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I gave myself to him
I gave myself to him, And took himself for pay. The solemn contract of a life Was ratified this way. The wealth might disappoint, Myself a poorer prove Than this great purchaser suspect, The daily own of Love Depreciate the vision; But, till the merchant buy, Still fable, in the isles of spice, The subtle cargoes lie. At least, 't is mutual risk,-- Some found it mutual gain; Sweet debt of Life,--each night to owe, Insolvent, every noon. Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

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January 04, 2008
ABF software, Inc. has finished year 2007 with 17% growth. In the past year we have established strong relationships with our distribution partners, which we believe will be a great start in development of strong distribution network for our end-user products.
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Check your answers to see how many words you got correct! This answer sheet is for second grade Dolch words - word search #1. Words included in the word bank: always, around, because, been, before, best, both, buy, call, cold, does, don't, fast, first and five.
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NSF Seeks Proposals on Stochastic SystemsAugust 19, 2005
In a recent "Dear Colleague" letter, the NSF issued a call for new proposal addressing cross-cutting topics in analysis, modeling, and computational of stochastic systems. The letter may be found below or at http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DMS
Quantification of uncertainty in modeling and simulation has been a focus within applied and computational mathematics in recent years, as witnessed by themes at recent SIAM conferences and even by a dedicated workshop. The SIAM Journal on Scientific Computing (SISC) had a recent special issue (Volume 26, #2) on the theme of uncertainty as well (see http://epubs.siam.org/sam-bin/dbq/toclist/SISC). This focus on uncertainty has fueled growing interest in stochastic systems.
The NSF announcement welcomes unsolicited research proposals that cut across several areas within the Division of Mathematical Sciences, including aspects such as analysis, modeling, and computation of stochastic systems.
Dear Colleague:
In recent years, there has been a surge of research activities within the mathematical sciences community on analysis, modeling, and computation of inherently stochastic systems. Such studies are interdisciplinary with a broad range of applications, including models in biology, nanoscience, fluid mechanics, solid mechanics, atmospheric sciences, oceanography, finance, economics, and social sciences, etc. Unanswered and challenging questions arise from stochastic refinements of deterministic laws that are necessary and appropriate for uncertainty quantification, understanding of observed variabilities, and prediction.
The Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) of the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS) of the National Science Foundation (NSF) recognizes the needs and opportunities posed by this recent surge. Unsolicited research proposals to DMS (proposals submitted to disciplinary programs) addressing cross-cutting topics in one or more aspects of mathematical analysis, modeling, and computation of stochastic systems will be considered as a division-wide focused topic area. Such proposals will be managed by a team consisting of program directors in Applied Mathematics, Computational Mathematics, and Probability Programs within DMS.
Proposals addressing this focused topic area should include the phrase, "AMC-SS:" at the beginning of the proposal title. Such proposals should be submitted to the disciplinary programs designated by the PI in accordance with the target dates of the relevant disciplinary programs, see the NSF web site, http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=DMS.
Proposals requesting levels of effort that are typical for Focused Research Groups (FRG) activities are not appropriate for this focused topic area and should be submitted to the next round of the FRG competition.
Primary Contacts:
Dr. Wen Masters, Division of Mathematical Sciences, Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 703-292-4871, [email protected]
Dr. Thomas Russell, Division of Mathematical Sciences, Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences, 703-292-4863, [email protected]
William Rundell
Division Director
Division of Mathematical Sciences


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Cinema is a medium. Television is an appliance. Cinema is art. TV is product. Cinema is driven by directors. Television is driven by writers and producers. That's why there's nothing good on TV.
If you're a cinephile, there's a good chance I had you up until that last sentence, a cocktail-party cliché so outdated that it might as well be wearing an ascot. But the lead-up to it has proved surprisingly resilient among cinephiles. Even now, in the era of think pieces calling The Wire the Great American Novel and insisting that television is somehow "better than" movies, the notion persists that TV is not a director's medium—that any creativity comes from the writer or producer, whose jobs fuse in the P.T. Barnum–esque title "showrunner."
But here's the thing: It isn't true and maybe never was.
Consider a fleeting moment from season four of FX's excellent Western-flavored crime thriller Justified: "Outlaws," directed by John Dahl (film credits: The Last Seduction, Rounders). Backwoods gangster Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) sits at a table in his dive-bar headquarters, confronting local power brokers who think they own him (top).
"Now, I know people like you are used to taking from people like me," Boyd drawls, the camera hanging back to show the configuration of his adversaries. "But there comes a point where people like me can't take any more taking." When Boyd stands up, asserting his power, the scene shifts into a close-up, showcasing his determined face.
"Now, all the things you've done, the way you've built your fortunes, it may make you criminals," he says. "But it does not make you outlaws." The scene snakes onward, ratcheting up tension by cutting between wide shots of the room and close-ups of Boyd and his would-be masters. The crowning shot shows Boyd from the back, center-frame, flanked by the old rich guys. His cocked pelvis and akimbo arms evoke the iconic pose of the gunfighter, but there are no holsters on Boyd's hips. His confidence comes from his willingness to delegate (his cousin is behind him, covering the old guys with a revolver) and his theatrical mastery of word and gesture. The power brokers' eye lines aren't looking up at Boyd's face, but farther south—a hilariously correct visual joke, considering that the scene is about cojones.
Boyd Crowder's badass aria is a superb example of how to embed meaning in a moment without making a big deal of it—old-school classical direction, shot on the cheap with digital cameras. But it's also an accidental metaphor for filmmaking in the early years of the 21st century. TV directors, the new outlaws, are weighed down by burdens that the old rich gangsters haven't dealt with in ages, but they're holding their own, and they're full of surprises.
Thirty-two years after Hill Street Blues, 29 years after Miami Vice, 23 years after Twin Peaks, and fourteen years after The Sopranos, consensus persists that TV is not a director's medium. There's a certain truth to that charge, but it's not as encompassing as you think. It's true that TV is driven by long-form storytelling, and a related obsession with continuity and consistency. Showrunners drive and manage the medium, and if you've spent time on film sets, you understand why. Directors tend to think in terms of images and moments; those skill sets aren't often compatible with the left-brain requirements of managing a sitcom or drama (though there are always exceptions; see veteran TV director Paris Barclay's executive-producer credit on FX's stylishly nasty biker drama, Sons of Anarchy). It's also true that, for consistency's sake, the showrunners get together with a pilot's cinematographer, art director, costumer, and other collaborators to decide on the look and feel of a show before the pilot's cameras roll, and any director who comes in afterward has to work within that preexisting vision.
But if TV is still a factory, it's hardly stamping out interchangeable widgets. It offers an increasingly diverse array of storytelling modes: hypnotic minimalist nightmare (Top of the Lake, The Killing); stately, classical A-picture (Mad Men, Game of Thrones, Boardwalk Empire); gritty, run-and-gun B-picture (Sons of Anarchy, Justified, The Walking Dead); traditional three-camera sitcom (How I Met Your Mother, Anger Management); laugh-track-free pseudo-documentary (Parks and Recreation, Modern Family); glossy quasi-theatrical rom-com (The Mindy Project); trash-expressionist midnight movie (American Horror Story, Banshee); graphic novel (Archer, Bob's Burgers); and droll-gritty indie (Girls, Louie). A director who jumped between three or four of these programs could serve the material, as they say, and still create one hell of a reel.
Plus there are always constraints on filmmakers, be they budgetary or stylistic. Prewar movie studios and low-budget impresarios like Roger Corman were equally likely to assign directors to projects whose casts and crews were locked and wish them well: Do the best you can, kid. You've got a million dollars and four weeks. Sometimes there was even a house style that directors had to honor. Cinephiles can tell an old MGM Studios picture from a Warner Bros. picture from twenty paces away with the sound off, or a Jerry Bruckheimer–produced action flick, for that matter. Networks have house styles, too. Visually oriented TV buffs can distinguish an HBO drama from an FX drama from an NBC drama after a minute or two, by studying the cutting, camerawork, and music. The constraints of TV production don't stop great direction from happening, any more than they stopped it from happening on movie sets in the decades before the Cahiers du Cinéma gang decided that the director was the primary author of a film.
Martin Scorsese—the executive producer of Boardwalk Empire as well as the director of many a great movie—famously said that "cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out." TV direction? Same thing. We remember great TV moments because of the sum total of their creative choices, gathered under the descriptive umbrella of "direction." Think of the closing montage in the third episode of The Americans, set to Roxy Music's "Sunset," climaxing with FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) discovering an overdose that he knows is no overdose; that extraordinary episode was directed by Thomas Schlamme, whose roving camera enlivened Sports Night and The West Wing.
