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Saturday, April 25, 2009
I Thought You Were a Vegan
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 3:38 PM 7 comments
Labels: Celebutards
Saturday Playlist
1. Duran Duran: A View to a Kill
2. Freddie Mercury: Made in Heaven
3. Devo: Working in the Coalmine
4. OK Go: Here It Goes Again
5. Patti Smith: Glitter in Their Eyes
6. The Korgis: Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometimes
7. Michael Andrews: Clem's Theme
8. Madness: Overdone
9. Lynn Anderson: If I Kiss You (Will You Go Away)
10. Grateful Dead: Touch of Grey
1. Starting off with one of the best Bond themes ever (and sadly in one of the worst Bond movies ever).
2. Another mournful, beautiful track from Freddie Mercury.
3. I always enjoy this, but I think as far as Devo's "devolved" covers go, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" is miles ahead.
4. Not a bad single.
5. Always love me some Patti Smith.
6. Nice melancholy tune from the eighties. I prefer the Beck cover they used in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind to this one.
7. Sublime track from the Freaks and Geeks score.
8. One of my favorite bands ever.
9. Me? Probably you'll just encourage me.
10. This was my first exposure to the Grateful Dead. I've never been into them overmuch, but I've always loved this music video, with the skeleton puppets on stage. I think I was 10 or 11 when that video hit MTV. Good times.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 3:32 PM 2 comments
Labels: Saturday Playlist
Bea Arthur 1922-2009
I'm incredibly depressed to see that Bea Arthur has died. I adored her every time I saw her, and she was never not funny. I'm going to miss her.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 3:29 PM 2 comments
Labels: Tributes
Friday, April 24, 2009
These Eyes
About a week and a half ago, I was tagged by Splotchy on a very simple meme:
1. Post a picture of your eyes.
2. Tag a few people.
So simple it took me forever to finally do it. And I chose two different pictures, just to be difficult. So there.
I tag:
Darius Whiteplume
Johnny Yen
The Dude
Kat Dennings (Ha-HA! I'm droll!)
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 12:38 PM 5 comments
Labels: Memes
The Throwdown Is Going Away
Probably for good this time. I don't really enjoy writing it very much anymore. It takes hours to write sometimes and just takes over an entire Friday, and I'm pretty over that. Plus, it's not something I sense a lot of people dig, and what few comments I ever get on them anymore are mainly directed at blaming me for how depressing the news in general is. It's become an annoyance in my life, so it's gone for good.
In its stead, I've started this new feature called Cynical Six, which is basically a short version of the Throwdown. I'll do these a couple of times a week or so, just to get out things that irritate or amuse me or upset me in the news, but at my own pace. Saving it all up for one day of the week, during which time some stories become irrelevant or too annoying to deal with or no longer interesting, is just taking up too much of my time for something that I don't really have an investment in other than, well, time and my own enjoyment.
I remember when I started this blog, in January 2005, and I only posted once a day. Now it's several times a day. And a lot of those posts are pretty short. I guess that's the mode I'm working in now, or something, and doing the Throwdown just seems like too much effort. Especially when people either seem to just skim it (I can't count the number of times someone has corrected me in the comments, or reminded me of something else, because they're too busy reading the first and last sentence of every item to notice that it's something I've already said) or only read my blog for the once a week hate-fest. I didn't start doing this to get attention or build some kind of fan base or anything. I started the blog for the same reason most people start blogs: boredom.
So, anyway, sorry if you dug the Throwdown, but it's no longer a feature here. Hope you enjoy what is essentially a smaller, more manageable, more sporadic version of it.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 12:26 PM 7 comments
Labels: Site Stuff, Throwdown
Ironic Words, Mr. President
Here are some pull quotes from President Obama's speech for the Holocaust Remembrance ceremony yesterday. Bold/italic=emphasis mine.
* It is the grimmest of ironies that one of the most savage, barbaric acts of evil in history began in one of the most modernized societies of its time, where so many markers of human progress became tools of human depravity: science that can heal used to kill; education that can enlighten used to rationalize away basic moral impulses; the bureaucracy that sustains modern life used as the machinery of mass death -- a ruthless, chillingly efficient system where many were responsible for the killing, but few got actual blood on their hands.
* While the uniqueness of the Holocaust in scope and in method is truly astounding, the Holocaust was driven by many of the same forces that have fueled atrocities throughout history: the scapegoating that leads to hatred and blinds us to our common humanity; the justifications that replace conscience and allow cruelty to spread; the willingness of those who are neither perpetrators nor victims to accept the assigned role of bystander, believing the lie that good people are ever powerless or alone, the fiction that we do not have a choice.
* They remind us that no one is born a savior or a murderer -- these are choices we each have the power to make. They teach us that no one can make us into bystanders without our consent, and that we are never truly alone.
* How do we ensure that "never again" isn't an empty slogan, or merely an aspiration, but also a call to action? I believe we start by doing what we are doing today -- by bearing witness, by fighting the silence that is evil's greatest co-conspirator.
* The story goes that when the Americans marched in, they discovered the starving survivors and the piles of dead bodies. And General Eisenhower made a decision. He ordered Germans from the nearby town to tour the camp, so they could see what had been done in their name. And he ordered American troops to tour the camp, so they could see the evil they were fighting against. Then he invited congressmen and journalists to bear witness. And he ordered that photographs and films be made. Some of us have seen those same images, whether in the Holocaust Museum or when I visited Yad Vashem, and they never leave you. Eisenhower said that he wanted "to be in a position to give firsthand evidence of these things, if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda."
* But we must also remember that bearing witness is not the end of our obligation -- it's just the beginning. . . . Today, and every day, we have an opportunity, as well as an obligation, to confront these scourges. . . . [W]e have the opportunity to make a habit of empathy; to recognize ourselves in each other; to commit ourselves to resisting injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take -- whether confronting those who tell lies about history, or doing everything we can to prevent and end atrocities like those that took place in Rwanda, those taking place in Darfur. That is my commitment as President. I hope that is yours, as well.
* So today, during this season when we celebrate liberation, resurrection, and the possibility of redemption, may each of us renew our resolve to do what must be done. And may we strive each day, both individually and as a nation, to be among the righteous.
Ironic, since Obama's real commitment as President seems to be to ignore what happened and move on, rather than bearing witness and fighting the silence. And I'm hearing precious little from the same bloggers who were demanding Bush and Cheney be held accountable on the charge of Obama deciding they don't have to be.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 11:16 AM 0 comments
Labels: Politics, Social Concerns
Bullying is one of the things in life I just cannot abide. I know all too well what it's like to be bullied, so it was with a lot of sympathy that I read this story on CNN called "My bullied son's last day on Earth." You should read it. It's about a boy who was being bullied in school and, despite all appearances to his mother of being a happy and well-adjusted child, was worn down by kids at school calling him names--one of which, unsurprisingly, was "gay"--and hanged himself by his belt. The kid was 11 years old.
That's fifth grade. And that's usually when the bullying starts to get really severe. It was for me, and it is for a lot of kids. I see it all the time at schools, and no one ever really does anything about it.
I know the thing to do generally is to say that kids need to toughen up and have a thicker skin. And yes, kids do need to learn that some things people say don't really matter. But I think it's almost impossible to do in schools. Schools are so preoccupied with telling all kids how much they matter and how much their feelings matter and how equal everyone is that the message becomes confusing and, I think, inadvertently gives weight to a lot of the criticism that comes from bullies. If everything is valid, then surely being called names constantly has some sort of validity, too. It's not until you're older that you really come to realize that things bullies said come from somewhere else--from fear or anger or other problems or testing the limits of what they can get away with or, frankly, just being assholes--but by then it doesn't matter, because the bullying has already had its effect.
I was bullied. Terribly. I felt like I didn't have a friend in the world for years, and mostly just because I was the fat kid or the kid who still watched cartoons or the kid who read comic books. And the kind of fat I was in school... believe me, I'd love to still be a "monstrous" 190 pounds or 210 at 5'11". To this day, I still don't expect people to like me--or, more accurately, I still don't expect people to not dislike me. I couldn't open myself up for a long, long time. I didn't become this open and honest until I decided that, ultimately, I didn't feel it was worth it to prove my worth or my coolness or anything to anyone. That's all because I was bullied so badly in school.
And it was bad. I was a popular kid when I was in the early grades, because I was good at soccer and really nice and polite and made up great games on the playground and was imaginative and could draw better than anyone else. And then I gained some weight after a steroid shot (I kept getting ear infections), and suddenly everyone didn't want to be friend anymore. I went from liking school and being a generally happy kid to being depressed and friendless and trying to avoid even having to go to school. And I think I'm a pretty smart guy--when I apply myself I always get high grades--but my high school grades were awful because I just wasn't focused. I was more worried about staying out of everyone's way. And that became a weakness that was just exploited further.
I'm really saddened that Jaheem Herrera, an 11 year-old fifth-grader, felt that the only way to stop the teasing was to take his own life. That's a concept an 11 year-old should find completely foreign. But they don't. I know, because I almost killed myself when I was 11. And when I was 13. And when I was 16. And lots of other times. And, hell, when I was 31. And I'm not talking the "wishing you were dead" routine. I'm talking about sitting there with a knife and trying to come up with a reason why your life helps anyone you know. I'm talking about filling your toilet with toxic cleaners and trying to will yourself to put your head in and breathe deeply. I'm talking about sitting on train tracks and trying to think of the things you'll miss.
Jaheem's poor mother is confused and destroyed, and doesn't know why he stopped coming to her for help. But I know why. I've been there, too. It's because too many adults tell you to be thicker skinned and not take it so seriously. And it's a conflicting message that always runs up against "Everyone is special" or "All ideas have merit." It happens because schools stopped teaching facts and critical thinking and started teaching feeling good about yourself.
And I'm not presuming to imagine what Jaheem's mother said to him about the bullying; I'm just saying that after a while it seems like no adult can help you, no matter how concerned they are. Schools say they have programs to stop people from bullying, but there's really nothing they can do about it. Kids don't have the experience to imagine that what you say to a person can sometimes stay with them for the rest of their lives. Adults are always so surprised that bullying even happens, but it does, everywhere. And it often leads to some kind of violence, either against oneself or against others. What do you think Columbine was? If you write off school shootings as just the acts of people with loose screws who are somehow desensitized to violence, you're so wrong it isn't even funny. The spark for something like that is always some kind of trauma that leads to fear and resentment, and, tragically, an inability to see human beings as people--most often because they're not allowing you the dignity of relating to you as a person with thoughts and feelings, but as an object of ridicule. Some people lash out. Others cope. And many get backed into a corner and see taking themselves out of the equation as the only way to make it stop.
Jaheem didn't hurt anyone but himself. But that makes what happened no less tragic.
My heart goes out to the boy's family. An innocent life claimed just because a bunch of kids couldn't imagine not being cruel.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 10:39 AM 3 comments
Labels: On the Subject of Me, Social Concerns
Considering a New Line of Work
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 10:38 AM 3 comments
Labels: Random
Ken Annakin 1914-2009
This is an unfortunate week for long-serving British professionals in film. Now Ken Annakin, also 94 years old, has followed Jack Cardiff and passed away. It's fitting that the two of them worked together on at least one film off the top of my head (The Fifth Musketeer).
Annakin was one of the figures responsible for making Disney a market force in live action family filmmaking, and directed three of my favorite Disney movies: The Story of Robin Hood, The Sword and the Rose, and The Swiss Family Robinson. Thank you for those, sir.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 10:09 AM 1 comments
Labels: Tributes
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Cynical Six
