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D-Lib Magazine
Hannes Kulovits, Andreas Rauber
Anna Kugler, Markus Brantl, Tobias Beinert, Astrid Schoger
Studies and user reports claim JPEG 2000 to be or at least will become the next archiving format for digital images [1]. The format offers new possibilities, such as streaming, and reduces storage consumption through lossless and lossy compression [2]. Another often claimed advantage of JPEG 2000 is that the master image can possibly serve as the access copy as well, and thus replace derived compressed, low resolution access copies. The National Library of the Netherlands (KB-NL) evaluated the suitability of alternative file formats such as JPEG 2000 to their currently used format uncompressed TIFF. The four aspects, required storage capacity, image quality, long-term sustainability and functionality were analysed and JPEG 2000 is recommended as future archive format [3]. The British Library recently moved forward to migrate their 80-terabyte newspaper collection from TIFF to JPEG 2000 [4] and the Wellcome Library announced they will use JPEG 2000 for their upcoming digitization projects [16].
Having the advantages of JPEG 2000 in mind, the Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, BSB [5]) also considered the option of migrating from TIFF to JPEG 2000 as the archive format for digitized images of rare books. BSB aims at digitizing its complete collection of manuscripts and rare books, applying high standards and policies (e.g., referring to compression, resolution, and colour management) that result in considerable image sizes of the TIFF-master copies (which, for example, in the 15th century incunabula project average 100 MB per page).
In order to find out whether TIFF or JPEG 2000 would be a more suitable archival master format, the BSB, together with the Vienna University of Technology, created a preservation plan for a representative collection of digitized 16th century printings. The goal of the project was to evaluate possible strategies for migration from TIFF to JPEG 2000 using lossless compression, including the alternative of keeping the status quo. The current preservation plan documents the resulting decision, taking into consideration the institution's preservation policies, legal obligations, organizational and technical constraints, requirements, and preservation goals, as well as the capabilities of the tested tools.
Preservation Planning is a process that depends very much on an institution's individual policies and requirements in its day-to-day work. Consequently, the design of one plan can differ considerably from the plan of another institution, even one with a similar collection.
The creation of the preservation plan described in this article follows the Planets Preservation Planning Workflow, which is described in detail in the Proceedings of the 7th ACM IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL'07) [6]. The plan was created using the open source planning tool Plato, which is available to the public at <http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/dp/plato>.
The Bavarian State Library: Digitization and long-term preservation
The Bavarian State Library (BSB) is a universal and research library of worldwide importance not only due to the size of its collection but also to the uniqueness of its inventory of handwritings, incunabula and historical printings. The BSB holds almost 10 million volumes and more than 50,000 current periodicals in both analogue and digital form. As the central state and archive library for Bavaria, as well as part of Germany's virtual national library (together with the Berlin State Library and the German National Library), the BSB is responsible moreover for collecting, indexing, archiving and making available analogue and digital information resources.
The BSB strategy is to digitize its entire out-of-copyright holdings within the next five years and to make them accessible free of charge via the Internet. BSB pursues this strategy through mass digitization projects, e.g., those funded by the German Research Foundation [7] (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) and BSB's public-private partnership with Google books: BSB receives a copy of each digital object produced by Google. Consequently, the BSB is among the cultural heritage institutions in Germany with the fastest growth of digital objects in its archive (by August 2009, 153 TB). As an active player in the field of long-term preservation, BSB cares not only about continuous access to its preserved information in the present but also into the future.
The responsible department within BSB is the Munich Digitization Centre [8] (M�nchener Digitalisierungszentrum, MDZ), which has been engaged as an innovation centre for digital information services in the world of digital libraries since 1997. The MDZ's main tasks at the moment are the mass-digitization of printed material, development and maintenance of subject portals as well as user-oriented services, and the long-term preservation of all kinds of digital objects within its collection profile. All digital objects, including born-digital materials, are stored at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre [9] (Leibniz Rechenzentrum, LRZ). By August 2009, the total number of digital files in archival storage there had reached 212.252.017.
The digitization policy of the MDZ is to produce and store high-quality digital images. All analogue material from the 6th century up to the 18th century (printings, manuscripts, rare books, historical maps, etc.) underlies defined digitization standards:
The MDZ preserves the original image files to guarantee their integrity, authenticity and availability over the long run, to ensure protection of investment and to allow the re-use of the digital objects in the sense of cross-media publishing (e.g., Internet publishing, document delivery, ebooks-on-demand, printing in catalogues or facsimile editions).
National and international standards are applied and best practices acknowledged for digitization as well as for long-term preservation. The continuous evaluation and improvement of the quality of its technological and organizational infrastructures and processes are also part of MDZ's policy. In a current project1 MDZ checks and improves the trustworthiness of its digital archive according to the nestor criteria catalogue [10]. Designing and testing new digital preservation strategies, and thus gaining the necessary competence to apply innovative methods and tools for preservation planning, is one part of the project.
Preservation planning and Plato
The Planets project has developed a systematic approach for evaluating potential alternatives for preservation actions and building thoroughly defined, accountable preservation plans for keeping digital content alive over time. In this approach, preservation planners empirically evaluate potential action components in a controlled setting and select the most suitable one with respect to the particular requirements of their institution [11]. The procedure is independent of the solutions considered; it can be applied for any class of strategy, be it migration or emulation or different approaches. The method follows a variation of utility analysis to support multi-criteria decision making procedures in digital preservation planning. The selection procedure leads to well-documented, well-argued and transparent decisions that can be reproduced and revisited at a later point in time. The planning tool Plato [12] supports, documents, and automates the decision procedure and produces a preservation plan as result. The Planets project has defined a preservation plan as follows [11].
"A preservation plan defines a series of preservation actions to be taken by a responsible institution due to an identified risk for a given set of digital objects or records (called collection). The Preservation Plan takes into account the preservation policies, legal obligations, organizational and technical constraints, user requirements and preservation goals and describes the preservation context, the evaluated preservation strategies and the resulting decision for one strategy, including the reasoning for the decision. It also specifies a series of steps or actions (called preservation action plan) along with responsibilities and rules and conditions for execution on the collection. Provided that the actions and their deployment as well as the technical environment allow it, this action plan is an executable workflow definition."
The planning workflow that leads to the preservation plan prescribes four phases:
The first phase 'Define requirements' documents constraints and influence factors on potential preservation strategies. It then continues with a thorough description of the collection and the chosen sample objects from that collection, and concludes with the definition of the complete set of requirements. At the end of this phase the planner has a detailed and exact understanding of the collection and the preservation goals. The elicitation of the institution's requirements is the core activity in the planning workflow and is vital, as the requirements co-determine the optimal preservation action within the institution's context. Not all university libraries or national libraries, for instance, share the same objectives.
The second phase 'Evaluate alternatives' starts with discovering potential preservation actions (alternatives) that are then evaluated in a quantitative way. Controlled experiments are carried out, applying the alternatives to the defined sample objects and analysing the outcomes with respect to the requirements. The result of this phase is an evidence base that underlies all decisions to be taken in the subsequent phases.
In the third phase 'Analyze results', the results of the experiments are analysed and aggregated. The result of this phase is a ranked list of alternatives wherein the alternative with the highest performance value presents the recommended preservation action.
In the final phase 'Build preservation plan', based on the recommended preservation action, a preservation plan is created that corresponds to the Develop Packaging Designs & Migration Plans functionality in the OAIS model [13].
The planning process
With the help of the preservation-planning tool Plato, we followed the previously described workflow. In this article, we describe the work we've done and the sample objects we've chosen, as well as discuss the requirements, considered alternatives, experiment settings, and results of our work.
Description of the collection
We created the preservation plan for one of the largest digital collections within the library. The collection was digitized in the course of a project funded by the DFG between 2007 and 2009. The project aimed at digitizing, indexing, delivering and preserving all 16th century prints (1518-1600) in the German language held by BSB. It was initiated within the context of the DFG campaign as the first mass digitization project of German cultural heritage.
About 60 % of the prints were scanned automatically in-house with Scan-Robots® in order to achieve an efficient throughput under BSB's strict conservational requirements and with a high-quality digitization output of early prints. During the project about 21.000 volumes with more than four million pages (around 72 TB) were digitised. Nevertheless, this collection displays a very homogenous compilation of digitized images. All master files are TIFF uncompressed (version 6.0) with a resolution of 300 ppi. The prints were scanned in colour with 24-bit colour depth. To gain the best colour fidelity using any output device (e.g., for cross-media publishing), along with every image we store an adequate ICC-colour profile. Copies for web-access are JPEG-files. In addition, sharpness and colour target are scanned and displayed on one selected page of each digitized volume, in order to enable additional visual examination. All digitized images of the project are run through different quality control procedures after the scanning process, and only if the images comply with MDZ standards, are the files transferred into the archival storage at LRZ.
