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Editor's note: The headline for this piece used to read: "VERIFY: CDC, WHO do not recommend homemade masks."
We've changed the headline to reflect the fact that the CDC and WHO have both broadened their stances on cloth masks.
On April 3rd, WHO Executive Director of Health Emergencies, Dr. Michael Ryan said, "we can certainly see circumstances in which the use of masks, but home-made or cloth masks, at community level may help in an overall, comprehensive response to this disease."
Additionally, the CDC published a new page on April 3rd regarding the use of homemade masks.
"We now know from recent studies that a significant portion of individuals with coronavirus lack symptoms ("asymptomatic") and that even those who eventually develop symptoms ("pre-symptomatic") can transmit the virus to others before showing symptoms," it reads. "In light of this new evidence, CDC recommends wearing cloth face coverings in public settings where other social distancing measures are difficult to maintain (e.g., grocery stores and pharmacies) especially in areas of significant community-based transmission."
These statements represent a change from previous stances on masks by the WHO And CDC. The article below reflects the previous stances as they were on March 24th.
Viewer Ann P. sent us a question about making protective masks.
She had seen instructions online and wanted to know if they worked.
Ann is definitely not alone. There are a lot of articles about this right now.
Can you make your own masks? Do they work? And when should you be wearing one?
According to the CDC and WHO, masks are only to be used when caring for someone who is sick or if you are sick.
Most homemade masks are made out of forms of cloth. While they may be better than nothing in a crisis situation, the CDC and WHO do not recommend their use.
According to the WHO, a person should only wear a mask when experiencing COVID-19 symptoms (especially coughing) or looking after someone who is sick with the virus.
The CDC suggests the use of a homemade mask like a bandanna or a scarf as a last resource when medical masks are not available, but also notes that homemade masks are not PPE (personal protective equipment). This is because their capability to protect healthcare personnel is unknown. If this option is considered, the homemade mask should be combined with a face shield that covers the entire front and sides of the face.
The WHO has a guide on mask use and management and specifically says that cloth (cotton, gauze, etc.) are not recommended under any circumstances.
Homemade masks should only be used as a last resource, and they're not recommended by health authorities.
Despite the guidance from the CDC and WHO, multiple hospitals have said they will accept homemade masks. While the masks are intended to be a "last resource," there are many who believe they should be prepared for that circumstance.
A group of students at UC Berkely School Of Health has compiled a list of hospitals that they've contacted and who have said they will take donated masks, including homemade ones. So far, they have found more than 100 facilities across 24 states.
If you do decide to make masks at home, remember that they're meant to be used only when nothing else is available.
There are some studies on their efficacy, but their results are a bit convoluted.
A 2013 Cambridge University study found that homemade masks made from cotton t-shirts "Reduced the number of microorganisms expelled by volunteers, although the surgical mask was 3 times more effective."
That same study found that "a homemade mask should only be considered as a last resort to prevent droplet transmission."
A 2015 study in Medical Journal BMJ found that cloth masks had "highest" infection rates of tested materials.
"The physical properties of a cloth mask, reuse, the frequency and effectiveness of cleaning, and increased moisture retention, may potentially increase the infection risk for HCWs. (Health Care Workers)," It reads.
If you're still wondering how to make a mask, there are a number of patterns available online.
Deaconess Hospital in Evansville, Indiana posted a tutorial video and has a site with instructions and patterns available.
Something you'd like VERIFIED? Click here to submit your story.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Explore all kinds of users, hashtags and locations in ease with our Web Viewer for Instagram. View users- and hashtag-stories without leak your actual username. On insta.shared, we created a page calling 'Toplist' known as Hot Users and 'Hashtags' to push your posts to instagram top listnings and also related users and posts suggestions for you to discover the most exciting Instagram pages. We update and add new amazing users to our user pool every time we find it! You can use shared:to Instagram Viewer for free and fully as guest. Watch posts with your desktop and mobile device and to determine all content online. You can use our website to access all user audiences you would like to see to stalk them in stealth mode. Edit and download images and videos you like with just a click. Have fun!
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ESC 4in1 stack with Racewhoop FC


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On-line or Web Enhanced Courses
- Learning-for-Use: A Framework for the Design of Technology-Supported Inquiry Activities. Edelson, 2001 This article discusses a way to integrate the teaching of content with the teaching of process, which have in the past been seen as competing priorities. General guidelines are presented for the design of inquiry activities that support content learning taking advantage of modern technologies. (citation and description)
- Real-Time Analysis of Student Comprehension: An Assessment of Electronic Student Response Technology in an Introductory Earth Science Course. Greer and Heaney, 2004 This article in the Journal of Geoscience Education describes a study that conducted a multi-faceted assessment of the use of electronic student response technologies in four sections of an introductory earth science class at Penn State University. Electronic student response technologies allow students to key in responses with remote control units to questions posed by an instructor in the classroom. They are used to assess teaching and learning methods in real time, and offer an exceptional means of introducing active learning protocols in classes with large enrollments. Quantitative and qualitative perception data from the students and the faculty are included. (Full Text Online)
- They Love It, but Do They Learn from It? Evaluating the Educational Impact of Innovations. Gunn, 1999 The SECAL (Situated Evaluation of Computer-Assisted Learning) framework offers a broadly based method for evaluating learning with technology in its many forms and implementations. (citation and description)
- CILT2000: Visualization and Modeling. Kali, 2002 This paper discusses the implications of the VisMod software used in educational environments. (citation and description)
- Rethinking Course Assessment: Creating Accountability with Web-Based Tools. [Crippen, 2003] This article from the Journal of Science Education and Technology describes a learning environment where achievement targets are matched to existing Web-based assessment alternatives. The authors propose that choosing good web tools in a research supported assessment framework can result in courses that are more effective without adding significant work for instructors. They suggest that the keys to success are high standards for student learning, a good assessment model, and quality tools. (citation and description)
- Internet Environments for Science Education: How Information Technologies Can Support the Learning of Science. [Linn, Davis and Bell, 2004] This book by Marcia C. Linn, Elizabeth A. Davis and Philip Bell synthesizes 25 years of research to identify effective, technology-enhanced ways to support students in becoming lifelong science learners. This approach to technology-enhanced inquiry takes advantage of global, networked information resources and socio-cognitive research on learning and teaching to better understand how to design responsive learning environments. (citation and description)
- The Educational Potential of Multimedia Authoring as a Part of the Earth Science Curriculum — A Case Study. [Orion, Dubowski and Dodick, 2000] This article from the Journal of Research in Science Teaching assesses the potential of multimedia authoring as a learning tool. Grade 12 earth science students were provided with basic background information about earthquakes and then asked to do an in-depth independent project on a topic related to earthquakes. Once completed, the students presented their projects using the multimedia software ASTOUND. Assessment tools used by instructors to measure success were questionnaires, interviews, observations, concept mapping, and an analysis of the multimedia presentation. The findings showed that an integration of laboratory exercises, field trips, and an independent study project, could lead to meaningful learning. (citation and description)
- Mapping to Know: The Effects of Representational Guidance and Reflective Assessment on Scientific Inquiry. [Toth, Suthers and Lesgold, 2002] This article from Science Education describes a study that evaluated of empirical evidence against multiple hypotheses. The article focuses on the effect of technology-based knowledge-representation tools and the effect of reflective assessment on learning to act and think scientifically. The technological tools of the framework allowed students to represent their developing knowledge of natural phenomena either in writing or with graphical mapping. The reflective assessment used was a form of inquiry rubrics that indicated specific assessment criteria for the various components of scientific inquiry. The results indicated that the use of evidence mapping is more effective than writing, and that evidence mapping was greatly enhanced by the use of reflective assessment throughout the inquiry process. (citation and description)
- Customized Internet Assessments: Evaluating Another Dimension of Web Technology. [Wagner, 2001] This article from the Journal of College Science Teaching discusses educators' difficulty with interactive online assessment. Also discussed is a program that enables instructors to create their own online assessment with complete control over the content and structure of questions. (citation and description)
- Virtual Field Trips in the Earth Science Classroom. [Woerner, 1999] This paper is from a workshop entitled "Preparation and Classroom Applications of Virtual Field Trips." The paper discusses why a teacher might choose a field trip as an important educational strategy to the teaching and learning of earth science. Also discussed are factors that influence learning on a field trip and the components of an effective earth science field trip. A list of web sites that feature virtual field trips is also provided. (citation and description)
Do you have a resource you would like to add to this collection? Please submit it here.


