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I found this recipe long ago, in Gourmet magazine. It is a keeper. The only difference here is that I've doubled it. You will be glad I did, since it keeps for a week in the refrigerator. This dressing is so sharp and alive. It is wonderful on a typical mixed salad. Add bacon and it is off the chain! It also serves as a gorgeous sauce over warm or chilled beef tenderloin, a pretty and elegant sauce. The recipe already contains black pepper, but it really sets the flavor off if you also grind fresh, cracked pepper over top of the sauce just before serving it.
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup mayonnaise
½ teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 small garlic cloves, minced
½ cup fresh parsley leaves
4 tablespoons finely chopped chives
4 ounces crumbled, firm bleu cheese
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Combine buttermilk, mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice and garlic in the blender and pulse until smooth. Add parsley and pulse until chopped. Then add the cheese and only pulse a few times. You want the cheese to stay chunky. Stir in the chopped chives and pepper at the last minute, before serving. After pouring dressing, grind fresh, cracked pepper over your dish.
Thumbnail photo by A. Pitch CC BY 2.0


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BRACKNELL, UK - May 4, 2011
Webroot, the first Internet security service company, has walked off with the top award at the Network Computing Awards 2011 held in London in late April.
The night began with Webroot Webroot® Web Security Service Web Security Service winning Product of the Year, the top award given out at the awards ceremony. The company's Web Security Service also took the runner-up award for Security Product of the Year.
Webroot continued to earn accolades with Webroot® Email Security Service runner-up for Messaging Product of the Year. In addition, Webroot received runner-up awards for Company of the Year, as well as Contribution to IT Security.
Mark Tickle, Managing Director EMEA for Webroot said, "The Webroot Web Security Service is second to none and winning this industry award just further adds confirmation to this and to the quality of the security protection our services deliver to our customers. We believe the traditional approaches to security don't work in today's threat environment. By providing protection for our customers through the cloud, we can prevent threats from reaching their networks, enabling them to focus on their business."
Webroot was also recognised at the recent SC Magazine Awards Europe 2011 held in London during the Infosecurity Europe exhibition. Webroot received commendations for Best Content Security for Webroot Web Security Service and Information Security Vendor of the Year.

subset: commoncrawl


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Watch CBSN Live
The primary science phase begins April 4 and will last about one year; during that time, Messenger is expected to gather more than 75,000 images.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The insertion into orbit starts at about 9 p.m. ET on March 17. From that point on, Messenger will fly a 12-hour orbit at a minimum altitude of about 124 miles. The spacecraft's science instruments will be turned on and checked out starting on March 24.
Credit: NASA artist's rendering
In this mosaic of what NASA calls the "eastern limb" of Mercury, from the January 2008 flyby (the first of the three by Messenger), the large gold-hued circular area is the Caloris basin, notable for its volcanic plains. The basin is about 960 miles in diameter, and Messenger was passing by at a distance of about 8,000 miles.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Arizona State University/Carnegie Institution of Washington
The name "Messenger," by the way, stands for a much longer phrase: MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging.
The diameter of Mercury is 3,030 miles.
Credit: NASA
Click here for a larger view of the Basho-Tolstoj image.


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When Berlin-based designer Joa Herrenknecht set out to design her first sofa she wanted it be flexible, a single modular object that could function as a daybed, sofa, or guest bed if and when required.
The outcome, Sushi Sofa, is a daybed and sofa with modular arm-/ backrests on a wooden tray-like base. "Because of its easy modular use, it is named after the simple delicate dish 'Sushi' which traditionally comes on a tray." says Herrenknecht.
"I wanted it to be easy to assemble and flexible for change – the length of the sitting mattress thus is standard sized (2m x 90cm) – to accommodate your surprise guest in the most comfortable manner. The arm and back rests can be altered in a very flexible manner, allowing you freedom and comfort."
Sushi is part of Herrenknecht's new Studio Collection: FLOW presented at Salone Satellite, 2014.
to the Joa Herrenknecht website


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All Rookie Readers actively engage young readers, encouraging language development, building fluency, and promoting independent reading. By targeting a skill, like learning about rhymes, young readers are building fundamental reading skills with the help of fun, lively, colorfully illustrated stories.
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EBSCO Usage Loading Service
Spend less time loading usage data and more time creating the best collection for your users
When you subscribe to EBSCO Usage Loading Service, EBSCO will obtain usage reports, load them to your EBSCO Usage Consolidation account, and match exceptions — allowing you to spend more time developing your collections.
Too busy to gather usage data?
The EBSCO Usage Loading Service can help. When you team with us, a designated representative will load usage into your institution's EBSCO Usage Consolidation account and handle a wide range of usage-related tasks on your behalf, including matching your titles, loading historical usage data, manipulating reports, and setting up platform details within your account.
Your representative will not only retrieve your COUNTER reports from content providers, they will also communicate with content providers about any usage-related issues that arise, allowing you to spend more time developing collections that help your users achieve their research objectives.


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Everything goes ok, then when i notice that the game is taking too much to load i click on it then what happens? it crashes. But the problem it's on a shader thing that is missing i uninstalled and installed the game twice.
"Loading shader Distortion
File not found or unable to read Resources//Shaders Intel//Distortion.frag"
That is what i get after the game crashes. (And the other stuff that comes before the Distortion shader.)
I am using Windows 10 btw. Not that matters a lot with Intel and other intel things.
Can't run the game
Ask for help with running the game.
Post Reply
3 posts • Page 1 of 1
- Posts: 1
- Joined: Mon May 15, 2017 1:18 pm
Re: Can't run the game
Hi there. I installed with no problems the game, but when I tried to launch it, I can't. An unexpected error appears and closes the game.
I use ASUS G11CD-US009T with Windows 10. (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX960)
<Moderator edit: Removed Sales Weblink>
All the games run smoothly even on the ultra settings except this one(
I use ASUS G11CD-US009T with Windows 10. (Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX960)
<Moderator edit: Removed Sales Weblink>
All the games run smoothly even on the ultra settings except this one(
Re: Can't run the game
Could you take a screen shot of the unexpected error and post it here?Thicassiong11 wrote: ↑Mon May 15, 2017 1:27 pm... when I tried to launch it, I can't. An unexpected error appears and closes the game.
Or could you write down more details of what the error actually is?
Are you running Windows 10 ? (or Windows 7, 8 or 8,1?)
What screen resolution are you running at?
I personally have an i7 with 12GB Ram and a GTX960 too (with Windows 7)... and it's always run, even since the early alpha versions - so I'm trying to figure out what might be different for you.
Plus I play other games too, and even with in i7 I can't say every game runs smoothly.
Right now, you haven't given enough details to begin to figure out what might be wrong.
I'd also suggest posting your DXDiag information. Simon has the details of how here....
SimoRoth wrote: ↑Wed Sep 18, 2013 8:10 pmDxDiag is a commonly requested file when dealing with tech problems. It contains information about the hardware your computer has and all sorts of other helpful information. This file does not contain any sort of personal information.
How to obtain your DxDiag file:
1. From Windows the desktop click: Start > Run (or windows key + r).
2. In the blank text field of the window that appears type "dxdiag" without the quotes. Press run or hit enter.
3. Another window should appear titled DirectX Diagnostic Tool. Near the bottom of the window click on "Save All Information…" A popup should appear with a progress bar, this may take a few minutes.
4. After it completes a dialog should appear asking you where to save the file, I would recommend saving it to your desktop (automatically selected) with the default name and file type.
5. Open the file on your desktop (or wherever you saved it) and select all (ctrl + a) and copy (ctrl + c).
6. PLEASE Paste the information in between [ code][ /code] tags as it can be quite heavy.
That is it.
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Doors: 7:00 PM
Show: 8:00 PM
Minors Under 18 With Parent or Legal Guardian
Ardenland presents
Tickets are $12 advance and $15 day of show.
This is a general admission show. Any seating is general admission and available on a first come, first served basis.
Order tickets by phone at 877-987-6487.
There will be a $5 upcharge taken at the door for persons under 21.
**Show Presented in part by Capital City Beverage, Cathead Vodka, A2Z Printing & Find It In Fondren!
Event has ended.


