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The Lions were not quite good enough and may just have let their best opportunity for a victory slip out of their grasp. As a helpful chap, I would like to assist the Lions management in their post-match analysis by offering my own top ten reasons for the defeat:
- Don't know how to score tries. Hang on a sec, didn't the Lions grab three tries (one more than the Saffers) ? Well, yes, they did, but they also got over the try line four more times without managing to properly ground the ball. In particular, Ugo Monye wasted two great opportunities by carrying the ball in the wrong arm. Either one of the Underwood brothers would have finished those chances. In the superb film "Any Given Sunday", coach Tony D'Amato, gloriously played by Al Pacino, rouses his team with an inspirational speech, which rings so true after this match: "when we add up all those inches, that's gonna make the fucking difference between winning and losing !"
"Ugo Monye mistakes the ball for a bar of soap"
- Feeble front row. The sight of Phil Vickery popping out of the scrum like a cork from a bottle after the demolition job from opposition prop Tendai "Beast" Mtawarira was the most obvious sign of the front row's struggles, but Vickery was given little assistance by his hooker, Lee Mears, who has always looked too small for Test rugby. The Lions' management could have taken the Cornish Bull by the horns and replaced him much earlier with "Hair Bear" Jones, as this substitution steadied the scrum in the later stages. Also, if the players felt that the ref did not understand that the Beast was illegally lifting a player, then frankly they should have taken the law into their own hands and given him a biff. You can't see Jason Leonard or Brian "Pitbull" Moore putting up with that nonsense for too long.
"Phil Vickery's thousand yard stare after his Beasting"
- Substitutions made too late. By this, I obviously refer to the South Africans, as coach Peter de Villiers foolishly brought on a raft of replacements for an early lap of honour. If only his attack of arrogance had come earlier, then we could have been celebrating a famous victory, as the previously comfortable Springboks finished the game in some disarray.
- Tactical injuries. I don't mean the "shoulder injury" which allowed South Africa to bring back their substituted captain, John Smit, in order to steady his sinking ship. No, I am thinking of the Southern Kings' shameful display last week, when a series of cheap shots took out Euan Murray and James Hook. Last November, Scotland's Murray had given the Beast a torrid time at the scrum and the South Africans clearly remembered that working-over (although the Lions' management appear to have forgotten). Hook has already shown himself to be a match-winner on this tour and boy could the Lions have used his big boot on Saturday.
- Lightweight pack. The Lions had clearly opted for mobility rather than grunt in the forwards. This policy had some success, especially when the under-cooked South Africans tired, but for most of the match the willowy Lions forwards were on the back foot. Not only was the scrum splintered, but also the pack was humiliated when a lengthy driving maul put the excellent Brussow over the line for the winning try. Although it might seem strange to call Alun Wyn Jones lightweight, when he is 6 ft 6 in and 19 stone, there is no doubt in my mind that the South Africans would prefer to face him than Simon Shaw, who Lawrence Dallaglio described as the best scrummager he has ever played with. Shaw would also bring an appreciation of the harsher qualities required at this level – Danny Grewcock without the sin-binning, if you will.
- Cannot kick points. The normally reliable Stephen Jones missed crucial kicks at goals, so the Lions did not score a single penalty. A vital kick to touch for a line-out in the vital last few minutes was also woefully inadequate, barely reaching the 22 instead of the 5 metre line, where real pressure could have been applied. The last time the Lions won in South Africa, another Welsh fly-half, Neil Jenkins, was lethal with the boot and a trusty points-scoring machine. The concern is that Jones' most likely replacement, Ronan O'Gara, would almost certainly be a disaster, as he would kick away all our ball, thus neutering our incisive centres, who would also exhaust themselves making his tackles for him.
- Lack of leadership. I have never been fully convinced by Paul O'Connell as captain. He virtually disappeared during his last Lions tour and just does not have the dominant, fearsome presence of a Martin Johnson. Geech apparently picked him to bring some intimidation to the party, but the big fella seems incapable of enthusing his team-mates or getting to the opposition, not to mention influencing the referee à la Jonno. Of most concern was O'Connell's reaction to the defeat, which he seemed to blame on the ref giving so many penalties against his side.
"Paul O'Connell - no Martin Johnson"
- Lee Byrne's sore foot. Although Byrne's replacement, Rob Kearney, had a fine game at full-back, the Lions badly missed the attacking option that Byrne has provided in the previous games with his ability to break from deep. The medical staff need to find some more effective strapping for his foot by next week.
- Bossed at the line-out and break-down. The Lions were clearly terrified of Victor Matfield's prowess in the line-out, so barely used this tactic. Hardly surprising, when they lost two out of the first four, one of which led to a South African try. Almost all of the pre-match talk was about the importance of the break-down and it was very disappointing to see the Lions out-muscled here, typified by the moment when David Wallace took the ball into contact, where he was engulfed by Bakkies Botha who slung him over his shoulder like an old coat. As for Jamie Heaslip – was he on the pitch ? At least there's room for improvement: more aggression, more power, more speed and more running would help.
- Poor refereeing. Nobody wants to be a "whinging pom", but the South African superiority at the scrum was certainly helped by a very generous referee. Scrum laws say that players need to pack square and push straight, and the Beast rarely did either. The ref kept getting it wrong even when he came round to Vickery's side and the angled driving of the Beast was clearly evident. It's by no means the first time that a southern hemisphere referee has demonstrated a poor grasp of the rules, but you have to rise above it, as England did in the 2003 World Cup Final.
Never mind, there are still two matches to go and the Lions can "look forward" to renewing acquaintances with the Springbok pack, though this time it will be at altitude. Even though this should theoretically work against our boys, the records show that the Lions have won three of the four internationals they have played at Loftus Versfeld. You want another encouraging statistic ? Lions coach Ian McGeechan has never lost the second Test in two tours as a player, and four as a head coach.
Can the Lions build on the hugely exciting midfield partnership of the powerful Jamie Roberts and the classy Brian O'Driscoll ("in BOD we trust") ? Will the potential of the athletic, try-scoring flanker Tom Croft be matched by the rest of the forwards ? In Clive Woodward's words, will the Lions "front up" ?
Right now, the Lions are licking their wounds, but there's just a chance that they can roar back and once again be the Lion Kings. Let's hope so, as the South Africans need little help in their efforts to be acknowledged as the most arrogant nation on the planet.