During the semi-automated production process, the bibliographic, technical, administrative and structural information of each volume is stored with our electronic publishing framework ZEND (Zentrale Erfassungs- und Nachweisdatenbank), which is based on Open-Source Software, in a separate XML file based on TEI P5, which we use for the correct access of the images (physical and logical structure of the images are mostly not congruent). The technical metadata of the images are always stored representatively for the whole volume on the 11th page of each volume. When substantial progress has been made in the development of gothic font recognition, we plan to integrate automatic OCR-extraction (reusing the archived digital master files). As a partner in the IMPACT project, we expect a step forward will be made in the future in OCR development for 16th century prints [14].
Based on an analysis of the collection's profile, we chose six sample objects stratified across file size and content. The smallest image has a size of around 11 MB and the largest one has an image size around 30 MB. All of them have TIFF properties embedded, such as the artist, a timestamp and the software used for scanning.
The requirements concerning the collection
At the heart of the preservation-planning approach are the requirements the optimal preservation solution must meet. We conducted a requirements elicitation workshop that involved stakeholders from the head of the digital library and digitization services, digitization and preservation experts, and employees from the library and the LRZ. We followed a top-down approach and started with the high-level objectives: Technical characteristics (of the target format), Object characteristics, Costs, and Process characteristics. Figure 1 illustrates the requirements tree at which we finally arrived, based on those high-level objectives and broken down to measurable criteria. The entire process of defining the requirements is influenced by numerous factors, including standards, legal constraints, and user and organizational requirements and policies. Some of the requirements are:
We created the requirements tree during the elicitation workshop using the open source tool Freemind. The resulting tree with the requirements and measurement scales can be uploaded to Plato and used for subsequent steps.
Potential preservation actions
Following the BSB policies we considered four open source tools that are able to perform TIFF to JPEG 2000 migration using lossless compression. We also included 'Keep status quo' in the evaluation, since at present there is no particular risk associated with TIFF uncompressed. Therefore leaving the collection untouched is a viable option. Table 1 gives a list of the five alternatives with the parameters we used for the actual migration.
Table 1: Alternatives considered for evaluation using the four listed software tools
Experiment setting and evaluation of outcome
The BSB experiments have been conducted on a Windows XP SP2 machine with 2 GB of RAM and an Intel® Core 2 Duo CPU at 1.40 GHz. Consequently, the Windows version of the alternatives described above has been installed and run on the sample objects.
ImageMagick and GraphicksMagick are both in the Planets service registry [15] that is integrated into Plato. Experiments with both tools could thus be executed via web services, which facilitated experiment set-up, execution, and comparison of the original and the migrated file using JHove. Plato displays both JHove trees side by side, thereby allowing a thorough examination of file characteristics.
After having conducted the experiments we evaluated how well the migration tools preserved our defined requirements. This was done based on the requirements specified in the objective tree.
Results and conclusion
Based on the evaluation and possible outcome that is transformed to a uniform scale between 0.0 and 5.0 (0.0 means unacceptable) for each requirement, Plato gives a ranked list of the alternatives. This can be observed in Figure 2, which shows the aggregated performance values for each of the high-level objectives. Alternatives at the root level obtain the overall performance value and thus inform the planner which alternative meets the requirements best.
In this evaluation 'Keep status quo' excels over all other alternatives and is thus our recommended preservation action. The alternative, migrating from TIFF to JPEG 2000, was ruled out with GraphicsMagick, because the tool was not able to leave the image unaltered. The direct pixels comparison, using both GraphicksMagick's and ImageMagick's compare functionality, indicated that pixels had been changed during migration from TIFF to JPEG 2000. In the transformation we defined this requirement as a drop-out criterion, as the tool must be able to fulfill this requirement.
A detailed analysis of the result tree in Plato (partly displayed in Figure 2) reveals that none of the tools was able to sufficiently fulfill our object characteristics requirements (see Figure 1):
The same counts for technical characteristics.
Consequently, at this point in time not migrating the TIFF v6 images is the best alternative. However, in one year we'll look at this plan again to see if there are more tools available and whether or not the ones we considered in this year's evaluation have been improved. Furthermore, by then JPEG 2000 might be better supported by browsers. This would enable us to use the master copy as the access copy as well, which would reduce total memory consumption and the number of data files to be managed in the repository, since our 2 - 3 access copies would become obsolete. Both of these situations could change the recommended preservation action.
One option may be extracting the ICC profiles as well as the embedded metadata and storing them as a separate file. Because this would mean a change in the established workflow and a significantly large change to the archival system, a detailed evaluation would need to be done. Once this evaluation has been done, we will revisit the current plan.
A cost evaluation of our preservation plan will certainly be necessary. Direct storage costs are decreasing, but detailed process and cost models regarding the complete life cycle of a digital object are still being worked on, and it is not possible to make precise statements about costs at this time.
All the trigger conditions mentioned above have been captured in Plato and are an important part of the preservation plan.
Designing this preservation plan showed very clearly that preservation planning is an indispensable function that every content-holding institution like BSB with a mandate for long-term preservation shall practice. Preservation planning is a process that should take into account the institution's individual requirements and policies, and should never simply be adopted from the plan of another institution. In fact, every institution individually must decide how to proceed within its particular environment.
1) The objectives of the cooperative project between the BSB and the LRZ are the improvement of the organisational-technical infrastructure that has been developed as a pilot-system within the DFG-project "Long-Term preservation of Web Publications" with the aim of building a trustworthy and scalable digital archive as part of a national network for digital preservation, and the evaluation of the overall system BABS, the "System for Archiving and Access" (http://www.babs-muenchen.de). The project is funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).
[1] Paolo Buonora, and Franco Liberati. A Format for Digital Preservation of Images. A Study on JPEG 2000 File Robustness. D-Lib Magazine. Volume 14 Number 7/8, 2007. Available at <doi:10.1045/july2008-buonora>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
[2] Further information on JPEG 2000 may be found at <http://www.jpeg.org/jpeg2000/>.
[3] Rob�rt Gillesse, Judith Rog, Astrid Verheusen. Alternative File Formats for Storing Master Images of Digitisation Projects, v. 2.0. Den Haag: Koninklijke Bibliotheek, March 2008. Available at: <http://www.kb.nl/hrd/dd/dd_links_en_publicaties/publicaties/Alternative File Formats for Storing Masters 2 1.pdf>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
[4] Planetarium. The News Bulletin of the Planets Programme. Issue 7, July 2009. Available at: <http://www.planets-project.eu/docs/newsletters/Planetarium7_July09.pdf>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
[5] Bavarian State Library: <http://www.bsb-muenchen.de>.
[6] Stephan Strodl, Christoph Becker, Robert Neumayer, and Andreas Rauber. How to choose a digital preservation strategy: Evaluating a preservation planning procedure. In Proceedings of the 7th ACM IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL'07), pages 29-38, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 2007, <doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1255175.1255181>.
[7] German Research Association: <http://www.dfg.de/en/index.html>.
[8] Munich Digitization Centre: <http://www.digital-collections.de>.
[9] Leibniz supercomputing centre: <http://www.lrz-muenchen.de>.
[10] English version of the Nestor criteria catalogue: <http://www.nbn-resolving.de/?urn:nbn:de:0008-2006060703>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
[11] Hans Hofman, Planets-PP subproject, Christoph Becker, Stephan Strodl, Hannes Kulovits, and Andreas Rauber. Preservation plan template. Technical report, The Planets project, 2008. Available at <http://www.ifs.tuwien.ac.at/dp/plato/docs/plan-template.pdf>.
[12] Christoph Becker, Hannes Kulovits , Andreas Rauber, and Hans Hofman. Plato: A service oriented decision support system for preservation planning. In Proceedings of the 8th ACM IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries (JCDL'08), pages 367-370, 2008, <doi:http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1378889.1378954>.
[13] ISO. Open archival information system Reference model (ISO 14721:2003). International Standards Organization, 2003.
[14] For further information for the EU-project IMPACT (Improving access to text), see <http://www.impact-project.eu/>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
[15] Planets external deliverable PA3/D5: Report on Glossary and PA tool registry. <http://www.planets-project.eu/docs/reports/Planets_PA3-D5_Report_Glossary_Registry2.pdf.>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
[16] The Wellcome Library: <http://wellcomelibrary.blogspot.com/2009/09/wellcome-library-to-use-jpeg2000-image.html>. (Accessed: November 5th, 2009.)
Copyright © 2009 Hannes Kulovits, Andreas Rauber, Anna Kugler, Markus Brantl, Tobias Beinert, and Astrid Schoger
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Jaguar F-Type on the prowl in ArizonaTue, 11 Sep 2012
A few weeks ago, we showed you photos of a camouflaged Jaguar F-Type testing in Colorado. Now, Autoweek reader Kyle Lathrop has captured another F-Type in action on Route 66 in Arizona.
The large "F-Type.com" sticker on the passenger side of the roadster isn't the only clue that this isn't the same car caught in Colorado. Dual exhaust tips in the center of the rear diffuser suggest that this is the 3.0-liter, 380-hp supercharged V6-powered iteration of the vehicle. The other spied F-Type had four exhaust tips, hinting at the 5.0-liter naturally aspirated V8 under its hood.
We won't be seeing many non-camouflaged F-Types on American roads until the cars go on sale in 2013, but count on seeing it in our coverage of the upcoming Paris Motor Show, where we'll fill you in on all the details of the sleek roadster.
By Graham Kozak

