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BOSTON — If the Celtics were hoping to get the Knicks in the first round, as they did in 2011, they may want to revise their playoff wish list.
Celtics star Paul Pierce said before Tuesday night's tip-off he would like to send a message to the Knicks in their two games this week in case they meet in the playoffs. The message: It won't be easy.
But Tuesday night, it was easy. J.R. Smith barnstormed Boston, combining with Carmelo Anthony for 61 points as the Knicks captured their fifth straight game by walloping the Celtics, 100-85, at a subdued TD North Garden. The Knicks posted a 2-0 regular-season record in Beantown for the first time since 2003-04.
Smith finished with a team-high 32 points in 35 minutes, scoring 21 in the first half. Anthony added 29 on 10-of-30 shooting.
Anthony lost to the Celtics in a four-game sweep in 2011, and the teams are on a collision course to meet in Round 1 in a 2-vs.-7 seed matchup.
"We want to beat them,'' Anthony said in the gleeful visitor's locker room. "Let's be quite frank about this. We always want to beat Boston. New York in anything always wants to beat Boston, so when you do it, it's a great feeling.
"It was a great road win for us, especially in this arena. Knowing how hostile it can get here, knowing how well they play here in front of their fans. It says a lot about our team at this moment.''
It would have been sweeter had Kevin Garnett played, but the Celtics have chosen to rest Garnett for the next two weeks.
The Knicks moved 2 ½ games ahead of the idle Nets in the Atlantic Division race and all but extinguished any chance of the Celtics making a late run. The five-time defending division champs are 7 ½ games behind.
"We're at a great pace and in a great position,'' Smith said.
There was even sweet redemption for starting center Kenyon Martin, who again filled in for the injured Tyson Chandler with a fiery performance: nine points, including two monster putbacks, five rebounds, and a key block on a driving Avery Bradley.
Celtics coach Doc Rivers admitted the team inquired when Martin was a free agent but passed.
"It's their fault, they lost,'' Martin said. "There were talks, negotiations. They chose not to do it. It was out of my control. I'm a Knick now, so they lost.''
The Knicks (43-26) have had so much heartache over the years on Causeway Street. But last night they moved 17 games above .500 for the first time this season. The Knicks host the Celtics on Sunday to conclude their regular-season series.
"It's not easy winning in Boston,'' said Mike Woodson, who never won there as a player. "There's a reason. It's hard to win here. Boston has been dominant. The history on this place is phenomenal.''
The Knicks exploded on a 14-0 run in the second quarter to bust open the game as the Celtics went scoreless for a six-minute stretch. The Knicks led 58-44 at halftime.
They made the new Garden sound as quiet as vacant Fenway Park — save one brief "Cheerios'' chant to Anthony in reference to his alleged cereal-themed trash-talk tiff with Garnett in January.
Pierce finished with a quiet 16 points and had six of the Celtics' 20 turnovers (the Knicks had just eight).
Smith's recent agenda is attacking the basket with a fury, and he was nothing short of a monster. He finished 13-of-24 from the field and made all five of his free throws. Smith sealed his big night by drilling a 28-foot 3-point buzzer-beater at the end of the third quarter, putting the Knicks up 84-69.
"He's really been mixing up his game as of late,'' Woodson said. "J.R. is starting to figure that part out.''
Anthony added 18 points to the first-half cause. On one second-quarter play, he barreled through three Celtics defenders, missed in the paint but muscled for the rebound and laid in the putback.
"My mindset was to be aggressive as I could offensively, defensively, my team fed off me,'' Anthony said. "J.R. came off the bench and took it over from there. When he's attacking, it's kind of hard to stop.''
The Knicks host the Grizzlies tonight, and Woodson isn't holding back.
"We've been playing for something,'' Woodson added. "We've been at the top of our division all season, and I don't want to give it away. That is what we set out to do. I'm going to do what it takes to get that done.''
They painted the town green last night.


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"Glad to, my boy!" I boomed. "I have a little time on my hands since the closure of my one man show at the Brighton Pavillion, and I'm more than willing to lend my expertise to reviewing a show on my chosen craft. Tell me, what does it pay?""That's all still to be settled," said Skiver. Apparently, from the quaver in his voice as he said this, he was a little upset at having to give up his fee to your humble correspondent."I'll send you a tape of the show," he continued. "Can you have the summary done in a couple of days?""Well, I don't know," I objected. "I may have trodden the boards for this many a year, but I haven't done this kind of thing before.""I'm sure you'll do fine," said Skiver. "Or at least better than my six-year-old nephew, who's my other option." He hung up.
The next day, on rising and perambulating through my lobby to my little breakfast room where I expected the maid had laid out brunch, I found a little brown package in my mailbox. Intrigued, I unwrapped it and found it contained a tape! Of course! This was the episode of the American television show Skiver had asked me to review. Remembering that Id had to fire the maid - funds being a little short, you see - I made myself a pot of tea and popped the cassette into the video player. After a short delay, my telly screen was suddenly filled with flames and explosions, and a deep American voice was yelling at me. Moving as quickly as if the machine actually had caught fire, I turned it off. My head was a little on the tender side that morning. We actors live life, as Hemmingway said all the way up, and in my book that means drinking a lot of port wine of an evening.
Anyway, after turning down the volume on the telly and steadying myself with a deep draught of tea, I ventured to restart the video player.
The screen was filled with explosions and two young people leaping threateningly around. I had not the faintest idea what they were supposed to represent. Martial ballet? What will they think of next? Then the deep American voice proclaimed: Previously on Next Action Star...Ah, yes, this must be a review of the proceedings that occurred previously on this show. Oh my Lord! There is a naked man being shown climbing into a bed! And theres a woman in the bed! What kind of shows are these Americans showing each other! Is this one of those porn movies Ive heard so much about? Now, I know that occasionally the vision of the author and the essential truth of a piece will be served with nothing other than the unadorned human form. I myself went unclothed in a Bennet adaptation of D.H. Lawrences Sons and Lovers at the Birmingham Playhouse - to great acclaim from the ladies, I might add. But I had been given to believe that this was an unscripted show. Do they also have cameras in the bathrooms?
Then we see an unshaven oaf named Sean, who apparently is to tell us more detail on the incident. He says, to camera, "Jared was naked, and Melisande was there..." Melisande must be the name of the long-haired creature that was already in the bed.
Now a talking-head identified as Jared himself speaks! He says: "Honestly, I am attracted to Melisande..." Well I should hope so, young man! Climbing into the beds of those one is not attracted to is at best bad form, and at worst somewhat desperate.
The deep-voiced American announcer speaks (actually he sounds more hoarse perhaps he needs a throat lozenge? I always find those work marvelously, if I have an upcoming performance and Ive been a little too liberal with the port in the afternoon). He says: "And hopefully, Jared's girlfriend wasn't watching."This Jared has a girlfriend elsewhere? Is this a second Richard Burton? I, of course, knew old Dicky Burton intimately, and although he was a simply brilliant actor, he wasnt quite the sharpest spear in the armory, if you get my drift. Most of us - what you might call distinguished actors - never marry. Theatre is too demanding a mistress, and there are - or were - always young actresses wishing to impress one - but poor Dicky married the same woman twice, which I think says it all. Perhaps this Jared is also as dumb as Dicky Burton.
In fact, he seems to be of this persuasion himself, because he then says: "I am an a$$(beep)". I wonder what vulgarity was beeped? A man calling himself an a$$ is quite vulgar enough, in my view.

