text:
Indian Legals is a premier business advancement org. Indian Legals offers tech-enabled legal solutions in association with large no. of practitioners at all the major cities in many countries. Indian Legals was founded at India in 2013 with a small group of senior practitioners. Indian Legals offers legal solutions to the medium and large size businesses and institutions by arranging interactions with indian Legals (members of indian Legals, those are either industry practitioners or experience
Posted On :
June 09, 2018
City :
Category :
Computer Hardware And Software
Sub Category :
Contact Name : Indian Legals LLP
Location : Bareilly, India
Mobile / Phone No: 07037428495
Posted Date : June 09, 2018
Print this Page
Laptops in addition to systems have been in continuous necessity of routine maintenance and assistance because these are a few of the items that can utilize for prolonging the period of time as well a .. [more]
Shreyas Enterprises is one of the leading housing finance companies in Visakhapatnam,Shreyas Enterprises offers home loan with less rate of interest with lowest EMI per lakh.we also offer a wide ran .. [more]
If entry in a medical institution is rare, then quality notes are rarest. Now with the boom in electronic communication and all the hype of available sources of information online, notes, especially h .. [more]
Leading SEO, Digital Marketing, Website Designing, Web Development Services company based in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), AP, India. .. [more]
Music Production Clasees Lucknow Available; at my center;following courses & classes; are available singing classes/Learn singing with Indian classical, semiclassical. light music with khyal, Dhrupad, .. [more]
AllTechZ Solutions (ATS) is one of the Best Python Certification Training Center in Chennai at Velachery. ATS's Python is a software development environment that offers high-performance data analys .. [more]
Tempo Traveller hire in Delhi provider by Japji Travel. We offer best deal car coach rentals and best price tour packages in North India with luxury facilities & safe drive. If you want to know more i .. [more]
Regular classes for Testingtools(Manual+Selenium+Java) starts from 25 Oct @ 10am-12pm & 6:30pm-8pm by Mr.Aravind Rao & Sunil Reddy. mindqsystems.com/locations/2/clients.php For more details, 040- .. [more]
At MCM Infotech company we influence the meaning of website for you and make the effective means that can influence the audiences to your website. We provide the client to form a website which is pres .. [more]
AllTechZ Solutions (ATS) Pvt Ltd is the Outstanding and Best Hardware & Networking Training Institute in Chennai. AllTechZ Hardware & Networking course aims to train students and professionals on diff .. [more]
Nts cabs located in #221, thillai nagar, neyvli. We are providing our customers a pleasant journey with low rent luxurious vehicles. We all have well experienced drivers , will drive with customers ne .. [more]
Now, Make your Computer/Laptop Virus Free with having our Annually Maintenance Services. Install heavy Games/Software/Operating Systems. We provide Annually Maintenance to your Computers/Laptops in Ju .. [more]
MTPL Orchid Greens providing you next level luxury, as well as healthy ambiance with 2 BHK apartments/flats Great Opportunity to buy an own 2 BHK flat Available 2 BhK Flats for sale at MTPL Orchid .. [more]
The British School offers a very competitive compensation and benefits structure for job. Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications and only shortlisted candidates are contacted. .. [more]
RR Technosoft is providing the digital marketing Training with real time experts .. [more]
Avanti is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of best quality punch press machines with high working speed and low cost of maintainence.It also offers punch press strip binders and rate con .. [more]
With attentively chosen amenities, impressive design architecture, brilliantly shaped landscapes and acres of open spaces, Emaar Imperial Gardens presents a global lifestyle where inhabitants can come .. [more]
Business plan plays an important role in the syndication of capital from investors. A well-drafted business plan has all the information a bank or financial institution requires for making a credit or .. [more]
Medicinal herbs is not complete without mention of cayenne pepper. Cayenne pepper is not only about taste or ingredients of dishes it is about powerful medicinal properties also. As a type of chilli .. [more]
Rent Agreement in Noida or Commercial Rent Agreement in Noida - Get Rent Agreement deliver at home hassle free at Nominal Price in Noida. Greater Noida & Noida Extension."/> .. [more]


text:
No. of Comments: 0
Add comments |
More comments
SOM have recently announced a new 69 storey, 303 metre tower, in Guangzhou, for China National Tobacco Corp. The Pearl River Tower epitomizes the super tall corporate headquarters building of tomorrow as an iconic, high performance structure, that is designed in such harmony with its environment that it potentially produces as much energy as it consumes. The building's sculptural form guides wind to a pair of openings at its mechanical floors. The rapid winds push turbines that generate energy for the building's heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. The openings also provide structural relief, by allowing wind to pass through the building instead of pressing against it. Abundant natural light, solar power and grey water retention also enhance the building's environmentally-friendly nature.
FPT City
Green Tech City Masterplan
The Park Hotel Hyderabad
China World Trade Tower
JTI International Headquarters
More Projects
Please enter above code:
Cannot read the code? Please click hereOR click on the image to reload.
Click here to view the NEWS IN PICTURES tablet site

subset: commoncrawl


text:
0 Members and 1 Lonely Barbarian are spying on this topic.
1. Organize all of the rules into a single easy to use book. A megaversal rule book has been talked about since the end of time, but it keeps being ignored by the powers that be.
Page created in 0.286 seconds with 35 queries.


text:
Wanting to get involved in international programs at Chicago-Kent
and elsewhere? Planning on participating in a rule-of-law externship?
Hoping to study abroad? If so, join the GLAPI (Global Law and Policy
Initiative Staff) on Tuesday, January 29th to get the answers to your
questions and more.
The meeting will be held from 12 - 1 in room 355 and again from 5 -
6 in the GLAPI conference room, 325. Hope to see you there!
For students interested in studying abroad, the International Law
and Policy Development Office is here to help you answer your questions.
Whether you want to participate in a Chicago-Kent exchange, an ABA approved
exchange through a different institution, or design your own, we can
help you work out the details.
You can stop by and look through our study abroad folder, make an appointment
with Assistant Dean Lydia Lazar to talk about your plans, or send an
e-mail to intllm with specific questions.
Some of the programs that Chicago-Kent is involved with include:
Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina
University of Bern in Bern, Switzerland including the MILE program with
the World Trade Institute.
Exchange through DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service.


text:
Jessica Alba Tweets Pictures Of Family Vacation
"Happy to be here."
That's what Jessica Alba tweeted following the above picture of her and the family vacationing in Italy. Alba sent these out via Twitter, and we can only imagine how much she's enjoying time with the ones she loves. Must be really nice!


text:
Alex Clare Tickets
|Latest Alex Clare Tickets
Alex Clare
SLO Brewing Company
San Luis Obispo,CA
Oct 24 2018
|View Tickets
|Alex Clare Cities
Details of Alex Clare and the Ticket Luck value
Alex Clare is one of those few musicians who achieve prominence during the beginning of their music career. Born as Alexander G. Muertos in 1985 in London, the successful composer grew up listening to the tremendous jazz records of his father. Gradually developing interest in soul and blues, he started playing drums and trumpet as a kid. Later his interests seemed to incorporate UK garage and drum & bass, and he started focusing on all these genres. Special emphasis on his songwriting and guitar led him to play his self-written music. Within a few months, he turned out to be a very polished singer and his recordings grabbed the attention of music fans internationally. Alex Clare tickets are high in demand because of his flawless compositions that have been released during the last two years.
Alex has always paid great attention to what he writes and sings. His open-mic nights developed a tremendous fan following for him and his original demo earned him a deal with the Island Records. Clare spent quite some time working for his first studio album with the producers Diplo and Mike Spencer. Prior to the release of the album titled 'The Lateness of the Hour', the first single 'Up All Night' came out in 2010. In 2011, the heavy bass club music album was finally released and Clare was seen performing at different festivals and other venues across the UK. It reflected his rich voice and strong singing style which earned him popularity all across the country. The other prominent singles from this album include 'Too Close' and 'Treading Water'. Too Close became a hit on the FM. After a few months, it was released in the US and reached the Billboard Hot 100 songs. The song then reached the UK Charts at #7 and became one of his most popular singles, hitting more than 22 charts in multiple countries. Alex Clare's only album that he has released so far, 'The Lateness of the Hour' highlights his songwriting skills. It got a high ranking on the 'Top Heatseekers' list and significant position on several other charts.
Alex Clare is one of those musicians who develop their skills on their own. Since childhood, he has experimented with his father's musical instruments and gained much confidence to perform his self-created compositions. He got rid of his stage fright at an early age and began listening to different kinds of music which helped him produce new and unique sounds. Throughout his years in school, Alex continued to play music in groups and would perform at small gatherings. According to the singer himself, he loved to perform gigs whenever he was offered and he would keep learning new and sound techniques to polish himself. Alex's entry in the music industry was not by chance; in fact, it was his constant learning and hard work that paid off in making him a singer. According to the artist, he used to be quite reserved in his writings, but his producers helped him go out of the box and write with an open heart and mind. His songs like 'So Relax My Beloved' and Won't Let You Down' are meant to make the listeners feel comfortable as they enjoy the most humble piano led acoustics. While working for this album, Alex didn't perform at any live concerts, he wanted to make it a perfect piece of work.
Alex's music doesn't only fill space and time, but it's actually a quality work that has taken a lot of time and effort. If you haven't heard any of his songs as yet, then you're missing out on a lot! So take up the opportunity to enjoy music beats live at the upcoming concert. Grab your Alex Clare tickets which are now on sale on our website.
Alex Clare Tickets Prices
The average Alex Clare tickets will cost you $95 for the event being held on 24/10/2018 at SLO Brewing Company, San Luis Obispo. The minimum get in price is $88 at SLO Brewing Company.
|Average Ticket Price
|Get In Price (Minimum Price)
|Alex Clare
|San Luis Obispo
Alex Clare Tickets Promo Code
Use LUCK18 as the promo code and get a 3% discount on Alex Clare tickets. This is a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the thrilling live performance by your favorite ALTERNATIVE category
|Promo Code
|Discount Percentage
|LUCK18 td >
|Alex Clare
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Can I have my alex clare concert tickets cancelled?
A:No, as per our company policy Alex Clare Tickets once sold cannot be cancelled.
Q:Can I have my alex clare tickets 2016 refunded if I can't make it to the event?
A:No, as per our company policy Alex Clare Tickets once sold cannot be refunded.


