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How many walks does your son have? Because my gender creative son has four walks not including his normal everyday walk, which he refers to as his boring walk. He's named all of his walks. Naturally.
He keeps his four non-boring walks in his arsenal for use pretty regularly throughout the day depending on the location, occasion and audience. He has also been known to do a hybrid of two or three walks if the mood strikes.
There's his Fashion Walk which is pretty much straight from the runways. He gets a real serious face and tries to walk by putting one foot directly in front of the other or crossed over the other if at all possible. His eyes look straight ahead. He erases his usual smile in favor of a serious pout and then sucks in his cheeks. Usually he puts his right hand on his right hip and swings his left hand dramatically. Think angry hungry stomping model.
His Fashion Walk is most often used inside of a mall and has been spotted in JC Penny, Forever 21, Nordstrom and Target.
When he is doing his Sassy Diva Walk, his rump sticks out a little more than usual and at least one of his wrists hangs limp from the elbow that is kept tightly at his side. Sassy Diva Walk steps are either very short and quick or long fast strides. For some reason, this walk requires him to look left and right a lot as if he's looking for someone he knows, although I'm pretty sure that when you're doing the Sassy Diva Walk you wouldn't wave to a friend if you saw him/her because you're too busy being a sassy diva. Think Beyonce as "Sasha Fierce."
This walk is best suited for busy places with a fast pace full of people with things to do. It has been utilized at the local art fair, the end-of-the-school-year carnival and, again, Target. It got the most use on our recent Carnival cruise.
The Rock Star Walk is a little out of control and inconsistent. Which I guess is fitting given the name. It usually has big sloppy steps that swing a little wide to the sides. His head can bob from side to side or up and down dramatically. His arms flail and do all sorts of made up hand signs that I assume he uses to convey that he's a glittery unpredictable badass who has seen some things in his short life. Think Avril Lavigne meets Pink.
The Rock Star Walk is the most "masculine" of my son's walks. I've seen it used around his brother's friends, at Dave and Busters, amusement parks and Target (yes, we go there a lot and it is welcoming of all of my son's walks).
I saved his Ballerina Walk for last because it looks to be the most painful. Because he doesn't have pointe shoes, he curls his toes under his feet and hops up on top of them. He then walks gracefully and painfully with his head held high, shoulders back and arms out to the sides. His lips are sucked inside his mouth, which I believe is because he's trying to hold in yelps of pain. Think Natalie Portman in Black Swan.
This walk can only be safely done on carpet. Which means that few have ever witnessed it. That is for the best because those who have seen it have had to look away as they imagine how much it would hurt them to walk that way.
His normal walk is just his natural gait and carries him to school and other boring places like the grocery store and Home Depot. And that's fine because I use my normal, boring walk there too.


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Baltimore County Council Chairwoman Vicki Almond is questioning why County Executive Kevin Kamenetz hasn't spoken out about a local referendum campaign linked to developers.
The petition drive, which seeks to put zoning decisions in Almond's and Councilwoman Cathy Bevins' districts on the 2014 ballot, has ties to politically connected developers Howard Brown and the Cordish Cos. Both developers are unhappy with decisions the councilwomen made in the recent zoning process.
Almond, a Reisterstown Democrat, said this week the developers are trying to manipulate the system, and she feels Kamenetz needs to speak out because the referendum drive has implications for the county's planning process.
"This is not just about Cathy and I," Almond said. "This is about Baltimore County and economic development going forward. If people want to do business in Baltimore County going forward, are they going have to ask David Cordish and Howard Brown if it's okay?"
Kamenetz chief of staff Don Mohler said it would be "premature" for Kamenetz to weigh in because it remains to be seen whether the issue will even be on the ballot.
"He signed the bills once they were passed, indicating that he thought the council did their due diligence," Mohler said. "At this time, he's just going to refrain from commenting … Let's see what happens. He's not somebody that jumps to conclusions."
Representatives for Brown and Cordish haven't responded to requests seeking comment.
A referendum drive to overturn zoning decisions is unprecedented in the county. The Committee for Zoning Integrity – which is linked to Brown – is promoting the petition drive. The committee's website (www.fixthemaps.com) claims that signing the petitions would lead to "less prioritization for the concerns of special interests and developers…"
Almond called the developers' tactics "rather appalling."
"I'm angry because I think what they're trying to do the process and to the system is wrong," Almond said.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
YouTube Sensation Brendan MacFarlane Takes the Stage With Country Stars
When you're 16 years old, getting your driver's license is the ultimate prize. But, what about sharing the stage with Vince Gill, Dawn Sears and the Time Jumpers? YouTube sensation Brendan MacFarlane got to experience that -- and it was probably just as cool as wheelin' around without a parent.
The performance took place Monday (May 5) at Nashville's 3rd and Lindsley, and although he was surrounded by successful country artists, MacFarlane appeared calm and confident, like an old-timer.
He sang Hank Williams' 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' and the Gill as well as a few of the Time Jumpers jumped in and accompanied MacFarlane, who was playing the acoustic guitar. Although he has a Scottish brogue when speaking, when the 16-year-old sings he sounds like a country singer with a whole lot of soul.
The song has a special meaning to MacFarlane, who hails from Perth, Scotland, because it's the song that inspired him to sing, according to his website, and he also performed it at his grandmother's funeral in 2010.
It's possible you recognize MacFarlane as he starred in a YouTube video that went viral in 2010.


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Riley Callahan has plans to finally reveal his secret feelings for his best friend (who just happens to be his brother's ex). But tragedy strikes and derails his plans.
Watching the love of his life fall for his brother was enough to send Riley straight to boot camp. But over a year later, he's officially a marine, and Beau and Paige are no longer an item. When Riley's tour in Afghanistan is up, he intends to confess his feelings to Paige and win his best friend's heart once and for all.
But all that changes when an IED takes the life of a comrade and leaves Riley an amputee. Now he's heading home, injured and troubled. His plans to win Paige are a distant dream. She deserves so much more than the man that's left. All he can do now is put some healthy distance between them. But upon his return he discovers his family has arranged for him to stay with Paige.
Paige is a nurturer at heart and happy to take care of her best buddy. By all appearances Riley is adjusting miraculously well to his disability. But as the days pass, Paige begins to see that the smiles and laughter are just a mask for the pain he's hiding. To make matters worse, her job is in serious jeopardy. The animal shelter that she's poured her heart into has lost its funding, and she has three months to come up with the money needed to save it.
As the weeks wear on, Paige's feelings for Riley begin to shift into uncharted territory. Why is she suddenly noticing his arm muscles and the way his lips curl at the corners? Will she be able to deny her feelings for another Callahan brother? And will Riley let his heart heal so he can let Paige in?
- Full-length Contemporary Romance
- Includes Discussion Questions for Book Clubs
- Part of the Summer Harbor series
- Book One: Falling Like Snowflakes
- Book Two: The Goodbye Bride
- Book Three: Just a Kiss
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson
- Publish Date: September 2016
- Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
- Shipping Weight: 0.7 pounds
- Page Count: 336
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text:
Jamiew and tbX are in town to introduce you to Firefox hacking, Javascripts and how-to mess with webpages. So if you wanna hang out with some NYC Resistor and FFFFFat Lab folks and do some cool stuff, shoot an email to tobi ätt tobi-x.com
26-01-09 (tmrw) @ 6pm
NYC Resistor,
397 Bridge Street, 5th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201
The expressions published in this site are all in the public domain. You may enjoy, use, modify, snipe about and republish all F.A.T. media and technologies as you see fit.


