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NOVOAZOVSK, Ukraine — Two columns of tanks and military vehicles rolled into southeastern Ukraine from Russia on Thursday after Grad missiles were fired at a border post and Ukraine's overmatched border guards fled, a top Ukrainian official said.
Echoing the comments by Ukraine's Col. Andriy Lysenko, a top NATO official said at least 1,000 Russian troops have poured into Ukraine with sophisticated equipment, leaving no doubt that the Russian military had invaded southeastern Ukraine.
"The hand from behind is becoming more and more overt now," Brig. Gen. Nico Tak said at NATO's military headquarters, adding that that Russia's ultimate aim was to stave off defeat for the separatists and turn eastern Ukraine into a "frozen conflict" that would destabilize the country indefinitely.
"An invasion is an invasion is an invasion," tweeted the Lithuanian ambassador to the U.N., Raimonda Murmokaite, who requested that the Security Council hold an emergency meeting on Ukraine on Thursday afternoon.
"Russian forces have entered Ukraine," Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko declared Thursday, cancelling a foreign trip and calling an emergency meeting of his security council. "Today the president's place is in Kiev."
Poroshenko urged his citizens to resist giving into panic.
"Destabilization of the situation and panic, this is as much of a weapon of the enemy as tanks," Poroshenko told the security council.
As Poroshenko spoke, the strategic southeastern town of Novoazovsk appeared firmly under the control of separatists and their Russian backers, a new, third front in the war in eastern Ukraine between the separatists and Poroshenko's government in Kiev.
Lysenko said the missiles from Russia were fired at Ukrainian positions in the southeast about 11 a.m. and an hour and a half later, two columns, including tanks and other fighting vehicles, began an attack. They entered Ukraine from Veselo-Voznesenka and Maximovo in the Rostov region of Russia.
Russian stock markets dived as Switzerland joined the European Union in imposing restrictions on Russian state banks and fears grew that the U.S. and EU could impose further sanctions on Russian businesses and individuals in response to the military escalation. Russia's MICEX index dropped nearly 2 percent on Thursday, and major Russian state banks VTB and Sberbank dropped more than 4 percent.
"Over the past two weeks we have noted a significant escalation in both the level and sophistication of Russia's military interference in Ukraine," Tak said in Casteau, Belgium. "Russia is reinforcing and resupplying separatist forces in a blatant attempt to change the momentum of the fighting, which is currently favoring the Ukrainian military."
He said the 1,000 Russian troops was a conservative estimate and said another 20,000 Russian troops were right over the Russian border.
NATO also produced satellite images to provide what it called additional evidence that Russian combat soldiers, equipped with sophisticated heavy weaponry, are operating inside Ukraine's sovereign territory.
"This is highly sophisticated weaponry that requires well-trained crews, well-trained command and control elements, and it is extremely unlikely that this sort of equipment is used by volunteers," Tak said.
Russia has described the Russian citizens fighting with the separatists as volunteers.
Tak said the satellite images were only "the tip of the iceberg" in terms of the overall scope of Russian troop and weapons movements.
"NATO also has detected large quantities of advanced weapons, including air defense systems, artillery, tanks and armored personnel carriers being transferred to separatist forces in eastern Ukraine," he said. "The presence of these weapons along with substantial numbers of Russian combat troops inside Ukraine make the situation increasingly grave."
The leader of the insurgency, Alexander Zakharchenko, said in an interview on Russian state television Thursday that 3,000 to 4,000 Russians have fought on the separatist side since the armed conflict began in April.
The U.S. government also has accused Russia of orchestrating the rebel campaign and sending in tanks, rocket launchers and armored vehicles.
"These incursions indicate a Russian-directed counteroffensive is likely underway in Donetsk and Luhansk," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. She voiced concern about overnight deliveries of materiel in southeast Ukraine near Novoazovsk and said Russia was being dishonest about its actions, even to its own people.
Russian forces, she said, are being sent 30 miles (about 50 kilometers) inside Ukraine, without them or their families knowing where they are going. She cited reports of burials in Russia for those who have died in Ukraine and wounded Russian soldiers being treated in a St. Petersburg hospital.
On Thursday morning, an Associated Press journalist saw rebel checkpoints at the outskirts of Novoazovsk and was told he could not enter. One of the rebels said there was no fighting in the town.
Novoazovsk, which lies along the road connecting Russia to the Russia-annexed Crimean Peninsula, had come under shelling for three days, with the rebels entering it on Wednesday. This area had previously escaped the fighting that has engulfed areas to the north, and the only way rebels could have reached the southeast was by coming through Russia.
The new southeastern front raised fears that the separatists are seeking to create a land link between Russia and Crimea. If successful, it could give them or Russia control over the entire Sea of Azov and the gas and mineral riches that energy experts believe it contains. Ukraine already lost roughly half its coastline, several major ports and significant Black Sea mineral rights in March when Russia annexed Crimea.
In Mariupol, a city of 450,000 about 30 kilometers (20 miles) to the west of Novoazovsk, a brigade of Ukrainian forces arrived at the airport on Wednesday, while deep trenches were dug a day earlier on the city's edge.
National Guard spokesman Ruslan Muzychuk told the AP in Mariupol that the government has evidence that large amounts of weapons have been brought into Novoazovsk from across the Russian border.
He added that National Guard reinforcements were taking up positions in Mariupol.
"The positions are being strengthened," the spokesman said. "The road from Novoazovsk to Mariupol is under the control of Ukrainian troops."
Associated Press journalists on the border have seen the rebels with a wide range of unmarked military equipment — including tanks, Buk missile launchers and armored personnel carriers — and have run into many Russians among the rebel fighters. Ukraine also captured 10 soldiers from a Russian paratrooper division Monday around Amvrosiivka, a town 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the Russian border.
In Donetsk, the largest rebel-held city, 11 people were killed by shelling overnight, the city said Thursday.
The fighting also had cut electrical power to a coal mine, trapping 104 miners below ground, but they were later brought to the surface, the Donetsk regional administration said.
Casert reported from Casteau, Brussels. Jim Heintz in Kiev, Peter Leonard in Mariupol, Ukraine, and Laura Mills in Moscow contributed reporting.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
- Details
- Specifications
- Documents
LED products work very well with electrical controls such as dusk-to-dawn sensors, daylight harvesting controls, timers, etc. On the other hand, a compact fluorescent (CFL) requires a non-electronic, or mechanical control. The problem using any control device with CFLs is voltage leak. Some photo controls actually leak a small amount of electrical current in the off position. The best way to test if your existing photocell is compatible with CFLs is to measure the voltage at the socket when the sun is shining brightly - a digital meter is required. The voltage should be 0.0VAC. When you see any other reading, it is possible that it is not compatible. Precision's dusk-to-dawn photocells work well with a CFL, LED, Solar or Induction lighting system. These types of dusk-to-dawn sensors work well with CFLs because they are either totally on or off and without current leak.
An excellent choice for use in 12 volt lighting applications where you are using Solar, Induction, LED or CFL lighting systems, the Precision LCA-612DW 12V dusk-to-dawn photocell offers you a wide range of applications. This photocell comes complete with a gasketed metal wall plate (2 3/4" x 4 1/2"), mounting screws and two nylon locknuts so the units will fit any standard outlet box. The 12V photocell is also designed for use inside compatible light fixtures or a standard outlet box, post lantern or wall pack that are 2" in diameter or larger. The photocell is equipped with a 3/8" - 18 threaded side mounting and the nylon lock nut is included. Each 12V sensor is designed to operate downstream from your 12 volt transformer. They turn on in the evening when light levels reach 1-3 footcandles and turn off in the morning when light level readings reach 1-5 footcandles. The 6" lead wires are color coded and the physical dimensions of the LCA-612D 12V dusk-to-dawn button photocell are 1 1/8 wide by 2 high by 1 3/4 deep (2" deep with threaded stem). They carry a 1 year warranty and are black in color.
Tips To Optimize Photocell Performance
Do not face the photocell into the midday sun. If the photo control is installed on the south side of a building, face the photocell east or west or point the photo control down toward the ground. The best direction to face the photo control is north.
Do not face the photocell where it can see artificial light. Light from windows, signs, street lights, etc., will cause the photo control not to switch on. The photo control should not be positioned so that it sees the light it is controlling (or reflected light - like off of your white siding or white painted soffit overhang). These conditions will cause the light to cycle on and off.
Do not install the photo control with wires up unless there is NO POSSIBILITY of water entering the photo control around the wires. The photo control must be installed in an approved weatherproof box. Do not attempt to caulk around the wires. Installing a Photocell below the box is WRONG! Photocells installed on top of the Box is RIGHT! Any Photo Control installed by the side of the weatherproof box is: ACCEPTABLE!
When you are testing the photocell, be sure to turn on the power (load will come on) and wait up to 5 minutes for the photocell to switch load off. For further testing cover the photo control completely with black tape or another dark material to simulate night conditions. If you cant cover the control with tape, try covering the photo control with the shipping carton to simulate night conditions.
|Volts DC
|7 Amps
|Turn On
|1-3 Footcandles
|Time Delay
|1-5 Seconds
|PC Dimensions
|1 1/8"W x 2"H x 1 3/4"D
|Wall Plate
|2 3/4" x 4 1/2"
|1 Year Limited
|Switch Type


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The future of (photo)journalism?
Lately I've encountered two excellent pieces of journalism that make me feel like there is a future visible ahead for good, in-depth journalism.
First is the GQ long form article on the wildfire that took the lives of 16 hot-shots last summer in Arizona. Even if you are not a fire-fighter, it is very much worth a read. And after seeing the damage caused by wildfires in the US and following them to see if road closures will force us to re-plan our road trip route I can respect the work that American fire fighters face in those conditions even more.
Second, a Finnish effort DocImages which produced their iPad application and the first piece of paid content for it. Read more about the effort and the first article available on the iPad in English and in Finnish. I love that I am able to choose if I am interested in enough in the new content to buy it for the price of a latte.
I am and have always been a fan of well-produced content that I can easily choose to pay for. I would have readily paid for the GQ article as well – at least if paying for it would be easy and simple. Say what you will of in-app purchases on iOS, but they do make the decision to buy something interesting quite easy to make and thus hopefully help in at least some extent on getting people to pay for content.


