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The basic three-bedroom house at 711 S.W. 27th Terrace looks like a lot of other homes that are in foreclosure here, with its empty beige stucco walls and a child's room done up in yellow and pink. And like many others, it is also sunk in an everglade of debt.
But by mid-June, the bank that owned the property was willing to deal. It no longer expected to get back much of the $359,000 borrowed on the house. Instead, it wanted to hand the keys over to someone else to mow the lawn and pay the electric bill. It asked real estate agent Denny Grimes to look for buyers.
He didn't have to look very far: Potential buyers found Mr. Grimes – quickly. He describes one of the open houses as resembling a tryout for "American Idol." Dozens of real estate agents lined up to trek through the house, now listed for $65,000, to inspect the tile floors in the bathrooms and the stainless-steel appliances in the kitchen. Within two weeks, Grimes had 34 bids spread out on his boardroom table –
several well above the asking price and some offering all cash.
The story of 711 S.W. 27th Terrace shows how the housing market in Cape Coral, not long ago one of the foreclosure capitals of America, is undergoing a revival – in what may be a harbinger for the nation.
Every day Lee County, on Florida's west coast, auctions off foreclosed properties that draw everyone from professional investors planning to renovate and resell the homes to retirees from Ohio and Michigan. Real estate agents who spent most of last year on chaise longues are now starting to haul cash-laden buyers around subdivisions to check out the granite countertops. One company, Foreclosure Tours R Us, ferries potential buyers around by boat.
Behind the sudden renewed interest is simple arithmetic: Prices have dropped so low that many people now think this is a once-in-a-generation chance to get a piece of the Florida sun. "It's not just the new home buyer," says Grimes. "It's also the guy who is retiring within nine years who knows this is the best opportunity he'll see."
While many parts of the country may not see a housing turnaround for another year or two – particularly given the vacuum-tight credit demands of banks – others are finally clawing their way up from the bottom. The first faint signs are there – stabilizing prices, an uptick in sales, and, most important, a reduction in the inventory of foreclosures compared with earlier in the year. The National Association of Realtors estimates that 45 percent of all home sales right now are "distressed" properties – many foreclosures. "This is part of the catharsis," says economist Richard DeKaser of Woodley Park Research in Washington. "This is a sign we are at the bottom."
As much as anyplace, Cape Coral offers a keyhole into what the nation's housing turnaround may look like.
LEE COUNTY, with its location along the sun-dappled Gulf Coast and low cost of living, has long been a magnet for retiring blue-collar workers. Housing is far less expensive than in tonier areas like Naples and Collier County, just to the south. There, it is Neiman Marcus or Nordstrom. Here, it is JCPenney and Sam's Club.
Three years ago, Lee County was steeped in the housing boom the way the rest of the country was – only more so. Between 2002 and 2006, prices in Florida's Miami-Dade County rose 129 percent. In Palm Beach County, they climbed 189 percent. In Lee County, they soared 280 percent.
Grimes jokes that it was a time when money was so easy to get and people were so eager to cash in on the seemingly endless boom, that they could run out during the half time of a football game and buy a house.
But then someone blew a whistle: The housing market collapsed. As in other parts of the country, homeowners became wildly overextended. Credit lines seized up. In Florida, the market imploded even more than elsewhere. In most states, 10 percent of employment is real estate-based – contractors, salespeople, lenders. In Florida, it is 24 percent.
Compounding the problem, the state, much like California, Nevada, and Arizona, also began to experience a slowdown in population growth. In the past, the influx of new faces helped buoy the real estate market.
But many people have been leaving the area. As evidence, Charlie Green, the clerk of Lee County, cites a decline in fees obtained from such things as traffic tickets. He estimates the school system has lost 3,000 students.
A significant part of the outflow is because of the lack of jobs. The unemployment rate now stands at 12 percent. All this has helped contribute to a foreclosure rate that until recently was among the worst in the nation.
"We had an influx of people, skilled laborers who came in after hurricane Charley in 2004," says Mr. Green. "But they all moved at once to Galveston, to North Carolina, to anywhere there was a job."
Yet in the housing business, there is very little that a big enough price drop won't cure. And that is now happening in Lee County. Grimes notes that at the peak of the market in 2006, only 12 homes in the entire county were selling for under $100,000. Now there are 3,554 listed. At least 50 homes are selling for under $25,000.
As a result, home sales have been increasing, in some months dramatically. Houses "are coming on the market and going into multiple-bid situations," says Suzanne Sherer, president of the Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach, Inc. "So we're almost seeing the situation where investors are pushing out the first-time home buyer. That could be a clear indication we are out of the bottom."
With the rise in sales, inventories are declining as well. Across the country, the National Association of Realtors estimates there is now a nine-month supply of homes on the market – down 15.8 percent from a year ago. In nearby Fort Myers, the supply is 3.8 months. Professional investors and even average homeowners are actually clamoring for more foreclosed real estate to be sold by banks.
Woody and Gloria Turner, for instance, are searching for a warmer place to live after several decades in Dayton, Ohio. He's a boat broker, she's retiring. They've just driven 17 hours to attend an auction, but, in the end, didn't bid because the minimum price was too high. The foreclosed property had a $651,000 mortgage. They hoped to pay no more than $250,000. They haven't given up, though: They're searching for a broker to negotiate with the bank.
"In the past, we weren't able to do this," says Mr. Turner. "It would have been just out of reach."
The single-story ranch house at 711 S.W. 27th Street also illustrates how much the real estate market in Lee County has vacillated. In 2003, the lot itself was listed for $28,500. It was on the market for 276 days and sold for $26,000 at the end of March 2004. The buyer, First Home
Builders of Florida, resold the lot for $35,900 three months later. Within a year, the new owners put up a house and listed it for $344,900.
The home carried a total of $359,600 in mortgages. Within six months, it was in foreclosure.
When Michael Polly, who works for Grimes, initially listed the house this spring at $65,000, it represented a potential loss of 82 percent. "To determine the value, we look at the last six months of sales and the competition in the area," says Mr. Polly.
In the cold-numbers world of real estate, however, one person's loss can be another's gain. Take Robert Bernard, an information systems specialist for a cable company. He was looking for a house not unlike the one at 711 to buy for his family. He wanted to spend under $80,000.
He's found it in the form of a duplex in Lehigh Acres, a suburb of Fort Myers.
"Previously, when I looked at houses, they were over $250,000, which is completely out of my budget," he says.
Now his father talks about planting lemon trees around the property. His entire family, originally from the Dominican Republic, will squeeze into the duplex. He has only one frustration: He has made offers on a number of properties, only to lose out to investors loaded with cash. "It's traumatic because of the investors," he says.
JUST HOW FRENETIC the investment-buying market has become is evident at the Lee County courthouse, part of the Justice Center, a six-story concrete building in downtown Fort Myers. Every day, investors and individuals go through the security-check system and head for the county clerk's office, where they hope to bid on foreclosures.
They end up in a room normally used to hold jurors waiting to be called for a trial. Instead, on this day, 60 to 70 people are filling seats to buy a home. Some sit cross-legged on the linoleum floor.
Representatives of banks congregate in one part of the room. They signal to buyers what the minimum bid is they will accept on a property.
One potential buyer, who has a cashier's check for $5,000 stuffed in his shirt pocket, identifies about 20 professional investors around the room. Most of the other people seem to be retirees, first-time home buyers, or others just trying to acquire a property cheaply.
Even they will need to have their money in order, though: All sales have to be wrapped up by 4 p.m.
In fact, the banks make no secret of it – they prefer the equivalent of bundles of greenbacks. Realtor Marc Joseph, who does the pontoon tours of homes, says he recently sold a house for a bank. Seven bids came in, three of them for cash.
"The cash deals were the only ones we talked about," he says.
Through May, 66 percent of the properties sold in Lee County were owned by banks and 64 percent of those were cash deals.
The professionals who come to the auctions are well prepared. Michael Cuevas of Sandbill Realty had visited several of the 132 properties being sold on this day and knew exactly how much work each would take to be ready to resell. He wasn't buying the homes with his own money. His company represented an investor, Scott Logue.
Mr. Cuevas ended up purchasing one property, for $100,000. The 1,800-sq.-foot home, which sits at the junction of two canals, carried a delinquent mortgage of $442,000. Sandbill plans to install a pool and fix up the property. "It will probably cost us about $45,000 to get it ready for the market," says Cuevas. "We hope to sell it for $200,000, which is not a bad profit for 60 to 90 days."
Sandbill has purchased 11 homes so far at courthouse auctions, plus others directly from the banks. The goal, says Cuevas, is to buy and sell 20 homes a month.
