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UPDATE - October 15, 2012: This article details the contents of a packet that was distributed during a Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington, D.C., on June 16, 2012, containing materials bearing the name and logo of Millennium Marketing, a subsidiary of Century Strategies, a for-profit political consulting firm of which Ralph Reed is chief executive officer. Reed is also the president of the non-profit Faith and Freedom Coalition. During the last week of September, attorneys for Ralph Reed and Millennium Marketing contacted AlterNet and author Adele Stan in a letter denying any payment to Millennium Marketing by Faith and Freedom Coalition "for any work," and denying that Millennium Marketing provided the services to Faith and Freedom Coalition that are described in the packet, which was distributed by Rick Furr of the Mobile Sports Group at the conclusion of a breakout session titled "Champion the Vote." In the letter, Reed's attorney also threatened to bring a lawsuit against AlterNet.
The packet passed out by Furr also included a business card bearing the Millennium Marketing; beneath Furr's name, the title "Executive Director" appears.
The letter was the first response AlterNet received to a request for comment made to Reed in a phone call to his Century Strategies office on June 29, 2012.
Furr, according to J. Randolph Evans of the McKenna, Long & Aldridge law firm, which represents Millennium and Reed, was not authorized to use the Millennium Marketing name or logo on the materials he distributed; Evans also provided AlterNet with a letter signed by Furr and Scott Foernsler of LSN Mobile, in which they apologize for having done so, and state that Millennium Marketing played no role in the services provided by LSN Mobile and Mobile Sports Group to Faith and Freedom Coalition for its voter turnout efforts during Wisconsin's gubernatorial recall election, despite assertions made in packet materials that it had.
We note that Faith and Freedom Coalition's own national field director, Billy Kirkland, confirmed to Stan in a June 29 phone call that FFC had "used" Millennium Marketing in Wisconsin where, he said, "they were a big help."
The letter signed by Furr and Foernsler contains the following paragraph:
Millennium Marketing has received no compensation from LSN or MSG for work done on behalf of FFC or any of our other clients. We were not authorized to circulate materials bearing Millennium Marketing's name and logo, or to represent during the seminar that Millennium Marketing was involved in FFC voter contact programs undertaken by LSN or MSG. It was not and is not. Similarly, we apologize for circulating materials during the seminar that included an endorsement of LSN's or MSG's work product by FFC or its employees when such an endorsement was not approved.
We have updated this article to include the new information provided to us by McKenna, Long & Aldridge, and adjusted any language that might be misinterpreted as a definitive statement that Reed or Millennium Marketing had reaped profits from the Faith and Freedom Coalition -- a claim we never made. We continue to stand by our reporting.
A mere 10 days since Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Lieutenant Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch survived the recall election launched against them by state's liberal coalition, Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, is ebullient as he takes the stage at his organization's Washington, D.C., gala on the final night of FFC's national conference at the Renaissance Hotel.
Reed has good reason to be happy; his return to the religious-right spotlight is a turn of events that few would have bet on. Since he first burst on the political scene in the 1990s as the wunderkind executive director of Rev. Pat Robertson's Christian Coalition, Reed's political trajectory took him so close to the sun that his wings nearly melted. When George W. Bush signed him as a strategist for the 2000 presidential campaign, Reed's career soared -- only to crash four years later with revelations of his involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandal. Along the way, he made a lot of money, and is reported to live with his wife and two of his four children (the other two are grown) in a house in Duluth, Ga., worth $2.2 million.
The boyish contours of his face now marked with the occasional line, Reed, at 51, still conveys a youthful vigor, fit and trim in a well-tailored dark suit, his full head of hair brushed neatly back to display a smooth forehead. Taking no small measure of credit for the triumph of Walker and Kleefisch, Reed boasts of the 600,000 voter contacts he says his organization made to get conservative Wisconsinites to the polls on June 5. Later that evening, Reed will present to Kleefisch, who is billed as Wisconsin's answer to Sarah Palin, FFC's Courage in Leadership Award. (Kleefisch will also accept the same award for Walker, who did not attend.)
If you like what happened in Wisconsin, Reed implies, you're going to love the 2012 presidential race, when FFC reaches out to 27.1 million conservative voters; he promises that FFC will contact each of them between seven to 12 times to either get them to the polls, or better yet, vote early in states that permit it. Consider it payback, if you will, for the outcome of the 2008 presidential election.
The day after the election Barack Obama won by a wide margin, Reed says, he woke up feeling "like I'd been hit by a truck." Speaking of the Obama campaign, Reed explains: "We were embarrassed. They ran circles around us."
"I founded Faith and Freedom Coalition because I vowed that as long as I was alive, we were never going to get out-hustled on the ground again," he told a group of activists earlier in the day. Reed has described FFC, launched in 2009, as "a 21st century version of the Christian Coalition on steroids." Reed's new organization seeks to meld the religious right with the Tea Party movement through the use of voter turnout strategies. But however successful he was in bringing right-wing evangelical voters to the polls during his tenure at the Christian Coalition, his managerial skills and business ethics appeared to be less than stellar.
When Reed left the Christian Coalition in 1997, the organization was in tatters, under investigation by the FEC for the kind of "electioneering" prohibited for tax-exempt non-profits by the I.R.S., and internally riven due to allegations made by chief financial officer Judy Liebert that a firm whose principals were friends of Reed's had over-billed the coalition to the tune of $1 million -- and been paid.In 2004, Reed was implicated, though not charged, in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal when his role as a lobbyist on behalf of the gambling interests of a Choctaw Indian tribe was disclosed in a damaging Senate investigation. While the revelations derailed his attempt to win the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor in the State of Georgia, the very religious-right friends he snookered in the Abramoff scandal appear to have forgiven him, according to Sarah Posner of Religion Dispatches.
Once again cloaked in the cape of a Christian crusader, Reed is back on the trail, doing what he does best: getting religious right-wingers to the polls.
Back at the Faith and Freedom Coalition gala, and with an eye to the media, perhaps, Reed issues what sounds like both a promise and a warning. "We're not just playing around," he says. "We're not shadowboxing; we are playing for keeps. We're playing for the most valuable prize in the history of the human race and that's the United States of America -- and we are not going to lose."
Eyes on the Prize
For Reed, however, there may be another prize to collect, win or lose. It may be wrapped up in the old Red, White and Blue, but this prize comes in a distinctive shade of green. AlterNet was told by a member of the Faith and Freedom Coalition leadership team that, in order to identify and make its 600,000 voter contacts in Wisconsin -- many of them by text messaging and e-mail subscriptions -- Faith and Freedom Coalition "used" Millennium Marketing, a division of Century Strategies, a political consulting firm whose CEO happens to be Ralph Reed.
UPDATE: More than two months after this article was first published, AlterNet received a letter from attorneys for Millennium Marketing and Ralph Reed. Through attorney J. Randolph Evans of the law firm McKenna, Long and Aldrich,; Millennium Marketing said that it did not receive payment for any "work" performed for FFC, a narrow disclaimer that does not preclude the possibility of Millennium or Century Strategies receiving consulting fees. The letter states that Millennium "played no role whatsoever in the voter-contact activities undertaken by FFC's third-party vendors," LSN Mobile and the Mobile Sports Group, whose executives, at an FFC event, distributed materials presenting those services as having been provided by Millennium Marketing. Accompanying the letter was a testimonial by MSG's Rick Furr and LSN Mobile's Scott Foernsler saying that they had not been authorized to use the Millennium name or logo, and that they had done so in error.
AlterNet contacted Billy Kirkland, FFC's national field director, by phone on June 29 to inquire about FFC's use of Millennium. "We did use them and they were a big help in Wisconsin," Kirkland said. "It was one of those things where any time you can use a new technology to reach voters and educate voters on issues that are important to them -- we're trying to be on the forefront of that, so I'd be more than happy to respond by e-mail, but I've got a 4:00 [meeting] I've got to walk into."
So I e-mailed him a few questions, including: "How much did FFC pay Millennium Marketing for what appears to be a broad array of services provided in the campaign against the Wisconsin recall?" At press time, he had yet to respond.
For billionaires willing to stake nice little chunks of their fortunes on the outcome of the 2012 races -- presidential, Senate and gubernatorial -- the Faith and Freedom Coalition offers an ideal vehicle, allowing them to engage the expertise of Ralph Reed, one of the nation's top political consultants without fear of disclosure, through Faith and Freedom Coalition, a 501(c)(4) non-profit under the U.S. tax code. This type of organization is not required to disclose its donors to the general public. Even if FFC chose to hire Millennium, none of this is it would not be illegal because of a loophole that allows non-profits to purchase services from for-profit entities owned by staff members of the non-profit, as long as the cost falls into the realm of fair-market value.
Changing the Model
Reed isn't in the business of persuasion; he doesn't waste his time on voters who aren't already on his team. His deal is to make sure those potential voters are first registered and then activated -- not unlike what the labor unions do in their get-out-the-vote campaigns (though likely with fewer billionaires to shell out for their efforts). This is where the winning margin in most elections actually resides, Reed explained at a strategy session during his conference. In fact, he suggests, the success of FFC's voter turnout operation accounted for why the polls that predicted a tight race between Walker and Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett in the Wisconsin recall election were so wrong.
Pollsters, he explained, work from a model of the electorate that is based on the previous election: X percentages of various demographic groups. Increase the percentage of any one of those demographic groups -- say Christian conservatives -- and the model on which the poll is based is no longer valid.
"So, when you go out in your county, and you start a Faith and Freedom chapter or you work with the local party or with a local candidate or do whatever it is you're doing, and you build an organization that knocks on every door, and calls every voter and registers lots of new people to vote, guess what?" he asked. "The turnout model's wrong."
That's what happened in the Virginia gubernatorial race, Reed said, the year after Obama won the state by 5 points in the presidential election. In the 2008 race, a mere 33 percent of the Virginia electorate, Reed claimed, was conservative. But in the gubernatorial race, the Faith and Freedom Coalition turned out a religious-right base for Bob McDonnell, now considered to be a contender for the Republican vice-presidential nomination.
A talented and energetic presenter, Reed, in his strategy session titled "The Keys to Victory in 2012," peppered his audience with numbers in service of his theory, punctuated with questions he answered himself. Periodically, he asked his audience: "You with me?"
In Virginia, Reed said, "...we ran the Faith and Freedom program, and we contacted every social conservative and fiscal conservative voter an average of seven times -- we mailed 'em, we phoned 'em, we knocked on their door, we e-mailed them," Reed said. "What percentage of the electorate was conservative in 2009? Forty-one percent, according to exit polls. So the electorate went from 33 percent conservative to 41 percent conservative."
McDonnell's pollster, Glen Bolger, had projected a 10-point lead for his candidate, according to Reed, but McDonnell actually won by 18. Where did those other eight points come from? Subtract 33 from 41 and you'll find your answer, Reed said.
This year, consequently, Virginia is hardly a state Obama can take for granted. There, Reed said, FFC is building a file of 350,000 conservative households that will account for some 600,000 voters. In Florida, where Reed said Obama's 2008 margin of victory was 200,000 votes, Reed has set his sights on some 225,000 social conservatives who are not currently registered to vote, but who will be, if he has anything to say about it.
In the Wisconsin recall, Reed continued, FFC's 600,000 voter contacts ranged in form from mobile media, e-mail and snail-mail to old-fashioned door-knocking and the method that became the hallmark of the Christian Coalition under Reed's leadership during its heyday: the church-distributed voter guide. FFC doled out 100,000 of them, he said.
"So there were voters in Wisconsin who were getting e-mail from us, they were getting a text message from us, when they went to church on Sunday, our voter guide was in their church bulletin, and on Monday they got a knock on their door," Reed said. "Okay?"
After the session, I asked Reed why, if the unions are as good at turning out their base as everyone believes they are, did their Democratic allies lose the recall race.
"I think they did their job," he said. "We just did our job better...they worked to get their vote out, we worked even harder to get our vote out...But in '08, they got their vote out and we didn't get our vote out, and Obama won by a landslide. And that's what happens when you don't get your vote out."
Doing 'Better' With a Bit of Help
But Reed had more than a little help in doing his job "better," as he said. First, he was able to deploy sophisticated mobile marketing technology that the other side apparently didn't have. Second, he was able to sync his efforts to those of an old friend, Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity (the astroturf group founded by the Koch brothers) and Reed's former business partner at Century Strategies. (In fact, Reed's public unveiling of his Faith and Freedom Coalition took place at an Atlanta rally, co-sponsored by AFP, staged in opposition to healthcare reform during the 2009 summer of town-hall rage.)
The Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity was one of the organization's first state-level entities, and was long run by the hard-working but notoriously dirty political operative Mark Block, who left the organization in 2011 to run Herman Cain's presidential campaign. Most of the politicians on Wisconsin's right-wing roster owe all or part of their careers to AFP: U.S. Representatives Reid Ribble and Sean Duffy, elected in the 2010 Tea Party wave, were nurtured under the AFP wing, as was Gov. Scott Walker. Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is a favorite speaker at AFP gatherings. Reince Priebus, who chaired the state Republican Party before winning the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, at the time it was implicated in a Milwaukee vote-caging scheme executed by AFP in 2010.
When the uprising against Walker's attack on teachers and other public workers began in the state capitol in 2011, AFP launched a "Stand With Walker" campaign that it carried through to the day of the recall vote, organizing rallies and bus tours, and flooding the airwaves with advertisements.
By July of last year, Faith and Freedom Coalition was sending out direct-mail fundraising letters touting its voter canvassing efforts for the Wisconsin recall. In a letter obtained by Religion Dispatches' Sarah Posner, FFC executive director Gary Marx, who co-founded Century Strategies with Reed, used language that virtually mirrored the AFP messaging on taxes and labor unions:
Please join...the fight with 100 plus FFC activists who will be going door-to-door encouraging the Badger State to vote for candidates who share our values of lower taxes, less government, faith, and who will stand up to union thugs who support Obama's tax and spend solutions. We need your financial support to make our Wisconsin get-out-the-vote program work.
A theme common to Walker's campaign and ads from multiple sources was the notion that the recall was somehow anti-democratic, when, in fact, it is about as direct an expression of democracy as one can find. John Nichols, Wisconsinite and labor advocate, writing in the Nation, tells of a ubiquitous ad carrying that message that appeared in the final days of the campaign, paid for by a shadowy super-PAC called the Campaign for American Values. Of the $54,265 in total receipts collected by CAV, per its last FEC filing, $50,000 came from a single donor, Rebekah Mercer, daughter of hedge -fund manager Robert Mercer, who often makes common cause with David Koch. More than a third of those PAC receipts were delivered to Herman Cain Solutions, which is run by Cain (who once famously described himself as Charles and David Koch's "brother from another mother") and Mark Block, the former state director for the Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin chapter.
So, it was hardly surprising that Reed took up the anti-recall line in his brief conversation with me after his strategy session.
"I was on the ground in Wisconsin a little bit but I wouldn't claim to be an expert on it -- but there were folks who were on the ground who told me that at a certain point, the people of Wisconsin had just had it up to here," Reed said. "They just wanted it to end. It was like, well, when does this end? The guy won an election, you're trying to negate an election, you're trying to recall everybody, and that's what elections are for. So I think that helped us on the margin..."
The other advantage Reed appears to have had in Wisconsin was technology. Faith and Freedom Coalition, he said, sent some quarter of a million text message over the course of the recall campaign. During his "Keys to Victory" strategy session, Reed urged audience members to attend a conference session called "Champion the Vote" that would address the cell-phone-based marketing techniques used by FFC during the recall campaign, and he talked up the role played by LSN Mobile.
Tech Racket
At the "Champion the Vote" panel, Scott Foernsler, described as the chief revenue officer of LSN Mobile, was joined by Rick Furr, described as co-founder and president, of the Mobile Sports Group [17], along with political consultant Adam Jones and FFC Florida coordinator Brett Doster. Billy Kirkland, the FFC national field director, served as moderator.
Foernsler presented himself as an expert in micro-targeting, the marketing technology that allows users to serve up advertisements on Internet-based platforms customized to whomever is viewing. For instance, when you go to a Web site that is festooned with ads from places where you happen to shop -- or whose Web sites you've recently browsed -- you've been micro-targeted. Another viewer looking at the same Web site will not see the same ads. The New York Times describes political micro-targeting this way:
In the last few years, companies that collect data on how consumers behave both online and off and what charitable donations they make have combined that vast store of information with voter registration records.
As a result, microtargeting allows campaigns to put specific messages in front of specific voters — something that has increased in sophistication with the large buckets of data available to political consultants.
Foernsler told his FFC audience that the streams of data now available to digital advertisers allow political geeks like him to profile individual voters in much greater detail than was possible before. Where a voter profile developed by traditional means might be based on the answers to a series of 10 or so questions, micro-targeters build databases of voters that answer as many as 65 questions, right down to the kind of vehicle a target drives.The digital possibilities also allow for internal polling based on much larger samples of voters, Foernsler said. Traditional models might work from a sample of, say, 1,000 voters, but today's technologies make feasible polling that works with a sample five times as large.
On its Web site, LSN touts its prowess at a particular type of mobile advertising that is pegged to local news sites through a proprietary app that, in a May 2011 press release, LSN says has been downloaded by 5 million smart-phone users. "That means one in every 60 U.S. households has accessed the app to glean local content," reads the release."
It's not hard to see where that kind of technology, combined with micro-targeting marketing strategies, could be very useful in upping turnout.
Various targeting strategies were deployed in the Wisconsin recall, added Rick Furr, who spoke as if his company had worked with Faith and Freedom Coalition in the campaign. In an offhand remark, Furr mentioned that his Sports Media Group counted among its clients the Home Depot, the retailer co-founded by right-wing billionaire sugar-daddy Kenneth Langone.
Furr explained how he targeted somewhere between 17,000 - 20,000 conservative Wisconsin voters for text messages on the recall that included a link to the Faith and Freedom Coalition voter guide -- a link that was opened by 30 percent of those who received the text message. (See graphic, taken from a promotional packet distributed by Furr at the breakout session, here.) Like the Christian Coalition voter guides of yore, the FFC guides list a number of deceptively framed issues in a table format, with the name and photo of its preferred candidate (in this case, Scott Walker) topping a red column noting whether the candidate "SUPPORTS" or "OPPOSES" those rhetorically presented positions. A photo of the opposition's candidate (Tom Barrett, of course) tops a blue column.
Faith and Freedom Coalition's guide for the gubernatorial recall election listed six issues: "abortion on demand," "parental choice in education," "taxpayer-funded abortion," "same-sex marriage," "eliminating the death tax," and "opposes any new taxes on Wisconsin families." Text messages, Furr explained, are an especially effective means of communicating in elections, because, unlike e-mails or snail-mail appeals, they are almost always opened by recipients.
Nonetheless, Furr said he also ran an e-mail program for FFC in Wisconsin. One effort of which he is most proud is the targeting of conservative small-business executives. Furr said his firm collected more than 51,000 e-mail addresses in that target group, and of those targeted, only 43 individuals opted out of receiving future e-mails.
Furr also lauded the fundraising effectiveness of text messaging, especially when combined with micro-targeting. As an example, he said he could reach into databases and filter for Catholics who gave to particular charities or causes. Then he could solicit donations for the Faith and Freedom Coalition by text message through a link that immediately generated a thank-you message to the donor -- all for a mere 50-cent transaction fee. If an organization that raised funds this way wanted to do follow-up thank-you calls, that could be added to the package for a low rate of 7.5 percent of the donation, and a call center would handle the task.
Brett Doster of FFC's Florida chapter mentioned another important target group for his organization: early voters. In states where early voting is offered, it's a boon to ideologically driven groups, Doster said, because people who are inclined to vote early are mostly "philosophical voters."
To political consultants such as the panel's Adam Jones, early voters are a key to accurate internal polling, Jones explained, since 50 percent of voters in the demographic groups he's eyeing "vote before election day." A "dynamic data program" that can identify whomever voted early can help campaign operatives get a sense of what's taking place on the ground.
All Not As It Seems: The Millennium Connection
As the panel drew to a close, Rick Furr made a pitch to those in the room who lead local advocacy groups to engage his services. Those who requested them could get a packet containing information on the services his firm provides on their way out of the room.
But the packet Furr was passing out touted not his Mobile Sports Group, but the services of Millennium Marketing, the subsidiary of Ralph Reed's Century Strategy. Tucked inside the folder were two business cards for Rick Furr and Scott Foernsler bearing the Millennium Marketing logo, with the title "executive director" appearing under each man's name, and each page in the packet bore the same logo.
I called Furr and Foernsler at the numbers listed on those business cards. In both cases, I got voice mail. Furr's outgoing message identified him as "Rick Furr of the Sports Media Group." Neither Furr nor Foernsler returned my calls. At Century Strategies (Millennium's parent company), I spoke to a woman named Martha who would not give her last name, but who promised that Ralph Reed's assistant would call me to confirm questions I had about who was on Century's payroll. She has yet to call.
UPDATE: In the letter received by AlterNet from Millennium Marketing attorneys, the company asserts that neither Furr nor Foernsler, nor their companies (LSN Mobile and Mobile Sports Group), were authorized to distribute materials bearing the Millennium Marketing name or logo, and that they had done so in error. J. Randolph Evans of the law firm, McKenna, Long & Aldridge, also enclosed a [LINK] letter dated September 7, signed jointly by Furr and Foernsler, apologizing for their unauthorized use of the Millennium name in the packet, and for putting Millennium's name to the services they provided FFC during the Wisconsin recall election.
"We were not authorized to circulate any materials bearing Millennium Marketing's name or logo, or to represent during the seminar that Millennium Marketing was involved in FFC voter contact programs undertaken by LSN and MSG," reads the letter signed by Furr and Foernsler. "It was not and is not."
One of the case studies included in the packet features the work done by Furr and Foernsler on behalf of the Faith and Freedom Coalition in the Wisconsin recall election. It reads:
OBJECTIVE: Reach Wisconsin Republican Christians & Republican Registered Voters across the state, especially in rural and exurban areas. We reached over 327,143 Wisconsin Republican Christians voters [sic] by Email and SMS promoting our voter guide and reminding people to vote...The accompanying photo, on printed on paper bearing the Millennium Marketing logo -- (update) whose use Millennium Marketing now says was unauthorized -- is of the FFC voter guide. Both the Faith and Freedom Coalition and Century Strategies occupy the same building in Duluth, Ga., in suites next door to one another.
The Faith and Freedom Coalition case study in the the packet Furr and Foernsler now say they were not authorized to distribute features an endorsement from attributed to FFC National Field Director Billy Kirkland:
We are very happy with the results in being able to target by zip codes, voter districts, demographics, geographic, lifestyle, consumer interests, income spending, net worth and behavioral information. Using interactive Marketing Services pertaining to SMS, Banner Advertising, and both Consumer & B2B Email. [sic] We have seen positive results and plan on incorporating this programs into our national & local campaigns in 2012. Building our database is priceless!
When I reached Kirkland for comment, he seemed caught off-guard by the inclusion of his quote in the packet. "I'd love to know what that endorsement -- Millennium Marketing?" he said. So I read the quote to him."I use some pretty big words in that quote," he said. Then, saying he had to go into a meeting, he concluded the call.
UPDATE: Millennium Marketing attorney J. Randolph Evans, in his letter to AlterNet, writes that, in addition to not being authorized to use the Millennium Marketing name or logo, Furr and Foernsler were also not authorized "to make any statements or circulate written materials that might insinuate an endorsement of Millennium Marketing by FFC employees."
A Divine Appointment
In his closing remarks at the Faith and Freedom Coalition gala, Reed stated his goals for the organization, one of which is to have a $100 million budget by 2015.
In 2010, according to FFC's most recently available IRS filing, the organization took in $5.5 million, and ended up $300,000 in the red. But its intake was up astronomically from the year before, when in 2009, FFC claimed receipts of a mere $743,000. If Reed was able to increase his intake by anywhere near the same margin the following year, his current budget may be in excess of $25 million.
While media focused their attention on better-known right-wing groups such as Americans for Prosperity, Reed has been quietly building his scrappy little organization in the hopes of winning Mitt Romney the presidency, and a nice financial windfall for Reed, who helped engineer George W. Bush's 2000 victory for the Republican presidential nomination.
Calling his faithful to action, Reed urged them to engage their friends and neighbors in his 2012 voter turnout effort. "I want you to consider this a divine appointment," he said. Then he left the stage to make way for Rebecca Kleefisch, lieutenant governor of Wisconsin, the intended exemplar of what Reed could accomplish on a polarized electoral landscape.
Petite and attractive, in a shiny green silk skirt suit and with a Sarah Palin-style hairdo, Kleefisch told the story of the Wisconsin recall in the right-wing style, painting her opponents as dangerous and threatening. She, too, called upon the Faith and Freedom Coalition audience to action.


