text: When 2011 began, Osama bin Laden was still alive, U.S. troops were still fighting in Iraq, and Iran could only dream about capturing our most advanced spy drone. By the end of the year -- everything had flipped upside-down. America's shadow wars grew, as its conventional conflicts shrank. Secret tech was suddenly not so secret any more. Dictators in place for decades suddenly found themselves out of jobs, thanks in no small part to Facebook. Even the ordinarily sacrosanct Pentagon budget was suddenly under fire. It was, in retrospect, a decidedly crazy, thoroughly exhausting, and utterly exhilarating year. It's hard to imagine what more could be in store for 2012. Al-Qaida Loses, and Then Loses Some More 2011 was definitely the most dangerous year ever -- if you were an al-Qaida bigwig. Most famously, Navy SEALs finally killed Osama bin Laden in May, removing from the Earth the world's most infamous terrorist and puncturing al-Qaida's most potent symbol of resilience. It was an operation that showed off just how deadly the U.S. really is. Special operations forces paired with CIA operatives, prepped with spy satellites, and equipped with the latest stealth gear. Then, less than four months later, the U.S. proved its lethality again. An American missile strike in Yemen killed al-Qaida's chief online propagandist, Anwar al-Awlaki. No wonder al-Qaida didn't come close to bombing the U.S. at home, unlike its efforts in 2009 and 2010. Instead, it lost two of its most important figures; a treasure trove of its data; and suffered the kind of setbacks that have Washington talking about capital-V Victory. Al-Qaida looks like it's in crisis mode now. Top government officials think it's almost a spent force. Its new leader, Ayman Zawahiri, is an uncharismatic, divisive figure. The bin Laden raid gave the U.S. access to dozens of cellphones, thumb drives and computer hard drives revealing terrorist secrets. (Also, bin Laden's porn.) The costly 9/11 Era may actually soon be a relic of the past -- if, that is, we can stop being so afraid of the terrorists who got rolled in 2011. Photo: White HouseThe Arab World Routes Around Its Dictators When activists began to threaten Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak's 30-year rule, he cut off Egypt's internet, thinking he could sever the ties that bound the protest movement together. It didn't work. The Tahrir Square network did what strong networks always do: it routed around the obstruction. In the process, it showed the world the new boundaries of dissent, and how social media pushes them outward -- but doesn't drive them. For the sophisticated version of what social media did and didn't in the protests of 2011, check out our colleague Bill Wasik's WIRED magazine cover story. The short version is that Facebook, Twitter, and Blackberry Messenger groups were excellent tools for organizing surreptitiously before the protests really became a phenomenon; afterward, it became the chief medium for communicating granular, protests-eye viewpoints to the outside world -- and even remixing those messages. Tahrir Square became a DIY tech hub. But Mubarak found that trolling the square's de facto Facebook page couldn't stop the movement. That's where his traditional, low tech solutions -- arrests, even camel-borne cavalry assaults -- came in. But they weren't enough either. Mubarak was unwilling to plunge his country into an all-out civil war. Moammar Gadhafi was. No amount of tweeting could substitute for real, if impromptu, resistance. And there the Libyan revolution needed outside help. NATO went to war with Gadhafi for eight months, slamming Tomahawk missiles into his air defenses, bombing his loyalist trucks and even launching a drone campaign. It was a confused war of dubious legality. Improbably, it worked: NATO managed to end the war successfully with no casualties and no post-war occupation. Along the way, the Libyans demonstrated they could jury-rig trucks into mobile artillery launchers, fly their own spy drones, and take commands from Qatari special forces. Even after regime change in Libya, Tunisia, and Egypt, the Arab Spring doesn't look so promising now that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad is murdering his citizens. And the Obama team still overhypes social media's role in the uprisings: one of its most direct acts against Assad is to flame him on Facebook. But the Arab Spring demonstrated both the potential and the limitations for new media's role in social change, and that's why its revolutionaries are exporting those lessons to Occupy Wall Street. Photo: Flickr/MonasoshAmerica's Advanced Warplanes Catch a Cold The Air Force has bet big on its expanding fleet of robot planes and manned stealth jets. And not without reason: they maximize what's arguably the U.S.' biggest wartime advantage: its ability to snoop and strike from the sky. But 2011 was the year the flaws in one of America's major strategic assets began to show. In September, Air Force technicians discovered a computer virus in the drones' remote cockpits at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. It wasn't supposed to happen: the cockpits aren't connected to the public internet, and the removable drives that allow malware to jump from network to network have been banned for years. Worse, the virus resisted the base's efforts to scrub the malware out of the drone cockpits. Even worse than that, officers at Creech waited a whole two weeks before telling anyone off-base -- leaving the digital hygiene specialists at the 24th Air Force to learn about the malware from, um, Danger Room. The Air Force claimed that none of this was a big deal; the malware was a common piece of code – like the kind that steals the credentials of folks playing Mafia Wars. Feel better? But as bad as things got for the drones, the Air Force's manned jets had it worse. In May, the Air Force grounded its entire fleet of F-22 Raptors, the expensive stealth jet it considers the future of aerial combat. The cockpit exhibited persistent malfunctions with its oxygen systems that risked suffocating pilots. But the Air Force is so committed to the jet that it actually blamed a pilot who couldn't breathe for losing control of his Raptor. If that wasn't enough, the multi-purpose jet of the future, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, amassed 13 expensive new flaws. A jet that's already the most expensive defense program in human history isn't even safe enough for training flights -- and won't be ready to fly until 2018 at the earliest. That's enough to make anyone sick. Photo: USAFMexico's Cartels Attack Bloggers, IRL Mexico's murderous drug cartels have never taken too kindly to outsiders exposing their excesses. In 2011, though, the drug lords took things to grisly new heights. Hanging from a pedestrian overpass near the Texas border in September were the bodies of "snitches." "This will happen to all the internet snitches," a note accompanying the corpses read. All this because people blogged about Zeta cartel -- or, at least, said more about the Zetas online than the narco-killers wanted. Last year, Mexican bloggers began documenting cartel atrocities; in 2011, the cartels demanded silence. In November, a headless body turned up in Nuevo Laredo with a gruesome note: "Hi I'm 'Rascatripas' and this happened to me because I didn't understand I shouldn't post things on social network." That made four corpses in three months, all to intimidate people from talking about the cartels online. Bloggers weren't the only targets. By the end of the year, two-thirds of Mexico was considered unsafe. And while the cartels stockpiled and U.S. guns, America sent in the drones to help hunt the drug gangs. One U.S. presidential candidate even floated the idea of invading Mexico. It's hard to imagine that things with get any safer South of the Border in 2012. Especially not when bloggers calling the cartels on their excesses are being silenced. Photo: Flickr /cfraustoSecret Tech Is Dragged Into the Light You were never supposed to see the stealthy helicopter that Navy SEALs rode in on their mission to off Osama bin Laden. The advanced spy drone keeping watch over that operation (and Iran's nuclear facilities) -- that was supposed to be a secret, too. And the robotic space plane circling the planet on a classified mission? The military would prefer we stop talking about that one altogether. But a combination of loose lips, technical glitches, and a network of amateur sleuths pushed each of these supposedly clandestine projects from the black world to the white. All of which made 2011 the year that secrets died. The CIA became one hell of a bragging machine about its ostensibly-secret ops to hunt down terror targets. Previously hush-hush advances in bomb-stopping, heat-sensing, and population-monitoring technologies were revealed in these pages. Other reporters exposed the growing shadow war (complete with secret detention facility) in Somalia. WikiLeaks threw open the secret files of the terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay. The Pentagon and its pals tried to lock things down -- with decoy documents and software to spot malcontents. But not all those plans panned out. When the security firm HBGary tried to hatch a plot to kneecap WikiLeaks and its supporters, those supporters hacked HBGary - and published thousands and thousands of private documents the company that it was keeping to themselves. Score another round for the secret-spillers. Photo: ReutersThe Shadow Wars Grow This is what President Obama means when he says the "tide of war is receding." U.S. troop numbers are coming down in Afghanistan and they've zeroed out in Iraq. But all around the globe, America is escalating its Shadow Wars -- undeclared conflicts against al-Qaida, waged by spies, special operations forces and their robotic pals. It wasn't just the killings of Osama bin Laden and YouTube terror preacher Anwar al-Awlaki. Drone strikes and commando raids have migrated from Pakistan and into Yemen and Somalia. The U.S. is reportedly setting up a new drone base for striking terrorists in east Africa. And it's even started using Navy ships as impromptu, floating Gitmos, holding terror suspects for weeks without telling anyone. The White House counterterrorism team simultaneously says al-Qaida's on its last legs and it's got to prosecute these Shadow Wars forever, all the while rejecting congressional attempts to define the president's war powers. This is what "peace" looks like in the 9/11 Era: wars you never hear about -- until missiles destroy people halfway around the world. Photo: U.S. NavyCounterinsurgency Ends in Afghanistan Goodbye, counterinsurgency. The idea that protecting Afghans would turn around a faltering, decade-long war died a hard death in 2011. Afghanistan was far from a classical counterinsurgency campaign. Gen. David Petraeus seriously beefed up the air war while commandos hunted Taliban at night. Once all 30,000 U.S. surge troops were in place, they didn't just drink tea, they leveled entire (empty) villages that had been turned into bomb factories. But that was mostly in the south. As our own David Axe found during a trip out east, the areas abutting Pakistan became even more violent, with huge battles on the border, and rising tides of homemade insurgent bombs and rocket attacks. Commanders began winnowing down Afghan districts that would receive protection. The result? Violence in Afghanistan merely leveled off, rather than dropping substantially, like in Iraq. So President Obama changed course. He announced in July that the surge troops would come home by October 2012 -- hmm, just in time for a presidential election -- which means a counterinsurgency campaign in eastern Afghanistan is a nonstarter. The war there will be waged largely by drones and air assault as the remaining 68,000 troops try to consolidate their hold on the south and get Afghan troops ready to take over in 2014. The thing is, no one knows if the new plan can salvage the war, either. Photo: Flickr/AfghanistanMattersThe Pentagon's Mad Scientists Go to War We're used to the mad scientists at the Darpa preparing for the wars of 2030. But in 2011, the agency's top priorities focused on the wars of... 2011. "There is a time and a place for daydreaming. But it is not at Darpa," agency director Regina Dugan said. For an agency that spent millions of dollars on shape-shifting robots and mind-controlled limbs, that was something of a revolutionary statement. One of Darpa's most important projects is one of its most secret. Known as Nexus 7, it seeks the hidden metrics of the Afghanistan war's progress. Like for instance: the price of fruit in Jalalabad, which stabilizes when violence is predictably high or low. That's arguably an intelligence program, though, which is decidedly not what Darpa is chartered to do. But agency director Regina Dugan pushed Nexus 7 as a way for Darpa to help the Afghanistan war -- even if many serving in Afghanistan ridicule the idea that they can learn anything new from the cost of a banana. Nexus 7 grew out of Darpa's current obsession with crowdsourcing. And that obsession showed no signs of letting up in 2011. The agency turned to us great unwashed to come up with new spy drone designs. Dugan even showed off Darpa's crowdsourced armored car to President Obama. Meanwhile, Darpa is looking to appeal to a very different crowd: the hackers who have traditionally shied away from government work. The agency introduced a crash program to approve cash for computer security research in a week. Dugan waxed poetic in a "cyber colloquium" meant to appeal to the hacker-minded. Darpa is getting more than a half-billion dollars to fight what many believe to be the Pentagon's most pressing security issue of today: its porous network defenses; somebody with clue out to get that cash. Darpa didn't totally take its eyes off of the future, of course. The agency is funding a robotic ostrich that'll outrun Usain Bolt, taking ideas for the starship of the 22nd Century, searching for life's master clock, and trying to recruit your dog as an oh-so-very "unconventional warfighter." And then there was the Mach 20 missile it fired over the Pacific. It remains to be seen when Darpa's efforts will bear, er, fruit. But Dugan's ended the days of her researchers focusing solely on the long-term. Still, there's at least one moment from 2011 Dugan wants to leave in the past: she's owed money by one of Darpa's contractors -- which just so happens to be her family company. Photo: U.S. Air ForceFBI Trainers Compare Islam to the Death Star Last year, anti-Islam zealots protested in Lower Manhattan against the "Ground Zero Mosque," warning that Muslims were trying to conquer America. Not many actual counterterrorism scholars took them seriously; those who did warned they would harm counterterrorism. Problem was: they had a foothold into the FBI, the Justice Department and the military. One of leaders of the "Ground Zero Mosque" protest, Robert Spencer, lectured before FBI audiences and had his anti-Islam tomes grace the bookshelves at the FBI's training academy at Quantico. Another, FBI counterterrorism analyst William Gawthrop, taught agents at Quantico that "mainstream" Muslims were violent and the Prophet Muhammad was a "cult" leader. He told an FBI partnership in New York that al-Qaida was "irrelevant" compared to the overall threat from Islam, which he compared to the Galactic Empire's Death Star mega-weapon. Little wonder that the FBI also thinks fans of the Insane Clown Posse are a violent gang. It wasn't just the two of them, nor was the problem limited to the FBI. Gawthrop lectured before military intelligence audiences and taught veterans at an online college. Similar messages turned up at the U.S. Army's brain trust at Fort Leavenworth and in a U.S. Attorney's office in Pennsylvania. Hawkish Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) condemned the training; Attorney General Eric Holder testified that it harmed U.S. counterterrorism efforts. The FBI even brought in the Army's real counterterrorism experts from West Point to revamp its training. And in October, the White House ordered the entire federal government to purge the anti-Islam material and raise its standards for imparting counterterrorism expertise. If it's serious, the Islamophobes will be stuck yelling on street corners by the spring. Image: Slide from a presentation by Justice Department intelligence analyst John MarshThe Military Freaks Out Over Budget Cuts Officers don't rise high in the military by losing their cool. But it turns out there's an easy way to make a four-star flip his lid: just tell him that his budget is getting cut. "We won't be able to meet the global force management plan," warned the Navy chief, Adm. Jonathan Greenert. The second in command of the Air Force worries that the military can't afford its new plan for joint aerial-naval war. And all these nightmares come true if the U.S. military... goes back to its 2007 budget. The U.S. spent $6 trillion on defense since 9/11. If the military budget stays flat, it'll spend another $5 trillion over ten years. But the U.S. is deeply in debt to China and is trying to close a yawning federal deficit. One idea in Congress was to slash over $600 billion out of defense by 2022 if lawmakers couldn't agree on a big deficit reduction deal. They couldn't. Out comes the whining. Some advanced weaponry and research programs will almost certainly take a hit if the budget crunch continues; you can probably kiss your super-lasers goodbye. And pressure will likely mount to rein in the biggest Pentagon weapons-program of them all: the trillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter. But Ragnarok this is not. The defense industry may (dubiously) claim that the economy will screech to a halt if it doesn't get its government cash. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta sputters that we're gonna get nuked. The biggest cuts proposed would merely reduce defense spending to its 2007 levels, however. Now Panetta has agreed to lock in the defense cuts, expect the four-star hysteria to intensify next year. Photo: DVIDSHUBThe Iraq War Goes Mercenary The Iraq war ended this month. All U.S. troops have now come home after eight and a half bloody years in Baghdad. But that finality comes with a big asterisk: a hired army is staying behind. Up to 5,500 mercenaries will guard fortress-like U.S. embassies and the diplomats who work there. They'll work for the State Department, which proved unable to control a much smaller component of security contractors in the past, when they killed 17 Iraqis in one of the worst debacles of the war. Starting right now, the guards -- from firms SOC Inc., Triple Canopy and Global Strategies Group -- will do everything from convoy security to airborne medical evacuation to search and rescue. And the State Department has blocked nearly all oversight into how they'll operate, including when they can open fire on Iraqis. All that seems like gasoline near a fire that most Americans think is extinguished. And if that isn't enough, Iran has agents in Iraq who'd love to introduce flame to fuel -- and get Iraqis outraged over U.S. hired guns all over again. Photo: Wikimedia Commons


