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ERIC MAUK: We'll go ahead and get started with our top three press conference for the Monterey Grand Prix, round seven of the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford. Our third fastest qualifier today, Paul Tracy, driver of the #3 Player's/Forsythe Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone, third in today's opening round with a best lap of 1:10.341, that's 114.539 miles per hour. Paul led much of the session, was fast at the very end. He has not qualified in the top two rows in this race since taking the pole here in '94, and if it stands up, he'll take care of that absolutely tomorrow. You had the lead for most of the session, then the red flag came out. Everybody came out in one big group. How tough was it to find space to run in that last session?
PAUL TRACY: Well, I was just hoping that yellow was going to last a little longer. It didn't. I'm kind of bummed. They were both the two next cars behind me. I should have just slowed down and held them up for the last couple laps (laughter).
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I thought you were going to do that (laughter).
PATRICK CARPENTIER: Yeah, I thought you were doing that (laughter).
PAUL TRACY: I gave it my best shot on the last lap. And I improved my time. I made a little mistake in the last corner. I locked the brakes going in, lost a little bit of time. But I think what you see up here now, the three guys, you know, we all put our best lap together on the best lap. So it was a fair qualifying session. Not where I want to be, but happy with third.
ERIC MAUK: Track conditions today? Were you able to do what you wanted to do out there as far as track goes?
PAUL TRACY: I think it's improving. We started out, the car wasn't very good. The car was slippery and nervous feeling. We were able to make changes. We made a lot of changes, more than what we would normally do on a race weekend. We changed quite a lot of stuff. I think we're improving the car, but we're going to need to improve some more tomorrow.
ERIC MAUK: Thanks Paul, good luck. Today's runner-up, driver of the #32 Player's/Forsythe Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone, Patrick Carpentier. He is second after a best lap of 1:10.314, 114.583 miles per hour. This would represent Pat's best ever starting spot at Laguna Seca, since he never qualified in the top five here in his seven -year Champ car career. Why the turnaround? Where did the speed come from today?
PATRICK CARPENTIER: I don't know. The car was very good. We tested well here during the winter. We have good exchange of information with Paul's team and Paul. It's going pretty well actually this year with the team. So I'm pretty happy. Beginning of the season was so-so. Now it's starting to be quite a bit better for us. To be at the front today here is a first for me during the race weekend. So it's very good. The car was a little bit slippery early on, but it was very good from the get-go and well balanced. So we'll see what we're going to do for tomorrow. We need to improve it a little bit to get this guy right there. But really it should be interesting.
ERIC MAUK: Again, same question for you. Came out with five minutes to go, eight or nine guys all come out in the same spot. How did you create the space to get a flying lap?
PATRICK CARPENTIER: Everybody was slowing down. I was slowing down Bruno there, trying to get a gap. Paul was slowing down, trying to get a gap. And it seems like it took so long to get up to speed, to get the tires up to pressure, that it was pretty difficult to do the lap there at the end. But we all had space at the end. It was a very short time. Like Paul said, wish it would have been just one lap shorter, but it was good.
ERIC MAUK: Congratulations, good luck tomorrow. Today's opening qualifying session leader is the driver of the #1 PacifiCare Ford-Cosworth/Lola/Bridgestone, for Newman-Haas Racing, Bruno Junqueira, who led the first round of qualifying with a top lap of 1:10.040 seconds, 115.031 miles per hour. Bruno earned a championship point for leading today's session, and moves into a tie for second in the standings with Paul Tracy. Both of them have 67 points. Bruno, this is the first qualifying session you led all year. You've been close pretty much everywhere we've been. How does it feel to be on top of one of these?
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I feel really good. On the first six race, like all five of them I've been second place in qualifying in one of the sessions. It feels really good. I think the PacifiCare, Newman/Haas Racing did a great job. We had a very good winter test. On my first outing, on my fourth time lap, I just lay down a very good lap. The car was really good. But we made some changes trying to improve a little bit for qualifying. But I think the track went the wrong way what you expect, and the car wasn't very good on the first outing. I get a little bit of traffic. Then for the second set of tires, we did a good change, and I have to thank the guy that called me on the radio to find the gap and get my chance to put one lap. I knew there was that. It's really difficult because, as Paul said, everybody had the same chance. It was really difficult. You know you have just that lap. The tires weren't that hot. Maybe the first two or three corners, I was a little bit slow. Then the tires get hot and I start to pick up the pace. I think on the last two corners, I saw a little bit before the (inaudible) was really good. I kind of not push too hard on the last two corners because I was afraid to make a mistake. I think it's kind of difficult because on qualifying, you just try to go fast. This time it's try to go fast and not think too much on the lap. The car was really good and I was able to get the good lap.
ERIC MAUK: Obviously, your third time here. You qualified third, finished fourth a year ago, very strong in the pre-season test here. Are you starting to get comfortable with this racetrack?
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: Yeah, I like a lot, especially the road courses. It's where I've been racing all my life. Laguna Seca is a very difficult road track, especially for qualifying, to put one lap together. I've been doing well. I think the third time I'm here, 2001, there was a lot of (inaudible) but I managed to finish seventh, I think. Last year I was just behind the Newman/Haas guys. This year I'm with Newman/Haas. I hope I can keep the lead.
ERIC MAUK: We'll open it up to questions for the media.
Q. Bruno, does Friday take on an extra importance at a track like this, a good start will help you stay out ahead? Was there more pressure today?
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I think qualifying is very important, street and road track, not much on the oval track. But a track like this, it's really important because, first of all, it's difficult to pass. But second, the people that are so close, I think me and Paul and Patrick, we are so close, the difference between us is so small that it makes it really difficult to pass. If a good guy start last, he can pass a little bit until he gets the fast guys. It's not easy to pass on this track, as well. A lot of those tracks are difficult. But I think the race here is going to be really difficult because this year we don't have traction control, then qualifying is important. But to keep up a strong pace during the race, it will not be easy as previous years. I think some people, you'll fall off on the last 10 laps if you do not have a really good setup. The good thing is to be on the pole today. I don't know what you're going to do, but sometimes have to talk to some engineers, tomorrow morning session to work a little bit on the race setup. That's going to be really important.
Q. Patrick, you were P1 fastest briefly, for about five seconds. I'm wondering if the team informed you of that?
PATRICK CARPENTIER: Yeah, shouldn't have started celebrating. It was about three-tenths of a second (laughter). No, I knew because I look at the time, I said, "Oh, that must be pretty close." Because I knew everybody was on tires that were not necessarily up to pressure, something like that. Paul was on front. The team was saying nothing. Then when they said nothing for after about 10 seconds, I knew that the guy that was behind me or in front of me had a better time. So I didn't even ask, I just went around and came back in (laughter).
Q. Do you guys think there will be any more overtaking here this weekend than there has been in the last few years?
PAUL TRACY: I think now, without traction control, there will be, because this track has been notoriously hard on tires. And I think with traction control, it made it a lot easier to complete a full stint at full speed, you know, going maximum all the time. You know, I think the tire's good, the tire's fast, we're doing pretty good times. But definitely you can see not many people running this morning in the first session, saving tires for the race, because I think tire conservation is important. It's like Bruno said, in the last 10 laps of the stint is when you have to go fast. If you don't have the setup right, the car's using the tires too hard, you're going to be slow. You'll see some passing.
Q. They made a lot of nice changes here. Should they widen the track, make the straightaway long? What do you think would make the race better?
PAUL TRACY: It's difficult to say what you want to change because I think the track, the layout, is a great layout. I would say probably the only issue that it has, it doesn't have a nice, long straightaway. There's no real long straightaway anywhere on the track. But it's such a great layout, such a great driver's track. I mean, I think if you ask any driver around the world, if they've driven around Laguna Seca, they'll say it's probably one of the best tracks to drive around. It's got so many different corners, the corkscrew is so world famous. But it just really lacks a long straightaway and a real deep braking zone for overtaking. There's no complaints about the track. I mean, it's a beautiful track.
PATRICK CARPENTIER: There's a long straightaway here, but it's turning all the time. It's true, there's a couple of things in it that keeps you from getting beside the other guy. Maybe more downforce, again, like Milwaukee.
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I think they did a very good job on the suites, looking pretty nice, the track. I think Laguna Seca is one of the best well-taken care of tracks. They take care a lot. Every time I came here, you can see everything is nice, everything is on order, the right place. Is an awesome track to drive, especially like in qualify. As Paul said, in the race, because I think nowadays our cars are too fast on the straightaway, on the main straightaway, you stay like five or six seconds. If you get like the Atlantic car, they don't have much power, they can draft and then they can pass in turn two, what they call turn two, is turn one. I mean, the track is really good. But if you want to have a little bit more passing, they could extend. I don't know if they have some area to do it, but if they could extend going to turn one. I mean, you have a really slow second gear corner that you can do very close to the guy in front and outbrake him. Just make that straightaway, I don't know, 500 feet, 600 feet longer, there would be more passing.
PAUL TRACY: Robin will remember, the old track used to go straight. Mario rolled one up in a ball right there one year. I was a kid. He went out into the park out there.
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: You were a kid (laughter)? Then I wasn't even born.
PAUL TRACY: What year was that, Robin? He rolled it up.
Q. (Inaudible)?
PAUL TRACY: I never raced on the old track. It used to be flat out all the way up.
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: I mean, this track has a lot of nice corners, apart from the corkscrew. I love turn six. Is one of the most difficult corners of the year, in my opinion, because you need to be really precise, it's uphill. You need to be fast, getting a lot of speed, but still have to do a good exit to pull on the uphill. I mean, there are some really difficult corners here, especially to get everything together in qualifying.
Q. Is this about as technical a permanent road course as you guys run, that you've ever run?
PAUL TRACY: I think it is. Like what Bruno says, the corner that goes up the hill to the corkscrew, I mean, if you just get that wrong a little bit, because it's so steep going uphill, you can lose half a second easy, just by not carrying enough speed. If you go in a little too quick, you're late getting on the throttle, it costs you so much time. It feels like you went through it fast because you braked right, but if you don't get on the throttle really early, almost before you get to the apex, you want to be back on the throttle to get up that hill. There's so many different types of corners here. Turn five is kind of banked uphill. As soon as you brake, as soon as you turn the car, you're back on full throttle because you're going uphill. It's so critical. The corners are very technical here and you have to be very precise. It's very challenging.
BRUNO JUNQUEIRA: There's a lot of grip, this track, because a lot of corners, they have a little bit of banking, like turn five, turn nine, a lot of grip. It's very physical because it gets heavy, but it's fun.
PATRICK CARPENTIER: Same thing (laughter).
ERIC MAUK: Thanks, guys.
End of FastScripts...


