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It's time (actually past time!) for the midterm forecast/"It's the fundamentals, stupid" t-shirt contest. As always, please, no money wagering at home. This should only be done by professionals. All that's at stake here is a t-shirt and, of course, my professional pride – oh, and control of the legislative agenda for the next two years.
Let me begin with the Senate. I should note that most political scientist forecast models focus on the House, not the Senate. (For example, among the five midterm forecast models presented in the recent issue of Political Science and Politics, only one includes a Senate forecast.) In previous years the Senate forecasts have not always been very accurate. I'm not sure why this is the case, although I can suggest explanations. Senate races are usually more competitive – they attract stronger challengers, who are often well funded (think Carly Fiorina or Linda McMahon). State populations – especially in large states – are more heterogeneous, making it difficult to assess how the population is reacting in the aggregate to the fundamentals. There are fewer Senate races in any cycle, so perhaps it's easier simply to assess each race individually, a la Charlie Cook or Stuart Rothenberg.
For whatever reason, the science of forecasting Senate races is not as well developed. As a result, unlike the presidential forecast I've done in previous years (or the House one I will present later) this Senate forecast is not based on any specific model; there's no underlying theory on which the projections are based. It's all seats-of-the-pants, race-by-race assessments which, frankly, you can find on a dozen other websites. Nonetheless, we have a tradition to keep at the Presidential Power blog, so here goes. Just remember – if my predictions go horribly wrong, it's not an indictment of political science forecast models – it's simply a reflection of my own lack of political insight.
Drum roll please!
I've set the over/under for the Republican gain in the Senate next Tuesday at 8 seats. (Yes, for those of you who attended my talk last night, I've changed the prediction again. This is the real one. For now.) Note that this is almost twice the Republican gain than what Alan Abramowitz's Senate forecast model indicates based on the current generic ballot results, although Alan is careful to note the large margin of uncertainty surrounding his Labor Day Senate prediction.
Because there are only about a dozen competitive Senate seats (of 37) during this cycle, I can list the predicted Republican pickups, in rough order of likelihood (from most likely to I'm basically guessing). They are:
1. North Dakota. Democrat Byron Dorgan stepping down. Republican John Hoeven to beat Tracy Potter.
2. Arkansas. Incumbent Democrat Blanche Lincoln to lose to John Boozman.
3. Indiana. Democrat Evan Bayh stepping down. Republican Dan Coats to beat Brad Ellsworth.
4. Wisconsin. Incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold to lose to Ron Johnson.
5. Pennsylvania. Incumbent Arlen Specter lost in the primary. Republican Pat Toomey to beat Joe Sestak.
6. Nevada. Incumbent Democrat Harry Reid to lose to Sharron Angle.
7. Illinois. Democrat (and Blagojevich appointee) Burris stepping down. Republican Mark Kirk to beat Alexi Giannoulias.
8. Colorado: Incumbent Michael Bennet to lose to Republican Ken Buck.
For what it's worth, in the other closely contested Senate races, I think West Virginia stays Democrat with Manchin beating Raese, Murray retains her seat in Washington, Boxer holds on in California, Rubio keeps Florida's Republican seat, Blumenthal holds Connecticut for the Democrats, Ayotte keeps New Hampshire's seat Red, and Miller beats Murkowski in Alaska (with no party change in either case).
A word of caution with these Senate projections. For races numbered 5-8 (and for that matter the Washington state and West Virginia races), the uncertainty surrounding the outcomes make my estimates not much better than what you would get with a coin flip. The races are that close. In the end, I went Republican on most of them because I think the fundamentals are heavily in Republicans' favor this cycle. It goes without saying (so why do I say it?) that much depends on who turns out, and in what numbers. Here the Democrat fundraising advantage may help at the margins although frankly I think that advantage – which is dwindling – will be worth more in the House races.
Ok, there you have it. If I'm right, the Democrats will retain control of the Senate, 51-49, although the working margin will be smaller than that on some issues. Let the betting begin. As always, the person who comes closest to predicting the actual outcome wins this t-shirt. In cases of ties, everyone wins or I'll go with the first person who submits an entry.
Tomorrow, schedule permitting, I'll present the House predictions. By way of preview, I think the situation is much worse for Democrats in this chamber.


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The Social Work department has listened and are proud to present two exciting new initia-tives to introduce parents and caregivers to Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). We are happy to provide an opportunity for parents and caregivers to connect to one another, share information and resources and better understand Autism services in Toronto. These workshops are facilitated by Registered Social Workers at the Geneva Centre for Autism.
Please refer to the Parent Training Calendar for current information on Parent Support Workshops.
How do parents register? Parents/Caregivers must register in advance by calling 416-322-7877 ext. 513
Special topics are offered at various time throughout the year and are created for parents/caregivers. If you are a professional, please see our Professional Calendar of Events for workshops and courses.

subset: commoncrawl


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Books, Movies, Music
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These New Fiction Titles Will Be a Great Way to Take Time Out for Reading This Fall!
When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Similarly, when visiting neighboring states in the U.S., do as their residents do, and that includes learning their lingo.
Words are a powerful thing, and using them in the right context can mean the difference between getting what you want or walking away empty handed, and maybe even a little red-faced.
If someone said the words "king's ex" to me, I would assume that they were referring to the ex-wife of royalty, but in the Gulf States west of the Mississippi, it means "time out!" If you're in Alaska and it's time for a coffee break, you're going to "mug up." In New England, if you have a big test coming up and skip school, you're actually going to "hook jack."
We all know that this summer's 100 degree heat included humidity, but if you're visiting the mid or south Atlantic states, the weather would be "givey." If you're in need of "king's ex," "hook jack" and "mug up," because the Jasper County Public Library has new fiction for you to stretch out on your "punee" (oh, that is a couch or sofa in Hawaii) and read, read, read! Check these out!
When her best friend passes away, Nicole-Marie Hardy decides to get out of the rut of her everyday life and travel to Paris. Arriving in the City of Lights, Nicole stumbles across a photo of her father, and on the back of the photo is a loving inscription penned by her father to a woman that Nicole has never heard of. Searching for the mystery woman, Nicole delves into her father's past, looking for answers in "Passing Love" by Jacqueline E. Luckett, a story of love, loss, betrayal and unanswered questions.
In 1940's London, times are troubled. With war raging across the Channel and air raid sirens sending hundreds underground, it is a deadly atmosphere for even those in the highest forms of government. Maggie Hope possesses all of the skills and then some that it would take to be a part of British Intelligence, but her gender holds her back. As the newest typist on 10 Downing Street, Maggie has direct contact with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, which affords her access to the War Rooms, exposing her to the menacing faction that is determined to change the course of history. Surrounded by spies, murder and intrigue, Maggie uses her gift for code-breaking, racing against time to unravel a mystery that means the difference between life and death for herself and those around her in "Mr. Churchill's Secretary" by Susan Elia Macneal.
When schoolteacher, Olivia Kent goes missing without a trace, time is of the essence to find her. As the search heats up and gets more desperate with each passing day, Inspector Sarah Quinn must look for answers, turning to her old adversary, journalist Caroline King, for help in "Mother Love" by Maureen Carter.
A series of advertisements in New Orleans newspapers began with "Ran Away," followed by descriptions of slaves who had fled their masters. When the two beautiful concubines of Turk, Huseyin Pasha disappear, he runs no such ad, but a witness swears that he had seen Pasha throw two dead bodies out of a window. Pegged a murderer, Pasha looks to Benjamin January for a defense, as only January knows the Turk well and is willing to seek the true culprit in "Ran Away" by Barbara Hambly.
Before the fall rain turns into "silver thaw" (freezing rain), go to your nearest bakery, pick up a "snail," (cinnamon roll), and "mug up" with a hot cup of coffee, because before the "pinkletinks" (spring peeper frogs) return to Martha's Vineyard, you'll be cozy on your "punee", enjoying stacks of fiction from your local branch of JCPL! By the way, these terms come courtesy of my favorite segment in Reader's Digest: Word Power!