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Ceiling Lamps & Chandeliers
Whether you have just finished building a new home, or you're just tired of your old light fixtures, we can help you find the perfect vintage ceiling lights for your home! Perhaps you're looking for pendant lights to go over a kitchen island, or a large and impressive vintage chandelier for your living room or dining room? Be smart and choose the best antique ceiling lights that you can buy in South Carolina - we offer a wide selection of new and vintage ceiling lamps, or vintage chandeliers for sale. From stained glass ceiling lights based on antique designs to ceiling lamps in the Rococo style with swags of crystals or classic vintage Flemish chandeliers in brass, you'll find it here!


text: Omir Fernandez and Kazuyoshi Shigenobu called into U.S. U-18 camp Tweet Omir Fernandez (bottom row, first on left) and Kazuyoshi Shigenobu (bottom row, second from left) © HARRISON, N.J. – Omid Namazi, head coach of the United States Under-18 Men's National Team, has called up two Red Bulls academy players, Omir Fernandez and Kazuyoshi Shigenobu, to Florida for a domestic training camp. Both players are members of the Red Bulls U-16 team, which is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation. Fernandez, a native of Bronx, N.Y., has scored 13 goals in 13 matches, while Shigenobu, a native of Ridgewood, N.J., has recorded one goal and six assists in 12 games played. Namazi and his coaching staff called a total of 36 players to the camp which lasts from Jan. 17-23. U.S. U-18 Roster (36 players): Goalkeepers (4): James Fetterly (Texas Rush; The Woodlands, Texas), Eric Lopez (LA Galaxy; Westminster, Calif.), Alec Smir (North Carolina Fusion; Greensboro, N.C.), Seth Steibel (St. Louis Scott Gallagher Missouri; O'Fallon, Mo.) Defenders (11): Jose Alfaro Jr. (Monarcas Morelia; West Chicago, Ill.), Corey Anton (FC Kaiserslautern; Wollstein, Germany), McKay Eves (RSL Arizona; Casa Grande, Ariz.), Christopher Grey (San Jose Earthquakes; San Jose, Calif.), Harold Hanson (FC Golden State; Ontario, Calif.), Mark McKenzie (Philadelphia Union; Bear, Del.), Alessandro Milesi (Shattuck-St. Mary's; Fairbault, Minn.), Matthew Real (Philadelphia Union; Drexel Hill. Pa.), Samual Rogers (Seattle Sounders; Seattle, Wash.), Callum Stretch (Aston Villa FC; Encino, Calif.), Carson Vom Steeg (Real So Cal; Santa Barbara, Calif.) Midfielders (12): Faris Abdi (IMG Academy; West Bradenton, Calif.), Alberto Alvarenga (Real So Cal; Canoga Park, Calif.), Omir Fernandez (New York Red Bulls; Bronx, N.Y.), Anthony Fontana (Philadelphia Union; Newark, Del.), Andrew Paoli (San Jose Earthquakes; San Jose, Calif.), Emanuel Perez (Capitol Area Railhawks Academy; Garner, N.C..), Nicholas Pergjini (Troyes AC; DIGAS, France), Sterling Russell (Seattle Sounders; Bellevue, Wash.), Kazuyoshi Shigenobu (New York Red Bulls; Ridgewood, N.J.), Gregory Tracey (Colorado Rapids, Arvada, Colo.), Erik Virgen Aguilar (RSL Arizona; Tucson, Ariz.), Hanif Wright (Unattached; Los Angeles, Calif.) Forwards (9): Arda Bulut (San Jose Earthquakes; Los Gatos, Calif.), Joshua Burnett (Players Development Academy; Glen Ridge, N.J.), Rhys de Sota (Real Colorado; Foxfield, Colo.), Damen Marcu (Real Colorado; Arvada, Colo.), Leonardo Marquez-Ramirez (Club Leon; Vasilia, Calif.), Justin McMaster (Philadelphia Union, King of Prussia, Pa.), Cody Sundquist (ACF Fiorentina; Lincoln, Calif.), Kei Tomozawa (Seattle Sounders; Bellevue, Wash.), Alex Vedamanikam (RSL Arizona; Casa Grande, Ariz.) Back to news


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Archive for the 'whistler' Tag
A Post-Games Romp
That's Gay!
Perhaps to cope with the gravitas and intensity of the Vancouver Games, I'm feeling the need to REALLY unwind and revel in some whimsy and trash. (Yeah, Yu-Na wasn't the only one who was feelin' the pressure peeps!)
First up, Current TV's fabulous That's Gay: Johnny Weir tribute, complete with an Official Sports' Sexuality Spectrum infographic, showing (straight) football at one end and (gay) skating at the other (I'm gaga for infographics!):
Shocking Skater Faces
Next up, SCARY skater faces from Vancouver (I love Shen & Zhao too much to post the #1 photo of them.) This album been floating around, but one just can't get enough of these. Here are the best.:
Should Siblings Ice Dance Together?
This album sure makes you question whether siblings should indeed ice dancer together. Particularly, in the Tango Romantica Compulsory Dance, selected for Vancouver, where chemistry and heat are required. Vancouver had four such teams: Kerrs, Zaretskys, Reeds, and Beiers. Here, the Kerrs turn up the heat.:
Seeing Whistler
So, being a total graphic design geek, I was fascinated to discover that jcm's stats started looking an awful lot like Whistler during the Games (art mirroring life?). Yes, the Olympics were a huge shot in the arm for jcm, and likely every skating/sports blog. The day of the men's SP (February 16) was my busiest day yet. Now, enjoy the Canadian landscape, as the athletes play upon my stats!:
jcm Goes Down (no, NOT that way!)
On February 18th, WordPress.com was down for 110 minutes, taking over 10.2 million blogs with it. Did you hear that…"10.2 million blogs." When I read that, I couldn't believe my eyes. I had NO idea the scale of this phenomenon, and this is just one blog server!
I also learned the following: "(WordPress.com has) seen a meteoric rise over the past 4 years with thousands of new blogs still being added every day. According to Quantcast, around 220 million people visit one or more WordPress.com blogs every month."
My goodness! Can you imagine the amount of revenue that would generate, if all these blogs were business-oriented, OR how many mouths that would feed, if all that blogging time were translated into food or services! Maybe I should stop blogging, and start…


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This µATX board is similar to any other board on the market. For some reason all the manufactures think it's a good idea to put two PCIe x16 slots on such boards. Due to the limitations of the chipset you just can forget about Crossfire or SLI. But you can use this slot with any other PCIe x1 card.
The backpanel contains most common connectors, with the absence of USB3.0. An office machine can live without it, at least you can connect external harddrives via the eSATA connector.
The only speciality this board offers is it's integrated MOSfet VRM design which offers lower power consumption. It's just a 4+2 phase design but has still enough headroom for seriously overclocking.
A Realtek ALC889 chip provides 7.1 HD onboard sound, while the RTL8111DL offers a Gbit LAN connection. The lonely JMB363 offers the eSATA connector and the H55 provides six SATAII ports without any RAID capability. MSI has not put an port80 diagnostic led on the board, but some LEDs show you if the board has power and of course how many phases for the CPU are in use.
The memory slots are very close to the primary PCIe 2.0 x16 slot, you upgrading your memory with an installed graphics card could be difficult. Also oversized coolers such a Scythe Grand Kama Cross won't fit, so make sure your third party CPU cooler will fit when you decide to install a graphics card.


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Can Quaker military histories be far behind?
… Amish love stories, which are a booming new subcategory of the romance genre. The books, written by non-Amish writers, are aimed at a mainstream audience. But Ms. Woodsmall researches her stories among the Pennsylvania Amish, and she has a loyal Amish following.
The plot of her 2006 novel, "When the Heart Cries," revolves around Hannah, a young Amish woman who falls in love with a Mennonite and hides her plans to marry him from her strict parents. The lovers struggle to overcome the cultural divide, and actually kiss a couple of times in 326 pages: "His warm, gentle lips moved over hers, and she returned the favor, until Hannah thought they might both take flight right then and there. Finally desperate for air, they parted."


