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Media & Education
News Room
Volume 29, Issue 4, Winter 2011
Bats: a Love Story
Founder's Circle ecotours – now Conservation Leader Circle trips –offer Bat Conservation International members the unforgettable adventure of observing bats and other wildlife in exotic locations. Those who make the trips usually describe unique experiences – but few are as striking as this story shared by wildlife photographer Les Meade.
Who would have guessed back in October 2007 that sparks would fly between two ecotourists on the BCI Founder's Circle Ecotour to Australia and New Zealand?
Well, that's exactly what happened to me, Les Meade, at the time a bat biologist from Kentucky, and Michelle Steinmetz (now Meade), a biologist with the Washington State Department of Transportation.
We got to know each other by spending several weeks watching wildlife, visiting bat rehabilitators and feeding baby flying foxes Down Under. Our love of bats brought us together, and we celebrated our second wedding anniversary on October 3, 2011.
Given the role that bats played in bringing us together, we decided that bats would have to be incorporated into our wedding, as well. And so they were: we even had a bat stamped onto the envelopes for our invitations.
We will never forget that spectacular trip to Australia and New Zealand and all the wonderful people we met (in addition to each other). A special thanks goes to Fiona Reid, Miriam Schulman, and Bruce Thomson. And a very special thanks goes to my lovely wife, Michelle.
All articles in this issue:
Stay up to date with BCI
Sign up and receive timely bat updates
BCI relies on the support of our amazing members around the world.
Our mission is to conserve the world's bats and their ecosystems to ensure a healthy planet.
Please join us or donate so our work can continue.


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The purpose of this ministry is to provide engaged couples with the relational discipleship necessary to help them get their marriage started on a strong foundation in Christ. Also, we counsel married couple who are facing marital challenges.
The Bible teaches that marriage is a beautiful gift given from God to a man and a woman for the purpose of bringing Him glory and making us holy. Godly marriage is a parable (earthly story with a heavenly meaning) that mirrors Christ's relationship with the church (Ephesians 5:31-33). Knowing this, VPA takes very seriously its responsibility to shepherd couples who are moving towards marriage. To that end we offer the following premarital, post-marital and marital counselling services to members of the church. The pre-wedding and a full year of post-wedding mentoring done by a Godly couple who are mature in their faith in Christ and in their marriage .The biblical mandate Titus 2:1-15, I Peter 3:1-7, Matthew 28:19-20, Acts.2: 42-47
The Pre-Wedding Counselling is geared to help you as an engaged couple with the application of the information you will gather during the Premarital Counselling Course. Here is what you can expect from the Premarital Counselling course: you will be counselled by couples who are mature in their faith in Christ and in their marriage.You will meet regularly with your counsellors to go over and apply the information gained from the course, guiding you to your wedding day. The counsellors will focus on your spiritual life as a couple as well as the practical "how to's" of marriage.
This class is offered every Sunday for three months. Based on the workbook Preparing For Marriage, this class is a 2 hour course that is spread out over 3 months. Couples will cover all areas of marriage including the purpose for marriage, communication, conflict resolution, finances, the roles of the husband and wife, and sexual intimacy. During this class you will get solid Biblical counselling as well as interactive role. Please contact the church office for current dates and times.
Post-Wedding Mentoring – after the marriage, we meet the newly-wed couple to determine whether it is necessary to continue with counselling. During this session, we touch base on the areas of Biblical manhood and womanhood to make sure that the couple is growing stronger as a husband and wife.
Your marriage counsellor will touch base with you once a month for prayer, and encouragement for your new marriage. He will be your accountability in the areas of Biblical manhood and womanhood to make sure you are "getting it" as a newly-wed couple and growing strong.
Marital counselling – while marriage is a holy covenant between three parties – a man, woman and God – we understand that men and women have a sin nature and that can cause lots of problems in a marriage when both are not abiding and growing in their walk with Christ. These marriage issues can become very painful and lead to anger, depression, loneliness, bitterness, isolation and brokenness. VPA Marriage Counselling Team is prepared to help couples get back on track, find hope, healing and restoration for their marriage.
"Without counsel plans fail but with many advisers they succeed." Proverbs 15:22
What can you expect from your mentor couple?
A maturity in Christ evidenced by Godly living and counsel; a couple happily married at least 7 years who demonstrate a Christ honoring marriage; ongoing training and practical experience as a mentor.
To learn more about make donate charity with us visit our "Contact us" site. By calling +44(0) 800 883 8450 .

subset: commoncrawl


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FileZilla Installation
Download FileZilla
We recommend using FileZilla. Download the client version from their main web page: https://filezilla-project.org
FTP Settings
If you already have FileZilla installed, follow the Site Manager configuration. Information on other FTP clients we've come across can be found here: FTP clients
Installing FileZilla on Windows
Please note: All screenshots are from Windows 8. Yours may look different, but the functionality is the same. Make sure the user account being used for the installation has administrative rights that allow the installation of software.
Possible confirmation prompts
Depending on OS settings and version, it is possible that one or both of the following confirmation prompts may appear:
License agreement
You should now see the following window where you will have to accept the terms of the license agreement to continue. Read through it and click "I Agree" if you do.
Install for all users?
You will now have to decide if you want to install only for your user account or if FileZilla should be accessible by every user on the machine. This mainly affects where the Start Menu icons are placed. Installing for all users needs administrative privileges, and every user will have his/her own settings.
Choosing components
Next you need to choose which parts of the FileZilla client you want to install. If you hover your mouse over a choice, FileZilla will show you a description of the item. Here is the window:
Go through all of them and check/uncheck the stuff you want. Select additional languages if you want FileZilla in languages other than English. "Icon sets" let you choose different looks for FileZilla's icons (they are partly user contributed). The "shell extension" integrates FileZilla into the Windows Explorer. Most users will go with what's selected by default here. When you're all finished, click "Next".
Two small notes regarding the shell extension:
- Installing or removing requires full administrative privileges.
- Though FileZilla for Windows is only available as 32bit build, it contains a shell extension for both the 32bit and 64bit shell.
Install location
The default installation path is the "Program Files" directory on 32bit Windows and "Program Files (x86)" on 64bit Windows. Please, if you are migrating from FileZilla 2, don't ever install into the same directory as FileZilla 2! FileZilla 3 is not an upgrade to FileZilla 2, and merging both directories creates a mess.
Start menu shortcuts
Here, you will be asked what you want to name the folder with the shortcuts to FileZilla inside. The default name "FileZilla FTP Client" should be good for most people. You can also choose not to install these shortcuts.
Finishing installation
When you click "Install", FileZilla will get installed.
If no errors occur, it should complete in some seconds.
When it's done, click Next to finish the installation.
Congratulations, you've successfully installed the FileZilla Client and can now move on to using it!
Installing FileZilla on Mac OSX
Please note that the official binaries for FileZilla require OS X 10.5 or greater.
To install FileZilla, simply download the appropriate file to your computer. Most Macs made since 2006 use an Intel processor, so you'll want to download the package for the Intel processor. However if you have a G4 or G5 CPU, you'll want to use the PowerPC package. If you are unsure, try the Intel version first.
If you have downloaded the FileZilla package using Safari, it will be automatically extracted. You might have to manually extract the archive if you're using a different browser. To start FileZilla, simply double-click the extracted application bundle.
Top of FileZilla window covered by Mac OSX menu
When you start FileZilla in the Finder, you will see the window of FileZilla is covered by the top menu. You may find it difficult to move the window, because you cannot click on the covered top of the FileZilla window. Tip: You can resolve this problem by changing the resolution of your screen and then changing it back to the original resolution (during the resolution change, OSX re-checks that all windows are properly oriented).
Installing FileZilla on GNU/Linux and other Unix(-like) systems
It is recommended that you use the package manager for your distribution.
If you're using GNU/Linux, you can also try using the precompiled binaries. After extracting the files to any location (location does not matter, FileZilla can detect its own installation prefix), you can start the program using the FileZilla executable in the bin/ subdirectory. Please note that due to differences in distributions, the provided binaries might not work on your system.
Alternatively, you can compile FileZilla from source.


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Portfolio Tag: zumba
It was the Katies annual Zumba Christmas Party, and we once again filled the dancefloor all night with loads of dance classics from the 60s to the current day chart. Tonight we also supplied a Christmas backdrop for the photo/prop studio. The party was hosted at the fabulous City of Newcastle Golf Club. Share…Read more
Saturday 3rd June we were booked to supply disco and dj to a ladies summer sizzler party at The City of Newcastle Golf Course. DJ Gaz was in his element as he was the only bloke there.. A massive mix of music was played and we had a full dancefloor almost all evening. Share this:TwitterFacebookEmailPrintRead more


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The December issue of Clarkesworld marks the 75th monthly issue, which is quite an achievement, as I remember from Emerald City days. It will be another couple of years before Neil reaches the magical century mark, but given his reliability to date I'm sure he'll get there.
This issue seems to be full of people I want to read. The lead story is "Your Final Apocalypse" by Sandra McDonald, which is temptation enough. And the first chapter contains the sentence, "There is no gender in this corner of the future." Oh ho… As usual, the story is available in audio, read by Kate Baker.
The other two stories are by Australian women writers. Thoraiya Dyer, who contributes "The Wisdom of Ants", will be well known to listeners to Galactic Suburbia. Given that, in Australia, anything with too many legs or not enough legs is trying to kill you, I'm a bit nervous about this one. Finally we have "Sweet Subtleties" by Lisa L.Hannett, who is actually Canadian by birth but lives in Adelaide. Her latest collection, Bluegrass Symphony, won an Aurealis award, and how can you resist a writer with a PhD in medieval Icelandic literature? As usual, the these two stories will appear in audio in due course.
The non-fiction column sees SJ Chambers (of Steampunk Bible fame) writing about Victorian SF (and in particular mummies). This issue's interview is with the brilliant artist, Todd Lockwood. And Daniel Abraham deftly puts the boot into a mainstream literary critic. Neil's editorial is thankfully all good news.
This month's cover art is "The Lost City" by David Demaret.
And if you want to support Clarkesworld, one option is to buy copies from my bookstore.
In addition I have two issues of Lightspeed new in the store. Issue #30 managed to go AWOL in the chaos that was World Fantasy, but we have it in stock now. It also has original fiction by Sanda McDonald, and from my friend Tom Crosshill. There's a reprint story by Tobias Buckell that was the cause of a massive comment meltdown a couple of days ago. The new issue, #31, includes a new story by Ken liu, which should make it a must read. As always, the ebook editions of Lightspeed contain bonus material that is not available online, so click those bookstore links.


