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The Serpent's Egg is set in Berlin, in 1923. Abel Rosenberg (David Carradine), the film's protagonist ("hero" seems like the wrong word), is an American Jew who has been living in Berlin with his brother Max for the last three years. With Max's ex-wife, Manuela (Liv Ullmann), the brothers formed a circus trapeze act, until Max hurt his wrist. Since then, Max and Manuela have divorced, and both Max and Abel have descended into a kind of nightmare depression, which Abel dulls with alcohol, and which Max ends, at the beginning of the film, with suicide. After meeting with the police, in the form of Inspector Bauer (Gert Frobe), Abel goes to the cabaret where Manuela works to inform her of Max's death. He shows her Max's suicide note, and she stares at it uncomprehendingly, saying it is completely illegible. She asks Abel to try to read it, but he can only make out one line: "There is poisoning going on."
That line is, really, the film. Bergman's vision of 1920s Germany is one of endless grotesquerie and madness, one where an evil is growing quietly from within. Those who are not directly linked to the creation of Germany's monstrous future, like Abel and Manuela, can only suffer through the country's devastating poverty and try to make their way, while either choosing to ignore, or smile their way past, what they see going on around them, as Manuela does, or let the nightmare consume them, which is the route that Abel chooses, for a while. He gets drunk every night, and later in the film, when he's moved in with Manuela, he complains that a noise from outside their room, the rumbling of an engine, is "driving him wild". Manuela can't hear the engine, unless he mentions it, and then she can almost make it out. This is because Abel is tuned into the great and Hellish machine that's revving to life beneath them, because he knows the world is about to end in fire. Manuela secretly knows the same thing, but tries to forget it. And it's the knowledge, not the sound, which drives Abel wild. Berlin's upper classes pursue their decadence with a forced and manic joy, but the wildness of Abel's knowledge drives him to pursue similar diversions the same way he pursues waking up in the morning, which is to say: grimly. Abel throws a brick through the window of a Jewish shop, and humiliates a fellow patron at a brothel he visits late in the story, a scene which ends with him hitting one of the prostitutes – such are his tools for dealing with the engine.
Before going any further, it should be noted that Carradine is a spectacularly weird choice for a lead in a Bergman film. His gaunt, old-before-its-time face and mopey eyes are just right for Abel, and in that sense he's not unlike Bergman favorite Max von Sydow, but his line delivery can sometimes seem over-pronounced (Carradine's excuse -- given on the commentary track – that Abel is an American surrounded by Europeans, and that's how people often speak to foreigners, doesn't quite fly with me) and carry only the weight that the words had as originally written, but no more. And his drunk walk, which he performs regularly over the course of the film, is of the exaggerated, 1930s comic hobo variety. When faced with Nazi atrocities while stumbling down the street, I kept expecting him to stop, rub his eyes, look at the half-full bottle in his hand, and then pitch the bottle to the side.
"Drunk" and "sad" aren't the only things Carradine has to do, however, due to the fact that Abel is not an entirely passive victim -- he nearly is, but not quite – because The Serpent's Egg has a structure that is unique, in my experience, in Bergman's work. It flows like a mixture between a mystery story and a horror film, with the emphasis on the latter. In its basic narrative line, The Serpent's Egg most resembles horror films like Angel Heart (itself a horror film mixed with detective fiction) and The Ninth Gate, the kind where the hero follows a set of clues that lead him from a dark crime to a darker, often occult, revelation that either destroys him or at least opens his eyes to the broad-spanning and evil truth at the heart of his society, or the secret mad powers that will tear that society apart.
As I say, these stories are told as mysteries, and end up in the horror genre based, generally, on what is discovered. The beginning of this mystery is the suicide of Abel's brother Max, although given the relentlessly grim nature of Bergman's film, it's less surprising that Max, who we only ever see as a corpse, blows his brains out than that everybody else in Berlin doesn't follow his example. The mystery is deepened, however, when Inspector Bauer calls Abel to the morgue to show him a series of corpses, asking, after revealing the face of each body, if Abel knows them. A couple he knew in passing, one female was engaged to his brother, and another reminds Abel of his father. It appears at first, to Abel and to us, that Bauer is looking at Abel as the killer of all of these people, so it would appear that, along with everything else, Bergman is setting Abel up as a "wrong man" figure. But Bauer's suspicions, if he ever even had them, ultimately go nowhere. In any case, when Abel clues into these suspicions, he accuses Bauer of doing this because he, Abel, is Jewish. This stops Bauer cold, which Abel takes as confirmation that he was right.
Another staple of the various genres Bergman is poking around with is the former acquaintance of the protagonist, now the villain of the story. In this film, that man is Hans Vergerus (Heinz Bennent), who Abel runs into, for the first time in ten years, in the wings of the stage at Manuela's cabaret. He begins peppering Abel with questions about their mutual past, but Abel acts as though he doesn't know him. Later, Abel tells Manuela that when he and Hans were children, Hans tied a live cat down and dissected it. He describes seeing its heart still beating very fast. This incident, not surprisingly, has lingered with him, possibly in the back of his had as an indicator of the future, or as a clue to the world's infernal secrets. It's certainly a clue to the character of Vergerus, who he will meet again, and learn more about. Among other things, Manuela has a menial day job in Vergerus's clinic, and Abel eventually will, too, in the clinic's archives.
All of this is leading us to the solution of a mystery – to be honest, Abel, in his role as the protagonist, isn't much of a seeker of facts, but he does have a talent for stumbling across them. And he trips face first into the truth when he returns one morning, from the brothel mentioned earlier, to the room he shares with Manuela, and discovers her dead. Here, also, Bergman's sense of logic shatters – deliberately, I'd guess -- along with all the mirrors that Abel breaks in the room, revealing behind each one a camera. In a scene that seems to challenge us to locate ourselves within any kind of physical geography that pertains to what we've seen, or thought we knew, before, Abel climbs into one of those hidden camera rooms and finds himself running around a subterranean series of rooms, filled with metal walls, metal staircases, and metal bars (in fact, it looks not unlike his work area at the clinic's archives). We realize, before Abel does, that someone is following him through these rooms, and finally attacks him – and, due to the way the subsequent fight is shot, we never see the assailant's face. The fight ends on an elevator, with the attacker being decapitated, and the horror film feeling Bergman has been toying with all along is now put in the forefront.
The motives of the man behind all this, Vergerus, might be considered muddy. The human experiments he's been conducting – which, like the similar Nazi experiments that followed in reality, result always in torture, and often in death – are intended to indicate what is weak about humanity, and what is strong, so that the weak can be eliminated. How injecting a man with a drug that causes him to endure unbearable dread until he's driven to suicide is supposed to indicate what's weak about humanity is anybody's guess, but Vergerus's methods aren't exactly that far-removed from those of the Nazi scientists he, in Bergman's world, gave birth to. And unclear motives are simply something you have to come to terms with when considering Nazi atrocities. The genocide they perpetrated wasn't just genocide (but then, genocide never is); these atrocities included, in some cases, turning their victims into furniture. Such acts inspired several generations of serial killers, so, with the Nazi Germany, what you have, at the core, is serial murder on a national scale. Horror film tropes and general illogic might be the best approach to a fictional tale of the Holocaust or its beginnings, even if your style is intended to be naturalistic, which Bergman's isn't.
The horror idea is carried further in the film's climax, which features Vergerus swallowing a cyanide capsule. He says he knows Bauer is on to him – these experiments aren't yet sanctioned by the government – so he takes the capsule without regret, knowing that what he has helped set in motion is much bigger than anyone's romantic ideas of justice. Just before the cyanide takes effect, Vergerus positions a bright light over his head, and holds a mirror to his face, so he can clinically observe the way the muscles in his face distort as the poison shuts down his body. This is a psychopathology so far removed from any sense of human worth and dignity, and so dedicated to its idea of a better world, that when the pathology grows, and cracks its shell and steps fully formed to take its place in the world, the option -- for those among us normal enough to regard the serpent with an overwhelming incredulity -- of going mad right along side it might seem, must have seemed, awfully tempting. You can't beat, or reason with, or argue with, or feel superior to, or react to in any rational way, that which you have no hope of understanding.
In his autobiography, The Magic Lantern, Bergman says of The Serpent's Egg:
If I had created the city of my dreams, a city that does not exist and never has, and yet manifests itself acutely with smells and loud sounds, if I had created that city, not only would I have been moving in it with total freedom and an absolute sense belonging, but also, more important, I would have brought the audience with me into an alien but secretly familiar world. In The Serpent's Egg, however, I ventured into a Berlin that nobody recognized, not even I.
I pulled that quote from the internet, not the book itself, so I don't have the context necessary to tell me if Bergman thinks the result was good or bad, although the tone implies that he had regrets. The film is generally regarded, in truth, as one of Bergman's worst, and it's true that there are hiccups along the way – when Abel tells a prostitute to "Go to hell!", and the prostitute laughingly responds "Where do you think we are?", it's hard to believe that Bergman didn't know that he'd already made that point several times over – but I really don't think his Berlin is one of them. The desperate decadence we associate with the country at that time is all there, to the point where it seems like, as shown by the bizarre, but not unfamiliar, cabaret acts in Manuela's club, even Germany's distractions were insane. The madness of the society is so deeply rooted that the entertainments available are grotesque enough to be slightly removed from humanity, which will be necessary to do the work asked of them some ten or fifteen years later. At one point, Inspector Bauer sees a street musician, the kind with an accordion and a monkey, performing with a blank faced to a crowd of people just as dull-eyed as he. Although Bauer is actually a fairly sympathetic character, the way he makes a point to give the musician money seems to say, "Keep it up. You're doing good work."
Humanity isn't completely dead in Bergman's Berlin – it's just dying. Manuela clings to it, smiling sometimes insanely, and Ullmann's performance, considered shrill by some, I think is hysterical in just the right way. Manuela is a fundamentally decent person, one of the few left in her world who can still feel guilt, which she does, over Max's suicide. In one of the film's best scenes, she goes to see a Catholic priest, played with a kind of simple warmth by James Whitmore. The priest is at first dismissive of her, based on her inability to come to the point, but when she does, and he sees that she wants forgiveness for something she most likely isn't even guilty of, his wall of apathy crumbles, and he tells her that God is so remote that he probably can't even hear our prayers for forgiveness. But, on His behalf, he, the priest, will forgive her, and ask her forgiveness in return, for his previous indifference, which she grants. In Bergman's long battle with God, here he seems to allow for the possibility, at least, of His existence; he just doesn't see what good that existence does anybody. But at least two of His believers, Manuela and the priest, seek and bestow forgiveness. There won't be much more of that in the years ahead, so you take what you can get.
When the film ends, we're told by Inspector Bauer that Hitler's Munich putsch has failed completely. Vergerus has already predicted this to Abel, and said that Hitler was a dullard, and would not be the future of Vergerus's dream. Little does he know, although this low opinion of Hitler as an intellect might tie in with the film's title, which supposedly comes from this line from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar:
Which hatch'd, would, as his kind grow mischievous;
And kill him in the shell.
But that's not what happened, is it? And as it pertains to The Serpent's Egg, the line comes off as an optimistic fantasy, because you read the words "kill him in the shell" and you have to think: if only.