subset: commoncrawl


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In just five years, 49 states have passed laws to raise awareness about concussions and ensure proper treatment of head injuries in young athletes. The rapid spread of "return-to-play" laws came after the revelation of long-term brain damage in several former National Football League players and alarm at the local level that young athletes needed more protection and care in dealing with concussions.
In just five years, 49 states have passed laws to raise awareness about concussions and ensure proper treatment of head injuries in young athletes.
The rapid spread of "return-to-play" laws came after the revelation of long-term brain damage in several former National Football League players and alarm at the local level that young athletes needed more protection and care in dealing with concussions.
As the new laws settle into place, experts believe they are just a first step. The laws focus on education, but there are no penalties in place to ensure their effectiveness.
Meanwhile, concussions are increasing, and almost half the concussions in high school sports occur in football. But determining exactly what can and needs to be done is difficult in the shifting landscapes of sports and medical research.
Even with new laws, prevention of concussions remains elusive. Medical experts do not completely understand what takes place in the brain when it shakes, twists or stretches inside the skull.
Parents and doctors are more concerned than ever about the long-term effects of contact sports on young brains. Coaches and players must adapt in football's play-through-pain culture as they are asked to appreciate the dangers of concussions, which may offer few physical signs initially and can vary greatly from person to person.
Greg Soehnlen was a football player at North Canton Hoover High School in Ohio who suffered his first concussion during his junior season and a second, more severe concussion during his senior season. Shortly after deciding to write his senior paper on concussions, Soehnlen was struck in the back of the head during a lacrosse scrimmage.
This third concussion ended his high school sports career and thoughts of contact sports in college. The risk of more concussions was too great.
Soehnlen's concussions brought headaches, light sensitivity, difficulty concentrating, anxiety and depression. His symptoms were worse and recovery time longer with each concussion. Researching his senior paper taught Soehnlen the worst-case scenarios of head trauma, from long-term cognitive disability to death.
Fortunately, Soehnlen received enough mental and physical rest to allow his brain to recover. He graduated in the spring and, now healed, feels like himself again.
"I'm glad I'm still me," Soehnlen said.
For all players, that's the goal of the new laws and ongoing medical research.
As the 2013 high school football season begins, the discussion continues on how best to protect the brains of young athletes.
The mental deterioration of numerous former NFL players over the past decade made concussions a national topic.
High-profile players such as Mike Webster, Dave Duerson and Junior Seau were all dead by the age of 50 or younger after suffering the effects of repeated hits to the head.
Duerson and Seau committed suicide in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Both shot themselves in the chest to preserve their brains for study. Autopsies on many former players found chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a progressive brain damage that comes from repeated head trauma.
This type of brain damage was also found in 26-year-old Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry after his death in 2009 and 21-year-old University of Pennsylvania lineman Owen Thomas, who took his own life in 2010.
Neither Henry nor Thomas had any history of concussion, causing alarm about what the normal, sub-concussive banging of heads meant for younger football players. Multiple research projects in recent years have shown that sub-concussive hits take a toll on the brain, although the long-term extent of these hits is unclear.
Dr. Richard C. Cantu is a neurosurgery professor at the Boston University School of Medicine and medical director of the Sports Legacy Institute, an organization that strives to advance the study, treatment and prevention of brain trauma.
"What we know is scary as hell," he said about research on the cumulative damage of sub-concussive hits. "That's probably the best way to phrase it."
Since August 2011, more than 4,000 former players have filed lawsuits accusing the NFL of withholding information on the dangers of concussions.
Zackery Lystedt brought the focus on brain damage to the high school level in 2006.
A 13-year-old football player in the state of Washington, Lystedt suffered permanent brain damage when he continued to play in a junior high game after suffering a concussion. His ordeal led to what became known as the Lystedt Law.
The law requires a youth athlete suspected of a concussion or head injury to be immediately removed from play and that a physician provides written clearance before the athlete returns. The law also requires parents and athletes to sign a concussion information sheet and mandates the creation of concussion education materials for coaches, players and parents.
Washington's governor signed the law in May 2009, and it became the model for variations of the law passed in 48 other states. Only Mississippi has no form of concussion law.
As attention increased on the issue, so have the number of reported concussions, even as participation in high school football dropped slightly.
Dr. R. Dawn Comstock is a faculty member at Colorado University's Pediatric Injury Prevention, Education and Research Program. She maintains the High School Reporting Information Online injury surveillance system, a database that collects injury information on prep sports across the country. According to Comstock's data, the estimated number of concussions in high school football jumped from 55,007 in 2005-06 to 140,057 in 2011-12.
Most experts believe fewer concussions are being missed, rather than more concussions occurring. Some estimate that 50 percent of concussions still go undiagnosed, down from the estimated 80 percent in the 1990s.
Comstock's data shows that among total injuries in nine major high school sports, including football, concussions accounted for 9.2 percent in 2007-08, but rose to 22.7 percent in 2011-12.
Dr. Joseph Congeni is the director of sports medicine for Akron Children's Hospital and the team doctor for Archbishop Hoban High School's football team.
"I think the biggest part of (concussion laws) is education," he said, "so that people can deal with it, be aware of it and know where the resources are for the best people on the medical team to care for those with brain injuries so we're not returning people to play too soon."
The intention of the laws is to make sure another Zackery Lystedt does not happen.
While state laws vary in language, they all revolve around three key components:
• Educating coaches, parents and players on signs and symptoms of concussion;
• Removing from a game or practice any athlete who might have a concussion and not allowing the athlete to return that day;
• Requiring an injured athlete to be cleared in writing by a physician before returning to play.
The law emphasizes what medical experts say are the best ways to prevent serious injury: recognition and assessment of symptoms, followed by rest and treatment.
From the medical community to the policy makers, experts agree that the laws have been successful in grassroots education. But whether the laws provide significant protection for young athletes is unclear. Comstock just completed the first year of a three-year research project that hopes to assess the impact of the new laws.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the laws are making a positive impact.
From 2005-09, for example, a survey found that 16 percent of athletes who lost consciousness during a game returned to play that same day. Today, research shows that less than 2 percent of football players who suffer a concussion return the same day.
According to the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, 2012 was the first year since 1990 in which no fatalities were directly attributed to playing football at the youth, high school and college levels.
But experts believe the laws constitute a first step, not a final answer.
The laws do not include penalties for failure to comply with the new regulations by coaches, school officials and medical workers. They do not require a minimum or standard level of medical resources at games or practices. They do not have provisions to ensure the effectiveness of the required brain injury education.
"You might consider these laws to be a low-cost, partial solution to a large public health problem," said Hosea H. Harvey, a professor of law at Temple University, referring to traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) in youth sports.
Harvey questions if it was wise for all states to follow the Lystedt model without evidence the law reduced the danger of youth TBIs. He believes NFL support for the new laws drove their rapid spread.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell came out in support of concussion laws a year after Washington and seven other states passed them. He set a national goal of 10 states for passage in 2011. Twenty-four passed concussion laws that year.
Jeff Miller, the NFL's senior vice president of public affairs, acknowledged that the league helped organize sports medicine and local advocacy groups in each state. But he believes the testimony of parents and student athletes who have dealt with concussions had the greatest effect on lawmakers.
Cantu at Boston University believes there needs to be more checking into the qualifications of physicians who decide when a player returns to action. He also believes some form of testing or other evaluation is needed to confirm that those who watch brain injury training are actually learning the material. Sitting through an online video typically is all the laws require.
"The laws are good, but the laws need to be funded so they can be carried out in a meaningful way," Cantu said. "That costs dollars, and that's dollars that none of the states have put forward to those laws."
Medical and sports officials close to high school football have a number of suggestions for better protection of players. Whether they are implemented is likely a function of politics and money.
One idea is that every high school sports program should have an athletic trainer. An athletic trainer is someone specifically trained to provide early assessment and treatment of sports injuries, including concussion.
Jim Thornton, president of the National Athletic Trainers Association, estimates that slightly more than half of U.S. high schools have access to an athletic trainer.
"The excuse is budget, but it's frustrating," Thornton said. "We're relying on coaches during the heat of battle, who may have ulterior motives for leaving a kid in a game, making decisions about their healthcare."
Some coaches believe concussion laws are an overreaction in a violent game played by increasingly bigger, faster and stronger players.
Research shows that the presence of athletic trainers in a school sports program mean more concussions are diagnosed than in schools without them. Without athletic trainers, the worry is many athletes are playing with concussions but they and their coaches don't know it.
Cantu is one of many experts hoping for a clear diagnostic tool to detect concussion.
"What we desperately need is a financially feasible marker of brain injury, an imaging study that's not a research tool, ... and see whether or not we can pick up these injuries even in asymptomatic people," he said.
Such a tool would remove much of the guesswork involved with diagnosing concussions. Diagnosis often requires honest answers from players who have been brought up in a culture of gritting their teeth and playing through pain.
"A lot of people think kids aren't as tough as they used to be," said Vic Whiting, head football coach of Canal Fulton Northwest High School in Ohio. "Maybe they're playing Xbox too much and not outside enough doing things like they used to. But as far as wanting to win and when it's game time trying to stay in at all costs, these kids still do that. You can't listen to them."
To Whiting's point, a recent survey of 120 high school football players in the Cincinnati area revealed that 53 percent of them would "always or sometimes continue to play with a headache sustained from an injury" despite knowing the risks that come with concussions.
"Extremity injuries we can live with a little bit. Shoulders and knees, we can fix a lot of those," said Congeni at Akron Children's Hospital. "Significant injuries to the brain you can't fix."
The best potential area for prevention is limiting exposure to head trauma. Players absorb roughly 2,000 hits to the head in practices and games during a season. Several organizations, from the NFL to Pop Warner, have limited full-contact practices.
Rule changes will continue to be considered, with much attention likely paid to the kickoff since the highest incidence of severe injuries occurs then.
No equipment prevents concussions as of now. Earlier this year, a Colorado jury ruled against helmet manufacturer Riddell in an $11.5 million lawsuit over injuries suffered by a teenage football player in 2008. The jury found that Riddell was negligent in failing to warn users of concussion dangers.
Dr. Henry Feuer is co-director for the Indiana Sports Concussion Network and a neurosurgeon who has worked the sidelines for Indiana University and the Indianapolis Colts.
"There is no helmet that stops that shaking of the brain," Feuer said. "Your brain is like a little hardened Jell-O inside your skull, and when you get hit it bounces around."
Several researchers have used accelerometers in helmets to measure the force and number of impacts players absorb. This could lead to individual "hit" counts being tracked, similar to pitch counts in baseball. As of now, that technology is simply too expensive for widespread use.
The wave of new concussion laws clearly helped raise awareness of the dangers of concussions in high school football.
But whether parents, school districts and those who govern high school sports will take more steps to require certain levels of care, new rules or different equipment remains to be seen.
Some high school coaches feel that concussion laws are an overreaction to a problem primarily at the professional level. Research about the cumulative impact of hits to the head for youth athletes is mounting but still inconclusive.
That leaves parents in a difficult position. They want to protect their children. They also value the character and confidence-building experience of the country's most popular sport on their children.
Professor Harvey at Temple University does not see more immediate action on the horizon.
"If you were to look out there in the law landscape for what's coming next, as far as I can tell right now, zero," Harvey said. "Because all the other things you would do have complicated constituencies standing behind them, and we do not have universal agreement."


