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Author Affiliations: University of Bordeaux, National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS 5287), Bordeaux, France (Dr Swendsen); Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland (Drs Burstein and Merikangas and Ms He); Health Services Research Program, Emma Pendleton Bradley Hospital, East Providence, Rhode Island (Dr Case); Division of Epidemiology, Services, and Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, Maryland (Dr Conway); and Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (Dr Dierker).
Context Comprehensive descriptions of substance use and abuse trajectories have been lacking in nationally representative samples of adolescents.
Objective To examine the prevalence, age at onset, and sociodemographic correlates of alcohol and illicit drug use and abuse among US adolescents.
Design Cross-sectional survey of adolescents using a modified version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview.
Setting Combined household and school adolescent samples.
Participants Nationally representative sample of 10 123 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years.
Main Outcome Measures Lifetime estimates of alcohol and illicit substance use and DSM-IV diagnoses of abuse, with or without dependence.
Results By late adolescence, 78.2% of US adolescents had consumed alcohol, 47.1% had reached regular drinking levels defined by at least 12 drinks within a given year, and 15.1% met criteria for lifetime abuse. The opportunity to use illicit drugs was reported by 81.4% of the oldest adolescents, drug use by 42.5%, and drug abuse by 16.4%. The median age at onset was 14 years for alcohol abuse with or without dependence, 14 years for drug abuse with dependence, and 15 years for drug abuse without dependence. The associations observed by age, sex, and race/ethnicity often varied significantly by previous stage of use.
Conclusions Alcohol and drug use is common in US adolescents, and the findings of this study indicate that most cases of abuse have their initial onset in this important period of development. Prevention and treatment efforts would benefit from careful attention to the correlates and risk factors that are specific to the stage of substance use in adolescents.
The patterns of alcohol and drug use that emerge during adolescence are increasingly recognized as important determinants of later substance use behavior and associated disorders.1- 9 Estimates from major surveys in the United States, including the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH),10 the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES),11 and the Monitoring the Future study,12 indicate that by 17 years of age most adolescents (59% to 71%) had consumed alcohol, 31% to 44% had tried cannabis, and 4% to 6% had tried cocaine. Although each of these investigations provides information on the prevalence of alcohol or drug use among adolescents, only the NSDUH examined substance use disorders, and the assessments were limited to symptoms experienced during the previous 12 months. The only national survey to use direct diagnostic interviews regarding both current and lifetime substance use among US adolescents recently described large increases in the cumulative incidence of substance use disorders between 13 and 18 years of age13 and an overall lifetime prevalence that approaches that of adult samples.14- 17 Nationally representative data concerning the full trajectory of substance use and associated disorders in adolescence have been lacking and are necessary for attaining further progress in prevention and public health objectives.18
In addition to more complete descriptions of substance use trajectories in adolescents, assessment of factors associated with the development of substance use disorders in nationally representative samples is crucial. Epidemiologic investigations of adults have consistently demonstrated a higher prevalence of abuse and dependence among males,14- 20 as well as decreased prevalence of these disorders among certain minority ethnic subgroups.14- 17,21 Despite the marked increase in the prevalence of substance use disorders from early to late adolescence,13 it is uncertain to what degree these sociodemographic differences may characterize recent adolescent cohorts. For example, no salient sex differences were observed for initial alcohol or illicit drug use in NHANES between 1999 and 2004, and ethnic differences for illicit substances in this investigation were at times contrary to the adult literature.11 An additional rationale for understanding sociodemographic variation is the need for information concerning the timing of their influence across the substance use trajectory. Recent analyses of population-based surveys have shown that the magnitude and even direction of associations observed for many sociodemographic variables are specific to stages of use.16,17,22,23 Analyses of sociodemographic factors conditioned on stage of previous use are currently lacking in US adolescent samples, and little is known about the timing of their expression during this key stage of development.
The present investigation examines these issues in the National Comorbidity Survey–Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a nationally representative survey that used direct diagnostic interviews with youth aged 13 to 18 years. The goals of this report are to (1) describe the prevalence of 4 lifetime stages of alcohol use (use, regular use, abuse without dependence, and abuse with dependence) and 4 lifetime stages of illicit drug use (opportunity to use, first drug use, drug abuse without dependence, and drug abuse with dependence); (2) estimate the prevalence of these stages by age, sex, and race/ethnicity; and (3) examine the association of these sociodemographic variables with the risk of transition among stages.
The NCS-A is a nationally representative, face-to-face survey of 10 123 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years in the continental United States conducted between February 1, 2001, and January 30, 2004.24 The survey was administered by the professional interview staff of the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. There were 197 interviewers supervised by a team of 18 experienced regional supervisors. A study manager located at the central facility in Michigan oversaw the work of the supervisors and their staff. The NCS-A was performed in a dual-frame sample that included a household subsample and a school subsample.24- 27 The overall NCS-A response rate combining the 2 subsamples was 82.9%. Comparisons of sample and population distributions on US Census sociodemographic variables, and in the school sample on school characteristics, documented only minor differences, which were corrected with poststratification weighting. The recruitment and consent procedures were approved by the Human Subjects Committees of both Harvard Medical School and the University of Michigan. On making in-person contact, the interviewer answered questions before obtaining written informed consent from the parent and then written informed assent from the adolescent. Once the survey was completed, cases were weighted for variation in within-household probability of selection (in the household subsample) and for residual discrepancies between the sample and the US population on the basis of sociodemographic and geographic variables. These weighting procedures are discussed in more detail elsewhere.26,27 Sociodemographic variables examined in this report include age (in years), sex, and self-described race/ethnicity. Approximately half the sample was male (51.3%) and the mean age was 15.2 years, with a larger proportion of adolescents aged 13 to 14 years (36.2%) and approximately equal distributions of adolescents aged 15 to 16 and 17 to 18 years. The sample was composed of 65.6% non-Hispanic whites, 15.1% non-Hispanic blacks, and 14.4% Hispanics.