The prospect of such quick profits is increasingly attracting buyers from across the country. One of Mr. Joseph's clients is from Burlington, Vt. "He just sold his company for $1.2 billion," he says. "He gave $10 million to each of his sons to invest, and they are buying properties. Cash is king."
Cuevas, in fact, says Sandbill is talking to an investor about taking the concept national – getting more deep-pocketed people from around the nation to invest in Florida properties as well as foreclosures elsewhere.
"If you can get houses at these prices, it's a no-brainer," he says.
NONE OF THIS FRENETIC buying is to suggest that Florida has now fully recovered from one of the worst housing slumps since the Depression. Far from it. The state remains one of the hardest-hit in the nation, which is why any signs of a turnaround, however nascent, are so important.
Broward County, which includes Fort Lauderdale, has seen 40,000 foreclosures in the first five months of this year – the same total as all of last year. Some experts speculate that foreclosures there will hit 80,000 by the end of the year. Three years ago, Broward had 5,000.
The severity of the slump certainly carries an element of déjà vu. Few places have experienced more dramatic boom-and-bust cycles than Florida. This, after all, was the place where the first real estate rush began in the 1920s with an enterprising developer who posted a sign in New York's Times Square during a particular harsh winter that said: "It's June in Miami." Almost overnight, builders touted developments in cities that didn't exist, and some sold lots that were under water.
The land rush ended just as abruptly as it began – with a massive hurricane in 1926. "It was a catastrophe for the real estate market," says Jack McCabe of McCabe Research & Consulting in Deerfield Beach, Fla.
If the past is any guide, it might take as long as a decade for parts of the state to recover from the current slump. "Some people may never live long enough to see their homes return to the upside," says Mr. McCabe.
Still, the presence of discountbuying by firms such as Sandbill, sophisticated investors who have a lot of cash and know how to rehab a home, is one of the first signposts that an area is climbing out of the abyss. So is the return of the bidding wars, which the house at 711 in Cape Coral benefited from. The winning bid on the $65,000 house came in at $80,000.
All cash.
Six signs of a housing bottom
• Affordability improves. Prices stop declining and begin to stabilize at a level that buyers can't resist. Currently, the median price of an existing home has dropped 26 percent since the 2006 peak, pushing affordability to an 18-year high. In Lee County, the median price has dropped from $322,300 in 2006 to $88,500 in May 2009, down 73.5 percent.
• Foreclosures slow. For now, they continue to rise nationally. RealtyTrac Inc. reports that foreclosure filings in May were up 18 percent from a year ago, though they dropped 6 percent from April. Filings exceeded 300,000 for the third straight month, a record. But in Lee County, they have dropped 28.2 percent since peaking in October 2008.
• Banks unload bad loans. Last March the National Association of Realtors (NAR) estimated 18 percent of homes were bank-owned. In May, it was 33 percent, down from a peak of 49 percent in March. In Lee County, 66 percent of all single-family homes sold were bank-owned.
• Professionals start buying. In a national survey, the NAR found 21 percent of purchases were by investors. In Lee County, 42.2 percent of homes sold in May were sold for cash, usually a sign of investor purchasing. Savvy buyers often start a turnaround.
• First-time buyers enter the market in significant numbers. NAR estimates that first-time buyers represented about 41 percent of sales in 2008 and 50 percent in the first half of 2009. No statistics exist for Lee County, but real estate agents believe it is about 30 percent.
• Home sales increase year over year. This has not started to happen yet nationally. Pending sales in May were 6.7 percent higher than last year but actual closed sales were down 3.6 percent. But in Lee County, sales were up 101 percent in May over the same month in 2008. They have been rising since October.


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WCC No. 2000-0062
Respondent/Insurer for
Summary: The Uninsured Employers' Fund (UEF) brought this action against Payless Shoes and its insurer for reimbursement of benefits it has paid and may in the future pay to two alleged employees of Payless. Payless moves for a motion to enforce an oral settlement agreement allegedly reached between its counsel and counsel for the UEF with respect to one of the claimants. Affidavits filed by the parties demonstrate a factual dispute as to whether a settlement agreement was ever reached.
Held: The affidavits do not establish that a settlement agreement was ever reached, but Payless is entitled to a hearing with respect to its allegations. However, since the parties' affidavits demonstrate, at minimum, substantial progress towards reaching a settlement agreement, and the motion pits one attorney against another as to their conversations, the Court finds it appropriate to order a formal settlement conference to attempt a final resolution. Since a settlement conference may lead to an overall settlement involving both claimants, the claimant who is already party to the action but who is not involved in the alleged agreement, is ordered to participate, and the UEF is directed to encourage the non-party claimant as to whom the alleged settlement pertains to obtain counsel and participate in the conference. If the settlement conference fails to produce a settlement, then a hearing on the merits of the motion will be scheduled.
1 The Uninsured Employers' Fund (UEF) commenced this action against Payless Shoesource, Incorporated, and its insurer, American International Group, for indemnification for benefits it has paid, and may in the future be required to pay, to Mark Hurlbert and Donald Revell. I will refer to Payless and its insurer as "Payless."
2 The matter before the Court is Payless' motion to enforce an alleged settlement agreement involving the claim of Mark Hurlbert. I use the word "alleged" purposely as it is apparent from the affidavits submitted to the Court that there are factual disputes as to whether any agreement was ever reached, hence at minimum a hearing is required to determine the facts.
3 Two other things are apparent from the motion and the parties' briefs and affidavits. First, two of the attorneys in this case are in a swearing match as to what they agreed and did not agree to. Second, at least as to the Hurlbert claim, the parties were close to settlement even if no settlement was in fact reached.
4 The parties, of course, are entitled to engage in further battle and to a hearing to determine whether there was in fact a settlement. If I determine that there was no settlement agreement, then they are entitled to continue their battle and to a hearing on the merits of the UEF's claim for reimbursement with respect to both Hurlbert's and Revell's claim.
5 But in light of the obvious progress made in the negotiations outlined in the documents submitted to me, and the nature of the dispute between counsel, I am persuaded that before any further battles are joined, or hearings held, that the parties should be brought together in a formal settlement conference under the auspices of the Court.
6 There are two claimants in this matter. Mark Hurlbert is one of them. It is with respect to an alleged settlement of his benefits that Payless seeks to enforce the alleged settlement agreement. Hurlbert has not been made a party to this case but may have an interest in settling any settlement. Donald Revell, the other claimant affected by this matter, has intervened and is represented by counsel. There is no allegation that the UEF's claim with respect to him has been settled.
7 I can require only those parties to this case to appear for a settlement conference, and I do so. With respect to Hurlbert, I encourage the UEF to secure his attendance and to encourage him to secure counsel to represent him at the conference.
8 Accordingly, I HEREBY ORDER AS FOLLOWS:
9 1. The motion to enforce settlement agreement for mark hurlbert is denied based upon the affidavits submitted in the connection with the motion. The motion is denied pending a formal settlement conference with the Court's Hearing Examiner. If the parties are unable to reach a settlement following a settlement conference, then a hearing will be scheduled with respect to the motion and the motion will be considered on it's merits.
10 2. The parties are ordered to participate in a settlement conference before the Court's Hearing Examiner at a date, time and place to be set. Each party shall have someone with ultimate settlement authority present at the conference. The UEF shall contact Mark Hurlbert and encourage him to secure an attorney and attend the conference with an attorney.
11 3. All further proceedings are stayed pending the outcome of the settlement conference.
DATED in Helena, Montana, this 17th day of January, 2001
Mike McCarter
c: Ms. Julie W. Swingley -
Mailed and Faxed
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subset: commoncrawl


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The cotton market appears to be in some real trouble, with worries on both the supply side, where there is a global oversupply of the natural fiber, and the demand side, where U.S. mill use is trending lower, a market analyst said.
"Three years ago, domestic use was 10.2 million bales," noted Rich Pottorff, Doane Ag Services in St. Louis, Mo. "This year, we'll be lucky to do 7.5 million bales. That's a 30 percent decline in just three years."
The good news/bad news analogy applies to almost every aspect of the cotton outlook. Exports are doing well. That's good. But that's partly due to low prices, which is bad. We're expecting a decline in cotton acreage this year in the United States. That's good. But it's probably not going to be enough. That's bad.
"With a total use of around 17 million bales expected for the coming year, we need about 12.8 million harvested acres, or 14 million planted acres, assuming a trend yield of 640 pounds," Pottorff said. "The fact is we really need less than that because we start the year with a half year's production already in storage. We need to go down to 12 million acres for a year or two just to get things back in balance."
Pottorff doesn't see that happening. "Our estimate is that we'll plant 15 million acres this year. So with trend yields, we'll build stocks. And I don't see any change any time soon. Both the House bill and the Senate bill provide some economic support for the cotton sector (and don't address the problem of potential over-production)."