Heathers director Michael Lehmann helmed the American Horror Story episode "The Name Game," which included the perverse spectacle of Jessica Lange's hallucinating nun leading fellow inmates in a line dance to the title track; it played like a very special episode of Glee set in hell.
The horrifying massacre that ended season three of Boardwalk Empire, with disfigured sharpshooter Richard Harrow mowing down an army of gangsters, is the handiwork of Sopranos veteran Tim van Patten, the Sam Peckinpah of pay-cable mayhem.
The Breaking Bad episode "Madrigal," which contained not a single dull shot and built to an agonizingly tense hostage scene in a house, was directed by Michelle MacLaren, whose sense of space, light, and pacing recalls Alan J. Pakula (Klute, All the President's Men).
TV didn't just wake up one day and let directors direct. There's a long history of great filmmaking on the small screen, stretching from the fifties to the present. In The Moviegoer, Walker Percy wrote of recalling movie moments more vividly than moments from his own life, such as "the time John Wayne killed three men with a carbine as he was falling to the dusty street in Stagecoach, and the time the kitten found Orson Welles in the doorway in The Third Man." You could build a Percy-style list of great television moments: the time Archie Bunker told Meathead that he knew his father loved him because he beat the hell out of him, the camera creeping closer to the bigot's faraway eyes; the time Burgess Meredith's librarian accidentally dropped his glasses in The Twilight Zone's "Time Enough at Last" and we got a point-of-view shot of a world permanently out of focus; the time Miami Vice detective Sonny Crockett paused en route to a confrontation with a drug dealer to call his wife from a phone booth, the car and phone booth perfectly balanced in a wide shot with a neon sign buzzing in the background; the time ER nurse Jeanie Boulet sang Green Day's "Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life)" at Scott Anspaugh's funeral; the time Homeland's Carrie Mathison walked slowly around the interrogation room, turning off all the cameras, then told her prisoner and ex-lover Nick Brody, "Alone at last"; the time Mad Men's Peggy left the agency to start a new life while the Kinks' "You Really Got Me" blasted on the soundtrack like an anthem. These and other indelible moments didn't just magically appear on our screens. They were directed.
Why, then, does the public tend not to notice the names of TV directors—not even the ones who directed the scenes and episodes cited in the paragraph above? (They are, in order of mention, Paul Bogart, John Brahm, Michael Schultz, Charles Haid, Lesli Linka Glatter, and Phil Abraham.) If you watch TV with open eyes and ears, you can recognize that these people are artists, just as Martin Scorsese and Francis Coppola were artists when they worked for Corman, and just as Victor Fleming was an artist when he directed chunks of Gone With the Wind for producer David O. Selznick, arguably the most hands-on producer in film history. Where's their MoMA retrospective? Why is there no auteur theory of TV?
One explanation is that movies have a half-century head start on TV, so there's been more time for critics to settle on terms and definitions. I like to tell people that TV, as both business and art, is at roughly the same place in its development as cinema was in the late fifties, around the time that the French floated the auteur theory. We're still figuring out who the "author" is on TV shows. We're still taking into account whether we're talking about the show as a whole or a particular episode, and why. We rarely think of TV as being directed, unless the show's main creative force has already been identified as a theatrical director (as David Lynch was before Twin Peaks) or doubles as the show's star (like Louis C.K. or Lena Dunham). It's not wrong to attribute a program's personality to showrunners—the Matt Weiners (Mad Men) and Vince Gilligans (Breaking Bad) and Shonda Rhimeses (Scandal)—but it doesn't tell the whole critical story. Showrunners aren't on the set every single minute, and within the showrunner's big picture are a series of smaller pictures: the scenes, the moments, the shots. It's on these smaller canvases that episodic directors work their magic.
Television's creative constraints have loosened in recent decades, but we should not forget that the medium produced art before David Simon was a glint in his mama's eye. Even in the supposed pre-style era there was visionary filmmaking on television: the Kabuki-like sitcom minimalism of The Honeymooners; Ernie Kovacs's experimental, highly visual slapstick; the atmospheric morality plays of The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits; the Pop Art eye candy of The Prisoner and the original Star Trek; and the horror-comedy stylings of The X-Files, which once staged a whole episode (series creator Chris Carter's "Triangle") in a handful of elaborate Steadicam shots. John Frankenheimer's direction of live theater for Playhouse 90 and other anthology shows boasted imaginative touches that would have earned a slow clap from Rushmore's Max Fischer: realistic fake animals, miniature sci-fi panoramas and military vehicles, even a flood re-created in a water tank. Amazing direction happened on TV all the time before cable, but almost nobody recognized it as such because we were told that art was as anomalous in television as wildflowers in a toxic-waste dump, so there was no point keeping an eye out for it.
But our eyes, ears, and hearts told a different story. If television were truly disposable, our memories wouldn't replay certain moments as if they happened to us: the wide shot of Tony Soprano, high on peyote, standing on a desert cliff and screaming, "I get it!"
The way the camera pushed in on the aged and dying faces of Six Feet Under's main cast as the show's final episode raced toward oblivion.
The slow pan across the faces of Springfield townspeople gathered in Ned Flanders's fallout shelter, singing "Que sera sera." Those episodes were directed by Alan Taylor, Alan Ball, and Bob Andersen. Like so many other great TV directors, they were authors of the moment.
*This article originally appeared in the May 20, 2013 issue of New York Magazine.


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AFRICA: Horn migrants heading south "pushed backwards"
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Increasing numbers of Ethiopians and Somalis fleeing war, drought and poverty in their home countries face arrest, deportation and detention as they try to make their way to the south of the continent.
For most the goal is South Africa - the only country in the region where refugees and asylum-seekers have freedom of movement and the right to work rather than being confined to camps. But as the number of migrants from the Horn of Africa seeking asylum in South Africa has reached unprecedented levels, border authorities have started refusing them entry.
"There's a new unofficial policy since the beginning of May where Somali and Ethiopian nationals are being informed they'll not be given asylum by the South African government," said Abdul Hakim, chairperson of the Somali Community Board, a local organization representing the interests of Somalis.
Hakim said that before the crackdown, about 1,500 Somalis were entering South Africa every month. With official borders closed to them, many were now entering the country illegally and then making their way to refugee reception centres to apply for asylum.
Deputy Director-General of South Africa's Department of Home Affairs Jackie McKay denied there had been any change of policy but Kaajal Ramjathan-Koogh, who heads the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, said her organization had also observed "a definite shift away from accepting large numbers of refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia".
"From a Home Affairs point of view… they've been seeing very large numbers arriving in the last two months and they're not willing to accept the entire continent's refugee burden," she told IRIN.
An issue
by Roni Amit of the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand published in June suggests that the Home Affairs Department has been denying entry to asylum-seekers based on the principle that they should have sought asylum in the first safe country they reached. Amit points out that no such principle exists in international or domestic law.
"By denying entry to asylum-seekers based on the mere fact of their transit through another country, South Africa is contravening its obligations under international law," Amit writes. "This practice increases the risk that individuals will be returned to the life-threatening situations from which they fled."
Knock-on effects
South Africa's unofficial shift in policy has had a knock-on effect in neighbouring countries which had previously had a fairly tolerant attitude to the movement of migrants through their countries en route to South Africa.
Zimbabwe's state-run newspaper, The Herald, reported in July that immigration officers manning the country's northern borders had been instructed not to admit illegal immigrants, especially those from Somalia and Ethiopia, who "pretend as if they want to seek refugee status" only to disappear into neighbouring countries, particularly South Africa.
Marcellin Hepie, country representative for the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Zimbabwe, said the country had been receiving high numbers of migrants from the Horn of Africa in recent months with 646 Somalis and Ethiopians picked up and transported to Tongorara refugee camp in Manicaland Province since mid-May.
"Before their [asylum-seeker] cases are adjudicated some of them vanish, presumably for South Africa. Normally they'll wait around long enough to receive their food and non-food items and then off they go," he told IRIN. "It is eroding the asylum procedure here and it could eventually backfire."
He also noted that since mid-May crossing into South Africa for this group of migrants, "has not been as smooth as it used to be".
"Many have been sent back to Zimbabwe and detained at Beitbridge [border post]. No one has shared any official change of policy from South Africa, but in practice there have been changes," he said.
According to Natalia Perez of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in the first quarter of 2011, 7,200 asylum-seekers registered at the Beitbridge border post as they crossed into South Africa. Perez said Zimbabwe had now closed its borders to "any migrant or asylum-seeker who cannot produce an ID".
"Now they're being pushed backwards," she told IRIN.
Dilemma for governments
The relatively recent phenomenon of mixed migration (which IOM defines as "complex migratory population movements that include refugees, asylum-seekers, economic migrants and other migrants") from the Horn of Africa to the southern part of the continent presents a dilemma for governments in the region that are bound by international refugee laws but unwilling to bear the economic and security costs of allowing large numbers of undocumented migrants to travel through their countries.
