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I first became aware of historian Bettany Hughes, who's not a personal friend but here's hoping, when I read her book Helen of Troy. The book, the many reviews it attracted and indeed its charismatic subject were alive with detail, fascination, vividness, momentum and intelligence. Here was a brilliant woman putting another brilliant woman back into society and history as an agent, not a victim; a personality, not a symbol or cipher; a person, not an object. Not only that but she gave life and depth to the social, political, cultural and practical workings of the society in which Helen of Troy lived. Hughes did it all with respect, great clarity and insight, delight and an awesome breadth of scholarship... which fuelled her even more acclaimed second book, The Hemlock Cup, about Socrates and classical-era Athens.
The reviews this time were positively frothing.
Having noticed her name I suddenly saw it everywhere and realised that Hughes is an accomplished, erudite and riveting broadcaster, a genially globetrotting polymath brain. This month, she has excelled herself with Divine Women, a three part BBC series that began last Wednesday, 11th April.
The series resurrects the long-erased story of women and religion, demonstrating that we were not always unheard, unseen, powerless, marginal, unimportant or uninteresting. The story begins in 9000 BC and, as Hughes writes in the series press release,
The female of the species has always formed 50% of the population but has never occupied 50% of human history. Yet the connection between women and the divine has been so strong in all societies that when we follow the stories of 'divine women' we uncover new evidence for the character of humanity and a fuller, truer history of the world.The first instalment, When God Was A Girl, looked at the evolution of the goddess in Turkey, Greece, Rome and India. The second programme, on April 18th, promises to be even edgier. Entitled The Handmaids of God, it investigates the story of the priestess: from the poet Sappho on the island of Lesbos and her censored writing to Vestal Virgins in Rome, the role of women in the early Christian church and persecuted Christian priestesses.
Hughes saves the best (and most devastating) material for last, eschewing triumphalism for a sober, exceedingly well-researched and culturally diverse examination of the lives of incredible women who have simply been ignored, erased and written out of history. There is 7th Century Empress Wu Zetien, who called herself Emperor and saved Buddhism by establishing it in China; Empress Theodora in Byzantium, the subject of Stella Duffy's brilliant recent novel; the early women of Islam; and Anglo-Saxon Hilda of Whitby, who used the power of ancient traditions and new ideas about religion and philosophy to introduce sophisticated concepts of reform, education and the word to the intensely macho society in which she lived. This last instalment airs on Wednesday 25th April and will leave viewers filled with despair, inspiration and zeal: whether we are talking about religion, politics, culture or any other area, we can't let this erasure from public record, acknowledgement and respect be perpetrated against the great (and indeed the ordinary) women of the future and the present as they have been against countless women in the past.


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The Lion Brand Yarn Studio in New York is collecting hats and scarves for The Partnership for the Homeless, a organization committed to helping New York City families in need. From now until December 1st, let the staff know you are working on a hat or scarf for the charity and you'll get 10% off all yarn, hooks, needles, and supplies. Once you finish making all your hats and scarves, drop them off at the Lion Brand Yarn Studio. As a thank you, you'll receive a 20% off coupon for your next purchase.
Starting October 1st to November 22nd, the staff of the Lion Brand Yarn Studio will be knitting and crocheting scarves in the window during operating hours to donate to The Partnership for the Homeless. (We'll post some pics of these when it happens!)
For more information, visit the Lion Brand Yarn Studio blog.

subset: commoncrawl


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High Fashion End Green Crystal Bead Necklace.SKU #3604
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Divorces. Separations. Breakups. Ignominious endings. They happen to the best of us, and they're often messy, confusing and searingly painful.
There's no shortage of self-help books for people mired in the throes of a breakup — and yeah, sure, they're helpful. But Kevin Cotter, the guy who gave the world the website MyExWifesWeddingDress.com, refined the formula, combining his raw emotion with comedy and joining the ranks of bloggers-turned-authors with his new book, "101 Uses for My Ex-Wife's Wedding Dress," out next week.
"I think it turned out really good — even better than I had imagined it," said Cotter, 38, of Tucson, Ariz. "I honestly still can't believe any of this happened."
Cotter was an unassuming box salesman and outdoors enthusiast when his wife of 12 years left him over Fourth of July weekend in 2009. They had been together since high school — more than half his lifetime — and they had two children together. He found himself single for the first time in his adult life, and he was devastated. (He has since recovered, even remarrying last June.)
When she walked away, Cotter's ex-wife left her wedding dress behind in its preservation box and told him to do whatever he wanted with it. The keepsake box seemed to jeer at him from a shelf in his bedroom closet — until the day Cotter and his family members started to brainstorm. What could he actually do with that wedding dress?
Many things, it turns out. Many, many things.
For instance, it didn't take too long for Cotter and his supportive brother Colin to figure out that a wedding dress could make a great tug-of-war toy for a dog, and a great grill cover, and a great yoga mat. Wedding dress fabric also serves as an excellent coffee filter, and wedding dress tulle works well as a pasta strainer.
TODAY.com caught up with Cotter a few months after his divorce, when he started posting photos of his wedding-dress exploits at MyExWifesWeddingDress.com. His blog transformed him into an Internet celebrity in the span of three weeks, and his ex-wife wasn't exactly pleased.
Once launched, though, Cotter's blog kept resonating with people because it was so mischievously fun. Letters of support flooded in from around the world, and Cotter kept on dreaming up crazy dress uses with his brother because the process was so hysterical — and so therapeutic.
"My brother said that it wasn't until we started working together photographing the dress that he heard my real laugh return," Cotter writes in his new book. "People have asked me if what I have done with the wedding dress has been cathartic. The answer to that is yes."
Practical uses for a dress
The whole time Cotter worked away on his zany wedding-dress project, he kept hoping that it might have potential as a book. He envisioned a coffee table photo book, but that's not exactly how "101 Uses for My Ex-Wife's Wedding Dress" turned out. Instead, it's a paperback that's chock full of hundreds of color photos alongside Cotter's reflections on life, marriage, kids, weddings, work, camping, fishing, soccer, humor, and, above all, moving on.
Deeply poignant at times, the book discusses with brutal honesty the dark aspects of adjusting to life alone. A few confessions from its pages: "I never had trouble sleeping before my ex-wife walked out, but suddenly I began to suffer from terrible insomnia, especially on those evenings when I was home alone. ... I found myself longing for those days when my house sounded like a home. ... The silence left me replaying the events of the last few years and wondering how everything I knew had simply fallen apart."
But as quickly as the book sucker-punches readers with an emotional revelation about the realities of divorce, it swoops in with a wildly comedic revelation about the practical side of wedding-dress ownership.
For instance, did you realize that a wedding dress could be more useful to you than a Swiss Army knife if you were stranded in the woods or hiding out in a nuclear fallout shelter? (The book spells out why.) And did you know that a wedding dress can be employed as a handy juice strainer when making a delicious prickly pear margarita? (The book uses photos to demonstrate how.) And don't even get Cotter started on his aversion to houseflies. (Unfortunately, a silky white wedding dress doesn't make the best flyswatter.)
Need to get over your ex? Call Death Bear
Clawing his way out of a bad place
To date, Cotter and his brother have published a total of 120 crazy uses for the wedding dress, including 40 never-before-seen uses they concocted just for the book. New and nutty wedding-dress innovations such as drag-race parachute, snow camouflage, art canvas, sumo mawashi, punching bag and MC Hammer pants are highlights.
"I think my brother and I did some of our best work late" in the project, Cotter said.
Today Cotter has moved on from his divorce in more ways than one. He and his ex-wife still see each other often because they share custody of their kids, who are now ages 9 and 11.
"We get along fine," Cotter said. "The wedding dress hasn't been a topic of conversation for a long time.
"I'm sure she's very aware that the book is on its way, but it I don't know that she's preordered her copy, or that she's going to ask me to sign it."
Oh no! 13 real-life wedding disasters
And Cotter has married again, to a woman he met on Match.com. His new wife, Ashley Nowe, 28, had a young son when they met, and Cotter is loving his new life in his bustling, blended family.
After dating for a year and a half, they planned their wedding in just nine days and threw it in their backyard. "She said earlier in our relationship that if it worked out and one day we were to be married, it would have to be a beach wedding and she would wear a thong bikini," Cotter said. "She said she would not risk leaving me with any amount of material for a sequel.
"But in the end, she was brave. She wore a dress."
Kevin Cotter's new book, "101 Uses for My Ex-Wife's Wedding Dress" ($14, New American Library), is set to be released on Tuesday, Oct. 25. To preorder a copy, visit MyExWifesWeddingDress.com.
Need a Coffey break? Friend TODAY.com writer Laura T. Coffey on Facebook, follow her on Twitter or read more of her stories at LauraTCoffey.com.


