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West Bank and Gaza Strip *
Press freedom in the Palestinian territories is restricted by ongoing violence, as well as abuses at the hands of three different governing authorities: the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank; the Hamas-led government in the Gaza Strip; and the Israeli military, which occupies parts of the West Bank and is at war with Hamas. Journalists faced harassment, detentions, assaults, and restrictions on their freedom to report throughout 2011.
The Palestinian basic law and the 1995 Press and Publication Law provide for freedom of the press and freedom to establish media outlets, and state that there should be no censorship. However, restrictions are allowed if press activity threatens "national unity" and "Palestinian values." This vague terminology gives authorities ample leeway to impede journalistic activity via legal means, including by bringing criminal libel charges. In the West Bank, the PA Ministry of Information regulates all television and radio station licenses. Although no official measures have been taken, West Bank authorities often treat Hamas-affiliated outlets—most prominently Al-Quds and Al-Aqsa TV—as "illegal" and thus subject to persistent harassment. Following its 2007 takeover of Gaza, the Hamas government introduced a new system of accreditation under which all outlets and journalists are required to register with the authorities. West Bank and Gaza authorities have banned broadcast outlets and newspapers associated with Hamas and Fatah, respectively.
According to a 2011 report by the Palestinian Center for Development and Media Freedoms (MADA), physical attacks, arrests, detentions, and confiscation of equipment by both Palestinian security forces increased by over 45 percent between 2009 and 2010, a trend that continued in 2011. The cumulative pressure has driven many journalists to practice self-censorship. In addition, security services from both authorities cracked down on journalists covering popular demonstrations during 2011, though the situation was worse in Gaza than in the West Bank. In the West Bank, at least two journalists were attacked while covering a February demonstration. The previous month, Al-Jazeera's release of the so-called "Palestine Papers" prompted extensive official condemnation of the Qatar-based television network and attacks by Palestinian youths on the Jazeera-linked Pali Media Agency and Al-Jazeera's offices in the West Bank—though Palestinian police intercepted the attackers. Also in January, PA president Mahmoud Abbas ordered the closure of a local television station affiliated with his intra-Fatah rival—and rumored coup conspirator—Mohammed Dahlan. In September, a Hebron court acquitted journalist Alaa al-Titi of "breaching the peace" and "inciting sectarian violence" because of his work at Al-Aqsa TV. Al-Titi had been charged in October 2008.
In March, MADA reported several instances of journalists in Gaza being beaten, threatened, and detained during Hamas crackdowns on demonstrations in support of Egyptian antigovernment protesters and Palestinian national unity. Most detained journalists were formally asked to pledge not to cover any more unauthorized demonstrations. Following one such protest, security personnel raided the bureaus of Reuters, Cable News Network (CNN), and Japan's NHK, attacking journalists and destroying equipment, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Hamas of torturing bloggers and other social-media activists who were involved in planning the demonstrations. In unrelated events in Gaza, Italian journalist Vittorio Arrigoni was killed in April by a terrorist group that is a rival of Hamas, Al-Tawhid wal-Jihad, while in October a group of Hamas-affiliated journalists forcibly took over the Gaza offices of the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate, a professional union linked to the International Federation of Journalists.
Israeli security policies and military activities also continued to restrict Palestinian media freedom in 2011. Israeli forces harassed and detained reporters during the year, and were repeatedly accused by local and international press freedom organizations of targeting journalists with assaults and arbitrary detentions. Soldiers routinely fired tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades at journalists covering events throughout the West Bank, and occasionally fired live ammunition as well. In October, MADA reported a significant increase in settler attacks on journalists and accused the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of willfully failing to intervene. Soldiers also confiscated journalists' equipment on a number of occasions in 2011. In August, Israel arrested Al-Jazeera Afghanistan channel director Samer Allawi at the Allenby crossing between the West Bank and Jordan, and detained him for over a month without formal charges. Allawi was freed in September after confessing to membership in Hamas's military wing and striking a plea deal with the Israeli prosecutor. In August, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) accused Israeli troops of arbitrarily arresting journalists and reported that five journalists, including Allawi, were in Israeli jails. As with the PA in the West Bank, Israeli troops often target Hamas-affiliated press outlets and journalists. In June, troops arrested Al-Quds TV program director Nawaf al-Amer and placed him in administrative detention for four months.
Freedom of movement for journalists is restricted by the Israeli checkpoint system, which requires military permission for passage into Israeli territory and often hinders travel within the West Bank. In addition, the IDF has increasingly restricted coverage of regular protests near the Israeli security barrier in the West Bank by declaring such areas "closed military zones." In November 2011, five foreign journalists were detained and had their equipment confiscated after Israeli forces boarded two ships headed for the blockaded Gaza Strip. Even though all five were soon deported, London-based Hassan Ghani of Iran's Press TV was held for longer than the others. While Israel dropped its earlier threat to ban journalists on Gaza-bound ships from Israel for 10 years, RSF reported that the deported journalists were pressured to sign documents agreeing to such restrictions.
There are three daily West Bank Palestinian newspapers: Al-Hayat al-Jadidah, which is completely funded by the Fatah-controlled PA; Al-Ayyam, which is partially funded by the PA; and Al-Quds, a privately owned paper based in Jerusalem that is subject to Israeli military censorship. Distribution of these papers in Gaza was banned by the Hamas government in July 2008, and although the bans on all but Al-Hayat al-Jadidah were subsequently lifted, Israel began blocking their distribution in Gaza in the same year as part of its broader sanctions on Hamas. In 2010, Israel lifted its ban on shipments of the papers, but according to CPJ, Gaza authorities again prevented their distribution, allegedly demanding that the editors agree not to criticize Hamas. Meanwhile, a June 2007 ban on the Hamas-affiliated newspapers Felesteen and Al-Resaleh in the West Bank remains in place.
There are approximately 45 privately owned television stations, and the PA funds the official Palestinian Broadcasting Corporation (PBC), which is under the direct control of Abbas. The PA has closed down Al-Aqsa TV offices in the West Bank towns of Ramallah, Jenin, and Tulkarm. PBC transmissions have been blocked in Gaza since the Hamas takeover in 2007, while the Voice of the People radio station, run by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is generally allowed to operate but occasionally blocked. The Israeli military has utilized coercive tactics to restrict broadcasting by stations deemed to be advocating terrorism or affiliated with Hamas. Foreign broadcasts are generally available.
About 55 percent of the population in the Palestinian territories used the internet in 2011, and its use is generally not subject to restriction. There were some reported instances of the PA, Hamas, and Israeli authorities monitoring e-mail activity and internet chat rooms. In August, the Palestinian Telecommunications Company blocked the website of the electronic newspaper Alshu'la for one week due to a disagreement between the PA and Mohammed Dahlan, who financially supports the website.

subset: commoncrawl


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Position Summary:
Alion Science and Technology Corporation is seeking an Environmental Test Engineer to provide Systems Engineering and Integration (SE&I) support to a major DoD Agency located in Albuquerque, NM at Kirtland AFB for operational test events. Some travel (<2%) to the White Sands Missile Range, NM will be required.
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CARB toroidal roller bearings double service life in continuous caster
The challenge
A steel maker capable of producing 5.9 million tonnes of steel a year had been experiencing unplanned downtime due to recurring bearing failures on the continuous slab caster strand guide rolls. Eventually the slab caster failed due to bearing failure.
The SKF solution
SKF suggested installing CARB toroidal roller bearings for maximum load carrying capacity and dynamic, self-aligning capability. The steel maker implemented a customized caster roll arrangement with three roll bodies, the centre roll supporting two full CARB toroidal bearings and immediately reported improved service life. The SKF Caster Analyst System was also installed to achieve further performance improvements.
The results
The customized caster roll arrangement with CARB toroidal roller bearings paired with subsequent maintenance and lubrication procedure improvements enabled the steel maker to double service life. ThyssenKrupp was able to achieve a stable service life of 3.5 million tonnes in the caster bow segments and straightening zone as well as 5 million tonnes in the withdrawal area.
Customer benefits
- Increased productivity
- Reduced planned and unplanned downtime
- Extended service life
- Lower maintenance costs


