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Abode Photoshop Elements 12
Using Tom Turkey I created a recipe card for a recipe book that I will be creating for two granddaughters as wedding gifts. The main recipe card design and wordart from Kimeric Kreations "Cool Eat's" scrapbook kit using Abode Photoshop Elements for editing.
Thank you for visiting with me today, and have a happy day of crafting.


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Design a Banner
Budget $15-25 USD / hour
can make any design according to the clients wish
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Thank you for considering for your graphic design needs. After learning more about the project, I'm confident that I can deliver fantastic results on time and within budget.

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If you work to live and not live to work, then this is the group for you. EuroProvidence - The Rhode Island European Social Network, is a group dedicated to gathering professionals over the age of 25 who are of European origin, or who have lived or studied across the pond for more than one year who wish to get together and relive some of the culture and their memories. Most events will be free of charge, but we ask that you support the venue.
Events will include: Happy Hour; foreign film screenings; or to celebrate a countries fête. Venues will be at someone's home, a park or festival, or a private venue.
Although we are called EuroProvidence, many events will be throughout Rhode Island. So join us with your baguette, vino, bier, queso, or ouzo, and let's live life in Rhode Island the European way.
C'e vediamo!
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Hotel Cosmos Rimini
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May 8, 2006
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - MIT's post-season run came to an end on Saturday when it fell to Amherst College, 4-1, in the first round of the NCAA Men's Tennis Championship Tournament. The Engineers finished the year with an overall record of 12-3.
Amherst took a 1-0 lead after picking up a pair of tight doubles matches. Michael Mintz and Lenny Lepner defeated Mark Egan and Eric Beren, 8-6, in the No. 2 position while Melvin Makhni and Peden Nichols lost, 9-7, in the No. 3 spot. Evan Tindell evened the match with a 6-2, 6-0 singles victory. The Jeffs then swept the No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 slots to clinch the win.
MIT vs. Amherst College
Final Team Score: Amherst 4, MIT 1
1. Evan Tindell/Thomas Dohlman (M) vs. Josh Rilla/Danny Babkes (A), 7-7 (Halted)
2. Michael Mintz/Lenny Lepner (A) def. Mark Egan/Eric Beren (M), 8-6
3. Tal Avrahami/Zach Lerner (A) def. Melvin Makhni/Peden Nichols (M), 9-7
1. Evan Tindell (M) def. Josh Rilla (A), 6-2, 6-0
2. Lenny Lepner (A) def. Thomas Dohlman (M), 7-6 (9), 6-3
3. Danny Babkes (A) def. Eric Beren (M), 6-4, 6-4
4. Michael Mintz (A) def. Mark Egan (M), 6-2, 6-4
5. Zack Lerner (A) vs. Peden Nichols (M), 6-1, 0-2 (Halted)
6. Jon Godsall (A) vs. Melvin Makhni (M), 3-2 (Halted)


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These commercials are making me hungry.. That burger looked good...
Quote from: racer on December 08, 2013, 07:46:51 PMThese commercials are making me hungry.. That burger looked good... Thank goodness it is BBQ time of year over here!
This has been greatest japan leg
I don't know how others feel but I liked Leo & Jamal this leg, They did well in this leg but struggled at the roadblock.
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Brand Label: Temperley London
ITEM MOVED TO ARCHIVE: On November 24, 2017 10:58 am, Fashion Stylist Online noted this item may be out of stock at Farfetch US because it was not referenced in their latest online catalog. If this item is out of stock at Farfetch US, you may be able to find similar fashions sold there or elsewhere on our Temperley London Designer Brand Directory.
Available for Purchase Online at Farfetch US for $772.00Pin It
Black merino wool and cotton Bliss sleeved dress from Temperley London. Size: S. Gender: Female. Material: Cotton/Polyamide/Merino.
Shop other brand label items from Temperley London on FashionStylist.com.
This item was published for sale online by Farfetch US on November 24, 2017 10:05 am and last updated by us November 24, 2017 10:58 am.
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As the first semester of my freshman year in college wines down I look back to and think of my high school days. It seems so long ago; so different. It feels as though it could have been have been years ago. In this short time away at college it seems that I have changed a great deal. I have grown a lot in these few months. My high school memories are so different from my life here at college. It feels as though as we move on from high school to college we move on to a different world. A world were we must be responsible for ourselves.
Going from high school to college is a major transition in life. Both high school and college are important chapters of our lives, but they are very different chapters. In going from one of these stages in life to the other we change; friends, lifestyles, eating habits, and even homes. College is a different world from high school, and the change is very sudden and can sometimes be hard to adjust to. In making the transition one must always be careful to balance what one wants and what one needs to do. Continue reading Example Essay on College


