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|2013-01-09, 12:25
|Link #31601
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Gnawing away at Rokkenjima
Kanon and Shannon share Yasu's body. Only one exists in reality, and which one that is
can change. This is how they are both different people with their own individual human roles on the island, yet they only register as 1 person because they still cannot exist at the same time (except in fantasy).
Other people brought up Kinzo, and that's what people seemed to focus on (to my frustration). Red does not reflect fantasy, and Kinzo in 1986 is a fantasy. Done deal. Red doesn't count ghosts. That's the point of it. Kanon, on the other hand, is not always fantasy, but at times a real person, so he can count as the 17th person on the island.
I could understand rejecting Kanon as counting, but accepting Kinzo would make red conform to fantasy, which is exactly the opposite of its function. I would sooner abandon the whole train of thought altogether.
|2013-01-09, 12:47
|Link #31602
Join Date: May 2009
I'm not entirely convinced that Kanon-specific ep4 red has any actual value though. Kanon can't be victimized and his death is effectively meaningless anyway, so what purpose is there to knowing that he "died?" What are we supposed to take away from the fact that he was part of a select group, was the first of that group to "die," and that he is the 9th "victim?"
Even if we were to take it at face value, it gives us little to go on except that the 8 "victims" preceding him were not Kyrie or the people depicted with her. It doesn't tell us much about how they became victims or why or even when, since we have absolutely nothing to go on to tell us when Kanon would've "died," other than a fantasy scene. And that fantasy scene is really not too helpful either.
|2013-01-09, 13:00
|Link #31603
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Yesterday!
Haven't been thinking much about Umineko in a long time, but thinking back about it, I now find it extremely hard to believe Yasu/Beatrice can be the culprit (within the games).
There simply is constantly hints that takes various forms that relates to the idea that "the one everyone believes is the culprit" cannot really be as such. Accepting that Yasu is the culprit isn't any different, ultimately, from accepting Eva as culprit in arc 3 and Natsuhi in arc 5 (or even Kinzo in arc 4 and "beatrice the 19th human" in arc 2).
Could start approaching it from various povs in various arcs, but I think arc 5 is clear enough that we don't really need the rest.
- We were shown that Natsuhi could (assuming her own scenes aren't necessarily reliable) have committed every single murders when we look about alibies.
- Just like Yasu, Natsuhi really was "up to something" and has plenty of stuff to hide, and it'd be quite easy to pass down a moral judgement on her.
- Just like Beatrice, Natsuhi seems to feel partially responsible for what's happening and has regrets about it.
Basically it's the formula to be blamed as culprit. A formula we've been constantly shown in a negative light.
Btw I'm not going to suggest another culprit, because this is essentially what I think has been our mistake in Umineko : We're not there to find a culprit, we're there to defend people who has been wrongfully accused.
Not saying the culprit isn't important or interesting to find btw. It might be all that interests many of you, but I'm just talking about what's been going on in the serie. It's always been about proving someone innocent. Defence lawyer is pretty much both Beatrice and Battler's job, in the end.
To me this is particularly interesting in the light that, if a witch or other fantasy being was actually responsible for everyone's death, we'd only be able to prove this by proving without a shadow of a doubt that everyone else is innocent. That would actually make Beatrice the heroine trying to find the "villain" while it would make Battler the one who is causing trouble to the investigation by trying to pin it to someone who is innocent out of mostly spite. Interesting mostly because, this is basically a proof that fantasy can require at least as much logical reasoning then mystery does, if not more.
Generally speaking too, a lot of things like all those talks about devil's proof ends up becoming much more important then as they stand right now under that approach too.
It also raises the question about ethics : what interests you the most - protecting the innocents or pursuing a culprit. At the very least, to me, this solves the problems everyone had about "Ryuukishi's messed up ethics".
|2013-01-09, 13:11
|Link #31604
Join Date: May 2009
The difference is that Beatrice appears to be attempting to convict herself. As a result, and if she is indeed the author of the message bottles, it may well have been her intention to create a scenario in which she is in fact the culprit. Whether she was in fact any sort of "true" culprit in a hypothetical Prime is certainly something we've all debated over many times.
If your point is that there could be an "alternate solution" to the games themselves... well sure, I guess. The problem is that we'd both have to look for a "non-obvious culprit" (i.e. we cannot blame either Beatrice or Eva for ep3) and have some way of confirming the viability of that theory... which we kinda don't.
|2013-01-09, 13:27
|Link #31605
Junior Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Germany
Hey everyone, it's been quite a while since I last dropped by...Phew. Seems some people have been staying active. Pretty amazing, considering the time...
I've just started reading the manga, now with (at least) the Yasu-Shkanontrice solution in mind and paying attention to the hints that have been dropped in that regard (and mostly seem like plain punches in the face...)
Even though I still find Shkanon a crappy way out....some things are at least clicking into place and I guess I have somehow come to terms with it.
So anyhow, there are some questions and ideas popping up re-reading the whole thing in manga form.
Scenes showing Kinzou in EP1
Okay, I'm sure this has been discussed a milions times already (sorry...but then again: what hasn't? =D), but how are we supposed to interpret the (magic) scenes depicting Kinzou in this EP? So, obviously we know they're not real as he's a goddamn corpse (duh!). Krauss talking to him might simply be him pretending to so / lying about it. Might say the same for the opening scene of the Ep, when only Dr. Nanjo is talking to him. I'm not sure about this scene though...
The rose
It's rather a side note, I guess. I was wondering why the crippled rose was so important to Maria. Do we have to search for some deeper meaning here? Maria is getting SUSPICIOUSLY upset about not finding that rose, even for a mentally unstable 9-year-old, isn't she?
Are we supposed to find yet another relation to Yasu here or anything? "Crippled" possibly meaning the thing that automatically comes to mind thinking about the baby and the cliff and all? =P
Which might lead to the general question how much insight Maria really had into Yasu(ShannonKanonBeatrice). But then again I always find it difficult not to mix up Piece!Yasu/Shannon and Author!/Meta!(?)Yasu....
Another take on the meaning of "furniture". I don't know whether a solid definition has been established yet, anyway, here goes haha.
This approach might definitely not be brandnew or anything, but reading the Ep1 Manga now, I get the feeling "furniture" could mean "stuck in their role, without much leeway do decide on their own".
This is now appearing to be a solid theory to me as it fits nicely with Shkannon as a basis.
Shannon is bound to be positive, she is basically "not allowed" to react in a hot-tempered or malicious way. She is also "bound to love" George, as that is exactly the role Yasu is assigning her.
Kanon on the other hand has to act shyly, mostly harboring and/or expressing negative feelings. He is "bound to love" Jessica, as he was in some way or other created for this purpose.
It is noticeable that Genji is the only other servant that is using the term, which might be a reference to Genji's total loyalty to the Head and his robotic behaviour: he is following orders from the head, without question. He is never actually seen to be acting on his own impulse (only excepting the Child-Cliff-incident which is not happening on the gameboard though).
Shannon is starting to defy the notion of her being furniture, most apparent by her outright defying the Beatrice persona (= love for George vs. love for Battler?). It's still noteworthy that even her fighting is consisting of defending rather than attacking, yet again referencing to her not being able to actually act offensively thus not breaking fully free from her assigned role.
I think this is not too farfetched if we take into account the plain meaning of "furniture" and how it is also a reference to how maids and butlers tend to be portrayed as in "classical" mystery stories.
I'm sorry for disrupting any ongoing argument and throwing in some rather random thoughts here. =) Thanks for bearing with me.
|2013-01-09, 14:38
|Link #31606
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Yesterday!
We cannot figure out a prime culprit. We simply cannot. We don't even know what happened. We don't even know if there is a culprit. We cannot say for certain that Kinzo for instance was really dead in prime 1986.
This mystery "exists" but Umineko is not about solving it, and it wasn't made to be solvable. Sure that's an assumption on my part, but that's something I'm fairly certain about.
However you can reach the conclusion that Eva wasn't the culprit in prime. At the very least, accepting that she wasn't the culprit is something that the story leads us to. It's something Umineko is about.
It's not about finding the culprit, but about people's innocence.
I'm also more or less figuring out that this is what arc 7 TP was about : someone taking out the culprit and not revealing them and enduring the blame - not for that culprit they just took out, but to defend someone else - close to them and very innocent, and who probably wouldn't believe them anyway (who'd just accept that the sole survivor of Rokkenjima claims x person is the culprit while having no way of proving it...).
Finding a culprit would probably surface if I'm right and we could properly establish Yasu's "why dunnit". She doubtfully would have did all that to protect Gohda's reputation if he was the culprit or blame herself for it, for instance.
|2013-01-09, 15:54
|Link #31607
Join Date: Aug 2010
Age: 31
Depending on the way it was preserved fingerpointing would still be possible, as Rigor Morts is LONG over.
Tea party: Magic scene not trustable
Kanon's EP4 red: He has most likely no body of his own, so this red shouldn't be taken to literally imho.
Which would have normally been the last one (replace revivial with birth for this episode), yet her corpse was discovered before the others.
She was the sacrifice for the birth of the new witch. "
Source: http://umineko.wikia.com/wiki/Rosa_Ushiromiya
Shes uses a different wording than i wrote down, the contents are the same though:
EP 5 Manga Ch 19 Page 15
Virgillia: It is impossible that they are playing dead <- referring to the George, jessica, Maria, Rosa and Genji.
The sisters saying it doesn't make it less credible btw.
She gives 3 more reds btw.
|2013-01-09, 15:57
|Link #31608
Join Date: May 2009
|2013-01-09, 18:36
|Link #31609
"Senior" "Member"
Join Date: Jan 2012
Shortly after the cousins 'disappeard', they were killed in the forest or somewhere in the tunnels. Only then Virgillia confirmed that red.
Or you have an better idea? I mean you also have to consider that their bodies were not moved after their death.
Well it is also possible that their bodies were not there to begin with.
Last edited by GreyZone; 2013-01-09 at 18:53.
|2013-01-09, 18:44
|Link #31610
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Definitely, unless most of the plot is a lie, the one who seems to be the target for deception is Natsuhi, not Erika. Erika seems more like 'the detective who got in the way of the plan' however, as she was closed minded, in the end she ended up being used by the siblings to reach their goal.
There's to say that the cousins might have believed they were playing a prank to Erika (or even Shannon as I always wondered why Umineko felt the need to show us that Battler phoned to Jessica prior to reaching Rokkenjima in Ep 5) and that's why they played along as I doubt Jessica would have agreed into faking her own death so as to cause pain to her mother and then let Natsuhi be considered the culprit for it.
Still, showing to Erika the gold is odd as they don't know if she's trustworthy and... well, the gold isn't supposed to become public domain.
If he had already had the solution and saw the gold, making her join in the 'hunt' should have had some sort of reason (he could have tried to distract her and force her to stay inside so that she couldn't go out to search...) and the only one I can think of is that the discovery had to look 'incidental'... and it's a weak explanation.
Hum.... I've to think more at all this...
- a witch officially handing him that red
- proofs.
Bern could hand some red for which Erika had no proofs but it was likely done with Lambda's permission. Virgilia wasn't allowed to hand that red and he couldn't find anything to confirm it so, although true, that red didn't hold any value in court.
Either Ryukishi is blatantly lying or it's a clue about how the epitaph wasn't solved. However in Ep 5 is sure the gold was 'found' as Erika witnessed it and saw it being showed to the siblings.
So the gold was found in a way that didn't include the epitaph being solved and the only way to do so is for Battler to be handed the solution.
MetaBattler of Ep 5 confirmed he didn't have a clue about how to solve the epitaph and comment that his piece version is pretty smart and we know is piece version is being manipulated by Bern who got that knowledge by peeping on other fragments.
Mind you, I'm not saying it's impossible that Battler solved the epitaph on his own but there are hints that imply that the epitaph wasn't solved in Ep despite the gold being found and, although the idea of Battler's characterization being closer to the truth is a good and possible one the gap between the two Battlers abilities seems to wide.
If Battler saw Kinzo's corpse in Ep 5 I think it's more likely he did when he was handed the solution to the epitaph. Maybe it was how Yasu/Beato/TMF19YA got his cooperation: she persuaded him to uncover Natsuhi and Krauss' lie by forcing them to confess. In the beginning Battler might have believed it was the right thing to do then he could have started feeling pity for Natsuhi.
I'll say George is definitely dead.
|2013-01-09, 19:08
|Link #31611
"Senior" "Member"
Join Date: Jan 2012
Also the "Genius Battler" Theory from EP6.
And didn't you wonder, why Battler suddenly lost all his "mystery knowledge" (that we got to know about in EP5 and EP7) in the first Episodes, that he was supposed to have? So he read a lot of mysteries and shared his expieriences with Shannon, but did not even know what whodunnit, howdunnit and whydunnit are? Used theories that involve fishing poles under the edge of the door, or "small bombs in the food" although his piece version in EP5 seems more knowledgeble about mysteries (and their tricks) than Erika?
|2013-01-09, 19:50
|Link #31612
Join Date: Aug 2010
Age: 31
I suspected Battler to have mistaken a dead Kinzo for an alive Kinzo, as this wouldn't violate any reds about him.
After that I just explained one way to mistake a dead Kinzo for an alive Kinzo.
This explanation fits in as soon as we get to the Golden truth were battler searches for a possibility of Kinzo being dead after all and says something along the lines that there is one corpse he could use for that.
Note you still can't mistake Kinzo for someone else, the corpse however had to be shown in one way or another or the golden truth would have been inferior to red.
So the only way to make the Golden truth stronger than Dlanor's red, and block her from using Knox 8, is that a clue about 'that' body has been shown.
Battler claimed to have seen Kinzo, and there is no way he could mistake anyone else for him. Mistaking a piece of cloth for him is also forbidden.
This does indeed only leave two options:
- Battler lied
- Battler mistook dead Kinzo for an alive Kinzo, the corpse was moved by the culprit in order to achieve the goal of making Kinzo look 'alive' if you don't stand right next to him.
Is it sick? Yes it is. (This is btw why I was asked if I'm serious I think)
Why even trying to think in such ways then:
Remember EP 2's first twilight. Kinzo being moved around is still ways below the scale that was set there.
|2013-01-09, 20:32
|Link #31613
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
I wouldn't even be sure that MetaBattler of Ep 5 is smarter than MetaBattler of Ep 2. The main difference between the two is that in Ep 2 he thought he had to deal with a real life mystery and felt horror at the idea one of his relatives could have done it. In Ep 5 he finally became aware it's all a game and so he managed to solve it.
And anyway Genius Battler theory still doesn't explain how the epitaph was solved but murders continued.
Also we don't really know how good Battler was at solving the mysteries he read.
He might have been pretty bad at it and totally unable to apply the solutions he knew once he was facing what he believed was a real mystery.
And not that in Ep 1 he mentions mystery books... though in the end he can't figure out the tricks used because he's going at it in the completely wrong way, by trying to find an extra person and blame him/her in place of his relatives because he can't deal witht he idea one of them might do something that horrible... a problem he likely didn't have when reading a book.
And who says he didn't know whodunnit, howdunnit and whydunnit?
Battler mentions more than once references to mystery novels:
Is Battler really incompetent? Or he's being just a mystery lover that's facing a real murder case involving people he loves?
He's likely aware that in books the detective has detective authority or whatever you want to call it but he perceives himself as in the real world so, even in Ep 4 when he inspect the corpses he thinks the police can complain about it.
When in Ep 2 Beato remembers him Nanjo might be an accomplice (as he suspected in Ep 1) and suggests him to personally check if the guys are really dead Battler is fighting in order not to cry.
I doubt he would have cried while reading a mystery novel.
And there are mentions of mystery novels in Ep 2 as well, and in 4. Battler definitely had mystery knowledge prior to Ep 5.
So, genius Battler.
If you remove from him the possibility he solved the epitaph his other accomplishments are 3.
Finding the culprit for Beato's games, creating an alternate solution for Ep 5 and building up a mystery in Ep 6 who required to be solved by ShKanon then letting himself be trapped in a logic error so that Beato could solve it.
Note that: Will found the culprit just using the hints from ep 1 to 4 (and we were supposed to do so as well according to Ryukishi), so he was more of a genius than Battler.
The first tricks presented in Ep 6 are pretty lame and really if the game had taken place in the real world Erika would have easily realized Battler and Co were faking their death as they were likely breating and their heart was beating.
If Erika had merely pressed a pillow on their face out of instinct they would have had to move to try to get some air, revealing their 'alive' status.
Genius Battler isn't really that smart the same way Ep 1-4 Battler isn't really that dumb, they merely looks so due to circumstances.
Note that even Natsuhi used red
It seems way more likely that Battler lied or that his words were misunderstood as I theorized in my previous post.
Last edited by jjblue1; 2013-01-09 at 20:51.
|2013-01-09, 21:12
|Link #31614
Join Date: Aug 2010
Age: 31
The only way to be superior to Knox 8 in this particular case is having a clue. And yes i know that Dlanor countered it with Knox 2nd, probably because she knew which body Battler was talking about.
As long as the corpse has one of Kinzo's suits there is nothing wrong with not realizing that he is already dead.
its just a theory to give some sense to the words Battler said briefly before the golden truth though.
|2013-01-09, 21:24
|Link #31615
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2011
Here's Kinzo's case. He was never a human. What I'm talking about is the whole Goldsmith idea. The TIPS from the anime straight out say for EP4 that the image of Kinzo summoning the Chiesters and the Demons is not the human Kinzo, but the great and powerful Goldsmith. A similar situation to EVA in EP3. It looked like Eva, but was it really her? It looked like Kinzo, but it was Goldsmith. Is it too far a leap to assume that Kinzo was *never* playing for the human side? All he talked about was the roulette and hum wanting to summon Beatrice again. Humans can't summon witches.
Kanon however, was a "human" character, or at least tried to fight for his right to live as a human. If he or Shannon won, the certainly the witch might then have lost. Sure, he fell to the witch and Yasu merely continued to dress as him to confuse people. But if the Kanon inside her would have won... if he had never "died", certainly he would have cast away his anger for Battler and would have just ended the ceremony or maybe would have never started it to begin with.
Kanon and Shannon may have been the same person. The both contradict the witch, so they can be placed on the "human" side. Since they each have their own separate goals and motives, they can be seen as seperate pieces.
This is why Kinzo would not be counted when Erika introduced herself in EP6, but Shkanon could be counted as separate people and thus Erika became the 18th human.
|2013-01-09, 22:59
|Link #31616
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Gnawing away at Rokkenjima
|2013-01-10, 12:18
|Link #31617
"Senior" "Member"
Join Date: Jan 2012
Also the fact that when MetaBattler 'awakens' in the ???-tea party, we lose his point of view that we were following for 5 games long and suddenly he knew about things like the golden truth. The same happened with his piece version, but for that one already at the beginning of the EP.
Because of that Piece'Beatrice' never found out about it and assumed that no one solved the epitaph yet.
Also we get disattached from Battler's POV at the end of EP5 and if we suppose "Genius Battler" is true, then most of the things we see in EP6 from Battler's POV is a lie too. In that case it is hard to really evaluate Battler in these episodes. But the 'lame' tricks are supposed to be 'lame'. That is part of the plan of getting trapped in the room. If you see it like this, it seems evident that he really looked down on Erika. And i understand why: She is a lame 'Meta-gamer' (her piece version preparing for a murder although she shouldn't know anything about a murder taking place at that point.) and even then she is unable to win the game. It is as if someone uses cheats in a game, but still loses. So he set the 'difficulty' very low and still won... RandomAvatarFan will hate me for saying this.
|2013-01-10, 13:11
|Link #31618
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Yesterday!
He was trying to prove innocent someone who had everything pointing out to her being the culprit and was actually responsible for some amoral stuff going on. Yet out of nothing but faith, he wanted to prove her innocent.
And doing so, he solved everything.
Furthermore your suggestion reminds me of the red:
Battler immediately figured out red was a weapon that the witch would only use as a way to attack us. It took him much longer to figure out it was also a source of clues.
We're very much in contrast to this, we constantly considered the red to be the "only reliable clues" and I still think some people haven't figured out (or accepted) that the red was, as Battler said right away, a weapon used to attack our reasoning.
We looked down on Battler and considered his reasoning to have grew up when he started to consider the red a source of hints, but that's actually exactly where he was led astray. Just like we've been.
Basically what I'm saying is that even tho we tend to look down on him and the story pushes that even further, I think it's likely Battler's "wild guesses" are very close to the mark most of the time.
|2013-01-10, 19:11
|Link #31619
Senior Member
Join Date: Aug 2011
Battler trying to solve the epitaph or to protect Beato or to act in a certain way with Dlanor must fit his personality but Battler being able to pull out all that successfully is tied to his ability and to calculate the amount of ability to do something is pretty hard to do.
(this of course doesn't keep in consideration the fact that the Japanese word used might include personality and ability).
All this to say: it's possible that deep down Battler has the ability to solve the epitaph (like theoretically any Japanese reader) but the problem is the stark difference between that Battler and the other in regard to how easily he does, a difference that even Battler marks as 'strange'.
In Ep 6, although smart enough to figure out the same answer as Erika in the quiz Battler doesn't reason it out as smoothly as he did with the epitaph.
After all he didn't know about the logic error and needed to be instructed about it by Genji.
But honestly the golden truth is so random and unexplained I really wouldn't try to base any reasoning on it.
Also, he had a golden sword. If red sword can use red truth it was pretty reasonable to assume golden sword uses gold truth.
In Ep 4 he will still try to put the blame on an extra person before surrendering on the idea there's no extra person and will search for pitfalls.
In Ep 5 he still feels pity for Natsuhi at the idea she's faking talking with Beato when she's alone. That Natsuhi is just a character, not the real Natsuhi. He also is afraid at the idea he might be the killer.
He surely has improved a lot and keeps on improving compared to Ep 1 & 2 but it's only in the end he seems to truly figure out the game as he claimed himself as the evil culprit, not shying away from the idea it implied his piece version killed his cousins and aunt in cold blood.
But pieceBattler in Ep 5 found the gold and (apart from the cousins) everyone knew about it Yasu included as she handed him the ring and, what matter the most, Erika as well since this assure us that the scene in which the family saw the gold was reliable. At this point, if he had found the gold because he solved the epitaph, the murders should have stopped.
The murders continue instead ergo the epitaph wasn't solved.
It's this the core of the problem. We can discuss about the other details ab nauseam but regardless by them until someone doesn't come up with a satisfing answer on why in Ep 3 & 5 the murders continued when they were supposed to stop because the epitaph was solved and Yasu knew it I'm not going to believe Battler found the solution to the epitaph on his own in Ep 5.
Repeating stuffs isn't a requisite to use red as Natsuhi and Battler successfully used red in Ep 4 & 5 without having to repeat anything.
Where would be the clue for the golden truth used by Beato the elder in Ep 6? Especially considering they knew it was a trick?
And which would be then the difference between a golden truth without proofs and a red truth without proofs?
or between a between a golden truth with proofs and a red truth with proofs?
The colour?
Why one is labelled as golden and the other isn't?
Was there some music playing on Rokkenjima?
It destroys some reasoning, that's for sure, but it also gives clues.
If we didn't get some confirmations any scene Battler didn't witness could be waved off as fantasy.
We could say Beatrice Castiglioni never existed, Kinzo stole the gold to... mafia guys then embellished his tale creating a mystery woman and ended up so enamoured with it he had a painter make a fake paint and in his last years of life even started believing his fantasy really happened.
The baby that fell from the cliff was a mere orphan.
Kuwadorian was Kinzo's secret harem filled with pretty blond women.
Knox actually isn't a rule on the gameboard and Rokkenjima is filled with people hiding in the forest.
And closed rooms were never closed room to begin with, not even for a moment.
Oh, and of course everyone was murdered by traps or committed suicide.
Red allows us to establish some things... if correctly used.
Last edited by jjblue1; 2013-01-10 at 19:24.
|2013-01-10, 20:50
|Link #31620
Join Date: May 2009
A red without proof is still kind of ridiculous even so, but whatever. That's all I can really think of to explain the difference. Since I'm sort of one of those who thinks gold was pulled out of somebody's ass, I don't think we're ever going to get a more meaningful distinction than that.
EDIT: Oh here's an example of a human truth that you could state in red that you can't prove. Say you're accused of a crime and you know that I was in my house all night, but can't present any specific evidence that proves that. You know it's true, but everybody else may not believe you.
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text:
A week after news emerged that owners of discount chain Five Below might be planning to take the retailer public, Reuters reports that arts and crafts seller Michaels is also readying for an IPO.
Michaels' owners, The Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, have hired JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to help them prepare for the filing. According to an analysis in The New York Times Michaels' IPO promises to be one of the biggest of the year.
Blackstone and Bain purchased Michaels for approximately $6 billion in a leveraged buyout in 2006, when many private equity firms were feverishly acquiring retailers, with what proved to be mixed success.
Michaels, however, turned out to be a home run for Blackstone and Bain. In fiscal 2011, the chain's net sales rose 4.4 percent to $4.21 billion and its same-store sales rose 3.2 percent. Michaels was able to improve its gross margin by 120 basis points during the year, to 40 percent of sales. And the chain opened net 34 new stores last year, including 15 relocations. In fiscal 2012, Michaels plans to open another 45 to 50 new stores.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Cindi also has an Etsy store where she sells her gorgeous creations. I'm so curious which is your favorite??? Mine has got to be the one she is giving away, but I also love the ones below…you can click on any photo to be taken to the listing.
1. Be a follower of Fishtail Cottage
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3. Visit Rustique Art and tell me which item is your favorite.
4. Place an order in Rustique Art Etsy Shop, and if you do so, please let come back and me know!
5. Post this giveaway on your blog side bar
6. Post this giveaway on your Facebook