subset: commoncrawl


text: Hi, Thanks to Falko the ispconfig working fine for https://mydomain.dom:81 and https://client.dom:81 when access through LAN. The problem starts when it is access from outside NAT/Firewall. The access to https fails with no page found. I have allowed the firewall and NAT to forward port 81 and https and http to the ispconfig server yet the problem still exists. Please note that http://mydomain.dom and http://client.dom is working does not matter where I access it from. Please help, my ispconfig server is behind NAT/firewall. It is fedora core 4 on AMD 64 X2 machine. Will appreciate your kind help. thanks Dhiman


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Scheme is a latently-typed language; this means that the system cannot, in general, determine the type of a given expression at compile time. Types only become apparent at run time. Variables do not have fixed types; a variable may hold a pair at one point, an integer at the next, and a thousand-element vector later. Instead, values, not variables, have fixed types.
In order to implement standard Scheme functions like
pair? and
string? and provide garbage collection, the representation of
every value must contain enough information to accurately determine its
type at run time. Often, Scheme systems also use this information to
determine whether a program has attempted to apply an operation to an
inappropriately typed value (such as taking the
car of a string).
Because variables, pairs, and vectors may hold values of any type, Scheme implementations use a uniform representation for values — a single type large enough to hold either a complete value or a pointer to a complete value, along with the necessary typing information.
The following sections will present a simple typing system, and then make some refinements to correct its major weaknesses. We then conclude with a discussion of specific choices that Guile has made regarding garbage collection and data representation.


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Learning about various cuts can make shopping for beef a much easier experience. A general knowledge of beef cuts and how they are best used will help you select the proper cut for a particular recipe. Important points to learn are:
The most tender cuts come from the loin and the rib. They should be cooked with high heat methods such as broiling, roasting, grilling, sautéing, and frying. Cuts from the round, chuck, brisket, plate, and flank are the least tender and are best suited for moist heat cooking methods such as braising/ pot-roasting, stewing, and steaming.
Various cuts of beef may differ in name between different countries and even in different regions of the same country, so it can be confusing. For example, in the United States, the rear section of the carcass is known as the round, but in Canada, the same section is called the hip. A more thorough description of beef cuts can be found in Cuts of Beef.


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Today we are sharing our very last sketch for June, incredible how quickly this month came and went! Here is your sketch....
And here is your Team B inspiration!
If you are playing along with more than one challenge you will need to link each of them up via a separate blog post for the link up tool to work. (International participants may be required to pay some shipping fees.) Good luck, we cannot wait to see what you create!
*note - If you are playing along using Flickr the team will no longer be leaving comments, due to changes in Flickr policies and passwords. However, we will be checking out your entries for sure and you are definitely eligible for the prize draw. Our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.
Thanks for visiting!
Your friends at ScrapMuch?!


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Sprint briefs employees on Apple's iPhone 4 ahead of Oct. launch
Sales associates with Sprint have been briefed on the imminent launch of the iPhone 4 on their network, TUAW reported on Tuesday. The associates have reportedly been told that Sprint will offer the iPhone 4 starting next month with standard data plans that include a $10 data smartphone premium not specific to the iPhone.
However, the information relayed by the sales associate also contradicts a report last month from The Wall Street Journal. The associate reportedly said that Sprint will not gain access to Apple's fifth-generation iPhone until 2012, likely in early spring, while the Journal reported in August that Sprint would sell the so-called "iPhone 5" at launch along with AT&T and Verizon in the U.S.
"The associate also suggested that Sprint will carry a 4G iPad, though launch dates and pricing were still unknown," Erica Sadun wrote. "Of course, Sprint already sells 4G access for the iPad via its external mobile 4G WiFi product; maybe that's what the briefing referenced."
Sprint, like Verizon, would require a CDMA version of the iPhone. Apple debuted a CDMA variant of the iPhone 4 this February, where it has been the top-selling smartphone ever since.
Currently in the U.S. the iPhone 4 is only available through AT&T, where it launched last June, and Verizon. Sprint is the third-largest carrier in the U.S., but without the iPhone, the company has struggled to compete with AT&T and Verizon.
The last of the "big four" carriers in the U.S. is T-Mobile, which AT&T hopes to acquire for $39 billion. But AT&T faces an uphill battle for regulatory approval, as the U.S. government has filed an antitrust suit to block the deal, saying it would hurt competition in the American wireless industry. Sprint has also opposed the deal with its own lawsuit.


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Picture may not represent actual vehicle. Price varies based on Trim Levels and Options. See Dealer for in-stock inventory and actual selling price. All prices plus tax, title & license with approved credit. MSRP includes delivery, processing, and handling fees. Dealer doc fee of $425 not included in the price. Prices may be different outside of each advertised period and do not necessarily reflect cash price at any other time. Inventory is subject to prior sale. We are not responsible for typographical, technical, or misprint errors. Please contact us directly via phone or email to verify all information.
While we make every effort to ensure the data listed here is correct, there may be instances where some of the pricing, options or vehicle features may be listed incorrectly as we get data from multiple data sources. Please confirm the details of this vehicle with the dealer to ensure its accuracy. Dealer cannot be held liable for data that is listed incorrectly.
Virtual Inventory, Available Configurations and In-Transit inventory contains vehicles that have not actually been manufactured. These vehicles show consumers sample vehicles that may be available. Pricing, Options, Color and other data pertaining to these vehicles are provided for example only. All information pertaining to these vehicles should be independently verified through the dealer.