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The New York Jets are all over the map on the future of Darrelle Revis, but LaRon Landry is a different story.
With the offseason under way, Around The League examines what's next for all 32 teams. Dan Hanzus breaks down the Jets. **More ...**
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reported the Jets have had discussions with Landry's representatives and would like to re-sign the hard-hitting safety. That could be difficult because Landry is expected to seek at least $6 million per year on the open market after his Pro Bowl season in 2012.
The Jets remains cap-strapped, and Landry will want to gauge his value league-wide before settling down long term. Landry played a full 16-game season for the first time since 2008 and the Jets -- reportedly shopping Revis -- can't afford to lose another key member of their defensive backfield.
Keep in mind that the Oakland Raiders signed safety Tyvon Branch to a four-year, $26.6 million contract last summer, with $17.6 million guaranteed. Landry might be willing to accept less, but the Jets are in a tough position to bring him back and threaten to field a vastly different-looking secondary in 2013.


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" a simple guide for numbnuts* who hashtag incorrectly "
click anywhere to continue
History of the social hashtag
" the # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a tweet. It was created organically by twitter users as a way to categorise their messages. hashtags can occur anywhere in a tweet "
" the hashtags big break was in 2007, originally invented by Chris Messina adding tags to where he was tweeting from and what it was about but it wasn't until the San Diego forest fire when the hashtags really took off. In 2013 facebook began to allow the use of the hashtag which is used in a similar way to twitter hashtags."
how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?— Chris Messina™ (@chrismessina) August 23, 2007
Understanding The Hashtag
If you've been tweeting for a while or socialising on Facebook you've probably noticed hashtags, a word or combination of words with the # sign in front of it. If you've asked yourself what do they mean and how do they work - look no further.
Hashtags as previously mentioned, were invented as a way to organise Twitter conversations. Hashtags are simply keywords preceded by a hash symbol (#) that makes them both searchable and linkable on twitter.
Many people use hashtags to identify what's going on at events, emergencies and for following breaking news. clicking on a hashtag in a tweet gives you a real time feed of all tweets using that hashtag.
Hashtags have also been adopted to tag and share everyday things for example #photography or #design if you are sharing something of interest, hashtag it so others searching that topic can find it!
Many television shows have embraced the hashtag revolution TV shows regularly appear in the Twitter trending topics during prime time. special events such as awards shows (#brits #oscars) and reality TV shows (#bigbrother #xfactor) are especially popular for live tweeting, becoming a trending topic could compel people to tune in.
Hashtag Rules
1: DON'T OVERUSE - use a maximum of two hashtags in your tweets or Facebook posts. If you use too many your followers will think you are spamming them.
2: KEEP THEM SHORT — tweets are restricted to 140 characters you don't want a hashtag taking up 50% of the letters in your tweet, there is however no limit to facebook post length but keep them short to avoid annoying your fans/friends.
3: DEFINE YOUR TAG - in a tag directory such as tagdef.com, give your tag a meaning you can also search for the meaning of existing tags.
4: NO SPACES OR PUNCTUATION - make sure there are no spaces in the words preceding the hashtag or punctuation, as it will break the link.


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OK. At this point you got your email, you clicked on the link from inside the email, and you got to your dedicated niche on the site, available for a short time, where you clicked on download links.
Then you downloaded the files successfully. Good. Now you might be wondering why they are not playing when you dragged and dropped them into Itunes. It didn't work, did it? Here's why: they are not yet MP3 files! You jumped the gun, my friend!
Each file you downloaded does not end in .mp3 — it ends in .zip.
Zip files are compressed files that contain data inside of them. This makes the files a lot smaller, and your downloads a lot faster. You cannot play zip files.
However, both Macs and PCs have the ability to extract data from the zip files and place those files onto your desktop. The size of the files gets larger once they are extracted.
OK. Look for the .zip files that you downloaded from our site. Once you have found them, click on them. Just an ordinary double-click with the left button on a PC, or a single click on a Mac. In either case, you should then see a window open with the MP3 files inside it.
Drag the MP3 files from that window onto your desktop.
Once you have those MP3 files on your desktop, you can simply click on them to listen to them. (Both Mac's and PC's can play MP3 files simply by clicking on them. In either case it will use whatever MP3 player you have set as your default. Every operating system has default players.)
Make sure your speakers are turned on, the volume knob is turned up, and you've already confirmed that other sources of audio — like when you watch streaming videos online, for example — are functioning properly and can be heard.
STEP THREE: BURNING CDs FOR YOUR PERSONAL USE
If you want to burn CD's of the mp3 files, you will need some sort of CD burner and software to convert the mp3 files into standard CD audio format.
Simply copying the mp3 files onto a CD will not make a CD that is playable in most CD players. (However, SOME CD players can play MP3 files directly, most cannot).
Both Windows Media Player (the default MP3 player on PCs) and Itunes (the default on Macs) have options you can find easily, which allow you to make a "playlist" and burn a CD.
|Windows XP/Vista
|Mac OS-X
|Click here to read instructions for Microsoft Windows
|Click here to read instructions for Mac OS-X
In Itunes, make sure all the tracks you want on your CD are checked in the boxes to the left. Make sure everything you DON'T want on the CD is unchecked. Also make sure you haven't checked more than 68 minutes of audio at once, or else it won't all fit on one disc.
Each section of "The Science of Peace" WILL fit on one CD… but Music Volume I is 117 minutes. Find eight minutes worth of tracks that don't quite do it for you (easy since they're all fairly long) and make a mix out of what remains. One simple decision is to uncheck "The Journey" short version, since the Extended Version has all the same stuff, just more of it… and the 'short' version weighs in at eight minutes.
Then go to File at the top left, and click "Burn Playlist to a Disc." Follow the instructions, insert a suitable CD-R into your drive, and you should be good to go.
In Windows Media Player, once you have the MP3 open, hit Pause (the two vertical lines) so it is not playing. Click on the button in the top middle of your screen that says "Burn". Then drag all the tracks you want on your CD over to the right, where it says "Drag items here to create a burn list." Click "Start Burn", follow the instructions, insert a suitable CD-R into your drive, say five Hail Marys, send us a huge donation, and you should be good to go.
If you have purchased the "Access Your Higher Self" video and English is not your native language there is a trick you can do on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod which will slow the video playback for you.
The video player on the iPhone and iPod touch has a hidden feature that lets you view video in slow-motion. It slows-down the audio, too.
First, pause a video or movie just before the portion you'd like to view. Then, hold down the fast-forward control. The video will play in slow-motion as long as you hold-down the fast-forward control.
Use slow-motion to:
- See more detail in a fast moving movie trailer
- Watch an extra funny segment in a YouTube video in slow-mo
- Review a video tutorial slowly to catch all the steps
- Replay fast-moving dialog in a movie to really hear what they're saying
- Slow-seek through a video podcast segment for a piece of information