text:
Los Angeles (Reuters) - A former Singapore banker accused of helping "liquidate" hundreds of millions of dollars in an accounting fraud at Japan's Olympus Corp (7733.T) was ordered to face charges in New York after he was arrested in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Chan Ming Fon, a one-time bank vice president, was ordered held without bail by U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Walsh and transported to New York.
Chan, who resides in Singapore and is a citizen of Taiwan, is the latest executive and first from outside Japan to be indicted in the $1.7 billion accounting cover-up at the camera and medical equipment maker.
"My client is looking forward to going to New York to address the charges as quickly as possible," said his attorney, David Grable, in the Los Angeles office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.
Chan is charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years.
"The defendant had a direct role in the secret liquidation of hundreds of millions of dollars of Olympus investments. He then waged a six-year campaign to conceal that misdeed by lying, certifying to auditors that the investments still existed years after liquidation," said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge George Venizelos.
The decade-long accounting fraud at Olympus, a 93-year-old maker of medical equipment, was exposed last October by then-Chief Executive Michael Woodford, who was fired after he questioned dubious deals that were later found to have been used to hide losses.
Three former Olympus executives - Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori and auditor Hideo Yamada - pleaded guilty in September to charges that they inflated the company's net worth in financial statements for five fiscal years to March 2011.
Chan was paid $10 million by Olympus or entities controlled by Olympus for his role in the fraud, court papers said.
In 2005, he established an entity in the Cayman Islands called SG Bond Plus Fund. Until about 2010, Chan submitted false and misleading documents to Olympus' outside auditor regarding hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of assets purportedly maintained by Chan at SG Bond for the benefit of Olympus, the complaint said.
Chan had actually transferred the assets to a British Virgin Island-based entity controlled by Olympus, the complaint said.
Chan was interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday and Tuesday.
An investigative panel report, commissioned by Olympus last year, mentioned a banker referred only by his last name, Chan, as an outside collaborator who first met Olympus executives Yamada and Mori in 1998. At the time "Chan" was working at Commerzbank in Singapore but resigned in 2000. After leaving Societe Generale in 2004, the report said, Chan formed his own company where he continued to work for former Olympus executives.
Olympus declined to comment.
Reporting by Brandon Lowrey; Editing by Steve Orlofsky