text:
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Jump into a backyard favourite for safe, reliable and bouncy trampolines.
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How Vuly created a strong and safe swing set
With the new 360 Pro, Vuly has created the strongest, safest and most fun outdoor play set in the world – from the stable frame to the long-lasting parts. 360 Pro is built to last and made to offer a unique play experience. Try swings that you won't find anywhere else – like the Spin and Yoga Swings – or get premium quality Classic and Nest Swings.
Upgrade, upsize and refine your 360 Pro with new configurations as your tastes change; it allows you to create and recreate your own fun again and again, with different swings and accessories every time. 360 Pro is a long-term investment in outdoor fun for your family – and one that can change every season.
Vuly owners on Instagram


text:
MIA: Marxist Writers: John Reed
1914: Insurgent Mexico
1916: The War in Eastern Europe
1919: Ten Days That Shook the World
Articles, Letters, Speeches, etc
1913: A Taste of Justice
1913: War in Paterson
1914: The traders' war
1914: Mac—American
1915: The Worst Thing in Europe
1915: A Daughter of the Revolution
1916: Love at Sea
1916: Roosevelt Sold Them Out
1917: Whose War?
1917: One Solid Month of Liberty
1918: Soviets in Action
1918: The Structure of the Soviet State
1918: Bolshevism in America
1918: The Origins of Worker's Control of Industry in Russia
1918: Red Russia – Articles from The Liberator
1918: They Are Still There!
1919: How Soviet Russia Conquered Imperial Germany
1919: A Pen Picture – C.G. Rakovsky
1919: A New Appeal
1919: Socialist Tactics?
1919: The Party Situation in New York
1919: The Pink Terror, Part 1: The Rape of the 17th Assembly District Branch
1919: "The Pink Terror, Part 2: The Pillage of the 18th-20th Assembly District Branch
1919: Liar or Just Doesn't Know?
1919: Letter of John Reed and Ben Gitlow in New York to the Labor Committee of the Left Wing National Conference, August 11, 1919.
1919: Letter of John Reed, et al. in New York to C.E. Ruthenberg in Cleveland, August 11, 1919.
1919: Aspects of the Russian Revolution
1919: Karl Liebknecht's Words
1919: What's the Matter with America?
1920: America and the Negro question at 2nd Congress of Comintern 1920
1920: From the Revolutionary Workers of America to the Oppressed People of the East
1921: Soviet Russia Now
Last updated on: 30 September 2014


text: I have installed system how it has been told in the instruction. All works perfect. But i have problem with PHP. It works incorrectly. I have read through forum. Has write register_globals=on in php.ini. The problem is not solved. Here an example: http: // it.sznsk.ru/INSTALLATION/installSQL.php Under the instruction should be: http: // it.sznsk.ru/HowToInstall/ PS System is SuSe 10.0 and ispconfig 2.2.2 Thanks for support!


text:
In with the New
A Commentary By Debra J. Saunders
In the end, American voters serve as the great equalizer. When one party goes too far, voters snap the leash, as they did on Tuesday.
I still maintain that John McCain was the better presidential candidate, but I can't blame swing voters for rejecting a party that had lost touch with the hopes and dreams of ordinary Americans, and instead deciding to take a chance on the forward-looking Barack Obama. Thus history is made.
And the stale GOP leadership deserves to be history. Take Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, who was convicted on seven felony violations of federal ethics laws in a trial that paraded before the world a man utterly corrupted by power, and -- worse -- so arrogant that he believed he could convince a jury that a $2,700 Brookstone massage chair that sat in his home for seven years was a loan, and that he was clueless that $250,000 in home improvements were done on someone else's dime.
Then there's Sen. Larry Craig, R-Men's Room, who reneged on his pledge to resign from office after he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a bathroom stall. The Republican Party suffers from a true cancer of careerism when disgraced lawmakers cling to their seats, uncaring as to how they stain their institutions.
Too many GOP leaders think it's all about them, not the country they serve. Take House GOP leader John Boehner, who claimed that a highly partisan speech delivered by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi before the first failed vote for a $700 billion bailout caused some GOP members, who would have voted for the bill, "to go south."
Yes, Pelosi screwed up, too. And I blame both parties for that vote. But I also know which party had the most to lose -- and which nominee never recovered in the polls after the first bailout vote failed. At a time when Republicans should have been fighting against excessive spending, they turned into enablers of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to lard the bailout measure with an extra $110 billion in goodies.
The sad part is, McCain was different, better than the rest. He has fought earmark spending throughout his Senate career. He opposed the Bush prescription-drug plan, the pork-heavy farm bill and the special-interest-bonanza energy bill. In the end, however, voters came to associate McCain with the worst of the GOP.
And McCain helped. When McCampaign honed in on Obama's association with Bill Ayers, an education professor who helped found the terrorist Weather Underground in the 1960s, the gambit backfired with swing voters because McCain seemed stuck in a bygone era.
I have to think that some folks simply have had enough of the sound-bite wars of the Bush years. And fair or not, GOP running mate Sarah Palin's presence virtually guaranteed more rancor and finger-pointing over nonessential issues.
Many hardcore Republicans will blame the loss on McCain's wobbly approach to illegal immigration and global warming. But McCain also lost in choosing to follow the Bush 2004 path to victory -- that is, to work to turn out the GOP base, instead of reaching out to the middle. And while Palin may have a promising political career ahead of her, she was needlessly provocative when she talked about rural states as the "real America."
Let me add, there are a lot of moderate Republicans who would like to see the party move to the middle on abortion and other social issues. They were voters McCain could not afford to lose.
The Democratic Congress hasn't exactly reformed Washington spending since taking power in 2006. It's not just the bailout bill; members also have kept adding zeroes to their Son of Stimulus package proposals and even heaped pork onto Iraq war funding bills.
In 2006, GOP Rep. Mark Foley of Florida resigned after ABC News reported that he had sent lewd e-mails to male House pages. The family-values Democrat who picked up his seat already is drowning in scandal, including charges that he put a lover on the federal payroll.
To judge by the last two years, the Democrats may, in four years, hit the lows to which it took Republicans more than a decade to fall. They've won the right to try.
See Other Political Commentary
See Other Commentary by Debra J. Saunders
Views expressed in this column are those of the author, not those of Rasmussen Reports.
Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.
We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.
Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.
To learn more about our methodology, click here.


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Wateswith History, Family Crest & Coats of Arms
Wateswith is a name that came to England in the 11th century wave of migration that was set off by the Norman Conquest of 1066. The Wateswith family lived in Yorkshire, at Wadsuuorde or Wadsworth.
Early Origins of the Wateswith family
The surname Wateswith was first found in the West Riding of Yorkshire at Wadsuuorde or Wadsworth. This place was recorded in the Domesday Book taken in 1086 as 'King's Land', a Moorland with two churches and scattered houses. An isolated building within the village is said to be the setting for Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'.
The village was granted by King William, to Roger de Bully, believed to be the ancestor of the Wadsworths, for his assistance at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. [1]
Years later, records show Adam de Waddeswrth listed in the Court Rolls of the Manor of Wakefield in 1275. In the parish church of Silkstone, the name was recorded as Waddysworth (1556), Wardsworth (1656), Wadsworth (1666) and finally as Wordsworth (1668). [2] Longfellow's middle name was Wadsworth.
Early History of the Wateswith family
This web page shows only a small excerpt of our Wateswith research. Another 51 words (4 lines of text) covering the years 1572, 1623, 1594, 1675, 1604, 1656, 1622, 1730, 1817 and 1777 are included under the topic Early Wateswith History in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.
Wateswith Spelling Variations
The English language only became standardized in the last few centuries. For that reason, spelling variations are common among many Anglo-Norman names. The shape of the English language was frequently changed with the introduction of elements of Norman French, Latin, and other European languages; even the spelling of literate people's names were subsequently modified. Wateswith has been recorded under many different variations, including Wadsworth, Wadworth, Wadesworth, Wordsworth and others.
Early Notables of the Wateswith family (pre 1700)
Outstanding amongst the family at this time was James Wadworth (1572?-1623), English divine and Jesuit, elected scholar at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; William Wadsworth (1594-1675), English-born early pioneer of New England, founder of Hartford, Connecticut and the patriarch of numerous and prominent Wadsworth descendants of North America; James Wadsworth (1604-c.1656), an English man who on a sea voyage to Spain (1622) was captured by Moorish pirates and sold...
Migration of the Wateswith family
To escape the uncertainty of the political and religious uncertainty found in England, many English families boarded ships at great expense to sail for the colonies held by Britain. The passages were expensive, though, and the boats were unsafe, overcrowded, and ridden with disease. Those who were hardy and lucky enough to make the passage intact were rewarded with land, opportunity, and social environment less prone to religious and political persecution. Many of these families went on to be important contributors to the young nations of Canada and the United States where they settled. Wateswiths were some of the first of the immigrants to arrive in North America: William Wadsworth, who was on record in Virginia in 1621; Christopher Wadsworth, who was on record in Plymouth, MA in 1632; William Wadsworth, his wife Sarah Talcott, their daugher Sarah and sons William and John, who were all on record in Cambridge, MA in 1632.