1. I can't wait to see what President Obama's speech at the 2009 National Holocaust Remembrance Commemoration is going to consist of. This year's theme is "Never Again: What You Do Matters." Ironic considering that Obama's response to evidence of America's illegal torture agenda is "Let's get over it already." So, to recap, someone in power commits a crime, and does so knowingly, and the President's response is to do nothing? My disappointment in Obama deepens every day.
I basically agree with all of this (via Bleeding Tree):
The insanity of not wanting to prosecute someone for creating a system to harm other human beings actually hurts my brain. No wonder no one takes laws seriously in this country anymore; even our presidents ignore them.
2. Porter Goss has said that he and Nancy Pelosi were part of a group of Congresspersons who were briefed on America's secret torture policies: "Not only was there no objection, there was actually concern about whether the agency was doing enough." Sort of makes Nancy Pelosi's calls for a Truth Commission ring hollow. Maybe she feels guilty. It's all liars and hypocrites, only the team name changes.
3. I was very surprised, and pleasantly so, to see Fox News' Shep Smith getting so upset about America's torture (a word that Obama won't even say now). (Video via Andrew Sullivan.)
I'm glad he's pissed off. Everyone should be this pissed off. Obama and Rahm Emmanuel should be this pissed off, but they're not. That we are actually having a discussion about what degrees of torture are acceptable or whether or not the torture worked--rather than asserting that torture is wrong and that 24 is not a documentary--is beyond the pale. I am so fucking disappointed in this country and in our leaders.
4. By the way, you should read today's Greenwald. Apparently Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, says that Obama's decision to immunize CIA torturers is a violation of international law. I also agree with Greenwald's implication that it's hypocritical of Obama to have argued in his campaign that Bush's ignoring international conventions and legal obligations was wrong, only to do more of the same himself. It's becoming clear, I think, that torture was used to justify a war of choice that would lead to more torture. Another chapter in the dark and brutal history of stupid, stupid American imperialism.
5. By the way, why have I not seen any of the more political blogs talking about the fact that the CFO of Freddie Mac killed himself yesterday? I think that says a lot about how fucked we really are. I think we're way more fucked than anyone's telling us.
6. The only thing dumber than Obama's unwillingness to uphold the law and the reputation of America as a country that believes in the law is the politicization of this whole thing. The right is just spinning into a sort of abject stupidity you almost didn't think human beings were capable of. Calm down, idiots. This is not an attack on you. This is a demand that lawbreakers be prosecuted, regardless of party. Oh, and Miss California is not being persecuted because of her ignorance, she's being ridiculed. It's a free country, and people who believe that that freedom extends to everyone do have the right to think she's a bigoted idiot. Especially since she demonstrated it so well. I know you guys have been wallowing in your racist, prejudiced, criminal, backwards mudpool for the last decade or so, but that's over. Join the 21st century or get out of the fucking way.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 3:50 PM 4 comments
Labels: Cynical Six
There's a nice, succinct interview with Tura Satana up at Gasoline Magazine. In it, she talks about having dated Elvis Presley and Joe DiMaggio. For some reason, I'm always interested in hearing women talk about dating Elvis. Humanizes him, I guess.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 3:22 PM 1 comments
Labels: Occasional Links
Jack Cardiff 1914-2009
Jack Cardiff was an accomplished cinematographer who photographed one of my favorite movies (and one of the most beautiful to look at movies ever), Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Red Shoes. He's just passed away at the age of 94, and I felt I should mention it.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 2:57 PM 0 comments
Labels: Tributes
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Wolverine Leaked Online
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 3:38 PM 2 comments
Labels: Attempted Humor, Films, Geekery
Oops, My Mistake
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 2:32 PM 0 comments
Labels: On the Subject of Me
Film Week
A review of the films I've seen this past week.
Norma Shearer plays both of the leads in this film; I'm not sure why, since the plot doesn't really require it, but it is interesting to see Shearer playing two roles. She plays Florence, a good girl and judge's daughter, and Molly, a bad girl and the orphaned daughter of a thief. Molly is much, much more interesting than Florence--she's close to the underbelly, surviving by her wits and toughness, but filled with a sort of basic decency. I wish Shearer had played more like Molly in her career. Anyway, Molly falls for a young inventor who wants to market a safe-cracking device (okay...), and Molly steers him to a group of investors--including Judge Banning, Florence's father. The inventor immediately falls for Florence, and what follows is one of those tragic, oh so tragic love stories that is enlivened by Shearer's dual roles and the pathos they brim with: Florence thinks Molly has a better claim because Molly was there first, but Molly believes she isn't good enough. If you're a fan of Shearer, I recommend it. (Also, apparently there's a longer version with a two-strip Technicolor sequence going around; the version I saw on TCM didn't have this and only ran an hour.) *** stars.
Norma Shearer again, this time in her Oscar-winning role as a woman whose marriage is torn apart by infidelity. This is yet another movie of the time concerned with upper class carousing and partying, but I enjoyed more than I usually enjoy these movies. Probably because Norma Shearer is so good and sympathetic as Jerry, a socialite who decides to marry Ted, only to disappoint Paul, who gets drunk and wrecks his car, disfiguring a friend, Dorothy, whom he marries out of sympathy. As the years go by, Jerry and Ted's marriage becomes more and more unhappy; both of them cheat, he becomes an alcoholic, and she becomes a party fixture. Things don't end depressingly, but it can be quite a depressing movie at times. It's also a bit of an indictment of the New York in crowd scene, arguing that their lifestyles are ultimately destructive. The film has dated a bit stylistically, mostly because of the time it was made--talkies were still new, and there were technical limitations. The acting style is pretty stagey, too. But it doesn't really detract. **** stars.
I saw this movie because I like Margaret O'Brien. I don't think she fares very well here, though. What came across as precocious and charming when she was little comes across as stilted and occasionally irritating as a teenager. O'Brien plays a WASPy suburban girl who falls for a new boy in school and follows him to summer camp to get him to like her. She's vying with another girl (pretty Elinor Donahue) for his affections, which leads her to do all manner of stupid, stupid things, including breaking into her father's factory and stealing money. At every turn, she's willing to lie and put herself (and her little brother) at extreme risk in order to get this boy's attention. The thing is, the boy isn't even worth it! Poor Margaret O'Brien; she was so good in the forties. Here, she follows the boy and chases him down like Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction. ** stars. Apparently, this is very, very loosely based on a Herman Wouk novel called The City Boy. Hollywood can turn anything into pap.
Disney really had a chance to do something with this, and they're only partially successful. Spoilers, if anyone really cares. I was pleasantly surprised by how much money went into this movie. I expected something more like The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which looked pretty on-the-cheap and tried to hard to be exactly like the TV series it was based on. For the most part, Hannah Montana is a real movie. Disney got a real director, a real cinematographer, and a real production design team, and the movie looks much, much better than you'd expect. And, unlike too many movies that are extensions of TV shows, Miley doesn't find herself involved in some kind of caper or something. (Remember the Family Ties movie where the Keatons went to England and found themselves wrapped up in a spy plot? Ugh. Even Charles McKeown couldn't save that one.) What happens is, Robby Ray decides that Miley is becoming too wrapped up in Hannah Montana and edging further and further away from her dream--to be a pop star but to also enjoy a normal life--so he forces her to take a two week vacation in small town Tennessee at her grandmother's house. And there, of course, Miley reconnects with who she really is, falls in love, learns some life lessons--the usual. But it's decidedly more charming than I've seen in a lot of these movies. The film starts out like the TV show, with a lot of wackiness and over-the-top pratfalls and that kind of garbage, but with the supporting cast out of the way (Mitchel Musso and Moises Arias basically have cameos, and I didn't miss them at all through the movie), the film slows down and becomes less of a cartoon. The film is so determined to be more realistic and more believable than the TV show that they even recast Miley's extended family--instead of going to visit the Stewart side of the family, which we know from the show (and which includes Vicki Lawrence, Dolly Parton, and David Koechner), Miley visits her mother's side of the family, which feels less like a movie family and more recognizable. At least for me. My family's from Iowa, not Tennessee, but they're not that far removed, really (some of the nicest strangers I've ever met were in Tennessee), and Miley's grandmother reminded me of my own late grandmother. I'll admit, there's a tenuous connection I felt to the movie based purely on memories of my grandma and my late sister, who would have been 17 just last month if she'd survived cancer. So this movie sucked me in pretty easily, and not in an artificial way. In fact, I was enjoying the movie so much that I didn't even mind the silly subplot--the people of this small Tennessee town are trying to raise tax money to save the town because a developer (Barry Bostwick) wants to build a mall. Why this was seen as so evil I'm not sure, and the movie wisely doesn't delve too deeply there. Unfortunately, saving the town means getting Hannah Montana to perform, so into the plot comes best friend Lilly (and Emily Osment is always good on the show, but doesn't have enough to do here) and a publicist played by Vanessa Williams (who really needs to do more comedy). And then the TV show wackiness just started seeping back in, and not in a really successful way--in a movie this good-looking, it becomes idiotic that no one can figure out within five seconds that Miley Stewart and Hannah Montana are the same person. Overall, though, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would, and I'm a fan. Billy Ray Cyrus follows in the tradition of country stars who don't try to act and therefore come out looking good; he gives a winning performance (and even gets a romance with yummy Melora Hardin). Miley, on the other hand, needs to unlearn those bad habits kids always get from being on the Disney Channel, where acting isn't the concern. She's still Hannah Montana, but you can see the limits of her abilities. Emily Osment has nothing to do, and neither does Jason Earles as Miley's brother Jackson. As so often happens on the show, Jackson is left out of the family bonding and just floats in and out doing little gags. If there's a sequel, Earles needs much more to do; dude's funny and unfortunately he feels superfluous to the plot. But will there be a sequel? Well, that's ultimately what bothered me about this movie. Once again, I'm not digging the message Disney is sending to kids. See, I think most of what happens that convinces everyone that Miley is getting too Hannah-fied isn't actually Miley's fault. She's sort of railroaded into feeling like she has to decide whether or not she can keep being Hannah, and she kind of gets dumped on the whole way through and made to feel like she's not a good person because her professional commitments get in the way sometimes (which is true of any profession). And no one is willing to try and understand, with the exception of her father. I have to admit, I really love Billy Ray Cyrus on Hannah Montana, not only because he reminds me so much of my own dad (he loves cheesy jokes, my dad, and he's got the same sort of rambunctious humor), but also because he's one of the few really good dads I see on TV. He lets his kids figure out for themselves why their behavior is bad by giving them opportunities to do good or to see themselves through the eyes of others. And here, it kind of broke my heart when he was willing to give up his budding romance with Melora Hardin in order to keep Miley's secret and help her get where she wanted to go. He was the only person willing to make a sacrifice for family, and in the end, Miley gets the same opportunity. She reveals her real identity to her home town and seems content to rid herself of Hannah Montana in order to be honest with the people she loves, and that is a big deal. And, in a movie that cared more, Miley would have been allowed to make the sacrifice and go on being a singer because she would have matured to the point where she didn't need the fantasy double life any more. But, instead, Miley is allowed to have it both ways; she can unburden herself, but her extended family and fans are so understanding that they want her to go on being Hannah Montana, too. And that was just phony. After all of Miley getting dumped on and being forced to grow up, she makes a real sacrifice, and the power of it is just taken away. Not only is that just bad storytelling, but the girls in the audience learn... what? I think what could have been an interesting ending was lost to Disney ultimately not wanting to endanger their franchise, when this could have been a meaningful end to Hannah Montana and positioned Miley (and her audience) to keep growing. So, overall I enjoyed the movie, but some of the silliness and especially that shitty message just stick in my craw. *** stars.
