text: Ok, after much deliberation, and a bagel against me on the weekend, I've decided I have to do something about my forehand. It's too short, too high and too error prone. I used to play with a western forehand and it was my strength, but now that I've gotten a bit taller I don't think it's for me anymore. I now want a solid, heavy, but penetrating forehand. I play with a single handed eastern backhand and have no problems and now I want the same on my forehand. So my question is, what's the best way to get used to an eastern forehand? Obviously it's going to be hard for me given how long I've played with the western, and the techniques are so different. Any advice welcome.


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The iOS 6.0.2 update released earlier this week may have cured some people's Wi-Fi woes, but others now claim it's reducing their battery life too. First reported by TidBITS' Adam Engst and supported by a number of posters in Apple's Support Communities, some (but seemingly not all) iPhone users have begun seeing dramatically reduced battery life on their iPhones after performing the update.
Apple says iOS 6.0.2 "fixes a bug that could impact Wi-Fi." iPhone 5 users previously complained their devices weren't staying connected to Wi-Fi, therefore forcing their phones to fall back to cellular data networks and use inappropriate amounts of data. Although Apple didn't specify whether iOS 6.0.2 fixes that particular bug, it's widely speculated this was indeed its purpose.
As noted by the team at TidBITS, this change in how devices connect to Wi-Fi may be related to the apparent battery drain. "Our speculation, based on some quick testing that Michael Cohen did, is that the problem is related to a change in Wi-Fi behavior, which maps with Apple's sole release note for iOS 6.0.2," Engst wrote. "[I]t's far from conclusive, but indicates that the problem may be related to wireless communication in some fashion."
Members of the Apple Support Communities are also seeing this phenomenon on their iPhones, but at least one user named .zaph. has a different theory on what's going on. "Quick update on this, I'm still letting my phone drain before I charge it again. It's been sitting at four percent for a few hours now (mostly idling)," .zaph. wrote. "I have a feeling the phone is confused about how much power is actually left. Once it drains and recharges to 100 percent in one sitting, it should know better and am anticipating it getting better then."
I've been watching my iPhone's battery life since performing the iOS 6.0.2 update and have not seen any noticeable change in behavior. But that doesn't mean you haven't: let us know if your battery is draining faster after the update in the poll below, then tell us your theories in the comments.

subset: commoncrawl


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WASHINGTON — Bitter campaign foes just weeks ago, President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney met for lunch at the White House on Thursday, discussing America's leadership in the world and pledging to stay in touch after a bitter presidential contest. In their first meeting since the election, Obama and the Republican nominee shook hands in the Oval Office and had an hourlong lunch in the White House's private dining room, fulfilling a promise Obama made in his victory speech the night of Nov. 6. The White House said Romney congratulated the president for his successful campaign and wished him well in the coming four years. Over a lunch of white turkey chili and Southwestern grilled chicken salad, the conversation focused on America's leadership in the world and the importance of maintaining that leadership position. White House officials said the two men pledged to stay in touch, particularly if opportunities to work together on shared interests arise in the future. Prior to the lunch, White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama had no specific agenda for the meeting, but he said the president wanted to discuss Romney's ideas for making government more efficient. Obama has proposed merging some functions of government related to business and has asked Congress for authority to undertake some executive branch reorganization. Obama aides said they reached out to Romney's team shortly before Thanksgiving to start working on a date for the meeting. For Romney, it was a day of closure after a hard-fought campaign. Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin congressman who was his vice presidential running mate, met earlier in the day to talk about the pending fiscal cliff negotiations and other economic challenges facing Washington, a Ryan aide said. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss the private discussions. On a personal level, the pair discussed their families and talked about the harried 12 weeks of the general election campaign. "I remain grateful to Gov. Romney for the honor of joining his ticket this fall, and I cherish our friendship," Ryan said in a statement after their meeting. "I'm proud of the principles and ideas we advanced during the campaign and the commitment we share to expanding opportunity and promoting economic security for American families." Much of that debate centers on expiring tax cuts first enacted in the George W. Bush administration. Obama and Romney differed sharply during the campaign over what to do with the cuts, with the Republican pushing for them to be extended for all income earners and the president running on a pledge to let the cuts expire for families making more than $250,000 a year. The White House sees Obama's victory as a signal that Americans support his tax proposals. Obama and Romney's sit-down Thursday was their most extensive private meeting to date. The two men had only a handful of brief exchanges before the 2012 election. Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom called it a "very friendly lunch. They spoke about some of the big challenges facing America, and it gave Governor Romney the opportunity to personally congratulate President Obama for the success of his campaign." Even after their political fates became intertwined, their interactions were largely confined to the three presidential debates. The meeting was not without incident. The Secret Service said a man interfered with Romney's motorcade as his vehicle arrived at a secure checkpoint near the White House and was later arrested after becoming combative during an interview with a police officer. CNN released video of the SUV carrying Romney arriving at the check point, showing a man briefly heckling Romney before the vehicle entered the White House complex. Romney has virtually disappeared from politics following his election loss. He's spent the past three weeks largely in seclusion at his family's Southern California home. He has made no public appearances, drawing media attention after being photographed at Disneyland in addition to stops at the movies and the gym with his wife, Ann.
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Finally the sun came out on Wednesday. After our return from Austria, where the weather was so la-la - a bit of rain, a bit of sunshine, sometimes warm, sometimes cold - I was hoping for a bit more of summer when we came home.
I still had another week off and was planning on spending it with Soeren. But there was no sign of summer anywhere in Weimar either.
However, both of us are creative when it comes to having fun. So, we spent the earlier part of the week going to the library for a book reading, taking in a 3-D movie about dolphins and whales. One of the things I admire about Soeren is his enthusiasm. Before school was out his class went for a visit to the Weimar House. I shamefully had to admit to him that in the 5 years we've been living here, I have not had the opportunity to visit this brilliant museum.
I believe he was in the state of incredulity because I normally am quite pedantic about such important things. The fact that I had not taken an interest in how Weimar came to be, as I am very impressed by this city and it's culture, and had not visited the Weimar House struck him as rather odd. His solution back then was "We'll go when I have my break! I'll show you around."
It was quite exciting to be led through a museum by a five year old and although we were guided through the city's history by Goethe himself, I found Soeren's explanations far more interesting.
On Wednesday the sun came out and with it, summer it's full glory. Since then we've been to the ega park, where in between the Japanese gardens and the rose garden, we spent hours at the playground, the farm and the observatory tower. The following day both of us packed a lovely picnic, got our bikes out and went for a lovely long bike ride. We spread out our picnic next to the river below a huge oak tree and while Soeren splashed around in the water I was able to read. Lying on our backs we discovered several cloud animals in the clear blue skies and finally after a little nap we headed into town for our favorite ice-creams.
A lovely week with an exceptional kid. Currently he seems to find fun in reading everything backwards and we have a grand time making up our own language.
This coming week he's spending with his grandparents and I am sure they too will have a ball with him. Me? Oh I am going back to work tomorrow but I am also looking forward to enjoying the time out being single-me again. I love everything about being mummy and cherish every moment spent with my son - but I do love the times when dinner does not have to be done by 6:30 PM or bedtime by 8:00 PM. When I can kick back and eat at 9 PM if I want and go out with Tom and friends on the spur of the moment without having to arrange for a babysitter a few days ahead of time.
But I know I will miss him! Especially in the kitchen where he is my diligent assistant and we've been cooking up a few feasts together. One of them was this fantastic tasting fish.
Sea bream, also known as dorade, is on my top 5 hit list of fish. The delicate white flesh of the sea-bream is succulent and juicy. It is versatile and not only suitable for a wide variety of dishes but also used in several different types of cuisines. It is equally delicious in sashimi, ceviche or simply smoked.
In this recipe I have made a spicy rub with garlic, paprika powder, ground cumin and dried chili flakes, then lightly coated it with black sesame seeds. Served together with a tangy corn-coriander salad, this is a healthy, light and flavorful meal. Perfect for lunch or a light dinner.
Printable version of recipe here.
Spicy Black Sesame Sea Bream
4 Sea bream/Dorade filets, about 180g each
2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
5 teaspoons paprika powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon red peppercorn, coarsely cracked
1/2 teaspoon red chili flakes
2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
In a small bowl prepare the spice rub by mixing together the garlic, paprika powder, ground cumin, chili flakes and red peppercorns.
Wash, dry and season your fish filets and then generously coat them with the spice rub. Lightly coat in the black sesame seeds. Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet and pan-fry the fish on each side for 3-4 minutes.
Corn-Coriander Salad
450g corn, cooked (alternatively you can use canned corn)
Large bunch of coriander, chopped
1 bunch spring onions, sliced
250g tomatoes, thinly sliced
1 orange bell pepper, cubed
1 green chili, finely chopped
3-4 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2.3 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper
In a large salad bowl mix all of the ingredients for the salad, season to taste and toss well. Allow for the flavors to infuse for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Serve the sea bream hot with lime wedges and the corn-coriander salad.
Can it be true? Such a scrumptious meal ready in such a short time. Yes, it is. Meals like this are on the regular menu plan at our home. Simple to prepare and big on taste. All the flavors harmonize se well with each other. The slight sharpness of the chilies fits in so well with the nutty sesame seeds. If you like fish on your tables - you'll love this.
I have joined the Royal Food Joust, a great event, which gets you to cook out of the box. Each month 3 ingredients are picked and assigned. Our jobs is to go off with our thinking caps and create a dish with those ingredients. This month the 3 ingredients were sesame, coriander and fish. What do you think, did i do an acceptable job here?
You might like these fish ideas from WFLH:
Asian Style Tilapia
Honey Teriyaki Salmon with Mange-Tout
Trout with Olive Sauce and Lemon Mashed Potatoes
Mousse de Truite
Seafood from around the blogs:
80 Breakfast's luscious seafood paella
Live to Eat's spicy sambal shrimps
Tastes like Home's no ordinary hassar curry
Cook (almost) Anything's crispy green curry fish cakes
Daily Tiffin Reading Tip:
Branching out... or just getting started in the kitchen by Mike of Mike's Table
*Note about the pictures: While these pictures are not the first set of pictures I took with my new lights, these are the first to be premiered on WFLH (besides the ones I presented here) using the Lowel EGO lights and my studio.
All photographs and written content on What's For Lunch, Honey? © 2006-2008 Meeta Khurana unless otherwise indicated. | All rights reserved | Please Ask First


