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Tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims remain without homes. The environment is devastated. People are disenfranchised. Financial resources, desperate residents are told, are scarce. But at least New Orleans has a Wal-Mart parking lot serving as a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center with perhaps the tightest security of any parking lot in the world. That's thanks to the more than $30 million Washington has shelled out to the Blackwater USA security firm since its men deployed after Katrina hit. Under contract with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Federal Protective Service, Blackwater's men are ostensibly protecting federal reconstruction projects for FEMA. Documents show that the government paid Blackwater $950 a day for each of its guards in the area. Interviewed by The Nation last September, several of the company's guards stationed in New Orleans said they were being paid $350 a day. That would have left Blackwater with $600 per man, per day to cover lodging, ammo, other overhead–and profits.
Shortly after the hurricane hit, Blackwater "launched a helicopter and crew with no contract, no one paying us, that went down to New Orleans," says company vice chairman Cofer Black. "We saved some 150 people that otherwise wouldn't have been saved. And, as a result of that, we've had a very positive experience." Indeed. It was only days after the company arrived that it started reeling in lucrative deals.
According to Blackwater's government contracts, obtained by The Nation, from September 8 to September 30, 2005, Blackwater was paid $409,000 for providing fourteen guards and four vehicles to "protect the temporary morgue in Baton Rouge, LA." That contract kicked off a hurricane boon for Blackwater. From September to the end of December 2005, the government paid Blackwater at least $33.3 million–well surpassing the amount of Blackwater's contract to guard Ambassador Paul Bremer when he was head of the US occupation of Iraq. And the company has likely raked in much more in the hurricane zone. Exactly how much is unclear, as attempts to get information on Blackwater's current contracts in New Orleans have been unsuccessful.
"We saw the costs, in terms of accountability and dollars, for this practice in Iraq, and now we are seeing it in New Orleans," says Illinois Democrat Jan Schakowsky, who has been one of Blackwater's few critics in Congress. "They have again given a sweetheart contract–without an open bidding process–to a company with close ties to the Administration."
After The Nation exposed Blackwater's operations in New Orleans this past fall [see "Blackwater Down," October 10, 2005], Schakowsky and a handful of other Congress members raised questions about the scandal. They entered the report into the Congressional Record during hearings on Katrina and cited it in letters to DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner, who then began an inquiry. In letters to Congressional offices in February, Skinner defended the Blackwater deal, asserting that it was "appropriate" for the government to contract with the company. Skinner admitted that "the ongoing cost of the contract…is clearly very high" and then quietly dropped a bombshell: "It is expected that FEMA will require guard services on a relatively long-term basis (two to five years)." Two to five years? Already most of the 330 federally contracted private guards in the hurricane zone are working for Blackwater, according to the Washington Post. Another firm, DynCorp, is also trying to grab more of the action, offering its security services for less than $700 per day per guard.


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Neil, thanks for the clarification, I failed to provide the details of what the BKSA became by becoming limited.
There are very few full time paid people within the BKSA, probably one or two. How it works "and it works pretty well" is there is a structure of people with relelvent experience that work mostly within the training department and a chairman, starting with head of training, then I think 4 examiners and approx 8 or so national trainers, the first two are obvious and national trainers are dotted around the country and help with setting up clubs, advise schools, help with threats of beach closures and carry out school inspections amongst other things. Most of the people have "proper jobs" and do get paid when on BKSA business including mileage. There is also a few people who are race crew who attend and help run the BKSA events and usually marshalls etc who again get paid for their time.
What does stand out is that most of these people do lots more than is obvious and more than they get paid for, they do it for the love of the sport and to help grow the events and BKSA crew structure. If you put enough in you will get a lot out.

subset: commoncrawl


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Chavez is gone: The left seeks a new idolEDITORIAL
March 06. 2013 10:57PM
Cancer has taken the life of Venezuelan strong man Hugo Chavez, giving the people of that nation a chance for more freedom than they knew under his 14-year autocracy. Distraught American leftists, some actually in mourning, will have to find another thug to embrace, aid and emulate.
Every generation produces foreign tyrants who find warm friendships here by employing one simple formula: 1. Proclaim one's self a socialist champion of the people; 2. Denounce the United States of America. The formula never fails. Employ it, and you can silence, imprison, torture and even kill your own people with the unqualified support of the American hard left.
Chavez was only the latest in the long parade of despots to use this ruse to great success. His 1992 coup attempt killed 18 people. No matter, it was in the name of socialism. He ruled Venezuela in part by suppressing the media and the political opposition, imprisoning and intimidating opponents, journalists and judges, and positioning himself as a vocal and active enemy of the United States.
In the end, Oliver Stone and Sean Penn called him "friend" and mourned his death. Former Rep. Joe Kennedy was his champion, as was a Democratic congressman from New York.
Amnesty International's 2012 report on Venezuela documents numerous civil rights abuses committed by the state. Chavez was in real life the despot fevered leftists imagined George W. Bush to be. But because he ruled in the name of their beloved socialism, they looked the other way (or they tacitly approved). Now they will search the globe for another brutal, despotic idol. If only Kim Jong Un had a better PR department.


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U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in Brooklyn last week refused to delay enforcement of his month-old decision while the government challenges it, but he said the Justice Department had until Monday to appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
The government filed paperwork with the appeals court shortly before the noon deadline, saying it believes the judge overstepped his authority and that the administration will likely prevail in its appeal of the overall decision.
The Center for Reproductive Rights, which filed the underlying lawsuit, said it would answer Monday's legal filing within 10 days. The appeals court will then issue a ruling on whether to delay enforcement of Korman's ruling.
Korman said politics was behind efforts by Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius to block the unrestricted sale of the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill and its generic competitors.
Sales of the morning-after pill had previously been limited to those who were at least 17. The FDA announced earlier this month that the contraception could be sold without a prescription to those 15 and older, a decision Korman said merely sugarcoated the appeal of his order lifting the age restriction.
If the government fails, it would clear the way for over-the-counter sales of the pill to younger girls.
The government warned that "substantial market confusion" could result if Korman's ruling was enforced while appeals are pending. The judge dismissed the reasoning as a "silly argument."
Korman ordered levonorgestrel-based emergency contraceptives be made available without a prescription, over-the-counter and without point-of-sale or age restrictions.
The judge said he ruled against the government "because the secretary's action was politically motivated, scientifically unjustified and contrary to agency precedent" and because there was no basis to deny the request to make the drugs widely available.
In court papers, Reproductive Rights attorneys have said that every day the ruling is not enforced is "life-altering" to some women.


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So the Eagles won't get Steve Spagnuolo. Does that mean Juan Castillo is safe?
There's an argument to be made that unless you can get a slam-dunk improvement, you stick with Castillo and hope the late season defensive improvement was real. The best reason to do that is continuity. Another change and the Eagles will be on their fourth defensive coordinator in five years.
But continuity is only a positive if you're continuing something good. Continuity is a factor, but it's not the only one.
You can point to a whole bunch of different factors to make an argument for or against Castillo (i.e. five blown leads vs. late year improvement). But the only opinions that mater are the ones at NovaCare, and the Eagles' body language has not indicated that Castillo is their top choice.
If Reid was dead set on bringing back Castillo, there was no reason not to say so by now. The team's silence points strongly to them considering a change. Why let their coach twist in the wind for no reason?
Reid was offered several chances during the season to endorse Castillo, and didn't. Jeffrey Lurie gave us a list of people who would be back. It included Reid, Joe Banner and Howie Roseman. He allowed that DeSean Jackson might return under the right circumstances. But when he was asked if Castillo would return, he punted.
That says something. When a boss in any field – sports, business, politics – is asked to give a vote of confidence to an employee, the only move is to give it, unless you're actually considering a switch. Declining to back your own people undermines their standing. The Eagles know that. That's why, within days of the season's end, Lurie put to rest the speculation about Reid.
Again, if Castillo was back no matter what, there was zero upside in refusing to say so. But there have been questions around Castillo since midway through the season, and the Eagles have never dispelled them.
It doesn't take much reading between the lines to see that they have at least explored their options. Reid has not held his normal end of season wrap up precisely because last year he backed Sean McDermott in public even though he was planning to fire him. The Eagles (wisely) wanted to avoid a similar situation of having to address the media while moves were still in flux.
(Some argued to me on Twitter that since Reid's endorsements of McDermott didn't mean a lot, that it doesn't mean anything that he hasn't backed Castillo. These are two different situations. If you're firing a guy, maybe you hide that for a bit to help him save face and get a new gig. But if you are intent on KEEPING a coach, and believe fully in him, there's no reason to be quiet about that, especially when people are calling for his head).
This is not to say Castillo should be gone, or is gone. That decision is up to the Eagles, and even if they want to make a change (as I think they do), the uncertainty around Reid's future might make it hard to lure a hot assistant to Philly. Maybe Spags was never an option. From what I can tell the Eagles haven't talked to anyone about it – locally, nationally, inter-galactically or otherwise.
But Spagnuolo is hardly the only defensive coach in the NFL, and there's nothing that says the Eagles had to make a decision by now. They didn't announce Castillo's hire until the week of the Super Bowl last season. Other teams are still looking for head coaches. Four pretty good teams are still playing - their staffs could be intriguing.
It's possible that now Reid talks to the press and says Castillo was his guy all along (though I'd doubt it would happen so fast - if only because of appearances so close to Spags' deal). But I think it's more likely the Eagles were looking and keep looking. Just because one big name came off the market, doesn't mean that would have to stop.