text:
Quick exit with high pitch count a rarity for Cueto
NEW YORK -- It's not often that ace Johnny Cueto will have a pitch count of 112 through five innings and come out of a game.
But that's exactly what happened during his no-decision on Sunday, when the Reds were swept by the Yankees with a 3-2 defeat.View Full Game Coverage
NEW YORK -- It's not often that ace Johnny Cueto will have a pitch count of 112 through five innings and come out of a game.
But that's exactly what happened during his no-decision on Sunday, when the Reds were swept by the Yankees with a 3-2 defeat.View Full Game Coverage
"I've never seen Johnny go 112 pitches in five innings," catcher Brayan Pena said.
Cueto did not provide the type of shutdown stopper work the Reds needed to avoid the sweep and leave town on a positive note. Although he allowed two runs on five hits, he walked a season-high-tying four batters, with seven strikeouts.
"He wasn't real sharp, and it was a little bit more of a conservative strike zone today," manager Bryan Price said. "One thing about this [Yankees] club ... that's no different from years back, they have a pretty good understanding of the strike zone. They don't stretch it out very much early in the at-bat. You have to throw the ball over the plate."
Home-plate umpire Angel Hernandez did seem to have a tight strike zone all afternoon, though Cueto and Pena did not put the outcome on Hernandez.
"That's part of the game," Cueto said via translator Tomas Vera. "What I have to do when things like that happen is make my adjustments."
The Reds took a one-run lead in the top of the fifth, but the lead was short-lived, as the Yankees scored twice in the bottom of the frame. Back-to-back one-out walks proved costly, as Derek Jeter's lined single to right field scored Kelly Johnson and a Jacoby Ellsbury RBI single to right field plated Brett Gardner to make it a 2-1 game.
"They made the adjustments against me," said Cueto, who got two strikeouts to escape the fifth. "I was making a lot of pitches. And a lot of my pitches were near the strike zone, but there's nothing I can do."
When Price visited the mound during the fifth-inning jam, he spoke to Hernandez for an extended period -- apparently about the strike zone.
Cincinnati did not get a quality start from any of its three starters during this series. Like Cueto, fellow All-Star Alfredo Simon went only five innings during Saturday's 7-1 loss.
"I'm not going to make excuses," Pena said. "The game is not [the umpire's] decision. I wish some things would have been more [our] way. I do have to give [the Yankees] a lot of credit. I was behind home plate [and saw] how hard they worked Johnny. They really did a good job working Johnny and fouling some pitches off. They got his pitch count very high."
Mark Sheldon is a reporter for MLB.com. Read his blog, Mark My Word, and follow him on Twitter @m_sheldon.


text:
To Franklin Roosevelt, he was the "Happy Warrior." To suspicious Protestants, he was a pawn of the pope. Amid such conflicting views as these, the remarkable political career of Al Smith was forged.
Four-term governor of New York and Democratic candidate for president in 1928, Smith was a living embodiment of the enormous shifts in America's cultural and political center of gravity during his lifetime — from rural to urban, Anglo-Saxon to immigrant, Protestant to religiously diverse.
Of significance to Catholics in particular, he demonstrated that one could rise to the top of America's political heap — or at least very close to it — yet, in the end, still have his religion count against him.
Alfred Emanuel Smith was born Dec. 30, 1873, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. This was the section of the city where he would live all his life. The Brooklyn Bridge was being built nearby at the time, and Smith later said he and the bridge "grew up together."
His parents were Alfred Ferraro — a son of Italian and German immigrants and a Civil War veteran who took the name Alfred E. Smith — and Catherine Mulvihill Smith, daughter of a couple from County Westmeath, Ireland.
When the boy turned 13, his father died, and young Al dropped out of parochial school to help support the family. He never attended high school or college, saying later that he learned about human nature while working at the Fulton Fish Market for $12 a week. His speaking skills were honed in parish theatricals.
In 1900, he married Catherine Dunn. They had five children and were a notably happy couple until her death in 1944.
Smith's early political career was linked to Tammany Hall, the Democratic machine often depicted as an archetype of big-city political corruption. But Smith, scandal-free throughout his career, labored on behalf of reform causes like government efficiency and measures to help working people and immigrants.
From 1904 to 1915, he served in the state assembly. Depending on the Democrats' political fortunes, at various times he held the offices of majority and minority leader and speaker.
In November 1915, he was elected Sheriff of New York County, a position abundant in political patronage. In 1917, he became president of the city's Board of Aldermen.
Smith was elected governor in 1918, defeated for re-election in 1920, then re-elected in 1922, 1924 and 1926. He was identified with the "progressive" movement in politics, and his years as governor saw the enactment of measures dealing with issues like workmen's compensation, women's pensions and child labor. Among his close political associates were such later prominent figures as James A. Farley, who managed several Smith election campaigns, planner and builder Robert Moses, and Frances Perkins, a future United States Secretary of Labor.
In 1924, Smith sought the Democratic presidential nomination. It was then that Roosevelt, in a nominating speech, called him "the Happy Warrior of the political battlefield" — a tag that stuck. Smith and another contender fought it out at the party convention through 100 inconclusive ballots until the weary delegates turned to a third candidate, who was overwhelmed by Republican Calvin Coolidge in November.
Nothing daunted, Smith now set his sights on the 1928 nomination. But it was clear from the start that when and if he ran for president, the religious issue would dog him.
Spewing anti-Catholic vitriol, the Ku Klux Klan was riding high in those days. A U.S. senator, Thomas Heflin of Alabama, made a name for himself denouncing "the Roman hierarchy and the political machine." Oregon adopted a law closing down Catholic schools (the Supreme Court unanimously overturned it in 1925). In such ways, the stage was set for an ugly campaign if Smith sought the nation's highest office.
If the 1928 presidential race made it clear how far America had traveled from the overt religious bigotry of the 19th century, it also showed how far the country still had to go to make the Constitution's ban on a religious test for public office a reality.
Anti-Catholicism was an all-too-obvious part of the opposition to Smith. An editorial in a Protestant magazine declaring "the mere mention of a Roman Catholic as president" as a cause for alarm typified its tone and substance.
"Today Rome has reached one of its long-sought goals," the editorial said. "It well behooves us to emphasize before our people those cardinal principles which came forth as fruit of the Reformation, on which our government is founded ... Rome has not changed ... Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."
Somewhat more sophisticated was an "open letter" in the Atlantic Monthly magazine raising questions about Smith's commitment to religious liberty and his potential vulnerability to political dictation by the Catholic hierarchy.
Smith replied with an article written with the assistance of Father Francis Patrick Duffy, a close friend and chaplain of New York's famous "Fighting 69th" regiment in World War I. Here Smith argued that the record of American Catholics — loyalty to the nation, service during the war — counted for more than theories about "dogmatic principles." This casual dismissal of Church teaching by the candidate made some Catholics nervous, but most observers felt Smith had offered an effective defense.
In the end, though, it hardly mattered. Smith lost badly to Herbert Hoover in November, collecting 40.77 percent of the popular vote and 87 electoral votes to the Republican's 58.2 percent and 444 electoral votes.
It's likely that no Democrat could have won that year — the Republicans were too much identified with the prosperity of the 1920s for that to happen. And other issues besides religion played a role in Smith's defeat, including his opposition to Prohibition and his image as a fast-talking New Yorker. (Using "East Side, West Side" as his campaign song didn't help.)
Moreover, Smith's Catholicism undoubtedly helped by bringing him the Catholic vote (80 percent), including the votes of many Catholic women who had never voted before.
Overall, however, religion worked against him, with traditionally Democratic states like Texas, Oklahoma and Florida all going Republican. Countless anti-Smith votes were cast "because he was a Catholic," said The New York Times. That's still the consensus today.
Smith's defeat had a powerful impact on the Catholic psyche — a mixture of red-hot anger and a frustrated yearning for acceptance by non-Catholic Americans. More than two decades later, these feelings were very much present in a best-selling novel titled "The Cardinal."
The book, by Catholic writer Henry Morton Robinson, is a highly romanticized but thinly disguised version of the career of Cardinal Francis Spellman of New York. Speaking of the events of 1928, the author attributes to his central character, a rising young churchman named Stephen Fermoyle, these bitter reflections:
"Would [critics of the Church] never realize that Catholicism in the United States was a cornerstone of civil order, a bulwark against the corrupting forces of anarchy and decay? To those who accused the Church of undermining American freedom, Stephen wanted to cry out: 'Our sole aim is to inculcate patriotism founded upon divine law ... to help men keep alive the light of their souls, the hope of heaven, the love of God.'"
Smith was eager for another shot at the White House in the election of 1932, but the party turned instead to Roosevelt. Smith supported him during the campaign but later became a critic of FDR's New Deal policies. Relations between the two men soured.
Meanwhile, Smith had become president of Empire State Inc., the corporation responsible for building the Empire State Building, and presided over the management of what was then the tallest building in the world. His identification with this iconic structure supplied an appropriate winding-down for the career of a man who'd always been a New Yorker at heart.
Smith died on Oct. 4, 1944, just five months after his beloved wife. But bitter recollections of the campaign of 1928 lingered on in the memories of American Catholics for many years after that. One long-term result of Smith's defeat — and the anti-Catholic bigotry that did so much to bring it about — was to mobilize Catholics as a national political force.
As events were to show in time, the great beneficiary of that would be another Catholic politician named John F. Kennedy.
Russell Shaw is an OSV contributing editor.
Copyright © 1996-2018 Our Sunday Visitor, Inc.


