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If you're straight and your husband or wife dies, you have the power to decide what to do with your loved one's body and how to carry out their wishes. However, if you are a gay man or woman in Minnesota — a state that doesn't recognize marriage equality — you won't have that option, thanks to Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R). Explaining his veto of the bill, Pawlenty simply said there "is no actual need" to give same-sex couples equal end-of-life rights. From his official statement on Saturday:
The bill addresses the categories of individuals who under the law shall be given priority for purposes of determining the disposition of the remains of a deceased person. Currently a person can, by executing a will, designate who shall be empowered to control final disposition of his or her remains. The bill therefore addresses a nonexistent problem.
Marriage — defined as between a man and a woman — should remain elevated in our society a special level, as it traditionally has been. I oppose efforts to treat domestic relationships as the equivalent of traditional marriage. Accordingly, I am opposed to this bill.
Ann Kaner-Roth, executive director of LGBT advocacy group Project 515, responded that Pawlenty's "comment that the proposed legislation is unnecessary shows he is out of step with the experiences of real Minnesotans. … The language in this bill reflects closely language already used by Minnesota's leading businesses." Additionally, a person in a heterosexual marriage is not required to have a living will in order for his or her spouse to carry out end-of-life wishes, so it's unclear why one should be necessary for same-sex partners. The bill would also have given "surviving partners the right to sue those responsible should their partner be killed."
As a new Center for American Progress report on the needs of LGBT elders finds, Minnesota is considered a "legal stranger" state, where "same-sex partners (or members of families of choice) in these states effectively have no chance to be designated as surrogate medical decision makers for their incapacitated partners/loved ones." LGBT elders therefore generally need an advanced health care directive (AHD), which includes a living will and a health care power of attorney:
In practice, to protect themselves, LGBT elders must remember to carry their AHDs with them at all times — if an individual is rushed to the hospital without these documents, a loved one can still legally be denied access (see sidebar on page 40). Finally, problems may arise when an elder travels out of state, as one state may not always recognize the health care directive of another state.
Additionally, obtaining an AHD can be difficult, since many elders are unaware or do not have the means to secure one, and "medical providers and long-term care facilities often ignore or challenge the AHDs of LGBT people." (HT: Joe Sudbay at AMERICAblog)
In Rhode Island last year, Gov. Donald Carcieri (R) vetoed a similar bill.


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Hey guys, I have a big big favor to ask. Im studying in Germany and have to do a programming homework. However programming is not a main part of our lessons and therefore I have received very little knowledge about programming with Java. Nonetheless our teacher expects that we write a full programm which I can understand. Bottom line, I would be very thankful if anyone of you could programm or at least help me programm the following assignment:
Write a programm that proves, that two straights cut each other in a threedimensional room.
If someone needs the maths to it I can give them. I would be really thankful if you could help me out here. I would do it myself if I actually knew how, but I simply have no clue at all.
Thanks in advance.

subset: commoncrawl


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Roman Polanski conjures strong emotions, whether for his undeniable past brilliance as a filmmaker or his three-decades-and-counting child sex case. But his new film, "The Ghost Writer," isn't likely to evoke much of anything in either his fans or his critics.
Starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan, the film follows an author, The Ghost (McGregor), hired to ghostwrite the memoir of embattled former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Brosnan, offering shades of both Tony Blair and a slimmer Bill Clinton) after the first writer dies of an apparent suicide. No sooner has The Ghost taken the job than he's getting mugged, being followed and discovering there are much darker forces at work than he first believed.
It's a classic setup, one that should have been a walk in the park for any director. Instead, it's a poorly executed bore that's forgettable at best and laughable at worst.
Polanski's virtuosity has been well demonstrated. "Rosemary's Baby" and "Chinatown" are part of the Pantheon of film history. But watching "The Ghost Writer" you can't help but wonder who was in the driver's seat this time around because it seems impossible that it's the same man who helmed "The Piano."
From the bad CGI to the unforgivable English accent Kim Cattrall puts on as Lang's aide to the multiple Kung Fu-style voiceovers where someone obviously drops an f-bomb that comes out as "sodding" or "bugger, " the film is stacked with glaring mistakes any director, let alone one of Polanski's caliber, should be ashamed of.
And then there's the acting. We always believed Ewan McGregor could read the phone book and be compelling. Turns out we were wrong. Doe eyed and constantly bewildered, his Ghost, a title that proves instantly cloying, is like the blonde bimbo in horror movies who always runs into the basement. You want to shake him and scream, "No dummy, the other way!" Thankfully both Brosnan and Olivia Williams, as his long suffering wife, are pitch perfect.
The biggest question of this film, which is actually a commentary on the war on terror posing as an old fashioned thriller, is why doesn't basic logic apply? If it's so easy for the audience to figure out what's going to happen, why can't the characters? Predictable, dull and bizarrely dated, it feels like a really long "Ripped From the Headlines" episode of "Law & Order." Just not as good.


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Nov. 1, 2004
Clark University Sports Information
WORCESTER, MASS. - The Clark University field hockey team defeated the MIT Engineers 3-0 in a NEWMAC Championship quarterfinal game in Worcester, Mass. Clark's Kristina Richio scored in the last minute of the first half to give the Cougars a 1-0 lead. Richio added another goal in the second half on an assist by Ashley Perez. MIT had a number of good opportunities in the second half but goalkeeper Kaitlin Kelley made a number of key saves for the Cougars to keep them off the board. Kelley ended the game with 11 saves and recorded her seventh shutout of the season. Brittney Wickles added an insurance goal with 9:08 left to play.
Goalie Alexa Herman made 12 saves for MIT while Sharon Prange, Cheryl Texin, and Amada Smith each posted one defensive save. The Engineers finish the season with an overall record of 10-7 and a 5-3 mark in the NEWMAC.


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Message Board
Elizabeth Holcombe Message Board
Talk about the novels, new and used books that Holcombe has written!
Author Holcombe's Book Reviews
Heather and the Heaven
Jove, Nov 2002, 5.99, 277 pp. ISBN: 0515134023 In 1561, Mary returns home to become Queen of the Scots. Among those traveling with Her Highness is Sabine de Sainte Montagne, whose father recently died. Emotionally, her sire's death means nothing to Sabine, as he was never there for her being too busy womanizing. However, his request of his Queen is to see his daughter married. So against her will, Sabine is engaged to Lord John Campbell. N...


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October 30, 2010
Senior Mark Babcock scored a goal in his final collegiate soccer match, giving Wabash a 4-1 victory in the season finale over Wooster. Babcock and fellow seniors Diego Aliaga and Andre Hall were honored prior to the Little Giants' match.
The victory gave Wabash two North Coast Athletic Conference victory in their final two matches.
View photos from the match here.
Babcock, a penalty kick specialist as a defender, blasted his second goal of the season into the back of the net with less than 15 minutes remaining in his last appearance in a Wabash uniform to give his squad a 4-0 lead.
"There was no better way for this match to finish with Mark Babcock scoring on the penalty kick," Head Coach Roberto Giannini said. "Our plan was to get the lead and be able to take Mark and the other seniors out the game with about five minutes left to celebrate their careers with a standing ovation. That's exactly what happened."
Allan Swan opened the scoring with his third goal of the season 11 minutes into the match. Femi Oluyedun added his fifth goal of the year in the 66th minute off a pass from Babcock and Ryan Fier to put Wabash in front 2-0. Just over a minute later, Austin Jennings made it a 3-0 Wabash lead with his third goal of the year, with Fier adding his second assist of the match.
Wooster scored on a free kick with two minutes left in the match to erase the shutout. Matt Paul made five saves to earn the victory. Freshman Ian MacDougall played the final five minutes of the contest in goal for the Little Giants.
"The lads had something to prove," Giannini said. "We had two games left with nothing really at stake. Still, coming out and doing what we did at Wittenberg and again today against Wooster means a lot to them. It's a significant step forward for these returning players. They had something to prove --- to the conference, to themselves --- that even though we were very close to having a .500 season at 8-10, nevertheless finishing the small details here and there would have given us better results."
Wabash finishes 2-6-0 in NCAC play.
Photo - Mark Babcock prepares to celebrate with his teammates after scoring the final goal of his career as part of a 4-1 Wabash win Saturday afternoon. Photo by Susan Albrecht.


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Money, Power and Wall Street: Part One
Season 30 Episode 11 | 59m 14s
As Wall Street innovated, its revenues skyrocketed, and financial institutions of all stripes tied their fortunes to one another. FRONTLINE probes deeply into the story of the big banks -- how they developed, how they profited, and how the model that produced unfathomable wealth planted the seeds of financial destruction.
Aired: 04/24/12Video has closed captioning.