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© ® The Nobel Foundation
IPCC honoured with
2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Phone: +41-22-730-8208 /84/54
Figure 3.6. Examples of impacts associated with global average temperature change. Upper panel: Illustrative examples of global impacts projected for climate changes (and sea level and atmospheric CO2 where relevant) associated with different amounts of increase in global average surface temperature in the 21st century. The black lines link impacts; broken-line arrows indicate impacts continuing with increasing temperature. Entries are placed so that the left-hand side of text indicates the approximate level of warming that is associated with the onset of a given impact. Quantitative entries for water scarcity and flooding represent the additional impacts of climate change relative to the conditions projected across the range of SRES scenarios A1FI, A2, B1 and B2. Adaptation to climate change is not included in these estimations. Confidence levels for all statements are high. The upper right panel gives the WG II references for the statements made in the upper left panel.* Lower panel: Dots and bars indicate the best estimate and likely ranges of warming assessed for the six SRES marker scenarios for 2090-2099 relative to 1980-1999. {WGI Figure SPM.5, 10.7; WGII Figure SPM.2; WGIII Table TS.2, Table 3.10}
*Where ES = Executive Summary, T = Table, B = Box and F = Figure. Thus B4.5 indicates Box 4.5 in Chapter 4 and 3.5.1 indicates Section 3.5.1 in Chapter 3.

subset: commoncrawl


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Recall issued of Drakes Bay Oyster Company oysters
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California health officials are warning people not to eat oysters from a Northern California company because they may be contaminated with bacteria that can make people sick.
In announcing the recall of shucked and in-shell raw oysters from Drakes Bay Oyster Co., the California Department of Public Health said the oysters may be contaminated with Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a bacteria that can cause vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, headache, fever and chills.
Health officials said most people who get sick from the bacteria recover without treatment in a few days, but severe illness can occur in people suffering from chronic liver disease, cancer, or other conditions that weaken the immune system.
A statement from the Inverness-based company said it initiated a voluntary recall after being notified by state health officials that three illnesses had been linked to its oysters.
The shucked oysters are packaged under the Drakes Bay Oyster Farm label and sold in 9 ounce, 1-pint, 1-quart and half-gallon jars or tubs.
The affected shucked products are labeled with lot numbers 363 through 421. The lot number can be found on the top label of each jar or tub. The in-shell raw oysters are sold individually or in bags ranging in size from 1 dozen to 10 dozen. In-shell raw oyster tags are marked with harvest dates ranging from July 17, 2012, through Aug. 8, 2012.
News from The Associated Press, and a taste of the great journalism produced by AP members and customers. Managed 24/7 by these editors: apne.ws/APSocial Read more ›