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Romain Grosjean has conceded that Lotus are behind schedule ahead of the new Formula 1 season, and that due to the nature of the technical regulations this year, it may take another month before they are finally ready.
The seismic change in the technical regulations has put enormous amounts of pressure on the design teams in the sport. Most notably, world champions Red Bull have struggled to adapt during the winter testing period. Despite having few problems in Bahrain, Lotus missed the opening test in Jerez, immediately putting the team behind schedule. Now, Grosjean has admitted that it is taking longer than expected to prepare for the 2014 season.
"The problem this year is that when you break something it takes between two and three hours to solve the problem, so if you have three issues in a day that's the end of the day," Grosjean explained to journalists in Bahrain on Saturday.
"In terms of preparation we are not quite yet ready."
Like many drivers, Grosjean is focusing on merely finishing the opening round of the season in Australia (live on NBCSN on March 16) before the E22 car can really be put to good use.
"It's not going to be perfect for Melbourne, and probably not for Malaysia, but we will do our best and try to do things as good as we can do them to steadily improve everything.
"The list is too long to have ticked everything before Melbourne, and in Melbourne we won't have time to get everything we would like to.
"At the moment this is the situation and the best we can do is take the most serious one, put that right and then finalize the thing. It's not going to be an easy first few races I guess."
Grosjean enjoyed a successful second half of the 2013 F1 season, but he will be hard-pressed to carry this form over into the first few rounds of the coming year. Given that both Lotus and engine supplier Renault are behind schedule, it might be a case of 'damage limitation' for the Frenchman to begin with this year.
However, most drivers and teams are in the same position; the drastic changes made to the technical regulations are set to shake-up the pecking order and perhaps give teams such as Williams and Force India a chance to battle for podiums and race wins in 2014.

