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Here's a very clever idea from MINI in France. They recently announced the opening of 10 new stores to increase test drives for their MINIs but they weren't your tradition car show rooms, these were mobile MINI stores that could travel straight to the customer.
Instead of building standard show rooms MINI launched 10 actual MINIs on to the roads of Paris so that more potential customers could try the car and enjoy an immediate test drive. These mobile stores could reach every area in the city and really took the hassle out of the test drive experience. While this is a great activation idea, it would have been even better if it had been integrated with the MINI social activity such as their Facebook page.


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Window Blinds – Different Kind Of Blinds
When we distinguish blinds according to their making, we can differentiate door and window blinds just by their respective sizes. The different kinds of blinds are as follows.
At the top are Venetian blinds because of their popularity. The slats of the blinds are made of plastic or metal. Wooden slats and bamboo slats are not unusual and they are known by their respective names only. For example wooden blinds and bamboo blinds. The usual width of slats is 50 mm but you can occasionally find someone using blinds of upto 120 mm width too. One window on a wide wall having 120 mm slats add to the aesthetics of the room. Venetian blinds have a couple of equally popular variants too.
1. Mini blinds; here the slats are pretty narrow and you can't expect it to be wider than 19 mm.
2. Vertical blinds; slats are vertical here thus giving it the name. Additionally, you can find the slats made of stiffen fabric. It is possible to turn the slats by 90 degrees when they hang from their ends from a guide rail.
Give Us A Call For Economical and Reliable Window Treatments in Irvine, California

subset: commoncrawl


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We are the Department of Applied Mathematics. We are the only mathematics department at IIT.
What is Applied Mathematics?
"Applied mathematicians develop and utilize mathematically rigorous methods, modeling insight, and computational algorithms to solve real-world problems."
—Fred J. Hickernell, Professor of Applied Mathematics at IIT
By "applied mathematicians" we mean not only our faculty, but our students as well. We encourage all of our students, both graduate and undergraduate, to take part in an applied mathematics-related research project or internship. We have a mix of faculty and students specializing in applied analysis, computational mathematics, discrete applied mathematics, and stochastics. The courses we offer cover these areas and attract both applied mathematicians and students from application areas. A few of the problems we solve are: the dispersal of pollutants in the environment, designing new materials, valuing an investment portfolio, and efficient routing of messages through the Internet.
Our department offers Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees in Applied Mathematics, a Professional Master's degree, plus two interdisciplinary degrees: a Master of Mathematical Finance, offered with the Stuart School of Business, and a Master in Data Science, offered with the Computer Science Department. Attractions for students include:
- personal attention and small class size,
- a curriculum that combines courses in mathematics with those in application areas,
- a weekly departmental colloquium, featuring experts from all over the world, and several research seminars, where students and faculty discuss their latest research,
- the Math Club and SIAM Student Chapter, where students explore intriguing aspects of mathematics and participate in mathematics competitions.
- the world-class city of Chicago.
To find out more details of what we are doing take a look at our web pages and feel free to contact our faculty and students. For those of you interested in joining us, you can apply online for both our undergraduate and graduate programs. Faculty openings are posted on our web site as well as on mathjobs.org.


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All About Comté – Part 2
If you like cheese, you're probably familiar with Comté. This French semi-hard cheese made from unpasteurized cow's milk has been produced for hundreds of years, and is still traditionally made in more than 190 cheese dairies, known as the "fruitières" in the Jura region of eastern France. The Jura plateau of the Franche-Comté is the most mountainous (and coldest) region of France stretching from the eastern edge of Burgundy through the foothills of the Jura Alps to the Alps along the border with Switzerland.
It is the first French AOC (label of origin) cheese, guaranteeing the quality of the cheese. Each 40 kilo (about 88 pound) wheel of Comté is made from the milk of many different small farms. The milk is collected at a fruitière, where it is manipulated and transformed under strictly controlled conditions. After its fabrication, the huge wheels of cheese are transferred to a limited number of cellars spread across the region, where they will age anywhere from 4 – 18 months. The taste is variable depending on the age and the season of the milk. It's typically described as salty, mild, and fruity. Some cheese have strong hazelnut flavors, while others have subtle hints of nutmeg. Wine pairings? Dry whites and lighter reds work beautifully with Comté.
Join us for this first of two episodes covering this fascinating region. We'll learn some of the history of this region, and what makes this part of France special, but more importantly, how this translates to Comté itself.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download


