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WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said Thursday the partisan divide isn't as wide when it comes to improving the nation's higher education system as it is in many other areas.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who like Bush is often mentioned as a potential 2016 president candidate, accepted an invitation from sponsors to attend a conference that Bush is co-hosting on global higher education issues. It begins Monday in Irving, Texas.
"This isn't a political conference," Bush, a Republican, said in a telephone interview when asked why Clinton, a Democrat who served as secretary of state, was invited.
"There's a real consensus in our country that higher education is hugely important and if we can find ways to improve quality and lower costs and provide greater access in the United States and around the world, it's hard to argue against that," Bush said. "The question is, how do you do it?"
Bush said it's good that, at the federal level and in many states, there are discussions about ways to improve higher education. He noted that among full-time college students, about 60 percent of students graduate within six years.
"Initiatives that focus on better outcomes and helping students get the courses they need to garner degrees of relevance quicker are a very good thing," Bush said. "There's no question about it."
He said he hasn't seen the specifics of a higher education ratings system under development by the Obama administration that could potentially use measures such as graduates' salaries.
Follow Kimberly Hefling on Twitter: http://twitter.com/khefling


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Transform your photos into one-of-a-kind, hand painted masterpieces!
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Thank you, purchaser from Nelson, BC - Canada. I am honored and humbled. Thank you again!!!
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Paul Craddock
May 23rd, 2019
Nancy Guess
May 19th, 2019
This is a bit of history, my history and a little of John Denver's history. Back when I started as a freelance illustrator I decided that I could do a album cover for John Denver. He was very popular at the time (1976). So I did and after completing it send a 4 x 5 transparency to his management company in L.A. Well, to make a long story short they bought it, but alas, never used it. Not unusually for that industry, I was told. So, here you go, you are in luck if you love John Denver this will make a stunning print on your wall and now you know the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say, Good Day!!!
Hi, my name is John D. Benson and I was born in Baltimore Maryland. I attended school in Baltimore County and studied at the Maryland Institute of Art. I have attended classes and workshops in Graz, Austria with Lou Rizzlo of North Western U. I have also had the privilege of studying with World Renowned Watercolor Artist " Charles Reid in 2010 in the Baltics. Comments by "Charles Reid" "John was in a class of mine on a Baltic Cruise. He is a delight to know, and his paintings capture whatever the subject matter is, beautifully. Anyone would be impressed looking at the paintings on his web site. John is a fine artist!" I have the talent that allows me to capture the person in Portraiture. Knowing the person does not matter, I just...
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subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome To SwimCalc - Swim Time Conversions
Welcome to SwimCalc - the website which focuses on swim time conversions. This website grew out of a frustration at trying to convert UK swimming times from a 25m swimming pool to a 50m pool. There are plenty of online converters about, but many are inaccurate and give differing results. This website converts times based on the Equivalent Performance Tables published by the ASA.
In addition, SwimCalc can give an indication as to whether a converted time qualifies for gala entry in an ever growing library of UK swimming galas. Qualification times are loaded by the swimcalc staff, and made available to users and clubs.
SwimCalc provides a facility for clubs to link to a time converter webpage customised for their own use. Put a link to swimcalc from your own website and the converter will display your logo and title, and also display a customised list of galas appropriate to your club. Take a look at some of the club converters in the Recent Clubs section at the right of this page. If your club wants to link to the SwimCalc converter, then drop us an email at email@example.com.


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The film "Race to Nowhere," which calls for a reduction in homework and the overall pace and pressure faced by children in the drive for achievement, will be shown at Hope College on Thursday, April 19, at 8 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
A panel discussion will follow the film. The event is sponsored by the college's department of education.
Featuring the stories of young people across the country and insights from experts in education and child development, "Race to Nowhere" explores the emphasis on homework and scheduled activity as damaging and counter productive, and seeks to mobilize families, educators and policy makers to challenge current assumptions on how to best prepare the youth of America to become healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens. The film was created by Vicki Abeles, a parent who became motivated to explore the issue based on her own family's experience.
"I saw the strain in my children as they navigated days filled with school, homework, tutoring and extracurricular activities. But it wasn't until the crisis of my 12-year-old daughter being diagnosed with a stress-induced condition that I was determined to do something," she explained in filmmaker's notes. "After months of long evenings battling homework assignments, studying for tests and panic attacks in the middle of the night, we found her doubled over in pain, and rushed her to the emergency room. Her cheerful façade and determination to keep up had masked her symptoms to us, to her friends and to her teachers."
For the film, Abeles interviewed students, parents and teachers, as well as a variety of education and child-development specialists, including Dr. Madeline Levine, author of "The Price of Privilege"; Dr. Deborah Stipek, dean of the Stanford School of Education; Dr. Kenneth Ginsburg, an adolescent medicine specialist at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Dr. Wendy Mogel, author of "The Blessing of a Skinned Knee"; Denise Pope, author of "Doing School"; and Sara Bennett, author of "The Case Against Homework." It was one of the students interviewed who gave the film its title, saying that it's like students "get caught up in a race to nowhere."
"Race to Nowhere" had its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October 2009, and had its theatrical premiere in September 2010. In reflecting on the film and its message, "The New York Times" has said, "Rushing from class to sports practice, from community work to homework, and relying increasingly on stimulants and sleep deprivation, these kids seem more pressured than the average C.E.O. Documenting consequences that range from depression to eating disorders to suicide, the film's medical professionals share Ms. Abeles' alarm and her awareness that blame, if it exists, is systemic and with little current incentive to change."
"Race to Nowhere" has a running time of 85 minutes and is rated PG-13. The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 E. Eighth St.


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Warde slams shorthanded H-K in girls lacrosse
The rain drops let up just moments before Saturday morning's non-conference girls lacrosse game at Tetreau/Davis Field. But it continued pouring on the visitors from Haddam-Killingworth with an eager Mustangs' attack that was on mark from the opening whistle.
Fairfield Warde got four goals in the opening 132 seconds to kick-off a 14-1 victory that lifted its overall record to 4-1-1. It was the Mustangs' third straight win. The Cougars, who were without their two captains and a talented freshman, dropped to 2-3 overall with their second loss in a row.
Warde junior Sarah Reilly scored a pair of goals in the match's first 48 seconds and finished with a game-high five goals. Sophomore Amanda Orvis recorded the first of her two goals on the day at 1 minute and 37 seconds into the game, then Reilly made it 4-0 by converting a feed from Meredith Nerreau 35 seconds later.
Courtney Scheetz, who supplied two assists for Warde, scored back-to-back to give the Mustangs a 7-0 lead before 10 minutes had been played. In that time, the 2013 Class S runner-up Cougars had one sustained possession, with Warde having held it the rest of the time.
"I didn't know what to expect," said Warde coach Tom Davis, who inserted reserve players after an 11-1 halftime lead. "We had never played them before. We knew some of their players were hurt. We played our game and jumped up on them early. We worked on our plays and our fundamentals. Everybody was playing their game and everyone did well. There was nothing as far as turnovers (by us).
"We played a good fundamental game offensively and defensively," Davis said.
Haddam-Killingworth, of the Shoreline Conference, began the season without captain Kiley Anderson, an honorable mention All-America who injured her back in the 2013 semifinals. She has yet to play. Captain Angie Cretella sprained her ankle in practice on Friday and freshman Briley Anderson, the Cougars' leading scorer, became ill Saturday morning. Briley and Kiley's older sister, Emily, is junior playing for UConn.
"We're so young this year," said coach Heather Ferrer. "It's hard when you don't have your captains on the field. You're hoping people will step up, but it's hard to adjust to huge changes when you are used to certain people."
Ferrer, whose regional school is in Haddam, just south of Middletown, praised Cougars' freshman goalie Allison Rourke, who has returned to the position following a year away from it in 2013. "She didn't totally crumble, which is good. She stepped up for us this year to play goal, and she's been doing well," Ferrer said. Rourke made five saves.
"Warde played well," Ferrer said. "Obviously, they're a deeper team being a larger school than us. They had fresher legs. We did not have a lot of the ball. We just couldn't convert today. Our passing was way off today."
Warde goalie Rebekah Snitkoff, a 10th-grader, wasn't busy. But she made rapid-fire saves on an H-K free position in the second half. Her saves did not escape the notice of Davis.
Davis said the Mustangs' performance was good preparation for next week, which will feature three games in a six-day stretch.
email@example.com; twitter.com/ReidWalmark
Fairfield Warde 14, Haddam-Killingworth 1
Records: Haddam-Killingworth 2-3, Fairfield Warde 4-1-1. Scoring: H-K--Kali DeNisi 1 goal; FW--Sarah Reilly (5g), Courtney Scheetz (2g, 2 assists), Amanda Orvis (2g), Caroline Ihlefeld (1g), Hannah Dougherty (1g), Jenna Kuczo (1g), Clare Secrist (1g), Kelly Milicia (1g), Meredith Nerreau (1a), Grace Orben (1a). Goalies: H-K--Allison Rourke (5 saves); FW--Rebekah Snitkoff (4). Shots: H-K--7; FW--23.