subset: commoncrawl


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Tag Archives: communication
Young Minds Create Breakthrough Communications
I (Cathy) was amazed to recently read about two Washington University sophomores, David Azodi and Thomas Pryor, who's work was highlighted in Discover Magazine. These clever young men have been recognized for an invention that could break down communication barriers for the deaf. Sign Aloud is a pair of sensor-filled gloves that interpret the hand movements American Sign Language users use to communicate, and converts them into speech or text that the rest of us can understand. The students designed the gloves inside the CoMotion MakerSpace, a collaborative workshop on campus. They recently received the Lemelson-MIT Student Prizefor their work, which is a yearly award given to undergraduates for innovative inventions. They won in the "Use It" category, and received a $10,000 grant along with the prize.
Follow the link below for a demonstration of this brilliant use of technology.
Teaching with Technology- A Constant Challenge
This cartoon reminded me (Cathy) of an incident from when I was teaching grade four. The math problem for the day was:
A man went to bed at 11:00 p.m. and got up at 7:00 a.m. the next day. How many hours did the man sleep?
One of my students just couldn't figure it out it. He usually didn't have problems with mathematics, but he just couldn't "see it". In an effort to guide him, I told him to draw a clock and count the hours in between 11 and 7.
Sometime later I noticed he was sitting at his desk just staring at his notebook. I walked over to see what he was staring at. This is what he had drawn:
I guess my technology wasn't matching up with his technology. It's a constant challenge!
Entering a new communication paradigm
I (Cathy) have recently found myself in a new communication predicament. Diagnosed with vocal cord nodules, I have been instructed not to speak for 8 weeks. So here I am, and after only two weeks into my 'treatment,' I have observed some interesting things about peoples' communication patterns.
- Since I can't talk, people often whisper to me. I'm not sure why, but they do, or…
- They get MUCH LOUDER. I can hear just fine, but for some reason this is the reaction.
- People gesture wildly. Again, I can hear them, but they clearly need to emphasize what they are saying.
I could theorize about the reasons why they do this: a need overcompensate for my sake; empathy perhaps; or they are just plain uncomfortable with the situation. But wait, there is more…
I started carrying a note pad to write messages to communicate and discovered these patterns:
- If the message is longer than two sentences, people get restless. The common quip is "Are you writing a novel?"
- Once I start to write an answer, if they don't want to wait, they answer their posed question for me! I am always fascinated by 'my response.'
- Some people prefer me to print as opposed to write, so I have to rewrite/print the message. My son actually told me to "just text him" at the dinner table. (BTW, my handwriting has improved dramatically due to the necessity of being understood)
In an effort to be more current and efficient, I started using the "speak feature" on my iPad and iPhone, but this has its own set of complications:
- The response process: typing, highlighting the text, and then tapping the 'speak' feature, takes less time than it does for me to write a note in longhand, yet people are less patient with the electronic process. I suspect they feel it should be immediate.
- Most people have trouble understanding the electronic voice. They frequently say, "I didn't get that." I think it's because the intonation is usually off. I often have to repeat the message. (I have totally given up on using a 'cool' voice app as people can't understand the regular voice. I was hoping to use the Stephen Hawkings app).
- Instead of listening to the voice again, often people reach for my iPhone to read the message in print for themselves, but sometimes the print is too small for them to read, so I have to enlarge it- which takes even more time.
- Interestingly, people often want to type their response on my iPad instead of speaking back to me. They take the iPad right out of my hands to do this. I also tried using the chat feature on Skype so I could respond to the person on the screen, but the other person only wanted to type in chat too. Although they were right there in front of me, and were perfectly capable of talking- they didn't! This leads me to believe that people are getting more comfortable communicating through print than speaking.
Finally, I play a large role in this and am just a quirky:
- I often try to mouth the words which becomes a great game of "guess what Cathy is trying to say."
- As I am familiar with rudimentary sign language, having taken several courses to communicate with my niece and having taught in a total language classroom, that is my default. I sign to people, which of course they don't understand because it is another language! One friend told me "I have no idea what you are saying, but I love to watch."
Sadly, my friends and colleagues who are ELL totally empathize with me, as they tell me this is all too familiar for them. I truly feel for them now.
All in all, this is a fascinating study in multimodal communications. Mostly, I just listen. I was told that people pay a great deal of money to attend 'silent retreats,' so I am trying to treat this like a gift in self-discovery. Apparently, I have a lot to learn.
The "Google generation"
Many of our learners have grown up with access to all sorts of search engines, namely Google which has quickly turned from a noun to a verb: "Just Google it." With access to Google, many of our learners have instant answers that are just a few clicks away.
There has been an ongoing debate on whether Google is harmful or not to our ability to critically think about texts. Tan (2016) from Mindshift recongnizes, "with the advent of personal assistants like Siri and Google Now that aim to serve up information before you even know you need it, you don't even need to type the questions. Just say the words and you'll have your answer." However, there are ways to ensure questions/inquiries in the class are "Google proof." A former Kentucky middle-school teacher suggests re-thinking our instructional design is key in making work Google proof. He says, "Design it so that Google is crucial to creating a response rather than finding one…if students can Google answers — stumble on (what) you want them to remember in a few clicks — there's a problem with the instructional design."
I envision project-based learning and inter-disciplinary approaches as a way into creating Google proof material. Any suggestions? What have you tried/created/heard about?
Is Texting Killing Language?
On Sunday Clive posted a blog Short or Long Form Writing? I (Clare) also wonder/worry about our new forms of communication and what is happening to "English." John McWhorter did a fabulous Ted Talk asking is Texting Killing Language. http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk
It is truly worth listening to because he gives us a different perspective. He notes:
We always hear that texting is a scourge. The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States and now the whole world today. The fact of the matter is that it just isn't true, and it's easy to think that it is true, but in order to see it in another way, in order to see that actually texting is a miraculous thing, not just energetic, but a miraculous thing, a kind of emergent complexity that we're seeing happening right now, we have to pull the camera back for a bit and look at what language really is, in which case, one thing that we see is that texting is not writing at all. What do I mean by that?
Casual speech is something quite different. Linguists have actually shown that when we're speaking casually in an unmonitored way, we tend to speak in word packets of maybe seven to 10 words. You'll notice this if you ever have occasion to record yourself or a group of people talking. That's what speech is like. Speech is much looser. It's much more telegraphic. It's much less reflective — very different from writing. So we naturally tend to think, because we see language written so often, that that's what language is, but actually what language is, is speech. They are two things.
What texting is, despite the fact that it involves the brute mechanics of something that we call writing, is fingered speech. That's what texting is. Now we can write the way we talk. And it's a very interesting thing, but nevertheless easy to think that still it represents some sort of decline. We see this general bagginess of the structure, the lack of concern with rules and the way that we're used to learning on the blackboard, and so we think that something has gone wrong. It's a very natural sense.
Your Research Summed Up with EMOJIS!?
Academic writing is often criticized for being unnecessarily complex and as a result inaccessible to most people. In a response to simplify academic writing, there has been a hilarious online movement to tweet your research using only emojis. I decided to try it out. Surprisingly, this task was more difficult than I expected. Below is my final result (I had to use text + emojis). Interestingly, my husband commented the emoji statement helped clarify what the heart of my research is really about. Go figure!!
To Read more about this movement, click here:
A Blog About Blogging
I (Clare) cannot get over how much I enjoy blogging! I found this great article on Teachers College Record about using blogging in the classroom. Since we have a blog I thought I would share the link with you. http://www.tcrecord.org/Content.asp?ContentID=18070
An excerpt of the article is below.
Advances in Technology Pave the Path to Actual Learning: Using Blogging as a Learning Tool
by Toni Ann Brzeski — August 17, 2015
Do you know what the most common electronic device that college student's possess? According to Joshua Bolkan, a multimedia editor for Campus Technology and The Journal, "85% of college students own laptops while smartphones come in second at 65%". If technology is becoming a common practice among our students, what are we doing as professors to incorporate it into our classrooms? How can students use technology to reflect on their work? How can instructors use technology as a supplement in reading and writing courses? How can technology be used to deepen our student's critical thinking skills? These are questions we should be asking ourselves in a world where technology is paving the way to learning.
After attending school, working at part time jobs and internships, participating in extracurricular activities and spending time with family, it might seem that college students are too busy to fit all of their activities into the hours of the day. Given the hustle and bustle of their everyday lives, most students simply do not have the time to reflect on any part of their day, let alone what they learned in their college courses (Sharkov, 2012). It is our responsibility as educators to keep up with our students, to understand them, and to make reflection on course work a priority. If our students are not reflecting on their learning as a part of their everyday lives, then we are not really doing our jobs as educators.
In order to get to the bottom of this issue, and make reflection a priority, we must ask ourselves what we are we doing inside of our classrooms to promote reflection outside of the classroom. What are we doing in our classes to develop better reading, writing, and critical thinking skills?
Each semester, students step foot into my classroom with needs and interests different from those students with whom I worked before. Every semester, it is my job to take needs and interests and learn how to integrate them into my courses. While every semester is different and challenging, I have found that today's advances in technology have been the key to bridging the gap between my students' needs and the course curriculum.
Four years ago, during my first semester at Bronx Community College, I asked my reading students to purchase the book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. At that time my students purchased the book from an actual bookstore or an online source and came to class with a paperback copy. In the fall of 2012 I asked my students to purchase the same book. What they did next surprised me: my students took out their Kindles and iPads and immediately purchased the book. It was simple: given the speed with which these electronic devices allowed my students to purchase the book, we were prepared to start reading it the following week.
There was not one student waiting on a delivery or taking time out of their busy lives to purchase it at the bookstore. What I learned from this experience is that we are in a world where our daily activities are rooted in our electronic devices. Kindles, iPads, and smartphones are devices that our students are not only actively using, but using comfortably. This is just about the time when I discovered blogging.
If my students were using technology to complete very ordinary tasks, such as buying a book for their college course, I then asked myself what other ordinary tasks my students are using technology for. At first I was hesitant—call me old fashioned—but I didn't believe students would become better readers and writers by posting their reflections online. I continued to question myself. What good is this? Aren't journals a place for reflecting and expression?
As stated by George Couros, the Principal of Innovative Teaching and Learning at Parkland School Division in Alberta, Canada, "We want students to think critically about what they write. They are more likely to do this when they write for a larger audience as opposed to simply [writing] for the teacher. [Blogging] gives students the ability to archive their work for many years to come." Therefore, having the "ability to [blog] [and] write for a worldwide audience has made an impact on many of our students" (Couros, 2013). Like Couros, I have found that blogging has had a significant impact. In fact, blogging is the very form of technology that has helped bridge the gap between my students' interests and required course work.
Blogging gives those students an outlet for expressing their own ideas and reflecting on what they learned in class from the comfort of their own homes. As less interactive students continue to exercise their writing skills through blogging, re-reading, and building on their blog posts, their writing gradually improves over the semester. The fact that students can go back to previous blog posts and add thoughts or reflect on their own blogs—thereby, revising their work on their own without being told to do so by their teacher—is extremely beneficial and rewarding (Sharkov, 2012).
Blogging can be done on a train, bus, or even in a student's own bedroom. Blogging doesn't require the school library, or even pen and paper. A student can simply use a smartphone to connect to the world through blogging. When you present this type of accessibility to the busy student, he or she has the opportunity to engage with classmates beyond the short period of time that the student spends sitting in the classroom before heading out to a job or internship.
I have witnessed the benefits of blogging first hand. Last semester, I posted a question as a homework assignment on my blog site regarding a reading on Edgar Allan Poe. Within an hour of my students leaving class, they started to write blog posts on the site. My students were responding to my question, expressing their views, and in turn completing their homework assignment, while commuting home from school.
As I read my students' blog posts, I was amazed at the level of insight that they were expressing in their entries. I had created a place where my students' voices could be heard, and a place where they were able to interact and discuss a topic outside of the classroom using information that they learned while inside of the classroom. In essence, my students were taking time to reflect on what they learned in class, even with their busy schedules. In the past I would have taken a more conventional approach to this homework assignment by passing out comprehension questions on white paper and telling students to answer and bring them back to class the following week.
Blogging is beneficial to the teacher as well. For example, in my EDU 10 class, our class blog page contains all our work and posts can be found in one place with easy access. I find my students accessing our blog page from their cellphones, which tells me that they are able to complete assignments from anywhere—very convenient for them.
As a professor, I can easily assess my students' reading, writing, and critical thinking progress by observing the improvement in their blog entries. This also keeps the line of communication open between my students and myself, which is helpful since our class only meets twice a week for a little over an hour. This blogging platform keeps the reflection ongoing throughout the week. Further, blogging allows me to learn my students' point of view on certain topics and demonstrates their level of comprehension on what we are learning in class, in turn, helping me to create a lesson plan for the next class.
Feedback: To Help the Author or Show Off What the Reviewer Knows?
All of us in academia are subject to the peer-review process. I (Clare) was revising a book chapter this past weekend and although rewriting is not pleasant, this time it was not a hard slog. The two reviewers provided sensible advice – give an example to clarify this point; please round out the point in this paragraph; connect the two tables … Their feedback was to improve the piece. This has been a good experience because the chapter is definitely clearer and more compelling. But this experience is not typical of the "peer review" feedback process. Far too many times I have had feedback that left me shaking my head. We submitted a paper to a journal and the feedback was a 3 page rant on the limits of a grounded theory method (which was appropriate for a study of literacy teacher educators' experiences). What was the point of the feedback from someone who was clearly a quantitative researcher? Another time the feedback on a grant proposal which was studying teachers' use of a digital technology – how their pedagogy and identity changed (or did not change) — was so off-base. The reviewer wanted us to include data on the children's (student's) use of technology in their personal lives. That is a different study. So why do reviewers provide comments that are not relevant or connected to the actual piece in hand? Did they not actually read it? Are they trying to show off what they know? (The latter is a bit ironic since the review is anonymous!)
I do not have answers to these questions. I would like to thank the reviewers who take the time (and park their ego at the door) to provide useful advice.
Rules for Writing
There are many rules to writing and as quickly as new genres are entering the literary scene, so too are the rules changing.
Here is an interesting explanation of a rule of writing and its evolution:
I see two big issues at play: 1) the rules of writing 2) writing with genre and audience in mind
It seems to me (Yiola) the rules are changing and this is in large part because genres are so rapidly evolving and being introduced.
There is much to be said for the traditional forms and genres of literary expression. And, it is the traditional forms I believe we still teach in schools. And yet with digital literacy there are many new forms being implemented and introduced in classrooms too.
I (Yiola) see writing as an art. The crisper the writing the more vivid the message. The clearer the writing the more opportunity for complex ideas.
The big question is… how to best teach writing in the elementary classroom? I remember teaching writing in the Junior grades (4th, 5th, 6th grades) with the audience, purpose and genre in mind… Now however all 3 elements (audience, purpose and genre) have grown to include several (more) possibilities.