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A crime paper flourishes by printing mug shots
Isaac Cornetti, aka 'Dash Dangerfield,' finds an audience for 'The Slammer' in North Carolina – a publication that some think provides a public service but others call an unethical crime rag.
| Raleigh, N.C.
Looking like a "Goodfellas"-era Ray Liotta, Isaac Cornetti strolls into the Raleigh Times restaurant here in a faded corduroy jacket. He's carrying a stack of his famous – and infamous – tabloid newspaper, The Slammer.
Patrons grab copies. Some chuckle, some hunch over newsprint, and some simply gawk as they scan rows upon rows of mug shots and rap sheets in a frenzy that would spark envy in the hearts of newspaper publishers nationwide.
If "Jerry Springer" came in newsprint, The Slammer could be it – a garish compilation of the week's local crimes and their alleged perpetrators. The men and women, with their dour mugs, bloodied noses, and booze-induced grins, have been arrested for everything from skipping a court date to robbing a food mart. It is, in essence, the local police blotter writ large.
To devoted readers, The Slammer and similar publications – like Cellmates in Florida's Tampa Bay area and Jail in Orlando – perform a valuable public service, putting the gritty side of life on display and even protecting the community from predatory criminals.
"It really lets you know what's going on around you," says Omar Williams, a Raleigh bail bondsman who advertises every week in The Slammer and – no surprise – reaches a lot of clients through its pages. "You could see your best friend in there for forging checks or selling cocaine, and he's driving around in the car with you, and you don't know this stuff."
Critics, on the other hand, see the papers as sensational, tawdry, and ethically dubious – a modern form of the "crime rags" that flourished in the heyday of early 20th-century yellow journalism. "This is a sad commentary on the state of American journalism," says Bob Steele, a journalism ethics expert at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla. "It's really painful to know that so many publications are struggling terribly and something as schlocky as this is succeeding."
And succeeding it is. At a time when dozens of US newspapers are searching for buyers and for cash, The Slammer's newsstand profit margin is four times that of most local dailies, and its circulation has grown to 29,000 – up nearly 50 percent from 20,000 just last year. At more than 500 convenience stores across North Carolina, it's selling at a buck a pop.
In fact, the chief complaints the weekly paper gets come from perps complaining that their photos didn't get printed. In February, the paper will expand its operations from three major North Carolina counties – including the cities of Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham – to add Columbus, Ohio.
Mr. Cornetti – "Dash Dangerfield" on the masthead – is a 30-something publisher with a thick shock of hair and a Philip Marlowe fascination with America's "simmering undercurrent of low-level crime." To him, The Slammer offers entertainment and, yes, social value as well, tracing the thin line many Americans tread between upstanding behavior and the occasional lapse into lawlessness.
"You look at this paper, and you're amazed by the amount of illegal stuff going on in what you thought was a sleepy little city," he says, referring to Raleigh. "The appeal is voyeurism and schadenfreude, and it has some redeeming qualities, too, like helping people protect themselves, their families, and their businesses."
Cornetti, the son of a well-to-do Smithfield, N.C., family, spent a lot of time in courtrooms as a kid: His mother worked at the courthouse, and during Cornetti's middle-school summers, he spent days watching lawyers and judges, then went home to watch "Law and Order," "Perry Mason," and "Matlock."
In his late teens and early 20s, he ran afoul of the law himself, and spent a year serving time for drug and larceny charges involving marijuana and a stolen TV. After that, he says, he grew interested in practicing law, and took the LSAT in 2004 in hopes of becoming a criminal attorney.
Instead, he took a series of entrepreneurial jobs in sales and software, then read about Jail (the Orlando-based publication) on a business trip and was inspired. He hopes The Slammer can become "the kind of wake-up call that I wish I'd had when I was younger."
To some extent, that may be happening: Some readers claim they've thought twice about drinking and driving, for fear of ending up in The Slammer. And Slammer readers have helped Charlotte police locate several felons with major warrants, Cornetti says.
Even when arrests turn out not to be justified, Cornetti insists, The Slammer can do some good. A Charlotte lawyer who is in the process of trying to settle a case with the police department for what he says was a wrongful arrest recently contacted him. The client had appeared in The Slammer.
"Obviously we won't run a correction," says Cornetti of cases like these. "But we'd be happy to tell a client's story.... If people are being arrested unlawfully, The Slammer is going to be a barometer for that."
A die-hard reader of the Sunday New York Times, Cornetti is modest in his assessment of his own publication, which is produced by a staff of 12. "I don't think [The Slammer] deserves the 'journalism' title," he says. "But we do try to present research and we hope that when [readers are] finished with the newspapers, they've learned something."
More colorful and more professionally produced than its counterparts, The Slammer's eclectic spread includes features such as the "Slammer Salon" of crazy arrest-night hairdos; a "mug shot extravanganza [sic]" of the bleary-eyed; the "Kiddie Korner" of busted young adults; and "Mature Menaces," featuring senior alleged larcenists and check forgers. A Wendell, N.C., woman was singled out for repeated driving violations, becoming a recent edition's "featured impaired driver."
"Oh, Monique," the text goes, "Aren't you feeling weak? So upset you can hardly speak? Knightdale Police done punched your card. Now from walking you'll be 'tard' [tired]. Left-right-left-right."
Shakespeare it's not. But to fans of such tabloids, like St. Petersburg, Fla., resident Courtney Doerr, a regular reader of Cellmates, they're "street poetry." And The Slammer runs more sober pieces, too: A recent editorial came down against the death penalty.
Even some police officials see little difference between the role of The Slammer and those of more prestigious media outlets. These modern crime rags "may well be reaching some readers that the daily circulation papers don't on a regular basis," says Jim Sughrue, a spokesman for the Raleigh Police Department. "I would say there's a value to these publications."
But critics say ridiculing people who remain innocent in the eyes of the Constitution is the definition of unethical. "They're basically creating a miniature billboard in which these individuals are named and visually identified, often pejoratively, in a way that does not give them a fair hearing," says Mr. Steele at Poynter.
Indeed, Mike Hoyt, editor of the Columbia Journalism Review in New York, calls the publications barely a "step up from the stocks."
But Randall Brown has a different take. An avid reader of Cellmates, Mr. Brown is also a regular feature: He claims he's been in Cellmates 10 times, all for misdemeanor alcohol violations, and he doesn't mind the publicity. In his view, all of us are just a banana peel-slip away from arrest. "Everybody makes mistakes – the Bible says so," he says. "People love to gossip."
That love of gossip and the longing to know – drives older than newsprint itself – may be Cornetti's most reliable sales force. Philip Isley, a lawyer and Raleigh city councilor, likens The Slammer to "our own little 'Entertainment Tonight' weekly."
"Clearly, there's a morbid desire for people to know exactly what's going on criminally in the community," he says, suggesting that awareness "can have a great deterrent effect, notwithstanding the thrillseekers who enjoy seeing their mug shot in print."
Back at the Raleigh Times restaurant, where Cornetti is a minor celebrity, one group of barstool readers is trying to determine if a friend's boyfriend, who supposedly got arrested recently, is in the paper. Cornetti gets up for a few minutes and returns to the table. He nods back toward the server, who had eagerly grabbed The Slammer when he came in. "She just told me she was in it in May," he says.
Apparently, she harbored no hard feelings.


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Archived – Hidden Monster by Amanda Strong
~ Schedule ~
November 4th:
- Jaidis @ Juniper Grove
- Laurie @ Laurie's Paranormal Thoughts and Reviews
- Kristy @ Kristy Centeno
- CCAM @ Mythical Books
- Patricia @ Room With Books
- Jude @ Platypire Reviews
- Dowie @ Dowie's Place
- Sarit @ Coffee, Books & Art
- Kristin @ Second Book to the Right
- Susan @ Susan Heim on Writing
- Katrina @ Trina's Tantilising Tidbits
- Kristy @ Keep Calm and Write On
- Deborah @ Written by Deb
- Dani @ Paulette's Papers
- Pam @ The Book Lovers' Lounge
- Amber @ The Wonderings of One Person
- Victoria @ Victoria's Pages of Romance
- Amber G. @ Lady Amber's Reviews
- Andrea @ Adventures in All Things Food & Family
- Kelly @ Reviewing in Chaos
- Kathleen @ Celticlady's Reviews
~ About the Book ~
Title: Hidden Monster
Series: The Monsters Among Us Book 1
Author: Amanda Strong
To Be Published: November 4th, 2014
Page Count: 297
Genre: YA Mature Paranormal Romance
Content Warning: Violence, minor language, and adult themes
Age Recommendation: 16+
~ Synopsis ~
For seventeen-year-old Samantha Campbell, running back woods trails usually means freedom from her less-than-perfect life. That is, until the day a morning run turns into a living nightmare. When Samantha wakes up to find herself bound to a dirty, pinstriped mattress, she realizes she's anything but free. With a masked abductor repeatedly injecting her arm with an unknown substance while holding her captive, Samantha tries in vain to find out what he wants, but he refuses to speak. Until the day he breaks his silence and his twisted words are worse than what she'd imagined. He promises her one day she will fall in love with him but the best part will be that she won't know who he is… until it's too late.
Finding herself freed from captivity, with her captor still at large, Samantha is on guard against everything and everyone around her. Unfortunately, walling up her heart proves difficult when eighteen-year-old Blake Knightley moves in next door. When Samantha starts experiencing strange changes within her, she realizes her captor may have left her more damaged than she originally thought. Now she must turn to Blake for help in order to unearth the truth behind the monster who started this all… or risk experiencing worse things than just falling in love.
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GoodReads
~ About the Author ~
Born in Dekalb, Illinois, Amanda Strong has called Utah, Arizona, Hawaii, Virginia and now New Mexico home. Amanda has been spinning tales since she was a child. Her family still remembers finding young Amanda with her bright pink glasses, hiding in random corners of the house while scribbling away in one of her many spiral-bound notebooks. You could say that some things never change since Amanda is still writing today. Amanda began her writing career when she uploaded The Awakener, her first full-length novel, on Wattpad where it received over 430,000 reads in four weeks. She was blown away and humbled by the reader support and feedback she received. Because of The Awakener's success as a non-published book, she was asked to talk on 1400 KSTAR about her story.
In September 2013 Amanda Strong signed with Clean Teen Publishing. The Awakener is the first book in an all-new young adult paranormal romance series called: The Watchers of Men.
When Amanda isn't writing, you can find her chasing her three rambunctious children around the house and spending time with her wonderful and supportive husband. On some occasions you can still find Amanda with her not-so-pink glasses, hiding in a corner reading her favorite young adult fantasy novels or working out only to blow her diet by eating ice cream.
Amazon Author Page | Facebook | Twitter | GoodReads
~ Excerpt ~
Step, step, breathe, breathe, step, step, breathe, breathe. My shoes kept a steady rhythm with my burning lungs. I veered off my regular path, opting to hear the crunch of the leaves beneath my feet. The image of my mom's disapproving face was ignored as I leapt across a gurgling brook. Breathe, breathe, crunch, crunch.
If I wasn't mountain biking, I was running. I craved speed and freedom. I had to escape the oppressive perfection of living in the Campbell home. Thinking of my two older sisters, one model and the other a star volleyball player, my legs lunged, lengthening their stride. Not good at team sports and terrified by cameras, I knew my family felt my height was wasted on me.
Even Jeremy gives me a hard time.
A stitch pinched my side. Breathe, breathe. I knew I was going too fast, not pacing myself right. Something was urging me on, pushing me to scale the hill before me, and plunge deeper into the woods. I refocused on my rhythm, my inhales and exhales, and my body realigned itself, goose bumps shooting across my arms. There it is. I'd hit my second wind and I surged on, not caring where my feet led.
It's freedom! Complete and—
There was a rush of air, a whistling in my ear, and a sting to the back of my arm. Instantly, I tumbled to the ground, sliding into the damp morning dew. Cold dirt filled my nostrils as blackness enveloped me.
I heard my own labored breathing long before I realized I was somewhere in between awake and asleep. Forcing my eyes open, I gasped. My senses took everything in at once—the smell of wood shavings, the scratchy ropes on my wrists and ankles, and the pressure of the mattress beneath my body. I screamed, but the empty room with wooden floors and stacked logs for walls was empty. No one burst through the door in the corner.
Realizing it was useless and only making my throat raw, I fell silent. Panic flooded me. How did I get here? I pressed my thoughts to retrace my steps, but my mind felt sluggish. My last memory was running in the woods just before sunrise. I could still feel the burn from the autumn air hitting my lungs. Now the solitary window painted a yellow rectangle on the floor. The room felt stuffy. It's probably late afternoon. But is it the same day?
The minutes rolled slowly into hours, the silence suffocating. What had my therapist said to do when I was scared? Breathe deeply and don't panic. It was too late for that; all the years of therapy after my childhood accident were rendered useless. I'm drowning all over again. Only this time, it wasn't water filling my lungs but pure fear and terror pressing down on my chest. I gulped in dry air, my eyes burning with tears.
No one's coming to save me. A sob escaped me as the real horror of the situation washed over me. I'm tied up. Someone knows I'm here. What would happen when they came back? As the last rays of light were snuffed out by the shadows of the night, that someone came through the wooden door.
~ Giveaway ~
~ Publisher ~
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter
Stay You & Happy Reading,