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subset: commoncrawl


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Monday, December 6, 2010
6th day before Christmas
Instead, lets kick off the week with a giveaway!
It is such a great time to remember the things about the seasons you're living right now. In this Issue: I created a little seasonal album that describes the different things we do each season. Here is a little snip-it from the article.
Although CK could only disply one of the pages, I decided to include in the email the other pages in this little album!
Leave a note telling me your favorite thing about the Christmas Season, and enter to receive a copy of this AWESOME special Issue from CK. Contest ends Wednesday! GOOD LUCK!
41 comments:
- Sophia said...
Love your pages super cute...
What I love about Christmas, is seeing the joy on my little girls faces on Christmas morning and being to spend the day with family and loved ones...
- December 6, 2010 at 8:31 AM
- shara said...
I love all the fun memories that are always created at Christmas time and getting together with family that I haven't seen in a long time.
- December 6, 2010 at 9:04 AM
- Kelsey said...
I feeling so cozy in our home with all the decorations and tree up. And how cheerful and giving everyone (mostly) gets.
- December 6, 2010 at 9:10 AM
- Arjanne said...
I love all the lights. It's so dark this time of the year, so all the little lights are very welcome to me!
- December 6, 2010 at 9:14 AM
- Julie said...
I love all the Christmas music!
- December 6, 2010 at 10:53 AM
- LouAnn said...
I love spending time with my family that we don't get to see very often. I also love watching my kids open their gifts on Christmas morning.
- December 6, 2010 at 11:13 AM
- sarahw said...
Tonight is the 6th night of Hanukkah and we are going to a party. For me celebrating with friends and love ones is what it is about. :)
- December 6, 2010 at 11:22 AM
- CindeeQ said...
My favorite part of the Christmas season is that both my husband (a teacher) and I (an admin secretary) work for the local school district so we always get to spend at least two weeks at home or traveling with our boys. We love family time and this affords us the opportunity to spend more time with our boys during the craziness we call December. Great give-away. I've been eyeing that magazine--hope I win it. Happy Holidays! LOVE your idea of giving--we will have to incorporate that into our holiday this year.
- December 6, 2010 at 1:26 PM
Love the pages! My favorite thing about Christmas is spending time with family!!
- December 6, 2010 at 1:40 PM
- Anna said...
One of my favorite things about the holidays is that everyone is in a good mood!!!
- December 6, 2010 at 1:43 PM
- Jennifer Slaugh said...
I love all the time with Family! We have a Christmas party with each side of our families I love to be will all of them. I love the Christmas lights I could drive around and look at them for hours. I also love going to Temple Square looking at the lights and feeling of the wonderful spirit there.
- December 6, 2010 at 3:30 PM
My fave thing about the holiday is beng surrounded by family and the food!! lol.. And putting up decorations and lights!! Thanks for the giveaway!
- December 6, 2010 at 5:21 PM
- amyp said...
My favorite part about the holidays are spending time with our family and our 2 sweet boys!
- December 6, 2010 at 6:15 PM
- amyp said...
My favorite part about the holidays are spending time with our family and our 2 sweet boys!
- December 6, 2010 at 6:15 PM
- rhoffer said...
I like imagining the look on a family member's face as I wrap that special gift for them. I enjoy the time spent together, but I also enjoy the time I spend thinking about friends and family as I decorate, bake, and shop. It's all good!
- December 6, 2010 at 6:18 PM
- Jackie said...
My children get to see giving to others in need in action - they are old enough to be a part of our family traditions that include giving to others. Also, this year, finally! they have some real opinions on their gifts and such!
- December 6, 2010 at 6:18 PM
- mdaul328 said...
I love coming home from school at Christmas time. I love spending time with family. I also love getting a break from studies to scrap!
- December 6, 2010 at 7:06 PM
- michelle said...
I love all the family time- extended and immediate. Decorating the tree, baking cookies, exchanging gifts.....all the traditions that bring the family together. Plus, all the beautiful pictures that come out of it!
- December 6, 2010 at 7:27 PM
- Wendy said...
I love seeing the anticipation in my grandchildren and the joy they share! Love theh seasons album you created...so talented!
- December 6, 2010 at 8:54 PM
How wonderful of you and your family to reach out to those in need...if all the world could adapt such goodness imagine the world our babies would see. Happy Holidays and thank you for the chance to win one of these magazines!
- December 6, 2010 at 11:17 PM
I love having the family home at Xmas, skating, tobaggoning and snow angels
- December 7, 2010 at 8:12 AM
- Cindy d said...
I love the focus on God, family, and tradition.
- December 7, 2010 at 11:10 AM
- the life of a teenage scrapbooker said...
looks awesome!!!
- December 7, 2010 at 2:57 PM
- Amanda said...
My favorite part of Christmas is the big gathering of all our family.
- December 7, 2010 at 3:07 PM
- Sarah Mullanix said...
your pages look fantastic! my favorite part of Christmas is the fascination of my little ones, the looks on their faces, it's just majical! thanks for the chance to win :)
- December 7, 2010 at 3:17 PM
I love putting up the tree and listening to Christmas music. Thanks for the chance.
- December 7, 2010 at 4:11 PM
- Leslie said...
I love the holiday spirit everyone seems to have.
- December 7, 2010 at 4:29 PM
- Steff said...
Christmas music! We only get to listen to it for one month---I drink in as many of those moments as I can!
- December 7, 2010 at 6:36 PM
- MELODY said...
I love the smells of the season. A smell can remind you of your childhood or a memory and so many of these smells are special to Christmas. Everytime I smell our Christmas tree, i remember my childood.
- December 7, 2010 at 7:24 PM
I love the Christmas markets here in Germany.
Nicole, Germany
- December 7, 2010 at 11:44 PM
- Vicki and Don said...
What I love about Christmas is seeing the look of the the kids as they open up their presents on Christmas day. Of course, all my kids/grandkids are older now so spending time with family and friends is what's important to me now!
- December 7, 2010 at 11:59 PM
- Lesli said...
I love giving gifts. It is so exciting when you find just the right thing to give.
- December 8, 2010 at 12:20 AM
- kat78 said...
I DO LOVE THE FAMILY-get-togethers!
Not the presents, Not the millions of Cookies,...MY FAMILY! (;
Have a wonderful season!
from the BlackForestRegion/Germany
- December 8, 2010 at 12:28 AM
- Juanna Hope said...
the best thing about Christmas is the whole spirit of giving and sharing. out of all the holidays i spend here in Singapore, Christmas reminds me of God's faithfulness and love and i love the whole peaceful and joyous atmosphere the season brings! (:
- December 8, 2010 at 1:29 AM
The best thing about Christmas is giving the "perfect gift" to my children!
- December 8, 2010 at 4:49 AM
- Alayne said...
The best thing about Christmas for me is seeing hw excited my kids get. I hope they never lose their awe and wonder of the season!
- December 8, 2010 at 4:57 AM
- Amelia said...
I admit it, I love the cookies!! ;)he he
- December 8, 2010 at 8:13 AM
- Scarlet 357 said...
Could you tell us how you made this little book or do we need to buy the magazine for that? I would like to do this as a hybrid project,but I have no idea how to set up a template for this. Any ideas?
- December 8, 2010 at 8:25 AM
- Helen Tilbury said...
I absolutely love your little album Mandy - I know I'm too late for the giveaway but wanted to tell you anyway ;-D
- December 8, 2010 at 2:01 PM
- Lynette C said...
I love magazines from CK. I subscribe to their bi-monthly magazine. It would be wonderful to win this special issues.
- December 8, 2010 at 11:25 PM
- lawyerlyn said...
love your album!
- December 9, 2010 at 1:20 AM


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We have been busy Roosters here at the Farm,
Last week we were able to gather eggs at Shopper's Drug Mart for $1.99 a doz,
this week we have been roasting coffee in the small batch roaster.
It roasts up a fine flavour bag of coffee, these are our first home roasts
That Dark Harbour on the left is my fav, then a medium roast is beside it.
here we are weighing it out
Labels put on and they are ready for sale
This week I also painted the front sun porch and gave it a sort of rustic country look
What do you think? Rustic or what? Love the curtain rods and saved a bundle on them. The material was on clearance at Wal-mart in Maine for $4.97 a yard so I couldn't resist that deal. I have a few Rooster memorabilia to hang around to complete the room and voila – this is our coffee roasting room.
Oh, I almost forgot, you know I've been enticing fairies around here and getting the gardens ready for Spring and well I decided to have a Fairy Fun Friday Party, just me and the girls.
There has been so much coffee around here I have something else to share – a recipe for
Upside Down Cranberry Coffee Cake
2/3 c packed b sugar
1/3 c butter or margarine
1 1/4 c cranberries
1/2 c chopped pecans
1/2 c butter, room temperature
3/4 c white sugar
2 eggs
1/8 c strong coffee
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c sour cream
1 1/2 c flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
Oven to 350 F
Wrap a spring form pan with aluminum foil. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt then set aside.
In a saucepan over medium heat, combine brown sugar and 1/3 cup butter. Bring to a boil, then pour into bottom of spring form pan. Sprinkle with cranberries and pecans.
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 3/4 c sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla and coffee. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the sour cream. Pour batter into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto serving platter and carefully remove from spring form pan.
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The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here's a high level summary of its overall blog health:
The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.
Crunchy numbers
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 170,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 7 days for that many people to see it.
In 2010, there were 28 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 83 posts. There were 58 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 20mb. That's about 1 pictures per week.
The busiest day of the year was February 25th with 917 views. The most popular post that day was multi terrain pattern camouflage for british armed forces.
Where did they come from?
The top referring sites in 2010 were hydedefinition.com, strikehold.wordpress.com, en.wordpress.com, tvtropes.org, and tactical.pl.
Some visitors came searching, mostly for multicam, pencott, multi terrain pattern, ucp delta, and multicam pattern.
Attractions in 2010
These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.
multi terrain pattern camouflage for british armed forces December 2009
14 comments
camo test: afghanistan December 2009
British Army unveils new equipment for infantrymen September 2008
15 comments
photo's of ucp-delta in action December 2009
1 comment
The PenCott™ pattern March 2009
2 comments


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The Hispanic Scholarship Fund is recognized as tax exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Our tax ID is :
HSF is recognized as one of the best managed chartiable organizations in the U.S. and has received an "A+" rating for 15 consective years (1996-2011) from the American Institute of Philanthropy/Charity Watch.
HSF raises funds from corporations, foundations, and individuals to provide college scholarships and college-preparation and retention outreach programs to Latino students and families nationwide.
Annual Reports (click on the links below to view the report)


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California Department of Transportation
Date: December 6, 2012
District: 7
Contact: Patrick Chandler
Phone: 213-897-3630
LOS ANGELES - The California Transportation Commission today allocated $306 million to 44 projects that will help ease traffic congestion, improve safety, and support economic growth.
"From one end of the state to the other, transportation projects are providing jobs and improving roads, bridges, and transit for people and businesses in California," said Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty.
The allocations include $114 million from Proposition 1B, a transportation bond approved by voters in 2006. In total, $14.7 billion in Proposition 1B funds have been distributed statewide.
The remaining $192 million in allocations came from assorted transportation accounts funded by state and federal dollars.
Among the projects that received funding today were:
- $34,200,000 to replace existing asphalt pavement with concrete, and replace median barriers, signs, lighting, ramp meters and improve drainage on the San Bernardino Freeway (I-10) in Baldwin Park and West Covina.
- $12,705,000 to improve portions of the Port of Los Angeles within the TRAPAC container terminal.
Please see the attached file for information about all projects that received allocations
# # # #