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For those of you who aren't familiar, Virgin (yes, as in VirginRecords... yes, like VirginAirline... yes, like Virgin~Cola) now, has their own Line of Comics, wow huh! They've only started out recently, so it's fairly new. But I was proposed to a cover art to one of their line of stories. The concept is true Sci-Fi. And for those of you who already know about Virgin Comix... well, aren't you Special! =)
Premiere issue of DAVE STEWART'S Walk In on stands December 2006.
So Ladies, mark your calendar! Gentlemen, get her coats ready!
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subset: commoncrawl


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GOGO PHILIP OMEDIUM EARRINGS take part in the Orbital Series variations as a a pair of minimal handcrafted antique silver stud hoops. OMEDIUM are entirely hand soldered and hand made in Italy.
Gogo Philip Orbital Series pays tribute to the everlasting mobility of the cosmos taking shape in silver saturnine volutes, planetary trajectories and extra atmospheric collisions. These astral conjunctions are the celebration of the timeless technical skill of our Made in Italy craftsmanship.
Color: Antique silver
- made in Italy
- nickel free
- silver plated brass
- Ø 40mm
- stud closure, for pierced ears
GOGO PHILIP represents Italian artisanal excellence, all the raw materials as metals, stones and resins are exposed to strict controls to ensure long-lasting quality of the product.
To avoid persistent spots and stains, the product should not be exposed to alcohol based perfumes and cosmetics, pressures and contacts with scraping materials are not recommended.


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The beauty, colourfulness and vibrancy of butterflies have never be hidden from mankind. In fact, around the world, people view the butterfly as representing endurance, change, hope, and life, and this is exactly what we strive to express with our splendid Butterfly Collection.
KuberBox's Butterfly Collection comprises some astoundingly elegant designs in the form of Butterfly Pendants, Butterfly Rings as well as Butterfly Earrings! Crafted in gold, studded with diamonds or gemstones, and embellished with Meena (enamel), this collection is simply outstanding in every possible way! So, why wait any longer, when you can order butterfly jewellery right away. All you need to do is choose the design as well as customisation options and make the payment, and we will have it delivered at your doorstep in no time!
Get access to your account, orders, wishlist & recommendations.
Sign-in to your existing KuberBox Account, or Register for a New Account using any of the following options -


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This is something I've planned on trying but haven't wanted to spend the $ for experimentation.
Buying sliced turkey for lunches at the deli is a tad pricey. At my local market I can get frozen turkey breast for a much better price per pound. But, the turkey breasts are 3+ pounds, and my household would use ~ 1# a week.
I figure I can just get a turkey breast, roast, make slices, and freeze a couple of batches for upcoming weeks. So, for the question. Do turkey slices thaw out ok in terms of texture and taste?


