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Safari Lounge Designer Classes - Learn how to become a Designer
Welcome to the Safari Lounge Designer Classes!
What the Safari Lounge Designer Classes will be up to!
Travel (CU Kit): Hawaiian Party Luau
Hawaiian Party Luau (CU Kit)
Create a Badge (Gimp Tutorial)
Granite Background (Photoshop Tutorial)
Course: Etsy Makeover Challenge
Etsy Makeover Challenge Course 1-7 (28:38)
Travel the World (CU Kit) + Which Designer Name and Logo is right for you?
Travel the World
Your Designer Name and Logo (6:10)
Roses are red (CU Kit) + showing your Products
Why it is essential to show what you can do with your Kits
Roses are red
Wintertime Commercial Use Kit
Wintertime 1
Wintertime 2
Creating for Halloween
Create a Halloween Tag (9:47)
Hocus Pocus Papers
Hocus Pocus Elements
Designing for Zazzle & Co.
Palm Tree Set
Designing for Profit: Products for Zazzle & Co. (15:52)
Beach Life Mix
Create a Brush from the Beach Life Pattern Mix (7:26)
Create a Pattern from the Beach Life Pattern Mix (5:56)
Beach Life Pattern Mix
Designing for Summer
Sailor's Papers
Sailor's Paper Tutorial (5:12)
Travel (CU Kit): Australia
Create a Banner/ Header
Create your Terms of Use
Prepare for Back to School
Learning is Fun! (CU)
Why Selling in More Stores Does not Equal More Money
Make a Tie-Dye Paper in GIMP
Your Product Preview and Description
Easter (CU Kit)
Easter Factory (CU)
Chocolate Effect in Photoshop
Photoshop Tutorial: Etched Text on Wood
Designing for Valentines Day
Romantic Spring
Text Message in a Ball with GIMP
How to use Gimp
What you need to start
Making a Prong
How to Create a Template
Creating a Bottle Cap
Making an Envelope
Rubber Stamp Effect
Creating a Film Strip
Paper with Text Effect
Making Digital Charms
Creating Photo Corners
Creating Custom Shapes
Quality Control Check in GIMP
Creating a Custom Frame
How to Make Sewing Buttons
All About Digital Tags
Making Tabs
Creating a Quickpage
Making a Grunge Brush
Grunge Overlay
Making Patterns
Glass Effect
Creating an Eyelet
Engraved Text Effect
Dodge and Burn
The Diamond Metal Effect
Making a Cork Board
How to Make a Bead or Shiny Ball
How to Make Chain Links
The Brushed Metal Effect
How to Make Sticky Tape
Making a Ribbon
Creating the Sticker Effect
How to Create Staples in GIMP
Creating a Paperclip
How to Change the Color of Digital Elements
How to Extract from an Image
Crumpled Digital Paper
Creating a Striped Pattern Using the Color Picker Tool
Saving A Digital Paper Using GIMP
Making Textured Papers Using Seamless Tiles
Using the Cloud Filter
Create a Polka Dots Pattern
Getting started with Gimp
Silver and Turquoise Text Effect
Supernova Text Effect in GIMP 2
How to Make a Face and Text Art in GIMP
Removing Background from Hair
Blending Pictures in GIMP
Using Layer Mask in GIMP
GIMP Layer Effects
Splash Text Effect
Chrome Beveled Text Effect
How to Put Images in Text
How to Draw in GIMP
Basic GIMP Modifications: Scale, Crop, Rotate, Flip
Red Eye Removal in GIMP
How to Use the Select Tool
How to Use the Paths Tool
GIMP Overview
Commercial Use Products in Action
Create a Frame in Photoshop
Create your own Postage Stamp with GIMP
Make Colourful Polaroid Photo Frames in GIMP
Stitch Effect in GIMP
Blend Image to Background
Eternity Quickpage
April Rain Grunge Trimming
Enchanted Summer Nights Stickers
Enchanted Spring Digital Photo Frame
Because of You Communication Bubbles
Walk on the Wild Side Quickpage
Vintage Rose Border
Keepsakes Digital Patchwork
Say Cheese Washi Strips
DIY Email Birthday Invitation
One in a Million Playtime Banner
Time Goes By Digital Paper
It's Love Nostalgic Stationery
Someone Like You Postage Stamps
Textured Star Frames
Spring-inspired Peeling Stickers
Coffee Break Journal Cards
Vintage Valentine Notes
Santa's Little Gift Wrap Paper
My Coffee Mug – Digital Paper
Masquerade Paper in GIMP 2
How to Make Vintage American Tags
Water at the Sea Paper
Seaside Mobile Project
How to Make Vintage Coasters
Creating a Vintage Hawaiian Frame
How to Make an Owl Bottle Cap Charm
Learn Designing with Gimp
Learn Designing (44 PDFs for you to download included) (1:16)
We Are United Colorsheme
Vintage Traveling Colorsheme
Vintage Artistry Colorsheme
To the Moon and Back Colorsheme
Spring Fever Colorsheme
Midsummer Night Colorsheme
Little Fairies Colorsheme
Garden Eden Colorsheme
Treasure Papers
The Sun Of Africa 2
The Sun Of Africa
Route 66
Rainforest Paperpack
Rainforest 2
Travel The World
Attic Treasures
A Summer Morning
Secret Garden
With Love always
December Grabbag
You make me smile
Fairy Tale CU Grabbag
Natural Feeling
Summer Holidays
Summer Escape
April Rain
Enchanted Summer Nights
Enchanted Spring
Because of You
Walk on the Wild Side
Vintage Rose
Say Cheese!
Birthday Party Grabbag
One in a Million
Time Goes By
It's Love Grabbag
Someone Like You Grabbag
Spring Imagination Grabbag
Enchanted Spring Grabbag
Soulmate Paperpack
Because of You
Vintage Valentine
Santa's Little Helpers
Coffee Break Set
Masquerade Labels
Vintage American Labels
At the Sea
Vintage Hawaiian Paper
Owl Bottle Caps
Business Setup for Creative Entrepreneurs - Start here
Introduction (2:11)
Course Outline (1:30)
Your Business Foundation
Choose your Designer Name and Logo (6:10)
Create a Blog and use a real Domain (6:01)
Create a Header for your Website (12:19)
Create a Blog Background (2:43)
Modify your Blog with Widgets (4:21)
Content creation for your Website (5:56)
Install Google Analytics (2:51)
Set up a Newsletter (4:12)
Create a Newsletter Box with a Button (10:32)
Make the Newsletter Graphic clickable (4:12)
Create your Terms of Use (5:21)
Set Up A Store
Add a Woocommerce Store to your Site (2:42)
Add Categories to your Store (3:06)
Add the Shop to your Menu (6:21)
Set up a Product (9:29)
Basic Settings (Currency, Colors, etc.) (4:31)
Set up the Sidebar (3:16)
Add a sharing plugin (2:52)
What you need to decide upfront...
Your Packaging and Product Description (9:25)
Why selling in more Stores does not equal more money (8:48)
Why it is essential to show what you can do with your Products (8:05)
Use Facebook to find new Customers
Using Facebook and why it is essential for your Business Success (7:50)
Set up a Facebook Page (5:10)
Set up an Image (3:11)
Set up your Logo on Facebook (1:51)
Content for your Facebook Page (4:21)
Load Videos and Images to Facebook (2:37)
Add your Newsletter to Facebook (4:48)
Like and Find Pages in your Niche (6:05)
Planning regular Posts (3:50)
Attract more Customers with Content
Creative Content for your Blog/Website (3:05)
Boring vs. valuable Content (3:29)
Linkbuilding - Spreading the Word about your Designs (5:41)
Pinterest is the place to go to share visual Content
Pinterest Overview (4:21)
Where your Pins appear on Pinterest (3:39)
Find Friends and Boards on Pinterest (4:11)
Your Profile on Pinterest (3:09)
Pin it from your Site (3:15)
Change and edit a Pin (1:11)
Create an Account on Pinterest (1:10)
Find your Friends on Pinterest (1:03)
Pin without the Pin it Button (2:04)
Add the right Picture on Pinterest (1:32)
The Power of Pinning (1:17)
Twitter - another place you can conquer
Using Twitter (3:37)
Set up your Twitter Profile (5:32)
Find Followers on Twitter (6:12)
More Ways to advertise
Meet your Customers where they are (9:48)
Why you have to price your products higher (9:22)
Marketing which lasts forever (4:26)
Marketing on a zero Budget
Welcome (1:21)
Is Marketing on a zero Budget a fit for you? (2:01)
What you can expect in this class (1:10)
Let's get started (0:53)
What you can expect in this module (1:10)
How Online Marketing works (2:52)
Paid Advertising (4:22)
Why paid advertising isn't always the best way to advertise your Business (3:47)
Indirect Paid Advertising (3:59)
Free Advertising (11:21)
How it all gets together (6:21)
Conclusion (0:34)
Why Content Marketing (4:36)
We need Content to advertise our Business (4:31)
What should I write about? (8:15)
Why should I create an Editorial Calendar? (2:05)
Google Calendar (9:08)
Weekly Planning (4:28)
Writing and formating your Text (12:10)
Graphics (2:07)
Create Graphics for Advertising (12:21)
Conclusion (1:35)
Why you need a Newsletter (2:00)
Why do I need an Email Marketing Service? (3:36)
What is the right Email Marketing Service for you? (2:49)
Segmentation - Not each Solution fits to each Subscriber (3:30)
A Tool for Segmenting your Subscribers (6:06)
Your Freebie (4:49)
The Freebie is done - now what? (6:25)
The Foundation Content- and Email Marketing (2:31)
Conclusion (0:55)
What's now? (0:53)
Warm- and Cold Acquisition (4:44)
Make sure that your potential Customer gets to know you (7:45)
Why you should specialise on one Social Network first (2:09)
Bonus (1:18)
Congratulations (0:47)
You did it!
Go for your Passion! (0:52)
Bonus Lecture: What else we are up to and Coupons (5:00)
Creating a Paperclip
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Hello everyone...
I didn't really know which category to post this in, so here it is.
I found this article about User Interfaces, and since it mentions the FingerWorks products as well as other 'gesture' based hardware and software, I thought I'd point it out here. It's very much Mac-centered, but the basic concepts of Human-to-Machine interfaces apply no matter what platform you are using. Also, I should mention that a lot of the links lead to a YouTube video that demonstrate the tech.
Here's the address:
http://www.macobserver.com/columns/devi ... 5uis.shtml

subset: commoncrawl


text: What sort of speeds are you all getting from XT these days? In the past I'd get several Mb/s on my HSPA+ device but now it tends to sit at around 1 Mb/s. I'm well aware that 3G suffers from congestion etc. but I'm just trying to determine whether this likely to be an issue with my device, the local sites (Whakatane) or whether those speeds are just normal now. While there's obviously no speed guarantee, Telecom might like to know if things are slower than expected over here :)


