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Landing a twelve pound lake trout is a challenging experience in the middle of the summer in Alaska, but bringing up a monster trout of that size through an 8 inch hole in the ice in the middle of winter is a fish tale indeed. And it's the story of Jeannie Blakley who caught the biggest fish in this year's Soldotna Trustworthy Hardware's 12th Annual Ice Fishing Derby, "She caught it on a regular little ice fishing rod and you know it was a job getting that fish through that hole, but brought in quite a few big fish this year and this is the second largest fish ever caught in the history of our derby," said Scott Miller, of Soldotna Hardware & Fishing. The Miller family started the derby to encourage families and kids to get out and experience the local wonders of winter in Alaska and the event has grown each year with nearly 1,000 ice fishers participating and registering their catches. "We had quite a derby. The numbers were incredible with just under 1,000 people signing up with about 300 to 400 of those being kids which really pleased us and they brought about 400 fish with a pretty even split between the kids and the adults and nice big fish this year in all categories which made just a great derby," said Miller.
According to Miller this year's Derby was up in all categories with the exception of pike, which were down in size and number, "And that was good news, five years ago we had 167 pike entered in the Derby and quite a few 14-15 pounders back then, but this year the pike count was under 20 and the largest one was 8 pounds with most of them in the 1-3 pound range so we're seeing the results of the good job that Fish & Game is doing in getting rid of them and that's encouraging and most likely why we saw the increase in number and size of the other species this year," explained Miller.
In the employee division Scott's daughter Haley took first place with her 1.49lb Rainbow caught at Scout Lake, "My kids are my fishing buddies and they did a good job this year," said Scott. "It was pretty cool and I'll be out there again next year to defend my title," said Haley. Ice Angler Tom Krueger caught the largest rainbow in the open division with the official weight being 5.46 lbs, "I bought one of those little Ugly Sticks here with thin little line and then hiked way back in on Swanson River Rd. to a little lake and when I hooked onto this fish I'll tell you what I finally had to fall to me knees because it kept spooling me and I thought for sure it was going to break my line and I prayed to God for help to land that fish and I finally got his lips up to the hole and then speared him through the gills, but I'll tell you it was a fight and a great experience in Alaska's outdoors I think everyone should give it a try, I take our granddaughters out there and they love it," Krueger told the Dispatch.
The annual Soldotna Hardware Ice Fishing Derby has become a statewide winter tourist attraction with fishers entering from as far away as Fairbanks and the Mat-Su Valley, "It's all about winter fun and we'll be happy to do it all again next year," added Miller.
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Staff Editorial | Thursday, November 6, 2008
Congratulations, America.
Shortly after 11 p.m. on Nov. 4, you decisively elected a new president.
This man, whose belief that anything is possible for those who are so blessed to live in this nation, took our country by storm, and changed it forever.
By electing Barack Hussein Obama to its highest office, America has proven that a nation founded on the ideals of equal opportunity can, and truly does, exist.
This is a different America than it was just three days ago. An era of great change is upon us.
Supporters of both parties understood that need for change – the voter turnout for this election might be the highest in a century. The excitement and anticipation surrounding the end to the Bush administration has electrified America, awakening it from a slumber of political apathy, and transforming it into a nation of action.
Students of Notre Dame:
Your dedication to this election, your expression of your beliefs and your involvement shows that as a University, we can be passionate about more things that football.
The voice of the youth of America was heard loud and clear, regardless of what side of the political spectrum you stand.
We were on CNN Election Night, Notre Dame. St. Joseph County was one of the most coveted counties to win in Indiana. Together, we debunked the misconceptions that our University sits in a bubble in the middle of the country. We are politically informed. We came out in unprecedented numbers to fulfill our civic duty. We let our next president know the issues that matter to us most.
Our generation will most strongly feel the effects of the new administration's efforts to pull our nation back together, to fix our economy and to bring us home from war.
In this time of a momentous cultural shift for America, we must remember that the ties that unite us must be stronger than the lines that divide us in order for this nation to overcome the immense problems we face.
Obama called upon Americans Nov. 4 to "join in the work of the remaking of this nation the only way it's been done in America for 221 years – block by block, brick by brick, calloused hand by calloused hand."
Sen. John McCain's gracious concession speech and Obama's humble victory speech both addressed the fact that though we may disagree on politics, that though we may identify with red or blue, we are a people that must come together to enact the change so desperately needed.
"I urge all Americans," McCain said. "I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences, and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."
Both men identified themselves as Americans – not as Democrats, not as Republicans, but as Americans, a title they called the citizens of this nation, who were divided over this historic contest, to embrace.
The hope for a better America rests on our shoulders. Remember the effect your opinions, your ideas, your action had on this nation this week, remember you can make difference.
No one can deny the seismic difficulties that still lie ahead.
As Obama told the hundreds of thousands with him in Chicago, and the millions watching around the world, we face the challenges of "two wars, a planet in peril, the worst financial crisis in a century."
But, for now, congratulations, America, and congratulations Notre Dame.
You made your voices heard and you have become a part of history.

subset: commoncrawl


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Our Sapphire Metal Wind Spinner adds vivid color and fluid motion to your garden view. This solid metal wind spinner is an eye-catching piece of yard art. Featuring four, vibrant blue, elegantly shaped rotors that spin and swirl in the slightest breeze. Finial top adds the finishing touch to this blue wind spinner.
Over six feet tall, this contemporary garden spinner's sturdy metal construction ensures it can remain outdoors all season long. Use this metal wind spinner as a focal point for any flowerbed or as a standalone lawn ornament. It truly is a wonderful gift for any garden or landscape!
• Blue spinner features four swirled rotors
• Over 6 feet tall
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• Solid metal construction
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20" dia. x 75 "H
Delivery time estimates do not apply to personalized, large or heavy items (over 20lbs.) that require special shipping, items shipped directly from the manufacturer, or out-of-stock items.
Delivery estimates only apply to the contiguous United States. Saturday, Sunday and national holidays are not considered business days for these estimated transit days.


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Executive summary: A combination of renewable energy technologies and energy efficiency is a clean, cost-effective and secure solution. It has almost no impact on our climate system; it offers Europe independence from global market fluctuations in fossil and nuclear fules, and it provides future generations with secure access to energy.
Num. pages: 4


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What happened to PHC?
These comments were initially triggered by the recently released 22 country case study on UHC which I think was meant to coincide with the meeting on UHC being discussed. I find it fairly amazing that the World Bank can put out a summary of over 100 pages on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and not even mention or reference Primary Health Care (PHC) once. Perhaps since the Bank and the IMF spent a good deal of the 1980's and 1990's actively encouraging countries to starve and dismantle the existing, albeit poorly functioning, frameworks for universal health systems I should not be surprised. Yes, it is a paper reviewing evidence, but it is treating what is a social and value laden decision about 'health for all' as if it can be a painless technocratic fix if we just pick the right tools or knobs to twist. And, even though it is about UHC, the fourth one of their lessons about the value of highly focused interventions puts the authors firmly in the camp of 'selective PHC', targeted projects, and ignoring the underlying social determinants. I am a bit surprised that WHO, which was too quiet about the effects of structural adjustment in the 80's and 90's, is now seeming to let go of one of the core parts of Dr. Chan's manifesto for her election, the revitalization of PHC. You can say that rebranding things is sometimes necessary, but I think the 'right to health' is a more fundamental concept, not a commercial product being sold. You don't really think of the 'Declaration of the Rights of Man' or 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness' asa concepts that are rebranded. The whole round of meetings, resolutions and banners can be a distraction. A new tag line can divert people from the hard decisions needed. If implementing PHC, or UHC, was easy, it would be done already. UHC needs to build on existing work. I hope I am wrong in my pessimism. I end with what I see as the core paragraph of Alma Ata. "Primary health care is essential health care based on practical, scientifically sound and socially acceptable methods and technology made universally accessible to individuals and families in the community through their full participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford to maintain at every stage of their development in the spirit of self- reliance and self-determination. It forms an integral part both of the country's health system, of which it is the central function and main focus, and of the overall social and economic development of the community. It is the first level of contact of individuals, the family and community with the national health system bringing health care as close as possible to where people live and work, and constitutes the first element of a continuing health care process." Has UHC really added much to that? Dean Shuey


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Charleston Gift Checks
Here's how they work:
- Choose Charleston Gift Checks are redeemable at Chamber member businesses only.
- Gift Checks can be made out in any amount. We accept cash, check or credit card with orders. A small handling fee will be charged to the purchaser if a credit card is used to pay for the Gift Checks.
- Gift Checks are made out in the recipient's name with the dollar amount and whom the gift is from.
- Gift Checks are to be treated just like regular checks and can be deposited into a business account as any other check. It's that simple!
- The checks can be used at over 250 businesses in the Charleston area for all kinds of goods and services.
- Businesses may choose to restrict how the gift checks are used.
- Choose Charleston Gift Checks are a great idea for employee incentive programs or holiday bonuses. Employees can then choose for themselves to spend the dollars however they need or want. And, best of all, the money goes back to Chamber member businesses in the Charleston area!


