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|General Information
|Gothmog, Othrond, Azog, Gorbag
|Physical Description
|Short, sallow
|Average height
|probably just above 5'
Orcs were the footsoldiers of evil overlords - Sauron, Morgoth and the Witch-king of Angmar - but also operated as a seperate faction throughout the Ages of Arda.
Appearance[edit | edit source]
In Tolkien's writing, Orcs are described as humanoid, roughly human-sized, ugly and filthy. Although not dim-witted, they are portrayed as dull and miserable beings, who corrupt words (an insult to a philologist like Tolkien) and are only able to destroy, not to create. They have sour black blood. Orcs are used as soldiers by both the greater and lesser villains of The Lord of the Rings — Sauron and Saruman. In Tolkien's Sindarin language, "Orc" is orch, plural yrch. In his late, post-Lord of the Rings writings (published in The Peoples of Middle-earth), he preferred the spelling "Ork", evidently mainly to avoid the form Orcish, which would be naturally pronounced with the c as /s/ instead of /k/. (In Tolkien's languages the letter c was always pronounced /k/.) It is also possible that the word is a Common Tongue Version of 'orch', the Sindarin word for Orc. The original sense of the word seems to be "bogey", "bogeyman", that is, something that provokes fear, as seen in the Quenya cognate urko, pl. urqui.
History[edit | edit source]
Orgins and early Years[edit | edit source]
The origin of Orcs is an open question. In Tolkien's writings, evil is not capable of independent creation, making it unlikely that the Vala Melkor, who was obviously the first to produce them, could do that ex nihilo. In the The Silmarillion is mentioned that the Orcs were transformed from Elves — the purest form of life on Arda (the Earth) — by means of torture and mutilation; and this "theory" would then become the most popular. There are hints in the History of Middle-earth series of books, (especially in Morgoth's Ring in the section "Myths Transformed"), that some Orc leaders, such as the First Age's Boldog, or the Great Goblin encountered by Bilbo and the Dwarves, may in fact have been fallen Maiar which had taken Orc form
Later under Morgoth's lieutenant, Sauron, it has been suggested that Men were cross-bred with the Orcs. This process was later repeated during the War of the Ring, creating the fierce Orcs known as Uruk-hai.
Yet other Orcs may have begun as animals of vaguely humanoid shapes, empowered by the will of the Dark Lord (first Morgoth, later Sauron): this may explain the references to their "beaks and feathers" in Tolkien's writings.
- The Orcs were beasts of humanized shape (…). ('Morgoth's Ring', "Myths transformed", text VIII')
It is certain all Orcs were dependent on the Dark Lord in various ways: after their leader was defeated, the Orcs were confused and dismayed, and easily scattered by their enemies. In the millennia after Morgoth's defeat and banishment from Arda, they were without a leader they degenerated to small, quarrelsome tribes hiding in the Misty Mountains. Only when Sauron returned to power did they begin to reclaim some of their old power. The same happened after Sauron's defeat by the Last Alliance of Elves and Men: only when Sauron returned as the Necromancer of Mirkwood did the Orcs become a real danger for Middle-earth again.
It is interesting to note that to an extent, Tolkien did not regard Orcs as evil in their own right, but only as tools of Melkor and Sauron. He wrote once that "we were all orcs in the Great War", indicating perhaps that an orc for him was not an inherent build-up of personality, but rather a state of mind bound upon destruction.
After their creation during the Battle of the Powers, Orcs were used in every battle fought against Morgoth. Orcs were the primary force of Morgoth in the Siege of Utumno. Although most of them were killed, some survived and entered the lands of Beleriand during Morgoth's imprisonment in Valinor. When Morgoth returned to Angband he created new hordes of Orcs and invaded Beleriand, where the First Battle of Beleriand took place. Orcs fought also in Dagor-nuin-Giliath.
First Age[edit | edit source]
Orcs appear in the First Age as the core force of Morgoth. Hundreds of thousands of Orcs were bred in Angmar to participate in the Battles of Beleriand, which lasted 587 years.
Orcs first appear in the First Age in the Battle of the Lammoth, where they were defeated by Fingolfin and his Noldor. Orcs participated in battles such as the Dagor Aglareb, Dagor Bragollach, Nirnaeth Arnoediad, Fall of the Falas, and finally in the War of Wrath, were they were almost extinguished.
Second Age[edit | edit source]
Orcs do not play a major role in the Second Age, as Sauron dominated over Middle-earth for short periods. Even though, Orcs participated in the War of the Elves and Sauron, in S.A.1700. Moreover, the Orcs of the Misty Mountains started a war agains the Dwarves, resulting in the First Sack of Gundabad ind its occupation by the Orcs. Finally, Orcs were the core force of Sauron during the War of the Last Alliance, and fougth in great battles such as the Battle of Dagorlad and the Siege of Barad-dûr.
Third Age[edit | edit source]
During the Third Age, Orcs were the standard troops of the Witch-king of Angmar and Sauron (both in Mordor and in Dol Guldur).
In Angmar, Orcs fought in the Angmar War. Years Later, they invaded Eriador under the leadership of the Necromancer.
The Orcs of the Misty Mountains, one of the few independent Orcish societies, and their leader Azog started out the War of the Dwarves and Orcs, and after their defeat they retreated in their caves. They appeared again in T.A. 2941, when the Battle of Five Armies took place.
The Orcs of Mordor fought in major battles during the War of the Ring, such as the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, but the entire Mordor force was destroyed in the Battle of the Morannon.
The Orcs in Dol Guldur remaind in Mirkwood until the Fall of Dol Guldur, one of the lsat battles of the War of the Ring.
Fourth Age and beyond[edit | edit source]
Although the entire force of Sauron was destroyed after the War of the Ring, it is assumed that many Orcs continiued to live beneath the Misty Mountains and cause little trouble.
Kinds of Orcs[edit | edit source]
Tolkien loosely implies that there are actually several different breeds of Orcs, not simply in the wide variety in clans, but strains of Orc that were specifically bred for certain tasks.
- The Fellowship usually encounters the large soldier-Orcs bred for war, and sometimes the "snaga" variety which were more geared towards being laborers. However, a strong hint at the variety of Orc breeds is when Frodo and Sam are in Mordor, and realize that they are being followed by two Orcs, then hide to observe them. One of the Orcs is a normal soldier-Orc, but the other is described as a "Snuffler", a breed specifically geared towards being a tracker. This tracker-Orc was, compared to the soldier-Orc, physically unimposing, but had vastly overdeveloped sensory organs, particularly a single giant nostril. While physically weak compared to the soldier-Orc, the "snuffler" was able to skillfully kill the soldier-orc when they got into a disagreement.
- Snaga
- Orcs of Mordor
- Half-Orcs
- Uruk-hai
- Hobgoblins (perhaps same as Uruk-hai)
Controversery[edit | edit source]
Tolkien's Orcs have been a subject of criticism of racism as they are described as less-handsome Mongolians..., black-skinned and monkey-resembling. Another possible offensive theme present in orcs (though not necessarily racist), is the fact that when the orcs talk, they often use the same phrases and accents that the English working-class is known to use.
Other Versions[edit | edit source]
Orgin[edit | edit source]
According to the oldest "theory" proposed by Tolkien, Orcs were made of stone and slime through the sorcery of Morgoth. But, Tolkien later changed the legendarium so that Morgoth could no longer produce life on his own.
While Tolkien originally saw all Orcs as descended from tortured Elves, later comments of his indicate, according to Christopher Tolkien in Morgoth's Ring ("Myths Transformed, text X"), that he began to feel uncomfortable with the theory that orcs were descending from Elves. However, Tolkien died before he could complete his upheaval of the cosmology, and in the published version of The Silmarillion, the Elf origin of Orcs was adopted.
Orcs and goblins[edit | edit source]
In The Hobbit, Tolkien used the word "goblin" for Orcs, because he had not yet identified the world of The Hobbit with Middle-earth (which predated The Hobbit by several decades, in early writings which would later become The Silmarillion). Fortunately Tolkien did include some references to his mythology in the Hobbit, which later allowed him to identify the lands of the Hobbit with his Middle-earth. In The Lord of the Rings, "Orc" is used predominantly, and "goblin" mostly in the Hobbits' speech. This change can be seen either as a part of the shift towards the use of Elvish words that occurred during the period between the writing of The Hobbit and the writing of The Lord of the Rings, or a translation of the Hobbits' more colloquial manner (if we "accept" the books' authenticity and regard Tolkien merely as a translator). So essentially the race is correctly named "Orc", and "Goblin" is a colloquial "slang term" for Orcs used by Hobbits and sometimes picked up by Men and Elves. It is possible that "goblin" refers to the those of the orcish race who are not under the control of Sauron (or Morgoth), whereas using "orc" directly would refer to servants of (whichever) Dark Lord. Tolkien did mention several times that orcs were not inherently evil, something this theory would partly emphasize.
The original edition of the Hobbit and early drafts of The Lord of the Rings first used 'goblin' everywhere and used 'hobgoblin' for larger, more evil goblins: when goblins were replaced with Orcs Tolkien invented the term Uruk-hai for his more evil Orcs.