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Publication date : 2015
Number of pages : 199
Edited by : Romuald Jagodzinski (ETUI)
Contributions by: Jan Cremers, Filip Dorssemont, Sylvaine Laulom, Pascale Lorber and Romuald Jagodziński
Since 1994, the EU has established mechanisms for information and consultation procedures for workers in transnational companies (European Works Councils Directive 94/45/EC). In 2009, the EWC Directive was reviewed and amended (Recast EWC Directive 2009/38/EC). The year 2016 will see the formal conclusion of a new evaluation procedure designed to ascertain whether the improvements of 2009 have had any impact on teh EWC's conditions of operation and whether any further amendements should be considered.
This book assesses in detail the ways in which key improvements brought about by the 2009 EWC Recast Directive have been implemented in national legislation.
The authors of the book have looked into the national transposition legislation of the 31 countries of the European Economic Area. The findings are very relevant for EU policy-making and for practitioners to deal with differing national legislative regimes.
Some of the main findings of the book are:
- National level social partners were included in pre-implementation negotiations to a very varying extent, and in some Member States not consulted at all, which had impact on the quality of national transposition acts.
- Definitions of information and consultation were, in the vast majority of cases, transposed literally (copy-paste), rarely providing essential supplementary details. The same applies to definitions of transnationality, where only few Member States referred to explanations and principles set by the Preamble of the Directive.
- Problems with implementation of the rules on confidentiality of information: in many Member States confidentiality requirements are in contradiction with the EWC members' duty to report back to workers; often rules on judicial redress to challenge confidentiality are missing; finally, sanctions for breaching confidentiality by EWC members are common, but not for companies that abuse confidentiality.
- Specific rules and procedures on social partners' increased role in EWCs (duty to inform them about launch of EWC negotiations) missing in almost all Member States.
- Specific means and resources for EWCs (meetings, communication, training, etc.) and protection for EWC members in many respects only formally applied (mainly copy/paste from the Recast Directive).
- Enforcement frameworks do not guarantee universal access to justice: EWCs often have no capacity to act in courts, have no means to seek legal counsel and sanctions are not 'effective, proportionate and dissuasive'.
The authors of the book make the following recommendations:
- The forthcoming 2016 Implementation Evaluation must be focused on practical effectiveness of the new rights in a holistic context, and not merely on formal presence of provisions.
- Copy-paste from the directive should not be considered proper implementation.
- The European Commission should assume its role of the 'Guardian of the Treaties' and require improvements from the Member States where necessary.
ETUI, Brussels,
ISBN 978-2-87452-387-8 (pdf)
To order the book (hard copy) please contact
Free download
Full versionIntroduction - Romuald JagodzinskiExecutive Summary - Romuald JagodzinskiChapter 1 - Fundamental principles of EWC Directive 2009/38/EC (EN) by Sylvaine Laulom and Filip DorssemontChapter 2 - Procedure for the establishment and adaptation of a European Works Council or an information and consultation procedure (EN) by Sylvaine LaulomChapter 3 - Transposition of provisions of the Recast Directive on the functioning of the European Works Council (EN) by Jan Cremers and Pascale LorberChapter 4 - Enforcement frameworks and employees' rights of access to enforcement procedures (EN) by Romuald Jagodzinski and Pascale LorberConclusions (EN) by Romuald Jagodzinski


text:
Medical mission inspires North Central pre-health majors
Mar 13, 2013
Morgan Wichman '14 always wanted to travel to Honduras with an optometrist from her hometown of Freeport, IL, for a medical mission. She decided this was the year to take a week in February for the mission—if she could find friends to travel with. It didn't take long for three North Central friends to say "I'm in" and make plans for the World Gospel Outreach-sponsored trip.
"I work at an optometry office during school breaks and my boss there, Dr. Dale Kaney, has been doing this trip for 20 years," says Wichman, a biology major who wants to become an optometrist. Wichman has experience performing pre-tests on patients for glaucoma, visual field screenings and using the autorefractor, all useful skills in an undeveloped country like Honduras.
Joining her on the trip were Mackenzie Goralski '14, a biology major who wants to become a physician assistant; Macayla Yount '14, a psychology major who wants to become an occupational therapist; and Cameron Anderson '14, a biology and psychology major who's interested in a health field like radiology or neuroscience. The North Central students were part of a larger health care team that provided medical, dental and eye care to 2,254 people in one week at two different sites in the capital city of Tegucigalpa. They stayed at a mission house that's available to volunteers.
Wichman helped perform optical tests and hand out eyeglasses that team members brought with them in their 30 trunks of supplies. "We'd give glasses to someone who needed a strong correction—and they'd cry because they could finally see," she says.
Goralski helped dispense drugs and vitamins from the portable pharmacy, took blood pressure readings and cleaned wounds. "We saw conditions like scabies and ringworm that you don't see in the states," she says.
Yount worked with the children in ministry activities and helped translate for the group; she was the only North Central student who spoke Spanish. "They were so appreciative when I spoke Spanish and the children wanted to practice their English," she says. She and others also assisted with treating children for head lice, a common health problem.
Anderson spent time working on a construction project—pouring a concrete floor for a home that only had a dirt floor—and helped wherever else she was needed. "There is such a stark contrast there between poor and rich," she says. "People would walk for miles with little children to get help."
All four students would like to return next year if they can work out the logistics. "Our professors were really helpful and cooperative," says Goralski.
Yount summarized the feeling among the group: "We didn't want to leave. Our hearts are in Honduras—it's a special place."


text:
Goodyear Duramax G2 Tyres Available in Coleraine
Duramax G2
Why choose this tyre
It's tough
- The tyre is made for all road conditions.
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- Duramax gets its name from its durability − its ability to wear well makes it an economical choice for every minibus taxi.
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Solid shoulder ribs
- The tyre boasts responsive handling under heavy and light load conditions, giving you more traction in cornering and taking turns.