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For The Fix
My boss swung a half-empty bottle of white wine in front of my face like she was trying to hypnotize me with it. "You don't ever miss this?" she asked. The rest of the staff looked at me awkwardly. Some of them knew that I was sober, most of them were figuring it out now.
"Um, no?" I replied. (continued)


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Consolidating Streams to Improve DASH Cache Utilisation
4 December 2015 / adaptive-iptv
Stephen McQuistin presented our poster on Consolidating Streams to Improve DASH Cache Utilisation at the ACM CoNEXT conference in Heidelberg, Germany, from 1-4 December 2015. This is early work, starting to explore how to optimise caching for large-scale video streaming systems based on the MPEG DASH standard (and related systems).
The presence of multiple DASH flows, requested by different clients, can be challenging for HTTP caches. There are two reasons for this. Firstly, if several receivers are fetching the same DASH content at once, the rate adaptation algorithm can lead each receiver to fetch a different representation of each segment. This increases the size of cache required, and the load on the server upstream of the cache, and reduces the cache hit rate. Requests often cannot be served from the cache, even if two receivers are watching the same stream at the same time. The cache hit rate can be increased, and the load on the upstream servers reduced, if the cache can align receivers onto the same representations of the content, by redirecting requests. This would mean some receivers get some segments at higher or lower rate than requested, potentially affecting media quality. A key goal of our work is to explore the trade-off between the impact on media quality, and the benefits of reducing the load on the cache and the links towards the network core and upstream servers. Our hypothesis is that, when done carefully, the quality impact will be small, and the core bandwidth saving large, so this may be a worthwhile trade-off for operators.
Secondly, when several receivers watch the same content at slightly different times, there can be problems of cache thrashing. A segment is pulled into the cache by one receiver, evicted some time later as the stream progresses, then immediately pulled back into the cache by a receiver watching the same stream slightly delayed. This thrashing can be reduced by time-aligning play out at different receivers. There is scope to do this, since receivers tend to have several seconds of buffering delay, and adapt to changes in media delivery times. This should have no, or minimal, impact on the receivers, but can reduce cache load significantly.
Design, implementation, and validation is ongoing. The combination of the two techniques is hoped to be able to increase cache efficiency when DASH streams are in use. With the move from broadcast to online TV viewing, this may be necessary to scale content delivery systems.


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Let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of industries.
City ports were killed by savagely efficient container shipping, manufacturing by rock-bottom foreign wages, but book publishing — not junk, but loved, influential books that influence human thought and behaviour — is a more complicated story. The Canadian publishing industry was an underweight infant from the start.
Book publishing as we know it is dying right now, possibly pitifully in a cramped bloodstained bedsit off the Spanish Steps, or on a stairwell in Soho. But actually it's dying in understated fashion, tidily laid out on its deathbed on a "$60 blond-wood door from Home Depot" used as the desk on which Jeff Bezos packed the first Amazon shipment in 1994.
Brad Stone gets quite poetic about cheap doors in The Everything Store, his terrific new history of Amazon, the sales and delivery corporation whose quest for world domination is speeding ahead. But you're not dead until George Packer has written a wet-blanket lament about you in the fading New Yorker.
I care about good writing in any form, from six-volume Norwegian diary-novels to Twitter to scratching on toilet walls. It's a word pudding, delicious and nutritious. But so distressed was I as I read Packer that I simply circled the sentences that made blood swell my temple veins.
It's easy to produce bad books and make money. Publish a haystack of them and there'll be a needle called 50 Shades of Grey in there somewhere. But there's a central problem with producing good books, the same dilemma Hollywood faces. Creating irresistibly good art is labour-intensive and often a matter of luck.
Luck means finding the racehorse that is an original mind, assembling a stable, a haybed and a nosebag full of oats, and letting it win races. Publishers and filmmakers think their job is to lasso a bunch of horses, Bezos thinks his job is to get them to the racetrack. But they're both missing the point.
The point is Margaret Atwood, the Coen Brothers, Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad's showrunner), Lena Dunham (Girls), writer/director Tina Fey, writer Alice Munro, pop culturist Charlie Brooker, historian/philosopher Francis Spufford, memoirist W.G. Sebald, comedian Will Ferrell, author Amy Sedaris, photographer Martin Parr, designer Thomas Heatherwick and novelist Russell Smith are gifted individuals spinning gold out of nothing but the contents of their head.
It's a dodgy base for a business. Packer says the essence of the conflict between paper publishing and modernity, between books and Bezos, is between tenses. "Book publishing always has a rhetoric of the fallen age," one senior book editor told Packer. "It was always better before you got there. The tech guys — it's always better if you just get out of my way and give me what I want. It's always future-perfect."
There is nowhere for these two to meet and that's why entire industries are flummoxed. Hollywood (now including the Comcast/Time Warner Cable behemoth), bereft of nurtured talent, produces '70s hits, sequels and movies based on board games, while AMC let Gilligan make Breaking Bad because they were desperate, had nothing to lose.
What successful businesses need is an intermediary between what Packer aptly sums up as "the means of production and the modes of distribution." Amazon tries mightily but cannot uncover a brilliant writer or make stunningly good movies. That said, it delivers packages the way Patrick Chan skates, cleanly and perfectly.
Publishers have the talent but not the technology. Amazon has the technology but no talent with words: its website cannot replicate the experience of browsing for books. Amazon "reviewers" are well-intentioned but largely idiotic and publishers can't explain why a particular book is good, they just know it in their bones.
Without newspaper websites as a guide — at this point financially unsustainable because advertisers won't buy space — capitalists cannot sell products to a bored willing public.
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We are at an impasse. How do you pay people to be geniuses at jobs that aren't formally slotted and salaried, as in writer, idea generator, fantasist? We can't do without them. But we need a bridge between production and distribution where this much-abused little person can settle and do the work.