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No baby yet. And I guess there is no way of knowing how long this prodrome will last.
Two nights ago, I was getting the feeling things were very close, so I went to the mall to get a bunch of last-minute things. First I found a swimsuit for SR's daughter, then I was looking for a cd of relaxing music for labor and a wave a nausea hit. I left the store and felt regular contractions lasting over a minute each, that seemed to get stronger and stronger. I was so excited. I persisted in my shopping (which is normally something I hate to do) and found some sexy nursing bras (can't believe size 36 C was slightly small! This is coming from a girl who used to buy a B cup rather than an A just to avoid the shame). Victoria's Secret has really nice "racerback" bras that clasp in the front. While I was looking, though, I was doubling over in intermittent pain. The salesgirl and I were getting a good laugh out of it.
I called SR at the hospital, who basically said, "don't go into labor now... I'm on call."
I drove to meet him for dinner at the hospital, thinking this was going to be it, whether or not he was on call. But once I got something to eat and drink, the contractions basically disappeared.
We retired to the call room, for possibly our last round of call room sex, since this was his last night of overnight call. We've become big fans of doing our own cervical exams. This is, as far as I know, completely safe as long as the membranes haven't ruptured. Oh, and wear gloves... you don't want to rupture the membranes with your fingernails! The cervix is basically completely effaced now, with 1-2 cm of dilation and still at about 0 station as far as we can tell. The weird thing is, when we do the cervical exam, all of this white, flaky stuff comes out. Neither of us has any idea what that is.
It is an exhilarating feeling for me to be able to reach down and feel the little guy's head. SR likes to press on his head and then feel him kick in reaction. Oh, I wish he would just come out!
I've already had bloody show, and from what we could tell, the mucus plug came out. And now there is constant pressure in my back and pelvis. And, along with that, nausea.
As you can imagine, I've been making some attempts to induce real labor. So far, other than sex, I've increased the running to 5 miles a day. This is really good for inducing staggeringly strong contractions, but irregular. Then the eliptical induces pleasant, regular contractions. When I swim, I just get light intermittent contractions.
I haven't attempted acupressure yet. I'm saving that for this weekend, when SR is done with cardiology. But honestly, I think the baby will come when he's ready. And my symptoms and feelings of being ready won't affect anything. Gosh, I'm nauseated, though, and that stinks!
Last night we had our last preparation for childbirth class and we were practicing deep breathing and relaxation. We were supposed to picture somewhere pleasant, that made us happy. I pictured SR and I running in the forest late last March in the mud with the gray-white sky coming through the trees. He was getting near the precipice and looked back at me, smiling. It still seems unreal that I would find something so perfect in my life, a person, who in every way seems to be made for me. And to share a love that is so innocent! And I started crying in the class. So I imagined us in Pictured Rocks, looking at each other coyly as we got naked on the deserted beach. There was a storm approaching and the waves and wind picked up. We were like children of heaven, afraid of nothing in this world. And I cried even harder, not able to believe the beauty in my life. When I looked at SR, it seemed perhaps he had been crying, too.
So I had to picture somewhere that wasn't real. And I thought of the dream I had oh, five years ago now. I was somewhere in Europe on a mountain, next to a lake under a sunny blue sky. I was holding a little blonde baby boy and looking into his eyes, feeling perfect happiness. When I fell in love with SR last winter, I knew that little boy from the dream so long ago was his little boy. That I can picture without tears, because it's not real yet. But I think it's only a matter of time.
Running Song of the Day: Heartbeats by The Knife
Friday, 1 February 2008
The waiting game
2 comments:
- Lisa said...
You are such a sweetie. So emotional lately. LOL! We're rooting for you! Hurry Up!
- 1 February 2008 at 17:57
- Unknown said...
Iv'e enjoyed reading your blog along your pregnancy here and there and am anxious to hear the good news.Hopign you ahve an awesome delivery since you've kept so fit!
- 6 February 2008 at 21:02
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Photo: Wikipedia Commons
Both Turkey and Syria have reportedly sent troops to their shared border in the aftermath of the downing of a Turkish jet last week.Yesterday Al Arabiya reported that Turkey was deploying troops and at least 30 Turkish military vehicles equipped with anti-aircraft rocket launchers to the border, straight west of Aleppo — Syria's largest city — as a precautionary measure after one of its jets was shot down on June 22 after the jet had strayed into Syrian airspace for five minutes.
Today Free Syria Army (FSA) General Mustafa al-Sheikh, head of the association of senior officers who defected from President Bashar al-Assad's forces (i.e. Higher Military Council), told Reuters that about 170 Syrian tanks had assembled north of Aleppo, about 19 miles from the Turkish border.
Rebels told Reuters that last night Syrian helicopter gunships bombarded a strategic town in northern Syria overnight and tanks closed in on Aleppo, but stayed away from the new Turkish defenses on the border.
All of this comes at a time when the violence and tempo of the conflict is increasing as June 21 marked the deadliest day since the U.N.-backed ceasefire came into force on April 12 and Syrian insurgents have been increasingly effective as they have struck three high-profile targets this week.
On Tuesday al-Assad told government officials that they "live in a real state of war from all angles" and that "all policies and all sides and all sectors need to be directed at winning this war."
About 3,000 civilians and opposition fighters have been already killed so far this month, according to Britain-based expatriate group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
On June 22 Syria shot down an unarmed, Turkish two-seat F-4 Phantom jet — Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said it was a reconnaissance aircraft — over the Mediterranean. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Syria of a "hostile" and "heinous attack" in shooting down the army jet without warning and ordered his troops near the border to treat any approaching Syrian military element approaching as a military target.
Turkey claimed that Syria also shot at one of the search and rescue planes that were looking for the downed jet's two pilots. Investigators eventually found two pairs of boots and two helmets near the wreckage but no pilots.
Turkey subsequently appealed to NATO under Article 4, which deals with what happens when the "territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened," and pushed the international community to consider the incident as an attack on the whole military alliance.
Western officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Minister William Hague, strongly condemned Syria's actions while UN accuses Assad-directed Syrian forces of killing more than 10,000 people during the conflict.
Western- and Arab-backed efforts to form a joint diplomatic approach with Russia have so far failed while all sides agree that Turkish military intervention would require full NATO support.
Turkey shelters the rebel Free Syria Army and hosts 32,000 Syrian refugees on its southeastern border with Syria (i.e. about 30 miles from where the Turkish jet was shot down). It denies providing arms for the insurgents, but the U.S. and Arab states have provided rebels with "non-lethal communication equipment and other technical assistance" and there are reports that the U.S. sent mercenaries to fight with the insurgency.
Over the weekend Syria said that it had killed several "terrorists" infiltrating from Turkey.
SEE ALSO: These Are The Weapons Facing Any Country That Intervenes In Syria >
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A great free tool for building custom templates in Salesforce.
By Chris DeJuneas, iContact for Salesforce Customer Success Manager
As an iContact for Salesforce Customer Success manager, I am often asked the best way to build email templates in Salesforce. The goal of today's blog is to teach you about an excellent tool that you can add to Salesforce as a custom web tab that makes creating custom email templates in Salesforce a breeze using iContact's MessageBuilder or MessageCoder email WYSIWYG editors.
Step 1:
Create a trial account so that you can use our MessageBuilder to generate your HTML for Salesforce, or if you already use iContact for Salesforce you can simply use your existing iContact username and password.
Step 2: (system admin permission needed)
Create a new custom web tab and name it iContact MessageBuilder by following the steps below, or you can watch this video.
- Navigate to Name > Setup in the upper right
- In the left navigation bar, navigate to App Setup and expand Create
- Select Tabs
- Select Web Tabs and then New
- Choose Full Page Width and click Next
- For Tab Type choose URL
- For Tab Label enter "iContact MessageBuilder"
- Select Tab Name window, and you should notice the name auto-populate
- Under Tab Style, select the magnifying glass and choose a tab style (I recommend Chalkboard)
- Navigate to Content Frame Height: I recommend changing to 800 but this depends on your screen resolution. If you have a low resolution (800x600), then the default 600 may be ideal.
- You can skip the Flash Page Custom Link section
- For description, I recommend "Access to iContact Templates, and HTML WYSIWYG editors for building Custom Email Templates in Salesforce"
- Skip down to Button or Link URL and change http:// to https://app.icontact.com/icp/core/create/message
- Encoding: Unicode (UTF-8)
- Click Next
- Choose which profiles will have access to this new tab (enterprise only)
- Click Next
- Choose for which apps the new custom tab will be available
- Click Save
- You will need your username and password from install email or use a trial account
Step 3:
Watch these four detailed video tutorials about using iContact Message Builder:
Step 4:
Follow the Export instructions below to place your iContact MessageBuilder HTML into Salesforce (or watch this video tutorial):
- Click Messages button on the MessageBuilder toolbar
- Then click Advanced
- Now click Source
- Click Continue (click Don't Ask Again)
- Copy HTML
- Paste HTML as instructed in Custom Template tutorial: iContact for Salesforce Custom Template Video Tutorial
I hope you enjoy building branded templates using iContact MessageBuilder and MessageCoder.


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Padres make several roster moves to set winter 40-man roster
SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego Padres today announced they have selected the contracts of right-handed pitchers Donn Roach and Keyvius Sampson, and left-handed pitcher Juan Oramas. In addition, Major League Baseball has confirmed the signing of pitcher Josh Johnson. To create room on the 40-man roster, the Padres designated right-handed pitchers Brad Brach and Miles Mikolas, left-handed pitcher Jose De Paula and outfielder Jaff Decker for assignment. Executive Vice President/General Manager Josh Byrnes made the announcements.
The 23-year-old Roach pitched exclusively at Double-A San Antonio in 2013, posting an 8-12 record with a 3.53 ERA in 28 starts. The 6-foot-1 right-hander is 28-20 with a 3.41 ERA in four minor league seasons. A third-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels in 2010, the Padres acquired Roach on May 4, 2012 along with infielder Alexi Amarista.
Sampson, 22, followed up a breakout regular season in which he combined for a 12-7 record with a 3.57 ERA in 28 games (27 starts) combined for San Antonio and Tucson (AAA) by posting a 0.79 ERA for Peoria in the Arizona Fall League, allowing one earned run in 11.1 innings and earning a spot in the Future Stars Game. The Padres' fourth-round selection in the 2009 Draft is 35-23 with a 3.79 ERA over 92 appearances, including 88 starts, in his minor league career.
The 23-year-old Oramas returned from an injury-shortened 2012 to become a key component of Texas League champion San Antonio. After two rehab starts with Peoria (R), the native of Mexico went 3-2 with a 3.07 ERA in 12 starts for the Missions in the regular season before not allowing a run over 12 innings in two starts in the Texas League playoffs. The 5-foot-10 lefty is currently 5-1 with a 3.18 ERA in seven starts for Hermosillo in the Mexican Winter League.
With today's transactions, the Padres currently have a full 40-man roster.