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The Asssnoozination of Snoozy Snooze By The Coward Andrew Dominik
Killing Them Softly
More Like Talking Them Lotsly
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
R | 97 min
Two foolish hoodlums (that wily scuzzy awesome Australian guy with a lisp – Ben Mendelsohn & that guy who had a mustache in Argo and has some horrible accent thing going on here – Scoot McNairy) go for a quick score and end up with more trouble than the score was worth. Aint that always the truth? The lead up to the score, and the score itself are top notch cinematic stuff, AND TENSE!, but the rest that follows in the fall-out is about as interesting as listening to politicians from 2008 talk about the failing economy. Oh wait, that IS what happens. We get to hear GW Bush & Obama & McCain blab on and on about the economy in the background, while we try to stay awake listening to Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini and Richard Jenkins blab about mob economy, hookers and killing in the foreground. Sounds eggciting, dunnit? It's not. Not even seeing Ray Liotta get his a$$ beat down by Vinnie Delpino from Doogie Howser can make up for the unexciting talking that keeps getting talked
No real shock here in the blahdum, since this movie was made by Andrew Dominik, the dude who gave us The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford aka The Great Time Robbery. We are audiences of action, not words. Give us action, not words. And give us more than 8 seconds of Sam Shepard, and give us less than zero seconds of Vincent Curatola, that annoying guy from The Sopranos who is annoying here too cause he's annoying. Oh, and there's one woman in the entire movie and she's a hooker, and she gets so bored by James Gandolfini talking that she gets to leave the movie. Wish we could have done that. Or wish the movie jettisoned Pitt and all the other tough talkers and juss let Ben Mendelsohn shoot drugs and people, and perhaps shoot his mouth off, as he was the only character worth listening too, even if he was always talking shiiiiiiiiiiiit
Verdictgo: Sum Merit But No Stinkin Badges
Softly aint so hard in limited release
and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…


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About 92 million years ago, a transition was underway. A group of lizards was splitting in two. One branch would remain terrestrial, and eventually produce the monitor lizards, a group that includes what is currently the world's largest lizard, the Komodo Dragon. The other group became aquatic, and produced something even bigger, the mosasaur. Before dying off at the K/T boundary (where the dinosaurs also vanished), carnivorous mosasaur species up to 40 feet in length were the largest predators in the oceans. In contrast to the sturdy limbs of monitor lizards, mosasaurs had small limbs that supported flippers and propelled themselves with their tail.
How did this split take place? Evidence was sketchy, as few fossils from the time of the divergence had been identified. A few years ago, an amateur fossil hunter found what turned out to be the critical remains at a construction site in Texas, but they sat in a Dallas museum for a while before anyone noticed their significance. Thanks to some SMU researchers, that's changed, and the museum and fossil hunter provide the name for the new beast: Dallasaurus turneri.
What's it look like? Based on the SMU team's reconstruction, almost exactly like what you'd expect from a transitional species in this split. Its limbs are smaller, but still sufficient to support walking on land, while its tail is already robust enough to propel them through the water. To me, it looks a bit like a streamlined alligator.
It's interesting to link this new information with one of yesterday's posts, which was on the evolution of venom. Venom was found to have evolved about 200 million years ago, well before the split between mosasaurs and monitor lizards. Monitor lizards are now known to use venom. Putting this together, it looks like that on top of being 40 feet long with lots of nasty teeth, mosasaurs were probably poisonous. Makes you appreciate the fact that we only have to swim with sharks.


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On Sunday, ESPN reported the 49ers will attempt to trade quarterback Alex Smith in the offseason.
Today, Jim Harbaugh did nothing to dispel that report. At his season-wrap-up press conference, Harbaugh was asked if the team would consider granting Smith his release.
"I don't think any player has those wishes granted when they're under contract," Harbaugh said. "And everything's different. Every scenario is unique. It's certainly not something we're going to delve into and get into specifics."
The subtext, of course, is that Smith handled his painful demotion in November with class and didn't fracture a united locker room. So would the 49ers cast business aside in this case? Harbaugh acknowledged his feelings for the quarterback he championed throughout much of his two seasons as San Francisco's coach, but only hinted at another option besides a trade or release: The 49ers could keep him on the roster.
"I have great respect for Alex," Harbaugh said. "Great personal friendship, togetherness with Alex. The team, we feel great about our quarterback situation. You can't have enough good quarterbacks."
If Smith is on the roster on April 1, $7.5 million of his $8.5 million contract for the 2013 season will become fully guaranteed.


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Indiana Masters in Engineering Campus Programs
Several engineering graduate schools offer masters in engineering campus programs as either professional or academic degrees. Whether you are returning to university to strengthen your technical engineering knowledge, pursue research or cultivate leadership skills, a masters degree in engineering may be appealing. Per the BLS, a graduate engineering degree up to the PhD level allows engineers to work in research, development and teaching. [i] Prospective students include already working engineers as well as those interested in moving beyond an undergraduate education. That said, there are some universities that may offer a 5-year program leading to both a bachelors degree and a masters degree in engineering[ii].
Types of Masters in Engineering Campus Programs: M.S. and MEng. Degrees
Engineering graduate schools may offer a Masters in Engineering campus based programs as a Master of Science (MS) or Master of Engineering (MEng.) degrees, and individuals who have completed their Bachelors degree might consider one over the other. Depending on the program you choose, you may be able to take classes on a full-time or part-time option. You may also find an 'executive' masters format. These engineering masters programs may be designed for working professional engineers who may be able to implement what they are learning in real-time, in addition to learning teamwork and getting a chance to expand their networks. Keep in mind that engineering schools around the globe may have programs that differ from those in the United States.
DID YOU KNOW? In a survey of the education level of civil engineers, 26% of respondents said they had a master's degree.[iii]
What is an MEng?
A Master of Engineering (MEng) degree is usually regarded as a terminal and a professional degree, meaning there is not typically a research requirement. Some students in
Master of Engineering programs are current engineers who may aspire to climb the corporate ladder. Some of the potential features of an MEng degree program might include:
- Undergraduate degree in a specific engineering discipline or in a science discipline with possible courses required to fulfill the prerequisites for the degree;
Core industry-specific courses in business fundamentals;
- Technical Courses focused in a chosen engineering discipline;
- Possibly 18 months to completion;
- Possible capstone paper or report sometimes based on an engineering design project;
- Internship or co-ops component[iv]
What is MS in Engineering?
A Master of Science (MS) in Engineering is usually considered a research degree, and students may use it as a platform for their PhD in Engineering. The MS Engineering may be chosen by students who are interested in developing an advanced technical understanding in a specific discipline. Some of the potential features of a MS in engineering might include:
- Undergraduate degree in a specific engineering discipline or in a science discipline with possible courses required to fulfill the prerequisites for the degree;
- Research-oriented curriculum that may emphasize developing advanced technical understanding in a specialist engineering discipline;
- Possibly 2 to 8 years depending on the discipline and degree (e.g. combined MS/PhD)
- Thesis component (about 4-8 credits) or a non-thesis option like the Master of Engineering;
- In some cases, there is a comprehensive examination.
Different Types of Masters in Engineering Degree Programs
As a broad term, engineering covers many industries where the combination of sciences, mathematics and technology is applied to produce solutions to real world issues. Masters degrees in engineering may be found in the 4 main branches of engineering:
- Chemical
- Mechanical
- Civil
- Electrical
Additionally, the very advances in technology that are addressed through engineering have created numerous sub-areas within these disciplines. You might look for a Masters in Engineering on campus degree programs in one of the above main areas or you might choose to refine your niche. For instance:
- Biomedical Engineering which combines engineering principles with medical and biological sciences to design and create equipment for diagnosing medical problems;[v]
- Computer Hardware Engineering which is concerned with the research, design, development and testing processes of computer systems and components[vi];
- Environmental Engineering which develops solutions to environmental problems such as pollution using the principles of chemistry, soil science and biology;[vii]
- Nuclear Engineering which is concerned with the research and development of the processes, instruments, and systems used to derive benefits from nuclear energy and radiation;[viii]
This by no means exhausts the possibilities. The point is to consider what you are looking for in a Masters in engineering campus program – one of the main 4 types of engineering or something that might lead to further specialization within a present or potential future career path.
7 Things to Consider When Choosing a Masters in Engineering Graduate School
There are certainly a number of personal and practical things to factor into a search for a masters in engineering campus degree program. Some reflect personal preferences, while others are more practical. A solid engineering graduate school might emphasize its teaching methods and faculty, as well as its own contributions to research. Identifying which type of student you are and what your learning outcome goals are may help you find a suitable engineering master's program and engineering graduate school. We have narrowed it down to 7 factors that you may want to weigh in with your decision about which engineering graduate school to choose.
- Location
- Accreditation
- Type of Degree: MEng or MS
- Curriculum
- Research, Internships
- Campus Facilities
- Tuition
Location: Location and whether you intend to pursue your masters in engineering on a full-time or part-time basis may go hand in hand. Some of the part-time programs may be easy to fit into a work-week even if you are attending a non-local university. This of course, is one of the personal preferences to think about. Browse our site for engineering graduate schools with campus-based MS or MEng degree programs by location search. Use the city, state or country tabs to refine results per your preferences.
Accreditation: ABET, a non-profit, non-governmental agency recognized by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, accredits engineering programs, not institutions. Institutions may be regionally accredited, and it is within already nationally or regionally accredited institutions that you may find ABET-accredited engineering masters programs[ix]. Graduating from an ABET-accredited masters in engineering campus program may indicate a level of professional recognition and may be necessary should you decide to enhance your credentials through licensure, registration and certification[x].
Type of Masters in Engineering Campus Degree: To accomplish your engineering goals, you need to decide whether you are interested in a Master of Engineering or Master of Science in Engineering degree program. Also, you need to think about what type of engineering discipline you want to search for as we discussed above.
Curriculum: Each university may have its own focus or philosophy that should ideally, match your interests and have courses that teach you what you want to learn in terms of theory, techniques and specialized skills geared at your desired occupation. You might also be interested in finding out what the student-pupil ratio is.
Research, Internships: If a MS in Engineering and research is something that you are interested in, it makes a good point of reference for you relative to your search for an engineering graduate school. You might consider a university that has funding for the type of project you might be passionate about whether this is in software development engineering, sustainable engineering or fire protection engineering. Alternatively, you might determine whether there are any internships or co-op programs offered by a prospective university that could give you some industry experience, or a study-abroad feature that exposes you to a global perspective in your discipline.
Campus Facilities: Where applicable, you might determine whether the clinical or research facilities are up to date, check out the libraries, student services and other extras. Earning your masters in engineering on campus gives you an opportunity to participate, make connections and possibly use the vocational services of your school. Some companies may use these services to recruit for skilled candidates.
Tuition: If this is a factor for you, examine a few masters in engineering campus based programs to see what is in your range or whether you qualify for in-state tuition at a state school, whether there is financial aid and so on.
Take the Next Step: Find a Masters in Engineering Campus Program
To find an accredited Masters in Engineering campus program start reviewing sponsored listings on our site. Some of the prospective engineering schools may have several programs to learn about, and unique features that may help them stand out to you. Make sure to contact them through our easy-to-use 'request info' setting.
sources: [i] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/chemical-engineers.htm |[ii] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/chemical-engineers.htm |[iii] onetonline.org/link/summary/17-2051.00 |[iv] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/biomedical-engineers.htm |[v] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/biomedical-engineers.htm |[vi] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/computer-hardware-engineers.htm |[vii] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/environmental-engineers.htm |[viii] bls.gov/ooh/architecture-and-engineering/environmental-engineers.htm[ix] abet.org/accreditation/ |[x] abet.org/accreditation/why-abet-accreditation-matters/licensure-registration-certification/ |
Sponsored Listings
- Angola, INAngola, IN
Trine University
32 semester hours, C or better in each class, maintain overall 3.0/4.0 GPA.
- Fort Wayne, INFort Wayne, IN
Indiana University
- Dayton, INDayton, IN
University of Dayton
Engineering (M.S.)
Students who wish to achieve a master's degree in an engineering field, but are looking for flexibility in their program, should consider the Master o...
- Dayton, IN
- West Lafayette, INWest Lafayette, IN
Purdue University
Applied Computer Graphics - Master
The Department of Computer Graphics Technology (CGT) participates in the COT graduate program by offering an Area of Specialization in Applied Computer Graphics.
Sponsored Listings