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Researchers Explain How Anti-Abortion Legislation Threatens Women's Health
By Rachel Walden — November 13, 2013
There have been a number of recent articles and campaigns detailing, often from a personal perspective, how legislation restricting access to abortion will harm women's health.
A new article that will be published in the journal Contraception goes a step further — it draws on research to address the specific hardships women face and urges healthcare providers to push back against such restrictive measures.
The authors — researchers from university medical centers and health policy organizations such as Ibis Reproductive Health who have collaborated together before on matters of abortion and women's health — open with a sharply worded question: "What happens when abortion access is severely restricted for 26 million Americans? Texas is about to find out."
Texas, as you might recall, passed a law in July — the subject of State Sen. Wendy Davis's epic filibuster — that mandates hospital admitting privileges for abortion providers; requires abortion facilities to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgical centers; bans most abortions after 20 weeks post-fertilization (22 weeks "pregnant"); and restricts use of medication for abortion to an outdated regimen. A lawsuit was filed to try to overturn some of these restrictions.
The admitting privileges requirement was temporarily blocked this month, then reinstated, causing up to a third of abortion clinics to suddenly close and forcing women to scramble for alternatives. The issue may end up in front of the Supreme Court. (More wrangling took place this week; view the latest coverage at RH Reality Check).
Despite claims that the new restrictions are for women's "safety," the authors report that the evidence suggests something different: "Evidence from other countries indicates that severely restricting abortion does not reduce its incidence — it simply makes unsafe abortion more common."
Among the public health concerns raised in this article is the potential increase in the number women attempting to induce their own abortions:
In 2012, we conducted a survey with 318 women seeking abortion in six cities across the state to assess the impact of the 2011 restrictions. We found that 7% of women reported taking something on their own in order to try to end their current pregnancy before coming to the abortion clinic. This proportion was even higher — about 12% –among women at clinics near the Mexican border. Misoprostol and herbs were the methods women more commonly mentioned. By comparison, a nationally representative survey of abortion patients in 2008 found that 2.6% reported ever taking something to attempt to self-induce an abortion. The confluence of extremely limited access to abortion in the context of poverty, access to misoprostol from Mexico, as well as familiarity with the practice of self-induction in Latin America, makes it particularly likely that self-induction will become more commonplace in Texas.
Early medical abortion with misoprostol is a safe and effective regimen and is recommended by the World Health Organization in settings without access to mifepristone. But if women do not have accurate information, they may use ineffective dosages and may not realize the abortion failed until much later in pregnancy, forcing them to seek a second-trimester abortion or continue the pregnancy and have a child they do not want or feel they cannot care for. Using misoprostol in the second trimester also increases the risk of hemorrhage that might require surgical intervention or transfusion, as well as the risk of uterine rupture if inappropriately high dosages are used, especially with a history of prior cesarean delivery. And while misoprostol is unquestionably a safe method to self-induce abortion, women may use a variety of less effective and more dangerous methods to end a pregnancy on their own, including taking herbs or self-inflicting abdominal trauma.
The authors also explain that a reduction in the number of clinics, due to the provision requiring clinics to meet the standards of ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs), is likely to cause delays for women seeking care, resulting in later, more costly abortions. They describe the following scenario involving delays and travel burdens:
In 2011, 2,634 women living in the Valley obtained an abortion. Neither of the two existing abortion clinics in the Valley is an ASC, and one of the clinics has already announced its planned closure. The nearest ASC is in San Antonio, about 250 miles away, adding about eight hours of travel time to the process of obtaining an abortion. If a woman chooses a medical abortion, state law requires her to make this long journey at least three times. These barriers are likely to be too great for many women.
The three visits rule is due to a provision in Texas law requiring doctors to follow an outdated regimen for medical abortion. Most U.S. providers, they note, use a newer protocol, which has been found safe and effective — and requires only two visits instead of three. They write:
Texas is only one of several states attempting to regulate abortion out of existence — a trend that should be deeply troubling to the medical community. First, it represents a stunning incursion into the physician's exam room, allowing state representatives to dictate how doctors should practice medicine. Second, it is in blatant contradiction to evidence-based medicine.
And they call on physicians to be more involved in protesting this type of legislation:
As the fight for abortion rights in Texas moves from the legislature to the courts, it is critical that reproductive health specialists — both clinicians and researchers — add their voices to this outcry, highlighting the negative impact of these restrictions and demanding that all women have the right to comprehensive health care services.
The article, "The Public Health Threat of Anti-Abortion Legislation," will appear in an upcoming issue of Contraception.


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Starting from June 29, there's even more to enjoy at our end-of-season sale! Stop by our stores today to explore hundreds of new sale items from your favorite brands on sale up to 50% off.*
* Terms & Conditions apply. Brands and products may vary by location. Participating locations and dates are subject to change. While supplies last. See store for details.


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A sinister murder mystery that slowly reveals its paranormal secrets, set against the vivid backdrop of Japan.
3.5/5 stars
Being a photographer at a Tokyo newspaper is no walk in the park—unless you're Akio Tsukino and only get assigned to shoot parades and park festivals.
All that changes when a serial killer starts chopping off heads in nearby Kofu. Akio maneuvers his way onto the assignment in order to prove himself and get closer to enigmatic staff writer Masami Sato. When the investigation takes a supernatural turn, the unlikely partners find themselves caught between solving the mystery and saving their own lives.
In this thrilling and imaginative debut by Tristram Lowe, getting the story may cost them their heads.
See it on Amazon (paperback or Kindle) or the author's website
I was given a copy of Headless by the author in exchange for an honest review. This in no way affected my opinions.
Headless started out your standard murder mystery but ended a distinctly creepy paranormal story. Though I am usually not a fan of contemporary stories turning paranormal, there was good balance between the two elements throughout the novel that allowed me to enjoy it.
I loved the setting of Headless. Most of the books I read are set in the US or a fantasy world, so it was refreshing to read a book set 100% in Japan. I felt like I got a really good sense of not only the individual places the characters visited, but of the culture.
The story was told in third person, alternating between Akio's and Masami's POVs. Akio's POV told the bulk of the story. Both characters had strong voices and interesting personalities that brought the story to life.
Akio's character was interesting for me. He was young and awkward, with a clear idea in his head of who he "should be" without any hope of becoming that ideal. He could be annoying at times, but I was willing to forgive him because I understood where his character was coming from. His voice was clear throughout the novel, reflecting the growth Akio experienced.
Masami was my favorite character. She was the take-no-shit reporter who has a lot of hidden talents and absolutely no patience for Akio's idiocy. Though we got to see a lot of her development and personality from Akio's perspective, I loved the chapters told from her POV, and wished there were more of them.
Akio was slightly obsessed with Masami (trying to find the ice queen's "human" side), while Masami had zero patience for Akio. The chemistry between them never developed, but I actually loved that. They were thrown together by circumstances and developed a working relationship, but they were never going to become best friends.
The mystery unfolded nicely, starting off simple and gaining complexity as it sucked me in. From the first chapter, the reader (if not the characters) has a sense of who the killer is, but as the story progressed, I found myself surprised by the details that fleshed out that initial idea. By the end of the book, I was engrossed with the mystery, loving the combination of supernatural and historical details.
The only problem of the book is the pacing. In the part of the book where the characters are still looking for "real world" explanations, the pacing dragged a little. However, about halfway through it picked up, and by the end, I was completely engrossed in the story. The transition from a normal murder mystery to a paranormal thriller felt natural, and helped grab my attention.
I would recommend Headless to anyone looking for a murder mystery with a supernatural twist and a unique setting. Though the book had undeniably dark and creepy moments, the humor helped balance it out. Ultimately I will remember it for the fascinating mystery and historical angle, not just the number of people who got beheaded.


