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Readers of Moore's series, initially about a Victorian Age Justice League cobbled together to retrieve an antigravity device, will look at the screen and recognize little of what they see. Instead, they will feel betrayed and bored and, worst of all, condescended to; those unfamiliar will wonder what's the bother at all. The players are all there -- Allan Quatermain (Sean Connery, not Richard Chamberlain), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (From Hell's Jason Flemyng), Dracula's Mina Harker (Peta Wilson), and Captain Nemo (Naseeruddin Shah), gathered together to do the bidding of "M" (Richard Roxburgh), head of British intelligence. Alas, there's no villain as memorable as Goldfinger, only a masked, out-to-conquer-the-world Phantom ("how operatic," says Connery) revealed as the conspiratorial villain familiar to the comic's readers -- though in a plot point less a shocking twist than a dumbfounding whathefuh?
Yet there have been copious changes that amount to subtractions by way of addition: Shane West appears as Special Agent Sawyer, the American creation of Mark Twain (though never is his first name uttered), and Stuart Townsend plays the immortal Dorian Gray. They're pretty boys shoehorned into Moore's once-violent and unsightly contingent of criminals and miscreants, sanitized for PG-13 consumption by screenwriter James Dale Robinson and director Stephen Norrington. The league's penchant for violence and villainy has been neutered; they now do bad things only to bad people deserving of dispatch.
Moore's Invisible Man used his transparency to rape and impregnate a manse full of "wayward gentlewomen"; Mr. Hyde, a ton of sinew, gnawed upon the bones of men he ripped to digestible shreds; Allan Quatermain, a shriveled junkie, had retired to an opium den. As for Mina Harker, known in the comic as Mina Murray, she was but a divorced woman hiding a past beneath a crimson scarf; her sin was little more than that of the independent woman, and in the comic, it is she, not Quatermain, who leads the league. Here, she's a bit player -- or bite player, as it were, as Robinson and Norrington render her a femme Dracula, not just the former bride of a vampire's playmate.
Robinson and Norrington, whose roots lie deep in rich comic-book soil -- the former resurrected DC's moribund Hawkman; the latter directed the first Blade -- know their changes will gall the fetishists; they are their audience, self-proclaimed purists. But for studio work, better to lure in millions with dumb summer sci-fi than satisfy thousands with a literate adaptation, eh? What they've offered instead is the kind of film pirate Jerry Bruckheimer, taking the booty this weekend with Pirates of the Caribbean, would have been proud to hoist up the flag pole and claim as his own: a strident barrage of explosions and gunfights and car chases (in 1899, no less).
Lest you think this is too much compare and contrast, consider that Moore has been suitably adapted: Albert and Allen Hughes transferred his Jack the Ripper tale From Hell into a gloriously grim widescreen tale of paranoia and viscera. Though more often his work has been considered inscrutable by Hollywood (no one dares touch his Watchmen), the Hughes brothers proved it's possible to transfer throbbing brain and beating heart from page to screen. Norrington has captured the look: Connery looks like O'Neill's rendering of Quatermain, turn-of-the-century Europe looks ready to collapse into the dust of history, and Nemo's tricked-out Nautilus shines like the Love Boat. But he and Robinson forgot the comic's mood, neglected its soul, ignored its anxiety.
These leaguers are a good-time gang, if not lovable then at least likable; they've no pasts (save Quatermain, here haunted by the death of his son, ugh) and barely any present, only the future of the sequel suggested at film's end. Moore invested his characters with flaws, with a tangible humanity; God knows they never felt the need to explain themselves, as the film does, rendering it something akin to one long footnote. Here, they're just props to shoot at something, punch someone, explode something, and they are as two-dimensional as, yes, characters on a sheet of paper.


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Chapter 18 – To the forest
For a few days we didn't have anything particular we had to do, so we spent our time with training, studying, and Angela usually came over in the afternoon and stayed for the night too. We also had fun times by the three of us.
'Is it fine with three?', is what I thought, but apparently it's fine. Well, it's more than fine for me. Is it really alright? I asked this from Sati too, but she cutely said that since she's a slave it's fine if she is next after Angela-sama. Argh, she is too cute!
Angela gets along with Sati even more than before. It's like they are three sisters with the addition of Tilika-chan. Although I wonder what Tilika-chan thinks about the current situation. She's not telling everything to Tilika-chan, right?
When Tilika-chan is here the other two restrain themselves and Tilika-chan doesn't really speak or express her emotions. In case of Sati it seems she even urged her…..
By the way, after that I made sure to warn Sati against telling outsiders about our household matters. Well, Angela and Tilika-chan can't be helped. They are almost like family anyway.
Sati's armor was finally completed, so we went to pick it up. With that Sati should be perfectly prepared.
The instructors assured me that not many people would be a match for her archery skills. It's finally time for our forest debut.
Just to be sure I wrote a will and entrusted it to Tilika-chan. Even if I die and Sati remains, I think she will be fine with Tilika-chan and the vice Guild Chief. Sati will be released and she will become free.
She already has enough fighting power to make a living anywhere, so she won't have trouble making ends meet. But if I die, then I have a feeling that she would want to die with me. She didn't run away that time either, even though I told her to…..
"If I were to die-"
"I will save you."
"No, if I happen to die-"
"I will make sure to save you!"
"If there is a situation where it would be best for Sati to run away-"
"Let's run away together!"
When I kept talking about it Sati became teary-eyed, so I gave up. She refuses to heed the order to run away even though she is a slave, so she must be against it from the bottom of her heart. I'm being loved, huh.
Let's do my best not to end up in that kind of situation. For Sati's sake too.
In reality, I would be happy to make a living by hunting wild rabbits, but the world falling into ruin is a difficult problem.
We have to raise our battle power by whatever means. Why couldn't Itoushin send me to a safer world. Maybe I should write down my complaints about that today.
As we go through the gate we speak with the usual soldier on guard duty.
"Hooh. So you are going into the forest with the two of you. Mm. 3-4 hours, right. Well, I think it will be fine if it's you, but take care anyway. If you are late to come back for some reason I will send a rescue party after you."
"No no. We will make sure not to get close to anything dangerous."
"That's fine. But you can never be sure what will happen in the forest. Even a dragon suddenly settled down there. If you think that something is strange then head back at once. The forest is the most dangerous the first time when you still haven't grown accustomed to it yet."
"Nnn. We are not planning on dying yet, it will be alright. We will be doubly cautious."
"You look after this guy properly too, Ojou-chan. I feel somewhat uneasy here."
Do I really look that unreliable? Why is he asking Sati to babysit me. Something just doesn't sit right with me.
"Yes, leave it to me!"
Sati spiritedly answers without noticing my feelings over here.
"Well then. Should we get going then, Sati?"
At the entrance of the forest we first make sure the area is secure. The lineup is Sati at the front and me at the back.
The reason for it is that Sati's Aural Detection has a wider detection range. My Sense Presence has smaller range, but in turn it's precise.
It doesn't miss small animals that don't really make a sound or insects either. There are almost no dangerous things that are able get through Sati's detection.
There are some poisonous ones, but those rarely herd together. The dangerous ones are the large species and groups of orcs. If we avoid those dangers then I think the forest isn't that dangerous.
If there is something dangerous then we will quickly run away. If it comes chasing after us, then I will carry Sati and escape using Fly. If it's an enemy we can take down, then Sati will snipe it using her bow. If it gets closer then I will use magic too. Depending on the situation it's okay to attack or use Earth Wall to defend.
Our current objective is to strengthen Sati. We will raise Sati's level and boost our chances of survival.
We went over the tactics one more time.
"Good. Then, Sati, I'm counting on you."
Sati enters the forest with rustling sounds. It's not that loud of a sound, but in the quiet forest I think it echoes somewhat far. I guess I should take Covert Action and Stealth Steps for Sati too.
We close in without any sound and we both do a sneak attack. It sounds like a fairly good plan.
Nothing happened for a while.
Birds and small animals get caught in our detection, but it seems monsters are few in the outer parts of the forest. Should we go back for today? When I started thinking about that, Sati suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"There is something. Just a single one."
"Can you tell its size?"
"Judging by the sounds it makes, it seems it's not that big."
"Okay, let's try getting a bit closer. If you have a shot, then take it anytime."
As we got a bit closer it got caught in my Sense Presence too.
Its size is probably about the same as an orc. Maybe it's a troll.
This Sense Presence, I don't know the theory behind it, but it apparently detects something akin to a life force.
Small creatures have small presences and big ones have big presences. Therefore I can grasp their size, although just roughly.
Sati stopped and readied her bow.
I looked toward where she was aiming, but I couldn't see the enemy at all.
Sati shoots her bow.
Oh? I saw something fall over.
"It hit the target."
"Let's get closer with caution."
It was an orc after all. It's dead with an arrow sticking out of its head.
"Well done, Sati."
An orc is a sweet prey. Orc meat has a low unit price, but since it's big it can be sold for good money.
I thump thump Sati's head.
Actually, I want to pat her head, but she is wearing a helmet.
But she really has good skills. With my eyes I couldn't even see it until it fell over and hitting its vital spot from this distance is very impressive. It even has longer range than magic, the battles might turn out to be much easier from now on.
"Okay, let's head back. However not the way we came, but let's try getting through to the main road."
If we can find more prey on our way back then it would be the best.
This time my Sense Presence reacted first.
"Sati. There is something over there. About half the size of an orc."
Sati is looking in the direction I pointed, her ears are twitching and she is sniffing with her nose, but it looks like she doesn't notice anything about it.
I stand at the front as we slowly close in.
"I see it. It's a big spider."
It's the effect of Hawk Eyes, huh. She finds them fast. Maybe I should take it too.
"Can you do it?"