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Lana Del Rey to Perform on 'American Idol'
We wonder what Simon Cowell has to say about this! Lana Del Rey, who has come under a ton of fire for her lackluster 'Saturday Night Live' performance, is slated to perform on 'American Idol.'
Del Rey's name appeared on the tickets for this Thursday's (March 15) results show. Demi Lovato and Daughtry are also slated to perform. However, Del Rey's performance will not air live — the 'Video Games' singer's set will be pretaped for a future results show.
The pretaping of Del Rey's segment is sure to raise more than a few eyebrows. The singer's 'SNL' debut was both heavily hyped and widely panned, with Del Rey herself telling press she "not a showstopper," but that she thinks she "sang fine."
On the bright side, Del Rey's return to the public eye will be a good way for her to regain faith from her handlers as well as her fans. When her tour was cancelled in February, many speculated it was because Del Rey simply wasn't ready for live audiences. Thankfully, her live shows last month nixed many of her naysayers.We just think it'll be interesting to watch Del Rey perform on the same stage that birthed vocal powerhouse Kelly Clarkson.


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- Our Work Chapters of Sights,
Sounds & Intrigue
- Labs Studies,
in brief
- Our Artists Nerds, Knaves
& Broads
- News & Updates Latest Projects,
Plans & Plots
- About Us History, Fables &
Life Lessons
Artist Comments:
"If you look at the numbers on my face, you won't find 13 any place..." My second piece for Time, I remember a discussion on here a while back that you guys used to do some random type based pieces. I was thinking of Dali's famous melting clock but if it were placed into a full explosion of color and complex drawing. I also feel that since 'Obsolete' Depthcore is going through some kind of metamorphosis...like the essence is still there but the form is being reconstructed and broken apart...in a good way.


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Raw Asparagus Pesto
5 comments:
A new puppy? Wow! You're brave.ReplyDelete
I've been wanting to try this and I love your substitutions. Best of all is your ham and poached egg creation. That sounds wonderful.Replies
A husband, three kids, and a big dog...what's one more mouth to feed and furry body to take up space on my floor? I love it!Delete
Do hope you give the pesto a go:)
As I read your entry I thought of a beautiful luncheon we shared on your patio a few years ago. It was a perfect day. You served shaved asparagus nests with a light vinaigrette and a poached egg on top. The table was set with flowers and blue and white linens and was just big enough for the two of us. Miss you!ReplyDeleteReplies
Awww...me too!Delete
Love experimenting with healthy green pestos-my kids love them too! I would have never thought of asparagus. What a fabulous idea! :)ReplyDelete
Here's my fave creation:
Thanks for visiting my blog! I love hearing from family, friends, and bloggers, so please leave a comment. Happy cooking!


text: My DD refuses to take a bottle and has never used a binki. It was suggested that I just start her on cups. She is 4 mo now and I have introduced water in a Tommee Tippee recommended for 4 mo. She hasn't gotten the hang of it but enjoys chewing on it. I think she might get a sip every once in a while but most runs down her shirt. Does anyone have any recommendations or ideas on how to proceed. I could use a little "me" time


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G7114, New June 2002
The seedcorn maggot, Delia platura (Meigen), is an occasional pest of agronomic crops in Missouri. This insect is widely distributed throughout the temperature zones of the world. It was not discovered in the United States until 1855. This insect feeds on the seeds and roots of many different grain (e.g., corn, soybeans) and vegetable (peas, watermelons) crops.
This insect typically overwinters in the larval stage inside a puparium (dark-brown capsule-like structure) in the soil. Once spring temperatures reach the mid-40s (late March to early-April), adult flies emerge to feed (nectar and honeydew), mate and lay eggs. Adult flies are small, light gray in coloration (Figure 1), and closely resemble the common house fly. When resting, the adults typically hold their wings over their abdomen. Each adult female can produce and lay an average of 270 eggs. The white, elongate eggs are typically laid (singly or in small clusters) in soil crevices or beneath dirt clods. Female flies prefer to deposit their eggs in moist, disturbed soils with high levels of decaying organic matter.
After hatching (1 to 9 days depending on the temperature) the yellowish white, legless, larvae with sharply pointed heads burrow into seeds or decaying matter (Figure 2). The larvae use two tiny black hooks on the front end of their mouths to feed on their host plants. Full-grown maggots measure 1/5 to 1/4 inch in length. Generally, three weeks are required for this insect to complete a generation (egg to adult). There are several generations each year in Missouri, but only the earlier ones cause economic damage in the field.
Figure 1
Adult seedcorn fly.
Figure 2
Seedcorn maggots and damaged seed.
Feeding damage by seedcorn maggots is most severe during cold, wet periods when corn is planted into organic-laden soils. Maggots burrow into and feed on the seed contents. This damage either prevents or greatly reduces seed germination. Seedlings that do emerge are generally tall with few leaves, and these plants rarely reach maturity. Plants that do reach maturity produce less grain or grain of poorer quality. Stand reduction by the seedcorn maggot is typically more uniform than that observed with wireworm feeding damage. Reduced plant stands are visually apparent about one week after corn plants start to emerge.
Seedcorn maggots may feed on soybean seeds as well as cotyledon-stage plants. Reduced-tillage fields may have a higher incidence of injury than conventional-tillage fields. The destruction of seeds causes variable stand emergence or, in severe cases, the entire stand is lost. Maggots also may feed on cotyledon-stage plants below ground and gouge grooves into the leaves (Figure 3). This feeding damage can delay the plant's development, but it generally does not reduce yields. Occasionally, maggots can destroy a plant's growing tip. This damage causes the plant to produce two main stems but usually does not reduce yields.
Figure 3
Soybean cotyledon leaves damaged (gouges) by seedcorn maggots.
Always read and understand the label before using any pesticide.
Begin scouting newly planted fields during seedling emergence. Examine plants at several locations in a field, and assess the coloration and growth stage of the plants in addition to the overall appearance of the stand. Take note of any plants that have a yellowish coloration or appear stunted or wilted. If cotyledon-stage plants appear damaged, dig around the plants to detect the presence of the maggots.
Prevention is the best approach to managing seedcorn maggot infestations because no effective rescue treatments exist. Any condition in the field that delays seed germination also may increase the risk of damage associated with seedcorn maggot feeding. Incorporating the following practices into your farm operation will help minimize damage by this crop pest:
Order publications online at http://extension.missouri.edu/explore/shop/ or call toll-free 800-292-0969.