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Schneider had a great draft. His first round pick was widely panned, but Bruce Irvin has eight sacks. Second-rounder Bobby Wagner is a legit candidate for defensive rookie of the year as the every-down middle linebacker for top defense. Third-rounder Russell Wilson has been a revelation and could upset Luck and Robert Griffin III for offensive rookie of the year. The rest of the draft is filled with contributors.
Schneider has made unconventional and even unpopular moves throughout his three-year tenure.
"He has repeatedly made fools of draft-day critics, however, and that is happening in a big way this year," NFC West blogger Mike Sando wrote in his division wrap-up.
Congrats, John. You earned it, brother!
http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/ ... f-the-year


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The Jaguars made it official, announcing that Seahawks defensive coordinator Gus Bradley had become the fifth head coach in franchise history.
In their press release, the Jaguars stressed that they've found a long-term fit to go with new general manager David Caldwell.
"It was just a matter of time before Gus Bradley became a head coach in the NFL," Caldwell said, "and the Jacksonville Jaguars are extremely fortunate that Gus will be on our sidelines for many years to come. Gus more than met every criteria we insisted on from our new head coach, and his intangibles and leadership abilities are exceptional. Gus is who the Jaguars need now and in the future."
Bradley set a high bar for himself in the process.
"I am very proud to accept the offer to be the next head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars," the new coach said. "[Owner] Shad Khan and Dave Caldwell expect to win, and that's what I wanted to hear. That's why I am coming to Jacksonville – to win a Super Bowl. I can't wait to meet everyone in Jacksonville on Friday and get this going."
Bradley's first appearance in Jacksonville will be tomorrow, but his first order of business will be sorting out their mess at quarterback and how to proceed, and that will take much longer.


text:
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Danielle's Rich Purple Bedroom
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- What do you love about your bedroom?:
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- What are your tips for creating a beautiful, healthy and organized bedroom?:
- I think the most important tip is to choose pieces that you truly love. Your bedroom should be your retreat and a place that feels personal. Since this is my daughter's bedroom, she was heavily involved in the decision process and the space reflects her personality.
- In modern homes, bedrooms have become more than just a place to sleep; they can be a retreat, a home office, a library, a relaxation zone. What are some ways you make the most of your bedroom?:
- This bedroom is small and storage was key in making the most of the space. We used coordinating boxes to in the closet and under the bed storage container to maximize every inch.


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The calls and emails from top executives came toward the end of each month, former managers at USIS recalled. The company needed to swiftly complete investigating security clearances for the government in order to reach its monthly revenue goal, the managers said they were told. Finally, there was an order: "Flush" everything you've got.
The directive to give quick final approval of background investigations without reviewing them for quality � known as flushing � was sent, the managers said, to a branch office of USIS, a company whose 700,000 yearly security checks for the government have included those of Edward J. Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker, and Aaron Alexis, who the police say shot and killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last week.
In interviews this week, former and current USIS employees detailed how the company had an incentive to rush work because it is paid only after a file is marked "FF," for fieldwork finished, and sent to the government. In the waning days of a month, investigations were closed to meet financial quotas, without a required review by the quality control department, two former senior managers said.
The details of how its contract was structured provide new insight into the workings of USIS, a company that is now the focus of two federal inquiries, including a grand jury investigation in Washington, according to congressional testimony and people with knowledge of the proceedings.
The federal Office of Personnel Management confirmed that it pays USIS on a piecework basis. "The vendor is paid upon the delivery of a completed case," the agency said in a statement. People familiar with the contract said it was intended to give the company an incentive to be efficient.
USIS, based in Falls Church, Va., and the largest outside investigator for security clearances for the federal government, declined to comment.
A person familiar with the USIS corporate structure said that two top executives, a division president and the chief financial officer, had been fired after being found responsible for ordering the flushing.
Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, the need for Americans with security clearances to work for the Pentagon and military contractors has soared, with a long backlog building up in the early years of the Bush administration. Investigations for a top-secret clearance took 400 days. Companies used the Internet to identify workers with clearances at rival firms and paid them bonuses to jump ship. To speed up investigations, the federal personnel office hired private companies like USIS to do the majority of the work, which significantly eased the backlog.
Since questions about the security clearances for Snowden and Alexis came to light, however, some in Congress are asking whether speeding up cases led to unintended consequences: investigators prone to cut corners and, in extreme cases, to falsify reports.
"My confidence in the system has been shaken by those two cases," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who introduced a bill that first mandated deadlines for investigations in 2004. "There was a lot of pressure to get rid of the backlog. What OPM did to cut the backlog is it contracted about half of the background checks it's responsible for doing. It seems to me that there are quality questions about the work done by the contractors."
The original federal investigation of USIS began, according to people with knowledge of the proceedings, in late 2011 when a company whistle-blower approached the inspector general in the personnel office, which oversees more than 2 million background investigations a year for the Defense Department and many other agencies. Its contract with USIS, which has 6,600 employees, is worth $2.45 billion over five years.
At a congressional hearing in June, an assistant inspector general in the personnel office, Michelle Schmitz, called the USIS investigation a "complicated contract fraud case" and declined to provide further details.
When USIS learned of the investigation, it fired a dozen managers in its quality review office in Grove City, Pa., over two days in September 2012. Some current and former employees say they were made scapegoats for a problem originating at the highest levels of the company.
This summer a federal grand jury in Washington issued subpoenas seeking email and other records of senior USIS executives who might have applied pressure to flush cases, according to people with knowledge of the investigation. At issue is whether the company committed criminal fraud if it did not review cases as required by its government contract. The grand jury investigation was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
The account of the pressure on USIS to clear cases was provided by two former senior employees and one current employee, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity. The current employee feared being fired; the two former employees, both of whom were terminated � one for causes unrelated to the federal investigation � received severance packages and signed nondisclosure agreements with USIS.
On Monday, the Navy released the 2007 background report done by USIS on Alexis, which showed that investigators learned that he had been arrested three years earlier in Seattle, but the report did not include the crucial information that he had shot the tires of a construction worker's car in what he told the police was an anger-fueled blackout. Alexis was given a secret security clearance in 2008, which was still valid Sept. 16 when he stalked and killed a dozen victims at the navy yard with a sawed-off shotgun before police killed him.
In a statement, the personnel office said that Alexis' background investigators had found a record of his 2004 arrest in FBI files, but that the Seattle Police Department would not release the detailed report. Investigators relied on an interview with Alexis, who claimed that he had only deflated the construction worker's tires. Mert Miller, an associate director for investigations in the personnel office, said in a statement, "The agency believed that the file was complete and in compliance with all investigative standards."
USIS also conducted the most recent security investigation of Snowden, in 2011. Patrick McFarland, the inspector general of the personnel office, told a Senate hearing in June that "there may be some problems" with the Snowden investigation, but he declined to give details.
Once an arm of the federal government, USIS was spun off into the private sector in the 1990s as U.S. Investigations Services. Former employees said it became aggressively focused on meeting revenue goals after it was bought in 2007 by Providence Equity Partners for $1.5 billion.
"It all became extremely numbers-intensive," said a former executive with top-level management responsibility. "There would be a crisis situation when you were off by 2 percent" from a revenue quota.
A spokesman for Providence declined to comment.
Between 2005 and 2011, Congress held 14 hearings to bring attention to the problem of the security clearance backlog. A White House official in the Bush administration, Clay Johnson, was named chairman of a task force to tame the backlog. "We paid a lot of attention to it," he said. "There was no excuse."
Part of the solution was as simple as switching to online questionnaires. Another was enabling the personnel office to hire more field investigators rapidly, which it did by outsourcing 75 percent of the work to the private sector.
The time to close a file shrank from an average of 145 days in 2005 to 36 this year, according to the Federal Investigative Service, a bureaucratic triumph celebrated by Republicans and Democrats.
At a congressional hearing in June looking into Snowden, senators pressed leaders of the personnel office on whether pressure to speed up investigations was "leading to lower quality," as Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, suggested. In 2009 the Government Accountability Office found that 87 percent of investigative reports were incomplete.
Miller of the personnel office said files were incomplete because employers may refuse to cooperate or character witnesses may be deployed overseas.
The inspector general disclosed at that hearing that 18 background investigators had been convicted of falsifying reports since 2006, adding, "I believe there may be considerably more." They included a record researcher who fabricated 1,600 credit checks, and the case of Ramon Davila, a former USIS investigator who pleaded guilty in August to filing reports of interviews he did not conduct.
In the lingo of field investigators, falsifying a report is "ghostwriting." Carolyn Martin, president of the American Federal Contract Investigators Association, a professional group, said the government blamed individual rogue investigators for fraud. But in her view the fault lies with the government's requirements and incentives for companies like USIS.
"If you've got a contract that is enforcing the flushing that has been occurring," she said, "then you're just asking for trouble."
A former senior USIS manager said the company had "jumped the shark" when it introduced a computer system to oversee workflow. It assigned investigators a fresh case as soon as they filed an existing one, monitored how much time was spent on cases and imposed deadlines as short as two days. All the performance statistics were tied back to the company's revenue targets.
"That to me is the No. 1 reason why investigators felt the pressure," said the former senior manager. "It was a system that didn't have enough human common sense built into it."