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Since 1976, Mother Antonia, now 78 years old, has lived in a cell at La Mesa in Tijuana, one of Mexico's most notorious prisons, caring for the inmates. What's even more remarkable is her background and the comfortable life she left behind for a life of service.
She was born Mary Clarke and grew up as a striking blond beauty amid movie stars and money in 1930s Beverly Hills. She endured two failed marriages, ran the family business and raised seven children before becoming Mother Antonia and moving into La Mesa at age 50.
Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters with The Washington Post, spent three years researching Mother Antonia's journey and have written her story, "Prison Angel."
You can read an excerpt from the book below.
Chapter One -- La Madre
A riot rages inside La Mesa state penitentiary in Tijuana, Mexico. It's Halloween night, 1994, and the twenty-five hundred convicts locked inside one of the country's most violent and overcrowded prisons are struggling, as they do every day, to live one more. Sixteen men are locked in a block of punishment cells on the third floor. They are there for insulting guards, fighting with other prisoners, breaking the rules. They've been here for days, some for weeks. They are agitated and angry. There is never enough food in these cells, there are never enough blankets for the cold nights. It's filthy.
Worst of all, visitors aren't allowed up here. No place in the prison is harsher than these fetid punishment cells, and it's never been worse than tonight. The men can hear parties for Day of the Dead ringing from homes just outside the walls. It's one of Mexico's biggest days of the year, a big, happy, noisy family celebration honoring the departed. Families are together at home or in decorated graveyards filled with light and music and tequila and the hottest, sweetest bread you can imagine, and here they are, stuck in the hole.
It's too much, just too damned much. The prisoners come up with a plan. Someone calls a guard over to ask him a question. When he comes close enough, arms quickly pass through the bars and grab him, pinning him there and taking his gun and his keys. The prisoners quickly free themselves, then grab another guard and his gun, too. They tell the guards to get the hell out, then they set mattresses on fire in the cellblock and start shooting into the air out the windows.
Fearing the worst, the guards abandon their posts and shut off the electricity. Much of the prison now belongs to the inmates, and it's completely dark except for the flames rising from the top-floor windows. Outside in the crowded neighborhood of modest concrete homes that has grown up around La Mesa, people see the fire and hear the gunshots for blocks.
Police in riot gear show up. SWAT teams assemble on the streets. Television cameras set up quickly. Mothers and girlfriends of prisoners have come running, and they are watching a small army preparing to storm the prison.
"My son, my son, what are they going to do to him?" one woman wails.
Then into the darkness comes a tiny woman in a white habit.
She has clear white skin and round cheeks, and her smile seems to start in her bright blue eyes then spread across her face until it glows. She looks so happy.
"¡Madre! ¡Madre!" the desperate women call out, holding out their arms and running to her.
Everyone knows her. She is Mother Antonia. She's the American sister who lives in a cell and shivers in the same cold showers as the prisoners. She calls the men mis hijos, my sons, and brings a mother's love to some of Mexico's most forgotten. There are rumors that she was rich once, maybe even a millionaire or a movie star. Nobody really knows exactly where she came from or why, but they know she will help them, and they know the prisoners trust her more than anybody else.
Mother Antonia was on an errand outside the prison when she heard about the trouble and has come rushing back to her adopted home, with its imposing walls and guard towers. She hears the ominous snaps and clacks of ammunition being loaded and smells the acrid fire. Terrified women mob her.
"Calm down," she says. "This is not the time to be screaming. The men can hear you in there. They're going to be all right, but you need to pray, not yell. Everything will be all right. I'm going to go inside to see your sons -- my sons -- right now."
The television cameras record it all and follow her as she turns and walks toward the darkened prison entrance. The warden, Jorge Alberto Duarte Castillo, is out of town. His assistant stops her at the office by the gate.
"I can't let you go in there, Mother. It's too dangerous right now."
She insists. She demands that he call her friend Duarte. She is sure he will give permission for her to go inside. It is her home and her life. She is needed in there now. He calls, and she tells Duarte she wants to talk to her hijos and persuade them to end the violence.
"No, Mother, you can't go in. It's too dangerous," he says on the other end of the phone.
"Jorge, you know my mission is to be in there right now," she says. "This isn't a time to back out."
Jorge Duarte knows the prisoners listen to her. He also knows that she is right, that a massacre could well be in the making; it has happened too many times before. He gives the order to let her in.
A guard unlocks the door and lets her pass.
It is black dark inside. She is alone, walking slowly down empty hallways, feeling her way along a route she knows so well. She can hear the shots and smell the smoke from upstairs. When the lights went out, some prisoners had run to their cells while others hid under tables and behind doors. Now they come out, surprised to see Mother Antonia instead of riot police.
"Mother, what are you doing in here?" one asks her.
First one, then five, then more prisoners gather around her in the darkness. They tell her that she should get out, she could be killed. Don't worry, she tells them, I'll be safe. She leads the men, mostly poor young Catholic Mexicans raised to worship God and their mothers, into the small chapel off the prison yard. She kneels and prays out loud for angels to protect everyone in the prison. Then she rises and heads out the door, an inch at a time in the darkness, toward the punishment cells.
She shuffles her feet carefully along the prison's cement floor, her outstretched hands feeling the way along the walls. Finding the stairway leading up, she realizes she is not alone in the blackness. The men have stayed with her. She doesn't know if there are five or fifty, but she feels them and hears them all around her like a human shield. She is the closest thing to heaven most of them have ever seen, this woman who brings them pillows and pure white bandages, who keeps the guards from beating them, who never stops hugging them and telling them they are loved. They call her Mother. And they are going to take a bullet rather than have La Madre die tonight.
She can feel the heavy black metal doors of cells as she passes them. The screams and shooting are close now, the smoke is sharp in her eyes and lungs. She calls out to the men in the punishment cells.
They are shocked to hear her.
"Don't shoot! Mother's here!" they yell.
"Mother Antonia! Get out of here. You'll be killed!" one inmate shouts. "Please, go. You'll be shot!"
She doesn't stop. She moves forward toward their voices.
"What's going on here? The whole city is terrified," she says. "Your mothers and girlfriends and children are outside crying. Please stop. There's an army out there getting ready to come in."
She tells them that if they don't put down their weapons, more children will be orphaned, including their own. Think of your parents crying at another family funeral, she pleads. Her voice is warm, convincing, and urgent, and it suddenly changes the ugly night.
The metal door to the punishment cell block opens. She can now see a bit by the light of burning mattresses. Her white clothes are singed with ash. An inmate she knows as Blackie steps forward from the shadows.
She pushes her way inside like a running back.
"C'mon, C'mon. Give me the guns. Give me the guns right now. I'm not going to let you get hurt. I'm not going to let them hurt you and punish you. Give me the guns." "Mother," Blackie says. "We've been up here so long they've forgotten us. The water's gone, and we're desperate."
Mother Antonia falls to her knees in the smoky hallway. She is right in front of Blackie, looking up at him with her hands held out, palms up, pleading with him.
"It's not right that you're locked up here, hungry and thirsty. We can take care of those things, but this isn't the way to do it. I will help you make it better. But first, you have to give me the guns. I beg you to put down your weapons."
"Mother," Blackie says softly, looking down at her. "As soon as we heard your voice, we dropped the guns out the window."
Mother Antonia walks Blackie downstairs to the gate, shouting to the guards and police that he is coming out, unarmed. Duarte has hurried back from Mexicali, a nearby city, and arrives at the prison just in time to see Mother Antonia and Blackie emerge from the darkened yard. They all sit in Duarte's office, and he listens to Blackie's long list of complaints. The two men agree to a settlement. Blackie promises an end to the violence. Duarte promises better conditions. The lights come back up in the prison. The riot police pack up and leave.
Mother Antonia emerges through the prison's front gates. The mothers and wives and daughters rush to hug her close; this time their tears are from joy. "Why were the prisoners so angry?" one television reporter shouts.
Mother Antonia turns to face the cameras.
"They just wanted to be free," she says, her white habit shining in the hot glare of the lights. "They just wanted to be free."
There is more to the story. But she knows this isn't time to tell it. For the moment, she just turns and disappears into the night, back to her cell.
She lives there, past the guards with shotguns on the wall overhead, through the sets of iron doors, down banged-up hallways under cold neon lights. Years after the riot we visit her there, to begin discovering how such a gracious woman who lived so much of her life in the comforts of suburban Los Angeles chose to live in this hard place. She comes to greet us at the prison's main gate. Just five foot two, wearing a black-and-white habit and a crisp white veil framing her beaming face, she is a whirligig of energy and cheer. "¿Cómo estás, mi hijo?" How are you my son, she says, hugging and kissing each guard she passes. Visitors in the waiting area rush to her, holding out their hands to greet her: ¡Madre! ¡Madre! ¡Madre! She has a moment for each of them, fixing them with blue eyes so luminous they almost seemed lighted from within. She touches the children gently on their heads.
She turns to us, and her smile seems to give off heat.
We follow her down a few long corridors and into the heart of the prison. All around her are prisoners, a few wearing ironed shirts, clean jeans, and leather boots, but many dressed in rags. She greets every prisoner and guard she passes. She's exuberant, and everything about her says life is good, life is fun.
She sees one guard and practically shouts, "¡Buenos días, Sergio!"
Another can't cork his grin when she nearly sings at him, "¡Hola, mi amor!"
We see right away how warmly Mother Antonia touches everyone, how much she likes people. We look at the prison guards standing on the wall above her and see gruff men in knockoff Ray-Bans, the official eyewear of Third World law enforcement, and wonder what they do to prisoners when nobody is looking. She looks up all sparkly-eyed at the same guards as if they are the most beautiful thing she has ever seen. She has given them a copy of the movie "The Green Mile," dubbed in Spanish. It's about redemption, kindness, and hope, and it's set on death row. Her kind of flick. A guard tells her he loved the movie, and he's passing it on to another guard that night. "¡Qué bueno, mi amor!" -- How great, my love, she responds.
Mother Antonia's accent is pure gringa, as the Mexicans say. She doesn't care that she doesn't speak Spanish like Cervantes, she just plows ahead and everyone understands her. She believes that what she lacks in perfect verb conjugations, she makes up for in love for Mexico.
We arrive with her at the Gallinero, the Rooster House, a large cell filled with prisoners who have committed minor infractions. A couple dozen men are caged there, some standing, some lying on the concrete floor. The smell is brutal from the single toilet in the corner. Mother Antonia passes her arms through the bars and touches the men and kisses their cheeks. A few of them look hard and mean, but most of them just look sad. She asks them, "Have you eaten? Do you need anything? Is there anyone I can call for you?"
Most inmates are freely walking around the prison. To an outsider, the place doesn't look so much like a prison as a big, walled city. As we move on, Mother Antonia sees an inmate she knows. He is wearing lipstick and a dress.
"¡Mamá! ¡Mamá! ¡Mamá!" the man says to her, embracing her as if hugging his own mother. Three other transsexuals in full drag do the same. As they swish away down the narrow passageway into the crowd of inmates, Mother Antonia says that nobody has a tougher life, in the prison or outside, than they do. Not only are they struggling with their sexuality, but they don't fare too well in the prison's macho culture, so she pays them special attention.
"You love the unlovable," says Frank, a prisoner who is waiting for her at the heavy mesh door of her cell, which is only a few steps away from the holding cell for the newcomers.
"I love the people whom other people think are unlovable," she says.
Mother Antonia introduces us to Frank, a tall and muscular former U.S. Marine. Frank says he made a dumb mistake and he's learned from it, thanks to Mother Antonia. He's serving a six-year sentence for trying to smuggle an illegal immigrant into the United States. He was born in Peru but grew up in New York and Florida and became a U.S. citizen. While stationed with the Marines in San Diego in 2000, a friend dared him to try to sneak a young Peruvian guy across the border in the trunk of his car. Frank was caught and convicted, and at nineteen, he was thrown into La Mesa. Now he spends his days with Mother Antonia, helping her attend to the inmates who come in a steady stream to her door, at all hours, asking for everything from prescription medicines to advice on how to deal with their spouses.
Mother Antonia asks Frank about a female inmate. She's thirty-eight, dying of cancer, and has eight months left on a six-year sentence for a minor drug conviction. Mother Antonia is trying to persuade a judge to order her release on humanitarian grounds. Meanwhile, Mother Antonia's bringing medicine for the woman from the pharmacy to ease her pain. Frank says he's just been to visit her in the infirmary, which is clearly not his favorite place. All those sick people with every sort of disease, he says, shaking his head. He still can't believe that Mother Antonia touches them, even greets them with the traditional Mexican kiss on the cheek. "These people have tuberculosis and stuff," he says to her, "and you just touch them -- you even kiss them. I'm afraid to do that."
She has given Frank many of her favorite books, including Once There Was a War, John Steinbeck's dispatches of World War II. He never liked to read books before but now says he sees what he was missing. He wants to become a dentist when he gets out, his interest piqued by watching -- and sometimes assisting -- the dentists Mother Antonia brings to the prison to fix prisoners' teeth.
Mother Antonia unlocks the door to her carraca, as many prison cells are known, and leads us inside. She is home. "When I grew up in Beverly Hills, my father told me I'd brag all my life about where I lived," she says, looking around her cell and laughing out loud. "He was right!"
Her cell is concrete and cold. Her small bed is along the back wall, and two thin windows near the ceiling look out on a guard tower and barbed wire outside. A large crucifix hangs on one wall, and a few photos are scattered about on a small table, next to a Bible and a Spanish dictionary. Her pressed white blouses hang above a plastic garbage bag filled with hotels soaps and shampoos, stamped with "Hotel Del Coronado" or "Grand Hyatt," donations from friends in California that she passes out to inmates. She keeps a big jar of peanut butter near her bed so she always has something to give to any hungry prisoner. The door to the bathroom, nothing more than a bare toilet and a cold-water shower, is only a sheet. An oxygen tank sits next to her bed, evidence of her increasingly poor health.
She was born with an unusual problem with the tendons in her hand, which left her unable to make a fist. She underwent surgery to repair the problem when she was a child, the first of her long list of operations. Her real pain and health troubles began when she was nineteen and she lost her first child during delivery. Seven more pregnancies compounded the problems, and she developed a hiatal hernia. During an operation to repair that in 1992, when she was sixty-five, her esophagus was punctured by mistake.
Over the next seven months she had six major operations, and during one of them, surgeons removed her spleen. For two years she could swallow only liquids. Friends jokingly called her the Sword Swallower because of the rubber tube she had to slide into her esophagus to keep it from closing up.
Her heart is weakening. She has two leaky valves and significant blockage in her arteries that give her trouble breathing. Doctors recommended that she leave the prison for health reasons. When she refused, they insisted that she keep an oxygen tank at her bedside. She sees it as part of her work, insisting that "my pains make me even more aware of other people's pain."
Mother Antonia has a million little sayings, distillations of what she has learned from seeing so much hardship and loss. She sprinkles them into her conversations constantly, like the little drops of chile sauce Mexicans put on everything from eggs to pizza.
"Life is a boomerang -- what you do for others comes back to you."
"Everything you do either adds to the beauty of the world or takes away from it." "Life is not a series of green lights."
Over the years, inmates have sometimes lied to her, stolen from her, even swiped her cell phone, but she doesn't let it get her down. She sums up her philosophy this way: "Live within the day. Forget about yesterday; it's over. Take everything bad and negative, and toss it away. Learn to step out from what is holding you back. To hate people will not change anything; to love them will."
Her mission has expanded over the years to include as many of Tijuana's poor and sick as she can reach. She even visits the dead. At the city morgue, bodies not claimed after nine days are buried in an unmarked common grave at the municipal cemetery. Mother Antonia often holds funerals for these people, who are sometimes known by only a number. Once a month, she holds a mass for all the unknown dead in Tijuana. The city supplies simple pine coffins, and she buys plots in the cemetery and small grave markers. On and off over the years, when there was no other transportation available, she would sometimes stand on the busy street outside the morgue and flag down a passing van or pickup truck to get a coffin to the cemetery.
"Excuse me, could you please help me for a minute?" she would ask, and soon a truck driver who happened to be passing by would be on his way to the cemetery with a nun and a coffin.
"She'll ask anyone to do anything," says Joanie Kenesie, her longtime friend and assistant. "And they always help her."
At the cemetery, she buys a cross to mark the grave and writes "We love you" on it in Spanish. Then she calls over the grave diggers, vendors selling the crosses, anybody she can find to join in a prayer for a stranger as the coffin is lowered into the ground.
She helps people nobody else goes near. "Without her, we would have nothing," a seventy-year-old woman named Eloísa tells us. She lost both legs below the knee to leprosy. When Mother Antonia met Eloísa, her husband, Roberto, also a leper, was carrying her around the prison yard on his back. She had no other way to get around. Roberto had been arrested for selling drugs, because, he says, nobody would give a leper a job. Lost without him, Eloísa went out and sold drugs on the street as openly as possible, so she would be arrested and sent to La Mesa to be with him. While they were in prison, Mother Antonia brought them food and kept them company when nobody else would have anything to do with them. She paid to fix Eloísa's teeth, because, she tells us, "If you don't have legs, you should at least have a beautiful smile."
When they were released in 2003, Mother Antonia worked the phones until she found someone who was willing to rent to them. She asked a former inmate, whose freedom she had won by paying his bail, to paint the apartment for them, and she bought Eloísa a wheelchair. As Mother Antonia's work became better known over the years, Mother Teresa visited with her on several trips to Tijuana and California. President Ronald Reagan wrote her a letter from the White House in 1982 praising her "devotion to a calling beyond the ordinary." Mexican President Vicente Fox has lauded her, and she was featured on a calendar honoring women who have made great contributions to Mexico.
She met Pope John Paul II in 1990 when he came to Chihuahua City to say Mass for hundreds of thousands of people. Bishop Emilio Berlie, then the bishop of Tijuana, chose Mother Antonia to carry the offertory gifts to the Pope. Over the microphone, the announcer called out Mother Antonia's name and said she was devoting her life to prisoners. She climbed the stairs to the platform where the Pope sat, and she knelt before him.
"Please pray for my prisoners," she asked.
He touched her cheek and handed her a rosary he had blessed.
She thanked him, then climbed down from the stage, elated. Hers had always been an unorthodox mission, and it had been tough to persuade the official church to accept a twice-divorced mother as a Catholic sister. But there she was, being blessed by the Pope himself.
As she made her way through the massive crowd a man ran up to her, calling her name.
"Remember me?" he said. "You paid my fine to get me out of jail and brought me to the bus station. Thank you. Thank you."
She gave him the rosary the Pope had just handed to her.
"He ran through a million people to find me," she says. "It was meant to be his."
It is impossible to give Mother Antonia a gift, because she invariably gives it to someone else. Give her flowers, and they end up brightening a cancer ward. Give her candy, and prisoners end up eating it. She can always think of someone who needs it more than she does.
Mother Antonia is a nonstop coffee drinker who requires only a few hours of sleep a night. Every encounter with people seems to energize her even more, and we see that happen over and over.
On one typical day we spend with her, she wakes at five a.m. and tunes in to the news on the radio to "see who else I need to pray for today." She showers with cold water, then irons her veil on a small fold-up ironing board in her cell. Next she goes to the chapel to pray, and then to the Grito, the morning roll call of new prisoners. After that, she spends the next few hours in the prison, talking to inmates.
At ten o'clock, Joanie, who has been assisting Mother Antonia full-time since her husband died in 1997, drives her the two blocks to Casa Campos de San Miguel, the shelter she runs for poor women, where Mother Antonia keeps a small office. Out back are several dormitory-style rooms for women who have just been released from La Mesa, along with those who have come to visit an inmate and women who are suffering from cancer.
Gabriela García Loeza is waiting for Mother Antonia outside Casa Campos as we arrive, her eyes swollen from crying. She was discharged from prison the night before and has been up all night. She tells Mother Antonia she has no money to go anywhere. Mother Antonia hugs her and tells her she is going to give her a bus ticket to Mexico City, where Gabriela has family. In the meantime, she should stay here. Gabriela calms down and comes into the house, heading to the kitchen, where some of the sisters who have joined Mother Antonia's unusual religious community cook her lunch.
We follow Mother Antonia into her office, and before she can sit down to tackle her stack of phone messages, the wife of a La Mesa guard arrives, frantic: "My husband said you help everybody. Can you help him? He's a good man, but now he is changed. I think he's using drugs. He is very aggressive. He doesn't eat. He doesn't sleep. Please, please, what are we going do to?"
Mother Antonia listens from behind her desk, where she keeps miniature Mexican, U.S., and Irish flags. She pulls out her dog-eared book of telephone numbers and is soon talking to the state's director of public security. She asks him: If a guard voluntarily acknowledged that he had a drug or alcohol addiction and wanted to take time off to go into rehab, would he promise her that the man wouldn't be fired? Sure, he says.
"You promise me, right?"
They talk about the need to start an Alcoholics Anonymous program for the guards. When the call ends, Mother Antonia turns to the wife and urges her to help her husband rather than criticize him. Then she asks for his cell number and dials it. "Víctor! This is Madre Antonia. I need you to come to my cell Saturday. I need your help with something."
"Thank you! Thank you!" the wife cries out, comforted that Mother Antonia will talk to him. She leaves, walking past the pile of Winnie the Poohs and stuffed animals that a donor from California has dropped off in the living room. By midafternoon, fifty children have come to the door and left with a new toy.
There are also restaurant-size cans of crushed pineapple and bags of used designer clothing; Nine West black sandals sit atop one pile. Everything goes to the prisoners, their families, and the needy of Tijuana. Literally tons of it every month. While we are there, a man drops off sixty liters of donated milk and juice.
A little girl pads around the living room. She had ended up in an orphanage because her mother, who was suffering from schizophrenia, couldn't care for her. One of the sisters in Mother Antonia's community adopted her, and now the little girl lives here, too.
The doorbell rings every few minutes. A man asks for a clean shirt. A boy asks for a pair of shoes. A twenty-year-old man asks for money to see a dentist; he has no upper teeth. The sisters find the shirt and shoes, and Mother Antonia writes a note to a dentist asking him to fix the man's teeth; she'll pay, as always.
Just as we are leaving, a man pulls up in an old beige Mustang. His name is Adam, and he is thirty-three. He tells Mother Antonia that he wants to kill himself, and that some instinct told him to come find her.
She puts her arms around him and hugs him.
"That is what I needed," he says.
The other sisters take him inside to chat for the afternoon and to fill him with warm food.
Mother Antonia then takes us with her across the border in her old blue Mazda, which was a donation, to get some papers notarized in San Ysidro, near San Diego. As she waits in line at the crowded crossing, a Mexican border guard recognizes her and walks up.
"Hi, Mama!" he says. "Can I please ask you a favor? Can you pray for my mother? She's sick."
Mother Antonia asks her name and promises to pray for her.
At the notary's office, a clerk, about fifty years old, comes up to her and whispers. "Madre Antonia," he says. "I'm one of your sons. I was in La Mesa fourteen years ago."
He is fighting back tears. Mother Antonia touches him gently and says she is happy to see him doing so well.
Back at La Mesa, she checks with the guards at the Rooster House. The smell inside had been so overpowering in the morning that she asked that they clean it out, which they have.
A man is waiting for her near her cell. He says his catheter has been emptying urine into the same plastic bag for too long and asks if she can please get him a new one. She makes a note to take care of it before the day is out.
She is feeling a little tired, and she knows that her day -- like all her days -- won't end until late at night. There will be a steady stream of inmates coming to her door with every kind of problem. She lies down for a few minutes, twists the valve on her oxygen tank, puts the mask over her face, and allows herself a few long, deep breaths.
"People say what I'm doing is such a great sacrifice, but it is not," she says, now feeling a little stronger. "I don't think of it as sacrifice. It's only a sacrifice when you do something you don't want to."
Mother Antonia has not come to this point easily. She speaks about her divorces with obvious pain, and she remembers late nights of doubting herself sitting alone after her kids were asleep, and wondering what lay ahead for her and for them. She knows she made lots of mistakes. She married too young the first time, too impulsively the second.
"It hasn't always been easy for her," says her oldest daughter, Kathleen, a family and marriage counselor in San Diego. "She went through so many trials, but they made her who she is. Her empathy and compassion have grown so much through her own suffering. She has struggled to get to this happiness."
From "The Prison Angel" by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan, Copyright May 2005, The Penguin Press, a member of Penguin Group, USA, used by permission.