Two movies with Melora Hardin on one Sunday? Man, I wish every week was like this. So, Zac Efron plays a star basketball student who gives up his chances of a scholarship and stardom in order to get married far too young and improbably turn into Matthew Perry. As a grown man, his wife (sexy, sexy, wonderful Leslie Mann) is divorcing him and his kids (Michelle Trachtenberg and Sterling Knight) hate him. He's living with his nerdy best friend from high school (Thomas Lennon, very funny and with a house full of geek treasures). Then a kindly old wizard or something (Brian Doyle-Murray) turns him back into Zac Efron, and he goes about reliving his glory days and trying to get his family back. Nothing really surprising happens--you've seen one body switch movie you've seen them all--but there was a little gravity to it. Or, you know, maybe I'm the right age or something. Melora Hardin plays the high school principal. Hunter Parrish from Weeds plays Trachty's scummy boyfriend, and I so wanted to see him and Efron get it on--er, get into a fight. Zac Efron is getting a lot better as an actor; I'd like to see him in some kind of science fiction adventure movie, though. It's interesting how the world of comedy is sort of welcoming him in; this movie has not only Lennon, Hardin, and Mann, who are members of the club, but also Jim Gaffigan and Margaret Cho (and I think I'm forgetting one or two other appearances). More power to him. He's charming here in a movie that was harmless and enjoyable. *** stars.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 1:35 PM 0 comments
Labels: Film Week
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Health Report, Year 3: Week 19
This week is going by so slow. My television's been broken since Friday (which reminds me: I have a new Positive Cynicism up, which is partially about not having a TV) and things have been pretty quiet. For the first time ever, I listened to my entire iPod yesterday in one sitting. The good news is, though, my head's been pretty clear and I've been able to get a surprising amount of writing done. I've been working on a longish short piece or shortish long piece for some time, and I've been really moving on it the last couple of days, since sub jobs are pretty dry this week.
Question: why would I have a Dairy Queen Blizzard and then feel like my heart is beating too fast afterwards? What the hell is in those things? So much for a treat on a Sunday afternoon. I haven't felt that bad after eating since that can of Spaghetti-Os that nearly killed me and led to the doctor's appointment which diagnosed me with high blood pressure back in, like, '03 or something. Disturbing.
Still, a couple of improvements: I realized that I haven't been really badly sick in a long time, even with being around kids. Is the legendary teachers' immune system finally kicking in? Also, I've been wearing those Breathe Right strips, and they're not only helping me to not snore so much, but I also feel better in the morning. Less phlegm in the throat, for example. Getting better in small increments. Better than nothing.
Still, there are days when I feel like I need some of what this anteater is getting.
Well, he's drinking apple/cranberry juice. I need something a little stronger than that.
But other than the loss of the TV--and that's even got a positive side--nothing to complain about.
Except, you know, the lack of work.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 4:09 PM 5 comments
Labels: Health Report
Why Do They Keep Making It So Easy?
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 2:43 PM 4 comments
Labels: Politics, Words Words Words
Pregnant Women Are Smug
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 1:25 PM 3 comments
Labels: Attempted Humor, Music, Social Concerns
It's a Robot!
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 12:46 PM 1 comments
Labels: Films
Monday, April 20, 2009
Happy 4/20
Snopes: 420.
UPDATE: Stop stealing my thoughts hours before I've had them, JA.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 2:38 PM 1 comments
Labels: Random
Cynical Six
Trying out something a little different here.
1. I read this story on io9 about extreme Twilight fans (Twihards--how easy they make it). Anyway, these Twitards are apparently committing violence against people who don't like the books. I don't know how many of these incidents are true, but I know those people are out there. I've felt the hate in person. So I think I'm probably taking my life into my own hands doing "Twilight Summarized by a Smartass." But I'm still going to do it when I finally get my hands on a copy.
2. Meh. This first image from Robin Hood looks like more of the same from Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe to me, and I'm sick of both of them. Why do they keep making Robin Hood? Haven't they gotten it right yet? I don't think anyone's going to top Errol Flynn, Douglas Fairbanks, or Richard Todd at this point. I do love that Scott has been saying his film will be a more historically realistic take on a person who may or may not have ever existed, "like Gladiator was." Gladiator is about as accurate a depiction of Roman history as Xena: Warrior Princess, so let's not make that claim.
3. Headline this morning: "Sadly, Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus beat Jason Statham at the box office." Well, it makes sense if you know two things. First, that the majority of people who go to the movies are kids and teenagers who prefer to see movies aimed at them. And second, that a lot more straight Americans are comfortable with their homosexual feelings now and don't need a closet outlet like Crank: High Voltage to make them feel tough about it.
4. Apparently, Oprah Winfrey has canceled her show on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre because it focused too much on the killers. But, how does America know how to feel about national tragedies without Oprah to put it in perspective for us?
5. Another headline this morning: "Perez Hilton embarrassed by Criss Angel." Join the club, pal. It's called Humanity.
6. Why does the media coo over Madonna's child abductions like buying a kid is cute, but comes down on some Indian guy for wanting to sell his daughter who was in Slumdog Millionaire? Isn't it the same thing? I mean, Madonna pays for those Malawian "orphans." So, it's cute to buy but inhuman to sell? I can't figure out this whole double standard. Did you know 11 million children are abandoned every year in India? And yet, Mother Theresa kept telling them to have more. Why bother?
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 1:54 PM 8 comments
Labels: Cynical Six
Happy Birthday, Crispin Hellion Glover
Not sure if he's the kind of guy who does "Happy Birthday" or not, but nevertheless, it's his 45th, so Happy Birthday.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 12:55 PM 1 comments
Labels: Birthdays
J.G. Ballard 1930-2009
"All over the world major museums have bowed to the influence of Disney and become theme parks in their own right. The past, whether Renaissance Italy or ancient Egypt, is reassimilated and homogenized into its most digestible form. Desperate for the new, but disappointed with anything but the familiar, we recolonise past and future. The same trend can be seen in personal relationships, in the way people are expected to package themselves, their emotions and sexuality in attractive and instantly appealing forms."
"The uneasy marriage of reason and nightmare which has dominated the 20th century has given birth to an increasingly surreal world. More and more, we see that the events of our own times make sense in terms of surrealism rather than any other view..."
"I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again ... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul."
"I began to become an adult when I was 24 and got married and had children. That matures you, but I wouldn't say I was fully an adult until I was in my forties. The trouble with the whole adult debate is that if you're asking 18-year-olds to go out and fight wars for you then you can't deny them adult rights even though in sorts of other ways they wouldn't qualify until they were about 25. These days adolescence stretches much further into adulthood than it used to. There's no longer any encouragement to be mature."
"My brief stay at the hospital had already convinced me that the medical profession was an open door to anyone nursing a grudge against the human race."
"We live in a world ruled by fictions of every kind - mass merchandising, advertising, politics conducted as a branch of advertising, the instant translation of science and technology into popular imagery, the increasing blurring and intermingling of identities within the realm of consumer goods, the preempting of any free or original imaginative response to experience by the television screen. We live inside an enormous novel. For the writer in particular it is less and less necessary for him to invent the fictional content of his novel. The fiction is already there. The writer's task is to invent the reality."
"Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute."
"Human beings today ... are surrounded by huge institutions we can never penetrate: the City, the banking system, political and advertising conglomerates, vast entertainment enterprises. They've made themselves user friendly, but they define the tastes to which we conform. They're rather subtle, subservient tyrants, but no less sinister for that."
"Perhaps our own fin-de-siecle decadance takes the form, not of libertarian excess, but of the kind of over-the-top puritanism we see in political correctness and the assorted moral certainties of physical fitness fanatics, New Agers and animal-rights activists."
"The technological landscape of the present day has enfranchised its own electorates - the inhabitants of the marketing zones in the consumer society, television audiences and news magazine readerships, who vote with money at the cash counter rather than with ballot paper at the polling boot. These huge and passive electorates are wide open to any opportunist using the psychological weaponry of fear and anxiety, elements that are carefully blanched out of the world of domestic products and consumer software."
"Modern technology offers an endless field day to any deviant strains in our personalities."
"Electronic aids, particularly domestic computers, will help the inner migration, the opting out of reality. Reality is no longer going to be the stuff out there, but the stuff inside your head. It's going to be commercial and nasty at the same time."
"The advanced societies of the future will not be governed by reason. They will be driven by irrationality, by competing systems of psychopathology."
"The American Dream has run out of gas. The car has stopped. It no longer supplies the world with its images, its dreams, its fantasies. No more. It's over. It supplies the world with its nightmares now: the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, Vietnam."
"Everything is becoming science fiction. From the margins of an almost invisible literature has sprung the intact reality of the 20th century."
"Twenty years ago no one could have imagined the effects the Internet would have: entire relationships flourish, friendships prosper…there's a vast new intimacy and accidental poetry, not to mention the weirdest porn. The entire human experience seems to unveil itself like the surface of a new planet."
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 12:05 PM 2 comments
Susan Boyle
This is a genuine internet sensation, so I'm sure everyone's seen it already, but since a blog is really like a big scrapbook, I felt I needed it here in mine. Besides, someone who digs Electronic Cerebrectomy forwarded this to me this morning, and I like to encourage people to send me stuff. This is Susan Boyle's amazing performance on Britain's Got Talent, and an excellent lesson in not judging people on their appearances. Beauty can come from anywhere, which the entire audience learns here. I've watched it a few times now and been moved to tears each time. Thank you, Susan, for sharing your voice with the world.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 11:11 AM 3 comments
Disturbing Strokes
Caught this one going around; someone's taken the opening credits of Diff'rent Strokes and set them to music from a horror film called The Dorm That Dripped Blood. Hilarious and scary all at once; a great lesson in how music can direct the mood of a scene.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 11:00 AM 2 comments
Labels: Attempted Humor, TV Report
Kristen Bell Mondays
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 10:43 AM 4 comments
Labels: Kristen Bell Mondays
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Congratulations, Nora
Word has come in this morning that Nora O'Sullivan, Horror's Girl Next Door, made it all the way to the Fangoria Spooksmodel finals. Sadly, she didn't win, but she made it a lot further than a lot of other contestants did. Lots of blogs (including mine) have had links up for Nora in their sidebars and on posts to support her, and I think we're all very happy for her for getting as far as she did. She's the Fangoria Spooksmodel in our hearts.
Congratulations, Nora, for getting so far!
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 11:28 AM 2 comments
Labels: My Bloggaz
There's Always Room for Defending Ewoks from Dolts
Via JA, originally from here, comes this gem:
The Ewoks do not suck. "The Ewoks suck" is the kind of thing Star Wars nerds who are insecure about being Star Wars nerds and feel like they have to be tough guys about it--the worst, most insufferable kind of Star Wars nerds--say in lieu of whipping their dicks out and measuring them and yelling "see?!?!" The Ewoks are awesome. They look like teddy bears and fight like the Viet Cong. If given the choice between living among humans for the rest of my life and living among Ewoks, the choice would be it's not even a choice. Ewoks every time. What I'm saying is that the Ewoks are better than you.Right on. Right effing on.
(Of course, they're no Hoojibs, but no one's perfect, right?)
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 9:21 AM 3 comments
Labels: Star Wars
Song of the Week: "Love, Reign O'er Me"
The Who, Quadrophenia, 1973. A stunning album with one of the most powerful and beautiful closing tracks I've ever heard. It just popped into my head today. A contrast to last week's "Afternoon Delight," today is deeply dark and rainy. I need the power of Roger's voice, Pete's arrangements, John's bass, and Keith's drums to counter the outside.
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 8:38 AM 0 comments
Happy 31st, James Franco
Posted by SamuraiFrog at 7:28 AM 4 comments
Labels: Birthdays


