophy naturally arise with the beginning of the thought process? although I do think that the raging hormones of youth does cloud better judgement and deeper thought processes.
I doubt it needed to be invented, but a nice thought of men (and women) contemplating whilst cotching.
"Cotching" is new to me. How about this: Philosophy is a feedback loop in which language reflects on itself. Human beings are the host organism for this symbiotic memetic process.
MagsJ wrote:felix dakat wrote:MagsJ wrote:Didn't Philosophy naturally arise with the beginning of the thought process? although I do think that the raging hormones of youth does cloud better judgement and deeper thought processes.
I doubt it needed to be invented, but a nice thought of men (and women) contemplating whilst cotching.
"Cotching" is new to me. How about this: Philosophy is a feedback loop in which language reflects on itself. Human beings are the host organism for this symbiotic memetic process.
..sounds good to me. an evolutionary process, of which some think we are ready to move on from.
I'd say that cotching is the English version of jamming, but one still potters around finding things to do to appease an active mind.. energy levels permitting.
felix dakat wrote:Yeah an evolutionary process that began when a hominid was infected by an alien life form that generated the language meme.
So you're saying if Tom Petty had been a Brit he would have sang "you're cotching me?"
MagsJ wrote:felix dakat wrote:Yeah an evolutionary process that began when a hominid was infected by an alien life form that generated the language meme.
So.. according to the above, language can be acquired independently? and would alien life forms practice, or even have, a religion? or is this phenomenon a random one, based on mathematical probability?So you're saying if Tom Petty had been a Brit he would have sang "you're cotching me?"
I am not familiar with the original song, but the word is out of context here... "we're cotching" or "you're cotching with me" works.
Xunzian wrote:The whole premise here seems pretty shaky.
I may not be respondnig to the right why, but...Pandora wrote: If drugs were the cause (or an inspiration), why were they not passed on as well?
felix dakat wrote:From what I understand monotheism was a later development. Cuneiform developed in Sumer and the alphabet came from Greece. Both of these were polytheistic cultures. Am I missing something?
felix dakat wrote:Terrance McKenna proposed "that the transformation from humans' early ancestors Homo erectus to the species Homo sapiens mainly had to do with the addition of the mushroom Psilocybe cubensis in its diet, an event that according to his theory took place in about 100,000 BCE (which is when he believed that the species diverged from the Homo genus)." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terence_M ... _evolution
MagsJ wrote:felix dakat wrote:From what I understand monotheism was a later development. Cuneiform developed in Sumer and the alphabet came from Greece. Both of these were polytheistic cultures. Am I missing something?
I would say, that religion took advantage of human physiological developments, i.e. language... religion, to me, has always seemed to be about community/safety-in-numbers, and not something that is instigated by our physiological developments at all, but rather takes advantage of them, by creating the cult that is religion.. and by creating monotheism, even more so.
One God, one pot of gold to one, rather than shared between the many, then enforce that one religion and you have a monopoly on religion and therefore on those religious offerings, ergo The Vatican and all its riches.
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May 11, 2012 — Cool Conditions, Some Precipitation in the Southeast
What a difference a day and a cold front make. A much cooler air mass has settled over the state just behind the cold front that moved through yesterday and last night. It will be especially cooler in the southeast where daytime high temperatures will only be in the upper 40s and lower 50s. Other areas, including Casper, will see highs in the 50s and lower 60s.
It will be mainly dry in Casper, but a few scattered showers are expected in the southeast today and this evening. Higher elevations near Laramie around The Summit and in the Snowy Range and Sierra Madres may see a rain/snow mix tonight.
The weekend starts off on the cool side. Conditions on Saturday will be similar to those today, with again the best chance for showers in the southeast. The northwest may see a few light showers too.
Watch for a few isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms on Mother's Day Sunday. Temperatures will be warmer with highs back into the mid 60s and lower 70s.


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DENVER | The Colorado Music Hall of Fame is inducting singer Judy Collins during a concert event planned for Nov. 8 in Denver.
Collins attended East High School in Denver before launching a Grammy Award-winning career.
Previous inductees to the hall include John Denver.
Also being inducted in November are the Serendipity Singers, which is a group that started at the University of Colorado and had two Top 30 hits in the early 1960s; Bob Lind, whose song "Elusive Butterfly" also made the charts in the 1960s; and bandleader Chris Daniels.


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Chesterton Tribune
Indiana panel votes to allow fenced deer preserves
Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Five game preserves around the state
where hunters pay for a chance to shoot deer confined inside high fences
would be allowed to stay open under a bill endorsed Monday by an Indiana
House committee.
The measure
approved 6-2 by the House Natural Resources Committee is the latest move
in an eight-year-old court and legislative fight over the hunting
preserves. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources ruled in 2005 that
fenced hunting was illegal, but the existing preserves have remained open
under a court injunction.
outdoorsmen and environmental organizations are against the proposal,
maintaining that the fenced preserves don't offer real hunting and could
increase the disease risk for Indiana's wild deer. Supporters of
legalizing the existing preserves say it is a matter of fairness to the
property owners who made big investments to open the sites before they
were barred.
The proposal,
sponsored by Rep. Matt Ubelhor, R-Bloomfield, requires the preserve have
at least 100 acres and fences at least 8 feet tall. The bill also would
limit the preserves to a hunting season from Aug. 15 to Feb. 15, and would
only allow permit sites that have operated continuously since 2005.
"These play an
integral part to our hunting economy in the state," Ubelhor said of the
current preserves.
Indiana Farm
Bureau lobbyist Bob Kraft told the committee Monday that the bill would
"remove a shadow" over the preserves and help provide a market for animals
raised at about 400 deer farms around the state. Kraft said not passing
the bill wouldn't be fair to the preserve owners who believed they were
acting legally when they started opening the sites in the late 1990s.
"They relied
on this in good faith to open a business in Indiana," Kraft said.
The bill now
advances to the full House for consideration. That chamber approved a
broader bill last year that would have legalized the existing
fenced-hunting preserves and allowed new ones, but it was blocked in the
Senate, where leaders cited a tacit agreement several years ago not to
intercede in the lawsuit.
Opponents on
Monday argued against the state allowing what they called "canned hunting"
of farm-raised deer that have less fear of humans than wild deer and are
restricted by high fences.
"The deer are
being shot for the antlers — not for the sport," said Doug Allman, a vice
president of the Indiana Wildlife Federation and a past president of the
Indiana Deer Hunters Association.
The committee
members who voted against the legalizing the preserves — Rep. Tom
Saunders, R-Lewisville, and Rep. Lloyd Arnold, R-Huntingburg — both said
they disagreed with the type of hunting done at the sites.
"I don't
consider this a sport," Saunders said.
Posted 4/1/2013


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"In Silent Hill 4, the horror hits home - right in your own room," said Wilson Cheng, product manager at Konami Digital Entertainment - America. "By transforming a would-be sanctuary into an unpredictable and inescapable nightmare, players will find themselves in uncharted territory as they explore a nightmarish alternate reality to unravel a truly unnerving mystery."Assuming the role of Henry, you set off on a fast-paced and highly captivating journey into the depths of darkness, filled with a cast of disturbing characters and monsters. With Henry's apartment functioning as a home base, you will transition between a 1st person real world perspective and a horrifying alternate reality in a 3rd person view. Further enhancing the action, you can build up your arsenal of weapons in order to battle a number of horrifying enemies who will attack from around any corner or even through any wall. For the first time in the Silent Hillseries, you can execute more powerful blows when fighting with hand-to-hand combat weapons by activating a new power gauge. You will also meet numerous people throughout the game, including Eileen Galvin, Henry's next-door neighbor, who will help Henry through this morbid adventure. You will be able to equip Eileen with special weapons to help fend off deadly creatures.
Silent Hill 4: The Room is rated "M" for Mature and will retail for $39.99.