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I like to visit Maine in the fall when the leaves are changing but before it gets too cold there. The weather was close to perfect every day except Friday when it rained. I flew down to New York City and took a shuttle to New Rochelle for my 50th High School reunion.
I don't think I look 68 (maybe 60?), but I was really surprised at how good some of the other women in the class looked. The men tended to go gray or bald, but maybe the gals were dying their hair. Anyway many of them barely looked in their 50s, and one looked 40!
Everyone said I look exactly the same. Well I don't and I hope not. I'm 80 lbs heavier than I was when I graduated high school. Several of my friends had put on weight. Many of the men had pot bellies, but otherwise looked the same.
I wore my "Vote for Roz for DSRSD" button and had to explain to everyone what DSRSD stood for and where I live now. At least a dozen of us there came from northern California, but nobody was there who could vote for me.
Our old High School has been enlarged several times and a new Museum of the Arts was added recently. We took a tour of the building which required a lot of walking and climbing stairs. Lugging an extra 80 lbs up stairs isn't something I wanted to do, so I quit the tour about 3/4 through it.
Saturday night was a dinner dance at one of the beach clubs. I was told there were about 200 graduates who attended with 120 guests. I'm not normally a social person and I don't like big crowds and noise, but overall it was nice seeing people I grew up with and haven't seen in 50 years.
New Rochelle was an attractive, upscale suburb when I was growing up in the 1950s. I didn't have a car at the reunion so I couldn't drive around to see the town, but several attendees mentioned that the downtown looked seedy and depressed. That's what happens when a community loses its sources of revenue.
In some ways San Ramon is like what New Rochelle used to be, but better planned and managed. Planning and managing is very important to keep a city from declining and decaying or faltering during economic downturns.
When I was visiting my mother she took me to lunch at the Black Point Inn at Prouts Neck in Scarborough. For desert I ordered the Maine traditional blueberry pie. It was a very large slice, about 1/5 of a pie, piled high with tiny, wild blueberries, the kind I remember picking as a child in summer camp. The crust was very light and thin and appeared to be whole wheat. There was very little sugar or thickening, mostly blueberries in the filling.
My mother grew up during the depression of the 1930's and even though she's comfortably well-to-do now, she still fusses about the cost of some things. When she got the bill for lunch, she exclaimed that the pie was $9. She couldn't believe that a slice of blueberry pie cost nine dollars. However, this was no ordinary blueberry pie and this resort and restaurant are top of the line.
So what does a $9 slice of blueberry pie have to do with New Rochelle and San Ramon? I thought I'd never ask. There's been a lot of fuss in the newspapers, on TV, and in political fliers about how much Herb Moniz is paid as City Manager, yet nobody would expect the chef at the Black Point Inn to be paid the same as a burger flipper at McDonalds. By the same token comparing city managers' salaries is like comparing a supermarket pie to the Maine traditional blueberry pie at the Black Point Inn. If you want the best, you expect to pay more for it.