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I guess I'll find out. Deb brought home one of those Ronco rotisseries.
I'll try a chicken.
Anyone use these.
I should have played the g'tar on the MTV. MK
You can be anything you want......As long as you don't suck at it.
USAF 98 Bomb Wing 1960-66 SMW Lu49
Originally Posted by hvacker
I guess I'll find out. Deb brought home one of those Ronco rotisseries.
I'll try a chicken.
Anyone use these.
i have one, and it works great. we use it alot in the winter if it's to cold or to much snow for the grill. i will say i have never had a roast look like it does on tv but it always comes out juicy. it seems that it works best on pork.
they work great. sort of a pain to clean it up.
i made a standing rib roast one time and it came out fantastic.
i usually do chickens.
use your head for something other than a hat rack.......Gerry
We have freedom because somebody fought for it.
We keep it because we are willing to fight for it.
We lose it because we are not willing to fight for it.
I broke it in Saturday with a chicken. Best I've made. Salt, pepper, 1hr 15min.
And lots of schmaltz for the dogs. That's what my Jewish friend says is Yiddish for chicken drippings.
How much do they cost?
This one was the smaller one as there are just us two. $69 on sale at K-mart.
I guess George Forman has one too.
it's my go to for gamebirds, rub them down with olive oil, salt & pepper to taste. ducks , pheasant & grouse don't get any tastier. only way i've tried that pheasant always come out juicey.
i was born under a wandrin star.
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text:
This how-to guide leverages our repeated success at working with enterprises to stand up Infochimps Big Data Platform as-a-Service solution in complex organizations and technical environments. We've narrowed it down to 4 key steps to successfully implementing your Big Data project. This part how-to, part working doc will empower your organization to achieve your defined business objectives through Big Data, regardless of the various technical environments.DOWNLOAD »
TOP Whitepapers
Infochimps Big Data Platform as-a-Service is an integrated product tool set that makes it much easier to perform Big Data analytics and create Big Data applications. It's a collection of open source and proprietary software for Big Data processing, data collection and integration, data storage, data analysis and visualization, and infrastructure management.DOWNLOAD »
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Guiding Customers Through The Big Data Adoption Lifecycle: Organizations small and large, local and global, entering new markets or competing in existing ones have an unprecedented opportunity to create value and transform their businesses using Big Data. Regardless of where your company is in the adoption of Big Data concepts. We have a team of experts that can help you explore and exploit the value of Big Data and at a pace that maximizes your return on investment.DOWNLOAD »
Social Media is an emerging treasure trove of important business insight and consumer data, relevant to almost every industry. It's no wonder that many innovative businesses leaving competition in the dust by tapping into this rich information source. Key use cases leveraging new media sources like social media include product opinions and reviews, customer and market profiling, brand monitoring and crisis management, recommendation engines that feed off of social user profiles, social customer service, and more.DOWNLOAD »
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Find out how Koupon Media built a real-time demographics dashboard that brings value to their customers and gives them a competitive advantage.DOWNLOAD »
BlackLocus captured and delivers real-time competitive pricing data, providing their customers with new insights without the expensive labor cost of manual search. The company maintains a Product Catalog consisting of product IDs linked to the many URLs where that product is sold.DOWNLOAD »


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Jesse "Bud" Smith, 80, of Hood River, Ore., went to be with our Lord on March 2, 2011, passing away at the Hood River Care Center. He was born Feb. 15, 1931, in Hood River to William Martin and Nora Ann (Cole) Smith.
Jesse was raised in the Hood River Valley and attended Barrett and Park Street Schools.
He was drafted and served our country proudly in the U.S. Army from 1950 to 1953. He served in Germany and was also stationed in Amsterdam during a time of flooding and he would often reflect and talk about the beauty of the morning dew on all the tulip petals.
In his younger years he worked for local farmers and would have enjoyed having his own farm. He worked for Martin Marietta Aluminum Factory in The Dalles until his lungs collapsed. He then worked for the Neal Creek sawmill in Odell.
Jesse loved to garden and carpentry; his garden was abundant with flowers and vegetables and he built many things, including furniture. He was scientifically curious and experimented with projects to see their final results. He was an avid fisherman and could be found out on the river catching steelhead.
He is survived by his sister, Mildred Fey, of Goldendale, Wash.; sister-in-law, "Babs" Smith, of White Salmon, Wash.; numerous nieces and nephews; and his little dog, Jennie.
He was preceded in death by his parents, five sisters and two brothers. He will be missed by all.
Jesse will be laid to rest with a private service at the Willamette National Cemetery of Portland, Ore.
Arrangements are under the direction of Anderson's Tribute Center (Funerals, Receptions, Cremations), 1401 Belmont Ave., Hood River, OR 97031; 541-386-1000. Please visit www.andersonstributecenter.com to leave a note of condolence for family.
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text: Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums :: View topic - Do I believe in ghosts Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in Do I believe in ghosts Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> The Strange and Mysterious View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message ela2004Joined: 11 Jul 2004Posts: 303 Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2006 6:13 pm Post subject: Do I believe in ghosts I dont believe in ghosts, but Im very interested in ghosts. Thats very interesting. When I walk to a strange path, sometimes I also feel very frightened. But, thats all. Ive never seen ghosts. When I was child, I heard many stories in ghost. And I saw many mysteries in the world. But, Ive never seen the mysteries. So Ive lost my dream. I want to see ghosts, because I want to regain my dreams. Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> The Strange and Mysterious All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Student Forums----------------ComputersCurrent NewsCultureEnglish SchoolsFamilyFilm and CinemaFoodHealth and FitnessHelp CenterHobbiesHolidaysLearning EnglishLiteratureMaking FriendsMusicOpinionsPetsScienceSportsThe Strange and MysteriousTOEFL and Other English ExamsTravel You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Dave's ESL Cafe is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. Banner Advertising | Bookstore / Alta Books | FAQs | Articles | Interview with Dave Copyright © 2018 Dave's ESL Cafe | All Rights Reserved | Contact Dave's ESL Cafe | Site Map Teachers College, Columbia University: Train to Teach English Here or Abroad Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group


text:
Call them glitches or failures, errors or slowdowns, but the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act health exchanges off to a bumpy start. James Turner, writing for O'Reilly Programming, put together a list of what developers can learn from the launch of HealthCare.gov:
Load testing: Because of the scale of the traffic, developers "need to really bang on the core functionality of the site, and tune the heck out of it."
Functional design: Developers using JavaScript and AJAX for transitions and requests need to be very tolerant of intermittent failures on the back end.
Validation logic: Keep the client code, server code, error messages and instructions in sync.
User experience: Test, test, test.
Posted by GCN Staff on Oct 09, 2013 at 1:23 PM
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Shrimper, I don't think we want to know. I extect this will be as big a debacle as the "green energy" scam where the companies went belly up soon after being loaned non-secured government money
So what the hell WERE they doing for the last 3 years???????? and millions upon millions of dollars later.??
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(2:27) - This video will give you more details about the Iroquois Group. It will also explain how an independent insurance agent can grow due to our marketing expertise and profit sharing.
Select Your State:
April 18, 2017 Posted by cmassaro
The Iroquois Group has again earned Senior Partner Plus designation from Grange Insurance.
Every year, a number of Grange's independent agency partners attain the designation for their overall performance and this year, Iroquois was honored in 10 states, including Michigan, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois in the Midwest Region; Virginia and Pennsylvania in the Mid-Atlantic; Georgia and South Carolina in the South Region; as well as in the states of Tennessee and Ohio.
For more information on Grange Insurance, go online to www.grangeinsurance.com. The Iroquois Group® is one of the oldest and largest insurance group networks of independent agencies, with more than 2,200 members in 41 states. Agencies of all sizes and shapes join Iroquois insurance group to increase revenue, profits and agency value. For more information, go online to www.iroquoisgroup.com.


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posted by Thom Holwerda on Wed 17th Apr 2013 22:27 UTC, submitted by Adurbe
"One company - Taiwan's Foxconn - makes a staggering 40 percent of the world's consumer electronic devices. Starting now, Microsoft will be getting paid a toll on many of those devices. The company's long patent-licensing campaign has landed its biggest client yet in licensing Foxconn, formally named Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Foxconn has agreed to take a license for any product it produces that runs Google's Android or Chrome operating systems." More protection money for the Microsoft patent mafia.


text:
Check out the extended version of the Most Wanted live action TV trailer. Stick it to the cops and your friends in the world's hottest, fastest and rarest cars.
Buckle up, hit the gas and hold on tight; you're in for the ride of your life. In Most Wanted, you'll experience dream cars, the way you always wanted them.
No tracks and no simulation. It's about taking your ride to the limit and beyond, nailing perfect 200 mile-an-hour drifts, slamming your friends off the road, outsmarting the cops and getting away with it in style.


text:
Man with diaper-changing fetish arrested againBy JAMES A. KIMBLE
Union Leader Correspondent
August 21. 2013 10:41PM
BRENTWOOD — A Hooksett man with a criminal history of posing as a mentally disabled man to fulfill a diaper-changing fetish has solicited three more home care businesses since being released from jail in April, according to a probation report.
His latest alleged solicitation happened Aug. 15.
Eric Carrier pretended to be a mentally impaired man when he went to the home of a New Boston woman who advertised a child care business on Craigslist, according to probation and parole officials.
Carrier is now expected to face a judge in Rockingham County Superior Court, where a suspended two- to four-year prison term could be imposed for a similar case he was convicted of in Hampton.
Details about Carrier's latest alleged solicitations in Manchester, Auburn and New Boston were filed with a judge on Tuesday.
"This is the same (modus operandi) that he had displayed in his earlier convictions," Norman Marquis, a probation and parole officer told a judge on Tuesday. "And it is this officer's grave concern that he is becoming an increasingly significant risk to public safety in his current condition."
Carrier pleaded guilty to a felony count of indecent exposure on April 30 and received a suspended prison sentence after spending 220 days in county jail. He solicited a home care worker in Hampton on Sept. 12 by first posing as a father seeking care for his mentally disabled adult son. Carrier then met up with the woman claiming to be the disabled son and asked her to change his diaper.Marquis and police have been dealing with Carrier since June 2011, when he was first arrested in Hooksett for posing as a younger, mentally disabled man while a soliciting home care worker for services through Craigslist.
Marquis' report said Carrier began violating several conditions of his probation at the end of July.
Carrier called Personal Touch Home Care in Auburn on July 28 and three more calls that same day to Always There Senior Care in Manchester, according to probation officials.
No date has been set for the probation hearing.