text:
Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain - Tools for managing Locale::TextDomain language catalogs
In dist.ini:
textdomain = My-App
share_dir = share
Scan localizable messages from your Perl libraries into a language template file, po/My-App.pot:
dzil msg-scan
Initialize language translation files:
dzil msg-init fr de.UTF-8
Merge changes to localizable messages into existing translation files:
dzil msg-merge
Compile translation files into message catalogs for testing:
dzil msg-compile --dest-dir . fr de.UTF-8
Binary message catalogs are automatically added to your distribution by the build and release commands:
dzil build
dzil release
Locale::TextDomain provides a nice interface for localizing your Perl applications. The tools for managing translations, however, is a bit arcane. Fortunately, you can just use this plugin and get all the tools you need to scan your Perl libraries for localizable strings, create a language template, and initialize translation files and keep them up-to-date. All this is assuming that your system has the gettext utilities installed.
I put off learning how to use Locale::TextDomain for quite a while because, while the gettext tools are great for translators, the tools for developers were a little more opaque, especially for Perlers used to Locale::Maketext. But I put in the effort while hacking Sqitch. As I had hoped, using it in my code was easy. Using it for my distribution was harder, so I decided to write Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain to make life simpler for developers who manage their distributions with Dist::Zilla.
What follows is a quick tutorial on using Locale::TextDomain and managing its translation files with Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain.
First thing to do is to start using Locale::TextDomain in your code. Load it into each module with the name of your distribution, as set by the name attribute in your dist.ini file. For example, if your dist.ini looks something like this:
name = My-GreatApp
author = Homer Simpson <email@example.com>
license = Perl_5
Then, in you Perl libraries, load Locale::TextDomain like this:
use Locale::TextDomain qw(My-GreatApp);
use Locale::Messages qw(bind_textdomain_filter);
use Encode;
bind_textdomain_filter 'My-GreatApp' => \&Encode::decode_utf8;
Locale::TextDomain uses the string we pass to it to find localization catalogs, so naturally Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain will use it to put those catalogs in the right place. It's also a best practice to coerce Locale::TextDomain to return character strings, rather than bytes, by setting the $OUTPUT_CHARSET environment variable to "UTF-8" and then binding a filter to decode the resulting strings into Perl character strings. This makes it easier to work with such strings in our application. Just be sure to encode them before outputting them!
Okay, so it's loaded, how do you use it? The documentation for the Locale::TextDomain exported functions is quite comprehensive, and I think you'll find it pretty simple once you get used to it. For example, simple strings are denoted with __:
say __ 'Hello';
If you need to specify variables, use __x:
say __x(
'You selected the color {color}',
color => $color
Need to deal with plurals? Use __n
say __n(
'One file has been deleted',
'All files have been deleted',
And then you can mix variables with plurals with __nx:
say __nx(
'One file has been deleted.',
'{count} files have been deleted.',
count => $num_files,
Pretty simple, right? Get to know these functions, and just make it a habit to use them in user-visible messages in your code. Even if you never expect to translate those messages, just by doing this you make it easier for someone else to come along and start translating for you.
Now you've internationalized your code. Great! What's next? Officially, nothing. If you never do anything else, your code will always emit the messages as written. You can ship it and things will work just as if you had never done any localization.
But what's the fun in that? Let's set things up so that translation catalogs will be built and distributed once they're written. Add these lines to your dist.ini:
There are actually quite a few attributes you can set here to tell the plugin where to find language files and where to put them. For example, if you used a domain different from your distribution name, e.g.,
use Locale::TextDomain 'com.example.My-GreatApp';
Then you would need to set the textdomain attribute so that the LocaleTextDomain plugin does the right thing with the language files:
textdomain = com.example.My-GreatApp
Consult the LocaleTextDomain configuration docs for details on all available attributes.
(Prior to Locale::TextDomain v1.21, there was no ShareDir support. If you're unfortunate to be stuck with one of these earlier versions, you'll need to set the share_dir attribute to lib instead of the default value, share. If you use Module::Build, you'll also need a subclass to do the right thing with the catalog files; see "Installation" in Dist::Zilla::Plugin::LocaleTextDomain for details.)
What does including the plugin do? Mostly nothing. You might see this line from dzil build, though:
dzil build
[LocaleTextDomain] Skipping language compilation: directory po does not exist
Now at least you know it was looking for something to compile for distribution. Let's give it something to find.
To add translation files, use the msg-init command:
> dzil msg-init de
Created po/de.po.
At this point, the gettext utilities will need to be installed and visible in your path, or else you'll get errors.
This command scans all of the Perl modules gathered by Dist::Zilla and initializes a German translation file, named po/de.po. This file is now ready for your German-speaking public to start translating. Check it into your source code repository so they can find it. Create as many language files as you like:
> dzil msg-init fr ja.JIS en_US.UTF-8
Created po/fr.po.
Created po/ja.po.
Created po/en_US.po.
As you can see, each language results in the generation of the appropriate file in the po directory, sans encoding (i.e., no .UTF-8 in the en_US file name).
Now let your translators go wild with all the languages they speak, as well as the regional dialects. (Don't forget to colour your code with en_UK translations!)
Once you have translations and they're committed to your repository, when you build your distribution, the language files will automatically be compiled into binary catalogs. You'll see this line output from dzil build:
[LocaleTextDomain] Compiling language files in po
po/fr.po: 10 translated messages, 1 fuzzy translation, 0 untranslated messages.
po/ja.po: 10 translated messages, 1 fuzzy translation, 0 untranslated messages.
po/en_US.po: 10 translated messages, 1 fuzzy translation, 0 untranslated messages.
You'll then find the catalogs in the shared directory of your distribution:
> find My-GreatApp-0.01/share -type f
These binary catalogs will be installed as part of the distribution just where Locale::TextDomain can find them.
Here's an optional tweak: add this line to your MANIFEST.SKIP:
This prevents the po directory and its contents from being included in the distribution. Sure, you can include them if you like, but they're not required for the running of your app; the generated binary catalog files are all you need. Might as well leave out the translation files.
Not a developer, but want to translate a project? I've written this special section just for you.
Translating your language is relatively straight-forward. First, make sure that the translation file is up-to-date. Say you're translating into French; use the msg-merge command to update the translation file:
> dzil msg-merge po/fr.po
[LocaleTextDomain] Merging gettext strings into po/fr.po
If you get an error about it not existing, use the msg-init command to create it:
> dzil msg-init fr
[LocaleTextDomain] Created po/fr.po.
Now edit po/fr.po. You can use a tool such as Poedit or Emacs to make it easier. As you work, you can use the msg-compile command to make sure that you're translation file is error-free:
> dzil msg-compile po/fr.po
[LocaleTextDomain] po/fr.po: 195 translated messages.
This command compiles a catalog file into the LocaleData subdirectory of the current directory (or directory of your choice via the --dest-dir option), so that you can even run the app with the compiled catalog to make sure things look the way you think they ought to. Just set the $LANGUAGE environment variable and make sure that Perl includes the current directory in its path, something like:
LANGUAGE=fr perl -I . bin/myapp.pl
Consult the developer for help with this bit, as how apps run varies between projects.
You've got translation files and helpful translators given them a workover. What happens when you change your code, add new messages, or modify existing ones? The translation files need to periodically be updated with those changes, so that your translators can deal with them. We got you covered with the msg-merge command:
> dzil msg-merge
extracting gettext strings
Merging gettext strings into po/de.po
Merging gettext strings into po/en_US.po
Merging gettext strings into po/ja.po
This will scan your module files again and update all of the translation files with any changes. Old messages will be commented-out and new ones added. Just commit the changes to your repository and notify the translation army that they've got more work to do.
If for some reason you need to update only a subset of language files, you can simply list them on the command-line:
> dzil msg-merge po/de.po po/en_US.po
Merging gettext strings into po/de.po
Merging gettext strings into po/en_US.po
Both the msg-init and msg-merge commands depend on a translation template file to create and merge language files. Thus far, this has been invisible: they will create a temporary template file to do their work, and then delete it when they're done.
However, it's common to also store the template file in your repository and to manage it directly, rather than implicitly. If you'd like to do this, the msg-scan command will scan the Perl module files gathered by Dist::Zilla and make it for you:
> dzil msg-scan
extracting gettext strings into po/My-GreatApp.pot
The resulting .pot file will then be used by msg-init and msg-merge rather than scanning your code all over again. This actually then makes msg-merge a two-step process: You need to update the template before merging. Updating the template is done by exactly the same command, msg-scan:
> dzil msg-scan
extracting gettext strings into po/My-GreatApp.pot
> dzil msg-merge
Merging gettext strings into po/de.po
Merging gettext strings into po/en_US.po
Merging gettext strings into po/ja.po
And that's all there is to it. Go forth and localize and internationalize your Perl apps!
David E. Wheeler <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Charles McGarvey <firstname.lastname@example.com>
This software is copyright (c) 2012-2017 by David E. Wheeler.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
To install Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell
install Dist::Zilla::LocaleTextDomain
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
There is new life inside an old factory in east-central Indiana.
Only Eyewitness News was allowed inside the Wayzata Home Products plant in Connersville for a tour of the facility that started production in early March.
The sprawling building that dates back to the 1950s started as Philco, became Ford and then Visteon. It sat idle for nearly seven years after Visteon closed and moved out back in 2007.
In the years after the closure, there was much fanfare but next to no jobs created by Carbon Motors, a start up by William Santana Li that was to build the next generation of police cars. Li's plan failed to come to fruition.
As the aging plant sat empty and deteriorating, Connersville leaders continued to market the building, and sold it to Wayzata late in the summer of 2013.
Crews have been renovating the building ever since. While that continued, manufacturing started in early March.
"I came up here to the job fair and there were 1,700 people up here within two days and only seven of us originally got hired," said Connersville resident Kris Gossett.
Gossett was one of those seven and tells Eyewitness News he considers himself lucky.
"It's almost like hitting the lottery here. Jobs are hard to come by," Gossett said.
The first finished product rolled off the assembly line just a few weeks ago and is just part of the fury here.
"We're sort of ending construction, bringing in inventory, and manufacturing all at the same time," said Tim Melillo, Senior VP of Product Development and Engineering with Wayzata Home Products.
Products for cabinets come in from Minnesota and are stored in Connersville where they then go on the assembly line to manufacture the finished product.
Cambridge City resident Kim Harrod said she was happy to be one of the first to be hired after spending two years trying to find work.
"Just to see it finally come to town and something actually go in here," she said.
Over the next five years, Wayzata will hire 300 people, but company leaders say that's a conservative number.
"Two weeks from now, we'll be in the middle of starting up our second assembly line up and starting to hire a crew for that line," said Tim Melillo, Senior VP at Wayzata Home Products.
Leaders, just like workers, are optimistic there will be much more expansion at their new Connersville plant in the coming years.
"The growth that we're going to have, hopefully, over the next three years is going to be tremendous so there will be plenty of opportunities for other people to get in and just to pursue a career more than just than a job," Gossett said.
To learn more about the jobs and to apply online, click here.
The company is also expanding into online design so consumers can create their kitchen and order directly from Wayzata. Click here to go to CliqStudios.com.