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NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Where and how a baby is born might affect its chances of getting allergies and asthma growing up, suggests a new study.
Researchers found that babies were more likely to harbor a certain kind of bacteria in their intestines if they were born in the hospital, and especially by cesarean section — and those gut bugs were tied to a kid's chances of later getting allergies or asthma.
"Our message is not that mode nor place of delivery (decisions) should be based on the potential risks on developing allergic diseases," study author John Penders, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands told Reuters Health in an email.
But, researchers said, it's one more topic to add to a growing list of potential culprits behind the recent increase in asthma and allergies in kids.
The study included about 2,700 babies who were followed until they were seven years old.
One month after birth, the researchers tested fecal samples from infants, looking to see whether their intestines were hosting a few specific species of bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Clostridium difficile.
When kids were older, Penders' team asked parents to report how often the children wheezed and needed asthma medications, and whether they had recently had an itchy rash called eczema. Kids also got blood tests to see if they had warning signs of food or pet allergies.
The researchers found that C. difficile, a type of bacteria known to spread in hospitals, was most commonly seen in the intestines of babies born by cesarean section. Forty-three percent of them harbored C. difficile in their feces, compared to 27 percent of babies born vaginally in the hospital and 19 percent of those born at home.
Researchers said that while babies born vaginally get their first gut bacteria from their moms — in the birth canal and through other direct contacts — C-section babies are first exposed to bacteria on doctors' and nurses' skin, or from other places in the delivery room.
And that early first exposure to bacteria, they found, could have later implications. Kids who tested positive for C. difficile as babies were twice as likely to have asthma at age six or seven, and were also more likely to have eczema or a food "sensitization."
In all, about seven percent of kids had asthma, close to 22 percent had the warning signs of a food allergy and 12 percent recently had eczema.
Gut microbes are known to regulate and influence important aspects of immune functioning throughout body.
Penders and his colleagues proposed in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology that a particular balance of gut microbes may predispose certain kids to asthma and allergies — although their study can't prove that one causes the other.
Peter Bager, who has studied delivery and allergy risks at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, Demark, said that would fit in with the "hygiene hypothesis" — which posits that kids have more allergies these days because they're too clean.
Having a skewed mix of gut bacteria species early on, especially lacking a diverse range of bacteria, "reduces the early stimulation of the immune system," which could lead to more allergies later on, said Bager, who was not involved in the new research.
But Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an allergy researcher from Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago who also was not involved in the study, said it's hard to interpret too much from the findings. "There are so many factors that go into a child's development of allergies and asthma," she told Reuters Health.
"Although I think the results are interesting, I think they're a first step," she said, adding that more investigation is needed into the possible link between gut microbes and allergies.
"We cannot conclude that this specific bacterium (C. difficile) is the cause of the increased risk on allergies and asthma," Penders added. "The microbiota contains thousands of different species and we only measured a few of them."
For now, researchers agreed, the findings shouldn't alarm parents-to-be.
"Is this something where parents should now start worrying about where (their kids) are delivered? At this point I would not think so," Gupta said.
Bager agreed. "They don't say that, if you give birth at home, you won't have allergic children," he told Reuters Health.
Many women who are able to give birth at home are healthy to begin with, Bager added — which could be one explanation for why their kids might have less asthma or allergies.
SOURCE: bit.ly/n8bTva Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, online August 27, 2011.


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Ryan Gordon, MathWorks
In this webinar, you will learn how you can apply Model-Based Design with MATLAB and Simulink for air vehicle design and automatic flight control. Engineers working in the aerospace field can use MATLAB and Simulink to improve the design workflow for:
• Defining aircraft geometry and importing DATCOM data to define vehicle forces and moments
• Creating a simulation to understand the vehicle dynamics
• Designing a flight control system with automatic gain generation to stabilize the vehicle and meet requirements
• Performing simulations to verify the design and visualize the simulation in a realistic 3D environment
The primary focus is for engineers whose workflow involves modeling, simulation, and control of aircraft. Many of the Model-Based Design and control concepts shown in this webinar can be applied to a variety of applications.
About the Presenter: Ryan Gordon is the product manager for Aerospace Toolbox and Aerospace Blockset at MathWorks. Before joining MathWorks, Ryan developed models and control algorithms for autonomous UAVs using Simulink at Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems. He has a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Saint Louis University and a master's degree in aerospace engineering focusing on dynamics and control from USC.
Recorded: 18 Jun 2013


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Wendy made tons and tons of HomeCrafter items for TS2. Though we've uploaded much of her HomeCrafter work HERE, already, there is still more available, that I have never finished posting since the move to this forum--there's just so much of it. If anyone is interested, I'd be willing to just give you the link to her whole HomeCrafter folder that could be downloaded in total.
Please just PM me if you're a member, or if you're a guest, please feel free to e-mail me at firstname.lastname@example.com, and I'll let you know where to download the folder of HomeCrafter items by Wendy.


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White t-shirt with a black skull print and a raw edge effect for a deconstructed look with an attitude.
NUNUNU was created from a desire to bring clean-minimalist design to children's wear. An exciting alternative to the typical babywear clichés, NUNUNU was founded in 2009 by long time fashion stylist Iris Adler and creative director Tali Milchberg. Quality fabrics, a monochromatic palate and urban design are expressed in each garment. It's easy to see why celebrity mom's love to dress their little one's in NUNUNU.
MiniPrivé loves Good Fashion: Good for Kids, Good for People, Good for the Planet.
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Thank you for visiting this page, you are very welcome.
I'm so lucky to spend nearly half of each year in Kritsa, a village in Crete, Greece; I'd love to share a taste of with you:
In 2001, my husband Alan and I bought a small house in the back streets of Kritsa, a hillside village in the east of Crete. Our breath-taking view looks out across cluttered rooftops, a huge church, olive groves, and the distant sea, all framed by the Thripti Mountains.
Of course, at that time, our thoughts went no further than a few weeks holiday per year, with a vague hope that 'one day' we might spend more time in Crete. We never imagined just how life changing our decision would be.
Luckily I had the opportunity to watch a fellow Kritsa resident, the English sculptor Nigel Ratcliffe, work on his beautiful stone monument dedicated to 'Kritsotopoula, Girl of Kritsa. Along with her rebel comrades, Kritsotopoula fought against Ottoman oppression in 1823. This carving became my 'muse' as I researched and wrote my first novel.
In 2014, we took another life enhancing decision, and I took early retirement allowing us to split our life between both countries. Although it is lovely to spend time with family and friends in the UK, it is while we are in Kritsa that we enjoy a real sense of community. There is a Facebook group called Explore Kritsa where you are very welcome to share your photos taken in Kritsa. To join this group Click Here .
I've now written two novels set in Kritsa plus a village guide featuring 15 local walks. To find out more, just click on a book cover below or go to the appropriate page of this site.
I also use this site to share my love of Crete, and I look forward to hearing from you if I can be of any help.


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MIAMI — A former Guantanamo prison camp guard is being permitted to quit the Army rather than face a sex-assault trial, the military said Friday.
MIAMI — A former Guantanamo prison camp guard is being permitted to quit the Army rather than face a sex-assault trial, the military said Friday.
Army Sgt. Stevontae Lacefield, 24, told The Miami Herald from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio that on Monday the military notified him that all charges related to his case had been dropped.
He had a trial set for April 7-10 before an Army major. But by Friday his case was removed from the Fort Sam Houston trial judiciary docket.
"What this means is, instead of going to trial and court martial he's allowed to undergo separation from the military," said Army Col. Hans Bush, spokesman for U.S. Army South in San Antonio.
In another case, 1st Sgt. Richard A. Smith goes on trial next week. He is accused of raping a sergeant in January 2013 as well as sexually assaulting two other women at the base several months later.
The cases are being handled in Texas because Army South, a subsidiary of the U.S. Southern Command, is the bureaucracy that manages personnel matters for soldiers assigned to the 2,100-staff detention center in southeast Cuba that as of Friday held 154 captives.
Army Maj. Gen. Joseph P. DiSalvo, the commanding officer of Army South, approved the arrangement that averted a criminal trial for Lacefield, Bush said. DiSalvo had earlier approved the prosecution based on a pretrial proceeding called an Article 32.
Lacefield, whose Army specialty is Military Policeman, got to Guantanamo in September 2012 from the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii. He joined the Army in 2007, served twice in Iraq and described himself as a father of four.
"In my entire career I've been nothing but a good soldier," he told the Herald on Friday, disclosing the resolution of his case short of a trial. He declined to describe his specific Guantanamo duties but said that during last year's Camp 6 raid that put hunger strikers on lockdown, he saved the life of a detainee and received a Joint Service Commendation Medal.
At the time of the raid, held before dawn on April 13 by troops in riot gear firing rubber pellets, U.S. military accounts offered descriptions of brief skirmishes between troops and captives and five injured captives, none serious enough to require hospitalization. At the U.S. Southern Command, which had oversight of the prison, Army Col. Greg Julian said he was unaware of any episode of the type Lacefield described but was researching it.
Lacefield will leave the Army with a "general discharge," a status that will deny him certain veterans benefits.
"It's certainly not a good deal for anyone," said Bush. "He is certainly not facing the same benefits he would if he were discharged with an honorable discharge."
Bush added that he was not privy to the circumstances that averted this particular trial. But, he said, typically alleged victims are consulted. "I can say with great confidence everyone involved was consulted before the decision was made."
Lacefield was facing trial on charges alleging he had groped a specialist who resisted him in May 2013 in his quarters as well as "wrongfully pursuing personal and sexual relationships" with four different privates in a 10-month span at the remote base. He was also accused of allowing an underage private to drink liquor.
One of Lacefield's alleged abuse-of-power instances was described as occurring on a cellblock at the prison.
In a telephone call to the Herald, Lacefield said he believed the U.S. military had treated him fairly but that he had "absolutely not" abused his power over junior soldiers.
Meanwhile, the detention center is carrying out a local investigation of a separate allegation of sexual assault by a sailor assigned to its staff.


