text:
Ex-NFL player Clinton Hart tackles childhood obesity
At a time when some football players are saying they don't want their kids playing the sport because of the risks involved, one former NFL player says the biggest risk to kids' health come when parents don't encourage them to be active at all.
Clinton Hart, who played defensive back for the Eagles, Chargers and Rams from 2003 to 2009, now works as a personal trainer in Ocala, Florida. And while he trains adults for a living, he trains groups of children for free. Because he says the enormous increase in childhood obesity, which has more than tripled in the last 30 years, has to be stopped.
"I'll walk around Wild Waters and see somebody and think to myself, 'this has to stop,'" Hart told Ocala.com. "It's a shame because you know that kid is going to grow up and wish we could've stopped them. It's on their parents to get them involved and away from the TV and video games."
Hart makes clear that he believes parents need to do more to encourage their children to participate in healthy activities.
"One way I can help kids is through their parents," he said. "Kids tend to model themselves after their parents."
And Hart is doing what he can to model healthy behaviors for kids in his community.


text:
Plymouth-based Miracle-Ear, which says it sells America's most popular hearing aid, is turning up the volume for its Italian parent, Amplifon.
Moreover, the Twin Cities hearing aid trade, which boasts several firms, appears to be growing thanks to aging baby boomers who need hearing help, powerful digital products and the willingness of some health insurers to cover at least some of the cost.
"The technology has evolved and become smaller, more powerful and affordable," said Pablo Hoyos, Miracle-Ear's regional manager. "Our franchisees determine the retail price, but the average price of many products is between $2,500 and $5,000. We can always find a solution. And we have technology that allows you to stream sound from your TV or cellphone through a small programmer.''
Hoyos said last week that Miracle-Ear plans to add six stores in the Twin Cities area, bringing the total to 16 stores.
Through Miracle-Ear, formerly known as Amplifon USA, there are about 400 local employees at the Plymouth headquarters and manufacturing complex, and another 2,250 who work at 1,200 corporate and franchise stores around the country.
In the first quarter, Milan-based Amplifon reported operating earnings of about $23 million on revenue of about $246 million, a decline of about 3 percent from 2012 first-quarter revenue, thanks to the economic slowdown in Europe, Amplifon's biggest market, and flat sales in the Asia-Pacific region.
But the company's Plymouth-based North American operations saw first-quarter revenue increase 11 percent to about $45 million. Amplifon termed its North American results "brilliant growth."
Amplifon's North American revenue grew 14 percent last year while overall revenue grew only 2 percent to about $1.1 billion.
Anne Gowen, Miracle-Ear's marketing director, said the Plymouth manufacturing operations may expand from two to three shifts daily if demand continues to grow.
Kendra Klemme, a spokeswoman for Eden Prairie-based Starkey Hearing Technologies, said Starkey is the only U.S.-based outfit among the world's six largest hearing aid manufacturers. Starkey employs about 3,500 employees around the globe. The other five are based in Europe.
Klemme declined to disclose the revenue of privately held Starkey, which was founded in 1967.
Switzerland-based Unitron, another hearing aid maker, two years ago completed an expanded headquarters and manufacturing center in Plymouth that cost $3 million and employs more than 200.
Amplifon says it's the largest retailer of hearing instruments around the globe. Gowen said U.S. growth is challenged a bit because there are not enough salespeople being certified to sell hearing products.
"We're reaping the benefit of baby boomers starting to age into our demographic," Gowen said. "Typically, it takes a person five to seven years to have their hearing tested. And with people starting to work longer in their careers, well, they need to be able to hear."
Amplifon USA sells its products through its Miracle-Ear retail network and also through Elite, a member-based network of independent retailers.
The late Ken Dahlberg, who started Dahlberg Electronics in 1948, was considered the father of Miracle-Ear when his company produced the first electronic hearing aid designed to be worn in the ear in 1955.
The company was acquired for $139 million in 1993 by Bausch & Lomb, which sold it to Amplifon in 1999 for an undisclosed amount after Bausch decided to focus on eye products. Miracle-Ear shrank under Bausch: Revenue fell below $90 million and the parent company wrote down the value of Miracle-Ear.
That's the same Plymouth-based Miracle-Ear that's now the growth engine inside Amplifon.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Both report templates and report results are word processing documents that can be stored in RVF format. They can be printed, exported to HTML, DocX and RTF (and PDF, using third-party PDF components). You can apply styles to report templates and report results to change their appearance.
- Overview, comparison
- How to make reports (basic reports, master/detail reports)
- Cross tabulation (also known as pivot tables, or matrix reports)
- Visualization of values (color scales, diagrams)
Trial version and demo projects
Trial version can be downloaded from http://www.trichview.com/download/
A compiled demo (report designer using FireDAC) is included in TRichView demos, or can be downloaded separately: http://www.trichview.com/rvfiles/report ... p-demo.zip
Report Workshop is a TRichView add-on, so they can be ordered together:
Registered TRichView users can order Report Workshop separately.
The current prices are introductory, they are available for a limited time!
There are some possibilities to get our components without payments, see http://www.trichview.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=7634
Any questions are welcome.


text:
SQLite Expert is a powerful tool designed to simplify the development of SQLite3 databases. It is a feature rich administration and development tool for SQLite designed to answer the needs of all users from writing simple SQL queries to developing complex databases.
The graphical interface supports all SQLite features. It includes a visual query builder, an SQL editor with syntax highlighting and code completion, visual table and view designers and powerful import and export capabilities.
Supported platforms: Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11.


text:
Still playing Dark Souls. I plan on doing the Second Opinion so I'm trying not to say a whole lot about it here on the blog, but I have been putting quite a bit of time into it and I do think it's a pretty superb game. Is it better than Demon's Souls? That's hard to say. If nothing else, I feel comfortable stating that the two are similar, yet neither one seems head-and-shoulders above the other. At least, not yet…
A couple of quick Dark Souls helpful tidbits:
- If you're lost and you don't know where to go, open up your menu and start reading the descriptions of the keys in your inventory. Most of them give a general location, and if you are remember which you've used and which you haven't, they end up being pretty good clues as to where you should be heading to next.
- Always carry a remove curse item.
- Always carry a Homeward Bone (or two or three) since they can get you back to the most recent campfire instantly. If you are rich with souls and you're afraid you're about to get picked off by something lurking in the dark, use this item, level up, and then head back to where you were. The sting of death is a lot less painful if you just used up all your souls gaining a few levels.
- If you accidentally hit an NPC and they become hostile, you can leave the area without killing them and pay a certain character to turn them friendly again.
- In the Blighttown area, there are actually two campfires that can be activated. The second one is hard to spot if you're not looking in the right direction, but if you make it there and get the fire going, the area is much, much, much easier to finish since it acts as a checkpoint about half or two thirds of the way through. This particular part of the game suffers from a poor frame rate and there are lots of areas where it's quite easy to fall to your death, so save yourself some frustration and search out at second campfire.
The Instantly Twisted Shadow Planet DLC add-on called Shadow Hunters should be available on Xbox Live for 400 MSP by the time you read this. I covered it in depth, so if you're a fan of this game (and really, who isn't?) make sure you check it out.
I had no idea it was in the works, but apparently there is a Persona 4 anime that's pretty good. You can check out the first episode for free.
I've also just discovered that the complete Torchwood: Miracle Day series is now available on Netflix for instant download. Looks like I know what I'll be doing this weekend…
I rarely, rarely talk about politics here at the blog, but @Kweenie posted this link today or two ago, and I found it a worthwhile read if for no other reason than I appreciated how clearly and distinctly the author talks about the current problem of a plutocracy ruining the United States for everyone else.
I don't have any problem with people being rich, but when small number of rich people arrange things so that they get richer while everyone else gets poorer, that's when the trouble starts. The way I see it, every empire eventually crumbles due to corruption at the top, and there's no reason in the world why our own country will be any different if the "haves" can't rein in their greed and let other people have a chance to enjoy a decent quality of life.
- SVG 354: 'Sup Ron - September 16, 2023
- SVG 353: Wendy's Chicken Sandwich 8.5/10 - September 11, 2023
- SVG 352: Support SAG-AFTRA - September 2, 2023