"Our forecast suggests that the long-term outlook for cotton is bleak. We build stocks, build stocks and build stocks, and there's nothing in the farm program to prevent that. It's hard to see how we get out of that trap unless you can convince farmers not to plant cotton, through a set-aside program or making the other crops more attractive."
There's more bad news with China's entry into the WTO, according to Pottorff. "That's a real problem for us and could get worse. We agreed to phase out our quotas on their textile products more rapidly than we were set to phase out prior to that. So we could face even more textile imports in China."
One positive for reduced cotton acreage, according to Pottorff, is that the cotton insurance program "will be less attractive this year."
One crop where U.S. acreage has been declining since the 1996 farm bill is wheat, with over 15 million fewer acres than in 1996. "Obviously, wheat has not been a big attraction for wheat growers," Pottorff said.
Carryover stocks have been declining. However, U.S. demand growth still depends on exports, "and that's an uphill struggle with the strong dollar and the stiff competition."
Smaller wheat crops in Canada, the United States and the European Union "gave us some hope that we'd see stronger prices and tighter stocks. Fact is, the relatively minor traders have been big factors this year. Eastern Europe exported 3 million tons and the Former Soviet Union exported about 4.5 million tons. They've really taken up the slack."
This is also a sign that these countries "are really getting their acts together and could become major players in the wheat market."
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Feb. 25, 2006
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - After struggling in away games for most of 2005-06, the UC Santa Barbara women's basketball team lost its final road contest of the regular season on Saturday, a 48-45 decision at UC Riverside in the Student Recreation Center.
With the loss, the Gauchos moved back into second place in the Big West standings at 8-4 - one-half game behind Long Beach State (9-4) - and also fell to 13-12 overall. Meanwhile the Highlanders defeated UCSB for the first time in 10 games since its transition to Division I in 2001-02, and improved to 11-14 while finishing league play at 7-7.
Following a cold-shooting first half for both teams that saw UCR take a 25-17 lead into intermission, Santa Barbara chipped away at its deficit and knotted the score at 29-29 with 14:02 remaining. The visitors took their first lead of the period at the 11:36 mark following a brilliant series of events by sophomore guard Jessica Wilson, who made a block on the defensive end and then took the ball coast-to-coast for a driving layup, making the scoreboard read 33-31.
Riverside regrouped an pulled ahead by three points on several occasions, including 44-41 at the 4:04 mark thanks to a pair of Vanessa Campillo free-throws. Both squads stagnated offensively again down the stretch, but UCSB was able to score four unanswered points capped by Ana Onaindia's trifecta from the left corner with 1:13 to play, giving the Gauchos a 45-44 lead.
However the visitors would fail to score again, as Highlander freshman Seryam Gbewonyo answered with an off-balance running layup on her squad's next possession. With less than 30 seconds remaining, Santa Barbara misfired on a three-point try, but freshman Whitney Warren grabbed an offensive rebound and Mark French called timeout to set up a potential game-winning play. The ball found its way to senior forward Autumn Nichols who put up a tough shot over three Highlanders with less than two seconds left. Her shot drew iron, and UCSB was whistled for on over-the-back call, sending UCR's Roney Frend to the charity stripe where she sunk both free-throws. The Gauchos could not get off a potential game-tying shot, and the Highlanders collectively celebrated at mid-court.
For the third straight game, sophomore center Jenna Green was Santa Barbara's leading scorer, tallying a game-best 16 points before fouling out with 3:31 remaining. Wilson was the only other Gaucho in double-figures with 11 points but made just four-of-12 shots. UCSB out-shot Riverside 37.2% to 34.7%, but committed 21 turnovers.
The home team featured a balanced scoring attack led by 10 points apiece from Friend and Gbewonyo. UCR won the battle of the boards 34-32, led by Kemie Nkele's game-high nine boards.
The Gauchos will play their final two regular season games at home next week, beginning with a Thursday, March 2 showdown with Pacific. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m. in the Thunderdome.


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Facèré is located in the City Centre Building (on the first floor behind the escalator) at 1420 Fifth Avenue in the heart of downtown Seattle. City Centre is bounded by Fifth and Sixth avenues, and Pike and Union streets. View map.
Mailing address:
Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery
1420 Fifth Avenue, #108
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War on Terrorism with be Topic of this Year's Brigance Forum Lecture• March 14, 2006 Share:
Wabash College invites you to hear Marouf A. Hasian, Jr. give the 2006 Brigance Forum Lecture at 8 p.m. Wednesday, March 22, in Baxter Hall, Room 101. The title of his talk is "The Indeterminate 'War on Terrorism' and America's Flirtation with 'Martial Law' Rhetorics."
Professor Hasian is Professor of Speech Communication at the University of Utah. He received his Ph.D. and M.A. in speech communication from the University of Georgia, his J.D. from Campbell University Law School in North Carolina, and his B.A. from the University of North Carolina.
Through an examination of legal rhetorics circulating in the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of the U.S. government, Professor Hasian will address important legal, political, and social questions, including:
• Do Americans still believe in the Enlightenment principles in the U.S. Constitution, or are we ready to embrace the possibility that we need to live under "martial law" as we battle Al Qaeda terrorists?
• How far are some observers willing to go in restricting the "rights" of both citizens and non-citizens?
• Are many decision-makers and laypersons demanding that "extra" constitutional weapons be used in the indefinite "War on Terrorism?"
• In the name of "flexibility," the unique nature of the conflict, or other pragmatic wartime considerations, is the U.S. Constitution—like the Geneva Conventions—becoming a "quaint" historical artifact?
The Brigance Forum is an annual public lecture or debate in memory of the late William Norwood Brigance, teacher, scholar and leader in the Speech Association of America. In his 38 years at Wabash College, "Briggie" taught generations of Wabash students how to be more effective when they spoke and, through his textbooks, he taught thousands more in American high schools and colleges. As editor of History and Criticism of American Public Address and as editor of the Quarterly Journal of Speech, he gave direction to the scholarship of the field. As president of the Speech Association of America, he guided the profession through the expansion of the postwar years. The Brigance family, friends, former students whom he taught, and those who continued the tradition of Speech at Wabash after him, have, through their contributions, endowed this program as an ongoing memorial to William Norwood Brigance.
Following the lecture there will be time for audience questions, and a reception in the Littell Lobby. His talk is free and open to the public.


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Students Collect Gestures in Soundby Steve Charles • August 2, 2014 Share:
Patrick Kvachkoff '15 never spoke a word last spring when he was playing Charlie Chaplin in Stage Lights, the College's first silent theater production. This summer as he edited stories from dozens of alumni for the 2014 Scarlet Yarns story project, he had nothing but voices to work with.
Yet Kvachkoff says both projects were "kind of the same thing."
"In Stage Lights we weren't speaking, but we were 'saying things' to each other—only with movement instead of words," the theater/mathematics double major says. "And the stories in Scarlet Yarns are gestures in sound."
Those gestures in sound are the memories of 36 alumni from six decades of Wabash experience as interviewed by students during this year's Big Bash Reunion. Kvachkoff was one of five interviewers and served as sound engineer throughout three days of recording. He edited more than five hours of stories down to a remarkable CD for alumni and a series of podcasts posted on the College's Web site here.
"We say it every year, but this is the best Scarlet Yarns yet," says Marilyn Smith, who co-founded the project eight years ago. "And Patrick played the biggest part in making it the best."
Kvachkoff's creativity shines brightest in the introduction, a sound collage of well-known voices from the College's history. Old Wabash plays quietly behind the voices of Wabash presidents and deans—Frank Sparks from his appearance on the This is Your Life TV show, followed by Byron Trippet, Ben Rogge, Vic Powell, Pat White, Greg Hess, and others. Kvachkoff scoured the College archives and other sources to create a stirring opener.
"I was trying to create a narrative arc, so if you were to listen to the whole disk on its own it would feel like one complete experience," Kvachkoff explains. Smith believes he succeeded.
"The historical voices on the intros tie the chapters together as one project," she says. "I never get tired of hearing those voices each time I listen to a segment."
Media Center Director Adam Bowen mentored Kvachkoff and is proud of the work: "He was resourceful, and that intro he built is perfect. You could try to create it 100 different ways and 100 times and not do it any better."
But Bowen also believes that changing the interview format from video to audio-only—more along the line of the national StoryCorps project—inspired more intimate and compelling stories.
"The audio set-up in the library—without the cameras and lights of previous years—made for a less intimidating setting," Bowen says. "Alumni seemed to feel a little more comfortable telling their stories."
Smith says students' enthusiasm for alumni stories added to that level of comfort. So did Kvachkoff.