text: Obama's 'smart power' policy has included increasing drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan [REUTERS]Barack Obama is a smart guy. So why has he spent the last four years executing such a dumb foreign policy? True, his reliance on "smart power" - a euphemism for giving the Pentagon a stake in all things global - has been a smart move politically at home. It has largely prevented the Republicans from playing the national security card in this election year. But "smart power" has been a disaster for the world at large and, ultimately, for the United States itself. Power was not always Obama's strong suit. When he ran for president in 2008, he appeared to friend and foe alike as Mr Softy. He wanted out of the war in Iraq. He was no fan of nuclear weapons. He favoured carrots over sticks when approaching America's adversaries. His opponent in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton, tried to turn this hesitation to use hard power into a sign of a man too inexperienced to be entrusted with the presidency. In 2007, when Obama offered to meet without preconditions with the leaders of Cuba, North Korea, and Iran, Clinton fired back that such a policy was "irresponsible and frankly naive". In February 2008, she went further with a TV ad that asked voters who should answer the White House phone at 3 AM. Obama, she implied, lacked the requisite body parts - muscle, backbone, cojones - to make the hard presidential decisions in a crisis. Obama didn't take the bait. "When that call gets answered, shouldn't the president be the one - the only one - who had judgment and courage to oppose the Iraq war from the start," his response ad intoned. "Who understood the real threat to America was al-Qaeda, in Afghanistan, not Iraq. Who led the effort to secure loose nuclear weapons around the globe." Like most successful politicians, Barack Obama could be all things to all people. His opposition to the Iraq War made him the darling of the peace movement. But he was no peace candidate, for he always promised, as in his response to that phone call ad, to shift US military power toward the "right war" in Afghanistan. As president, he quickly and effectively drove a stake through the heart of Mr Softy with his pro-military, pro-war speech at, of all places, the ceremony awarding him the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama's protean abilities have come to the fore in his approach to what once was called "soft power", a term Harvard professor Joseph Nye coined in his 1990 book Bound to Lead. For more than 20 years, Nye has been urging US policymakers to find different ways of leading the world, exercising what he termed "power with others as much as power over others". After 9/11, when "soft" became an increasingly suspect word, Washington policymakers began to use "smart power" to denote a menu of expanded options that were to combine the capabilities of both the State Department and the Pentagon. "We must use what has been called 'smart power', the full range of tools at our disposal - diplomatic, economic, military, political, legal, and cultural - picking the right tool, or combination of tools, for each situation," Hillary Clinton said at her confirmation hearing for her new role as secretary of state. "With smart power, diplomacy will be the vanguard of foreign policy." Obama's 'smart power' yields mixed results But diplomacy has not been at the vanguard of Obama's foreign policy. From drone attacks in Pakistan and cyber-warfare against Iran to the vaunted "Pacific pivot" and the expansion of US military intervention in Africa, the Obama administration has let the Pentagon and the CIA call the shots. The president's foreign policy has certainly been "smart" from a domestic political point of view. With the ordering of the Seal Team Six raid into Pakistan that led to the assassination of Osama bin Laden and "leading from behind" in the Libya intervention, the president has effectively removed foreign policy as a Republican talking point. He has left the hawks of the other party with very little room for manoeuver. But in its actual effects overseas, his version of "smart power" has been anything but smart. It has maintained imperial overstretch at self-destructive expense, infuriated strategic competitors like China, hardened the position of adversaries like Iran and North Korea, and tried the patience of even long-time allies in Europe and Asia. Only one thing makes Obama's policy look geopolitically smart - and that's Mitt Romney's prospective foreign policy. On global issues, then, the November elections will offer voters a particularly unpalatable choice: between a Democratic militarist and an even more over-the-top militaristic Republican, between Bush Lite all over again and Bush heavy, between dumb and dumber. Mr Softy goes to Washington Mr Softy went to Washington in 2008 and discovered a backbone. That, at least, is how many foreign policy analysts described the "maturation" process of the new president. "Barack Obama is a soft power president," wrote the Financial Times's Gideon Rachman in 2009. "But the world keeps asking him hard power questions." According to this scenario, Obama made quiet overtures to North Korea, and Pyongyang responded by testing a nuclear weapon. The president went to Cairo and made an impressive speech in which he said, among other things, "we also know that military power alone is not going to solve the problems in Afghanistan and Pakistan". But individuals and movements in the Muslim world - al-Qaeda, the Taliban - continued to challenge American power. The president made a bold move to throw his support behind nuclear abolition, but the nuclear lobby in the United States forced him to commit huge sums to modernising the very nuclear complex he promised to negotiate out of existence. According to this scenario, Obama came to Washington with a fistful of carrots to coax the world, non-violently, in the direction of peace and justice. The world was not cooperative, and so, in practice, those carrots began to function more like orange-coloured sticks. This view of Obama is fundamentally mistaken. Mr Softy was a straw man created from the dreams of his dovish supporters and the nightmares of his hawkish opponents. That Obama avatar was useful during the primary and the general election campaign to appeal to a nation weary of eight years of cowboy globalism. Like a campaign advisor ill-suited to the bruising policy world of Washington, Mr Softy didn't survive the transition. Consider, for example, Obama's speech in Cairo in June 2009. This inspiring speech should have signalled a profound shift in US policy toward the Muslim world. But what Obama didn't mention in his speech was his earlier conversation with outgoing president George W Bush in which he'd secretly agreed to continue two major Bush initiatives: the CIA's unmanned drone air war in Pakistan's tribal borderlands and the covert programme to disrupt Iran's nuclear programme with computer viruses. Obama didn't just continue these programmes; he amplified them. The result has been an unprecedented expansion of US military power through unmanned drones in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan as well as Somalia and Yemen. The use of drones, and the civilian casualties they've caused, has in turn enflamed public opinion around the world, with the favourability rating of the United States under Obama in majority Muslim countries falling to a new low of 15 per cent in 2012, lower, that is, than the rock-bottom standard set by the Bush administration. The drone campaign has undermined other smart power approaches, including that old standby diplomacy, not only by antagonising potential interlocutors but also by killing a good number of them. Along with the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, often cited as one of Obama's signal accomplishments, the drone war has by now provoked a slow-motion rupture in relations between Washington and Islamabad. US and Israel 'used cyberattacks' on Iran The covert cyber-war initiative against Iran's nuclear programme, conducted with Israeli cooperation, produced both the Stuxnet worm, which wreaked havoc on Iranian centrifuges, and the Flame virus, which monitored its computer network. Instead of vigorously pursuing diplomatic solutions - such as the nuclear compromise that Brazil and Turkey cobbled togetherin 2010 that might have defused the situation and guaranteed a world without an Iranian bomb - the Obama administration acted secretly and aggressively. If the United States had been the target of such a cyber attack, Washington would have considered it an act of war. Meanwhile, the United States has set a dangerous precedent for future attacks in this newest theater of operations and unleashed a weapon that could even be reverse-engineered and sent back in our direction. Nor was diplomacy ever actually on the table with North Korea. The Obama team came in with a less than half-hearted commitment to the Six Party process - the negotiations to address North Korea's nuclear programme among the United States, China, Russia, Japan, and the two Koreas, which had stalled in the final months of George W Bush's second term. In the National Security Council, Asia point man Jeffrey Bader axed a State Department cable that would have reassured the North Koreans that a US policy of engagement would continue. "Strategic patience" became the euphemism for doing nothing and letting hawkish leaders in Tokyo and Seoul unravel the previous years of engagement. After some predictably belligerent rhetoric from Pyongyang, followed by a failed missile launch and a second nuclear test, Obama largely dispensed with diplomacy altogether. Hillary Clinton did indeed move quickly to increase the size of the State Department budget to hire more people and implement more programmes to beef up diplomacy. That budget grew by more than 7 per cent in 2009 to 2010. But that didn't bring the department of diplomacy up to even $50 billion. In fact, it is still plagued by a serious shortage of diplomats and, as State Department whistleblower Peter van Buren has written, "The whole of the Foreign Service is smaller than the complement aboard one aircraft carrier." Meanwhile, despite a persistent recession, the Pentagon budget continued to rise during the Obama years - a roughly 3 per cent increase in 2010 to about $700 billion. (And Mitt Romney promises to hike it even more drastically.) Like most Democratic politicians, Obama has been acutely aware that hard power is a way of establishing political invulnerability in the face of Republican attacks. But the use of hard power to gain political points at home is a risky affair. It is the nature of this "dumb power" to make the United States into a bigger target, alienate allies, and jeopardise authentic efforts at multilateralism. A kinder, gentler empire Despite its rhetorical flexibility, "smart power" has several inherent flaws. First, it focuses on the means of exercising power without questioning the ends toward which power is deployed. The State Department and the Pentagon will tussle over which agency can more effectively win the hearts and minds of Afghans. But neither agency is willing to rethink the US presence in the country or acknowledge how few hearts and minds have been won. As with Afghanistan, so with the rest of the world. For all his talk of power "with" rather than "over", Joseph Nye has largely been concerned with different methods by which the United States can maintain dominion. "Smart power" is not about the inherent value of diplomacy, the virtues of collective decision-making, or the imperatives of peace, justice, or environmental sustainability. Rather it is a way of calculating how best to get others to do what America wants them to do, with the threat of a drone strike or a Special Forces incursion always present in the background. The Pentagon, at least, has been clear about this point. In 2007, Secretary of Defence Robert Gates argued for "strengthening our capacity to use soft power and for better integrating it with hard power". The Pentagon has long realised that a toolbox with only a single hammer in it handicaps the handyman, but it still persists in seeing a world full of nails. At a more practical level, "smart power" encounters problems because in this "integration", the Pentagon always turns out to be the primary partner. As a result, the work of diplomats, dispensers of humanitarian aid, and all the other "do-gooders" who attempt to distinguish their work from soldiers is compromised. After decades of trying to persuade their overseas partners that they are not simply civilian adjuncts to the Pentagon, the staff of the State Department has now jumped into bed with the military. They might as well put big bull's eyes on their backs, and there's nothing smart about that. "Smart power" also provides a lifeline for a military that might face significant cuts if Congress's sequestration plan goes through. NATO has already shown the way. Its embrace of "smart defence" is a direct response to military cutbacks by European governments. The Pentagon is deeply worried that budget-cutters will follow the European example, so it is doing what corporations everywhere attempt during a crisis. It is trying to rebrand its services. Always in search of a mission, the Pentagon now has its fingers in just about every pie in the bakery. The Marines are doing drug interdiction in Guatemala. Special Operations forces are constructing cyclone shelters in Bangladesh. The US Navy provided post-disaster relief in Japan after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, while the US Army did the same in Haiti. In 2011, the Africa Command budgeted $150 million for development and health care. The Pentagon, in other words, has turned itself into an all-purpose agency, even attempting "reconstruction" along with State and various crony corporations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is preparing for the impact of climate change, pouring R & D dollars into alternative energy, and running operations in cyberspace. The Pentagon has been smart about its power by spreading it everywhere. Dumb vs Dumber As president, Obama has shown no hesitation to use force. But his use of military power has not proven any "smarter" than that of his predecessor. Iran and North Korea pushed ahead with their nuclear programmes when diplomatic alternatives were not forthcoming. Nuclear power Pakistan is closer to outright anarchy than four years ago. Afghanistan is a mess, and an arms race is heating up in East Asia, fuelled in part by the efforts of the United States and its allies to box in Chinawith more air and sea power. In one way, however, Obama has been Mr Softy. He has shown no backbone whatsoever in confronting the bullies already in America's corner. He has done little to push back against Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his occupation policies. He hasn't confronted Saudi Arabia, the most autocratic of US allies. In fact, he has leveraged the power of both countries - toward Iran, Syria, Bahrain. A key component of "smart power" is outsourcing the messy stuff to others. Make no mistake: Mitt Romney is worse. A Romney-Ryan administration would be a step backward to the policies of the early Bush years. President Romney would increase military spending, restart a cold war with Russia, possibly undertake a hot war against Iran, deep-six as many multilateral agreements as he could, and generally resurrect the Ugly American policies of the recent past. But President Romney wouldn't fundamentally alter US foreign policy. After all, President Obama has largely preserved the post-9/11 fundamentals laid down by George W Bush, which in turn drew heavily on a unilateralist and militarist recipe that top chefs from Bill Clinton on back merely tweaked. Obama has mentioned, sotto voce, that Mr Softy might resurface if the incumbent is reelected. Off mic, as he mentioned in an aside to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at a meeting in Seoul last spring, he has promised to show more "flexibility" in his second term. This might translate into more arms agreements with Russia, more diplomatic overtures like the effort with Myanmar, and more spending of political capital to address global warming, non-proliferation, global poverty, and health pandemics. But don't count on it. The smart money is not with Obama's smart power. Mr Softy has largely been an electoral ploy. If he's re-elected, Obama will undoubtedly continue to act as Mr Stick. Brace yourself for four more years of dumb power - or, if he loses, even dumber power. John Feffer is an Open Society Fellow for 2012-13 focusing on Eastern Europe. He is the author of Crusade 2.0: The West's Resurgent War on Islam. His writings can be found on his website johnfeffer.com. A version of this article first appeared on TomDispatch.com. SOURCE: Tomdispatch ABOUT THE AUTHOR John FefferJohn Feffer is the co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies. Politics US & Canada Latin America Afghanistan Bahrain