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"The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work," says Wikipedia.
Further, "Most Americans perceive a college education as the ticket to the American Dream," although some warn that soaring student loan debt and a shortage of good jobs may undermine this ticket.
A friend's daughter is embarking upon her second year in college. Mom has helped her find financial assistance—a daunting process.
Daughter, frustrated, asked Mom to simply hand over whatever loan form required her signature.
Mom advised that this hastiness was ill-advised—Daughter needed to know well the amount of debt she'd accepted and to consider how its repayment might affect her future.
Pursuit of the American Dream carries a big price tag—debt acquisition requires awareness.
Research findings indicate many are not sufficiently aware of the impact of the student loan debt they accept. Many fail to understand loan requirements and struggle after college to not only land a dream job but to realize other dreams as well with debt's burden.
'Education: A debt due from present to future generations.'—George Peabody, entrepreneur and philanthropist
"Over one fourth of college students are not participants in the financial system, over one third do not know how much credit card or student loan debt they currently owe, and they overestimate their future earnings by more than 20%," notes an Arkansas State University article, "Financial Literacy and the College Student."
This is grim news as student debt is the only debt on constant upswing since 2003, and of all types of debt, the highest in 2013. Of further alarm: "11.5% of that debt is classified as either 90+ days past due or in default."
However, students obtaining financial information from college personnel are more participatory and knowledgeable of their personal finances, and tend to not overinflate salary expectations.
"These results lend support for the importance of providing some type of financial literacy training to college students."
"Does America Need a Student Loan Debt Revolution?" asks The University of Texas at Austin. "Young adults between ages 18 and 33 are the first in the modern era to have higher levels of student loan debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income."
Student loan debt also delays saving for retirement. This is especially problematic, as this generation will endure changes in retirement plans, the elimination of pensions, and the likelihood of increased taxation.
Further, many young adults are unable to save for house down payments. First-time home buyers wield significant influence in the housing market—with consequences for our entire economy.
"With student loans hitting the trillion dollar mark and the national debt climbing over $17 trillion, it is time for a financial revolution."
The unsettling news continues as "Student Loan Interest Rates Rise for 2014-2015 School Year," says Bloomberg. Interest rates on Stafford loans will hit 4.66%, up from 3.86% last year.
This increase will result in additional payments of $46 annually for each $10,000 borrowed based on 10-year repayment periods.
"Graduates of the class of 2012 who took out loans owed an average of $29,400," Bloomberg reports. "Seventy-one percent of college seniors had student loan debt."
'There is scarcely anything that drags a person down like debt.'–P.T. Barnum, American showman
Meanwhile, "Student Debt Weighs Down Women More. Blame the Pay Gap," says NPR. The year following college, about half of full-time working women and 39% of men directed more than 8% of their income toward debt.
For women, impact of this debt load is heavier, as "college-educated women made 82% of men's salaries one year after graduating in 2009."
But ultimately, families also are affected as "carrying outstanding student loan debt can affect whether borrowers make other financial commitments… like buying a home, starting a family, opening a small business" and making retirement contributions.
Marriage makes student loan debt a joint burden.
Another unfortunate lifestyle consideration of student loan debt is posed by The Wall Street Journal in, "Who Is Responsible for Student Loans After Divorce?" Here, "student loans could outlast many a marriage" and "one of the common misconceptions about dividing debt in a divorce is the belief that educational debt incurred before a marriage always becomes shared, marital debt."
Ultimately, "debt division is complicated and can vary depending on whether the state applies equitable-distribution, community-property or marital property rules."
Two important components in student loan debt management for couples:
1. Obtain a prenuptial agreement allocating loan repayment responsibility for debt incurred during the union; and
2. Have honest discussions about existing student debt prior to marriage.
'Blessed are the young for they shall inherit the national debt.'–Herbert Hoover
College debts are repaid as graduates enter the workforce. But "Are Recent College Graduates Finding Good Jobs?" asks the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
This analysis indicates "unemployment rates for recent college graduates have indeed been quite high since the onset of the Great Recession. Moreover, underemployment among recent graduates… is also on the rise."
However, those without degrees had even greater struggles finding gainful employment. "The unemployment rate climbed to nearly 16% in 2010 for young workers without degrees, more than double the peak unemployment rate of 7% for new college graduates."
This interesting analysis provides an in-depth look at the employment situation for young people and may prompt consideration as to their ability to repay their debts.
One final note on the student loan conundrum is posed by a Gallup-Purdue study, which states "level of debt limits individual success and [the] national economy."
Some evidence of this: "Three times fewer graduates who took out between $20,000 and $40,000 in undergraduate student debt are thriving in their well-being compared with those with no school loan debt. Twenty-six percent of graduates with no debt have started their own business, compared with 16% for those with $40,000 or more" in debt.
Student loan debt is a reality for many hoping to achieve the American Dream.
How can your credit union help prevent these consumer realities from becoming a financial nightmare?