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There's Something About 'Matilda'
There's Something About 'Matilda'
While pantomime performances of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are traditional English holiday entertainment fare, there's a new hit in town. Londoners are flocking to Matilda the Musical, a souped-up version of Roald Dahl's well-known children's novel, playing in London's West End.
The production by The Royal Shakespeare Company has been proclaimed the best British musical in years. But despite most of the cast being under 16, this show is certainly not just for kids.
Matilda is an unusual girl. She's a bookworm, her parents are abusive and her school headmistress is a battle-axe. That could make for a depressing story, but London audiences have been wowed by Matilda's determination not to be repressed.
To help tell her story, the Royal Shakespeare Company engaged British playwright Dennis Kelley to adapt the novel and Tim Minchin, one of Australia's top comedians, to write the music and lyrics.
If you're familiar with Minchin's work, you'll know that music is an essential part of his comedy. But there's a big difference between an hour-long comedy routine and a full-length musical that tells a story. Minchin says he was ready for the challenge.
"The idea of spending two years trying to make a children's story into something that makes kids and grownups laugh and cry ... I love it," he says.
As Minchin wrote the 17-song score, he realized he had a lot in common with Roald Dahl.
"He liked mucking around with words, doing stupid rhymes, being a bit naughty — all those things I do in my comedy," Minchin says.
Matt Wolf, a writer for the International Herald Tribune, says Tim Minchin's approach was just what London audiences and critics were looking for. He says theater-goers were tired of Andrew Lloyd Webber revivals.
"With Tim Minchin, that was totally out of left-field — looking toward the world of comedy and Australian comedy, too — to write a show that in many ways is so quintessentially English," Wolf says. "I think his score is a major achievement. It's not imitative or suggestive of anyone else. It has its own flavor, texture, wit, energy."
From songs about growing up and carrying heavy burdens to being a child and making mischief, the score captures both 5-year-old Matilda's precocity and her very child-like inability to express her feelings, especially when she realizes she has psycho-kinetic powers.
"I had this build up because I wanted to talk about the moment when she does magic with her eyes," he says. "She has this realization that maybe she's not normal."
In that moment, Minchin says, Matilda's in a panic. Someone's shouting at her and he says her brain is fizzing.
"She's trying to work through this idea that everything's relative and she can't be objective about her own mind," he says. "I wrote the first half and then I thought, 'What is it? What does she feel?' And then I stumbled on this idea that actually what she craves in her life is for everyone to just shhhhh."
Anyone who wants to adapt Dahl's work for stage or screen must get permission from his widow, who sets strict criteria. Despite Matilda's success, the estate's managing director, Amanda Conquy, says the estate was initially cautious about saying yes.
"There were films being developed over the past 10 years and we were very occupied, happily, on those," she says. "We've steered rather clear of musicals because we know they have an incredible capacity to go wrong."
Conquy says she's glad that the production has been so successful. There's even talk of taking Matilda to Broadway.
London audiences can get their Dahl fix with another musical adaptation of his work next year, when filmmaker Sam Mendes directs the stage adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.


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[page 109, column 1:]
(To the Editor of THE DIAL.)
A writer who is a "logic machine," who is marked by "lack of humor "and "deficient knowledge of human nature," is hardly fitted to secure lodgment in the American heart, though he be "the greatest intellect America has produced — assuredly the best artist." The writer on Poe, in your issue of Jan. 16, should hardly wonder at the rejection of such a writer, however he may regret it. But, as he seems to remain puzzled by the fact, it may be worth while to point out two peculiarities of the writings of Poe, pervading them all, though more noticeable [column 2:] in his prose tales than in his poems, — peculiarities which, as I happen to know, have prevented some readers who fully appreciate his marvellous mastery of literary form from taking much delight in him.
He is astonishingly unrealistic: it is utterly impossible to persuade oneself to care much for the outcome of his fictions, because we cannot bring ourselves to that degree of faith in them which is necessary for sympathy. A rapid review of a few typical tales will make this plain; and it will be most satisfactory to select for that purpose the seven tales lately edited by Professor Perry — for Poe is entitled to be judged by his best.
No house ever fell after the manner of the "Fall of the House of Usher"; the assertion is true of the story as a whole, and of the details generally, from the queer observations made by the narrator as he approached the house to its final sinking. The weakness of "Ligeia" lies not in its being a study of an impossible problem — the return to life, in another person's body, of a woman long dead, — but in the unreality of the scenery amid which, following his usual taste, the struggle is located. The process by which the victim in "The Cask of Amontillado" is lured to his doom is certainly thought out by a "logic machine," but the only motive for the horrible crime is the difference between being injured and insulted, — disposed of in one sentence of twenty-one words. To secure for the story that moderate amount of credence which is required for fiction, the author should have enlarged upon the insult enough to make it seem possible that such revenge could be taken by a human being. Shakespeare did not lead up to the murder of Desdemona by saying in one short sentence that Othello suspected Cassio. A similar absence of reported motive makes it impossible to sympathize with the couple who made an "Assignation" to meet in suicide. We could care for them by first getting to have faith in them; we might actually wish that their proposed elopement from life might not be thwarted, if we knew enough about their past lives and relationships to feel that they had indeed become inseparable. The "Manuscript found in a Bottle" reports dream-storms and dream-waves. The particular "Black Cat" of the tale has a way of coming to life after being killed that reminds us of the other cat which, the day after being beheaded, appeared at the door carrying its head in its mouth. The investigations of the hero of "The Gold Bug," though certainly told by a perfect "logic machine," carry not the slightest conviction, as is discovered by the reader who notices that he remains perfectly passive; he does not share the excitement of the digger for the hid treasure, — does not care whether the spade turns up gold or sand. And as to the cryptogram, we all feel from the very start that it is a "put-up job."
This strange lack of realism, or naturalness, in all Poe's writings — for it characterizes his poetry also — doubtless results from his "deficient knowledge of human nature." And "this effect defective comes by cause." It is originally due to a deficient interest in morals. It is a sort and a degree of deficiency that becomes a defect in art; for it is severe criticism on a man's artistic quality to assert that his work is not so grounded on the passions of mankind as to carry the reader through to the end with a vitalizing interest in the outcome. This assertion of the artistic importance of morals is frequently misunderstood: it has become almost a fashion to misinterpret it. It is supposed to imply only a desire for didactic morality; but it is simply a demand for moral motive as the impelling power of human action. [page 110:] We do not demand of Poe, or of any other literary man, that he write goody-goody tales, that he aim to show "young persons" how to live, or mistake Sunday-school books for a high type of literature. We only rememember [[remember]] that men are supremely interested in the moral aspects of life, so that the way to interest one's fellows is to appeal to moral motives. It is a maxim of art, which should be familiar to every artist in whatsoever medium he works, that the moral creates enthusiasm and so secures belief. In point of fact, literary illusion is obtained by moral warmth rather than by clear-cut logical consistency.
The absence of the moral element from Poe's writings will appear the moment one attempts to state the subjects of his tales in moral terms. Shakespeare's "Macbeth" is a study of the effect upon a man under temptation of the assurance that he can succeed by crime — the co-working of fatalism and ill-desire. Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" works out the results of impatience with a slight blemish in what is otherwise perfect. The "Fall of the House of Usher" might have shown how gloomy anticipations tend to fulfil themselves, if the author had not involved stone and mortar in the ruin. The problem of "Ligeia" — the victory of will over death, — can be stated, and there would have been a satisfactory basis for the action, if Poe could have kept to the subject — if he had not, as is his wont, over-emphasized the eyes, the squirming draperies, and other such details, and if he had not confused all moral sense by the notion that there was something criminal in taking a bride into such an apartment. If the murder included in "The Black Cat" is not utterly motiveless, it is at least to be hoped that a long time must pass before men take to wife-murder with no more rational promptings thereto. Comparison of "The Gold Bug" with Stevenson's "Treasure Island" reveals at once the defect in Poe: Stevenson leads his reader gradually up to interest in the success of the quest, and arouses a distinctly moral prejudice, to which much of our interest is due; we take sides against the party among whom are to be found some of the most cruel of the pirates who had by murder and pillage gathered the treasure.
I do not care to weigh against each other Poe's wonderful linguistic perfection and his weakness in that part of art which has to do with the gathering and marshalling of fact and motives. I only wish to remind those who are charmed by his mastery of the resources of speech that it is vain to expect our people, for the present at least, to overlook the absence of moral motive and of consequent realism. For the present: if the time ever comes when the creations of the opium-eater's imagination are actually born into the world and live out their careers, they will be apt to take him "home to their business and bosoms," — at least they will admire the prophetic genius which enabled him to write their biographies beforehand.
Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 7, 1899.
It may be noted that the criticsm of Poe's works as lacking a moral perspective has often been used in arguing against the merits of Poe's works, although it may reasonably be interpreted more as a failing of the reader than of the author (see David Hirsch, "Poe as Moralist: 'The Cask of Amontillado' and the Transvaluation of Values,' Baltimore: The Edgar Allan Poe Society, 1998). A world in which everything could be assigned "moral motives" has long since passed — if it ever existed at all. (Do "moral motives" explain the Inquisition, the crusades, slavery, or a hundred other ghastly shades of history?) It might also be mentioned that far more has been written about Poe's "The Gold-Bug" than Stevenson's "Treasure Island." The passing of decades has not sustained the concerns related here by A. C. Barrows, although a few more modern critics, such as Harold Bloom, continue to repeat them.
[S:1 - DIAL, 1899] - Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore - A Poe Bookshelf - **title** (**initials**, 1899)