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Great job Ryan. As always you delivered the goods.
Join Us Tonight For Happy Hour!
Posted August 11, 2011 by Ryan Estis in Employee Engagement, Leadership, Uncategorized
Who doesn't love a good happy hour conversation? That is the plan for tonight as employee engagement and leadership expert Don MacPherson and I join host Steve Boese on his weekly radio show, HR Happy Hour. The show covers topics in Human Resources, Talent Management, Leadership, HR Technology, HR Conferences and Events, Social Media in the Workplace, Recruiting – essentially anything and everything having to do with people in the workforce. Finding them, hiring them, managing them, leading them, giving them the right tools and technologies to succeed and everything in between. Don an I are excited for the conversation this evening! Join us tonight and follow the fun on the Twitter backchannel, the hashtag is #HRHappyHour. You may recall Don and I are colleagues and collaborators sharing a like minded perspective on leadership, engagement, culture, career and the future of work. Enclosed is our Engage. Inspire. Empower. leadership webinar delivered earlier this year. We look forward to continuing the conversation tonight related to passion, purpose and the leadership agenda necessary to navigate these uncertain times. Should be fun!
Tags: Don MacPherson, Employee Engagement, Engagement, HR Happy Hour, Leadershp, Passion, Purpose, Steve Boese
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Thanks John! See you soon.
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About The Author
Ryan Estis is a Keynote Speaker & Management Consultant blogging about business performance.
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American Literature:
Glance At Colonial And Revolutionary Literature
Literature At The Dawn Of The Century
Charles Brockden Brown
Washington Irving And The Knickerbocker Group
William C. Bryant
James Fenimore Cooper
The Early Literary Magazines
New England Literature
Read More Articles About: American Literature
Charles Brockden Brown
( Originally Published Early 1900's )
> It is necessary to turn now to the true pioneer in the realm of the American novel. Charles Brockden Brown, the first American professional man of letters, as well as first of all Cis-Atlantic writers of fiction, was born in Philadelphia in 1771, was educated in the school of Robert Proud, the historian of Pennsylvania, and would have entered the bar but for ill health. His first published article appeared in the "Columbian Magazine" of August, 1789, and in 1806 he himself became an editor. Perhaps his invalidism put him in peculiar sympathy with those ghostly, ghastly, "clumsy-horrible" English romances before Scott's Waverley Novels those of "Monk" Lewis, Walpole, and Mrs. Radcliffe. From William Godwin it was that Brown caught the style of his first work, "Alcuin, a Dialogue on the Rights of Women" (1797). Godwin's "Falkland" and "Caleb Williams" furnished the models for Brown's "Wieland" (1798), a story of crime committed by means of ventriloquism, and "Ormond" (1799). Shelley was under the spell of "Wieland," according to his own confession, in writing "Zastrozzi" and "St. Irvyne." Godwin's influence on Brown thus returned upon Godwin's son-in-law. Sir Walter Scott also admired this American novelist, naming the hero of "Guy Mannering" after him, and calling one of its characters Arthur Merwyn. Brown's novel, "Arthur Merwyn" (1799), contains vivid descriptions of the scenes in Philadelphia during the terrible yellow fever pestilence of 1793.
Brown's somber genius "for churchyard romance" found a congenial theme in this narrative of the horrors of a plague. His next work, "Edgar Huntley," followed the fortunes of a somnambulist in the mountains of Western Pennsylvania. This curious plot of sleep-walking was as strange as the ventriloquism of the villain in his first novel, which led the hero to believe in spiritual voices and to kill his wife and children; but the incidental descriptions of wilderness scenery atoned for much. Weak as his style now seems, he deserves credit as the first writer to discover the capability of romance in America, its scenery, and its people.


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Greenwell hoping for a more consistent season
|(Photo: Tony Lastoria)
High-A Kinston 22-year old outfielder Bo Greenwell is excited to get the season going after putting a lot of hard work into his five month offseason to get bigger, stronger, and better. He also put the finishing touches on some college classwork to give him a head start on a four-year degree whenever the baseball career comes to an end.
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text: equality Iowa NAACP Wants Significant Criminal Justice Reforms By Sarah Boden • Feb 10, 2016 WIKICOMMONS / Klaus with K Iowa's NAACP chapter is asking state lawmakers to pass a number of significant criminal justice reforms this year. The organization says these reforms will improve the lives of African-Americans in Iowa who are arrested and incarcerated at disproportionately high rates. Transgender Life in Small Town Iowa By Sarah Boden • Jul 6, 2015 Flickr / Brood_wich The transgender community has become increasingly visible this year. That's thanks in part to celebrities like reality TV star Caitlyn Jenner, video blogger Aydian Dowling and actress Laverne Cox. Based on media coverage, one might assume that to be happy and transgender in America, you have to live in a larger city, but that's not the case. There are many trans people living in small towns in Iowa and across the country. Angus Pollock is a personal chef in Storm Lake. Pollock was assigned the gender of female at birth, and has lived most of his life as a woman or girl. Reflections on Varnum By Charity Nebbe & Sarah Boden • Apr 3, 2014 Mod Photography Five years ago the Iowa Supreme Court ruled in Varnum v. Brien that same-sex marriage was legal in Iowa. Host Charity Nebbe talks with people who have been affected by the decision including Ryan Roemerman of the Iowa Pride Network, retired Presbyterian minister Rev. Greg Smith, and events planner Beau Fodor. Also, Heather Yoeman and Dean Genth discuss being able to marry their same-sex spouses. Working Women: Broken and Persisting Barriers By Charity Nebbe & Sarah Boden • Jul 10, 2013 marsmettn tallahassee / Flickr Women who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s had educational opportunities and careers that their mothers and grandmothers never knew, but many barriers still stood in their way.


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Rogen and Franco's stoner-slackers go on the lam in 'Pineapple Express'
Published 10:00 pm, Tuesday, August 5, 2008
It has been said that God looks out for fools, drunks and children. "Pineapple Express" adds harmless stoners to the list.
Dale (co-writer Seth Rogen) is a lot more high-functioning than the traditional stoner slacker. In between tokes, the wise-cracking, romantically dysfunctional straight man is a remarkably efficient process server, armed with a costume in his trunk for every occasion. James Franco's Saul is a sweet-faced, generous, eternally distracted dope dealer and a buddy of convenience. Conveniently, he just happens to have the best weed in town and, grinning like a child, shares it with Dale.
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The baked crusaders end up on the run from killer drug kingpin Gary Cole, thanks to a combination of unlikely coincidences and poor judgment. You have to take the tortured plot convolutions as part of the package, but the skewed logic and dumb luck (good and bad) is what the film is all about. It's not enough that these guys are utterly unprepared for the dark side of the drug business; they face every crisis with a toke and the gentle resignation to inertia and distraction.
"Pineapple Express" is one of the most hilarious and engaging films from producer Judd Apatow's often inconsistent comedy factory, thanks to inspired dialogue, dynamite chemistry between Rogen and Franco and perfectly pitched stoner gags (undoubtedly the result of copious research).
It's also unexpectedly visceral, a hybrid of an action comedy in which bullets fly through gags and then cause grievous bodily injury. It's a tricky balance, and director David Gordon Green (previously known for intense indie dramas) makes the wincing mortality work, finding a triumphant humor in dogged survival and suicidal loyalty.
Yet it's Green's affection for these ragged characters and their meandering friendship that centers the gasps and the laughs. The sarcastic, scathingly witty insults that harmlessly ricochet off characters in most comedies hurt as much as bullets with these unusually sensitive child-men. Those wounded emotions give these misguided, distracted, tenaciously devoted idiots a goofy authenticity and an endearing warmth, and give us a reason to root for them.


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Ponte Vedra Club, Ocean Course
- 200 Ponte Vedra Boulevard, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082, USA
- www.pvresorts.com
The Ocean Course at Ponte Vedra Club is an 18-hole regulation length golf course in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. This medium-length layout plays quite long from the back tees. The course is rated somewhat highly difficult, but low scores are still possible for the skilled player. There is another course at this same golf club, the Lagoon Course. Online tee times may be available at Ponte Vedra Club or at nearby golf courses, often at a substantial discount from the going green fees rate.
Even though our information is generally correct, sometimes there may be mistakes. Should you find something that needs updating, please see this page.
Beneath this text, aerial imagery should load of Ponte Vedra Club at 200 Ponte Vedra Boulevard, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL 32082, USA. If you can't find the course, try panning around and looking at the surrounding area.
Other recommended courses in the area: Ponte Vedra Golf and Country Club At Sawgrass
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An Intro to WSDM – Committee Draft
By Vaughn Bullard, Kirk Wilson, Bryan Murray
The full Web Services Distributed Management documents are hard to navigate and some find it difficult to find what they need. The PDF below outlines an overview of these standards.
BPEL 2.0: Primer
Business Process Execution Language 2.0 offers the possibility to aggregate web services and define the business logic between each of these service interactions. BPEL also orchestrates such web service interactions. Each service interaction can be regarded as a communication with a business partner. The interaction is described with the help of partner links.
WS-BPEL Primer
WSDM: MUWS 1.1, Parts 1 & 2
Management Using Web Services enables easier and more efficient management of IT resources. This is accomplished by providing a flexible, common framework for manageability interfaces that leverage key features of Web services protocols. Universal management and interoperability across the many and various types of distributed IT resources can be achieved using MUWS.
To download each specification, click the button for each document.
WSDM: MUWS Part 1 WSDM: MUWS Part 2


