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Carson Daly
Considering how many hours Carson Daly has logged with gluttonous rock stars, it is hard to imagine that the all-American blue-eyed babyface grew up planning to be a priest. While a theology student with a partial golf scholarship at Loyola Marymount University, he locked down an internship at a Palm Springs radio station and eventually worked his way up to DJ. Other radio gigs in San Diego and San Francisco before he returned to the SoCal airwaves on KROQ. MTV stole him away to be a VJ and branded him the top teen tastemaker as the host of "Total Request Live" from 1998-2003. He has since emceed New Year's Eve specials for MTV and NBC, a WWE troop tribute, awards shows and his late-night series "Last Call with Carson Daly," which shifted his focus to music fans with more indie and mature tastes. He can now be see weekly as the host of the hit singing competition, "The Voice." The ex of Tara Reid and Jennifer Love Hewitt now has two children, Jackson and Etta (born appropriately on the night of MTV's 2012 Video Music Awards), with girlfriend/food blogger Siri Pinter.


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"They don't call the Texas Water Safari The World's Toughest Canoe Race' for nothing. In addition to the length, the challenges include whitewater rapids, multiple portages, and the relentless, soul-sapping Texas heat. Competitors have four days and four hours to paddle from San Marcos, in the center of the state, to the shy little town of Seadrift on the Gulf Coast. There is no prize money for the winners; just Texas-size bragging rights for the finishers."
Larry Rice, in July 2009 Canoe & Kayak Magazine
The Texas Water Safari is actually comprised of several events including an information seminar, two short races (one of which can be considered as a preliminary race) and of course, the Safari itself – the 260 mile race to Seadrift from the headwaters of the San Marcos River. The Safari itself, billed as the "World's Toughest Boat Race", is an annual race via the San Marcos and Guadalupe rivers, from Aquarena Springs in the college town of San Marcos, to the shrimping village of Seadrift on the Texas coastline, a total distance of 260 miles. The first official race was held in 1963, and is run annually on the second Saturday of June.
The primary requirement is a boat powered only by human muscle. Racers must take all equipment needed with them, receiving only water, ice and food along the way.

subset: commoncrawl


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Employee Training
Jennifer Cyra
Growth Strategy-Commerce ExpertIn tough times, companies either wait it out or surge forward to transform the business. Allow me to recommend charging ahead. In these unprecedented times, moving forward + transformation = survival. Consumer demand is forever changed. Channel delivery models flipped overnight. We're not going back to the way things were anytime soon. Is YOUR business charging forward with transformation?
Peer Reviews:
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Ray Grymski
Organizational Consultant, CoachOver three decades of experience as an Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach to over 135 organizations that include Fortune 500 companies, small and medium-sized businesses, hospitals, and non-profit organizations. Clients include: Allstate Insurance, HP, McDonalds, US Bank, Office Depot/Max, WEC Energy Group, American Dental Association, and Ascension Health System.
Peer Reviews:
Hourly Rate Tier:


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Spiderman 3
Spiderman 3
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Experience an all-new combat system, two exciting ways. Redesigned from the ground up, a unique combat system empowers both Spider-Man and Black-Suited Spider-Man to perform suit-specific powers and abilities. State of the art animations, combos and finishers make punch, kick and web attacks more super-heroic than ever. Battle 10 of Spider-Man-s most infamous enemies from the movie and Marvel universe, including Sandman and Venom.


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- Jesuit
- Jesuit Jes"u*it, n. [F. J['e]suite, Sp. Jesuita: cf. It.
1. (R. C. Ch.) One of a religious order founded by Ignatius
Loyola, and approved in 1540, under the title of The
Society of Jesus.
[1913 Webster]
Note: The order consists of Scholastics, the Professed, the Spiritual Coadjutors, and the Temporal Coadjutors or Lay Brothers. The Jesuit novice after two years becomes a Scholastic, and takes his first vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience simply. Some years after, at the close of a second novitiate, he takes his second vows and is ranked among the Coadjutors or Professed. The Professed are bound by a fourth vow, from which only the pope can dispense, requiring them to go wherever the pope may send them for missionary duty. The Coadjutors teach in the schools, and are employed in general missionary labors. The Society is governed by a General who holds office for life. He has associated with him ``Assistants'' (five at the present time), representing different provinces. The Society was first established in the United States in 1807. The Jesuits have displayed in their enterprises a high degree of zeal, learning, and skill, but, by their enemies, have been generally reputed to use art and intrigue in promoting or accomplishing their purposes, whence the words Jesuit, Jesuitical, and the like, have acquired an opprobrious sense. [1913 Webster]
2. Fig.: A crafty person; an intriguer. [1913 Webster]
{Jesuits' bark}, Peruvian bark, or the bark of certain species of {Cinchona}; -- so called because its medicinal properties were first made known in Europe by Jesuit missionaries to South America.
{Jesuits' drops}. See {Friar's balsam}, under {Friar}.
{Jesuits' nut}, the European water chestnut.
{Jesuits' powder}, powdered cinchona bark.
{Jesuits' tea}, a Chilian leguminous shrub, used as a tea and medicinally. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.


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Los críticos-novelistas españoles en California: la ficción en los márgenes
Issue Date:2004
MetadataShow full item record
Citation:España Contemporánea: Revista de Literatura y Cultura, vol. 17, no. 1 (2004), 103-114.
Rights:This item may be protected by copyright, and is made available here for research and educational purposes. The user is responsible for making a final determination of copyright status. If copyright protection applies, permission must be obtained from the copyright holder to reuse, publish, or reproduce the object beyond the bounds of Fair Use or other exemptions to the law.
Items in Knowledge Bank are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.


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Footage of police interviews with Curtis Sagmoen shortly after his arrest two years ago has been made public.
On Wednesday Crown prosecutor Simone McCallum and defence lawyer Lisa Helps approved footage of the video for publication with Sagmoen's voice distorted—a condition ordered by Justice Alison Beames. The video contains interviews conducted by RCMP Const. Richard MacQueen with Sagmoen on Sept. 5 and 6, 2017, shortly after his arrest.
At one point in the video, Sagmoen begins screaming inaudibly and lifts up a chair and attempts to throw it across the small interview room. Officer MacQueen jumped in to prevent him from doing so, without needing to resort to any excessive force. Sagmoen apologized for his temper flare-up.
Const. MacQueen clarified in court the "explosive" outburst had come after he'd told Sagmoen a computer had been seized by RCMP and would be searched.
The full version of the video, which is more than two hours long, was shown at Sagmoen's voir dire trial last week. At that time, it was under a publication ban but on Tuesday, Justice Beames lifted the ban after both CBC and Global challenged its validity in court on Monday.
The full video shows a lengthy rapport-building process by Const. MacQueen, who offered Sagmoen cigarette breaks and at times discussed hobbies the two had in common, such as fishing and hunting.
As MacQueen's questions get tougher over the course of the two days, Sagmoen's demeanor becomes quieter, his head downcast and at times slumped forward in his hands. Const. MacQueen asks questions relating to Sagmoen's family—something Sagmoen said is of utmost importance to him.
The friendly banter—as well as the questions related to Sagmoen's family—are the basis of Helps' defence, who is challenging that Const. MacQueen was using them to induce Sagmoen to talk, or to elicit statements that could be deemed as an involuntary confession.
Const. MacQueen maintained pushing touchy subects is a common tool used by police officers during investigations.
Shortly after Sagmoen's September arrest, his parents' farm was the focus of an extensive search, where police discovered the remains of Traci Genereaux, 18, who had been missing.
No charges have been laid in connection to her death.
Sagmoen has been accused of threatening a sex worker at gunpoint while wearing a mask in the 2017 incident.
He pleaded not guilty to five charges on Sept. 9, which included uttering threats, careless discharge of a firearm, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, concealing his face and possession of a controlled substance.
Justice Beames will present her decision on Sagmoen's voir dire Monday morning.
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Dryad is delighted to join with PLOS today to announce our partnership with PLOS Biology, as described here on the official PLOS Biology blog, Biologue. As the first Public Library of Science (PLOS) journal to partner with Dryad to integrate manuscript submission, "PLOS Biology can offer authors a seamless tying together of an article with its underlying data; [and] can also provide confidential access for editors and reviewers to data associated with articles under review."
Here's how it works: During manuscript evaluation, PLOS Biology invites authors to deposit the underlying data files in Dryad, sending them a link to Dryad which enables a streamlined upload process (no need to enter the article details). Authors may deposit complex and varied data types in multiple formats, and these files are then accessible to editors and reviewers by anonymous and secure access during the manuscript review process. Behind the scenes, the journal's editorial system and the Dryad repository exchange metadata, ensuring that upon publication, the article links to the associated data in Dryad, and permanently connecting the published article with its securely archived, publicly available data.
Dr. Theodora Bloom, Chief Editor, PLOS Biology, mentions that journals "are uniquely well-placed to help researchers ensure that all data underlying a study are made available alongside any published articles."
We welcome PLOS Biology authors and editors to Dryad, and look forward to extending this partnership to other PLOS journals.