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Sara Mayhew must have wanted more attention, because as tonyinbatavia pointed out in a comment, she posted another random tweet about Stephanie and me, apropos of nothing.
Learn to summarize someone else's point instead of quoting huge blocks of text. Lazy blogging. Bad writing. Examples: @OpheliaBenson @szvan
She's weirdly persistent about picking fights with me. I don't know why, apart from wanting more attention (but then there are billions of people in the world, and I don't know why she wants attention from me in particular). I don't know her. I haven't written about her here (except about these bizarre random fight-pickings). I haven't interacted with her. But pick pick pick.
She did a more extended version (less lazy! less bad!) on Facebook, too. It's a public post. (We're not Friends, needless to say.)
The post:
Bad blogging is when you need to quote huge blocks of text. It makes me believe you're either a lazy or incompetent writer, when you can't make a summary of someone else's point.
Her comments, following one by Dan Fincke:
Dan Fincke it takes a lot of work to write a good paragraph. I don't blame bloggers for not spending their time rewriting others' ideas when they can simply quote them for their readers and save their hard writing energies for their own original stuff. A blog is a journal, a place you sometimes just record other people's words that are interesting sometimes.12 hours ago · Like · 1Sara E Mayhew It starts to become really lazy, like Almost Diamonds and Ophelia Benson's blog, when it's 90% blocks of quotes and they insert a sentence or two in between.12 hours ago · Like · 1Sara E Mayhew At that point, just link to the entire article you're discussing. But I guess Zvan and Benson aren't really generating content as much as just being the two old muppets in the balcony.
…four photos, of four dresses. And some writing.
Strapless dresses from SammyDress! This wholesale Hong Kong fashion site has incredibly cheap clothing prices, but my experience has been that what you save on items is made up for with very expensive shipping. Quality is typical of Chinese produced fashion—cute on the outside but low quality is seen on the inside of the dresses with imperfect stitching. Petite sizes. I haven't yet bought a dress from them I didn't like.
That's good hardworking writing.
Having conceded that point, I'll say a few words – of my very own writing, that I wrote myself! – about Mayhew's claim that quoting is lazy and bad compared to summarizing.
The first word I'll say about that is "horseshit." That's horseshit. It's not true, not as a generalization. Sometimes summarizing is preferable to quoting, but certainly not always. If it were always preferable, why would the Daily Show use so many clips? The Daily Show is quite popular, and also well thought of. It's both. It's considered good tv, good commentary, good humor, good news analysis. Part of what's good is the use of video clips that show people saying things, so that we can all see exactly what they say and how they say it. A summary would not be better than that for the purposes of the show. The same goes for the Rachel Maddow show and plenty of other shows. The same goes for many many blogs that quote extensively. Some websites do nothing but link to others' material with a headline and a teaser – like Arts and Letters Daily for example. That's different from writing a book or an article, but that doesn't make it worthless.
I'm interested in language and rhetoric, in the words people use and the possible reasons why they use them and the likely effects the words will have. When I'm looking at that I don't want to summarize, I want to give the actual words, so that readers can see exactly what I'm talking about. This is a new genre that blogging makes possible in a way it wasn't before. I like the genre, and I use it a lot. It would have been useless to "summarize" what Rod Liddle wrote, for instance; it was necessary to give a good sample of it so that people could see his particular brand of smug laddish dismissiveness.
I don't consider that a whole lot more lazy than posting four photos of dresses.


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Sea Shepherd vessel Ady Gil has bow sheared off after being struck by Japanese whaling ship
The clash between the anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Japanese whalers turned ugly today after one of the conservation group's vessels was struck by a whaling ship and severely damaged.
The Sea Shepherd's new trimaran Ady Gil had its bow sheared off and was taking on water after it was rammed by the Japanese vessel Shonan Maru 2, which has been tailing the Sea Shepherd flagship boat Steve Irwin since it left port en route to Antarctic waters to try to disrupt Japan's annual whale hunt.Sea Shepherd reports on its website that six crew members on the Ady Gil -- five from New Zealand and one from the Netherlands -- were immediately rescued by the crew of another Sea Shepherd ship, Bob Barker, which arrived on scene Tuesday.
They added that while none of those aboard Ady Gil were injured, the damage to the vessel is catastrophic and that it's unlikely that it can be salvaged.
The conservation group states that this "unprovoked attack" has been captured on film -- Animal Planet has a film crew onboard the Steve Irwin, shooting footage for the third season of the popular "Whale Wars" series.
Thankfully, nobody was killed, but this serious clash may be a portent. This was the most severe encounter between the two interests, and they have not yet even reached Japan's fleet of harpoon and processing vessels.
--Kelly Burgess
Photo: Sea Shepherd's trimaraan Ady Gil after it was rammed by the Japanese whaling vessel Shonan Maru 2, in the background, in Antarctic waters. Credit: JoAnn McArthur / Sea Shepherd Conservation Society
Note: To follow this blog on Twitter please visit @latimesoutposts


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Reviewed by Shelby G (age 9)
I really liked this book because it was just something fun to read. The way the author put it, I felt like I was there, watching it happen. The Charmingly's (a couple also invited to the party) are probably my favorite characters because they seem like really friendly people who I would like to meet. In the book, Bunny Cabot seemed like a rich, pretty, blonde but at the end turns out to be a person who knows about science and has brown hair and glasses. The thing that is unique about the book is that it is part of the Sabrina the Teenage Witch series. There is a similar plot to the books because something bad happens, Sabrina fixes it. When I read this book I felt like I was a witch myself.
I recommend this book because it's a good way to use your imagination. The plot has so many twists and unusual happenings, that it kept me interested and you will be to!


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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">   <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">   Lux, James P wrote:

-----Original Message----- From: Joe Landman [mailto:email@example.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 17, 2008 12:54 PM To: Robert G. Brown Cc: David Mathog; firstname.lastname@example.com; Lux, James P Subject: Re: [Beowulf] Re: MS Cray Robert G. Brown wrote:

The real question is why an admin-rich environment with

lots of full

time admins would ever buy into such a deal. If you've got a full time admin ANYWAY, paying $150/month for support on top of this (beyond the cost of the hardware is just insane.

Have you ever administered a lab full of these units? You need as much help as you can get to administer the windows machines. Sadly, while claims of there being more windows admins are true (thats not the sad part) you need (far) more to administer fewer windows machines than the fewer admins needed for more Linux machines (that is the sad part). We have seen 2 full time admins handle 4000+ Linux machines with time to develop software to make their lives easier (Incyte), as compared to seeing 10 windows admins struggle to keep 100 machines each up to date.

 I think part of the problem in the Windows world is the incredible diversity of applications (by which I include websites with significant client side processing) that wind up being run on them. Rich growth medium, lots of spontaneous mutations. When you get to large desktop rollouts, Windows can have fairly low admin overhead, but it's done by restricting flexibility (e.g. SMS, boot from the network, etc.) to reduce the nutritional value of the growth medium. If everyone boots the same image from the net, applying a patch to 10,000 computers is trivial. While such an environment would probably make everyone on this list exceedingly unhappy (I could guarantee there's no compiler of any kind in it..you might get a JRE, and edit your source code in MSWord), it would (and does) serve a huge number of folks in the business world perfectly well.

