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Three days before Spain's 2004 general election, a massive bomb attack on the Madrid subway killed 191 people. When then-Prime Minister José María Aznar and his government initially pointed the finger at Basque terrorists, the public believed his government was covering up the fact that Islamist militants had exacted revenge for Spain's decision to send troops to fight alongside the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Spanish voted against Aznar's party—in the apparent hope of appeasing Islamic terror.
Given his first-hand experience with how terrorism can shape political reality, Aznar more than any other European official is capable of deep sympathy with Israel. This partly explains why he is now using his name and reputation to found the Friends of Israel Initiative, which includes includes other world leaders, like Alejandro Toledo, the former president of Peru, and Czech playwright and one-time President Vaclav Havel, as founding members. "My conviction," Aznar told me in a phone interview this week, "is that the best strategy to defend the West is to defend Israel."
Israel, Aznar said, is not a Middle Eastern country but a Western country in the Middle East—the West's first line of defense in the battle with Islamist radicals who seek to destroy Western freedom and terrorize whomever tries to stand in their way. "The harm done to Israel is damage done to the West," Aznar said. "And delegitimizing Israel is a delegitimization of the West."
While Aznar's pro-U.S. sentiment was obvious to Spanish voters, his support of Israel was more muted. "There wasn't that much opportunity to express this conviction in government," Aznar told me. "But now I'm involved in a battle of ideas." To express unequivocal support for the Jewish state is not the soundest political move in a country that historically has not been particularly friendly to Jews, from the Spanish Inquisition to the present day, when it has played host to massive public rallies in support of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Aznar admitted that "the majority of Spanish are extremely critical of Israel." Radical Muslims, he explained, "help shape public opinion of Israel in Spain. And Europe is a kingdom of relativism. Our work is in convincing both the people of Europe as well as some of its leaders—and this is true even in the U.S. We are aware that there's a long way to go, we're at the beginning, but it's a conviction we share with different people across the world."
In the last few months, Aznar's work has taken him to Israel, throughout Europe, and to the United States, where he also teaches at Georgetown University. In this full schedule of travel, he raises support for his international lobbying campaign to combat the global effort to delegitimize Israel.
The point of his organization, Aznar explained, is that it rallies the support, and solicits the membership, of non-Jews. His members are those who care deeply for both the living Israel and the biblical nation on which Western civilization was built. Unless one understands the history of the Jews and Judeo-Christian values, he said, "it's impossible to understand the history of the Western world and Europe and where we come from."
If many European (and American) elites believe that the world has moved beyond nationalism and toward a post-modern, multicultural utopia in which Jewish nationalism is a dangerous anachronism, Aznar will have nothing of it. For him, the evil that befalls Israel will eventually happen to the rest of us. Failure to defend Israel will only make all Western democracies more vulnerable.
The global left has shaped the debate on Israel in its efforts to delegitimize the Jewish state, leaving American liberals with a center that is skewed toward Israel's murderous adversaries. Today's Democratic party mainstream believes that the failure of Oslo is the exclusive responsibility of the Israeli right and has nothing to do with Arab terror, because that's the political spectrum that the Western far-left and its Arab comrades-in-arms have framed for them—the same way that extremist groups in the Middle East regularly skew the regional political debate in the direction of their mad ideas.
Over the last decade, few have played a more public role in tilting polite opinion against Israel than George Soros. So, perhaps last week's news that Soros is one of the main financial sponsors of J-Street shouldn't come as a surprise—even though he and J-Street founder and director Jeremy Ben-Ami have denied since the group's inception two years ago that the billionaire had provided any backing whatsoever. Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew, is considered by many in the Jewish community to be toxic, not least for arguing that anti-Semitism is the effect of Israel's policies, rather than the polluted mental state of anti-Semites. Nonetheless, Soros has in the past funded some Jewish organizations, while others have said they'd be happy to have his support. J-Street's leaders could have explained their decision to take money from Soros—or simply stated that they do not reveal the identities of their benefactors. Instead, Ben-Ami and his organization lied. Why J-Street chooses to operate in the shadows is perhaps less important than the fact that it does.
It is hard to see what credibility J-Street has left in light of the clear evidence that the organization consciously intended to manipulate and deceive the public, the press, and its own members to advance an agenda that was quite different than the one that it promoted in public statements. The fact that J-Street made Soros' foreign policy guru Mort Halperin, an uncompromising opponent of Israel and vice president of the Open Society Institute, one of its five officers and directors suggests that the organization was not just taking the billionaire's money but also following his political line.
Yet for these self-proclaimed friends of Israel it was rarely about Israel anyway. For them, Israel is a mirror image of those aspects of American culture that make them uncomfortable: nationalism, exceptionalism, and a muscular foreign policy. Scarier yet, Israel's most uncomplicated supporters are Evangelical Christians and those American Jews who believe strongly in both American and Jewish nationalism, and among those who are strongly attached to religious practice. However little some self-conscious liberals may know about the particulars of the Middle East conflict, they know what side their domestic enemies are on.
The other side gets it, too: The Israeli flag Sarah Palin kept prominently displayed in her office as governor was not intended to secure Alaska's Jewish vote but to fly her colors in the U.S. culture wars. Support for Israel can mean many things, some of which are affiliated, and others contradictory—saying no to terrorists and bullies, believing in Western values, accepting the truth of God's promises in the Bible, feeling affinity for Jews, or just showing loyalty to allies. Israel is a cultural signifier of great power among all sorts of people, even in congressional districts where there are very few Jews and where Israel is only a tiny abstract fleck on a map.
However, as the former Spanish prime minister understands, this is not just a war of symbols. It's a real war in which the fate of families and entire peoples is at stake, not just Israel but Europe, too—which is why he has chosen to take a stand. Jeremy Ben-Ami also has an inkling that the conflict is larger than policy debates in Washington and Jerusalem, that it's a real war, which will shape the politics of the West for the next generation—and that's why he lied.


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The Lost Road
This article or section needs expansion and/or modification. Please help the wiki by expanding it.
This article or section needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of article quality.
|The Lost Road and Other Writings chapters
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
The Lost Road is the third chapter of the first section, 'Part One: The Fall of Númenor and the Lost Road', of The Lost Road and Other Writings.
[edit] Plot
The theme of The Lost Road is one of 'Preincarnation': there are a series of occurrences throughout time of father and son duos sharing names that are etymologically connected with Amandil ('Bliss-friend') and Elendil ('Elf-friend'). These include Eädwine-Ælfwine of Anglo-Saxon legend, Audoin-Alboin of Lombardic, through to "the traditions of the North Sea concerning the coming of corn and culture heroes, ancestors of kingly lines, in boats".[1] In the story the present pair—Edwin and Elwin—travel back through the different phases of the history of their names, eventually reaching the time of Amandil and Elendil and the Akallabêth or Atalantie ('Downfall' in Númenórean and Quenya respectively) of Númenor.
Númenor at this stage in Tolkien's thought was not connected with the wider Legendarium. Rather it is a direct analogue of Atlantis, a "legend or myth or dim memory" that had always "troubled" Tolkien and a theme to which he often returned.[1]
[edit] Conception
The genesis of the story was a discussion Tolkien had with C.S. Lewis about the shortcomings of Science Fiction literature. Lewis remarked that "there is too little of what we really like in stories", and suggested they try their hand at the genre "as amateurs":[2]
We... meant each to write an excursionary 'Thriller': a Space-journey and a Time-journey (mine) each discovering Myth.
—J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 24, (dated 18 February 1938)
Lewis' 'Space-journey' came to fruition a few years later and was published as Out of the Silent Planet, thanks in part to the positive review of it Tolkien gave to publishers Allen and Unwin.
However, only a fragment of The Lost Road was ever written: the two opening chapters, and two which take place in Númenor. According to Tolkien he abandoned the story because "it was too long a way round to what I really wanted to make, a new version of the Atlantis legend".[2] He did pass the completed chapters on to Allen & Unwin in 1937 as a possible successor to The Hobbit, however the publishers felt that even if finished the story was unlikely to be a commercial success.[3]
[edit] Other versions of the Legendarium
This was not Tolkien's last attempt at integrating the Númenor story into a time travel frame work. He tried a second time a decade later with The Notion Club Papers. It was only after both these works floundered that the legends of Númenor were finally integrated with the main mythology.[1]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 257, (dated 16 July 1964)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Letter 294, (dated 8 February 1967)
- ↑ J.R.R. Tolkien; Humphrey Carpenter, Christopher Tolkien (eds.), The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, Note 3 to Letter 24, (dated 18 February 1938)