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Age 36
Occupation Designer and innovator, assistant professor of media arts and sciences, MIT Media Lab
Residence Brookline
A lot of what you do and study is how we approach design versus how nature approaches design. How does that play into the way you dress?
I appreciate good tailoring as much as good details of construction. But given the work that I do, the world that engages my thinking is so complex and multifaceted, I like to simplify it in the way that I dress. I like to mostly wear very simple clothes. Specifically, I appreciate Celine and Jil Sander. I've been following a lot of the work that Raf Simons has been doing. He's at Dior now, and it will be very interesting to see how he evolves at Dior.
When you are in an academic setting teaching or making a presentation, do you put a lot of thought into what you're wearing and the message that it sends?
Yes and no. Yes, because it is always an opportunity for celebration. When you celebrate a new idea, it immediately comes through the way you hold yourself and the clothes you wear. But at the same time, I don't find myself thinking much about it, because I truly believe it's an organic process. To wear a beautiful new garment is like wearing a new idea, and I see them as the same thing. Opening my closet is a form of meditation. I pick whatever I feel is right for the day. It's usually only a matter of seconds before I'm out of the house. — C.M.
Interview has been condensed and edited. E-mail comments to email@example.com.


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I noticed most of my skirts are patterned ones so I set in on making a few in a solid color.
First I made a ½ circle skirt -they are so easy to do and take rather little time as well.
This skirt is made from a soft stretchy polyester blend.
As usual I made a terrible mess after myself... Some days before I was updating scene costumes and their remnants are still spread around. I did pick up everything from he floor so it loos less bad but, I really am good at making places look bad after crafting around them!


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< Features
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== Current status ==
== Current status ==
* Targeted release: [[Releases/18]]
* Targeted release: [[Releases/18]]
* Last updated: 2012-05
* Last updated: 2012-05
* Percentage of completion:
* Percentage of completion: %
== Detailed Description ==
== Detailed Description ==
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Revision as of 13:16, 5 June 2012
DWARF Compressior
Reduce size of *.debug files in debuginfo packages in Fedora 18 using DWARF Compressor dwz.
- Name: Jakub Jelinek
- Email: firstname.lastname@example.com
Current status
- Targeted release: Releases/18
- Last updated: 2012-06-05
- Percentage of completion: 50%
Detailed Description
The dwz tool http://sourceware.org/git/?p=dwz.git;a=summary can rewrite .debug_* sections, either in binaries/shared libraries, or their *.debug split files, into equivalent, but smaller, DWARF. The master branch of that repo currently only rewrites each single *.debug file on its own, on the multifile branch there is ongoing work to optimize also several *.debug files at once, by moving common .debug_* data into a single new ET_REL *.debug file and using DWARF extensions refer to that from the *.debug files. Depending on the stability of the multifile branch we'd like to either optimize each *.debug file individually by running roughly find . -name \*.debug | xargs -n 1 dwz in find-debuginfo.sh (will need to handle hardlinks better than that), or all *.debug files at once using dwz -m %{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}.debug *.debug.
Benefit to Fedora
Smaller debuginfo files.
All packages should be rebuilt with the new tool as well as rpm changes hit dist-f18.
How To Test
GDB testsuite, perhaps some tool to analyze whether the non-compressed and compressed debuginfos contain equivalent info.
User Experience
Users shouldn't notice this, except that debuginfo files will be smaller, and newer DWARF consumers will be needed (gdb, valgrind, dwarves, prelink, elfutils, systemtap).
All packages need to be rebuilt.
Contingency Plan
Worst case we stop using the compressor.
None yet, there will be a DWARF5 extension proposal if we are going to choose the multifile optimization.
Release Notes
Fedora 18 debuginfo has been post-processed by a DWARF compressor tool to reduce size of the *.debug files.


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The second in a series of reports on how the economic crisis is affected the wine market. (Click here to read the first post.)
A Wine Recession?
Evidence continues to pour in that the economic crisis is having a significant impact on the world of wine, but some industry people seem to be in denial. They tend to fall into three groups. The first say that yes, customers might trade down and away from your part of the wine market, but my wine is still selling fine, thank you! The second group believes that people drink more, not less, in bad times, so the overall wine market is recession proof. The third likes to think of wine as an investment and argues that with traditional financial investments doing so poorly affluent people will switch over to fine wine and power a continuing boom in these "liquid assets."
There is of course some truth in each of these views. Cult wines like Screaming Eagle will still sell out no matter what happens on Wall Street — no one wants to be dropped from the distribution list in bad times because it'll be impossible to get back on when the economy picks up. And there are wines that are positioned to benefit from a down market (see below) while others suffer. But this only tells us what we already knew, which is that wine isn't one big market, it is a lot of big, small and medium sized market segments and it is no surprise that they all aren't affected equally by any trend.
People may in fact drink more alcohol in a a down economy — call it wine relief or corkscrew therapy. But even if they do, it doesn't necessarily mean that they'll drink more wine, does it? Wine isn't always the cheapest way to drown your sorrows. And it sure doesn't mean that they'll pay more for wine, even if they do drink more of it, because they are likely to trade down to cheaper products. Econ 101 teaches us that total expenditure falls with price when demand is inelastic, as it may be in some wine market segments.
And the evidence shows that some but obviously not all wines are good financial investments, but it is important not to over-generalize this effect. When the influential Canadian wine writer Beppi Crosariol recently quoted the importer of wines such as Domaine de la Romanée-Conti on the benefits of wine investment in his column in the Global and Mail he was flooded with comments ridiculing the idea of wine as a general investment strategy.
The Permanent Lifestyle Hypothesis
There is lots of evidence that the economic crisis is affected the demand for wine. Restaurant sales have been especially hard hit and grocery store customers are trading down in the quest for good value. But is trading down really the right term to describe this phenomenon? We know from Constellation Brand's market surveys that some wine buyers are influenced mainly by price, so that trading down to a cheaper product comes naturally to them.
But other market segments (the ones responsible for much of the growth in wine sales in recently years) are what I think of as lifestyle wine consumers. They watch the Food Network, buy lifestyle magazines like Gourmet and Bon Appétit that are heavy with wine advertising and think of themselves as people with sophisticated lifestyles that include wine, fine dining and probably even wine-related travel. (Note: even Cooking Light magazine has a wine column now — I was quoted on page 184 of the October 2008 issue.)
Lifestyle wine consumers are unlikely to give up wine during a recession because it would mean more than changing consumption patterns, it would mean sacrificing an important element of their carefully constructed identity. But I don't think they will necessarily simply trade down to lower priced wine — Carlo Rossi or Two Buck Chuck — either, because that would also undermine self image (to the extent that this is based upon consumption patterns). I believe that people will try to maintain their lifestyle identity through the economic cycle to the extent they can. This is a lifestyle variation on Milton Friedman's economic theory of the permanent income hypothesis.
So while some people will trade down to lower price, others will trade over — to a different idea of wine that allows them to spend less without feeling like they are giving up their lifestyle. I'm still serious about wine, their choices say, but I don't take my self so seriously all the time. I like to have fun with wine and so I'm buying wine that reflects this fact now.
Barefoot Cellars: Trading Down or Trading Over?
This, I argue, is what's behind the recent success of Barefoot Cellars wine, which has experienced rising sales in the decling market. It is pretty clear that consumers are trading down or trading over to Barefoot. Why?
Barefoot Cellars is a wine with a casual image — kick off your shoes and relax! — but the wines have a serious side, too. Barefoot wines are entered in various wine competitions and the labels proudly display the gold medals they've earned, something that gives these products credibility on the Wine Wall despite their competitive price point. (Barefoot California Zinfandel retails for $6.99 or less in most markets.) Wine critics have given some of the wines favorable ratings and they often appear on published "Best Buy" lists.
The Barefoot brand was founded in 1965 by Davis Bynum and passed through various hands before being purchased by Gallo in 2005. (Here is a history of the brand.) Jeremy Soine, a former student of mine at the University of Puget Sound, is the brand's manager; I asked him why it has been so successful. Here is our Q&A.
Who is buying Barefoot and why?
Barefoot Wine is marketed to the "young at heart." The idea of "getting barefoot" is universally appealing, whether you are 25 years old or 75 years old. At the end of the day, most of us look forward to that moment where we can "kick our shoes off" and disconnect for a few minutes from our hectic lives.
What can you tell me in terms of sales trends?
Barefoot Wine is one of the top selling wines in the United States, and sales growth continues to significantly outpace the wine category. The sales growth of Barefoot has actually increased during the past six months, and I believe this is because people are seeking out better values as they have fewer extra dollars to spend. Much of Barefoot's popularity has occurred during the past few years, but many people don't realize that Barefoot Wine was actually started in 1965 by Davis Bynum, who is not now famous for his Pinot Noirs.
Have you changed your marketing strategies in any way to compensate or take advantage of the changing market conditions?
Barefoot is the most awarded Winery in U.S. wine competitions for under $15 per bottle, and we actively communicate these awards to people by placing medallion stickers right on the bottle. We believe that the medallions give people the confidence that they are buying a wine that has been recognized by wine critics.
Do you think that Barefoot's succcess is due mainly to the trade-down effect — that is, is it driven by the poor economic times, with consumers trading down to cheaper products? Or is there more to it than that?
Barefoot does not spend money on traditional advertising like other large wine brands. Rather, we donate wine to local non-profit organizations. This allows people to try Barefoot wines, and also frees up funds for non-profit organizations. In 2008 Barefoot Wine will be poured at more than 3000 non-profit events in most communities in the United States. We believe that this grass roots approach will win in the end because people appreciate these donations, will love the wine and will recommend the wine to their friends. Fewer than half of all wine drinkers have even heard of Barefoot Wine, and we are fine with that because people want to "discover" wine, not be mass-marketed to through television ads or billboards.
So Barefoot seems to have benefited from the trading down effect, but I think you can also see a trading over effect. Paying less? Yes. But buying a different idea of wine: relaxed but not unsophisticated and with a social agenda that fits the times. I don't want to push the Barefoot case study too far — to over-generalize it — but I think there's something to be learned from this brand's success.