text:
Attending conferences is arguably the most important way for academics to share their research.
Although publishing journal articles is the more formal, measured route to dissemination, conferences provide an arena for the sharing and discussion of research that is simply not possible with printed material.
This applies equally to academic entrepreneurs such as myself. As a supplier of scientific products and services, such events are invaluable for learning more about current research, discovering upcoming areas of interest and meeting potential customers.
In fact attending a conference as an entrepreneur is pretty similar to attending as an academic, so the experience in many senses felt familiar to me. In either guise, the aim is to share something new, that you're passionate about and to gain approval from your peers, or in case of business, your potential customers.
The fresh challenge for me attending this time as an entrepreneur, however, was how to do that without putting people off?
My first conference was International Scanning Probe Microscopy (ISPM2016) held in the Swiss alpine resort of Grindelwald, in the shadow of the impressive Eiger. The conference brought together academics and industry from across the world, many of whom are pioneers of the early days of SPM and AFM.
Indeed the opening afternoon saw an enthralling keynote from Christoph Gerber (co-inventor of the atomic force microscope) and an entertaining talk from Virgil Elings, formerly of Digital Instruments.
It struck me that ISPM is a favourite conference for many of the "old guard", which meant that I learnt a lot about how the field of SPM has evolved over it's 30-year lifetime and the comings, goings and acquisitions of the numerous companies involved in this industry.
Poster sessions offered a great opportunity to open conversations with people. I found discussing their work first to be a great ice breaker, allowing me to learn more about their research and their likely requirements when it comes to AFM probes.
Likewise, ensuring I sat next to people I'd not met before at the dinner table provided the perfect opportunity for laid back discussion of each others work.
Without a doubt though, the best conversations are always to be had over a beer or two in the hotel bar at the end of the day!
All in all, ISPM 2016, superbly organised by Georg Fantner and his team from EPFL in Lausanne, was a great introductory conference for NuNano. Looking to forward to the next installment in Kyoto!
My second conference was the Royal Microscopical Society SPM meeting held at the University of Warwick. This immediately felt different to ISPM, with many more junior researchers in attendance and also presenting.
Highlights included two interesting talks from Peter Beton's group at the University of Nottingham, whose images of supramolecular assemblies are a great example of the high resolution obtainable with AFM.
In addition, members of Jamie Hobb's SPM group at the University of Sheffield underlined the breadth of applications that AFM can be employed for, with work ranging from polymer deformation to imaging of live bacteria. It was also great to catch up with several former University of Bristol colleagues who have gone on to work for AFM instrument manufacturers.
The biggest highlight for me personally, however, was that this was the first time I saw research presented that included AFM images acquired using NuNano's new silicon AFM probes.
It was, as you can imagine, a proud moment indeed. In fact, nothing quite compares to the feeling of knowing that something I've made is helping scientists undertake their research... Now that is seriously motivating!
#atomicforcemicroscopy #AFM #scanningprobemicroscopy #SPM #microscopy #AFMprobes #ISPM2016 #SPM2016