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Editorial: Small gain, big challenge
New statewide testing of schoolchildren show modest gains in math scores.
Much work remains to elevate the academic performance of New York's students.
State education officials are making a big deal out of a little improvement in elementary and middle school test scores.
In year-over-year comparisons statewide, children in grades 3 and 8 did modestly better on statewide math exams tied to Common Core standards this year. Unfortunately, the tests showed almost no progress in the English testing.
Still, Education Commissioner John King praised the results, saying they show the state is making progress in the formidable challenge to elevate the educational standards for New York's students. Appropriately, he acknowledged that much more work needs to be done.
Common Core, however, continues to be a lightning rod for parents, teachers and politicians in New York and in many of the other 44 states that had adopted the new standards. It's become inextricably tangled in politics. Although Common Core was developed by a coalition of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, it has come to be portrayed as a creation of the Obama administration, standards the government is ramming down the throats of states and school districts.
Now, it seems almost everyone, including the state's largest teacher's union and even Gov. Andrew Cuomo, wants to put some brakes on the implementation of the Common Core standards. There's even a "Stop Common Core" statewide ballot line in November.
Mr. King is right to use the recent, albeit quite modest, gains to promote what is still the worthy agenda of elevating school and student performance. We have said before that Common Core standards are a reasonable and measured approach to addressing a critical national problem — U.S. school children are lagging behind many of their counterparts in Europe and Asia.
That doesn't mean they should stop looking for ways to revise some of the aspects of Common Core, whose main goals include honing critical thinking skills. Analytical skills are certainly essential to prepare youngsters for college-level work or jobs in the modern economy. Yet just this week, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health found the old-fashioned way of memorizing multiplication tables serves students well when they later study advanced math.
The most troubling aspect of the state's recent test score data is that the progress is coming mainly in suburban districts that are better off financially. Alarmingly, no students in the Albany city schools are meeting the proficiency standard in eighth grade math scores. Schenectady, another financially pressed urban district, did only a little better.
It's a reminder that, Common Core aside, the governor and Legislature must provide the funding and resources poor districts need to close the education gap.
State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch put it this way: "We must and we can do better." Obvious as that may be, it's also essential.


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Morrissey backed out due to Green Shift, Tories charge
Sparrow said from Ottawa.
"Morrissey is clearly feeling the heat on the carbon tax and doesn't want to campaign on raising the price of gas, home heating fuel and groceries.''
But Morrissey said his decision had more to do with the uncertainty over the timing of the next election than Liberal Leader Stephane Dion's green shift plan.
Ryan Sparrow can spin all he wants, that's his job, but I expect more from the media than simply acting as conduit for unsubstantiated propaganda. Was there anything that Morrissey said that would support such a charge? Any Liberal sources close to the campaign that heard of unhappiness over the Green Shift? Anything at all, apart from the nonsense of a man a time zone away? That opinion deserves to be in the title of your piece?
It would appear that complete fabrication is newsworthy, people can just throw out wild theories, and the reporter simply parrotsthe charge, no verification, no journalistic "eye", nope, thanks Ryan Sparrow, we'll be sure to pass this on to our readers.