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iPad Board Games: Multiplayer and Available Now
- Gabe AlvaroUnited States
Unless otherwise noted, all apps are officially licensed versions.
Information Key
Game Picture: Will be iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch* version if available.
Clones: Games in the public domain (like Go, Chess, Checkers, Backgammon etc.) not under any particular copyright license usually have many clone versions available. This list shows only one entry for such games with a link to a separate Geeklist for those games.
Human Players: The number of human players the app can support. Including "1" indicates AI or solitaire is available.
Connection: The type of connection(s) supported between players.
Face to Face = players gather around iPad
Console Mode = I.e. main game runs on iPad and iPhones used for hidden info or controllers, effectively making the iPad a console unit
Pass n' Play = players take turns and pass device. Also known as "hot seat".
WiFi = players use multiple devices lan-style over local WiFi network
BlueTooth = players use multiple devices lan-style over BlueTooth network
Online Realtime = players play against online opponents
Online Asynchronous = players play against online opponents, taking their turn on their own time often after message notification (like play-by-email)
Seller/Developer Site: Seller or Developer Web site with more info
iTunes: The iTunes App Store URL
iPhone/iPod Touch: Indicates whether the game is also playable on the iPhone/iPod Touch, there is an iPhone/iPod Touch version, or whether app is a single Universal app which works on both devices.
No = iPad only
Yes = separate iPhone/iPod Touch app available
Universal = single app, works on iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch
Release, update, price tracking info on Appshopper.com: A link to the game on Appshopper.com, a great site for tracking app updates and prices.
VGG: A link to the iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad app version on VGG, if available.
*Note: All iPhone/iPod Touch apps run on the iPad.
Adding an Entry
Feel free to add an entry that meets the following conditions:
Post only the iTunes URL.
Only add an iPad board game if it is available NOW.
Only add an iPad board game if one of its multi-player modes can support 2 or more players in the same place on the same device.
Once you add a valid entry I will probably tip you 1 for your troubles and then delete and repost your entry with more complete information.
- Edited Thu Mar 29, 2012 8:19 pm
- Posted Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:28 pm
- [+] Dice rolls


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Gary Olsen Retires, June 5, 2001
reprinted by permission from El Defensor Chieftain
Drawn by green chile and an intriguing student body, history professor Gary Olsen came to New Mexico Tech in 1970, and is only now leaving for a new adventure.
On his first trip to Tech, in 1970, Olsen began his discovery of one of his favorite foods: green chile. "One of the things that impressed me most," Olsen said, "was being invited to dinner at Tech history professor Paige Christiansen's home."
"On top of the steak was this green stuff. I had no idea what it was," he said. Upon tasting it, Olsen said, "I thought it was really wonderful. At that moment, I thought I really want to come work here."
Three months later, Olsen began his first day of class at Tech, a school quite different from his own educational experiences. Olsen, a native of Washington, received his bachelor of arts in history from Washington State University. He then went on to the University of Arizona for his master's degree and then into a doctoral program at the University of Oregon. However, one year later, Olsen returned to Arizona to finish his Ph.D.
Olsen said, "When I first came here, I really felt like a stranger in a very strange land, coming from a liberal arts background and having attended large public universities."
But, he said it did not take long for him to adjust. "I tremendously enjoyed the small classes and getting to know people. I discovered very quickly I liked the students ... they were ... feisty."
"In those days," Olsen said, "Tech ... was a much more tightly knit community. We used to have great parties in the old Driscoll Hall. We all packed in." But those parties at Tech are no more, partly thanks to Olsen himself, which he readily admits.
In 1975, a new administration took over campus, and two years later, Olsen became dean of students. The new administration, he said, had concerns about the legal ramifications of some activities at Tech, particularly the drinking and purchase of beer with university fees. As dean, he immediately discontinued the use of university fees for beer purchases.In the 1970s, there were two particularly wild weekends each year, 49ers, which still exists today, and the St. Patrick's Day celebration, which does not.
"There was benevolent anarchy that pervaded campus on those two weekends every year," Olsen said. "The St. Pat's that I knew always involved naked people running around campus, painted green." Olsen said, as the years wore on, students would try to outdo the St. Pat's celebration from the year before.
"One year," he said, "I got my hands tied behind my back and thrown into the duckpond. I was not a very happy dean. Then, there were rumors that animal sacrifices were taking place during St. Pat's." Shortly thereafter, St. Pat's was closed down. "It was a decision on the part of the faculty that St. Pat's had gotten out of hand," he said.
In 1985, Olsen gave up his spot as dean but was drawn back to the position in 1991 because of the students. "I kind of missed interacting with the students," Olsen said. As he looks towards retirement, he said he will miss all of Tech the students, staff, faculty, grounds and the overall feel of campus. "My overall feeling about Tech is extremely positive. I love the place." Olsen said, "It's going to be very hard to leave."
Olsen and his wife, artist Vivian Olsen, are moving to Oregon where he can fish and golf, she can paint and they can both hike all over the area. Gary will teach summer school and then head off on his new adventure. He said, "Vivian and I are leaving not because we want to leave here but because we're drawn to another really neat place. We're really going to miss Tech."


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Missoula Police Chip In to Replace Stolen Christmas Gifts
A married couple appeared in Missoula Justice Court on Tuesday, December 24, charged with felony theft, after being accused of breaking into several Missoula area storage units.
Stephen Michael-Allen Hurd, 30, was charged with felony burglary, felony theft and a misdemeanor charge of possession of burglary tools. His wife, Sheena Ann Flankey, 25, was also charged with felony theft.
Missoula police said some items have been recovered, including a Purple Heart medal, however, some wrapped Christmas presents that were reported missing were not recovered.
Sergeant Jim Klowitter with the police department said early Thursday morning, December 26, that the Missoula Police Protective Association took up a donation from the officers and replaced all the missing gifts, so that those who suffered losses from the storage unit thefts would have presents for Christmas.


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Kinston Rotary hears newcomers; Fairfield bridge says goodbye to Pearl
Newcomers settle in �welcoming� place
Newcomers find Kinston a warm and welcoming place, three of them told the Kinston Rotary Club during a panel discussion that was the program for the March 6 meeting.
�Everybody is welcoming here,� said Lynn Johnson-Blake, wife of Spirit AeroSystems executive Don Blake and a panel member along with John McPhaul and Dr. Pradeep Aramugham. Club member Adrian King moderated the discussion.
Johnson-Blake said she and her husband had shuttled between Witchita, Kan., where Spirit is headquartered, and a town in Oklahoma where Don Blake was posted for about six months before the couple landed in Kinston. The reception here was much friendlier, she said.
Work also brought McPhaul and Aramugham to Kinston. A heart specialist, Aramugham brought new surgical procedures to Lenoir Memorial Hospital. He�s found the city has �a lot of good doctors� and said the move from Greenville opened a door for him professionally. �This is a new opportunity for me,� he said of �setting up a program� at LMH.
McPhaul moved to Kinston with his family when he became a franchisee with Chick-fil-A, but he wasn�t a complete stranger to the area. His grandmother was from La Grange, he has friends in Morehead City and he grew up in Raeford.
�We were excited about the opportunity to live in a small town,� he said. �The community has definitely embraced us.�
Kinston Rotary Club meets at 1 p.m. each Thursday at King�s Restaurant.
Bridge club names winners
The Fairfield Duplicate Bridge Club played a sectional tournament at clubs game March 26.
Stratification A winners were: Nancy Barwick/Edith Cahn and Roz Ahrens/Jack Weeden, first-place tie; Joe Goldwasser and Pearl Schechter, third; and Jeannie Exum and Anita Exum, fourth.
Winners for Stratifications B and C were: Nancy Barwick/Edith Cahn and Roz Ahrens/Jack Weeden, first-place tie; Jeannie Exum and Anita Exum, third; and Eva Balknight and Jenny Holt, fourth.
In a sectional tournament at clubs, these winners� scores will be compared with games held at the same time in other states to determine the overall winners.
The tournament also was the last time that Pearl Schechter, our only gold life master, will direct our games. To honor her and say farewell, the club provided brunch and presented her with a memory book composed by the club.
It was fitting that she and partner, Joe Goldwasser, bid and made a grand slam. She will be missed!
A regular game will be played at 9:50 a.m. Tuesday. The club welcomes and encourages all bridge players. For more club information, call 252-523-6791.


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NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale Athletics Department has partnered with Stretch Internet for the fourth straight season to provide live video streams of home events through Yale All-Access on yalebulldogs.com. Every home volleyball match is now available to purchase, either individually or as part of a package.
To order and view the games, please visit
and click on the link that says "Register", or click on the link that says "Watch" next to the event you would like to order.
Access to each individual game is $8.95. Viewers can also purchase a season pass for a team at $39.95 per team. The best value is an all-inclusive full-year pass, which gives viewers access to every Yale All-Access broadcast for all teams in 2012-13 (including basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer and volleyball home games). That is available for just $89.95. Events are available both live and on demand.
Yale All-Access video streams more than 100 Yale Athletics home events live each year, covering basketball, football, hockey, lacrosse, soccer, volleyball and other special events. Fans can follow Yale All-Access on twitter at http://www.twitter.com/yaleallaccess for updates.
Please note that all schedules are subject to change and some games may not be available live on Yale All-Access due to television coverage.
- Yale students interested in working on Yale All-Access broadcasts as production assistants or broadcasters should apply on-line at http://www.yalestudentjobs.org (Job reference # 9948 and # 11716).