subset: commoncrawl


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About ALANTONE
Most public agencies only care about the money they collect and not necessarily protecting the legacy service. Therefore, once Uber starts paying them off they will be embraced with open arms by the local government.
Actually I think we are reaching the end of a golden age. SOPA was just another example of the government, large businesses and special interests attempt to control the Internet completely. They overreached this time. But they learn. Next time they will not only use protecting jobs, but also babies and puppies to get SOPA passed.
Anyway, at this rate I can imagine a future Internet where the government can have the I.R.S (Internet Review Service) audit our Internet activity. That my friend will be the real "dark age".
Having worked on various government software projects myself I agree that many times the issues is related about changing requirements. But, the reason for the changing requirements is because of so much infighting between the shareholders. This of course means more money for the software contractor.
I will not cross the e-Picket line, I promise not to write a single work for free ... oops ... just broke the ePicket line, darn.
It is sad when anyone blames the greatest tool ever invented by man, The Internet, as killing newspapers or as Woodward said, "... screwed up information system".
Wikileaks might have had the full story of Watergrate faster and better documented than what Mark Felt provided Woodward.
Finally, neither Facebook nor Google, "need to fix the information system", as Woodward said they should, because they both are working exactly the way people need them to work. That is why they are so popular.
It is a well know fact that Berlusconi has taken advantage of his political position to take control of most private channels and with indirectly controling of state channels. (I have a bad habit of reading European newspapers)
Therefore the person who would profit the most by locking out or controling Youtube would be Berlusconi. So Mike was right on target with this post.
People will still be complaining about Microsoft 2090 booting up too slow.
The guy who sued only got $50,000 from the City and state. Maybe $500,000 or $5,000,000 would get the attention of everyone.
It was reported that the exam key was taken.
http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-11-08/news/os-ucf-cheating-test-20101108_1_apparent-cheat ing-exam-students
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/ucf-probes-cheating-scandal-involving-hundreds-of-business-10340 13.html
Which is very different from using a test bank or test sample to study. It is obvious that the students knew what they did was not right, that is why none of the students challenge the professor.
Finally, whether the professor lied to his students or not does not relieve the students for what they did.
Ethics is about doing the right thing and not about rationalize what you did afterward as being right. So technically under the conditions defined in this posting, the student might not have cheated, but their conduct was unethical. And once again, blaming the professor is just rationalizing what the students did as being right. At least 2/3 of students did the right thing.
Mike, I normally agree with you on many of your posting, but you are way off on this one. This is ethics 101 question and these students just got an "F". By shifting blame on how the professor created his exam or even implying that maybe the students were not cheating but studying instead, is a disfavor to both the students who cheated and professor Quinn who took a stand against it.
Of course if your views are based on the philosophy of Relativism then anything goes.
Because of the recent controversy in the City of Bell, California may start leading the way in governemt transparency. The State of California now requires Cities to report to them all employee salary information. The state then in turn posts the salary information on their website.
Also, many cities are doing this on their own websites. Which I think is a great start!
I think the parents as well as the school district are to blame. Lack of compromise is usually what lands people in court.
In this case it should have been resolved at the school level, or the district level or even the school board level. Instead money will be wasted on attorney feels by both sides, careers will destroyed and children emotionally impacted. And for what??
Sadly, this is our society of today. Sue first and ask questions later.
Sometimes Fat kids in a T-shirt living in his mother's basement have more interesting things to say then old dudes like Dale Hansen. If he can take the heat its time for him to leave.
If these punishments can be overturned based on the logic that it is an "unfair encroachment on his liberties" why can we not apply this same argument to meter Internet access or any situations where ISPs try to limit our ability to access the Internet? And yes I understand the business side, but I still think that it is unfair for AT&T and Apple to limit our IPhones to how we can communicate using Skype or other similar services via their 3G system.
If you read this comment you owe me mucho $$$. Email me only cash in small bills. ;)
Under Jobs' powerful leadership, Apple has reigned supreme over music player and smart phones. But will the IPad be the final straw that unravels Apples master plan to take over the technology world business? I think that as long as they meet their customer's needs within an acceptable price range, Apple's reign will be long and profitable.
I have always found it interesting how people assume that artist or anyone for that matter is wise and intelligent just because they are good in their field.
Sorry, was suppose to be posted for: "Shepard Fairey Destroys..." story.
- Alan :(
I have always found it interesting how people assume that artist or anyone for that matter is wise and intelligent just because they are good in their field.


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Names: Virginia Prune Bark.
Habitat: Widely distributed throughout Canada and the USA.
Collection: The bark is gathered from young plants in the autumn, when it is most active. The outer bark is stripped off and the inner bark is carefully dried in the shade. It must be stored in an air tight container and protected from light.
Part Used: Dried bark.
Indications: Due to its powerful sedative action on the cough reflex, Wild Cherry Bark finds its main use in the treatment of irritating coughs and thus has a role in the treatment of bronchitis and whooping cough. It can be used with other herbs in the control of asthma. It must be remembered, however, that the inhibition of a cough does not equate with the healing of a chest infection, which will still need to be treated. It may also be used as a bitter where digestion is sluggish. The cold infusion of the bark may be helpful as a wash in cases of inflammation of the eyes.
Priest & Priest say it is a "mild, soothing, stimulating astringent: tonic expectorant for acute irritable coughs, quietens nervous irritability and relieves arterial excitement. Sedative for conditions of prolonged
irritation." They give the following specific indications: chronicbronchitis with debility. Catarrhal dyspepsia, weak digestion in the elderly. Chronic diarrhoea. Weak throat. Ophthalmia.
Ellingwood recommends it for: chronic coughs, phthisis, palpitations & dyspepsia.
To quote King's at length: "Wild Cherry Bark has a tonic and stimulating
influence on the digestive apparatus, and a simultaneous sedative action on the nervous system and circulation. It is, therefore, valuable in all those cases where it is desirable to give tone and strength to the system, without, at the same time, causing too great an action of the heart and blood vessels, as, during convalescence from pleurisy, pneumonia, acutehepatitis, and other inflammatory and febrile
diseases. Its chief property is its power of relieving irritation of the mucous surfaces, making it an admirable remedy in many gastro-intestinal, pulmonic, and urinary troubles. Like Lycopus, it lessens vascular excitement, though it does not control hemorrhages like that agent. It is best adapted to chronic troubles. It is also useful in hectic fever, cough, colliquative diarrhoea, some forms of
irritative dyspepsia, whooping-cough, irritability of the nervous system, etc., and has been found an excellent palliative in phthisis, the syrup being employed to moderate the cough, lessen the fever, and sustain the patient's strength. It has likewise been of service in scrofula and other disease attended with much debility and hecticfever. Wild cherry is an excellent sedative in cardiac
palpitation, not due to structural wrongs. It is particularly useful in this disorder when there is nervous fever, tuberculosis or the debility consequent upon irritative dyspepia, anemia, chlorosis, or nervous diseases. Externally, it has been found useful, in decoction, as a wash to ill conditioned ulcers and acute ophthalmia. Specific Indications and Uses. Rapid, weak circulation;
continual irritative cough, with profuse muco-purulent expectoration; cardiac palpitation, from debility; dyspnoea; pyrexia; loss of appetite; and cardiac pain."
Combinations: May be used widely with many different herbs.
Preparations & Dosage: Infusion: pour a cup of boiling water onto l teaspoonful of the dried bark and leave to infuse for l0-l5 minutes. This should be drunk three times a day. Tincture: take l-2 ml
of the tincture three times a day.