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I had a great time at BlizzCon, and met a lot of great people. It's really fun to meet someone in person that you've only ever interacted with online, either via Twitter, in blog comments, or in-game.
Unfortunately, this year I didn't take great notes on where I was and who I met every day, so I'm not going to try and quickly write up a recap. While I have a lot of great stories, unless I sit down and carefully re-trace my steps I'm guaranteed to forget someone or something, and then people will just feel disappointed that I forgot them. If I have time later on, maybe I'll try and put together that sort of recap. But probably not – the further we get from BlizzCon, the less I'll remember and the less relevant it will be. Plus, there are more than a few people who would probably prefer I didn't share all of the stories I have from when they were drunk. You know who you are. 😛
So I'll just say that I had a blast meeting everyone. I had a lot of great conversations, met a lot of people I already knew and respected, and met a lot of people that I barely knew at all beforehand. But I was very happy to meet all of you, whether you're e-famous, or a theorycrafter, or a player that's read the blog once or twice, or just an avid player that recognized my name.
Instead, this blog post is going to focus on the game-related news from BlizzCon, and my reactions to that information. And today, we're going to start with something that you probably never expected to see on Sacred Duty: A lore discussion!
Time Is On My Side…..
There are very few things I disliked about the new announcements. For the most part, I'm on board with all of the changes they're making in Warlords of Draenor. But the story is one of those things that will never completely sit well with me.
Now, to be fair, I wasn't that enthusiastic about Mists of Pandaria at first either. For too many years, I'd assumed Pandaren were a joke race that would never see the light of day in WoW, and it was hard to break that mental stigma. Plus, really, Pokemon in my WoW? And yet, here we are two years later, and they totally pulled it off. Mists has arguably been one of the stronger expansions, both in terms of gameplay and in terms of story and lore. Even though I've never participated in a single pet battle, I know far more people who have done so and enjoyed it. Even though I thought Pandaren were a joke, they turned out to be a well-fleshed-out race complete with culture and history that made them pretty bad-ass. So it's clear that first impressions can be misleading.
However, my objection to the Warlords of Draenor story is more fundamental. Buckle up, it's physics time.
You see, I absolutely hate time travel in video games. As a physicist that specialized in things like quantum teleportation and superluminal pulse propagation, I'm intimately familiar with the important and fundamental role causality plays in physics. And that's made me fairly intolerant of any sort of "faster than light" or "time travel" suggestions, whether it's in the media or in a game's story. When my own research was featured on slashdot, I was of course ecstatic, but still a little dismayed at the sensationalist presentation. I have a self-created mental block on the entire idea of time travel.
So the "we're going back in time" nature of the Caverns of Time has always sort of bothered me. While I love getting to see the stories from the earlier Warcraft games recreated in WoW, it's always been a struggle for me to reconcile the time travel elements with the rest of WoW's story. And don't even get me started on the whole Rhonin / Dragon Soul storyline – it was around that time that I threw my hands up in despair and completely gave up on WoW's story ever making sense again.
Because frankly, time travel in games and movies has rarely been done well in my experience. Generally, the amount of hand-waving that has to be done to justify time travel just creates new paradoxes that make the whole thing feel silly to me. Once you allow the possibility of time travel, I feel like a narrative loses a lot of its motivation. Striving to kill <current Big Bad> becomes much less suspenseful if you know that some intrepid time-traveler will just come fix it if you screw up. Not to mention the inherent paradox there: if they're coming back to fix it, shouldn't they be here now? Why aren't they?
We Are The Worlds
WoW's take on time travel is a fairly standard one. As far as I can tell, it mimics the "many worlds" interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. In layman's terms, every time a choice is made, the world splits into two or more different timelines, one for each possible outcome of the decision. So for example, there's a timeline where Garrosh dies at the end of Siege of Orgrimmar, and a timeline where he's spared and imprisoned by Taran Zhu.
When we go back in time to the Black Morass or The Battle for Mt. Hyjal, we're sticking within our own timeline and trying to prevent the Infinite Dragonflight from altering the events of our timeline. Which again, raises the silly paradox of one-upsmanship: if we succeed, why don't they just go back in time again to re-alter it?
On the other hand, in the End Time instance, we're traveling to a future timeline where Deathwing wasn't defeated. And in the Well of Eternity dungeon, we're going back in time to take the Dragon Soul so that Thrall can use it in the future. But if we take the Dragon Soul out of the past, doesn't that change how the rest of history unfolds? Why do we return to a present that seems basically unchanged from how we left it?
The only rational explanation for this… well, ok, let me step back a moment. There is no rational explanation for this, because the whole pile of time travel nonsense is inherently irrational. But the least irrational way to rationalize this is to assume that actions in one timeline don't necessarily affect the others. So maybe we're going back to alternate timelines that are eerily similar, but not the same as, our "own" timeline. So yeah, we stole the Dragon Soul from another timeline, which then caused all sorts of chaos in that timeline, probably resulting in the deaths of millions of people or something. But it's okay, because those people all sucked anyway, since they weren't from our timeline.
I shouldn't have to point out the multitude of problems with that interpretation. What makes our timeline (or us) special? Is the Thrall in our timeline the same as the Thrall in other timelines? Am I the same person in this timeline that I am in another? How do I know which one is the "real" one, or are we all real? And what does that say about individuality or free will if I'm just one of an infinite number of Theck clones in different timelines, all of whom have the audacity to jump into each others' timelines and fuck around with them?
All aboard the Crazy Train, I guess!
The story of Warlords of Draenor, as it's been explained to us, takes this concept to the next level by linking different timelines more strongly. It's depicted graphically below, though I can't take any credit for the diagram; I stumbled across it in a post by Klaudandus on Maintankadin. Garrosh manages to travel back to old Draenor and create a new split in the timeline. The "Alpha" timeline on the diagram is the one we know and have played through, where Garrosh never went back in time. The "Beta" timeline is the one in which Garrosh alters the events in that timeline to create the Iron Horde. He then somehow opens a new portal that links the Beta timeline to a point in the future of the Alpha timeline.
The reason I say it "takes this to the next level" is that instead of allowing a few individuals hop around on the Timeline Superhighway, it's essentially creating an on-ramp linking Interstate ("Intertime?") Beta Draenor to Future Route Alpha Azeroth, so that anybody can hop back and forth between the two and cause chaos. And instead of connecting two instants in time (whatever the hell an "instant in time" means in this hackneyed excuse for a coordinate system), it's a continuous link, such that there's a one-to-one correspondence between the time and date in Beta Draenor and the time and date in Alpha Azeroth, just with a pretty hefty offset. I'm not exactly sure what that offset is – years? tens of years? hundreds of years? Does time even have any meaning if we're going down this time-traveling rabbit hole?
What Did That Cat Ever Do To You?
So yeah, clearly I'm not a fan of the time traveling crap. It's just too problematic. I know most people can just gloss over it and enjoy the ride, but I'm not one of those people. To me it just smacks of lazy storytelling in the same way that the many worlds interpretation smacks of lazy science. Even calling it "science" is being generous, in fact. A large proportion of the scientific community (probably the majority of it) doesn't consider the many worlds interpretation to be science at all, because it is inherently not falsifiable through any means we can conceive of. In that sense, it's no better than a religion, because we can't test it. Scientists have long since accepted that there are other, slightly less insane ways to rationalize quantum mechanical behavior. Though, for the reader's amusement, I'll note that to do so we say that we give up on "reality" to keep causality, which sounds even more off-the-wall. But it actually does make sense once you rigorously define what we mean by "reality."
In short, it's the "Schrödinger's cat" explanation you've probably heard about but never really understood. You put a cat in a sealed box with some sort of random mechanism to kill the cat. Traditionally it's a vial of poison triggered by a chunk of nuclear material, but anything that is both random and fatal will work, so it could just as well be a pistol triggered by sunspots or a high-voltage arc triggered by seismic activity or a time traveler. Also, clearly physicists are awful human beings for doing this to a cat. Poor cat.
But the point of this gruesome example is that once the box is sealed, we don't know whether the cat is dead or alive. We could assign a probability to each (i.e. the cat has a 50% chance of being alive), but we don't know for sure until we open the box. In quantum mechanical terms, until we open the box the cat is both dead and alive! Or more precisely, it's in a "superposition state" where it is simultaneously dead and alive. It's only when we open the box that the cat "decides" which it is for sure.
Now that may seem ludicrous, and to be fair it is ludicrous for a cat for a few reasons. But it's not ludicrous for quantum-mechanical systems, which is what the principle really applies to. A quantum-mechanical particle has a number of properties (spin, momentum, position, energy, etc.) that aren't completely decided until it interacts with something in such a way that the property needs to have a fixed value. For another analogy, assume the particle could be one of two colors: red or blue. Until it interacts with another object in such a way that it's color matters (for example, someone observing it), it isn't one color or the other, it's in a superposition state of being both red and blue. Note that this isn't the same as being purple!
This is what we mean by giving up "reality." We have this inherent notion that objects have fixed, well-defined properties – a tennis ball is yellow, my car is blue, and at any given point in time those two objects have a particular position and velocity. We call that concept "reality" because we assume that each object has "real" properties – i.e. that the tennis ball really is a tennis ball and won't suddenly become a baseball. But on the quantum-mechanical level, some of that goes out the window. If the ball could be a tennis ball or a baseball, it's both until we make a measurement. And when we measure it, we have a random chance of discovering that it's either (i.e. it isn't just that we don't know which type of ball it is until we measure, it's that it literally isn't one or the other until we measure, at which point it randomly decides which one it is, as if it were flipping a coin).
The fun part of all of this is that giving up "reality" is a choice we make. To be able to explain experimental results, specifically with regards to entanglement, we have to give up either reality or causality. That means that, technically speaking, we could give up causality if we wanted to preserve the fixed nature of things. Most scientists have decided that reality is the one we need to give up though. There's far more evidence that causality is preserved (both in quantum mechanics and other branches of physics) than the alternative, which is that our intuition based on macroscopic objects simply doesn't apply at the quantum level.
Mother May I?
In addition to all of the paradoxes and concerns I've raised already, perhaps the biggest issue I have with time travel is the notion of free will. If you assume that time travel exists, and that people can do so willy-nilly, then eventually you need to accept that the timeline you've experienced has already been altered in every conceivable way possible by every person that cared to interfere with it from all times in the future. At which point, what's the use in caring about anything? It's hard to make it feel like your actions matter when there's the ever-present threat of a time traveler erasing everything you did. And if what you're experiencing is already the result of those efforts, did you really have a say in how things turned out? Or are you just dancing to the tune of some time-traveling puppeteer?
Some of that can be explained away by making time travel difficult, expensive, or limiting it in some other way. If only a few select people can pull off such a feat, it's a little more palatable. Or so the reasoning goes, I guess? I don't really buy it, because those arguments always assume that future technological advances will never reduce that cost. The concept of nearly-instant global communication between any two people would have been unfathomable to society even 100 years ago. Yet today we have cell phones that let us do exactly that. And when in the future, someone discovers the time-travel equivalent of cell phones, then what? Better yet, why haven't they brought that technology back to us already?
I should also point out that the whole "limited" point of view falls sort of flat for WoW. We have a giant portal connecting two timelines now. And for years we've had countless adventurers skipping back and forth through the Caverns of Time as if they were on a day cruise to Lets-Take-A-Shit-All-Over-Continuity's-ville.
Really, the only "good" variation of time travel I've ever seen in a video game is in the Assassin's Creed series. I'm sure that biologists and geneticists reel at the entire pseudo-scientific "genetic memory" concept that the game invokes. But the mechanic works well for a lowly physicist like me. By retrieving "memories" encoded deep in DNA, a modern-day protagonist can go back and re-live the experiences of one of their ancient ancestors through a virtual interface. In other words, you're playing a video game in which your character… plays a video game about their ancestors!
Really though, the animus mechanic solves all of the major problems with time-travel in games, because it's distinctly not time travel. It puts strict causal constraints on the problem, because you can go back and re-live the environment and world, but you can't do anything that alters the course of history. While it's more constricting from a story-telling point of view, it's also a lot more sane.
Well, ok, mostly sane. Just don't take that guy's word for it.
In Part 2, we'll talk about some of the actual mechanics changes that were talked about at BlizzCon, and what I think about those. Which is probably far more relevant given the nature of this blog. Bet you never thought you'd see a 2000-word rant on game lore at Sacred Duty! Maybe I should have saved this post for April Fools Day?