 Nonsense, in that line of thoughts, all that is required is to maintain a "dev" desktop image to be served through the network. I do it with linux with quite some ease, I see no reasons why this wouldn't be the case under windows (meaning that once you're able to boot a network image under windows, the mechanics of it should be trivially flexible enough to point to differing images).

 Windows in a development intensive, HPC environment, is going to be admin expensive.

...thinking about all those admins that never wanted to learn Linux, the _will_ have to learn something new this time! Eric


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EA Download Manager (formerly EA Link or EA Downloader) is an application that enables you to download games and related content directly to your computer. This application also provides one location for you to manage and organize your EA digital content.
EA Download Manager is simple to use. You can download and install this small application in a matter of minutes.
EA Download Manager was replaced by Origin.
We don't have any change log information yet for version 18.104.22.1687 of EA Download Manager. Sometimes publishers take a little while to make this information available, so please check back in a few days to see if it has been updated.
Can you help?
If you have any change log info you can share with us, we'd love to hear from you! Head over to our Contact page and let us know.


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Maria Benz
Top 10 Beers
I'm the kind of person who always has something to say and being able to speak my mind. This is why I absolutely love being an Advisor! From being able to test brand new products on the market to being able to write about and share my opinions, it's definitely the easiest and most fun job I've ever had.


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Over a year ago Ancestry.com created Expert Connect as a way to expand its service offerings and provide additional assistance for members through an elite group of professional genealogists and researchers. Through this service, customers were given the opportunity to hire genealogists to retrieve records, perform research or simply acquire expert advice.
Though this service has been a positive experience, Ancestry.com has decided to focus on other business priorities, so as of March 18, 2011, Expert Connect will no longer be a service that Ancestry.com will offer to its members.
Both experts and members currently involved in Expert Connect have been notified of this update. We encourage members to finish out existing projects with experts they have located through the Expert Connect service and if needed, continue relationships for future projects they may have.
January 24, 2011
Expert Connect - Going Going Gone
2 comments:
- Tammy said...
As one of the "Experts" this is very dissappointing. There was finally a site, with a very large reputable company that could join experts and those in need, together. Ancestry had the potential to bring in even more subscribers because of this feature. Now I'll have to find a way to share my services in another venue.
Tammy Owen email@example.com
- Barry said...
Without so much as an utterance of a sound to their Expert researchers. The Genarations Network pulled the plug on their Expert Connect Project.Seems as if The Genearations Network has something they might want to share. The ending coincides with the new season of "Who Do You Think You Are"? The Generations Network bought Pro Genealogists, maybe they may be making a push for themselves. Seems to me "Who Do They Think They Are"?
Thank you Ancestry.com
D.Barry Sheldon..Above The Branches Genealogy...


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The 30 students in Penn State College of Medicine's new Physician Assistant (PA) Program have begun their studies. The two-year graduate program will focus on preparing students to provide preventive health care services and care for both acute and chronic disease.
Classes in the program began on Monday, May 19. The following day, a ceremony was held at which the students were presented with white coats that symbolize their entrance into the medical profession. Among those on-hand were alumni from the College of Medicine's previous PA program, which was in place from 1974 through 1986.
"I wanted a program that would be very strong and push me, which is why I'm really excited about Penn State's program," said Myra Galusha, a member of the entering class. Galusha, a former Army intelligence officer, served two tours of duty in Iraq between 2007 and 2011. "I'm ready to fully immerse myself in my next career."
"Growing up in this area, I knew about the reputation of Penn State Hershey Medical Center and the College of Medicine, and I was thrilled when I heard they were starting a Physician Assistant Program," said Seth Fuhrman, of New Oxford, Adams County, a member of the entering class.
The PA program is highly selective, with more than 1,900 people applying for the 30 slots in the PA program's inaugural class. Christine Bruce, founding director of the PA program, said she and her colleagues sought out applicants who clearly want to work on the front lines of primary care.
"We reviewed all of their application materials, looking for patient-centered, motivated and passionate people," Bruce said. "Though some may have non-traditional backgrounds, we'll turn them into exceptional PAs."
Jolene Collins' background is as a food scientist at Hershey Foods. During her time with the company, she developed several new products, including a shelf-stable white chocolate milk.
"It was a great job because I learned a lot from it," said Collins, a member of the PA program class. "But I've always felt a pull toward the medical field, due to my passion for health, medicine and healthy living."
Physician assistants are licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of physicians. They are formally educated to examine patients, diagnose injuries and illnesses, and provide a range of treatment services.
The new PA program at the College of Medicine has been provisionally accredited by the Accreditation Review Commission on Education for the Physician Assistant (ARC-PA). More information about the program is available on the Educational Affairs page on the College of Medicine website.
Additional information:
-- The Medical Minute: What is a physician assistant?
-- Meet more of the students from the incoming class in this Penn State Medicine article.
-- Read more about the College of Medicine's new Physician Assistant program here.


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Homework 0: Pick a Device
Assigned: In class on Mon, Oct. 31, 2011
All of the assignments in this course will be individual. Most of them will involve creating a simulated user interface for a complex device. Each student will pick a different device. However, for a multi-function device, multiple people can pick the same device as long as they pick different functions on that device (for example, someone can do basic setup of a DVD and someone else can do setting of timed recordings on a DVD-R). You will use the device you select for the entire course, so choose wisely. You will need to pick a device with some complexity; that is, with some tasks that are difficult to do.
Below are some examples that might be selected, but feel free to make up your own, with permission of the instructor.
Note: for Homework 1, you will have to test a user on a real version of the device, so you should select something you own or have access to (it would be fine to use a CMU copier, for example),
In class on Mon, Oct. 31, 2011, each student will pick a device. Here are some ideas:
- Desk phone with speed dial
- Answering machine with selective playing, deleting of recorded calls
- Copy machine with 2-sided copying
- Cell phone for placing calls using an address book
- Cell phone for doing SMS using an address book
- Cell phone address book management (add, remove, update addresses)
- VCR or DVD/R: basic setup (which channels, clock, input source, record speed, etc.)
- VCR or DVD/R: setting timed recordings (record in the future)
- Cable TV or DishNetwork configuration and control interfaces
- Data Projector configuration user interface (pick source, brightness, keystoning, etc.)
- Conventional television with contrast, brightness, channels, input sources
- High definition television with various wide-screen modes
- Digital camera including taking pictures, specifying different resolutions, turning on and off the flash, etc.
- Digital Picture Frame
- Camcorder
- Digital Watch
- Microwave with cooking, defrost, set current time, timed cooking, etc.
- Wall Oven, with bake, broil, self-clean, timer for timed cooking, etc.
- Washing machine, with parameters for water temperature, different cycles, etc.
- Drier with parameters for different cycles, heat, cool down, etc.
- Programmable Coffee maker
- Digital refrigerator (?)
- Robotic vacuum cleaner (speed, obstacle avoidance)
- Conventional vacuum with digital controls
- Digital video recorder (schedule recordings) (e.g., TIVO)
- Digital music player (e.g., iPod)
- Digital FM radio with presets
- Universal remote control (programmable)
- PC Music player with play-lists (e.g., Windows Media Player)
- Augmented calculator (e.g., ability to see past computations, etc.)
- Complex Alarm clock (set time, set alarm, multiple alarms, snooze)
- Audiobook player (select book, navigate chapters)
- Programmable Massage chair
- Programmable light (brightness, weekly on/off schedule)
- Programming lawn watering system, with timers and sensors
- Voice recorder (play, delete, record, rewind)
- Printer configuration (orientation, sides, color, scale)
- Multi-function printer (print/fax/copy)
- Wireless network chooser (select, security settings, on/off)
- Movie schedule mobile web application (by movie, by location)
- Stand-alone air purifier
- Home heating and air conditioning (HVAC) controls (programmable)
- Automobile heating and air conditioning (HVAC) controls
- Automobile HD Radio
- Stand-alone HD Radio
- Automobile Satellite radio
- Stand-alone Satellite radio
- Automobile navigation system
- Hand-held navigation system
- Any digital medical device
- Airport Ticket kiosk
- Play/Movie Ticket kiosk
- Photo printing kiosks
- CMU Printing kiosks
- Vending machine for movies (like outside the Giant Eagle in Squirrel Hill)
- Self checkout system for supermarket (like at Giant Eagle)
- IM interface (gtalk, yahoo messenger)
- CMU printing kiosk
- Programmable exercise equipment
- PA lottery touch screen machine
- Wireless Network Router setup (set up security, etc.)
- Any complicated electronics from Brookstone
- Any desktop or web interface that has at least 30 controls, not counting web links. For web pages, it should have at least 10 pages (including product description pages). For desktop applications, it should have at least 5 different screens or dialog boxes.