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Mouthwateringly good swiss herbal sweets.
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The secret behind ricola's great taste is the magical blend of 13 herbs naturally grown in the fresh pure air of the beautiful and tranquil swiss mountains.
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Why Environmentalism Is Conservative
Some politicians seem to have it in for the environment these days. Whether its presidential hopeful Rick Perry denouncing climate science as a quote "cult" or his more moderate peer Jon Huntsman calling for environmental regulations to be put on hold until the economy improves, it's clear that protecting our air, water and other natural resources is no longer fashionable.
But their Grand Old Party actually started environmental protection in the first place. Richard Nixon signed into law most of the nation's landmark environmental laws and founded the Environmental Protection Agency back in 1970.
A bit further back, Teddy Roosevelt founded the national park system, among other efforts to conserve the natural heritage of the United States.
Of course, there are politicians on both sides of the aisle interested in preserving the environment and some conservatives accept the preponderance of scientific evidence on human-caused climate change, like Huntsman. And it's not like Democrats never despoil. Witness the long-standing protection of coal mining by virtually all West Virginia politicians.
But for the moment, some conservatives seem to have forgotten that conservation is inherently conservative.
—David Biello


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Privacy concerns over credit card use for legal online pot purchases
By The Canadian PressNews Data Security cannabis credit card security online purchases privacy commissioner
TORONTO — Canada's privacy commissioner is planning to issue guidance for buyers and sellers of legal cannabis amid ongoing concern about potential fallout, such as being barred from the United States, if transactions become known by third parties.
The concern has been heightened in provinces where anonymously paying cash in-store is not possible in light of a controversial Statistics Canada initiative to obtain detailed bank records from all Canadians.
"Our office recognizes the sensitive nature of cannabis-related transactions —particularly if information about those transactions is processed in a jurisdiction where cannabis consumption is not legal," said Tobi Cohen, a spokeswoman for the federal privacy commissioner. "Organizations need to make it plain to individuals that their information may be processed in a foreign country, and that it may be accessible to law enforcement and national security authorities of that jurisdiction."
British Columbia has already issued its own guidance and privacy-protection tips. For example, it notes that online sellers collect personal information such as name, date of birth, home address, credit card number, purchase history and email address.
"Providing personal information, especially through online formats, creates additional security risks," the document by B.C.'s privacy commissioner notes. "Cannabis is illegal in most jurisdictions outside of Canada; the personal information of cannabis users is therefore very sensitive."
Legal online purchases across Canada show up on bank statements in a variety of ways, depending on the retailer.
In Manitoba, for example, an order from the outlet Delta 9 shows up as "D9-2 -8675309 Winnipeg MB," while purchases in British Columbia appear as "BCS Online Vancouver." Those in Nova Scotia are recorded as coming from the provincial liquor corporation — "NSLC #2098/e-commerce Halifax." Similarly, in Newfoundland and Labrador, orders register as NLC #700 St. John's N.L.
In Ontario, where the only way to buy marijuana legally is online through the Ontario Cannabis Store using a credit card, transactions show up as "OCS/SOC."
Jesse, 39, of Toronto, who's in marketing and who asked his last name not be used, said he has mixed feelings about "OCS/SOC" appearing on his credit-card statement.
"I'm not crazy about being potentially profiled at the U.S. border because of a purchase that's thrown up in my credit history," Jesse said. "At the same time, I'm not losing sleep over it because there's no precedent (for that) yet."
In the pre-legal era, online outlets usually masked credit-card purchases, perhaps by using a generic notation such as "Organics," and some still do so now. However, a spokeswoman for the Ontario Cannabis Store said such an approach doesn't fly.
"As a legal business operating in Ontario, it is required that we operate with transparency," Amanda Winton said. "This includes using our registered business name for payment services."
Ontario's privacy commissioner, Brian Beamish, said his office recommends redacting sensitive information in a case where, for example, a landlord might ask a prospective tenant for a credit card statement. Beamish also said a generic name used to record cannabis transactions could become widely known.
"The key issue here is the protection of bank information, whether it's related to legal cannabis transactions or any other personal banking decision," Beamish said.
Troy Patterson, who works with a licensed cannabis producer in Kincardine, Ont., said pot is legal and he wasn't particularly worried about purchases showing up on credit card or similar statements.
"Now, if that info were to be weaponized against people, say for insurance or other purposes, that would be a huge issue," Patterson said.
— Colin Perkel
News from © Canadian Press Enterprises Inc. 2018
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- Trump on Khashoggi death tape: 'No reason for me to hear it'
- 'Quebec is an embarrassment': Province urged to do more on cybersecurity


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Today, the House Judiciary Committee held a full committee hearing to investigate the Obama administration's unprecedented overreach through the latest Obamacare mandate's assault on religious liberty.
Asma Uddin, an attorney with The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, testified at the hearing on the administration's insulting disregard for the right to religious freedom.
"As a Muslim-American woman and an academic, I have spent my career fighting for women's and minority's rights, and the fact that I must be here today to explain why our constitutional rights exist is extremely offensive to me personally," Uddin stated.
The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty is currently representing four religious organizations that do not qualify for the rule's narrow religious exemption and will be forced to provide and pay for employee health insurance coverage of abortion-inducing drugs, contraception, and sterilization – regardless of their religious and moral objections to such services.
The mandate places the organizations represented by the Becket Fund and countless others – including hospitals, schools, and social service groups – in an untenable situation: forced to either violate their deeply held beliefs or forego providing health insurance and pay costly annual fines for doing so.
"[T]he mandate imposes a substantial burden on our clients." Uddin explained. "In fact, it's so severe that our clients will be forced to stop providing health insurance altogether and pay penalties up to $620,000 per year for non-compliance."
With limited funds diverted to the high annual fines that come with dropping health insurance coverage under Obamacare, the mandate could signal serious trouble for organizations' necessary work in civil society.
"Without employer health plans, many religious institutions would find themselves at a serious competitive disadvantage vis-à-vis other employers," explained Uddin in written testimony. "Some religious institutions could find that without a group health plan, they could not attract sufficient staff and would be forced to close their operations altogether."
That could mean fewer organizations caring for the sick, feeding the poor, and educating the next generation.
Worse, the Obama administration has not backed down from forcing religious employers to violate their beliefs and has not compromised on the coercive mandate. In a February 10 press conference, the President promised to "accommodate" the consciences of non-exempted religious employers. But within hours of that press conference, the Obama administration filed the final rule – without change.
"The press conference was merely a smokescreen that sadly fooled much of the American public who were rightly concerned by the mandate," Uddin remarked, while explaining that the promised "compromise" is an unworkable, non-solution.
Yet, the Obama administration would rather put the promises at a press conference above the final federal regulation. In its legal response two weeks ago to Belmont Abbey College's lawsuit, one of the cases currently litigated by the Becket Fund, the Department of Justice asked federal courts to do just that.
"We were shocked to read that they asked the court to dismiss the case because of a "promise" to shift the costs to insurance companies at some point in the future," Uddin explained at the hearing. "To add further insult to injury, last night, the Administration responded to our second case on behalf of Colorado Christian University, again failing to respond to any of our client's legitimate constitutional claims, and instead asking for a dismissal based on their 'promise.'"
"[D]espite these severe burdens on our clients' constitutional rights, the government, in its response last night, continues to provide no compelling interest that justifies forcing monks and nuns to hand out abortion drugs," Uddin continued.
Responding to false claims that opposition to the mandate's violation of liberty is confined to men, Uddin stated:
"Women, too, seek the freedom to live in accordance with their sincerely held religious beliefs.
Religious freedom is a right enjoyed by everyone, and it is just as much in women's interest to protect that right as it is in men's."
The violation of liberty evidenced in this particular mandate is a taste of the health care law's broader attack on individual freedom. The coercive nature of the rule is just the tip of the Obamacare iceberg in terms of defining the law's "essential benefits" package. To ensure protection of religious freedom and individual liberty for all Americans – female and male – Obamacare must be repealed.
For more on this issue, watch our video: Religious Liberty: Obamacare's First Casualty.