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Powersine Inverter Datasheet


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Toronto, ON – Seattle Sounders FC marked Clint Dempsey's debut with a victory as the club came away from BMO Field with a 2-1 defeat of Toronto FC on Saturday.
Dempsey entered the match as substitute in the 34th minute to replace the injured Obafemi Martins, but the American international had little impact on the outcome.
Already holding a one-goal lead thanks to an early strike from Mauro Rosales, the Sounders received what proved to be the game-winning tally from Doneil Henry's own goal in the 40th minute. Jonathan Osorio scored early in the second half to give the Reds some hope, but Seattle managed to close out the match for a third successive win.
It took the visitors just 16 minutes to break the deadlock as Eddie Johnson headed a cross back across goal, allowing Rosales to take advantage of some statuesque Toronto defenders and fire home the opener.
The Sounders grabbed another goal just prior to the halftime interval when Lamar Neagle created space on the left flank before Henry turned a low cross into his own net.
It proved to be a crucial goal as Osorio cut the deficit to one goal by firing home a low cross that hit the post and narrowly crossed the goal line.
But Toronto failed to equalize down the stretch, bringing an end to the club's two-match winning run.


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House acts to curb loan rates
Both parties want to help students, but how to pay?
WASHINGTON - Republicans defied a veto threat as the House voted Friday to prevent federal loan costs from doubling for millions of college students. The vote gave the GOP a momentary election-year triumph on a bill that has become enmeshed in partisan battles over the economy, women's issues, and President Obama's health-care overhaul.
The measure's 215-195 passage was largely symbolic because the package is going nowhere in the Democratic-dominated Senate. Both parties agree students' interest costs should not rise, but they are clashing along a familiar fault line over how to cover the $6 billion tab: Republicans want spending cuts and Democrats want higher revenues.
Friday's vote underscored how with Election Day just over six months away, much of Congress' work and passion can be aimed as much at political positioning as it is at writing law. Both parties want to show they are trying to help college students and their families cope in today's unforgiving economy and, when possible, force their opponents to cast votes that might create fodder for TV attack ads.
The GOP bill would keep interest rates for subsidized Stafford loans at 3.4 percent for another year, rather than automatically growing to 6.8 percent on July 1 as they would under a law enacted five years ago by a Democratic Congress. The increase would affect 7.4 million students and, the Obama administration says, cost each an average $1,000 over the life of their loans.
Democrats trained their fire on the Republican plan to pay for the bill by abolishing a preventive health fund created by Obama's 2010 revamping of the health-care system. Democrats said that the program especially helped women by allocating money for cancer screening and other initiatives and that eliminating it was only the latest GOP blow against women - an allegation Republicans hotly contested.
"Give me a break!" roared House Speaker John A. Boehner (R., Ohio) to rousing cheers from Republican lawmakers. "This is the latest plank in the so-called war on women, entirely created by my colleagues across the aisle for political gain."
Democrats voted solidly earlier this year to take money from the preventive health fund to help keep doctors' Medicare reimbursements from dropping. Obama's own budget in February proposed cutting $4 billion from the same fund to pay for some of his priorities.
Since the early days of this year's GOP presidential contest, Democrats have been accusing Republicans of targeting women by advocating curbs on contraceptives and other policies. Polls show women leaning heavily toward Obama, and Democrats would like to stoke that trend.
In its veto message, the White House argued that "women in particular" would be helped by the prevention fund and added, "This is a politically motivated proposal and not the serious response that the problem facing America's college students deserves."
House GOP leaders abruptly scheduled Friday's vote after Obama barnstormed around the country in recent days to accuse them of ignoring students' needs. Presumptive GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney began the week by saying he, too, wanted current interest rates extended temporarily, heaping further pressure on congressional Republicans to act.
Democrats said Republicans only staged Friday's vote to remove it as an issue on which they would be vulnerable. They noted this month's lockstep GOP vote for a 2013 federal budget that would have let Stafford interest rates double in July, and said Republicans had done little in Congress on the issue until this week.
"They're just looking for a way to cover their rear ends," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D., Calif.).
Republicans said they were working methodically on the problem and accused Democrats of inventing a controversy to stir up their voters.
"People want to politicize this because it is an election year. But my God, do we have to fight about everything?" said Boehner.
Democrats broke 165-13 against the bill, with some of their members reluctant to vote against keeping students' costs down, despite the accompanying health-care cuts.
Democrats wrote a version of the bill, paid for by ending subsidies for oil and gas companies. It never had a chance of moving through the GOP-led House.
Senate Democrats plan a vote next month on their own legislation extending today's interest rates for a year and paid for by making it harder for high-earning owners of many privately owned corporations to shield some of their income from Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes. That vote will also be little more than political posturing because Senate Republicans are certain to derail the bill.
House Republicans prevailed Friday only after stanching a brewing rebellion among their own conservatives, many of whom are skeptical about whether the government should subsidize student loans at all. A lobbying campaign by outside conservative groups such as Club for Growth and Heritage Action for America pressured GOP lawmakers to vote "no."
How They Voted
Philadelphia-area representatives who voted to prevent student-loan rates from doubling were Charles W. Dent (R., Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (R., Pa.), Jim Gerlach (R., Pa.), Frank A. LoBiondo (R., N.J.), Pat Meehan (R., Pa.), Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.), Jon Runyan (R., N.J.), and Christopher H. Smith (R., N.J.).
Voting against the bill were Robert E. Andrews (D., N.J.), Robert A. Brady (D., Pa.), John Carney (D., Del.), Chaka Fattah (D., Pa.), and Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.).
Not voting: Tim Holden (D., Pa.). EndText