text:
I4i's victory in its patent infringement case against Microsoft was a slap in the face for the Redmond juggernaut. Not only did a judge order $290M USD in damages be awarded to i4i for Microsoft's violation of its XML patents, but it also ordered Microsoft to stop selling Word, in its current form, until a final verdict is reached. Word currently uses the Office Open XML (OOXML) format, which infringes on i4i's patent.
As the days roll by and Microsoft's 60-day compliance windows closes, the company is pleading with courts to lift the injunction. It says that if the injunction is not lifted it will likely be forced to stop selling Microsoft Office for several months.
Writes Microsoft's defense team, "Microsoft and its distributors face the imminent possibility of a massive disruption in their sales. If left undisturbed, the district court's injunction will inflict irreparable harm on Microsoft by potentially keeping the centerpiece of its product line out of the market for months. The injunction would block not only the distribution of Word, but also of the entire Office suite, which contains Word and other popular programs."
Some are puzzled, though, as to why Microsoft would stop selling Office, rather than simply changes it file format and distinguishing between the current and XML-less editions. States Barry Negrin, a partner with the New York firm Pryor Cashman LLP who has practiced patent and trademark law for 17 years, "All Microsoft has to do is disable the custom XML feature, which should be pretty easy to do, then give that a different SKU number from what's been sold so it's easy to distinguish the two versions."
In the unlikely event that Microsoft does indeed carry through on its claim to stop selling Office, it could prove a headache for consumers and businesses, who rely on the software's functionality. However, light-weight alternatives such as Open Office 3 (which nears Office 2007 in functionality) and Google Docs could get a brief boost if Microsoft Office disappeared for several months -- a prospect that has some excited.
Source: DailyTech


text:
By Roni Krouzman
Twenty years ago, I walked into a Palestinian restaurant in occupied East Jerusalem with my Israeli cousin. He was one year into his military service, clad in IDF military fatigues and carrying an M-16. Uncomfortable, to say the least.
This week, 10,000 or so miles away and just before the cease-fire in the latest round of war was announced, I walked into my favorite Middle Eastern restaurant in the San Francisco Bay Area. As I approached the counter, I noticed I was having trouble looking the owner in the eyes. He is Palestinian, and I am a Jewish American with Israeli roots. Not exactly an amicable time for our people, yet again.
But I summoned the courage to look up, and I ordered the food I love and enjoyed so much on those summer trips to Israel (and on a few occasions, to Jordan and the Israeli occupied West Bank): falafel, tomato cucumber salad, humus, fried eggplant and pita.
I asked the man, who appeared to be my mother's age (she lives in Tel Aviv), "Do you have any family in the Middle East?"
"Yes," he said, looking down. "I have a sister in Gaza."
'Shit,' I thought.
"Oh wow," I said.
"This morning I called her and suddenly I heard a loud boom in the background," he said, gesturing with his hands. "She told me that the house next door had just been hit by an Israeli shell." I exhaled. His voice rose, and grew tighter. "Then she told me she had to go, and hung up the phone."
He was visibly upset, of course, this kind man in his late 60s, my mother's age. "I'm so sorry," I said.
"This is a massacre. This doesn't make any sense."
"I know," I said. "I'm Israeli and I agree with you."
We commiserated on how sad and stupid it all was. He came around the counter and stood next to me.
"We want to live in peace," he said earnestly. "Let's sit around the table and work it out. We'll have to give some land, the Israelis will have to give some settlements. We'll work it out."
I know that. If only I had the power. But unfortunately, the way I see it, Israel, the dominant force, hasn't been keeping its end of the bargain. It didn't when I was 17 and it isn't 20 years later.
I sat at a table outside and ate my falafel, tomato cucumber salad, humus, fried eggplant and pita. I thought of this man and his sister, and her neighbor's home. And my heart felt heavy.
Had her neighbors survived? Had she? One story of so many thousands. But now, after weeks of seeing unconscionable images of grieving parents, terrified children, bloodied bodies and neighborhoods in rubble, the war suddenly had a very personal face.
But my heart also remembers that food we love, Arabs and Jews. My heart remembers how this Palestinian restaurant owner in Marin always greets me with a smile when I ask in my Israeli accent, "Kif h'alek?" (How are you?) My heart remembers how those young Palestinian guys who sold my cousin and I our falafel 20 years ago asked if we were Israeli, and when we said we were, they said, "Peace my friends," and smiled.
"How can they not hate us after what we've done to them?" I thought back then. I wonder that less today. I know some do, and I honestly can't blame them.
But the vast majority don't. Because the vast majority see past the governments and the extremists, and past even majorities when they go astray, and know we are all human and hold a vision of peace. They tell me we are cousins. Maybe, if enough people hold this vision, we'll all sit down to falafel some day and live like cousins again.
Roni Krouzman is an American Jew born to Israeli parents. His articles on Israel and Palestine have been published by the Middle East Report and the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. His mother, cousins, aunts and uncles live in Israel.


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What Is the Doctrine of Divine Election?
The idea that God does what He wants, and that what He does is true and right because He does it, is foundational to our understanding of everything in Scripture, including the doctrine of election.
In the broad sense, election refers to the fact that God chooses (or elects) to do everything that He does in whatever way He sees fit. When He acts, He does so only because He willfully and independently chooses to act. According to His own nature, predetermined plan, and good pleasure, He decides to do whatever He desires, without pressure or constraint from any outside influence.
The Bible makes this point repeatedly. In the act of Creation, God made precisely what He wanted to create in the way He wanted to create it (cf. Gen. 1:31). And ever since Creation, He has sovereignly prescribed or permitted everything in human history, in order that He might accomplish the redemptive plan that He previously had designed (cf. Isa. 25:1; 46:10; 55:11; Rom. 9:17; Eph. 3:8–11).
In the Old Testament, He chose a nation for Himself. Out of all the nations in the world, He selected Israel (Deut. 7:6; 14:2; Pss. 105:43; 135:4). He chose the Israelites not because they were better or more desirable than any other people, but simply because He decided to choose them. In the words of Richard Wolf, "How odd of God to choose the Jews." It might not have rhymed as well, but the same would have been true of any other people God might have selected. God chooses whomever He chooses for reasons that are wholly His.
The nation of Israel was not the only recipient in Scripture of God's electing choice. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is called "'My Chosen One'" (Luke 9:35). The holy angels also are referred to as "elect angels" (1 Tim. 5:21). And New Testament believers are called "God's chosen ones" (Col. 3:12; cf. 1 Cor. 1:27; 2 Thess. 2:13; 2 Tim. 2:10; Titus 1:1; 1 Peter 1:1; 2:9; 5:13; Rev. 17:14), meaning that the church is a community of those who were chosen, or "elect" (Eph. 1:4).
When Jesus told His disciples, "'You did not choose me, but I chose you'" (John 15:16), He was underscoring this truth. And the New Testament reiterates it in passage after passage. Acts 13:48b describes salvation in these words: "As many as were appointed to eternal life believed." Ephesians 1:4–6 notes that God "chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved." In his letters to the Thessalonians, Paul reminds his readers that he knew God's choice of them (1 Thess. 1:4) and that he was thankful for them "because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved" (2 Thess. 2:13). The Word of God is clear: believers are those whom God chose for salvation from before the beginning.
The foreknowledge to which Peter refers (1 Peter 1:2) should not be confused with simple foresight. Some teach this view, contending that God, in eternity past, looked down the halls of history to see who would respond to His call and then elected the redeemed on the basis of their response. Such an explanation makes God's decision subject to man's decision, and gives man a level of sovereignty that belongs only to God. It makes God the One who is passively chosen rather than the One who actively chooses. And it misunderstands the way in which Peter uses the term foreknowledge. In 1 Peter 1:20, the apostle uses the verb form of that word, prognosis in the Greek, to refer to Christ. In that case, the concept of "foreknowledge" certainly includes the idea of a deliberate choice. It is reasonable, then, to conclude that the same is true when Peter applies prognosis to believers in other places (cf. 1 Peter 1:2).
The ninth chapter of Romans also reiterates the elective purposes of God. There, God's electing prerogative is clearly displayed in reference to His saving love for Jacob (and Jacob's descendants) as opposed to Esau (and Esau's lineage). God chose Jacob over Esau, not on the basis of anything Jacob or Esau had done, but according to His own free and uninfluenced sovereign purpose. To those who might protest, "That is unfair!" Paul simply asks, "Who are you, O man, to answer back to God?" (v. 20).
Many more Scripture passages could be added to this survey. Yet as straightforward as the Word of God is, people continually have difficulty accepting the doctrine of election. The reason, again, is that they allow their preconceived notions of how God should act (based on a human definition of fairness) to override the truth of His sovereignty as laid out in the Scriptures.
Frankly, the only reason to believe in election is because it is found explicitly in God's Word. No man and no committee of men originated this doctrine. It is like the doctrine of eternal punishment in that it conflicts with the dictates of the carnal mind. It is repugnant to the sentiments of the unregenerate heart. Like the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and the miraculous birth of our Savior, the truth of election, because it has been revealed by God, must be embraced with simple and unquestioning faith. If you have a Bible and you believe it, you have no option but to accept what it teaches.
The Word of God presents God as the controller and disposer of all creatures (Dan. 4:35; Isa. 45:7; Lam. 3:38), the Most High (Pss. 47:2; 83:18), the ruler of heaven and earth (Gen. 14:19; Isa. 37:16), and the One against whom none can stand (2 Chron. 20:6; Job 41:10; Isa. 43:13). He is the Almighty who works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph. 1:11; cf. Isa. 14:27; Rev. 19:6) and the heavenly Potter who shapes men according to His own good pleasure (Rom. 9:18–22). In short, He is the decider and determiner of every man's destiny, and the controller of every detail in each individual's life (Prov. 16:9; 19:21; 21:1; cf. Ex. 3:21–22; 14:8; Ezra 1:1; Dan. 1:9; James 4:15)—which is really just another way of saying, "He is God."