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Brass is a material commonly used in jewelry, accessories and home decor. It is a copper alloy containing 15% zinc, 5% tin and 80% copper and is capable of showcasing intricate details and offers a professional, finished look and feel. Brass will tarnish over time, but can be polished back to achieve a like-new surface.
Jewelry, Fashion Accessories, Home Decor, Prototypes, Miniatures
Like all brass, our Polished and Natural offerings will tarnish over time and may need to be polished or cleaned.
High Quality & Shiny Finishing
Capable of intricate details
Great value
Natural: Light polishing to achieve a matte, somewhat rough surface
Polished: Hand-polished to achieve a smooth, shiny surface
Brass can react with your skin leaving a non-harmful greenish tinge with wear over time. To prevent this, you may consider coating the inner diameter of rings with clear nail polish.
Brass models are fabricated using lost wax casting. First, the model is printed in wax using a specialized high-resolution 3D Printer. It is then put in a container where liquid plaster is poured in around it. Once the plaster sets, the wax is melted out in a furnace, and the remaining plaster becomes the mold.
Molten brass is poured into this mold and set to harden. The plaster is broken away, revealing your new product. Natural Brass is briefly tumbled. Polished Brass is carefully cleaned and hand polished. Please be aware that polishing can wear down or fill in very fine details and edges.
For interlocking parts, we connect each wax part with a sprue and then cut and polish the sprue away after casting. Due to the intensive labor involved in every part we connect, we limit the number of parts allowed.
Professional Finish
4 Holder Soft Purse Black Zips Black Key Leather Soft Great Value
Capable of intricate details
Your model should be the minimum and maximum bounding box sizes. The maximum bounding box represents the largest model that our printers can produce. The minimum bounding box size is the smallest dimension in which we can print in this material.
A supported wall is connected on two or more sides. An unsupported wall is one connected to other walls on less than two sides. Walls in your model should be thicker than or equal to the minimum measurements suggested to ensure your model makes it through printing and cleaning. Walls that are too thin are prone to warping in the printing processing, or may break when we remove it from the printer and clean it.
Walls and wires close to or slightly above the guidelines may still be rejected based on the geometry. For example, extra long wires or walls protruding from an object may be damaged during cleaning. Our production team will communicate with you if the design is too weak with tips on how to strengthen it.
A geometry considered a wire when its thinner in both unconnected directions than its length. Wires that are under our suggested minimums are prone to breaking in the cleaning process.
Holder Purse Soft Zips Soft Black Key Leather 4 Black We recommend these minimum measurements for details like embossing or engraving, based off of printer resolution.
Escape holes allow unbuilt material inside hollow products to be removed.
To create brass products, a plaster mold is poured around a wax print of your product, and then brass is cast into the plaster mold. For products with hollow areas, escape holes are essential for two parts of this process. First, the liquid plaster must be able to enter the hole to fill in the hollow area. Then, once the metal is cast, the escape hole must be large enough to allow removal of the hardened plaster from the hollow area. If escape holes are too small, the hollow area may be completely filled in with metal or plaster.
A single escape hole at the end of a cavity will not allow material in the corners near the escape hole to fully escape. So we recommend multiple escape holes at both ends of the cavity.
Clearance is the space between an two parts, e.g. space between gears or a ball and socket joint.
Yes, up to 6.
Up to 2. Two features that interlock count as 1 part.
Your model may shrink about 0.25 mm plus 2.5% after casting and finishing.
For rings the inner diameter is accurate within +/- 0.1 to 0.15mm. On average, the model shrinks about 2.5% after casting and finishing. We do our best to polish the internal diameter to match your model file.
The copper in the brass material will react with chemicals on the skin and create green stains. These are harmless, but often undesired. This material is therefore less suited for rings.
Engraved details must not be too deep, and embossed details must not be too tall. The width of your detail must be the same or greater than how far it juts out from the surface (or sinks in for engraving). Engraved details that are too deep will cause issues when casting. Embossed details that are too tall are more likely to chip and break during production (unless the detail meets the minimum wall requirements).
Prongs for holding stones cannot be too long without anything connecting them. This connecting beam is to prevent the wax from breaking away. Also, with thin and long prongs, the product will not to be able to hold big stones. Make sure your stone will sit snug and tight.