text:
Bounding down the stairs of her Greenwich Village town house to greet a visitor, Gisele Bündchen commands the shock value of a close encounter with a giraffe: you can hardly believe an earthly creature is built this way.
Everything about her is so elongated and slender—those impossibly attenuated limbs! the swanlike neck!—that she seems almost preposterous, like a cartoon figure. Nearly six feet tall by the age of 13, she spent her childhood being teased by classmates who called her Olive Oyl.
But Popeye's rail-thin girlfriend never tantalized anyone with the luscious curves that catapulted Gisele to stardom in her late teens, replacing the pale, wasted "heroin chic" of that era with "the return of the sexy model." Since then, the tanned, athletic Brazilian beach babe who seemed born to wear a bikini has become the world's most successful supermodel, amassing a fortune estimated at $150 million; last year alone, according to Forbes, Gisele earned $35 million. The 16th-richest woman in the entertainment industry, she has been featured on more magazine covers than any other model and has appeared as the face of more than 20 brands internationally, with current contracts including Dior, Versace, Max Factor, Ebel watches, and the Dolce & Gabbana fragrance The One.
Is Gisele the most beautiful woman in the world? See who won our online poll.
At 28, Gisele has already spent 14 years in front of the cameras, not to mention in the gossip columns—and now she's begun a whole new chapter of her life. On February 26, seven days after our cover was shot, she married New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady in a private twilight ceremony at a Catholic church in Santa Monica that was followed by a small gathering at the couple's home in Brentwood.
Although the union had the iconic inevitability of typecasting, all-American-style—"the jock marries the prom queen," as one Web site put it—the news surprised even their friends. Earlier the same week, Gisele had been partying at Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, where she made an appearance for Pantene hair-care products that was widely photographed—and then she suddenly turned up married in Los Angeles. But Gisele, who once described her ideal wedding as "a simple ceremony," always knew she didn't want an enormous extravaganza. "I don't like parties. I prefer something more intimate, just for the closest people."
Which was precisely what she got. Crestfallen, the paparazzi press had to settle for an after-the-fact description of Gisele's attire: "The bride, 28, donned a form-fitting ivory lace strapless gown with a trumpet skirt, scalloped edges, long train and a floor-length veil with attached handmade satin roses and attached satin headband, all by Dolce & Gabbana. Her three dogs also wore matching Dolce & Gabbana floral lace collars," Us Weekly reported.
To Gisele, getting married was merely a formality. "I already feel that way," she told me a few days before the wedding. "We've been together over two years; we've been living together. My idea of that is you have a partner who's got your back. When I'm weak, you can be strong; when I'm strong, you can be weak. That's what I believe marriage is. Loving someone, you want to grow with them, share with them, share the same values, the same feelings about things, the same beliefs."
And Gisele—who was raised in a large Catholic family by parents who have been married for 37 years—is convinced she has found her soulmate in Brady. "He's very close to his family," she said. "He's Catholic. His parents have been married 40 years. He's got a pure heart. That's all that matters—he's got the purest heart. I feel grateful because I have a lot of love in my life. I found the person I'm sharing my life with. I have a good man."
In the months leading up to the wedding, the tabloids buzzed excitedly with rumors of impending nuptials, claiming that Brady had proposed on a private jet on Christmas Eve or that he had gotten down on one knee with a diamond solitaire in mid-January—neither of which was true, according to Gisele, who says they were secretly engaged for considerably longer but she avoided wearing her ring in public because she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself. The fact that their stealth wedding remained dignified and discreet, and that the news didn't leak until after it was over, represented a noteworthy victory over the celebrity media that have remained obsessed with Gisele's every move since she became Leonardo DiCaprio's girlfriend nine years ago.
Heightened by the raging "Leo-mania" that followed *Titanic'*s popularity as the highest-grossing film of all time, the irresistible pairing of gorgeous supermodel and heartthrob superstar kept the gossip columns in overdrive throughout their five-year relationship, which was fraught with dramas that included an eight-month breakup, a reconciliation, and recurring reports of Gisele's exasperation at Leo's womanizing ways.
Even the end of their romance, in 2005, failed to stem the flow of slavering updates: Leo still can't believe Gisele dumped him because he refused to make a commitment! Leo drunk-dials Gisele just to hear her voice! Leo wants his current girlfriend, Israeli model Bar Refaeli, on the cover of the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue—just to irritate Gisele!
But Gisele herself had moved on. At the end of 2006, she fell in love with Tom Brady—an event she describes as practically instantaneous. "I knew right way—the first time I saw him," she says. "We met through a friend. The moment I saw him, he smiled and I was like, That is the most beautiful, charismatic smile I've ever seen! We sat and talked for three hours. I had to go home for Christmas, but I didn't want to leave. You know that feeling of, like, you can't get enough? From the first day we met, we've never spent one day without speaking to each other."
Until then, Gisele was happy to be on her own. "I'd been single for a year, and I wasn't looking for a relationship," she says. "I'd always been in serious relationships, but you learn a lot about yourself when you're by yourself, and I was enjoying that process. But you don't choose."
Not when it comes to a coup de foudre, anyway. Does she believe in love at first sight? "I believe in feeling connected. Love is something that grows, that comes from nourishment; it builds. But there is a great feeling that happens, that is telling you, I don't want to leave this room! Whatever that's called, that's what happened."
Their initial bliss was soon dispelled by an unwelcome development. Brady had recently broken up with his girlfriend of the previous three years, Bridget Moynahan, a model and an actress. Soon after he got involved with Gisele, Moynahan announced that she was pregnant with Brady's child and would have the baby on her own.
"It was definitely a surprise for both of us," Gisele acknowledges with a rueful smile. "In the beginning you're living this romantic fantasy; you're thinking, This can't be true, it's so good! And then, Whoops—wake-up call!" She rolls her eyes. "We were dating two and a half months when he found out, and it was a very challenging situation. Obviously, in the beginning, it's not the ideal thing."
Moynahan's pregnancy made Gisele wonder whether she should encourage Brady to re-unite with his former girlfriend. "You question at times—'Should I stay here? Maybe you should work this out,'" she admits. "But when people break up, it's for a reason."
In retrospect, she believes that dealing with the challenge only strengthened her commitment to Brady. "I think it was a blessing, because otherwise I don't think I would have known what he was made of, and he wouldn't have known what I was made of," she says. "I wouldn't have seen the integrity in him—the way he was a good person through all the times. I was like, You have the heart in a good place! It made me feel more in love with him; it made me realize who he was. Our relationship has become so much stronger, and I think I wouldn't be as certain as I am today if it weren't for that."
At 28, Gisele Bündchen has spent half her life in front of the cameras, not to mention in the gossip columns. Photograph by Mario Testino.
After John Edward Thomas Moynahan was born, in August 2007, Brady and Gisele began shuttling between Boston, where Brady's football team is based, and Los Angeles, where Moynahan lives. "When we are in L.A. we have Johnny 50 percent of the time," Gisele says. "He's a little angel—the sweetest, most cuddly, loving baby. I feel blessed to have him in my life."
Last year she and Brady purchased an $11.7 million plot of land in a gated community in Brentwood. Despite their commitment to spending time with John, however, Gisele has never met his mother. "I understand that he has a mom, and I respect that, but to me it's not like because somebody else delivered him, that's not my child. I feel it is, 100 percent," Gisele says. "I want him to have a great relationship with his mom, because that's important, but I love him the same way as if he were mine. I already feel like he's my son, from the first day."
One of six sisters, Gisele is also eager to have her own children. "I would like a big family," she says. "I love children. When you come from a big family, you see that growing up you're learning how to share. Your sisters have got your back; you're not alone in this—'We all support you!' Your family provides that; it gives you a sense of safety, and it's a very grounding feeling. That's why I feel I can fly away, because I have those roots and they're so deep. This is what I want to have in my life. This is why you get married—you want to create those roots together; you want to give that to your kids. I would also love to adopt a child from Brazil. When you come from São Paulo, you see five-year-olds sniffing glue on the corner. You think, If you make a difference in the life of one of them, that makes your time on this earth worthwhile. I will have a colorful family, like a rainbow. I have dogs from rescue; they are all my dogs. Children are like little angels—there's no way you can't love them."
Recounting all this, Gisele has been talking in her usual mile-a-minute torrent of words, which is virtually unstoppable and exuberantly high-spirited. Whether she is telling the story of her life for hours on end or working from eight a.m. until dark at a photo shoot, her energy doesn't flag. "I never get physically tired," she tells me the next day in the ninth hour of a shoot that has her posing outdoors in 40-degree weather wearing only a Dior corset. ("If it's not torture, it's not fashion," she mutters with a mischievous grin.) After every interruption, her running commentary instantly starts up again as if someone has simply flipped the "on" switch.
Some interviewers have made sport of Gisele's accent, which "can best be described as Continental," one wrote. "She seems to have learned English from Italian designers, German hairstylists, and French makeup artists. Her enunciation is equal parts Donatella, Hans and Franz, and Maurice Chevalier." That reporter didn't mention how many languages he himself has mastered, but Gisele speaks fluent English, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish in addition to some German and some French—no small achievement for a girl from the backcountry of Brazil who left school at 14.
No matter which language she's burbling along in, she is warm, friendly, humorous, and gaily self-deprecating. Right now we're sitting at the dining table on the ground floor of her town house, where she is nibbling delicately at lamb chops and vegetables ordered from a nearby restaurant. Quivering with anticipation, her Yorkshire terrier sits slavishly at her feet.
"Vida, Vida, Vida," Gisele croons. "'Vida' means life; she's the golden girl—that's why I call her Golden. She loves the bone. She deserves a little bone!" Cooing, Gisele hands a lamb chop to Vida, who snatches it and runs. "Vida, let's make a deal: I'll give you a bone every day—you live forever!"
Gisele has already paid her own respects to the lamb chops by putting her hand over them and saying a silent prayer. "I eat a lot of meat, and I bless my food before it enters my body, because I need to be aware of what I'm eating," she explains. "You bless it first and say, 'Thank you for giving your life.' This animal has given its life for me. You've got to be grateful; you've got to be conscious. You can't just take it for granted. How many people in the world have no food? I think it's important to acknowledge that."
An avid reader, Gisele has been deeply influenced by Buddhism. (Her current view of the church she grew up in: "O.K., Catholic religion, we've got to update!") These days she tries hard to practice the concept of mindfulness, which—when combined with her characteristically sunny, upbeat outlook—seems to produce an ebullience so consistent that somebody should bottle it and sell it. Her positive mental attitude proved a considerable asset after Brady learned that his ex-girlfriend was having his child.
"We are saying, 'What can we learn from this? How can we make the best out of this?'" Gisele says. "We both grew a lot. There is good in everything; it's just how you choose to look at it. Everything that's worth it has a price. For me to be a model—I had to leave my family. Do you think I liked that? No! There are sacrifices. Life is meant to be a challenge, because challenges are what make you grow. How boring it would be if we knew what was going to happen tomorrow!" She beams. "Life always surprises me—in a very good way."
"She is the most positive and energetic person I have ever met," says Brady. "She always looks at challenges as her greatest opportunities."
For Gisele, the surprises began when she was "discovered" by a modeling scout at the age of 14. She grew up in Horizontina, a small town in southern Brazil where "there were no buses, no subway—there's not even a traffic light in my village," she says. The local population is dominated by Brazilians of German descent, and Gisele's ancestry is German on both sides of her family. She and her fraternal twin, Patricia, were the middle daughters among six girls, all of whom are good-looking. In the youthful photograph that occupies a place of honor on the big desk that dominates Gisele's living room, her father is handsome and her mother is strikingly beautiful.
The family's circumstances were modest. "I grew up in a house with two bedrooms and two bathrooms, for eight people," Gisele says. "We weren't considered poor; we were considered middle-class. My mother was a cashier in a bank for 35 years. My father had many jobs: he was in construction, then he did something with packaging milk, then he worked for Amway; he gave courses about self-awareness. He was away a lot. My mother was, like, the one who was more concerned about how to bring home the bacon; she worked and devoted herself to us. She is my hero. She did everything. She was a really great mother; she was always teaching us, helping us, talking to us. My father was more the philosophical person; my mother was the realist."
Gisele's childhood world revolved around her sisters, but she stood out even then. "I was extremely hyper when I was a kid, like bouncing off the walls," she says. "I think that if I was in America they'd probably give me medication."
Her twin describes her as bold and fearless. "Unlike me, Gisele was very talkative, and she wasn't afraid to be away from home for some time even when she was little," says Patricia. "She was very brave, and she was always trying to protect her sisters—something like 'Don't mess with my sisters or you'll have to deal with me!'"
The girls participated in every activity available in their small town. "We did ballet, gymnastics—I think my mom was trying to keep us busy," Gisele says. "She had to work, so we went to a modeling course—me and my twin and one of our sisters, Gabby, who's like the second twin because we're one year apart. We were the Three Musketeers, and we did everything together."
"He's got a pure heart," Gisele says of her new husband, Tom Brady. "That's all that matters." Photograph by Mario Testino.
The modeling course culminated in an excursion to a São Paulo amusement park. "We had to drive 29 hours to go there," Gisele says. "I couldn't be more excited! I was eating at a food court in the shopping mall, and this guy from Elite came and said, 'You should be a model.' It was the first time in my life that someone thought I looked pretty."
Until then, Gisele regarded her appearance as an affliction rather than an asset. "I was tall and really thin; the kids in school called me Olive Oyl and Saracura, which is a bird with really skinny long legs," she reports. "I was taller than every guy in my class. Especially at that age, you think you're the weirdest thing that ever walked on earth."
Despite knife-blade cheekbones, wide-set navy-blue eyes, a dazzling smile, and that mane of honey-colored hair, Gisele didn't consider herself to be beautiful, and she thought her nose was too big. Every one of her sisters was many inches shorter, and all of Gisele's clothes were hand-me-downs. "I had to wear my sister's jeans; they were, like, to here on me," she says, pointing to her knee. "I wasn't so popular; my twin sister was definitely more popular than I was. She has a great personality—everyone liked her. But I was an A student, and the way I got friends was I used to give help to somebody else. And I've always been very athletic; I was captain of the volleyball team. I was such a tomboy. The 'in' people weren't so much into me, but I didn't care. My sisters were my best friends, always. It was a great life, and obviously it made me know who I am. If I were told I could come back as anything, I would have chosen the same life, the same family, the same experiences, the same friends."
But her time in that safe, protected world was about to end, and when Gisele returned alone to São Paulo for a modeling contest, her introduction to big-city life was a shock. "The first time I traveled by myself, it was to a city of 22 million people. My father gave me $50, and I was supposed to get a cab to go to the models' apartment—but I said, I'll take the subway," she recalls. "I was thinking about saving some of the money to buy some clothes, because everything I was wearing was my sister's. I thought I was being very smart. So I get to the station, I went to open my backpack, and my wallet was gone. I had no idea somebody would rob me! In my city, nobody ever robbed anybody; it was all a big happy family. So I was crying. How am I going to get from here to where I am going? I'm asking people for money so I can go in a pay phone and call my father. He's like, 'Why didn't you take the cab? You should listen to your father!' I walked like 30 minutes and finally got there." She sighs. "There was a lot of those times, but I learned pretty fast. I never was fearful. I think my parents did a good job; we were very independent kids, because my parents were always working. I was in the worst places and never felt afraid. I always felt like everything was going to be O.K.—and it was."
Learning how to model was another challenge. "In the beginning I had no idea what I was doing," Gisele admits. "I had no idea what modeling was. I didn't know it's about becoming something—embodying something. It's not you. I didn't understand that. I was like this!" She bares her teeth in a horrible rigor-mortis grin. "I wasn't aware of my body. All my life I felt awkward about myself." But the idea that somebody had found her attractive was intoxicating. "Out of those 50 girls, that guy thought I was pretty," she recalls, a dreamy look softening her face. "People weren't calling me Olive Oyl. It was a different standard of beauty."
And yet, even as a novice, Gisele had a sturdy sense of her own self-worth that helped her keep the rigors of modeling in perspective. "Some people were like, 'She's never going to make it!' But not everybody has to like me," she says. "Some people like watermelon; some people like pineapple. It doesn't mean that watermelon is better. People have different tastes." She shrugs.
"Her willpower made her successful," says Patricia. "She has never let the critics put her down, and this has never changed. She has the most amazing body, but what has really made her successful is her personality, her way of doing things, her professionalism."
As an athlete, Brady says he admires Gisele for "being a ferocious businesswoman who is ultra-competitive and intent on being the best at what she does."
As the demand for Gisele's services grew, she felt compelled to accept every job that was offered. "I was just going 100 miles an hour," she says. "You don't want to say no, because you don't know how long it's going to last, and you have to prove yourself."
But the frenetic pace finally caught up with her. "When I was working every day I was completely detached from my emotions, and I didn't know the toll it was taking on me," she says. "I was traveling everywhere, not having stability. I was very abusive of myself. I wouldn't sleep; I was eating junk food every day and working 10 to 12 hours. No wonder! How much can your body take? I felt overwhelmed by the whole thing. I went through a time when I was very sensitive and felt very fragile. I would cry, but you don't know where it's coming from. When I was 22 I hit a point where I thought, I miss my mom. I want to go home! I want to take six months off. I want my support system; I want that grounding thing my family gives me. I wanted to bond with them. I felt like, 'I'm part of this family—take me back, please!'"
The sabbatical was just what she needed: "It was great. I took my parents to Africa. I felt nourished and loved again, so I could come back and start all over again. But I was humbled by the whole thing."
When Gisele returned to work, she stopped smoking and started taking better care of herself. Exercise was never a problem; ever since childhood, she has displayed an alarming appetite for extreme sports. "If somebody had something broken, it was me," she admits. "I did skydiving, bungee-jumping, kayaking, surfing, jumping horses—my horse was 18 hands and it stepped on my foot and I couldn't walk. Everything I've ever been afraid of, I've tried to overcome. I was always on planes, and I always used to be apprehensive, so I thought, I've got to find a way to not be afraid. So I started jumping out of planes."
Her determination is particularly apparent in kung fu, a discipline she has taken up with a vengeance since moving to Boston. "She wants it every day; we actually trained Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day. There's no day off," says Yao Li, her teacher at the Boston Kung Fu Tai Chi Institute. "I think part of her has a macho spirit. Tom teases her: he's a fan of Bruce Lee movies, and he calls her Gise-Lee."
Athletic and down to earth, Gisele—who wears as little makeup as possible and spends her off-hours in jeans and T-shirts—is very different in daily life from the glamorous persona she creates for the camera. "When I go to work, I do pretend," she explains. "I call it 'Her.' Like, 'I think She needs to be a little bit more like this.'" She tilts her head, sucks in her cheeks, and pantomimes an exaggerated attitude. "It's almost like some on-and-off button. I don't see myself as Her. My perception of myself is very different from the perception people have of me."
Despite all her years at the top, co-workers say, she retains a healthy understanding of the difference between real life and the hype of the job. "When this all ends, she'll be fine," says a makeup artist who has worked with Gisele since she was a teenager.
Gisele-watchers who pore over red-carpet photographs often assume she has a fabulous lifestyle crammed with parties and A-list events. "Are you kidding? I like to be in bed by 10:30," she exclaims. "I'm up at 6:30, doing yoga at 7 a.m. I went to a gallery for my friend's exhibition last night, because he was my friend and asked me to come. It was a scene, and I was just like, No! No! I have to go! On the way home I walked into this place where they have the best burger in the world, and I was just thinking to myself, Oh my god, I am so lucky to have my life! I'm having a great time here! I just came back from this place where it's about appearance and who's wearing this and who's talking to that, where I felt suffocated, and I'm so happy that's not my life!"
Is Gisele the most beautiful woman in the world? See who won our online poll.
Not that she hasn't enjoyed her success and its rewards—she is as excited as a little girl as she shows me photographs of the remodeling job she gave her parents to spruce up their home. The business of being Gisele has also enabled her to employ four of her five sisters. For her work in Brazil, Patricia is her manager, Gabriela is her lawyer, and Raquel does accounting. Rafaela works on Gisele's Web site. The other sister, Graziela, is a judge.
But Gisele takes even more satisfaction in having earned such success without compromising herself. "I'm really happy with the way I've lived my life," she says. "I'm an honorable person. I'm proud of the way I've done things. I've never in my life acted in any way that wasn't of the highest integrity that I was raised with. I'm the same person—with different life experience, but the things that make me happy are the same things. Having barbecue with my family, hanging out with my friends, being with animals, riding bikes—that's what made me happy all my life. I feel really good about that. I want to finish this life and say, 'I did the best I could. I lived my values. I kept my integrity.'"
Gisele's values have also been shaped by her reading, which ranges from the teachings of Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh to her current favorites, Don Miguel Ruiz's books of Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements, The Mastery of Love, and The Voice of Knowledge. Such works have helped to give her a newfound sense of inner peace. "Everything became so much simpler," she says. "It's like, 'Oh—now I get it!' You have this kind of epiphany—I don't need to sweat the small stuff! Enjoy the journey, not the destination. I want to be happy every day. I want to live life to the fullest, feeling joyful. If I don't, I've got to stop and question why, because I think our natural state should be that. Reading things is so important to me—things that can open up your mind. You need to feed your mind."
She has even achieved a beatific attitude toward DiCaprio, about whom she has nothing bad to say. "Leo is a really wonderful person," she says. "We still speak sometimes, and I'm friends with his mom. He still has one of my dogs. He's done a lot for the environment, and I admire what he's done. We know what we had; we were very young, and we grew together in a lot of ways. We were just not meant to be boyfriend and girlfriend, but I respect him enormously, and I wish him nothing but the best."
Environmental causes remain among Gisele's top priorities. According to her manager, Anne Nelson at IMG, she donates a portion of the profits from her Brazilian line of flip-flops, Ipanema Gisele Bündchen, to protect Amazon rain-forest water sources through Y Ikatu Xingu (Save the Good Waters of the Xingu River), as well as supporting several other Brazilian programs to protect waterways and restore deforested areas. The Bündchen family has started Projeto Agua Limpa (Project Clean Water) to reforest the land and improve water quality along riverbanks in the region where Gisele was born.
She has also created the Luz Foundation, a project to empower girls and help them deal with self-esteem issues. Last summer Gisele and her yoga teacher, Amy Lombardo, did some volunteer work with Portuguese-speaking teenagers in the Boston suburbs. "She's always trying to find ways to use her celebrity to good cause, and we talked to them about media images and the effects on young girls," Lombardo explains. "Gisele is a natural yogi; she's constantly trying to find new ways to learn, and she has a genuine desire to better herself as a person. Yoga provides her with a way to be who she is, not the image in the media. I think she's going to be a role model for young women. She's very passionate about the idea of helping people have access to raising their own level of awareness. We've only begun to see what she's capable of."
Gisele "has her heart set on making the world a better place," says Brady.
As her ambitions evolve, Gisele is scaling back her modeling work. "I have a lot of things to juggle. I have a family that comes first; my job already comes second," she says. "But everything I'll do in the future has to be something that's related to higher consciousness. I don't think I'll be happy unless I do this. It's all about using what you've got, and what I've got is a voice."
And she wants to use that voice to counterbalance the inadvertent messages that are inevitably communicated by her extraordinary face and figure. "This is just a shell"—Gisele gestures dismissively at her formidable body—"and the shell is going to be changing. You're going to be 30; you're going to be 50. That's why I think it's important to focus on what matters. Everyone has talents—you've just got to find them—and everyone has flaws. Wishing to be something you're not is the biggest recipe for a sad life. All of us are special. Embrace all that you are! Treat yourself as the special being you are!"
And if you do, she believes, you can accomplish anything. After all, it worked for her. She flashes a radiant smile. "All you have to have is a dream, and then you make it happen," she says.
Leslie Bennetts is a Vanity Fair contributing editor.
WATCH: Behind the Scenes at Gisele Bündchen's 2007 Cover Shoot