text: Young students and small fire during protest against government education cuts in Trafalgar Square. Holding a variety of splinter marches that denounce the coalition government's policy of charging extra higher-education tuition fees. There were isolated incidents of violence and skirmishes with police, mostly in central London.Add to Cart Add to Lightbox Download


text:
GI Joe Rise Of Cobra (Wii)
- Retail $
Published by EA
Rated T
For fans of all ages, 2009 is gearing up to become another watershed milestone in the timeless franchise by introducing even more new ways to engage, immerse and play within the G.I. JOE universe. The G.I. JOE video game will feature an exclusive storyline that picks up where the live-action movie leaves off, allowing players to re-create and re-live the greatest moments from the film, cartoon series and action figure toy line. The game will feature 12 G.I. JOE characters, each with unique abilities and weapons. Adding to the adrenaline rush will be an intense single-screen co-op mode allowing two players to easily unite as a team in a classic struggle between good and evil as they work together to defeat the powers of the COBRA organization.
Please contact us for store availablility.


text:
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B.C. ordered to pay family of tubing accident victim $150K
Andrew Barrie and two others died in 2012 after they went over Cascade Falls while tubing
State of Local Emergency declared for Boundary as communities brace for river flooding
Warm weather and heavy rain could cause sections of Kettle River system to swell beyond 2018 levels
U.S. officials look for B.C. man suspected of vandalizing Death Valley National Park
Rangers believe the man travelled with a dog named Lacy on his way to an off-road race
Gene Simmons to launch new Titans of Rock music festival in Grand Forks
The rock legend has partnered with Chuck Varabioff to run Titans of Rock in Grand Forks
Grand Forks artist plays pot riff on classic Christmas carols
'Rudolph the Red-Eyed Reindeer,' 'Let it Grow' and 'Green Christmas' are on Johl Chato's holiday album
City of Grand Forks apologizes for portraying residents as victims in wake of 2018 floods
The apology also says that buyouts part of infrastructure plan, not flood recovery
Grand Forks residents protest on bridge to call for 'fair' compensation after 2018 floods
Demonstrators also criticized how long it has taken to be offered land deals
Former B.C. lifeguard gets house arrest for possession of child porn
Cees Vanderniet of Grand Forks will serve six months of house arrest, then two years' probation
Weeding out the competition: Grand Forks to host cannabis contest at fall fair
Mayor to be among judges evaluating look, smell and 'burnability'
Grand Forks fire chief no longer employed after bullying allegation
The City would not say if the fire chief was fired or resigned from his position
Grand Forks fire chief found to have bullied, harassed volunteer firefighter: report
WorkSafeBC, third-party human resources investigation looking into allegations complete
One year later: $5.2M used to help Grand Forks families after devastating floods
Grand Forks is still on the mend after flooding devastated the region


text:
The downgrading of the U.S. economy by Standard & Poor's exposes a grim reality: that the economic recovery from the 2008 Wall Street debacle was fiction. That fiction is becoming more evident every day as mothers and fathers try to feed their children while the economic crisis kicks them out of their homes. Millions of babies are born without real healthcare. Families are left homeless and thrown off of welfare.
The manipulation by S&P to downgrade the U.S. government's credit rating not only demonstrates how dysfunctional our economy has become, it reflects S&P's own mischievous behavior as a credit rating agency. The downgrade reflects nothing new about the creditworthiness of the U.S. government. And it's a little too late. It is important to remember that S&P rated the toxic home mortgages of the 2007-2008 housing bubble as triple-A. So we should judge their ratings with a grain of salt.
Without considering the option of making the super rich and the large corporations pay their fair share in taxes, there seems to be no real relief in sight for the vulnerable, the unemployed, and those who have lost their homes. With the country facing deep austerity measures and cuts to essential programs, America's future seems desolate. The lack of a new economic vision in government, and the resulting Wall Street dip, confirms that the United States, and especially its poor and working class, face long-lasting economic turmoil.
For many families in America, there is a constant struggle to make payments — working to make car payments, pay phone bills, make rent, or pay a mortgage, wondering where the day went. While corporate executives come home after a day at the office with wads of cash in their pockets, so many more are failing at raising a family on minimum wage. It is easy to see that there are two worlds in America — one of the well-to-do and the other of the struggling.
If there ever were an absence of economic security in this country it is seen in the grassroots movements in Wisconsin earlier this year, and in social movements like US Uncut, and Rebuild the Dream. It is seen in the civil disobedience that arises from a generation that feels, rightly so, that they have been deceived by those who have come before them, that they are at best tolerated in schools, ushered onto the streets, and almost inescapably fated for the hellholes of unemployment. They grew up feeling hungry, hated, and unloved, and this is the fire that spawns a seemingly-pervasive anger in America. Many feel very little hope that they can climb above the pit of poverty.
While a generation of young people arrives in a world without options, wealth is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few — and now the wealthy are scrambling to deal with the Tea Party Downgrade. Their very opulence and relative wealth makes them vulnerable. "The Debt Crisis" is a tea party phrase that is about as crazy as saying "military intelligence" or "the U.S. Department of Justice." They're just words and they have very little relationship to reality. Do you think cutting taxes and government budgets will make our economy secure? Do you feel economically secure? Do you think you will anytime soon?
This crisis could have been averted by eliminating our overall dependence on Wall Street. The solution to the current crisis requires not only a reorganizing of priorities, which puts the necessities of the most vulnerable before those of the powerful, but also economic democracy.
As we have witnessed, the U.S. government and our global economy are largely controlled by Wall Street. This sadistic relationship must end if there is to be any consequential restructuring of our economy — and change is possible, as demonstrated by a recent report from the New Economy Working Group entitled "How to Liberate America from Wall Street Rule."
We must lower our dependence on Wall Street, says the report. It proposes bold policies to support community banks which operate cooperatively and are controlled by nonprofit organizations, to greatly increase transparency in agencies that exercise great economic power such as the Federal Reserve, to create partnership banks in every state to fund local projects, and to institute stringent regulation on financial institutions, including the breaking up of big banks. These simple policy recommendations, if implemented, would unfetter America from Wall Street's bondage and allow America to create a new economy.
As Wall Street ignores the suffering of a generation of Americans, we must all call for the changes needed to ensure a better future for our country. That means looking for real solutions to our economic woes, not looking to Wall Street.