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Pressure Mounts on Michael Dell
Michael Dell is being pressured into contributing more of his own wealth to ensure his company's buyout. Sharon Terlep joins MoneyBeat. Photo: AP.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.
... ay ay mm mm ... deal Michael Dell to contribute more than oh well if ... he wants to ensure the planned buyout of computer maker Dell ... and ... Sharon Terlep and falling the story covers MNI pressure the journal ... to fall on the story closely and ... act on the MoneyBeat said this week and hell are you guys can guide the ECB's in this this is the kind of like spring and has become when these long drawn out in many sizes ... Michael Dell has already made a few concessions along the road and now that we have to make another one ... share I mean there's a lot and remember these adding another bidder is situated in a lake there was with spring so this is you know purely pressure from shareholders vocal shareholders including car I had ... that has and the Dell Deal team concerned about whether shareholders are really going and going to approve this deal hands ... at one p has become clear that Michael Dell's partner and steel Silver Lake the private equity firm is not going to take in more money ... consider that the vote on July eighteen ... I guess the AP is here just you know Michael Dell makes one more concession ... you'll find that many more vote to ensure that this deal goes down is that with that kind of thinking on ... the eleventh and fifty citing the people of people on the deal excluding Michael Dell certainly would like a lil extra unsure and something to Mimi and get this across the finish line ... I and and and nobody else is standing up to the offer more money to make that happen in and there is not since really not clear whether Michael Dell himself will will wanna do this but when it does seem to be at hand ... he now ... does this and it does ... illustrate the problems with this deal I mean ... it when the often thirteen sixty five the year the shares are trading at thirteen thirty thirteen forty right now ... does this illustrates orders though weakness about this deal ... the family and yet this the Lisbon criticize the spec I like and by others ... I think anyone expects the Dow only know next year is to be worth thirty dollars a share or anything like that but you know that that's not a question she do you ... know should the company of Lipitor recapitalization said the company ... and had had me open itself up to other buyers are really an asset thanking him down the special committee has had needed PL had me a very expensive case for why none of those things would get ... you nowhere worked in the long term but certainly the message is Eric are getting through to shareholders via ... so this is pre much a renewed look for to me the Michael Dell ball for another concession maybe not ... and in the vote on the keep them is the really this is his were down on the final ... couple steps here I mean anyone unless the book unless the deal gets voted down on the eighteenth and will cease an interesting round that will have the elk are like that and and Michael Bell Canyon at each other is the shareholders the company sell ... knowing he could get more interesting so ... I turned to heavy doses you'll be on its ... own super sheer foundation thank Slott for you to


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In the wake of last night's vice presidential candidate debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin, the staff at Sports Poster Warehouse got in a rowdy mood. It was an interesting affair that sparked all of our interests and got us thinking about other great clashes. We here at Sports Poster Warehouse, naturally, started relating this debate to sports. We thought of boxing, wrestling, fighting and other great clashes. With that, who else could come to mind other than Rocky?! Thus, Sports Poster Warehouse presents to you some of the greatest Rocky posters ever made!
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For these and other great posters, visit www.sportsposterwarehouse.com!
Feel free to join our self-titled Facebook group for information on all specials and promotions!


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Here's the article:CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora reports that the Jets' firing of offensive coordinator Tony Sparano is "imminent."
Sparano has been fileted on ESPN and elsewhere for the offense he fielded in 2012, which saw Mark Sanchez take yet another step back in his career. Per La Canfora, GM Mike Tannenbaum is Sparano's biggest supporter inside the Jets' organization, and Tannenbaum may very well be fired as well. Per La Canfora, as many as a half-dozen head coaches will be let go on "Black Monday," the Monday following Week 17. And that doesn't even begin to include coordinator firings.
This would be good. His hiring made me happy because it wasn't Schotty, but that died in a horrible fiery crash.
Not a bad start.
great news let this be the beginning of the end for all of them.
does this mean Rex would stay?
Wait, I thought Sparano's biggest supporter is Rex?
He's the one that wanted Tony
I don't care if he gets fired but in all fairness he's had nothing to work with. Poor QB play and the worst collection of skill players in the entire league. Im also not sure that Rex should get a 3rd OC in 5 years
Kick Shades out the door immediately.
If the firing is "imminent", then why even wait until after the Bills game?
Why, out of respect?
This dick has done nothing to deserve even an ounce of respect.
And Tannenbaum is his biggest supporter? Just goes to show how inept Tanny truly is.
You know what? Keep Rex as HC.
I'd love to see what he could do with a guy like Polian making the personell decisions and someone like Norv Turner running the show on offense.
Phuck em'
Sounds good to me, they may have already had talks with Norv while he was in town over the weekend.
Still have not heard Rex's name brought up in any of these firings. Looks like he may still get another year, I hope so.
Too much smoke today on the GM and Coaching Staff front to not anticipate some major, major changes.
If TS biggest supporter is Tanny, and Tanny is firing him, that's a pretty good indication Tanny knows he's likely on the chopping block as well, and is making a last ditch attempt to save himself.
I'm guessing Woody will leave Rex's fate to whoever the new GM is, so it may be awhile before we hear anything on him.
Time to gut this bad boy!
of all these guys, rex may be the only one who actually deserves another shot. he's won a good number of games with the worst qb in the nfl. if nothing else, he's proven he can win games. if you give him even a decent game manager, rex will be in the playoff hunt every year. no coach can win with a turnover machine.
Based on the speculation about Mike getting demoted this must be Woody's play. The dominoes are starting to fall..


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MILAN (AP) - Milan fashion designers have travel on their minds for next summer.
MILAN (AP) � Milan fashion designers have travel on their minds for next summer.
Designs shown on the second day of menswear previews during Milan Fashion Week had an exotic flare -- even if Miuccia Prada in particular says she was rejecting the label.
African references were predominant. There were geometric patterns, ethnic shades, baggy pants, Kaftans, shell-detailing and sandals.
The tropics also got their due, with floral and animal prints, the colors of sunsets and stormy seas and Hawaiian girl motifs.
Bermudas remain a mainstay for season -- and often make up a suit paired with a narrow jacket, and are always worn with ankle socks.
Often the exotic shared the runway with more classic looks, fitted trousers, summer slacks and button-down shirts. Jackets more often than not are worn with the sleeves pushed or rolled up.
Shoes run the gamut from thick rubber-soles to fine leather booties and loafers.
Miuccia Prada questions the very meaning of summer and the exotic in her latest menswear designs.
Prada has delivered satin floral prints that are clearly associated with the Pacific, and pairs them not with the classic linen gin-and-tonic suit, but with a traditional double-breasted pin stripe.
Her reference point in the collection is clearly the 1940s. The designer has returned to the old-fashioned carry-on luggage � no trollies, please � with bold designs, including tropical florals and Hawaiian girls. The period references on the luggage were also backdrops to the runway: graphic prints of palm trees, postcard sunsets and images of water.
The looks were classics � with Prada updates. She seemed to have sports on her mind: There were satiny boxer shorts, light-weight shirts based on a baseball jacket and a retro bowling ball bag. The designer also layered short-sleeved knitwear over shirts, often with clashing patterns.
The color palette recalled stormy sea colors � gray to teal to black � and sunsets � yellow to terracotta to earthy brown and black.
For next summer Tomas Maier, the acclaimed creative director of luxury goods brand Bottega Veneta, is inviting customers to walk in his shoes.
Maier used the traditional Bottega leather weave for loafers, lace-ups and even sidewalk slippers. Usually, it's reserved for women's handbags.
According to his fashion notes, "contrast" was the theme of Maier's 2014 preview collection.
The show opened with a series of suits with a soft shouldered, wide sleeved jacket and narrow pants. Contrast came in the white lines stitched into the classic look referencing the chalk marks used for fittings in bespoke tailoring, creating imaginary lapels and pockets.
Angela Missoni looked to West Africa for inspiration for her menswear collection for next summer: its colors, its weaves and its accents.
The mood of the collection was encapsulated in an intricate sand-colored crewneck sweater with pieces of red and milky shell embroidered into decorative panels. A small leather talisman sack, for a good luck charm or precious object, was worn around the neck on strands of beads.
The designer for the family label referenced the colors of the continent: indigo textile dyes from Benin, clay tones from Mali and dark olive from the rain forests of Ivory Coast.
The classically cut suits, some in bold indigo plaids and others in khaki shades with the hint of desert reds woven in, were more fitting of an adventurer than a businessman, more likely seen in a colonial hotel than a metropolitan meeting room.
The Calvin Klein man for next summer keeps men in their comfort zone, with a solid focus on basics in reassuring blues. There are bomber jackets, suits with cuffed pants and classic shirts.
Designer Italo Zucchelli offers up monochromatic looks predominantly in blues: wake-up royal, soothing sky and down-to-business navy. Classic double-pocket snap-close shirts are paired with same-color pants that cuff at the ankle. They in turn are worn with a shoe of the matching color and same-color socks � none of the black socks seen on other runways.
Bomber jackets come in white with classic blue vertical stripes, perfect for a day at the ballpark.
On the more daring end of the spectrum, sweatshirts are made of a funky mix of fabrics: One had a neoprene effect, another was chunky knit and finally there were cotton panels. Together, they create a harmonious clash fitting of the heavy metal riffs that resounded down along the runway.
The Ferragamo summer promises to be young and carefree, with Bermuda shorts, leather sandals and a large backpack the only musts for the warm weather traveler.
To set the mood, Massimiliano Giornetti, the label's creative director, created a suitably atmospheric backdrop � a long, white runway was set off by a big blue sky projected on a mega screen.
Giornetti at times took the summer suit trend of Bermuda shorts and a matching jacket a step further by cutting the sleeves off the jacket, or using unconventional colors such as pea green and lobster red.
The designer also favored large geometric patterns, a recurring theme in this round of preview collections, and light and billowy overcoats, which are also popular for next summer.
Vivienne Westwood, the British designer known for her eccentric fashion, dedicated her latest menswear collection to Bradley Manning, an American soldier currently on trial in the U.S. for leaking classified material to the website WikiLeaks. He was arrested in May 2010 in Iraq.
Models walked down the runway wearing a large badge with a picture of the soldier on it, and the word "TRUTH" written at the bottom in bold white letters on a red background.
The collection was casual chic with African references, from the striped linen used for a long Kaftan shirt or a summer suit, to baggy pants and breeches, to geometric prints, to toe sandals and flip flops.
The show opened with a series of summer khaki slacks worn over classic shirts, perfect for a toney summer evening.