subset: commoncrawl


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Leaf dropping magnolia
Livey Posts: 4
We have a 3 year old magnolia, which has never flowered and constantly drops its leaves. The leaves start with brown specs, then go completely brown and fall.
we were advised to water well and feed with tomato feed. We have done this but still a very unhappy plant.
Can anyone advise please.


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Traveling With a Newborn Baby: At a Restaurant or Hotel
Are you planning on traveling with your newborn? Here are some tips to follow if you are going to grab a bite to eat at a restaurant or staying in a hotel.
Note : Keep in mind that the doctor may recommend that your baby avoids crowds if he or she is younger than 3 months old. This is because a newborn's immune system is not fully developed yet, so colds and other infections are more likely. Before you plan your baby's first trip, it is a good idea to talk to the doctor to be sure that it is safe.
Going to a Restaurant
If you are planning to go into a restaurant with your baby:
- Pack supplies to change your baby's diaper. Also pack feeding supplies and a change of clothes. You may want to bring a small blanket in case it is chilly inside.
- Try to feed your baby before you go to the restaurant.
- Bring toys and a pacifier.
- Ask the hostess to seat you by the window. This will give your baby a chance to look outside. But be sure that the sun is not shining directly on your baby's face.
- Look for a table that has room for the stroller. If your baby is sleeping peacefully, you will want room to keep the stroller beside you. If you have a stroller where the car seat or bassinet can be removed, you may want to sit on a bench-style seat. This will allow you to place your baby beside you. Make sure the bench is wide enough and safe before placing your baby there.
- If you and your dining companions are ordering hot liquids, be sure to keep these away from your baby. Be careful not to spill anything on your baby. You will also want to make sure that your baby's stroller is not in the waiters' way, so that they will not bump into the stroller and accidentally drop something on your baby.
- If your baby begins to cry, hold them and walk around.
Staying at a Hotel
Are you planning on staying in a hotel room? If so, here are some tips for your baby's first night away from home:
When you are making reservations:
- Ask if the staff can place a crib in your room. Keep in mind that the crib may not be the highest quality or meet the latest safety standards. Another option is to buy a portable crib, one that you feel comfortable with.
- Find out if the hotel has a family section. If they do not, ask for a room that is separate from other rooms to decrease the chance of bothering other guests when the baby cries.
- Some hotels still allow smoking in the rooms. Be sure to reserve a non-smoking room. Also, to make it easier to bring your baby and luggage into the room, ask for one on the first floor.
- Find out if there is a mini refrigerator in the room. If there is not, some hotels will add one for a fee.
When you arrive at the hotel:
- Ask the staff where the closest store is located. You may need to pick up supplies, like diapers and formula.
- Check the room for any items that could be dangerous for your baby.
- Give your baby a chance to relax and stretch. You may want to give a lukewarm sponge bath.
- Try to stick with your baby's normal eating and sleeping routines.
As you get more adapted to traveling with your baby, going out to eat or staying somewhere outside of home will be more comfortable for you and your baby. The most important point to remember is to be prepared by packing the supplies that you will need to take care of your little one.
The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Kids Health—Nemours Foundation
Health Canada
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada
Travel safety tips. American Academy of Pediatrics website. Available at: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/news-features-and-safety-tips/Pages/Travel-Safety-Tips.aspx. Updated July 14, 2015. Accessed March 31, 2016.
Last reviewed March 2016 by Michael Woods, MD Last Updated: 5/8/2014