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Jun 18 2007, 12:31 AM
Post #1
Expert Member
Group: Administrators
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Source: http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/Norton_AntiViru...rus_97_2007.php
|Lo-Fi Version
|Time is now: 23rd August 2019 - 07:18 PM


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The Lumineers
"Ho Hey"
Track Review
Pop music trends these days are proceeding, curiously, in two very different directions.
One road leads to the increasingly inescapable synthesized sound of the electronic dance music craze. Known as EDM, it's a sound that's been pioneered by European DJs such as Calvin Harris and David Guetta, but one that's been assimilated by established artists such as Rihanna, Usher and Bruno Mars, among many others.
The other road leads to a full-on revival of stripped-down genres such as folk rock and neo soul. Adele has carried the torch for the soul side of this thoroughfare, with her piano-driven ballads and massive voice proving to be a compelling alternative to prefab pop. As for folk rock/pop, Mumford & Sons has almost single-handedly reignited the roots rock movement with its infectious acoustic anthems.
Which brings us to The Lumineers.
This Denver-based trio invites immediate comparison, sound-wise, to Mumford—never mind that the band's core, Wesley Schulz and Jeremy Fraites, first started making music together back in 2002. The band's official bio describes The Lumineers' vibe as "an amalgam of heart-swelling stomp-and-clap acoustic rock, classic pop, and front-porch folk."
That's apt. From start to finish, the appropriately titled "Ho Hey" is flanked by stomping repetition of those phrases:
"(Ho) I've been trying to do it right/(Hey) I've been living a lonely life/(Ho) I've been sleeping here instead/(Hey) I've been sleeping in my bed."
It's a lyrical structure that looks funny on paper, but one that totally works out loud as we hear the story of a man separated from the woman he loves and of his longing to be reunited with her. But worth noting with regard to those first lyrics: They could imply that the man in question is sleeping alone these days instead of the wished-for alternative.
Thankfully, that's as close to anything suggestive as the song ever gets. The balance of the track finds Schulz pining away for a reunion with a woman who's moved on. "(Ho) I don't think you're right for him/(Hey) Look at what might have been/ … I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart/ … Love, we need it now/Let's hope for some/So we're bleeding now."
It's an almost startlingly downcast vibe transporting a small glimmer of hopefulness in this upbeat—stompin', rollickin'—tune.
A postscript: As for the band's bright and shiny moniker, it was actually the result of a mistake … combined with a bit of "borrowing," it seems. In a September interview with the University of Alabama's student newspaper, The Crimson White, Jeremy Fraites admitted, "We were playing a show in Jersey City about three years ago and [the MC] basically said, 'Alright, up next, Lumineers,' and we weren't called that at that point, but I guess the Lumineers were playing next week. After the show we just said, 'Hey, pretty cool name. Let's use that.'" No word on how the original Lumineers felt about the matter.
Positive Elements
Spiritual Content
Sexual Content
Violent Content
Crude or Profane Language
Drug and Alcohol Content
Other Negative Elements
Pro-social Content
Objectionable Content
Summary Advisory
Plot Summary
Christian Beliefs
Other Belief Systems
Discussion Topics
Additional Comments/Notes
Episode Reviews
Readability Age Range
Peaked at No. 3.
Record Label
Dualtone Records
June 4, 2012


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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2002 News Releases > September 2002 > Movie-watching duo breaks world record by hour
Movie-watching duo breaks world record by hour
While most of the world spent Monday's Labor Day holiday resting from work, Marti Runnels and Chris Moore spent the day catching up on sleep - three days worth to be exact.
On Sunday, Sept. 1, Wayland Baptist University employees Runnels and Moore successfully broke the world record for continuous movie watching around 3:45 p.m. with a final time of 51 hours and 50 minutes.
The marathon started around 1 p.m. on Friday, with approximately five folks starting the challenge. While most dropped out after only a few hours, freshman Lacy Vercher lasted 21 hours before calling it quits. In the final analysis, though, it was only Runnels and Moore who lasted the entire time, breaking the previous record of 50 hours and 55 minutes near the end of "A Streetcar Named Desire."
" 'Sweeney Todd' is my favorite musical, and Chris' too, so we decided to save that to the end when we knew we'd need something to keep us up," explained Runnels, theatre director at WBU. "Afterwards, though, we had a hard time remembering how long we'd gone, so we started watching 'Streetcar.' That's what was actually going when we passed the record, but 'Sweeney Todd' gave us some vitality toward the end. We were singing all the songs to stay awake."
Runnels and Moore, technical director for theatre, watched a total of about 30 movies from all genres, and the two used every known tactic to keep from falling asleep.
"It's a weird thing your body does when you haven't had any sleep. Sometimes I'd watch two or three in a row and not feel tired, and then at other times I just kept nodding," Runnels said. "We walked around the screen a lot, danced, did exercise, chewed on ice, put ice down our backs and anything else we could do to stay awake."
Runnels said much credit goes to Tisa Whitfill, a theatre student at Wayland and the theatre secretary, for keeping the pair awake, switching movies out and changing videotapes for the filming of the event, which has to be sent to Guinness for proof that the event occurred and no one broke any rules. He said she managed to stay awake for about 80-90 percent of the marathon. He also mentioned his wife, Mary, and Moore's wife Teresa as big supporters who brought food and cheered the group on, along with WBU instrumental director Tim Kelley.
Runnels said the group went about 38 hours before taking a rest break, storing up the five-minutes-per-hour allotted by Guinness for folks attempting to break a marathon record. The two-hour nap was welcomed. until the pair woke up.
"That's where it got really interesting, because after you wake up your body really wants more sleep and you have to get up and watch movies in the dark," he said.
The movie marathon was a fundraiser for the theatre department's January trip to New York. The group solicited per-hour pledges from supporters and will gather money this work toward the trip.


text: Crown prince of Dubai Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum partook in Serendipity 3's Golden Opulence Sundae in royal fashion Saturday night. His royal highness arrived at the Upper East Side eatery, spies said, with an eight-person posse of bodyguards, plus women "all in black," to savor the $1,000 dish (which comes complete with edible gold and Tahitian vanilla ice cream). The sundae is served in a $300 Baccarat goblet. And when the Dubai royal received the receptacle in a red velvet-lined box at the end of his meal, he quipped, "I would have ordered one for each person if I knew I got to keep the glass!" Sources told us the prince paid his bill in cash and left the waiter a generous tip.


