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AMERICAN SPLENDOR is a celebration of the painful dance between life and art. This wry and original comedy of depression tells its story through fiction, documentary, animation and archival footage as if it were turning the pages of a comic book. Harvey Pekar and Paul Giamatti, in a brilliantly bruised performance as the fictional Harvey Pekar, capture the theme of the film best when they say, "Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff."
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FINDING NEMO swam its way into America's heart by combining a razor sharp script that harkens back to the comedy of Preston Sturges and a stunning animated world that entrances with each shift in the light. Albert Brooks and Ellen DeGeneres bring a funny, but always touching human element to the film that will make it an animation classic for generations to come.
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THE HUMAN STAIN is a moving exploration of three American obsessions — sex, race and class. The bold casting of Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman addresses the fundamental issue of the film — the silent pain of passing for something you're not. Their brilliant performances and Robert Benton's nuanced direction create a complex, emotional core for this skillful adaptation of Philip Roth's novel.
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IN AMERICA is a spellbinding fable that captures the modern day immigrant experience and retells it through the eyes of a child. Jim Sheridan's heartfelt tale struggles between the thrill of a new life and the longing to escape the ghosts that follow us there. Real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger bring a sense of wonder and excitement to a film that overflows with joy for the adventure of tomorrow.
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THE LAST SAMURAI presents a timeless story of honor in the cinematic tradition of Akira Kurosawa. This beautifully crafted star vehicle serves one of America's modern screen icons, and Tom Cruise not only rises to the challenge, but carries the film into the history books with great dignity. The recreation of 19th Century Japan is a feast for the eyes, and Ed Zwick's masterful direction not only presents spectacular battle scenes, but never loses sight of what the individual warriors stood for.
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THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING punctuates the greatest trilogy in American film with an exclamation point. Peter Jackson proves himself to be the true magician of this masterpiece, for only a wizard could summon all the forces of American film three times and utilize them to such astounding success. Against all odds, Jackson met the challenge of visualizing J.R.R. Tolkien's beloved classics for a demanding, global audience.
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LOST IN TRANSLATION is only the second feature film by Sofia Coppola, yet it presents a unique voice in American film. Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson bring great humor and credibility to characters adrift inside the neon and steel of today's Tokyo. The film creates and sustains a bold, but delicate mood where they share days of isolation and celebrity and marriage and loneliness — two foreigners who need each other in an alien landscape.
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MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD transports its audience to a 19th Century ship and shows what it would be like to live among its crew. The film unfolds in the tradition of sea-going movie classics, but with a modern attention to detail and camerawork that fully enlists the viewer in the journey. Russell Crowe proves once again that he is the leading man for human tales in epic form.
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MONSTER tells the gruesome story of serial killer Aileen Wuornos and manages to find a human being amidst the horror. Writer and director Patty Jenkins brings light to this dark tale of a woman whose tragic story is never condoned but deftly brought to life in all its complexity. Charlize Theron gives a breathtaking performance that ranks among the best of the year.
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MYSTIC RIVER is a masterful portrait of fate and friendship across generations. Director Clint Eastwood draws brilliant performances from an outstanding ensemble cast in which Sean Penn's searing portrayal of a father in pain calls to mind a young Marlon Brando. The use of locations in working class Boston presents an authentic background for a story of people whose lives are woven together in a world that they cannot escape.
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is a Molotov cocktail of conflict, tension and surprise. Hour by hour, this groundbreaking exercise in sustained suspense never ceases to amaze. Most importantly, what may appear to be a sheer guilty pleasure is also a rumination on how far people will go for their country and demands viewers to ask this question of themselves.
is a weekly thrill ride that races through mind-bending plot twists and drops viewers in a maze of identity and motive. There is a rare, emotional core to this spy saga, however, as family and friends find themselves loving and loyal, but never trusting. With production values worthy of a James Bond film, ALIAS also boasts one of the finest acting ensembles on television.
was born a masterpiece of the theater and lives on as a masterpiece of television. The imaginations of Tony Kushner and Mike Nichols explode and embrace as their collaboration expands the boundaries of the art form. This heroic achievement carries a message for the ages that is delivered by some of the greatest actors of our day.
is a quirky comic voice in the grand tradition of MISTER ED and GREEN ACRES. Entertaining and distinctive in its documentary style, this eccentric look at the extremes of American family life delivers the all-too-rare belly laugh and instills new hope for growth and maturity in today's stunted comedy environment.
continues to tilt America's laugh meter as it enters its eighth season. The show's writers never fail to find timeless comedy in the simplest details of everyday life. Each member of this peerless comic cast makes the effort appear effortless, and together, they have become part of the nation's extended family.
is proof of divine intervention. Just when it appeared that original family dramas were dead, the airwaves brought America this fresh and funny story of a girl who talks to God. Spiritual without being self-righteous, Joan's struggle to live with the inconvenience of a moral life raises issues the entire family can watch, discuss and enjoy.
NIP/TUCK takes a glamorous look at the ugly reality of plastic surgery. The series is propelled by an addictive storytelling style that graphically cuts under the skin of America's obsession with appearance and, ultimately, will change the way audiences look into the mirror.
PLAYMAKERS takes viewers into the locker room for an unsparing look at the lives of professional football players, coaches, fans and fanatics. This courageous programming for an evolving sports network not only shatters assumptions about the world of football, but it also humanizes these modern day gladiators by dramatizing the pressures they endure both professionally and personally.
carries the flag for thoughtful television movies that address extraordinarily complex and emotional matters through the strength of character. Inspired by the true story of a soldier who falls in love with a transgendered woman, the film skillfully finds a voice for two people who grapple with emotions they can't explain, all without exploiting the haunting tragedy of their destiny.
portrays mundane police work with tragic grandeur and, in doing so, captures the seemingly intractable problem of drugs in American society in a daring and unique way. Complex and subtle, the series offers a look at police procedure more realistic than any show on television.
©2019 American Film Institute. All rights reserved.


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[Funeral Program for Ernest Leroy Anthony, November 15, 2002]
Description: Funeral program for Deacon Ernest Leroy Anthony, born April 28, 1929 and died November 2002. The funeral was held November 15, 2002 at Shiloh Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Andrew Wilson. The funeral arrangements were made through Sutton-Sutton Mortuary, Inc. and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.
Date: November 15, 2002
Item Type: Refine your search to only Pamphlet
Partner: San Antonio Public Library

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The fingers of a standard set are often too short; these 1/2" wide by 5-1/2" long gauges are ideal, allowing you to reach into a space and still see what you are doing. The extra length also lets you use built-up combinations (e.g., 0.025" + 0.016") without distortional error. From 0.001" to 0.025" (accurate to a quarter thou!).
Polished tempered steel. Made in USA.