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Union Center
This gallery contains photos and captions related to Union Center and changes it has gone through over the last 100 years. Be sure to view the film clip taken in 1948.Read More


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Is your AdWords API client application still using ClientLogin? If so, you should start your migration from ClientLogin to OAuth 2.0 as soon as possible.
Your AdWords API client applications must be fully migrated to OAuth 2.0 before ClientLogin is sunset in June 2014, as previously announced. If you don't migrate by then, your client applications will fail -- they won't be able to access your MCC account or any AdWords account via the API.
How do I get started?
We have prepared a ClientLogin to OAuth 2.0 migration guide which includes:
- Detailed migration strategies based on use cases
- Code samples to automate parts of the migration
- Client library-specific migration videos, code, and pertinent OAuth 2.0 documentation
You don't want to worry about your applications failing, so get started now. For most developers with a single top level MCC, this migration will involve only a few configuration and code changes. But if you run into any issues with your particular application or AdWords accounts, you'll be glad you left plenty of time before the sunset to work things out.
We are here to help
If you run into any issues, or if you have any questions, please reach out to us on the AdWords API Forum.


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Nothing spells challenge like SWB.
Short for the Science Without Borders program, SWB has resulted in Brock University welcoming 39 students from Brazil who are here for one year to tackle a program of intensive English, academic studies and a short-term research internship.
The program's goal is to consolidate and expand science, technology and innovation in Brazil by means of international exchange and mobility.
The Brazilians, including 25 who began classes in January, are here on full scholarships from their government and come from 29 different federal and state universities across their homeland. Their fields of study include biology, biotechnology, chemistry, child and youth studies, computer sciences, digital humanities, health sciences, physiotherapy, radio and television and more.
Student Bruna Razzolini, 22, from in Porto Alegre, a city of about 1.5 million people in southern Brazil, is learning English now but starting in September, she will study health sciences for two terms.
"I think this is a great opportunity for the Brazilian students to know a different culture and improve their knowledge," Razzolini said. "It is also a good deal for Brazil, too, because this experience will (allow us to) bring new technologies and new information back to Brazil."
Although she's been here a short time, Razzolini is an unabashed fan of Canada.
"I think Canada is one of the best countries in the world to live. Canadians are really polite and make us feel comfortable," she said.
"Brock University has good infrastructure to receive exchange students, and the facilities are awesome," she added.
Aline Del Giudice Penha is a 21-year-old health sciences student from São Paulo, Brazil's largest city with 11 million inhabitants.
You don't have to sell Del Giudice Penha on the SWB program, which started last year and will run for four years.
"I am loving it," she said. "I think it's a unique opportunity to improve my English, which will have significant importance on my professional life, to get in touch with another culture and see another country and education system."
Like Razzolini, she thinks the academic experience "is an excellent opportunity to get in contact with new knowledge and technologies to bring it back to our home country."
Del Giudice Penha said she finds Canada "an amazing country. Every aspect here is fascinating."
She's a fan of St. Catharines, too, which she described as a lovely, friendly city with many things to do.
"Also, it is very close to Niagara Falls, which is one of the most wonderful places on Earth," she said.
"Brock is amazing," Del Giudice Penha added. "I live on campus, so for me it is very easy to go everywhere I want, anytime I want … and the teachers really care about students. I have been well received by all and I feel at home here … I made friends from all parts of the world."
And winter? "I was really scared about winter before coming to Canada," Del Giudice Penha said. "But we are used to it and we just learned how to deal with it."


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— -- Question: How much exercise is recommended for the prevention of heart disease, and is aerobic exercise better than weight training?
Answer: The current recommendations, in terms of amount of exercise, are for thirty minutes daily. That's every day of the week at least thirty minutes of physical activity. The American Heart Association recommends that at least five days of the week, and ideally seven.
Now if you want to lose weight, the recommendation is for sixty to ninety minutes of exercise daily, so the recommendations for weight loss are slightly different than the recommendations to maintain good vascular tone.
In terms of the type of exercise, aerobic exercise is generally better than the isometric exercise -- so, activities such as walking, cycling, running, riding a bike, various aerobic, going up stairs -- all of these aerobic exercises are better in terms of the heart than the isometric. A little bit of weight lifting and upper body exercise is important, and it's also recommended.


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The Google Phone could be a ploy to upset the wireless industry, or it could be an expensive niche device. Either way, it'd be a bid to take Android back from the companies that seem hell-bent on destroying it.
Android's most serious problem right now is fragmentation: with each new phone, it seems, comes a different version of the OS. In theory, these differences are superficial, and come down to handset manufacturers' and carriers' custom interfaces, which sit atop a mostly unchanged Android core. In practice, it's much worse.
Just look at the current top tier of Android devices. The Motorola Droid runs Android 2.0. The HTC MyTouch 3G and G1 on T-Mobile run Android 1.6. The HTC Hero, a newer phone than the MyTouch and the G1, is still stuck on 1.5, along with the even newer Motorola Cliq, which shares one parent—Motorola—with the 2.0-loaded Droid. Why is this something to worry about? Remember Google Maps Navigation, the free turn-by-turn app for Android? It only works on Android 2.0 and 1.6. An app written by Google doesn't even work on every new Google phone. Imagine how things are with third party apps. (Spoiler: it's a shitshow.)
Google's been fairly diligent about updating the free, open-source heart of Android moving forward at a steady pace, and supplying handset manufacturers with the tools they need to keep their handsets running the latest software. That said, Google still deserves some of the blame here. That their software updates include new, exclusive functionality is fine on its own. And yeah, their eagerness to allow for Android to be skinned and deeply customized by handset manufacturers is fine on its own—in fact, it's implicit in the project's open source ethos. But mixed together, these ambitions create a gurgling software slurry of incompatibility, user experience inconsistency and general frustration. (See: Samsung Behold II) So what happened?
The problem is in the model. Android updates seed out through carriers, over the air or with special installers. This is because the updates are their responsibility: once handset manufacturers (and carriers, through handset manufacturers) have built their own version of Android, they've effectively taken it out of the development stream. Updating it is their responsibility, which they have to choose to uphold. Or not! Who cares? The phones are already sold. And there's very little to motivate a carrier or handset manufacturer to update their Android phones, because the consequences tend to fall on Google: If Android fragments, the App Market doesn't work. The public sours. Android starts to suck. This is where the Nexus One comes in.
Sold without a carrier, software updates for the Nexus One will be in Google's hands. They will be able to keep it up to date as Android develops, without having to depend on some other company—or companies—not to drop the ball. Users won't have to bother learning Google's esoteric dessert-themed version codenames, and life will be better. This approach to software updates already has a case study: the iPhone. There's a good reason Apple didn't entrust AT&T with keeping the iPhone up to date, and that they didn't want the company that actually manufacturers the phone—Foxconn—to have any responsibility for its software. Smartphone software is finicky and complicated, and so is the experience of using it. It needs to be tightly controlled to remain consistent, and because apps are the most important part of a smartphone platform nowadays, consistency is life or death.
Without totally changing what the Android project is, Google can't put an absolute stop to fragmentation. What they can do is provide an example of how an Android phone should be done. With the Nexus One, Google probably isn't getting into the business of making hardware; they're just trying, in their passive, Googly way, to regain control of a project that's spiraling toward chaos.
Update: Some input from someone who works in a major carrier's device development group:
There is TONS of incentive for carriers to update their
software. Take a look at Verizon hosting the only Android 2.0 device.
Are you going to tell me that Sprint and T-Mobile wouldn't love to
have their Android devices on 2.0 yesterday?
The truth is, there's very little incentive for the Handset maker to
provide an update. All those phones are already sold and in the
carrier's inventory. Any investment in updating those models will
bring them no additional cash flow. However focusing on their next
model will.
He's partly right: carriers have a motivation to keep their software up to date, in that they are the ones who have to deal most with customers. Handset manufacturers are the one's with the least motivation, since their sale has already been made. But in branding a handset with their name, effectively selling it as their product, and assuming responsibility for seeding updates, a carrier becomes responsible for making sure their customers have up-to-date software, and exerting pressure on handset manufacturers if they don't hold up their end. —Thanks, David!


