text:
Maybe you have been thinking about, reading about, talking about and even researching unschooling but you aren't sure whether you are ready to make that leap for your family... I remember the day my son and I broke away from schooling, mid-school year, and leaped into the void of my son living and learning naturally, as nature intended. It was exhilarating and frightening for me at the same time! As the day began and the time that he would normally leave for school came and went, I saw the joy and relief on my son's face as we became involved in the various indoor projects and outdoor adventures we planned for our first day of learning without school! To watch my son playing, smiling, laughing and exuding joy provided me with the most profound realization and evidence that what we were doing was natural, fully congruent with his physical, psychological, cognitive, social and neurological development and right for him holistically in every way! Over the next few weeks and months of deep connection, of my son feeling free to meet all of his biological needs on his own body's timetable, of him following his passions through play and exploration, of us being active in nature and of us becoming involved with community activities and homeschool groups, I couldn't imagine life any other way for my child.
Why unschooling is right for your children
The most paramount reasons why unschooling is best for children are:
- Unschooling supports the parent-child attachment relationship by allowing parents to be sure their children's biological, psychological, intellectual, creative and social needs are being met. Not even a fraction of these needs can be met in traditional schools and over time, the parent-child attachment connection becomes injured and may become distant or adversarial. Our children need to be with us, their families, and involved in their world communities, not imprisoned behind concrete walls with strangers and other distressed "inmates" all day.
- Unschooling is in line with nature's intent for how children learn: Through play. Youth of all ages, from infants through adolescents learn through play: Vigorous, passionate, dramatic, loud, rough, exploratory, secretive, quiet and adventurous play that occurs alone, with friends or with family. The force-feeding process of indoctrinating children in school settings with curriculum, control and confinement is not actual learning, but only conditioning under the threat of punishment or deprivation. Over time, this conditioning process causes many children to become exhausted and emotionally distressed or to run on "automatic pilot". Sooner or later, children shut down, become apathetic to actual learning, act defiant, or, in an attempt to obediently acquiesce to the curriculum, disconnect from spontaneously and authentically reveling in their true interests and passions. Far too many children are diagnosed as "learning disabled" or as having the fraudulent "ADHD" label because they are simply starved of play.
- Unschooling allows children to pursue, express and fulfill their own unique passions, gifts and offerings to the world and to live and learn in a way that is right for their unique time table, learning style, temperament and intelligence.
In short, unschooling is simply a new name for ancient wisdom; a title put on how our peaceful indigenous tribal ancestors guided their children's learning for Millennia prior to being disrupted by the institution of agriculture, civilization and the Industrial revolution.
What do we do all day?
The key to unschooling is to live and to enjoy life at a balanced pace that works for your family. Allowing children to spend time playing and pursuing their passions and interests is the primary foundation of unschooling. Exposing children to a variety and diversity of experiences, materials, places, people, arts, community events, social opportunities and activities will help children discover new interests and hidden talents. Some children enjoy a more structured schedule of activities, while others need to be completely free with their exploration and creative inventions in order to thrive. Most children enjoy a balance of both a structured and a free schedule.
Unschooling is right for all types of children and their unique learning styles because its foundation is allowing children to be driven by their individual needs, interests and goals. The possibilities are endless as to how your children can spend their unschooling days! For some children, this might appear more academic and "schoolish" to the outside observer. Other youth might choose to spend their days in nature building forts, climbing trees and observing animal habitats. Some children will read, write, build, paint, craft, cook or play music most of the time. Many unschooled youth have volunteered, attended college classes, traveled or opened up their own businesses. Others still may appear to be playing all day without any semblance of academic accoutrement! Wonderfully, ALL of these diverse ways of learning lead to preparing youth for their own unique life paths and describe unschooling- as long as they are child-led.
A common approach when families begin unschooling is for parents to try to fill each day or even hour with a cornucopia of scheduled activities to convince themselves that learning is in process. Although this will work for some families, over time this approach could potentially burn out children and families. Overtime, exhausted and burnt out families may find that they are doing less and less that is actually enriching, fulfilling and adventurous, to the point where the days become mundane and errand-focused, with little social activity for the children and sedentary screen time as the focus of the day. This slump often causes youth to believe that they should return to school in order to "get socialization" and activity. What a loss to escape and then return back to an environment that harms children! It is important for us as parents to assist our children in continually exploring and finding the resources, opportunities and social connections they need in order for unschooling to meet their needs as nature intended.
Why isn't screen time considered play?
Some parents might argue that video games are the "passion" of their children. Many families who unschool or who are considering unschooling have encountered the trend of parents allowing children to spend hours on a daily basis playing video games, watching TV, texting or posting on social media. However, screen time is not playand in fact, screen time may be as stressful to the child's holistic health as sitting at a desk in a classroom all day.
Dramatic play invigorates all parts and processes of the brain, stimulates creativity, feeds the imagination, fosters critical thinking skills, builds crucial face-to-face social skills, contributes to mental health and often involves the entire body moving, whether gently or intensely. Physically active play exercises the muscles, tendons, joints, spine and bones, long distance and periphery vision, and supports all systems of the body including the respiratory, digestive and circulatory systems.
To the contrary, young children who become involved with video games often spend very little time in dramatic play or they abandon dramatic play completely as early as age six. I have seen a trend in my clinical work of children who literally do not know how to play; their imaginations are stifled and weakened due to constant media saturation (in addition to school busywork). Dramatic play is a crucial requirement for optimal child development.
Dramatic play and reading paper books excites the imagination and stimulates the entire brain. Video games, TV, social media and texting shut down processes and parts of a child's brain, especially those related to critical thinking. Research has shown that violent media may negatively impact a child's development of empathy. Screen media actually has an effect on children's neurological dopamine reward system similar to heroin or other drug addiction. Media offers instant gratification, causing some children to feel that dramatic play seems tedious in comparison to the reflexive and addictive attraction to checking their phone, updating their social media status, playing live online games or vegging in front of the TV. The dopamine crash of turning off the TV or the screen can lead to depressive symptoms and anxious restlessness. Children realize that once the video game or screen is turned off, there are no gains translated into "real life". How do children often attempt to remedy the affects of these depressive, anxious symptoms? With more screen time!
Additionally, consider the physical effects on the body of being sedentary, slumped, with the vision fixed on a small concentrated screen and the fingers performing the same small motions over and over, sometimes hundreds and hundreds of times: While research has found that reading a paper book is easy on the eyes, screens cause eye strain and restrict periphery vision. While children who read can move around and read in a variety of body positions, indoors and outside, screen time often fixes a child's body to very limited and unhealthy positions. Repetitive tendon stress injuries may result from excessive texting or video game usage. Sedentary behavior negatively affects every system of the body, affecting overall holistic health.
My recommendation is that you treat screen usage like you would treat any other addictive agent: Either unplug completely or discuss with your family a way to keep media usage in its place, with the priority being "real life" activities, time in nature and time with family and friends. In our home, through out our unschooling journey, my son spent the majority of his time in "real life", off screens. As a grown unschooler now, at age 20, he is pleased with all he has been able to accomplish and pursue in his life as a result of prioritizing his "real life" time.
How do I get started?
Getting started with unschooling often feels daunting and overwhelming at first, but the steps are simple:
- If you are a single working parent like I was while unschooling, the first step will be securing reliable child care. When I began unschooling my son, we literally had a different caregiver for every day of the week just to make unschooling happen! I was also able to arrange times when I could bring my son to work with me. Start by looking for childcare within your family or circle of friends. Begin reaching out to the homeschool community and making friends- Maybe someone will be willing to assist you with child care? Consider building a part time home business to allow you more home time.
- If your child is still in school, research and learn your state's homeschool laws, as they vary from state to state. In most states, you will be required to send a "letter of intent" to your school district's superintendent or to a private school that agrees to act as your "participating agency". Some states require that you write up a curriculum while others do not require a curriculum. You can still unschool even if your state requires a curriculum. The law might require certain academics to be included in your homeschooling program, but generally the law doesn't strictly dictate how your child must pursue those subjects. Remember, how your child pursues learning a certain subject does NOT need to look anything like schooling. Only provide to the school district what the law requires, no less and no more.
- Research local homeschool and unschool groups and events in your area and attend as many of these with your children as possible until you find one or more that your children enjoy. Network with families and collect contact information so that your children can set up play dates with the youth they meet. Attend these groups regularly.
- Begin immediately keeping a log book and take photos to document some highlights of each day that you can use as part of your end of the year portfolio that is often required by most state homeschool laws. Collect any written, mathematic or artistic samples, as well as brochures, maps or flyers to add to your children's portfolios.
- Whether you are new to learning without schooling or whether you have already been homeschooling and are transitioning to unschooling, allow your children the freedom to play and follow their interests. Play with your children and share some of your own interests with them. Make sure to focus on having fun and deepening your connection, not on trying to "turn" play and activities into "teaching moments" or into something "educational". Everything your child does constitutes learning; it is up to the individual child to determine how he or she wants to respond to, express and apply that learning.
- Get outside, explore nature and get involved in community events and activities as a family and with other homeschooling families.
- Consider starting a homeschool or unschool group with your children based on one of their interests.
For more step by step instructions and a list of ideas for specific materials and activities and how to document for the end of the year portfolio, please view my six YouTube videos, especially, So You Want to Unschool Your Child or Teen? 4 of 6 (Community Resources and Materials) and So You Want to Unschool Your Child or Teen? 5 of 6 (Documentation).
Unschooling is Nature's Intent For Children's Learning
The freedom that unschooling will allow your family, even if you are a working parent, is tremendous, and can't be believed until you experience that freedom! When you take the time to "deschool" yourself and challenge your beliefs about what learning should or shouldn't look like, you will begin to see learning through nature's lens.
What determines nature's intent? The conditions that allow an organism to thrive!
Children thrive when their needs are met, when they have close, connected and secure attachments with their parents and families, when they are allowed to let play and passion drive their time and focus, when they are allowed to form naturally mixed age friendships with diverse people, when they are active and engaged members of their communities and when they are able to fully experience all developmental stages of childhood on their own timetable. When children thrive, they learn to the best of their abilities. When children thrive, they naturally meet their full potentials and mature into successful adults!
For further information, please read my following articles:
Laurie A. Couture Responds to Unschooling and "ADHD" Questions from Anderson Episode
What Is It Like to Be Unschooled? Interview With An Unschooled Teen
NOT-Back-To-School: Unschooling is Nature's "Curriculum"
Unschooling Without TV and Video Games: A Freeing Experience
For a comprehensive and in depth look at children's needs and the harm done to children of traditional schooling, I invite you to read my book, Instead of Medicating and Punishing: Healing the Causes of Our Children's Acting-Out Behavior by Parenting and Educating the Way Nature Intended.
I am available for supportive parenting coaching and consulting to get you started on your family's unschooling journey- I will even research your state's homeschool laws for you and assist you in writing your Letter of Intent! Learn more at: http://www.laurieacouture.com/coaching or book your consult with me now!