text:
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text:
All the boys from One Direction are taking a couple...
Perfect Summer
- by Musically_inspired
- Rating:
- Published: 16 Mar 2014
- Updated: 2 May 2014
- Status: In Progress
The perfect summer. Friends family, sun, everything's going great until the crash. Everything changes in one night. These 5 boys are trouble makers for sure but somehow it feels like we were destined to meet. Can I trust them? Can I trust him? Or will this love cost me my life?
Join MovellasFind out what all the buzz is about. Join now to start sharing your creativity and passion
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September 5, 2013 (CHICAGO) --Travelers could soon be able to keep their shoes on while going through security at more airports around the country.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration says it will expand faster screening lanes to 100 airports by year-end, up from 40 now. The agency says the expansion is part of its attempt to make screening more effective by breaking away from a single approach at all airports.
Under the program, qualified passengers don't have to remove their shoes, light jackets and belts. They can keep laptops in cases, and liquids and gels in their carry-on bags.
Pre-Check is open to U.S. citizens who belong to frequent-flier programs of participating airlines or a government trusted-traveler program, and to Canadian citizens who belong to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection's NEXUS program.


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CLEVELAND, Aug. 12 (UPI) -- A judge in Ohio's Cuyahoga County imposed the death sentence Friday on serial killer Anthony Sowell on the recommendation of a jury.
Sowell, convicted in the murders of 11 women, listened for an hour to statements from family members of victims before Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dick Ambrose delivered his sentence, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reported.
"In my opinion you're going to hell for your actions," Donnita Carmichael, daughter of murder victim Tonya Carmichael, told Sowell. "Anthony, you are an animal and hell awaits your arrival."
"The only thing I want to say is that I'm sorry," Sowell said earlier in the week. "I know that may not seem like much. And I'm sorry from the bottom of my heart. This is not typical of me. I don't know what happened. I can't explain it. But I know it's not a lot, but that's all I can give."
Ambrose imposed the death penalty for each of the murders, plus various other sentences for charges related to rape, abuse of a corpse and other crimes, the newspaper said.
Ambrose said Sowell's case will be automatically appealed to the Ohio Supreme Court.


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The Chicago-Kent Institute for Law and the Humanities is pleased to announce its second annual student paper prize. An award of $500 will be presented for the best law and humanities paper in 2005-2006. J.D. as well as LL.M. Chicago-Kent students are eligible for the prize. There will be an honorable-mention prize of $250.
A law and humanities paper is one that examines any issue from both a legal and a humanities-based perspective, or integrates the two perspectives in an appropriate manner, including legal philosophy, legal history, law and literature and law and religion. The paper must be scholarly and of publishable quality.
Eligibility and submission: The prize is limited to Chicago-Kent students enrolled in the 2005-2006 academic year. Submissions must have been written in association with a course or an independent research project in either the fall 2005 term or the spring 2006 term. Submissions are to be sent to Professor Sheldon Nahmod and are to be received no later than June 1, 2006.
Please direct all inquiries to Professor Sheldon Nahmod (firstname.lastname@example.com), Professor Sarah Harding (email@example.com), or Professor Dan Hamilton (firstname.lastname@example.com).
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David Wilkins, who had made major changes to the agency, lost sight of the importance of transparency, accountability and common sense.
Before his abrupt resignation this month, David Wilkins had been driven to put his mark on the Department of Children and Families that he had headed since Gov. Rick Scott took office. Unfortunately, what he will be remembered for is moving an agency, that had taken huge strides toward quality, backward because of his insistence on top-down management.
Wilkins resigned in the wake of the deaths of five toddlers who were under DCF supervision over the course of three months. It was an ugly return to the days before the agency was reformed under the caring guidance of former DCF secretaries Bob Butterworth and George Sheldon.
But Wilkins, who had made major changes to the agency, including cutting $60 million from its budget, lost sight of the importance of transparency, accountability and old-fashioned common sense necessary to protect Florida's most vulnerable children.
In the end, it was more than the tragic deaths of five toddlers that did Wilkins in, although they certainly were the tipping point and what caught the public's eye that things were amiss in DCF.
Wilkins, with Scott's support, had adopted a policy of keeping children with their families whenever possible. It was a noble goal shared by many children's advocates. Yet he embraced the policy while doing away with too many resources, including 70 quality assurance personnel whose jobs were to make sure DCF caseworkers were keeping a close eye on children who were at risk — those left in the care of parents or others who were potential threats.
Then, in an unmitigated and unmistakable power play, Wilkins began battling with the community-based care providers that have been a success story of national proportions. He wanted control over whom the citizen-driven private contractors hired as their chief executives, an idea that flew in the face of the community-based model.
The community-based providers, like Partnership for Strong Families here in Alachua County, have produced dramatic improvements, including reduced numbers of children in foster care, soaring adoption rates and improved effectiveness in delivering services like alcohol and drug counseling.
Wilkins inherited an agency that was on a roll. After virtually decades of scandal over mishandling of its charges and its budgets, DCF had made a turnaround under Butterworth, Sheldon and the community-based providers. Frankly, Wilkins messed too much with success as he took over one of the most difficult and thankless jobs in state government.
Scott now is tasked with finding a replacement for Wilkins. He should listen to those who know the troubled history of DCF, maybe even consult Butterworth and Sheldon, two of Florida's most effective public servants of the past generation. He needs to appoint someone who understands the complexities of child and family welfare issues and will put a priority on transparency, accountability and, most important, on ensuring the safety and well-being of Florida's children who are at-risk in their own homes.
What DCF does matters not only to the children and families it serves directly, but also to the 19 million citizens of this state who want its welfare agency to not only do the right things, but do them well.


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Van Halen Have Been Rehearsing at The Roxy in Hollywood for Past Two Months
The staff at the Roxy on Sunset in Hollywood, Calif., have revealed that the almighty Van Halen have been rehearsing at their establishment two to three times per week for the past two months. The employees have kept the news under wraps but couldn't contain their excitement or the good news any longer. Talk about having a reason to run to work every day, to get there early and to stay late. It was like the members of VH were "co-workers!"
In a post on the storied venue's website, it was revealed that Van Halen were stationed at the Roxy for a three-day video shoot for their upcoming single. That was enough to send the staff into full on "geek out" and "fanboy and fangirl" mode. Turns out that Eddie Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Alex Van Halen and Wolfgang Van Halen grew quite fond of the digs and decided to rehearse there for the upcoming tour, which was announced this week without confirmed dates and venues.
Even though the Roxy staff could not film the rehearsals, that didn't stop them from listening to and watching the band. It was like their own intimate concert, it seems. The staffers also shared some of their favorite memories of VH's rehearsal residency. We're sure they got permission to do so, too.
Our favorite shared experienced? When Kathy from the Roxy revealed, "I just loved the first time they played 'Running With The Devil.' it sounded exactly like it did when I was working box office at The Whisky." She's a diehard.
VH are most definitely back!
Go here to read more first-person, first-hand accounts.