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The Wrong Cheerleader
The Wrong Cheerleader (2019) full movie watch online on 123Movies Becky (Cristine Prosperi, Degrassi) is an intelligent and sociable high school senior that flies heavily under the radar when it comes to receiving attention from the boys of her school. However, this is the year it all flips around when she tries out and earns a uniform on the cheerleader squad lead by Ms. Flynn (Vivica A. Fox, Independence Day). Becky's life is heading in the right direction when she catches the eye of the charming and handsome new student, Rob (David Meza, The Wrong Roommate). Rob seems like the ideal boy, until his affection turns into obsession and he stops at nothing to keep Becky all to himself.
Genre: ActionActor: Cristine Prosperi, David Meza, Donald Payne, Jarret Janako, Kalen Bull, Lesli Kay, Shayne Davis, Tyler James White, Vivica A. Fox
Director: David DeCoteau
Country: USA


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Many weeks, we come across stupid stuff on TV that might fall through the cracks. In Mixed Bag, we collect those odds and ends, for a multimedia compilation of pop culture crap.
1.) "God, Guns, Guts, and American Pickup Trucks"
That's this guy's motto for his truck dealership in rural Missouri. He gives away a free AK-47 with each vehicle purchased. While being interviewed on CNN's American Morning, he made some compelling arguments for his business model:
"The only 911 call I need is chambering a round."
"There is a tremendous crime problem with people doing meth and these people – they've lost their souls."
"You don't have a problem with God, do you? I'm just curious…"
"We're a Christian nation."
"You don't think God wants us to defend ourselves? I'm confused."
2.) Paris Hilton: "I'm Not Retarded"
3.) Me: "Yes You Are"
4.) Barbara Walters' Speech Impediment
I've finally cracked the code to the cause of Barbara Walters' "accent." She says her R's backwards, so they come out as "raw" instead of "arh."
5.) Big Brother
I'm so obsessed with these turds. This sums up how I'm feeling right now:
6.) Gay Penguin Dramz
After a six-year relationship, Harry and Pepper, two gay male penguins living in a zoo in San Francisco, are no longer an item. Harry left Pepper for a woman. (A penguin one, not a human one.)
7.) And This
8.) Things Are Different in Canada
9.) Who Does Jon Gosselin Think He Is?
Remember when the father of eight said that he was sick of doing the show and sick of paparazzi? He's so sick of the celebrity life, that he just needed to get away from it—by sipping champagne on a private yacht floating in the French Riviera.
10.) Wrap It Up, Linda


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NEW YORK- Two fossilized dinosaur skeletons, dubbed the "Montana Dueling Dinosaurs" because they appear forever locked in mortal combat, failed to sell Tuesday at a New York City auction.
A pre-sale estimate had predicted that the skeletons, offered as a single lot, could fetch between $7 million and $9 million — a price out of the reach of most museums. There were hopes that a wealthy buyer would donate the skeletons to a public institution, similar to how The Field Museum came to own Sue, a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered in South Dakota in 1990. The museum acquired Sue at a total cost of $8.36 million, including premium, with backing from McDonald's, Disney and other donors.
But the skeletons did not make the reserve at the Bonhams auction; the highest offer was $5.5 million. Auction officials said they remained hopeful that they'd find a buyer, possibly among institutions that had previously expressed interest.
The discovery began with a dinosaur pelvis protruding through rock at the Montana ranch. Three more months of chiseling and digging revealed a remarkable discovery: two nearly complete, fossilized dinosaur skeletons of a carnivore and herbivore, their tails touching.
A pushed-in skull and teeth of one dinosaur embedded in the other suggested a deadly confrontation between them. Clayton Phipps, a fossil hunter who made the discovery on his neighbor's land in 2006 in the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation, gave the fossils their name.
The fossils are believed to be a Nanotyrannus lancensis, a smaller relative of the T. rex, and a newly discovered species of Chasmosaurine ceratopsian, a close relative of the Triceratops, which lived at the end of the Cretaceous age some 65 million years ago.
"I am just the lucky guy that happened to stumble out there and find this dinosaur," Phipps said. "I really appreciate the academic paleontologists that understand the importance of what us amateurs bring to the mix. I am hoping that it will be professionally and academically studied. ... I want to know more about them."
They were found fully articulated with pockets of skin tissue attached. They have been separated into four large blocks because of their total 40-ton weight and are on display in a plaza adjacent to Bonhams.
Kirk Johnson, director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, called the dinosaurs "a significant discovery."
"They are a superb pair of specimens and are certainly of great scientific and display value," he said. "This pair is certainly a unique find" for the Hell Creek Formation.
Thomas Lindgren, Bonhams co-consulting director of natural history, said scientists will have to determine whether the ceratopsian was indeed a new species, but either way, it would "still be one of the rarest ceratopsians of all time."
"It is either the most complete and oldest triceratops that had lived at the end of the Cretaceous or it's a brand-new species," he said.
But Jack Horner, a paleontologist at Montana State University, called the promoters' claims a means "to enhance the price of the specimen."
"These fossils are not worth anything because they were collected to sell and not specifically for their science," he said.
Johnson said the skeletons would need to be extracted from their enclosing sandstone and compared to other skeletons in various museums to determine their "actual completeness." But he said finding a carnivore and herbivore together is still "very unusual."


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Philips Wins L Prize, but the Race Is Still on for a Better Bulb
Philips captures the U.S. government's $10 million L Prize for its LED replacement for the 60-watt bulb, but efficient lighting must still win consumers' hearts.
This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.
With a device that resembles a segmented lemon, but glows like an ordinary living room fixture, Philips Lighting North America captured a much-awaited $10 million U.S. government prize, a race to produce the first super high-efficiency replacement for the world's most popular lightbulb.
The U.S. division of the giant Dutch electronics company, Philips, won the Bright Tomorrow Lighting Prize (L Prize) after months of testing certified that its light emitting diode (LED) bulb, the EnduraLED, measured up in output, quality of light, intensity, and color as a true replacement for the 60-watt incandescent bulb.
The U.S. Congress kicked off the L Prize in its big 2007 energy bill as a way to spur technological advancement in lighting at the same time it was mandating efficiency standards that begin to phase out incandescent lighting in 2012. But the contest milestone was reached today amid uncertainty over those plans and the speed at which high-efficiency lighting will advance.
Philips turned out to be the only official entrant in the competition, with a bulb that currently retails at $40, far more than people are used to paying for a light bulb. (Incandescent bulbs can be bought for less than $1.) And efforts continue on Capitol Hill to repeal the lighting efficiency standards and salvage the future of energy-gobbling incandescent bulbs.
An Heir to Edison's Invention
The backlash against efficient lighting comes at a time when companies like Philips have shown the technology is available for slashing the energy required by the filament-in-glass-bulb design, little changed since it was pioneered by Thomas Edison.
(Related: "On Thomas Edison Bulb Anniversary, Lighting Breakthrough")
"The Philips L-Prize award-winning bulb demonstrates that it's possible to mass-produce an LED light bulb that does everything the 125-year-old bulb can do, and with only a fraction of the electricity," said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist for the Natural Resources Defense Council. The environmental group is one of 31 L-Prize program partners, a group that includes utilities and energy programs across the United States that have been serving as advisers and helping field test L-Prize sample bulbs.
The design for EnduraLED, submitted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) nearly two years ago, endured rigorous performance testing.
EnduraLED bulbs were placed in hallways and office buildings to mimic real-life use. And they underwent stress tests, subjecting them to vibration, humidity, and fluctuations in voltage. The lab in the testing center was kept at 110°F (43.3°C) to measure the bulb's ability to work in canister ceiling fixtures, which heat up when a bulb is on for extended periods.
The longest part of the testing was the lifespan measurement. "This is rather tricky," said James Brodrick, the DOE head of the L-Prize competition. The requirement is for a bulb that lasts 25,000 hours. "That's at least three years of being constantly on, so that's what took the most time." The Philips bulbs have been shining for the past 9,000 hours, and Brodrick and his team record data on the bulbs every seven days. So far, so good. "Not one of the bulbs went out," he said.
Not only does Philips claim the cash prize for its achievement, but it has earned a federal contract so it will be included among the options U.S. agencies can consider when they are purchasing replacement bulbs.
Philips was in the running alone for the L Prize, having made its submission back in 2009.
Lighting Science Group, a 600-person company in Satellite Beach, Florida, announced its intention to submit a bulb in March, and General Electric followed suit in July, but neither company entered a bulb into the race.
"We are pleased to be the only one who has submitted anything," said Zia Eftekhar, chief executive of Philips Lighting North America. "Even though I'm unbelievably happy we won, it's still good to challenge the entire industry to move the technology forward."
The L-Prize challenge remains open for companies to win eligibility for federal contracts and endorsements from L-Prize partners, so Lighting Science Group plans to go forward with its application for a bulb that has been a year in the making. "Anything that raises the consciousness of the public towards understanding what good solid-state lighting can do, both from an energy consumption and from ecological consumption standpoint, and even to some degree a security standpoint, we think it's good for the industry," said Fred Maxik, the company's chief technology officer.
The Contest for Consumers
But winning over consumers may be as great a challenge as the L-Prize competition.
Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs), the corkscrew-shaped bulbs that have become the de facto energy-efficient choice, save about 70 percent of the energy used by an incandescent bulb and last much longer. Though that can equal hundreds of saved dollars in electricity costs each year, meaning the higher up-front cost is paid back very quickly due to lower energy bills, CFLs make up only 17 percent of lightbulb sales.
"[Consumers] don't quite like the light quality or they're worried about the fact that they contain some mercury," said Steve Nadel, Executive Director of the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. "Most compact fluorescents also don't operate well on dimming switches."
That's why lighting efficiency advocates have been hopeful that technology could advance for LEDs to provide light that is white enough and bright enough for ordinary bulb replacement. With the L Prize, Congress put lighting manufacturers to the test to see if a bulb could be made to meet new efficiency standards, and at the same time could ease the concerns of consumers. The winning LED lights beat out CFLs in energy savings, using upwards of 80 percent less energy than an incandescent bulb. They have passed field-testing in homes, grocery stores, hospitals, art museums, and restaurants. And each bulb is expected to last for three years of continuous use.
"They save a little bit more energy and they address all these problems," said Nadel. "We just have to get the price down."
Eftekar said consumers may balk at the $40 price tag on the Philips bulb, but he and Nadel agree that the cost won't stay high forever.
"Everybody I know in the industry is expecting the prices to decline over time dramatically," he said. "It won't be six months, but certainly by 2020--and most people I know expect it well before then--we'll be talking products under $10."
Nadel notes how CFL prices have plummeted. "When I bought my first compact fluorescent back in 1979, I paid $24 for it." Adjust for inflation and that's about $75 today.
"You can buy a compact fluorescent in your local Lowe's or Home Depot for about $2 apiece now," he said. "History doesn't 100 percent repeat itself, but it could take a similar path."
That is, if the U.S. House of Representatives doesn't get in the way. A recent attempt to repeal the 2007 law that requires phasing out of incandescent bulbs didn't pass, but there's an effort to delay its implementation by denying the DOE funding to enforce the law through the federal budget process.
That may take the teeth out of the legislation, Nadel said, but he doubts the amendment will get the support of the Senate or the president. Come January, he expects the phaseout of incandescent bulbs to begin nationwide as planned.
Chelsea Whyte is a reporter for Medill News Service.