"He appeared to enjoy every minute of the recording, talking with alumni, helping them relax," Smith says. "And he was cool under pressure."
And his voice—never heard during Stage Lights—was pitch perfect in providing narration and transitions.
"He projects a genuine interest," Smith adds. "He sounds excited about the project and the stories."
Kvachkoff joins a growing group of Wabash students who have embraced the Scarlet Yarns project, beginning with Josh Owens '07 and Brandon Hirsch '10 at the very first session in 2008 and including Austin Myers' inspired work in 2013. All have been supervised and taught by Bowen.
"It's always sort of fun to see a student listen to these stories, for him to actually process it and get something out of it," Bowen says. "They get more familiar with using technology to tell a story, they learn history, how to interact with all these alumni, how to listen. It's an encapsulation of everything we preach at Wabash.
"They shake hands and listen to alumni from the Class of 1950 through today, and these men are baring their souls, so there's a connection almost immediately. It's a real and honest emotional connection."
Which may reveal as much about Wabash as it does the storytellers.
"Doing this project showed me how much people value tradition here, but I think they value each other even more," Kvachkoff says. "Almost everyone I talked with mentioned the people they hung out with, or a student they thought was super impressive during their time at Wabash.
And the "must-hear" segments on a CD that covers everything from dogs on campus to teachers, fraternities, fellow students, off-campus excursions, and traditions?
"Make sure you don't miss the Dean Norman Moore stories and the episodes about Wabash faculty," Kvachkoff says. "Wabash had a lot of professors who made a big impression and were here for a very long time. We have a story from one alum who was here when Professor Paul McKinney began teaching, and another from the last year he was teaching.
"I think the stories give you a feeling of what the College is about. Wabash is a result of what people value, and what people remember and enjoyed about being here. I think the essence of the College can be reflected in people's memories."
More News
- Wally's Open for Business
- Benedicks Changes the Conversation on Writing
- An Immersion Trip Q&A: Marlon Lewis '20
- Seven Wabash Students Named GHI Fellows
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Drew Barrymore must have heard how much we were loving her new, blonder look — because she took the plunge and went platinum.
After gradually transitioning from her dark brunette hue for a few months, the star went to a West Hollywood salon with her pal Emily Blunt (below) for some girl time: Five hours in foils, to be specific, while both lightened up their locks.
RELATED PHOTOS: Vote on even more striking star hair changes here!
And both stars seemed to have a little fun with the paparazzi lurking outside the salon, striking silly poses and getting fits of the giggles — no embarrassment about getting snapped mid-process here at all.
This is the blondest either star has been in quite some time, and we're loving the lighter hues just in time for summer. We're almost tempted to book dual salon appointments with our own BFFs for this weekend.
Tell us: Do you like the new, blonder Drew? What's your favorite way to spend QT with your friends?
–Alex Apatoff


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text:
So, is it possible? We can spend our lives discussing religion and science, the rights and wrongs, but can we actually say that one day it will be possible to destroy the concept of god? Will we ever live in a world free of faith, a world where its inhabitants live for being alive while they're alive, accepting truths, evidence and knowledge?
Governments all over the world use their religious lean-to as the rock of truth to defend their policies and actions, including the USA and the UK. Its frightening that these people in such high levels of power use god as its source for justification.
No religion, any religion, should be shown polite, restrained respect. It should be treated with the animosity that the religion itself shows to others who have different opinions to it, which includes the secularist, the freethinker, the atheist and other religious beliefs.
The first step should be taken in the West, where we live, where the advancement of science is showing us on a daily basis more and more evidence on the natural order of life and the universe. No potential president or prime minister should gain power if they have an outright and affirmed belief in any given deity. Leadership should be based on intelligence and politics, religion should have no mention.
A new law needs to be passed that no religious belief can be indoctrinated into children. They can't drink alcohol until the age of consent but its ok that by the time they reach that age they are already and firmly drunk on god. The world is awash with godaholics. Its an addiction and needs to be treated as such.
What are your thoughts?
Views: 143
I think we were hardwired to believe in the supernatural, after we progressed toward civilization from neanderthals etc as the urge to find understanding of our own existence demanded answers as we evolved and of course the power of religion was used to create order and power, but god was created as an answer a long time before the onset of science, years before Socrates for example. Now we have the advantage of scientific discovery and theories that can be proved to be correct. As a species we are continually moving forward and finding the correct answers to the oldest questions. With science and common sense hand in hand I personally believe that the future holds no other option than to end the myth of a creator.
That is the major concern, and thats the reason we need to act now.
There is more than just religion itself that keeps the masses illiterate to reality. Trying to be nice to everyone and be fair to everyone etc etc, is like the roads to disaster being paved with good intentions... People are NOT created equal - some are smart, some are creative, some are excellent orators and so on, but political correctness now dumbs down the playing field by making it level - allowing every piece of mismanaged philosophy to be acceptable, with no allowance for rational discussion. This is what religion takes advantage of and where it lives.
Say one thing that is contrary to the "moral" opinion (which is not always religious), and you simply get branded various words without any intelligent discussion for or against. This is no less oppressive than religion.
Say for instance, that "x" was unacceptable in the past, but now we can see that treatment of believers of "x" (be it religion, a life style, a culture - whatever) was wrong and mismanaged, and therefore "x" will be compensated. Then "x", incrementally is allowed carte blanche to behave in any manner it sees fit, right or wrong so as not to perpetuate the past. This is all political correctness achieves. The old "give an inch, take a mile" - and all because name calling comes before rational discussion.
So religion has been doing this for millenia. Dumbing down the masses, creating a level playing field amongst its followers so they all feel safe and secure. Non religious people are simply doing it with political correctness.
So with so many different people, it is impossible to accommodate the sensibilities of them all - with or without religion. People cannot self-regulate, cannot be honest (as ego comes before reality), cannot be fair (e.g. "yes, you take this job as you are better at this task than I and vice versa"), and are basically lazy - if they can get away with doing less most will, and so on.
We forget that with all our intellect, that we are basically members of the animal kingdom with the number one instinct being survival - and in an advanced civilisation that translates to greed, selfishness, basically anything to put our individual selves forward. This may not be the case for everyone 100% of the time, but there is not one human that is perfect (even peaceful individuals like the Dalai Lama had to admit to the allowance of the mistreatment of female nuns). Now the more people you have, the more you multiply our imperfections - so to make the world livable, you try and create a level playing field, and bang you are back to square one.
So to answer your question, religion or its ethics is here to stay. The more people there are, the more secure that hold will be.
I agree with your observances toward political correctness, which, I think is just another ingredient in the whole keep you in your place scenario. I agree all people are different but I also believe we are basically all the same, just like any other species, as human beings, we want to stay alive and our natural evolved instincts instruct us to understand morality, we do not want others hurting us so its probably best not to hurt others, for the sake of survival.
The Dalai Lama may have been seen as a peaceful individual, but buddhism has a shocking history of bloodshed and violence.
If our basic instinct is survival and that survival is threatened then our reaction should be to react to that threat. Religion is the threat of today and so needs to be dealt with, firmly and with a hard line. Its time to stop appeasing them simply because we all have a "right" to believe in what we want. It is not equality when a member of a religious group believes it is ok to brainwash children or kill infidels because that is what their "good book" instructs. There will be no stopping that way of thinking as long as religion survives and is allowed to survive, it is the very concept of god itself that must be killed.
Atheism is growing, give it time, long after our lifespan granted, but science will get better, more proofs will be shown about the universe, if we can put a halt to the teaching of religious studies to our children and let them grow naturally within their own development and mind, whether clever, artistic, hard working or lazy, common sense and knowledge will eventually overcome the idiocy and barbarism of religion.
God is a creation, therefore it can be destroyed.


text:
Welcome to my third annual post on new media for the Half-Life fan-created remake Black Mesa (formerly known as Black Mesa: Source). It doesn't appear to be any closer to release than it was when I wrote about it in 2006 and 2007, but the new screen shots, released on the original game's ten year anniversary, are worth a peek.
According to official Black Mesa word, the mod no longer requires Counter-Strike: Source, as the project has moved to The Orange Box version of Valve's Source engine. Any Source-based game will let you play Black Mesa, should it ever be released.
That means the new media may show off the "advanced particle effects, jigglebones, cinematic physics, combined maps, self-shadowing bump maps, dynamic shadows, and [...]Procedural Terrain Displacement" courtesy of the new engine. If not, the new trailer promised in the days to come hopefully will. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next year!
Screenies on the link.


