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I have no idea what it would feel like to be a dairy farmer. I don't run a business that was started by my father or mother or grandparents, or that I built myself; I don't own and manage land that has been in my family for generations. Come to think of it, I've never really had to make a major business decision, let alone a decision that could determine my family's future and the future of animals I raise and care for.
I can't claim to know what it feels like to be a dairy farmer, but that doesn't make the recent conversations I've had with dairy farmers any easier.
The Associated Press reports:
Hundreds of thousands of America's dairy cows are bring turned into hamburgers because milk prices have dropped so low that farmers can no longer afford to feed the animals…. Dairy farmers say they have little choice but to sell off part of their herds for slaughter because they face a perfect storm of destructive economic forces.
Or, in the words of the Minnesota farmer I talked with on Friday, "This could be it – this could really be it. What are we going to do?"
There's been a fair amount of press coverage of the dairy price crisis that began last fall, from January's widely-circulated New York Times article to the daily headlines in many dairy-producing regions. Milk prices currently cover less than half of farmers' production costs, and there's no end to the drop in sight. In California, debt-ridden dairy farmers are committing suicide; elsewhere, they're pouring milk down the drain, wringing their hands, and hoping for a miracle.
Fluid milk isn't the only product at rock-bottom prices. As Andrew Martin reported in that NYT article, the price of U.S. milk products used by processors to make other dairy foods – things like nonfat dry milk powder, which goes into everything from baby formula to pizza cheese – has also dropped, falling by nearly 65% since mid-2007.
The reason for this drop, we're told by Martin and others, is that the recession has created a surplus of milk and milk products. Cows keep producing, but consumers aren't buying – here or anywhere else in the world.
It's interesting, then, that at the moment demand was supposedly crashing hard – the last quarter of 2008 – U.S. dairy imports rose by more than 15% over the previous three quarters. If no one in the U.S. wanted milk, then why did companies increase their spending by nearly $120 million last fall to bring it in from abroad?
According to one farm group, the answer can be told in the form of a story with four main characters: a sneaky company (or, OK, several), a misguided media, a useless regulatory agency, and an ingredient commonly used to make glue that may be in more dairy products than we know. Intrigued? So was I.
Last week, the National Family Farm Coalition, whose members include small and mid-sized dairy producers from the Midwest, Northeast, and upstate New York, held a press conference on "the real cause of the dairy price crisis." Their thesis: it's not because U.S. farmers are producing too much or because demand is falling precipitously. No, some very different culprits are to blame. I'm going to focus on one, a product called Milk Protein Concentrates, or MPCs.
(A note: I'm leaving out the other factors because they involve the way that milk is priced, which is mind-bendingly technical. If you're into that, I recommend reading the press release and this analysis [pdf] by John Bunting, a NY dairy farmer, editor of The Milkweed, and dairy policy guru.)
Chapter 1: The ingredient
Milk protein concentrates are created when milk is ultra-filtered, a process that drains out the lactose and keeps the milk protein and other large molecules. The protein components are then dried and become a powder. That all sounds relatively benign – until we learn that those "other large molecules" can include bacteria and somatic cells; that virtually all MPCs come from other countries, most of them with very poor food safety records (China, India, Poland, the Ukraine); and that the milk used to make MPCs is usually not cows' milk. More often, it is from water buffalo, yaks, or other animals common to the countries where MPCs are manufactured.
Perhaps because of MPCs' sketchy origins, they have never been approved as a food ingredient by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (They are, however, a common ingredient in some brands of glue.) The FDA has a list of additives it allows in processed food – the GRAS list, for Generally Recognized as Safe – and MPCs ain't on it. That means the FDA hasn't carried out safety tests on MPCs, as the law requires for any additive on the GRAS list.
I was therefore surprised to learn that MPCs are widely used in dairy products manufactured and sold in the United States. Kraft Singles have them, as did most other brands of processed cheese slices that I checked in the grocery store last night. Some snack foods, coffee creamers, candies, and nutritional drinks have them. They're not approved by the FDA as a food ingredient, but they're in a whole lot of food.
Chapter 2: The companies
We will put aside for the moment the question of why the FDA is allowing food processors to lace their products with unregulated dried yak's milk from Siberia. Instead, we'll ask why companies are going to such lengths to get their hands on the stuff – and what it means for U.S. dairy farmers.
From what I've heard and read, there is one major reason for the shift from home-grown moo-cow to imported who-knows-what: MPCs are much cheaper. Syndicated columnist Alan Guebert called it in a 2005 column, reprinted here on the website of Family Farm Defenders: "[It's] about money. Money processors hope to make by outsourcing milk and dairy product ingredients, like cheaper MPCs, from New Zealand, India and other dairy exporters. Money processors can save by substituting cheaper, imported MPCs for pricier, unaltered American milk in their bottling and dairy product plants." And substitute they did. Between 2004 and 2008, U.S. imports of MPCs increased by more than 300%. Just in the third quarter of 2008, MPC imports jumped 40% over the previous quarter.
A secondary factor driving the MPC stampede was the low-carb craze. (It's always fun to blame things on Dr. Atkins, isn't it?) Recall that the first step to making MPCs is the ultra-filtration of milk, which separates lactose from the protein, which is then dried. Lactose contributes most of milk's carbohydrates, so MPCs are extremely low in carbs. As dairy processors sought lower-carb ingredients for their Atkins-friendly inventions, they found that MPCs fit the bill – and saved money, too. So in yet another example of the insanity induced by diet marketing, U.S. consumers turned up their noses at natural dairy products in favor of parched, parsed protein from unregulated foreign mammals. You gotta love nutritionism.
Chapter 3: The regulators
Dairy processors are pushing the USDA to change the formal definition of fluid milk, yogurt, and ice cream to allow the addition of MPCs. (Currently, something labeled "milk" must be actual milk from an actual cow, not rehydrated water buffalo protein.) They also petitioned the FDA to allow ultra-filtered milk, the substance that's dried and becomes MPCs, to be used in cheese. They haven't been successful yet thanks to protests from farm and consumer groups – you can read comments to the FDA on the ice cream proposal from Wisconsin-based Family Farm Defenders here – but in the meantime, the companies continue to use the ingredient anyway, and the FDA does nothing. NFFC has petitioned the FDA to start enforcing its own food safety laws regarding MPCs, but the group has not received a response.
The final chapter: The farmers
When companies import MPCs and use them in place of U.S.-produced powdered milk, or when they seek to allow them in dairy products that usually contain U.S.-produced fluid milk, those companies save money. U.S. dairy farmers end up where they are right now – out of business, or getting there.
The influx of low-priced "dairy" ingredients doesn't seem to have made life easier for consumers, either. Although farmers saw their incomes drop by 50% in the past few months according to some reports, the USDA reports that the price of dairy products at the grocery store has fallen only about 7% since last summer's high.
There are some proposals out there for what could be done to help struggling U.S. dairy farmers, but the ones actually under consideration by Congress have nothing to do with cracking down on imported MPCs. Instead, most of them involve the government buying up surplus U.S. milk to prop up market prices for farmers. That's fine as far as it goes, and in the short term, it's important. But if dairy companies continue to import MPCs willy-nilly and use them in place of domestic milk, then we won't have actually fixed the problem. Instead, we will have created a Rube Goldberg solution whereby the U.S. government does just enough to keep some domestic dairy farmers in existence while allowing companies like Kraft to bypass them completely, and do so in technical violation of the law.
A better long-term solution to the MPC problem is FDA enforcement of the law, coupled with legislation like that offered last week by New York State Senator Darrel Aubertine, which would prohibit dairy processors from labeling products that contained MPCs as "dairy products." Says the truth-speaking Senator:
We are a dairy deficit nation, but we've seen the price of milk drop to just about $9 per hundred-weight. [Cost of production is twice that.] Our farms are not going to survive if that's all our farmers are getting for their quality product. We should not be letting foreign imports of milk and milk products hurt our dairy farmers and our consumers, since these imports are not regulated for quality and safety like in the United States. This bill would put New York in a position to make sure consumers are not misled into thinking they are getting real dairy products, when they can't be sure of the origin or standards of the ingredients.
I'll lift a glass of milk to that.
Great piece, Elanor. Powdered milk is an insidious threat. It's use should be restricted, not expanded. The process of making powdered milk creates oxidized or damaged cholesterol. Oxidized cholestorol causes atherosclerosis. The movement you are describing is simply increasing the risk of cardio-vascular disease.
Thank you so much for this informative post! I will get involved, and pass it around.
~ Paula
God this is so infuriating! I am such a yuppie and buy my milk from the guy at the farmer's market, but it is just a drop in the bucket, clearly. What a terrible situation, and what awful enablers the regulatory agencies are!
"The recession has created a surplus of milk and milk products. Cows keep producing, but consumers aren't buying – here or anywhere else in the world."
This is ironic because very recently (1 year ago?) we were being told that because the Chinese were consuming more milk the milk that the price of milk would sky rocket. At the time, prices were up.
Interesting. The price of Organic Valley milk has gone up considerably in my area since 2007. Maybe the dairy producers in this country should cut the size of their herds, put the rest out to pasture, and go organic!
Thank you for the exceptionally insightful story and analysis. It is a compelling snapshot of what happens when food processors and retailers combine to degrade a wholesome, natural product and put a fake food on the shelf: farmers are stripped of their just compensation and consumers get food that makes them sick. It also illustrates whose side the federal regulatory agencies support. Regarding solutions, I strongly endorse Laura's direct from the dairy purchase in lieu of Molly's organic suggestion. Molly's observation that the price of Organic Valley milk "has gone up considerably" provides no assurance that the farmer/coop members see an increased pay price.
Wonderful article, Elanor, I really enjoyed it :) Wasn't there a big dairy crisis in the 1980s which resulted in the Real California Cheese Campaign (a way for dairy farms to make more $ from their milk) and again in the 1990s which resulted in the Got Milk campaign? I'm seeing that the MPCs are certainly a BIG problem that needs immediate attention, but the crisis of the dairy industry is not new, it just has a new reason to be in crisis.
Thank you so very much for listening to the teleconference, I really appreciate it! I am a dairy farmer from Wisconsin and was on the teleconference that day. I am truly grateful for the wonderful article that you have put together, it sums everything up.
The dairy farms around our area are having a very hard time. Last week cull cows were selling for $.30/lb. live weight at the equity sale barn. The bull calf markets are gone, people are giving bull calves away. The prices for corn and soybeans have all taken a down turn, and the next thing you know we are going to be heading to the fields. Farmers usually use the previous avenues listed above for cash flow for their farm, but this year there is no flow. Farmers are wondering what to do next. The system is truly broken!
I am a 5th generation dairy farmer. When my father graduated in 1970, 3/4 of his class consisted of farm kids. When I graduated in 1999, I was the only farm kids out of 248 graduates. It is sad to drive down the road and look at all of the empty barns that just sit there.
I hope that people realize that if the farmer goes, they will be having to either grow their own or have to purchase imports. I would rather keep the farmer!
Thank you again for spreading the word.
Although this is a good post, it doesn't give any clear direction as to what we, the common folk, can do about it. If I am to be told there is a serious problem, I like to know how I can play a part in fixing it. And just me, buying from the farm, doesn't seem to be the ultimate solution. I would be very interested in knowing if there are other practical steps we can be taking. If not, I wonder why we're discussing it, and getting up in arms about something we have no idea how to fix?
CM, I'll be doing a longer post on this over the weekend, but one immediate step that we can take (aside from checking the labels when we buy dairy, buying from farmers we know, writing letters to Kraft and other large dairy companies telling them that we don't want MPCs in our products, and asking other dairy companies for assurances that they don't use MPCs) is to comment on an FDA proposal that would change the definition of yogurt to allow the addition of MPCs. The proposal is in response to a petition by the National Yogurt Association (which includes Dannon, General Mills, and other companies). Comments are due March 31. Background on the petition is availalable from The Milkweed here [pdf] and instructions for submitting comments are in the Federal Register here [pdf] – or wait till the weekend and I'll give instructions on the blog.
Well done, Elanor. This is not an easy subject to explain when the process of providing milk from a lactating mammal to another party, in theory, should be relatively simple. It is common knowledge that breast is best for babies….well, that is milk in its purest form. When a cow begins lactating, after birthing its first calf, it should be the same common sense principle of providing the fluid milk to consumers (or making other quality dairy products such as yogurt), not finagling it into MPCs, which you so aptly explained have not been tested, etc.
NFFC has many MPC dairy farmer experts: Brenda Cochran, Donna Hall, John Bunting, etc. who have been fighting this battle for decades if anyone wants to dive all the way into the bulk tank of the issue, so to speak.
If the "common folk" wants to do something, they can: go to town hall meetings and ask questions, ask your grocery store what they are going to do, write the companies, and join a group that supports how you feel. Even though you are common folk- Getting involved is the best way to get your message heard! Join a local group, in your area if possible. Some people in our area have boycotted shopping certain stores, for several reasons.
Because an NFFC member contacted me, I am now more involved than ever! So I encourage others to check the NFFC website out as well as all of the other organizations that are in the coalition.
The people that know about MPCs that were listed in the above blog are very resourceful and willing to help any one that wants to listen!
I'm a fourth generation dairy farmer in southwest Michigan painfully watching my 70 year old grandparents scrape the bottom of the bank account. They wanted to retire this year; unfortunatly, they can't afford to do so. I look around at all that they have built and hope everyday that this isn't the end; I'm thankful for every paycheck and everyday I get to spend with the animals. This month ALONE we will be $50,000 short and we are considered a mid-size dairy (milking 320). I hope people learn how to milk their own cow, grow their own food and can it themselves. The FDA, EPA, DEQ don't have a clue. When this country looks around and can't find food, animals, or land to produce anything from don't look at the farmer; we work until our hands bleed and we're exhausted. All that is left to do now is sign up for every piddly subsidy that is left, sell animals, equipment, land, and pray that this will pass. However, I am too pessimistic that that will solve much. I wish the American people understood more of what is going on; they don't have a clue – most think milk comes from the grocery store. God Bless the farmers of America, Amanda
Some facts – Organic suppliers are not taking on new farmers…at least not in ny at least not right now. Some companies are now making local mpc….some think that is a good thing since it is a market for milk… This is not a simple situation….
I wonder, at what point does the influx of MPCs constitute commodities dumping?
Great article.
I can't agree, though, that the government forcing milk prices higher is going to help the situation. That's what they've been doing for over 70 years… with obvious results. Milk marketing orders that date back to 1937 (after the "marketing order" provisions of FDR's Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court) helped to create this situation. Here's a great example of what happens to a farmer who tries to escape the government-run milk price-fixing cartel to make his milk cheaper for the public: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/09/AR2006120900925_3.html
One has to wonder if farmers like Hettinga were allowed to be more successful whether we'd be important yak protein from China.
As for those people wondering what they can do, you could check into buying milk from a local farmer. We get ours unpasteurized but if that bothers you, just boil it. realmilk.com
There are numerous benefits. 1) All your money is going to the farmer, not a middleman. 2) If the cows are mostly grass-fed, the product is of superior quality. It will contain vitamin K2 which is pretty much nonexistent in grainfed milk and critical for proper cranial development in the child. It also has a beneficial, anti-cancer fatty acid in it, conjugated linoleic acid. These are absent from grain-fed cows. I've never tasted milk so rich and so good as the grass-fed milk we get from a local farmer. 3) Most grass-fed farmers use older Holstein breeds or Jerseys and Guernseys and the milk has a high degree of butterfat. You can see the butterfat layer change from season to season. Right now our milk is 20% fat by volume. It's delicious. I am not sure whether whole milk fat content in the store is measured by weight or by volume but it's only 4%!!!! You can also make butter from the cream, which is not anemic looking like all the butter in the grocery store. It will be deep yellow or orange the way butter is supposed to be!! So the third benefit is that along with getting a superior product you are promoting practices which benefit our environment (cows on pasture reduce soil erosion caused by grain farming) and preserve the genetic diversity of our country's livestock.
One of the only ways to truly remedy this problem is for consumers to be educated about where their food comes from. We pay $10/gallon for our milk. It's expensive but I do believe if people could taste the difference may of them would pay for this superior product. As long as they are duped into thinking they are buying healthy, nutritious products there won't be any incentive for processing companies to change their practices.
Second, farmers should be allowed to farm in a way that improves the health of the land and the people. That doesn't mean production has to be limited or that we go back to milking pails. However, various government regulations currently in place (milk marketing orders, pasteurization mandates, restrictive labeling laws) squelch any kind of innovation or competition in the milk industry.
I am a dairy farmer – and I don't think a cow is capable of producing that 20% butter fat test cited above. Milk with more fat in it is better tasting. However, our cows go out on pasture more than 50% of the day and they still have a 4% fat test. Maybe if you are drinking milk from a buffalo or a polar bear (yes, polar bear) then you can get high fat milk. At home, we drink raw, whole milk and it is delicious. Whole milk would be our bulk tank test for fat – so about 4%. Raw milk means it is not pasteurized, and although I like raw milk I would not sell it to the public for legal concerns, dealing with food borne disease. If you have noticed in the news over the recent years, vegetables and other greens have been cauing more foodborne illness than anything else. Pasteurized milk has almost never had any foodborne illnesses.
I am a dairy farmer in California, I grow jaded and bitter over time as a continual victim to the theft of my livelihood by the government enabled monopsony to which I am forced to sell my produce. It gives me hope to see non-farmers taking interest and educating themselves on this topic.
As citizens and consumers, everybody needs to contact their congresspeople and urge them to review and revise the legal red tape that entraps the dairy farmer in the current milk processing and distribution system.
I buy my veggies direct from the grower in season, why shouldn't my neighbors exercise the same right to purchase their milk?
There is good news for organic dairy farmers in Maine:
It would be great if this started happening all over the country! New, low profit companies that exist to return at least 90% of the company profits to the farms, instead of to wealthy company executives.