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Bernanke Turns Timid in Krugman View of Princetonians on Japan
When Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke launched a $600 billion round of asset purchases in November, he said it would lead to a "virtuous cycle" that boosted the expansion. Paul Krugman, his former colleague at Princeton University, said "meh."
The stock market and the economy has proved more "meh," an adjective meaning mediocre, than virtuous. Now the Nobel Prize-winning Krugman says the Fed should engage in much more aggressive monetary policy, including raising its target for inflation, to fight unemployment stuck near 9 percent for 28 consecutive months and avert a lost decade of low U.S. growth.
In a speech last week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Bernanke said the central bank has tools to stimulate the economy without providing details or signaling when or whether policy makers might use them. Bernanke said that "most importantly" monetary policy must keep inflation low and stable, and most policies that would support growth in the "long run" are outside the central bank's purview.
"I think Bernanke's definition of the long run is 'after all this nasty stuff is behind us'" Krugman said in an e-mailed response to questions. "And similarly for Fed policy. So the speech was basically saying that in the long run we don't matter, and in the short run, which could be pretty long, not our problem."
On his New York Times blog after the speech, Krugman quoted John Maynard Keynes: "This long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead."
Bernanke Hire
Krugman since 2000 has been a professor at Princeton, in New Jersey, where he was hired by Bernanke, then the department chairman. As academics studying Japan they agreed on the need for aggressive action from the central bank to kick start a stalled economy after a financial crisis.
In the U.S, Krugman sees Bernanke's actions as weak medicine. The central bank decided on Aug. 9 to hold interest rates near zero through mid-2013 and pledged to employ additional tools "as appropriate." On his New York Times blog, Krugman wrote that day that he was "unimpressed" with that decision as well.
The decision drew three dissents from members of the Federal Open Market Committee, which may serve as a restraint to the action Bernanke may favor, according to Christina Romer, a former White House chief economist.
"There are some very extreme opinions within the FOMC on the 'don't do any more' or 'start tightening now' side," Romer, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said in a telephone interview. "The trouble is there's nobody stridently on the other side. Bernanke's life might be easier if he had a Paul Krugman on the Fed's board saying, 'For heaven's sake, unemployment is 9.1 percent.'"
Fiscal Package
Romer has also been a policy maker facing Krugman's criticism. As chairman of Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisors, she pushed for the $830 billion fiscal stimulus package, passed in February 2009, that Krugman wrote in the New York Times was "nowhere near big enough" to make up for the economy's lost output.
Krugman made a similar argument against the Fed's asset purchases, saying "$600 billion really isn't a lot when you're trying to move a $15 trillion economy," in a post on his blog less than two hours after the policy was announced on Nov. 3.
"When I was in the administration, I found it helpful to have prominent voices like Paul Krugman's arguing for more fiscal stimulus," said Romer, who is also a contributing editor for Bloomberg. "It made it clear that what the administration was pushing for was very moderate."
'Outside Voice'
"To have an outside voice arguing to do more may be very helpful for Ben," she said.
Federal Reserve Bank presidents Charles Plosser of Philadelphia, Richard Fisher of Dallas and Narayana Kocherlakota of Minneapolis all voted against the Fed's decision to keep the target for the federal funds rate at zero to 0.25 percent until at least mid-2013. Plosser and Fisher both said the pledge wouldn't help spur growth. The last time three policy makers dissented was in November 1992.
During his tenure as Fed chairman, Bernanke has had 26 dissents from the FOMC's policy statements. Only one, from Boston Fed President Eric Rosengren in December 2007, urged more accommodative monetary policy.
"Chairman Bernanke is timid compared with Professor Bernanke," Krugman said, when asked why Bernanke had not taken the sort of aggressive actions he had pushed for as a professor at Princeton. Bernanke declined to comment, said Michelle Smith, the Fed's spokeswoman.
Inflation Target
In a 1999 paper, Bernanke, 57, dubbed Japan's struggling economy "a case of self-induced paralysis" and proposed an idea previously proposed by Krugman -- an inflation target. Bernanke's favored strategy against deflation, as outlined in a 2002 speech after he became a Fed governor, was to increase Federal Reserve asset purchases.
"Bernanke has always had more faith in the effects of changing the Fed's portfolio than I did or do," said Krugman, 58. "Bernanke, going back more than a decade, was more inclined to favor what we now call quantitative easing as opposed to working on expectations of inflation."
In his speech last week in Jackson Hole, Bernanke didn't discuss the tools available to the Fed. He announced that the FOMC would extend its September policy meeting to two days from one to allow discussion of its options.
Policy Options
In testimony before Congress on July 13, Bernanke outlined three possible tools. The first was to provide more guidance about the period over which interest rates would remain low. The central bank took that step Aug. 9 with its pledge to keep borrowing costs near zero for two years.
The second option was to initiate more asset purchases or increase the average maturity of the Fed's securities holdings. A third was to reduce the interest rate the Fed pays on excess reserves.
"I suspect that the main point is that Bernanke now has to deal with politics, both within and beyond the Fed," Krugman said in an e-mail, when asked why Bernanke hasn't wielded more policy tools. "The other FOMC members have been very reluctant to get radical -- three votes against mild language suggesting a prolonged era of low rates -- and Bernanke doesn't want to get too far out ahead. And then he faces harsh criticism from the right, which sees hyperinflation lurking under every bush."
The prospect of new easing from the Fed has already drawn criticism from Republicans such as Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry, who Gallup said this week is the leading Republican candidate for his party's nomination for president, said Aug. 15 that Bernanke would be treated "pretty ugly down in Texas" for increasing monetary stimulus before the November election next year.
'Play Politics'
"Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treacherous -- or treasonous -- in my opinion," Perry said in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. In Congressional testimony last month, Republican Senators, including Richard Shelby of Alabama, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, told Bernanke they opposed any consideration of increasing the Fed's record stimulus.
"You have conservatives really beating up on QE2 and I think that reverberates within the Fed, he can't escape that," said Dean Baker, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. "It amazes me that there's no drumbeat on the other side, that QE2 was in the right direction and just not anywhere near what we need," he said in a reference to the second round of asset purchases, also known as quantitative easing.
Theoretical Models
Pledging to raise the inflation rate temporarily is something that may work better in theoretical models than in practice, said Dean Croushore, chairman of the economics department at the University of Richmond and a co-author with Bernanke of his textbook "Macroeconomics."
"No central bank I know of has been able to actually manage inflation that well," Croushore said. "Allowing inflation to rise temporarily could certainly make some bad loans good, in the past it has increased house prices at the expense of bondholders and stockholders. It would lead to a big redistribution of wealth as it did in the 1970s."
Bernanke's critics do not fully appreciate the pressure of having the job, said Mark Gertler, a New York University economist who has co-written research with Bernanke.
"Regarding monetary policy, it's easier to say what you should do from the outside as opposed to when you're actually in the hot seat yourself," said Gertler. "Krugman's had a lot of really perceptive analysis of the economy. I just think he's gone a little bit overboard about what the Fed should do."
To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Zumbrun in Washington at email@example.com;
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at email@example.com


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Wednesday, May 03, 2006
A highlite came when one of the players hit the cue ball which bounced around the sides of the table and returned to its starting point without hitting anything. The audience gasped! This is apparently a major faux pas, worse than scratching.
I have no frame of reference, but the newspapers have all said it was the most boring final ever.
3 comments:
- Paul said...
Many years ago I was in the billiard supply business. Our sales partner in the UK was one of the big snooker table makers, which is how I learned to play - badly! It's actually a very strategic game: each red ball is worth one point, while each colored ball has a specific value ranging from two (yellow) through seven (black). The goal is to score the most number of points against your opponent. One sinks a colored ball (which gets replaced on the table at its designated spot), then a red ball (which stays in the pocket), then another (or the same) colored ball, then a red, etc. Once all 15 of the red balls are gone from the table, each of the colored balls are "potted" in order - fewest points to greatest - until the table is empty. The same player keeps shooting until a miss occurs, as in regular pool. The maximum possible score, achieved by running the table and fairly similar in achievement to a "300" game in bowling, is 147 points. That's scored by sinking the black ball (seven points) every time a colored ball is the target, rather than shooting at one of the lesser values, until all the reds are gone. Naturally there are TONS of other rules too arcane to discuss here, but it wouldn't be "sport" without them. Cheers!
- stieper said...
I have to say that Paul's description of the game is superb! I could not have written it better myself (probably also because of my poor english!)
But I do not agree that the final was boring! When Peter Ebdon was down 6 frames or more, he suddenly managed to win 4-5 frames in a row, putting pressure on Graheme Dott. Eventually Ebdon made a mistake, leading Dott to the win (his first title ever - a good one to pick!).
But i recon you have to be interested in snooker to feel the exitement :D


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Honduran cardinal calls for peace in Gaza
August 01, 2014
Cardinal Oscar Rodríguez Maradiaga, who serves on Pope Francis's Council of Cardinals, has called for a ceasefire in the Gaza-Israel conflict.
The Honduran prelate, who also serves as president of Caritas Internationlis, the Church's confederation of relief and development agencies, sees a ceasefire as "just the first step on the road to a just peace based on inclusive negotiations across the region."
"People have no safe place to hide when the bombs rain down on the densely-populated, small stretch land that is Gaza," he said in a July 31 statement. "They see their children slaughtered, their neighborhoods razed to the ground and all hopes for a future of peace torn to shreds."
"The battlefield is neighborhoods full of children, women and men," he added. "It contains hospitals over-burdened with the injured and dead and schools which are being bombed even if they are meant to offer refuge."
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Posted by: Defender -
Aug. 01, 2014 1:07 PM ET USA
The people of Gaza should rise up and kick Hamas out. The cardinal obviously has been taken in by the press, as many other have been. How would he like to live in the Vatican and, say, have people lob rockets into it, at will? How long before you struck back to protect others? Hamas uses women and children as shields and doesn't care.