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Allow me to summarize for my readers this Hill article ("Cantor to Democrats: See, cutting spending's not that hard") on some hopeful (repeat: hopeful) signs of deficit reduction on the horizon:
Eric Cantor: …See, cutting spending's not that hard*. And there's not going to be any tax hikes.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz: …OK, now that you've getting spending cuts, we want our Holy Grail, too. Raise taxes!
To which let me add:
Moe Lane: Not a chance on this world, or any other.
It's amazing, really. The Democrats had the entire 111th Congress to raise taxes. Strong majorities in both houses of Congress, including a Golden Time where the GOP could not filibuster. And clearly they believe that raising taxes is a meritorious act that will allow them to keep funding all those programs that the Democrats insist are necessary for the continued well-being of the Republic. And yet… they did not pass tax hikes, despite the supposed need. Just like the Democrats didn't pass a budget last year, and for the same reason in both cases: Democratic politicians were afraid. And now they want the GOP – who ran last year on a platform that included entitlement reform, and who is taking heat this year for demonstrating that we meant it – to casually abandon our promises. The promises that our new Congressmen and Senators campaigned on. And they want those promises broken for the sake of a bunch of nasty-souled politicians who will be spending the next eighteen months accusing us of wanting to kill grandmothers.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*It's kind of rare when the Hill is as much of a smart-mouth as I am.


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Over the next 10-15 years, all European countries will need to operate signalling systems based on the European standard, ERTMS, which will enable seamless rail travel across national borders.
Ramboll's market leading expertise in this area includes the design of the world's first and largest nationwide ERTMS system. Through many signalling and ERTMS projects, Ramboll has established extensive experience with ERTMS, ETCS and GSM-R radio.
Improving capacity, punctuality and safety
ERTMS will create significant benefits for passengers and freight companies. In many cases this includes improved capacity, better punctuality and improved safety. It will also help ensure that rail transport systems become more competitive and a sustainable alternative to road traffic.
Many countries are developing their strategy for implementing ERTMS, and face significant challenges such as obsolete and unreliable signalling systems. Ramboll can assist infrastructure managers in defining strategies, investigating business cases, project planning, developing technical solutions, and facilitating migration from old to new signalling systems. Ramboll also has the expertise to simulate and analyse scenarios and provide models to improve the capacity of existing lines.
Adding value throughout the project life cycle
In order to establish the most appropriate setup for ERTMS studies, ERTMS projects, and conventional signalling projects we establish a close collaboration with our customers to collaboratively define the best approach. By involving specialist expertise from across our disciplines and international offices, we are able to meet the individual requirements of each project.
Our competencies within signalling systems and ERTMS include:
- In-depth knowledge of market and suppliers within ERTMS
- ERTMS strategy and project planning
- Preparation of business cases and cost/benefit evaluation
- Requirements specification and tender design (traffic and technical)
- Procurement and contract strategies
- Migration strategies focusing on safety and reduction of impact on operation
- New and updated operational rules
- System integration, software processes, and interface management
- Detailed signalling design
- Testing and documentation
- Assistance in relation to authority approvals


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Builder confidence in the 55+ housing market showed continued improvement in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the National Association of Home Builders' latest 55+ Housing Market Index (HMI).
All segments of the market, single-family homes, condominiums and multifamily rentals, registered strong increases. The single-family index increased 14 points to a level of 50, which is the highest third-quarter number since the inception of the index in 2008 and the eighth consecutive quarter of year over year improvements.
There are separate 55+ HMIs for two segments of the 55+ housing market: single-family homes and multifamily condominiums. Each 55+ HMI measures builder sentiment based on a survey that asks if current sales, prospective buyer traffic and anticipated six-month sales for that market are good, fair or poor (high, average or low for traffic). An index number below 50 indicates that more builders view conditions as poor than good.
All of the components of the 55+ single-family HMI showed considerable growth from a year ago: present sales climbed 16 points to 52, expected sales for the next six months rose 11 points to 53 and traffic of prospective buyers increased 10 points to 43.
The 55+ multifamily condo HMI posted a gain of 14 points to 37, which is the highest third-quarter reading since the inception of the index. All 55+ multifamily condo HMI components increased compared to a year ago as present sales increased 15 points to 37, expected sales for the next six months climbed 11 points to 40 and traffic of prospective buyers rose 13 points to 35.
The 55+ multifamily rental indices also showed strong gains in the third quarter as present production increased 17 points to 48, expected future production rose 15 points to 50, current demand for existing units climbed 18 points to 60 and future demand increased 16 points to 60.
The positive year over year increase in confidence by builders for the 55+ market is tracking along with other segments of the home building industry. The 55+ market is improving in part because consumers are more likely to be able to sell their current homes, which allows them to buy a new home or move into an apartment that suits their specific needs.


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If there's one thing at the top of our iOS wish list, it's for a better notification system. Especially now that Android and webOS have figured out a way to make notifications seamless and unobtrusive, Apple's roadblock system has become seriously outmoded.
Meet Microsoft's New Surface Laptops
For starters, Cupertino can take a look at MobileNotifier, a jailbreak app developed by Peter Hajas that gives us the iPhone pings of our dreams. Steal it, buy it, modify it, I don't care; just make my iPhone work like this, please. [9 to 5 Mac]


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Burials Go Green as More Choose To Take Eco-Friendly Credo to Grave
After a two-year battle with cancer, Joseph Fitzgerald was determined to leave his final resting place to Mother Nature.
On a quiet February day in rural Florida, Fitzgerald's body was carried through the Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery on a bamboo stretcher made by family members.
In an ecologically approved "green burial," he was laid to rest on a plot of land surrounded by oak trees and Spanish moss he picked out just months before his passing in a grave that was dug by hand just two days prior.
Green burial options have become a small but growing trend in the U.S. funeral industry, with an increasing number of funeral homes offering eco-friendly services and about 30 green cemeteries across the country, according to the Green Burial Council, or GBC, a non-profit organization operating in the United States, Canada and Australia.
The most recent survey conducted by funeral industry publishers Kates-Boylston Publications in 2008 found that 43 percent of respondents said that they would consider a green burial. That was a significant increase from the 21 percent who expressed curiosity about green burials in an AARP study conducted the previous year.
"There is a movement toward it, but it's gaining traction very slowly," said Jim Ford, vice president of operations at Neptune Society, the largest cremation-only funeral company in the United States. The firm also offers green burials at sea on a reef off Miami.
At Prairie Creek, there have been 43 whole body natural burials, 14 cremated remains burials and 10 pet burials since it opened in late July of 2010, with another 197 future burial bookings.
"It's so much more natural and simple," said David Gold, 64, a dental hygienist who plans to be buried at Prairie Creek. "It's harmonious. It puts things (funeral plans) back in people's control."
Freddie Johnson, the executive director of Conservation Burial, the non-profit organization that runs Prairie Creek, says he has noticed an increase in interest.
"The biggest hurdle is getting the awareness of these choices and having choices in the proximity of where people are," he said.
People who choose green burials don't use concrete vaults, traditional coffins with metalwork or any embalming chemicals. Instead, the body is wrapped in biodegradable shrouds or placed in a pine coffin and laid to rest where it can decompose and become part of the earth.
Other options are available for green caskets, often called ecoffins. These coffins can be made of bamboo, pine, woven willow, recycled cardboard and even cord from dried banana plants. They range in cost from $500 to $1,000, depending on the material.
It is estimated that more than 60,000 tons of steel and 4.8 million gallons of embalming fluid are buried each year. That is enough steel to build eight Eiffel Towers and fill eight Olympic size swimming pools, according to Mary Woodsen, a science researcher and writer for Cornell University and research director for the GBC.
At a half-dozen fully certified "conservation cemeteries" around the country, the GBC performs ecological surveys of the grounds and sets rules that include hand-digging the grave site, markers, replacement of the same soil removed and no vault or cement grave liners. Only biodegradable material is allowed to be buried with the body.
"Even the grave sites themselves have no conventional memorial stones," said Johnson. "What you see is nature."
Green burials can be less expensive than conventional funerals, where costs can run between $6,000 and $10,000, because they do not incur the costs of embalming and metal caskets.
But a green burial is still a more expensive option than cremation, which remains the fastest-growing funeral preference. In 2011, cremation was chosen instead of burial in 42 percent of U.S. deaths, up from 30 percent in 2003, according to the Cremation Association of North America. It predicts the cremation rate will jump to nearly 56 percent by 2025.
In a green burial ceremony at Prairie Creek, Johnson attends to every detail to ensure it is environmentally friendly. From removing all non-biodegradable objects to placing a branch in an open grave site to allow critters an escape before the soil is replanted, the result is a cemetery that resembles a typical Florida hiking trail more than a final resting place.
At the Fitzgerald burial, the family asked the funeral director to place the ashes of their deceased son, Kyle, in the pillow that was to be buried with his father.
"There is a real sense that 'from dust you were made, from dust you will return,'" said Michael Fitzgerald, Joseph's brother.
Fitzgerald chose to be buried in a University of Michigan shroud, a final gesture to his devotion to all things Michigan football, which began after his father took him to his first game when he was in middle school.
After friends and family members shared memories, they said their final goodbyes with shovel in hand, replacing the dirt that was recently removed and creating a mound that will, over time, settle back to its original form.