text: Afternoon guys and gals, Have configured a ubuntu mail server including squirrelmail, mysql, apache and postfix. All is working and I have created the virtual hosts setup and populated the sql database. All is working correctly but I know am wondering how I customize it so that each virtual domain has its own customized log in page for squirrelmail. If anyone can shed some light on how or where I can read up about it. I have noticed that a lot of the documentation for Squirrelmail seems a little "dated". Thanks


text: WASDE: Red Meat Production Reduced December 11, 2012 01:20 AM Tweet TAGS: Marketing, Overseas December 18, 2014 By AgWeb.com Editors Email LIVESTOCK, POULTRY, AND DAIRY: The forecast for 2013 red meat and poultry production is reduced from last month as lower pork production more than offsets higher beef production. Beef production is raised as both fed and non-fed cattle slaughter is expected to be higher and forecast carcass weights are raised. Pork production forecasts are reduced from last month as first-quarter slaughter is expected to be slightly lower and carcass weights are reduced in the first half of the year. USDA will release the Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report on December 28, providing anindication of producer farrowing intentions for the first half of 2013. Poultry production forecasts for 2013 are unchanged. For 2012, the total meat production forecast is raised as higher forecast fourth-quarter beef and broiler production more than offsets lower expected pork production. Cattle slaughter has been higher than expected and carcass weights remain high. Hog slaughter and carcass weights in the fourth quarter are forecast lower than last month. The broiler production forecast is raised based on production data to date. Turkey production is unchanged. Egg production is raised for both 2012 and 2013 based on hatchery data. Red meat and poultry import and export forecasts are unchanged from last month. Cattle prices are raised for both 2012 and 2013, reflecting strong demand for cattle through the end of this year and into 2013. The hog price forecasts for both 2012 and 2013 are raised as lower forecast production is expected to support prices. Broiler prices are raised for both 2012 and 2013 as demand has been firm. The turkey price forecast for 2012 is raised slightly, but the forecast for 2013 is unchanged from last month. The 2012 and 2013 milk production forecasts are unchanged from last month. Lower forecast fat basis exports in 2012 reflect weakness in butter exports but exports in 2013 are raised on higher expected cheese and whey protein solids shipments. Cheese prices are forecast lower in 2012 on current weakness but the forecast is raised for 2013 as demand is expected to improve. Butter prices for both 2012 and 2013 are lowered as demand is expected to remain relatively weak. Nonfat dry milk (NDM) and whey prices are raised for 2012 and 2013. The Class III price for 2012 is reduced on the lower cheese price but the Class IV price is unchanged as the lower butter price is offset by a higher NDM price. For 2013, Class III and Class IV price forecasts are raised as prices for cheese, NDM, and whey are increased. The 2012 all milk price is unchanged from last month at $18.50 to $18.60 per cwt, but the range of the 2013 price is tightened to $19.15 to $19.95 per cwt. ………………………………………………………………. Coverage, Analysis of the Dec. 11 USDA Reports See all of the data, coverage and analysis of the World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates and Crop Production reports. Back to news


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The Manicures You Need to See From New York Fashion Week
"I have a big surprise for you," Jin Soon, fashion's favourite manicurist, says backstage at Derek Lam's show, "it's nude!" Indeed, the big nail story for fall is nude, but it does come in different shapes and sizes.
At Reed Krakoff, lead manicurist Michelle Saunders painted Essie's Matte Top Coat ($8) over the brand's Mademoiselle ($8) for a buffed look. At Marchesa, Soon used Marchesa x Revlon's ($5) Grey Suede (the title's deceiving) to elongate the fingers. At Altuzarra, Saunders created a sheer French manicure, while at Donna Karan, Milly, and Helmut Lang, manicurists used Essie's Ridge Filling Base Coat ($8) to make sure the nails looked strong and healthy, while opaque nudes ruled at Band of Outsiders, Jason Wu, and rag & bone.
Of course, not everyone went nude! There were sparkles and glitter and yes, even some nail art. The week's most inspiring manicures, above!
At Vera Wang, Jin Soon used her own nail polish ($18) in Mica for Wang's "dark, romance" themed collection.
Subtle nail art feels fresh, like the delicate Solaris designs that Saunders painted on models' ring fingers at Jenny Packham. She dipped a bobby pin in Essie's Wrapped in Rubies, Penny Talk, and Hors D'Oeuvres ($8) to paint the design dot by dot.
DKNY's street style-heavy collection meant pavement inspired nails. Saunders used Essie's Nail Polish ($8) in Smokin Hot on top of the brand's Blanc for a sort of inverted French manicure.
Jin Soon's Nail Polish ($18) in Kookie White, a powdery, pale blue, complemented the dark blues and blacks of Karen Walker's menswear-inspired collection.
Inspired by Tadashi Shoji's Moorish references, Hughes painted half-moons and tips gold with Butter London's Nail Lacquer ($15) in Marbs.
Manicurist Naomi Yasuda, working with Essie, played with negative space at Opening Ceremony. Depending on the outfit, geometric shapes were painted with the brand's polish ($8) in Aruba Blue, Go Overboard, or Master Plan.
The models at Wes Gordon were given "wicked" French manicures by Essie artist Rita Remark. Score the dark burgundy base by layering one coat of polish ($8) in Penny Talk underneath one coat of Bordeaux.
At Honour, Deborah Lippmann celebrated Valentine's Day a few days early by painting pink and red "peek-a-boo crescents" in Break 4 Love ($18) and It's Raining Men ($18).
Hughes used Butter London's Nail Lacquer ($15) in Jack Black and various shades of blue to create a tweed effect at ICB x Prabal Gurung.
Jin Soon Nail Lacquer in Mica ($18)
Essie Nail Polish in Mademoiselle ($8)
Butter London Nail Lacquer in Marbs ($15)
Essie Nail Polish in Licorice ($8)
Essie Nail Polish in Penny Talk ($8)
Essie Nail Polish in Aruba Blue ($8)
Essie Nail Polish in Blanc ($8)
Butter London Nail Lacquer in Union Jack Black ($15)
Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish in Break 4 Love ($18)
Essie Nail Polish in Bordeaux ($8)
Essie Nail Polish in Smokin Hot ($8)
Essie Ridge Filling Base Coat ($8)
Essie Nail Polish in Hors D'Oeuvres ($8)
Essie Nail Polish in Wrapped in Rubies ($8)
Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish in It's Raining Men ($18)
Essie Nail Polish in Go Overboard ($8)
Essie Matte About You ($8)


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Denka Lifts
These amazing aerial lifts access heights up to 92 feet yet fit through a 36-inch wide door. With a total weight of just 5850 pounds, the Denka ranks as the lightest weight aerial lift in the world in its height range. When comparable boom lifts weight over 25,000 pounds, the Denka is truly unique, with its low floor pressure loads, compact and flexible design and powered by battery or 110 volt electric, other lifts simply don't measure up.
As a factory authorized Denka Lift distributor, specializing in sales, service and rentals of Denka Atrium and Trailer mounted boom Lifts, Service One is an industry leader and innovator, providing Denka Lifts and architectural access consulting services throughout the world for nearly 3 decades.
Service One has one of the largest fleets of Denka and ReachMaster Atrium Lifts available for rent, re-rent or purchase in the United States and Canada.
You can count on Service One's integrity and our broad base of skills, experience, and equipment resources to respond to your needs with the safest and most cost effective solutions.


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Blake Shelton Unhappy With Extra Season of 'The Voice'
Blake Shelton just wrapped the second season of the wildly popular reality singing competition 'The Voice' last month, but the reigning ACM and CMA Male Vocalist of the Year is already gearing up to begin production on the third season, and he's not happy about it. Despite his season two win with teammate Jermaine Paul, Shelton says the grueling schedule — two seasons a year — may be a bit much.
"At some point, something's gotta give at some point," Shelton tells Country Weekly. "And I don't like it. I've been very vocal with the network and Mark Burnett's production company. It's like, 'Man, this sucks.'"
He, along with fellow artist mentors Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green have all signed on for the third season, but Shelton acknowledges the constant television duties may be a distraction to all four artist's main gig. "The reason that you want the four of us is because we're viable artists right now, current," says the 'Over' singer. "And we can't do both if we do back-to-back seasons."
"I've been hammering them about it, but we are gonna do this fall," he adds. "We've already committed to that … and I look forward to it. I love it, and I can't imagine not being a part of 'The Voice,' ever.
Balancing married life, a superstar singing career and duties as a television personality will be difficult, but the singer remains confident common ground can be found. "I mean, I'd love to do it from now on, but it just needs to work in a way that I can still [tour] and do that at the same time," says Shelton. "So, something's gotta give, you know."
Shelton is currently scaling the charts with 'Over,' the follow up to his three consecutive No. 1 singles from his latest chart-topping album, 'Red River Blue.' As previously reported, the Oklahoma native is currently in the studio working on his first Christmas project.


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9:00 pm
Equitrekking Adventures "Southern Quebec" Who knew you could horseback ride through the winter snow in Quebec? Equitrekking's Emmy nominated host Darley Newman explores the snowy trails by horses, skis and dogsleds in the Eastern Townships, St. Alphonse-Rodriguez and Mont Tremblant. Through Darley and her interactions with local people, viewers learn about the French, British and American influences in the Eastern Townships by riding with Jacques Robidas. D
9:30 pm
Equitrekking Adventures "Utah" Equitrekking's travel expert Darley Newman rides Utah's great outdoors at national and state parks throughout the state, including Bryce Canyon, Snow Canyon, Capitol Reef and Antelope Island. Equitrekking Utah begins with a ride into beautiful Bryce Canyon National Park to see the stunning hoodoos, sprinkled with a frosting of snow. Darley learns about the history of the pioneers as she wrangles bison on historic Antelope Island on the Great Salt Lake. D
10:00 pm
Nature "Cold Warriors: Wolves and Buffalo" Canada's Wood Buffalo National Park straddles the province of Alberta and the Northwest Territories and is five times the size of Yellowstone National Park. Filmmaker Jeff Turner follows the ancient hunter-prey relationship of the two animals through the seasons, capturing the time-honored hunting strategies employed by the wolves and the evasive tactics of the buffalo with the aid of an aerial camera and a single land-based one.G
11:00 pm
Wild! "Animal Inventors: Animal Magicians" Episode two reveals some of nature's most powerful secrets from medical solutions for cancer and diabetes to finding the answers to the most vexing of questions, such as how can humans live longer, love longer and live in outer space?. D