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Red Giant Trapcode Suite v12.1.7 .
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This is all too true in Goldstein's latest novel, "Havana Requiem," which won the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction in July. The prize, sponsored by the ABA Journal and the University of Alabama School of Law, is awarded each year to a novel that continues the tradition of the author it is named for, exemplifying the complex role lawyers play in society and celebrating the ideals embodied by "To Kill a Mockingbird's" Atticus Finch.
"Havana Requiem" is Goldstein's third novel featuring Michael Seeley, an intellectual- property attorney and modern-day incarnation of Finch for whom the rule of law "is in the marrow of his bones," Goldstein said.
Goldstein's third installment of legal thrillers takes Seeley, who works for a large law firm in New York City, to Cuba in a quixotic quest to help a group of Cuban musicians' reclaim the rights to music that had been granted to music publishers for far less than their current worth.
We meet Seeley — a recovering alcoholic whose past professional demise and failed marriage are referenced throughout the novel, serving as hints for what went down in Goldstein's first two novels — as he is trying to rebuild his career, taking on an art gallery for "gouging on its commission" to a painter, winning a case for a screenwriter whose film studio failed to fairly share profits.
"But these were wealthy clients," Goldstein writes. Seeley — forever Finch-inspired — prefers his pro bono cases, impoverished artists whom no one else will represent or fight for.
So when Héctor Reynoso, a black Cuban who is fighting to reclaim the rights to music he and a group of 13 musicians made in the 1940s and 1950s in Havana, walks into Seeley's New York City office, Seeley is immediately drawn in. Reynoso's character is inspired by Compay Segundo, a Cuban guitarist, singer and composer who was part of the famed Buena Vista Social Club.
From the first lines of the novel — "The man could have climbed from the frame of an ancient newsreel: a sharecropper escaping the Depression-era South with the last scraps of his possessions; a skin-and-bones survivor fleeing yet another sub-Saharan catastrophe." — the reader gets a feel for Goldstein's writing style, which is dedicated to in-depth description and detailed imagery.
"Black but light-skinned, erect as a recruit, he waited inside the office doorway, intelligent eyes darting about, undecided between entering and escaping. Was it apprehension that Michael Seeley detected, or just curiosity? Fear that Seeley wouldn't take him as a client, or that he would?"
Seeley does, unknowingly entering into a saga that involves not only copyright issues, but also race, government corruption, a Cuban love interest, murder and much intrigue.
Goldstein himself said he fell in love with copyright his second year at Columbia Law School, from which he graduated in 1967.
"I didn't like law school the first year," Goldstein said. "I decided that if I was going to stay, I was going to somehow connect it to what was really my passion, which was literature."
At the time, the closest thing to literature within the law world was copyright, so he took a course and "absolutely fell in love with the field."
He started his teaching career at the State University of New York at Buffalo, where he stayed for eight years until coming to Stanford in 1975. He began as a professor of law and in 1985, was appointed as the Lillick Professor of Law.
Throughout his career, he has written both fiction and nonfiction relating to intellectual-property law, becoming an internationally recognized expert on the topic. He also served as chairman of the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment Advisory Panel on Intellectual Property Rights in an Age of Electronics and Information for a year and since 1988 has been of counsel to the international law firm Morrison & Foerster LLP in its intellectual-property group.
He said that the ideas for his intellectual-property-themed fictional works, including the first two Seeley novels, "Errors and Omissions" (2006) and "A Patent Lie" (2012), were all born from case work, a law class or research he was working on.
"Havana Requiem" came out of a research project he embarked on to examine authors' rights in communist countries. He chose Cuba as a country with a socialist legal system as well as "robust popular culture." He hired a research assistant who had spent time in Cuba and is fluent in Spanish (Goldstein is not).
"In the midst of that I said 'You know, it's a great research project and it's ongoing, but I think there's a story here. I think there's a novel here as well.'"
Goldstein's research took him (legally) to Cuba for a week in March 2010, where he interviewed numerous people within the "music establishment" — collecting societies (bodies given the authority to license copyrighted works and collect royalties on behalf of its members), record labels, music publishing companies — and observed the places that he recreates in "Havana Requiem."
"It was sort of you like you were writing a 19th-century historical novel and then you get to go there," Goldstein said of his trip.
The hotel Goldstein stayed at, the Hotel Nacional de Cuba, appears in the novel (Seeley stays there, too). There is flowing description of Soviet-era buildings, crumbling tenements, palm trees, the stagnant heat and everywhere Seeley looks, remnants of the revolution that replaced Cuban President Fulgencio Batista with communist revolutionary Fidel Castro in 1959.
After Reynoso mysteriously disappears, Seeley's plan is to visit as many of the 13 Cuban musicians, or more appropriately, composers, as possible and get them to sign a termination form, which under copyright law allows singers and songwriters who transferred copyright to an outside entity, such as a music publisher, to terminate this transfer after a certain period of time. Getting the composers to sign proves difficult, as many fear retribution from "La Seguridad," the Cuban police, and MININT, the Ministry of the Interior. MININT, the Castro regime's main governing arm, was known to be an oppressive, corrupt force.
Cuban and American politics become central in the novel, with each governments' financial and political interests deeply intertwined.
Another central theme is race, but it is also about the music, or music as a vessel for "la cultura," authentic Cuban culture.
"It's been a long-term interest of mine going way back before I started writing novels to promote author's right in this country. And that's Michael Seeley's hang-up. He doesn't really care that much about copyright, he cares about authors and authors' rights."
In this, there are again echoes of Atticus Finch. And just as Finch fought for legal, racial and social justice in Alabama, Seeley fights until the end to restore not only the composers' ownership, but also their right to choice, freedom and hope.
This story contains 1168 words.
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On the southwestern coast of Lombok lies Sekotong Bay Lombok, a very large bay that offers a degree of protection from the strong currents of the Lombok Strait, and for this reason became the playground of many unique sea dwellers.
Located within the West Lombok regency about 2 hours drive from Mataram, capital of West Nusa Tenggara, the Sekotong Bay Area is a vast stretch of rough coastline decorated with beautiful white sandy beaches overlooking the chains of islands including Gili Nanggu, Gili Sudak, Gili Gede, and more. While it may as yet not be as famous as Senggigi Beach or the trio islands of Gili Trawangan, Gili Meno, and Gili Air in the northwest of Lombok, this south west area offers pristine splendors especially for those who love underwater adventures.
With over 3,500 of species inhabiting Indonesia magnificent underwater world, Sekotong Bay is considered as one of the sites that has the richest marine life diversity to be found in this Indo-Pacific region. In comparison, the Great Barrier Reef of Australia has just 1,500 species and the Red Sea of the Mediterranean has only 600. Among some of the sea dwellers that divers can meet here are sea turtles, white tipped reef sharks, cuttlefish, moray eels, frog fish, ghost pipefish, and a whole lot more.
This bay is also notable for its pristine reefs with an abundance of amazing and unique soft and hard corals since it has not been damaged by dynamite or cyanide fishing.
There are varying conditions throughout the bay of Sekotong: from easy and relaxed conditions in the protected bay to thrilling and adventurous diving around the tip of Bangko-Bangko Peninsula and further to the South. This makes diving suitable for both beginners as well as advanced divers.
Located near the island of Gili Nanggu, the Hadiah Reef or literally meaning 'present' reef, it is truly a gift of nature where divers can find an array of hard and soft corals, and most likely to be greeted by Lionfishes, Sergant fishes and many different species of Nudibranch. For beginners, the Gili Kura-kura dive spots located not too far from the shore with hardly any currents is the best place for an encounter with some of the unique sea dwellers such as Moorish idols, wrasses, spider and porcelain crabs, and slipper lobsters.
The waters around the islands of Gili Gede, Anyaran, Renggit, and Layar, are also filled with numerous underwater splendors. The sloping area west of Gili Renggit is trulu a paradise for Macro-photographers. Here, the reef consists of huge table corals and other colorful hard and soft corals filled with a collection of Nudibranches, cleaner shrimps, different species of Frogfishes, and many other fishes. The site is also a pleasant dive spot for every level of divers. The slope on the east of Gili Renggit is also a great dive site which is covered in colorful soft corals and Feather stars with lots of shrimps, glass fishes and Ghost pipefishes swimming freely. There is more than a good chance that divers will encounter Moray Eels, Cuttlefishes and Blue spotted rays on this site.
The Sunken Island is the dive site that lies along the East coast of the island and covers quite a large area that starts from a shallow water and continues sloping into terraces that get gradually deeper, to a plateau at about 24meters. The sandy bottom has an assortment of hard Coral and soft Coral gardens. The overhangs are filled with Soldierfish and Copper Sweepers. Divers will also get the chance to see a numbers of Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles as they feed on Hydroids. Along the deepest part of the site divers may also spot White tip reef Sharks, giant Trevallies and schooling Barracudas.
On the tip of the peninsula at the west end of Sekotong Bay, there are three notable dive sites perfectly fit for advanced divers. The first is the Stairs to Medang where diving can be more of a challenge with the currents, but with the reward of the opportunity to see the larger marine life. Lots of small and larger reef fish and different species of Shark swim around the waters, while the majestic Manta Rays have been frequently spotted. In the shallow part on top of the reef, Turtles and lobsters are not an uncommon sight.
The Lighthouse is the name given to the 2nd site which features a descending plateau which at 14m leads into a deep valley covered with huge coral formations. This is a place where divers may encounter schooling Mackerel, Sweetlips, Groupers, Emperors, Surgeon fish and White tip Reef Sharks.
The last of the three is the Batu Gendang and Batu Mandi Dive site. At a depth of 25m you will find massive blocks, hence the names Batu Gendang (Drum stones) and Batu Mandi (Bathing stones), scattered around. This labyrinth is home to different species of Sweetlips (Plectorhinchus) and bigger marine life such as Napoleon Wrasses, Tunas, Trevallies, Baracudas and White tip Reef Sharks.
To Do
Not a diver? Not a problem. The fascinating islands along the south coast welcome you with white sandy beaches for swimming, snorkeling and relaxing. Join a boat trip and view the breathtaking scenery of Lombok's coastline and experience the pristine beaches while the divers are on the way. During breaks you can enjoy a relaxed picnic together and have fun. There are also quite a few opportunities to get into diving. You can do a "Scuba try out" free of charge in the shallow water. A qualified dive instructor or dive master will explain the scuba gear to you, and you can try out how comfortable you feel in the water, breathing "bottled" air.
Get There
Located about 60 Km South West, from Mataram, capital of West Nusatenggara, it's an easy 1.5 to 2 hours' drive to get to Sekotong Bay area. From the neighboring island of Bali, you can either take a 20 minutes flight to Lombok International Airport or take the ferry from Padang Bai harbor in Karangasem, Bali to Lembar Harbor in Lombok. From the airport, it's about an hour's drive, while from Lembar Harbor the trip will take only about 30 minutes.