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What is your assessment of these three days of testing at Sepang?
"The first practice is always special, because you're always nervous after winter. I felt very good, better than I expected with the bike. With the team everything is working well and we're integrating slowly. I've tried new things and I also had my first crash with the MotoGP bike. It was not a big one and little-by-little we are getting to know the bike, which is what preseason is all about."
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After three days of testing on the RC213V, what do you most enjoy and what was hardest when riding?
"What is still most difficult is braking, always having the same reference point and being consistent. What I enjoy most —although I always enjoy myself on the bike— is the power and acceleration. Now that I can control that a bit more, I'm starting to enjoy myself better."
Are you very sore?
"The second day I was very sore, but the physios did a very good job. This is normal with it being the first test."
Is the bike still leading you, or are you more relaxed?
"At the moment, it is still in charge in some aspects. I'm seeing that on some corners I can play around with my body position, but I still need to adapt to the bike."
Is it possible to have fun on the bike?
"Yes, it is possible. In fact, I had fun on a few stints, like when I started to slide on worn tyres and began to understand the reactions. It is a bike that you can have a lot of fun on."
Is it exciting to ride this bike?
"The first lap that you do after the winter break is exciting. Especially when you get to the end of the straight and lift your head to face the air at 300km/h. I had a bit of soreness in my neck on the first day. They are certainly powerful machines."
Did you encounter other riders on track?
"A few, like Lorenzo, Dani [Pedrosa] and Valentino [Rossi]. We saw each other a few times, but we weren't going fast and I wasn't able to pick up much."
Did you expect to be at their level? Did getting a good time add pressure on you?
"I did not expect to be at the level of Dani, Valentino and Lorenzo. But gradually I have been feeling good. Now the times are not important, because they are trying lots of things out, but yes, it is better to be up there than suffering a little further back."
In two weeks you will be testing again in Sepang. What do you have planned for the three days?
"Right now I have not found the limit of the bike. In this test we had it so that it was me who adapted to the bike. For the next test we will go with the idea of trying to suit the bike to my riding style."
Are you starting to note the pressure of the premier class?
"Yes, little-by-little I am taking that on. Obviously there is not just a change on track, but also off it with interviews and everything else. It is a little strange at the start."
What language is spoken in the garage? Spanish, Italian or English?
"English, above all. But in our free time it is more Italian and some Spanish. Italian dominates, but for work we speak in English."


text: Back Soft-Tissue Injuries What are soft-tissue injuries? Many activities can lead to soft-tissue damage of muscles, ligaments, and tendons. The result can be pain, swelling, bruising, and damage. Soft-tissue injuries are classified as the following: Contusions (bruises) Sprains Tendonitis Bursitis Stress injuries Strains Athletes and nonathletes share many similar soft-tissue injuries. What is a contusion? A contusion (bruise) is an injury to the soft tissue often produced by a blunt force, such as a kick, fall, or blow. The result will be pain, swelling, and discoloration. Treatment for contusions includes Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation (R.I.C.E.). More serious contusions may need to be examined by a doctor. What is a sprain? Click Image to Enlarge A sprain is an injury to a ligament and is often caused by a wrench or twist. Sprains often affect the ankles, knees, or wrists. The treatment for a sprain includes Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation (R.I.C.E.). If the ligament is torn, surgical repair may be necessary. What is a strain? A strain is an injury to a muscle or tendon, and is often caused by overuse, force, or stretching. The treatment for a strain is Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation (R.I.C.E). If a tear in the muscle occurs, surgical repair may be necessary.


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i really like this, but there's one issue i am experiencing that could just be me - sometimes in blaine county, the wanted level music doesn't play.01 Mai 2021
this is the best spiritual successor to rippler's realism yet, I came in with low expectations but holy shit did you prove me wrong ahahaha.
while everything's mostly keen and peachy, I did find an issue - if you're in first person and have ads enabled and attempt to poke out of cover while aiming, your weapon will disappear and you will be stuck doing nothing
jesus christ all your weapons look so fucking good
i fucking love how they keep the "flat" vanilla aesthetic texturewise too
i know that, but i want to know which loadout in in loadouts.meta a ped uses.
how would one see which loadout a ped uses?
quick question though - could you make a more 'traditional' Assault Rifle using this model?16 Decembrie 2019
@flexy123 look at the ballas/families and see if their models are different, or get into a police pursuit11 Noiembrie 2019
Also, a similar issue happens in the mission "Three's Company", where Franklin/Michael equip the wrong weapons, leading to silly situations where Franklin is sniping IAA agents with a sawed off shotgun instead of a heavy sniper, with Michael being stuck in the helicopter gunner seat w/o an Advanced AR.
Hey @infamoussabre, while you're fixing missions, you think you could fix the mission "predator"? It's the mission where you hunt down the O'Neils with a sniper in the forest.
With this mod however, instead of a sniper getting equipped, I drop the sniper and instead equip a Combat MG instead, rendering the mission impossible to complete.
If you need a savefile to test, I can provide mine and you can go from there.


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HUDSON, N.C. – Former NASCAR driver Jeremy Mayfield has been indicted in Caldwell County on four counts of felony larceny, one week after he was indicted in neighboring Catawba County.
A grand jury on Monday indicted the 42-year-old Mayfield in connection with the theft of trailers and furniture.
Mayfield was indicted in Catawba County on three counts of possessing property stolen from businesses, and a fourth charge of obtaining property by false pretense.
It's the latest in a series of troubles for Mayfield. He was suspended from NASCAR after failing a random drug test at Richmond in May 2009. He was in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond last month to argue his lawsuit seeking reinstatement as a NASCAR driver should be heard by the courts.


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But the Mariner's Cove Motor Inn became a second disaster scene early Friday when a fast-moving fire tore through it, killing four people, injuring eight others, and displacing several people who had already lost their homes in the October 2012 storm.
"A good number of us were Sandy victims," said James Giannuzzi, who had been staying at the motel because his apartment a few blocks away in Point Pleasant Beach was damaged by the storm. He estimated that about half of the 40 people staying at the motel when the fire broke out were either displaced Sandy victims, or laborers drawn to the area by work opportunities created by the region's need to rebuild.
"I lost everything I had, for a second time," said Giannuzzi, who was visibly shaking as he stood outside the burned motel on Saturday. "I got out with my cellphone and charger and my wallet. I lost my computer and quite a few other things of value. But there are four people who died. We're the lucky ones."
As he spoke, investigators went about the grim task of raking through cinders in second-floor apartments of the 25-unit complex, and draining the motel's outdoor swimming pool, whose plastic light globes melted in the intense heat from the fire 50 feet away.
Autopsies were scheduled for the four victims on Saturday, said Al Della Fave, a spokesman for the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.
At the fire scene, Point Pleasant Beach police officer Stephen Pappalardo placed a bouquet of flowers that a passerby had handed him on the ground near the charred motel as arson investigators continued their work.
The fire broke out around 5:30 a.m. Friday and swept across the motel, whose second floor was made of wood. Strong westerly winds fanned the flames and quickly engulfed the building.
Authorities said Keri Anderson, who was seriously burned as she awaited rescue in a shower stall with the water running, remained hospitalized Saturday in the burn unit of St. Barnabas Medical Center.
Several other Sandy victims recalled narrowly escaping the fire. They balanced the need to start over a second time with gratitude that their lives had been spared.
Joseph Frystock, whose home in nearby Brick Township was flooded during the storm, said he woke up early to use the bathroom, and found the motel in flames. He ran outside and pounded on doors and windows, warning people to get out.
Frank Smith, another Sandy victim, was staying at Mariner's Cove after a stint in a temporary shelter in Seaside Heights. He lost most of his possessions and identification in the fire.
Giannuzzi moved three weeks ago from the second floor of Mariner's Cove to a unit on the ground floor. The ground-floor units had cement walls and generally fared better in the blaze than the wooden ones upstairs
"I couldn't get a WiFi signal on the second floor for my computer, so I moved downstairs," he said. "That might have made the difference between me living and dying."