text:
It's that time of year again… we attend holiday parties, battle crowds to buy gifts for those we care about, maybe send some cards, all in addition to the daily 'stuff' that comes with our daily lives. Add a career search on top of that, and you REALLY have a full plate. While it may be tempting to put the career job search on hold until after the holidays, it does make sense to keep on networking, searching, and staying on track with all of the other tasks that come with searching for a job or career.
Some recent reports I've read indicate that private sector jobs have stepped up their hiring recently (even excluding the seasonal retail increases). Anecdotally I have found that to be true as well. So that's good news… but only if you act on it. Admittedly, I am a huge planner and very detail-oriented, so lists, scheduling, etc work for me when times are busy. If those methods of keeping on track don't work for you, by all means do something that does work. If you are lucky enough to have a friend, family member, or significant other to keep you on task, great- that works too.
Especially at this time of year, I choose the networking events I attend pretty carefully, in an effort not to overcommit. As always, networking is more about quality as opposed to quantity. So if you attend one networking event and make three or four solid connections/ reconnections, that to me is far better than attending five networking events where no meaningful connections were established. A bonus of this time of year is that some holiday parties are great networking opportunities.
As for doing company/ organization research online, perhaps try to alternate your time between that and online shopping. So many of us get distracted with other things while bargain hunting online- that time can be spent looking at websites, reading business-related articles, etc. Don't forget about LinkedIn- while you are in cyberland, check to make sure your profile is up to date, and see what is happening with the groups in which you are involved.
If you are like me and have to drive by shopping areas and malls on a regular basis, you've probably noticed traffic has increased over the past few weeks. That means extra time away from all of the other things that need to get done… which can be frustrating. (At least it is for me!) The Upper Hudson Library System has a quick, easy, and free method by which you can download audio books to your MP3 player/ iPod from your own home. So if you like, find an available career-related audio book and listen to that while sitting in traffic.
Something else to keep in mind at this time of year is that everyone else is also being pulled in 50 directions. So if you do apply for a position, follow up, but don't immediately hear back, don't worry about it too much. The hiring manager has a lot going on, probably has staff out of the office, and has other imminent tasks on his or her plate, in addition to the position for which you are applying. By all means still follow up, but be sure not to overdo it. Similarly, if you reach out to some people for informational interviews, you may want to offer the option of waiting until after the holidays to connect.
Best of luck with your search and juggling all of the things that need to get done!


text: On Jul 19, 4:00pm, email@example.com (James Chacon) wrote: -- Subject: Re: bin/26207: ksh does not treat spaces in EOF here-document mar | According to SUSE3 this is expected behavior: | | The here-document shall be treated as a single word that begins after the next | <newline> and continues until there is a line containing only the delimiter | and a <newline>, with no <blank>s in between. | | Plus, testing across a variety of shells shows this to be the behavior. | | James I agree. We should close this one. I think though we might consider opening one that fixes /bin/sh to produce a diagnostic. christos