The issue was the subject of a regional conference in Dar es Salaam in September 2010 where a number of recommendations were proposed for dealing with the influx such as greater regional cooperation, improved national policies and better collection of data on refugees and migrants. However, according to Katherine Harris, a regional protection officer with UNHCR, progress since the conference has been "slow going", with attention and resources mainly focused on the current crisis in the Horn of Africa.
"The biggest thing is that we really need to come up with a regional approach to this issue," she told IRIN.
Until recently, Mozambique was another popular transit country for Horn of Africa migrants intent on reaching South Africa. Since 2010, a steady stream of Ethiopians and Somalis have been arriving in the country, most of them having used the services of smugglers to take them by boat to the coastal town of Palma, just across the border with Tanzania. By the beginning of 2011, the numbers had increased significantly and the Mozambican authorities started
the movements of asylum-seekers outside of the country's one refugee camp in Nampula Province.
Mtwara prison
Starting in May, however, the number of asylum-seekers reaching the camp abruptly decreased as immigration officers started intercepting them and deporting them to Tanzania where 833 Ethiopians and Somalis, 45 of them children, are now being detained in Mtwara prison in the southeast of the country.
"We're trying to find out why this is happening, and hoping to resolve the impasse in a way that will allow new arrivals to at least be screened," said Carlos Zaccagnini, UNHCR's country representative in Mozambique, who pointed out that the UN
on Refugees prohibits countries from rejecting, deporting or detaining asylum-seekers.
Responding to questions from the BBC, Mozambique's interior minister said that some of the migrants were pretending to be refugees but had criminal intentions and were being turned away to guarantee the country's security.
Lin Mei Li, a protection officer with UNHCR in Tanzania, said her office had been pushing the Tanzanian authorities to allow them to interview the detainees at Mtwara prison to determine which of them have genuine asylum-seeker claims. "Living conditions in the prison are not good, it's over-crowded and there are not enough medicines," she told IRIN. "We're really worried about them."
UNHCR is also trying to persuade the Tanzanian government to establish a reception centre that would provide humanitarian assistance to asylum-seekers rather than imprisoning them. The Zimbabwean government has asked IOM to set up something similar on its northern border with Mozambique. But Abdul Hakim of the Somali Community Board said that Somali asylum-seekers were still being imprisoned in Botswana, Mozambique and Malawi.
"They're not taken to a court, they just stay in prison and they don't know for how long. Because they entered the country illegally, they're treated as illegal immigrants."
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A study presented recently at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine's Annual Meeting in Chicago offers exciting news for team doctors and athletes regarding a difficult injury. It also might perpetuate the notion that team doctors seek only to get players back on the field at all costs.
Syndesmosis injuries of the ankle, better known as high ankle sprains, can be some of the most frustrating injuries that football, hockey and soccer players suffer. In addition to tearing some of the ligaments on the side of the ankle, athletes also disrupt the ligaments between the tibia (shin bone) and fibula (bone on the outer leg). Fortunately high ankle sprains rarely require surgery, but they can sideline players for 4 to 6 weeks.
Alfred A. Mansour, MD and others presented data that cortisone shots can help return NFL players to action faster after these injuries. They collected data from two NFL teams over eight seasons. They found that players who received corticosteroid injections into the damaged ankle tissue within 72 hours of injury returned to play an average of 10 days faster (15 vs. 25 days missed) than those who received the traditional rehabilitation program.
"For high-level athletes such as NFL players, returning to play 10 days sooner can have a significant impact personally and for the team," Dr. Mansour noted.
It certainly impacts the surgeons who work with elite athletes. After all, we get them back to doing what they love. These cortisone shots might help us do so 40% faster after high ankle sprains.
It definitely impact professional sports teams as well. Having star players on the field improves chances of winning titles. (Remember New England's Rob Gronkowski struggling with a high ankle sprain in the Super Bowl?) Plus with NFL players' salaries averaging $1.9 million, getting a player back a week earlier "saves" the team over $100,000.
And players have shown over and over that they often ignore symptoms and try to play no matter what. Maybe they fear losing their roster spots or starting positions. Maybe they don't want to let teammates down. Regardless, if a cortisone shot get them on the field ten days faster, most of them would probably take it.
It seems that everyone stands to gain if these simple procedures speed return to sports. But does it also provide ammunition to fans and critics who believe team doctors shoot up players and rush them back on the field?
Also listen:
Episode 98 of The Dr. David Geier Show: Do pro athletes trust their team doctors?
Episode 90 of The Dr. David Geier Show: Will athletes deny concussions symptoms in order to play sports?
To be fair, cortisone shots for high ankle sprains probably aren't that big of a concern. This study only looked at the number of days missed and not long-term effects on the ankles or years played after the injuries, though.
Cortisone is probably effective only as a means of decreasing pain and swelling. It does little to treat the underlying injury. For many athletic injuries – tennis elbow, patellar tendinitis, Achilles tendinitis and others – cortisone is actually falling out of favor. Its anti-inflammatory properties likely stop or slow down the very inflammatory process these tissues need to heal.
Deserved or not, there seems to be an increasingly common perception that team physicians don't always have players' long-term health in mind. Stories of long lines of football players bent over receiving Toradol injections before games have drawn much attention. Athletes remaining on the field despite "concussion-like symptoms" or playing on obviously damaged knees when they are "hurting" but "not injured" don't help.
Is the use of Toradol in professional sports dangerous? In the Zone segment from Episode 68 of The Dr. David Geier Show
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Click here for full episodes or subscribe on iTunes.
Players share this concern too. A recent NFLPA survey asked players on all 32 teams to rate the level of trust they have in their team doctors on a scale of 1 to 5, with five being the worst. 78% rated their trust as a five.
Many players believe the team doctors essentially work for the teams. As such, the physicians aim to do solely what is best for the organization. With the immense exposure of professional sports in our society, it is no surprise that hospitals pay large sums of money to be "official healthcare providers" of teams. According to Slate Magazine, 23 of 32 NFL teams have these types of financial relationships with groups that provide medical care to their players.
I will say that the vast majority of sports medicine orthopaedic surgeons consistently work to treat athletes in ways that are best for their overall health and well-being. We want the athletes playing for many years and healthy after their careers end. But there are definitely pressures from all directions pushing us to get players back as fast as possible. Even if it isn't deserved, there is growing perception among players and fans that we might be going too far.
Note: This post appears as my sports medicine column in the July 30, 2013 issue of The Post and Courier.


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The Kazak design is mainly made by the Hazara Tribes of Afghanistan. The design and patterns of Kazak rugs are taken from old Caucasian rugs (Caucasian carpets are from the areas south, east and north of the mountain chain of the Caucasus, Russia)
The wool yarns used are all hand spun and dyed using only natural dyes such as cochineal and indigo, which adds to their dramatic and vibrant appearance. Once dyed and hand knotted on a cotton warp base in Afghanistan the rugs are then transported over to Pakistan where they are expertly finished including washing and trimming.
The method used to hand make a Kazak rug is called ''ChappatBaft'' or Flat woven.
Kazak rug weavers are faithful in using traditional bold colour and design mainly including both small and large geometrical motifs. The designs are predominantly bold and typically include a mixture of diamond and circle shapes as well as representations of animals, people and nature. The medallion layout is also popular using various scales.
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It's been a long time since I heard a joke like this, and I'm quite sure it wasn't one told in public by a senior administration official before a high-minded audience. This joke was delivered by Obama administration National Security Advisor James Jones before an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy:
A Taliban militant gets lost and is wandering around the desert looking for water. He finally arrives at a store run by a Jew and asks for water. The Jewish vendor tells him he doesn't have any water but can gladly sell him a tie. The Taliban, the jokes goes on, begins to curse and yell at the Jewish storeowner. The Jew, unmoved, offers the rude militant an idea: Beyond the hill, there is a restaurant; they can sell you water. The Taliban keeps cursing and finally leaves toward the hill. An hour later he's back at the tie store. He walks in and tells the merchant: "Your brother tells me I need a tie to get into the restaurant."
In the video posted at Yid with Lid, the joke draws the guffaws of the crowd, but the blog cites two unamused comments from those in attendance.
Depending on the source and the circumstances and the telling, I don't mind ethnic humor. I don't find this joke coming from General Jones funny in the least, and I seriously doubt that many of his colleagues in the administration do either. Considering the source and the circumstances, I find it disgusting, but revealing. Watching the video, I find it more bizarre than disgusting. YwithL is to be congratulated for submitting the video to public attention.
Via Instapundit.