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Elyse Fenton's first book, Clamor, was selected by DA Powell as the winner of Cleveland State University Poetry Center's First Book award, and was recently long-listed for the Dylan Thomas Prize. Winner of the Pablo Neruda Award, she received her MFA from the University of Oregon and has published poetry and nonfiction in The New York Times, Best New Poets, and The Massachusetts Review. She's worked in the woods, on farms and in schools in New Hampshire, Mongolia, Texas and the Pacific Northwest, and currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband and infant daughter.
Wreckage was still smoldering on the airport road
when they delivered the soldier—beyond recognition,
seeing god's hands in the medevac's spun rotors—
to the station's gravel landing pad. By the time you arrived
there were already hands fluttering white flags of gauze
against the ruptured scaffolding of ribs, the glistening skull, and no skin
left untended, so you were the one to sink the rubber catheter tube.
When you tell me this over the phone hours later I can hear rotors
scalping the tarmac-gray sky, the burdenless lift of your voice.
And I love you more for holding the last good flesh
of that soldier's cock in your hands, for startling his warm blood
back to life. Listen. I know the way the struck chord begins
to shudder, fierce heat rising into the skin of my own
sensate palms. That moment just before we think
the end will never come and then
the moment when it does.
When was this poem composed? How did it start?
I wrote "Gratitude" during my husband's deployment, sometime in 2006. I was in grad school in Oregon, he was in Baghdad, and I walked around perpetually stymied by the distance between our experiences and the difference between our daily existences. Before we realized how much it was costing us, we talked on the phone on a regular basis, usually as I was just getting up to write in the morning, and after he was done with his day. Many of the poems in Clamor were borne of these fragments of communication—shards, really, because of the way they refracted experience, the way they stuck beneath the nail beds and refused to be dislodged. After talking with him, writing was like threading glass splinters from my palms.
How many revisions did this poem undergo? How much time elapsed between the first and final drafts?
I don't really write disparate drafts—a poem stays in a single Word document as I muck around in it—so I can't really say how many revisions I wrote. I'd guess this poem didn't take more than a month.
Do you believe in inspiration? How much of this poem was "received" and how much was the result of sweat and tears?
Sweat, tears: yes.
How did this poem arrive at its final form? Did you consciously employ any principles of technique?
I think the poem was in shorter, more uniform couplets from the beginning, but then it breathed a little, maybe when I was able to breathe a little. It didn't emerge into the distending-then-retracting final form for a few months.
How long after you finished this poem did it first appear in print?
About six months, I think. It first appeared in Natural Bridge with a handful of others that would eventually become Clamor.
How long do you let a poem "sit" before you send it off into the world? Do you have any rules about this or does your practice vary with every poem?
Often, I'm reckless about these things. If a poem sits too long in a Word document, there's a good chance it'll get waterlogged.
Could you talk about fact and fiction and how this poem negotiates the two?
This is definitely a negotiation that's arisen in particular with the poems in Clamor, and has led, on occasion, to mild domestic discord. On a fundamental level, these poems do originate with my experience as the wife of an army medic deployed in Baghdad. Absolutely. There's the figure of the war-bride, the soldier, some shred of recognizable experience that I don't mean to disavow. And because these figures are so present and because he doesn't want to be anywhere near a spotlight, I think my husband would like a disclaimer on "Gratitude" and other poems that reads: this is not my experience. And of course he's right. It's not his experience at all; it could never be, and not just because he's not a poet. But it's not exactly my experience, either, because it's a poem, it's a construction. Hopefully it's happening right there on the page.
I'm often asked by audience members in variously forthright ways whether these poems come from my direct experience. Often, I tell them, yes, yes they do, but in the back of my head, I'm thinking, well, what poem doesn't come from some experience of the world? Even— or, arguably, especially— an attention to sonic quality comes from an attention to the world. But again, they're poems, not reportage, and I'm much more invested in the ways that they move on or against the page, the way images and sounds catalyze each other, the potential for creating and subverting expectations or rhetoric or lyric or perceptions, or really, in just plain making something like music, than I am with recounting the experience of the modern war bride. That's why I write poetry and not journalism.
It seems to me that the audience member's question is calculated to gauge the level of the speaker's 'authenticity,' and this is where it gets problematic for me. What I guess I want to ask is: does it improve on your experience of the poem to know that it did, in fact, spring from a conversation I had with my husband, who did, in fact, catheterize an Iraqi soldier? That there is, indeed, an insider in the action somewhere within the vicinity of the poem? I have trouble with this line of inquiry in part because of its implications, its potential to privilege first-hand witness as the only possible 'authentic' voice.
But then, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't an opportunist of grief. I'm thankful for the real, lived, factual experience I had, waiting for my husband to return home from war, because it made me feel human and it made me write poems that hurt, and I'm pretty sure I couldn't have done that without being rooted in the cold, hard facts.
Is this a narrative poem?
No. Or yes. Or no: no.
At the heart of this poem is the specter of morality, the idea of right and wrong. Is all good poetry in some way ethical or just?
I initially misread this question as "the specter of mortality," to which I'd respond, yeah, this poem's got it in spades. But the "specter of morality" is something else. I guess I hope there isn't the idea of right and wrong, because I don't think that kind of dialectic—with its propensity for didacticism--really has a place in my work.
Do you remember who you were reading when you wrote this poem? Any influences you'd care to disclose?
I spent a lot of time on Dante's Inferno over the course of that year. Also Anna Akhmatova, Czeslaw Milosz, and to a lesser degree, Lorca. Then I discovered Michael Longley.
Do you have any particular audience in mind when you write, an ideal reader?
Poetry requires that I lose—or at least, loosen—myself a little, and keeping an audience in mind really gets in the way of that process. It's kind of like cutting a blow-down with an ax (and I know I have some friends who have heard way too many of my trail-crew analogies rolling their eyes right now). It can be sweaty, exacting, perilous work, but you can't over-think it. At some point you've got to let muscle memory take over, you've got to let the blade fly. Imagining an audience, some hapless reader, the next hiker through the woods, really throws me off my game.
Did you let anyone see drafts of this poem before you finished it? Is there an individual or a group of individuals with whom you regularly share work?
I don't remember when I showed my husband this one. He was running an aid station, and he used to print out copies of some of my work and tape it to the door to the bathroom where he lived (yes, the bathroom), so it would be visible to other medics. I get the feeling this one wasn't on that door, though, as he wasn't particularly comfortable being cast as such a central figure.
But yeah, I have some good poet friends who infrequently get mailed drafts of my work. Note the use of the passive tense there. I'm not always consistent about this process.
What is American about this poem?
What is American about a poem that takes as its backdrop the current Iraq war? I guess it depends on which population of America you're talking about...
Was this poem finished or abandoned?
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Elyse Fenton
Posted by Brian Brodeur at 12:29 PM
2 comments:
Thanks. I enjoyed the poem and the discussion of the process that made the poem.ReplyDelete
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Rep. Todd Akin's (R-MO) spiritual mentor Reverend D. James Kennedy harbored extreme and sometimes flatly misogynistic views about rape and abortion, according to a ThinkProgress review of Kennedy's sermons on the topic. The Senate candidate, who set off a massive controversy by claiming this weekend that victims of "legitimate rape" don't get pregnant, has deep ties to Reverend Kennedy, having cited some of his sermons as key intellectual influences and having been named in Kennedy's book How Would Jesus Vote? as one of the Reverend's "favorite statesman."
Kennedy, who the Anti-Defamation League has termed a "Christian supremacist," repeatedly railed against legalized abortion, calling it the "American Holocaust" and suggesting that it would lead inevitably to genocide in the United States. But Kennedy's discussions of rape and abortion in particular betray extraordinarily disturbing views about rape victims:
1. Kennedy believed that rape victims who chose abortion are "hysterical." In "Abortion: Myths and Realities," Kennedy labels victims of rape who chose unsafe abortions when safer procedures are illegal "hysterical," saying "We are told by some of the radical feminists that the women will become hysterical, that they will abort themselves with coat hanger." Abortion rates are, in fact, higher in nations where the procedure is criminalized, and men describing women whose choices they disapprove of as "hysterical" has a storied sexist history.
2. Kennedy suggests rape victims can be responsible for being raped. In "Life: An Inalienable Right," Kennedy expresses concern that rape victims who chose to get an abortion are occasionally responsible for their own rape, saying that "Even if they want to say the woman had some part in it — which in most cases they probably don't — surely the baby did nothing wrong, so the only innocent party is killed and the rapist often goes free." He doesn't elaborate on how this might be true, but another Kennedy sermon says "the immodest woman is contributing to the lust of other people" by wearing revealing clothing.
3. Kennedy held that the Bible should set our laws about rape and abortion. Kennedy is very explicit on this point, saying "In the Bible, the child of rape was allowed to live and the rapist was put to death. Today, we find that the penalties against rape have become more and more lenient, whereas the child is now the subject of capital punishment. Justice has been totally destroyed and perverted in that the guilty are practically allowed to go free and the innocent are killed." This fits with Kennedy's general view that we should "rebuild America based on the Bible."
4. Kennedy thought husbands should determine if their wives can have abortions. Though not specifically addressing rape, Kennedy approvingly cited a Roman prohibition on abortion motivated by the husbands should have control over women's reproductive choice, saying "That newly created life is as much the husband's as it is the wife's. Historically, it is interesting to note that when the Roman Empire did away with laws that allowed abortion, it was done not because of the woman or the harm that abortions were doing to women (and indeed they do vastly more harm than most people are aware of), but because the husband was being defrauded of his progeny." Interestingly, Akin has worried that criminalizing marital rape provides women "a legal weapon to beat up on the husband."
Given that Akin's rhetoric and policy views bear clear marks of Kennedy's influence, it's perhaps no surprise that Akin co-sponsored (with Paul Ryan) a bill that could, by limiting federal funding of abortion to cases of "forcible rape," make rape survivors give birth to their rapist's child.