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Study: For development cooperation, Finns would invest in education
Finns' attitudes concerning development cooperation have become more positive than before. Almost one in four would increase appropriations for development cooperation.
Nearly one in four Finns, or 23 per cent, would raise appropriations for development cooperation. A year ago the corresponding figure was 16 per cent. A respective decrease occurred in the percentage who felt that development cooperation appropriations should be cut, from 20 per cent last year to the present 14 per cent.
The figures are among the findings of a survey on Finns' attitudes about development cooperation and development policy commissioned by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and conducted by the market research company Taloustutkimus Oy.
Minister for International Development Heidi Hautala stated at a press conference on Tuesday that Finland is committed to the European Union's decision to allocate 0.7 per cent of its gross national income to development cooperation by the year 2015. The survey indicates that Finns support this goal; the figure corresponds to the most widely held view of what would be a suitable level for development cooperation appropriations.
Hautala said that we can move towards that goal even though it is not recorded in the Government Programme. "There is no question of giving up. The objectives are the same as before."
The Minister for International Development is pleased that the weightings of the Government Programme can be seen in the research results. As a motive for development cooperation, promotion of democracy and human rights has nearly doubled in support since last year's questionnaire.
This means that ever more citizens think that effort should be made to strengthen democracy and human rights in developing countries and that this is even possible by means of development cooperation.
Hautala pointed out that development policy is part of the broad spectrum of foreign and security policy.
"In this Government, the portfolios of the minister for foreign trade and the minister for international development are assigned to different people; nonetheless I hope we shall be able to work together," she continued.
Development cooperation increases security
Citizens' responses to questions about motives for development cooperation show an interesting change since last year. Aside from moral responsibility and poverty reduction, a third reason, "improving the living conditions of people in developing countries and thereby preventing illegal migration", was supported twice as often as a year ago.
In other words, some citizens see development cooperation as a way to help people "in their own homelands" in order to control the flood of migration and keep the poor outside our borders.
On the other hand, this finding could also indicate that people are more aware of migration and its impact. Minister Hautala pointed out that illegal migration and refugees are often seen as greater threats than they are in reality.
"People fleeing from Libya, for instance, have not come to Europe but have gone mainly to Tunisia and Egypt."
Nearly all Finns believe that development cooperation increases security. Nearly all Finns also consider humanitarian aid to be important.
Education the core of development cooperation
Finns are famously proud of education and aware of the importance of education and know-how to societal development. It is therefore not surprising that education is seen as a sector in which Finland's development cooperation should invest the most.
The new Government Programme emphasizes the importance of education as the focal area of development policy, especially in order to enable a worthy life for the quickly growing population of young people in developing countries.
Citizens ponder both the question of ensuring that aid reaches its destination and the effectiveness of assistance every year. Some suspect that development cooperation does not reach its target groups or that weak governance in the recipient country prevents cooperation from succeeding and having impact. These issues are constant food for thought among people conducting development cooperation and experts studying it.
Learning from past experiences, various means are applied in an effort to promote the impact and effectiveness of Finland's development cooperation. The Government is committed to giving a report on the effectiveness and coherence of development policy.
The findings of the survey prove that development cooperation still has widespread support among Finns.


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The American Rental Association (ARA), the Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM), the International Powered Access Federation (IPAF), and the Scaffold & Access Industry Association (SAIA) have joined forces to develop a document of best practices regarding workplace risk assessment and selecting the most appropriate aerial work platform (AWP) equipment for the job at hand. The result of this joint venture is the "Statement of Best Practices for Workplace Risk Assessment and Aerial Work Platform Equipment Selection."
The participating organizations recognized a need to aid in the identification of hazards, offer guidance for conducting a thorough workplace risk assessment and implementing control measures as well as assist in the selection of the most appropriate AWP equipment for the work involved. The industry remains committed to putting forth initiatives that increase awareness of best practices, clarify responsibilities, and address the safe use of AWP equipment.
The objectives of this best practice document are intended to:
- Educate the industry on applicable OSHA regulations and the industry-recognized and supported ANSI/SAIA A92 standards.
- Provide information to assist users and operators in assessing the risk of potential hazards for the work to be done and implementing appropriate control measures to reduce or eliminate such risks.
- Offer guidance and issues to consider in the selection of the most appropriate AWP equipment to perform the work needed.
- Encourage the incorporation of best practices into a company's workplace risk assessment plan.


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Bolivar to fete Jane Long, the Mother of Texas
Texas revolutionary Jane Long may not score as much ink in history books as her fans think she deserves.
But the spirit of the Mother of Texas is alive and well on Bolivar Peninsula, where she always gets her due. Folks on the peninsula are captivated by the pioneer who dined with pirates, spied on enemies of an independent Texas, scared away invading Indians with an abandoned cannon and delivered her third daughter virtually without help during the sleet storm of 1821.
Longtime Bolivar residents invoked Long's name when the peninsula was slammed during another defining moment in Texas weather history - Hurricane Ike.
Margo Johnson, who still was recovering from the death of her husband and a bout with cancer when the Category 2 storm hit in 2008, explains:
"Ike pretty much destroyed Bolivar. There were some houses left, but not very many. Jane Long became our rallying cry. We figured if she could survive that terrible winter with a 12-year-old servant and 5-year-old daughter and give birth to another child, well, if she could overcome odds like that, we could, too."
Not only did Long's memory inspire much of the rebuilding, but Johnson and her neighbors decided to launch a festival in the pioneer's honor. Saturday marks the third annual Jane Long Festival at Fort Travis Seashore Park.
More Information
Jane Long Festival
Where: Fort Travis Seashore Park, on the western end of the Bolivar Peninsula
When: Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Planners say the park will be hopping from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with exhibitions, bands and re-enactors portraying Long and other historical characters. Visitors will arrive on the recently named Jane Long Highway (the old Highway 87), relax at the new Jane Long/Bolivar Peninsula Historical Pavilion, and admire the new monument and historical markers that detail just some of Long's adventures.
Helen Mooty, director of the Galveston County Museum, will be dressed as Long herself. The historian has spent years researching her favorite subject and offers a compressed biography:
Jane Herbert Wilkinson seemed destined for a life of comfort when she was born in Maryland in 1798. At 16, she swapped her life as a Southern belle for adventure when she met and married swashbuckling soldier James Long.
The young couple enjoyed domesticity in short spurts. The new husband was loath to settle down, Mooty says, but they had two daughters, Ann and Rebecca, by September 1819.
Little Rebecca died in infancy, when Long was 21. By then she'd already made one trip to Texas, trailing her husband, and she would make a second trip in 1820.
For the second journey, Long brought Ann and her servant, Kian. The little family was together for a few months in a makeshift fort on Bolivar, then James left them again. He'd heard that settlers in La Bahia, near Copano Bay, might be sympathetic to his dream of Americanizing Texas.
He would be back in three weeks, he promised. But the weeks stretched into months, and the soldiers guarding the fort on Bolivar abandoned their post. They begged the pregnant Long to leave, too, but she wanted to wait for her husband.
Meanwhile, Long taught Ann and Kian to be on the alert for war canoes. At least twice, Mooty says, Karankawa tribesmen approached as if to attack. To fend them off, Long hoisted a flag, really her red petticoat, Kian put on a soldier's uniform, and they kept firing a small cannon left by the soldiers until the Karankawas turned and retreated.
The winter of 1821 was brutally cold, and Long delivered her third child, Mary James, while partially exposed to the elements. At the time, Kian was sick, daughter Ann was too young to help, and Long rose the next morning to take care of her family. They survived on dwindling supplies of corn meal, salted fish and finally, oysters from the bay.
It wasn't until the spring of 1822 that Long learned her husband had been captured and killed. Disheartened, she tried without success to collect compensation for his death, then returned to extended family in Louisiana and Mississippi. There another heartbreak awaited her - little Mary died of an unknown illlness at age 2.
That was the summer of 1824. By the following spring, Long, Ann and Kian returned to Texas as early colonists. With the help of Stephen F. Austin, Long eventually received a headright - a parcel of land usually reserved for men who were heads of households. She made the most of it. In 1832 she opened a boarding house in Brazoria, and spied on Mexican officers as she had once spied on the pirate Jean Laffite. And as the men marched off to fight for Texas independence - achieved in 1836 - she watched over their possessions.
"Jane was so fiercely intelligent that she was accepted in the inner circle of other Texas patriots - Sam Houston, Mirabeau B. Lamar, Ben Milam - all those guys," Mooty says. "Supposedly each one was a suitor, especially Lamar. Apparently she broke his heart."
Long refused to remarry.
Mooty says, "I don't know if she didn't remarry because she was still in love with James - or because if she married again, all her money would go to her new husband. I think she was too smart to allow that to happen."
In 1837, Long moved to Richmond and she and Kian (Ann was married by then) opened a second boarding house. Long also developed a working plantation, where she lived until her death in 1880. "She was one of the founding Old 300 families," Mooty says. "In Texas, that was almost like coming over on the Mayflower."
Skip forward 132 years, and today Linda Elissalde is deeply involved with the Jane Long Festival - in fact, a while back she wrote a play for the celebration that she titled "Pirates and Petticoats."
Cast members are taking a break from the script this year, but they'll be in costume at the festival as usual, Elissalde says.
"The idea is we don't quit. We keep going. We fight the elements, we do whatever we have to do. Like Jane Long, we are survivors."
Anne Willis, also heavily involved with the festival, thinks she's been a Jane Long fan longer than anyone on the peninsula. She first learned about Long when her sons were studying Texas history in Cub Scouts three decades ago.
"Jane's been my hero for years and years," Willis says in a glorious Texas twang.
The next step, Willis says, is to name one of the five Bolivar ferries after Long.
"I've tried and tried," Willis says. "But I'm not gonna give up."


