text:
On October 28th, a news story broke about a Kenyan woman who got more than what she bargained for when she purchased hair that harbored maggots for her weave. A panic among weave wearers quickly spread as the story snaked its way across the globe, with many questioning the quality of hair that is used for weaving, according to the Kenyan Standard.
SEE ALSO: Florida Low-Riding Pants Law To Be Extended To Women
The story began when the Standard printed a story about a Kenyan woman who suffered from excruciating headaches. After several tests, a doctor finally examined the woman's scalp and discovered that the source of her pain were flesh-eating worms that were burrowing in to her scalp.
The worms had also laid eggs.
The weave story — which supposedly came from worm-infested corpses — was quickly picked up by news outlets across continents and includes a quote urging women to take heed:
Ladies [need] to be very careful with what they put on their heads…it is better to appreciate natural beauty and be content with what God has blessed them [with] instead of chasing artificial beauty.
But can flesh-eating worms actually thrive on hair used for weaving?
NewsOne spoke to Jenyne Raines, a beauty writer and author of the book "Beautylicious, The Black Girl's Guide to the Fabulous Life" who maintains that women shouldn't worry about the hair used for weaving. "The hair which primarily comes from India, China, and Europe is treated, washed, processed, and sometimes dyed to make it ready for another person's head. So even a situation that is as far-fetched, as taking "infested" hair from a corpse would have been remedied via the rigorous treatment it would have undergone before winding up on someone's head," Raines contends.
So, women, don't let the hoax spook you.
Sound off!
Maggots In Weaves? What's the Real Story? was originally published on newsone.com
Rest in Peace: Irish Grinstead of 90's Group 702 Passes Away at Age 43
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Jonathan Majors Breaks Up High School Brawl On Video
Happy Anniversary! 40 New Edition Photos That Show Their 40-Year Evolution
Tisha Campbell-Martin Responds To Duane and Will Smith Gay Rumors
City Of Raleigh Denies Permit For Christmas Parade
Teyana Taylor Confirms Separation from Iman Shumpert


text:
Debian Security Advisory
DSA-2680-1 libxt -- several vulnerabilities
- Date Reported:
- 23 May 2013
- Affected Packages:
- libxt
- Vulnerable:
- Yes
- Security database references:
- In Mitre's CVE dictionary: CVE-2013-2002, CVE-2013-2005.
- More information:
Ilja van Sprundel of IOActive discovered several security issues in multiple components of the X.org graphics stack and the related libraries: Various integer overflows, sign handling errors in integer conversions, buffer overflows, memory corruption and missing input sanitising may lead to privilege escalation or denial of service.
For the oldstable distribution (squeeze), these problems have been fixed in version 1:1.0.7-1+squeeze1.
For the stable distribution (wheezy), these problems have been fixed in version 1:1.1.3-1+deb7u1.
For the unstable distribution (sid), these problems have been fixed in version 1:1.1.3-1+deb7u1.
We recommend that you upgrade your libxt packages.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
void nextQueryIsManip (
boolean $manip
Informs the DB driver that the next query that is called will manipulate data within the database and will not return a result set, irrespective of the usual detection performed within DB.
When TRUE, the next query will always be treated as not returning a result set. When FALSE, the normal behaviour will be used, which will result in DB attempting to automatically detect whether the query will return a result set or not.
void - nothing is returned
This function can not be called statically.


text:
Blix challenges U.S. weapons hunt
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Plans by Washington to send a 1,000-strong team to look for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq are being challenged by the United Nations' chief inspector Hans Blix.
The Pentagon wants its own "Iraq Survey Group" of military personnel, U.S. government intelligence analysts, civilian scientists and private contractors to look for any illegal weapons sites.
But Blix wants his team to return, saying it would increase the credibility of any weapons discoveries. He withdrew the U.N. team days before the war started.
Blix told the British Broadcasting Corporation Thursday: "We would be able not only to receive the reports of the Americans and the Brits of what they have found or not found, but we would be able to corroborate a good deal of this.
"The world would like to have a credible report on the absence or eradication of the program of weapons of mass destruction."
U.S. President George W. Bush wants the lifting of U.N. trade sanctions on Iraq -- imposed in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
But this may not happen until the U.N. Security Council declares Iraq free of weapons of mass destruction.
U.S. military personnel are yet to find any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in Iraq.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says it will take Iraqis coming forward with information before such weapons turn up.
"I think what will happen is, we'll discover people who will tell us where to go find it," Rumsfeld said Thursday. "It is not like a treasure hunt, where you just run around looking everywhere hoping you find something.
"The inspectors didn't find anything, and I doubt that we will. What we will do is find the people who will tell us."
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell told America's Public Broadcasting Service: "There are thousands of sites that will have to be looked at, and there are hundreds and hundreds of people who have knowledge who will have to be interviewed."
Initial elements of the "Iraq Survey Group" are already in Iraq and the full organization should be operational within two weeks, a U.S. defense official said Thursday.
On Saturday, Lt. Gen. Amir al-Saadi, Saddam Hussein's top science adviser and Iraq's point man for the last round of U.N. inspections, surrendered to coalition troops -- but denied Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction. (Full story)


text:
Known Member
- Mar 25, 2010
- 6,358
- 35
- 48
With Clash of the Titans well into the final rounds, we'd like to take a moment to officially break this great news. Age of Empires is by no means on the decline. In the past year we have seen more sponsored tournaments than anyone would expect for a 13-year-old game and the level of competitive gaming in this golden RTS has likewise risen by leaps and bounds. But this AoE era is not over yet!
For the next year we can not only expect a similar dose of star-studded championships but primarily we are going to have the privilege of witnessing possibly the biggest event yet. War is Coming, scheduled to start in March 2014, is going to be a team-based tournament boasting a staggering prize pool of $50,000!
Further details concerning rules, maps and particular stages of the tournament will follow in the coming months. However, there is no time like the present to start training and putting together formidable teams.


text:
Don't you just love the cute fluffy little bear that giggles and rolls around in his soft and cuddly towels and laundry? We've been sold the idea that our clothes have to be super soft and snuggly, and smell of lilacs and wildflowers and rain in the mountains. But what is really lurking in those fabric softeners that make our clothes that way?
While it's important to avoid conventional fabric softeners, which is something I'll be discussing next week in my guest post at Green…Your Way, many of us still like our clothes to be soft and smell nicely.
If you're unable to hang your clothes out on the line, or if you want to soften up your clothes or towels after you bring them in from the line, these natural homemade fabric softener sheets are a great alternative to chemical and fragrance filled conventional dryer sheets.
Of course, it's best to use these along with a natural detergent for a complete natural laundry routine!
Homemade Dryer Sheets
(adapted from Northern Cheapskate)
- Flannel Fabric cut into strips or squares (I used a flannel receiving blanket)
- Natural Fabric Softener (the best/only one I've found is by Ecover and I really love it!)
- Warm Water
- Empty Wipes Box, or some other type of container to store the wipes
1. Start by cutting your flannel into strips or squares. I made strips because they work best for rolling up as in the very top picture (the strips are folded in half the long way in the picture above).
2. Mix together 1/4 cup of natural fabric softener with 3/4 cup of water in a small bowl. Use warm/hot water to help it mix better with the softener. Use a fork or a whisk and mix quickly, but it may be a little separated and not completely combined – that's okay.
3. Place your wipes inside the container you are going to store them in. I usually use a repurposed disposable wipes container. You could also roll your wipes together* and stand them up in a glass jar so you can pull a wipe out from the middle. Honestly, I'm too lazy to do this most of the time, but it is convenient and looks pretty!
*To roll your wipes up, lay them out in a line so they are overlapping. The more they overlap, the easier they are to pull apart from the middle of the roll. Lay your first strip down and then lay the next one over 3/4 of the first strip. Then lay the third wipe down so it is overlapping 3/4 of the second strip, and continue until all your strips are laid out in an overlapping line.
Start rolling up the stripes, making sure to grab the underneath strips as you roll. Once they're all rolled up you can place them in a jar or other upright container, and start pulling the wipes from the middle of the roll. I hope that makes sense, sorry I didn't take a picture to better show you how to do this step.
4. Pour your softener and water mixture over the wipes and shake gently to combine. Let sit for at least an hour so the wipes can absorb the solution before you use them.
5. Shake the container a little before using, and add one sheet to the dryer with each load of laundry. It's okay if the solution is not evenly distributed on the wipe, or if the wipe is not completely moist, it will still work just fine.
6. Dry your clothes as usual.
Enjoy your soft, lightly scented, and chemical free clothing!
If you want to use fabric softener as a part of your laundry routine, this is a great way to save money and extend your bottle of natural fabric softener, which can be a little bit pricey. You can also use Ecover's Fabric Softener to make a great natural air freshener .
If you'd like to learn more about living green and living frugally I'd love to have you as a Live Renewed reader! You can subscribe, either by email or in a reader, to get the latest posts, ideas and inspiration for living frugally green.
We'll be talking all about natural laundry in June, I'd love to have you join with me! You can also connect with me on Twitter and Facebook!
*Disclosure – There are affiliate links in this post. If you make a purchase through one of my links, I'll receive a small commission. Thanks for supporting Live Renewed!


text: Welcome to the largest Homa Bay personals and dating site where you can meet local women, men and even couples for free. Personals Society is a free website which takes under a minute to join. Click a city within Homa Bay from the directory below or search profiles directly from the left side of your screen.