text:
I think he is a key part in the Dolphins turnaround. Wherever Parcells goes success follows, and I think there is a reason for that. Parcells does what it takes to win, and he doesn't care about tradition or heritage, which is evidenced by how Miami handled the Jason Taylor situation.
I personally don't mind him doing whatever it takes to win. I understand that Taylor had a long history with the Dolphins, but if he wouldn't have helped the team enough then I am fine with him being released as long as we keep winning.
So, the jury is out still. If we can win then it is fine for me if we ignore heritage.
Let me know, what do you guys think? Let me know with your comments.


text:
AviationPage address: http://mnsu7700france.info.mnsu.edu/programs/aviation.html
|Program Website
|Undergraduate Degree Type(s)
|Program Description
|The aviation program mission is to prepare students for responsible positions in the air transportation industry, including airline operations and management, corporate aviation, airport management, and government operations. The goal of the program is to equip students with adequate knowledge and skills in aviation and management to compete in the rapidly changing and highly competitive field of aviation.
|Admission Requirements
|Students may begin flight training and enroll in 100/200 level aviation courses prior to admission to major. Students must meet the following requirements:
|Other Requirements
|All students must submit an unofficial transcript or DARS report (available at the Campus Hub).
|Academic Bulletin
|A full description of the program including class listings and class descriptions are listed in the Academic Bulletin.
|Program Contact Information
|Department of Aviation
Minnesota State University, Mankato
328 Armstrong Hall
Mankato, Minnesota 56001
Phone: 507-389-6116
Fax: 507-389-1303
Email: email@example.com
|College Advising
|College of Education Advising
Mymique Baxter, Student Relations Coordinator
117 Armstrong Hall
Note: This page may not print properly from Internet Explorer.


text:
|2011-03-23, 12:26
|Link #1981
Senior Member
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Tennessee
Age: 31
Eh, I guess things are okay this way though... I'm still confused as fuck about everything, but mid-April isn't that far away. Of course, the key word there is 'aiming.' Hopefully come that time we won't get an "Oh sorry guys, we're still not ready. The episode will totally be ready come mid-May, though!"
|2011-03-23, 12:33
|Link #1982
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Hamburg
Age: 48
While I do agree that I'd rather have a proper ending instead of a rushed one, I'm getting increasingly annoyed at the way SHAFT handles it. The longer it's dragged out without proper explanation, the more the mood and continuity of the show gets lost. I do NOT want to have another Bakemonogatari style disaster (which ruined alot of the show for me tbh)
I only hope that they're not starting with self-censorship over the current situation in JP. Then I wouldn't be annoyed, I'd be royally pissed.
|2011-03-23, 12:55
|Link #1983
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2004
So after this recent delay, is anyone else actually starting to fear censorship? I mean I know people insist it won't happen, but it wouldn't surprised me at all, given how nihilistic this series has become. Shaft wouldn't postpone the series for this long unless something was going down.
|2011-03-23, 13:17
|Link #1985
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Earth
So, unless it's way too obvious, I will just try to treat myself better and think that there is no censorship whatsoever ....
|2011-03-23, 15:11
|Link #1986
Join Date: Dec 2009
curser madoka set
|2011-03-23, 16:10
|Link #1987
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: At home
The last two episodes are probably finished but can't show it because of the disaster. It's still a bad timing with the current state Japan is now. A possible problem with that hiatus is that the longer Madoka is put on hiatus, changes might be made into it. It might stray off from the original, and the ending might be a bit of a let-down to others (the hiatus might build up higher expectations on other people).
Anyway, I was really, really expecting episode 11 tomorrow and then found out that it's on hold until mid-April. It's like waiting for the last volume of Haruhi and just to realize that it's already been 2 years (or more) since the last volume. >_<
|2011-03-23, 16:30
|Link #1990
Join Date: Dec 2010
|2011-03-23, 16:32
|Link #1991
Join Date: Mar 2006
I doubt the airing is being held back due to sensitivity to victims of the earthquake. It's more likely that the episodes had animation issues and a delay to finish it up made sense because everything else was being canceled in droves at that point (and honestly, there were/are more important things to worry about). Now it's ready to air, but it's not as simple as pushing one show aside to make room for another, and I'm sure Shaft has contracts regarding airing rights and a whole bunch of legal junk to work through.
I believe Gen was pretty sure it would stream on Nico but he's not the guy in charge of making decisions either. It probably was going to air, but got pulled at the last minute, possibly because the TV broadcasts were contracted to air first. MBS (the station that airs it first) is listed as a partner for the show.
Anyway, if they're shooting for mid April at the latest for episode 12, then we only have to wait a week, two at the most, for episode 11 to air. I guess a month isn't too bad of a wait, all things considering.
Last edited by Solace; 2011-03-23 at 16:39. Reason: Grammah. I probably failed anyway.
|2011-03-23, 17:01
|Link #1993
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Earth
So, as long as they make it not so obvious (Something like it's just a plan by Kyubey to test the bond and friendship of humans and at the end Madoka proves to Kyubey that love conquers all so Kyubey resets everything and everyone has a happy ending ) then I would be okay with it XD
|2011-03-23, 17:11
|Link #1994
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Hamburg
Age: 48
There's at least ONE advantage to it: I'm fairly convinced that Urobuchi Gen would say so if he felt pressured to compromise on his script more than he's willing to. He's the type for that, and he has developed the clout to pull it off.
That doesn't mean that SHAFT might not eventually overrule him, but at least it wouldn't stay unnoticed. Hard to tell what's going on inside their brains at the moment. Just praying that they're not going to make some stupid trollish decisions (like KyoAni did with Endless Eight) and rather finish the show properly.
|2011-03-23, 17:14
|Link #1995
Crossdressing Menmatic
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Where you live... the question is, do you see me?
Age: 25
Certainly, the earthquake can be used as a basis to explain the first week delay. But the second week? Maybe not.
|2011-03-23, 17:23
|Link #1996
Senior Member
I agree with Deconstructor. It really could be any of those things.
For that matter, maybe Gen himself simply had a change of heart about his story and chose to change the ending. Not out of any sort of special sensitivity for viewers, but because he himself might have been moved by what his country is now going through, and decided to alter the ending to speak to that disaster.
So I'm inclined to more or less agree with Kuroi Sabato. If the ending is one that I would have liked anyway (before this tragic earthquake disaster happened), then I'll still like it now. If I wouldn't have liked it anyway, I still won't like it now.
|2011-03-23, 18:01
|Link #1997
Join Date: Sep 2006
I recall reading that the SHAFT studio was shaken up a bit by the earthquake, so they lost several days just picking up the pieces and tidying everything up. I don't know where they're based, but if they were close enough to have the offices shaken up, there might be power issues reducing working hours.
Then what with two new shows starting next season, there are probably scheduling issues as well.
This is all small beans. It's just an anime series. I'm prepared to be patient.
|2011-03-23, 18:23
|Link #1998
I kill you
Graphic Designer
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: In your brain
Why people are believing 'ending will be changed'? Urobuchi is the only script writer/screenplayer for this entire series, so there is no way it is going to be altered.
Self censorship won't be the case, too. When they said 'different from regular broadcast', it is most likely that it will be webcasted. No need for censored if they do that unless it is too 'sexy'.
|2011-03-23, 18:46
|Link #1999
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2008
Well, seeing how unorthodox this MG series is, maybe they're being delayed by capping off the series in a complex offbeat way, like maybe a "forked" parallel ending or ending as its own spin-off. (I'd love to see Mami return/resurrected in her own show, like Madoka ending as Mami's "Dallas" moment! Hope they take their time though, even a whole year considering the catastrophe you're in.
|2011-03-23, 19:20
|Link #2000
Join Date: Mar 2006
However we know that episode 11 was done at least, and 12 was probably done or close to it as well. Perhaps 12 is the delay reason, as you say, it could be anything. I'm merely pointing out what I think is the likely reason, which is that the episodes are probably done but rescheduling the air dates became a messy affair. Obviously the earthquake didn't help matters, but if Gen was bothered enough to Twitter about episode 11, it's more likely than not Shaft being Shaft combined with the disaster making everything uncertain and screwed up.
We'll probably never know the real reason, so feel free to keep your disagreements.
I really doubt they'll change the last two episodes, but if they do it's doubtful they'll tell the audience, since that would change the audiences impression of the show (this isn't the "true" ending? wtf!).
|despair, hope, madoka magica, magical girl, urobuchi gen
|Thread Tools


text:
Two recent favorites for this week's music post plus a favorite oldie from Lamb =).
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Latest Music Obsessions: Gold & Youth, D.L.I.D., and Lamb
3 comments:
I like the Gold & Youth song - although the person who uploaded the video, 'INDIEofINDIE,' sounds a bit too indie for me:DReplyDeleteReplies
Haha hopefully it's tongue-in-cheek? Glad you like the first song!Delete
Love Lamb! I used to listen to this one song, I think called sound (or what is that sound) on repeat.ReplyDelete
I love hearing from you all! Please leave me a message if you have questions, advice, or just to let me know you stopped by. Your feedback is always very much appreciated. Thanks! <3 Xiaolu
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
Call us 7 days a week
Know exactly what you want?
Save time with this quick order form. If you know the catalog/part numbers for the items you wish to purchase, enter them into your cart here. You can also browse the site and add items to your cart from any product page.
Quick Order
Top Categories in Electrical & Lighting
Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
LED Bulbs
See More
Emergency Lighting
Sign & Light Combo Units
Portable Generators
Standby Generators
Commercial Lighting Fixtures
All Categories
Please select at least one item
Browse Generators
(390 items)
Portable Generators
Narrow Your Results
Free Shipping
Fuel Type
Rated Watts
Start Type
Fuel Tank Gallons
Run Time Hours
Certifications and Listings
Our Price
Recently Viewed
Generator Accessories
PTO Generators
Spider Boxes & Power Distribution
Yamaha EF2000iSv2, 1600 Watts, Inverter Generator, Gasoline, Recoil Start, 120V
Not Yet Rated
GENERAC® 6864, 5000 Watts, Portable Generator, Diesel, Electric/Recoil Start, 120/240V
Free Shipping
Goal Zero 23000, 300 Watts, Solar Generator, Solar, AC, Car, 120V


