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NASA small explorer mission celebrates ten years and forty thousand X-ray flares
(PhysOrg.com) -- On February 5, 2002, NASA launched what was then called the High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (HESSI) into orbit. Renamed within months as the Ramaty High Energy Solar Spectroscopic Imager (RHESSI) after Reuven Ramaty, a deceased NASA scientist who had long championed the mission, the spacecraft's job was to observe giant explosions on the sun called solar flares.
During a solar flare, the gas soars to over 20 million degrees Fahrenheit, and emits X-rays that scientists can use as fingerprints to study these events on the sun. X-rays cannot penetrate Earth's atmosphere, however, so RHESSI observes them from space. Its goal is simple: to understand how the sun so efficiently shoots out such huge amounts of energy and particles.
Ten years since its launch, RHESSI has observed more than 40,000 X-ray flares, helped craft and refine a model of how solar eruptions form, and fueled additional serendipitous science papers on such things as the shape of the sun and thunder-storm-produced gamma ray flashes.
RHESSI is in a class of NASA spacecraft called Small Explorers missions that cost under $120 million with highly focused research goals. Launching just after the sun reached its period of maximum activity, known as solar maximum, in 2001, RHESSI was poised to see many explosive bursts of energy from the sun, including both solar flares and another eruption of solar material called coronal mass ejections.
"Except, thanks in part to RHESSI, we don't even separate the biggest explosions into categories like that anymore," says Brian Dennis, the mission scientist for RHESSI at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. "RHESSI has taught us that 'Thou shalt instead say Solar Eruptive Events.' Now we know that one burst of energy in the sun's atmosphere creates both kinds of eruptions. Part of the energy shoots into the sky and becomes a CME (coronal mass ejection). Part of the material is driven down to the sun's surface and appears as the flare. RHESSI's 10 years of observations have helped fill in the holes in this picture."
To accomplish this, RHESSI made use of its one, and only one, instrument, which records both X-rays and even shorter wavelengths of light, gamma rays. The instrument combines high-resolution solar images with "spectroscopic" images that delineate the spectrum of energy coming from any particular point in the image. Together, this helps physically map out energy levels during an explosive event on the sun, as well as track the energy's movement.
For example, to understand how a solar flare forms, one has to understand where the energy to power it comes from. Early RHESSI observations of a flare on April 15, 2002, showed two X-ray sources one higher in the sun's atmosphere and one lower. RHESSI's unique spectroscopic imaging capability allowed scientists to interpret this to mean that a huge energy release had originally happened between the two spots: that crucial initiation in the current picture of solar eruptions where a single energy burst in the sun's atmosphere, creates both a CME and a flare.
Since RHESSI observes gamma rays as well as X-rays, it has been able to compare how events emit these two forms of radiation. X-rays generally represent electron activity and gamma rays represent activity from protons and other heavier charged particles called ions, so comparing both helps show how different particle populations move around. Scientists have spotted several flares, including their first one using RHESSI in October 2003, where the gamma rays and X-ray sources do not line up. Such a spatial difference was entirely unexpected and suggests that different circumstances guide the movements of different particle populations.
"This opens up new questions for our model," says Dennis. "The electrons and ions have different masses, but we'd still expect them to appear at the same locations in the flare. Perhaps the ions are accelerated in a different way and end up traveling on different magnetic field lines from the electrons."
In addition to observations of giant solar flares, RHESSI has observed more than 25,000 of a smaller version, known as microflares. These much smaller energy releases are also believed to play a role in how the sun transports energy from its surface up into its atmosphere. RHESSI has found that such flares all occur in active regions over the same range of latitudes on the sun as for the bigger events, so perhaps they are just smaller versions of the same phenomenon.
Another interesting result from RHESSI has nothing to do with flares at all, but with the very shape of the sun. Due to its spin, one expects the sun to be slightly flattened and not a perfect sphere, much the same as the slight flattening of the Earth. Pre-RHESSI measurements of the sun, however, showed it to be much flatter than physics would dictate, raising questions of whether scientists had overlooked some fundamental piece of information about the sun's rotation.
RHESSI helped by providing information simply gathered as part of its constant assessment of where its instrument points. To keep perfectly oriented, RHESSI precisely records the position of the sun's horizon, or "limb," some 16 times per second. With such an extensive collection of data, scientists could determine the best ever measurement of the sun's shape. This data suggests the true shape more closely matches what physics predicts.
RHESSI's monitoring of gamma rays throughout the sky also made it a prime tool to measure what are called terrestrial gamma-ray flashes (TGFs), bursts of gamma rays emitted from high in the Earth's atmosphere over lightning storms. The first of these had been spotted before, but RHESSI showed that they are more common and more luminous than previously thought. With RHESSI's help, scientists soon realized they occurred upwards of 50 times per day. Indeed, current numbers suggest there may be as many as 400 TGFs daily from thunderstorms at different locations around the world.
"RHESSI made great strides by taking the first high-resolution movies of flares using their high energy radiation," says Dennis. "The original mission was only for two years and we quickly achieved our initial science goals but RHESSI didn't stop there. The mission has been extended several times, and this small mission just keeps going and going, collecting great data."
In 2009, NASA extended the mission yet again. Now scientists are working to integrate RHESSI flare observations with data from other solar telescopes such as the Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (STEREO), Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), SOlar and Heliophysics Observatory (SOHO), and Hinode as they watch the sun's activity rise toward yet another solar maximum, currently predicted for 2013.
The Explorers Program Office at Goddard provides management and technical oversight for the RHESSI mission under the direction of NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C.
For more information about the mission, go to:
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The Brooweena Historical Village is a charming village depicting of what life was like in days gone by, set in a tranquil rural setting in the hamlet of Brooweena 304 kilometres north of Brisbane. This area was first settled by Europeans in 1849 and the town developed with the arrival of the railway line in 1889. The local sawmill opened in 1924 and timber continues to be an important local industry today. Sugar production is also one of Woocoo Shire's major industries.
A collection of 12 heritage buildings presents a mosaic of the past, during peace and war - early education, recreation, elegance and gracious living are on display, There is a rustic barn with a collection of bullock and horse drawn vehicles and an original settler's slab dwelling with detached kitchen.
Other buildings in the village well worth an inspection include a dairy shed, blacksmith's shop, the original Woocoo Shire Office (which was constructed in the town), the former Brooweena railway station, a brake van, railway goods shed a settler's slab hut and a butcher shop.
The museum contains an extensive array of memorabilia, musical instruments, including, of course, accordions, those indispensable items of bush dances in the past.
Note: Information on listed products and services are provided by the operator and were correct at the time of publishing. Rates are indicative based on the minimum and maximum available prices of products and services. Please visit the operator's website for further information. All prices quoted are in Australian dollars (AUD).

subset: commoncrawl


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Temporary traffic signal installation begins May 13
Work began May 13 to install a temporary traffic signal at the intersection of College Road and University Place for use over the next year when construction detours are in effect for Princeton University's Arts and Transit Project.
The installation and testing of the temporary traffic signal will take approximately two weeks. During this time there may be intermittent traffic delays at this intersection, primarily during off-peak hours, due to the need to construct the signal in and over the roadway. Police will be at the site during work hours to maintain an orderly traffic pattern.
The signal is related to the Arts and Transit Project, which includes a new Wawa convenience store and new Dinky train station for the NJ TRANSIT train that runs between Princeton and Princeton Junction. The project also includes three new campus arts buildings and renovation of the rail station buildings for a café and restaurant.
The temporary traffic signal will be in place from May 2013 until about February 2014. It will only be activated when detours are in effect for construction on Alexander Street (between University Place and College Road) and University Place.
Demolition work will also continue along Alexander Street during the week of May 13, so traffic on Alexander Street near the intersection of University Place will be alternated intermittently during off-peak hours. Workers will be on the road to alternate traffic when this occurs.
More information about the project can be found on the Arts and Transit Project website.


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Oil on board 31 cm x 26 cm. SOLD
There is a little cottage, buried deep in the Cornish countryside, down a rutted track, tucked into the woods above the Helford river. This secret forgotten place has a beautifully muddled garden with old sheds and a homemade greenhouse. Inside the greenhouse sits an old Austin A40 being slowly restored. Everywhere there is an air of timelessness and a deep sense of peace. It is the home of a friend of mine so I am able to go and look and paint in glorious quietude.


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Questions tagged [le-havre]
Le Havre is a worker-placement game set in the French port town, where players build ships, construct industries, and still try to feed their families. It resembles Agricola, but with more emphasis on industry and somewhat less on gathering food.
3 questions
1k views
How long does it take to play Le Havre with different numbers of players?
BoardGameGeek says Le Havre takes about 150 minutes, but I'm curious if the time varies with the number of players as it does in Puerto Rico and Agricola. Approximately how long does it take to play ...
243 views
In Le Havre, is it a good idea to feed with money?
As a general rule, is it better to overpay food by 1, or to use a coin? This situation usually comes up when I have a stack of bread or steaks and some money. I have the food to pay, but usually feel ...
5k views
How does Le Havre compare with Agricola?
At my gaming group, we are looking into getting a new boardgame. We're all relative novices with boardgames but not with games in general. Among our options are two games that seem rather similar: ...