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trafficjunction needed a new web page design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 43 designs submitted by 28 freelance designers.
A new design required incorporating logo for a wedding photography site. Original design is VERY poor and dated: http://www.malcolmflux.co.uk
The same page names are required, and i'd like it to look very modern.
Malcolm Flux Wedding Photography
Desired Style:
Modern - towards Web 2.0 ;-)
Accepted File Formats:
Layered Formats (.psd or .tiff)
Please aim for 1024x768 fixed width design, with traditional wedding colours (you decide by looking at other wedding photography sites).


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I just spoke with Chad Smith, executive VP of Las Vegas Athletic Club (LVAC), about the recent Nevada Equal Rights Commission's (NERC) finding that the club's free enrollment offer to women might be discriminatory. NERC is forwarding the complaint to the state's attorney general's office. NERC ruled that two other discrimination complaints filed by Todd Phillips related to the club would not progress to the AG.
Phillips had also complained that the club's inclusion of private areas for women (including a female-only workout room with trainers educated in issues specific to women's fitness and a women-only sauna and steam room) was discriminatory. He also complained that the coed club had cancelled his membership as a retaliatory measure for his complaints. Smith says that Phillips had expressed unhappiness over his membership and when management offered to release him from his contract, he had agreed. The NERC found no merit in these two complaints.
Now, Smith and the rest of LVAC's management must wait to see what the AG decides to do with the case. The AG can either drop it or pursue charges. You can read more about this case here.
It's not the first time the gender issue has caused a commotion in the industry. We've covered the case of one man in California who has filed suit against several women-only clubs for being discriminatory (see stories here and here). So far, the courts have ruled in his favor. I wonder if he's joined all these clubs now?
Of course, the Las Vegas case is a bit different since it focuses specifically on the offer of free enrollments for women who join the club.
Have you had a similar issue occur at your club whether with enrollment fees or other offers specific to one gender? If so, let us hear about it. -Pam


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Pamper Hamper Gift Hampers
Even the busiest women will pause and take time out when she receives this stunning collection of pamper hampers. Great gift ideas for birthdays, anniversaries, & wedding gifts, mother's day and gifts for any women. Whether you're looking for a pamper hamper or gourmet gift hampers, wine gifts & champagne hampers, or simply want to have your flowers delivered, Twisted Ribbon will deliver an assortment of gift ideas for any special occasion.


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I live in New York City. Everyday I ride the subway to work; most people here do. I haven't owned a car in 10 years. I live in the densest large city in America, one full of massive skyscrapers, immense culture and people of every race, culture and creed.
Which is why SimCity is so confusing to me: It's a city game without any subways.
I grew up playing SimCity 2000. In many ways, it was a game that shaped what I thought an ideal big city should be and psychologically prepared me for the experience of living in one. The most efficiently made cities in that game followed so many of the conventions I would later find here — the grid system, the emphasis on population density, and above all the idea that public transit is key to making any city grow and function well. Look hard enough, and you'll find the DNA of New York City in SimCity 2000.
The new SimCity is not a game about big cities. It's not a game about making London or New York or Paris or Tokyo. SimCity is a game about the complex ecosystems that exist between medium size cities and towns, about urban and suburban sprawl. It's a game that I've really grown to enjoy.
But it needs subways.
Part of the problem is the roads. In the new SimCity, the roads dictate the maximum density of your buildings; the idea being that more traffic allows for more growth. And while this is true a lot of the time, life doesn't always work that way in a sprawling metropolis where space is at a premium. If that were the case, then the Financial District in New York, with all its tiny, one way side-streets, would still be full of tiny Dutch buildings.
Ideologically, much of SimCity feels rooted in the failed legacy of infamous New York City urban planner Robert Moses. Moses believed that highways and suburban commuting were the key to urban growth. Saying once of his plan to bulldoze big parts of lower Manhattan to make way for a 10-lane super-highway "We simply repeat, that cities are created by and for traffic. A city without traffic is a ghost town". Moses was rebuked, the highway was never built, and history has since vindicated his opponents.
Subways are essentially a space-saving hack. They encourage density without causing clutter, and unlike trolley-cars and buses they're not beholden to the ebb and flow of traffic. It's the reason why so many of the most psychotically dense cities ever built in the history of the SimCity franchise have no roads, existing exclusively on subways. It's also why only about 54% of people in this city even have cars and why even fewer commute with them.
I'm not saying that subways are ideal or that focusing on building density creates a world that is somehow magically happier. I'm not saying New York City's design is without flaws (believe me, there are many) or even that there is such a thing as a perfect city: Part of the thing that works so well in SimCity the very idea that no city is without its pros and cons. What I am saying is that statistically more and more people are abandoning the sprawl of the suburbs in favor of living in giant cities — that a growing population is choosing to live in urban areas rather than being tethered to the perpetually rising price of gas.
A game called SimCity should be capable of reflecting that.
I'm aware that there are trolley cars and buses in the game, but that's not the point. One of the most basic, core impulses in any simulation is the desire to create a simulacrum — a proxy of a thing either real or fictional. The continued success of Minecraft is proof positive of that basic truth. But in its current state, with its small plots of land and lack of subways, I can't recreate the place I've chosen to call my home. Not only that, I can't make anything remotely resembling it.
All I want from SimCity is New York and New York is nothing without its subways.