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Barton turnaround
Clara Barton Elementary School • (773) 535-3260 • Auburn Gresham • 7650 S Wolcott Ave, Chicago, Illinois 60620
Closest schools to Barton
- Barton will be a Turnaround
- Closing
- Impacted
- Other
- 1 mile
- 1.5 miles
- Proposed Attendance Boundary
Barton's DemographicsStatistics Race/ethnicity
This school is not on a closing list
CPS utilization rate
This year, 643 students were enrolled at Barton. However, CPS believes a total of 870 students should be enrolled at Barton.
74% utilized by CPS calculations
To learn more about how CPS utilization calculations may not be accurate, see CPS Apples 2 Apples.
Source: CPS Space Utilization and Enrollment Data for School Year 2012-2013
CPS performance level
The Performance Level is the CPS indicator of school quality based on a formula that uses ISAT test scores and attendance rates. Level 1 indicates a school that has the highest scores on this metric, and Level 3 is the lowest.
- Level1
- Level2
- Level3
Level 1 is best
What do we know about this school?
Does student performance improve over time?
The percent of students meeting or exceeding state standards on standardized tests is tracked for one group, or cohort, of students from grades 3—8. This shows how a specific set of students performed over time.
Source: IIRC Source
Is this school organized for improvement?
The University of Chicago identifies five basic elements of a successful school and rates each school based on the results of yearly student and teacher surveys.
- Very strong
- Strong
- Neutral
- Weak
- Very weak
- No data
Source: 5Essentials
How stable is the school?
The trends in probation status, mobility rate and enrollment, described below, help show how stable a school has been. It is more difficult to get a clear picture of a school if it is changing.
Probation status trend
Each year CPS evaluates schools to determine if they should be placed on probation and targeted for improvement measures. Schools on probation tend to have more leadership changes.
- No '96 '97
- No '97 '98
- No '98 '99
- No '99 '00
- No '00 '01
- No '01 '02
- No '02 '03
- No '03 '04
- Yes '04 '05
- Yes '05 '06
- No '06 '07
- Yes '07 '08
- Yes '08 '09
- Yes '09 '10
- Yes '10 '11
- Yes '11 '12
- Yes '12 '13
Mobility rate trend
When a school has a high mobility rate, it is more difficult to tell whether a school is making progress.
Enrollment trend
The number of students attending the school, taken on the 20th day of each school year. CPS will consider only the past three years of enrollment trends in their school closings decisions.


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Spacious 2 bedroom, 2 full bath Condo, nice size bedrooms, conveniently located on the 2nd floor with storage and laundry on the same floor. Amenities includes Sundeck with Solarium and beautiful view of the Lake and City Skyline/Lakeshore, Exercise Room, Community Room, Doorman and Onsight Management. Short walk to beach, transportation, restaurant and parks. NEEDS UPDATING.
6157 N Sheridan Rd. #2-O is a 1,335 ft2 condo/townhome built in 1963, and is located in Chicago, IL in the El Lago subdivision, in the Edgewater neighborhood. It has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, a 1-car garage, and has annual property taxes of $2,739. This home goes to Swift Elementary Specialty School, Swift Elementary Specialty School, and Senn High School.
View photos, info, homes for sale, taxes, schools, parks, and market trends.
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Algonquin • Arlington Heights • Buffalo Grove • Crystal Lake • Glen Ellyn • Lake Zurich • Mt. Prospect • Schaumburg (North) • Schaumburg (West) • Wheaton
Atlanta • Florida • Wisconsin


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Cork's bars are so famous that there's a heritage pub trail dedicated to them but locals prefer a welcoming spot called Sin é (8 Coburg Street), where the name translates as "That's it" in reference to the funeral parlour next door. There's live music every day but, if you're craving a traditional session, go on a Tuesday, Friday or Sunday. Sit at one of the small, rickety tables downstairs and drink pints of stout by candlelight, beneath high red walls covered in rock posters and fairy lights. Beyond the city, De Barra Folk Club in the seaside town of Clonakilty, just 45 minutes away, is another big draw, with a lively mix of rock'n'roll and folk acts, while Trad Monday sees a loyal, local collective serve up bodhrán beats and balladry until late.
Hire a car and drive towards the dramatic Glengesh Pass in the south-west, round hairpin bends, past bogland and timeworn cottages, and on to Ardara. Here, as dusk falls, you can hole up in The Corner House, a cosy pub where you'll feel like a guest in someone's home. Locals tap along to fiddlers, accordionists and bodhrán drummers squeezed in among the drinkers. Alternatively, head further north to Bunbeg's Hiudai Beag in the heart of the Gaeltacht, where landlord and fiddler Hugh Gallagher is often on the other side of the bar, joining in the trad sessions.
By day, the echo of buskers reverberates off the stone walls of this mediaeval city, whetting the appetite for the musical entertainment that strikes up at night. Authentic boozers are ten-a-penny here, so just wander along the cobblestone lanes and listen out for what takes your fancy. For traditional music, a safe bet is Tynan's Bridge House Bar (2 John's Bridge), a small horseshoe-shaped bar with antique-brass lanterns, which is popular with hurling teams. A neat alternative (and opposite) would be the modern, polished space of Langton House Hotel (69 John Street, +353 56 776 5133), a real landmark for the Marble City, with several Celtic Tiger-era bars and restaurants. Expect a mix of blaring covers bands sandwiched between traditional Irish music sessions, and time your trip to coincide with one of Kilkenny's crowd-pulling arts or comedy festivals: Kilkenny Arts (8-17 August 2014) and Cat Laughs comedy festival (30 May-3 June).
In Galway, the most authentic pubs have an anything-goes attitude and don't charge on the door. Tig Coili (Mainguard Street) is one of the best for music, where a ragtag band of local musicians will spontaneously strike up in one corner of the bar. The walls are covered with black-and-white photographs of previous players, including the odd celebrity: bands in town for big concerts have been known to do impromptu warm-up gigs here. In nearby Tigh Neachtains (17 Cross Street) musicians often wander in and start playing songs with a bluesy, Americana tinge. Sit in one of the wooden snugs from which you can admire every poster from the Galway arts festival to date (this year's festival runs from 14-27 July).
Limerick is being buoyed by its City of Culture 2014 status and the arrival of boutique hotels such as One Pery Square (1 Pery Square). Visit not just because Limerick is the sporting capital of Ireland – rugby is huge here, with Munster playing at Thomond Park stadium (Old Cratloe Road) – but to experience an Irish city on the cusp of change. By night, some of the best drinking spots include the stone-walled The Curragower bar (Clancys Strand) in the Medieval quarter, a popular matchday haunt and the city's best venue for traditional Irish music. If you happen to be in town on a Wednesday, though, don't miss the opportunity to hang out with the city's boho types at the White House (52 O'Connell Street) for open-mic poetry sessions and readings from published writers.
In Belfast's Cathedral Quarter old and new establishments rub together harmoniously and this is where you'll find the weekend buzz. Swap pints for a measure of Bushmills whiskey at the Duke of York (7-11 Commercial Court), taking in the old mirrors and whiskey memorabilia before you join the throng of crowds spilling out onto the streets. For the ultimate spit-and-sawdust pub, there's nowhere better than Maddens Bar (74 Berry Street). Unappealing from the outside – you'll only gain entry if they decide to buzz you in – inside it's jumping with fast-paced jigs and reels, seven nights a week: the sort of place where promoters go to canvass new musical talent.
For the best traditional music and a pint of Guinness, hop across the Liffey river to the The Cobblestone (77 North King Street), a real locals' spot, which is heaving all week thanks to non-stop trad, country, folk and bluegrass sessions. But with Dublin in the midst of a cocktail revolution, it's in the new speakeasy-style bars that you'll find the cool crowd hiding from the tourists. The Liquor Rooms (7 Wellington Quay), underneath the Clarence Hotel, is one of the more recent openings and has an out-of-hours Parisian bordello feel, thanks to the red walls, low lights and artfully worn-in decor.
Patricia Campbell travelled as a guest of Tourism Ireland and the Northern Irish Tourist Board. For more information on breaks in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland, visit ireland.com