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Jacksonville College's Daniel Skinner Has RIDICULOUS Dunk from the Foul Line Against TJC [VIDEO]
Region XIV basketball in East Texas is no joke. These junior college players often make their way to big-time colleges and even the NBA (i.e. Nick Van Exel, Jimmy Butler, Shawn Kemp and more).
Last night (Wednesday, Dec. 6) at Tyler Junior College, Daniel Skinner of Jacksonville College made a dunk that even made ESPN's SportsCenter.
Skinner didn't need something ridiculous like a dunk competition to slam it home from the foul line; he decided to do it in a game.
The party pooper in the video is the referee, who called Skinner for a charging foul and the basket didn't count. So, consider this the greatest dunk that never mattered.


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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) Deshaun Thomas scored 15 of his 21 points as No. 3 Ohio State coasted to a huge first-half lead on the way to a 91-45 victory against overmatched Missouri-Kansas City on Friday night.
The game was the final tuneup for the Buckeyes (4-0) before their ACC/Big Ten Showdown matchup against No. 5 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday night.
Lenzelle Smith Jr. added 13 points and LaQuinton Ross and Sam Thompson had 11 apiece as Ohio State experimented with subs for almost the entire second half.
Estan Tyler and Thomas Staton each had seven points for the `Roos (2-3).
The loudest ovation of the night was saved for coach Urban Meyer and Ohio State's football seniors, who were introduced at halftime on the eve of their big showdown with rival Michigan.
Thomas, who came in averaging 25 points a game, hit 6 of 8 shots from the field including 2 of 3 3-pointers, plus made all seven free throws. He also had eight rebounds.
Backup point guard Shannon Scott, the son of former North Carolina and NBA great Charlie Scott, had career highs in both points (10) and assists (10) for the Buckeyes, who shot 61 percent from the field and never were threatened.
The Buckeyes collected their 123rd consecutive home victory against a non-major opponent.
Meanwhile, the `Roos fell to 0-15 in games against ranked opponents and 0-6 against teams from the Big Ten.
The teams had one mutual opponent. The Buckeyes rolled over Albany 82-60 on Nov. 11 while the `Roos lost to Albany 62-59 on Nov. 17. Both of those games were in the Hall of Fame Tipoff, with Ohio State receiving the championship trophy after beating Washington on Sunday.
The game, the first between the schools, was all but over midway through the opening half.
The Buckeyes scored the first eight points while the `Roos were missing their initial eight shots from the field. After UMKC pulled to 20-8, Ohio State ran off 11 of the next 13 points.
The Buckeyes then closed the half on an 18-2 run to build the lead to 53-18. Eight players scored, led by Thomas' 15 points.
One of the loudest cheers of the half came when freshman Amedeo Della Valle, a native of Italy who played high school ball in Las Vegas, tipped a ball away on defense and then knocked down a 3 at the other end for his first collegiate points.
But the biggest roar was saved for Meyer and the football Buckeyes. The fourth-ranked Buckeyes (11-0) play archrival and 20th-ranked Michigan (8-3) on Saturday at Ohio Stadium in the 109th edition of what is dubbed ``The Game.''
``So far it's been a heck of a year,'' Meyer said after a lengthy standing ovation.
Linebacker Etienne Sabino spoke before giving way to fullback/linebacker Zach Boren.
``We've been waiting a year to have a rematch with these guys from the Team Up North,'' Boren said, referring to last year's 40-34 loss to the Wolverines. ``We need your help to go out as champions and to go out 12-0. Go Bucks!''
Follow Rusty Miller on Twitter:http://www.twitter.com/rustymillerap


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Shrek Smash n' Crash Racing
The Ranking
|Overall Rank: n/a
GameCube Rank: n/a
2006 Games Rank: n/a
2006 GameCube Rank: n/a
Score based on 1 review
Smash N' Crash through the Shrek universe atop a mount with a personality all its own! Play as your favorite Shrek character and pit your racing and combat skills against an assortment of twisted fairy-tale opponents. Grab your mount and bump, crash and slide your way across 12 fairy-tale locations. If you fall behind, don't worry - use magical pick-ups to even the odds or battle your way back by knocking your opponents off their mounts. Beat your friends to the finish line in this fun and funny smash & crash twisted fairy-tale adventure!
Release Date: November 21, 2006


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An Al-Jazeera TV correspondent was killed in Syria on Friday, the second journalist to lose his life in as many days covering the brutal civil war.
An Al-Jazeera TV correspondent was killed in Syria on Friday, the second journalist to lose his life in as many days covering the brutal civil war.
The pan-Arab satellite station said a sniper fired three bullets that fatally wounded Mohammed al-Masalmeh, 33, while he was covering the fighting between regime forces and rebels in the reporter's hometown of Busra al-Harir in southern Syria. Al-Masalmeh, also known as Mohammed Hourani, worked for Al-Jazeera on a contractual basis, according to the station, which said his family was among refugees in neighboring Jordan.
A French journalist, Yves Debay, was slain by a sniper on Thursday while reporting on clashes in the northern city of Aleppo, according to the Aleppo Media Center, a network of anti-regime activists in the city. It said the sniper was believed to be affiliated with regime forces and was positioned on the roof of the Aleppo central prison near the Museilmeh district.
Syrian rebels reportedly brought Debay across the border to Turkey, where a Foreign Ministry official said he was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital early Friday. He had been shot in the heart, according to an initial autopsy report, the Turkish official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules that bar civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.
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According to the French newspaper Le Monde, Debay was born in what was then the Belgian Congo in 1954. He joined the Belgian army but became bored and joined the white Rhodesian army, which was fighting black Marxist guerrillas.
After his mercenary period, Le Monde said, Debay "satisfied his passion for war" by writing for magazines specializing in military matters, including, finally, an online magazine that he founded, called "Assault."
But the paper called him attentive and kind, and reported that, after 30 years of reporting from around the world, he said he had learned to respect all people, regardless of their origins or ideas.
"France condemns this heinous act and expresses to the family and friends of Yves Debay its condolences, sympathy and solidarity,"
"France pays tribute to Yves Debay and other journalists who, in Syria, pay with their lives for their commitment to freedom of information," French President Francois Hollande said in a statement.
The two slayings mark the first deaths of journalists in Syria in 2013. At least 28 journalists were killed there in 2012, prompting the Committee to Protect Journalists to name Syria the most dangerous country in which to work last year.
"We condemn the targeted murder of Yves Debay and call on all sides of the conflict to respect the role that journalists play in conflict zones and allow them to work freely without fearing for their lives," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour.
Associated Press writer Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.


