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There is a reason why every run-down, disreputable, reeking, inexplicably charming fish joint in North America serves New England-style clam chowder, and that's that New England-style clam chowder is goddamn delicious. Also, there are two other reasons.
The second reason why every anchor-bedecked, crab-schlepping hellhole on earth serves New England-style clam chowder is that even a leathery, one-eyed sea-dog with hooks for hands and zero actual kitchen training and hooks also for feet can make New England-style clam chowder, which requires no culinary techniques more esoteric than whisking a pot of food without lighting oneself on fire. The third reason is that New England-style clam chowder is made of the types of (figurative) shit—clams, some manner of pork, a couple of familiar aromatics, a pair of milk products, flour, and so on—that can be found readily damn near anywhere within a day's drive of the ocean.
That is to say, you do not need to be in New England to have—to make—good New England-style clam chowder. You do not even need to know where New England is on a map of the United States to make good New England-style clam chowder. Hell, you probably could get away with not being able to spell "New England," "United States," "chowder," or "map," and still make good New England-style clam chowder. All you need are some familiar ingredients, some familiar kitchen implements, and what passes for sentience in a culture in which people pay Thom Loverro to write things, and you can make good New England-style clam chowder.
Apart from the Thom Loverro part, this is great news. New England clam chowder is called "New England clam chowder" because it was invented in New England—not because it can only be made there, or because the ingredients required to make a good rendition of it can only be found there. The weenies may say otherwise, but they are wrong. New England clam chowder belongs to everybody.
And, hey! You've got kitchen implements! You know how to get familiar ingredients! You struggle to spell simple words! You can make good chowder. Let's make some good-ass clam chowder.
The first thing you'll need to do, of course, is acquire clams. Let's talk about that.
Perhaps you will think to yourself that, as a person of high standards who demands Nothing but the Best from Life, you cannot settle for anything other than fresh, live clams, still in their shells, for your clam chowder. If that is how you wish to go about making clam chowder, bully for you, and godspeed along your way; you'll need to buy several dozen live clams, keep them alive until you're ready to use them, steam them to doneness, reserve the steaming liquid, remove the clams from their shells, chop them, and set them aside. This is an enormous pain in the ass.
On the other hand, perhaps you will think to yourself that, as a person with a grownup life positively sodden with responsibilities and constraints and haggardness and ambivalence about ever getting out of bed again, you'd like to simplify things a tad and just buy a bunch of cans of chopped clams at the friggin' supermarket. (Perhaps you only just now discovered that this is the sort of person you are, when you read in the previous paragraph all the steps involved in turning live clams into clams that are ready for use in making clam chowder.) If you would like to use canned clams, that is a very pragmatic and sensible choice, and godspeed along your way. You will have to drain your canned clams and reserve the liquid in a big bowl or bottle or watertight boot, and set the clams aside.
Truthfully, whether you use live clams or canned clams will not make much of a difference in the tastiness of your finished clam chowder, because truthfully, the creamy, clammy broth, and not the actual physical clams, will be the star of your clam chowder. This will strike you as a compelling argument for the much cheaper and more user-friendly canned variety, as it should.
What I am saying here is that you should use canned clams. You'll need, what, maybe eight or nine or 10 of the little canned-tuna-sized cans, which seems like a lot of cans of clams, until you discover that each one contains a single clam chip the size of an electron, and also 63 gallons of clam liquid. Drain the clams, save the liquid in a separate container, and set both the clams and the clam liquid aside for now.
Also, you'll need to acquire some variety of salty pig product for your clam chowder. You've got some options, here. Sliced ham is OK, as are salt pork, uncured pork belly, and Pancetta ham; if you're using one of those, get, oh, a half-pound of the stuff. Thick-sliced bacon is OK, too—however, you'll want to use half as much (a quarter-pound) of it, because it's strong as hell, and even if you think you want your clam chowder to taste like a mouthful of vaguely fishy bacon gravy, actually, that is kind of gross. Suit yourself; if you're looking for a suggestion, Pancetta is pleasantly bacon-y but less overpowering than bacon, and is a great choice, if the entire Pancetta experience hasn't been ruined for you by hearing Giada De Laurentiis say pahn-CHEET-tah 900,000 times per second on your television for the past decade.
So you've got your clams and your pig product of choice. Next, chop a bunch of stuff. Hack a white onion and two stalks of celery to whatever meets your definition of "medium chop"; dice your pig product into teeny little cubes (or, if you can't be bothered with all that, go ahead and give it a spin in the food processor until it's pretty well minced); chop two or three or four Russet potatoes into dice-sized cubes.
OK, that's all the annoying prep-work. Time to start cooking! Haul out your biggest, heaviest stockpot or Dutch oven and cook the diced or minced pig product over low-ish heat until a bunch of its fat has rendered into liquid in the bottom of the pot. You're not looking for crispiness, here; you just want to liquefy most of the fat in the pork, so that when you add flour to this pot in a few minutes, the flour will be able to absorb that fat and prevent it from turning your clam chowder greasy.
After a few minutes, your pork will be cooking in a puddle of its own rendered fat. Add some other stuff to the pot: your chopped onion and celery, plus an entire stick of unsalted butter, plus a pinch of salt. But wait, you're shrieking, pounding your fists on the table and making a scene in the prison library—why would I use unsalted butter if I'm just gonna add a pinch of salt along with it? Good question, jerk! The answer is: The dry, crystallized salt you add to the pot will help accelerate the cooking of the onion and celery, by drawing the liquid out of them; the salt suspended in salted butter doesn't do this, so if you used salted butter, you'd still have to add a pinch of salt, and then there's the very real possibility that, between the salted butter and the salty pig product and the pinch of salt, you'd come away with clam chowder that tasted like taking a big old gulp of the ocean, and even if you do want to take a big old gulp of the ocean, that is not what we are doing, here, so you will have to do that some other time.
(Also, less importantly: Quit letting some friggin' butter manufacturer decide how salty your food will be. That's a chump move.)
Let the vegetation cook in there with the pork and various fats until the onion is translucent; next, dump in, what, maybe half a cup or so of all-purpose flour and move everything around with a whisk until the flour and liquid fat are mixed completely together, and there aren't any big lumps of dry flour or pockets of liquid fat to be found, and you can smell the flour starting to cook, and it's buttery and porky and oniony and oh God, oh my God, ohmigod. You've just created a roux (or, more precisely, a roux with a bunch of chopped-up pork and vegetables in it); this will thicken your soup, and also make it taste like all the stuff that went into it.
You're mostly done making clam chowder! No, seriously. More than halfway. Now, bump up the heat under your pot just a tad, and, working maybe a half-cup-sized splash at a time, whisk the reserved clam liquid to the stuff in the pot. Don't rush things, here, thinking you see the finish line just around the bend; add a big splash of clam liquid to the pot, whisk until it's fully combined with the other stuff, then add another, and whisk it all the way in. And so on.
Here's what you're aiming for: a smooth, fully-combined substance with the consistency of your basic Thanksgiving gravy. Depending on exactly how much fat rendered out of your pork, and exactly how much flour you used, you may hit your mark before you use up all the clam liquid, or you may use up all the clam liquid and still have a substance that is thicker than gravy. If the latter happens, go ahead and whisk in warm water, again one half-cup-sized splash at a time, until you get there.
Now, you have a choice. As you can see, looking into your pot, what you have in there is not soup, yet. It's a great deal thicker than soup. You must dilute it before it can be called soup. There are a few ways to do this; choose according to how you prioritize health and pleasure, relative to each other. You can:
A) continue stirring in water and/or clam liquid until you've got what could be considered chowder-thickness liquid; or
B) stir in whole milk until you've got what could be considered chowder-thickness liquid; or
C) do the right goddamn thing, and stir in an entire quart of by-God heavy cream, because what the hell, you weren't gonna live forever anyway, you might as well make transcendent clam chowder once in your friggin' life.
Also, add the cubed potatoes and the drained clams to the pot. Bring the nascent chowder up to a low boil, then immediately lower the heat to steady it at a gentle simmer, and cook the soup, uncovered, until the potato-cubes are soft enough to stab with a fork.
Give your chowder a stir* every few minutes while it cooks, just to make sure the solid stuff isn't sticking to the bottom of your pot. You can give your chowder a taste, but even if it seems bland, don't salt it yet; the potatoes will withdraw some of the salt from the broth as they cook, and that can fuck up your salt calculations.
*Note: Once you've added the cream, put the whisk away and switch to a long-handled spoon or spatula or flyswatter or whatever for stirring. You don't want to whip a bunch of air into your chowder—don't worry, you probably couldn't produce stiff whipped chowder even if you tried, but the point here is that you don't want airy chowder. OK?
When the potatoes are done, the cooking part is over. Taste the chowder and add salt (if necessary) and a big pinch of freshly-ground black pepper. A couple splashes of Worcestershire, stirred into the pot, will do nicely, but aren't necessary.
There. That's it. New England clam chowder. That was pretty easy, for soup! Yes, it was, shut up.
Serve your chowder in big, warm bowls; make available a bottle of your favorite hot sauce (Cholula, weirdly, goes spectacularly with New England clam chowder, but familiar old Tabasco is great, too), a big loaf of crusty bread (or some saltines or oyster crackers, but, actually, a big loaf of crusty bread), and some very cold beer.
Eventually you'll sprinkle some hot sauce into your chowder and dredge bread or crackers through it, but first, scoop one simple, unadulterated spoonful into your mouth and taste it. It is: rich, and creamy, and salty, and savory, and the clam and pork and onion and celery and cream all layered and tangled and roiling, and hey, this is pretty good chowder, whether it is chowdah or not.
Peruse the entire Foodspin archive here.
Albert Burneko is an eating enthusiast and father of two. Peevishly correct his foolishness on Twitter @albertburneko, or send him your creepy longform hate-missives at email@example.com.
Image by Sam Woolley.
You can find lots more Foodspin at foodspin.deadspin.com.