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Debates on the appropriate role for the state in stimulating agricultural development should be linked to an assessment of the capacity and willingness of the state to implement particular policies in particular country contexts.
The Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa (PEAPA) project proceeds from the following insights:
- it is a country's political system which generates the incentives (strong or weak) for the state to take action to promote agricultural development;
- this political system also influences the type of development promoted (for example, smallholder or large farm based).
Drawing on insights from existing work, plus wider political economy literature (often not specifically focused on agriculture), the PEAPA project aims to develop, refine and illustrate a political economy framework for understanding the sorts of policies and investments for agricultural development that are "politically feasible" in different country contexts.
This framework will:
- explain how the functioning of the political system affects agricultural policy and investment in economies where agriculture still provides employment for a large proportion of the population, linking this to ongoing processes of democratisation;
- show how distinctive features (social, political, institutional and agro-ecological) of individual African countries influence the incentives for agricultural policy making and implementation, thus leading to divergent "politically feasible" policy sets in different country contexts. This will help us move away from broad generalisations about either the capacity of African states or appropriate agricultural policy in policy dialogues.
Key questions
- What determines which policies and investments for agricultural development are "politically feasible" in different country contexts?
- How might political economy factors influence how donors can engage most usefully in agricultural policy in different country contexts?
- How might political economy factors influence the outcome of CAADP processes in different country contexts?
- How do political economy factors constrain the policy and investment options to promote the commercialisation of smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa?
The project has adopted a comparative case study approach, with work for each phase being undertaken in eight African countries: Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Project Phases
PEAPA Phase 1: Democratisation and the Political Economy of Agricultural Policy in Africa
The first phase of work (2011-12) sought to understand how the nature of political systems affects the incentives that state agencies face to invest in supporting growth of smallholder agriculture.
Particular attention was paid to the provision of infrastructural and institutional public goods, given their importance to smallholder agricultural growth, and to the impact of democratisation, given that in most of the focus countries the majority of the electorate live in rural areas, and rural voters might be expected to exchange their votes for better agricultural policies. However, policies are not the only means by which African politicians compete for votes: provision of local public goods, local private goods and recourse to various forms of social and political control are equally important. Indeed, democratisation appears to have had limited impact on the provision of public goods necessary to support smallholder agriculture. By contrast, stronger incentives for such investment were observed in countries (most notably Ethiopia and Rwanda) where political competition remains restricted, but the regimes face significant threats to their survival in the medium term, which motivates them to deliver development outcomes that could reduce support for opposing groups and strengthen their own legitimacy.
PEAPA Phase 2: Has CAADP made a difference?
The second phase of work (2012) will explore how the contrasting political incentives identified in the first phase have influenced the eight countries' engagement with the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). Case studies will explore both the nature of a country's engagement with the CAADP process and the impact ("value added") of CAADP on agricultural policy and politics.
CAADP is a continent-wide initiative that has its roots in the 2003 Maputo Declaration of African heads of state. As such, it has strong African political ownership. However, because of its common approach applied across countries, the role ascribed to the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) and regional economic communities (RECs) within the CAADP process and the high level of donor support in recent years, at country level it can still be experienced as an "external" intervention.
In this way, cross-country analysis of the experience and impacts of the CAADP process also allows the project to explore the validity of its assumption of the "primacy of domestic politics" in agricultural policy making in Africa.


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Scattered around the cities, towns, villages and hamlets of Great Britain and most of Europe, sit memorials to those who gave their lives in the First and Second World Wars. They have become so much a part of the fabric of our lives that we don't always notice them. But take a moment to think and there they are. Monuments to the generations of men and women who never had the chance to witness the end of these conflicts. Lives taken early, names etched into stone.
Across the world, public monuments serve as quiet reminders of the tragedies and errors of our histories. They represent a collective consciousness, a desire to publically memorialise loss. At their best they become spaces to remember and reflect, they are simple but striking, and they cast an enduring message beyond our lifetimes.
But there are also those moments in history for which elegant memorialisation seems impossible. This year we have witnessed a deluge of Titanic proportions, from those wishing to reflect, or cynics would argue capitalise, on the 100th anniversary of the passenger liner's sinking. Films re-released in 3D, new books published, a TV series, a memorial cruise, the list goes on. It's an obsession that has been gathering momentum for decades. A Google search of the word "Titanic" produces 158 million results.
And just when we thought some of this hysteria was dying down, Australian billionaire Clive Palmer has announced plans to build Titanic II. Save for a few more lifeboats and an extra deck to allow the Captain a better view over the bow – lessons learned, apparently, from the first time around – it will be an exact replica of the original ship. Designed in Europe and built in China, Palmer's team will base their plans on the original documents used to build the fated vessel which sunk into the ice-cold waters of the north Atlantic Ocean back in 1912. According to the billionaire 45,000 people have already expressed an interest in travelling onboard.
At worst this is a tasteless money-making exercise, at best a chance to re-live a moment in history. But let's take a moment to remind ourselves of what exactly this means. Beyond the Hollywood romance of this infamous story, this was ultimately a maritime tragedy in which over 1500 people died. Would those same 45,000 punters keen on some Edwardian glamour be interested in living out scenes from other events where people lost their lives?
Around Britain and the US there are various memorials to those who were killed when the Titanic tragedy struck. These surely are the places where we should reflect on this loss. I for one think this feels more appropriate than an overpriced excursion on a novelty cruise liner.


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The History of Jamaican Jerk
Jerk is not just a kind of seasoning, it's an entire style of cooking born in Jamaica. The basic mixture contains many spices we use in most cooking today: allspice, habanero peppers and pimento being typical ingredients to base a jerk recipe on.
Up until the 70s, when propane gas grills became popular and commonplace, most Jamaican cooking was done outdoors over a fire pit. It's not uncommon to see this method today, but the flavor of the past has been altered thanks to cleaner burning fuels. Pimento wood was burned with charcoal to give the meats a smoky flavor that is very specific to Jamaican jerk recipes.
The Peruvian word "Charque" is the most likely origin of "Jerk," which most historians agree is probably Spanish in origin. It was a noun at first, a jerk dish, but became a verb over time. Jerking meat came to be known as the practice of poking holes into it to let the marinade permeate layers. Jerk also came to indicate the way cooks would turn the meat to properly marinate all sides, jerking the stick and settling the meat over the open flame.
It's probable that the Arawak Indians had been using this technique more than 2500 years ago. There is ample evidence that similar techniques were used all throughout Peru, so its probably something picked up through trade and the exchange of cultures. It was also common to smoke and dry beef, which could be taken on hunting trips to sustain the parties as they sought more game.
About the Author: Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Phineas Upham website or Facebook page.


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Iphone Accessories For You
Iphone Accessories For You
iPhone Extras for every desire and necessity!
The iphone is one of the most important technology innovations in recent years. It's an even bigger technological achievement than the conventional phone, which revolutionized communication by letting users communicate with people and businesses all over the world. The iphone's most outstanding feature is that it lets users communicate with anyone anywhere in the world with no delays. The iphone goes beyond the abilities of the conventional phone with almost no limitations on communication, accomplishing things that no other method of communication in history could.
The only condition that can affect your ability in using your iphone completely is not imposed by some government or regulatory agency. The only condition necessary for its use is that the battery must be charged when you need it. Everyone can agree that all electronics, no matter the type, don't work very well with dead batteries. To avoid this frustration, it is in your best interest to invest in a couple of the iphone extras that will ensure your phone remains ready for use. The extras that would be most beneficial and helpful include, a home charger adapter to keep the battery charged and in working order, as well as a carriage to protect your investment, this may prove to be an essential investment. A car charger should be the addition in line on a list essential of iphone extras.
A large number of more optional different iphone accessories can be found in the marketplace. It is highly likely that number will grow, much as happened with the commercially successful sister-product, the iPod. Currently available items include protective coverings of varying thicknesses, wearable bands to attach an iPhone to your arm, belt-attachments, automobile mounting units, bluetooth devices, connection cables, and a plethora of others. No matter who you are or what you enjoy, you will find an "extra" you like for your iPhone.
iphone accessories are easy to get at Apple Stores and just about any electronics store. It's even possible to find them on ebay. Whatever you want to personalize your iphone, there's never been a better time to do it.


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Story highlights
NEW: A State Department official says the plane was approved to clear U.S. airspace
Venezuelan officials say the U.S. denied airspace permission to their presidential plane
Venezuela's president says the U.S. also denied U.N. delegation visas
Maduro calls the move a "serious offense"
Venezuela accused the United States on Thursday of denying President Nicolas Maduro's plane permission to enter U.S. airspace – a claim that a State Department official denied.
Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said U.S. officials have blocked plans for Maduro's presidential plane to fly through Puerto Rican airspace on the way to China.
He described the move as an aggression and called for an explanation from the U.S. State Department.
A senior State Department official told CNN that Jaua's claim was untrue, saying that the Venezuelans have, in fact, been approved to clear U.S. airspace.
In remarks broadcast on state television, Maduro called the situation "a serious offense."
The Venezuelan president vowed to take action, adding that the United States had also denied visas for several members of his country's delegation scheduled to attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
"If I have to take diplomatic measures against the U.S. government, I will take them to the most drastic level if it is necessary, but I am not going to accept any type of aggression," he said.
The State Department official also called the visa issue untrue, saying the United States had approved them.
Maduro is scheduled to travel to China on Saturday. Jaua said officials were evaluating alternate routes so that the trip could continue as scheduled.
Maduro accused U.S. officials of being nervous about his country's growing relationship with China.
"The United States government is not going to stop our trip," Maduro said.
U.S. officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.


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"I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being."
-Oscar Wilde
Theatre is more than an art form, its a way of life. At USA's Dept. of Theatre & Dance, we invite you to become a part of not just an exciting program, but a vibrant family of both students and faculty, ready to help you develop into the person and artist that you strive to be.