She shoots her bow. Dosa, gasagasa, sounds could be heard. But I can hear it making sounds as it's still moving. Sati shoots one more time. The forest finally regained its silence.
With a sword in hand I carefully go and confirm it. The poison is the scariest about the spider.
The big spider breathed its last after taking two arrows. I take the arrows out and put the corpse in the Item Box.
"You are great, Sati."
If it's like this, then we should be able to fight a few at a time. The forest isn't as dangerous as they say, huh. Using wide area detection and long range attacks to perform sneak attacks seems super effective.
After that we didn't encounter anything until we reached the main road. Also, with just two enemies our level didn't go up it seems. On the way back to the town we hunted a few wild rabbits and went home for that day.
"Heeh, an orc and a big spider, huh."
We show Sati's Guild Card to the guard soldier.
"One hit from long range to its vital spot. I feel like there was no need to be scared."
"Well, don't let your guard down, okay? The forest is really dangerous. Also, make sure to return for the night without fail."
I'm scared of the night too. Even though we have detection abilities, we won't be able to see. I'll need to take Dark Vision too sometime in the future.
"I heard that Ojou-chan played an active role that time with the harpies too, you can't be considered an apprentice adventurer anymore, huh."
Now that he mentions it, there was something about being an apprentice or something.
"That's right. Sati is already an excellent adventurer and my party member."
"Is that true! I'm happy!"
Sati is overjoyed. In fact, isn't she already stronger than me? That's what I think. I have higher firepower, but if I fought her I think I would lose. This cheat I got from God is really something.
We received the reward from the Guild, then headed for the shopping district. Tilika-chan was out on business.
"Sati, here is today's reward."
I hand over a few silver coins.
"Eh, but this much….."
In the past I gave her some pocket money so she could buy things to eat, but it's my first time giving her a bigger sum. That being said, it's just a few silver coins.
"It's the money Sati earned. We bought equipment from the one with the harpies so you couldn't use it that time. You can use it as you see fit."
It's something of an initial salary, today is special.
After thinking for a while, Sati entered a clothing store. Clothes, huh. That place should be no problem. If she has that much, then she can most likely buy two or three good set of clothes. As I follow after her, she goes through between the clothes and enters the back part.
Cloth? It seems sewing tools were her target. Sati is anxiously looking my way so I nod to her. You can spend it as you like.
After buying some cloth and sewing tools she looks satisfied. Self-made clothes, huh. Maybe she could make a sailor uniform. I think it would fit Sati very well.
"Sati, do you know how to make clothes?"
Sati suddenly stops in her tracks. She is looking at me with a troubled expression.
"I didn't know. What should I do…..? Do you know how, Masaru-sama?"
"What a coincidence. I don't know either."
Sati looks like she is about to cry.
"That's it! Angela. We should ask Angela about it."
"That's true! Angela-sama knows how for sure!"
It's before noon, so Angela was preparing lunch in the orphanage.
"Sorry, I'm bad with sewing."
Sati is openly dejected.
"Aaah, you know what, Sister Matilda is good with it!"
It's been decided that Sister Matilda would teach her in the afternoon for a bit.
Sister Matilda would be in charge of the medical clinic in the afternoon, so in exchange I help out in the medical clinic. From next time, she promised to teach her if we come over during the morning.
While we were there, we also ate lunch there. As a gift I gave them three of the wild rabbits we hunted today.
Sati started practicing sewing as soon as we got home. We borrowed something like a textbook, so she is stitching something as she is looking at it. She is deep in concentration, so she probably won't accompany me today…… Let's read a book or something. There was that history book we borrowed from Tilika-chan.
Apparently this kingdom was originally a part of the Empire, but approximately 300 years ago a count of a remote region, the founder of this kindom, rebelled and became independent. It seems they had a lot of pent up frustration regarding the demon border. So, with the help of the powerful soldiers tempered by the demon border and also by allying themselves with the demi-humans, like beast people and the elves, they fought evenly with the Empire and finally won their independence.
At the time the social status of demi-humans was low in the Empire and they successfully exploited that fact. After that, although it was somewhat rowdy, they reconciled with the Empire. The Empire found that it was a big merit that their northern border wasn't adjacent to the demon border anymore. Now, materials from the demon border are being exported to the Empire, and food and products are being imported from the Empire. The royal families also married amongst each other a few times, became relatives, and now they have an very positive relation with each other.
When I finished reading Tilika-chan and Angela were here already, then it was time to prepare dinner. After that, the usual bath time.
After getting out of the bath, Sati and Tilika-chan went to the dining room and continued with the sewing. They are doing it with the addition of Tilika-chan. Well, it's good thing to have a hobby.
I was affectionate with Sati just before in the bath, so I was satisfied, but I was a bit lonely, so I acted lovey-dovey on the sofa of the living room with Angela. I wonder if Angela will stay today too~.
As I was thinking that, "Can I stay for the night tomorrow?", she asked. But of course!
We alternate the days where we go into the forest and the days of training. On both days, first in the morning there is an hour of learning sewing under the guidance Sister Matilda. During that hour I'm free, so as thanks for teaching them sewing I go and help Angela with the treatments.
We finish both the hunting in the forest and the training before noon, then relax in the afternoon.
I do training every four days, on the others I read books at home. If I partner up with Sergeant-dono for the training then he beats me to a pulp every time, it's very painful. Since we go out to the forest every other day, I think it's fine to be more moderate with the training. I think that even this is a big step forward compared to the time I was living a NEET life back in Japan. People shouldn't overdo things.
The forest wasn't particularly dangerous either, it's going very well. The enemies were mostly brought down by Sati's bow, so I made sure to have her gain plenty of experience points. Some trolls did rush in, unfazed by the arrows, but we fought while I obstructed their movements with Earth Magic, so those went fine too.
I used Sati's three level ups worth of Skill Points to get Covert Action and Stealth Steps, then raised them each to level 2, so our level of safety went up yet again. Her skills with the bow improved and managed to learn the three shot rapid fire. Damn, she is dependable. What only I could do was just about the wild rabbit hunting on our way back home, but by learning Covert Action Sati become able to do that as well. Somehow, am I an unneeded child?
In this manner, these tranquil times continued on for a while–
Skill Points 1P
Cooking Level 1 , Housework Level 1
Covert Action Level 2 , Stealthy Steps Level 2
Aural Detection Level 4 , Olfactory Detection Level 2 , Sturdy , Hawk Eyes
Evasion Level 2 , Shield Level 2 , Swordsmanship Level 3 , Archery Level 5
Equipment: Troll Leather Armor

subset: commoncrawl


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More Western fighters joining militants in Iraq and Syria
Thousands of foreign fighters have bolstered the ranks of militant groups in Syria and Iraq in recent months, according to U.S. officials, driving fresh concern about potential terrorist plots aimed at the United States or its allies.
The surge, as well as intelligence that Yemeni terrorists have developed a powerful cellphone bomb designed to avoid detection at airports, is behind the Obama administration's increasingly urgent warnings that a European or American passport holder might try to take down a passenger jet or plan other deadly mayhem.
As many as 10,000 foreign fighters — a third more than in February — have joined the militias seeking to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad and the Islamic State fighters who have swept across northern Iraq, said a counter-terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified assessments.
As many as 3,000 of them hold European or other Western passports and thus can travel easily across most borders. Several dozen, perhaps as many as 100, hold U.S. passports, and officials say that number is growing.
The potential partnership between some of those Westerners and sophisticated bomb makers from the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, long viewed as the terrorist network's most dangerous offshoot, has raised alarm in Washington and other capitals.
"It's something that gives us really extreme, extreme concern," Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. told ABC News last week. "In some ways, it's more frightening than anything I think I've seen as attorney general."
FBI Director James B. Comey told reporters in Washington that the threat "keeps me up at night." He sees the region as a "launching ground" for potential Sept. 11-style mass-casualty attacks in this country.
Two U.S. citizens have been arrested on terrorism-related charges since April before boarding flights to Turkey, suspected of being on their way to help the militants. One is said to have paid his way with his federal tax refund. In May, a Florida man became a suicide bomber in northern Syria.
"It's the largest number of Western fighters we have ever seen in a jihadist theater," said Seth G. Jones, a former U.S. counter-terrorism official now with the Rand Corp. think tank.
"The scale of this is huge," said Daniel L. Byman, professor of security studies at Georgetown University in Washington.
Some of the Western militants are joining Al Nusra Front, an Al Qaeda affiliate that is focused on defeating the Assad government in Syria. Others have rallied to the Islamic State, which broke away from Al Qaeda and has seized territory in eastern Syria and northern Iraq.
Although the rebels in Syria are struggling, the stunning battlefield success of the Islamic State fighters, and its calls for an Islamic caliphate, have energized recruiting efforts for all the militant groups. Several have used YouTube videos of battles and updates posted to Twitter in English to draw supporters to their ranks.
So far the Islamic State has focused only on capturing and consolidating territory in Syria and Iraq, but that could change. The Sunni Muslim group, recently known as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, is so innovative and is growing so quickly that one U.S. national security official called it the "Silicon Valley" of militant organizations.
"The concern is not what is happening today, but in four or five years," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss classified assessments. "If they get their own state, take on new projects, turn from looking inward to outward ... we want to get in front of it."
The Transportation Security Administration said early this month that it had asked some overseas airports to stiffen security measures, especially checking cellphones and other electronic devices to make sure they're not concealing explosives.
Intelligence agencies also have stepped up screening of passenger manifests of flights in and out of Turkey, the main entry point to Syria, officials said. In many cases, would-be fighters take a bus to the border and walk across.
A special counter-terrorism task force of FBI agents and federal prosecutors is investigating dozens of Americans who have traveled or who officials believe intend to travel to Syria to aid the militants, officials said.