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The selfish things I wish for most often:
I wish I were a little less scared.
I wish I were a little less sad.
I wish I'd mastered subjunctives well enough to definitively know if I used "were" correctly in the previous two sentences.
Your turn. What do you wish for? (You cannot wish for world peace or for more wishes or give your wishes away. So, really…what small – or large- thing do you wish for right this very moment?)


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Blueberry Buckle
Blueberry Buckle is one of those things that I've never attempted to make because Hubby speaks so highly of his mother's Blueberry Buckle. I had never even had Blueberry Buckle before making it and I have to say it's very yummy. Hubby thought it was a dessert. I thought it was more like a coffee cake with fruit in it.
The day I made this, I sat down to watch some Good Eats off the DVR. And what do you know, my boy Alton Brown made blueberry buckle. And what do you know, AB said that buckle is in fact coffee cake with fruit in it (turns out Hubby thought coffee cake was coffee flavored).
This recipe comes from my mother in law. I have no idea where she got it from. I do love getting recipes from her because she scribbles them in short hand onto a scrap piece of paper.
Blueberry Buckle – from Hubby's mother
3/4 c sugar
1/4 c shortening
1 egg
1/2 c milk
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 c blueberries (fresh is best)
Preheat oven to 375. Grease a 9″ square pan.
Mix sugar, shortening, and egg. Add milk. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Gently stir in berries.
Pour batter into pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. Add topping for the last 10 minutes of baking.
ToppingCombine following ingredients:
1/2 c brown sugar
1/3 c flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 stick butter
Store buckle in the fridge.
One Response to "Banana (Nut) Bread Mini Muffins"
yumm! they look good. mini muffins always look so irresistible!


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Quick Panels and Menu Bars from Dreamweaver's Spry Widgets
- Introducing Spry Widgets
- Creating and Formatting Tabbed Panels
- Creating Menu Bars with Spry
Introducing Spry Widgets
Spry widgets are arguably the most dramatic addition to Dreamweaver CS3. The acquisition of Dreamweaver by Adobe opened the door to incorporating the Spry element that had been under development by Adobe—largely off the beaten path of web design, until these elements were added to Dreamweaver.
Spry widgets essentially combine JavaScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to allow developers to embed and customize interactive objects in web pages. At this point, veteran Dreamweaver designers will exclaim, "Dreamweaver Behaviors have always done that!"
Yes and no.
In some cases, Spry widgets awkwardly overlap with some elements that are still available as Behaviors in Dreamweaver CS3. For example, using either a new Spry widget or an old Behavior, you can validate form data—that is, test the data to meet criteria (for instance, a ZIP code must be numbers, not letters). I probably wouldn't have bothered to learn how to use the new Spry widget to validate form data, had I not been writing Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 HOW-TOs: 100 Essential Techniques. Since I had to test every feature of Dreamweaver, I explored the new Spry version of form data validation, and found it easier to use and more flexible than the old Behavior.
In this article, I'll focus on a couple of the most dramatic and powerful Spry widgets included in Dreamweaver CS3: tabbed panels and menu bars.
- Tabbed panels allow you to place a set of tabs on a single web page that appear to open separate web pages. In reality, all the content is on a single web page, and is hidden or revealed depending on which panel is selected. It's an intriguing concept—for instance, all in one page, you can design a site that appears to have five pages. (After you've experimented with or implemented tabbed panels, drop me an email message and let me know how they worked for you.)
- Menu bars (also known as flyout menus, pop-up menus, and so on) are highly useful navigation tools. They allow the designer to hide multiple navigation menu options in a tidy horizontal or vertical navigation bar. I used to buy a bunch of menu bar generators, and/or use Fireworks (also an Adobe product now) to design menu bars. So far, I'm finding that the menu bars available through the new Spry widget in Dreamweaver are flexible and powerful enough to manage whatever menu bars I need in designing sites.
Before We Dive In
As we go along in this article, I'll do my best to provide quickie explanations of whatever CSS properties we're defining, but it will be helpful if you have a basic familiarity with CSS styles, and custom class styles in particular.
Three Things to Remember
Here are three things to keep in mind when you create Spry widgets:
- The document must be saved before you insert a Spry widget.
- Spry widgets generate lots of CSS styles and JavaScript files, and these files are saved every time you save a page with a Spry widget.
- You control basic features of the Spry widget, such as text and links, in the Property inspector. But you format Spry widgets (elements such as font, text color, background color, and so on) in the CSS Styles panel, by editing the CSS style for the Spry widget.
With those three concepts in mind, I'll walk you through the process of creating a tabbed panel.


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Advice for young insider traders
by, 05-11-2014 at 07:03 PM (1891 Views)
Advice for young insider traders
Made vital rookie errors: One of the accused duo, Lukas James Kamay leaves court on Friday. Photo: Wayne Taylor
Apart from getting caught, the two men accused of one the largest trading operations in the nations history made a couple of other mistakes.
They used the foreign exchange market rather than the bond market and given the privileged information they had, should have made $70 million rather then the reported $7 million.
Thats according to a few veteran traders with almost 30 years experience who spoke to Fairfax Media.
With the money they did make, it looks like they splashed out on lavish items that would have drawn attention to themselves. Another rookie mistake.
You only need to watch Martin Scorseses Goodfellas to know you spend the money gradually and not on flashy expensive items.
But there probably isnt a trader in the world who at some stage, hasnt thought about getting vital information before anyone else. After all, who doesnt try and make their job as easy as possible?
Each month, or quarter, when the countrys key economic data is released at 11.30 am, the art of making money would be so much easier if you knew the numbers in advance.
But of course, theres a world of difference between breaking the law and doing whatever it takes to get some sort of advantage. And getting some sort of advantage is nothing new.
In the 1990s some trading desks would send staff to the office of the Australian Bureau of Statistics to be first there when the data was manually released.
As soon as the latest current account data was known, theyd be on the phone straight away trying to be the first to report back with the market-moving information.
But once everyone did that, the edge was gone.
To try and keep that edge an operative at Bankers Trust, a banking powerhouse at the time, came up with the idea of ringing the Darwin office of the ABS.
The hope was a staff member at a branch office might say what the number was a few minutes before the official release.
And a few minutes is all thats required to make money.
Although dealing in shares tends to get the headlines when it comes to insider trading scandals there is, at times, more money to be made in bond futures.
In addition, the Australian dollar at times may not necessarily move in line with the sensitive information that was leaked about the labour force, retail and trade figures. In the bond and interest rate market, however, it does.
Furthermore, by placing big chunky trades of say, the equivalent of $100 million in the foreign exchange market, it means the two men accused are more likely to stand out; as volumes can be thin leading into and straight after the release of vital economic data. Although at times volumes can also be light in the futures market.
Some traders on Friday said that if the two men had opted to trade in smaller parcels, they might have got away with it for longer.
The other talking point on trading desks on Friday afternoon, as news of the trades filtered through, has been the performance of public servants over the years when it comes to important statistics that move the market.
Every now and then there will be a late trade heading into an important number that will draw the ire of some who end up losing money on the day.
If the late trade ends up being a losing one of course no one says anything. Liquidity is never at its best just before a number but of course if you know the number you can pay up to get set - safe in the knowledge the market is about to move substantially.
But given what sort of sensitive information goes through so many hands at not just the ABS but also the Reserve Bank of Australia, some market veterans on Friday were praising the honesty and integrity of the public service.