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Opinionated Chef/Restaurateur White and Panel of Judges Will Put Eight Couples Through Weekly Elimination Challenges Until One Winning Pair Realizes Their Lifelong Dream Of Opening Their Own Chic Manhattan Restaurant
BURBANK - March 18, 2008 - NBC will feature celebrated chef and restaurateur Marco Pierre White (UK's "Hell's Kitchen") in a new original cooking competition series "The Chopping Block," in which the British Michelin star chef will offer neophyte hopeful chefs/restaurateurs working in couples a chance to compete in America's greatest restaurant challenge for their chance to open their own Manhattan restaurant. The series is being produced for NBC by Granada America.
The announcement was made today by Craig Plestis, Executive Vice President, Alternative Programming, Development and Specials, NBC Entertainment.
"Everyone flirts with the idea of what it would be like to own their own restaurant," said Plestis. "Our series will expose all of the unseen pitfalls, the behind-the-scenes madness and utter exhaustion that accompanies the passion, art and business of a new restaurant all under Marco's watchful and critical eye. In the end, one couple will be totally thrilled - but their real challenge will have just begun."
Dawn Airey, ITV's Managing Director of Global Content added: "We are delighted to be partnering with NBC on this dynamic new series. This is a perfect example of how a global content business should work. We have married some outstanding UK talent, nurtured by Natalka Znak of ITV Productions in UK and our own network, with an original format created by David Barbour and Julian Cress of our Los Angeles based office, Granada America, to create what I am sure will be a globally successful format."
The eight couples chosen to participate will arrive in Manhattan hoping to fulfill a single dream - to open their own quality restaurant. The controversial and unpredictable White represents their best chance as one of the world's most notable chefs and restaurateurs.
"I am lucky enough to have realized my dream and I will never achieve anything greater than 3 stars Michelin," said White. "What excites me today is creating opportunities for others to fulfill their dreams and visions. The great thing about 'The Chopping Block' is that it gives couples this amazing opportunity to change their lives forever and the interesting bit for me is seeing who appreciates this and takes full advantage of it."
The heat is on when White ushers the couples - split into two teams of four couples each - to two empty restaurant spaces, side-by-side, in the middle of Manhattan. There, they are afforded less than a week to accomplish a multitude of tasks, including: a design and makeover of the space, planning a menu and generating buzz-worthy publicity to ensure a crowd. Both establishments will open at the same time and will be competing for the same customers each night - as well as against 26,000 other restaurants in the world's busiest (and hungriest) city.
A panel of judges will be assigned to observe the chaos that inevitably unfolds on opening night. The next morning, after the dust has settled, White will return with the reviews. The worst-performing restaurant's operators will have to plead their case - because one couple will be sent packing.
Subsequent episodes will test the remaining contestants on their restaurant and culinary skills, such as concocting a signature dish, preparing freshly killed game, handling a wedding reception and how savvy they are with four of the world's classic cuisines - French, Asian, Italian and Mediterranean. Ultimately, each episode concludes as the weary wannabe chefs face the critics - and Chef White. One couple per week will be asked to turn in their aprons and go home.
The challenges grow more intense until the grand finale where one couple will make a lasting impression that will allow them to realize their lifelong dream and open their own chic Manhattan restaurant.
Born in Leeds, UK in 1961 the son of a local chef and Italian mother, White trained with Michael Lawson, Albert Roux, Nico Landenis, Pierre Koffmann and Raymond Blanc before opening the restaurant that won him two Michelin stars, Harveys. He then went on to win three stars at the Hyde Park Hotel and the final accolade was to keep these stars and win five red knives and forks - the ultimate accolade for in dining service and the only restaurant in Britain to be granted this honor, at The Oak Room. His restaurants in the UK included The Canteen, Mirabelle, Quo Vadis, Criterion, Marco Pierre White at the Hyde Park Hotel and The Oak Room.
He inspired a generation of super star chefs including Gordon Ramsay, Mario Batali and Heston Blumenthal and made it his mission to raise standards of cooking and service.
White retired from the kitchen in 1999 and handed back his three Michelin stars. He was persuaded to go back into the kitchen by ITV Productions for series three of the UK's hit reality show "Hell's Kitchen" and proved that his fiery passion was still burning brightly.
"The Chopping Block" is produced by Granada America. David Barbour and Julian Cress are the executive producers.


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August 4, 2010
A WHO publication of the Expert Consensus Meeting Group Report advises adding fluoride in the water-supply for specific segments of the population.
The "consensus" reached among the "experts" reads, that higher income groups often already consume enough fluoride for their purposes, which- by the way- has decidedly nothing to do with some dental battle against tooth decay.
"For example", we can read in the report, "in countries such as those in Scandinavia, where public dental awareness is very high and alternative vehicles for fluoride (e.g. fluoridated toothpaste) are widely available and widely used, a decision to not fluoridate the water, or remove fluoride, or to supply drinking water with suboptimal levels of fluoride would likely be of little consequence.
The report continues with the statement that for segments of the population which do not have wide access to fluoridated toothpaste, the WHO would me more than willing to dump trace amounts of it into the water-supply, free of charge:
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
- {openx:49}
This idea perfectly coincides with the ruling guidelines of the WHO Oral Health Programme, which include a "particular focus" on "the disadvantaged and under-served population groups.":
Furthermore, the WHO's Guidelines for drinking water quality states:
"In setting national standards for fluoride or in evaluating the possible health consequences of exposure to fluoride, it is essential to consider the intake of water by the population of interest and the intake of fluoride from other sources (e.g., from food, air and dental preparations)."
Dr.Richard Shames, graduated Harvard and University of Pennsylvania, after in-depth research into the effects of Fluoride on the human biological system, noted:
"(…) the Nazi concentration camps used fluoridated water to suppress the will and vigor of inmates. This appears to have been during the 1930s and was the first known example of fluoridated water supplies for a specific population."
Fluoride, in whatever amount, is nothing less than a chemical weapon. Considering it is applied to entire populations or certain groups within a population, the definition reads: chemical warfare.
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Wow, Margaret Sanger would be blisteringly disappointed by the news. Almost one hundred years after she started her life's work educating women about pregnancy and birth control, a recent study has uncovered significant gaps in the knowledge of 18-20-year-olds.
The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy surveyed 1,800 young people between the ages of 18 and 20. They discovered that knowledge of birth control was startlingly limited. 63 percent of study respondents chose "little" or "nothing" to describe their knowledge about birth control pills, and 30 percent made the same response in reference to their knowledge about condoms.
They also discovered a shocking disconnect between desire to plan pregnancy, and regular use of contraception. Although 94 percent of men and 84 percent of women responded in the survey that they think pregnancy should be planned, and although 86 percent of men and 88 percent of women responded that they are at a point in their lives where it is important to avoid pregnancy, only about half of all sexually active and unmarried respondents reported using birth control on a regular basis. Over the previous three months, 24 percent used it inconsistently, and 19 percent didn't use any at all.
In addition to this information, the survey discovered that a lot young people count on incorrect information to help them prevent pregnancy. For example, 28 percent of men thought that doubling up on condoms would be more protective, when this practice actually increases the chance of condom breakage. And 18 percent of men thought having sex standing up could help prevent pregnancy (!) – an utterly false idea.
All of this could certainly help explain our country's high unplanned pregnancy rate. Per the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), half of all pregnancies – about three million a year – are unplanned. That rate goes up among unmarried women ages 20-24, among whom 60 percent of pregnancies are unplanned. These are truly unplanned pregnancies – as opposed to "mistimed." A mistimed pregnancy is one that is desired, but occurred earlier than intended. An unplanned pregnancy is one that was never intended.
While there are certainly many families that have welcomed unplanned babies into their lives, and helped those babies grow and thrive, unplanned pregnancies increase the risk of all kinds of things, including:
• Increased likelihood of single-mother families
• Greater likelihood that mother will not obtain high school diploma
• Decreased chance of appropriate prenatal care during pregnancy
• Increased use of alcohol and tobacco by mother during pregnancy
• Complications for the baby, including: Low birthweight, Prematurity, Learning difficulties
The CDC has been working towards a goal of dropping the rate of unplanned pregnancy to 30 percent by 2010 (which seems pretty unlikely, given the results of this recent survey). But given the serious health and social consequences of this rate remaining high, it'd be a great national New Year's resolution. . ..Margaret Sanger would surely approve.
Important: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and not Everyday Health.


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The Central Connecticut softball team rebounded in game two of a doubleheader against Robert Morris in Moon Township, PA on Saturday. CCSU dropped game one by a score of 2-1 before taking game two 2-1. Central's record moves to 23-14 overall with the split, 9-5 NEC while Robert Morris is now 22-21 (5-7 NEC).
Sophomore Eileen Purcell scored the only run for CCSU in game one on her second homer of the season in the bottom of the second inning. In game two, pinch runner Brittany Ernst was driven in by freshman Alexis Debrosse for the winning run in the top of the fifth.
Junior Laura Messina (19-11) registered her 200th strikeout of the season in game one, posting six before adding five more in game two. She pitched both games for CCSU, allowing just seven hits in 49 at bats. Messina did not walk a single batter throughout both games.
Game #1
In the top of the second, Purcell stepped to the plate with two outs on the board to send a shot over the left center wall, scoring the lone run for the Blue Devils.
The Colonials responded in the bottom of the fifth with a two-run homer from Kristen Gabelt to give RMU the win.
Central tallied three hits on the day, one each from Purcell, junior Kat Malcolm and senior Arielle Bruno. Robert Morris totaled four hits and RMU pitcher Nicole Sleith earned nine strikeouts en route to her 14th win of the season, compared to six for Messina.
Game #2
Central kicked off game two in similar fashion, registering the first run of the game in the top of the second inning.
Purcell led off the inning with a march to first after getting hit by Sleith in the batter's box before advancing to second on a sacrifice bunt by Malcolm. A single up the middle from freshman Sarah Drazin brought Purcell across the plate to give CCSU the 1-0 lead.
The Blue Devils increased the lead to two in the top of the fifth when Debrosse, who reached first on a fielder's choice, drove in Ernst. Ernst pinch ran for sophomore Hannah Cooper, who reached base on a walk.
The Colonials threatened a comeback in the bottom of the seventh, plating an unearned run with just one out. Messina responded with back-to-back strikeouts to close the inning and seal the win for Central.
The Blue Devils posted five hits in 24 at bats compared to three hits in 26 for the Colonials. RMU pitcher Sleith struck out nine CCSU batters compared to five for Messina.
Drazin led the Blue Devil offense going 2-for-3 at the plate with one RBI. Purcell, senior Tessa Brown and junior Ashley Black also notched a hit in game two.
CCSU is scheduled to return to action this Wednesday, April 23, for a doubleheader at UMass-Lowell before returning home to complete conference play against Mount St. Mary's on Sunday, April 27.