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Was Timothy a pastor or an evangelist?
The term "pastoral epistles" is used to designate the three epistles or letters addressed to Timothy and Titus (1 and 2 Timothy, and Titus). Though addressed to individuals, they are not limited to personal and private communications. They were more official in nature addressed to Timothy and Titus to guide them in matters concerning the church of Jesus Christ and its pastoral care (cf. 1 Tim. 3:15 with 2 Tim. 2:2).
The term, "pastoral," is an 18th century designation which has stuck down through the years because, though not entirely accurate, it is a somewhat fitting designation. Let me explain: This term is accurate in that these epistles are primarily devoted to church order and discipline, or polity, policies, and practice. These are concerns which are important to the pastoral well being of the church.
This term is inaccurate in the sense that Timothy and Titus were not pastor types in the present day sense of the term. a) They were official representatives of the Apostle Paul whom he dispatched to various places or churches like Ephesus and Crete to act in an official capacity to deal with special situations and meet special needs. During the interim from the time of the apostles to the more complete transition to elders and deacons, these men were sent by Paul as his apostolic representatives to deal with certain conditions and people who were threatening to hurt the work and ministries of these churches. b) Timothy and Titus undoubtedly possessed the gifts needed for pastoral ministry, and while there was an element of pastoral care in what they did (see 1 Tim. 4:8-16), they were not elders or pastors who are given by the Lord to various churches for more long-term ministries (1 Pet. 5:1f). Rather, as official delegates of Paul, they were sent to assist churches in setting up their ministries in pastoral care as with the appointing of elders (cf. Tit. 1).
All in all, the contents of these books are pastoral in nature whether they deal with personal matters or the corporate ministry of the church. They give directions to Timothy and Titus (and so also for us) for the care, conduct, order, ministry, and administration of churches or assemblies of believers. This was clearly their primary function, was pastoral in nature, and undoubtedly what Paul meant, in part at least, by "fulfill your ministry" (again, see the emphasis in 1 Tim. 4:8-16).
Related Topics: Spiritual Gifts, Character Study


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text: bmw_sailing_cup_02 By expo-engineering Posted April 3, 2017 In bmw_sailing_cup_022017-04-032017-04-03https://expo-engineering.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/logo-expo-engineering-light.pngEXPO Engineering GmbHhttps://expo-engineering.de/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/logo-expo-engineering-light.png200px200px expo-engineering Leave a Comment Antworten abbrechen Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. By using this form you agree with the storage and handling of your data by this website. *


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England: Torbay, Devon
99 Coastal Destinations Rated: In the Balance
Score: 60
The mild climate of this fertile stretch of Britain's south coast has earned it the sobriquet "English Riviera." Visitors will find here potted palm trees and "tatty-looking hotels."
Here is a representative sampling of additional anonymous comments from the panelists. They are not necessarily the views of the National Geographic Society:
"The so-called English Riviera can be something of a disappointment. Despite investment in new visitor facilities, both Torquay and Paignton feel like down-at-the-heel resorts with tatty looking hotels and B&Bs that have seen better days. Brixham retains more vitality and atmosphere, but the coastline to the south between Dartmouth and Salcombe is much more attractive."
"This area has been subject to significant erosion, and the consequences of climate change will exacerbate this situation. Appropriate management decisions must be made soon."
« Back to Full List of Destinations in the Balance
- Nat Geo Expeditions


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The Mothership
The mothership has finally returned to Earth and we need to find out what catastrophe happened to ruin its voyage. Explore the abandoned mothership in search of answers. Use your wit and puzzle-solving skills to advance through the ship. Check in periodically with your allies, Number 2 and 3, to be sure that they're still alive. Adoree' Jackson Authentic Jersey


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Supply Chain Visibility – the advantages
Do you experience some of the following issues in your supply chain?
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Editor's Note: This week, CNN TV and CNN.com will take an in-depth look at "Guns Under Fire: A CNN Special Report on Background Checks." CNN Opinion rounded up a selection of op-eds from both sides of the gun debate.
Story highlights
This week, CNN TV and CNN.com take an in-depth look at the issue of guns in America
CNN Opinion rounded up a selection of provocative op-eds from both sides of the debate
John Donohue: It's the gun manufacturers who oppose universal background checks
Rand Paul: I am compelled to stand up for the Second Amendment to bear arms
John Donohue: Why the NRA fights background checks
A more powerful NRA today is in no mood to follow the slogan of their "be reasonable" ad campaign of 14 years ago. This relatively small group – the NRA boasts that it has 4.5 million members, which is peanuts compared to the roughly 40 million AARP members – might have the political power to pull it off.
Federal law prohibits selling guns to felons or the mentally ill. Background checks are the only way to enforce that law. So, besides criminals and the insane, who could possibly oppose universal background checks?
Gun manufacturers.
They are the ones who call the shots at the NRA, and they are the most important people in the opposition. The manufacturers don't want anything that interferes with total gun sales and profits. Read more …
John J. Donohue is C. Wendell and Edith M. Carlsmith professor of law at Stanford Law School and research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Rand Paul: The government wants your gun rights
Congress is debating legislation that will limit Americans' right to keep and bear arms and infringe on the right to privacy. The Bill of Rights was made part of our Constitution explicitly to protect freedoms: the freedom of speech, protection against searches without a warrant, the right to trial by jury and the right to protect oneself with a firearm.
I am compelled to stand up for every amendment and right enumerated in the Constitution.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is attempting to push forward with gun control legislation. The chief problem I have is that nothing in this legislation would have prevented the terrible massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. I am open to ideas that would help prevent tragedies, but this legislation would not have saved us from the national heartbreak of the December school shooting. Read more …
Rand Paul is a Republican senator from Kentucky and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees.
Daniel Webster: Give gun owners what they want
The politicians called out by [Mark] Kelly and [Gabrielle] Giffords let the National Rifle Association bully them into thinking that gun owners don't want key flaws in our current gun laws fixed and that you can't win elections without the backing of the NRA. The millions of dollars the NRA spent in unsuccessful attempts to win close Senate races in swing states with high gun ownership rates – Florida, Missouri, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin – suggests that candidates can and do win despite strong NRA opposition.
The NRA portrays itself as an organization that speaks for and advocates for gun owners. The reality is that they speak for gun owners with the most extreme views and for the gun industry. A case in point is their opposition to requiring background checks for all firearm sales. Read more …
Daniel W. Webster is professor and director of the Center for Gun Policy and Research at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
James Alan Fox: Gun control or carry permit won't stop mass murder
If one thing is predictable about mass shootings, however, is that they will spark arguments from gun control advocates and gun rights groups alike. Both sides of the gun issue will probably view this tragedy [shooting at Aurora, Colorado] as one more example of why more or less gun control is the answer … and both sides will be wrong.
Tighter restrictions on gun purchasing – for example, eliminating multiple gun sales and closing the gun-show loophole – may help reduce America's gun violence problem generally, but mass murder is unlike most other forms of violent conflict.
Mass killers are determined, deliberate and dead-set on murder. They plan methodically to execute their victims, finding the means no matter what laws or other impediments the state attempts to place in their way. To them, the will to kill cannot be denied. Read more …
James Alan Fox is the Lipman Family professor of criminology, law and public policy at Northeastern University and co-author of "Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder."
William Bennett: The case for gun rights is stronger than you think
Many people agreed with me and sent me examples of their son or daughter's school that had armed security guards, police officers or school employees on the premises. Many others vehemently disagreed with me, and one dissenter even wrote that the blood of the Connecticut victims was ultimately on the hands of pro-gun rights advocates.
To that person I would ask: Suppose the principal at Sandy Hook Elementary who was killed lunging at the gunman was instead holding a firearm and was well-trained to use it. Would the result have been different? Or suppose you had been in that school when the killer entered, would you have preferred to be armed?
Evidence and common sense suggest yes. Read more …
William J. Bennett, a CNN contributor, is the author of "The Book of Man: Readings on the Path to Manhood." He was U.S. secretary of education from 1985 to 1988 and director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under President George H.W. Bush.
Peter Bergen: Gun violence is a national security issue
The proliferation of semiautomatic weapons in the hands of Americans of the types that were used in the Newtown massacre is sometimes framed as a public health issue in the United States.
There is considerable merit to the notion of treating gun violence as a public health matter. After all, homicides – around 70% of which are accomplished with firearms in the United States according to an authoritative study by the United Nations – are the 15th leading cause of death for Americans.
But framing gun control as a public health issue doesn't quite do justice to the problem. It's probably more or less inevitable that most Americans will die of cancer or a heart attack, but why is it even plausible that so many Americans in elementary schools, colleges, movie theaters and places of worship should die at the hands of young men armed with semiautomatic weapons?
Americans generally regard themselves as belonging to an exceptional nation. And in terms of living in a religiously tolerant and enormously diverse country, Americans can certainly take some justified pride. Read more …
Peter Bergen is a CNN national security analyst and author of "Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden, from 9/11 to Abbottabad" and "The Longest War: America's Enduring Conflict with al-Qaeda."
Dorothy Paugh: A mother's journey to bearing grief
I am a mother of three, and my views on guns have evolved significantly over the course of my lifetime. My husband hunts and believes strongly in his right to bear arms. But when my 25-year- old middle son Peter shot himself in a moment of despair last April, I came full circle to the harsh reality that there are almost twice as many suicides as murders by firearm across America, roughly 19,000 of the 30,000 gun deaths each year. Yet we disproportionately fear and almost exclusively talk of criminals in this national gun debate.
My introduction to guns came on a hot summer day in 1963 when my father, 53 sent us all out of the house to have an afternoon of fun at a swimming pool in Aberdeen, Maryland. He called police, wrote "I'm sorry" on a scrap of paper and shot himself in our basement. He had recently lost his job. Not knowing how he would support his family, he had calculated how much his life insurance policies would pay upon his death. It was enough for my mother to raise the five of us, who were between the ages of 5 and 15 at the time. Read more …
Dorothy Paugh lost her father to suicide by gun 50 years ago. A year ago, she lost her son for the same reason. Paugh volunteers with the Maryland chapters of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Licensed Firearm Dealers Association. Paugh's story first appeared on CNN iReport.
Tracy Scarpulla: A mother's journey to bearing arms
I am the mother of three amazing children. Before having children, I was a firm believer that guns were dangerous. But I did nothing to educate myself about guns or gun safety. I feared the unknown and the danger guns seemed to possess.
But after 10 years, I now have a gun in my home. Listening to President Obama's news conference on Thursday marking 100 days after Sandy Hook, and the whole gun control debate, prompted me to get my viewpoint across.
I married a U.S. Marine. He of course was a firm believer in his right to bear arms. This posed no issue until our son was born. I was adamant that no gun be allowed in our home, while he felt quite the opposite. We agreed on one gun locked in a safe, and his other hunting guns were stored at his parents.
Slowly over the years, I became more and more fearful of being home alone on the nights he worked, especially after I had children. Read more …
Tracy Scarpulla is a traveling nurse and a mother of three from Albany, New York. For years, she was adamant about not having a gun in the house, especially when she had children. Her husband, a Marine, is a firm believer in the right to bear arms. Scarpulla's story first appeared on CNN iReport.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors.