JOHN adds: Here's the video:
Whether the joke is funny is a matter of taste and context. In the setting in which Jones told it, it strikes me as bizarrely inappropriate.


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A Modern Steak House
Many say that this restaurant offers the best steak in Los Angeles! The best food anywhere is certainly the goal of owner Geoffrey Ghanem. Shiloh's is a contemporary, exciting and unique restaurant with a creative menu developed by Chef Katsui Tanabe.
About Chef Tanabe:
Geoffrey Ghanem had a mission for his restaurant. But, after a frustrating first year of trial and error and the comings and goings of 6 chefs, the vision was incomplete.
However, in Hollywood style, show biz came to the rescue. Geoffrey spotted young Katsui Tanabe on TV when he appeared on the show Chefs of Fire, and he hired Tanabe three years ago when he was only 26. Chef Tanabe is in synch with Shiloh's owner, and they have created a mini restaurant revolution. Everything is made in the restaurant except ketchup and mayonnaise; the aged beef, the spreads, the desserts, sauces, and more. One of Tanabe's innovations is the use of liquid nitrogen to help make parve bleu cheese, ice cream and tableside sorbets. (Shiloh is the Los Angeles area's 3rd biggest user of liquid nitrogen!) The chef is of Japanese-Mexican descent, and quite by coincidence has recently and unexpectedly unearthed maternal Jewish roots.
So who is visionary and owner Geoffrey Ghanem? After 15 years working alongside his parents in their non-kosher family restaurant in the south of France (in Hyeres near St. Tropez), he and his brother came to the U.S. and eventually opened Shiloh. The dream was to create a kosher steak house that would be as good as any successful non-kosher restaurant of similar type. So has he succeeded?
Let us describe our dinner:
• Ceviche made with white chilean sea bass, with a squeeze of lime, extra virgin olive oil, cucumbers, cilantro, onions, tomatoes and garnished with homemade tortilla chips
• Shiloh's scallops – smoked bass wrapped around Chilean sea bass over creamy avocados
• Crab Cake – braised chilean sea bass with saffron aioli
• Mini sliders with grilled onions, beef bacon and blue cheese, and arugula- so fabulous, we now devour it in our dreams
• Key lime Pie – unbelievably delicious, and this is an opinion from a key lime maven!
So what about the steaks that many say are the best in LA? We didn't taste them…too much food, but at least we left something for our next visit!
And just one more thing: Geoffrey Ghanem has developed and is introducing a line of new kosher gourmet sauces. We look forward to tasting them and featuring them in a future column.
8939 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, 90035
Kosher certification: Kehilla Kosher of Los Angeles


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Next Episode of Un paso adelante (DE) is
not planed. TV Show was canceled.
Group of adolescents wish to become real artists, so they study a university of arts in Madrid that has a high reputation. They learn how to dance, sing, work with music, play in a theatre, etc... Meanwhile, they discover the side of love, passion and glory.
This guide is a German version of Un paso adelante guide because of different TV schema for Germany.
Looks like something went completely wrong!
But don't worry - it can happen to the best of us,
- and it just happened to you.
Please try again later or contact us.


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When Libby and Tony Kranz moved into their home on Yorkshire Drive in Gilroy, they saw it as the place where they would raise their four children.
They never imagined it would be the place where they would have to watch one of those children slowly die.
Until six months ago their daughter, Jennifer Lynn, was a totally typical, princess-loving, pink-wearing, six-year-old. Then one day, Jennifer's left eye began to turn inward.
"We thought it might have been the stress of just having started kindergarten," Jennifer's mother, Libby, remembers. But a trip to the optometrist lead to an MRI which lead to a meeting with a team of doctors.
"The words they used," Libby recalls, "were that there was no cure." No cure, that is, for the Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) tumor that was growing on Jennifer's brain. With just 400 cases diagnosed in the United States each year, DIPG is a relatively rare, though invariably fatal form of cancer.
The Kranzes did not know how long Jennifer had, but knew her end was coming.
The entire focus of the Kranz's life became making sure Jennifer was as comfortable, happy, and as loved as possible.
Still, even in this darkest period of their lives, the Kranzes were able to see past their grief, and chose to help others.
"If I can stop another mother, another grandmother, another aunt from feeling the way I do right now," Libby says, "I will."
It was the Kranzes who first brought up the idea of donating Jennifer's DIPG tumor once she died to her neuro-oncologist, Dr. Michelle Monje. They asked if it would be of benefit to researchers. They had no idea just how beneficial it could be.
Just within the past few years Monji and her team at Lucile Packard Chilren's Hospital Stanford had pioneered a technique in which stem cells from DIPG tumors can be cultured and grown in a laboratory.
It was Monje, then, who got the call early Wednesday morning to come and remove Jennifer's tumor. The little girl had died overnight.
Within hours, Monje's team was working in her lab to isolate the brain tumor cells. It is the first step in what will hopefully be the creation of a DIPG stem cell line. Only a few such lines now exist in the world, and the addition of even one more would be a boon to DIPG researchers.
The science has the potential to lead to breakthrough for a disease that has not seen advancement in treatments in decades. Monje says she already sees the potential for a clinical trial in the near future.
Monje says it is just what the Kranz has done, that has made it possible. "I think it is the definition of selfless to donate tissue in this way."


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Phyrra puckers up with Too Faced Full Bloom Lip and Cheek Color.I
Cinnamon Kitten sits down for a Q&A with local Toronto celebrity makeup artist (and iPhone beauty app creator) Tracy Peart.
Enter for a chance to win a professional Nail Care Kit from -Minus417 at Beauty & Personal Grooming. Kit Includes: Nail buffer, Nail file, Cuticle oil, Hand moisturizer & Foot nourishing cream!
The Pink Sith is thrilled with her new hair now that she has the Sultra Bombshell Pink Curling Iron!
Beauty and Fashion Tech has MAC Styledriven Swatches of the new collection.
Sheila from Painted Ladies tries (and falls in love with) the Real Techniques Foundation Brush.
A Touch of Blusher reviews Chanel's fall 2011 makeup collection.
Girl Gloss has MAC Posh Paradise Swatches
HelloDollface went to the Rebecca Taylor fashion show for NYFW .
The Shades Of U has complete swatches and review of the MAC Posh Paradise Paint Pots and Mattene Lipsticks.


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Just how dark does Star Trek Into Darkness get? And who is the dashing bastard unleashing total destruction on the Federation, and Kirk in particular? We've gone through the first teaser trailer frame by frame and studied every clue. Check out our roundup of every great Benedict Cumberbatch moment — including his battle with a very familiar alien. Possible spoilers ahead...
We start with a shot of what looks like future San Francisco — at least, that appears to be the TransAmerica building and the
Bay Golden Gate Bridge amongst all this future Rem Koolhaas-esque architecture. In a voiceover, Benedict Cumberbatch basically copies the villain from the Iron Man 3 trailer, saying that people believe their world is safe, but they are wrong, and they should enjoy their last few moments of illusory okayness. "For I have returned to have my vengeance!" So he's been there before, and he feels like he's got a score to settle. With Starfleet? With Kirk? Could be either or both.
It's a big formal event, possibly a memorial or commemoration. Kirk is addressing a bunch of officers, wearing his dress uniform. Blue Angels-type fighters fly overhead in formation. Update: Commenter CLBnntt thinks this is the "Missing Man" formation, making this possibly a Starfleet funeral.
Kirk pauses to have a serious moment with someone, possibly a wheelchair-bound Pike.
Then we cut to what appears to be an alien planet, where a weird red temple structure is built into a dense thicket of vegetation that's the same rich ochre. One path leads to the temple, and then forks into three paths.
Kirk and McCoy run through the red vegetation, wearing gray scarves wrapped around their torsos, and looking freaked out...
And then they Butch-and-Sundance their way off a cliff into some water.
We're back at the Starfleet formal event. This is Alice Eve, who also played the young Agent Q in Men in Black III. Who's she playing here? Back when she was first cast, the trades quoted insiders as saying she was a new character, who'd never appeared in Trek before. In that same announcement, they also said that the film's main villain, who was to be played by Benicio Del Toro at the time, was someone who would be very familiar to Trek fans. More on that in a minute.
Someone (probably Alice Eve) hands something to Kirk, who flirts. While McCoy watches, not all that amused.
Cut to a glowy yellow dome, where someone — probably Cumberbatch — descends on a rope, shooting a big cannon at a figure —
And then fighting that figure with some intense martial-arts moves. It's a Klingon! Wielding a whip! This is the first thing that qualifies as an Easter Egg in this trailer, I guess.