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X-Ring Newsletter
Technical Newsletter From Your Ballistic TechniciansVolume 9, Issue 1
Last Hunt - Marvin Boyd
Camp Perry Winners!
| We here at Sierra Bullets were saddened to hear that Marvin Boyd of Chariton, Iowa passed away on October 18, 2001. Marvin and his son Ron always seemed to be in the winner's circle at the Varmint Hunter Jamboree in Pierre, South Dakota. One of Marvin's passions was hunting prairie dogs; making the trip from Iowa to the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota several times each year. One of his latest conquests was to take a prairie dog at over 1000 yards. Marvin was always searching for the ultimate rifle/cartridge combination for both the Jamboree and prairie dogs. When Marvin was near Sierra, he would always stop by to say hello and visit. We were blessed to have spent many hours with Marvin shooting prairie dogs and just talking about that ultimate rifle. Marvin touched many hearts and left with many friends who will miss him dearly, including us at Sierra Bullets.
From the 1999 Varmint Hunter Jamboree in Pierre, SD: Factory Rifle Champion Ron Boyd (left) and Open Class Runner-Up Marvin Boyd (right) are shown with Varmint Hunter Jamboree Range Master Gordy Gitters (center).
| Congratulations to all who participated in the 2001 NRA National HiPower Rifle Championships at Camp Perry. Below is a partial listing of Trophy/Match winners who were shooting Sierra Bullets.
Sierra 4th Edition Rifle Manual Sold Out!
|We have sold out of the 50th Anniversary/4th Edition Rifle manuals and we will not be producing additional copies. There is a limited supply of Handgun reloading manuals still available. At this time, we are developing new information for the 5th Edition Sierra Reloading Manual. This new book is scheduled for introduction in January 2003. Got Any Good Pictures?? We are always looking for good photos from your latest hunt, a recovered bullet you want to share, or targets you are particularly proud of. Who knows, they may end up in an issue of the X-Ring, or in a future Sierra reloading manual. Please remember to include your name, the cartridge/bullet combination and some of the details about the shot. Send these items to Sierra Bullets, Attn. AB, 1400 West Henry, Sedalia, MO 65301. You may e-mail .tiff or .jpeg photos to email@example.com, but make sure you include a description in the subject line. I don't open e-mail with attachments from blind locations.
Questions From You
| When is Sierra going to make a premium bullet?
All Sierra bullets are premium bullets or they wouldn't shoot as well as they do. But the answer to your question is no, we don't intend to offer an enhanced construction bullet. The key to proper bullet performance for conventionally constructed bullets is to select the proper bullet in the first place. It makes absolutely no sense to use a rifle capable of clean kills at 600 yards to harvest animals at 75 to 150 yards. Furthermore to expect a bullet to perform well at 100 yards and the accompanying high impact velocity then ask that same bullet to exactly duplicate that performance at 600 yards and the drastically reduced impact velocities is asking way too much. There is a point there where the shooter has to stop and think about what he is trying to accomplish. And as is so often the case, it is far too easy to over-specialize and become woefully ineffective in one or the other phase of performance criteria. Rich
What is the best way to focus my scope?
I focus all my scopes on the highest power first. My experience indicates any other method will give unreliable results. If a crisp focus is achieved at high power it will be extra crisp at lesser magnification. Then you can adjust the parallax for the range you are shooting at the moment. Note that the parallax may change significantly with a change in range and the numbers on the objective bell may not correspond exactly with the range. If the image is blurry in an adjustable objective scope simply adjust the objective for a clear image, and be sure to make certain point-of-impact doesn't shift with a power change. Rich
Do the lead points on spitzer bullets melt in flight?
No, that is a figment of someone's imagination. Bullet tips do not melt in flight.
To prove that, light your propane torch and get a good hot blue flame. Then take a lead tipped bullet held in the jaws of a pair of pliers and pass the bullet through the flame fast the first time, then slow the speed until the tip does melt slightly. You will have to hold the bullet in the flame for a short period of time. Now think of the time it takes a bullet to cover 300 yards, less than 1/2 of a second. A bullet isn't in the air long enough to melt. Not even if it is going a thousand yards which takes over a second. As you can see it just doesn't happen the way people think. Good question though. Rich
| I have always heard 30 cal 168s aren't accurate at 1000 yards because they go sub-sonic before they get there but the black powder guys shoot 45-70s that far with accuracy and they start out below the speed of sound. How can that be?
A bullet is most unstable immediately upon emergence from the barrel and during the trans-sonic portion of its flight down range. Even though individual bullets look identical they really aren't. Because of that, BCs are an average of many shots. Any one individual shot may vary considerably from that average. Due to that variation one bullet may tumble when others don't. Twist must be considered and is very important also. Too little and there isn't enough gyroscopic stability to resist yaw. When yaw is present BCs fall very quickly and if impact isn't very soon a tumbling condition will result. Sub-sonic cartridges are much less effected than super sonic projectiles so the old 45-70s are really much more effective than us modern shooters first imagine. This is because of the static balance points of the very dense short (in comparison to pointed bullets) bullets. In this regard visualize of leverage and balance point differences between short 45-70, normal pointed jacketed bullets and the extremely long pointy VLD style bullets. Think of a toy top and how fast one must spin a long narrow top in comparison to a short fat top to gain stability. Although the short (in comparison) 45-70 bullets are buffeted they are better balanced and withstand the buffeting better so are effected less than the longer more susceptible spitzer or especially VLD bullets. Rich
I am starting some new reloading with a new 308 that I had built. I have purchased a 3rd gen. Scope from Springfield. It is pre-calibrated for the 308 with a 168 match bullet at 2550 fps. I plan to hunt deer with this gun at long range. So here's the question, can I hunt with Yall"s match bullet? I did this one time with another company's match bullets and wounded a deer and I still feel bad about it so could you please give me some info on this question?
The short answer is NO. The real answer is still no but I suggest you use our 165 grain Spitzer Boattail bullet #2145. This bullet is very close to the same shape as the 168 MatchKing so it will follow the scope well and it does perform very well in hunting situations. I'm sorry you lost your deer and there is nothing I can do to soothe your conscience but we can avoid this in the future and you have taken the first step. Congratulations and welcome to the world of responsible hunting. Rich