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University of Michigan
Runs his own tutoring company
Carl taught upper-level math in several schools and currently runs his own tutoring company. He bets that no one can beat his love for intensive outdoor activities!
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University of Michigan
Runs his own tutoring company
Carl taught upper-level math in several schools and currently runs his own tutoring company. He bets that no one can beat his love for intensive outdoor activities!
In Algebra, sometimes we have functions that vary in more than one element. When this happens, we say that the functions have joint variation or combined variation. Joint variation is direct variation to more than one variable (for example, d = (r)(t)). With combined variation, we have both direct variation and indirect variation.
A geometric series is what happens when we sum a geometric sequence, okay? A sequence is a series of numbers, the sum is always all added up together. And to find the sum of a geometric series we have a number of different equations at our disposal, okay?
So what we have is for a finite series, okay, that is a series with a set number of terms, we have these 2 equations at the top of the board. Oops, and I have misread them, miswritten them. This should be a a sub 1. Sorry about that. So, what we have is the first term times 1-r to the n over 1-r. This is the exact same thing as a sub 1 r to the n minus 1 over r to the 1, okay? These are opposite statements if you switch one of these, you switch the other. Negative ones cancel. So either one of these is perfectly fine, okay? Your book may have 1, just go with whatever your book has or your teacher tells you. Okay.
In general I will use this equation, okay? The first one. And the reason I do that is because this is the formula for a finite series. We also have another formula for a infinite series and basically that's one that never ends, okay? And the reason I chose this is because the denominator is going to be the same for both of these and not having to remember when to switch your denominator makes my life a little but easier, okay? So I'm going to use these 2, if you want to use these 2, that's perfectly fine as well. But basically what we have, so we have these 2 for finite and one for infinite.
One way you can tell the difference is for the finite one, you're summing a sub n okay, you are summing the first n terms, whatever that maybe. For the infinite series, we don't have an n. So that's telling us we don't have a specified term number which means we're summing everything, okay? There is one restriction though that we have to have when we are summing a infinite series, and that is that our absolute value of our rate has to be less than 1, okay? And what that means is that our terms have to be getting smaller, okay?
And I'm talking about positive negative because they can switch back and forth. But basically, the numeric part of our numbers have to be getting smaller. And how that actually works is I've written out this sequence right here. 8, 4, 2, 1, one half, one fourth, and basically what we're doing is dividing by 2 every time or multiplying by one half because we always have to multiply when finding our geometric sequences and series. And what happens, if we added up all these terms together, eventually the terms down here are so small they're not going to do anything. So our next term will be one sixteenth, one thirty second, one sixty fourth so on and so forth. Eventually those numbers when we're dealing with whole numbers aren't going to make a difference, okay. We add one one thousandths to a number we already have, it's not going to make a difference. So that's how this infinite series equation works. Okay? You're just counting on these numbers to eventually be so small they're not going to affect our sum. Okay?
So 2 really 3 different equations for summing a geometric sequence, a geometric series. Pick 2 or try to pick one of these 2 and then you have to remember this one as well. We have our finite and our infinite.


text: Target Corp. (NYSE: TGT) is introducing new holiday initiatives, including an all-new Holiday Price Match, exclusive gift offerings and shoppable advertisements, to ensure Target guests can shop with confidence throughout the holiday season. "Target's holiday plans are built around an outstanding shopping experience, exclusive merchandise and competitive prices," said Gregg Steinhafel, Target Chairman, President and CEO. "Our guests will be able to shop with confidence this holiday season knowing that we are intensely focused on providing them the right merchandise at the right price." New Holiday Price Match and Extended Return Policy For the first time, Target will offer guests the ability to match select online competitors' prices in its stores between Nov. 1 and Dec. 16. Qualifying online retailers include Amazon.com, Walmart.com, BestBuy.com and Toysrus.com. Additionally, Target has extended the timeframe for its Price Match Policy for the holiday season, and new this year, the policy includes Target.com. If a guest purchases a qualifying item at Target stores between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24, and then finds it for less at Target.com or in a local competitor's printed ad, Target will match that price. For more details, including terms and conditions, visit Target.com/morereasons beginning October 22. REDcard debit and credit card holders who make a purchase as of November 1 will now receive an additional 30 days on Target's existing return policy on nearly all REDcard purchases made at Target and Target.com. REDcard holders already save an extra 5 percent on almost all Target REDcard purchases and enjoy free shipping on Target.com. For more details, including terms and conditions, visit Target.com/redcard. Can't-Miss Gifts In addition to the Target + Neiman Marcus collection, Target's guests will find something special for everyone on their lists with a new, exclusive holiday gifting collection that appears in stores and online beginning Nov. 4. From sweaters and scarves to iPhone cases and journals, the collection features more than 850 gift options for the whole family, ranging in price from $2 to $50. The collection is organized by striking color combinations, such as red and purple, and cream and peach with elements of sparkle and shine to offer gifting inspiration. Items will be displayed on "gifting trees" throughout the store and at Target.com/Gift-Finder. For the music lovers on guests' lists, Target is teaming up with global pop sensation One Direction and legendary artist Tony Bennett for deluxe exclusive albums. Target's version of Tony Bennett's new duets album, "VIVA DUETS," includes four exclusive tracks and will be in Target stores beginning Oct. 22. Target's edition of One Direction's second album, "Take Me Home," includes three new songs and two remixes and is now available for pre-order on Target.com and will be in stores beginning Nov. 13. Digital Holiday Experience Target is creating new ways to help make guests' digital shopping experience more convenient, seamless and personalized. New this year, Target's guests can shop from television spots, bus shelter ads and catalog pages by using their mobile phones to send a text or scan a QR code. Target's shoppable holiday advertising begins Nov. 7 and continues throughout the season. Also, just in time for the holidays, Target is now offering free WiFi in all Target stores. The service will provide better access to Target's award winning mobile app, and enable guests to redeem Target mobile coupons and scan QR codes throughout the store. QR codes will be displayed alongside each of Target's top toys, allowing guests to purchase this year's 20 hottest toys from their mobile phones and have them shipped for free to anyone, anywhere in the U.S. QR codes are also now found in the shoe section at Target stores, giving guests another opportunity to easily purchase the shoes they love in the right size and color. Target is also piloting wayfinding technology in a small number of stores, including all new CityTarget locations, where guests' smartphones can recognize their location in a Target store and help guide them to products. Joyful Holiday Marketing and Giving Target's holiday marketing strategy is designed to recapture imaginations and deliver the joy and value that will get guests excited about Christmas in a way that is uniquely Target. Two distinct campaigns will play different roles throughout the season. The "Dream Big. Save Bigger." campaign taps into the magic of Christmas gift giving and communicates Target's strong value proposition. The first spot includes a whimsical take on Target's canine mascot, Bullseye and highlights the combination of 5 percent REDcard savings, free shipping and Target's Holiday Price Match. As the preparation and deal-finding begins in advance of Black Friday, guests will meet the spirited singing "Target Deals Duet," stars of Target's "It's On!" savings-centric campaign. The Target Deals Duet will air at key times throughout the season on television, radio and online. Also, on Target.com, a neon-lit "It's On!" logo will signal to online shoppers that a holiday sale is underway. Target also announced that its annual giving of 5 percent of its profit now amounts to more than $4 million a week. While giving is a year-round focus at Target, one special initiative this holiday season includes a limited-edition plush Holiday Bullseye dog, with 100 percent of the purchase price ($14.99) going to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. About Target Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) serves guests at 1,781 stores across the United States and at Target.com. The company plans to open its first stores in Canada in 2013. In addition, the company operates a credit card segment that offers branded proprietary credit card products. Since 1946, Target has given 5 percent of its profit through community grants and programs; today, that giving equals more than $4 million a week. For more information about Target's commitment to corporate responsibility, visit Target.com/hereforgood. For more information, visit Target.com/Pressroom.