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December 14, 2005
December 14, 2005
Dear Colleague:
I know you share the strong belief that our nation's elementary and secondary schoolchildren deserve an education that fully prepares them for college or the workforce. This goal is particularly critical for students with disabilities who, in the past, have often been held to lower standards and assessed in ways that failed to accommodate their disabilities and allow them to demonstrate what they have learned. As a result, I support emphatically the requirements that are the cornerstone of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB): that all students, including students with disabilities, be held to challenging academic content and achievement standards; that their progress be measured annually by high-quality assessments aligned with those high standards; and that schools and school districts be held accountable for achieving results.
The Department has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would permit states to develop modified achievement standards aligned with grade-level content standards for a limited group of students with disabilities who may not be able to reach grade-level achievement standards within the same time frame as other students, even after receiving the best-designed instructional interventions from highly trained teachers. Under the proposed regulations, states would be able to develop assessments or modify regular assessments based on those modified achievement standards that are aligned with grade-level content standards and include proficient and advanced scores from these assessments (subject to a 2.0 percent cap at the district and state levels) in determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under Title I. We believe these proposed regulations provide appropriate flexibility for assessing this group of students with disabilities while ensuring that they are still held to challenging standards and included in grade-level instruction.
While the Department was drafting this proposed rule, states that expressed interest in developing modified achievement standards and assessments were able to take advantage of interim flexibility. For the 2004-05 school year, 31 states met the Department's criteria and were permitted to exercise additional flexibility in determining AYP for the students with disabilities subgroup (based on assessments given during that school year). I am extending this flexibility for a second year to cover the period of time when members of the public are commenting on the proposed rule and the Department is issuing a final version.
To qualify for this flexibility, a state must assess all students and meet other specific core requirements of NCLB related to students with disabilities (see www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/raising/disab-acctplan.html for those requirements) and must submit an amendment to its accountability plan. The requirements are the same as they were last year. The information at the following Web site explains the process for submitting amendments to your state accountability plan for approval: www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/amproc05.doc. Please note that states should submit their proposed amendments to the Department no later than April 1, 2006, for amendments that apply to AYP determinations based on data from the 2005-06 school year. All states interested must apply for this flexibility, even if the state received the flexibility for the 2004-05 AYP determinations. However, states need to submit updated information only if they applied for this flexibility last year.
As I have said before, I absolutely believe this is the right approach for students. We have much work ahead of us to improve the instruction and assessment system for students with disabilities, and I look forward to working with you toward this end.
|Margaret Spellings
Attachment (1)
Adequate Yearly Progress and Modified Achievement Standards: Interim State Policy Options
December 2005
While the Department works to complete final regulations on modified achievement standards, eligible states may apply one of the following interim policy options to the 2005-06 school year Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) decisions (based on assessments administered during the 2005-06 school year). A state must use the same option for all of its eligible schools and districts. Please note that these interim options are in addition to the flexibility afforded a state by the Title I regulations to include in AYP determinations the proficient scores of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities, subject to a 1.0 percent cap at the district and state levels.
Interim Option 1
This option applies only to schools and districts that did not make AYP based solely on the students with disabilities (SWD) subgroup scores. This option allows a state to make a mathematical adjustment to the proficiency rate of that subgroup in order to provide additional credit to these schools or districts. Eligible states without modified achievement standards may choose this option, or may propose an alternate approach. (See Interim Option 3.)
In general, eligible states may calculate a proxy to determine the percentage of special education students (as defined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) that is equivalent to 2.0 percent of all students assessed. This proxy will then be added to the percentage of students with disabilities who are proficient and advanced. This adjusted percent proficient is what a state may use to reexamine if the school made AYP for the 2005-06 school year. A step-by-step explanation and an example follow.
- Calculate what 2.0 percent of the total number of students assessed within the state equates to solely within the SWD subgroup by dividing 2.0 by the percentage of students who have disabilities. This number, which will be a constant for every school, will be the basis for flexibility in school AYP determinations.
- Identify all schools that did not make AYP solely on the basis of the SWD subgroup and the proficiency rate of those students in each school.
- Calculate the adjusted percent proficient for each school's SWD subgroup. This adjustment is equal to the sum of the actual percent of proficient scores of this subgroup plus the proxy percent calculated in step 1 above.
- Compare this adjusted percent proficient for each school identified in step 2 to the state's annual measurable objective (AMO). This comparison must be conducted without the use of confidence intervals or other statistical treatments.
- If the adjusted proficiency rate for the school's SWD subgroup meets or exceeds the state's AMO, the school may be considered to have made AYP for the 2005-06 school year.
- If the adjusted proficiency rate for the school's SWD subgroup does not meet or exceed the state's AMO, the school did not make AYP for the 2005-06 school year.
- This process should be followed for reading and mathematics separately and also repeated at the district level, as needed.
- The actual percent proficient must be reported to parents and the public; the state may also report the adjusted percent proficient.
Assume that the state identifies 12 percent of its students as those with disabilities; 2.0 percent of the total number of students assessed equates to 16.67 percent of students with disabilities (2 percent divided by 12 percent). Using traditional rounding rules, the state may round this proxy to the nearest whole number; in this instance the proxy would be 17 percent. The state's AMO for reading/language arts is 65 percent.
- Five schools did not make AYP solely on the basis of their SWD subgroups in reading (Column 1). Actual proficiency rates are in Column 2.
- Assign to each school's proficiency rate for its SWD subgroup the 17 percent proxy amount (Column 3).
- Calculate the adjusted percent proficient for each school's SWD subgroup (Column 4).
- Compare this adjusted proficiency rate to the state's AMO (Column 5). This comparison must be conducted without the use of confidence intervals or other statistical treatments.
- Roosevelt and Washington made AYP for the 2005-06 school year.
- Lincoln, Adams, and Coolidge Schools did not make AYP for this school year.
- School report cards should reflect the unadjusted proficiency rate (Column 2), but may also note the adjusted AYP decision (Column 5).
- Repeat the process for mathematics, and also at the district level as needed.
Actual SWD proficient
Statewide adjustment as % of SWD
Adjusted Proficiency Col 2 + Col 3
Adjusted AYP Decision
Interim Option 2
Eligible states that meet the following requirements may count in AYP calculations the proficient and advanced scores of students with disabilities assessed based on modified achievement standards, subject to a 2.0 percent cap. States selecting this option should ensure the assessment qualifies as one based on modified achievement standards according to the proposed rule. Out-of-level assessments do not qualify as assessments based on modified achievement standards.
Similar to the requirements for alternate achievement standards, an eligible state may count the proficient and advanced scores of students with disabilities assessed based on modified achievement standards, if the state has:
- Administered a well-established modified assessment statewide;
- Established clear guidelines for students with disabilities' participation in the assessment based on modified achievement standards;
- Employed a documented and validated standard-setting process to define the modified achievement standards; and
- Adopted the modified achievement standards and provided appropriate training for teachers and IEP teams.
Interim Option 3
States may also offer their own ideas for the secretary of education's consideration. When the secretary offered this interim flexibility for the 2004-05 AYP determinations, several states developed a different idea and were approved to use that proposal (Colorado, Maryland, and Massachusetts). You may wish to review these proposals to see if any are appropriate for your state. See Element 5.3 of the states' accountability workbooks at www.ed.gov/admins/lead/ account/stateplans03/index.html.


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The Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and Development funds graduate student to attend SPARK at Stanford
Each year, SPARK, a Stanford University initiative that provides the education and mentorship in order to advance research discoveries from the bench to the bedside, hosts a diverse group to participate in a 12-day training course in biotech innovation and entrepreneurship. The program provides an understanding of how biotechnology products, such as medical devices, food science, and general medical science, and companies are created, established, managed, advertised, and funded.
Ricardo Romero, graduate student of the Integrated Biomedical Sciences program and researcher in the Harper Cancer Research Institute, had the opportunity to attend the program through the Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (Indiana CTSI). Support for Romero's participation in the program was provided by the Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and Development (Warren Center). Students and professionals from a variety of institutions and countries participated in the course in order to grow their skills in innovation by working in groups to develop real product ideas and potential start-up companies.
Romero currently works with Laurie Littlepage, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry, on reversing cancer progression. Specifically, he researches breast cancer metastasis, or occurrence in bones. When describing the knowledge he gained from the experience, Romero said, "I loved the opportunity to attend the training course and because of the Warren Center, I was able to see other aspects of science that I hadn't previously experienced, learn from such a culturally diverse group of people, and better understand how to utilize my research skills for potential commercialization opportunities."
The course placed an emphasis on intellectual property and put attendees into groups where they developed real biomedical product concepts as well as biotech business plans. Lectures and workshops helped develop the attendees' entrepreneurship skills before the groups presented their completed business and product proposals to a panel of experts.
"One of the goals of the Indiana CTSI is to provide Notre Dame researchers with the skills necessary to translate scientific discovery into improved patient outcomes. The SPARK course complements our efforts by educating researchers like Romero on the commercial development process and how he can make real world impact of his research discoveries," said Richard Taylor, interim director of the Warren Center, deputy director of the Indiana CTSI, and professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
For more information on the Warren Family Research Center for Drug Discovery and Development at the University of Notre Dame, please visit drugdiscovery.nd.edu.
The Indiana Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute (CTSI) is a statewide collaboration of Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Notre Dame, as well as public and private partnerships. For more information on the Indiana CTSI at the University of Notre Dame, please visit ctsi.nd.edu.
Brandi Klingerman / Research Communications Specialist
Notre Dame Research / University of Notre Dame
email@example.com / 574.631.8183
research.nd.edu / @UNDResearch
About Notre Dame Research:
The University of Notre Dame is a private research and teaching university inspired by its Catholic mission. Located in South Bend, Indiana, its researchers are advancing human understanding through research, scholarship, education, and creative endeavor in order to be a repository for knowledge and a powerful means for doing good in the world. For more information, please see research.nd.edu or @UNDResearch.
Originally published by Brandi Klingerman at ctsi.nd.edu on September 26, 2016.