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Hello, Kotaku. It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for the Tuesday open thread. Let's get to it.
Here are some things from the internet!
- There is a reason that this is the most popular dog on instagram - It's because cute.
- I don't even know what to do with this - It's the saga of the crazy dude who's in love with Denko. Just read it, I don't even.
- 5 Gender stereotypes that used to be the exact opposite - This is amazing.
- The GI Joe Retaliation trailer is hilare - I have no idea if this movie is going to completely suck or what, but it makes me laugh.
- Maine is the most peaceful state in America - Which, har har, is like being named the least smelly prisoner on a Roman slave-ship, but still, yay Maine!
- Every potential 2040 president already unelectable due to facebook - Ha. Keep on getting it right, The Onion.
- Here's a montage of Troy from Community crying - While we're talking about how manly it can be to cry. Or at least, how funny.
And that's what I got. Happy Tuesday, see you tomorrow.


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Healing can occur no matter where you live!
Today's technology makes phone and SKYPE sessions as effective as an in-office face-to-face service. My clients have hailed from Hawaii, Western Canada, the United Kingdom, Italy, Mexico, and the Western United States. No matter how far away you live, most personal issues can be remediated and processed using energy psychology approaches over the phone or an electronic device.
How To Prepare For Your Remote Consult
Your appointment will be scheduled by email or phone during our complimentary 15-minute consultation. During this call, we will discuss your concerns and desires to make sure remote services are right for you. If it is determined that person-to-person services would be in your best interest, I may be able to connect you with an organization or a colleague to assist you.
In order to maintain a clear focus on your personal work, you must be able to eliminate interruptions from family members, electronic devices, and pets. This is non-negotiable. If there is disruption I may choose to terminate the call. There is no refund for the session if you do not control the interruptions.
You will have to reschedule and prepay for another appointment if I agree to continue working with you.
Working with Teens: When a teenager is scheduled for service, a parent or guardian must agree to a 'consent to work with child' form which I will send via an email.
The session is private for the teen. Consultations are offered to the parent or caretaker to support the teen's progress for an additional charge.
Your 10 Easy Steps
Scheduling your Time:
1. The time for your remote session is scheduled during the complimentary phone call. You will have my full attention. I do not answer other calls nor do I respond to email or texts during your paid session.
You will contact me on my landline or on the device of choice at the exact time of your appointment.
If you call me after the start time I can only guarantee the allotted time we scheduled. I understand that 'things' happen. However, you paid for my professional time. There is a 50% cancellation fee if you cancel less than 48 hours before to your appointment time.
Call Options:
- SKYPE SESSION: Free internet services, such as SKYPE, are available and easy to download. Go to http://www.skype.com and invite me to 'friend you.' Type in my SKYPE name: sannacarapellotti.
- Zoom: If you prefer Zoom, I will send a link to your email to join a meeting. At the time of the session, you will click on the link to join the meeting.
- Facetime is also available. I will provide you with my cell phone number to call at the appointment time.
- Landline: 412.344.2272.
Making Payment:
2. PAYMENT: You will receive an invoice to your email for the payment of your session. Please make your payment as soon as possible unless other accommodations have been made. This courtesy guarantees your appointment time. Payment must be made 48 hours prior to your appointment time.
There are three payment options:
- Mail a check to Sanna Carapellotti, 43 Hoodridge Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15228. Make check out to Sanna Carapellotti.
- Send Money through PAYPAL. You can set up a free account and transfer funds into PP or use a Credit Card in PayPal.
Send money to firstname.lastname@example.com. After I receive a notification that your payment has been made, I will confirm via email that I have received your payment and I will confirm your appointment.
- Pay with Credit Card: I can accept your Credit Card information over the phone. Additional credit card fees for manual input apply, generally around eight to ten dollars.
Prior to Your Appointment:
3. Please email me a digital, casual photo of yourself and any other photos I request.
4. You will receive a questionnaire and session information in the email. Please return the questionnaire to me via email or USPS.
At the Time of Your Session:
5. Advise family members (and pets!) of your private time and that you are not to be disturbed.
6. Turn off your cell phone, TV, and iPad. If you answer a cell phone call or text, the session is over and there is no carryover of payment and no session extension is offered. No exceptions.
7. How to prepare yourself for your session:
- Wear comfortable clothes.
- Choose a room that offers privacy and a door you can close.
- Sit in a comfortable chair or on a couch or a bed.
- Have a glass of tea or water.
- Have a pen and paper available.
- Kleenex is also a good idea.
- You can play soft music in the background and/or light a candle.
8. Before you call me, sit quietly for a few moments to focus on yourself.
9. At the appointment time contact me through the decided upon method for communication.
10. We will discuss the processes and answer any questions you have before the actual session begins.
Thank you in advance! I look forward to our time together and am honored to assist you.
Sanna Carapellotti, MS, CHt
Alchemist and Soulful Strategist
Hatha Yoga Instructor
HeartMath Coach
Family Constellations


text:
Repairs set to begin on destroyed jail pod
Supervisors approve construction at Hinds County Detention Center
Construction is set to begin at the Hinds County Detention Center on repairs to a jail pod destroyed by inmates, county officials said.
The Hinds County Board of Supervisors recently gave approval to the final scope and cost of renovations, according to a news release. White Construction is set to move forward with a plan to restore Pod C, which was damaged last summer during an hours-long disturbance involving more than 100 inmates, authorities said.
The renovations are expected to cost about $2 million, most of which will be covered by insurance, county officials said.
Construction is expected to begin in 30 days and could take up to five months, county officials said.
County Administrator Carmen Davis said in a news release that the construction will update and enhance the Raymond facility's security features and the ability to comply with state and federal codes.


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Aug 10, 2010 | ISBN 9781400075454
Sep 22, 2009 | 540 Minutes
"Powerfully written. . . . Evocative. . . . Despite much hue and cry today, Maass argues, we seem unable to move beyond an oil-based global economy, and we are going to hit a wall soon."
—The New York Times Book Review
"Perpetually informative. . . . Maass's book is in a class by itself, as he constructs his relentless indictment on a foundation of first-rate reporting and superb writing."
—USA Today
"Maass is a keen observer, a fine storyteller and forceful writer, and his book is a readable gem for anyone seeking a primer on the history of oil and its geopolitical ramifications."
—San Francisco Chronicle
"Authentic, persuasive, and damning. . . . The narrative argument that brings these stories together is persuasive, intelligent, and passionate."
—The Christian Science Monitor
"Sharp. . . . Maass succeeds in portraying an energy crisis mostly ignored or misunderstood in the developed world."
—Financial Times
"Riveting and illuminating. . . . The book is not about oil policy or the energy crisis, at least not primarily; it is a moral reckoning with basic instincts."
—The Nation
"A nice primer on the history of oil and its geopolitical ramifications."
—The Houston Chronicle
"A fascinating, nightmarish journey to the far end of the pipeline. If you want to know the true cost of America's oil addiction—and if even you don't—you should read this book."
—Elizabeth Kolbert, author of Field Notes from a Catastrophe
"A spare, engaging work of reporting."
—Robert D. Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal
"A disturbing catalogue of the underside of the international oil industry. . . . This is not a dispassionate exploration of sticky business issues; it's an indictment and a conviction wrapped in one."
—The Washington Post
"The strength of Crude World, filled with vivid reporting, is that it leaves you no option but to care."
—The Observer (London)
"A fascinating if alarming book. . . . Nightmare scenarios and grim reality checks are scary stuff, but Maass delivers the bad news in prose that teems with keen observations and well-reported, unforgettable details."
—Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Crude World gets its energy from Peter Maass's exhaustive investigation and first-hand experience and results in an illuminating narrative of the true impact of the global dependence on oil. . . . Essential reading for these times and for anyone interested in making the right decisions about our energy future."
—Robert Redford
"What's compelling [about Crude World] is the reporting Maass has done from places ruined by dependence on a substance that, he argues convincingly, kills more than it liberates."
—The Boston Globe
"Unflinching. . . . Engrossing. . . . Equal parts Heart of Darkness and Mad Max."
—Washington Monthly
"With the clarity of a hard-boiled investigator and the grace of a fine writer, Peter Maass reveals how oil has cursed the countries that possess it, corrupted those who want it, and wrought havoc on a world addicted to it. Brilliant and compelling."
—Robert B. Reich, author of Supercapitalism
"A lucid account that places readers in the big picture. . . . [Maass's] truths are painful and unavoidable. . . . He has written a very brave book."
—Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star
"Well argued and illustrated. . . . [Maass's] descriptions of the rape of countries as diverse as Nigeria and Ecuador are all the more devastating for being unpreachy."
—The Telegraph (London)
"Getting off oil is a great idea for a lot of reasons, like saving the planet's climate. But Peter Maass gives us another set of bonuses. If you think drug dealing is a dirty business, then meet the biggest drug of all."
—Bill McKibben, author Deep Economy