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Toyota FCHV-adv gets a snow blanket in Connecticut. Photo: Proton Onsite
Nick Mittica of Air Products points out the chilly 9 degree temperature in Pennslyvania. Toyota's FCHV-adv has offered great performance in the frigid weather, says Mittica. Photo: Air Products
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Polyethylene pipe grade prices, markets & analysis
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Updated to Q3 2017
In the US, June polyethylene (PE) contracts rolled over, marking the sixth flat monthly contract in the past year. History shows that July will be the same. A price increase or decrease in July would be out of the ordinary. In the past five years – July 2012 to July 2016 – there have been no contract price changes during the month.
European PE prices came under considerable downward pressure in Q2, and this is expected to continue into July, as the price of upstream naphtha falls. Lower prices in Europe could prevent an influx of imports, so the speed of the price decline is expected to slow ahead of further erosion once new capacity comes on stream, particularly in North America.
In Asia, PE market participants are hopeful that the polymer market will improve in Q3 after a prolonged price downtrend for most of Q2. Demand, particularly from the housing sector and preparation ahead of the year-end, is expected to pick up as manufacturers replenish their low inventory levels.
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About Polyethylene pipe grade
ICIS pricing focuses on pipe grade high density polyethylene in resin form for natural grade and black material. HDPE80 and HDPE100 grades are used for different pressure and non pressure applications, with HDPE100 offering higher pipe properties.
'Black' compounded material is regulated by PE100+ association with certification and recognition from the International Standards Organisation. These pipes can withstand high operating pressures, improved resistance towards UV, surface notch damage during pipe laying and rapid crack growth. These properties have encouraged its used in major pressure applications such as water, heating, oil and gas pipelines compared to traditional piping materials.
Natural grade resins are non regulated materials requiring the need to compound them and adding colour masterbatches and carbon black to achieve the specs needed for a specific application. The pipes are compounded according to the needs of the buyer and project that it is intended for. These pipes are typically used in piping for sanitation, agricultural irrigation and as ducting materials.
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hello. how are you all?
does anyone have some of that Andrew Wright tunes in audios/mp3s?:
Te Amor
Bi Girl
All Night Loving
Woman You Lie
I Swear
would be nice to listen if possible.
thank you for info and help.
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In speeches delivered to the State of the World Forum in September 2000, Mikhail Gorbachev blamed the United States for squandering unique post-cold war opportunities to bring "new thinking" (novoe myshlenie) to the problems of globalization, arms reduction and nuclear disarmament. He's entitled. For, paradoxically, it was Gorbachev–the product of an ostensibly moribund, so-called totalitarian regime–whose idealism and dynamism went farthest in demilitarizing the cold war, assuring its peaceful resolution and ushering in those very opportunities.
Nevertheless, Gorbachev erred when he blamed the United States. In fact, it appears that the United States "won" the cold war (this month marks the tenth anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union) without ever recognizing, let alone understanding, the indispensable role played by Soviet ideas. Thus, a corresponding paradox: Vibrant, dynamic, democratic America had no new thinking to squander.
Such conceptual disarmament can be traced to the US political leadership's cold war embrace of the concept of totalitarianism to explain Soviet behavior, and to the post-cold war support it found in the work of the "totalitarian school" thinkers. Apparently it mattered little to them that Richard Pipes and Martin Malia, two of the school's most prominent members, could not even agree on the origins of Soviet totalitarianism: Pipes indicted virtually all of Russia's history by finding fully developed totalitarianism to be the legacy of "patrimonial" rule under the czars, with the addition of Lenin's militarized lust for dominance. Malia simply blamed socialist ideology.
Having learned from Merle Fainsod that "the totalitarian regime does not shed its police-state characteristics; it dies when power is wrenched from its hands," both historians denied the very possibility of systemic change from within and, consequently, credited pressure from the West, best symbolized by the Star Wars program of the Reagan Administration, for precipitating the collapse of Soviet Communism.
If a flawed idée fixe like this could capture such erudite Russia scholars, imagine the blank spots that impoverished the thinking of lesser "totalitarian school" Sovietologists, especially those primarily concerned with national security problems. Suffice it to say that these scholars' intense search for the slightest improvements in Soviet weaponry obscured much bigger developments: the mellowing Soviet leadership identified by George Kennan, the "friends and foes of change" detected by Stephen F. Cohen and the potential implicit in generational change in the Soviet leadership suggested by Jerry Hough and Archie Brown. Imagine how much worse were the unschooled cold war politicians of both major political parties, who further militarized and coarsened the worst of cold war scholarship–which continues to this day, in some cases.
Serious and comprehensive early post-cold war scholarship by Raymond Garthoff and Archie Brown properly credited Gorbachev. Garthoff concluded that, "in bringing the cold war to an end…what happened would not have happened without him; that cannot be said of anyone else." Brown, in addition to proclaiming Gorbachev "the individual who made the most profound impact on world history in the second half of the twentieth century," explicitly rebutted the totalitarian argument by concluding: "From the spring of 1989 [thus, well before its collapse] it is scarcely meaningful to describe the Soviet Union as a Communist system."


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Online Exclusive: FDA Seeks Feedback On New Regulations for Disclosing Prescription Drug Risks
Max Wells was a wealthy physician who enjoyed trips to Las Vegas for nearly 30 years before he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. As his neurological disease progressed, Wells retired and sold his pathology clinic but continued his gambling trips.
The Texas millionaire claims he had always kept his gambling losses under control. But after he was diagnosed in 2000, he began gambling away hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In 2000, he began taking Mirapex, a "dopamine agonist" that stimulates the dopamine receptors in the brain to alleviate the tremors and other symptoms of Parkinson's. In consultation with his doctor, Wells stopped taking that drug in 2004 after he read an article warning that Mirapex might cause problem gambling. At that point, Wells had already lost about $2 million gambling.
In October 2004 his doctor prescribed an alternative dopamine agonist, Requip. Requip's label at the time did not warn of any side effects related to gambling. According to Wells, his gambling urges subsided temporarily but soon returned with a vengeance. From September 2005, when he received the final proceeds from the sale of his clinic, until January 2006, Wells surrendered another $10 million to the Nevada gaming tables–including $4 million in the final month.
At that point he told his doctor about his gambling problem, stopped taking Requip and has not been back to Vegas.
One month later, Wells filed a lawsuit against Requip's maker, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), contending that the pharmaceutical giant failed to warn patients that its drug could trigger "an irresistible gambling compulsion" in some people.
The 5th Circuit, however, recently agreed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in Wells v. SmithKline Beecham Corp. that GSK was entitled to summary judgment. Expert testimony that Requip could cause compulsive gambling in the general population "did not pass scientific muster," the 5th Circuit held in its March 22 ruling.
"Because the experts' opinions are not scientifically reliable, the testimony is inadmissible–leaving the liability cupboard bare," the court ruled.
Impulse Control
"Pathological" gambling is on a growing list of so-called "impulse control disorders" that plaintiffs are claiming as prescription drug side-effects in product liability suits. Plaintiffs variously contend that drugs have caused them to compulsively eat, drink and shop, take illicit drugs, or turned them into sex addicts. Even a single plaintiff's damages claim can run into the millions. Class claims ratchet up the stakes. Mirapex, for example, is the subject of a multidistrict litigation action in Minnesota and a Canadian class action which allege the drug can cause compulsive behaviors, including pathological gambling.
Plaintiffs are "trying to broaden the scope of traditional product liability into rather untraditional types of claims such as behavioral disorders," says Philadelphia defense litigator James M. Beck, author of the Drug and Device Law Blog.
Cases alleging adverse behavioral side effects such as hyper-sexuality or compulsive shopping may be particularly susceptible to pre-trial attacks on the scientific reliability of the plaintiff's causation evidence, says Dechert Partner Sean Wajert, co-chair of the firm's pharmaceutical, mass tort and product liability practice group.
"Where the behavior is something that is very amorphous and hard to define and is something that is found in the general population very widely … it's going to be an uphill battle [for the plaintiff] because you are just not going to be able to get the data," Wajert predicts.
Failed Experts
That was Wells' problem. GSK successfully argued that the expert evidence purporting to show that Requip can cause pathological gambling failed the test for admissibility set by Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharms., Inc., which requires expert evidence to be both reliable and relevant.
Wells' three experts pointed to published articles documenting case-specific correlations between Requip and gambling; GSK's internal data purportedly revealing case-specific associations between Requip and gambling; one unpublished study showing a nexus between gambling and Parkinson's medicines generally; and GSK's addition of a warning about possible gambling side effects to Requip's label.
Crucially each of the experts conceded there was no scientifically reliable evidence of a cause-and-effect relationship between Requip and pathological gambling.
"These admissions drain the expert opinions of probative force," Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote. He said scientific literature the experts claimed showed "an association" between Requip and problem gambling didn't represent "scientific knowledge."
"The bases for the experts' conclusions pass none of the applicable Daubert tests," he explained. "That Requip causes problem gambling is not generally accepted, has not been subjected to peer review and publication, and is not backed by studies meeting requisite scientific standards. Without the expert testimony, Wells cannot prove general causation, and judgment must be entered for GSK."
Kendall Gray, a partner at Andrews Kurth in Houston, says excessive gambling and other destructive behaviors are hard to quantify in studies.
"These cases will continue to be difficult to pursue because the disorders are difficult to define, and the notions of what caused them are imprecise and difficult to establish with any scientific certainty."


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In the beginning of LL XXI, we have the phrase
"... et sanguis de naso eius fluit".
Ok, that makes sense. But later, we see the question:
"Sed cur sanguis de naso fluit Marco?"
I was surprised to see "Marco", not "Marci", genitive, as he's the owner of the nose in question. Also, the word order seems a little funny -- why did "Marco" slip past the verb?
The next sentence goes
"Sanguis ei de naso fluit",
so it seems that Marco is dative, like ei, so maybe this is something like dative of possession, but I thought that only worked with forms of esse?