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It was women who carried the United States when the team was looking weak toward the end of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
Of the 23 medals won by the U.S., 12 were won by female athletes and two more were won in mixed events. It's the highest-ever percentage won by women at the Winter Games when Team USA has won more than 10 medals.
From Jessie Diggins, who helped snap a 42-year medal drought in cross-country skiing, to the hockey team that dethroned Canada, the four-time defending Olympic champions, women shined and gave life to a Team USA that was in desperate need of celebration in the final stretch of the Games.
"It's pretty incredible how strong our women's teams have been," said Olympic Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin. "Definitely in this day and age with females breaking out and creating something bigger than just sport -- it stands for something."
Dr. Terri Boyer, director of the Anne Welsh McNulty Institute for Women's Leadership at Villanova University, said that "perhaps more than others, women athletes have often been 'take charge' people."
"That said, I think that women across all sectors and industries have been moving towards change which empowers women more in the last year and a half or so," she said.
It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment this "movement" began, Boyer said, but the last year has been "one of reckoning for women," confronting issues including harassment and discrimination.
U.S. & World
"I think the wins of the women on Team USA are a perfect metaphor for how women are rapidly asserting more power in every facet of American life -- from sports to politics to entertainment," said Dr. Kara Alaimo, an assistant professor of public relations in Hofstra's Lawrence Herbert School of Communication.
One of the assertions of power was seen with the rise of #MeToo. It started after sexual assault allegations against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in October, which led to his removal from his company. The women who came forward about Weinstein opened the door for others to share their experiences with Weinstein and other powerful men in Hollywood. Kevin Spacey, Louis C.K. and Matt Lauer were among the men to lose projects, roles and jobs amid high-profile sexual misconduct allegations.
Women began using the hashtag #MeToo on social media shortly after the Weinstein allegations to share their stories and find solidarity in each other's experiences. Those stories sparked national conversations.
"We are witnessing the power of breaking a collective silence and the world is splitting open," said Dr. Michele Tracy Berger, a professor of women and gender studies at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. "Dismantling the behaviors, beliefs and power structures that makes sexual misconduct and sexual violence possible has been a priority for many self-identified feminists and people working for gender equality since the second wave women's movement of the late 1960s."
The calls for social change in America today take a different shape from previous feminist movements, Berger said. Women are empowered through social media, celebrities who are speaking up and the institutions that are willing to punish predators for their transgressions.
"The #MeToo movement has its roots in generations of feminist activists who paved the way for it to be possible for us to demand change so vehemently now," said Alaimo, who writes frequently about gender issues.
It wasn't just the entertainment industry that felt the power of the #MeToo movement. U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., resigned amid reports of sexual misconduct. And the Republican candidate for an open U.S. Senate seat, Roy Moore, was accused of sexual misconduct with teenage girls when he was the deputy district attorney of Etowah County, Alabama. Moore lost the special election to Democrat Doug Jones in December.
Women have been calling out their abusers in politics, but they have also taken on campaigns and offices of their own. There are 22 women in the U.S. Senate and 84 in the House. At the state and local level, women represent about 20 percent of elected officials, according to Rutgers University's Center for American Women and Politics.
Those numbers could drastically change after the midterm elections in November, as a record number of women are running for office, according to statistics from the Rutgers center. The House shows the largest spike in female candidates; as of Feb. 26, approximately 441 women -- 343 Democrats and 98 Republicans -- are expected to run in 2018.
One of the women emboldened by the Women's March the day after President Donald Trump was inaugurated was Rachel Crooks, who will be a first-time candidate for the Ohio state legislature. Crooks is one of the 16 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct; he allegedly kissed her without consent in 2005. She said the unwanted encounter was another inspiration for her to run for public office.
"But choosing to run for office in Ohio is not really about what Trump did to me; I'm running because his election and the actions of our political leaders since then have demonstrated to me that there is a lack of honesty and integrity among our government officials and a lack of desire to bring about change by actually serving constituents," Crooks wrote in an opinion piece for NBC News.
Alaimo believes that all of the instances of women empowerment are interconnected and dependent on one another to succeed.
"Women can't achieve equality in politics, for example, without the same kinds of wins in business, entertainment and sports," she said. "What needs to change is how every member of society -- both men and women -- view and treat women."
The best way for that change to stick, Alaimo said, is through social pressure to treat women with respect, which Americans have begun to see.
"Men abuse women partly because our society has in the past taught them not just that they can get away with it, but also that such displays of toxic masculinity are somehow esteemed," she said. "But now, men who treat women this way are becoming ostracized in America."
According to Boyer, a major key to the women's movement is how empowerment is occurring almost simultaneously across many areas of American public life. The collective actions "across sectors and industries will be what makes a difference in impacting real change," she said.
After winning gold in Pyeongchang in the women's cross-country team sprint, Diggins said she felt inspired and supported by the women of Team USA.
"I feel like I've learned so much from every woman on this team," Diggins said. "Both our team, and then being here at the Games with the greater Team USA, has been so cool -- getting to meet all these amazing women who are so strong, and so powerful and so good at what they do."


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Major partners of the Paris Opera's 350th anniversary
Major partners of
the Paris Opera's 350th anniversary
Major partners of the Paris Opera's 350th anniversary
Major partners of
the Paris Opera's 350th anniversary
A suivre:
Abbé Perrin (Director of...
After the fire at the Palais Royal's first theatre, the Royal Academy of Music relocated to the Palais des Tuileries, where it took up temporary residence in the Salle des Machines. Built during the reign of Louis XIV, the exceptional size of the space allowed Germain Soufflot and Jacques Gabriel to remodel it to accommodate 1,500 spectators in an area originally occupied by the theatre's stage alone. The two architects reduced a space that was much longer than it was wide to create a stage and auditorium more adapted to opera. The conversion work took eight months and the theatre was inaugurated on January 24, 1764 with the premiere performance of Rameau's Castor et Pollux. Due to its dimensions, the theatre offered a myriad of possibilities for the complex stage machinery systems. The dancer Madeleine Guimard and the songstress Sophie Arnould had a particularly illustrious career on the stage of this theatre.
In 1770, the Opera left the Tuileries and returned to the Palais Royal where a new theatre had been built. Once the move was complete, the Comédie-Française moved into the space vacated by the Opera. Although its time at the Palais des Tuileries's Salle des Machines was of short duration, it left a lasting impression on the Opera, which retained the terms "côté cour" ("courtyard side" for stage left) and "côté jardin" ("garden side" for stage right). In effect, the theatre's north-south aspect had the stage facing due north thus offering exits into the courtyard on the left side and into the Tuileries Gardens on the right.
Partners of the Paris Opera's 350th anniversary
Sponsor of Crystal Pite's production
Sponsor of Opera's Battle
Sponsor of Les Indes galantes
With the generous support of
Sponsor of La Traviata
Sponsor of the Emperor box restoration
Principal sponsor of the Paris Opera Ballet
IT Mobility & User Experience Partner
Mécène Services IT
Sponsor of the Paris Opera Academy
Institutions associated with the 350th anniversary
Media partners