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We will be meeting at our regular hangout, Khon's Wine Darts And Coffee located at 2808 Milam.
There's plenty of free parking and Khon's offers a great beer and wine selection with many dining options nearby.
The event starts around 7:30 and goes until ?
You don't have to be a geek to attend. Heck, you don't even have to be a current listener of the show. This event is a casual meet-up for anyone interested in technology or social media in all its forms and a great opportunity to just hang out with like minded individuals.
There is no need to RSVP, but if you have a Facebook account you can let us know you're coming at the Facebook Event Page
We hope to see you there!
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Raymond James' goal, says CEO Paul Reilly, is to be the "premier alternative to Wall Street."
The advisors in its Private Client Group represent two-thirds of the parent company's revenue, or 62%, even after factoring in the recent acquisition of Morgan Keegan. But its values, notably how RJ puts its client-advisors first, and its "integrity," meaning its independence, are what sets Raymond James apart from its independent broker-dealer counterparts and the wirehouses, Reilly says.
The importance of advisors to the firm, Reilly said Wednesday, is demonstrated by how its revenue-from-advisors number compares with several of those wirehouses; the private client group at Wells Fargo accounts for only 14% of total firm revenue, while Merrill Lynch's advisors account for 16% of Bank of America's revenue.
Speaking at a media roundtable during the annual Raymond James Financial Services national conference for professional development in Orlando, Reilly also expressed satisfaction with its technology platform for advisors, saying that now it was benchmarking its tech offerings to Schwab and Fidelity in addition to wirehouse firms. He said that when he became CEO of Raymond James, he hired two outside consulting firms to evaluate its technology offerings; they found it already superior to its competitors, but since then he's added staff to the technology team, noting that "we didn't replace people."
As for recruiting, he said that Raymond James had seen more movement to its employee-based advisor channel—one of five channels in the Raymond James Private Client Group. Growth in each channel, he said, "varies with the times" and the performance of the markets, and he suggested that part of the industrywide move toward an RIA model was attributable to "regulatory arbitrage." Visits to Raymond James' St. Petersburg home office—a requirement for prospective advisors so both sides can judge the cultural fit—have risen to nearly the levels of 2008-2009, Reilly reported. While Raymond James does pay bonuses—or "transition assistance," as he called them—he said the firm does so at an "economically feasible level" that is lower than some competitors, but said representatives who do join "make it up" through Raymond James' higher payout levels.
Those advisors who do join Raymond James, he said, do so because of the culture, such as the Morgan Keegan reps, who found themselves very comfortable with the similar corporate culture at RJ. Those coming from wirehouses, he said, were fleeing a more bureaucratic, product- and process-oriented culture for the more "advisor-oriented" atmosphere that prevails at Raymond James.


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Troy police searching for missing mentally disabled man
Troy police are searching for a mentally disabled 73-year-old man after he walked away from a home on Hamlet Drive at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, southwest of the intersection of Ryan Road and 18 Mile Road.
Jon Lawrence Vieux, a white male, is 6 feet tall and about 160 pounds, and was last seen wearing prescription eyeglasses, a vintage-looking black-and-red checkered hunting jacket, blue jeans and white tennis shoes.
Vieux lives in New York and is visiting family for Thanksgiving. He is unfamiliar with the area and on medication for diabetes, a heart condition and high blood pressure, police said in a Thursday night statement.
Vieux "can communicate, however, (he) has a hard time understanding his location or directions," the statement said.
Anyone with information about Vieux's whereabouts is asked to call 248-524-3477.
Contact staff writer Dustin Blitchok at 248-745-4685 or firstname.lastname@example.com. Follow him on Twitter @SincerelyDustin


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There are not enough words to describe how good this former housewife is at pulling off Chairman Mao.
These days, Chen Yan makes her living impersonating Mao Zedong. According to the mainland People magazine (via South China Morning Post), the 57 year-old Chen is one of a handful Mao impersonators in the country. Due to the political climate, this sort of thing is viewed with reservation by some.
As a child, Chen was taunted because of her resemblance to the Chinese leader. It was something that apparently still scarred her into middle age.
In 2006, however, she decided to appear on a Chinese television show. From then, she's been working as a Mao Zedong impersonator.
During her appearances, she does not talk. And while she pulls off an amazing Mao, this iFeng photo shows she must wear special shoes to compensate for her short stature.
As SCMP points out, Chen earns the equivalent of over ten thousand dollars per appearance.
Worth every penny.
Housewife turns Mao Zedong impersonator [SCMP]
毛泽东女性扮演者 [iFeng]
Photos: iFeng
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.
Kotaku East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.


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After the server crash it turned out the backups made were unusable to restore the database.
At first I could find a backup file of 2009, which made it to the first recovery, but I kept on digging thru old drives,
and found one of 2014
This one could 'simply' be over written over the 'newly' setup 2009 forums and voila a less old mess now
***runs back, and scrolls thru the game-servers backup on the same disk****
Extremely sorry for this mess, setting up a new backup strategy with more afterwards control on the backup.
Server Crash, loss of posts
Announcements and News
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My friend Tami Wall graced me with this simple and yummy recipe. (You can also thank Tami for the Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars in The Joy of Vegan Baking.)
- Yield
- 12 cookies, or 6 servings
- 1 tablespoon (7 g) ground flaxseed (equivalent of 1 egg)
- 3 tablespoons (45 ml) water
- 3/4 cup (170 g) nondairy, nonhydrogenated butter (such as Earth Balance)
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cups (155 g) whole-wheat pastry flour
- 1/3 cup (40 g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder (look for aluminum-free)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (175 g) nondairy semisweet chocolate or peanut butter chips (Tami clearly loves this combination)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C, or gas mark 4). In a food processor or blender, whip flaxseed and water together until mixture reaches a thick and creamy, almost gelatinous consistency. Set aside.
- In a large-size bowl, mix butter and sugar until creamy. Add "flax egg" and vanilla.
- In a separate bowl, blend flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add this dry mixture to the wet mixture, and mix until everything is well blended. If you need a little extra moisture, add a small amount of water or nondairy milk.
- Stir in chips. Form balls and flatten slightly on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes, until the tops are no longer gooey.
Compassionate Cooks' Tip
My preferred method for forming uniform-size cookies is to scoop the cookie dough with a tablespoon (measuring spoon), and then pop it out onto the cookie sheet. Do this until all the dough is used and youll get the same-size cookies.
Per serving: 288 calories; 16g fat; 2g protein; 37g carbohydrate; 4g dietary fiber; 0mg cholesterol; 120mg sodium.
Nutritional analysis provided by The Vegan Table
From The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Text copyright © 2009 by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau. Food photography by Glenn Scott Photography. Used by permission of Fair Wind Press.


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Space/Time Conflibulation
The First Flight High School Wikipedia Article War is an ongoing war between editors of the First Flight High School wikipedia article. First Flight High School is an article on Wikipedia that many people are fighting over and ha brought international attention. There are 3 main sides and many belligerents but some belligerents are unclear. There are the REgular ediTORS, or RETORS, who are originally neutral, but get annoyed but the other 2 sides and may sometimes fight against them. There are also Vandlizers, Internet gamers, and Testers, or VIP who want to make the article funny, or just want to add information they think is helpful. The most powerful side are the Administrators And Similar, or ASS. They just try to make the article as decoative as possible but do not really help. The war has been going on for over a year but it is not dnagerous. Although some people has difigured fingurnales from stressing over getting as many of there edits as possible saved before they are reverted or undone because that would be bad for there cause and they would not win and it would make them even more pressed for time, which would stress them out even more wwhich would start the cycle over again creating a vicous cycle that never ends, whch is why this is still going on and as some say will not end in theire liftim.
The conflict of this war has spread to related articles.
The colossal grasshopper once said: Those that cannot understand the Space/Time Conflibulation will burn in hell... At the time people were frightened, for parrots don't usually speak russian. But as time has gone on we now realise what he meant: Those that cannot understand the Space/Time Conflibulation will burn in hell... Simple
What is the Space/Time Conflibulation?[edit]
The Space/Time Conflibulation is the amount of space that conflibulates time throughout the universe at any given point in time. In other words: The juxtoposition of conflibulation throughout space. It has been condensed into this simple formula:
Who founded the Space/Time Conflibulation?[edit]
How on earth can you 'found' a Space/Time Conflibulation. That doesn't even make sense. And neither do I? But seriously. Do I?
What are the uses of the Space/Time Conflibulation?[edit]
There are many uses, some of which follow, others lead...
- The construction of pancake matter
- The discombobulation of unabtrusive tones
- Butterflies
- Pretending to be really smart by using the term even if you don't know what it means
- Pretending to be really smart by using the term even if you do know what it means
- Time travel
- Cats
- Dogs
- Hair loss treatment
- Hair gain treatment
- Graveyards
Is Conflibulation even a word?[edit]
Look, even if conflibulation isn't a word, it still does the job, OK?. All the stupid people that have asked themselves this question obviously haven't read the above misinformation. If you have read it and actually understood it then you would know that it is the key to the universe. If you read it and overstood it (as opposed to understood) then may god have mercy on you soul...
How to make a great youtube account[edit]
1. Make sure that your turned on 2. Oh yeah your mom too 3. Wait this is supposed to be on the heidi klum page whoops
That still doesn't answer my question[edit]
Scientists believe that 11 out of 1 people should be able to understand the Space/Time Conflibulation in a matter of 3 seconds. 1...2...3... Are you one of those 11 or one of those 1? Scientists also believe that they conducted this servey on elephants...