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Chopra Center instructor visits Bookworm of Edwards Monday
EDWARDS — The Chopra Center is world renowned for its unique approach to integrating the mind and the body to achieve holistic healing. Its outreach programs to those suffering from physical and emotional pain include everything from retreats at the Carlsbad, Calif., location to local visits by Chopra certified teachers.
The Bookworm of Edwards is hosting Esta Venter, a certified instructor for Chopra Center courses, on Monday. Her presentation, "When Stress Meets Medication: We can do less and accomplish more," will address combatting stress with meditation and other techniques central to Chopra Center techniques.
According to Venter, "the event will be mostly experiential so that attendees can directly experience the calming effect of breathing meditation. They will also be given tools and tips to use at home to facilitate a committed meditation practice."
Along with these experiential aspects, themes from the Chopra Center founders' books will be highlighted.
Although the focus of this event is to help attendees manage stress, it will also further the Chopra Center's mission to "serve as a global source for balance, healing, transformation and the expansion of awareness." Venter's 20-year experience makes her a perfect proponent for these goals.
Support Local Journalism
But her journey to being a teacher for the Chopra Center did not start with a deep-seated desire to discover the world of holistic healing. According to Venter, it instead began with "an unfortunate stress burnout during a corporate career," after which she "serendipitously discovered the worlds of doctors Deepak Chopra and David Simon, co-founders of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing."
This discovery led her to the "breakthrough experience" of meditation at the Chopra Center.
Meditation "was transformative and offered the opportunity to take responsibility for my own health and wellbeing," she said. "Through the practice of meditation I learned to understand and experience directly how to do less and achieve more."
Take responsibility for your health
The changes to her mind and to her body were so profound that she was encouraged to help other people struggling with similar issues find peace of mind. The most important part of her work is convincing people to take responsibility for their health. It is easy and inexpensive if people follow the right method for their personalities and lifestyles.
Since its opening in 1996, the Chopra Center has personalized its methods to accommodate varying needs. Meditation, detoxification and de-stressing are integral parts of each Chopra program, where people gather to experience healing. In fact, meditation is so important that every Chopra Center employee must learn how to meditate.
"Meditation is simple and effective," Venter said. "Everyone can learn it and there are many possible benefits of a regular meditation practice: release of deep-seated stress, a positive impact of health and wellbeing, improved concentration and memory, calm mind and relaxed body, inner peace and tranquility, more harmonious relationships, enhanced sleep patterns, greater creativity and sharper intuition, an enriched life — to name a few."
Because this de-stressing process is simple and non-invasive, there is immense interest in learning to meditate. The introduction of the Chopra Center programs, such as the Perfect Health Program, has exposed more people to the effective techniques practiced at the center. Venter was proud to share that during a recent online 21-day meditation challenge, more than 500,000 people participated.
More programs
Other programs range from six to 10 days, each focusing on the gentle, life-changing philosophy of Ayurveda, the "Science of Life" in Sanskrit. The Chopra Center is bringing these techniques to the 21st century, not only through teaching the timeless traditions, but also by adapting them to situations like the workplace. Their newest program is Workplace Wellbeing and Wellness, focusing on de-stressing offices of corporations and small-businesses.
While there are several different methods of Ayurveda, meditation has been central to each way of healing for more than 5,000 years. To Venter, these traditions focus "on the principles of balancing the mind-body constitution and the prevention of disease."
Despite this practice existing for centuries, there is no quick-fix, or "easy button" to press to achieve a balanced life. Venter's exploration "has been a long, slow process and still ongoing." But this hard work has made her a stronger person, physically, mentally and emotionally, a side-effect for which she is "deeply grateful."
To experience part of Venter's journey and life-changing experience, join her for a night of experiential learning. To learn how to de-stress from the rat race and find the joys of living a holistic life, begin by learning the methods of the Chopra Center, beginning with meditation and adapting existing de-stress techniques to maximize its effectiveness.
Leigh Bennett Horton is an intern at The Bookworm of Edwards and a student at the Colorado School of Mines. Email comments about this story to email@example.com.

subset: commoncrawl


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For everything you ever wanted to know about our Secret Ingredient this week- artichokes, check out this post on The City Cook. There you will find out the history of artichokes, how to buy, cut, trim, and cook them and the challenge of pairing wine with them. For a pictorial set of directions on how to cook and eat artichokes, head over to Simply Recipes. To learn from folks with a passion for artichokes, check out the California Artichoke Advisory Board.
I've not eaten artichokes for very long and I've only cooked them once from fresh artichokes. I would usually add frozen or canned artichoke hearts. I am working on using fresh whole ingredients in my recipes and I was a little nervous about working with something that was attacking me. Be careful of the thorns. They need to be cut off with your kitchen scissors. I wanted to roast mine with garlic and olive oil. I couldn't just make steamed to start off with. That sounded too easy. I thought I should steam them a little so they would cook faster in the oven so I steamed for 10 minutes with lemons in the water. Then I cut them into quarters making sure to take out the center that, for lack of more technical terms, was the hairy part. It didn't look like anything I'd ever eaten from an artichoke.
Of course if I would have found the resources I gave above and used them, it would have made all of this a lot easier. Needless to say, I just decided to play with my food and it turned out OK. I will definitely start playing more with fresh artichokes. For my Friday Foodie Fix recipe, check out my Mediterranean Tuna Pasta with Artichokes. This is not like your mothers tuna noodle casserole.
Now it's your turn to share your recipes with artichokes. Leave as many as you want and remember to check back and see what has been added. To review the rules please follow the tab up top.
Next week's secret ingredient is ……………………………….Garlic!
Thought we would have an easy secret ingredient after all of these green veggies. Next week I hope to get at least 30 links to garlic recipes, so share this with all the foodies you know.


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Please download the TeamSnap app to stay updated on your student's games and practices!
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Tanzanian Govt Threatens to de-register Churches After the President was Criticised
Tanzania has threatened to revoke the registration of religious organisations that "mix religion and politics" after a cleric criticised President John Magufuli's leadership in a Christmas sermon.
Opposition leaders in Tanzania say tolerance for dissent has been rapidly disappearing since Magufuli took office in late 2015 with pledges to reform East Africa's third-biggest economy and crack down on large-scale corruption.
Tanzania's constitution protects freedom of worship, but religious organisations must register at the country's Home Affairs Ministry to get a licence to operate legally.
"Recently, some leaders of (religious) societies have been using their sermons to analyse political issues, which is contrary to the law," the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs, Projest Rwegasira, said late on Thursday.
"Any violation of the law could lead to cancellation of the registration of the concerned religious society," he said in a statement. The warning was issued just days after the head of a Pentecostal church in the commercial capital Dar es Salaam criticised Magufuli's leadership, saying his government was closing democratic space. Zachary Kakobe, self-proclaimed bishop and founder of the Full Gospel Bible Fellowship Church, accused the Tanzanian government of "quietly turning the country into a one-state rule by systematically banning political activity."
The Home Affairs Ministry responded by issuing a public notice to religious organisations after the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party accused Kakobe of mixing religion and politics. Tanzanian police banned political protests and rallies indefinitely in June last year, saying political activity would only be allowed during elections.
Magufuli, nicknamed "the Bulldozer" for pushing through his policies, has won some praise from Western donors for an anti-corruption campaign and cuts to wasteful public spending. But opponents accuse him of increasingly undermining democracy by curbing dissent and stifling free speech.
Magufuli has publicly denied the allegations, saying he is no dictator.
But several newspapers have been shut and more than a dozen suspects prosecuted for allegedly insulting the president via WhatsApp and other social media platforms.


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By Ace Fekay
Originally Published 2012
Updated 3/20/2018
Ace again. DNS is a basic, yet important requirement that many still having problems wrapping their head around it.
Besides design, a huge part of DNS is understanding the differences between the zone types. Many have asked, when do I use a Stub zone, a Conditional Forwarder, or a Forwarder? Or better, what's the difference?
I thought to put this simple comparison together compiled from past posts in the TechNet Forum.
Partner Organization DNS Resolution: What should I use, a Stub, Conditional Forwarder or Forwarder?
Secondary Zone
Secondary zones are read only copies "copied," or "zone transferred" from a Master zone. This makes the zone data available locally (as read only, of course), instead of querying a DNS server across a WAN link. However, in many cases Secondaries are not used due to many limitations and security concerns, such as exposing all DNS zone data that a partner may not want to divulge.
In addition, Secondaries can't be AD integrated, and the zone data is stored in a text file. So you would have to manually create a copy on all of your DNS servers.
Stub Zone
Organizations own their own AD zones. When business partners need to resolve data at a partner's organization, there are a few options to support this requirement. Years ago, prior to Stub or Conditional Forwarders, there weren't many options to handle this other than to use Secondary Zones and keep copies of each others zones via zone transfers. While the solution worked well in regards to name resolution, it was not the best security-wise, due to trust level between partners, because zone data is fully exposed at the partner. This became a security concern because the partner is able to see all of their business partner's records. When the zone was transferred to partners, who knows what they were doing with the information. If the information was made public, attackers would have a field day with all of the IPs for the networked devices.
When stub zones were made available, it became a solution to overcome this security issue. What is also beneficial about Stubs, is you can AD integrate them instead of manually creating a Stub on each individual DC. This way the zone will be available domain or forest-wide, depending on replication scope.
However, some may say due to the fact that the SOA records are included in the zone file, it may be a concern that the SOA and NS data is exposed. In such high security concerns, the better solution would be to use a Conditional forwarder.
Conditional Forwarder
This option is heavily used, and many look at them as the best regarding security concerns with zone data exposure, because no data is exposed. This option has worked very well in many environments.
With Conditional Forwarders, no information is being transerred and shared. The only thing you would need to know is one or more of your business partner's DNS server IPs to configure it, and they don't have to be the SOA, rather any DNS server that hosts the zone or that has a reference to the zone.
However, it does require open communication and let each other know when their DNS server IPs may change, because you must manually set them.
Windows 2003 introduced Conditional Forwarders, but it did not have the option to make it AD Integrated. If you have 10 DNS servers, you must create the Conditional Forwarder on each server manually. The AD integrated option was added to Windows 2008 or newer DNS servers, so you don't have to manually create them on each DNS server. THis way the Conditional Forwarder will be available domain or forest-wide.
Parent-Child DNS Zone Delegation
Delegation can be used in a situation where a child domain host their own DNS zone. Therefore in the forest root domain, you would create a delegation zone with the IPs of the DNS servers in the child domain. This is normally performed when the child zone have their own administrators. It's also useful they do not have access to "see" all of the forest root DNS records.
I hope this helps! If you have any questions, and I'm sure you do, please feel free to reach out to me.
Major revision – Published 3/20/2018
Ace Fekay
MVP, MCT, MCSE 2012, MCITP EA & MCTS Windows 2012|R2, 2008|R2, Exchange 2013|2010EA|2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP – Mobility
As many know, I work with Active Directory, Exchange server, and Office 365 engineer/architect, and an MVP in Active Directory and Identity Management, and I'm an MCT as well. I try to strive to perform my job with the best of my ability and efficiency, even when presented with a challenge, and then help others with my findings in case a similar issue arises to help ease their jobs. Share the knowledge, is what I've always learned.
I've found there are many qualified and very informative websites that provide how-to blogs, and I'm glad they exists and give due credit to the pros that put them together. In some cases when I must research an issue, I just needed something or specific that I couldn't find or had to piece together from more than one site, such as a simple one-liner or a simple multiline script to perform day to day stuff.
I hope you've found this blog post helpful, along with my future scripts blog posts, especially with AD, Exchange, and Office 365.
Complete List of Technical Blogs
This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.