text: The Canon imagePROGRAF iPF780 36-inch large format printer builds on Canon?s award winning line of 5-color printers, and provides enhancements in both hardware, and software capabilities. The iPF780 device is capable of producing an Arch D (24″ x 36″) print in up to 21 seconds using Economy mode, and an Arch E (33.1″ x 46.8″) print in up to 41 seconds! The printer has the capability of accommodating 300ml ink tanks, geared towards lowering the cost per print. The included Sub-ink tank system allows for users to use all of the ink in the tank before replacing, while also replacing the empty ink tanks on-the-fly without having to stop a job mid-print and sacrifice print quality.


text: Is It Really Taboo? by nikolPosted on September 16, 2013January 21, 2017Posted in Beauty Is It Really Taboo? ta·boo also ta·bu (t-b, t-) n. pl. ta·boos also ta·bus 1. A ban or an inhibition resulting from social custom or emotional aversion. a. An object, a word, or an act protected by such a prohibition. I recently purchased the Chanel nail polish ($27) called Taboo and couldn't help but wonder, "Is it really Taboo to buy luxury, especially in this economy?" I did a little research on womens buying patterns in times of recession, the so-called "Lipstick Effect" which can be traced back to the Great Depression; the economy tanks, women run out and buy something that makes them feel pretty to cheer themselves up. I get it, I have done this little act of a pick-me-up even when we are not in a recession-I call it beauty therapy my husband calls it a shopping problem. Why do so many women feel guilty when they spend money on themselves? Is it Taboo to splurge on yourself? Is the guilt feeling ingrained into us when we are born? Is it extravagant to purchase those Jimmy Choo's, YSL lipstick, or LV carry all that you have been saving for? The answer in my opinion is that what really is Taboo is the not doing or buying these things in life because of guilt. Why wouldn't you "Have your cake and eat it too?" "Smell the roses along the way?" Seems we are all caught up in what other people think is right about our spending habits not what is right for ourselves. When it comes to purchasing luxury beauty products like Chanel there is some kind of empowerment that happens at the counter. You feel a sense of happiness, fulfillment and excitement. You can experience luxury from a mere $27 dollars. In most cases not all, buying products that are more expensive does have it's rewards. When I wear a Chanel polish or lipstick there is a sense of old Hollywood history, like I am channeling Coco Chanel. What is really Taboo, in my opinion is not doing or buying the things in life that make you happy because of guilt. Why wouldn't you "Have your cake and eat it too?" "Smell the roses along the way?" Seems we are all caught up in what other people think is right not what is right for ourselves. Go ahead make that spa appointment, weekend trip or wear that red super luxe lipstick. Yes, I approve. [slideshow_deploy id='4905′] YOU ALSO MIGHT LIKE


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I left the Island again on the lunchtime ferry and drove to a friend's near Glasgow arriving at about 9.45 this evening. Hopefully I'll get some blogs posted and read tomorrow. In the meantime, as it's now tomorrow (if you see what I mean), I'm going to sleep. Night night.
Is It Really Here?
6 hours ago


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The first trailer for Cameron Crowe's latest, Aloha, made its debut today. It totes a star-studded cast of varying generations, including Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Alec Baldwin, and Bill Murray. As the title implies, moviegoers will be whisked away to the far away land of Hawaii where romantic hijinks will ensue and life lessons will be learned. Watch the the trailer for Aloha and find over 100 screenshots from the film after the jump. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Regency
Official 'Gone Girl' Trailer Cleverly Teases the Whodunit Mystery (125 Screenshots)
David Fincher's latest film adaptation, Gone Girl, has given the people a new trailer today thanks to 20th Century Fox. Unraveling the plot threads to one of the most talked about novels by Gillian Flynn in the last half-decade, this new footage cleverly ensnares the viewer in the web of mystery behind the big picture. Watch the full trailer after the break. Continue reading
Bring Home the Award-Winning '12 Years a Slave' on Blu-ray and DVD March 4
I'm predicting the future, and what I foresee is that 12 Years a Slave will win Best Picture at the Oscars on March 2 and the home video sales will skyrocket once it releases on March 4, the following Tuesday. That's perfectly timed isn't it? 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment announced today the big release date for one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2013 – it was in my top 5 that's for sure. Check out all of the special features, along with the box cover art after the break. Continue reading
'The Internship' Movie Review: Late to the Party but Completely Harmless
Buckle up, because if The Internship is what you seek, prepare for an overly long, two-hour advertisement for Google riddled with outdated cliches. But despite the lack of ingenuity, this film turns out a pretty harmless attempt at humor with a little dash of heart. Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson put in a great effort, but the once famed Wedding Crashers duo are hardly given enough room to grow. Continue reading
'The Internship' Theatrical Trailer Fails Orientation (58 Screenshots)
I'm not sure if Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are trying to cut their careers short, but the clash of the generations depicted in the latest trailer for The Internship isn't working. Although better than the teaser trailer, what we see here is still not stacking up. This new trailer explores further into the reaches of the characters and story, but The Internship still feels like a bit of a stretch in this day and age. Watch the full theatrical trailer after the break and see for yourself. Continue reading


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Save Tax by Creating HUF – Advantages and Limitations. Save Tax by Forming HUF – Taxability, Advantages, Limitations, More Exemptions by Creating HUF, If you know it, you can save it. There are various legal ways to save the tax, out of which one of them is by creating a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). This way of saving tax is highly beneficial as the HUF is considered to be a separate entity in the eyes of law and so it enjoys the additional limit for taxation. In this article, I have briefly discussed about the HUF, how it is formed, its tax planning, when it is useful to create and many other relevant facts.
Creating HUF
What is known by HUF ?
HUF is an entity which formed under the Hindu Law Board, which can be formed by married couple. There should be at least 2 members in it which may include Husband, Spouse and there children as well. There should be at least 1 male member in HUF. The most Senior person in HUF would be regarded as "Karta", other will be regarded as members of HUF.
How to form a HUF ?
Actually there is no need for forming any HUF, as it is formed automatically. It is formed automatically when a male person marries a female person and from that moment the HUF is formed. You just need to make it legally formed. For that you need to do the following steps:
- First of all you need to open a bank account in the name of HUF.
- You should now apply for the PAN card, which would give its legal identity.
- The next thing you need to to do is to generate the capital in the HUF by transferring the ancestral property or any asset which would give HUF to earn income.
Taxability of HUF:
The taxability of HUF depends on what you are carrying out in the name of HUF. The main person in HUF would be Karta. SO his decision would be the final one. The one point you should note that the HUF is an artificial person so you should not have any income as salary to it, as the salary in payable to individuals. HUF can be having the property which can be letted out and receiving some rentals from it and it can also be running the business in its name which would yield him more profit by allowing the deductions.
As HUF is having a separate legal entity, it has its own PAN card, which would yield him another basic exemption limit of Rs. 2,50,000. One thing is for sure clear that if the HUF is having the other income except rentals or business profit than it would be clubbed with the income of karta. Now we would see how the tax benefits of creating HUF actually works.
Recommended Articles
- Tax Treatment of Gifts Received By an Individual or HUF
- Download Affidavit Format for PAN Application of HUF
- Download Latest Income Tax Return Forms – ITR Forms
If there is income of karta of say Rs. 10 Lakhs and other members which are having the income of say Rs. 8 Lakhs. If they have the ancestral property which is idle and thinking of letting out the same, then this would be helpful. You can transfer the said property in the names of HUF and the rentals from it would be assessable in the names of HUF. So if there is Rental income of Rs. 2.5 Lakhs, it would be fully exempt as it would cover the basic exemption limit and leading to save a lot of taxes.
There are various deductions also available while you conduct the business in the HUF. Various deductions are available such as Remuneration to Karta, Loan to karta or HUF members, etc. which are all allowable as expenses while computing tax profit.
Firstly it would be beneficial only to the people who are having good higher income falling in the slab rate of 30%, which would help them to bifurcate the income and make separate taxability.
On the other hand, it is to be noted that the property which is once transferred to the HUF cannot be transferred to any individual. It cannot be transferred by any of the ways such as transfer deed or will. As it has become the family asset. It would be divided only when the HUF is partitioned.
Leaving asides the minute drawbacks of the HUF, it is very much advisable to form a HUF and take the benefit of that separate PAN card while paying taxes.


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Masses at St. Peters, 7 PM and Midnight, March 1
Vigil of Reparation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary on Friday, March 1st at St. Peter Church in Hartford. The Vigil begins with the traditional Latin Mass of the Sacred Heart at 7:00 pm followed by Rosary, Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and confessions closing with the traditional Latin Mass of the Immaculate Heart of Mary at 12:00 midnight. St. Peter Church is located at 160 Main St., Hartford, CT 06106


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We would like to thank the following people for their previous contributions to Cochrane Incontinence in various capacities over the years.
Coordinating Editors: Adrian Grant, Cathryn Glazener and James N'Dow.
Managing Editors: June Cody and Imran Omar
Editors: Brenda Roe, Steinar Hunskaar, Katherine Moore, Christine Norton, Mandy Fader, Carmela Marie Lapitan, Doug Tincello and Kate Williams. We also acknowledge the contributions of Rob Pickard, who will be missed.
Editorial and administrative support: Bronwyn Davidson, Suzanne Macdonald, Alison Ewan, Sharon McLeer, Claire Allen, Alison Clayton, Pamela Moir, June Younes, Jennifer Crouse, Erika Magnago and Lyn Ajanaku.
Research Fellows: Miriam Brazzelli, June Cody and Fiona Stewart.
Handsearchers: Jean Hay‐Smith, Peter Herbison, Emmanual Karantanis, Victoria Kirkland, Lisa McKenzie, Sylvain Meyer, Mary Palmer, Cheryl Pearson, Rudi Prent, Paul Riss, Brenda Roe and Gabriel Schar.
Local Advisory Committee: Paul Bachoo, Kevin Cooper, Pat Duncan, Alison Hancock and Satchi Swami.