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We occasionally receive questions about how one can support the Conkeror project through donation or otherwise. For those that want to help in this way, we offer a few suggestions.
1. Hire a Conkeror Hacker
Have an idea for a feature, or something you would like to do with your configuration? Consider hiring someone to implement it.
Note, hiring someone to implement a feature in no way guarantees that the feature will be added as a built-in feature to Conkeror proper. It remains the discretion of the Conkeror developers, based on technical merits alone, whether a given feature is most appropriately placed in Conkeror, in Conkeror-contrib, on the wiki (for use in the rc), or as an extension of some other kind.
2. Help Pay the Hosting Bill
Contact retroj on the Conkeror irc channel if you're interested in making a donation to help us with the cost of running Conkeror's websites. Donation in any amount will be appreciated.
3. Donate Hardware
Want Conkeror to work better on a certain platform, or have better support for certain hardware? Consider donating hardware to a Conkeror developer to allow Conkeror to better support it.
4. Use Websites that Support Conkeror
4.1. DuckDuckGo
DuckDuckGo supports Conkeror by sharing revenue from click-throughs that originate with Conkeror's duckduckgo webjump. Click-throughs are when DuckDuckGo makes money from the use of sponsored links or from people shopping with DuckDuckGo's partners through DuckDuckGo. Thus a way to support Conkeror is to use the duckduckgo webjump that comes with Conkeror.


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Thursday, April 09, 2009
U.S. currency is now backed by risky assets
Labels: housing bubble
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Bubble Meter is a national housing bubble blog dedicated to tracking the continuing decline of the housing bubble throughout the USA. It is a long and slow decline. Housing prices were simply unsustainable. National housing bubble coverage. Please join in the discussion.


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Malaysia's air force says jet may have turned back
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) – More than four days after a Malaysian jetliner went missing on route to Beijing, authorities acknowledged Wednesday they didn't know in which direction the plane and its 239 passengers was heading when it disappeared, vastly complicating efforts to find it.
Amid intensifying confusion and occasionally contradictory statements, the country's civil aviation authorities and the military both said the plane may have turned back from its original route toward Vietnam, possibly as far as the Strait of Malacca on the eastern side of the country.
How it might have done this without being clearly detected remained a mystery, raising questions over whether its electrical systems were either knocked out or turned off.
Authorities have not ruled out any possible cause, including mechanical failure, pilot error, sabotage or terrorism in the disappearance of the plane. The 777 is a modern aircraft with an excellent safety record, as does Malaysia Airlines.
Authorities began their search for the missing aircraft at the position it was last reported to be at over the sea between Malaysia and Vietnam. But they have also said search operations were ongoing in the Malacca strait. Scores of planes and aircraft have been scouring both locations.
The country's air force chief, Gen. Rodzali Daud, released a statement denying remarks attributed to him in a local media report saying that military radar had managed to track the aircraft turning back from its original course, crossing the country and making it to the Malacca strait to the west of Malaysia. The Associated Press contacted a high-level military official, who confirmed the remarks.
Rodzali referred to a statement he said he made March 9 in which he said the air force has "not ruled out the possibility of an air turn back" and said search and rescue efforts had been expanded to the waters around Penang Island, in the northern section of the strait.
It is possible that the radar readings are not definitive or subject to interpretation, especially if a plane is malfunctioning.
The country's civilian aviation chief Azharuddin Abdul Rahman said he could neither confirm nor deny military's remarks. That suggests disagreement or confusion at the highest level over where the plane is most likely to have ended up.
"There is a possibility of an air turn back. We are still investigating and looking at the radar readings," he said Wednesday
The strait is a busy shipping lane that separates Malaysian from Indonesia's Sumatra Island.
Adding to the confusion, Indonesia air force Col. Umar Fathur said the country had received official information from Malaysian authorities that the plane was above the South China Sea, about 10 nautical miles from Kota Bharu, Malaysia, when it turned back toward the strait and then disappeared. That would place its last confirmed position closer to Malaysia than has previously been publicly disclosed.
Fathur said Malaysia authorities have determined four blocks to be searched in the strait, which Indonesia was assisting in.
Vietnamese military authorities said they were searching for the plane on land sea.
Lt. Gen. Vo Van Tuan, deputy chief of staff of Vietnamese People's Army, said there were 22 aircraft and 31 ships from Vietnam and other countries involved in the hunt in its area of responsibility.
Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur at 12:41 a.m. Saturday, bound for Beijing. Authorities initially said its last contact with ground controllers was less than an hour into the flight at a height of 35,000 feet, when the plane was somewhere between the east coast of Malaysia and southern Vietnam.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar, who has been ordered to look at possible criminal aspects in the disappearance of Flight MH370, said hijacking, sabotage and issues related to the pilots' psychological health were being considered.
An Australian TV station reported that the first officer on the missing plane, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had invited two women into the cockpit during a flight two years ago. One of the women, Jonti Roos, described the encounter on Australia's "A Current Affair."
Roos said she and a friend were allowed to stay in the cockpit during the entire one-hour flight on Dec. 14, 2011, from Phuket, Thailand, to Kuala Lumpur. She said the arrangement did not seem unusual to the plane's crew.
"Throughout the entire flight, they were talking to us and they were actually smoking throughout the flight," said Roos, who didn't immediately reply to a message sent to her via Facebook. The second pilot on the 2011 flight was not identified
Malaysia Airlines said they took the allegations seriously.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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European stocks are back in vogue.
New data from Goldman Sachs (GS) shows American investors pushed more than $65 billion into the European stock markets in the first six months of 2013, the most for a first half of the year since 1977.
The capital flowed in just as the eurozone clawed out of a recession and the outlook for the region improved. But it comes after many years when investors wouldn't touch Europe with a proverbial 10-foot pole, as the eurozone stumbled through debt crises, insanely high unemployment levels and various bailouts.
But even as investors showed their renewed enthusiasm for European stocks, the Goldman Sachs portfolio strategy team said U.S. investors still didn't have enough exposure to Europe. The team forecast that more American money would flow into Europe in the months ahead, and recommended that long-term investors consider London's FTSE 100 index, since that market looked relatively undervalued.
So far this year, the FTSE 100 and France's CAC 40 index have rallied by roughly 11%. Germany's Dax 30 index has climbed by 6.5%. This performance is impressive, but not nearly as strong as the main U.S. indexes. The S&P 500, for example, is up nearly 17% in 2013.
Related: A global recovery is no sure thing
Other experts think European markets look like a bargain too. Strategists at HSBC (HBC) said investors have been undervaluing European stocks by roughly 15%.
Investors currently have "very conservative assumptions about future cash flow and returns," said Peter Sullivan, a strategist at HSBC Bank.
Sullivan said he was particularly excited about banks and energy companies.
"There are lots of banks trading below tangible book value that are improving and repairing themselves," he said. "Energy stands out too. It's been in the doldrums for some years now and valuations are close to 20-year lows."
Last week, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development hiked its growth forecasts for developed economies such as France, Germany and the United Kingdom, but warned that struggling emerging markets could derail a global economic recovery.