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Forum Home > Windows™ Speech Recognition Forums for New and Disabled Users. Help, Files and FAQs. > New Users & General Questions
Browsing the web
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Joined: 18/Jan/2015
Location: utah
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1
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Topic: Browsing the web
Posted: 18/Jan/2015 at 2:51pm
Hi, I just joined and I have looked for this question and do not find it so I hope it's not redundant but as the saying goes my kingdom for some help :-)
I am using the Microsoft voice with Windows 7 and have used quite a few different applications for voice dictation. None of them seem very well-suited for web browsers :-) but I think I'm pretty good at working through the limitations and can make good use of it however this one is a cause for my username because I can't get past it. I open up Firefox and I want to go to one of my most visited sites which is available in the drop-down list from the URL bar. It's part of history in just a repetitive step that I take. In order to get those most visited places to drop down I use the mouse to click on the caret found at the far right of the URL barca it is a downward facing caret and has no name. When I say "show numbers" every clickable link on the browser lights up with a number except for this caret, using firefox so there is no way to press that button using voice. Can anyone please identify this"button" and tell me how to activate it? With Internet explorer , "show numbers" puts a choice on the same button. Its firefox that is not functional with voice.
using "show numbers" puts a number on the equivalent caret and I can choose it, but its not identified with firefox. Is this the microsoft way of forcing me into IE? :-) I would really appreciate an assist on this one because I said I can fumble around and deal with voice when surfing the web, but this one really sticks to me now like to win if I could.
Please save bandwidth and don't suggest to me to put my favorite web sites on the favorites toolbar. I don't like to work that way. It's been contentious nor obstinate it's just how I work and I like to think that there should be a way to click tha caret and use my browser the way I've been using it for decades. Thanks :-)
All may I please add a small question and hope that it doesn't detract from any answers? Is there any way to control the amount of time that the numbers are displayed? It's a great feature but the numbers don't stay on the screen long enough for me to ensure that I select the proper one. FWIW, I'm disabled with a brain injury and things that flash off and on on the screen slightly disorient me, but the numbers to make it easier, yet it causes me problems at times. I'll have the use of my hands without a lot of pain so I am resorting to the voice to use my computer and these are two functions that I am having trouble if. I think I can get by for most of the other issues if I can mail these down.
How can there be an active button that doesn't have a name? :-) LOL thanks very much I appreciate the help
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Joined: 16/Jul/2008
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 331
|Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 18/Jan/2015 at 7:38pm
I do not have a fire fox browser. However, try saying, "address bar." Then try saying, "press down arrow." The bottom line is Internet Explorer is a lot more user friendly to WSR, Windows Speech Recognition.
Sorry, can't help you with the timeout for the show numbers function.
Joined: 09/Jan/2015
Location: United States
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 1
|Post Options Quote Reply Posted: 28/Apr/2015 at 7:09am
If you check out AutoHotKey and it's ImageSearch function you can create a simple EXE to select the FireFox DropDown menu for history/address bar.
Or you could use Internet Explorer and navigate using the Document Object Model.
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The often (unspoken) assumptions behind the difference-in-difference estimator in practice
This page in:
The difference-in-difference (DID) evaluation method should be very familiar to our readers – a method that infers program impact by comparing the pre- to post-intervention change in the outcome of interest for the treated group relative to a comparison group. The key assumption here is what is known as the "Parallel Paths" assumption, which posits that the average change in the comparison group represents the counterfactual change in the treatment group if there were no treatment. It is a popular method in part because the data requirements are not particularly onerous – it requires data from only two points in time – and the results are robust to any possible confounder as long as it doesn't violate the Parallel Paths assumption. When data on several pre-treatment periods exist, researchers like to check the Parallel Paths assumption by testing for differences in the pre-treatment trends of the treatment and comparison groups. Equality of pre-treatment trends may lend confidence but this can't directly test the identifying assumption; by construction that is untestable. Researchers also tend to explicitly model the "natural dynamics" of the outcome variable by including flexible time dummies for the control group and a parametric time trend differential between the control and the treated in the estimating specification.
Typically, the applied researcher's practice of DID ends at this point. Yet a very recent working paper by Ricardo Mora and Iliana Reggio (two co-authors of this post) points out that DID-as-commonly-practiced implicitly involves other assumptions instead of Parallel Paths, assumptions perhaps unknown to the researcher, which may influence the estimate of the treatment effect. These assumptions concern the dynamics of the outcome of interest, both before and after the introduction of treatment, and the implications of the particular dynamic specification for the Parallel Paths assumption.
As stated, researchers often supplement the DID specification with a time trend of some parametric form such as a (perhaps group specific) linear trend. But by including this linear trend, the identifying assumption shifts from the standard Parallel Paths to what can be termed Parallel Growths, since now deviation from a trend line identifies impact (alternatively, we can think of Parallel Growths as a Parallel Path assumption in first differences).
The switch from Parallel Paths to Parallel Growths highlights a line of reasoning that Ricardo and Iliana formally extend to a general family of Parallel Assumptions valid for higher order differencing such as a difference of double-differencing (what might be called a Parallel Accelerations assumption) and so on. Arguably higher order Parallel Assumptions present weaker identifying assumptions than Parallel Paths – we no longer need the trend in the comparison group to proxy for the counterfactual trend of the treatment group but rather the growth (i.e. the change in trend) in the comparison group to proxy for the counterfactual growth. But there is a trade-off in our empirical practice since differencing of data tends to exacerbate any measurement error present in the outcome measures. So the extent that we can benefit from higher order Parallel Assumptions is determined by our data on a case by case basis.
Ricardo and Iliana then develop a general additive regression model with fully flexible dynamics – this has the advantage of being able to test for possible restrictions on the dynamics rather than simply positing a particular parametric form. The model also doesn't impose equivalence between alternative parallel assumptions. In fact this model can test for such equivalence:
The framework above allows for fully flexible pre-treatment trend differentials between the treated and comparison group and also allows for a comparison of any two consecutive parallel assumptions such as Paths vs. Growths. Here Y is the outcome of interest and time runs from t1 until T with the intervention beginning at some point between t2 and T. The binary indicator variable I designates time-periods while D indicates treated units. In practice, researchers often estimate a more restrictive equation than this one – even when the data permit this more flexible model. Here is one paper that does use this specification to look at the effects of school-desegregation in the U.S.
Ricardo and Iliana then review all DiD papers published in ten well-known economic journals over the past three years and focus on those that (a) adopt a DiD framework with more than one pre-treatment time period and (b) have made the data publically available. There are nine papers that meet these criteria. The topics of study in these papers range from the effect of Daylight Savings Time on US residential electricity use to the effects of WWI related male mortality on marriage market outcomes in France. All of the nine papers adopt more restrictive estimating equations than the one above. In fact most of the 13 specifications in the nine papers restrict pre-treatment dynamics to be equivalent between treatment and comparison groups. Most also impose a constant treatment effect in post-treatment periods thus ignoring the possible dynamics of treatment.
Eleven of the 13 specifications report significant treatment effects in the original papers. In contrast by applying the flexible model to the data Ricardo and Iliana find:
- In the 11 cases that estimate significant impacts, once re-estimated with the fully flexible model and with an explicit Parallel Paths assumption, only 5 remain precisely estimated and many of the 11 have substantively different point estimates.
- With the Parallel Growths assumption this number falls to 3 of 11 cases.
- Tests for the constancy of post-treatment effects for 11 of the specifications wind up rejecting the absence of dynamic effects in 6 of the instances. It seems post-treatment dynamic effects often matter and ideally should be modeled in a more flexible manner.
- A test of the equivalence of Parallel Paths and Parallel Growth assumptions rejects equivalence in 5 out of the 13 specifications. In these cases the arguably weaker assumption of Parallel Growth results in significantly different findings than Parallel Paths.
Now it's true that standard errors are higher in general with the fully-flexible model (especially with the Parallel Growths assumption tested with first-differenced data) and in many cases equality between the treatment effect reported in the published paper and the estimate under the flexible model cannot be rejected. As Ricardo and Iliana conclude, "with the fully flexible model we obtain results that coincide in sign and significance level with the original results in approximately one third of the cases. We interpret this outcome as suggesting that for many empirical applications, the models used are unduly restrictive."
Here is a call to think twice about our DiD specifications. Data permitting, the more flexible proposed model above can serve as a benchmark at the start of any DiD analysis to test the robustness of alternative Parallel Assumptions and alternative dynamic specifications. At the very least this exercise may serve to guide more informed parsimonious models.
p.s. – Ricardo and Iliana are currently writing an ado file that would implement many of these tests on parallel assumption equivalence or dynamics. We'll post a link when it is ready for sharing.
Join the Conversation
Hi, is the parallel path and growth similar to Campbell and Stanley (1969) Non equivalent group design and Interrupted time series?
Hi Dexter, thanks for your question - I couldn't find the particular Campbell and Stanley paper you cite but in general, at least to my understanding, interrupted time series per se does not involve counterfactual analysis, but matched with non equivalent group design then we are in the standard diff-in-diff world with the Parallel Paths assumption. As far as I know, Ricardo and Iliana are the first to formalize the family of parallel assumption as the do. Ricardo also wanted to respond with the following:
Thanks Dexter for your interesting question. Interrupted Time Series
assumes the existence of time series before treatment. The longer the
better. You do not even need the existence of a control group or
It is true that ITS analysis may end up being equivalent to assuming
Parallel Paths, Parallel Growths, or both of them at the same time, but
it doesn't need to be so.
I personally view Parallel Paths assumptions as reasonable strategies
of identification when we only have a sequence of cross-sections,
treated and controls groups, and a small number of periods before and
after treatment (like less than 20 periods).
Please revise link to paper, it is not working!
Hi Sergio, please try the link again, it seems to be working now…. Thanks!
Randomized Treatments? It seems this discussion only applies to observational data. In the case of randomized treatment, paths and growths would be part of the covariates that are randomized over, and these assumptions should be reasonable. Correct?
That should be right. If randomization was successful, assumption is that all counterfactual covariates are equal on average, including paths and growths.
My name is Adijat Olubukola Olateju A PhD Student From University Sains Malaysia . Am currently writing my thesis on -The assessment of microfinance bank on Microenterprises in Nigeria. Please, I would like to know
1. If DID method can be used for a Cross Sectional data i.e. Data collection once on the observation
2. Can the questionnaire for the treatment and the control group be the same or Different.
Thank you
It doesn't sound like DiD is an option for your data. DiD requires a pre-treatment and a post-treatment period for all individuals/units of analysis. So a cross-section would lack the before/after comparison needed. Also, the data on the treated and control groups would need to be the same to allow valid comparison between the two groups.
pls, am an Msc student of the dept. of ecomics usmanu danfodiyo university sokoto, nigeria.i want to know how one can ascertain the significance level of the result of the double difference estimators
I'm deciding if a DID approach will be best for a current project of mine evaluating a policy change. I am still unclear about the "best" number of pre-post time periods needed. The seminal Card & Kruger 1994 paper used 2 time periods and has been widely criticized but I can't find a "best number" of time periods. Guidance or references please!? Thank you!
I think there's not so much a best as there is a minimum. You need 1 pre and 1 post at minimum, with greater number of periods (pre and post) always improving the model.
I have more than three periods. For example, 1980, 1981, 1982, and 1983.
I have six groups: A, B, C, D, E, F. I want to check the effectiveness of minimum drinking age. For example, group A has 16 years in before and after the policy. Group B increases the age from 16 to 17. Group C increases the age from 16 to 18. Group D has changed the age at 17. Group E increases the age from 17 to 18. Group F has 18 years before and after the policy.
The data is panel data.
Is there anyone who can help me to design the DID model in such case?
How many treatment effects I need to find?
Thanks in advanced.
Hi Jed, This is very interesting. I have not had time to read the working paper yet, so excuse my comment if it is answered there.
I was wondering about the following. When applying a pure DiD to only two points in time, say a pre-test and post-test score, are you sure that often a parametric parallel trend is assumed? I would say that the only assumption needed, is additivity. In my view, things become tricky only after the effect is assumed to be multiplicative (A grew twice as much as B). However, when thinking of the true functional form, we can still express it correctly if we do not actually impose such assumption (A grew 3%, and B grew 6%). The question then is: what are we looking for?