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- Parent Category: News
Bourbonnais Woman and 3 Others Injured in Iroquois County Crash
ASHKUM -- A Bourbonnais woman was seriously injured in a two-vehicle crash in Iroquois County. It happened late last month on Route 45 at County Road 3100.
25-year-old Lateeka Davidson was southbound on Route 45/52 just after 2 in the morning on July 29th.
Illinois State Police report the car she was driving swerved into the northbound lane, colliding with a northbound pick-up truck driven by 28-year-old Arellano Mancilla of Bolingbrook. Police report Mancilla tried to avoid the oncoming Davidson car.
Riverside Ambulance responded to the scene, along with State Police. Davidson was taken to Riverside Hospital with serious injuries. Mancilla and three passengers in the pickup were treated for minor injuries at Provena St. Mary's Hospital.


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Goldcorp Inc. (GG) stock price added 2.15% with the closing value of $10.92 during Tuesday trading session. Along recent positive drift, stock price presented -25.66% down comparing value from it 52-week high point and showed 29.69% higher in value from its 52-week low point. Goldcorp Inc. traded 12043179 shares at hands versus to its average volume of 10618.34K shares. Volume is usually displayed in charts as a series of histograms underneath the price. This is a useful form of presentation since it reflects expansions and contractions in activity. There are several key principles used in interpreting volume. It is important to understand that about changes in the level of volume it is referring to volume changes relative to the recent past. Here you can compare recent volume with average volume three month ago.
Volume should go with the trend: When prices are rising it is normal for volume to expand, and when prices are declining volume typically contracts. Volume leads price during rallies: It is normal for a peak in prices to be preceded by a peak in volume.
Profitability Analysis:
Several salient technical indicators of Goldcorp Inc. are now starting to make their way into the trading conversation. Every investor and other stake holder of firm are most concerned with its profitability. So to answer this concerns frequently used tools of financial ratio analysis is profitability ratios, which are used to determine the company's bottom line and its return to its investors.
Start focusing on ordinary profitability ratio which covers margins; GG has a profit margin of 2.50%. It has gross profit margin ratio of 10.50% for trailing twelve months and operating margin is calculated as 8.60%; these are a better detectors to find consistency or positive/negative trends in a firm's earnings. So upper calculated figures are representing the firm's ability to translate sales dollars into profits at various stages of measurement. To walk around the gross margin figure of firm that looks at how well a company controls the cost of its inventory and the manufacturing of its products and subsequently pass on the costs to its consumers.
Following in trace line of profitability ration analysis; second part is covering returns. The returns on investment amplify the findings, the firm's ROI concludes as 5.90%; it gives idea for personal financial decisions, to compare a firm's profitability or to compare the efficiency of different investments. The returns on assets of firm also on noticeable level, it has ROA of 0.40%, which signifies how profitable a firm is relative to its total assets.
Taking notice on volatility measures, Goldcorp Inc. has noticeable recent volatility credentials; price volatility of stock was 2.26% for a recent week and 2.86% for a month. Historical volatility is a quantifiable number which is based on past changes to the price of a stock or futures contract. To calculate it, take the past prices and price changes (from close to close), then take an average of those price changes in percentage terms. We'll consider a real-life historical example over 7 days. When we have the average percentage price change over that 7 day period, we can then subtract the daily percentage price changes to derive deviations from the daily average change for that period.
Average true range (ATR) as a Volatility Pointer
A stock experiencing a high level of volatility has a higher ATR, and a low volatility stock has a lower ATR. The ATR may be used by market technicians to enter and exit trades, and it is a useful tool to add to a trading system. It was created to allow traders to more accurately measure the daily volatility of an asset by using simple calculations. The indicator does not indicate the price direction, rather it is used primarily to measure volatility caused by gaps and limit up or down moves. The ATR is fairly simple to calculate and only needs historical price data. ATR is a durable meat-and-potatoes type of indicator that can serve you well in your investing ventures. Range and volatility are fundamental concepts in technical analysis and true range comes up frequently, not only as a concept but also as the underlying calculation, in more complex indicators. ATR reflects the trading range, and knowing this can allow you to more accurately buy and sell into trends as well as set stops.. Its Average True Range (ATR) shows a figure of 0.34.
Simple Moving Average (SMA) Analysis:
The 8.35% positive depiction highlighted by the trends created around 20 day SMA. The established trader's sentiment toward the stock has created a trading environment which can appropriately be designated as optimistic.
There has been positive change grasped around 50 day SMA. The stock price is showing 12.62% distance above 50 SMA. On the surface, it seems as the higher the 50-day moving average goes, the more bullish the market is (and the lower it goes, the more bearish). In practice, however, the reverse is true. The 50-day moving average is perceived to be the dividing line between a stock that is technically healthy and one that is not. Furthermore, the percentage of stocks above their 50-day moving average helps determine the overall health of the market. Many market traders also use moving averages to determine profitable entry and exit points into specific securities.
Goldcorp Inc. (GG) stock price recognized negative trend built on latest movement of 200 SMA with -5.37% during the course of recent market activity. This trend discloses recent direction. The up-to-date direction of 200 SMA is downward. When the price over the last 200 days is moving with increasing trend, look for buy opportunities and when it shows decreasing trend the price is below the last 200 days, look for sell opportunities.
The relative strength index (RSI)'s recent value positioned at 70.44. The RSI's interpretations notify overbought above 70 and oversold below 30. The stock has a beta value of 0.21. When beta is less/more than 1, it can be read that the stock is theoretically less/more volatile than the market.
Analysts assigned consensus rating of 2.4. This rating scale created between 1 and 5. Analyst's suggestion with a score of 3 would be a mark of a Hold views. A rating of 1 or 2 would be indicating a Buy recommendation. A rating of 4 or 5 represents a Sell idea.


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CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. --- The Tennessee Tech volleyball team put together a rally in the third set against Austin Peay, but it was not enough as the Lady Govs were able to take the match in four sets.
After a pair of quick losses in the opening sets, the Golden Eagles came back from the break with new life in the third set. TTU found itself trailing early but was able to remain close through the set. Down 16-13, the Golden Eagles won the next five points as they took the lead for good, en route to a 25-22 third set victory.
TTU continued to battle into the fourth set but the Lady Govs were able to recover in time to take the set 25-20, and the match.
On offense the Golden Eagles were led by sophomore Natalie Penrod's 13 kills, while freshman Ellen Conti added 11 kills of her own. Junior Madison Comperry dished out 23 assists, while sophomore Allison May led the Tech defense with 17 digs.
TTU (4-21, 3-12 OVC) continues its road trip Saturday against Tennessee State, at 2 p.m.