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A Wall Street Journal report detailing the broken-down status of talks between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner on the year-end "fiscal cliff" reveals that Obama threatened to use both his inaugural and State of the Union speeches to blame Republicans if there's no deal.
Negotiations reportedly came to a standstill after Boehner proposed increasing the tax rate on top earners:
Mr. Obama repeatedly lost patience with the speaker as negotiations faltered. In an Oval Office meeting last week, he told Mr. Boehner that if the sides didn't reach agreement, he would use his inaugural address and his State of the Union speech to tell the country the Republicans were at fault.
At one point, according to notes taken by a participant, Mr. Boehner told the president, "I put $800 billion [in tax revenue] on the table. What do I get for that?"
"You get nothing," the president said. "I get that for free."
According to Politico, Obama was referring to Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) and Senate Republicans who had already said they would be open to tax rate increases and therefore he didn't need to concede anything.
Obama has been buoyed by his election victory, using it as an opportunity to remind Boehner he has the upper hand:
Mr. Obama insisted on raising tax rates for those with household income above $250,000. The House GOP wanted significant spending cuts and fundamental changes to Medicare and other entitlement programs in exchange for new tax revenue.
The president repeatedly reminded Mr. Boehner of the election results: "You're asking me to accept Mitt Romney's tax plan. Why would I do that?"
Before Obama flew to Hawaii for Christmas with his family on Friday, he said he was still confident the two sides could reach a "comprehensive deal" after using the holidays as a cooling-off period. Boehner used the weekly Republican address to say the House had done all it could to avert the cliff and that it was down to Obama to come up with a "balanced" approach.


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Watch The ::God Is Imaginary Videos On YouTube ::
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What explains the extraordinarily fast rate of evolution in the human lineage over the past two million years? A leading human origins researcher has come up with a new idea that involves aggression between groups and the boom-bust cycles that have punctuated our spread into new environments.Speaking at this year's Calpe conference Prof Ian Tatersall said "I think it's fair to say that our species Homo sapiens and its antecedents have come much farther, much faster than any other mammalian group that has been documented in this very tight time-frame."This phenomenon of accelerated evolution is known as "tachytely".Among our ancestors, brain size doubled between two million and one million years ago. Then it has almost doubled again between one million years and the present day.Along with the increase in brain size came a reduction in the size of the teeth and face along with other changes in the skull.Such fast change is not seen among apes, and … the move our ancestors made from a tree-dwelling, to a ground-dwelling existence … is not enough to explain what is observed.Certain evolutionary psychologists have popularised a model in which culture and brain complexity spurred each other on to greater heights in humans…But Prof Tatersall said …Aggression between small, distinct human groups in the past is one of the major remaining agents of such changes. … He said, "Inter-group conflict would certainly have placed a premium on such correlates of neural function as planning and throwing. If we were somehow able to implicate conflict among groups as a selective agent for increasing intelligence within groups, this might explain the otherwise quite mystifying independent increases in brain size that we see in several different lineages within the genus Homo."Such conflict could be seen as a form of predation. And, predation is regarded as a classic example of the "Red Queen" hypothesis whereby prey and predator become faster or more cunning in a self-reinforcing way.Indeed, there are hints of such conflict from the sparse fossil record. A paper published this month in the Journal of Human Evolution http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047248412001406 suggested that ancient humans in northern Spain were engaged in predatory cannibalism against another band of people.[…]Prof Tatersall refers to the phenomenon as the "ratchet effect" and pointed to the large variation in human fossils from the early Pleistocene in Africa as an example, which may support his hypothesis.At the conference, Richard Wrangham from Harvard University offered an alternative view, questioning the role of conflict as a driver. He pointed out that human hunter-gatherers had similar rates of inter-group aggression to chimpanzees.
In the absence of public funded science education and projects, did conflict and climatic uncertainty drive human evolution? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19598980


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Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Incidents reported to the Pea Ridge Police Department this week include: One warrant served: 11/28 Theodore Crowley, 23, Garfield, contempt of court.
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text: DC Digital Comics Store Wed, 11/10/2010 - 12:00pm | DCE Editorial Got some amazingly exciting news to launch this week off with. Yeah, I count Wednesday as the beginning of the week as it's New Comic Book Day! Tags: 100 bullets, brian azzarello, comixology, darick robertson, dc store, dccomics.com, Digital Comics, facebook, invisibles, ipad, iphone, transmetropolitan, twitter, warren ellis