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WASHINGTON — At 10 a.m. Tuesday, Rep. Greg Walden of Oregon, the man in charge of House Republicans' 2014 campaign, told a roomful of reporters at the National Press Club that they shouldn't read much into that day's special election in Florida to fill the seat of the late GOP congressman Bill Young.
"Whether we win it or lose it, the special elections aren't too predictive for either side going forward," said Walden, head of the National Republican Congressional Committee.
"If there's any advantage of a special election," Walden added, "it's that you can test messages, and you can test strategies, and you can test sort of your theories on voter turnout and ID. So, I mean, that's kind of the takeaway … from a special, far more than is it indicative of what's going to happen 239 days from now."
But at 8 p.m., after Republican David Jolly, a former lobbyist, was declared the winner by two percentage points, Walden revised his view of the race's significance.
"David proved that Pinellas County voters are tired of the devastating policies of this administration," he said in a statement. "Tonight, one of Nancy Pelosi's most prized candidates was ultimately brought down because of her unwavering support for Obamacare, and that should be a loud warning for other Democrats running coast to coast."
Walden then hit the TV circuit Wednesday to say that after the special election — the contest he said wouldn't be "too predictive" — Democrats should be "pretty panicked this morning."
Democrats are indeed in a freak-out about the results in Florida, and about whether Obamacare, or President Obama, will ruin the party in the fall. But Walden was right the first time.
Democrats are likely to have a lousy midterm election — Republicans are forecast to pad their House majority by a few seats and to have a decent chance of taking control of the Senate — but this has nothing to do with what happened in Florida on Tuesday. An NBC News-Wall Street Journal survey this week found Obama's job approval rating at a record low and an unusually high percentage of voters eager to register that dissatisfaction at the polls. But the causes of the party's difficulties this year are larger than any issue, candidate or president, and those who are casting November's vote as the Great Obamacare Referendum are almost certainly overdoing it.
Some perspective:
The prospect of Democrats regaining control of the House was never a real possibility. Democratic House candidates won 1.7 million more votes than Republicans in 2012, beating the GOP by a full percentage point, but they still remain 17 seats shy of the majority. Because of gerrymandered districts and population concentrations, Democrats would need to win the popular vote by seven percentage points, by some estimates, to retake the House. And this certainly isn't going to be the year for such a landslide: The president's party usually loses seats in a midterm election, particularly in a second term.
In the Senate, meanwhile, Republicans probably already would have 50 seats rather than their current 45 if the tea party hadn't caused the GOP to throw away so many races in 2010 and 2012. Tea party candidates beat more electable Republican candidates in Colorado, Delaware, Indiana, Missouri and Nevada, and seats that easily could have been Republican went Democratic. A year before the 2012 election, Republicans had been forecast to win the Senate.
It's true that the most vulnerable Democrats this year are from states where Obama and Obamacare are unpopular. But a lot of those candidates are in office now because 2008 was an uncommonly good year for Democrats. Likewise, the echo of 2010 — a good year for Republicans — should help Democrats in 2016. And long-term demographic trends, particularly the growing importance of Latino voters, strongly favor Democrats.
Democrats may well be miserable on the morning of Nov. 5, and Republicans will attribute the results to Obamacare. But they will have more to do with what Walden described Tuesday. You "have the national atmospherics" working against Obama, he said, but the outcome will be determined by the quirks of the handful of districts that are in play.
"So what issues?" Walden asked himself. "What matters to the people in that district, wherever that district is. That's how you're going to win a race."
This will be worth remembering whenever there's hyperventilating over the meaning of the midterms.
Dana Milbank is a Washington Post columnist.
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- Science
- Not Exactly Rocket Science
Brains of gay people resemble those of straight people of opposite sex
The differences between heterosexual and homosexual people are as much the subject of fascinating science as they are a source of social debate. And in many cases, the former can help to inform the latter. There is now plenty of research which shows that a person's sexual orientation, far from being a phase or a lifestyle choice, is a reflection of fixed properties of their brain that develop at an early age.
A new study adds new weight to this evidence by using brain-scanning technology to look at the differences between the brains of gay and straight people. Ivanka Savic and Per Lindstrom at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm scanned the brains of 90 men and women of different sexual orientations. Their images show that in the brains of gay people, certain features including symmetry and connections to the brain's emotional centre are more closely matched to the brains of straight people from the opposite sex.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), Savic and Lindstrom showed that the brain's two halves are almost exactly the same size in straight women and gay men. However, both straight men and lesbians had slightly asymmetrical brains, with the right hemisphere being 1-2% larger on the left. These differences only applied to the large cerebrum, which makes up most of our brains. The two halves of the cerebellum, which sits at the brain's base, were symmetrical in all of the volunteers, regardless of sex or sexual preference.
Earlier studies have found similar results for patterns of brain activity. For example, parts of the brain involved in reward and emotion are more strongly activated when straight men and lesbian women look at female faces, and when straight women and gay men see male faces. The same patterns apply when people smell chemicals that probably act as human pheromones. But attractive faces and enticing pheromones are both related to sex, and responses to them could be learned over time.
But Savic's and Lindstrom's new study shows that these differences extend to fundamental aspects of the brain that aren't directly linked to sex or behaviour, and that are probably fixed from birth.
The idea that straight men have more asymmetrical brains than gay men fits with previous research. When listening to sounds, straight men tend to have a bias for their right ear, which both gay men and straight women lack. They also tend to outperform gay men and straight women in tests of spatial awareness, where success depends on a part of the brain – the parietal cortex – which is usually larger in men than in women.
Savic and Lindstrom also used another brain-scanning technique called PET to measure the flow of blood into the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in processing emotions. These visuals revealed the connections that link the amygdala to other parts of the brain. From previous studies, we know that these connections usually link to different areas in the brains of men and women, and sprout from different hemispheres -the right in men, and the left in women.
That was the pattern that Savic and Lindstrom saw the straight volunteers from their study, but the homosexuals showed the reverse pattern. For example, the amygdalas of gay men had more in common with those of straight women – the two halves were well-connected, they had more neurons projecting from the left half (as opposed to the right in straight men) and these neurons connected to the same parts of the brain that those of straight women do.
These connections provide some tantalising hints about how gay and straight people differ in their behaviour. In straight men and lesbians, the amygdala (which influences our emotional reactions to stress) connects to the sensorimotor cortex and the striatum, parts of the brain involved in the "fight or flight" response. But in straight women and gay men, the amygdala's connections feed into the anterior cingulate cortex and the subcallosum. These areas influence our moods and have been implicated in mood-related disorders such as anxiety and depression.
That certainly seems to fit with what we know about these "affective disorders". Women are 2-3 times more likely than men to suffer from them, while gay men are also more vulnerable to depression. However, Savic and Lindstrom caution that their results don't tell them how far these conditions are affected by the architecture of the brain. Certainly, in gay men, social stigma is an equally likely explanation for higher rates of depression.
It's very likely that the relative size of the brain's two halves are set very early in development. Other groups have certainly detected asymmetries before in children, and some have even done so in the brains of foetuses. Nonetheless, the evidence isn't entirely consistent and while Savic and Lindstrom think that it's likely that these traits are fixed from birth, they say that it's still an "open question".
Likewise, it's not clear why some brains are asymmetrical and others are not, although animal studies provide some clues. In animals, homosexuality in females is often attributed to an overabundance of male hormones – androgens – in the womb, while male homosexuality results from a lack of these. In male monkeys and rats, the right side of the brain has higher concentrations of receptors for these male hormones to lock onto; in females, they are distributed equally among the two halves. Whether the same applies to humans, and how that might eventually affect our behaviour, are questions for future studies.
Reference:Savic, I., Lindstrom, P. (2008). PET and MRI show differences in cerebral asymmetry and functional connectivity between homo- and heterosexual subjects. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0801566105


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Aram, Arameans
The Arameans were not a single nation but a widespread branch of the Semitic race. In the King James Version they are generally called Syrians. According to Gen. 10:22 Aram was son of Shem, but in Gen. 22:21 he is called son of Kemuel and grandson of Nahor. The Arameans therefore had kinship with the Hebrews. Their oldest seats were in Aram-naharaim (meaning the land within the bend of the [Euphrates] River). From an early date there were many Arameans in Assyria and Babylonia, and in these countries the Aramaic language finally prevailed over the old Assyrian and was only displaced by the Arab conquest. On the other hand, the Arameans crossed the Euphrates and, pushing aside the old inhabitants of the Orontes valley, were settled in the time of David as far south as Damascus and Beth-Rehob on the southern skirts of Hermon (2 Sam. 8:3–8; 10:6–19). These immigrants were not yet strong enough to resist David, who reduced them to subjection, but Damascus regained its independence under Solomon and soon became the center of a powerful kingdom, which pressed hard on Israel from the days of Ahab downward and reduced the house of Jehu to the last extremity. When the Assyrians advanced on Canaan the first brunt of their attack fell on the Syrians, and the relief thus given to Israel seems to be alluded to in 2 Kgs. 13:5. At length, in 733 B.C., Damascus fell before Tiglath-pileser Ⅱ and the Arameans lost their political independence. But their language, which was already that of a great part of the empire of Nineveh, continued to spread in the train of Assyrian and Persian conquest. Aramaic was the diplomatic speech of Palestine in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kgs. 18:26). There is evidence that after the return from exile the Jews themselves gradually adopted Aramaic as the language of common life. The dialect called Hebrew in the New Testament is not the language of David and Isaiah, but a form of Aramaic.