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Greenwald writes: "On Thursday 6 June 2013, our fifth day in Hong Kong, I went to Edward Snowden's hotel room and he immediately said he had news that was 'a bit alarming.'"
Edward Snowden. (illustration: Jason Seiler/TIME Magazine)
The Day We Revealed Edward Snowden's Identity
11 May 14
In the hours after his name became known, the entire world was searching for the NSA whistleblower, and it became vital that his whereabouts in Hong Kong remained secret. In an extract from a new book, No Place to Hide, Glenn Greenwald recalls the dramatic events surrounding the moment Snowden revealed himself in June 2013
n Thursday 6 June 2013, our fifth day in Hong Kong, I went to Edward Snowden's hotel room and he immediately said he had news that was "a bit alarming". An internet-connected security device at the home he shared with his longtime girlfriend in Hawaii had detected that two people from the NSA – a human-resources person and an NSA "police officer" – had come to their house searching for him.
Snowden was almost certain this meant that the NSA had identified him as the likely source of the leaks, but I was sceptical. "If they thought you did this, they'd send hordes of FBI agents with a search warrant and probably Swat teams, not a single NSA officer and a human-resources person." I figured this was just an automatic and routine inquiry, triggered when an NSA employee goes absent for a few weeks without explanation. But Snowden suggested that perhaps they were being purposely low-key to avoid drawing media attention or setting off an effort to suppress evidence.
Whatever the news meant, it underscored the need for Laura Poitras – the film-maker who was collaborating with me on the story – and I to quickly prepare our article and video unveiling Snowden as the source of the disclosures. We were determined that the world would first hear about Snowden, his actions and his motives, from Snowden himself, not through a demonisation campaign spread by the US government while he was in hiding or in custody and unable to speak for himself.
Our plan was to publish two more articles on the NSA files in the Guardian and then release a long piece on Snowden himself, accompanied by a videotaped interview, and a printed Q&A with him.
Poitras had spent the previous 48 hours editing the footage from my first interview with Snowden, but she said it was too detailed, lengthy, and fragmented to use. She wanted to film a new interview right away; one that was more concise and focused, and wrote a list of 20 or so specific questions for me to ask him. I added several of my own as Poitras set up her camera and directed us where to sit.
"Um, my name is Ed Snowden," the now-famous film begins. "I'm 29 years old. I work for Booz Allen Hamilton as an infrastructure analyst for NSA in Hawaii."
Snowden went on to provide crisp, stoic, rational responses to each question: Why had he decided to disclose these documents? Why was this important enough for him to sacrifice his freedom? What were the most significant revelations? Was there anything criminal or illegal shown in these documents? What did he expect would happen to him?
As he gave examples of illegal and invasive surveillance, he became animated and passionate. But only when I asked him whether he expected repercussions did he show distress, fearing that the government would target his family and girlfriend for retaliation. He would avoid contact with them to reduce the risk, he said, but he knew he could not fully protect them. "That's the one thing that keeps me up at night, what will happen to them," he said as his eyes welled up, the first and only time I saw that happen.
The relatively lighter mood we had managed to keep up over the prior few days now turned to palpable anxiety: we were less than 24 hours away from revealing Snowden's identity, which we knew would change everything, for him most of all. The three of us had lived through a short but exceptionally intense and gratifying experience. One of us, Snowden, was soon to be removed from the group, likely to go to prison for a long time – a fact that had depressingly lurked in the air from the outset, at least for me. Only Snowden had seemed unbothered by this. Now, a giddy gallows humor crept into our dealings.
"I call the bottom bunk at Gitmo," Snowden joked as he contemplated our prospects. As we talked about future articles, he would say things such as: "That's going into the indictment. The only question is whether it's going into yours or mine." Mostly he remained inconceivably calm. Even now, with the clock winding down on his freedom, Snowden still went to bed at 10.30pm, as he had every night during my time in Hong Kong. While I could barely catch more than two hours of restless sleep at a time, he kept consistent hours. "Well, I'm going to hit the hay," he would announce casually each night before retiring for seven-and-a-half hours of sound sleep, appearing completely refreshed the next day.
When we asked him about his ability to sleep so well under the circumstances, Snowden said that he felt profoundly at peace with what he had done and so the nights were easy. "I figure I have very few days left with a comfortable pillow," he joked, "so I might as well enjoy them."
Revealed to the World
At 7.27pm, British summer time on Sunday 9 June 2013, the Guardian published the story that revealed Snowden to the world: "Edward Snowden: The Whistleblower Behind the NSA Surveillance Revelations." The article told Snowden's story, conveyed his motives, and proclaimed that "Snowden will go down in history as one of America's most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley [now Chelsea] Manning." We quoted from Snowden's early note to Poitras and me: "I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions … but I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant."
The reaction to the article and the video was more intense than anything I had experienced as a writer. Ellsberg himself, writing the following day in the Guardian, proclaimed that "there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago".
Several hundred thousand people posted the link to their Facebook accounts in the first several days alone. Almost three million people watched the interview on YouTube. Many more saw it on the Guardian's website. The overwhelming response was shock and inspiration at Snowden's courage.
Poitras, Snowden and I followed the reaction to his exposure together, while I also debated with two Guardian media strategists over which Monday-morning TV interviews I should agree to do. We settled on Morning Joe on MSNBC, followed by NBC's Today show – the two earliest shows, which would shape the coverage of Snowden throughout the day.
But before I could get to those interviews, we were diverted by a call at 5am – just hours after the Snowden article was published – from a longtime reader of mine who lives in Hong Kong, with whom I had been communicating periodically throughout the week. He pointed out that the entire world would soon be looking for Snowden in Hong Kong, and he insisted that Snowden urgently needed to retain well-connected lawyers in the city. He had two of the best human-rights lawyers standing by, willing to represent him. Could the three of them come over to my hotel right away?
We agreed to meet a short time later, at around 8am. I slept for a couple of hours until he called, an hour early, at 7am.
"We're already here," he said, "downstairs in your hotel. I have the two lawyers with me. Your lobby is filled with cameras and reporters. The media is searching for Snowden's hotel and will find it imminently, and the lawyers say that it's vital they get to him before the media finds him."
Barely awake, I threw on the nearest clothes I could find and I stumbled to the door. As soon as I opened it, the flashes from multiple cameras went off in my face. The media horde had obviously paid off someone on the hotel staff to get my room number. Two women identified themselves as Hong Kong–based Wall Street Journal reporters; others, including one with a large camera, were from Associated Press.
They hurled questions and formed a moving half-circle around me as I walked to the elevator. They pushed their way into the elevator with me, asking one question after the next, most of which I answered with short, curt, unhelpful replies.
Down in the lobby, a new swarm of cameras and reporters joined the group. I tried to look for my reader and the lawyers but could not move two feet without having my path blocked.
I was particularly concerned that the swarm would try to follow me and make it impossible for the lawyers to get to Snowden. I finally decided to hold an impromptu press conference in the lobby, answering questions so that the reporters would go away. After 15 minutes or so, most of them dispersed.
I was then relieved to stumble into Gill Phillips, the Guardian's chief lawyer, who had stopped off in Hong Kong on her way from Australia to London to provide us with legal counsel. She said she wanted to explore all possible ways for the Guardian to protect Snowden. "Alan [Rusbridger, editor of the Guardian] is adamant that we give him all the support we legally can," she said. We tried to talk more but had no privacy with the last few reporters lurking. I finally found my reader, along with the two Hong Kong lawyers he had brought with him. We plotted how we could speak without being followed, and all decamped to Phillips' room. Still trailed by a handful of reporters, we shut the door in their faces.
We got right down to business. The lawyers wished urgently to speak to Snowden to get his formal permission to represent him, at which point they could begin acting on his behalf.
Snowden Disappears
Phillips frantically used her phone to investigate these lawyers, whom we had only just met, before turning Snowden over to them. She was able to determine that they were indeed well-known and established in the human rights and asylum community and seemed quite well connected politically in Hong Kong. As Phillips performed her impromptu due diligence, I signed on to the chat program. Both Snowden and Poitras were online. Poitras, who was now staying at Snowden's hotel, was certain that it was only a matter of time before the reporters found their location, too. Snowden was clearly eager to leave. I told him about the lawyers, who were ready to go to his hotel room. Snowden said they should pick him up and bring him to a safe place. It was, he said, "time to enter the part of the plan where I ask the world for protection and justice".
"But I need to get out of the hotel without being recognised by reporters," he said. "Otherwise they'll just follow me wherever I go."
I conveyed these concerns to the lawyers. "Does he have any ideas how to prevent that?" one of them asked.
I passed the question on to Snowden.
"I'm in the process of taking steps to change my appearance," he said, clearly having thought about this previously. "I can make myself unrecognisable."
At that point, I thought the lawyers should speak to him directly. Before being able to do so, they needed Snowden to recite a formalistic phrase about hereby retaining them. I sent Snowden the phrase and he then typed it back to me. The lawyers then took over the computer and began speaking with Snowden.
After 10 minutes, the two lawyers announced they were heading over to his hotel immediately to meet Snowden as he attempted to leave the hotel undetected.
"What do you intend to do with him after that?" I asked.
They would likely take him to the UN mission in Hong Kong and formally seek the UN's protection from the US government, on the grounds that Snowden was a refugee seeking asylum. Or, they said, they would try to arrange a "safe house".
But how to get the lawyers out of the hotel without being followed? We came up with a plan: I would walk out of the hotel room with Phillips and go down to the lobby to lure the reporters, still waiting outside our door, to follow me. The lawyers would then wait for a few minutes and exit the hotel, hopefully without being noticed.
The ruse worked. After 30 minutes of chatting with Phillips in a shopping centre attached to the hotel, I went back up to my room and anxiously called one of the lawyers on his mobile phone.
"He got out right before journalists started swarming the floor," he said. "We met him in his hotel room and then we crossed a bridge into an adjacent mall" – in front of the room with the alligator where Snowden had first met us, I later learned – "and then into our waiting car. He's with us now."
Where were they taking him?
"It's best not to talk about that on the phone," the lawyer replied. "He'll be safe for now."
I was immensely relieved that Snowden was in good hands, but we knew there was a strong chance we might never see or speak to him again, at least not as a free man. Most likely, I thought, we would next see him on television, dressed in an orange prison jumpsuit and wearing shackles, inside a US courtroom, being arraigned on espionage charges.
As I digested the news, there was a knock on my door. It was the general manager of the hotel, who had come to tell me that the phone was ringing nonstop for my room (I had given an instruction to the front desk to block all calls). There were also throngs of reporters, photographers, and camera people down in the lobby waiting for me to appear.
"If you like," he said, "we can take you out a back elevator and through an exit nobody will see. And the Guardian's lawyer has made a reservation for you at another hotel under a different name, if that's what you want to do."
That was clearly hotel-manager-ese for: we want you to leave because of the ruckus you are creating. I knew it was a good idea anyway: I wanted to continue to work with some privacy and was still hoping to maintain contact with Snowden. So I packed my bags, followed the manager out the back exit, and then checked into a different hotel under the name of the Guardian's lawyer.
The first thing I did was sign on to the internet, hoping to hear from Snowden. Several minutes later, he appeared online.
"I'm fine," he told me. "In a safe house for now. But I have no idea how safe it is, or how long I'll be here. I'll have to move from place to place, and my internet access is unreliable, so I don't know when or how often I'll be online."
He was obviously reluctant to give any details about his location and I did not want them. I knew that my ability to be involved in his hiding was very limited. He was now the world's most wanted man by the world's most powerful government. The US had already demanded that Hong Kong authorities arrest him and turn him over to American custody.
So we spoke briefly and vaguely, expressing mutual hope that we would be in touch. I told him to stay safe.
Under Attack
When I finally got to the studio for the interviews for Morning Joe and the Today show, I noticed immediately that the tenor of the questioning had changed significantly. Rather than dealing with me as a reporter, the hosts preferred to attack a new target: Snowden himself, now a shadowy figure in Hong Kong. Many US journalists resumed their accustomed role as servants to the government. The story was no longer that reporters had exposed serious NSA abuses but that an American working for the government had "betrayed" his obligations, committed crimes, and then "fled to China".
My interviews with both hosts, Mika Brzezinski and Savannah Guthrie, were acrimonious and acerbic. Sleep-deprived for more than a full week now, I had no patience for the criticisms of Snowden embedded in their questions: journalists, I felt, should be celebrating, not demonising, someone who had brought more transparency to the national security state than anyone in years.
After a few more days of interviews, I decided it was time to leave Hong Kong. Clearly, it would now be impossible to meet or otherwise help Snowden from Hong Kong, and at that point I was completely exhausted, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. I was eager to return to Rio.
I thought about flying home via New York and stopping for one day to do interviews – just to make the point that I could and would. But I was advised by a lawyer against doing so, arguing that it made little sense to take legal risks of that sort until we knew how the government planned to react. "You've just enabled the biggest national security leak in US history and gone all over TV with the most defiant message possible," he said. "It will only make sense to plan a trip to the US once we get a sense of the Justice Department's response."
I didn't agree: I thought it was unlikely in the extreme that the Obama administration would arrest a journalist in the middle of such high-profile reporting. But I was too drained to argue or take the risk. So I had the Guardian book my flight back to Rio through Dubai, nowhere near the US. For the moment, I reasoned, I had done enough.
A fortnight after Greenwald left Hong Kong, Snowden fled the former British colony. Realising that he could only hold off US extradition requests for a matter of months - at best a year - he headed for Latin America but was stopped in transit in Moscow. He has been stuck in Russia since.
The three reporters who interviewed Snowden in Hong Kong - Greenwald, Poitras and Ewen MacAskill - received the Polk award last month for their Snowden coverage and are part of a Guardian team to be awarded a Pulitizer prize in New York later this month. Snowden hopes that one day he will be able to seek asylum in western Europe or, even better, be allowed to return to the US as a free man.
THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.