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McDonald's Plans To Add More Ordering Kiosks Because Customers Buy More From A Machine Than A Person
Slowly but surely, machines are changing the way that we handle everyday things — including the way we order fast food.
According to USA Today, McDonald's has plans to add ordering kiosks to thousands of stores in hopes of making their profits grow. The company found that when people have more time to look at a screen and think about what they want to order, they actually end up ordering more, thus increasing profits.
"So there is a little bit of an average check boost that comes with it," CEO Steve Easterbrook says.
According to Info Wars, Easterbrook also said that the kiosks will add more variety to ways that customers are able to order their food.
"You walked to the front counter and line up and take your drink and find a table or you go through the drive through. We're introducing many options. They can order through mobile, they can come curbside and we'll run it out as well as the existing traditional ways. You can pay in different ways and customize your food in different ways. I think we're trying to add more choice and variety."
Over the next two years, McDonald's will implement their new ordering system by putting in roughly 10 kiosks a day at various McDonald's locations. This means that they plan to add about 1,000 every quarter in the U.S. while many locations in the United Kingdom and Canada are already home to self-serving kiosks. And by 2020, they hope to have kiosks at every single location.
But the move may prove to be a risky one for the hamburger retailer. A recent poll from MSN found that "78% of customers are less likely to go into a restaurant that has a self-service kiosk." However, the CEO makes a point to express that the kiosks are not meant to replace actual workers, they just serve as a way to bring the benefits that come along with technology to the fast-food market.
Would you like fries with that? 🍟 @McDonalds Is Adding Self-Order Kiosks to 1,000 Stores | by @venturermedia https://t.co/X8UgmUl0R1
— Wily Global (@wilyglobal) June 8, 2018
Just yesterday, the fast food giant came under fire after a woman reported finding a rodent in her food. Fox News shares that 18-year-old Beth Waller claims that she found a dead mouse after she bit into her McChicken sandwich.
"I had only had a couple of bites and it didn't taste right — there was a funny taste so I knew something wasn't right," Waller told the outlet.
The store was located across the pond in Doncaster, England and was not a location in the United States. Since McDonald's has found out about the incident, they have reached out to Waller and told her that they plan to investigate the incident but also say that judging from the pictures, it appears to be a blood vessel from the chicken and not a rodent.


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New York's immigrant communities greeted the election of Sen. Barack Obama as president with a mix of elation, anticipation and curiosity. The foreign language and ethnic newspapers speculated about what an Obama administration would mean for their readers -- and their native countries.
El Diario /La Prensa, for example, tried to gauge what an Obama presidency would mean for U.S. relations with Mexico and other Latin American countries. The overall reaction there has been positive, the paper said, although "sectors of the extreme left ... remain skeptical" about Obama. Elsewhere in the region, the Colombian government has concerns about whether Obama will continue to oppose the free trade agreement with the U.S. that that nation wants.
In an article written before last month's terrorist attack in Mumbai, the Indian Express said the Indian government will look at how Obama handles three key issues: the contested area of Kashmir, nuclear non-proliferation and climate change. The New York Carib News spoke with experts who predicted that an Obama administration will cultivate friendlier relationships with West Indian nations, including possible trade concessions and development. And among Turkish businesses people, Obama's election was "met with [an] optimistic reaction" and a belief that trade between the U.S. and Turkey will now increase, according to Zaman USA.
While the United States will have its first black president in Obama, the Irish Voice noted another milestone: "Joe Biden is also the first Catholic vice president. And early exit polling suggests the Obama-Biden ticket won about 54 percent of the Catholic vote."
Many see Obama's election as a sign of a new day -- and fading of bigotry -- in the United States, but last month also saw a sign of the persistence of prejudice. Some 50 miles from New York City, in Patchogue, N.Y., Marcelo Lucero, an Ecuadorian immigrant was stabbed to death allegedly by a group of local teenagers. Following the murder, prosecutors said the young men charged in the case often got together to hunt down, attack and injure Hispanic men in the Suffolk county community.
Immigrant advocates have "described the attack as a reflection of widespread anti-Latino sentiment and racial intolerance in Suffolk County," the New York Times reported, some of it apparently fueled by anger at illegal immigrants and day laborers.
Meanwhile, immigrants and others are feeling the effects of the economic downturn. In a grim post-election commentary, Nowy Dziennik / Polish Daily News said, "Obama will take over the leadership in the worst moment from the financial point of view .... A couple of months from today we will be able to see clearly the consequences of the rapidly worsening macroeconomic indicators -- the decrease of sales and production, deterioration of consumers' attitude and mass layoffs conducted by big corporations."
In Chinatown, the hard times have forced some to scrounge for food, as Bangladeshis cut back on the celebration of Eid-ul Azha, an important religious festival, and groups helping low-income Asians worry about budget cuts. These and other stories from the Spanish, Chinese, Bangladeshi, Korean and Polish language press, via our partner, Voices that Must Be Heard.
Hard Times in Chinatown, World Journal
In Manhattan's Chinatown, the ranks of the impoverished have grown. Families unable to pay the grocery bills survive by cutting costs however possible and even picking through trash bins outside supermarkets.
Slumping Economy Dims Celebration, Weekly Thikana
Feeling the effects of the recession, Bangladeshi immigrants in New York have cut back on the amount of money they send home and have spent less this year to celebrate Eid-ul Azha, a major Muslim religious festival.
Rising Rents Threaten Bodegas, El Diario / La Prensa
With close to 80,000 of the city's Latino businesses threatened by higher rents and abusive practices by real estate speculators, small business owners are supporting a proposal by City Councilmember Robert Jackson, which would spell out the rights of small businesses in commercial rental contracts.
The State Senate's Latino Rebellion, El Diario / La Prensa
When two Latino Democratic state senators threatened to not vote for Malcolm Smith for majority leader, Latinos called for more power sharing in Albany.
School Crowding Worries Bronx Parents, El Diario / La Prensa
Concerned about too many students cramming local schools, parents in parts of the Bronx oppose the Department of Education's plan to scale back school construction.
Immigrants Protest Budget Cuts, Korea Daily News
Asian non-profit organizations charge that proposed cuts in the city budget will affect many low-income families. The Asian groups are especially concerned about cuts in English-language classes for immigrants.
Chinese-American Support for Obama Not a Landslide, World Journal
While Barack Obama won New York by a huge margin, many in the Chinese community had doubts about both him and his opponent, John McCain. In at least one Chinatown polling station, McCain trounced Obama.
Day Laborers Arrested in Queens, El Diario / La Prensa
The arrested of these workers represents a change in city policy. What does it mean?
Rezoning Aims to Protect Greenpoint's Character, Nowy Dziennik
In an effort to curb excessive development of Brooklyn's Polish neighborhoods, the city planning department has proposed height limits for new construction and efforts to provide more low-income homes.
Why She Drives, El Diario / La Prensa
One of New York's very few woman cab drivers talks about the risks and rewards in her line of work.
Helpline Aids City's Irish Seniors, Irish Voice
Copying an idea launched in Ireland 10 years ago, older Irish people living in New York City will be able to dial a number to speak with a fellow senior about fears, worries and life in general.