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An Irish immigrant's odyssey
December 25, 2012|By Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune reporter
For most of her 90 years, Josephine Stout thought she was a U.S. citizen. Then, as an elderly woman caring for 7 grandkids, she was suddenly considered an undocumented immigrant.
For most of her 90 years, all Josephine Stout knew about her arrival in America was that she came from Ireland as a baby.
It was a minor detail, a footnote, in a hardscrabble life filled with tragedy. But she never doubted she was an American, with full rights and privileges.
That changed in 1999, when Illinois officials handling Stout's public aid asked her to prove her citizenship.
She couldn't.
She had no birth certificate, no passport, no voter registration card. She never even had a driver's license. She did hold a Social Security card, but it didn't help. She got it at age 17 when President Franklin Roosevelt's Social Security Act was in its infancy and anyone who applied got a card.
In an instant, she was an undocumented immigrant, desperately struggling to care for seven grandchildren but ruled ineligible for public aid.
"What did I know about being from Ireland?" said Stout. "I don't even have an accent. I have always said, 'I am an American, period.'"
As the country engages in a discussion about immigration reform and entitlements, Stout's ordeal stands out as a story of vulnerability and charity. Cut off from some public aid, Stout worked odd jobs, including collecting cans. Meanwhile, volunteers and government officials across two continents searched for her Irish birth certificate and the old ship manifest from her family's journey to this country.
Together, Stout and those who came to her aid embarked on a 12-year odyssey to set the record straight, and to prove that she belonged.
Today and yesterday
On a recent Sunday morning, Josephine Stout, who's petite with billowy gray hair and clear blue eyes, walked around her living room showing off a new white Christmas tree that's decorated with ornaments she's had for decades. Her knee sticks a bit, but she has refused to use a cane. And on the few occasions when her thoughts trailed off, she chuckled:
"I must have been getting ready to tell a lie."
Stout lives in a modest two-bedroom apartment in an industrial section of the North Lawndale neighborhood with her granddaughter Sandi Stout and great-granddaughter. Most of the furniture, donated by an older woman who passed on, is shrouded in plastic.
She's been in this apartment for only two years. It's an upgrade from the four-room first-floor apartment where she lived for 47 years in the Back of the Yards community. There, rust-colored water rained down in the bathroom when the upstairs neighbors took a shower.
But the Back of the Yards/Canaryville area was the only community she'd ever really known. One of Stout's earliest memories was the walk from her family's apartment near 43rd and Halsted streets to St. Gabriel Catholic School a few blocks away.
The girl with auburn hair and stark blue eyes was always small for her age and had perpetually bruised knees from playground scuffles. She was in the third grade when a nun took a belt to her for the last time.
"Back then, they would hit you for sassing them," Stout said. "I couldn't stand being hit, so I jumped up and pulled off her habit. When my mother found out, she said that I wasn't going back to school. I could stay home and take care of my brothers and sisters. So I didn't have much schooling."
By then she was the oldest of seven children. Later, six more would arrive.
Her mother took in laundry, and Stout helped with that. She also recalled the family needing milk and sneaking over to the stockyards with a bucket to milk a cow.
"Everybody talks about the bad smell" of the stockyards, she said. "You don't think about the smell when you're hungry and thinking about your stomach."
At 17 she went to work at a fur company and got a Social Security card. She eventually married and quit working in 1944, when her daughter Rosemary was born. Thomas was born in 1953 and Deborah arrived in 1963.
The wall behind the sofa holds a photograph of Deborah Stout.
"When you've never had much in your life, you grow up thinking there isn't much to lose," she said, looking up at her daughter's photo. "But there is always something more."
On Mother's Day in 1992, Deborah Stout left her Back of the Yards apartment to shop for herself and her seven children. When she didn't come home, Josephine Stout began to worry. She had already lost her son in 1985. He'd been missing for two days when police found him and his girlfriend stabbed to death.
Now Stout's daughter was missing and police officers, following up on a tip, arrived on Stout's back porch. They asked Stout if she had a photograph of her daughter. When they looked at it, they asked her to come down to the morgue. Stout said she nearly collapsed. Husband Willie Stout went and identified his daughter's body.
Stout said her daughter had been stabbed 38 times by a robber who got only $20.
"That night I ran and got the children, and I promised to keep them together," Stout said. "My daughter had been getting relief checks and I sent them back because I didn't want nobody to think I had my grandchildren just for the money. But the (caseworker) told me to come back if I ever needed help."
Because Deborah Stout was a single parent, Stout won custody of her grandchildren, then ages 1 through 12. They crowded into their grandparents' apartment, sleeping in beds, on a pullout sofa and on pallets made of blankets.
Willie Stout was a handyman while his wife worked part time as an office assistant for a real estate company. She also earned money at the former International Amphitheatre on 42nd and Halsted streets, charging a dollar apiece to watch customers' parked cars. She said life continued this way until Willie Stout died four days before Christmas in 1996.
Despite Stout's confrontations with the nuns as a child, she never lost faith in the Catholic Church. She said her husband had wanted their grandchildren raised as Protestants, but she felt differently.
"When Willie died, I made his funeral arrangements," Stout said. "And then I marched right over to the church and made arrangements to have the kids baptized Catholic. I got them ready for their first Communions and confirmations, too."
Grit, determination
Stout believed it was divine intervention when Sister Mary Jane Feil was in Back of the Yards one afternoon and asked a neighbor if anyone else in the community was down and out. The neighbor sent her to Stout's apartment.
Feil works with The Port Ministries, a non-church-affiliated group that helps the poor. She and volunteer Dorothy Balicki began visiting Stout and helping with groceries, clothes for the children and Christmas gifts. A relative of Feil's paid the tuition for four of the children to attend Catholic school.
Feil said that when the children struggled to deal with their mother's murder, Stout took them to counseling.
"Josephine would take the bus all over creation trying to get those kids into support groups and whatever care they needed," Feil said.
"She couldn't afford her medicine sometimes. She has no teeth. She needs cataract surgery. She needs hearing aids. Anybody else would be dead by now. But that's Josephine. I think she's only lasted this long out of grit and determination."
Stout already was getting Medicaid, and in April 1999 she began receiving cash assistance from the Illinois Department of Human Services. She said she went to the department the next October for what was supposed to be a routine six-month evaluation.
"A new lady had my case and she said there's no proof that you're a U.S. citizen," Stout said. "I said, 'Proof? I've been here (in the country) since I was 6 months old? What proof?' And she kept saying, 'You need proof or we've got to cut you off.'"
Januari Smith Trader, spokeswoman for the state human services department, said federal guidelines require aid applicants to verify their citizenship or legal residency status.
Stout said she told the caseworker that she had paid taxes during years when her income was high enough to qualify. But that wasn't proof of her legal status, and she said her food stamps and cash assistance eventually were taken away.
"Some of the kids were older, but I still had mouths to feed, so I picked up cans to make money and I worked small jobs," said Stout.
Balicki said she and Feil accompanied Stout to the public aid office.
"We kept trying to advocate for her, but they wouldn't budge," Balicki said. "We had pro bono lawyers who tried getting her birth certificate. For years it seemed to always go to a dead end and we were never able to get her the money she was entitled to. We knew we needed a miracle."
That came in 2008, when one of Stout's grandchildren was walking down the street and noticed the line of people waiting outside Casa Catalina, a basic needs center run by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago. She recommended that Stout stop by the storefront at 45th Street and Ashland Avenue.
Sister Joellen Tumas has been the director of Casa Catalina and its predecessor since 1990. She grew up in Back of the Yards in the 1940s when the community was made up of Irish, Lithuanian, German and Polish immigrants who worked in the stockyards. The community is now predominantly Hispanic, with many recent Mexican immigrants.
Tumas said that for about a year, Stout visited Casa Catalina, mostly for food, and never mentioned her problems with immigration.
"She wasn't one to complain about things, but she was desperate because her gas was about to be shut off and she was fighting eviction," Tumas said.
In 2009, Stout's last surviving child, Rosemary, died of cancer.
Tumas connected Stout to support staff at Catholic Charities who provided aid and would later assign an immigration specialist to her case. Tumas also linked Stout with Chicago Irish Immigrant Support, an organization that serves immigrants from Ireland and other countries.
A crucial discovery
Marilu Cabrera, a spokeswoman with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that when Stout arrived in the 1920s, immigrants who came in through an official port — and entered before their country's quota had been met — were considered legal permanent residents who could apply for U.S. citizenship.
Today immigration laws are much different, and foreigners often have to wait for immediate family members or employers to petition for them to come here. Or, they come as refugees.
A legal permanent resident is not a U.S. citizen and does not enjoy the same privileges. A permanent resident can't vote in national elections, and can be deported if convicted of certain crimes.
Stout was in a particularly vulnerable position because she had no documents to clarify whether she was a citizen, a legal permanent resident or an illegal immigrant.
She did not know — and still does not know — whether her parents became citizens. If either did so when she was a minor, Stout would have derived her citizenship from one of them. Without that information, the goal was to establish whether she entered the country legally.
A ship manifest would reveal that part of the story. But Stout didn't have a birth certificate, which was needed to prove her identity, and she didn't know the name of the ship or the year when her family arrived.
"This made it so terribly hard for others to find information," said Breandan Magee, executive director of Chicago Irish Immigrant Support.
Magee and his staff pressed officials at the Irish Consulate in Chicago to use their connections in Ireland's General Register Office. Stout's birth certificate was finally found on Oct. 27, 2010. It said she was born in March 1922, in the county of Limerick.
"Her mother gave birth in what was called a poorhouse, a religious-run institution often for women who were destitute," Magee said.
Catholic Charities declined to give specifics about the agency's involvement in the case, but Stout said the charity's immigration specialist spent months searching websites and looking through microfiche before she found a copy of the ship manifest.
It showed that Stout and her parents traveled from Ireland in 1923 on the RMS Franconia, a new ocean liner with a capacity of 1,700 passengers. Stout had been told she came to America at 6 months old, but the manifest showed she was over a year-and-a-half. The family's final destination would be Chicago.
In February 2011, the birth certificate and a copy of the ship manifest were handed over to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, where officers began their own research to certify that the manifest was authentic. That involved searching for files in the agency's Lee's Summit, Mo., office, which is an actual cave that holds hundreds of thousands of immigration files.
But the manifest wasn't there.
"Keep in mind that these are incredibly complicated cases, and the burden is on the applicant to prove residency and search for documents, not on (immigration officials)," said Carlina Tapia-Ruano, a Chicago attorney and past national president of the Washington-based American Immigration Lawyers Association.
It would take seven months, but the manifest finally was located in a National Archives storage area in Pittsfield, Mass. It was certified with an official seal and ribbon.
Stout's green card was issued in September 2011, and it says she's been a legal permanent resident since Nov. 1, 1923.
Social workers at the Irish immigrant support agency helped Stout reapply for public aid, which was reinstated last year. The group also helped her get an Irish passport. She also applied for Social Security payments but didn't meet the income threshold requirements.
"The sisters, and all the others, they did so much," Stout said. "It was a lot of wear and tear, and with the state cutting me off, it was a real struggle. I'm not feeling sorry for myself. I'm glad it's over, but you don't forget."
In Stout's apartment, seven gold Christmas angels are tacked to a wall over the sofa. She said they represent her seven grandchildren, who are doing well.
Every second Thursday, Stout waits in her living room for a social worker from the Irish immigrant organization to pick her up for a senior get-together.
"I didn't want to go at first," said Stout. "I didn't want to be around a bunch of old fogies. Now I don't want to miss it. I really enjoy the people there. They've taken me to see (the singing group) Celtic Thunder. But I still like the blues, and Jerry Butler."
On Dec. 13, executive director Magee submitted Stout's application for full U.S. citizenship. Ordinarily a person has to wait five years after receiving a green card to apply for citizenship. Cabrera said the process for Stout should take a few months. She had her five years, decades ago.
Stout said one thing still troubles her: "I just can't see how a piece of paper will make me feel more American than I already do."