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If you're a Palm Pre owner who's been craving some old-school distraction, rejoice! You can now play Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance games on your smartphone.
Game Boy Advance games, like Mario Kart Short Circuit, aren't quite running at full speed yet—about 60% of normal speed with sound or 90% without—but Game Boy and Game Boy Color games work just fine, and, as they say, emulators can't be choosers.
The VisualBoyAdvance for WebOS project only started two weeks ago, so hopefully updates and improvements will be quick to follow. As shown in the video, the emulator can already switch between portrait and landscape and supports custom skinning.
Check out the project's page on Pre Central for information on how to install. [Pre Central via Engadget]


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Schumer, Lautenberg, LaHood announce major Gateway Program funding stepWritten by William C. Vantuono, Editor-in-Chief
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced May 30 that that the USDOT "has begun the process of fulfilling Amtrak's request for $185 million in Hurricane Sandy Relief funding."
Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced May 30 that that the USDOT "has begun the process of fulfilling Amtrak's request for $185 million in Hurricane Sandy Relief funding."
The funding, the trio said, "will help pave the way for two desperately needed, flood-resistant [Northeast Corridor] tunnels under the Hudson River, between New York and New Jersey," that, as part of Amtrak's Gateway Program, will supplement Amtrak's existing Hudson River ("North River") NEC tunnels. "Once the funding is finalized, it will help preserve space in the only [possible new] gateway into Manhattan's Penn Station—[beneath] the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project."
"During Hurricane Sandy, the 103-year old Hudson River tunnels flooded for the first time ever, shutting down the Northeast Corridor and highlighting the urgent need for flood-resistant infrastructure," the three officials—all key supporters of Amtrak—said. "According to engineers, the only option for additional rail access to Manhattan and NY Penn Station is under the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project, and infrastructure needs to be built before construction of certain portions has begun. Major federal investment would get shovels in the ground to start Amtrak's Gateway Program and preserve new tunnel space into Manhattan. The Northeast Corridor is currently at capacity and the threat of another flood looms large."
In addition to the lessons learned from Hurricane Sandy, Amtrak's Gateway Program has taken on increased urgency in recent months as engineers have determined that the only viable route to connect the Gateway Tunnels directly to Penn Station New York will intersect the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project, where a joint venture of Related Companies and Oxford Properties Group has commenced construction on a multibillion-dollar, mixed-use commercial and residential development project. Related/Oxford and the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns the Long Island Rail Road's John D. Caemmerer West Side Yard train maintenance and storage facility (pictured at left) just west of New York Penn Station—over which the Hudson Yards project will be built—are working with Amtrak to design and begin construction this year on an 800-foot concrete casement to preserve future right-of-way for the Gateway Tunnels through the site.
On May 22, Amtrak's board authorized entering into agreements for the construction of the casement and other associated activities with Related/Oxford and the NYMTA upon securing the necessary federal funding—which is now in place.
USDOT funds will go toward the casement (also known as a "tunnel box"), which will be built between 10th and 11th avenues beneath the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project. This casement will preserve the right-of-way for the two new flood-resistant Gateway Tunnels into NY Penn Station, and will be built simultaneously with the Hudson Yards project. "Without these steps, the construction of the Hudson Yards project could have proceeded without the casement, and the opportunity to build these new tunnels serving Penn Station's existing tracks would have been potentially lost forever," said Schumer, Lautenberg (who died on June 3 at 89 from pneumonia complications), and LaHood.
Damage to the NEC during Sandy was significant and, in some places, unprecedented. The storm's massive surge flooded four of the six 103-year-old tunnels under the Hudson and East Rivers, for the first time in their history. Both Hudson River tunnels were flooded with 3.25 million gallons of brackish water. The flooding of these tunnels halted all Amtrak NEC and NJ Transit service into Manhattan for roughly five days, impacting nearly 600,000 daily riders. The LIRR also suffered a significant loss of capacity and service due to the flooding of two of Amtrak's East River Tunnels.
Amtrak's Gateway Program (center illustration) is a proposal to build a high-speed rail corridor to alleviate the bottleneck along the NEC between Newark, N.J., and New York City. The project would add 25 train slots during peak periods to the current system used by Amtrak and New Jersey Transit. The planned right-of-way would parallel the current "High Line" between Newark Penn Station and New York Penn Station. It includes new bridges in the New Jersey Meadowlands to replace and expand existing Portal Bridge, the two Gateway Tunnels under the Hudson Palisades and the Hudson River, conversion of the James A. Farley Post Office Building (which is directly across 8th Avenue from the existing NY Penn/Madison Square Garden complex) into a new Amtrak station, and a terminal annex to NY Penn ("Penn Station South").
The centerpiece of the Hudson Yards Redevelopment Project is Hudson Yards (pictured, bottom), a proposed mixed-use real estate development by Related Companies. According to the master plan, created by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, Hudson Yards is expected to consist of 16 skyscrapers containing close to 13 million square feet of new office, residential, and retail space. Among its components will be six million square feet of commercial office space, a 750,000-square-foot retail center with two levels of restaurants, cafes, markets and bars, a hotel, a cultural space, about 5,000 residences, a 750-seat school, and 14 acres of public open space. Hudson Yards officially broke ground on Dec. 4, 2012. The first tower, an 895-foot-tall office building in the southeast corner of the site anchored by Coach Inc., is expected to be complete in 2015.
"When Sandy flooded our tunnels, it exposed a fatal flaw in our already maxed-out transit infrastructure and demonstrated beyond a doubt we needed a new flood-resistant rail tunnel into and out of Manhattan," Schumer said. "This project secures the future of rail for New York City and all of the Northeast Corridor, making our rail infrastructure more efficient and much more flood resistant from storms like Sandy. It is the first step of a long-term mitigation investment in New York. I am pleased that Secretary LaHood will award this much-needed funding to preserve a path for new rail tunnels into Manhattan."
"The Gateway Program is the most important transportation project in our region, and this federal funding clears a hurdle that threatened the possibility of a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River. Gateway will create thousands of jobs, drive economic growth, and help us meet the urgent needs of a growing population that demands more, reliable rail options," said Lautenberg. "Sandy showed us firsthand why our transportation systems must be able to withstand flooding and natural disasters, and the Gateway Project will be an important part of making our region more resilient. We'll keep working hard to invest in transit so that the people and economies of New Jersey and New York remain inextricably linked."
"Hurricane Sandy exposed the risks of relying solely on a system of century-old tunnels for rail access into New York City," said LaHood. "We were fortunate that these tunnels were not destroyed during the hurricane, and providing Amtrak with funds to preserve its ability to build [additional tunnels] will provide much-needed resiliency to the Northeast Corridor in case of future disasters."
"The federal funding makes it possible for Amtrak to begin construction this summer on a project to preserve a pathway for two new rail tunnels into New York that are critical for the future mobility and economic growth of the entire Northeast region," said Amtrak Board of Directors Chairman Tony Coscia. "This project to build an 800-foot concrete casing through the Hudson Yards commercial development property will protect the only viable right-of-way for connecting the tunnels to the existing tracks and platforms at Penn Station, New York. The new tunnels are one element of the Amtrak Gateway Program to increase rail infrastructure capacity between Newark, N.J., and Penn Station, New York. By eliminating this bottleneck into New York City, which today is the Northeast Corridor's most congested segment, the Gateway Program will increase resiliency against severe weather events, add redundancy and reliability for Amtrak and New Jersey Transit's shared operations, and provide additional capacity for the future increases in commuter, intercity, and high speed rail service."