Kirk and Uhura watch in horror as something blows up. They're also wearing the gray scarves, which implies it's around the same time in the film. Is this a disguise the crew wears, or some kind of protective gear for tough conditions? Update: On further consideration, this is clearly a different outfit and a different set of gray scarves. This "black leather jackets and gray scarves" ensemble seems to be worn on the same planet where Cumberbatch is beating up a Klingon, not the "red vegetation" planet.
And then Cumberbatch descends, pointing a gun — it's implied he's pointing it at Kirk and Uhura, but that could just be some snappy editing. Oh, and one interesting thing about this teaser trailer is who's not in it — there's no glimpse of Peter Weller, who's playing an older adviser to Cumberbatch's villain. Why wouldn't they show Weller? Maybe because his appearance gives away which villain Cumberbatch is playing. Like, if he has distinctive makeup or costuming. Just a thought.
Spock abseils into a fiery place amidst tons of sparks. Wearing a suit similar to the ones used for skydiving in the first movie. (Thanks to Ironcladlou and Rfelt for identifying Spock here!)
Spock walks along a rocky path in the middle of a full-blown lava stream. Like the middle of an active volcano.
This appears to be the same yellow dome area where Cumberbatch was fighting the Klingon a little while ago. And note the gray scarf and shiny jacket once again.
Meanwhile, Spock appears to be sneaking up on someone, toting a gun. He's wearing a weird blue jacket, with lots of odd shapes on it.
The Enterprise rises slowly, painfully, out of the ocean. I'm guessing this might happen after it crashes into the ocean — which is shown later on in this trailer. Update: A bunch of you don't think this is the Enterprise, because of the shape of the nacelles. I still think it is, but we'll find out soon enough, I guess.
We're back in lava-land. Notice that Spock is standing on a rocky shelf, watching what appears to be an artificial globe rising out of the lava and begin to burst open. This is arguably another sort of Easter Egg — Spock is triggering an eruption on purpose. I didn't notice him standing in this frame the first few times.
And now, Spock watches as the lava shoots upwards violently.
In a possibly related development, everything is blowing up aboard the Enterprise, and the crew is all getting pulled down a corridor — explosive decompression? Gravity failure?
More crewmembers being sucked away. On the left, that appears to be Scotty holding on for dear life. On the right, that's definitely Kirk.
And then we're back watching Cumberbatch beat up a Klingon. This is the clearest screenshot I could manage.
Some kind of conference room, where computer screens are gathered on a circular table, blows up. Personnel in gray Starfleet uniforms are blown backwards by the explosion.
Kirk punches Cumberbatch right in the excellent cheekbones, while Spock watches, holding a big gun. Note that Kirk is wearing the same shiny jacket he was wearing with his gray scarf in the "Kirk and Uhura" shot earlier. And Spock has on the same weirdly patterned jacket he was wearing earlier, when he was sneaking up with his gun.
Sulu doesn't know which console to look at — they're all equally alarming.
Spock runs through a city in the closest he gets to a panic, pulling out his phaser.
Someone — probably Cumberbatch — plunges through a plate glass window.
Now Alice Eve is wearing a medical/scientific uniform. And freaking out really loudly.
Now instead of being sucked down corridors, people are being propelled by huge fiery explosions down corridors.
Uhura cries on Scotty's shoulder. Scotty looks disconsolate.
Kirk reaches down to try and help pull someone up...
...but he's too late. Something blows up and whoever he was reaching for is probably gone.
Cumberbatch pulls back his fist...
...and plunges it into something. Or someone.
Kirk looks like he's had the worst day of his life as he goes into confront Cumberbatch, who's wearing a Starfleet uniform and gloating. (As seen in the photo up top.) "So. Shall we begin?" he asks.
A group of people look on in horror as something terrible goes down. I'm not sure, but that might be Nazneen Contractor up front — she's supposedly playing the wife of Noel Clarke's character, but Clarke recently said he thought he'd been cut out of the final film. But I could be wrong — I haven't watched Contractor in anything before. Update: Commenter Hades_Kane thinks this is Cynthia Addai-Robinson, from Spartacus.
Destruction rains down on the city... probably still San Francisco. And we'd only just cleaned up from that Pacific Rim kaiju attack last week.
Something crashes into the waterfront... it's the Enterprise. With smoke coming out of one of the nacelles. Like I said, I'm guessing this happens before the bit where the Enterprise lifts out of the water. (Update: Or possibly just another Starfleet vessel.)
And now we're on to the Japanese bonus scene. Cumberbatch, sounding quite sad, says, "Is there anything you would not do for your family?" The emphasis on "your" makes it sound as though Cumberbatch is saying that he's doing all of this for his family — which could be the fellow augments, if he's Khan. Or could be his cult following, if he's Garth of Izar. Hard to say. In any case, Kirk looks horrified as the light turns an ominous red. Oh, and note that Kirk is wearing his dress uniform again, which I'm guessing is from the start of the film, when he's at that ceremonial event.
And the last shot shows Kirk — probably — reaching up to a plate glass window, on the other side of which, what appears to be Spock's hand comes up to meet his. This is an obvious homage to the "death of Spock" scene in Wrath of Khan — and it's probably a misdirection. It seems unlikely that they're going to kill off Spock so soon in the series — although it would get people talking. Plus, again, this sequence is probably from near the start of the film, because Kirk is in his ceremonial uniform.


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The Divine Right of the Monarch
By: CRAA/CatholicMonarchy.com
The painting aside (artist unknown) is a beautiful allegory for the Divine Order and the Divine Right of a Most Christian Queen or King. The Blessed Virgin appears with child before the humbled, praying Monarch. The temporal Queen looks to Mary, Queen of Heaven and earth, for guidance and support.
The Divine Right to rule does not mean, as so many assume it does, that a Monarch is free to "act divine." The Divine Right to rule means quite the opposite. It means that the "right to rule is divinely ordained," or, to put it another way, the "right to rule comes from God." Therefore, the Monarch has an enormous responsibility to rule in fairness and justice, with a love for his or her people that resembles the love of a father or mother for their children. The subjects, in turn, look to their King and Queen as "father and mother" of their kingdom. The Monarch knows that he or she will be judged by God regarding their rule.
"The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away." The Lord may revoke the right to rule for an unworthy Monarch. The will of Our Lord would be made manifest through the Church, notably the Pope, who could rule that an unworthy Monarch has no more right to rule. The people would no longer be bound in loyalty to their Monarch and could seek a more worthy ruler under the guidance of the Pope.
The Catholic Monarch is not free to act as he or she pleases, no. Even an "absolute" Catholic Monarch (one who is under no constitution – whose rule is absolute throughout his or her kingdom) is not free to act as he or she pleases. The Catholic Monarch is always under the "constitution" of the Church, which is the constitution of God.
The Catholic Monarch is a servant to both the Church and his or her people and is a symbol of cultural and spiritual unity for the people.
It's not the Will of the People we need; it's the Will of God
God created mankind in his Trinitarian image:
And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness… and God created man to his own image: to the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.
~ (Gen 1: 26a-27 Douay-Rheims)
When God established mankind on earth, he gave "us" tremendous freedom, indeed a freedom that is truly dignified given that we are substantively creatures with free-will:
And the Lord God took man, and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it, and to keep it. And he commanded him, saying: Of every tree of paradise thou shalt eat:
~ (Gen 2: 15-16 Douay-Rheims)
However, our Lord was quick to note the limitations of that freedom:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.
~ (Gen 2:17 Douay-Rheims)
These scripture verses are at the core of what we mean when we say that the Catholic Monarchy is the optimal form of government for mankind. For, we are saying that we recognize a Divine Order to creation (as expressed in the rest of the first two chapters of Genesis) and a Divine Hierarchy in that Order that is prerequisite for mankind to find true freedom and happiness. That prerequisite hierarchy is that God, and God alone, determines what is good and what is evil. It is not the "Will of the People" that determines moral right from wrong; it is the Will of God that does so.
Yet, what do we say about our free-will? Are we slaves then? Well, God did say that we could eat "of every tree of paradise" except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Every tree but one! Now, that is truly a significant degree of freedom! There is only one tree that we must not touch and that is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, so long as we do not try to become "gods" and determine for ourselves what is good and evil, we are left truly free.
This is the purpose of the Catholic Monarchy. Its purpose is to establish the moral boundaries in society so that our culture, and the laws that grow out of that culture, are synchronized with the Divine Order and the Divine Hierarchy of that Order. We are astonishingly free under God's dominion. However, to truly manifest and experience the "fruits" of that freedom, we must keep the elements of the Divine Order in their proper Hierarchy: God determines what is good and what is evil, not "The People." Once "The People" have that straight, they are free to eat as they so choose among the rest of the trees in the garden.
This authentic freedom is what we are after. Only, how do we know "God's will" and his "Divine Order"? We know it through the Church established by his Son, who is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (in whose image we were created), the Son of the Father, and the only Savior of the human race. It is his Church that is the foundation and pillar of all truth (I Tim 3:15).