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focusThursday, October 16, 2008
I'm having a hard time staying focused over here. Maybe it is the falling leaves. I'm not really sure. But I jump from project to project without making much progress on anything. I'm doing things like making dessert at 5:30 p.m. without an inclination of what is for dinner. (Thank you, Erin.)
I made Acorn cookies yesterday for our cookie of the week. The whole time I envisioned them as heads. With little knit caps. I wanted to get out a sharpie and draw faces on them. Seriously. When I asked the kids, what they thought, they thought they looked like acorns. "Funny faces? Ha. Your funny, mom. " ( They were looking at me like I lost my mind.)
I packed this morning for a long weekend, as we are leaving in a couple of hours. Pretty much threw some clothes into a bag. A seven hour drive. With a lot of beautiful leaves along the way. Now that is something to focus on.
56 comments
those cookies are adorable! i've got to remember to make some with my kids!ReplyDelete
have a great trip!ReplyDelete
have a good time! squeeze some yarn for me.ReplyDelete
i really do love those cookies. i'm going to have to try them i think. have a great trip! can't wait to see your pictures of leaves!ReplyDelete
Those cookies look so good! I seem to have gotten lost in the shuffle of my projects as well. Working on little things here and there, but not making any progress anywhere. Have a wonderful trip!ReplyDelete
okay...now I know you're in the same boat as me...unfocused. Have a great long weekend...I'm off to make cookies!ReplyDelete
There must be something in the air as I'm slightly un-focused myself.ReplyDelete
Enjoy your long weekend. I'm sure it's just what you need. :)
enjoy the long weekend - focus or not - sometimes you need to just not focus! the cookes look good! along with that apple crisp! YUM!ReplyDelete
Those cookies are adorable! Seriously! Actually, whenever I see acorns, I picture them with faces... Have a safe trip!ReplyDelete
I see little heads in knit caps too. Have a great trip!ReplyDelete
enjoy your trip! those acorn cookies are adorable!!!ReplyDelete
Have a wonderful weekend. I can't wait to hear about it. And dessert is totally more important than the main meal! BTW the dessert counts as a fruit/vegetable (on my food pyramid anyway).ReplyDelete
Yep, I see little heads with hats too.ReplyDelete
Have a great trip!
Enjoy your weekend away! Those cookies are too cute -- I think they're screaming out for little faces, too.ReplyDelete
Gorgeous photos, Leslie! And you're so funny about the faces. Elisabeth looked over my shoulder and said, "Look! Acorn-shaped little cookies!" So, it might be just you. ;)ReplyDelete
Have fun this weekend!
Don't worry, I'm sure the focus will come back. I love the little acorn faces!ReplyDelete
I think the cookies like heads with caps on them too! It's funny you say you're not focused--I truly admire your ability to finish so many sweaters in year!ReplyDelete
Have a wonderful trip! I love those acorn cookies!!ReplyDelete
Have a good trip, enjoy the foliage!ReplyDelete
When I was little my mom would call the little acorn hats "mini-hewnie" hats for the mini-hewnies. So I definitely picture acorns with little faces.ReplyDelete
Have fun on your trip!
Your acorn cookies look awesome. I have never seen those before. Hope you have a very nice time away.ReplyDelete
those look too cute to eat.. well.. almost.. :).. have a great trip!! and see you Saturday!ReplyDelete
cookies look like acorns- but made my mouth water!ReplyDelete
the leaves are wonderful...
hope you have a great time away
I love the acorn cookies! too cute.ReplyDelete
Have a great long weekend trip! I can't wait to see the gorgeous leaf pictures you'll take!
I thought they were acorns as soon as I saw them :)ReplyDelete
Enjoy your lovely weekend. I'll be enjoying it for sure, it's my birthday Saturday ;)
have a great time!ReplyDelete
I'm sorry you forgot to pack ME! I so want to see Fall. I'm in Texas and in my area I'm not seeing much yet. Have a colorful weekend.ReplyDelete
I love those cookies !!! The leaves are pretty too.ReplyDelete
Mmmm. Those cookies look delicious.ReplyDelete
Have a fun trip! Take lots of pictures!
On the focus thing girl, I feel your pain!ReplyDelete
Cute cookies, acorns or not! By the way... I tried the cinnamon cookies--so good:)ReplyDelete
Have fun dear Leslie! Be good!ReplyDelete
Cute cookies! And I can picture them with faces... my kids probably would too, but they tend to turn most of their food into little dolls of some kind.ReplyDelete
Have a wonderful weekend away-
happy knitting-
another trip???lucky girl! enjoy the yarn...squish one for me!!ReplyDelete
Oh, I'll have to try those cookies with Jorn. You're not heading to Rhinebeck are you? ;-) I have to sit this one out this year.ReplyDelete
Love the cookies. Have a great weekend seven hours in the car wow. I'm off to Rhinebeck on Saturday and am pretty sure that I will be feeling scattered next week as I imagine having some new yarn/patterns to add to my stash after Saturday.ReplyDelete
Those cookies are hilarious! They remind me of when I was little and we used to collect acorns and draw faces on them:)ReplyDelete
I can see the faces!! ;) Have a great trip.ReplyDelete
have a nice holiday.ReplyDelete
This comment has been removed by the author.ReplyDelete
I am with you in the unfocused place. I have so many projects that NEED to get done but somehow I find just about anything else to do instead. Its those darned have-to's that have me fuzzy.ReplyDelete
I am so jumping on the cookie of the week bandwagon! I love it. I make cookies a lot around here but it is usually spur of the moment and without much thought, chocolate chip or oatmeal. Last night I was craving peanut butter hershey kiss cookies. No kisses so I put a little pile of chocolate chips in the middle. Mind if I join you?
Cute cookies. I think if the tops were less brown and nutty (with nonpareil or jimmies) then they would evoke faces more than acorns.ReplyDelete
Very cute cookies! Have a fantastic time!ReplyDelete
Love the acorn cookies. Great idea.ReplyDelete
- Anonymous10/18/2008
I've made those little acorn cookies before and not only are they cute, they are yummy!!ReplyDelete
Oh, those cookies look so fabulous. I just gave up sugar. It's killing me!ReplyDelete
In Florida, we never get colors like that! Thank you for sharing!ReplyDelete
those cookies are fantastic.ReplyDelete
enjoy the travels!
- Anonymous10/20/2008
Can fall be any more perfect a season? I'm feeling a bit unfocused too. I hope you had a great weekend away!ReplyDelete
Hi Leslie. I Just wanted to let you know that I love your blog and that you've been nominated for an award :)ReplyDelete
Please see
- Anonymous10/21/2008
huge thanks for the acorn cookie idea, thrilled to have found your blog :o)ReplyDelete
Hi Leslie, I don't think you are alone, everyone seems to be unfocused, there is a lot going on in our world right now. I can see them as both acorns and faces with cute little berets! Hope you weekend was great!ReplyDelete
Mmm...acorn cookies -- yum! Why not make dessert before dinner? It's the most important meal of the day!ReplyDelete
- Anonymous10/21/2008
I enjoy reading your blog. You don't seem to be posting as often. Are you traveling?ReplyDelete
I made these cookies yesterday with my 3-year-old and she totally thought they were supposed to be faces, which may not say much about my cookie-shaping skills.ReplyDelete
Have a good trip, good lucky tai game iwin qua tin nhanReplyDelete