text:
Effect of exercise training on sleep apnea: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Respiratory Medicine 116, no. 92 (2016)."
An experience-based learning framework: Activities for the initial development of sustainability competencies." International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 17 (2016): 827-852."
Intersezioni fra Biologia dello Sviluppo ed Ecosistemica. Nuove Prospettive per l'Evoluzione." Paradigmi (2016)."
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Exercise training, sleep and the heart." Future Cardiology 11 (2015): 507-509."
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The relativity of biological function." Theory in Biosciences 134 (2015): 143-147."
Temporal and multi-source fusion for detection of innovation in collaboration networks." In 2015 18th International Conference on Information Fusion (Fusion)., 2015."
Anomalous subgraph detection in publication networks: Leveraging truth." In 2014 48th Asilomar Conference on Signals, Systems and Computers., 2014."
The Life of David Lack: Father of Evolutionary Ecology by Ted R. Anderson." The Quarterly Review of Biology 89 (2014)."
Between epigenetic research and politic commitment: Marcello Buiatti's portrait." Studies in the History of Biology (2013)."
Biological Clocks and the Formation of Human Tooth Enamel." Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013)."
Computational Perspectives in the History of Science." Isis 104 (2013): 119-130."
Developmental Evolution." In The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Darwin and Evolutionary Thought, edited by M Ruse, 375-382. Cambridge University Press, 2013."
Enamel Knots." Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013)."
General Embryological Service, published annually by the Hubrecht Laboratory, 1949-1981." The Embryo Project Encylopedia (2013)."
Genetic and developmental basis of F2 hybrid breakdown in Nasonia parasitoid wasps." Evolution (2013)."
A Global Classroom for International Sustainability Education." Creative Education 4, no. 4A (2013): 19-28."
Homology as a bridge between evolutionary morphology, developmental evolution and phylogenetic systematics." In The Evolution of Phylogenetic Systematics, 63-85. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2013."
Human Evolution Inferred from Tooth Growth and Development." Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013)."
Il topo che amava i gatti. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2013.
"On the Induction of Embryonic Primordia by Implantation of Organizers from Different Species"(1924), Hilde Mangold's Dissertation." Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013)."
The inductive capacity of oral mesenchyme and its role in tooth development (1969-1970), by Edward J. Kollar and Grace R. Baird." Embryo Project Encyclopedia (2013)."


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The Winter's Tale star spoke of their relationship at a Los Angeles benefit honoring Taylor's legacy
Colin Farrell became close friends with Elizabeth Taylor toward the end of her life, but the usually suave actor says he was a nervous wreck the first time he met her.
"I had less anxiety waiting for the results of a home pregnancy test," Farrell, 37, cracked to reporters Thursday in Los Angeles about waiting for the late star to greet him at her home. "And that's the truth, that's not just a cheap joke. That's the truth."
The Winter's Tale leading man spoke at the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation Art Auction & Benefit at the Los Angeles Center of Photography, taking the audience behind the scenes of his special relationship with the screen legend.
He wistfully recounted meeting Taylor's manager in 2009 at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, where his son was born and where she was having a stent placed into her heart. Farrell asked her manager to give Taylor his regards. Days later, he received orchids and a handwritten note from the screen legend.
But when Farrell went to meet Taylor, she was fashionably tardy – something she was famous for.
"[Her manager] was there, he opened the door, he said, 'Come on in. She should be down in a minute.' And seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned back to seconds," Farrell told the crowd. "I was very, very nervous, and I waited for an hour, but Dame Elizabeth only she could be socially late at her own house. An hour passed and she came out, and we sat and we spoke and I laughed and I had the most bewitching hour of my life, and I left on a cloud."
As Farrell recounted to Ellen DeGeneres in December, that meeting led to nearly two years of late-night phone calls between the stars before Taylor died in 2011. She was 79.
"I was allowed in whatever way she would let me, as a friend," Farrell said Thursday. "And it was a pretty extraordinary reality."
• Reporting by GABRIELLE OLYA