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Cervini Hood Stalker Fiberglass V6/GT 2013-2014/Boss 302 2013/GT500 2010-2014
Cervini Fiberglass Stalker Hood for all 2013-2014 V6 and GT Mustangs, all 2013 Boss 302 Mustangs and all 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Shelby GT500s.
Install this exclusive Cervini hood on any 2013-2014 V6 or GT Mustang, any 2013 Boss 302 Mustang or any 2010-2014 Shelby GT500 for a unique look. Cervini designed this stalker hood with form and function in mind. Not only does the ram air scoop look great, it force feeds cool, fresh air to your engine compartment. Twin extractor vents expel horsepower robbing heat from under the hood, resulting in cooler overall engine temperatures. You can gain more consistent power and performance with this addition of circulating cool air.
- Screened Twin Extractor Vents
- Ram Air Scoop
- Gloss Black Coated Underside
- Hand-laid Fiberglass
- Relocated Window Washer Nozzles
- Factory Install Location
- Made in the USA
- Fierce and Attractive Appearance
Cervini hoods are painted when ordered. Delivery of painted hoods will take 4-6 weeks to deliver.
Screened air vents on the rear of the hood extract under hood heat. This Stalker style hood is constructed from premium hand-laid fiberglass for an ensured high quality result. A fully finished underside liner adds extra strength and can be painted for a show quality appearance. A gloss black gel coated underside eliminates the cost associated with painting the undersides of hoods. The unpainted version of this hood will require prepping, priming and painting prior to installation in all 2013-2014 V6 or GT Mustangs, all 2013 Boss 302 Mustangs or all 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 Shelby GT500s.
Colors Available with Color Matched or Matte Black Louvers:
- Black
- Deep Impact Blue
- Gotta Have It Green
- Grabber Blue
- Ingot Silver
- Oxford White
- Performance White
- Race Red
- Red Candy Pearl
- Ruby Red Metallic
- School Bus Yellow
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- Unpainted
*Unpainted Hood NOT available with colored or matte black louvers
This hood installs using all factory mounting point locations and utilizes the stock hood latching system. Cervini's premium fiberglass hoods arrive with a guaranteed perfect fit and finish. New windshield washer nozzles are included and have been relocated to the underside of the hood. Cervini strives for perfection and is widely known for producing the best quality fiberglass and urethane parts in the industry. They offer a large range of options to dress up your Mustang with so you can add a personal touch. Buy your Cervini Stalker Fiberglass Hood for all 2013-2014 V6 and GT Mustangs, 2013 Boss 302s and all 2010-2014 GT500 Mustangs from CJ Pony Parts today, an industry leader for Mustang Parts. Add this fierce, power boosting, engine cooling hood now!

subset: commoncrawl


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109th CONGRESS
2d Session
July 12, 2006
Mr. Domenici (for himself and Mr. Bingaman) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs
To compromise and settle all claims in the case of Pueblo of Isleta v. United States, to restore, improve, and develop the valuable on-reservation land and natural resources of the Pueblo, and for other purposes.
Short title
This Act may be cited as
Pueblo of Isleta Settlement and
Natural Resources Restoration Act of 2006.
Findings and purposes
Congress finds that—
there is pending before the United States Court of Federal Claims a civil action filed by the Pueblo against the United States in which the Pueblo seeks to recover damages pursuant to the Isleta Jurisdictional Act;
the Pueblo and the United States, after a diligent investigation of the Pueblo claims, have negotiated a Settlement Agreement, the validity and effectiveness of which is contingent on the enactment of enabling legislation;
certain land of the Pueblo is waterlogged, and it would be to the benefit of the Pueblo and other water users to drain the land and return water to the Rio Grande River; and
there is Pueblo forest land in need of remediation in order to improve timber yields, reduce the threat of fire, reduce erosion, and improve grazing conditions.
The purposes of this Act are—
to improve the drainage of the irrigated land, the health of the forest land, and other natural resources of the Pueblo; and
to settle all claims that were raised or could have been raised by the Pueblo against the United States under the Isleta Jurisdictional Act in accordance with section 5.
In this Act:
Isleta jurisdictional Act
The term Isleta Jurisdictional Act means Public Law 104–198 (110 Stat. 2418).
The term Pueblo means the Pueblo of Isleta, a federally-recognized Indian tribe.
Restoration fund
The term Restoration Fund means the Pueblo of Isleta Natural Resources Restoration Fund established by section 4(a).
The term Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior.
Settlement agreement
The term Settlement Agreement means the Agreement of Compromise and Settlement entered into between the United States and the Pueblo dated July 12, 2005, as modified by the Extension and Modification Agreement executed by the United States and the Pueblo on June 22, 2006, to settle the claims of the Pueblo in Docket No. 98–166L, a case pending in the United States Court of Federal Claims.
Pueblo of Isleta Natural Resources Restoration Trust Fund
is established in the Treasury of the United States a trust fund, to be known
as the
Pueblo of Isleta Natural Resources Restoration Fund,
consisting of—
such amounts as are transferred to the Restoration Fund under subsection (b); and
any interest earned on investment of amounts in the Restoration Fund under subsection (d).
Transfers to Restoration Fund
Upon entry of the final judgment described in section 5(b), there shall be transferred to the Restoration Fund, in accordance with conditions specified in the Settlement Agreement and this Act—
$32,838,750 from the permanent judgment appropriation established pursuant to section 1304 of title 31, United States Code; and
in addition to the amounts transferred under paragraph (1), at such times and in such amounts as are specified for that purpose in the annual budget of the Department of the Interior, authorized to be appropriated by subsection (f), and made available by an Act of appropriation, a total of $7,200,000.
Distribution of Amounts from Restoration Fund
Appropriated amounts
In general
Subject to paragraph (3), upon the request of the Pueblo, the Secretary shall distribute amounts deposited in the Restoration Fund pursuant to section V of the Settlement Agreement and subsection (b)(2), in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Settlement Agreement and this Act, on the condition that the Secretary, before any such distribution, receives from the Pueblo such assurances as are satisfactory to the Secretary that—
the Pueblo shall deliver funds in the amount of $7,100,000 toward drainage and remediation of the agricultural land and rehabilitation of forest and range land of the Pueblo in accordance with section IV(C) and IV(D) of the Settlement Agreement; and
those funds shall be available for expenditure for drainage and remediation expenses as provided in sections IV(C) and IV(D) of the Settlement Agreement on the dates on which the Secretary makes distributions, and in amounts equal to the amounts so distributed, in accordance with sections IV(A) and IV(B) of the Settlement Agreement.
Use of funds
Of the amounts distributed by the Secretary from the Restoration Fund under subparagraph (A)—
$5,700,000 shall be available to the Pueblo for use in carrying out the drainage and remediation of approximately 1,081 acres of waterlogged agricultural land, as described in section IV(A) of the Settlement Agreement; and
$1,500,000 shall be available to the Pueblo for use in carrying out the rehabilitation and remediation of forest and range land, as described in section IV(B) of the Settlement Agreement.
Federal consultation
Restoration work carried out using funds distributed under this paragraph shall be planned and performed in consultation with—
the Bureau of Indian Affairs; and
such other Federal agencies as are necessary.
Unused funds
Any funds, including any interest income, that are distributed under this paragraph but that are not needed to carry out this paragraph shall be available for use in accordance with paragraph (2)(A).
Amounts from judgment fund
In general
Subject to paragraph (3), the amount paid into the Restoration Fund under subsection (b)(1), and interest income resulting from investment of that amount, shall be available to the Pueblo for—
the acquisition, restoration, improvement, development, and protection of land, natural resources, and cultural resources within the exterior boundaries of the Pueblo, including improvements to the water supply and sewage treatment facilities of the Pueblo; and
for the payment and reimbursement of attorney and expert witness fees and expenses incurred in connection with Docket No. 98–166L of the United States Court of Federal Claims, as provided in the Settlement Agreement.
No contingency on provision of funds by Pueblo
The receipt and use of funds by the Pueblo under this paragraph shall not be contingent upon the provision by the Pueblo of the funds described in paragraph (1)(A)(i).
Expenditures and withdrawal
Tribal management plan
In general
Subject to clause (ii), the Pueblo may withdraw all or part of the Restoration Fund on approval by the Secretary of a tribal management plan in accordance with section 202 of the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 4022).
In addition to the requirements under the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 4001 et seq.), a tribal management plan described in clause (i) shall require that the Pueblo shall expend any funds withdrawn from the Restoration Fund under this paragraph in a manner consistent with the purposes described in the Settlement Agreement.
The Secretary may take judicial or administrative action to enforce the provisions of any tribal management plan described in subparagraph (A)(i) to ensure that any funds withdrawn from the Restoration Fund under this paragraph are used in accordance with this Act.
If the Pueblo exercises the right to withdraw funds from the Restoration Fund under this paragraph, neither the Secretary nor the Secretary of the Treasury shall retain any liability for the accounting, disbursement, or investment of the funds withdrawn.
Expenditure plan
In general
The Pueblo shall submit to the Secretary for approval an expenditure plan for any portion of the funds in the Restoration Fund made available under this Act that the Pueblo does not withdraw under this paragraph.
The expenditure plan shall describe the manner in which, and the purposes for which, funds of the Pueblo remaining in the Restoration Fund will be used.
On receipt of an expenditure plan under clause (i), the Secretary shall approve the plan if the Secretary determines that the plan is reasonable and consistent with this Act and the Settlement Agreement.
Annual report
The Pueblo shall submit to the Secretary an annual report that describes expenditures from the Restoration Fund during the year covered by the report.
Maintenance and investment of Restoration Fund
In general
The Restoration Fund and amounts in the Restoration Fund shall be maintained and invested by the Secretary of the Interior pursuant to the first section of the Act of June 24, 1938 (52 Stat. 1037, chapter 648).
Credits to Restoration Fund
The interest on, and the proceeds from the sale or redemption of, any obligations held in the Restoration Fund shall be credited to, and form a part of, the Restoration Fund.
Prohibition on per-capita payments
No portion of the amounts in the Restoration Fund shall be available for payment on a per-capita basis to members of the Pueblo.
Authorization of appropriations
There is authorized to be appropriated to the Restoration Fund $7,200,000.
Ratification of settlement, dismissal of litigation, and compensation to pueblo
Ratification of settlement agreement
The Settlement Agreement is ratified.
Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Pueblo and the United States shall execute and file a joint stipulation for entry of final judgment in the case of Pueblo of Isleta v. United States, Docket 98–166L, in the United States Court of Federal Claims in such form and such manner as are acceptable to the Attorney General and the Pueblo.
After the date of enactment of this Act, in accordance with the Settlement Agreement, and upon entry of the final judgment described in subsection (b)—
compensation to the Pueblo shall be paid from the permanent judgment appropriation established pursuant to section 1304 of title 31, United States Code, in the total amount of $32,838,750 for all monetary damages and attorney fees, interest, and any other fees and costs of any kind that were or could have been presented in connection with Docket No. 98–166L of the United States Court of Federal Claims; but
the Pueblo shall retain all rights, including the right to bring civil actions based on causes of action, relating to the removal of ordnance under—
the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (42 U.S.C. 9601 et seq.);
the Defense Environmental Restoration Program under section 2701 of title 10, United States Code; and
any contract entered into by the Pueblo for the removal of ordnance.
Other limitations on use of funds
The Indian Tribal Judgment Funds Use or Distribution Act (25 U.S.C. 1401 et seq.) shall not apply to funds distributed or withdrawn from the Restoration Fund under this Act.
No effect on land, resources, or water rights
Nothing in this Act affects the status of land and natural resources of the Pueblo or any water right of the Pueblo.