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PRINCETON, N.J. — Perhaps without us ever noticing, the moment inevitably comes when we suddenly realize we're older than everyone else in the room.
Brian Ching's realization came this week here at the US camp. Suddenly the Houston Dynamo forward—an MLS fixture since 2003—saw 20-year-old kids not just gawking from the quad, but also donning the US jersey and climbing aboard the team bus.
"It's a lot younger than the last time I was here," the 31-year-old Ching said. "I'm the oldest field player out here now. I just realized that the other day."
It wasn't always this way. When Ching made the 2006 World Cup squad, he was 27, and incredibly fresh-faced by the standards of a team much grayer at the temples. Claudio Reyna and Eddie Pope were in the twilights of their career, and Brian McBride was a father with sights on a leafy suburban life.
But Ching never saw a minute of the Americans' ill-fated run in 2006 in Germany. He stayed firmly rooted to Bruce Arena's bench in favor of McBride and Landon Donovan, and Eddie Johnson (then just 22 years old, now 26 and back in camp) earned the coach's favor off the bench.
For his part, Ching was openly frustrated after Germany. The Dynamo won their first-ever MLS Cup that fall, but even during the middle of the team's 2007 run to another league crown Ching still lamented Arena's decision, and quietly set his calendar for 2010 and a redemption run in South Africa.
The media instinctively flocked this week to 20-year-old Jozy Altidore or the wide-eyed players of the moment like Edson Buddle or Herculez Gomez. Ching got off easy. No one's talking to an MLS regular who had a bum hamstring two months ago and never cracked the lineup in Germany.
That's almost beneficial for Ching, who has quietly amassed more caps than any other true forward on the team (44) and is trying to lay siege on the expected starting lineup.
"I don't think anyone's position is truly set," Ching said. "You look at Jozy, yeah, but he hasn't played in a while. I still think it's all up for grabs, and it's healthy competition. For me, I just try to stick to what I do best, and hopefully stick the ball in the back of the net."
Ching asserted that despite a hamstring injury that buckled him to the turf during a match on April 1, he's healthy and fit. It's tough to predict if he's earned his spot on the 23-man roster from US coach Bob Bradley for time already served, or if the team expects more from a veteran who's traveled this route before.
But Bradley this week praised Ching during expected questioning about the stable of forwards, where style and speed clash and no one other than Altidore seems to be safe.
"Brian Ching's been out injured, but still if you look at his impact over the last few years he's a guy as a forward brings the kind of qualities of holding balls under pressure, drawing fouls and bringing guys into the game," Bradley said. "We recognize that part of his game."
Expect Ching to see valuable time in the team's friendly against the Czech Republic on Tuesday in East Hartford, Conn., but don't try to predict what it will mean. Like most players on this team, Ching is unsure of how many minutes he'll see, how Bradley will position his side or when the call will come that either delivers a ticket to South Africa or a ticket home.
"I'll get on the field at some point," Ching said. "You get your opportunity, you gotta take advantage of it."


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Senator John McCain may be from Arizona, but the former presidential candidate is representing for the "Jersey Shore."
"U r right, I would never tax your tanning bed!," the Republican congressman Tweeted at Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi" on Wednesday. "Pres Obama's tax/spend policy is quite The Situation. but I do rec wearing sunscreen!"
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The 'Jersey Shore' Cast Hits Miami
U.S. & World
Snooki has previously criticized a tax included as part of President Obama's healthcare bill that will impose a 10 percent tax on indoor tanning services, saying in a promo for the second season of "Jersey Shore" that the toned, tan stars felt personally targeted by the tax.
Tanning is fundamental to the "Jersey Shore" stars, who famously include it as part of their daily "Gym, Tan, Laundry" regimen.
Obama himself singled out the "Jersey Shore" stars in his White House Correspondents' Dinner speech earlier this year – joking that Snooki and her fellow self-described guidos would not, in fact, be subject to the tax.
"The following individuals will be excluded from the indoor tanning tax within this bill," he joked at the time. "Snooki, J-WOWW, the Situation and House minority leader John Boehner."
"Jersey Shore" season 2 premieres on July 29 on MTV.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Tanorexic Celebs: Stars Who Shine Bright
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Related Content from AccessHollywood.com:
VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Situation's Abs In Action
PLAY IT NOW: 2010 Grammy Red Carpet: Snooki - 'The Situation' Is 'So Sexy'
PLAY IT NOW: Inside The 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner
More from Access: [ John McCain 'Jersey Shore' Barack Obama ]


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12 Billion Local Business Searches. Do Yellow Pages Still Matter? – a good summary of a report given by TMP at SES on the complexity of customer behavior when using the internet to look for local goods.
Measuring Local Search by Brian Wool. An overview of some of the choices in attempting to measure local search outcomes and results.Local Links of interest by Mike Blumenthal


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WWE's Party Boy Adam Rose Talks Title Picture, Advice from Triple H
The beauty of professional wrestling is that there's something for everyone.
There's the big musclebound herculean type, the pretty boy, the rebel (lots of them), the mercenary, the good guys, the bad guys, and then there's Adam Rose.
The lollipop-licking party boy with a psychedelic entrance who sashays to the ring before falling backwards off the second rope into the waiting arms of trippy groupies has gained quite a following since debuting in WWE. Perhaps it's his own party bus, The Exotic Express, that caught the attention of fans shortly after WrestleMania.
True to character, Rose confirmed he actually does travel to some events in the bus and describes every second of his time thus far in WWE as "lovely."
But don't let his fun-loving persona fool you. The South African-born Rose is cut from solid wrestling stock and has been tangling inside the squared circle since he was just 15 years old.
Rose credits Triple H with giving him the best advice he's ever received.
"This is a marathon not a sprint. And legends are made through the marathon," he was told.
Check out 7 Things You Didn't Know About WWE Party Boy Adam Rose.
Ironically, he cut his teeth with another budding teenage grappler from South Africa, Justin Gabriel, whom he would be reunited with many years later in WWE.
The pair will rekindle their feud during WWE's live event Sunday in Dallas. Rose is also scheduled to be in action Monday in Houston for RAW and Tuesday in Corpus Christi for SmackDown.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Rose ahead of his match against Gabriel.
Here's what we touched on:
- Whether he actually travels in the Exotic Express
- His feeling when he learned he was being called up to the main roster
- Whether he'll be wrestling at SummerSlam
- How he'd like to evolve his character
- Differences between wrestling in NXT and WWE
- Whether he can win the title as a party boy
- South African rivalry with Justin Gabriel
- Whether he'll be in WWE2K15
- Sting wrestling in WWE
- Advice from Triple H
You can listen to the entire interview at the top of the page, but below are a few highlights to whet your appetite.
Wrestling at SummerSlam
I can say this… SummerSlam is the biggest party of the summer. And who better than Adam Rose, the party guru himself, to be there to make that an official party, an Adam Rose party, and make it exotic? I think I need to be there.
Whether "Fun" Characters Can Be World Champions
I think that either way this could happen down the line. I don't like the fact we box ourselves in all the time. Everyone is always boxing themselves in to their boxes and saying 'Oh, this is how things are traditionally done.' And yeah, there's a box for that and a box for this. Everything is a mold and molds are made to be broken. I think it's just a matter of having a little open-minded thinking as to what the future holds as to where Adam Rose actually fits.
Whether Adam Rose Will Be in WWE 2K15
I definitely hope so. I think the game will not be complete without Adam Rose, and my Rosebuds, and the Exotic Express! … And there better be a bunny in there, too!
Sting Wrestling in WWE
I'm not sure about that, but anything's possible isn't it? … I would love to see Sting versus (Undertaker). I think that was something that everyone wanted to see. I'm not sure that we'll ever get it, but that would be lovely. If you could see Sting versus Taker, I think that would make wrestling dreams complete.
Read more from the world of Pro Wrestling.
Chuck Carroll is former pro wrestling announcer and referee turned sports media personality. He once appeared on Monday Night RAW when he presented Robert Griffin III with a WWE title belt in the Redskins locker room.
Follow him on Twitter @TheChuckCarroll.