text:
HotelsOne.com partners up with Lodgeo!
We are pleased to introduce Lodgeo as our exclusive mobile hotel partner.
We pride ourselves on offering our travellers from around the world an easy, efficient and economical way to make hotel bookings online.
Lodgeo is the fastest and most reliable hotel price comparison booking app featuring over 800 thousand hotels worldwide while checking 100s of travel sites at once to guarantee you the lowest prices available out there!
Search, compare and book instantly on your mobile devise without hopping from site to site :)
The app is free and available to download from the Apple app store and Google play.
Download Lodgeo now and get £ 10 credits instantly by using promocode: HOTELO offer expires 28 February 2015


text:
This week starts off with a bang with a show by the hugely popular Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men, at Showbox Sodo. If you're a KEXP listener you know just how much we love this great Icelandic band. This is a can't miss! Speaking of can't misses, on Tuesday, THEESatisfaction is giving a free performance atRead more…
Listen Live:
High Quality AAC+
Excellent for PC, Mac, iPhones/iPads, Android Devices, tablets, iTunes, Winamp, and VLC. High quality audio, low bandwidth
MP3 Stream
Best for computers running OSX or Windows with iTunes or the open source VideoLAN Player installed
KEXP AND THE UWKEXP is an
affiliate of the
University of Washington
iTunes and KEXPYou can now find KEXP under "Eclectic" in iTunes after the demise of the "Public" category, to better represent the diversity of our daytime variety shows and numerous specialty programs.
KEXP Suggests


text:
Start with a top quality frame and choose the options you want. That's the difference with our new 1500 single hung and sliding windows. There's no need to compromise performance, sacrifice aesthetics or pay more for features you don't need. Our 1500 vinyl windows offer a cost-effective solution that can be tailored to your needs.
You can also combine operating and fixed shapes to create an endless array of design possibilities. Each unit is engineered to strict AAMA standards and backed by a Limited Lifetime Warranty.
For more information, technical specs and easy-to-install features, explore our site. Or contact your Ply Gem Windows representative.


text:
Nearly five years after an unarmed man died in a barrage of 50 police bullets following his bachelor party in Queens, two of the shooters faced a long-delayed disciplinary trial on Monday that could cost them their jobs.
Detective Gescard Isnora and Officer Michael Carey are charged violating department guidelines by using unnecessary force in the 2006 shooting of Sean Bell, who died on what would have been his wedding day.
The 23-year-old Bell was killed and two friends seriously injured outside a topless bar where police were investigating reports of prostitution. No weapon was found in Bell's blood-splattered, bullet-riddled car, sparking accusations that the New York Police Department was too quick to use deadly force in his case and others.
The disciplinary proceeding follows a 2008 non-jury trial where Isnora and two other officers were acquitted of criminal charges. Carey was never charged criminally.
NYPD attorney Adam Sheldon told an administrative judge on Monday that the tragic outcome was the result of "the outrageous, unimaginable and unjustified actions of Detective Isnora."
When Isnora and other officers began shooting at a car carrying Bell and two friends, Carey fired three rounds without proper cause, Sheldon said.
Carey "never saw an actual threat coming from the car," the attorney said. "He couldn't have, because one didn't exist."
Isnora's attorney, Philip Karasyk, blamed Bell for not following the detective's orders to halt and instead trying to drive away.
If Bell "had just put his foot on the brake instead of the accelerator, none of us would be here today," the lawyer said.
At the 2008 criminal trial, an undercover officer working with the accused officers testified that they became alarmed after witnessing a heated argument outside the club between Bell's friends and another patron who appeared to have a gun. He claimed they overheard a bell associate, Joseph Guzman, say, "Yo, go get my gun."
In grand jury testimony, Isnora said he decided to follow Bell, Guzman and Trent Benefield to their car because he believed they were going to commit a drive-by shooting.
Guzman denied saying anything about a gun; other witnesses also testified that the dispute ended peacefully. He and Benefield testified that they never heard the officers yell warnings before opening fire and tried to drive away because they feared for their lives.
Isnora gave a different account: When he confronted the men, he resorted to deadly force only after Bell bumped him with the car and smashed into an unmarked police van, and after he spotted Guzman make a sudden move as though he were going for a gun.
A judge ended up acquitting the three officers of state charges that included manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment.
After hearing evidence at the disciplinary trial, the administrative judge will make a recommendation to Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly about whether and how to discipline the officers, who aren't on active duty but collect a paycheck. Kelly has the final say on their future with the department.
The two other officers acquitted in the criminal trial are trying to negotiate plea deals in their disciplinary cases.
Last year, the city agreed to pay $3.25 million to the estate of Bell, $3 million to Guzman and $900,000 to Benefield to settle a civil suit.


text:
Christian worship and Prayer based cinematic clouds and light rays background loop in 4K HD resolution. Useful for divine, spiritual, fantasy concepts. 4K HD Seamlessly Loopable 4096×2304 background animation.
View author portfolio
Use in a single end product, free or commercial. The total price includes the item price and a buyer fee.
License details
Why buy with Envato
Use in an unlimited number of end products, free or commercial. May be used with different clients, but not for on-demand customization products or services. The total price includes the item price and a buyer fee.
Elite Author
Deliver better projects faster. Web, design & video assets
Unlimited downloads, from $16.50/month
Learn almost anything with
Envato Tuts+ for free
25,000+ tutorials and 1,000+ courses
Designers matched perfectly to
you on Envato Studio
2000 artists ready to undertake your work


text:
BEIRUT (AP) — A foreign fighter in Syria says jihadis from the Caucasus have formed an independent fighting force.
In a video posted online Wednesday by the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a man wearing a camouflage uniform is seen standing among other fighters, who he says have come to Syria from the Caucasus and Russia to wage jihad.
The group is called The Mujahedin of the Caucasus and the Levant. The man says the group has no links with al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant groups which are among the most effective opposition forces.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, the Observatory's chief, said the video was taken in the northern Idlib province.
Thousands of foreign fighters have joined the fight since the conflict began in March 2011.


text:
HIV Medical Homes Resource Center (MHRC)
The HIV-MHRC was a HRSA-funded national training and technical assistance cooperative agreement charged with providing support to Ryan White grantees and service providers to understand the requirements of and successfully apply for and become certified medical homes. The HIV-MHRC was managed by the FXB Center at Rutgers University.
The 3-year cooperative agreement ended on June 30, 2014. Please refer to the Medical Homes topics pages for resources developed by the MHRC.
Total views: 15,129


text:
Promote our shirts on your own site and make money! $2 Per shirt!
Think you have a good shirt idea? Send it in, you could win $$$
Members only exclusive content and contests. Sign up now, it's free!
Tags: mexicant t-shirt, mexicant shirt, mexicant tee shirt, mexican't shirt, shirts about fat mexicans, mexican with sombrero shirts, funny illegal immigrant problem shirts, border crossing tee shirt


text:
In case you missed it, registration for OpenWorld 2008 – the premiere event for anything related to Oracle each year – is now open. I happened to be at our HQ the last couple of weeks and got to scout out a possible location for our annual Projects party, typically held on the Tuesday night of OOW.
I can't say where the location is of course, but I wanted to leave you with a little taste of what the view COULD look like if we go with this spot.