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Wasted Movement
Happy post Easter hangover to you. I thought I'd write a short article since the whole 140 character thing doesn't really work all the time. In general I seem to get a lot of followers who follow anything with the word "Dodger" in the name ("Tax Dodger"? Reserved for the Commander in Chief, I guess). Once I tweet a few cynical (honest) comments, they quickly unfollow. Such is life.
Anyway, I thought I'd comment on the topic everyone is talking about – Rich Hill's 2nd DL stint in as many starts. How is this a surprise to anyone? Andrew Friedman, trying to save face, is making the rounds, saying he's not worried. No, front offices love when their expensive new toys end up chronically injured. Who are you trying to fool, Andy? Sure, you might feel you have "depth" (I call 'em semi warm bodies), but it couldn't have been in the plans to have your #2 behind Clayton Kershaw saying it would take a "medical miracle" to get him on the mound again. And now talk of his going to the pen to save the boo boo finger? Really, you signed a 37 year old pitcher to a $48M deal with the intention of him being just another bullpen guy, next to your AAAA retreads? Sorry, not buying that.
I know the beat writers and local radio guys won't question the genius of the front office as they don't dare lose access to the clubhouse – and the free meals. I on the other hand have nothing to lose. I write what is very apparent – hardly genius at all. It just so happens in today's world, if you exhibit a decent amount of common sense, you look intelligent. Who woulda thunk?
As I have tweeted many times, all you have to do is go to this blog and comb through the old articles and see my take on everything Dodgers. All the injuries discussed in advance, all the bad deals commented on as they were made, the mediocre or worse players the Moneyball minded acquire, debunked early on. Again, it's not being super smart, it's using basic intelligence. And yes, just having seen a lot of baseball in my life. It's the same thing Saber guys (I don't think women are stupid enough to be Saber) dislike traditional minded scouting and managing for. It's too simple. You watch, you gauge it on lots and lots of similar circumstances (100+ years of MLB, pretty much) and you can therefore make semi logical assumptions. One might call it "data", but I hear that term has been trademarked.
Here we are 13 games into the 2017 season and the Dodgers are in third place, 1 game over .500. The fans, as always, are up and down like the temperature. If they beat the Padres, whose entire payroll is less than what Kershaw makes alone, they talk shit and boast, gearing up for the World Series appearance. If they lose to a better Western foe, they panic.
The season is long and I will go on a limb and say the type of front office work the Friedman/Zaidi and assorted Dream Team collection of overpaid executives are doing could work as well in 2017 as it did in 2016. I think I figured it out, though, like a bad detective show, my answer was right in front of me the whole time.
While I think the West should certainly be better than it was last year (Giants will wake up, Rox seem improved and only getting better, Arizona perhaps better under their new Moneyball-type front office), I can see the Dodgers making the playoffs. Before you get too excited, I can also see them missing the playoffs. Somewhere between winning the West, getting the wild card and losing out in the playoff round robin, is where they will be. I am not one to predict outcomes of divisions so much as a lot of things happen.
I will say that unless changes are made (and why would they be?), it's unlikely the Dodgers, as constructed now, will advance to the World Series, should they get anywhere near. My reason is I look at tonight's tragic lineup and I just don't see where $230M was spent. Any given night the lineup, starter and/or bullpen participants might be aged journeymen or AAAA castoffs. Friedman calls it "depth" – Paul DePodesta didn't even call it that, but maybe he should have. His roster was the same littering of nobodies and never weres.
With Hill having recurring blister problems, it makes me wonder why Friedman would take a chance on him again. Last July, Friedman waited till the 11th hour before the trade deadline to move three prospects for Hill and Josh Reddick, who apparently Friedman didn't realize hadn't done anything since May. Ok, I'll make excuses and say Friedman thought he could wait everyone out and find lightning in a bottle – after all, Moneyball centerfold Billy Beane snatched Hill up during the off-season after seeing him throw a few good games in unimportant late season starts for Boston. If Hill was good enough for Beane…
Hill, of course, came over hurt, spent a long time on the DL and then made some useful starts in September and October for the Dodgers. But facts are facts and Hill was an aging player, not long out of independent league ball (like Scott Kazmir, who Friedman admitted was a poor signing just a year before as he shopped him this winter, with no takers). But with the free-agent and trade markets thin (the time to shop was the winter before when names like Zack Greinke, Johnny Cueto, J.A. Happ, etc. were available), Friedman doubled down on Hill. After all, he just dealt three prospects to get him, so to walk away empty handed, and still have a gaping hole in the rotation, seemed unacceptable, even to him. So as is his custom, an identical $48M deal went to Hill – like it had to Brandon McCarthy and then Kazmir. I guess that's the cap where a Moneyballer feels comfortable "wasting" on starting pitching.
I would say $48M is an ok figure, if you got something out of it. So far, the amount is cursed for Friedman and his little troll Zaidi – all three of the guys acquired have trouble staying healthy. In case you wondered, 3 x 48M = $144M, which is a lot of money and should mean something more capable for your rotation than what Friedman's guys have shown – at least so far (this being written on April 17, 2017, for historical purposes).
My biggest problem with Friedman and his building of a roster isn't necessarily the players he selects – ok, it's a large part about that – but what the ultimate toll it takes on the team in general. As I've said before, a rotation is not just the quality of your 5 starters (not 16 starters, as Friedman would have you believe), though that should be top of mind, but it's the innings. I understand the game is changing and either change with it or die but I can't believe it's optimal to have 16 guys tossing 3-5 innings commonly, as opposed to 5-6 guys capable of going 6-8 more frequently.
I know it's ancient history, but I vividly remember Dodger teams with an ace, 2 or 3 very good pitchers and then 1-2 either called "innings eaters" or perhaps 1 of those and a kid, hoping to stick in the rotation. It wasn't long ago that Friedman so hated this that he chased Dan Haren out of town, paying his salary to go to Miami. Really, how is Haren at any point much different than Hill, McCarthy or Kazmir? I guess you could argue, he was healthier.
Innings are important because it's something you can hang your hat on. You can assume your starting pitcher is not only capable of going deeper into games, but taking the ball every 5th day without drama. You don't need to call a collection of junk, and terrible contracts, "depth". Your depth is your minor league system, as it always has been and is for every team in the major leagues. If you have 4-5 credible starters who are likely to stay healthy, you can make a phone call should someone get hurt. That "data" is based on 100+ years of the game's history. Trite, boring, but honest and true.
I think like DePodesta, the Moneyball way Friedman and Zaidi play is merely about looking more clever and smarter than your average baseball guy – folks like myself included. Naive? Giggle inducing ideas such as going with known commodities, staying away from continually injured players – absurd! It's far more fun to tinker like a very bored fantasy baseball general manager and make things happen. Oh, in the end it could work but all the "wasted movement" isn't beneficial to anyone. When your new $48M contract is already looking vomit-inducing and you are talking about putting this #2 starter into your bullpen, it's not good. Not on this Earth, not on any world.
Like I said, it's possible the Dodgers can win the West – who knows if the Giants, Rox and Diamondbacks might stumble? Plus, the Dodgers have spent a lot more than anyone else, not only in the West, or the National League, or MLB, but in professional sports. That "depth" allows you at least a chance to win, even if your front office is run by overzealous micro-managers with too much time on their hands.
On the other hand, this Moneyball style always proves to address the regular season. Remember, before these guys arrived, the Dodgers were doing well in that respect. More often than not the Dodgers are near the top of the division, even when mere mortals are calling the shots. Moneyball is usually employed when a team does not have the financial wherewithal to compete any other way. It's odd when it's employed with deep pockets and a monster payroll.
The team tinkers and scratches to get to the post-season, celebrates this accomplishment but doesn't win. Don't feel too bad for Friedman, no Moneyball team ever wins. Or hasn't yet. It's because, in the paraphrased words of Billy Beane, the post-season is too unpredictable, the "data" doesn't work there. Luck is involved, he says. No, I don't think that's quite true.
While maybe "data" can predict X number of runs an ever-changing lineup should produce, and how many runs an ever-changing rotation should allow, it doesn't account for quality. Quantity, oh sure, plenty of that. Proudly Friedman sycophants will point to how quantity is as important as quality. This is said to praise the "depth" – which is actually just less talented players than what otherwise could be assembled. More means more, to them. But in the post-season, Billy Beane might say it's harder to predict and luck, whereas I would say it's quality. Here the quantity means less, and that's why Freidman's subpar independent league and career minor league players have problems.
It's not genius to discover independent league and career minor leaguers – why, they're right there in independent leagues and minor leagues all across the country. It's not genius to pluck them from obscurity and then sign them to contracts of their dreams. It's curious, weird even and clogs your roster full of guys that more than likely are not going to hold up and win in October.
It's early – just the middle of April – but we are seeing the "depth" put to use as the players were never capable in the first place. While anyone can get hurt at any time and certainly bad breaks happen, it is not dumb luck when it happens to players who have a track record (data!) of this happening to them. Only Friedman and his people didn't understand Hill would be hurt. As his players fall like dominoes, Friedman and his followers say, "Who could have known?" Well, we all knew and continue to scratch our heads in astonishment.
I think the appeal here is painting themselves into a corner and trying to get out. Houdini did it to show his superiority and fantasy baseball managers do it when they are bored out of their minds. Make dumb moves, drop better players, constantly swap our anyone with a pulse and hope it works. If it does, you can puff out your chest and claim superiority. Again, it's "wasted movement" and unnecessary.
It's an outdated way of thinking, sure, but would it be so terrible to have a rotation with at least 3-4 very solid guys you had a pretty safe expectation for making it through the season unscathed? Would it be ludicrous to assume your bullpen could be 3-4 men deep? Even 2 deep? Would it be insane to think if you had a payroll larger than anyone else's your roster would likely have more great players than other teams?
All out of touch, old school ways of thinking, I realize. What do I know? I'm just a guy who has watched a lot of baseball for a lot of years. I sometimes write baseball articles, all archived here, with dates, and I seem to somehow do a remarkable job calling a lot of the "unforeseen events" that befall Friedman and his think tank, before they happen. I don't call it "data" – just common sense and reasonable intelligence. Enjoy the ride and remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Have the Pepto-Bismol and Prilosec at your side; nothing is easy in a Friedman universe.
Wasted movement.
MLB Doesn't Care and Neither Do I
The Dee Gordon PED bust is both sad and eye opening. It also opens the door for questions about who else is using and who was but stopped after getting their big payday. A wise friend of mine (@TheDodgerOracle) and I were chatting about this the day we heard the Dee news. We joked (not really) that you have to give Dee credit – he got his $50M payday from the Marlins and still was using. In today's day and age, that shows integrity. A weird word, we know, when discussing baseball cheats.
We went through a list of all the players who were monsters who suddenly, quickly, faded away – almost all after getting their payday. The list is pretty amazing. As fantasy baseball players know, there used to be a time when guys were first or second round picks, now you see those same names available late in drafts or on waivers. It also used to be that a player was good for a long period of time, reliable, to be counted on in real life or in fantasy, but suddenly their shelf life is only as long as their race for the payday.
You can go through a long list of players who got paid and then disappeared. You can also go through a list of young stars MLB banks on who got paid, but it's not their last big payday, or they have an opt-out, so they continue to perform. I have my own theories too on the dirty business that is MLB, where generally the guys they catch and suspend are second or third tier, perhaps just to show fans they "do care" about the integrity of the sport.
Dee's suspension seems like one where they wanted to throw a big name out there, and while a batting champ, a base stealer like Dee isn't really that big a name to throw out. Well known, sure, but it wouldn't hurt baseball's marketing at all if Dee were given up. This is not to defend Dee but if we honestly believe a skinny guy who steals bases is the big cheat of MLB, we're all in denial.
I wonder how frequently the new commissioner, Rob Manfred, tests more marketable stars such as Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw, aged Big Papi, etc. and if they ever turn a blind eye to the results of those tests? Baseball has done a terrible thing in creating doubt in fans' minds, so me wondering it isn't nearly as bad as me being forced to wonder it.
It's pretty easy to look at players in recent years and guess they might have been on something, and then went off once they were paid. That's why Dee still using, or doubtfully, starting to use, after getting paid is intriguing. I mean, we've seen players get paid, fall off the productivity charts, then perhaps pick up again because their vanity forces them to. I'm talking about players who were great, got paid, sucked, were ridiculed, then got good again. Without saying anyone is guilty or ever used, there are players such as Matt Kemp, Ryan Braun, Albert Pujols or Robinson Cano, many others, who fit this bill. Then there are guys who got paid and obviously don't care anymore, sucking up a team's financial resources while hitting .220 with marginal power.
The best way for someone to apply data to their fantasy baseball game would be to create a spreadsheet of players and when they got paid, or when they are going to be free-agents and hope to get paid. With that chart, you could analyze who is hungry and playing for the payout and who is flush with cash and isn't. That, I suspect, directly correlates into who is possibly using PEDs and who was and stopped.
Again, it's not a perfect science as some guys don't care about shrinking their balls because the limelight and caliber of groupies as they blow into town on a road trip are better for top players. Barry Bonds kept using (allegedly), Big Mac, Papi (perhaps), etc. You have to hand it to those guys who want the fame so much they will risk cancer and death for their egos.
MLB is a dirty game and one I've lost respect for. They obviously don't care about longtime fans, like me, older fans. They want to appeal to young people and casual fans who just care enough to go to the park, take a few selfies, dance to the between innings music and spend a lot of money. The game used to market to "baseball fans" but it's now anyone who will show up with a wallet ripe for the picking.
I guess that's how it has to be to compete with the NFL and NBA, sports that offer a lot more attention span challenged excitement. The demographics of baseball fans is older and while the sport has never made more money, I guess it's necessary to think long-term and about the next generations of fans.
Exciting players sell, and as long as fans throw out conspiracy theories on cheats, there will have to be a few people handed up here and there, selectively, to make baseball seem honest. I don't defend Dee for cheating – it's a terrible letdown – but to assume he's public enemy #1 in this age of sleight of hand is more than a bit naive.
Even if baseball is honest and trying to catch all the cheats, guys like BALCO president Victor Conte have said that there are plenty of ways players can cheat and not get caught. It could be as simple as being tipped off a test will be coming, or taking quick acting drugs in the morning, which are undetectable by the time the guy goes to the ballpark. I suspect it works that the top guys, like Barry and A-Rod and all the current crop, get the best drug dealers and supply, and guys down the ladder are more on their own. I'm not sure where Dee falls, but his contract is nowhere near as great as the top stars in the game. Make of that what you will.
Since the game appears not to care, neither do I. I have been a baseball fan since childhood and am perfectly content going to college games in recent years and not the big league ones. In Los Angeles, where Moneyball rules and the games are not even televised, it's very easy not to care very much. Baseball is a dirty business and they are focusing on a fan base that doesn't care, while turning its back on the one that does. In turn, I'm turning my back on MLB. They don't care and neither do I.