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This article is from the archive of our partner .
Last night's Top Six episode of American Singing Competition began what I fear are the two or three most languid weeks of the season (other than auditions, naturally): The Top Six Creep really doesn't end until there are about three people left and the show starts to get exciting again. So we'll just have to endure it together. We'll have to keep calm and... eh, you know the rest.
The episode was half a tribute to Queen, the great British flamboyance factory that is still somehow beloved by both the bent and the insistently straight alike. Because really who can resist the wailing charms of Freddie Mercury and, y'know, the other... guys. Sadly the other guys are all that remain, now jolly grey-haired old geezers who look as though they, one in particular, could be the Steven Tyler witch's witchy cousins. Nicer cousins from down the country road, further out of the village, but cousins nonetheless. Surrounded by family last night the Tyler witch did seem in good spirits. At one point, just before Phil Phillips sang, the witch turned to the camera and mouthed something while lifting one crooked finger and wiggling it. It was a spell for sure, but it was a cheery, smiling spell, so I'm sure nothing really bad happened. Maybe a cat turned into a human boy somewhere or a willow tree began to talk. Nothing serious, just a little magic. The witch's happy spells are nothing to be afraid of. So thank you for putting Steven Tyler in a good mood, Queen.
Everyone, in fact, seemed to be in a good mood. Or were at least pretending. Ryan gushed over how good everyone was singing, keeping a rubbery smile plastered onto his face. But of course inside he is roiling, barely rested, tormented every night by the thing in the dark back at his house, the still remaining spirit of Colton Dixon, which teases him cruelly. "Demon!" Ryan will call out. "Just give me back Tim! Tim Urban! You know his name!" But the specter will only laugh in the dark, hiss strange things to Ryan that will sound as if they are coming from inside his head. Colton, no longer corporeal, is now an angry, vengeful spirit. And he will have his fun.
But yes, otherwise, sure, people seemed in high spirits. And why not. They got to sing one round of fun Queen music and then the next round could just pick any old song. Something that meant something to them, whatever. Let's see how they did.
Gotta give it the heck up once again for Ms. Skylar Laine, who just keeps blasting out sweet song syrup with remarkable consistency. She's really good at picking songs for herself, which is a skill that certainly not every contestant has, and it really gives her a leg up. Her Queen song was "The Show Must Go On," which is that big ridiculous boomer that can be very silly, and in some ways would almost have to be silly when sung by a cute country sprite, but in fact she really sold it, darkening her face into a glower, staring out directly ahead, firm and serious, and busting out notes like fireworks. It's fun watching someone become a better singer over the course of an Idol season. They should change the title to Sing School. People learn so much!
Skylar's second song was not, alas, an original ditty that she talked to Ryan about called "Diamond-Studded Pistol," which dear god please let Skylar sing that, I know they're not supposed to be able to sing songs they wrote, but don't you want to hear "Diamond-Studded Pistol" so bad? C'mon, Nigel. You know you do. I bet Jimmy Iodine's already heard it, been humming it for weeks now, and when people ask him in the hallway what he's humming he just smiles that worm smile of his and says "You'll see..." Please Idol, pleeease? Please let us hear this Skylar Laine song about a bejeweled gun. Fingers crossed. In the meantime we heard Skylar do a perfect country nostalgia song called "Tattoos On This Town" by Jason Aldean (three names for the price of two!), a nice little tune about how we were wildin' kids once and let's never forget, and that has a really unnecessarily sad music video. Well chosen again, Skylar. Well done indeed. When Ryan asked Randy if Skylar might make it to the top two, Randy was a little cagey, didn't want to say yes or no, but I'm saying YES. I know I was terribly wrong about Colton, so who knows maybe Elise will win this whole stupid thing, but I think Skylar isn't going anywhere for a while. That is if people remember to vote.
Joshua sang well but here's where I'm talking about the top six creep. He's good and all and sings well and everything but aren't you just the slightest bit bored of him? Maybe that's actually a failing of his and I shouldn't put him in the good category, but I don't know. He's still technically good. His Queen song was "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" because that was the safest most doo-woppy Queen song he could sing, but man I wish he'd stretched a little and did something else. Imagine how fun and silly it would have been to watch him scream "We Are The Champions," just for the F of it. Or if he'd gotten "Bohemian Rhapsody" instead of Jessica Sanchez. Man he could have turned that into a story. But instead he just, y'know, did his thing. It was good! It's always good. But, I'm tired. For his random song he chose an India.Arie jam which was an interesting choice, I guess, but not that rousing. The judges aren't always wrong about choosing popular songs. In fact they're often right about it. Take heed, children. Pick something many, most even, people know.
Elise is also competent but not terribly inspiring. She did a good rock-out to Queen's "I Want It All," big and blaring and not self-conscious like a lot of her "I'm an artist" stuff can be. J.Lo was pretty fiercely into it, doing hilarious rock claps that the camera cut to only for a second, likely before the camera guy remembered what happened to the last cameraman who filmed J.Lo doing something embarrassing. Adding to the silliness was the big screen behind Elise which flashed, in huge letters, "I WANT IT ALL" every time Elise said she wanted it all, but then was just the letters of that phrase floating around willy-nilly like a screensaver when she was singing the verses. Whoever is doing all this video stuff this year needs a vacation, I think. A long, long vacation. After the performance, when Ryan was calling out Elise's numbers, Elise basically rattled her tambourine in his face and Ryan's smile got even bigger, which means he was getting angrier, and afterward he turned to her and said, a little too loudly, "You did well!!!" which means he hates her and is going to send J.Lo a mean text message about her later. "did u see her wit that fukin tambereen wtf shes a betch lol." (J.Lo writes back: "Who is this?") Elise's second song was a poorly chosen Jimi Hendrix tune that, like Joshua's choice, was just not contemporary or known enough. But, y'know, she sang it well.
Jessica Sanchez sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" and it was just like snooooooooze. Putting anyone in the bad category at this point doesn't mean that much because mostly everyone is singing really well (so rare for this point in the season!) but c'mon, Sanchy. That song? Really? You couldn't leave that for Joshua and sing, I don't know, "You're My Best Friend"? No, apparently not. Apparently she had to teen her way through "Bohemian Rhapsody" while, hilariously, the video screen behind her showed three of her heads floating in black and white space. Very dramatic! Even more dramatic when you think about how no one decided to nix that during rehearsal. Yeah, the whole thing was deeply silly. I mean, this is a more convincing "Bohemian Rhapsody." C'mon, Jessica. Just c'mon.
For her second song Jessica went for the emotions jugular, invoking her just-deployed father in her pre-song intro and then launching into Luther Vanrdoss' "Dance With My Father." So basically nobody could say nothin' that wasn't "That was so amazing and sweet god bless you forever." You just can't tell a sixteen-year-old girl, the youngest person in the competition, that she sang a song about dancing with her Army daddy badly. You just can't do that. And Jessica, that sly minx, she knew. Oh you'd better believe she knew. She's no dummy. She knows what she's doing. "I learned it from watching you!" she yells at a video of Kristy Lee Cook singing "Proud To Be An American." (Haaaa, remember that? I mean, do you remember that? That was the devil's work, pure and simple.) So J. Sanch has probably saved herself this time, wrapping herself up in a thick American flag/daddy blanket and no one can touch her.
Which leaves poor little cricket whippet Hollie Cavanaugh out in the cold. Everyone was making fun of her accent in a little video segment last night which was too bad. Her accent is great! Don't be such weird xenophobe meanies, guys. Stop it. If you want to make fun of Hollie for anything make fun of her for probably going home tonight. Yoooops. I mean that's what's going to happen, right? It's her time? Although, she did sing for her second song (her first barely matters, it was Queen, who cares) "The Climb" by Milly Styrus which can get certain voting fingers aflutter. People do like that song, all about shoulda woulda another mountain, maybe gonna another stream, kinda sorta catch my dream, etc. That's how that song goes. "Tryin'a make'a past the treetops, somethin' comin' wishing well..." Isn't it? For the whole song, that's pretty much it, I think. Hollie likes that song and sang it last year and it took her to the Top 40 I guess, so there it was again last night. And the judges gave it a standing ovation! Maybe it was a standing O of goodbye? They were saluting her, confident that she will go home tonight? Whatever the reason, it didn't feel that earned. I mean, it's that song. It's that cheesy thing. "Climbin' dreamin' oooh the stars, wishin' hopin' American cars." Just a whole song of that.
Sex Bomb
Haha. Phillip really turned it on last night, didn't he? He sang "Fat Bottom Girls" for goodness sake. J.Lo could barely contain herself. "I have goosies!" she said. And then, quieter, "Down there..." J.Lo has it bad for Phil Phillips. I wonder if she's hit that up yet. Do you think? I bet she's doing some sort of tantra delay thing and she will just motherf-cking pounce on him at the finale party. Just a flurry of extensions and gold jewelry, flying at him with sonic speed. That'll be fun for him. For now it's all foreplay and he knows it. He deeply knows it. She knows it. "Was that song for me?" she of the famous rump asked, mock offended. Phil just grinned his country grin, trying to act cool, trying to think about his grandma's legs and baseball and whatever else would cool him down. "He's always faking sick to get out of going to shoots and stuff," one of the other contestants said about Phil in a video segment. MhHm. Suuure. That's why he wants to stay back at the mansion alone. To avoid photoshoots. Riiiight.
Phil's second song was, finally, a Dave Matthews song. It was not, like, "Crash Into Me" or "Ants Marching" or anything you remember from summertime cargo short days, it was "The Stone," and was a strange fiddle/violin jam that Phil Phillips funked out. People liked it though, people were into it. Randy was like "Yo dawg that was weird I don't know what happened but I liked it whoa we just went to outerspace what WAS that whoa dawg," and just kept spluttering away. He was very impressed. The Tyler witch nodded in approval and whispered something and Phil Phillips felt a kind tingle in his groin. He nodded back at the witch in thanks. J.Lo meanwhile was smoking a cigarette and leaning back with her eyes closed. "Jen?" Ryan asked. "Jen, you OK?" J.Lo lolled her head up, barely opened her eyes, and said "That was good... that was good... that was... y'know... Jesus, I'm sleepy." So he did well, basically, Phil Phillips did well.
Might he wins this thing? Now that handsome demon Colton has been killed (only corporeally, of course) he might be the favorite choice of lady voters the nation over. Or they might rally behind their little lightning bug Skylar. Or Elise could win! Haha, no, no she could not. I think it's Hollie's turn tonight, but if it isn't, it's Elise's. Though, in the wake of last week's tragedy, I'm just not sure I trust myself to ever predict this show ever again. We're all just fumbling through the dark, aren't we. All is chaos, all is unknowable. Out here in the top six swamp. Just muddling through, somehow.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.
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South African Journal of Science
On-line version ISSN 1996-7489
Print version ISSN 0038-2353
S. Afr. j. sci. vol.103 n.7-8 Pretoria Jul./Aug. 2007
Long-term measurements of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, nitric acid and ozone in southern Africa using passive samplers
J.J. MartinsI; R.S. DhammapalaI; G. LachmannI; C. Galy-LacauxII; J.J. PienaarI, *
ISchool of Chemistry, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Private Bag X6001, Potchefstroom 2520, South Africa
IILaboratoire d'Aérologie, 14 Avenue Edouard Belin, Toulouse 31400, France
This paper reports the measurements of monthly mean gaseous sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ammonia, nitric acid and ozone at four remote sitesLouis Trichardt (South Africa), Cape Point (South Africa), Amersfoort (South Africa) and Okaukuejo (Namibia) in southern Africa, over a period of nine to 11 years, using passive samplers. The 10-year mean sulphur dioxide concentrations varied from 0.43 parts per billion (ppb) at Okaukuejo to 2.8 ppb at Amersfoort. Nitrogen dioxide varied from 0.34 ppb at Okaukuejo to 2.5 ppb at Amersfoort, nitric acid from 0.23 ppb at Louis Trichardt to 0.90 ppb at Amersfoort, and ammonia from 1.2 ppb at Amersfoort to 1.5 ppb at Cape Point. Ozone exhibited a fairly constant high mean value of about 27 ppb throughout the region except for the Louis Trichardt site, with a relatively high 10-year mean of 35 ppb. The annual concentrations of all chemical species measured decreased from 1995 to 2001, after which they increased slightly. The large amounts of biofuels that are combusted on the continent, mainly in winter, substantially influence the concentrations of all measured species. The seasonal concentrations of all the gases seem to peak in winter and spring at all sites, except for ammonia at Cape Point and Okaukuejo, and sulphur dioxide at Cape Point, which peaks during the summer. Strong inter-annual variations were observed that prove the scientific value of decision-making based on long-term observations.
Long-term air pollution measurements play a critical role in assessing the impact of the evolution and the sustainability of ecosystems. This information is needed to improve our understanding of the behaviour of the atmosphere and its interactions with the biosphere.1 The chemical content of atmospheric deposition is the product of numerous physical and chemical mechanisms that include emission, transport, chemical reactions and removal processes. The long-term study of deposition of atmospheric species consequently enables tracking the temporal and spatial evolution of atmospheric chemistry, and is a pertinent indicator of natural and anthropogenic influences.
Pressures of costs and changing priorities make it difficult to maintain and expand long-term measurement programmes. Passive (or diffusive) samplers, one of the tools of modern atmospheric chemistry research,24 present a means of addressing these types of measurements in that they provide a cost-effective way of monitoring many key pollutant species. These samplers were tested and used in the Deposition of Biogeochemically Important Trace Species (DEBITS) programme of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) and the World Meteorological Organisation's Global Atmospheric Watch (WMO-GAW) programme, to assess dry deposition of these chemical types.1,2 The samplers are small, lightweight, silent, do not require electricity or field calibration, and can easily be deployed by non-specialists. As a result, they can be used to obtain long-term measurements at rural, regional and global scales.
Nitrogen and sulphur are some of the key elements that influence productivity in the biosphere.5 The deposition of their compounds is thus important in atmospheric studies. Due to the availability of passive samplers capable of measuring atmospheric sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), ammonia (NH3) and nitric acid (HNO3) concentrations, these compounds were included in the scope of DEBITS measurements.1 As the atmospheric chemistry of ozone (O3) is closely linked to that of several sulphur and nitrogen containing species, ozone measurements were also included.