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There are a lot of changes under the hod. The release candidate adds support for CSS3 2D Transforms, HTML5 Geolocation, a set of HTML5 semantic elements, and the HTML5 canvas globalCompositeOperation property. They also improved the performance of CanvasPixelArray.
"The IE9 RC is faster with real world sites. In addition to making the script engine faster, we've improved and tuned the rest of the browser as well. You'll find that Gmail, Office Web Applications, and many other sites are faster as a result of scenario tuning, network cache tuning, and new compiler optimizations," details Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Internet Explorer, "You'll also find that the RC of IE9 often uses megabytes less memory than the beta because of changes like delayed image decoding. We've also improved the performance of things many people do every day, like find on page, and made improvements which extend battery life."
Interface-wise, the biggest change is the addition of an option to display the tab bar on an additional row. Sadly, you can't place these tabs atop the address bar where it belongs according to the Gospel Of Chrome (the One True browser interface). Another issue is the font rendering, which is still fuzzy due to the DirectWrite support. Why IE9 can't just use my global font settings is beyond me. It might sound petty to some, but it's frickin' 2011 and I demand consistent font rendering. Whether it's the fuzzy but shape-accurate Mac OS X variant, or the sharp but shape-inaccurate variant in Windows - they're both fine as long as it's an either-or thing!
You can download the release candidate today.


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Weekend Project: 3 Great DIY Vase Ideas
With Mother's Day just around the corner and so many gorgeous spring flowers and branches in bloom, we've been looking around for fun ways to transform some old jars and bottles into lovely vases. These three tutorials were the favorites from our search.
Pictured, from left to right:
• Natural Home Magazine has a project that uses handmade paper and Mod Podge to create an elegant vessel out of a standard jar, vase or drinking glass.
• Style Me Pretty demonstrates how a motley collection of flea market finds becomes an elegant unified display with just a little spray paint.
• If you've got fabric and ribbon scraps piling up from past projects, this DIY from 100 Layer Cake is a great way to put them to use and come up with something new and lovely in the process.
Why not invite your mother for brunch for the holiday and send her home with a vase you repurposed yourself, with a bunch of simple farmers' market flowers? Wedding blogs are a great source of inspiration for entertaining in general, and floral design ideas specifically; the two we've mentioned above are a couple of our favorites.
(Images: Natural Home Magazine; Style Me Pretty; 100 Layer Cake)


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WebSetup: Invalid user name or password" when logging in to Web Setup
From DocWiki
"Invalid user name or password" when attmepting to log in to WebSetup
|Problem Summary
|You expect to be able to log in and you get "Invalid user name or password."
|Error Message
|"Invalid user name or password".
|Possible Cause
|Either you are not providing valid Active Directory Domain User credentials or you are not a local machine Administrator, or both.
|Recommended Action
|Make sure that not only are you logging in as a valid Domain User in the domain, but that you are also a local machine Administrator.
|Release 8.0(1)
|Associated CDETS #


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Follow RFF News on your cell phone. Text follow rff to 40404 you will receive txt messages with RFF News
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
James - It was a great close to the show, but I thought that the beginning of the song was a bit stiff. It felt a little draggy for me. But the middle onwards was great. I think it's a tendency to compare him to Adam Lambert. However, I doubt we'll actually see a soft, tender side to him as we did with the latter hmm.
This is the best season of AI ever... and I've watched them all.
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Game urban sound fx is good for your any media project
Hello,,My name is Gwen Scylla! the owner of Scylla Music Production,
I'm a musician and composer. I've always writing and performing music, and I'm glad, connecting with the world of music through the audio jungle! You can use my music and sounds in your amazing projects. I'm always interested to know how you have used my music, so please don't be shy,please drop me a line and tell me!
To ALL VideoHive and ActiveDen Authors…. You are very welcome to use any of my tracks in your video items! Please don`t forget to link to the music in your description and drop us back an e-mail, so i can post the thumbnail on my profile page, too.


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First-Hand:LearJet, Auto Pilot and Eight Tracks
Submitted by Kenneth Miller
My first job, and I mean job, at twentyfive cents per hour, was to wire floor lamps in a dingy loft operation in Chicago. This was quickly followed by becoming a phonograph needle inspector looking for pits on the iridium tips welded to the long life needles produced by the Permopoint Company. This was not for me.
Good fortune was at my side and I was hired by Zenith Radio at 6001 Dickens Avenue in Chicago in 1940 as a production trouble shooter. This time at forty-five cents per hour. You learned fast .... with the requirement that you troubleshoot defective all-band home radios at the rate of eight per hour! Among the products we produced was the famous "Radio Nurse," a children's nursery monitoring system that caught the public's imagination following the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's son from his nursery at his home.
Then the call of the West was heard loud and clear. So I hopped into my 1939 Chrysler. (Talk about diesels, this horseless carriage burned one quart every hundred miles! No kidding.) Eighteen hundred miles and twenty quarts of oil and fifty-nine hours later, I arrived in Los Angeles. Driving down Pica Boulevard, I paused at 11919 Pica Boulevard as I noticed an interesting antenna atop this old one story stucco building. A ham radio operator for eight years, I had developed an affinity for roof top antennas that appeared to be "senders" as well as "receivers" of RF (radio frequency) energy.
This building turned out to be a former dairy complete with milking stalls still intact in the rear of the structure. With little effort you could almost catch the aroma and hear the sounds of its former occupants, the milk cows. Only now it was the West Coast headquarters of Lear Incorporated. I entered and there was Bill Lear cussing because the Lord had only given him two hands and this was at least one hand shy of what he needed at that moment. He was trying to repair a Lear Recorder.
This was the famous wire recorder produced by Bill Lear's company following the acquisition by our armed forces of wire recorder technology developed during World War II by the Germans. Lear produced portable and large models for the home market. It turned out that the unit Bill Lear was working on (and did not have enough hands to repair) was a unit that the Los Angeles police department had purchased for telephone monitoring purposes.
Not knowing I was just a casual visitor, he turned to me for help, within ten minutes he hired me. Thus I began a wonderful friendship and a multi-year career with Lear Inc. Also, again, later when I rejoined him as Vice President and a member of the founding management team at LearJet in Wichita, Kansas.
At Lear, I was responsible for the development of the first automatic pilot sold to the general aviation market-the famous Model L2. Later, amongst other accomplishments at LearJet, I had the opportunity to introduce and manufacture the world's first mass produced eight track tape players. We produced many thousands of these players, and hundreds of thousands of the eight track tape cartridges for both home and automotive entertainment at a plant we started from scratch in Detroit.
These were really fun years .... and as Bill Lear and I said to each other so many times, "I feel guilty for being paid to have such a great time" ... but never so guilty that we refused our pay checks!!