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Well, well, well. This here is some Patreon-exclusive content.To see it, all you have to do is become a monthly Patron! It all helps me to continue making comics for you, and you get some fun rewards (like seeing this comic) and more!
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WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives approved a $1.1 trillion budget by 359-67 on Wednesday, but few were happy with the massive bill and dozens of conservatives lined up squarely against it.
The Senate is expected to consider the package Thursday and Friday. Senate leaders are banking on the strong House vote to send a message to wavering colleagues that constituents are eager to see lawmakers engage in compromise and avoid another government shutdown.
The House vote was bipartisan, as 193 Democrats and 166 Republicans backed the bill. Sixty-four Republicans and three Democrats were opposed.
Spending authority was to run out Wednesday, but Congress gave itself three extra days to consider the new plan. Few wanted a repeat of October's partial shutdown, which drove Congress' approval ratings under 10 percent and caused what might be long-lasting political damage.
The White House supports the bill, which details spending for discretionary programs, which are those that Congress and the White House can more easily control. About half would be spent on defense and half on domestic programs.
Once President Barack Obama signs the measure, Americans will see its impact almost immediately.
The new bill, one of the few line-by-line blueprints for government spending in recent years, had something for everyone — and some reasons for disappointment for everyone.
"It could have been worse," said Rep. David Price, D-N.C. He decried what he termed "devastating cuts" in local, education and human services programs but he urged colleagues to support the bill.
Federal and military personnel will get a 1 percent pay raise. More agents will patrol the nation's borders. Head Start, the early childhood education program, will get more funding. Money will be provided to fight "yellow dragon disease," which is affecting the nation's citrus industry.
The grumbling Wednesday often involved what wasn't in the 1,582-page bill.
"We need to curb our enthusiasm. The numbers in this bill are awful," said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.
Most Democrats were at least pleased that the bill spends more than was set under the sequester, the automatic spending limits scheduled to go into effect without a budget agreement.
Democrats were livid, though, that nothing's being done to extend emergency jobless benefits to the 1.3 million people who lost that aid Dec. 28.
"They are throwing them to the wolves," charged Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich.
An effort to restore the benefits stalled this week in the Senate, and it's unlikely to be revived for several weeks.
Republicans split over the bill. Party leaders touted local benefits and pointed to some smaller victories. Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, for instance, praised funding for wildfire suppression.
Republicans welcomed the cut in funding for the new health care law's Independent Payment Advisory Board, which recommends Medicare changes.
The bill continues restrictions on federal funding of most abortions, and bars paying to transfer Guantanamo Bay detainees to the United States or its territories.
A lot of Republican conservatives were aggressive in their disdain for the bill.
"We will still have a $600 billion budget deficit this year. That's simply not good enough," said Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan.
Conservatives have railed against such huge bills for years, saying they're impossible for the public to read or understand and often contain hidden goodies for lawmakers.
"It's frustrating. We complain about big bills when Democrats are in charge of Congress," said Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho. "But we have big bills when we're in charge of Congress."
Helping to push the conservatives were activist groups, which issued reminders that they'd remember this vote at election time. Heritage Action sent supporters a warning that the bill "increases spending, in some cases dramatically."


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If the forces behind the Immersive Education Initiative have their way over the next two to three years, an ever-increasing number of students and teachers the world over will be exploring 3D environments, playing interactive learning games, and enjoying virtual collaboration sessions with peers a state, or even a continent, away. Changes are also in store for those schools already using immersive education; they will experience a major upsurge in terms of content, tools, usability, and image quality.
One example of what is to come is the Virtual Egypt Immersive Education environment developed for the Woods College of Advancing Studies at Boston College. The original Virtual Egypt was created in 2003 using Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML), Extensible 3D (X3D) QuickTime 3D, Flash, streaming video, and the Unreal 2 game engine. (In 2006, the Second Life 3D platform was incorporated as well). Users, or rather their avatars, move through a high-resolution virtual tomb created by hand and also using scans from the Theban Mapping Project (www.thebanmappingproject.com), interacting with content such as objects, text, video, or games.
The upgraded, or third-generation, Virtual Egypt will feature richer imagery, such as near-photorealistic avatars created with photo-mapping software, and a variety of 3D formats (including VRML, X3D, and OBJ). The new Egypt will also have more customization options. Teachers who want to focus on a particular area—archaeology or mythology, for example—can populate the environment with unique content, such as videos of excavation techniques or text translations of hieroglyphics. But for educators simply wanting a ready-to-go application to complement class material, Virtual Egypt can also be downloaded and used as is.
"Many more are under development, including a full suite of K–12 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) learning environments," Walsh says. Pre-built courses and modules can be used out of the box, so to speak, but everything will also be "infinitely customizable," he adds. All content, by design, will be cross-platform and open source.
Organizational Forces
The Immersive Education Initiative (www.immersiveeducation.org) is a nonprofit collaboration among colleges, universities, research institutes, and various companies. Among its members are Boston College, Columbia University, Sun Microsystems, The Burke Institute for Innovation in Education, the Israeli Association of Grid Technologies, and the NMC (New Media Consortium), itself with more than 200 members. The Initiative was founded in 2007 to, in the words of its literature, "define and develop open standards, best practices, platforms, and communities of support for virtual worlds and game-based learning and training systems."
The Initiative's parent organization, the Media Grid (www.mediagrid.org), was founded in 2003 to promote the use of a computational grid platform as a public utility for developing and delivering virtual-reality and 3D simulation programs. The Media Grid was designed specifically for networked applications that produce and consume large quantities of digital media, and is currently powered by rendering farms, clusters, high-performance computer systems, computational grids, and other systems.
The concept of grid computing, also known as distributed computing, was developed during the 1990s. The technology involves hundreds, thousands, or even more computers all working together on the same task in order to get it done more quickly. Although grid computing has to date been used primarily in scientific communities, notes Walsh, the concept can be applied to film and video rendering as well, ultimately making it possible for immersive education applications to employ even Hollywood-level special effects and rendering.
For example, by 2003, it became clear that shared immersive environments were only so effective without voice chat, which VRML did not support. "Typing back and forth wasn't good," says Walsh. A move to Unreal Technology's Unreal 2 game engine eliminated this roadblock, and allowed for more fluid interaction with real-time voice connection. But there was, and still is, according to Walsh, a need for a reliable, high-quality virtual-reality environment that is cross-platform, open source, easy to access, and easy to use.
Important steps toward the realization of that vision were announced at the 2008 Boston Digital Media Summit earlier in the year, through the creation of the Initiative's Education Grid and Platform Ecosystem. The Education Grid is a server-side resource that will offer the library of learning objects, digital media assets, games, and services, from which educators can obtain or assemble a variety of immersive education experiences. For the time being (there are more to come), the new Platform Ecosystem consists of three open-source platforms that will serve as clients: Croquet, Second Life, and Project Wonderland. For more about them, see "Platforms of Choice," page 43.
The Case for Immersion
There's no denying that students, especially those at the K–12 level, are energized and engaged by using computers at school. A well-designed immersive education application with the same level of high-resolution graphics featured in the latest video games would seem to be an obvious boon to educators. Through such an environment—a learning game that resembles those students play at home (though minus the occasional violence and sex)—schools may be able to reach pupils they haven't been able to before. That goes for students with special needs as well. A child who can't walk or run freely, for example, can do so in a virtual world. The benefits of the technology seem obvious in these cases.