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Friday 05 October
|Troglodytes (1)
The tiny, secretive and cryptically coloured wren (Troglodytes troglodytes) is a highly active woodland bird with a remarkably powerful voice. It has a dumpy, almost rotund body, a fine, pointed bill and very short, rounded wings. The tail is short and stubby, and is characteristically held cocked upright (2) (4) (5) (6) (7).
The plumage of the wren is largely dark reddish-brown, with fine dark barring on the wings, tail and flanks. There is a thin, pale line above the eye, and the chin and throat are a slightly paler buffy-brown (3) (4) (5) (7). The wren has relatively long, pale brown legs, and its beak is also pale brown (3) (4) (6). Male and female wrens are similar in appearance, while the juvenile is darker, with less distinct barring on the flanks and indistinct mottling on the breast (2) (3). This species is distinguished from the similar house wren (Troglodytes aedon) by its smaller size, shorter tail and darker colouration (2) (3) (4) (7).
One of the most distinctive features of the wren is its song, which is given almost year-round by the male and consists of a complex, continuous stream of warbles and trills (2) (3) (4) (5) (7). This song is astonishingly loud for such a small bird - per unit weight, the winter wren sings at ten times the power of a crowing rooster (2) (4). The wren also calls with various sharp, dry notes, and may give a harsh 'churr' in alarm (2) (3) (4) (5) (7).
Around 35 to 44 different subspecies of wren have been described, which differ in size, overall colouration and the extent of barring on the plumage (2) (3) (4). A further subspecies from Daito Island in Japan, Troglodytes troglodytes orii, is extinct (3).
Scientists have proposed that the wren may be distinct enough from other wren species to be placed within its own genus (3) (4) (8). More recently, genetic evidence has suggested that the wren is in fact more than one distinct species (9). Differences in the songs and calls of wrens in different regions have led some scientists to split it into three species: Troglodytes troglodytes in Europe and Asia, Troglodytes hiemalis in eastern North America, and Troglodytes pacificus (Pacific wren) in western North America (3) (4) (10).
The wren typically forages on the ground or in low vegetation, creeping around the forest floor in short, rapid hops which can make it appear more like a mouse than a bird (4) (5) (7). It generally flies only short distances, with very rapid wing beats, and often bobs the head and body up and down when perched (4) (7). The diet of the wren consists mainly of invertebrates, including insects, insect larvae, spiders, millipedes and sometimes snails (2) (3) (4) (6). It has been known to take vertebrate prey, such as small fish, tadpoles and young frogs, and also eats some plant food, including berries, seeds and even seaweed (3) (4). The wren searches methodically for food amongst vegetation, dead wood, roots and other nooks and crannies, and will also snatch insects from the air or even immerse its head in water in search of aquatic prey (2) (3) (4).
The breeding season of the wren usually begins in March or April in Western Europe, but is slightly later in Central Europe, Russia and northern North America (3). Male wrens are highly territorial throughout the year (4). The males may mate with several females in some areas, although monogamy is more common in North America (3) (4). The wren frequently builds its nest in a hole or crevice, such as an old woodpecker hole, a natural tree cavity, a rock crevice, or a hole in a bank, or it may create a free-hanging structure on a branch, log, root mass, building, or underneath a bank of moss (2) (3) (4) (5). This species has also been known to nest in unusual locations such as the pocket of a hanging coat or in a bundle of rope (3) (4).
The nest of the wren is built by the male, and typically consists of a dome of grass, moss, twigs, bark, rootlets, feathers and hair, usually lined with feathers and with an entrance hole at the side (2) (3) (4) (8). The scientific name of this species, troglodytes, means "cave dweller", alluding to its habit of building enclosed nests, and probably also in reference to its rather skulking and secretive behaviour (8). Each male constructs several different nests, and the female then selects one to use for breeding. It is the female that adds the nest lining. The nest site may be reused over a number of years, and the wren will also use surplus nests for roosting (2) (3) (4) (8). In cold weather, many individuals may roost in the same nest (2) (4) (8), with a record of 31 wrens packing into one nest box in western Washington, USA (2).
The wren lays between one and nine eggs, which are white with reddish-brown spotting (2) (3) (4). Only the female incubates, and the eggs hatch after about 16 days. The young wrens are fed by both adults and leave the nest after 14 to 19 days, after which they are fed for a further 9 to 18 days before becoming independent. The breeding pair may go on to raise a second or even a third brood in the same season (3) (4). The oldest wren has been recorded living to over six years of age (4).
The wren is widely distributed across North America, Europe, North Africa and Asia. Its breeding range extends from the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, across Canada, and south along the eastern and western coasts of the United States, as far as Mexico. It also breeds from Iceland, the Faroe Islands and the British Isles, across Europe to Russia and Siberia, and south to North Africa, the Middle East and southern Asia (3) (4) (11). The wren is the only wren species found outside of the Americas (2) (4) (8).
In most southern regions and on some islands, including Britain and Ireland, the wren does not usually migrate. However, many northern populations migrate southwards in winter, while others move to lower altitudes (2) (3) (4). This species is also known as the winter wren, as its winter range reaches further north than any other wren species (7).
In North America, the wren generally breeds in moist conifer forests, particularly favouring areas with fallen logs and other dead wood, and commonly being found near streams, swamps or lakes. It also sometimes inhabits deciduous forest, cliff faces, treeless islands, heaths and riparian woodland, as well as gardens (2) (3) (4) (7).
The wren is found in a wider range of habitats outside of the Americas, including various types of woodland, farmland, moorland, heaths, and urban parks and gardens (3) (4) (5) (6). As in North America, it is usually associated with relatively damp areas (3). The wren has been recorded at elevations of up to 4,575 metres in the Himalayas (3).
The wren is classified as Least Concern (LC) on the IUCN Red List (1).
The wren has an extensive range and a large global population, which is estimated at tens or even hundreds of millions of birds (11). Its population is thought to be stable or increasing across much of its range (2) (11). This small bird can be hit heavily by cold winters (4) (6), but its populations are usually quick to recover (3) (8).
Although the wren is not globally threatened, there is some concern that the species is being negatively affected by the loss and fragmentation of old-growth coniferous forests in western North America (2) (4). In contrast, wrens in Europe often adapt well to highly modified environments, inhabiting gardens and frequently nesting in buildings (4). The wren is one of the most common breeding birds in Britain (3) (6).
There are not known to be any specific conservation efforts currently targeted at this common wren. Perhaps the most important conservation measure for the wren would be to clarify its taxonomy, to determine how many subspecies or even distinct species it represents (4). Some populations may be small and need particular conservation attention, such as the subspecies Troglodytes troglodytes mosukei, of the Izu Islands, Japan, which is listed as Endangered on the Japanese Red List (3) (12).
In North America, the wren may benefit from forest management practices that maintain continuous areas of unlogged, mature forest and which retain fallen logs and root masses, to provide optimum habitat for this diminutive bird (4).
Find out more about the wren and its conservation:
This information is awaiting authentication by a species expert, and will be updated as soon as possible. If you are able to help please contact:
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The total floor area is 87.77 m2. Land rights are freehold.
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text:
I once had a theory that the entire North American continent was sinking several inches per year from the accumulated weight of all the National Geographic magazines being stacked in bookshelves, basements, and attics. Nobody throws away National Geographic, right? All those gorgeous photos…
But the sinking may have been arrested, thanks to digital technology. You can now get every National Geographic of the last 112 years, from issue 1 to the present, on a few CD-ROM discs for about a hundred bucks.
Thanks to the Internet and e-mail, it's now possible to almost instantaneously deliver your message anywhere on the planet. At the same time, the term "junk mail" has been elevated to new heights. Now, in addition to having one's postal box crammed with circulars, catalogs, and solicitation letters, it's necessary to contend with Spam — junk e-mails that clutter your queue each day.
You think your situation's bad? Pity Congress: Last year it was bombarded with an astounding 70 million-plus petitions and other mass-generated messages! Government agencies, too, have been inundated with e-mails from groups hoping to influence an issue through sheer volume of communications.
Granted, a lot of trees may have been saved by not sending them on paper (but the Post Office lost the revenue). Still, are there enough government staffers to wade through all those electronic communiqués?
In what could be a ground-breaking move, the USDA's Forest Service is evaluating a proposal that would allow it to ignore all public comments on its rule-making process that are sent as duplicated form letters. This would apply not only to electronic messages, but to the pre-printed postcards and form letters that many organizations and advocacy groups use in their campaigns. These efforts can often generate 100,000 or more e-mails to Congress or government agencies regarding an issue.
The Forest Service says it has tabulated all such messages in the past, but that the same message duplicated thousands of times, without offering any specific comment, is of little value to the decision-making process.
Every e-mail to Congress is read, spokespersons say, although most admit that duplicated mass messages carry much less weight than an original paper letter, sent via "snail mail," stating the writer's position on an issue, and the reasons why.