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Wednesday, June 27, 2012
Today marks the date of the death of Malcolm Lowry at the age of 48 in 1957.
When the DTs were bad, the writer Malcolm Lowry had a trick to stop his shaking hands from spilling his drink.
He would remove his tie, place it around the back of his neck, wrap either end around each hand, take hold of his glass, then pulled the tie with his free hand,
which acted as a pulley, lifting the glass straight to his mouth.
Lowry drank anything, hair tonic, rubbing alcohol, after shave, anything.
But unlike most drunks, Lowry was a dedicated writer, a constant chronicler of his own life -
everything was noted down as possible material for his novels, and generally it was.
He couldn't enter a bar or cantina without leaving with at least four pages of hand-written notes.
In 1947, when Lowry's novel Under the Volcano was published, he was hailed as the successor to James Joyce,
and his novel hit the top of the New York Times Best Seller List.
Move ten years on, to the English village of Ripe, Lowry is dead from an overdose, at the age of forty-eight, penniless, forgotten, with his books out of print.
It was an ignoble death for such a brilliant writer,
a death that has since been clouded with the suspicion he was murdered by his wife, Margerie Bonner,
who may (it has been suggested) have force-fed him pills when drunk -
for the pills he swallowed were prescribed to Margerie,
and Lowry was unlikely to have taken his own life without writing copious notes of his final experience.
Here are some incidents of his life from Douglas Day's MALCOLM LOWRY:
•Lowry and his wife collaborate on a screenplay of F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night for MGM. Despite being told that the project had been cancelled, they carry on, and mail in their 500-page script anyway.
A producer at MGM notes that it is "a total filmic evocation—complete with critical remarks, attached film theory, directions to actors, fashions, automobiles…," and that it would make a six-hour film.
•The Canadian poet Earle Birney notes Lowry's behavior at a party. Lowry moves rapidly "from exhilaration into tipsiness into drunkenness," getting lost in "some extremely interesting and complex sentence."
Before passing out, says Birney, he'd enter a final stage: "We no longer existed really. He'd needed us as an audience, now he'd invented his own audience, and hallucination was beginning to take over …
animals grotesque creatures, shades and spirits of various things, were in around the corners of the rooms and he would move over to a corner and sometimes he'd turn his back on us and go on with what he was saying….
•Lowry, drunk, falls off the pier at his squatter's shack on Vancouver Island, injuring his back on the rocks. He is hospitalized, but he becomes too violent and is sent home with a back brace.
•Lowry's old friend Dylan Thomas comes to Vancouver, a stop on his reading tour. The two meet for drinks, but before long Thomas is coaxed out of the bar by a woman; when done, he finds Lowry at his hotel, throwing darts at a naked light bulb and having a hallucinatory talk with a different old friend, one who had died in WWII.
10 comments:
Unfortunately, we'll probably never know the truth.ReplyDelete
Sadly, yes. But in a sense, Malcolm killed himself long years before his physical death.
Seems plausible enough for a guy who drank everything in sight to pop some pills while he was at it. It is a pity no one can write about the experience of dying. That would probably solve a lot of conflicts between religions if anyone could definitively say what happens.ReplyDelete
The true pity is his waste of the gifts The Father gave him and the anguish which was birthed by it all. Thanks for visiting and commeneting, Roland
I hadn't heard of him, what a shame. Fitzgerald had a lot of the same problem, talent wasted due to his addictions. It puts the current bestselling novels in perspective doesn't it? Will anyone know these names 50 years from now? Will people stumble across the books then that everyone talks about now and say "What the crap?"ReplyDelete
I'd never heard of him but you really drew me into his difficult life. Guess we'll never know what happened, but it doesn't seem unreasonable he would have taken the pills.ReplyDelete
Lowry joins a long list of gifted writers/poets who succumed to drink. There's Fitzgerald,Edgar Alan Poe, Hemingway...so sad.ReplyDelete
I am afraid that little of what sizzles on today's best seller lists will be remembered 10 years from now, much less fifty! Sad that so many thought it cool to poison themselves with alcohol back then.
So many talents lie forgotten along the shoulders of life's twisted path. Thanks for the kind words about my writing.
Dylan Thomas, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Poe, and so many others. You are right. Too many kill themselves with their excesses. Sigh. Thanks for visiting and commenting, Roland
What a tragedy.ReplyDelete
His life dissolved into chemically-induced madness right in front of the eyes of his friends. You're right: it was a tragedy. Thanks for visiting and congrats on another short story being accepted into an anthology, Roland


text: For easy access, I have put the link to my universal archive in the sidebar. The archive includes the 495 blogs and occasional commentary that were published on my previous now dead "freedomspeace" blog. I am now republishing the blogs here, and those so republished are colored green in this archive. Take a look and if you see any that you would like me to transfer here ASP, email me at email@example.com.


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Want more Mega Run? Get Monsters, Inc. Run downloaded.
We're pretty much used to popular mobile games getting movie makeovers now. Whether it's Brave and Temple Run or Angry Birds and Star Wars, it can be great to jump back into a familiar experience with a different yet exciting new theme.
Monsters, Inc. Run – a mashup of Monsters, Inc. and Mega Run – is a strange one. There's no doubt that the Mega Run magic is still there, but the Monsters, Inc. licence is completely wasted, such that it actually degrades the experience.
The game follows the story from the original movie, in which Boo is kidnapped by Randall. Sulley and Mike set out to save her, one-touch runner style.
For the most part you'll be controlling Mike as he bounds along platforms, smashes through obstacles and bops enemies on the head. All you need to do is either tap the screen to do a small jump, or hold down to jump higher.
Every now and again, you'll also be able to bring Sulley out to play by collecting special tokens. Sulley can smash through certain barriers, and give you access to areas that Mike can't reach. This is necessary when trying to collect all the secret items hidden in each level.
As with Mega Run, there's some great action to be found. While you're grabbing coin in a bid to collect three stars on each level, there are also powerups that allow you to blast through enemies, encase them in goo, and other such niceties. You unlock these powerups by levelling up through the game, but you can also pay real money to get them more quickly.
Chasing these unlocks is good fun, as you watch your XP bar climb higher and higher and you begin to top the online leaderboards. It's especially rewarding on the later levels, when the going gets really tough and every victory feels like you worked hard for it. Falling off the level in particular will happen a lot.
But Monsters, Inc. Run is not nearly as fun as the original Mega Run. For starters, the licence is barely used at all. Apart from the characters and some minimal static cut scenes, the game doesn't pull anything from the film, and it might as well as just been a sequel rather than a movie tie-in. It feels like a hugely wasted opportunity.
This game also doesn't feel as hectic or exciting as the original. A lot of the level design is pretty bland, especially to begin with, and after a while all of the levels begin to look the very same. While we were up until all hours pouring huge amounts of time into Mega Run, we didn't really feel like spending any more time with Monsters, Inc. Run once we'd beaten it.
As movie tie-ins go, Monsters, Inc. Run is a great deal of fun – but it's also completely forgettable, and you'll have moved on to a new experience and pushed this one aside pretty quickly.


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Embrilliance Thumbnailer
Hi, everyone;
We've been busy lately, so my posting is a bit slow. But I wanted to let you know about a new product called "Embrilliance Thumbnailer" which let's you view designs in Windows Explorer or Mac Finder. If you've ever wanted to simply 'see' your embroidery on your computer the same way you see jpegs and bitmaps, this is the solution. I know you want the details! Ok!
MSRP $44.95 How's that for reasonable!
And, one serial number can be used for both Mac and Windows PCs.
Which versions? Win XP (32), Win Vista (32 and 64), Win 7 (32 and 64), Mac OSX 10.5 and later. (OSX 10.5 gives you CoverFlow so you want to upgrade!)
How do you buy it? Well, you could go over to www.Embrilliance.com (we have more info on the product there) and click on the Store link at the top of the page. Or, ask your sewing machine dealer. Or, look in Nancy's Notions catalog. If you buy from our www.Embrilliance.com site then you can get the download versions immediately.
Happy Embroidering!
Tags: Brian Bailie, Mac, Mac embroidery, MacEmb.com, machine embroidery, Microsoft, QuickLook