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Ruth Miller, a lifetime resident of Wabash, passed away at 9:53 p.m. on Monday, May 12, at Wabash County Hospital. She is now rejoicing in Heaven with those who went before her. She was born to the late Ollis N. and Ermma (White) Miller on Jan. 17, 1914 in Wabash County.
Ruth was a 1932 graduate from Urbana High School. Ruth was known as a prayer warrior and she prayed often for her family and friends. Her prayers will be missed by many. Ruth attended Gods Bible School in Cincinnati, Ohio, where she received her diploma in Missionary Training. Ruth was a member of the Wabash North Wesleyan, where she served on the board. She also served as Missionary Treasurer and taught Sunday school for many years. She was a great caregiver to her stepmother and later to her dad. She worked at the Cyclone in Urbana for several years and she did general cleaning for others as well.
Ruth was preceded in death by two brothers and a sister. She is survived by three nieces, Virginia Ruth Smithers, Lagro, Sharon (David) Pickett, Marion, and Mary Ann Hunsucker, LaFontaine.
Funeral service will be held at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 17, at McDonald Funeral Home, 231 Falls Avenue, Wabash, with Pastor Joe Kelly officiating. Burial will follow in the Huff Cemetery in Wabash County.
Visitation for family and friends will be from 1-2 p.m. on Saturday at the funeral home.
Preferred memorials are directed to Wabash North Wesleyan Church or the charity of your choice. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.mcdonaldfunerals.com.
The family would like to thank, Tina, Amy and Dolly from Premier Health Care. Thanks for taking wonderful care of Ruth while she remained at home. Also thanks to Sandy Martin who did a wonderful job keeping Ruth's house clean. Ruth thought so much of all of you.
To the staff at Wabash County Hospital who took good care of Ruth for the last two weeks of her life, thanks so much.


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Lizbv--Thanks, most of exercises are what I do at home.I'm a band killer,popped a bunch.
Lizbv--Thanks, most of exercises are what I do at home.I'm a band killer,popped a bunch.
Be yourself!!!
BMF Sports & LiftWithoutLimits
Sponsored Athlete
I am a T9 and I got hooked on ice cream and butter fingers for about a week and it now has showed up on my butt and legs. I was atrofied (sp) pretty bad for a while until this happened. Now I need to find a way to exercise to get it off. I am on a diet but without exercise I'm not going to get it off. I have started to do crunches and doing the best I can on sit ups on the bed.
So now I'm asking if anyone knows an exercise to help me. Now take in consideration that I am a complete. I have a Clours chair that I have to get rid of
I want to Rock you Gypsy soul and together we will flow into the Mystic.
Van Morrison
Hi Mary....if you can, use a strap tied or looped at end of bed to help with sit ups. Use rope to pull yourself up. in your chair, use small hand weights, and do rotational trunk exercise. Hold arms out, and turn as far one way, then the other. Start with sets of 10, then increase weight, and reps as you get stronger. If you can, a variation on this is to sit up in bed, and reach down to touch toes with opposite side hand. Dont use weights for this.
Thanks Graybeard, I though of that also. The weirdest thig is I thought I was putting in a new post. I guess I was in this one when I posted. LOL
I want to Rock you Gypsy soul and together we will flow into the Mystic.
Van Morrison
Dear Nurses,
I live in a small town in West Texas, Midland Texas ZIP code 79705.
I was needing help finding a occupational therapists that would be willing to come into my home possibility for two hours a day they will be paid by me I also have enough equipment here to use. I am unable to get out into the community to see what is available.
Thanks in advance for your help
my e-mail address is firstname.lastname@example.com
Michael B.
great excercises. i find it easier to do some of these one arm at a time if possible b/c of balance problems
If you're looking for ways to work out, check out www.wheelflexinc.com. Wheelflex is a brand new product just about to hit the market for wheelchair users to work out. It attaches right to just about any chair. It is basically a pully system with adjustable tension from free pulling to a dead stop, and allows you to work out all upper body muscle groups. We were having trouble with the email link, so if you have questions and cannot contact through the website, email me directly at firstname.lastname@example.com and I would be happpy to provide you with more information. Just put Wheelflex in the subject box so I know who you are, or else I'll probably delete the email without reading it. As a wheelchair user myself, I have found Wheelflex as a great way to work out and you don't even have to get out of the chair!
For patient of 67 year having 4+5 D damaged turining into paraplegia for last 18 months what excercise
will be effective.
knmotta, what are his capabilities? Does he have a complete injury, or can he move his legs at all?
"So I have stayed as I am, without regret, seperated from the normal human condition." Guy Sajer


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The motorik shove of 'I Heard Wonders' is like a slap in the face, an opening salvo of propulsive energy that signals the return of one of music's forward thinkers. You think you might have heard it before; echoes of Bowie's mid-70s decamp to Hansa-on-the-Wall, or Can's 'I Want More', but this is David Holmes doing what he does best; negotiating his way through the pitfalls of having all the right frames of reference, without emerging with a hash that tastes staler than a week-old doughnut.
It's to be expected that he gets it right, really. Holmes' star was launched proper when his second release, the eclectic Let's Get Killed, was embraced far outside of the DJ-producer culture from which it was born. The echoes of that hedonistic 1997 release are still felt in some ways to this day as the ripples of its 'embrace everything' enthusiasm swish around smaller inlets.
It's been a little over eight years since Holmes released his last proper solo album, though. Bow Down To The Exit Sign was a slab of garage and funk that soundtracked a film yet to exist and caused Alan Mcgee to flap at its lack of inclusion in the cut for the Mercury Music Prize.
Though Holmes has been anything but silent in the years since (imdb lists 30 film projects on which he has contributed to the soundtrack or acted as executive music supervisor), it is here on The Holy Pictures that we see the quietly spoken Belfast native finally removed from the movie - real or imagined - for the first time.
The influence here is life. Holmes' own experiences. In particular those of loss: his childhood, his mother, and then more recently his father. He sings on a handful of tracks for the first time, compelled to do so by the emotional weight of material. It precludes his normal tendancy to collaborate and whilst Holmes' voice is understated and surpisingly airy, it sits just as well in Holy Pictures' Neu!-like pulse, as it does in the cable-in-the-rain static of 'Love Reign Over Me'. His obvious vocal touchstones being the hushed pipework of Jim Reed and Bobby Gillespie.
Whilst at times it seems that there might be a thread between tracks like 'Melanie' or 'I Heard Wonders', and the millennial Krautshock treatments of Primal Scream, The Holy Pictures has altogether less thrust, with the rhythmic front exhausting itself to give way to ambient collages and oscillating moog drones. 'Theme/I.M.C' emits a tight, ticking pulse, 'Kill Her With Kindness' is ushered in like a mist before disipating amongst the stars, and Maggie - an instrumental enoesque soundscape - stirs emotively before ebbing away to the sound of Holmes' infant daughter. Her innocent exclamation offers a kind of redemptive counterpoint to the album's somber origins.
Though his gift as a DJ means that David Holmes could never be accused of lacking cohesion, he has always been inclined to mesh quite disperate ideas together. The Holy Pictures certainly isn't eclectic in the same way as the skitting race through New York sub-culture experienced on Let's Get Killed, or the back and forth pummel of Bow Down. It's a little less brazen, a little more personal but it fits together as a listen-start-to-finish endeavor as well if not better than any of his previous works and that is testament indeed.
8Dan Wale's Score


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St. Catherine's, on East Chelten Avenue in Gertmantown, is the world headquarters of an association dedicated to distributing the Miraculous Medal whose design was revealed to St. Catherine in Paris in the 1800s during an apparition of the Blessed Virgin.
It is also one of the prettiest Italianate churches in Philadelphia. Here we see it while it was being repainted in April 2008.