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Monday, October 31, 2011
The Silence - Trailer
Silence is the second book in the Kimmo Joentaa series but for the film the setting has been moved from Finland to Germany.
It's quite a gruelling read, which you can see from the trailer:
Sunday, October 30, 2011
New Reviews: Birkegaard, Briscoe, Child, Dugdall, Fleming, McCrery
Here are this week's new reviews:
With the first of two books this week which may not be for the squeamish is Rich Westwood with his review of Mikkel Birkegaard's Death Sentence, tr. Charlotte Barslund;Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.
Susan White reviews The Accused by Constance Briscoe her crime debut, already well-known as the author of the autobiographical Ugly;
Lynn Harvey reviews Lee Child's The Affair which takes Jack Reacher back to the beginning of his loner career;
Maxine Clarke reviews the CWA Award Winner, Ruth Dugdall's The Sacrificial Man;
Terry Halligan reviews James Fleming's conclusion to his Charlie Doig trilogy, Rising Blood
and Amanda Gillies reviews the second of the two books not for the faint-hearted: Nigel McCrery's Scream the third in the DCI Lapslie series set in Essex which is available in paperback.
Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by David Belbin, Alex Connor, Ruth Dugdall, Paulus Hochgatterer, Bill Kitson, Alexander McCall Smith, Alexander Soderberg, Dag Solstad, Ferdinand von Schirach and Tom Winship have been added to these pages this week.
Friday, October 28, 2011
Event News: Crime Scene: Europe (NYC)
If you can't make the upcoming Crime Across the Continent event in London then perhaps you can get to New York's Crime Scene: Europe, an enticing collection of literary and film presentations between 15 and 20 November. I've been sent a shortened version of the press release:
Europe is in the midst of a crime wave—a surge of creative and innovative detective fiction that pays its respects to the traditions of noir while incorporating the psychological novel, the political thriller, and the border-crossings that reflect the increasingly globalized culture of the EU. The eighth annual New Literature from Europe Festival organized by eight European Cultural Institutes in New York, will present a series of readings and discussions in Manhattan and Brooklyn from November 15-17, 2011, with writers Caryl Férey (France), Zygmunt Miłoszewski (Poland), Ana Maria Sandu (Romania), Stefan Slupetzky (Austria), José Carlos Somoza (Spain), and Jan Costin Wagner (Germany), joined by U.S. guest author Dan Fesperman.You can read a longer version of the press release with authors bios here.
A special film series complements this year's spoken word programs, featuring both adaptations of crime novels and new approaches to the genre that play with the conventions of film noir. Presented in collaboration with the Museum of the Moving Image from November 18-20, 2011, the series ranges from Czech and Austrian films of the '40s and the early '50s rarely seen in the U.S., to contemporary productions from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, and Romania, including the critically acclaimed works Aurora by Cristi Puiu and The Double Hour by Giuseppe Capotondi. Authors Zygmunt Miloszewski and Jan Costin Wagner will be present to discuss film versions of their novels featured in the Festival.
All literary events are free and open to the public. For tickets for the film screenings, visit www.movingimage.us.
You can follow New Literature from Europe on Facebook.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo & Empire & Clothing
Compare these points with the current cover of Empire and its coverage of "the film event of the year".
Plus I don't know what Dr K will think of Julian Sands' involvement.
Thanks to Petrona for the Empire cover suggestion.
And...just in from the Guardian... H&M have a new clothing range inspired by Lisbeth Salander:
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Separated at Birth?
Monday, October 24, 2011
Event News: Crime across the Continent
This study day, organised by the European Studies department of the British Library, explores contemporary crime fiction from across Continental Europe.
The speakers will include academics, publishers, writers and translators. Among the topics covered will be crime fiction as a vehicle for social and political analysis, both contemporary and historical, and the part crime fiction has to play in the transmission of European cultures. The day is principally as a seminar for researchers but the contributions will appeal to an audience of specialists and non-specialists.
09:30-10:00 Registration
10:00-11:15 Beyond the whodunnit
Chair: Christopher MacLehose, MacLehose Press
Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen (University College, London), Crime and Happiness: Scandinavian Crime Fiction and End of the Welfare State.
Aka Morchiladze, Crime fiction as device.
Angela Kimyongür (University of Hull), Dominique Manotti and the roman noir.
11:30-13:15 Looking back at history
Chair: Jakob Stougaard-Nielsen
Giuliana Pieri (Royal Holloway, London), Camilleri's "historical" crime novels: Sicily, Italy and the Risorgiment.
Olga Sobolev (London School of Economics), Boris Akunin and the Rise of Russian Detective Genre.
Claire Gorrara (Cardiff University), Past crimes, present memories: French crime fiction and the Second World War.
Danusia Stok, The force of setting in the fiction of Marek Krajewski.
14:15-15:00 The Scandinavian Crime Fiction Phenomenon
Barry Forshaw, Through a Glass Darkly: Mankell, Larsson and Nesbø.
15:30-17:15 Translating cultures/languages
Chair: Ros Schwarz
Gary Pulsifer (Arcadia Books), EuroCrime in the wake of the Nordic Invasion.
Amanda Hopkinson (City University), Catalan cops and Spanish seductions: making crime pay.
Gunnar Staalesen and Don Bartlett (courtesy of the Royal Norwegian Embassy), From Norway to Norfolk; author and translator in conversation.
I'm very tempted to go, though I worry I'll be out of my depth!
Book a place (the price is £20) via the British Library's website.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Website Updates - October
If you spot any errors or omissions do let me know.
The Bibliographies page now has more authors by 'Countries', plus I've removed the 'Eastern Europe' catch-all and put in the individual countries. The Author Websites page now lists 906 sites. The New & Upcoming Releases pages have been updated (added since last weekend: Tom Benn, Jane Casey, Michael J Malone, VM Whitworth and Felicity Young). In Bibliographies there are now bibliographies for 1691 authors (8680 titles with links to 2090 reviews):
I've added new bibliographies for: Tom Benn, Philip Carter, Patrick Conrad, Dean Crawford, Bernhard Jaumann, Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon, Vilmos Kondor, Selma Lagerlof, Rosamund Lupton, Mark Mackay, Michael J Malone, D E Meredith, A D Miller, Mark Peterson, Sam Ripley, Norman Russell, Alex Sharp, Christopher Wallace, Jan Wallentin and V M Whitworth..
I've updated the bibliographies (ie added new titles) for: Harry Bingham, S J Bolton, Gyles Brandreth, Simon Brett, Declan Burke, Jane Casey, Agatha Christie, Michael Cordy, Elisabeth J Duncan, Gordon Ferris, Elly Griffiths, Lucretia Grindle, David Hodges, Arlene Hunt, Maxim Jakubowski, P D James, Peter James, Tobias Jones, Mons Kallentoft, Christobel Kent, Barry Maitland, J D Mallinson, Liza Marklund, Glenn Meade, Zygmunt Miloszewski, Harri Nykanen, Martin O'Brien, Anne Perry, Matt Benyon Rees, Phil Rickman, Michael Ridpath, Jarkko Sipila, Anna Smith, Cath Staincliffe and Felicity Young.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Snow Angels - Cover Opinions
So what are your thoughts on the US (LHS - complete with "If You liked The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, you'll love this!" sticker)) and UK (RHS) covers? Which would entice you to pick the book up if you were not familiar with this title?
If you have read it, how well do the covers match the story?
Read the Euro Crime review by Terry of Snow Angels.
Sunday, October 16, 2011
New Reviews: Brandreth, Cain, Franklin, Kallentoft, Leonard, Rimington, Smith
Here are this week's new reviews:
Susan White reviews Gyles Brandreth's fourth book featuring Oscar Wilde Oscar Wilde and the Nest of Vipers (US title is Oscar Wilde and the Vampire Murders);Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.
Rich Westwood reviews Tom Cain's Dictator also the fourth in the series;
Lynn Harvey reviews the fourth and last Adelia Aguilar from the late Ariana Franklin which is now out in paperback, The Assassin's Prayer (US title is A Murderous Procession);
Maxine Clarke reviews the first in the Superintendent Malin Fors series from Mons Kallentoft: Midwinter Sacrifice, tr. Neil Smith;
Terry Halligan reviews Peter Leonard's All He Saw Was The Girl, set in Rome;
Lizzie Hayes reviews Stella Rimington's Rip Tide, the sixth in the Liz Carlyle MI5/6 series
and Amanda Gillies reviews the first of Anna Smith's new series, The Dead Won't Sleep, set in Glasgow.
Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Gordon Ferris, Mons Kallentoft, Matt Benyon Rees, Michael Ridpath, Anna Smith and Jan Wallentin have been added to these pages this week.
Friday, October 14, 2011
Ellis Peters Historical Award - Shortlist
The Crime Writers' Association has announced the shortlist for this year's prestigious Ellis Peters Historical Award. The six books on the shortlist are:
Rory Clements Prince (John Murray)
Sam Eastland The Red Coffin (Faber & Faber)
Gordon Ferris The Hanging Shed (Corvus)
Andrew Martin The Somme Stations (Faber & Faber)
RN Morris The Cleansing Flames (Faber & Faber)
Imogen Robertson Island of Bones (Headline)
CWA chair Peter James said: "Historical fiction remains as popular as ever and has seen the creation of some of crime writing's most enduring characters. This year's books continue that fine tradition."
The winner will be announced on November 30 at the Athenaeum in London.
Read more about each book on the CWA website.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
More Ways to Own the Millennium Trilogy
MacLehose Press are delighted to announce that a special, leather and stud bound, one-off boxed set edition of the MILLENNIUM TRILOGY will be auctioned at Sotheby's on the 15th Dec to help raise money for Stieg Larsson's magazine, Expo.
The Boxed set includes the letter of rejection from the Joint Committee of Colleges of Journalism in Stockholm to applicant 493 [Stieg Larsson] and features a charming doodle by Stieg Larsson on the back of the letter.
Part of the letter is visible in this recent Guardian article.
You can read the whole Sotherby's press release (pdf) on the Euro Crime website.
The second bit of news comes from Publishers Weekly regarding graphic novel versions of the three books:
Working in conjunction with the estate of Stieg Larsson and the Hedlund Literary Agency, DC Entertainment and its Vertigo imprint will adapt Larsson's Millennium Trilogy novels—the books have sold more than 60 million copies— into a series of graphic novels. Each book in the trilogy will be adapted into two graphic novel volumes available in print and digital formats. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo graphic novel volumes will be released in 2012 and graphic adaptations of The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nests will be released in 2014.And finally, here's the jacket of the US-film-tie-in edition which will be available from 27 October, the film is out 26 December:
Dan DiDio, copublisher of DC Entertaiment, parent company of DC Comics/Vertigo, said, "The intricate characters and stories Larsson created in the Millennium Trilogy are a perfect match for the graphic novel format, where we can bring Lisbeth Salander to life in entirely new, visually compelling ways."
"Stieg always liked comics and it will be exciting to see the unforgettable characters he created come to life on the comics page," said Joakim Larsson, younger brother of the journalist and novelist, who died in 2004.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Review: Doctor Who: The Eye of the Jungle by Darren Jones (audio book)
In The Eye of the Jungle the Doctor takes Amy and Rory to the Amazonian jungle in 1827. Shortly after leaving the TARDIS they are surrounded by crocodiles. They are saved by Oliver Blazington, a mercenary/hunter who is there to capture animals for his boss Garrett who will subsequently exhibit them at London Zoo. However the locals are restless as domestic animals and people are disappearing and the priest's housekeeper refers to an "Eye" that seems to be involved.
Needless to say, the time-travellers soon discover the Eye for themselves and must save themselves from a fate worse than death...
This is an entertaining adventure, revealing the Doctor's empathy for not just humans but other animals too and he maintains his refusal to be used as a weapon by those who are taking the missing life-forms. I loved the fact that cd1 ended on a cliff-hanger worthy of classic Doctor Who tv episodes. Also that Amy and Rory don't require saving, rather the reverse.
David Troughton, son of 2nd Doctor, Patrick, and who appeared himself in the 10th Doctor episode Midnight takes over the narration duties this time round. His Doctor doesn't sound much like Matt Smith but does sound similar to Clive Mantle's Doctor in The Coming of the Terraphiles; his Amy is a bit wobbly but he does get Rory's inflection down to a T. Impersonations, intended or otherwise, aside he does a good job with the story-telling.
The sound-effects continue to improve. In the early days there was nothing, that was replaced by a smidge of music but now if someone drops something you hear a clang. They don't overpower the narrator this time round, which has been a complaint of mine before.
The Eye of the Jungle is a solid adventure in this series of "exclusive" audio adventures. My personal favourite so far has been The Runaway Train narrated by Matt Smith and the least engaging has been, The Ring of Steel which though narrated well by Arthur Darvill, has a run-of-the-mill story. (NB. I still have a couple more to listen to.)
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Winners: CWA Awards (Gold, Fleming, Creasey), TV & Film Daggers 2011
- Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin (Pan) - WINNER
- Snowdrops by A.D Miller (Atlantic Books)
- The End of the Wasp Season by Denise Mina (Orion)
- The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion)
- Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson (Doubleday)
- Cold Rain by Craig Smith (Myrmidon)
- The Good Son by Michael Gruber (Corvus)
- The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Orion) - WINNER
- Before I Go To Sleep by S.J Watson (Doubleday) - WINNER
- Kiss Me Quick by Danny Miller (Robinson)