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1 killed, firefighter injured in Mount Airy blaze
Dozens of firefighters from several companies fight fire
One person died and a firefighter was injured in a Sunday morning house fire in Carroll County that was complicated by a lack of water for crews to use.
Firefighters were called around 8:15 a.m. to a single-family wood-frame home in the 2800 block of Flag Marsh Road in Mount Airy.
Officials said the house had been occupied by an elderly couple. The Fire Marshal's Office said a woman trapped inside was pronounced dead at the scene. She was identified Thursday as Nancy H. Bullock, 75. She died from smoke inhalation injuries.
Bullock's husband, Robert, was able to escape the fire without injury.
Officials said one firefighter was injured when he fell through a weakened floor. He was taken to a hospital with leg burns and was treated and released.
It almost 50 firefighters from several companies about 40 minutes to put out the flames. Officials said the battle was complicated by the fact that the home was back a long, unpaved, narrow driveway, so they had to shuttle water in from elsewhere.
The Fire Marshal's Office said the blaze started on the home's first floor in the living room area. While the cause is still under investigation, damage estimates were at more than $200,000.
Officials said there were no working smoke alarms in the building.


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What Is A Credit Card?
Most people don't like to carry too much cash or simply cannot pay for all goods and services they need with their own savings. Most of the times, they are presented with two options – they either apply for a credit card or get a loan. However, either option is more difficult within recent years than it has been before, as financial institutions have lost the will to take unnecessary risks upon themselves and are more reluctant to giving loans or approving credit cards. The paragraphs below will help you get familiar with basic notions related to credit cards, what makes credit cards unique among other types of cards and which types of credit cards you can choose from.
What is a credit card?
A credit card is nothing more than a small plastic card, which you can use to make various payments, instead of carrying cash with you. The credit card you get is backed up by a revolving account, from which you, the holder, can withdraw (borrow) money up to a certain extent, set by the type of credit card you got. The most common examples of revolving accounts are the credit cards released by major financial institutions and department stores. Credit cards issued under some of the major brands include: MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Diners Club, Discover Card and others.
As aforementioned, the credit card allows you to withdraw only a certain amount of money, for which you have to pay an interest rate. This interest rate slowly declines as you pay off your debt. All revolving accounts that you have or have had recently will appear on your credit balance, including your payment history, which is closely monitored.
The more promptly you pay off your credit for all debts, the higher the chances for you to get another credit from potential creditors are. On the other hand, if you are late in paying your debt, this will reflect negatively in your credit balance and your chances of being regarded favorably by future creditors decrease.
What is a credit card cardholder, issuer and accepter?
The credit card holder is usually the person to whom the institution issues the card. This person pays off the debt. A special type of credit card is the corporate credit card, where the credit card is issued in your name, at the company's request, but the payments are also made by you. Corporate credit cards are meant to cover the employee's approved work-related expenses. Of course, you will be paid back the money by your company, based on justificatory papers.
The credit card issuer is any company that issues credit cards. There are 10 different types of possible credit card issuers, identified by the first number on your credit card. These categories are – ISO/TC 68, airlines, airlines and other industry assignments, travel and entertainment companies, banks and financial institutions (represented by the numbers 4 and 5), merchandising companies, petroleum companies, telecommunications and national assignment.
The credit card accepter is any company, institution or individual that accepts payments by credit card for their products and services.
What is a credit card holder agreement?
When applying for a credit card and you meet all the requirements, you will be asked to sign a document that certifies that you acknowledge and agree to the terms and conditions of use. The card holder agreement includes important information you have to go through thoroughly before signing. The information regards fees charged by the card issuer, how much you will be penalized should you delay payments, as well as the interest rate you have to pay if you choose to withdraw cash with the credit card.
How do credit cards work and what is a credit card payment?
The credit card payments are the sums of money withdrawn periodically from your revolving accounts by the credit card issuer as a financial compensation for their services. The minimum monthly payments are usually 5% of the total credit balance or $10. The payment you make depends on three factors – your total balance, interest rate and the method the credit card issuer uses to calculate your finance charge.
Others fees that you might end up paying are the over-the-limit fees. They are penalties for you being late with your payments. If you make a certain number of consecutive late payments, the issuers will increase your interest rate up to extremely high values (maximum 24%).
What is a credit card number?
The credit card number is not a set of random numbers thrown together on your card. The first number is the most important one, as it identifies the credit card issuer and is known as the Major Industry Identifier or MII. For instance, if the first number of your credit card is 6, then the issuer belongs to the merchandising and banking field.
What is a credit card stripe?
All credit cards feature a magnetic stripe on their backs. This magnetic stripe, also known as magstripe, is made of iron particles, which are, in fact, minute bar magnets. When your credit card is not accepted by an ATM, there is a high possibility that either the magstripe is erased (demagnetized in contact with an EAS tag demagnetizer usually found in stores), or dirty or scratched.
The magstripe is one of the three ways of determining if your credit card can pay a purchase. When making the purchase, you simply swipe the credit card at an electronic data capture (EDC) terminal. The other two ways are voice authentication and online virtual terminals.
What is a credit card grace period?
When you get a credit card, you will be spared of paying interest rates for a certain amount of time known as the grace period. If you manage to pay off your complete debt within this time span, you will pay no interest for your debt. Not all credit cards offer this grace period and its length depends on the type of credit card you were issued.


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This week, Papa Kenn reviews the movie so many have been waiting for, Marvel's THE AVENGERS!
"The Avengers"
Director: Joss Whedon
Writers: Joss Whedon, Zak Penn
Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johannson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders
Review Transcript:
Wow. Just…wow. As of the time of this recording, The Avengers has made over $1 billion worldwide, with almost 400 million coming from the United States alone. And we got the movie late! Hollywood must have put us in timeout for letting Sandler and Michael Bay continue to make movies. While money doesn't always speak for the quality of a movie, rest assured that The Avengers has more than earned its status as a $1 billion blockbuster!
Because of all the praise and publicity it had been getting from critics and my friends alike, I went into the theater in a frame of mind that often spells disaster for movies: I had high expectations. The movie proceeded to take those high expectations and blew them away in one of the most glee-filled experiences of my nerdy 27-year-old life. Marvel gave Joss Whedon their box of toys and said "have fun!" And boy, did he ever.
As the writer and director of this film, you can tell that The Avengers is just as much a dream come true for Joss as it was for all of us joyous little comic nerds. It shows in every scene and every bit of dialogue as the fantasies so many of us had as kids (or adults that never quite grew up, but whatever)!
Whether you loved or hated the stream of movies leading up to this event (Iron Man 1 and Captain America being my personal favorites), there is no denying that the movie brought each hero together in a magnificent way. Best of all, the balance of screen time everyone gets is excellent in that the less developed characters (Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Nick Fury) really feel like part of the team, and not just token characters along for the ride.
Then if there is anyone else like me that was originally upset by the decision to cast Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner/The Hulk instead of Ed Norton, have no fear. Much as I enjoyed Norton in The Incredible Hulk, Ruffalo is perfect in this role and Hulk totally steals the show every time he is on screen.
Of the complaints I've seen people mention, the two most common appear to be 1) the story is nonexistent or too simple, and 2) the dialogue is bad. I'm not sure I saw the same movie as these people, but to address those…
1) No, the story is not nonexistent and it is not too simple. It is simple in a way that works perfectly for this movie however, because there are 7 heroes (if you count Nick Fury)! That is pushing the boundaries of main characters for most movies, let alone the numerous secondary characters and villains! The simple plot leaves room for a proper balance in the characters and character development.
2) Ok, there were certain lines in the movie that fell flat or felt overly forced. But the dialogue as a whole? Absolutely not. I can forgive a few lame lines here. I mean come on, it's not like strangely delivered lines ruined The Dark Knight. [play clip from Joker Interrogation Spoof]
This can lead into a whole debate as to whether The Avengers is better than The Dark Knight, but that is an argument for another day. For now let's just say I love them both equally as a mother loves her babies. Right now I just love Avengers a little more because it started walking around like a big boy and bought me a new car. Fueled by the Tesseract. With a leather driver's seat made from Black Widow's outfits. And Scarlett Johannson riding shotgun…sorry, I got distracted for a moment there.
For people like me, The Avengers is sweet manna from heaven in visual form, and is like a drug because you NEED to see it again and again! Outside of that incredibly nerdy demographic, the general public is sure to love it as well. In fact, I believe most of them already have. To the tune of over $1 billion. Mr. Whedon, and the entire cast of The Avengers…I apologize for ever doubting you.
In general, I'd say that The Avengers ranks in at a 9…but screw that.
11 out of 10!
I'm Papa Kenn, and The Avengers is MARVEL-ous! Later.