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Jennifer & Justin make the holidays
There have been a lot of rumours moving around lately about Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux. Several tabloids are making calls almost daily trying to find out if they're still together. And not just STAR Magazine either. The celebrity-friendly ones are sniffing it out too. Because there's been some talk that they might not make it to marriage. Even PEOPLE Magazine, usually super far up Aniston's ass, published a report last month about Jen's shifting priorities:
"'She had included her friends and seemed excited [about the process]', a source told the magazine, but recently 'Jen said she needed to focus on work.'" (Source)
Interestingly enough though, that article has disappeared from PEOPLE.com.
Coincidence or conspiracy?
Jen and Justin want you to know/think they're fine. So they went Christmas tree shopping last night because I guess they don't have assistants and the paps were around to take the shots. They'll make it to the holidays then? (But if they don't, I'm telling you, JOHN STAMOS.)


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!! History Commons Alert, Exciting News
This is a scalable context timeline. It contains events related to the event November 5, 2002: Bush: Congress Has No Authority to Control Education Department Institute. You can narrow or broaden the context of this timeline by adjusting the zoom level. The lower the scale, the more relevant the items on average will be, while the higher the scale, the less relevant the items, on average, will be.
Steven Calabresi joins the Justice Department. Calabresi is a young conservative lawyer who has clerked for appeals court Robert Bork, who failed to secure a position on the Supreme Court just months before (see July 1-October 23, 1987). Calabresi, a co-founder of the Federalist Society of conservative lawyers and judges, joins forces with another ambitious young Justice Department lawyer, John Harrison, and the two begin working to expand the power of the president. Calabresi and Harrison decide that an aggressive use of presidential signing statements can advance the president's authority to the detriment of the legislative and judicial branches. Unfazed by a recent judicial rejection of just such signing statement usage (see 1984-1985), Calabresi and Harrison write a memo to Attorney General Edwin Meese advocating the issuing of more signing statements as part of a larger strategy to increase the president's influence over the law. Calabresi and Harrison are interested in how what they call "activist judges" use the legislative history of a bill that became law to interpret that law's meaning in subsequent judicial actions. The two lawyers believe that by issuing signing statements, the president can create a parallel record of presidential interpretations of potentially ambiguous laws to help guide judicial decisions. Meese approves of the idea, and in December has the West Publishing Company, which prints the US Code Congressional and Administration News, the standard collection of bills' legislative history, begin including presidential signing statements in its publications. In 2007, author Charlie Savage will call Meese's move "a major step in increasing the perceived legitimacy of the device." [Savage, 2007, pp. 232] In 2007, Calabresi will say: "I initially thought of signing statements as presidential legislative history. I've subsequently come to think of them as being important vehicles by which presidents can control subordinates in the executive branch. They subsequently came to be important to the unitary executive [theory of presidential power]." [Savage, 2007, pp. 234]
Entity Tags: John Harrison, Charlie Savage, Federalist Society, West Publishing Company, US Department of Justice, Edwin Meese, Robert Bork, Steven Calabresi, US Supreme Court
Timeline Tags: Civil Liberties
According to reporter and author Charlie Savage, the White House staff quickly coalesces into two camps: "Bush People[,] mostly personal friends of the new president who shared his inexperience in Washington," which includes President Bush's top legal counsels, Alberto Gonzales and Harriet Miers, both corporate lawyers in Texas before joining Bush in Washington. The second group is "Cheney People—allies from [Vice-President Dick] Cheney's earlier stints in the federal government (see May 25, 1975, November 18, 1980, 1981-1992, 1989, and June 1996) who were deeply versed in Washington-level issues, a familiarity that would allow their views to dominate internal meetings. These included [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and other cabinet secretaries, key deputies throughout the administration, and David Addington, Cheney's longtime aide who would become a chief architect of the administration's legal strategy in the war on terrorism" (see July 1, 1992 and (After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Savage will observe, "Given the stark contrast in experience between Cheney and Bush, it was immediately clear to observers of all political stripes that Cheney would possess far more power than had any prior vice president." 'Unprecedented' Influence - Cheney will certainly have "unprecedented" influence, according to neoconservative publisher William Kristol, who himself had served as former Vice President Dan Quayle's chief of staff. "The question to ask about Cheney," Kristol will write, is "will he be happy to be a very trusted executor of Bush's policies—a confidant and counselor who suggests personnel and perhaps works on legislative strategy, but who really doesn't try to change Bush's mind about anything? Or will he actually, substantively try to shape administration policy in a few areas, in a way that it wouldn't otherwise be going?" Expanding the Power of the Presidency - Cheney will quickly answer that question, Savage will write, by attempting to "expand the power of the presidency." Savage will continue: "He wanted to reduce the authority of Congress and the courts and to expand the ability of the commander in chief and his top advisers to govern with maximum flexibility and minimum oversight. He hoped to enlarge a zone of secrecy around the executive branch, to reduce the power of Congress to restrict presidential action, to undermine limits imposed by international treaties, to nominate judges who favored a stronger presidency, and to impose greater White House control over the permanent workings of government. And Cheney's vision of expanded executive power was not limited to his and Bush's own tenure in office. Rather, Cheney wanted to permanently alter the constitutional balance of American government, establishing powers that future presidents would be able to wield as well." [Savage, 2007, pp. 7-9] Larry Wilkerson, the chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, will say after leaving the administration: "We used to say about both [Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's office] and the vice president's office that they were going to win nine out of 10 battles, because they were ruthless, because they have a strategy, because they never, never deviate from that strategy. They make a decision, and they make it in secret, and they make it in a different way than the rest of the bureaucracy makes it, and then suddenly, foist it on the government—and the rest of the government is all confused." [Unger, 2007, pp. 299] Signing Statements to Reshape Legislation, Expand Presidential Power - To that end, Cheney ensures that all legislation is routed through his office for review before it reaches Bush's desk. Addington goes through every bill for any new provisions that conceivably might infringe on the president's power as Addington interprets it, and drafts signing statements for Bush to sign. In 2006, White House counsel Bradford Berenson will reflect: "Signing statements unite two of Addington's passions. One is executive power. And the other is the inner alleyways of bureaucratic combat. It's a way to advance executive power through those inner alleyways.… So he's a vigorous advocate of signing statements and including important objections in signing statements. Most lawyers in the White House regard the bill review process as a tedious but necessary bureaucratic aspect of the job. Addington regarded it with relish. He would dive into a 200-page bill like it was a four-course meal." It will not be long before White House and Justice Department lawyers begin vetting legislation themselves, with Addington's views in mind. "You didn't want to miss something," says a then-lawyer in the White House. [Savage, 2007, pp. 236]
Entity Tags: David S. Addington, Bradford Berenson, Alberto R. Gonzales, Charlie Savage, William Kristol, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Bush administration (43), Harriet E. Miers, George W. Bush, Lawrence Wilkerson
After the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration seizes the new opportunities to expand the power of the presidency that present themselves as part of the government's response to the attacks (see (After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). The Bush-Cheney legal team, largely driven by Vice President Dick Cheney and his staff (see January 21, 2001), aggressively pushes for new opportunities to expand executive branch authorities. 'Bravado,' 'Close-Minded Group of Like-Minded People' - A senior White House official later tells author and reporter Charlie Savage of the "pervasive post-9/11 sense of masculine bravado and one-upmanship when it came to executive power." In Savage's words, and quoting the official, "a 'closed group of like-minded people' were almost in competition with one another, he said, to see who could offer the farthest-reaching claims of what a president could do. In contrast, those government lawyers who were perceived as less passionate about presidential power were derided as 'soft' and were often simply cut out of the process" (see also September 25, 2001). Suspicion of Oversight - "The lawyers for the administration felt a tremendous amount of time pressure, and there was a lot of secrecy," the official will say. "These things were being done in small groups. There was a great deal of suspicion of the people who normally act as a check inside the executive branch, such as the State Department, which had the reputation of being less aggressive on executive power. This process of faster, smaller groups fed on itself and built a dynamic of trying to show who was tougher on executive power." Addington and Yoo: Outsized Influence - While nominally the leaders of the White House legal team are Attorney General John Ashcroft and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, neither has as much influence as lawyers and staffers ostensibly of lower rank than themselves. Ashcroft is a vociferous supporter of the administration's anti-terrorism policies, but is not a member of Bush's inner circle and sometimes disagrees with the White House's legal moves. Neither Ashcroft nor Gonzales have prior experience dealing with the legal issues surrounding executive power and national security. Two of the driving forces behind the White House's push for more presidential power are Cheney's chief counsel, David Addington, and an obscure deputy in the Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), John Yoo. Because of a dispute between Ashcroft and the Bush inner circle over who should lead the OLC, there is no official chief of the OLC until November 2002, leaving Yoo and his fellows free to be as aggressive as they like on expanding presidential power and handling the war on terrorism. When the OLC chief, law professor Jay Bybee, finally arrives, he, like Ashcroft and Gonzales, finds himself hampered by his lack of knowledge of the law as it pertains to national security. Savage will later write, "When he finally started work, Bybee let deputies continue to spearhead the review of matters related to the war on terrorism." Yoo is only a deputy assistant attorney general, but he has "signing power"—the ability to make his opinion legally binding—and is rarely reviewed by his peers because much of his work is classified. [Savage, 2007, pp. 76-78] As for Addington, Lawrence Wilkerson, the chief of staff for Secretary of State Colin Powell, will later say that he was the leader of the small but highly influential group of lawyers "who had these incredible theories and would stand behind their principles [Cheney, Bush, and others], whispering in their ears about these theories, telling them they have these powers, that the Constitution backs these powers, that these powers are 'inherent' and blessed by God and if they are not exercised, the nation will fall. He'd never crack a smile. His intensity and emotions and passion for these theories are extraordinary." [Savage, 2007, pp. 84]
Entity Tags: US Department of State, Lawrence Wilkerson, Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush administration (43), Charlie Savage, David S. Addington, Jay S. Bybee, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, John C. Yoo, John Ashcroft
Vice President Cheney gives one of the first public indications that he and his office have a keen and active interest in expanding the power of the presidency (see January 21, 2001). Interviewed by ABC's Cokie Roberts, Cheney openly discusses his interest in reversing the restraints placed on the presidency after Watergate and the Vietnam War. He calls the restraints "unwise compromises" that serve to "weaken the presidency and the vice presidency." His job, he explains, is to reverse the "erosion of [presidential] powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job." Cheney says he has laid out his case to President Bush, who agrees with his rationale and his agenda. "One of the things that I feel an obligation on—and I know the president does, too, because we talked about it—is to pass on our offices in better shape than we found them to our successors." [Savage, 2007, pp. 75-76]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Cokie Roberts
Congress passes a law creating the Institute of Education Sciences, a subsidiary of the Department of Education. The new institute is designed to generate independent statistics about student performance. The law stipulates that the institute's director may conduct and publish research "without the approval of the secretary [of education] or any other office of the department." President Bush issues a signing statement indicating that contrary to the law, the director will be responsible to the secretary of education. Since the president has the power to control the actions of all executive branch officials, the statement asserts, "the director of the Institute of Education Sciences shall [be] subject to the supervision and direction of the secretary of education." Bush's signing statement directly contradicts the letter and the intent of Congress's law. [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006; Savage, 2007, pp. 240]
Entity Tags: US Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, George W. Bush
Congress passes a law that states US officials in Iraq cannot prevent an inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority from carrying out any investigation. The inspector general will inform Congress if officials refuse to cooperate with his inquiries. President Bush issues a signing statement directly contradicting the law. According to Bush's statement, the inspector general "shall refrain" from investigating anything involving sensitive plans, intelligence, national security, or anything already being investigated by the Pentagon. The inspector cannot tell Congress anything if the president decides that disclosing the information would impair foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations. [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006]
Entity Tags: Coalition Provisional Authority, George W. Bush
President Bush meets privately with acting Attorney General James Comey to discuss the Justice Department's refusal to reauthorize the administration's warrantless wiretapping program (see Late September, 2001). (Comey will later refuse to discuss the conversation during testimony before Congress.) After the meeting, Bush meets privately with FBI Director Robert Mueller, Comey's partner in opposing the program (see March 10-12, 2004). After his meeting, Mueller tells Comey, "[W]e have the president's direction to do what we believed, what the Justice Department believed was necessary to put this matter on a footing where we could certify its legality." Author and reporter Charlie Savage will later write, "Comey, [Office of Legal Counsel chief Jack] Goldsmith, and their colleagues spent the next several weeks making a series of undisclosed changes to the warrantless surveillance program—during which time the original program continued to operate, even though the president had been told it was illegal." Outside experts will later speculate that Comey and Goldsmith had constrained the program's scope by imposing stricter controls on who can be monitored without a warrant. Some will decide that the program now monitors only communications specifically suspected to have a connection to al-Qaeda, not the more general "suspected terrorism" communications. They will also speculate that the authorization for the program now relies on Congress's Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF—see September 14-18, 2001), not the president's inherent authority as commander in chief. But, Savage will write, the program still allows wiretapping without a judge's approval, and therefore is still illegal. [Savage, 2007, pp. 188]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Charlie Savage, US Department of Justice, Robert S. Mueller III, James B. Comey Jr., Jack Goldsmith
Congress passes an intelligence bill that requires the Justice Department to inform it as to how often and in what situation the FBI is using special "national security" wiretaps on US soil. The bill also requires the Justice Department to give oversight committees copies of administration memos outlining any new interpretations of domestic-spying laws. It contains 11 other sections mandating reports about such issues as civil liberties, security clearances, border security, and counternarcotics efforts. President Bush signs the bill, then issues a signing statement asserting his right to ignore or override every element of it. He can and will withhold information from Congress as he sees fit, he claims in the statement. [Savage, 2007, pp. 238-239]
Entity Tags: US Department of Justice, George W. Bush
Congress passes a law requiring the director of national intelligence (DNI) to recruit and train women and minorities to be spies, analysts, and translators in order to ensure diversity in the intelligence community. President Bush signs the bill, then issues a signing statement ordering the executive branch—including the DNI—to construe the law in a manner consistent with a constitutional clause guaranteeing "equal protection" for all: a legalistic phrasing designed to sidestep the law. Bush has long been an opponent of any sort of affirmative action program; as recently as 2003, the Supreme Court ruled against the Bush administration's "equal protection" arguments and in favor of a race-conscious affirmative action program. In his signing statement, Bush advances the "equal protection" argument over affirmative action in spite of the Supreme Court's rejection of that argument. [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006; Savage, 2007, pp. 240-241]
Entity Tags: Bush administration (43), Office of the Director of National Intelligence, US Supreme Court, George W. Bush
Congress passes a law forbidding US troops in Colombia, who are there advising the government in its struggle against Marxist rebels funded by drug money, from engaging in any combat against the rebels except in self-defense. The law also caps the number of American soldiers deployed in Colombia at 800. President Bush issues a signing statement that only he, as the commander in chief, can place restrictions on the use of US armed forces. Therefore, the executive branch will construe the law "as advisory in nature." [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Bush administration (43)
Timeline Tags: US International Relations, Civil Liberties
Attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales turns in supplementary written answers to expand upon and clarify his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee (see January 6, 2005 and January 6, 2005). Buried in the documents is what reporter Charlie Savage will call "an explosive new disclosure." Gonzales reveals that the Bush administration had secretly decided that the Convention against Torture, an international treaty, only has force on domestic soil, where the US Constitution applies. Noncitizens held overseas have no rights under the treaty, Bush lawyers concluded. Legal scholars from all sides of the political continuum denounce the administration's position. Judge Abraham Sofaer, who negotiated the treaty for the Reagan administration, will write a letter to Congress informing it that President Reagan had never intended the treaty's prohibition on torture and brutal treatment to apply only on US soil. However, the Bush administration stands by its position. [Savage, 2007, pp. 213]
Entity Tags: Senate Judiciary Committee, Abraham Sofaer, Alberto R. Gonzales, Bush administration (43), Charlie Savage
Congress passes a law that forbids the Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and their contractors from firing or otherwise punishing any employee who informs Congress about possible wrongdoing. President Bush issues a signing statement that says only he or his appointees will decide whether employees of either agency can give information to Congress. [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, US Department of Energy
Congress passes a law requiring the Customs and Border Patrol to relocate its illegal immigrant checkpoints near Tucson, Arizona, every seven days in order to prevent smugglers from being able to avoid those checkpoints. President Bush signs the law, then issues a signing statement saying that the Border Patrol should view the "relocation provision as advisory rather than mandatory" because, in his view, only the president has the constitutional authority to decide how to deploy law enforcement officers. As a result of Bush's signing statement, Border Patrol authorities disobey the law, and explain to investigators from the Government Accountability Office that the law is not mandatory, but "advisory." White House spokesman Tony Fratto later says in response to the Border Patrol's refusal to obey the law: "The signing statements certainly do and should have an impact. They are real." [Savage, 2007, pp. 242-243; Boston Globe, 6/19/2007]
Entity Tags: US Customs and Border Protection, George W. Bush, Tony Fratto, Government Accountability Office
Congress passes a law that says when Congress makes a request, scientific information "prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay." President Bush contradicts this legal assertion in a signing statement that says he can order researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch. [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006]
Entity Tags: George W. Bush
Speaking to a cheering crowd of military families in Kansas, President Bush declares that he has no intention of following the laws requiring warrants for wiretaps (see December 15, 2005 and December 18, 2005) because Congress authorized the use of military force against terrorists (AUMF—see September 14-18, 2001), and because he has the power to bypass laws at his own discretion in the interest of national security. The Kansas appearance is part of an election-style "blitz" of appearances around the country designed to build support for the warrantless wiretapping program, and to bolster support for Republicans in the midterm elections (see January 20, 2006). "I'm not a lawyer, but I can tell you what [the AUMF] means," he says. "It means Congress gave me the authority to use necessary force to protect the American people but it didn't prescribe the tactics.… If [terrorism suspects] are making phone calls into the United States, we need to know why, to protect you." [Savage, 2007, pp. 203]
Steven Calabresi, one of the architects of the 'unitary executive' theory, says Bush's use of signing statements has gone too far. [Source: MeFeedia]Legal scholars and constitutional experts decry President Bush's claim that he can ignore or disobey laws with impunity. An examination by Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage finds that to date, Bush has claimed the authority to disobey over 750 laws enacted since he took office (see January 20, 2001 and After, After September 11, 2001, January 27, 2002, November 5, 2002, March 12, 2004 and After, November 6, 2003, December 2004, December 17, 2004, Dec. 23, 2004, January 17, 2005, August 8, 2005, October 18, 2005, December 30, 2005, and January 23, 2006). He claims that as president, he has the power to override any statute passed by Congress when it conflicts with his interpretation of the Constitution. While the Constitution assigns Congress the power to write the laws and the president the duty "to take care that the laws be faithfully executed," Bush asserts that he has no mandate to "execute" a law he believes is unconstitutional. Administration spokespersons have repeatedly said that Bush "will faithfully execute the law in a manner that is consistent with the Constitution," but it is Bush who decides what is and is not constitutional. Many legal scholars disagree with Bush's position, and accuse him of attempting to usurp Congressional power for himself. Philip Cooper - Law professor Phillip Cooper says over the Bush administration's tenure, it has relentlessly worked to concentrate ever more governmental power into the White House. "There is no question that this administration has been involved in a very carefully thought-out, systematic process of expanding presidential power at the expense of the other branches of government," Cooper says. "This is really big, very expansive, and very significant." Christopher Kelley - Political science professor Christopher Kelley notes that Bush uses signing statements to abrogate Congressional powers in a manner inconsistent with Constitutional mandates. "He agrees to a compromise with members of Congress, and all of them are there for a public bill-signing ceremony, but then he takes back those compromises—and more often than not, without the Congress or the press or the public knowing what has happened," Kelley says. David Golove - Law professor David Golove says Bush has besmirched "the whole idea that there is a rule of law" because no one can be certain of which laws Bush thinks are valid and which he thinks he can ignore. "Where you have a president who is willing to declare vast quantities of the legislation that is passed during his term unconstitutional, it implies that he also thinks a very significant amount of the other laws that were already on the books before he became president are also unconstitutional," Golove says. To the extent that Bush is interpreting the Constitution in defiance of Supreme Court rulings, Golove notes, he threatens to "overturn the existing structures of constitutional law." When a president ignores the Court and is not restrained by a Congress that enables his usurpations, Golove says, the Constitution can be made to simply "disappear."
Golove adds, "Bush has essentially said that 'We're the executive branch and we're going to carry this law out as we please, and if Congress wants to impeach us, go ahead and try it.'" Jack Beerman - Law professor Jack Beermann says: "The president is daring Congress to act against his positions, and they're not taking action because they don't want to appear to be too critical of the president, given that their own fortunes are tied to his because they are all Republicans. Oversight gets much reduced in a situation where the president and Congress are controlled by the same party." Steven Calabresi - Former Justice Department official Steven Calabresi, who came up with the idea of using signing statements to counter Congressional powers during the Reagan administration (see August 23, 1985 - December 1985), now says, "I think what the administration has done in issuing no vetoes and scores of signing statements (see September 2007) is not the right way to approach this." Bruce Fein - Former Reagan Justice Department official Bruce Fein says: "This is an attempt by the president to have the final word on his own constitutional powers, which eliminates the checks and balances that keep the country a democracy. There is no way for an independent judiciary to check his assertions of power, and Congress isn't doing it, either. So this is moving us toward an unlimited executive power." [Boston Globe, 4/30/2006; Savage, 2007, pp. 243]
Entity Tags: Bush administration (43), Charlie Savage, Christopher Kelley, Jack Beermann, Bruce Fein, David Golove, George W. Bush, Phillip Cooper, Steven Calabresi
The Board of Governors of the American Bar Association (ABA) votes unanimously to investigate whether President Bush has exceeded his presidential authority by using signing statements to assert that he can ignore or override laws passed by Congress (see April 30, 2006 and September 2007). ABA president Michael Greco, who served with former Republican govenor William Weld (R-MA), appoints a bipartisan, blue-ribbon panel of legal experts, including former government officials, legal scholars, and retired FBI Director William Sessions, to carry out the inquiry. The ABA Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine will work for two months on a report (see July 23, 2006). [Savage, 2007, pp. 244-245]
Entity Tags: Michael Greco, ABA Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements and the Separation of Powers Doctrine, American Bar Association, George W. Bush, William Weld, William S. Sessions
President Bush has abused his prerogative to issue "signing statements" that state the White House's interpretion of Congressionally passed laws (see Early 2005), according to former White House counsel John Dean and constitutional law professor Laurence Tribe. History - Signing statements have no weight in law, but presidents have traditionally used them to state their belief that a particular legislative provision is unconstitutional, and on rare occasion (before the current president) to state their refusal to enforce that provision. Since Jimmy Carter's administration, various Justice Department officials have said presidents can refuse to enforce a particular provision of signed, legally binding legislation. [Dean, 2007, pp. 112-116] A group of young conservative lawyers in the Reagan administration decided that signing statements were a powerful, and stealthy, way to expand presidential power. Dean: Bush's Use of Signing Statements 'Extraordinary' - However, Dean says that Bush has used signing statements far more extensively than any president before him. Dean notes that, while presidential signing statements themselves are not illegal or inherently wrong, "[i]t is Bush's abuse of them that is extraordinary." Dean writes there has been no concerted effort to find out if Bush is just saying he will not comply with the inordinate number of legislative provisions he has objected to, or if he is refusing to comply with them in practice. If the latter is the case, Dean writes, "he should be impeached immediately… because it would be an extraordinary breach of his oath" of office. Tribe: Bush's Signing Statements 'Bizarre,' 'Reckless' - Dean cites Tribe, who said in 2006, "[W]hat is new and distressing [about Bush's use of signing statements] is the bizarre, frighteningly self-serving, and constitutionally reckless character of those views—and the suspicion that the president either intends actually to act on them with some regularity, often in a manner that won't be publicly visible at the time, or intends them as declarations of hegemony and contempt for the coordinate branches—declarations that he hopes will gradually come to be accepted in the constitutional culture as descriptions of the legal and political landscape properly conceived and as precedents for later action either by his own or by future administrations." [Dean, 2007, pp. 112-116; Joyce Green, 2007] Political science professor Christopher Kelley agrees. Kelley, who studied the Bush administration's use of signing statements, says: "What we haven't seen until this administration is the sheer number of objections that are being raised on every bill passed through the White House. That is what is staggering. The numbers are well out of the norm from any previous administration." Signing Statements Supplanting Vetoes - In another disturbing trend, according to author and reporter Charlie Savage, Bush is using signing statements to supplant the traditional presidential veto. By mid-2007, Bush had vetoed just two bills. In contrast, Bush's predecessor, Bill Clinton, vetoed 37 bills. George H. W. Bush vetoed 44, and Ronald Reagan vetoed 78. Legal experts studying Bush's signing statements conclude that Bush and his legal team are using signing statements to function almost as line-item vetoes, a power the president does not have. The Supreme Court ruled in 1998 that the Founding Fathers wanted the president to either accept a Congressional bill or reject it entirely, and if Congress overrode the veto, then the president had no other recourse than to follow the new law. But now, Savage writes, "the Bush-Cheney administration had figured out that if a president signed a bill and then instructed the government to consider selected provisions null (see December 30, 2005), he could accomplish much the same thing. Moreover, it was an absolute power because, unlike when there is a regular veto, Congress had no opportunity to override his legal judgments." [Savage, 2007, pp. 230-231]
Entity Tags: Laurence Tribe, John Dean, US Department of Justice, George W. Bush, Charlie Savage, James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., Christopher Kelley
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Showing 1-24 of 62 items found in Sports & Gaming
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A 5,000 sq. ft. laser tag arena and a 2,500 sq. ft. game arcade is conveniently located by hotels and restaurants off I-64.
Mac's Time-Out Lounge/Off Track Betting
Order off the extensive menu. Why not try the real Southern-style chicken and dumplings or meat-lover's pizza? You'll find fair prices, large portions & excellent dishes. Try eating outside at the comfortable terrace-style beer garden. Your whole family will have a pleasant dining experience. Place your bets at the off-track betting parlor. Stay late for a cold one.
Gateway features mini-golf, go-karts, an arcade, bumper boats, a kiddie track and Rudy's Restaurant.
Enjoy three levels of action on the first riverboat casino in Illinois, with more than 1,000 of the most popular machines, from penny to $25 slots. Try your luck at the tables with blackjack, roulette, Caribbean stud poker, pai gow poker and craps.
This multi-sport, Olympic-style festival showcases the finest amateur athletic talent in Illinois each year on the last weekend in June.
CITY:Fairview Heights
Belle-Clair Fairgrounds & Exposition Center
Home to the annual St. Clair County Fair, several craft shows and monthly flea markets, the complex also includes the Belle-Clair Speedway, with stock car races and demolition derbies.
The bright lights of Vegas have nothing on the Casino Queen, home of the loosest slots! The Queen has had the loosest slots in the entire country for six years running, plus the hottest table games in town. Hungry? The Queen has you covered from fine dining to casual. The best view in town is from the Casino Queen Hotel.
CITY:East St. Louis
Gateway Grizzlies at GCS Ballpark
The Gateway Grizzlies are a professional baseball team based in Sauget, IL. The Grizzlies are a member of the West Division of the Frontier League – which is not affiliated with Major League Baseball. The Grizzlies played their home games during their inaugural 2001 season at Sauget Field. In 2002, GCS Ballpark, (formerly GMC Stadium) opened and has remained the club's home since. This 5,000-seat stadium, home to the Gateway Grizzlies minor league baseball team, has reserved box seats, lawn seats and a hot tub.
Fairmount Park is home to live thoroughbred horse racing action. From March through September, the horses run on the one-mile oval dirt track Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Ralph Korte Stadium & Sports Complex
This 3,000-seat venue is home of the SIUE track & field and soccer programs. The complex, which has hosted the NCAA Division II Championships on three occasions, is completely lighted and has a seperate throwing area for field events.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Cougar Field and SimmonsCooper Baseball Complex
These newly constructed additions to the sports facilities at SIUE serve as the home of the softball and baseball teams, respectively.
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Vadalabene Center
The Vadalabene Center on the Division I campus at SIUE is a flexible venue with seating for 4,000. The main gym can be configured for several different court setups: three full-sized basketball, six volleyball or five badminton. The center is also home to the SIUE wrestling program.
Stock car races, drag races and demolition derbies are regular events at this speedway.
The largest laser tag arena in the region also includes mini-golf, a big video arcade with the coolest games on the market, and food at D.S.Vespers Sports Pub and Eatery.
Regular racing events, including UMP Late Models, UMP Modifies, Sportsman, Street Stocks and Factory Stocks, are held on the 1/4-mile oval. Special events like the World of Outlaw Sprint Cars are raced on the 1/2-mile track.
CITY:Pontoon Beach
Indian Mounds Golf Course, formally know as Tee-Up Golf Course, is located in Fairmont City, Illinois. It features 3,381 yards of golf with 5 par 4's and 13 par 3's. Designed by Dave Murray and Jan Freiberg in 1995, our course features narrow, tree-lined fairways, severely undulating bent grass greens in addition to water hazards on many holes. The signature hole is #7, a 183-yard, par 3, requiring a tee shot to a peninsula green.
CITY:Fairmont City
Spend the day tackling go-karts, miniature golf, batting cages, bumper boats and a video arcade.
Riverbend Billiards provides 10,000 sq. ft. of entertainment. There is great food and beverages for everyone, plus a full bar for our over 21 crowd. You'll find 15 7-ft. bar tables and two 9-ft. Gold Crowns. Dart machines and video games are available for the kids. Riverbend Billiards sells a wide variety of pool cues, cases and miscellaneous pool supplies as well as a large selection of soft tip darts and dart supplies. Open Monday - Thursday, 11 a.m. - 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. - 2 a.m., and Sunday, Noon - 1 a.m.
Acorns Golf Links is located in Waterloo, Illinois featuring 6,701 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 72 . The course rating is 72.3 and it has a slope rating of 125. You will not find subdivision golf at Acorns; just nature, beautiful scenery, challenging design, and you. Making Acorns the premier public course to test your game, have fun with good friends, or to get away from your daily hussle and bussle. Acorns features zoysia fairways, five tee boxes; matching every level of golf and large bent grass greens. Designed by William Ebeler, the Acorns golf course opened in 1997.
Annbriar is an 18-hole, par 72 course. There is always a new reason to enjoy a day of golf and fun times with family and friends at Annbriar Golf Course. Golf is the ideal way to enjoy the outdoors and the company of others. Annbriar also welcomes golfers and all other patrons to our Smokehouse Restaurant, which is open daily. Our Smokehouse Restaurant is the perfect place to host tournament dinners, family parties, meetings, and other events.
The 18-hole, par 72 Stonewolf is one of only four Jack Nicklaus Signature courses in Illinois. That means the man, the legend himself, Jack Nicklaus took an active hand in the total design and construction of this magnificent golf course.
CITY:Fairview Heights
This 18-hole golf course opened in 1990. Legacy is ideally suited for seniors, juniors and beginning golfers. This is due to the short track (6000 yards from white tee box) and flat terrain. There are seven lakes and ponds that add a degree of difficulty to the course.
CITY:Granite City
Located in Maryville, this facility has an indoor arcade, batting cages and lots more fun for kids. Alfonzo's Restaurant is right next door for pizza lovers.
Designed by golf legends Pete Dye and Bob Goalby, Yorktown offers an 18-hole lit par 3 golf course. Yorktown is the perfect place for fundraisers, office outings, family time or just working on your short game. We offer a driving range (which will have new mats and balls for the 2015 season) a large putting green and a cozy clubhouse that offers sandwiches, snacks and a fully stocked bar.