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Getting source code to display correctly in your blog can be a pain. I tried and tried to work with the <code> tags, but occasionally the visible code wasn't ok (for example replacing quotes and doublequotes incorrectly), taking one "-" off from html comment etc. Jumping on and off from "Visual" and "HTML" editor and updating a post seems to do this.
But of course there's a solution in the wonderful open source community and WordPress plugins that utilize the power. This isn't exactly breaking news as these have been around for while, as I picked up this post:
- WordPress Support: Writing & Editing Code. At that time, Alex Gorbatchev's SyntaxHighlighter Google Code project was used to implement the source code highlighting feature.
I checked if this would've worked by default on self-hosted WordPress, but it seemed like it wouldn't, so I went to plugin hunt. And there seemed to be aplenty of plugins for source code publishing, some with syntax highlighting, some just making sure code displays correctly in <code> tag.
But this is what I decided to try for now and it seems to work nicely:
So whether you want to display just some html code or more advanced source code, these kind of plugins are for you. They are good for both one-two liners as they are for hundreds of lines of serious code. There's plenty of tags in use and all you have to do is enclose the code in a tag and define a language if you want. And the plugin supports a "lighter" style with no highlighting, but securing the formatting the same way.
Since writing this post I have removed the plugin, as I only post sourcecode to posts so often, and the plugin is on with the default so it puts the javascript code to every page, unless you set if off on the post window. However, if you're blog is about coding and you post sourcecode, like html, php, c, or whatever almost every post, this plugin works great (at least until WordPress version 2.7).
Thanks for all these great blogs and bloggers for helping me by providing a bunch of information on the subject:
- WordPress Plugins That Help You Write Code @Lorelle on WordPress
- Writing Code in Your Posts - WordPress Codex
- Posting Source Code @WordPress.com Blog
- Writing and Publishing Code in Your WordPress Blog Posts @The Blog Herald
- Displaying Code In WordPress Posts @ThemeLab
So if you like to read more about source code in posts, check the above for detailed info.