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The range of Natural Coir Non-Slip Door Mats from Nicola Spring offers a quick and easy way to show off your personality, and create an inviting home environment for your guests right from their very first step inside.
Crafted from natural coir coconut fibres, these welcome mats provide an innate strength and durability that is perfectly suited to brushing dirt, dust, mud and muck from the soles of your shoes. A non-slip PVC backing traps moisture and water, while keeping your interior carpets protected.
Coming in two sizes -60cm x 40cm and90cm x 60cm - these doormats will feel at home in a wide variety of décor styles.
These doormats are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, and easy to clean - simply beat while hanging outside with a sturdy broom handle, then brush through with a small amount of water before laying flat to dry.
With the Nicola Spring collection of Natural Coir Non-Slip Welcome Mats, your door is always open.
Crafted from Coir Coconut Fibres - Natural strength and durability, with stiff bristles to quickly and efficiently clear your soles of dust and dirt
Non-Slip Black PVC Backing - Traps water, protecting interior carpets
Easy to Clean - Beat away dirt and mud, then brush through with water; lie flat to dry
Range of Designs Available - To suit any home
- Contents: 1 Door Mat
- Dimensions: H1.5cm x W90cm x D60 cm
- Material: Coir with PVC Backing
- Country of Origin: China
- Suitable For: Indoor and Outdoor Use
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MUNFORD, Tenn. – An eye-popping and unprecedented Powerball jackpot whose rise to $1.6 billion became a national fascination will be split three ways.
The winners' identities remain a mystery, but they bought their tickets in Florida, Tennessee and a Los Angeles suburb where even lottery losers were celebrating Thursday that such heady riches were won in their modest city.
The winners of the world-record jackpot overcame odds of 1 in 292.2 million to land on the numbers drawn Wednesday night, 4-8-19-27-34 and Powerball 10. They can take the winnings in annual payments spread over decades or a smaller amount in a lump sum.
The California ticket was sold at a 7-Eleven in Chino Hills, California, lottery spokesman Alex Traverso told The Associated Press. The winning Florida ticket was sold at a Publix grocery store in Melbourne Beach. The winning ticket in Tennessee was sold in Munford, north of Memphis, according to a news release from lottery officials in that state.
Three Munford stores offer Powerball tickets, but it wasn't clear Thursday morning which retailer had sold the winning ticket and would get a $25,000 check. Tennessee lottery officials said they were headed to the winning store to make a presentation.
A significant media presence hit the small city — population just under 5,000 — as TV trucks from Memphis parked at the three stores. At a McDonald's, local residents chatted about the ticket over coffee and biscuits, theorizing where it was purchased and what they would have done with the money.
Auto body shop worker Jerry Caudle said he was "freaking out" when he heard a winning ticket was sold in his town, but it turned out he matched only two numbers, for a prize of $14. He left the Munford Short Stop gas station and convenience store with a smile, but said the jackpot would have helped him — the auto body business wasn't good in 2015.
"It's been tough," he said. "The hardest winter for me here in 17 years."
The California store and its surrounding strip mall immediately became a popular gathering spot in the usually quiet suburb of 75,000 people. Hundreds of people, from news crews to gawkers, crowded the store and spilled into its parking lot.
They cheered and mugged for TV cameras as if it were New Year's Eve or a sporting event. Many chanted, "Chino Hills! Chino Hills!" in celebration of the city.
"It's history. We're all so excited for our city," Rita Talwar, 52, who has lived in Chino Hills for 30 years, told the local newspaper, the San Bernardino Sun.
Some took selfies with the store clerk on duty, who became an instant celebrity and may well have been the man who sold the ticket after being on duty for much of the run-up to Wednesday night's drawing.
"I'm very proud that the ticket was sold here," the clerk, M. Faroqui, told the Sun. "I'm very happy. This is very exciting."
The 7-Eleven will get a $1 million bonus for selling the winning ticket, Traverso said.
No details were immediately available about the Florida winner.
The estimated jackpot amounts had risen steadily since Nov. 4, when it was reset at $40 million. Texas Lottery executive director Gary Grief has said this Powerball offered "absolutely" the world's biggest jackpot.
Not that there aren't large jackpots elsewhere. Spain's massively popular Christmas lottery, known as "El Gordo," is ranked as the world's richest, though it doles out a single jackpot among millions of prizes, instead of one large jackpot like the Powerball. El Gordo last month showered 2.2 billion euros ($2.4 billion) across the country.
Powerball tickets are sold in 44 states, as well as the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
But residents in the six states that don't participate found ways to get their hands on tickets. Some of the biggest Powerball sales have come from cities bordering states that don't sell the tickets, according to the Multi-State Lottery Association. The association oversees the Powerball Lottery, but management rotates annually among member states.
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Is it possible to rank the world's best literature?
Well, no, and we're certainly not going to try. Although in 2007, one publication did. Now we ask, did it get it right?
The Top Ten: Writers Pick Their Favorite Books is a collection of "Top Ten" lists provided by some of the world's most respected authors–125 altogether, from Norman Mailer, to Jonathan Franzen, to Stephen King and Annie Proulx. In all, a total of 544 works were mentioned at least once in the 125 lists, which were further separated by different criteria to concoct a number of other lists:
• The Top Top Ten Books of All Time
• The Top Ten Books by Living Writers
• The Top Ten Books of the Twentieth Century
• The Top Ten Mysteries
• The Top Ten Comedies
… and many more.
Despite the book's seemingly absolutist mission to seek out the best ten books ever, its editor J. Peder Zane views the collection more as a reading guide. He was inspired by a dream that other readers will probably find familiar; stranded on a desert island and thirsting for nothing other than a really good book, Zane suddenly found himself pelted from above with one masterpiece after another, turning his "little isle into a Tower of Biblio-Babel." He interpreted the dream to represent the "opportunity and befuddlement" book lovers face, and resolved to answer that perpetual reader's question, "What should I read next?"
"Part Rand-McNally, part Zagat's, part cultural Prozac, it takes the anxiety out of bibliophilia by offering a comprehensive and authoritative guide to the world's best books."–J. Peder Zane
Something notable about the reduction of a near infinite choice of works to one relatively small collection is the resultant ability to point out patterns in the writers' selections. Amongst all of them, there is an overwhelming prevalence to go for "memorable character-driven dramas of love and death, delineated by nuanced prose," as Sven Birkerts so elegantly puts it. We can also see that across all of the lists, the 1920s produced the most popular works, comprising 15 novels named on two or more lists. (The twentieth century in all was the far more appreciated century.) The book's appendix cross-references the 544 books by many other illuminating standards.
And yet, can we really reduce the supposed best literature of all time into lists, no matter how many we have of them? Annie Proulx, who submitted a list of her own top ten didn't seem to think so as she penned, "Lists, unless grocery shopping lists, are truly a reductio ad absurdum."
Whatever you believe, whether the 544 books in The Top Ten can be considered the best books ever or not, the collection must at least highlight a multitude of books that can all be deemed "worth your time." Close your eyes and stab your finger on any one of its pages and you'll stumble upon a good read (or at least somebody's good read). After all, given that 125 famous and respected living writers contributed to the list of "top top ten" below, it wouldn't do you any harm to give each a try. At least, I know what my next New Year's resolution will be.
Thanks to Flavorwire, we have a nifty infograph to pictorially dilute the massive amount of information found in the book. Have a look through the results and tell us what you think in a comment. Who was shafted? Who doesn't deserve to be on the list? We want to hear your thoughts!


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Chances are that if you are sharing a link or photo, you're probably using Facebook, a sharing platform reported today.
ShareThis, in conjunction with StarCom MediaVest Group and Rubicom Partners, conducted a study on where people are sharing information and found the majority was on Facebook, according to AllFacebook. ShareThis, which monitors the activity of about 400 million users a month, reported sharing accounts for 10 percent of all website activity and 31 of referral traffic.
But the interesting part was that Facebook was responsible for 38 percent of all clicked-through referral traffic, what ShareThis deems as important. However, Facebook also is responsible for an additional 18 that wasn't clicked-through (we're sad that not everyone on Facebook seems to care about our updates.) That means 56 percent of all shared Web content comes from Facebook.
Other ways to share content were not as impressive. Twitter accounts for 11 percent of clicked-through referrals. But when you start looking at clicks alone, the game changes with Twitter beating Facebook with a 4.9 average. Facebook has only 4.3.
What this means isn't surprising. Facebook has about 500 million users worldwide with half logging in every day, likely sharing millions of links or photos a day. Few companies have the numbers to literally influence the Web by sharing like Facebook can.


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Today we offer congratulations to the family child care providers in Massachusetts who earned accreditation or reaccreditation from the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC) in the fourth quarter of 2012 – October 1 to December 31.
Kathy Modigliani, who runs the Bay State-based Family Child Care Project, remembers noticing the positive impact going through the accreditation process had on center-based teachers. Why not do something similar for family child care providers? Today NAFCC operates the only nationally recognized accreditation system established specifically for home-based family child care providers. Modigliani led its development between 1995 and 1999, when she was based at Wheelock College in Boston.
NAFCC accreditation has standards in five content areas: relationships, environment, developmental learning activities, safety and health, and professional and business practices.
"There have been many studies that have shown that accredited providers offer a significantly higher quality of care than others," Modigliani notes.
In going through the accreditation process, Modigliani observes, early educators put into practice what they learn in college courses or Child Development Associate (CDA) training. "To motivate providers to put what they are learning into practice is something accreditation is important for," she says. "I really think accreditation for both centers and homes is a critical piece in the Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS) because it assesses what is happening in the program."
Congratulations to the 16 family child care providers in Massachusetts who earned NAFCC accreditation or reaccreditation in the third quarter of 2012:
Boston. Doris Spoor (Dorchester), Eridania Terrero (Roslindale), Laura Williams (Dorchester)
Lynn. Annette Peterson, Vanessa Ayala, Carmen Urena
Malden. Carline Jean, Claudette Jules, Francoise Gabrielle Tovar
Medford. Fatima Ouardaoui
Revere. Claudia Cardona
Salem. Mariana Santillan
Springfield. Nelida Arroyo-Torres
Worcester. Llanet Montoya, Nancy Vazquez, Claudia Villamil