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Horned Frogs winless in Big 12, lose 67-54 to No. 16 Kansas State, which has won 7 in a row
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FORT WORTH, Texas – TCU got off to a quick start against No. 16 Kansas State.
That early spurt was about all the Horned Frogs had Wednesday night in a 67-54 loss to the Wildcats, the Big 12 co-leaders who won their seventh straight game.
"I thought we played probably as about as good as we could play for about the first 3 or 4 minutes," first-year TCU coach Trent Johnson said. "But like most good teams that are mature, skilled, understand their roles — we had a couple breakdowns defensively, we had a couple breakdowns offensively — and they make you pay."
TCU (9-8, 0-4 Big 12) was up 8-2 less than 3 minutes into the game after 3-pointers by Kyan Anderson and freshman Charles Hill Jr. When Garlon Green made a layup with 13:21 to go, the Frogs still led 10-5.
Just over 3 minutes later, they were behind and never caught up.
Kansas State (14-2, 3-0) overcame its slow start and took control of the game with a 19-4 run.
Rodney McGruder's layup with 11 minutes left in the first half tied the game at 10. The Wildcats led for good when McGruder had a defensive rebound and turned that into a fastbreak 3-pointer by Will Spradling. A floater by McGruder stretched the lead to 24-14.
"We came out a little lethargic. Our bench did a great job, our seniors did a great job of leading us and giving us the energy we needed. ... Rodney gets going," new Wildcats coach Bruce Weber said. "It's a good win."
Kansas State gets to go home for games against Oklahoma and No. 4 Kansas, the other teams off to 3-0 starts in the Big 12.
Adrick McKinney had 18 points and nine rebounds for TCU. Anderson had 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting.
McGruder had 21 points on 9-of-15 shooting with three 3-pointers and was the only K-State player in double figures. But three other Wildcats scored eight points, including Jordan Henriquez, who had 10 rebounds.
When the Horned Frogs cut the gap to five points with a chance to get closer before halftime, they started making mistakes.
Connell Crossland had a steal and passed to Anderson, but TCU's top scorer missed a layup after getting himself in an awkward position under the rim. Martavious Irvin then hit a 3-pointer for Kansas State. Anderson had a turnover that led to a 3 by McGruder.
When TCU freshman Clyde Smith III was called for a 10-second violation, unable to get the ball past midcourt while being defended by Irving, McGruder drove for a high bank shot and a 34-21 lead that matched Kansas State's biggest of the half.
"The past few days Coach has been on me how I've been playing defense lately," said Irving, who also forced a 5-second call against TCU. "I wanted to come out and make a statement in this game."
In 18 minutes off the bench, Irving had eight points, five assists and three steals.
TCU got the first basket after halftime when Devonta Abron scored, but McGruder responded with a 3-pointer and Spradling hit another from long range.
Kansas State and TCU played for the first time since a 1999 NIT game the Horned Frogs won. They had played five times previously, TCU winning that NIT game and another in the 1968 NCAA tournament while the Wildcats had won all three regular-season meetings.