- The Dead Woman of Juárez by Sam Hawken (Serpent's Tail)
- The Dogs of Rome by Conor Fitzgerald (Bloomsbury)
- David Baldacci - The Sixth Man (Macmillan)
- Lee Child - Worth Dying For (Bantam)
- Mark Billingham - Good As Dead (Little, Brown) (pub. 18.8.11)
- Peter James - Dead Man's Grip (Macmillan) - WINNER
- Peter Robinson - Before the Poison (Hodder) (pub. 18.8.11)
True Grit (Paramount Pictures) - WINNER
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Momentum Pictures)
Brighton Rock (Optimum Releasing)
Source Code (Optimum Releasing)
Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One) - WINNER
Luther (BBC One)
The Shadow Line (Company Pictures, BBC Two)
Zen (Left Bank Pictures, BBC One)
Vera (ITV Studios, ITV1)
The Killing, (Arrow Films, BBC4) - WINNER
Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sky Atlantic)
Castle (ABC Studios, Alibi)
Dexter (Showtime Networks, FX Channel)
Spiral (Son Et Lumiere, BBC 4)
Sofie Gråbøl for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC4) - WINNER
Brenda Blethyn for Vera (ITV Studios, ITV1)
Maxine Peake for Silk (BBC One)
Olivia Williams for Case Sensitive (Hat Trick Productions, ITV1)
Sue Johnston for Waking the Dead (BBC One)
Kelly Reilly for Above Suspicion (La Plante Productions, ITV1)
Idris Elba for Luther (BBC One) - WINNER
Lars Mikkelsen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC4)
Steve Buscemi for Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sky Atlantic)
Jason Isaacs for Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One)
Rufus Sewell for Zen (Left Bank Pictures, BBC One)
Rafe Spall for The Shadow Line (Company Pictures, BBC Two) - WINNER
Bjarne Henriksen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4)
Søren Malling for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4)
John Lithgow for Dexter (Showtime Networks, FX Channel)
Aidan Gillen for Thorne (Stagereel / Cité Amérique, Sky One)
Ann Eleonora Jørgensen for The Killing (Arrow Films, BBC 4) - WINNER
Kelly Macdonald for Boardwalk Empire (HBO, Sky Atlantic)
Ruth Wilson for Luther (BBC One)
Amanda Abbington for Case Histories (Ruby Films, BBC One)
Tara Fitzgerald for Waking The Dead (BBC One)
Monday, October 10, 2011
Author to look out for - Dror Mishani
Synopsis taken from the Liepman International Rights Catalogue:
Sixteen-year-old Ofer, who left his home in Holon one morning on his way to school, disappeared without leaving a trace. Police inspector Abraham Abraham, guilt-ridden and determined to find the missing boy, is gradually consumed by the frustrating investigation that takes over his life. It seems that the more he finds out about the boy and his life, the further he gets from the truth. And only one man, Ofer's older neighbour and private teacher Zeev Avni, has something to tell him. But will the neighbour's strange story save the investigation before it's too late?
One to look out for I think...
Sunday, October 09, 2011
New Reviews: Bayard, Cotterill, Durbridge, Hannah, McDermid, Neville, Ohlsson & New Competition
Here are this week's new reviews:
Amanda Gillies reviews Louis Bayard's The School of Night set in modern day, and Elizabethan England;Previous reviews can be found in the review archive.
Lynn Harvey reviews Colin Cotterill's Killed at the Whim of a Hat which is now out in paperback and she makes an unexpected comparison with a well-known US series...;
I review the audio version of Francis Durbridge's Tim Frazer Again read by Anthony Head;
Susan White reviews Sophie Hannah's Lasting Damage which is now out in paperback, and which reminded her of Barbara Vine's earlier work;
Maxine Clarke reviews the new Tony Hill-Carol Jordan from Val McDermid, The Retribution;
Terry Halligan reviews Stuart Neville's debut, The Twelve aka The Ghosts of Belfast (US) which he thought was brilliant and original
and I also review the debut from Kristina Ohlsson: Unwanted, tr. Sarah Death which is gripping despite being a bit predictable.
Forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here and new titles by Declan Burke, Patrick Conrad, David Hodges, Arlene Hunt, Eva Joly & Judith Perrignon, J D Mallinson, Zygmunt Miloszewski, Harri Nykanen, Sam Ripley and Norman Russell have been added to these pages this week.
Win: Strangled in Paris by Claude Izner
This competition is open to UK residents and will close on 31 October 2011.
Only 1 entry per person/per household please.
(All entries will be deleted once the winner has been notified.)
Why would anyone strangle a humble seamstress with no known enemies? When newly-married bookseller Victor Legris is asked to solve the murder of Louise Fontaine in the abattoir district of La Villette, he is initially baffled by the case. But as the investigation progresses, Victor, along with his assistant and brother-in-law Joseph, discovers that in belle-époque Paris young girls with no money or background are as ruthlessly preyed on as ever they were...
Friday, October 07, 2011
The Killing T-Shirts
Browse the range/order here.
Philip Kerr's non Bernie Project
Read the whole article here.
Producer Stephen Evans, whose previous credits include The Madness of King George and The Wings of the Dove, is planning a $50m film about the princess, and has hired Ken Wharfe, Diana's former head of private security, and her former private secretary, Commander Patrick Jephson, to provide authenticity. No one has yet been cast in the lead role, nor has a director been attached, but Evans has commissioned a script from crime novelist Philip Kerr.
The project has been in development for two years, and apparently will focus on the difficult period of her life during her marriage to Prince Charles and their subsequent divorce in 1996 – but will not tackle her relationship with Dodi al-Fayed.
Thursday, October 06, 2011
Competition Winners March 2011 - September 2011
March 2011
The 5 winners of a signed copy of Complicit by Nicci French were:
Claire Butler
Simon Gibson
Diane Moston
Alison Shinn
Gemma Wyatt
The 5 winners of a copy of From the Dead by Mark Billingham were:
Johannah (from Slough)
Victoria Boland
Mathew Harvey
Nicky Stevens
Richard Whittington
April 2011
The 5 winners of a set of Van Veeteren novels by Hakan Nesser were:
Sharisse de Silva
Rosie Dharamsi
Graham Nichols
Carol Phile
James Spicer
The 6 winners of a copy of Apostle Rising by Richard Godwin were:
Lisa Ellison
Lynda Jones
Elizabeth Osbourne
Lynda Sanderson
Karen Watson
Paul Witney
May 2011
The 5 winners of a copy of Stagestruck by Peter Lovesey were:
Melissa Hall
Roma Pearshouse
Kerry Sabel
Tina Smith
Laura Westwood
June 2011
The winner of a set of books by S J Bolton was:
Paul Holt
July 2011
The 5 winners of a set of 3 books by Armand Cabasson were:
Janine Atkin
Jennifer Bell
Amy Hobbs
James Holyland
Hazel Rush
No competitions in August and September 2011
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Review: Tim Frazer Again by Francis Durbridge (audio book)
I've previously reviewed an audio book featuring Francis Durbridge's famous creation Paul Temple: Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery in which a writer turns sleuth in the upper end of society. Tim Frazer's isn't quite so high-brow.
Frazer is an engineer who has recently begun working for a secret police/Government department. In this, his second case, he is sent to Amsterdam to shadow Barbara Day. Barbara Day recently ran over and killed a British agent, Leo Salinger, on one of her regular trips to Amsterdam. Was it an accident of something more sinister?
Frazer carries out his assignment and makes an impression. So much so, that when he is back in London he gets embroiled in Barbara's personal and professional life, and when he finds a dead body in her living room, things become quite tricky for him. Even when Frazer has completed his task of finding out whether Salinger was involved in shady dealings or not, he can't let the mystery rest and carries on to the bitter end risking his heart and his life...
This is a complicated story with many twists and turns which kept me hooked. It's action-packed with fights, dangerous men, and a hidden baddie who instils mortal fear in his underlings. Written in the 1960s we see the quaint use of telephone boxes rather than disposable mobile phones. I really enjoyed Tim Frazer Again and Buffy and Merlin's Anthony Head narrates very well with a variety of convincing accents and a low breathy voice for Barbara Day. He also plays Tim Frazer in 2010's The World of Tim Frazer and I'll be looking out for his Paul Temple audio books too.
Monday, October 03, 2011
Recorder Reminder - Romanzo Criminale
I didn't realise my Sky package included Sky Arts until a few days ago and annoyingly just missed the opportunity to record the original Insomnia but I am in time to set my Sky+ for the series of Romanzo Criminale which starts tomorrow night at 9pm on Sky Arts:
Set in Rome during the 1970s, Romanzo Criminale (Crime Novel) is based on the award-winning film of the same name which tells the true story of the Banda della Magia, the prolific and bloodthirsty crime family in Italy who were responsible for some of the most violent crimes the country had ever seen.
Romanzo Criminale first burst into the world as a gut-wrenching crime novel by Roman judge, novelist and scriptwriter Giancarlo De Cataldo. After becoming a cult novel in Italy, it was turned into a hit feature film which was the recipient of countless awards including an Italian Golden Globe. The series was also a huge success in Italy, with critics praising it as "The only Italian series of which we can be proud," while leading newspaper La Stampa called it "the best television series ever produced in Italy."
Political murders, spectacular bombing and high-profile kidnappings, the story is set in the violent underworld of Rome, a patchwork of petty gangs and small-time crooks where one young man, known only as The Lebanese, dreams of rising to the top of the pack. As he proves himself through a series of brutal crimes, he makes valuable connections among corrupt cops and politicians, and in the Secret Service, which seeks to enlist the gang to destabilize the government and provoke a right-wing coup.
Pitted against the world of women, drugs, gambling and clubs of The Lebanese and his cohorts is the young idealistic police inspector Nicola Scialoja. Seemingly the one man not in the pay or pocket of the Mafia or the corrupt State, Scialoja is determined to bring the ferocious gang to justice, whatever the cost to himself or to the rules of the law.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
New Reviews: Billingham, Burke, Chance, Christie, Larsson, Magson, Rayne, Sharp, Stark & Competition
Here are this week's (globe-trotting) reviews:
Geoff Jones reviews the tenth in the Tom Thorne series by Mark Billingham, Good as Dead;Previous reviews can be found in the review archive and forthcoming titles can be found by author or date or by category, here.
Laura Root reviews Down These Green Streets: Irish Crime Writing in the Twenty-First Century edited by Declan Burke an "anthology of essays and short stories centred on Irish crime writing";
Lynn Harvey reviews Alex Chance's second thriller, now out in mass market paperback Savage Blood which she describes as "Denis Wheatley meets Dan Brown";
I review the audio version of two recently unearthed Hercule Poirot stories by Agatha Christie: The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball which are read by David Suchet;
Maxine Clarke reviews the long-awaited fourth book in translation by Asa Larsson: Until Thy Wrath Be Past, tr. Laurie Thompson which Maxine sums up in one word: "brilliant";
Terry Halligan reviews the second in Adrian Magson's 1960s France-set DI Rocco series, Death on the Rive Nord and he hopes for more in the series;
Amanda Gillies praises highly Sarah Rayne's latest psychological thriller, What Lies Beneath now out in paperback;
The first of two books set in the US written by UK authors is Alex Sharp's Driver: Nemesis, set in New Orleans; it's based on a computer game and written pseudonymously by an "English thriller writer" and reviewed here by Rich Westwood
and the second is Oliver Stark's 88 Killer, his second book set in New York City and which Michelle Peckham found "absorbing".
Saturday, October 01, 2011
Review: The Capture of Cerberus & The Incident of the Dog's Ball by Agatha Christie read by David Suchet
Some background information taken from the back cover:
In 2004, a remarkable archive was unearthed at Agatha Christie's family home, Greenway – 73 of her private notebooks, filled with pencilled jottings and ideas. Hidden within this literary treasure trove were two rare, never-before-published short stories, discovered by archivist John Curran and published in his book 'Agatha Christie's Secret Notebooks: Fifty Years of Mysteries in the Making'.
'The Capture of Cerberus' was intended to be the twelfth in her collection of Poirot stories, 'The Labours of Hercules', but she eventually rewrote it, keeping only the title.
'The Incident of the Dog's Ball', probably written in 1933, was reworked as the novel 'Dumb Witness' (1937) with a different murderer and motive.Review: In The Capture of Cerberus, Hercule Poirot is in Geneva. The Second World War is looming and he wishes that people would be passionate about peace rather than fighting. A meeting with the fascinating Countess Vera Rossakoff leads him to investigate a case for a German man who cannot believe that his son assassinated an important leader. Poirot must find the truth for him.
In The Incident of the Dog's Ball Poirot appears in a more typical investigation, when he receives a very delayed letter in the post from an elderly lady who is troubled. When Poirot and Captain Hastings go to visit her, they are too late - she has died. The companion inherits, cutting out the two heirs. Was the death natural causes, or murder?
A fabulous coup for AudioGO, getting the actor who is Poirot to narrate these two rediscovered stories. David Suchet has a compelling natural voice and of course can perform the necessary accents and voices well (with the exception of the oddly Welsh sounding Russian one given to Vera Rossakoff). In The Capture of Cerberus gives a glimpse into life as tension grew in Europe and is a rather different tale than you might expect from the author associated with vicarages and stately homes. In this one Poirot plays more of a central control figure, getting others to do the leg-work, rather than getting out himself. The Incident of the Dog's Ball, which is a few minutes longer than the other story, is a cut down version of a typical Poirot investigation - you may be able to solve the case before Poirot, just.
With the number of new Suchet/Poirot/Christie episodes on the tv running low, as most have been filmed now, I'm very grateful for these additional two stories which I enjoyed listening to.