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I had an amazing Valentine's Day! My man went overboard with the gifts, affection, attention and love! Can every day be Feb. 14? No, really! I have a great man who loves me hard and I appreciate him, but he's not as romantic as I would like him to be. How do I keep up this romantic momentum in my relationship? —G.R.
Big congrats to you! I'm glad you had a great day. By the nature of what I do as a life coach and dating and relationship expert, people usually come to me when they're in crisis or need things fixed. Post-Valentine's Day, I'm getting a lot of stories from women who were disappointed on Tuesday.
Like all other holidays, Valentine's Day tends to let you know loud and clear where you stand with your significant other. Feb. 14 might be a "Hallmark holiday," but everyone knows it's a test. As you can imagine, no one's happy when a partner doesn't pass. I'm happy that your man did — and with flying colors, by the sound of it.
For the most part, Valentine's Day is when women are showered with gifts and gestures of romance. For men? Not so much. They know they're expected to go above and beyond on Feb. 14, and the ones who don't want any problems from their lady (or ladies, in some cases) aim to exceed expectations. I totally get why you'd want every day to be all about you and to be showered with affection, attention and gifts on a daily basis, but frankly, even on a weekly schedule, it's unrealistic.
Men put a lot into Valentine's Day, more than women tend to realize. It will be beneficial to your relationship if you manage your expectations when it comes to gifting. In 2012 Americans spent $17.6 billion on Valentine's Day, with the average guy expected to drop $168.74 on his woman, according to the National Retail Federation's annual survey. Those numbers are a new high over the past decade. Frankly, the average guy can't afford to do that daily or weekly.
But if what you're looking for is the affection and attention instead of the gifts, your odds are much better. Communicate with your man by asking for what you want. He gets a million cultural cues to know what you expect on Valentine's Day. But if you've been silent on what else you expect or would like from him, he's probably clueless, especially if you've seemed fine with the way things have been going in the relationship thus far.
Avoid criticizing him for what he's not doing, and use positive reinforcement to express how much you love it when he cooks for you, rubs your feet, cuddles up while watching a movie or whatever he does that qualifies as romantic to you.
Remember to keep the scales balanced in your relationship. Your significant other will be much more willing to do for you on a regular basis when he feels reciprocity. As much as you like random gifts, so does he.
You described your man as "great," so you should have no problem spoiling him. One of the best things about men is that most of them honestly can be as easy to please as they often claim to be. Cop a pair of tickets so he can watch his favorite team live, pick up something that goes vroom! from the nearest hardware store or just cook his favorite meal and have his favorite drink waiting for him by his plate. Attention to details will take you a long way in a relationship.
Also, pay attention to the ways that your partner may be showing his romantic side in his own ways. The male idea of expressing love (or, at the very least, affection) isn't always roses, candles and flowers. It's the things that most women take for granted. Men are showing love and affection every time they take out the trash, shovel snow, change a lightbulb, help you move, or plunk down cash or a credit card to pick up the tab for what you need or just what makes you happy.
So we're very clear: It's all a sacrifice. No one actually likes doing any of these things, but it becomes worthwhile because it makes a partner's life easier and makes her smile. That's love.
Most men who commit to a relationship genuinely care about their partner and place a high premium on keeping that person happy and maintaining the relationship. Folks get lax over time, of course, and both parties begin to take each other for granted. But know that your partner is most likely to go the extra mile when your appreciation is explicitly expressed. Never underestimate the power of acknowledging your mate's efforts and explicitly saying, "Thank you!"
Demetria L. Lucas is a contributing editor to The Root and the author of A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life. She answers your dating and relationship questions on The Root each week. Feel free to ask anything at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Hope your weekend has been carefree. And restful. And not at all stressful. So, the opposite of mine. But, so I'm not reduced to a sniveling, self-absorbed winer, I'll just get to the goods.
It's Scavenger Hunt Sunday! Woo hoo! I tried to think about my shots a little more this week. I don't know if that works for me. I might take better photos when I don't think about it at all!
Music to My Ears
|Is it silly to say that this little boy's faith infused prayers are like music to my ears? I love it when he prays on his own, without help. We're supposed to have child-like faith, right?
|I decided to do a mini "photo shoot" for this prompt. It ended up yielding some of my favorite shots.
|It has been raining non-stop. And not just rain. Huge, crazy severe thunderstorms. On a rare CLEAR day, we took the kids to the pool, along with Aunt Lise, Uncle Tall and K. It was pretty CLEAR that mini loved this CLEAR, sparkling water. (Overkill?)
Out of this World
|So, very few clear days, but views like this at sunset aren't just "Outta this world!" but can also kind of transport me out of this world and remind me of a grander scheme - another world, if you will.
|With thunderstorms come sprinkles. Lots and lots of little sprinkles. Tiny showers that begin and end the downpours. I caught these sprinkles - or remnants thereof - on my brother IL's car.
She does a month-long challenge with weekly prompts and I hope to do each week next month. This week's prompt was "Summertime."
|Out for a walk at sunset
|I sure do love his face in this one.
*Be sure to check just below for all the fun parties I link to!