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text: ← Brighting the hq has it all… → New signs at AZ West Posted: December 22nd, 2011Author: zittelFiled Under: A-Z West1 Comment While we are showing off the new HDTS signs, I also wanted to remember to post the signs that just went up a few weeks ago at AZ West. With 35 acres all cobbled together – and with each parcel serving a different function – it's becoming more and more important to help people find their destination on the property. Skylar helped us figure out an economical way to build the metal frame and Randy Brill executed the router carving. Then Patrick and Marcus kept warm on a winter afternoon by digging 40″ holes and trying to get the whole thing leveled out in three directions. One Comment On "New signs at AZ West" thebrickhouse December 22, 2011 these look great! Reply Leave a Reply Click here to cancel reply. ← Brighting the hq has it all… →


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Best Reader stories from 2008
Tijuana for suicide tourists, Craig Venter, treasure hunters, too many people in back country, Del Mar races, accident in Ramona
8:30 a.m., Feb. 23
Robert Dorsey is not Chinese, but he drives 25 miles from El Cajon to Point Loma every morning so his two daughters can learn to speak, read, and write in Mandarin.
"In my culture, it's English, Ebonics, and maybe a little bit of Spanish," says Dorsey, who is African American. "About ten years ago, my wife was in college, and her professor told her Chinese was the language to learn. I want to give my kids a little bit of an edge in life."
His daughters, in first and third grade, attend Barnard Elementary, a Mandarin Chinese full-immersion magnet school. In kindergarten, students spend 80 percent of their day (about four hours) reading, writing, and listening to Mandarin. The other 20 percent, they spend on English Language Arts. In first grade, it's 70 and 30 percent, and second grade, 50-50. Third through sixth graders attend a 45-minute pull-out Mandarin class each day, but as the program, now in its fourth year, grows, those grades will conduct half of their lessons in Mandarin.
The Dorseys are among a growing population of non-Chinese families interested in the language. According to Barnard's principal, Edward Park, the school's Chinese population is under 2 percent. He estimates the African-American, Hispanic, and Caucasian populations at 20, 33, and 38 percent, respectively. And like the Dorseys, 60 percent of the student body is from outside the Point Loma area.
On a Thursday afternoon in early November, I peek in on a kindergarten class at Barnard. The room's walls are covered in brightly colored pictures and simple words, but many of the words are Chinese characters. Even the behavior chart is written in Chinese.
The many-hued children are busy in small groups at computers, bookshelves, and tables, where they color with markers and crayons. Near the door, the teacher calls students over two at a time to assess their math and literacy skills on an iPad. They use their fingers to draw the Chinese character for the number two. The iPad reads it back to them in Chinese.
According Dr. Lilly Cheng, managing director of the Confucius Institute at San Diego State University, Barnard is one of 16 San Diego–area schools that house Confucius Classrooms. The institute was established by the Office of Chinese Language Council International, known as Hanban, a nonprofit based in Beijing and affiliated with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China. The purpose of Hanban, its website says, is to provide "Chinese language and cultural teaching resources and services worldwide." Confucius Institutes support Confucius Classrooms by providing teachers, training them, and helping schools to develop programs.
Cheng said she was not authorized to comment on the amount of money Hanban contributed to set up the Confucius Institute, but when asked how much Hanban contributed to set up local Confucius Classrooms, she said, "If you're talking U.S. dollars, the maximum amount is $10,000 per school."
And though she emphasized that Hanban does not make additional financial contributions, she listed teaching materials and equipment, software, teacher-training workshops, and sponsorship of sister-school exchanges and other travel opportunities for students and teachers as among the other types of contributions Hanban makes.
While not all 16 local schools provide full-immersion Chinese classes, their numbers suggest a growing interest in Chinese education. In 2009, only 7 Confucius Classrooms existed in the area. Cheng informs me that today there are "27 classrooms and counting."
To be designated a Confucius Classroom, a program "has to be in a public school that's open from 7:00 to 3:00, Monday through Friday," she says. So, even the number of Confucius Classrooms doesn't give a complete picture of the rise of Chinese education in San Diego.
There are a handful of weekend schools. The oldest, the Chinese School of San Diego, in Kearny Mesa, offers 21 Saturday classes, 8:30 to noon, for students aged 4 and up. Currently, "and up" includes students who are "60-something years old," says Sally Wong-Avery, who has been the school's principal since 1984. Back then, the student population was approximately 60, of which 100 percent were of Chinese ethnicity. Today, only 30 percent of the school's 200 students are Chinese. According to Wong-Avery, the non-Chinese population has grown most quickly in the past three or four years.
"We have Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Spanish, blacks, Czech, Russians, Colombians," she says. "Altogether, we have 20 different nationalities."
Back in his office at Barnard, Park says that Chinese is one of the "top-five critical languages" in the world.
"In addition to 1.3 billion people [in China], we've got another 800 million people around the globe learning Mandarin right now," he says. "There are close to 300 million people learning the English language in China, which is almost the population of the United States. And we have approximately 60,000 students learning Mandarin language. They're trying to be competitive with us, but yet where are we in terms of the global community?"
Jim Boydston, president of Barnard's PTA, believes that U.S. students should study Chinese to be competitive in the global marketplace, but that's not the reason he sends his daughter to Barnard.
"We wanted our daughter to learn a non-Romance language primarily for brain development, and Chinese is about as diametrically opposed to English as any language can be," he says. "It's like a different concept, and from what we've read, we felt that more synapses would be formed."
The decision, Boydston says, is not one that everybody understands.
"Do people feel like we're raising little Communists? Yes," he says. "The stock answer to that is, the Chinese culture has been around for about 5000 years, and Chinese Communism's been around for what, 65 years? The model here is what they refer to as the Confucius model, and Confucius has been around a lot longer and doesn't have very much to do with Communism."
In 2007, before the Confucius Classrooms began at Barnard, 36 percent of its students tested proficient or advanced in English Language Arts and 57.6 percent tested proficient or advanced in math. By 2010, those numbers had risen to 65.3 and 70 percent, respectively. In March 2011, Barnard was one of 209 schools in the state to receive the Title 1 Academic Achievement Award from the California Department of Education.
Excellent article. Mandarin Chinese is slowly becoming more important with China re-balancing from an export driven to a more consumption-based economy. Chinese people love US (and European) brands. Fake products are more and more sneered upon. Companies in the US will need people who are familiar with the culture and the language in order to take advantage of this. So it is not a bad idea that kids learn some Chinese. The author is right that adults should too. It is doable! The article is right that Mandarin is very different from Roman Languages, e.g. French. But that does not mean that it is that much harder. The characters are at first unfamiliar. But, the grammar is very simple. http://www.gurulu.com/en
None of this will matter in 5 years as voice recognition and language translation software and devices will be so perfected that the language barrier will disappear in the modern world.


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In Oregon, a quest for wine identity pays off
One generation in, the wine growers in Oregon's Willamette Valley are a confident lot.
They've just come through two exceptionally cool and protracted vintages. While these conditions in 2010 and 2011 caused nail-biting at harvest, especially for Pinot Noir, the resulting wines have been spectacular - structured, lucid and bracing, a clarion call of regional expression like no other vintages in Oregon's history.
Just 10 years ago, the valley's wines didn't inspire this degree of confidence. Everything from climate change to inexperience resulted in wines that veered either toward exceptional promise or maddening inconsistency.
Then came a glorious 2008 vintage, and with it a clarity emerged. Among new and old wineries alike, there is now a sense of Oregon-ness, a newfound fidelity to place that trumps the allure of ripeness or flash.
After the painstaking delineation of six new federally approved subregions and more than 40 years of ruminative growth, an identity that for decades was imminent now feels like a distinct and distinguished presence.
"I think we're finally making the sorts of wines that draw the tastemakers in," says Sam Tannahill of A to Z, Rex Hill and Francis Tannahill Wines, "that get people interested in where Oregon stands in the world. The pieces are finally in place."
In 1966, David Lett of Eyrie Vineyards first planted Pinot Noir vines in Willamette Valley, hoping he'd found a place that shared traits with his beloved Burgundy. Over the next quarter-century, hundreds of adventurous homesteaders followed, lured by the valley's beauty, by the region's correlations with the Côte d'Or and by the siren song of Pinot Noir.
In a good vintage, the wines seemed effortlessly graceful, beautifully perfumed and smartly expressive in a way that offered a clear contrast to more ample California bottlings.
Reputation fluctuations
But fluctuations in quality cut into Oregon's reputation. In some years, it seemed vintage got the better of the region, with heavy, muddled and overwrought flavors. This trial-and-error period dragged on as winemakers coped not only with the vagaries of climate, but with their own inexperience, and with Pinot Noir's merciless learning curve.
Then, as the 21st century arrived, vineyard practices improved as winemakers got a better handle on their specific locales. A culture of self-examination bore fruit, too. As early as 1980, many Oregon producers did their soul-searching collectively at the Steamboat Pinot Noir Conference, an annual winemakers-only gathering near Crater Lake.
In the past decade, a significant number of vintners shifted away from a heavier style, realizing it wasn't a sustainable path. It marked a change from the 1990s, when many Oregon producers achieved critical success with riper, gaudier styles rewarded by critics at such publications as the Wine Spectator and the Wine Advocate.
"I was looking to put a lot into the bottle," says Mark Vlossak of St. Innocent Winery, "I tried a lot of fancy-assed fermentation techniques, cold macerations, used a lot more wood. It took me a while, but I eventually realized that those things don't work for me. But until you try it and taste the results, you can't know that."
In turn, vintners embraced the bright, soil-inflected signature that the region bestows without strain, especially in 2008, 2010 and 2011. With a run like that, the wines are more distinctive than they've been in years.
"Now we finally have the luxury of saying, 'Yes, but that's not who we are,' " says David Adelsheim, whose wines are now made in a more attenuated style. " 'We're Oregon, and here's how we're different.' "
The most dramatic transformation may have come at Beaux Freres Winery, owned in part by none other than Wine Advocate owner Robert M. Parker Jr. Since 1992, the wines have been made by Mike Etzel, whose evolution as an estate grower and embrace of biodynamic farming have had a profound effect.
"I used to want to make the most powerful, most muscular, look-at-me kind of wine," he says. "As I became more confident, I realized I was much more interested in making wines as an honest expression of a place and of a vintage."
Biodynamics had a hand in Josh Bergstrom's stylistic transformation as well. But so did his relationships with Portland chefs, who increasingly occupy a national spotlight for their regionally sensitive menus.
"When I was making bigger wines, my friends who were chefs wouldn't drink them," says Bergstrom. "I started to realize how our food scene is so married to the wines here, and vice versa. That's where I decided to focus. I wanted to be food driven, not fad and fashion driven."
For years, Willamette Valley touted its natural affinities with Burgundy, where Pinot Noir and Chardonnay excel, a place at nearly the same latitude and with a comparable cool climate, although the soils aren't comparable at all. Dozens of Oregon winemakers have worked in Burgundian cellars. And French roots have been in Oregon for more than two decades, in the form of Domaine Drouhin Oregon, the venerable French house whose 1987 purchase of vineyard land in the Dundee Hills was a powerful validating statement for the region and inspired many French winemakers to work in Oregon.
But none to date has possessed the star power of Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comte Lafon, who was hired in 2005 to consult for Evening Land Vineyards, an ambitious wine project on two continents and four locales that now leases the respected Seven Springs Vineyard. Evidently, Lafon's enthusiasm is infectious. Other top colleagues are reportedly exploring the valley, including Christophe Roumier and Jean-Nicolas Méo.
Quiet elegance
Domaine Drouhin Oregon, meanwhile, has thrived in a decidedly unassuming fashion. Veronique Drouhin never made flashy wines, but the winery's quiet elegance gets more pronounced with each vintage.
"The family is very clear about its sense of purpose," says David Millman, the winery's managing director. "They trust in the process that if you farm better, and get to know your property better every year, that somewhere down the road, as your vines get older, the wines will inevitably improve over time. But this is a multigenerational view. You'll never really get to see the full potential of the property. That will be left to the next generation."
That next generation in Oregon includes many who inherited the winemaking mantle from their parents: Alex and Alison Sokol Blosser, Luisa Ponzi, Wynne Peterson-Nedry, Jason Lett and many more. They have learned to embrace transplants from not only France, but California, including Maggie Harrison (Antica Terra) and Erin Nuccio (Haden Fig, Evesham Wood) and even those who expanded to distilling, like Ransom's Tad Seestedt, who not only makes wine, but grappa, brandy, gin and whiskey.
Oregon-ness, then, includes these far-flung elements, bringing a new energy to the state's 40-year wine history and its strong sense of identity.
"Of course I draw on the traditions of the area," says Harrison, a fairly recent transplant from California's Central Coast, where she made wine with Manfred Krankl at Sine Qua Non. "I'm reliant on everyone before me to help me understand where I am. But I'm not beholden. I can be more experimental and get my arms around all kinds of things and find my own way."
Best of the 2010s?
Next Sunday: Wine Editor Jon Bonné with top picks from our annual Oregon Pinot tasting
Patrick Comiskey is a senior correspondent for Wine & Spirits magazine. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com