"We're spending a tremendous amount of time and effort trying to identify those who go [to Syria] so we can know who they are when they come back," Comey told reporters.
The task force leader, veteran prosecutor Stephen Ponticello, joined Holder in Europe this month for meetings with allies that focused on the threat. Holder urged them to share intelligence on suspects, to conduct more undercover investigations and to enact stronger laws criminalizing support for terrorist groups.
The expanding conflict has become "a cradle of violent extremism," Holder said in a speech in Norway. "But the world cannot simply sit back and let it become a training ground from which our nationals can return and launch attacks."
With French and British citizens forming the largest bloc of Western passport holders in Syria, authorities in London and Paris already have begun to crack down.
Between January and March, at least 40 people in Britain were arrested on charges related to supporting militant groups in Syria, officials said. The British Home Office, empowered by a law Parliament passed in May, has stripped at least 20 people of their citizenship for suspected terrorism support or disloyalty, British officials said.
France is considering giving authorities additional power to block militant websites that seek to recruit foreign fighters, and to strengthen the ability of police to stop French citizens from traveling abroad to fight.
Americans have joined the conflict in Syria since it began in 2011, and at least one was killed. But their role as foreign fighters was little noticed until this May, when a 22-year-old Florida man blew himself up in a truck packed with explosives in northern Syria, killing more than a dozen government soldiers.
Born in West Palm Beach, Moner Mohammad Abusalha had an American mother and a Palestinian father. Known as "Mo," he liked to play basketball, was a fan of the Miami Heat and thought of a career as a physical therapist's assistant.
Abusalha went to Jordan in 2012, telling his family he would study nursing. He instead crossed into Syria and spent two months in an Al Nusra Front training camp, U.S. officials said.
Some Arabic speakers refer to one another by the name of their oldest child, but Abusalha had no children. He loved cats, though, so fighters called him "Abu Hurayra," which means father of kittens.
After his death, Al Nusra Front posted a propaganda video online that shows Abusalha stroking a gray and white cat and smiling. The video then cuts to a truck, with Abusalha apparently driving, approaching a building. Both are demolished moments later in plumes of fire and smoke.
The Americans arrested in recent months followed a similarly unlikely path.
Michael Wolfe, a native of Houston, told undercover FBI employees he would use a $5,000 federal income tax refund to take his wife and two children to Turkey and that he would then join the fighting in Syria, according to court documents. He would give any leftover cash to his mother-in-law, he said.
Wolfe, who has slicked-back black hair and a long goatee, was arrested in June by FBI agents at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston as he prepared to board the first in a series of flights to Turkey.
Wolfe pleaded guilty in June to one count of attempting to provide material support and resources to a foreign terrorist organization. He faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Two months earlier, Shannon Maureen Conley, a 19-year-old nurse's aide from Arvada, Colo., was arrested at Denver International Airport as she prepared to fly to Adana, Turkey, less than 100 miles from the Syrian border.
Once she got to Syria, according to the charging documents, Conley planned to marry a 32-year-old Tunisian militant whom she had met on the Internet. She planned to use her medical training to help his cause.
Her plans were disrupted after a Faith Bible Chapel pastor in Arvada told local police in November that a young woman was acting suspiciously. Colorado state police called the FBI after Conley told an officer she intended to go overseas to wage jihad, according to the criminal complaint.
Conley told the FBI that she would engage in combat "if absolutely necessary" and that she had briefly joined the U.S. Army Explorers, a nonprofit youth program, to learn basic military skills. FBI agents and Conley's parents could not persuade her to change her mind, the documents state.
She was arrested at the airport on April 8. FBI agents who searched her luggage found DVDs labeled "Anwar al-Awlaki," the name of the American-born cleric and leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Recordings of Awlaki's English-language speeches are seen as powerful recruiting tools for Al Qaeda.
She pleaded not guilty on April 22 to a single count of conspiracy to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. If convicted, she faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Times staff writer Timothy M. Phelps in Washington contributed to this report.
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May 18, 2012
Rallo will oversee system-level strategic planning and help manage the academic profile for each of the system's component institutions.
Written by Dailey Fuller
The Texas Tech University System Board of Regents approved May 18 the appointment of Joseph C. Rallo, president of Angelo State University, as a vice chancellor for academic affairs. He will begin his duties effective upon the naming of a replacement at Angelo State.
Rallo will oversee system-level strategic planning and help manage the academic profile for each of the system's component institutions, handling initiatives such as accreditation, academic policies and programs, international affairs, and distance education and online learning. He also will coordinate efforts at the system's multiple campuses and academic sites, as well as system expansion.
"Dr. Rallo has made a profound and lasting impact at Angelo State," said Jerry Turner, chairman of the Board of Regents. "We are grateful for his efforts and look forward to his continued contributions to the Texas Tech University System."
"Dr. Rallo has been an exemplary leader at Angelo State," Texas Tech University System Chancellor Kent Hance said. "He is an esteemed authority in higher education with more than 30 years of invaluable experience. Dr. Rallo has strengthened the university's academic excellence and helped advance its online learning programs. We are fortunate to have him join us at the system level."
Rallo became president of Angelo State in June 2007. Under his leadership, the university has achieved record enrollment of more than 7,000 students, doubled research expenditures and received prestigious recognition from national and international organizations. Rallo also led Angelo State to become the first Hispanic Serving Institution in the system, and during his tenure, Angelo State was named to The Princeton Review's Best Colleges for three consecutive years.
"Angelo State becoming a member of the Texas Tech University System was one of the first milestones I experienced as president," Rallo said. "It has been a pleasure to work with the system over the years, and I am delighted and honored to be making an impact on higher education and multiple universities at this new level."
Holding several academic leadership positions, Rallo previously served as provost and academic vice president at Western Illinois University and dean of the College of Business & Administration and Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
Rallo is a member of numerous academic boards, including the Board of Trustees of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) and serves as chair of the Texas Council of Public University Presidents and Chancellors and president of the Texas International Education Consortium.
Rallo earned a bachelor's degree in Russian history from Lafayette College and holds a J.D. from Western New England College and a master's and doctorate in International Relations from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He served on active duty in the United States Navy and then cross-commissioned to the United States Air Force, with duty assignments in intelligence and logistics. After 27 years of active and reserve service, he retired with the rank of colonel.
The Board of Regents, Rallo and Hance will develop a search process for Angelo State's sixth president.
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Rayman Raving Rabbids marks the return of the iconic video-game hero, Rayman, in his funniest and zaniest adventure ever. When the world of Rayman is threatened by a devastating invasion of crazed, out-of-control bunnies Rayman must rise up against his furry foes to foil their wicked plans. Utilizing an array of amazing new abilities, and with the help of magical creatures, Rayman must break out all the moves to save his world from these delirious bunnies and their hare-raising antics. Combat the Ultra-Crazed Evil Rabbits - Take control of Rayman and his knack for attack to help save his world from the raving rabbids. They are mischievous, insane and completely out of control. There are several types of rabbids each with its own mischievous characteristics. Tame and control various creatures such as sharks, eagles, rhinos, spiders and angelfish. Rayman can master each animal's unique capabilities to help in his battle against the devious rabbits. Customize and disguise Rayman. Go punk, pop, rock or hip hop to infiltrate the bunnies and foil their devious plans. Explore amazing free-roaming environments and beautiful epic landscapes that mix real and fantastical styles to create a visually stunning experience.


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[T]hen I did the simplest thing in the world. I leaned down... and kissed him. And the world cracked open.Agnes de Mille
To dance is to be out of yourself. Larger, more beautiful, more powerful. This is power, it is glory on earth and it is yours for the taking.Agnes De Mille
No trumpets sound when the important decisions of our life are made. Destiny is made know silently.Agnes De Mille
Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark.Agnes de Mille
The truest expression of a people is in its dance and in its music. Bodies never lie.Agnes de Mille


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Star Trek: Catan is basically Settlers of Catan with a thin sheen of Star Trek painted over it. Normally I'd consider that kind of pointless, but in this case, it seems like the perfect approach. In fact, it probably makes the game less pointless.
Here's why you might consider joining the Federation of Catan.
Let's be honest: Settlers of Catan is a brilliant strategy game, but the theme, what with all the sheep, brick and ore trading going on, is pretty weak. Transform the sea into space and the geometric chunks of Catan into planets, and suddenly it looks a lot more interesting. I'd much rather build starbases than settlements.
If you're unfamiliar with Settlers, players compete to build settlements and upgrade them to cities, trying to gather the resources necessary to win, all while avoiding a robber who steals your stuff and forces your resource generating tiles to lie fallow.
Star Trek: Catan reskins the whole thing. You build Enterprises instead of roads (representing explored hyperspace routes, I guess), and there's a Klingon Bird of Prey instead of a robber. You gather water, oxygen and dilithium instead of wood, wheat and sheep. But the vivid colors and 1960s space atmosphere give the game a much cooler vibe than the old-timey feel that original Settlers has.
There are a few extras that set the game apart, however. The development cards have been retooled to fit the theme, of course, but there are also support character cards. Each character (from the original series) has a special ability that a player can use twice during the course of the game. Chekov lets you move the Klingon ship, Uhura allows you to force a resource trade with another player, and Spock gets you extra resources, for instance.
It's good that the developers didn't needlessly complicate the rules of Catan. In this case, a straightforward reskin was just the thing.
More gaming coverage at Robot Viking:
The Unspeakable Oath, the magazine of Lovecraftian horror RPGs, returns.
Monte Cook Unveils New Science-Fantasy RPG and World: Numenera.
R.A. Salvatore on Charon's Claw, the Future of the Realms, and Letting Someone Else Write Drizzt ("No Way").