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Will the Tampa Bay Rays Win the American League East? — Sports Survey of the Day
For years, Tampa Bay was seen the ugly stepchild in the American League East, but the Rays have come a long way since being established in 1998.
It took 10 years before the Rays were a serious threat in the division, but ever since 2008, when they made it to the World Series, they have been making things tough for the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Baltimore Orioles and Toronto Blue Jays. (Coincidentally—or not?—2008 was the year Tampa Bay shortened their nickname from the Devil Rays to the Rays.)
In 2013 the Rays are just a half game back of first-place Boston, and just keep turning in big performances. On Wednesday David Price threw a complete game in a 5-1 win over Boston. Is this the team to beat in the division?


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Beef producers may want to join a tour of beef farms in Argentina and Brazil. The tour is hosted by BEEF magazine, a sister publication of Farm Industry News. The tour will leave the U.S. on January 18, 2008, and return January 31. The itinerary is packed with cattle industry stops — from feedlots and packing plants to retail locations. It also includes visits to renowned tourist sites.
For more information, contact BEEF editor Joe Roybal at 952/851-4669 or firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Letter to the House supporting legislation that would extend unemployment benefits
June 12, 2008
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the National Education Association's (NEA) 3.2 million members, we again urge your support for legislation that would extend unemployment benefits for workers who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits. We were disappointed that the House failed to pass this legislation earlier this week under suspension of the rules. Votes associated with this issue may be included in the NEA Legislative Report Card for the 110th Congress.
For five consecutive months, the U.S. economy has lost jobs, for a total loss of over 300,000 jobs. Just last month, the unemployment rate saw its biggest one-month increase in over 20 years. Currently, over 1.5 million workers are long-term unemployed, meaning they have been jobless for over six months.
Long-term unemployed individuals receive neither a paycheck nor unemployment benefits. And, rising gas and food prices are making it even harder for them to meet their families' even most basic needs. Extension of the unemployment insurance program is critical to ensuring family stability and, consequently, the well being of thousands of students in our public schools.
The legislation under consideration this week would provide up to 13 weeks of extended unemployment benefits in every state to workers exhausting regular unemployment compensation. In states with higher levels of unemployment, an additional 13 weeks would be available. This temporary extended benefits program would expire in March 2009.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates this bill would provide benefits to 3.8 million unemployed workers. In addition, it will help stimulate the economy. According to CBO, extending unemployment benefits is one of the most cost-effective and fastest-acting forms of economic stimulus because the money is spent quickly.
Again, we urge your support for this important legislation.
Diane Shust, Director of Government Relations
Randall Moody, Manager of Federal Advocacy


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European Sideboard Staff
Sturla Bingen will be pleased to know that his European Champions
title of last year remains in Norway as Nicolai Herzog emerged as the
winner today in Berlin after some exciting final matches. Nicolai is fairly
unknown outside of Norway, although he competed in several tournaments abroad.
His newly won trophee won't lack company though as he became the 1999 National
Champion of Norway a couple of weeks ago.
Final top 8:
© 1995-2003 Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Wizards is headquartered in Renton, Washington, PO Box 707, Renton, WA 98057.