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(Updated 09/19/06) - The Asia Dragon link below seems to be down for the count. Here's one for Dragonwater Tea's rooibos pumpkin tea.
Let's see. If it's autumn, then it must be time for pumpkin tea. Texas tea makers Tempest Tea (pardon my gross alliteration) is offering - for a limited time - Pumpkin Bubble Tea and Pumpkin Tea Latte. The catch, as far as I can tell, is that you have to be in Texas to take advantage of the offer - Dallas, to be exact.
But fret not, there are other pumpkin teas out there, believe it or not. Adagio offers one and you can also give this one - from Asia Dragon - a shot.
I have to confess that I'm a little behind the curve on bubble tea, having not had a chance to try any yet. But I'm working on it. Tempest's pumpkin variety is made with Ceylon tea and flavored with pumpkin (duh), nutmeg, vanilla and more, essentially the same mix as their Pumpkin Tea Latte.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go wait for the Great Pumpkin.


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Events for March 1, 2018
Events Search and Views Navigation
10th Year of the Gazillion Bubble Show
$55 – $99.50
Gazillion Bubble Show recently begun its 10th year in New York City with over 3500 performances and seen by over half a million people! Nine years ago, Fan Yang brought his unique brand of bubble artistry to the Big Apple and has since, wowed bubble lovers of all ages. Audiences are delighted with an unbubblievable…Find out more »


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pgowder needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 20 designs submitted by 7 freelance designers.
Contest to create the header and iTunes graphic for Native American music podcast.
Accepted File Formats:
psd, jpg
IndigiTunes.com is going to be the podcast for our new music website - NativeMusicSource.com.
This podcast will be a weekly show featuring all types of Native American music such as pow wow, flute, jazz, blues, hip hop, rock, etc.
We are using WordPress and PodPress to host the podcast. You can see the site here:
This contest is to create 2 graphics.
First we need a header graphic for this WordPress theme.
Here is the current graphic:
We need a new graphic created that represents the site and matches the colors of this theme. The graphic should include the site name - IndigiTunes.com, photos of Native American musicians, etc.
Please be creative!
The second graphic is a smaller version of this that will be displayed in iTunes for this podcast.
Thanks for your work! I'm looking forward to seeing what people come up with!
Find out how a design contest works or learn more about our logo design services.


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…for the faster 24-70 f2.8 and give up on the IS capability? This question has been burning on the minds of owners for years. There had to come a time that it was me. Well, I was not so aware of the 24-70, so it was a simple choice to get something of good quality and versatile. The 24-105 suited my requirements and after much deliberation still does.
I've now tried them both and in all honestly they are just two different lenses and you need to know which of the two best suits you.
What the images show below is the narrowing of the DOF you Getty having the faster f2.8 lens. I could have shown the extra 30mm length you get on the 24-105 lens equally. I know they are small images, but quality between them was unnoticed. You decide.
Having said that, knowing what I know today, I would have gone for the faster lens to begin with.


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Comment #3 Friday, July 20, 2007 12:46 PM
Comment #4 Friday, July 20, 2007 12:54 PM
Comment #7 Friday, July 20, 2007 2:14 PM
Comment #11 Friday, July 20, 2007 4:24 PM
Comment #12 Friday, July 20, 2007 4:46 PM
Comments: Mouse over on tool bar items cause the titles to almost disappear (white against the metal - )
Also - I think you have the SubStyle names reversed (Thin shows thick window frames - while normal shows thin)
Comment #13 Friday, July 20, 2007 5:22 PM
1) The names of the substyles are backward. The regular one has the "thin" side window frames and the "Thin" substyle has the "wide" side frames.
2) Granted this was created mainly for XP and not Vista, still the userpic in the Vista Start Menu is just a tad out of alignment, at least on my system. It is too high, i.e., it sits just beyond (above) the userpic frame.
Again, great skin and glad to see it updated and re-issued.
Comment #14 Friday, July 20, 2007 6:49 PM
Comment #16 Friday, July 20, 2007 8:14 PM
Comment #17 Friday, July 20, 2007 10:43 PM
to VargeNtheOne:you can get the styler toolbar from here:http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/60206588/
to Astyanax0:I think I wouldn't do it for vista.
to Nutshell69:thanks for your comment,I will check it,And about the name of substlye,When I begin to make it,I dont find this problem.But I think it hasn't any influence for using.
Comment #19 Saturday, July 21, 2007 3:52 AM
Comment #20 Saturday, July 21, 2007 4:42 AM
Please login to comment and/or vote for this skin.
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Tell us what you're looking for. ( e.g. 12x12 beige tile )
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Pictured: Katelin Wahl notched her second goal of 2010 (photo courtesy Gil Talbot).
PROVIDENCE, R.I.—Brown's Abigail Taft scored in the game's 98th minute to lift the Bears to a 3-2, double-overtime win against the Harvard field hockey team after the Crimson rallied from a two-goal halftime deficit Saturday afternoon on Warner Roof.
Taft netted her second goal of the game to give the Bears (2-6, 1-2 Ivy League) the sudden victory. She redirected in a feed by Kelley Harrison for the winning tally at 97:35, less than three minutes before the game would have been decided by penalty strokes. It was Brown's first shot on goal of the period, after Lauren Kessler had stopped two shots by Harvard (3-6, 1-2) and survived three Crimson penalty corners.
The Crimson outshot the Bears by an 18-15 margin in the game and held an 8-7 edge in penalty corners. Katelin Wahl and Chloe Keating scored for Harvard, with Carly Dickson adding an assist. The Crimson's Cynthia Tassopoulos and Bears' Kessler made six saves apiece.
Each team scored its regulation goals in a span of less than four minutes. Taft gave the Bears a 1-0 lead 18 minutes into the game, when she redirected Katie Hyland's shot from the top of the circle on a penalty corner.
Brown quickly doubled its lead on another deflection. This time, Tacy Zysk tipped Bridget McNamara's shot into the right side of the cage. Harvard held a 4-3 edge in first-half shots but forced Kessler to make a save on just one of those chances, while the Bears put all three of their shots on frame. Brown owned a 3-2 advantage in penalty corners.
Harvard turned the tide after halftime, outshooting Brown, 8-6, in the second stanza and putting four of those shots on goal. Wahl got the Crimson on the board nearly 16 minutes into the half. She buried the rebound after Georgia McGillivray's penalty-corner strike was blocked by a defender.
Keating knotted the score at 2-2 barely two minutes later. Kessler knocked down the ball on a three-on-one break by Harvard, but Dickson corralled it and fired toward the goal. Keating tipped it home for her team-leading fifth goal.
Harvard had the first three shots of the first overtime, but Brown logged the last four, three of which required saves from Tassopoulos.


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Mini Led String Lights
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No holiday is complete without lots of sparkling lights. Our eco-friendly lights use less electricity than regular lights, and will last up to 80 hours.
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- String Lengths: 5', 15', 50' and 100'
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We can arrange for next day delivery to most destinations within the contiguous 48 states, for an extra charge of $26.00 per address. If we receive your order by 6pm PT Monday through Friday, you'll receive your order the next business day; orders placed on Friday after 6pm PT through Sunday will arrive on Tuesday. Note: Next Day Delivery service is not available for some oversized items, White Glove Delivery, out of stock items, personalized items or for items shipped directly from the manufacturer.
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Every year the girls get together for an up-north vacation. There are seven of us in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom cottage — and it works! Hosted by a dear friend who owns the cottage and supplies all of our needs, this yearly getaway provides lots of camaraderie, talk, and tears. It is always a treat and we have a great cook among us.
This past weekend was the annual event. We spent Friday on a three-hour kayaking trip down the river. Seven middle-aged women kayaking in a line, dodging fallen trees and sandbars, provided lots of laughs and challenges. Needless to say, it also allowed us to feel no guilt curling up on couches and chairs in the large living room to watch movies and graze on tons of snacks on the rainy Saturday that followed.
Our fireside chats are always fun too. We eat s'mores and laugh our pants off. It reminds me that we always maintain our childhood delight in friends and outings. Only other women can give each other that type of support and encouragement.
One of my friends shared how her grandmother lived in a community where the women did most of their daily activities together. They would gather to cook, sew, and deal with the problems that came their way. Men still have men's clubs, and wilderness outings to hunt and fish with friends are a normal part of my husband's life. Sports also provide the bonding men need with each other; even the Big Guy spends a lot of time off the field with his college football teammates. But for women today, there often isn't so much time spent with other women.
We left our homes to work, claiming our right to earn and provide for our families. When we get home we just have more work. Women often feel guilty when they take time out to be with friends and develop peer relationships that will steal from our family time. In the workplace, we may make one or two friends, but a group of girlfriends being able to get together regularly à la Sex and the City is the exception rather than the rule.
But think how helpful it would be if women could gather on a regular basis. Older women could spend time showing younger women how to check for lumps in their breasts, and women in general would be more apt to ask each other about the abnormalities or pains they feel in their breasts or other areas of their bodies. It may even improve women's physical, spiritual, and emotional health. Maybe community for women is something we shouldn't have given up altogether when we went to work, but rather something we allowed to evolve with us.
I need my girlfriends. Fortunately for me, I have these special women who believe in comradeship, bonding, and girl time. On some weekends away, though, I am grateful for the rainy day that comes after the long kayak ride.
Your friend,