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HIALEAH, Fla. — A man living with his mother in a South Florida apartment complex set their unit on fire and went on a shooting rampage throughout the building, killing six people before being shot to death by police. As the eight-hour standoff unfolded, horrified residents hunkered down in their homes, at times so close to the action they could feel the gunfire or hear negotiations between the gunman and police, authorities and witnesses said Saturday.
At one point, Pedro Vargas, 42, held two people hostage at gunpoint for up to three hours in their apartment until a SWAT team entered and killed him, police said. The hostages were not hurt.
"The crime scene is the whole building," said Lt. Carl Zogby, a spokesman with the Hialeah Police Department.
Police were called to the aging, five-story apartment building in Hialeah, a working class suburb a few miles northwest of downtown Miami, on Friday at 6:30 p.m. The first calls reported a fire, but when firefighters arrived, they heard shots and immediately notified police, Zogby said.
Vargas, who has no known criminal record, set a combustible liquid on fire in his fourth-floor apartment. Building manager Italo Pisciotti, 79, and his wife, Camira Pisciotti, 69, saw smoke and ran to the unit, Zogby said. When they arrived, Vargas opened the door and fired, killing both.
Detectives were investigating whether Vargas had any ongoing disputes with the building manager, as some residents believed. His mother was not home at the time.
After gunning down the building managers, Vargas went back into his burning apartment and fired 10 to 20 shots from a 9mm pistol into the street. One of the bullets struck 33-year-old Carlos Javier Gavilanes, who was parking his car after returning home from work. Zogby said his body was found next to his vehicle.
The gunman then kicked his way into a third-floor apartment, where he shot to death Patricio Simono, 54; his wife Merly Niebles, 51; and their 17-year-old daughter. Family members said Simono worked at a car wash and Niebles cleaned hotel rooms. Their daughter wanted to be a nurse.
All six people were killed in a short time span, Zogby said, and it's possible they were all dead by the time police arrived.
Officers and Vargas then engaged in an hours-long shootout and chase, with police following the gunman from one floor to the next.
"He kept running from us as he fired at us and we fired at him," Zogby said.
Several hours into the ordeal, Vargas forced his way into a fifth-story unit and held two people captive. Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door.
Miriam Valdes, 70, was in a friend's apartment two doors down. She said she heard officers trying to convince Vargas to surrender.
"Pedro let these people out," Valdes said officers told him. "We're going to help you."
She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.
Rodriguez said the talks eventually "just fell apart." Officers stormed the building, fatally shooting the gunman in an exchange of gunfire. Zogby said Vargas still had several rounds of ammunition when he was killed.
"He was ready to fight," Zogby said.
The hostages, identified as Zoeb and Sarrida Nek, were shaken up but not hurt, he said.
Police and neighbors described Vargas as a quiet man who had only recently moved into the building.
Tenants painted a mixed portrait of the gunman.
"He was a good son," said Ester Lazcano, who lived on the same floor as Vargas and his mother. "He'd take her in the morning to run errands" and to doctor appointments.
Lazcano said she was in the shower when she heard the first shots, then there were at least a dozen more. "I felt the shots," she said.
Valdes said Vargas was also known as a difficult person who sometimes got into fights and yelled at his mother.
"He was a very abusive person," she said. "He didn't have any friends there."
Zogby called Vargas' background "unremarkable." Police had not responded to any prior calls at his home.
"Nobody seems to know why he acted the way he acted," Zogby said.
As police investigated the crime scene, relatives of the victims began arriving to pick up their loved one's belongings. Residents came out of their complex and spoke among each other as the sky turned dark and threatened to rain. Some had large swaths of water in their apartment from the firefighters who responded to extinguish the blaze.
Vargas' apartment door and the ceiling outside it were charred.
Agustin Hernandez, Merly Niebles' brother-in-law, loaded several old pictures and other items from his relative's apartment in a grocery cart and into his car. One showed his teenage niece smiling in a red graduation gown. Another pictured his sister-in-law posing in a white dress and pearls.
A binder also from the apartment had pop artist Justin Beiber's name on the spine, presumably belonging to the teenage girl, who family members identified as Priscilla Perez.
Marcela Chavarri, director of the American Christian School, said the Perez was about to enter her senior year.
"She was a lovely girl," Chavarri said through tears. "She was always happy and helping her classmates."
In Hialeah — a suburb of about 230,000 residents, about three-quarters of whom are Cuban or Cuban-American — the block around the apartment building was closed off with crime scene tape. At about midday, officers removed a body from the building and carried it away in a van.
Detectives, meanwhile, tried to piece together every shot and every minute of what had happened.
"It could have been a much, much more dangerous situation," Zogby said.


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Atlanta Falcons (4-10) at San Francisco 49ers (10-4)
8:40 p.m., Monday
FLOWERY BRANCH — The ugliest low points of a miserable season for Matt Ryan and the Falcons have come on the road.
Atlanta plays its final road game at San Francisco on Monday night. The Falcons (4-10) are 1-6 away from the Georgia Dome. The one road win was more like a neutral site game — against Buffalo in Toronto.
Turnovers have been a troubling trend in the road losses. Ryan said Thursday he can't explain why he has thrown 12 interceptions on the road and only two at home.
"I wish I knew," Ryan said. "I really do. I wish I knew. We've been pretty consistent throughout the six years I've been here, individually and as a team, on the road and at home. Certainly I think records are better at home than they've been on the road in the past.
"I think it's just you've got to be consistent week in and week out, whether you're playing in the dome or somewhere else. You've got to strive for consistency and as a whole I don't think we've been extremely consistent this year."
Ryan was awarded a contract extension worth about $104 million, including $59 million guaranteed, before the season. He has played up to the standards that earned him that contract only at home.
In seven home games, Ryan has 11 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. His 103.5 passer rating at the Georgia Dome in 2013 tops his career average of 96.8 in home games.
Ryan's rating on the road is only 74.3, below his career road rating of 85.4.
Coach Mike Smith said he doesn't believe Ryan's production this season can be directly tied to where the games are played. He said it was just poor execution.
"We have turned the ball over a lot more on the road," Smith said following Thursday's practice. "I don't really know that I could put a finger on it. They weren't really good decisions. They weren't really good throws. It wasn't good protection. That was what caused it."
Ryan is on pace to top 4,000 yards passing for the third straight year and has completed 66.4 percent of his passes — just under his career-best 68.6 percent in 2012. He has thrown 22 touchdown passes, well below his career-high 32 last season.
Injuries at the wide receiver position left Ryan throwing to such new targets as Darius Johnson and Drew Davis much of the season.
A foot injury ended star receiver Julio Jones' season after only five games. Atlanta's other top receiver, Roddy White, missed three games with ankle and hamstring injuries and was limited most of the season. White has returned to form only in the last three weeks.
Some of Ryan's statistics — especially yards and touchdowns — likely would be dramatically better if Jones and White had been healthy. But injuries don't fully explain the interceptions, especially on the road.
"I don't know that it was because we were not in our building," Smith said. "I think we've got to really, truly drill down on it when the season is over, but I don't think ... that was the reason."
Smith is using the final games of the season to take long looks at rookies and second-year players at other positions. He said he never considered pulling Ryan to give backup Dominique Davis more playing time.
"It's something I don't really listen to it or worry about it," Ryan said. "I prepare myself to go out and play week in and week out. ... You have to worry about preparing yourself and going out there and playing, and there's nobody who wants to be out there more than I do."
Notes: S Thomas DeCoud (concussion) practiced for the second straight day after missing last week's win over Washington. "He'll be ready to go for the game," Smith said. ... Johnson (ankle), RB Antone Smith (knee) and LB Sean Weatherspoon (knee) did not practice.


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Berkman Books
A Bookstore For the Senses
After 4 years on Main Street, we have moved! Our new home is located at 611-A South Washington, in the former Lavender House B&B. Our neighbors are The Nest Restaurant and Aunt Violet's Morning Glory B&B. South Washington intersects East Main Street at the Nimitz Museum, just up the street from the old store. Farther south, Washington turns into Hwy 87 South to San Antonio.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
River of Reads
Email Newsletter
This month's Literary Birthday is Howard Hawks
"I'm a storyteller - that's the chief function of a director. And they're moving pictures, let's make 'em move!"
Our email newsletter has over 900 recipients. We send it in plain text format with no graphics and has the same information as the blog. What the newsletter has that the blog does not is a monthly biography of a literary figure. It is also a good reminder to keep in touch with the store, events and New Arrivals. If you would like to receive the newsletter, let us know. email@example.com or call 830-997-1535.


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NEWARK – Progress is being made on the
new Worcester County Technical High School (WTS) and the renovations and
addition to Pocomoke High School (PHS), but the Worcester County Board of
Education is worried that the next projects in line could be delayed.
Snow Hill High School (SHHS) and
Showell Elementary School (SES) are slated next, but the school board does not
know whether preliminary steps, like studies and state approvals, will be taken
soon or further down the road.
The school board will focus on
completing the new technical high school, on schedule to open in mid-October,
and the work at PHS, which should be finished in spring 2011, said Ed Barber,
vice superintendent of schools for administration at Tuesday's school board
An addition and renovations at
SHHS are slated to follow the PHS work.
"We are ready to proceed with
that, but what is not clear at this time is when the County Commissioners
intend to make local funding available," said Barber.
The school board needs to know
the county's intentions by September, in order to submit a request for state of
approval and funding by Oct. 6.
Planning for the SHHS work has
been funded and completed.
"The people in Snow Hill are
getting itchy," said Board of Education member Donnie Shockley.
"They better get the calamine
lotion," said Board member Jonathan Cook.
SHHS is over 50 years old and
needs updating, schools official say.
"It's necessary. It's needed,"
said Bob Hulburd, vice president of the school board.
According to Commission President
Virgil Shockley, who represents Snow Hill, the county cannot move ahead with
SHHS until 2010 at the earliest.
"We're not even going to the
bond market for Pocomoke 'til October," Shockley said.
The availability of contractors
is also a concern to the County
Commissioners, who do not
want to put a project out for bid when contractors able to handle such large
projects are already working on one, or more, county schools. There are about
three bricklayers that work on the Eastern Shore,
for example.
"You've got to have enough space
between projects to let people finish the one they're on," Shockley said
Money is also a concern. The Pocomoke High School
work, similar to the plans for improvements to Snow Hill High School, will create an annual debt
payment of $3.5 million.
"Number one, where's the money
coming from? These bond payments have to come from somewhere," Shockley said.
"Next year is going to be tighter than this year."
On Tuesday, the Board of
Education also complained that the County
Commissioners put off a
feasibility study for SES requested in the fiscal year 2009 budget.
"There are not enough bathrooms.
The cafeteria is way too small. The media center is woefully inadequate,"
Barber said of SES.
According to Hulburd, trailers
provide one-quarter of Showell Elementary's floor space.
One entire grade level is taught
in the nine trailers on SES grounds, outside the perimeter of the elementary
school building itself, according to Cook, who cautioned the school board
against simply accepting that SES is overcrowded and waiting passively for a
remedy to the situation.
"It's $50,000 to do a
feasibility study," said County Commissioner Linda Busick, who represents
Showell. "We have not even completed our new vocational and tech school. It
would not be a good use of that $50,000 to do a feasibility study at this time
… the cost will vary from this time 'til the job actually gets done."
Busick said she would be sure to
bring up the feasibility study next spring during fiscal year 2010 budget
Space is not the only issue at
Showell Elementary. The SES septic system is in bad shape and could fail in the
near future.
"We're living on borrowed time.
That's going to be needed no matter what we do," Barber said.
If the County Commissioners
will not fund the replacement of the septic infrastructure at the elementary
school, the school board will have to bring in portable toilets if there is any
trouble with the sewer system, school board member Sara Thompson said.
Busick acknowledged that the system
could fail at any time, adding that the commissioners are studying the
situation to determine how to handle it. A new septic system could be located
across the street at Showell
Park, which would free up
more room for a new school.
The work could cost as much as
$1.4 million.
Other schools on the improvement
list including Stephen
Decatur Middle
School, which has needed an addition for years,
Barber said, as well as the county's other middle and intermediate schools.
"Our school facility needs
aren't decreasing," he said. "The number of buildings needing alterations over
the next 10 years is increasing."