The Catholic King and/or Queen is bound in all matters of faith and morals in obedience to the Church. Therefore, culture and all laws stemming from that culture must reflect the faith and morals of the Catholic Church. Beyond that, we are free to exercise our "democratic" "will of the people" as we choose. We are free to democratically govern ourselves (especially locally and regionally where democracy is most effective) within the framework of the Church's moral law and of the Natural Law which the Church guards also, being the Church of Jesus Christ, the Person through whom all things were made (John 1:3).
The above does not preclude individual rights to worship privately as one pleases. It does not imply a "witch hunt" inquisition to determine if any poor soul holds a belief separate from that revealed to be true by God through his Church. It does not prevent the private association of those who desire to practice another religion. It does not imply restricting freedom of speech so long as that speech does not publicly denigrate the Catholic religion. It does imply, though, that the culture and laws of the land will reflect Catholic morality.
Comparing Catholic Monarchy VS. The Republic
The downfall of the Republic is that it demands quite the opposite. Rather than being democratically free under the law "of the knowledge of good and evil" determined by the Will of God, the Republic insists that it is the "Will of the People" that will determine good from evil. The Republic demands that God be obedient to our will rather than we being obedient to God's will. The Republic assumes that no one can say what religion is right and therefore assumes that only "The People" can make a moral determination in the public sphere. This leads not to authentic freedom but to the totalitarian trends we see today in a world that has rejected the Church and the God who so established it that we COULD be free! (John 8:32)
The "Will of the People" is corrupt. Whereas a Catholic King and/or Queen is just as subject to corruption as is any human being, they, however, must answer to God through the moral teachings of his Church. The King and Queen answer to The People they serve on one hand, but they answer to God on the other. This "divine right" to rule is the true safeguard of society through the Catholic Monarchy. (By the way, the Republic DEMANDS that its leaders NOT answer to God through its "separation of Church and State"!)
Without the Catholic Monarch, we are led to a society, as historically we have been led from the 16th century to this day, where "The People" determine what is good and what is evil. The dire outcome of that society already was foretold thousands of years ago…
And the serpent said to the woman: No, you shall not die the death… your eyes shall be opened: and you shall be as Gods, knowing good and evil…
And he (God) cast out Adam; and placed before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
~ (Gen 3:4, 5b, 24 Douay-Rheims)
The Republic perpetuates the lie that leads to disaster through its "Will of the People" that decides what is morally right and what is evil. It is the Catholic Monarchy that we need to begin restoring the proper foundation for a truly, authentically free society.
Catholics, that is, the Divine peoples of God are Counter-revolutionaries, therefore, we are defenders and restorers of the Social Kingship of Christ and the Monarchy
10 Reasons for Catholic Monarchy in America


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Some times amazing things can actually happen.
In the world of web frameworks, the rate of radioactive decay is very high. Projects are starting, splintering, folding, and clashing constantly. For Python, there are over 50 listed web frameworks. In some ways this shows health and experimentation. Yet others have started to ask: "Is this really good for Python developers?"
This book is the result of an event which bucked this trend, an event which Armin Ronacher wrote was "one of the greatest moves in Python's web framework history." Two projects merged and are bringing in a third. Consolidation won a victory over splintering.
As someone from the Zope world, I had a strong interest in repoze.bfg. I viewed it as the escape hatch for Zope, teleporting us into the modern world of Python development, permitting but not requiring Zope-style idioms. Chris McDonough established a great brand for repoze.bfg: small, documented, tested, fast, stable, friendly. As the project manager for a very large repoze.bfg application, I can strongly attest that it was a home run on those points.
But in a crowded web frameworks landscape, repoze.bfg was a long-shot to get critical mass. It had a lot to offer, but was missing critical pieces such as momentum and name recognition.
Pylons has long been viewed as holding the number two spot in Python web frameworks. It is one of (if not the) first "modern" web framework. With lots of users, and a "full-stack" framework atop it (TurboGears), Pylons had momentum and name recognition aplenty. But it needed more resources to accomplish its goals of an architectural transition, and Ben Bangert needed to share the load as architect during the transition.
Ben and Chris started talking during 2011 about architectural patterns and discovered Pylons and repoze.bfg covered almost exactly the same surface area. After some experiments, it became clear that, technically at least, the next version of Pylons could be the same as the next version of repoze.bfg.
But what about the non-technical parts? It was one thing to consolidate code. Consolidating projects was new territory.
I was fortunate to meet with the principals in Las Vegas and watch as they hashed out the idea. The projects would merge and keep the Pylons identity. repoze.bfg would sacrifice its identity, but provide the technical foundation. All the resources from the two projects would be combined.
I'll confess, I had high hopes for the outcome. Now that the merge has happened and 1.0 released, I can honestly say it has done better than I could have imagined. The story of "consolidation" is catching on, and interest in working together is growing. Pyramid 1.0 is very, very high quality and ready to go for PyCon 2011. People interested in "simple, fast, documented, tested" have a strong framework and healthy project.
It took humility, patience, and pragmatism to reach this point of obvious success. Certainly by the project leaders, who each had to give up some of their sovereignty and sacred cows. But as well, each community had to discuss the challenges, the various alternatives for going forward, and the pros and cons of consolidation in general but also this particular consolidation. That such a conversation and change could happen in a responsible, adult fashion speaks volumes about the strength and maturity of each community.
What might happen in 2011? TurboGears is considering a move into the umbrella Pylons Project. As Armin writes in his post, there is fertile ground for consolidation at other layers. In my own interests, I hope the worlds of Zope and Plone view Pyramid as the base for the next decade of their ideas. But also, the Pylons Project as a vibrant home for such ideas.
Congratulations, Pylons Project. Not only have you accelerated your spot on the Python web frameworks chart, but you have injected the word "consolidation" into the lexicon of hot ideas for 2011.


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A long-term study of aggression in lemurs finds that infants born to older mothers are less likely to get hurt than those born to younger mothers. The researchers base their findings on an analysis of detailed medical records for more than 240 ring-tailed lemurs — cat-sized primates with long black-and-white banded tails — that were monitored daily from infancy to adulthood over a 35-year period at the Duke Lemur Center in North Carolina. The results suggest that infants born to older mothers are less likely to get bitten. It may be that older moms are better at fending off attackers or protecting their infants during fights, say researchers at Duke University and the National Center for Scientific Research in Montpellier, France. The study appeared online in the December 18 issue of the journal PLOS ONE. In most animal societies, males are the more aggressive sex. But in lemurs, females can be bullies too, explained co-author Marie Charpentier of the National Center for Scientific Research in France. Female lemurs compete with one another for first dibs on food and chase away males at mealtimes, sometimes lunging or snapping at each other with their sharp canine teeth.
To tease out the factors that influence who gets hurt when ring-tailed lemurs tussle, Charpentier and Christine Drea of Duke University combed the animals' medical records for evidence of bite wounds. Animals at the Duke Lemur Center live outdoors for much of the year in large forested enclosures ranging in size from 1.5 to 14 acres. In these natural habitat enclosures, ring-tailed lemurs live in mixed groups of males and females who are free to forage, interact, play and move around as they would in the wild, providing a unique opportunity to study lemur social dynamics. Any victims of serial bullying are removed from the group to prevent additional injuries, and all wounds are recorded and treated by veterinarians. As a result, infant mortality for ring-tailed lemurs at the Lemur Center overall is about half of what it often is in the wild. Of the 237 ring-tailed lemur babies born at the Duke Lemur Center between 1971 and 2006, 15 were bitten before their first birthday, all of whom died from their wounds. The researchers examined a range of possible risk factors that might influence how the infants fared, including sex, weight, genetic diversity, group size, and whether the infant was a twin or a singleton. Of all the factors studied, the one that had the most significant impact on infant injury and survival rates was the age of the mother.
Infants that avoided injury were born to mothers who were two years older on average than the mothers of infants that were badly bitten. The results held up even when the mothers were first-time moms. "Whether the mother had had a kid before didn't matter," Drea said. The records don't reveal who the perpetrators were, but in a separate behavioral study, the authors found that females — some of them related to the victims as sisters and aunts — were responsible for some of the biting. In some animal species, males are known to attack and kill the infants of nursing moms to bring the females back into heat. But the same mechanism is unlikely to be at work in ring-tailed lemurs because these animals only breed once a season, and because females wean their infants before the next breeding season begins. "Even if a female stopped nursing prematurely due to the death of an infant, she wouldn't be ready to breed again until the next season anyway," Drea said. Other researchers have found injured infants clinging to their mothers at the time of attack, rather than venturing out on their own. This suggests that the mother, not the baby, may be the intended target and infant injuries are a byproduct of skirmishes between adults.