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|2010-03-03, 11:22
|Link #62
Che! Che! Che!
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Brazil
Age: 29
Scan also seems to list Yasuharu Takanashi (高梨康治) as the composer. At least we can expect awesome music, then.
Also, after seeing Daume, I was a bit worried since they did Yoake Mae Cabbages thing, but most of their other shows looked pretty good, so I'm just going to blame the staff that worked on that.
As for Amino, anyone has any input on him? I haven't watched Macross 7 and that seems like it's the only really well-known series he's worked on.
|2010-03-03, 13:00
|Link #64
otaku against own will
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Argentina
Age: 31
One of the reasons Cosette was so good was because Shinbo did an excellent job, I usually don't like his style but that show was perfect for him. He isn't working on this project so I have no idea what to expect, Daume's recent works are nothing like Shiki.
|2010-03-04, 10:52
|Link #65
Join Date: Jul 2009
I leave here the list of staff and part of the cast from the scans that was post before.
Director: Tetsuro Amino
Series Composition: Kenji Sugihara
Music: Yasuharu Takanashi
Character Design and Animation Director: Shinji Ochi
Art Director: Ichirou Tatsuta
Director of Photography: Masanori Sasaki
Color design: Keiko Shibuya and Yuka Maniwa
Animation Studio: Daume
Natsuno Yuuki: Uchiyama Kouki
Toshio Ozaki: Touru Ookawa
Seishin Muroi: Kazuyuki Okitsu
Megumi Shimizu: Haruka Tomatsu
Sunako Kirishiki: Aoi Yuuki
Tatsumi: Wataru Takagi
Shoujirou Kirishiki: GACKT
Last edited by B.kun; 2010-03-04 at 11:28.
|2010-03-05, 19:47
|Link #67
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2007
|2010-03-05, 21:03
|Link #68
Che! Che! Che!
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Brazil
Age: 29
Still, Shiki's looking good enough from the previews and I'm already sold the moment they announced Yasuharu for the musics, haha.
|2010-03-05, 21:06
|Link #69
Lets be reality
Join Date: May 2007
So while studio does matter a lot it's not everything, budget (Aniplex should mean that's no problem) and the quality of the original source matter as well.
|2010-03-08, 20:00
|Link #70
Join Date: Mar 2006
On the other hand, if they can create a creepy psychological atmosphere they may not need to mess with things much. That's going to require some good art direction and music though. So far the character designs are pretty faithful to the original, that's a good sign in the right direction.
|2010-03-27, 18:49
|Link #71
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Somewhere between heaven and hell !
Trailer :
Look like Higurashi with detective/mystery part .
|2010-03-28, 18:43
|Link #73
Yuuki Aoi
Join Date: Jul 2004
I noticed this show because Yuuki Aoi is voicing a character (Sunako). But the bit of manga I read seems good, and has lots of atmosphere. Slow at first, but building.
I don't see blaming Amino Tetsurou for Yoakena just because he did a storyboard for one episode of it. His most recent directoral work seem to be Silk Road Kids and a Lupin movie, neither of which I have seen. And he directed Macross7 and other shows many moons ago.
The writer, Sugihara Kenji, is doing series composition for the first time, and previously did script work on shows like sola, Minami-ke, and SA, none of which give much clue as to how well he might do with this.
The real problem with Yoakena was animation, and particularly consistency of animation, but the animation director of this show was not involved in that one. Ochi Shinji did a recent Lupin special, and was animation director of Tona-gura. Not that that's a great recommendation, lol.
I'm a big believer in being able to predict how good a show might be from its director and writer (e.g., Baka to Test). But as Westlo says, source material and budget have a big effect on a show, too, and you can't definitely predict on the basis of studio or staff alone.
In Yuuki Aoi's blog today, she posted a less than perfect photo of some of the cast, from just before an event at TAF:
(l-r) Tomatsu Haruka, Yuuki Aoi, Uchiyama Kouki, Ohkawa Tohru, Okitsu Kazuyuki.
It's as if they are living in four different worlds and just got thrown together in a bomb shelter, lol. Ao-chan tends to dress well-covered and a bit loligoth. Tomatsu is in idol mode.
Ao-chan rushed from event to event at TA, appearing in three of them. Fans on 2channel who saw her were understandably excited. "Short" and "cute" were the words. No mention of Tomatsu in Ao-chan's thread, lol.
Last edited by Kaoru Chujo; 2010-03-28 at 22:07.
|2010-04-04, 12:46
|Link #74
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
|2010-04-25, 11:20
|Link #75
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2005
A bit late on this really looking forward to it. As for the Studio Daume don't think you much to worry. They've done several well animated shows like Please Teacher/Twins, Ichigo Mashimaro and the first season of Minami-ke, they weren't involve with the sequels of Minami-ke which had shoddy animation and iffy direction that was done by another studio. Looking at the trailer looks very good, the character designs are exactly how they look in the manga.
|2010-05-01, 10:12
|Link #76
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: France
Age: 28
The official website was updated today with the fifth key visual (of Tatsumi), and pictures for many characters. I've put up everything together in case you don't feel like clicking everywhere on the character page:
Spoiler for Character information:
I am a huge fan of the manga, and seeing every character adapted this faithfully makes me immensely pleased. The cast is also really exciting - Ucchi as Natsuno will get me fangirling much more than GACKT, Tomacchan as Megumi should be a delight to hear, and I just don't see who could have done Sunako better than Ao-chan. Kaoru should also love to learn that Sasaki Nozomi is voicing the nurse.
Debuting on July 8th, 25:15 - the extended noitaminA timeslot. I certainly can't wait.
|horror, shounen, supernatural, vampire
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And last, but not least, we have the Yaxha (blue) tribe. The bulk of their camp vidcaps appear to come from at least Day 2, because everyone is wearing more (and mostly different) clothes than at arrival, and they already have their shelter built.
i am picking jim for the boot, as he is shown puking, and i think they will get rid of the weak, as to not make mistakes made by the previous tribes!! =]/ swanee, u are not in any of the games?? :':') i am having a strange time getting into it all again my self!! :roll:
Over in MeSS, Wezzie asked a very good question: when was the picture of Yaxha hiking (without bags) taken? I checked the file info in Photoshop, and it reveals the date the photo was taken. For the picture in question, it was taken 6/27/05, or Day One.But this got me thinking: when were all the other pictures taken? Going off of the unbranded pictures from this collection at Sfever (www.survivorfever.net/gal...p?album=21 ), I found a lot of the Nakum photos were taken on 6/30/05, which should be the first day of Episode 2. At the very least, since there are pictures from 6/27, it must be beyond the first boot. That means people photographed on 6/30 are safe for Ep1.There are pictures of the following Nakum people taken on 6/30:Blake, Brandon, Brooke, Danni, Jim, Judd, MargaretBoth of Cindy's solo pictures are from 6/28 (as are the images that look like part of the first IC).So that leaves Bobby Jon and Cindy as first boot candidates, assuming Nakum heads to TC first. My money's now on Cindy.(Edited to fix link... sorry Croc).Edited by: truedorktimes at: 9/12/05 9:50 pm
swanee, u are not in any of the games?? :':') i am having a strange time getting into it all again my self!! :roll:
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The chief financial officer's (CFO's) role continues to evolve to that of an architect of business value. It is moving toward driving business growth and managing complexity while controlling costs.
Our 2014 High Performance Finance Study delves deep into the changing role of the CFO—one that has more strategic influence and drives business value by supporting growth and managing complexities while keeping costs in check.
The research, first carried out in 2004, has seen the role of the CFOs continually evolve. This year's study comprised a survey of more than 600 senior finance executives, as well as interviews with more than 30 CFOs and other senior finance professionals.
Among the respondents to our survey:
Seventy-five percent say that the CFO's role in supporting strategic decision making has increased in the past two years.
Seventy percent think that the CFO's influence over executing business transformation initiatives has grown.
The study highlights that:
Complexity is the biggest challenge senior finance executives face today. However, it can also be an opportunity for them to implement major business transformations to further simplify, standardize and optimize business processes.
Digital technology is having a significant impact on the finance function's performance. The new digital technologies can help senior finance executives better manage complexities and improve decision making.
The study reveals five key imperatives for CFOs to become the business value architect for the enterprise. These include:
Aligning strategy across the enterprise.
Transforming operating models.
Managing business performance and finding the right measures to do so.
Building digital technology acumen and stewardship.
Continuing to develop advanced finance capabilities.
Our 2014 High Performance Finance Study revealed five key high-level findings:
Finance functions have made significant progress over the past three years in managing some of the external factors impacting performance, including the challenge of permanent volatility. Overall, senior finance executives are more satisfied with the performance of their finance function than they were in 2011 across every dimension surveyed.
Complexity, in its various forms, is the biggest challenge finance organizations face today. But it is also an opportunity. Companies can help manage business complexities by standardizing and optimizing processes to streamline and simplify the organization.
Cost control is no longer the primary emphasis in most organizations today. Instead, CFOs are increasingly focused on investment in growth. In doing so, many are also finding an opportunity to drive broader organizational business transformation, building value for the enterprise.
Digital technology is having a deep impact on the finance function's performance. It provides a clear opportunity for CFOs to accept and exploit the digital revolution, given their unique position at the intersection of finance, technology and strategy.
Finance leaders at high-performance businesses are more likely to have seen their influence grow in key strategic activities. They report high levels of satisfaction with the performance of their finance function and are closely involved in assessing technology investments.
As the CFO's role continues to evolve, we see five key imperatives for them to truly become the architects of business value:
Align strategy: The CFO's agenda and objectives must be more closely aligned to business strategy and those of the chief executive officer. The CFO will be a key player in the formulation of business strategy and will need to lead the finance function to deliver on strategic objectives.
Transform operating models: The CFO will need to continually evolve the operating model as companies scale up or down to address a more demanding business environment. A transition toward a global or integrated shared services model can help reduce costs and quickly gain access to more value-added services.
Manage performance: The CFO needs to be much more forward-looking and track business indicators much earlier in the cycle.
The finance function should take a holistic view of performance, analyzing financial outcomes both in terms of decisions taken in the enterprise and changes in the broader external market.
Embrace digital: CFOs should develop a deeper understanding of the digital technology landscape and learn how to "speak digital." The technology component of business processes can no longer be isolated, and the CFO will need the capacity within the finance organization to assess the full scope of digital technology considerations.
Develop finance capability: As finance spends much more time interacting with business leadership, there will be an increasing need among finance professionals for skill sets that support advanced data analysis and the use of digital technology. Finance will also need to develop specializations in the financial aspects of specific business processes such as pricing and trade promotion.