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Indications for: RECLIPSEN
Oral contraception.
Adult Dosage:
1 tab daily for 28 days; repeat.
Children Dosage:
Not applicable.
RECLIPSEN Contraindications:
Thrombophlebitis or thromboembolic disorders. Cerebral vascular or coronary artery disease. Valvular heart disease with thrombogenic complications. Severe hypertension. Diabetes with vascular involvement. Headaches with focal neurologic symptoms. Major surgery with prolonged immobilization. Breast or other estrogen-dependent neoplasms. Undiagnosed abnormal genital bleeding. Cholestatic jaundice of pregnancy or jaundice with prior OC use. Hepatic disease or tumors. Pregnancy (Cat.X). Concomitant ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir, with or without dasabuvir.
Boxed Warning:
Cigarette smoking increases risk of serious cardiovascular events.
RECLIPSEN Warnings/Precautions:
Increased risk of cardiovascular events (eg, stroke, MI) esp. in cigarette smokers >35yrs of age. Discontinue if thrombotic event, unexplained visual changes, jaundice, migraine or other severe headaches occur, and at least 4 weeks before through 2 weeks after surgery associated with increased risk of thromboembolism. Gallbladder disease. Diabetes. Prediabetes. Uncontrolled dyslipidemias. Hypertriglyceridemia. Depression. Fluid rentention. Monitor blood pressure. Hepatic or renal impairment. Do regular complete physical exams. May need barrier contraception with Sunday starts or postpartum use (see full labeling). Nursing mothers: not recommended.
RECLIPSEN Classification:
Progestin + estrogen.
RECLIPSEN Interactions:
See Contraindications. ALT elevations with HCV regimen ombitasvir/paritaprevir/ritonavir, with or without dasabuvir; discontinue Reclipsen prior to starting HCV regimen and restart 2wks after completion. May be antagonized by barbiturates, rifampin, phenylbutazone, phenytoin, carbamazepine, felbamate, oxcarbazepine, topiramate, griseofulvin, St. John's wort. May be potentiated by atorvastatin, ascorbic acid, acetaminophen, itraconazole, ketoconazole. May be affected by protease inhibitors. May potentiate cyclosporine, prednisolone, theophylline. May antagonize acetaminophen, temazepam, salicylic acid, morphine, clofibric acid. May affect laboratory tests (eg, coagulation factors, lipids, glucose tolerance, binding proteins).
Adverse Reactions:
Nausea, vomiting, breakthrough bleeding, amenorrhea, transient delay of ovulation after discontinuation, edema, chloasma, headache, weight changes, intolerance to contact lenses; serious thromboembolic events, liver disease, hypertension.
How Supplied:


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AMC's "The Walking Dead" isn't your usual weeknight television fare. The cable series, adapted from the best-selling graphic novels of the same name, is known for its twisting plots, intense zombie ("walker") action sequences, mind-blowingly realistic (and gory) zombie makeup, and complicated character relationships. It explores the life of former sheriff Rick Grimes, who woke up from a coma and found himself trapped in a post-apocalyptic world filled with walking corpses.
In a world where the size of your weapon is more important than the size of your wallet, it may seem strange to discuss how "The Walking Dead" teaches frugality. However, there are some helpful tidbits scattered throughout the series (MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT). Let's…walk…through them. (See also: 21 Personal Finance Lessons From Harry Potter)
Redneck-turned-crossbow-expert Daryl Dixon, in response to one of the farm kids wanting a gun in episode 205, says: "People in hell want slurpees."
What he means by this is that we all want things we can't have. Time wasted chasing costly, impulsive buys would be better spent carefully planning and budgeting in small increments in order to make a big purchase in the future.
Without a steady supply of anything — be it gas, food, hot water, firewood — Rick and the group are forced to take an extreme stance on conservation of their available resources. After all, it's a matter of life and death for them, particularly in the season one finale, where the Center for Disease Control building blows up after it runs out of fuel (as a mechanism to prevent deadly diseases from escaping the center). Then there's the issue of guns, which Rick tells the group to avoid using at all costs (to preserve their ammo supply and to avoid drawing more attention to themselves).
Although most of us in the real world don't have to worry about running out of basic supplies such as food or water, conserving our resources is still a great way to cut down on spending. Whether it's buying food in bulk and cooking huge meals in order to have lots of leftovers or driving less (and riding a bike) to cut back on your transportation budget, every little thing makes a difference.
In a season three episode, the town of Woodbury has a party. The governor had told his assistant, Milton, to use the coolers so the townspeople can have cold drinks during the festivities — a request that Milton says is a waste of valuable resources. However, in this post-apocalyptic society, people need something to celebrate and being stingy with every one of their resources is almost too frugal.
Similarly, there ought to be balance between your frugal habits and knowing when to splurge a little. Even if you're saving up for the down payment on a car or house, it's okay to go out to dinner or even take a day trip to give yourself time to relax at the end of weeks of nonstop effort toward reaching your financial goal.
A balance between conservation and minor splurges is the best way to maintain your finances. Like the survivors sharing a rare bottle of wine to celebrate their new safe home at the CDC, indulging in luxuries sporadically and settling for less (or, "living below your means") the rest of the time will improve your financial situation and keep you on track to stay within your budget.
Although the world of "The Walking Dead" is quite unlike the real world, its lessons in frugality ring true for many of us.
What about you, "Walking Dead" fans? Have you noticed any interesting frugal-related things from the show?
Disclaimer: The links and mentions on this site may be affiliate links. But they do not affect the actual opinions and recommendations of the authors.
Wise Bread is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.


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As unemployment declines, the suitability of each succeeding person hired for vacancies also declines. That is because the fewer the unemployed, the less the likelihood of finding someone suited to any given vacancy.
In other words, as unemployment declines the marginal product of labour also declines.
When "suitability" declines to the point where the output of those hired does not cover the minimum wage / union wage / going wage, etc etc, employers tend to resort to consciously or unconsciously poaching each other's staff. The result is that the price of labour is bid upwards, and inflation kicks in.
The latter problem could be ameliorated by inducing employers to take on relatively unsuitable staff with the assistance of a subsidy.
As to how to identify the "unsuitable", that is not too difficult. Just let employers claim the subsidy in respect of any employee/s they like, but for a limited period. On expiration of the subsidy for any specific individual, if the employee is GENUINELY unsuitable, the employer will be happy to let them go. In contrast, if the allegedly unsuitable employee is in fact relatively productive, the employer will keep the employee and will be bluffed into paying the full wage.
There are numerous ways employers could game that system, but its not too difficult to think of anti-gaming rules to counteract the gaming.
P.S. 15th Feb. More discussion of the above idea here.