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Extended samples are available at the novel's Kindle and Smashwords pages, or you may download a pdf with the prologue and first three chapters here.
Excerpt from THROUGH STRUGGLE, THE STARS, by John J. Lumpkin
Copyright 2011. © All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, reposting, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without express written permission of the author.
The Bluegrass Cat was a modular container hauler, a design that had barely changed in 50 years – a control deck and living quarters at the top and a fusion candle at the tail, connected by a long shaft, which mounted dozens of cargo pods, some of them rotating slowly around the ship's axis. She was long, thin and ugly: a freight train in space.
Her cargo to Zhuxing, the Chinese colony world orbiting Zeta Doradus, had been precision tools manufactured only on Earth, and she was departing with a load of Zhuxing's native version of blue-green algae. This particular species was neither blue-green nor algae, but the microbes, reddish under a microscope, played a similar ecological role. They were one of the most efficient natural photosynthesizers yet discovered, and, without them, Zhuxing would have been an uninhabitable wet rock. They would fetch a high dollar on some of the colony worlds where oxygen was wanting.
On this run the Cat carried a second cargo, two bored American intelligence officers who had spent the last sixteen days monitoring government communications on Zhuxing while the ship sat moored at an orbital freight terminal.
The Cat's American owners, sympathetic to Washington's interests, provided free, no-questions-asked transit to government agents on some of its vessels. It was a secret arrangement, and a good one for both sides; U.S. intelligence agencies could quietly move around their people to foreign planets without setting up cumbersome front companies or relying on passenger liners, and the shipping line found itself deliciously free of certain regulatory pressures that its competitors faced.
The officers had been picked up from their station on Guoxing, an older Chinese world, three systems upstream toward Earth, and their time over Zhuxing had coincided with a visit to the surface by the Chinese premier. They came away with vast stores of intercepted communications related to his stay. The senior officer, a veteran spook named Donovan, was fluent in Mandarin, and he had gone through what seemed the most promising intercepts, but he had so far come up with mostly dry bureaucratic messages that didn't interest him in the least. The most compelling, in his opinion, was an unedited news recording of the premier giving a fiery speech in a hotel ballroom on the dangers of Japanese aggression. Its vehemence was exceptional; China and Japan, Earth's top two powers by most measures, were locked in a cold war, but it was unusual to hear such a high-level official indulging in what could be only regarded as racist remarks.
The remaining intercepts would be for Earthside computers to decode and analyze in hopes of finding some useful tidbit that would provide the State or Defense or Colonial Affairs department some advantage, somewhere, somehow.
Only the officers had to get it home. Transmitting this much bulk data from a mere freighter through the wormhole communications relays back to Earth had some chance of attracting the Chinese government's attention. The network of artificial wormholes that allowed ships easy travel between the stars also served as the sole communications conduit between them. Buoys on either side of the wormholes received and transmitted vast amounts of information: News, sports scores, love letters and coded government transmissions all had to pass through them. While a starship would take months to traverse the expanding sphere of worlds accessed by the wormhole network, a message could cross it usually in less than a day, bouncing from one buoy to the next at the speed of light. But most buoys had government taps, monitored by software ostensibly looking for threats to national security. Zhuxing was several systems downstream from Earth, and all the buoys in between were under the authority of the government in Beijing. And without the chain of wormhole relays, transmitting a message home from Zhuxing through empty space would require a wait of 38 years.
So the data had to be hand-carried, and now the microbe-laden Bluegrass Cat was among a half-dozen ships waiting in line outside the Zeta Doradus wormhole, located in the leading Trojan point of the planet's second moon. This was the wormhole that initially opened the system to colonization and ultimately led back to Earth. The other two wormholes in the system led to stars further out, where China hunted still more colony worlds for its cramped millions.
In the Cat's stateroom, the junior of the two intelligence officers, Rafe Sato, reflected that he would never get back the last six weeks, or the twelve more it would take to return to Earth. Rafe, whose roots were part Hispanic, part Japanese and all Californian, had known there would be drudgery on the job; stealing secrets was not as dramatic as the movies would have the masses believe. He'd spent most of the trip out on his computer, taking some refresher courses to keep his technical certifications up to date. After they orbited Zhuxing, Rafe's chief role was to handle the comm intercept gear while Donovan told him where to listen.
But, damn, this mission had been especially dull.
Rafe and Donovan's agency had no permanent presence on Zhuxing, and the American cultural mission was all of two people, both surely followed round-the-clock by Chinese security. Nor had the agency had any luck obtaining permission for one its front companies to operate on the planet.
That leaves it to us, thought Rafe, wondering why this Han bigwig was worth following.
On the upside, the Hans had been overconfident about their security; the premier and his staff transmitted most of their messages to orbit via microwave rather than laser. Laser comms were almost impossible to intercept without hacking into a communications satellite.
And Rafe Sato had done just that, for all the good it did. What's the use of a good hack if all you get out of it is garbage?
Donovan tapped a button on his handheld and inclined his head toward Rafe.
"Did you read this?" he asked. Rhetorical; he was reading text projected on the inside of his eye.
"Read what?" Rafe asked.
"The Japanese are going to settle around Xi Pegasi after all."
It rang a very small bell. "Xi Pegasi?"
"It's an old star that's going subgiant," Donovan said. "They found a marginally habitable planet there. It must have been almost covered with ice until a few hundred thousand years ago, just at the far edge of the star's habitable zone. Another microbial-life-only planet, like Zhuxing. Now the star is getting bigger, and warmer, and the ice is melting, and the Japanese are going to colonize it."
"That's what, the Sakis' sixth planet? How many do they need?" Counting colony planets was at the heart of nationalism these days. After Japan, China had five and Europe had four. The United States had three, plus an Australia-sized continent on one of the Chinese worlds.
"That's not the point. The planet is going to boil in a few thousand years as the sun keeps getting brighter," Donovan said. "Not a very good place for a colony."
Rafe thought it over briefly. "Recorded history is a few thousand years."
"It's still rank foolishness. That's such a short window in the lifespan of a species. Someday, tens of millions will die there if they can't evacuate them all."
Donovan was a decent boss, but he liked to argue for the sport of it, and Rafe wasn't in the mood to engage him right now.
"Well, I imagine they'll figure something out long after we're dead and gone," Rafe said. "But if it will make you happy, I promise you I won't settle there."
Donovan chuckled. "Fair enough."
"What are they going to call the planet?"
"Hinomaru. A rather nationalistic break for them, don't you think?"
Most of the other Japanese worlds had more bucolic names. Hinomaru was the rising red sun on a white field, the Japanese flag.
"Sure," Rafe said. Humor the boss.
Donovan kept at it. "I tell you, this rush for –"
He was interrupted by the voice of the Cat's captain on the ship's intercom:
"We just got put on indefinite hold by traffic control. Don't know why."
This was unusual, and Rafe swore to himself – as if the trip home wasn't long enough already. He switched his handheld to monitor one of the Cat's external cameras, sending its images to his ocular implant. The first camera was pointed at Zhuxing; his vision filled with a startling, beautiful picture of blue oceans, white swirls of clouds, and a great rust-colored equatorial continent, with a patch of green and brown reaching inland from its western coast.
He hit a button, flicked through three views of nothing but fields of stars, until he found the camera pointed at the wormhole. He made out the guidance rings, an idle robotic ballast tug, and the thin disc of the wormhole itself. He transmitted the image to Donovan.
There. A small Chinese warship, some kind of corvette, emerged. It had scorches on its hull, and a long rent along one side. Several sections opened to space.
"Ouch," Donovan said.
The ship did a quick pivot, almost as if it was looking over its shoulder. After a few minutes, it went back through the wormhole, apparently satisfied the formation of waiting freighters posed no threat.
Rafe started to speak, but Donovan shushed him.
A big warship came through. Had to be 20,000 tons. A Chinese flagship.
It too had taken a beating. Its nose was smashed inward; it bore scorches and pitted areas, and one of its main gun batteries was wrecked. Three more warships followed the battleship, two of them also showing significant damage.
"Let's get out a flash message," Donovan said to Rafe. "Then call up Jane's and try to identify those craft." Neither he nor Rafe recognized the ships. They were civilian intelligence officers, not military.
"There must have been some kind of battle," Rafe said. He typed a brief message into his handheld.
Eyeballed Chinese PLA Star Navy fleet entering Zeta Doradus from GJ 2036 keyhole. Several vessels have sustained significant battle damage from unknown engagement. Description of ships to follow.
Rafe hit the send key. Inside his eye, text scrolled: Encoding … Transmitting … Destination network reports all outgoing messages will be monitored and approved for transmission. Do you still wish to send?
He swore and typed in "No." He turned to Donovan. "They already shut down the comm buoy to unmonitored message traffic. We'll have to carry this one home too."
He was right. With a human reading every message going through the buoy, they were risking notice even by sending a short, coded message. They would have to wait until the Bluegrass Cat reached the Solar System in twelve weeks before they could transmit.
Two more ships came through the wormhole. The first was undamaged and had no visible weaponry – a fleet tender, probably. The second, however, was not Chinese in manufacture; it lacked the distinctive forward sphere that dominated Chinese military starship design. Rafe commanded the ship's camera to follow it as it passed by the Cat. It was a long dart of a warship, also badly damaged.
Donovan's eyes narrowed as the ship's side was illuminated by Zeta Doradus. He saw a white field with a red circle, with rays extending in all directions.
Hinomaru. The rising sun.
Donovan touched some buttons on his handheld, activating the comm implant in his head. "Captain, what's the transponder from the last ship through say?"
A pause. "It's coming through as Chinese Star Navy," said the captain, his voice full of queries he didn't have the guts to ask. Donovan cut the connection with him. The camera feed went out; the Chinese authorities had ordered all the waiting vessels to shut their eyes. It didn't matter; he could put together what happened. The cold war between Japan and China had warmed up significantly. The Japanese warship was a Chinese prize.