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Playoff time for county teams
By Ed firstname.lastname@example.com — While the college tournament is still a couple weeks away, March Madness is officially here for high school boys basketball teams in Michigan.The playoffs begin this week with the district tournaments. Hillsdale County teams will compete in four different districts around the area. Hillsdale and Jonesville will compete in the Class C district tournament at Addison, while Reading will play in the Class C district at Quincy. Two Class D district tournaments will be contested in the county, with Litchfield and Pittsford serving as hosts this week.Many teams are looking to continue strong seasons, while others are excited for a chance at redemption."There have been teams that have come in hot and lost and others who's regular season weren't that good that won district titles," Hillsdale coach Brad Felix said. "It's a night-by-night deal in March and playing unfamiliar opponents can make things difficult."Here is a look at the district tournaments involving Hillsdale County teams.Class C district at AddisonThe district tournament begins tonight with Jonesville facing Adrian Madison in the opening round at 6 p.m. The winner will face Sand Creek in Wednesday's semifinal. Tonight's other first round match is an rivalry matchup between host Addison and Hudson. The winner of that game will face Hillsdale on Wednesday. The district final is Friday at 7 p.m.Jonesville ended its season with a tough loss at Quincy on Thursday. However, the Comets are still coming in hot, having won seven of its last 10 games."We're playing our best basketball of the year, and everyone is healthy which is going to be a key," Jonesville coach Larry Sheerer said. "We're going to have our work cut out for us with Madison, but we're excited to play them again."Madison defeated the Comets early in the season on its way to a 17-win season.Hillsdale swept the two games with Hudson this season on its way to the Lenawee County Athletic Association championship. The Hornets (18-2) also defeated Addison in the regional semifinals in 2011."We're preparing for every team because you can't put all your eggs in one basket," Felix said. "Madison might be the most well-rounded team along with us, but Jonesville presents different problems with their guards. Addison has height that we haven't seen. We've played 20 hard-fought games, yet we're probably going to be graded on these two games, but that's the way it is in March."Class C district at QuincyReading (5-15) has a bye to Wednesday's Class C district semifinal. The Rangers will face the winner of tonight's Schoolcraft/Union City matchup. On the other side of the bracket, Centreville will face host Quincy with the winner facing Bronson on Wednesday. The district final is 7 p.m. Friday.The Rangers dropped both meetings with Big Eight rival Union City, but both games were decided late. Schoolcraft won the Class C state title in 2011 and was in the state semifinals last year."Either way we're going to be the smaller team, but our guys will work hard and try to find a way," Reading coach Brett Kerspilo said. "It's the second season and everyone starts 0-0. You never know when things will click for you, and we're thinking anyone can win come March."Class D district at LitchfieldThe playoffs begin tonight when the host Terriers face Coldwater Pansophia Academy at 6 p.m. The winner will face Will Carleton Academy in Wednesday's semifinal. Hillsdale Academy and North Adams-Jerome will face off in the other semifinal game Wednesday. The district final takes place Friday night.Hillsdale Academy enters as the favorite, featuring sharpshooters Chip Blood and Liam Wolfram. However, the Colts will face a familiar opponent in the Rams. The district matchup will be the third meeting in the last two weeks between the teams."We haven't been in this district in a while, but we're more familiar with these teams," North Adams-Jerome coach Gary Beach said. "It gives coaches an advantage to see what works and what doesn't work. We feel this is a district that anyone could win."North Adams faced Litchfield early in the season and played Will Carleton in the Pat Patterson Holiday Tournament. The Terriers defeated Will Carleton 72-69 in December.Class D district at PittsfordThe Southern Central Athletic Conference will be well represented this week in Pittsford. Camden-Frontier faces Morenci in tonight's opening round, with the winner facing Waldron in the semifinals Wednesday. The host Wildcats will face state power Lenawee Christian in the other semifinal game Wednesday, with the district final taking place Friday.Camden-Frontier and Waldron split their two games, with the home team winning both times. Pittsford (17-3) will look to avenge a 55-52 loss to Lenawee Christian early in the season."LCS is a really good team and we're going to have to be at the top of our game," Pittsford coach Mike Burger said. "It's a challenge, but we're excited about it. We had a great season and we'll be well prepared. We have to limit our turnovers and make plays, and if we do we'll give ourselves a chance."


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The Biz: PBS Celebrates Music's Hall of FAME With Muscle Shoals
The small Alabama town of Muscle Shoals and record producer Rick Hall don't have the same familiar caché as the renowned 1960s soul music labels Motown or Stax. But the hits Hall turned out at his legendary FAME Recording Studios are well into their fifth decade of being a beloved part of American pop culture. The familiar riffs heard in Percy Sledge's "When A Man Loves A Woman," Etta James' "Tell Mama," Clarence Carter's "Slip Away" or Aretha Franklin's "Never Loved A Man" still turn up in movie soundtracks and trailers or over the sound system at a supermarket or Starbucks.
The story of Hall and the session musicians known as The Swampers, who worked for him before setting up their own shop, are well told in the documentary Muscle Shoals, which premieres Monday, April 21, on PBS's Independent Lens (9/8c). The son of a sharecropper, Hall overcame grueling poverty and personal tragedy to build his own studio after success as a songwriter for such artists as George Jones, Brenda Lee and Roy Orbison in the early 1960s. Tensions were high throughout the American south throughout the decade as the Civil Rights movement took hold. But FAME was an oasis where black artists and white musicians worked side-by-side and thrived.
"If it wasn't for black people I wouldn't be a record producer," says Hall, now 82 and still owner-operator of FAME. "We were all color blind. We were concerned about cutting hit records and nothing else." Even after nearly 50 years, it's still surprising to see how pasty, pale Southerners backed up rhythm and blues superstar Wilson Pickett on such classic hits as "Mustang Sally," as depicted in the film. "The time period and the location is an unbelievable setting to what occurred and a tribute to all those guys who were beyond any small-town bigotry," says the film's director, Greg Camalier. "They were incredibly evolved."
Life in the south during the era had a lasting impact on the music. Black and white musicians traveling together outside of the studio for something as simple as a restaurant meal could be risky. It was also dicey for longhaired hippie types such as guitarist Duane Allman, who got his big break as session player at FAME. While in Muscle Shoals to record with Pickett, Allman stayed behind with the volatile singer while the rest of the musicians went to dinner. By the end of the evening he convinced Pickett to cut a version of The Beatles hit of the time, "Hey Jude," and the recording became the inspiration for the southern rock sound of the Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and dozens of other bands that dominated radio and the concert circuit in the 1970s. Hall wasn't interested in rock music or the drug culture that came with it in that decade. "I didn't want to charge $500,000 for producing an album with $50,000 going to making the album and spending the rest on dope," he says.
Hall had a reputation for being a stubborn and strong-willed perfectionist, which led to The Swampers breaking away from FAME to open Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. The undistinguished looking building on Jackson Avenue became a recording haven for rock acts including the Rolling Stones, Paul Simon and Traffic. The Swampers were more in demand than ever. But Hall continued to thrive, having his greatest financial success in the 1970s, recording with mostly white pop acts and country artists including The Osmonds, Bobby Gentry and Paul Anka. He still has a stable of songwriters working for him today. "The money in music is in the publishing," says Hall, who was recently honored with a Grammy Trustee Award. "You don't have to beat up anybody to get paid."
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China says suspects in clash that left 25 dead secretly met to study Koran
BEIJING – The perpetrators of deadly violence last week in China's Xinjiang region held secret Koran study sessions and possessed extremist religious literature, authorities said Tuesday, accusations likely to be used by Beijing as justification for its strict rules on Islam in the vast northwestern territory.
The claims came amid new revelations about the April 23 clash in which 25 assailants, police officers and local government workers were killed near the city of Kashgar. It was one of the deadliest incidents of violence in Xinjiang since nearly 200 people were killed in a July 2009 ethnic riot in the regional capital, Urumqi. Police say they arrested 19 suspects and killed six others, all of them from the region's native Turkic Uighur Muslim ethnic group.
The group was led by Kasmu Memet, who began hosting the Koran study sessions in September, according to an account from the Xinjiang police that was posted to official websites. In March, they began manufacturing swords and conducting test explosions in preparation for carrying out a major attack this summer in densely populated areas of Kashgar, the account said.
Although official media accounts of the incident have differed, Tuesday's report said the clash began after government inspectors discovered bomb making materials. The inspectors were then grabbed by the attackers and forced into their hideout.
Other attackers then arrived at the hideout and ambushed officers rushing to the scene before setting the building on fire, killing those held inside, the report said. Two assailants were shot to death in the fighting.
Members of the group then began rampaging through a market in the area and attacked the local township government headquarters, leading to the shooting death of one attacker, the report said. Three others then attacked a police barracks and records offices and were all killed, it said.
The report did not further identify the literature that was found, but said the group also possessed three flags inscribed with slogans promoting Islamic holy war.
A sprawling region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Xinjiang sees recurrent violence pitting members of the Turkic Muslim Uighur group against the authorities and majority ethnic Han Chinese migrants. Beijing says China faces an organized terrorist threat from radical Muslim groups supported from overseas, but has provided little hard evidence. Many believe violence to be the product of resentments over Han migration, economic marginalization, and restrictions on Uighur culture and religious life.
China imposes a raft of religious restrictions on Uighur religious life, including barring children and government employees from mosques, ordering young men to trim their beards and banning the wearing of veils by women.
Beijing says it treats minorities fairly and spends billions of dollars on improving living standards in minority areas.


text: Even the strongest relationships can suffer in times of adversity. Good planning is an essential part of creating a successful business partnership. Our guides provide information on important aspects of your partnership, such as setting up a formal agreement and planning for the unexpected. It is essential to seek our advice with regard to partnership matters.