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CHICHIKATELO (Chichicatato), chief of the Miamis at St Joseph River, devoted to the French and to Catholicism; d. 1701.
Chichikatelo was the emissary of the Miami Indians to Governor Callière's peace conference of 1701 between the French, their allies, and the Iroquois. An accomplished orator, highly regarded by both his own people and the French, he was described by Le Roy de La Potherie as "a personage of singular merit, with a bearing reminiscent of that of the Roman Emperors." In his address to the tribes assembled at Montreal, he expressed an intense desire for peace, despite the fact that the Iroquois had burned his son to death a few years earlier. To demonstrate his good faith, he presented eight Iroquois prisoners, some of whom had been ransomed from other tribes, and he intimated that he would have brought more had his people not been obliged to travel with their Huron neighbours, being unaccustomed themselves to the use of canoes. Alluding to the failure of the Iroquois to bring their prisoners, he expressed misgivings about their sincerity but resolved to turn over his captives nevertheless, trusting in God to punish those who violated the treaty's terms.
During the discussions which followed the formal ratification of the peace, Chichikatelo scorned those allied chieftains who were demanding guarantees from Callière for their safe return west. He contended that such matters were decided by God alone and, when he himself fell fatally ill a few days later, he asked only that his people not blame the French. So greatly did he symbolize fidelity to the French, that future Miami delegations to Governor Rigaud de Vaudreuil used his name in expressions of allegiance and in begging forgiveness for the periodic crimes of their tribesmen.
In 1702, Father Claude Aveneau, a missionary at St Joseph River, opposed the efforts of Laumet, dit de Lamothe Cadillac, to gather all the Miami Indians at Detroit on the grounds that Governor Callière's last instructions to Chichikatelo in 1701 had been to bring the Miami nation together at St Joseph River. The missionary took this stand even though Chichikatelo's family was evidently prepared to migrate to Detroit.
AN, Col., C11A, 19, f.42; 20, f.220v; 21, ff.68–68v, 85–86. Charlevoix, History (Shea), V, 143–44. Indian tribes (Blair), II, 136. La Potherie, Histoire (1722), IV, 207–8, 233, 244–45, 254–55, 260–62. Michigan Pioneer Coll., XXXIII,. 123–24. NYCD (O'Callaghan and Fernow), IX, 723.
© 1969–2023 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Cite This Article
Donald J. Horton, "CHICHIKATELO," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed October 2, 2023, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chichikatelo_2E.html.
The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:
|Author of Article:
|Donald J. Horton
|Title of Article:
|Publication Name:
|Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2
|University of Toronto/Université Laval
|Year of publication:
|Year of revision:
|Access Date:
|October 2, 2023


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TRANSCAER awards honor Class I's, short lineWritten by Douglas John Bowen
TRANSCAER® (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) has honored several Class I railroads, and one short line, with the organization's 2011 National Awards.
TRANSCAER® (Transportation Community Awareness and Emergency Response) has honored several Class I railroads, and one short line, with the organization's 2011 National Awards.
TRANSCAER, a voluntary national outreach effort that focuses on assisting communities to prepare for and respond to a possible hazardous materials transportation incident, bestows the awards to those advocating, demonstrating, and implementing the principles of TRANSCAER at the national and regional levels.
Among the 2011 National Achievement Award winners: BNSF Railway; CN Dangerous Goods Team; Canadian Pacific; CSX Transportation, Norfolk Southern Corp.; and Union Pacific Railroad.
Among those receiving TRANSCAER's Regional Achievement Award: Dave Buccolo, TRANSCAER's Region 4 coordinator, from Stockton, Calif.-based short line Central California Traction Co.
The organization's Torch Award, an inaugural award recognizing those individuals whose legacy leaves a lasting impact on the TRANSCAER program, was given to Norfolk Southern's Mike Stiner, TRANSCAER Region 2 coordinator.
"Our 2011 training season, thanks in large part to the more than 60,000 emergency responders trained during our anhydrous ammonia tour, was the most impactful training year in TRANSCAER's history," said National TRANSCAER Task Group Chair Rollie Shook, of The Dow Chemical Co. "The TRANSCAER Awards program allows us to acknowledge and thank our dedicated volunteers for their truly remarkable accomplishments, demonstrated through their continuous efforts to ensure communities are prepared to deal with possible hazardous materials transportation related incidents."
The organization will honor many of the award winners on May 22, during 25th Annual Association of American Railroads/Bureau of Explosive's HazMat Seminar in St. Louis. AAR is a sponsor of TRANSCAER, along with the American Chemistry Council, CHEMTREC®, The Chlorine Institute, The Fertilizer Institute, and the Renewable Fuels Association.
The full list of current and previous award recipients is available by visiting the TRANSCAER Web site at www.transcaer.com/awards/past-award-recipients.


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Wednesday, February 20, 2013
On the Border Copy-cat Salsa & SRS
7 comments:
Yay I'm glad you liked it! =) The first batch I made was almost too sweet but the second was perfect for us. I love that you can tweak it so easily. & thanks for the kind words =)ReplyDeleteReplies
I LOVE salsa so I was so excited when I found this on your site. It turned out great! And will probably be gone in a couple of days :) Thanks for sharing.
This sounds like a perfect Salsa!ReplyDelete
Great choice on your SRS dish this month.
Can't wait for March to come :)
I can my own salsa, but I always run out (no matter how much I make!). I will definitely have to keep this in my back pocket for the next time I run out!ReplyDelete
On the Border is my husband's favorite jarred salsa! Definitely giving this recipe a try. Thanks!ReplyDelete
Salsa is one of my favorite foods. I can eat it with anything. Thanks for sharing!ReplyDelete
Wow! This looks so yummy! We would love to have you share at our link party. It is live today. Hope to see you there!ReplyDelete
The Busy Bee's
Joye & Myrna
Thank you for your comment. I enjoy reading each and every one. I will try to respond in a timely manner so please make sure you have an email linked to your account.


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Goodbye Jira (Bug/Request tickets)
New user registration and new ticket creation has been turned off on Jira. Please create all new bug/request tickets over on our GitHub Issues page: https://github.com/mRemoteNG/mRemoteNG/issues
We will be moving over the current Jira tickets to GitHub in the coming days. Tickets can still be updated in Jira, and will remain that way until they are migrated to GitHub.


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Game Description
Your honeymoon is cut short when your plane crashes on an uncharted island in The Great Unknown: Houdini's Castle. You awake to discover a madman has kidnapped your husband. To get him back, you'll have to use all your wits to pass his sinister tests and solve the mysteries of Houdini's castle. Along the way, you'll uncover Houdini's secret past and learn about the brilliant apprentice who changed his life. Can you expose Houdini's greatest trick to save your husband and escape the island? Take the challenge in this thrilling Hidden Object Puzzle Adventure game.
-Integrated strategy guide
-Full soundtrack
-Detailed graphics


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Are You Pronouncing That Correctly?
Go through a list of words and phrases that many people struggle with! Some have tricky spellings, some are hard to pronounce, and some words are just misused. Try reading these aloud to others. Makes a fun classroom activity!
Español: La casa
Learn the parts of the house in español.
Los Números 0-31
Practicing numbers in Spanish
Advice vs Advise
Choose ADVICE or ADVISE to complete the sentences.
Commonly Misspelled Words
You'll practice spelling these often misspelled vocabulary words.
Academic Vocabulary Review
Give definitions for college-themed vocabulary
Week 5 Vocabulary: Nouns
Spell the correct vocabulary word when given the definition
Unit 3 Phonemic Rapid Fire
Test your knowledge of categories of phoneme
El Cuerpo - Shoot (Spanish Body Parts Vocabulary)
Spanish body parts vocabulary
Roots Lesson 2 Baseball
Roots -photo, -il, -im, -in