text:
The History of Royal Arch Masonry
The History of Royal Arch Masonry
Trevor I. Harris
One cannot tell the story of
the Royal Arch without first commencing with the history of Craft Freemasonry.
Craft or Speculative Freemasonry first appeared in
Freemasonry, however,
flourished, and soon spread all over the world, mainly by lodges in the British
Army, which were generally composed of members from the lower ranks. Military
Freemasons from
At the time of the formation
of Grand Lodge in London in 1717, there were perhaps only about 25 or thirty
lodges in the whole of
Indeed, there is a French document in the Grand Lodge library from around 1760 listing over 36 different degrees, one of which is the Royal Arch degree. Most of these degrees were extremely short lived. However, the one order which has undoubtedly stood the test of time is The Royal Arch degree.
Due to the lack of definite
evidence, as in those early days virtually nothing was written down, it cannot
be proven with 100% certainty that the Royal Arch was first practised in
In the early English records, there are references to Freemasonry being a royal art, and arches supporting Freemasonry, but these are almost certainly simply the use of colourful language describing regular craft Freemasonry.
When it comes to the Royal
Arch Chapter, it is first mentioned as a separate institution from regular
Freemasonry in
A year later, in 1744, a book
was published entitled "A Serious and Impartial Enquiry into the cause of the
present day decay in Free Masonry in the Kingdom of Ireland." It was written by Dr. Fifield D'Assigny, and referred to a genuine Royal Arch Mason from London who had visited Dublin in
There he attended a Royal Arch meeting, which was presided over by a brother who claimed to be a Master of the Royal Arch Degree from York. However, the brother from London found that he did not possess the true secrets of the Royal Arch Degree, and was duly accused of being a fraud.
The same author further wrote
that there was "a assembly of Master Masons who met in York under the title of Royal Arch Masons, whose
qualifications and excellencies are superior to
others." A high compliment indeed. Apart from these
references confirming the Royal Arch being practised in London, York and Dublin, there are no other references at this time to the
Royal Arch degree being practised anywhere else in
Early Royal Arch member's medals
(that on the left is the standard Moderns English design, and that on the right favoured by both Scottish and Antients Royal Arch masons).
However, it is a curious fact of history that we often only hear about an event or practise when there is a problem. The Royal Arch degree may well have spread to other cities, but if everything ran smoothly, no mention of that fact was ever needed to be made. It is important to note that at this time, the Royal Arch degree was practised within Craft Lodges, as an extension to the third degree.
In the 1740's and 50's, The Grand Lodge of England was certainly not in favour of its members practising the Royal Arch degree, and frequently made its feelings known, although they stopped short of an outright ban.
When in 1759 William Carroll
This Faux Pas was going to return to haunt him and the Moderns for many years into the future, although he did show consistency when he wrote to a German Mason in Frankfurt in 1767 "The Royal Arch is a society which we do not acknowledge, and which we hold to be an invention to introduce innovation and seduce the Brethren".
However, the feelings of the Premier Grand Lodge at this time was that they hoped that with the passage of time this curiosity would simply disappear. That was not going to be the case.
1751 saw the formation of the rival Antients or Atholl Grand Lodge, who in the future were to be the greatest promoters of the Royal Arch. However, and very surprisingly, it was not until 1780, thirty years after the formation of the Antients Grand Lodge, that they accepted it as an integral part of Freemasonry. Even then, that decision could well have been political, as a means of "putting one over" so to speak, on the Premier or Moderns Grand Lodge.
The Antients support of the Royal Arch is well known. What is not so widely known is that prior to 1770, there were only eight recorded exaltations in the Antients Grand Lodge, including one in the colony of America, and between 1770-1780 there were only 20 recorded exaltations.
Even the famous Laurence Dermott, Grand Secretary and the driving force behind the entire Antients Grand Lodge, made no particular efforts to promote the Royal Arch in its early years of existence. In fact, he gave a lecture in 1752 in which, and I quote, "every part of real Freemasonry was traced and explained except the Royal Arch".
Indeed, a rare copy of the original minutes of the Antients Grand Lodge is in the possession of Neptune Lodge No. 22, and there is no mention whatsoever of Royal Arch Freemasonry.
With the Moderns, the story was quite different, with a meeting at which a brother "Passed the Arch" being held with no less than 34 Companions present.
The Antients had always treated the Royal Arch Degree as part of Craft Freemasonry, actually calling it the Fourth Degree in Freemasonry, as well as the Lodge of the Fourth Degree. The Antients also believed that their Lodge Warrants entitled them to practice any degree or side order of Freemasonry they wished, without a separate charter. Members of the Royal Arch within an Antients lodge treated themselves as part of an inner circle.
When an Antients lodge wanted a Royal Arch meeting, it was usually held on a Sunday, where the lodge would be opened directly into the 3rd Degree, the Royal Arch ceremony would be performed, and then the lodge closed.
The Antients would also hold Mark meetings in a similar way, an Excellent and a Super Excellent Degree, Knights Templar, and a degree called the Ne Plus Ultra, which would become the 18th Degree of Rose Croix.
However, there were many Royal Arch problems which had to be discussed, including a warning by Laurence Dermott that there was a need for the detection of impostors who had not to have the least knowledge of Royal Arch Masonry. This warning, however, was only given after one of the most bizarre occurrences in Masonic History- The Curious Case of the Leg of Mutton Masons.
Early in 1752, complaints started filtering in to the Antients Grand Lodge that some very Unmasonic Masons were operating in London. At this time, there were very few lodges working the Royal Arch degree, which was a complete mystery to the great majority of Masons.
Two enterprising rogues decided to take advantage of this lack of knowledge. They would travel from alehouse to alehouse where they knew Masons met, and for the consideration of a leg of mutton supper, would initiate any Mason present into the secrets of the Royal Arch, to the disgrace of the entire craft.
There were three problems with this. Firstly, their meetings were completely unconstitutional. Secondly Masonry should never be practised for personal gain, but thirdly, and much worse, neither man had any true idea of what the secrets of the Royal Arch Degree actually were! They were also extremely difficult to apprehend, as they would rarely visit the same alehouse twice.
Complains were made by several senior brethren, including Samuel Quay of Lodge No. 2, Richard Price of Lodge No. 3, Henry Lewis of Lodge No. 4, and Thomas Figg and Laurence Folliot of Lodge No. 5.
After many enquiries, the names of these two rogues was discovered to be Thomas Phealon and David Mackey. Fortunately, Grand Lodge ensured that they became known throughout the craft for the frauds they were, and their shenanigans ceased, as they were unable to find any more unsuspecting customers.
However, they had already caused so much turmoil that a warning about them had even appeared in the Antients Grand Lodge minutes, those of the 4th March 1752.
Laurence Dermott himself had been initiated into Freemasonry in Dublin in the early 1740's and had been Exalted into the Royal Arch in Dublin in 1746. At a meeting of the Antients Grand Lodge in 1752, he gave a lecture on all aspects of Freemasonry, except the Royal Arch, which he described as "the root, heart and marrow of Masonry".
However, times were also changing for the Moderns, and in 1765, a committee of the Moderns met, and I quote, "in Chapter Assembled", at the famous Turks Head Tavern in Soho. This would prove perhaps the most important meeting in the history of the Royal Arch, as it would eventually lead to the formation of our own Grand Chapter.
They agreed to hold Chapter meetings monthly. Bye-Laws were formulated, and the Chapter flourished, to the extent that the following year, in 1766, using a Charter of Compact under Lord Blayney who was the Grand Master of the Moderns, The Grand and Royal Arch Chapter of Jerusalem was constituted.
The Charter gave the companions named therein, and their successors, full powers to hold chapters and assemblies, and to make, alter and abrogate laws for better conducting the degree throughout the globe.
It would, however, be a full four years, in 1769, before these powers were used and new Chapters formed, and by 1881 25 new Chapters, mainly in the provinces, had come into existence.
In spite of these monumental events, it was not until 1776 that Grand Chapter was formed, under the title of The Society of Royal Arch Masons under the Excellent Grand and Royal Chapter.
It boasted a full complement of Grand Chapter Officers, starting with the First, Second and Third Grand Principals, three Grand Sojourners, and a full range of other Grand Officers covering most of the offices we know today. The First Grand Principal, or Grand Z, was the Grand Master himself.
This alarmed Laurence Dermott, who saw the initiative being taken away from him by the Moderns.
Attack being the greatest form of defence, he even claimed that the Antients had formed in 1771 their own Grand Chapter, pre-dating the Moderns Grand Chapter by five years. It was one of the greatest Masonic Myths and Bluffs of all times. Laurence Dermott was never going to let the Moderns get the better of him.
There had been an Antients Grand Lodge meeting in 1771 which extensively discussed the Royal Arch, but by no stretch of the imagination could it ever have been considered to have been a Grand Chapter.
However, these were only words, as there was never any reason for the Antients ever to form such an organisation, as all Royal Arch matters would have been looked after by the regular Antients Grand Lodge as part of their dealings in Craft Freemasonry.
However, they did continue to hold Chapter Committee Meetings to discuss Royal Arch Matters. It is important to note, however, that all resolutions made at these meetings had to be confirmed by the Antients Grand Lodge.
This was quite different from the attitude of the Moderns Grand Lodge, who only encouraged the Royal Arch degree as long as it was kept totally apart from regular Craft Masonry. The Moderns Grand Chapter was a separate entity in its own right, and beholden to no-one. Its Chapters even had their own numbering system.
However, 1780 was a watershed for the Royal Arch Degree, as the Antients suddenly realised that they could really gain a significant advantage over the Moderns by actively promoting the Royal Arch Degree.
The Royal Arch ceremony in those days was quite different to what we see today. It was only open to Past Masters, and as these were few and far between, would have meant that exaltations would have been reasonably rare events.
The Antients overcame this by the subterfuge of putting candidates through a ceremony called Passing the Chair, where they would be placed in the Masters Chair and have the words of an Installed Master whispered in his ear, after which for Royal Arch purposes they were treated as Past Masters.
However, in Craft they were still treated as Master Masons, and could not take a seat in an installed Masters Lodge. It is in no way surprising that the Moderns also conducted this ceremony, without which they would also have had a serious shortage of candidates. They did it, however, with a difference.
They invented the ceremony of Previous Lodge. The Candidate for exaltation would be elected Master of this Previous Lodge, placed in the Master's chair, where he would be presented with the Master's Jewel and have the words of Master communicated to him.
He would then say that it was not convenient for him to continue as Master, resign the chair to the Principal Sojourner, who would then close the lodge, with the candidate ready for exaltation. Like the Antients, however, he would not be qualified as an installed past master, but remained a Master Mason.
There is also no doubt that the Antients and Moderns also held similar Exaltation ceremonies. This can be proven by the fact that, when the two Grand Lodges joined in 1813, unlike Craft Masonry, there was no need for a Chapter of Reconciliation to be formed.
The main part of a Chapter exaltation was originally a very simple ceremony of questions and answers, followed by a short lecture in three parts, although by the early 1800's this had grown into something far more complex, with six longer lectures each with its own heading. Most of these lectures would be perfectly recognisable to a Royal Arch Mason today.
The purpose of the ceremony
was the discovery of certain long lost secrets during the preparation of the
ground for the building of then 2nd Temple. This is quite different from the Royal Arch as
practised in
back to
Indeed, in some Chapters, certain prayers were even given in the name of Jesus Christ Our Lord, and there were frequent representations of the Trinity, some of which are still with us.
The Chapter was opened by the three Principals only, with all other Companions, including Grand Officers, being excluded. After opening, the Companions would then enter two at a time, giving the password and saluting as they entered.
Once the Chapter was opened, the Candidate could be brought in. In almost every early Chapter, before he could be Exalted, he would have to go through the ceremony of Passing the Veils, which was based on the life of Moses.
Four veils were drawn across the Chapter, through which the candidate would have to pass. Each had its own short ceremony, and we know it was practised, because many early Chapters had bills for rods and veil materials in their Treasurers accounts. The Candidate also received the benefit of Masonic Prayer, which was done on the Gospel of St. John.
After the obligation the candidate was raised a Knight of the Holy Royal Arch of St. John of Jerusalem. He would then be asked to read from the scroll which he had retrieved from the vault, which contained not the first words of the bible, but the first verse of the Gospel of St. John.
A dialogue between the 1st Principal and the Principal Sojourner would then commence, with the Candidate looking on as a spectator. However, when he was invested and rewarded, it was with a jewel and crimson sash only, crimson being the only colour then used in the Royal Arch.
Chapter aprons as such did not exist, except very briefly in the very early Moderns Chapters, which discarded them in 1773. The Antients wore their usual Craft aprons, but with a silk crimson ribbon running round the border to show that they were members of the Royal Arch. Some Craft aprons even had Royal Arch symbolism printed on the front in bright colour.
The Royal Arch continued to flourish, with much of the Christian references disappearing by 1800. The requirements amongst the Antients for a Candidate to be an Installed Master was finally removed in 1807, when the new edition of the Antients Book of Constitutions, the Ahimon Rezon, was published.
It stated that- Antient Freemasonry consists of four degrees, the three first of which are that of Apprentice, Fellow Craft and the sublime degree of Master, and a brother well versed in these three and otherwise qualified is eligable to be admitted to the fourth degree, The Holy Royal Arch. However, Moderns Master Masons still had to go through the ceremony of Passing the Chair.
The union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813 surprisingly had little effect on the Royal Arch, and it was not until 1817 that Grand Lodge got around to re-organising the two groups with the formation of the Supreme Grand Chapter. However, the ceremony of Passing the Chair and many Christian references remained until1834, which was to prove to be most important year in the entire history of the Royal Arch
In 1834, with instructions from the Supreme Grand Chapter and the 1st Grand Principal the Duke of Sussex, a Special Committee was formed to revise and standardise the entire Royal Arch ceremony, and Master Masons of twelve month's standing were permitted to join.
The candidate himself was finally given an active role in the ceremony, which was greatly enlarged, as previously the ceremony itself consisted almost totally of a series of questions and answers which had been in the now removed catechetical lecture, with the candidate purely a bystander, which was followed by further lectures.
The ritual was completely de-Christianised. However, even today few Jewish companions realise that the opening prayer recited by the MEZ on opening the Chapter is taken word for word from the Christian Communion service, with only the words In The Name Of Jesus Christ Our Lord omitted at the end.
There was also the introduction of new passwords for the candidate on entering the chapter for the first time, in place of the word of an installed Master, and there was no place whatsoever for the ceremony of Passing the Veils, which by this time had died out in many Chapters anyway.
The final Mystical lecture was introduced, with an appallingly bad explanation of several Hebrew Characters which were, in the future, to give so much offence to many orthodox Jewish companions, who thought that the name of the almighty was being taken in vain. Some were even known to walk out of the Chapter, never to return.
Supreme Grand Chapter then ordered that a new ritual be universally used by all Chapters, and a special Chapter of Promulgation was set up to demonstrate this new ritual.
Standardisation was never fully achieved, as it depended on the memory of the representative of each chapter who was sent to view the demonstration. However, these differences to this day can make visiting an early chapter all the more interesting and enjoyable.
Until recently, Supreme Grand Chapter continued to be a completely separate and distinct organisation from Grand Lodge. Even in the 1960's, there was no formal application form to join, all one needed was a piece of paper with the Brother's name and details written on it. It even had its own completely separate Book of Constitutions and Chapter numbering system up until the mid-1970's, when they were finally amalgamated with that of Grand Lodge.
In 1987 a further revision of the ritual was made as a consequence of political correctness, when the penalties were transferred from the main ceremony to the explanation of the signs.
Also the Hebrew words used in the ceremony had lead to accusations by the Methodist and Anglican Churches, and others, that Freemasonry had become a religion with its own pagan god. These words had also led to accusations of blasphemy, still an offence under British law.
After much discussion and a free vote in Grand Chapter, in 1989 it was decided by a large majority to remove the word and the Hebrew letters, as well as the consequent extended lecture, from the ceremony. Private Chapters were given 12 months to comply.
Thus in two years, much of the ammunition used by the detractors of Freemasonry had been removed. Although they did not realise it at the time, these detractors did the Royal Arch a great service, for it removed at one stroke much of which was found to be confusing in the Royal Arch degree, without detracting in any way from a most beautiful ceremony.