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Food & Drink
Lug it or leave it: Baggage drop goes DIY
By Daisy Carrington, for CNN • Published 12th August 2013
Under the guise of making check-in as seamless a process as possible, airlines have strived to put as much in the hands of the passenger as possible. The baggage-drop has been the one sticky area that continues to demand a level of interaction with staff. That is slated to become a thing of the past, however, as more carriers opt to handover that responsibility to flyers.
Last month, Iberia launched MyBagTag, a system of print-at-home luggage tags aimed at shaving minutes off the check-in process. Iberia is the first European carrier to introduce such a process.
"It's like the fast track at McDonald's," says Dimitris Bountolos, Iberia's customer experience director.
"Everything is more or less organized by the customer. They manage themselves, and it allows us to manage them faster."
Passengers weigh their bags at home, fill in the weight and measurements online, then print out the tags on an A4 piece of paper, which they fold in fourths and stick in a reusable plastic sheaths (available for free at any Spanish airport). The extra effort at home pays off, says Bountolos.
Bag to the future: British Airways' e-ink reusable luggage tag.
Courtesy British Airways
"Traditionally, we get congested during the summer season. Customers can wait ten to 15 minutes to check in their bags," he explains. "We've brought that down to 30 seconds per customer."
Go inside an Airbus A380 on Google Street View
A handful of other airlines have been experimenting with self-bag tag over the last year. Alaska Airlines, American and Air Canada are a few of the carriers that have started to set up bag tag kiosks throughout a handful of airports. More are expected to embrace the concept in the next few years.
"It's a trend we'll see broadly across the industry over the next ten to 20 years," says Hunter Keay, a senior airline analyst at Wolfe Research.
"It certainly reduced the bottleneck at check-in, though ultimately it's about reducing costs for the airlines," he says. A savings, he adds, that could ultimately be passed on to customers.
Infographic: Which airlines have on board wi-fi?
British Airways, meanwhile, has taken a more technical approach, and is planning to introduce reusable electronic baggage tags by January 2015. The tags, in Kindle fashion, use e-ink, and customers upload their travel itinerary by checking-in using British Airways' smartphone app and holding their phones over the tag. Once at the airport, they can then drop-off their bags and go.
"It's not just about saving time, but giving customers choice," says Finola O'Sullivan, Birtish Airways' customer service delivery manager. Though she estimates the times savings are little more than a minute, it's the psychology of the thing that flyers value.
"When they're doing things themselves, it feels like time passes quicker than when they're standing around waiting for somebody," she says.
A year of the world's
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There's a perfect beach for every week of the year. Join us on a 12-month journey to see them all
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I know… it is a cardinal sin of blogging. No pictures. But I am so rusty it never crosses my mind to blog anymore. This is a recipe that gets me back to the roots of why I started blogging.
So I could remember what the heck I did.
1 pound tomatoes
4 slices thick bacon
3 eggs
3 tbs milk
2 tbs good mayonnaise
1 pie crust
I use a frozen pie crust. I know…gasp. After that it is easy. Preheat your oven to 400. Then mix the eggs with the mayo and milk and set aside. Layer half the tomato (I used 2 decent sized tomatoes) on the bottom. Cover with bacon, salt, pepper and parm. Then add about half the egg. Complete with another layer. Top with shaved parm or a heavier layer of grated.
We had a side salad for the L. Let's face it…it was good enough to get me to blog about it.
Enough said.