Organizations and advocacy groups are, of course, upset at the Forest Service proposal, contending that high-volume e-mails and petitions offer genuine citizen input that might not otherwise be possible. (Not coincidentally, it also gives them a roster of names for fund-raising solicitations.) The groups further grouse that this is just a first step by the Bush administration to limit citizen participation in government.
However, the administration earlier this year created a Web site, regulations.gov, that supposedly will allow anyone to do research on the thousands of regulatory proposals put forth each year by government agencies, and offer comment. The site can be searched by agency name or keyword, and comments on a particular regulation are routed to the appropriate agency. Officials say this will improve the government's decision-making process.
In the first six hours of operation, the site got nearly 70,000 hits.


text: Hello. I have now tryed for 4 days to get my ftp transfer to work. The server has Debian 7 with ispconfig. I have created account both for ftp and ssh. When i login with filezilla i can access everything. Then i try to upload a image catalog, with around 330 images. When it have transfer around 300 images, i get the question. "The file already excist. Do you want to overwrite". The file have never been there, beacuse i uploaded a hole catalog. And some of the files that have been upload is not the full size, and som of them i even 0kb. I have opend the firewall also for port 40100-40200, and set this port for passive at pure-ftpd. Maybe it is my local router firewall thats doing this, but im not sure. What can i do to get this work? I have deactivated the Win7 firewall. My router is a D-Link DWR-923. Please help!


text: Find Events Event Views Navigation View As List Month Week Day Day Of Search Zoo Events No matching events listed under Zoo Events scheduled for February 23, 2018. Please try another day. Day Navigation Day Navigation Copyright ©2019. All Rights Reserved. Cheyenne Mountain Zoological Society 4250 Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Rd. Colorado Springs, CO USA 80906 (719) 633-9925 [email protected] Contact Us | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Site Map | Directions | Press Box | Join the Zoo | Donate | Feedback


text:
learning to read japanese.
it started off, like most any thing worth mentioning, with a girl.
a 2D girl. but hey, whatever. the manga is called 'is this girl for real?!' and i fell in love with it. but in looking at the english manga, somewhere at vollume 2, and seeing as how there is a vollume 5, i started wanting more.
first off, a bit of background. i speak english, and spanish. my mother is nuts about chinese, both writing and speaking. learning japanese to read is a bit harder than chinese, but its not that bad.
what i do right now is i get a raw version of a manga, then get a english version. i picked up a book at the library called, 'japanese in mangaland' and im still working through it.
i pretty much take the japanese manga, copy by hand to a sheet of paper(cus using motor skills reinforces learning shapes) then sit down with google translate (really suck translator!) take it one comment at a time.
so far so good. its slow, but im learning. it helps that im obssesed.
there is a lot i dont know, so ill need a dictionary for that.
a few notes.
kanji is basicly chinese. and as such, chinese is pretty strict on the construction of the symbols. if google translate, you have to pay attention not only what you draw, but the order as well, or google cant read it.
hirigana and katakana are basiclly phonetic.
after a while the kanji really stands out, its kinda blockly and angular, like cars in the 80's. the rest have much more flow to them.
well, thats it. reading to me seem eaiser that learning to speak. (eyes over ears, lol)
just my .02
wasting away on the sidonia
i'm glad that's working out for you
you wouldn't believe your pants, if ten million fire ants
The last few days I've been all out with learning Japanese. I know most of my Hiragana and Im just starting up with Kanji. I haven't attempted the way you are working with it so I think I'll give it a shot!! I've been working with the Japanese school system. Starting with 1st grade. WooHoo! http://jisho.org/ <---- I've been using this site. Tells you how to write it, uses sentences for examples ect. Seriously I love this site so much. Good luck with learning Japanese! haha its fun but a pain in the ass! <3
I love chu~
Good luck learning Japanese. I am a slow learner by myself, so I am getting no where really. Not to mention I only have like one app on my tablet I have only used a dozen or so times to actually learn.
I plan to soon get into it a bit more. I have learned languages in the past so I know how to learn them.
It takes patience, time (a lot of it), materials to work with, and the most important part: Practice.
Some people mistakenly think they can pick up 1 book once and learn a language. I can only just barely hold a conversation in German and I spent 4 years studying that.
For myself I am going to do some self study/tutoring after I buy some materials (books to learn Japanese), and I am going to do that for awhile. After awhile of doing that I will go to a proper educational course on Japanese. Because it is of my personal opinion, no matter how much time, effort, and money you put into buying yourself things to learn a language, without a proper teaching of it in an education environment, you will not get far.
Of course I know some will probably scoff at that and the fact I plan to buy materials to learn, rather than just use free stuff on the web. But I prefer proper teaching and education when it comes to this so I will do it.
The Closet became boring.
I have bought a few book and flashcards of amazon last year and now can read close to 1000 Kanji, write and talk a bit. It does does take time and effort especially with the kanji since a lot of them look the same. I just made flashcards for the kanji and bought manga to help with the reading, and disks for the speaking portion.
Also used http://jisho.org/ and http://www.guidetojapanese.org/
You guys are really making me want to learn Japanese more and more but I honestly have no idea where to start
Pick up Japanese Hiragana & Katakana for Beginners by Timothy G. Stout. It's a really good source for learning both of those since you should begin by memorizing all 46 hiragana and all 46 katakana. The book also includes a CD-Rom with printable flash cards, self quiz and bonus writing pages. Learning these two things are the baby steps. It's about $8 on amazon.
Galactique Conquest for everybody!
3 years of university-level Japanese courses, here. As well as many years of listening comprehension with anime et al, and a big push the last 2 years on my reading. Read lots of raw tankos, etc.
For most people, having a dedicated Japanese class keeps them motivated and on a regular schedule, but learning via self-study is certainly possible. Just that most people find it harder to keep up with. (Uni has you learn Hiragana/Katakana in the first two weeks)
If you are going to self-study, I still recommend the Genki series books (There's 2 main ones), which also have associated workbooks and listening CDs. They're slightly dated at this point, having been developed in the late 90s, but they're still good. For intermediate level, my university then moved us to the Tobira books.
Along with that, there is an application for PC/Smartphone called Anki Flashcards that many people use to practice kanji and grammar. I would concentrate on the card decks for Kyoiku Grades 1-6. It's my impression that most shounen/shoujo manga aim for around that level of reading comprehension.
Another angle is to use OCR software: I use one called KanjiTomo that works well for me. You hover the mouse and it highlights the kanji and tells you what it means. My kanji knowledge is still rather rough, so using this tool sped up my translation speed by about 3x. For raw text on sites, there is also the Firefox addon Rikaichan that I recommend. -- These aren't a substitute for flashcards and writing practice however, because they don't "stick with you" anywhere nearly as well as learning via writing them.
When you feel confident enough: You could even practice your reading comprehension with Light Novel ebooks -- I personally buy ebooks from Honto (http://honto.jp) and their reader is usable globally. KanjiTomo OCR works great with it still. Otherwise another tactic of mine is to go on Pixiv and read short stories/fanfic type stuff people post using Rikaichan. It tends to be written in easier grammar/less kanji, so it's also a good way to ease into things.
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Ok so ive been doing some reading but its a little hard to understand the concept. So a hiragana is a sound but by itself doesnt mean anything? And another question i have is does certain kanji end up taking the place for a hiragana? For example, i was attempting to write Nanatsu No Taizai in Hiragana but when i went to look it up it had certain characters i had never seen, I hope this makes sense
Yes, the kanji replace hiragana. (The ones that make up the so-called "reading" for that kanji.) The tricky part comes in the fact that kanji have an "on" and "kun" (basically a main and secondary) reading. So you need to pick up on under what context each one is used.
(Names almost always use the kun reading, for example. And in general, even the Japanese don't know how to read them most of the time. It's common for people to introduce themselves and actually say how to read the kanji of their name)
Nanatsu no Taizai's Japanese title is: 七つの大罪
There is a good example: In that reading 大 is pronounced tai. And you will also see it in "big" aka "ookii" 大きい
Then to trip you up even more, Japanese often alters the pronunciation slightly to roll off the tongue better. (tai/dai) (ke/ge) But don't worry about that for now.
ななつのたいざい would be the manga name entirely in hiragana.
I got that genki book and its really descriptive on everything. So i guess i just need to work on memorizing the hiragana first. Last question. What is the clear definition/usage of "desu"? Soo desu means "thats right" but "juuniji han desu" means its half past 12.
Oh geez hmm.. I'm terrible with grammar terms, I'm not sure how to explain it.