text:
The 4D Programming Cable is a USB-to-Serial TTL UART converter cable. It incorporates the SiLabs CP2102 USB-to-Serial UART bridge IC which handles all the USB signaling and protocols. It is an essential hardware tool used for programming PmmC firmware files and 4DGL user code downloads into the GOLDELOX and PICASO processors embedded in many modules and displays we carry from 4D Systems. The cable's 5-pin female header (0.1"/2.54mm pitch) plugs directly into the 4D modules, providing TTL levels of 3.3V for RX and TX. The cable also provides +5V DC supply to power the target device. The cable is 1.8m in length and the circuitry is USB-powered (USB 2.0 compliant full speed @ 12Mbps), supporting data rates from 300bps to 1Mbps.
This cable is designed specifically to interface directly with all 4D Systems devices that use a 5-pin programming header. In any non-4D device application, make sure the TX and RX lines from the cable are crossed over to the attached peripheral, i.e., the TX from the cable connects to the RX of the target and the RX from the cable connects to the TX of the target. Note: The TX and RX signal levels are between 0.0 Volts and 3.3 Volts.


text:
FIFe Cattery Names Database
The FIFe Cattery Names Database currently contains 76765 entries.
Important information regarding search results:
If you are checking to see if a cattery name is available, a negative result to your search query only means that it is possible the cattery name is available. A final determination still has to be made by the FIFe Cattery Name Administrator.
Search tips:
Due to variations in spelling and wording, to narrow down a search for an available cattery name you should:
- search for the cattery name written as you desire;
- if no results, perform a series of searches using partial names (for example: if you searched for "Starry Night", perform another search for "Starrynight", then another for "star", then another for "ight" and so on).
- if still no results, perform a series of phonetic searches (for example: "Fat Cat", then "Phat Cat", then "Fat Kat" and so forth).
- if still no results, there is a good possibility that the cattery name is available.
The cattery name rules can be found in article 5.2 of the Breeding & Registration Rules which are available in all three FIFe languages in the section Rules & Forms.
Only individual members of National FIFe Members can apply for the registration of a FIFe Cattery Name. If you are interested, you may contact the National FIFe Member in your country of residence.


text:
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Merry Christmas Flourish
Today I sat down and created a card just for fun. And it was so enjoyable! I really need to do this more often.
I started out by white embossing the Bold Flourish image onto some white cardstock. And I eventually ended up with this card:
I really didn't intend on making a Christmas card, but the flourish with dots reminded me of blustery snow and so I just went with it. That's the great part about creating just for fun...you can take a card in any direction you please.
Thanks for stopping by!
8 comments:
- Lucy Abrams said...
- This comment has been removed by the author.
- November 17, 2011 at 9:47 PM
- Lucy Abrams said...
Absolutely beautiful Kelly. LOVE the colour combination. Simply delicious. (p.s. typing in the dark at 4 a.m... last comment FULL of typos!!! Pregnancy related insomnia. Sorry.) :)
- November 17, 2011 at 9:49 PM
- Anita Rex said...
LOVELY! Love how you did the ribbon and love the colors and how it turned out to be a holiday card!
- November 17, 2011 at 10:58 PM
- Latrice said...
I love this. I'll be copying this for some thank you cards. You're awesome. Clearly your break was good
- November 17, 2011 at 11:21 PM
- Tiffany Ervin said...
Gorgeous, love this, Kelly! So glad you had time to create for fun, that is the best occasion!
- November 19, 2011 at 11:43 AM
- Chunyuan said...
Beautiful cards. Love the composition and color.
- December 9, 2011 at 12:11 PM
- Munz said...
Wow wow wow. I stopped by here from the blog hop but I just had to comment on this card cause it's GORGEOUS! I love the colours. Okay, I'm not very coherent right now but I just wanted to say I love this card!!
- December 9, 2011 at 12:50 PM
- jintyoo7 said...
Oh Me too, I was "hopping on by" and this beauty caught my eye.
- December 10, 2011 at 11:53 AM


text:
Dunn proved a natural on the big screen
Slugger filmed scenes in Matthew McConaughey movie in January
GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Of the names Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Matthew McConaughey, Steve Zahn and Adam Dunn, which one doesn't belong? Well, if you are talking hitting home runs, Dunn is in a class by himself among this group of actors.
But thanks to a January foray into the movie business, the left-handed hitting slugger can take his place alongside these big screen stars. Dunn played a bartender in a new movie called "Dallas Buyers Club," in which McConaughey lost large sums of weight to play Ron Woodroof, the main character in the true-life tale of the Dallas man's fight for survival after being diagnosed with AIDS in 1986.
Dunn got involved with the project through his friend Joe Newcomb, who throws offseason batting practice to Dunn and rose as high as Double-A as a pitcher in the Blue Jays system. Newcomb is listed as one of the executive producers on this film, scheduled to be released sometime in 2013.
"I didn't realize how much work goes into a production like that," said Dunn, who filmed his speaking part for two days in New Orleans. "It was cool. It was fun. Those guys put in some long days.
"My buddy started it. He's ate up with it. He's the kind of guy who's not going to half-do anything. He's going to do it right. It's probably going to look pretty awesome. We took like 20-something takes each time. I haven't seen the final product, so keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully I made it."
Of the 50 characters listed for the movie in the IMDB.com database, including air traveler and rodeo spectator, Dunn's name has not been included. Even if he is somehow left on the cutting room floor, Dunn was impressed by the craft of film making.
"To see those guys in action, that was probably the coolest part of it," Dunn said. "To see how intense, how in character they are 24-7. To be a good actor, I guess that's what it takes so I'll never be a good actor."