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Saturday, July 11, 2009
Review of Security Monitoring Posted
I must start this review by noting that the authors of Security Monitoring (SM) cite my blog and books several times, which is appreciated. I must also mention that their boss Gavin Reid, who posted a review below, has offered to sponsor my company's application to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). O'Reilly kindly provided a review copy of SM.
I think SM should be positioned as an Introduction to Basic Security Monitoring. At just over 200 pages, it's not written to be much more than that. I'm not sure I will change the mind of the reviewer who considers my first book to be "introductory," but it might help to remember that my first book is just shy of 800 pages and covers every aspect of Network Security Monitoring.
SM is technically correct, but its approach to incident detection will fall far short of what is needed in the real world. SM concentrates on a paradigm it calls "policy-based monitoring," (abbreviated PBM here) with this goal: "to compare events discovered on the network to ensure that they are approved and acceptable... PBM is practical where acceptable conditions can be documented as policies... [Y]ou must codify acceptable behavior as policies, providing a reference point against which to survey" (pp 16-17) This sounds great, but it has several real flaws...
Please read the rest of the review for the whole story.
Richard Bejtlich is teaching new classes in Las Vegas in 2009. Late Las Vegas registration ends 22 July.
4 comments:
- Chris Fry said...
Hey Richard, thanks for taking the time to post a review on Amazon. A few of points of clarification:
RB- "I'm not sure I will change the mind of the reviewer who considers my first book to be "introductory," but it might help to remember that my first book is just shy of 800 pages and covers every aspect of Network Security Monitoring"
CF- Our preface said that the book is not an intro to sysadmin, network admin, etc and that advanced technical topics can be found in other books. Sounds like you're more pissed about the amazon.com dude's review calling your book introductory and our book advanced. I don't really agree with his assessment and can understand the frustration. As for the SSN example, it's just that...a *simple* example of how you can customize your toolset to watch for violations that may be unique to your environment. It's not supposed to catch advanced adversaries, it's for the $7/hour data entry clerk looking to make a quick buck. If you actually read the whole section you would see that there are 7 other methods of monitoring based on their security policy, including watching for outbound connections from the hosts (see page 31).
RB- "Second, SM buys into the digital situational awareness paradigm that I call "sufficient knowledge." In other words, if a product fires an alert for "BitTorrent protocol" (example p 95), the analyst is supposed to accept it as truth and be happy with what he or she gets from the security product."
CF- Interesting observation but I don't recall us advocating complete reliance on IDS alerts as your sole source of incident data. We also discuss the use of netflow, syslog and other event data which would be checked when the IDS alert was seen.
RB- "The fact is that real security analysts will want every scrap of network traffic associated with an alert, including knowing exactly how the detection mechanism decided to notify the analyst"
CF- The context in this case is a datacenter environment. Keeping anything beyond a short timeframe is not going to be cost-effective. You can deploy something like an Infinistream or Niksun etc device and be able to go back perhaps a few days, but the idea that you could keep all packets in anything but the smallest datacenter environments is not based on reality (unless you have unlimited budget). Just 2Gbps of sustained traffic at your capture point will leave you requesting ~ 20 Terabytes of disk storage per day This method is more effective at the perimiter where bandwidths are not typicaly so high.
RB- "Third, some parts of the book indicate to me that the authors are fairly new to enterprise monitoring. On pp 112-114 they discuss relying on SPAN ports and say "we wouldn't dare implement this inline at the data center gateways (or distribution layer), due to the high bandwidth requirements and asymmetric paths.""
CF- Everyone has different requirements and tolerances for risk. We've tried to provide a way to look at these decisions from a few different perspectives. I'm thinking of what happens when your TAP goes into "automatic failover" in *only* 2-3 seconds (spanning-tree convergence, routing convergence, all things you don't want for FCoE, VOIP, video, etc). The point is that you need to understand the failover scenarios very well. And sure, you can design your way around all of this, but it all depends on how much complexity you want to add to your network (again back to requirements/tolerances). The network engineer stealing your SPAN example is more to plant the idea that you'll want to make sure that your data sources don't disappear, which we discuss.
RB- "The caveat is that you should recognize the book is an introduction to the basics."
CF- It's really about getting the most out of and improving on what you have already. Our intention in writing the book was to share some experiences and best practices for the benefit of peers. There are a lot of very powerful tips, methods, and tools presented in a practical way. Thanks again and I hope we can discuss/collaborate/share more via FIRST.
Chris and I welcome these kinds of questions and dialog. Join us for a 90-minute webcast about the book tomorrow:
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 10AM PST
- brad said...
If you were just starting out, what would you read after SM?
The obvious choice is the Tao of NSM, which I've been considering picking up, but are there any other books you'd recommend reading first?
- Richard Bejtlich said...
brad, my Reading page at
has my recommendations plus what I'm reading, which may or may not be relevant.


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Trophies Awarded to Phenix98
10Awarded: Nov 23, 2018
Experience - 1 year in PRTA!
You have been awarded this trophy for being registrated at the PRTA website for over a year! We hope that you had as much fun as we did!
10Awarded: Sep 20, 2018
Welcome to PRTA!
Congratulations, you are now a PRTA member!
While you are in this community we have a certain amount of rules and guidelines to behaviour on our servers and forum. Below you will also find information of benefits and activities. Please read them thoroughly.
Reserved slot
If you are a member of PRTA, you receive a free reserved slot on our servers when you sign up. If for some reason you're not added to reserved slot list, please ask it on this page.
We pride in showing our numbers on the servers we play on, wear our tag to honour our name. Ensure you behave well with it on. It should be a mark of respect and maturity.
If you are interested in events, and like to organize things, we need you! There is alot of teamwork hungry gamers out there. And they are looking for the perfect excuse to play PR an entire weekend. So if you are up for it, or want to learn. Make a work thread for your event here: Work Tasks
We do have a certain standard, so ensure you have a good idea and intend to follow through with your event when you post it.
Voting and Proposals
If at some point you think something should be changed in PRTA, but you cant just change it since you do not have the power to. Create a proposal on this forum: PRTA Voting Forum
Before you make your proposal, make sure you check how other proposals were made, and read the voting rules: Voting Rules and Regulations
You may also check this forum: Join us! And if anyone has applied, feel free to make a vote for them in the voting forum, regardless of which application was made.
Teamspeak and Activity!
As with all communities, we thrive on having alot of active members, so please visit our teamspeak daily. To join simply put ts.prta.co as the Teamaspeak IP and you connect to our server.
The website is also a great place to see what is happening, aswell as contribute to our community. So dont be afraid to come back here everyday and say whats on your mind!
PRTA has a PRBF2 Server, which to stay on top of our game, we seed as much as possible. If you would like to help aswell, with very little effort simply follow these easy steps:
1. Create a new account on your bf2 login call it: SeedNAME
2. In this account, set all graphics on low, and turn of any option that is possible. Put the screen to 800x600
3. Turn off sound.
4. Create a Copy of the PRBF2 shortcut. After the directory of PR. And add the following to the goal line:
+playerName SeedWicca +playerPassword herpaderp +fullscreen 0 +joinServer 188.8.131.52 +port 16567 +restart
Obviously change out player name and password with yours!
Introduce yourself
If you would like to introduce yourself for community, do it on this page.
Thank you for joining, see you around!
PRTA Management


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When it comes to debt, if you feel like you're treading water and getting nowhere or even drowning, take heart -- you're not alone.
Continue Reading Below
Plenty of people have been where you are, survived the struggle and emerged financially stronger in the end. Try these tips to help you cope with and eventually eliminate your debt issues:
1. Take a deep breath
If you're panic-stricken, you're more likely to make poor decisions and worsen your situation. Rather than focusing on how bad things are, make a list of all of your assets, such as your home, car and valuable possessions. Completing this first step can help you focus on the positives in your situation.
2. Be deliberate
Don't attempt an overnight overhaul of your finances. Going cold turkey with a strict budget has the same risks of a crash diet. You're OK for the first few days, but when the going gets tough, you may give up and overspend. Keep your anxiety level as low as possible by creating a realistic budget.
Start by assessing your income and spending. Then devise a plan that cuts those expenses by a reasonable yet meaningful amount -- maybe 10-15%. Once you adjust to those cuts, keep decreasing expenses each month until your spending habits and debt are in check.
3. Fill the void
Reducing expenses to save money can give you peace of mind, but make sure to keep new stress at bay by coming up with a plan for replacing the old things in your life that your new budget doesn't include. People can fill the voids in their life with either healthy or unhealthy replacements, so make sure you choose the former.
For example, if you start bringing your lunch to work instead of eating out, make a plan for how you'll constructively use that extra 45 minutes of time you save by making calls to friends and family or taking a walk -- not shopping online at your desk.
4. Increase your income
It sounds obvious, but a good way to stop worrying about money is to simply make more of it. Although a part-time job or working more hours is one way to achieve this, many other ways exist to raise funds. Do you have an available room in your home you can rent out? Does a neighbor need an hour of daycare each morning or her child driven to school? Do you have a hobby or skill you can teach others or apply on a freelance basis? Accessing new lines of income can have a major impact on how quickly you solve your financial problems.
5. Take control of credit
A key element of redirecting your financial destiny and setting your mind at ease is learning how to use credit responsibly and not as an extension of your pay check. Although this may be difficult to do initially, in the long run having a handle on your credit can give you priceless peace of mind. Once you've stopped using credit, you may find it much easier to pay off your existing bills as well.
6. Build up savings
It's important to pay down credit cards, but it's also critical that you build savings over time. That way when unexpected expenses come up like car and home repairs, you won't find yourself spiraling into panic mode. A nearly painless way to save is to automate your savings by having a specific amount of money taken from your checking account on a regular basis and redirected to an online savings account.
7. Set goals
Reducing debt is most enjoyable when you have a clear destination. Decide what your financial goals are and keep yourself motivated with visual reminders of those goals, such as photos taken from magazines and computer screensavers. Keep your mood positive along the way by indulging in low-cost or no-cost treats as you reach savings milestones, such as ordering a pizza or having an inexpensive lunch with a friend.
8. Avoid the lure of a quick fix
Don't let worries about your finances cloud your judgment so you jump for short-cut solutions. Generally speaking, it takes time and effort to get out of debt. If a debt settlement service approaches you with promises to erase your debt quickly, beware. The Federal Trade Commission warns that seeking assistance from the wrong debt settlement company can be risky and have a long-term negative impact on your credit report.
If you find that you can't deal with your mountain of debt on your own, consult a reputable nonprofit consumer credit counseling service instead. Expert guidance can often ease the strain of debt and help you see your situation and solutions more clearly.
Escaping the anxiety over excessive debt isn't easy, but it is possible. By staying on course with these tips, you can look forward to a time when you'll be able to examine your finances without worry.
The original article can be found at SavingsAccounts.com:How to manage your debt anxiety