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hello everyone,
i made and tasted my first lemon curd some days ago, triggered by loretta's mushipan recipe in this thread: http://justbento.com/forum/mushi-pan-variations-dough-and-topping . maybe someone is interested in how to make fruit curd.
i have a recipe from roald dahl's cookbook of which i halved the amounts for try-out (made one bigger and one smaller re-used twist-top jar). it's very easy:
melt 110g butter in a bowl over hot water, stir in 225g sugar. when combined, add the zest and juice of 2 lemons and stir well again. then add 2 eggs that have been passed through a sieve (an additional yolk will make the product a little firmer if the eggs are small). keep on low heat and stir for approx. 10-15 minutes until the mixture has noticably thickened. pour into glass jars.
simple, isn't it? and very good for me, as i'm always looking for additional calories- my bmi is still 18,4 and working at night leaves me drained the next morning. this is like jam with butter and egg added! yay, fruity hidden proteins! for baking mushipan, i add an extra egg yolk to some spoons of curd and put it on top.
this called for more little experiments.
today i made some raspberry curd, i just changed the lemon for a handful of frozen raspberrys, which i simmered in a little black currant juice for a colour boost and passed through a sieve, then followed the recipe above pretending it was lemon juice. it's cooling on the window sill right now.
funny thing about raspberry curd: when i tasted it, i suddenly remembered being on a trip to southern england as a kid. i had some raspberry tarts there and wondered how they'd done the filling, which was too rich for being custard and too sweet and opaque to be made with jam and too smooth and waxy in texture to be made with sth. starchy.. i had totally forgotten about these tarts, but now i finally know what was in them and can even re-bake them!
i love it when that happens, don't you?
I'm very glad you posted this recipe, I was wondering what those mushipan would be like with real lemon curd and didn't realise the recipe would be that straightforward (although I will stress that only a little lemon curd is required to make a zingy lemon yogurt mushipan!).
I'm not doing too well with the orange marmalade variation (although the grated carrot does seem to work). You've inspired me to try making orange curd and seeing if that will work instead.
This is like one of those internet and satellite phone connected board meetings, but we're all in our kitchens. :D
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If you're an APMEX customer, you may know The Perth Mint as the prized destination for our annual "Escape To Australia" contest. As an investor or collector, you probably know The Perth Mint for their products. Their Gold and Silver Lunar coins are among the most beautiful and collected Chinese Zodiac coins in the world. Here are a few surprising facts about The Perth Mint that you might not know.
Rare. Many Perth Mint coins are made in strictly limited mintages, giving even their most value-priced bullion coins a dimension of collectibility.
Same Location since 1899. The Perth Mint was established in 1899 as a branch of Britain's Royal Mint. Today, it's one of the oldest mints in the world to operate on its original premises, despite the name change.. The Perth Mint is actually incorporated as Gold Corporation and has two wholly owned subsidiaries – Western Australian Mint and GoldCorp USA.
Created The First Gold Bullion Series. In 1986, The Perth Mint launched the Australian Gold Nugget Coin Series, the first bullion series with a reverse (back) design that changes every year. The first few coins featured Gold nuggets. In 1989, the design switched to a kangaroo. Today, we commonly call this series the Australian Gold Kangaroo.
Biggest and Best. In 2011, The Perth Mint unveiled the biggest, heaviest and inherently most valuable Gold coin in the world. Weighing in at 1,000kg (2,204.6 pounds), this coin contains one metric tonne of 99.99 percent pure Gold and is worth more than $42.6 million at current Gold prices.
A Refinery and A Mint. There's only one Gold refinery in Australia and it's The Perth Mint. Between coins, bullion and industrial Gold, The Perth Mint produces more than 400 tonnes of Gold per year.
Visit Perth and The Mint. Located on the Western Shore of Australia, Perth is a bustling and beautiful city with beaches, parks and natural wonders unique to this island continent. You can also visit The Perth Mint while you're there. In fact, you could…
Every fall, when the new Perth Mint coins come out, APMEX launches the "Escape To Australia" contest. Watch for it on this blog and APMEX.com.