subset: commoncrawl


text:
The Best Man Holiday is a worthwhile revisiting that manages to push its characters forward in a very mature and emotionally honest way.
The Best Man Holiday picks up 15 years after the first film, reuniting us with author Harper Stewart (Taye Diggs), who is now expecting his first child with wife Robin (Sanaa Lathan). Harper's writing career has fallen on hard times after the smash hit Unfinished Business (the catalyst of the drama in the first film), which is why the invitation for a holiday visit with his estranged friend, NFL star Lance Sullivan (Morris Chestnut), holds certain lucrative career opportunities.
Lance is retiring from the game soon, and Harper sees the chance to cash-in on a biography of the all-star player. However, first he'll have to stitch the rift between himself and Lance over the infamous affair with Lance's wife Mia (Monica Calhoun) - not to mention deal with all the drama that comes with having old friends like Julian (Harold Perrineau), Candy (Regina Hall), Shelby (Melissa De Sousa), Jordan (Nia Long) - and of course, acid-tongued Quentin (Terrence Howard) all under one roof again. While both old wounds and new pains threaten the group's bond, they soon learn that there's no better time than the holidays in which to celebrate life, love, and good friendship.
In 1999, Malcolm D. Lee brought something truly unique to cinema screens: a story about well-educated and successful young African-Americans that used the art of writing and storytelling as a clever cinematic device for an insightful exploration of the truths and lies that often co-exists within a tight-knit group of longtime friends. While this long-time-coming sequel isn't as fresh (this is a post-Tyler Perry world we live in, after all) or inventive as its predecessor, it compensates for its more streamlined and sitcom-ish storyline with a bold mix of crude adult humor and weighty emotional drama that elevates it above both the standard dramedy fare and similar "where are they now?" sequels.
As stated, the original Best Man used interplay between fictional narratives and real character interactions to present an engaging story in an interesting way. At its outset (and through most of its first act) The Best Man Holiday is pretty much a checklist of rom-com tropes; it isn't until the second act begins that Lee finally reveals the heart and focus of his script, suddenly veering his audience into much smarter (and more serious) waters of adult drama. The middle act of the film is its strongest point, as, by the final act, the resolutions of the plot tend to veer back into the warm and saccharine lane of sitcom contrivance. Nonetheless, the core story of the film is an earnest and surprisingly mature one (despite some indulgent moments of low-brow humor), and overall, the sequel is worth the long wait for its arrival.
On the directorial side of things, Lee takes a much simpler approach than he did with his first film: instead of smart editing techniques to create a unique cinematic narrative, we get a rather standard (but more experienced) staging of scenes and sequences, with a lot of scenes relying on the interaction and chemistry of the ensemble cast to provide the hook (a challenge the cast certainly rises to).
The real star of the film, visually speaking, are the lavish settings we find ourselves in for most of the film. The Best Man opened Hollywood up to a seldom-explored world of upwardly-mobile African-Americas, and in this film those characters live in a world of downright opulence, which Lee manages to infuse with a familial warmth that helps to bypass any distracting socio-economic notions or hangups. In short: though most of the film takes place in what looks like a veritable fairytale palace, it never feels like anything less than an intimate and natural home setting.
The real selling point of the movie is its cast. The career paths of the returning cast members in the ensemble encompass a wide range of success (or lack thereof); however, reunited they are all on equal footing and manage to recapture the same chemistry that made the original work so well, with some new additions (or old additions in expanded roles) adding their own flavors to the mix.
Diggs is once again a solid protagonist and focal point for the story; Chestnut gives one of his more nuanced and powerful performances in awhile; Calhoun is given the heaviest lifting and handles her arc with a graceful gravitas; and Terrence Howard once again steals every scene he can get his hands on as the rambunctious "Q," thankfully keeping things light even when they are at their heaviest or most melodramatic.
Unfortunately the other half of the cast - Perrineau, De Sousa, Hall and Long - are given the more sitcom-ish threads of the story to carry, resulting in some of the film's weaker (read: cliched and thin) moments. Hot in Cleveland star Eddie Cibrian certainly owns his spot as the token white guy, but Lathan's character is often more of a plot device than an actual character. Despite some characters getting thin material, both the rapport and repartee are stronger than ever between the matured actors in the cast, so it all works to some degree (though noticeably better at times than others in the episodic progression of Lee's story).
In the end, The Best Man Holiday is a worthwhile revisiting that manages to push its characters forward in a very mature and emotionally honest way. Best of all, by the time it's all done, we're left with the feeling that another visit with this unique group of friends would be welcome... even if we have to wait another decade and a half to get it.
[poll id="717"]
The Best Man Holiday is now playing in theaters. It is 122 minutes long and is Rated R for language, sexual content and brief nudity.
Follow me @ppnkof


text:
School of Mathematics and Statistics,
University of Sheffield,
Hicks Building,
Hounsfield Road,
Sheffield, S3 7RH,
Telephone: +44 114 2223713
Fax: +44 114 2223809
E-mail: email@example.com.
I am a Professor of Mathematics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Sheffield.
In Autumn 2018--19, I will lecture the first half of the 20-credit module MAS211 Advanced Calculus and Linear Algebra.
Number theory, arithmetic algebraic geometry, automorphic forms. Staff page. Here are my publications and preprints since 2000.
General information for prospective graduate students.
London Mathematical Society
American Mathematical Society
UK maths departments
Penn State, list of mathematical websites around the world, including departments in other countries.
John Cremona's home page, linking to elliptic curve data.
Keith Matthews's Number Theory web
Mathematics ArXiv
John Baez: This week's finds in mathematical physics.
Mathematics Genealogy Project
Sheffield University Library catalogue
COPAC library catalogue (20 universities)


text:
Last year, Bree went to Washington with my parents for a fun-filled week. This summer, it was Mason's turn. (Our house was much quieter without our whirlwind of a four-year old.) When I asked him what he did on his vacation to Washington, he said went to the store and bought Legos. And he played with said Legos. My mom said that, although he had fun everywhere they went, he'd often request to go back to my parents' house so he could play with his Legos. It's an obsession.
At any rate, I'm posting all of the photos from his adventure, along with his narration. He didn't recollect all the details about the whats and wheres, and he often resorts to saying "I don't know," before he even thinks. Must be a boy thing. I really enjoyed reviewing the pictures with him, and I could tell he had a blast. Thanks Mom and Dad!
Me: What was this from?
What about here?
That is Washington...and I'm on the window.
Um, yeah.
What did you do there?
Um...I don't know.
What's this?
Um, It's me in the log. It was an underground log.
Where was this at?
Um, I don't know. It was a park. Well, a different park that I said.
Hey, that's me in the whale.
That's me in the fireman's truck.
Driving it.
And what are you wearing?
It's a fireman hat.
And here's the other one, we did another people. (Bree interjects: "Person.") I mean person...that's me in the bus. And it has a gas, so I could drive it. I was driving it too.
And this is me buying some food. But not real food. Fake food...And I was buying milk.
Um, yeah.
With real money?
Ye-, no.
Just pretend money?
Yeah. It was...I don't know what color it was.
Oh! That's me on the musical round.
That's a boy horse. It's a little guy.
Oh! That's the big-tailed macaw.
Uh, no (laughing). What is it?
It's a peacock.
I mean a peacock. Thaaat is a peacock.
Oh! Aaand I don't know what that is.
It is a sea creature. And there was a spider web there. And you gotta move there (a request to zoom in on the web-shaped climbing ropes in the upper left corner of the picture).
And that was me just feeding a animal. It was like in a barn.
I don't know--It's a goat! A black one. And you gotta do the other goat now.
You were doing what?
I was doing that goat.
You were feeding him?
He has a beard.
Hee-hee, yeah! Mm-hm, so weird! And he liked that food. It was...what kind of food was that?
Goat food?
Oh yeah, goat food.
And that was me dressing up in...sea...dresses...and I don't know what that one is.
A squid...I'm like in a squid.
A octopus!
A shark mouth! Actually a dinosaur mouth. I'm gonna get eaten! I was gonna get eaten by the mouth.
And that's me at the zoo.
Um, they're penguins.
And that's a ginormous seal.
A warl-, yes that was a...walrus?
A shark! Shark! Sharks. Those are sharks.
Or were they scary?
They are scary! SO scary. SUPER scary! Rooaaaar! Hee-hee. Did I scare you on that one?
And that's me being on a horse.
Um, I don't think so.
Is that Uncle Bob's horse?
(Bree: "So it IS Rocket. It IS Rocket, Mason.")
It IS Rocket.
What's happening in this picture?
Um, I'm...riding on the grass of the horse. Uh...Rocket, he has the hair gone over his eyes.
And that's me at the beach. That's me at the beach, Mom.
What do you mean it kept making a point?
Uh, I don't know what that means.
And what were you doing here?
I was throwing rocks, and looking at the sea.
What about here?
That is just, I was looking at the rocks. And we were--Mom do the one that we were finding shells. (A request to see a nonexistent picture of him finding shells; though he did gather and bring home shells)
And that was me under the bridge (pier). That was me under the bridge, Mom.
And, I was wearing the Avengers shirt.
Did you want to see the ones where we bought the Legos? But she (Grandma) didn't take a picture of me doing that. But she should of.
May 2nd-8th, 2012


text:
It is Christmas time and time for mario to be the santa to give out gifts to everyone he knows.However,on the way
of delivering gifts, bowser and his
Copyright ?2011 Pupugames.com. All rights reserved. All games, animations, images, and sprites are copyright to their respective owners or creators.
Powered by Play Free Games


text:
A brilliant new blue pigment soon to be added to the Colour Index
A new inorganic pigment, discovered as the result of an accident, is now reaching the market place and will shortly be added to the Colour IndexTM.
The pigment is a brilliant blue, known as "YInMn" blue. It's based on an oxide made of Yttrium(Y), Indium (In) and Manganese (Mn). The YInMn name is shorthand for that. The pigment will be used in a wide range of coatings and plastics.


text: firstname.lastname@example.com said: > Do you have any ideas which is the "best" windowmanager for my old P1, > 75MHz, 8mb ram Highscreen I use successfully icewm on two different 486, 33MHz systems as well. It runs considerably faster on the 16MB machine than on the 8MB machine, so if you can upgrade your memory, it will help a lot. - Josef


text:
Our goal is to provide you with quality products, the highest level of technical
expertise and unmatched customer service. Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition North America, Inc. is committed
to improving your bottom line and providing the amino acids and knowledge you need
to produce cost effective, environmentally friendly feeds. The Research Reports and free software available on this
website will help you achieve these goals.
#36 Determination of the 4th and 5th limiting amino acids of broilers
fed diets containing corn, soybean meal, and poultry by-product meal
from 28 to 42 days of age.
#35 Optimal dArg to dLys ratio of male broilers from 28 to 42 days of age during constant, elevated temperature.
#34 Dietary limitation of isoleucine valine in diets formulated with corn, soybean meal, and meat and bone meal for broiler chickens.
#33 Assessment of Threonine-to-Lysine Ratio of Male Broilers from 35 to 49 Days of Age.