text:
CRS: 9,11 Terrorism: Global Economic Costs, October 5, 2004
From WikiLeaks
About this CRS report
This document was obtained by Wikileaks from the United States Congressional Research Service.
The CRS is a Congressional "think tank" with a staff of around 700. Reports are commissioned by members of Congress on topics relevant to current political events. Despite CRS costs to the tax payer of over $100M a year, its electronic archives are, as a matter of policy, not made available to the public.
Individual members of Congress will release specific CRS reports if they believe it to assist them politically, but CRS archives as a whole are firewalled from public access.
This report was obtained by Wikileaks staff from CRS computers accessible only from Congressional offices.
For other CRS information see: Congressional Research Service.
For press enquiries, consult our media kit.
If you have other confidential material let us know!.
For previous editions of this report, try OpenCRS.
Wikileaks release: February 2, 2009
Publisher: United States Congressional Research Service
Title: 9/11 Terrorism: Global Economic Costs
CRS report number: RS21937
Author(s): Dick K. Nanto, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division
Date: October 5, 2004
- Abstract
- The 9/11 attacks were part of Al Qaedas strategy to disrupt Western economies and impose both direct and secondary costs on the United States and other nations. The immediate costs were the physical damage, loss of lives and earnings, slower world economic growth, and capital losses on stock markets. Indirect costs include higher insurance and shipping fees, diversion of time and resources away from enhancing productivity to protecting and insuring property, public loss of confidence, and reduced demand for travel and tourism. In a broader sense, the 9/11 attacks led to the invasions and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq (and the Global War on Terrorism) and perhaps emboldened terrorists to attack in Bali, Spain, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. A policy question for Congress is how to evaluate the costs and benefits of further spending to counter terrorism and its economic impact.
- Download