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Verena.e necesitaba un nuevo diseño de banner publicitario y lanzó un concurso de diseño en 99designs.
Un ganador ha sido elegido entre 6 diseños de 4 diseñadores freelance.
FloraQueen stays for high quality flowers, premium, always on time, customer focused.
look & feel: have a look at http://www.floraqueen.com, should be catchy banners that grap
the attention, interactive - show the premium quality but the good price (hard sale for
christmas) - christmas look & feel, the red christmas flower should be the top product for
sales - so maybe we should include her (poinsettia called in spanish) in the banner. she
will be also presend on the landing.
Hard sale banners for christmas campaigns for Spain and France (for spanish and french people). online people, internet savy, 30 - 45 years - target mostly on men (a happy, surprised woman plus christmas flower should be maybe in the picture) - no blondes pls (because for french and spanish)
*Flash, interactive banner: 2-3 slides and time-showing should not be longer than 15sec (from the very beginning people need to be impressed by our promotion)
Maybe its better that you first just propose design for ONE banner size and then we move
on with the others.
*6-size formats and up to 50 KB: because its for Google Display Network
160 x 600
300 x 250
336 x 280
120 x 600
468 x 60
728 x 90
Eye-catching, good resolution and selected details of plant (Poinsettia)
*Considering combining Poinsettia with woman (so we match family atmosphere since it is Christmas time).
Text: keep it short and simple, friendly approach, fresh and pushing style;
*Time is now; get Poinsettia at special price, just for you
*Poinsettia is knocking at your door, buy it now!
Call to action: buy it already now so that you are not late for
christmas. like: "Better organized this year?"
Button: strong call-to-action, we need to promote 1 product only, time-limited offer;
Shop now, Get this Flower now, ...
Buy Now


text:
Crank a griddle to high heat. Add some butter. Carefully pour batter to desired size (it will spatter a bit). They cook very fast (about 30 seconds per side). You'll need to keep regulating the heat between batches. Best to eat them right away. They don't hold up for long. Serve with butter and warm maple syrup.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Crank a griddle to high heat. Add some butter. Carefully pour batter to desired size (it will spatter a bit). They cook very fast (about 30 seconds per side). You'll need to keep regulating the heat between batches. Best to eat them right away. They don't hold up for long. Serve with butter and warm maple syrup.
28 comments:
Mmm. The world could use more of this kind of talk about Valentine's Day. And less of the rest of it. xxReplyDelete
Lump in my throat.ReplyDelete
Hole in my tummy.
Beautiful on all fronts.Replies
you and your words. love them so.Delete
Beautifully written post, one of the best I've read today! The pancakes look wonderful too - can't wait to give this recipe a try!ReplyDelete
You touch my soul so deeply and I don't even like to cook. My husband does, though, and I'm forever standing at the sink cleaning up the mess. I know the chaos you speak of and long for those same kisses on the back of my neck. The pancakes will have to suffice. That he can do.ReplyDelete
Holy Crap! That's not pancakes, its eggs with built-in toast. I've got a batch chilling as I write... Thanks. -C.ReplyDeleteReplies
awesome description. thank you.Delete
Wonderful story. And pancake recipe. Thanks.ReplyDelete
OMG. The amount of times I've felt this way. And how often afterwards I feel guilty and don't understand what the fuck I was so enraged about in the first place. Pancakes and kisses make everything better!!. Cooking makes everything better.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousFebruary 16, 2013 at 7:05 AM
Beautiful - the words and those pancakes.ReplyDelete
Crème fraîche and make up kisses....oh my.ReplyDelete
The sweet and healing power of food.
- AnonymousFebruary 20, 2013 at 9:37 PM
Yum...... AND would LOVE to know where did you get your plates???ReplyDeleteReplies
it's my favorite plate. i got it at a store called tortoise on abbot kinney in venice, ca. but last time i was there i didn't see anymore.Delete
(Like many, I love your blog. So much.)ReplyDelete
So... you say lots and lots of pancakes. Will this feed three adults, a teenager, two ten-year-olds, and a toddler? Inquiring minds are planning an out-of-town visit with homemade creme fraiche in tow.Replies
vika. thank you! and i would say double the recipe just to be safe. but you might need to do it in two batches. it wouldn't fit in my blender. it lasts for 5 days in the fridge so don't worry about extra.Delete
- AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 3:28 PM
The babysitter's apartment in North Beach was downstairs from yours. You guys were on the top floor!ReplyDeleteReplies
i love it! who is this? i just looked again at my mom's cookbook and it says a recipe from michelle who was our babysitter upstairs on jones street. i was a baby. i don't remember! maybe she lived on the roof?Delete
- AnonymousMarch 6, 2013 at 10:30 PM
Michelle lived downstairs, the middle floor. You lived on the top floor AND had use of the roof, where your father set up a sandbox for you, and your mother had beautiful pots of flowers. I was your other babysitter, the one from across the street. You were great fun and terribly cute. I used to take you and Caleb to the Cannery for cocoa.ReplyDeleteReplies
oh wow. what's your name?Delete
- AnonymousMarch 7, 2013 at 6:19 AM
Katarina. Your parents may remember me as Catherine... or Cathy. I can't remember which. They were the most awesome people, as you've probably experienced, and I attribute a large portion of my understanding of American culture to them (and my love of medieval music - I still know the entire Play of Daniel by heart). Give them my best when you speak with them, and tell them I have 3 daughters and 3 grandsons and that 2/3 of my brood are living in Croatia.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousMarch 7, 2013 at 6:54 AM
I'm sure you're busy and all, and have much higher priorities, but would you please take a moment and think of us, your readers, and write more often than once a month because reading your blog makes me feel like I just ate a big, warm, yummy bowl of comfort. Really, your kids wold understand. ;)ReplyDelete
Delicious.thank you.ReplyDelete
can you keep the leftover batter in refigerator?ReplyDelete
مشروع ناجح براس مال بسيطReplyDelete
مشروع صغير مربح
افكار مشاريع صغيرة مربحة جدا وغير مكلفة
فكرة مشروع