text:
Amp'd Mobile To Feature Behind the Scenes Footage, Interviews and Unique Preview Clips From Hit CBS and UPN Programs
Amp'd to be Exclusive Mobile Video Provider for UPN's
"America's Next Top Model"
Amp'd Mobile to Target Youth Market
In another convergence of broadcast television and wireless communications, CBS and UPN have reached an agreement with Amp'd Mobile to program multimedia entertainment content to Amp'd members' broadband wireless phones.
Under the agreement, Amp'd Mobile will carry behind the scenes footage, unique previews, interviews and show clips from hit CBS prime time series such as CSI: NY, NUMB3RS and THE KING OF QUEENS, as well as clips and highlights from LATE SHOW with DAVID LETTERMAN.
Amp'd Mobile will also exclusively program mobile video content from UPN's top-rated series AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL, in addition to content from the Network's hit comedies EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS and GIRLFRIENDS.
CBS and UPN content on Amp'd Mobile will be available later this month when the Los Angeles-based company officially launches its service.
Amp'd Mobile is the first mobile entertainment company created to bring broadband wireless services to the youth market. Its members will have access to entertainment branded channels on their cell phones in which they can download video, wallpapers, ringtones and voicetones, all easily accessible through the Amp'd Live program guide.
"Amp'd is an exciting new entertainment destination in the mobile world, and a great place to showcase our content to the younger audiences and early adopters they are targeting," said Cyriac Roeding, Vice President, Wireless, CBS Digital Media. "Through a variety of multimedia options that they offer, Amp'd has created a very personal experience to link the consumer -- our audience -- to our shows. The cell phone is the most personal medium; we see great opportunities here to create personal connections that deepen our viewers relationship to the program, or to creatively expose new viewers to CBS and UPN content."
"We knew the 'DVD-extra' category of behind the scenes footage, highlights and interviews from these key CBS and UPN programs would be at the top of our members' 'must have' list," said Seth Cummings, Senior Vice President, Content and Internet Services, Amp'd Mobile. "Being able to creatively integrate Amp'd within the series and deliver a unique backstage pass to 'America's Next Top Model' fans will undoubtedly become one of our most popular program offerings when we launch. We look forward to working closely with CBS and UPN to expand their programs' reach to our mobile line up."
About Amp'd Mobile
Amp'd Mobile is the first integrated mobile entertainment company for youth, young professionals and early adopters. By leveraging the power of broadband wireless (EVDO), Amp'd will offer traditional services such as voice and text within a completely fresh user interface designed specifically for the "mobile graduate" and third-generation (3G) technology. With a myriad of customizable options to meet each person's individual needs, Amp'd will bring a more relevant, personal experience to wireless lifestyle with unique music, video, community, entertainment, sports and gaming offerings divided into various channels for quick and easy access. Launching in late 2005, more information can be found at www.ampdmobile.com.
About CBS Television
CBS Television is comprised of the CBS Television Network -- with more than 200 owned and affiliated stations reaching virtually every television home in the United States; the Network's programming arms CBS Entertainment, CBS News and CBS Sports; and CBS Enterprises, a global leader in distribution. CBS also manages UPN, which broadcasts primetime programming on five nights with an average of 90 percent total coverage throughout the country.


text:
Alegría - No. 4
sold out
Alegría - No. 4
Pink suede backing / muted gold leather tassel
Dimensions (LWH): 11.5" x 0.5" x 9.5"
Handmade in the USA in collaboration with artisans in the Sacred Valley of Peru.
Our textiles are traditionally woven using ancient Quechuan techniques. Due to their hand crafted nature, each item varies slightly. * Spot clean recommended.
Add To Cart


text:
Thursday, 12 February, 2015 10:41 Written by Spencer
Thursday, 13 June, 2013 16:58 Written by Spencer
Sunday, 02 June, 2013 13:43 Written by Spencer
This is an easy delicious way to make catfish, and it incorporates a classic Creole tomato sauce. Make sure you get Mississippi raised catfish. Tilapia is for communist.
Sunday, 03 February, 2013 11:49 Written by Spencer
Although we are in the heart of winter, I have been craving spring type dishes. This dish is easy and simple with great results.


text:
NUFORC Home Page
Web Report Indexes : by Event Date | by Location | by Shape | by Posting Date
|Sighting Report
|Occurred : 7/4/2014 22:15 (Entered as : 07/04/14 22:15)
Reported: 7/6/2014 7:25:03 PM 19:25
Posted: 7/11/2014
Location: Anderson, SC
Shape: Sphere
Duration:2-3 minutes
|Red orange ball of light.
Standing on the 7th floor balcony, myself and three others watched a red orange ball coming towards us at a good click. It would change direction instantaneously.
There was no sound associated with the craft at all.
After 2-3 mins, it disappeared.
Very disturbing to myself and the others.
I tried to get video of it but my cellphone struggled to located the object due to the night lights of the city.


text:
Your hometown circle could be keeping your options limited in terms of careers. If you're willing and have the opportunity, however, going a little further might be an option to consider. A week after graduating, I packed up my car and drove for 14 hours away from home for a summer internship. I've been to other parts of the country for vacations but that's about it. My family lived in the same town for generations, and I went to a college 15 minutes away. On top of that my mother worked there, so basically, everything I ever needed was in (or around) my hometown. At least I thought that.
Some people after graduating from an in-state school want to find a job in their hometown or somewhere around the area. They make calculations on how far they would drive when applying for jobs and internships. I understand there are obligations and reasons behind why staying put is the perfect option for you, however, if you have the opportunity, a sense of adventure, and a game plan, then it's time to go.
Here are a few reasons to consider flying around the country:
Better Networking:
The hometown circle includes your friends and family and basically everyone you went to high school/college with. Seeing familiar faces around town, even if you don't talk to them, is a comfort whether you realize it or not. Leaving that comfort is hard, but a great opportunity to learn how to network all over again. Once you find yourself somewhere where everyone is a stranger, you can't lean on acquaintances anymore. Having a network that spans the country can't hurt either. (I totally have that!)
You Have Time For It:
Advisors and faculty that I became close with in college always told me, "This is the only time in your life you will ever be able to do this." They were, of course, talking about traveling. It might not be your only time, necessarily, but early on in the job search certainly is a great time! If you don't have a full time job yet, or are looking for that first job, why not experience it somewhere else while you can. Travel cross-country on a bus, find a sublet for the summer and have an internship in a state you didn't expect. (Hint: some internship programs provide housing, you just have to look!)
Your Friends Are Doing It:
Peer pressure is bad right? Well thinking in terms of getting older, graduating, internship hunting….in all reality, your friends might not be staying close to home either. In my close knit group of friends who graduated, myself and one other traveled more than 2 states away for an internship and a full time job, both to culturally different areas than what we were accustomed to. Another has a yearly rotational job which sends him to a different area every year, one has been working in a big city, and one who is moving to Madrid for a year! Adventure: we have found it.
After this internship is over, I am yet again traveling another couple of states away from my home town (this time in the opposite direction) for graduate school. All of this moving around has made me more aware of how things work in different parts of the country (maybe one day I'll be able to say the world?) and along with that, a better candidate for jobs that may come in the future. I didn't know I needed this experience before I got here and I'm so glad I took a risk.
For some people, a hometown job within your "circle" may be perfect. I know for me it would be. Your first job might not be in your perfect location, but your definition of perfect can change. Who knows, you might even find your new hometown.
And whether it be for work, family, friends, or just to visit if you've left for good, you can always go back home.


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Join the Sierra Club for a 5 mile hike through hardwoods and wetlands in a park that is one of lower Michigan's best kept secrets.
Meet at the trailhead parking area in front of the historic Edsel Ford Barn (follow main road from park entrance 1.4 miles).
Skill Level: beginner; Difficulty: moderate; Cost: free, but requires state park entry fee or passport
For more information, contact John Wilson at 734-355-3822


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The Breach contains a poignant narrative about one of Trout Unlimited's favorite places: Bristol Bay, Alaska. As one of the most prolific salmon fisheries and one of the foremost sport fishing destinations on the globe, it is a dream location of anglers.
Trout Unlimited hopes anglers across the country will watch this film and join us in our ongoing fight to protect Bristol Bay. Click on the image above to take action and Save Bristol Bay .
Salmon Beyond Borders is a campaign driven by sport and commercial fishermen, community leaders, Tribal and First Nations members, tourism and recreation business owners and concerned citizens united across the Alaska-British Columbia border to defend our transboundary salmon rivers from larger-scale mining development in Northwest British Columbia. The Breach director, Mark Titus spent a decade guiding at Yes Bay Lodge in waters that would be threatened by the proposed mines in the region. Take action now to help protect this threatened watershed.
Tom Douglas is the chef/owner of a diverse group of restaurants and businesses located in Seattle, WA, including 13 of the city's most exciting restaurants.
As a high profile restaurateur, Tom has long been an enthusiastic booster of regional food sources, such as local organic farms, Washington wines, and Pacific Northwest fish and seafood.
The company's goal of "deliciousness served with graciousness" includes a commitment to the future of wild salmon. Wild salmon is a treasured, sustainable resource that this company considers to be economically, ecologically, and culturally essential to the Pacific Northwest region. #EatWildSaveWild
The Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association represents the 1,800 driftnet salmon fishermen of Bristol Bay, Alaska. Bristol Bay's fishermen are committed to sustainably harvesting one of the world's most perfect wild foods: Bristol Bay sockeye salmon. Learn more about Bristol Bay, its fishing families, and ways to savor Bristol Bay Sockeye in the kitchen. #EatWildSaveWild
Vital Choice is proud to partner with Mark Titus and THE BREACH in the endeavor to educate and inspire people to help protect our embattled but resilient wild salmon runs.
Though it may seem counterintuitive, the best way to save wild salmon is to eat wild salmon. To this end, we encourage you to sample our exclusive Redtresca – succulent, extra fatty, omega-3-rich wild sockeye salmon bellies sustainably sourced from Alaska's pristine Bristol Bay. Simply click this link and use code BREACH10 to save 10% on Redtresca and other Vital Choice wild sockeye offerings. #EatWildSaveWild


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Brothers can be annoying (at any age) and you threaten all year round to not buy him a birthday or Christmas present… but when crunch time comes, the panic starts. Do not fret, as we've got you covered! For younger brothers, we've got the latest fidget toys and cool magic tricks – like the amazing Bright Bugz Evolution 3D.
For talented musicians with limited space, Aerodrums are brilliant drumsticks turning air into music whilst keeping the noise down – and just one of our many music gadgets. Or for brothers with a thirst for adventure, try our men's days out and travel gadgets to take the fun on the road.
Call our friendly team on:
Our lines are open Mon to Fri, 9am to 4:30pm