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My flight monday morning has already been cancelled by the airline company !! I cant go in Holland next week !
I cant believe this !!
All of this because a stupid volcano...damn ....4 front row seats lost !
Moya Brennan
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XML Serialization for MFC
Desktop-as-a-Service Designed for Any Cloud ? Nutanix Frame
- Non-robustness—your program will probably crash if you read an archive produced by another version of your program. This can be avoided by complex and unwieldly version management. By using XML, this can be largely avoided.
- Heavy dependencies between your program object model and the archived data. Change the program model and it is almost impossible to read data from a previous version.
- Archived data cannot be edited, understood, and changed, except with the associated application.
- Archived data cannot be exchanged across platforms.
- Application configuration data can be generated by other tools in XML that can be directly imported by your application.
However, it has one major advantage; it is easy to use.
I have tried to remove the disadvantages by serializing objects to XML, and retaining the ease of use. It's enough to use the various macros in your Serialize method. For example, consider the following code:
// .h file class CSomeClass : public CObject { public: CSomeClass(); DECLARE_XMLSERIAL(CSomeClass) // Attributes public: enum {eFIRST, eSECOND} m_enumAttribute; int m_intAttribute; bool m_boolAttribute; CString m_stringAttribute; // Operations virtual void Serialize(CArchive& ar); } // .cpp file IMPLEMENT_XMLSERIAL(CSomeClass, CObject) void CSomeClass::Serialize(CArchive& ar) { XMLCLASSNODE XMLINTDATA(m_enumAttribute); XMLDATA(m_intAttribute); XMLDATA(m_boolAttribute); XMLDATA(m_stringAttribute); ENDNODE }
- Include the files XMLArchive.cpp and XMLArchive.hpp into your project.
- Copy the supplied stdafx.h fragment into your stdafx.h.
- Override your CDocument derived class's OnSaveDocument to use CXMLArchive instead of the normal CArchive.
- Enclose your Serialize methods with the macros XMLCLASSNODE and XMLENDNODE. Within this block, use the XMLDATA to serialize your attributes. Use XMLINDATA for enums (it casts them to int). Call any base class Serialize method from within the XMLCLASSNODE, XMLENDNODE block.
Use the application to create a new document and save it to disk. Use Internet explorer or XML Notepad to examine the contents of the file. You will se the application's object model preserved in XML.
Use the debugger to verify that the file is reloaded correctly when opening the file.
This method of serialization can serialize complex object models, but objects that are referenced n times are serialized n times and not only once. So, try to avoid multiple object references.
DownloadsDownload demo project - 33 Kb
Download source - 6 Kb