The students at Benjamin Banneker Charter Public School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, get excited just talking about immersive education, says executive director Marlon Davis. Benjamin Banneker, an urban K-6 science and technology school, is expected to be one of the early adopters of third-generation immersive education technology. Davis believes the technology will have a positive effect on behavior, in that it will engage and motivate some students who haven't been as reachable in the past.
Some experts, however, believe that kids' affinity for video games is no reason to give them more of the same at school. It all depends on how you use it, according to John Carfora, director of Sponsored Research at Amherst College in Massachusetts and a member of the Initiative's board of advisors. "Our job is to ask the tough questions," he says. "Students now want to play more of a role in their education. This technology is what they've grown up with, and how they think they learn better. My job as an educator is to ask, is that true?"
Immersive education technology doesn't lend itself to every academic discipline, Davis notes, but it does to most of them. "It's important to ask, are the students learning from it?"
Carfora is currently working on a language/cultural curriculum for virtual visits to Rome and Paris. Such an application might have a student avatar arriving at the airport in Rome, for example, where his guide, "Giovanni," meets him. They take public transportation into the city together, head to a trattoria, and order food. All this can take place in English, Italian, or a mixture of both languages, depending on the student's level and need. The program is designed to prepare a person for an upcoming visit to another country, give them a general sense of the language and/or culture there, or even provide a virtual visit for a student who can't afford to go abroad.
Carfora says he has also been approached by a couple of European universities about collaborating on a virtual space station application. "Students would be able to take off and land, and see what it's like to live and work in space," he points out.
Carfora does observe that the immersive education concept makes a few teachers nervous about the possibility of being replaced. Getting such educators to buy in is part of the mission. "Immersive education isn't meant to replace teachers," he says. "It's meant to complement what they're doing." The most skeptical group, he notes, are college and university professors. "They need the most convincing." Among K–12 teachers, the most gung-ho are often special education teachers, who are eager to use the technology to engage their students at different levels.
Immersive applications really do energize students, says Walsh. In 2003, he and his class created a 3D model of a ship boarded during the Boston Tea Party in 1773. Using the Unreal game editor, Autodesk's Maya, and Adobe Systems' Photoshop, the students modeled the ship and the surrounding Boston Harbor as components of a historical learning game based on the Unreal Engine. Players had to board the ship, break open the tea crates, and throw the bags of tea overboard. Aboard ship were non-playable colonist characters dressed as Indians (just as they did for the real Boston Tea Party), who provided players with historical information about the event as they played the game.
The three platforms originally selected to be part of the Immersive Education Initiative's Platform Ecosystem are all open source and cross-platform.
Croquet is a software development environment for creating and deploying collaborative, multiuser online applications and 3D environments across different operating systems and devices. The platform began as a working prototype in 1994. Many of Croquet's principal architects are based in universities.
What's unique about Croquet in terms of the Immersive Education Initiative are its roots in education.
"Croquet was built from the ground up as an educational environment," says Aaron Walsh, founder of the Initiative. The platform also features superior ease of use: "I've seen it used by three-, four-, and five-year-olds," he says. Its ability to integrate Webcams, its usability, and its peer-to-peer architecture are also in its favor.
Second Life
"Second Life is most mature in terms of its utility," says Walsh. The Internet-based virtual environment, developed by Linden Research, launched online in 2003 and now has millions of registered users. Second Life members can create avatars, and converse and operate in a virtual world. The service is free at a basic level, and costs more if you want to access richer features. Many of Second Life's features—textures, objects, and so forth—come ready to use, which makes it appealing to educators with neither the time nor the inclination to learn programming.
"A teacher can download it and use it," Walsh points out. "It's easy to get started with."
Because the site was designed as a virtual world in which to meet and coexist with other virtual beings, Second Life is also rich in social tools, Walsh notes.
Project Wonderland
The Wonderland client is built on Sun Microsystems' Java 3D-based graphics engine. It allows users to manage and customize worlds, animations, and avatars, and supports application sharing (initially Java and X applications).
Walsh points out the strength of Wonderland's collaboration tools. A feature called bridging, for instance, allows those who are not in the virtual environment—without a computer screen in front of them, perhaps—to take part in Wonderland collaborations. "I can dial up a phone number and call into the session," he says. "And everybody sees me as a glowing orb," for example. "I'm able to bridge through a telephone."
Developers are also working on bridging with video cameras and shared applications, says Walsh. –Jenny Donelan
The solution was the Unreal Engine, which Walsh describes as "very stable," and its results as "very good-looking." It supported both Windows and Mac platforms, as well as voice chat, which was vital for the complete immersive experience. Participants' enthusiasm really built as voice was added, he says. Additionally, the graphics looked great. But there was a drawback. Unreal was commercial and, therefore, expensive in terms of licensing fees. Users couldn't modify it on an unlimited basis.
So Walsh and others started looking at options, with the requirements being that whatever they chose as the next-generation immersive computing platform had to be cross-platform and open source. They wanted to create a resource from which students and educators could use ready-made applications to supplement their lessons, or customize them to fine-tune and add content. And, just about needless to say, the content had to look great.
That third generation of immersive education, with development well under way now, incorporates the Education Grid and the Platform Ecosystem consisting of Croquet, Second Life, and Project Wonderland.
Everything is open, and if a teacher or student is already comfortable using Second Life, for example (the most mature of the three platforms because it has been available online for some time), he or she can still access Immersive Education environments created in Croquet.
All kinds of collaboration efforts are currently in the works. "Right now, there is a multi-institutional effort under way to develop several applications based on the Croquet SDK," says Julian Lombardi, assistant vice president of Academic Services and Technology Support for Duke University's Office of Information Technology, and one of the principal architects for Croquet. "One of these is a type of 'browser' for accessing 3D spaces over the Internet."
What's to Come
In practical terms, the Initiative is preparing to get the word out to educational facilities that might not yet be familiar with immersive educational tools. Institutions interested in becoming pilot schools can contact the Initiative through its Web site, Walsh says. Tools and usage are currently free of charge for nonprofits. In fact, it is part of the Institute's agenda to ensure that schools which might not have the capital equipment or the infrastructure to run these applications can do so. "It's important that we get this into the hands of students who might not be able to afford it," says Walsh. Carfora agrees, saying that it's vital not to ignore "the question of the digital divide."
To that end, there is what Walsh calls a sustainability model for for-profit companies that want to get involved with Immersive Education Initiative projects. "If game companies, for example, want to use the Grid, they can sustain it by putting some money into it," says Walsh, noting that the Initiative is sponsored by foundations, philanthropists, and universities, and is not commercially backed.
High on the list of future features are high-resolution graphics of the caliber of those that appear on the Sony PlayStation 3 or the Microsoft Xbox 360. Progress is happening. "The quality of what I'm seeing is getting better all the time," says Carfora. "The environment is more absorbing, more realistic. And it's better in terms of the emotion, the actual sense of being there. It pulls me into the domain—it's very attractive."
Walsh likes to describe immersive education at this point in time as having "traction." It's poised to catch hold due to the right confluence of factors: availability of mature, open-source programs, grid computing, and general acceptance—and even appetite for high-quality immersive applications that can capture the imaginations of students.
"The whole idea is truly transformative in terms of the experience," says Carfora. "We're on the precipice of a new way of teaching and learning."
Jenny Donelan is a contributing editor for Computer Graphics World. Based in Peterborough, NH, she can be reached at