text:
Herc is a travel agency which enables you to be your own travel agent, a place where you can book your flights, hotels, tours, cars, rails, cruises, purchase travel insurance and meet all your travel needs.
We pride ourselves on being the Travel Choice specialists. We provide access to travel services for all your travel needs in one single place: www.e-herc.com.
Our concept is simple - we provide a menu from which You choose: You book your Flights, and then look for Accommodation... you might need to rent a Car... or perhaps take a guided Tour, not to mention a long dreamt about Cruise, you may even wish to cross continents riding the Rail... and, of course, for the peace of mind, you need to get good Travel Insurance. Need a visa? No problems. Good Travel Advice? Yes. All of that and more in one single place we call: www.e-herc.com.
Herc Agency: 5/34 Lani Street Wishart QLD 4122 T: +61 7 3349 0016 M: +61 414 628 389 E: firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Hehe. Jokes like might become less relevant as IE starts to join the party—if indeed it truly does. But all the same, the IE-hating legacy will take a while to wear off.
The tragedy for IE is that it's tied to Microsoft, which still has other major issues to shake off (OSes, email etc.) before the web community can truly stop hating it.
totes! I also sincerely hope it joins the party. catches up to the bandwagon…whatever. Still it was cute
It's cute However, I'm far more inclined to put Firefox in that particular slot of shame instead of IE. FF has some very serious speed problems especially involving JavaScripts.
Even I find it very cute good going.
I posted something similar on our Facebook page a couple of months back and it was the most popular post we've ever had!
hahahaha nice post but some time FF also gives company to IE
As human beings we tend to latch onto 'common goals' even those of disliking (hating?) something. It is one of the very strange psychological phenomenon that we all share.
Found this as well on the interwebs. But so far ie still takes the cake. especially 8.
that one is kinda funny. Really if you imagine that IE would not even get from the ground if it wasn't a part of windows. I only see people using it who have no idea they can also download others to work with, like my mom.
hahahah! i saw this post on Google +… Poor internet explorer… but it's true though… LOL
This is superb and pretty. All three most famous internet browser are situated with each other.
I count 5 …
Love it. I actually laughed at it. It is very right…that thing is incredibly slow most of the time and a huge pain for designers and developers. There was an Australian retail website that went as far as introducing a Internet Explorer tax on all purchases. I found the link to the article here.
Ha! That's brilliant.
seems like almost everyone's older parents have ie
Well, most of the older people just know where to click to "get to the internet". And IE comes be default, so they are used to it.
hehe, great! However as many said before me, FF is slow too.
Here is something you might find useful in facebook , I hope you guys like it.
Ya ofcourse, whatever browser we use, it should be user friedly. Slow processing browser irritates. Almost everybody says, FF is slow but that is the only good browser for SEO bookmarkings in my perspection.


text:
Nadia Churchill-Gilstrap of Princeton was named 21st Century Scholar at the Society's seventh annual dinner at Deer Park Country Club.
Along with the honor, Churchill-Gilstrap, Princeton High School's 2012 valedictorian, will receive $3,500 for tuition, fees, books and expenses.
Four other finalists: Michayla Fassino of Peru (special education), Alexander Groh of Ottawa (petroleum engineering), Maximilian Halm of La Salle (political science) and April Kutz of Oglesby (mechanical engineering) will each receive $2,500.
Honorable mention winners Alexandria Braboy of Dalzell (journalism), Candace Hall of Streator (nursing), Jeffrey Hamilton of Ottawa (molecular engineering), Hannah Sons of Dalzell (speech pathology) and Joseph Sydlowski of Peru (engineering physics), will each receive $1,000.
Churchill-Gilstrap will transfer to the University of Illinois next fall before moving on to Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine or the University of Chicago's Pritzker School of Medicine to specialize in reconstructive plastic surgery.
In her first year at IVCC, Churchill-Gilstrap completed 45 hours with a perfect 4.0 GPA. At Princeton High School, she was an award-winning painter and sculptor.
Honors Program advisor Adam Oldaker said, "Her dual interest in the sciences and the arts perfectly demonstrates her Renaissance spirit. In this world, there are some very fortunate and gifted people who can achieve success at any endeavor they undertake – Nadia is one of them."
The 21st Century Scholars Society rewards IVCC's most promising second-year students – all having a minimum GPA of 3.5 as well as extensive college involvement and community service.
The Society is currently made up of 26 members each contributing $500 annually to fund the scholarships.
For information on joining the Society, call Fran Brolley at (815) 224-0466.


text:
A Comparative Study of Ideational Grammatical Metaphor in Business and Political Texts
Grammatical Metaphor constitutes a key building block of Systemic Linguistics and has a great contribution to the theory of metaphor. This paper addresses itself to the first type of grammatical metaphor, i.e. the ideational one. In ideational metaphors, lexico-grammatical features constitute alternative ways of constructing a picture of reality. The main objective of the current work is to analyze a corpus comprising three business and three political texts. . The texts were analyzed to see how many instances of ideational metaphor are used and what the respective frequencies are, as well as the role and function of ideational metaphor in business and political texts. The analysis brought out the finding that ideational metaphor has indeed pervaded political and business texts. Nominalization has been used in both of the genres, turning the process (verb) to a concept (noun). As a consequence, the tone of the writing sounds more abstract and more formal. In business, the instances of grammatical metaphor aren't coloured and fuelled by relations of power and ideology. In politics, however, they evidence indicators of uneven power by discursive agents of dominance. Some implications accrue to these findings, as well as some qualitative conclusions, in reference to discourse and translation studies, or teachers involved in writing instruction, to name only a few.
Full Text:PDF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5296/ijl.v4i2.1853
Copyright (c)
International Journal of Linguistics ISSN 1948-5425 Email: email@example.com
Copyright © Macrothink Institute ISSN 1948-5425
To make sure that you can receive messages from us, please add the 'macrothink.org' domain to your e-mail 'safe list'. If you do not receive e-mail in your 'inbox', check your 'bulk mail' or 'junk mail' folders.


text:
This specification is available in the following formats: single page HTML, multipage HTML, web developer edition.
Copyright © 2012 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.
This specification defines the 5th major version, first minor revision of the core language of the World Wide Web: the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). In this version, new features continue to be introduced to help Web application authors, new elements continue to be introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention continues to be given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability.
This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
If you wish to make comments regarding this document in a manner that is tracked by the W3C, please submit them via using our public bug database. If you cannot do this then you can also e-mail feedback to email@example.com (subscribe, archives), and arrangements will be made to transpose the comments to our public bug database. All feedback is welcome.
The bulk of the text of this specification is also available in the WHATWG HTML Living Standard, under a license that permits reuse of the specification text.
The working groups maintains a list of all bug reports that the editors have not yet tried to address and a list of issues for which the chairs have not yet declared a decision. These bugs and issues apply to multiple HTML-related specifications, not just this one.
Implementors should be aware that this specification is not stable. Implementors who are not taking part in the discussions are likely to find the specification changing out from under them in incompatible ways. Vendors interested in implementing this specification before it eventually reaches the Candidate Recommendation stage should join the aforementioned mailing lists and take part in the discussions.
This is a work in progress! For the latest updates from the HTML WG, possibly including important bug fixes, please look at the editor's draft instead.
Publication as a First Public Working Draft does not imply endorsement by the W3C Membership. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to cite this document as other than work in progress.
The latest stable version of the editor's draft of this specification is always available on the W3C CVS server. There are various ways to follow the change history for this specification:
The W3C HTML Working Group is the W3C working group responsible for this specification's progress along the W3C Recommendation track. This specification is the 17 December 2012 Working Draft.
Work on this specification is also done at the WHATWG. The W3C HTML working group actively pursues convergence with the WHATWG, as required by the W3C HTML working group charter. There are various ways to follow this work at the WHATWG:
svn checkout http://svn.whatwg.org/webapps/
This document was produced by a group operating under the 5 February 2004 W3C Patent Policy. W3C maintains a public list of any patent disclosures made in connection with the deliverables of the group; that page also includes instructions for disclosing a patent. An individual who has actual knowledge of a patent which the individual believes contains Essential Claim(s) must disclose the information in accordance with section 6 of the W3C Patent Policy.
meta elements
Document object
id attribute
title attribute
lang and
xml:lang attributes
translate attribute
attribute (XML only)
dir attribute
class attribute
style attribute
data-* attributes
html element
head element
title element
base element
link element
meta element
style element
script element
script elements
script elements and XSLT
noscript element
body element
article element
section element
nav element
aside element
h5, and
h6 elements
hgroup element
header element
footer element
address element
p element
hr element
pre element
blockquote element
ol element
ul element
li element
dl element
dt element
dd element
figure element
figcaption element
div element
a element
em element
strong element
small element
s element
cite element
q element
dfn element
abbr element
time element
code element
var element
samp element
kbd element
sub and
sup elements
i element
b element
u element
mark element
ruby element
rt element
rp element
bdi element
bdo element
span element
br element
wbr element
ins element
del element
ins and
del elements
img element
iframe element
embed element
object element
param element
video element
audio element
source element
track element
AudioTrackList and
VideoTrackList objects
canvas element
canvas elements
map element
area element
table element
caption element
colgroup element
col element
tbody element
thead element
tfoot element
tr element
td element
th element
td and
th elements
form element
fieldset element
legend element
label element
input element
type attribute
type=text) state and Search state (
input element attributes
maxlength attribute
size attribute
readonly attribute
required attribute
multiple attribute
pattern attribute
min and
max attributes
step attribute
list attribute
placeholder attribute
input element APIs
button element
select element
datalist element
optgroup element
option element
textarea element
keygen element
output element
progress element
meter element
name attribute
dirname attribute
maxlength attribute
disabled attribute
autofocus attribute
inputmode attribute
autocomplete attribute
details element
summary element
command element
menu element
a element to define a command
button element to define a command
input element to define a command
option element to define a command
command element to define
a command
command attribute on
command elements to define a command indirectly
accesskey attribute on a
label element to define a command
accesskey attribute on a
legend element to define a command
accesskey attribute to define a command on other elements
dialog element
a and
area elements
Window object
Window object
WindowProxy object
History interface
Location interface
multipart/x-mixed-replace resources
javascript: URL scheme
Document objects, and
Window objects
Window object
Navigator object
External interface
hidden attribute
tabindex attribute
accesskey attribute
contenteditable content
designMode IDL attribute
DataTransfer interface
DataTransferItemList interface
DataTransferItem interface
DragEvent interface
draggable attribute
dropzone attribute
hr element
fieldset element
button element
details element
input element as a text entry widget
input element as domain-specific widgets
input element as a range control
input element as a color well
input element as a checkbox and radio button widgets
input element as a file upload control
input element as a button
marquee element
meter element
progress element
select element
textarea element
keygen element
title attribute
applet element
marquee element
web+ scheme prefix