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12:00 pm
Super Why! "Princess Gwennie Saves The Day" Princess Pea is feeling dramatic (as usual) and she and Red are staging a play. Princess is pretending she's a queen but Red doesn't know what to be! The super readers fly into the story of a princess with a silly sense of humor and a big job to do. They help Gwennie use her talents to save the day, and Red discovers her own special gifts. D
12:30 pm
Caillou "Nature" Today Caillou discovers the wonders of the natural world. Grandma introduces Caillou to the many birds that live in the park, and then gives him a bird house for his own backyard. That's why Caillou's prepared when he and Sarah find a baby bird that's fallen from its nest, and they nurse it back to health. D
1:00 pm
Thomas & Friends "Slow Down!" Wonky Whistle - Thomas is getting his whistle fixed at the Steam Works before he delivers animals to the Sodor Country Fair. He rushes out of the Steam Works before his whistle is fixed properly and it starts to make a strange sound. Thomas collects ducks, Katy the sheep dog and Farmer McColl's prize cow to take them to the fair. D
1:30 pm
Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood "Daniel Gets Mad/Katerina Gets Mad" Daniel Gets Mad - Daniel Tiger and Prince Wednesday are looking forward to playing at the beach. Then it starts to rain and Mom Tiger says they can't go outside, which makes them very mad. After Mom Tiger helps the boys deal with their mad feelings and they're calm, they come up with a grr-ific plan to make a beach - indoors! Katerina Gets Mad - It's New Instrument Day at Music Man Stan's Music Shop. D
2:00 pm
Curious George "Personal Trainer/Sprout Outing" George learns about stretching, keeping hydrated and pacing to help Professor Wiseman win a race.G
2:30 pm
Martha Speaks "Truman's Mad/Dog for a Day" Truman's Mad When Truman sends away for a science kit, he dreams about all the new inventions he will create. But can reality really live up to his big dreams? Vocabulary: (E) explore, theory, analyz(e)(ing), outcome, effect (I) note(s), lab, kit, finding(s), magnet(ism)(s). Dog for a Day - TD thinks dogs have it easy - no school, no homework, no schedule - but Martha begs to differ. D
3:00 pm
Peg + Cat "The Pirate Problem/The Sleepover Problem" The Pirate Problem - Pirate Island. Peg and Cat show a group of very hungry Pirates how to share tropical fruit fairly. Primary Content: Fair sharing; Secondary Content: Adding within 4. D
3:30 pm
WordGirl "The Wrong Side of the Law: Part 1/The Wrong Side Of the Law: Part 2" The Birthday Girl steals a priceless collection of Pretty Princess figurines from the jewelry store. In an unexpected turn of events Eileen (aka the Birthday Girl) charms the Police Commissioner and convinces him that WordGirl is the culprit. The Wrong Side Of the Law: Part 2 - WordGirl is stuck in jail, accused of stealing the priceless collection of Pretty Princess figurines while the villains of the city are running amok.G
4:00 pm
Wild Kratts "Zig-Zagged" Chris and Martin get caught in the middle of a Zebra stampede, and when the dust clears, a lone baby Zebra is left behind. The Wild Kratts must find the young zebra's herd and return him to his mom. Along the way, they learn the secrets of patterns in the creature world and how the zebra's stripes are critical to a special defense called "confusion camouflage. D
4:30 pm
Cyberchase "Team Spirit" Interest is lagging in the annual Mount Olympus Games, attendance is sagging, and Zeus is not happy. How can he restore the spirit of competition? With lightning bolt speed, he pits Team Motherboard, coached by Digit, against Team Hacker, coached by Wicked, The teams have to compete in the Triadditon, a relay-type race made up of an obstacle course, a swim race, and a foot race where each competitor does one event and tags their teammate to do the next. Bragging rights and hero worship go to the winners. D
5:00 pm
Fetch! With Ruff Ruffman "Ruff's Yard Sale Makes A Racket" Ruff realizes that he's a horrible shopper. (He just bought a sock at a yard sale for sixteen dollars, after talking the price UP from a quarter!) He also bought a broken tennis racquet at the same sale, which he plans on using in an upcoming match against his nemesis Spot Spotnick! Ruff sends Liza and Talia to the headquarters of Wilson Sporting Goods to design a new tennis racquet for him; and he gets some shopping tips from Bethany and Brian, as they head out to Brimfield Fair, the biggest flea market in the world!. D
5:30 pm
Nightly Business Report Tonight on Nightly Business Report, the Nasdaq closes above 4,000 for the first time in 13 years. How much healthier is the index today than it was back then? And, home prices are soaring and permits to build new ones are climbing. So why is a noted housing economist saying the momentum can't be trusted?. D
5:57 pm
NewsHour Promo NULL
6:00 pm
PBS NewsHour NULL
7:00 pm
Chatsworth House The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire are at home in the 300-room Chatsworth House on the estate which has been in the Duke's family for 450 years, and are preparing the house to be open to the public. Everyone has a role to play, and the duke and duchess join the annual litter clean up around the estate. Part 1 of 3G
8:00 pm
African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross "A More Perfect Union (1968-2013)" After 1968 African Americans set out to build a bright future on the foundation of the civil rights movement's victories, but a growing class disparity threatened to split the black community in two. As hundreds of African Americans won political office across the country and the black middle class made unprecedented progress, larger economic and political forces isolated the black urban poor in the inner cities. Part 6 of 6G
9:00 pm
The March Witness the compelling and dramatic story of the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. This watershed event in the civil rights movement helped change the face of America. The film reveals the dramatic story behind the event through the remembrances of key players such as Jack O'Dell, Clarence B. Jones, Julian Bond and Andrew Young.G
10:00 pm
Frontline "A Death In St. Augustine" FRONTLINE and The New York Times investigate this death of Florida resident Michelle O'Connell - and what can go wrong when the police are faced with domestic violence allegations within their own ranks. On the night she broke up with her boyfriend, a Florida deputy sheriff, O'Connell was found dead from a gunshot. Next to her was her boyfriend's semi-automatic service pistol. The sheriff's office called it suicide, but was it?G
11:00 pm
Charlie Rose NULL


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What Are the Most Common Birthdays? Check Out This Infographic
Thanks to this handy infographic created by NPR data journalist Matt Stiles, we now know that babies are most commonly born in September. Count backwards by nine months and you'll learn that baby-making typically occurs during the winter holiday season, which isn't terribly surprising. After all, there's not much else to do when it's cold outside. So how common is your birthday?
The infographic is based upon data compiled by Harvard Kennedy School professor Amitabh Chandra, which uses birth date information from 1973 to 1999. Chandra's findings were originally published in the New York Times in 2006.
Interestingly, the most popular birth date is September 16th, with February 29th as the least popular. Where does your birthday fall in the rankings?


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OCEAN CITY — The North Ocean City Business Alliance will meet next week to continue to discuss a variety of ways to direct more special events to the north end of town.
Earlier this year, a group of north Ocean City business leaders formed the alliance in an effort to help ensure the o north end of the resort is getting its fair share in terms of marketing and promotion of special events. The alliance will hold its next meeting next Thursday, April 5 at the Carousel Oceanfront Hotel at 9 a.m.
The agenda will include discussion points concerning events and promotions. Among the topics currently under discussion are laser tag and a wine festival for September. The meeting is open to the general public.


text:
San Francisco wedding 4.25 x 11 novelty door hangers printed on card stock, die cut and ready to use. All products are professionally printed. Gold effect is ink- NOT FOIL
Printing the second side is an additional $1 per piece and limited to 400 characters including spaces
Products do not print without written proof approval.
Proofs are provided within 2 business days of a completed transaction.
Please provide a contact number ONLY to be used in relation to proofing this order. Processing time is directly related to the customers responsiveness during proofing.


text:
Ford v. Gardner et al
Plaintiff: Henry Lee Ford, III
Defendant: Deborah Gardner, D. Wise, Mary Carter, R. Carter, Edna Byers, C . O'Brian, J.L. Gray, C. Hunter, Michael Finley, D.F. Scott, Charles Garner and LaTonya Scott
Case Number: 4:2009cv01258
Filed: June 23, 2009
Court: Alabama Northern District Court
Office: Middle Office
County: St. Clair
Presiding Judge: Karon O Bowdre
Referring Judge: T Michael Putnam
Nature of Suit: None
Cause of Action: 42:1983 Prisoner Civil Rights
Jury Demanded By: None
Access additional case information on PACER
Use the links below to access additional information about this case on the US Court's PACER system. A subscription to PACER is required.
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Disclaimer: Justia Dockets & Filings provides public litigation records from the federal appellate and district courts. These filings and docket sheets should not be considered findings of fact or liability, nor do they necessarily reflect the view of Justia.