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Aug 30, 2011
God be with you til we meet again.
Posted by harmony marie at 1:43 PM 3 peeeeeeople say Labels: Grams Links to this post
Aug 29, 2011
They just keep coming, you'd think we'd been gone weeks. No, it was only 3 days.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:26 PM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Bus, The Husband, Yellowstone lodge. Links to this post
Aug 28, 2011
Old Faithful.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:18 PM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Old Faithful, The Husband, Yellowstone Links to this post
Aug 27, 2011
Care Bear Stare, Part II
So we decided, that hey, we are already at the Grand Tetons, lets drive up to Yellowstone, on Sturgis weekend, without any reservations.
Another thing we can add to our we've-been-married-6-years-so-we-are-awesome-list.
But luckily, we got up there, they had absolutely no rooms available until but wait!
someone just cancelled, we'll give you this room for $135 instead of $175.
Because it was SUCH a STEAL.
And we each had our own bed.
We were lucky, but I was irritated they wouldn't even let me keep the bear at that awesome rate.
but I did get to keep this one. Awww.
While I was trying to contain my excitement that I could keep this little bear, I accidentally dropped him and smashed his nose and ear. (I really was excited)
Saw this guy, but still no deer.
I figured it out though, because it was Sturgis weekend, which apparently is a giant motorcycle weekend with lots of hair and Harley's, I do believe they scared every buffalo and deer away.
Because I never even saw a bison.
This was Yellowstone right?
Apparently, Old Faithful is getting a little slow with her age.
Now erupting every ninety some odd minutes, we had to wait for quite a while.
I kind of wish I had a polaroid (hint Hint) so I could have taken a picture in exactly the same spot from when we were kids.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:04 AM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Yellowstone Links to this post
Aug 26, 2011
Yes, we are still in the Grand Tetons.
And yes, that Black speck in the dead center, was a black bear.
Still no deer though.
I was all covered up, you see, mosquitos love me, and I hate them with all my undying love.
But it's official, I'm now a tree hugger.
And, well I couldn't resist. There is a hilarious story behind this.
Get it, behind.
Yes, I am laughing while I write this.
ps. I'm trying to add "bear" to my label list and for some reason every time I write "bear" it keeps auto correcting to "care bear"
my posts apparently are so sporadic that one time I wrote about care bears.
Care Bear STARE!
Posted by harmony marie at 9:58 AM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Grand Tetons, Tree Hugger Links to this post
Aug 25, 2011
On the road again. So we've been to Lava Hot Springs, Jackson Hole, now...
Grand Tetons. No, the the picture above, that's the "on the road again" photo.
Derek took some lovely pictures. I think this is Jenny Lake.
They were beautiful.
Can you see both of them?
We actually saw a bear and cub!
We didn't see a single deer mind you, but bears, yes we did.
And we found a moose.
We usually have to stop at the Visitor Centers everywhere we go.
My mom did it and so will I.
I get a new Christmas ornament every new place.
So then, I don't buy, as my Derek puts it "Junk."
So we both win.
You see, this is what you learn when you have been married 6 years.
Posted by harmony marie at 9:52 AM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Annivesary, Grand Tetons, The Husband Links to this post
Aug 23, 2011
Travelocity my eye.
Posted by harmony marie at 9:46 AM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Anniversary, Jackson Hole, The Husband Links to this post
Aug 22, 2011
Cedar all Grown Up.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:30 AM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Cedar Boys Links to this post
Aug 19, 2011
Dear owner-of-cat-that-may-be-dead-soon,
The Kona does not appreciate being taunted by your cat. You see, it's not cool that it sits on the window ledge right in front of The Kona's main window. Nope. It's also not cool that your cat sits in front of our mailbox either. Oh, and The Kona does not like being able to see the cat from the basement window in the window well.
It's very uncool that this happens mainly at midnight. The Mama also does not appreciate being woken up multiple times because your cat is taunting The Kona.
Maybe it's just a strange strange love. Either way, next time dear owner-of-cat-that-may-be-dead-soon, next time, I will let the Kona out.
All my love,
Posted by harmony marie at 9:47 AM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: The Kona Links to this post
Aug 16, 2011
Just so you know, I have always, always wanted to do these photos.
Maybe 6 is a lucky number, maybe that's why the Husband gave in. Either way. It was pretty much my favorite thing about Jackson Hole. We were wondering around trying to decide what to do, we just kind of drove up on a whim. I saw a picture in one of the shops, pointed to it and could think of nothing else.
To get dressed is quite an ordeal. First, they shove you towards a closet and "Have your boyfriend (Husband) pick out something' real nice for you, he'll choose real good." Second, they put you in a cereal box sized "dressing room" with a curtain. Then hand you, ahem, severely padded bras, which I assure you, I don't need padded bras. Then rip open the curtain to tie up your corset in front of a family who is luckily already dressed. Next, the Husband. He's been able to hide out for a minute, until the Armenian girl gets to him. She throws some clothes at him then puts on some chaps and ties them real tight, showing off his manly figure. Then top it off with a hat and multiple guns.
I mean really, they are fast and brutal. I started covering up my padded bras with my boa, but the photographer say "oh no darlin, you're covering up the good stuff." Then he hikes up my skirt, pull up the garder and places the cards there.
You know, I should have felt pretty violated, but for some reason, it didn't phase me.
Maybe because as soon as you are done, they immediately have you start stripping off your accessories, untie your corset (in front of yet another cute little family getting a western photo done in the Rockies instead of the Saloon.) and untie your skirt, while I am trying to keep everything together before entering into my cereal box dressing room. All in a days work, except they probably do it 20 times a day.
Either way, it was totally worth it to get this picture right?
Yes, it was.
And in case you are wondering about the lady in the background, I assure you, she was also probably wearing a severely padded bra. I could be wrong.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:51 PM 3 peeeeeeople say Labels: Cowboy, Jackson Hole, Old Photographs, The Corset., The Husband Links to this post
Aug 15, 2011
Anniversary Extraordinair El Numero 6
Went up for a little road trip.
Started out at Lava Hot Springs.
Which was loverly.
We didn't really have much planned, stayed at the Alpaca Inn.
Which was super cool.
Plus I got to buy some Alpaca Wool.
Now all I need is a Alpaca or too, the fur is so soft.
Maybe next year I'll get the Husband to buy me some.
But I'll probably have to learn how to spin the wool.
Breakfast here
With him. Of course.
Then off again.
To here.
Stay tuned for spectacular photos coming soon.
I have waited many years to take photos like these. . .
Posted by harmony marie at 8:23 PM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Alpaca, Anniversary, Lava Hot Springs, The Husband Links to this post
Aug 13, 2011
Seamtress with stress on the seam
Steph and I usually have to go to DownEast Outfitters in Cedar.
It's crazy, I know, why shop in a little town?
I dunno, perhaps because they have awesome deals and killer finds.
But this time, there were some cute, too expensive tanks.
I kept telling Steph, we can do this.
so we did.
Tanks $4.00
Material...I don't know, Grammy passed it to me.
So...eat that DownEast Outfitters.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:34 PM 2 peeeeeeople say Labels: Sew, Stephanie Links to this post
Aug 12, 2011
Harmony as a photographer, with Mrs. Stephanie Shaheen as assistant presents:
Now, on my day as photographer, i made my client do lots of awkward things. Like crawl up the side of the hill in some ivy, then lay down with all the spiders, and then they didn't turn out. So ya know.
Live and learn. But I thought some of these turned out super cute.
Like Caleb here, it's his first sister after two brothers.
Now that I am a professional, i am now taking customers.
Posted by harmony marie at 10:34 PM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Caleb, Gena, Josie, Logan, Tyler Links to this post
Aug 11, 2011
Again, Groupon has led us to the Nature Center in Ogden. It's pretty loverly.
Oh, and these guys are too
Posted by harmony marie at 8:34 PM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: groupon, Nature Center, The Husband, The Kona Links to this post
Aug 8, 2011
Mi Padre.
Posted by harmony marie at 8:32 PM 0 peeeeeeople say Labels: Padre Links to this post
Aug 6, 2011
Little Taste of Britain.
Posted by harmony marie at 8:31 PM 3 peeeeeeople say Labels: little taste of Britain Links to this post
Aug 4, 2011
Should I be worried about this?
Posted by harmony marie at 8:29 PM 1 peeeeeeople say Labels: The Husband, The Kona Links to this post
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3. 'Minuke' by Nigel Kneale (From Tomato Cain & Other Stories, also collected in The Eleventh Pan Book of Horror Stories)
She was a very prolific author of short stories, many of them spooky, and all set in the small-town or rural New England she knew so well. She was very good on dialogue and telling imagery. 'Luella Miller' is a classic and rather early example of a sub-genre that has since been very popular. I'll say no more, except that Luella is someone who needs a lot of help, and always seems to find a likely helper. A gentler story than some, but still a weird one.
8. 'All Hallows' by Walter de la Mare
Not an easy writer to modern sensibilities, de la Mare was a poet whose stories are elusive and often very strange. 'All Hallows' is at least comprehensible. A cathedral standing alone by the sea is beset by demonic forces in a surprising way. A story of powerful scenes that might best be enjoyed as symphonic 'movements', this one will either stay with you forever or leave you cold. If you want the best modern edition of de la Mare's weird fiction, I'd recommend the Tartarus Press volume
9. 'Petey' by T.E.D. Klein (in Dark Gods)
Klein writes very little, but the four novellas in Dark Gods are among the best horror stories of the late 20th century. Of them, 'Petey' is almost a traditional ghostly tale; a group of wealthy, self-indulgent people who gather at a house in the wilds. The house was essentially stolen (albeit legally) from its rightful owner by their host. Evidence of strange beliefs and experiments emerge during the course of the house warming party...
10. 'A Tress of Hair' by Guy de Maupassant (aka 'The Head of Hair')