Desu is... It's basically the default way to end a sentence (politely). Then informally it's shortened to "da" or left out entirely, but don't worry about that for now. A very quick google search nets this link, which seems very good at describing it: http://www.japanesejoshi.com/2012/12/desu/
A big part of Japanese is using the correct politeness level. This comes up a lot in anime with names: Characters getting mad at others who call their name without a suffix like -san, or are "overly friendly" and use -chan when they should be using -san, etc.
tldr: You end pretty much all sentences with it. Don't question it, and don't worry about it
Another thing to keep in mind with learning the hiragana and the various verb forms: The breakdown of the kana by vowel is very important for conjugation. (pg 252 in Genki 1 is the hiragana list)
ka ki ku ke ko
ta (chi) (tsu) te to etc.
So for long-form (present tense) verbs:
kaku - to write. is kakimasu
yomu - to read. is yomimasu
See how the U-verbs in dictionary form all have the U sound, and the present tense goes left one row to the I sound. (The past tense goes left again to the A sound) (And the imperative -te form "must do X" goes right one to E)
An extension of this same principle is used in sounding out words as well. IE: ka/ga か・が ta/da た・だ
The "tenten" as they call it, changes the sound. This comes up in making things "roll off the tongue better" as it were.
IE: hairstyle - 髪の毛 kami no KE // eyebrows are then 眉毛 mayuGE
See how its the same kanji 毛 but the pronunciation is shifted from the K --> G sound
I like to remember them as (Russian) KGb (Touchdown) TD and ... never had one for HB or SZ I guess :)
か・が た・だ は・ば さ・ざ
One other thing to listen for while learning IMHO is how things are "fluently" pronounced. IE: How desu is "DESS" most of the time. suki -- to like is "ski" not "soo-kii" etc.
Just to let you know, but it's here on Crunchyroll and already translated up to Volume 4. But, ah, I'm sure there's no point telling that as you're wanting to read Japanese (and presumably the Japanese releases of said manga)...
As for learning another language, all I have to say is it takes determination. If you're not determined to trudge through it, then don't bother.
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I'd second the recommendations of everyone who mentioned jisho.org; it's by far my favorite Japanese dictionary (and I've used it at times as a Chinese character dictionary, because I find the interface far easier to navigate than the Chinese dictionary I use). Also, for learning hiragana/katakana, I recommend realkana.com, which lets you select only the kana you want to practice. More than anything, I think the most important factor in learning a language is practice.


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The other night I was enjoying so Sake at the Sake Shop Hawaii one of my favorite Nihonshu shopping stomps when I got a Tweetbot notification saying there was a seismic event neat Be that was going to cause a Tsunami to hit the coast of the Hawaiian Islands in a few hours. It seemed as if nobody else had heard the news and being unfortunately accustomed to these false alarms I don't think many people cared.
Just to be certain I went outside and there were the sirens wailing the emergency warnings. Naturally I bought some sake and headed home to batten down the hatches. Much to my surprise the local police force was already shutting down the streets. I made it in the house and shot this video with my iPhone 5 and promptly posted it to my YouTube Channel
It was just a simple video describing how I was feeling about another slight necessary but overactive evacuation by our city officials. Mostly because as a DJ the big EPIC Halloween Party we had planned for our club was gonna be cancelled.
Surprisingly people were all over twitter so once i shared it I got a request to have my video featured on Huffington Post. What an honor; however, they do not give any link back love to my site. That's kind of rude I think.
Any way just wanted to share this little anecdote with you.


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The economy was once again the primary theme in tonight's debate, but one undecided voter asked the candidates about their views on immigration reform:
What do you plan on doing with immigrants without their green cards that are currently living here as productive members of society?
Romney spoke first. He rightly pointed out that the president promised comprehensive immigration reform and has failed to deliver. He then said that he believed in streamlining legal immigration; strengthening the border; adopting an electronic employment verification system; and offering a way for children brought into the US illegally to obtain permanent resident status.
Obama responded by noting that Romney not only has promised to veto the very legislation that would give those kids a chance to stay here, the DREAM Act, but has hired the architect of the controversial Arizona immigration law as a campaign advisor.
While the two candidates both offered similar responses to the original question, Romney's rebuttal is perhaps most revealing. Here is his quote:
Now let me mention one other thing, and that is, self-deportation says let it -- let people make their own choice. What I was saying is, we're not going to round up 12 million people, undocumented, illegals, and take them out of the nation. Instead, let -- make -- people make their own choice. And if they -- if they find that -- that they can't get the benefits here that they want and they can't find the job they want, then they'll make a decision to go a place where -- where they have better opportunities.
Romney was scattered and on-edge tonight, and on this question, he seemed to have reverted back to severely conservative, primary-era Mitt. He actually used the deplorable term "illegals" in describing human beings and once again advocated for making life so difficult for those people that they choose opportunity elsewhere.
Obama and Romney both agree that targeting and deporting criminals is essential. So when Romney talks about self-deportation, he is referring to those undocumented workers who haven't committed crimes since they have arrived. They work. They pay taxes. And they have chosen to build their lives and raise their families here. But if Romney were president, he would make their daily lives so unbearable that they have no choice but to leave. How's that for compassionate conservatism, Christian charity?
(Related: Bishops welcome immigration change)
The only decent way he could have answered that accusation tonight was to admit its truth and promise that if again given a Democratic House and a Democratic Senate he would push comprehensive immigration reform through this time. But he didn't. He's showed that this is not a high-priority issue for him, and I'd expect very little from him in a second term.
Romney has a decent enough plan - at least he did last night. With Obama doing nothing and Romney doing something, we might actually be ahead with Romney. Obama didn't fumble this ball - he deliberately threw it away.
Actually it is necessary to describe the problem of massive uncontrolled immigration in terms of the law. This massive problem is meanigfully describe by its essence: It is illegal immigration which needs to be brought under legal control.
For politcal and legal integrity and the saftey and security of the nation the United States like any other country does NOT have an open borders policy where anyone at anytime and for any reason may enter and stay in the United States indefinately without valid visa. By law all immigration must be known about, apporved of and controlled by the United States governement. All countries have a necessary and expected legal right and duty to control entry and immigation into a country.
Presdiential candidate Romney plainly indicates the needed reforms he will make as Presdient to restore effective legal controls on illegal immigration. Refershingly he squarely and cosistantly addresses the problem of illegal immigration.
Michael writes:
if Romney were president, he would make their daily lives so unbearable that they have no choice but to leave. How's that for compassionate conservatism, Christian charity?
Um, Michael, that's *exactly* what Obama's been doing. You've not noticed?
Uncle Onyango got his driving license back. Apparently, taking away his license for drunk driving would have made his life too "unbearable."
It should be easy to immigrate. If someone wants to immigrate to this country why should they not be allowed? Why do visas expire? Why is immigration not a simple matter of informing the government of one's arrival and intent to stay?
The way some poor people come into this country, by stealth, is a nuisance to some border landowners, but in general these illegal immigrants benefit our economy more than they hurt it, in my opinion. There are more menial jobs than there are willing American citizens to fill them even in hard times.
There are those who profit from illegal immigration, either by extortion or exploitation. This is not the fault of those wanting to immigrate. If the process of immigrating legally were quicker and more certain, perhaps the practice of illegal immigration would be less common.
So what are you refereing to Mr. Blackburn?
Are your views from some lost gnostic Gospel that has recently been discover that urges Christian to take politcal positions to direct their governemnt to have unlimited uncontrolled immigartion or a country without borders? Are such ideas possible?
Or does your views on immigartion come from personal sentimentalism or romaticism? Or has some zealous Catholic educatior trained you to be counter-cultural and has indoctrination you to bleive that nations don't need laws or control of immigration?
Or are your views derived from need for pious social experimention to find the perfect policies for a utopian state?
Please feel free to share any remedy or method you may have on how to correctly conduct immigration policy. But do tell us more fully what your ideas are and where do you get these ideas on immigartion from?
Two pregnant women lacking special skills want a better life for their child in the US. One applies to immigrate to the US and is put on a waiting list. The other comes into the US illegally. The first woman's child is born in Mexico, the second, in the US. The first woman's child does not receive the benefits of US citizenship, while the child of the woman who entered illegally has citizenship rights.
What we have just accomplished is we have denied citizenship rights to the child of the woman who acted legally and given those citizenship rights to the one who acted illegally.
You don't run a city, country, or any other entity justly or coherently when you reward a person for acting illegally while denying the reward to the one who acted legally. We are in effect rewarding breaking the law and punishing obeying the law.
Your telling an ''illegal immigrant'' to go back and stand in line is the same as telling him to go back and never darken your doorway again. He'll *never* get in legally. This country has closed its borders and its hearts to the poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free - with the occasional exception of a few lucky refugee groups whose causes at one time or another became politically popular.