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How do neighborhoods change?
Students learn to observe changes in their communities.
Students identify a construction project, locate the site
on a map and discuss the result or expected impact of neighborhood change on their lives.
Bronx street map
Suggested Photos:
Cross Bronx Expressway
Triborough Bridge
149th St. & Elevated Subways
Fordham & the Grand Concourse
Suggested Bronxboro Articles:
Proposed Arterial System for the Post War Bronx
Addition to the Bronx Skyline by Public Works Dept.
Suggested Scrapbook Articles:
"Buy in Bronx" Drive Spurred by UNO Site
Bronx Joint Committee Plans Many Postwar Projects
Tenants Displaced by Highway Will Be Housed
Sample Subjects:
Housing; Highways; Transportation


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Dutch leader calls on Putin to help crash probe
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An angry Dutch prime minister says he has had an "extremely intense" telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin in which he urged him to "show the world he intends to help" in the investigation into the Ukraine air disaster.
Mark Rutte told reporters on Saturday that he told Putin he must use his influence over separatist rebels in Ukraine to ensure they do not hinder efforts to investigate the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The plane crashed Thursday, killing all 298 passengers and crew, most of them Dutch citizens.
Rutte says he was "shocked by images of completely disrespectful behavior" of rebels picking through the wreckage and personal belongings of victims at the crash scene.
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Snake Woman's Curse (US - DVD R1)
Gabe Powers vows to never kill a snake, a poor farmer, or a poor farmer's wife...
Chobei, the wealthy landlord of a rural village, incurs a ghostly wrath after his indifference towards his tenets causes the death of a poor farmer. After forcing the man's wife and beautiful daughter to work as servants in his household, he kills a snake that the farmer's wife had tried to protect, and later the farmer's wife herself. He finds himself and his family going mad, plagued by images of rotting corpses and deathly spirits all around him.
Snake Woman's Curse is an old fashion Japanese thriller, filled with awkward melodrama and anachronistic characters. I'm no expert in the cinema of the era, just a novice fan, but this particular film would seem more at home during the more traditional 1940s and '50s, rather than the new-wave infused 1960s, especially the cycle ending late '60s. Despite the slightly wacky opening credits, there isn't much experimentation, just well crafted images from a filmmaker that had spent decades honing his craft.
After a steady (though not consistent) diet of Seijun Suzuki, Yasuzo Masumura—and in the wake of my eye-opening first viewing of Horrors of the Malformed Men, Teruo Ishii—Nabuo Nakagawa's film unfolds at an unnaturally slow pace for the period. The fact that I received copies of both Snake Woman's Curse and Malformed Men at the same time was probably a bit of a curse (if you'll excuse the usage) for the Snake Woman simply because Malformed Men was such an eye-opener.
The camera work is quite impressive, as is the stage direction. Though there are no particularly long takes, there is a Hitchcockian flair to the movement of the camera and actors. Considering the budgets and talent Hitchcock had at his disposal this is no small feat. Nakagawa's use of deep black shadows and high contrast is striking, and when the story finally gets around to the scary stuff the simple, in camera effects (often a light is simply dimmed to make a spirit 'disappear') are spooky and colourful.
Though stylistically stilted and rather two-dimensional, the performances are above the horror B-standards found in the films of the era. The heavy theme of punishment makes for staggeringly unsympathetic characters (even those sinned against are often too meek to root for), but the mix of melancholy and manic theatrics are consistently above average.
Even without the liner notes and expert commentary track at my disposal I could tell that the point of the film was beneath the surface. From an allegoric standpoint, many Japanese films, and art in general, are really about current politics and class struggles. Filmmakers often hid their politics in plain sight behind the time periods they chose to set their films, and Snake Woman's Curse is a fine example. However the allegory is so blatant, I find it hard to believe anyone missed it. The landlord and his family are so irredeemably evil that mistaking Nakagawa's political P.O.V. proves impossible. This heavy-handed nature keeps the film from effectively delivering its message
But the heavy-handedness isn't my problem with Snake Woman's Curse, it's the film's glacial pace (it certainly feels more than a paltry eighty-five minutes), and the overly familiar nature of the plot. Telling the same classic story a thousand times over isn't a specifically Japanese characteristic, but it does come easy to the region's films (there were at least two more 'snake woman' movies and God knows how many evil landlord movies released in 1968 alone). I enjoyed the craft, but was rather bored by the subject matter and executed pace.
Synapse Films has done a fine job cleaning and mastering this film for its DVD debut, but only so much can be done with the source material. Nakagawa's deep blacks (which were apparently his trademark) look great, and are usually free of compression noise, and his colours, both natural and super natural, are bright and rich. The cleanliness of the transfer isn't immaculate, and most every shot has a share of obvious blemishes and artefacts, but this is rarely distracting, and not unexpected. Snake Woman's Curse isn't as polished as Malformed Men, but Synapse is still on their A-game.
Synapse has no real good reason to remaster the original tracks into any sort of modern surround sound, so the original Japanese Mono does fine. The presentation is a bit flat and busy scenes a bit garbled, but overall clarity is impressive enough, and distortion is minimal. The soundtrack is an effective mix of more traditional era Japanese film score and what sounds like a Theremin, which is utilized during the film's many ghostly sequences.
As I mentioned in my Malformed Men review, I'm painfully unaware of Japanese film predating the 1990s, so I'm happy to absorb any intellectual information on the subject. Japanese film scholar Jonathan M. Hall's commentary track is a nice place for me to start. Hall's efforts can't compare to those of Bey Logan and Tom Mes (Hall actually quotes Mes), but he's effective, if not a bit sparse. Synapse has thankfully included a narrator on the track who lets us know which chapters Hall will be speaking, ensuring we don't waste our time waiting for him to speak up.
The disc also features the film's original Japanese trailer and a Nobuo Nakagawa poster gallery and biography. The box features liner notes by Japanese film scholar Alexander Jacoby, who fills in a couple of the blanks left by Hall on the commentary track, and a reversible cover featuring the original Japanese poster artwork.
Again, the timing was all wrong because I watched Snake Woman's Curse with images of Horrors of the Malformed Men still dancing in my head. The two films really only share their country of origin and time periods in common, but I still find myself comparing the two. Snake Woman's Curse is beautifully filmed, but the story and pace are dull. I only recommend it to those building an encyclopaedic knowledge of Japanese cinema, though it's still an above average film.
Review by Gabriel Powers
Dave Brock Banned Join Date: November 2004 Location: United Kingdom Posts: 1,237
I picked this up a while ago and it sits on my skysc**per tall 'To Watch' list! I hope I like it more.
Manda of Mu Member Join Date: June 2006 Location: United States Posts: 458
I watched it and loved it, I don't know, there is something magical about 50's-70's Japanese horror flicks, I love them! And not to mention Nabuo Nakagawa is a god of old school J-Horror.
This product has not been rated
Disc Details
Release Date: 28th August 2007
Discs: 1
Disc Type: Single side, single layer
RCE: No
Video: NTSC
Aspect: 2.35:1
Anamorphic: Yes
Colour: Yes
Audio: Dolby Digital Mono Japanese
Subtitles: English
Extras: Commentary, Trailer, Bio, Liner Notes
Easter Egg: No
Feature Details
Director: Nobuo Nakagawa
Cast: Akemi Negishi, Ko Nishimura
Genre: Horror
Length: 85 minutes
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[Reposted from old comment system, from Joy Moore on Mon, 31 Jan 2011 14:01:23 0000]
Here is my idea for a novel. A man is on a fight to somewhere. The fight attendant comes by to serve drinks. He notices how atractive she is. Years later after he has married and divorced twice and she has married and divorced three times, they meet again. They fall in love and get married. After they have been married for some time they discover they met years ago on the fight to somewhere.