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Artist description:
HAPPY BELATED B-DAY FIGGIE!!! she has always been nice to me on DC sharing me songs n she's so pretty~ this drawing is also to wish her a good year n stay strong~ this drawing is my OC Levi n she is strong just like figgie ;* Figgie thnx 4 everything
Flash Draw Created Jan 04, 2013 640 x 460px Unless noted Copyright 2013 ChocoMiu.
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Nice one 5/5
What a sweet pic and a wonderful gift,,, the colors look like cotton candy,, lol,, your flash work is great,,,
really beautiful and charming
D': this is so charming and magical, especially when doing it on flash. so pretttyy
thank you!!!
its sooo gr8 2 c another draw 4from u- was wonderin where u went 2 :p luv da blue eyes n glowin blue thingy plus nice hair n gift :3
^^ my internet crashed~ n i wasn't able to draw on my laptop cuz it was laggy~but i tried it n i managed to draw so~ ^^ sorry 4 not drawing~
OMG OMG OMG, Thank youuuu, Misaaaaaaah -hearts-that looks so cool, thanks. C:
Happy Birthday^^ n np :* n thnx 4 the comment ^^
this is so kool!! total excellence ^_^
thnx zelly ^^~~~ :3


text:
Blockout Ad Blurbs (Amiga)
Published by
Developed by
Also For
Critic Score
100 point score based on reviews from various critics.
User Score
5 point score based on user ratings.
Advertising BlurbsBack Cover - Lynx:
Easy To Play, Difficult To Master, Impossible To Quit!Welcome to the world of Blockout! One of the most absorbing games ever devised. Drop as many 3-D blocks as you can into a pit without reaching the top. The better you do, the faster the blocks will fall. It takes skill to rotate each block into its best position without leaving any unfilled holes.
This is 3-D puzzle action at its best!
Contributed by Jeanne (76453) on Jul 31, 2003.
Be careful! You'll be buried alive by the addictive 3-D challenge of Blockout.
As the 3-D blocks appear, flip, rotate and maneuver them into position as they fall into the playing pit. Fit them together to complete layers, and you'll steadily clear your way out. But, make one false move, and you'll be buried in blocks.
Plus, with more and more complex sets of blocks, faster, and faster action and hundreds and hundreds of pits, there's a version of Blockout for every player.
Contributed by Belboz (6582) on Nov 05, 2001.
- Close to 1000 possible combinations of pits and block sets
- Pause mode
- Animated help screen
- Save feature to store your favorite customized setup
- Practice mode
- Unique 3-D perspective
- Top ten list recorded for each setup
Easy to play,
difficult to master,
impossible to quit.
Sit back and get comfortable before you open this box. You might not be moving from your computer for a while, because once you start in with the 3-D blocks, you'll be hooked.
You'll begin with the playing pit, a 3-D enclosure with length, width, and depth that you can set. During the game, various 3-D blocks will fall into the pit. Your job is to rotate and maneuver each of them into the proper position in order to form complete layers. As each layer is completed, it vanishes, giving you more points and more room to work.
Blockout will challenge your reflexes and your resolve in a test of coordination and quick thinking. But the greatest challenge of all will be keeping yourself from playing it again and again.
Contributed by Belboz (6582) on Nov 05, 2001.


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2009 Midwinter Institute Offerings
All institutes will be held on January 23, 2009, except for the ALCTS Institute. These are ticketed events and prices vary. Please see below for details. To register for any of the institutes, please fill out the paper registration form and fax it to 800-521-6017 or mail it to:
ALA Registration and Housing Headquarters
568 Atrium Dr.
Vernon Hills, IL 60061
If you would like to register just for an institute only and not the Midwinter Meeting, skip Section I of the form.
It's easy! There are two ways:
1. By phone: Call ALA Registration at 1-800-974-3084 and ask to add a workshop to your existing registration.
2. Online: Add an event to your existing registration by clicking on the online registration form Use your log in and password to access your existing Midwinter registration and add events in the "Your Events" section (screen 6). Then simply check out and pay for the events you've added.
- AASL: *AASL School Library Advocacy Institute - Friday, January 23, 2009, 9:30 am – 4:30 pm
This Institute provides information, resources, and strategies that will help define advocacy and facilitate the development of long-term advocacy action plans for school library media programs. This Institute incorporates various tools available to school librarians, including the AASL Advocacy toolkit of online resources, the marketing resources developed through the ALA @ your library campaign, and the resources that will assist school librarians in developing a multiple year advocacy action plan that goes beyond PR and marketing.
Speaker: Deborah Levitov, MS
Tickets: Advance: AASL Member, $189, ALA Members, $229, Non-Member, $279
Event Code: AA1
Not registered for conference but want to register for this institute? Fill in ONLY Section II and payment information on this form - Institute Registration Form- and fax it to 800-521-6017 or Local 847-996-5401
ALCTS Symposium: Breaking Down the Silos: Planning for Discovery Tools for Library 2.0 - Friday, January 23, 2009, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. Sponsored by Innovative Interfaces, Inc.
Libraries today face many choices when trying to optimize resource discovery for their patrons. Much of our information resides in separate silos, yet patrons want an integrated, intuitive, and interactive discovery experience. Many companies have developed products that attempt to deliver that experience. How can libraries evaluate the options: next generation catalog interfaces, federated search engines, link resolvers? How do they choose which will be the best fit?
Speakers: Kirstin Antelman, Associate Director for the Digital Library, NCSU Libraries; Marshall Breeding, Director for Innovative Technologies and Research, Vanderbilt University Libraries; Jill Grog, E-Resources Librarian, University of Alabama Libraries; Roy Tennant, Senior Program Officer for OCLC Research; and Robert Wolven, Associate University Librarian for Bibliographic Services and Collection Development, Columbia University Libraries.
Tickets: Advance (by Dec. 5): ALCTS Member, $199, ALA member, $249, Non-Member, $299, Full-time Library School Student/Retired Member, $99. On-Site: ALCTS Member, $249, ALA member, $299, Non-Member, $349, Full-time Library School Student/Retired Member, $99
Event Code: AS1
To register, complete the Institute Registration Form. You do not need to register for the entire Midwinter Meeting to attend this symposium. Just fill in Section II, along with your payment information and event code (AS1). Then, fax your completed form to 1-800-521-6017 or Local 1-847-996-5401.
ALCTS Symposium: Implementing an Institutional Repository: Benefits and Challenges - Thursday, January 22, 2009, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sponsored by Berkeley Electronic Press.
Many libraries have joined the movement to create an institutional repository, providing a mechanism to acquire, maintain, and preserve scholarly and other material of lasting value to the institution. The presentations will focus on the challenges, pitfalls and promises of establishing and supporting institutional repositories. A discussion of the legal and access issues as well as various IR platforms and models will allow attendees to make informed decisions regarding the introduction of an institutional repository.
Speakers: Greg Tananbaum, Consultant, ScholarNext; Marilyn Billings, Scholarly Communication & Special Initiatives Librarian, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Jessica Branco Colati, Project Director, Alliance Digital Repository, Colorado Alliance of Research Libraries; Bob Gerrity, Director of Library Systems, Boston College Libraries; Georgia Harper, Scholarly Communications Advisor, University of Texas at Austin Libraries; Robert Tansley, Engineer, Google Inc.; and Leah Vanderjagt, Digital Repository Services Librarian, University of Alberta Libraries.
Tickets: Advance (by Dec. 5): ALCTS Member, $199, ALA member, $249, Non-Member, $299, Full-time Library School Student/Retired Member, $99. On-Site: ALCTS Member, $249, ALA member, $299, Non-Member, $349, Full-time Library School Student/Retired Member, $99
Event Code: AS2
To register, complete the Institute Registration Form. Just fill in Section II, along with your payment information and event code (AS1). Then, fax your completed form to 1-800-521-6017 or Local 1-847-996-5401.
ACRL Workshop: Bring it on Home! Creating Custom Search Plug-ins for Your Library, Jan. 23, 1:00 - 4:30 p.m. - Through use of real life examples and hands-on instruction, workshop presenters will illustrate how to deliver currently existing online content and services in the form of a plug-in. Speakers: Paul Beatty, Distance Learning Librarian, Regis University; Erin McCaffrey, Digital Systems Librarian, Regis University. Registration fees: ACRL member - $205; ALA member - $245; Nonmember - $275; Student - $95.
ACRL Workshop: Do You Q? Looking at Your Users in a New Way!, Jan. 23, 1:00 - 4:30 p.m. - Do you need to know what your users are thinking? Of course! But, how? Using Q Method you can measure the qualitative, fuzzy opinions of users in a quantitative way.Speaker: Mary Wilkins Jordan. Registration fees: ACRL member - $205; ALA member - $245; Nonmember - $275; Student - $95.
ACRL Workshop: Nobody Told Me I'd Have to Teach! Strategies for the Accidental Librarian, Jan. 23, 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. - This full-day workshop uses a little lecture mixed with a lot of discussion and meaningful activities to explore some pedagogical fundamentals that will help you become better in the classroom.Speakers: Michelle Drumm, Emerging Technology Trainer; Laura Coons, Instructor, General Education, Johnson and Wales University. Registration fees: ACRL member - $235; ALA member - $285; Nonmember - $305; Student - $95.
Transforming Libraries or Transforming Lives? Ensuring the Future of Your Library.
Colorado Association of Libraries
Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, 8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Capitol Ballroom 1 and 2
Information about public library funding is presented based on research from the latest OCLC report, "From Awareness to Funding." The research shows that people who experience the library as a transformational force in their lives are more likely to increase taxes in support of libraries. Listen to a panel that will highlight ways in which they are working to position their organizations as transformational and leave with some creative take-aways on aligning your advocacy and marketing efforts from Barnhart Communication.
Speakers: Cathy De Rosa, Global Vice President of Marketing, OCLC; OCLC; Shirley Amore, Denver City Librarian; Jamie LaRue, Director, Douglas County Libraries; Janine Reid, Director, High Plains Library District; Barnhart Communication
Tickets: : ALA Member, $100; Non-Member, $125; Student, $75. On-site registration available.
- LITA: User Centered Design for Digital Projects, Friday, January 23, 2009, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm - Learn about design process for managing digital projects in libraries, usability theory and methodology. Includes: staff skills and responsibilities, artifacts of the design process, communication channels, Web technologies and standards. Receive practical steps to implement a design process in your own library plus a copy of Brenda Reeb's latest book, Design Talk: Understanding the roles of usability practitioners, web designers, and web developers in user centered web design (soon to be released by ACRL).Speaker: Brenda Reeb, University of Rochester Libraries. Registration: LITA member - $220 ALA member - $315 Nonmember - $495
LLAMA: Mission Possible: Practical Project Management Friday, January 23, 2009, 9:00 am–5:00 pm Projects can finish on time, under budget, at the level of quality you desire, and with everyone still speaking. An effective plan¬ning process can ensure improvement in the management of special projects, ongoing multiple projects, and even personal time. Participants will learn how to identify and address the basic causes of project successes and failures involving management of personnel and resources, and correct underlying problems in existing projects. Speaker: Pat Wagner Registration Fees: Advance and Onsite: ALA Member, $245; Division/RT Member, $195; Non-Member, $345; Student/Retired Member, $95 Event Code: LA1
LLAMA Library Leadership: You Are How You Communicate Friday, January 23, 2009, 9:30 am–4:00 pm Library leadership is an essential core value for all who work in libraries. Effective communication skills, both verbal and non-verbal, are necessities for developing a vision, and the organizational advocacy for that vision. You will learn the essential tools to: • Identify best communication practices for leadership including interpersonal communication, group dynamics, negotiation and conflict resolution; • Understand, and build your successful leadership communication style; • Understand, and work with the communication styles of others. Speaker: Alexis Sarkisian, international marketing executive, consultant, and entrepreneur, uses her education and professional experience today to help libraries and library staff to understand and utilize best practices in library marketing communication. Alexis is also a member of the adjunct staff at Dominican University. Registration Fees: Advance and Onsite: ALA Member, $285; Division/RT Member, $235; Non-Member, $385; Student/Retired Member, $135 Event Code: LA2
"Behind the Genealogy Reference Desk", Friday, Jan. 23, 2009, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Denver Public Library
Whatever happened to Uncle Seamus who left home to work on the railroads in the 1860s? Which families made the arduous journey along El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro to settle New Mexico? Who are my Arikaras ancestors? Attendees can uncover answers to these and other family history mysteries embedded in the various pioneering, native and immigration stories of the American West with tools and resources presented at the institute.
Participants will learn from local experts on the subject about how such resources as the Colorado Rail Museum and the Colorado State Archives can assist coast-to-coast family history research efforts. Speakers will also address ways to overcome the research barrier presented by closed-record environments. A complete speaker list and program overview are available at the RUSA website.
Registration rates after Dec. 5: $115, RUSA member; $135, ALA member; $160, non-member; $85, students and retirees.
To register: complete the Institute Registration Form. You do not need to register for the entire Midwinter Meeting to attend this symposium. Just fill in Section II, along with your payment information and event code (RU1). Then, fax your completed form to 1-800-521-6017.
Or login and add the institute to your Midwinter Meeting registration ("Step 6: Your Events").
- YALSA: *"Reaching Today's Diverse Teens": There are over 30 million teens in America today and they are the most ethnically diverse generation ever. Are you ready for them? Join us from 9:00 to 4:30 and learn how to identify all of the teens in your service area, as well as learn exciting, interactive and innovative ways to reach this diverse group. Serving recent teen immigrants will also be explored, as will how to maximize your impact by collaborating with youth serving organizations in your community. Presenters include Jennifer Velasquez, Teen Services Coordinator at San Antonio PL, and Yolonda Cuesta, Consultant for Cuesta Multicultural Consulting. Lunch provided. Ticketed event. $210 for YALSA members, students and retirees; $250 for ALA members; $300 for nonmembers. Code: YA2