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Home | Registration Form | Official Rules | Poster | Brochure | Lesson Plans | Photos | Sponsors | Winners
There will not be an
Egg Drop Competition in 2011. We hope to return in 2012.
Participants are asked to protect an egg from a second story drop to
keep it from SMASHING when it hits the ground! Accuracy of the drop –
minimizing the weight of the protective device – and minimizing the
number of components in the protective device – are all factors in
determining who wins and who loses…which eggs smash and which eggs
Winners receive awards, certificates, t-shirts, and cash prizes. This
competition's sure to be a SMASH!
for 2010 WS/FC Egg Drop Competition
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text:
Yahoo's board of directors met Sunday and approved a $1.1 billion acquisition of online content-sharing site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal's All Things D.
Yahoo will pay cash for the blogging site, All Things D reported.
Neither firms have released official statements, but the deal could be announced Monday. In an invitation sent Friday, Yahoo promised to unveil "something special'' Monday evening in New York.
U.S. & World
Stories that affect your life across the U.S. and around the world.
The event is being held in a Times Squares lounge located about two miles from Tumblr's headquarters.
Yahoo has only said that Mayer will be on hand to unveil something related to a product. A company spokeswoman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about the potential Tumblr acquisition.
Buying Tumblr would fulfill Mayer's goal of reaching a wider audience on smartphones and tablet computers.
Tumblr serves up a constantly changing collage of stories, photos and other digital content served up by users who are increasingly connecting to the service through its mobile applications. The service is also one of the hottest sites among teens and young adults, a demographic that Mayer, 37, thinks Yahoo needs to do a better job of reaching.
The Tumblr deal would be Mayer's biggest coup and, at the same time, the biggest risk since she ended her 13-year career as a key executive at Google Inc. to try to snap Yahoo out of a prolonged malaise that had demoralized employees and investors alike.
Since her arrival, Mayer has been focused on redesigning several Yahoo services and bringing in more mobile engineering talent, primarily by buying a series of small startups. None of those previous acquisitions have required Yahoo to dip too deeply into its bank account. Late last year, Yahoo paid a total of $7 million for two startups called OnTheAir and Stamped.
In the first three months of this year, Yahoo snapped up three more startups for a total of $10 million, according to the company's regulatory filings. Tumblr, founded in 2007 by its CEO David Karp, presumably would become a pivotal part of Mayer's effort to sell more advertising.
Mayer has been winning back investors, even though the company's revenue is still lagging the overall growth of the booming Internet and mobile advertising market. Yahoo's stock price has risen 69 percent under Mayer's leadership. Yahoo shares fell 6 cents Friday to close at $26.52.


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After Hours Atlanta E. R. Dryden was recently elected to serve on the Board of Trustees of the Big Brothers Association of Atlanta. He is also the newly elected treasurer of the Cherokee Town and Country Club. Boston Charles Noble has been appointed chairman of the committee for the Fun Festival to be held May 19 in Framing-ham in connection with the PTA group of the Roosevelt School of that town. Walter Barker is on the organization committee for a square dance to be held in Wayland to raise funds for the PTA group of the Loker School in Wayland. Walt has also been chosen the discussion group leader of the Sunday School in the First Parish Unitarian Church in Wayland. Hugh Dysart, Jr. has been elected chairman of the Finance Committee of the Republican Club of Massachusetts. Chicago Walter Soderdahl has been appointed a member of the Finance Committee of Beverly Country Club. The Prospect School PTA has elected Richard Apple its treasurer. Joseph Brusherd is serving as publicity director of the All Berwyn Committee, an organization comprised of 56 THE QUARTERLY