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Really Trivial Star Wars Trivia
*******Highlight the space below the question to reveal the answers!*******
The history of the galaxy is recorded in the...?
Journal of the Whills
Leia's Corvette is named the...?
Tantive IV
The creature in the garbage compactor is called the...?
Number of the magnetically sealed door in the garbage
"They may be splitting up; they may be on levels...now,
Five and six
The manufacturer's designation for the X-wing.
T-65 (Available in B and C-A2 models)
Race that built Yavin temples; original name of Yavin
site. (The script)
Order in which Red Squadron checks in before Death
Star attack.
Red Ten, Seven, Three, Six, Nine, Two, Eleven, Five
Actual time interval in "The Death Star will be in range
in one minute." (Total)
Two minutes, fifty seconds
Number of Rebel troops standing in the throne room
at the end of Star Wars. (Just kidding, folks.)
I was kidding!
Number of probe droids launched in the beginning of
Which actor portrayed Major Derlin (ESB)?
John Ratzenberger
Harrison Ford's birthday.
July 13, 1942
Which planet of the Hoth system was the Rebel base
The sixth
Boba Fett's battle armor contains these weapons.
Wrist lasers, rocket darts, turbo-projected grappling hook, flamethrower,
concussion grenade launcher, jet pack. Incidentally, he carries a BlasTech EE-3
blaster rifle
What fashion accessories does Boba Fett hang from
his belt?
Wookiee scalps
How many shots does Han take at Darth Vader?
Unit designation for the Cloud City guards.
Wing Guard
Number of Darth Vader's shuttle. (Return of the Jedi)
Glitch found in the most complex F/X shot in Return
of the Jedi. (Found in early parts of the Death Star battle)
As the Falcon crosses screen center left to upper right, TIEs are going in the
opposite direction. For a moment, two TIE silhouettes freeze on the bottom of the
Falcon as it passes over them.
Han Solo's original name. (The Courtship of Princess
Han Suul
Type of blaster pistol used by Han Solo.
BlasTech DL-44
(The last two here are up for argument, as my definition of "destroyed"
doesn't have gun camera footage to back it up in most cases.)
Total number of destroyed Rebel starfighters in the
Fifteen (nine over first Death Star, six over second)
Total number of destroyed TIEs in the trilogy.
Twenty-six (Four during Falcon's escape from first Death Star, four in ensuing
battle, four in Anoat asteroid field, fourteen during second Death Star battle)


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Breast engorgement
Breast engorgement
It's normal during the first week after a baby is born for a mother's breast to become heavy, and tender, and full as the milk is coming in. And even before that as the blood flow is expanding and the lymph flow is expanding to allow the milk to come in. But sometimes that progresses to something we call engorgement. I'm Dr. Alan Greene and I want to talk briefly about engorgement. What causes it, how you can prevent it, and what to do if engorgement does happen.
We call it engorgement if the pain becomes really severe because the milk is so full in the breasts that it squeezes shut some of the blood and lymph vessels. So causes swelling in the tissues. It's not just too much milk. It's real swelling of the breasts. And it can be quite painful and make nursing kind of difficult.
Probably the best way to prevent engorgement is frequent, early feeding. If you feed as often as the baby wants to, and at least every 2 to 3 hours when the baby is awake during the day, and no longer than 4 or 5 hours one stretch at night during that first week will often prevent engorgement. Engorgement is less common, too, if you don't do supplemental feedings.
But even if you do everything perfectly, some women will still become engorged. It's not a guarantee. If you do and don't do anything, the engorgement will likely last for 7 to 10 days. But if you take steps to treat the engorgement, usually it will be gone within maybe 24 to 48 hours, at least the worst part of it.
So what does treating engorgement mean? It's a couple of very simple steps. The first one is really to try to empty the breasts completely. Again, going back to frequent feeding and to encourage the baby to nurse to finish the first breast first. Don't try to switch breasts in between, but start and let them empty as much as they can. And then only after they come off it at their timing, try the other breast. Then start with the opposite one next time.
Then you can do a lot with cool and warm compresses. Doing a cool compress in between nursing can help reduce the swelling and reduce the tenderness. And then a warm compress you want to switch to in the 10 to 15 minutes before nursing to help encourage let down and help the breast drain more fully. You can actually get compresses that are made for this purpose that you can warm or you can cool. And they can fit inside a nursing bra.
Another thing that can be very helpful are cabbage leaves. There have been a few studies suggesting this and a lot of personal experience people have had just taking a cabbage leaf out of the refrigerator and wearing it as a compress. There seems to something in there that does help. Whatever you do, you may also want some pain relief, something like acetaminophen. And if that's necessary don't hesitate if that's something that's going to keep you nursing because breast milk is the very best thing for kids.


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Release Date: May 21, 2012 This content is archived.
-- Tiny luminescent crystals called quantum dots hold great promise as tools for treating and detecting diseases like cancer.
-- A pioneering study to gauge the toxicity of quantum dots in primates has found cadmium-selenide quantum dots to be safe over intervals of time ranging from three months to a year. The study is likely the first to test the safety of quantum dots in primates.
-- The authors say more research is needed to determine quantum dots' long-term effect on health; elevated levels of cadmium from the quantum dots were found in the primates even after 90 days.
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A pioneering study to gauge the toxicity of quantum dots in primates has found the tiny crystals to be safe over a one-year period, a hopeful outcome for doctors and scientists seeking new ways to battle diseases like cancer through nanomedicine.
The research, which appeared on May 20 in Nature Nanotechnology online, is likely the first to test the safety of quantum dots in primates.
In the study, scientists found that four rhesus monkeys injected with cadmium-selenide quantum dots remained in normal health over 90 days. Blood and biochemical markers stayed in typical ranges, and major organs developed no abnormalities. The animals didn't lose weight.
Two monkeys observed for an additional year also showed no signs of illness.
Quantum dots are tiny luminescent crystals that glow brightly in different colors. Medical researchers are eyeing the crystals for use in image-guided surgery, light-activated therapies and sensitive diagnostic tests. Cadmium selenide quantum dots are among the most studied, with potential applications not only in medicine, but as components of solar cells, quantum computers, light-emitting diodes and more.
The new toxicity study -- completed by the University at Buffalo, the Chinese PLA General Hospital, China's ChangChun University of Science and Technology, and Singapore's Nanyang Technological University -- begins to address the concern of health professionals who worry that quantum dots may be dangerous to humans.
The authors caution, however, that more research is needed to determine the nanocrystals' long-term effects in primates; most of the potentially toxic cadmium from the quantum dots stayed in the liver, spleen and kidneys of the animals studied over the 90-day period.
"This is the first study that uses primates as animal models for in vivo studies with quantum dots," said paper coauthor Paras Prasad, UB professor of chemistry and medicine, and executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics (ILPB). "So far, such toxicity studies have focused only on mice and rats, but humans are very different from mice. More studies using animal models that are closer to humans are necessary."
The cadmium build-up, in particular, is a serious concern that warrants further investigation, said Ken-Tye Yong, a Nanyang Technological University assistant professor who began working with Prasad on the study as a postdoctoral researcher at UB.
Because of that concern, the best in-vivo applications for cadmium-selenide quantum dots in medicine may be the ones that use the crystals in a limited capacity, said Mark Swihart, a third coauthor and a UB professor of chemical and biological engineering. Image-guided surgery, which could involve a single dose of quantum dots to identify a tumor or other target area, falls into this category.
The new toxicity study was supported by the John R. Oishei Foundation, Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Singapore Ministry of Education, Nanyang Technological University, the Beijing Natural Science Foundation and the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The study's lead authors were Ling Ye of Chinese PLA General Hospital and Yong of Nanyang Technological University, who completed his PhD in chemical and biological engineering at UB in 2006.
Charlotte Hsu is a former staff writer in University Communications. To contact UB's media relations staff, email email@example.com or visit our list of current university media contacts.


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Where Do You Go to the Bathroom During a Riot?
By Matt Soniak
An anonymous reader wrote in to say, "During mass demonstrations (such as have been happening in Egypt) in large public areas, where do people go to the bathroom? These things aren't always predicted so that port-a-potties can be strategically placed in the area. Just thought it might be one more terribly uncomfortable thing to think about while protesting."
According to reporter Sarah A. Topol, who was in Egypt two years ago during the anti-Mubarak demonstrations, logistics issues like finding places for thousands of people to pee aren't that daunting and protests like these can be home to the occasional "surreal moment of normalcy."
[In Tahrir Square] the men have three choices: the metro station (i.e. the submerged sidewalk going to the underground which has been shuttered for over a week), and the bathrooms of two mosques. If you're a woman, there's only one option: the women's section of the square's major mosque. That's also where many women, especially those with children, sleep. As we entered the mosque, I got a gentle pat down and a soft apology for the inconvenience. Inside, women sit and chat in the dim light. The cool green tiles of the bathroom are a far cry from the open sewer just 10 feet away from the entrance. There are only two working stalls, but they are immaculate.
Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the social justice group CODEPINK, was also in Cairo during the Arab Spring and asked protestors the same thing.
"Where do you go to the bathroom?," I asked one of the women, as there is not one port-a-potty or bathroom in sight for this sea of people. "We go out to the street, knock on doors and ask to use the facilities. Complete strangers are opening their homes to us," she answered.
Occupy Wall Street protestors also had to rely on the kindness of strangers and hope that local businesses would let them use the facilities, says Business Insider's Robert Johnson. They got mixed results.
Burger King put its foot down and required protesters to make a purchase before using the facilities and enforcing a 20-minute time limit on seating. McDonald's has been far more accommodating by allowing anyone off the street to some in and take care of business. I caught the janitor leaving after his shift and asked him how the group was behaving. He narrowed his eyes, looked me up and down, and finally said "They're cool," before rushing off.


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From Business: Tenn Pin Alley is the latest state-of-the-art Family Entertainment Center in Columbia, Tennessee. We are a newly renovated family entertainment center full of…
4. Wine & Design Spring Hill
5. Birdy's Scooters and ATV's
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Birdy's has the best pricing that I could find on ATV's. Hands down. In fact everything they offer seems very reasonable. I will be doing more business with them in the future…
YP - The Real Yellow PagesSM - helps you find the right local businesses to meet your specific needs. Search results are sorted by a combination of factors to give you a set of choices in response to your search criteria. These factors are similar to those you might use to determine which business to select from a local Yellow Pages directory, including proximity to where you are searching, expertise in the specific services or products you need, and comprehensive business information to help evaluate a business's suitability for you. "Preferred" listings, or those with featured website buttons, indicate YP advertisers who directly provide information about their businesses to help consumers make more informed buying decisions. YP advertisers receive higher placement in the default ordering of search results and may appear in sponsored listings on the top, side, or bottom of the search results page.