text:
*published on CBS Watch Magazine
Fran Lebowitz has been hilariously deconstructing the American landscape for decades with a signature sneer that peppers her essays, interviews andPublic Speaking, a documentary made by Martin Scorsese.
Born in 1950, Lebowitz decamped from Morristown, N.J., after being thrown out of high school for insubordination. She pursued a variety of jobs, including driving a taxi, cleaning houses and selling ads for a magazine, all the while observing the iconic world of 1970s New York. By the age of 21 she was penning a column called "I Cover the Waterfront" for Andy Warhol'sInterview magazine. Her biting tone and rapier wit won her a dedicated following and her essays were collected in two volumes, 1978'sMetropolitan Life and 1981's Social Studies.
Since then, she has scowled and prognosticated on subjects as diverse as children, travel, insomnia, politics, her love for her 1979 pearl gray Checker Marathon automobile, and the state of the world. In 2007 Vanity Fair named Lebowitz one of the year's most stylish women (she has her tailored suits and jackets made by Savile Row tailor Anderson & Sheppard). But there have been no new books. Decades ago, Lebowitz sold a book proposal for a novel called Exterior Signs of Wealth. In theory, it is about artists who want to be rich and their obverse, the fabulously wealthy who yearn to be artists. In her usually self-deprecating way, Lebowitz describes her failure to write not as writer's block but rather "writer's blockade."
On a rainy day at a restaurant in downtown Manhattan, Lebowitz talked toWatch!, between cigarette breaks, about … well, everything.
Watch!: I checked out The Fran Lebowitz Reader from the New York University library and brought it with me, thinking it would be a fun act of insubordination for you to sign the book; like vandalism in reverse. A first edition, now signed and worth more.
Fran Lebowitz: I am not a library fanatic, but I'm glad they have a library at NYU. A library is a repository for books, and soon we may not have books. A library without books is a restaurant, and it seems to be the goal of every single institution to just be a restaurant.
Watch!: I heard a debate on National Public Radio about whether the foodie fad had replaced the love of music.
Lebowitz: I am quite gluttonous; I like to eat. But I do not think it is an art form. The reason people are so interested in food is because it is so easy to know about. Even at a high level it is still not learning Anglo-Saxon; it's not that complicated. I don't mean cooking, I mean eating. When people say, "Do you want to try this place? It got great reviews," I say, "In the end, it's dinner." Usually cultures that are this decadent have reached a higher peak of civilization first. We didn't. We went right from primitivism to decadence without having a culture in between.
Watch!: Rereading your work, it was interesting to think about the people who criticize it as dated, with the reference to discos and poppers.
Lebowitz: This is true about novels, too. I am not comparing myself to Jane Austen, but no one ever says that she is too much writing about her time. Even if you don't think you are writing about your time, you are. To me what profoundly dates work is wrong ideas. Of course, all details date. But when people respond they do so, and either they ignore the details or they are interested in them. What never progresses is human nature. People still like Shakespeare, and that is not because of the details, not because people are kings, but because people's emotions and their responses to things are unhappily never changing.
Watch!: Is it the place of the cultural observer to merely comment, or to help people make changes?
Lebowitz: I don't think I am setting about to help people. People who actually help people are doctors. I have always wished that people would listen to me and do what I say … but they never have. So whenever people criticize me and say, "You shouldn't do that, because you are a role model," I say, "Are you kidding? I have been trying to get people to do what I want for my entire life and they never do."
Watch!: You were widely seen playing a judge onLaw and Order. Now that it's over, is there some-thing else you want to be on?
Lebowitz: I'd like to be on the actual Supreme Court. You don't have to be a lawyer to be on the Supreme Court. I think it has probably been ages since that happened, but I feel I am qualified. I am very focused on the Supreme Court in general, probably out of envy for not having that job. It is always surprising to me when it takes them a long time to decide on something. Because I think, "Are you kidding me?" That is actually the easiest judging job, to say, "Is it constitutional or not?"
Watch!: Is it true you don't carry a cellphone?
Lebowitz: No cellphone, no microwave oven, no computer. The reason I have no computer is that I never learned to type. When they first invented computers I thought it was a fast way to type. I thought, "I don't need this, I don't know how to type." I didn't know the whole world was going to go on this machine. I have a vacuum cleaner, but luckily I don't use it. I don't have a very sympathetic relationship with machinery. I am the kind of person where if something breaks, I hit it.
Watch!: But you have a wonderful car?
Lebowitz: I have had the same car since 1979, a Checker Marathon. When I first got it, I was young and I used to drive it around town; I am too old now. I would have lots of cars if I won the lottery. I have only one photograph displayed in my house, and it's of my car.
Watch!: In the documentary Public Speaking, you say that genius comes around only once in a lifetime. Who would you consider the geniuses in your lifetime?
Lebowitz: The three greatest geniuses of the 20th century were Picasso, Balanchine and Stravinsky. We weren't contemporaries, however.
Watch!: How about contemporaries?
Lebowitz: There may be people at that level of genius, but I'm not aware of them. One thing that seems extremely unlikely now is the undiscovered genius. Every season there is a new genius in every field, and that was never the case. It is a very rare thing to be a genius. It is so rare that Albert Einstein is still the example of genius. Until fairly recently, people didn't get called geniuses if they got rich. I am sure Mark Zuckerberg is very smart at business, but it is my understanding that he didn't invent anything. He reconfigured something. So did Martha Stewart, but she didn't say, "I invented setting the table!"
Watch!: In the same documentary, you said that AIDS wiped away the most critical voices in the arts.
Lebowitz: What I was saying was there was a general acknowledgment that many very good artists died, but I also said that the audience died too, and there is no acknowledgment of that. And the level of artists dropped in some way. If Charles Ludlam had lived, the other lesser directors may not have risen up. In a dark way, it is very helpful if people better than you die. That was my point. If all the people more talented than you die, then the culture comes around to you. So many people died and that is an unusual thing, except in a war.
Watch!: What do you think Andy Warhol would have thought of the cultural shift where there are no longer powerful critics, but the power of millions of critics on the Internet?
Lebowitz: I don't know what Andy would have thought, but I imagine he would be flabbergasted at the place he holds as an artist, which is ridiculous. But of course, he would not be holding the place he does if he had lived. And I know this from bitter personal experience, because I sold all my Warhols for nothing two weeks before he died. Prices were that low. Now they will never go down because there is so much institutional and personal financial investment in keeping those prices high.
Watch!: What do you think of the Kardashians ?
Lebowitz: Here's what I think … and this is such a prevalent thing, that I who have never seen the Kardashians have an opinion and know who they are. I don't know one from the other, but I know there are many of them. I do think that obviously many people in this country deserve the Kardashians, but I am not one of them. I feel the same way about them as I did about George Bush. Many people deserved him to be the president, but I am not one of them. The Kardashians deserve George Bush as the president. I am sure they will be replaced by some other group of morons. It is interesting how long this has lasted. It shows that even the very bottom of the culture is slow in changing.
Watch!: What is your idea of a perfect weekend?
Lebowitz: I make a deliberate effort to not go out of my apartment between Friday afternoon and Monday morning. The perfect weekend is one where I am alone, reading on my sofa, which is the perfect sofa. Designed by me to be read on. You lie with your head against the arm without a pillow. It is leather, which is the perfect fabric for a sofa because it doesn't eat you. There are no pillows; it is comfortably firm, but doesn't envelop you. The perfect sofa is like the perfect companion; you're not aware of it. Furniture is one of my primary interests in life. My father and grandfather were upholsterers. So I grew up in a sea of upholstery samples. Certainly one of my favorite activities is looking through a Sotheby's furniture catalog, which is almost wholly a fantasy.
Watch!: What is a trait you admire most in other artists?
Lebowitz: Productivity or a lack of sloth. I think that most people admire what they don't have. I always admire writers who are highly productive and good, because many are productive and bad. But if they are productive and good then I admire and resent them.
Watch!: What's on your bedside table?
Lebowitz: A telephone, two pairs of eyeglasses, a crystal cigarette box that was a gift from the San Francisco Public Library that is engraved to me, and a television remote control. But not books, because I do not read in bed. I gave up reading in bed because I can never sleep and I thought reading is too stimulating. Nothing can put me to sleep. If I were shot in the head I would still be awake. The only time I have no trouble sleeping is in the afternoon. I like to nap.
Watch!: Do you have any guilty pleasures?
Lebowitz: I don't believe in guilty pleasures. I feel guilt when I do something wrong. I feel constantly guilty for not writing, but that is so constant and long term, it is just a part of being awake. But I think pleasure is good. How can pleasure be bad, unless you are a psychopath and your pleasure is being a serial killer? I don't feel guilty for smoking. I am addicted to smoking and I do not feel equal to giving up this addiction. It is a habit, not a character trait. You are not a good person because you are a vegetarian and you are not a bad person because you eat a hamburger.
Watch!: What do you fear most?
Lebowitz: Blank paper. Writing is very difficult and I am very lazy. Writing is not the only difficult thing that I don't like to do, but it is the only difficult thing I am supposed to be doing. And now, I'm going outside to smoke.