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A Swanley stable has been destroyed in a devastating fire causing around £50,000 of damage.
Six horses and foals were led to safety by firefighters after a barn fire in Swanley Village last night.
Crews from Dartford, Swanley and Thames-side attended the blaze in Gildenhill Road which started about 8pm.
Witnesses say the flames could be seen from as faraway as West Kingsdown which is more than six miles away from the field.
About 50 haybales also went up in flames at the New Hope Stables and they were still smoking on Thursday morning after heavy rainfall.
The horses called Deliah and Georgi, Al Capone, Olivia and Charlie-Sugar and Pickles were all trying to get over their ordeal, some were even left with coughs after the fire.
Dartford watch manager Ian Hampson was one of the officers who led the horses to safety.
He told News Shopper: "We were called to reports of hay bales alight. When we got there myself Firefighter Henham made our way across the fields on foot as there was a locked, metal gate blocking our access to the bails.
"When we reached the fire we realised that the nearby stables had set alight.
"The first two were completely enveloped by the fire.
"We looked into the third stable and found a mare and a foal – the fire was breaking through and if we hadn't got there they would have had about a minute until the fire reached them.
"We got them out of the stable and worked our way down the rest of the stables saving six mares and foals.
"It was all we could do, we couldn't save the stables because we didn't have any water.
"The stables were 100 per cent destroyed in the fire, if we had been any later the horses would have perished."
Danny Turner, watch manager from Thames-side fire station, addd: "The stables were completely alight when we arrived.
"Ian was the initial incident commander and he took charge of the situation.
"He is knows a lot about horses and he is a bit of a horse man.
"If you wanted anyone to get the horses out of the stables he was the man for the job.
"He saved the group of horses and foals and led them to safety."
Along with eight stables being totally destroyed there was also a caravan, trailor, feed barn, container and fencing.
One of the owners said: "We are literally left with just a field. But we are so thankful to the firefighters for saving the horses lives."
The club say they also had £7000 of tacking stolen on Tuesday and that included saddles and bridles which were left at the site.
A Kent Fire and Rescue spokeman said: "There are no reports of any injuries and the cause of the fire is currently unknown."
There was a burst water main in Church Road which Thames Water also attended to on Thursday causing delays in the area.


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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Bulldogs will make their third trip
to the conference tournament championship weekend in five seasons
thanks to an all-around dominating performance in the best-of-three
ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals at Ingalls Rink. No. 13 Yale got goals
from three different players and limited the opposition to 17 shots
in a 3-0 win over St. Lawrence to advance to the semifinals next
Friday night at Atlantic City, N.J.
Tommy Fallen had a goal and an assist, Stu Wilson had two helpers and Jeff Malcolm stopped everything that came his way, including six power plays, to earn the win in net. That's no small order considering the Saints (18-16-4) had one of the nation's best power plays heading into the weekend series.
"Very pleased with the way our guys played all six periods. Tonight they had us under the gun, more than last night," said Keith Allain '80, Yale's Malcolm G. Chace Head Coach of Hockey, whose team seeks a third ECAC Tournament title. "Their power play is the absolute strength of their hockey team. For us to keep them off the board on that was a real momentum swing for us."
The Elis (18-10-2), winners of five straight games and sitting seventh in the Pairwise rankings after tonight's win, converted two of four advantages on the way to ending St. Lawrence's season.
The Bulldogs took advantage of their second advantage to grab the game's first goal late in the opening frame. The puck worked around from Wilson to Kenny Agostino and then to Fallen at the point. The sophomore blueliner collected in the high slot and blasted a rising shot that went bar down. It was the only tally of a period that had the Blue with a 14-4 shots advantage.
Clinton Bourbonais' five-minute major boarding call in the second minute of the middle period not only meant an early end to the junior forward's night, it gave SLU a great opportunity to get a few goals. The Yale penalty-kill unit, which did not get used Friday night, limited the Saints to three shots on target and then killed off a minor a few minutes after.
"That [kill] was a huge momentum swing. Everybody was really up on it, and we didn't get down on ourselves. We pulled through and were very successful," said Fallen.
Malcolm came up with the big saves when needed and the special teams unit won the battles to loose pucks and kept sending pucks to the other end.
Allain was impressed with his senior goalie's performance. "The shot totals were low tonight, but they had some really good chances. They have some guys who can really shoot the puck. I thought he [Malcolm] had an outstanding weekend."
After killing off the fifth of the night, the Elis thought they had made it 2-0 with 8:48 left in the second, but a goal was waved off due to a high stick on the shot. Agostino backhanded his own rebound out of the air above his waist.
The home team still managed to make it 2-0 with 5:42 remaining after a Jeremy Wick penalty. Fallen fired from the point off Matt Weninger's pads and Jesse Root pounced on the rebound with a backhander five-hole at 14:18.
The Elis increased the lead to three with an extra man on the ice during a delayed penalty. Colin Dueck got the puck to a speeding Antoine Laganiere, who skated into the middle slot before wristing a shot stick side on Weninger for his 14th goal of the season.
The Bulldogs completed a weekend series sweep by answering SLU's first goal in game one with nine straight goals while allowing the visitors just 30 shots on goal over six periods.
"We really went out and executed everything our coaches talked about," said Fallen.
SLU was the first Yale opponent to go on the power play in three games; the Eli penalty-kill unit did not get used the last two games… Andrew Miller's assist on the Jesse Root goal was his 110th career helper, which is three shy of Bob Brooke's school record… Jeff Malcolm registered his fifth career shutout in his final appearance at Ingalls Rink. That puts him one behind Ryan Rondeau and Alec Richards for the Yale record.
Yale Advances to Semifinals
|St. Lawrence (18-16-4, 9-9-4 ECAC)
|Yale (18-10-2, 12-9-1 ECAC)
NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Bulldogs will make their third trip
to the conference tournament championship weekend in five seasons
thanks to an all-around dominating performance in the best-of-three
ECAC Hockey Quarterfinals at Ingalls Rink. No. 13 Yale got goals
from three different players and limited the opposition to 17 shots
in a 3-0 win over St. Lawrence to advance to the semifinals next
Friday night at Atlantic City, N.J.