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Anti-war march gets more coverage—but the message is still muted
by Frances Cerra Whittelsey, FAIR Extra!
The stage had been set up in front of the reflecting pool below Capitol Hill, facing the length of the Mall and the Washington Monument. Just behind the stage, in a space set aside for media interviews, huddles of reporters moved scrum-like from the Rev. Jesse Jackson to actress Susan Sarandon to Rep. John Conyers before each took their turn addressing the January 27 antiwar rally and march in Washington D.C.
Out in front of the stage, two multi-step risers held a phalanx of TV cameras and their operators. Still photographers and reporters edged in for a few inches of space, trying to see the extent of the crowd that poured in from all sides. On this sunny and blessedly mild mid-winter day, with police watching benignly from the sidelines, the full apparatus of the media seemed poised to show the U.S. public a full-throated example of democracy in action, of people who had sacrificed sleep and comfort to collectively affirm their role in the political process.
Tired images
To its credit, this literal mass of media did provide more and better coverage of the January 27 Iraq War protest than of ones preceding it. However, with some excellent exceptions, the coverage was narrowly focused—and, among conservative media, radically biased. Story after story, whether print or broadcast, focused on the small picture: soundbites or short quotes from celebrities, other speakers, individual protesters.
Despite the many previous protests against this war, most stories conjured tired images of tie-dyed, Vietnam-era protesters, and used actress Jane Fonda's appearance to support that story line. Conservative media inflamed their audience by playing up the appearance of "Hanoi Jane" and a single exchange of spittle between a marcher and a counter-demonstrator. (See sidebar.) Many stories noted the absence of Democratic presidential hopefuls like Hillary Clinton, and pegged the number of demonstrators at just "tens of thousands," diminishing the importance of the protest.
Many of the stories failed to put the demonstration in political context, even though Conyers, now the powerful head of the House Judiciary Committee, couldn't have made it easier. Conyers, one of more than 40 speakers, described the protest as a continuation of the antiwar vote in the mid-term elections, and said, "Not only is it in our power to stop Bush, it is our obligation." He—along with other Democratic House members, including Maxine Waters and Lynn Woolsey, both from California—promised to block continued funding of the war.
The protest also reflected the steady, determined antiwar effort at the grassroots that continued after global protests in February 2003 failed to stop the U.S. invasion, despite their prescient warnings of the consequences of war. Rather than despairing at that failure, the antiwar movement stayed alive in churches and community organizations across the country. Members of these groups repeatedly responded to calls for mobilization by United for Peace & Justice, MoveOn.org and others. But the actions and organizing of these antiwar groups, with the major exception of Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside the Bush ranch, went largely unreported by media that shunned coverage of dissent as unpatriotic.
Blink and you missed it
As a reporter with 30 years of experience, now freelancing and teaching journalism at Hofstra University, I hung my press pass around my neck for this demonstration so I could compare my observations with the versions of events reported by my colleagues. In recent years, I have been a participant in several antiwar demonstrations rather than reporting on them, marching with the crowds as another concerned citizen. Afterward, I have been disappointed with the news coverage because it either made the protests appear inconsequential or failed to report sufficiently on the violations of protesters' civil rights.
For example, I participated in the September 2005 protest in Washington, D.C. As FAIR reported a few days later (Media Advisory, 9/27/05), if you relied on television for news, you'd hardly have known about it. The NBC Nightly News (9/24/05) devoted 87 words to the story. CNN anchor Aaron Brown (9/24/05) used coverage of Hurricane Katrina as the excuse for his network's near-total silence about the protest.
I walked with another enormous crowd in New York City on that bitterly cold day of global protests in February 2003. Denied a permit to march, we were making our way to a rally just north of the United Nations. Suddenly, we found our progress blocked. Police barricades held us locked in a side street where we shivered, shoulder-to-shoulder, for two hours. We were never able to reach the rally. At one point, without warning, stony-faced police rode horses at a trot through the tight crowd just a few yards from where we stood.
The next day (2/16/03), the Times' page-one story, an overview of the global protests, explained that New York police had prevented thousands of people from reaching the rally. Why? Because the pens set up for protesters near the U.N. were full. It went on to report the arrests of protesters who had "tried to breach the police lines." There was no mention of the hardships endured by the demonstrators, the hostility of the police or the total absence of communication with the crowd.
A separate Times story that day devoted one short paragraph to the police handling of the event. Three days later (2/19/03), a follow-up story reported on a videotape showing police using pepper spray and night sticks on protesters. But since no Times reporter had apparently witnessed these incidents in the paper's front yard, the story described "complaints" of being corralled, and worse, as mere "allegations."
Political context
This time around, the New York Times' editors used a front-page teaser on the protest to lure readers to a story on page 21 (1/28/07), judging other stories, including one about Barack Obama's college days, as more deserving of the front page. The protest story, once again, consisted primarily of quotes from a wide range of protesters and speakers, but did place the protest in the context of antiwar sentiment in Congress.
The Washington Post (1/28/07) distinguished itself by assigning six staff writers and a researcher to the protest. Its page-one story conveyed the upbeat mood of the crowd and its diversity. It gave prominence to protesters with relatives in Iraq, let us hear a mother explaining the protest to her son as an exercise in free speech, and reported the crowd chanting for impeachment of George W. Bush.
But the paper went beyond human interest, explaining the protesters' political goal of prodding Congress into action. By naming 10 of the organizations that have come together under the umbrella of United for Peace & Justice, which coordinated the event, it showed the political blending of the agendas of feminists, religious organizations, farmers, active and retired military members and others.
The Post's coverage also included two sidebars, one about college student protesters and the other a collection of pictures and quotes from a variety of protesters.
The lead of the Associated Press story (1/28/07) told of the presence of a "half-dozen lawmakers," and was one of the few to quote Conyers, albeit selectively. In AP's version, his remarks about Bush ended with, "He can't fire us." It left out the continuation: "But we can fire him, we can fire him." At that, the crowd roared, "Impeach! Impeach!" This political message was apparently deemed not to be taken seriously—or else too serious to be reported.
NBC's Nightly News (1/27/07) offered viewers a brief view of protesters chanting for peace, inconsequential soundbites from Conyers and Fonda, and then brought in a political analyst to talk about Bush's effort to distract Democrats from taking action against the troop build-up.
ABC's World News (1/27/07) offered a similar group of soundbites from Fonda and actor Sean Penn. The story did note that "antiwar demonstrators" had raised $1.5 million to support a lobbying effort that would follow the demonstration, but there was no mention of any organization involved in that accomplishment.
The CBS Evening News (1/27/07) similarly settled for soundbites and avoided speaking to any of the leaders of the multitude of organizations involved. It did, however, emphasize that amorphous "activists" were "determined to raise the profile of military families opposed to the war." It went on with an interview of Larry Syverson, whose three sons have collectively served in Iraq five times, and ended with a line right out of the Bush playbook: "Military families like Syverson's can provide important political cover here on Capitol Hill, especially for Democrats who are concerned about looking unpatriotic if they stand up to the president," said reporter Joie Chen.
Same old protest
When I was still in journalism school, a veteran City Hall reporter told me something I've never forgotten: When stories all start to seem the same, it's time to find other work. The reporters, pundits and editors who saw little new about the protest on January 27 should consider his advice.
A major storyline for coverage of the protest was that it was a repeat of the Vietnam-era protests by the very same long-haired hippies—only now their ponytails are gray. Fonda's appearance at the rally made this slant easy. Ironically, as she explained herself in her brief remarks, she had stayed away from antiwar marches for 34 years knowing she made such an easy target for conservatives. Selectively emphasizing the "same old protest" theme meant avoiding mention of the political goals of the demonstrators, including the demand that Congress bring the troops home by de-funding the war. That focus, of course, is why the march this time did not pass the White House. (Protesters instead circled Capitol Hill.)
Despite this clear message, CNN began its morning coverage the day after the protest (1/28/07) with reporter Gary Nurenberg intoning, "The comparison to peace rallies to end another war 40 years ago was a constant theme among demonstrators who want to end the war in Iraq." Segue to Fonda, the two dozen pro-Bush supporters who staged a tiny counter-protest, and a pro-Bush pundit who drew a bloody contrast with the Vietnam era: "There is something they [the protesters] don't understand," said former RNC spokesperson Clifford May (identified as representing the Foundation for Defense of Democracies). "Ho Chi Minh at his worst never thought he was going to send suicide bombers to America to kill American children. The people we're fighting in Iraq, they intend to do that." Nurenberg asked for no evidence for such a horrific prediction; none, at least, was provided.
Later in the day, CNN showed an interview with an active member of the Navy who had taken part in the protest. But unlike May, who was not challenged, Petty Officer Jonathan Hutto was asked if he wasn't supposed to simply follow the orders of his commander-in-chief.
The headline on the New York Daily News' protest story (1/28/07) said, "Fonda Leads Army of Celebs at Antiwar Rally." Accurate if five people make an army.
Salon's Alex Koppelman (1/28/07) wrote that the demographics of the war protests had changed, with "more yuppies, more families with small children, more older people and even a fair number of stylishly dressed young girls." Still, he felt compelled to take a swipe at "professional protesters . . . the kind for whom protests are a lifestyle choice."
The numbers game
Accused in the past of biased counting, neither the National Park Service nor the D.C. police will give any count of the number of protesters at any demonstration in Washington. The government, of course, could provide an excellent count by analyzing photos taken from the helicopters that always fly over demonstrations. Looking at the crowd from the ground does not help. When I stood on the top step of the camera risers and peered the 1.5 miles to the Washington Monument, there were protesters as far as I could see. But I could not tell how close together they were.
Noting the absence of any official count, the Washington Post (1/28/07) described the crowd size as "thousands." The Associated Press (1/28/07) settled on "tens of thousands," and quoted an anonymous police officer saying "privately" that attendance was less than 100,000. The "tens of thousands" estimate was also used by the New York Times (1/28/07), Reuters, NBC, ABC and CBS (all 1/27/07). Only the Los Angeles Times (1/28/07) dared to estimate 100,000. Newspapers that in the past would probably have had their own reporters covering the story used the AP story and therefore its count. That included papers like Newsday (1/28/07) that have suffered major staff cuts.
Perhaps the most telling story about turnout was reported on National Public Radio's All Things Considered broadcast at 7 p.m. on the day of the protest (1/27/07). Jacki Lyden introduced the story this way: "Today's antiwar protest may be one of the largest in years, but while polls say that most Americans are against the war, most people have not been taking their politics to the streets." The news staff at NPR seems to have decided on this theme the day before the protest, when reporter Melissa Block, conducting an interview with Judith LeBlanc, co-chair of United for Peace & Justice, said to her:
When you look at what the antiwar movement has done over the last four years of the war, it seemed like there was a big presence at the beginning. And then for a lot of people, maybe it drifted away. It was hard to see where you were. What do you think the problem has been there, in terms of your presence and people's recognition of what you're doing? Why haven't you been able to push the debate forward more?
It does not seem to have occurred to NPR's news staff that they, like most of the rest of the media, had ignored protest after protest, and now, suddenly awakening, are wondering at the blank in their memory. They might be surprised to learn that the January 27 protest was the eighth since 2003 that "had at least 100,000 people," according to Leslie Cagan, LeBlanc's co-chair at United for Peace & Justice.
LeBlanc responded to Block by pointing out that if one travels the country as she has,
what you see is that there is a grassroots movement that hasn't always gotten the attention of the national media. So . . . in between these big demonstrations, there are people doing some very heavy lifting, showing films and having discussions, and doing door-to-door work in their neighborhoods. . . . We do have the attention of the national media now, and what is going on in our country is a reflection of all of that work that goes on under the radar.
LeBlanc's response was a diplomatic way of saying that the news media suffer from a chronic lack of interest in covering grassroots organizations, preferring public opinion polls with their bloodless and controlled questions to actually reporting on community activists. Grassroots activism has not only pushed the war debate forward but also contributed to the election of many antiwar members of Congress. MoveOn.org, for example, reported that in 2006, volunteers made 7 million phone calls, organized 7,500 house parties, and launched 6,000 in-district events.
Antiwar activists, of course, would love the opportunity to "push the debate forward" by participating in media discussions of the war. But as study after study has shown (Extra!, 5–6/03; Extra! Update, 6/99; Extra!, 5/91), they rarely get the chance.
How big?
So how big was the crowd? Cagan estimated the number of protesters at a minimum of 350,000, based on "collective experience over many years of doing large demonstrations." She pegged this march as "a little bigger" than the September 2005 demonstration in Washington, which she gauged at 300,000, but smaller than the demonstrations in New York City in February 2003 and in August 2004, during the Republican National Convention. She estimated participation at both of those at more than 500,000 people.
It's impossible to know if Cagan is correct, since the media outlets with the financial resources to do an independent count made no effort to do so. It wasn't the only squandered opportunity, as the reporters and camerapeople massed around the stage on January 27 neglected to interview organization leaders who could have enlightened the public about their ideas for bringing the war to a close.
They could also have asked individual protesters about the groups to which they belong and for whom they volunteer, finding out whether there really has been an absence of protest as this war has mercilessly gone on. They could have wondered at their own failure to listen and observe the vigils, local government antiwar resolutions, the barrage of e-mails and letters to members of Congress and the White House.
They could have speculated about the health of democracy in America when the executive branch can so easily ignore the voice of the people. And, instead of disdaining protesters of any age or hairstyle, they could have shown respect for people who got up off their couches on a mid-winter day to affirm the right of the people to be part of the political process.