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"Arise and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time." Winston Churchill
"Proclaim Liberty throughout All the land unto All the Inhabitants Thereof." Inscription on the Liberty Bell
Author Archives: atticus
What real post-partisanship would look like
Quin Hillyer proposes that, in the spirit of bipartisanship, Barack Obama renominate Peter Keisler, the former acting Attorney General, for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Keisler was an outstanding nominee, praised by the likes of Ted Kennedy and the editorial boards of the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Moreover, as Hillyer, points out, "when the Inspector General issued a report blasting »
How bad is the Amnesty International Report?
In his Boston Herald column, Jules Crittenden takes a look at the recent Amnesty International Report on Hezbollah's conduct in the war: "Hezbollah war crimes: Amnesty International cries Uncle." Jules is pleasantly surprised, but this paragraph leaves us in some suspense regarding AI's pending report on Israel's conduct: AI did not address the issue of an estimated 1,000 Lebanese civilians killed when Israel attacked Hezbollah fighting and command positions that »
Scandalous if true
Elements of the JAG Corps — career government military lawyers — exert, in my view, an undue amount of influence on how this country will fight the war on terrorism. And not for the good. Along with their former JAG colleague and current mouthpiece in the Senate, Lindsey Graham, they have spearheaded the movement to provide gold-plated process to terrorists who are hell-bent on killing as many Americans and other »
Who is Keith Ellison? (4)
In her Star Tribune column tomorrow, Katherine Kersten takes a look at the DFL-endorsed candidate for Congress in Minnesota's Fifth District: "Let's not forget Ellison's support of Nation of Islam." She writes: State Rep. Keith Ellison of Minneapolis is the DFL-endorsed candidate for the Fifth District congressional seat. In this DFL bastion, that means that — barring a primary loss — Ellison will succeed Martin Sabo when Congress reconvenes next »
FDR's domestic surveillance
In Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage, Joseph Persico writes that "[f]ew leaders have been better suited by nature and temperament for the anomalies of secret warfare than FDR." He quotes Roosevelt: "You know that I am a juggler, and I never let my right hand know what my left hand does." As Persico demonstrates (pages 34-36), President Roosevelt's enthusiasm for intelligence extended to prewar domestic wiretapping »
A cultured Democrat
Rep. Alan Mollohan, the top Democrat on the House ethics committee, is off the panel in light of reports that he steered millions of dollars to nonprofit groups in his district — with much of the money going to organizations run by people who contribute to his campaigns — and indications that his own net worth sky-rocketed in the process. This development, of course, is a potential set-back for Nancy »
Good news from Germany
Jim Geraghty has some very good news about the new German chancellor, Angela Merkel. Unlike her predecessor, the cyncial America-basher Gerhard Schroeder, Merkel is generally supportive of U.S. policies. Moreover, she is an independent voice for firmness in world affairs. She took a lead role in calling for the release of Abdul Rahman, the Afghan convert to Christianity who faced the death penalty. And she has denounced Iranian President Mahmoud »
"The Biggest Thing Happening In the World"
The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an excellent profile of federal prosecutor Cliff Wardlaw, who spent 11 months in Iraq, helping to establish that country's judiciary after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. He hasn't put the experience behind him: He trained judges, checked courthouse security, examined prison conditions and worked to steer the Iraqi judiciary to an independent body, one separate from the country's political leadership. Since his return, his life »
Froomkin takes the bait
Dan Froomkin at Washington Post.com praises Jennifer Loven for writing "a whole story on Saturday about Bush's extensive and generally unchallenged use of straw-man arguments." Froomkin calls this a "bold departure for the AP." Loven's piece is, of course, the one John demolished yesterday. As John demonstrated, the story is bold (though not really a departure) only in its illogic and lack of factual support. Froomkin's logic is just as »
More sloganeering from the Washington Post
The combined Democrat/MSM war on information has been characterized by cheap sloganeering. The Washington Post has been perhaps the worst offender, calling Dick Cheney the Vice President of torture, for example. Indeed, the Post has attempted to preempt debate and avoid real analysis through its loose use of the word torture. It hopes to invoke images of U.S. intelligence workers dismembering suspects and administering electric shock treatment, when in fact »
"Underreported" is an Understatement
The Washington Times is beginning a series of editorials on "underreported good news from Iraq." This is, of course, something the right-leaning half of the blogosphere has been up to for some time. Today's editorial focuses on education and Iraq's economy: Primary-school enrollment has jumped 20 percent over the Saddam years, according to the Brookings Institution's Iraq Index. In a country where 22 percent of adults never attended school, according »
Before there was Judge Bork
there was Judge Haynsworth. Horace Cooper recalls the pre-Bork borking of this judge. In 1969, the charming predecessors of today's Senate Dems (including the father of Evan Bayh) tried to paint Haynsworth as a racist, despite the lack of any good evidence. Then, they hammered him over a bogus conflict of interest. It worked. The Senate voted him down 55-45. About a decade later, I argued a few civil rights »
Dan Froomkin's deeply misleading "briefing"
The Washington Post's Dan Froomkin serves up a deeply misleading column about the president's attempt to defend himself from baseless and vicious attacks by the likes of, well, Froomkin. The liberal MSM knew that Bush wouldn't take indefinitely the pounding it has been dishing out. So, when Bush finally responded the Post had its main talking point prepared — Bush is engaging in a political campaign. This allegation, in fact, »


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Napier: "We believe in everything we do"
Anticipation is building for what should be a terrific national championship game on Monday night.
UConn has never lost a national title game, winning in 1999, 2004 and 2011. Two of those victories came in Texas.
Beating Kentuckywill be difficult.
But never doubt these Huskies. They are a confident bunch.
"I've just got all the confidence in my guys and we believe in everything we do," senior Shabazz Napier said.
Some news, notes and quotes from Sunday's press conferences at AT&T Stadium in Arlington:
-- Napier was named the winner of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's Bob Cousy Collegiate Point Guard of the Year Award. He is the second UConn player in four years to receive the honor, joining former teammate Kemba Walker (2011).
"It is an honor for us to award such a worthy athlete of this prestigious award," said Bob Cousy in a released statement. "Napier has fought hard in the NCAA Tournament and has stood out all throughout his college career as a dominant force in the game and a remarkable point guard."
-- Few Huskies got a good night's sleep after Saturday night's upset of top-seededFlorida. Coach Kevin Ollie and his coaching stayed up to prepare the scouting report onKentucky.
Ollie received a text from his former NBA coach, Larry Brown who's now at SMU. They talked on the phone Sunday.
"He just gave me some sound advice – have fun, don't make it complicated," Ollie said.
Junior DeAndre Daniels received 168 text messages after the game and barely slept.
"I was tossing and turning all night just thinking about Monday," Daniels said. "I can't wait to get back on the court."
Kentucky coach John Calipari also was up late.
"I was up until about 3:30 (a.m.) and got up about 7 o'clock," Calipari said. "We're working on fumes now. It's not like we're not tired, but your adrenalin gets you through all of this."
-- The Kentucky media asked several questions about UConn's 33-point loss atLouisvillein the regular season finale on March 8.
"I'm glad that happened, because we went back and I had to evaluate myself as a coach and I hope every player went to their dorms and looked in the mirror and had to evaluate their effort," Ollie said. "Down times like that just promote you.
"So I'm glad it happened. … We got better from that."
UConn has won seven of its last eight games since the defeat.
-- Napier on Kentucky: "We all play the game of basketball to compete against the best. This is one of those games."
-- Ollie pointed to his team's defense as a big reason why UConn is playing for the national title on Monday. "We've been doing that the whole year. It hasn't been our offense, it's been defense. And that's what we hang our hats on."
-- Daniels was asked about his impression of Kentucky freshman star Julius Randle, who averages a double-double.
"We're not focused on one player, we're focused onKentuckyas a whole," Daniels said.
-- Napier spoke about his close relationship with Ollie.
"The four years we have been together, it's been tremendous. He's been where we all want to be, a point guard in the NBA. A guy who's never pointed fingers at anybody but himself through all his trials and tribulations and everything he's been through. You can learn from that.
"We all believe in each other, and no matter what's going on, whether I'm laughing or joking with him or when I was a sophomore and I was crying on his arms because I was upset the way I was playing, he was always there for me."
-- The Huskies have been asked numerous times the last few days to compare this team to the 2011 national championship team.
"I think one of the similarities you can see is we have a great backcourt," senior Niels Giffey said. "Otherwise, I would say this is a very different team. We've got more seniors, more juniors on this team than we had our freshmen year. So think we have our own identity."
-- Ollie was born in Dallas and lived there for five years before moving to Los Angeles with his mother. He returned to Dallas during the summer to work for his father's landscaping business. He'd mow lawns.
"Pop used to get me up at about 4 o'clock in the morning and he didn't pay me a lot. … But it really taught me how to work hard, getting up at 4 o'clock, trying to beat the heat. He still cuts today. He still has his landscaping business.
"So I always see that determination and fight in him. He really established that work ethic in me with the combination of my mother, too, working hard, raising three kids on her own in South Central California."
-- Kentucky freshman Andrew Harrison on the mindset of his team: "It is an us against the world mentality. We just try and go out there and play as hard as we can."
-- The Wildcats have staged second half rallies to win in each of the last four NCAA games.
"It is the fact that we just kept battling," freshman Marcus Lee said. "That is one thing we tried to intensify throughout the season. That is what we got better at."
-- Seventh-seeded UConn and eighth-seeded Kentucky represent the highest combined seeds ever in a national championship game.
"Well, I don't think we were an eight seed and I don't think Connecticut was a seven seed…," Calipari said. "But that's what they seeded us."
Reader Comments
High school referee Tony Gigliotti and NBA referee Josh Tiven
Kellyanne Conway dismisses husband's concerns that Trump's mental health is deteriorating