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Democratic Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln repeatedly painted herself as an independent voice and moderate lawmaker on Wednesday during her second debate with her Republican challenger Rep. John Boozman, who sought to link the two-term senator to President Barack Obama and his agenda.
Lincoln, who trails Boozman in most polls and is viewed as one of the Senate's most vulnerable incumbents this year, emphasized her ability to work with Republicans and Democrats and said she bows to no political agenda.
"I'm the most independent voice in Washington these days, quite frankly," she said. "I'm not an automatic for my party. . Some people say I'm too liberal and others say I'm too conservative. The fact is, I'm in the middle, I'm working hard. I'm not sitting on the sidelines booing the other people. I'm out there working to make a difference."
Boozman, a congressman who represents northwest Arkansas, repeatedly highlighted Lincoln's role as a pivotal vote in the passage of Obama's health-care law.
"Sen. Lincoln is very proud of being the deciding vote of Obamacare. I want to be the deciding vote to repeal it," Boozman said.
Lincoln heads into the midterm election after narrowly surviving a bruising primary battle against Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who gained the support of many groups who thought Lincoln was too conservative. Boozman, who's served five terms in the House, coasted to a primary victory.
During the debate — the second and final one between the two before Nov. 2 — Lincoln again attacked Boozman as a lawmaker who wants to privatize Social Security and make major cuts to Medicare. Boozman countered that Lincoln was yet another tax-and-spend Democrat who's run up a trillion-dollar deficit.
The two differed on how to balance the budget, with Boozman suggesting an amendment requiring a balanced budget and legislation allowing line-item vetoes, while Lincoln said a combination of spending cuts and taxes are needed.
The candidates were also asked whether they supported a repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, which bans openly gay troops. Lincoln, who was one of just two Democrats to join Republicans in a vote to block a recent repeal attempt, said the policy should be eliminated if that's what the military's top commanders recommend.
"I think it is important to listen to the military . to ensure that the military confirms that there is going to be no detriment to troop strength, to morale, to efficiency and effectiveness of our troops," if the ban is lifted, Lincoln said.
Boozman said the policy should remain in place.
"I think the current policy has worked well," he said. "We haven't had significantly problems with it."
This week, a federal judge in California issued an injunction that stops the military from enforcing the policy. An appeal is likely.
Also participating in Wednesday's debate, which will air on the Arkansas Educational Television Network, were Green Party candidate John Gray and independent candidate Trevor Drown. Gray, an engineer who serves as mayor of Greenland, said economic issues were critical in this election, while Drown, a UPS driver, said he was a conservative Christian who wanted to uphold the U.S. Constitution.
Lincoln's campaign is relying on a last-minute push from the state's favorite son Bill Clinton, who made a campaign stop Wednesday night in east Arkansas. Clinton also appears in Lincoln's latest television ad, in which the former president said Boozman is relying on voters to cast ballots out of anger, not on issues.
At a rally in Jonesboro, Clinton accused Boozman of ducking the campaign.
"Sen. Lincoln has battled back from an enormous deficit against a congressman who is so smug he doesn't even feel he needs to campaign," Clinton said.
Boozman campaign spokesman Patrick Creamer dismissed Clinton's remarks, saying Boozman has been at more than 100 campaign events.
"The idea that he's not campaigning, there's just no basis for that," Creamer said.
IN PICTURES: Notable women in US politics


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UW Professor, Student Part of Team that Made Monumental Excavation in Israel
Religious scholars and ancient historians should reexamine how they view the economic status of people living in Israel's Sea of Galilee region during the fourth through sixth centuries, according to a University of Wyoming professor who was part of the team that excavated a stunning mosaic floor decorating the interior of an ancient synagogue building.
The synagogue was unearthed in June by a joint American-Israeli team of scholars and students at Huqoq, an ancient Galilean village, just fives miles from Capernaum and Magdala.
Paul Flesher, UW Religious Studies Program director, oversees the database system and supervises the computer work for the expedition that made the monumental discovery.
"Most historians believe that this was a period when this region was occupied by the downtrodden and impoverished," Flesher says. "This discovery is a significant indication that the region was much more prosperous than what is commonly perceived."
The mosaic, which is made of tiny colored stone cubes of the highest quality, includes a scene depicting Samson placing torches between the tails of foxes (as related in Judges 15). In another part of the mosaic, two human (apparently female) faces flank a circular medallion with a Hebrew inscription that refers to rewards for those who perform good deeds.
"The synagogue itself supports the conclusion that the village was prosperous at the time of its erection," Flesher says. "Not only do the mosaic's tiny tesserae point to its quality and expense, but so do the massive shaped stones that make up the synagogue's walls. There is nothing small about its construction."
The project's leader, Jodi Magness of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, agrees with Flesher's assessment.
"Our mosaics are also important because of their high artistic quality and the tiny size of the mosaic cubes," she said in a UNC news brief. "This, together with the monumental size of the stones used to construct the synagogue's walls, suggest a high level of prosperity in this village, as the building clearly was very costly."
One of the students in the Religious Studies Program, Courtney Callison of Cypress, Calif., who came to UW to study ancient archaeology, was assigned to the excavation project in Israel last year. The program plans to send other UW students to participate in the project during the next four years.
The discovery also provides evidence against the influence of the powerful Byzantine Emperor Justinian I, whose extensive law code outlawed pagan religions and forbade Jews from building new synagogues. Flesher says the monumental synagogues of Huqoq and surrounding villages show that Justinian's law was not being followed in Galilee.
"His control apparently did not extend to the Galilean interior," he says. "The scientific archaeological excavations at the village of Huqoq not only provide important insight into the lives of ancient Galilean Jews, but help us evaluate the power and effectiveness of one of the most important rulers in the ancient world."


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What You Need to Know About Prescription Goggles
Is everything a blur when you play soccer or snorkel? Investing in a pair of prescription goggles may make your favorite activity much more enjoyable.View Article
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ROCHESTER — Season's over. Championships have been handed out. There's really nothing to play for in Thanksgiving Day football games, right?
Try telling that to Tyrone Scott of the Spaulding High School football team.
Scott, who was a first-team D-II all-state defensive back in 2011 as a junior, cruelly missed his entire senior season after suffering an injury during a summer camp. Scott will suit up for the first time on Thursday when the Red Raiders host Somersworth in their annual Turkey Bowl game (10 a.m.) at Hugo Bolin Field.
"It's amazing," Scott said. "Not being able to play at all the last three months killed me. It was the worst, having to sit there on the sidelines, watching my team. It killed me not being able to be out there with them."
Ty's brother Trey went on to have a fine senior season of his own, rushing for more than 1,000 yards and earning first-team all-state honors, the only Red Raider to do so. Trey, Spaulding's top runner, said he'll be happy to see Ty get his share of touches on Thursday.
"We're going to try to get him a lot of carries," Trey Scott said. "He's back. Hopefully he can get some yards. This is his first game since August."
Spaulding coach Claude Gagnon said Ty Scott broke his arm in a scrimmage against Somersworth during an overnight football camp during the summer.
"It's going to be a special day for him," Gagnon said. "It's exciting. He's fresh, he's our fastest kid, so expect a big day out of him."
Spaulding's Jacob Paradis said that Ty Scott getting a chance to play his final senior game is what Thanksgiving Day football is all about.
"It just proves that we're a team," said Paradis. "I'm glad Tyrone will get a chance to play."
Ty Scott said he hopes to play well, but the most important thing for him is for the Red Raiders to end their season on a strong note.
"I just want to win," Ty Scott said. "I'm just hoping the team will perform well and go out there ready to play."
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Somersworth's season was a success but had a bitter finish. After going 7-1 in the regular season and wrapping up the No. 1 seed for the Division V tournament, the Hilltoppers lost 9-0 at home to No. 3 Monadnock in the championship game.
"We're all pretty excited to have one last game," said Somersworth linebacker Tyler Kretschmar. "All the seniors are pretty pumped. Not to mention it's against Spaulding, one of our rivals. It's always nice to play them with the tradition of a Thanksgiving game."
Somersworth running back Kurtis Michaud said as intense as the regular season and playoffs were, it's nice to focus on football without having much pressure involved.
"It's a time to come together as a team, have fun and focus on what we have to do to win," Michaud said. "It's one last shot to get out there. Come out with a smile on your face, that's what it's all about."
Somersworth coach Dan Hodsdon said he doesn't want his team to be too laid back entering Thursday morning's game.
"We're playing a D-II team that's hungry for a win," Hodsdon said. "If we any aspect of it lightly, whether it's the other team or the atmosphere, it could be embarrassing. We have to guard against that."
It was a disappointing regular season for Spaudling, which entered last year's Thanksgiving contest coming off a Division II playoff appearance. The Red Raiders never really got things going this year, and finished 2-8 overall and 2-6 in the league.
"Not making the postseason, it sucks, but it's our last game as Red Raiders," said Spaulding quarterback Sam Ouellette. "Everyone's trying to have fun and put a win together."
Somersworth has been off since Nov. 10, while Spaulding hasn't played since Nov. 2 when it finished the season with a loss at home against Concord.
The current Thanksgiving series between the two schools is tied 2-2. Somersworth won 21-18 in Rochester in 2010, but the Red Raiders returned the favor a year later with a 28-6 win in Somersworth.
Long road back for Spaulding's Scott
ROCHESTER — Season's over. Championships have been handed out. There's really nothing to play for in Thanksgiving Day football games, right?