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The Coming Productivity PickupJun 30, 2017
Investors have begun rewarding companies that focus on capital expenditures rather than buybacks and dividends. Will this new trend fuel GDP growth?
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Mumbai's been in the spotlight this week since the film "Slumdog Millionaire" won big at the Oscars Sunday night. And the winner of the Oscar for Short Documentary, "Smile Pinki," also took place in India. Even before the awards were announced, charities and to some extent, the filmmakers themselves, have been working to turn the buzz into dollars and deeds to help children in India and beyond.
There's no denying the impact of this feel good story about a young boy who grows up in the slums of Mumbai and makes it big on a game show.
"The real challenge here is to take a feel good story and make it into a do-good story," says Jim Hickman of the Institute for One World Health in San Francisco.
"There are times where pop culture and politics intersect, and good can come out of it. I think Slumdog Millionaire is another one of those opportunities on a global level."
Hickman's non-profit develops pharmaceuticals for neglected diseases in the developing world. The group has jumped on the Oscar bandwagon with a full page ad in Monday's "New York Times" playing off the game show motif in "Slumdog Millionaire" and the line in the movie: "It is written."
Hickman says, "It is written is the fourth answer in a question that opens up the film asking whether or not the character is winning a contest because he's cheating or his life experience has taught him many valuable lessons, or it is written – it's his destiny."
And of course, the message of One World Health is that it is not written, that millions of people die from treatable diseases each year. Likewise, the UK-based Save the Children says it's been feeling the effect of "Slumdog Millionaire"'s success. The group's PR manager, Kate Redman, says it's all about bringing tough issues like poverty alive.
"It's bringing it straight into the cinema screen, and you know, without using the wrong word, but to kind of sexify an issue and glamorize it so that people can really imagine it and sort of really suddenly see what it must be like. And I think personifying it as well, so you have strong characters that are talking to you from the cinema screen rather than it being constantly a development issue in the foreign pages of the newspaper."
Redman says it's way too early to tell how much the success of Slumdog will affect groups like Save the Children in terms of money or interest or projects, but she hopes the trend of movie-making about these issues continues.
"I'm sure it will be the first of many. And you know, from our point of view there are many issues – child witches, minings, slavery, trafficking – you know, all of these would make fantastic films just because they're incredible phenomenon that should still be existing today."
Filmmaker Megan Mylan couldn't agree more. She created this year's Oscar-winning Documentary Short "Smile Pinki". It's about a little Indian girl with a cleft palate who undergoes the relatively cheap, simple surgery that transforms her life. Mylan's very clear about the need to capitalize on the Oscar moment.
"It's an incredible amount of exposure, and I think for documentary filmmakers it's tough to reconcile sometimes. There's so much attention put on you and your dress and the glamour of the Oscars. And that's just hard to reconcile, especially for filmmakers who do social issue documentaries, of like, "How do I make meaning out of this?" And it guarantees the film a big audience. I mean, more people will turn into HBO because they saw us at the Oscars. So you know, there's no denying that that has an impact, and then I think our challenge is really catching that energy."
Mylan says all kinds of things have happened to Pinki and her family and her village as a result of the film, but she hopes there's a bigger impact as well.
"Because your neighbor doesn't get Malaria, and you don't see a little girl with a heinous cleft walking down 5th Avenue in New York. You never see it. So we're hopeful that this movie will raise Americans' consciousness about the plight of the extremely poor and these children that could be so easily helped. I mean, the surgery we provided this girl costs less than one of Angelina Jolie's shoes."
Mullaney says his inbox is full, The Smile Train's website is exploding with hits, and calls and donations are way up. That's the Oscar bump other related charities are hoping for, too.
PRI's "The World" is a one-hour, weekday radio news magazine offering a mix of news, features, interviews, and music from around the globe. "The World" is a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH Boston.


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Digital Commons
is a new digital service offered by the Library. This institutional repository offers a central location to collect, present, archive and disseminate digital information for the entire UNF community. Research and scholarly material has been selected and deposited by individual faculty, the Special Collections of the Library, and the departments and centers on campus. For more information, see the Digital Commons Library Guide.
Digitized materials from Special Collections and University Archives in Digital Commons include:
Florida Heritage /
Publication of Archival, Library & Museum Materials (PALMM) Collections
- Over two hundred titles from Special Collections have been digitized and are accessible via the Florida Heritage Collection, an ongoing cooperative digital project of the public universities of Florida. This online collection provides web access to rare and unique materials representing Florida's history, culture, arts, literature, and sciences. Our digitized items include significant resources from our local history and Personal Papers collections. Formats vary, ranging from print and textual materials to photographs and maps. A full listing of the Library's digitized items can be found at the UNF PALMM contributors page. Our Eartha M. M. White Collection is particularly well represented with numerous photographs and printed materials.
Finding aids (guides) for our personal papers and organizational records, and selected University Archives materials are included in Archives Florida, a database of finding aids which describe the contents of many of the records and personal papers held in Florida archives. Examples of UNF finding aids include commencement records; early historical files; Academic Council, General Assembly and Faculty Association records; College of Arts and Sciences records, Irish Studies Program records; University Archives biographical files; University of North Florida publications records, and University of North Florida Press files.
Additional Digital Resources - The Library has also digitized a number of important primary resources held in our Personal Papers collections and University Archives. These images and documents have been added to selected Special Collections finding aids and webpages. A link will be provided to the fulltext or image if available online. Examples: Eartha White Subject Index; Afro-American Life Insurance Co. Collection - see links to fulltext publications on bottom of guide.
We provide access to a number of archival images and fulltext documents, such as these early UNF documents:
Archival newspapers and newsletters available online include:
UNF Through the Years provides historical images from University Archives. Included are images of faculty, staff, students, and other UNF-affiliated individuals; university construction, campus buildings and sites; and university events.
The majority of our rare digitized materials can be accessed through the Library Catalog via title, author, subject and anywhere searches. When narrowing a search to digital items only, select the "Other Collections" tab.Examples of Catalog searches for materials in Special Collections:
Anywhere Search: schafer from scratch pads and dreamsAuthor Search: schafer daniel Title Search: florida sub-tropical expositionSubject Search: jacksonville history
Anywhere Search: schafer from scratch pads and dreamsAuthor Search: schafer daniel Title Search: florida sub-tropical expositionSubject Search: jacksonville history
Hours & Access:
Due to the unique nature of our non-circulating materials and in order to best utilize the collections, access is by appointment. Please contact (904) 620-1533 or e-mail


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I simply love the latest sketches from Nicolas Petit. The French designer is sort of re-imaging a previous project of his, where he designed a modern-looking dustbin-style fairing for a BMW HP2 Sport and Moto Guzzi V12 Le Mans.
Taking on now the Ducati 1199 Panigale, Petit has mixed the old-styled TT racer look with Italy's premier superbike, in an effective manner. We haven't seen this sort of clash between old and new technology since John Hopkins raced the last two-stroke GP bike, the Yamaha YZR500 in 2002.