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Psoriasis (the word derives from the Greek word for 'being itchy') is a chronic and long lasting autoimmune disorder of the skin which affects 2-4% of the population. It affects men and women equally and for many sufferers onset occurs in the teenage years or in early adulthood, and is often (but not always) associated with other conditions, among these arthritis, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, liver disease, Crohn's disease and depression.
The condition presents as patches of skin which are raised up and red, dry, scaly and itchy. These can vary from just small patches of skin, often on the forearms and shins, on the stomach and on the scalp, to widespread coverage on the entire body (where it is referred to as 'erythrodermic psoriasis'). Psoriasis also affects fingernails and toenails in many sufferers, forming pits in the nails and/or discolouring them, and can also affect the joints - finger joints, wrists, elbows, knees and ankles, which become inflamed and painful. Although there are five types of psoriasis, the most common type is known as psoriasis vulgaris, which accounts for 80-90% of all cases.
Psoriasis is believed to be a genetic disorder (ie inherited) where outbreaks are set off by triggers in the environment. Around a third of sufferers have relatives who suffer or suffered from the condition and scientists have recently identified a number of genes that may be linked to psoriasis.
Triggers of psoriasis outbreaks include infections (eg tonsillitis, shingles), some medications (eg lithium, beta blockers, antimalarial and anti-inflammatory medication) and injury to the skin (referred to as the "Koebner Phenomenon"). It is also believed that sufferers who smoke may have more acute or longer lasting outbreaks.
Unfortunately there is no 'cure' for psoriasis, however there are many ways in which the symptoms of psoriasis can be treated and lives of sufferers made more comfortable. These treatments include...
- Moisturising creams (non-prescription)
- Medications and prescription creams such as coal tar based preparations, cortisone/corticosteroids, methotrexate, cyclosporin, calcipotriol, neotigason, dithranol and vitamin D
- UV light therapy (phototherapy)
- Biologic therapies


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I have long thought that Mary Coughlan has made positive use of her gender to get her way. Her macho comments as Minister for Agriculture, for example, attracted notice only because they came from a woman.
Her reaction to Charlie Flanagan's remarks in the Dáil the other day left her Freudian slip showing bright:
The Tánaiste: The company law (consolidation and reform) Bill, if anybody is interested, is huge legislation. There is ongoing work.A female opposition Deputy instantly took issue with the Tánaiste;
Deputy Charles Flanagan: It is too big for the Minister.
The Tánaiste: If the Deputy wishes to throw a condescending, sexist [my highlighting] remark across the House, that is fine. It is very much the calibre of Deputy Flanagan but I would expect more from him after all these years in the House.
Deputy Olivia Mitchell: Where was it sexist?A man criticising the professional performance of a woman is now sexist?
Game, set and match.


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Paul Weller's Live From Jodrell Bank, Cheshire gig tonight (June 24) has been cancelled due to recent adverse weather conditions.
The Modfather was expected to play the show at the observatory, which houses the third largest telescope in the world, tonight but organisers have been forced to cancel. The heavy rainfall over recent days had made the site unsafe to the public and, after conducting a site survey with a health and safety adviser, the show was deemed unfit to go ahead as planned.
In a statement, event director Jon Drape said: "Due to a month's rainfall in 24 hours across the North West the site is now unfit to accommodate the show. Despite the best efforts of our site crew and subcontractors overnight the main event arena and car parks we are unable to deliver the concert safely."
The promoters have promised that those with tickets for today's cancelled Paul Weller gig will receive a "full face value refund for any tickets purchased", and they have advised that refunds will be issued automatically in the coming days.
Ticket holders have been asked to email all enquiries to email@example.com and not contact the Jodrell Bank visitors centre. See Jodrellbanklive.co.uk for more details


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Friday, November 11, 2011
Chicken Noodle Casserole
I know I write a lot of casserole recipes but we really like a good casserole and for the most part, mine are good hee hee. This one came together while thinking about what to have for dinner last night and it turned out to be a winner. This is What's Cookin on Beaty's Creek.
5 boneless, skinless, chicken breast
2 bags of Green Giant frozen broccoli
1 can corn-drained
1 large can cream of chicken
1 can evaporated milk
Garlic Pepper
Salt and Pepper
1 bag egg noodles-cooked and drained
1 pound cheddar cheese-shredded
First, coat chicken breasts with garlic pepper, salt and pepper and brown on both sides in a well greased skillet over medium heat. Chicken will not be cooked but will be browned. Once browned, slice into strips. Meanwhile mix noodles, corn, broccoli, cream of chicken soup, and evaporated milk together, now pour this mixture into a casserole pan and place chicken on top. Sprinkle 1 pound of shredded cheddar cheese on top and cover with a lid or foil. Bake for 35 minutes at 350' or until hot and bubbly.
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By What's Cookin Stacey?? at November 11, 2011
Labels: Casseroles, Chicken, dinner ideas
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New York Reflections is Leslie's most ambitious project; the result of an intense three week visit to New York in May 2013 to observe, sketch and gather reference material. These paintings, full of colour, light and shadows are his observations and reflect a very personal view of the city. An enormous publication with 24 powerful colour plates dominating a 60 x 76 cm (22 x 30 inches) sheet. The text is made up of extracts from Jan Morris' book Manhattan '45,
"a recreation of New York in 1945 when the city stood at the pinnacle of it's cultural and economic power. Never again would the city possess the unique mixture of innocence and sophistication, romance and formality, generosity and confidence which characterized it in this moment of triumph." and sits so well with the paintings when put together.
Whittington Press kindly diverted their attention and skills to the typesetting and printing of the text in 22 point Caslon.
An edition of 70 copies, 57 x 38 cm (22 x 16 ins), 88pp including: 56pp with 26 full colour double page spreads printed on Moulin du Gue mould-made paper and 16pp of text set in 22 point Caslon, printed on heavyweight Zerkall mould-made paper.
55 copies are case bound with a cloth quarter binding in a cloth covered solander box, inlaid with full colour printed metal panels. Price £2,800.
15 copies are case bound with a leather quarter binding in a cloth covered and leather quarter bound solander box, inlaid with a full colour printed metal panel. Also included is a leather quarter bound portfolio of 10 large signed prints 57 cm x 76 cm. Price £6,500.
New York Reflections


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What is the relationship between politeness, humility and forthrightness?
As a general rule, I value all three, but… there is always a 'but'… I can't say I value them equally. I suspect most people would favor one or another, and thus give short shrift to the rest.
Depending on context, I probably would most often emphasize forthrightness. I'm definitely not for superficial politeness, although it is necessary in professional and formal situations. I'm fine with going along to get along in my everyday life, but certain things will trump that.
Maybe I find it easier to balance forthrightness with a certain kind of humility or at least self-deprecation. About many things in my life, I can be fairly lacking in secretiveness and I haven't tended to have an overabundance of pride.
Whether I'm forthright or not, it usually wouldn't be an issue of politeness as the deciding factor. But all other things being equal, I prefer basic politeness for the simple reason of not enjoying conflict.
Particular things, however, can aggravate me in such a way that I feel disinclined to back down, sometimes because of a principle and at other times because of plain irritableness. I'll (humbly) admit that my depressive personality can make me not perfectly friendly and kind more often than I'd prefer. I have a bad habit of treating people rudely who treat me rudely, especially online. I don't have much patience for trolls or for troll-like behavior. I also can't stand willful ignorance, but unwillful varieies of uninformed people don't directly annoy me.
I won't suffer fools when they force their foolishness on me. And I try not to force my personal issues onto others. No one is perfect. I'm fine with imperfection as that is the normal state of humanity. This is where my basic sense of humility comes in, humility tinged with an element of empathy. The difficlty is that not everyone shares this attitude.
I'd love to live in a world where empathy was the normal way of relating. In my experience, mutual respect more has to do with empathy than with politeness. I'd put empathy at the root of many worthy values: humility, compassion, understanding, etc. I'd also add my valuing truth in terms of basic honesty, a close cousin of forthrightness. Empathy helps one to consider honesty as it impacts others, transforming mere verbal truthfulness into a more profound sincerity.
I can't emphasize enough how closely my valuing of truth relates to my sense of empathy. I don't always overtly express my empathy, but it is always there in the background. I care about truth for very human reasons. Lies and ignorance aren't harmless things. Truth-seeking, and when necessary truth-declaring, are what gives morality force in the world, the only force that can challenge the physical kinds of force.
This is why forthrightness can matter so much, even when it might be perceived as rudeness. I will never back down when it comes to important issues of truth. It is about the only thing I will get righteous about.