text:
'The Simpsons,' 'Portlandia,' and 'Adventure Time' Among This Year's Early Emmy Winners
IFC's quirky sketch comedy "Portlandia," Cartoon Network's colorful oddball series "Adventure Time," and Fox's iconic longtime hit "The Simpsons" are all early Creative Arts Emmy winners — juried winners, that is.
What does it mean to be a juried winner? In a nutshell, a panel of professionals screens all of the entrants in certain categories, and yes, it is possible to award more than one Emmy in each category. In fact, the group could opt to not dole out any awards. After deliberations, the peer group votes, and only those with unanimous approval win.
[Related: 2013 Primetime Emmy Nominees]
"Portlandia" and CBS's "The 55th Annual Grammy Awards" are among the juried winners in the Outstanding Costumes for a Variety Program or Special category. "Adventure Time," "The Simpsons," and "Disney TRON: Uprising" are three of the series in for Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation.
HBO's doc "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," which examines the first known U.S. public protest of clerical sex crimes brought on by four brave deaf victims, is the sole winner in the Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking category.
The Creative Arts Emmy Awards will air on Saturday, 9/21 at 9 PM on FXX.
Check out the full list of 2013's juried winners:
Outstanding Individual Achievement In Animation
Andy Ristaino, Character Design
Series: "Adventure Time"
Episode: "Puhoy"
Network: Cartoon Network
Jenny Gase-Baker, Background Paint
Series: "Mickey Mouse"
Episode: "Croissant de Triomphe"
Network: Disney Channel
Joseph Holt, Art Direction
Series: "Mickey Mouse"
Episode: "Croissant de Triomphe"
Network: Disney Channel
Alberto Mielgo, Art Direction
Series: "Disney TRON: Uprising"
Episode: "The Stranger"
Network: Disney XD
Andy Bialk, Character Design
Series: "Dragons: Riders of Berk"
Episode: "We Are Family (Part 2)"
Network: Cartoon Network
Paul Wee, Character Animation
Series: "The Simpsons"
Episode: "Treehouse Of Horror XXIII"
Network: Fox
Outstanding Costumes For A Variety Program Or A Special
Marina Toybina, Costume Designer; Courtney Webster, Assistant Costume Designer
Special: "The 55th Annual Grammy Awards"
Network: CBS
Sarah Beers, Costume Designer; Rachael Leah Greene, Costume Supervisor; Lisa Faibish, Costume Supervisor
Program: "The Men Who Built America"
Episode: "Bloody Battles"
Network: History
Amanda Needham, Costume Designer; Monika Schmidt, Costume Supervisor
Program: "Portlandia"
Episode: "Blackout"
Network: IFC
Exceptional Merit In Documentary Filmmaking
Alex Gibney, Producer; Todd Wider, Producer; Jedd Wider, Producer; Sheila Nevins, Executive Producer
Special: "Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God"
Network: HBO
Check out the biggest snubs and surprises of the 2013 Emmy nominations:


text:
Now in the springtime, when nature is wearing its most beautiful apparel, one feels inexpressible joy when this natural beauty is accompanied by a sublime spiritual state. Truly, our holy God has made all things in wisdom! [(cf. Ps. 103:26 (All quotes from the Old Testament are from the Septuagint )].
The soul cannot get enough of beholding the beauty of nature. Oh, if man would only lift his mind above this earthly realm to the heavenly Jerusalem, to the inconceivable beauty of paradise where the finite, earthly mind ceases to operate! If here in exile, in this accursed land of weeping, our holy God has given us so much beauty to enjoy, I wonder how much there will be in the place where God Himself dwells! Truly, "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory and bliss." (cf. Rom. 8:18 ).
Theosis in the heavens, my child! There the Lord our God will remove every tear from our eyes, and do away with all sorrow and pain and sighing, for there the angelic way of life reins, and the only work is to chant hymns and spiritual odes! An eternal Sabbath is prepared for us where we shall live in joy with our Father, God, Who is waiting for us to be ready so that He may call us to Him forever! There every saved soul will live in an ocean of love, sweetness, joy, amazement, and wonder!
Elder Ephraim of Arizona


text:
We are planning the kickoff meeting of the Bangalore MySQL User
We would like to invite all MySQL enthusiasts at Bangalore to join.
Plan is to have at-least one meeting every quarter and give an opportunity to all to participate, attend and speak.
Agenda for 22 March Meeting:
1700-1715: Introductions
1715-1730 : Meet the MySQL Development team @ Bangalore
1730-1815 : Introduction to MySQL 5.6
1815-1830 : Q&A & Plan for the next meeting
1830-1900 : Tea and informal networking
Conf Rom 0C001,
Ground Floor, B Wing, Oracle,
Kalyani Magnum Software technology Park
1st Main, J P Nagar 7th Phase,
Bangalore 560076
You can also join the google group "bangalore-mysql-user-camp" where we will be announcing further meetings etc.