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The Basic Training is a 2-Hour session which covers the basics of machine shop operations. Participants will work on a project using Drill Press, Bandsaws, and various Sheet metal equipment. No prior knowledge required and grants access to the Brunsfield Centre.
Training is only open to students. This training allows students to use the drill press, bandsaw, sheet metal equipment, and hand tools at the Brunsfield Centre
To participate in the training you must have a MakerRepo Account. If you don't have an account yet, you can sign up for a MakerRepo Account here.
If you must cancel, please send us an email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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David M. Bueker wrote:Tim,
Charming and elegant are now curse words in Bordeaux! I can see your point on '99, as it's not a blockbuster vintage, and was drinkable from the get go. I went through quite a lot of '99 Pichon Baron, Leoville Barton and all of my bottles of Clerc Milon.
Yes, it seems strange that "charming and elegant" are now qualities only associated with lesser vintages. Do we have to thank Messrs Parker and Rolland for that?


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New Armless Accent Chairs DecorationHome >> Other >> New Armless Accent Chairs Decoration >> Wonderful Armless Accent Chairs Painting
Awesome Armless Accent Chairs Set are posted/uploaded by winbackrespect.org obtained from sources that are highly skilled in the field of design of houses and furniture. So you don't have to worry about with winbackrespect.org give this information simply upload a photo or image only. This information can be your reference when you are confused to choose the right design for your home.


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Another Big Fat Lie
Submitted by drink on
Here it comes, another attempt to conflate fats and sugars. This is the same lie the NIH and the USDA have been telling since the 1970s, supposedly for our health, but ostensibly to support companies like Nabisco which sell mass loads of sugar and starch. Eating lard will lower your cholesterol count if you don't spread it on toast.


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More at:RickI wrote:I just heard about a serious incident involving a bystander. No one was severely injured or booked into a hospital but still it was pretty scary. Really don't want to go into more detail than that.
Point is we need to be very careful about flying kites near others. If your kite skills aren't all that solid or if your control is challenged by conditions, DON'T HAVE bystanders in the likely impact area downwind. If these means taking more quality lessons, waiting, moving, getting offshore and staying there or even driving to another launch, DO IT. If you see someone with bad practices like this, grab some friends and have as effective talk with him as you can.
Too often guys don't pay attention to this open the door to problems. Stupid things like walking upwind of bystanders when you can just as easily pass on the downwind side, launching or landing with bystanders close to and downwind of lines, etc.. Human nature may have us ignore these simple precautions, don't fall into that trap. Have a care for the sake of our access.
FKA, Inc.
transcribed by:
Rick Iossi


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Manchester United 1998-2000 Home Shirt Phone Case
Made to order phone cases for all popular phone models, produced in the UK. Each case is carefully designed, printed and made from durable, long-lasting materials.
- Created for your specific phone model
- 3D printed for wrap-around effect
- Covers back and sides of phone
- Cut away detailing for access to charging ports and camera
- Lightweight and 1mm thin
- Material: 100% polycarbonate
Shipping & Delivery
Allow three working days from the time of ordering for us to produce and ship your phone case. You'll be notified by email when your order has been dispatched. Sent by Royal Mail 1st Class - after dispatch, most phone cases arrive the next day.


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A World Leader in High Performance Aromatic Polyketone Solutions (PAEK)
For more than three decades, Victrex has collaborated with customers to help turn their toughest challenges into tangible benefits. As a product leadership company, our proactive approach in monitoring the trends of the industries we serve and engaging in open dialogue with industry leaders enables us to deliver what is required to maximise performance today and tomorrow.
Victrex is largely integrated into its key raw material supplies, alongside complementary supply from non-Victrex sources. This is a unique position as a PAEK manufacturer and allows us to ensure security of supply for our customers, as well as consistent and technically advantageous products, meaning high-quality products that will be delivered on time and in-full.
A company with cutting-edge polymeric solutions, streamlined production facilities, application development expertise and unmatched technical support – that's a future performance partner.
Solving the challenges of today and delivering solutions for tomorrow
Victrex takes great pride in partnering with customers to develop technologies for a range of applications. Our polyketones are specified by leading companies that manufacture next-generation mobile devices, tools for harsh oilfield environments, fuel-efficient aeroplanes and automobiles, and advanced medical devices. We specialise in helping our customers reach their full potential.
More than 35 years of delivering innovative, high-performance polyketone solutions


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Engineering a military career
February 2, 2012
Bryce Randall '12, a mechanical engineering major at Bradley University, is one of only 15 students nationwide to be accepted into the U.S. Navy's Naval Reactors Engineer program.
Randall was accepted into the program following a rigorous application process that culminated with a round of technical interviews with senior engineers at the Naval Reactors headquarters in Washington, D.C., and a final one-on-one interview with Admiral Kirkland Donald, the director of Naval Nuclear Propulsion.
"I feel honored and excited to be accepted for the program," Randall said. "It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to use my education to serve my country in an atmosphere like none other. This is an environment where your work matters."
Following his graduation from Bradley in May, Randall will start his naval career at Officer Development School in Newport, Rhode Island. Upon completion of that training, he will be commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Navy. He then will be assigned to a five-year position at Naval Reactors headquarters in Washington, D.C., approving, confirming, and planning the design, operations, and maintenance of more than 100 nuclear reactors. He will receive graduate level education in nuclear engineering at the Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
There are four programs within the Navy Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate program - submarine warfare, surface warfare, nuclear power school instructor and naval reactors engineer. Approximately 250 students from top universities, such as MIT, Stanford, Penn State, Georgia Tech, Virginia Tech, and the University of Illinois are accepted into one of the four programs each year.


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Home > News & Events > Wayland Press Release Archives > 2004 News Releases > May 2004 > WBU faculty earn promotions
WBU faculty earn promotions
PLAINVIEW - Members of the Wayland Baptist University faculty have been approved for promotions, effective July 1 with the new fiscal year.
Three individuals were approved for promotion from associate professor to full professor: Dr. Glyndle Feagin, professor of religion in Plainview; Dr. Polly Lackey, professor of library science in Plainview; and Dr. Steven Reid, professor of business in Hawaii and dean of the Hawaii campus.
The following individuals were approved for promotion from assistant professor to the rank of associate professor: Dr. Elise Adamson, associate professor of mathematics, Plainview; Dr. Timothy Fosnaugh, associate professor of mathematics, Wichita Falls; Dr. Howard He, associate professor of business, Hawaii; Dr. Cindy McClenagan, associate professor of English, Plainview; Dr. Joshua Mora, associate professor of Spanish, Plainview; Dr. Adam Reinhart, associate professor of biology and chemistry, Plainview; Dr. Ann Stutes, associate professor of music, Plainview; and Dr. Joselyn Thompson, associate professor of business, Wichita Falls.


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Monday, March 17th is St. Patricks Day, but Oshkosh is celebrating it this Saturday all day and into the night with a tent party and parade. Starting at 2:00 kick off Irish Cider School at Barley and Hops, who will introduce you to the wonderful world of cider from 2:00 pm – 3:00. Registration includes commemorative glassware, multiple samples of Irish and other UK Ciders, and a presentation on these tasty drinks and their popularity in America. Products to sample include Magners Original, Magners Pear, Hornsby's Amber, Hornsby's Crisp, and Blackthorn. Price is only $15 per person. Must be over 21 to attend. Sign-up at Barley & Hops 663 N Main St or online at St. Patrick's Day in Oshkosh.
At 4:00, just down the block at 547 N Main enjoy the beginning of a fun filled night tent party starting with the Irish band Dornan. For the next couple of hours have fun with the childrens reddest hair and freckled face contest, meet the Irish wolfhounds and join the Kinsella Academy of Irish Dance for a little fun.
At 6:30 starts the parade beginning on Main going to Ceape and ending at Irving. Watch for the Oshkosh and Convention and Visitors Bureau brand new Oshcar. You can't miss it. Richards School of Irish Dance will be performing around 7:30, follow by Sheamus Fitzpatrick and the McNally Boys.
Bagpipers, cultural displays, Fox Valley hurling Club, Irish food, merchandise, silent auctions and raffles will be held throughout the day.
Want to celebrate even more? Meet up at the Roxy every Sunday in March for an authentic Irish breakfast.