text:
referencia : ATRIS-16Ver la descripcion completa
referencia : ATRIS-16Ver la descripcion completa
referencia : 368740
Dawn is upon us! A bi-directional ski in the freeride/ backcountry freestyle range which has been developed in 3 sizes, this ski has been a big success and is now in its second season.
Designed by Julien Regnier, this easy handling ski performs well in a variety of types of skiing and has become the go-to ski for numerous black crows skiers.
The atris is a modern, double faceted ski : a model which suits both skiers who focus on performance and anyone looking for a bidirectional tool for pure freeride pleasure.
With 108mm underfoot and an 18 metre turning radius, the atris has multiple technical particularities: its double rocker aids immediate pivot, and one of its biggest singularities is the progressive flaring of its sidecut in proportion to the rocker, which provides very good stability when the ski is on its edge. Its raised tip is made of 3 distinct radiuses, which gives it good consistency during the turn and a strong pivot on the flat.
It's a ski which has good drive at low speed. High performance or an everyday ski, the atris is breaking trail for the skis of tomorrow.
"I like having a ski which will adapt to all conditions and mean that I don't have to worry about my gear when I need to be reactive. The atris fills this role perfectly. Its light and stable, powerful yet playful and can deal with big powder, concrete snow, piste and park," says Tom Leitner.
- One wood (poplar)
- Biax 300, triax 400
- Semi-cap step-down sidewall.
|Espátula (mm)
|Patin (mm)
|Talón (mm)
|Radio (m)
|Peso (g)
"The new reference in terms of freeski bindings", proudly announces its manufacturer. With the STH2 WTR 16, Salomon combined its legendary DRIVER toe piece to the Guardian heel piece to provide a binding capable of retransmitting the slightest movement for wide skis.
Low-profile, long wings, wide platform and the Heel Flex interface enable you to control the widest skis and to deliver extraordinary transmission and performance in descent.
The STH2 WTR is compatible with the Salomon soles (WTR technology).
- DIN value: 7 to 16
- Standards: - Certified Alpine ISO 5355 and WTR
- WTR (Walk to Ride) sole compatibility : Makes walking easier with no compromise on safety and performance, due to the TÜV approved walk sole compatibility.
- XL pedal (65mm): a wide and fixed pedal ensures optimal transmission of the skier's power to the ski.
- XL Wings : Engages the boot better: increases confidence, easier to step-in in powder. More lateral power transmission.
- Extra-wide platform: an extra-wide platform (71mm) providing maximum lateral power transmission.
- 3D Driver Toe : Patented toe design offering multi directional release options.
- Elastic Travel: Superior elasticity which keeps you in the bindings when you want, lets you out when you need, ensures a smoother ride.
- Heel Flex Interface : guarantees a natural ski flex
- Low profile Chassis : Low Profile for a better feel of the terrain and increased power transfer.
- Progressive Transfer ferrules: regular sensations with strengthened shock absorption and greater tolerance in a solid binding.
- Freeski Brakes: Self retracting brakes: adapted to modern skis and practices, eliminates hang ups on switch landings.


text:
Tutor Ted scored a perfect 36, wrote two ACT books, and has tutored over 1,000 students for ACT. He knows his stuff.
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text:
Great British Golfers
Nick Faldo
One of the most successful British golfers in history, Nick Faldo has won three Open Championships and three US Masters titles, and has been ranked No.1 on the official World Golf Rankings for an outstanding total of ninety eight weeks. After being inspired by watching Jack Nicklaus play golf in the early seventies Faldo had his first introduction to the game, quickly achieving success in 1975 by winning both the English Amateur Championship and the British Youths Championship.
In 1976, Faldo became a professional golfer, making his mark by finishing in eighth place on his first European tour and in 1977 he became the youngest player ever to play as part of the Ryder Cup team. During the eighties, Faldo took some time out of competition to improve his swing under the instruction of golfer turned tutor David Leadbetter.
Following the changes made to his game, Faldo returned to competitive golf and won his first major championship title in the 1987 Open Championship. Since then, in addition to his championship success, Faldo has won a series of high profile competitions and tour events including the French Open, Irish Open, Spanish Open, the PGA, the British Masters and the European Open. He has also had several team successes including the Alfred Dunhill Cup, the World Cup and the Ryder Cup.
Colin Montgomerie
Affectionately known as 'Monty,' Colin Montgomerie is a legendary Scottish golfer and is widely recognised as the leading golfer to have emerged in European competition over the last fifteen years. Montgomerie was a successful amateur golfer, winning the Scottish Youths Championship in 1983, before turning professional in 1988 and winning the Rookie of the Year title on the European Tour that same year.
He won his first professional title in 1989, when he won the Portugese Open and since then, he has won more European titles than any other British Golfer. During the nineties, Montgomerie went on to win numerous tournaments on the European Tour including the Scandinavian Masters in 1991, the Volvo German Open in 1995, the Murphy's Irish Open in 1996 and 1997 and the Volvo PGA Championship in 1998.
Between 1993 and 1999 Montgomerie won a record breaking seven 'Order of Merit Titles' on the tour and twenty high profile tournaments during that time, winning five titles in 1999 alone, being known as the most consistent golfer in the world during his most successful period. Since his seven year European winning streak, Montgomerie has continued to prove himself, most notably in the year 2000 when he made the record books again by winning the Volvo PGA Championship for the third time.
In 2001 he won the Australian Masters and in 2002 he won his first Asian title in the TCL classic in China. Montgomerie has taken part in eight Ryder Cups during his career, as well as other team tournaments, including the Dunhill Cup, the World Cup and the UBS Cup. Whilst never having won a major championship title, despite coming a close second at both the US Open and the US PGA, Montgomerie is regarded as one of the finest sportsmen in Britain, officially marked in 2004 when he was awarded an OBE for sporting achievement.
Lee Westwood
Regarded as one of England and Europe's finest golfers, Lee Westwood began playing golf at the age of thirteen before winning his first amateur tournament, the Pete McEvoy Trophy aged seventeen. After winning the British Youth Championship in 1993, Westwood turned professional, winning his first professional competition four years later at the Volvo Scandinavian Masters.
Whilst Westwood has not won any major championships, he did attain fourth place in the official World Golf Rankings when he came forth in the 2000 British open. He has also won several high profile competitions, including the Freeport McDermott Classic in 1998, the Sumitomo VISA Taiheiyo Masters in 1996 and for the following two years, and the Cisco World Match Play Championship in 2000. Westwood has performed particularly well in European Tour events, having won a total of 18 tournaments, and in 2000 he achieved the European Tour Order of Merit, ending Colin Montgomerie's seven year run of victory.
Sandy Lyle
One of the most significant British golfers during the eighties, Sandy Lyle was born in Shrewsbury as Alexander Walter Barr Lyle, but living in Scotland, chose to represent Scotland during his professional career. Lyle was introduced to the game when he was just three years old and went on to win several amateur competitions in Scotland and England before turning professional in 1977.
During his career, Lyle has had twenty seven professional wins, including seventeen on the European Tour, six on the PGA tour and two major championships. Lyle rose to international victory in 1985 when he won the Open Championship but he is best known for winning the Masters, becoming the first British golfer to win the championship.
After winning high profile events on the European Tour, Lyle won the European Tour's Order of Merit in 1979, 1980 and 1985, and in 1985 he was also part of a victorious team in the Ryder Cup. Unusually for golfers, Lyle's victorious streak was relatively short-lived, and in 1989 he began to move away from regular competition but he is well-known for being an inspirational player with a cool temperament and a natural talent for the game.
Darren Clarke
A professional golfer from Northern Ireland, Darren Clarke has won several tournaments on the European Tour in the last decade, including the Linde German Masters, the Benson & Hedges International Open, the Smurfit European Open and the Compass Group English Open. He has achieved second place on the European Tour Money list three times and has been listed in the top ten in the official World Golf Rankings.
Turning professional in 1990, Clarke has won seventeen professional titles since embarking on his golfing career and has represented Northern Ireland in the Ryder Cup, the World Cup and the Alfred Dunhill cup. Although Clarke has never won a major championship title he came very close to victory in 1997 when he achieved second place at the British Open. Clarke made one of his biggest achievements in 2003 when he won the high profile WGC-NEC Invitational although he is perhaps best known for his defeat of Tiger Woods in the final of the WGC-Anderson Consulting Match Play Championship in 2000.
Ian Woosnam
Despite being born in Oswestry, England, Ian Woosnam was born to Welsh parents and has represented Wales during his professional career. Woosnam began playing golf in his local club in Powys and turned professional in the 1970's despite doubt from fellow club members that he was good enough to 'make it.'
Woosnam's professional career was slow to begin but in 1982 he won the Swiss Open on the European Tour, his first high profile tournament. He topped the European Tour money list in 1987 after winning eight tournaments and his victories continued to increase. Woosnam won the British PGA championship in 1988, and in 1991 he entered the official No.1 spot in the World Golf Rankings.
Later that year, Woosnam went on to win his first major championship when he earned the US Masters title, a victory that few British golfers have ever achieved. Woosnam has also represented Wales more than fifteen times in the World Cup and in 2006 he was chosen to captain the European Team in the Ryder Cup.
Sir Henry Cotton
Born in 1907, Henry Cotton is regarded as one of the most legendary golfers in British history. After leaving his public school at seventeen, Cotton embarked upon a professional career and practised so hard it is rumoured that his hands bled on more than one occasion. During the 1930's Cotton had a series of European Victories, before winning his first major title in 1934 at the British Open.
Cotton went on to win the Open twice more, once in 1937 and once in 1948, remaining the only Brit to win the tournament until 1989. Between 1947 and 1953 Cotton was the captain of the Ryder Cup team before his retirement in the mid fifties. Whilst being remembered for his numerous successes, Cotton is also famed for his flamboyant lifestyle and during his career he spent a large amount of time campaigning for better treatment of professional golfers, once remarking that 'the best is always good enough for me.'
During the Second World War, Cotton joined the Royal Air Force organising a series of exhibition matches in aid of the Red Cross and earning him an MBE at the end of the War. In 1980 Cotton was inducted into the World Hall of Fame and, before his death in 1987, he accepted a knighthood which was awarded posthumously to him in the 1988 New Year's Day Honours.
Harry Vardon
Born in 1870, Harry Vardon grew up on Jersey and began to play golf in his teens, turning professional at the age of 20. Vardon made his mark in 1896 when he won the first Open Championships and went on to win a record breaking five further Opens over the next two decades, a record that stands to this day. In 1900, Vardon toured America as a golfing celebrity, winning eighty matches and finishing with a victory at the US Open.
He won an outstanding sixty two tournaments during his life time, including the high profile British PGA Matchplay Championship and the German Open. Vardon was an influential player during his lifetime and his legacy lived on after his death in 1987.
Vardon introduced what is now referred to as the 'Vardon grip,' a way of gripping the golf club so that the little finger of the trailing hand (lowest hand on the club) is placed between the index and middle finger of the lead hand (the highest hand on the club) with the thumb of the lead hand fitting in to the lifeline of the trailing hand. He also inspired the 'Vardon Trophy' which is awarded each year on the PGA tour to the golfer with the lowest adjusted scoring average.
James Braid
One of the pioneering players of modern Golf, James Braid was born in 1870 and, after turning professional in 1896, represented Scotland in a number of major championships and high profile tournaments. Braid played golf from an early age but, even when he became professional, he was still struggling with his putting skills.
In 1900 he switched to an aluminium putter, going on to win his first Open Championship in 1901. Braid went on to win four more Open Championships, winning his last in 1910 against fellow Scotsman Sandy Herd. Braid also made his mark by winning four victories at the British PGA Matchplay Championships between 1903 and 1911 and in 1910 he won the French Open title.
He would perhaps have won more titles on foreign soil had he not been afraid to travel further than France. After retiring from the game in 1912, Braid was involved with golf design and famously designed the King's and Queen's course at Gleaneagles as well as inventing the 'dogleg,' a type of hole often used on inland courses.
John Henry Taylor
Along with Henry Vardon and James Braid, John Henry Taylor was one of the three British golfers to dominate the game during the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century. Orphaned as a young boy, Taylor worked as a caddy and labourer at Westwood Ho Golf Club after leaving school at eleven, before becoming a professional golfer at the age of nineteen.
Taylor won the Open Championships an outstanding five times between 1894 and 1913, and in 1933 he captained the British Ryder Cup team to victory against the U.S, although he famously didn't play in any of the matches. Taylor was known for his short, punchy swing which coped well with the winds on the British courses. After his retirement he went on to design a number of golf courses across the country and became the founder and original chairman of the British Professional Golfer's Association.