text:
"Room 19"
It's been so long since you've been here, and I'm dying
Is there something you would like to say?
Just drop the present on the shelf, by the flowers
And make the feeling go away
Looking back I can't recall, who was listening
When I used to walk the streets at night
Like a bird that used to sing, I was flying
I was happy all the time, and it's hard to look back
Better days and different ways I can't explain
Another song to sing it all was simplified
Don't know what it's about, what have I learned to live without?
It takes a day to live a life
I can't believe the way the world is so different
Look what the lines in my face have made
Living in my bed I'm right next to the road
The one that goes the other way, takes me to a different place
Did you know, that I was just as young as you
I had a job, a home, a family, and a car
Did you say that yesterday or just right now?
You'll never know the feeling of my bleeding heart
Did you say that yesterday or just right now?
You'll never know the feeling of my bleeding heart
[Thanks to firstname.lastname@example.com for these lyrics]


text:
Source: Link
WETHERALD, WILLIAM, educator, Society of Friends (Quaker) preacher, and Congregational minister; b. 26 Sept. 1820 in Healaugh (near Reeth), England, son of John Wetherald and Isabel Thistlethwaite; m. 17 March 1846 Jemima Harris Balls, and they had 11 children, including Agnes Ethelwyn*; d. 21 Aug. 1898 in Banbury, England.
William Wetherald's mother, who died when he was five, came from a North Country Quaker family and William was sent at the age of nine to Ackworth, a Quaker school in Pontefract. He later stated that the school was formal and unsympathetic but that he "had learned how to learn." The experience of the cold routine and the rigid system of punishment without tenderness was to influence his own more liberal, though strict, pedagogical principles. In February 1834 his father, a butcher by trade, immigrated to Upper Canada with two of his eight children, settling on a farm in Puslinch Township. William, with a sister and two younger brothers, departed 13 months later to join their father and, once they had arrived, the children had to share in the arduous work of clearing the wilderness. William (of delicate physique) determined to become a teacher. Mostly self-taught, he read voraciously and, mainly working at night by candlelight, he spent seven years cross-referencing the Bible.
At the age of 23 he secured a position as a teacher in nearby Eramosa Township and seven years later, in 1850, he opened a boarding-school for boys in Rockwood, a village near Guelph. Annual board and tuition was set at £13 for boys under 12, £16 for those 12 to 16, and £20 for those over 16, and entrance requirements were "knowledge of the English language and the determination to study." Wetherald, who did most if not all of the teaching himself, offered instruction in "English grammatically, Writing, Arithmetic, Book-keeping, History, Geography, Latin, Geometry, the theory of Land Surveying, and Algebra." By December 1855 "Board, Washing, and Tuition" was $12 a month and French, Latin, and Greek (the latter two as "means of mental discipline") were offered for an additional fee of $1 a month each. The "Commercial and Classical Academy," housed from 1853 in a stately three-storey building "capable of accommodating from 50 to 60 pupils," quickly established a high reputation in Upper Canada.
Although a strict disciplinarian, Wetherald won the loyalty and respect of the students by his intellectual powers and moral conviction. He gave punishment with tenderness, which usually brought marked improvement in the offender. He could awaken trust and confidence, and, with the help of his wife, he aimed at an atmosphere in the school of a well-adjusted family. A brilliant chess player, he encouraged sports, in which he also participated. His natural sensitivity made him instantly aware of the inner needs of the individual and his magnetic personality was said to allow him to hypnotize instruction into a pupil. He himself attributed whatever he had achieved to "knowing each scholar – not as a member of a class or community but as an individual" and to sharing their sorrows, encouraging their efforts, and praying with them, not for them. The academy's illustrious alumni included businessman Sir Adam Beck*, politician Arthur Sturgis Hardy*, educator Archibald MacMurchy, railway magnate James Jerome Hill*, and surgeon Alexander Hugh Ferguson.
In 1864 Wetherald gave up the responsibility of running Rockwood Academy (which eventually declined with the growth of public education and closed in 1882) and responded to a call to become superintendent of Haverford, a Quaker college near Philadelphia. At this time the Society of Friends was experiencing a period of upheaval, and the managers of the college expected him to re-establish discipline and faithfulness to Quaker ways. The annual report in 1865 stated that there had been a great improvement due to the disciplinary measures instituted, but Wetherald felt that this achievement had alienated him from the students. He returned to Upper Canada in 1866 and settled with his family on a farm, Tall Evergreens, near Fenwick in Pelham Township. He then began his second vocation.
Before leaving Upper Canada in 1864, Wetherald had been active, as had other members of his family, in the Orthodox (evangelical) branch of the Society of Friends in Rockwood and "his gift in the ministry had been acknowledged" by the Pelham Monthly Meeting. Following his return he gave himself entirely to the ministry and travelled extensively in Canada, the United States, and Great Britain. A later memorial stated, "The record of these unnumbered journeys, of these countless sermons, has never been kept, save in the hearts of those who heard him and loved him." He was an active participant in the Pelham Monthly Meeting and, from 1867, in the Canada Yearly Meeting, serving the latter as clerk in 1879. At the first Canada Yearly Meeting, in Pickering in 1867, he preached to an overflow crowd. A 13-year-old girl who was present would later write, "He stood in a wagon, and in his own sweet, tender manner pointed the people to the way of salvation." Wetherald's calm approach was demonstrated when, during the same period, a noisy camp meeting near his home was disturbing his pondering of a chess problem. A local youth who was particularly affected by the emotion of the moment burst in upon him exclaiming, "Mr. Wetherald, rouse yourself! We are all going straight to perdition!" Wetherald answered with dry humour, "Well, if that is the case we may as well go quietly."
In 1880 Wetherald withdrew from the Society of Friends and in April began serving as minister at the Congregational Tabernacle in St Catharines (although he was not ordained until 1 August). After a "fruitful and peaceful" ministry there, he resigned on 30 Dec. 1885 effective at the end of June. He then returned to the Society of Friends and on 15 Dec. 1887 at the Toronto Monthly Meeting was "acknowledged a Minister of the Gospel." He was once again active in the Monthly Meeting and Yearly Meeting, and in his later years many came to him for counsel and sympathy. In 1898, whilst engaged in ministry in England, he died suddenly of pneumonia in Banbury, where he is buried.
William Wetherald's legacy is that of a pioneer educator who believed knowledge was essential for earthly well-being and religious growth for the well-being of the eternal soul. His contribution as a religious leader was his deep personal knowledge of the Bible, his obedience to the call to the ministry, and the intense conviction that he radiated.
AO, Hist. plaque descriptions, "Rockwood Academy, 1850–1882," 21 June 1962; MS 99, William Wetherald, letter-book, 1859–62. Haverford College Arch. (Haverford, Pa.), Haverford College, faculty minutes, 4 April 1865; report of managers to Haverford School Assoc., 5 May 1865. Haverford College Library, Quaker Coll., "Dictionary of Quaker biography." Pickering College Library (Newmarket, Ont.), Arch. of the Religious Society of Friends in Canada, B-1-1-2; B-2-43, 1856–64; B-2-82, 7 Sept. 1887–2 Feb. 1889; D-2-15 (3 copies of A memorial concerning William Wetherald, an esteemed minister of Pelham Monthly Meeting of Friends, n.p., [1899?]) (mfm. at AO). UCC-C, Ontario histories, St Catharines, Congregational Tabernacle [Tabernacle Congregational Church], Lucas to Rannie Pub., 24 May 1967. American Friend (Philadelphia and Richmond, Ind.), 15 Sept. 1898: 864. Canadian Congregational year book (Toronto), 1880–81: 47, 51; 1881–82: 13, 22, 44; 1886–87: 33. Guelph Herald, and Literary, Agricultural and Commercial Gazette (Guelph, Ont.), 9 July 1850. Society of Friends, Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, Philadelphia Quakers, 1681–1981: a tercentenary album, comp. R. H. Wilson ([Philadelphia, 1981]). A. G. Dorland, A history of the Society of Friends (Quakers) in Canada (Toronto, 1927). Hugh Douglass, "The story of Rockwood Academy" (typescript, Guelph, 1962; copy at AO). A history of Haverford College for the first sixty years of its existence, ed. A. C. Garrett (Philadelphia, 1892). R. M. Jones, The later periods of Quakerism (2v., London, 1921). K. M. Richards, "William Wetherald: a biography with footnotes and bibliography" (unpublished paper, Toronto, 1986; copy consulted by contributor). Hugh Douglass, "The history of the Rockwood Academy," Historic Guelph: the Royal City (Guelph), 23 (1983–84): 4–25. S. Silcox, "Early schools and teachers: William Wetherald and the Rockwood Academy," School (Toronto), 19 (1930), no.4. A. E. Wetherald, "My father as I knew him," Canadian Friend (Toronto), 10 (1914–15), no.8: 6–9.