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LOS ANGELES - Film fans everywhere can identify that movie-trailer voice: A booming baritone that entices viewers with cryptic explanations of the latest upcoming epic.
The business behind such voice work is the backdrop of Lake Bell's new film, "In A World...," of which she is writer, director and star.
Real voice-over artists - the men and women who've spent years invisibly announcing the latest Taco Bell temptation, the promise of Firestone tires or upcoming Lifetime programs - say it's good to watch their profession being acknowledged on screen, even if the portrayal isn't perfect.
"It was fun to have that be a thing - that voice-over even got mentioned," said actor Steve Staley after seeing the film. "It was great to see our field get screen time in a realistic way," added Staley, who gives voice to cartoon and video-game characters and commercials.
The film, which expands to more theaters on Friday, begins with images of the most famous voice-over artist ever: Don LaFontaine, whose deep recitation of the phrase "in a world" opened countless movie trailers and made him a multimillionaire.
Since the actor's death in 2008, voice-over artists have vied for his crown, both in Bell's film and in real life. In the film, Bell's character aims to break gender boundaries by competing against the big boys to become the first female trailer voice. But to get the job, she'd have to beat out the reigning king: Her dad.
Things really have changed since LaFontaine's death, voice-over artists said, with most movie trailers now opting to go without any announcer at all. The previews that played before a recent Los Angeles showing of "In A World..." relied on onscreen text and clips of the actors talking rather than the bellowing "voice of God" to describe the picture.
The industry's marginalization of women is real, too.
"Women, in general, don't do trailers," said Martha Mayakis, a voice-over casting director and coach with TalkShop in Los Angeles. "Women do promos for TV shows."
There really are fewer outlets for female voices, echoed Chuck Klausmeyer, a voice-over artist, director and teacher.
"Women don't get as much copy as the men," he said. "Men are requested more than women for voice-overs for sure, partly because of that deep, authoritative voice that exists."
But just like when doctors watch medical shows, these experts spotted a few unrealistic elements on screen that everyday viewers would overlook.
Bell's character learns about the movie-trailer gig (for an upcoming "quadrilogy" called "The Amazon Games") from a recording-studio engineer. In real life, it would be an agent providing that information. In the film, the engineer also serves as the director, but that's not how real voice-over recording sessions go down.
"If only all I ever had to do was impress an engineer," Staley said, adding that a director would actually call the shots.
Klausmeyer said the business also isn't as cutthroat as it seems on screen.
"It worked for the dramatic nature of the film," he said, "but I find the voice-over industry filled with the nicest people who really understand that anybody can book anything."
Bell's film, which won a screenwriting award at the Sundance Film Festival, is really about a family that happens to do voice-overs.
"It gives a little flavor of what the industry is like," Mayakis said. "It's a sweet little movie... not because of the voice-over angle, but the relationships in the family."


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Fork still the lake to fish for trophy bass
The great thing about April in Texas is that this is big bass time, as in double-digit bass, and there is no shortage of lakes that have and still can produce monster class largemouths when they are on the beds and spawning like right now.
But during the past few months, there are three lakes that stick out like a sore thumb when it comes to producing 13-pound-plus bass. They are O.H. Ivie, Austin and Falcon.
The only glitch in the big bass scene right now is that our own all-star lake is not putting out like a broken Coke machine. So far there have been 18 bass at 13-pounds-plus entered into the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's ShareLunker Program. Six of those are from O.H. Ivie. Three are from Lake Austin. And six are from Falcon. Only one has come from Fork, a lake that has, over the years, produced a record 247 ShareLunker bass — more than any other lake in Texas.
Don't forget that Lake Fork produced our current state record that weighed 18.18 pounds. That incredible bass was caught on Jan. 24, 1992 by Barry St. Clair. The curious thing about our state record is that she was caught on a live minnow, as opposed to something like a plastic lizard or jig.
Could it actually be that Fork is simply old and tired? A has been, like so many other aging lakes?
Think again.
"The Lake Fork Trophy Bass Survey's eight-year history shows that Lake Fork should remain on the list of any serious trophy bass hunter," said TPWD's Larry Hodge."For the last eight years, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has been collecting information on catches of trophy bass 7 pounds or greater or 24 inches or longer at Lake Fork," said Hodge. "Through February 2011, the survey recorded 11,368 such fish. Anglers weighed 83 percent and measured lengths of 59 percent of these trophies. With an average of 1,421 fish over 7 pounds every year, these numbers suggest the lake is still doing well. By comparing eligible fish encountered in creel surveys with survey results for the same days, biologists estimate fewer than 10 percent of actual catches are reported, making these results appear even more astounding."
During the survey, TPWD found that entries during the past 12-month period (961) were up 28 percent from the previous year. The proportions of various fish-length groups have been surprisingly consistent from year to year, suggesting the size structure of the largest fish in the population has remained stable over the past eight years. In the last 12 months, proportions of trophies weighing and exceeding 10, 12, and 13 pounds were 15.1 percent, 2.2 percent and 0.4 percent, respectively.
"For the eight-year survey, the averages for these same size categories were 15.6 percent, 2.3 percent and 0.6 percent," said Hodge. "More than a third of all measured entries in the survey were longer than the upper end of the slot length limit, providing evidence that the 16- to 24-inch slot is functioning as intended."
Hodge said that in the 26-year history of the ShareLunker program, Lake Fork has produced 247 entries, at least one per year.
"Although not as prolific as in its heyday, Lake Fork has averaged between three and four entries each of the last three years," says Hodge. "The last time Lake Fork produced more than 10 entries was in the 1996 season, when it contributed 21. For the following 11 years, entries averaged between six and seven."
What is definitely apparent is that Lake Fork is far and away very popular among bass anglers. Go there on any given day for the next several weeks and you'll be hard pressed to find a vacant parking spot at the ramp.
I remember back in 1986 when Dallas angler Mark Stevenson caught the first entry into the ShareLunker program. That largemouth was a new state record that weighed 17.67 pounds. She was caught on a Stanley jig, which at the time was a lure that was hotter than a firecracker.
As word spread about that huge bass produced by Fork, you couldn't hardly find a place to cast a lure. It was literally a boat jam in every cove just about every day of the year, especially during the spawn. We would literally get in line and follow other boats around the shoreline. Everything but the kitchen sink was being tossed with hopes of catching a new wall hanger.
"It's apparent that Lake Fork's production of ShareLunkers has slowed, but after 30 years the lake has descended from incredible to simply outstanding," said Hodge. "It still has few peers, and none when viewed from a perspective longer than three years."