text:
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Facts: The parties lived in Maryland throughout their 19-year marriage. In 2007 or 2008, Husband left the marital home in Maryland. Several months later, he moved to Tennessee. About one year after he moved to Tennessee, Husband filed for divorce in Tennessee. Wife filed an Answer and a Counterclaim for divorce. The trial court conducted the first day of trial in the matter, and the case was continued. Before the second day of trial resumed, the trial court sua sponte entered an order dismissing the case for lack of jurisdiction, specifically personal jurisdiction over Wife (based on Wife's insufficient contacts with Tennessee) and also lack of subject matter jurisdiction over the case. Husband appealed.
On Appeal: The Court of Appeals reversed the trial court.
On the issue of personal jurisdiction, Husband argued that Wife consented to personal jurisdiction by filing a general appearance in the trial court, and by filing an Answer and Counterclaim in which she raised no issue as to personal jurisdiction.
Personal jurisdiction refers to the court's authority to adjudicate the claim as to the person. Personal jurisdiction of non-resident defendants may be obtained by service of process under the Tennessee Long Arm Statute if, and only if, the non-resident defendant has such minimum contacts with this state that maintenance of the suit does not offend "traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice." Objections to personal jurisdiction must be raised as a defense in the defendant's first filing, either in the Answer or in a Motion to Dismiss pursuant to Rule 12 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure. If the defendant fails to do so and participates in the litigation prior to raising this defense, the objection to personal jurisdiction is waived.
On the question of personal jurisdiction, the Court wrote:
From our review of the record in this case, Wife did not object to the trial court's exercise of personal jurisdiction in her initial filings with the trial court. To the contrary, she indicated her consent to the trial court's exertion of personal jurisdiction when her attorney filed a general appearance on her behalf and when she filed an Answer and Counterclaim that did not object to the trial court's exercise of jurisdiction over her. In her Counterclaim, Wife specifically asked the trial court to adjudicate all of the rights between the parties. Because Wife clearly waived any objection and consented to personal jurisdiction, we reverse the trial court's holding that it did not have personal jurisdiction over Wife.
Husband further argued the trial court erred in dismissing the case based on lack of subject matter jurisdiction because Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-4-104(a) gives the trial court jurisdiction over the case if either party has resided in Tennessee for the six months immediately preceding the filing of the complaint for divorce.
Subject matter jurisdiction relates to the nature of the cause of action and the relief sought. Subject matter jurisdiction implicates a court's power to adjudicate a particular type of case or controversy. A court derives its subject matter jurisdiction, either explicitly or by necessary implication, from the Tennessee Constitution or from legislative acts. The parties cannot confer subject matter jurisdiction on a trial court, or on an appellate court, by appearance, plea, consent, silence, or waiver. For this reason, the issue of subject matter jurisdiction may be raised at any time during the proceedings, by the parties or by the court. A court may raise the issue of subject matter jurisdiction sua sponte, even where no party objects.
Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-4-104(a) provides that
[a] divorce may be granted for any of the causes referenced in § 36-4-101 if the acts complained of were committed while the plaintiff was a bona fide resident of this state or if the acts complained of were committed out of this state and the plaintiff resided out of the state at the time, if the plaintiff or the defendant has resided in this state six (6) months next preceding the filing of the complaint.
The term "residence" as used in § 36-4-104(a) has been interpreted to mean "domicile." A person's domicile is "the place where a person has his principal home and place of enjoyment of his fortunes; which he does not expect to leave, except for a purpose; from which when absent, he seems to himself a wayfarer; to which when he returns, he ceases to travel." To create a domicile in Tennessee, a person must intend to establish a personal home in Tennessee and must act consistently with this intention. To acquire domicile here, the person must also have no present intention or expectation of changing his or her residence to some other state.
To determine whether Tennessee was Husband's domicile for the six months immediately preceding the filing of his divorce complaint, the courts must consider not only his declarations and conduct but also all other relevant facts and circumstances.
The Court reviewed the evidentiary record and concluded:
At the time of trial, Husband was still employed at [a local] trucking company, [Husband's Girlfriend, with whom he lived] continued to work at the same company, and he had a long-term relationship with Girlfriend that was going well. This indicates an intention to stay with Girlfriend in Tennessee for the foreseeable future, and there is nothing in the record to the contrary. Thus, the evidence in the record at this juncture preponderates in favor of a finding that Husband is domiciled in Tennessee for purposes of determining subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to § 36-4-104(a).
Therefore based on the record before us, we must conclude that the trial court has subject matter jurisdiction over the parties' divorce proceedings. Finding both in personam jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction, we must reverse the trial court's dismissal of the case.
The case was remanded to the trial court for further proceedings.
Wilken v. Wilken (Tennessee Court of Appeals, Western Section, December 27, 2012).
Information provided by K.O. Herston: Knoxville, Tennessee Divorce, Matrimonial and Family Law Attorney.