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Rizzorr - posted on 07/15/2011 ( 100 moms have responded )
I am at my breaking point. I just wiped off the egg on my face he just threw at me because he didn't like the way I was looking at him. He is highly depressed and he takes it out on me. I know we need to separate but I don't have many options and am scared and confused on what is best for my daughter. Her dad and I have been together 5 years; we have 3 yr old girl. We are completely bankrupt. Our net worth is negative 5 dollars. We are months behind in everything. I spend all day frantically applying for and asking for help, while looking for work. I just recovered from 2 surgeries. 1st one was malpractice which caused the 2nd one. That's another whole story. The surgeries and recovery time set me back so much I can't keep up. Meanwhile my partner is highly depressed and blames me for everything taking it out on me. When we met I was into bad things. I have been on the straight and narrow for years now but he still throws it in my face. He has walked out of jobs, lied about them. He so worried about his image, the family is suffering. I have always managed to find a way to hold onto what we have. I worked so hard to get us in nice neighborhood but I can't keep it up. His lack of help and verbal abusive is causing me to be mentally and physical exhausted. My heath is being affected. To top it all off, instead of being appreciative for holding everything together for so long, he blames me constantly torturing me for every bad situation we are in. He blames me fort things he is doing. I beg for help with paperwork and housekeeping and he ignores me or accuses me of being a nut job, calls me names in front of our daughter then he retreats back into the computer where he plays poker and chat with his friends (and looks for other women) Everyone has told me to leave him but it is not that easy. I am 35 and he is 24 so there is a maturity difference plus he was raised in Mexico so his upbringing and his views on things are different. He has no family here no money and no where to go. I have told him to leave many times and he comes back a few hours later. I don't want to call authorities because I don't want my daughter to not have a dad. His paperwork for citizenship had not been finalized so I don't want him to get deported. At least he will take out daughter to the Park and help her get dressed and bring her to school in the morning. It allows me to have a small break. But that is all he will do. Oh yeah, when I get so feet up with his total lack of respect for things and upkeep, I will stop picking up after him. After a few days he snaps and starts cleaning like a mad man (just general area) but he is screaming at me with the name calling, blaming me for EVERYTHING that is dirty or needed to be put away. I worked so hard to live where I am right now. If I walk away I will never get into another place in a good neighborhood that I can afford. And my past and lack of income will keep me from being accepted in another place. I don't want to end up in a bad area with druggies and bad people. I could rent a room if I borrowed money built I don't even know if I anyone will help me. My family is over it. I have been making excuses for him for a long time now. I think they are starting to think that I am the one with the problem
. My car is almost completely shut down. My partner abuses everything we own. He ignores everything I suggest to him. Everything I say is intended for his or my daughters own good. He use to listen and he when he did, good things would happen for him. Bottom line I want to do what is best for my daughter. I want to focus on raising her right. This is such a toxic environment I don't want her to see and hear these things. I see her behavior changing. She sees him disrespect me everyday. He calls me crack head, trash, garbage, says I do nothing I am lazy, I'm old and ugly. Its not god. I wish I had more options. I live in Jupiter FL. Thanks. My email address is rizzorr @ hotmail .com Hope there's some advice out there that can help. I see my life just flying by. As every holiday and birthdays go by, it is exhausting. There are major major arguments in those days I think he does it in purpose so he can stay home. How embarrassing that is for me. There's no cohesive parenting. Anyway enough I have to stop thanks for reading. Please help!
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In January and February, I wrote about my William Taylor brick wall (here and here) and set out a research plan. I haven't done much work on this project since then but this week brought some exciting news.
First a short re-cap: William Taylor, born bet. 1798-1805 probably in Virginia; married 3 times, 1st in Garrard County, Kentucky; lived in Rockcastle County, Kentucky and died there between 1880-1886; father possibly Rev. War soldier William Taylor from Rockbridge County, Virginia who settled in Rockcastle County in early 1800's. Problem – no real proof that the elder William Taylor was the younger William's father.
A few days ago I received an e-mail from Richard McMurtry who is heading up a W/SW Virginia Taylor Family DNA Project. This project is seeking to determine the relationship, if any, between the various Taylor families of colonial western and southwestern Virginia, including the counties of Rockingham, Augusta, Botetourt, Rockbridge, Montgomery, Wythe and Grayson. Richard asked if I would be interested in finding a descendant of my William Taylor to participate.
Of course, I was interested. According to his Pension Application filed in Rockcastle County, Kentucky in 1832, Rev. War William was born in Augusta County, Virginia and enlisted in Rockbridge County where he was living in 1777. This could be just the break we've needed to finally tie the younger William Taylor to Rev. War William Taylor.
My mother has a cousin who fits the male line requirements for Taylor Y DNA testing. Even though I've never met him, both he and his wife have been extremely generous with their research from the first time I contacted them several years ago. I forwarded Richard's e-mail to them and, as of today, a DNA test kit is already in the mail to him.
This W/SW Virginia Taylor DNA project is allied with the larger Taylor Genes DNA project which already has over 300 Taylor DNA samples analyzed. Included in that group is a sample from a descendant of Isaac Taylor who died in 1781 and is said to be the grandfather of Rev. War William.
I'm excited!
Anyone interested in participating in this Taylor DNA project should contact Richard McMurtry.by


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The mother of kidnap victim Hannah Anderson was bound, gagged and beaten to death before the killer set his home ablaze and fled with the teenager to the Northwest, according to the San Diego County medical examiner.
Christina Anderson, 44, a medical assistant, died of blunt force injury to the head with a minimum of 12 blows to her face and head, an autopsy report released Monday said.
She also had a broken arm and her throat was slashed, although the latter apparently was done after she was dead, the report said.
Christina Anderson's body was found Aug. 4 in the garage of a burned-out home in the rural San Diego County community of Boulevard owned by family friend James DiMaggio, 40.
Sheriff's investigators have concluded that DiMaggio killed Christina Anderson, her 8-year-old son Ethan and the family dog before fleeing with 16-year-old Hannah.
DiMaggio and the teenager were located six days later, on Aug. 10, in the deep forest of southern Idaho. FBI agents sent to rescue Hannah shot and killed DiMaggio after he fired on them and refused to surrender.
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said Hannah had been held under duress by DiMaggio and was a "total victim" in the incident.
Ethan Anderson's body was so badly burned that the medical examiner was not able to determine a cause of death, according to the report. The family dog had been shot.
"Multiple layers" of duct tape were found around Christina Anderson's mouth and neck. Her ankles were bound with a "large white plastic cable." Her arms and legs had several cuts.
Although there were burn marks on her body, no soot was found in her airway, suggesting she was killed before the fire was set, according to the autopsy report.
Her body was found beneath a green tarp. She was wearing a red tank top with a "Mickey Mouse" and "Minnie Mouse" logo.
The charred remains of Ethan Anderson were found inside the two-story home, which had also been set on fire.
"It is unknown whether the decedent was alive at the time of the fire or already dead," according to the autopsy report. "It is possible that he died of thermal burns without smoke inhalation in the house fire."
Ethan Anderson was identified by DNA examination.
Christina Anderson and her two children lived in Lakeside and had been lured to DiMaggio's home in Boulevard by his assertion that he was moving from the area and wanted to say goodbye, according to interviews given by Hannah Anderson after her rescue.
Investigators have said Hannah did not realize that her mother and brother were dead when DiMaggio forced her into his car and began the drive to Idaho.


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#60 (.0400") "Taper Length" Long Straight Shank Drill Bit, High Speed Steel
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Taper length is a longer straight shank drill used where a deeper hole is required.
Shank diameter is the same as the cutting diameter of the drill.
Please note that these drills may be either bright finished steel or black oxide finished, depending on stock.


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Slydini's students pay tribute to the man, the mentor, and the magic. They recall some of their most cherished moments with the master and perform their favorite effects, keeping his legacy alive.
A note from the producers: We would like to boast that (to our knowledge, at the time of this DVD set's release) we have collected the most footage of Slydini, to be released anywhere in one production, for your viewing pleasure. We hope you enjoy learning from The Master!
Disc 1
Do you own this product? Write a review.


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3Wi-Fi® is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance Corporation.
4If properly registered within ninety (90) days after original installation, parts are warranted to the original purchaser for a period of 10 years. Otherwise, parts warranty is 5 years. For other applications a 7-year parts and 7-year compressor limited warranties apply. See warranty certificate for details.
California residents please see Proposition 65.