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NYO-USA: The Magic and Idealism of Teenage Years
The inaugural National Youth Orchestra of the Unites States of America is made up of 120 of the brightest teenage musicians from around the country. James Ross, our orchestra director for NYO-USA, has a special respect for the teenage years. He shared his thoughts on what the NYO-USA experience will mean for the musicians.
There is something especially magical about human beings in the age range from about 16–19. At this particular age, it seems to me that the potential for imprinting experience is at a kind of peak. The memories you make at this age seem not only to stick with you for a lifetime, but also play this great role in shaping the expectations and understandings of who you are—your personality's DNA. For me, it is an honor to be present at and contribute to the moment of "first contact" between masterpieces and any people, be it musicians or audience. I love teenagers' access to their own enthusiasm, their humor, their unbound idealism and sense of possibility in the moment. I actually was a teenager once, and I experience a sense of renewal and high-quality investment when around today's teenagers.
"... the potential for imprinting experience is at a kind of peak."
I led an excellent school for orchestral musicians in A Coruña, Spain, in the mid-1990s, and nothing makes me happier than hearing of the life successes of our kids from the Galician countryside. Some have gone on to play in the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the European Union Youth Orchestra, the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and in one instance, on one day, even in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. You just never know what will unfold for people.
James Ross is associate director of The Juilliard School's conducting program and director of orchestral activities at the University of Maryland.