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United States customary units
United States customary units are a system of measurements commonly used in the United States. The U.S. customary system developed from English units which were in use in the British Empire before American independence. However, the British system of measures was overhauled in 1824 to create the Imperial system, changing the definitions of some units. Therefore, while many U.S. units are essentially similar to their Imperial counterparts, there are significant differences between the systems.
The majority of U.S. customary units were redefined in terms of the meter and the kilogram with the Mendenhall Order of 1893 and, in practice, for many years before.[1] These definitions were refined by the international yard and pound agreement of 1959.[2] Americans primarily use customary units in commercial activities, as well as for personal and social use. In science, medicine, many sectors of industry and some of government, metric units are used. The International System of Units (SI), the modern form of the metric system, is preferred for many uses by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).[3]
The United States system of units is similar to the British imperial system.[4] Both systems are derived from English units, a system which had evolved over the millennia before American independence, and which had its roots in Roman and Anglo-Saxon units.
The customary system was championed by the U.S.-based International Institute for Preserving and Perfecting Weights and Measures in the late 19th century. Advocates of the customary system saw the French Revolutionary, or metric, system as atheistic.[5] An auxiliary of the Institute in Ohio published a poem with wording such as "down with every 'metric' scheme" and "A perfect inch, a perfect pint".[5] One adherent of the customary system called it "a just weight and a just measure, which alone are acceptable to the Lord."[5]
The U.S. government passed Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988, which made the metric system "the preferred system of weights and measures for U.S. trade and commerce." The legislation states that the federal government has a responsibility to assist industry as it voluntarily converts to the metric system, i.e., metrification. This is most evident in U.S. labeling requirements on food products, where SI units are almost always presented alongside customary units. According to the CIA Factbook, the United States is one of three nations (the others being Liberia and Burma) that have not adopted the metric system as their official system of weights and measures.[6]
U.S. customary units are widely used on consumer products and in industrial manufacturing. Metric units are standard in science, medicine, as well as many sectors of industry and government, including the military.[6] There are anecdotal objections to the use of metric units in carpentry and the building trades, on the basis that it is easier to remember an integer number of inches plus a fraction than a measurement in millimeters,[7] or that foot-inch measurements are more suitable when distances are frequently divided into halves, thirds and quarters, often in parallel. The metric system also lacks a parallel to the foot.[8]
Other nations had, or still have unofficially, customary units of their own, sometimes very similar in name and measure to U.S. customary units, since they often share the same Germanic or Roman origins. Frequently, however, these units designate quite different sizes. For example, the mile ranged by country from one-half to five U.S. miles; foot and pound also had varying definitions. Historically, a wide range of non-SI units were used in the U.S. and in Britain, but many have fallen into disuse.[citation needed] This article deals only with the units commonly used or officially defined in the U.S.
Units of length
|SI Equivalent
|Exact relationships shown in boldface
|1 point (p)
|352.777778 µm
|1 pica (P̸)
|12 p
|4.233333 mm
|1 inch (in)
|25.4 mm
|1 foot (ft)
|12 in
|0.3048 m[9]
|1 yard (yd)
|3 ft
|0.9144 m[9]
|1 mile (mi)
|5280 ft or 1760 yd
|1.609344 km
|US Survey
|1 link (li)
|33⁄50 ft or 7.92 in
|0.2012 m
|1 (survey) foot (ft)
|1200⁄3937 m
|0.30480061 m[9]
|1 rod (rd)
|25 li or 16.5 ft
|5.02921 m
|1 chain (ch)
|4 rd or 66 ft
|20.11684 m
|1 furlong (fur)
|10 ch
|201.1684 m
|1 survey (or statute) mile (mi)
|8 fur
|1.609347 km[9]
|1 league (lea)
|3 mi
|4.828042 km
|International Nautical[9]
|1 fathom (ftm)
|2 yd
|1.8288 m
|1 cable (cb)
|120 ftm or 1.091 fur
|219.456 m
|1 nautical mile (NM or nmi)
|8.439 cb or 1.151 mi
|1.852 km
For measuring length, the U.S. customary system uses the inch, foot, yard, and mile, which are the only four customary length measurements in everyday use. Since July 1, 1959, these have been defined on the basis of 1 yard = 0.9144 meters except for some applications in surveying.[2] The U.S., the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries agreed on this definition, and so it is often termed international measure.
When international measure was introduced in the English-speaking countries, the basic geodetic datum in North America was the North American Datum of 1927 (NAD27), which had been constructed by triangulation based on the definition of the foot in the Mendenhall Order of 1893, that is 1 foot = 1200⁄3937 meters: this definition was retained for data derived from NAD27, but renamed the US survey foot to distinguish it from the international foot.[2] For most applications, the difference between the two definitions is insignificant – one international foot is exactly 0.999998 of a US survey foot, for a difference of about 1⁄8 inch (3 mm) per mile – but it affects the definition of the State Plane Coordinate Systems (SPCSs), which can stretch over hundreds of miles.[10]
The NAD27 was replaced in the 1980s by the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83), which is defined in meters. The SPCSs were also updated, but the National Geodetic Survey left the decision of which (if any) definition of the foot to use to the individual states. All SPCSs are defined in meters, but seven states also have SPCSs defined in US survey feet and an eighth state in international feet: the other 42 states use only meter-based SPCSs.[10]
State legislation is also important for determining the conversion factor to be used for everyday land surveying and real estate transactions, although the difference (2 ppm) is of no practical significance given the precision of normal surveying measurements over short distances (usually much less than a mile). Twenty-four states have legislated that surveying measures should be based on the US survey foot, eight have legislated that they be made on the basis of the international foot, and eighteen have not specified the conversion factor from metric units.[10]
Units of area
|SI Equivalent
|Exact relationships shown in boldface
|1 square survey foot (sq ft or ft2)
|144 square inches
|0.09290341 m2
|1 square chain (sq ch or ch2)
|4356 sq ft (survey) or 16 sq rods
|404.6873 m2
|1 acre
|43560 sq ft (survey) or 10 sq ch
|4046.873 m2
|1 section
|640 acres or 1 sq mile (survey)
|2.589998 km2
|1 survey township (twp)
|36 sections or 4 sq leagues
|93.23993 km2
The most widely used area unit with a name unrelated to any length unit is the acre. The National Institute of Standards and Technology contends that customary area units are defined in terms of the square survey foot, not the square international foot.[9] Conversion factors are based on Astin (July 27, 1968)[11] and National Institute of Standards and Technology (2008).[12]
Units of capacity and volume
|Volume in general
|SI Equivalent
|1 cubic inch (cu in) or (in3)
|16.387064 mL[13]
|1 cubic foot (cu ft) or (ft3)
|1728 cu in
|1 cubic yard (cu yd) or (yd3)
|27 cu ft
0.764554857984 m3
|1 acre-foot (acre ft)
|43560 cu ft
1613.333 cu yd
1233.482 m3
The cubic inch, cubic foot and cubic yard are commonly used for measuring volume. In addition, there is one group of units for measuring volumes of liquids, and one for measuring volumes of dry material.
Other than the cubic inch, cubic foot and cubic yard, these units are differently sized from the units in the imperial system, although the names of the units are similar. Also, while the U.S. has separate systems for measuring the volumes of liquids and dry material, the imperial system has one set of units for both.
Fluid volume
|Liquid volume
|Most common measures shown in italic font
Exact conversions in bold font
|SI Equivalent
|1 minim (min)
|~1 drop or 0.95 grain of water
|61.611519921875 μL
|1 US fluid dram (fl dr)
|60 min
|3.6966911953125 mL
|1 teaspoon (tsp)
|80 min
|4.92892159375 mL
|1 tablespoon (Tbsp)
|3 tsp or 4 fl dr
|14.78676478125 mL
|1 US fluid ounce (fl oz)
|2 Tbsp or 1.0408 oz av of water
|29.5735295625 mL
|1 US shot (jig)
|3 Tbsp
|44.36029434375 mL
|1 US gill (gi)
|4 fl oz
|118.29411825 mL
|1 US cup (cp)
|2 gi or 8 fl oz
|236.5882365 mL
|1 (liquid) US pint (pt)
|2 cp or 16.65 oz av of water
|473.176473 mL
|1 (liquid) US quart (qt)
|2 pt
|1 (liquid) US gallon (gal)
|4 qt or 231 cu in
|1 (liquid) barrel (bbl)
|31.5 gal or 1⁄2 hogshead
|1 oil barrel (bbl)
|42 gal or 2⁄3 hogshead
|1 hogshead
|63 gal or 8.421875 cu ft
or 524.7 lb of water
One US fluid ounce is 1⁄16 of a US pint, 1⁄32 of a US quart, and 1⁄128 of a US gallon. The teaspoon, tablespoon, and cup are defined in terms of a fluid ounce as 1⁄6, 1⁄2, and 8 fluid ounces. The fluid ounce derives its name originally from being the volume of one ounce avoirdupois of water, but in the US it is defined as 1⁄128 of a US gallon. Consequently, a fluid ounce of water weighs about 1.041 ounces avoirdupois.
The saying "a pint's a pound the world around" refers to 16 US fluid ounces of water weighing approximately (about 4% more than) one pound avoirdupois. An imperial pint of water weighs a pound and a quarter (20 oz).
There are varying standards for barrel for some specific commodities, including 31 gal for beer, 40 gal for whiskey or kerosene, and 42 gal for petroleum. The general standard for liquids is 31.5 gal or half a hogshead. The common 55 gallon size of drum for storing and transporting various products and wastes is sometimes confused with a barrel, though it is not a standard measure.
In the U.S., single servings of beverages are usually measured in fluid ounces. Milk is usually sold in half pints (8 fluid ounces), pints, quarts, half gallons, and gallons. Water volume for sinks, bathtubs, ponds, swimming pools, etc., is usually stated in gallons or cubic feet. Quantities of gases are usually given in cubic feet (at one atmosphere).