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If you're at all uncomfortable being photographed, don't stand next to Carine Roitfeld. The 57-year-old fashion stylist and former editor of French Vogue, who made the magazine de rigueur on chic coffee tables for 10 years, is as big a magnet for Fashion Week flashbulbs as the A-list actors there to flog their perfume deals. "Maybe they're glad to see me now because I wasn't here last season?" Roitfeld wondered, in her thick French accent, smiling for the paps in formfitting white lace Dolce & Gabbana (worn with sheer black hose) as they shouted, "Carine! Bravo! Encore une petite photo, s'il vous plait?"
Roitfeld had to sit out the ready-to-wear season six months ago "so people didn't get confused" after her much-discussed departure from Vogue earlier in the year. Now she's back in the front row with a raft of new projects, all feverishly chronicled in the blogosphere. There's the 72-page celebration of Elizabeth Taylor, shot by Mario Testino, for September's issue of V; Barneys New York's fall-campaign multimedia tribute to Roitfeld, which has her starring in a short film that was shown in the windows in early September; and Barneys' Women's Designer book with Mario Sorrenti, which features 28 or so of her favorite models, family members, and friends wearing her picks. Then there's her new book, Irreverent, a visual diary done in collaboration with Purple editor Olivier Zahm, due out this month from Rizzoli; another, on the Chanel black jacket, with Karl Lagerfeld, is also in progress. She styled the fall campaigns for Givenchy, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Chanel, injecting house codes with the cool-girl brand of quirkiness she is known for. And, of course, she covered the couture collections for W, styling herself in the portfolio you see here, and taking wmagazine.com viewers on a tour of the scene with an assist from filmmaker Loïc Prigent. "I'm my own boss now, and it's a little scary," Roitfeld said. "But it's nicer. I'm like a butterfly, hopping from place to place."
Roitfeld has been a stylist since the late Seventies, well before fashion became part of mass culture and the people behind the scenes started amassing groupies of their own. But the raw and intimate quality of her work, which the world at large first came to know when she was Tom Ford's muse at Gucci in the Nineties, is a big reason why stylists started earning cachet on the level of photographers and designers. "She's had a huge impact on fashion," said Donatella Versace at Roitfeld's Atelier Versace fitting at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris. "She fights for glamour. Even when everyone was doing minimalism, she fought. She dares. You see her and you get inspired." Without a Carine and her brash, easily identifiable taste and slightly kinky humor, there would likely not be a Rachel Zoe, who is as well known for her own look as for what she puts on her clients. (Decide for yourself whether or not this is a good thing.)
From top: Roitfeld in a sea of paparazzi; Roitfeld with Donatella Versace.
A casual observer might mistake Roitfeld for the embodiment of French froideur, thanks to her uniform of stilettos and severe pencil skirts—not to mention her fondness for bondage and nudity in shoots. But once you get past the intimidating surface, both her work and her manner are much lighter and more down-to-earth. In conversation, Roitfeld is composed but enthusiastic, frank and a bit shy. Her predilection for heels only became a thing, she explained, so she wouldn't have to talk up to Testino, who is quite tall, and with whom she's worked for most of her career.
Watching her play dress-up in couture salons for this story was a master class in controlled giddiness. "Ooh, I love zis one," she said to Versace, about a saloon hall–style gown made out of perforated black leather and crystals. The oohing and aahing continued from behind the dressing screen as she wriggled into the dress. "It's more princess-y, more couture," she said when she emerged, celebrating yet another victory of fitting into a sample size. "I feel like a Barbie," she later said to Azzedine Alaïa, one of the designers she respects most, as she squeezed into a faux-croc skirt suit straight out of Blade Runner. It got to the point where her entire entourage—designers, producers, assistants—just wanted to dress her up and see how she would react. She indulged them all, putting her hands on her hips and squinting, taking a second and a half to decide, before politely reaching for her preferred choice. Usually, it was black.
Roitfeld is having a good time with her life, too. She's devoted to Christian Restoin, her partner of 30-plus years, and their two kids, Julia and Vladimir, with whom she's in touch almost every day by BlackBerry Messenger. She smiles a lot. She drinks vodka. She does ballet and yoga. (Roitfeld doesn't take fashion dead seriously: For our final sit-down interview, she had just arrived from a class, and paired her workout gear with black canvas Givenchy lace-up stilettos. "Look! Isn't that glamour?" she said, laughing.)
She gets some of her best ideas sitting around in airports, because "you see such a mix of people, from first-class to economy, and all types of bodies—skinny, round, short." More inspiring than perfection, she says, is "bad taste." (Hence her choice of Elizabeth Taylor for V—"a woman who I think had the worst taste in fashion," she said.)
Roitfeld's work is often a study in contrasts. She likes to incorporate quotidian props and personal belongings into the sexiest shoots, posing sharp-dressed models with oven mitt–size reptilian gloves, Frappuccinos, her father's sweaters, or kitty-cat masks, as she did for the fall Chanel ads. In the pictures taken for this story, she followed the same impulse; in each photo there is an item from her family—either her partner's, her son's, or her father's. And she stayed away from anything too literal: A look featuring a transparent tulle Givenchy gown was nixed for being "too historic"; instead, she popped out of the fitting room with a black harness underneath and, of course, more eyeliner. When directing models, "I want a lot of little gestures like this," she said, biting her thumbnail, twiddling her hair, and tugging on her shirt. "Natural gestures. I think when women see pictures like that they can see themselves more, because they're not just looking at a beautiful body."
From top: With Azzedine Alaïa; with Roger Vivier designer Bruno Frisoni; Roitfeld front row at the Chanel couture show.
As in any profession, stylists work in all sorts of ways. Some are cerebral, and you can easily spot the research and references in their work. Roitfeld, on the other hand, is more instinctive and personal; one could argue that she is her own best muse. "When I was working with Tom Ford, he would just look at me and ask, 'Will you wear it?'" Roitfeld remembered. "I'd say, 'Ah, too long, too short, lower waist, deeper V, unbutton'—that sort of thing. I don't create clothes, but I definitely know how to make them come alive."