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We are proud of our town and hope you enjoy visiting it and our website!
Brampton is a small market town and civil parish within the City of Carlisle district of Cumbria, England about 9 miles (14 km) east of Carlisle and 2 miles south of Hadrian's Wall. It is situated off the A69 road which bypasses it. Brampton railway station, about a mile outside the town itself, is located on the Newcastle and Carlisle Railway. St Martin's Church is famous as the only church designed by the Pre-Raphaelite architect Philip Webb, and contains one of the most exquisite sets of stained glass windows designed by Sir Edward Burne-Jones and executed in the William Morris studio.


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Truffle Topiary Centerpiece
This impressive, edible centerpiece from our Test Kitchen takes truffles to new heights! Set out the extras on plates or package them for guests to take home.
Total TimePrep: 45 min.
- Gold spray paint
- 5-inch clay pot
- Floral foam to fit inside pot
- New small flat paintbrush
- 5-inch Styrofoam ball
- Milk chocolate candy coating, melted (about 1/2 cup)
- 12-inch length of 3/8-inch wooded dowel
- Double-sided transparent tape
- 2-1/3 yards of gold metallic cord
- Craft scissors
- White (tacky) glue
- 18-inch square of gold-flecked tulle netting
- Craft wire
- Two large wire-edged bows
- Toothpicks
- 60 to 70 Coconut Truffles (recipe on opposite page)
- 60 to 70 paper or foil candy cups
- Spray-paint clay pot gold. When dry, fill pot with floral foam.
- Use paintbrush to cover Styrofoam ball with melted chocolate. Let harden.
- With a pencil, mark dowel about 1-1/2 inches from the other end. Place several pieces of double-sided tape on dowel between markings. Cut away excess cord and glue ends to secure.
- Insert long unwrapped end of dowel straight up and down into center of floral foam. Place pot in center of tulle netting. Bring up netting on all sides to cover pot. Use craft wire to secure netting to dowel just above top of pot. Arrange netting to cover wire, trimming excess netting as desired. Attach bows to opposite sides of top of pot. Trim ribbon ends as desired.
- Use a pencil to make a hole in chocolate-covered Styrofoam ball, centering hole inside ball. Push ball onto end of dowel until wood dowel is covered, making sure ball and dowel are centered and straight.
- Insert a toothpick into top center of ball, leaving about a third of the toothpick exposed. Set a truffle into a candy cup; carefully push truffle and cup onto exposed end of toothpick. Repeat until ball is completely covered with truffles.


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Padres and National University announce multi-year partnership
National University becomes exclusive higher education partner of the San Diego Padres
SAN DIEGO - The San Diego Padres and National University today announced a new multi-year partnership, making National University the exclusive higher education partner of the San Diego Padres, and adopting the Padres as National University's home team.
"We are excited to welcome another wonderful San Diego-based partner, National University, a not-for profit institution, to the Padres family," said Padres President & CEO Mike Dee. "National University is dedicated to making lifelong learning opportunities accessible to everyone. Its support of this community, including the substantial military population, aligns perfectly with the commitments of our organization."
"As a non-traditional University, serving working professionals with careers and families, this is an opportunity to offer them a home sports team." said National University President and Chancellor of the National University System, Dr. Michael R. Cunningham. "With 28 campuses within Major League Baseball's Western Division, the partnership provides the majority of our 30,000 students and over 140,000 alumni, a wonderful way to build community."
The multi-faceted partnership includes the Padres' Military Scholarship Program presented by National University, which will provide assistance to military students each year. Padres players, coaches and executives will make regular guest appearances at National University events, interacting with current and prospective students, as well as faculty and staff. In addition, during each year of the partnership, a Padres player, coach, alumni or front office executive will take a National University class.
As part of the agreement, National University will be the presenting partner of an annual Teacher Appreciation Night at Petco Park, honoring San Diego county teachers who make a difference in the lives of our local youth. This year, Teacher Appreciation Night will take place on Friday, May 2. In addition, all fans who attend the game against the Giants on Saturday, July 5, 2014 will receive a Padres sports bag presented by National University.
As the exclusive higher education partner of the Padres, all National University students, faculty and staff will also be able to access season-long ticket savings through a special discount program, and each year the Padres will host hundreds of guests for a special National University night at the ballpark.
Coinciding with the partnership announcement today is the debut of National University's interim signage on the Western Metal Supply Co. rooftop. The signage will remain in place until mid-season, when a new, iconic National University Picnic Terrace sign will be installed above the home and away bullpens. This will be one of the largest signs visible inside the seating bowl.


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(Phoenix, Ariz. – Jan. 5, 2006) Attorney General Terry Goddard today announced that investors who were cheated by Benjamin Franklin Cook III and his Dennel Financial Ltd. "European bank trading program" will be getting some of their money back.
As a result of seizures for forfeiture made by the Attorney General's Office and the Department of Public Safety, Court-appointed receiver Lawrence Warfield will make a final distribution this month to victims, bringing the total recovered for investors to almost $21 million.
Beginning about January 1998, Cook's scam eventually raised over $43 million from as many as 300 mostly elderly investors. Cook promised monthly returns of six per cent or more and actually paid earlier investors over $12 million. Payments were made from new victims' money instead of actual profits. No investor funds were ever placed by Dennel into any bank trading program.
In 1999, investigators from the Attorney General's Office and the Department of Public Safety shut down Dennel Financial, based in Carefree, and turned the seized property over to a federal court in Texas for distribution to victims through the Securities and Exchange Commission. Combined with previous distributions paid out by the receiver, 239 eligible Dennel investors will end up with about $.62 for each dollar originally invested before the assets were seized.
Known as "prime bank instrument trading programs," "high-yield investment programs," and "bank debenture trading programs," these investments tout lucrative returns without risk from a small group secretly trading in discounted debt securities issued by major or "prime" world banks.
The programs Cook promoted, however, do not exist. Goddard said the U.S. Treasury Department, the SEC and state regulators nationwide warn investors to steer clear of these types of investments because they are ponzi-type frauds. Nevertheless, the programs persist, and their perpetrators continue to recruit investor victims.
The Arizona action grew out of the initial investigation of Dennel by the Securities Division of the Arizona Corporation Commission. The Attorney General's Office released seized assets to the federal receiver for victim restitution in the SEC civil case, where a final judgment against Cook was issued in December 2000, and the federal court awarded over $42 million.
The Attorney General's Office secured a criminal indictment for fraud, theft and racketeering in August 2000, and Cook pleaded guilty in April 2003 to theft. He was sentenced to over 17 years in prison in June 2003. He was also ordered by the Arizona court to pay $31,571,240 in criminal restitution to his investor victims, complementing the SEC civil judgment against him.
The Arizona Attorney General's Office also prosecuted Cook co-conspirator Robert H. Burr of North Carolina for his role in the Dennel scam. Burr pleaded guilty in Arizona in 2001 to fraud and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Burr also pleaded guilty to charges filed against him in North Carolina and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He is serving both sentences concurrently in North Carolina.
Various other Dennel associates of Cook have been jailed for civil contempt or convicted of perjury. Assistant Attorney General Mark Knops initiated the case while at the Corporation Commission and prosecuted it after transferring to the Attorney General's Office.
The receiver has set up a Web site that contains case and contact information at dennelfinancial.com.