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by David Crane defrev at gmail.com November 30, 2007 There's a custom 1911 pistolsmith out there building tactical guns (1911s) for military Special Operations Forces (SOF) assaulters /operators and civilian CCWs (concealed carry) who hasn't, to this point, received much ink, anywhere. DefenseReview plans to remedy that, right now. We first mentioned him very briefly in our article on the …Read More »
Tag Archives: sig 1911 tactical operations
SIG-Sauer 1911 Pistol Coming Soon to a Gun Store Near You.
by David Crane SIG-Sauer, a.k.a. SIGARMS, is going to be introducing a 1911 pistol in .45 caliber very soon. Rumor has it that the guns will be built on Caspian frames (and possibly even slides). This is supposed to include Caspian's Recon frame. DefRev will research the situation and get as much info as we can. DefRev doesn't have any …Read More »


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Wondering if you can ship MyDeal orders faster? Actually, you can - just connect MyDeal + Postis accounts to BaseLinker. We offer both integrations and a wide range of tools to speed up the dispatch process. For years BaseLinker has been developed to automate the work of retailers.
Benefit from such features as:
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MyDeal + Marketplace
MyDeal + Shops
MyDeal + Couriers
MyDeal + Accounting systems
MyDeal + SMS applications
MyDeal + Other
MyDeal + Fulfillment


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Summary: This is an attempt to gain a historical perspective on our time, speculation about our present and future — seen in terms of past cycles.
Here is a surefire way to get economists' attention: tell them that we are only in the second "inning" of this downturn. Their incredulity results from belief that the trough is near — with the recovery (fast or slow) starting this Fall or Winter.
Perhaps. Posts on this site describe an alternative view, that the post-WWII era has ended. We have entered a transitional period. This has been the pattern of modern history.
- The old world ended with American and French Revolutions,
- followed by a transitional period called the Napoleonic Wars.
- The "British Century" — aka the "long peace" — began with Congress of Vienna in 1815,
- then crashing and burning in 1914 (WWI).
- Then came another transitional period, lasting 30 years until 1945, followed by
- the "American century" lasting 60 years (almost a century if dated from our entry into WWI),
- aborted by demographic trends and feckless mis-management of our domestic finances.
We can only guess about the duration and difficulty of this transition to a new world order, and the nature of the new global system. These periods are like singularities — like birth itself. The passage is painful, and one has no idea what awaits on the other side.
The fall of the British Empire, a victim of failing social cohesion
So gorgeous was the spectacle on the May morning of 1910 when 9 kings rode in the funeral of Edward VlI of England that the crowd, waiting in hushed and black-clad awe, could keep back gasps of admiration. In scarlet and blue and green and purple, 3 by 3 the sovereigns rode though the palace gates, with plumed helmets, gold braid, crimson sashes, and jeweled orders flashing in the sun.
After them came 5 heirs apparent, 40 more imperial or royal highnesses, 7 queens, and a scattering of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Together they represented 70 nations in the greatest assemblage of royalty and rank ever gathered in one place and, of its kind, the last. The muffled tongue of Big Ben tolled 9 by the clock as the cortege left the palace, but on history's clock it was sunset, and the sun of the old world was setting in a dying blaze of splendor never to be seen again.
— The opening of The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman
The "British century" — its period as global hegemon — ended in part due to internal dissension. The rebellion of Ireland (started in 1916, the embers still burning today) and class "warfare" weakened the UK's cohesion and its ability to respond to threats. Even during WWII Ireland remained neutral (the UK desperately needed its ports), while strikes damaged its already war-wrecked economy.
This poor social cohesion contributed to it having one of the slowest recoveries from WWII in Europe. (West Germany ended food rationing in 1948. In Britain it became stricter (bread rationing began in 1946), ending in only 1954.
It is a common story for nations. Growing fractures in social cohesion brought many South American countries from prosperity in mid-century to poverty by the century's end. By social cohesion I mean the ability to work together under stress, usually resulting from shared beliefs and goals.
About America
Some future historian might pick some event in 2000 to mark the end of the American century, some spectacle of American confidence and power following the fall of the Soviet Union and the inflating of the tech bubble. It was a brief moment of world hegemony.
America has been weakened by the cumulative burden of our foolish errors during the past 40 years (starting in the late 1960's, with the weakening of the Bretton Woods system, race wars, and Viet Nam — plus our disastrously poor responses to all three problems. Still, we retain our core strengths:
- a hard-working, innovative, people
- a largely free-market economy (these things are relative)
- a strong republican government (as in "republic", not the party)
However, something might have changed in America during the past generation or so.
What's happening in America?
Is something similar happening in America? Consider the following.
- Rising cynicism towards government, a loss of confidence in its honesty and efficacy.
- Rising alienation, reaching near total levels in some minority communities.
And in turn the government may becoming alienated from its people. As seen by…
- the steady increase in the ranks of government employees who are armed, and
- the massive expansion of SWAT teams, and the grim toll of deaths they reap each year, often when delivering warrants (see here for details).
Two trends to watch:
- Fading allegiance to the Constitution, and decreased willingness to fight in its defense.
- The US is rapidly becoming a multi-ethnic society — and these seldom show high degrees of cohesion.
Please share your comments by posting below. Per the FM site's Comment Policy, please make them brief (250 words max), civil, and relevant to this post. Or email me at fabmaximus at hotmail dot com (note the spam-protected spelling).
For information about this site see the About page, at the top of the right-side menu bar.
For more information from the FM site
To read other articles about these things, see the FM reference page on the right side menu bar. Of esp interest these days:
- about the America – how can we reform it?
- about the Financial crisis – what's happening? how will this end?
- about the End of the post-WWII geopolitical regime
- and some Good news about America, a collection of articles!
Some posts about the Constitution and our government:
- Forecast: Death of the American Constitution, 4 July 2006
- The Constitution: wonderful, if we can keep it, 15 February 2008
- Congress shows us how our new government works, 14 April 2008
- See the last glimmers of the Constitution's life…, 27 June 2008
- Remembering what we have lost… thoughts while looking at the embers of the Constitution, 29 June 2008
- A report card for the Republic: are we still capable of self-government?, 3 July 2008
- Another step away from our Constitutional system, with applause, 19 September 2008
- What comes after the Consitution? Can we see the outlines of the "Mark 3″ version?, 10 November 2008