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Democrats for democracy? Not in Mass.
Democrats against democracy. There they go again.
In 2012, the Democratic establishment cleared the primary field so Elizabeth Warren could run for US Senate. Now, party leaders want to do the same for US Representative Edward Markey.
Senator John Kerry, whose seat opens up once he's confirmed as the next secretary of state, swiftly threw his support to Markey. So did Vicki Kennedy, the widow of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. As if anybody beyond Washington really cares, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee also issued statements of support for Markey.
But this time, it could be harder to clear a path for the anointed one. For one thing, US Representative Michael Capuano, one would-be Senate candidate, is no Marisa DeFranco.
DeFranco, a feisty but little-known political novice, refused to bow out after Warren jumped into the race. No matter; party leaders easily shoved her off the primary ballot at the state convention.
Capuano is less easily disrespected. He's an incumbent with a sharp tongue and elbows, and followers who appreciate both. He also has the experience that comes with losing a Senate primary to Martha Coakley. Capuano's response to Markey's attempted coup was true to his pugnacious character. If he chooses to run, Capuano said he will run as he always has: "from the streets up, not from the elite down."
Think about that, Democrats. Isn't a run from "the streets up" something to think about against the now-outgoing Senator Scott Brown? To beat Coakley, Brown cast himself as Everyman in a barn jacket and pickup truck. His regular guy status was a large part of his initial appeal.
Last November, Brown lost to Warren, the hand-picked candidate of the elites. But Markey is no Warren. He lacks her star power and her national image as a fighter.
On the campaign trail, Markey speaks with passion for the little guy, but he hasn't faced a real challenger in 36 years. His audience is usually there to hear the candidate he's introducing. Thanks to Markey, BP was forced to post a live video feed of oil spewing into the ocean after the Deepwater Horizon explosion. But his focus on energy and the environment receives little scrutiny beyond the Beltway. Malden is Markey's home city, but the Beltway is basically home, since he primarily lives in Chevy Chase, Md.
On a morning radio show, Brown took an early warning shot at the residence issue, saying of Markey, "Does he even live here?"
Markey didn't respond immediately to Brown's jibe. When he announced plans to run for the Senate — or, rather, walk majestically towards it — he took no press questions. Does that sound like a battle-ready candidate? No, it sounds like a candidate who hasn't had to fight to win for a long time.
Democrats are terrified of a rematch with Brown, even though he lost a lot of luster in his showdown with Warren. He ran a tough, "streets up" campaign, breaking conventional rules about how to run against a female opponent. During debates, he relentlessly questioned her ethnicity and ties to Massachusetts. Whatever doubts he raised with voters weren't enough to beat her.
Warren was able to focus voters' attention on the national Republican agenda and whether Brown would be forced to support it. She also had the benefit of running in a presidential election year, when Massachusetts Democrats were determined to show their love for President Obama over former Governor Mitt Romney. Even with those advantages, her campaign experienced the bumpy moments that are often associated with untested candidates; a primary might have offered a good road test for curves ahead.
At least in Warren, the party elite got behind an atypical Bay State candidate — a woman who wasn't born in Massachusetts and had never before held political office. Now they want to anoint someone who served in Washington during Jimmy Carter's presidency. Markey's would-be rivals are also longtime incumbents.
The snore factor is huge. A primary fight could at least wake up the voters and get them to refocus on politicians who are mostly familiar to them as lifetime members of a lockstep delegation. Are there any real differences between them? Who can best take the fight to Brown, if he's the Republican nominee?
Voters, not the party elite, should be the deciders. That's what democracy is all about.
But Democrats like democracy for everyone but Democrats.
Joan Vennochi can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @Joan_Vennochi.