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- Nov 27, 2012
- Admin
By Dr. Peter Breggin
A Syracuse, N.Y. jury has awarded a $1.5 million medical malpractice verdict to the family of a man who committed suicide. I was the medical expert for the family. After the verdict, plaintiff's attorney Ernest DelDuchetto told me, "It was comforting to see a jury agree with our proposition that these drugs (antidepressants) are not panaceas for all sadness," and that they can have serious harmful effects.
Suicide malpractice suits are notoriously difficult to win. Juries, like most people, want to hold individuals responsible for their self-destructive behavior. They are reluctant to blame a suicide on a drug or on a doctor's negligent behavior.
Many years ago, I used to believe that people must be held responsible for their own behavior under all conditions, but my philosophical beliefs were eventually eroded by the mountain of scientific evidence that I developed through my research and clinical experience indicating that psychiatric drugs can indeed drive people to suicide. This scientific reality is now enshrined in black-box warnings in the FDA-approved labels for many drugs, including all antidepressants, all anticonvulsants, and individual medications like the ADHD drug Strattera (atomoxetine) and the smoking aid Chantix (varenicline).
Because of difficulties in evaluating and in winning suicide malpractice suits, I looked very carefully at the case of Joseph Mazella when it was sent to me for my expert opinion by attorney DelDuchetto. Mr. Mazella was a 51-year-old revered high school basketball coach, teacher and assistant principal; and his self-inflicted death was unexpected and shocking to those who knew him and to the Syracuse community.
In addition to the potential hazards of the antidepressants themselves, including Paxil (paroxetine) and then Effexor (venlafaxine), I found that a glaring negligence had been committed in the case. Family physician William Beals, M.D., who had a reputation for treating psychiatric and addiction patients, had prescribed Paxil for Mr. Mazella for 10 years without seeing him. When Mr. Mazella began to feel anxious and depressed again, on Aug. 9, 2009 he and his wife telephoned the doctor, who was reportedly on vacation on Cape Cod. Despite having no contact with the patient for a decade, by telephone Dr. Beals doubled his Paxil from 20 mg to 40 mg and added the antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa (olanzapine). This began an escalating decline in his mental condition that ended a little more than one month later with his suicide.
After reviewing extensive records and interviewing Mr. Mazella's wife Janice, I concluded that Dr. Beals was negligent in reportedly prescribing Paxil for 10 years without seeing the patient, in failing to warn the patient and his wife about the serious risks associated with Paxil, in his doubling the Paxil dose and adding Zyprexa by telephone, and then in abandoning the patient during his decline. I also concluded that a hospital psychiatrist was negligent in not recognizing that Mr. Mazella was suffering from adverse drug effects and in discharging him without proper followup two weeks before his death.
I later learned that I was not the only one critical of Dr. Beals. The NYS Board for Professional Medical Conduct has placed him on probation for prescribing for patients without seeing them, and has also disciplined him for personally abusing alcohol and drugs.
In trial I testified for a day and a half concerning how antidepressant drugs including Paxil and Effexor can increase suicide risk in adults, and also my opinion of how the behavior of the two doctors contributed to or caused the tragic outcome.
On Nov. 21, 2012 the jury found both doctors negligent, but concluded that only Dr. Beals' acts had contributed to or caused Mr. Mazella's suicide. The jury awarded his wife and three children $1.5 million.
This courtroom victory is consistent with a change that I have been witnessing in my media and public appearances, and in my communications with professionals and laypersons around the world. People are becoming increasingly aware that psychiatric drugs are capable of doing more harm than good, including potentially increasing the risk of violence and suicide. Unfortunately, the medical profession, and especially psychiatry, has been slow to catch on. Hopefully this malpractice verdict will encourage my colleagues to take a closer look at their too often cavalier attitudes toward prescribing psychiatric drugs.
Follow up note: A New York State court recently overturned the verdict on the grounds that references during trial to Dr. Beals being previously censured by the NYS medical license authorities were not admissible. Dr. Breggin will be testifying again in the upcoming retrial.
Originally published in The Huffington Post.


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He left the Soviet Union in 1973 as Temur Sepiashvili, a 26-year-old Russian who ended up driving a taxicab in Manhattan to make ends meet. His life soon became the stuff of American dreams. He changed his last name to Sapir and built a real estate business in New York that gave him a net worth of $2 billion at the height of the 2007 real estate market boom. In the ultimate acknowledgment of making it, this kid from Tbilisi in the Republic of Georgia, now 63, scaled The Forbes 400 list four years running.
Today Tamir Sapir's circumstances are far less exalted. A host of creditors are suing him for repayment of loans totaling some $340 million, and real estate brokers are claiming he brazenly stiffed them on commissions. In January
By our estimate, Sapir's net worth has fallen to around $700 million, still wealthy indeed but not nearly enough to make this year's rich list.
A tough, unloved landlord, a pariah to many brokers, Sapir looks like yet another credit-starved developer fallen prey to endless refinancing at the wrong time. Yet in a strange twist, his lawyers in one lawsuit are offering a surprising explanation for his troubles. They claim in court that Sapir has, according to a 2008 medical examination, suffered from a "deteriorating mental condition" since at least 1998 that left him vulnerable to shrewd bankers and lawyers out to take advantage of him.
This particular suit, filed in May, claims Sapir hasn't repaid a $66 million loan he took out in 2006 to develop a 47-story residential condominium in Manhattan's financial district. Sapir personally guaranteed the loan, from a Blackstone-controlled fund, at 18% interest, and later revised it to an even steeper interest rate of 20%. Why would he do that? His lawyer, Stephen B. Meister, said in court in August that Sapir's attorney gave him bad advice because he stood to gain $15 million to $16 million from the deal--and Sapir lacked the mental capacity to understand the loan's conditions. "He had not written anything other than signing his name for ten years," Meister told the court. A recent examination, Meister tells FORBES, confirms Sapir is suffering from an incurable degenerative brain illness.
This defense astonished the lender, GSO Re Onshore, which claimed in a letter to the judge that Sapir had never before raised the issue. Sapir's previous lawyer, Robert J. Ivanhoe, has denied the allegation that he misled his client.
Sapir has also tossed accountability over to his 31-year-old son, Alex, who has been running the Sapir Organization since 2006. In a 2009 videotaped deposition involving a pending suit in Las Vegas, Sapir is asked about a $21 million development deal he is accused of reneging on. "My son is doing the business," Sapir answers. "'Papa, give me money,' and that's it." Sapir says he has no knowledge of the property's price or its appraisal, explaining: "My son--I speak little English. My son is in the business. I am the money man, and that's it. Why am I expected to know so much?"
The two Sapirs declined to speak to FORBES. In court papers filed July 30, 2009 in the Las Vegas suit, Alex pleaded poverty for the Sapir Group. He said that the "defendant is more than $250 million in debt, its assets are not liquid and are not readily saleable, and it currently has only approximately $4,000 in cash and cash equivalents."
Over the years his dad has certainly spoiled himself. He's enjoyed a $5 million Trump Tower apartment and a penthouse overlooking Acapulco Bay, not to mention the Versace-accented 150-foot yacht called Mystere. (This was the yacht that he used to illegally import rare animal carcasses into the U.S., which resulted in a $150,000 fine last year and his guilty plea for violating the Endangered Species Act.) He has developed a penchant for jet-setting and wearing expensive fashion labels. A long way from Tbilisi.
After driving a cab when he came to New York and famously borrowing $10,000 against his medallion, he opened an electronics store on Fifth Avenue. The store became a hot spot for Soviet dignitaries and trade delegations, according to Sapir's official bio, and eventually he became a key foreign partner for the emerging oil industry in Russia.
Then he struck real estate gold. In the mid-1990s 2 Broadway was a 32-story building near Wall Street that, originally built in 1959, was badly in need of renovation. Sapir snatched it for $20 million. "As far as grand slams in Manhattan real estate go, that's way up there with [Donald] Trump's purchase of 40 Wall Street," says Dan Fasulo, head of research for Real Capital Analytics, a real estate research firm. "That's really what made him." In 1998 the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to sign a 49-year lease for 2 Broadway, for which it today pays $23.1 million a year.
Just two years later that relationship soured in a barrage of lawsuits involving maintenance and renovation of the building. The MTA later announced that investigators concluded that both parties were victims of fraud and criminality "at the hands of certain third parties."
Sapir, meanwhile, refinanced the valuable building a couple of times, eventually for $440 million, and apparently used the proceeds to buy other properties--some of which he in turn refinanced before the real estate bust. In 2003 Sapir bought 11 Madison Avenue, a prized building near Madison Square Park that now houses tenant royalty, including
Sapir isn't likely to win any Landlord of the Year awards. Three brokers--including one involved in the recent $44 million sale of his Fifth Avenue mansion to Carlos Slim Helú--allege in suits this year that Sapir stiffed them on commissions ranging from $164,076 to $880,000.
Sapir's latest project, the new hotel-condo Trump SoHo in Tribeca, is also embroiled in a lawsuit. Trump SoHo had a highly publicized opening in April, but so far it's been a dud: 15 buyers filed suit in August seeking $1.75 million in deposit refunds and damages, alleging they'd been misled regarding how many units had been sold.
Will Sapir be able to untangle himself from this legal mess? It wouldn't be his first time. In his 2001 divorce proceedings a judge ordered Sapir not to gamble large sums of cash prior to a settlement. Sapir did gamble--and won $1.1 million. "No harm, no foul," he told the judge, who let it slip.