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Will Couture Be Ready Opening Night? 'Things are looking promising'
Quinn Says Mukhamadullin Should Start in AHL
Thrun Making NHL Case, Gushchin & Zadina Impress
Sharks Lose Simek, Zadina to Injury in 4-2 Loss
Preseason Preview/Lines #3: Time To Unwrap Romanov Mystery
Quinn Not Impressed With Sharks' 'Too Soft' Offensive Effort Yesterday
Preseason Preview/Lines #2: Who Am I Watching Tonight?
Pending UFA Barabanov Wants To Stay in San Jose, But Does He Fit Into Sharks' Plan?
Grier on When Sharks Will Come Out of Rebuild, Keeping Couture & Hertl, More (+)
5 Alternate History Karlsson Scenarios (+)
Scout Thinks Gawanke Can Make Immediate Impact on Sharks
What Makes Jan Rutta So Valuable? (+)
Hertl Got "Leaner" Over Summer, Shares Kaut Reaction
Is This Most Exciting Group of Sharks Prospects Ever?
Grier, Sharks' Rebuild Plan Looks Familiar
4 Sharks Squads That Surprised
Sharks Rookie Faceoff Reaction
Mario Ferraro Guest Stars + Sharks' "Hybrid" Rebuild Can Work
San Jose Hockey Now's Pre-Season Top-10 Sharks Prospects
Demers Shares Next Step of His Career, Funny Sharks Stories + 2024 Draft Preview
Sharks Training Camp Buzz: Bordeleau, Hertl, Romanov & More (+)
Guryev's Dedication Paying Off (+)
What's an NHL Scout's Expectations of Eklund, Other Top Sharks Prospects This Year? (+)
Every Sunday at Peng to the Point, we talk about the world away from the San Jose Sharks. "He drove Darryl crazy." That's how goaltender Steve Shields...
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Handloom Katan Silk Banarasi Shikargah Saree
Category: Katan Silk Banarasi Saree
Banarasi silk saree is undoubtedly the queen of all sarees. Its design, beauty, elegance, and charm is unmatchable. Let your wardrobe be as luxurious as the history of Banarasi silk. Each of the genuine hand-woven banarasi sarees is worth your wardrobe. Katan is a luxury and just own it! This saree comes from our birds of paradise collection.
Fabric - Pure Banarasi Katan Silk
Katan is a thread, prepared by twisting a different number of silk filaments according to requirement gives a firm structure to the background fabric. Katan is a plain-woven fabric with pure silk threads.
Weave – Cutwork with meenakari
Color –Purplish Pink
Blouse – Brocade
Note- There may be slight color variations due to photographic reasons.
This is a hand-woven product and any irregularities in the weaving or pattern should not be taken as a defect. These irregularities make every handloom piece unique


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The volatility switch has flipped in the energy sector, creating opportunities for investors ready to buy at increasingly attractive entry points.
With gasoline approaching $4 a gallon at the pump, and crude oil$100-plus a barrel, most U.S. investors would be wise to hedge that rise with an overweight position in energy.
Jeff Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James, has been overweight energy for most of the last decade and says higher prices are here to stay.
"There is some geopolitical premium to the current higher prices,'' Saut says. "But the era of cheap oil is in the rearview mirror."
The energy sector of the S&P 500 is up 14 percent year-to-date through March 22 but down 1.4 percent for the month while the S&P 500 overall is up just 3 percent and down 2.6 percent in March.
While the rise resembles what happened to the sector during the spike in oil prices to $147 per barrel in 2008, Saut says increased global demand is driving the current rally as opposed to the speculative forces at work three years ago.
He points to the rise of a consumer middle class in China and other developing markets, as long-term sources of global consumption of oil and other commodities.
"When per capita income rises, people consume more,'' says Saut, who sees oil prices settling at higher plateaus due to stronger global demand.
The short-term outlook for energy is less settled.
The nuclear catastrophe in Japan and ongoing unrest in the petroleum-rich Middle Eastand North Africa are driving global commodity prices and short-term demand for oil, natural gas and coal. But Tim Parker, portfolio manager of the T. Rowe Price New Era Fund , cautions against drawing conclusions too quickly.
Instead, Parker says the Japan situation could unfold similarly to what happened with theBP oil spill. Japan should be a short-term negative for oil as demand pulls back but a long-term positive as the world's third largest economy taps other fuel sources to replace displaced nuclear capacity.
"You couldn't have sold BP fast enough but you had a month to figure out what to buy,'' Parker says. "You could see the same thing in Japan, with good opportunities in the coming weeks.''
Parker is keeping an eye on several subsectors including oil producers like Continental Resources and Cameron International as well as oil services firms like SchlumbergerandHalliburton .
Japan is the world's largest consumer of liquefied natural gas, which could be a boon for stocks like Range Resources and Southwestern Energy . The island nation is also a big user of coal and could lift producer stocks Peabody Energy and Arch Coal .
Rather than pick individual stocks, investors can gain diversified or concentrated exposure to the energy sector through dozens of mutual funds and ETFs.
Funds like T. Rowe Price New Era maintain lower volatility than the average energy fund by owning stocks in both the energy and natural resources sectors, which Parker says behave slightly differently. The fund also invests a third of its assets in international stocks.
Another no-load energy fund to consider is Invesco Energy , which maintains very low turnover of its mostly domestic holdings and currently favors oil services stocks.
For more concentrated albeit even riskier exposure through mutual funds, Fidelity Select Energy Servicesinvests exclusively in stocks that provide equipment and services to oil, gas, and other energy companies, while Fidelity Select Natural Gas invests in stocks influenced by the price of natural gas.
Energy ETFs Appeal to Traders
Mutual funds are well suited for investors with longer time horizons, but those looking to quickly profit from swings in energy prices should take a look at the growing field of ETFs. These low-cost portfolios target sectors like index funds, but like stocks, they can be traded throughout the day and sold short.
Three of the top ten selling ETFs in February targeted the energy sector: the Energy Select SPDR was No. 1 and is up over 10 percent this year compared to a gain of less than 2 percent for the S&P 500. Oil Services HOLDRsand SPDR S&P Oil & Gas Exploration & Production were also top sellers.
Vanguard Energy ETF is also a good proxy for the energy sector and holds four times as many stocks as XLE, according to Matt Hougan, president of ETF Analytics.
ETFs also offer international exposure to energy —something not as readily available on the fund side — through iShares MSCI ACWI ex US Energy Index , which includes stocks in emerging markets of Russia, China and Brazil, andSPDR S&P International Energy Sector, which only taps developed markets. iShares S&P Global Energycovers the United States and international developed energy sectors.
Another set of exotic ETFs that have gained prominence since the natural disasters in Japan are Market Vectors Uranium & Nuclear and Global X Uranium , which invest in producers and suppliers of nuclear energy. Both portfolios hold less than two dozen stocks each, raising their risk profile considerably. NLR lost about 19 percent and URA dropped nearly 30 percent in the week following damage to the Fukushima Daiichi plant.
The renewed reliance on coal can be followed through Market Vectors Coal , which invests globally including a one-third weighting in emerging markets.
Wind Blowing In for Alternatives
And don't forget the clean energy movement.
Robert Wilder, who maintains the Wilder Hill Clean Energy Index, says the events in Japan have caused solar and wind stocks to surge. But perhaps more importantly, a movement away from nuclear energy and geopolitical threats in the oil patch are causing many nations to revisit their commitment to clean energy.
"A number of countries have been taking away subsidies for clean,'' Wilder says. "Now even countries lacking money for subsidies are talking about not pulling back so much."
Wilder says changes in energy policies should have more of a positive impact effect on wind stocks, which generate significantly more power than solar.
Investors can tap the green energy trend through the PowerShares Wilder Hill Clean Energy ETF, which mostly invests in U.S. stocks,Market Vectors Global Alternative Energy andPowerShares Global Clean Energy ETF .


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- Departments
- Register of Deeds
- Copies & Searches
Copies & Searches
Searches for specific documents can be conducted by the Register of Deeds office. Register of Deeds' personnel are happy to assist you in conducting a search in the land records.
- Copy of real estate records, $1 per page
- Copy of plats of record and any document page over tabloid-size, $3 per page
- Searching the records and files, per name - 50 cents per year with a minimum fee of $5 if you are not in our office and do not participate in the search process. Searches conducted by Register of Deeds' staff are "good faith" searches and will be conducted as daily workflow allows
- To certify a recorded document, $5
Index information is provided and searches can be conducted online. Copies of documents may also be acquired and paid for via the internet. Please read all notices regarding access and payment before printing any document pages.
Financing Statement Search Certificate (UCC)
- UCC Search - $6 per name searched
- State or Federal Tax Lien Certificates - $3 per name searched
- Copy of UCC filings - $2 per page
- Copy of State or Federal Tax Lien - $1 per page
The information disclosed on a UCC search [Personal Property filing] would contain information regarding files in the Register's office through June 30, 2001. Effective July 1, 2001, realty related filings are recorded in the real estate index only and will not appear on searches listed above that are prepared by this office.
- Certification of any of the above - $5 per record copy