text:
LEE COUNTY, Fla. -
A church van traveling from Lauderhill to Tampa rolled over on I-75 near Fort Myers.A man is dead after authorities say a church van traveling from Lauderhill to Tampa rolled over on I-75 near Fort Myers Saturday morning.
Florida Highway Patrol reported Nostra Damas, 20, died in the 7:30 a.m. crash on the I-75 northbound lane in Lee County.
Passengers two-year-old Claudine Aveske, Evelie Jean Francois, 39, Ose Elian, 22, Gertha Petit Frere, 62, were critically injured.
Maranatha of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 5770 W. Oakland Park Blvd., in Lauderhill owns the van that was involved in the crash.
Dortha Philidor, who witnessed the crash, told Local 10's Donnie Dallas that there were three vans going to the Seventh-day Adventist Church Florida Conference in Tampa.
When the vans' left rear tire blew up, she said, the driver lost control. The van then rolled over and several people were sent flying out of the van, she said.
The crash remains under investigation.


text:
Patio Swing Chair
Product Description:
1. Brand name: GP TOPARTS
2. Color/Size: customized
3. Chair: best woven plastic rattan exported from India and Singapore, which can make sure the product is natural, eco-friendly with no harm to human and environment.
4. Frame & Base: high quality commercial grade aluminum which can ensure the whole furniture's stability as well as the flexibility.
5. Cushion & Pillow: 80% nylon+20% cotton, anti-UV, fireproof or waterproof.
Garden, Patio, Bedroom, Hotel, Cafe, Bookshop, both Outdoor and Indoor, etc.
Pictures for Reference:
Packaging & Shipping:
Packing: According to your request, normally packing in carton/ poly bags.
Shipping: 25-30 days after placing the order if quantity is 1*40HQ.
Cushion Color Optional:
Our Advantages:
1. we are original manufacturer with our own factory for over 20 years experiences engaging in rattan furnitures indoors and outdoors, handmade wooden crafts&willow baskets as well as PE rattan swing chairs, which enables us a better quality control, delivery time and prompt professional after-sale service;
2. we have flexibility in dealing with customized model, rattan, cushion, and can provide timely photos of customerized items to ensure no misunderstanding before the delivery;
3. we have our own R&D team, international business team and after-sales service team, ensuring no risks after the purchase;
4. we have always insisted on doing business based on quality, trust and mutual benifits. We trust our customer as partners, highly appreciate our friendship, and try our best to help them to expand their business.
Looking forward to receiving your inquiry and visit us!


text:
In late 2007, filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost sensed a story unfolding as they began to film the life of Ariel's brother, Nev. They had no idea that their project would lead to the most exhilarating and unsettling months of their lives. A reality thriller that is a shocking product of our times, Catfish is a riveting story of love, deception and grace within a labyrinth of online intrigue. (Source)
Find more trailers and clips on our homepage.


text:
Winter Park Mountain Lodge Reviews
Mountain Lodge is a Lovely clean Hotel. The restaurant has lots of choice and good value. It is lovely to sit by those large windows watching the mountains knowing I would be at the top of them in an hour. It felt great. The bedrooms were clean and we felt like we had enough space; the Americans don't do small. So their smallest room was great. The hotel had a swimming pool and Jacuzzi. They were amazing, a must after a days skiing and you can watch the mountains again while you bubble away. I'm looking forward to my return.
Simon Rolfe
I found Winter Park Mountain Lodge to be a bit tired and scruffy, but the staff were very friendly and helpful. We had a mountain view room - the view was great but the noisy ventilation did keep us awake on several nights. Although the hotel is close to the slopes (as the crow flies) you still need to take the shuttle bus across the highway to the base of the mountain. The bus runs all day (about every 20 mins) so this isn't a big problem though. They have a decent bar, pool table was broken when we were there though, but the restaurant was very average - we took the shuttle into the village to eat most nights. At best I think you should view this hotel as 'cheap and cheerful'.
Apres Ski: 2/5
Accommodation & Value: 3/5
Mr Robert Rolls


text:
Rocky Creek Winery
Rocky Creek Winery is one of our premier local wineries on Vancouver Island. These hand crafted fine wines represent some of the best vintages created on the island. The lovely picturesque setting makes for a perfect destination to visit, make sure you take some time to taste the delicious wines!Read More
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text:
As a third generation baker, Pedro Diaz has seen, baked and tasted nearly every pastry imaginable. After all, his father and grandfather were bakers in Cuba and 10 members of his family are bakers.
But Diaz, 47, a native of Havana, Cuba, who left the island in 1980, never imagined the "taste" of success he is enjoying now as he teaches the art of baking to adults with disabilities in the Miami Coral Park Adult/JRE Lee Bakery Arts Program in South Miami.
The Miami-Dade County Public School program, which currently has 13 students (the program can accommodate a maximum of 15 students at one time), is unique in Florida and is believed to be one of only a handful of similar programs nationwide. It began in January of this year and the students have drawn rave reviews for their tasty creations.
"We are teaching these students the basics of baking and pastry arts, from preparation to measuring to completion — everything they need to know to be able to work in a bakery," said Diaz, a former bakery employee and manager for 19 years for Publix.
"When they leave here, they'll have the skills they need to succeed, whether working in a bakery for a large grocery chain or in a small, neighborhood bakery. They all already have the passion — and love for baking — and that is the basic ingredient for success."
And Diaz knows about the passion for baking. After working with his father and grandfather in Cuba, Diaz came to Miami where he worked part time — as a 16-yearold helping his family make ends meet — in a bakery for Extra Supermarkets. He later received his GED from Hialeah- Miami Lakes High School and now, years later, finds himself running a program helping others with life skills.
Of course, most of Diaz's students in the bakery program — who come from the Florida Division of Vocational Rehabilitation — have autism, which provides Diaz with some unique challenges.
"I always keep in mind that I need to go 'inside'their world to understand their special needs to understand how to make them a success," said Diaz, who has developed a variety of unique measuring systems to help some of the more challenged students. "I look upon my students as my children. And a parent always finds a way to help his children."
It is this willingness to go over and beyond the "job description" that lead to Diaz's selection as the instructor for the program.
"I had worked with Pedro years earlier and knew about his passion for baking and teaching," said Robin I. Matusow, a 20-year veteran of the MDCPS Adults With Disabilities Program who currently coordinates the bakery program. "I knew how good he was and when we got approval for the program, I recommend him for the job." The challenge facing Diaz and the program now is funding. To bring the current workspace — formerly the kitchen and cafeteria at JRE Lee — up to industry standards, the program needs approximately $75,000.
The program, which has received in-kind donations from local bakeries that realize the value of the training the students are receiving, but a major overhaul of the space is needed. A major supermarket chain has already been approached.
"These students are receiving first class quality training," said Robert Novak, principal of Miami Coral Park Adult, the program's sponsor. "What we need now to make the program completely successful — and be a model for similar programs around the state and nation — is funding to bring the space up to industry standards."
For more information about the program, contact Novak at 305-226-6565.


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Lentil Pate
Submitted by: Courtney
1 can (15 1/2 oz.) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked lentils
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons dry sherry or lemon juice
2 teaspoons instant vegetarian chicken-flavored bouillon granules
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon pepper
Combine all ingredients in food processor. Process until smooth. Spoon mixture into small crock or serving bowl. Refrigerate pate overnight to blend flavors. Serve as a dip for vegetables, chips or as a spread on crackers.