The purpose of this paper is to report, for the first time, a 10-year data series of SO2,NO2,NH3,O3 and HNO3 concentrations at four remote sites in southern Africa. The findings reported here cover the period 1995 to 2005 and can be used in deposition modelling and impact assessment studies.
Sampling network
Passive samplers were deployed at four sampling locations (see Table 1). The gases SO2,NO2,O3 and NH3 were monitored from the start at all sites, and HNO3 monitoring was begun in May 2003. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism based in Windhoek, Namibia, was instrumental in setting up the Okaukuejo site and arranged for an official from the Etosha Ecological Institute to perform the routine work involved. The site is situated approximately 500 m west of the large Etosha salt pan, which is nearly always dry, and about 1 km from the nearest tourist road. The site is surrounded by small, vegetated sand hummocks. Very few people, vehicles or animals approach it.
The Louis Trichardt site is situated on a private farm, on the edge of an escarpment, about 20 km outside the town's main business centre. Although semi-arid locations are situated just a few kilometres away, this site is in a subtropical region affected by moist air masses transported from the Mozambique Channel. A third site is located 15 km from the town of Amersfoort on a private farm in the south of Mpumalanga province. Downwind of the Gauteng region and major power and petrochemical plants, it represents a regional location but one that lies within a global hot-spot in terms of satellite observations of SO2 and NO2 concentrations.6
The three locations mentioned above were identified as IGAC-DEBITS-IDAF programme sites, whereas Cape Point has been included by the WMO as a GAW coastal background site in the southern hemisphere. It is located at one of the southernmost points on the African continent.
Passive sampling
The theory and development of diffusive samplers have been described elsewhere.711 Briefly, pollutants diffuse into the samplers at rates controlled by their respective diffusion coefficients. Each pollutant then undergoes a chemical reaction on the surface of a paper disk, which has previously been impregnated with a chemical capable of reacting specifically with it.7,9,10 The samplers were prepared at North-West University and sealed in plastic film containers before being mailed to the site operators. The samplers were mounted 1.5 m above ground level in specially manufactured holders to curb any natural interference with the sampling process. After one month's exposure, the samplers were returned to the university in the sealed film containers for analysis.
Quality assurance and quality control
Data reported in this paper were collected using passive samplers developed and tested under the IGAC-DEBITS programme, as well as in various international studies.2 Passive sampler performance was compared in a field campaign using samplers that were assembled and analysed at the IVL (an accredited lab in Sweden) and CSIRO (Australia). Good correlations were obtained in these inter-comparison studies.7 The results of passive sampling were also compared with those of calibrated active samplers at Eskom's Elandsfontein site (for SO2,NO2 and O3) and at the WMO GAW site at Cape Point (for O3 and, since 2005, SO2).12 The performance of the NH3 sampler was checked against a calibrated active sampler in the Vaal Triangle.13 In the comparison studies with active samplers, it was found that small correction factors need to be incorporated for NO2 and O3. It was also found that NH3 samples have to be analysed within a month after exposure.
A field blank was included with each set of samplers deployed. Detection limits for each trace gas were calculated from field blanks and found to be 0.1 parts per billion (ppb) for SO2, 0.05 ppb for NO2, 0.2 ppb for NH3, 0.6 ppb for O3 and 0.1 ppb for HNO3, when averaged over a month. Only data above detection limits are reported in what follows.
All samples were collected in duplicate and their average was used in all computations, except when contamination of one of the samples was suspected (this was evident in less than 5% of all data). The covariance of all duplicate samples (a measure of precision) was 16.6%, 20%, 2.4%, 15.3% and 8.3% for SO2, HNO3, O3,NH3andNO2,respectively.These covariancescomparewell with those reported by the IDAF laboratory at the Laboratoire d'Aérology in Toulouse, France, for the same pollutants (17.4%, 28.9%, 7.9%, 14.6% and 3.7%, for SO2, HNO3,O3,NH3 and NO2, respectively).
The outcome of the above QA/QC measures suggests that sampling and analytical protocols employed here are viable means of obtaining atmospheric data at remote sites.
Results and discussion
Table 2 shows the average concentrations of all gases monitored from 1995 to 2005, as well as the number of duplicate samples above detection limits. The high NO2 and SO2 concentrations for Amersfoort compared with the other sites are because it is downwind of nearby industrial sources for much of the time.14 The high ozone concentrations observed at Louis Trichardt have been confirmed by modelling studies15 and are probably due to ozone precursors from regional biomass burning.
The role of NH3 and SO2 in aerosol formation is widely recognized.2,16 The NH3/SO2 ratios of 3.49, 1.46 and 2.73 were observed at Okaukuejo, Louis Trichardt and Cape Point, respectively, whereas a ratio of 0.42 was observed at Amersfoort. While differences in these ratios are mostly SO2-driven, they are relatively close to values reported by Carmichael et al.2 for Cape Point (ratio 3.3) and Elandsfontein (0.3) in 19992000. The same authors also report higher NH3/SO2 ratios for several other background sites in Africa, but the differences stem mainly from lower SO2 concentrations. The higher background SO2 levels in southern Africa are a consequence of industrial activities and coal-fired power plants in South Africa.
Annual averages
Summaries of annual minimum, mean, median and maximum concentrations for each pollutant except HNO3 at all sites over the sampling period are presented in Figs 14. Figure 1 shows that the SO2 annual mean concentration at Amersfoort decreased from 3.6 ppb in 1997 to 1.7 ppb in 2004. Inter-annual variations are also evident, however, in that 3.0 and 4.5 ppb was observed during 2002 and 2005, respectively. For the Cape Point site, the SO2 mean annual concentration (<1 ppb) showed little variation between 1995 and 2005, except in 2002 and 2005, when values of 1.3 and 1.2 ppb were observed. The Okaukuejo and Louis Trichardt sites show a slight constant decline for the SO2 mean annual concentration and are all below 1 ppb for the period 19952003, except for 1998 for Louis Trichardt, when the value was 1.8 ppb. The SO2 concentrations for Louis Trichardt and Okaukuejo increased slightly from 2003.
The mean annual NO2 concentrations at Amersfoort (Fig. 2) decreased from 3.8 ppb in 1997 to 1.2 ppb in 2002, and increased again to 3.8 ppb. The NO2 mean annual concentration at Cape Point decreased from 2.1 ppb in 1996 to 0.5 ppb in 2002 and then increased again to 0.8 ppb in 2005. The NO2 concentration at Louis Trichardt decreased from 1.2 ppb in 1996 to 0.3 ppb in 2002 and then increased to 0.8 ppb in 2005. The NO2 annual mean concentration at Okaukuejo was constant and under 0.6 ppb for the entire study period.
The annual mean HNO3 concentrations (see Table 2, data not shown in figures as only two years of data are currently available) increased at the Amersfoort site. At Louis Trichardt, the value seems to increase slightly whereas the concentrations at the Okaukuejo site appeared to stay relatively constant. The mean values at Cape Point were constant at 0.5 ppb for the last two years.
The annual mean O3 concentration in Fig. 3 for all the sites steadily decreased from 1994 to 2001, after which it increased. This tendency is especially evident in the data obtained at Cape Point and Louis Trichardt. A similar profile over this period was observed for these two and (to a lesser extent) the Amersfoort and Okaukuejo sites.
The annual mean concentration of NH3 at Cape Point, Louis Trichardt and Okaukuejo increased during the first four years (199598) and then decreased until 2005 for all three sites, except for 1999 and 2000 at Cape Point (Fig. 4). At the Amersfoort site, the annual mean NH3 concentration decreased from 2.0 ppb in 1999 to 0.5 ppb in 2005.
Monthly averages
Summaries of monthly minimum, mean, median and maximum concentrations for each pollutant except HNO3 at all sites over the sampling period are shown in Figs 58. The monthly mean SO2 concentrations were a maximum for Amersfoort, Louis Trichardt and, to a lesser extent, Okaukuejo during the dry winter and early spring months of June to October. The reverse was observed at the Cape Point site, where the maximum SO2 concentrations are recorded from January to April. The higher values during winter are probably linked to both increased emissions during the lower temperatures (resulting in increased energy use) as well as the stable atmospheric conditions experienced during the winter months. The Cape Point station is situated in a winter rainfall region and there the SO2 maximum was observed during the dry summer months.
The monthly mean NO2 concentrations show a clear seasonal signal at all the SouthAfrican sites (Fig. 6). TheOkaukuejo site (in Namibia) seems to be the exception, where more-constant NO2 values throughout the year were observed. The early spring maximum in NO2 concentrations at the South African sites may be linked to biogenic activity, as it marks the start of the growing season. The NO2 concentrations begin to rise a little earlier than at the inland sites because of enhanced biogenic activity in this region during the winter months. High NO2 values at Amersfoort are indicative of the anthropogenic contribution from the Mpumalanga highveld.
The clear spring and early summer maximum was observed for the monthly mean O3 concentrations at Amersfoort, Louis Trichardt and Cape Point, whereas the maximum O3 concentrations were observed from January to December at Okaukuejo (Fig. 7). The O3 maximum shows, as expected, a direct relation with the NO2 maximum, which is one of the precursors for the photochemical production of ozone. Although the reason that low O3 levels with little variability were observed at Okaukuejo is unknown at this stage, Carmichael et al.2 reported O3 concentrations as low as 7 ppb at a background site in the Ivory Coast.
The monthly mean NH3 concentration (Fig. 8) increased during the stable winter months at Amersfoort. These slightly elevated levels are probably linked to a less effective removal process during this time of the year. It is known that NH3 is one of the pollutants emitted by industry in this region. The relatively high NH3 values observed at Cape Point could be linked to the high density of nesting birds around the site. The monthly mean NH3 concentration at Okaukuejo remains relative constant throughout the year. We note that the NH3 maximum was observed at exactly the same time as for HNO3.
The gaseous concentrations of SO2,NO2, HNO3,NH3 and O3 were measured on a monthly basis at four regional sites in southern Africa over several years. The monthly SO2 concentrations ranged from 0.2 ppb (at the rural sites of Louis Trichardt and Okaukuejo) to 6.3 ppb (industrial site of Amersfoort). Monthly NO2 concentrations ranged from 0.2 ppb (Louis Trichardt and Okaukuejo) to 7.1 ppb (Amersfoort). The mean SO2 concentration over the period 19942005 was below 1.0 ppb for all the stations except Amersfoort, which had a concentration of 2.8 ppb. The mean NO2 concentration over the same period was below 1.5 ppb for all the stations except Amersfoort, where a concentration of 2.5 ppb was observed. The NH3 concentrations ranged from 0.4 ppb (Amersfoort) to 7.2 ppb at Cape Point, whereas the O3 concentrations ranged from 10 ppb (Amersfoort) to 57 ppb at Louis Trichardt. The mean HNO3 concentrations were below 1.0 ppb for the study period, and ranged from 0.2 ppb at Louis Trichardt to 2.5 ppb at Amersfoort. The relatively large fluctuations in the Amersfoort data set are probably due to the direct influence of industrial pollution plumes at this site. The relatively large spatial differences clearly indicate the anthropogenic effect on the chemical species recorded in the atmosphere of the region.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial supported of Eskom Enterprises, Sasol Research and Development, the National Research Foundation, the Department of Science and Technology and North-West University. Monitoring of all these chemical species is still continuing at these sites as part of the DEBITS network with the following personnel as site operators: Wilfred Winfred (Okaukuejo), Chris James (Louis Trichardt), Memory Deacon (Amersfoort) and Ernst Brunke (Cape Point).
1. Pienaar J.J. (2005). DEBITS (Deposition of Biogeochemically Important Trace Species) enter Phase II as an IGAC task. IGACtivities Newsl. 31, 1317. [ Links ]
2. Carmichael G.R., Ferm M., Thongboonchoo N. and Jung-Hun W. et al. (2003). Measurements of sulfur dioxide, ozone and ammonia concentrations in Asia, Africa, and South America using passive samplers. Atmos. Environ. 37, 12931308. [ Links ]
3. Ayers G.P., Keywood M.D., Gillet R.W., Manins P.C., Malfroy H. and Bardsley T. (1998). Validation of passive diffusion samplers for SO2 and NO2. Atmos. Environ. 32, 35873592. [ Links ]
4. Ferm M. and Svanberg P.A. (1998). Cost-efficient techniques for urban-and background measurements of SO2 and NO2. Atmos. Environ. 32, 13771381. [ Links ]
5. Ashmore M., Emberson L. and Murray F. (Eds) (2003). In Air Pollution Impacts on Crops and Forests A Global Assessment. Air Pollution Reviews, vol. 4. Imperial College Press, London. [ Links ]
6. Jaegle L., Steinberger L., Martin R.V. and Chance K. (2005). Global partitioning of NOx sources using satellite observations: relative roles of fossil fuel combustion, biomass burning and soil emission. Faraday Disc. 130, 407423. [ Links ]
7. Dhammapala R. (1996). Use of passive samplers for the sampling of atmospheric pollutants. M.Sc. thesis, Potchefstroom University for CHE, South Africa. [ Links ]
8. Palmes E.D. and Gunnison A.F. (1973). Personal monitoring device for gaseous contaminants. Am. Ind. Hygiene Assoc. J. 34, 7881. [ Links ]
9. Ferm M. (1991). A sensitive diffusional sampler. IVL publication B-1020, Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Box 47086, 402 58 Goteborg, Sweden. [ Links ]
10. Koutrakis P., Wolfson J.M., Bunyaviroch A., Froehlich S.E., Hirano K. and Mulik J.D. (1993). Measurement of ambient ozone using a nitrite-coated filter. Anal. Chem. 65, 209214. [ Links ]
11. Ferm M. (2001). The theories behind diffusive sampling. In Proc. International Conference on Measuring Air Pollutants by Diffusive Sampling, pp. 3140, Montpellier, France. [ Links ]
12. Pienaar J.J. and Julies A.P. (2001). Present status and performance of passive samplers theoretical considerations. In Proc. Air Quality Workshop, African Centre for Energy and Environment, Warmbaths, South Africa. [ Links ]
13. van der Walt H.J., du Toit P., Julies A.P. and Pienaar J.J. (1998). Integration of passive samplers into a modern ambient air quality monitoring network. In Proc. 11th World Clean Air and Environment Congress and Exhibition, Durban. [ Links ]
14. Held G., Gore B.J., Surridge A.D., Tosen G.R., Turner C.R. and Walmsley R.D. (1996). Chemical transformations of atmospheric pollutants. In Air Pollution and its Impacts on the South African Highveld. Environmental Scientific Association, Cleveland, Johannesburg. [ Links ]
15. Zunckel M., Koosailee A., Yarwood G., Maure G., Venjonoka K., van Tienhoven A.M. and Otter L. (2006). Modelled surface ozone over southern Africa during the Cross Border Air Pollution Impact Assessment Project. Environmental Modelling & Software 21(7), 911924. [ Links ]
16. Carmichael G.R., Street D.G., Calori G., Amann M., Jacobson M.Z., Hansen J. and Ueda H. (2002). Changing trends in sulfur emissions is Asia: implications for acid deposition, air pollution and climate. Environ. Sci. Technol. 36(22), 47074713. [ Links ]
* Author for correspondence. email@example.com