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Recorded by David Lambert and Robert McGill
W.G. Sebald taught his final fiction workshop at the University of East Anglia during the autumn of 2001. In the literary world he was rapidly gaining renown: there had been the succès d'estime of his first three books, and then the publication of Austerlitz earlier that year. In the classroom – where David Lambert and I were two of sixteen students – Sebald was unassuming, almost shy, and asked that we call him Max. When discussing students' work he was anecdotal and associative, more storyteller than technician. He had weary eyes that made it tempting to identify him with the melancholy narrators of his books, but he also had a gentle amiability and wry sense of humour. We were in his thrall. He died three days after the final class.
As far as I'm aware, nobody that term recorded Max's words systematically. However, in the wake of his death, David and I found ourselves returning to our notes, where we'd written down many of Max's remarks. These we gleaned and shared with our classmates. Still, I wish we'd been more diligent, more complete. The comments recorded here represent only a small portion of Max's contribution to the class.
Robert McGill
On approach
- Fiction should have a ghostlike presence in it somewhere, something omniscient. It makes it a different reality.
- Writing is about discovering things hitherto unseen. Otherwise there's no point to the process.
- By all means be experimental, but let the reader be part of the experiment.
- Expressionism was really a kind of wilful avant gardism after the First World War, an attempt to wrench language into a form it does not normally have. It must have purpose, though. It hasn't really occurred in English but is very common in German.
- Write about obscure things but don't write obscurely.
- There is a certain merit in leaving some parts of your writing obscure.
- It's hard to write something original about Napoleon, but one of his minor aides is another matter.
On narration and structure
- In the nineteenth century the omniscient author was God: totalitarian and monolithic. The twentieth century, with all its horrors, was more demotic. It took in people's accounts; suddenly there were other views. In the natural sciences the [twentieth] century saw the disproving of Newton and the introduction of the notion of relativity.
- In the twentieth century we know that the observer always affects what is being observed. So, writing biography now, you have to talk about where you got your sources, how it was talking to that woman in Beverly Hills, the trouble you had at the airport.
- Physicists now say there is no such thing as time: everything co-exists. Chronology is entirely artificial and essentially determined by emotion. Contiguity suggests layers of things, the past and present somehow coalescing or co-existing.
- The present tense lends itself to comedy. The past is foregone and naturally melancholic.
- There is a species of narrator, the chronicler; he's dispassionate, he's seen it all.
- You can't attribute a shortcoming in a text to the state a character is in. For example, 'he doesn't know the landscape so he can't describe it', 'he's drunk so he can't know this or that'.
On description
- You need to set things very thoroughly in time and place unless you have good reasons [not to]. Young authors are often too worried about getting things moving on the rails, and not worried enough about what's on either side of the tracks.
- A sense of place distinguishes a piece of writing. It may be a distillation of different places. There must be a very good reason for not describing place.
- Meteorology is not superfluous to the story. Don't have an aversion to noticing the weather.
- It's very difficult, not to say impossible, to get physical movement right when writing. The important thing is that it should work for the reader, even if it is not accurate. You can use ellipsis, abbreviate a sequence of actions; you needn't laboriously describe each one.
- You sometimes need to magnify something, describe it amply in a roundabout way. And in the process you discover something.
- How do you surpass horror once you've reached a certain level? How do you stop appearing gratuitous? Horror must be absolved by the quality of the prose.
On detail
- 'Significant detail' enlivens otherwise mundane situations. You need acute, merciless observation.
- Oddities are interesting.
- Characters need details that will anchor themselves in your mind.
- The use of twins or triplets who are virtually indistinguishable from each other can lend a spooky, uncanny edge. Kafka does it.
- It's always gratifying to learn something when one reads fiction. Dickens introduced it. The essay invaded the novel. But we should not perhaps trust 'facts' in fiction. It is, after all, an illusion.
- Exaggeration is the stuff of comedy.
- It's good to have undeclared, unrecognized pathologies and mental illnesses in your stories. The countryside is full of undeclared pathologies. Unlike in the urban setting, there, mental affliction goes unrecognized.
- Dialect makes normal words seem other, odd and jagged. For example, 'Jeziz' for Jesus.
- Particular disciplines have specialized terminology that is its own language. I could translate a page of Ian McEwan in half an hour – but golf equipment! another matter. Two Sainsbury's managers talking to each other are a different species altogether.
On reading and intertextuality
- Read books that have nothing to do with literature.
- Get off the main thoroughfares; you'll see nothing there. For example, Kant's Critique is a yawn but his incidental writings are fascinating.
- There has to be a libidinous delight in finding things and stuffing them in your pockets.
- You must get the servants to work for you. You mustn't do all the work yourself. That is, you should ask other people for information, and steal ruthlessly from what they provide.
- None of the things you make up will be as hair-raising as the things people tell you.
- I can only encourage you to steal as much as you can. No one will ever notice. You should keep a notebook of tidbits, but don't write down the attributions, and then after a couple of years you can come back to the notebook and treat the stuff as your own without guilt.
- Don't be afraid to bring in strange, eloquent quotations and graft them into your story. It enriches the prose. Quotations are like yeast or some ingredient one adds.
- Look in older encyclopaedias. They have a different eye. They attempt to be complete and structured but in fact are completely random collected things that are supposed to represent our world.
- It's very good that you write through another text, a foil, so that you write out of it and make your work a palimpsest. You don't have to declare it or tell where it's from.
- A tight structural form opens possibilities. Take a pattern, an established model or sub-genre, and write to it. In writing, limitation gives freedom.
- If you look carefully you can find problems in all writers. And that should give you great hope. And the better you get at identifying these problems, the better you will be at avoiding them.
On style
- Every sentence taken by itself should mean something.
- Writing should not create the impression that the writer is trying to be 'poetic'.
- It's easy to write rhythmical prose. It carries you along. After a while it gets tedious.
- Long sentences prevent you from having continually to name the subject ('Gertie did this, Gertie felt that' etc.).
- Avoid sentences that serve only to set up later sentences.
- Use the word 'and' as little as possible. Try for variety in conjunctions.
On revision
- Don't revise too much or it turns into patchwork.
- Lots of things resolve themselves just by being in the drawer a while.
- Don't listen to anyone. Not us, either. It's fatal.
On other things
- The best academics are often Welsh. They come from a linguistic tradition which mixes the vernacular with the biblical.
- I went into my local video shop. It's filled with video nasties. A generation which has never known war is being raised on horror.
- Tales from the Vienna Woods was written by a Hungarian writing in German, who escaped before the Nazis invaded. He was exiled to Paris where, after consulting a clairvoyant who warned him to avoid the city of Amsterdam, never to ride on trams, and on no account to go in a lift, he was walking on the Champs Elysées when the branch of a tree fell and killed him.
- The English bury their dead higgledy-piggledy. As soon as you get to Düsseldorf it's a different story.


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The Literary World of Sylvia Hubbard is an extremely complex setup, but these books will definitely get you on your way to understanding. Have you read them? Have you left reviews? Let's hear what you think?
Love Like This – Ethan decides to get revenge against his cheating ex-wife in the worst way possible, only to find no other love like this.
Beautiful – Trying to find her beautiful in all the wrong places, leads Madison to two brothers, while her very important research is stolen.
Daddy's Girl – Her father left her with a large inheritance, so she can start the business she's always wanted to, but she has to stay Daddy's girl in order to keep it. http://sylviahubbard.com/daddysgirl
Have you read these books? Take a moment and go to Amazon or Goodreads and leave your reviews. Afterwards, share this post with readers on your social network or on your own blog.
Thanks in advance. Your author!
More Free Reads by this author: Click here
Subscribe to this author's updates for more literary works to come. CLICK HERE
To read more of this author's work, check out her fiction list at:
Or get books on amazon at:


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The list of assembly constituencies are listed above for the district Golaghat , in the state of
. In Golaghat district, there are 3 assembly constituencies in total.
Number of reserved assembly constituencies are 0. Mostly the reserved Seats allocated for SC , ST and other community.
Number of reserved seats for Schedued caste in Golaghat is 0 and for ST is 0 seats.
No.of vidhan sabha seats under General category is 3.
District Name : Golaghat
No. of Seats in General Category - 3
No. of Seats for reserved for SC - 0
No. of seats reserved for ST - 0
Total no.of Seats - 3