text:
Today marks the official launch of the Twitter® for BlackBerry® smartphones v1.1 application. This version – which our helpful BlackBerry Beta Zone users have been testing over the past six weeks – includes several new and exciting features, like adding a location to your Tweets and Push @Mentions.
A big shout out to everyone who participated in the beta and provided their valuable feedback! Since the release of the beta version, the Twitter app team at Research In Motion® (RIM®) has been busy working on some additional improvements in response to feedback raised during the beta.
Let's take a look at some of the new features in more detail so you can start using them!
Tweet Location
By enabling this feature, you can pinpoint your location in a neighborhood and include it your Tweets. To try out this feature, complete the following steps:
- Open Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v1.1
- Press the Menu key and select Options
- Enable Add Location To Tweet and save your changes
After enabling this setting, you'll notice a new compass icon that appears to the right of the photo icon below the Tweet box. To add your location, select this icon and your BlackBerry smartphone will determine where you are and add it to any new Tweets you submit. If you want to remove your location, simply select the icon again to disable this feature until you're ready to use it again.
Viewing someone else's location – if they have enabled this feature – is really easy too! All you need to do is select the location icon that appears in the bottom right corner of their tweet and a map view will open, allowing you to see where they were when they submitted that Tweet.
Other new features include Push @Mentions and #Topic Autocomplete, which were previously discussed in the Twitter v1.1 Beta post.
Refreshed Branding
We've made several changes to enhance the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphone experience, like updated graphics that reflect the new look of the Twitter brand and a streamlined layout of the Add Photo and Add Location icons on the Home screen.
Retweet Updates
The next time you Retweet something, it will appear in your Home timeline as 'Retweeted by You', to quickly alert you that your Retweet was sent successfully.
New language support
Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones now supports the following additional languages:
- Simplified Chinese
- Traditional Chinese
- Polish
- Czech
- Thai
We've also made several changes to address feedback that we received from BlackBerry Beta Zone users reported during the Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones v1.1 beta. One of the issues we've addressed is the "Unable to Find Location" error message that appeared whenever a user attempted to submit a new tweet. We've also made some changes to ensure that you don't encounter any difficulties when attempting to shorten a URL you'd like to share, or that you don't experience delays when opening the Twitter app on your BlackBerry smartphone.
Upgrading to the latest release
To upgrade to the latest release of Twitter on your BlackBerry smartphone, complete the following steps:
- Open Twitter on your BlackBerry smartphone
- Press the Menu key and select Options
- Scroll down and select the option Check for Upgrade Now
If you currently do not have Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones and would like to install it, you can download it through BlackBerry App World on your BlackBerry smartphone.
We always welcome your feedback, so please post a comment and let us know what you think about the latest version of Twitter for BlackBerry smartphones!


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Many men and women helped raise Chicago out of the ashes of the Great Fire of 1871 and transform it into the major city it would become in the 20th century, people such as Marshall Field, Charles Wacker, Aaron Montgomery Ward, Potter Palmer, Jane Addams and the Mayors Carter Harrison (father and son). And it is only fitting, in a city renowned for its skyline, that an architect would rival those giants of their day for his lasting fame and enduring legacy.
When Daniel Burnham's Plan of Chicago was presented in 1909, he already was widely acclaimed for his globe-trotting urban planning, with projects in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Manila, Philippines. He was hailed for wrestling the vision of the 1893 Columbian Exposition into wildly successful reality.
Firms bearing his name erected numerous famous structures, including the Rookery and Masonic Temple (since torn down) in Chicago, the Flatiron Building in New York City and Union Station in Washington.
Yet when the plan that has become synonymous with his name was actually unveiled to the public on July 4, 1909, he barely received a mention.
With the Tribune editorial board's current project to develop a New Plan of Chicago to address the city's myriad current problems, many residents are again talking about urban planning, big ideas and Daniel Burnham. So Chicago Flashback thought it would be interesting to see how the now-famous architect was actually perceived.
Burnham first appeared in the Tribune in 1883, at age 37, in a Q&A about the "prevailing styles in residences and public buildings." He reappeared in November 1884 being elected chairman of the newly founded Western Association of Architects convention.
Burnham's burgeoning reputation was truly burnished, though, after not only overseeing the construction of the world's fair in 1893, but also designing and implementing many aspects of the dignified City Beautiful Movement showcased in that wondrous White City.
So when the Chicago Merchants Club commissioned the plan from Burnham in 1906, it was done with much fanfare. The Page 1 lead story in the Tribune on Oct. 27 proclaimed: "SEE NEW CHICAGO GEM OF AMERICA."
"The future Chicago is to be made one of the most artistic cities in this country — one of the world's show places," the Tribune intoned in the story. And a good deal of the excitement — and the energy behind the expectations — lay with the name attached to the plan. "Burnham in charge," one secondary headline declared.
The story set a high bar for success: "Daniel H. Burnham, the veteran architect ... will have general supervision of the work. He has donated his services and intends to make the Chicago plan in its entirety the masterpiece of his life."
The city was abuzz with possibility. The Progressive Era was in full swing, civic leaders envisioned shining cities that had sloughed off their 19th-century social problems, where children were being educated instead of working or running wild in the streets, where the horrible "smoke nuisance" that blotted out the sun in Chicago was finally blown away, where streets clogged by wagons and horses, pedestrians and street cars were untangled and transformed into wide boulevards, where the lakefront wasn't a rail yard but a park.
What they wanted was Burnham's White City from 1893 writ large.
Burnham had recognized that and been encouraging it for years. In 1902, while working on plans to beautify the National Mall in Washington, he explained how the fair had energized the population. "It was Chicago with its World's Fair which vivified the national desire for civic beauty," he said.
When the project was launched in 1906, it already had a skeleton and a bit of muscle. The Oct. 27 story talked of an outer parkway built into the lake on landfill and extending the length of the lakefront, a system of public squares and boulevards, and better traffic regulation. Here also, Edward Bennett, who would eventually get his due as co-author of the plan, was mentioned as Burnham's chief assistant.
"Chicago has a great civic asset in Mr. Burnham," said Charles Norton, president of the Merchants Club, in describing his hope that the city could "cut out all petty jealousies" to create and implement the plan.
The Plan of Chicago was anticipated with some flourish on July 4, 1909. The Tribune ran advertisements urging readers to make sure they reserved a copy of the Sunday edition so they wouldn't miss the special, color section showcasing Jules Guerin's beautiful paintings, which illustrated "the plans of Architects Burnham and Bennett" and were sure to inspire all citizens.
The Burnham-centered hype from 1906, subsequent stories and headlines over the 30 months, and advertisements just the day before, made the tone of the actual announcement even more striking: Burnham was barely mentioned. Instead, "Commercial Club workers" issued the report, according to a headline. (The Merchants Club merged with the Commercial Club in 1907.) The story emphasized how the plan represented "the composite production of many minds." It praised Guerin and other artists for "pictorializing the ideas of the architects," who remain anonymous until the end of the 80-inch story, and even then received short shrift. Bennett wasn't mentioned at all. Burnham was referenced in passing only as a member of the committee.
While the Tribune went the furthest in burying Burnham, other newspapers of the day took a similar tack. The Inter Ocean gave Burnham and Bennett one-sentence credit for preparing the plan. The Chicago Daily Journal went so far as to say the book was the result of 30 months' work by the two, though both papers failed to give credit on the front page. (Interestingly, while no paper appeared to actually talk to Burnham, the Chicago Daily News quoted Edward Bennett — and that on its front.)
The Tribune story instead praised Charles Norton for conceiving of the need for the plan and making it happen.
And unlike the launch story and later articles that stressed the "City Beautiful" and progressive ideals of a more livable metropolis, the July 4 Tribune report emphasized the importance of the plan in raising property values and bringing great wealth to the city's businessmen.
Did the aforementioned petty jealousies breach the relationship between the Commercial Club and Burnham? Maybe the Commercial Club's leadership — including Burnham — felt that the plan was bigger than any one or two people, and they wanted to present the plan on its own merits. Also possible was that the severe economic downturn in the Panic of 1907 had sobered Chicago's business community and focused its attention on the ways the plan would help the recovery. Whatever the reason, the jettisoning of the star architect was a remarkable about-face.
What made the Plan of Chicago such an important document, though, was the implementation. If, after the unveiling, the 1,650 copies that were distributed to the mayor, aldermen, governor, legislators and libraries had just gathered dust, we wouldn't be writing about it today.
Less than 18 months later, in a major breakthrough, the Illinois Central Railroad agreed to trade prime lakefront land on the south side of Grant Park, roughly from Roosevelt Road all the way to 51st Street, for land elsewhere. That erased a major stumbling block to the idea of creating a continuous park running the length of the city, and it provided a much-needed location for a big new attraction: the Field Museum. Burnham wasn't part of these negotiations, or at least received no credit or mention, but the Tribune did highlight in a separate short story how his plan informed the project. Another notable plan success would come a few years later when work would begin on the Municipal Pier, today called Navy Pier.
Burnham wouldn't live to see much of his plan implemented. He died while touring Europe with his family on June 1, 1912. Oddly, his obituary ran on Page 2 of the Tribune. It called him "designer" and "founder" of the Chicago Plan, praised him as an industrious visionary and as a giant in his field.
But an appreciation by Harriet Monroe that followed about a week later offered a more fitting eulogy: "a man of power whose power was founded on faith — faith both in the big thing to be done and in the desire and capacity of the people to do it in the best way."