text:
So glad its Friday, so glad to be home and to have a rest. Love a bit of Golden Balls if I am home early enough – and what do I see?
Make up that took my breath away.
It took my breath away.
I love it. I love that she has her own sense of style even if its not…conventional. Screw conventionality. Screw blending. Screw highlighter.
I want to salute the woman and ask her to be my mate, as long as we don't have to…
a. Go make-up shopping together or
b. Link arms as we walk
I'll just remind you, its currently 2009.
Worship her with me!
p.s. She didn't win, she got kicked out on the second round. I would have taken her through, she did seem trustworthy – thats if its possible to measure someones integrity based on eyeshadow application.


text:
On Tuesday afternoon Canucks Assistant General Manager and "master negotiator" Laurence Gilman co-hosted the mid-day show on the Team 1040, alongside Matt Sekeres (listen to the first hour of the podcast here). Gilman and Sekeres talked about the difficulty of making trades when you're up against the salary cap, they spoke about Shane Doan, and which Canucks uniforms are the most attractive (the flying V? Are you kidding me?).
More revealingly, Gilman gave us some insight into the way the Canucks recruit players, and how they negotiate extensions with their own players. Considering the undeniable quality of the management team's contract work over the past four years, I think some of his comments are worth examining in further detail.
To begin with, Gilman was asked about the way the Canucks go about recruiting unrestricted free-agents, and Gilman agreed to discuss the topic with one major "caveat" (a quick note: all of what follows is a live transcription, so expect it to be slightly inexact):
There are some things that we do with respect to recruitment of players that we believe are proprietary, in respect to the other 29 teams. We're on the troll for things that other teams are doing, we don't think we have a lock on everything smart that teams are doing.
So the Canucks have a process – or a super-fast player agent speed dialing machine – or something, at least, that they consider proprietary. What sort of black magic is this?
Gilman went on to describe the process by which the Canucks have attempted to woo Shane Doan this summer:
"We brought Shane in, we had discussions with his representative, [Gilman then notes that this situation is unique because of Gilman and Doan's long-standing personal relationship]. I articulated our position, explained why we thought Shane would be a good fit for us, and why we'd be a good fit for him. And we asked for the opportunity to meet with Shane face-to-face particularly to give Aquilini and Gillis the chance to tell him, and his wife, what we were all about."
"We spent several hours in the Canucks office, it was an opportunity for Francesco [Aqulini] and Mike [Gillis] to open their hearts and souls and convey what we're about – what's the soul of our organization. We did give them some literature, there was a presentation made to them about our team and our city. In terms of the structure of the deal and the financial component – you'd be surprised – but that actually takes care of itself."
How is that for humility? In his time with Vancouver, Gilman has negotiated below market deals for the likes of Kevin Bieksa, Dan Hamhuis, two Sedin twins, Ryan Kesler and a grinder named Alex Burrows. This summer it was Jason Garrison, who probably left a million dollar per season (or more) on the table when he signed with the Canucks. That took care of itself? Don't tell that to Republican voters.
Let's quickly digress, because Gilman also gave a quick update on the Shane Doan situation. Frankly, he didn't sound like a guy who expected to win this particular free-agent derby:
"It's very simple: Shane Doan – and I'm not saying anything that hasn't come out of Shane's mouth – his number one priority is to stay in Phoenix and play for the Coyotes. But that's contingent on a couple of things. Number one that Greg Jamison – the potential buyer for the Coyotes – can finalize the deal, [and keep the team in Phoenix]… Second, it's predicated on the premise that the Coyotes are going to be a competitive and viable team. As Shane said to us, he wants to attempt to win every single year.
As it sits now we have the cap space available, and we're willing to be patient… (and it's not like we have an alternative)."
Back to the insight Gilman offered on his negotiating strategy, becasue beyond pursuing free-agents, he also talked about the importance of keeping guys like the Sedin twins around on reasonable contracts. In particular, he was asked whether or not the team could ever bring in a player who made more than 6.1 million per season, or if the Canucks are – in a counter-intuitive way – handcuffed by the extraordinarily affordable contracts the Sedins signed back in 2009:
"We have a covenant with our players, we're going to pay them the absolute most that we can, provided that we are going to spend to the cap every year. But there is a point in the continuum whereby for every dollar we pay them over a certain amount, inhibits our ability to surround them with players that will allow us to build a Stanley Cup contending team.
We have a structure in place, but you have to look at it on a case by case basis. Henrik is our captain, Henrik and Daniel have been our most accomplished players, so it does factor into our discussions, but we could bring a guy in and pay them more…
It did start with Henrik and Daniel Sedin… we had a plan and that plan had to do with collectively building this together with them. So there had to be "buy in" from our players. More credit has to go to Daniel and Henrik than anybody ever gives them, for being willing to play here for an amount that allowed us to do what we said we were going to do.
Once they'd done that it spoke such volumes about our plan… It was natural that players were going to fall in line. We make it very clear when we sit down with [our pending free agents]: "if it's about the money, it's okay, you have a short window to maximize your earning potential" but, "it won't be here because it doesn't work for us."
There are a few points we should make here. First of all, if we take Gilman at his word then two of the most important factors allowing the team to retain their players for below market value seem to be honesty, and the team's recent history of consistently fielding a competitive team.
Consistently fielding a competitive team is obviously important because, guess what, no one is taking a pay cut to play for the Blue Jackets. Winning is about sacrifice, whether it's sacrificing your counting stats for the good of the team (poor Manny Malhotra), or sacrificing some of the potential thickness of your wallet, so that your club is able to sign additional talent.
More interesting was Gilman's description of levelling with pending free-agents about maximizing their earnings elsewhere, and how he portrayed the "trust" between organization and its player when it comes to taking less to play in Vancouver.
In fact, Gilman bristled at the language Sekeres used when he described the management team as having "sold" the Sedins on taking less money, and countered by using the word "covenant" to describe the process by which Vancouver's management team has consistently convinced their players to leave cash on the table. "Covenant," implies that the trust and the expectation of honesty between the organization and its players on this front is sacred. Could this be a major a reason for why there have been so many Garrisons, Keslers, and Bieksas for every Christian Ehrhoff?
Of course, there is some revisionist history here, I think. When the Sedins re-upped on their current deals, they weren't considered "super-elite" players in the same way they are today. They were clearly first-line talents, but the Art Ross trophies and the hundred point seasons – those came when the twins were well into their current, twin five year deals…
Still, hearing Gilman discuss how inefficient contracts "inhibit" a clubs ability to surround their core pieces with quality role players, and how the Canucks have avoided going down that road, is fascinating. The LA Kings built a championship team by, in the words of Gabe Desjardins, being "just a little bit efficient" everywhere on their roster. It's a model that's very much in line with what the Canucks management team has tried to accomplish during their time in Vancouver.
That Gillis, Gilman and co. have managed to get the majority of their roster to "buy in" on that plan, and accept the Canucks' particular "covenant" is quite the accomplishment. It's not a Stanley Cup, but it's still nothing to sniff at. And certainly it didn't "just take care of itself."