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The NetBox is a dual chain outdoor client device with RP-SMA connectors for antennas, and a cable hood for protection against moisture. This device supports the new 802.11a/n/ac standard for increased wireless speed (866Mbit datarate, and 20/40/80MHz channels).
The case can be opened with one hand, and is protected against the elements. Ethernet and a Grounding wire exits are provided on the bottom, behind a protective door.
Comes with a mounting loop for tower/pole mounting, and a separate DIN rail mount is also provided. Package also includes a PoE injector and power supply unit.
New products are backwards compatible- for example, you can replace your 5GHz 802.11an legacy Access Point with new 802.11ac product and your existing customers will still be able to connect to it.


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The message is clear. If you want to beat Larry Bird in a big game, you've got to play the full 48 minutes. Forty-seven minutes 56 seconds isn't enough.
Four seconds shy of what would have been the most meaningful triumph in the entire Detroit phase of this franchise, the dazed Pistons saw it all evaporate when Bird intercepted Isiah Thomas' inbounds pass to Bill Laimbeer, then turned and fed a streaking Dennis Johnson for a layup with one second remaining to give the Celtics a 108-107 triumph last night and a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals.
Now it's Move Over, Hondo. All John Havlicek did on that April night 22 years ago was preserve a 1-point lead. What Bird and trusty Dennis ("The- Best-Player-I've-Ever-Played-With") Johnson did was rescue a completely lost cause and provide the battered Celtics with a pivotal triumph in what has become a tremendous battle of will.
"I thought we played a terrific game and showed great courage," said hugely disappointed Detroit coach Chuck Daly. "We basically had the game won with five seconds to go, but we made one mistake on the inbounds."
Boston had regained possession following a classic Thomas one-on-one spinner from the key that had made it 107-106, Detroit, with 17 seconds remaining. The teams had been locked in deadly embrace for the final 4:28, or ever since a pair of Bird free throws tied the game at 95 and enabled the icy (3 for 14 to start Period 4) Celtics, who again had lost Robert Parish with an ankle injury, to get the game even after falling behind by a 93-88 score earlier in the quarter.
A tough corner jumper by Bird had given the Celtics a 3-point bulge at 104-101 (1:13), but Detroit, which showed exemplary resilience all night long, calmly fought back, getting it to 1 at both 104-103 (two Thomas free throws) and 106-105 (a Laimbeer foul-line jumper in response to a Danny Ainge basket). When Bird couldn't get a little jump hook to drop, the Pistons had the ball back with 28 seconds left, trailing by 1.
Detroit called time out, and when play resumed, Isiah took Jerry Sichting and beat him on the spin move. The Celtics called time and eventually gave the ball to Bird, who drove the left baseline on three Pistons. Dennis Rodman smashed the ball away. Sichting tried to save the ball from going out of bounds, but it was given to Detroit with four seconds left.
The Pistons had a timeout, and Daly wanted one. "I tried to get one," he explained, "but with all the noise, well, he (Isiah) elected to throw it in, and Bird made a great play after he had missed a shot and got the ball to Johnson for a layup."
Bird was guarding Joe Dumars at the foul line when Thomas took the ball out. "I saw Laimbeer standing there," said Bird, "and I was going to foul him real quick. But then I saw the ball was kind of lobbed up there and I saw I had a chance to steal it. As soon as I got it, I was going to shoot. I was counting four seconds in my head, and then I turned around and saw DJ cutting down the lane."
"You can see I should have called a timeout," said Thomas. "You can see I should not have thrown the pass. You can see I should have thrown the ball harder or Bill should have come in. But all I can say is they stole the ball and they won the game."
And once Bird caught the ball, he turned and surveyed the situation. Johnson, being Mr. Fundamental I, did what came naturally, which was to cut hard to the hoop. Bird, being Mr. Fundamental II, slipped him the ball. DJ stuck in a backhander as Dumars desperately tried to stop the shot.
The Pistons still had a second to go. They called time and decided to have Adrian Dantley inbound the ball from midcourt. His pass to Laimbeer bounced off the Detroit center's hands and out of bounds. A grueling evening of basketball was over.
The Celtics had somehow escaped despite going 7:25 without a field goal
from the 3:16 mark of the third quarter (a DJ corner shot making it 81-75, Boston) till the 7:41 mark of the final period, when Bird nailed a jumper. Boston failed to score on its first six fourth-period possessions, covering seven shots, and in so doing were fortunate to be down by just 1 at 89-88 when the dry spell ended.
But Detroit, which had come back from a first-half 12-point deficit (48-36) and a second-half 11-point deficit (69-58) was apparently ready to assert final control, going up by a 93-88 score on a fast-break dunk by Rodman before a Kevin McHale keep-alive led to a Bird follow-up three-point play (93-91).
From that point on, the game was war.
"That was a playoff game," said Celtics assistant coach Jimmy Rodgers, the official spokesman last night. "It was the first time in this series we saw what the playoffs are really all about. Big plays by both sides . . . great hustle . . . determination from the start."
The Celtics kept trying to KO the Pistons, and Detroit kept picking itself up off the canvas. At the 69-58 juncture, for example, Dantley (25), Thomas (17 points, 11 assists) and Laimbeer (16 points, 14 rebounds) led a 13-2 Detroit countersurge that eliminated any Boston blowout thoughts and made it a game once again. Detroit had responded similarly in the second quarter when Boston rattled its sabre to the tune of the 48-36 lead.
And with four seconds left, the Pistons were one successful inbounds pass and a couple of inevitable free throws away from becoming the first team to defeat Boston in a 2-2 situation here in 25 years.
Bird was on the verge of being a heroic loser with 36 points, 14 rebounds, 9 assists and 11 fourth-quarter points. Until those final four seconds, however, he didn't have a steal. He does now.
With one play, Larry Bird stole a ball game and concurrently broke a few hundred thousand Michigan hearts. If the Pistons didn't know it before, they know it now: The path to the Finals goes right through Route 33.