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1993: Westley Allan Dodd, child molester
January 5th, 2010 Headsman
Just after midnight this date in 1993, Washington state carried out the first legal hanging in the U.S. since 1965.
Pornstached child molester Westley Allan Dodd is the textbook "incorrigible sex offender" case study. That's certainly how Dodd himself asked us to interpret him.
"I have said all along the system does not work," he wrote of his long career in pedophilia, notoriously unrehabilitated by the criminal justice system. "I knew what I was doing, I knew it was wrong. I knew I could get the death penalty if caught."
From the usual humble beginnings in teenage child-groping, and despite several arrests over the years, Dodd devolved into abducting young boys to actualize horrific fantasies he did not scruple to jot in his journal.
Incident 3 will die maybe this way: He'll be tied down as Lee was in Incident 2. Instead of placing a bag over his head as had previously planned, I'll tape his mouth shut with duct tape. Then, when ready, I'll use a clothespin or something to plug his nose. That way I can sit back, take pictures and watch him die instead of concentrating on my hands or the rope tight around his neck — that would also eliminate the rope burns on the neck . . . I can clearly see his face and eyes now…
He suspects nothing now. Will probably wait until morning to kill him. That way his body will be fairly fresh for experiments after work. I'll suffocate him in his sleep when I wake up for work (if I sleep).
In short: not the nicest guy, though also a monster as much pathetic as diabolic.
Dodd pleaded guilty to his three sex murders, and fought for his own execution. The state of Washington obliged him in a speedy three years.
Although the Evergreen State had lethal injection on the books, Dodd also availed his right to select its holdover alternative method, hanging.
Those kids didn't get a nice, neat painless easy death. Why should I?
Which justification's nobility (such as it is) is considerably more socially gratifying than, say, a hankering for the gallows' post-mortem priapism.
(He didn't get everything, though: they turned down his request to televise the hanging.)
Not content with his headline-grabbing mode of departing the world, Dodd had a hand in a statutory milestone, too. His stranger-danger nightmare case surfacing in the fall of 1989 was part of the background that drove Washington to pass the nation's first sexually violent predator law, the Community Protection Act of 1990.*
Trutv.com's Crime Library has a good deal more about the mind of this particular maniac.
* It was really Earl Shriner's crimes more than Dodd's that led most directly to the new law, which licensed indefinite "civil commitment" of sexually violent predators after the completion of their criminal sentences.
On this day..
- 2011: Yaqub Ali, stabber - 2020
- 546: Croesus - 2019
- 1866: Charles Carrington - 2018
- 1963: Stanislaw Jaros, twice-failed assassin - 2017
- 1945: Robert E. Folkes, the first condemned man to see the Oregon gas chamber - 2016
- 1900: Geronimo Parra and Antonio Flores, the last hanged in El Paso - 2015
- 1771: Captain David Ferguson, for the murder of his cabin-boy - 2014
- 1655: Jane Hopkins, Bermuda's last known witch execution - 2013
- 1638: Four Frenchmen in effigy - 2012
- 1917: Sub-Lt. Edwin Dyett, shot at dawn - 2011
- 1527: Felix Manz, the first Anabaptist martyr - 2009
- 1463: Not François Villon - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Capital Punishment,Common Criminals,Crime,Death Penalty,Execution,Hanged,Milestones,Murder,Serial Killers,Sex,USA,Volunteers,Washington
Tags: 1990s, 1993, january 5, westley allan dodd
19 thoughts on "1993: Westley Allan Dodd, child molester"
I was 11 years old when this sick excuse for a human being walked by my house near 39th ave. in Portland and saw me and my sister and friend through a window. He waited for us to walk out of the house (we were unaware) and do followed us three blocks where he exposed himself to us. We ran to the nearest school where we told the Principal, whom did not believe us. I believe this was right before the innocent 4-yr old little boy was abducted by him at Richmond School. It haunts me to this day.
For my money, both a sadist and a masochist. In one sentence he refers to his victim(s) as an "incident" and in the next he uses the child's name; Lee. He seems disassociated in some respects.
Make no mistake, I'm glad he swung and that the prosecutor got his wish; he can't fantasize or relive his crimes behind prison bars. On the other hand, creepy people like me have a morbid fascination with evil, and this is one brain I'd love to pick. Perhaps to understand where the self inflicted punishment in his mind ends and the punishment in others begins.
Like I said, morbidly fascinating….
What the heck, stretch his neck….
Dodd was a sick piece of shit. I remember this from the news. Now that I am the mother of a 10 yr old boy this makes my heart break the loss and helpless feeling these victim's families felt. The pain and anger must of been unbearable !!So glad he was caught so soon before more little boys wearnt hurt/tortured/killed. Hearing what he did to them still makes me cry and feel sick! I still think of these poor families and wonder how they move on. Hope Dodd is roasting in HELL !!!!
Haha, someone didn't get enough hugs as a kid. I know Sam and he is telling the truth. Typical New Yorker.
dodd's execution was televised live, in a way. It was done in silhouette, behind what appeared to be a sheet. I happened to be in a bar here in Tacoma the night he was executed and I watched it. afterward everyone in the bar started clapping and cheering, including me. The consensus seemed to be good riddance to really bad rubbish. Does that qualify as a public hanging?
Bullshit Sam!
U may have lived in the house he once lived in. I might even consider the photo comment. But U took it to unbelievable lengths when you said he basically had tunnells under his house.
What a cafone!!
Seriously, if there was ever tunnels or "old passage ways" as U call it under the house, HE would have talked about it in a braggadocious way because thats what sociopaths do! Im sure he would have bragged about it all to the police and the police Im sure would have found those and probably even the photos that U speak of.
If U havent noticed, Wesley Dodd is fairly honest about shit when asked. And no I dont mean his comment about being executed in a way that isnt comfortable since his victims didnt get comfort when they died. Wesley Dodd was a true blue sexual sadist and also masochist and experiencing pain right before death would have been the ultimate "get off" for him Im sure. He merely manipulated his way to the hanging gallows on that one.
Anyhoo, U sir are a liar. Have a seat.
Yes, the ACLU fought like heck to save him, and Dodd actually told them that he would file suit against them if they continued to lobby to try and stop his execution. That was the ONLY good thing about this guy: he knew he had to be put to death and was going to fight anyone who attempted to stop that act.
i lived in his house after he died and we found pictures of little kids behind the dry wall and old passage ways under the house
Thank God the judge had the good sense to execute this miserable excuse for a human being. There is no one more evil than one who so enjoys killing and torturing innocent children. Admittedly Mr. Dodd asked to be executed, as he admitted he would never stop and executing him was the only way to protect kids. He admitted what I have always believed…a sexual deviate can NEVER be cured or rehabilitated. At least there is one less in the world.
Thanks for those links! I'm checking them out right now.
this is how every sexual predetor should be handled.Not after the 2nd or 3rd offense but the 1st.Thats just it ,they are PREDETORS.They are sick and incureable.This is beyond any drug,alchol or other mental illness.Someone who can violate another human being in such away especially our inocent children is a threat to all mankind and will always be.Every state should be hanging all these sick assholes or maybe they should be thrown to the wolves.Like that Jeffery Dhamer,he got his just desserts and because of that these scums of the earth are protected.Fuck em kill them all.Usually a 1st offensive is 7 years 4 w/good behavior,in Texas.I've seen some cases jsut probation for molesting a 3 and 5 year old.I wonder:if the mother of these victims put a bullet in these sorry bastards heads if her children would still at least have the comforrt of their mother or would she be locked up…for just 4 years?Of coarse she would,while the pervert walked free,thats if he lived.Of coarse I am not one to judge but we need some better judges out there…I mean how can these sicko's walk free and a 16 year old caught w/weed goes down 2 years.
This man was no loss to mankind. He deserved to be hanged and a whole lot more!
It says on Wikipedia that this was the last execution by hanging in the U.S. Is this true?
Please tell me there were no bleeding-hearts trying to save this turd's life? Dodd's the kind of guy, that, if you could wake him up after he's been executed the first time, just so you can do it again to him, then maybe, just maybe, justice has been served. In truth, nothing can undo what this vermin did. Duct tape to the mouth and a clothespin to the nose of a child? Unbelievable!


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Tony Award winner Alan Cumming will play Trigorin, the lover to Dianne Wiest's magnetic actress, Arkadina, in Anton Chekhov's 1896 play, The Seagull, at Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street). It is to be directed by Viacheslav Dolgachev, artistic director of the Moscow New Drama Theatre. Previews begin on Feb. 20, with opening night set for March 13.
Written in 1896, The Seagull is widely regarded as Chekhov's first masterpiece, subtly dissecting the affairs of the heart and the demands of a life in the arts, while balancing the comic, the lyric and the tragic.
The most recent major New York production of the play was a 2001 mounting in Central Park directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep and Kevin Kline as Arkadina and Trigorin.
Wiest, a two-time Academy Award winner for Bullets Over Broadway and Hannah and Her Sisters, most recently starred in on the New York stage in Wendy Wasserstein's Third at Lincoln Center and Kathleen Tolan's Memory House at Playwrights Horizons. On television she starred as district attorney Nora Lewin on Law & Order from 2000 to 2002 and will soon be seen in the new HBO series In Treatment.
Cumming received the Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for his performance as the Emcee in Cabaret. He has also been seen on Broadway in The Threepenny Opera and Design for Living. His film work includes co-producing, co-writing, co-directing and co-starring in The Anniversary Party, which won a National Board of Review Award and two Independent Spirit Award nominations. His latest film as director and star is Suffering Man's Charity.