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Tom Paper helped start the non-profit "Think Before You Bounce" after people he knew were injured at the trampoline parks.
PAPER: "Imagine a single trampoline, but imagine now, 20 or 30 of them stitched together."
Paper's organization estimates thousands of people may be getting hurt at the 26 trampoline parks in California.
A bill moving through the California legislature would mandate the businesses train employees in safety, purchase liability insurance, be inspected by CalOSHA.
PAPER: "They're growing fast, the bad actors need to get weeded out, and we're just asking for regulation that's similar to what other amusement activities have."
But opponents of the bill say imposing safety rules on the trampoline parks may not result in fewer injuries.
They say there's no evidence people get hurt because of negligence.


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Photo: Fortune Live Media
Ex-Googler Marissa Mayer's first big move as Yahoo CEO is bringing a very Google-y perk to Yahoo's Sunnyvale headquarters: free food for all.It's a very smart move. It will help Yahoo compete for recruits with Google, Facebook, and countless startups that already give employees free food. It will boost morale at a downtrodden company.
But how much will it cost?
Back in 2008, we spoke with a source familiar with how much Google spends to feed its employees free food: about $20/employee over 251 working days per year.
Let's assume Mayer will insist on Yahoo having the same quality of food as she did at Google, so the cost will be about the same.
So, free food will cost Yahoo…
- ~$5,000 per employee per year.
- ~$20 million per year.
Right now, only Yahoo's 4,000 or so employees based in Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, and San Francisco will get free food.
If the company expands the perk to its other 10,000 employees in New York, Santa Monica and elsewhere, the cost will rise to about $75 million per year.
$20 million and $75 million seem like a lot of money, but truly, those sums are pocket change for an enterprise the size of Yahoo, which has generated almost $5 billion in revenue over the past twelve months.
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I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. My parents endeavoured to give me every opportunity to be exposed to a vast range of music, strongly encouraging our explorations, be they rock or classical music. In school the main exposure to singing was musical drama in the form of Gilbert and Sullivan with a few hymns in unison at every church service. It is understandable, therefore, that when my first exposure to sacred choral music at last arrived at age nineteen in University College Dublin Chamber Choir, it was like being hit with a mallet on the head.
I clearly remember my first rehearsal. We sang two songs, "Christus Factus Est" by Anerio and "O Sacrum Convivium" by Messiaen. Suddenly much was made clear to me. Maybe this was why people still spoke fondly of the extinct Latin Mass, with its remote and mysterious ceremony? It also helped explain to me why services were structured as they are. Music wasn't simply a chance for the congregation to sing together, rather it was a series of sonic sign-posts angled towards illumination of the underlying spiritual truth of the service.
The Latin language, with its soft and non-percussive sound, had a natural affinity to the music that it was carried by. Later I discovered the music of Tallis, Gibbons and Byrd, being struck by the beauty of the harmonic language and the mellifluous use of the less-musical English language. Simple, direct statements of belief were woven into a powerful lattice of spiritual affirmation. Exposure to more recent music written for the Church today plainly showed that composers were acutely aware of their musical ancestry and quite capable of working within the practical constraints of service structures and the capabilities of the performing groups that they composed for. Indeed, the love of singing contemporary music among the better choral groups was a great pleasure to behold, even if much of the music demanded skills that were just on the edge of what the singers were capable of.
With respect to my Roman Catholic upbringing, I had rarely understood how the odd hymn here or there and the simplistic one-line responses and calls in the vernacular could compare to the carefully constructed musical structures that I participated in while singing in my first Church of Ireland services. It irritated me that much of what was musically beautiful in the pre-Vatican II church had simply been consigned to performance repertoire, rarely heard within its originally conceived context.
Sometimes I felt like a starved man who eats as much as possible very quickly, deputising and singing at the two major Church of Ireland Cathedrals in Dublin, St. Patrick's and Christ Church Cathedrals as often as I could. I sang for free at weddings, funerals, services – anything I was asked to do simply to experience this music in the context of its original conception.
By this time I was beginning to compose on a regular basis. Although the main thrust of my composition was towards the development of a new form of Irish choral music, I was consistently drawn to spiritual texts. Two early efforts I wrote for competitions organised for use in the Church of Ireland service were "Codhlaim go Súan I'd Chroí" (I Sleep Softly in Your Heart) and the anthem "Come Let us Sing" the former for a competition to find an anthem in the Irish language and the latter a setting of a more traditional Church text. This work eventually gave rise to my "Celtic Mass", a combination of texts in Latin and Irish on diverse texts. Latterly my spiritual output has included the four "Tenebrae Responsories", a "Missa Brevis" for St David's Cathedral in Wales and a diverse collection of individual sacred works that include my "Agnus Dei" which was commissioned by the American choir Chanticleer in 2006 for their five-composer project "And on Earth, Peace: a Chanticleer Mass".
Despite it being nearly thirty years since I was so profoundly influenced by this music, it continues to be a part of my life. I attend regularly at Saint Bartholomew's Church in Dublin which has a fine and ambitious musical programme. I believe that the power generated by community singing of good quality has a ripple effect on the entirety of society. This music and literature has survived because it is simultaneously functional and art. It is important to bear in mind that composers who have written this music for over a millennium have done so with a desire to articulate their own spiritual ideas while transmitting genuine and heart-felt insight to a congregation. I now realise why this music has influenced and affected me the way it has. Choral music in worship can bring congregation, singer and composer together in a unique and wonderful way. The power of this should never be underestimated.
This article appears in the magazine Soundboard, Winter 2011


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Obama pushes carbon credits despite cooling evidence
A new study from 2 professors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Department on Mathematical Sciences, "found that the Earth has been cooling since 2001 and projected that due to 'global variation' the climate would continue to cool for the next 20 to 30 years."
I am going to repeat that: "the climate would continue to cool for the next 20 to 30 years."
More on the study:
"The temperature has flattened and is actually going down," Tsonis [co-author of a UW-Madison global temperature study] told CNSNews.com. "We are seeing a new shift towards cooler temperatures that will last for probably about three decades."
Yet that news, that the planet isn't warming, isn't cooling President Obama's ardor for Cap and Trade. He has included over $645 billion from Cap and Trade tax revenue in the Federal budget over the next 10 years!
Our government, be it via Doyle's regional state Cap and Trade plan or Cap and Trade at the federal level, is still pushing the global warming agenda. (Are those in charge really concerned with global warming or just looking for another tax/revenue source?)
In Washington, Senators Debate Global Warming Policy Despite Global Cooling Evidence,
Democratic senators told CNSNews.com on Tuesday that despite a recent study that shows global temperatures have been dropping since 2001 and that projects the globe will continue to cool for the next several decades, they think the United States should continue to push forward with aggressive action to curb climate change.
... the federal government should move quickly to implement policies because they [Dem. Senators] believe the debate over global warming is over.
Logic would tell us there is no hurry. There isn't even proof that increased CO2 causes warming, nor is there evidence that a few states or a few countries curbing CO2 emissions would have any effect on global CO2 levels or temperatures.
"If we have a cooling period before us, let's take some additional time to push ahead in studies and research," said Lieberman [Senior policy analyst in energy at the Heritage Foundation]. "Let's use that time to find out what is really happening instead of rushing forward with policy decisions that could damage our economy more than they help our environment."
One of the world's leading experts on climate change, Dr. William Gray, emeritus professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, has lectured for several years that there has been some global warming over the last 100 years largely due to natural circulation changes in the oceans.
"But the world is not in a climate crisis as Vice President Gore would say," Gray said a little over a year ago. "We have many other important problems in this world we have to work on. And this is a red herring item that we can't do anything about anyways. If we vastly cut down on our fossil fuels it would be a drop in the bucket in terms of global temperature change. The Third World – India, China and so on – are going to keep burning these fossil fuels."
It is becoming more evident that many pushing the global warming/Cap and Trade agenda are doing so for one reason: money. Money made either through the carbon credit company profits that benefit the investors espousing the global warming doctrine, or because of the revenues generated by the new carbon taxes that will flow into ailing state and federal budgets. Neither group cares that it is us, you and I, who will ultimately be paying for their expensive boondoggle.
Contact: Senators Herb Kohl (202) 224-5653 and Russ Feingold (202) 224-5323. (FYI: Feingold said he wasn't voting for the Omnibus budget bill and is urging Obama to veto it. Is there hope for Cap-and-Trade too?)
Interesting reading: Media Myth: Networks Stick to Warming Theme Despite Avalanche of Chilling News, Alarmists get snowed in for Washington, D.C. rally; networks mostly ignore signs of cooling temps, 'record' cold.ABC Skips Opposing Views; Continues to Fret About No Ice at North Pole
Practically Speaking, Fairly Conservative, CNS News, Jay Weber, Mark Levin, Vicki McKenna, Jay Weber, The Right View Wisconsin, The Heritage Foundation
Labels: Energy / Going Green, Follow the money, Legislation, President Obama, Taxes