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The award had been presented to the Oversight Committeee and approved without going through any scientific review. It was a combination award to Rice and to an organization, IACS (Institute for Applied Cancer Science), associated with Lynda Chin, a scientist and wife of the president of M.D. Anderson, Ronald DePinho. Remarkably, the IACS portion of the award had not been reviewed by the provost of either Rice or M.D. Anderson, and after reaching CPRIT, it was rushed through the CPRIT approval process in a very short timeframe in March 2012, and not at all in the regular way of electronic submission and a review process mentioned in yesterday's post.
Apparently, this had been in the works for some time. CPRIT memos show discussion of this between Jerry Cobbs, the Chief Commercialization Officer, and the IACS people as early as January. And Charles Sherr, a member of the Scientific Review Council, recounted in a May email that he had run into DePinho in October at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Over cocktails, I ran into Ron who immediately told me that he was in direct touch with 'the higher-ups' who run CPRIT and that the program and Al would soon be under pressure to change the current approach. . . . [I suggested] he might speak directly to Al. Well appreciating Ron's malignant ambition . . . , I was not blind-sided later by the proposal to mount 'a Lynda Chin Institute' under the auspices of Ron and MDACC. It is my firm belief that Ron has played a direct and important role in helping to orchestrate what is, in effect, a coup d'etat.
Dr. Gilman, on the other hand, was very much blindsided.
A week before the Oversight Committee meeting, I learned essentially by accident that CPRIT was to make an $18M aware to Lynda Chin to fund the Institute for Applied Cancer Science. The proposal on which this was based was less than 7 pages, was submitted via the back door on March 11, and was presented to the Oversight Committee for funding less than two weeks later.
When he discovered it, he was extremely angry. Bill Gimson, the executive director of CPRIT, wrote to a member of the Oversight Committee:
Al is very, very upset that the Lynda Chin operation at MD Anderson is coming in as an incubator – he feels that she did that to avoid the research peer review and that it is not an incubator because it is research.
Earlier, Dr. Gilman had bought off on approving a $4 million grant for an incubator sponsored by Rice University, one pushed heavily by Charles Tate, a venture capitalist and commercialization advocate appointed to CPRIT's Oversight Committee by Dewhurst (Tate had made campaign contributions amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars to Dewhurst). The incubator was to be allowed to chose promising projects without the usual scientific oversight. (My personal thought is that this was possibly a tactical error on Gilman's part that he agreed to it, as this project was designed to be the "foot in the door" for enabling many future projects to evade the regular process of scientific review, judging by the fact that it was later described by a proponent as a commitment "to run a separate line aimed at commercialization that did not rest on scientific review.") Now, the IACS's short proposal was joined with the Rice incubator project and the grant amount vastly increased under the rubric of describing the whole thing as appropriate for an "incubator." As Gilman angrily wrote:
An award of $18 million for a research proposal without a research review – based on the administrative act of bolting it to an incubator proposal and the claim that this is an appropriate award for an incubator – is amazingly transparent. Deny it all you want, everyone who has looked at the proposal realizes that it is a joke. Everyone will also wonder why they cannot submit a seven page general description of a modus operandi, free of detail, and receive a multi-million dollar award if they simply say, 'I hope to commercialize something, sometime.'
In addition, plans going forward by those who wanted to remold CPRIT were for commercialization projects to take around half of remaining monies after administration costs and a statutorily-designated 10% for cancer prevention research and activities. This was very different from what had occurred up to that point. The bulk of over the $700 million already awarded had gone to research. Matt Winkler, a member of CPRIT's Scientific and Prevention Advisory Council, stated blandly:
We should really get out of the business of copying what the NIH does.Joined with the idea that many "translational" projects should NOT be subject to scientific review, this was too much for Dr. Gilman – and ultimately for many others – to swallow.
Not science but business was the new order of the day at CPRIT, as its leaders made clear when the news of Dr. Gilman's resignation was leaked to the press. Bill Gimson, the CPRIT Executive Director, defended CPRIT's increased emphasis on commercialization, stating in June:
We're going to reinvent ourselves on a regular basis.As to the celerity with which the grant was approved, he said:
We did indeed move quickly with the review of the collaboration between Rice and MD Anderson, just as we have fast tracked other very exciting and potentially lifesaving commercial ventures and research recruitment awards – which can be approved in as little as a couple of weeks.Dr. DePinho wrote the Houston Chronicle to contend that:
ACS is a game-changer - not a traditional research undertaking - that provides a robust pipeline for successful drug development. ... Because it is not a research project, no in-depth science was included. ... With its industry-seasoned professional staff numbering 56, the IACS conducts rigorous, goal-oriented, milestone-driven activities …Some may choose to call our proposal 'research.' We call it business, and we are confident Texans will be the beneficiaries. ... The current output of the IACS pipeline will prove its commercial impact in the near future.


text:
No computer, no mouse, no keyboard, no cables, just an iPad, an iPhone. That seems to be a minimalistic configuration for blogging and doing all the other things where an electronic device is a bit more comfortable than a pen, sheets of paper, card boxes, and postage stamps.
This time I want to talk about blogging on WordPress, the biggest free blogging platform in the world, with a minimalistic configuration supported by Apple's ecosystem.
The hardware …
I use this hardware configuration at home and the iPhone on-the-go and at home as a second screen.
The apps …
All mentioned apps are so-called 'universal' apps that means you download once from Apple's AppStore and the apps are installed across all devices which are configured with the same Apple ID. All my apps are able to connect to cloud storages so that information can be accessed from the iPad as well as the iPhone when on-the-go. Additionally they keep the data in the local app folders, an indispensable requirement. WordPress, PlainText, iThoughts, and Keynote, the essential apps for blogging, save their files automatically in their local documents folder. This allows working even if an internet connection is temporarily not available. Syncing is automatically done if the iOS device reconnects.
Essential data are synced with Dropbox (supported by most of the apps in Apple's app store) and additionally with Box to increase data security (redundant storages). Unfortunately Dropbox still doesn't allow WebDAV access which is required when saving iWork documents on an other storage than iCloud. So my second cloud provider is Box (for personal use, 10GB free, perfect UI and features available in the iOS app, perfect content sharing platform, available since 2005). Box supports WebDAV so iWork documents can alternatively saved on Box from within all iWork apps by using the command 'Copy to WebDAV'.
All apps are developed by reliable companies and offer regular updates and feature extensions as well as adaption to major changes of the operating system like Apple's update of iOS in Sep 2013.
The blog engine
This app is used to finally create the textual and formatted part of a blogpost with added images or videos. It also manages the WordPress database where your posts are stored. Posts can be saved as drafts for further editing, published immediately (even via E-Mail sent to WordPress), or scheduled.
Powerful stats give you an overview of the number of visitors from each country, followers, referrers, search engine terms, top posts and pages, clicks, tags, and categories you assigned to your posts. Backups of the whole blog data can be made by exporting an the database contents as an XML file.
It's recommended to activate Akismet (a subsidiary of WordPress) to keep your blog clean of spam comments.
Apple's Keynote
Breath life into your posts
There is no other comparable app for creating presentations on mobiles like Apple's Keynote, part of the iWork Suite. With Keynote I create all the images you see in my blogs as well as images for social networks. Creating an image in Keynote is a funny task. Collages created with images (e.g. screenshots of running apps on your device), added text and symbols, varying opacities, and connecting lines breath life into your post.
And it's all synced with your other iOS devices via iCloud.
Visualize your thoughts
Take this mind mapping tool for brainstorming, feature descriptions, or all other kind of information which should be summarized visually.
Tap Forms
Keep it all together
Using a database is the right way to keep different information together. With Tap Forms I manage all posts, post intros for sharing on social networks, images, and links. This is also done automatically by WordPress but the iOS app lacks because some useful features covered by my database are only available via a browser which, in some cases, is a quite painful way to access essential information about posts.
Back to the roots
Don't care about formatting. This can be done later. Content is essential and content doesn't need bells and whistles but a running brain. To keep the mobility the editor should be connected to a cloud storage so that editing can be continued anytime, everywhere with one of the two devices.
PlainText is connected to the cloud storage Dropbox as well as iCloud and automatically saves edited text in the cloud. Just write what's in your mind, the rest is managed by the app. As an alternative I recommend the app ByWord which supports Markdown. The app can be updated so that text can easily posted to WordPress, Tumblr, Blogger, Scriptogram, and Evernote.
Note (1)
Simple text editing for users aged from 4-104.
The first text editors were Line Editors oriented to teleprinter- or typewriter- style terminals without a display. On some line editors, the cursor could be moved by commands! Line editors drastically improved text editing. In 1982 the Personal Editor was developed for PC DOS, the IBM operating system for their first personal computers like IBM PC, XT, or AT.
Limitations in Personal Editor led to the development and release of the E-Editor (E.exe) in 1984, a much faster editor that supported very long files and included a substantially enhanced user interface.
The story of the E-Family began and has not yet ended.
Simple editors are still in vogue because
- the application loads within a blink
- there is no need to learn how to use it
- the file format (txt) is readable by all machines and applications
- most of the simple editors sync automatically across iOS devices
are a perfect way to quickly write down a basic idea for further platform-independent usage with all other apps like an E-Mail client, a grown-up word processor like Apple's Pages, or a mind mapping tool like iThoughts.
Note (2)
Markdown is a plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can optionally be converted to HTML. Markdown is popularly used as format for readme files, or for writing messages in online discussion forums, or in text editors for the quick creation of rich text documents. Markdown works with special characters like *italic* or **bold** to format text as italic or bold.
There is no clearly defined Markdown standard, apart from the original writeup and implementation by John Gruber, which is considered to be abandonware, leading to fragmentation as different vendors write their own variants of the language to correct flaws or add missing features.
The text recognition engine
Sometimes it's worth to take a quick screenshot of an information. Then, if you want to quote, you need a text recognition application which allows to convert an image into text. The far best app is Prizmo. Prizmo supports syncing via iCloud so that screenshots or photos made with the iPhone are also available on the iPad to extract text later.
AIO Remote
The document manager
Sometimes it's necessary to scan documents (e.g. invoices of charged accounts, …) with the AirPrint capable HP printer or copy them. The app also provides file management. The HP printer can be fully controlled by the app.
The content network
G+ for iOS devices let you publish links to your WordPress blogs on Google+ to quickly extend your audience when posting to appropriate communities.
The data management tool
The best app to manage files on cloud storages as well as computers is FileBrowser by Stratospherix, now also supporting Point.IO. By using a VPN connection you can access storages of remote computers in your office. FileBrowser supports the display of Microsoft Office files, Apple iWork files, PDF files, and other well-known formats.
Additional apps
Various tasks
For other related tasks the software configuration can be extended by TeamViewer Remote Control (managing the still indispensable Windows PC in the office) and further apps which connect you with other social networks like LinkedIn, Pinterest, Scoop.it, Path, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, Twitter, and Facebook. An additional useful app is the free version 'PS Express' by Adobe for some basic editing of images.
Blog articles with high quality require intense researches to enable readers to validate your content and for quoting content of other authors. This can be done by using the mind mapping tool iThoughts with it's integrated browser or by saving links as bookmarks in Safari using a special folder like 'BlogResearch'. Doing it with iThoughts is the more convenient way if you create the blog structure already with a mind map.
The whole configuration …
Made with iThoughts for the iPad here is a summary of all compontents I use for blogging.
If you use a mind mapping tool you can benefit from links assigned to topics. These topics are marked with a small globe. Tapping on a topic opens the website within the integrated browser of iThoughts without switching to the standard browser.
Feel free to download this mind map.
The alternative file formats have been created with iThoughts HD for iPad (.ITMZ file format). Compatibility to other tools is limited. The DOCX file format is suggested for those who don't use a mind mapping tool. The file contains the image as well as a detailed outline of all topics.
|File format
|Adobe Reader
|Apple iWork/Microsoft Office
Related links …
DBMS on iOS devices (1)
DBMS on iOS devices (2)
DBMS on iOS devices (3)
Text Recognition (1)
Text Recognition (2)
Summary …
It works but admittedly it would work also with a cheaper configuration when using Android devices. But the price is often not the one and only criterion. In my case it's the homage to a great visionary, an innovator, and a top influencer of our times.
It was Steve Jobs who forced me to join Apple's ecosystem and start blogging about this fascinating company and the much more fascinating people who made Apple to the most valuable and innovative company in the world (Forbes 2013).
The only task which cannot be done with an iOS device is uploading of files to websites like BIGGERPLATE, the mind mapping platform.
Thanks for being a loyal visitor on iNotes4You.com.