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Product features
PowerSensor saves up to 80% energy costs
PowerSensor is a built-in 'people sensor' that transmits and receives harmless infrared signals to determine if user is present and automatically reduces monitor brightness when user steps away from the desk, cutting energy costs by up to 80 percent and prolonging monitor life
AMVA LED for wide-view super-high contrast, vivid images
Philips AMVA LED display uses an advanced multi-domain vertical alignment technology which gives you super-high static contrast ratios for extra vivid and bright images. While standard office applications are handled with ease, it is especially suitable for photos, web-browsing, movies, gaming, and demanding graphical applications. It's optimized pixel management technology gives you 178/178 degree extra wide viewing angle, resulting in crisp images even in 90 degree pivot mode
SmartImage presets for easy optimized image settings
SmartImage is an exclusive leading edge Philips technology that analyzes the content displayed on your screen and gives you optimized display performance. This user friendly interface allows you to select various modes like Office, Photo, Movie, Game, Economy etc., to fit the application in use. Based on the selection, SmartImage dynamically optimizes the contrast, color saturation and sharpness of images and videos for ultimate display performance. The Economy mode option offers you major power savings. All in real time with the press of a single button!
SmartErgoBase enables people-friendly ergonomic adjustments
The SmartErgoBase is a monitor base that delivers ergonomic display comfort and provides cable management. The base's people-friendly height, swivel, tilt and rotation angle adjustments position the monitor for maximum comfort that can ease the physical strains of a long workday; cable management reduces cable clutter and keeps the workspace neat and professional.
HDMI ensures universal digital connectivity
An HDMI-ready device has all the required hardware to accept High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) input. A HDMI cable enables high-quality digital video and audio all transmitted over a single cable from a PC or any number of AV sources (including set-top boxes, DVD players, A/V receivers and video cameras).
Low bezel-to-table height for maximum reading comfort
The Philips monitor, thanks to its advanced SmartErgoBase, can be lowered down almost to desk level for a comfortable viewing angle. Low bezel-to-table height is the perfect solution if you use bifocals, trifocals or progressive lens glasses for your computing work. Additionally, it allows for users with greatly different heights to use the monitor in their preferred angle and height settings, helping them reduce fatigue and strain.
DisplayPort offers audio and video over a single, long cable
DisplayPort is a digital link from PC to Monitor without any conversion. With higher capabilities than DVI standard, it is fully capable to support up to 15meter cables and 10.8 Gbps/sec data transfer. With this high performance and zero latency, you get the fastest imaging and refresh rates – making DisplayPort the best choice for not only general office or home use, but also for the demanding gaming and movies, video editing and more. It also keeps interoperability in mind via use of various adapters.
Built-in stereo speakers for multimedia
A pair of high quality stereo speakers built into a display device. It can be visible front firing, or invisible down firing, top firing, rear firing, etc depending on model and design.
65% post consumer recycled plastics with TCO Edge
TCO Edge certification is given to products which go beyond existing eco-labeling programs. Over and above standard TCO requirements, it further mandates that the product uses minimum 65% of post consumer recycled plastics, is energy efficient, uses minimal hazardous materials, has 100% recyclable packaging, and is designed for easy recycling amongst other requirements. You can rest assured that this Philips monitor is a cutting edge technology product which is best in class ICT, benefitting you and the planet while helping you make a responsible green IT purchase!
PVC-BFR free housing
This Philips monitor housing is free from brominated flame retardant and polyvinyl chloride (PVC-BFR free)
Zero power consumption with 0 watt hard switch
At the flick of the 0 watt hard switch which is conveniently located at the back, you can completely cut-off your monitor from AC power. This results in zero power consumption reducing your carbon footprint even further


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In the movie version, father doesn't always know best
Cheaper by the Dozen. By Frank B. Gilbreth and Ernestine Gilbreth Carey. HarperTorch movie tie-in edition. 274 pp., $5.99, paperback.
A more accurate title for the 2003 movie version of this beloved classic might have been Cheaper by the Dozen, Discounted. The film starring Steve Martin has almost nothing in common with the book that inspired it except that it involves a spirited family of 12 children dominated by a benevolent tyrant and his endlessly accommodating wife.
The movie does not deal with offspring of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, two of the leading time-and-motion study experts of their time, but with the fictitious family of one of their descendants. Even there it hardly reflects reality. None of the original dozen had more than four offspring (and one died of diphtheria at age six, so all 12 were never contemporaries). And while the book is about a father who rules the roost, the movie allows the children ultimately to gain control and reform the lovable autocrat. (It's inconceivable that Frank Gilbreth would have yielded as much power to his offspring – or shown as much domestic incompetence – as Martin does.)
All the more reason, then, to savor the original, one of the great family read-aloud books of the 20th century. Cheaper by the Dozen is today regarded as a children's book. But in its heyday, this hilarious and fast-paced tale was popular among all ages. More than half a century after its publication, it brims with good cheer and slyly subversive ideas on child-rearing. One of Frank Gilbreth's most ingenious practices was putting household chores up for competitive bids among his children so he could get the lowest price while the money went to whichever child needed it the most. Think about it, parents. Doesn't this beat nagging, pleading, and bribing the kids with promises of visits to the Nike store?
Best line: "They had a dozen children, six boys and six girls, in 17 years. Somewhat to Dad's disappointment, there were no twins or other multiple births. There was no doubt in his mind that the most efficient way to rear a large family would be to have one huge litter and get the whole business over with at one time."
Worst line: Frank Gilbreth Sr. teaches his children Morse code by painting dots and dashes on the walls and having them translate phrases such as: "Two maggots fighting in dead Ernest" and "When igorots [sic] is bliss, 'tis folly to be white."
Recommended if … you or your children would like to read about that amusing era when children obeyed their parents.
Published: 1948. HarperTorch movie tie in edition, 2003.
Movie Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0349205/
Posted by Janice Harayda
(c) 2006 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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Minnesota DNR Extends Elk Hunt
ST. PAUL (AP) — The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has extended the elk hunt, starting Saturday.
The agency cites the need to manage the size of the elk population in northwestern Minnesota and control depredation.
DNR big game program leader Leslie McInenly says the rules for the elk hunt authorized an extended season if harvest goals were not met during the regular seasons.
Only six elk were harvested in the September and December hunts. That's well below a quota of 23 elk the DNR had set to meet population management goals and control depredation.
Two small elk herds exist in northwestern Minnesota — one near Grygla in Marshall County and another in Kittson County. Minnesota's elk population ranges from 80 to 120 animals.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.


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Kate Upton Single for Valentine's Day, Shuts Down FOX Detroit Anchor Who Asked About Justin Verlander [Video]
Kate Upton and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue Architect M.J. Day appeared on FOX2 in Detroit today to promote the magazine's most popular issue. FOX 2 reporter Jason Carr asked Kate Upton a long, leading question about her relationship with Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander. When Carr finally finishes, Upton just kind of stares at the camera before explaining she is single and spent her holiday in Florida. Then Day jumps off the top rope to throw in, "Happy Valentine's Day!" and everyone laughs. The point is, Kate Upton doesn't want to answer your long rambling questions about dating Justin Verlander. [MyFOXDetroit]
Previously: Kate Upton & Justin Verlander: New Year's in St. Thomas at the Ritz Carlton, According to a Report
Previously: Justin Verlander, Kate Upton's Boyfriend, Will Face the Yankees With A-Rod On Bench
Previously: Kate Upton Says She Wasn't Drinking in Justin Verlander's Suite
Previously: Kate Upton and Justin Verlander Dating?