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Healthy eating: have three meals a day avoiding unnecessary junk food eating in between (which is the most difficult part!) Look forward to each meal that you have, so here's a step by step:
Breakfast: have your favourite healthy cereal like Special K or Weetabix with chopped fruit in their as well. I would advise to eat something which is high in fibre for your breakfast as you need to be full for the good half of the day until lunchtime. For a drink I would either have half a lemon squeezed in hot water (I'm going to do a post on lemon water and it's advantages so keep updated!) or have green tea. A hot drink will wake you up and consequently feel refreshed.
Lunch: for some reason I never want to eat much at lunch, I normally munch on a wholegrain bar, have a fruit salad or two boiled eggs on one wholemeal piece of bread with no butter. I normally rotate this, it really depends on how hungry I am as this can vary day-to-day.
Dinner: This is the triumphant part of the day when you can really relax with your meal and put a lot of effort into it. So what I love to eat is a pasta dish, a fish meal or a chicken dinner, such as this one (here), however I would not have the chips/fries as this is unnecessary. Really it's about researching meals which suit your appetite and personal preference.
Snacks: If you're going to snack and there's a chocolate bar or a packet of crisps starring at you, think twice about how difficult it is going to be to burn off at the gym and how it makes you feel after. I know I feel unhappy when I eat something unhealthy, especially when I know I didn't really need it. So, instead I would opt for a banana as they are very filling, high in potassium and reduce the risk of getting dementia by 25% if you eat a banana once a day.
Exercise: If you have concerns about exercises or if you have preconditioned health problems, then you must always consult your doctor before undertaking any type of fitness regime. Just for a guideline, I like to go to the gym about four times a week and I have set routines for each day I go.
- Saturday: Legs.
- Sunday: Abs
- Tuesday: Arms.
- Thursday: Swimming.
I also like going on hikes and long bike rides outdoors so I do not just focus my exercise in the gym!
Remember it is not all about whether you will fit into a dress or a pair of super skinny jeans, it is rather about your long term health. But also, it is important to feel comfortable in your own skin and feel confident.


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Get On Board!
The Santa Cruz Trolley shuttled over 44,500 riders between Downtown and the beach areas, setting a new record in its fourth year.
In 2014 an average of 600 riders hopped aboard our beloved trolley each weekend day!
95% of surveyed trolley riders rated their experience as being "good" to "excellent"!
Community Benefits
Draw new visitors to Santa Cruz
Reduce traffic and increase remote parking
Attract residents and provide a fun, inexpensive experience to their guests
Increase the number of "real shoppers" on downtown and beach street sidewalks and in our stores!
How can you benefit?
Advertising on the 40-inch digital display located behind the driver at the front of the trolley. The display is capable of playing embedded video and a variety of special effects. It will rotate advertising to a captive audience.
Brand recognition on the SantaCruzTrolley.com sponsors section of the website, which averages over 1,000 visits per month.
Customer perks – free-ride coupons you can give to customers, visitors, staff, and friends.
Special Thanks to our 2019 Sponsors!
KSQD Community Radio
Thank you!
KAZU Radio
Thank you!


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How to Interview a Pediatrician: Ask the following questions!
- Can I call you day or night?
- Who is the Physician that covers on call when you are not available?
- What are your available office hours? What's your weekend availability?
- What situations deem that I go straight to the emergency room?
- Do you have a "well child" and a "sick child" waiting room?
- How much do you charge for an office visit? How about rechecks?
- How much do you charge for routine vaccinations?
- How far in advance must I schedule an appointment?
- How long will I be kept waiting to see you on an average basis?
- What are your views on breastfeeding? Bottlefeeding?
A physician's personality and style will probably rank as high in importance as his or her availability and affordability. Your personal preferences and instincts will weigh heavily in your choice.
I recommend you interview two to three pediatricians before making a choice. For referrals, speak to your primary care provider, a childbirth educator or ask family and friends.


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AILI x BLEUBIRD Hand Necklace
In our first collaboration with James of Bleubird, we have created this tiny, beautiful, golden hand necklace. The piece is very special to all of us, we worked on the collaboration with James for over a year!
The hand is cast in recycled 14 karat gold and hangs from a delicate 16" chain. The pendant is approximately 6 x 5 mm and sits just above your heart.
Solid 14k gold
16" chain
* We have a few pieces in stock after those are gone, please allow between two and three weeks for production. If you need the piece sooner than that, feel free to reach out before you place your order and we'll do our best to accommodate your request.


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It is with an open heart and a joyful spirit that I invite and encourage students to step onto their mats. The skills and the courage we develop in pursuit of yoga asana, meditation, and breath work allow us to find a life full of balance, happiness, and longevity.
It starts as an exploration, it soon becomes a lifestyle.
Hi. My name is Caroline and I am a certified and insured yoga teacher and yoga integrative therapist living and working in New York City and eastern Long Island.
I was introduced to yoga in 2003 as a way to fulfill a Phys. Ed. requirement while I was in college. In 2006 I moved to Italy in search of and in love with all things Italian. As you can imagine my yoga practice took the back seat to art, architecture, and the idea of dolce far niente. Despite being a born and raised New Yorker, when I moved back in 2010, I seemed to have forgotten the intensity and high frequency hustle of New York City life. It was that jolt that quickly returned me to yoga and allowed me to realize that it was much more than a fitness regimen. Yoga provided an outlet for grounding and stability in an otherwise upside down time of my life. I quickly learned it was the moments on my mat that gave me the time and the ability to get my feet on the ground and see my purpose more clearly.
I now have over 1200 hours of training as a yoga teacher and yoga integrative therapist with certifications through YogaWorks, Yoga Shanti, and the Urban Zen Foundation.
I love bringing new concepts into my personal practice and sharing that inspiration with my students and their journey on the mat. My classes are a playful blend of energetic asana, breath awareness, and self-study. My teaching style is inspired by my understanding of alignment and my interest in curating creative and intuitive sequences.
When I'm not practicing and teaching yoga, I am going to museums and galleries, cooking with friends and family, riding my bike, playing outside with my dog, and volunteering at local animal shelters and community centers.
YogaWorks, Brooklyn HeightsTHE YOGA MIX (2) | Mon, Wed, and Fri 7:30 - 8:30am
Sync Studio, Williamsburg BKVinyasa | Tues 8:00-9:00amFlow+Restore | Sun 6:00 - 7:15pm
Tournesol Wellness, Murray Hill, NYCGentle Yoga | Mon, Wed 12:30-1:30pm
Private sessions provide clear communication and a more personal connection between student and teacher (that's you and me!). This allows for the development of a unique practice that will fit your needs and interests, whether you are working with an injury or working on a specific posture. We will develop a nourishing practice that will give you the tools to advance your practice in class, at home on your own, or on the go. Private sessions are appropriate for all levels of yoga practitioner and they take age, injury, and experience into consideration.
Rates available upon request. Please contact me below:


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Texas's longest-serving Governor, Rick Perry (R), is retiring at the end of his term in 2015, promising to walk away from his $150,000 annual salary. But by "officially" retiring early, the Texas Tribune reports that the 61-year-old has been taking home not only that salary, but also "lucrative pension benefits" that, altogether, ad up to a 60 percent boost in compensation:
Perry officially retired in January so he could start collecting his lucrative pension benefits early, but he still gets to collect his salary — and has in turn dramatically boosted his take-home pay.
Perry makes a $150,000 annual gross salary as Texas govenor. Now, thanks to his early retirement, Perry, 61, gets a monthly retirement annuity of $7,698 before taxes, or $6,588 net. That raises his gross annual salary to more than $240,000.
The GOP candidate who demanded sweeping changes to the "Ponzi scheme" that is Social Security and slammed public workers for their special "perks" is also eligible for Social Security and "lifetime, state-provided health care." Perry's windfall is "consistent with Texas state law and Employee Retirement System rules," said Perry's spokesman Ray Sullivan. The Texas Tribune's Jay Root discovered this "early retirement manuever" via new ethics disclosures from the Federal Election Commission which requires candidates to detail exactly how they make their money.