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Street Address:
Street Address:
David Waddell
The worldwide adoption of competition and capitalistic principles has unlocked tremendous prosperity growth. At the core of this prosperity movement are the unique advantages created by urbanizing the world's population. Urban populations are more productive, more innovative and more efficient than their rural peers.
This vast urbanization trend accelerates economic activity and presents enormous investment opportunities for us to profit from. To put this in perspective, today the world population equals roughly 7 billion, and about 50 percent of those individuals live in urban areas. By 2050, the world population will eclipse 9 billion, with over 6 billion living in urban areas. Therefore, over the next 40 years or so, the world's urban population will nearly double.
This is a big deal. There is a highly positive correlation between a country's urbanization percentage and its per capita income level. For instance in the U.S. we are roughly 80 percent urbanized, and our per capita GDP approximates $40,000. The countries urbanizing the most rapidly – China and India – stand presently at 50 percent and 30 percent, respectively.
As they move up the urbanization scale, they will move up the income scale as well. It took the U.S. 53 years to double GDP per capita from $1,300 to $2,600. It took Germany 65 years. It has taken India 16 years and China only 12. But it's not just the low end achieving rapid prosperity gains, it's the high end as well. China now has more millionaires than Japan, the UK and Germany, second only to the U.S. The growth in billionaires in China is astounding. Between 2001 and 2010, the U.S. created 131 billionaires. China created 279 and started with only one.
Clearly, as these societies grow more affluent, their consumption appetites grow as well. According to the OECD, Asian middle class spending today accounts for 23 percent of global consumption. In 10 years, Asia will account for 42 percent of global middle class spending, and ten years after that, Asia will account for 59 percent of global middle class spending. To clarify the degree of this consumption wave, according to the Boston Consulting Group, by 2020 China and India combined will consume 35 percent of the meat and 60 percent of the vegetables produced on the planet.
The growth in income and consumption not only powers the global economy, but also provides huge opportunities for local entrepreneurs. Contrary to popular U.S. opinion that we are the only entrepreneurs on the globe, the amount of early stage entrepreneurial activity in the developing world now exceeds that of the U.S. In 2009 the U.S. initiated 456,000 patent applications, China and South Korea together initiated 478,000. Germany initiated 60,000.
At Waddell & Associates, we believe that the urbanization of the global population provides the greatest investment opportunity of our generation. Those investors who eschew emerging and frontier market investments out of fear of the unknown greatly limit their potential returns. Thankfully, capitalism now canvases the globe … so should your portfolio.
David Waddell, who is regularly featured in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Forbes, as well as on Fox Business News and CNBC, is president and CEO of Memphis-based Waddell & Associates.
Copyright 1995 -
by The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc. - All Rights Reserved


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Motorcycle Hits Deer
A westbound 1999 Harley Davidson Fat Boy hit a white- tailed deer along South Madden Road last Tuesday night, leaving its driver with major injuries, state police said. Forty-seven year-old Delmar O. Ulsh was transported to Fulton County Medical Center via ambulance before he was flown to another facility for treatment.
The Hustontown man was injured when a deer walked in front of his motorcycle at 11:15 p.m. Following impact, the motorcycle spun clockwise before falling onto its side and sliding off the Taylor Township roadway, police added.
Vehicle Rear-Ended
Two McConnellsburg residents suffered injuries when their car rear-ended a truck in a construction area along Route 30 last Tuesday.
According to state police, Ronald Hays, 69, of Williamsport, Md., was stopped in the eastbound lane when his 2001 Ford F150 was struck from behind by a 1993 Pontiac Grand Am operated by C.J. Heinbaugh, 67, of Mc- Connellsburg.
Hays, police said, was not harmed. However, Heinbaugh and her passenger, Betty J. Christian, 87, also of McConnellsburg, suffered injuries during the noon accident. Christian was taken to Fulton County Medical Center for treatment.
Theft Investigated
Pennsylvania State Police in McConnellsburg investigated a case involving theft by deception that occurred at the Getty Mart on May 5. Reports indicate $900 was transferred to a prepaid card during the incident.
Disorderly Conduct Charges Filed
Twenty-one-year-old Mc- Connellsburg resident Christopher Jacek Wojtkiewicz has been charged with disorderly conduct by state police following an incident in the parking lot of Clevenger's Beer Distributor.
According to state police, Wojtkiewicz was allegedly doing burnouts in the business parking lot located at 237 Lincoln Way West, Mc- Connellsburg, on Wednesday, June 8, at 8:45 p.m. He was operating a tan Mercedes sport utility vehicle at the time. Charges are through Magisterial District Judge Wendy Mellott.
Argument Turns Physical
An argument between two Needmore residents turned physical on Tuesday, June 7, state police reported. Involved in the 9:26 p.m. harassment at 369 Pleasant Grove Road were a 29-yearold female and a 24-year-old male who were not further identified by investigating officers.
Altercation Leads To Drug Charges
A Chambersburg man was arrested on various drug-related charges on Sunday, June 12, after rangers at Cowans Gap State Park were alerted to an altercation behind the food concession stand.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jimmy Lee Aaron Jr. was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance, the use or possession of drug paraphernalia and disorderly conduct. Aaron was arraigned before Magisterial District Judge Devin Horne and sent to Franklin County Prison in lieu of $ 50,000 straight bail.
According to reports from park rangers, Aaron reportedly attempted to open the doors of a vehicle not belonging to him. At the time, he was allegedly found in possession of 12 baggies of cocaine packaged for sale and drug paraphernalia, rangers said.
Drug, Alcohol Arrest Made
Rangers at Cowans Gap State Park arrested a Waynesboro man last Friday on drug and alcohol charges.
Park rangers reported they saw 20-year-old Robert David Bortzfield in possession of a case of alcoholic beverages in the park's campground area. Further investigation revealed Bortzfield allegedly possessed drug paraphernalia as well as prescription narcotics without a valid prescription.
Charges Pending
Pennsylvania State Police in McConnellsburg are still undecided whether they will file charges in a harassment case that occurred between McConnellsburg and Fort Loudon.
Reports indicate Fort Loudon resident Ian Glenn Willcock gave Nichole Diahann Willock, 19, of Mc- Connellsburg, a ride from McConnellsburg to Fort Loudon on Saturday, June 11, at 1:08 p.m. During the car ride, the duo became involved in an argument that allegedly turned physical. Ian Willcock, 44, was said to have pulled over to the side of the road, and Nichole Willcock jumped out of the vehicle before it pulled away.
False Alarm Investigated
Sixty-three-year-old Judith Camp of Waterfall has been cited by state police for having four false residential alarms at her Taylor Township home during the last 12 months. The most recent false alarm occurred on Monday, June 6, at 9 p.m., trooper said.
Wallet Stolen
A brown leather wallet belonging to a 27-year-old Mc- Connellsburg man was stolen from the bar area of the VFW located along East Poplar Street, McConnellsburg. The theft occurred on Sunday, June 12, at 12:54 a.m. Anyone with further information linked to this case is asked to contact state police Trooper Hibner by calling 717-485-3131.
Police Respond To Hit-And-Run
Pennsylvania State Police in McConnellsburg responded to a hit-and-run that occurred at 9797 Waterfall Road, Hustontown, between 8 p.m. on June 11 and 4:30 p.m. on June 12. Reports indicate the unknown vehicle was heading southbound when it crossed the Dublin Township roadway. The vehicle travelled into a ditch and into some shrubbery before fleeing the scene. State police said the vehicle was possibly a Dodge Dakota manufactured between 1988 and 2002.
Anyone having additional information is urged to immediately contact state police Trooper Poole at the Mc- Connellsburg barracks by calling 717-485-3131.
Custody Exchange Leads To Fight
State police in McConnellsburg are continuing to investigate a case of harassment that stemmed from two individuals exchanging a child on the 6000 block of Great Cove Road. Troopers said a 25-year-old woman from Needmore was allegedly grabbed by a 34-year-old Needmore man on Sunday, June 12, at 9:40 p.m.
Jailed For Assault
A Warfordsburg man was sent to Franklin County Prison Saturday morning in lieu of $40,000 straight bail following an alleged assault at a Bethel Township residence. Pennsylvania State Police in McConnellsburg stated 39-year-old Ty Lancer Bowman was arraigned by Magisterial District Judge Devin Horne. In addition to being held on bail, Bowman was committed to jail due to a state parole detainer.
Police accused Bowman of punching a 38-year-old woman from Warfordsburg in the face at 2:55 a.m. on June 11. He also broke the driver's side window of her car while she was sitting in the driver's seat, they said. Bowman then allegedly grabbed the victim by the hair and attempted to pull her out of the car through the broken window.
Charges against Bowman include simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and harassment.
UPS Package Taken
A UPS package was removed from the porch of 211 South Seventh Street, Mc- Connellsburg, on Friday, June 10, between 3:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. The package contained a Rally Round the Flag medal, an Active medal sign, a vintage Marine Corps sign and a Marine Corps rose gold watch. The items were valued at $106.96, according to the victim, a 59-year-old McConnellsburg man.
Theft Reported
A 49-year-old male from McConnellsburg told state police troopers three airconditioning units were stolen from a flea market located along Route 522 in Todd Township. The theft occurred between 8 a.m. on June 1 and 1: 20 p. m. on June 9.
Drug Paraphernalia Located
A multi- colored glass smoking pipe was found along South Seventh Street in McConnellsburg Borough and turned over to state police troopers at the Mc- Connellsburg barracks. The discovery of drug paraphernalia was made on Thursday, June 9, at 9:30 a.m.
Vehicle Vandalized
A 2000 Dodge Neon belonging to a McConnellsburg woman was vandalized while parked along Aughwick Road between 10:30 p.m. on June 9 and 12:30 p.m. on June 10. Paint on the vehicle was scratched, and the right rear passenger door was dented. Damage has been estimated at $800.
DUI Charges Pending
Charges of driving under the influence are pending blood results from Fulton County Medical Center in connection with a traffic stop over the weekend. According to state police, a traffic stop was made along Lions Park Drive on Sunday, June 12, at 1:52 p.m. The driver, who was only identified as a 48-year-old female from Mc- Connellsburg, was arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol.
A Greencastle man has been accused of driving into a guiderail along Route 522 near the Fulton/Huntingdon County line Monday morning and leaving the scene of the accident.
Thirty-six-year-old Jason Shauf was travelling northbound in the Burnt Cabins area when he paused to look down at his radio at 6:30 a.m., state police said. Shauf's 2004 Chevrolet 3500 went onto the berm and into a guiderail. Shauf pulled into a nearby gravel parking area and then allegedly left the scene, police concluded.
Car Scratched
A 2000 Buick Park Avenue parked at 632 East Market Street, McConnellsburg, was scratched between 6 p.m. on June 11 and 10:30 a.m. on June 12. The victim in this case of mischief is a 64-yearold McConnellsburg man. Anyone with additional information related to this incident is asked to call state police Trooper Claar at the McConnellsburg barracks at 717-485-3131.
House Fire Under Investigation
A house fire in neighboring Springfield Township, Huntingdon County, remains under investigation this week.
A distant neighbor spotted the blaze already under way at 7595 Hollow Road and alerted emergency responders, said Three Springs Volunteer Fire Co. Deputy Chief Jeff Ewing. Having received the call at 10:10 p.m. on Monday, June 14, firefighters arrived to find the two-story residence fully engulfed.
Aiding Three Springs on the scene were firefighters from Hustontown, Trough Creek, Orbisonia and Shade Gap. Mount Union and Mill Creek remained on standby. Due to the good cooperation between the mutual aid companies, Ewing stated the fire was knocked down quickly.
The majority of the fire was extinguished within an hour, but the residence was totally destroyed, said the deputy chief, who noted the rental property is owned by Hustontown resident Jack Clark. The house was fortunately unoccupied at the time of the fire, and its renters had just recently moved out.\The fire remains under investigation. Pennsylvania State Police Fire Marshal Mike Eppolito was tentatively scheduled to visit the scene Tuesday to assess the damage and determine the cause and origin of the blaze.