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4 Easy Steps to Mobility


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There are a number of cruise nights and car shows throughout Connecticut this summer. Here's one of them.
Hot rods, customized cars and classic automobiles will be on display at the Classic Car Show Wednesday, July 13. This annual event within an event – the Glastonbury Riverfest Music Festival - is popular with old and young alike. For the fifth year in a row, Bud Gilman is the man in charge.
Gilman's credentials to run this show can be traced to his long involvement with the Eastern Chapter of the Over the Hill Gang, a club for classic car enthusiasts established in 1994. The club's mission, according to its Web site, is to "support the sport of street rodding, antique cars and trucks; provide entertainment for the family; [and] support the community by providing good entertainment at a reasonable cost." Gilman has served the club as a member-at-large and as an officer. This year, for the first time, he is serving as president.
"Car enthusiasts are temperamental about bringing their cars out in rainy weather," says Gilman. This is why there is a rain date for the Classic Car Show of July 20.
A Classic Car Show provides car enthusiasts the opportunity to show off their beautifully maintained automobiles from a bygone era. Observers gets a chance to ogle over what in some instances could be referred to as works of art on wheels. People of a certain generation may remember a particular car from their youth. Others may even have owned a similar car as one on display. And still others have no knowledge of a car's provenance, but still appreciate its intrinsic and extrinsic beauty.
Gilman credits his neighbor Paul Kogan with getting him involved in the hobby. Kogan will be bringing his 1940 two-door Chevy sedan, which has a new paint job. "It's purple," Gilman said. A very clear, shiny, dark purple."
Kogan's son, Leo, who is 22, recently graduated from Bryant College and has moved back to the area to go into business with his dad. Leo also will participate in the car show, driving what Gilman calls, "The Intimidator." Gilman's description of Leo's car is "a blue 1971 Chevelle, with a white stripe and a 327 formidable engine size. But it's still considered a small block Chevy."
The number 327 is the bore or cylinder size. For those who are more interested in the way cars look than how they are built, it is probably sufficient to add that not only is the bore the same as the cylinder, but the bigger the cylinder, the bigger the block. However, "Sometimes a big block isn't faster than a small block since the weight of the car contributes significantly to performance and speed," says Gilman.
Last year Gilman brought his 1935 Chevy to the show. "This year I'll either bring my '87 Buick Grand National or the '65 Buick Special convertible. It's red with a white top," Gilman says. He describes this car as having a "really distinctive red - people gravitate to it."
Gilman estimates that there were 150 cars at this show last year, "which is a lot of people with specialty vehicles around Glastonbury," he observes.
The Over the Hill Gang's "big, big" classic car show will take place on Main Street in Manchester on August 7. It is the second largest one-day car show in the country, according to Gilman. (The one in Myrtle Beach is No. 1.) At the Manchester show, Gilman estimates that there will be about 30,000 spectators and between 1,000 and 2,000 vehicles.


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Wye Island NRMA is located in the tidal recesses of the Chesapeake Bay between the Wye River and the Wye East River. Of Wye Island's 2,800 acres, 2,450 are managed by the Department of Natural Resources Maryland Park Service for resource management, recreation and agriculture. A major emphasis at Wye Island is to provide suitable habitat for wintering waterfowl populations and other native wildlife. A primary resource management objective at Wye Island is the stabilization of the 30 miles of ever-eroding shoreline. These efforts are accomplished through a partnership between DNR and numerous environmental advocacy groups, such as the Chesapeake Bay Trust, schools and scout groups. Service learning opportunities abound at Wye Island. For service learning and volunteer opportunities at Wye Island NRMA, contact the Volunteer Coordinator at 410-827-7577 or firstname.lastname@example.com
For over 300 years, Wye Island was privately owned and managed for agricultural use, including tobacco and wheat farming. Two of the most noteworthy owners were William Paca and Charles Beale Bordley. Mr. Paca, third governor of Maryland and one of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence, owned half of the island north of Dividing Creek. Mr. Bordley was a distinguished lawyer and jurist who owned half of the island south of Dividing Creek. In the 1770's Mr. Bordley gave up his law career to devote his life to farming and make Wye Island totally self-sufficient. Under Mr. Bordley's control, the island prospered with its own vineyards, orchards, textile production, brick yard, and even its own brewery.
Eventually the island was sold off into separate farms. The most influential owners were Glenn and Jacqueline Stewart. Ultimately they owned a majority of the land and turned Wye Island into a cattle ranch. The Stewart's built the hunting lodge (Duck House), which remains today on Granary Creek. In the mid 1970's the encroaching threat of residential development forced the State of Maryland to purchase the island to ensure its preservation.
If you would like to learn more about Wye Island, you may want to read the book "WYE ISLAND" by Boyd Gibbons which describes the history of the island.
Wildlife viewing and hiking are the most popular activities on Wye Island's six miles of trails. The School House Woods Nature Trail takes you through a mature hardwood forest while the Ferry Landing Trail leads beneath a canopy of Osage Orange Trees. Wye Island also houses a Holly Tree that is more than 290 years old. Follow the Holly Tree Trail to visit this long-time resident.
The topography of the island is relatively flat. From the novice to the advanced hiker, access to the trails is very easy from the main park road. The Maryland Park Service does not rent horses, and only provides the trails as a means of recreation.
A new map of the trails at Wye Island NRMA can be downloaded for free from this website. Please make sure to read the printing instructions and information for how to download the file to cell phones. The map is in a PDF format that requires Adobe Reader. To get the free Adobe Reader go to Adobe.com.
Visitors are advised to plan ahead and bring insect repellent, sun screen and drinkable water. Visitors should watch for Poison Ivy and check for ticks and other insects while out enjoying the trails.
Visitors can see a variety of birds and wildlife including ducks, geese, wading birds, Bald Eagles, the endangered Delmarva Fox Squirrel, whitetail deer and many other species. Horseback riding and bicycling are also popular but visitors are encouraged to approach these activities with respect for the environment. Horses and bicycles may be off limits in some areas during specific times of the year due to trail conditions. Please call ahead to confirm access. Equestrian Riders are prohibited on the Schoolhouse Woods Nature Trail due to the sensitive nature of the area.
Hunting is available at Wye Island NRMA for both Canada Goose and White Tailed Deer through managed hunts and lotteries. The white tailed deer population is specially managed through a hunting program that includes limited hunting days for Shotgun and Muzzleloader through a lottery program. Archery hunting is permitted on a posted schedule with a limited number of hunters each day. These hunts help to maintain the ecological balance between the whitetail deer herd and their habitat. Goose hunting is also limited and controlled through a lottery drawing process. Individuals who are mobility impaired are encouraged to apply for the lottery as there are blinds available that accommodate wheel chairs. Raccoon hunting and Fox chasing are also available on a limited basis by permit. Trapping is not permitted for any species on Wye Island. For more information regarding hunting opportunities/lotteries contact the facility office at 410-827-7577.
Each November Wye Island is the site of several field trial championships. Past field trial championships include the National German Shorthaired Pheasant Association Championship, the American Pointing Dog Championship and the Maryland Amateur Pointing Dog Championship. The general public is encouraged to watch or participate in these events. For more information on specific dates, contact Wye Island NRMA office at email@example.com.
Fishing is also permitted from the shoreline at Wye Island NRMA. All anglers 16 years of age and older must have a Maryland Chesapeake Bay Sport Fishing License and any other applicable permits required. Anglers are reminded to follow Leave No Trace (LNT) practices and reduce their personal impact on the sensitive vegetation along the shoreline.
The Wye River is a very popular destination for boaters looking for a quiet place to relax and enjoy fishing and crabbing. Kayaking and canoeing are excellent ways to explore the beautiful, ever-changing shoreline. A soft launch is located at the Granary Creek Picnic Area for non-motorized vessels only. There is limited parking at the site, with some additional parking at a small lot approximately 1/4-quarter mile away. Please note - parking is prohibited along the road.
Other nearby public launch facilities, including those that accommodate motorized boats, can be found at Queen Anne's and Talbot County parks. Information on access to these sites can be found by contacting the Queen Anne County Parks Department at 410-758-0835 (www.qac.org), or Talbot County Parks and Recreation Office at 410-770-8050 (www.talbotparks.org).
The coves found around Wye Island provide excellent anchorage for the night or weekend. Consult local navigational charts for details. The most popular spots are Granary Creek and Dividing Creek, located off the Wye East River and anchorages near Drum Point on the Wye River. Boaters are permitted to come ashore and explore Wye Island NRMA. When coming ashore boaters are urged to use good judgement, and pick a spot where the shoreline is gently sloped to minimize any ecological damage.
Wye Island hosts the DNR Conference Lodge (Duck House). The lodge and grounds are available to rent for your meetings, retreats, company picnics, family reunions, weddings and receptions. The conference lodge is located on Granary Creek just off the Wye East River. For recreation, we provide horseshoes and a large field for other recreational activities. Guests are welcome to hike or bring bicycles to utilize the many miles of trails and shoreline. The lodge can accomodate 25 to 30 people per day for an indoor meeting or event. There are overnight accommodations for 12 people in a dormitory setting within the lodge and adjoining bunkhouse. Outdoors, groups of 50 to 200 people can be accommodated as well using the lodge and nearby pavilion. A self-service kitchen and an outdoor grill are available to users. Pets are permitted in the area but for sanitary reasons are prohibited from being in the Conference Lodge.
Rental charge for the lodge is $250 per day plus a $50 reservation charge. Overnight accommodations in the bunkhouse cost an additional service charge of $50 per night. During certain times of the year, the pavilion can be reserved for a service charge of $175 per day. The lodge and pavilion can be rented as a package for $375 per day. Reservations are accepted one year in advance of your stay and can be made by contacting the Wye Island Office at 410-827-7577 or via e-mail at email@example.com.
Youth group camping is permitted at three primitive group campsites. Service charges for use of these areas include a $20 reservation charge, and $3 charge per camper per night for qualified groups. The overnight service charge is waived for youth groups that possess a valid Maryland Park Service youth group pass. Potable water is available at the park office. Group camping is by reservation only. Reservations must be made 30 days in advance by contacting the Wye Island Office at 410-827-7577. All campers must be part of a recognized organization.
Primitive restroom facilities (pit toilets) are available for public access at the Canada Goose Management Area parking lot, the Dividing Creek group campsite, the Equestrian Parking Lot and Ferry Landing Trail.
Campers should be aware that due to the possible transport of parasitic emerald ash borer in firewood, the Department of Natural Resources has a policy restricting the transportation of firewood onto public lands. We ask that visitors utilize only local sources of firewood. For more information, see www.dnr.state.md.us/dnrnews/infocus/emerald_ash_borer.asp.
Pets are welcome at Wye Island NRMA, but they must be under the owner's control and leashed at all times. Pets are not permitted at the DNR Conference Lodge or the Group Camping Areas.
Wye Island NRMA is managed by the Department of Natural Resources Maryland Park Service. Area regulations are posted. Alcoholic beverages are prohibited at all times with the exception of Duck Lodge guests Camping and fires are permitted only in designated areas with appropriate reservations. Motorized vehicles are prohibited on trails, fields, field edges, buffer strips, and grass waterways. All pets must be under the owner's control and leashed at all times, except while participating in an authorized hunt or chase.
Hikers, cyclists and equestrians are asked to avoid traveling on agricultural fields to reduce damage to crops. Trail users should stay on the trails or established grass filter strips. Equestrian Riders are prohibited on the Schoolhouse Woods Nature Trail due to the sensitive nature of the area. Please obey all signs. Areas may be closed to access due to weather or hazardous conditions.
580 Taylor Ave, Annapolis MD 21401