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Senate blocks Obama court pick
Senate Republicans blocked another one of President Barack Obama's nominees to a key appellate court, enraging Democrats and further raising the prospects of a battle over changing the rules that govern the chamber.
Nina Pillard fell short of the 60 votes needed to clear a Republican filibuster of her nomination to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, with the Senate voting 56-41 on Tuesday with one lawmaker voting present. She is the third nominee to the D.C. Circuit that Republicans have blocked this year, joining Caitlin Halligan and Patricia Millett in being unable to persuade even a handful of Republicans to support their confirmation to a bench that is often seen as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.
White House press secretary Jay Carney portrayed the persistent GOP resistance to Obama's D.C. Circuit picks as nothing short of historic.
( Also on POLITICO: Court nominees: Battleground for partisan politics)
"It is time for Senate Republicans to stop playing politics with our courts. Fifteen of the last 19 judges confirmed to this court were nominated by Republican presidents," Carney said. "More of President Obama's nominees to the D.C. Circuit have been successfully filibustered than those of any other president in history."
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Democratic fixation with forcing votes on nominees to the "underworked" court is simply a calculated diversion from Obamacare's mounting problems.
"We ought to be dealing with an ill-conceived law that is causing millions of Americans to lose their health insurance. Instead we'll spend our time today on a political exercise designed to distract the American people from the mess that is Obamacare, rather than trying to fix it," McConnell said.
PHOTOS: Obama's second-term Cabinet)
The Senate GOP remains largely united in the belief that the court — which has three vacancies — does not need any more justices after Sri Srinivasan's unanimous confirmation in May. They want those three seats eliminated from the bench entirely, with two reallocated to other Circuit court.
Democrats are highlighting that the GOP has only rejected female judges, not-so-subtly suggesting that there's a taint of sexism among Republicans when it comes to the highest courts. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) noted the gender imbalance on the court multiple times on Tuesday and several Democrats have come to the floor to rail against GOP rejections of female judicial nominees.
"The asserted rationale of why we don't want more judges on this D.C. Circuit have not been used to stop applicants on other circuit courts," said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). "It's a double standard in that they've been using it with these women nominees and they didn't use it on judge Srinivasan."
( WATCH: President Obama's nominations to the D.C. Court of Appeals)
The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, said Democrats' "demagoguery" surrounding the gender of judicial nominees is both "offensive" and "predictable."
"When the other side runs out of legitimate arguments, their last line of defense is to accuse Republicans of opposing nominees based upon gender or race," Grassley said. "Those types of personal attacks on members of the Senate are beneath this institution."
The battle over the confirmations to the key court could have a profound effect on the age-old rules of the Senate if — as predicted — the GOP rejects yet another nominee, Robert Wilkins, next week.
Reid may then request another series of votes on Millett, Pillard, Wilkins and Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.) — nominated to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency — daring Senate Republicans to again reject Obama's picks. Another debate over whether to change the Senate rules by a majority vote to water down the filibuster — the "nuclear option" — could follow.
( Also on POLITICO: Ending the battle over D.C. Circuit judges)
Democrats who have long pushed to limit the minority's power on blocking nominees see the GOP's crusade against the court as another data point in continued Republican abuse of the filibuster.
"The workload is no different than when they were confirming [George W.] Bush's nominations," said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), a top advocate of changing the Senate rules who warns the GOP will do it anyway as soon as they retake the chamber. "President Obama is just doing his responsibility under the Constitution by filling these vacancies."
That once-small group of rules reform advocates continues to pick up steam: Kaine, who hasn't been vocal about going nuclear, said limiting GOP filibusters of judicial nominations will be necessary if the GOP continues to pursue its "legal nullification" strategy of preserving vacancies on the important court.
"If the Rs are [saying]: 'We will not confirm any of these people,'" Kaine said, "I have a feeling that we will successfully make rules changes."


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After character creation what is a good way to get bonuses to spellcraft? I'd rather not have to use feats, however.
Are there any items, equipment, spells or suchlike that could be used? Such as maybe foxes cunning – however with the short duration it's not really useful for item creation as this is going to be the character's focus.
Extra: The character is an Elven Wizard Universalist. Campaign setting is Kingmaker.


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Generosity in the Middle of a Great Depression
In 2003, Dave Isay created StoryCorps to record intimate interviews between loved ones and friends. Over the years, the organization has collected and preserved tens of thousands of American stories, covering everything from the war in Iraq to the Great Depression.
In 2007, StoryCorps published 50 of their favorite stories in the New York Times best-seller
We'll let them take it from here:
These days, Americans are looking at the sluggish economy and bracing themselves for harder times. To many, it seems comforting to hear from those who lived through the hardest financial times this country has faced: the Great Depression.
The stockmarket crashed on October 29, 1929, but as Virginia Hill Fairbrother remembers it, the full effects of the Depression didn't show until she was in the third grade, in the fall of 1932—three years later. She lived in Parshall, North Dakota, a farm town where the winters could be merciless.
Virginia's family fared better than some; her father was a pharmacist who owned a drugstore in town. One day when her father was at home for lunch, a man drove up to the house with his wife and small children in tow. As Virginia tells her daughter Laurel Kaae, the young man told Virginia's dad that he had a job in Fort Peck, Montana—nearly 250 miles away—if only he could reach it by the next day. But he needed some help to make it out there.
Dad took them into the restaurant and had them fed. He had a friend of his who was a Ford dealer fill the car with gas and put on a spare tire. He gave this man a sack full of food that wasn't perishable and five dollars. Twenty-five years later, I happened to be in my folks' home one night and my brother who was a pharmacist was in the drug store. He called and said, "Somebody just came in and asked to talk to Mr. Hill." This man was looking for Dad, so he sent him up to our house. He came in and he had two tall young men with him. He said to Dad, "You don't know me, do you Mr. Hill?" He said, "I'm the fellow that had to get to Fort Peck." On that day all those years ago, the young man had insisted on giving dad a watch that he had gotten from his father for graduation. Dad looked at Mother and said, "Florence-- the watch." My mother went and got it from where it had been all of those years, except on Sundays when Dad wound it. He gave it back to the fellow. The man said, "You were supposed to use this." Dad said, "I did. Every Sunday I wound it." This man never expected to see it again. He just wanted his kids to see my dad.
To hear the rest of Virginia's story in her own voice, be sure to click here. And be sure to check outMonday's touching post about Sam Harmon, here.
Want more stories from StoryCorps? Pick up a copy of Listening Is an Act of Love today. (It makes a great gift!) To hear additional clips, visit the StoryCorps website or tune in to NPR's Morning Edition on Fridays.


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The Peninsula Hotel in Paris
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In the film, the world as we know it has ended (right around now) due to a failed effort by humans to reverse global warming, which results in an Ice Age. In 2031, the last surviving humans are riding a long, long bullet train that circles the snowy and icy world once a year. In First Class at the front of the train, the 1% live luxurious lives while the poor proletariat lives in dark cars in the tail section, living on "protein blocks" that look like black Jello bricks and getting abused by armed guards. Their children are taken and seemingly, so are their limbs sometimes.
There have been past efforts made to unseat the privileged, but these efforts were unsuccessful. It's time for another effort at revolution. Leading the poor is Curtis (Chris Evans), who helps them fight car-by-car towards the sacred engine to get control of the train. Helping him is Edgar (Jamie Bell), Tanya, a mother (Octavia Spencer) trying to find her son who has been taken, and Namgoong Minsoo, a security expert and drug addict (Kang-ho Song). Curtis' mentor Gilliam is played by John Hurt. Meanwhile, Tilda Swinton does a wonderful job, as usual, in the role of the bureaucrat Mason who gives speeches on the social order in a Scottish accent. "Be the shoe," she instructs the poor, trying to keep them in their "preordained" position.
The train was designed by Wilford (Ed Harris), built up as an Oz-like figure who appears only towards the end of the movie. He explains, "The train is the world and we are the humanity." Each car features a strange spectacle?an aquarium, a disco, a sushi bar, a fascist kindergarten? that keeps the film from feeling unduly claustrophobic.
Although the plot twists and turns, the allegorical aspects of the film are not quite as surprising as some critics had led me to believe they would be, but in an era where action movies are mostly bubblegum violence and mindless experiences this one is the rare gem that is thought provoking. For those who would rather not stream this and want to see it in theaters?worthwhile because the visual style is one of the best things about the film?it is currently playing at AMC Mercado 20 in Santa Clara.


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Sports Birthdays for June 14 — Steffi Graf and More
Here are some of the people in the sports world celebrating birthdays on June 14:
Don Newcombe
Age: 86
Profession: Retired MLB Player
Best Known For: Don Newcombe played for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, Cincinnati Reds and Cleveland Indians during a career that spanned from 1949-1960. He was the first black pitcher to win 20 games in one season. Newcombe and Justin Verlander are the only baseball players to have won the Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player and Cy Young awards in their career. Newcombe's career record was 149–90. he is now a special adviser for the Dodgers.
Pat Summitt
Age: 60
Profession: Retired College Basketball Coach
Best Known For: Having guided the University of Tennessee to eight NCAA national championships from 1974 to 2012, Pat Head Summitt is considered by many to be the greatest women's college basketball coach of all-time. With 1,098 victories, Summitt is the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history, regardless of division. She retired in 2012 because of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.
Eric Heiden
Age: 54
Profession: Retired U.S. Olympian
Best Known For: Considered by many to be the greatest speed skater in history, Eric Heiden won five Olympic gold medals at the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid in 1980. He was ranked No. 46 in ESPN's SportsCentury '50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century' in 1999. Heiden is now a practicing orthopedic surgeon near Salt Lake City, Utah.
Sam Perkins
Age: 51
Profession: Retired NBA Player
Best Known For: A two-time consensus All-American and member of the University of North Carolina's 1982 NCAA national championship team, Sam Perkins went on to an 18-year career in the NBA. Perkins played for the Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Lakers, Seattle Supersonics and Indiana Pacers. He was a member of the NBA All-Rookie First Team in 1985. He also was co-captain of the gold-medal winning 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team.
Steffi Graf
Age: 43
Profession: Retired WTA Player
Best Known For: One of the best women's tennis players of all-time, Steffi Graf is a former world No. 1 player who won 22 Grand Slam singles titles, second only to Margaret Court's 24. Graf won all four Grand Slam singles titles and the Olympic gold medal in 1988, something no other tennis player has ever done. Graf also held the No. 1 ranking for a record 377 total weeks. She is married to men's tennis player Andre Agassi, who was also a former world No. 1 ranked-player.
Bruce Bowen
Age: 41
Profession: Retired NBA Player
Best Known For: A five-time selection to the NBA All-Defensive First Team, Bruce Bowen was a defensive specialist throughout his NBA career from 1997 to 2009. His most noteworthy time was spent with the San Antonio Spurs, whom he helped to three NBA championships (2003, 2005, 2007). The team has retired his number 12 jersey. Bowen currently works as an analyst for ESPN.