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Last night's Game of Thrones was the only episode thus far to be almost completely self-contained and free of "meanwhiles." But that didn't mean it was simple. If anything, this episode put several of the show's main characters under a microscope and let us see how they performed in an insane situation.
This could have just been a collection of action set pieces. But once again, Game of Thrones proves that character = action. Spoilers ahead...
For a couple years now, Game of Thrones has been telling us over and over that battle is the crucible in which people are made or broken. In the thick of fighting, you find out who you are. We've heard people swapping war stories over and over, to the point where battle has achieved a mythic significance. And now, for the first time, we're seeing it firsthand.
The plot of "Blackwater" is fairly simple: Stannis Baratheon assaults King's Landing, but is defeated thanks to a combination of Tyrion's cunning and valor, and Tywin's last-minute rescue. (And also by Ser Loras Tyrell, getting revenge on Stannis for killing his lover Renly.)
But so many characters are revealed to us in a new light as these events play out, and so many traps are sprung. Director Neil Marshall does a fantastic job of showing just how close the battle comes to going the other way, as Stannis comes within a breath of victory. Stannis' defeat is the sum of a number of individual choices.
Let's take them one by one...
Davos Seaworth
Davos is leading Stannis' fleet into battle, and he's in line to be the Hand of the King. Those ships he's commanding are only there because he convinced the pirate Salladhor Saan to contribute them in the first place, and Stannis only has the support of all those armies because Davos convinced him to leave his Red Priestess Melisandre behind.
But Davos is a crap commander, because he's trying to think like a Lord instead of like the smuggler he used to be. He sees Tyrion's trap a mile away, and still sails right into it. Why are there no ships in the harbor? It's obviously not because all the sailors have deserted, or because they caught the city by surprise, as Davos' feckless son Matthos believes. Rather, it's because this is a trap.
Davos just doesn't have the confidence to order the fleet to stop and pull back before they get trapped in Tyrion and Bronn's fiery massacre. Maybe he lacks the faith in his own authority, or he's afraid of seeming weak in front of his men. In any case, he leads everyone into an obvious trap, and both he and his son are caught in the flames as a result.
Oh, and here's an excellent piece of concept art, that we found over at WICNet.
Stannis Baratheon
Many people would have beat a retreat after losing almost all of their fleet, and a lot of troops. But Stannis is within sight of the walls of King's Landing, and he's not going to give up now. He leads the assault himself, including being the first up the ladders, and he slaughters men right and left. (Not surprisingly with Marshall helming the episode, there is a lot of really intense slaughter in "Blackwater.") Stannis' ferocity is kind of inspirational, and it almost puts him over the finish line. Almost.
The episode begins with Bronn carousing with some wenches and cackling about how many times his nose was broken, as he prepares for the coming slaughter in the way he knows best. Bronn seems completely laid back about the possibility of being dead or worse in the near future, even when the Hound comes and challenges him. (More on him later.)
George R.R. Martin, who wrote the episode, is clearly enjoying putting two characters together who never got to have a private conversation in his books. The Hound finds Bronn's nonchalance almost unbearable, because Bronn's a killer just like the Hound — only smaller. The Hound is preparing to kill Bronn for no other reason than because Bronn seems to be at home in his own skin, and Bronn is ready to stab the Hound in the back, when the warning bells are sounded.
Later, Bronn seems actually quite surprised when Tyrion says they are friends even though Tyrion is paying for Bronn's services. Bronn has never forgotten what he is: a sellsword, who fights for money. If they'd invented that "Sworn to Fun, Loyal to None" tattoo in Westeros, Bronn would have it. And yet, Bronn plays a key role in Tyrion's plan to burn Stannis' fleet, firing the crucial flaming arrow that lights all the Wildfire. And he keeps fighting after many others are giving up, even saving the Hound's life with an ironic, mocking smile and salute.
The Hound
Meanwhile, the Hound has some kind of final breakdown in the midst of all that fire, which brings back his childhood trauma in a horrible way. He freezes up and can't fight any more, despite all his millions of speeches about loving to kill people. When Tyrion tries to rally the Hound to get back outside the walls and kill some attackers, the Hound delivers what would have been the best speech of any other episode, culminating in "Fuck the King." Then he runs and hides in Sansa's bedroom, where he offers to take her home if she comes with him. The Hound is fleeing, but he doesn't want to do it alone. In spite of all his protestations in earlier episodes, he either likes Sansa or thinks she'll be kind to him. But Sansa turns him down and he's forced to run away on his own, disgraced and traumatized.
Lord Varys
This episode really drives home how much of Tyrion's rise to heroism and leadership has been spearheaded by Varys, the Spider. Varys is the one who gave Tyrion that pep talk about how a small man can cast a big shadow a while back, and now Varys builds Tyrion up even more, saying that he's the only man who can save the city. And then he gives Tyrion the only kind of power he has: secrets. In this case, a map of the city, showing the secret tunnels the Targaryens built, which enable Tyrion to outflank Stannis' troops later.
Varys apparently does believe in Tyrion, but he's also desperate to keep Stannis off the throne, because he really believes in dark magic. And he thinks terrible things will result if Westeros has a king who's in thrall to Melisandre, the Red Priestess, and her unspeakable powers.
Good King Joffrey
There's been a running debate, for a couple episodes now, about just what role Joffrey should take in the defense of King's Landing. Should he be leading in the vanguard, or hunkering down in a secure location? Joffrey begins "Blackwater" pretty determined to lead the fighting, getting Sansa to kiss his fancy new sword, which he means to coat with Stannis' blood. But Sansa openly taunts Joffrey, asking if he'll be as brave as her brother Robb, going where the fighting is thickest. Joffrey almost gets tricked into swearing to lead the vanguard, but instead wusses out and says he can't discuss strategy.
Joffrey has no conception of strategy whatsoever, and he's quickly reduced to barking furiously at Tyrion when he sees there are no ships defending the harbor. Later, when his mother summons him back to the Red Keep, he's torn between pretending to be a brave leader and actually saving his own neck. Tyrion points out, yet again, that they'll surely lose if their men don't see the King fighting with them, but Joffrey is too cowardly. This is probably going to be the defining moment of his reign, the day he ran away when things got tough.
Cersei and Sansa
Sansa is still engaged to marry Joffrey, even though she's now openly muttering that she hates him in the middle of the throne room. (The bit where she tells Tyrion she'll pray for his safe return just as she will Joffrey's is really sad.)
And torturing Sansa is one of the few pleasures Cersei has these days, given that she knows exactly how Sansa feels. Cersei is taking it upon herself to educate Sansa in the role of a noblewoman, including putting up a brave front in the middle of a battle and reassuring the other noble ladies that everything will be okay so they can cluck later about your steadfastness. And yet, Cersei wishes she'd been born a boy, like her brother Jaime. She'd rather be wielding swords than "women's weapons" like tears and seduction.
The dynamic between Cersei and Sansa is sort of the reverse of that between Bronn and the Hound, actually — Cersei is nonchalant and smug about her role as manipulator and faker, just as Bronn is about his chosen profession of murderer for hire. But Cersei can't stand to be around Sansa, who is clearly damaged and is being just as much of a liar and fake as Cersei, only without any guile or aplomb. Sansa gets on Cersei's nerves, because she's so bad at pretending, and so obviously a raw nerve.
Cersei's Plan B? Suicide. She's got Ser Ilyn Payne, the tongueless executioner who killed Ned Stark, ready to kill her and Sansa if Stannis gets inside the city. She also has a bottle of deadly Essence of Nightshade which she procured from Grand Maester Pycelle, in case Ser Ilyn fails. She will not be taken alive. Meanwhile, Sansa's plan is to pray and sing hymns, and finally — at Shae's urging — to run and hide in her room, because Stannis won't hurt her.
In the end, Cersei comes within seconds of poisoning herself and Prince Tommen, while she tells a beautiful story about a lion cub who will grow up to be King of the Beasts — but her father shows up at the absolute last second to announce that he's won. And meanwhile, Sansa turns down the chance to flee with the Hound, because she believes she'll be safer with Stannis. Both women make self-destructive choices based on believing that Stannis has won, but only Sansa is stuck with the results of her choice.
Tyrion Lannister
And finally, there's Tyrion, who rises to the occasion amazingly — and then falls into the one trap he didn't see coming.
Tyrion's journey has been paralleled with Ned Stark's, all season long, as he became Hand of the King and tried to do the right thing for the people. He's said over and over again that he won't suffer the same fate as poor old Ned. And this all culminates in an episode where Tyrion chooses to do the right thing and the brave thing, over and over — and then almost does meet the same fate as Lord Eddard, for the same reasons.
The victory over Stannis is clearly thanks to Tyrion. He comes up with a plan to use the "pigshit," aka Wildfire, in a way that won't burn the city to the ground, with that one decoy ship full of the stuff. That takes care of most of Stannis' fleet, and then Tyrion keeps leading the defense, while Joffrey squawks like a ninny.
After Joffrey and the Hound have both fled the battle, it's left to Tyrion to rally people one last time, giving an amazing speech culminating in "There are brave men knocking at our gates. Let's go kill them." Amazeballs. Any other show would have made this the beginning of a rise to greatness, and the episode would have ended with the triumphant Tyrion being carried on the backs of victorious troops. And Tyrion does get a brief moment of celebration where his followers chant "Half Man! Half Man!" before his inevitable (especially on this show) downfall.
Tyrion leads his men through the tunnels under the city, so they can sneak up behind and fuck Stannis' men in the ass. This strategy actually works out quite well, until a ton more of Stannis' troops come around and attack.
And it's at this point that Tyrion gets bushwhacked by Ser Mandon Moore, Joffrey's right-hand asshole, who slashes him in the face and inflicts injuries whose severity we're not sure of at this point. (Westeros does not seem to do very well with treating head injuries in general.) Tyrion has trusted the wrong people, or at least trusted them not to betray him in the middle of a battle. The only thing that saves Tyrion? He's also trusted the right person: his squire Podrick, who spears Ser Mandon and saves Tyrion's life.
As Tyrion lays on the ground, blacking out from his injuries, he sees his father's troops riding to the rescue. The battle's won, but Tyrion's not in any position to celebrate. Because even though battle is the crucible in which Tyrion has been formed as a true hero, it's also the vise in which he's been cracked. We'll find out how badly next week.
All screencaps, pictures and GIFs via WICNet Tumblr.


text: This series offers viewers an up-close and personal look into the world of the modern American entrepreneur. As complicated as starting a business may seem, the goal is to demystify the process by sharing the real life experiences of average Americans who are taking control of their own destiny while creating jobs for others. Over 90% of all companies in America are small businesses. Those small businesses employee over 50% of all people working in this country. Today's media rarely focus on the stories of those Americans and their hard work, despite small-businesses being the backbone of the country. 'Start Up' is a explores the next generation of American business owners and the dreams that drive them.


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Life on the Mississippi

 Chapter 25

 From Cairo to Hickman

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THE scenery, from St. Louis to Cairo—two hundred miles—is varied and beautiful. The hills were clothed in the fresh foliage of spring now, and were a gracious and worthy setting for the broad river flowing between. Our trip began auspiciously, with a perfect day, as to breeze and sunshine, and our boat threw the miles out behind her with satisfactory despatch.

We found a railway intruding at Chester, Illinois; Chester has also a penitentiary now, and is otherwise marching on. At Grand Tower, too, there was a railway; and another at Cape Girardeau. The former town gets its name from a huge, squat pillar of rock, which stands up out of the water on the Missouri side of the river—a piece of nature's fanciful handiwork—and is one of the most picturesque features of the scenery of that region. For nearer or remoter neighbors, the Tower has the Devil's Bake Oven—so called, perhaps, because it does not powerfully resemble anybody else's bake oven; and the Devil's Tea Table—this latter a great smooth-surfaced mass of rock, with diminishing wine-glass stem, perched some fifty or sixty feet above the river, beside a beflowered and garlanded precipice, and sufficiently like a tea-table to answer for anybody, Devil or Christian. Away down the river we have the Devil's Elbow and the Devil's Race-course, and lots of other property of his which I cannot now call to mind.

The Town of Grand Tower was evidently a busier place than it had been in old times, but it seemed to need some repairs here and there, and a new coat of whitewash all over. Still, it was pleasant to me to see the old coat once more. 'Uncle' Mumford, our second officer, said the place had been suffering from high water, and consequently was not looking its best now. But he said it was not strange that it didn't waste white-wash on itself, for more lime was made there, and of a better quality, than anywhere in the West; and added—'On a dairy farm you never can get any milk for your coffee, nor any sugar for it on a sugar plantation; and it is against sense to go to a lime town to hunt for white-wash.' In my own experience I knew the first two items to be true; and also that people who sell candy don't care for candy; therefore there was plausibility in Uncle Mumford's final observation that 'people who make lime run more to religion than whitewash.' Uncle Mumford said, further, that Grand Tower was a great coaling center and a prospering place.