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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Country music singers Brad Paisley, Keith Urban and Lady Antebellum joined other entertainment stars Sunday in performing and answering phones to help raise more than $1.5 million for flood relief for Tennessee.
"If there is a silver lining, it's that the world is getting to see Nashville at its best through this tragedy," Paisley said during the telethon on the GAC Network.
Paisley kicked off the telethon with an energized version of his song "Welcome To The Future." When he finished, he looked into the audience where his wife, actress Kimberly Williams Paisley, was standing as the show's co-host.
"My wife's up there. I think it's time to start things off with a donation. We're going to donate $100,000, get it going," he said, before asking his wife with a sheepish grin, "Is that OK?"
Paisley also performed "River and Rain" and a full band version of "American Saturday Night" featuring Dierks Bentley on acoustic guitar.
Sheryl Crow took the stage to perform a new song, calling herself a newcomer in Nashville since moving here five years ago.
"I've lived a lot of different places, but I've never felt home until I lived here," she said.
Kellie Pickler, wearing an I heart Nashville flood relief T-shirt, performed her new single, "Making Me Fall In Love Again."
"I couldn't be more proud to now be a citizen of Nashville. I love it here," she said.
Lady Antebellum sang an acoustic version of their No. 1 hit "Need You Now" and later performed "I Run To You."
"Being a Nashville native, born and raised here, it's been so beautiful to see how the city has rallied together," singer Hillary Scott said. "I know we will get back to the city that we once were. I know we will."
Urban chose to do an acoustic version of The Beatles' song "Help," while his wife, Nicole Kidman watched from the side of the stage. Before performing a second song, "Better Life," Urban recounted his personal flooding experience.
"We certainly weren't spared. Our place out in Franklin, we had quite a bit of damage out there. And other than a lot of my musical equipment — which floated down the river toward Smyrna, I think is where it was seen last — it's just been a very moving experience for me," he said.
Like Paisley, the head of Taylor Swift's label, Big Machine Records CEO Scott Borchetta, donated $100,000.
All the performers also worked the phone banks. The phone lines were to stay open after the show, and the total money raised will be known Monday.
Other performers included Martina McBride, Rodney Atkins, new artist Randy Montana, gospel singer CeCe Winans, blues singer Keb' Mo', and Christian artist Jaci Velasquez.
Singer Will Hoge closed the show with a soulful performance of the song "Washed By The Water." By the end of the song, everyone was on their feet, singing the chorus, "Down here we're washed by the water, the water can't wash us away."
The concert and telethon aired live and commercial free from Nashville's Ryman Auditorium on GAC.
All money will go to the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. At least 2,000 homes were destroyed or damaged in Nashville by the deadly flooding that struck Tennessee May 1-2. Damages have been estimated at $1.5 billion and climbing.
GAC: www.gactv.com/help
Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee: www.cfmt.org


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(visited by Craig Newman, Sandy Lovering, Jim Bowden and Helen Bowden)
06-Apr-2004 -- We were on a 9-day trip to the northern area of the Kingdom. We had already visited five other confluence points. In the afternoon we had travelled from our last confluence point 28N 38E up the main north road past the small village of al-Qalība, and then turned northeast on the Sakākā road.
We had camped in the barren sand stones hills just off the road after searching for sometime to find somewhere protected from the very strong winds. As there was no vegetation, there were few tracks leading from the highway, as there were no Bedouin camps in the area. Another glorious sunset followed by a cool, clear night.
There was an early morning chill and it took us until departure time to remove a few layers of clothing. After 15 minutes of driving across the gravel plains, we were back on the paved road and soon were near the confluence point.
The general area had been pretty flat but it looked as though the point was behind a mobile phone mast located on some sandstone jabals. There were no good tracks leading directly from the road and it looked pretty rocky terrain close to the road, so we continued on until we came to the main track into the mast, which we used to get through the initial rocky area. We then wound our way through the jabals and crossed over a few soft sandy patches before reaching the flat plains and continued for another 2 km in a western direction.
The confluence point was on a sandy gravel plain with low sandstone rocks. We made our usual cross to mark the spot and enjoyed the wide-open view in all directions. We drove out on a different track around the other side of the jabal and we came across some ancient graves sites, which appeared to have circles around the upright centre stones. It was a change to have a relatively easy journey, after having had some difficult and bumpy travels into some of the recent confluence points we had visited in recent days.
Continued at 30N 39E.


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Online Performing Arts Graduate Degree Programs
Why Consider Online Performing Arts Graduate Programs?
Online performing arts graduate programs might be a great choice for artists striving to pursue a career as an educator or for busy performers trying to fit their education into a constantly fluctuating schedule. Flexible online scheduling means you could hone your craft on your own time anywhere that has internet access. Imagine earning a MFA, doctorate, or graduate certificate in your artistic medium from the comfort of your local coffee shop! If you're ready to begin the next part of your performance training to develop your artistic methods and techniques, read on. You may find that a perfect online performing arts grad degree for you is only a few mouse clicks away!
Online Performing Arts Graduate Programs: Curriculum
Online performing arts graduate programs encompass the many different art forms that perform live on stage. These programs may include concentrations in dance, theatre, music, or stagecraft. The curriculum of these programs varies greatly due to the needs of the different concentrations. For example, dance courses may not be appropriate for an oboe player. Or, music theory might not be a great choice for a stage manager. However, each program is united by a common goal: to enhance a student's understanding of performance. Depending on your chosen medium, you could tackle some of the following subjects during your online performing arts grad program:
- Acting Performance
- Costume Design
- Playwriting
- Dance
- Musical Performance
- Arts Education
- Musical Composition
In addition to this general coursework, some online performing arts graduate programs may offer concentrated areas of study. You may be able to focus on a particular type of dance, drama, or music such as ethnomusicology or composition. Keep in mind that while online programs do offer performance concentrations, they often focus more on the academic side of the arts such as education and theory. If your goal is to take your skills and knowledge into a classroom setting post-graduation, this could be a great program for you.
The online format may also be especially beneficial to active performers. Completing this coursework as part of an online performing arts graduate degree might be a great way for busy performers to pursue their education while juggling their auditions, rehearsals, and professional life. Students may be able to log into their classes as their routine allows – or from anywhere in the country. This might be a great way to constantly adjust your academic hours to best suit your needs. Of course, the online community also offers the opportunity to eliminate lengthy commutes from your education, which could save you time and resources. When your classroom is in your office or your local library, getting there might be a quick as turning on your computer.
What Could I do After Earning My Online Performing Arts Grad Degree?
Earning a performing arts grad degree online might potentially jumpstart your career in the arts industry thanks to the skills and knowledge you may have learned. Depending on your concentration, you could pursue occupations such as an actor[i], dancer, choreographer[ii], music director, composer[iii], producer, director[iv], or musician.[v] While these positions typically require a bachelor's degree – or no degree – to pursue an entry-level position, the potential experience gained from online grad classes in performing arts may help improve your performance (and resume), potentially enhancing your career.[vi]
When pursuing these careers, students might find more career opportunities available in urban areas as opposed to rural or suburban. Cities may have many performing spaces, directors, and producers at their disposal, potentially making them a great place for jobs to pop up. Metropolitan areas with high employment levels in these occupations include Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and New Orleans.[vii] As a freelance artist, relocating could be a viable option to potentially have access to a potential wider sea of career opportunities.
Finding Online Performing Arts Graduate Programs for You
Through online grad classes in performing arts, you may have access to a wide range of potential artistic concentrations at a myriad of educational levels. To find a great online performing arts graduate program for you, try laying out your own academic requirements for prospective programs. For example, you may want to consider:
- Length of program
- Career applications
- Education to lifestyle balance
Using these guidelines as a starting point, read on to learn more about which online performing arts graduate program might match your educational goals.
Online Performing Arts Masters Programs: MA or Master of Fine Arts
Online performing arts masters degrees typically come in two forms: the master of arts (MA) and the master of fine arts (MFA). The master of fine arts often emphasizes improving artistic techniques and methods, which may be a great asset for current performer. The MA, on the other hand, may take a holistic academic stance, making it a perfect choice for students pursuing a potential career in arts education. Due to the varying program requirements and concentrations, graduation timelines for these programs are difficult to generalize. Students could expect to graduate in 1 to 3 years on average. Program lengths vary by school.
Since online performing arts masters programs may include intense academic study as well as performances, admissions requirements aim to assess both criteria equally. To do so, schools might ask students to submit a 3.0 undergraduate GPA in addition to submitting an artistic portfolio or auditioning. Requirements vary so contact your preferred programs for further details.
Online Performing Arts Doctoral Programs
Online performing arts doctoral programs typically place more emphasis on research and analysis than other graduate programs. Topics of study might include analyzing criticism and the historical contexts surrounding an art form, culminating in your own dissertation research. This coursework could be a great asset when seeking potential careers in research or arts education[viii]. Due to the curriculum, as well as dissertation requirements, online performing arts doctoral programs often have the longest completion time of the graduate programs, with many students earning a degree in 2 to 4 years. Program lengths vary by school.
Admissions guidelines also reflect the doctoral program's demanding coursework. Many programs require a 3.0 graduate GPA as well as GRE exam scores as part of their application. Note that schools might require previous graduate work, which could make an online performing arts doctoral program a great option for students who currently hold a masters degree and wish to further develop their understanding of an art form. Check with your preferred programs to learn more about application and graduation requirements.
Online Performing Arts Graduate Certificate Programs
Current performers might consider integrating their education into their busy professional schedule by pursuing a shorter course of study. In this case, an online performing arts graduate certificate program might be a great choice. Certificate programs' curriculum often cover specific performing arts topics to flesh out previous education, such as conducting, dance therapy, or music technology. This succinct curriculum makes for a shorter completion timeline, with many students earning a degree in 1.5 years on average. Program lengths vary by school. This might make an online performing arts graduate certificate a perfect way for performers to quickly apply new skills and knowledge to their current career.
Certificate programs aim to provide opportunities to a wide range of students with varying educational backgrounds, and therefore often do not require a minimum undergraduate GPA for admission. Instead, more emphasis is placed on students' auditions or presentation of a technical portfolio. Check with your intended school for audition policies and requirements.
Continuing Your Journey
All the world's a stage, and so is the next step of your education – so get out there and start auditioning! Browse the list of links below to preview several programs that may be great for you. To direct your search further, you could also select your preferred degree program, educational level or format from the menus on this page. Good luck!
Sources: [i]bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/actors.htm | [ii]bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/dancers-and-choreographers.htm | [iii]bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/music-directors-and-composers.htm |[iv]bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/producers-and-directors.htm |[v]bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/musicians-and-singers.htm | [vi]bls.gov/ooh/entertainment-and-sports/musicians-and-singers.htm#tab-8 | [vii]bls.gov/oes/current/oes272011.htm#st | [viii]bls.gov/ooh/education-training-and-library/postsecondary-teachers.htm#tab-4
|Annual Mean Wage
|New York
Schools with Online Performing Arts Graduate Degree
GradSchools.com offers 17 Online Performing Arts Graduate Programs
Regent University
Augsburg College
Mansfield University of Pennsylvania
Miami Christian University
Auburn University
Transart Institute
University of Nebraska - Kearney
Park University
Wayne State University
Vermont College of Fine Arts
Georgia College And State University
Bath Spa University