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Overcoming the 7 Deadly Results of Meddling
Passion for excellence, demand to meet numbers, slow progress, and fierce competition drive managers to step in and "help."
Never help without asking, it's meddling.
Ask first; ask often.
Don't reserve, "How can I help?" for short-fall situations. It sends a message. They aren't cutting the mustard.
Build supportive cultures by asking, "How can I help?" first and frequently. Ask when things are great.
Avoid, "Do you need help?"
"Do you need help?" is a yes or no question suggesting failure, distress, or weakness. "How can I help?" implies good will and collaboration.
What if they don't know?
It's your fault if they need help and don't know it? Goals are fuzzy, deliverables are distant and obscure, feedback is rare, or reporting is sporadic. Clarify expectations up front. Ask, "How is your project going?" more often. Meddlers unexpectedly intervene in the middle.
Don't meddle in the middle; help along the way.
Address a foggy middle with collaborative conversations. Clarify goals and outcomes. Set dates for progress reports. Ask, "How can I help."
- Insults.
- De-motivates.
- Suggests disappointment.
- Controls and frustrates.
- Begins with your frustration and creates frustration in others.
- Ends thought. They say, " OK, what do you want to do?"
- Weakens relationships.
- Energizes.
- Instills confidence.
- Releases and frees.
- Ends frustration.
- Invites creativity.
- Strengthens connections.
- Affirms others and equalizes social status.
Today's challenge: Ask, "How can I help?" twice before lunch and twice after lunch.
Thanks to the former CEO of Campbell's Soup, Doug Conant, for his passionate, "How can I help?" approach to leadership. It helps me.
Great insights from my Facebook family: Helping becomes meddling when ______.
How does meddling make you or others feel?
What does healthy helping look like from your perspective?


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"The road has taught me what I know today. These are the stories I have waited to tell."
Roadbook is a magnificent work by one of the most important emerging documentary photographers in America. Hunter's beautiful and sensitive photographs document aspects of American culture and communities ignored by the mainstream and his artistic gaze focuses on the faces of proud groups of people who are consistently misrepresented in the modern American narrative. "For years I've traveled with my cameras capturing moments of time with the people the road has led to me."
Hunter's photographs flash us into moments and scenes most people will never get to experience first-hand during their lifetime. Hunter cherishes the friendships he builds with people who recognize his sincerity and allow him access to their private worlds. After establishing their trust over meaningful dialogue and shared experiences, he frames his subjects as they are and where they dwell. As Nathaniel Kilcer writes in his foreword, "Great photographs might be the hope, but Hunter leads with modest curiosity, expectation suspended, the journey his calling. He seeks out forgotten quarters and the stories concealed there." Hunter also shoots exclusively in black and white film, "In the end, film provides a fitting metaphor for Hunter's entire process: it takes a long time to earn the trust of these people, and it takes time to commit them to paper."


text:
Kundan Choker Set in Golden Color, completed with Pearls. This Affordable Jewelry Set consists of Choker and Jhumky.
Please Keep the Jewelry you bought away from Perfume, Water and Moisturizer
Always untangle the Jewelry Pieces with Light Hands to avoid breakage
If the Jewelry is kept openly after use, it will tarnish by time, best practice is to keep it safe, dry and away from Weather conditions in a Velvet Jewelry Box.
Jewelry Care is provided within the Packaging, Please Go through it once
Only Sterling Silver Jewelry is Water Resistant and most of our Jewelry is not Sterling Silver, hence they are not Water Proof
Artificial Jewelry has a High Tendency of Fading its color by time but it can be slowed if kept in Air Tight Wrapping and in a Jewelry Box