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December 2012 In Box Letters to the EditorPosted in Features on December 1, 2012
Own OJ Build
After receiving my Sept. '12 issue I was eager to start flipping through the pages to see what this issue had in store for me to read. I was thrilled to find Part 2 of the Ultimate Orange Jeep with more pictures and information on its buildup. What pleased me more was to see that we are currently in the same boat (page 69)! My Ultimate Orange Jeep also got its rearend cut off this summer . . . but I'm not like you guys. I'm willing to tell you what my plan is.
She started out new in 2005 as an Impact Orange TJ Sport and over the last couple of years has slowly been built and wheeled. Last fall I started into its current build, which includes getting a tub stretch to fit onto an Unlimited frame, 1-ton axles stretched out another 4 inches forward and 5 inches back, 39.5-inch Pit Bulls on H1 rims, and a new transfer case setup.
I have been reading your magazine now religiously for 10 years and am always excited to get my new issue in the mail. I look forward to seeing what you do next with your OJ build, as I hope to get some ideas from it as to what I should do with the wife's '12 Orange Crush JKU.
Via email
Man, that is cool! Read on to see what the haters feel about using the reciprocating saw on a Jeep.
Jeep Wave Redoux
In response to Dave Asbridge's rant [In Box, July '12], here's mine. I got over the Jeep wave thing pretty quickly after I bought my JK Unlimited back in 2009. The primary reason for this is that it seemed at every turn I heard comments (primarily from TJ guys) that my JK wasn't a Jeep/Wrangler since it has four doors and came from the factory with power windows and locks. It got old pretty quick and proved, in my opinion, that the Jeep community wasn't/isn't all it was purported to be. As to the transmission thing, I would guess that I've seen about a 50/50 mix of automatics and manuals in the TJ and JK rigs I've encountered. I will not wave, but I will continue to enjoy my JK and everything that it is capable of, even if it's not a Wrangler.
Vestal Taylor
Al Dhafra Air Base, UAE
I wave to all Jeeps even when I'm driving a rental Celica. If nothing else, I'm passing along the fact that I am a happy person. Try it; you might be surprised at how other Jeep owners catch the wave. It's infectious and makes for a happy world. Don't hate.
Dana Dilemma
While reading through my Sept. '12 issue I noticed in the "Do-It-Yourself Dana Install" article that a housing spreader was not used to assist in the installation of the carrier shims. Proper use of a housing spreader (with a dial gauge to prevent overspreading) makes the removal and installation of the carrier and required shims a breeze. Thanks for a great magazine and the awesome information you share in it every month!
Leonard J. Schindler
Salem, OR
Thanks for the reminder. Yes, a spreader is not only the proper way to install gears in a Dana housing, but it does make the process easier. Many shops have them on the wall and use them frequently. In the hands of a novice the spreader can be used too aggressively and the housing might not spring back to the proper shape. Use what you can and get the job done right!
Canadia Rules!
Hey guys, just a quick question. Does Canada have a little brother I didn't know about? On page 27, caption 4, of the Fabworx front-end article ["Linked & Sprung Solid," May '12], where is this "Canadia" that you speak of? On a side note, do you guys have any idea why so many SAS (solid axle swap) kits are available for Chevys and not Fords? I know a bunch of guys that have made their own (www.fullsizebronco.com), but it just seems a little odd to me, because there is certainly an interest. Just check the SAS section and you'll see daily newb questions about an SAS "kit" for their Bronco or F-150. Anyway, keep up the good work! I've been a subscriber for about 18 years.
Dan Simmons
Rohnert Park, CA
Simple numbers is the answer. Far more Chevys were made with floppy front suspension and need a solid axle. Heck, the Ford line still makes a 3⁄4- and a 1-ton with a real axle. It's simply a business decision; if someone ran the numbers and found the market needed another Ford SAS kit, it would happen. That's free enterprise in action. Plus, Ford guys can still go to the dealership and buy a solid front axle truck (the Super Duty); GM guys don't have that option.
Expensive Stuff
I read the portal article ["Living With Portals," Aug. '12] and was flabbergasted by the cost of a pair of axles! I can't imagine spending $23,500 for a pair of axles. I'm a little surprised that you didn't make a bigger deal about how outrageously expensive they were. These aren't high-zoot axles; they are mildly worked over axles that Mopar is aiming towards stock jeepers (hence the test vehicle). There are a lot more effective places to spend that much money. Heck, you could be most of the way towards a custom rock buggy for that price!
Perry Harrington
Boulder Creek, CA
Is it a bunch of cash? Heck yeah, but again, this is a free market where people pay the going rate. Remember that the lowest-price car in America is around $12,000 today, not the $2,500 that a new '66 Mustang was. You could buy a used Jeep for $500 back then as well. Inflation and the costs of goods increase all the time, even if our salaries don't. If you can build a better mousetrap the public will buy it, and it seems that the high-tech whiz-bang items that start out expensive usually come down in price, after you've bought the first model.
But Then Again…
You gotta be kidding me! You cut a brand-new Jeep in half? I think you really have lost touch with your readers. Most of them would give a kidney for that unmolested Jeep. We read your magazine for practical mods of our vehicles, not to watch someone with more bucks than brains destroy a Jeep because he can. The CJ was kind of cool, the F-250 had some merit with the IFS, but you have gone too far with this one. I'm afraid the Ultimate Adventure will go the way of the Top Truck Challenge—no one will give a crap anymore.
Ed Rodrigues
San Ramon, CA
Really? And you think guys look at Playboy for practical tips, or is it for the fantasy? And what makes you think we destroyed the Jeep instead of making it more functional? Take two and call us in the morning.
And Finally, Medical Marijuana
I have been a big fan of yours and the magazine for many years. However, this time I am greatly disappointed. Let me first say I am a big fan of unusual or "morphodite" vehicles. Usually the uglier the better. However, in the case of the Ultimate OJ, I have to ask what the heck were you guys thinking? I can picture the creative meeting:
"Hey, why don't we build something really off-the-wall this year, like a Suzuki X-90?"
"I have an even better idea. Why don't we take a perfectly good brand-new Jeep Wrangler and completely screw it up and turn it into an X-90? Pass the bong."
I am now completely against medical marijuana because the stuff you guys were smoking is just way too powerful and should be outlawed. Thanks for your time.
Bruno Michel
Via email
Fred Williams is responsible for the idea and the build, and he verified he doesn't smoke dope. The actual conversation on the build went something like this.
"Rick, what about a clown car Jeep with a front clip on the rear, and a rear-steer axle?"
I replied, "Cool, if you can do it in time and under budget, then yes!"
Reader Rant
Budget build
Been a fan of the magazine for a long time. Just read the Sept. '12 issue and really enjoyed the Cheap Truck Challenge builds featured in both this issue and the previous one. "Budget builds" tend to get under my skin because the budget is always way higher than what someone doing a budget build would have to spend. This one was pretty darn close to being a realistic test in that $4,024 is a fairly reasonable budget for an average gearhead who can do the work himself or herself over a year or two. My gripe is that y'all must have some incredibly spoiled 17-year-olds out there on the West Coast for them on a two-year timeline even to be able to afford that kind of budget. Out here in Virginia at least 90 percent of 17-year-olds are either saving for college or already starting to take on some of their own bills, albeit in their parents' names legally.
I'd like to make a challenge to you. Let's see a true budget build. Set a ridiculously low budget like $2,000 total between the truck and all mods/repairs needed to get it on and off the pavement, and see what kind of mild or moderate wheeling it could handle while being able to drive back and forth between school, work, and home. Instead of off-the-shelf parts eating into the budget, let's see what a trip to the local junkyard can get you.
My '95 Jeep XJ, lifted 6 inches in front and about 41⁄2 in the rear, sitting on 305/70-16 BFG KMs with a welded 29-spline Chrysler 81⁄4 rear, has cost me a total of $1,300, which also includes a fresh rattle-can bedliner and spray paint finish. Sure, it has some odd creaks and rattles from time to time, but what budget build doesn't?
Surely the world's greatest 4x4 magazine is up to such a task, right? Ha ha, all joking aside, I'm sure I'm not the only one who would like to see such a build.
Corey Bennett
Via email
If I had the time and budget I would live in a wrecking yard and make all sorts of budget beaters. The reality is that we have real jobs here, although at times it doesn't appear so. We aren't done with Cheap Truck Challenge, The Series, so keep your ideas and comments coming, and plan your own CTC!
When I was 17 years old I lived back east and I worked on my family's farm. I saved enough to buy my first street-legal 4x4 for $1,000, which I was able to earn in a summer, but that was 20 years ago. I had to sell that Jeep to go to college. Plus take out student loans.
The current federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. If you figure a third goes to taxes, that's about $4.75 per hour. At that rate you'd need about 11 40-hour weeks to save up $2,012. Most kids get that many weeks of summer vacation. So at a minimum they should be able to earn it, and hopefully they could earn more. Yes, we could make the budget even lower, but I felt it was a good average price. Everyone remembers how cheap their first truck was. The fact is we didn't want to show a truck so cheap no one could duplicate the build.
Next year's Cheap Truck Challenge plan is already in the works. Expect even more budget upgrades as well as adventure, high seas, crazy antics, and more fun four-wheeling.