text:
In physical realms the singularity is an event that due to its nature is assumed to only happened once[1] and that has no natural explanation. Most frequently the term is used in connection with the origin of the universe (so called cosmic or big bang singularity) or less frequently with the origin of life (biological singularity) and its field is in general subject of study by origin science. When scientific principles were first being developed into the scientific method, scientists like Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Isaac Newton[note 1], and William Kelvin distinguished between primary and secondary (natural) causes.[note 2] A primary cause was meant to be a first cause to explain singularities.[4] Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica argued that when it comes to causes, it is not possible to go to infinity (either there is a first cause or there is no cause at all)[note 3] and he referred to the first cause as the ultimate cause.[note 4] He identified it with God, because at least in one respect, a first cause exhibits an important property of the divine: It is uncaused. According to David Berlinski this is a weak (Aquinas's conclusion might not be definitively confirmed as true or false)[note 5] but not absurd argument that is frequently met with inept objections.[5] Berlinski also argues that the concept of singularity belongs essentially to mathematics and singularities are not experimentally accessible objects that could be weighted, measured, assessed, replicated, balanced, or seen by any modality of the senses.[7]
On the other hand, when contemporary physicists refer to a singularity, they are generally referring to a space-time event, situation or point in which one or more physical quantities (like temperature or density) approach infinite value[8] as another parameter goes to zero (typically radius of the universe).[9] There is however a problem how to interpret such terms as an infinite temperature, infinite mass, infinite energy or infinite force in the realms of physics. That's why naturalistic physicists who reduce their explanations of physical reality to secondary (natural) causes assume that there is some new set of physical laws[10] or some new way of looking at the problem needed to make the apparent singularity go away.[11] According to C.J.S. Clarke, no final satisfactory statement emerges of what a singularity really is like.[12]
The big bang singularity
The big bang singularity or the cosmic singularity refers to a conjectured hypothetical state at the beginning of the universe in which material particles were at no distance from one another and the temperature, density, and curvature of the universe were infinite. The inference to this state is based on the evidence that the universe is expanding and thus it has established a clear path into the past. If expanding things (the large scale structure of the universe) are now far apart, they must at one point have been close together. At the singularity itself, a great many physical parameters zoom to infinity. This posts however a great problem for attempts for naturalistic explanations of the beginning of the universe since as the astronomer Joseph Silk observed, an indefinitely dense universe is where the laws of physics, and even space and time, break down.[5] He further asserts that a state of infinite density is completely unacceptable as a physical description of the universe.[7] According to Alan Guth, "In spite of the fact that we call it the Big Bang theory it really says absolutely nothing about the Big Bang. It doesn't tell us what banged, why it banged, what caused it to bang. It doesn't even describe, doesn't really allow us to predict what the conditions are immediately after this bang." [note 6] Michio Kaku from City University of New York adds that "at the instant of the Big Bang ... we have the centrepiece of the Universe itself, a missing piece beyond physical law".[14]
Many naturalistic scientists are trying to escape the inescapable fact that the universe really did begin by proposing speculative theories including imaginary time (cf. Stephen Hawking:"Only if we could picture the universe in terms of imaginary time would there be no singularities...When we go back to the real time in which we live, however, there will still be singularities")[15], string theory, prior universe beyond the reach of observation[16] (cf. Victor J. Stenger: "In the scenario I presented, our universe is described as having "tunneled" through the chaos ...from prior universe that existed for all previous time")[8], or put their hope to quantum mechanics[11][17]. Some resort to the assertion that the world was uncaused (cf. Carl Sagan: "The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be")[4] while other dismiss the question of the first cause altogether (cf. Hawking: "To ask what happened before the universe began is like asking for a point on the Earth at 91 degrees north latitude. Instead of talking about the universe being created, and maybe coming to and end, one should just say: the universe is.")[7].
The hot big bang singularity
The big bang singularity is sometimes named the hot big bang singularity to emphasize the fact [8] that while going back in the time towards the origin of the universe, all matter and energy in the universe gets squeezed together into a "pinhead" - a process that would make it "very, very, very hot".[8][13] Hot Big Bang singularity appears to be in violation of the first law of thermodynamics since the global energy needed to run universe has come from nowhere and the principles of nineteenth-century physics require that energy is neither created nor destroyed. Thus, the hot Big Bang singularity remains beyond any causal scheme and the creation of the universe is still unexplained by any force, field, power, potency, influence or instrumentality known to physics or humankind.[7] The [hot] big bang singularity does not represent a physical concept, because it cannot be accommodated by a physical theory. It is a point at which physical theories give the way.[5]
Antipathy to the idea of beginning
J.C. Lennox points out that the supporters of various schools of materialism let their worldview to play a role in their antipathy to the idea of beginning. Among them are Engels (cf. "Did the God created the world, or has the world been in existence eternally?"), Stephen Hawking (cf."the idea that the time has beginning...smacks of divine intervention") and Sir John Maddox, a former editor of Nature (cf. "ultimite origin of our world [gave creationists] ample justification [for their beliefs]").[1]
The naked singularity
The naked singularity is referred to as "a troublesome sibling" of the black hole, which is then considered one of the strangest ideas the modern science ever introduced. Both terms pertain to a conjectured fate of a massive star that reached the end of its life. Naturalistic scientists believe a large star eventually collapses to a black hole or suggest it might instead become a so-called naked singularity. Sorting out what actually happens[18] is declared to be one of the most important unresolved problems in astrophysics. The speculations about undiscovered naked singularities are part of the quest for an unified theory of physics and they do not provide any direct observational tests of such a theory.[19] Berlinski writes with irony that until recently, great physicists have attempted with dignity to respect the distinction between what is known and what is not. He continues that contemporary cosmologists compromised their scrupulousness and feel free to say anything that pops into their heads, uncorrected by any criticism beyond the trivial.[7][note 7]
Einstein on singularity
Some scientists argue that when Einstein's General theory of relativity is extrapolated back to the beginning [of the universe] it is discovered the equations blow up in the region of singularity or a cosmic singularity, respectively.[14] Einstein himself however expressed his following views on this matter: "One may not therefore assume the validity of the [field] equation for very high density of the field and of the matter and one may not conclude that the beginning of the expansion must mean a singularity in the mathematical sense. All we have to realize is that the equations may not be continued over such regions."[7] John Hartnett also points out that there is no known mechanism to start the universe expanding out of singularity - the equations in the theory only work after the expansion has begun.[17]
Biological singularity
According to W.Gitt the French chemist and microbiologist L.Pasteur in 1864 rejected the doctrine of spontaeous generation of living cells in his historical lecture at the Sorbonne university in Paris and formulated a scientific law about life expressed in latin words like Omne vivum ex vivo (All life comes [only] from life) that has never been disproved by experiment.[22] Philosopher of science Sir Karl Popper proposed that mankind may be "faced with the possibility that the origin of life (like the origin of physics) becomes an impenetrable barrier to science, and a residue to all attempts to reduce biology to chemistry and physics." [23]
Bible and origins
Scientists who are biblical Christians believe that a creation model of the biblical kind clearly predicted a beginning of the world, [1] and thus this can be considered as successful testable prediction giving the credit to predictive power of Biblical message.[note 8] They warn against the danger of being seduced by speculation masquerading as science and they consider cosmic singularity to be compatible with creation of space, time, matter and energy ex nihilo (i.e. out of nothing) and often cite Arno Penzias, astrophysicist and Nobel laureate who stated in 1978 for The New York Times that "The best data we have (concerning the Big Bang)[note 9] are exactly what I would have predicted, had I nothing to go on but the five books of Moses, the Psalms, the Bible as a whole."[8] The New Atheists object to God as a final explanation for ultimate cause, yet they themselves have no explanation for the existence of the mass/energy of which the universe is formed and thus must regard it essentially as a brute fact. Due to the law of causality, explanation in science, if it is to avoid infinite regress, always leads to certain things that are regarded as ultimate.[1] American astronomer, physicist and cosmologist Robert Jastrow closes his book God and the Astronomers with these words: "At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."[30]
- ↑ cf."This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets, could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being....This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord God "pantokrator," or Universal Ruler...Since every particle of space is always, and every indivisible moment of duration is every where, certainly the Maker and Lord of all things cannot be never and no where....God is the same God, always and every where. He is omnipresent not virtually only, but also substantially; for virtue cannot subsist without substance.…It is allowed by all that the Supreme God exists necessarily; and by the same necessity he exists always and every where....And thus much concerning God; to discourse of whom from the appearance of things, does certainly belong to Natural Philosophy." Newton, I.: General Scholium. Translated by Motte, A. 1825. Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy[2]
- ↑ Adherents of methodological naturalism such as E.J.Larson often mistakenly portray these scientists from their position as "freely mix[ing] matters of supernatural and natural causation" without recognizing the real difference they made between primary and secondary (natural) causes.[3]
- ↑ cf."Seeing an endless row of dominoes toppling before our eyes, would we without pause say that no first domino set the other dominoes to toppling? Really?" in Berlinski: Devil's Delusion, p.67[5]
- ↑ cf.Max Planck: "Science cannot solve the ultimate mystery of nature. And that is because, in the last analysis, we ourselves are part of nature and therefore part of the mystery that we are trying to solve."[6]
- ↑ cf."The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man." The Book of Job: An introduction (G.K. Chesterton, 1907)
- ↑ Scientific organizations dominated by atheistic scientists who usurp the right to call themselves "mainstream" routinely describe this 'bang' as following: "A huge explosion, known as the Big Bang, then sent matter and energy expanding in all directions."[13]
- ↑ cf."When people stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing — they believe in anything."[20] (paraphrased G.K. Chesterton) or more precisely attributed: "It's the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your common sense." (G.K. Chesterton) "The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in anything" (É.L. Cammaerts)[21]
- ↑ In the more exact sense the Biblical message in this context is regarded to be a sort of testimony about things that are believed to had happened in the unobservable past. The predictive power of this message relates to actual discovery of scientific evidence inferring this testimony (claiming the World had the beginning) to be correct.
- ↑ To avoid confusion, an explanatory note should be made that the 'big bang' in this context obviously connotes the concept of the rapid expansion of the universe formulated to interpret the evidence (such as the Hubble's law[24], or later the accelerating universe[25]) for universal expansion. According to W. Gitt et al. the Bible states twelve times an expansion of that kind had happened when God stretched out the heavens'.[26] While the concept of expansion itself is not a problem, the notion of Big Bang as the secular materialistic hypothesis of how the purely material universe came into existence is according to creationist community or biblical literalists, respectively, worth of challenging. For scientific objections to Big Bang theory cf.the cosmology statement[27], the objections of YEC community might be reviewed, in paper 'Christian apologists should abandon the big bang'[28] or in 'An interview with creationist physicist/cosmologist John Hartnett'.[29]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 John C. Lennox (2009). God's undertaker. Has science buried God?. Oxford, England: Lion Hudson, 67-69, 186, 204. ISBN 978-0-7459-5371-7. "Apart from the obvious fact that no one observed [the origin of the universe], scientists think of the Big Bang as a singularity in the past, an unrepeatable event;..."
- ↑ Christine Dao. Man of Science, Man of God: Isaac Newton. Institute for Creation Research.
- ↑ Edward J.Larson (2006). Evolution:The remarkable history of a scientific theory. New York: Modern Library, 350. ISBN 0-8129-6849-2. "Indeed, Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, William Gilbert, John Ray, and many other prior scientific luminaries freely mixed matters of supernatural and natural causation."
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Norman L. Geisler and Ronald M. Brooks (1990). "10. Questions about Science and Evolution", When Skeptics Ask. Victor Books, Baker Books, 213-215. ISBN 978-0-8010-7164-5. Retrieved on 25.1.2012.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 David Berlinski. "The Cause", The Devil's Delusion. Basic Books, New York, 2009, 74, 79-82. ISBN 978-0-465-01937-3.
- ↑ Max Planck; James Murphy (1932). Where is Science Going?. Norton, 217.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 David Berlinski (2009). "Was there a Big Bang?", The Deniable Darwin. Seattle, USA: Discovery Institute Press (reprinted from Commentary February 1998 by permission), 226-228. ISBN 978-0-9790141-2-3.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Edgar Anrews (2010). Who made God? Searching for a theory of everything.. Carlisle, PA, USA: EP Books, 93-94, 101, 121. ISBN 978-0-85234-707-2.
- ↑ Jozef Piaček, Miloš Kravčík (1999). FILIT (Open Philosophical Encyclopaedia): Singularity (Slovak). Comenius University in Bratislava, with support of Open Society Foundation (Nadácia otvorenej spoločnosti). "In astronomy the singularity refers to a space-time event at point of which the known physical laws cease to be valid and at which the gravitational field equations become meaningless since some of their elements acquire extreme values. From perspective of general theory of relativity singularities involve all black holes and the starting point of the expansion of the universe (Big Bang) when radius of the universe is equal to zero and density is reaching infinitely high value."
- ↑ ALAN GUTH, Victor F. Weisskopf Professor of Physics. MIT department of physics. "Recently Guth has worked with Alex Vilenkin (Tufts) and Arvind Borde (Southampton College) to show that the inflating region of spacetime must have a past boundary, and that some new physics, perhaps a quantum theory of creation, would be needed to understand it."
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 What is singularity and why do all laws of physics break down at singularity?. PhysLink.com. "You can imagine the problems though -- how do we interpret an infinite mass or infinite energy or infinite force? Usually we assume that there is some new set of laws or some new way of looking at the problem that makes the apparent singularity go away. ...Most people worry about singularities involving general relativity: two examples being a black hole and the singularity that classical general relativity predicts was our universe at the moment it began. If you try to apply the laws of general relativity in these situations you will inevitably find the same 1/x singularities I've been talking about. How are we going to resolve these singularities? We expect quantum mechanics to do the job, since it is the theory that correctly describes physics at small distance scales. Unfortunately, while we have good theories of atomic physics, we don't real have a good theory of quantum gravity. Many of us think string theory will ultimately provide the resolution to these problems. In short then, a singularity represents an infinity and we generally don't think nature is infinite. The problem arises from not having some kind of 'floor' built into a theory that keeps you from taking the limit of 1/x as x goes to zero. The way out is to apply a new theory that has such a floor, such as quantum mechanics or string theory (quantum gravity)."}
- ↑ C.J.S. Clarke (1993). The Analysis of Space-Time Singularities. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 175. ISBN 0-521-43796-2. "It is perhaps one of the disappointments of the subject of time-space singularities, as it was established by the definitive work of Hawking and Penrose in the early 1970s, that no final satisfactory statement emerges of what a singularity really is like."
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 National Academy of Sciences(NAS) (1999). Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences 48. The Nationals Academies Press. "Hubble's hypothesis of an expanding universe leads to certain deductions. One is that the universe was more condensed at a previous time. From this deduction came the suggestion that all the currently observed matter and energy in the universe were initially condensed in a very small and infinitely hot mass."
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Parallel Universes. BBC (14 February 2002). "NARRATOR: If everything in the Universe was to be explained then String Theory and the Big Bang would now seamlessly merge and they'd complement each other perfectly. After all, one concerned the birth of the Universe and the other all the matter in it. It was surely a foregone conclusion. Physics seemed to be on the edge of glory, but it all went terribly wrong. Try as they might they just couldn't get the two ideas to merge and then, after 10 years of struggling, something even worse happened: their two pet theories now began to self-destruct. The first problem appeared with the Big Bang. The cosmologists had assumed that as they worked backwards in time they would eventually work their way back all the way to the beginning of the Big Bang. There would be no awkward gaps, but after years of end-less refinement there was one gap which refused to disappear, the most important one of all. ALAN GUTH: In spite of the fact that we call it the Big Bang Theory it really says absolutely nothing about the Big Bang. It doesn't tell us what banged, why it banged, what caused it to bang. It doesn't even describe, doesn't really allow us to predict what the conditions are immediately after this bang. MICHIO KAKU: The fundamental problem of cosmology is that the laws of physics as we know them break down at the instant of the Big Bang. Well some people say what's wrong with that, what's wrong with having the laws of physics collapse? Well for a physicist this is a disaster. All our lives we've dedicated to the proposition that the Universe obeys knowable laws, laws that can be written down in the language of mathematics and here we have the centrepiece of the Universe itself, a missing piece beyond physical law. NARRATOR: The very beginning of the Big Bang was the single biggest mystery in all of cosmology. It was called the singularity. PAUL STEINHARDT: When you extrapolate Einstein's general Theory of Relativity back to the beginning you discover what we call a singularity, a cosmic singularity, which is to say that the equations blow up."
- ↑ Stephen Hawking (1996). A brief history of time. Buntam books, 135. ISBN 0-553-10953-7.
- ↑ Is the Universe finite or infinite? An interview with Joseph Silk. ESA, European Space Agency (2 May 2001). "ESA: We seem to agree that the Big Bang started with an 'inflation', a short period of high-speed expansion. But what happened before that? Joseph Silk: Maybe long before inflation there was a Universe that was collapsing near a singularity, which then inflated again, so there was already a history before the Big Bang. Some people think there was a 'pre-Big Bang'. One possibility is that this pre-Big Bang, if there was such a place, would have made lots of entropy (the amount of disorder in the Universe). And the Universe we live in does have huge amounts of entropy. That's one theory. But we have no understanding of how to change from collapsing to expanding. There's no physical way to explain that transition. Some people believe that they have explanations the pre-Big Bang, so it's a respectable theory."
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Alex Williams, John Hartnett (2005). Dismantling the Big Bang. Green Forest, AR, USA: Master Books, 346. ISBN 978-0-89051-437-5. "It is simply assumed that space was expanding right from the beginning and the substance of the universe "went along for the ride", and was thereby carried out of the singular state. No one can explain how, so they place their hope for an explanation in quantum gravity...At this stage it is still in the realm of speculation. ... Big-bang theory is based on the laws of physics but those laws cannot explain the important components of the model. The big-bang universe begins in a singularity (all matter, energy, space and time crushed into a point of infinite density) and there is no known mechanism to start the universe expanding out of the singularity - the equations in the theory only work after the expansion has begun."
- ↑ Nature of the Universe. The University of Hong Kong, Department of Physics; Hong Kong Space Museum. "We call the center of a black hole a singularity. Naively, it has zero radius and infinite density. However, a more accurate statement is that we do not know the physical laws that govern the singularity and we have no idea what happens there."
- ↑ Pankaj S. Joshi (January 21, 2009). Do Naked Singularities Break the Rules of Physics?. Scientific American Magazine (February 2009). "A black hole has two parts. At its core is a singularity, the infinitesimal point into which all the matter of the star gets crushed. Surrounding the singularity is the region of space from which escape is impossible, the perimeter of which is called the event horizon. Once something enters the event horizon, it loses all hope of exiting. Whatever light the falling body gives off is trapped, too, so an outside observer never sees it again. It ultimately crashes into the singularity. Conventional wisdom has it that a large star eventually collapses to a black hole, but some theoretical models suggest it might instead become a so-called naked singularity. Sorting out what happens is one of the most important unresolved problems in astrophysics.The discovery of naked singularities would transform the search for a unified theory of physics, not least by providing direct observational tests of such a theory."
- ↑ Don Bierle (2004). "3", Surprised by Faith. Chaska, MN, USA: FaithSearch International (www.faithsearch.org), 143. ISBN 978-0-9714-1008-4.
- ↑ Nigel Rees (1997). First things. http://books.google.no/books?id=NuQnAAAAYAAJ&q=%22The+first+effect+of+not+believing+in+God+is+to+believe+in+anything%22.
- ↑ Werner Gitt (2011). Without Excuse. Creation Book Publishers, 143,177,323. ISBN 978-1-921643-41-5.
- ↑ Ayala, F. and Dobzhansky, T. (1974). Studies in the Philosophy of Biology: Reduction and Related Problems. University of California Press, Berkeley, 390. ISBN 0-520-02649-7. "What makes the origin of life and of the genetic code a disturbing riddle is this: the genetic code is without any biological function unless it is translated; that is, unless it leads to the synthesis of the proteins whose structure is laid down by the code. But … the machinery by which the cell (at least the non-primitive cell, which is the only we know) translates the code consists of at least fifty macromolecular components which are themselves coded in the DNA. Thus the code can not be translated except by using certain products of its translation. This constitutes a baffling circle; a really vicious circle, it seems, for any attempt to form a model or theory of the genesis of the genetic code. Thus we may be faced with the possibility that the origin of life (like the origin of physics) becomes an impenetrable barrier to science, and a residue to all attempts to reduce biology to chemistry and physics.(quoted Popper, K.R., 1974. Scientific Reduction and the Essential Incompleteness of All Science)"
- ↑ Edwin Hubble (1937). The Observational Approach to Cosmology. Oxford University Press.
- ↑ Adam G. Riess et al. (Supernova Search Team) (1998). "Observational evidence from supernovae for an accelerating universe and a cosmological constant". Astronomical J. 116 (3): 1009–38. doi:10.1086/300499.
- ↑ Werner Gitt, Bob Compton, Jorge Fernandez (2011). Without Excuse. Creation Book Publishers, 198. ISBN 978-1-921643-41-5. "The commonly accepted beginning to the universe is a modern theory referred to as the Big Bang. …The Big Bang was formulated to account for evidence of universal expansion (which the Bible states (twelve times) happened when God says He stretched out the heavens). While the concept of an expansion is not a problem, the idea that everything started with this 'singularity' which unaccountably brought the entire universe into existence, is worth challenging. …The Big Bang is the secular Materialist's hypothesis of how the (purely material) universe came into existence."
- ↑ Group of signers (May 22, 2004). An Open Letter to the Scientific Community. New Scientist.
- ↑ Jonathan F. Henry (2009). Christian apologists should abandon the big bang. JOURNAL OF CREATION 23(3) creation.com.
- ↑ Gary Bates (September 2003). An interview with creationist physicist/cosmologist John Hartnett. Creation 25(4):37–39.
- ↑ Robert Jastrow (1992). God and the Astronomers. New York: W. W. Norton. ISBN 978-0-393-85006-2.