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Chris Pine explains why the Star Trek sequel isn't The Dark Knight. The Hobbit has new titles and dates for all three films. Joss Whedon reveals his plans for S.H.I.E.L.D., and the Marvel universe. Plus tons of Doctor Who news!
Spoilers from here on out!
Top image from Looper.
Iron Man 3
Guy Pearce, whose work in Memento and L.A. Confidential earned him about twenty lifetime passes as far as I'm concerned, discusses his small role as the villainous Aldrich Killian in the new Iron Man movie:
...I still don't know that I would want to play the superhero myself, since I'm playing a different kind of character in this film. And I think that, based on the first two movies, there's a great chemistry between Robert [Downey Jr.] and Gwyneth [Paltrow], and I just think the films have a fun, joyful sort of quality about them. I've just enjoyed them. So I just felt like I wanted to be a part of this...Prometheus and Iron Man are really kind of cameo stuff, so the experience of shooting them — I mean, on some level, it's tricky because you feel like a bit of an outsider. You don't really live the experience that you do when you're there all day every day with everybody. But at the same time, it can be more fun sometimes because you're just working in concentrated spurts.
The Avengers 2
Writer-director Joss Whedon discusses what his long-term deal with Marvel Studios means for the next few years:
It was part of what made it attractive to me. I loved the idea of being a consigliere. Every writer loves the idea of being able to go in and fix a problem and then leave without obligation. It's fun! I also love these characters and the Marvel universe, and I grew up reading the books, and I've been going back and reading the old books and realizing that they shaped my storytelling way more than I give them credit for. Now I'm starting up a TV show, which is something I really wanted to do, but I thought it wasn't going to be a part of my life for the next several years. It's like a tapas menu of projects that excite me, in addition to the Avengers sequel, which I'm excited for because I'm incredibly excited about the next story that I'm going to tell. For me, it's a huge win... What's great is that the deal with Marvel is nonspecific, so I will give all I can, but the moment I can't, I just walk away. The moment I say, "You know, I'd like to help more on this project, but I need this time for The Avengers," there's no obligation. It's not like, "You must spend this amount of time on this movie." It's as much as it needs to be.
Star Trek 2
Star Chris Pine says that the Star Trek sequel won't darken the tone of the series like, say, The Dark Knight did for the Batman franchise:
"We're not making Batman. That's not our deal. There's comedy, which I think J.J. does a great job of, but, like the first one, there's some serious issues being dealt with. And I'd say the threat is even greater in this one. The force [the Enterprise crew] are met with is much more frightening. It's relentlessly action-packed and in terms of character development it goes places you'd never expect. The arc is huge for all the characters. It's a really big story - I can't hype it enough!"
Here's a new sneak peek clip from Brick director Rian Johnson's time travel thriller. The scene is part of the big confrontation between star Joseph Gordon-Levitt and himself thirty years in the future, otherwise known as Bruce Willis. [MTV Movies Blog]
[gallery 5939994] And here are some accompanying behind-the-scenes photos.
Here's the latest batch of promo photos. You can also listen to the soundtrack here. [IGN]
The Hobbit
Warner Bros. and MGM have now revealed all the titles and release dates for the now three Hobbit movies. The first movie is still The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and will be released on December 14, 2012. The second movie is now The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug and stays in the December 13, 2013 release slot. The third movie is taking the original title of the second movie, The Hobbit: There And Back Again, and will take the summer release slot of July 18, 2014. [Coming Soon]
Resident Evil: Retribution
Here's a new sneak peek clip for the fifth installment in the clearly eternal franchise. [Coming Soon]
And here are two TV spots. [Coming Soon]
Doctor Who
To get you properly prepared for this Saturday's episode, "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", here's the next time trailer from the end of "Asylum of the Daleks", another trailer, and an introduction to the episode from stars Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill.
The comedy duo David Mitchell and Robert Webb, who between Peep Show and That Mitchell and Webb Look have been behind some of the best comedy in recent memory, will voice a pair of robots in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship." You can hear a bit of Mitchell's robot in the second trailer up above. [Blogtor Who]
Here's another hint from Matt Smith about the Ponds' big farewell episode, "The Angels Take Manhattan":
"Fans can expect a gut-wrenching, heart-wrenching time saying goodbye to the Ponds. But also we've got dinosaurs, we've got Daleks, we've got Weeping Angels, we've got New York. I mean, it feels in scale as big and bold as it ever has. As we near toward the end of Amy and Rory's time, it becomes very sad hopefully. Go back and revisit 'The Eleventh Hour' and study it closely — it's all I will say."
[TV Guide]
Ten-year-old actor Cameron Strefford, who also has a small part in Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe's upcoming Les Miserables adaptation, will reportedly appear in this year's Christmas special as "a young boy in Victorian times and he has a scene with his screen parents and other children [whose]character as an adult is played by a well-known actor, but to say whom it is would be to give away too much of the plot." Strefford also reportedly doesn't share any scenes with Matt Smith. The most obvious well-known actor would be the main guest star, Richard E. Grant, although it's also possible this could refer to Silent Witness actor Tom Ward, who is the other male guest star we know about so far (not counting Dan Starkey's return as the Sontaran Strax). [This Is Wiltshire]
Joss Whedon discusses what it's like to be putting together a show for ABC that actually is being set up to be a big hit, rather than airing in the Friday low-rated genre slot:
The important thing to me is that we know what the show is. We love what it is. It came together very organically, so when we went in to pitch [to Marvel], it wasn't like, We're trying to find this because you want a TV show, it was, Check this out. And that's a good way to walk in a room. Good support is wonderful, but it's not a hill of beans, because they may give us all this support and then decide, "Eh. Yeah, it's Friday." They might give us all the support and then not do that, but then audiences might go, "Yeahhh … no." You just can't be sure. What I do know is that it's the show it should be, and we've got some really dope notions. It's going to work very well for people who either love the Marvel universe or for people who've never dipped a toe in the Marvel universe.
Here's NBC's official description and full cast list for the series premiere, which airs September 17:
09/17/2012 (10:00PM - 11:00PM) (Monday) : SEASON PREMIERE-AN EPIC ADVENTURE FROM J.J. ABRAMS, ERIC KRIPKE AND JON FAVREAU - What would you do without it all? In this epic adventure from J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Productions and "Supernatural's" Eric Kripke, a family struggles to reunite in an American landscape void of electricity: a world of empty cities, local militias and heroic freedom fighters, where every single piece of technology — computers, planes, cars, phones, even lights — has mysteriously blacked out forever.
The series stars Billy Burke, Tracy Spiridakos, Graham Rogers, Anna Lise Phillips, Zak Orth, JD Pardo, Giancarlo Esposito, David Lyons, Maria Howell, Daniealla Alonso, Tim Guinee and Elizabeth Mitchell. Kripke, Abrams and Bryan Burk ("Lost," "Star Trek") serve as executive producers, and Jon Favreau ("Iron Man," "Iron Man 2") serves as co-executive producer. "Revolution" is produced by Bonanza Productions Inc. in association with Bad Robot Productions, Kripke Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television. The pilot was directed by Favreau.
Philip Devona, whose past work includes guest spots on The Walking Dead and The Vampire Diaries, will reportedly play Dr. Vidal in episode six. [SpoilerTV]
American Horror Story: Asylum
Here's the latest cryptic teaser.
And here's a look at one of the only promos so far that actually shows members of the cast. [Fangoria]
Here are some set photos and other behind-the-scenes shot from the latest Entertainment Weekly article. [SpoilerTV]
Here are short descriptions for the next three episodes:
Episode 2.07 - Gods and Monsters
The team is confronted with evidence of Parish's evil agenda; a young Alpha reveals a deadly ability.
Episode 2.08 - Falling
Rosen discovers the identity of the mole; Kat tracks a mysterious new street drug that makes users temporarily invincible.
Episode 2.09 - The Devil Will Drag You Under
Hicks turns defector and begins working for Parish; the team uncovers a plot to cause a massive, deadly blackout.
Warehouse 13
And here's the same for the next three Warehouse 13 episodes:
Ep 4.07 – Endless Wonder
Pete and Myka cross paths with an inquisitive drug company exec; a pill is making people taller; Artie, Steve and Claudia track Brother Adrian to his hideout.
Episode 4.08 - Second Chance
Pete and Myka investigate a case of people rusting away; Steve and Claudia visit Steve's hometown to end his dependence on the Metronome; Artie tells the truth about Brother Adrian and his use of the Astrolabe.
Episode 4.09 - The Ones You Love
Brother Adrian sends deadly artifacts to the agents loved ones; Mrs. Frederic and Steve discover the truth about Artie and Adrian.
And finally here are descriptions for the first two episodes of season three, the currently untitled season premiere and episode two, "Stay":
Episode 3.01 - TBA
Nathan and Duke search for Audrey, who was abducted at the end of last season.
Episode 3.02 - Stay
Raving barbarians run loose in Haven's streets; Audrey and Nathan try figure out how to stop them.
Beauty and the Beast
Here are some promo photos of the cast. [SpoilerTV]
Additional reporting by Amanda Yesilbas and Charlie Jane Anders.