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Every engineer working for us are Gas Safe registered and are highly trained in order to install your new boiler. The Gas Safe register is the official list of all gas engineers who are registered to work legally on boilers, cookers, fires and all other gas appliances.
It is a legal requirement for all gas engineers in Shadwell to be on the Gas Safe Register. The Gas Safe Register replaced CORGI as the registration body in 2009.
Our engineers have a range of qualifications which allows them to carry out specific types of gas work. If you have someone who is not Gas Safe registered in Shadwell, you are putting yourself and your property at serious risk. If anything was to be fitted badly, your gas appliances will potentially cause gas leaks, fires, explosions and fatal carbon monoxide poisoning.
Contact us to get a quick quote on your new boiler purchase. We can draw something up based on the size of your home and how your current central heating system is set up. Once you are happy with the quote from us, we will send along a surveyor to your home to price the job and that is the final price you will pay.
We can provide a number of gas and heating services for domestic and commercial customers. Our guys will also carry a legal and up to date Gas Safe Register ID card which will feature their own unique licence number and lets you see what exact types of gas work they are qualified to do before they even enter your property and carry out any work.
We provide a high quality gas and plumbing service for all our customers leaving them completely satisfied with the work we do. For gas safe engineers in Shadwell contact the gas safe specialists by phone or email to arrange a visit from one of our certified gas safe plumber in Shadwell.


text: Dairylea Members Approve Merger with DFA February 5, 2014 07:30 AM Tweet TAGS: Marketing, Overseas December 18, 2014 By News Release Email Source: Dairylea, Dairy Farmers of America During a special meeting today in Syracuse, N.Y., members of Dairylea Cooperative Inc. approved the proposed merger with Dairy Farmers of America (DFA). The merger will become official on April 1, and combines Dairylea's Northeast-based 1,200 members with DFA's 13,000 nationwide dairy farmer members. The cooperatives have enjoyed a successful working relationship since DFA was formed in 1998. Working together, Dairylea and DFA have created efficiencies in milk assembly, transportation and marketing, as well as joint management of Farm Services and membership operations in the Northeast. "In many ways, it will just be business as usual as we expand upon the working relationship DFA and Dairylea have established over the past 15 years," said Rick Smith, DFA president and chief executive officer. Greg Wickham, Dairylea's chief executive officer, highlighted that the merger brings brands, plants and end products back to Dairylea members while maintaining the values, strategic goals and vision of Dairylea. "This merger makes sense because DFA and Dairylea share strategic goals, our values align, our missions are similar, and our vision is the same," Wickham said. "Dairy farmers take pride in producing milk for consumer products and merging with DFA allows us to take our capital and assist with growing existing plants and brands to feed the world." According to William Beeman, Dairylea chairman and president, "Dairylea has a proud past, and this merger with DFA will ensure a promising future for our members." Although a national cooperative, DFA's grassroots structure ensures the Cooperative's Northeast Area Council will maintain local governance familiar to Dairylea members. When the merger takes effect on April 1, Dairylea's nearly 300 employees will become employees of DFA and continue to provide service to Northeast dairy farms out of the offices currently shared by both Cooperatives in Syracuse, N.Y. There will be no disruption in operations or milk procurement in the Northeast. Back to news


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May 2004
Inspired by the British Royal Society's medals commemorating explorer James Cook's voyages, Boston merchant Joseph Barrell commissioned the Columbia and Washington medal to be sent to the Pacific on the Columbia and Lady Washington in 1787. The bill of lading for the voyage lists 300 medals "to be distributed amongst the Natives on the North West Coast of America, and to commemorate the first American Adventure on the Pacific Ocean." Considered the first die-struck medal issued after American independence, the Columbia and Washington token received considerable attention in contemporary newspaper accounts.
In spite of this notoriety, the origin of the medal remains obscure. While Joseph Barrell probably was solely responsible for its production, neither he nor the newspapers thought to mention the designer, die-maker, or how many medals were struck in each metal used (pewter, copper, and silver). It once was thought that architect Charles Bulfinch was the only member of the partnership with the necessary skills to design the medal, but the jewelry that Joseph Barrell designed and had made for his family is proof of his artistic ability. Joseph Callender has been suggested as the die-maker for the Columbia and Washington medal. After apprenticing under Paul Revere, Callender went into business for himself in Boston as an engraver. One definite connection between Callender and the first voyage of the Columbia is the set of dies that he made for the new Massachusetts 1787 cents and half-cents; the Columbia partners obtained and shipped the new Massachusetts coinage before it was officially circulated.
In 1791, acting on behalf of the merchants involved in the voyage, Joseph Barrell presented this copper Columbia and Washington medal to the newly established Massachusetts Historical Society. It has long been treasured as the cornerstone of the Society's numismatic collection. The Society acquired a silver medal in 1905 and completed the set in 1962 with the Nash-Halsey pewter medal, inherited from James Briggs who built the Columbia.
For more information about our numismatic holdings, please see the Numismatics & Historical Artifacts section of our website.
At the close of the American Revolution, United States ships opened new trade routes to the East. No longer subject to the monopoly of the British East India Company, American merchants eagerly desired to trade with the East Indies, and with Canton, China in particular. While British merchants traded for Chinese goods with gold, Americans did not have the luxury of extra capital, and sought new commodities to trade with the Chinese for their teas, silks and other goods. In 1787, a group of Boston merchants decided there was profit to be made in trading sea otter furs from the Northwest Coast of America to the Chinese. The ship Columbia Rediviva and sloop Lady Washington set off in September of 1787 around Cape Horn to the Northwest Coast to trade with Native Americans for furs and then continued on to China. (See the online presentation of the title page of the manuscript log and narrative of this voyage by Robert Haswell.) This voyage established the highly profitable Boston-Northwest Coast-Canton trade, which made fortunes for many Boston merchants.
Hoping to trade furs with the Japanese as well, the Lady Washington continued onward from China to Japan in 1791 and those on board became the first American visitors to that country. While this initial trading was not a success, it was a first tiny crack in opening isolated Japan to the West and inaugurated more than two centuries of Japanese-American relations. It also established a relationship between Boston and Japan that would flourish in the 19th century and continue to this day.


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Hear the Grant Park Orchestra broadcast live on Wednesday at 6:30 PM
Hear the Milwaukee Symphony on Wednesday at 9:00 PM
Wednesday evening WFMT presents a line-up of great local (sort-of) orchestras. First hear the Grant Park Orchestra live from the Pritzker Pavilion in Chicago's Millennium Park. Watch a video of Grant Park's Project Inclusion. Wednesday's concert features a Rodgers & Hammerstein extravaganza. Then, the nearby Milwaukee Symphony takes to the air at 9:00 PM, a special time due to the previous live event. This program presents another opportunity to hear a featured work in WFMT's Art and Music Month, Paul Hindemith's Mathis der Maler. View artworks below to explore Hindemith's inspiration: the painter, Matthias Grünewald.


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Breaking News
Sally Ride -- the first American woman to enter space -- died today in California after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer.
Sally's company, Sally Ride Science, made the announcement. Sally was 61.
Ride joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman to enter space. At the time, she was also the youngest American to enter space at age 32.
In 1987, Sally left NASA to work at Stanford's Center for International Security and Arms Control.