text:
Fairy tale characters sure are into some weird stuff.
That's the moral of Telltale's The Wolf Among Us, an adventure game series based on Bill Willingham's decidedly R-rated Fables comics. The game returns this week with the second episode in its five-episode first season. What do the shocking events at the end of episode one mean? What new mysteries will Bigby Wolf uncover? Wouldn't it be cool to smoke cigarettes all the time without worrying about lung damage?
Those questions and more are answered in the new episode, titled "Smoke and Mirrors," which launches this week for pretty much every platform possible, save the Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One. Last night I played through the second episode in a bit under two hours, and while I enjoyed myself, there are still things about Telltale's venture into Fabletown that feel a touch off to me.
It's difficult to write about episode two without spoiling some things, so let's do this. First, some general impressions with no substantive spoilers for episode two (but some spoilers for episode one). Then, a spoiler section where I'll talk more in depth about specific things that happened in the episode.
Spoiler-Free Thoughts On Episode Two
Many of the nagging issues I had with the first episode return in the second one—I still don't love Adam Harrington's performance as Bigby, which lacks the grit and growl I've always imagined in a character as ferocious as the Big Bad Wolf. The characters still mutter a lot, and some scenes feel like a bunch of halting low-talk. Action sequences are still sloppy reflex-tests. The controls are still a drag.
Gripes notwithstanding, I generally like how The Wolf Among Us is taking its time and spooling out a more slow-paced, twisty noir mystery. As fun as it is to meet more characters I like from the books—Jack and Bluebeard make brief appearances, the latter wonderfully voiced by Dave "Lee from The Walking Dead" Fennoy—I liked that by and large "Smoke and Mirrors" carried forward threads and characters from the first episode.
It would be easy to allow a Fables game to devolve into cameos and fan-service, but at some point a good mystery needs to limit its cast of characters so that the audience can find their footing and start trying to guess whodunnit. I'm still not entirely convinced that The Wolf Among Us won't fall into the too-many-characters trap, but the restraint demonstrated by parts of the second episode made me more optimistic than I had been.
After spending my last review grumbling about constant performance problems on the Xbox 360 version, I switched to the PC version and have had a much smoother go of it. There are still a number of annoying technical hitches, but the game runs much better on PC, and the art in particular looks great in high definition.
I do have to say I'm becoming increasingly concerned about Telltale's seeming inability to overcome the crustiness of the tech that runs their games. The Wolf Among Us still feels thrown together and largely incapable of presenting action and dialogue at the same time without frequently pausing to load in new dialogue and animations. It's distracting and sometimes even comical. Midway through the episode, Bigby threatened and interrogated a bartender. Bigby'd ask a question, only to have both of them sit silently for a couple of seconds while the guy's response loaded. It was stilted and strange, and the sort of thing that happens too often. As Telltale's profile increases and their big-ticket licensed game portfolio grows, those sorts of hitches are increasingly difficult to overlook.
"Smoke and Mirrors" takes several significant steps toward solving the mystery introduced in "Faith," and resolves many of the lingering questions from that first episode: What happened to Snow? What was the Woodsman's involvement in all of this? Where was Faith working before she was killed? What's going on with Beauty, and what is she hiding from Beast?
I continue to enjoy the game's aesthetics—those saturated neons and long, hard shadows—to the point that I didn't mind so much that several of the answers the episode provided were a letdown. Or maybe I'm just used to that sort of thing; after all, this is the Fables universe, where "A witch did it!" is the crude tool by which many a seemingly world-changing plot twist can be reshaped or undone. Who knows how magic and glamours and hypnotic spells could flip the script on a murder mystery?
All the same, it'd be nice to feel as though the stakes had been raised, when in fact I felt as though episode two lowered the stakes. The episode also felt less interactive than the first one, with no major decisions to make, minimal room for exploration and a large percentage of the story taking place during conversation-only cutscenes. Most of the game just has Bigby examining a crime scene, looking at each piece of evidence and then triggering the end of the scene.
I didn't actually mind the lack of interactivity all that much—I played the episode alongside my girlfriend on the couch and the whole thing was like watching a mid-season episode of Hirsute Sherlock—but I did notice it. I can't say for sure which of my choices will actually matter in episode three, partly because the end-game choice breakdown bugged out and wouldn't show my results, but mostly because the choices presented in "Smoke and Mirrors" felt far less dramatic than in "Faith."
"Smoke and Mirrors" is a bridge episode, and it feels it in a way that, say, mid-season episodes of The Walking Dead never really did. That's probably okay—the success or failure of The Wolf Among Us is going to depend on how the primary mystery plays out. Hopefully the story will play fair, feed us clues and breadcrumbs along the way and give us an opportunity to solve the case ourselves rather than just telling us the answer. If it pulls some sort of magical cheat, drops the answer out of nowhere, or pulls an impossible-to-predict twist in the final goings, it'll be much less satisfying. For now, I'm happy to be along for the ride.
Stray Episode Two Thoughts, With Spoilers
- For real, spoilers follow.
- I can't say I was surprised at the big fake-out with Snow, but I was a bit surprised that they pulled it out so early on. And relieved, I guess - anyone who's read the comics knew that Snow wasn't really dead, but her "death" had me questioning Faith's death as well, which undercut the tension of the central mystery. Unless the story pulls a truly unfair second glamour out of its ass in the last three episodes, Faith really is dead, and we really are investigating her murder. Which is good. I'm also happy that Snow is back in the game, since I've been enjoying her and Bigby's flipped take on the Gal Friday, especially considering how much their relationship grows over the course of the books.
- I chose to grab the Woodsman at the end of episode one, so I wound up taking it easy on him in interrogation. I never thought he really had much to do with Faith or "Snow"'s murder anyway, so the optional torture scene lacked some of the dark bite that it might've had with Tweedle Dee. I did enjoy Fennoy's performance as Bluebeard, and thought his desire to intercede and get to the torturin' seemed lifted straight from the comics, in a good way.
- I felt more railroaded by the conversational options in episode two than I did in either "Faith" or in most of Telltale's The Walking Dead—for some reason, the conversational option I wanted to choose often just didn't seem to be present. For example, I wanted Bigby to tell Snow that no matter what, he was happy to have her keep coming along on the case, but somehow any option I chose wound up with him implying that he'd be happier if she stayed at home. Which upset her, and left me feeling like I was having a conversation Telltale wanted me to have, not the one I'd wanted to choose. I rarely felt that way while playing The Walking Dead, so I was surprised to feel it here.
- I really liked the scene with Bigby and Snow examining Lily's glamoured body, and Snow's increasing discomfort at being in the room with her own corpse. A nifty, sick scene. Certainly the most L.A. Noire-ish part of a very L.A. Noire-ish episode, though even more simplified than that already simplified game.
- Nice to see Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and it was a well-done reveal. Pity for her that she's been reduced to enduring humiliating stripping lessons from her creep of a pimp, Georgie Porgie. Ariel's scene could've done with a bit more development, but hopefully we'll return to her story in future episodes. Poor Ariel.
- I was frustrated watching Bigby continue not to get that "These lips are sealed" is obviously a charm of some sort - the guy is experienced with all kinds of magic, surely he'd notice a repeated phrase like that? He has godlike powers and supernaturally keen observational skills, but mundy that I am, I'm still noticing things that he doesn't seem to grasp.
- The sequence with Beauty and Beast didn't really work for me. Her deep, dark secret from episode one is that she's… working the front desk at a hotel frequented by prostitutes? To pay the rent? I didn't understand why she couldn't just tell Beast that. It felt like a contrivance designed to get Beast and Bigby into a fight, and I never really bought it. The speed with which it all began and ended was disappointing, and I wonder if we'll even see either Beauty or Beast again. I was hoping for something more directly connected to the larger mystery.
- That said, I really liked the bit in room 207 with the gruesome crime scene (reminiscent of Se7en) and the increasingly creepy revelations of what had been going on in there each night. That Mr. Smith would make his troll prostitute take a glamour to look like Snow, then re-enact her endless sleep (while he presumably engages in who-knows-what sex act) is pretty twisted, even for the regularly twisted Fables universe. The music that played on that cassette tape… eek.
- Crane seemed like the obvious choice to be Smith, though as with most of the detective work so far in The Wolf Among Us, I thought the reveal felt hand-holdy and unearned. I'd love to have been given the opportunity to put the pieces together myself, to assemble clues and observations and put my finger on the person I thought was guilty. Instead, the game just had Bigby find a photograph that obviously implicated Crane. Disappointing.
- Predictions: I think Crane was indeed acting out his weird Snow fixation in room 207, but I don't really think he killed Lily or Faith. He knows something (or maybe a lot) about what's going on, but not only does it feel too early to reveal the killer, bloody murder doesn't quite square with what we know of Crane. He's a creep, yes, but he doesn't seem like a ritual beheader. (Now, his friend the Headless Horseman... that's another story.)
I turn it over to you. What did you guys think of episode two? Do you think we've already met the killer? Got any theories on who it is? Sound off in the comments, and please include spoiler warnings.


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Brides and grooms, estimable estates, and the very best autumn benefits in Hunt Country.
By Vicky Moon
Julie Martin and Charley Matheson tied the knot recently after a long courtship. The bride's mother, Diane Martin, and her sisters Mia Glickman and Suzanne Cooke, were in attendance as well as the bridegroom's brothers and sister, friends, and other family members at an elegant reception at the couple's home, "RoseBank." The newlyweds, who share a love of horses, have been documenting their fox hunting forays, with Julie carrying a video camera on horseback –quite a feat while galloping over hill and dale.
Richmond native Janie Covington and Andrew Motion, a local gentleman/ estate agent with Sheridan-MacMahon Ltd., have announced their engagement and will soon join the Mathesons as prominent Hunt Country newlyweds.
"The Oaks," the 215-acre estate formerly owned by philanthropist and environmentalist Joan Irvine Smith (as in the Irvine Museum, University of California/Irvine, etc.) has been sold. Some will recall that Smith's late former husband, Cappy Smith, was a legendary dashing horseman and a master of the Orange County Hunt.