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Mark Johnson drew rave reviews for his handling of a young, up-and-coming group of Cubs prospects while managing the club's Short-A affiliate at Boise (Idaho) last summer.
He expects to see many of the same players he guided to the Northwest League championship series in 2012 in his first season with the Cougars, which opens at Fifth Third Bank Ballpark on April 4.
Johnson knows there's an advantage to familiarity, especially with many players among the group beginning their first full professional seasons. That's why he doesn't plan to deviate from a simple approach. The schedule is expanded and the proximity to Chicago brings a built-in challenge, but that won't affect what Johnson stresses before each game.
"Your routine has got to be spot on day-to-day, every single day. Being mentally prepared when you're starting at this level is critical," Johnson said. "Obviously, we're going to be physically prepared, but mentally going into the first season of pro ball and cold weather and in Chicago, it's vital."
Johnson managed in a far different atmosphere in Boise the past two seasons. While Cubs allegiance stretches throughout North America, fans didn't quite flock to Idaho to see the organization's future as they are expected to in Geneva.
The Hawks' average attendance of 2,399 fans in 38 openings ranked sixth in the eight-team Northwest League, more than 2,000 spectators behind the league-leading Spokane (Wash.) Indians.
Shortly after the season started, Cubs director of player development Brandon Hyde visited Boise and returned a frustrating correspondence to senior vice president of scouting and player development Jason McLeod. There were rudimentary on-field mistakes and an overall unprofessionalism in the clubhouse, among other things.
That is, until Johnson had the chance to explain his fundamentals-first philosophy after the first few games.
"They weren't performing early on and something clicked, and it was a totally different team to watch the last month than it was the first month. Completely different team," Hyde said. "And the staff just did an amazing job of staying with it, staying with the process, staying with the development. But also, the confidence kind of fed with that group, and it was an extremely exciting team to watch the last month."
McLeod soon agreed, balancing Hyde's report with his own observations from a late-season visit.
Whether it was their clubhouse comportment or more serious approaches to early work and batting practice, McLeod noticed the Hawks "got professionalized" because of Johnson's ability to juggle the many roles of a lower-level minor league manager.
"As a manager, Mark Johnson is very competitive, right?" McLeod said. "So then you've got that own competitiveness versus, 'OK, we have to develop these players.' "
A major league catcher for parts of eight seasons – including 1998-2002 with the White Sox – Johnson briefly played alongside Cougars pitching coach Ron Villone with the 2008 St. Louis Cardinals.
Hitting coach Tom Beyers, a Cubs organizational coach or coordinator since 2000, advanced as far as Triple-A during a minor league playing career from 1979-1983.
"We've got three guys that can really communicate with the players and we understand; we're players' coaches," Johnson said. "We're in it for them. We're totally vested for them. We want to see every one of them get to the big leagues and we're going to do and say everything we can to help make that happen."
For Johnson, those messages start with the basics and build from there.
"You've just got to let them be aware of what could happen if they're not prepared and what they need to expect," Johnson said. "No matter how much you tell them and preach it, it's something they have to experience for themselves, even if it's for the second or third time."


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An Alameda County Sheriff's deputy was dragged by a vehicle and shot and a suspect critically wounded in Oakland on Saturday night, investigators said.
The deputy received a minor foot injury and is in stable condition, while the driver of the vehicle was critically injured and taken to Highland Hospital, Alameda County sheriff's officials said. How the driver was hurt is unknown at this time, but multiple shots were fired at 33rd Avenue and San Leandro Street, near the Fruitvale BART station. Police closed nearby streets off to traffic as they investigated.
Investigators said the deputy was in the process of a traffic stop and arresting the driver and the one passenger for possession of drugs, when the car sped off, dragging the officer. At some point the officer and possibly someone else fired their weapons, officials said.
At least four bullet casings were marked at the scene.
Check back for more details.


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Kingston Heath Golf Club (ranked #21 in the world) is located in the sandbelt region of Melbourne and was designed in 1925 by Australian professional Dan Soutar. As was the practice at that time, bunkers were kept to a minimum when the course was built to see how it played and how the predominant winds blow. Soutar was paid a fee of 25 guineas plus traveling expenses from Sydney. He planned the course around the tenth hole, which is set among a picturesque avenue of gum trees. Soutar routed the course so you wouldn't have to play into the afternoon sun. The course was constructed by M.A. Morcom, who was the superintendent at Royal Melbourne.
While Alister MacKenzie was visiting Australia he was hired to offer suggestions on bunker placement. The course was 6,892 yards long when it opened, which is very long for the 1920s. In his 1926 report on the course, MacKenzie criticized it for being too long.
No drinks served at this 19th hole
We played Kingston Heath on a beautiful autumn day with perfect temperatures, no wind or clouds and no humidity. We played the course routing that is used when tournaments are played at Kingston Heath, including the routing Tiger Wood played last year when he won the Australian Masters. The course card was as follows:
Front nine: 1-19-12-13-14-15-16-17-18
Back nine: 7-8-9-11-2-3-4-5-6
The nineteenth hole is an alternate par three they use instead of the par three tenth hole. Kingston Heath is on very flat terrain and was easy to walk. The distinctive feature in my view are the bunkers. There are a lot of them; they are strategically placed and difficult. The greens and fairways are both relatively flat, but given the angle most bunkers are set at, it is hard to hold the ball on the green if you are coming out of the sand.
The book The World's 500 Toughest Golf Holes ranks the first at Kingston Heath among its holes. The hole is 418 meters (add 10 percent for yards) and was originally a par five. The tee shot must be played up and over a hill with bunkers dramatically cut into its right side.
The Australian and five-time British Open Champion Peter Thomson is a big fan of the third hole, which is an 269 meter yard par four. He says, "holes of this length are not built any more - a pity. This one is a gem. In this day and age it can be driven, although the possibility must be ten or more to one against. For this reason the penalties for missing the target should be more severe, this enhancing the challenge."
Planet Golf also feels that the best hole of all at Kingston Heath is the drivable but dangerous third because the shallow green is angled to accept only the most precise pitch shots.
Thompson is also a big fan of the fifth hole, a 173 meter par three. "The threes here at Kingston Heath are very much the heart of the course, and this one is the first of three beauties. The original natural bumps and hollows have been preserved blessedly."
Tiger Woods, 13th hole (11th on card), Kingston Heath 2009
As is typical here, the green is cut at a right angle up to the edge of the bunker, leaving zero margin for error. The fourteenth green has some very artful bunkering and is one of the few greens with larger undulations.
Thompson says fourteen is one of the best par fives in Australia. My favorite stretch of holes was thirteen through seventeen. The fifteenth hole, a par three of 142 meters was my favorite. It plays uphill and is well bunkered as seen in the picture. The fifteenth hole was originally a 222 yard par three with a blind green sloping away from the line of play. Tom Doak says that MacKenzie built this hole himself. Planet Golf calls the fifteenth the star attraction at Kingston Heath, and it surely is.
The finish at Kingston Heath is a difficult one. The seventeenth is a long and hard hole at 421 meters. The second shot is blind and as such there are no fairway bunkers.
Approach to the bunkerless seventeenth green
The nineteenth hole is a nice par three. On this hole I was introduced to the two crazy Kiwis who are playing a round of golf every day of the year in 2010 throughout the world. Their compelling story is here. We had a nice chat with them, and they came away with the impression that we were a couple of American "high flyers," which I kinda like.
Tom Doak compares Kingston Heath to Merion in that it is a strategic design on a tight piece of land and has a similar great use of only about 125 acres. Combined with the intricate bunkering, it makes a compelling golf course.
The month I played Kingston Heath, Golf Digest Australia ranked the course above Royal Melbourne as the best course in the country for the first time. I don't agree and think the composite at Royal Melbourne is better. I would also rank New South Wales, Barnbougle Dunes and Royal Adelaide above Kingston Heath. The Golf Digest Australia 2010 rankings: 1. Kingston Heath, 2. New South Wales, 3. Royal Melbourne West, 4. Barnbougle Dunes, 5. Ellerston, 6. The National (Moonah), 7.Metropolitan, 8. Royal Melbourne East and 9. Royal Adelaide.
As with all the great courses in Australia, they welcome overseas visitors as long as you follow their rules. It is easy to email them and arrange a day to play. You are made an honorary member for the day with all the club privileges. As with all the clubs we visited in Australia, we were treated very well at Kingston Heath. The club itself has the feel of a proper old English club. I wish I had scheduled more time in the sandbelt region, having missed playing Yara Yara, Metropolitan and the many other great courses here.
Melbourne is a delightful city with a river running through it crammed with a lot of little back alleys and lanes where you can sit outside in a café or have a drink. After the round, we rode back to the airport. Our driver took us along Melbourne Bay and the upscale Brighton and St. Kilda neighborhoods, beside the beach and waterfront. Imagine living along the waterfront here, commuting to downtown Melbourne on a tram and playing all these wonderful sandbelt courses on a regular basis. A good deal, if you can get it. These Aussies have some lifestyle.
For the record, Australia has the best air transport system in the world. As an example, Melbourne is a city of four million people, or a little smaller than Chicago. It took us about five minutes to go through airport security each time we traveled. We flew through Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Launceston, and all are airy and clean airports and offer little stress to the haggard traveler. You don't have to take your shoes off, you can carry through liquids and you are not presumed to be a criminal as you are in the United States. They allow non-travelers to come right up to the gate, thus the lost pleasure of having kids run up to their parents, or your mother-in-law greeting you with open arms when getting off a plane, still exists in Australia.
It helps that all the principal cities in Australia have great weather all year round, the country is geographically the size of the U.S. with 20 million people, and they are so far away that they aren't a terrorism target. Thankfully, the scourge of CNN Airport Network also hasn't infected Australia so you can sit at the gate without being barraged by noise pollution. Still, it's just nice to remember that airline travel doesn't have to be painful.