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All-Clad NS1 Nonstick Induction Soup Pot
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- Summary
Registrant: We'll send you a gift (a $110 value) when purchases of All-Clad items from your Registry total $800 or more. Enter Online
All-Clad NS1 high-performance cookware combines the impressive heating abilities of anodized aluminum, rugged three-layer PFOA-free nonstick surfaces and induction-compatible steel bases—plus it's dishwasher safe. This 4-qt. pot is great for tasks like simmering soups, slow-cooking pasta sauces, preparing grains or boiling vegetables.
- 4-qt. cap.
- Durable hard-anodized aluminum provides rapid heat conduction with precise temperature control.
- Bonded three-layer nonstick system delivers unparalleled release, scratch-resistance and durability.
- PFOA-free nonstick coating is ideal for healthy, low-fat cooking with easy cleanup.
- Sturdy stainless-steel base prevents cookware from warping, protects stovetops from scratching and ensures compatibility with induction ranges.
- Tight-fitting stainless-steel lid helps circulate heat and moisture.
- Flared rim facilitates precise, drip-free pouring.
- Dishwasher safe.
- Dimensions & More Info
- 8 1/2" diam., 6 1/2" high.
- 4-qt. cap.
- 4 lb. 6 oz. with lid.
Additional Information
- Stainless-steel handles are designed for durability and comfort—and to stay cooler on the stovetop.
- Made in China.
- Use & Care
- Ideal for use with all cooktops, including induction.
- Safe for use with metal spatulas, spoons and whisks as well as nylon, silicone, coated or wooden utensils.
- Do not use other types of metal utensils, such as forks or knives.
- Oven safe to 500°F.
- Do not use aerosol cooking sprays; buildup over time will cause foods to stick.
- Allow pot to cool before washing.
- Dishwasher safe.
- Avoid using steel wool, steel scouring pads or harsh detergents.
- Stubborn food residue and stains can be removed with a nylon scrubbing pad and a fine-powdered cleanser.
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Shipping Information
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Remarks of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the National Head Start Association Conference
Remarks of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to the National Head Start Association Conference
It's great to join my good friend Secretary Sebelius again to talk about President Obama's landmark birth-to-age-5 early childhood proposal to provide a seamless continuum of care for our children.
Secretary Sebelius has been an extraordinary advocate for childrenand a wonderful partner with ED in our work together on early learning.
I'm honored to be here as well at the NHSA conferenceI understand that this is the first time the Secretary of Education has spoken in person at the NHSA conference.
Secretary Sebelius talked about President Obama's ambitious early childhood proposal from birth to age 5, which would double the size of Early Head Start and vastly expand the number of three-year olds from low-income families enrolled in Head Start.
In a moment, I want to talk about President's Obama's groundbreaking Preschool for All plan. It would create a new federal-state partnership to enable States to provide universal access to high-quality preschool for all four-year olds from low- and moderate-income families.
But before I get to that, I first want to thank all of the Head Start and Early Head Start providers for the extraordinary work that you do on behalf of our nation's children.
You are with our children every day, doing incredibly important work that too often fails to get the recognition and understanding it deserves.
In many ways, your dedication to providing high-quality, comprehensive early learning opportunities helped shape the template for President Obama's early childhood plan.
As Early Head Start and Head Start providers have shown, high-quality early learning should never be just about boosting literacy development and pre-math skills.
It must be about the whole child and the whole family. High-quality preschool not only builds cognitive skills, it builds the non-cognitive skills as well. It promotes healthy social, emotional, and physical development.
Head Start's model of comprehensive social, emotional, and health services, and your engagement of parents outside of schools and Head Start centers, has established the essential building blocks of effective early childhood programs.
We know from the research summarized in Paul Tough's outstanding recent book that the development of skills like grit, resilience, and self-regulation early in life are essential to success later in life.
This work is hugely important to me. Schools and districts must do much more to help us understand whether we are developing the non-cognitive skills that predict students' success in college, careers, and life.
The standards for high-quality early learning in state programs that President Obama has laid out in his Preschool for All plan are informed by what we have learned from Head Start and adopted in part from the Head Start DRS competition.
The quality benchmarks in the DRS are based on input from an expert panel, 16,000 public comments, and 46 years of Head Start history. And they are grounded in what we know works for children.
The President's Preschool for All plan sets high-quality preschool requirements for state programs, such a bachelor's degree for teachers; low staff-to-child ratios and small class sizes; a full-day program; employee salaries comparable to those for K-12 teaching staff; and developmentally appropriate, evidence-based curricula and learning environments.
Some say we shouldn't set the bar too high on quality in early learning. I absolutely disagree. I have great faith in the commitment and the capacity of the Head Start community to rise to the challenge.
In fact, you are already doing soand I congratulate you on the increase in the number of Head Start center-based teachers with a baccalaureate degree or higher in early childhood educationwhich hit an all-time high of 62 percent in 2012.
It's always the right thing to do for children to set high expectations and to insist on high-quality early learning opportunities.
When I was CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, we had a great partnership with Vanessa Rich and local Head Start programs. And I'm delighted to hear that Vanessa is going to be the new president of NHSA's board.
Community-based providers in Chicago used state preschool funds to hire teachers with a BA and a teaching certificate for three-and-a-half hours a day. And in the state-funded preschool classrooms in CPS, we used Head Start funds to create preschool programs modeled after Head Start, with comprehensive services and a certified teacher.
I know the benefits of Head Start. I know it has been documented to reduce childhood obesity in African-American children, improve dental health, and reduce child mortality rates.
I know Head Start improves children's school readiness, particularly in language and literacy. I know Head Start graduates are less likely to be retained a grade and less likely to be arrested as young adults.
And I know that the benefits of Head Start are more lasting if children go on to attend high-quality elementary schools.
So, I know the enormous benefits of early investmentboth from the research evidence and from my own experience growing up.
My sister, my brother, and I all grew up in a community-based, afterschool program on the South Side of Chicago run by my mother. From the time we were born, we all went every day to her afterschool tutoring program in a church basement.
When we were little, the older students tutored the younger kids. As we grew up, we tutored the young students. My mother always tried to have students teach and be taught at the same time.
After we were done our studies and chores, we played basketball together. Everyone knew our program was a safe haven where kids were nurtured, respected, and taught right from wrong.
My friends in my mom's program lived in a poor community plagued by violence. Many of them faced severe challenges at home. Yet because of the opportunities my mother and others created, we saw remarkable success stories bloom.
The teenager who tutored me and my group when we were growing up, Kerrie Holley, today is an IBM engineer who was named one of the 50 most important black research scientists in the country.
Michael Clarke Duncan pursued his dreams in Hollywood, where he starred in "The Green Mile" before his untimely, recent passing last year. And Ron Raglin eventually helped me manage the Chicago Public Schools. Building upon the experiences that shaped him, Ron brought the AVID program to Chicago to strengthen the vital, non-cognitive skills of disadvantaged students.
So, when I became CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, I tried to take that lifetime of lessons to scaleand they are lessons very much in keeping with the Head Start model of providing comprehensive services, in and out of school.
It never made sense to me that poor children should be expected to learn just as readily as other students if they were hungry, if they couldn't see the blackboard, or if their mouths ached from untreated cavities and gum disease.
In 2006, about 12,500 students in the Chicago Public Schools received free vision services and roughly 10,000 students got prescription eyeglasses.
Three years later, those numbers had more than doubled. The dental care program grew even more dramatically, going from treating 1,250 students to more than 50,000 students.
By the time I left Chicago to come here, CPS had more than 150 community schoolsthe most in the nation. And I'm glad to say that many of those schools35had full-service health clinics attached to them.
To close achievement and opportunity gaps, states, with federal support, must do much more to level the playing field, so all children can begin at the same educational starting line. We have to stop playing catch up.
The urgent need for greater access to high-quality preschool for children from low-and moderate-income families is no longer in dispute. Nationwide, fewer than 3 in 10 four-year olds are enrolled in high-quality preschool programs. How is that OK?
And we know that, on average, children from low-income families start kindergartenthey start school12 to 14 months behind their peers in language development and pre-reading skills.
That is morally and educationally unacceptable. And from a long-term perspective of maintaining America's competitiveness in a knowledge-based economy, it is just plain dumb.
Now, in an era of tight budgets and limited resources, it is absolutely right that we ask ourselves, what is the smartest use of our education dollars?
The answer, I believe, is that high-quality early learning is the best education investment we can make in our children, our communities, and ultimately, our country. As President Obama has said, it's the best bang for our educational buck.
James Heckman, the Nobel prize-winning economist, found a return of seven dollars to every one dollar of public investment in high-quality preschool programs in his analysis of rigorous, longitudinal data from the Perry Preschool Project.
That's an ROI, or return on investment, that many stockbrokers would envy.
Educators and parents understand that in today's global economy, ensuring access to high-quality preschool is not a luxury but a necessity. They understand that investing in high-quality preschool is a win-win proposition. And they understand that we have to stop playing catch-up in education.
Under the President's birth-to-5 early childhood plan, Head Start would remain at HHS, just as before. Over time, four-year-olds in Head Start would transition to state-run preschool programs, freeing up more Head Start funds to serve hundreds of thousands more three-year olds in the HHS-administered program.
As we consider President Obama's plan, I would urge advocates for high-quality preschool to never let the perfect become the enemy of the good.
In 1971, the U.S. Congress enacted a law that provided free, universal access to early childhood services and child care for children from low-income families. Richard Nixon vetoed that law.
In the 42 long years since then, the evidence that high-quality early learning works has multiplied many times over.
But there are still skeptics who believe these programs don't make a difference, who oppose investing in babies and toddlers at a time of deficits, and who oppose raising tobacco taxesboth to discourage youth from taking up smoking and to finance President Obama's birth-to-five plan.
Advocates and practitioners who believe in the importance of early intervention cannot remain in their separate silos. Congress needs to hear your unified voice, your collective support, and your expert input. In the terms of an early learning educator, it is time we progress from parallel and associative play to cooperative play.
The President's early childhood plan would provide the biggest increase in educational opportunity in the preschool-12 space in this century. As my friend Marian Wright Edelman, the fearless leader of the Children's Defense Fund, has said, the President's early learning proposal "is a giant step forward for children."
We cannot let this opportunity pass. America's children cannot wait another 42 years.
The need is urgent, the time is now. With your commitment and your conviction, let us seek to ensure that every child in America grows up ready to learn and ready for life.