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Sunday, January 29, 2012
And then there was none
Astralis was what many ten man progression guilds are nowadays - tight knit, based on a small group of people where each person regardless of position in the guild carries a big load of the raids progression possibilities. It is true that the loss of some people will affect the group more than others, but it usually comes down more to morale issues rather than class issues. Most people are replacable - if the rest of the group can find the energy to do it. This is a key issue that many ten man guilds face, with the loss of each and any person there has to be someone still left to pick up that troublesome part of guild management called "recruiting".
Recruiting is possibly the most tedious part of running a guild that you can possibly do. I'd gladly switch any amount of farming and wiping if it meant never having to put my hands into that. It's not so much the actual recruiting - writing forum posts, talking to possible recruits, finding someone that fits your needs - as trying to keep the rest of the guild together and at high spirits whilst doing all of that other crap. And that is where patience comes in and plays a big role.
Astralis lost one of its most important members in mid-october. Skill-wise, but most importantly guild management wise. Not only was there an issue as to who was going to replace this person as the leader of the guild, but also, as it turns out, no one was really ready to pick up all the administrative business that he had taken care off behind the scenes. He wasn't the only one to get things done in the guild, far from, but somehow he seemed to be the guy who kept things going. When everyone knew there was someone that would take care of business, they'd also find the energy to chip in. But no one was ready to be that moralic foundation.
It didn't exactly help that he left without much explanation and just after the guild had gone through a rough patch regarding downing Heroic Ragnaros. Apparently just downing Rag as servers firsts wasn't enough for the guild, not being able to down him again really put a strain on peoples morale.
But the funny thing is, eventhough we managed to find a couple of nice replacements, eventhough we had a really nice progress in DS, losing realm firsts because we decided to go on Christmas Holiday rather than because of lack of people or skill - people seemed to have just imply given up. They had given up on the guild before DS and no amount of progress would seem to give it back. The fun and the energy just wasn't there anymore. It didn't exactly help that everyone else seemed to be leaving the server so it literally felt like being the last ones on a sinking ship.
So one after another forum posts started popping up about people leaving. How it "wasn't an easy made choice", how they "wish there had been another way", how they "had had so much fun, but all things come to an end". Bla bla. I sound really bitter, but I'm not really. I'm sad. Yes, things do come to an end, things change. And I don't even blame the people who left - if things don't feel right they don't feel right. It all just feels so unecessary. We were far from disaster yet people looked at it and didn't think it was worth their time anymore.
The ones left after the first emmigration, where we lost two of our best dpsers and one of our healers, decided to keep things going in a casual manner. No more progress raiding, but clearing normals and just chill together. It took about a week before more people starting dropping off. Others decided to play other games and simply not re-subscribe to WoW.
Suddenly I found myself being basically the last raider still in the guild. And I knew I had to make a choice. I'd either just drop it all, or get my act together and find a new place for myself. I knew that if I waited too long, I'd be thrown out of the loop and finding a decent raiding guild would be virtually impossible. I was still up to date, well geared and with enough experience of current content to be interesting to most guilds out there. So I did it. I sat down and wrote my first application ever. I thought I'd show my general interest on the forums and see what popped up, rather than trying to hunt specific guilds down. I can't say if my application was good or bad, but over the course of two or three days I got 13 replies of very varying quality. I quickly decided for one (not haphazzardly though, mind you), wrote an application to them and got accepted. I transferred server, switched race to Dwarf (yes you read that right), leaving everything I've spent the last 5 years collecting on the Venture Co behind. All my alts (8 level 85 and one level 80), all my professions and items I had scattered across them to keep my main fit for raiding. All my friends, who either still are there or have left for other servers - I am doing this one alone, for the first time ever. And for some idiotic reason, I also left all my BoA gear which I have no use for whatsoever on my old server anyway. Ah well.
So this is what I have been up to the last month, pondering how to continue my WoW-gaming. I knew I wanted to continue, but I just wasn't sure if I could find the energy for it with everything that has been going on. But I decided that I need this, I really do. I love playing WoW as much as I love writing about it.
My new guild, Casually Addicted on The Maelstrom (5/8 hc DS) have made a very good first impression. Now I've just got to pass my trial, but I figure that even if I fail, I've ended up on a way better server, and I am sure I will find a nice home for myself somewhere. 2011 was the year of change - R.I.P Astralis, I barely even got to know you.
3 comments:
I think your new toon is adorable, Zinn.ReplyDelete
I'm glad to hear that you were able to find your happiness, amidst everything falling apart around you. I think any guild would be lucky to have you and I hope things go well with them.
Knock 'em dead.
- AliPallyJanuary 30, 2012 at 3:31 PM
I am in constant fear of my raid guild imploding, and what I will do if/when that happens.ReplyDelete
Two of our best players simply do not like each other, and I can see it all coming to a head sooner or later.
On top of that we have a guy who just won't put the effort in to improving his game play, and is clearly holding us back, yet the raid leader simply won't deal with the issue, and it's a constant source of annoyance to the rest of us.
We are a close knit group. I don't want people leaving, as replacing them would be hard, even the lazy guy. I just want people to put aside their differences, and for everyone to try their best. Am I asking too much?
Good luck on your new server, I'm sure you will find a good home.
Good luck in the future with your new guild, Zinn!ReplyDelete