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Experimental Cognitive Psychology
Jens Bölte, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Germany
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The special issue is dedicated to the broad topic of experimental cognitive psychology. Specifically, the issue covers various aspects and interactions of cognition, perception, and action. A special focus can be on priming (in a broad as well as narrow sense) and compatibility tasks. Further, the relationship of cognition and emotion as well as social influences on cognition can also be part of the presented research. The special issue is not limited to these topics - papers from other areas of experimental cognitive psychology as well as theoretical contributions on cognitive phenomena are also welcome.
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Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Theme Me Up, Scotty.
Today I tackle this month's Sisterhood of the Traveling Blog question from Sarah:
Does each book/story you write have an overarching theme, and if so, do you think of it ahead of time or discover it after?
What a great question. With my writing recently, I've found that I do have a theme in mind when I start outlining my story. With my last novel, it was this:
Super-survivalism may protect your body, but won't protect a fragile heart.
In my most recent WIP, it's this:
Physical perfection/imperfection is nothing compared to a strong mind.
(Hmm, I'm starting to see a theme within my themes.)
I may not have been able to say it with clarity when I started planning the books, but it didn't take long before the overarching idea was obvious.
How about you? I'd love to hear how you answer the question!
Don't forget to check out Laura's post last week if you missed it, and stay tuned for Sarah and Deb's post in the coming weeks!
Posted by Lydia Kang at 6:30 AM
41 comments:
- mooderino said...
The thing I seem to be drawn to is the difference between what a person thinks they stand for, and what happens when they're put to the test. Sometimes it's plain old hypocrisy, but sometimes it's just about how we prefer to see ourselves.
Moody Writing
- April 13, 2011 at 6:35 AM
- Bryan Russell said...
Okay, I'm totally going to steal that post title. Just so you know.
- April 13, 2011 at 6:42 AM
- Sarah said...
Those are fantastic themes, Lydia--and I would expect something that clear and concise from you! But when you put them like that, it definitely makes me want to read your books!
- April 13, 2011 at 6:42 AM
- Unknown said...
I figure out my theme ahead of time too, though sometimes it changes during the outline to something stronger. I never start my first draft without knowing what it will be, though.
- April 13, 2011 at 6:56 AM
- Anne Gallagher said...
Truly, what are you talking about? You mean we have to have THEMES in our books?
Seriously, my first book's theme was literally don't judge a book by its cover.
My second book was The past isn't always what we think it is.
Third -- Sometimes we have to do what's right, even though it's wrong.
- April 13, 2011 at 7:08 AM
- Laura Pauling said...
All my themes end up being about family and relationships and survival. Usually anyway. And those are the stories I love best too.
- April 13, 2011 at 7:12 AM
- Chris Phillips said...
I tend to have some idea before.
- April 13, 2011 at 7:57 AM
- B.E. Sanderson said...
Sometimes I start out with a theme in mind, but by the time I finish writing, I find myself so far from what I set out to do that the original theme got lost and another one took its place.
- April 13, 2011 at 7:57 AM
- Terri Tiffany said...
Yes, I try to have a theme for each book--didn't the first few and now I can see the need to have one ahead of time.
- April 13, 2011 at 8:06 AM
- Tara said...
Great themes - especially the second!
- April 13, 2011 at 8:50 AM
- Matthew MacNish said...
I only have the one novel to go off of, but I definitely thought of the theme beforehand. I can't talk about it online though, because it's a part of a certain plot twist.
- April 13, 2011 at 9:01 AM
- Unknown said...
I usually have a theme when I'm outlining, but as I write, the idea gets polished and sometimes morphs into something else.
- April 13, 2011 at 9:09 AM
- Melody Valadez said...
Haha, I thought you were going to talk about the Star Trek theme, as in, "to boldly go where no man has gone before." And the accompanying song. :)
The theme for my current MS is 'forgiveness,' specifically looking at the struggle with forgiving oneself...and forgiving someone else. That's not quite as well-worded as yours, though. And I didn't realize this theme until after I'd started the story-planning. :)
- April 13, 2011 at 10:15 AM
- Linda Gray said...
Those are great themes, Lydia, clear and powerful. Mine tend to be all about finding out our real fears while we're facing down their doppelgangers.
- April 13, 2011 at 10:45 AM
- Heather said...
I never thought of it as a theme but I do keep the 'heart' of my novel in mind while I write. It's pretty much the same thing from the way you describe it!
- April 13, 2011 at 11:27 AM
- Carol Riggs said...
Hey, your themes sound interesting. I sorta find my own themes after the fact, although I suppose sometimes I develop them as I go, once I figure out what's going on. ;o) I guess I have themes of appearance vs who you really are inside, the importance of friendships, and developing strength of character.
Happy Wednesday, Lydia!
- April 13, 2011 at 11:34 AM
- Rachna Chhabria said...
Loved both your themes. I find my themes as the story progresses, though the theme is all the time buzzing around inside my head, it emerges closer to the end, when I have tied up all the lose ends.
- April 13, 2011 at 11:46 AM
- Emily Rose said...
I usually just start with an idea, never really a theme. You have great themes though!
- April 13, 2011 at 12:15 PM
- Talli Roland said...
I usually need to identify what my character will learn over the course of their journey!
- April 13, 2011 at 12:18 PM
- Erin Cole said...
Themes are tricky, and I think it's difficult for many writers to see the theme in their WIP if they haven't crafted the story around one in the beginning. I also think stories mean different things to different people and so there can be multiple themes too.
My last theme for a short story I did was this: Answers take time, but this gives us more time to really evaluate and understand the question. That came to me in the middle of writing the story and I ran with it!
- April 13, 2011 at 12:38 PM
- Ru said...
I think it was Stephen King who wrote in his memoir that he never drafted with a theme in mind, but when he went back to read through, he'd find it and then emphasize it. I think that's a good system, there are too many books out there that hit the reader over the head with their theme.
- April 13, 2011 at 12:40 PM
- Bathwater said...
Ru has a good point you don't want to ruin a story with a theme but a reader might feel cheated or the ending will seem to fall apart if it doesn't keep with a theme.
It might not be what the reader wants the theme to be. Instead of "love conquers all" it could be "two people from different world can not be together".
It's like a debate you propose the topic "theme" and back it with your words.
- April 13, 2011 at 2:03 PM
- Emy Shin said...
Ooh, I really like your themes. Mine often comes when I am part-way into the novel, and it's born out of my MC's internal conflict.
- April 13, 2011 at 2:10 PM
- Hema Penmetsa said...
Yes, I would say there definitely needs to be an overall theme for every WIP, even if the writer does not outline every last detail. Otherwise, it gets difficult from keeping each character from taking over and trying to pull the story in a direction that he/she sees fit that may or may not serve the story's purpose :).
- April 13, 2011 at 2:46 PM
- Nas said...
Hi Lydia,
With me it works like this, I decide on a theme, then build my characters around that theme and then the characters sometimes change the theme as they go along with their own conflicts!
- April 13, 2011 at 3:37 PM
- Jennifer Hillier said...
Cool question! And yep, I've noticed that my books definitely have a theme - they're all about people who aren't who you think they are. And how we all have dual natures - our public side, and our public side, and the consequences of exposing those private aspects to everybody else.
- April 13, 2011 at 3:40 PM
- Krispy said...
I don't usually write with one in mind. They just sort of come out of the writing. I'd totally over-think the writing if I knew I wanted to write to a certain theme, so I prefer to let it just come organically. :)
- April 13, 2011 at 4:15 PM
- Sherrie Petersen said...
I don't start with a theme in mind, but it usually comes out as I write, without me even realizing it sometimes. It's kind of cool to go back and read that first draft and see how it snuck in there :)
- April 13, 2011 at 4:34 PM
- Connie Keller said...
Sometimes I have a theme in mind when I start and other times they evolve. What always amazes me though is how the symbols and over-arching metaphors appear without planning. How does that happen? One of the great joys of writing for me.
- April 13, 2011 at 5:25 PM
- Giles Hash said...
Themes don't get added to my stories on purpose, mostly because I'm not good at making them appear natural if I force them into a story. But I have had a couple of themes in my most recent books. Namely, be proud of who you are, stand up for what you believe... cliches that I don't really plan on emphasizing.
- April 13, 2011 at 5:49 PM
- Sebab said...
My theme? Just travel!
- April 13, 2011 at 6:06 PM
I love these themes!
It's amazing how themes come out as the creative process develops.
- April 13, 2011 at 7:07 PM
- Lisa Potts said...
It usually takes me until nearly the end of my story before I can see the underlying theme.
- April 13, 2011 at 8:54 PM
- Jai Joshi said...
Yes, I always know what I want to say with my story before I write the story itself. My latest suspense is about how letting our inner corruptions control us will destroy our peace and joy.
- April 13, 2011 at 9:39 PM
- Jonene Ficklin said...
Your themes sound very intriguing! I've done it both ways. For me, I think it works best to just get the book going, then decide what the theme is after. The, I go back and strengthen it.
- April 14, 2011 at 8:14 AM
- Ghenet Myrthil said...
I didn't have a theme in mind when I started writing my WIP but I've since figured it out. I think it's good to have a line that gets to the heart of your story. It helps me remember what my story is really about.
- April 14, 2011 at 9:59 AM
- Karen Lange said...
This is a good question. I'm still working on this for my WIP. Hmm, it could go one or two ways. Have to give this some thought. Thanks for the nudge! :)
- April 14, 2011 at 4:01 PM
- Susan Fields said...
I definitely don't have a theme in mind when I start a new ms, but I can usually pick it out when all is said and done. Great post!
- April 14, 2011 at 4:41 PM
- M Pax said...
I tend to have a theme of my characters having to overcome being dealt a crap hand. I didn't realize I had a theme either until a friend pointed it out. Oh. :D
- April 14, 2011 at 5:50 PM
- Olga said...
I think there is a relationship between physical strength and inner strength. In case both are developed at the same time.
- April 14, 2011 at 8:00 PM
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- March 23, 2016 at 10:40 PM