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On Homeland, Claire Danes' Carrie Mathison is a brilliant and ambitious CIA analyst, gifted with a beautiful mind that sees connections and hidden patterns that others around her can't. She's driven to an obsessive fixation on Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis), a recently returned POW whom she believes to be a terrorist sleeper agent. Carrie, to her horror and ours, is right.
However, Carrie suffers from bipolar disorder, a crippling psychological condition that is sometimes known as manic-depression, which affects roughly 5.7 million Americans, or 2.6 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to data from the National Institute of Mental Health. The illness includes "dramatic shifts in mood, energy, and activity levels that affect a person's ability to carry out day-to-day tasks" that "are more severe than the normal ups and downs that are experienced by everyone." (Other symptoms can include but are not limited to erratic behavior, hypersexuality, rapid cycling between mood states, and even delusions and hallucinations.)
What makes Carrie such a superb intelligence agent is also her Achilles' heel, and her journey over the course of the first season of Homeland was one of frustration, error, and ultimately being right. Her words go unheeded when her condition is discovered by her employers, making her a modern-day Cassandra, a woman too smart for the room, too close to the truth, whose viewpoint is discarded by men who believe they know better. Danes's stunning performance is one of several new groundbreakingly realistic depictions of mental illness, particularly bipolar disorder, on television.
"A lot of women in particular have responded to this idea that Carrie was right and that nobody knows she was right," Homeland's cocreator/executive producer Alex Gansa told The Daily Beast. "There's a real sense of tragedy in that."
It's rare to see a bipolar character at the forefront of a television drama; they're typically shoved to the sidelines, a crazed killer in a police procedural or an unstable individual in a chance encounter. In fact, one can count on both hands the few bipolar characters who have appeared on television in recent years: Jeremy Sisto's Billy Chenowith on Six Feet Under, 90210's Erin Silver (Jessica Stroup), ER's Maggie Wyczenski (Sally Field, in an Emmy Award-winning turn), Friday Night Lights' Waverly Grady (Aasha Davis), and NYPD Blue's Dr. Jennifer Devlin (Chandra West), to name a few. Film and theater haven't been absent of bipolar characters, either. Films like Shutter Island, Michael Clayton, Mad Love, and The Informant! have all tackled the subject matter to different degrees, while Broadway rock musical Next to Normal depicted bipolar disorder's effects on a family. (TNT will join the crowd this summer with Perception, which stars Eric McCormack as a paranoid schizophrenic neuroscientist who solves crimes through his hallucinations.) But as individuals become more open about their diagnoses, these portrayals have evolved significantly to become more realistic.
Two specific bipolar characters have captured our attention in recent months, and both appear on Showtime dramas: Homeland's Carrie, for which Danes won a Golden Globe, and Chloe Webb's Monica Gallagher on Shameless. The two shows are incredibly dissimilar (one is a psychological thriller, the other a family dramedy) and the two roles are vastly different—one is a CIA operative, the other an errant Chicago mother—but the two women's portrayals are inherently complementary, with Danes's Carrie taking us inside an "unquiet mind" and Webb's Monica serving as a prism through which to see the effects of a bipolar family member on the lives of those around her.
"The interesting thing about bipolar disorder … is that even at the hypomanic stage, which is a degree below the manic stage, these people are incredibly interesting to be with and they are more alive in a way," Gansa said. "They fly closer to the sun than the rest of us, and there is an incandescence about them."
On last week's season finale of Shameless, Monica's story arc came to a close for now. The second half of the season depicted the Gallagher matriarch yo-yoing between a hypomanic state—in which she rearranged the furniture, took the kids on a shopping spree (spending their "squirrel fund" in the process), bought a car and a carpet cleaner—and a depressed one, in which she couldn't move or get out of bed. She slit her wrists during the family's Thanksgiving dinner, drenching the kitchen in her blood, but surviving
"We were all cognizant that it shouldn't be melodramatic," said Shameless writer/producer Etan Frankel. "We wanted to make it as real as possible."
Monica's suicide attempt felt real and shocking, even in a series set in a slightly heightened reality. There was a sense of verisimilitude and brutal honesty to the sequence, and to Monica's decision afterward to get help, checking herself into a mental-health facility and getting back on her medication.
"There are parts of Monica that want to change, that want to be there for her children," said Frankel. "But there are also parts of her that want to do things differently, that don't want to be numbed by medication ... It's a battle within her and it's why she changes her mind." Following her voluntary hospitalization, Monica—true to her wandering and erratic ways—chooses to break out of the facility. But instead of going home, she steals a car and flees with a fellow patient, played by Jenna Elfman. Her giant step backward, a return to noncompliance, comprises a sad if familiar aspect to many of these stories.
It's the exact opposite trajectory of Danes's Carrie, in fact. Carrie opted at the end of Homeland's season to get help and to take her treatment a step further, choosing to undergo electro-convulsive treatment (ECT) in an effort to attain some semblance of stability and responsibility.
"Carrie has reached the point in that last episode where she just can't take the secrecy anymore, can't take the bouts of depression anymore, can't take her thoughts of suicide, can't take how she's certainly negatively affected people's lives around her," said Gansa. "She has to wrest control of her life back and decides to do this thing, which also has a certain stigma attached to it, and she voices those concerns. Next season, you'll see a somewhat different Carrie as a result of the new therapy that she's committed to."
Carrie's decision was instantly controversial, despite the fact that ECT has come a long way since the days of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, though its efficacy in treating severe depression and mania, among other conditions, has been variable. (Some decried the risk of memory loss as too driven by a demand within the narrative.) However, Gansa pointed to the accounts written by Dr. Leon Rosenberg, a doctor and teacher with bipolar disorder, of his own ECT therapy how it "really quieted his suicidal tendencies and his depression." Preparing for the season, the writing staff of Homeland researched the psychological disorder, consulting with bipolar individuals, and drew heavily on An Unquiet Mind, a classic book on the subject written by Kay Jamison.
"That was really our bible, our bipolar-illness bible," said Gansa. "Kay Jamison is a mental-health professional with a mental illness. There was a real parallel, we felt, between a woman in the CIA who had to keep her illness a secret and Kay Jamison, who had to keep her illness a secret from the people that she was practicing with because there was this stigma involved."
Reluctance to discuss the disorder remains today. "[Carrie] hopefully opens up some dialogue about what it means to have this particular disease," said Gansa. "In 2002 there were 30,000 suicides in this country directly attributable to bipolar illness, and for all 30,000 that actually completed suicide, there were over a million suicide attempts. Maybe Carrie's character can … create opportunities for people to get help."
Meredith Stiehm, a writer and consulting producer on Homeland, has a bipolar sister, Jamie, who recently wrote a New York Times op-ed piece about her struggles. "It was a painful testament to my sister's skill that scenes that might have been of just passing interest to other viewers pushed me to tears, because in a real way they carried an uncanny emotional resonance," wrote Jamie Stiehm. "And yet for all that, I feel the show's creators, writers, and producers, and Ms. Danes, have done us all a public service: perhaps, with the show's glowing reception, Americans can finally talk openly about bipolar disorder."
Over at Shameless, Frankel's father is a psychologist; he said many of the writers on Shameless have family members who are bipolar and they were able to draw on personal stories as well as medical research. "It wasn't Monica's story as much as it was the family's story," Frankel said. "What is it like to be with someone who has bipolar disorder and goes through these incredible ups that can be so energizing and really fun for the people around her and these crashes that are so low and awful?"
Frankel watched Homeland, riveted by the tension of the terrorism plot and captivated by Danes's performance and the show's handling of bipolar illness. "It did really strike me that in Homeland you're going through the journey with [Carrie]," he said. "On our show, you're going through it with the family living with it. It's a different perspective and, juxtaposed, it gives you a really interesting portrait of what it's like to live with this disorder."
For Danes's character, her decision to take control of her life and her psyche once more, even at the risk of her short-term memory, is a positive development, a sign that Carrie is more accepting herself and her limitations, and she's moving back towards therapy and self-worth. However, any chance of immediate reconciliation between the disgraced analyst and the CIA seems slim at this point.
"Not in the traditional way," said Gansa. "I don't think it's going to be easy for Carrie to come back and work for the intelligence community the way that she has up to this point. Her insights and her experience are going to prove valuable to any intelligence organization even though she suffered this breakdown and this disease. She's still who she was before. People will consult her, and there are many ways to insinuate herself back into that world without giving her a formal job."
But in order to break through the stigma associated with this condition, storytellers should offer both sides of the bipolar individual's crucible: the highs and the lows.
"If you only tell part of that story, it's not being completely honest," Frankel said. "If you just tell the story of the bipolar person who is depressed, that's not really the full picture of what it's like to go through that and what it's like to be a family member of someone who goes through that. Sometimes, it can be fun and exciting and … that, to me, leads to a more profound low for everybody. The low was inevitable, but you just want to hope against hope."
"You want to believe, and unfortunately with that character and the way that she conducts her life, it's just not in the cards for her to change all that much yet," he continued. "Maybe one day."