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A bipartisan deal to reopen the government and extend the nation's $16.7 trillion debt ceiling into early next year won overwhelming support in Congress late Wednesday, allowing tens of thousands of federal employees in Maryland to return to work starting Thursday.
The legislation reopens federal agencies for three months, until Jan. 15, and raises the debt ceiling until Feb. 7, ending an impasse that badly bruised Republicans but left President Barack Obama's controversial health care law intact. The agreement was struck hours before the U.S. Treasury Department would have lost its power to borrow money.
"We can begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people," Obama said. "There is a lot of work ahead of us, including our need to earn back the trust of the American people that has been lost over the last few weeks."
The Senate approved the agreement, 81-18, sending it to the House of Representatives, which passed it on a 285-144 vote. Obama signed the measure early Thursday morning and his administration told federal employees to expect to return to work on Thursday.
Despite the significance of ending the shutdown that began on Oct. 1 and avoiding a default on U.S. financial obligations, the proposal set up yet another budget battle next year that could have even more important consequences for Maryland and other states with close economic ties to the federal government.
Lawmakers are already preparing for that fight.
"The lesson from this is that the public is furious with us," said Sen. Ben Cardin, a Maryland Democrat who voted for the agreement. "The only silver lining from this experience is that those who felt that no compromise would be acceptable now know that's not true."
The legislation would reopen federal parks, put scientists back on the job at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda and reopen the Woodlawn-based Social Security Administration.
But economists said the short-term nature of the measure will do little to ease the uncertainty that many industries have complained about for years.
"The further into the future that people can peer, the bolder their economic actions are in the near term," said Anirban Basu, chairman and chief executive of the Sage Policy Group.
Maryland has been particularly vulnerable to the shutdown, with 314,000 residents — a tenth of the state's workforce — employed by the federal government and another 250,000 working for federal contractors. State officials say Maryland lost $5 million a day in revenue since agencies closed.
Sylvia Mathews Burwell, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement that federal employees should expect to return to work Thursday.
In the end, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky closed a deal to end the stalemate after an effort by House Republicans to craft their own proposal collapsed late Tuesday. Many Republicans acknowledged their party extracted little, if anything, of significance for their effort.
"The House has fought with everything it has to convince the president of the United States to engage in bipartisan negotiations aimed at addressing our country's debt and providing fairness for the American people under Obamacare," House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, said in a statement.
"That fight will continue," he said.
Polls indicate Republicans were damaged far more by the budget debacle, which began with demands from conservatives to delay or strip funding for key provisions of Obamacare. Thousands of people began enrolling for health insurance under the law Oct. 1, despite technical problems that were largely overshadowed by the funding fight.
None of those demands made it into the final agreement.
The only change to the health care law is a provision requiring the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure that it is checking the income of Americans who receive subsidies to buy insurance through the law. Democrats said they had no objections to that measure because it largely repeated language already in the law.
Negotiations on the proposal got underway in earnest after an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found the public blamed the GOP for the shutdown more than Democrats by a 22-point margin.
Maryland's only Republican in Congress, Rep. Andy Harris, said Wednesday he would not support the proposal because it did nothing to reduce the federal budget deficit. His early announcement was an indication GOP leaders were not pressuring rank-and-file Republicans to support the agreement.
"I had hoped we would not just be kicking the can down the road," the Baltimore County lawmaker said. "And that's all this bill does."
Under the legislation, the nation's debt limit would be suspended until Feb. 7 to allow continued borrowing. Treasury officials would be able to use so-called "extraordinary measures" to temporarily pay bills after that date, meaning that the next debt ceiling crunch would probably not occur until the spring.
The agreement also includes several provisions particularly significant for Maryland.
Furloughed federal workers will receive retroactive pay, a measure that several lawmakers from the region — including Cardin — pushed to include. Paying those workers for lost time will go a long way toward limiting the economic impact of the shutdown, economists say.
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Cardin announced Wednesday that the agreement would also allow federal employees to receive a 1 percent raise in January that Obama had previously called for. Federal worker pay has been frozen for three years.
"The promise of a modest pay raise and back pay for furloughed government employees are good first steps in recognizing the value of federal workers," said Mikulski, a Maryland Democrat and chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. "They have been the targets of unending attacks."
On the other hand, the deal made no changes to the deep federal budget cuts known as sequestration, despite a last-minute effort by Democrats to soften the impact. The measure's timing will set up an end-of-the-year clash in Congress over whether the sequestration cuts will continue for another year.
Some lawmakers hope to trade those cuts for reductions in entitlement spending.
"That's a fulcrum where maybe we can make some more gains toward strengthening our country," Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said of the brewing year-end budget fight. "There's actually some bipartisan support for that kind of thing happening."
But others viewed the short-term agreement warily, arguing lawmakers were just as likely to wind up in a stalemate again in December. And some analysts said the short-term extension would continue the uncertainty that contractors and federal employees have endured for more than two years.
Mei Xu, CEO of Chesapeake Bay Candle, said she made a similar point at a White House meeting with business leaders earlier this month. Xu said the company wants to add a third shift at its Glen Burnie facility but is hesitant to do so out of concern that Washington could roil the economy with another showdown.
"When you have that kind of deadline, it's always a bad psychological thing for customers," Xu said. "Any kind of a standoff is a sign that our government is not working."
Nearly 90 percent of Marylanders said they were concerned about the shutdown's impact on the U.S. economy, according to a poll to be released Thursday by Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies. Nearly 6 in 10 approve of the job Obama is doing, a 6 percentage point drop since January, the poll showed.
Conservative lawmakers in both chambers vowed to continue their fight in the next budget battle coming this winter.
"This is Washington at its worst," Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said shortly before the Senate vote.
Democrats chastised Republicans for shutting down the government for more than two weeks in their bid to kill Obamacare.
"We've ended up just where we started," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, "but at a cost, and it never should have been this way."
The Tribune Washington Bureau contributed to this article.
Terms of the deal
• Extends the nation's debt ceiling until Feb. 7
• Reopens federal agencies until Jan. 15
• Provides retroactive pay for furloughed federal employees
• Creates committee to hammer out long-term budget agreement
• Requires government to certify that it is checking the income of people who receive insurance subsides through Obamacare
How they voted
Rep. Andy Harris, R: No
Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, D: Yes
Rep. John Sarbanes, D: Yes
Rep. Donna F. Edwards, D: Yes
Rep. Steny Hoyer, D: Yes
Rep. John Delaney, D: Yes
Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D: Yes
Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D: Yes
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D: Yes
Sen. Ben Cardin, D: Yes
hris Van Hollen, D: Yes
Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski, D: Yes
Latest Politics
Sen. Ben Cardin, D: Yes


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Makeover Eggnog
Total TimePrep: 10 min. Cook: 25 min. + chilling
Makes18 servings (about 3 quarts)
- 1-3/4 cups sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 quarts 2% milk
- 6 eggs, lightly beaten
- 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons rum extract
- 4 cups fat-free half-and-half
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- In a large heavy saucepan, combine the sugar, flour and salt. Gradually whisk in milk and eggs until smooth. Cook and stir over low heat until a thermometer reads 160°, about 20 minutes. Remove from the heat; stir in extracts. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, about 2 hours.
- Just before serving, strain eggnog mixture; stir in the cream and nutmeg. Pour into glasses.
Nutrition Facts3/4 cup: 197 calories, 4g fat (2g saturated fat), 79mg cholesterol, 194mg sodium, 32g carbohydrate (0 sugars, 0 fiber), 8g protein.
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Dec 17, 2012
This was excellent! Much better than the store bought eggnog and easy to make too. I used fat-free milk, further lowering the fat content. YUM!
Nov 8, 2010
I found this recipe in the back of a Guidepost book around five years ago. I'm was never an eggnog person. I started making this orginally for my special needs son, but has become a family favorite since the first time I made it. This morning my son asked me to make eggnog, and make it good!! So I am going to start my eggnog earlier this year. When he gets home from school, he'll have this treat. You have got to try it.
Jan 1, 2010
We couldn't believe how much this tastes like the real thing! I used Almond Milk instead of the 2%, which is another reduction in calories but still has enough fat content to make it creamy. Will definitely be passing this recipe on.
Dec 7, 2009
I have been making this recipe from my Light and Tasty cookbook for several years. It is easy to make if you are patient and careful not to scorch. Very tasty! It has become a family favorite for those who enjoy eggnog. My husband has already requested it and it is just after Thanksgiving so I am glad to find the recipe online as I do not have my cookbook nearby.


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Tuesday, Mar 3, 2020 at 10:00am
In honor of its esteemed fifty-year history, Fuller Craft presents the exhibition Striking Gold. This invitational exhibition marks the institution's "golden anniversary" as it probes the storied history of gold as an artistic material as well as its cultural, historical, and political associations. The inclusion of gold in the selected works reveals clear intention and purpose, rather than being used for purely decorative effect. In each case gold serves as the subject, as well as a material property of the work. The exhibition is co-curated by Suzanne Ramljak, an art historian, writer, curator, and former editor of Metalsmith magazine, and Beth McLaughlin, Fuller Craft's Chief Curator of Exhibitions and Collections.
Additional Dates:
This event listing provided for the Brockton community events calendar. Community events are not associated with or sponsored by AARP, but may be of interest to you. If you have an event to share, let us know!
Images provided by AmericanTowns.com, Ticketmaster
Wednesday, Mar 4, 2020 at 7:00pm
AMC Boston Common 19
Boston, MA
Thursday, Mar 5, 2020 at 10:00am
Dracut Senior Center
Dracut, MA
Friday, Mar 13, 2020 at 11:00am
AARP-MA Office
Boston, MA


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Alley-oops are eye-catching because they occupy so much space and time. The lob pass goes up, the finisher readies himself to take off, and we get time to watch it all unfold as anticipation for the big finale builds.
This particular alley-oop, however, trades scope for intricacy. Watch Jamal Crawford—in the midst of his patented shake-and-bake move—go behind the back, throw a ball fake to freeze his defender, and then float a lob pass toward the rim in one fluid motion. And DeAndre Jordan, with no time to think and limited space to operate, still manages to go way up and finish the play with a thunderous flourish. Blink, and you might miss it.