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Geographical location:
Located adjacent to Highway 5 (Hanoi – Hai Phong); 30 km from Hanoi, 70k m from Hai Phong port, 110km from Quang Ninh deep-water port.
Scale of land area:
345.2 hectares
In which: Stage 1: 219.6 hectares, 154 hectares of land area for rent
Stage 2: 125.6 hectares, 101 hectares of land area for rent.
Industrial zone technical infrastructure:
Stage 1:
ThangLong Industrial Zone II has completed the work of compensation, site clearance the whole land area of the industrial zone and has completed construction of technical infrastructure on an area of 154.4 hectares.
The system of internal road in the industrial zone, water supply and drainage systems, power supply, firefighting system, water supply plant with capacity of 4,500 m3/day and night and wastewater treatment plant with capacity of 3,000 m3/day and night have been completed and put into operation. Investors are actively investing in building infrastructure for the remaining part of the 65,3 hectares area.
Phase 2: In 2011, the Government has agreed to supplement Thang Long Industrial Zone II to the list of industrial zones that are expected to expand in 2015, with an area of 125.6 hectares. So far, investors are carrying out of compensation, site clearance and ground leveling to implement phase 2 according to the registered progress.
The sector attracting investment project:
Projects in the field of manufacturing of electronic products and precision engineering; the electronic engineering industry, transport machinery, light industry; industrial gas production.
Investment project attraction status:
By the end of 2012, industrial zone has received over 36 projects from Japan with a total investment of 1,040 million USD, including a number of projects with large-scale capital: the projects of Hoya Glass disk Company, Hamaden Company, Toyota, Kyocera Vietnam Co., Ltd… Currently, the total land area of Phase 1 is 106 hectares with occupancy rate of 70% of the land area which is capable for rent in phase 1 (106/154 hectares). In total registered projects, there are 21 projects went into operation, creating jobs for about 4,000 workers.
Owner of Thang Long II Industrial Zone:
Thang Long II Industrial Zone Co., Ltd
For more information, please contact ANT Consulting.
ANT Consulting is here to assist you from the outset; providing corporate intelligence, risk advisory, management consulting services that assist market entrance, and ensure efficient business start-up operation.
We strive to save your cost by guiding you towards economical solutions that comply with local legislation and procedures. We support you through early logistic solutions and carry you through as your business grows. We aim to bridge the gap between international best practices and local cultures and assist foreign companies and organizations entering Vietnam market to overcome commercial and regulatory issues.
We could be reached at email: firstname.lastname@example.com or tel: +848 3520 2779 . To learn more about us, please visit www.antconsult.vn


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|View Poll Results: Sword Art Online - Episode 1 Rating
|Perfect 10
|9 out of 10 : Excellent
|8 out of 10 : Very Good
|7 out of 10 : Good
|6 out of 10 : Average
|5 out of 10 : Below Average
|4 out of 10 : Poor
|3 out of 10 : Bad
|2 out of 10 : Very Bad
|1 out of 10 : Painful
|Voters: 232. You may not vote on this poll
|Thread Tools
|2012-07-08, 04:25
|Link #241
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
12 Pages.
At this rate, we might as well dub Sword Art Online the Blockbuster anime of the season, on par with Fate Zero in terms of popularity and expectation and hype.
Not that hype is a bad thing, necessarily, and SAO is off to a good start.
|2012-07-08, 04:43
|Link #242
Join Date: Feb 2008
I understand the premise of SAO very well, I've also played more than my share of RPGs in almost 2 decades of gaming. I don't know what your knowledge of SAO is or your RPG experience is, but what I can tell is that you probably don't know too much about real combat.
The very fact that you kept on talking about in-game mechanic shows how you've completely missed my point. I've never said that in-game knowledge and know-how isn't important, but rather that in SAO it is no longer only about those.
A sword cut to your character in SAO can be just as deadly as a sword cut to your body in real life, combined with a VR simulation that literally thrusts the players into the environment itself, there is little difference between the battlefield in SAO and one in real life.
To use your FPS as an example, regular SAO can be... Call of Duty let's say, you have your different weapons(skills) and respawn (resurrection) you can shoot stuff and get blown up, but no big deal. Now jump to the locked-in SAO, you can still blow stuff up and get blown up, except now you die for real when you do. You still retain the knowledge about the game mechanic and the skills at using the weapons, but will you still be able to approach the game with the same mindset you had before? Will you still shrug off those hails of bullets? Will you still think "damn, oh well" when you see that grenade indicator? It's the same thing for SAO players, that axe strike from that monster is still the same axe strike as before, but the player's perception of it has completely changed, as now that HP bar represents something far more serious = their own life. Knowing that you have to block this axe swing and then counter attack is one thing, doing so without being paralyzed by fear is another.
It's the same thing that every soldier in combat goes through, when they come face to face with their own mortality as they realize "I can die, right here and now". Some people can deal with it, many cannot, and this is no different for SAO players, even though their battleground is a virtual reality construct.
Last edited by kyp275; 2012-07-08 at 04:56.
|2012-07-08, 04:53
|Link #244
Senior Guest
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Athens (GMT+2)
Age: 30
The thread activity is super-high so forgive me for being unable to keep up with every post. Very interesting anime, I'll definitely keep watching! A few questions:
1) Since the game time is synchronized with the real world, won't everyone die of thirst/hunger in a few days? If 8 floors take a month, game clear is impossible to achieve in one go.
2) The reporter said there were 10k copies of the game. With 200 people dead, the number of people in the plaza still didn't seem anything like even 1,000. Are people able to login in the current situation? Well, even if they can, who would, after hearing today's news?
3) Kirito said the monster spawn is finite. That means that if you're outleveled early on, you're as good as dead. Does a single player clearing the game end it for everyone? If not, crazy programmer's got 10k people hostage and 9,999 definitely on death row.
|2012-07-08, 04:58
|Link #245
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
2)I think that's just more they can't really show 10,000 people at the plaza. It would be hard to do but yes pretty much 10,000 - 213 were there.
3) it's not finite but in any MMO, if you've ever played one near the start of an expansion or release of game. There is a ton of crowding and fighting over the new content. Kirito is an MMO veteran so he knows he needs to get away from the starting city and the main cluster of other players as fast as possible.
Last edited by relentlessflame; 2012-07-08 at 16:34. Reason: mod edit: removed spoiler
|2012-07-08, 05:12
|Link #246
Senior Guest
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Athens (GMT+2)
Age: 30
|2012-07-08, 05:14
|Link #247
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2008
|2012-07-08, 05:30
|Link #248
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
|2012-07-08, 05:55
|Link #249
Senior Member
Join Date: Feb 2011
Odds are, some among the 2000 were those who realized what Kirito did, but died because they weren't as familiar as Kirito, or not as good.
Furthermore, since you don't have to clear the floor, you could probably simply afford to take things easy. If there's Skilling options, I think quite a few players went down that route. Focus on skilling. If incoming resources require processing, process them. Once you've amassed enough, reached a high enough level, start farming monsters. By then, the rush should have subsided considerably, an you have a large war chest. Furthermore, by Skilling and Trading, you might have sufficient contacts to actually find guilds. Indeed, I wonder whether High Skillers might also be in high demand in guilds, as backline support, especially for larger guilds. Indeed, by one Month, if indeed, your gold is yours, can't be stolen by other players, can't be ganked, etc, etc, then those who made an early decision not to risk things so fast, but rather, to Skill may well find themselves far better off. Especially if they are the types that usually formed the Economic and PVE Base of an MMO. It depends on how many possibilities are there of course, but I'd presume initial resources will be plentiful, so if one wants to go down that route, he should do it right at the start. First night.
Until some Skillers and Traders have "exclusive" arrangements with large guilds, where sub-factions of the guild farm resources, and certain members process them to fuel and fund riskier expeditions and raids. While taking an hour each day to farm, and gain some Exp, so they can move along to other floors when the time comes, or so that they don't die when following their guild to the next floor, likely under tight escort. It depends on the Trading system. Are there AHs and Markets linked between towns, or can one stay in a starting town, or the first city with adequate facilities and skill your way up?
As for the previous debate on Guilds, I speculate some are formed out of previous friendships in MMOs, some are formed by a group gathering together and electing a leader, and some of course, by strength, but personally, I doubt that last arrangement would have been that stable, and experienced Guilds would have a HUGE advantage if they are well led. This is pure speculation, so forgive me if I accidentally guessed something correctly here.
Still, considering the limited copies, I'd say that most players were veterans of the MMO scene. Hard Core PVPers probably had a huge dilemma here, since PVPing here is actual murder. PVEers who fought Raid Bosses on a regular basis and such would be in good stead, though of course, continuously at risk every expedition. Skillers, those very good at that art, and merchanters might actually have been in a strong position in SAO. Those Skillers who appreciated it right from the start may well have found themselves in an excellent position by the end of the first month, provided that they were experienced skillers in other games, so long of course, that they gained a reputation for fairness. Selling lemons in SAO can be fatal for the buyer. Literally.
To summarize, I find the Overcrowding issue overplayed, (though it was also a good idea for Veterans to rush out to better hunting grounds, to get a lead) one can afford to take his time unless there are idiotic griefers who want to camp out. Skillers would be at a huge advantage, depending on SAO's skilling and production system. PVEers, especially those who got in together with their whole guilds from previous games would fare well. Your solo PVEer is in a dangerous position. Your PVPer has a huge dilemma. The few total Noobs are probably going to fare worst. If they are lucky, they fall in with a Skiller or a good PVE Guild that takes them in. If they are unlucky, they join the 2000, their fates ranging from being murdered or dying alone.
And as everyone has suggested, Support Classes like Healers are very invaluable. Even Stealth classes may well be used as scouts to map out dungeons and such. Enchanters, if they exist, would join the Skillers.
Unless of course, SAO follows an Elder Scroll V like leveling system, where you can level up whatever skill you want and choose to specialize as anything. Without pre-selecting a class.
Last edited by novalysis; 2012-07-08 at 06:14.
|2012-07-08, 06:07
|Link #250
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
For all we know, Kayaba's done. Aincrad's created, people are trapped inside, his job is done and he killed himself. More likely and less extreme, all he wants is to be able to connect to the game server and tweak it - he did say he wanted to interact. All he really needs then is an accomplice to do the grocery shopping for him. Or a disguise to do it himself.
About Klein's voice: I hear Tiger. What's with him and younger boys anyway?
Something that's bugged me: why didn't Kirito and Klein just agree to meet in a few days, after things had settled down a bit? Kirito can help Klein and his friends with his superior knowledge of the game and level, they can help him with their numbers. Wouldn't they both profit?
|2012-07-08, 06:14
|Link #251
Join Date: Jul 2012
|2012-07-08, 06:18
|Link #252
Join Date: Jul 2012
You covered your in-game dynamics pretty well, and it all makes sense. Maybe we'll see how things play out as you stated, possibly as early as episode 2?
|2012-07-08, 06:18
|Link #253
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
If Kirito were to wait for people to clear out before going at it, he'd probably have to wait for the first floor to be cleared or enough people die on the first floor (at which point I would imagine that clearing the game would be impossible). With that long of a wait, I doubt he'd ever be on the forefront of the battle given he'd probably always be playing catchup to those that did what he's doing now, and that wouldn't make for a very good anime.
Also to the other person's point that we haven't seen any PKing yet, I think it would be unrealistic to see any PKing at this point. Think about it, you've just been told if someone dies they're dead IRL. Given that only a few weeks (a month) have passed, rampant PKing is unlikely because there's still an off chance that everyone could be rescued somehow. If you were rescued and they can look at the server logs and see your character was slaughtering people left and right literally right after you were locked in the game, you'd probably be having a lynch mob on you.
PKing would be more apt to occur when the eventuality that outside rescue is impossible sinks in and people start to break down from the stress of the game under the notion that clearing the game is impossible. At that point the belief is that it would be impossible to exit the game, therefore why bother with worrying about repercussions in the real world.
The other side of it is as has been pointed out, if you're going to PK with your life on the line, you'll want to be good enough not to be killed by your target (unless you're just suicidal). As PKing rises, there's the possibility that some sort of anti-PK (PKKs maybe?) police force forms so the same mentality of people working to clear the game would pop up. You need to be better in a one on many situation that the group attacking you.
|2012-07-08, 06:18
|Link #254
Join Date: Aug 2009
Age: 28
This is certainly one case where a show deserves the hype. I'm currently kicking myself for prematurely categorizing this as another trashy MMORPG adventure.
First off is that the entire episode looks beautiful thanks to the superb animation, though I wish I could say the same about the character designs. From an aesthetic perspective, this show certainly lives up to expectations.
Another distinct trait is how dark the story is played out right at the onset. This is good in that it shows just how high the stakes are in this game. It provides a clear, tangible motivation for everyone from the very start. Now that the gravity of the situation has already been laid out in full, I do hope that this mood of despair takes a backseat in the following episodes in favor of action or lighthearted moments.
I'm also liking the characters so far. Kirito, in particular, keeps a pretty cool head and is generally quite capable of looking out for himself. So far, everyone seems fairly down-to-earth, allowing me to relate to them easily enough.
You really have to give the mad scientist guy some credit though, he managed to take 10,000 people hostage right under everyone's noses. You really have to pity the ones who live alone though, like our good friend, Klein.
|2012-07-08, 06:31
|Link #255
Cross Game - I need more
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: I've moved around the American West. I've lived in Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Oklahoma
Age: 39
You just have to change your playing style and above all, avoid being mobbed.
Oh... and lots and lots of "Run away!!" tactics.
Last edited by Sackett; 2012-07-08 at 06:51.
|2012-07-08, 06:40
|Link #257
Join Date: Mar 2007
Since Kirito said resources are limited I took his word literally for it and believe it means mobs don't respawn and that it was the reason why he rushed out immediately
If mobs do still respawn that doesn't change Kirito's fast thinking and great decision making skills and the courage to act on it but I feel it makes him a bit more reckless
|2012-07-08, 07:05
|Link #260
I disagree with you all.
Join Date: Dec 2005
|sci-fi, shonen
|Thread Tools