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January/February 2010: LEDs: Avoiding the CFL Debacle
Posted by Alan Meier on January 10, 2010
Product 09-65 is sold in big-box retail stores and home improvement stores, but includes blatantly misleading product labeling, claiming to replace 40W incandescent lamps. In fact, initial testing (per LM-79) reveals that it only produces the light output of lower performing 15W incandescent candelabras. Longer-term testing reveals that it depreciates to a level of negligible light output after 1000 hours of continuous operation, negating all cost-savings claims on the packaging because they are based on 30,000-hour bulb life.1
This is incredibly valuable information (indeed, the whole report is excellent) but wouldn't you like to know who manufactured that LED? Sorry, that's not exactly confidential, but it does take further research. If a consumer buys Product 09-65, do you think that she will soon buy a second LED? Not very likely. Does this sound like the history of CFLs? This leaves organizations eager to promote energy-efficient lighting in an awkward position. They want to promote purchases of energy-efficient lights with endorsements, incentives, and tax breaks. But in a scenario similar to CFLs, these actions will only accelerate a race to the bottom in quality… and in efficiency. These groups desperately need to attach minimum levels of quality, performance, and efficiency to the incentives before the market is awash in LED junk. We need to take strong action now to protect the reputation of future LEDs. In fact, a second DOE-sponsored report describing the lessons learned from CFLs recommended:
Be aggressive about dealing with technology failures that affect main benefit claims.2
OK, let's be aggressive. Let's name (and shame) manufacturers and retailers of shoddy LEDs (and CFLS for that matter). Third-party testing should play a crucial role. At the same time, we need international action to quickly establish temporary performance specifications for LEDs. Europe, Japan, Australia, and China are also confronting underperforming LEDs, so the action must be global. LEDs are particularly attractive replacements for kerosene lamps and candles, so we want good lights in Africa, too. An informal global agreement could create interim specifications that would fill the void until the standards organizations and regulatory agencies catch up. These interim specifications won't be perfect, but they will be far better than none. A simple quality mark must appear on all complying products. Consumers will buy more energy-efficient LEDs sooner if they are confident that the lights have consistent reliability, efficiency, and quality.
1. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/caliper_round-9_summary.pdf (page 25).
2. http://apps1.eere.energy.gov/buildings/publications/pdfs/ssl/cfl_lessons_learned_web.pdf
(page iii).
Photo by Evan Mills
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OUR VIEW — Commerce, pop culture shouldn't spoil holidays
There was plenty of hand-wringing last week over the decision by several big retailers to start the "Black Friday" retail rush on Thursday — Thanksgiving Day itself. Even when stores wait until 8 p.m., thousands of retail workers couldn't share Thanksgiving dinner with their families. Worse, many people complained, was that the "Black Friday creep" was sullying what they considered America's last "pure," uncommercialized holiday.
We can't disagree with the critics, and we definitely sympathize with workers who have to spend the holiday dealing with surly, impatient shoppers. But while plenty of scorn has been heaped upon the big retailers for "ruining Thanksgiving," the hard fact is that the changes we've seen are occurring because it's what a significant proportion of Americans want, or at least what savvy marketers know they'll respond to. Just as it is with Christmas and other holidays in our capitalist society, we're only getting what we asked for.
Thanksgiving is indeed a special holiday. It's a day to celebrate the most enduring and basic elements of life — food, family and friends. (Football is a close fourth for many.) The holiday carries a Christian aspect, but it's not exclusionary — the idea of expressing gratitude is as easily celebrated by Jews, Muslims, agnostics and atheists. And it's been largely free of commercialism — no cards, no gifts, no prescribed decor short of school kids in paper Pilgrim hats. Even the menu is negotiable, as long as there's lots and lots of food.
However, the retail rush has been creeping in on Thanksgiving for years, with "door busters" sales moving earlier and earlier. Retailers desperate to maximize holiday season sales have found millions of discount-hungry Americans as willing participants. What's insane to many of us is sport, even tradition, to others. For many people, the sales — and the unlikely camaraderie forged by camping out in the cold with total strangers — provide an adventure that's far more interesting than an evening making conversation with Aunt Sally and Uncle Ralph. Tellingly, we've heard more than a few people refer to the four-day stretch as the "Black Friday weekend."
Those of us who treasure Thanksgiving for its tradition and togetherness — a table laden with familiar favorites, from the oversize turkey to Great Aunt Mary's green bean casserole — may mistakenly assume that everyone celebrates the holiday the same way. In this era of fractured families and shaky finances, an extended family meal may be too painful, too expensive or simply not a priority. For time-pressed families with conflicting work and school schedules, Thanksgiving may mean an escape to Florida. It's no surprise so many people are at the movie theaters or the Chinese buffet on Thanksgiving.
But unless we live right by a mall — or work in retail — the fact that other people celebrate Thanksgiving by shopping should have zero impact on our own observances. Too many of us seem to believe that if other people don't observe a holiday the same way we do, the holiday has been "ruined." There's no reason the popular culture's interpretation of a holiday or retailers' profit-seeking should spoil our own traditions. People have lamented the popular culture's commercialization and secularization of Christmas for a century now, but media images don't mandate that we follow their formula.
Maybe Thanksgiving, like Christmas, is a good occasion for a media blackout, to shut out the breathless news reports and incessant advertising. Anyway, Thanksgiving is too compelling and too strong to be killed by discounted smartphones and flat-screen TVs.


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Book Review: Power from the People
Power from the People by Greg Pahl is yet another release in the "Communitiy Reslience Guide" series.
The book focuses on tangible information, which can guide communities, regions, and individuals into a stable future.
Pahl first focuses on the myriad problems that we face today. With rising energy costs come increased food costs, increased cost of living, and the ultimate breakdown of our economic systems. However, all hope is not lost. Pahl believes that holding yourself accountable for the solution is the fastest and best way to achieve energy resilience. He starts his book with the broad ideas and moral arguments for energy resilience in the 21st century, but follows it up with a solid framework of concrete facts and examples to guide you to action.
The book also provides a thorough analysis of all sides of the debate, from arguments for fossil fuels to renewables. Pahl recognizes the benefits and drawbacks of just about any energy scheme while realistically noting that there is no "silver bullet." His book and his solutions all require compromise and patience to overhaul the deeply entrenched energy systems of today.
Pahl drives his point home through an almost overwhelming amount of details and case studies. These include examples of energy disasters such as Fukushima 2011 to the 2012 Deepwater Horizon oil explosion while countering these doomsday reminders with concrete alternatives and case studies.
Pahl's language does feel repetitive in the first few chapters, but the book provides a watertight and comprehensible picture of today's energy problems and subsequent solutions. Power from the People is not geared toward those just beginning to understand renewable energy, but is primarily for those who have interest but perhaps not enough knowledge for enactment.
Pahl also makes clear that it is the layperson's responsibility to make these changes due to the heavy involvement of government in retaining the status quo; hence his emphasis on local, diverse production and ownership of renewable energy schemes.
This book is chalk full of examples. The diversity of examples also proves his belief in the diversification of energy production. The schemes he outlines range from local to interconnected regional productions, which use varying types of renewable energy to meet their specific needs.
Other more practical information is included in the book such as "how to" and "getting started" sections which include information on two very important, yet rarely understood aspects of renewable energies: legal and financial framework.
The finance options explained here include traditional methods (loans), tax credit options, Business Energy Investment Tax Credits, New Market Tax Credits, Clean Renewable Energy Bonds, Property Assessed Clean Energy Programs (PACE), and many more. Legal options are outlined through an explanation of varying ownership structures; community based, individual, LLCs, partnerships, co-ops and others. Pahl provides plenty of well-explained options for his readers.
Following these sections, Pahl describes how to make these new renewable energy systems fit into the larger existing grid system (via net metering, distributed generation, smart grids and feed-in tariffs), which is an important transitory position to understand.
Especially useful is one of Pahl's final sections, "Exceptional Community Energy Initiatives," which provides examples of three cities that successfully implemented Pahl's holistic framework of local, diverse, and renewable energy resilience initiatives.
Not only does the book provide a detailed explanatory framework of the possibilities, but also gives its readers varying models, ideas, and examples to draw upon. With such an array, it is bound to help virtually any community accomplish its energy resilience goals.
Although it might feel easy to get bogged down in all the details of this book, the organizational structure makes for easy navigation and comprehension. It is, after all, a guide.
Lastly, there is no scolding in Pahl's guide, minimal preaching, and tons of credibility. Pahl is an ideal mentor for such projects as he has enacted his beliefs in his own community.
Greg Pahl is a founding member of the Vermont Biofuels Association, the Addison County Relocalization Network, former military intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, and freelance journalist. He is the author of five other books, including Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Options, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Saving the Environment, and Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy.
The book also provides many pages of recommended resources for readers.
Power from the People by Greg Pahl, Chelsea Green Publishing, 2012, is available here.
Anna Jaffray is an international freelance journalist specializing in politics, energy, and international relations. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Political Economy and currently resides throughout Europe.
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The embedded video above shows the first test-firing of Defense Distributed's "Liberator" handgun, an almost fully 3D-printed firearm. The only components not made of ABS plastic are a nail serving as the firing pin, and a six-ounce slug so that the weapon can be picked up by magnetometers.
Just last Friday we reported that the pistol would be coming soon to 3D printers near you, as soon as Defense Distributed had tested the device; today we know that "coming soon" actually means "now."
As reported by Forbes, the first test-firing of the Liberator was done on Thursday, May 2, at a private range north of Austin. The weapon successfully fired a single .380 round through its plastic barrel without any problems or obvious damage, but failed spectacularly when Cody Wilson, founder and director of Defense Distributed, replaced the barrel with an FN 5.7x28mm version and fired the beefier round (which has a much larger amount of propellant than the .380). The pistol promptly exploded.
A firearm works along the same basic principle as a spitball and a straw: a projectile is forced out of a tube via pressure. In a handgun, the pressure is provided by the packed propellant inside of the round, technically called a cartridge with modern weapons. The weapon's firing pin strikes the round's primer, which explodes and then sets off the cartridge's much larger charge of propellant, which also explodes. That explosion creates a massive increase in pressure in the chamber, which propels the cartridge's bullet out of the open end of the barrel. The barrel needs to be of a certain strength to contain the pressure of the round's propellant exploding, and that's where pretty much everyone says plastic printed weapons will fall flat. Even in standard pistols with polymer components, the barrels are always metal.
Coming up with a plastic barrel that's strong enough to contain the pressure is a challenge with which Wilson and Defense Distributed continue to struggle. He's currently experimenting with different manufacturing methods, including keeping the ABS plastic hot during assembly and treating the barrel with vaporized acetone, but there's no clear way forward yet. Even when the problem is solved, Wilson must then adapt the method such that everyone who wants to download and print a Liberator pistol can do the same thing.
On May 4, Wilson was back on the range with an improved version of the Liberator, ready to try again. The pistol's design had been tweaked to work around a number of issues that came up during the first set of test firings (including a misfire stemming from an incorrectly aligned firing pin), but Wilson was going to raise the bar with this test—rather than firing the weapon on a stand with a string around the trigger, he was going to take the pistol into his own hands and fire it himself.
The video of the event is short. Wilson attaches the barrel, checks his hearing protection, looks at the ground for a moment, and then snaps the Liberator up and fires a round. The pistol's report comes as a soft "pop," and the barrel jerks with a bit of recoil, but the pistol does not explode.
Plans for the Liberator pistol can be downloaded directly from Defense Distributed.