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You can't escape the color green, it's everywhere, and rightfully so ! Perhaps it's because I'm so drawn to botanicals, but I tend to surround myself with all shades of green. Green is the color of all seasons. Green is nature. Green is serene. Green is the perfect color to welcome into your home, especially this spring !
I adore every shade of green, from the richness of olive to the softness of sage. I especially love when green gets social, and mixes with neighboring shades on the color wheel. Mingle with yellow and green becomes lemongrass, or inject it with blue and you're looking at teal. What's not to love ?
So in honor of St. Patrick's Day, and in a very roundabout nod to my Irish heritage, I've invited a few of my favorite bloggers to share their insight on the color green in a series called "These Are a Few of My Favorite Greens". First up is my dear friend Rhoda from Southern Hospitality, who I met at Blissdom last month, and who shares a love of decorating, thrifting, cooking and gardening ! I always tell Rhoda, I wished I lived closer, cause I'd be in her kitchen sharing her recipes and hopping in her car on the way to thrift stores and yard sales.
Take it away Rhoda !
"Thank you SO much, Kate, for asking me to guest post at your beautiful blog. I'm so honored and excited to be here.
When Kate asked me to share my favorite pics all about the color green, I knew instantly that it would be an easy thing for me, since my favorite color is actually green. I've had green in my home since the beginning, in one particular shade or another. Green is such a happy color for me and I love having it in my home. So, we'll get started with my faves:
One of my favorite things to do is yardsale and scour the thrift shops and I picked up this classically bound book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird', and the green cover is so pretty. This is one of my favorite all time books too, so it's perfect for me to display with its aged green cover.
Several years ago, I began a collection of Bordallo pottery and these bunny dishes caught my eye. First, I love bunnies and this soft green was the perfect complement to them, so there started my collection, which keeps growing yearly. This shade of green is very soothing to me.
When we moved in our house, the laundry room was a big white box and I was determined to spruce it up and make it a happy place. So, I set out with the perfect lime green paint color, 'Grasscloth' by Behr and it was, indeed, instant happy. From there, I added some garden accessories and now my laundry room is one of my favorite spaces in the house.
These pears on my living room mantel were collected one at a time and I love their varying shades of green. One of them was bought at TJ Maxx and the others were found elsewhere, one a gift from a thrifting friend and the other from a yard sale. I repainted one of them to enhance the green, but I love how they all relate to each other even though they were found at completely different times. A perfect accent on the mantel.
An apron is something that every domestic diva should have, so I just picked up my very first one at an antique mall. Just call me June Cleaver! In my favorite shade of lime green, the floral print really called to me.
Another favorite paint color in my kitchen, 'Laura Ashley Olive 4', has been with me for several years and I still love it. Hanging on the wall is one of my most favored yard sale finds, the primitive painting found for $1. I love the colors and texture in this piece and it works in my multi-colored kitchen, with green as the main color.
Growing hydrangeas in my garden is right up at the top of my fun list and drying them at the end of the season helps these highly prized blooms to linger longer and the soft muted green is just the most beautiful hue.
Another yard sale find, the green patina on this brass armillary grabbed my eye immediately. It's the sort of piece that just gets better with age.
Thank you so much Rhoda for sharing all of your favorite greens – I'm inspired by all of these choices, aren't you ?
Stay tuned, later today another favorite blog coming up ! Here's a clue – she's a blonde from the south and she's married to Kevin, reading her blog is a small slice of heaven !
So tell us, how much green do you use in your home ?


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As well-documented by the "word on the street," the fifth generation iPod nano is also a video camera...and radio and a pedometer and a voice recorder too...and it's available today. Details:
• Video camera (640x480)
• Integrated mic
• Integrated speaker
• FM Radio!!!!! That you can pause!! And iTunes tag!
• One-click YouTube uploads (through your computer)
• Voice Over like Shuffle
• Pedometer with Nike+ syncing online
• Voice Recorder
• 2.2-inch screen that's .2 inches larger than last model
Starting today, the 8GB nano will cost $150 while the 16GB comes in at $180. (So why buy the 8?) What's the biggest surprise here? The camera we knew about. But the radio? The video support? The total lack of still camera support? I do have to admit, however, if it's this or a Flip, the nano is certainly more tempting.
Apple Introduces New iPod nano With Built-in Video Camera
World's Most Popular Music Player Now Available in Nine Brilliant Colors
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple® today introduced the new iPod nano®, adding a video camera, mic and speaker to the world's most popular music player. Music lovers can now shoot video wherever they are, view it on their iPod nano and use their computers to easily transfer their videos to YouTube. The new iPod nano features an ultra-thin and sleek design with a larger 2.2-inch color display and gorgeous polished aluminum and glass enclosure. iPod nano also features a built-in FM radio with live pause and iTunes® Tagging, as well as a built-in pedometer. The new iPod nano is available today in an 8GB model for $149 and a 16GB model for $179, and comes in nine brilliant colors including silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange, yellow, (PRODUCT) RED and pink.
"iPod nano is the world's most popular music player with over 100 million sold," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "And now we've added a video camera to its incredibly thin design, without any additional cost to the user."
iPod nano features a larger 2.2-inch display for easier navigating, enjoying album art, or shooting and viewing video clips. iPod nano is ultra-portable so users can shoot video wherever they are, in either portrait or landscape. iPod nano customers can share videos instantly with friends using its display and speaker, or sync with a Mac® or PC and share them on YouTube, MobileMe(TM), Facebook or via email.* iPod nano can even shoot videos with fun real-time effects such as Thermal, Film Grain, Kaleido and X-Ray.
iPod nano now has a built-in FM radio with live pause and iTunes Tagging. Live pause lets iPod nano users pause and resume playing their favorite FM radio shows. iTunes Tagging is great when users hear a song they like, they can simply tag it, and then preview and purchase that song when they sync to iTunes.** iPod nano also features Genius Mixes, which automatically creates up to 12 endless mixes of songs from your iTunes library that go great together.
iPod nano is also now an even better workout companion with the new built-in pedometer. iPod nano can keep track of your steps taken and calories burned, helping you meet your short and long-term fitness goals.
iPod nano provides up to 24 hours of music playback or five hours of video playback on a single charge. The 8GB model holds up to 2,000 songs, 7,000 photos, eight hours of video and seven hours of captured video; and the 16GB model holds up to 4,000 songs, 14,000 photos, 16 hours of video and 14 hours of captured video.***
iPod® is the world's most popular family of digital music players with over 220 million sold. Apple's new holiday lineup includes iPod shuffle® in five great colors starting at just $59; iPod classic® in a new 160GB model holding up to 40,000 songs for $249; the new iPod nano with a video camera available in nine brilliant polished aluminum colors starting at $149; and the revolutionary iPod touch® now starting at the breakthrough price of just $199.
Pricing & Availability
The new iPod nano is available immediately for a suggested price of $149 (US) for the 8GB model and $179 (US) for the 16GB model in silver, black, purple, blue, green, orange and pink through the Apple Store® (www.apple.com), Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers. The 8GB and 16GB iPod nano in yellow and (PRODUCT) RED are available through the Apple Store (www.apple.com) and Apple's retail stores. iPod nano requires a Mac with a USB 2.0 port, Mac OS® X v10.4.11 or later and iTunes 9; or a Windows PC with a USB 2.0 port and Windows Vista or Windows XP Home or Professional (Service Pack 3) or later and iTunes 9.
*MobileMe is available to persons 13 and older. Annual membership fee and Internet access required. Terms apply.
**Currently available only in the US on radio stations that support iTunes Tagging.
***Battery life and number of charge cycles vary by use and settings. See www.apple.com/batteries for more information. Music capacity is based on four minutes per song and 128-Kbps AAC encoding; photo capacity is based on iPod-viewable photos transferred from iTunes; and video capacity is based on H.264 1.5 Mbps video at 640-by-480 resolution.


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Anyway, I decided to use one of my recent acquisitions, RMK Spring Modern Eyes #1 Goldish Blue for today's look. Since purchasing this in late May, I think I've only used it three times including today. Not because I don't like it but simply because I try to rotate through the various brands in my stash. And I still have new items from my New York trip yet to try out! But I'm slowing getting around to them.
After prepping with Testimo Eye Bright Up Base, I used the included brush to apply the light blue shade over the browbone area. Next, I used the sponge applicator to apply the lavender shade from the inner corners to the middle of the lid and the medium blue shade at the outer corners and along the upper lashline. Then I used a small MAC eyeshadow brush to apply the pale gold shade at the inner corners and along the lower lashline.
The pic below was taken under indoor lighting while the two pics above were taken near the window in early morning light.
Here're the rest of the products I used today: Dior Compact Control X4 Powder Foundation, Guerlain Meteorites Butterfly Pearls, Stila One Step Prime Color Capri Coral on the cheeks, Maybelline The Falsies Volum'express mascara, K-Palette Real Lasting Eyebrow #1, Heroine Make Smooth Liquid Liner, Fresh Sugar Rose Tinted Lip Treatment, RMK Face Protector N SPF31 and Super Basic Liquid Concealer EX-01.
I don't know how I'll ever use up the Guerlain Meteorites Butterfly Pearls even with daily use! This was from the Holiday collection in 2008 but it still looks like when I first purchased it even though I use very often as a finishing powder. Plus the balls are larger than the usual Meteorites. Not that I'm complaining, as this is still my favourite Guerlain product.
Have a lovely weekend ahead, everyone!


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The Cedar Springs High School Jazz band will be the opening act at Jake's Music Festival, at 4 p.m. on April 14, at the Wealthy Theatre in Grand Rapids.
The band will be part of a lineup that includes rockabilly, Celtic, experimental violin, rock and roll, Creole, singer/songwriter, and jazz—a little something for everyone. The event is free (donations are accepted) and runs until 11 p.m. All proceeds go to benefit the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.
For more information or to see the complete lineup, go to www.jakesmusicfestival.blogspot.com or visit the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/JakesMusicFestival.