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Bronco Battalion
What does it mean for a Jesuit university to be home to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps? Seventy-five years after ROTC came to Santa Clara—and 150 years after officers were first trained on campus—a few answers are clear.
John Sequeira '71 arrived at Santa Clara University in the fall of 1967 with no clue that he was about to be pulled into officer training for the U.S. Army. A local kid from San Jose, Sequeira figured he was going to a quiet campus a world away from the country's brewing military worries. Only on fall registration day, when he and his fellow freshmen were told to gather apart from the female students, did Sequeira realize his impending choice: join the Army's Reserve Officers' Training Corps or come up with a really good excuse.
|MacArthur Award: Recognizing the battalion as one of the top in the nation. Read about their second win on santaclaramagazine.com. Photo by Charles Barry.
"It took me by surprise completely," he says. "I thought I was going to a liberal arts school. Nobody told me I was going to have to sign up for the Army. You had to decide that moment, 'Are you going to go conscientious objector?'"
Santa Clara stopped requiring freshmen to take ROTC the following fall, but Sequeira remained a cadet throughout his time at SCU out of a mix of patriotism and self-preservation, preferring the officer training route to the chance of draft. Though by the time he was a junior, the boiling tensions surrounding the Vietnam War and the invasion of Cambodia had come to campus, and some opposed to the war focused their anger on the short-haired cadets.
|Company of cadets: Circa 1880. Military
training on campus was first offered in 1856.
After the Civil War, it was less at the fore. Photo
from SCU Archives.
"It was embarrassing to wear your uniform on campus," Sequeira recalls. "There was a look of disdain."
Events reached their nadir in May 1970. Sequeira and his fellow cadets were marching in the annual End-of-Year President's Review of ROTC and were greeted by dozens of students and some professors, holding signs like "Off ROTC," "Get out of SE Asia." Some demonstrators lay in their way, a moment immortalized in a photograph of the lead cadet saluting as he stepped over the prone protestor. The image ran in papers around the world.
Four decades later, it's a very different picture. Back for his 40th reunion in October 2011, Sequeira stopped by an event marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of Santa Clara ROTC and the 150th anniversary of Santa Clara cadet training during the Civil War. Instead of cadets conflicted by their commitment, he saw budding officers wearing their dress uniforms with dignity.
"You just never walked around wearing your uniform with pride like these guys do now," said Sequeira, who is now a management consultant in Charlotte, N.C. "It was interesting to see."
|ROTC Memories: ROTC alumni share their memories of the program.
|ROTC History: See historic photographs and milestones.
Sister soldiers
Indeed, these days, members of the Bronco Battalion are far more likely to get support from a student body that respects their volunteerism even as few consider it. Though numbers are relative; this fall, 92 cadets made up the Bronco Battalion, the highest enrollment in more than a decade. But that's a fraction of the unit's size during the 1950s and 1960s, when obligatory enrollment, fear of the draft, and a different tenor to the times spurred hundreds to participate—all of them men.
In 2012, junior Brigitte Clark, a liberal arts major, is a face of a new generation of cadets at Santa Clara. She came to SCU set on joining ROTC out of a sense of tradition and duty. Her grandparents served in the military, her parents met in ROTC at the University of Florida, and her sister, Brittany Clark '09, led the battalion during her senior year. An aspiring elementary schoolteacher, Brigitte does not plan to make the Army a career beyond her four-year active service commitment. She gets a full scholarship from the Army. And she believes everyone has a duty to provide some sort of national service.
"I feel like everybody should do their part," she says.
She balances the early morning training, military science classes, and weekend exercises of cadet life with a job as an IT manager at student services and an overload of other academic coursework. And she confesses the mornings can be tough. "But you think, 'This is your scholarship and this is how you're paying to go through school.' You just have to suck it up." She might get curious questions when she's lugging a rucksack and Kevlar helmet through the dorms, she says, but the response from other students has always been positive.
"Everyone is really supportive of it here," she says. "They think it's really cool that I am doing something like this, especially being a female."
|Liberty Loan parade: San Jose, 1918. Seven days after the United States entered World War I, Santa Clara President Walter Thorton, S.J., offered Washington "our entire facilities—halls, classrooms, laboratories, and grounds—for the purpose of training troops." At the time, Santa Clara offered the only officer training program in the West. Photo from the SCU Archives.
The Vietnam effect
Following the May 1970 protest against ROTC, two Santa Clara instructors who participated were censured for conduct unbecoming faculty—though their actions were probably supported by roughly a third of the faculty, according to George Giacomini '56. Now professor of history emeritus, he served as battalion commander when he was a senior in college. Also in the wake of the protest, the Santa Clara faculty voted 117 to 36 to keep ROTC on campus but with reduced visibility, removing commissioning from commencement. The student body held the first referendum in the nation concerning dissolving ROTC academic courses. The result: 927 out of 1,352 votes cast were for keeping academic credit for military science intact.
|Call her Commander: In 1975, Rita Tamayo
'76 became the first female cadet battalion
commander in U.S. history—a full year before
the first female cadet entered the U.S. Military
Academy. Photo from SCU ROTC.
ROTC soon became a nonissue compared to debates about the actual war, which themselves faded in following years. Many students increasingly ignored the program. In 1970, Santa Clara ROTC commissioned 62 officers; in 1972, just 21. The inclusion of women to the program in 1973 did not reverse the trend. But it did lead to a Santa Clara first: During her senior year, Rita Tamayo '76 served as battalion commander—the first woman in the nation to do so.
In 1981, the program commissioned just nine officers. The recent bounce in enrollment comes as students barely old enough to remember life before Sept. 11, 2001, now fill the ranks. For senior Jason Catalano, the current battalion commander, the commitment to the Army comes with a sense of duty to country; if it requires deployment to Afghanistan, so be it, he says. But his attraction to the Army is also about investing in himself. The Army—and its opportunities and responsibilities—promises to bring out the best in him, he hopes.
At Santa Clara the pendulum of attitude toward ROTC hasn't swung nearly as wildly as at some other schools, which actually forced the Armed Forces off campus, beginning a decadeslong estrangement that's just begun to ease. Reasons cited for revisiting ROTC include policy changes like the end of "don't ask, don't tell" and acknowledgment that a military that has fought two wars for the better part of a decade needs the best and brightest.
In fall 2011, Yale, Harvard, and Columbia decided to bring back ROTC. Brown University still withholds recognition of ROTC for a variety of reasons, including faculty opposition to military hierarchy. At Stanford—where the Naval ROTC building was burned down in protest in 1968—faculty also invited ROTC back last year. For the time being, though, Cardinal cadets still commute to the Mission Campus, as they have since the 1970s.
|Operation Overlord: A prayer book
carried by John C. Plano '55, who
served in World War II with the 101st
Airborne Division. He fought at
Normandy, was part of the liberation
of Holland, and saw action during the
Battle of the Bulge. He later attended
SCU on the GI Bill. The Bronco
Battalion keeps a display of his
mementos—including his dog tags
and medals.
Ethics and leadership
Within the nation's Jesuit schools, the connection to the military has remained strong. More than three-quarters of the nation's Jesuit colleges offer ROTC, including SCU, the University of San Francisco, Loyola Marymount University, Gonzaga University, and Georgetown University. But some in these broader Jesuit environs claim that the long relationship can't be reconciled with a focus on forgiveness, nonviolence, and social justice. At College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, protests against the Naval ROTC program have become an annual ritual. Peace activist John Dear, S.J., wrote a scathing piece for the National Catholic Reporter in September 2011, after reading a glowing feature on ROTC in the alumni magazine of Loyola University Maryland. Dear's column garnered plenty of reader support, but it also drew criticism from those who pointed out that the military has been the guarantor of the rights and freedoms that allow Dear to make his arguments. Moreover, so long as the country needs a military, shouldn't it have the most capable, liberally educated leaders?
As a matter of course, a sovereign nation has a right to defend itself, says James Felt, S.J., professor emeritus of philosophy at SCU. Felt began teaching at Santa Clara in 1965, and he served briefly on a board that convened hearings for students trying to get out of ROTC in the 1960s. Indeed, military strength can be essential for good, he says. Had the British and French not let their militaries wane in exhaustion after the First World War, they may well have prevented Nazi aggression.
"I can't think that there is any moral fault in the United States maintaining suitable armed forces," he says matter-of-factly. "If so, then it's okay for SCU to offer ROTC, just as we need to train local police. It would be fatuous to pretend that there's no evil or evil-doers in the world, and countries, as well as individuals, have a right to self-defense. But this is not to condone a culture of killing."
Thomas Buckley, S.J., agrees that the campus embrace of ROTC is a sensible one. Buckley, a professor of American religious history at SCU's Jesuit School of Theology, has a unique historical and familial perspective on the matter: His father, Col. Michael Buckley Jr., was a West Point graduate who briefly led Santa Clara's ROTC program in the 1950s, when all students had to take ROTC their first two years. Fr. Buckley, meanwhile, has studied and taught about pacifism, believing "the anti-war tradition is a long and honorable one in the United States."
But at least in the United States, it's politicians who decide to go to war, he says, not top officers, who are often averse to initiating conflicts of which they better know the price. "You want a professional Army. You want a trained officercorps," Buckley observes. "But you also want them to have a background in ethics and philosophical training. That's where a university like Santa Clara does a great service for the military and, therefore, for the country. It's just as reasonable to have Army officers who graduated from Santa Clara as to have Leon Panetta '60, J.D. '63 sitting in the cabinet leading them."
|In formation, 1943: Santa Clara cadets in front of the Donohoe Infirmary (now Donohoe Alumni House). Kenna Hall and the Adobe Lodge were reserved exclusively for military science instruction.The following year, 75 percent of the campus was being used to train soldiers. Photo from SCU Archives.
David DeCosse, director of campus ethics programs, echoes Felt and Buckley, adding that the presence of cadets at Santa Clara adds to the debate and discourse on campus. At a time when the percentage of Americans serving in the military is at its lowest since the start of World War II, ROTC provides a bridge between the Armed Forces and students who would never consider joining the military. "Having that voice in the room is really, really important," says DeCosse. He has taught a course on The Ethics of War to campus cadets and edited a book on the morality of the Persian Gulf War. "It's not as though we have all the answers to everything."
Generals and lieutenants
Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, who rose to the rank of first lieutenant in the Army, is perhaps the most prominent alumnus of the Bronco Battalion to shape the U.S. military in the past 75 years. But among the numerous graduates of the program are a number of general officers who've served in the upper echelons of the Army, including Lt. Gen. Joseph K. Kellogg Jr. '66, Maj. Gen. Mike Lenaers '69, Lt. Gen. Joseph Peterson '72, and Maj. Gen. Eldon Regua '77.