text: Though several concessions to the censors and the box-office were made in adapting Irwin Shaw's bestseller The Young Lions to the screen, the end result is generally effective and satisfying. Set during World War 2, the film concentrates on three individuals, one German, two American. Marlon Brando (whose accent ebbs and floes from scene to scene) plays an idealistic German whose early fascination with Nazism leads to doubt and disillusionment. American entertainer Dean Martin, on the verge of the Big Time, does his best to dodge the draft but ends up in uniform all the same. And American Jew Montgomery Clift, so sensitive that he's practically breakable, must come to grips with anti-Semitism, not only from the Germans but also from his fellow soldiers. Romance enters the picture in the form of Hope Lange as Clift's gentile girlfrind, Barbara Rush as the socialite who shames Martin into joining up, and May Britt as Brando's vis-a-vis. Screenwriter Edward Anhalt was obliged to shoehorn in a boot-camp sequence indicating that the Brass disapproved of the bigoted behavior of Clift's topkick Lee van Cleef (as if racism was a mere aberration during the 1940s), and to slightly alter the ending of the book, in which the embittered but still patriotic Brando character, shouting Welcome to Germany!, machine-guns the Martin and Clift characters (in the film, it is Brando who bites the dust, symbolically dying for Hitler's sins). Maximillian Schell offers a starmaking turn as Brando's cynical comrade, while an uncredited John Banner, Sergeant Schultz on Hogan's Heroes, shows up as a pompous burgomeister who feigns ignorance of the hellish concentration camp in his community.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide