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update - see below.
Tony Keys and Jenny Stonier produce The Key Report, an independent, subscription-based newsletter which plops into my inbox every week. Today's edition carries the following fascinating account of mounting tensions between commercial development and the Tasmanian wine industry which have erupted into a boycott of Tamar Ridge wines by some Australian sommeliers and wine merchants. Such issues are not of course unique to Tasmania but, along with New Zealand, the island of Tasmania has so far been able to play the green, unspoilt card with unusual conviction.
Tamar Ridge in the Firing Line
Beautiful children, ugly parents – can the kids help it? How about the more quoted text from Exodus: 'God visits the sins of the fathers on the children, even to the third and fourth generation'.
Heavy stuff? Damn right it is. Add in the picture of children being used by adults as suicide bombers and… but I'm drifting far away from the story that started the thought process.
Which is, the Tasmanian timber company Gunns and its offspring Tamar Ridge Wines. The question: 'Is the boycott of Tamar Ridge wines by restaurants, retailers or consumers an effective way to protest against Gunns' siting of its proposed pulp mill in the Tamar Valley?' Does it avoid the real issue with Gunns and take an easy option of 'visiting the sins of the fathers on the children'?
Gunns' relationship with the general public is not the best, and it's fair to say that it is tense at times. They also have a tendency to rush into litigation. The Tasmanian political scene has its own problems often looking to an outsider a cross between Chicago in the 1920s and Zimbabwe today and there are huge environmental, political, financial and ethical issues to be debated. Unfortunately, TKR is not the place to do this.
Our concern is Tamar Ridge and how it fits into the Gunns story, and whether it is right to punish the child for the sins of its father. It's a story that's been building since Gunns acquired Tamar Ridge in 2003.
In simplistic terms, Gunns is proposing to build a pulp mill in northern Tasmania's Tamar Valley. Many oppose the building of the mill at this site, and some are backing their protest by boycotting Tamar Ridge wines. The boycott started locally and has spread to Sydney and Melbourne via restaurants and wine stores refusing to stock the wines.
Jeni Port, writing in The Age on 24 Jul, said 350 members of the Victorian chapter of the Australian Sommeliers Association will be told that Gunns are proposing to build the pulp mill. Apparently the sommeliers are not being directed to de-list Tamar Ridge – that decision is being left to them.
In the article Ms Port says that 'in response, almost a dozen Melbourne restaurant-based sommeliers, consultants and at least one retailer are boycotting Gunns-owned wines. Walk into Fifteen, Bottega, the Carlisle Wine Bar, Oyster or Rathdowne Cellars in Melbourne and you will not find Tamar Ridge wines on sale.'
Graeme Philips writes the wine column for The Mercury - the Hobart daily newspaper. He picked up on Ms Port's article, advancing it to the next stage and reporting that Gunns didn't appear concerned and Tamar Ridge 'sales are as strong as ever'.
He then brings in Dr Andrew Pirie, CEO of Tamar Ridge, who puts forward the point that if this boycott is taken up it could damage the 'growth and momentum of the whole Tasmanian wine industry'. Philips also reports that 'a highly regarded national wine writer has said he'll have nothing to do with any Tasmanian promotion sponsored by or involving Tamar Ridge'.
As can be seen, it's getting heavy. The environmental damage that could arise from the pulp mill is one very important aspect, as is old-growth forest logging and Gunns' dealings with the media, organisations and individuals who oppose them. We strongly defend the right to protest or indeed boycott products, and we decry the powerful company or individual who runs to lawyers as soon as they are challenged.
However, remaining in the narrow corridor of wine (a minnow in the overall context), our concern is two-fold. First, the overall effect this might have on Tasmanian wine, especially if the issue goes international. The second is echoing Graeme Phillips' last sentence: 'Should the boycott really bite, it will be Tamar Ridge's 150 employees who'll bear the brunt, certainly not Gunns shareholders.'
Robyn Lewis is managing director of Visit Vineyards. Along with Charlie, her husband, she is also a farmer and passionate about Tasmania. She is concerned that the mixing of politics and business is not healthy.
TKR: 'Is boycotting Tamar Ridge wines really doing any harm to Gunns?'
Robyn Lewis: 'In my opinion, in terms of their bottom line, I doubt that unless the boycott is extended Australia-wide there will be any impact on Gunns' profits whatsoever, and even then it would be minimal – wine accounts for a very small percentage of their profits.
'However, the boycott is drawing attention to their more questionable land use and other practices, and down here the boycott has quite some private support. Few dare speak out in Tasmania against Gunns or the State government publicly, so it's a good way for people who object to the Tamar pulp-mill issue and/or the related erosion of democratic processes to feel that at least something is being done, and that someone outside this State is taking any notice at all. People here are also getting very depressed about the issue and the abolition of the proper assessment process, and to feel that others outside this State are also supportive, even in such a small way, gives them some hope.
'The main task in implementing the boycott will be to try to make consumers aware that it's not all Tasmanian wines (which would not seem to be difficult to do, at the sommelier level).'
TKR: 'Is it doing more harm to the Tasmanian wine industry than Gunns?'
Robyn Lewis: 'There could perhaps be some short-term impact on the industry if the boycott were carried further, e g into retail outlets etc, when consumer confusion might result if there were not adequate explanatory materials. But in the long term, in my opinion, the Tasmanian wine industry stands to gain from the boycott, because if the mill is stopped or (perhaps more likely, if there is Federal intervention) relocated out of the Tamar, the enhancement to the clean, green, unpolluted Tasmanian brand – especially in the key wine and food region of the Tamar – will assist them enormously. Tasmanian wine is very closely linked to the Tasmanian brand, in my opinion, being a substantial point of difference relative to other States, and anything that enhances the brand will also lift consumers' perceptions of Tasmanian wines (and the reverse).
'Look at it another way: do you think interstate/overseas demand for Tamar Ridge/Gunns wines is going to go up if the mill is built? I certainly don't, and I don't think it will for other wineries either, especially those located nearby.
'I hear from wine show sources in the US that they can hardly believe what Tasmania is contemplating doing with this pulp mill, especially just as Tasmanian pPinots are poised to become more recognised on the world stage.'
TKR: 'Put us right by all means, but we are concerned that the damage to the big bad wolf will be little, but the workers at Tamar Ridge will bear the brunt.'
Robyn Lewis: 'The point of it is to get publicity and draw peoples' attention to the reality of what is going on in Tasmania. I don't think anyone believes that Gunns will directly lose any dollars over it.
'The wine industry in the Tamar Valley will surely bear the brunt if the mill goes ahead – already several vignerons are threatening to move to NZ in disgust if it does, and some major restaurateurs are also very unhappy. Of course, they have been informed in advance by our Premier that they have no case for compensation.'
The passion that Robyn Lewis exhibits is a fair indicator of many locals. Requesting anonymity, another appeared stressed and upset with the issue, and told TKR that 'this battle over the proposed pulp mill has disempowered, disenfranchised and is destroying many of the small unique wine, agriculture, tourism and fishery producers in the region and the State'. TKR was directed to consult the following websites to find the following information:
• 64 percent of this State feels the assessment process is a sham – see www.investorsfortas.com.
• 34 percent of tourism operators feel that this proposed mill will have direct negative impacts on their business. 58 percent feel it will damage the Tasmanian brand – see www.tict.com.au.
• True, but to be fair it also said 64 percent expected the net benefits to the Tasmanian economy from the pulp mill within the next five years to be positive and 53 percent expected the net benefits to the Tasmanian economy from the pulp mill over a period greater than five years to be positive.
• Check out the ITS Global Report, on www.justice.tas.gov.au. It says there will be a 'small' negative impact on the region's tourism from the proposed mill but more significant on the agriculture and fishery businesses. How much is 'small'?
The ITS Global Report says that 'even though there is wide acknowledgement that the Project will be located in a diverse industrial precinct and operated to reduce emissions and effluent below technical environmental benchmarks, businesses are concerned that visitor experiences, and hence tourism and recreation levels, will be decreased if there is a perception that the resources – visual amenity, fresh air, "clean and green" seafood and wine – required to attract tourists are tainted.
The Report continues:
'The common opinion amongst tourists is that the Tamar is primarily about vineyards, orchards, agriculture, seafood and small scale industry, compatible with the tourism industry.
'The most significant adverse cumulative impacts of these consequences would be captured indirectly by businesses in the Tamar Valley utilising lifestyle and food from land (e g grapes and olives) and marine sources (e g fish, scallops, lobsters) to market their activities.
'These adverse cumulative impacts would fall largely on businesses immediately to the west of the operating Project and the handful of businesses on the Rowella Peninsula at the local level, and more broadly in the region, i e the Tamar Valley and associated wine route, utilising lifestyle and food from land (e g grapes and olives) and marine sources (e g fish, scallops, lobsters) to market their activities.'
It's here the logic becomes confusing. As Gunns, via Tamar Ridge is the largest vineyard owner in the region, are they doing a disservice to themselves with this pulp mill? There would be some irony if the investors of Gunns wine grape managed investment scheme demanded compensation from Gunns pulp mill for devaluing their investment.
Rod Ascui, part owner of Stillwater restaurant in Launceston, Tasmania, told TKR that 'it's not just about logs anymore, it is much wider reaching. Are we one of the "small" affected businesses? Will this make us unviable and therefore our businesses fail and directly affect the 43 people that we personally pay every week as well? They have only done benefit analysis of the project and haven't done any cost/risk analysis to quantify the impact on the businesses, other industries and the community.
'Some local vineyards that I buy from are feeling their livelihood is being threatened by the proposed mill. We specialise in Tasmanian wines and any damage to the Tasmanian wine brand will affect what we do in the restaurant. It could be built at Hampshire, near Burnie in the middle of a plantation away from people and tourism with minimal impacts on airshed, odour, reduced marine issues etc.'
'As approximately 66 percent of Tasmanian wines are currently produced in the Tamar Valley region and the pulp mill has the potential to impact on these producers directly or through brand damage (H2S and Pinot don't go well together as you know), a boycott is hardly the issue here.'
Not that Andrew Pirie, CEO of Tamar Ridge, and his team can do much about being owned by Gunns (apart from find jobs elsewhere) but they do have to live and deal with this issue. They are indeed between a rock and a hard place. One also gets the impression they are cowed by Gunns. TKR asked if they would like to contribute, and then sent a reminder a few weeks later. We finally received a telephone call and email saying yes, they would like to respond.
The response was two previously published releases – one from Gunns and the other in the form of an open letter published in Harvest, the Wine Industry Tasmania newsletter.
What the three pages from Gunns boil down to is the company saying that the mill will be clean and efficient and they have the research and reports to back up that statement. It will also be of great economic benefit to Tasmania and won't harm tourism or vineyards in any way.
In regard to Tamar Ridge, we are told they are a 'significant player in the Tasmanian wine sector with over 100 hectares of estate vineyards in the Tamar Valley'. They also buy grapes from growers and contract winemaking for a dozen or so brands. They're involved in tourism via cellar door and contribute to the whole industry via 'its research programme on Pinot Noir'.
Bringing the two together is the following paragraph:
'Tamar Ridge Estates is very conscious of its viticultural environment and is embarking on various aspects of a sustainable viticulture programme, which encompasses consideration of any impacts of the mill on the surrounding region.
'We have studied mills co-existing with viticultural production in other countries, and experience to date has indicated there is no evidence of any negative impacts of emissions on grape and wine production from comparable mills located near wine regions. Our own consultant, Dr Richard Smart, an internationally respected and world-leading viticulturist, endorses this view.' One could ask the oblivious [obvious?] question arising out of this statement: is a viticulturist the right person to consult about wine production and how confident can a viticulturist be regarding the quality of the finished product?
John Gay, Gunns Executive Chairman, says 'I do not believe this issue is about a choice between pulp mills or the tourism and the hospitality sector. Benefits from the pulp mill do not have to come at the expense of other industries.'
It's fairly obvious that many others in the state do not share the view, and maybe there is some truth in Robyn Lewis' statement that 'in fact, you could even see them (Gunns) as trying to buy some credibility in buying it (Tamar Ridge)'.
The letter in Harvest starts 'Dear WIT members, We're going through what could only be described as a significant period of history for the Tasmanian wine industry.'
Dr Pirie gives some justification for his current position. 'I took the job of guiding the expanding enterprise because I was excited by the challenge, I thought that Gunns' vision for their involvement in the Tasmanian wine industry was sound and I wanted to see the industry expand and be successful.'
Then follows a 'Gunns is good' statement, 'Tamar Ridge has a fair degree of autonomy' and hey guys, there's no problem with the pulp mill because 'our consultant Richard Smart has done that work and has assured us, and the parent company, that there is no detectable problem'.
More flag flying follows before moving on to the boycott and saying it's not as bad as Jeni Port's article suggests and that several of the sommeliers 'indicated they were not totally happy with the way they were quoted. I believe they have written to Jeni, indicating that to her.'
Dr Pirie continues. 'As the press has become involved in this debate it is a challenge to have our feelings and sentiments accurately conveyed, either by our own press releases or words, which is one of the main reasons I am writing this. In a brief conversation with The Mercury a few days ago, an attempt to explain how the good things that Gunns were doing for the wine industry would be impacted by boycotts became construed as a headline saying that the boycotts would damage other growers.'
It's a little unfair to cut Dr Pirie off at this juncture, but the rest drifts away from our story. The point we stay with is that the CEO of Tamar Ridge – an extremely talented man and one that has done so much for Tasmanian wine – has become an apologist for the parent company Gunns. What a waste.
It will also happen to other employees such as Anthony Woollams and Will Adkins. Instead of being in London, Copenhagen or New York giving talks on their wine and exciting people about Tasmanian wine in general, they will be defending Gunns. Our fear is that London or Toronto restaurants won't be able to separate Tasmania from Tamar Ridge.
Before sommeliers start delisting Tamar Ridge wine they should, as should everybody, look to their super fund or bank and see if they themselves are inadvertently investing in Gunns. In the 2006 annual accounts, the top 20 investors in Gunns included National Nominees, JP Morgan, Citicorp, Westpac, ANZ, AMP Life etc.
This is a huge issue that we fear will end with more losers than winners. The losers, we fear, will be the innocents, not the perpetrators.
3 Sep – Robyn Lewis reports: The proposal was passed by the Tasmanian Parliament on 29 Aug, but seems now set to become a national issue with the looming Federal election. The Tasmanian wine industry remains divided, but within the wine industry it's becoming a more national issue also.
Sheena High of Swan Bay Vineyard, Tasmania writes:
For updates can I direct you to www.tamarpulpmill.info
We truly need immediate support at present from a voice that might be
listened to and would value your support. You have visited Tasmania and written about the wine industry here which deserves your acclaim in its infancy with, I believe, great potential in the future.
My husband from Yorkshire and myself from Inverness selected the Tamar
Valley as an optimum location to grow and produce premium cool climate
wines in the southern hemisphere.
We emigrated, bought a few paddocks and, despite the hard work, have
enjoyed converting some of those paddocks into a vineyard which now
produces 35 tonnes of Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc and Riesling.
We and others in the industry are disillusioned at present by the
short-sightedness of our state government with regard to the wine industry.
Despite local petitions and rallies, we are not being heard. The environmental impacts of the pulp mill proposal in its existing form are well documented and are a disgrace to Australia.
We wish to preserve the unique qualities of an island which we and many
others value in its current untainted, unpolluted form for future generations and to maintain our existing sustainable wine/tourism/fishery industries. Any help you can give re publicity or campaigning for support on your website would be much appreciated.
The proponents who want to build this world's largest pulp mill in the
Tamar Valley plan to use old growth forests which must be preserved, not
turned into pulp to be sent to Japan. The mill if built will pollute the
air and Tamar Estuary with chemicals which are carcinogenic and will be
irreversibly damaging to marine organisms with follow on up the food
Having been fortunate to live in and visit many places around the world, we are passionate about Tasmania and the wine industry here. Any commercial industry short term gain with potential damage to our fragile environment must be questioned and hopefully opposed by those who value an environment to be proud of and to inherit.
My personal feeling is that we need help and support globally to speak
out in opposition to any project which today has the potential to damage a unique environment. I ask for your help.