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Anna Rice was depressed. David Mulligan called it "terrible." And Meghan Casagrande worried her young daughter might never get to taste an American snack staple that made its way into generations of lunchboxes, inspired a legal defense, and is fabled to last forever.
Like many others, they came out Friday to buy and pay tribute to Twinkies, the cream-filled golden sponge cakes that date to 1930, emptying store shelves here and across the country. The run was prompted by the news that Hostess Brands — which also makes Ding Dongs and Wonder Bread, among many other products — was shutting down for good after a financially crippling labor dispute.
"She's never had a Twinkie," Casagrande said of her daughter, Caileigh, who is nearly 2. "I can't wrap my head around it. It was always in lunchboxes, and I was a teacher. They've always been there."
Casagrande was at the Wonder Hostess Bakery Outlet in Braintree, which ran out of Twinkies before she could buy any. A similar scene played out at the Hostess outlet in Malden, and area supermarkets and convenience stores also reported runs on Twinkies, Devil Dogs, and Ring Dings.
About 18,500 workers nationwide — including nearly 300 in Massachusetts — will lose their jobs because of the company's liquidation. And even though there were reports Friday that potential buyers are preparing bids for Hostess Brands, many people who grew up on these comfort foods feared they would never be the same again.
"We were debating that on Facebook this morning," said Anna Rice, 23, a nursing assistant. "It's not going to be the same as the real thing."
Adrienne Vincent, 52, of Braintree, was already feeling nostalgic about her favorite Hostess snack — Devil Dogs — and feared it might bring her to tears. She recalled climbing out of the family swimming pool as a child to be greeted by her mom with the chocolate cake sandwiches, shaped like a hot dog bun, with a creamy filling.
"I love those," Vincent said. "Those are yummy."
Hostess Brands has struggled for years with slowing sales, growing competition, and changing tastes in a country where schools are banning junk food, McDonald's is offering apple slices, and New York City's mayor is trying to outlaw supersized sodas. The Texas-based chain, which has $2.5 billion in estimated annual sales, filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this year and decided to shut down after a strike paralyzed operations.
"We deeply regret taking this action. But we simply cannot continue to operate without the ability to produce or deliver our products," Hostess chief executive Gregory F. Rayburn wrote in a letter to employees.
Hostess Brands is among the nation's largest providers of fresh-baked bread and sweet goods with well-known brands like Drake's (maker of Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles, and Ring Dings), Wonder Bread, and its namesake Hostess (maker of Ho Ho's, Sno Balls, and Ding Dongs).
Twinkies, invented in 1930 by James Alexander Dewar, have always been the darling of Hostess Brands and became a cultural touchstone, showing up in movies, television shows, deep fried in chef's kitchens, and even in court. The so-called Twinkie defense was coined during Dan White's trial for the murder of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and city supervisor Harvey Milk, when lawyers argued he suffered from depression as evidenced by his consumption of Twinkies and junk food.
Woody Harrelson spent an entire movie hunting for the last Twinkie in the 2009 flick "Zombieland." After a Y2K meltdown, Peter Griffin in the television show "Family Guy" ate all the family's dehydrated meals and then traveled to a Twinkie factory in Natick in search of the confection.
Some have claimed the golden cake could last forever because of its chemical makeup, and a Maine teacher once kept a Twinkie in his classroom for 30 years. (Hostess contends the treat technically has a shelf life of 25 days.)
Despite the challenges the Twinkie faces, the golden sponge cake, along with many of its sister snacks, will undoubtedly survive, according to Ron Paul, chief executive at Technomic Inc., a market research firm in Chicago. But, he said, a new owner may choose to manufacture offshore to keep down labor costs. He expects to see rivals including Kraft, Mars, and Nestle make a bid for Hostess's assets.
"There [are] still potential jewels here that can be rejuvenated," Paul said. "It's so much easier to have an existing brand than to start a new brand from scratch."
Even if Twinkies and other Hostess baked goods get a new lease on life, it's probable there will be a shortage before any acquisition is completed now that factories have shut down. The mere possibility that these snacks could disappear spurred widespread hoarding. Hostess lovers mourned, while demanding government intervention, divine intervention — anything to save the beloved brand.
Mulligan, an electronics and appliance repairman, stocked up on Hostess goods and lamented the loss of an American treasure and all of those jobs. As he looked on at the employees at the Braintree Hostess outlet, he said, "This beautiful lady here, she's losing her job, and she's keeping a smile on her face."
Erin Calvo-Bacci, owner of Chocolate Truffle in Reading, is closely guarding her six cases of Twinkies and stopping the wholesale business of her popular chocolate-dipped Twinkies (plain drizzle, $2.98; with M&Ms $3.50).
She still plans to honor a Thanksgiving promotion she had planned — a generous offer in these tight Twinkie times — of buy-one-get-one-free.
"I don't want to gouge anyone," Calvo-Bacci said. "I've just been ranting and raving all morning on the loss of the Twinkie. I don't know what I'll use instead."
Dan Andelman, executive producer and host of the "Phantom Gourmet" television show, said the Twinkie crisis requires federal attention.
"If the government is going to bail out banks and give all kinds of breaks to oil companies, I'm all for the American government propping up the snack industry," Andelman said. "Twinkies are an iconic American product. I don't want to see China take this one away as well."
Jenn Abelson can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow her on Twitter @jennabelson.


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Switzerland has a very direct style of democracy. For example, changes to the constitution, or "popular initiatives," can be proposed by members of the public and are voted on if more than 100,000 people sign them. If a majority of voters and cantons (Swiss states) agree, the change can be come law.
This system not only allows individual citizens a high degree of control of their laws, but also means that more unorthodox ideas become referendum issues.
Recently, there has been a spate of popular initiatives designed to curb inequality in the country. Earlier this year Swiss voters agreed to an idea proposed by entrepreneur Thomas Minder that limited executive (in his words, "fat cat") salaries of companies listed on the Swiss stock market. Next month voters will decide on the 1:12 Initiative, which aims to limit the salaries of CEOs to 12 times the salary of their company's lowest paid employee.
There's a crazier proposal than this, however. Earlier this month an initiative aimed at giving every Swiss adult a "basic income" that would "ensure a dignified existence and participation in the public life of the whole population" gained enough support to qualify for a referendum. The amount suggested is 2,500 francs ($2,800) a month.
While most observers think that the vote is a longshot, it has certainly sparked debate — and not just in Switzerland. Writing for USA Today, Duncan Black said that a "minimum income" should be considered for the U.S.
"It's pretty clear that the most efficient way to improve the lives of people is to guarantee a minimum income," Black concludes.
However, Black understates just how radical the proposal is. We spoke to Daniel Straub, one of the people behind the initiative, to get a better understanding of what the proposal really means, why it is so radical, and what the world could learn from it.
Business Insider: Can you tell me a little bit about how the idea came to be?
Daniel Straub: A lot of people have proposed this idea. For example Thomas Paine in the United States or also the famous psychologist Erich Fromm has written about it in the sixties.
BI: Why choose a minimum income rather than, say, a higher minimum wage?
DS: We are not proposing a minimum income — we are proposing an unconditional income.
A minimum wage reduces freedom — because it is an additional rule. It tries to fix a system that has been outdated for a while. It is time to partly disconnect human labor and income. We are living in a time where machines do a lot of the manual labor — that is great — we should be celebrating.
BI: How was the figure of 2,500 Swiss francs settled on? What standard of living does this buy in Switzerland?
DS: That depends where in Switzerland you live. On average it is enough for a modest lifestyle.
BI: What effect would you expect the minimum income to have on Swiss government expenditure?
DS: The unconditional income in Switzerland means that a third of the GDP would be distributed unconditionally. But I don't count that as government expenditure because it is immediately distributed to the people who live in this society. It means less government power because each individual can decide how to spend the money.
BI: I've seen people compare it to Milton Friedman's negative income tax, do you think that comparison works?
DS: We go a step further than Friedman with the unconditionality. This would lead to a paradigm change. Not the needy get an income from the community but everybody.
BI: There have been a variety of initiatives recently that appear to be aimed at limiting inequality in Switzerland, from the 1:12 initiative to Thomas Minder's "against rip-off salaries" referendum. Why do you think this is happening?
DS: People seem to be unhappy with the rising inequality. The other initiatives try to put a band-aid on an outdated system. We are proposing a new system.
BI: On the surface of it, Switzerland is a good place to live, with a high quality of life, relatively high salaries, and good public services. Why do you need to take these big steps to rearrange society?
DS: Switzerland has incredible material resources. But we are not using them in a smart way. A lot of people are stressed and there is a lot of fear. Our resources don't lead to the freedom they could. And I am not saying that this freedom is easy — but it could lead to more meaningful lives. If more people start to ask what they really want to do with their lives, Switzerland will become an even more beautiful place to live.
BI: Switzerland is a unique country in a lot of ways. Do you think that other countries — for example, the U.S. — could learn from both its referendum system and the egalitarian initiatives enabled by it?
DS: I think that our system of semi direct democracy leads to more involvement by the public — that is a good thing. What other effects it would have on a system such as the U.S. I do not dare to predict.
(The text has been edited for clarity, and links have been added to help explain Straub's responses.)