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Tsukino Usagi is a little clumsy and a crybaby, but she is also one spirited eighth grader. One day she meets Luna, a black cat with a crescent moon mark on her forehead, and transforms into the pretty sailor-suited guardian of love and justice, Sailor Moon. As a chosen guardian of justice, Usagi apparently has a mission to protect a princess, and to find her fellow Guardians and the Legendary Silver Crystal.
Meanwhile, Queen Beryl of the Dark Kingdom sends her subordinates to the town where Usagi lives. They cause strange events to occur there, all in an effort to acquire the tremendously powerful Silver Crystal.
Can Sailor Moon and the other Guardians successfully find the Legendary Silver Crystal, and protect the princess?
Season 1 – Dark Kingdom
Season 2 – Black Moon
Season 3 – Infinity


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An examination of the basic principles, concepts, and purposes of substantive criminal law. Topics include legality, actus reus, mens rea, strict liability, causation, insanity, intoxication, mistake, justification, excuse, parties, attempt, conspiracy, and homicide. The course may cover other specific crimes such as larceny and may emphasize statutory interpretation.
© Copyright 2023, All Rights Reserved University of Washington School of Law
4293 Memorial Way Northeast, Seattle, WA 98195


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Not to be outdone by Target's recent in-store game department remodeling, Walmart launches its online Gamecenter, a one-stop shop for video game previews, first-look exclusives, and special offers on the latest games, including a $50 eGift card preordering three games.
The Walmart Gamecenter, presented by Axe Twist, is now live, with a snazzy new dynamic interface that just screams "I've been made for edgy and hip gamers!" More than just a shopping portal, the Gamecenter features all sorts of trailers, screenshots, and exclusive web content for upcoming games. Actually clicking a link to purchase a game takes you out of this hip new experience to the boring old Walmart order page, but it's a start.
Celebrating the opening of Gamecenter, Walmart is giving customers who preorder three upcoming titles a $50 eGift card. The company is also offering $.97 shipping on all video game titles.
"Walmart Gamecenter combines incredible savings with exclusive gaming content all in a compelling and interactive experience online," says Kelly Thompson, vice president of merchandising for Walmart.com. "Gaming enthusiasts will be drawn in by the exclusive content and developer interviews, while moms will appreciate the special savings only Walmart can offer on the hottest video game titles."
Yesterday we reported on the massive overhaul Target is giving to the video game departments at its retail stores, complete with games sorted by genre. I suppose Walmart realized that their average employee would never be able to handle that task, and opted for an online solution instead.
Hey, I said average! I know there are some exceptional Walmart employees out there...somewhere.


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Second in Bethesda's line of downloadable content packs for Fallout 3 has arrived. After that Crysis inspired, commie Chinese snuffing trash Operation Anchorage – one would hope this pack is better. At least it takes place in Fallout setting and not some military simulation. Regardless of that, this DLC pack is actually worse than the one before due to some oopsies. It costs 10$ or 800 Games for Windows Live points.
Games for Windows Live a.k.a. We're Microsoft, buy Xbox 360
Forcing anyone to use something so hostile to players as Games for Windows Live system to download is quite irritating. When you finally manage to pass all the obstacles and badly designed menu to start the downloading, something interesting occurs. As there is no option to decide where it gets downloaded to – it finally ends up in some forgotten-by-all folder. Allegedly, the content should automatically end in the game. That wasn't the case with our test system, equipped with Windows XP Professional.
Behind the seven hills and seven valleys… lies the Snowwhite…err… The Pitt DLC folder
To spice things up, it does not show on Search – if you have "Hidden system files and folders". All the technicalities sometimes can be overlooked IF the final product is worth it in the end. But seriously, whoever designed Games For Windows Live – should get "What were they thinking" award. It is incredible that the company that produced Windows Update, probably the best updating service – managed to produce something like this.
This is Wehner… need help!
DLC pack mission begins with radio message similar to one we already had in Operation Anchorage which is kind of uninspiring. Someone named Werhner is asking for help in a message that loops indefinetly. As before you follow the ant lines to location and then the story begins. Some raiders are attacking Werhner and after you kill them he explains that he is a runaway slave. He wishes you to steal cure for some plague from Ashur, leader of the raiders who control The Pitt.
Look at me, am I pretty… isn't this a true Kodak Moment?
There is a subway system that takes player to The Pitt along with point of no return until completion message. There is an option to enter The Pitt disguised as a slave, all guns blazing or by stealth but of course there is a tiny catch here. If you try to kill your way in or stealth inside some raiders attack you upon entering city and strip you of all your stuff. This is something that roleplayers all over the world really hate. Losing stuff even for an hour or two is a boring old cliché when the hero gets captured by the villains and is taken into slavery. In the case of disguising as a slave it makes sense or even being overpowered by guards if you rush in recklessly. As a stealther it is a bit redicilous to get caught, even more so if you are high enough in stealth and have lots of gadgets like Stealth Boy or Chinese Stealth Suit. This is the case not only in The Pitt, but also in normal Fallout 3 game when dialogue sequences break your stealth just for the story's sake.
After that, welcome to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089530/ . Poor slaves are forced to work in downtown till they drop while cruel raiders rule from city's upper areas. To spice the old story there is an added element of foul plague that turns people into ghoul-like creatures called Trogs. Some especially unlucky slaves have to go scavenge in Trog infested areas. Story is pretty linear and practically served to player from start. Some scavenging, arena fights against boring enemies (no special designed pit fighters), freedom and right to see the boss, Ashur and choosing side. How the story goes and finally concludes from this point is quite "original" and "inspiring". Without revealing too much I will say there are no likeable characters in the whole pack and everyone is in it for himself.
Where is my Axe Blade…. well… kinda comes and goes…
New DLC gear is a mixed bag: rifle and gas masked raider armor are okay, but Auto axe is quite a failure. The damage it does is okay but its usage of action points is abysmal. Even with the Action Boy perk and 10 points in agility it has "oomph" for only one hit. To further add to its uselessness after killing one or two enemies, weapons blade bugs out and disappears. It would at least look good if it was released in working condition.
I'll take the baby, thank you very much.
Trogs, the new enemies look decent enough though they got that Hollywood zombie treatment that is quite popular nowadays. They are all naked monsters that have no resemblance to people or at least wear parts of their former clothes. Similar to creatures from Will's Smith's try "I am Charlton Heston" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067525/ called I am Legend. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0480249/
All in all, if these two GfW:Live-only DLC packs are the best Bethesda can do at the moment – I won't be holding my breath for the third one.
Total Cost of Entertainment
Using our proprietary TCE (Total Cost of Entertainment) measuring system, we come to the score of 500 points. This score is actually going in reverse, with the perfect score being zero, and well, not so great score being anything more than 300. The translation is very simple: This game will cost you $5.00 per hour of fun. According to our standards, this is considered as Low Value.