text:
Only other thing of note was this defaced tv. Don't leave your old tv on the street if you don't want someone to deface it. That's always been my maxim.
It was an exasperatingly long day at work and I was hoping for solace in a genial ride home, but it was somewhat too hot for solace, so I wanted to settle for mundane and I mostly got a mundane trip and I'm happy for it.
If drivers are allowed to make right turns on red lights based on the understand that they are capable of looking in one direction to determine if their paths are clear, shouldn't pedestrians be able to jaywalk on one way streets based on the same logic? If a person is capable of maneuvering his car under such circumstances, certainly someone would be equally capable of using his legs. What do we want? Mode equality. When do we want it? Whenever convenient, preferably soon. (I'm not much of a radical.)
I took 11th on the afternoon trip and as I took it on the morning trip and that street continues to prove itself perfectly adequate for bike commuting but I'm still open to seeing other streets because when it comes to bike commuting, I like to play the field and I refuse to settle down. Don't try to change me, streets of DC.
What kind of products would you buy if they were labeled as "great for bike commuters"? Like, only bike stuff? I'd like to think I wouldn't be swayed by this kind of endorsement, but I think I'd be lying. I hope someone starts selling "great for bike commuters" churros.
I got this email today.
Joyce Rosario firstname.lastname@example.com via gmail.com
10:01 AM (9 hours ago)
to talesfromthesh.
How are you doing? I am Joyce Del Rosario. I am an accounting and finance blogger. I am a long time reader of your blog. Whenever I read your blog, I always imagine myself being featured in your site but I don't have a good topic to share during those times so I didn't take the chance to contact you.
I have a great topic to share to your blog readers. It's entitled "The Penniless Accountant." This will surely capture the interest of your readers since this will feature ways on how they can maximize their potentials for them to be successful in their endeavors.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Joyce Del Rosario
P.S. I have readmst of your posts and they have been very motivating. I salute your blog for always delivering quality content. I hope you continue being an inspiration to your readers.
I think it's pretty great that Joyce has readmst of my posts and finds them motivating. So, I'll leave it to you all to tell me if you'd like to read on the topic of "The Penniless Accountant" or if you'd like me to stop sharing the various spam messages I receive. In any case, continue to maximize your potentials!
Shoaled by a woman in a sparkly, gold cardigan. She was on a Dutch-style bike and she rode with an impressive level of abandon and carelessness. We both got passed by a guy on a CaBi he wore giant headphones and he hustled to catch a green light along Pennsylvania that I didn't think he'd make, so bravo for him.
Pretty good ride up Capitol Hill, but it got very crowded along East Capitol and it looked like all of the riders in front of me had spread out in order to set up for the sprint finish. SPOILER ALERT: that grandma is not your leadout man. It makes me laugh, but only when I'm not caught up in it.


text:
30 November 2012
2011 Robert Mondavi Coastal Crush Red
This is a red blend that comes from the world's largest wine company and bears an easily recognizable name, but it doesn't mean that it's a boring "macrowine" on the order of Budweiser or Coors. Indeed, I found it to be a tasty California red blend that is affordable, easily available, and yet well enough constructed that you shouldn't ever be ashamed of the $11 price tag. I certainly enjoyed it with an all-American dinner of steak with a baked potato and simple salad.
This wine was provided to me as part of an online Twitter tasting, but due to traffic conflicts on the way home from work, I was unable to attend. But you can go back and read some of the tasting notes and commentary @RobertMondaviPS.
2011 Robert Mondavi Coastal Crush Red
57% Monterey County, 20% San Benito County, 13% Paso Robles, 10% Valley South
67% Syrah, 24% Merlot, 9% Malbec
$11, 13.5% abv.
The wine opens up early with notes of cassis and a touch of chocolate. On the palate it has rich chocolate-covered cherry flavors with very low tannins, a mild body, and a short finish. This is a very mild and easily drinkable red that is definitely ready now. Highly recommended for just a fun and enjoyable wine to open up when you have surprise visitors over the holidays.
Note: This wine was received as a sample.
3 comments:
Hi, I'm a wine novice (even though I worked at a fairly exclusive Italian restaurant - I'm that good an actor!), and so don't feel worthy of spending a fortune on wine.
I found this at a local shop for considerably less than the price mentioned above and immediately bought it, figuring, 'eh, mass produced perhaps, but probably a pretty safe bet, and that PRICE!
I really liked it, felt it was, while not exotic in any way, certainly enjoyable, perfect for visitors of unknown preferences, and, did I mention affordable as all get out?
Thanks for your review and assuring me that my impression is not just that of a wine rube!
- 07 March, 2013 22:57
- Benito said...
It's got good balance, and a tremendous quality-price ratio. Glad you enjoyed it, and have fun exploring the world of wine--affordable or otherwise!
- 08 March, 2013 16:30
Just picked this up tonight. Being one who is always searching for something better, I gave this a try. Slightly disappointed. I have come to like the apothic red wine because I can really taste the fruit and especially the chocolate or mocha as well. The description on the Mondavi was mocha, raspberries, and strawberry. I definitely tasted fruit, but no mocha. I tried it slightly chilled and also at room temp to see if the flavor would come out. I may leave the bottle a few days and come back but as of right now, not blown away. The search continues for good wine.
- 26 September, 2013 19:18


text:
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