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It's now been three weeks since the big 4.0 patch has dropped.
By now, you all should have a pretty good idea of just what the hell you're doing. If you're new to tanking still or still haven't gotten around to setting up your warrior's talents and glyphs, take a look at the previous two articles to get at least a rough idea of what direction you should be taking.
It's time we moved away from the more basic parts of what the new mechanic changes and shifted gears into edging out small benefits in your playstyle.
Let's talk about ability usage.
There are two parts to ability usage in the midst of combat, the offensive and the defensive.
When it comes to defenses, it's fairly straightforward. Bind your Shield Wall and Last Stand and Enraged Regeneration to easy to reach keys that are automatic to you and just wait for the right opportunity to use them. Keep in mind that in addition to these three skills, you might want to turn them into macros instead, adding in the usage of health potions, healthstones or trinkets along with them, working under the assumption that when you DO need to hit those keys, the need will be dire.
When it comes to single target threat generation, the priority system is fairly straightforward.
Shield Slam > Revenge > Victory Rush (if you're talented for it) > Devastate.
This priority is, of course, after you've stacked up sunders. The purpose of the Victory Rush if you've talented for it is for the minor healing it provides. While the 5% of your total health might not seem all that much on paper, when you combine it with the talents Blood Craze and Field Dressing, that little bit of nearly continuous healing will add up over the course of a long fight. On top of that is the ever present reworked Heroic Strike which is used only in the presence of excess rage. Just keep in mind that as used to spamming that key as you are, it may take you a little bit before the muscle memory fades enough for you to use it as it's now intended.
When it comes to multi-target encounters, things get a little more messy.
If you've specced into Blood and Thunder, your first priority will obviously be to land that Rend and follow it with a Thunderclap to spread the love. Remember that your priority isn't always to hold a group of mobs for an indefinite amount of time, but just long enough for them to die. Don't be afraid to let your damage dealers pull threat, stun the group with a Thunderclap then follow up with a Challenging Shout just to keep them on you long enough to kill.
Given the fact that Revenge is your second highest threat ability and that it hits two targets, don't miss the opportunity to hit it when it comes off cooldown. Swap your occasional Heroic Strike usage for the occasional Cleave usage instead and in the even that it doesn't look like you'll bepulled off of anytime soon, consider your Thunderstruck talent and maybe let 3 Thunderclaps go before you Shockwave to get that 30% damage boost.
Don't forget to tab between your targets and hold that threat.