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Play/Floor time
My son turns 5 months tomorrow. After reading many posts I have grown concerned that I do not spend enough play time with him. We do about 2 hours a day on the floor or in his...
Started by Elizabeth on 01/27/2010 in August 2009 Babies
Last update on 02/02/2010 by Alexis


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Kentucky beat Florida, at Florida, 74-59 and wrapped up an all but guaranteed No. 1 seed come Tournament time. The win was Kentucky's 22nd straight victory and capped a perfect season in the SEC. Florida fans wanted this one badly, so they distributed flyers to assist in distracting and psyching out Kentucky players. Some highlights include:
Boo: Boo Marquis Teague whenever he has the ball to get in his head early. He is Kentucky's weakest link.
Player Dirt:
#23 Anthony Davis has a unibrow. Enough said.
And, of course:
Needles: When #20 Doron Lamb has the ball, chant this at him (similar to Air Ball). He has a fear of needles and the dark.
The entire flyer is helpfully provided below. (Click to enlarge.)


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FBI: Pre-Super Bowl white powder deemed not hazardous
NEW YORK — The FBI said Friday that white powder found at New Jersey hotels near the site of the Super Bowl and at the Manhattan office of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani proved to be non-hazardous.
Hazardous materials teams and bomb squads responded after white powder was found at several hotels near New Jersey's MetLife Stadium, authorities said.
The FBI In New York tweeted Friday afternoon: "Substances in suspicious letters in New York and New Jersey deemed non hazardous. Additional testing to come."
The contents of one letter sent to the Homewood Suites in East Rutherford was tested and determined to be cornstarch, East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella said.
And a New York police spokesman said the letter sent to Giuliani's office contained a "non-toxic substance." Still, eight employees in the mailroom were decontaminated as a precaution, and no one has shown any sign of illness.
The contents of the letter "did not appear threatening," a New York police spokesman said, adding that the letter included the line, "always in my thoughts."
The letter was postmarked from Toronto, Ontario, and contained a name and return address. New York law enforcement authorities were in touch with Canadian authorities to pursue the source of the letter, police said.
In New Jersey, Hackensack University Medical Center evaluated some people who may have come in contact with the suspicious letters, a State Police spokesman said. No illnesses or injuries were reported.
In a statement, the FBI said earlier Friday: "The Joint Terrorism Task Force and Hazard Materials units have responded to several locations that have received a suspicious letter and substance. There are no reported injuries at this time, and the locations are being secured."
The scares come amid tight security before Sunday's game. More air marshals and behavioral detection officers, radiological detection teams and random baggage checks at transit hubs are among the security measures the federal Homeland Security Department deployed to help local police in New Jersey and New York secure the Super Bowl.
The stadium's location near a major airport and busy commuter train lines presents security challenges. Unlike audiences for other championship games, spectators of Super Bowl XLVIII will rely heavily on mass transit.
Chris Murray, business management president at the Quality Inn in Lyndhurst, said the hotel received a suspicious letter but he did not know what was inside the envelope. He said local police were at the hotel and that a Hazmat team and bomb squad were expected to examine the letter.
Murray said other hotels on the same corner in Lyndhurst also received suspicious envelopes — including the Renaissance and Marriott Courtyard.
The letter was sitting on a desk in his office, Murray said.
Other hotels that received suspicious packages included the Econo Lodge, Holiday Inn and Hampton Inn in Carlstadt, and Renaissance Inn and Homestead in Rutherford.
Law enforcement officials told CNN that six letters were discovered in New Jersey.
™ & © 2014 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.AlertMe


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Frédéric Keck has kindly provided us with a brief account of his personal exchanges with Lévi-Strauss, the legacy of his work, and how he contributed to Keck's exploration of French anthropology. Keck is currently a researcher in social anthropology at the National Center for Scientific Research in France (CNRS):
How I discovered Claude Lévi-Strauss through « French Theory »
[January 25, 2010]
After the death of Claude Lévi-Strauss on October 31st 2009, local newspapers celebrated « the last French intellectual ». Lost in the murky waters of a debate on « national identity », France seems to have found in Lévi-Strauss a collective totem to recall the grandeur of its cultural production. It would have been more faithful to the historical truth, and to the structuralist method itself, to talk about « the last Franco-American intellectual ». Lévi-Strauss always claimed that everything he knew about anthropology he learnt in the libraries of New York during the war. And he continues the tradition of American cultural anthropology, founded by Franz Boas, as well as the French tradition of social thought, opened by Auguste Comte. Hence the acronym he created for his chair at the Collège de France, mixing these two traditions: social anthropology. The extraordinary creativity of Lévi-Strauss's works probably comes from the fact that they were produced at this limit between two intellectual traditions: the prestigious French history from Montaigne to Rousseau, and the tragic American history, from anonymous Indian myth-tellers to the exiled figures of Boas and Jakobson. This double origin also accounts for the fact that, in a catastrophic century such as the one which has just passed and in which Lévi-Strauss happened to live, he displayed such a belief in the rationality of Enlightenment, thus giving us reasons to hope for the coming future.
It is true that in the last ten years Lévi-Strauss appeared more as a literary writer than as a scientist. It was one of the reasons why he survived the demise of structuralism: his anthropological work was overcome by critics coming from cognitive sciences and postmodern politics, but his writings still showed this marvelous classical style. Hence the incredible success of the publication of his « œuvres » in the prestigious « Bibliothèque de la Pléiade » where major literary writers are raised to eternity. In this volume, he republished not only Tristes tropiques, the book that made him famous and that he considered with remorse as an undue confession, but also Le totémisme aujourd'hui and La pensée sauvage, two books that he conceived as one and that constitute a major philosophical step in twentieth century thought. He added what he called his « small Mythologics » – La voie des masques, La potière jalouse and Histoire de Lynx – to present to a wider public the refined methods of his « tetralogy », and finally Regarder écouter lire, a free wandering in the great works of art of his personal memory. Since I contributed to the edition of this volume (with Vincent Debaene, Marie Mauzé and Martin Rueff), I have had to explain how it was gathered, and the signification it has taken in our current intellectual situation.
As many researchers of my generation, I came to anthropology through a reading of what is now called « French Theory »: a constellation of French thinkers who are widely read and used in the United States and elsewhere, but seldom mentioned in their own context of production. I learnt anthropology at UC Berkeley under the enlightened supervision of Paul Rabinow because I wanted to know how the works of Michel Foucault could be put to the test of fieldwork. When I came back to France in 2000, I was surprised to see that this kind of anthropology was not under great consideration. I had to do a PhD on the history of French anthropology starting from Auguste Comte's notion of fetishism until what came to be known as theories of « primitive mentality ». I sent this work to Claude Lévi-Strauss who very kindly wrote me a letter in 2003 and started a correspondence about the various publications I was to extract from this work. Lévi-Strauss could be extremely severe in his comments, not so much on theoretical points, for which he gave me the greatest freedom as when I compared his notion of « savage mind » to that of « logic of practice » in Bourdieu, but on empirical data, as when he told me I had made mistakes on the Navaho classifications of Artemisia frigida or in the description of the Gulo luscus in the Hidatsa eagle-hunting ritual. I was amazed to see that the precision of details on natural environments was more important to him than theoretical debates long overdated. This attitude was confirmed by the attention he gave to the edition of his works in « La Pléiade » and by the generosity he showed in answering our minute questions. I often felt embarrassed to ask him when he wrote such and such text – he never had the memory of dates and was desperately searching in his immense past – but I was rewarded with nice documents lent by his shaking hand, and with the spectacle of him reading while I was working in his apartment.
It now seems to me that the rigor with which Lévi-Strauss dealt with anthropological knowledge is one of the causes of the extraordinary stimulation produced by the works of « French Theory ». Lévi-Strauss was not doing theory for itself but to give a new visibility to empirical data that remain in themselves unordered and unnoticed. His totalizing notion of an unconscious structure has been criticized for the prejudices it carries, but the way this theory was put to work still remains accessible in his writing, particularly thanks to the formidable twist he imposed with the use of the notion of groups of transformations in his Mythologics. As such, it still continues to produce among the most exciting works of anthropology, on Amerindian cosmologies or on global forms of scientific knowledge. Reading and meeting Lévi-Strauss when he was alive was a way to go back to the sources of « French Theory », and to give it a new productivity. It was probably necessary to practice once again Lévi-Strauss's detour through American anthropology to understand why he is not only « the last French intellectual », but the impulse for new intellectual work to come in a global community.
- Lévi-Strauss and Bird Flu: How to Do the Structural Anthropology of a Virtual Catastrophe ~ Frédéric Keck
- My Teacher, Claude Lévi-Strauss ~ Richard Price
- On the Anthropology of Levi-Strauss ~ Marshall Sahlins
- The James Smithson Medal and Levi-Strauss: A Gift Exchange ~ Edgardo Krebs
- Sidney Mintz & Levi-Strauss ~ Sidney Mintz