Additional research is needed to determine why maternal age improves infant survival, but it is possible that older moms are better at protecting their infants or are less likely to pick fights. Older females could also be less frequent targets of aggression from their female peers. The study illustrates one of the ways that female aggression takes its toll, Drea added. For young female lemurs in particular, fighting for their place in the pecking order comes at a cost to their infants. "Female lemurs are more dominant and aggressive than females in other species, and that puts their kids at risk," Drea said.
Science Daily
January 21, 2014
Original web page at Science Daily


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Appellant, a Louisiana corporation which operates 13 department stores realizing over $100 million in annual sales in that State, contracted with several out-of-state companies to design, print, and distribute merchandise catalogs. Appellant paid for the catalogs, which were shipped free of charge to addressees; supplied the contractors with lists of addressees, 82% of whom were Louisiana residents; instructed postal authorities to return undeliverable catalogs to its New Orleans store; and initiated the distribution to improve its sales and name recognition among Louisiana residents. Appellant did not pay any sales taxes where the catalogs were designed or printed. The Louisiana Department of Revenue and Taxation, of which appellee is Secretary, assessed taxes on the catalogs' value under a statute imposing a 3% use tax on all tangible personal property used in Louisiana and defining "use" as the exercise of any right or power over such property incident to ownership, including distribution. When appellant refused to pay the tax, the State filed and won a collection suit in state court. The Louisiana Court of Appeal affirmed, finding that once the catalogs landed in Louisiana mailboxes they left the stream of interstate commerce and became part of the property mass of the State; that distribution of the catalogs constituted "use" subject to taxation under the statute; and that, under the four-pronged test for determining the validity of state taxes articulated in Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U.S. 274 , the use tax did not violate the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution.
The application of Louisiana's use tax to appellant's catalogs does not violate the Commerce Clause. It is largely irrelevant for Clause purposes whether the catalogs "came to rest" in the Louisiana customers' mailboxes or whether they were still considered in the stream of interstate commerce, since Complete Auto recognized that, with certain restrictions, interstate commerce may be required to pay its fair share of state taxes. Moreover, the argument that the assessment against the catalogs was in essence a tax on the mere presence of goods within the State is without merit, since distribution constitutes use under the statute. Furthermore, the application of the tax to the catalogs satisfies each prong of the Complete Auto test. The taxing scheme is [486 U.S. 24, 25] fairly apportioned, since it provides a credit against the use tax for sales taxes paid in other States, and since the use tax was imposed only on those catalogs distributed in-state, and not on those sent to out-of-state customers. The tax structure likewise does not discriminate against interstate commerce, since the use tax, which is designed to compensate the State for revenue lost on out-of-state purchases of goods used in-state, is equal to the sales tax on the same goods purchased in-state; in fact, both taxes are set forth in the same statutory sections. The use tax is also fairly related to state-provided services that facilitate appellant's in-state sales, including fire and police protection for appellant's stores and mass transit and public roads which benefit appellant's customers. Finally, appellant's activity had a substantial nexus with Louisiana, since appellant controlled the distribution of the catalogs to approximately 400,000 state residents, the distribution was directly aimed at expanding and enhancing its Louisiana business, and it has a significant presence in the State in terms of number of stores and annual sales volume. Cf. National Geographic Society v. California Bd. of Equalization, 430 U.S. 551 . National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, 386 U.S. 753 , distinguished. Pp. 29-34.
505 So.2d 102, affirmed.
REHNQUIST, C. J., delivered the opinion for a unanimous Court.
Andrew Rinker, Jr., argued the cause for appellant. With him on the briefs were William F. Grace, Jr., and Kenneth J. Servay.
Robert G. Pugh argued the cause for appellee. With him on the brief was Robert G. Pugh, Jr. *
[ Footnote * ] Briefs of amici curiae urging reversal were filed for the American Retail Federation by Maryann B. Gall; for the Committee on State Taxation of the Council of State Chambers of Commerce by Jean A. Walker and Paul H. Frankel; for the National Association of Catalog Showroom Merchandisers by Richard B. Kelly and Thomas P. Mohen; and for R. R. Donnelley & Sons Co. et al. by Rex E. Lee, Michael A. Nemeroff, Carter G. Phillips, and Mark D. Hopson. Briefs of amici curiae urging affirmance were filed for the Multistate Tax Commission by Alan H. Friedman; and for the National Governors' Association et al. by Benna Ruth Solomon and Gregory Evers May. George S. Isaacson, Martin I. Eisenstein, and Robert J. Levering filed a brief for the Direct Marketing Association as amicus curiae. [486 U.S. 24, 26]
CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.
Appellant, a Louisiana corporation, challenges the State's imposition of a use tax on catalogs printed at appellant's direction outside Louisiana and shipped to prospective customers within the State. The Louisiana Court of Appeal found that this application of the use tax did not violate the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution. We affirm.
Appellant D. H. Holmes Company, Ltd., is a Louisiana corporation with its principal place of business and registered office in New Orleans. Holmes owns and operates 13 department stores in various locations throughout Louisiana that employ about 5,000 workers. It has approximately 500,000 credit card customers and an estimated 1,000,000 other customers within the State.
In 1979-1981, Holmes contracted with several New York companies for the design and printing of merchandise catalogs. The catalogs were designed in New York, but were actually printed in Atlanta, Boston, and Oklahoma City. From these locations, 82% of the catalogs were directly mailed to residents of Louisiana; the remainder of the catalogs were mailed to customers in Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida, or were sent to Holmes for distribution at its flagship store on Canal Street in New Orleans. The catalogs were shipped free of charge to the addressee, and their entire cost (about $2 million for the 3-year period), including mailing, was borne by Holmes. Holmes did not, however, pay any sales tax where the catalogs were designed or printed.
Although the merchandise catalogs were mailed to selected customers, they contained instructions to the postal carrier to leave them with the current resident if the addressee had moved, and to return undeliverable catalogs to Holmes' Canal Street store. Holmes freely concedes that the purpose of the catalogs was to promote sales at its stores and to [486 U.S. 24, 27] instill name recognition in future buyers. The catalogs included inserts which could be used to order Holmes' products by mail.
The Louisiana Department of Revenue and Taxation, of which appellee is the current Secretary, conducted an audit of Holmes' tax returns for 1979-1981 and determined that it was liable for delinquent use taxes on the value of the catalogs. The Department of Revenue and Taxation assessed the use tax pursuant to La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 47:302 and 47:321 (West 1970 and Supp. 1988), which are set forth in the margin. 1 Together, 47:302(A)(2) and 47:321(A)(2) impose a use tax of 3% on all tangible personal property used in Louisiana. "Use," as defined elsewhere in the statute, is the exercise of any right or power over tangible personal property incident to ownership, and includes consumption, distribution, and storage. See La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 47:301(18) and (19) (West 1970 and Supp. 1988). The use tax is designed to [486 U.S. 24, 28] compensate the State for sales tax that is lost when goods are purchased out-of-state and brought for use into Louisiana, and is calculated on the retail price the property would have brought when imported.
When Holmes refused to pay the use tax assessed against it, the State filed suit in Louisiana Civil District Court to collect the tax. 2 In response to the State's complaint, Holmes answered that it owed no tax under 47:302 and 47:321 as properly applied, a position Holmes claimed was reinforced by La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 47:305(5) (West 1970). 3 Holmes also contended that the use tax violated the Commerce Clause of the Federal Constitution.
After a 2-day bench trial, the District Court determined that the distribution of the catalogs in Louisiana was "intended for the use of D. H. Holmes in increasing its sales to potential customers who are residents of Louisiana." No. 83-15523 (La. Civ. Dist. Ct., July 19, 1985), App. to Juris. Statement 12A, 21A. The court also found that "[o]nce the catalogs reach the residences of the prospective customers to whom they are addressed, Louisiana taxing [486 U.S. 24, 29] authority reaches the resting place of the catalogs," id., at 22A, and concluded that the application of the use tax statutes did not unconstitutionally burden interstate commerce. The court then ordered Holmes to pay the State $49,937.03, plus interest and attorney's fees, which was the amount the parties stipulated as due on the use tax.
The Louisiana Court of Appeal, Fourth Circuit, affirmed the judgment of the trial court. 505 So.2d 102 (1987). After reviewing the Louisiana use tax statute, the Court of Appeal found that the catalog distribution was properly subjected to the tax, since once the catalogs landed in Louisiana mailboxes they left the stream of interstate commerce and became part of the property mass of the State. Furthermore, "[d]istribution of the catalogs certainly constitutes `use' by Holmes under the statute and is subject to the tax." Id., at 105. Turning to the federal question in the case, the Court of Appeal analyzed the use tax under the test we articulated in Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, 430 U.S. 274 (1977), and found that it did not violate the Commerce Clause.