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These are the words written long ago by Buran, daughter of Malik, a poor shopkeeper of Baghdad. She put them down so that her children, and their children, and their children, and all those who came after them would know of the remarkable events that had given rise to their illustrious line.
And wonder of wonders, she wrote all these words in her own hand, forming each beautiful Arabic letter with perfect precision and grace, for her father had taught her to read and write when she was very young, even though it was not the custom in her time for girls to learn such things. Read these words, then, and open your eyes wide in amazement at the marvels that Allah has wrought.
I'm not sure when I first read Seven Daughters and Seven Sons by Barbara Cohen and Bahija Lovejoy. I know I read it in 1996, around the same time I read Jurassic Park, Fahrenheit 451 and The Lord of the Flies, but I recently found a note that I'd read it a year earlier in 1995. I read it again in 1999 and 2001, but hadn't read it since then, until I re-read it for this project. So I read it at least four times before the age of 20 and while I've carried it with me from home to home, I hadn't read it as an adult.
It's impossible to really know how this book has influenced me over the course of my life, but I can easily say: quite a lot. It was first published in 1982, the year I was born, though I read the 1994 Beech Tree edition (including this latest time).
A note at the end of the book says that it's based on a folktale that "has been part of the oral tradition of Iraq since the eleventh century of the common era." I would've only known Iraq from the Gulf War, which had taken place just a few years earlier, so the opportunity to read a book like this, about a girl very different from me (one who with a different religious and cultural background, who also would've lived in a completely different time than I lived) was huge. It probably did a lot to shape my curiosity about different cultures.
Seven Daughters and Seven Sons is the story of Buran, the fourth of seven daughters. Her father Malik is known as Abu al-Banat, the father of daughters, and this is believed to be the cause of his unluckiness in business and his family's poverty. Malik's brother has seven sons and is very wealthy and arrogant. After her seven cousins are sent to far-flung cities to try their hand at business, Buran convinces her father to invest his meager savings in her and to allow her to dress as a boy and try to make her fortune. She travels via caravan from Baghdad to Tyre and in just a few years, amasses an enormous fortune, which she sends home to her family so her sisters can make good marriages and her parents can prosper. In Tyre, she befriends Mahmud, the prince, still in the guise of a man. There's a section from Mahmud's point of view as he begins to suspect the friend he knows as Nasir is actually a woman and devises tests to prove this is the case. During the last test, Buran/Nasir flees from Tyre and on her way home to Baghdad, she meets each of her male cousins, all of whom have fallen low.
Essentially, 7 D and 7 S is an adventure story with a girl protagonist. Buran is very smart and very brave and she travels all over modern day Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, making a fortune in business. While her actions go against cultural tradition, she is pious and respectful of her family. As she grows and learns, she becomes more independent and knows her own mind, and she essentially becomes the head of household. Her father defers to her judgement in business and while at first her parents urge her to marry, her father doesn't force her to. Her father is very crafty about starting the gossip that eventually brings Mahmud to Baghdad in his search for Buran (though he doesn't know her true name), telling her over and over, "How could such a thing be kept secret?"
That's one of my favorite parts actually, Buran's independence when she returns home and her partnership, of sorts, with her father as he comes to understand her intelligence and strength of character. For such a slim novel, it really covers quite a lot of ground and does some amazing character development. However, one thing I was always disappointed by, more so on the re-read, was that Buran/Nasir's success in business is mostly relayed in hindsight and from Mahmud's point of view. We don't get to see her establishing herself in Tyre and making the decisions that ultimately make her successful. It's a flaw of the story, but one that's easy to understand – the main points of the tale, especially for young readers, are first, Buran's independence and courage, and later, the romance that eventually develops between Buran and Mahmud. Plus, the wheelings and dealings that made her successful in Tyre would've made the book a lot fatter (and maybe more along the lines of the plotting and machinations in Game of Thrones, which actually sounds pretty awesome).
7 D and 7 S definitely holds up all these years later. It was a quick, entertaining and inspiring read. Both authors wrote other books, but nothing since this one. Barbara Cohen wrote a handful of children's and teen titles and died in 1992 (before the Internet got going properly, so there's very little information about her online). Bahija [Fattuhi] Lovejoy wrote three other books about Iraq and Baghdad, in the 60s and 70s. I'd dearly love to know more about how they came together to write this book, but can't find anything online.
The first thing I did when I finished this time around was try to find reference to the Iraqi folktale that the book's based on, but to no avail. I'm not the only one whose looking, though and I'm going to keep an eye out for collections of Iraqi/Arabic folktales. Shahrazad is mentioned several times, so that makes me wonder if 7 D and 7 S might not be based on one of the tales she tells in the Thousand and One/Arabian Nights. I think this is something I'm going to have to research further.
While researching about the authors and the original folktale, I found a bunch of the reviews of the book online. It was nice to see the ones from folks who have fond memories of this book from their youth, like I do. The frustrating reviews were those that compared this book (usually unfavorably!) with Disney's Mulan. Frustrating for so many reasons, including the fact that both the original folktale and 7 D and 7 S predate Mulan and also because I think it's interesting when myths, folktales and fables from different cultures resonate with each other (surely Disney's Mulan is based on a folktale – so many of the movies are). The other really annoying reviews were from folks who said that the book was inappropriate for young readers because of a) the nudity (Buran looks at her own naked body after having been disguised as a man for a while) and b) a few references to Mahmud's consorting with his father's slave girls (hate to say it, but probably appropriate to the era of the story) and c) the descriptions of how Buran/Nasir and Mahmud feel about each other (completely relevant and not at all gratuitous). We've got bigger problems in our society if female nudity (in privacy) and mild sexual feelings are considered problematic reading material. You can probably tell by now that I get really peeved about what's considered appropriate for young readers by parents and educators. Too often, the "appropriate" books are the ones that are whitewashed and sanitized and don't speak any truth at all to young readers. My reading was never censored by my parents when I was growing up and I ignored any other adults who tried to censor what I read – I feel like this, more than any other single aspect of my youth, has made me the intelligent, respectful, curious person that I am today.
Books like Seven Daughters and Seven Sons made me more socially aware and curious, inspired and entertained me. And they still do, well into my adulthood.


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Eight Michigan names invited to USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game
By @MichaelCaples –
The USHL and NHL Central Scouting have announced the rosters for the upcoming 2019 USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, and there are plenty of Michigan names invited.
Eight players with Michigan ties – including three natives – will take part in the prestigious event that serves as an annual showcase for top USHL players eligible for the upcoming NHL Draft.
This season's Top Prospects Game will take place in Lincoln, Neb., on Jan. 8, 2019.
The three homegrown invitees are Michael Feenstra, Hunter Skinner and Josh Nodler. Here's a full breakdown of the Michigan names on the rosters:
Team East
Michael Feenstra – Defenseman – Dubuque Fighting Saints – Grand Haven native, Michigan State commit
Hunter Skinner – Defenseman – Muskegon Lumberjacks – Pinckney native, Western Michigan commit
Trevor Janicke – Forward – Central Illinois Flying Aces – NTDP alum
Egor Afanasyev – Forward – Muskegon Lumberjacks – Michigan State commit
Josh Nodler – Forward – Fargo Force – Oak Park native, Michigan State commit
Keegan Karki – Goaltender – Muskegon Lumberjacks
Logan Stein – Goaltender – Waterloo Black Hawks – Oakland Jr. Grizzlies alum, Ferris State commit
Team West
Austen Swankler – Forward – Sioux Falls Stampede – Oakland Jr. Grizzlies alum, Michigan commit


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FLOWERY BRANCH — A four-game losing streak has taken the Atlanta Falcons out of the playoff picture, leaving coach Dan Quinn with what he described as the biggest challenge of his four seasons with the team.
Falcons owner Arthur Blank reaffirmed his support for Quinn following Sunday's 26-16 loss to the Baltimore Ravens.
The Falcons (4-8) already have matched the most losses in any of Quinn's first three seasons as they prepare to visit Green Bay on Sunday. Jobs could be on the line for players and assistant coaches in the final four games, but Quinn said that's nothing new.
"What I can say the focus right now is how hard we can grind to get our football over this last quarter exactly right," Quinn said, referring to the final four games. "Then, postseason we will look at everything together from personnel, players, coaches, everything just like we do all the time. That starts with me first."
Offensive coordinator Steve Sarkasian is under pressure to find fixes for an offense that has failed to reach 20 points in the four straight losses. Defensive coordinator Marquand Manuel's unit ranks near the bottom against the run and pass.
Quinn's 2015 team finished 8-8, one year before Atlanta made a surprising run to the Super Bowl and then returned to the playoff last season.
Quinn said he has challenged his team to improve its turnover ratio and stagnant running game. He also said he's looking for better effort from players.
"What I'd like to see is strong, relentless effort, both on and off the field," he said. "What do I mean when I say off the field? That's staying even tighter, connected, preparation, mindset heading into the game. All of those things I'd like to see tick up."
Blank was at the Falcons' practice facility and in the locker room on Monday. On Sunday, after attending Quinn's postgame news conference, Blank said, "I haven't lost any faith" in the coach and general manager Thomas Dimitroff.
Quinn said he appreciates Blank's support "during this time of year, especially."
"I know there are 32 teams ... and I'm aware not everyone has that type of support," Quinn said Monday. "So I appreciate having a boss like that. I know what he stands for and I love having that connection. It's very important."
Quinn's 2015 team suffered a six-game losing streak before winning two of its last three to finish .500 and establish momentum for the Super Bowl run in 2016.
This year's team has lost seven players, including some prominent leaders, to the injured reserve. The list includes running back Devonta Freeman, starting offensive guards Andy Levitre and Brandon Fusco and starting safeties Keanu Neal and Ricardo Allen. Linebacker Deion Jones returned Sunday and led the team with 15 tackles and a sack after missing 10 games with a foot injury.
Quinn has not used injuries as an excuse for the losing streak. The four straight losses, and especially the sudden decline in scoring, are signs the drain on the team's talent pool finally is too much to overcome.
Matt Ryan's 131 yards passing on Sunday set a career low for a full game.
Ryan said the team's effort was good but lack of execution was the problem.
"We need to play well," Ryan said. "At the end of the day, I think that's the most important thing is to play well, and we haven't done that."
Quinn said the missing players "have had a significant impact" in the Falcons' "style and attitude."
"We're always bummed when we don't have those players here," he said. "That is part of it, we recognize, in the game. Some years you have more than others. This happens to be one of the years we have more."


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July 6, 2015
There's a way to compromise a home network without actually being on it. It's called "cross-site request forgery." It starts by redirecting a user to a malicious website, typically by phishing.
The site uses the prey's browser to send requests to the home router. The router thinks the prey is sending the requests from the home network. "Home routers are very naive," said Incapsula's Ofer Gayer.
Most consumers pay as much attention to routers as they do to doorknobs. That's not the case with Net marauders. They're finding the devices ripe targets for mischief.
"We've seen a big increase in malware designed for home routers," said Incapsula researcher Ofer Gayer.
"Every week, we see a new vulnerability in a vendor's routers," he told TechNewsWorld. "They're low-hanging fruit if you're a hacker. They're a very soft target."
Home routers are the soft underbelly of the Internet, observed Andrew Conway, a threat researcher at Cloudmark.
"They were never designed to be high security components, and once they are installed, they are typically never updated," he told TechNewsWorld.
"Even when vulnerabilities are discovered, a vendor may not patch their firmware -- and if they do, the patches are rarely applied," Conway said.
Cross-Site Shenanigans
As soft a target as routers may be, they have been protected by a restriction on how their settings can be altered. Typically, you have to be on a network locally before you can access and change those settings. That's not always the case, though, as Incapsula recently pointed out.
Incapsula discovered one router maker had installed what was essentially a backdoor in its products to make it easier to service the routers. Unfortunately, Net miscreants discovered what the router maker had done, and they began herding many of the routers together to mount distributed denial-of-service attacks.
"Routers are strong enough today to create a pretty significant denial-of-service attack," Gayer said.
Even if your router maker doesn't put a backdoor in your router, there's a way to compromise a home network without actually being on it. It's called "cross-site request forgery."
It starts by redirecting a user to a malicious website, typically by some kind of phishing email. The site uses the prey's browser to send requests to the home router. The router thinks the prey is sending the requests from the home network.
"Home routers are very naive," Gayer explained.
Once a predator opens up the channel between the prey's browser and the router, a host of options become available.
"I can change whatever I want," Gayer noted. "I can change the DNS server. I can open a hole in the firewall. I can change the admin password." To do all that, no access to the router is needed.
"I just make you perform the requests by redirecting you," Gayer said.
Targeting Uncle Sam
Last week wasn't the best of times for federal employees. The decibel level of the furor over the Office of Personnel Management data breach continued to rise.
It didn't take long for signs to appear that Net bandits were putting the stolen data to use. For example, an Army base in Alabama warned its employees of a phishing email purporting to be from the OPM and directing targets to a website where personal information could be cajoled from them.
Meanwhile, OneWorldLabs, which monitors the Dark Net, spotted data apparently from the OPM breach for sale. If that were the case, though, it would throw cold water on the idea that the Chinese government was behind the OPM break-in, since it likely would keep the data under wraps and not be trying to sell it to cybercriminals.
Nevertheless, most of the U.S. finger-pointing has been toward Beijing.
"China would like to be in every U.S. system on some level," said Jared DeMott, principal security researcher at Bromium.
"The data the hackers stole could just be the initial phase of the attack, while moving toward more attractive targets," he told TechNewsWorld.
What makes matters worse is that there's little the United States can do about the breach, said Securonix Chief Scientist Igor Baikalov.
"First of all, the U.S. spies for 'national security advantages' just like China does -- no moral high ground for he U.S. there," he told TechNewsWorld.
"Second and most frustrating, there's not much the U.S. can do to retaliate for this attack," Baikalov said. "Economic sanctions? They're hardly applicable to the country that holds most of your national debt."