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The Advertiser (Bastrop, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 24, Ed. 1 Saturday, May 17, 1879
Description: Weekly - and some times semi-weekly - newspaper from Bastrop, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: May 17, 1879
Creator: Cain, Thomas C.
Item Type: Refine your search to only Newspaper


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Ultrarunning holds its values in high regard. In a sport like ours where people are fiercely proud of authenticity, the topic of money is quick to attract naysayers. Many people think the influx of money means that runners will start competing for the wrong reasons, that they won't hold the same values as the core community of runners do today, and that the core community will become less of a community and more a field of war. Ultrarunning's values are based so highly on things like camaraderie, friendship, integrity, and appreciation of wild and beautiful places. That fierce competition and an influx of money is often seen as a corruption of what is most dear.
This fear seems to be escalating with the creation of governing bodies within the sport such as the recently announced Ultra-Trail World Tour that are perceived to be motivated by profits and control of the sport. These governing bodies are sometimes seen as avenues through which powerful corporations will control our idealistic sport. The very best of ultrarunning seems to be at risk.
But you know what? I can fix this right now. I have the answers that will avoid all negativity and keep the sport the way people want it. I know the facts that will make all of this okay.
Fact 1: You don't have to let any system take control.
Simple as that. The Ultra-Trail World Tour may be good and it may be bad. That's your opinion. On the one hand, it may unify the sport and streamline the competitive races into a single series that will benefit both the fast runners and the fans of the sport. On the other, it may be a poison that attempts to incapacitate free will and force people to do things their way. Regardless of any of that, though, you don't have to be part of that system if you disagree with it.
So you learned enough to formulate an honest opinion on the subject, and you hate what they are doing? The solution is to just not go to those races. There are hundreds of races in America and abroad that have nothing to do with any kind of governing body, all of whom would love to have you. I ran the Breck Crest Mountain Marathon just this last weekend on a whim, signing up the Friday before the race, and I had a great time! They put on a small event with great trails, great aid, great people, and outstanding views, and you have likely never heard of it. That's because the Breck Crest is not part of any big series. And there are hundreds of other races just like that.
The bottom line: if you don't want to support or be part of a particular style of racing, then don't. Ultrarunning is a product of the people who take part in it. And that brings me to the next major point.
Fact 2: Your choice of where to race is a vote in the direction the sport should go.
Here's a problem that could arise: what if your favorite race is part of the series that you don't want to support? If, for example, a hypothetical runner doesn't like the UTWT , but loves Western States more than his or her own family (not uncommon, I believe), he/she will have an ethical problem. On the one hand, he would do anything to run Western. On the other hand, if they doesn't want to support the series of which Western is now a part, their decision to race is going to be very difficult.
My answer is this: since every person's race choice is a vote, this person will have to vote for what he believes in the most. If he dislikes the series enough, he should abstain from running Western States until it is no longer part of the series. If enough people who feel similarly do the same thing, the race will get the message and revert to its former non-governed ways. But if he decides to run Western anyway, despite its association with the series, the race organizers will see no reason not to continue with their new course of action. The direction will be maintained. We must race in accordance with our values.
Fact 3: You can do exactly the same thing as any governing body.
The solution to these problems comes from the same source as the problems themselves. The Ultra-Trail World Tour is a big deal with a lot of powerful backers, and this makes them seem official and in charge. But if you look closely enough, you'll see that they are nothing more than a group of people with similar views who wish to promote those views on a large scale. That is an admirable goal. What this means is that you can do exactly the same thing. If you don't like something about the sport, if you think people are littering too much or competing with too much attrition or losing their values, if you feel that races are too big or expensive or any other of the million ways that any race, big or small, could be doing wrong, then start your own race. Explain how you feel and what you want to do differently. You will likely find lots of people who feel the same way.
As a personal example, I just started the Telluride Mountain Run with Reese Ruland. What really excites me about the future is that we can take our race in any direction we want. If we want to be part of a series, we'll join right up. If we want to stand alone and act as a bastion of independent events, then we'll just stay right the hell out of any governing body. We guide the future of our race with our values and beliefs and hopes, partnered with feedback from the people who've participated. Our race, like any other, is a result of the people who run it. Their vote counts the most, even if that vote is just to continue to be part of the event.
Another, albeit extreme, option is to quit competing entirely. You don't ever have to race again if you just want to run in the mountains with your friends. That's as admirable as any other course of action. The only difference is that by abstaining from racing entirely, you are also abstaining from your vote in how the sport should grow or change. If you have read this far down this article, I suspect that you have strong feelings about ultrarunning because you genuinely care. If you're passionate about ultrarunning, then please, don't leave us. To leave is to give up, and we need most the people who care.
Fact 4: Any governing body will only have what power we give it.
The UTWT is by no means the first attempt at a governing body within the sport of ultrarunning. USA Track and Field, the International Association of Ultrarunners, the Montrail Ultra Cup, all these and more have attempted to provide a multi-race structure. Probably the series which has taken root best is the Skyrunning Federation, which hosts several difficult races throughout the year all over the world. They feature a point system which allows for runners to compete with each other over multiple races for a grand prize at the end of the year.
Skyrunning, like most other governing bodies, is essentially a middleman. They partner with existing races and create an outside structure, but they don't actually direct the races. But unlike some of the other series, Skyrunning hit the right chord with its demographic, which is mostly European. The Euros in general like steep mountain races, and Skyrunning is dedicated to partnering with the steepest, toughest mountain races in existence. Because of this, people can run races they would run anyway, but in doing so they get to compete for much higher stakes than if Skyrunning were not part of the series.
If the Ultra-Trail World Tour can really honor its stated goals–to bring together the greatest competition in beautiful places, honor different cultures through shared interests, partner with the most storied events around the world to showcase their different styles, and provide every type of runner the opportunity to do well on their preferred terrain–they could potentially do something amazing. The fear is that those high-flown values could be a front to make a few people a lot of money through control of the sport.
As a competitive runner, I expect I will participate in the series to some extent, if only to try it out, because I want to believe that they really are trying to do what they say. The quality of this series or the lack thereof will become apparent within the first few years. Right now everything is up in the air. This could go either way.
As the sport grows, attempts to create a governing body seem inevitable. Rather than a disjointed collection of races spread throughout the year, people want to see a streamlined series that will conduct runners into the most "important" races if they wish to compete against the best. This is an admirable principle, but it can be taken too far. Triathlon, for example, is so hindered by governing bodies that performances are often forgotten in light of arbitrary points systems that often seem based more on politics than ability. That sport has created a bottleneck with the Olympics, which are highly valued by competitive triathletes. The Olympic Committee is in charge of who gets into the Olympics, which gives them power because they control the only path to the goal. In a situation like this, personal biases and petty differences are quick to take precedence over actual merit.
Fortunately, we don't have to worry about mountain running in the Olympics (ultrarunning, perhaps, but long-distance road racing is only a small subset of the sport). Our playing field is still broad enough that no single organization can tell us what to do. One of the greatest things about ultrarunning is, as AJW put it, the "we're all in this together" ethos. That's why this is such a sensitive subject, most of us feel that we are part of something authentic and real in the world of ultramarathoning, and we want to protect its values. If you look at the stated goals of most governing bodies, they are only trying to further this ethos by creating stronger structures that bring people together. But they don't get to say how people should race unless we let them. I would love to see the UTWT do all that it has set out to do. But at the end of the day, our choices will determine their success or failure. We are still the guardians of our own values.
Call for Comments (from Meghan)
Dakota wrote this article because he thinks our community needs to ponder the bigger picture of what governing bodies mean to ultrarunning and to remind us that we have a stake in what our sport is and should be in the future.
In order for Dakota's intended discussion to occur, all comments must be civil and constructive. If you wouldn't say something to someone's face on a trail run, it does not belong in a comment here. Discuss; debate; establish logical courses of action. Please do all of this in a kind, respectful-to-all manner.
Additionally, we've had several days now to debate what we've learned about the Ultra-Trail World Tour, so this venue, Dakota's article and invitation for conversation, presents a great opportunity to look at the idea of governing bodies from a more wholistic perspective. We, thus, encourage you to direct your comments to the idea of governing bodies in general and not the UTWT specifically.
Thank you!
- Governing bodies are not new entities in the sport of ultrarunning, yet the introduction of the UTWT created vociferous response from the community. Do you think this is because it's the first new governing body to introduce itself since the massive expansion of trail and ultrarunning began several years ago? That the others, which have been around for longer, are now accepted as status quo? Or do folks' opinions originate out of some facet of the UTWT itself and its differences from other governing bodies already operating?
- Governing bodies of all kinds seem to be largely oriented toward the top end of the field, though they have trickle-down effects into the rest of community. Thinking about the other, already established governing bodies out there, what trickle-down effects do you feel within our sport, if any?
- In the past, there has been room for both independence and governing bodies in our sport and keeping this diversity is likely a concept our community values. What can we do to help maintain this diversity?