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Commander Shepard
"How come every time there's a problem you end up running to me?"
If I had to sum the intergalactic adventures of intrepid explorer/warrior/adventurer/carnage-enthusiast Commander [Insert Name] Shepard up in one word, it would probably be Killboner. Between going on a non-stop mad intergalactic rampage of head-butting destruction that makes the galaxy's deadliest criminals, bounty hunters, and mercenaries look like ten pounds of crap stuffed in a five-pound bag, and the fact that he's so insanely potent he can have sex without taking off his clothes, I feel that no other word appropriately describes it. The hero of the amazing Mass Effect series, Shepard is a double-stuffed, leather-bound, thermonuclear badass so hardcore he can knock Turians unconscious by punching them in their chest armor and so insanely destructive that his pet goldfish have a tendency to spontaneously die of heart attacks simply because they can't handle the stress of living in the same room as the galaxy's ultimate killing machine. Everyone this guy meets either dies painfully in a fire or gets naked and dances for him, and he's so cripplingly confident and beloved/feared throughout the galaxy that even though even though he can't walk into a bar without pistol-whipping someone and his dance moves should probably constitute a war crime, he always seems to get straight into the VIP rooms in clubs whenever he wants (presumably because the Krogan bouncers don't want to screw with someone with more balls than them).
Now, before I get too much further, I should mention that there are three major reasons why I feel compelled to finally write about Commander Shepard this week. The first is that Mass Effect is easily one of my favorite games of all time. The second is that I was up until 6am pretty much every night this week pumping 30+ hours into the most recent (and final?) installment of the trilogy, a practice that, combined with my mad dash to complete the Book Three manuscript by March 31st, has left me very little time to do anything other than ponder the more mysterious aspects of Asari anatomy and have agonizing nightmares about whether it's more efficient to carry an assault rifle or just spam out Adrenaline Rushes non-stop all the time. Finally, I'm compelled to action because about a year ago that THIS happened, and as soon as I saw it I resolved to finish the series before I made it a self-fulfilling prophesy:
Scroll ahead to 0:20 to witness what is either a cruel coincidence or the single greatest moment of my writing career.
Without giving away too much in the way of spoilers, Commander Shepard's story begins when a synthetic race of robot aliens called the Geth roll into town on a mission to Titan A.E. Earth's colonies into oblivion like a bunch of sleek, one-eyed Terminator Daleks, so naturally it's up to our intrepid hero to deal with the situation by pulling out their glowing eyes with his teeth and then shooting them so hard in the RAM that by the time the second game rolls around they're just some sad, pathetic shell of their former glory (which Shepard then in turn blows up for a second time, and possibly a third). Along the way, Shep discovers that while it might be possible to genocide the Geth out with little more than a powerful manly sneeze, a biotic singularity field, and a few thousand rounds of incendiary shotgun blasts to the sensor arrays, the Geth are just pawns for an EVEN BIGGER group of colossal planet-killing robots known as the Reapers, who are like giant robot space-squid that fire laser beams capable of splitting battleship hulls in half. Naturally, Shepard decides to genocide them out too. The Reapers respond to his declaration of war by atomizing him into outer space with a death ray the size of a small star system, but this really only succeeds in making him angry.
Just a few hours of gameplay later, Shepard is traveling across the galaxy shredding Reapers into scrap metal with his fists, forging the scrap metal into bullets with which to kill other Reapers, and then going off to melt the ice-cold heart of a biotically-enhanced, spree-killing super-babe with a shaved head and enough tattoos to make a Yakuza underboss look like a high school chick with a two-inch butterfly tattoo on her ankle. By my count, this guy single-handedly kills at least five full-sized Reapers – which, by the way, are the sort of horrific metallic alien monstrosities that make hand-to-hand combat with a Decepticon look like a pillow-fight with Kelly Chambers – all while somehow managing to not be crushed or vaporized by a monster that sports claws the size of container ships. I suppose it helps that Shepard seems to be the only human on earth capable of wielding the gigantic mega-rocket launcher that can kill a Reaper in one shot, though for some reason he doesn't seem to bring that thing around with him NEARLY enough (maybe it would make life too easy for him and he prefers a real challenge?). Oh, and while we're on the subject of specialized equipment, Shep is also the only dude with a blade on his Omni-Tool, which for all intents and purposes means that this guy is so insanely over-the-top hardcore that he can kill even the creepiest robot-zombie alien cyber-douchebags by stabbing them in the face with a three-dimensional hologram.
"THIS is what a gun in your face feels like. It happens to me every day."
It needs to be mentioned that Shepard can be male or female, good or evil, black or white (although I have it on good authority from a Chinese-American friend that it's really hard to make him Asian without having it look like he's got some kind of creepy congenital birth defect), thus proving that badassitude isn't tied to gender, race, or creed. And while a ton of people love the Female Shepard forever until death do them part, I have to admit I don't know much about FemShep, except that she's definitely not a blonde, she's voiced by the same woman who did Bastila, and she gets to have erotic lesbian shower scenes with her subordinates (which of course is badass, but only if you enjoy sexy naked women with athletic builds rubbing each other down with loofas (and who doesn't)). Other than that I think she's pretty much the same as ManShep. All things considered, I personally chose to go with the dude version, mostly because any time my wife comes home and I can triumphantly inform her that I hooked up with a blue-skinned alien chick while she was at work it's a good day in my book (unemployment FTW).
Male or Female, Commander Shepard nevertheless proudly comes from the James T. Kirk School of Space Captaining – a time-honored, old-school badass code of honor that requires daring starship commanders to mercilessly obliterate enemy warships, face-punch intergalactic douchebags in whatever passes for a skull on their insectoid anatomy, massacre entire civilizations of evil genoicidal monsters, and then go home to make out with all the hot alien babes he recently widowed. And for Shepard, it doesn't even matter if he's male or female, or if his love interest is a blue-skinned alien, a hardcore space marine, or some random synthetic sophisticated sex robot from the future – the Commander can't friggin' walk from the kitchen to the forward gun battery without some hot babe in a skin-tight lycra bodysuit hurling herself breasts-first at him and launching into a dialogue about how she can no longer hold back her feelings for him. Hell, there's one chick from a race of aliens that develop life-threatening illnesses every time they're exposed to hayfever, yet that chick still practically tore off her bubble-boy enviro-suit just to get all up on Shep's bacteria. Throughout the entire series, it's like as soon as some chickadee in a slinky costume walks into the frame you know that unless you're ragingly inept at controlling the guy he's going to be seducing her under the mood-lighting and terrible music of his Captain's Quarters just before sending her to her death on a suicide mission she has little hope of surviving. When it comes to people who don't want to sleep with him, Shepard Inspires such loyalty in his troops that you get guys like Garrus who are so dedicated they're willing to block rockets with their faces and spend long nights performing seemingly-endless ultra-complicated calibrations for weapons that pretty much never actually even get fired. "Hey boss, did you say you want me to run into that radiation-filled death chamber armed only with a pistol and hold off five Cerberus Mechs at the same time so that you and your girlfriend can reprogram the clock on the Normandy's microwave? I'm on it!"
I'd also like to point out that Commander Shepard is named after real-life American astronaut/hero/badass Alan Shepard, a man whose claim to fame is that he was the first American (and second person) to ever enter outer space. Commander Alan Shepard was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, served on a destroyer in the Pacific Theater during World War II, and then eventually became a naval aviator and test pilot, where his job primarily involved hopping into flying deathtraps with wings and testing to see if he could fly them really really fast without the systems malfunctioning and killing him. In 1961 Shepard was carried into space strapped to a gigantic missile loaded with jet fuel, hurtling through the atmosphere at a time when rocket trajectories were still calculated by hand using slide rules, and surviving in Zero-G environments in an age where most scientists were "pretty sure" you could go into space without your entire body exploding like a meat grenade. Shepard was Chief of the Astronaut Office during the Gemini missions, mostly because he had a crippling inner-ear disease that gave him extreme vertigo, affected his hearing, and caused him to be almost-constantly nauseous, but this still didn't stop him from taking part in Apollo 14, becoming the fifth person to walk on the moon, and being the first (and, as far as I know, only) human being to ever hit a golf ball on the surface of the Moon – he'd hidden the club from NASA by concealing it in his space suit, then assembled it in Zero-G and used it to set what has to be the current Galactic Record for Longest Golf Ball Drive. So, any time you're naming your fictional space captain after a dude like this, you know he's got to be pretty hardcore. (Of course, rather than hurtling through space on a rickety 1960s chunk of hollowed-out steel constructed by the lowest bidder, our Shepard and his band of carefree sex-crazed alien life-forms explore the galaxy in the SSV Normandy, a hyperdrive-capable singles bar with a stealth drive and an over-the-top frontal cannon that rivals that of most decked-out Alliance cruisers.)
Depending on how you play him, Shepard is either the nicest dude to ever live, the cruelest hardass in history, or some combination of the two. For the most part, one thing is certain – if he can't shoot it, punch it, or otherwise smash it into submission with this skull, he'll use diplomacy, which, in most cases, consists almost entirely of convincing bad guys to shoot themselves in the head and save himself the bullet (although he did once end a 300 year-old intergalactic war just by yelling at a couple of political leaders). And while he does have plenty of good lines, the best and most badass stuff usually happens when he doesn't say anything and instead unleashes a badass Renegade Interrupt. And, look, I don't care if you're the ultimate Paragon of orphan-hugging fluffy goodness in the universe and you arbitrate peace accords and help Seth Green bang robo-Tricia Helfer while flying around to all your Favorite Stores on the Citadel on a rainbow-flavored Pegasus-Unicorn – if you don't use the Renegade interrupts your life will never be complete. I swear to God one time I actually saw Shepard punch a katana in half during a Renegade interrupt. Katanas, as we all know, are easily the most powerful weapon in any fantasy/sci-fi setting, usually providing a damage output that far outpaces missile launchers (I seriously once saw a G.I. Joe comic where Snake Eyes cut a space shuttle in half with a katana), but apparently when Commander Shepard gest pissed-off enough he can pimp-slap one in half with a hellacious backhand swing. He's just that awesome.
Here are some clips of Shepard being an asshole in ME1.I didn't see most of these the first time playing through, but some of them are pretty tight.
Good or evil, one thing remains constant – even if Commander Shepard were the last human in the galaxy in a desperate struggle for the survival of the species, he'd personally pull out the throats of every ultra-aggressive alien life form in existence and then repopulate the species himself with his unstoppable boners.
"If I flee, I might trip over the dozen Krogan I killed to get here."
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Perdue wins Georgia Senate runoff
Businessman David Perdue upset 11-term Rep. Jack Kingston in Georgia's Republican Senate runoff Tuesday by a narrow, 2-percentage-point margin — setting up a general election race featuring two first-time candidates vying for one of the nation's most hotly contested Senate seats.
Kingston delivered a concession speech shortly after 11 p.m. eastern time. With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Perdue led Kingston, 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent — outside the margin needed to trigger an automatic recount.
Story Continued Below
The general election is likely to be a costly battle between two candidates running as "outsiders," despite their politicallypowerful families. Democratic nominee Michelle Nunn's father, Sam Nunn, represented Georgia in the Senate for 24 years. Perdue's first cousin, Sonny Perdue, was the state's first Republican governor elected since Reconstruction, serving two terms from 2003 to 2011.
( Also on POLITICO: Georgia runoff: 5 things to watch)
With Kingston's defeat, Nunn has lost her chance to run against Washington and the national debt. She is expected, instead, to contrast her background as a nonprofit executive against Perdue's tenure as a CEO at companies like Reebok and Dollar General.
Georgia is the Democrats' best chance to pick up a Republican-held seat this fall, which ensures it will be one of the most closely watched races on the map.
Kingston, who has represented a Savannah-area district since 1992, overwhelmingly won the southern and coastal parts of the state Tuesday, but he did not make the inroads into metropolitan Atlanta that he needed, despite strong help from third-place finisher Karen Handel and fourth-place finisher Phil Gingrey.
For much of past year, GOP leaders worried openly that an ardent social conservative House member, like Gingrey or Paul Broun, would be the nominee. The fear was that either of them might make a Todd Akin-style gaffe that could cost the party another red-state seat and make winning a majority that much harder. But both Kingston and Perdue were considered acceptable to the GOP establishment.
( Also on POLITICO: Cruz: Ruling an Obamacare 'repudiation')
Still, the general election to replace GOP Sen. Saxby Chambliss appears competitive. Nunn led Perdue by 6 points, 48-42, in a Landmark Communications poll last week for the Atlanta ABC affiliate and 7 points, 48-41, in a Democratic robopoll from Public Policy Polling; both polls notably showed Kingston ahead in the primary. Nunn has been one of the most impressive nonincumbent fundraisers nationally this cycle.
Georgia is changing demographically and has a significant African-American population that could make a difference if galvanized. Polls also show a close gubernatorial race between sitting Republican Gov. Nathan Deal and state Sen. Jason Carter, grandson of former President Jimmy Carter.
The Peach State runoff would have represented a much clearer demarcation of the establishment-versus-tea-party narrative if the race had pitted either Kingston or Perdue against Broun, Gingrey or Handel. Instead, the two-month-long fight has received minimal national notice and drawn comparatively little national money.
( Also on POLITICO: Senate Dems to trim Obama border request by $1B)
The exception is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent more than $3 million boosting Kingston. The group put out a Web video on Monday night slamming Perdue for running an ad accusing Kingston of being too cozy with them in earning their support.
Democrats gleefully recycled the Chamber's hits on Perdue after results showed him winning the runoff.
Perdue, 64, successfully hammered Kingston as a big-spending Washington insider, which proved a powerful argument for a restive primary electorate. He touted his experience as CEO of Reebok, the shoemaker, and Dollar General, the retailer, claiming he could help fix the fiscal mess in D.C.
Perdue promised to serve only two terms if elected. His commercials, produced by Fred Davis, showed crying babies on the lawn of the Capitol. He almost seemed to relish that Handel, Gingrey and other members of the House delegation lined up behind his opponent — because it only burnished his outsider pitch. He spent a lot of time on the trail with former presidential candidate Herman Cain, who campaigned as an outsider back in 2011.
But Perdue also won the nomination despite a series of gaffes, from criticizing Handel for not earning a college degree to suggesting that raising "revenue" is needed to balancing the budget.
It was a bruising nine-week runoff with lots of negative attack ads. Kingston hit Perdue hard over lost jobs at factories he oversaw. Democrats — who say privately that there is a lot of opposition research on Perdue's business record that did not come out during the primary — hope those attacks will resonate with independents in a way they didn't with a Republican primary electorate.