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Kansas City Star blasts Congress' 'cromnibus' measure
The Kansas City Star published this editorial on Dec. 16:
Congress this month rushed to pass the awkwardly named "cromnibus." It was more than just a mashup of a continuing resolution (the "cr," that is) and omnibus spending bill. Lawmakers — primarily Republicans — inserted inappropriate pet causes, pork and pandering to special interests.
Because lawmakers again waited until the eve of a government shutdown to act, they had no time or inclination to write a thoughtful budget that reflected overarching policy goals. The cromnibus neither helps the middle class nor reduces the deficit. Instead, it allows the country to hobble along for another year.
Not content to do no good, the GOP-controlled House insisted on doing harm by inserting policy and spending priorities where they don't belong. Many Democrats served as their enablers, supporting the cromnibus with the thin rationale that it could have been worse.
On the spending front, millions of dollars will buy fighter jets that the Pentagon had not even asked for. Someone's district will score big.
Meanwhile, Congress cut $93 million from the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. WIC helps low-income mothers buy food for their children. It also cut funds for two major Republican bogeymen — the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.
Policy riders in the bill were even worse. The two that received the most attention were related to dollars, just not federal spending of them.
At the request of big banks, Republicans undid part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reforms enacted after the collapse of the financial industry. It's an arcane change, but the bottom line is that Washington no longer will forbid big banks from engaging in some of the practices that led to the financial crisis. If things go south again, taxpayers could be on the hook for another round of bailouts.
The financial industry's generous political contributions no doubt helped it win that concession, for which GOP Rep. Kevin Yoder of Overland Park played a key role. Starting next year, they and other big donors can give even more because Republicans eased campaign finance rules to allow funneling money to political parties. If only those hungry WIC mothers and children had millions they could give to politicians.
Among the other conservative priorities slipped into the bill were overruling Washington, D.C., voters who overwhelmingly endorsed legalizing marijuana; prohibiting regulations on light bulb efficiency; prohibiting bans of lead ammunition used in hunting; making school lunches less healthy; and forbidding naturalists from classifying two sage-grouse species that are dying off as endangered, an anti-environmentalist move that's music to the ears of Kansas conservatives.
All of those might be reasonable topics for discussion. If so, they should go through the normal, deliberative legislative process that allows ample time for analysis and public comment.
Both Democrats and Republicans have used the budget bill to accomplish policy goals in the past. It was never a particularly noble practice, but the cromnibus' constrained timeline made the practice particularly odious this time. Congressional leaders revealed it as a fait accompli. The American people and groups affected by it had no real opportunity to support or oppose controversial policies and spending decisions, let alone seek changes.
Exploiting the budget process to bypass public scrutiny and democratic debate only reinforces the overwhelming American consensus that, despite faint appearances of bipartisanship, Congress truly is broken.


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Visit out website at Craig David Butler Studios
Rachel & Drew –Wedding Photography and videography – Some days you just hug a little longer and look a little deeper. Some days are just filled with what feels like so much more. Possibly it is because of where I am at or may the Killian's and the Duff are just these incredible groups of people. Drew and Rachel – wonderful!
Thanks for allowing us to be such an important part of your wedding day!
Wedding Ceremony – St. Mary Magdalen Church, Brighton, Michigan
Wedding Photography – Law Quad, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wedding Reception – Fox Hills GC, Plymouth, Michigan
Same Day Edit –
[vimeo 135810300 w=720&h=400]
Music used with permission through www.SongFreedom.com
Artist – The Afters
Song – Moments like this


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I'm currently running a slim Dell Vostro 220s in my apartment as a low-power 24/7 home server of sorts. It's also connected to the TV so that my mom could watch Russian movies and TV shows.
Currently it serves only a few functions:
- File Server for photos, backups, downloads, and installation files for software and OS
- Bittorrent Server
I've installed some extra utilities too:
- DynDNS updater, for remote access without using dynamic IPs
- Windows 7 Concurrent Sessions enabler (so I can administrate the server without interrupting mom's TV shows/movies)
- SyncToy
What I would really like to do though is have it download Windows Updates for all the Windows machines I have running at home, and the computers I set up, troubleshoot, and order for other people. Unfortunately, it seems that requires WSUS, which doesn't work on Windows 7 Profession (the OS my server is running). If anyone knows how I can make it work on Windows 7 or another way to serve Windows Updates locally, please comment below and you will receive endless amounts of gratitude from me =).
I could reinstall with Windows Server 2008, but last I tried, it did not play well with ATi's video card control panel at all, so I was unable to achieve TV-out, and I'm guessing Server 2008 wouldn't be a good fit for a lot of multimedia uses.
Something else that would be really cool is for me set up scheduling so that it would go to sleep/shutdown and wake up/turn on on its own, to cut down on power usage without interrupting the tasks it currently serves. The only problem is setting up a system in which the photos on my desktop PC can be available so my mom could browse them whenever she wants to, while not having to have my computer on, and also download files at night when no one's internet browsing experience would be interrupted.
For photos I currently use SyncToy on the server to check for changes in my Photos folder on my desktop PC every hour, whether it's on or not. On my mom's computer the server folder with the photos is set as a network drive which is scanned by Picasa.
For downloads I use uTorrent's scheduler to fully use my bandwidth at night, and is very limited during the day – although that's not as necessary.
So the dilemma is the current system requires the server to be running 24/7. Perhaps I can somehow make it sleep during the day until mom accesses Picasa and sends a request to the server.
Any ideas?


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After the stunning presentations and the panels of the first day, we are here to stream you the best quotes and events of the 2nd Day of Coinsummit in London! We really enjoyed the first day of the conference, the presentations were incredible and we were able to meet the cream of the Bitcoin industry. Last night, we had an incredible coctail party sponsored by SWARM great night and we looking forward to check todays panels! Watch the online stream, and follow us on Twitter and Instagram!
Live updates from the conference
Instagram updates
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Together with Culinessa we've created a new way of challenging ourselves with our blogs.
Each month we start a new challenge around an dish or theme that has mostly Asian influences. With each challenge we announce the new one for the next month so can join us in our endeavours.
These challenges are not meant as a competition, but to inspire us to try new recipes or to give our spin on a certain dish.
As you can see our first Food Blog Challenge is about the Hawaiian dish Poke. It's a raw fish salad that is somewhat similar to a sushi bowl or chirashi sushi. However you don't necessarily serve poke with rice and in chriashi sushi the fish isn't dressed with soy or other sauces.
You can eat poke as a small starter, for lunch or as a main when served with rice.
My recipe serves around 3 people.
- Ingredients for the fish:
- 350 g raw salmon, sashimi grade
- 3 Tbs soy sauce
- ¼ ts fresh ginger, grated
- ½ ts sesame oil
- ⅛ ts sriracha
- 2 ts toasted sesame seeds
- 1 green onion, cut into rings
- Other ingredients:
- 1 cup sushi rice
- 4 Tbs rice wine vinegar
- 1 ts sugar
- ¼ ts salt
- 50-75 g seaweed salad, chuka wakame
- Optional: 2-3 Tbs tobiko, fish eggs
- Optional: 2-3 Tbs furikake
Start with preparing the sushi rice, follow the instructions on the packaging or use your own preferred method. Mix the rice wine vinegar with the salt and sugar until everything has dissolved.
Season the cooked sushi rice with the vinegar mixture and fan the rice until body temperature.
Mix the soy sauce, grated ginger, sesame oil and sricacha.
Cut the salmon into not too small bitesize pieces and mix the salmon with the soy sauce dressing. Add the toasted sesame seeds and the green onion.
You can serve the poke with rice in a bowl or glass. I shaped the rice with a cooking ring.
Fill the ring with the seasoned rice and lightly press to create an even layer.
For extra flavour I sprinkle a little furikake on top.
Spread some of the seaweed salad on top and finish it off with the salmon poke.
For extra garnish I sprinkled a little more furikake on top and a few teaspoons of tobiko fish eggs. This poke was made with salmon, but you can use different kinds of fish and other ingredients like avocado and white onion.
Would you like to take part in our Food Blog Challenges?
Make your version of poke and be inspired by my or Culinessa's recipe. Send in your link or photo and we'll share your contributions along with our challenges.
For Januari our next challenge is Korean Fried Chicken! A very different sort of KFC. Join us in our Food Blog Challenges!
The rules:
– Mention Nombelina and Culinessa in your blogpost.
– Mention the Food Blog Challenge.
– Use the FBC logo.
– Publish new challenges in the last 7 days of the month.
You can always take part in our old challenges and post the recipe whenever you want.
The logo for the Poke challenge kan be downloaded here. Download the logo for the next KFC challenge here.


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Bundled Up Nutterbutter Penguins How to Video
We had lots of laughs again this morning on WKBT News 8 This Morning. Jen and Bill create their own Bundled Up Penguins. Take a look.
If you are viewing this in your RSS Feeder, click on the link on top and it will bring you right to the video.