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The hotel has recently undergone a major refurbishment programme and
now offers 272 attractive rooms in a choice of five different styles -
Classic, Scandinavian, Oriental, Italian and British - allowing guests
to select a decor to suit their mood. These also include 11 King
studios, 4 Penthouse suites and 3 Junior suites. All are
air-conditioned with bath and power shower, direct-dial telephone, and
remote control colour television with CNN, Arabic, Japanese, French,
German, Spanish and Scandinavian satellite channels and in-house
movies. Other amenities include 24-hour room service, full valet and
dry-cleaning services, a room key-card security system and mini-bar.
All rooms are also equipped with fax and
PC-modem points for transmission and receipt of E-mail.
Portman Corner RestaurantLocals favour this London restaurant for its ideal location just north of busy Oxford Street. Travellers, shoppers and businessmen will all find something to enjoy at the Portman Corner Restaurant, renowned for its food, style and rich atmosphere.
Al Fresco dining in the summer on the hotel's stylish patio makes Portman Corner Restaurant one of the most popular restaurants in central London.
Opening hours:Breakfast: 06:30 - 10:30 (Mon - Fri), 06:30 - 11:00 (Sat), 07:00 - 12:00 (Sun)Lunch: 12:00 - 14:30 (Daily)Dinner: 18:00 - 22:30 (Daily)
Reservations: Tel: +44 020 7208 6006
Portman Bar and LoungeThe bar and lounge, adjacent to Portman Corner Restaurant, serve a variety of delightful and creative cocktails, as well as a large selection of wine and beer. Guests can enjoy a drink before leaving to enjoy London's lively nightlife, or spend a quiet evening with a friend over drinks.
Opening hours: 06:30 - 01:00 (Daily)
Rooms: 123456789
Adults: 12345678
Children: 012345678


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Creating a robot for bowling
ARM Automation does a lot of robotic design and is used to getting some peculiar application challenges, but this one was more interesting than most. The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) wanted to create a new robot capable of throwing a bowling ball with all the strength and control of the best human bowlers, and then some. While it may sound like something pretty unique, it is not without precedent. There had been an earlier model called "Harry" that had achieved a level of success, but the next generation would have to make some major advances.
The purpose of this project was to create a means to test various elements of the bowling process, so as to separate the human elements from hardware. "We aren't testing just one thing, we're testing the whole system of bowling," said Neil Stremmel, USBC managing director. "That can be the lane oil, the ball, the pins, and the ball motion, which involves coefficient of friction, rates of gyration, and interaction with the pins. There are so many things going on, it's hard to say 'this is what we need to change' to make bowling much more skill oriented than technology oriented."
Stremmel points out that a human bowler is simply not consistent enough, and is always fighting the desire to go for a strike. He added, "In order to study ball motion reliably and repeatably, you need something that is consistent and without bias. That's where the robot comes in. Most bowlers have preconceived notions as to what they see in front of them. We're not concerned with rolling strikes. We want consistency."
Playing with inertia
If you have ever tried to develop any skill as a bowler or even just rolled a few lines now and then, you know it is tricky. The way the ball rolls and spins suggests it has a mind of its own. This is not entirely your imagination. The way the internal weight is distributed in a bowling ball is not completely symmetrical. While it is balanced, the inertia is not the same on every axis. If you take a dumbbell, its weight is evenly distributed around the center, but its inertial characteristics are different if you stand it on its end and spin it, compared to spinning it on its side. That's the way it is with a bowling ball. It spins differently on one axis than another, which is a characteristic a skilled bowler is able to use to his or her advantage.
Now, how do you describe and quantify that kind of action so it can be built into a robot? How does a designer begin to sort through the axes of motion required to duplicate a world-class human bowler? Moreover, it has to be capable of any motion, from the slow, straight roll of a child to the powerful throw and aggressive spin of a professional with virtually perfect repeatability. Conceptualizing it is hard enough, but you have to build it too. ARM Automation took on the challenge.
"It was a challenge, because, as with many customers, they speak a language in their own domain," said Derek Black, VP of business development for ARM Automation. "Every industry has its own language, coordinates, and terms. Part of the art of doing good design and system integration work in many different industries is being able to translate user specifications and user language into meaningful design requirements. If you frame it in the right light and you ask the right questions, you set yourself up for success and you also often frame the architecture of your solution without even realizing it."
ARM's designers were able to meet with Stremmel and the USBC team and see video of Harry, but had no opportunity to work with or dissect the earlier robot. Eventually, they were able to specify ranges for the four main parameters: ball throwing speed, spin revolution rate, axis of tilt, and axis of rotation.
"We had video from Harry," Stremmel said. "We were able to say, 'Here's the speed and here's the rotation.' Those were the easier things. As far as axis rotation, that's really just the axis point, whether it's pointing straight back at the bowler, or 90° from there, or somewhere in between. But then the tilt, which is taking that axis and tilting it up towards the ceiling, will be the rotation that the ball initially revolves around. It's the initial axis point. It took some describing and explaining, but it didn't take all that long."
Starting from scratch
ARM had to turn that into a buildable configuration, beginning by analyzing the necessary axes of motion. Greg Wiese, engineering project manager for ARM, helped sort it out: "There's the linear axis to position the robot's shoulder across the width of the lane, a five-axis robot hanging off that linear axis, plus an axis to spin the ball on the gripper or end effector. So that's seven, and then a mechanism to release the ball. We had tried initially to use an off-the-shelf robot to save some cost and development time, but with the tip speed necessary to throw the ball 24 mph, we couldn't find a robot that had a strong enough shoulder to generate that hard a throwing motion. That drove us to do our own robot design."
Over time, ARM was able to create the movement geometry that would determine the robot's dimensions. As Black described it, "Most robots are planar mechanisms. Once you locate the shoulder joint in a throwing mechanism, you then look at the first two joints as the x translation side to side and the base rotation. That defines the plane of throw. So once you define the plane of throw, the arm is essentially three joints in series: a shoulder joint, an elbow joint, and a two-axis wrist. So by defining the first joint, the translation joint, and the second rotary joint, you've set the shoulder x position and the rotation around the vertical. Once you've done that, you have your throw plane, and you have to calculate your wrist orientation at the point of release. What we did ultimately was make a geometrically reconfigurable pendulum with the ability to articulate the gripper."
While all that is true, it all gets more complicated due to the ball's weight and inertial characteristics mentioned earlier. The gripper cannot grab the ball at random, but has to hold it such that it will spin on the correct axis and then release it in the correct position. "What we did to accomplish that was to set up a standard base frame so the ball was placed in the holder in a consistent location and orientation," Black explained. "The finger holes are the reference point, and once you've defined that, the robot picks up the ball in a very particular orientation as selected by the thrower. Once it's picked up the ball, from a design perspective, you stop thinking about where the ball frame is in the gripper. Now you're focusing on the point of release, because that's one of the most critical features of the whole system. At the point of release, there is a specific orientation of the spin axis at that point in time and space. You're defining where in space the instantaneous trajectory of the ball is relative to x, y, and z; its velocity; and the orientation of the spin axis relative to the frame of the lane."
Letting go
While the way the robot holds the ball is critical, releasing is just as important. The mechanism clamps on the ball between two grippers, like the head- and tail-stock of a lathe. The head-stock side has the motor that spins the ball. Both sides come together using a scissor lever action driven by a double-acting pneumatic cylinder. Given that bowling balls are not all the same diameter, the gripper has to adjust itself to compensate. Once the pneumatic cylinder squeezes the gripper on the ball, a mechanical lock latches it in that position. Once locked, the cylinder pressure is reversed. When the arm reaches the release point, a solenoid trips the latch and the cylinder opens the gripper in an action that Wiese described as "explosive." This approach has latency of about 30 ms, but proved to be the most repeatable. Both sides withdraw from the ball so the release is as clean as possible. Wiese added, "When the ball is moving 20 mph or faster, a dither of even a millisecond turns into half-an-inch of travel. We're looking at control speeds on the order of microseconds so we don't throw the ball into the rafters."
Since this project required a custom robot, much of the rest of the work had to be custom as well, but Wiese said most of the major motor and drive components came from Yaskawa. "Since we had to design our own robot, we had to design our own robot controller. It ended up being quite an engineering effort to pull it all off. Yaskawa provided the digital output from their drive to tell us when the robot was going to be in position. They're down in the 100 to 125 µs range, and that response time is one of the enablers for achieving the repeatability."
A human operator controls all the parameters via a touchscreen HMI, setting all the angles and speeds through menus. A position measuring system follows the ball's speed and trajectory down the lane so the effects of any adjustments can be recorded, quantified, and analyzed.
Does it work?
The next-generation robot, dubbed "Earl" (enhanced automated robotic launcher), made his debut late last year at the USBC test facility in Arlington, TX. The obvious approach to prove his capabilities was to pit him against one of the best human bowlers, USBC spokesperson and Professional Bowlers Association star Chris Barnes. The human prevailed in this contest, as Barnes beat Earl 259 to 209. Stremmel attributed Earl's loss to wearing a rut in the lane because of his own extreme consistency. "Robots hit the same spot on the lane every time. Earl is consistent to a third-of-a-board, 15 ft down the lane, so he's taken the oil off where he's already bowled."
Earl's designers at ARM were pleased with the result, and chalk it up as another successful project. Black summed up the experience: "We do a lot of the custom automation engineering that others don't necessarily go after, and for which there is no standard solution. We do a lot of development- and design-intensive engineering related to industrial automation. We can go into applications for which there is not a lot of precedent, or for which there is not a lot of process understanding or definition. We can help customers define what they're looking for."
Peter Welander is content manager for Control Engineering.
Also, see Earl in action in a USBC video: http://bit.ly/9fjLKm


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In 2016, the Reds Hall of Fame's induction class was comprised of but one player, the incomparable Pete Rose. The Cincinnati native was honored with induction in pre-game ceremonies prior to the Reds/Padres game on June 25, 2016. More >
Purchase your tickets ahead of your visit to the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.
Wherever you're coming from, we're easy to find with many parking options.
Go behind-the-scenes at Great American Ball Park on a 90-minute guided tour.
Want to know how players are selected? Or want to know the qualifications for eligibility? Then check out the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame & Museum FAQ's.
Founded in 1958, the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum is the largest team hall of fame in baseball. Learn more about the first induction class and the changes to the selection process over the years.