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The Betrayal of the American Dream
Donald L. Bartlett
and James B. Steele
PublicAffairs: 320 pp., $26.99
You may be old enough to remember the United States whose passing Donald L. Bartlett and James B. Steele lament on nearly every page of their new book, "The Betrayal of the American Dream."
In that other, older America, you could buy bell-bottom pants, a color television set or a pair of high-platform shoes, and there was a good chance you'd find attached a label that said "Made in the U.S.A."
U.S. companies made big profits -- but invested in the local communities where their products were made. The rich paid their fair share in taxes without complaint.
Bartlett and Steele can pinpoint the moment this America began to disappear: June 1979. More people were employed at U.S. factory jobs at that time than during any month before or since. At about the same time, the share that the wealthiest Americans paid in taxes began to fall sharply.
American factory jobs soon began to flee south to Mexico, and then overseas to China, followed by all sorts of other tasks once performed by the guy next door -- including your friendly customer service representative, who these days might answer your queries from Bangalore.
Since then, three decades of laissez-faire business strategies and government policies have undercut the American middle class and the underpinnings of American democracy. That's the central argument of "The Betrayal of the American Dream," a book that's essential reading to anyone trying to make sense of our country's current malaise.
Since the 1980s, a host of politicos, Republican and Democrat, have sold their business-friendly reforms to the American people in the name of economic efficiency. Corporate America saves, and we all save! But the real winner, Bartlett and Steele say, is the American "ruling class." The plutocrats win just about every political fight we read about in "The Betrayal of the American Dream." Among other things, the economic elite has quietly, methodically and ruthlessly restructured the tax code on behalf of the wealthiest Americans, they say.
Beginning in the 1980s, "Congress converted the tax code into a boutique bank offering all sorts of products tailored" to the very rich. Tax cuts on unearned income and carried interest allow the richest of the rich -- including Mitt Romney, the authors point out -- to pay less income tax with each passing year.
"America's founders, who were very well aware of how the aristocracy rigged the system to guarantee its own perpetuation, up to and including the king, would shudder," Bartlett and Steele write.
With the American middle class under assault, we are a country increasingly divided between rich and poor. In "The Betrayal of the American Dream," the U.S. ruling class is eating the American middle class for lunch and giving the leftovers to the impoverished, incipient middle class of China and India.
Consider, for example, the authors' descriptions of the fate of the Rubbermaid and Vise-Grip plants in Wooster, Ohio, and De Witt, Neb., respectively.
Those companies were good corporate citizens. But the ethos that led them to invest in local community development and arts programs up to the 1970s seems almost quaint in a modern age where the cutthroat logic of the hedge-fund manager dominates corporate decision-making.
Despite still being profitable in the U.S., both DeWitt and Rubbermaid shipped most of their jobs abroad.
The Chinese replacements for the DeWitt workers live in conditions, as the authors describe them, that were familiar to American workers -- in the 19th century. They work 12-hour days, live in vast dormitories and endure bosses who feel free to berate and harangue them.
Pushed to the limit, a group of workers for a Microsoft subcontractor in China engages in the kind of protest unheard of in the U.S. -- they climb to the roof of their factory and threaten to commit mass suicide. No U.S. employer could get away with pushing a company's entire workforce to the brink of suicide.
But the displaced American workers quoted in "The Betrayal of the American Dream" have no idea that it's their pride and dignity that make them a burden to their U.S. employers. Instead, they accept their layoff notices with little protest. They look for other jobs. Many internalize their loss. "Maybe I wasn't a good employee," they say.
A few rail at the base greed of their bosses. But they can't see -- as the authors do -- the whole big picture of cold, corporate calculus that's cost them their livelihoods.
Only one worker in "The Betrayal of the American Dream" speaks of the possibility of a future day of reckoning.
"When we end up down the road and get where we're headed -- which is an elite class and a low class -- is the low class going to tolerate that...?," asks Irene Odell, a laidoff information technology worker from Tampa. "Isn't that what inspired the revolution?"
For Bartlett and Steele, the American worker is a largely passive figure, manipulated by lobbyists and right-wing think tanks.
And yet, the policies the authors decry in this book are backed by a large number of American voters, including many working people. "The Betrayal of the American Dream" doesn't try to explain why this is so.
"We can have concentrated wealth in the hands of a few or we can have democracy," the late Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis says at the end of "The Betrayal of the American Dream." "But we cannot have both."
It's an argument that has yet to take hold of the American imagination.


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June 25, 2008
Louis Michel
European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid
Berlaymont 10 /165
Dear Mr. Michel,
In light of the European Union's recent decision to lift
2003 diplomatic sanctions on
During the meeting of the Council of the European Union in
Yet five years after the Cuban government's crackdown on the
independent press, 22 journalists remain behind bars in
The imprisonment of journalists under inhumane conditions
has taken a toll on their health, according to CPJ research. At home, their
families, unable to work, scrape for basic necessities while being regularly
watched and often harassed by state authorities, CPJ found in "Cuba's Long Black Spring," a
special report released in March in
For the past five years,
The Cuban government owns and controls all media outlets and restricts Internet access. Authorities do not tolerate any kind of independent journalism. Journalists are constantly followed, harassed, intimidated, and jailed. The Cuban constitution grants the Communist Party the right to control the press; it only recognizes "freedom of speech and the press in accordance with the goals of the socialist society."
The EU has agreed to lift the sanctions, provided
CPJ is optimistic about the EU's decision to always address
human rights issues during high-level visits to
With Raúl Castro as president, there have been significant economic, agricultural, and administrative reforms, but there has been no real progress on human rights issues, including freedom of the press. While encouraged by the European Union's decision to scrutinize human rights conditions in Cuba, we urge you to ensure that Castro's government unconditionally releases all dissidents, including the 22 journalists, and grants freedom of expression and information, including Internet access to all Cubans.
Executive Director


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Don't miss the chance to hear Ed Kashi speak, or better yet, take a workshop from this passionate photojournalist. Here's an overview of his upcoming events in the San Francisco area:
An exhibition of photographs from Ed Kashi's most recent project "CURSE OF THE BLACK GOLD: Fifty Years of Oil in the Niger Delta" will be on view November 5th – December 6th at the RayKo Gallery; opening reception this Friday, November 7th, from 6-8 p.m. TWO ADDITIONAL EXHIBITIONS ALSO OPENING THAT EVENING AT RAYKO:
"Interior Relations" Portraits of female domestic workers in South Africa by IAN VAN COLLER
"Crude Reflections/Cruda Realidad: Oil, Ruin and Resistance in the Amazon Rainforest" by LOU DEMATTEIS and KAYANA SZYMCZAK
All three exhibitions are on view at Rayko through December 6th.
Ed Kashi is giving a workshop sponsored by FOTOVISION on November 8/9, held at Orange Photography in SF
on Wednesday, November 12th, Ed will be participating in a "Africa Table Lecture" with Professor Michael Watts, contributing author to Ed's book The Curse of The Black Gold. This event is sponsored Stanford University's Division of International, Comparative & Area Studies, Center for African Studies at Stanford and will be held in the Goldman Conference Room, 4th Floor, 216 Encina Hall West in Stanford. (650) 736-1321.
Finally, Ed will give a lecture on Friday, November 15th from 2-5 p.m. at the San Francisco Public Library's Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin Street, SF (415 557 4400).