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Cape Girardeau is situated on a hillside, and makes a handsome appearance. There is a great Jesuit school for boys at the foot of the town by the river. Uncle Mumford said it had as high a reputation for thoroughness as any similar institution in Missouri! There was another college higher up on an airy summit—a bright new edifice, picturesquely and peculiarly towered and pinnacled—a sort of gigantic casters, with the cruets all complete. Uncle Mumford said that Cape Girardeau was the Athens of Missouri, and contained several colleges besides those already mentioned; and all of them on a religious basis of one kind or another. He directed my attention to what he called the 'strong and pervasive religious look of the town,' but I could not see that it looked more religious than the other hill towns with the same slope and built of the same kind of bricks. Partialities often make people see more than really exists.

Uncle Mumford has been thirty years a mate on the river. He is a man of practical sense and a level head; has observed; has had much experience of one sort and another; has opinions; has, also, just a perceptible dash of poetry in his composition, an easy gift of speech, a thick growl in his voice, and an oath or two where he can get at them when the exigencies of his office require a spiritual lift. He is a mate of the blessed old-time kind; and goes gravely damning around, when there is work to the fore, in a way to mellow the ex-steamboatman's heart with sweet soft longings for the vanished days that shall come no more. 'Git up there you! Going to be all day? Why d'n't you say you was petrified in your hind legs, before you shipped!'

He is a steady man with his crew; kind and just, but firm; so they like him, and stay with him. He is still in the slouchy garb of the old generation of mates; but next trip the Anchor Line will have him in uniform—a natty blue naval uniform, with brass buttons, along with all the officers of the line—and then he will be a totally different style of scenery from what he is now.

Uniforms on the Mississippi! It beats all the other changes put together, for surprise. Still, there is another surprise—that it was not made fifty years ago. It is so manifestly sensible, that it might have been thought of earlier, one would suppose. During fifty years, out there, the innocent passenger in need of help and information, has been mistaking the mate for the cook, and the captain for the barber—and being roughly entertained for it, too. But his troubles are ended now. And the greatly improved aspect of the boat's staff is another advantage achieved by the dress-reform period.

Steered down the bend below Cape Girardeau. They used to call it 'Steersman's Bend;' plain sailing and plenty of water in it, always; about the only place in the Upper River that a new cub was allowed to take a boat through, in low water.

Thebes, at the head of the Grand Chain, and Commerce at the foot of it, were towns easily rememberable, as they had not undergone conspicuous alteration. Nor the Chain, either—in the nature of things; for it is a chain of sunken rocks admirably arranged to capture and kill steamboats on bad nights. A good many steamboat corpses lie buried there, out of sight; among the rest my first friend the 'Paul Jones;' she knocked her bottom out, and went down like a pot, so the historian told me—Uncle Mumford. He said she had a gray mare aboard, and a preacher. To me, this sufficiently accounted for the disaster; as it did, of course, to Mumford, who added—

'But there are many ignorant people who would scoff at such a matter, and call it superstition. But you will always notice that they are people who have never traveled with a gray mare and a preacher. I went down the river once in such company. We grounded at Bloody Island; we grounded at Hanging Dog; we grounded just below this same Commerce; we jolted Beaver Dam Rock; we hit one of the worst breaks in the 'Graveyard' behind Goose Island; we had a roustabout killed in a fight; we burnt a boiler; broke a shaft; collapsed a flue; and went into Cairo with nine feet of water in the hold—may have been more, may have been less. I remember it as if it were yesterday. The men lost their heads with terror. They painted the mare blue, in sight of town, and threw the preacher overboard, or we should not have arrived at all. The preacher was fished out and saved. He acknowledged, himself, that he had been to blame. I remember it all, as if it were yesterday.'

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That this combination—of preacher and gray mare—should breed calamity, seems strange, and at first glance unbelievable; but the fact is fortified by so much unassailable proof that to doubt is to dishonor reason. I myself remember a case where a captain was warned by numerous friends against taking a gray mare and a preacher with him, but persisted in his purpose in spite of all that could be said; and the same day—it may have been the next, and some say it was, though I think it was the same day—he got drunk and fell down the hatchway, and was borne to his home a corpse. This is literally true.

No vestige of Hat Island is left now; every shred of it is washed away. I do not even remember what part of the river it used to be in, except that it was between St. Louis and Cairo somewhere. It was a bad region—all around and about Hat Island, in early days. A farmer who lived on the Illinois shore there, said that twenty-nine steamboats had left their bones strung along within sight from his house. Between St. Louis and Cairo the steamboat wrecks average one to the mile;—two hundred wrecks, altogether.

I could recognize big changes from Commerce down. Beaver Dam Rock was out in the middle of the river now, and throwing a prodigious 'break;' it used to be close to the shore, and boats went down outside of it. A big island that used to be away out in mid-river, has retired to the Missouri shore, and boats do not go near it any more. The island called Jacket Pattern is whittled down to a wedge now, and is booked for early destruction. Goose Island is all gone but a little dab the size of a steamboat. The perilous 'Graveyard,' among whose numberless wrecks we used to pick our way so slowly and gingerly, is far away from the channel now, and a terror to nobody. One of the islands formerly called the Two Sisters is gone entirely; the other, which used to lie close to the Illinois shore, is now on the Missouri side, a mile away; it is joined solidly to the shore, and it takes a sharp eye to see where the seam is—but it is Illinois ground yet, and the people who live on it have to ferry themselves over and work the Illinois roads and pay Illinois taxes: singular state of things!

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Near the mouth of the river several islands were missing—washed away. Cairo was still there—easily visible across the long, flat point upon whose further verge it stands; but we had to steam a long way around to get to it. Night fell as we were going out of the 'Upper River' and meeting the floods of the Ohio. We dashed along without anxiety; for the hidden rock which used to lie right in the way has moved up stream a long distance out of the channel; or rather, about one county has gone into the river from the Missouri point, and the Cairo point has 'made down' and added to its long tongue of territory correspondingly. The Mississippi is a just and equitable river; it never tumbles one man's farm overboard without building a new farm just like it for that man's neighbor. This keeps down hard feelings.

Going into Cairo, we came near killing a steamboat which paid no attention to our whistle and then tried to cross our bows. By doing some strong backing, we saved him; which was a great loss, for he would have made good literature.

Cairo is a brisk town now; and is substantially built, and has a city look about it which is in noticeable contrast to its former estate, as per Mr. Dickens's portrait of it. However, it was already building with bricks when I had seen it last—which was when Colonel (now General) Grant was drilling his first command there. Uncle Mumford says the libraries and Sunday-schools have done a good work in Cairo, as well as the brick masons. Cairo has a heavy railroad and river trade, and her situation at the junction of the two great rivers is so advantageous that she cannot well help prospering.

When I turned out, in the morning, we had passed Columbus, Kentucky, and were approaching Hickman, a pretty town, perched on a handsome hill. Hickman is in a rich tobacco region, and formerly enjoyed a great and lucrative trade in that staple, collecting it there in her warehouses from a large area of country and shipping it by boat; but Uncle Mumford says she built a railway to facilitate this commerce a little more, and he thinks it facilitated it the wrong way—took the bulk of the trade out of her hands by 'collaring it along the line without gathering it at her doors.'