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When Leslie James Pickering lived on the West Coast more than a decade ago, he was a spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front, a radical group that destroyed facilities believed to be involved in animal cruelty or environmental degradation.
That included using arson and firebombs to destroy a wild-horse slaughterhouse in Oregon, a ski resort that threatened a lynx habitat in Colorado and a University of Washington horticultural center project that the group believed – incorrectly – was involved in genetic engineering.
But life for Pickering – who says he never was a member of the secretive group, just its spokesman – became too stressful, so he returned to his home in Western New York and eventually opened Burning Books on Connecticut Street.
Now federal authorities are keeping a close watch on Pickering – checking his mail, asking past associates about whether he is capable of violent activity and requiring greater clearance when he travels by air – even though he insists he has done nothing to run afoul of the law.
Are Pickering's views and past associations reason enough for law enforcement agencies to look into what he's doing now?
The FBI, the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center all considered the Earth Liberation Front that Pickering represented to be involved in "eco-terrorism" that resulted in tens of millions of dollars in property damage.
But Pickering has not been the group's spokesman for more than a decade, although he still justifies illegal actions against corporations and government agencies under certain circumstances for what he and others consider to be a greater good.
"I've had a very public position for almost my whole activist career, and that hasn't allowed me to do any of this illegal activity I've defended," Pickering said. "Even in my wildest dreams, I might have loved to have been a Robin Hood hero, but that's not what landed in my lap."
But Oren Segal, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism, thinks law enforcement agencies have good reason to keep tabs on Pickering.
"He's still advocating a pretty radical ideology, and in some sort of way violence against property, and this is criminal activity that will get the attention of law enforcement," Segal said.
Pickering – who notes that ELF actions never resulted in physical harm to a person or an animal – has gained a small but vocal group of followers in Buffalo, who feel he is being singled out for having leftist views. Roughly 150 of them attended a fundraiser on his behalf last month.
"I do not advocate any kind of property destruction or illegal activity because of what someone says or thinks. [But] when it's a company or a government agency that is doing massive physical harm, acting with impunity and not listening to public opinion, then you have to do something about it," said Pickering, who notes that every social justice movement has had an element of radical activism.
But he insists his views are besides the point. "I'm a bookstore owner," he said.
Tracking activities
Here's how security agencies have tracked him in recent months:
• Last September, the FBI called a friend of Pickering's he had been largely out of touch with for years and asked who Pickering associated with in Buffalo, and if he was capable of violent and illegal activity.
• That same month, a card appeared to have been mistakenly delivered to Pickering's home mailbox, indicating the post office at 465 Grant St. was providing surveillance of his mail from mid-August to mid-September at the request of an unspecified law enforcement agency.
"Show all mail to supervisor for copying prior to going out on the street," the card read, with Pickering's name, the date of the surveillance and "Confidential" written in green highlighter.
• In mid-February, an entity that his bookstore interacts with was presented with a federal grand jury subpoena to provide records.
• On March 3, Pickering was briefly detained in Buffalo by officers from the Transit Security Administration – a branch of the Department of Homeland Security – and reissued a United Airlines ticket with additional screening measures.
Michael Kuzma, Pickering's attorney, tried to pry loose information from federal authorities through Freedom of Information requests, but met roadblocks.
Representatives of the FBI's Buffalo office, the U.S. Postal Service, U.S. Attorney's Office and the Transit Security Administration all declined to say whether Pickering was under surveillance or investigation.
"It's been stressful, and I think that's kind of the point. We're not doing anything wrong, but this whole process is designed to make us feel like we are, and make other people think we are," said Theresa Baker-Pickering, with whom Leslie has a 3-year-old daughter.
Social purpose
Pickering, who grew up in East Aurora and West Seneca, said he knew by his early teens that he wanted his life to be guided by a social purpose. He found it initially in the animal-rights movement after moving to San Francisco with his mother, a nurse, after 10th grade at West Seneca East High School.
Pickering became involved a few years later with the Liberation Collective in Portland, Ore., and estimates he was arrested two dozen times for acts of civil disobedience, including seven convictions for violations or misdemeanors, the last in 1999.
The Liberation Collective also began receiving unsigned "communiques" from the Earth Liberation Front, which between 1997 and 2001 committed more than 30 acts of destruction – at sites ranging from automobile dealerships and housing developments to logging companies and universities – that averaged $2.5 million in damages.
Those actions were championed by supporters, and condemned by others – especially those victimized by the actions.
"ELF firebombings are hate crimes against those of us whose missions in life are to increase human knowledge and bring a sense of wonder to the classes we teach," University at Washington professor Toby Bradshaw wrote after his office was firebombed in the mistaken belief that he was planning to conduct experiments on genetically engineered trees.
Pickering and another activist, Craig Rosebraugh, opened the ELF's official press office in 2000 and ran it for two years. They issued press releases, held news conferences and defended ELF's practices, with Pickering's media appearances ranging from Rolling Stone to Fox News.
Law enforcement took notice. The house they shared was raided twice by the FBI, which carted away computers and other equipment but never leveled charges.
It was after that incident that Pickering – who said he never knew the identities of ELF members until they were arrested – returned home to work on the family's small blueberry farm outside East Aurora.
A different path
Pickering returned to school and graduated from Goddard College in Vermont with master's degrees in history and journalism. He wrote books on the ELF and on Sam Melville, who in 1969 was involved in bombing the Federal Office Building and other government and commercial buildings in New York City before being killed in the 1971 Attica Prison uprising.
In 2008, Pickering, his wife and Nate Buckley bought the Connecticut Street building where Burning Books is located, and after extensive remodeling, opened their store two years ago.
The store is filled with books and videos about radical history, many about the 1960s and '70s, on subjects from the Black Panther Party and Malcolm X to historians Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, as well as animal rights, environmental activism, labor struggles and international movements for social justice. The bookstore also hosts speakers and community gatherings.
Posters commemorate the Attica uprising, Che Guevara and Leonard Peltier, and there are flyers in support of Bradley Manning, a soldier charged with leaking national secrets, and a petition against hydraulic fracturing.
The bookstore also carries the 2011 Academy Award-nominated documentary, "If a Tree Fell: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front," in which Pickering appears.
"We all know Buffalo is small enough, and there is no terrorist threat," said Kuzma, Pickering's attorney. [Fear of terrorism] has been used by the people who really own and run this country to curtail our civil liberties, and Leslie is a victim of this."
But Segal of the Anti-Defamation League thinks Pickering is a legitimate person of interest to federal authorities.
"[The ELF] did advocate a pretty radical ideology in terms of pushing for a form of violence in the street," Segal said. "Even if it's in your past, you're going to be looked at by law enforcement."