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By George Russell
The mood was nervous around the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) conference table on a chilly Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005, in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
The officials were huddled in a UNDP villa in the United Nations compound, located in the secrecy-shrouded diplomatic Munsudong district of Pyongyang (known to some North Korean diplomats as "the greenhouse"). The U.N. managers felt that they were under siege — as, in a sense, they were. (Sources familiar with U.N. activities in North Korea supplied the bulk of the information about the meeting in this article.)
The small group around the table was made up of the operations managers of the United Nations agencies operating in North Korea: UNDP, the World Food Programme (WFP); the United Nations International Children's Fund (UNICEF); the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Altogether, the group was responsible for administration, finance, human resources and security for their respective organizations, which were spending roughly $150 million on their own operations, and on numerous development and relief projects around Kim Jong Il's communist kingdom. The reason they were meeting was a deep concern on their part that all their activities might be illegal — a concern that has since turned into a full-blown scandal.
The officials had gotten together, after months of tense discussions among themselves, to make a collective appeal to the bosses of their agencies in North Korea, and ultimately to the heads of their worldwide organizations, and to the U.N. Secretary General (at the time, Kofi Annan) himself. By taking such a strong step, several of them were worried that they were about to damage their careers.
They were also worried about the possible presence of concealed North Korean spy devices in the room. And they were deeply distrustful of many of their local staff, whose credentials to work for the U.N. were unknown, and who had been imposed on them unilaterally by the Kim Jong Il regime.
But the U.N. officials were even more worried that failing to act would leave them and the U.N. deeply damaged by a continued pattern of unauthorized payments, in cash and in hard international currency, to the dictatorial North Korean government. And personally, they were worried that a future U.N. audit might cast a harsh spotlight on the highly irregular ways that their agencies, led by UNDP, were acting in North Korea, and might accuse all of them of acting illegally.
Every day, for example, agents from the regime's General Bureau for Diplomatic Services — a section of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs that deals with, and spies on, foreign diplomats — would arrive at the U.N. compound and collect envelopes of cash, handed over by the U.N. to pay local salaries, utilities and maintenance fees. No receipts were ever given.
The same applied to money ostensibly used for U.N. agency projects around the country — projects that the staff were not free to visit at will, if ever. (The Munsudong compound is a highly restricted area, with armed patrols at its perimeter. The U.N. officials could only live in designated quarters located a few hundred yards from their office.)
• Click here to see a satellite image of the U.N. compound in Pyongyang (pdf format).
There were mild differences between the agencies, but the overall pattern of hard currency cash payments remained the same.
• Click here to see a spreadsheet of U.N. disbursement practices in North Korea (pdf format).
The mysteriously appointed local staff, who included critically important finance managers and communications specialists, were another matter of urgent concern. Many had received expensive U.N. training — only to be pulled out of U.N. employment after a few months on the job and assigned to other, unknown Korean government offices.
The U.N. operations officials were also uneasily aware that locally-appointed North Korean staff had access to sensitive U.N. files and communications, without supervisors' knowledge.
Even U.N.-designated cars and their North Korean drivers were operating outside U.N. control. Sometimes they were available and sometimes not; the officials were not even aware of what happened to their cars in the evening.
But the most disturbing fact under discussion in the Munsudong meeting was the absence of normal legal agreements with the North Korean government that would either justify or rein in the chaotic and mysterious operations of the agencies, which in the officials' experience did not conform with the U.N.'s operations anywhere else.
The most important of those agreements, known in UNDP jargon as an Operational Basic Agreement (OBA), had apparently vanished from U.N. files both in Pyongyang and in New York, sometime in 2001. That was a year or more after the U.N. agencies suddenly began making the unorthodox cash payments in Pyongyang, according to U.N. sources.
The only version of the OBA available to U.N officials in Pyongyang and Manhattan was a draft version, dated February 10, 1981.
• Click here to see the draft version of the Operational Basic Agreement (pdf format).
That version clearly states, among other things, that all payments to the North Korean government "will be made in local currency on the basis of monthly invoices."
The U.N. officials at the Munsudong session wanted the uncomfortable and disturbing situation in North Korea to end. By the time they finished their four-hour meeting, they had agreed to ask the U.N.'s most senior officials in North Korea to sign off on changes in procedure that would return the North Korean operations to something approaching normal.
• Click here to see the minutes of the Dec. 8, 2005 meeting (pdf format).
On January 24, 2006, after a winter hiatus, the group sent its proposals to their bosses, known collectively as the U.N. Country Team, including the U.N. Resident Coordinator, who is the U.N. Secretary General's personal representative in town. (The Coordinator was named Timo Pakkala, who doubled as the top UNDP official, or Resident Representative, in Pyongyang. Pakkala still holds both jobs.)
Among other things, the reformers suggested that the U.N. revert to paying its bills in local currency, as required in the organization's rules and regulations. They also suggested that cash payments be eliminated, and that the U.N. regain control over local hiring.
• Click here to see the Jan. 24, 2006 message from the Operations Management Team to the UNCT (pdf format).
The response was a long silence. The U.N. Country Team did not take up the issues raised by the subordinate managers until April 13, 2006 — a delay of three months. And the next response was opposition. As minutes of that meeting, obtained by FOX News, show, a number of U.N. agencies worried about the "impact it might have in the relations with the government as well as to local staff well-being." Other agency heads found the issues "rather not of their immediate concern" even though their own operations chiefs had signed off on the suggested changes.
Some agencies went further. While recognizing "the fact" that their financial rules and regulations demanded payment in local currency, "they feel that this issue is very sensitive and could endanger their relation with the government, even in the absence of a written explicit agreement" — a reference to the missing Operational Basic Agreement.
The final recommendation:of the U.N. agency heads was to "endorse the current practice of issuing payments in hard currency (US$/Euro) based on special conditions in the country."
• Click here to see the minutes of the April 13, 2006 UNCT meeting (pdf format).
The previously unpublished minutes of the U.N. Country Team in North Korea go a considerable way toward supporting accusations made against the UNDP by U.S. envoy to the U.N. Mark Wallace in January. Among other things, Wallace cited secret UNDP audits to accuse the organization of making cash payments to the Kim Jong Il regime in violation of UNDP rules; allowing North Korean government employees to "dominate" local staff; and allowing North Korean government workers to perform "financial and program managerial core functions" in another violation of organization rules. Wallace also accused UNDP of hiding evidence of the violations since 1999.
• Click here to read Ambassador Mark Wallace's letter to the United Nations Development Program (pdf format).
The minutes of the U.N. Country Team meeting on April 13, with their acknowledgement of "the fact' that financial rules and regulations demanded payment in local currency, also seem to rebut portions of a formal reply to Wallace given by UNDP's No. 2 official in New York, Ad Melkert. In a letter dated January 12, 2007, Melkert asserted that "there is no formal requirement to pay local expenditures exclusively in the local currency, although country offices are encouraged to utilize local currencies as circumstances permit."
• Click here to read UNDP Associate Administrator Ad Melkert's reply to Ambassador Wallace (pdf format).
In the same letter, however, Melkert declared that UNDP would give up the use of hard currency cash payments to North Korea effective March 1 and suspend nomination of its local staff by the Kim Jong Il government. A short time later, UNDP announced that the North Korean government had objected to the change of practice, and the agency would pull most of its international staff out of Pyongyang.
Meantime, the U.N.'s Board of auditors, on direction from newly appointed U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, is taking a look at the operations of U.N. agencies in North Korea.
The audit is supposed to conclude in early April.
George Russell is Executive Editor of Fox News.


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Murata has distributed a Green Procurement Standards pamphlet detailing the Group's philosophy of green procurement and our requirements for suppliers, enabling us to promote green procurement with the understanding and cooperation of our suppliers.
When undertaking business with a new supplier, regardless of whether the supplier is located in Japan or overseas, we investigate the appropriateness of its environmental management system (whether it has acquired ISO 14001 or any other management system certification) and its chemical substance management system, as well as the actual operational condition of those systems. Furthermore, only after the supplier has consented to environmental protection initiatives (such as regulatory compliance and surveys of chemical substances contained in products), do we make a decision on whether or not to undertake business with the supplier.
As for existing suppliers, we conduct evaluations, giving first priority to suppliers who supply parts and materials with high environmental risk. In the case of suppliers whose evaluation results are low, we provide guidance through improvement requests and field audits. If no improvement becomes apparent, we respond rigorously by, for example, suspending business transactions.
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Arise Church Wellington. The guest speaker for the camp was Pastor Phil Pringle of Christian City Church in Australia. The church he leads has got a great vision to build 1000 churches with an average of 500 people all over the world. After listening to him speak, I find that he is a great speaker with profound understanding of God's character.
He spoke about the 7 keys of faith during camp. What struck me most from what he said during camp was what he said about God's perspective on time and God's desire to give us our heart's desires. He used a simple illustration with his hands to describe how God views time in an individual's life. I will attempt to illustrate it with this picture.
God views you life like that. He sees the whole thing at once. He knows the start of your life until the end of your life. So if God declares you a warrior when you are weak & timid, like what he did to Gideon (Judges 6:12), he is not being false. This is because he sees your begining, your present & your future. Therefore He does not lie when He says you are healed when you are sick or injured. Nor does He lie when He calls a prostitute pure & loved by Him. How amazing is this God...
Ps. Phil also illustrated something that echoes with something that has been in my heart for a long time. God looks at our heart and one of the reasons for doing so is to grant us our heart's desires. He does not respond to need. He responds to desire. Ps. Phil illustrates this by describing his family. Every morning when his children wake up, they don't say, "thanks daddy for this bed we slept on, this selter we safely sleep under and the wonderful shower & toilet provided for us". And when the get to the kitchen they won't say, "oh, wow, we get cereal and milk too?!" God knows our needs and we need not worry whether He will meet it (Mat 6:25-34)!
One day while walking past a surfboard shop with his son, he noticed his son drooling over the surfboard on display. After looking at the price tag, he drags his son away from the shop. But secretly returns later to buy the surfboard for his son. When he brought it back to his son, the boy got up, pointed at his father and said, "You the man." Like a generous loving father, God knows our desires and will supply them when we seek first his kingdom & his righteousness. (Mat 7:9-11, Matt 6:33)
We are not dancing for the band nor are we worshipping the music. The worship team only leads us in worship. Never should they take the place of God. Nor should the music take the place of God. It is a medium of worship. We sing those songs because the lyrics relate to us and what we want to say to God. We were lost but now is found and given a great vision for the future! We are also given time in between songs to sing our own songs to God.
Frank Hsu (Taiwan) & I, Jarod Yong (Malaysia) was given a mandate by Grace Zhang (China & Korea) to produce rap lyrics for a 3 minute & 16 second beatbox of Johann Pachelbel's Canon in D. The video for the beatbox is quite impressive.
Here is the video to our rap act. Even though there were some technical problems that hampered our presentation, like the volume being too soft, the mike not functioning & the time limit. We had a great time performing & our energy was awesome! We had a supportive crowd too! Check it out! =D
Arise Church Camp rocks!
We get to have a good time & spend time away from it all seeking God!


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Distance from Spearman, TX to Wimberley, TX
Driving distance between Spearman, TX and Wimberley, TX is 615.20 miles (or 990.08 kilometers). If you drove an average car (using about 3.6 gallons of gas per mile), the gas would cost you around $, since you would need about gallons of fuel.
Leaving from Spearman, TX you would reach Wimberley, TX in about 11 hours 0 mins if you keep an average speed of miles per hour, assuming you don't make any breaks or get stuck in traffic.