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A Tampa, Florida, police SWAT team attempting to carry out a drug search warrant shot and killed a man they said pointed a gun at them Tuesday night. Jason Joseph Westcott, 29, becomes the 19th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.
According to Bay News 9, citing police sources, the residence had been under surveillance after undercover officers bought "narcotics" there on several occasions since March. A SWAT team was used in the raid because police knew Westcott had guns in the home.
The Bay News 9 story used anodyne language to describe the raid, saying only that police "entered" the residence. It is not clear from the reporting whether this was a no-knock raid or how the police entered the residence.
Police said one man in the front of the house surrendered when the SWAT team entered, but that Westcott, who was found armed in a back room, pointed his gun and officers and was then shot.
Although police repeatedly referred to "narcotics," the only "narcotic" Westcott was accused of selling was marijuana. Police found a hydroponic marijuana grow in his home.
Westcott had no prior criminal record except for one incident of driving without a license.
Article From StoptheDrugWar.org – Creative Commons Licensing – Donate


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from gordon @ obama conspiracy theories:
i'll tell you, in all my years in law enforcement, a black man always needed more identification then anyone else. i never thought it would extend to the POTUS!
Sunday, June 28, 2009
quote of the day
Posted by aarrgghh at 4:49:00 AM
Labels: barack obama, birthers, certifigate, conspiracy theory, racism
2 comments:
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Competing at the Gunnison Tournament on Sept. 1, the Mancos High School volleyball team flashed its potential and fell just short of at least two victories while amassing a 1-3 record overall.
The first match of the day for Mancos came against Crested Butte and ended in a 25-21, 25-22 defeat. Magdalena Halls led the Bluejays in kills with seven. Morgan Rose had five kills, and Isis Jaime had four.
The Bluejays' next match of the day came against Olathe, and after playing their best volleyball of the season, Mancos walked away with a 25-23, 25-22 victory. Halls again led her team in kills with 10, and Ericka Peacock, Rose and Jaime each smashed down three point-winning shots.
In Mancos' third match of the day, the Bluejays squared off against San Juan Basin League rival Dove Creek and lost 25-16, 24-26, 15-7. Highlighting the match was a solid effort by Halls, who had a team-high eight kills. The junior was also credited with a team-high four blocks.
In their final match of the tournament, the Bluejays squared off against tournament host Gunnison and lost 25-17, 20-25, 15-8. Rose led her team with eight kills while playing a key role during Mancos' second-set victory. Halls contributed six kills, and Jaime had five.
Now 1-4 on the season, the Bluejays were scheduled for a tough road matchup against San Juan Basin League foe Ignacio, which will take place on Sept. 6.


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'Rockford Files' and other remakes - seriously?
Exactly one week from today, the broadcast networks will announce their schedules for next season and, in the process, prove that they're running out of ideas and will have to learn the hard way about history.
That's because mixed in with all the cop and doctor dramas and formulaic sitcom conceits, the industry is re-embracing this notion of "re-imagining" old series. Or, as you might remember the concept: remakes. The term "remakes" sounds like you're out of ideas, while "re-imagining" sounds like you're pumping creative new life into a time-honored brand that will stick out from the crowd and allow your promotions people a way to "incentivize" a confused public to tune in.
This is America and we shouldn't mock people who are able to sell their bosses a bill of fraudulent goods and retain their jobs while those very bosses earn "management by objective" bonus points for keeping the lid on costly new ideas that may not work.
But honestly, a remake of "The Rockford Files"? Does no one at NBC understand the concept of cool? You can't copy the cool of James Garner. And certainly not with Dermot Mulroney.
But proving, as only NBC can, that it doesn't cringe from the potential for embarrassing failure, the network is also going to remake one of television's greatest dramas and, arguably, the best female character invented, in "Prime Suspect."
That shudder you hear comes collectively from savvy viewers across the country. The shriek comes from Helen Mirren, who made Jane Tennison such a richly nuanced and powerful character. And you thought Mulroney had it hard. (Nobody has been cast as Tennison yet. NBC pushed "Prime Suspect" until June. Hopefully some time in the sun will make them reconsider.)
Slightly more plausible is CBS' remake of "Hawaii Five-O," simply because there was a lot more cheese to that one. Fun cheese, sure, but Jack Lord's hipness always came with a wink while Garner's cool was legit. And CBS owns the manufacturing plant that produces television's best procedurals (though it did botch "The Fugitive," which is something to worry about. On the other hand, it wisely gave up on trying to remake "The Streets of San Francisco" a few years ago).
Of lesser concern is ABC's idea of remaking "Charlie's Angels." The only question there is why? Is this some post-ironic notion?
The CW, which already remade "Beverly Hills 90210" (now just "90210") and "Melrose Place," certainly has no qualms about, ahem, "re-imagining" something else. And it will remake "La Femme Nikita" (dropping the "La Femme" part because it takes too long for its hyper-young audience to text, one would assume). Now that's a series that can be redone, but judging from the CW's efforts so far in this arena, it won't be something to tweet about.
TNT was rumored to be remaking "Dallas," which would cut significantly into its new-found credibility, but luckily news of this bad idea has been hard to come by in 2010.
It's too late for pretty much all the other players to rethink their plans, unfortunately. But you wonder about a cluster of short-term memory problems that seems to be plaguing the southern part of California. NBC already remade "The Bionic Woman" and "Knight Rider," so you'd think the scars would be a fresh reminder. Not to mention "Kath & Kim" and "Coupling," among others.
The network did reup "Parenthood," but that was a movie first. And it did find success with "The Office," proving miracles will keep programmers coming back to bad ideas like dreamers to lottery scratchers.
ABC might be thinking twice about green-lighting "Charlie's Angels" because "V" hasn't destroyed the Nielsens, movie-turned-TV series "Eastwick" (from "The Witches of Eastwick") was ill advised and lousy, redoing "Cupid" was a noble experiment in people not caring and then there's "Life on Mars," which is better left unmentioned (along with "L.A. Dragnet").
If you're keeping track at home, "The Rockford Files" should be a definite no; "Prime Suspect" should be an oh-dear-God no; "Hawaii Five-O" is a maybe; "Charlie's Angels" is a why bother; "La Femme Nikita" is a wish-someone-else-was-trying-this; and everything else is a murky why bother.
We'll find out in a week what flies. But perhaps the networks should try to "re-imagine" this: being original.


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Olivia Fyfe
Olivia grew up in Canberra, training at the Canberra Dance Development Centre and QL2 Dance. She was accepted into WAAPA and during her second year she undertook a six-month exchange at the Taipei National University of the Arts. Olivia has performed professionally with: Fiona Malone, Cadi McCarthy and Company, Adelina Larsson, Jamie Winbank, Stella Electrica, PVI Collective, Strange Attractor, Cathy Young and most recently Alison Plevey's Australian Dance Party.
As a Canberra based artist, Olivia enjoys performing as freelance dancer as well as teaching at QL2 Dance Canberra, Canberra Dance Development Centre and Lisa Clark Dance Centre. In the past year Olivia broadened her horizons as: Administrator for Ausdance ACT, Project Manager of Ausdance ACT Open Professional Classes, Rehearsal Manager for Youth Dance Fest; Rehearsal Assistant for QL2 and Assistant Coordinator for QL2's Meetup.


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This came up because of a question about Halloween this morning and as the daughter of a US Sheriff's Deputy, the mother of a very friendly child, a teacher of other people's children and as a citizen in this world we live in I recognize the supreme importance of this issue for parents. The question needs to be on this site!
How does one teach their children how to be "safe" out in the world in regard to interacting with strangers, without making them fearful of everyone?


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Anti-Vibration Gloves
Increase comfort when working with handheld machines with these anti-vibration gloves.
Reduce the vibration from handheld machines with anti-vibration gloves from STIHL. The palms and fingers are specially designed to absorb vibration energy, helping you stay steady throughout your workday.
Classifications: Meets anti-vibration standard ISO 10819:1996 and ANSI S2.73.
-TRm at .72 for mid-frequency range
-TRh at .55 for high-frequency range
Materials: 7-gauge knit shell, shock-absorbing material and elastic wrist
Available sizes: L, XL
|Anti-Vibration Gloves Specifications
Important Information
WARNING! Improper use of any power tool may cause serious
or fatal injury. Read, understand and follow carefully the operating
and safety instructions in your instruction manual before using such products.
STIHL products sold through U.S. STIHL Dealers are for distribution in the United States only.
STIHL Limited Warranty
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