Minims, drams and gill are rarely used currently. The gill is often referred to as a "half-cup".
Dry volume
|Dry volume
|SI Equivalent
|1 (dry) pint (pt)
|33.60 cu in
|1 (dry) quart (qt)
|2 pt
|1 (dry) gallon (gal)
|4 qt or 268.8025 cu in
|1 peck (pk)
|2 gal
|1 bushel (bu)
|4 pk or 1.244 cu ft
|1 (dry) barrel (bbl)
|7056 cu in or 3.281 bu
Small fruits and vegetables are often sold in dry pints and dry quarts. The US dry gallon is less commonly used, and was not included in the handbook that many states recognize as the authority on measurement law.[14][15] However pecks, or bushels are sometimes used—particularly for grapes, apples and similar fruits in agricultural regions.
Units of mass
|SI equivalent
|1 grain (gr)
|1⁄7000 lb
|64.79891 mg
|1 dram (dr)
|27 11⁄32 gr or 8.859 carats
|1.7718451953125 g
|1 ounce (oz)
|16 dr
|28.349523125 g
|1 pound (lb)
|16 oz
|453.59237 g
|1 US hundredweight (cwt)
|100 lb
|45.359237 kg
|1 long hundredweight
|112 lb
|50.80234544 kg
|1 ton (short ton)
|20 US cwt or 2000 lb
|907.18474 kg
|1 long ton
|20 long cwt or 2240 lb
|1016.0469088 kg
|1 grain (gr)
|1⁄7000 lb av or 1⁄5760 lb t
|64.79891 mg
|1 pennyweight (dwt)
|24 gr or 7.776 carats
|1.55517384 g
|1 troy ounce (oz t)
|20 dwt
|31.1034768 g
|1 troy pound (lb t)
|12 oz t or 13.17 oz av
|373.2417216 g
|Most common measures shown in italics
Exact conversions shown in bold
There have historically been five different English systems of mass: tower, apothecaries', troy, avoirdupois, and metric. Of these, the avoirdupois weight is the most common system used in the U.S., although Troy weight is still used to weigh precious metals. Apothecaries weight—once used by pharmacies—has been largely replaced by metric measurements. Tower weight fell out of use in England (due to legal prohibition in 1527) centuries ago, and was never used in the U.S. The imperial system, which is still used for some measures in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries, is based on avoirdupois, with variations from U.S. customary units larger than a pound.
The pound avoirdupois, which forms the basis of the U.S. customary system of mass, is defined as exactly 453.59237 grams by agreement between the U.S., the United Kingdom, and other English-speaking countries in 1959. Other units of mass are defined in terms of it.
The avoirdupois pound is legally defined as a measure of mass,[16] but the name pound is also applied to measures of force. For instance, in many contexts, the pound avoirdupois is used as a unit of mass, but in some contexts, the term "pound" is used to refer to "pound-force". The slug is another unit of mass derived from pound-force.
Troy weight, avoirdupois weight, and apothecaries' weight are all built from the same basic unit, the grain, which is the same in all three systems. However, while each system has some overlap in the names of their units of measure (all have ounces and pounds), the relationship between the grain and these other units within each system varies. For example, in apothecary and troy weight, the pound and ounce are the same, but are different from the pound and ounce in avoirdupois in terms of their relationships to grains and to each other. The systems also have different units between the grain and ounce (apothecaries' has scruple and dram, troy has pennyweight, and avoirdupois has just dram, sometimes spelled drachm). The dram in avoirdupois weighs just under half of the dram in apothecaries'. The fluid dram unit of volume is based on the weight of 1 dram of water in the apothecaries' system.
To alleviate confusion, it is typical when publishing non-avoirdupois weights to mention the name of the system along with the unit. Precious metals, for example, are often weighed in "troy ounces", because just "ounce" would be more likely to be assumed to mean an ounce avoirdupois.
For the pound and smaller units, the U.S. customary system and the British imperial system are identical. However, they differ when dealing with units larger than the pound. The definition of the pound avoirdupois in the imperial system is identical to that in the U.S. customary system.
In the U.S., only the ounce, pound and short ton – known in the country simply as the ton – are commonly used, though the hundredweight is still used in agriculture and shipping. The grain is used to describe the mass of propellant and projectiles in small arms ammunition. It was also used to measure medicine and other very small masses.
Grain measures
In agricultural practice, a bushel is a fixed volume of 2150.42 cubic inches. The mass of grain will therefore vary according to density. Some nominal weight examples are:-
- 1 bushel (corn) = 56 lb = 25.4012 kg
- 1 bushel (wheat) = 60 lb = 27.2155 kg
- 1 bushel (barley) = 48 lb = 21.7724 kg
In trade terms a bushel is a term used to refer to these nominal weights, although even this varies. With oats, Canada uses 34 lb bushels and the USA uses 32 lb bushels.
Cooking measures
|5 mL
|5 mL
|4.74 mL
|4.93 mL
|5 mL
|10 mL
|9.47 mL
|20 mL
|15 mL
|14.21 mL
|14.79 mL
|15 mL
|Fluid ounce
|28.41 mL
|29.57 mL
|30 mL
|250 mL
|250 mL
|284.13 mL
|236.59 mL
|240 mL
|568.26 mL
|473.18 mL
|1136.52 mL
|946.35 mL
|4546.09 mL
|3785.41 mL
The most common practical cooking measures for both liquid and dry ingredients in the U.S. (and many other countries) are the teaspoon, tablespoon, and cup, along with halves, thirds, quarters, and eighths of these. Pounds, ounces, fluid ounces, and common sizes are also used, such as can (presumed size varies depending on product), jar, square (e.g., 1 oz avdp. of chocolate), stick (e.g., 4 oz avdp. butter), or fruit/vegetable (e.g., a half lemon, two medium onions).[citation needed]
Units of temperature
Degrees Fahrenheit are used in the U.S. to measure temperatures in most non-scientific contexts. The Rankine scale of absolute temperature also saw some use in thermodynamics. Scientists worldwide use the kelvin and degree Celsius. Several technical standards are expressed in Fahrenheit temperatures and American medical practitioners often use degrees Fahrenheit for body temperature.
The relationship between the different temperature scales is linear but the scales have different zero points, so conversion is not simply multiplication by a factor: pure water is defined to freeze at 32 °F = 0 °C and boil at 212 °F = 100 °C at 1 atm; the conversion formula is easily shown to be:
or inversely as
Other units
- 1 board-foot = 1 ft × 1 ft × 1 in = 2.360 dm3
- 1 British thermal unit (Btu) ≈ 1055 J
- 1 ton of refrigeration (12,000 Btu/h) = 3.517 kW
- 1 calorie (cal) = 4.184 J
- 1 food calorie (kilocalorie, large calorie) (kcal, Cal) = 4.184 kJ
- 1 foot-pound (energy) ≈ 1.356 J
- 1 hand = 10.16 cm
- 1 horsepower ≈ 745.7 W
- 1 R-value (ft2·°F·h/Btu) ≈ 0.1761 RSI (K·m2/W)
- 1 slug = 1 lbf·s2/ft
- 1 U (rack unit) = 1.75 in
- Various combination units are in common use, including the foot-pound (ft-lb) and the pound per square inch (psi); these are straightforwardly defined based on the above basic units.
Sizing systems are used for various items in commerce, several of which are U.S.-specific:
- US standard clothing size
- American wire gauge
- Scoop (utensil) sizes, numbered by scoops per quart
Other names for U.S. customary units
The United States Code refers to these units as "traditional systems of weights and measures".[18]
Other common ways of referring to the system in the U.S. are: "Standard", "Customary", or, erroneously: "Imperial", or "English" (which refers to the pre-1824 reform measures used throughout the British Empire). Another term is the foot–pound–second (FPS) system, as opposed to centimeter–gram–second (CGS) system.
Tools and fasteners with sizes measured in inches are sometimes called "SAE bolts" or "SAE wrenches" to differentiate them from their metric counterparts. The Society of Automotive Engineers originally developed fasteners standards using U.S. units for the U.S. auto industry; the organization now uses metric units.[19]
See also
- ↑ T.C. Mendenhall, Superintendent of Standard Weights and Measures, Order of April 5, 1893, published as Appendix 6 to the Report for 1893 of the Coast and Geodetic Survey.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Astin, A.V., Karo, H.A. and Mueller, F.H. (June 25, 1959). Doc 59-5442, "Refinement of Values for the Yard and the Pound." Federal Register. When reading the document note that 999,998 = 3937 × 254.
- ↑ Laws and Metric Program. U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology, 2010
- ↑ "English units of measurement". The Columbia Encyclopedia 6th ed. 2001-2007. archived copy.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Robyn Williams (February 8, 1998) "Trouble with the Metric System". Australian Radio National, Ockham's Razor.
- ↑ Ed Tenner, (May 2005). "The Trouble with the Meter" Technologyreview.com
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Roberts, R.W. (February 3, 1975). Federal Register republished in Barbrow, L.E. and Judson, L. V. (1976) Weights and Measures of the United States. National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 447. p. 36
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Astin, A. V. (July 27, 1968). Federal Register. Republished in Barbrow, L.E and Judson, L.V. Weights and Measures of the United States: A Brief History. National Bureau of Standards Special Publication 447. pp. 34–35.
- ↑ National Institute of Standards and Technology. (2008). Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI).
- ↑ The recommended symbol for the liter in the United States is 'L' per National Institute of Standards and Technology. (1995.) Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SI). Special Publication 811. http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP811/sec06.html#6.1.2
- ↑ 93rd Conference on Weights and Measures. (2009). Specifications, Tolerances, and Other Technical Requirements for Weighing and Measuring Devices (NIST Handbook 44). National Institute of Standards and Technology.