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BioLogic: A Natural History of Digital Life
|Full Conference
|Basic Conference
Special Thanks & Acknowledgements
|Rooms 352-355
|Monday, 3 August
|9 am - 6 pm
|Tuesday, 4 August
|9 am - 6 pm
|Wednesday, 5 August
|9 am - 6 pm
|Thursday, 6 August
|9 am - 6 pm
|Friday, 7 August
|9 am - noon
The artworks chosen for the SIGGRAPH 2009 juried art exhibition explore what can happen when nature and technology combine. Recent projects by 11 artists representing 10 countries offer both serious and playful scenarios in which biological forms and life processes are grafted together with digital code and devices. All of the projects are kinetic, most are interactive, and many are large installations that immerse the viewer in fantastic environments of shivering tendrils, singing strands of hair, and fuzzy, cloud-like surfaces that respond when stroked. The complex technologies and intriguing topics encountered in the exhibition offer viewers a compelling survey of ideas and issues that characterize contemporary life - a tangle of digital devices, natural processes, and us.
A Special Issue of Leonardo, The Journal of the International Society of the Arts, Sciences and Technology will feature the artists and projects included in BioLogic along with SIGGRAPH 2009 Art Papers. The journal will be released (and celebrated - see below) at the conference. The exhibition is also closely related to Generative Fabrication, the Design & Computation exhibition. Together, the two exhibitions present an enthralling range of art and design projects that incorporate biological information and processes.
Celebrating the Special Issue of Leonardo and SIGGRAPH 2009 Art & Design Galleries
Tuesday, 4 August, 1:30-3:30, Lobby outside Rooms 353-355
Drink a toast to the SIGGRAPH special issue of Leonardo and the SIGGRAPH 2009 art and design galleries. Talk with the artists, designers, and Art Papers authors about their work. Meet the members of the SIGGRAPH 2009 committee who organized this year's exhibits of digital art and design.
Immediately following the reception:
Art Papers: Strategies: Art Making and Viewing in Today's Technological and Social Realm
3:45-5:30 pm, Rooms 265-266
Related session:
Panel: BioLogic and Generative Fabrication
Thursday, 6 August | 10:30 AM - 12:15 PM | Room 265-266
- siggraph by focus
- First-Time Attendees
- New for SIGGRAPH 2009
- Art & Design
- Education
- Games
- Music & Audio
- Production/VFX
- Professional Development
- Research
- Students
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Cocktails and Spirits with Paul Clarke: The Flowing Bowl
"A merry Christmas, Bob!" said Scrooge, with an earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on the back. "A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than I have given you for many a year! I'll raise your salary, and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will discuss our affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas bowl of smoking bishop, Bob! Make up the fires, and buy another coal-scuttle before you dot another i, Bob Cratchit!"
A Christmas Carol regularly gets trotted out this time of year (or DVDs of Scrooge McDuck cartoons do, anyway), to mark the holiday with Dickens' tale of redemption. While Tiny Tim's treacly "God bless us, every one!" is enough to set my teeth on edge, I have to admit that this reference to Smoking Bishop in the closing scene at the Cratchits puts me in the holiday mood.
The old Smoking Bishop is one of a family of once-common drinks that now make their sole appearance during the holidays, if then. But this near-forgotten class of punches is worth rediscovering, for both culinary and social reasons. As Eric Felten writes in How's Your Drink?, "Of all the outward signs of the miser's redemption, the final confirmation of Scrooge's transformation comes when he takes ladle in hand to serve up the Bishop."
Scrooge's Smoking Bishop is a mix of port, water, sugar and spices, served steaming in a bowl adorned with clove-studded roasted oranges or lemons. A kind of mulled wine, smoking bishop is also close kin to the Christmas Bishop (also called Cambridge Bishop or simply Christmas Rum Punch), made with rum and apple cider; and the Farmer's Bishop, with apple brandy replacing the rum in the Christmas Bishop. All of these punches are typically served hot in mugs, and with the possible exception of the Smoking Bishop ("port catches fire about as easily as soggy kindling," Felten writes), all are briefly flamed prior to serving, to create an arresting visual display coupled with the festive aroma of spices (and also to slightly decrease the firepower of the spirits in the bowl by burning off some of the alcohol).
Should a hot punch be too much for your holiday party to handle, Felten also comes to the rescue in his recent column in the Wall Street Journal, in which he works his way through almost every Christmas punch recipe he could find (!) before settling on two delectable cold punches: the French Christmas Punch and the Merry Christmas Punch, both fueled with cognac and maraschino liqueur and given a bubbly kick with the addition of chilled champagne.
Making punch can take some work, but in the long run it's easier than mixing cocktails all night, and a bowl of punch is a much better ice-breaker than a glass of chardonnay will ever be. What are your plans for your holiday festivities? If you're planning on breaking out the punch bowl, let us know what you're making.
This post may contain links to Amazon or other partners; your purchases via these links can benefit Serious Eats. Read more about our affiliate linking policy.