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SKINS Privacy Policy
We are committed to the protection of your private information. This is why we have a Privacy Statement so you can see what we are about, what we will do and how you can contact us.
This Privacy Statement applies to websites, www.skins.net and *.skins.net ("Websites") and to our SKINS family of companies including but not limited to SKINS Global Holding AG, SKINS International Trading AG, SKINS North America LLC, SKINS GmbH, SKINS Services Ltd and True Alliance Brands Pty Ltd (Authorised Australian Distributor). The contact details relevant to your country or region are set out below in the "Contacts" section.
In this Privacy Statement we use the terms "we", "us" and "our". This is a reference to SKINS, just in case you were in any doubt.
SKINS complies with;
- (a) the European Union's General Data Protection Regualtion (GDPR) as and from 25 May 2018; and
- (b) the Australian Privacy Principles ("APPs"). This includes the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Act 2012 (Cth) and the Privacy Regulation 2013 (Cth);and
- (c) the United States Federal Trade Commission Act (15 U.S.C. §§41-58) prohibiting unfair and deceptive practices –
Hereinafter referred to as the "Privacy Legislation". The Privacy Legislation are rules and regulation that sets out our clear obligations and guidelines with respect to privacy. We apply those obligations and guidelines in how we communicate with you and deal with your information.
Our Data Protection Officer (DPO) is Grant Bayley, Chief Information Officer of the SKINS Group. Our DPO can always be contacted at email@example.com ("Privacy Address"). Please direct privacy matters to the Privacy Address.
1. Right to Access
If you wish you to access any personal information that we hold about you for the purposes of review, amendment or otherwise, please contact us with your request to the Privacy Address. We shall provide you with a digital copy of the information free of charge. If you wish for your data to be transmitted to another controller, please advise in writing. We will seek to verify transmission instructions directly with you prior to transmission to authenticate the authorisation.
2. Right to be Forgotten
This is also known as 'Data Erasure'. If you wish for your data that is held by us to be erased, including the dissemination of data and the use by third parties of your data, please contact us with your request to the Privacy Address. Data erasure will include data that is no longer relevant to the original processing purpose. However, please note that some data maybe retained for legal and tax accounting reasons relevant to where we trade.
3. So what is this Privacy Statement about?
This Privacy Statement outlines how we collect personal information, how we maintain, use, disclose and secure that information and destroy information that is no longer needed. It also provides some detail about your privacy rights along with our general rights and obligations and our statement in relation to the personal information we keep on record.
The Websites provide information about and details of SKINS products and services, some of which are available for purchase online. Users are required to register their personal details prior to purchasing goods from the Websites. Acceptance of the SKINS Terms and Conditions is a pre-requisite to use of the e-commerce component of the Website.
4. Personal Information held by SKINS
We only collect personal information that is necessary to assist us in providing our services. In most situations the information we collect about you is provided to us directly by you, for the purpose of purchasing SKINS products from the Websites.
Generally, we keep a record of one or more of the following types of personal information about users of the Websites:
- (a) information that identifies them, such as their name, date of birth, address, IP address, telephone number, e-mail address, bank account or credit card details and any other information provided by them, as well as any information provided by them about third parties, such as a name and delivery address;
- (b) account transaction information for any purchases made via the Websites; and
- (c) historical commentary regarding any conversations held between our users and SKINS; and
- (d) survey data from users being answers to questions provided by consent
All information collected is required and used for our business purposes only. We will not share, rent or sell your personal details with any third party to SKINS. Our servers are located in the USA, Ireland, The Netherlands and Germany.
5. Collection of Personal Information
SKINS may collect personal information about you in a number of ways, including, but not limited to:
- (a) directly from you, when you submit information online or provide information by phone or in documents; and
- (b) any other form of information submitted to us by you or any other person such as third parties who submit your name and address, as a point of contact and/or delivery address.
- (c) via agents or service providers, via other websites or via lists from other sources both from other companies and from other public documents and via strategic partners.
6. Use of Personal Information
Unless you object, this information may be used to:
- (a) contact you;
- (b) deliver your purchase orders to you or the nominated delivery address;
- (c) fulfil administrative functions associated with your purchase order, for example billing;
- (d) carry out secondary purposes related to the primary purpose of carrying out our business functions, such as providing products purchased by you to you;
- (e) effectively manage your accounts and carry on our business;
- (f) assess, process and investigate queries and/or complaints made by you;
- (g) update your records;
- (h) send news, information about our activities and general promotional material which we believe may be useful to you;
- (i) monitor who is accessing the Websites or using services offered on the Websites; and
- (j) profile the type of people accessing the Websites.
If you do not wish to have your personal information used in this manner or for any other specific purpose you can e-mail us at the Privacy Address.
7. Opt-Out
You may, at some point (but we hope not), want to tell us to stop contacting you. If so, you may remove yourself from future messages, news, promotional materials and the like by following the instructions found within the sent message. After the Opt-Out request is processed, a final message will be sent to you confirming removal of the address.
Alternatively, you may send your request to the Privacy Address.
PLEASE NOTE: If you access our Websites or provide information to us, you are opting-in and thereby consenting to our use of your data subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
8. Protection and Security of Personal Information
We take all reasonable steps to protect all personal information we collect or hold about our users from misuse and loss, and from unauthorised access, modification and disclosure to the best of our ability. We have physical, electronic and procedural safeguards to protect your information that is held by us, and this includes among other things, preventing users from accessing information they have no need to access, by employing industry standard techniques such as firewalls, virus scanning tools and encryption; by using secure networks when transmitting electronic data; by practising a 'clean desk statement'; and by providing secure storage for physical records.
SKINS do not store any payment method credentials (credit card numbers, expiry dates, CVV numbers, 3D-Secure credentials). When you complete a transaction on our website, we use payment pages hosted by a Payment Service Srovider ("PSP"), thus preventing their disclosure to SKINS. The PSPs that SKINS use do retain a restricted set of payment method credentials as permitted by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) for purposes such as (but not limited to) fraud prevention and issuance of refunds.
We utilise "cookies" which enable us to monitor traffic patterns and to serve you more efficiently if you revisit the site. A cookie does not identify you personally but it does identify your computer. You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie and this will provide you with an opportunity to either accept or reject it in each instance.
First-party cookies are necessary (must be turned on) for us to execute a transaction on the Websites; that is, the cookies we set uniquely identify you as a user and the contents of your shopping cart while you are shopping. Our Websites do not set any so-called "Third-Party" cookies (ie set cookies on behalf of other parties), but the analysis services we use (e.g. Google, and others; their 'tracking bugs' Javascript code) will set and use cookies that can link to you whilst you are browsing other sites on the internet (such as on social media platforms. These are normally used for remarketing purposes and for us to deliver more relevant contet.
We will not sell or otherwise provide your personal information to a third party, or make any other use of your personal information, for any purpose which is not incidental to your use of the Websites. For the removal of doubt, personal information will not be used for any purpose which a reasonable person would not expect.
SKINS uses secure methods to destroy or de-identify any personal information as soon as the law permits, provided the information is no longer needed by us for any purpose.
PLEASE NOTE: The information that you provide to us will be sent and shall pass through our internet servers located in the USA, Ireland, The Netherlands and Germany. Some of your information will also be held by our ERP system in Switzerland under the direct control of SKINS International Trading AG. Further, our administration of privacy matters across the SKINS family of companies and under this Privacy Statement is carried out in Switzerland by SKINS International Trading AG. As such, personal information that you provide to us will necessarily pass outside the borders of the Commonwealth of Australia for the purposes of successfully completing any transactions or requests from you.
9. Rights to Disclose Personal Information
We may need to disclose personal information to various organisations and/or parties (such as delivery service providers, information technology services providers, marketing service providers, market research agents, business partners and affiliate companies of SKINS) from time to time to help us to provide and market our goods and services to you. In some instances, we may need to disclose personal information to organisations and/or parties in a foreign country where, for example, this disclosure or transfer of personal information is necessary to enable the performance of our services (such as customs departments and postal services).
Such disclosure will be only for purposes related to the primary purpose for which your personal information was collected, and will not be for any purpose that you would not reasonably expect.
For all other purposes, your consent is generally required prior to disclosure of personal information, however we may still use or disclose that information if:
- (a) we subsequently notify you of the intended use or disclosure and you do not object to that use or disclosure;
- (b) we believe that the use or disclosure is reasonably necessary to assist a law enforcement agency or an agency responsible for government or public security in the performance of their functions; or
- (c) we are required by law to disclose the information.
We will preserve the content of any e-mail you send us if we believe we have the legal requirement to do so.
Your e-mail message content may be monitored by us for trouble-shooting or maintenance purposes or if any form of e-mail abuse is suspected.
Personal information which we collect may be aggregated for analysis but in such circumstances we would ensure that individuals remain anonymous.
If you request us not to use personal information in a particular manner or at all, we will adopt all reasonable measures to observe your request.
10. Correction of Information
We take all reasonable steps to ensure that all personal information we hold is accurate, complete and up to date. Users and other individuals should update and maintain their contact details within their online account, by logging into the Websites using their personal login and password and accessing their account information.
If something is not right then tell us at the Privacy Address.
11. Access to Information
Individuals are entitled to request access to any personal information relating to them that has previously been supplied to us over this Websites. They are entitled to edit or delete such information unless we are required by law to retain it.
We will process requests within 30 days. More time may be needed, depending on the nature of the request. Appropriate identification of the individual concerned will be confirmed before access is provided.
There is no fee charged for requesting access to your personal information, however we may charge you for the reasonable cost of processing your request.
In certain circumstances, we may refuse or limit your access to your personal information. If we do so, we will inform you in writing as to the reasons why that sets out:
- (a) the reasons for the refusal except to the extent that, having regard to the grounds for the refusal, it would be unreasonable to do so; and
- (b) the mechanisms available to complain about the refusal; and
- (c) any other matter prescribed by the regulations.
12. Contacting us
If you wish to comment on, query or complain about our Privacy Statement, contact us via the Privacy Address or using the details provided below:
True Alliance Brands Pty Limited
19 O'Riordan Street
Alexandria, NSW 2015
+61 (0)2 8306 3300 /phone
firstname.lastname@example.com /email
Rest of World
SKINS International Trading AG
Sennweidstrasse 43
6312 Steinhausen
+41 (0)41 500 5500 /phone
firstname.lastname@example.com /email
13. Changes to our Privacy Statement
We may amend this Privacy Statement from time to time. Not all changes to our Privacy Statement will require the consent of our users, for example where office security procedures are changed. We will notify our users of any change to our information handling statement that requires your consent before implementing.
This Privacy Statement was last updated on 15 May 2018.