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KTM ATV Graphics
Do you have these graphics on your bike/ATV? Use #wildnative on Instagram.
For color changes, choose the Color Change option in the Add Customization section and inform us of what changes you'd like in the SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS BOX during Checkout.
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The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is shaping up to be a great piece of technology, but that potential greatness has always been tempered by the worry that most games would never support it.
Thank the Maker for community-created software, then, because cybereality's Vireio Perception driver means that games like Mirror's Edge, Skyrim, Half-Life 2, Portal 2, Left 4 Dead and DiRT 2 are working with the VR goggles.
As is falling death simulator AaaaAAAAA!!!!!!!!, in case you're feeling especially brave.
There's still no word on a release date or price for the consumer version of the Oculus, but a developer version will be shipping in April.
Introducing Vireio Perception (3D Driver for Oculus Rift) [mtbs3d, via PC Gamer]


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Arthur Miller classic provides 'dream roles' for ensemble
'A View From the Bridge' at Laurie Theater through SundayWhen the Brandeis Theater Company brings Arthur Miller's classic tale of loyalty, betrayal and revenge to the Laurie Theater stage, they'll bring audiences on a journey.
Much like the journey the ensemble has experienced together for nearly three years.
The ensemble cast is composed of third-year MFA acting students, who have worked as a group since they began the program.
Michael Hammond will direct the production.
Sarah Elizabeth Bedard says the process of playing such dramatic dream roles has been freeing for the six stars because they've developed so much trust between one another.
"We've been able to move into this really vulnerable and scary place with each other," Bedard says. "We've worked together for a long time, really intimately, and built a lot of trust. That allows us to [be willing to] fail big" in rehearsals as they honed their performances.
The story follows the Italian American Carbone family in 1950s Red Hook, Brooklyn. Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman who, along with his wife Beatrice, has taken in his orphaned niece Catherine. Soon their relationship is challenged when Beatrice's two cousins, Marco and Rodolpho, illegally arrive from Italy, and Rodolpho begins a relationship with Catherine.
Bedard's character, Catherine, is transitioning from girlhood to womanhood and trying to navigate what that really means. It tells a very human story, Bedard says.
"The show and our production of it really takes the audience on the journey with us," she says. "It's not voyeuristic. We're in the room with the audience and we say come with us."
Performances of "A View From the Bridge" will run from Thursday, Feb. 6 through Sunday, Feb. 9. All performances are in the Laurie Theater of the Springold Theater Center at 8 p.m., and at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $20 ($15 for Brandeis community and seniors, $5 for students), and can be purchased at Brandeis Tickets.
Return to the BrandeisNOW homepage
Categories: Arts


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Politics & Government
Plan to fix Kentucky pension system calls for big spending and big changes
FRANKFORT — Kentucky must pay far more into its state pension system — starting with an extra $327 million in Fiscal Year 2015 — and trim retirement benefits for new and existing workers, a legislative task force agreed Tuesday.
The task force met throughout the year to discuss the $12 billion Kentucky Retirement Systems, which has less than half the money it needs to provide lifetime pensions and health coverage for state and local government employees.
The panel voted Tuesday for a package of reforms that will be introduced as bills in the 2013 General Assembly.
Most significant, the state's annual contribution to the pension fund, which recently has been only half the recommended sum, would jump to the full recommended sum in two years. Compared to the $505 million contribution due in the upcoming fiscal year, the bill would be $832 million in Fiscal Year 2015 and $1 billion in Fiscal Year 2020.
The state currently spends less than that — $938 million — on all of its state universities and community and technical colleges. Clearly, a huge part of the state budget will be redirected into the pension fund from 2015 onward, as retiring public workers take the lion's share, lawmakers said Tuesday.
"No, I'm not comfortable with it," said Rep. Mike Cherry, D-Princeton, co-chairman of the task force. "I don't know what to say. This is one of those situations where if you don't do anything, the problem is just going to get worse."
About 70 percent of the state's contribution into the Kentucky Retirement Systems comes from the state's General Fund, Cherry said. The rest is paid by dozens of "quasi-public employers" allowed to join KRS over the years, including a variety of non-profit and social-service agencies.
Cherry and Sen. Damon Thayer, R-Georgetown, the other co-chairman, said task force members could not agree on how to raise enough revenue or cut enough spending to provide the extra money. Gov. Steve Beshear and the full legislature will have to decide that, they said.
Meanwhile, groups representing public workers immediately protested Tuesday when they learned of concessions they would be asked to make.
A law requiring annual cost-of-living adjustments in pensions would be repealed. New workers would not get the traditional defined-benefits pension. Instead, they would be enrolled in a "hybrid cash balance" plan that guaranteed at least a 4 percent return on money they and their employer set aside over the years. And unlike current public workers, new workers would not have their retirement benefits protected by an "inviolable contract" to prevent future reductions.
"The General Assembly created the current crisis by consistently failing to provide the annual required contribution," said Jim Carroll, spokesman for a watchdog group called Kentucky Government Retirees. "This legislative neglect should not be a basis for creating two classes of employees — those whose retirement benefits are guaranteed and those whose benefits can be changed at the whim of the legislature."
Lawmakers said everyone must share the pain. Under the hybrid cash balance plan, new public workers would be responsible for saving enough for retirement, just as most private sector workers are, they said.
"What we're doing with this that we've never done before is that we're sharing the risk," Cherry said.
In private discussions recently, task force members rejected a proposal to pay down the pension system's unfunded liability with a $780 million state bond, Thayer said. The state already is too deep in debt, a situation the bond would have aggravated, he said. However, it's possible some lawmakers might revive the idea of a bond during the 2013 session, he added.
The task force voted 11-1 to approve the plan. The sole "no" vote came from Sen. Joey Pendleton, D-Hopkinsville, who said he opposed the repeal of cost-of-living adjustments for retirees.


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simonshack wrote:A- Activate smoke generators slightly before 9:59am (when TV viewers will be shown the first tower collapse)
simonshack wrote:Oh, and by the way, let me just clarify one thing: YES, I do believe Manhattan was enveloped in smoke until dusk. Lots, and lots of smoke.
In fact, far - far too much smoke to be possibly 'justified' by any sort of building collapse.
Any demolition job - however large - has the dust settling in the matter of minutes - NOT hours.
How much dust will be created?
No more dust will be created by implosion than would be by conventional demolition (crane/wrecking ball). The advantage to implosion is that the dust will be created during one specific short-term event. Therefore, appropriate precautions, such as covering heating and cooling systems and closing doors/windows, can be employed to protect surrounding areas from dust. If the two Towers were demolished conventionally, the process would take much longer to perform and these precautions would not be feasible for that extended period of time. In this implosion dust will be minimal because the building materials that are known to create excessive dust (furniture, masonry, plaster, drywall, wood) will be largely removed prior to implosion. Dust may linger in the immediate area for 5 to 10 minutes following the implosion. The extent the dust will travel depends on weather conditions and wind speed. Given the large vacant area surrounding the Towers, the majority of the dust will remain on the site.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^PLEASE READ ABOVE PARAGRAPH WITH UTMOST ATTENTION^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^simonshack wrote:*
Here are two animated gifs showing the smoke gushing out (*and back into! )of WTC7 (as shown on TV):
*Yes, the History Channel actually ran that scene - above right - in reverse motion (with the smoke seemingly being 'sucked into' WTC7)...
Now - please understand: I am not saying that the above imagery is real. What I'm saying is that it was prefabricated (pre-planned by the 9/11 hoaxers) in order to depict something which would look close enough to what ACTUALLY would take place that morning, IN REALITY - as per their plan. That is, a bunch of military smoke generators blasting smoke out of the Southern façade of the WTC7.
"Simon Shack of September Clues has always said all the video from 9/11 is fake! If you even suggested ANY real 9/11 imagery you would be banned from his site. It happened to many people. I personally was attacked for suggesting not all the video was fake. Well now he has done a complete 180! I wonder why? Will he unban people?? lol He goes on to say that tower 7 was demolished to cover up the evidence of the smoke machines. He even says there is real video of 7 and of the smoke plume,etc . Something we have always suggested. Listen for yourself. This was on his appearance on the Ab Irato show about 3 weeks ago."
Brian Staveley wrote:
I made a mistake. I misinterpreted what you said on Ab Irato's show. Someone brought to my attention your post on it and after reading it and relistening to your audio I realize I made a huge mistake. I am not expecting a return email or anything. Just saying I'm sorry for an honest mistake and will be putting a retraction up right away and telling anyone I emailed I was mistaken. I thought you had changed your mind on it all being 100 percent fake. Careless mistake on my part. I was not attacking you for it though. If indeed you did change your mind on that as I thought I'm sure you can see how it would be worth noting.. I should have listened to it a few times before making that conclussion and then posting it.We may not agree or whatever but I am not about spreading lies or putting words in one's mouth. Your views are your views and I do not want to be the one misrepresenting anyone's opinion. I am putting a retraction up now.
Brian S. Staveley Founder Of http://www.therealnewsonline.com
Published on Sep 3, 2015
Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI) of Phoenix, Maryland, USA (acting as Implosion Subcontractor to Main Demolition Contractor, Iconco, Inc. of Oakland, California) performs the successful explosives felling of the 31-story (356' tall), reinforced concrete hotel tower in Las Vegas, Nevada 5:37 AM on Tuesday, November 7, 1995. CDI worked closely with Warner Bros. Studios, Director Tim Burton and their special effects team to coordinate the implosion with their filming operations for the major motion picture "Mars Attacks!"
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Here we are now, Entertain us
Really nothing pressing here, just pointing, mockingly, to Kev & Charles in Spin, sharing their brief old-man reminiscences of the first time they heard Nirvana's Nevermind, which came out 20 years ago now. Which is pretty bonkers. Almost as bonkers as us in Spin.
Picture two old Muppets in the balcony grousing about "how it used to be", that sort of thing. They're in pretty diverse & cool & frankly, un-wren-like company in the article (Ray Davies, John Waters, Flaming Lips, Deer Tick, some Sub Pop & Nirvana folks etc.) and some of what they share is even true. You can read it, here courtesy the nice folk at Spin…