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This thread is meant for the discussion of what the Gold Coast should look like in Province: Cyrodiil. All suggestions are welcome, but the Pocket Guide to the Empire should be the first thing you look to before submitting suggestions.
Here I'm compiling what I feel the Gold Coast should look like from the discussions on the old forums and with the PGE's references in mind.
The Gold Coast is the region of Cyrodiil that stretches from Anvil to the Brena River. It is the Western Coast of Cyrodiil and is in the Colovian lands as far as cultural influences go. It is a region full of Pirates much like the Caribbean in the real world was during the 17th and 18th centuries. Using this and the descriptions of the region from the PGE, as well as what we saw in Oblivion (mostly color-wise, yellow and orange grasses), this is what I feel the Gold Coast's environment should look like.
So, my proposal for the Gold Coast-
Trees- Along the coast you should see some palms, perhaps coconut palms.
these should be the largest vegetation for some distance before you move into the interior a bit where several types of tropical deciduous trees should take over. These deciduous trees should be somewhat similar to baobab trees and African tulip trees, with the smaller of these types becoming more tightly packed as you move further inland.
Rocks- Dark gray granites in the south and east and tan sandstones in the northwest. Anything lighter than gray and it looks like a savanna and the tan in the north adds to the Colovian Highlands and the Hammerfell Province.
Plants- Same as Oblivion with the addition of some taller dry grasses near the coast and some more unique arid plants.
Ground- Mostly sandy, becoming more and more dirt-like the further back you go.


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Now you can take great video of skiers and wakeboarders with your iPhone, iPod touch® or POV sports camera on your Yamaha Boat! Techmount® has introduced a new Water Ski Pylon Camera Mount for Yamaha boats. With the included adaptor, it will also fit older Yamaha Ski Pylons. The mount attaches securely to both fixed and swivel pylon heads. The patented design includes an integrated rope guide which turns the mount to smoothly follow the skier or wakeboarder as they track across the wake. Includes adaptor kit to mount your GoPro® or Contour® camera. Also includes adaptor and cradle to mount your iPhone or iPod touch protected by a LifeProof® waterproof case (sold separately). Machined from lightweight aluminum with a durable anodized finish
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This Website is intended for U.S. residents only. See here for global Yamaha Motor links.


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From the days of the PS one, this downloadable game allows you to play the classic original on your PSP handheld system or PS3 home console.
After defeating Dr. Neo Cortex, Crash and his sister, Coco, take a well-deserved vacation. However, their friend, Aku Aku, has a bad feeling, and as usual, he is right. Aku's evil twin, Uka Uka, was the person behind all of Dr. Cortex's schemes. Now Uka and Cortex have hatched a plot to gain control of the powerful crystals they desire. The have hired Dr. N. Tropy to create a time machine, which will allow Uka and Cortex to go back and take the crystals without interference. Take control of Crash and Coco as they travel through 30 levels across five time periods in an effort to stop Uka and Cortex. Use a motorcycle, plane, bazooka, and a baby T-rex to help Crash survive, or destroy the bad guys by using new moves like the super belly flop or the double jump. Will Crash and Coco be able to save the world? Play Crash Bandicoot: Warped and find out.
Also known as: Crash: Warped, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
Release Region: United States
Release Date: February 7, 2008
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Also available on: PlayStation, PlayStation Portable
Crash Bandicoot: Warped at IGN
Crash Bandicoot: Warped at GameSpy
Crash Bandicoot: Warped at GameStats


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That's the recommendation from a new report by the US National Research Council, who say reclaimed waste water is needed as a necessary substitute for the dwindling supply of freshwater. What's more, reprocessed urine might actually be cleaner than freshwater.
As we consider the "Kevin Costner in Waterworld" school of water management, let's look at how we got here. According to committee chair R. Rhodes Trussell, the treatment process is now advanced enough that processed wastewater can become a significant part of our clean water supply. Although this processing is likely to be more expensive than water conservation efforts, it is a generally cheaper alternative to desalinization and other methods for generating new water supplies.
And, like it or not, reprocessed waste water has already been an unofficial part of many water supplies. After all, many treatment plants get their waters from the same rivers that cities upstream use to dump out their waste water. Though that doesn't technically count as reuse, that's what it really is. This proposal just calls for cities to start recycling their own water supply, rather than shift it along to the poor jerks downriver.
The committee also found that the amount of chemicals and microbes found in the reclaimed waste water was generally comparable to or lower than that found in our current freshwater supplies. I think that's meant to make me feel better about the prospect of drinking cleaned up pee, but really that's just got me worried about the freshwater.
In any event, leaving aside the whole "this is kinda disgusting" aspects of the proposal, it's as sensible a way as any to deal with coming water shortages. Of course, if this entire proposal is just a way for scientists to freak out the public and get them to conserve water for fear of having to drink urine...well, I think they've sorely underestimated how committed we are to wastefulness, honestly.
Original report via National Academies. Image by dundanim, via Shutterstock.


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Only a 5-minute walk across meadows from the peaceful and sheltered farmstead setting of these two cottages leads to the shops and village inns of picturesque Edale (a mile by road) and the start of the Pennine Way and its trail over 30000 acres of National Trust owned High Peak. Converted from an old stone barn and very comfortably fitted and equipped these spacious cottages enjoy shared use of a paddock garden with a stream and are adjacent to the owners' farmhouse home. They are bookable as completely self contained cottages or as one very large property sleeping 22 and 2 children in 12 bedrooms. This is excellent walking country with a glorious landscape of heather clad moors and wind sculptured stones. Pony trekking locally. Cycle hire available 2 miles. Good fly fishing is available at Ladybower Reservoir 8 miles away. Within 4 miles are the village of Hope (with good shops and pubs) and Castleton with its Blue John Caverns Peveril Castle and bustling cafe's inns restaurants and craft shops. Chatsworth Haddon Hall Bakewell and Buxton are all within 15 miles and Alton Towers is about 1 hour's drive. The local railway station (0.5 miles) enables return rides from Hope Valley walking or easy visits to Magna and Meadowhall in Sheffield and the Science Museum in Manchester.
Games Room Pub Close By Pet Friendly
This property sleeps up to 6.
Ground floor: Living/dining room with beams. Kitchen. Separate toilet. First floor: 3 bedrooms: 2 double 1 twin. Bathroom with bath shower cubicle and toilet..