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SAMJ: South African Medical Journal
On-line version ISSN 2078-5135
Print version ISSN 0256-9574
SAMJ, S. Afr. med. j. vol.100 n.9 Pretoria Sep. 2010
Bullish new medical measures to give more pilots wings
Pilots, cabin crew members and air traffic controllers, frustrated by outdated protocols for medical certification which lead to lengthy delays and unnecessary and expensive appeals, will by this September begin benefiting from a major systemic upgrade.
An over-reliance by South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on the underresourced military for the verification of medical certificates plus the lack of a clear definition of 'acceptable medical risk' are now being addressed as top priorities.
A vital additional quality assurance instrument will be the newly formed 15-member Aeromedical Committee, established by the CAA late this April to supplement and bolster the SA Military Health Services' longstanding Institute for Aviation Medicine (IAM).
Explaining the reasons for the overhaul, Dr Lesego Bogatsu, Senior Manager for Aviation Medicine at the CAA, said insufficient specialists available to adjudicate cases plus the redeployment of military doctors meant verification backlogs had built up.
Other challenges included outdated medical protocols (some of them requiring identical medical criteria for cabin crew members,pilotsandairtrafficcontrollers),the lack of an integrated information technology system between stakeholders, administrative errors and limited participation of medical universities in the overall risk minimising process.
She said that Colonel Noel Ndlhovu, Officer in Command at the IAM, had 'given his word' that the verification backlog would be cleared within 3 months.
Most appeals succeeded
Bogatsu's baseline research shows that 97% of all applicants who appealed their medical grounding via the civil aviation commissioner between January 2000 and December 2008 were later found to be medically fit by an independent panel of specialist advisors.
She discovered that there was 'limited understanding' of and confusion in the interpretation of the Civil Aviation Technical Standards, a typical example being the finding of applicants 'permanently unfit', a category not included in the standards.
The terms 'temporarily unfit' and 'unfit' in defining medical standards were used interchangeably, leading to confusion among applicants, unnecessary medical appeals and even litigation.
Her investigation which forms part of her Master's thesis, plus advances in medical science and technology, required the CAA to 'urgently reduce the number of medical unfitness appeals' by (among other things) investing in research.
There was a need to define acceptable medical risk to suit the South African environment and to implement strategies to mitigate the risk to the CAA, while terms such as 'medical unfitness', 'temporary medical unfitness' and 'unfitness' needed clearer definition to reduce medical appeals and litigation. Another shortfall was the lack of routine collection and analysis of data on incapacitation in-flight and on active duty.
South Africa was one of the few countries that strongly disadvantaged licensed cabin crew and recreational pilots by requiring the higher medical protocols applicable to commercial pilots.
Comprehensive review
Bogatsu reviewed 2 521 cases presented at the Institute for Aviation Medicine over 8 years (Jan 2000 -Dec 2008). She found that patterns of morbidity most commonly associated with temporary unfitness, unfitness and 'permanent unfitness' were neurological, cardiovascular and psychiatric.
Most disqualifications were related to the central nervous system (29.34%), with head injuries and convulsions the most common in this medical category. The cardiovascular system accounted for the second most common cause of medical unfitness, with coronary artery disease and hypertension dominant. Psychiatric conditions (12.9%) were the third most common, with depression and substance abuse responsible for most medical groundings in this discipline.
Captain Colin Jordaan, Director of the CAA, said at the launch of the new Aeromedical Committee at the Rand Airport on 28 April that its composition of experts from various medical universities and organisations would ensure accredited medical conclusions were reached and that the CAA kept abreast with International Best Practice.
He said the IAM and the CAA had agreed to actively recruit appropriately qualified doctors to help clear the verification backlog and provide additional training to improve the quality assurance skills needed. Gaps in the medical protocols had been identified and outdated protocols would be reviewed by the end of September this year.
Captain Jordaan said that 'the human component' was the cause of 70% of aviation accidents. The aircraft environment differed from other occupational environments in respect of altitude stressors. These included hypoxia, noise and vibration, low humidity (leading to dehydration), fatigue, decompression syndrome, acceleration and spatial disorientation.
Aviation medicine came into existence during World War I, when it was realised that more pilots died due to medical incapacity than were killed by enemy gunfire. Once medical standards were introduced, fatality rates dropped 'significantly'.
Chris Bateman


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Carter and Fred
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
25 comments:
I just love this wedding! And not just becuasebim from the South,neither. Just so lovely.ReplyDelete
Wow! THIS is a fairy tale wedding. I bet she dreamt of that her entire life. Stunning.ReplyDelete
holy hell, each picture is better than the one before. It's all so perfect. The birdcage! I die.ReplyDelete
AWESOME cake display! Stunning wedding.ReplyDelete
Their reception location is GORGEOUS.ReplyDelete
Wow. Love her dress and mom's dress! Incredible!ReplyDelete
i love the theme... very romantic and personal!ReplyDelete
Fabulous and in my FAVORITE colors!!!ReplyDelete
How AMAZING is her mother's dress?!
WOW! This has to be one of my favorite weddings you've ever posted. I just adore her wedding dress and her mom's (well I think its her mom) floral dress is to die for.ReplyDelete
The backdrop for this setting alone is so glamorous. I am becoming a sucker for Southern weddings, too.ReplyDelete
That atrium is so unique - what a gorgeous reception! I'm really loving her mom's orange ensemble too!ReplyDelete
What a gorgeous wedding! I love every last detail, from the invites to the location- it is perfection. xoReplyDelete
Gorgeous. Fabulous write up and love that dress. I am so excited for your post tomorrow. Seriously.ReplyDelete
This is simply wonderful! I love the little gazebo within the marquee!ReplyDelete
~ Clare x
Gorgeous! Her hand painted Herrera is incredible, as is the mother of the bride's outfit! Such sensations! xo style, she wroteReplyDelete
I hope I can make my wedding an homage to Southerness like this.ReplyDelete
Oh goodness! That photo of them under that tree is absolutely amazing!ReplyDelete
The reception is just lovely. I love the coasters with the iced tea recipe. How cool is that? A favor you can actually use!ReplyDelete
enchanting! love the indoor structureReplyDelete
Her dresses are AMAZING! The ceremony dress is so unique!ReplyDelete
All the details are amazing!ReplyDelete
Wow, her dress is gorgeous!!ReplyDelete
this wedding is incredible!! absolutely amazing! xoReplyDelete
oh my gosh! Can I PLEASE live in that house!! What if I say Pretty Please!?ReplyDelete
That first dress is so unique and lovely, though the Carolina Herrera she changes into is not too shabby either!ReplyDelete
♡ Lexi
FASHION: Glitter & Pearls
WEDDINGS: Glitter Weddings


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What a rare sight indeed (and so close to home)! Check out ABC News to watch the video.
Doctors at a Northern California hospital say a couple has given birth to a rare set of naturally conceived identical triplets.
The Sacramento Bee reports ( http://bit.ly/1hyPwlB ) Abby, Brin and Laurel Hepner were born Nov. 22 at Sutter Memorial Hospital to Hannah and Tom Hepner, of Quincy.
The triplets were produced when a single, fertilized egg split into three.
Dr. William Gilbert, director of Sutter Women's Services, says the odds of producing identical triplets without fertility drugs range from 1-in-1-million to 1-in-100-million.
He said the rarity makes it difficult to more accurately calculate the frequency of such births.
Abby weighed 3 pounds, 2 ounces; Brin 3 pounds, 11 ounces; and Laurel 4 pounds.
The triplets are still in the hospital until they can maintain body temperature and eat properly.


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The recently released Federal Reserve White Paper on the Housing Market has received considerable attention, at least for its policy proposals. I found one of the more interesting pieces of data in the paper to be the number of mortgages with negative equity, reproduced below (Figure 3 in the Fed paper).
What I found both interesting and distressing is that despite the fact that the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) was only about 2 percent of mortgages at the height of the bubble in 2005/2006, FHA is now over a fourth of total mortgages with negative equity. Of course this was all predictable (I actually predicted it).
If you decide, as did our federal government, to get lots of borrowers into loans with very little equity, at a time when prices are falling, you will create a whole lot of loans with negative equity. Thank you FHA for creating a mess that was completely 100% avoidable. But who cares when you're ultimately just sticking it to the taxpayer, right?