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By Eno Sarris
Two out of every five pitchers who pitched in the bigs last year will be headed to the disabled list this year. Look around your favorite rotation and try to decide who will go down. You've got your ideas.
Research has provided some guide posts in predicting pitcher injury, but those posts are as shaky as the arms they were built upon. Maybe a trip through a specific rotation would help us mine the research out there in a practical way. Maybe the Texas Rangers can help.
One particular starter on the Rangers is a virtual touchstone for research on pitcher injuries. We all love Yu Darvish, and he can make magic with his arm, but it's reasonable to worry about Darvish and his health. Why? Let's count the reasons.
The strongest piece of research shows that past disabled list stints predict future ones. Russell Carleton at Baseball Prospectus showed that you're ten times as likely to show an elbow injury this coming season if you had one last year, for example. Darvish went on the disabled list last year for what was called an upper back strain, but the trapezius muscle is basically part of your shoulder apparatus. Uh-oh.
This sort of finding, that past health results predict future ones, descends all the way to the smallest parts of the body. R.J. Anderson took at look at blisters, the flap of skin that can fell a giant, and found a similar result: past blisters, and perhaps sheer number of pitches, can help project a pitcher's future blisters. Darvish had blister problems last year and only eight pitchers threw more pitches last year than the Rangers' ace. Yikes.
If you ask Darvish, he has a couple different sliders. His classification systems only show one slider, but he throws it a ton. By PITCHf/x, no pitcher threw more sliders than the 1290 Darvish threw last year. Might not seem like such a big deal that almost a third of his pitches were sliders -- after all, the whiff rate on that pitch is high, and it's at least a big part of why he has such excellent strikeout numbers -- but there is research that suggests the slider is a bit tough on the arm. Jeff Zimmmerman found that high-slider pitchers went to the disabled list 46 percent of the time, a jump from the 39 percent the general population averages.
To make matters worse, the second-worst pitch for your arm might be the curveball. Darvish throws two curveballs, and those pitches, along with a four-seam and a cutter, make up most of his arsenal no matter what classification you use. Let's not forget to mention that a few organizations have banned the cutter -- or at least the 'baby slider' version of the cutter that usually goes three-plus mph slower than your four-seamer and features slider-type bite. Supposedly the baby slider kills your fastball velocity over time. That hasn't been shown in the numbers, but it is worth noting that Darvish has a cutter, it's his third-most-used pitch, and it goes three mph slower than his four-seamer. Maybe that's the other slider he was talking about. Maybe we should be worried.
We're not done yet. You see, Darvish doesn't feature the best control: Only six starters had a worse zone percentage than Darvish last year, and even after improving his control, he showed a worse-than-average walk rate. You know what's coming by now. Jeff Zimmerman found that pitchers that threw more strikes, hit the zone more often and walked fewer batters all had better health outcomes than pitchers with worse control. Billy Beane once said he thought guys with good control had good mechanics and therefore stayed healthier longer, and there's some evidence he was right.
There are a few last harbingers of doom for Darvish. Josh Kalk's "Injury Zone" research was picked up by Jeff Zimmerman, and it showed that late-game inconsistencies in release point, combined with velocity loss and a drop in zone percentage, could be predictive of injury in a specific pitcher. Darvish was fairly inconsistent all year with his release point (see his release points compared to Cliff Lee's below), and dropped in zone percentage and velocity at the end of the year. But he never had all three markers at the same time, maybe.
Now it's time to pull back on the throttle.
Yu Darvish is not necessarily going to go under the knife this year. And his health may have something to do with a completely different way to talk about best practices for pitchers: biomechanics. Kyle Boddy has built a lab for his Driveline Baseball academy, full of weighted balls, motion-capture cameras, and the type of muscle sensors you see pictured here.
At first, Boddy says they built the lab "in the hopes of quantifying the pitching delivery and predicting injuries to the arm." And though they learned something about injuries and can perhaps project injury rates for certain populations, he wanted to be clear: "We are a long way from predicting pitcher injuries."
That doesn't mean that they haven't learned that certain movements put more stress on the arm then others, and can lead to injuries. They type of pronation you typically do when you throw a changeup, for example, has been "linked to fewer elbow injuries and increased performance" in their lab. But that doesn't mean that the specific muscles the pitcher might want to use for that action are being activated. In other words, for each pitcher, there is probably a healthier way to throw their changeup, even if it's a pitch that might promote health.
And so the goals at Driveline Baseball have changed, and in that change we can find perhaps the future of dealing with pitcher injury. Instead of dealing with them en masse, or establishing "best practices" and then trying to mold pitchers into those buckets, their organization tries to, in a word, "tweak" the pitcher's own natural mechanics in order to put less stress on certain parts of their bodies. The emphasis is on using video and practice with weighted balls to slightly change small parts of their deliveries to make them more effective and healthy.
Back to Darvish. He does something in this area very well. Many pitchers try to move their front shoulder in tandem with their back shoulder -- imagine a straight line from shoulder to shoulder -- in order to get their throwing arm out from behind them. According to Boddy, pulling the the glove side and clearing it away from the body before the pitching arm comes through allows the pitching arm to "better apply force in a straight line." David Robertson might be best at this, but as you can see in this GIF comparing Robertson to Darvish, they are both good at clearing away the front arm.
So Darvish may have an advantage in his mechanics. And using things like zone percentage and walk rate as a proxy for mechanics is a problem, especially for a pitcher that's new to the league. Darvish had to deal with a new ball in his first season -- and a new strike zone. Both may have contributed to his command issues. There's evidence he was squeezed in the strike zone a bit his first year, for example.
Maybe his mechanics are okay! He's young! Since he's young, his DL projection -- without any inputs based on his pitching mix and control -- is only 37 percent. Maybe his elbow will survive the sliders.
From the perspective of the Rangers, it might not matter much. They know they're likely to lose 600 pitcher days to the disabled list on average -- if they're unlucky (like the Blue Jays) as much as 1200 days -- and that they have to plan for that sort of eventuality. That's just another reason why teams are reluctant to trade young pitching. The Rangers aren't just planning on Darvish, Matt Harrison, Martin Perez and Alexi Ogando to contribute in the starting rotation, and hoping for Derek Holland's quick return. They're signing Tommy Hanson, and keeping Nick Tepesch around. They're re-upping Colby Lewis just in case. They're keeping an eye on prospect Luke Jackson. And they're feeling lucky that that most of their guys are projected within shouting distance of being league average, and they're feeling good about their offense.
Since all the Rangers can really do is prepare, and teach their pitchers best practices, it makes sense to develop this sort of depth. And invest in good training practices and facilities.
What are you going to do? If you somehow developed a team full of change-up throwing control artists with perfect mechanics… one of them still might fall down the stairs and hurt his knee.
* * *
Eno Sarris writes about baseball at FanGraphs www.fangraphs.com most of the time. He also started BeerGraphs www.beergraphs.com for the beer nerds out there. He doesn't always play daily fantasy, but when he does, he plays it at DraftStreet.com.


text:
Dewitt T. Black III, Esq., Senior Counsel of HSLDA
North Carolina Action Alert: Proposed Legislation to Limit Social Worker Access to Private Homes
From the HSLDA@Capitol Hill E-lert Service...
April 19, 2001
Dear North Carolina HSLDA Members and Friends,
North Carolina House Bill 971 was introduced in the North Carolina
legislature on April 4, 2001, by Representative Russell Capps. HB 971
would prohibit a social worker from entering a private residence for
investigation purposes without either (1) the permission of the head
of the household or (2) the accompaniment of a law enforcement
officer acting with legal authority to enter the residence. The
"legal authority" the law enforcement officer would be required to
have would be a court order, search warrant, or an emergency. HB 971
has been referred to the House Committee on Judiciary II. This bill
should be supported.
The legal difficulties encountered by the Stumbo family prompted the
introduction of this bill. This North Carolina family's problems
started when a social worker insisted upon entering their home and
interviewing their children in violation of the Fourth Amendment to
the United States Constitution. For more information on the Stumbo
case, visit our website at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=76.
1. Call as many members as possible of the House Judiciary II
Committee and give them this message:
"Protect the privacy of North Carolina citizens! Vote 'Yes' on House
Bill 971."
- The Judiciary II Committee members and their phone numbers are
listed below:
Rep. Philip Baddour, Jr., Chair (919) 715-0850
Rep. Milton Fitch, Jr., Vice Chair (919) 715-2241
Rep. Phil Haire, Vice Chair (919) 715-3005
Rep. Joanne Bowie (919) 733-5853
Rep. William Culpepper, III (919) 715-3028
Rep. Michael Decker (919) 733-7208
Rep. Jim Gully (919) 733-5860
Rep. John Hall (919) 733-5898
Rep. Maggie Jeffers (919) 733-5191
Rep. Larry Justus (919) 733-5956
Rep. Paul Miller (919) 733-7760
Rep. David Miner (919) 733-5749
Rep. Art Pope (919) 733-5809
Rep. Wilma Sherrill (919) 715-4466
Rep. Jennifer Weiss (919) 733-5781
2. Also, call your state representative and give him the same
"Protect the privacy of North Carolina citizens! Vote 'Yes' on House
Bill 971."
- You can find your state representative and his phone number by
using HSLDA's Legislative Toolbox at http://www.hslda.org/toolbox.
At about 7 a.m. on September 9, 1999, Jim and Mary Ann Stumbo's two-
year-old failed to put on all her clothes before exiting the front
door to pursue her pet kitten. Her brother brought her back inside
about three minutes later. However, within two hours, a social worker
drove up the dead-end street leading to the family's home on a 10-
acre lot. The social worker did not have a warrant to enter the home
or examine the children as required by the Constitution.
Nevertheless, she demanded to interview each child without the
presence of their mother. When the family refused, the Department of
Social Services filed a petition alleging "interference with a child
abuse investigation."
The trial judge ruled that social workers are not "state actors,"
that a child neglect investigation is not a "search," and that the
Fourth Amendment did not provide the parents with a "lawful excuse"
to refuse entry. However, in an extraordinary move, the North
Carolina Court of Appeals blocked the trial court order, and allowed
the Stumbos time to appeal the case. Michael Farris, HSLDA's General
Counsel, appeared before the North Carolina Court of Appeals on March
13, 2001, arguing that the order to investigate was unlawful in that
it ordered parents to submit to a search and interview without the
requisite showing of probable cause. We are currently awaiting a
For more information on the Stumbo case, visit our website at
To view a complete list of bills HSLDA is monitoring in North
Carolina, visit our website at http://www.hslda.org/elink.asp?ID=77.
Very truly yours,
Dewitt T. Black, III
Home School Legal Defense Association
P.O. Box 3000
Purcellville, Virginia 20134
The HSLDA@Capitol Hill E-lert Service is a member service of the
Home School Legal Defense Association. Members can subscribe,
unsubscribe, or modify their subscription by visiting our members web
site at http://members.hslda.org/elert or by call us at (540) 338-
POSTMASTERS: This message is being sent to the most recent address we
have for our subscribers. If this is an invalid e-mail address or you
have other problems, please reply to firstname.lastname@example.com.
DISCLAIMER: This is considered a private and confidential message
from HSLDA to its bonafide HSLDA@Capitol Hill E-lert Service
subscribers. HSLDA cannot attest to the authenticity of copies
posted, forwarded, or sent by any party other than HSLDA.
NOTE: Please do not reply or otherwise use this e-mail address;
firstname.lastname@example.com is for broadcast purposes only and is not intended to
receive incoming messages. We cannot reply to any e-mail sent to this
address. If you have comments or questions, please call HSLDA instead
at 540-338-5600. HSLDA members can also e-mail staff directly through
the Members website at http://members.hslda.org/contact.asp. Thank
you for your cooperation.
| Other Resources
More information on the North Carolina's House Bill 971