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OAKLAND, Calif., March 14 — Patients who consume high-fat dairy products following breast cancer diagnosis increase their chances of dying from the disease years later, according to a study by Kaiser Permanente researchers.
The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, is the first to examine the relationship between high-fat and low-fat dairy consumption following a diagnosis of breast cancer and long-term breast cancer survival.
Previous studies have shown that higher lifetime exposure to estrogen is a causal pathway to breast cancer. Estrogen levels are believed to be elevated in dairy products consumed in the Western world, because most of its milk comes from pregnant cows. Estrogenic hormones reside primarily in fat, so levels are higher in high-fat than in low-fat dairy products.
The researchers studied a cohort of women who were diagnosed with early-stage, invasive breast cancer between 1997 and 2000, primarily from Kaiser Permanente's Northern California region (83 percent) and the Utah Cancer Registry (12 percent).
Those consuming larger amounts of high-fat dairy (one serving or more per day) had "higher breast cancer mortality as well as higher all-cause mortality and higher non-breast cancer mortality," wrote lead author Candyce H. Kroenke, ScD, MPH, staff scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research, and co-authors.
"Specifically, women consuming one or more servings per day of high-fat dairy had a 64 percent higher risk of dying from any cause and a 49 percent increased risk of dying from their breast cancer during the follow-up period," said Kroenke. The category of high-fat dairy products researchers tracked included cream, whole milk, condensed or evaporated milk, pudding, ice cream, custard, flan, and also cheeses and yogurts that were not low-fat or non-fat.
In general, the women studied reported that they consumed low-fat milk and butter most often, and they consumed relatively limited amounts of low-fat dairy desserts, low-fat cheese and high-fat yogurt. Overall, low-fat dairy intake was greater (median 0.8 servings per day) than high-fat dairy (median 0.5 servings per day).
The study found an association between high-fat dairy and breast cancer mortality, but no association with low-fat dairy products and breast cancer outcomes.
"High-fat dairy is generally not recommended as part of a healthy diet," said senior author Bette J. Caan, DrPH, research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. "Switching to low-fat dairy is an easy thing to modify."
Women entered into the cohort approximately two years after their breast cancer diagnosis. At the beginning of the study, 1,893 women completed a self-administered food-frequency questionnaire, and 1,513 of these women completed a follow-up questionnaire six years later. They were followed for 12 years on average following study entry.
The women were asked how often they consumed dairy foods during the previous year; what portion sizes they generally consumed; which products they ate, including milk, cheese, dairy desserts, yogurt, and beverages made with milk (such as hot chocolate or lattes); and whether the dairy products were full fat, low fat or nonfat.
Of the total sample, 349 women had a recurrence of breast cancer and 372 died of any cause, 189 (50.8 percent) of them from breast cancer.
This research was part of the Life After Cancer Epidemiology (LACE) study, one of several efforts by investigators with the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research to consider the role of lifestyle factors such as nutrition, exercise and social support on long-term breast cancer survival and recurrence. While hundreds of studies have examined the role of lifestyle factors in cancer risk and prevention, this study is one of a small but growing number that focus on the role of lifestyle factors after a breast cancer diagnosis.
For example, the Pathways study of breast cancer survivorship, based at the Division of Research, is collecting and analyzing data about women's genetic background, tumor characteristics and lifestyle choices immediately after diagnosis. Findings from this study, along with the LACE study, are providing objective information to help guide women as they make decisions following a breast cancer diagnosis; among these findings are that soy decreases the risk of breast cancer recurrence, quality of life after diagnosis influences outcomes, and physical activity is beneficial.
Susan E. Kutner, MD, chair of the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Regional Breast Care Task Force, said that the new study bolsters the counseling that Kaiser Permanente gives breast cancer survivors about the importance of a low-fat diet, as well as exercise and weight management, in preventing recurrence of the disease. "Women have been clamoring for this type of information," Kutner said. "They're asking us, 'Tell me what I should eat?' With this information, we can be more specific about recommending low-fat dairy products."
Authors of the study, in addition to Kroenke and Caan, were Marilyn L. Kwan, PhD, and Adrienne Castillo, MS, RD, of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research; and Carol Sweeney, PhD, of the University of Utah Division of Epidemiology.
The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health funded this study (grant R01CA129059).


text: The Vizz is feature-loaded with three distinct beam profiles easily accessed via a simple press, hold, or double press of the button. One Maxbright LED creates a powerful 165 lumen spot beam for long-throw illumination, a pair of white Ultrabright LEDs deliver a dimmable flood beam, and two red Ultrabright LEDs handle close-range lighting while preserving night adjusted vision. When not in use the Vizz can be locked to prevent accidental turn on, and the translucent switch acts as a low battery indicator. As with all of PTEC Professional Series headlamps, the Vizz is waterproof (IPX7) and is equipped with regulated circuitry making the Vizz lithium battery compatible.


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No time or energy to post as of late. Moving to San Fran has been a big adjustment, one that leaves little time for much else right now. We'll see how things pan out.
An image from a 'welcome to the neighbourhood' exercise here at work, devised and overseen by none other than the great Mark Andrews.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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Remember that one episode of Adventure Time where Finn and Jake played "Card Wars" against each other? Soon you'll be able to do that to. Play "Card Wars", not remember the episode. Not that you won't remember. Ahem. Card games, and digital card games are coming, yo.
Coming on Wednesday, February 19 to a specialty card retailer or that one Walmart aisle near you, Cryptozoic's Adventure Time: Card Wars is a customizable card game in which players use decks of cards to battle each other, just like they did in that thing. There'll be two boxes at $20 per, one with Jake's Corn Deck vs. Finn's Blue Plains Deck, one with BMO's Useless Swamp Deck Vs. Lady Rainicorn's Sandy Lands Deck. It's like magic! Actually it sounds a lot like Magic.
Each turn, players can spend Action Points on Creatures, Spells and Locations. Some creatures have special FLOOP abilities that activate their special ability. Other creatures have combat abilities that will aid greatly in players' efforts to reduce their opponent's Hit Points to zero. The player who successfully does that first is declared the Cool Guy, and wins the game.
Yep, sounds about right.
Meanwhile, in mobile gaming world, D3Publisher will be releasing Adventure Time: Card Wars: The Mobile Game. Developed by King Fu Factory, the game features 20 playable characters, craftable cards, tons of creatures, spells and abilities, tournament battles, and a holographic game board that sounds like the bee's knees.
That'll be $3.99 with in-app purchases. Sounds like the better deal. Oh wait, the physical card game will contain download codes for the mobile one. Going to have to buy them both. Sorry.


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Foxborough, MA – Playoff positioning hangs in the balance on Sunday as the New England Revolution play host to the Philadelphia Union at Gillette Stadium.
Philadelphia finds itself in third place in the crowded Eastern Conference with 38 points from 25 matches, and a win on the road on Sunday will go a long way toward creating some much-needed separation in the standings for Philadelphia.
Last time out, Philadelphia did well to hold Red Bull New York to a scoreless draw at Red Bull Arena, giving the Union their first-ever point on the road against New York.
The Union sat back and absorbed pressure from New York for almost the entire 90 minutes, but they did create the best chance of the game in the 73rd minute when midfielder Sebastien Le Toux smashed a shot off the crossbar.
Defensively, goalkeeper Zac MacMath was called upon to make three saves to preserve his ninth clean sheet of the season, and four in the club's last five matches.
"I think it says a lot about our team, the way we've approached games this year and our mentality coming into a place where we haven't even gotten a point, ever," manager John Hackworth said. "Especially against a Red Bull team that I thought was at full strength tonight and was excellent for long stretches of that match.
"Credit to our guys for really doing a good job defensively. The longer that game went on, I felt like we opened them up a little bit and even had some chances to find one at the end."
Union striker Jack McInerney will attempt to break out of his scoring slump against the Revs, a team against which he has had success in the past. He scored the only goal of the match against the Revs at PPL Park back in March, and nodded home a 90th minute winner last season.
New England, meanwhile, is coming off a 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire last week and needs a victory over the Union to jump into the final playoff spot in the East.
The Revs opened the scoring against Chicago nine minutes after the halftime interval. Chris Tierney played a long diagonal ball over the top and Juan Agudelo raced behind the defense, spotted Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson off his line and swept the ball over the top of him with a clever backheel.
"That was a great goal, and that's what he brings. He brings that little bit that you need. You can see why the premier leagues are asking for him," said goalkeeper Matt Reis. "[Juan Agudelo] does all the things well. He holds the ball up well, he gets behind well, takes people on. He's got the complete package."
New England then put the result away in stoppage time when Kelyn Rowe made no mistake as he pounced on a rebound in the box from a saved Saer Sene shot.
But the Revs will be shorthanded on Sunday as Sene received a red card after the final whistle for a scuffle with Chicago defender Bakary Soumare.
In nine all-time meetings between the clubs, Philadelphia holds a 5-1-3 record, but New England earned its first-ever win over the Union in the sides last match on April 27.