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Yes, it's true! A furry little ball of kitty love has joined our family!
The pitter patter of little paws, the sweet sound of purring around the house again... music to my ears :)
He is the sweetest little guy. So so soft, almost bunnylike with those pink ears, and he's got such a mellow and loving personality.
He was one of three kittens brought to Clover's pre-school in search of a home. He spent a couple of weeks at the farm before I successfully convinced Lucas that it was time to bring another kitty friend into our world.
During this time he got used to being manhandled by two to four year-olds (great conditioning for his new life with Clover, not as sweet as she looks, people!) and constantly licked by their family dog who took quite a liking to this kitten in particular. Probably because he was the only one who would sit back and allow the dog to lick him until his fur was wet and matted. He's just that easy going.
So yeah, this is our new kitten and we're pretty darn smitten. His tiny warm presence is making cuddling up on the couch that much cozier these days. In fact, he's curled up asleep in my lap as I type this :)
Oh yes, and did I mention that the gray patch on top of his head turns into a heart when his ears relax. Yeah, how freakin' cute is that?
One thing though, he's been with us for a week and a half now and still doesn't have a name. We're having a heck of a time coming up with one that feels like it fits. Suggestions??? We could use some help :)


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So says Michael Hirsh at National Journal, reporting that former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had all but brokered a deal between the US, Russia, and Syria to have Bashar al-Assad abdicate in favor of free elections. At the time, Hillary Clinton signed a communique to Annan along with Sergei Lavrov on the deal for a political "transition," as they termed it. Almost immediately thereafter, though, Clinton and Barack Obama undermined it with new demands for Assad's unilateral ouster, and Susan Rice demanded a Chapter 7 resolution at the UN, effectively ending the partnership.
Why? Hirsh speculates that Obama needed to look tougher after being challenged on foreign policy by Mitt Romney in the summer before the election:
All of which should prompt a reexamination of the first Geneva conference in the summer of 2012, on which Kerry's new push for peace is based. According to some officials involved, perhaps the greatest tragedy of Syria is that, some 80,000 lives ago, President Obama might have had within his grasp a workable plan to end the violence, one that is far less possible now. But amid the politics of the 2012 presidential election—when GOP nominee Mitt Romney regularly accused Obama of being "soft"—the administration did little to make it work and simply took a hard line against Assad, angering the special U.N. Syria envoy, Kofi Annan, and prompting the former U.N. secretary-general to quit, according to several officials involved.
Former members of Annan's negotiating team say that after then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on June 30, 2012, jointly signed a communique drafted by Annan, which called for a political "transition" in Syria, there was as much momentum for a deal then as Kerry achieved a year later on chemical weapons. Afterward, Annan flew from Geneva to Moscow and gained what he believed to be Russian President Vladimir Putin's consent to begin to quietly push Assad out. But suddenly both the U.S. and Britain issued public calls for Assad's ouster, and Annan felt blindsided. Immediately afterward, against his advice, then-U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice offered up a "Chapter 7" resolution opening the door to force against Assad, which Annan felt was premature.
Annan resigned a month later. At the time, the soft-spoken Ghanaian diplomat was cagey about his reasons, appearing to blame all sides. "I did not receive all the support that the cause deserved," Annan told reporters in Geneva. He also criticized what he called "finger-pointing and name-calling in the Security Council." But former senior aides and U.N. officials say in private that Annan blamed the Obama administration in large part. "The U.S. couldn't even stand by an agreement that the secretary of State had signed in Geneva," said one former close Annan aide who would discuss the talks only on condition of anonymity. "He quit in frustration. I think it was clear that the White House was very worried about seeming to do a deal with the Russians and being soft on Putin during the campaign." One of the biggest Republican criticisms of Obama at the time was that he had, in an embarrassing "open mike" moment, promised Moscow more "flexibility" on missile defense after the election.
Administration officials deny this account, as do some who were involved at the State Department. Nonetheless, Frederic Hof, a U.S. ambassador who was Clinton's special adviser for transition in Syria at the time, agrees that the negotiations could have been better handled. The harsh demand that "Assad must go" voiced by Clinton and British Foreign Secretary William Hague was "gratuitous," says Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "Perhaps a greater effort should have been made to give Annan the time to do his due diligence."
Perhaps, and perhaps we should also remember how well that forced "political transition" worked out in Egypt, too. The Syrian army doesn't have the same social and political standing as Egypt's military does, either, which means it wouldn't likely be able to control for a power grab by radical Islamists. By the time this deal started coming together last year, the Syrian rebellion had already attracted large numbers of radicals and especially foreigners, which would have made the transition even less likely to succeed than in Egypt — where the first attempt at snap elections nearly produced a civil war there a year later.
Still, this gives some insight into why Vladimir Putin decided to push Obama aside this time and humiliate the US on the world stage. They paid lip service to working with John Kerry on the eventual UN Security Council resolution, but in the end Russia and Syria got exactly what they wanted — a toothless commitment to chemical-weapons disarmament with no Chapter 7 consequences. They must have suspected that Obama would exploit the situation for his own political gain again, and decided to act before Obama could.
Whatever the chances for success this original plan had, the prolongation of the war has been a disaster for the Syrian people — and especially for Christians. The Washington Post reports today on the religious cleansing being conducted by the radical Islamists that now dominate the rebellion:
When radical Islamists tore down a cross and hoisted a black flag above a church in the northern Syrian city of Raqqah last week, it underscored the increasingly hostile environment for the country's Christians.
Although Syria is majority Sunni Muslim, it is one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse countries in the Middle East, home to minorities including Christians, Druze and Shiite-offshoot Alawites and Ismailis. But the country's conflict, now in its third year, is threatening that tapestry.
While the primary front in the war has pitted Sunni against Shiite, Christians are increasingly caught in the firing line. The perception that they support the government — which is in many cases true — has long made them a target for rebel groups. Now, Christians say radical Islamist groups such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) , an affiliate of al-Qaeda, are determined to drive them from their homes.
"The Christian community in Syria is stuck between two fires," said Nadim Nassar, a Syrian from Latakia who is director of the Awareness Foundation, a U.K-based interfaith charity. "One fire is a corrupt regime, and everybody agrees there needs to be a change. And on the other hand, there's a fragmented and diverse opposition on the ground who can't control jihadist forces coming from outside the country."
Syria is not the only place in the wider region where Christians are being targeted. Coptic churches in Egypt have been attacked, while Pakistan last week experienced the deadliest church bombing in the country's history. The militants who attacked a mall in Nairobi last month singled out non-Muslims.
The rash of assaults has led some to question the future of Christianity in Syria, where adherents make up about 10 percent of the population, and in the wider Middle East.
Make no mistake about it — the radical Islamist demands for a new Caliphate go hand in hand with their mission to purge the region of all religious minorities, especially Christians and Jews. Israel can defend itself, but most Christian communities are small, dispersed, and vulnerable. The Christians of Iraq have largely fled to Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, and those that went to the latter are now refugees again in the other two nations. Christians are disappearing from traditional homelands in the West Bank as well under economic pressures rather than direct hostile action. We are seeing the rapid increase in a forced expulsion of some of Christianity's first communities, which far predate the sects that seek to displace and eradicate them.
Lee Stranahan has done great work in reporting on the Syrian Christian refugee issue. Be sure to keep up with his latest reporting, and donate to his efforts if you can.


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Originally "published" as an email on January 17, 2000, back when I was newly married, without children, and all but chained to my gift store Tom Foolery.
Let me tell you about my day Saturday. I must record this now because the story is sure to get better with age.
Just before noon, an hour before I was due to be released from my slavery to the store…for the weekend, anyway…a young man walked in to order some engraved glassware for his ushers. I recognized him from an engraving order earlier in the week, when he bought gifts for his groomsmen.
"Aren't you getting married TODAY?" I asked, incredulous.
"5:30," he answered calmly. "Can I pick these up by 3:00?"
I called to check, but the engraver wouldn't be in until 2:30 at least.
"Can you guarantee me these will be done by 3:30?" he had the you-know-whats to ask.
"Nope," said I. "We usually require a day, and this is a weekend, which makes it even more unlikely. But if you want to try, we'll try. Okay, he wanted the glasses.
Fast-forward to 4:00pm. I'm sitting at home by the phone, forced to watch all manner of sports programs while I wait for the call. Even call to check, but the engraver has been delayed getting to the shop. The phone rings. It's someone from the wedding party, calling to check. I promise to deliver the glasses to the wedding or the reception, and put them near the other gifts or give them to someone in a tuxedo. Did I mention that Gubby is coming over for dinner at 5:00?
The engraver finally calls. I hop in my car, wearing my best jammie pants and Big Dog sweatshirt, and drive across town. After picking up the glasses, I drive through the rain (did I mention the rain?) to my store, where I gift-wrap and label the glasses. Then off again in yet another direction, to the Presbyterian church downtown.
In the car I have rehearsed what I'll say to him if he is snotty, and enjoy a particularly satisfying reverie in which I scold him for forgetting his ushers until the day of his wedding. Ah, but in retail one seldom says what one really thinks, and besides, he is a nice guy. And most importantly, the wedding is supposed to start any minute, so I'd just be dropping these off and flying home to cook fish.
Next problem: the church is right across the street from Tres Hombres Bar & Grill, and there is NO WAY I'll get a parking spot near there on a Saturday night with wedding congestion and rain and all. But the Delivery Gods smile on me, and there is a spot RIGHT IN FRONT. Better still, since no wedding in the history of western civilization has ever started on time, I will probably have my choice of penguins to hand the package to. As I run up the steps I think, "This isn't nearly as bad as I thought."
NEVER tell yourself that.
I open the door onto a wide entry hall, empty except for the wedding coordinator and some guy in a ski jacket. Beyond the open swinging doors to the cavernous interior the entire bloody congregation AND the penguin party are all LOOKING BACK AT ME. I am instantly reminded of my plaid jammies and my white-socks-with-penny-loafers ensemble, and that I look like a confused homeless person. I head for the guy in the ski jacket and hide behind him, safe from the eyes of the penguins. NOT, however, safe from the eyes of the bride and Daddy, just waiting in the wings for the big entrance. I take her audible gasp to mean, "Oh! the plucky retailer, braving the elements and missing televised golf to deliver $28 worth of afterthought gifts!" I cling to that delusion.
Meanwhile, the ski jacket dude. He seems not to care (notice?) that I am using him as a human shield. He won't shut up, even as I make every hand signal and grimace I know, short of throttling him, to make him stop talking. After the bride heads for the assembled penguins I stammer an explanation for my intrusion, and ask if he knows the bride or the groom?
"I'm the ja-ni-tor," he whispers, as if I were slow.
The rest of the story is neither eventful nor important, which implies that the first part of the story was both, and for that I apologize. Speaking of apologies, I'm practicing one for the bride, and I never got a good one from Gubby, who was TWO AND A HALF HOURS LATE for my fish dinner. Next time he's getting pizza.
We'll have it delivered.