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Bobby Rasmussen
|Greenwood Village, Colo.
|High School:
|Regis Jesuit
AS A SENIOR IN 2006-07: Had an outstanding final season as a team tri-captain ... finished the season 18-11 in singles and 20-9 in doubles, including 12-6 in dual singles and 14-6 dual doubles ... missed six doubles matches and seven singles matches with broken hand ... named All-WCC Second Team in doubles and singles ... finished career with 60-50 record, sixth all-time at SCU ... won 17 doubles matches with Macek, tied for fourth all-time for a single season ... second all-time at SCU in career doubles wins with Macek with 35 ... 52 combined doubles wins at SCU is 10th all-time ... Doubles: played with Tommy Hicks, Steven Benvenuto and Jan Macek in doubles ... lost 8-6 with Benvenuto on Oct. 6 at Bronco Classic to Kaiser and Keller of Stanford ... won consolation doubles match with Benvenuto on Oct. 8 vs. Myrhed and Gallardo of Oregon 8-6 ... lost at ITA Regionals with Benvenuto to Gallardo and Verdasco of Oregon 8-5 on Oct. 20 ... on Oct. 13, paired with Hicks to defeat Cal Poly's Berger and Meyerowitz in doubles, 8-0 at Bulldog Classic ... beat Brown and Ozurovich of San Diego 8-3 on Oct. 14 to reach semifinals of Bulldog Classic ... had outstanding spring with Macek in doubles, going 17-6, 14-6 in duals and 3-0 at the Aztec Invitational ... clinched seven doubles points with Macek ... had seven-match win streak with Macek from Feb. 4-19 and went 7-1 in Feb. ... nine matches at No. 2, 10 at No. 1 and one at No. 3 with Macek ... started winning streak with on Feb. 4 by defeating UC Irvine's Andrei Radulescu and Alex Sundling 8-4 at No. 2 ... clinched doubles vs. Arizona on Feb. 10 vs. Zimmer and Romic 9-8 (4) ... clinched doubles vs. Oregon on Feb. 17 with 8-4 win over Gallardo and Verdasco ... got doubles clincher on Mar. 11 at Cal Poly with 9-8 (11-9) win vs. Baca and Roybal ... finished his regular season tennis career with a doubles victory 8-6 at No. 1 with Macek on Apr. 15 over Sacramento State's Loredo and Stryhas ... Singles: lost first five singles matches of the year at Bronco Classic, Bulldog Classic an ITA Regionals ... finished fall with three wins in consolation bracket of ITA Regionals ... clinched five dual matches ... started spring with three straight wins at Aztec Invitational, beating Michael Beron (7-5, 4-6, 6-1) of San Diego State, Jack Marsh (6-4, 6-4) of Arizona State and Robert Sabo (6-2, 6-3) of San Diego State on Jan. 13 and 14 ... defeated UC Santa Cruz's Bryan Pybas 6-4, 7-6 (4) for seventh straight win and first of dual season on Jan. 20 ... at No. 5, was the lone winner in singles against Cal, beating Kalim Stewart 6-4, 6-4, on Jan. 30 ... clinched the match on Feb. 4 with a 6-3, 6-2 win at the No. 5 over Zac Tsai of UC Irvine, giving the Broncos their first season win over a ranked opponent ... on Feb. 14 clinched another match after fighting off three match points in the third set before winning 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 vs. Hawaii's Jeff Fitch to start nine-match winning streak ... during streak, beat opponents from Oregon, UCSB, Portland, Saint Mary's, USF, Cal Poly, Cornell and BYU ... clinched matches vs. USF and Cal Poly on Mar. 8 and 11, beating USF's Rainer Nachbauer 6-4, 6-1 and Cal Poly's Kyle Roybal 6-1, 6-4 ... defeated BYU's Jonathan Sanchez 6-3, 6-7 (3), 1-0,(7) at the No. 4 position on Mar. 27, his last match before breaking his hand ... returned to singles lineup at WCC Championships, losing to Charles Wolmarans of San Diego 7-6, 6-4 on Apr. 21 and Adam Fauvre of Saint Mary's 7-6 (4), 6-2 on Apr. 22. AS A JUNIOR IN 2005-06: Earned spot on All-WCC Spring Academic Team... compiled an overall record of 13-16 in singles, including a 2-3 mark in conference play... competed primarily at the No. 4 and 5 spots for the Broncos during the spring... defeated Jarrod Diepraam of Hawai'i 6-1, 7-5 to clinch the dual match against the Rainbow Warriors... knocked out Linas Cicenas at the No. 4 spot to clinch Santa Clara's 4-0 win over Loyola Marymount... participated in the Wilson/ITA Northwest Regional Championships... reached the Round of 16 of the Baylor Intercollegiates... tallied an overall doubles record of 14-14, mainly playing the No. 1 and 2 positions with Jan Macek during the spring and earned All-WCC Doubles Honorable Mention... advanced to the Round of 16 of the Wilson/ITA Northwest Regional Championships with Macek... the duo dropped a hard-fought 9-8 (5) decision to John Pettit and Ken Nakahara of California in the finals of the Santa Clara Bronco Classic. AS A SOPHOMORE IN 2004-05: Saw action in the No. 4 and 5 singles positions earning double digit victories for a second consecutive season with notable wins over No. 54 New Mexico, No. 56 Fresno State, No. 67 UC Santa Barbara and No. 72 Portland...registered a seven match win streak in singles... paired with four different partners en route to recording 14 doubles wins... recorded a notable win with senior Eric Kochanski at No. 1 doubles en route to a team victory over No. 52 Oregon......captured the Flight 'B' doubles championship with senior Ben Hidalgo at the Santa Clara Bronco Classic...reached the Flight 'B' doubles final at the Pacific Tiger Fall Classic... named Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete and Bronco Scholar-Athlete of the Week for second consecutive season...named to WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll (silver honors - 3.74-3.50 cumulative gpa)...named to the WCC Spring All-Academic team. AS A FRESHMAN IN 2003-04: Named Most Improved Player by teammates... an ITA All-Academic Scholar-Athlete... notched 12 singles wins, anchoring No. 6 position...won first six straight dual matches, including a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Blake Roberts of UC Davis in Bronco debut... solidified spot in the starting lineup following impressive victories over No. 20 Arizona State and No. 33 San Diego State... went onto post a 9-1 singles record during the dual match regular season... advanced to the semifinals of the Flight 'C' singles draw of the Pacific Tiger Fall Classic in his Bronco debut... won the Flight 'B' doubles title with partner Kevin McQuaid at the Pacific Tiger Fall Classic...named Bronco Scholar-Athlete of the Week after posting a 3.75 fall quarter GPA ... a member of the WCC Commissioner's Honor Roll. HIGH SCHOOL: Played for head coaches Andy Potter and John Koslosky at Regis Jesuit High School in Littleton, Colo... captained the 2002 squad... led Regis to 2000 state team championship, defeating perennial champion Cherry Creek High... was a Colorado state singles champion as a sophomore and a junior... went undefeated in 2000 and '01... was named Colorado Student Athlete of the Week by Denver Post... one of the top players in Boys 18s and Boys 16s from the Intermountain Tennis Association, peaking at No. 2 in both ranking lists... ranked No. 72 in USTA Boys 16 singles and top 150 in USTA Boys 18s singles... ranked 20th in USTA Boys 18s doubles and No. 1 in Intermountain Boys 18 doubles with partner Matt Phillips... a two-time member of the Intermountain Junior Davis Cup team... participated at the Super National Hardcourts at Kalamazoo, Mich., for four straight years... captured two sectional singles championships... was the President of the National Honor Society and the school treasurer... received several awards for outstanding leadership and exceptional academic achievement... volunteered in a number of community service projects. PERSONAL: Full name is Robert Joseph Rasmussen... parents are Bob and Patti Rasmussen... aunt Maryanne Dunleavy played tennis at the University of Michigan... speaks fluent French... majoring in business... enrolled in the Accelerated Cooperative Education (ACE) honors program for undergraduate business majors at Santa Clara.
Rasmussen's Career Statistics
|Singles Dual
|Singles Overall
|Doubles Dual
|Doubles Overall