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It's Amazing The Lengths 'Music Supporters' Will Go To In Trying To Trash Success Stories
from the and-sad dept
Other claims might not go that far, but they do seem to go to great lengths to attack Palmer's success here, with reasoning that doesn't hold up under much scrutiny. Take, for example, the long and rambling argument of Daniel Brockman, suggesting that Palmer's success here does not bode well for the future of the music industry because (and really, the leap of logic here is astounding) using Kickstarter is similar to using a SuperPAC:
the Internet has allowed artists and fans to have a more direct relationship, but it has also given artists a more direct way to shake their fans upside down for pocket change. Much has been made of the fact that, in the traditional model, the $14.99 you plunked down for a CD at Sam Goody resulted in a pittance actually finding its way to the artist's pocket. But if you give that money directly to the artist, don't you now have a greater say in what music that artist makes? The traditional model allows artists to do their thing, with the label as an intermediary between the artist and the desires of fans. Without that intermediary, fans can and probably should feel free to express their opinions on the work that they are paying for directly.Brockman supports this position by claiming that these few "big donors" have too much power. Of course, the math doesn't really show that. The "small donors" add up to quite a bit of money here. Furthermore, it seems kind of insulting and ridiculous to claim that this is "shaking fans upside down." The whole reason that these models work so well is that they let fans support artists at a level with which they are most comfortable. That's not shaking fans upside down. In economics, it's called differentiating your market, and it's a sign of a good business.
What this may mean is that a small, rich, vocal cabal of music fans could grow to have an undue impact on the way music progresses, as artists within this direct patronage model have to appease those that put food on their table. I can't help but see this as not dissimilar from the way that election fundraising has developed in recent years; in a sense, Kickstarter success stories like Palmer's are the Super PACs of the music world. Think about it: someone like Newt Gingrich, for example, should have been out of the race a long time ago, except that he had the massive financial backing of an extremely small and extremely wealthy group of backers. Were he to be successful in his bid, he would be completely in the debt of those that paid for him to be there-- and the less people that pay for him to be in that position of power, the worse it is for everyone, right?
Furthermore, this whole theory seems to be based on the idea that fans "don't get anything" out of supporting artists they love. He seems to be at a complete loss as to why anyone would pay for anything if they weren't getting money back. To wit:
I guess the head-scratching aspect here, for me, is who are these people giving thousands of dollars? In the traditional record label model, investors give money to the label, the label finds talent and songs and matches them up together, and that investor money is spread out amongst a roster of artists; most of those artists lose money for the label but then the label will hit on a Mariah Carey or a Nickelback and make back enough money to recoup any losses. The investors are re-paid, the artists are paid (barely, maybe), and the label retains dough to keep the thing going. In this Kickstarter model, though, there aren't investors, there are only donors; meaning that the artist isn't beholden to the label, but is instead in some manner beholden to the donor.It's as if he's never recognized that people get all sorts of value and benefits in the non-monetary fashion. It's as if he ignores all of the great things that Amanda provides the fans who pay up. It's as if he ignores the fact that people aren't supporting Amanda specifically because of the dollar value of the return, but because they want to support Amanda. And they get value in that fact alone. This is the kind of thing you would think the defenders of "the rights of artists" would embrace. It highlights just how much fans really value artists. But, for some reason, it seems to make them really upset -- perhaps because it shows how much the fans value the artists, rather than the gatekeepers who used to take most of the money.
There's nothing head-scratching about fans supporting the artists they love. There's no reason to fear the "undue influence" of superfans. A big part of the reason they're superfans in the first place is because they absolutely love what comes from the artist's own creative work, and they're actually pretty loathe to tamper with that. Contrast that to the traditional record deal, wherein there is a single entity, who usually has overwhelming control over the direction of the product, and only has one thing in mind: how can it profit the most, rather than how can it create the most meaningful work.
Call me crazy, but I can't see an argument that suggests true fans supporting an artist creates worse output than a large corporate entity controlling the process. It seems bizarre to complain that artists won't get paid in the future, while also complaining that they aren't getting paid now because of piracy -- and then to complain even more when an artist figures out how to get paid.


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Tassels became visible in early-planted cornfields around Minnesota at the beginning of July, coinciding with a week of unusually hot and continually dry weather. While some isolated areas in Minnesota received a little rain late last week, most did not.
This week, a large percentage of the corn in Minnesota will be pollinating. Although air temperatures across Minnesota during the next 10 days are forecast to be near optimal for corn (mid- to upper-80s), there is little chance of rain during this time. How will these weather conditions affect the corn crop?
The critical period for avoiding stress in corn is during the time span two weeks before and two weeks after tassel emergence, with the most important time being the eight days after tassels emerge, also known as the pollination period. Drought and heat stress around tassel emergence can affect the success of pollination and the number of kernels per ear.
Heat stress generally has less of an impact on corn at pollination than water stress, and does not occur until temperatures exceed 86 degrees with dry soils, or 92 degrees with adequate soil moisture and high humidity. With high temperatures, corn plants require more energy to maintain themselves. Temperature and/or water stress before pollination can reduce the number of potential kernels per row, while combined temperature and water stress shortly after tassels emerge can cause exposed silks to desiccate and not accept pollen.
Fortunately, much of the corn that was pollinating last week during the high temperatures was not under severe moisture stress, as the roots in these early-planted fields were accessing water deep in the soil. Thus, the direct impact of last week's high temperatures on pollinating corn in Minnesota was likely low. Instead, the amplified loss of soil moisture as a result of high temperatures likely had, and will continue to have, a greater impact on the crop.
Water stress before pollination affects the number of potential kernels per row. It can also cause silk emergence and elongation to slow while hastening or not affecting pollen shed, resulting in asynchrony between pollen shed and silk emergence. This asynchrony can result in poor kernel set and ears with missing kernels. The success of kernel set can be evaluated throughout and soon after the pollination period by carefully unwrapping husks and gently shaking ears, as silks detach from the ear within a couple days after successful pollination.
However, water stress following successful pollination is more common and will likely be the main result of dry conditions this year. This water stress results in the loss of kernels at the tips of ears. But kernel loss can occur in other patterns on ears if water stress is intense enough or combined with other stresses.
The current dry conditions in many parts of the state, which are expected to persist, could affect the success of pollination in some areas, but will more likely result in the loss of kernels following pollination. This loss of kernels could be a little greater than normal, but will depend on current soil moisture levels and future rainfall. Even so, the corn in Minnesota is in far better shape than that in east-central Corn Belt states such as Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.
For more educational resources on corn production in Minnesota, visit the University of Minnesota Extension's corn website at www.extension.umn.edu/corn.
Jeff Coulter is a corn agronomist with University of Minnesota Extension.