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The Global Privacy Policy is available in English and in the following languages. Please note that some of these pages are currently being translated.
Last updated May 2018
Your privacy matters
CWT (CWT Global B.V. and its affiliates, together CWT) is a travel management company with operations in many countries around the world. We provide business travel and hospitality, as well as meetings and events, services to our corporate clients.
CWT is committed to transparency and respecting your online privacy, and recognises the need for appropriate protection and management of the personal data you share with us.
This Global Privacy Notice and Policy describes the personal data we collect, how we used it and with whom we share it, in the context of the provision of our services and when you visit our websites and online tools.
Why do we collect personal data?
Personal data is information that enables us to identify you when providing our services. The use, processing or transfer of your personal data is regulated by applicable data protection and privacy laws and regulations.
CWT collects personal information from (i) corporate clients, their travelers and meetings and events attendees, for the performance of the commercial agreements concluded with our clients, and (ii) the visitors and users of CWT websites. The purposes for which we collect your personal information is related to the provision of business travel, hospitality and meetings and events services, such as:
The personal data we collect is therefore necessary for the performance of our contract with our corporate clients and without which, we wouldn't be able to fulfil their travel, hospitality or meetings and events' needs and requirements.
We also collect business contact information for the purposes of direct- marketing (described under Direct-Marketing Communications' Notice).
What personal information do we collect?
The personal data that we collect for the above purposes may include: name, surname, phone number, email and address, company name, gender, date of birth, form of payment and card numbers, travel preferences where expressed (seat, meal, smoking, special services, etc.), passport and visa details, Passenger Name Record (PNR) as well as next of kin information.
CWT also collects contact information from visitors to CWT websites via "Contact Us" online forms, whose fields contain name, surname, phone number, email and address, company name.
How do we collect or receive your personal information?
When servicing our corporate clients for their travel and hospitality needs, an electronic 'Traveler Profile' is created in CWT's proprietary tool called CWT Portrait. The personal information is entered through feeds from the corporate clients, and/or by the traveler or authorized travel manager. The profile information can also be received from an online booking tool service provider (OBT) where such provider's services are requested by our clients.
When organizing meetings and events for our corporate clients, CWT processes list of attendee names and attendee information directly received from clients or indirectly through online management providers that may be selected by the client.
How do we use your personal data?
We use your personal data to provide our services as described under our commercial agreements.
For example, when a reservation is made, CWT processes a PNR containing the personal data that we have received, along with the reservation information that is needed to fulfil the travel request, and,, in some cases with further information required for compliance with local travel regulations such as the Secure Flight Program in the United States and the Advanced Passenger Information System prevalent in several countries such as the United Kingdom and China.
How long do we keep your personal data?
We retain your personal data as needed to perform our agreements and provide our services, respond to inquiries from our corporate clients on past travel and other business activities, and to comply with our legal obligations, meet our regulatory requirements such as financial reporting laws, resolve disputes or address claims or litigation.
With whom do we share your personal information?
To make travel and hospitality reservations, and in line with travel industry practices, CWT needs to share personal information that is has collected and processed (usually the PNR) with various third-party travel suppliers such as:
Without sharing personal information among such travel industry parties, travel will not be possible.
To arrange and manage our clients' meetings and events, and in line with industry practices, CWT needs to share personal information with various third-party suppliers such as:
Furthermore, CWT uses certain authorized third-party processors (i.e. sub-contractors) for the management of certain administrative and information technology tools and platforms. Such subcontractors may access your personal data but only for, on behalf of, and under the instructions of CWT, and are required to adhere to CWT policies, procedures and processes and comply with applicable privacy laws.
We reserve the right to disclose personal data if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with all applicable laws.
Is your personal data transferred outside the EU/EEA?
Given the international nature of CWT services, international personal data transfers are made throughout CWT, its affiliates, joint ventures and global partner network to support travel-related services such as airline ticket issuance and technical help-desk requests, as well as management of meetings and events.
In circumstances where personal data is transferred to, or centrally stored in, countries in which there is not a similar level of protection as in your country, CWT has, where relevant, taken steps to ensure an adequate level of protection of the transferred data by entering into appropriate inter-company data transfer agreements based on the European Standard Contractual Clauses (also known as EU Model Clauses).
How do we ensure your personal data is safe?
We continuously implement and maintain, appropriate administrative, organizational, technical and physical security measures to ensure confidentiality, integrity, availability and resilience of our systems that process your personal data. These measures are monitored to prevent the accidental or unlawful destruction, alteration or any unauthorized disclosure or access to your personal data, or other unlawful forms of processing.
Compliance with this Policy and data protection laws
All entities within the CWT group comply with this Global Privacy Policy and Notice and are committed to complying with all applicable privacy principles and regulations.
Direct Marketing Communications' Notice
When you visit CWT websites and online tools, you can always elect not to provide us with certain information. If you choose not to provide the contact data we request, you can still visit most of CWT's web pages but you may be unable to access certain services that involve our interaction with you.
Where you have received a communication from us on our products and services, it is either because you or your company have requested such communication or because we believe the communication is of interest to you or your company. In some cases, we will have collected your contact details from publicly available sources or through a third-party with whom you or your company have agreed onward sharing. We rely on our legitimate interest to keep you informed of our products and services however if you no longer wish to receive further marketing communications, please click on the 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of the communication and your contact details will no longer be used in that regard.
Where we engage third-party sub-contractors to manage our marketing campaigns, they do so on our behalf and under our instructions, and we ensure they commit to complying with our policies and applicable privacy laws and do not use your data for any other purposes than the agreed purposes.
As a global travel management service provider, we may transfer your personal data outside of the European Union and European Economic Area. Where we do so to any country not deemed a country of adequate protection by European Commissioners, we make sure such transfers are validated via the recognised European Standard Clauses (also known as 'European Model Clauses') so that your rights are safeguarded.
CWT shall retain your information only so long as you wish to receive/keep receiving our marketing communications and/or to comply with legal obligations, a Court order or regulatory requirements, and to fulfil your request to 'unsubscribe' from marketing communications.
Your Rights
You are entitled to several rights in relation to your personal data, such as a right of access to the data CWT collects about you, a right of rectification, a right of deletion, a right to object to the processing of your personal data on legitimate grounds.
If you wish to exercise your rights, for example make an access request or a rectification request, please complete our SAR Form.
We are at your disposal for any query that you may have (please use our contact email below), any request or issue, including complaints. We will handle such with the level of care that you are entitled to expect from us. However, should you not be satisfied with the way in which we have handled such topics, and depending on the country in which you reside, you may also have a right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory data protection authority.
Contact Information
To contact CWT with questions or issues about this Global Privacy Policy and Notice, please contact us at email@example.com.
This policy is subject to change. The changes will be posted from time to time on this website, so please be sure to check the site regularly.
This site uses cookies as described in our Cookies Policy. To see what cookies we serve and set your own preferences, please click on 'View Policy'. Otherwise, if you agree to our use of cookies, please click on 'Agree'.