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FRANKFORT, Ky. — State and federal authorities are investigating an outbreak of bird flu on a poultry farm in western Kentucky.
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State Veterinarian Robert C. Stout said the strain discovered is "nonpathogenic or low-pathogenic" and poses a minimal risk to human health. Stout said it is not the "high pathogenic strain" associated with human and poultry deaths in other countries.
Stout quarantined the farm, which produces hatching eggs for Perdue Farms Inc. He said some 20,000 chickens have been euthanized.
"It does occur naturally in wild birds and it can spread to domestic birds, which is why we have the occurrence in Kentucky," said Cindy Ragin, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. "This is something that is not uncommon."
Stout declined to identify the farm, but he said it is near Brownsville in Edmondson County.
"The state and federal government and Perdue are acting aggressively to contain and eliminate the disease," Stout said. "There is no evidence that any infected poultry are in the human food supply as a result of this infection. We will do what is necessary to minimize the disruption to overseas trade."
Bird flu basicsAlready, Stout said, Japan and Russia have banned imports of poultry from Kentucky.
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture is conducting surveillance on backyard flocks within a two-mile radius of the farm.
"The people of Kentucky and our trading partners should rest assured that we are doing everything possible to address the situation," Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer said.
Stout said a minimal drop in egg production at the farm was noticed in mid-March. Perdue's veterinary services laboratory took samples from chickens at the farm and found antibodies for avian influenza.
Testing by the National Veterinary Services Laboratory in Ames, Iowa, resulted in a presumptive positive finding for the H7 strain. Subsequent testing by NVSL and the Breathitt Veterinary Center in Hopkinsville confirmed the finding.
Stout said it was the first confirmed case of bird flu in Kentucky.
In 2007, two outbreaks occurred in turkey farms in Virginia and West Virginia. Some 25,000 turkeys had to be euthanized on each farm after the pathogenicity avian influenza was discovered.
Bird flu is a virus that affects domestic poultry and some wild birds. It is spread by direct contact with infected birds.
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Search Results
Forum CX Sydney 2019
Change the Game: Driving Radical CX InnovationMay 9, 2019 | Sydney | Michael Barnes, Riccardo Pasto, James Staten
Good news. CX leaders have successfully elevated and transformed the practice of CX over the past decade. We've become more professional, more analytical, and more focused on business impact....


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Apple is spending $700 million on creating phones with a harder synthetic material that can protect more than glass -- but expect synthetic sapphire to only appear on Apple's higher-end screens.
The synthetic sapphire is being produced at a Mesa, Ariz facility with GT Advanced Technologies, and will protect iPhones and wearables from cracks and scratches, according to the Wall Street Journal. The sapphire display can also resist high temperatures and corrosion.
Apple already uses a little of the sapphire in the iPhone's camera lens and fingerprint reader, but it could be used as a screen to protect Apple's precious high-end iPhones and iWatches. About 11 percent of iPhone users suffer from broken or cracked screens. But it's also more costly -- about $16 as opposed to $3 for Gorilla Glass, a tougher glass screen.
U.S. & World
Apple and GT declined to comment on the new screens. It's unknown if sapphire screens will be used only on the higher-end Apple devices or will be on all new iPhones and gadgets -- with a higher sticker price.


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"I've witnessed some extraordinary achievements by some fantastic cricketers in the past, but today's performance could be one of the best ever," Bacher said on Monday.
"There is great honour in salvaging a draw when defeat appears to be almost inevitable."
The game brought to mind Michael Atherton's eleven-hour performance at the Wanderers in 1995, when his 185-not-out saved England from almost certain defeat.
Bacher recalled two other magnificent draws which both involved South Africa's struggle for survival.
"I remember well Gary Kirsten's 275 against England, when South Africa had been forced to follow-on, to save the 1999 Boxing Day Test in Durban and Jacques Kallis' maiden century in 1996 batting under immense pressure in Melbourne," he said.
"They showed extraordinary resilience and determination then and did so again today in Adelaide.
Bacher, who skippered the last four Tests in 1970 before South Africa went into isolation, praised both Faf du Plessis and Kallis for securing the draw after the Proteas were set a near impossible target of 430 in the fourth innings.
"This morning, very few people would have given South Africa a chance of battling it out and saving the game and yet it happened, which confirms the guts of our present national team," he said.
"Not only were they playing away from home but, at the end of the first day, Australia were looking almost invincible."
South Africa needed to bat all day to deny Australia victory and, in the process, Du Plessis became the first South African to score a century and a half-century on debut.
"Today a South African star has been born. Not only because Faf was making his debut and in the process created history, but because he showed phenomenal big match temperament, under huge pressure," Bacher said.
"If you watch Faf bat, his head is always over the ball and he plays with the full face of the bat. His power of concentration is superb and, if it wasn't for him, in both innings, we would have lost the match."
Bacher said not only was Du Plessis a great limited-overs player, he also has a wonderful future ahead of him in Test cricket.
The other hero of the day, Bacher said, was Kallis, whom he rated as the country's finest cricketer of all time.
"Jacques' 58 in the first innings and his 46 runs today were made under severe physical distress. As I watched him in this match, I came to the conclusion he is South Africa's greatest ever cricketer," he said.
"When you look at the world of cricket today, the two other greats –Sachin Tendulkar and Ricky Ponting — appear to be petering out at the end of their wonderful careers, but Kallis continues to amaze us with his performances."
With a strained hamstring, Kallis was at the crease for 109 painful minutes to help South Africa avoid the follow-on in the first innings and batted without the aid of a runner. Unable to run quickly between wickets, he hit 10 boundaries and a six in his determined knock.
"Australia is one of the few countries which has never given Jacques the credit he deserves. I just hope his efforts during the past two Tests have been enough for them to finally acknowledge his prowess."
With the series level after two draws, Bacher believed South Africa had the psychological advantage going into the third and final Test in Perth on Friday.
"I always believed South Africa's best chance to win a Test in this series would be in Perth because of fast, bouncy wicket there," Bacher said.
"I'm confident they will win with Morne Morkel, Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander displaying their true skills on that wicket.
"Defeat looked imminent but South Africa won the battle today. Instead of being 2-0 down, which could so easily be the case, their resolve and strength of character has given them the upper hand going into the last Test."
Source : Sapa /jlb/pvr


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September 10, 2012: Dr. Noel Richardson (Georgia State University) has requested that the observing campaign on the luminous blue variable prototype S Dor (AAVSO Alert Notice 453, AAVSO Special Notice #280) be continued through the 2012-2013 observing season.
May 9, 2012: We have been informed by Dr. Noel Richardson, Georgia State University, that the UV spectroscopy observations of S Dor to be made with the Hubble Space Telescope have been scheduled for
2012 MAY 11 from 21:21:55 UT to 23:55:04 UT.
During the 24 hours prior to and following the HST observations, as well as during them, please increase your visual/BVRI (or as many of these filters as you can) coverage from once per night to twice per night. Afterwards, please return to nightly observations until further notice.
February 23, 2012: Dr. Noel Richardson, Georgia State University, has requested monitoring of the luminous blue variable (LBV) prototype S Doradus as part of a multiwavelength campaign he is coordinating to study the photosphere of this star. At present the observations planned include:
1. UV Spectroscopy from HST
2. Optical spectroscopy from CTIO and an amateur in Australia
3. Near-IR Spectroscopy from SOAR (pending approval)
4. Mid-IR photometry from Gemini (pending approval)
May 17, 2011: Ernst Pollmann, an active spectroscopist in Germany and leader of Active Spectroscopy in Astronomy, has requested the assistance of AAVSO photoelectric photometry (PEP) observers in a campaign to observe the S Doradus variable P Cygni through the 2011 observing season.
PEP data are needed for correlation with spectra of P Cyg obtained by Ernst and other spectroscopists as they study this very interesting star.


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The winners of Belfast Zoo's annual photographic competition have now been selected.
The competition, which has been running for 34 years, is sponsored by HB and challenges budding and amateur photographers to creatively photograph the animals and scenes of the zoo; capturing the wonder of nature while exhibiting photographic excellence, high quality skills and a great eye for a 'zooper' photo!
Zoo manager and competition judge, Alyn Cairns, said "Despite the fact that the competition has been running for more than 30 years, we are always stunned by the standard of the submissions, as well as the quality and skill demonstrated by entrants.
Having moved the competition into an online and digital platform this year, we have received almost double the amount of submissions with more than 650 entries! The photographs certainly highlighted the beauty and diversity of the species that we care for.
This year we even introduced a new category to challenge visitors to get some snaps of our most endangered primates. We were astounded by the number of species represented in the competition from the tiny pygmy marmoset to Tina the elephant!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank our sponsor, HB, for their continued support of the competition. I would also like to praise the efforts of everyone who entered the competition this year, as well as our winners."