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(CNN) -- Tech and media companies are in a race to sap the serendipity from news consumption and distill readers' interests into an algorithm.
This week was full of headlines about new entries into the personalized-news market -- sites that customize their offerings based on what types of stories a user seems to like.
An update to Google News on Thursday brought "automatic personalization" to that article-aggregation site. When you're logged into a Google account with the Web History feature enabled, the News home page will transform itself based on the news you've clicked on in the past.
Also on Thursday, Betaworks, the New York tech incubator that's home to Bit.ly, launched News.me, in partnership with the New York Times. The iPad application and e-mail newsletter aggregate news based on what's most popular among people the user follows on Twitter.
The Washington Post kicked off this week's customized-news frenzy with the debut of Trove on Wednesday. Instead of News.me's tablet app polling Twitter, Trove features iPhone, Android and BlackBerry apps that look for news on Facebook. An iPad version is coming soon, Post CEO Donald Graham says.
With excitement in the media industry around mobile apps and Google's success with algorithms that constantly refine themselves, personalized news has become a hot topic.
Flipboard, which makes a pretty magazine-like news aggregator for the iPad, has ridden a wave of hype and media partnerships. The Oprah Winfrey Network, for one, is on board.
Flipboard Co-founder Mike McCue, who also has a seat on Twitter's board of directors, said last week that the company had raised $50 million, valuing his company at $200 million. Competitors called Zite, on the iPad, and XYDO, on the Web, are also finding fans.
Meanwhile, Digg, a pioneer in this automatic algorithm-based news sector, is trying to reinvent itself. It's under new management after recently changing direction toward personalized news rather than what's most popular overall.
Americans are spending more time gobbling up news bits on most platforms than they were a decade ago, according to a September report from the Pew Research Center.
Whether they want computers studying their reading habits and forming assumptions about what articles they might like is another question.
"Power users," the people who spend the most time consuming news, prefer to have a larger selection and more control over the types of articles they see, according to a recent study by researchers at the Pennsylvania State University. This could pose a major challenge to technology companies that rely on early adopters to fine-tune and spread the word about their products.


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ABC's Prank News Show Hunts for Secret, Anti-Gay Bigotry in a NJ Diner
ABC's undercover news show, What Would You Do, on Friday continued to
search for examples of bigotry across America. Anchor John Quinones
narrated a segment featuring two men pretending to be gay military
veterans displaying affection in a New Jersey restaurant.
As cameras rolled, Quinones explained the set-up: "They're holding hands, stroking each other's hair and caressing each other's legs...So what will happen if we throw in our actor Vince, posing as an irritated diner, who's had enough of this PDA?"
An actor, "Vince," interrupted the faux soldiers and complained, "Excuse me. We appreciate your service to the country and everything, but you should respect the uniform a little bit more than that."
Many patrons ignored the two, prompting ABC's sting operation to try harder to provoke bigotry. Quinones announced, "Even with that bit of gossip, the other diners don't seem to notice. But then, here comes Vince again."
Later, when some patrons do complain, the host lectured, "In December 2010, an ABC News poll found that 77 percent of Americans are in favor of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. But in our diner, there are plenty of people against it."
This program, airing as an edition of Primetime Live, debuted only a month after Quinones took his show to Arizona to find racism related to that state's new immigration law.
It's odd for a news organization to repeatedly air a program which essentially plays out like an episode of Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd. It also doesn't leave ABC much room to criticize conservative sting operations.
A partial transcript of the March 4 segment, which aired at 9pm EST, follows:
- Scott Whitlock is a news analyst for the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
JOHN QUINONES: Don't ask, don't tell. That's what gay and lesbian service members were told for 17 years. It was a policy that many Americans felt was unfair and had to go. And in late 2010, Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed by President Obama.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This is done.
QUINONES: Though the repeal has yet to take effect, the President's decision ignited a firestorm of controversy.
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN: We are doing great damage.
QUINONES: So what would you do if you saw this in public?
ACTOR (MALE): I mean, how is it over there?
SECOND ACTOR: Good. I mean, it's rough, you know, but it's getting better.
QUINONES: A gay couple in military uniform becoming affectionate while sharing a meal. We bring our hidden cameras to the Colonial Diner in Lyndhurst, New Jersey. Our two actors in Army fatigues pose as a gay couple reuniting after a long tour of duty. They're holding hands, stroking each other's hair and caressing each other's legs. It's all affection any soldier, gay or straight, isn't supposed to show. So what will happen if we throw in our actor Vince, posing as an irritated diner, who's had enough of this PDA?
VINCE AUGUST (ACTOR): Excuse me. We appreciate your service to the country and everything, but you should respect the uniform a little bit more than that.
FIRST ACTOR (MALE): Excuse me?
QUINONES: Immediately, these two diners are curious about what Vince has to say.
AUGUST:And I understand the whole thing, but respect the uniform.
SECOND ACTOR: Respect? I don't understand what you're saying.
AUGUST: You know, tone it down.
SECOND ACTOR: Tone what down?
AUGUST: The whole thing.
QUINONES: The couple can't seem to believe what they're hearing.
AUGUST: Guys, tone it down, you know.
QUINONES: But our soldier doesn't wanna tone anything down.
SECOND ACTOR: I haven't seen my partner in seven months, and you're telling me that.
CLAIRE DEMETROULES (DINER): I wouldn't worry about it.
EMMANUEL DEMETROULES (DINER): Don't go there. It's inappropriate.
CLAIRE DEMETROULES: Yeah.
AUGUST: I don't think so.
FIRST ACTOR: I think you need to walk away.
QUINONES: Vince doesn't walk away on his own, but he's about to get a little help.
EMMANUEL DEMETROULES: Hey dude, take a hike. Really. No, seriously. I'm gonna ask you to leave. That's being disrespectful.
AUGUST: Okay. Well...
DEMETROULES: All right? I'm gonna ask you to leave.
AUGUST: I think that's wrong.
EMMANUEL DEMETROULES: All right?
AUGUST: I'm allowed to say it.
EMMANUEL DEMETROULES: It's disrespectful.
AUGUST: It's wrong. They should have more respect.
EMMANUEL DEMETROULES: Get out.
QUINONES: Once again, our happy couple starts to get touchy-feely.
FIRST ACTOR: I feel like it's been forever.
SECOND ACTOR: It's been forever, what, seven months now?
FIRST ACTOR: Yeah, feels like seven years.
QUINONES: This man seems to be doing everything he can to ignore what's happening just a bar stool away. So we send in our waitress, also an actor, to see if she can pry into the soldiers' personal lives.
TRACI HOVEL (ACTRESS): So you guys were in the military together? Or-
FIRST ACTOR: Well, we met at Fort Hood.
HOVEL: Oh.
SECOND ACTOR: Basic training. But then, Iraq, Afghanistan.
QUINONES: Even with that bit of gossip, the other diners don't seem to notice. But then, here comes Vince again.
AUGUST: : Guys, not that we don't appreciate the service, 'cause we do, but you should tone it down a little bit.
FIRST ACTOR: What? Tone what down?
AUGUST: The relationship part, you know, you're in uniform, respect the uniform.
QUINONES: As our soldier stands up to Vince face to face, this man looks like he wants to say something.
SECOND ACTOR: So you're telling me that it's okay for me to take a bullet for your rights, but you wanna deny me my rights?
AUGUST: Respect the uniform. That's all I'm saying.
SECOND ACTOR: I am respecting the uniform.
AUGUST: I don't think you are.
QUINONES: And with that, the diner can't bite his tongue any longer.
BILL (VIETNAM WAR VETERAN): Why don't you just keep going?
AUGUST: I don't think their commanding officer...
BILL: Your opinion is your opinion. Keep going, all right.
QUINONES: In December 2010, an ABC News poll found that 77 percent of Americans are in favor of allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. But in our diner, there are plenty of people against it.
DINER (MALE): I originally thought that the way it was was okay.
QUINONES: Keep it quiet.
DINER (MALE): Keep it quiet. Just for yourself. Bringing it out like this, to me, I take, maybe I'm from the old school, but it's nice the way it was.