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Part-Time Paradise
Mountain towns echo with construction activity, but the resulting homes lie silent much of the year
The Nest in the West End — Adorable cottage in central Aspen's West End. Walk to music tent or trail. Expansion plans done to add 5th bedroom. Huge old pine trees. Built 1953. Remodeled 1996. $2,375,000.
ASPEN, Colorado — It's a sunny August day in Aspen, and the West End, a neighborhood of multimillion-dollar Victorian-style homes, hums with activity. Residents and visitors stroll the streets toward the music festival tent a few blocks away, while families on bikes pedal toward the Rio Grande Trail. Gardeners tend lovely flowerbeds. A caterer delivers gourmet provisions for a cocktail party while helpers set up "valet parking" signs.
"We came for two weeks in 1968, stayed for five, and never stopped coming back," Joan Harris, a Chicago philanthropist who is chair of Aspen's Music Festival board, says. Her feelings about her family's second hometown echo that of nearly every part-timer: "Aspen is a refuge. It's the most healing, comforting place I know, aside from the fact that it's one of the most gorgeous places in the world. Everybody is just open and unguarded and available and, well, loving."
Fast forward to autumn. Aside from a television flickering in a window here, and a construction crew hammering a new wing onto a house there, the West End is shuttered and lonely. Almost everyone, it seems, has left, returned to other homes in distant cities. "There are more bears than people," laughs full-time resident Steve Goldenberg, surveying the deserted streets. Another resident calls the West End, with its rows of empty houses, "the home museum."
It's the same story from Vail to Telluride, from Park City, Utah, to Sun Valley, Idaho. Growing chunks of the West's mountains towns seem to go into deep hibernation for long stretches of the year. Similar clusters are cropping up in places from Bozeman, Mont., to Moab, Utah, and Sedona, Ariz. They are filled with second (and sometimes third or fourth) residences that are only used a few weeks or months out of the year by wealthy owners who really live in Hollywood, Dallas, Chicago or New York.
Led by the baby-boom generation, affluent "equity exiles" have plunked down millions for their condos, townhomes and starter castles in paradise. Demographers, elected officials and planners now recognize a new phenomenon: "hollowed-out" communities, to use the phrase coined by Myles Rademan, Park City's director of public affairs and communication.
A study published in June by the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments validates what many locals — those who stay year-round to "keep the lights on," in Rademan's words — already realize: The second-home business, rather than winter or summer tourism, has burgeoned into the economic engine of these communities. Skiing, shopping and mountain biking are now secondary.
While "seasonal" or vacation homes make up just 5 percent of the homes in the Rocky Mountain West, in some of the most attractive resort towns they now amount to a stunning 60 percent or more of the houses, according to the study. And while the boom in second homes provides jobs, it also brings soaring costs of living, the displacement of local workers, disquieting income disparities and a changing social fabric.
Moreover, Western resort towns are way ahead of the curve. The second-home buying spree is still in its earliest stages; most boomers are 10 years away from making that leisure-life purchase. Tectonic shifts in population lie in the future.
Eagle Pines Drive — A dreamy-grand home. Mt. appropriate yet contemp w/ zen like influence. Set in Aspen grove, privacy-ski-in/out. Textural interiors w/ sensual fabrics. Plush, exquisite! Reflecting infinity pond, 6 bedroom suites, office, playroom, golf rm, 2 media. Furn Negot $14,995,000.
When the Northwest Colorado Council of Governments put Eagle, Pitkin, Summit and Grand counties under a microscope, it apparently became the first entity in the United States to take a detailed look at the second-home boom. The numbers are startling.
According to the study, the percentage of second homes peaks, literally and figuratively, at 67 percent in Summit County, home of Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco and Silverthorne. Summit's altitude, roughly 9,000 feet above sea level, did not stop it from becoming the 10th fastest-growing county in the United States from 1990 to 2000.
Next door, in Eagle County — the second fastest-growing county in the U.S. among the oldest boomer group (ages 49-58) — second homes now make up 49 percent of the total. (The percentage is considerably higher within the county's trophy towns of Vail and Beaver Creek.) In Pitkin County, of which Aspen is the county seat, 55 percent of the houses are second homes, many of them mansions (the average price of a single-family home in Aspen topped $3.65 million this summer). A whopping 42 percent of their owners had at least a third home somewhere else.
Who are these people? As a group, second-home owners are mostly older adults, empty-nesters who are vastly more affluent than full-time residents. In Pitkin County, four out of 10 part-timers have incomes of over $500,000, while almost half of the locals make less than $100,000. "When I look around, I see my 'Detroit' — that's our industry, (second homes)," says Park City's Rademan. And the homes are just the beginning, he adds: "These people are paying for my kids' education."
Indeed they are. In the four Colorado counties covered by the Council of Governments study, the building and servicing of second homes generated almost $1.8 billion of the $5.3 billion outside dollars that flooded in last year. The building phase of each second home creates almost 19 new jobs, though by definition they are short-term ones. Once built, the same home creates almost two new jobs, as the part-time residents go out to dinner; buy ski clothes, lift passes and concert tickets; and hire everyone from an interior designer to a landscaper to an aromatherapist. The result: more than 31,600 full- and part-time jobs created in the four counties.
Craig Turner and his wife, Madonna, are typical part-timers. A commercial real estate developer in Lexington, Ky., Turner, 51, owns two vacation houses, one in Charleston, S.C., and the other at Cordillera, a gated community in the mountains overlooking the Eagle River Valley near Beaver Creek Resort. He and his wife, who have two grown daughters, first came to the Colorado mountains 13 years ago to ski, but grew to appreciate golfing and other summer outdoor pursuits as well. They could have settled anywhere, but the secluded beauty of Cordillera and the access provided by Eagle's regional airport suited them. They built their 4,500 square-foot home here in 1996.
A Harley Davidson aficionado, Turner, with a friend, started a motorcycle club at Cordillera. This year, it sponsored its first charity golf tournament, raising $75,000 for various local nonprofit groups. Even though his primary address is thousands of miles away, Turner says, "I feel like a local when I'm here." He believes that part-timers are "a tremendous asset to the valley. People like me don't put a burden on the services." He's right, up to a point; second homeowners generally are not big users of local medical, educational or senior citizen facilities.
Turner's motorcycle club buddy, Bob Schmidt, a former commodities trader who now lives full time in Cordillera, adds, "If it weren't for the second-home owners, the restaurants wouldn't be operating, or the golf courses." Or a few other establishments in Eagle County, for that matter. The Shaw Cancer Center in Edwards, for example, was started with the help of a $13 million gift from the late Harold W. Shaw, a Dayton, Ohio, business executive.
Even locals who worry about the tide of wealth washing over their towns acknowledge that the generosity of part-time residents is responsible for health, recreation and arts facilities they might not otherwise have. In Aspen, few have been more active than Joan Harris. The first thing she did when she got to Aspen years ago, she said, was to go to hear a concert under the big music festival tent. She met her second husband, Irving Harris, who died Sept. 25 at the age of 94, in Aspen, and their involvement with the Music Associates culminated in their donating a lead grant of $1 million for the building of Harris Hall, the state-of-the-art chamber music venue that now sits, largely underground, next to the tent.
Some longtime residents have capitalized on the second-home boom as real estate agents, contractors and home-security providers. More than 32 years ago, Bill Stirling came to Aspen on a sabbatical from teaching Vietnam vets. He helped start Aspen's peace movement and its branch of the civil rights group CORE. He served as the town's mayor for eight years and went into real estate and property management. "Never in my wildest imagination did I dream that's what I would do for the majority of my life," he says.
Other, newer arrivals are reaping the same opportunities. Frank Bauer, a 59-year-old Florida businessman, started a home security business, Proguard Protection, four years ago in Aspen. He says his business has doubled every year since, with clients paying up to $100,000 to install and monitor security systems at their dream houses. Proguard has prospered, he says, because insurance policies on "retreat-type houses" require "professional, unique protection" far beyond the needs of "the standard tract-type home and Mr. USA." These policies typically call for elaborate technological surveillance and monitoring devices such as cameras, or even regular drive-by patrols. When owners are using the houses, they sometimes request bodyguards.
In fact, according to the Council of Governments study, nearly 1,400 of the estimated 19,000 jobs in Pitkin County are in the real estate and property-management industry.
West End — One of Aspen's most admired homes. Exquisitely restored and lovingly maintained. Spectacular West End property. 6 lots. Includes guest house. Built 1888. Remodeled 1992 4 BR 4 Baths. $9,850,000 — Unfurnished.
The frenzy of second-home building and sales in mountain towns has triggered a variety of aftershocks. Discovering that their own houses and condominiums are appreciating wildly, many locals have opted to cash out, pocket their profits and move "down valley," or to another mountain town that hasn't yet been hit by the boom.
At the same time, these towns have seen the disappearance of what Pitkin County Commissioner Mick Ireland likes to refer to as the old "social contract," in which newcomers "bought an old miner's house and then rented it out to dishwashers like me" in order to cover their mortgage. The new part-timers are so rich, they pay cash. They don't need the income from rent; they prefer to let their homes sit empty when they aren't there.
As a result, the care and tending of second homes has created more jobs, but there are fewer locals to fill them. The need for affordable workforce housing and mass transit has become intense.
Ironically, Aspen and Pitkin County long ago made farsighted decisions to install new sales and real estate transfer taxes to tap the flow of wealth into the community and to mitigate the impacts. The revenue has been used to preserve open space as well as to fund RFTA, the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority — the largest public transit system in Colorado outside of Denver — which ferries down-valley employees to their jobs in Aspen and Snowmass.
Aspen was also the first resort community to build or buy thousands of apartments, townhomes and single-family houses for working people. For decades, the town has been "very aggressive" in adding to its supply of affordable housing, Ireland says. The county also built some units, while employers have been required to provide others.
In addition, since the 1970s, the city of Aspen has regulated the buying and selling of certain private housing with "deed restricted" and "resident-only" housing rules. During Stirling's time as mayor, the city put a moratorium on new development for several months until the city council adopted stronger measures. One of those measures forced builders who tore down old housing to make room for new mansions to replace 40 percent of the destroyed dwellings with units designed for employee use only.
But despite all these measures, Aspen and Pitkin County are still a long way from where they want to be. Pitkin County has 2,408 affordable housing units on its books, according to the latest figures, but they provide living space for just 35 percent of employees countywide. (The goal is to house 60 percent.) Employees commute from as far down valley as Delta — over 100 miles away. There is such a demand for some of the affordable houses in Aspen that families must enter a lottery to buy them.
And "affordable housing," in Aspen, is an awfully elastic term. Behind Aspen's Airport Business Center sits a colorful neighborhood of resident-only single-family homes called the North Forty. It was originally created by John McBride, a developer (and former High Country News board member) as high-end affordable housing for middle-class professionals (HCN, 1/21/02). Amid the mostly painted-wood ranch-style homes sits a red-brick house whose turret makes it stick out like a micro-mansion. The previous owner did enough remodeling to qualify for a larger sales cap than is customary: The house sold recently for a cool $1.2 million.
Similarly, recent activity in Aspen's oldest "affordable housing" neighborhood, Smuggler Mobile Home Park, attests to the steady climb of real estate values. Here, too, owners can only sell to those who qualify as locals, and stringent regulations govern what new structures may look like. Yet the mobile home that once occupied the slab at 101 Maple sold this year for $600,000.
The upshot is that, despite Aspen's valiant efforts, the town has not stemmed the hollowing out. Stirling has witnessed it firsthand, in his own West End neighborhood. "One morning, I woke up and everybody who lived around me was working downtown with me and I knew them all and we were all part of a community. That evening, it seemed like half of them were gone. The next morning, the other half was gone. Before I knew it, I was living in a ghost neighborhood," he says.
West Aspen — 3 Bedrooms. The house is a tear-down. 1041 in place, lovely 4 acre parcel, applied for growth management additional FAR, brand new driveway, views of Mt. Hayden and Castle Creek Valley. A gem $2,600,000 — Unfurnished.
You would think that, with all its rich folk, Aspen would at least be awash in sales tax revenue. Not so: Like other mature Western resorts, it has watched sales tax revenue decline every year since 2000, even though second-home owners spend five times as much on such things as lawn care, home security, and housekeeping, compared with the average American homeowner, and far more money than locals on clothing and recreational equipment.
A 2003 study by BBC Research and Consulting in Denver, commissioned by the Aspen City Council, put its finger on the reasons behind the decline in sales taxes. It described the town's commercial core as "embalmed." The aging population may be good for home furnishings and Brioni suit sales, but it is "difficult for bars and entertainment," BBC reported. More and more hotel rooms, which are subject to a lodging tax, have been condominiumized or torn down. Higher commercial rents have led to the closing of mom-and-pop stores, which are then taken over by Gucci/Prada/Ralph Lauren-style high-end chains. Zoning restrictions, meanwhile, limit revenue-producers like sidewalk cafes and live music.
In the eyes of many merchants, however, the major culprits are real estate-related offices, which have forced out traditional retail stores on the street level of Aspen's commercial hub. At least six timeshare, hotel and real estate offices now occupy space in and next to Aspen's two-block pedestrian mall.
The Aspen Drug Store had served the town for 112 years, but it simply couldn't compete when the landlords upped the rates from about $60 a square foot about five years ago to over $100 now, said one former retailer, who asked to remain anonymous. The space, still sporting its familiar blue beams, is now a display area for Snowmass properties being marketed by Intrawest, the nation's largest winter resort builder. With $1.55 billion in annual revenue, Intrawest owns or operates 10 mountain resorts in the Western United States and Canada, including Whistler Blackcomb, Copper and Squaw.
Real estate offices can "pay top dollar," the former retailer explained, "because (when) you sell one $5 million home, you've paid the rent for the next five years." It has been enough of a change to make some locals — such as columnist Jon Busch, an Aspenite for 35 years — nostalgic for what he might once have regarded as the bad old days. "I used to complain about the proliferation of T-shirt shops in Aspen," he says. "Now, I'd welcome them."
An angry group of merchants marched into the Aspen City Council one day in 2002 to demand a moratorium on such takeovers. This fall, the council finally agreed to ban future ground-floor professional offices for the likes of lawyers, developers and timeshare salesmen.
West End — Remodeled brick victorian miner's cottage. contemporary interiors feature skylights, beautiful bathrooms, separate dining rm, commercial kitchen. lrg upstairs deck w/ views of independence, aspen mtn & highlands. fenced, landscaped backyard. great value. $1,695,000 — Unfurnished
Predicting the future of the West's evolving mountain communities is tricky. "Things are changing quickly," says Linda Venturoni, the author of the Council of Governments study.
Venturoni did her original survey of second-home owners in 2003. This year, she followed up with a survey just of Pitkin County. In one year, the percentage of Pitkin part-timers who said they intend to retire to their Aspen and Snowmass residences doubled, from 7 percent to 14 percent. Perhaps the hollowing-out will be a short-lived phenomenon. Another renaissance could be on the horizon, as part-time residents become full-time retirees.
But such a renaissance would bring its own conundrums. Questions about declining school enrollment and a growing need for health care — not to mention the need for more feng shui experts, wine sommeliers, chauffeurs and estate planners, rather than carpenters and plumbers — could be upon the town before anyone knows it.
But that phase, too, may be relatively short-lived. Today, the oldest boomers, who are fueling the second-home market, demand mountain bike trails and Pilates classes. But a few decades down the road, they may be looking for nursing homes, as Aspen becomes the sleeping quarters for retirees in what could be viewed as a geriatric theme park.
Beyond a 15-unit hospital-related assisted living facility, neither Aspen nor Pitkin County has attempted to build housing for the elderly. (The county does have a busy senior center and an active "meals on wheels" program for shut-ins.) "No one is working in this vineyard. It is a huge untapped market and will come with time," predicts Jim Lamont of the Vail Valley Homeowners Association.
BBC's Ford Frick, who conducted the Aspen tax survey, offers another possible future. He suggests that the "active retiree" phrase may only be an interim one in the lives of the boomer generation. As they approach 75 and 80, the now-vigorous older boomers and early retirees may move again — this time to warmer climates and areas with better elder care.
In fact, according to Colorado state demographer Jim Westkott, retirees already are flocking to places such as Pagosa Springs and Grand Junction — "cooler than Arizona, but warmer than Denver."
However the trends emerge, thoughtful students of these communities, whether they are full- or part-time residents, public officials or merchants, real estate brokers or demographers, do seem to agree on one thing: The boomer tsunami will only swell in the coming years. Now, not in 2010, is the time to start examining how to harness the energy of the coming hordes of wealthy retirees who might prefer to play a productive role in their communities rather than play endless rounds of golf. Now is also the time to consider where the workers who are needed to support these retirees will live.
At 54, dressed in denim overalls, Venturoni is a classic member of the old guard one finds in many Colorado resorts: She is a New Jerseyan who wandered west first to Boulder, then Aspen, before getting married and settling in Dillon. Her husband is a painting contractor, and she says they're members of a vanishing breed of working people who bought into mountain towns before the prices shot sky-high. She and Mick Ireland wryly call the challenge of staying put, "Mountain Survivor," as if it were a TV reality show.
"Right now, there are two workers in (my house) — my husband and I," she says. "When we sell this house, it's not a painting contractor and a (Council of Governments) worker who will be able to afford to buy it." The new owners are quite likely to be retirees, who may participate in charities and do volunteer work, "but one way or the other, the residents won't be participating in the workforce, and that's what these communities really need to be concerned about. Where is the workforce going to be housed?"
Grace Lichtenstein writes from New York, N.Y., and New Mexico. She spent more than 12 years with The New York Times, including three as Rocky Mountain bureau chief based in Denver.
The following sidebar articles accompany this feature story:
- Second homes, by the numbers
- Former Enron CEO took his money and ran
- Can Vail find room for its workers?
- As the town hollows out, one Aspen neighborhood thrives
This article was made possible with support of the EMA Foundation.
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text: I've tried multiple times with no success. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tomas Riveros Schober" <triveros at enable.cl> To: "List for Openmoko community discussion" <community at lists.openmoko.org> Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 8:26:57 AM (GMT-0700) America/Denver Subject: Re: dead battery try again and it will eventually work....the usb cable connected to the computer is usually the way to go...and when it boots, quickly swap it to the ac charger...at least that's what i just did (my neo died during the night) Vince M. Clark escribió: > Well, I'm out of options. I left my fr plugged into the trickle > charger overnight. Still won't boot. > > Then I read this last post, about removing the battery long enough for > a reset, plugging into USB for 5-10 min, unplug/pause/plug back in. > Still won't boot. > > The only thing I haven't done that was recommended in this last post > is to use the latest u-boot. Unfortunately I cannot do this until I > get it to boot. Guess I will wait for my external charger to arrive. > > Should I be concerned that this isn't just a battery issue and maybe > my fr is dead? > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "William Kenworthy" <billk at iinet.net.au> > To: "List for Openmoko community discussion" > <community at lists.openmoko.org> > Sent: Wednesday, October 1, 2008 12:01:52 AM (GMT-0700) America/Denver > Subject: Re: dead battery > > These are my understandings from lots of reading and previous posts > between myself and Andy Green and others on the subject - should all be > in the archives. With 2007.2 I was hit one out of every 3 overnight > suspends ending in a flat battery. At least with 2008.9 its rarer (but > does happen :( > > With the later u-boots, usb default is 100ma as soon as its plugged in. > This unfortunately is less than a running Fr needs. Normally as soon as > the operating system is up enough, it will negotiate up to 500ma with > the host, or in the case of the wall charger, read the sense resistor > and see that 1A is available. When the OS is suspended, the PMU manages > the charge until the battery is charged whereupon it switches off - and > stays off. If the OS is running, it will cycle back on when the battery > level falls to 10-20% (reports vary) as the OS can reset and renegotiate > the charge level. > > If the battery is very low (i.e., the internal fail-safe disconnects > it), remove it from the phone for 30 seconds or so. This allows the > fail-safe to reset (this is what I think happens based on my > observations) so the 100ma can get to the battery, and also reset the > phone hardware - in particular the GSM modem which is directly connected > to the battery and is thought to be root cause by Andy Green - possibly > goes into a wierd state as power drops as well, preventing restart until > reset. > > The power rail of course drops due to the inrush current much more > during startup with a low battery than normal, causing one chip (USB I > think) to detect a dangerously low voltage and issue a shutdown. So you > cant get the phone to boot until the battery has had a few minutes of > charge. > > In my case, USB to my laptop or a desktop machine does it. > Remove/pause/replace battery > plug into USB for 5-10 minutes > remove/pause/replug USB cable and normal boot will happen within a few > seconds. > > The wall charger should work as well, but on my one try it didnt - > possibly because the u-boot wasnt new enough at the time. > > Recommendation - use a late (latest!) u-boot. > > BillK > > > > On Tue, 2008-09-30 at 22:13 -0700, Michael Shiloh wrote: > > > Vince, > > > When my battery died I plugged my phone into the OpenMoko > supplied > > > charger, started it using NOR boot, leaving it at the boot menu > until it > > > timed out (repeat that twice) then I was about to select boot from > the > > > NOR menu and after a few extra seconds the phone booted. > > > > > > -Shawn > > > > > > > I'm confused. I thought that we didn't turn on the charger until we > > booted into Linux. Am I wrong? Do we charge in u-boot, even at a low > rate? > > > > Michael > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Openmoko community mailing list > > community at lists.openmoko.org > > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > -- > William Kenworthy <billk at iinet.net.au> > Home in Perth! > > _______________________________________________ > Openmoko community mailing list > community at lists.openmoko.org > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Openmoko community mailing list > community at lists.openmoko.org > http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community > _______________________________________________ Openmoko community mailing list community at lists.openmoko.org http://lists.openmoko.org/mailman/listinfo/community -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.openmoko.org/pipermail/community/attachments/20081001/39802d16/attachment.htm