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VANCOUVER -- If only the crowd could have hugged Joannie Rochette for three solid minutes, ensuring she stayed on her feet through a performance that we're told was cathartic but surely must have been hellacious too, they would have all felt better.
The figure skater from Ile Dupas, Que. was everyone's daughter on Tuesday night at Pacific Coliseum, essentially adopted by Canadians not long after her mother Therese died early Sunday of a heart attack at age 55, leaving Joannie and father Normand to grieve under the sporting world's microscope.
But then she did the remarkable, she stood on her own, taller even than anyone could have hoped, with a medal chance still in her grasp at the end of the short program. She's third, locked in for bronze at 71.36, seven points clear of Japan's Miki Ando in fourth.
Korea's Yu-Na Kim boosted her own world record to 78.50 to lead the way, as expected, with Japan's Mao Asada hard on her heels at 73.78. Their duel kicked the energy into high gear but Rochette's sheer brilliance under immense strain infused the building with an overload of emotion.
She had walled herself off from the media and willed her emotions inside for days in order to get through the anguish and the program elements. When she was free and clear, having done the triple Lutz and double toe, the triple flip and double Axel, the spins and footwork, she could finally stop moving and thinking only about the skate.
She broke down in a flood of tears as the crowd stood to roar their approval and support. Her face was a palette of sorrow. In the kiss and cry area she called out in French again and again to her mother and the emotion rolled through the building in waves, finally settling when Julia Sebestyen of Hungary took her turn at centre ice.
"I feel good," Rochette said not long afterwards, in a statement made to Skate Canada official Mike Slipchuk. "Hard to be precise, but 10 years form now I would want to come back and try this again. I have no regrets."
The fans did their part and she continues to marvel at the value of their good wishes.
"Very nice, warm welcome," Rochette said. "Hard to handle but I appreciate the support. I will remember this forever."
This Olympic moment, the one she trained from conception to fruition over four years, belonged to everyone now, and if that sudden and overt expression of interest and empathy leant her short program skate a voyeuristic overtone, it was innocent enough. Gawd, nobody wanted to see her fall. Nary a soul in the rink dared draw a raspy breath before her first jump sequence, lest they build a wind capable of knocking her off her skates. When they stirred, it was only to applaud the courage of a 24-year-old woman who took one bold step under unthinkable circumstances Tuesday, and has one much longer remaining before she leaves the Olympic Games and focuses solely on attending to her real life in the wake of her mother's untimely death.
"No doubt in my mind that she was inspried by her mom tonight," said Skate Canada CEO William Thomspon. "Really, that was incredible to see her do that with the circumstances she was facing tonight. I'm so proud of her. She was so tough to get through it like that. She had me in tears. She put on a performance that was magical."
We will walk away from this competition in two days, following Thursday's short program, and whether Rochette's performance is humbly reflected in the standings or worthy of a medal, it will be her triumph and our moment. When the Rocket from Ile Dupas, Que. set foot to music at exactly 8:27, there wasn't an eye focused elsewhere, not a thought with anyone else in the field of 30 skaters.
And it had been a fabulous night already, with Kim, the nearly invincible reigning world champ, nailing her James Bond medley and a triple-triple combination to stand where we all knew she would, in first place.
"She just did what she normally does," said Kim's coach Brian Orser. "She's a real competitor. I think comparing the two programs, having them back to back is better for Yu-Na because of the entertainment value of Yu-Na's program. I think it was the perfect vehicle for her. I think any judge on any panel would lean toward that sytle and that choreography because of the thought put into it."
Asada, the only woman in the world and this competition with a clean triple Axel, skated immediately before Kim, who was watching. The Axel practically raised the roof on the place.
"Mao skated perfectly," said Kim. "I was a little worried but no, there was no pressure."
That's because Kim has that much faith in her short program package, which is unrivalled in the world. Though Asada rode her big trick for all it was worth, she is still in second spot, about five points behind her fierce rival. Rachael Flatt of the U.S. is fifth.
"I am very relieved," Asada said. "This is the best short program I have skated this year."
After that duel had been done, Rochette was on the horizon and a sense that the best was surely yet to come continued to permeate the atmosphere. What a rare treat then, because this was a great night for ladies skating, despite the unspoken worry in the crowd.
The mood was brightened, not first, but certainly markedly by American Mirai Nagasu, who skated 11th and made it through her Pirates of the Caribbean program despite a bleeding nose. She landed two triples, two doubles and soared, sans tissue, to a score of 63.76 that held up until the big girls started doing their thing.
Cynthia Phaneuf of Contrecoeur, Que. couldn't stay with them, not after she fell on her butt during a rather innocent looking step sequence. With 57.16, she sits in 14th place.
"That stupid fall," she said. "I was feeling so good out there. The crowd was amazing. It never happens to me. I couldn't forget it when the program was over. It wasn't even a jump, it was just stupid. It was a big surprise and it cost me one point. I was so disappointed."
It's the Olympics. Things happen and some are unexpected. Some are uplifting, like the skate of Elene Gedevanishvili, who represented Georgia with everything she had, hoping to brighten the mood back home where they are mourning luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. She is a superb ninth at 61.92.
"I did whatever I could, every jump, every spin," she said. "I hope everyone will be happy but sadness will still be in our hearts. It's really heartbreaking for all of my country."
Her small, grieving delegation has felt the support of Olympians and Canadians here, and she in turn leant hers to Rochette.
"I could not help myself from crying."
It was that kind of night, when mixed emotions had everyone searching for a focus, hoping it was going to write itself a happy ending.


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Story highlights
- The victim has died
- The campus remains locked down
- The school will hold classes
- More than 9,000 students attend the school
A South Carolina university remained locked down early Wednesday morning as police searched for the person who shot and killed a student in a campus dormitory.
Officials at Coastal Carolina University in Conway said the school still plans to hold classes Wednesday, and will make counselors available.
The victim was identified as Anthony Darnell Liddell, 19, from Bennettsville.
The shooting took place at the University Place residence hall, the school said. The suspected shooter left in a vehicle, and police continue to look for him.
More than 9,000 students attend the school, which is on 630 acres about 15 miles northwest of Myrtle Beach.
Coastal Carolina University was founded in 1954 as Coastal Carolina Junior College. It became an independent university in 1993.


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WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreigner buyers of U.S. Treasury securities increased their holdings for a third month in October, despite budget battles in Washington that shut down the government for 16 days that month.
The Treasury Department says total foreign holdings edged up 0.01 percent in October to $5.65 trillion after a 1 percent gain in September. Holdings had fallen from April through July, likely reflecting concerns about rising interest rates. In October, holdings were 1.2 percent below the record high of $5.72 trillion reached in March.
China, the largest foreign buyer of Treasury debt, boosted its holdings 0.8 percent in October to $1.3 trillion. Japan, the second-largest buyer, trimmed its holdings 0.3 percent to $1.17 trillion.
An impasse over the budget led to a 16-day partial government shutdown in October.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)


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P.A. Parenteau's overtime power-play goal gives Islanders 4-3 win over Red Wings
DETROIT - The New York Islanders are giant killers.
P.A. Parenteau scored on a power play at 3:57 of overtime to give New York a 4-3 victory over the Western Conference-leading Detroit Red Wings on Friday night.
The Islanders, coming off a 2-1 shootout victory over Eastern Conference-leading Pittsburgh on Wednesday night, are 6-1-1 in their last eight games. They are 29th in the 30-team NHL at 11-19-6.
Dwayne Roloson made 38 saves Friday night.
"The last two games our penalty killers have done a great job for us," Roloson said. "They gave us a lot of confidence and allowed us to win."
New York didn't allow Detroit to score on any of its five chances with the extra man.
After New York killed a penalty in overtime, Parenteau put in a one-timer from the left faceoff dot for his ninth goal with the Red Wings' Henrik Zetterberg in the penalty box for holding.
"Johnny Tavares gave me a great no-look pass right on my stick," Parenteau said. "I think (Detroit goalie Jimmy) Howard got over there late, I got good wood on it and it went in."
Tavares had a goal and two assists and Matt Moulson and Jesse Joensuu also scored.
Johan Franzen, Valtteri Filppula and Tomas Tatar scored for Detroit. Darren Helm had two assists and Howard stopped 18 shots.
"They hung around and played well defensively. Roloson played real well for them. He made saves," Red Wings captain Nicklas Lidstrom said. "They just waited for their opportunities and it paid off for them in the end."
Tatar tied it at 3 with 9:42 left, scoring his first NHL goal in his first game. He tipped in Helm's shot.
Filppula pulled Detroit to 3-2 with 8 seconds left in the second period. He knocked a loose puck out of the air with his glove and put it into an empty net for his ninth goal.
Joensuu's third goal of the season gave the Islanders a 3-1 lead with 4:47 left in the middle period. He tipped a shot out of the air.
The Islanders first three goals were all directly off of clean faceoff wins in the Red Wings' zone.
"We came out and had the puck a lot of the night, they won three face-offs in our zone and, whether they be seeing-eye pucks or whatever, they found a way to score on those opportunities," Detroit coach Mike Babcock said.
Zenon Konopka won the faceoff that led to Joensuu's goal as well as the one that gave New York a 2-1 lead with three seconds left in the first period, despite being outshot 12-3.
After Zonopka beat Justin Abdelkader on the draw, Tavares gave the Islanders the lead when his backhander from the inside edge of the left circle got through Howard's pads. Tavares has 11 goals.
"When it's 1-1 after you've been outshot like that, you know something good is going to happen," Parenteau said.
The faceoff was the result of an icing call with less than 6 seconds left in the period when Brad Stuart's attempted pass from his own zone was too far ahead of Lidstrom.
"We want to be a little bit better at the end of periods," Stuart said.
Franzen opened the scoring with 8:08 left in the opening period with his 17th goal. His one-timer from the bottom of the right circle trickled through Roloson's pads.
New York scored a power-play goal on its first shot of the game, with 6:38 left in the first. It came five seconds after Todd Bertuzzi went off for goalie interference. Moulson was credited with the goal when Lidstrom accidentally knocked the puck into his own net. It was Moulson's 12th goal.
NOTES: The Islanders are 4-0-1 in their last five against the Red Wings. ... Detroit RW Patrick Eaves missed the game because of an upper-body injury. Tatar was recalled from the Red Wings' AHL affiliate in Grand Rapids to take Eaves' place. ... Islanders' D Radek Martinek missed his fifth game because of a wrist injury. ... There was a video tribute to Red Wings G Chris Osgood during a play stoppage in the first period in honour of his 400th career win Monday night. Osgood, backing up Howard, came out on the ice to acknowledge the crowd's standing ovation.