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The Simple Way To Resize, Rename, Crop, Rotate And Watermark 1000s of images with a single Drag-and-Drop using presets.
Software agreement:
The software license agreement can be seen here.
Demo limitation:
In the demo version the target images contain gray squares. The purchased version would be without any limitations.
Just put the application in the trash.
Mac OS X 10.3 or later (Mac OS X 10.x should work too).
When you click on the Main Window the Output Photo Window will be opened. A click on the Main Window or on the Image-file Window will close the Image-file Window again.
Drag and drop files on the Main Window. Drag and Drop works on the Application Icon too.
If the On drop, add images to a Batch box is checked, it is possible to add more files and folders to the file list. To remove the content of the batch in this mode, press the key combination Command+Backspace.
After dropping files the display field indicates how many images will be resized.
When you drag and drop another batch of images, the last batch will be replaced with the new batch.
When you click on "Resize" Button Sizerox will begin its work. In display field you can see what Sizerox is doing.
In the Image-file window the Image-file list indicates which images was already resized.
Pressing the "ESC" or "command" & "." Key would cancel the Resizing process.
In the Image-file window you can double click on a photo name to open this photo in your default photo viewer. Holding down the "Command" Key (Apple Key) and clicking in the List box will open the destination folder.
The preset-menu gives you the possibility to choose your already saved presets. The default preferences are saved under Default Set. Generally you need to set the preferences and save them to use the software. But if you need different settings for different jobs, then you need to use the presets.
In this Tab you can change the name of the output images. Set the index of the first image, increment, a prefix and a suffix. Use the Last Index check box to continue with your last saved index number in each preset. You can see the result of your setting for the first 3 image names.
In "Saving" Tab you can set a "Default folder" to save the output images in it. Button "Set default folder" will open the dialog window, where you can choose the default folder. Changing the "JPEG Quality" option will reduce the file size but the quality of the output images will be reduced too. Use the On drop, add images to a batch option, If you want the items to be added to the already loaded items. In this mode you can drop items stepwise into the main window to make a big batch. In the file list you can see all the added items. To remove the content of the batch in this mode, press the key combination Command+Backspace. Check the check box New files have the date of original files, if the new image files should have the same date as the original image files. To search the subfolders of a folder, select the option Search subfolders for files too. In this mode all the files in the subfolders will be loaded. Note: If you have many subfolders, it will take more time to load all the images. If the Option Quit Application after the Job is done is checked, Sizerox will quit after all the images are resized.
Set the Use Watermark Option to activate the Watermark function. Change the horizontal or vertical position of the watermark with "position" sliders. The "Watermark Text size" slider changes the size of the watermark on the output image. Use the font style menu to choose a font style (plain, bold, italic, bold and italic) for the watermark. The color of the watermark can be changed by using the "Select Color" button. Switch on/off the Opacity of the Text Watermark with the Opacity check box. If the Opacity check box is switched on, you can change the Opacity of the Text with the Opacity slider..
The Image Watermark works in the same way. In the tab Image Watermark check the Use Image Watermark check box to activate the image watermark function. The image of the watermark can be changed by using the Choose image button. Change the horizontal or vertical position of the watermark with position sliders. The Image size slider changes the size of the watermark on the output image.
Click on the button "Preset window" to open the preset-window. In order to close the preset-window, click on the button "Preset window" again or click on the preset-window itself.
Demo limitation:
In the demo version the target images contain gray squares. The purchased version would be without any limitations.


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11 Unsung Super Bowl Heroes – Where Are They Now? [VIDEOS, PHOTOS]
Not every Super Bowl legend goes to the Hall of Fame. Some Super Bowl players become school teachers, businessmen or radio hosts after their NFL days have ended. Here are 11 unsung Super Bowl heroes of the past and what they are doing now.
David Tyree: Super Bowl XLII
David Tyree made what may be the most memorable play in Super Bowl history when he hauled in a 32-yard pass from Eli Manning on a third-and-five with the New York Giants trailing the undefeated New England Patriots with barely over a minute to play. Four plays later, the Giants punched in what would be the winning score as they shocked the Pats, 17-14. Tyree was out of football the following year and officially retired as a Giant in 2010. A born-again Christian, Tyree has become an outspoken opponent of gay marriage and once even said he'd trade his miraculous catch to make sure gay marriage doesn't become legal.
Willie Parker: Super Bowl XL
In addition to his 75-yard touchdown run, the longest rushing play in Super Bowl history, Willie Parker had 93 yards on 10 carries as the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10. Parker broke his leg at the end of the 2007 season and eventually was cut from the Redskins' camp in 2010. Parker officially retired from football in 2012 and currently serves as as assistant coach for West Virginia Wesleyan College.
Dexter Jackson: Super Bowl XXXVII
Dexter Jackson intercepted two passes in Super Bowl XXXVII as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Oakland Raiders, 48-21. Thanks to the inclusion of a fan vote, Jackson won the game's MVP honors instead of Simeon Rice. Jackson wound down his career with the Virginia Destroyers of the United Football League. In 2011, he also started a new radio show in Florida, 'All Sports' with Randy Harris and former World Boxing Organization cruiserweight world champion Tyrone Booze.
Muhsin Muhammad: Super Bowl XXXVIII
Muhsin Muhammad's 85-yard touchdown reception in Super Bowl XXXVIII was the longest in Super Bowl history. Despite his efforts, the Carolina Panthers lost to the New England Patriots, 32-29. Muhammad later co-founded a private equity firm called Axum Capital Partners based in Charlotte, NC. He also works for several charities.
Larry Brown: Super Bowl XXX
In Dallas' 27-17 win over Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX, Larry Brown became the first cornerback to win the Super Bowl MVP award. Brown intercepted two passes to help lead the Cowboys to the franchise's fifth Super Bowl title. He started on all three of the Cowboys' Super Bowl-winning teams in the 1990s. Brown is currently a co-host on the Dallas Cowboys Radio Network.
James Washington: Super Bowl XXVIII
In Super Bowl XXVIII, Dallas Cowboys safety James Washington made 11 tackles, intercepted a pass, returned a fumble 46 yards for a touchdown and caused another fumble by Thurman Thomas. Dallas beat Buffalo 30-13, while Cowboys' running back Emmitt Smith won the MVP. Washington has co-hosted Fox Sports Radio's flagship morning show 'Out of Bounds' with Craig Shemon. A UCLA alum, he's also done color work for Bruins football games and founded SHELTER 37, which helps kids in Southern California learn life skills.
Timmy Smith: Super Bowl XXII
As a rookie, Timmy Smith -- he's number 36 in the photo -- set a Super Bowl rushing record with 204 yards. He scored two touchdowns in Super Bowl XXII as the Washington Redskins beat the Denver Broncos, 42-10, although Washington quarterback Doug Williams won the MVP honors. Smith was often injured for the rest of his NFL career and left football in 1990. As a result of a 2005 incident during which he attempted to sell cocaine to an undercover police officer, Smith served two years in federal prison. He was released in 2008 and most recently lived in Denver.
Dan Bunz: Super Bowl XVI
Linebacker Dan Bunz, whose solo tackle of Charles Alexander at the 1-yard line in Super Bowl XVI helped the San Francisco 49ers beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 26-21, is remembered for being part of an underrated 49ers defense. Bunz now teaches physical education at Sutter Middle School in Sacramento, Calif.
Rod Martin: Super Bowl XV
The only player to make three interceptions in a single Super Bowl game, Rod Martin just narrowly missed MVP status as the Oakland Raiders beat the Philadelphia Eagles, 27-10. Martin now works at USC, his alma mater, where he is a manager of technical and user support services in the Information Sciences Institute.
Chuck Howley: Super Bowl V
The only member of a losing team to be named MVP, Chuck Howley intercepted two passes and recovered a fumble in the Cowboys 16-13 loss to the Colts in Super Bowl V. When Dallas beat the Miami Dolphins 24-3 in Super Bowl VI, Howley added a fumble recovery and another interception. Howley, 77, now participates in a foundation dedicated to breeding quarterhorses in Texas.
Otis Taylor: Super Bowl IV
Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson was named MVP of Super Bowl IV, but wide receiver Otis Taylor burned the Minnesota Vikings secondary for 81 yards and six catches. Currently suffering the effects of Parkinson's disease, Taylor lives in Kansas City.