text: Once again Apple is approaching another big milestone for the amount of downloads they have had on the App Store. "The App Store is about to hit 25 billion downloads" is what is being shown on Apple's page at present along with a live feed which records each download that is being made from the App Store. This feed will be present on the Apple website until the 25th billion App has been downloaded, the person who does so will receive a prize of $10,000 to spend within the App Store (or iTunes + iBook Store) via a gift card.


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what nobody seems to have noticed is that Dogecoin and Bitcoin exist on a continuum with WoW "gold" and Amazon gift cards— Giles Goat Boy (@gilesgoatboy) December 24, 2013
it's not so much that BTC is more libertarian than gold or dollars. it's that it's much, much less corporate than Visa and gift cards— Giles Goat Boy (@gilesgoatboy) December 24, 2013
governments lost control of the financial systems a good long while ago anyway.— Giles Goat Boy (@gilesgoatboy) December 24, 2013
Bitcoin's been around for years. I built an hourly exchange rate updater for it in 2011, while having a conversation with a bunch of people at a JavaScript meetup at the Farmhouse. I think I had been persuaded to buy some Bitcoins a year or two earlier, in the same house, at a Ruby meetup where we paid for a pizza using Stripe and an iPhone. I think most people had paid by swiping their card, while somebody else offered to chip in a Bitcoin, and the conversation went on from there, but I don't really remember, because it was so long ago. And that's the point. In Internet years, Bitcoin's already ancient.
However, despite Bitcoin's relative antiquity, it's only seen a lot of discussion in Rubyist "thought leader" circles quite recently, thanks mainly to its recent surges and plummets in price (which have been its largest so far, but by no means atypical). Alex Payne contributed some well-intentioned but sadly irrelevant and intellectually dishonest criticism, which aimed for political significance, and certainly raised valid concerns, but in my opinion amounted to little more than a former banking CTO announcing a personal change in the direction of his own life. People I respect had praise for this blog post, but personally, it just reminded me of the people in 1994 who told me the Web was just a fad and AOL was the future of the Internet.
Anyway, Steve Klabnik also wrote some wonderful rambling nonsense about how great Dogecoin is. But the best remark, in my opinion, came in the form of a joking tweet from Phil Hagelberg. Take a second and THINK ABOUT WHAT THIS ACTUALLY MEANS:
Is there a site yet where you can make your own cryptocurrency by entering a name, a cap and an optional logo?— Phil Hagelberg (@technomancy) December 22, 2013
Pretty sure the answer's no, but you could build that site today.
Update: that site now exists.
Here's why this matters.
Historically, the American people have had at least nominal control over financial policy, but that era's basically over. On the one hand, the Federal Reserve doesn't answer to the people at all, and on the other hand, government doesn't really control money any more anyway.
Control over money was a government privilege for a very long time, but Visa, MasterCard, and a few other corporations have basically built a private, corporate, money-like system on top of money itself, which these corporations own, control, and sometimes illegally misuse to further their own political agendas. Visa et al have used the classic Microsoft "embrace and extinguish" strategy to mostly replace cash with their own private infrastructure. (The "mostly" part is what that classic William Gibson quote really means.) Simultaneously, investment banks have used international currency trading to turn money from a bastion of governmental authority into a commodity like any other, thereby shifting power from governments to markets. On top of all that, it isn't really about the money supply any more, it's about the credit "supply," and the people who control that can basically use their control to extort governments.
The major dilemma in American politics is that we have excellent protections (at least on paper) against abuses of governmental power, and far weaker protections against abuses of corporate power. There's a danger there for the 99%, because in America, monetary policy has become something so similar to privatized that you need a constitutional lawyer, an economics professor, and an electron microscope to spot the difference.
Venture capitalists are undoubtedly going to build new corporations around Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, but most people over-estimate the importance of venture capital in this equation. For one thing, Coinbase's use of Mongo DB makes me think they're trying to crowdsource eventual consistency by having their customers email them a screenshot of every transaction. More importantly, cryptocurrencies are fundamentally peer-to-peer and open source. They're not creating new proprietary tech, like old-school venture capital projects in the 1980s. Like many things venture capital does today, they're really just trying to capture and control the wealth generated by programmers sharing code for free, or at most add value on top.
In political terms, that makes Bitcoin far less a tool of corporate control than Visa, MasterCard, Wall Street, and the Federal Reserve combined.
If you can't see how open source, peer-to-peer currency can be revolutionary, you need to read Marshall McLuhan, Bruce Sterling, and William Gibson. Catch up with the 1970s and 1980s, in other words. For bonus points, read Here Comes Everybody, by Clay Shirky, and catch up with 2009 as well. (And it's kind of a joke if you're talking about Dogecoin but you've never read Down And Out In The Magic Kingdom.)
TLDR: Peer-to-peer and open source technologies give power to networks of people -- whether large or small, whether public or private -- without corporate or governmental control. That's what puts the punk in cyberpunk. To quote Bruce Sterling:
Bruce Sterling: Cyberpunks have been cyber for decades now. Our society is pretty much cyber-everything, nowadays. Some aspects of it are even post-cyber. That's okay, you get used to that process. "Normality" comes and goes for a sci-fi writer, but "eerie" you always have with you...
What film best represents your vision of a cyberpunk or high-tech dystopian future?
Bruce Sterling: As for the "cyberpunk" part, forget about "the movies." Abstract motion-graphics coded in Processing and posted on Vimeo, that's "cyberpunk." You don't wanna make movies that are about guys with computers. You want to use digital composition to seize control of the means of producing cinema. And then do it all yourself! That's "punk." Hollywood product is commerce, it's about fanboy culture.
While it's certainly very likely that monied elites will find ways to survive and even profit from this radical transformation, if it indeed goes forward, Bitcoin's designed to build an economy where we don't need governments and we don't need corporations. If you hope to do anything more punk rock than that, ever in your life, good fucking luck. Of course, the question of whether Bitcoin succeeds in practice is different from the question of what potential Bitcoin has in theory. However, at least in theory, Bitcoin attacks the two biggest necessary evils of economics and takes the "necessary" part out of the equation in either case.
And since it's open source, any corporate or governmental system set up to control it is inherently optional. Any group can fork an existing currency and create their own economy. Any ethnic group, any subculture, any open source community, yes, but note that I didn't even say "any group of people." Cryptocurrencies offer similar options to, for instance, any group of pieces of software. If you want to leverage the chaotic nature of market economies to manage some computational resource, you can. The bad news: chaotic systems are chaotic. But the good news is that the foundation for your software already exists, and will cost you nothing.
I'm not even saying all of this is good. I'm saying it's all a big deal. The question with Bitcoin is not "is this a VC fantasy or a way to make money?" The question with Bitcoin is "is this merely a way to make money, or will this become a bigger deal than the invention of the Web?"
If you enjoyed reading this, I am extremely happy to accept tips via Bitcoin (167E9cAhbsyMo2RNm1xUwSy8LseMnPct8M) or Dogecoin (DDG4FJFin5Sap4e872LWamvxWUcbMnoFte). And keep in mind how easy it would be to tip me, or anyone, if these addresses were not text to copy and paste, but
<a href="btc://167E9cAhbsyMo2RNm1xUwSy8LseMnPct8M"> links to click instead.


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JD Supra Corporate Brief: Cyber Attacks, Patent Eligibility, Proxy Voting, Dodd-Frank
You've got mail! Or rather, you WOULD have mail if you signed up for email delivery of the JD Supra Corporate Brief… Is your IT security keeping up with increasingly complex and sophisticated cyber attacks? (Bertrand Liard and Agathe Malphettes at White & Case) Wonder if your subject matter is patent eligible? Check the new… Read more »


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The Helios 2 is the best fly rod the world has ever seen. Made in USA.
Why would we take the world's best fly rod and change it? The answer is simple. We're driven by constant improvement. Put this rod in your hands and feel the rush. You'll completely understand.
The wind swirls across the flat as the sun blasts you from above. A silvery streak flickers beneath the surface. This is your one shot. Make it count. Make sure you're fishing the Helios 2. Strong, light in the hand, and deadly accurate, the 908-4 Helios 2 is the most complete and versatile big-game fly rod we've ever produced. Swing steelhead flies in sub-zero weather or toss Crazy Charlies in triple-digit temperatures; the H2 doesn't care. He's hungry for big flies, big water, and even bigger fish. Give him what he wants. Proudly made in Manchester, Vermont, USA.


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Certain types of dietary fiber may be protective against asthma. Experts note the incidence of asthma is increasing in less developed countries, as people there shift their eating habits away from high-fiber foods in favor of processed ones.
We get two types of dietary fiber from food--insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fiber, from foods like whole grains, cucumbers, and broccoli, includes so-called roughage, which helps cleanse the bowel.
A new study by researchers in Switzerland suggests that soluble fiber, which comes from fruits and vegetables, and is broken down by microbes in the intestines, may reduce inflammation in the lungs.
Benjamin Marsland, an immunologist at the University of Lausanne, says that until recently, asthma was virtually unknown in nations where people eat a lot of soluble fiber. "In some countries, Burkina Faso, for example, dietary fiber intake is very high and there is no development of allergies, whereas in westernized countries we have an intake of dietary fiber is low and the allergies have been increasing," Marsland said.
Gut bacteria break down soluble fiber, which includes pectin from apples, berries, and citrus, into short-chain fatty acids. Marsland says the fatty acids interact with spongy tissue inside the bones, where protective immune cells are produced, and help quiet immune system overactivity. An overzealous immune reaction can lead to inflammation.
To see whether dietary fiber could influence disease development outside the digestive tract, such as asthma, Marsland and colleagues studied two groups of rodents. One group of mice had been fed a diet high in soluble fiber for two weeks while the other group was fed a diet low in pectin. Both groups were then exposed to dust mites, a leading cause of asthma, a condition marked by lung inflammation, narrowing of the airways, and wheezing.
Marsland says the mice that ate less soluble fiber had strong allergic reactions to the dust, including the presence of inflammatory compounds in the lungs and constricted airways similar to what's seen in people. The mice that consumed food rich in pectin, according to Marsland, had lower levels of the immune cells that are usually elevated in allergic asthma.
"So the mechanism through which diet is helping the lung is the dietary fiber changes the bacteria in our intestinal tract, which changes the metabolites in our circulation. This is influencing how our immune cells develop," he said.


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Tech Team Successfully Participates in Math Modeling Contest, April 29, 2005
by George Zamora
SOCORRO, N.M., May 21, 2005 – A mathematical modeling team comprised of New Mexico Tech undergraduates Jeremiah Gage, T.J. McCormack, and Aaron Wilson recently was awarded a "successful participant" mention in the 21st Annual Mathematical Contest in Modeling (MCM).
New Mexico Tech mathematics professor Brian Borchers served as the team's faculty advisor.
The 2005 MCM, held earlier this year, was primarily conducted as an international online contest, with 644 teams representing institutions from ten countries participating this year.
The four-day contest requires that competing teams research, model, and submit solutions to one of two mathematical modeling and interdisciplinary problems posed.
This year, Problem B, which was successfully solved by the New Mexico Tech team, asked competitors to develop a model to determine the optimal number of tollbooths in a barrier-toll plaza.
Major funding for the MCM is provided by a grant from the National Security Agency and support from the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications, which administers the annual contest.


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[Skip to content]
Before making a complaint, please read the complaints procedure, which includes details of contacting the council.
Individual councillors
Use our our online search facility for the relevant councillor which includes the various ways you can contact the councillor.
Contact the webmaster
For any feedback/questions regarding the Gosport website, email: email@example.com.


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At the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Midlands, we know that the future of our country rests with its children. Todays kids will become tomorrows parents, workforce, and leaders. Thats why were proud that young people from across the midlands are building and planning their futures as members of our Clubs. Our community of staff, volunteers, parents, and supporters believe that the promise of tomorrow begins today. Together, we give young people and the midlands a sense of hope, a sense of opportunity, a sense that anything is possible because great futures starts here.
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To enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens.


text: Since its inception, Audi has implanted the "leading technology" into its bloodline. In order to better interpret the progressive spirit of Audi's century-long sports gene, FAW - VW Audi has designed multi-level training experiences based on the various needs of different customers. It also covers a series of international high-end sports, which highlights the brand values of "progressiveness, sophistication and sportiness". As these sports events are getting more and more influential, the brand awareness and customer loyalty are enhanced remarkably.