text:
Bayern Munich attacker Arjen Robben believes it should be Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo and not team-mate Franck Ribery who wins the Ballon d'Or.
Ribery helped Bayern to an unprecedented treble alongside Robben last season and has continued his irrepressible form into this campaign under new coach Pep Guardiola, earning him a place in the final three-man shortlist alongside Ronaldo and Barcelona's Lionel Messi.
However, Robben, who last year had a reported dressing-room bust-up with the Frenchman at half-time in the Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, says it should be Ronaldo who is crowned this year's Ballon d'Or winner for his exceptional individual performances for both club and country.
"I never had the award on my mind, even though I was nominated within the last 23 players," he told Voetbal International.
"It's always the same players who are left over: Ronaldo, Messi and now Ribery joins these two, which is fully justified.
"Because it's an individual award, I think it will go to Ronaldo. He really deserves it."
The winner of the award, which has been won by Messi for the last four years running, will be unveiled at a Gala in Zurich on January 13.


text:
Oct. 24, 2001
After weeks or "regular season" meets, the time has come for the Gauchos to battle for their conference championships. This Saturday Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will host the Big West Cross Country Championships. The event will take place at the Fairbank's Memorial Course on Route 1 in San Luis Obispo. The men's race is set to commence at 9:30 a.m. with the women's race scheduled for 10:45 a.m.
Directions To Course
Men's Team Preview:
The quest for the team title for the men is expected to be a three-way battle between UC Santa Barbara, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Utah State.
Cal Poly is the reigning three-time champions dating back to 1998. Last year the Mustangs lost three of their top five runners and have yet to find a consistent top five to replace their losses. The Mustangs placed 18th at the Roy Griak Meet and won their home invitational meet. The team has received national votes from the Coaches' poll, but never in the top 25.
Utah State surprised a lot of people with an exceptional Stanford Invitational performance where they beat the Gauchos by 20 points, led by a strong performance by Slovakian Dusan Hlubocky who finished 3rd. USU has a strong front five that has earned them national respect by being ranked 25th in the coaches' poll. They also performed well in the Notre Dame Invite, finishing second behind the Fighting Irish who have been ranked in the top 10 all season.
UC Santa Barbara holds the highest ranking of any Big West cross country team since Boise State in 1996. The Gauchos are listed as the 11th best team in the country by the most recent coaches' rankings. The Gauchos defeated Cal Poly in a convincing fashion early in the season in their only encounter with both teams at full-strength.
Women's Team Preview:
On the women's side, defending champion Cal Poly, along with UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara and Utah State, are among the top women's teams in contention for this year's title. Based on results earlier in the year, the crown appears to be UC Irvine's to lose. The Anteaters placed fourth at the Stanford Invitational with a score of 141, well ahead of Utah State (203) and UC Santa Barbara (215). Last year Cal Poly SLO surprised the conference by beating Irvine for the team title. This year the Mustangs have split two races against the Gauchos, edging them out in a home meet by 4 points, and losing to UCSB by 34 at Stanford.
Men's Individual Preview:
The race for the individual crown should be an interesting event. Every Big West Athlete has at some point been beaten by another Big West Athlete, leaving the door wide open for the champion.
UC Santa Barbara expects to have two athletes in contention. Senior Josh Horton possesses four "All-Conference" awards, and is the only athlete in the conference to make an NCAA appearance in track (after running a 29:09 10k). Horton has been running well this cross country season, especially in his last race where he finished 8th at the Pre-NCAA meet. Also making a run for the Gauchos will be senior Eric Gans. Gans finished 2nd at last year's championships by 1.5 seconds. Both Horton and Gans are excellent hill runners and have quick closing speed that will be key as they cover the grueling course.
Cal Poly SLO also has two contenders expected to make a run at the individual title. Senior Paulo Carvalho is the reigning champion from last year's track and field 5k and 10k races. Carvalho has been battling injuries that might hinder the three-time all-conference runner. Junior David Jackson is running his best cross country season during his career at Cal Poly. Jackson has twice been named conference athlete of the week, and recently won the Cal Poly SLO invite on the conference course. Jackson was an all-conference athlete last track season, running a sub 3:50 1500m, illustrating his legitimate kicking speed. Both Carvalho and Jackson finished behind Horton and Gans during their only previous meeting this year at the UCSB tri-meet.
Utah State should press for the individual title as well. Last year Steve Prescott and Mitch Zundell finished 3rd and 4th respectively at the Conference Championships. Both athletes are expected to again content for the title along with their addition Hlubocky.
Women's Individual Preview:
The women's race should be also exciting with the logical favorite being UCSB's own Katie Appenrodt. After twice being named the Big West Athlete of the week, the junior is in the midst of her best cross country season ever at UCSB, and has yet to be beaten by any Big West Athlete.
Expected to challenge Appenrodt is Cal Poly's Kathyrn Schlegel. The sophomore recently finished as the fastest collegiate athlete over the conference course at the SLO Invite, and has finished closer to Appenrodt than any other Big West Athlete.
UC Irvine's Tessa Cendejas has also been twice named Big West athlete of the week and should be battling Appenrodt for the majority the race. Cendejas finished 21 seconds behind Katie at their only encounter in the Stanford Invitational race.
to the Cuesta/Fairbanks Memorial Cross Country Course:
Take Highway 101 North.
Exit at Santa Rosa/ Highway 1.
Proceed north toward Morro Bay for about five miles.
Pass THROUGH the stoplight at Dairy Creek Golf Course.
Signs will be posted after the
second set of stoplights to lead you to:
Cuesta College (on the left-hand side) and the Cuesta/Fairbanks Memorial Cross Country Course (immediately across from Cuesta, on the right-hand side).


text:
Viking vampire sheriff Eric Northman plays a major role in the fourth season of HBO's hit series "True Blood," which kicks off Sunday — after losing his memory at the hands of a coven of witches, he has to turn to telepathic barmaid/fairy Sookie Stackhouse for help. Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard has gained a fervent following for his portrayal of the icy, sexy vamp, and he recently sat down for an interview with Hero Complex contributor Gina McIntyre to talk about what's ahead for Eric and the character's relationships with Anna Paquin's Sookie and Kristin Bauer van Straten's sardonic Pam.
GM: Were you excited about Eric's story line heading into this season?
AS: I was excited. It was quite different from what we've seen before. It's been difficult because he doesn't … it was difficult finding the right tone. He doesn't know who he is, so all that baggage is gone, 1,000 years of resentment and bitterness, the whole, like, loathing humanity kind of stuff is gone. But there has to be an element of danger there still. I didn't want him to become too much of a little puppy. It was about finding that balance, because he has to be extremely vulnerable now. [It] is great to see Eric, who's usually the alpha male, pretty vulnerable — to find that while maintaining the element of danger there. I don't think it would be fun to watch him for very long if he was completely emasculated.
GM: You actually get the opportunity to try some comedy in the first three episodes.
AS: I had fun with it. It was just important to make it real. The humor had to come out of the situations more than him trying to be funny. It's that culture clash, someone who doesn't really know who he is — Are you my progeny? Who are you to me? — trying to figure things out. Obviously there's an opportunity to create some funny situations with that.
GM: And obviously his relationship with Sookie is undergoing a bit of a change.
AS: She's seeing this different side of Eric now, but it can't be like she hated the old Eric, and now it's the new guy and she likes the new guy and then he goes back to the old guy and she hates him. It has to be more complicated, more of a gray zone than that. It was just important for us to realize that it's not like a completely different Eric. It is a different side of the same guy. She knows that, and that creates a platform for some drama, I think, because she knows who he is and she knows that he's dangerous and what he's done in the past, but then she's seeing this vulnerability and there's goodness in there. I think she already saw that in Season 3, a little glimmer of hope there, and now she's exploring it more. But I think it's important to remember that that was already inside Eric, but he had this big wall built up around himself to protect himself.
GM: Fans really seem to love the relationship between Eric and Pam. What's your relationship like off-screen with Kristin Bauer van Straten?
AS: She's amazing. She's so much fun. She's fantastic on the show, but she's also the sweetest woman you'll ever meet and completely different. She is the biggest crybaby you'll ever meet. She cries when she talks about a situation where she cried a couple of days ago. That makes her cry — when she's trying to explain why she cried, she cries again. Human goodness makes her cry. When someone does something beautiful to someone else, she cries her heart out. She's a beautiful human being. We have a lot of fun together. She's got a great season, and I'm really happy for her. This season she actually has kind of her own story line, which has been great for her. I love the relationship between Eric and Pam. She's kind of like his annoying obnoxious teenage daughter. There's also that tenderness between them that I love under the surface. They mean so much to each other, and I think that's really sweet.
GM: What's the atmosphere on set like?
AS: They're really good people, the whole cast, I love working with them. I think anyone who's ever been on the "True Blood" set will agree, you can just feel the energy. Not only the cast, but the crew as well. We've had pretty much the same crew for the past four years and it's become like a family. It always sounds so cheesy when actors sit and say, "Oh, we love each other," but I don't know what else to say. The atmosphere is so great and so loving and so generous. We spend so much time together — I've heard horror stories on other shows where people don't get along or have fun together. Man, if you work 60 to 70 hours a week together, you want to have a good time.
GM: Do you keep up with Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels? Or does it become too confusing to follow what's happening with Eric in "True Blood" and then also in the mystery series?
AS: I read the first five novels before we started Season 1 just to understand the world. Then, when we started shooting, I stopped because I got confused — was that from a script or was that from a novel? What I do now is I go back and I re-read the book before that season basically. I re-read the fourth book before we started this season, and when we wrap Season 4, I'll go back and I'll re-read the fifth book. They're loosely based on those books, but it kind of gives me an idea of potentially what world we're in next year and gives me something to think about while we're on hiatus.
GM: From your perspective, what is it about the show that fans most respond to?
AS: I think it's over-the-top, it's sexy, it's wild, it's violent, it's all that. There are 45 cliffhangers in an episode, but at the same time, it's grounded and it's about our society. It's about us, so it's not popcorn fiction. Hopefully you can relate to it and you can draw parallels to our society and what people are struggling with in real life. It's just a wild fantastic sexy way of telling stories about our struggles in everyday life.
Why we suck the evil out of vamps
Joss who? Meet the writer of the new 'Buffy' film
Ron Howard's quest for 'The Dark Tower'
'Stake Land': Vampires and Americana
'Priest': Not your mother's vampire movie
ON THE SET: Photos from 'Priest' production
Too draining? Harris saying goodbye to Sookie
'Phantasm,' the 30-year reunion interview
Stephen King digs into 'American Vampires'