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Earworm Catch Your Brain?
Want to know who to blame for Baha Men's 2000 hit "Who Let The Dogs Out"? Look no further than Steve Greenberg, founder and CEO of S-Curve Records. The song's future was decided once he first heard it — and couldn't stop thinking about it.
"This aspiring artist came into my office with a version of the song, which was originally recorded by Anslem Douglas. It was so atrocious it never crossed my mind to put it out," says Greenberg. "I really hated the record, but I couldn't get the hook out of my mind. I knew the song was so hooky, I had to put it out."
Greenberg's description of the GRAMMY-winning song's hook is probably why you are almost certainly hearing that title lyric rattle around in your brain right now. It's a particularly pernicious earworm, something to which virtually every music fan is not immune. Just why it happens and what earworms actually mean might not seem like obvious topics for serious research. But they are according to Finnish researcher Dr. Lassi A. Liikkanen, who recently conducted a study on the phenomenon known as involuntary musical imagery.
"People have been studying voluntary musical imagery for about 25 years," says Liikkanen. "This happens when you play a song in your head to help you figure out the lyrics or melody. What happens more regularly is people experience involuntary musical imagery when they don't want to — and that's when you're talking about earworms."
Liikkanen has been working to determine where earworms come from and whether they can be induced. He even set up the Earworm Clinic as a Facebook application this past spring, and now has a few hundred users to help further these studies. His results echo what James Kellaris, a University of Cincinnati business professor, released in a study in 2003: Virtually any snippet of a song can become an earworm.
But why?
"I believe it is a failure of mental control, an artifact of ironic processing. To 'not think' about something, one must remember what it is one is trying not to think about," says Kellaris.
Pop songs and advertisements, two of the most common sources of earworms, tend to rely on simple subjects and mundane references, which means daily life can be enough to start an earworm up. "[With Carly Rae Jepsen's] 'Call Me Maybe,'" says Liikkanen, "if you're discussing giving someone your phone number that might be enough to trigger the earworm experience of the song."
But for a songwriter, implanting an earworm may be a signal that they've done their job. A well-written pop tune these days is loaded with hooks (Adele's "Rolling In The Deep" is nothing but a succession of hooks, says Greenberg), all of which can get embedded in a listener's head and make the song more memorable.
"The most important thing is to write something where people think they've heard it before, but they haven't," says Carl Falk, a songwriter who has co-written hits such as One Direction's "What Makes You Beautiful" and Nicki Minaj's "Starships," among others. "It's all about simplicity. Simplify to emphasize a couple of things, then [repeat] them a lot."
Alan Menken, the GRAMMY-winning composer behind Broadway and Disney tunes from Beauty And The Beast and The Little Mermaid, among others, says an earworm is a good thing.
"That little fragment [that] gets in there during a person's busy, scattered, obsessive day becomes a way to counteract manic energy," says Menken. "The brain is chewing on something else, and the music is a vestige that sits in the brain and it becomes like a mantra, a way to relax."
Pop songs are one thing, but an advertisement that creates an earworm takes a risk with customers. Guy Bommarito, senior vice president and executive creative director at ad firm Ryan Partnership, wrote a few lines about baby back ribs for Chili's in 1995, and hasn't been able to live the resulting "I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs" jingle down since. It even popped up in the hit film Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me in 1999.
"We'd do focus groups later and some people would say, 'If I hear it again I'll stick a fork in my eye' while others would say that's their favorite jingle ever," recalls Bommarito. "It was polarizing."
Kellaris and Liikkanen feel that exploring earworms can lead to broader applications of the science. Liikkanen says he hopes he can learn from musical obsessions, a form of OCD, which is like an extreme earworm that can distract a person from daily life. "In rare cases, it can get unbearable," he adds.
Kellaris thinks that once we understand how they operate, earworms could prove useful in another way. "If we can train earworms, we can harness their power to convey messages," he says.
But for some, the real question about earworms is how to make them stop. The bad news is there's no good answer. Liikkanen suggests that people can help eliminate earworms by reducing their amount of musical exposure, but Kellaris has a more Zen approach.
"Don't fight an earworm," he advises. "It just makes them angry, and they will bite harder."
(Randee Dawn is a New York-based entertainment writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Emmy magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in 3:AM Magazine and on the podcast "Well Told Tales," and she is the co-author of The Law & Order: SVU Unofficial Companion.)


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This Week at Physics
This Week at Physics
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Event Number 2681
Friday, October 12th, 2012
- Physics Department Colloquium
- Nuclear Power After Fukushima
- Time: 3:30 pm
- Place: 2241 Chamberlin Hall (coffee at 4:30 pm)
- Speaker: Michael Corradini, UW-Madison
- Abstract: The Tohoku earthquake caused a tsunami, which hit the east coast of Japan, and caused a loss of all on-site and off-site power at the Fukushima Daiichi site, leaving it without any emergency power. The resultant damage to fuel, reactor and containment caused a release of radioactive materials to the region surrounding the plants. Although not directly affected, the U.S. nuclear power industry will take lessons from this accident. The American Nuclear Society (ANS) formed a special committee to examine the Fukushima Daiichi accident. The committee was charged to provide a clear and concise explanation of the accident events, health physics and accident cleanup as well as safety-related issues that emerged. The committee also evaluated actions that ANS should consider to better communicate with the public during a nuclear event. This talk will discuss the accident and the future of nuclear power after Fukushima.
- Host: Himpsel
- Poster: http://www.physics.wisc.edu/twap/posters/2012/2681.pdf
- Add this event to your calendar
- Nuclear Power After Fukushima


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The best armor will cover the wearer's body completely, providing maximum protection from swords, axes, spears, and other implements of destruction. The worst armor appears in Capcom classic Ghosts 'n Goblins.
Someone had to make armor for Ghost 'n Goblins' hero, and that someone was the most inept armor crafter in all the lands, crafting magnificent suits of shining metal that fall off at the slightest touch. Such an artisan would have made a killing in the medieval porn business, but alas.


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Sept. 5. 8000 block of Cherokee Street. An unknown person broke the drivers' side handle, door and window to a parked car and took $75 in cash, various credit cards, a check for $1,050, house keys and wallets between 4:30 and 5:15 p.m.
Sept. 7. 200 block of E. Mermaid Lane. An unknown person attempted to gain entry to an apartment through a window, damaging the screen. The resident also reported that damage to a wood ring on the gate door to the back yard, between July 3 and Sept. 3.
Sept. 8. 200 block of E. Willow Grove Avenue. An unknown person gained entry to a parked vehicle through an unlocked door and took a gray Dell laptop, a black laptop bag and a blood pressure monitor, total value $1,080. This was reported at 8:30 a.m.
Sept. 9. 200 block of E. Mermaid Lane. A resident complained that after a subcontractor left their house on Sept. 8 a checkbook and $100 in cash was missing.
Summary — Four crimes for week: two theft from vehicles, one attempted burglary and one burglary.
If you have been the victim of a crime and would like information, service or support, call Northwest Victims Service, 6301 Germantown Ave., Second Floor, Suite One, 215-438-4410. The service is free.


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Miley Cyrus Shares Bathtub Selfie With New Dog Emu [PHOTO]by Michelle McGahan | PopCrush
For Miley Cyrus, the bathtub selfie is almost like a rite of passage — or a daily ritual. Either way, it was of the utmost importance that she officially introduce her brand-new pup, Emu, into her bubble-filled Instagram tradition, and that's exactly what she did last night, June 29.
Taking to the photo-sharing app, the 'Wrecking Ball' singer Instagrammed a sweet snap of her and Emu sharing a kiss while in the tub.
"ending the best day ever giving emu baby a shower in my bedazzled space cap cuhhh," Cyrus captioned the photo, hashtagging it "#shhitsawig." (Hmm… looks like a shower cap to us!)
Of course, Cyrus was outfitted in a sparkly blue shower cap and was seemingly topless (or at least wearing a strapless bikini top) as she flaunted her bare shoulders in the shot.
The pop star, always an active Instagrammer, was also busy honoring another pup earlier that day — her late dog, Floyd, whom she paid tribute to by creating (and posting pictures of) necklaces and other gifts to commemorate her old dog.
While the bathtub selfie with Emu may seem strange to some, it comes as no surprise to fellow dog lovers and Miley's beloved Smilers, who are all well aware of her fondness for and dedication to her beloved pets. We know that losing Floyd hit the singer hard, and we're happy that she has a new canine friend in her life.
Check out Miley Cyrus' bathtub selfie with Emu above!
See Miley Cyrus + Other Pop Stars Without Makeup


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I currently have Ubuntu desktop installed on a hard disk. I want to partition the hard disk so that I can reserve 30GB for Ubuntu server and 30GB for Ubuntu desktop. The drive has 300GB available. Right now I am booting from dvd drive and installing ubuntu server. I selected "Guided partitioning" and created a 30GB primary partition of Ext4 journaling filesystem, set "yes, format it" for format partition and set bootable flag to on. I intend to use this 30 gig partition to hold ubuntu server and allow me to boot from it.
Now I have two other partitions. They are both set to "logical", one is currently using 285.8 gigs and is using ext4 (when I try to set bootable flag to true, it gives a warning "You are trying to set the bootable flag on a logical partition. The bootable flag is only useful on the primary partitions"). More alarming it says "No existing file system was detected in this partition". Actually, Im thinking that this is the partition that is supposed to be holding my current Ubuntu Desktop. And of course I want this to be bootable and be a primary partition, so I could dual boot from this and the server partition.
Now the third partition is also set to logical and it is being used as swap area.
How do I switch the second partition to primary and to make sure that its pointing to my existing desktop installation?