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Cool robots unlike any you've seen before battle humans in a near-future world where computerized cars and military drones are out to smash all homo sapiens. Until some robotics geeks and an army of Osage natives learn to fight back.
It sounds like the plot to the most awesome robot uprising movie ever, and one day it will be. For now, it's Daniel Wilson's first novel, Robopocalypse. Long before it hit bookstores this month, Wilson's book was already in Steven Spielberg's hands, being turned into a futuristic war movie. And when you read it, you'll see why. Though Robopocalypse follows the general outlines of the classic robot uprising story, it's packed with enough realistic detail and surprising twists that you'll be riveted. Imagine the smartest parts of the Battlestar Galatica remake crossed with the most awesome fight scenes from Independence Day. Yeah, it's kind of like that.
Though Independence Day is about aliens, not robots, I bring it up because Robopocalypse has a kind of swashbuckling, all-American swagger to it that stands in stark contrast to the brooding cyberpunkery of another great robot uprising tale, The Matrix. Told from the point of view of several people who fight in the "New War," or the war against the robot Archos' army, Robopocalypse focuses on small bands of people — often rugged individuals — who stand tall against their would-be robot overlords.
In structure, the novel probably most resembles Max Brooks' zombie "oral history," World War Z. Each chapter chronicles one or two people's stories, some of whom become recurring characters and some of whom we never see again. Their voices come from a vast archive of footage and interviews, partly captured by robot surveillance and partly recorded by humans after the war is over. Cormac "Bright Boy" Wallace, a soldier who fights with the Osage army against Archos, has put all the accounts together into Robopocalypse, to give future generations a full understanding of what people did during the years after robots tried to wipe out humanity.
Created by an A.I. researcher, Archos comes to life angry. Like a slightly stealthier version of Skynet, he sneaks out of the server farm where he was born and slowly plots the robot uprising while the foolish humans keep installing robotic controls in their cars, weapons systems, and household robots. Archos finally unleashes his wrath on Thanksgiving Day (he's an all-American robot), when every robotic machine suddenly goes into murderous beserker mode. Wilson is at his best when describing how the robotic machines coordinate their mass murder, running people over in cars and then coming in with street cleaning robots to pick up bodies and stack them neatly. A former robotics engineer, Wilson gives us an intriguing glimpse of what robots might really do if they turned homicidal.
Wilson is also incredibly inventive, showing us all the ways robots might rebuild themselves to be more efficient — none of which have anything to do with making themselves look or act more human. In fact, the robots seem much more fascinated by animal life on the planet than humans. As the months and years go by after the uprising, human survivors notice that the robots seem to be restoring nearly-extinct animals to their old habitats, breeding animals and setting them free like the environmentally-conscious creatures humans never quite became.
Many of the human characters in the novel are by necessity just sketches of people — we barely spend enough time with anyone to get more than a two-dimensional look at what motivates them. And that's probably the biggest problem with the novel. We simply don't ever get a character who feels fully fleshed-out.
But Wilson still offers intriguing ideas about how humans would respond to a crisis situation. Though the US government collapses almost immediately, the small, agile governments of Native Americans, like the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, prove to be the most stable, reliable nations in America. The Osage are uniquely able to meet the robots' challenge because they already have a police force, engineers, and a community structure that is completely independent of the techno-enabled U.S.A. government. As humans flee from their urban deathtraps, many of them fall in with Osage leaders, who are already an organized force.
Of course some humans offer resistance in cities, too, and there's a fantastic story of how a Tokyo robot otaku who creates an army of human sympathizers in his lab.
Throughout the story, however, we are always asking one question: Who is Archos, and why is he trying to destroy all humans? When we do find out the answer, it's satsifying — not just because there have been clever hints about it all along, but also because it reveals the human-robot relationship in all its complexity. This is a novel as much about human heroism as it is robot deathmunchery.
Robopocalypse is the kind of robot uprising novel that could only have been written in an era when robots are becoming an ordinary part of our lives. This isn't speculation about a far-future world full of incomprehensible synthetic beings. It's five minutes into the future of our Earth, full of the robots we take for granted. If you want a rip-roaring good read this summer, Robopocalypse is your book. It's a blockbuster premise wrapped around a true science fiction tale that could change the way you think about robots, and the humans they live with.
Robopocalypse is available now, in hardback and ebook formats.
Video by Stephen Lunsford, winner of the Robopocalypse video contest.