text:
Photos and Captions: Greg Furey
Words: Lucky Lopez
Video: Tom Haraden
Mt. Bachelor hosted the 8th stop of the 12th Annual Transworld SNOWboarding TransAM this past weekend. Parker Bohon and the Mt. Bachelor park crew set up a picture perfect park which included a High Cascade Snowboard Camp Marshmallow snow wall feature, a Ride Snowboard giant wall ride, a Muscle Milk feature with a newly added chain attachment, an Anon Optics off centered double rail set up, a Analog Outerwear stair to down rail feature, a Zumiez couch gap to flat to down rail and a Giro jersey barrier to rail combo. A pristine park line up that stayed ripp-able on a snowy day at Mt. Bachelor. High Cascade's Carson Shubert was once again calling out tricks on the mic as the top amateur snowboarders from the area came out to Mt. Bachelor firing rodeos, backside rodeos, back flips, front flips, and some stylish methods. At the end of the day the top guys and girls qualified for the Transworld TransAM finals at Big Bear, CA. on March 15.
Congratulations to the top three Guys and Gals that qualified for the Transworld SNOWboarding TransAM Finals at Big Bear Mountain, CA on March 15, 2014. Top honors went to Beau Cummins & Ally Goebel who walked away with flight vouchers to Finals courtesy of Zumiez, VIP treatment for the finals weekend on behalf of Transworld SNOWboarding & Zumiez, snowboards from Ride, and the coveted TransAM bling chain necklace trophy!
All Winners also received tons of awesome product including High Cascade backpacks, Anon goggles, Analog outerwear, Giro Helmets and Zumiez gift cards, Muscle Milk product and gear from Ride Snowboards. Mt. Bachelors high energy competitors also had a chance to win raffle prizes and were treated to a Mt. Bachelor/ TransAM pizza party following the awards ceremony.
The prestigious Muscle Milk Riders Choice Award, went to Randal Seaton, who took home a $250 American Express gift card, a custom Muscle Milk backpack, and a case of Muscle Milk for his efforts.
The Zumiez Best Trick Award in the form of $500 cold hard Zumiez dollars went to Beau Cummins – Front blunt flat to backboard downrail.
Pint Size Ripper Award of the 2014 Transworld SNOWboarding TransAM tour at Mt. Bachelor went to Elliot Massey, he was all over the place keeping up with the top finishers.
Special thanks to Parker Bohon and the Mt. Bachelor Park Staff for their creative park design and constant maintenance of the park during the TransAM.
Special thanks to the TransAM sponsors for another successful TransAM stop: Ride Snowboards, Zumiez, Anon Optics, Analog, High Cascade Snowboard Camp, Muscle Milk and Giro. See you at Stevens Pass!
1.Beau Cummins
2. Demetri Bales
3. Jared Elston
1. Ally Goebel
2. Tanya Zarling
Zumiez Best Trick
Beau Cummins-Front blunt flat to boardslide the downrail
Pint Size Ripper Award
Elliot Massey
Best Crash
Adlar Thomas
Muscle Milk Best Line
Randal Seaton


text:
|2010-05-25, 03:21
|Link #1
cho~ kakkoii
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: 3rd Planet
Good morning ladies and gentlemen! This stretch of good animation that we have enjoyed in the last couple of episodes should come to an end if we go by the sampling of animated sequence displayed in the preview for this episode. Are there any other fight that would warrant another very good animated episode? I would definitely love it if they put some effort to flesh out the fight between Barragan and Soi Fon. In fact, I will be delighted just to see Barragan getting up from his seat. The big booby arrancar's fight with the shouta is purely fanservice as far as myself is concerned. I also wonder if the old man will lend any hands to any other fight. Shunshui's fight with the #1 was pretty boring as much as it was shown. So what exactly are they going to focus on in this week's episode? If we go by the preview, the episode is going to be about the sideshows (Rukia, Renji, Chad, etc) disappointingly enough. Hopefully we will get some answers on Ichigo's newly found transformation once enough time is spent on the shinanigans of the side shows.
Enjoy the discussion by adhering to the spoiler rule that is in effect for anime-only threads.
Absolutely no manga spoilers in any anime-only threads such as the weekly Episode Discussion threads. That means, no hints, or vague remarks about a future event from the manga, even within the spoiler tags. Inability to observe this rule will result in a BAN!
|2010-05-25, 04:31
|Link #4
Optimus Prime
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Japan/Canada
Age: 34
Well the ep was a good 50/50 split of the bench warmer and action variety.
Ulquiorra/Orihime shippers are gonna love it.
Sad to say but they stupidly replaced the Arrancar Encyclopedia with Quincy Encyclopedia. Like anyone gives a f&ck about Quincies. Guess Gin's gotta find himself another day job. Too bad, he was the best part of the show.
|2010-05-25, 07:13
|Link #8
Join Date: May 2010
No we're not. Because Anime Ulquiorra is colder to Orihime than Manga Ulquiorra
It actually kinda pisses us off. There is only one scene we're gonna squee over.
|2010-05-25, 11:21
|Link #12
Has balls of cast iron
Join Date: Apr 2010
besides, uruyu got some screen time these past few episodes.
the arrancar ones will probably be back once the show goes back to karakura town.
|2010-05-25, 15:04
|Link #15
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Texas
|2010-05-25, 15:11
|Link #16
Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Age: 27
|2010-05-25, 15:32
|Link #17
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2007
Anyway just saw raw... Once again Renji got owned... well more exactly his bankai did...
Looks like Yammy decided on different entrance... Shouldn't he have fallen on top of the tree?
Kinda like Ichigo's hollow voice here, sure sounded a bit dramatic there.
Bye bye Ulquiorra, we'll miss you.
I wonder if I should bother with next two episodes... Since Halibel VS Hitsugaya surely is not my favourite battle... more like the worst ever. Even this one is far better for me.
P.S. Looks like naimation was doen differently. at least it is the first time I see them handling flashbacks like that.
|2010-05-25, 15:40
|Link #18
User Title eaten by ravenous bunnies
IT Support
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Zeon
Age: 27
Damn you kubo why didn't you make Orihime use Soten Kisshun on Uli she used it on Grim no fairrrrrrr for us Uli jans /irrational fan boy rant
Well RIP Ulquiorra Cifer
|2010-05-25, 16:58
|Link #19
cho~ kakkoii
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: 3rd Planet
I also didn't get most of the hype surrounding this scene between Orihime and Ulqui. Orihime was seemingly suffering from some kind of Attention Disorder here. She is screaming Ichigo's name. Ichigo stabs Ishida. She is now screaming Ishida's name. And at the same time blaming herself for putting Ichigo into such state. And then she focuses all her attention to Ulqui as it became clear Ulqui is about to do the vanishing trick. She just didn't seem to have any time to linger on anyone for too long. I guess in the next episode she merely shakes her shoulder, followed by "Oh well!" and moves along. Better yet, the subject is never brought up, just like a foregone filler saga in Bleach. I mean, she didn't even make an attempt to heal Ulqui as he was crumbling away. It was still very touching to see Ulqui reach some kind of consternation when Orihime told him "you aren't scary." I liked Ulqui a lot, right up there with Grimjow. Grimjow, for his crazy, fun, and the abundant reckless energy he constantly projects while Ulqui is for his sheer calm and arrogance. He never doubted about his superiority and never failed to point out about the inferiority. Practical to the bitter end, but still clueless about the human heart.
The episode did have some showing to speculate further on Ichigo's new found upgrade when the process to close the hole was followed through.
Quincy Encylopedia was hilarious. Ishida's dad is holding Isshin responsible for Ishida's current state of affair at the hands of Ichigo. No one stabs his son. That's why Isshin had to go, "dokan." (boom) Ishhin actually said, "dokan" himself before the explosion.
|2010-05-25, 17:39
|Link #20
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Central Texas
Age: 34
|Thread Tools