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"Love the Park - Always clean, quiet & restful."
-M.S. -Sparks, MI
Thank you for considering Tampa's finest RV resort Bay Bayou as your home away from home.
A variety of activities are available within minutes of Tampa's Bay Bayou RV resort including Florida's famous beaches, theme parks, sight-seeing, fantastic restaurants, shopping, gaming and golf. Sports enthusiasts may enjoy a Tampa Bay Buccaneers or Rays game or catch the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees or Toronto Blue Jays in spring training nearby. Double Branch Creek offers water access for kayaks, canoes and small fishing boats to explore Florida's unique wetlands. There is something for everyone at one of Florida's best RV parks Bay Bayou RV Resort!
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German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on Saturday that there were no longer any risks of contagion in the eurozone, and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras stressed his country did not need a further bailout.
Schaeuble said Greece's achievements in the last one-and-a-half years, which included better-than-expected growth and progress in reducing its deficit, merited respect. He also cited the decline in the difference between yields on German and Greek bonds.
He said government crises and coalition negotiations no longer posed contagion risks for the single currency bloc as a whole, without specifying which country or countries he was referring to.
"The euro is stable, financial markets are no longer concerned about the future of the eurozone and there are no risks of contagion anymore," he said at a conference organized by German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung in Berlin.
Speaking later at the event, Greece's Samaras reiterated that his country did not need a further bailout and instead simply needed to fulfill the terms of its existing program.
Athens has said it will emerge from a six-year recession next year and has more than doubled its forecast for the budget surplus before interest payments for this year.
International lenders are in the middle of their latest review of Greece's performance on its reform targets. Posting a budget surplus before interest payments would open the way for Greece to ask for debt relief.
"I think that this is enough. We don't need something else — we don't need another program — we just have to stick by this program," Samaras said.
After more than two months of reviewing Greece's economy, the lenders have still not agreed to release Greece's next tranche of bailout funds as they disagree with Athens on the size of a fiscal gap for next year to 2015 and how this will be filled.
Officials from the "troika" of lenders — the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF — are due to return to the country early next month.
"I believe that what we need at this point is to finish the job by the end of the year of getting, that is, the approval of the troika for the next tranche," Samaras said.
He added that Greece did not need more time to reduce its debt.
"At this point I'm going very fast ... I do not need time to wait," he said.
Athens faces bond payments of 1.85 billion euros (US$2.5 billion) in early January.
Greece said earlier this week it will post a primary budget surplus before interest payments, of 0.4 percent of GDP this year.
However, under the terms of its international bailout it must widen the surplus to 4.5 percent of GDP in 2016. Athens has said it will meet this target without taking further austerity measures, helped by an economic recovery and better tax collection.
However, the troika insists the country must make further cuts because it doubts the degree to which an economic rebound and a crack down on tax evasion can improve its finances.
IMF's mission chief for Greece suggested on Saturday that there is room for compromise, since Athens and its lenders agreed that across-the-board measures which would hurt the country's economy should be avoided.
"Further measures will be needed for 2014-2016 but they will be on a much smaller scale than in the past," the IMF mission chief for Greece Poul Thomsen was quoted as saying in an interview with newspaper Kathimerini.


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In honor of Willie Nelson turning 80 on April 30th, Legacy Recordings has named Willie Nelson as its April Artist of the Month. To help celebrate this, Splash Magazines Worldwide is giving one lucky reader huge gift package of Willie Nelson items to help celebrate the big day.
This incredible prize pack contains the with the new Willie Nelson CD Let's Face the Music and Dance, Let's Face the Music and Dance vinyl, Roll Me Up (Willie's Book), Willie for President Tee, I Heart Willie Onesie and calendar.
As America prepares to commemorate the 80th birthday of Willie Nelson http://www.willienelson.com/ on April 30th, the country music icon will be celebrated as Artist of the Month for April, 2013 by Legacy Recordings http://www.legacyrecordings.com/, a division of SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT http://www.sonymusic.com/. The celebration carries on all month, and includes the April 16th release of a new album, Let's Face The Music And Dance, on Legacy Recordings.
Let's Face The Music And Dance is comprised of 20th century pop, rock, jazz and country music classics and standards. It was recorded by Willie and The Family, the band that Willie started with his sister Bobbie Nelson in 1973, and that has been his touring and recording group for forty years. On April 28th, Willie and The Family will play a special "birthday" concert at the Back Yard in Austin, Texas.
Legacy's Artist of the Month program was launched at the start of this year, commemorating Janis Joplin in January, Nina Simone in February, and Sly and the Family Stone in March.
In every case, the Artist of the Month program provides fresh perspectives on musical legends whose sounds continue to affect people's lives. The program enables new fans and deep aficionados the opportunity to focus on an essential figure in pop music history, whose principal catalog is a cornerstone of the Sony Music archives.
For the truly multi-dimensional Willie Nelson - singer, songwriter, Gypsy jazz guitarist, producer, bandleader, family man, perennial touring musician, television and movie actor, entrepreneur, activist, philanthropist, founder of FarmAid, rancher, golfer, proud Texan, and godfather of music's Outlaw Country movement - it has really been One Hell Of A Ride, as suggested by the title of his 4-CD Legacy box set of 2008, the year of his 75th birthday.
In 1975, some 15 years into his career, Willie scored his first Grammy Award(r)-winning #1 country hit on Columbia Records, "Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain," proving that Country Outlaws had earned a dominant chart role. He went on to amass more than 20 #1 hits over the next three decades, which read like a mini-history of country music: "Good Hearted Woman" (with Waylon Jennings), "If You've Got The Money I've Got The Time," the Grammy(r)-winning "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" (with Waylon), the Grammy(r)-winning "Georgia On My Mind," "Blue Skies," "Heartbreak Hotel" (with Leon Russell), "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys," the Grammy(r)-winning "On The Road Again," "Angel Flying Too Close To The Ground," the two-time Grammy(r)-winning "Always On My Mind," "Just to Satisfy You" (with Waylon), "Pancho & Lefty" (with Merle Haggard), "To All The Girls I've Loved Before" (with Julio Iglesias), the Grammy(r)-winning "City Of New Orleans," "Seven Spanish Angels" (with Ray Charles), "Forgiving You Was Easy," the Grammy(r)-winning "Highwayman" (with Waylon, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson), "Living in the Promiseland," "Mind Your Own Business" (with Hank Williams Jr., Reba McEntire, Tom Petty, and Reverend Ike), "Nothing I Can Do About It Now," and 2002's "Beer For My Horses" (with Toby Keith).
Starting back home in Texas in the early 1970s, Willie Nelson's role (along with partners Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Townes Van Zandt, Billy Joe Shaver and others) as he emancipated country music from Nashville's homogenized strictures, is now widely acknowledged. In addition to eight Grammy Awards(r) from 1975 to 2008, Willie has received the Recording Academy's prestigious Legends Award (1990) and Lifetime Achievement Award (1995). In 1998, he received Kennedy Center Honors.
Willie has also received strong recognition from within the country music establishment, which embraced the musical advances brought on by the Outlaw Country upstarts. In addition to his seven Country Music Association (CMA) awards from 1976 to 2002, Willie has also received the Entertainer Of the Year Award (1979) and in November 2012, the first inaugural Willie Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award. The Academy of Country Music (ACM) has honored Willie with five awards, including Entertainer Of the Year (1979). Other notable Country honors include the Minnie Pearl Award and Living Legend Award, both at the TNN/ Music City Awards in 1995. The annual BMI Country Awards conferred its President's Award on Willie in 2001, and the coveted BMI Icon Award in 2007.
Such outpourings belie the humble origins of Willie Hugh Nelson, born on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas. Willie arrived in Nashville in 1960, and was befriended by Hank Cochran, who got him signed to Ray Price's music publishing company. Willie's breakthrough came quickly, the year Faron Young cut the #1 hit "Hello Walls," Patsy Cline recorded the #2 hit "Crazy," and Billy Walker cut "Funny How Time Slips Away," all in 1961.
In February 2012, after albums on Island, Sugar Hill, Lost Highway, Blue Note, and more, it was announced that Willie had returned "home" as a result of his signing to the Columbia Records-affiliated Legacy, and the release of a new album in May, Heroes. Produced by Buddy Cannon, it included songs from a variety of sources, and guests ranging from Willie's son Lukas to Haggard, Kristofferson, and Shaver, to Sheryl Crow and Snoop Dogg. Let's Face The Music And Dance, again produced by Buddy Cannon (and recorded at Pedernales Recording Studio in Austin, Texas) is the follow up.
For more information on Legacy Recordings and their April Artist of the Month Willie Nelson, visit: http://www.legacyrecordings.com/a/#/page/artist-of-the-month/
If you would like to record your own Birthday message for Willie, visit: http://www.happybirthdaywillienelson.com/
To enter you must follow @SplashMagWW and @SonyLegacyRecs on twitter and retweet the following:
Retweet for a chance to #win #WillieNelson gift package from @SplashMagWW and @SonyLegacyRecs http://lasplash.com/publish/Music_107/willie-nelson-giveaway.php
The winner will be chosen from all valid entries April 29, 2013. The contest is open to all current residents of the United States and Canada.