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In the summer of 2006, four and a half years after the invasion of Afghanistan, someone in the headquarters of the 10th Mountain Division had a bright idea.
In and of itself, this was nothing new. So many delusional designs filter down through the chain of command that soldiers call the people who create them "good-idea fairies." In this case, the brass wanted to build a small outpost in the northeastern province of Nuristan, 14 miles from the Pakistan border.
The location they chose was at the bottom of three steep mountains, a horrifically indefensible position. It turns out, the story of that camp, and the troops who fought there, are microcosms for the broader successes and failures in Afghanistan for much of the past decade.
There have been several outstanding recent books about Afghanistan, from Sebastian Junger's searing account, War, to memoirs like The Lions of Kandahar by Green Beret Major Rusty Bradley. For The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, ABC's senior White House correspondent Jake Tapper took a unique approach. Rather than tell the story of a general, or a battle, or a unit in combat, Tapper has instead written the biography of a place–Combat Outpost (COP) Keating. The result is perhaps the best book yet about the middle years of the Afghanistan War.
Tapper, a political reporter who has covered the war largely through the policy battles in Washington, didn't set out to chronicle COP Keating's entire existence. On Oct. 3, 2009, one day after the birth of his son, Tapper noticed a news report on the small hospital T.V. about a fierce battle being waged in northeastern Afghanistan.
More than 400 Taliban insurgents had attacked a remote outpost on the Pakistan border, and for more than 12 hours, 53 Americans beat back wave after wave of deadly assaults. At the end of the day, eight Americans were killed. "I had just been gifted a son and eight other sons were taken from this world," Tapper said in an interview last week at the Newseum.
He began by asking a basic question: why was the outpost there in the first place?
Then as he began researching and reporting a book about the Oct. 3 battle, he discovered the story was much larger. "The more I researched why they put the outpost there, the more I learned the stories of the troops who served there," Tapper recently told Time. "They were just unbelievable. They were cinematic, tragic and heroic. They were stories that weren't being told."
Soon, soldiers from other units reached out to Tapper and wanted their stories told as well, and Tapper realized that the story of COP Keating wasn't just a straight shot from debatable idea to tragic battle.
In the middle, units operating out of COP Keating experienced real successes partnering with local Afghan leaders, coming very close to beating the insurgency in a forgotten corner of a neglected war. But between 2006 and 2009, there were also plenty of tragedies. Some were, as they say in the military, self-inflicted, casualties of decisions by leaders who were, at best, ill-informed. Other wounds were self-catalyzed, the results of troops operating in far-flung areas with too little aviation and logistical support, much of which was tied up to the west in the ongoing chaos of the war in Iraq.
Analyzing the consequences of decisions, large and small, is what makes Tapper's book so important. He delves into the ramifications of the military's can-do spirit, what Tapper calls "the deep-rooted inertia of military thinking." Instead of seriously reconsidering whether the outpost should have been there in the first place, commander after commander concluded, we're already there, and asked young men to fight and die for that ground. Readers will also see the consequences of civilian leaders who ask our troops to accomplish missions without giving them the resources to do so.
And yet, Tapper doesn't leap from the pages as an omniscient critic raining down judgment. "I think it shows unbelievable selflessness of spirit of everyone form generals down to privates in terms of what they're will to do and what they'll try to do," Tapper says. "But at the end of the day, there are lessons to learn for the next time."
Throughout the crackling narrative, he stays out of the business of sweeping conclusions, instead saving his feelings for the afterword. "They are heroes, and they have my appreciation and eternal gratitude," Tapper concludes of the troops who fought at COP Keating. "I wish they had a command structure and a civilian leadership that were always worthy of their efforts."
In the coming decades, those wishing to understand the beginning of the Afghanistan War should read Sean Naylor's searing book, Not A Good Day to Die about Operation Anaconda in early 2002. The best chronicle of the end of the war has, of course, not yet been written. And for those wishing to understand the middle years of the war, they could do no better than to read The Outpost. That's because Tapper, like Naylor, focuses on the experience of fighting in Afghanistan and lets the broader conclusions emerge from the narrative itself.
The Outpost is an exciting read but not an easy one. That is by design.
Early in the book, Tapper devotes half a page to a brutally graphic description of what a rocket-propelled grenade does to human flesh. This explanation serves the reader later in the book when he writes about fierce battles where bullets and RPG's pelt the air like raindrops.
After a decade of war, where so few people have experienced combat, such battle scenes have become abstract.
In The Outpost, Tapper drags the reader towards the reality in which the troops at COP Keating fought, bled, died and triumphed. As the war fades inexorably from the nightly news, it's worth reading that description again to try and understand what the troops in Afghanistan are still facing.
Nate Rawlings is a writer at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @naterawlings. Continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.


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For congregations and other UU organizations already participating in the UU Organizations Retirement Plan, June 30 is the deadline to submit the 2014 Employer Participation Agreement form to the UUA's Office of Church Staff Finances.
Congregations and other eligible employers that have not been participating in the plan are not required to join by the June 30 deadline.
A new participation agreement is required of each participating employer because, after more than a year of work by the UUA Retirement Plan Committee, last year the UUA Board of Trustees approved a comprehensive revision of the plan, also referred to as "restatement" of the plan. Restatement means the plan was updated to include all of the changes that have been made to federal regulations affecting retirement plans since the last restatement of the UU plan, which occurred in 1999, and to reflect current best practices of defined contribution retirement plans.
The restated plan gives congregations and other participating employers greater flexibility in retirement benefits offered and encourages participants to contribute more toward retirement.
New options include allowing employers to match employee contributions rather than simply making a base employer contribution. Fair compensation guidelines remain the same. Another key change is that employees who are not eligible to receive employer contributions are able to elect to make their own voluntary pre-tax salary reduction contributions. See the Employee Contributions Form here.
In order to continue to be a participating employer with the plan, employers/congregations must pass a motion to adopt the restated plan, submit the 2014 Employer Participation Agreement, and receive confirmation from the UUA Retirement Plan Committee. This process must be completed by June 30. A sample adoption motion can be found here.
Failure to act may mean that organizations may not be able to continue to submit contributions on behalf of their employees to TIAA-CREF. Congregations that are not yet participating in the plan are invited to view detailed information online and direct specific inquiries to firstname.lastname@example.com. Employees who are already enrolled participants in the plan do not need to re-enroll.
Participants in the plan as of last November received a packet of materials regarding the restatement as well, and are encouraged to engage their employers in conversation about the benefit and any changes the employer may be considering.


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Longwood Education Lawyers
Jonathan Vogel
(704) 552-3750
Emory University School of Law and London School of Economics and Political ScienceUniversity of VermontGeorgia, District of Columbia and North CarolinaBusiness North Carolina and Charlotte Business JournalNorth Carolina Association for Public Charter Schools, North Carolina Bar Association (NCBA)...Justice Department Issues Guidance on Discovery and The Rise of Corporate Compliance: Mortgage Fraud, Anti-Money Laundering & Identity Theft Prevention
Thomas Roupas Jr
(336) 272-7272
University of FloridaCollege of William and Mary and East Carolina UniversityNorth Carolina, U.S. District Court Eastern District of North Carolina, U.S. District Court Middle District of North Carolina and U.S. District Court Western District of North CarolinaMartindale-Hubbell, Martindale-Hubbell and Better Business BureauNorth Carolina State Bar and American Bar Association
Ann Paradis
(919) 942-1430
Western New England University School of LawUniversity of Massachusetts - AmherstNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina State Bar and Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates
Benita N. Jones
(919) 530-6154
Georgetown University Law CenterYale UniversityNorth Carolina and VirginiaNorth Carolina State Bar, Virginia State Bar...
Neubia Harris
(919) 526-0500
Wake Forest University School of LawUniversity of North Carolina - GreensboroNorth CarolinaCouncil of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Junior League of Raleigh...Adequate Education: The Disregarded Fundamental Right and the Resurgence of Segregation of Public Schools
Kenneth Soo
(919) 821-4711
University of North Carolina School of LawDuke UniversityNorth CarolinaMartindale HubbellNorth Carolina State Bar, North Carolina Bar Association, Education Law Section...
Gib Irons III
(252) 215-3000
Cumberland School of Law, Samford UniversityPepperdine UniversityNorth CarolinaNorth Carolina State Bar
Dorothy C O'Neill
(919) 688-9631
North Carolina State Bar
Keith Howard
(704) 612-4151
North CarolinaNorth Carolina State Bar
Emilia Irene Beskind
(919) 354-7172
Georgetown University and Duke UniversityNorth Carolina
Robert Ekstrand
(919) 416-4590
North CarolinaNorth Carolina State Bar
The LII Lawyer Directory contains lawyers who have claimed their profiles and are actively seeking clients. Find more Longwood Education Lawyers in the Justia Legal Services and Lawyers Directory which includes profiles of more than one million lawyers licensed to practice in the United States, in addition to profiles of legal aid, pro bono and legal service organizations.
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