text:
April celebrates spring, books and children. The University of Houston's Arte Público Press (APP) and the Houston Public Library, are celebrating the 16th anniversary of El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros (Children's Day/Book Day) with a day of storytelling, crafts, music and food.
"Día at Discovery – A Sweet 16 Celebration of Children's Day, Book Day" is planned from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, April 21 at Discovery Green in downtown Houston. There is no charge to attend. Families can learn about Children's Day/Book Day, while children sample pan dulce (Mexican sweet bread), create lucha libre (wrestling) masks and take home books and other treats.
El Día de los Niños/El Día de los Libros is the brainchild of author Pat Mora, an El Paso native who got her publishing start at APP in 1985. Today, Mora is recognized as an award-winning author of more than 40 volumes of poetry, nonfiction and children's picture books.
Día, as it's affectionately referred to, is an initiative to focus children and families on literacy, culture and language. Housed at the American Library Association, Día began in 1996 and is celebrated across the country.
"Pat has been a trailblazing emissary to what she calls 'bookjoy,' a pure love of what reading brings, which, at its purest, is a connection, an exchange, an enrichment," said Marina Tristán at APP. "This year's Día celebration comes on the heels of the controversial removal of ethnic studies books from Arizona classrooms, many of which were written by Hispanic authors. Now more than ever we need 'bookjoy.'"
The "Dia at Discovery" event will feature Houston author Gwendolyn Zepeda, Xavier Garza and Mora. Children can participate in a gardening activity (as illustrated in Zepeda's bilingual picture book, "Sunflowers"/ "Girasoles") and cheer for Mexican wrestlers (as portrayed in Garza's book, "Kid Cyclone Fights the Devil and Other Stories"). Mora will be on hand to discuss the literacy initiative and talk about "The Desert is My Mother"/"El desierto es mi madre," her first children's book published by APP's, Piñata Books.
For information on author Pat Mora and a complete schedule of Día events, visit http://www.latinoteca.com/arte-publico-press/app-information/app-content/celebrate-book-joy-with-pinata-books
For more information on Arte Público Press, visit http://www.latinoteca.com/arte-publico-press
WHAT: Día at Discovery – A Sweet 16 Celebration of Children's Day, Book Day
WHEN: 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., Saturday, April 21
WHERE: Houston Public Library at Discovery Green in downtown Houston


text:
Ward necesitaba un nuevo diseño de página web y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 57 diseños de 13 diseñadores freelance.
Appirio is a consulting company that helps companies implement cloud computing solutions. We're specialist in implementing and developing applications for the Salesforce Force.com platform and helping companies adopt the Google application suite.
The HelpDesk pages will be for a variety of users -- anyone who might be developing applications for the Force.com platform and might need to implement "ticketing functionality".
The Help Desk application is a pretty basic web application consisting of 3 pages -- Ticket List, Log a Ticket, and the Ticket Detail page. Our client has asked for an interface which is not only usable but also has a little Web 2.0 zing to it. It is an "application" so it can't be too out there but it should demo well. Here are the details:
Ticket List -- Shows the user's list of tickets. This is the entry page to the application. The list can be sorted by Ticket Number, Subject, Type, Status, Priority. The Ticket Numbers and Subject fields in the list should be links to the Ticket Detail page. This page should have a form to search the tickets. And there should also be navigation to the Log a Ticket page as well.
Log A Ticket -- Basic form to log a "Case" or issue. Fields include: Name, Telephone, Email, Company, Subject, Priority, Type and Description. All are simple Text Fields except the Description which will be a text area.
Ticket Detail -- Allows users to see the details of a Case. Should show all the fields entered in the Log Entry field as read-only. And in addition allow users to add, edit, or delete comments or add or remove attachments.
These pages will all be deployed to the Force.com platform which means the top 50 pixels across the top the page will be spoken for and there will be a "Help Desk" tab (any color) which refers to these pages. Please send an email to firstname.lastname@example.com and I will provide the wireframes with the tabset and logo.


text: Claim forms In the event of an insurance claim, you can download a claim form from 'Table of Claims Forms' and send it to the Claims Office as indicated by your country of origin of travel in 'Table of Claims Offices'. For additional Information you may also review the documents required section below. You may download a copy of any of the following Claim(s) forms: Claim forms for specific countries South Africa United States of America France Germany Belgium and Switzerland Claim forms for all other countries Trip Cancellation Trip Curtailment (Cutting Short your Trip) Medical and Associated Expenses Travel Delay & Missed Departure Baggage Delay Personal Belongings and Baggage Passport and Travel Documents Personal Accident Personal Public Liability Physician Medical Certificate** ** Physician's Medical Certificate is an extra document to be used if the applicable Claim Form indicates the need for it.Please send all forms duly filled to the Claims Offices mentioned.


text:
It was a busy day. I picked up my two younger kids thirty minutes before my third. I'm a self-proclaimed multi-tasker and thought I had plenty of time to run a couple of errands. I stopped to get gas in my van and as I pumped, I shook my head at the huge tent the local grocery store had erected in the middle of the parking lot for Valentine's Day. I could see a sea of red and pink from the pump.
I pulled to the corner and that's when I saw the sign. I have seen homeless people near downtown panhandling, but this was a young couple holding a cardboard sign and bundled baby, both being blown by the February wind. My son, in the passenger's seat, looked at them and then at me. His eyebrows knit in confusion as he read the sign. "Mom?" his one word held a thousand questions.
Immediately I fumbled for my wallet and rolled the window down. I had $2. I handed it to them and the look of gratitude was immeasurable. I apologized as I slowly pulled away, "I wish I had more."
But I did have more and as I pulled into the road, I saw my bank next to the gas station. I checked my watch and the closing window of time before I had to pick up my oldest from track practice and I turned around.
"Mom, what are you doing?" my kids asked when I pulled up to the bank.
They were both grinning as if to say I knew we could do better than that.
As I rolled down my window at the ATM, I said, "Okay, how much, y'all?"
And my kids simultaneously said an amount much higher than I had planned.
I hesitated.
"Mom, it's almost Valentine's."
My heart leapt at the generosity that comes easily to my kids and I thought of my word for the year. And how this unexpected moment was another opportunity to choose love, the real kind.
I glanced back at the ridiculous tent and remembered reading Americans spend more than 18 million dollars on a made up holiday. The tent was bursting with people who wanted to give love and the family standing just feet away certainly needed it. Oh, irony.
I withdrew money and whipped my car back around.
"This is awesome," I heard from the backseat.
The couple looked confused at seeing my van again and I tried to communicate with their broken English. I gathered from our limited conversation they had trouble with their Green Card. "We hunger. No money for rent."
"Where are you from?"
I handed them the wad of money, wondering if I was falling into a trap or breaking some kind of unwritten code. But in the moment, it didn't matter if they were being honest. Anyone who was in their position (either by luck or choice), needed a little extra love.
I started to pull away and stopped. I called out, "What's your name? Can I contact you somehow?"
Then I saw tears in her eyes as she shielded her baby from the weather. "You want to help us?" She said slowly.
Oh, yes, I do. And I want my children to know this is what we do. We love others.
The story is still being written, but in the parking lot waiting for my little track star to come off the field, I emailed our dear Russian friends (if you've been a long time reader here, you might remember them?) and told them about the family and asked if they knew anyone who spoke Romanian.
Within ten minutes, this precious family was connected to one of the only Romanian Church and Pastor in the Houston area.
At dinner, my kids shared the story with their dad. I smiled and my heart was full, not because we did something good, but because something good happened to us.
"I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'
Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.' Matthew: 25-35-40
Today, Jesus had the face of a young Romanian family.
What will He look like for you?
This week at (in)courage I wrote about how it feels to be held by God.


text:
Dragon - Experience II Clear / Green Ion Sunglasses
Out of Stock!
We will notify you when this product becomes available.
Following up on the success of the Rob Machado Experience, Dragon took a mellow step down and created the Experience 2. With the same vibe and style as it's bigger, in your face predecessor, the Experience 2 comes in a scaled down version that compromises on size, not on flavor.
- Grilamid Frame Material
- 6 Base Polycarbonate Lens
- 5 Barrel Stainless Steel Hinge
- 100% UV Protection


text:
|Brief description
International Business Machines (IBM) (NYSE: IBM) is an American multinational technology and consulting firm headquartered in Armonk, New York. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. The company was founded in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation through a merger of four companies: the Tabulating Machine Company, the International Time Recording Company, the Computing Scale Corporation, and the Bundy Manufacturing Company. CTR adopted the name International Business Machines in 1924, using a name previously designated to CTR's subsidiary in Canada and later South America. Its distinctive culture and product branding has given it the nickname Big Blue. (Excerpt from Wikipedia article: IBM)Percentage of Ariadne articles tagged with this term: [term_node_prcnt_1]%.
Ariadne is published by Loughborough University Library
© Ariadne ISSN: 1361-3200. See our explanations of Access Terms and Copyright and Privacy Statement.


text:
10 Warm Breakfasts to Start Your Day
Sometimes getting out of bed is tough on the weekdays. Like, really hard. This is especially true during these cold winter months when it's probably still dark out when your alarm clock goes off in the morning. Our solution to your AM woes is a warm and easy breakfast that will help you power through your morning even on the dreariest of days.
If you're up for making something easy and satisfying in the morning the Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese, Greek Yogurt & Greens can be made in a jiffy with stuff you probably already have in your fridge. If you're looking for something a little more carb-heavy to get you going, the English Muffin French Toast is a creative, delicious way to use up a pantry staple.
If the idea of cooking so early in the morning just isn't for you, try making this Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Bread Pudding or Savory Muffins with Prosciutto and Chives ahead of time, and simply warm them up in the oven or microwave when you wake up.
What are your favorite warm and easy breakfasts to help you wake up in the morning?
- 1 Peanut Butter Banana Breakfast Bread Pudding
- 2 Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese, Greek Yogurt & Greens
- 3 Lofty Buttermilk Pancakes
- 4 Southwestern Tofu Scramble
- 5 Baked Pumpkin Steel Cut Oatmeal