The Louisiana Supreme Court denied discretionary review. 506 So.2d 1224 (1987). We noted probable jurisdiction, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 1257(2). 484 U.S. 923 (1987).
The Commerce Clause of the Constitution, Art. I, 8, cl. 3, provides that Congress shall have the power "[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes." Even where Congress has not acted affirmatively to protect interstate commerce, the Clause prevents States from discriminating against that commerce. The "distinction between the power of the State to shelter its people from menaces to their health or safety and from fraud, even when those dangers emanate from interstate [486 U.S. 24, 30] commerce, and its lack of power to retard, burden or constrict the flow of such commerce for their economic advantage, is one deeply rooted in both our history and our law." H. P. Hood & Sons v. Du Mond, 336 U.S. 525, 533 (1949).
One frequent source of conflict of this kind occurs when a State seeks to tax the sale or use of goods within its borders. See, e. g., Colonial Pipeline Co. v. Traigle, 421 U.S. 100 (1975); Memphis Natural Gas Co. v. Stone, 335 U.S. 80 (1948). This recurring dilemma is exemplified in what has come to be the leading case in the area, Complete Auto Transit, Inc. v. Brady, supra. In Complete Auto, Mississippi imposed a tax on appellant's business of in-state transportation of motor vehicles manufactured outside the State. We found that the State's tax did not violate the Commerce Clause, because appellant's activity had a substantial nexus with Mississippi, and the tax was fairly apportioned, did not discriminate against interstate commerce, and was fairly related to benefits provided by the State. Id., at 287.
This four-part formulation has since been used to evaluate the validity of state taxes vis-a-vis the Commerce Clause in a number of contexts. Two Terms ago, for instance, we upheld a Florida tax on aviation fuel purchased within the State, finding that all four of the Complete Auto criteria were satisfied. Wardair Canada Inc. v. Florida Dept. of Revenue, 477 U.S. 1 (1986). The Complete Auto test has also been employed to test the constitutionality of business and occupation taxes, Department of Revenue of Washington v. Association of Washington Stevedoring Cos., 435 U.S. 734 (1978); mineral severance taxes, Commonwealth Edison Co. v. Montana, 453 U.S. 609 (1981); and the taxation of income received by an out-of-state corporation from its in-state subsidiaries, Mobil Oil Corp. v. Commissioner of Taxes of Vermont, 445 U.S. 425 (1980).
Complete Auto abandoned the abstract notion that interstate commerce "itself" cannot be taxed by the States. We [486 U.S. 24, 31] recognized that, with certain restrictions, interstate commerce may be required to pay its fair share of state taxes. Accordingly, in the present case, it really makes little difference for Commerce Clause purposes whether Holmes' catalogs "came to rest" in the mailboxes of its Louisiana customers or whether they were still considered in the stream of interstate commerce. This distinction may be of some importance for other purposes (in determining, for instance, whether a "taxable moment" has occurred, see 505 So.2d, at 105), but for Commerce Clause analysis it is largely irrelevant.
Holmes argues that Louisiana's assessment against its merchandise catalogs is, in essence, a tax on the mere presence of goods within the State. This contention was expressly rejected by the Louisiana Court of Appeal's finding that the distribution of the catalogs constituted use under 47:302 and 47:321. We accept this construction of state law, and thus see no merit in the argument that Louisiana has attempted to tax only the existence of goods within the State.
In the case before us, then, the application of Louisiana's use tax to Holmes' catalogs does not violate the Commerce Clause if the tax complies with the four prongs of Complete Auto. We have no doubt that the second and third elements of the test are satisfied. The Louisiana taxing scheme is fairly apportioned, for it provides a credit against its use tax for sales taxes that have been paid in other States. See La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 47:303(A) (West 1970) ("A credit against the use tax imposed by this Chapter shall be granted to taxpayers who have paid a similar tax upon the sale or use of the same tangible personal property in another state"); 47:302(A)(2) (instructing that "there shall be no duplication of the tax"); 47:321(A)(2) (West Supp. 1988) (same). Holmes paid no sales tax for the catalogs where they were designed or printed; if it had, it would have been eligible for a credit against the use tax exacted. Similarly, Louisiana imposed [486 U.S. 24, 32] its use tax only on the 82% of the catalogs distributed in-state; it did not attempt to tax that portion of the catalogs that went to out-of-state customers.
The Louisiana tax structure likewise does not discriminate against interstate commerce. The use tax is designed to compensate the State for revenue lost when residents purchase out-of-state goods for use within the State. It is equal to the sales tax applicable to the same tangible personal property purchased in-state; in fact, both taxes are set forth in the same sections of the Louisiana statutes. See La. Rev. Stat. Ann. 47:302 and 47:321 (West 1970 and Supp. 1988).
Complete Auto requires that the tax be fairly related to benefits provided by the State, but that condition is also met here. Louisiana provides a number of services that facilitate Holmes' sale of merchandise within the State: It provides fire and police protection for Holmes' stores, runs mass transit and maintains public roads which benefit Holmes' customers, and supplies a number of other civic services from which Holmes profits. To be sure, many others in the State benefit from the same services; but that does not alter the fact that the use tax paid by Holmes, on catalogs designed to increase sales, is related to the advantages provided by the State which aid Holmes' business.
Finally, we believe that Holmes' distribution of its catalogs reflects a substantial nexus with Louisiana. To begin with, Holmes' contention that it lacked sufficient control over the catalogs' distribution in Louisiana to be subject to the use tax verges on the nonsensical. Holmes ordered and paid for the catalogs and supplied the list of customers to whom the catalogs were sent; any catalogs that could not be delivered were returned to it. Holmes admits that it initiated the distribution to improve its sales and name recognition among Louisiana residents. Holmes also has a significant presence in Louisiana, with 13 stores and over $100 million in annual sales in the State. See App. 68-69, 98. The distribution of [486 U.S. 24, 33] catalogs to approximately 400,000 Louisiana customers was directly aimed at expanding and enhancing its Louisiana business. There is "nexus" aplenty here.
Holmes and several amici argue that Holmes' posture here closely resembles the predicament of the mail-order business we confronted in National Bellas Hess, Inc. v. Department of Revenue of Illinois, 386 U.S. 753 (1967). In National Bellas Hess, we held that the State of Illinois could not, consistently with the Commerce Clause, compel an out-of-state mail-order company to collect a use tax on purchases of goods by Illinois residents when the seller's only connection with its Illinois customers was by mail or common carrier. Holmes apparently views its catalog distribution as analogous to the mail-order solicitation in National Bellas Hess. This argument ignores, however, Holmes' significant economic presence in Louisiana, its many connections with the State, and the direct benefits it receives from Louisiana in conducting its business. We thus see little similarity between the mail-order shipments in National Bellas Hess and Holmes' activities in this case.
We find Holmes' activities much closer to those considered in National Geographic Society v. California Board of Equalization, 430 U.S. 551 (1977). National Geographic involved the operation of two California offices by a national magazine devoted solely to soliciting advertising for the magazine. California nonetheless applied its use tax, which required every retailer engaged in business in the State to collect a tax from its purchasers, on the magazine's mail-order activities. We determined that the imposition of the tax did not violate the Commerce Clause, since the magazine's "maintenance of the two offices in California and activities there adequately establish[ed] a relationship or `nexus' between the [magazine] and the State" sufficient to support the tax. Id., at 556. This conclusion applies a fortiori here, [486 U.S. 24, 34] since Holmes' connection with Louisiana far exceeds that of the magazine with California in National Geographic.
Because Louisiana's imposition of its use tax on Holmes does not violate the Commerce Clause, the judgment of the Louisiana Court of Appeal is
[ Footnote 2 ] As originally filed in Louisiana Civil District Court, the State's complaint included a claim for delinquent sales taxes on candy sold by Holmes. The State apparently reached an acceptable compromise with Holmes, and the Civil District Court granted a joint motion by the parties to dismiss without prejudice the candy sales tax issue. That issue is thus no longer a part of this case.
[ Footnote 3 ] As then codified this section provided: " 47:305. Exclusions and exemptions from the tax . . . . . "(5) It is not the intention of this Chapter to levy a tax upon articles of tangible personal property imported into this state, or produced or manufactured in this state, for export; nor is it the intention of this Chapter to levy a tax on bona fide interstate commerce. It is, however, the intention of this Chapter to levy a tax on the sale at retail, the use, the consumption, the distribution, and the storage to be used or consumed in this state, of tangible personal property after it has come to rest in this state and has become a part of the mass of property in this state." [486 U.S. 24, 35]
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