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Irv Weissman was my professor at Stanford in the 1970's. He is a great man and good scientist but he is not always right. For example, throughout the late 1990's and up to 2007, he strongly denied the possibility of dedifferentiation and transdifferentiation, saying that cells don't go backwards after they have differentiated (unless they become cancer cells) and don't convert to become another type of cells. He represented the old guard (I was taught, for example, that differentiation is a one-way street when I was a graduate student) even when the data suggested strongly that some stem cells were switching from one type to another.
The discovery that embryonic stem cells can be cloned by transferring a nucleus from a somatic cell into an egg did not convince him that dedifferentiation was possible. The Yamanaka iPS story probably swayed him because he was not so vocal on the subject after 2007. It was not until Marius Wernig found that he could reprogram fibroblasts to become neurons in Weissman's own institute at Stanford around 2009 that Weissman relented on the issue of transdifferentiation. Transdifferentiation and dedifferentiation are now of course moot issues. While it may be difficult to get stem cells to change from one type to another by feeding them different nutrients and growth factors, the vast majority of scientists believe that it is a matter of changing the expression of several genes.
Several years ago, Weissman was the President of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. I remember attending a luncheon for sponsors and speakers in which Weissman gave a talk attacking mesenchymal stem cells. He pointed out that there are no reliable markers for mesenchymal stem cells and that a majority of studies making claims about mesenchymal stem cells having beneficial effects on animals really did not document what cells they transplanted. He was and is still pointing out that the scientific studies are not very good and that we must be more critical. He is right of course but this does not mean that mesenchymal stem cells do not exist and are not beneficial in certain conditions.
Science is not and should not be an authoritarian endeavor. Evidence matters. No scientist, no matter how important and great, is always right, particularly at the frontiers of knowledge where we don't have enough information and what I call the fog of discovery shrouds everything. Much of what we know depends on how good our tools are. At the present, most scientists rely on surface "markers" that cells express to classify them. These markers are often misleading. Nature is usually more complicated than we think. So, rather than by saying the Irv Weissman should be believed because he is a great scientist, we should be saying that scientists don't agree and that we don't know enough to come to a consensus.


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That's the Twitter handle Tom, an advertising executive who commutes daily from Fairfield County to Manhattan, adopted about a month ago to vent his frustrations with the region's commuter railroad.
And -- pardon the French, as they say -- it's also how many of Tom's fellow wage slaves feel about Metro-North after months of problems, from tragic derailments to this week's aggravating breakdowns that stranded passengers in Westport on Wednesday and across the region on the New Haven, Harlem and Hudson lines Thursday.
"It was really just an outlet," said Tom of his sometimes profane anti-train Twitter rants, accompanied by an image of a toy Thomas the Train that has jumped the tracks. "The thing with people who ride this particular line, they have no leverage whatsoever. It's not like you can express your frustration by not riding the train or trying to deny the railroad revenue. Most buy monthly tickets."
As the work week drew to a close even Metro-North appeared exasperated with the cycle of having to constantly try and assuage furious riders held hostage to public transportation with complex apologies and explanations.
Thursday's power disruption, a company spokeswoman said Friday, boiled down to an employee who "inadvertently unhooked the wrong wire."
"It was just human error," Metro-North's Marjorie Anders said. "A stupid mistake,"
That candor didn't appear to make anyone feel better.
"At this point, I have no faith left in Metro-North in any way, shape or form," said Jenn, a Greenwich resident who declined to give her last name, at the Old Greenwich Train Station Friday.
"So that Metro-North debacle yesterday was the result of someone inadvertently unhooking the wrong wire," tweeted Chris Bryant. "The system's that fragile? Scary."
Karen Kelso of Fairfield, who was stranded in Thursday night's debacle, has ridden the train for 30 years.
"This is the worst it has ever been," Kelso said.
Commuters might have more patience with the big messes if they had confidence Metro-North could just get the regular service right.
"We are frustrated because they have increased the monthly commuting charges and someone is dropping the ball on the train," said one man who drives from his Brookfield home to Danbury to catch the train to Stamford. "Today's train was supposed to leave at 6:48 a.m. but it didn't leave until 7:05 a.m."
Ty Davies, who rides the train from Fairfield to work in Stamford, said the car he sat in Friday had no heat.
"The car was like 35 degrees," he said. "It's just one thing after another."
Another Twitter user created Metro North is sorry @Metronorthsorry to mock the train line.
The slogan? "Metro-North apologizes for any inconvenience ... often."
"In the winter they blame it on cold weather, in the summer on hot weather, in the fall they blame it on leaves," said Tom/MetroFingNorth.
Joseph McGee, vice president of Public Policy with The Business Council of Fairfield County, a big promoter of improved public transportation, catches the train daily from Fairfield to his office in Stamford.Read Full Article
He said there was a lot of optimism when the new rail cars came on line.
"But it's really weird. As they got introduced, all these other stresses started showing up," McGee said. "And Metro-North's always had an excuse. `It's a one time thing.' `It's human failure.' `Somebody messed up.' No, it's a pattern now."
And that doesn't help luring more commuters off of Fairfield County's congested highways, McGee said.
Or, as Jennifer Garcia tweeted, "Metro North trains back up and running, spokesman says. AHAHAHA! I love my car!!"
And all that rider rage at Metro-North can actually be harming passengers' health.
Dr. Kathleen Hall, an expert on stress who works in Atlanta, Georgia, said commuters often struggle to manage their frustration. And as it mounts they can easily shed a few years from their lives.
"It can accelerate aging," Hall said. "We've seen it in studies where people are chronically stressed for 12 to 18 months. It can shorten your lifespan significantly."
Her advice for Metro-North commuters: adopt a mindset to better cope with major delays so they do not feel like wasted time.
"We need to help these people realize they are in control from the time that train stops. They can control their mind and their body," Hall said. She said commuters should use mobile devices to download everything from language courses or religious studies to music and books so they are well-prepared to wait out any problems.
Or they could consider the sobering words offered by one person on Twitter following Wednesday's and Thursday's delays.
"At least no one died this time," tweeted ValeWolf.
Staff writer Frank Juliano contributed to this report.


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BILOXI, Miss. — Five years after wandering away in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, a gray and white cat named Scrub has been reunited with his Mississippi family
The 7-year-old cat was brought to the shelter by a woman living 15 miles away who'd fed him as a stray the past couple of months but worried about his safety during a cold snap. The Humane Society of South Mississippi said Scrub was identified by an implanted microchip.
Scrub's owner, Jennifer Noble, told The Sun Herald newspaper she was skeptical at first when she received a call from the shelter. But by the end of the first night back, Scrub had snuggled in bed with one of her boys.
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Noble told the Sun Herald that she thought the Humane Society of South Mississippi had the wrong cat as she listened last week to a message left on her husband's office answering machine.
The message, the newspaper reported, said they had a pet brought in with her information on his microchip. She had given away two kittens — failed attempts to replace Scrub — and figured the message was about one of those.
White markings
"'Do you have a gray and white cat?'" Noble said a humane society employee asked when she returned the call. Scrub is a Russian blue and tabby, mostly gray with white markings. The other cats had been gray, said the Sun Herald report.
"You have my cat! Oh my gosh!" she remembered saying. "That cat has been missing for five years!"
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She said the employee replied, "'Oh my gosh. Well, Merry Christmas!'"
"This is the power of microchipping," humane society Director Tara High told the Sun Herald. "There is no other way that cat would have found its family. This is a very dramatic story with a wonderful ending."
Scrub, who was about two years old when he disappeared, seems to be in excellent condition, Noble told the paper. A small chunk is missing out of one ear and the other has a scar where the fur didn't grow back.
No air conditioning
Noble told the Sun Herald that Scrub had been a gift from her husband, Chris, and prior to Katrina, he was an indoor cat. That changed with the chaos caused by Katrina and the loss of air conditioning.
"We tried to keep him in a room [but] it was so miserably hot," she told the paper. So she started letting him roam outside.
"The scenery was changing every day," she told the Sun Herald. "I honestly think he got disoriented; that he just couldn't find this way back.
"If he could talk," Noble said, "I'm sure he has quite a story to tell us."
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.