- ↑ Summary of State Laws and Regulations in Weights and Measures. (2005) National Institute of Standards and Technology.
- ↑ NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C, General Tables of Units of Measurement, page C-6 Avoirdupois Units of Mass
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 15 U.S.C. § 205b
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- Rowlett's A Dictionary of Units of Measurement


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Joey Basch, one of our taproom managers and our talent buyer (a.k.a. the dude who books all of the bands that play here), writes a "column" for Huey Lewis and the Newsletter'Äîthe newsletter put together by taproom staffer Francesca Jasinski and stuffed in with our paychecks once a month. We thought y'all might be interested in getting the inside scoop on what goes into booking the bands that play here every Thursday and Saturday, so we decided to post it here. Read it if you want. Don't read it if you don't want. You can also find all of the live music listings here.
First of all, I hope this finds you all at a pleasant place in the world, either reclined in your living room's laziest chair or encapsulated in a state of mind that embodies that comfort, as we approach the time of year when the air crispens, leaves rust and turn to tinder, the sun-drenched days grow scarce, and wooly sweaters and scarves replace bikini bottoms and Bermuda shorts.
On the brighter side of change is a devastatingly incredible autumn entertainment lineup, of which you are about to be enlightened. Enjoy the knowledge.
On Saturday, September 11, we've got a pretty sick lineup coming in as we help Bars of Gold celebrate the release of their newest LP being released on Friction Records. BoG features two alumni from legendary post-rock band Bear vs. Shark, who disbanded a few years back, shortly after achieving considerable critical acclaim and industry-wide recognition (the final BvS record peaked in the Billboard Top 20). The sound of Bars of Gold can be most easily described as angsty chamber-pop. Setup is pretty standard: two guitars, bass, drums, keys, but the delivery is frenetic yet catchy. Worth a listen, and certainly entertaining live. The first time I saw them was at the Victor! Fix the Sun CD release show and they totally crushed it. I'm interested to see what they have in store for the Founders crowd. Also on this bill are BoG labelmates ol' reliable Chance Jones [a band that is chock-full of Founders employees] and newest-Friction-signees Ghost Heart. Prussia, Detroit's hypest dreampop youngsters, last seen on the Founders stage in March will be playing second, after GH. You will NOT want to miss this.
Next up, Thursday, September 16, marks the return of Chicago organ-fueled power-pop trio Oh My God. Legendary Leslie-artist Ig, has toured with anyone and everyone, from Bootsy Collins to Van Morrison. Musically, it comes together as straight-laced pop with strong, strangely-sincere vocals. Newcomers The Press Delete, starring mug club member Joel Boyles, will be the feature act. Originally garnering notoriety from their appearances at open-mic night [every Tuesday in the taproom], these guys have totally been blowing up lately, displaying a uniquely minimalist take on shoegaze. Think My Bloody Valentine meets slow-motion Mars Volta. Traverse City's Swiss sisters, Mue Sephei, will open the show, displaying their sincere blend of poppy folk ballads.
On Saturday, September 18, we welcome old standbys and crowd favorites Back Forty, who bring a consistently refreshing take on Midwestern bluegrass. [Check the event page for a video.]
Sunday, September 19: Grand Rapids Jazz Orchestra
Thursday, September 23, brings us to the front doorstep of the Prospecto Music Festival and Sonic Experience, the brainchild of Recoil magnate Ben Hunter and a team of local major players, a three-day multi-venue music festival that features over 90 acts and spans 9 venues throughout Grand Rapids, from big rooms like The Intersection to west-side dives like Kuzzin's. Prospecto is a new idea for Grand Rapids and falls on the opening weekend of ArtPrize. Tickets are only available as wristbands, and follow typical festival formats: $60 gets you a weekend pass and single-day passes are available for $26. We will NOT be selling tickets or taking cover at the door on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Entry will ONLY be allowed with a Prospecto wristband. I know it appears like a strange idea, but there is merit in it, and it is certainly worth a try. Wristbands are available online at www.prospectogr.com (will-call at The Intersection), and passes can be purchased at: Purple East, Vertigo Records, The Intersection, and The Meanwhile.
Our Thursday Prospecto lineup is my most anticipated of the entire festival: our old friends, LA's El Ten Eleven, return from a lengthy absence to rock the taproom with their looping, danceable, double-necked wizardry. It's so hard to believe that it was over two years ago when they first played here! Joining them is Dosh, a dancey-electronic two-piece from Minnesota, and Baths, an electronic solo artist from San Francisco. It'll be wicked awesome, without-doubts.
Friday, September 24, marks a rarity on the Founders entertainment calendar…a Friday show! As part of Prospecto, we'll be hosting Houston's experimental-shoegaze artists, Indian Jewelry (who describe their music as: "dreaming strong, getting strong, being strong, thinking strong, acting strong, no, scratch that, acting tough"), Moss Folk (featuring our very own Andrew Shelp), Seth, and local legend Ralston Bowles.
Then on Saturday, September 25, the final day of Prospecto, we host Detroit's The Hard Lessons, a female-fronted pop trio, and definitely my sleeper hit of the fest. Julio Gomez of The Wildfire will open the show with an acoustic set and be followed by UTO, and the rumoured final performance is by Detroit funk-rock-jam legends and Founders mainstays, Bump. If you were ever a fan, you won't want to miss their possible final Founders performance.
Final Prospecto note: There's a lot of great artists performing at Prospecto. It's tough to wrap your head around, because this is an entirely new concept for this city. Midwest Fest approached the idea, but unlike Prospecto, allowed for single-venue access. But coupled with the opening weekend of ArtPrize, it should have some steam behind it. For the full lineup and all the info, check out www.prospectogr.com.
Surging on with haste (more info coming in subsequent correspondence):
Sunday, September 26: Discfunktional Sunday with The Boogiman
Thursday, September 30: The swashbuckling sounds of Rootstand
Saturday, October 2: AB! and Coconut Brown, Bangups, DJ Goblin
Other upcoming performances: 10/7: Northern Skies; 10/9: Justin Stover CD Release Party; 10/14: Grupo Akaray; 10/16: Harvest Party; 10/21: Signal Path
All for now. Thank you so so much for reading and informing yourselves. Spread the word!
We'd love thoughts and feedback in the comments! If you're interested in playing at Founders, please email booking [at] foundersbrewing [dot] com.
You don't need to be 21 to check out our Careers.


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WASHINGTON >> Hold the mystery meat: Military bases will soon be serving more fruits, vegetables and low-fat dishes under the first program in 20 years to improve nutrition standards across the armed services.
First lady Michelle Obama and Pentagon officials planned to announce the effort Thursday during a visit to Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas, where the military has been experimenting with the idea through a pilot program designed to improve the quality and variety of foods served on base.
It's not just about giving members of the armed services a more svelte profile.
"The Department of Defense considers obesity not only a national problem, but a national security issue," said Dr. Jonathan Woodson, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. "About a quarter of entry-level candidates are too overweight to actually either enter the military or sustain themselves through the first enlistment."
The Pentagon spends an estimated $4.5 billion a year on food services, and $1.1 billion a year on medical care related to excess weight and obesity.
Under the Military Health System's new obesity and nutrition awareness campaign, more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lower-fat entrées will be coming to the 1,100 service member dining halls in coming months. Healthier choices will be turning up in base schools, vending machines and snack bars, too.
Mrs. Obama, who has been leading a campaign against childhood obesity, said the military effort would send a message to the whole nation.
"When our service members make healthy eating a priority in their lives, the rest of us are more likely to make it a priority in our lives," she said in a written statement. "Simply put, this is America's entire military once again stepping forward to lead by example."
The first lady was visiting Little Rock as part of a three-day national tour marking the second anniversary of her "Let's Move" campaign.
Under the new program, each of the armed services will be asked to update menu standards for the first time in two decades and to ensure that healthier food choices are available.
"We are intent on focusing on preventable illnesses to help our people stay out of our clinics and hospitals by improving their physical condition," Woodson said in a statement.
He said surveys in the mid-1990s found that about 1 out of 50 members of the armed services had weight problems. By about 2005, the figure was 1 in 20 service members.


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Kevin Hart Steps Down as Oscar Host Over Homophobic TweetsThe actor and comedian issues an apology to the LGBTQ community, accepting responsibility for the "insensitive words" he used in the past.
NEW YORK — Just two days after being named host of the Academy Awards, Kevin Hart stepped down following an outcry over past homophobic tweets by the comedian.
Capping a swift and dramatic fallout, Hart wrote on Twitter just after midnight Friday that he was withdrawing as Oscars host because he didn't want to be a distraction. "I sincerely apologize to the LGBTQ community for my insensitive words from my past," wrote Hart.
Hart, who is in Australia for a comedy tour, also tweeted Friday morning: "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. Martin Luther King, Jr."
Earlier Thursday evening, the comedian had refused to apologize for tweets that resurfaced after he was announced as Oscars host on Tuesday. In a video on Instagram, Hart said the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gave him an ultimatum: apologize or "we're going to have to move on and find another host."
"I chose to pass on the apology," Hart said. "The reason why I passed is because I've addressed this several times."
The film academy didn't respond to messages Thursday evening.
Hart has since deleted some of the anti-gay tweets, mostly dated from 2009-2011. But they had already been screen-captured and been shared online. In 2011, he wrote in a since-deleted tweet: "Yo if my son comes home & try's 2 play with my daughters doll house I'm going 2 break it over his head & say n my voice 'stop that's gay.'"
In an earlier post Thursday, Hart wrote on Instagram that critics should "stop being negative" about his earlier anti-gay remarks.
"I'm almost 40 years old. If you don't believe that people change, grow, evolve? I don't know what to tell you," said Hart, who added, in all-caps: "I love everybody."