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Use this list to shop for calcium-rich food to help build strong bones and prevent bone loss.
Review Date: Wednesday, December 17, 2014
National Health Information Center - NHICU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
If you are age 65 or older, it's time to get a test to find out your bone strength. A bone density test will tell you if you are at risk for osteoporosis.
Review Date: Monday, November 30, 2015
Your body needs calcium to build strong bones. Many people are at risk for osteoporosis, or weak bones, which develops slowly over many years. Getting enough calcium each day will help prevent osteoporosis.
These questions can help you start a conversation with your doctor about ways to prevent weak bones.
Osteoporosis and the broken bones it can cause are not part of normal aging. Whatever your age, the habits you adopt now can affect your bone health for the rest of your life. Find out what you can do to protect your bones.
Review Date: Thursday, October 30, 2014
National Osteoporosis Foundation
The Best Bones Forever!™ Campaign offers girls fun activities, quizzes, and recipes to encourage girls to get active and eat more foods with calcium and vitamin D.
Review Date: Friday, April 03, 2015
Office on Women's Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Best Bones Forever!™ is a national bone health campaign aimed at helping girls ages 9-14 and their parents understand that now is the time to build strong bones for life. Learn what you can do to give your daughter the support she needs to build strong bones for a lifetime.
Review Date: Wednesday, April 01, 2015
Broken bones can cause long-lasting health problems. Learn what you can do to keep your bones healthy and strong.
Review Date: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases - NIAMS
A bone mineral density (BMD) test is the best way to determine your bone health. The test can identify osteoporosis, determine your risk for fractures (broken bones), and measure your response to osteoporosis treatment.
Review Date: Monday, March 18, 2013
NIH Osteoporosis and Related Bone Diseases ~ National Resource Center
Find out about Medicare coverage for bone density tests.
Review Date: Wednesday, December 02, 2015
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Calcium and vitamin D help build and maintain strong bones. Learn more about these important nutrients.
Review Date: Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Check Up On Your Bones is an interactive bone health checkup for people of all ages. The goal of the checkup is to help you identify the most common red flags that put your bones at risk, and to give you a strategy to make your bones stronger and healthier.
Review Date: Saturday, February 11, 2012
Knowing what to expect and taking steps to counterbalance the effects of aging can help you maintain a young spirit and an independent life.
Review Date: Monday, January 28, 2013
American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons
Vitamin D is a nutrient found in some foods that is needed for health and to maintain strong bones. Find out how much vitamin D you need each day.
Review Date: Sunday, December 28, 2014
NIH Office of Dietary Supplements - ODS
No matter what your age, you can take steps to prevent bone loss. This document provides some preventative tips developed by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons that you should follow during the stages of your life.
Review Date: Monday, February 18, 2013
Osteoporosis is a disease that makes your bones weak and more likely to break, Read this story about Isabel and how she and her family learned about osteoporosis and bone health.
Your childhood and teen years are a prime time to learn habits that will help you keep your bones, joints, muscles, and skin healthy for years to come. Have fun exploring these pages, and come back often for updates and new features.
Review Date: Friday, November 16, 2012
Find out if you have osteoporosis risk factors. Take the One Minute Risk Test. The test is available in English, French, Spanish and German.
Review Date: Friday, December 12, 2014
International Osteoporosis Foundation
Both pregnancy and breastfeeding cause changes and place extra demands on a woman's body. Some of these may have an affect on her bones. The good news is that most women do not experience bone problems during pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Review Date: Friday, December 16, 2011
Find out how much calcium and vitamin D you need to keep your bones healthy.
Cigarette smoking causes heart disease, lung and esophageal cancer, and chronic lung disease. Additionally, several research studies have identified smoking as a risk factor for osteoporosis and bone fracture.
Review Date: Saturday, October 06, 2012
NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases Information Clearinghouse
This fact sheet explains where we get vitamin A, how much of this important vitamin we need, how it can build up in the body to excessive levels, and how you can assess your own vitamin A intake.
Note: Documents in PDF format require the Adobe Acrobat Reader®. If you experience problems with PDF documents, please download the latest version of the Reader®.
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As he tried to reframe the national discussion about healthcare reform on Wednesday, President Obama uttered an outright fib: "This debate has never been about right or left," he said of the ceaseless fighting over his healthcare plan.
Oh, yes, it has. And is.
Faced with a blizzard of bad PR as a result of a faltering website that had been designed as the main portal for those seeking insurance under the plan, Obama went to Boston to park himself in the place where Republicans and Democrats passed a state health program that served as a model for the national one.
His intent was multi-pronged: By location, he sent the reminder that in places where all parties worked to pass and improve healthcare reform, the program has succeeded. (And, he pointed out, that was accomplished under a Republican governor, Mitt Romney, the man he defeated in 2012). By topic, he accented the popular aspects of healthcare reform, as if to remind people that there was a reason that politicians have tried to pull off insurance reform for decades.
But in trying to re-argue the case for a program passed several years ago — and not sold well in the interim — Obama faces an intractable question: Is anyone listening?
Recent polling shows that views of healthcare reform have frozen in place, and along partisan lines.
According to a survey taken by the Pew Research Center in mid-October, about 4 in 10 Americans approved of the healthcare law and 5 in 10 disapproved.
But among Democrats, 75% approved. Among Republicans, 85% disapproved. And their views have apparently hardened; apart from a slight increase in disapproval among Republicans, hardly any group changed their tune from a September Pew poll.
Republicans have noted time and again that the national plan was passed by Democrats against GOP objections, making it different at the outset from the bipartisan Massachusetts measure. Nonetheless, the president's remarks Wednesday appeared intended to reach over the squabbling right-left divide to reassure Americans that what was passed wasn't as life-altering as its opponents have made it out to be and in fact had some popular components.
"A true patients' bill of rights," he called it. "No more discrimination against kids with preexisting conditions. No more dropping your policy when you get sick and need it most. No more lifetime limits or restricted annual limits. Most plans now have to cover free preventive care like mammograms and birth control. Young people can stay on their parents' plans until they are 26. All this is in place right now. It is working right now."
He implored those who are uninsured and want to sign up for coverage, or those whose existing insurance is being replaced, to have patience as the kinks are worked out of the system. He repeatedly said that he was confident those groups would find affordable plans -- once they can gain access to the system, that is.
He also nodded to the blast of criticism from people whose bargain-basement plans have been canceled because they did not comport with the new minimum coverage requirements for health insurance. He called the insurers who had sold those plans "bad apple" insurers. And he altered his often-uttered statement, as the law was proposed and since, that Americans who were happy with their insurance could keep it. Now what you can keep, he said, is "health insurance that works," as defined by the law.
"If you're getting one of these letters, just shop around in the new marketplace," he said. "That's what it's there for.... You're going to get a better deal."
The danger in Obama's remarks, nearly a full month after the rocky debut of the insurance marketplaces that were supposed to benefit the most needy, is that they came after a considerable chunk of the country has either gone to their partisan corners or thrown their hands up in frustration or disgust. A calm rendering of the facts as he saw them might have at least minimized some of the partisan tension, but Obama did not pass up the opportunity to dig at the other side.
He spoke of governors, including some Republican executives, who have worked to put the healthcare law into place, and chastised those who had worked to block it.
"Some are so locked into politics that they won't lift a finger to help their own people," he said, with an edge of bitterness. "If they put as much energy into making it work as they do to attacking the law, Americans would be better off."
And, he said, anyone defending the broken system that the law was meant to replace "should have to explain themselves ... because I don't think we should go back to discriminating against kids with preexisting conditions. I don't think we should go back to dropping people because they get sick or they make a mistake on their application."
Selling the healthcare law has always been a stiff challenge, in some ways giving rise to the same fears that are summoned by discussions about changing Social Security and Medicare. People are always worried that they will lose what they have, imperfect as it is. When putting a plan in place whose most visible beneficiaries are people in the minority — the uninsured and the uninsurable — squawks are predictable.
At this point, however, Obama alone owns Obamacare, for better or worse.