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Love Binds Ever Sweetly in The Vow
- Susan Ellingburg Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
- 2012 10 Feb
DVD Release Date: May 8, 2012
Theatrical Release Date: February 10, 2012
Rating: PG-13 (for an accident scene, sexual content, partial nudity and some language)
Genre: Drama, Romance
Run Time: 104 min.
Director: Michael Sucsy
Actors: Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Jessica Lange and Sam Neill
The Vow is everything a good love story should be: funny, sweet, charming, and romantic with a capital "R." In a stroke of perfect timing, this sweetheart of a movie releases just in time for Valentine's Day. (Heads up, guys: this would be a smart choice for a February 14 date. Trust me on this.)
The eye candy's not bad, either. Channing Tatum (Haywire) is adorable as Leo, a young husband devoted to his quirky, artist wife. From the moment their eyes meet across a crowded room (at the Chicago Department of Motor Vehicles office, no less) he is determined to woo and win the lovely Paige (Rachel McAdams, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows). And he does. Their perfectly precious wedding—and their deeply personal vows—are sure to prompt contented sighs from female moviegoers of all ages.
Unfortunately for Leo, the couple's shared history has to be told in flashback. Leo tells us he believes that "moments of impact define who we are" and one of those moments of impact involved a large truck, resulting in a massive brain injury to Paige. She survives but her memory does not . . . not all of it, anyway. Not the part where she left law school to become an artist, moved to the city, and fell in love with Leo.
Naturally, he's devastated. Things only get worse when Paige's parents show up. She hasn't spoken to them in about five years, but she doesn't remember that, either. Mom and Dad would like to pretend that whole family quarrel thing never happened and sweep Paige back into the suffocating family fold. The suburbs, the country club, a respectable career, and an appropriate male partner are all waiting for her at home. Paige's life in the city with Leo? With any luck that can all be swept under the rug, too.
Meanwhile, Paige is left with a husband she can't remember, an ex-fiancé she can't quite forget, and serious confusion over who she has become. If we lose the moments that make us "us," then how do we know who we are? It's as if the buttoned-up, meat-loving lawyer-in-training closed her eyes and opened them a moment later only to look in the mirror and see a bohemian, vegetarian artist with "weird hair."
McAdams does a good job portraying Paige's emotional tightrope walk between the girl she remembers being and the one people tell her she's become. (One style note: seriously, what is up with that awful hair color she sports the last half of the film? Were they trying to make her look bad?) Tatum is the quintessential heartthrob as the charming, compassionate, hopelessly-in-love Leo. Meanwhile, Sam Neill (Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole) pretty much phones in his performance as Paige's controlling father while Jessica Lange (as Paige's mom) all but steals the show with an emotional scene near the end.
Amnesia stories seem to run in cycles and we've seen several in print and on-screen lately, so The Vow could easily have had a "been there, done that" feeling. It doesn't. The screenplay is loosely based on a true story, which seems to keep it running along just outside the usual "boy meets girl, girl forgets boy, boy gets girl back" track. It's refreshing to watch a love story that is actually about love—including marriage, even—rather than sexual attraction alone. There is plenty of passion, but it's tastefully displayed in a way that highlights the romance more than the rumpled sheets.
Is The Vow one of the all-time great movies? Well, no. But it is a delightful romantic comedy that is legitimately sweet with no unpleasant aftertaste. You could do much, much worse this Valentine's Day—or any day, for that matter.
- Drugs/Alcohol: Wine is served at every meal but breakfast; beer, mixed drinks, and shots served at parties and wedding; no obvious drunkenness.
- Language/Profanity: Fairly mild for a modern mainstream movie. Sh** by itself and specified as bullsh**, he**, "God" used alone and with da**, man referred to as a di**, conversation about a fart.
- Sex/Nudity: Wife mentions "getting preggers in a car." Tastefully filmed kissing and foreplay, no "in the act" scenes. Unclothed married couple shown in bed together, bare backs shown (male and female); one view of a male backside. Unmarried female given a negligee and condom as a gift "for later"; girl invited to move in with boyfriend (and apparently his male roommates). She sees him naked (we don't) and he says "It's not like you haven't seen it before" referring to genitals. Couple goes swimming in their underwear and horseplay ensues. Reference to a marital affair.
- Violence: Car crash with slow-motion head injury and body thrown through windshield; punch (richly deserved) thrown at a party.
- Spiritual Themes: Forgiveness, the importance of family, and unselfish love. Reference made to burning a 'smudge stick' to drive out bad energy; it's noted that the stick is apparently made of old lettuce but did do the trick.


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We live stream a brief service of Morning Prayer at 8 a.m. each day, Monday through Saturday. Go to spdlc.org/livestream. You'll find a link to the Worship Bulletin below the video stream. You can also view these services directly—both live and in archive format after they occur—at our SPD Facebook page.
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Event Series: Daily Morning Prayer
Daily Morning Prayer
Friday, May 15th from 8:00am – 8:30am


text: The instantly recognizable Jumpman silhouette made its debut on the Air Jordan 3 during Michael Jordan's 1987-88 NBA season. Legendary designer Tinker Hatfield re-introduced Jordan's signature line with the first mid-cut basketball sneaker. But it was the tumbled leather and elephant-skin print wrapping the toe and heel that established the Jordan 3 as a sneaker that could be worn proudly both on and off the hardwood.


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Image Description: Fountain photo; Russia, St. Petersburg, Peterhof
Photographer: Dmitrij Karmanov
Digital Camera
Posted on the site: 7 February, 2006
www.travel-guide.veselo.info: St. Petersburg / Environs / Peterhof / Fountain / Monplaisir Complex / Photo of The Sun Fountain
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Stefan Oosterwold is building a very neat and very large delta printer. It is based on
Megatronics V3.0 and has a build volume of 300mm diameter by 600mm height. It will have
three extruders cooled with water cooling. By using larger stepper motors with direct drive
Stefan expects to be able to reach very high speeds