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Dragan Todorovic explores Calvino's gilded cities.


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Browse files
[omemo] Update manifest.ini
parent 3d880eee
|name: OMEMO
|short_name: omemo
|version: 2.5.6
|version: 2.5.7
|description: OMEMO is an XMPP Extension Protocol (XEP) for secure multi-client end-to-end encryption based on Axolotl and PEP. You need to install some dependencies, you can find install instructions for your system in the Github Wiki.
|authors: Bahtiar `kalkin-` Gadimov <firstname.lastname@example.com>
|Daniel Gultsch <firstname.lastname@example.com>


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A gifted writer maps his journey from Yazoo City, Mississippi, to the top position at Harper's in New York
North Toward Home. By Willie Morris. Introduction by Edwin M. Yoder, Jr. Vintage, 464 pp., $15.95, paperback.
By Janice Harayda
No personal chronicle "tells more poignantly, comically and beautifully just what it is to be an American and Southerner in our time" than North Toward Home, the Virginia-born novelist William Styron once wrote. Styron knew the literature of his region far better than I, but by my lights, he was right about this wonderful memoir by the Mississippian who became the youngest editor-in-chief of Harper's.
Willie Morris admired his distinguished ancestors, such as Cowles Meade, the first acting territorial governor of his state "who tried unsuccessfully to catch up with Aaron Burr when Burr took off down the Mississippi River on his curious scheme to conquer the territories belonging to Spain." But Morris doesn't re-embalm his forebears. Instead he shows how he tried to find his own way, first in Yazoo City, then at the University of Texas, and finally in Manhattan.
Critics recognized the greatness of North Toward Home on its first publication in 1967, but the dreariness of so many recent memories has thrown its virtues into higher relief. Perhaps more than any autobiography of the mid-20th century, this modern classic depicts vibrantly the intersection of Southern and Northern influences in the life of a gifted writer who cared passionately about both.
This is the second in a series of daily posts this week on Southern literature. Tomorrow: Flannery O'Connor's collection of essays on life, literature, and peacocks, Mystery and Manners.


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Iowa Writes
About Iowa Writes
Since 2006, Iowa Writes has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers (whether they have Iowa roots or live here now) and work published by Iowa journals and publishers on The Daily Palette. Iowa Writes features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction twice a week on the Palette.
In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature.
Find out more about submitting by contacting firstname.lastname@example.com
Cora Bern-Klug was in the seventh grade at South East Junior High School in Iowa City, Iowa, when this poem was selected the 2010 Poetry in Public project, sponsored by the Iowa City Public Art Program. Now in its eighth year, Poetry in Public displays poems by local writers of all ages in Iowa City buses, downtown kiosks, and select public buildings from April (National Poetry Month) through the fall.
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Cadillac Auto Repairs and Maintenance in Spartanburg
Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair Pro Mechanics for American cars, SUVs, and trucks
At Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair, located in Spartanburg our well-trained pro mechanics understand on the latest Cadillac repair and maintenance requirements to guarantee your luxury Cadillac is running perfectly. No matter if it is an engine problem, regularly scheduled maintenance or any other issue that may arise, we here at Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair are trained to handle and repair any problem your Cadillac may face.
Cadillac the Standard of the World, is an American luxury automaker that delivers the ultimate in American luxury and performance. Formed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company, one of Henry Ford's attempts to start a car company before he founded Ford Motor Company, Cadillac went on to become the torch bearer for American luxury. Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair in Spartanburg, is happy to provide the maintenance and repair services necessary to keep your Cadillac at the pinnacle of performance.
Cadillac, the luxury offering from General Motors, is best known for its advance suspension system lets drivers feel that they are gliding down the road. But even the most advanced systems need maintenance and repair to keep them at their peak. Bring your Cadillac to Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair for precision repairs done by experts you can count on.
Advantage A/C, Tire & Repair is located at Spartanburg, , 29306 and our service center welcomes drop-ins. Our staff will answer any questions or concerns you have about your Cadillac and will then quickly and effectively repair your luxury American car and get you back on the road before you know it. You can call us at 864-585-0025, or stop by for a visit. Our friendly staff of Cadillac service technicians are waiting.


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Oracle OpenWorld 2009 – Day 3 Highlights October 15, 2009Posted by Richard Foote in Oracle OpenWorld, Richard's Musings.
The first thing to note about day 3 is that it's wet. I mean really really wet and really windy as well. Considering my home town of Canberra has been in drought now for many years with water restrictions in place, I haven't seen this much rain for a very long time. That said, I believe it's been raining quite a bit in Canberra since I've been traveling so perhaps things are beginning to change for the better at last.
Started the day by attending Dan Morgan's Unconference session on 11g Rel 2 new features that don't feature in the marketing material. Some good stuff is in there, with basic little things such as being able to now easily alter database links for example having the potential to make life a little easier.
I then presented my own Unconference Q & A session on Oracle indexes. The turn out was actually quite good and there were some really good discussions including Index Skip Scans, Locally Partitioned Indexes, dangers of Bitmap indexes, coalecing rather than rebuilding and how different it is to drop an index once it's been created. Thank you to everyone who attended and for making the session a successful exercise, including Jonathan Lewis who started the ball rolling with the first question and some excellent comments and Tim Hall who managed to ask the first David Bowie related question 🙂
The heavy rain meant I didn't have the patience or a strong enough umbrella to wander too far from the main Moscone complex, but I managed to catch a nice presentation by Karen Morton on how to effectively collect database statistics. She presented really well and I really it although perhaps didn't highlight enough the perils of some of the auto statistics options, especially with regard to method_opt.
I then listened in to Dan Norris in the OTN lounge on the new Exadata V2 offering. Certainly the columnar compression capabilities sound interesting. Of course I also heard that everything runs so fast that you might not need indexes on such a powerful beast, so perhaps my days on covering indexes on this blog are numbered 😉
I next had a look around at the other exhibition hall, practicing my golfing skills and picking up yet more t-shirts and yoyos that light up in funny ways. I'm a bit concerned that my luggage just won't be able to hold all this stuff I've picked up !!
I have an interest in the Total Recall capabilities of 11g (and it's lack of capabilities) and so attended a presentation on the improvements of Total Recall and flashback archive in 11g Rel 2. It looks like most of my issues with subsequent DDL changes on flashback archive enabled tables now being supported one way or the other. However, I still have concerns with the potential "corruptability" of the archived historical data and the subsequent recoverability implications. It would also be a nice improvement if "who" made a particular change was more readily available without having to purchase yet more expensive database options or have to modify the table structure.
The final presentation of the day was Tom Kyte's Top 11 new 11g Release 2 New features. His top 11 was basically:
– Do It Yourself Parallelism (with new dbms_parallel_execute feature)
– Analytics Functions (new ones such as LISTAGG and NTH_VALUE)
– Execute on a directory (and the preprocessor capabilities)
– Recursive Subquery Factory (self referencing WITH clause capabilities)
– Improved Time Travel (Total Recall improvements as mentioned above)
– You've got mail (new file watchers capabilities that can automatically invoke some code when a file arrives in a directory)
– Deferred Segment Creation (only allocated storage when the first row is inserted, not when segment is created)
– Flash Cache (write blocks back to disk AND an SSD like device so that subsequent reads from the SSD are faster)
– Parallel Improvements (such as better control of parallel process executions and memory parallel execution capabilities)
and both number 10 and 11 best feature, the killer one …
– Edition Based Redefinition (ability to have different versions of the same stored code running at the same time within the database)
As usual, Tom covered this topics with nice examples, in a very clear and concise manner.
On the way back to the hotel, I popped into the Blogger get-together function and had a few drinks and had the opportunity to meet and chat with a number of fellow Oracle bloggers. Thanks to the Alex Gorbachev and Justin and the OTN team for putting the event together.
Aussie Oracle Bloggers, although one of us an Aussie no more 😉
It's been a looong day …
- 1. Balakrishna - October 15, 2009
Hi Richard,
You must be enjoying oracle Open world 🙂
- 2. Surachart Opun - October 15, 2009
Hi Richard,
Thank you for great highlights.
Enjoy OOW 😉
- 3. Mohamed Houri - October 15, 2009
Thanks for giving us few highlights about the ORACLE openworld 2009.
Is it possible to write few words about the nice discussions you have had about
unique indexes on partitioned tables
dangers of Bitmap indexes
Best Regards
- 4. Log Buffer #166: a Carnival of the Vanities for DBAs | Pythian Group Blog - October 24, 2009
[…] Meetup (don't miss the links at the bottom for more of his articles), Richard Foote's Day 3 Highlights and of course our own Alex Gorbachev's blog Pythian OOW09 Diaries: Bloggers Meetup with […]