Less-heralded junior officers from the program have also shouldered immense responsibility for the lives of men and women under them. Lt. Brittany Clark '09 won the Pallas Athene Award as one of the nation's top female cadets for leading the Bronco Battalion during her senior year. Her beaming smile belies a steely willpower. She twice competed in the Bataan Memorial Death March, a 26.2-mile race that draws hundreds of cadets, who lug 35-pound packs in the high desert of New Mexico.
Clark spent most of 2011 as an engineering officer in Afghanistan, leading a platoon of 35 soldiers charged with clearing roads of bombs and other hazards, in the face of constant danger. Dismounting their vehicles to talk to villagers and walk areas along roads, her soldiers worked under constant threat of improvised explosives, rocketpropelled grenades, and small-arms ambushes. Many of Clark's soldiers were also dealing with their first extended stays away from home—and their first exposure to combat zones. Clark's job wasn't just executing the mission at hand but also caring for troops worn down by months of combat stress and loneliness, a responsibility she says her Santa Clara education prepared her for well.
"Santa Clara produces graduates who have an understanding of competence, consciousness, and compassion," says Clark, who completed her years with all 35 members of the platoon. "Those values instilled in me from Santa Clara were always part of my decision process."
A really big shew
Lawrence Terry '57, J.D. '62 entered ROTC at a time when the draft ensured most SCU students stayed with ROTC all four years. The unit was roughly eight times its current size—even as the student body was many times smaller.
|Switchboard operator, 1950: Beginning in
1948, all Santa Clara students enrolled in ROTC
their first two years—and most upperclassmen
continued with courses rather than risk getting
drafted as grunts, especially after the war in
Korea began in 1950. Photo from SCU Archives.
On Wednesday drills, the field near the present-day Leavey Center would fill with a sea of men in green wool jackets and pants, khaki shirts with black ties, and combat boots, the cadets marching in formation carrying M-1 rifles from the campus armory. At graduation, the influence of ROTC was even more apparent. Terry estimates 75 percent of his class wore an Army uniform under their gowns, receiving their commissions as second lieutenants in virtually the same motion they received degrees.
Like Brittany Clark decades later, Terry says his Santa Clara education helped him be a better officer. After joining military intelligence and taking part in a 20,000-strong mock assault in Central California, Terry's time in the military took an interesting turn. A drummer, he won a series of Army talent shows, ending up as officer in charge of three dozen fellow soldier-performers making their way across the South and up to New York on a tour that ended with an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Touring the South, they stopped at restaurants eager for customers—until the proprietors saw the African-Americans among the soldiers.
"Thanks to my Jesuit education, I knew what to do," says Terry, who later served as a state judge for three decades. "I said, 'Okay, gentlemen, let's get back on the bus.' There was no way I was going to let these guys be separated from the rest of us."
It's not just the military that benefits from Santa Clara students, says historian George Giacomini. As regimental commander, he led 700 cadets as a senior. And, sent to Germany as a forward observation officer, he discovered leadership skills that he didn't know he had.
"It certainly was an extraordinarily valuable experience for me," he says. "I discovered I wasn't a bad leader. I could actually make pretty good decisions in a pretty short period of time."
|Weapons training: From left, Charles Fisher '14 and Sam Pierson '13 outside Varsi Hall. Photo by Ryan Selewicz '13.
Marty Sammon '56, MBA '63, a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne, was sent to Little Rock, Ark.—where soldiers had been ordered by President Eisenhower to enforce the desegregation of Central High School in 1957. It was one of the great pivot points of the Civil Rights Era.
Writing from Afghanistan, Brittany Clark says that the military and ROTC have exposed her to challenges she never knew she could overcome. "A lot of the training pushed me outside of my comfort zone and made me do things I never would have tried," she says. "There is such an awesome sense of accomplishment after doing something that scares you or seems impossible; the second time around is a piece of cake."
Update Feb. 8, 2012: The Bronco Battalion won another MacArthur Award for being one of the top battalions in the nation. Read about their accomplishment on santaclaramagazine.com. And here online, you can read memories of alumni who have been part of the Bronco Battalion over the year—and share your memories.
- LTC (ret) Shawn Cowley said on Jan 29, 2012
Fantastic article about an amazing facet of Santa Clara that so few really know about. In every major conflict, a Santa Clara graduate has led troops. Not to be forgotten, if one enters The Mission and turns right, just inside the doors, on the wall you can find historic plaques listing the names of graduates who made the ultimate sacrifice for our great country. Outside to the right of the mission, in the flower bed there is a small plaque that lists Santa Clara graduates & a Naval Officer I believe who perished in 9/11. Back in WWI, it was actually a Santa Clara graduate who made famous, "Lafayette we have returned" not Gen Black Jack Pershing as many mistakingly believe. Silver Star winners, Bronze Star winners... there are so many great men and women who have brought the Santa Clara values of competence, conscience and compassion to the US Military.
Santa Clara ROTC graduates have left a definite impression on the US Military and the world. They are a unique officer. Thank you for putting the spotlight on their history. I hope that you keep that light shining bright as their service certainly has. God Bless! Shawn
- Michael Kennedy said on Jan 31, 2012
I loved the articles in the Why We Fight issue, as they struck a strong chord with me.
I graduated from SCU in '72 in Biology, and I was in ROTC in 1969-1970, and relived those days through the articles as I read each one. My dad was a Colonel in the Air Force, and I remember not telling people that, as well as making myself scarce on campus, as it was unpopular to wear a uniform on campus while going to and from ROTC classes.
I'm so glad things have changed, and that it is now cool to wear a uniform, and stand tall for what it represents. Especially now, as my son just joined the Army and is now at boot camp and Medic training around the corner. Thank goodness for the authors of these articles.
I feel privileged to have been among classmates like Joe Peterson, who I vaguely remember in ROTC map reading and other classes. It is so true that our nations warriors and scholars should be one and the same, as that's what we need to be a nation among nations that prevents and manages world conflicts when they arise, rather than just a force that reacts to conflict.
Long live ROTC at SCU! My hat is off to you and my heart is open.
Michael J. Kennedy '72
- Robert Cruz '71, J.D. '83 said on Feb 4, 2012
I completed a 28 year career as a traditional citizen soldier. My service included preparing units in the US Army Reserve and Guam Army National Guard for deployments abroad. I commanded a USAR combat heavy engineer company that served in Iraq, and as Commander of the 1-294th Light Infantry Battalion that has served in the Horn of Africa and is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan next year. Many training deployments to Okinawa, Japan, Hawaii, South Korea, etc.
After retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1999, I put my experience as a lawyer and soldier to work as an international civil servant with the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping for seven years, working with a variety of NATO units, including US Army elements serving in Kosovo. My SCU Army ROTC training, including extra involvement in the Pershing Rifles, gave me the foundation needed for a successful career in the Army Reserve components,and the United Nations.
I'm proud to have served. I now teach Ethics in Government to newly elected officials, department heads and Board members, serve as hearing officer for various government of Guam agencies and serve as a Referee, Traffic and Small Claims Court Referee,in the Superior Court of Guam.
- Felicien said on Feb 7, 2012
Sad. Another Jesuit university promotes violence through self-promotion of its military training. I was appalled at the Santa Clara Magazine's entire Winter 2012 edition dedicated to "why we fight," without a more balanced look at the non-violence that Jesus promoted as the basis of Christianity. There is only a brief mention of the other side that thoughtful and deeply religious people such as Fr. John Dear have espoused throughout their lives.
From his recent National Catholic Reporter story about Loyola's ROTC training: "What else is new? Most Catholic, Jesuit, Christian universities in the U.S. take millions of dollars from the Pentagon to train students for war—and then call ROTC a student organization. In doing so, they serve the U.S. war machine and betray the Gospel of peace. They present fine rationale about having intellectual soldiers who will wage better wars—but they can never quite claim that they are doing God's will, obeying the Gospel, or following the nonviolent Jesus."
As a parent of a student at SCU, I sure hope the pro-military hype doesn't expand beyond the magazine. While certainly Christians find themselves in the military, we don't need to "christianize" the violence of which the military is so proud.
- Stephen E. Petit '69 said on Feb 23, 2012
The Winter issue of Santa Clara Magazine was the best one in years. It is a fitting tribute to all the men and woman who have served our country and how the university connected with that service. I was commissioned a 2nd Lt. in the Marines during our graduation ceremony and kind of stood out in my dress whites in a field of Army greens but the link between what we learned during our days at Santa Clara and what it takes to become a leader of men was not lost on any of us who raised their right hand that day and took an oath to defend this country. The year was 1969, turbulent time indeed. I am grateful that Santa Clara Magazine has recognized the service and sacrifice of so many students who answered their nation's call.
- Michael A. Parkes said on Mar 6, 2012
A friend of mine and '60 graduate of SCU shared his copy of the winter issue of Santa Clara Magazine with me. He knows I was the Professor of Military Science at SCU from 1985 to 1988. Therefore I enjoyed reading the article by Sam Scott about The Bronco Battalion.
When I arrived at SCU, the Battalion had some ridiculous name not at all related to SCU. One of my first actions as PMS was to go to the Department of the Army and have the Battalion name officially changed to The Bronco Battalion. In 1986, I received permission to have a formal ROTC Color Guard raise the flag on campus every Tuesday. In an effort to connect with the faculty we began hosting a party in September to welcome the faculty back to campus. That quickly caught on and not only became a tradition, but each month throughout the year, a different Department hosted a party. If that is still going on today, now you know how it started.
Even though I retired in 1988 after 27 years of active duty, I returned to SCU in 1996 to commission my son. He is currently on active duty and about to be promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. I have many fond memories of SCU and consider my three years there one of the highlights of my military career.
Michael A. Parkes LTC, Retired
- Dennis Morton said on Dec 20, 2012
- My father, Wilbur Raymond Morton, class of 41' from what I know was the top ROTC marksman and medalist with a perfect 100 in match competition. Has this ever been repeated and if anyone has more information about my father at Santa Clara it would be greatly appreciated.
Winter 2012
See all articles from this issue
My fight, my faith
As secretary of defense in an age of budget austerity, Leon Panetta '60, J.D. '63 has to make sure the Pentagon doesn't break the bank and that the nation doesn't break faith with the men and women who serve.
Bronco Battalion
What does it mean for a Jesuit university to be home to the Reserve Officers' Training Corps? Seventy-five years after ROTC came to Santa Clara—and 150 years after officers were first trained on campus—a few answers are clear.
Mission Matters
Going global
A $2 million grant creates a year-long fellowship program—with students taking part in a global network of socially conscious businesses.
Bribes, bombs, and outright lies
Legendary lawyer Clarence Darrow comes to campus—and shows that ethical issues raised in the Trial of the Century remain as vexing today as they did when spittoons lined the courthouse floor.
Alumni Arts
Let me lay it on you
Hot Tuna is back with their first studio recording in 20 years.