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Business News - Opportunities - Reviews
The season finale of HBO's "Game of Thrones" is Sunday night, and it should have its fair share of changing alliances and shocking deaths. For fans who opt to watch the episode on delay, the internet becomes a minefield of spoilers inspired by the plot twists and surprising revelations.
Spoilers have become a large part of pop culture thanks to the immediacy of social media, coupled with TV shows and movies with twists and turns that keep viewers talking well into the next day.
But what are the rules when it comes to spoilers? Is it okay to even talk about them, and if so when?
Everyone has a different answer for the proper wait time before revealing major plot points, said Matt Zoller Seitz, a TV critic for New York Magazine and editor in chief of RogerEbert.com.
"And no matter what niceties you try to observe, you're always going to end up offending somebody," Seitz told CNN. "And each time I do it, I have this period of retrenchment where I ask what did I do wrong? What can I do better in the future? And the answer is, I don't know."
Seitz has written about so-called "spoiler etiquette" and made the point that there are varying levels of wait time a viewer can employ for different forms of media.
If you're watching a movie, Seitz says you should wait a week before spilling secrets on social media. As for weekly episodic television, he says wait 48 hours before tweeting. And a full season drop on Netflix? Four days.
Related: The game of 'Thrones': How resembling live sports makes the HBO hit an event
Plot twist have been part of the pop culture experience for decades — from 1968's "Planet of the Apes" to the father of all spoilers in 1980's "Empire Strikes Back." In the past, you only had to avoid the water cooler at the office to avoid hearing co-workers talk about them. In the age of social media, however, you run the risk of tripping over episode recaps and fan theories that will spoil your delayed viewing experience.
"I wish that the world were different now and that I wasn't about to say what I'm going to say, but I feel like it's every man and woman for themselves at this point," Chris Ryan, executive editor at The Ringer, told CNN. "I think five years ago even you could be the person in the room who was like 'I haven't watched it yet.' Then people would respect that. Now, I feel like it doesn't really happen that way."
And even though spoilers can ruin the plot for others, one in five Americans say there's nothing wrong with sharing TV spoilers as soon as they are revealed, according to a Harris Interactive poll conducted for Netflix in 2014.
So, with spoilers coming at us at a rapid-fire pace from all angles, how does that impact the art we're watching?
"What we're losing in that is that why things happen is ultimately more satisfying than what happens," Seitz said.
So, in other words, it's really up to you if you let spoilers ruin your fun, but what may matter more is not who survives "Game of Thrones" on Sunday night, but rather how they did so.
(HBO, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner (TWX).)
CNNMoney (New York) First published August 25, 2017: 1:08 PM ET
Business News - Opportunities - Reviews


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As the old year winds down I usually do a little assessment of it and "grade" it according to my judgement. While I look at all aspects of my life, I focus primarily on the spiritual side. I'm not done with my assessment as of this writing; I'm writing on Monday, scheduling for today.
I don't "do" resolutions; studies and personal experience show they don't work. But last year I discovered this idea of One Word; focus on a single word for the year and see how it works in your life. I liked it. I'm in the process of getting my word for 2016 now.
As I've been pondering the last year I came across this quote I wanted to share.
Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings. – Charles Douglas Jackson
In setting goal and making plans we tend to go big; there's nothing wrong with that. However, it seems most of the time we don't have a full plan for getting from where we are to where we want to be. Then when the inevitable fork in the road comes we are lost.
This year I pray that we each have a happy, healthy, blessed year. And I hope we all get our landing gear in order before we see out on our trips.
Although I know there's not an official Writers Quote Wednesday this week, I figured that shouldn't stop me from linking to it anyhow. As far as I know Ronovan's BeWoW is still on but I may be wrong in that. Nevertheless, this post is linked to both.


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Not bound by anything
Now that books are being digitised, how will people read?
Daniel Pudles
IN SECRET locations and using secret methods, human beings are scanning lots and lots of books for Google, the world's largest web-search company. That humans are involved is beyond doubt (fingers are visible in the corners of many pages on books.google.com) although this is uncharacteristic of Google, which has a fetish for purist technology.
Google will not divulge exact numbers, but Daniel Clancy, the project's lead engineer, gives enough guidance for an educated guess: Google's contract with one university library, Berkeley's, stipulates that it must digitise 3,000 books a day. The minimum for the other 12 universities involved may be lower, but the rate for participating publishers is higher. So a conservative estimate has Google digitising at least 10m books a year. The total number of titles in existence is estimated to be about 65m.
Google's is not the only project of its kind. The Internet Archive, for instance, is a non-profit organisation founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle, a San Francisco idealist who wants to re-create a modern Library of Alexandria containing all public-domain texts and videos. Amazon has been scanning books, as have Microsoft and Yahoo!, Google's biggest rivals in web-search, and individual libraries around the world. Eager not to be left out, publishers are also doing the same. But Google's effort, in scale and ambition, is off the charts.
As books go digital, new questions, both philosophical and commercial, arise. How, physically, will people read books in future? Will technology "unbind" books, as it has unbundled other media, such as music albums? Will reading habits change as a result? What happens when books are interlinked? And what is a book anyway?
Change is least likely in the physical medium of books. Electronic books do exist; the best-known is the Sony Reader, a book-sized gadget made by the eponymous consumer-electronics company. Sony currently makes 12,000 books available online for download, but "our mission is not to replace the print book," says Ron Hawkins, the Sony Reader's marketing boss.
There is an obvious analogy between what Apple's iPods have done to CD players and what electronic books may do to the printed page, but the shift is unlikely to be quite so comprehensive. The simplest difference is that transferring one's old music CDs onto iPods is easy, whereas transferring one's old books onto an e-book is impossible.
So who is going to read the millions of pages that Google and its colleagues are so busy digitising? Some people will read them on-screen, some will use Google as a taster for books they will then buy in paper form or borrow from a library, and still more will use it to look for specific snippets that interest them.
The biggest changes are likely to be seen in what becomes a book in the first place. Here the internet may indeed be to some book genres what Apple has been to music or what YouTube (now part of Google) has been to video. Among younger listeners albums are dead. They have been replaced by playlists of individual songs designed to be shared with friends.
In books this has already happened for encyclopedias. Wikipedia, which is free, collaborative and online, has eaten into sales of paper-bound alternatives. So books that people would not traditionally read in their entirety, or that require frequent updating, are likely to migrate online and perhaps to cease being books at all. Telephone directories and dictionaries, and probably cookbooks and textbooks, will all fall into this category.
With non-fiction the situation is more nuanced. Many non-fiction books express an intellectual idea. Traditionally, the only way to deliver such an idea profitably involved binding it into a 300-page book, says Seth Godin, a blogger and author of eight books on marketing. "If you had a 50-page idea, you couldn't make any money from it," he says, so a lot of non-fiction books end up on shelves with 250 unread pages. Freedom from such rigidities may save a lot of authorial time.
Non-fiction books will also benefit from another change that comes with digitisation. Like web pages, digitised books can have incoming and outgoing hyperlinks. On books.google.com at the moment, links are only to entire books. But in future, says Google's Mr Clancy, links will point to and from specific phrases or words inside books. Footnotes, citations and bibliographies are obvious points for live links.
This has several benefits. It will help scholarly research, since it makes primary sources much more accessible. And it will reduce the slog of academic book-worming—jotting down the location of a book, trudging through the library, pulling it off the shelf, queuing for the photocopier—to the negligible effort of clicking a mouse.
Such links will also make books much easier to discover, by helping search engines. As link structures develop around books, search algorithms can count incoming links as "votes", giving more weight to incoming links from much-cited places and less to obscure ones. The (offline) citation culture of academic literature already works this way. This, in fact, is what gave Larry Page, one of Google's co-founders, the original idea for his search algorithm, which he cheekily called PageRank.
What about all the genres of books that fill a different human need? Certainly, some types of fiction—novels as well as novellas—are also likely to migrate online and to cease being books. Many fantasy fans, for example, have already put aside books and logged on to "virtual worlds" such as "World of Warcraft", in which muscular heroes and heroines get together to slay dragons and such like. Science fiction may go the same way, and is arguably already being created by "residents" of online worlds such as Second Life.
Most stories, however, will never find a better medium than the paper-bound novel. That is because readers immersed in a storyline want above all not to be interrupted, and all online media teem with distractions (even a hyperlink is an interruption). People do not read fiction in order to accomplish a specific task in a limited amount of time, as they read reference and schoolbooks. Random-access dictionaries and cookbooks may be useful; random-access novels less so.
What about short stories and poems? Being short, they fit the new media, so some may do well online and need not be bound in paper. Commuters could receive their daily haiku or sonnet on their mobile phones while taking the bus to work. They might also use the new media to enjoy poetry in a more traditional way. "Storytelling started as oral history," says Adam Smith, the boss of Google's book project, so a partial reversion to that form, through podcasting, would be natural.
But even anthologies of short stories and poems, like longer novels, are unlikely to disappear. People want to be guided by others. They also want media suitable for unhurried reading in beds and bathtubs and on beaches. Above all, they want paper books for what digitisation is revealing them to be. Books are not primarily artefacts, nor necessarily vehicles for ideas. Rather, as Mr Godin puts it, they are "souvenirs of the way we felt" when we read something. That is something that people are likely to go on buying.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline "Not bound by anything"
From the March 24th 2007 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
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Rule changes to speed up the game are working
How "Blurred Lines" has reshaped pop music
A decade on, the song still influences how artists approach explicit content and musical copyright
"Ringmaster" is a colourful biography of a wrestling impresario
But Abraham Riesman overstates the spectacle's place in modern America


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If there is one thing I can count on most days, it's a message from my sister in Germany. She often sends short fun video clips that make me laugh. This one however was so amazing that I had to share it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Thank you Gabi! I love you!