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WASHINGTON (AP) - Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his supermodel wife Carla Bruni were clearly taken with President Barack Obama and his family back in 2011.
The Sarkozys gave the Obamas more than US$41,000 (S$50,800) worth of presents that year, becoming the most prolific foreign gift-givers to the first family, documents released Friday show.
The gifts ranged from designer golf and travel bags and fine crystal to soaps and perfumes, according to the State Department's Office of Protocol, which catalogues gifts to United States (US) officials from foreign leaders and publishes an annual accounting, often one or two years late due to processing.
Among the goodies presented to the Obamas by the Sarkozys were a large black Hermes golf accessory bag worth US$7,750, two Baccarat crystal table lamps on silver pedestals worth US$5,500, two Baccarat crystal statuettes depicting golfers, a monogrammed black leather Louis Vuitton business bag, his-and-hers Christian Dior bathrobes and a black leather Dior clutch.
Mr Sarkozy also gave Mr Obama a glass sculpture of Alexander the Great's horse, a Lacoste shirt, a fountain pen and, perhaps in a nod to his tobacco-using days, a Ligne 8 lighter.
But don't expect the Obamas to furnish a post-White House residence with the items, because under law, most non-perishable gifts to the president and other US officials must be to the National Archives or General Services Administration unless the recipient reimburses the Treasury for their estimated value.
The Sarkozys largesse may have been a function of France hosting the Group of Eight summit in 2011, at which the world financial crisis was a main topic of conversation, but most other leaders' gifts to the Obamas were more modest.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, for example, gave the president an autographed Toronto Raptors basketball, while Australian Prime Minister presented him with a green and white iPod shuffle and Australian football jerseys.
One exception was a variety of artwork worth US$13,200 that was given to Mr Obama by the governor of the Mexican state of Oaxaca.
Although the Sarkozys were the top presidential gift-givers in 2011, the single most valuable package of goodies - US$29,450 in art, watches and electronics - was given to former joint chiefs of staff chairman Admiral Mike Mullen by Kuwait's emir.
Deputy Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Morrell may have received the most unusual gift in 2011, a silver hookah worth US$1,500 from a giver whose identity is classified.
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton didn't make out so badly either in 2011, getting a US$3,400 silver bowl and a US$7,425 gold coin and silk scarf from the Sultan of Oman, a US$3,200 strand of pearls from a senior Chinese official and artwork from the President of Tajikistan worth US$2,850.
The most lavish gift given to Mrs Clinton came from the first lady of Zambia, who presented her with an emerald and diamond necklace worth US$7,834, according to the records.