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We will take you to Bidsquare, our preferred online bidding platform. Create your user account on Bidsquare (it only takes a moment) and register as a bidder in this sale.
Continue browsing on Rago.
Arrange a phone/absentee bid.
Estimate: $3,000 - $5,000
Small sculpture, "Desert Flower," Pennsylvania, 2007
Cut, ground, and polished optical crystal
Signed and dated with copyright
16 1/4" x 7" x 3 1/2"
Excellent condition, complete with spinning felt-lined base.
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A record-breaking shortraker was hauled in near Sitka, Alaska last week.
Not only did Henry Liebman's catch beat the record for a shortraker caught on sportfishing gear with his 39.08-pound Rockfish, but a fishery expert is claiming he might've also broken the records for the oldest fish ever caught.
Liebman, who is an insurance adjuster from Seattle, said he visits Sitka frequently so he knew he had gotten a big fish as soon as he laid eyes on his catch.
"I knew it was abnormally big, [but I] didn't know it was a record until on the way back we looked in the Alaska guide book that was on the boat," he said.
According to a fishery biologist, Lieberman's catch might've been swimming in Sitka's coast since the time of Alexander Baranov, the first governor of Russian Alaska.
Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the state Department of Fish and Game, who certified Liebman's catch, said the fish might be around 200 years old.
Samples of the fish have been sent to a lab in Juneau to determine its actual age.
As for the actual fish, Liebman took it back to Washington where he plans to have it mounted.


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Texture, color and cost are the basic building blocks of Rachel Griffin's 'Face Value', a series of low tables each made of three interlocking panels.
"Each panel is produced from a range of materials—marble, Corian, Padoek hardwood, colored MDF, and plywood—representing a range of values." says Griffin. "These materials (and values) are then assembled to create tables in varying compositions of texture, color and cost."
Each component can also be easily mixed and matched as the tables are constructed without glue. The tables are functionally flexible; they can be used individually, in a line or stacked as shelving.


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Tomorrow I'm going to blog in some detail about the Draculas marketing plan. Because I feel it's worth talking about.
Four guys, without any big NY print publishers behind them, managed to rank at #95 on the Amazon Kindle Paid Bestseller list and get 105 Amazon reviews all on this ebook's first day of release.
If you like horror, zombies, thrillers, vampires, or if you've ever been helped by this blog, I humbly ask you to buy Draculas for $2.99 on Kindle (it is DRM free, and can be converted to any format and read on any ereader.)
To read more about the ebook, visit www.draculasthebook.com.
BTW - Currently, the Amazon bestseller list Books > Literature & Fiction > Genre Fiction > Horror (which includes both Kindle and print books), Stephen King has five books in the top 30.
So do I.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
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