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Salman Rushdie has just published a memoir — Joseph Anton — of his life under the fatwa promulgated against him by Ayatollah Khomeni on account of Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses. I have taken my bearings on this saga from Daniel Pipes's prescient treatment of it in The Rushdie Affair, originally published in 1990. In his rewarding New Republic review/essay, Paul Berman cites Kenin Malik's From Fatwa to Jihad, which also sounds like a valuable contribution.
Berman finds that the presence of Saul Bellow looms large in Rushdie's thinking about his experience, and Bellow appears in Berman's essay almost as a motif. The heart of these references to Bellow follows below, but there are more references in the review. Early on Berman observes that Rushdie is a man of the left:
But this is not to say that, in Joseph Anton, Rushdie sets out to defend The Satanic Verses in a froth of left-wing enthusiasm. Mostly he defends his novel on literary grounds. He quotes Saul Bellow, the non-leftist. Or rather, he quotes the college dean in Bellow's The Dean's December, who, speaking on behalf of a dog, says, "For God's sake, open the universe a little more!"—though Rushdie, given his Bombay rationalism, leaves out mention of the deity. He is fond of the quotation, though. Opening the universe means, in this instance, getting away from the pressures of identity politics. It means escaping from the easy assumption that people in other lands must surely be different from oneself.
In the essay's third section Berman considers the role of Bellow and Herzog in Rushdie's account:
IT IS REMARKABLE how frequently Saul Bellow's name comes up in Joseph Anton. Among the British writers of Rushdie's generation, Bellow seems to have long ago become a cult figure, though why this should be so is less than obvious. It cannot be Bellow's politics. Rushdie tells us in his memoir that, during the same New York PEN congress in 1986 at which he was recruited to serve the Sandinista cause, he listened to Bellow argue with Günter Grass at one of the big public events—a much-discussed exchange at the time, one of the last public literary disputes of the cold war, with Bellow speaking for a sober appreciation of America and Grass acting as the accusing spokesman for the wretched of the Bronx and other unhappy parts of the Earth. Rushdie was on Grass's side. He stood up, at Grass's instigation, to put an anti-imperialist question to Bellow: "Why it was that so many American writers had avoided—or, actually, more provocatively, 'abdicated'—the task of taking on the subject of America's immense power in the world?" And in Joseph Anton Rushdie recalls the response: "Bellow bridled. 'We don't have tasks,' he said majestically. 'We have inspirations.'"
Bellow's bridling may explain why Rushdie so insistently invokes him in the memoir. Bellow did have inspirations, and chief among those inspirations was a theory about inspirations. He alluded to it even at the PEN congress. His theory was the old Romantic idea, derived from his own readings in the English literary tradition, together with bits and pieces from other literatures. Bellow liked to believe that mysterious spiritual truths lurk beneath the surface details of everyday reality, and that geniuses of literature or philosophy might be capable of glimpsing downward into the mysterious truths, and might offer mankind insights capable of producing a useful turning point or two—new and liberating recognitions. His More Die of Heartbreak came out roughly at the same time as The Satanic Verses—Rushdie mentions it in Joseph Anton—and duly unveiled the Romantic theory once again: the hidden spiritual truths, the turning points, and so forth, not to mention the grandeurs of William Blake and Edgar Allan Poe and even Alexandre Kojève, the Hegelian, the intellectual heroes of this particular novel. The several ideas added up to a doctrine of literary heroism—a theory about writers as the champions of mankind, promoting civilization through feats of literary insight or inspiration.
Then again, Bellow, not being an idiot, was aware that two hundred years of modern science had taken a toll on the metaphysical ruminations of Blake, Poe, and Hegel. To uphold the old Romantic ideas in the face of science may be a noble enterprise; but it skirts being a ridiculous enterprise. Bellow preferred not to be at war with reality. Accordingly he wrote one novel after another evoking soulful professors who appear to be drunk on the grand fermented old Romantic ideas, and meanwhile can barely cope with their impossible wives and lovers and a sinister landscape of gangsters and other practical-minded people. The bookish Quixotes go on clinging to their Romantic beliefs even so, and they end up exuding a mysterious moral seriousness, which is immensely moving—as if the antiquated Romantic notions about hidden truths and deep inspirations must somehow be on the mark, in spite of everything. And this—the whole set of Bellovian ideas and landscapes—is evidently what appeals to Salman Rushdie.
The tom-tom beating in Rushdie's ear through whole portions of Joseph Anton is unmistakably Bellow's. In the opening sentence you discover that Rushdie has written his memoirs in the third person, as if the fatwa had fallen upon someone else—a hapless and noble "him" whose adventures Rushdie can speak about only with ironic detachment. By the second paragraph you have already begun to suspect that "Salman Rushdie," the hero of the book, is under assault not just by the lunatic ayatollah but also by a dangerous and equally sinister second person, who is described as an "American novelist," namely, Mrs. Rushdie. The wife seems to have been imported directly from Bellow's pages. She tells Rushdie's friends that he has attacked her with lighted cigarettes. She steals his photograph albums and papers. She tries to sell a manuscript of The Satanic Verses—even as Rushdie continues writing in his private journal (or so he affirms) that he and his wife "still loved each other." She tells him that she has cancer and has been undergoing radiotherapy under the care of a London oncologist, but the oncologist says he does not know her. She goes to the United States and telephones Rushdie trans-Atlantically to inform him that somehow the CIA has discovered his hideout in Britain and has broken into the house to steal his papers, which she has learned over coffee with a CIA agent. Rushdie passes the news along to his protectors from Scotland Yard, who pass it along to the higher-ups, who have no alternative but to pass it along to still higher-ups, until at last the report about the CIA possibly breaking into Rushdie's hideout is brought to the attention of the British prime minister and the president of the United States. But, no, the CIA has done nothing of the sort. The wife also sleeps with Rushdie's best friend—this last detail straight from the pages of Herzog. "And when the brightness blazed from her face," Rushdie writes about his soon to be ex-wife, "she could look fabulously attractive, or nuts, or both"—a fine Bellovian sentence.
And all the while Rushdie shows us that his persecuted and inadequate hero—himself—inhabits a universe that is likewise nuts. The account of his continual flight from one safe house to another recalls passages from the autobiographical volumes by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, in grim demonstration that books by Muslim apostates on the run from terrorists have become a modern genre. His account of the police goes beyond anything in Hirsi Ali's books, if only because Scotland Yard revels in a sort of Sherlock Holmes colorfulness that may not appeal to its Dutch counterparts. He attends the protection squad's annual party—the "secret policeman's ball," he calls it—where he meets some of the other notable worthies under "protection," not excluding Thatcher herself.
He also glimpses a still larger landscape of world politics that is entirely malign. The British government turns out to have had interests that impinged on poor Rushdie and his fate—the British interest in getting along with the Islamic Republic of Iran, for instance, in the context of the first Gulf war and in regard to British hostages in Lebanon, all of which made it seem as if the dreadful Geoffrey Howe might well be capable of making some sort of deal with the Iranians at Rushdie's expense. The Americans appear to be not much different, though Rushdie was accorded a not quite formal audience with President Clinton somewhere in the labyrinths of the Old Executive Office Building, next door to the White House. Eventually John Major, Thatcher's successor, accorded Rushdie a full audience—and like Rushdie's mother, except in English, took the occasion to lecture Rushdie on the need to show more graciousness in his relations with the British public.
RUSHDIE IS NOT easy on himself. He denounces his own worst failing, as he takes it to be, his "Dreadful Mistake," which was a moment of cowardice early in the affair. He allowed the British Muslim leaders to convince him that, if only he expressed contrition, his problems would come to an end. So he announced his conversion to Islam and even published an apologetic essay—only to recognize quickly enough that he had been duped by the Muslim leaders, who had no intention of rescuing him from the mad ayatollah but were delighted to reveal him as a malleable weakling. He was mortified, and his friends and supporters were mostly appalled.
Then he recovered from the Dreadful Mistake and, in demonstration of his self-correction, he emits in Joseph Anton a series of fiery and exasperated denunciations of people and ideas that he has had to oppose. Here is a high point of the book; and the high point turns out to be an extended homage to Bellow. Rushdie has composed the denunciations in the form of fantastical letters addressed to the high-and-mighty, not to mention the Almighty, precisely and deliberately in the style of Professor Herzog's fantastical and slightly cracked letters. "Dear Religion, Can I raise the question of first principles?" begins one of Rushdie's letters. Another begins, "Dear God," and goes on to harangue Him on matters relating to the Islamic philosophers of the Middle Ages. The letters are wry, but in their faintly humorous way they offer a solid self-defense, not precisely of The Satanic Verses but of his general outlook.
"Dear Sunday Telegraph," he begins: "The notion that I have done nothing wrong and, as an innocent man, deserve to be able to lead my life as I choose has evidently been considered and eliminated from your range of options." To the chief rabbi [who had all but justified the fatwa] he says, in epistolary form: "You do not care how stupid you look." The most telling of the letters is addressed to a member of parliament named Bernie Grant. "Dear Bernie Grant, MP," it begins: "'Burning books,' you said in the House of Commons exactly one day after the fatwa, 'is not a big issue for blacks.'" Rushdie responds, in a fashion that owes something to the well-dressed philosopher in Bellow's final novel, Ravelstein, or to the model for Bellow's fictional character, the Chicago philosopher Allan Bloom….
Berman's essay is something of a tour de force and worth reading in its entirety.
Via RealClearPolitics.


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