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ajxecc needed a new logo design and created a contest on 99designs.
A winner was selected from 138 designs submitted by 42 freelance designers.
I like bicycles. In my spare time i like to renovate old bikes or build completely new bikes. My current project is a so called fixed gear bike (fixie). A bike with no breaks and only one gear, a fixed gear.
The bike will be in the colors blue, red and white. The colors of the Thai flag. The logo is going to be placed on a red tube (see picuture).
XECC is the cyrillic writing of my last name (Hess). So XECC is going to be the brand name of the bike.... if you want to call that a brand for just one bike ;-)
I also own the web address XECC.CH (Switzerland) and in the future there will be (hopefully) some information about my bikes on this website.
People who see my bike. Especially people who also like bikes and who can tell the difference between a normal bike and a special one...
The fixie scene has it's own sub-culture. So make sure you visit some fixie sites in the internet and watch some fixie videos on YouTube before you start designing to get an idea of the scene...
The logo is going to be placed on a tube, so it must be more wide than high. To give you an idea: the height is not going to be more than 3 cm.... the width is up to you....
The logo can be created in different colors to present it on a website. But on the frame it will only be possible to use the logo in one single color. So it must be possible to convert the logo from multiple colors to just one color and it should still have the same message.... ;-)
As mentioned above the logo is going to be placed on a red tube... so white is probably a good color for the logo.
The logo needs to include the letters "XECC". If you find a nice way to add ".ch" (domain ending of Switzerland) in a much smaller writing at the end of "XECC", then that would be a cool thing.
The logo can be text only, text + image or text + ornament...
I will need a vector based file, best if the format can be read by the open-source software Inkscape. Otherwise a accepted standard format of the design industry. I also will need the TrueType Font file if one is used.
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Altair Maine said he was so little supervised in his first few years of teaching at North Hollywood High School that he could "easily have shown a movie in class every day and earned tenure nonetheless."
Before second-grade teacher Kimberly Patterson received tenure and the ironclad job protections it provides, she said, "my principal never set foot in my classroom while I was teaching."
And when Virgil Middle School teacher Roberto Gonzalez came up for tenure, he discovered there was no evaluation for him on file. When he inquired about it, his school hastily faxed one to district headquarters.
"I'm pretty sure it was just made up on the spot," Gonzalez said.
There is nothing to suggest these teachers didn't deserve tenure, but the district did little to ensure they were worthy.
A Times investigation found that the Los Angeles Unified School District routinely grants tenure to new teachers after cursory reviews -- and sometimes none at all.
Evaluating new teachers for tenure is one of a principal's most important responsibilities. Once instructors have permanent status, they are almost never fired for performance reasons alone. The two-year probation period, during which teachers can be fired at will, offers a singular opportunity to weed out poor performers.
It is a chance L.A. Unified all but squanders, according to interviews with more than 75 teachers and administrators, analyses of district data covering the last several years, and internal and independent studies. Among the findings:
* Nearly all probationary teachers receive a passing grade on evaluations. Fewer than 2% are denied tenure.
* The reviews are so lacking in rigor as to be meaningless, many instructors say. Before a teacher gets tenure, school administrators are required to conduct only a single, pre-announced classroom visit per year. About half the observations last 30 minutes or less. Principals are rarely held responsible for how they perform the reviews.
* The district's evaluation of teachers does not take into account whether students are learning. Principals are not required to consider testing data, student work or grades. L.A. Unified, like other districts in California, essentially ignores a state law that since the 1970s has required districts to weigh pupil progress in assessing teachers and administrators.
"I can't believe that," said Gary K. Hart, California's secretary of education under Gov. Gray Davis, when told of The Times' findings. Tenure "is not something that everyone off the street who wants to be a teacher should be granted."
"The saddest part is that the most critical element of whether our children are successful is being ignored," said Julie Slayton, the district's former director of research and planning and now a USC professor of education. "It's ridiculous and should be changed."
On Thursday, Supt. Ramon C. Cortines announced that change was coming. After hearing The Times' findings more than a week ago, the superintendent pledged to scrutinize probationary teachers more closely so poor instructors are ousted before they become tenured.
"Too many ineffective teachers are falling into tenured positions -- the equivalent of jobs for life," he said.
An easy path to tenure is not unique to Los Angeles. Schools across the country have failed to grade teachers, even their rookies, and rarely dismiss poor performers. In response, the Obama administration has made teacher accountability a key requirement in the competition for $4.35 billion in education grants.
Some of the nation's major school districts, including in New York City and Washington, D.C., have already made significant reforms, such as requiring multiple evaluations by expert teachers or objective evidence of student growth.
A task force in Los Angeles has only begun to consider such sweeping changes, which would go well beyond the pledge Cortines made Thursday.
"It's a sign of how backward things are that the superintendent has to make this kind of clarion call," said Ted Mitchell, chairman of the task force. "There is a little Alice in Wonderland quality in some of this: You mean you haven't been doing that?"
Wide variations
Now is crunch time for principals.
In the fall months, they must evaluate the hundreds of second-year teachers who are up for tenure in the spring. Most administrators and experts say it is difficult to judge teachers on their first year -- often a struggle for even the most gifted. So October through December becomes the narrow window in which most principals must carry out one of their weightiest duties.
The quality of evaluations appears to vary dramatically in the district's nearly 1,000 schools. Some principals say it's hard to find the time to get into classrooms. Others, like Sonia Miller of Samuel Gompers Middle School in the Broadway-Manchester neighborhood west of Watts, make evaluations a priority.
"I arrive at 7 in the morning and don't leave until 7 p.m.," Miller said.
Just after 9 a.m. on a recent Thursday, she slipped into the back row of an eighth-grade English class to observe Daniel Leake, a second-year teacher who bounded around the room, quizzing his 19 students about Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."
"You have the content of a strong lesson," Miller wrote in her notes. "However, it would be more effective to have a [handout] to help students organize their thoughts/ideas."
After 11 minutes, Miller left. She saw room for improvement: Leake hadn't called on enough students, and he'd answered most of his questions himself. The room was clean, but its sky blue walls were nearly bare.
Still, Leake was doing better than in his first year, Miller said, when he struggled to control his class. She said she would drop in several more times before doing a formal evaluation but thought Leake would merit tenure.
Evaluation is an especially heavy burden at Gompers, where Miller says 31 of 73 teachers are "probes," as probationary teachers are known. Choosing the right teachers will be essential to stabilizing a campus plagued by low test scores and staff turmoil, including seven principals in the six years before she arrived in 2008, Miller said.
Probationary teachers are not distributed evenly throughout the district: Most schools with the highest number of probationary teachers are in poor areas, an analysis of district data found.
"You're putting new teachers who are struggling in with the kids with the highest needs," Miller said.
Last year, Miller said, she told three of 13 teachers up for tenure that they wouldn't get it. Other schools with lots of probationary teachers are less selective.
Consider five academically struggling elementary campuses in South Los Angeles: 118th Street, 116th Street, 75th Street, 66th Street and 24th Street schools.
In the last three years, 88 teachers at those schools have been up for tenure, district data show; only one, at 24th Street last year, was let go by the school board.
District officials noted that other teachers may have known they were going to get a bad evaluation and quit before being fired. At least 15% of teachers leave voluntarily after their first year.
Vague, subjective
Teacher evaluations at L.A. Unified are known among staffers as "drive-bys."
Not just quick and infrequent, they are also vague and subjective. Both tenured and non-tenured teachers are rated on a four-page checklist with such criteria as "provides an effective classroom environment." The form has three options: meets standards, needs improvement or falls below standards.
There is limited room for an evaluator's comments, but they are often absent or sparing, teachers say. The findings are required to be discussed with teachers in a conference but often aren't.
District data show that probationary teachers pass evaluations at about the same rate as tenured instructors, despite new instructors' inexperience. They are made permanent automatically unless tenure is vetoed by the principal and ultimately the school board -- something that happened an average of 35 times annually in the last four years.
Gonzalez, the Virgil Middle School teacher who this year won a prestigious Milken award for teaching science, said his new principal carries out rigorous evaluations. But when he earned tenure in 2005, he got nearly no feedback.
"It's the culture," he said. "It did make me angry. It still does."
Maine of North Hollywood, who now leads the school's science Olympiad team, could recall only one observation by an administrator in his first few years, "and that was a couple of minutes."
"Being quickly satisfied that no riot was in progress, he departed," Maine said in an e-mail.
Two teachers elsewhere told The Times that their evaluation forms were falsified to show an observer was present when he or she was not. Both declined to be identified for fear of retribution.
The dearth of feedback has only worsened in recent years, as budget cuts have thinned the ranks of assistant principals, who are often responsible for evaluations.
Michelle Ereckson, a third-grade teacher at 24th Street and the school's union representative, said some administrators don't even show up for scheduled evaluations.
When evaluators do show up, Ereckson said, some teachers are well-prepared because they practiced the lesson with students the day before. Evaluators don't seem to notice, she said, even when students know all the answers.
Ereckson said she had reported her concerns up the ladder, all the way to the local superintendent. "No one does anything about it," she said. "Nobody cares."
She thinks it's no accident that the school's state test scores fell last year. "If the principal doesn't know what's going on in the classroom, you can't offer support to the people who need support, you can't offer praise to the people who need praise," she said.
Michelle King, District 3 superintendent, said she investigated the matter, attending a meeting at the school in which the entire faculty aired concerns about evaluations and other issues.
"The principal was able to demonstrate to me that she was following district policy," King said.
Glenn Parness, the union representative at Berendo Middle School in Pico-Union, cited other weaknesses in the system. One probationary teacher at Berendo was chronically late, couldn't control the class and rarely planned lessons, he recalled.
But the teacher knew that a tenure review was coming up and "shaped up for six months," Parness said.
After getting permanent status, the instructor backslid into old habits and is now "pretty much the same" as before, Parness said.
Forty-four percent of L.A. Unified principals said they don't always try to remove probationary teachers who they think don't belong in the profession, according to a 2008 survey conducted for the district by the New Teachers Project, a nonprofit.
Interviews by The Times suggest several explanations: Principals are afraid they'll get someone worse; it's time-consuming to prepare and unpleasant to deliver a negative evaluation; they learned not to be picky during teacher shortages that ended years ago; or they simply can't tell who deserves a permanent job and who doesn't.
Most important, L.A. Unified officials say, is a district culture that views struggling teachers almost as "pupils" who always have the capacity to improve.
Some officials also say principals have grown gun-shy from fierce battles with permanent teachers -- who are rarely fired and even then, can spend years on the payroll as their cases wind through a byzantine appeals process, as The Times reported in May.
By force of habit, some new teachers are treated with similar deference -- even in the face of alleged misconduct.
In 2000, Matthew Kim was a probationary special education teacher at Grant High School in Valley Glen when an aide complained that he had made inappropriate comments and touched her breast during class, state documents show. Several similar complaints followed from students and staff.
About the same time, Kim's principal sent Kim, who is severely disabled by cerebral palsy, a memo stating that the teacher had trouble communicating with students and that some students and aides refused to be in his class.
He got tenure anyway.
In 2002, as complaints mounted, Kim was removed from the classroom, and a year after that, the school board voted to fire him. Kim denied any impropriety.
Nearly a decade after complaints first emerged, L.A. Unified estimates it is out $2 million in salary and legal costs, and the case remains on appeal.
Spotty reform
In California, tenure arose in the 1920s as an effort to protect schoolteachers -- at the time mostly women -- from unfair terminations. Back then, getting married, wearing a skirt with bare legs or failing to clean a classroom's lamps and chimneys were firing offenses.
Eventually, many California politicians and education officials came to believe that the protections provided made it nearly impossible to fire poor performers. But their reforms have had limited success.
In 1971, Assemblyman John Stull, a Republican from San Diego, wrote a law requiring districts to evaluate teachers and administrators based on pupil progress, instructional technique and the classroom environment.
Many districts across the state have apparently ignored the first criterion. No one monitors enforcement of that law "at the state level or otherwise," said Hilary McLean, spokeswoman for state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell.
A 1983 law stripped probationary teachers of employment protections, so they could be dismissed without cause. In exchange, teachers unions persuaded legislators to reduce the probationary period from three years to two.
Most states require three, while some mandate as many as five.
In 1999, Gov. Gray Davis offered struggling teachers more training, creating a path to remove them if they did not improve. That program has essentially failed, according to former state education secretary Hart, who was its architect.
It has suffered from chronic budget cuts and inconsistent use, he said.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took his own stab at the issue in 2005 with Proposition 74, which would have extended the probationary period to five years and curbed some protections for permanent teachers. It was soundly defeated after the California Teachers Assn. and others spent nearly $17 million to oppose it.
These days, some critics of tenure say it is an outmoded concept, more appropriate to a university setting where it is earned over years, granted more sparingly and serves to protect academic freedom. Teachers unions counter that it is key to protecting instructors from incompetent or vindictive administrators, some of whom have never taught.
Others say the law is not the problem: Officials should just make evaluations a bigger priority and give principals the training and support to carry them out.
"If we changed the law but didn't change the management at schools, we wouldn't be much better off," said John Mockler, former executive director of the state Board of Education.
Ironically, many bad teachers are hard to fire because they can point to years of positive evaluations by principals who did not do their jobs, Mockler said.
A tougher stance
Even without changes in Sacramento, schools around the district have found ways to set a higher bar for new teachers.
Gompers, the Broadway-Manchester middle school, is controlled by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, which requires principals to spend three hours a day in classrooms.
Miller said she observes teachers routinely to provide useful feedback, not just an up or down vote on tenure.
As for those who still aren't making the grade, she said she wants them out before it's too late.
Miller took a visitor to the classroom of a tenured veteran who was not in school that day. Students were out of their seats and chatting while a substitute stood by helplessly.
The teacher "never comes to work, leaves no lesson plan for the sub, and has a file as thick as everything," Miller said, her eyes welling. "Students are falling behind. . . . Colleagues are upset. They come to me and say, 'Why aren't you doing anything?' "
Miller said she has been documenting the teacher's failings almost every day for more than a year. "I'm told it will take another year of writing to get [the teacher] out," she said.
By that, she means out of her school.
Instead of being fired, she said, the tenured instructor will almost certainly land on another L.A. Unified campus.
jessica.garrison @latimes.com
Doug Smith, The Times' director of database reporting, contributed to this report.