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Editor's note: As the NBA embarks this week on a new season, Miami Heat superstar LeBron James stands as the league's most iconic figure. In Part One of a three-part series on James and his place in the league, we take a look at the people behind James, who have helped shape him into an international marketing force and a difference-maker for at-risk kids in his hometown of Akron, Ohio.
In Part Two (Monday), we'll examine how his on-court game has changed since he burst onto the scene straight out of high school in 2003, and how his early failures shaped the player he is today. And in Part Three (Tuesday), we'll weigh in on where James stands in the greatest-of-all-time argument.
VIDEO: The LeBron Series — Business of an MVPa
LeBron James has won two straight NBA titles with the Miami Heat. He is a four-time league MVP (and only the second to win it four times in five years), was the only player in the league to lead his team in scoring, rebounding and assists last year (he fell just one vote short of becoming the first ever to win the MVP with a unanimous vote) and is the youngest player to reach 20,000 points.
He is considered by many as the best player in the game today, and one of the greatest ever to play. And as dominant as he is on the basketball court, he's just as successful off of it.
The NBA recently announced that, for the first time, LeBron has the NBA's most popular jersey in worldwide sales. According to a recent report in Forbes, LeBron has the most popular sneaker in the NBA, "outselling his nearest rival's signature sneakers 6-to-1." (Nike recently debuted LeBron's eleventh signature shoe, The LeBron 11.) His popularity extends into fields unrelated to sports. He's currently producing a comedy series for the Starz Network, and he has hosted "Saturday Night Live." James, an avid user of social media, has over 15 million Facebook "likes" and over 10 million followers on Twitter.
LeBron's popularity has translated into runaway success in the business world: James has partnership and endorsement deals with many brands, from Coca-Cola to McDonald's to Audemars Piguet. Forbes recently ranked James as the fourth-highest earning athlete in the world (behind Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Kobe Bryant), while estimating James' endorsement income around $42 million a year. If that's accurate, that would make him the NBA's endorsement leader.
As James recently told Rachel Nichols on CNN's "Unguarded," as they accompanied him on a Nike promotional trip to China …
"When I became a professional athlete I became a business as well, you know, so I couldn't just worry about the game of basketball 24/7, without understanding the business side of it as well."
VIDEO: LeBron in China
An NBA player supplementing his basketball income with endorsement dollars is nothing new. But doing it with the kind of global reach that James has demonstrated places him in rarified air. Longtime NBA executive Rick Welts, the current president and COO of the Golden State Warriors, points out that James seems to have taken the marketing template presented by a certain previous NBA superstar and expanded upon it.
"He's obviously a great student because I think Michael Jordan was probably the first contemporary athlete that realized that he could create a brand around his own persona, surround himself with really smart business people who could guide him in that endeavor," Welts says. "LeBron, if anything, has taken that to whatever the 2013-14 equivalent is of that, which is probably more sophisticated, more international in focus. He's obviously a guy who listens to advice and has a good innate sense of where he wants to take his career. I think watching the evolution of the professional athlete, he represents to the contemporary athlete today what Michael Jordan represented to the contemporary athlete of his time."
How has LeBron been able to transform himself into the NBA's most marketable personality? Certainly, piling up titles and MVP awards and gold medals doesn't hurt his popularity. But when it comes to his business dealings, James has surrounded himself with talented people whom he trusts. His inner-circle is a trio of men he grew up with in Akron, Ohio. And as James' stature and skill-set have grown, the members of his team have grown along with him.
Maverick Carter is the CEO of LRMR Marketing, the company LeBron launched in 2006. (LRMR's name is a nod to the quartet's first names: LeBron, Randy Mims, Maverick and Rich Paul.) Carter oversees all of LeBron's business partnerships, and has spearheaded LeBron's ascendance as a worldwide marketing force. Part of Carter's role includes putting together deals such as the strategic partnership between LRMR and Fenway Sports Marketing, a transaction that gave James part-ownership in the legendary Liverpool Football Club.
Paul represents LeBron as his agent. Before opening his own agency, Klutch Sports, in 2012, Paul spent several years working at the mega-agency CAA, learning the ins and outs of the agency business. Since opening Klutch Sports, Paul has signed several clients alongside LeBron, including NBA players Eric Bledsoe (Phoenix), Tristan Thompson (Cleveland) and Kevin Seraphin (Washington).
Mims is LeBron's day-to-day manager, overseeing all of LeBron's business relationships, meetings, commercial shoots and appearances. Of the LRMR group, Mims spends the most time with LeBron, and ensures that each day's obligations are executed properly.
As James told Nichols, being able to build a successful organization off the court is made that much more meaningful precisely because he was able to do it with his longtime friends:
"I mean it's the ultimate, you know. You grow up, throughout the struggles with your friends, and to be able to reap some of the benefits makes it that much more pleasant at the end of the day."
Another person who plays an integral part in James' off-court life is Michele Campbell, an Akron native who is the executive director of the LeBron James Family Foundation. For many years, James sponsored a Bikeathon in his hometown of Akron, a one-day event to unite the community and give bikes to kids. A few years ago, James decided he wanted to create something with a year-round impact. In 2011, they launched the "Wheels For Education" initiative.
"We call the Bikeathon kind of a one-and-done," Campbell says. "Because it was a great event, but LeBron didn't really know who the kids were after that. He was ready to make a difference and you can't [do that] with a one-and-done. So this is a long-term commitment from him and foundation."
Beginning in 2011, the LeBron James Family Foundation targeted 300 at-risk Akron third-graders. The kids go to a two-week summer camp and then are monitored closely throughout the school year. James regularly posts messages to them and sends them letters. If they miss a few days of school, they might get a phone message from him. Part of the deal is that the kids regularly recite a pledge called "I Promise," vowing to be committed to doing their best. Aside from the constant interaction and encouragement from James, he shows the kids his support every time he takes the court: During games, he plays wearing an "I PROMISE" wristband.
It's a massive promise: Each year, the program adds a new group of third graders while continuing to monitor the rising students. Since its start three years ago, there are now about 700 kids in the program. By the time the initial class graduates from high school in 2021, there will be over 3,500 kids at various levels.
"This is not just an athlete giving a check," Campbell says. "LeBron is the force over this whole thing. He kicks off the program when they enter the program. He's there, he welcomes them into the program. When they see the Foundation walk into the school or the after-school program, they see LeBron. It's amazing how they feel his presence."
His connection to community and the importance of family is obviously significant to James. This summer he married his longtime girlfriend, Savannah Brinson. Together they have two boys, LeBron Jr., and Bryce. LeBron's mother, Gloria, is also still an integral part of James' life.
[Even being family won't save you from being pranked, as LeBron and his wife recently pulled an early Halloween trick on her father and posted it on Instagram.]
As the NBA embarks on the 2013-14 season, the Heat are favored to win another title and LeBron is poised to take home a third straight MVP. There seems to be no stopping James, on or off the court.
It is good to be the King.
"You draw strength from your own character and he has a great public persona now that is drawn from who he is as a person," says Welts. "He's not trying to be anybody else. Being able to kind of find yourself within that image is something he's done as well as any player who's come before and probably any player to go after. It creates a genuine personality around him, which I think attracts people and is part of the reason he's been so successful."