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Nicolaus(I) Bernoulli
Born: 21 October 1687 in Basel, Switzerland
Died: 29 November 1759 in Basel, Switzerland
|Main Index
|Biographies index
Nicolaus(I) Bernoulli was a nephew of Jacob Bernoulli and Johann Bernoulli. His early education involved studying mathematics with his uncles. In fact it was Jacob Bernoulli who supervised Nicolaus's Master's degree at the University of Basel which he was awarded in 1704. Five years later he was received a doctorate for a dissertation which studied the application of probability theory to certain legal questions.
In 1712 Nicolaus Bernoulli toured Europe visiting Holland, England and France. It was in France that he met Montmort and the two mathematicians became close friends and collaborated on mathematical questions in a long correspondence.
Nicolaus Bernoulli was appointed to Galileo's chair at Padua in 1716 which Hermann had filled immediately prior to Nicolaus's appointment. There he worked on geometry and differential equations. In 1722 he left Italy and returned to his home town to take up the chair of logic at the University of Basel. After nine years, remaining at the University of Basel, he was appointed to the chair of law. In addition to these academic appointments, he did four periods as rector of the university.
J O Fleckenstein, writing in [1], describes Nicolaus Bernoulli's contribution to mathematics:-
Nicolaus was a gifted but not very productive mathematician. As a result, his most important achievements are hidden throughout his correspondence, which comprises about 560 items. The most important part of his correspondence with Montmort (1710-1712) was published in the latter's "Essai d'analyse sur les jeux de hazard" (Paris, 1713).From Montmort's work we can see that Nicolaus formulated certain problems in the theory of probability, in particular the problem which today is known as the St Petersburg problem. Nicolaus also corresponded with Leibniz during the years 1712 to 1716. In these letters Nicolaus discussed questions of convergence, and showed that (1+x)n diverges for x > 0.
Nicolaus also corresponded with Euler. Again quoting [1]:-
In his letters to Euler (1742-43) he criticises Euler's indiscriminate use of divergent series. In this correspondence he also solved the problem of the sum of the reciprocal squares ∑ (1/n2) = π2/6, which had confounded Leibniz and Jacob Bernoulli.Nicolaus Bernoulli assisted in the publication of Jacob Bernoulli's Ars conjectandi Ⓣ. Later Nicolaus edited Jacob Bernoulli's complete works and supplemented it with results taken from Jacob's diary. Other problems he worked on involved differential equations. He studied the problem of orthogonal trajectories, making important contributions by the construction of orthogonal trajectories to families of curves, and he proved the equality of mixed second-order partial derivatives. He also made significant contributions in studying the Riccati equation.
One of the great controversies of the time was the Newton Leibniz argument. As might be expected Nicolaus supported Leibniz but he did produce some good arguments in his favour such as observing that Newton failed to understand higher derivatives properly which had led him into errors in the problem of inverse central force in a resisting medium.
Nicolaus(I) Bernoulli received many honours for his work. For example he was elected a member of the Berlin Academy in 1713, a Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 1714, and a member of the Academy of Bologna in 1724.
Article by: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson
Click on this link to see a list of the Glossary entries for this page
List of References (4 books/articles)
Mathematicians born in the same country
Additional Material in MacTutor
- Bernoulli family tree
(Click the link below for those honoured in this way)
|Fellow of the Royal Society
Other Web sites
- Dictionary of Scientific Biography
- Google books
- Mathematical Genealogy Project


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$1.3 billion fertilizer plant gets OK
Regulators have issued a permit to allow construction of a $1.3 billion fertilizer plant in southeast Iowa after a deal was reached to monitor the site to ensure it's not an Indian burial ground.
Wayne Hannel of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told The Associated Press on Monday his agency issued the permit last week for the Iowa Fertilizer Company to build the plant near Burlington.
An agreement struck between the Corps, state and tribal officials requires workers to carefully remove the soil in an area where they found a prehistoric clay pipe, which can indicate the presence of human remains.
Testing has so far revealed no evidence of remains, but additional work is required to be sure.
Another part of the site will be excavated to recover artifacts.


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Michael Joseph Syslo, 60, of Chilmark died suddenly at Tobey Hospital in Wareham on Tuesday, January 29, 2013. He suffered a heart attack shortly after teaching a class to new state shellfish officers at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy.
He leaves behind his loving wife of 34 years, Janis (Crotty), a well-known beautician, musician, and teacher here on the Island, a daughter, Allyson, living and working in Chilmark, and a son, Benjamin, a pilot who is currently studying Aviation Science at Bridgewater State University.
He is also survived by his mother Florence (Glaudel) Syslo of Shrewsbury, brothers, Allen (and wife Michelle) of Warwick, R.I., Mark (and wife Terry) of Boxboro, sister Kristine McEachern (and husband Jim) of Spencer, along with nephews Michael Allen and Christopher, and niece India. Michael's sister, Kathy, and father, Michael, predeceased him in 1990 and 1991, respectively.
Michael was born January 2, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. In his childhood years, the family moved quite frequently because of his father's career in the FBI. It would be when they moved to Shrewsbury in 1966 that he would meet his future bride, Janis.
Michael knew at a very young age that his passion would be ocean science. He graduated from Shrewsbury High School in 1970, followed by Southeastern Massachusetts University (now UMass Dartmouth) in 1975 with a degree in Marine Biology.
As he considered his future, he gave thought to joining the Peace Corps and his enthusiasm even led him to write to the Emperor of Japan for a job, knowing they had the largest aquarium in the world. Instead, in 1976 he acquired a job working for the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and Wildlife Headquarters in Westborough and then again in Buzzards Bay.
It was in 1978 that he was appointed the position of Lobster Culturist working under John Hughes at the State Lobster Hatchery Research Station in Oak Bluffs. He would later take on the position of director in 1984 when Mr. Hughes retired.
It was then clear that Mike had found his home and proceeded to pop the big question to his longtime sweetheart. Janis and Mike married at St. Augustine's Church on May 12, 1979.
During his career at the Lobster Hatchery, his responsibilities changed with the times and his extensive knowledge became a vital resource for local agencies. In addition to over 3,000 Coast Guard recruits, he instructed local, state, and federal law enforcement officials on the life cycle, size requirements, permit restrictions and gear restrictions related to the American lobster. In his lectures, special emphasis was put on detecting the illegal action of brushing eggs off female lobsters, which are required to be released when caught. In recent years, he had the responsibility of testing the Island's saltwater estuaries, ponds, and surrounding ocean water for temperature, salinity levels, and various forms of bacteria, helping to ensure shellfish would be safe to consume.
Upon moving to the Vineyard, he immediately became hooked on saltwater fishing. buying nothing but top-quality tackle and spending countless days and nights on the boat and beach with his closest friends, including the late Richie Madeiras. Participating in the Possible Dreams Auction, Michael took along Lady Bird Johnson and Olga Hirshhorn lobstering aboard his beloved Roccus (named after the former genus of the striped bass). He also took out Governor William Weld fly fishing for the day.
Michael's quick wit and clever sense of humor would keep you on your toes and you would always learn something from your conversation with him. He was well known for his hard working mentality and wouldn't stop short of overkill to ensure a project was successful. While he was a home-bodied family man, Menemsha was his second home where he spent much of his free time. Simply "checking on the boat" could turn into a bike ride around the harbor chatting with friends and fishermen, or just reading a book on his boat without leaving the slip.
Whereas Menemsha was his daily routine, Florida was Michael's paradise. He greatly enjoyed the yearly trips to the Orlando-area theme parks with his family, planning everything down to the minute. Over the years he made multiple trips to the Florida Keys fly-fishing. scuba diving the reefs, enjoying the atmosphere, and never seeming to get enough. Michael and Janis also traveled to Hawaii and the Bahamas where he was again fascinated by the many forms of tropical fish and sea life. When he wasn't somewhere warm, there was no doubt the tropical waters were always on his mind. Before his passing, his bags were packed for another trip to the Keys, planning to dive the Christ of the Abyss Statue off the coast of Key Largo.
Knowing how Mike felt about wakes and funerals, his family wishes to remember him with all that he loved in music, laughter, and memories with a celebration of his life at the Chilmark Community Center on April 14th from 2 to 5 pm. Guests are welcomed to bring appetizers or hors d'oeuvres.