text:
Help us protect Louisiana's children. Report Child Abuse & Neglect: 1-855-4LA-KIDS (1-855-452-5437) toll-free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week
DSS Announces Appointment of Assistant Secretary of Office of Community Services
"Kaaren Hebert has a long history of service to the Department of Children & Family Services and to the children and families of Louisiana. Her varied and comprehensive experience both as an administrator and a caseworker are assets to our agency, the Office of Community Services and the State," Nichols said. "She is an exceptional individual who has dedicated her 30 year career to public service, and she is committed to continue her work to ensure that Louisiana families and children are safe, thriving and self-sufficient."
Hebert has 30 years of comprehensive child welfare experience in DSS' Office of Community Services (OCS). Prior to her appointment as interim assistant secretary, Hebert served for three years as deputy assistant secretary of the same office.
Hebert also served as director of both the State Child Welfare Program and the State Adoption Program, and served for 10 years as the regional adoption supervisor for the Lafayette Region. Hebert began her career at DSS by working for 11 years as a child protection investigator and foster care worker in the Lafayette Region.
In 2000, Hebert was a recipient of the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Adoption Excellence Award and a Lafayette City Parish Distinguished Citizen's Award. In 2001, she was selected as a National Angel in Adoption by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption in Washington, D.C.
Hebert received a master's degree in social work from Louisiana State University and a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. She holds a graduate social work license from the Louisiana Board of Social Work Examiners.
"Kaaren was instrumental in the development of recently announced steps we are taking to help ensure the safety of children in the state by focusing on safety, technology, training and workforce retention," Nichols said. "She has shown tremendous leadership throughout the planning process, and I know she will continue to be successful as she leads OCS in implementing the steps we are taking to protect Louisiana's children."
In early April, DSS announced plans to maximize existing resources, rely on partnerships with national advocacy groups and use one time federal funds to ensure the safety of all children in the state. As a first step, DSS is working collaboratively with OCS workers, law enforcement, and judicial and community partners to develop and implement a child welfare practice model to serve as the overall guidelines child welfare workers use in ensuring child safety. The model is a family-centered approach that focuses on four principal outcomes: Children are safe; Families are strengthened; Communities are engaged; and Children and youth have permanence.
DSS also is implementing evidence-based Structured Decision Making in child protective cases. Previously, the process, which guides caseworkers through questions and critical risk factors, was utilized by DSS in foster care and family service cases.
Additionally, the department said it is continuing to work to improve the safety of children in out-of-home placements by developing new licensing standards and regulations for child residential facilities.
To address the need for training and staff retention, a major challenge for OCS, DSS announced investments in training and workforce retention that include expanding the Lake Charles peer-to-peer mentoring initiative, coaching and mentoring of field supervisors and on-line training for critical skills such as court preparation and structured decision making.
Statewide, 16 percent of all OCS staff that work directly with clients on the frontline have been on the job for less than one year, with six years being the average amount of experience among all frontline staff. For Fiscal Year 2008 alone, more than 16 percent of child welfare workers left OCS.
DSS is receiving assistance from the Children's Research Center (CRC), a national nonprofit that assists child welfare agencies reduce child abuse and neglect and improve service delivery to children and families by focusing on four areas -- safety, risk, assessment of family functioning and case planning. CRC is working to train OCS workers to use proven evidence-based tools to aid in critical decision making and in moving families toward a safer level of functioning. These tools help caseworkers assess whether a family is ready for reunification or if reunification should continue to be the case goal.
DSS is also working with Dr. Gary Mallon, of the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice, in developing a Child Welfare Training Partnership with Louisiana universities to provide common undergraduate and graduate child welfare curricula to provide students the opportunity to specialize and develop child welfare expertise.
Other investments include new technology, secure laptops for caseworkers, electronic case records, Safe Measure performance-based management software and a centralized intake for child protection investigations.


text:
By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER
Associated Press
HONOLULU (AP) - A 70-year-old man who swam to shore after a small plane crashed off the Hawaiian island of Molokai says the plane lost power after a muffled bang, then glided into the ocean on its belly without anyone showing signs of major injury when it hit the water.
C. Phillip Hollstein said Friday that something sounded like it broke soon after the plane took off Wednesday afternoon.
Hollstein says the pilot did a great job maneuvering a water landing. He says the nine people aboard calmly put on life jackets and bobbed in the water.
Hollstein says he took off swimming when he believed everyone else was OK.
He says State Health Director Loretta Fuddy did not seem distressed or hurt during the crash and water evacuation. She later died.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text:
U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Steven Rhodes ruled that his federal court will hear Detroit's bankruptcy case, creating an obstacle to the pensioners who challenged the constitutionality of last week's historic $18 billion bankruptcy filing.
Michael Nicholson, general counsel for the United Auto Workers, said the union will decide if it will appeal. Two city pension funds had an emergency hearing on Thursday, saying the state constitution protected the pension benefits.
Judge Rhodes said questions about the city's eligibility to overhaul itself through bankruptcy "are within this court's exclusive jurisdiction." A status conference is scheduled for Aug. 2 for further scheduling and to address the status of negotiations between the city and its creditors.
Last week, circuit judge Rosemarie Aquilina said Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder andDetroit's bankruptcy filing violated the state constitution by threatening the pension benefits for the city's retirees.
Detroit became the biggest American city to file for bankruptcy after its emergency manager filed for Chapter 9 protection on July 18 with more than $18 billion in accrued obligations. In the filing with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Eastern District of Michigan, state-appointed emergency manager Kevyn Orr indicated that the city's estimated number of creditors was "over 100,000." Orr, who was hired in March to assist with the city's budget, had tried to convince creditors to accept pennies on the dollar to deal with its financial problems.
Michael S. Leib, an attorney with Maddin, Hauser, Wartell, Roth & Heller, P.C., in Southfield, Mich., who is not involved in the bankruptcy case, expects the court also will actively promote settlement.
Leib said Judge Rhodes "took firm control of the Chapter 9 petition and determined he had exclusive jurisdiction" to rule on whether the city is eligible to be a Chapter 9 debtor.
"He also, predictably, and, in my judgment, properly, ruled that the automatic stay should be extended to the governor, the treasurer and the loan review board as appropriate to promote the efficiency of the bankruptcy process and avoid multiple litigation cases," he said.
If the bankruptcy filing is approved, Detroit's assets could be liquidated to meet creditor payments.
Richard Ciccarone, managing director of McDonnell Investment Management, which is not involved in Detroit's bankruptcy case, said the constitutionality of state-protected pensions will be a recurring issue.
"The showdown in court of state versus federal jurisdiction will take a new twist on the standing of those contracts: whether the claims of the retirement protections have the same standing as other creditors, particularly secured bondholders," Ciccarone said.
In light of claims that slowed service from paramedics and police has put the city at risk, the health and welfare of Detroit's citizens will be another critical issue before the bankruptcy court.
"There are real questions of whether public safety has been compromised to a point that it has created an even more intense question mark," he said.
Lee Saunders, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), said in a written statement, "Today's bankruptcy court ruling did not give Orr and Snyder the full victory they wanted. This bankruptcy not only tramples on the Michigan legal process but sets the stage for a destructive and damaging proceeding that will only serve to drive Detroit into further peril. The fight is not over and we will continue to stand up for Detroit's workers every step of the way."
AFSCME has 1.6 million members, with more than 5,000 in Detroit. Saunders said Detroit's average public service pension is about $19,000 a year.