text: 'Atajrubah' is the Arabic word meaning (an) 'Experience'. Atajrubah is set in a 1930's to 1940's era and is strongly influenced by Arabian Folklore and Architecture. The world is open for the player to explore either on their own or with their friends. Using the Oculus Rift for full immersion the player will discover hidden secrets and deadly enemies in a colorful and rich fantasy world. Built from the ground up to support the Oculus Rift and with VR in mind, the game will also be available to players who use conventional control methods and monitors. Atajrubah is a persistent world sandbox. Up to 30 players can join each other in adventuring, crafting, trade, exploration and combat against each other or hostile creatures such as bandits, ghul and djinn. You find yourself in a land not your own, with no prospect of finding out who you were. You are forced to forge ahead and create a new life.


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Introducing theWatch video
Make your own app
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You'll never look at interstellar soldiers the same way again after watching this video by the MAKE design studio. The creators there made the clip pro bono — producing work which looks like it took weeks, if not months, to finish — to drum up support for the Child's Play charity started eight years ago by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, creators of mega-successful webcomic Penny Arcade.
Child's Play, for those who don't know, delivers toys and video games to children undergoing treatment in medical institutions all over the world. Christmas time's right around the corner so if you've been putting off a donation, don't delay any longer. And if you haven't thought about it, you should. Giving to others in need is the best kind of multiplayer action you can experience.
MAKE - Child's Play [MAKE]
Donation Page [Child's Play]


text:
By Rob Glidden
Staff Writer
The Southington Jaycees have launched a strong effort to revive Jaycee Park, a tiny area of green space on Union Street nestled among the small neighborhoods in Plantsville.
For years, the group has been using the park as the site of their annual Easter Egg hunt, but they are hoping that working on the site will provide them with more opportunities to use the space.
"We've always wanted this, we just needed the right crew," said Judy Socha, chairman of the Southington Jaycees board. "Our chapter is growing and we had a lot of new members who wanted to see this happen."
The Jaycees gathered feedback from neighborhood residents and local children before taking the idea to the town's Parks Department.
Assistant Parks Superintendent Michael Manware described it as "a true neighborhood park" and said it was considered part of Southington's park system.
"We've maintained it, but it's been a desolate location over the years," Manware said. "The Jaycees came to us and I began working with [Socha]. They have been fantastic and spearheaded this whole thing."
The group has purchased a swing set which was installed by the Parks Department and also funded the removal of over 45 trees from the park. Many trees are still in the area and Socha said that before this work was done, the area resembled a small forest more than a real park.
"We didn't want to take that atmosphere away, but there was almost no sunlight getting through," Socha said.
Eagle Scout Blake Bauer also contributed to the effort and led a team of volunteers who built a brand new sign for the park. Manware said that the park would continue to lean more towards "passive" recreation, meaning that it would be less focused on sports than some of the larger town parks.
The Jaycees are also seeking support of local businesses hoping to "sponsor" additional work on the park.