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Every nook and cranny is stuffed with some sort of sauce, root, dried fruit or cooking device. A gem in New York City and heaven for those inspired gourmet cooks. Kalustyan's is the place to go for all your cooking needs, no matter how esoteric or specialised. They have a huge range of spices and condiments, and by no means are they limited to Indian-style items--they have everything. VISIT SITE
- (-) Remove United States filter United States


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Car v Bike : Which Is Fastest? Touring Car and Isle of Man Winners Go Head to Head
- 23 time TT Winner John McGuinness swaps Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP for BTCC Honda Civic Type R
- Double BTCC Champion Gordon Shedden shows off his riding skills aboard Honda Racing's TT winning machine
What happens when you pit double Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Champion Gordon Shedden against 23-time Isle of Man TT winner John McGuinness, head to head on each other's race-winning machinery?
Dunlop and Honda hosted the unique event at Scotland's Knockhill circuit, which saw Gordon swap his race-winning Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda Civic Type R for John's Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP for 30 laps of the Scottish track.
The two vehicles are very different – the number of wheels aside – but the similarities are the brand of chassis and tyre manufacturer – Honda and Dunlop. The sportsmen are different too, but both Gordon and John are at the peak of their sport, both capable of using the tyres to their maximum to achieve the best lap times. Whether that's in a 27 lap race, over 21 miles against 31 other cars on a smooth race track, or a single 37.73-mile lap of the daunting Isle of Man TT Mountain course, held on closed public roads.
Swapping machines is no mean feat – to get competitive lap times, they both needed to learn the car and bike respectively in just a handful of laps. During that time, they also had to adjust to the very different tyres that were the only thing between their vehicle and the tarmac.
Tyre Talk – the differences
Size matters – the contact patch on a bike is tiny compared to that of the car, just the size of a credit card. At around 3-4 times smaller it has to take a power to weight ratio quite differently (close to 1 for a motorcycle against close 0.25 for a BTCC). And that is just for the rear tyre. The front contact patch on a motorcycle is yet again even smaller and needs to cope with the bike slowing at close to 1G deceleration.
Wheely important stuff – the BTCC wheel is 18 inches in diameter – an inch bigger than that of the TT rear wheel, although the overall tyre diameter is actually bigger on a motorcycle. This means the tyre mechanics are different.
A bit on the side – Gordon needed to rely on the side walls of the tyres on the Fireblade, while John's Civic Type R was (mainly) squarely on the base of the tyres. The motorcycle tyre will deform more in the sidewall and tread area to key into the asphalt and generate grip whereas the BTCC tyre will mainly deform in the sidewall area to withstand the weight and get the support required.
Under pressure –tyre pressures vary. There's up to 1.1 bar of difference between the bike and car pressures to get the best performance – double the pressure in the front tyres when cold for the bike compared to the car. A motorcycle tyre will run between 1.5 bar to 1.6 bar hot, whereas a BTCC tyre will be aimed to run at 1.85-1.95 bar hot. It may not seem such a big difference for most people but Gordon or John would have spotted that change of tyre performance with less than 0.1 bar difference!
The magic ingredients and construction – While some ingredients or at least concepts may be tried in one discipline and transferred into another, the secrets inside the tyres are very different – but they have to stay secret.
John McGuinness: "It was brilliant; I didn't want to get out of the car to be honest. The first session all happened really fast but then I settled down into a groove. The whole mindset changes when you swap from what you know to something new, and I was a bit nervous, but we're all racers and just want to go fast.
"It's hard to see the apex, you're strapped in tight, and it's quite warm in there. You're breathing in engine fumes and there are lots of rattles and bangs, it's such a different world but I was shocked by how nice and precise it was. Dunlop put on some soft, sticky, amazing grippy tyres on the Honda Civic Type R and they gave me so much confidence to go fast.
"My Honda Fireblade had the same tyres we used at the TT where we did a 132.6mph average lap and we brought it here and did some riding on those same tyres which is testament to Dunlop and how good their product is. You know we put our lives in the hands of a few things, but tyres are such an important part of the package."
Gordon Shedden: "It was absolutely out of this world, you maybe build a picture of what you think it's like in your head, but nothing compares to it when you're out there. It's phenomenally fast but once you get used to it you learn to relax and get more confident. It was an absolute privilege to have a go.
"It was the first time I've ever ridden on a slick tyre and I cannot believe the grip that the contact patch the size of a credit card can actually give you, it's just absolutely mind blowing. The speed obviously is as you'd expect, the world passes by at a million miles an hour. I can only imagine what it's like going round the TT course, and John is welcome to stay on that!
"Each stint I started to relax more and get more confidence in the grip that was available. The brakes on the race car are fantastic with four big slick tyres to hold the thing on, so you wouldn't believe the bike would have the stopping capability that it does."
Watch the Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz36XDBViAI&feature=youtu.be


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Boys and girls who weigh 10 percent or more above their healthy weight may be candidates for a weight-management program. The teen years are a crucial time to slim down: Statistics show that for every twenty youths who are obese upon exiting adolescence, all but one will wear that excess weight for the rest of their lives.
Dr. Sigman advises targeting a healthy weight range as opposed to an exact figure. To begin with, our weight fluctuates naturally by anywhere from five to twenty pounds. But, too, "The ultimate goal is to get kids into the habit of eating nutritious foods and exercising regularly," he says, "and letting their weight drift down to a level that is comfortable and realistically attainable."
Low-calorie diets, which promise a weight reduction of three to four pounds per week, are doomed to failure, and not just because the majority of adolescents find them too restrictive to stick with for any length of time. At a mere 400 to 800 calories per day, these crash-diet programs provide less than one fourth the caloric requirements of the average teenage boy and less than one third the calories needed by the average teenage girl.
In response to this threat, the brain seeks to return the body to its ideal biologic weight, or set point. It acts like a thermostat, slowing down metabolism and increasing the proportion of excess calories stored as fat. The brain also sends hunger messages to its owner. That is why diets often seem to get off to a promising start, and then soon plateau. Most dieters, in fact, actually gain back more pounds than they lost.
A sensible diet plan seeks a gradual weight loss of no more than one to two pounds per week. Most youngsters should be able to reach this goal without having to drastically modify their diets. Fully grown teens need trim only five hundred calories a day; boys and girls who are still in puberty can reduce their caloric intake by half that amount and shed pounds without stunting their growth. The focus, though, should always be on developing healthy eating habits, not on weight loss per se.