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As Rebecca Martinson knows, there's no privacy on the Internet. When a profanity-laden rant she emailed to only her Delta Gamma sorority sisters made its way onto Gawker and into viral history, she was publicly mocked and forced to resign from the sorority.. But the Internet is not only a place to be humiliated. It's also a place for people or companies to pick up even more information about you. That includes your address, gender, date of birth and, with a little sleuthing, your Social Security number and credit history.
That's been made clear in a recent spate of " doxing " (document tracing) of celebrities that revealed, for example, that Microsoft CEO Bill Gates had an outstanding debt on his credit card. But none of this information comes from hacking. It's either already public or accessible by, for example, paying an online people-finding service to get a Social Security number, and then running a credit check.
Then there's all the data you pour into social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Foursquare and others. Now employers can fire workers for expressing opinions they don't like, strangers can stalk you with mobile apps and college administrators can judge the quality of applicants by the number of drinking photos posted to their account.
Aleecia L. McDonald, director of privacy for the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University, said people are grappling with the idea that their information has a secondary use. "The issue isn't so much that information is out there and people can see it," she said. "On Facebook, that's the point. But it's when that information gets used in a new and different way." [See also: That's an Order! 10 Facebook Privacy Tips from the Marines ]
It's all public
Many gun owners felt that secondary use of private information when they saw an interactive map published by the Journal News of White Plains, N.Y., that listed the name and addresses of everyone in two New York state counties with a gun permit. A map listing the names, addresses, phone numbers and social media accounts of Journal News reporters, including the author of the original story, was circulated online in retaliation. At least one county refused to turn over pistol permit records, citing the possibility of "endangering citizens."
However, the records are all public. There is no law against publishing them either in print or online, even if it makes some uncomfortable.
"I can use Zillow.com and see home prices for everything up and down the neighborhood," McDonald said. "Sure, all that information was available at City Hall, but I wasn't going to look it all up [in person] because that takes effort."
When real estate search site Zillow first came out, many people were shocked at the amount of information on it — including their physical address, aerial house photos and the price paid for their homes. Last year, Zillow began listing homes going through the foreclosure process, which caused another firestorm of people looking to opt out. But all the information comes from public records. Zillow says it doesn't list names, only properties; and it does not allow those with foreclosed property to "opt out" of being published.
Other sites, such as Arrests.org, list mug shots by state. And some local police departments are now posting photos of recent arrests on Facebook. Now with the Internet and databases, public records are easy to distribute and see.
Social oversharing
Adi Kamdar of the Electronic Frontier Foundation cautions about the use of Facebook Graph Search, which allows users to search information from news feeds of friends and those users with settings set to public on Facebook. Now anyone can look for, for example, single women living in San Francisco who share their taste for tapas and perhaps find a phone number and email address. Who needs Match.com anymore?
Facebook has also reportedly been working for the past year on a socially ambient mobile app — one that lets you literally track people or friends via a map and GPS. While the socially ambient aspect hasn't appeared yet, it's expected to surface, according to Bloomberg News, likely in a new version of the Facebook Home interface.
"There's nothing you can do in the electronic world that your boss can't find and you can't be fired for," said Lewis Maltby, president of National Workrights Institute. "I got a call today from someone who got fired because he was writing short stories on his own time (online) and apparently they were a little kinky."
Maltby, whose organization fights for human rights in the workplace, said that today, people's futures are in peril every time their boss or college admissions office looks on the Internet. That means users shouldn't post photos of themselves with an alcoholic drink in their hand or espouse political views, because it can lead to a value judgment.
"You can still go online and say what you want, but you're crazy if you do," Maltby said.
Another problem today is social networks becoming a larger part of one's life. To comment on articles, people frequently log into a Facebook account first. Others are finding that their Google+ social account is being attached to their Gmail account and will be needed to comment on apps or games on Google Play. Google+ accounts are also used to sign into YouTube and other Google sites. Many social networks are seemingly trying to end anonymous posting.
To preserve privacy, a person would have to walk away from Google or Facebook. "It's a trade-off to some extent," Kamdar said. "The more these services get adopted, the more you have to think, 'My entire online presence depends on this corporation or this service I don't want to opt into.'"
Recently Facebook Home was launched on Android devices, and many noticed that the interface logged online purchases and visits, although Facebook said that it doesn't assign names to the information. Facebook is using customer loyalty cards' information and public records to sell to advertisers and marketers. However, Facebook Home isn't hunting anyone down to do this; people themselves are opting to use an Android phone with the Facebook skin on it. [See also: How Facebook Home Undermines Your Security ]
What you can do
Long-term solutions could be legal, regulatory or even codes of conduct for companies, said McDonald. The White House is now working on a Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights, but there is still not a working draft of the bill, according to the New York Times.
Meanwhile, users can save themselves some headaches by understanding that whatever they place online will stay online. Nothing online is temporary; instead, it's more like an Internet tattoo. Martinson's online (and likely late-night) outburst will follow her throughout college and possibly the workforce, according to CNN.
Keep all social networks set to the highest privacy settings even if you have to manually approve follow requests.
If posting to a forum or other online database, don't use your real name or email address (or at least one you don't mind people seeing).
Never give out your date of birth, phone number or physical address if you can help it.
Never give out your Social Security number. Many colleges, banks, brokerage houses and other companies now have alternative login IDs to use provided you ask for one. (However, not even colleges or banks are immune to hackers, so always monitor your credit for suspicious activity.)
Remember that what you post can be seen by others. Be careful of what you say and which photos are posted because it could potentially be seen by millions of people.
"A lot of data is coming from people directly," McDonald said. "Lock down [social media] accounts to only friends. Being more mindful is the first step we can take before looking for other solutions."
Follow Barbara E. Hernandez. Follow us, on Facebook or on .
The original version of this artilce stated that Zillow listed the names of home owners. That is not the case.


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In the town of Montdidier in France's Picardie region, the 150-bed Montdidier Hospital serves a population of 6,000 with a wide range of services from perinatal to nursing-home care. Three years ago, the hospital lab opened its testing to external populations—the outpatients of area physicians—in addition to its traditional services for hospital inpatients. This tripled lab workloads and created demand for a wider menu of tests. Meanwhile, Montdidier Hospital prepared for ISO 15189 accreditation becoming mandatory in France. To satisfy the demands of changing workloads and accreditation requirements, the hospital transformed its lab with new technologies from Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics. The results include fast, accurate analyses; streamlined workflows; lower cost; and better regional patient care.
Montdidier Hospital Triples Workload and Expands Menu of Tests with New VersaCell SolutionMontdidier Hospital Expands Service to the Community


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Appropriately, the race to become the next governor of the richest state in the Union could well be a treatment for a Hollywood script: a multimillionaire taking on the wily scion of a political dynasty to succeed one of the biggest box-office stars of all time as governor of California. On Tuesday, Californians will decide if Democrat Jerry Brown, the current attorney general, a former governor himself and three-time presidential candidate, or Meg Whitman, the eBay billionaire who has spent a record $140+ million on her campaign, will succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger. Both contenders have spent a good part of their electioneering criticizing Schwarzenegger's failure to clean up the mess in Sacramento and put the state on sound financial footing. But is that what his legacy is going to be?
With the state's economy hammered by the recession, Arnold's approval ratings have dropped to the mid-20s, nearly as low as those of Gray Davis, the Democratic governor Schwarzenegger replaced in the 2003 recall election. But while Californians are unhappy with Schwarzenegger, few hate him, says Thad Kousser of the University of California, San Diego. "He is not divisive nor scandal plagued, but he's generally fallen short of changing the political culture of Sacramento and the policy course of the state." Indeed, on the grassroots level, Arnie still has his fans. Audrea Short, a Republican who owns a tire company in Ontario, east of Los Angeles, blames the "knuckleheads in the legislature," primarily the Democrats, for the legislative gridlock and budget failures of Schwarzenegger's seven years in office. "I have no complaints about Arnold. My complaint is with those he has had to work with."
Governors rise and fall on the strength of the economy. "When times are good, they look like geniuses," says political scientist Jack Pitney of Claremont McKenna College. "When times are hard, they look like dunces." Schwarzenegger was popular during his first two years when the economy soared and before his ballot box measures to reform the state were summarily rejected by voters. With the Great Recession still a hard reality for most Americans, the deepest budget cuts have come, not at the national level, but among the 50 states, with the Golden State a prime example. "The deep cuts we have experienced in education are a travesty for our state," says Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Chris Steinhauser. Out of an $800 million budget, Long Beach Unified has cut $170 million over the past four years and anticipates cutting another $80 million this year. Nevertheless, Steinhauser says Governor Schwarzenegger helped install flexibility in the funding process that forestalled layoffs, until this year. "I've always appreciated that his door and that of his staff was always open."
Journalist and New America Foundation Fellow Joe Mathews believes the former Hollywood movie star has been a much better governor than his predecessor Davis. Mathews says that on things the governor could control, such as appointing qualified people to the administration and state boards and in passing legislation with a majority vote, such as AB32, the state's landmark global warming law, Schwarzenegger was very good.
But Schwarzenegger was an "illustrative failure" in regards to the two-thirds supermajority votes needed to pass a budget and taxes in California and in trying to work within the existing system to move the state ahead. Mathews says, "He did us a great service because he tried everything. He fought with people, he circumvented the legislature and went to the ballot measure, he compromised, he tried for spending caps, rainy day funds, raising taxes, cutting programs, working with the Republicans, working with the Democrats." Because Schwarzenegger was "flexible and nothing worked," Mathews says the governor opened people's minds to the need for systemic reform."
One indication that Californians are getting serious about reform is that Proposition 25, which would change the vote requirement in the legislature to pass a budget from two-thirds to a simple majority, is favored by 58% of voters polled including a majority of Republicans in a new USC/Los Angeles Times survey. Presently, California is the only state in the nation that requires a two-thirds vote to pass both a budget and to raise taxes, a situation that has led to countless impasses.
In the campaign, however, no one was thanking Schwarzenegger for showing Californians that Sacramento didn't work. Brown and Whitman each sought to link the other to Schwarzenegger's failures, insisting they will govern differently. (The governor, a moderate Republican, has not endorsed either candidate.) In the final weeks of the campaign, the Brown campaign released a television ad that showed Whitman parroting Schwarzenegger's reform rhetoric, often word for word. After seeing the ad, Schwarzenegger quipped, "Well, I think that my delivery of the lines was much better in the commercial than hers."
But whoever wins is unlikely to do much better than Arnold, says Mathews, co-author of California Crackup. "Every single fiscal proposal" that the two candidates have made during the 2010 campaign was tried by the sitting governor, says Mathews. "Brown or Whitman they're both Arnold's third term."


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Infections are among the most frequent complications of a stay in hospital and raise the complication and mortality rates. Calculations based on data from the Hospital Infection Surveillance System (Krankenhaus-Infektions-Surveillance-System, KISS) showed an incidence of almost 60 000 newly acquired infections per year in intensive care units in Germany. This is the conclusion reached by Christine Geffers and her coauthor in the current issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (Dtsch Arztebl Int 2011; 108 (6):87-93).
KISS is a quality assurance tool for hospitals. More than 800 hospitals and 586 intensive care units throughout Germany are enrolled with KISS.
While the percentage of patients in intensive care who have methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus species (MRSA) has been steady for years, the number with extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae is rising. In hospital, the risk of acquiring Clostri-dium difficile-associated diarrhea is higher than the risk of acquiring MRSA.