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As we move into the 21st century, it is our responsibility to think of the future of the earth—not for ourselves, but for those who will inherit what my husband and I leave behind when we're gone. If we do not join together and do what's best for this, our only planet, there may not be an environment left in which my five children, and their 25 children's 125 children, can grow up and raise large upper-middle-class families of their own.
Nothing less than the preservation of my descendents' lifestyle itself is at stake.
Imagine a world devoid of pristine wilderness for my progeny to explore on the weekends in the sport-utility-vehicles of the future, leaving my youngest son, Dylan, with nowhere to blow off steam on off-road adventures. Imagine a world in which my beautiful middle son, Connor, is denied his twice-daily half-hour hot showers because of water shortages. Picture what it would be like for my oldest boy Asher, preparing to start his first semester at Stanford, to have to go without basic amenities such as cable television, satellite radio, central air, or massage chairs, all because of the shortsighted squandering by his parents' generation of our non-renewable energy sources today.
Though it seems like a far-off nightmare, this terrible vision is all too possible. Would you want to live in a world where my five children had to endure such horrible deprivations? I know I wouldn't.
If we don't take action now, my daughters Kimmy and Jenna may not be able to blow-dry their hair for 45 minutes to an hour each morning, nor may my future sons-in-law cut their grass atop enormous, diesel-powered riding mowers. In fact, they may not even have lawns—at least not the lush, verdant kind that requires constant watering and pesticide treatment. It's conceivable that one day my five children's spacious yards may be entirely composed of synthetic Astroturf, or—God forbid—those tacky wood chips my sister in Arizona uses.
In a cruel irony, those wood chippings will get more expensive as the world's timber supply continues to shrink.
Encroaching urban sprawl has already begun to spoil the view from the porch of our beautiful new summer home on Lake Wakenaka. Sadly, the view from the bay windows of our first summer home, the one we built at our Woodland Acres property six years earlier, has already been ruined by such unchecked development. Must my children grow up in a world where only one of their parents' summer homes is surrounded by the beauty of nature? It's unthinkable, I know, but we must face facts.
This is to say nothing of the deleterious impact the destruction of our global ecosystems will have on the wildlife my family enjoys hunting. Biodiversity is crucial to another 100 years of deer-, quail-, duck-, bear-, moose-, bobcat-, and bison-shooting summer recreation for my descendents.
We must take steps immediately to devise safe, alternative energy sources that my future offspring can safely consume. If we don't develop new fuels now, there will be none left for those who issue from my loins to burn and continue to burn for all time. I don't want my 625-odd great-grandchildren to have to wait 20 or 30 precious seconds for their toilets to flush. I don't want their 3,125 children to live in a hellish society where they cannot own their own snowmobiles. And I shudder to think that my 15,625 great-great-great-grandchildren may not be able to have TVs in every room that they can leave on all day and all night. Is it our right to deny my progeny of their gargantuan RVs and motorboats, as well? Of course not.
We cannot, in good conscience, lay such a burden on tomorrow's generations of Melfords. My children are the future. And at the end of the day, isn't it family—my family—that truly matters?


text:
Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/13/2012
Publication Date: 3/26/2012
Citation: Bhatnagar, D. 2012. The "omics" approach for solving the pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination problem: understanding the genomics and metabolomics of the fungus and proteomics of the affected corn crop. In: Fernandez-Luqueno, F., Lopez-Valdez, F., Lozano-Muniz, S., editors. Biotechnology Summit 2012 Conference, March 18-21, 2012, Yucatan, Mexico. pp. 189-193.
Interpretive Summary:
Technical Abstract: Aflatoxins are highly carcinogenic secondary metabolites produced primarily by the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aflatoxin contamination of food and feed has been of particular concern over the last four decades because of the toxicity of these compounds. Regulations exist in over 100 countries of the world against sale of contaminated commodities, causing severe economic burden on the farmers. Therefore, this problem is both a food safety and an economic issue. Now, for the first time control measures for this problem appear within reach. For practical and sustainable control of pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination to be realized, however, additional information is needed about the fungus, the affected crops and the specific molecular factors (both in the plant and the fungus) involved during host plant-fungus interaction. The information derived from the use of novel tools such as genomics, proteomics and metabolomics provides us with the best and the quickest opportunity to achieve a clear understanding of the survival of toxigenic fungi in the field, the ability of the fungus to invade crops, and the process of toxin contamination under various environmental conditions. Significant progress has been made recently in understanding the genomic makeup of the most significant aflatoxin producing field fungus, namely Aspergillus flavus. Progress also has been made in the study of host crop resistance to fungal invasion through the use of proteomics. The information available on production of aflatoxin and other metabolites by Aspergillus flavus is reasonably extensive, although the application of metabolomics as a tool in this study is relatively new. In this presentation, the use of genomics, proteomics and metabolomics in deriving the requisite information for developing effective strategies to interrupt the machinery in the fungus for production of these toxins, as well as to enhance host-resistance against fungal invasion and aflatoxin contamination of crops will be discussed.


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NEW YORK (AP) — LG's new smartphone provides sharper pictures than other leading phones, while sporting a customizable keyboard that promises to make typing easier.
The G3 phone's high-resolution display has 538 pixels per inch. Most other phones are in the 300-pixel range, with a handful reaching the 400s. The phone's display measures 5.5 inches diagonally, yet the phone is only a tad larger and heavier than Samsung's 5.1-inch Galaxy S5.
But the G3 lacks water resistance, a fingerprint reader and a heart-rate monitor — all of which are found in the S5.
In an interview Tuesday, U.S. marketing executive Chang Ma said LG wanted to emphasize simplicity and avoid loading the phone with features that are complex to use or don't work well. With water resistance, for instance, Ma said LG would have had to "sacrifice other key features and functions," including keeping the weight down and the device small enough to hold comfortably.
The G3 also promises fast auto-focusing and one-touch controls on its 13-megapixel camera. People will be able to unlock phones not with passcodes but a pattern of taps on the screen. The keyboard's height can be adjusted to make keys bigger or smaller, and users can choose which symbols appear on the bottom row.
But many of the innovations in the G3 are familiar. For instance, it offers a way to hide certain photos and video when lending a phone to others. Samsung's S5 has a similar feature.
LG said the phone will be available in a few markets this week, including its home country of South Korea. It will be available in the U.S. this summer through all major wireless carriers. Prices weren't announced.
LG has had trouble getting noticed for its smartphones in a market dominated by Samsung Electronics Co. and Apple Inc. According to Gartner, LG had a market share of less than 5 percent last year, in fourth place just behind Huawei. Samsung had a 31 percent market share last year and Apple had 16 percent.
Last year's G2 phone was notable for moving the power and volume controls to the back, which the company said made the phone easier to handle and less prone to drops. But the phone got little attention. The G Flex, a phone with a curved display, was expensive, and the benefits of the slight curve weren't apparent. LG also makes the Nexus 5 phone under Google's brand.
Ma said LG has learned from past launches and will emphasize not the specifications and the technology but the benefits that they provide.
NEW YORK (AP) — LG's new smartphone provides sharper pictures than other leading phones, while sporting a customizable keyboard that promises to make typing easier.


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