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22 people saved from sinking wine tasting tour boat in San Francisco Bay
SAN FRANCISCO — Nearly two dozen people enjoying a bachelor party on what is billed as San Francisco Bay's only "floating wine tasting room" are OK after their boat hit a shoal near Alcatraz Island and began sinking Friday night, officials said.
The 45-foot Neptune hit the shoal around 8:42 p.m. and started taking on water after the impact left a 1-foot gash in the side of the boat, U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. j.g. Josh Dykman said.
The boat's captain tried to steer the stricken vessel to San Francisco's Pier 39. But the boat started having rudder issues and began to sink about 300 feet from the pier, Dykman said.
Three Coast Guard boats took all 22 passengers and crew members off the vessel and brought them to the pier, Dykman said. San Francisco fire and police boats also responded. There were no injuries.
"We were only in the boat for maybe about 20 minutes or so," Matthew Rice, the party's guest of honor, told KGO-TV. "We were coming around Alcatraz checking it out and all of a sudden it was like boom, just like a big jolt, and the next thing we knew the Coast Guard boats came in and got us off."
The Neptune is a 1958 motor vessel operated by San Francisco Bay Boat Cruises LLC, according to the company's website.
The boat is certified to carry 42 passengers.
"It was just an unfortunate event," said Melissa McDowell, who operates the cruise boat as family-run business, along with her husband and adult daughter.
All three family members were on board at the time, and they assisted the passengers off the boat, McDowell said. The captain of the boat is the tiny company's only employee, McDowell said.
"Every one of our passengers were amazing," she said. "They followed instructions and were good humored about it."
The cause of the incident is under investigation. The damaged boat was towed to Sausalito Boat Works where it will be repaired.


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K-State, Oregon on course for BCS title game; six SEC teams trail
NEW YORK (AP) — Kansas State and Oregon are now on course to play for the BCS national championship.
After Alabama was upset by Texas A&M, the new BCS standings have the Wildcats (.9674) first and the Ducks (.9497) second.
Notre Dame (.9396) is third, not too far behind, but most likely in need of a loss by Oregon or Kansas State to reach the title game on Jan. 7 in Miami.
"These teams are in their order and the only way that order changes is if somebody gets beat," said Jerry Palm, of CBS Sports and collegebcs.com.
As for Alabama's run at three championships in four seasons, and the Southeastern Conference's string of six straight BCS titles, both are in peril.
Five SEC teams follow Alabama in the standings: Georgia, Florida, LSU, Texas A&M and South Carolina. But it will take a couple of upsets to give the SEC champion a shot to reach the BCS title game.
Kansas State is second in both BCS polls — the coaches' and Harris — and in the computer rankings. The Wildcats have two games left, at Baylor on Saturday and home against Texas on Dec. 1, the day of most of the conference championship games.
Oregon is first in the both polls and fourth in the computer ratings. The Ducks have two more regular-season games left, against Stanford on Saturday and the next week at Oregon State. They can clinch the Pac-12 North and a spot in the conference title game with a win against Stanford. If they get there, the Ducks would play either UCLA or Southern California in the league title game.
If the Ducks and Wildcats can avoid the type of upset that dropped Alabama — and there are plenty of good teams left on their schedules — they will play for the national title.
The Fighting Irish are third in the polls and first in the computer ratings.
"Notre Dame is not going to jump (Oregon and Kansas State) without their help," Palm said. "They're way too far behind in the polls. The voters are not on board with Notre Dame."
The Irish play Wake Forest on Saturday and are at USC two days after Thanksgiving.
Alabama (or Georgia or Florida, which could also both win the SEC with just one loss) needs two of the top three to lose to get to the title game no matter how it finishes.


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One of my biggest pet peeves, after ten years in the audio-visual industry, is a bad presentation. For years I would sit in bad corporate presentations and bad conference presentations that literally put me to sleep. Genealogy presentations are no better in this aspect. Many a conference have I found myself struggling to keep my head erect.
I have addressed lecturing issues and bad presentations a few times in this blog. See my earlier posts:
- "Rocking" as a genealogical lecturer
- How do people learn, and how should we teach?
- 10 Lessons Learned from the "Other Side of the Microphone"
- Make your presentation less annoying
I have now published a new book–available in both print and electronic editions–entitled
Show 'N' Tell: Creating Effective and Attractive Genealogy Presentations
This new book teaches you how to create a good presentation using PowerPoint (and other similar software). It discusses how to organize your material in the most effective manner, as well as how to design an effective presentation. Once you master these techniques, your audiences will leave your presentations truly impressed, and retain more of the information you provide than ever before!
The book also contains over 20 examples of slides from my own presentations, to help illustrate the design principles.
For more information and to order the book, use the links below:


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TNB: Traveler's Advisory – El Potrero Chico, Mexico
Recent violence near Potrero Chico confirms that the region is potentially unsafe for climbers.
Posted February 2013.
Early on the morning of January 25 at least seven vans and trucks (reports say up to 14) rolled through Colonia Francisco Villa, the neighborhood just outside the gates of Potrero Chico,
a popular winter rock-climbing destination in Nuevo Leon, Mexico. The vehicles stopped at a bar called La Carreta, an establishment that borders several
climbers' campgrounds. La Carreta is familiar to many climbers who, like me, have been rendered sleepless by the double bass, accordion and pig squeals
of performing Norteño bands. That night, armed assailants got out and proceeded to kidnap members of the Vallenato band Kombo Kolombia. According to
a report provided by a member
of the band who managed to escape, the musicians were driven around the area for several hours and tortured. Eventually, each was shot in the head.
The bodies (at least 12) were thrown in a well near Mina, a small pueblo a few minutes (6 miles) away from the Potrero, and the closest town and access
point to the Culo de Gato, a sport-climbing cave.
On January 29, Rock and Ice received two phone calls from Texas climbers who relayed the story. In the first draft of the story posted on rockandice.com
there were two inaccuracies passed on by these informants, which were revised as more facts became known. The first draft stated that the bodies were
dumped near a climber's campground, and that climbers were fleeing the Potrero. These
that the risk was equivalent to "5.10c PG/R.
near the campgrounds then killed and dumped elsewhere was no cause for alarm. One poster commented that the risk was equivalent to "5.10c PG/R. Couple
small runouts, but nothing you can't handle if you keep your wits about you." Many wrote that they weren't leaving the area because the "media constantly
exaggerates the potential danger" and that the violence is wholly confined to the drug cartels and those associated with them.
With the caveat that each person should make an informed decision about where he/she travels, I'd like to present some facts about the present situation
in Northern Mexico with regards to the ongoing drug war and its known impacts on travel and innocent bystanders.
The violence occurring in Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon—the Mexican states that climbers pass through on their way to El Potrero Chico—stems from
an ongoing turf war between rival cartels,
namely the allied Sinaloa and Gulf Cartels and the Zetas, an upstart branch of the Gulf Cartel that now controls much of eastern Mexico.
In 1999, the leader of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cárdenas Gullén, hired a paramilitary unit to be his bodyguards. This unit consisted of between 14 and 31
deserters from the Mexican Army's elite Grupo Aeromóvil de Fuerzas Especiales (GAFE) and was led by a retired army lieutenant named Arturo Guzmán Decena.
Decena had been a high-ranking officer, and, as is sometimes the case, he had received his own Federal Judicial Police radio code of Z1, pronounced "Zeta 1." Subsequently, his force became known as the Zetas.
Soon, Cárdenas Gullén expanded the role of the Zetas within the Gulf Cartel, employing them as kidnappers, extortionists and executioners. In 2010, however,
the Zetas broke from the Gulf Cartel and took over numerous "plazas," or trafficking routes, including one of the most lucrative corridors of all, the U.S. I35/Mexico 85 route from Laredo to Monterrey—the route traveled by climbers heading
to the Potrero. The Zetas are now the largest cartel in Mexico and are based in Nuevo Laredo. It's worth noting that Mexico 53, the highway that connects
Monclova to Monterrey, is another important corridor for drug traffickers. Hidalgo and Mina are situated on Mexico 53.
The claim that the violence is wholly confined to members and adjuncts of the cartels is completely erroneous and suggests a grievous level of ignorance
that is potentially fatal. The total number of casualties resulting from the drug war is unknowable. Mass graves are still being uncovered and many
of the persons abducted, particularly women,
are never reported as missing. According to the Washington Post, estimates range from 60,000 to 100,000 killed since November 2011. That number includes 318 police,
58 reporters and around 1,000 children with
6.1 million people displaced.
that is potentially fatal. Mass graves are still being uncovered and many of the persons abducted, particularly women, are never reported as missing.
employed by the cartels have expressly targeted innocent victims completely unconnected to the cartels. The 2011 massacre near San Fernando, Tamaulipas,
provides a striking example. According to an
interview with a Zeta cartel member published in the Houston Chronicle and another interview with a survivor first published in El Informador, a Mexican newspaper, several public buses were hijacked by
cartel members and driven to an isolated ranch called La Joya. The male passengers were given bats, clubs and hammers and told to fight to the death
with other victims. The winners of these gladiator-style duels were recruited as killers for the Zetas. The female passengers were removed to a room,
raped and beaten, their children taken and tortured. According to the survivor, one bus driver was forced to drive over the elderly and was then executed.
Most of the 193 victims (including one U.S. citizen) found in the 47 mass graves had features of "blunt force trauma" consistent with the testimony
of the two men.
It's not surprising, however, that people—including climbers—continue to assume that the victims are all connected in some way to the cartels
since this misinformation is propagated by the cartels themselves. For example, on April 17, 2012, the dismembered remains of 14 men were found in a car in Nuevo Laredo (the entry port for most climbers driving to Potrero Chico) with
the following message allegedly from the head of the Sinaloa Cartel: "We have begun to clear Nuevo Laredo of Zetas because we want a free city and so you can live in peace.
We are narcotics traffickers and we don't mess with honest working or business people. I'm going to teach these scums to work Sinaloa style—without
kidnapping, without payoffs, without extortion … Don't forget that I'm your true father."
By April 24, however, forensics had identified 10 of the 14 bodies and Mexican authorities stated that those killed had no relationship with Los Zetas and were, in fact, innocent civilians.
four women and five men hanging from a bridge over the highway. A banner strung up next to the corpses stated that the murdered were members of the Gulf Cartel: "… This is how I'm going to finish off every fucker you send to
heat up the turf. But it's okay, here are your guys. The rest went away but I'll get them. Sooner or later. —Los Zetas"
Just a few hours later, 14 decapitated bodies were found in front of the Customs Agency next to the offices where climbers get their passports stamped.
The severed heads were placed in ice coolers and dropped off in front of the Palacio Municipal, the mayor's offices, along with another dissembling
message: "You want credibility that
I am in NL? What will it take, bringing the heads of Zeta leaders? Or yours? … Continue to deny my presence here in Nuevo Laredo and you will
continue to see their heads. I do not kill innocent people to submit work as you are accustomed … all dead in Nuevo Laredo are pure scums, in
other words, pure Z. Sincerely, your father."
Unfortunately, these assurances on the part of the cartels that innocents won't be targeted have been shown again and again to be specious. In 2012, in
Nuevo Laredo alone, nine bystanders were injured as the result of car bombs, and a casino and a popular nightclub were set on fire.
Another reason that reliable information concerning the drug war is so difficult to come by is that the cartels target media. Consider these examples,
again, all occurring in Nuevo Laredo. In 2004 a journalist reporting on the cartels was stabbed 26 times. In 2006, the newspaper El Mañana was blown up by a grenade. In 2010 the offices of the TV station Televisa were attacked. In 2011, María Elizabeth Macías Castro, an editor of La Primera Hora newspaper, was decapitated. A message was left: "For those who don't want to believe this happened to [María Elizabeth Macías Castro] because of [her] actions … Thank you for your
attention, respectfully, Los Zetas."
bloggers and people who post on social media are targeted. For example, in 2011 a man and a woman in their early 20s were abducted, tortured and
hung from a pedestrian bridge along with a sign that said they were killed because of posting web entries critical of the cartels. The sign read: "This is going to happen to all of those posting
funny things on the Internet." Sure enough, within two months four people were killed after posting negative comments about the cartels. El Mañana was attacked again on June 10, 2012, and the paper issued a statement saying that it "will refrain, for as long as needed, from publishing any information related to the violent disputes
our city and other regions of the country are suffering."
The same kind of self-censorship on the part of the press, bloggers and social media is occurring all over Mexico. It's no wonder some people believe that
the violence is confined to those connected to drug trafficking in some way—but that belief is false.
Violence in the Area near Potrero Chico
The metropolitan area of Monterrey, situated adjacent to the Mexico 85/I35 corridor, is an important warehousing center for cocaine, marijuana and other illegal drugs bound for U.S. consumers. The isolated little towns
and ranches of Nuevo Leon are also "treasured," according to the Houston Chronicle, by drug traffickers as outposts and the region has experienced
an uptick in violence concurrent with the ongoing cartel wars. In 2012 alone, according to Reuters, Nuevo Leon had become Mexico's murder capitol, with 685 drug-related killings as of May.
One gruesome example was discovered on the same day that the editorial board at El Mañana stopped covering the drug violence. Somewhere between
49 and 68 decapitated bodies were found along Mexico 40 just
southwest of Monterrey. The bodies are still unidentified because the hands and feet were also cut off and discarded.
Earlier in the year, in February, two U.S. missionaries were killed in
the region by cartel members. Also in February, 44 inmates were killed in
a riot at Apodaca prison which is close to the Monterrey international airport. Thirty-seven prisoners escaped including the leader of the Monterrey
Zetas. On August 14, members of the Gulf Cartel invaded a Monterrey bar and gunned down 10 people.
The list of cartel-related massacres and killings goes on and on. Keep in mind that these examples are confined to 2012 and do not include violence outside
of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas. If you look at violence occurring in 2011, the situation is even starker. In July 2011, for example, gunmen shot and killed 27, injured 7 and kidnapped 8 people in a bar in Monterrey. On August 25, 2011, gunmen
massacred at least 52 people at
the Monterrey Casino Royale. According to witnesses, the gunmen stormed the casino and immediately opened fire, killing civilians, then doused the
entrances with gasoline and lit them to trap people inside.
on ignorance.
against travel in Nuevo Leon. In addition, the U.S. consulate is "a partially unaccompanied post" with no dependents of government officials allowed.
All officials are on a curfew that requires them to remain in the consulate neighborhood between midnight and 6 a.m. For more information check out
this Crime and Safety Report for Monterrey. The report
is pretty comprehensive. One item that seems pertinent is the kidnapping stats: "The U.S. Consulate General Monterrey was apprised of 17 kidnappings
of U.S. citizens in 2011 in its consular district; all of those are unresolved. There were also 11 homicides of U.S. citizens that were the result
of a kidnapping. These numbers do not account for unreported kidnappings."
In the case of Kombo Kolombia at the Potrero, it is still unknown why the band was kidnapped and killed. Most reports suggest that they were not involved
with the cartels. Once again, the facts suggest that the cartels act with impunity, and the idea that climbers will be exempt from violence is wishful
thinking based on ignorance. Foreigners have been targeted and history has shown that climbers are not immune. A parallel might be Tommy Caldwell,
Beth Rodden, John Dickey and Jason "Singer" Smith in Kyrgyzstan.
The climbing team was abducted and held for a week after traveling to the region despite a U.S. State Department warning advising Americans to stay
away. In this case, thankfully, the climbers were able to make a desperate escape.
I started climbing in El Potrero Chico in the late 1980s and I have spent many happy hours drinking beer, eating tacos and socializing with the residents
of Hidalgo, Nuevo Leon. As a group, the people of Northern Mexico are perhaps the most hospitable, kind, compassionate and gentle folks I've encountered
in all my travels. I've been welcomed into people's homes, fed and housed on numerous occasions. In the 1990s and 2000s I wrote several articles extolling
the virtues of this multi-pitch limestone paradise and after exploring many other climbing areas across the globe, Potrero Chico remains one of my
favorite destinations. The infrastructure that has grown up around the climbing—the campgrounds, restaurants and guide services—have been
affected by the drug violence and it makes me very sad to see my friends struggling. However, the idea that we should not report on the situation because
it will adversely impact tourism (as some Internet pundits have implied) seems grossly irresponsible bordering on culpable, especially given the cavalier
nature of some of the comments on rockandice.com and other climbing websites in response to the Kombo Kolombia story. Reporting on the very real violence
and threat of violence to travelers in Northern Mexico is not "sensationalistic" as several posters have suggested. As always, the best way to remain
safe while traveling in a hot zone is to educate yourself. I've laid out a brief, recent history of the Mexican drug war as it applies to travel in
Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. What you choose to do with this information is, of course, up to you.
I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on the subject. Please comment below if you have opinions or information to share.


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Welcome to Dragon Cave! Dragon Cave is an online adoptables game. Collect eggs, raise them to adulthood, and then breed them to create interesting lineages. New dragons are added regularly!
Sinii Krai Dragons are known for their love of fish and their strong personalities. They are able to travel both in the air and in the water with their unique tails. They live on the coast in groups of ten or more and are fiercely territorial. Sinii Krai Dragons are nearly impossible to tame if not obtained at an early age. Great care must be taken around them as their skin is highly poisonous after maturity.
Dragons are highly-intelligent reptilian creatures that—from a human perspective, at least—appear to live forever. Many different varieties of dragon exist, each with their own unique qualities, habitats, and behavior. Adolescence in dragons is usually marked by the growth of a hatchling's wings, although not all breeds of dragons grow wings and some breeds have other traits that indicate the beginning of maturation. In Galsreim, dragons and humans coexist peacefully.


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