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Membership in the Engagement Alliance is open only to certificate holders, and is included in the certification fees. Members are eligible for a range of discounts and benefits, including reduced-price passes for GSummit events, training and professional development opportunities, inclusion in the certificate-holders database, and more. As the Engagement Alliance grows with the support of the community, we'll work hard to increase the benefits available to individual members. We'll also be continuously updating the certification requirements to ensure they are current, and making content available that satisfies a wide range of industries, geographies and specialties (more on this shortly).
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COVER STORY BusinessWeek MAY 29, 2006 issue
Medical Guesswork
From heart surgery to prostate care, the health industry knows little about which common treatments really work
The signs at the meeting were not propitious. Half the board members of
Kaiser Permanente's Care Management Institute left before Dr. David Eddy finally
got the 10 minutes he had pleaded for. But the message Eddy delivered was
riveting. With a groundbreaking computer simulation, Eddy showed that the
conventional approach to treating diabetes did little to prevent the heart
attacks and strokes that are complications of the disease. In contrast, a simple
regimen of aspirin and generic drugs to lower blood pressure and cholesterol
sent the rate of such incidents plunging. The payoff: healthier lives and
hundreds of millions in savings. "I told them: 'This is as good as it gets
to improve care and lower costs, which doesn't happen often in medicine,"'
Eddy recalls. "'If you don't implement this,' I said, 'you might as well
close up shop."'
JULY 18, 2005 BusinessWeek Online
Physicians are
questioning whether bypasses and angioplasties necessarily prolong patients'
Is Heart Surgery Worth It?
You start breathing hard after
climbing stairs, and your chest hurts. You go to your doctor. Scans reveal that
arteries feeding your heart are severely narrowed. Your doctor sends you to the
hospital for coronary bypass surgery or angioplasty to restore the blood flow to
your heart. Despite the trauma of surgery, you're glad the blockage was caught
in time, saving you from a potentially fatal heart attack.
There's just one problem with this happy tale of modern medicine: More and more doctors are questioning whether such heart procedures are actually extending patients' lives. One of them, Dr. Nortin M. Hadler, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of The Last Well Person, is urging the U.S. medical Establishment to rethink its most basic precepts of cardiovascular care. Bypass surgery in particular, he says, "should have been relegated to the archives 15 years ago."
That is an extreme view that is disputed by cardiac surgeons. "The reason thousands and thousands of bypass surgeries have been done is that [the procedure] is successful," says Dr. Timothy J. Gardner, co-editor of Operative Cardiac Surgery and a cardiothoracic surgeon at Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del.
Nevertheless, the data from clinical trials are clear: Except in a minority of patients with severe disease, bypass operations don't prolong life or prevent future heart attacks. Nor does angioplasty, in which narrowed vessels are expanded and then, typically, propped open with metal tubes called stents. "People often believe that having these procedures fixes the problem, as if a plumber came in and fixed the plumbing with a new piece of pipe," explains Dr. L. David Hillis, professor of cardiology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School. "But it fundamentally doesn't fix the problem."
With doctors doing about 400,000 bypass surgeries and 1 million angioplasties a year -- part of a heart-surgery industry worth an estimated $100 billion a year -- the question of whether these operations are overused has enormous medical and economic implications. "It is one of the major issues in cardiology right now," says Dr. David Waters, chief of cardiology at the University of California at San Francisco.
It is also part of a far broader problem -- what some health-care experts call the medicalization of life. "None of us will live long without headache, backache, heartache, heartburn, diarrhea, constipation, sadness, malaise, or other symptoms of some kind," argues Hadler. Yet under relentless bombardment by messages from the pharmaceutical and health-care industries, Americans increasingly believe that these symptoms -- and many others -- are conditions that can and should be cured. "We have an image of ourselves as invincible and powerful and able to overcome all odds," Hadler says. "And the lay press is too quick to talk about the latest widget and gizmo without asking what it is and does it work."
Indeed, there is compelling evidence that more health care and more aggressive treatment across the complete spectrum of illnesses is not necessarily better. When Dr. Elliott S. Fisher, professor of medicine at Dartmouth Medical School, first looked at regional differences in health-care spending in the U.S., he assumed that people in areas with lower expenditures would have worse health than people in regions where spending was 1 1/2 to 2 times as high because they were failing to receive needed care. It turned out that the opposite was true. "Patients have a substantial increased risk of death if cared for in the high-cost systems," he says. Why? For one thing, additional doctor visits and testing often lead to unnecessary procedures and hospitalizations, which carry risks. "My data suggest that we are wasting 30% of health-care spending on stuff with no benefit and perhaps causing harm," says Fisher.
International comparisons support his reasoning. The U.S. spends 2 1/2 times as much as any other country per person on health care, but that doesn't translate into better outcomes, according to studies that compare such indicators as fatality rates after a heart attack and length of survival after a kidney transplant. That suggests that "the investment in health care in the U.S. is just not paying off," says Gerard Anderson, director of the Center for Hospital Finance & Management at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-author of a 2004 study that looked at 21 different health-quality indicators in five nations.
Similar comparisons can help pinpoint dubious treatments. The classic case: tonsillectomy. In the early 1970s, Dr. John E. Wennberg, now director of the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences at Dartmouth Medical School, showed that some hospitals removed tonsils 10 times as often as others. But the children in areas with low rates weren't worse off, so the operation fell out of favor. More recently, Dr. James N. Weinstein, chair of orthopedic surgery at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, found that people with back pain are up to 20 times as likely to have back surgery in some parts of the country as in others. Yet it's not clear that they do better as a result. Weinstein is comparing the outcomes in patients who get different treatments, from rest and physical therapy to spinal fusion. Meanwhile, he says, "billions of dollars are being spent without good information."
This is of obvious concern to those who pay for health care, from the government to private insurers, which are struggling to better balance costs and benefits. And nowhere are the financial and health stakes higher than in the area of cardiac surgery. U.S. patients and insurers will spend $3.4 billion this year on drug-coated stents from suppliers Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX ) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ ), according to Citigroup. At many hospitals, cardiac units have become major profit centers. "We've shown that it is a lucrative area for hospitals," says Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change. But are heart procedures always the best path for patients who currently get them?
The answer seems to be no. As Hadler describes in his book, data from bypass-surgery clinical trials in the late 1970s show that the procedure extends life or prevents heart attacks only in a small percentage of patients -- those with severe disease. More recent trials with angioplasty show it reduces deaths mainly just in emergencies. "For people in the throes of heart attacks, opening the artery definitely prolongs life," says UCSF's Waters. Not so for patients with stable chronic disease. "The overwhelming number of heart procedures done these days do not affect patients' life span at all," says Hillis.
The latest thinking on heart attacks may explain why not. In the traditional view, the slow accumulation of plaque inside arteries gradually narrows the vessels. Reduced blood flow causes chest pain, or angina. Eventually the arteries are blocked, bringing on heart attacks. Newer evidence, however, pins the blame not on this gradual narrowing but on unstable plaque that breaks off and causes clots. The clots are what obstruct the arteries, causing the heart attacks -- which is why so many such events are unexpected and why "there is no evidence that opening chronically narrowed arteries reduces the risk of heart attack," says Waters.
A better way to lower heart-attack risk is to fight the unstable plaque with aggressive cholesterol-reducing drug therapy, diet, and lifestyle changes, many cardiac physicians say. That can be a tough sell to patients who want a quick fix, says Hillis. "Medical therapy is just not as sexy as doing a procedure," he explains. "The assumption our society makes is that the more aggressive your medical care is, the better it is. It's not true. But if I explain to a patient why he doesn't need surgery, 9 times out of 10 he will go across town and find someone who will do the procedure."
The surgeries do relieve angina symptoms -- and for some doctors that's a slam dunk. Emory University cardiologist Dr. Robert A. Guyton, co-chair of the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Assn. committee that wrote the current bypass-surgery guidelines, points to patients disabled by pain and shortness of breath who, a month after bypass surgery, "are walking around as healthy as you or I," he says. "To say the whole operation ought to be scrapped is nuts." Similarly, angioplasty eases the often crippling pain of angina. "There is quite a lot of good evidence for symptom relief," says Dr. Robert Henderson, a cardiologist at Nottingham City Hospital in Britain and co-investigator for a key angioplasty clinical trial.
Critics such as Hadler, on the other hand, emphasize the risks. Not only is there a 1% to 2% chance of dying during a bypass operation, he explains, there is a high risk of complications and a 40% chance of cognitive deficits. The healthy, active post-surgery patient is an "urban legend," he says. "An alarming number never return to the workforce or describe themselves as well again."
Recent studies even raise questions about whether surgery causes the symptom relief. In June, Harvard Medical School associate professor of medicine Dr. Roger J. Laham reported on follow-up results of a randomized trial looking at laser surgery to improve blood flow. Patients who got the surgery had significantly less pain and improved heart function. But so did patients who had a sham operation -- the equivalent of a placebo. After 30 months the placebo effect was still there. Scans and other tests showed physiological gains in blood flow among only those who thought they had been operated on. A similar large placebo effect might explain "most of the benefits that we've seen so far with balloon angioplasty and bypass surgery," Laham says.
There are also fresh concerns about the safety of drug-coated stents, now widely used in angioplasty. When doctors first tried to open clogged arteries with a balloon, they found that arteries soon closed again. So they began inserting metal mesh stents to hold them open. When arteries continued to clog up again, companies devised stents impregnated with drugs that slow the growth of cells, reducing chances that patients would have to have their arteries opened again.
First approved in April, 2003, drug-coated stents account for 88% of the stents used in the U.S. But when pathologist Dr. Renu Virmani, medical director of CVPath, a research service of the International Registry of Pathology, examined the hearts or heart vessels of 39 patients who died after getting the new stents, she found clots in 11 cases that developed more than 30 days after the procedure. The sample is small, and it's not clear that the clots caused the deaths. But it's a big jump from her experience with patients who died after getting bare-metal stents. Just 12.5% of them had late-developing clots.
What worries some doctors is that people getting the new stents might have a higher risk of clots, which then could cause heart attacks more than a month after the procedure. "Out of 100 patients who get a drug-coated stent vs. a bare-metal stent, maybe 10 will avoid a repeat procedure," says Dr. Eric J. Topol, chief of cardiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. "But how many will wind up with a heart attack or death? Maybe one in 1,000? We just don't have that nailed down yet." Drug-coated stentmakers Boston Scientific and Johnson & Johnson say their clinical trials show no such increased risk of late-developing clots.
Cardiac surgeons readily admit there are big unanswered questions. "We can handle the criticisms, and we should be accountable," says cardiothoracic surgeon Gardner. "But there is plenty of hard work going on to try to determine the appropriate patients for whom such treatments are necessary." There are also large clinical trials under way comparing surgery with cholesterol-reducing drugs and other medical treatment, which will provide better answers. If the trials show no benefit to surgery compared to medicine, "it will be a serious challenge to the coronary-intervention industry," says Dr. Robert H. Jones, distinguished professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Duke University Medical Center. His prediction? "I'm a surgeon, so I think surgery will hold up."
The answers still may not be definitive, however, because medicine continues to advance. "Every time these studies come out and show that revascularization [improving blood flow] doesn't do much, cardiologists say: 'Well, that study was started four years ago, and now we have shinier stents, and the results are better,"' notes UCSF's Waters. "But medical therapy [with drugs] is getting much, much better, too." Harvard's Laham suggests that as many as 400,000 of the angioplasties done in the U.S. each year may be medically unwarranted. "I'm sure we are way overtreating our patients," he says.
Some scientists argue that the rational solution is to let patients decide for themselves. But that requires providing detailed information about the risks and benefits of medical procedures, such as coronary surgery -- including the unknowns. In trials where one group gets the information and the other group receives no special attention, the well-informed patients opt for more invasive, aggressive approaches 23% less often, on average, than the other group. Without this full information, "patients typically don't understand that they have options, and even if they do, they often wildly exaggerate the benefits of surgery and wildly minimize the chances of harm," says Annette M. Cormier O'Connor, clinical epidemiologist at Ottawa Health Research Institute and a leader in this field of so-called decision aids.
It's a model approach for medicine in general. As Hadler argues, the exaggeration regarding benefits goes far beyond heart surgery. Too many common conditions are viewed as diseases needing treatment, and too many treatments of uncertain benefit are used too often. "What Hadler does is question the soundness of that thinking in a very profound way," says Dr. Glenn D. Pomerantz, senior vice-president for global innovation at Cigna (CI ). Hadler hopes that enlightening people about the limitations of medicine will help them worry less and stay well longer. It also could help cure an ailing health-care system, making it more rational. In the end, few doctors will object to the basic prescription: Avoid drastic procedures that probably won't help and might actually do harm.
By John Carey, with Amy Barrett in Philadelphia
Original article posted at http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_29/b3943037_mz011.htm?chan=tc


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Specialized Wood Products — Your one stop wood shop!
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Serving both large and small customers, we can handle your wood needs that no one else will even consider.
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