We are, in fact, a gated community, walled off by choice from the rest of the world. We're selfish and fat and lazy and spendthrift and we don't want anyone to be allowed to wake us up. This is not good, Walter.
First, permit me to congratulate you for putting into print the 3 letter F word, which in today's climate is even more taboo than the old 4 letter one, which is now becoming widely acceptable.
Yes, we are becoming f**, and compared to both our neighbors to the north and south, maybe lazy (although we do pretty well compared to most European countries), and while we certainly do spend, at least at the governmental level, out the wazoo (although I must admit I'm not sure what the wazoo is/where it is located, or even how to spell it), measured by voluntary charitable giving, we are among the most generous people in the world. During the Bush administration, for example, the contribution to the AIDS problem in Africa has been identified and the greatest charitable contribution a nation has made to Africa in modern history, saving over a million from premature death.
Nor are we selfish when it comes to accepting immigrants, as the million plus we accept annually into permanent citizenship is more than any other nation in the world.
The link to the statement of Mark Rubio and Politifact's verification of its validity follows.
My concern, however, is that not unlike Moynihan's critique of the damage we did the African American family with the Great Society by treating the effects of poverty in such a fashion that it made the underlying problem and its cause worse, we are guilty of doing something similar here by rewarding the wrong behavior. Not only Obama, but Reagan treated it the same way. We need a better long-term plan to address the issue, not piecemeal ones timed and geared primarily for Hispanice votes such as the recent move by the Obama administration.
How about anyone who wants to come here can. They just have to fill out the online form (that will be developed) and stay in touch with the government while they are here. My mother used to have to drop off an alien registration card at the post office every year, but then one year they stopped doing it. This was before computers.
Since this is now after computers have come into widespread use, how hard would it be to keep track of every non-citizen? If they fail to register one year, someone comes looking for them.
Meanwhile, everyone who is here now simply registers. If they don't, no excuses, we find them, they're in trouble, their employer is in trouble, their school is in trouble...
I think that would be immigration reform, don't you?
Our government's role under the Constitution is to protect the country and its citizens; we've no obligation to other nations except to the extent that it helps our country. Our immigration policy is not "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses;" those are just the words of a poet that appear on a statue where a bunch of immigrants happen to enter, legally, btw. By law, all of the illegal immigrants can be deported and the only ones allowed to stay are those who can claim political asylum or other legal status.
I'm no economics guru, but my read on illegal immigration and our government's decision to not enforce the laws is that our citizens do better when there is a "slave labor" underclass that is paid substandard wages. As cheap Chinese labor allows us to enjoy all of our Walmart goodies, so does cheap illegal labor allow us to enjoy the cheap goods/services that the illegals provide.
As I see it the only reason we are talking about deportation of illegals is because the liberals raised the issue, demanding more government benefits to illegals and about paths to legalization. Legalization defeats the purpose of "slave labor;" it ends up taking money out of the citizens' pockets through higher wages (which results in higher prices of goods/services) and through government benefits. If we're going to raise wages by making illegals citizens, then we might as well deport the illegals and let our existing citizens take those now higher-paying jobs.
350 million Americans who deserve an effective and comprehensive immigration policy that does not allow groups of people at their own chosing to be above the law.
The continued low illegal of immigrants must be stopped permanently. The ill effects of illegal immigration will not be allowed to continue. Noone or no group is above the law. Emmigration must be controlled by an effective law that is equally applicable to all seeking to immigrate and no preference to people circumventing the law. We need to solve problems by effective laws syupported by a democratic legailative process.
As someone remarked the other day, sometimes it seems as though the national motto of the USA should be ''Not in My Neighborhood''.
We have twelve million ''illegals'' living here now, in the shadows, in fear of the federal government. This is not primarily a legal issue or an economic issue, it's a humanitarian issue. Both political parties have acted shamefully on this - most recently and most conspicuously the Democrats. For Michael O'Loughlin to blog here on behalf of the Democrats, claiming that they stand with the angels, is just short of shameful. If Michael doesn't know better, he needs to go back to school.
Actually Dave allowing illegal immigration by a grossly ineffective immigration policy on the scale of millions of people has numerous profoundly adverse impacts on the nation very definately including advese economic, politcal and social imapcts.
Allowing illegal immigration is corrosive to the nation's legal, politcal, economic and social insitutions. Let's not kid ourselves as some theoligian will. When you allow anyone to enter the nation yu get many bad results.
You just can't say oh we do not want criminals. Of course you don't want criminal. But when you do not control immigration you actually get criminal in abundance. The jails across the nation are filled with criminals who have illegally enterd the country often on behalf of interntaional organized criminal enterprses. IS this not a huge enonomic and socail eimpact by itself?
Econmically illegal immigrant compete with jobs in the economy across the exonomic spectrum. In an economy that has 23 million people unable to find employment for more than a years and has half of our college graduates unemployed and many of the rest underemployed job competion form illegal aliens is not desirable or acceptable. And people who do have jobs wage rates and salary reamin lower do to more job competion.
When immigartion laws were nforced before the election cycle began a number of factories in the country whole workforces were illegal immigarnts. When these factories were raided and the illegal immigrants removed the next day lines of thousands of people were applying for the these jobs at higher wage rates.
The many adverse impacts of sIllegal immigartion need to be brought under control.


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This may finally be the year for the college-bound U.S.-citizen children of undocumented immigrants.
On Wednesday, a House panel approved a bill granting in-state tuition to teenagers who are U.S. citizens, but whose parents are undocumented. Historically, those students have had to pay out-of-state rates to attend Florida's colleges, universities and technical schools, even if they were born and raised in the state.
The bill, which has been killed over and over again in past legislative sessions, still has a long way to go before becoming law. But there is no denying that the proposal has newfound legs. House Speaker Will Weatherford expressed support for the idea this week, and lawmakers from both political parties are pushing similar proposals in the Senate.
The changing mood in Tallahassee parallels a recent shift in the national immigration debate. Republicans, looking to broaden their appeal among Hispanic voters, have softened their stance on immigration issues. What's more, some party leaders, including U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, are pushing for a path to citizenship for foreign nationals who entered to the United States illegally.
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"The stars are aligned," said Rep. Jeanette Nuñez, a Miami Republican who chairs the higher education committee in the Florida House. "It's the first time in history that we see forward movement toward bipartisan immigration reform with Sen. Rubio and others We want to be able to work in tandem with that [effort]."
In Florida, the conversation revolves around access to higher education.
For decades, public colleges and universities have approved in-state tuition rates only for students whose parents were U.S. citizens and Florida residents.
Last year, a federal district court ruled Florida could not deny in-state resident status to a U.S. citizen based on his or her parent's immigration status. State lawmakers want to add the provision to state statute.
In several bills currently being proposed, students would have to prove they were born in the United States and attended high school in Florida to be considered for in-state tuition. Their parents' immigration status would not matter.
The idea isn't new to the Florida Legislature. A similarly drafted pitch by Sen. Rene Garcia, a Hialeah Republican, died unceremoniously in the Senate education committee last year. A House panel killed a similar proposal.
This year's bills have strong support early in the process. One bill from Rep. Carlos Trujillo, a Miami Republican, has already garnered a long list of bipartisan co-sponsors, including Republican Rep. Manny Diaz and Democratic Reps. Katie Edwards, José Javier Rodríguez and Richard Stark.
The bill that won a nod from the House Higher Education Committee on Wednesday was drafted by the panel itself, meaning it is a priority among House leaders.
"It is a positive step to provide access to all of our students," House Minority Leader Perry Thurston said.
Immigrant advocates, however, have criticized the bill for not going far enough.
Rodríguez, a Miami Democrat, suggested tweaking the bill to let undocumented students qualify for in-state tuition, but only if they attended a Florida high school for at least three years. The students would also have to file an affidavit with the college stating plans to legalize their immigration status.
"They will go on to have careers in various fields from architecture to engineering," Rodríguez said. "Yet, they are not eligible for in-state tuition along with the other students they are graduating with."
Sensing he wouldn't win the support of the panel, Rodríguez withdrew the amendment. He and Sen. Dwight Bullard, a Miami Democrat, are sponsoring separate bills to provide in-state tuition to undocumented students, but neither is likely to pass.
Rodríguez said he would continue working with House Republicans.
The proposals affecting U.S. citizens, however, are likely to sail ahead.
The best bellwether may be Weatherford. Earlier this week, the Wesley Chapel Republican said U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants have long been "left behind."
"If you're born in America, you're an American," Weatherford said. "And to hold any other view completely contradicts everything that our country was founded upon."
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.
Kathleen McGrory can be reached at email@example.com.