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Neville Longbottom, the real hero of the Harry Potter franchise, speaks out
Perhaps the most beloved character of the Harry Potter series isn't Harry, Hermione or Ron. Especially in the Deathly Hallowsfilms, the real stand-out is clearly Neville Longbottom. So we were excited to hear Neville's inside story from the actor who brought him to life.
Actor Matthew Lewis shared a few thoughts with reporters at the Deathly Hallows Part 2 junket on growing up Longbottom, his massive character arc in the last film, and how he almost killed someone filming during the Battle of Hogwarts.
Can you talk about the moment when you were reading the last book when you realized that the character that you play would have such an epic moment in the end and the pressure that you must have felt delivering that speech?
Matthew Lewis: Well I was in bed actually when I was reading that. And I remember, because J.K. Rowling had already told me a few years previously that she'd just finished and she had written a rather exciting bit for Neville Longbottom, and I didn't really know what to expect to be honest, but then I read the book and I remember just suddenly sitting bolt upright in bed and thinking wow that's going to be cool. And I knew Neville was special and he had something to give in this last book, but I didn't expect it to be something quite as epic as that and then naturally immediately after the excitement calmed down, the immense amount of pressure started to build and I realized that it was going to be crucial. I was a huge fan of the books and I know what these stories mean to a lot of people around the world and I wanted to make sure we got that right. And I remember reading the script, I got the screenplay, and all that stuff with Ralph Fiennes was in there and I remember being very, very nervous, and when it came to the day when we had to do that scene I was terrified, I mean Ralph is a very, very frightening man, especially when he looks like that.
Basically, David Yates is very keen to get it in the first few takes. He believes that they are the best, and I think I agree, so we try to get it as real as possible and so we don't do much rehearsal and we literally all we did for that scene was we did blocking and we had a quick run-through of the lines all in our own clothes, Ralph had hair, a nose, and yet he was still terrifying. And he did this thing, and to this day I have no idea whether he did it on purpose, whether he's even aware of it, but he just stared at me, like the whole time, even when other people were speaking, his eyes never left my face and it was like he was studying me, and I just went to pieces. I suddenly felt like I was in the hardest exam of my entire life and it was frightening, but it spurred me on. It gave me that extra boost, that kind of challenge as an actor is what you need. I think actors tend to be in their element when they are pushed out of their comfort zone. I don't know if it's any good. I have no idea. That's up to the audiences to decide, but I loved every single minute of it and being able to work one on one with Ralph despite the pressure, despite the nerves, it was one of the greatest experiences of my life and I will never forget it.
Can you talk a little bit about the physical aspects of this? I would imagine it's really hard?
Yeah, bits of it were. Lots of running around. I'm not very good with a sword. I nearly killed somebody actually; we'll come to that in a moment. It was tough, but again I loved it. I like playing sport, I like being quite active anyway, so I was very keen to work with the stunt team. And they trained us all for some time actually, Dan [Radcliffe] had been training with the stunt guys , we did a bit of kickboxing and a lot of cardio work just throughout all the films really because when it came to us doing stuns, the more comfortable the stunt team were with us, the more they knew about our capabilities, the more relaxed the producers were in us doing our own stunts. So we used to train with them, so that we could get to know each other and do own stunts. So we already had a good rapport with those guys.
But this one was a lot of running, and I don't like running. I don't understand people who run, so that was hard, but it was fun. When you've got explosions going off around you and you've got blood and Nick Moran was brilliant, really good laugh with him, and even though you're doing it at 2 or 3 in the morning in the freezing English cold, it was great, every second of it. And people kept saying: "Are you tired, do you want to take a break?" And I was like, "No, man. Let's keep going, this is good." When you're a young man, a young boy, all you want to be is that action hero, you want to be the James Bond, and I got to do that for a bit, and that was great.
And I nearly killed someone with a sword. When you do that big swing in the film and the sword came off of the hilt and just went about 30 feet in the air, and I was just holding the hilt looking terrified in the camera, it's a great outtake, but it goes up, and obviously everything that goes up must come down, and it landed amongst a load of children — at the last place I wanted it to go, into the load of children — and amazingly, it missed everybody. I don't know how. I was very thankful and if you see it in the museum, if it's going to be in a museum, it's dented and bent, and that was because I did that.
In part 2, Neville and Luna sort of have a flirtation going on, but it's not with whom J.K. Rowling has announced Neville ends up with, so what did you think of that?
I liked it. Obviously I thought it was terribly coincidental that Harry and co managed to end up with people that met in high school, that doesn't happen often. So I thought maybe [Neville] and Luna could have a summer fling, perhaps, and then he could go on to marry Hannah Abbott. It suited them. They were both outcasts when they were younger, but they had so much to offer that people couldn't see at face value, and they both came good in the end and really stood up to the plate and they are both really endearing, inspiring characters, both of them. Both come from very humble beginnings, people think they will never amount to anything, and yet they both do, and I think that's nice. They are suited for each other. But Luna is probably a lot scarier than Voldemort. Girls in general are scarier than Voldemort. It might have been the next challenge for Neville.
During the films, Remus was one of the few teachers to really take an interest in Neville and believe in him, what was it like working with David Thewlis and the other adult actors as you grew up on set?
It was funny how it sort of changed. In the early days, they've always been lovely, but in the early days it was very much like the children and the adults and as we got older we realized that we actually could speak to them, and they wouldn't kill us. We started to chatting to them on a level and it was fun. I enjoyed the later years so much more because I was just sort of chatting with Alan Rickman about scrambled eggs and really inane things and it was just someone at work, it was a lot of fun.
And David Thewlis was great, one of the first adult actors that I really had much to do with and it helped me grow up in confidence working with those guys. Their professionalism and, again, the idea that they could just have fun as well. Alan Rickman, for example, plays a frightening, frightening character, and he's got such an aura and a presence, and [yet] he's such a good person to be around, so much fun. And Michael Gambon tells filthy, filthy jokes. And they're just people and as soon as you realize that, then you can start to have fun with them and they are good people and I learned a tremendous amount from them all.
In summary, what do you take away from this whole experience?
How do you summarize this experience really? It's tremendously difficult to do. I have just had the most amazing experience, I think, for the last 11 years. I've met the most wonderful people, I have traveled the world, I have been to many exotic locations. I'm sat in the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and talking to assembled journalists, is not something that I expected to be doing 10 years ago. I feel like I am living somebody else's life and every day I sort of have to pinch myself or try and think is this really happening to me. And if I never work again, I will always look back and go: you had a pretty good run there.
And I just feel so honored to be able to play a character like Neville as well, who is a hero and he's really inspirational. He inspired me. I think Jo did a truly wonderful thing with Neville, that journey – spectacular. I think a lot of people can relate to that school is pretty lousy for a lot of people and it just shows that you don't have to be perfect and you can still be a hero. I think that's inspirational, I feel very honored have been able to be a part of that and that's what I will take away really. I don't know – it's hard to describe, but I will take away all the memories, all the friends, the sense of how lucky I am.


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Jesús Abad Colorado
From WikiLeaks
Capturing images of abuses in Colombia's civil war.
A Colombian freelance photographer, Jesús Abad Colorado has witnessed some of the most violent clashes in Colombia's civil war, capturing powerful images of human rights abuses perpetrated by all sides in the conflict. As a provincial journalist, Colorado knows the adversity faced by colleagues in strife-ridden areas outside the capital, where journalists routinely face threats of reprisal from guerrillas, paramilitaries, and local authorities. Colorado, whose work is widely published in Colombia, has displayed great bravery and determination in reporting from the front line. He was kidnapped twice by leftist guerrillas; in one case, in October 2000, guerrillas of the National Liberation Army abducted Colorado at a roadblock and held him for two days.


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Undecided voters react to the final presidential debate
They've seen six hours worth of John McCain, Sarah Palin, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden.
It wasn't Joe the plumber that won him over, but Jeremy Bierlein isn't an undecided voter anymore.
"I am voting on the issues. Health care is important to me. Education is important to me."
Closing the budget deficit is important to him, too. And Bierlein was disappointed neither McCain nor Obama would say they'd give up some of their proposals in light of the sagging economy.
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"But based on health care, based on education and based on who I see the help going to in the near term for economic relief, I'm going for Obama," Bierlein said.
If our undecided voters were a representative sample of the population -- and let's be perfectly clear that they aren't -- then you'd have to say Obama won the debate.
Linda Dworsky came to all four of our debate watching parties. When she started she was leaning strongly toward McCain.
But now she's not.
"Over the period of coming to the debates and learning on my own, I've lost confidence in McCain and gained confidence in Obama." Dworsky used to worry Obama's health care plan would amount to a government-run single-payer insurance system like Canada has. But now she's comfortable that it's not.
She prefers it to McCain's plan to move Americans toward buying their own insurance rather than getting it through their employers.
She also likes the way Obama has been coming across in the debates.
"I found that McCain was smug and disrespectful toward Obama on several occasions and that turned me off."
Dworsky is still keeping an open mind. She isn't ready to call herself a decided voter, yet. But she's moving in that direction.
Her husband Rick isn't.
"I don't feel the pressure to make up my mind until the day of the election and I'm okay with that."
Rick Dworsky almost always waits until the last minute to choose a candidate. He has an almost judicial approach. He wants to be fair and take in all the information he possibly can before casting his ballot.
And if Dworsky says something nice about one candidate, he makes sure to praise the other one, too.
"Hearing John McCain's record, I think he's got the fortitude, he's got the experience that the other candidate doesn't and Obama is just a wonderful orator and he gets better with every debate."
Dell Erickson also finds things he likes about both candidates, and he's certainly going to vote this year.
"The question is will I vote for a president."
Erickson worries McCain has become too conservative for him, but worries Obama is too inexperienced.
Erickson is looking for one of the candidates to say something new, something that will grab him and convince him that one is clearly better. But he's found the debates utterly unhelpful in that regard.
"We need to have a different kind of a process for examining the points of view of the candidates, because this is not working."
The first three debates didn't work for Jamie Larson, either, but this time was different.
"I've swung dramatically in this last debate."
Larson was Hillary Clinton supporter, and he's had a really hard time picturing himself voting for Obama. But this debate left him closer than he's ever been.
"Barack didn't appear arrogant, and actually looked presidential. This is the very first time I've ever seen that."
Larson's partner, Mark Ellingson, has been soul searching, too. He had also been seriously considering supporting McCain. But when he heard McCain say in the debate that Roe versus Wade should be overturned, Ellingson knew he couldn't vote for him.
"If it was McCain of 2000, who was much more moderate, I could get behind him. But I just can't get behind him, and the fact that he has Sarah Palin right behind him."
Ellingson said Palin is both unqualified and too conservative. So here's his plan. If Barack Obama has a giant lead in the Minnesota polls on election day, he'll write in Hillary Clinton.
But if the race looks close, he's now comfortable voting for Obama.