Hart's attitudes about homosexuality were also a well-known part of his stand-up act. In the 2010 special "Seriously Funny," he said "one of my biggest fears is my son growing up and being gay."
"Keep in mind, I'm not homophobic, I have nothing against gay people, do what you want to do, but me, being a heterosexual male, if I can prevent my son from being gay, I will," Hart said.
GLAAD, the advocacy group for LGBTQ rights, said Thursday that it reached out to Oscars broadcaster ABC, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and Hart's management to "discuss Kevin's anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and record."
Comedian and actor Billy Eichner said "a simple, authentic apology showing any bit of understanding or remorse would have been so simple."
It's not the first time an Oscars host has been derailed by anti-gay remarks. Ahead of the 2012 Academy Awards, producer Brett Ratner, who had been paired with host Eddie Murphy, resigned days after using a gay slur at a film screening. Murphy soon after exited, as well.
That year, a tried-and-true Oscars veteran — Billy Crystal — jumped in to save the show, hosting for his eighth time. This time, speculation has already been rampant that few in Hollywood want the gig, for which few win glowing reviews.
The film academy moved up this year's ceremony to Feb. 24, giving producers little time to find a replacement.
At a Hollywood event Thursday night, comedian Kathy Griffin, whose career suffered last year when she posted a photo on social media that looked like a beheaded President Donald Trump, said Hart messed up, yet had empathy for the situation.
"He wrote that tweet eight years ago when gay marriage wasn't even legal yet, so we all do things. God knows in my 23 specials I've said heinously inappropriate things," she said.
Griffin hoped Hart's departure would open the door for a woman comedian to host the show.
"I want more women to host the Oscars and in the entire history of the Oscars, they've only been hosted by three women, three times and so we haven't leveled the playing field yet," she said.
Terry Crews, who described Hart as a "brother," said he respected Hart's decision to walk away from the show.
"I'm thankful that he acknowledged things that maybe weren't right, and he'll come back from this," Crews said. "We do have to admit our guilt and say, 'Hey I messed up and let's fix this thing.' I think that he will do that, and he has always done that."Wait, before you go…
If you're reading this, you probably already know that non-profit, independent journalism is under threat worldwide. Independent news sites are overshadowed by larger heavily funded mainstream media that inundate us with hype and noise that barely scratch the surface. We believe that our readers deserve to know the full story. Truthdig writers bravely dig beneath the headlines to give you thought-provoking, investigative reporting and analysis that tells you what's really happening and who's rolling up their sleeves to do something about it.
Like you, we believe a well-informed public that doesn't have blind faith in the status quo can help change the world. Your contribution of as little as $5 monthly or $35 annually will make you a groundbreaking member and lays the foundation of our work.Support Truthdig


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MCLEAN, Va., Feb. 26 (UPI) -- Science Applications International Corp., which plans to split into two independent companies, has announced the proposed names of the firms.
The reorganization will see SAIC's business unit for government technical services and enterprise information technology would continue with the SAIC name, while the newly separated national security, health and engineering business would be known as Leidos.
"With this announcement, we take another step in the disciplined, deliberate process that will result in two world-class companies when our board approves the separation," said SAIC Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Jumper.
SAIC reported its planned separation into two independent, publicly traded companies last August, and it is expected to occur in the last half of this fiscal year if approved by SAIC's board of directors.
SAIC said that the name Leidos comes from "kaleidoscope."
"With the name Leidos, we signal that the company will deliver transforming technologies, analytics and cross-disciplinary insight for our customers to deliver real-world benefits at the speed the real world demands," said SAIC Chief Operating Officer Stu Shea. "It's a memorable word with dynamic connotations that capture the energy, talent and passion that our employees bring as they work to deliver solutions that protect our nation, our communities, and our families."
Shea will be the president and chief operating officer of Leidos.


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Have you ever noticed that every time you go to a small diner they always advertise how they have the best coffee around? Do you wonder how they determined, how they figured that their's is the best around? How do you know? How can you honestly compare their coffee with another diner? The funny thing is that you can apply the exact same thing to buying life insurance. How do you know what the best company is to get your life insurance through?
Number one, how financially stable are they? There are different rating agencies that you can use to determine how stable life insurance companies are. Some of the most popular are S&P, AM's Best, and Moody's. If they have an A rating, preferably an A, A-, A+ or ++, it determines how financially solvent they are. If something happens to you, you want to make sure that your beneficiaries are paid.
If they have a low rating such as a C or D, please stay away. It is not worth messing with.
The second determining factor whether you are getting life insurance from the best life insurance company for you is which one is going to be the cheapest. That's right, who's going to give you the best rate. So as long as they are financially stable, and have the A rating we talked about earlier, and they are giving you the best rate of any other life insurance company, that's how you know it's the best insurance company for you.
Let's say that you need $500,000 of life insurance coverage and you're 30 years old. Believe it or not, one company might cost $500 a year, and another company quoting the exact same amount, for the exact same term, may cost you $150 more per year. That's because each life insurance company has their own niches, their own specialties they focus on. Some might focus on the healthy 20- to 30-year-olds, others might focus on the older folks that have more high risk conditions. Obviously, the only way to really know you are getting the best life insurance company is to work with an independent agent that is going to be able to quote you across multiple different carriers.
If you use the quotes here at Wise Bread there are over 60 different carriers that you can have a quote on in less than one minute. By inputting your information you'll know quickly which is going to be the best life insurance company for you.
Jeff Rose is a Certified Financial Planner specializing in life insurance. Read more from Jeff at his site, Good Financial Cents.
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.


text: Ouya has announced a new fund that will aid Kickstarter projects headed for the diminutive console. Called "Free the Games," the $1 million fund will match Kickstarter funds ranging from $50,000 to $250,000 for eligible games. Naturally, Ouya expects something in return: Eligible games must agree to be exclusive to Ouya for six months. So long as the qualifying Kickstarter launches between August 9, 2013 and August 10, 2014, and achieves a minimum goal of $50,000, Ouya will match the total raised up to $250,000. Furthermore, the most successful Kickstarter project to take part in the Free the Games program will receive an additional $100,000. The fund will continue to support projects until the money runs out. Interested developers can find out more about the program on the Ouya website.


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Last month, Science had a terrific review article on the threat that rising CO2 concentrations and rising temperatures pose to the world's coral reefs. Scientists, alas, are not great marketers. The plight of the world's coral reefs is a tough sell at a time when most North Americans are "holiday" shopping and powering all manner of coloured lights, inflatable Santas and animatronic reindeer (though the review did garner some front page and radio attention the week of publication).
In my mind, the most compelling feature of the paper was this one figure to the left (reprinted here without any particular permission, shhh). It is a simple inversion of the famous 420,000 year record of temperature and CO2 plots from the Vostok ice cores, shown in every climate change course, presentation and documentary. The very same data, plotted a different way: temperature vs. CO2, rather than temperature and CO2 over time.
I hope to see this figure used more often, whether in relation to coral reefs or not, because it clearly demonstrates three crucial points about the planet's current situation:
1. There is warming in the pipeline, like it or not. Today (pt. A) lies far outside the cluster of data points from the Vostok core. Those points represent a rough historical relationship between temperature presuming the climate is at equilibrium. Right now, we are experiencing what climate modelers call the transient response to CO2 forcing. If CO2 concentrations froze now, global temperatures would continue to rise until the climate reached equilibrium
2. That equilibrium point lies outside any experience the planet has had in the past 420,000 years, even without any future increase in greenhouse gas concentrations (as the current CO2 level is unprecedented). A further increase places the planet in an even farther outside the envelope of anything in the "recent" geological record, to use a geologists warped definition of the word recent.
3. Oceanic ecosystems - particularly coral reefs - that are sensitive to both the physical (temperature) conditions and the chemical (pCO2) conditions are already and will continue to experience a thermal and chemical environment not seen for hundreds of thousands of years. As I've said before, if you are a coral, pick your poison. This naturally raises the issue of what constitutes dangerous climate change, a key question tossed about a bit lately (see Climate Progress) that I will return to later.
Andrew Revkin, on his NY Times blog Dot Earth, has been asking what language, if any, can most effectively communicate the urgency of climate change, most recently using the idea of the "elevator speech" (Eli's is good). Is there one figure that tells the story best?
Thursday, January 03, 2008
Temperature and CO2: A new figure for a new year
Last month, Science had a terrific review article on the threat that rising CO2 concentrations and rising temperatures pose to the world's coral reefs. Scientists, alas, are not great marketers. The plight of the world's coral reefs is a tough sell at a time when most North Americans are "holiday" shopping and powering all manner of coloured lights, inflatable Santas and animatronic reindeer (though the review did garner some front page and radio attention the week of publication).
Posted by Simon Donner at 1:37 a.m.
Labels: climate change, coral reefs, science communication
11 comments:
- DANIELBLOOM said...
RE: "Andrew Revkin has been asking what language, if any, can most effectively communicate the urgency of climate change, ... Is there one figure that tells the story best?"
Can I nominate POLAR CITIES as a figure of speech that might speak to future generations, even though not everyone is on board yet? IPS news service just did the first media story about polar cities here:
''Dan Bloom thinks it's time to figure out how to build self-sustaining cities in the polar regions because climate change will eventually make most of Earth uninhabitable.
These polar cities may be "humankind's only chance for survival if global warming really turns into a worldwide catastrophe in the far distant future," Bloom told IPS.
Bloom isn't a scientist or any other kind of expert. A U.S. citizen in his late fifties living in Taiwan teaching English, he's lived all over the world as a reporter-editor, teacher-translator and author. And now Bloom wants to shake people out their everyday indifference to the great emergency of our age: climate change. ''
- 4:57 a.m.
- Simon Donner said...