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Two arrested in Baytown stabbings
Two suspects have been charged in connection with a knife-slashing brawl this week that killed a man and injured another at a Baytown apartment complex, Baytown police said.
Tia Lewis, 23, has been charged with murder in the death of 32-year-old Milton Ford, court records show. Terrence Cline, 22, also of Baytown, faces a felony aggravated assault charge for allegedly stabbing a man who tried to help the victim.
Police said that Ford was standing near a fenced area Monday at Bay Point Apartments, 811 Northwood, when he was attacked by the suspects. The victim was able to run away from his attackers until he fell, and "they began to beat and stab him multiple times," Baytown police Detective Brian Parker of stated in a press release.
A witness who tried to intervene and stop the 8 p.m. attack was stabbed in the abdomen, police said. His injuries were not life-threatening.
Investigators located the suspects inside an apartment at the complex, and police recovered evidence from the scene.
A third suspect, identified as a woman, was picked up on outstanding traffic warrants but has not been charged in the assaults.


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Week 49 - Tuesday
by, September 3rd, 2013 at 08:28 AM (736 Views)
We did very little over the labor day weekend and it's hard to believe its over already. I guess the next holiday will be Thanksgiving! So despite an easy weekend I still woke sore and stiff from Saturday. I loosened up after the warmup and despite not feeling great today the workout was ok. The main set was my favorite set I college and it went on and on. This morning was not quite the same but it was still fun.
Warm up
400 free with snorkel
6x50 catchup on 45
5x100 kick on 2mins
Main set
Descending 100s starting on 1.30 and reducing by a second per 100 until you can't go anymore.
Warm down
400 easy
total 4500scy
I ended up doing 29 of the 100s dropping to 1.01 and probably could have made 1 more but screwed up the touch at the end of the 29th 100. I was pleased with this set.
Tonight I start back in the gym with swim bench and weights, so will no doubt be pretty sore tomorrow.


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Rasoi Indian Kitchen
- Expired
- Downtown/Golden Triangle
- Indian
"We have a lot of vegan options," said PK, the owner, who told us veganism isn't really a thing over in India. "We adapted these recipes for the wide variety of diners in the area." But even meat lovers will fall for the Gobi Manchurian, too.While it may be inconspicuous from the outside, once we opened the glass doors of this nonchalant K Street eatery, we were emerged—mind, body and nose (the aromas are magnificent)—into a whole new world, one filled with some of DC's most expertly crafted Indian cuisine. And while the lunch buffet is awesome (and also so well-priced we'd feel bad using this Scoutmob deal on it), ordering the made-from-scratch, totally fresh dishes straight off the menu is how we prefer to do it.
The classics are great here, like the chicken tikka masala and lamb vindaloo, but this menu's got a whole section of signature fare that's unique to Rasoi's kitchen. "We have a lot of vegan options," said PK, the owner, who told us veganism isn't really a thing over in India. "We adapted these recipes for the wide variety of diners in the area." On that note, many of Rasoi's dishes are, or can be, easily made gluten-free. We're huge fans of the Gobi Manchurian, which is composed of crispy cauliflower florets in a sweet and sour sauce. Paired with one of the more rare Indian brews diners can find here (try the big bottle of the Golden Eagle), this turned out to be one heckuva satisfying meal.
Menu Highlights:
Palak Chaat (crispy spinach), $8
Gobi Manchurian, $15
Malai Palak Paneer, $15
Kashmiri Murgh, $16
Lamb Vindaloo, $18
Rarer Indian Beers, various prices
Monday - Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Saturday & Sunday, noon to 3 p.m.
Sunday - Thursday, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Friday & Saturday, 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.


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Tulip Window
Jessica Jenney 2/27/2007 6:14:16 AMStunning floral image, Bob! #612513
Aimee S. McMaster 2/27/2007 6:22:56 AM.....very lovely Bob...Aimee #4000634
Christy Nichols 2/27/2007 7:04:28 AMExcellent POV, Bob! Great colors! #4000829
Bob V. Fitzpatrick 2/27/2007 7:12:19 AMThanks to all for your kind comments. Look forward to getting more tulip close-ups real soon. #4000879
Colette M. Metcalf 2/27/2007 12:15:20 PMLovely image, Bob!! #4001941
Tamera S. Phillips 3/22/2007 6:56:47 PMCongrats on this beautiful finalist Bob! Good luck in the next round. #4082767
randy dannheim 3/23/2007 2:50:18 PM
Congratulations on your very deserving finalist!! Bob #4089147
Suzanne Colson 3/23/2007 4:19:25 PMCongrats on your finalist!! The composition, details and lighting are wonderful. #4089506
Ross Throndson 3/23/2007 10:55:25 PMCongratulations on your Gorgeous Finalist, Bob!! #4090675
Patrick R. McMullen 4/12/2007 9:22:53 AMCongratulations! Great use of selective focusing!
Uploaded on 2/27/2007 6:06:56 AM
Camera: Nikon D2X Digital SLR Camera
Copyright for this gallery photo belongs solely to Bob V. Fitzpatrick. Images may not be copied, downloaded, or used in any way without the expressed, written permission of the photographer.
Log in to follow or message this photographer or report this photo.


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The TeraFlex ENDURO-LCG suspension system is designed for the entry-level off road enthusiast that wants suspension performance with very little modification to the vehicle frame. The ENDURO system utilizes many of the features of its big brothers, the PRO-LCG, and MAX-LCG system. The ENDURO kit incorporates the same lower control arms and bracketry found in the higher level kits. The ENDURO long arm system will transform your current Wranglers handling capabilities both on and off road. The redesigned long arm bracketry allows for easy installation, and access to the transfer case without disassembly of suspension components. This system incorporates our heavy-duty Monster end assemblies and 1.75 inch DOM arms. The Monster ends are the largest units on the market, and allow users to customize the interchangeable units to fit their driving style. The ENDURO-LCG system fits all Wrangler models including the Rubicon and Unlimited.
What is TeraFlex? A suspension company? Sure, but not just any suspension company. TeraFlex is a Jeep Wrangler suspension company. TeraFlex engineers enjoy coming up with products for one of the most engineered vehicles on the market. Interchangeable, dependable and durable - that is where TeraFlex comes in. TeraFlex picks up where Jeep left off to make Wranglers even better. Teraflex prides itself on striving for perfection in every aspect of product manufacturing and design. TeraFlex delivers the quality that hardcore off-road enthusiasts demand. Shop TeraFlex Now


text: Works encompass both abstract, figurative and elements drawn from variety of sources. Throughout the last years she made her surrealist inspiration more visible. Detailed paintings and drawings showing post-apocalyptic, mystic environment and scape, deformed figures and symbolic deserts.1994 - 1999 Virrgo studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Cracow1994 - 1999 Painting and drawing studied in J. Tarabula Studio1999 - MA Diploma at the Faculty of Art & Design


text: Hi, I'm having a problem with one of my customers. He tried to download his emails, but he isn't getting any of them. It only is related to one single account. I removed it an receated it. but with the same effect. Emails can't be retrieved. they are displayed as downloading but there's no progress. The logs don't display anything odd. Any help is appreceated Chris


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30 Day Ride Out Guarantee With this Surfboard - Don't like it? swap it
Firewire LFT Addvance Surfboard 6ft 10 FCS II - Natural Wood
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Addvice - talk with the guys at boardshop, they seem happy to chat away about surfing and will match you up to the correct size board.
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Well done all round. Thank you.
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