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Sneak Peek: Chipotle Bean Enchiladas
February 28, 2010
Finally – the tomatoes I bought last Sunday have fulfilled their destiny! Made "Chipotle Bean Enchiladas" with homemade enchilada sauce. 2 kinds of beans (pinto and black bean), and obviously lots of cheese.
Everyone loved them. Kid's version (mild) and Grown-up's version (chipotle) were easy to divide and conquer. Recipe to follow this week!
One Comment leave one →


text: Hi: A brush fire that broke out at 7:55 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 27 in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes, burned 230 acres. This is the city I live, so I went out with Nikon D700 the Nikkor 70-200 VR f/2.8 lens, to capture images of the fire. My main problem was that I did not take the tripod. I had no idea how big the fire was and if I had to evacuate the area in a minute's notice. In retrospect, I should have taken it and placed in the trunk of my car, just in case I could have used it - next time there is a news event. It was very hard to shoot at very low speeds even with a VR lens. The whole story of the fires is here: http://www.dailybreeze.com . The photos I kept are in my Photo Gallery: Rancho Palos Verdes Fires - Hektor's Photos- powered by SmugMug or in Slide Show Format: SmugMug Photo & Video Sharing. You look better here. Best Regards, Hektor


text: On Sat, 10 Apr 1999 19:46:28 -0400, Mason Loring Bliss wrote: > > Hm. How about allowing user-selection of which keyboard is actually used, in > /etc/wscons.conf or something? That would solve the immediate need for easy > and immediate support, anyway, and could easily be deprecated once it no > longer matters. Hmmm, but USB devices can come and go at any time (or so at least they are designed). E.g. What if you configured the box to use /dev/wskbd1 which happened to be your USB keyboard, but later wanted to boot the box without it? I have a similar situation with my pointing device but it's much easier to work around than the console keyboard device since I can tweak /etc/XF86Config file before X is launched. I like to use my Logitech 3-button USB mouse when it's attached but I don't want to have to use it when I'm on the go. Right now, I probe for the device wsmouse0 got attached to, and install appropriate /etc/XF86Config file depending on the type of device. I think it may be a good idea to have `multiplexed' devices; for instance, you can read all keyboard events from /dev/wdkbd* devices MUXed together by reading /dev/dev/wsmuxkbd0 or something, and all mouse events from /dev/wsmouse* by reading /dev/wsmuxmouse0, etc. Any thoughts? Ken


text:
After months of delays, the city of Temecula on Thursday, April 24 is opening the French Valley Parkway offramp on southbound Interstate 15, a key component of the $200 million French Valley Parkway project.
The parkway project, which will drastically alter traffic patterns on the stretch of Interstate 15 that cuts through Temecula and Murrieta, has been broken into two phases. The $30 million first phase includes a wider Winchester Road offramp and the French Valley offramp, which will carry traffic to businesses in Murrieta and Temecula via a T-connection with Jefferson Avenue.
The changes are designed to eliminate congestion caused by the long line of cars that used to form ahead of the Winchester ramp, a dangerous condition that triggered dozens of collisions and numerous fatal crashes.
"There's no question that that intersection has been unsafe over the years," said Temecula Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Comerchero on Tuesday. "This will prevent that."
The offramp – which is also eagerly anticipated by car dealers and business owners located west of the freeway – is the first new exit to open in Temecula since the city was incorporated in 1989.
In the more expensive second phase, a bridge will be constructed over the interstate to connect the new exit with Date Street to the east, a roadway that will be bear the French Valley Parkway name. These second phase also will include roads that run parallel to Interstate 15, allowing motorists to avoid bottlenecks caused by the confluence of Interstates 15 and 215.
Design work on the second phase is underway and could be completed in late 2015, according to the Temecula officials. That project is expected to cost about $170 million.
The city – which is teaming with regional transportation agencies, Murrieta and the county on the project – had hoped to have both the wider Winchester offramp and the new French Valley offramp opened before Christmas. That timeline was pushed back after the city received feedback from Caltrans, which requested a slate of modifications, including new striping and signage.
The Winchester offramp eventually opened in January.
Caltrans spokeswoman Terri Kasinga said in a statement that the French Valley offramp has been cleared to open to traffic since February 20. City officials said, however, noted there was still work left to be completed — including a drainage system for the landscaping — so that Caltrans could take over maintenance of the facility.
"The city is not in the business of maintaining freeway facilities," said Assistant City Manager Greg Butler.
The delays didn't sit well with some in the area. Murrieta business owner Chris Boehme criticized officials for the late opening, as well as for scheduling a 10 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony.
"They should be tucking their tails between their legs," not celebrating, Boehme said.
Contact Aaron Claverie at firstname.lastname@example.com or 951-368-9698
Three things to know
Opening of new French Valley Parkway offramp wraps up the first phase of the $200 million French Valley Parkway project
First phase, which includes new wider Winchester Road offramp, ended up costing almost $30 million
Construction on the second phase – including a bridge over Interstate 15 and roads that will run parallel to the 15 through Temecula-Murrieta – will not begin until late 2016 at the earliest