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In a bid to attract retail investors who want access to the institutional hedge fund universe, AdvisorShares announced that the QAM Equity Hedge ETF (QEH) opened for trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
The exchange-traded fund, which is subadvised by Memphis-based Commerce Asset Management (CAM), employs an actively managed long/short strategy that uses the HFRI Equity Hedge (Total) Index as its benchmark. The net expense ratio for QEH is 1.64%.
With the markets remaining virtually unchanged on the fund's first day, the price of QEH remained unchanged, opening and then also closing at $25 per share. However, the NAV, which shows the actual value of QEH's underlying holdings, closed at $24.99. Opening NAV was at $24.90.
Bethesda, Md.-based AdvisorShares, which offers 15 other actively managed ETFs totaling about $670 million, reports QEH's top long holding, at a weight of 35%, as the iShares Barclays Short TR (SHV). Cash is weighted at 3.30% and the fund's largest short holding, at -0.88%, is CurrencyShares Japanese Y (FXY).
"We clearly define our benchmark upfront," said CAM Chief Operating Officer and QEH Co-Portfolio Manager Kurt Voldeng, in an interview in New York on the day of the launch. "Over time, a buy-and-hold investor should be able to achieve equity-like returns on the strategy with less volatility than the S&P 500."
Before the ETF's launch, advisors told Voldeng that they were looking for alternative investments that offer a lower barrier to entry. The advantage of QEH, he said, is its ETF structure that offers liquidity, transparency and tax advantages along with its lower cost.
"We've got a low minimum to get in. It's $25 [per share], not $1 million," he said, adding that the HFRI index has outperformed the market for the last 12 of 22 years versus only 10 of 22 years for the S&P 500 Index.
CAM Chief Investment Officer and QEH Co-Portfolio Manager Akos Beleznay said the ETF's investment objective is to achieve results that exceed the risk-adjusted performance of approximately 50% of the long/short equity hedge fund universe as defined by the HFRI index's constituents.
Beleznay, a former quantitative "rocket scientist" with a PhD in physics and a background of serving as CIO to the $300 million Equitas Evergreen fund of hedge funds, said he considers a review of the fundamentals to be an essential part of his monthly rebalancing of QEH.
Prior to the ETF launch, Beleznay ran the globally diversified QEH strategy live for two years as part of CAM's fund of funds. He is the president of QAM, a majority-owned subsidiary of CAM, which is a registered investment advisor and a subsidiary of Commerce Holdings.
Along with its exposure to the HFRI Equity Hedge (Total) Index, CAM uses its own proprietary research with Markov Processes International's Dynamic Style Analysis hedge fund analysis software.
"In utilizing CAM's extensive network and knowledge within the hedge fund universe, we feel QEH offers a core alternative solution that investors could use to further diversify their portfolio, with a 20% to 30% allocation to core alternatives can help bring true diversification to investors' asset allocation," said AdvisorShares CEO Noah Hamman in a statement.
Read AdvisorShares, Philippe Cousteau Launch Actively Managed Sustainable ETF at AdvisorOne.


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Chat Box Welcome to the new regiment website! Hello and welcome guys From now on this will be our new home, feel free to start using the forums and discussing all sorts of topics. Cant post on the website? Make sure you have the "Member" rank on your profile, if not message an RS and give them your name on the website (should be the same as your TS one, excluding the ranks) and they sh all sort it out for you. Joining the regiment?
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These fitted covers are not only soil release treated but liquid repellent as well. Spills do not saturate into the fabric, instead they bead up and can easily be wiped off. 100% Polyester fabric, a great alternative to cheap looking vinyl or laminated linens. Wrinkle resistant and durable product. Stitched inverted pleated corners create a custom and even more polished finish. Machine wash, tumble dry. Three options available for this product;Option 1 Four sided fitted. Covers the top and all four sides to the floor.Option 2 Four sided fitted with slits. Covers the top and all four sides of table to the floor, with slits (which are invisible, hidden in the pleated corners). We recommend two slits to easily lift the entire back panel, or 4 Slits (one in each corner) when a guest will be stationed on both sides of the table, providing comfortable seating.Option 3 Three sided fitted. Covers the top and three sides. Only drapes 10" in the back for situations such as reception booth, trade show booth or convention where someone will be seated at the table.


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Mile End's Knishes
More than just a fun-to-say word, knishes are emblematic of Jewish deli snacks. Their hearty nature and portable shape make for an easy, if heavy, snack on the go. The version from Mile End Deli is a different shape than most: rolled into a log instead of a dumpling. Perhaps this shape owes debt to Noah Bernamoff's Nana Lee, who apparently made "legendary" knishes with a good structural sense. When loading a dumpling with all matter of starch (as is the case with many knishes), the extra dough required to shape a ball can make for a leaden dish, but not here.
In The Mile End Cookbook, the Bernamoffs suggest rolling thin layers of dough around the filling, transforming the knish into light(-er) fare.
Why I picked this recipe: Most of my knish experiences have been store-bought and disappointing. I wanted to try my hand at a homemade version; I wanted to love the knish.
What worked: Although it is a long and complex recipe, each step went off without a hitch.
What didn't: I found it frustrating that the recipe called for a food processor, stand mixer, potato ricer, and pasta machine. Even if you happen to own all four, they create a lot of extra mess and work. The pasta machine was probably the most useful piece of the four, but you could probably make these using a strong arm, a rolling pin, and a good knife.
Suggested Tweaks: The recipe in the book is for a simple potato-based filling, but it's easy to see how the filling can be tweaked to suit any type of leftovers. If you're going for the recipe as written, be sure to season the filling generously before adding the eggs. Potatoes can take it.
Reprinted with permission from The Mile End Cookbook by Noah and Rae Bernamoff. Copyright 2012. Published by Clarkston Potter. Available wherever books are sold. All rights reserved.
- Yield:makes 12
- Active time: 2 hours
- Total time:5 hours
- For the Filling
- 2 pounds russet potatoes (about 4 potatoes), scrubbed clean
- 1 1/2 pounds yukon gold potatoes (6 to 8 potatoes), scrubbed clean
- 2 parsnips, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1/2 celery root, peeled, trimmed, and roughly chopped
- 2 medium white onions, roughly chopped
- 3 tablespoons Schmaltz or canola oil
- 2 fresh bay leaves
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 3 large eggs
- For the Knish Dough
- 8 large eggs, beaten
- 3/4 cup Schmaltz, at room temperature, or canola oil
- 5 1/3 cups all-purpose flour (reduce flour to 5 cups if using canola oil)
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons Diamond Crystal kosher salt
- 1 additional large egg, beaten, for the egg wash
- Poppy seeds, sesame seeds, caraway seeds, or other toppings of your choice
- Spicy brown mustard, such as Gulden's, for serving
Make the Filling: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the russet and Yukon gold potatoes on a 10- by 15-inch baking sheet until a small knife meets no resistance when piercing the center of the potatoes, 60 to 90 minutes. Set the potatoes aside to cool.
Meanwhile, place the parsnips, celery root, and onions in a food processor and pulse them until finely chopped. Heat the schmaltz or oil in a large saute pan over medium heat, add the chopped vegetables and the bay leaves, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until the vegetables are completely tender, then uncover and cook for another 10 minutes to let the liquid evaporate. Remove from heat; discard the bay leaves.
When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel them and pass them through a ricer into the sauteed vegetable mixture. Add the eggs and season with more salt and pepper; stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are thoroughly mixed together. Let cool before forming the knishes.
Make the Dough: Place 8 beaten eggs and the schmaltz or oil in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and add the mixture to the bowl of the stand mixer. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are mostly incorporated. Increase the speed to medium and mix until the dough has a smooth, consistent texture, about 1 minute more.
Wrap the dough loosely in plastic wrap and flatten it into a disk. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour or as long as overnight. (The dough can also be frozen for up to 3 weeks; thaw it in the refrigerator overnight before proceeding.)
Roll and Trim the Dough: Portion the dough approximately into thirds. Flatten one third with a rolling pin or the palm of your hand to approximately 1/4 inch thick. Pass it through a pasta machine at the widest setting. Fold the dough in half, if necessary, and pass it through the rollers 1 or 2 more times until the results yield a piece that is close to the width of the machine (about 6 inches).
Adding flour as necessary to prevent sticking, continue to pass the dough through the machine, making the setting more narrow with each pass until you achieve a piece that is approximately 1/16 inch thick. Place the dough on a floured surface and cut it into squares. Reserve the trimmings and incorporate into the next piece of dough to be rolled. Repeat with the other two-thirds of the dough.
Stuff and Bake the Knishes: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a 10- by 15-inch baking sheet. Distribute about 1 cup of the filling evenly along one edge of a trimmed dough piece. Roll the dough around the filling to make a cylinder, using a spatula to help lift the bottom of the dough from the work surface where the dough is sticking. Brush the seam of the rolled knish with the egg wash and press lightly to seal it. Place the knish seam-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough pieces and filling.
Make 4 or 5 diagonal slashes across the top of each knish to allow for expansion while cooking. Brush each knish with a little of the egg wash and sprinkle it with the topping of your choice. Bake until golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before serving. Slice each knish into 4 small logs and serve with the mustard.
All products linked here have been independently selected by our editors. We may earn a commission on purchases, as described in our affiliate policy.


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(Pocket-lint) - Pure, getting ready for the summer, has launched an update to its Oasis model adding in internet radio capabilities alongside DAB all in a rugged case.
The Oasis Flow, as it will be known, will cost £169.99 and, says Pure, "is ideal for the bathroom, the beach, the garden, DIY, boating, BBQs and any other outdoor scenario".
That ruggedness isn't tough enough to withstand a beating from a 6 year old with a piñata bat, but it is enough to withstand the odd knock and bump while being left out in the rain, while you quickly drag other, more important, things inside - like those burnt sausages you've been grilling.
Rugged in this case means a splash resistant case, waterproof vents, durable cast aluminium framework and rubber seals.
Get past the design and you'll get DAB, FM, and internet radio options as well as aux in, with all the benefits those features bring.
The radio comes with a rechargeable battery so you aren't restricted by the length of a power cord, and it sounds pretty good too thanks to the large speaker set front and forward.
There is also an input for an iPod/MP3 player or PURE's i-10 universal iPod dock so the Oasis Flow can also be used as a portable iPod speaker.
And yes, like other Pure radios in the range, this one comes with PURE Lounge and therefore PURE Sounds, a library of over 100 sounds designed to allow the listener to set the perfect mood or even help their child go to sleep. That might not seem that great now, but word on the street is that Pure is about to launch its own music download service, presumably through its lounge offering, making this one feature that is likely to get better.