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Back from Orlando - More IBM Storage Announcements
Visits (17377)
Well, it's Tuesday again, and you know what that means... IBM announcements!
Last week, IBM had a big storage launch of various products, with the June 4 announcements at the IBM Edge 2012 conference. I provided highlights in my post [IBM Edge Announcements]. As promised, here are the rest of the announcements.
This week I am on the road visiting various clients. Next week, Moscow Russia for the "Edge Comes to You" event!
technorati tags: IBM, SONAS, TPC, Tivoli Storage, Productivity Center, ProtecTIER, TS7650, TS7620, CIFS, OST, VTL, LTFS, Storage Manager, Tape System Library Manager, DS8000, DS8800, XIV Gen3, N3220, N3240, Edge, ECTY
IBM ProtecTIER and the Systems Director Storage Control plug-in
Visits (12944)
It's Tuesday, and you know what that means... IBM Announcements!
To learn more about IBM storage hardware, software or services, see the updated [IBM System Storage] landing page.
technorati tags: IBM, ProtecTIER, TS7650G, TS7650, TS7610, Symantec, NetBackup, OpenStorage, API, OST, TPC, TSRM, Trellisoft, TSANM, SSPC, Systems Director, Storage Control, GUI
Double the Storage Capacity - Double the Fun
Visits (17433)
Continuing my discussion of this week's announcements of IBM storage products, I will cover the announcements that double storage capacity per footprint.
That's a lot of announcements! As always, feel free to dig into each of the links to learn more about each product.
technorati tags: IBM, LTO-5, TS2250, TS2350, TS3100, TS3200, TS500, AES, TKLM, LTFS, XIV, 2TB, TS7650, TS7650G, EXN1000, EXN3000, N3400, DS3200, DS3300, DS3400, DS8700, SATA
TS7680 ProtecTIER Deduplication for the Mainframe
Visits (17403)
Continuing my drawn out coverage of IBM's big storage launch of February 9, today I'll cover the IBM System Storage TS7680 ProtecTIER data deduplication gateway for System z.
On the host side, TS7680 connects to mainframe systems running z/OS or z/VM over FICON attachment, emulating an automated tape library with 3592-J1A devices. The TS7680 includes two controllers that emulate the 3592 C06 model, with 4 FICON ports each. Each controller emulates up to 128 virtual 3592 tape drives, for a total of 256 virtual drives per TS7680 system. The mainframe sees up to 1 million virtual tape cartridges, up to 100GB raw capacity each, before compression. For z/OS, the automated library has full SMS Tape and Integrated Library Management capability that you would expect.
Inside, the two control units are both connected to a redundant pair cluster of ProtecTIER engines running the HyperFactor deduplication algorithm that is able to process the deduplication inline, as data is ingested, rather than post-process that other deduplication solutions use. These engines are similar to the TS7650 gateway machines for distributed systems.
On the back end, these ProtecTIER deduplication engines are then connected to external disk, up to 1PB. If you get 25x data deduplication ratio on your data, that would be 25PB of mainframe data stored on only 1PB of physical disk. The disk can be any disk supported by ProtecTIER over FCP protocol, not just the IBM System Storage DS8000, but also the IBM DS4000, DS5000 or IBM XIV storage system, various models of EMC and HDS, and of course the IBM SAN Volume Controller (SVC) with all of its supported disk systems.Here is the [Announcement Letter]
technorati tags: ts7680, z/OS, z/VM, FICON, 3592-J1A, SMS Tape, TS7650, ProtecTIER, mainframe, FCP, DS8000, DS5000, DS4000, XIV, SVC
TSM Economices of Scale
Visits (12781)
While I am not trying to start a blogfight with fellow blogger Scott Waterhouse from EMC, his latest post about TSM is just distasteful. Quick recap:
"So does TSM scale? Sure! Just add more servers. But this is not an economy of scale. Nothing gets less expensive as the capacity grows. You get a more or less linear growth of costs that is directly correlated to the growth of primary storage capacity. (Technically, it costs will jump at regular and predictable intervals, by regular and predictable and equal amounts, as you add TSM servers to the infrastructure--but on average it is a direct linear growth. Assuming you are right sized right now, if you were to double your primary storage capacity, you would double the size of the TSM infrastructure, and double your associated costs.)"
I talked about inaccurate vendor FUD in my post [The murals in restaurants], and recently, I saw StorageBod's piece, [FUDdy Waters]. So what would "economies of scale" look like? Using Scott's own words:
So, I have demonstrated how savings through economies of scale are achieved using IBM Tivoli Storage Manager. Adding one more person in each case is cheaper than the first person. The situation is not linear as Scott suggests. But what about larger deployments? IBM TS3500 Tape Library can hold one PB of data in only 10 square feet of data center floorspace. The IBM TS7650G gateway can manage up to 1 PB of disk, holding as much as 25 PB of backup copies. IT Analysts Tony Palmer, Brian Garrett and Lauren Whitehouse from Enterprise Strategy Group tried IBM TSM v6.1 out for themselves and wrote up a ["Lab Validation"] report. Here is an excerpt:
The majority of Fortune 1000 customers use IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, and it is the backup software that IBM uses itself in its own huge data centers, including the cloud computing facilities. In combination with IBM Tivoli FastBack for remote office/branch office (ROBO) situations, and complemented with point-in-time and disk mirroring hardware capabilities such as IBM FlashCopy, Metro Mirror, and Global Mirror, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager can be an effective, scalable part of a complete Unified Recovery Management solution.
technorati tags: IBM, Tivoli, Storage Manager, TSM, TS7650, TS7650G, TS3500, Scalability, deduplication, economies+of+scale, Scott+Waterhouse, EMC, Symantec, NetBackup, backup, software, solutions, disk, tape, optical, drive


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Police ID man killed during Beaumont store robbery
Beaumont police have identified the suspected robber killed in a Tuesday night shooting.
Duayne Deandre-Devon Smith, 25, of Port Arthur, was killed when a business owner opened fire on three people accused of trying to rob a game room in the 3600 block of East Lucas Drive. around 9 p.m. Tuesday.
The store owner had a firearm inside the business and was able to grab it during the robbery, according to Beaumont police.
The store owner wasn't hurt in the exchange of gun fire.
Two other suspects fled the scene, and Beaumont Police Sgt. Rob Flores said authorities are reviewing surveillance footage that might have captured the incident.
The two other suspects were last seen running east from the business towards the 5800 block of Helbig, according to police.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers anonymously at (409) 833-TIPS.


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Indiana Vital Records
This entry was originally written by Carol L. Maki and Michael John Neill for Red Book: American State, County, and Town Sources.
The first law regulating marriages in Indiana occurred in 1788, but marriage licenses became mandatory in 1800. The statutes of the Northwest Territory required that 1) the banns be read fifteen days before the marriage, 2) the male be seventeen years of age, and 3) the female be fourteen years of age.
Marriage licenses and certificates have been issued by and kept at the county clerk's office, generally beginning with the formation of each respective county to the present. Marriage applications, beginning in 1906 (with additional family information) and marriage transcripts (1882) may have both been used in various counties. Prior to 1940 it was necessary for a couple to obtain a license from the county in which the female resided. If an Indiana ancestor's marriage record cannot be located in that state, check the Cincinnati marriage records; this area was a 'Gretna Green' (no-questions-asked marriage locale) for Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana.
Statewide collection of marriages from the counties did not begin until 1958. The Indiana Marriage Index, compiled by the State Board of Health, Division of Vital Records, 1330 W. Michigan St., Indianapolis, IN 46207 begins in 1958. Marriages are indexed by bride and groom, indicating county of license, marriage, and date. Annual indexes for 1958 to 1965 are in book form; indexes from 1966 to 1981 are on microfilm, available at the Indiana State Archives, Indiana Commission on Public Records.
Birth and death records were recorded by the county health office beginning in 1882, where they remained before mandatory recording with the state board of health began in October 1907 for births and in January 1900 for deaths. There are no indexes to the state death certificates from 1900 to 1918. Certified copies may be obtained from either the county health department or the Division of Vital Records (address above). Some cities have earlier birth registrations: Ft. Wayne (1870), Indianapolis (1872), Kokomo (1875), and Logansport (1874). Those with births before the 1882 registration deadline may wish to reference Dawne Slater-Putt, Pre-1882 Indiana Births from Secondary Sources, volumes 1 and 2 (Fort Wayne, Ind.: Heritage Pathways, Inc., 1999).
The Works Projects Administration (WPA) began to index vital records, county-by-county, for the entire state, but the agency was abolished before the project was completed. Only sixty-eight of the ninety-two counties had their birth and death records (1882'1920) and marriages (generally 1850'1920) collected. The completed county indexes are available in print at the Indiana State Library and Allen County Public Library among others.
Several more recent projects have involved indexing marriage records for the state before 1955. Indiana Marriages Thru 1820: In the Counties of Washington, Jefferson, Clark, Scott, Jackson, Jennings, Switzerland, Ripley (Indianapolis: Researchers of Indianapolis, 1981) and The Hoosier Genealogist, which frequently publishes marriage abstracts, are two such projects. An index for pre-1850 Indiana marriages is available at the Indiana State Library's website https://www.statelib.lib.in.us/INMarriages1850/marriages_search.asp via the Indiana State Library.
Divorce records are kept in the office of the circuit court. Since Indiana had no residency requirements until 1859, it is very possible to find divorce records for numerous individuals from other states in the Indiana files. In 1991, Heritage Quest published the CD-ROM version of Indiana Vital Records Collection, which contains over 5.4 million vital records registrations compiled by the Indiana Works Progress Administration in 1942.
Ancestry.com has the following Indiana vital record collections:
- Indiana Births, 1880-1920
- Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800-1941
- Indiana Marriages, 1802-1892
- Indiana Marriages to 1850
- Indiana Deaths, 1882-1920
- Jasper County, Indiana Deaths, 1921-77
FamilySearch.org has a variety of collections available for free online:
- Indiana, Births and Christenings, 1773-1933
- Indiana, Marriages, 1780-1992
- Indiana, Marriages, 1811-1959 (includes images)
- Indiana, Death Index, 1882-1920
External Links
- Indiana Birth, Marriage, and Death Records - free up-to-date guide to accessing Indiana birth, marriage, and death records (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Includes links to FamilySearch vital record databases.
- Indiana Marriages Search Engine - free Indiana marriages search engine that has indexed marriages posted across the web.
- Indiana Obituary and Death Notice Archive - free Indiana obituary archive that has transcribed obits from across the state.
- Indiana Library of Files - free Indiana obituary and data files archive from across the state.
- Indiana Vital Records - links to Indiana vital record sources organized by county


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Possible Duplicate:
Running queries with SQLCMD vs. Running queries with SSMS
I have a number of scripts that query the data from different tables and consequently update them. I have defined a batch file and run them in sqlcmd command. It seems that when I run these scripts directly in SQL management studio, they run quicker than when they are called from the batch file.
Is there any reason for this behavior?
Thanks in advance.