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Kraftster wrote:So we should look at putting this together over the next couple of weeks. I have created LGP Fantasy Futbol leagues in both Yahoo!: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/fantasy/p ... eague/home (Group ID: 749 Password: 2dd78s8) and Fantasy Premier League: http://fantasy.premierleague.com/ (League code: 386245-99580).
I am not sure which site people would rather use. The games are set up fairly similarly. Seems like Yahoo! has made some changes this year to make things more like FPL.
I could really go either way (or both to see which we like better?) on the site. If you guys want to go play around with the sites, try to join the league, see what features you like/don't like report back and maybe we can settle on one over the other.


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Editor's Note: Second life. It can represent a chance to do over. To reset and refocus your life. To shake off the past and give yourself an opportunity to change and grow. In our series, Second Life, we took a look at how those in the small business world, out of necessity or desire, reach beyond their comfort zones to re-create themselves and their world. These stories celebrate those who saw potential in being something else or creating something that wasn't and were brave enough to take the plunge into the deep, dark waters of entrepreneurship.
SACKVILLE, N.B. – It's a place to work, to share ideas, and to feel motivated, or simply to send a fax, make a phone call, use the wi-fi, hold a board meeting, or host a special event.
"We try to make space for anything and everything," says Julia Feltham, co-founder and executive director of the Sackville Commons.
Having only opened its doors a year ago, The Commons has quickly become a dynamic and thriving space where local entrepreneurs, artists, artisans, non-profits and community groups are coming together to work, share ideas and resources, and build a sense of community.
"I'm impressed with how everyone at the Commons works as a team, I can't say enough about all they've done," says Daniel Haartman of Community Machinery, just one of the more than 70 new members of the Sackville Commons.
The Commons is essentially a community co-working space and offers members access to work stations, storage, meeting rooms, phone and photocopying service, and also regularly hosts development workshops and information sessions.
"Some of what they've provided is really specialized; budgeting for cash-flow, business development opportunities, and networking with people who have really gone out of their way to earn my trust," says Haartman. "There's also a lot of little things, like their willingness to sign for packages while I've been setting up, use of a fax machine, and having use of a meeting room."
The conversation around creating a Commons started nearly a decade ago in Sackville. In a world where growing numbers of people work alone as entrepreneurs or in web-based businesses, there is a lot of flexibility and personal freedom, but also a feeling of isolation sometimes that comes from not working in a busy office setting.
Feltham says a co-working model offers the opportunity for those people to work among others in an informal atmosphere but one that can inspire, energize and provides a chance to share ideas and resources – "so we make sure we all thrive a little better and we don't feel so alone."
She says providing a supportive atmosphere, where people can share spaces and experiences, is a step towards "normalizing entrepreneurship as a career path," which is much needed in today's new economy.
The Commons has also welcomed non-profits into its folds, providing them with office space and office resources, as well as the ability to collaborate with other community stakeholders on important issues.
The Sackville Commons opened last fall out of the former fire hall and police station on Main Street, and since then has drawn in a wide array of new members, from Bagtown Brewing, to Daybreak, to the Art Hive, Rural Rides, the Sackville Farmers' Market, Bay of Fungi.
New members are being sought, she says, with the goal of having another 10 to 15 members to keep the Commons sustainable.


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Views: 1762
Big Franks, definitely.
I've gotten so many of my never-been-SDA friends hooked on those. One of my friends provided the perfect description after she finally admitted to loving them after a bit of denial: "Big Franks grow on you...like mold."
Wow, that's a great description... but not for food! Hehe. Sounds like something you'd pull out of a drain, except for the "yummy" part.
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text: I'm a sucker for a vending machine, and here's a new Pepsi Sampling Machine from Belgium that dispenses a sample everyone time you like their Facebook Page. Once you get to the front of the line, the vending machine drives you to a mobile site, where you can like the page, and then chose your flavour, just hit the one you want and it will instantly pop out. Created by TBWA Brussels.


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Who could ask for anything more? These cookies are packed full with superfoods that will give you sustained energy and a smile on your face. What's more, they are extra chocolaty due to the combination of acai, carob and cacao! Mesquite, maca and lucuma together give them a rich caramel undertone. Sure to be a hit!
3 Tbsp carob powder
2 Tbsp maca powder
1/2 cup cacao powder
1 1/2 Tbsp mesquite powder
5 Tbsp lucuma powder
2 Tbsp acai powder
1 Tbsp agave nectar
3 Tbsp coconut palm sugar
6 Tbsp coconut oil
dash of Kalahari salt
In large bowl, add all ingredients and mix thoroughly together. Roll into one inch balls and set on Paraflexx sheets to get ready to dehydrate. Press ball with fork in a criss-cross fashion to create a flatter cookie shape. Place in dehydrator and dehydrate 4-6 hours at 120 degrees. Store in air-tight container.


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Faith in Vermont: Oh, Gear!
The mild winter of 2012 was our family's first winter in Vermont. "How lucky," locals said, referring to the lack of snowfall, "you're getting an easy first winter." But we didn't feel grateful; we felt gypped. In my opinion, if you're going to have winter, you might as well have plenty of snow to go with it. Snow is an excuse to get outside and have fun despite the cold. Last winter was just cold and grey and bare. We spent months huddled inside, staring longingly at our unused snowshoes and sled.
Thankfully, this winter seems to be acting a little more like WINTER; thus far, there's been enough snow for our family to ski, sled, and snowshoe multiple times. It's as we pictured Vermont during our last rainy California winter.
What we failed to picture was the gear.
By gear, I'm referring to the long underwear, snow pants, coats, boots, gloves, hats, and maybe even scarves (we usually skip scarves out of sheer exhaustion) required for every snowy excursion. It's bad enough trying to get myself into all those layers… then there are the kids.
If you've never tried dressing a child for winter, here's the best illustration I can think of: imagine there's a 35-pound squid in your mudroom. The squid has just taken methamphetamine, so it's floppy and spastic at the same time. Now, try forcing that squid into all the aforementioned items. (In my own case, multiply by three).
I've solicited advice from other mothers, but until the kids can dress themselves I don't think there's a shortcut. Sure, there are boots that are easier or harder to pull on (and some that were clearly designed by people who've never met a preschooler). There are various philosophies about whether it's better to put on snow pants and coats before leaving the house, or in the car upon arrival. But whether or not you delay the struggle, at some point you still have to stuff a resistant child (or three) into multiple bulky layers.
This year, two of our daughters are participating in the Bill Koch League (the youth league of the New England Nordic Ski Association) at Rikert Nordic Center. They take two hours of cross-country ski lessons every Saturday morning. The girls love it because their best friend is in class with them. I love it because my husband and I get two quiet hours to ski or snowshoe (while pulling our sleeping third child behind us in the polk). But by lunchtime every Saturday I am a broken woman.
I blame the gear.
Here's a snapshot of a typical Saturday morning: We get three girls into their three layers, either before driving to Rikert or immediately upon arrival, because the walk from the car to the lodge is usually cold. Then we enter the toasty lodge to pick up their ski boots and skis. Off with the snow boots, on with the ski boots (which involve LACES). Then over to the Team Room to wait for the lessons to start. When we enter the Team Room, the girls start whining about the heat, so it's off with the hats, gloves and coats – which then have to go back ON when their lesson begins. You know what else has to go on? The skis.
Now, every other parent seems to have no problem helping their children snap the toes of their boots into their skis. I, on the other hand, am always kneeling red-faced in the snow, a daughter clutching a hunk of my hair, grunting "Point your TOE!" as I wrestle toe into binding.
Then they're off, until it's time to replace ski boots with snow boots again. Two hours has never felt so short. In the meantime, God help anybody who needs to use the bathroom, or decides they're too hot to ski with gloves/coat/hat.
Since we live in a small town filled with people who like to have fun in the winter, when we go up to Rikert on Saturday mornings we know almost EVERYONE there. Which means that I'm wrangling my little squids into their winter gear in front of my husband's co-workers, friends from the girls' school, friends from church, the Realtor who sold us our house, my editor at this very paper, and some lovely people who've introduced themselves by saying, "I read your Independent column."
All of which is very humbling, especially having to be myself in front of people who've met me first through my writing. When I write, I have some control over how I come across; I can select the facts I disclose and edit obsessively until I appear to be a Nice Person: somebody who has it all in perspective, who can laugh at life's foibles -- or who can at least form a grammatically correct sentence.
Up at Rikert, I am not somebody who can form a grammatically correct sentence. So if you see me one of these Saturdays, grunting and cursing at all the gear, don't be alarmed. Feel free to introduce yourself -- especially if you can give me some pointers on how to get my kids' boots into those skis.
Faith Gong has worked as an elementary school teacher, a freelance photographer, and a nonprofit manager. Since moving to Addison County in 2011, her work has involved caring for a house in the woods, three young daughters (with another on the way), one adorable puppy — and writing for her blog,
text-decoration:none;text-underline:none"> The Pickle Patch.