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Thursday, July 26, 2012
Posted by Rot at 5:51 PM
Labels: candy, treats, trick 'r treat
2 comments:
- October's Daughter said...
Heh. I always kind of wanted to see something like that.
- July 27, 2012 at 11:52 PM
- Rot said...
That's a frame from the film Trick 'r Treat. A whole flight of stairs like that...
- July 28, 2012 at 3:29 AM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Updated: Feb. 5, 7:40 a.m.
CVS Caremark announced Wednesday that it will remove cigarettes and all tobacco products from its 7,600 pharmacies nationwide by October 1 – costing the retailer an estimated $1.5 billion in annual revenue.
The move addresses what public health officials and pharmacists have long seen as a hypocritical practice: patients picking up medications to treat disease, not to mention smoking-cessation products, can also add a pack of cigarettes to their purchase. In recent years, the disconnect has become even more glaring, as retail pharmacies have increasingly shifted their role in the health-care community, investing in delivering medical services such as immunizations and other basic care through retail clinics, and targeting more wellness-oriented goals. Such health-care delivery, says Dr. Steven Schroeder, professor of medicine at the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the University of California San Francisco, "is in clear conflict with the commercial interests of pharmacy chains in selling tobacco products. I think the pressure has been building over the last five years as pharmacies have gotten more into the care-dispensing business." Schroeder co-wrote an essay appearing the latest issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association with CVS Caremark's chief medical officer, Dr. Troyen Brennan.
MORE:Thank You, Surgeon General: Tobacco Control Has Saved 8 Million Lives
The American Medical Association (AMA) supported the decision, noting that reducing access to tobacco products is one part of a multi-pronged approach to lowering smoking rates in the U.S. In 2009, the Association urged pharmacies to stop selling tobacco products, a position echoed by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, and the American Pharmacists Association.
President Obama issued a statement Wednesday morning praising the step, as well. "As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today's decision will help advance my Administration's efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs," Obama said.
Other aspects of the anti-smoking effort include taxes on tobacco products and increased education and awareness about the dangers of smoking, a strategy that began 50 years ago with the first Surgeon General Report on Tobacco, which linked smoking to lung disease, including cancer. Tobacco and smoking causes nearly 500,000 deaths each year in the U.S., and costs $132 billion in medical expenses, according to the latest Surgeon General Report.
MORE: Surgeon General's Report on Tobacco Has a New Target: E-Cigarettes
Public health officials hope CVS's decision will prompt other pharmacy chains to do the same, and build on the regulatory and cultural momentum that is marginalizing smoking. Wider bans on lighting up in public, hotels, planes, and office buildings has helped to drop smoking rates from 42% of U.S. adults in 1965 to 18% currently. Still, 42 million Americans light up, and by making cigarettes scarcer, it's possible more smokers may consider kicking the habit. "If someone comes into CVS to buy a pack of cigarettes, and CVS isn't selling them, they might think that it's time to quit," says Schroeder.
This article has been updated to include President Obama's statement.
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Crochet Pattern: Fall Flower PinBy Emilee Gettle – 8 Comments
|I love crocheted accessories that add a personal touch to my wardrobe. Check out this sweet flower pin; it's so easy to make! There is so much you can do with this ultra easy project. You could make one of these flowers to accent a child's crocheted headband. They are the perfect hat accessory or how about pinning one on your purse. You could also sew a few of these flowers along the hem of a little girl's dress. Don't be afraid to mix things up a bit and alternate each flower's yarn color or add a vintage button in the center. Crochet yourself a flower garden!
|Skill Level:
Finished Size: 3" (8 cm) wide and 3" (8 cm) tall
Medium Weight Yarn (approximately 10 yards)
Crochet Hook H (5.0 mm)
Pin Back
Round 1 in small flower measures 1 3/4" in diameter.
Need help understanding the crochet abbreviations and symbols? Check out the crochet abbreviation chart.
Crochet Pattern: Fall Flower Pin
Small Flower
Round 1: ch 4, sl st in first chain made to form a ring, (ch 4, sl st into ring) 10 times.
Finish off.
Medium Flower
Round 1: ch 4, sl st in first chain made to form a ring, (ch 8, sl st into ring) 10 times.
Finish off.
Large Flower
Round 1: ch 4, sl st in first chain made to form a ring, (ch 12, sl st into ring) 10 times.
Finish off.
Assembling the Flower
Stack the three flowers together with the small one on top, the medium flower in the middle, and the large flower on the bottom. Use a needle and thread (choose a color that matches your yarn) to sew the three flowers together. I like to run my needle around the flower's center so I know it is securely joined.
Cut out a 1 1/4" x 1 1/4" square of felt (choose a color that matches your yarn). Now use a needle and thread to sew the pin back to the center of the felt.
Next, sew the felt to the back of your flower and you're finished!
Need help crocheting this nifty flower pin or do you have something to share? Jot me a note and I'll get back with you. Have fun and happy crocheting!


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Castelberger, Andreas (ca. 1500-after 1531)
1953 Article[[|]]
Andreas Castelberger (Andres auf der Stültzen), a follower of Conrad Grebel in the first Swiss Brethren group at Zürich, also called Andres auf der Krucken (crutches), or simply the Stültzer; in Chur he was called hinkender (limping) Andres, because he was a cripple. He was from the canton of Grisons and a bookseller by trade. As early as 1522, before he joined the Anabaptists, he had shown himself a successful "innovator." He was expressly forbidden to continue his meetings with the "confused people," which were attended by large numbers. At these meetings—so the witnesses said at the trial—he had given an exegesis of Romans and preached particularly against pride and usury, church benefices, and war. He joined the new Anabaptist movement with enthusiasm, but he could not stay in Zürich more than a short time, for the non-Zürich followers of the group, including Andreas, were expelled by the mandate of 18 January 1525. In consideration of his illness the Zürich council granted his request to postpone his expulsion by permitting him to stay a month longer, but he was forbidden to preach (letter to the council published in Anzeiger für Schweizerische Geschichte, 1900, No. 3, 329-331). He later returned to his homeland in Chur, and was also very successful in the Anabaptist cause there. A letter written by Conrad Grebel to Castelberger in May 1525 was published with annotations in Mennonite Quarterly Review 1 (July 1927) 41-52. -- Neff
1987 Article
Andreas Castelberger was resident in Zürich after late 1521 or early 1522. He plied the trade of bookseller between Glarus, Basel, and Einsiedeln. As supplier of radical Reformation pamphlets in and around Zürich, he became the liaison between the rural and urban radicals, made contact with Andreas Karlstadt, and was one of the signatories of Conrad Grebel's letter to Thomas Müntzer. J. F. G. Goeters considered Castelberger's study meetings for lay people to have been the cradle of Zürich Anabaptism. Here biblical opinions were sought on such topics as church benefices, usury, payment of the tithe, war, images, and infant baptism. On 21 January 1525, the day of the first Zürich Anabaptist baptisms, the city council ordered him to cease all private meetings and to leave within eight days. Petitions pleading ill health secured temporary extensions. On 12 June 1525 the council learned that Castelberger was reading Zwingli's Taufbüchlin (published 27 May 1525) to peasant visitors, explaining "that Zwingli had written falsely ... strengthening them in Anabaptism, holding the opinion that one should have no authority and need not pay the tithe." Without further delay, Castelberger, his wife, children, books and belongings were loaded on a boat and deported. Among the books were presumably holdings from Grebel's library. Only a few weeks earlier Grebel, seeking to cover his debts, had consigned his library to Castelberger.
From Zürich, Castelberger returned to his home area of Graubünden (Grisons). On 17 March 1528, the reformer of Chur, Johannes Comander, complained that "limping Andreas" was sowing dissent among his parishioners. A Castelberger, presumably our Andreas, obtained citizenship at Chur in 1531. Thereafter our sources fall silent. -- WOP
Bender, Harold S. Conrad Grebel, c. 1498-1526: the founder of the Swiss Brethren sometimes called Anabaptists. Goshen, IN: Mennonite Historical Society, 1950. Reprinted Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1971.
Egli, Emil, ed. Aktensammlung zur Geschichte der Züricher Reformation in den Jahren 1519-1533. Reprint Nieuwkoop, 1973: 66-67, 72-73, 83, 85-86.
Fast, Heinold, ed. Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer in der Schweiz, vol. 2: Ostschweiz. 1974: 502, 504, 509, no. 7.
Goeters, J. F. G. Goeters."Die Vorgeschichte des Taüfertums in Zurich." Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie der Reformation, ed. by Louise Abramowski and J. F. G. Goeters. Neukirchen-Vlyn: Neukirchner Verlag, 1969: 255.
Harder, Leland, ed. The Sources of Swiss Anabaptism: The Grebel Letters and Related Documents, Classics of the Radical Reformation, vol. 4. Scottdale, PA: Herald Press, 1985: 357-358, 203-204, 533-534, 715-718.
Hege, Christian and Christian Neff. Mennonitisches Lexikon, 4 vols. Frankfurt & Weierhof: Hege; Karlsruhe: Schneider, 1913-1967: v. I, 71.
Muralt, L. von, W. Schmidt, eds. Quellen zur Geschichte der Täufer in der Schweiz, vol. 1. Zürich: S. Hirzel, 1952: 37, 55-56, 386-388.
Packull, Werner O. "The Origins of Swiss Anabaptism in the Context of the Reformation of the Common Man." Journal of Mennonite Studies 3 (1985): 38-43, 47.
|Christian Neff
|Werner O. Packull
|Date Published
Cite This Article
MLA style
Neff, Christian and Werner O. Packull. "Castelberger, Andreas (ca. 1500-after 1531)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. 1987. Web. 29 Sep 2023. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Castelberger,_Andreas_(ca._1500-after_1531)&oldid=144931.
APA style
Neff, Christian and Werner O. Packull. (1987). Castelberger, Andreas (ca. 1500-after 1531). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 29 September 2023, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Castelberger,_Andreas_(ca._1500-after_1531)&oldid=144931.
Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 1, pp. 523-524, v. 5, p. 128. All rights reserved.
©1996-2023 by the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. All rights reserved.