Er, ok, though not exactly a figure.
are these floating cities? how about the figure showing the annual minimum extent of arctic sea ice?
- 1:09 p.m.
- Anonymous said...
Hi Professor,
No, these are not floating cities, but land-bound sustainable polar retreats, SPRs, or we could also call them sustainable population retreats, also SPRs, and cut out the polar part, because some of the survivors' cities might be in inland areas of major continents, high above coastline sea levels at that future time. But no, polar cities, as envisioned are not floating cities. And they not a prediction, just a thought experiment. Hopefully, humanity will never need them. However, things look rather bad. Iffy.
As for a figure, I am not a figure man, but I appreciate your blog and your erudition on these issues. I am looking for dying canaries in the coal mines, to warn of us of the seriousness of the problem, to help ring the alarm, sound the alarm, raise an alert. We all need to be "alerters" now, and try to get things settled ASAP. It might be too late already. Sigh. The die are cast. Dice? Die? Or it could be we have until 2015 or 2050 to fix things with the way we consume raw materials here on Earth and spit out consumer junk for the money markets. Maybe 2100 is the last date we can figure on. After that, if we haven't done our homework, it's curtains. The mother of all curtains.
Like your good letter to the future says: we need to act now! Polar cities is just a guerilla theater approach to wake people up. Now. Most of our neighbors are sleeping walking through all this, mesmerized by TV and computer games and a junk life. This long emergency is not a game. It is for real. We need important actions now, all across the board, all across the globe. Moi, Je fear the worst! But I remain hopeful and an eternal optimist.
- 8:00 p.m.
- Anonymous said...
Simon, it's a stunning figure. Thanks. Please don't let people distract you from continuing the discusion of ocean pH here, it needs serious attention (and likely will attract serious distraction).
Part of what's so hard about explaining this is -- people who don't believe in evolution don't believe stratigraphy, and it's the long deep cores through geologic time that give us the information about the past.
Maybe the pictures of the pteropods with their shells dissolving are the best illustration, post them along such a chart or as callouts to points on the line.
I'd avoid oversimplifying because, like temperature, the ecology doesn't feel the global average that humans like to work with, and the change in pH is going to be happening differently across latitude, and across areas of upwelling and sinking water, in bands and swirls.
It's worth reminding people that a lot of plankton are larval forms of organisms that become sessile adults, so exposure to water conditions that kill either younger or older forms off will impact the species.
The larval forms among the vast variety of plankton swim, and swim, and swim, until one day they start to mature, and their shapes change, and one end gets heavy, and they sink. And where they land, they may be able to creep around a bit, but soon that ability ends and they anchor where they lay and become adults.
- 12:33 p.m.
- Simon Donner said...
And it is not just pH, of course, but the changing carbonate chemistry, that will prove a problem for calcifying marine organisms like corals. The response of the carbonate chemistry will vary worldwide, with some pacific equatorial regions becoming more marginal for coral development sooner than other parts of the tropics.
I wish I could claim responsibility for the figure, but it comes straight from the Hoegh-Guldberg et al review in Science.
- 1:38 p.m.
- Hank Roberts said...
More news, not good:
... at the University of Delaware, Clinton Hare, led research published Dec. 20 in Marine Ecology Progress Series....
... The Bering Sea is highly productive thanks mainly to diatoms, a large type of phytoplankton.
"Because they're large, diatoms are eaten by large zooplankton, which are then eaten by large fish," Hutchins explained.
The scientists found that greenhouse conditions favored smaller types of phytoplankton over diatoms. Such a shift would ripple up the food chain: as diatoms become scarce, animals that eat diatoms would become scarce, and so forth.
"The food chain seems to be changing in a way that is not supporting these top predators, of which, of course, we're the biggest," Hutchins said.
A shift away from diatoms towards smaller phytoplankton could also undermine a key climate regulator called the "biological pump."
When diatoms die, their heavier carbon-based remains sink to the seafloor. This creates a "pump" whereby diatoms transport carbon from the atmosphere into deep-sea storage, where it remains for at least 1,000 years.
"While smaller species often fix more carbon, they end up re-releasing CO2 in the surface ocean rather than storing it for long periods as the diatom-based community can do," Hutchins explained.
This scenario could make the ocean less able to soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide.
"Right now, the ocean biology is sort of on our side," Hutchins said. "About 50 percent of fossil fuel emissions since the industrial revolution is in the ocean, so if we didn't have the ocean, atmospheric CO2 would be roughly twice what it is now."
Hutchins and colleagues are doing related experiments in the north Atlantic Ocean and the Ross Sea, near Antarctica. The basic dynamics of a greenhouse ocean are not well understood, he noted.
"We're trying to make a contribution by doing predictive experimental research that will help us understand where we're headed," he said. "It's unprecedented the rate at which things are shifting around."
The researchers collected the algae samples from the Bering Sea's central basin and the southeastern continental shelf. They incubated the phytoplankton onboard, simulating sea surface temperatures and carbon dioxide concentrations predicted for 2100.
Each of these variables was tested together and independently. Ratios of diatom to nanophytoplankton in manipulated samples were then compared with those in plankton grown under present conditions.
The scientists found that photosynthesis in greenhouse samples sped up two to three times current rates. However, community composition shifted from diatoms to the smaller nanophytoplankton.
Temperature was the key driver of the shift with secondary impacts from the increased carbon dioxide concentrations, according to the study.
Hutchins and Hare's collaborators were Karine Leblanc of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, in France; Giacomo DiTullio, Peter Lee and Sarah Riseman of the College of Charleston; Raphael Kudela of the University of California at Santa Cruz; and Yaohong Zhang of the University of Delaware.
- 1:39 p.m.
- Hank Roberts said...
Er, and I meant to say, to stay in line with your very good topic --
perhaps adding a couple of lines for the plankton population discussed, to the chart, would work? Not sure.
It's hard to compete with the stuff that's coming out as a result of scaring the economists lately -- like:
The ocean news is a lot worse, but these "grownups" don't understand nature matters.
- 8:33 p.m.
- Simon Donner said...
Hank - that new diatom study shows how much we still need to learn about the sensitivity of ocean biology to co2 / carbonate chemistry. There may be some surprises in store.
- 7:29 p.m.
- Anonymous said...
What happens when the cooling comes? The sun causes cycles in our weather systems and will do so again. I understand the concern abour CO2 but we have had concentrations at this level, and above, before.
- 10:12 a.m.
- DANIELBLOOM said...
Sir James Lovelock's interview in the Guardian on Saturday — March 1, 3008 — and it is a must-read:
He says he writing a new book now, too. To fill us in on what comes next. I don't know if I have told anyone here this, but last month I sent some images of my polar cities concept to Dr Lovelock by email, and he wrote back the next day, saying: "Thanks for showing me those images. It may very happen and soon."
I know Dr Lovelock has not been knighted yet by the Queen and maybe never will be, so he is not actually a "Sir" as I kiddingly wrote above, but he certainly should be honored that way. Sir James Lovelock. Yes. Has a good ring to it.
His interview in Saturday's Guardian will knock your socks off. NSFW. But a very important interview. Read it and weep. (And then get back to work again, doing what you can to try to mitigate the impacts of climate change on this unsuspecting Earth that has been so kind to us for so many years as to give us a home for many many generations now. Soldier on, all who know that global warming is for real!)
— Posted by Danny Bloom
- 7:23 p.m.
- Anonymous said...
Lance Ellersby showed an excellent connection between atmospheric CO2 concentrations and sea surface temperatures. Since the oceans contain approximately 50 times the concentration of CO2 that is in the atmosphere, this correlation may be quite revealing. This past year's ocean cooling may remove some CO2 from the atmosphere. That would be a first.
- 10:31 a.m.


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The name, KIDSCOPE, can be read as Kids Cope; one of our goals is to help children successfully cope with the diagnosis and treatment of a parent with cancer. Read another way- Kid Scope, our name suggests our additional goal of understanding a parent's cancer from a child's point of view. Children have a unique perspective that changes with each developmental stage. The impact of a parent's cancer on a three-year-old child is quite different from the likely effect on a thirteen-year-old. It is our hope that by bringing families some basic information about what to expect, we will improve the quality of life for any family dealing with the trauma of cancer diagnosis and the challenges of often-grueling treatment regimens.
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Denmark's newly elected government is boasting that wind energy will meet half of the country's electricity demand by 2020. Last year, however, was unremarkable for Denmark's wind-energy sector. Instead of the projected 200-250MW additional capacity, 178MW was added and 56MW was decommissioned.
"I would call 2011 a year of waiting," says Jan Hylleberg, chief executive of the Danish Wind Energy Association. A decision on the new energy act had been expected but never came, leaving the sector somewhat in limbo, Hylleberg complains.
However, the new Danish government has confirmed its commitment to the country's long-term renewable-energy and CO2 emissions targets. The CO2 reduction target has in fact risen from 30 to 40%. And wind power is meant to play a major role in the country's goal to phase out fossil fuels entirely by 2050. Today, 28% of Denmark's gross electricity consumption comes from wind. The 50% wind target by 2020, according to Hylleberg, means an extra 500MW onshore over the next ten years, in addition to the approved offshore developments.
The eurozone crisis also played a role in slowing down last year's wind development. Danish wind exports - and the profits of the country's large companies such as Vestas - both suffered. "The European market is developing too slowly," says Hylleberg. "We need to see more investments in the European grid if we want our wind-energy sector to grow."
On a positive note, 2011 saw a new source of financing - pension funds - being injected into Danish offshore wind projects. Two of the country's biggest pension funds, PensionDanmark and PKA, have invested in the 400MW Anholt wind farm, Denmark's largest offshore project, which is expected to come online by 2013. "This trend just started in 2011 and gives us hope for future financing," adds Hylleberg.