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Kathleen M. S. Hertzberg, "WETHERALD, WILLIAM," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 2, 2023, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/wetherald_william_12E.html.
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text:
Parties Assess Post-bin Laden Politics
Elected officials and campaign operatives were careful Monday to avoid any suggestion that Osama bin Laden's death would have political consequences.
It was clear, however, that the Obama administration's successful hunting of the world's top terrorist shifted the 2012 electoral landscape, giving the president and his party new credibility on a potent issue as violence rages across the Middle East. But it also became evident that the road to politicize bin Laden's death is lined with peril.
Take it from Rick Wilson, the Florida-based Republican consultant who crafted the now-infamous 2002 ad that used bin Laden's image to attack then-Sen. Max Cleland (D-Ga.), a triple-amputee Vietnam veteran.
"I think [Democrats] run a very great risk attempting to turn this into a political resource because it tempts the question in people's minds: Are you now using the sacrifice that these men made as a prop? Are you now looking at the heroism and valor that these men showed as a political lever?" Wilson told Roll Call. Obama "has to be extraordinarily careful about it and extraordinarily smart about it in the coming weeks and months. I do not believe that the Democrats have the moral footing to run a counter ad to" the Cleland ad.
Whether either party has stronger moral footing remains to be seen, but Democratic consultants conceded that bin Laden's death offered political opportunities and dangers alike.
"It will now become very difficult for Republicans to use this as a club to beat up Democrats. The answer for Democrats is now, 'Who caught him? You want to talk about Osama bin Laden? Okay, who got him?'" said Democratic strategist Mark Nevins, adding that the issue could be used more aggressively as well.
"I would have thought it would have been difficult for Republicans to politicize 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, but they sure did it," Nevins continued. "Clearly, it's the sort of thing that can be done effectively because Republicans have done it for so long. But it can't be done without some risk. For candidates willing to roll the dice and willing to go to a very risky place, strategically, it can be done."
But there was little sign of playing politics Monday. Democratic incumbents and potential candidates trod lightly when asked about the political implications of bin Laden's death at the hands of a team of Navy SEALs on Sunday. Some suggested such discussion was taboo, even in a town where politics often supersedes policy and campaigning never ends.
"I can't say what the political consequences or advantages are. We rallied behind President Bush when 9/11 happened. I think America's rallying behind President Obama now," said former Rep. John Boccieri (D-Ohio), an Air Force pilot who has flown missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. "But in these moments, we're not conservatives or liberals — we're Americans."
And while Boccieri said that bin Laden's death likely wouldn't encourage him to run again following his 2010 loss, it wouldn't exactly discourage him either.
"I think it was Richard Nixon who said, 'You're not finished until you quit.' And I haven't quit yet," Boccieri said Monday. "Obviously, there is a different level of trust for military. … I was one of three Members who served in Iraq and one of four to have served in Afghanistan."
And to the extent that bin Laden re-injects national security into the political discussion, some Republicans see an opportunity as well.
Sen. Scott Brown, who is among the most vulnerable Republicans up in 2012, used the day after bin Laden's death to remind voters of his military credentials in a unique way.
A lieutenant colonel in the Massachusetts National Guard, Brown said in a statement that he has requested permission to conduct this year's annual Guard training in Afghanistan.
"Doing so will help me to better understand our ongoing mission in that country and provide me first-hand experience for my duties on the Senate Armed Services, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs committees," he said.
The vast majority of consultants of both parties interviewed for this story, however, agreed that Democrats, if anyone, would benefit in the wake of bin Laden's death, which comes nearly a decade after he planned the most deadly terrorist attack on American soil in history.
"More than anything, this removes any perception that the president is lacking in leadership," Democratic consultant Nathan Daschle said. "This will also test the discipline of Republican leaders, especially those running for president. The competitive nature of politics is going to put pressure on them to minimize this moment or somehow try to shoehorn Republicans into the limelight. Either one would be so antithetical to the mood right now. "
Bin Laden's death also largely neutralizes a long-standing political advantage Republicans have enjoyed on national security issues.
"It makes it harder for Republicans to draw a contrast on security," Democratic strategist Doug Hattaway said. "The bigger issue is the economy. If the security situation were getting bad, it would be a double negative, if you will. This sort of helps keep security on the back burner as a hot political issue."
Indeed, Republican consultants said that any political benefit for Democrats will be minimal, especially in an election cycle that was probably going to be dominated by economic and fiscal issues anyway.
"He'll get a solid boost off of this, as he should, but then it's about what he does with it," one Republican consultant said. "But it occurs too early to have a big impact either way on re-elect and we're still headed toward an economic election. … We'll be back to budget debate within a week and GOP candidates will drive on economic issues."
Further, GOP strategists predicted that Obama's bump in the polls will fade relatively quickly and attention will soon shift to Democratic voters' mounting displeasure with continued military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"The next big question is whether Obama's left-wing base will allow him to see the war on terror through," another Republican strategist said. "You have to assume there will be massive inertia among Democrats to pack up and come home from every outpost in the Arab world."
And already, there were signs that Democrats and their allies used Sunday's news to bolster that case.
"Politically, it's an extraordinarily unique opportunity," said Robert Greenwald, president of Brave New Foundation, the California-based liberal group behind the campaign Rethink Afghanistan, which produces anti-war Web videos and related petitions.
"President Obama is about to announce Osama Bin Laden is dead. Click 'like' if you think it's time to get the troops home," reads a Facebook posting by Greenwald's group that drew nearly 2,000 supporters within 12 hours after it was posted.
In the end, however, many political professionals called for a temporary cease-fire as the country celebrates the death of its most hated enemy.
"We should have a moment of national celebration," said Wilson, not usually known for his bipartisan spirit. "Put the politics aside for five minutes guys — and when I say it, that means something. This is a really great national moment, and I wouldn't begrudge that to any president, Republican or Democrat."
Joshua Miller, David M. Drucker and Kyle Trygstad contributed to this report.