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Perhaps Lent went well for us, a profound time of confronting weaknesses out of love for the Lord. Or maybe it went rather poorly, and in fact was kind of forgotten in all the busyness of life. Either way, there is still time to take advantage of the opportunity the Church gives us to grow closer to Christ.
The liturgies of the Church throughout Holy Week are the preeminent way to do so. They can provide the "meat" of Holy Week's spiritual experience. Here are some ways to enhance what we'll be hearing.
Palm Sunday
"Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, or 'Passion Sunday,' which unites the royal splendor of Christ with the proclamation of his passion," says the Vatican's Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy (No. 138). "Palms and olive branches are kept in the home as a witness to faith in Jesus Christ, the messianic King, and in his paschal victory."
• Palm basket. One nice custom is to weave those palms into a basket — on Easter Sunday it will hold painted eggs for your table's centerpiece.
Holy Thursday
Lent ends officially with the beginning of the Easter Triduum at the Evening Mass of the Lord's Supper on Holy Thursday.
• Passover-style meal. Some like to have a special dinner that night to ease the transition to the fast and abstinence of Good Friday, a sort of modified Passover dinner: lamb, rice pilaf, a raw vegetable plate, matzo bread and haroset salad (9 tart apples, peeled and chopped, 3/4 cup chopped walnuts. 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, 3 tablespoons honey, 1/3 cup sweet red wine. Mix well, serves six). Appropriate psalms for the occasion: Psalm 113, 114, 118.
Two things are important to note: This should be considered a way of introducing one's family to the customs of Jesus' time in a very general way, not as a Seder meal per se, since the Seder meal is an important and sacred Jewish ritual that we should not make light of. Second, in the Catholic Church, such a meal should not interfere with our availability for Holy Thursday Mass, which is far more important.
• Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament — available until midnight in many churches — is the best way to end Holy Thursday. "Because of a long historical process, whose origins are not entirely clear," says the Directory of Popular Piety (No. 141), "the place of repose has traditionally been referred to as 'a holy sepulcher.' The faithful go there to venerate Jesus who was placed in a tomb following the crucifixion and in which he remained for some 40 hours."
Good Friday
The Easter fast that many begin after Holy Thursday Mass is obligatory on Good Friday.
• Regulations for Fast and Abstinence: "Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of both fast and abstinence from meat. Fast binds all over the age of 21 and under the age of 59. On days of fast, one full meal is allowed. Two other meals sufficient to maintain strength may be taken according to each one's needs, but together they should not equal another full meal. Eating in between meals is not permitted, but liquids, including milk and juices, are allowed. When health or ability to work would be seriously affected, the law does not oblige."
• Church services. Mass isn't offered on Good Friday; but a Communion service and veneration of the cross is. When possible, Catholics take a break from work between the hours of noon and 3 p.m., the time Christ spent on the cross. This is also prime time to participate in the Stations of the Cross.
• Divine Mercy Novena. Today, the special Divine Mercy novena leading up to Mercy Sunday begins. To find out how to participate, go to EWTN.com and from the menu under "Faith" choose "Devotions" then "Novenas."
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday is an empty time of waiting. No Mass is offered, not even a Communion service like Good Friday's. It isn't an official fasting day, but many Catholics eat modestly this day as we wait to celebrate the Resurrection.
• The Office of Readings offers an ancient homily called "The Lord Descends Into Hell" this day. Here is an excerpt:
"Something strange is happening — there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept ever since the world began. God has died in the flesh and hell trembles with fear.
"He has gone to search for our first parent, as for a lost sheep. Greatly desiring to visit those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, he has gone to free from sorrow the captives Adam and Eve, he who is both God and the son of Eve. The Lord approached them bearing the cross, the weapon that had won him the victory. At the sight of him Adam, the first man he had created, struck his breast in terror and cried out to everyone: 'My Lord be with you all.' Christ answered him: 'And with your spirit.' He took him by the hand and raised him up, saying: 'Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'"
The entire reading can be found at: catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=6872
It's a lovely way to prepare for Easter … the greatest feast of the Church, which we'll write about next week.
Hot Cross Buns
The making and eating of hot cross buns on this day of mourning is a very old tradition, dating from before 1225. The superstitions surrounding the practice aren't helpful (like the one that causes some people to save one hot cross bun on their mantelpiece for a year's worth of good baking), but there are some very nice legends and stories to share on this day:
Robin Redbreast
Legend has it that the robin tried to remove the bloody thorns from Christ's head at the crucifixion. Christ's blood fell on the bird and he has worn a red breast as a badge of honor since.
The Dogwood
An old legend has that at the time of the Crucifixion, the dogwood was comparable in size to the oak tree. Because of its firmness and strength it was selected for the cross. The crucified Jesus in his gentle pity for the sorrow and suffering of all said to it, "Because of your sorrow and pity for my sufferings, never again will the dogwood tree grow large enough to be used as a cross. Henceforth it will be slender, bent and twisted, and its blossoms will be in the form of a cross, two long and two short petals. In the center of the outer edge of each petal there will be nail prints, brown with rust and stained with red, and in the center of the flower will be a crown of thorns, and all who see this will remember."


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Staging your home is an important step in the selling process and can have a significant impact on how quickly and for what price your home sells. Creating a plan for staging your home is an essential part of the process.
The first impression when a buyer drives up to your home is critical.


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NEW YORK A newspaper's publication of the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two New York counties has sparked online discussions — and a healthy dose of outrage.
The Journal News, a Gannett Co. newspaper covering three counties in the Hudson Valley north of New York City and operating the website lohud.com, posted a story Sunday detailing a public-records request it filed to obtain the information.
The 1,800-word story headlined, "The gun owner next door: What you don't know about the weapons in your neighborhood," said the information was sought after the Dec. 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., about 50 miles northeast of the paper's headquarters in White Plains. A gunman killed his mother, drove to an elementary school and massacred 20 first-graders and six adults, then shot himself. All the weapons used were legally owned by his mother.
- AR-15 gun sales continue to spike after shootings
- GOP pollster: "I don't think the NRA is listening"
- Israel rejects NRA's guns-in-schools claim
The Journal News story includes comments from both sides of the gun-rights debate and presents the data as answering concerns of those who would like to know whether there are guns in their neighborhood. It reports that about 44,000 people in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties are licensed to own a handgun, and that rifles and shotguns can be purchased without a permit.
It was accompanied online by maps of the results for Westchester and Rockland counties; similar details had not yet been provided by Putnam County. A reader clicking on the maps can see the name and address of each pistol or revolver permit holder. Accompanying text states that inclusion does not necessarily mean that an individual owns a weapon, just who obtained a license.
By Wednesday afternoon, the maps had shared about 30,000 times on Facebook and other social media.
Most online comments have criticized the publication of the data, and many suggest it puts the permit holders in danger because criminals have a guide to places they can steal guns. Others maintain it tells criminals who does not have a gun and may be easier to victimize, or where to find law enforcement figures against whom they might hold a grudge.
Some responded by publicizing the home addresses and phone numbers of the reporter who wrote the piece, along with other journalists at the paper and even senior executives of Gannett. Many echoed the idea that publicizing gun permit holders' names is tantamount to accusing them of doing something wrong, comparing the move to publishing lists of registered sex offenders.
The Journal News is standing behind the project. It said in the story that it published a similar list in 2006.
"Frequently, the work of journalists is not popular. One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular," Janet Hasson, president and publisher of The Journal News Media Group, said in an emailed statement. "We knew publication of the database (as well as the accompanying article providing context) would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings."
Roy Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank, said publishing the data was "too indiscriminate."
He, too, compared the maps to similar efforts involving sex-offender registries or lists of those arrested for driving under the influence, noting that such a move is usually done to indicate a serious problem that requires a neighbor or parent to maintain vigilance.
"You get the connotation that somehow there's something essentially wrong with this behavior," he said of the gun permit database.
"My predisposition is to support the journalism," Clark said. "I want to be persuaded that this story or this practice has some higher social purpose, but I can't find it."
Also common among the comments on the lohud.com were suggestions about suing the paper for violating permit-holders' privacy rights. Such a move would likely be unsuccessful.
"The media has no liability for publishing public information," said Edward Rudofsky, a First Amendment attorney at Zane and Rudofsky in New York. The issue does present a clash between First and Second amendment rights, he said, but in general, the law protects publishing public information unless the intent was to harm someone.
Outrage after NY paper publishes names of gun permit holders | Mt Kisco Homes
via cbsnews.com


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This Week's SoundClouders of the Day
Fridays are great! Aren't they? It's the day where we wrap everything up in preparation for the weekend. Why don't you check out all of the excellent SoundClouders we highlighted this week?
Rebecca Peake
We started with Rebecca, who is writing and recording a new song every day for a year (!).
David Henderson
David is doing it all! He is a producer, composer, guitarist, controllerist and sound designer with over 35 years of experience.
Neil Milton
Ambient soundscapes, experimental and modern-classical music from a Neil, a Scot living in Warsaw, Poland.
Played saxophone for decades, but just recently started venturing into making his own music. Great stuff!
Hank & Mike
Uplifting 'tanzmusik' from Germany, combining of mellow pads with four-on-the-floor beats.
In case you might have missed any of our featured artists, feel free to check out our SoundClouders of the Day group. Have a great weekend, everybody!


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Earlier this week, Sports Media Journal questioned the purpose of hosting SportsCenter in Los Angeles, prompting ESPN flacks to defend the move, in part, by citing "additional access to sports and entertainment celebrities." Like the Jonas Brothers!
From a tipster [sic'd]:
Ok, so I think this marks the official start of the end of the world as we know it... It was about 2:50 yesterday morning when I was getting ready to fall asleep and those three brothers were on SportsCenter doing the top 10 plays with Neil Everett and some other schlub. I may have been stoned, but it was definitely them.
No, you were not stoned — that was the Jonas Brothers calling the Top 10 with Everett and Stan Verrett, that other schlub. With this second coming of ESPN Hollywood, we learn that the Jonas Brothers are fans of the New York Giants, Yankees, Dodgers, Mavericks and Lakers, and they blister their hands on the golf course. They weren't heavy on the catch phrases — all I heard was "Bam, there you go," and a lackluster "Boo-yah!"
The lesson, as always: Watch the 2 a.m. SportsCenter now that it's on the West Coast. You never know which singing and acting set of brothers will appear before your glazed-over eyes.


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Piping at Firemens installation dinner
Got a camera phone, scanner or digital camera? Then post your piping pictures here. Just be aware that that any inappropriate pictures will be dealt with a severe lack of sense of humour.
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Piping at Firemens installation dinner
I was asked to Pipe at the Firemens installation dinner. Its the least I could do for these brave men and women.
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Treat people as you want to be treated
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