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7:00 am
Curious George "George's Home Run/Monkey On Ice" George's Home Run - While Marco tries to hit his first Little League home run, George gets to play scorekeeper. Unfortunately, he can't remember the order of the numbers, so he isn't getting it quite right. Marco helps out by using a catchy song to teach George how to count from 1-10 and then George returns the favor by agreeing to be a pinch runner for an injured Marco. D
7:30 am
Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! "Dress Up Day/Bathtime" Dress Up Day - Nick and Sally are playing dress up, but oh no! Sally's princess dress has torn, and mom doesn't have any silk thread to fix it. Cat takes them to his good friend Mindy, the silk caterpillar. Mindy shows them how she makes silk. D
8:00 am
Super Why! "Sleeping Beauty" Ahoy Matey! Yo, ho, ho and.a cup of tea?! Uh oh, Princess Pea wants to play Tea Party but Pig and his brothers would like her to play Pirates! The Super Readers travel into the famous story of Sleeping Beauty to speak with a Princess who loves sleeping just as much as Princess Pea loves tea parties! The Super Readers apply their literacy powers to wake Sleeping Beauty.and wake her. D
8:30 am
Dinosaur Train "Shiny and Snakes/Tiny Loves Flowers" Shiny gets over her fear of snakes when Tiny challenges the Nature Trackers to meet the ultimate snake: the Sanajeh, a huge Cretaceous snake from what is now India. Dad takes the kids on the Dinosaur Train to find Sana Sanajeh, who may be huge, but turns out to be quite friendly. Once Shiny and Sana become friends, Shiny returns home with the knowledge that snakes aren't scary - they're just another part of nature! Tiny is horrified when her favorite buttercups all wilt, so Mom takes her and the family to the Big Pond, where she remembers seeing a whole lot of buttercups in bloom. D
9:00 am
The Electric Company "Pies for Puppies" It's the Pies for Puppies charity bake sale, and Jessica, Danny Rebus and others are competing to sell the most pies and become the "puppy hero." But someone has taken all of Jessica's pies! The Electric Company discovers that Danny Rebus is trying to cheat his way to victory, and it is up to them to put a stop to it. D
9:30 am
Wild Kratts "Tazzy Chris" When Martin and Chris assist the Tasmanian Wildlife Service in tagging endangered Tasmanian Devils, they discover that Zach Varmitech has been kidnapping them to create a ferocious new Zachbot. Science Concepts: A healthy ecosystem has both predators and scavengers. Scavengers are animals that eat mostly other dead animals. D
10:00 am
WordWorld "Sh-Sh-Shark!/Dog Wants to Play Ball" Sh-Sh-Shark!: Shark is misunderstood. Everyone is afraid of him and won't even give him a chance to prove he's friendly. Everyone but Duck, that is, who doesn't know that the letters s and h together make the 'sh' sound, and therefore doesn't know who Shark is. D
10:30 am
WordGirl "Where Have All The Villains Gone?/Captain Tangent Returns" WHERE HAVE ALL THE VILLAINS GONE? - Ms. Question comes up with a brilliant plan to get rid of WordGirl: eliminate all of the city's villains so WordGirl is no longer needed. Will Ms. Question be able to keep WordGirl away? Or will a villian-less city need her after all. Vocabulary Words: Eliminate, Entire. D
11:00 am
Outdoor Idaho "Working for Wildlife" Professionals and volunteers are in forests and fields - even cities - throughout Idaho working to increase knowledge about wildlife and its chances for survival. Cameras capture "deer tackling" in eastern Idaho; follow scientists and volunteers through deep snows to radio collar the seldom-seen elusive wolverine; and visit a woman raising orphan bears in her backyard in Garden City, adjacent to Boise.G
11:30 am
Mexico -- One Plate at a Time with Rick Bayless "Cooking on the Sea of Cortez" Rick is always up for a cooking challenge. After a day spent boating and kayaking on the Sea of Cortez with a local ecotourism group, Rick grills dinner for the group on the beach at Espiritu Santo Island - one of the most biologically diverse marine areas in the world. The waters surrounding the island support coral reefs, colonies of sea lions and more than 500 species of fish. D
12:00 pm
Katie Brown Workshop "How to Blend The Old with the New When Remodeling" The final episode in the three-part home makeover features a walk-through of the living spaces in Katie's home in Connecticut. Before-and-after photos document the progress. D
12:30 pm
Paint This With Jerry Yarnell "Autumn's Delight, Part 5" Final highlights and details. In this final episode, Jerry shows how to detail and highlight the large autumn tree with much brighter colors. Now he finishes the painting with much brighter highlights on the rocks, water, grass and trees. D
1:00 pm
Essential Pepin "Cattle Call" Grilled Steak With Lemon-Thyme Butter; Spicy Rib Roast; Veal Chops With Caper Sauce; Braised Beef In Red Wine. D
1:30 pm
Burt Wolf: Travels & Traditions "California's Gold Country" Within 5 years of the initial strike, over 50 billion dollars worth of gold was taken out of the hills near Sacramento, California. Burt takes us to the exact spot where the gold was found and explains how that gold funded The War Between the States, built the transcontinental railroad, and brought California into the Union. We tour Old Sacramento, visit the only remaining rural Chinese village in the United States, and find out why The Pony Express only lasted 18 months. D
2:00 pm
Dialogue "Legislative Preview 2012" Marcia Franklin speaks with guests Greg Hahn, of Idaho Reports, Betsy Russell, of The Spokesman-Review, John Miller, of The Associated Press and Clark Corbin, of Post Register about the upcoming Idaho legislative session.G
2:30 pm
MotorWeek "Kia Soul" Road Test: 2012 Kia Soul. Road Test: 2012 Volkswagen Beetle. Goss' Garage: Catalytic Converters. D
3:00 pm
America's Test Kitchen from Cook's Illustrated "Desserts with An English Accent" Test cook Yvonne Ruperti shows host Christopher Kimball how to make the ultimate Classic Bread Pudding. Chris then discusses the virtues of stale versus dried bread while baking with science expert Guy Crosby. Next, equipment expert Adam Ried reveals the best small appliances in the Equipment Corner. D
3:30 pm
Painting and Travel with Roger & Sarah Bansemer "St. Marks Lighthouse" Roger and Sarah Bansemer travel to the panhandle of Florida and the St. Marks lighthouse. Roger sets up his easel and paints the lighthouse as Sarah visits the small town of St. D
4:00 pm
Globe Trekker "Antarctica" Host Zay Harding sails along the Antarctic Peninsula aboard a sailing yacht. He follows the footsteps of explorers, adventurers, and conservationists from Scott to Shackleton. Zay ice climbs, kayaks, camps and even plunges into the ice cold Antarctic waters.G
5:00 pm
Song of the Mountains John Cowan Band. D
6:00 pm
Austin City Limits "The Head and the Heart/Gomez" From Seattle, Washington, the Head and the Heart indie rock group performs tunes from its self-titled debut album. Then British veterans Gomez follow with eclectic modern rock.G
7:00 pm
Great Performances "Herbie Hancock, Gustavo Dudamel and the LA Phil Celebrate Gershwin" Dudamel, the philharmonic music director, and jazz pianist Herbie Hancock, the philharmonic's creative chair for jazz, present George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" as part of opening night of the orchestra's 2011-2012 season. Also on the program are "An American in Paris" and Hancock's unique improvisation of "Someone to Watch Over Me."G
8:00 pm
Paul McCartney Good Evening New York City The famed rocker attracts all ages - 120,000 people - to his three-night christening of New York's new Citi Field on the former Shea Stadium site, in July 2009. He and his band feature songs from the Beatles, Wings and McCartney's solo career. In addition to old favorites, the set includes strong material from his recent efforts.G
9:00 pm
Song of the Mountains John Cowan Band. D
10:00 pm
Austin City Limits "The Head and the Heart/Gomez" From Seattle, Washington, the Head and the Heart indie rock group performs tunes from its self-titled debut album. Then British veterans Gomez follow with eclectic modern rock.G
11:00 pm
Sierra Center Stage "Bela Fleck & The Flecktones" Bela Fleck is considered one of the world's premier banjo players. His critically acclaimed music has been nominated in more categories than any other artist in the history of the Grammy Awards - for a total of 22 times! His band includes Victor Wooten (considered by many to be the best bass player alive), Wooten's brother "Futureman," who plays an unusual self-made drum set, and Jeff Coffin, a multi-talented woodwind player. D


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Regina Jaquess has been selected as USA Water Ski's 2012 Female Athlete of the Year. The U.S. Pan American Championships Water Ski Teams earned USA Water Ski's 2012 Team of the Year honors, while Jeff Surdej, the coach, was selected USA Water Ski's National Coach of the Year. The USA Water Ski Awards Committee selected the award winners.
USA Water Ski and its respective sport disciplines will honor several athletes, coaches, volunteers and ambassadors at its annual awards reception on Saturday, Jan. 26 at the Lake Eva Banquet Hall in Haines City, Fla. The reception, which celebrates the 2012 water ski season, will be held in conjunction with USA Water Ski's mid-winter board meetings for the 13th consecutive year. The respective award winners were selected either by the USA Water Ski Awards Committee or by the sport discipline's organization. Mark Jackson and Hank Longo from Central Florida's Polk County Sports Marketing will serve as the masters of ceremonies. The awards reception is open to the public. Contact Sandy Hardee at email@example.com for information on pricing and availability.


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DailyDirt: Doing Math In Your Head
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
- Learning how to use an abacus could actually be useful. Japanese students have demonstrated that using a mental image of an abacus (no actual abacus needed) can help them perform some incredibly fast mental calculations. [url]
- American kids don't do well on international math tests, but the bright side is that we're slowly learning what might be the best remedies. Understanding *why* kids don't do well on math tests is an important part of coming up with a solution, but looking at the bad test results is pretty scary.... [url]
- Doing a few algebraic word problems before bedtime might help alleviate some math fears in children. Or they could inspire math-related nightmares that haunt kids like Freddie Krueger. You decide. [url]