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Relax In Front Of A Flaming Cuthbert Yule Arm This Holiday Season
With the holidays now officially upon us, we can think of no more festive activity than gathering around Elisha Cuthbert, dousing her arm in lighter fluid, and setting it ablaze.
Of course, there's no harm in breaking away from the comforting glow every now and again to refill a sloppy second cup of eggnog or hot toddy. We're just suckers for this time of year! [Celebrity-Gossip.net]


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Updated March 25, 2012
Please check back for news updates.
Latest news reports
Oliver Holmes and Steve Gutterman (Beirut/Moscow), "Syrian forces on the offensive; Annan in Moscow," Reuters, March 25, 2012 (10:14pm IST).
Syria: Local Residents Used as Human Shields; Reports of Residents Forced to March in Front of Soldiers in Idlib, Human Rights Watch, March 25, 2012.
Rami G. Khouri, "A new world order is born in Syria," The Daily Star (Beirut), March 24, 2012 (01:25 a.m.).
Khouri's optimism regarding the U.N. initiative led by Kofi Annan is noteworthy, particularly in view of the earlier pessimism expressed by the Editorial Board of The Daily Star. On March 9, 2012, they wrote:
The scene around Syria overflows with talk. The world's big players proffer big words, which amount to zero in their impact on the Syrian regime – if anything they are utilized in their propaganda campaign.
The international community is attempting to save face, and by doing so is exhibiting its hypocrisy in every step and every word. This is hypocrisy of the worst kind, not only uncovering the ulterior motives of the world powers, but also serving as an eye-opener as to the intentions of the small, medium and super powers. God help any downtrodden party who takes the words of those powers at their face value. In this, the international community's reaction to the crisis in Syria should be a lesson for many nations that look to it for support.
In the meantime, help for Syria is still at square one and none of the steps currently being taken are going to eradicate the shame of the international community.
–Editorial, "We procrastinate," The Daily Star, March 9, 2012.
While the Observer has the highest respect for Khouri and his judgment, the available evidence in the public domain suggests that the March 9 Editorial of The Daily Star is much closer to the mark than his March 24 column on "the birth of a new world order."
Correction: Earlier versions of this article mistakenly atribributed this text to Rami G. Khouri, to whom we apologize for the error.
It is indeed a historical moment in which the international community is called upon to craft a new response to regimes in crisis that cling to power against the democratic demands of their populations by the use of terror and the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The response that is required, however, and which may yet emerge–if not in this crisis perhaps in the next–does not countenance long, drawn-out negotiations with a Dictator who continues to commit war crimes and crimes against humanity against his population. It does not accept a scenario in which negotiations continue in diplomatic time, as thousands are killed in real time.
It does not accept a diplomatic dance that places the trump cards in the hands of authoritarian regimes complicit in the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and in the hands of the Dictator committing those crimes.
It does not accept the "devil's bargain" of negotiating with a war criminal the cessation of war crimes and crimes against humanity in exchange for his retaining power and the capability of using the instruments of state power to continue widespread and grave violations of fundamental human rights, including the right of assembly, the rights to free speech, freedom of the press, and to receive and impart information and ideas, the right to life and physical integrity of the human person, and the right to due process and a fair trial by an independent judiciary.
Instead, the response that is required, for both moral and political reasons, is an insistence on the cessation of crimes angainst humanity and war crimes as a condition precedent to negotiations betwen the dictatorial regime, its democratic opposition, and the international community. Limited military actions to halt the ongoing commission of such crimes may form a part of this international response, with the approval of the Security Council whenever possible, but without it if Security Counil action is blocked by a veto and the atrocities and butchery continue.
Original Article (March 24, 2012)
Der Spiegel reports in some detail on Iran's assistance to the al-Assad government in its war against the opposition.
See "Aufstand in Syrien: Teheran liefert Assad angeblich Waffen," Der Spiegel, den 24 März 2012.
See also, "Hopeless Diplomacy: Syrian Regime Resembles Mafia Cartel; Hopes that diplomacy will force Syrian President Bashar Assad to back down seem misguided, given that his regime resembles a mafia cartel bent on defending its turf by any means. There is no turning back for Assad's clan or the rebels — both sides know that would spell their doom," Der Spiegel (English), March 19, 2012.
In Syria, al-Assad's troops, assisted by non-uniformed men, continued their attacks on rebel strongholds and conducted roundups of civilians.
Associated Press, "Syrian forces shell towns and clash with rebels; dozens killed," The Washington Post, March 24, 2012.
The website of the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights provides updates in English here, and in Arabic here.
We should not forget what is going on in Syria on the ground, not for a single day.
The Trenchant Observer
–For earlier articles by The Trenchant Observer, see the Articles on Syria page.
–To use the Search function, click on "The Trenchant Observer" at the top of this page to go to the home page, and then enter your search term in the box at the upper right.
–A list of the most recent 15 articles (on all subjects) is also found on the home page, on the right.
How to find news reports from around the world
–Google and other major search engines use a series of filters amounting to what has been termed a "filter bubble" to limit search results to those keyed to the location, language, and previous search results of the user. See Eli Pariser, The Filter Bubble (2011).
–To find the latest news from around the world on Syria (or any other subject), you can bypass the "filter bubble" of Google and other search engines by going to and beginning your search at www.startpage.com


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The Secret Beyond Matter
Islam: The Religion of Ease
The religion Allah chose for people, which best suits their temperament, is the religion of Islam. Allah has made His religion very easy for people to live by. Religious morality lifts all the burdens, and things that are limiting and restricting and that cause people hardship. It informs people that they should always seek Allah's approval, lean towards Him, and resign themselves to the destiny that He has determined for them, for He is infinitely compassionate, kind and forgiving; He creates everything with a purpose for righteous people; He is the possessor of all power.
To trust and befriend Allah, Who is the possessor of all creatures and controller of all the events that take place, means to put an end to the fears, worries, troubles, and hardships in a human being's life. For one who lives according to the morality of Qur'an, what is most important is the ease and beauty religion provides him. Moreover, Allah has made all His commands and decrees commensurate with people's dispositions and no hardship will ensue from any of them.
Allah, in the Qur'an, declares that religious morality is easy and that He will make things easier for those who follow their religion:
We will ease you to the Easy Way. (Surah A'la: 8)
… He has selected you and not placed any constraint upon you in the observance of your religion—the religion of your forefather Abraham… (Surat al-Hajj: 78)
Our Prophet (saas), in the light of these verses, invites us in following our religion to declare: "Religion is easiness." (Sahih Bukhari)
The practices and beliefs that people see as hardships have been added to religion and passed on as if they were a part of the real religion by polytheists or by people who deny religion and try to distance others from religion. Yet others have adopted an ostentatious manner in their observance of religion, thinking that if they perform harder things to show themselves as more pious, that will be more generally acceptable. However, our Prophet (saas) has always ordered Muslims around him to make religion "easier." As a result, righteous Muslims should obey this command and should not suffer the consequences of representing easy things as hard. One of our Prophet's (saas) sayings on this matter is as follows:
Our Prophet (saas), in the light of these verses, invites us in following our religion to declare: "Religion is easiness." (Sahih Bukhari)
In this book, in accordance with the advice of our Prophet (saas), we are reminded of how easy it is to live Allah's religion. Furthermore, it is explained that the religion of Islam encourages the lifestyle most suitable to a person's temperament, comfort, and happiness: a life lead by the morals of the Qur'an is the best possible life a person can live.