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The documentary Make Believe follows six young outsiders who all share an extraordinary skill and passion for the art of magic. Each with their own strengths and a dazzling array of tricks and illusions, these teenagers come from all over the country and various parts of the world to attend the annual World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas, where they strive to be named Teen World Champion by magic icon Lance Burton. Inspired by his own history as a teen magician, producer Steven Klein brought the idea for Make Believe to executive producers Ed Cunningham and Seth Gordon (the duo behind the acclaimed documentary The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters), and they all chose to enlist J. Clay Tweel to be at the helm of this unusual coming-of-age story.
At the film's press day, appropriately held at the famed Magic Castle, producer Steven Klein and director J. Clay Tweel talked about what makes magic so fascinating, finding these young magicians that they focused on for the film, what it was like to narrow down 400 hours of footage into 90 minutes, and the fact that they would consider doing another film about magic. They also confirmed that the narrative remake of The King of Kong is still in development at New Line, with drafts of the script currently being done. Check out what they had to say after the jump:
Question: What got you interested in magic and started this whole project for you?
STEVEN KLEIN: The secret is that I was a teen magician, but the analogy that I've come to use is that, if I were a Junior Varsity high school athlete of a magician, these kids are the Olympiads. I was nowhere near as good as they are. But, I was already an actor and already doing theater and television, and knew that this was the career that I wanted to go into, so when I went through that phase of being interested in magic, that a lot of nerdy kids go through, I connected with it as an exercise in storytelling. Every magic trick is like a distilled story. It has a little beginning, middle and a reversal. And, I could observe that the difference between a good magician and a great magician is often just the yarn they spin around the architecture of the actual trick, so I kept practicing my storytelling through magic and that sustained my interest in the art, through high school and into college.
Then, I moved to Los Angeles and, coming from Boston, it was a big deal to be in the same city as the Magic Castle. So, I dusted off enough of the repretoire to join and starting going there pretty regularly, and brought friends for drinks. The friend who most regularly wanted to come along was Seth Gordon, who directed The King of Kong and Four Christmases, and was one of our executive producers. We were here in 2004 and we were roommates at the time, getting a drink there, and he was cutting The King of Kong. We looked around the bar upstairs and were like, "There's got to be a documentary in this world. It's filled with characters, like the world of video games is also filled with characters." So, we had a lunch meeting and we took notes, and we completely failed to come up with exactly what the story would be. We were like, "Is there a rivalry? Is there a Billy Mitchell magician?" We couldn't find anything like that. And so, about every six months, for several years, that went on.
And then, I was in New York rehearsing a play in the summer of 2008, and I went to Tannen's, which is a historic magic shop there, just for an afternoon, and these three 12-year-old boys came in who were deeply introverted, on the Asberger's continuum. They were very inward. And, I was drawn to them, so my eye followed them as they walked through the store. They went over to the counter, they picked up decks of cards, and they went behind the counter and said, "Good afternoon!," and became sales people at the store. I thought, "Well, that journey from the deeply introverted to the extroverted is an arc." So, I walked outside and called (executive producers) Seth [Gordon] and Ed [Cunningham] and said, "I think it's kids." They were excited. We had a lunch a few weeks later, when I was back in L.A., and the first director name we instantly came up with was Clay [Tweel]. We met a few days later and he was like, "That's great! The world of magic is fertile, but the thing that we need to bring to it and that it needs to be a vehicle for is a story of coming of age." And, we were shooting two months later.
How did you find these particular young magicians?
KLEIN: They just appeared!
J. CLAY TWEEL: They're amazing. We entered the world of teenage magicians through the Magic Castle in L.A. We met Krystyn [Lambert] and a couple other kids that were fascinating as well. The deeper we got, we would hear about other people within the world of teenage magicians, and we heard Bill Koch's name. We had a rough sense, but didn't know fully what the movie was going to be about, until we were at the World Magic Seminar and were able to see these kids in their element, and how excited and passionate they were, and then it slowly unraveled from there. If it was going to be a competition movie and we were able to bounce all around the world and have these characters that are all in the subset of outsiders, but all have their own unique challenges that they face, in order to get to this competition and succeed. I thought that was a good conceit for which characters to focus on.
What was your budget on this film?
KLEIN: A little under half a million dollars. It was fairly inexpensive for a film.
On such a low-budget, how did you afford to go to Japan and South Africa?
KLEIN: We had a very limited budget and the thing that took the most resources was having to travel that geography. Because of events unfolding in Hiroki Hara's life, and events unfolding in Siphiwe Fangase and Nkumbuzo Nkonyana's life, we were not able to go to both places, so we hired locally in South Africa and we went to Japan. There's a great independent film scene in Cape Town, so we knew there would be a crew we could hire there, and we figured we could direct over the phone, through Skype and by the Internet, from Japan and in English. If we tried to go in reverse, we'd lose too much in translation. There's no film team in Kitayama, Japan.
TWEEL: There was no one within two hours of there that probably has a working video camera with good audio. So, we made that decision to go see Hiroki and we were able to direct the team in South Africa.
KLEIN: So, that saved some resources.
Why do you think kids that are into magic usually feel like such outsiders, when everybody seems to love magic, enjoys their performances and is impressed by it?
TWEEL: Part of it is that magic is often a maligned art form. It doesn't get a whole lot of respect. People are like, "Yeah, I want to see a trick. I want you to fool me." But, a lot of people have the mind-set of, "I just want to see you do it, so that I can figure it out." The joy of being entertained is not in the majority of people who are watching magic. They have this edge of wanting to figure it out. So, the kids that get into magic and are really good at it are often the ones that need that extra boost of confidence and some sort of tool to help them interact, in the first place. There's probably an obsessive compulsive part of their personality and a highly intense problem-solver mind-set that they have, that gets them into magic in the first place, and then they have to bridge that gap, in order to be social. What magic does is that it forces you to perform for people. You can learn all the patterns and tricks in your room by yourself that you want, but you have to go out and actually test it on people. To make that jump, it helps them interact.
Was it challenging to narrow down the footage you shot for the film, and will you be putting some of that footage on the DVD?
TWEEL: Absolutely! We had 400 hours of footage that we got down to 90 minutes, so there's lots of gold that hit the cutting room floor.
TWEEL: In a leather bound volume. No. So, there will be tutorials on the DVD, with some teenage magicians at the Magic Castle teaching other beginners tricks, which are great. There will also be extra pieces about the character and personalities of all of the kids in the movie, that didn't quite make it into the film, but which I love.
What type of magic and tricks impress you the most?
TWEEL: I love close-up, so whenever I go to the Magic Castle, that's the one room that I have to go to. It's that intimate. There's something about seeing something done that right in front of your eyes that's great, and you still can't figure it out.
KLEIN: I definitely love close-up! Just because it's done with ordinary objects, right in front of your face, there's something heightened about that. Part of the issue is that you can't fake good close-up. You can't go to a magic store and learn how to do that in an hour. You can't fake that. It's just skill. You have to learn it. There are some illusions and prop-heavy magic that you can go to the magic store and buy, so a lot of times, when you see them at the county fair or a school talent show, you're seeing a mediocre version of it, so it's easy to get a negative perception of that. But, when I saw Lance Burton do those same things, it elevated it to a whole other level. When a true artist does stage magic, it's something unlike a lot of what you say, and it's amazing.
Would you consider doing another film about magic?
TWEEL: Yeah, we've been talking about remake possibilities and other off-shoots of the brand of Make Believe. We've had interest from studios and production companies, and are trying to facilitate what is next, based off of the property of Make Believe. So, we're definitely thinking about that and trying to see what sticks to the wall.
Is there still going to be a dramatized version of The King of Kong?
TWEEL: There is, yes. It's still in the works at New Line. The King of Kong narrative remake is not dead, by any means. It's still on the table. They're still cranking out drafts.
What do you hope audiences get from this film?
KLEIN: We're a little film that is trying to be the little engine that could. Fortunately, we've gotten a good audience response and a good press response, and that has helped a lot. Right now, we're finishing a limited theatrical release. We had a week in New York and a week in Chicago, and Friday we open to the public in Los Angeles, for a minimum of a week. We hope that the press efforts help drive that enough that we can open in other theaters as well. And, we will come out on DVD, later this summer. All is available at www.MakeBelieveFilm.com.


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Sell your History of Modern Psychology book back to us today to earn a fee. Alternatively, if you are looking to buy the cheapest copy of this book from Wadsworth, written by Duane P Schultz and Sydney Ellen Schultz, you can do that too. Buy History of Modern Psychology online now and get this 10th edition of the book published in 2011. With lots of new and fascinating material to browse through, you can be sure of enjoying a bigger insight into how psychology works in the modern world. Get your discounted and previously owned copy today to learn more. Duane P. Schultz is the author of 'A History of Modern Psychology', published 2011 under ISBN 9781133316244 and ISBN 1133316247.[read more]
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Season's Greetings From Texas
$ 4
Who says you can't spread holiday cheer while still repping hard for your home state? Send holiday love with a little reminder that you hail from the best state in the nation.
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-Card measures 4.25 x 5.5 inches
-Flat printed on 100# Whip Cream French Paper Poptone Cover
-Also available as a boxed set of eight


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Another thing I noticed while conducting my scientific analysis is that the edge looked like it had been stamped out -- I think they use the cutter pans (which I didn't know about until I came here).
The one on Nieman road is Old Shawnee Pizza now. Same atmosphere and great pizza.
I'd be very surprised if Pizza Shoppe uses cutter pans. If I had to guess, I would say that they are using dough ring cutters as templates to cut skins out of a sheet or ribbon of dough. Have you any evidence that they are using pans?
My family owned a baker in Independence as a kid and Tim's opened up right across the street as a Funhouse knock-off.
I have made the DKM cracker crust and laminated two skins.
I'll try to get more details on it the next time I'm there.Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor
My oldest son lives just a short distance from the Pizza Shoppe on Hwy-7 (Olathe), I am familiar with their pizza as my son usually picks one up when I'm at his house, but the next time I'm there I'll make it a point to go to the store to observe how they make their pizzas. I do know they they bake their pizzas in a cutter pan as is indicated by the 40-degree shoulder on the crust edge, and they do use deck ovens, and it is a thin cracker type crust. I'll try to get more details on it the next time I'm there.Tom Lehmann/The Dough Doctor