Adolescents were administered a modified version (version 3.0) of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI), a fully structured interview administered by trained lay interviewers to generate DSM-IV diagnoses.28 The modifications to the CIDI were conducted following a standard 4-step process of instrument development proposed by experts in survey methods.24 First, diagnostic sections of the adult CIDI were reviewed to determine whether assessment for particular disorders should be removed based on low presumed prevalence in adolescents. Second, the language in the remaining CIDI sections was modified to enhance comprehension with adolescents using an iterative process. Third, CIDI modules were modified in content to make them more germane to the contexts and experiences of adolescents. The most common change of this type required altering references from adult contexts (eg, work life and parenting) to adolescent contexts (eg, school life and peer relationships). Fourth, the finalized revision of each diagnostic module was reviewed for meaning, logic, and comparability to the adult version. Each diagnostic section was then systematically piloted to test the flow and timing among adolescents, with subsequent modifications to reduce the length of the diagnostic sections. Lifetime substance use disorders assessed in the CIDI included alcohol and drug abuse, and individuals fulfilling abuse criteria were administered questions concerning dependence criteria. This report therefore presents both categories of abuse (with or without dependence). In light of differences in the pertinence of diagnostic categories for nicotine, trajectories for this substance will be addressed in a separate manuscript. In addition to DSM-IV diagnoses, all respondents were asked about the use of diverse substances and their age at which specific stages of use first occurred. For alcohol, the lifetime use question concerned age at which respondents first (if ever) had a drink with alcohol, specified as beer, wine, wine coolers, and hard liquor (eg, vodka, gin, whiskey, and mixed drinks). First regular use of alcohol was defined as the age at which the respondent first had at least 12 drinks within a single year. For illicit drugs, participants were asked their age at which they had first (if ever) consumed a range of specific substances, including marijuana or hashish; cocaine in any form (eg, powder, crack, freebase, coca leaves, or paste); tranquilizers, stimulants, pain killers, or other prescription drugs either without the recommendation of a health professional or for any reason other than a health professional said they should be used; and heroin, opium, glue, lysergic acid diethylamide, peyote, or any other drug. Participants were also asked about the first time they had an opportunity to drink alcohol or use drugs, regardless of whether they used them. Opportunity to use was defined as when someone either offered them alcohol or drugs or when the individual was present when others were using and could have used if he or she wanted to. The age at first opportunity to use substances was recorded separately for alcohol and drugs. In light of the high availability of legal substances, such as alcohol, only opportunity to use illicit drugs is examined in this investigation.
Cross-tabulations were used to calculate the prevalence of the 4 stages of alcohol and drug use by demographic characteristics. Conditional prevalence estimates for each alcohol or drug use stage were also calculated among those who had reached the earlier stage of use. Estimated projections of the cumulative probability of stages of alcohol or drug use as of the age of 18 years were obtained by the actuarial method implemented in PROC LIFETEST in SAS statistical software (version 9.2; SAS Institute, Inc). The associations of age, sex, and race/ethnicity with the stages of alcohol or drug use were examined using multiple logistic regression analysis. Because the NCS-A data are both clustered and weighted, the Taylor series linearization method implemented in SUDAAN (version 10; Research Triangle Institute) was used to estimate standard errors of logistic regression coefficients. The coefficients and standard errors were exponentiated to produce odds ratios and 95% CIs. Significance of predictor sets was evaluated using Wald F tests based on design-adjusted coefficient variance-covariance matrices. Statistical significance was consistently evaluated using 2-sided tests with a .05 significance level.
Alcohol use, regular use, and abuse were highly prevalent among US adolescents (Table 1). Most of the sample (59.8%) reported alcohol use at some point in their lifetime, ranging from 42.5% for adolescents aged 13 to 14 years to 78.2% for adolescents aged 17 to 18 years. Nearly 1 in 10 adolescents reported regular alcohol use in the 13- to 14-year age cohort, a figure that increased to nearly half (47.1%) of adolescents aged 17 to 18 years. Concerning alcohol use disorders, 5.2% of all US adolescents met DSM-IV criteria for alcohol abuse without dependence and 1.3% for alcohol abuse with dependence. The prevalence of alcohol abuse with or without dependence ranged from 1.3% for the youngest cohort to 15.1% for adolescents 17 to 18 years old. The cumulative prevalence of alcohol use stages by age is presented in Figure 1. The median age at onset of each category was 13 years for first alcohol use and 14 years for regular use or abuse (with or without dependence).
Figure 1. Cumulative prevalence of alcohol use stages in the total sample (N = 10 123).
Male and female adolescents had essentially equivalent rates of any alcohol use, but male adolescents demonstrated slightly higher rates of regular use and abuse. These sex differences were larger in individuals aged 17 to 18 years than in the 2 younger cohorts. Black and other racial/ethnic groups generally reported lower rates of alcohol use, regular use, and abuse than either Hispanic or white adolescents. These racial differences were observed for each age cohort.
The conditional prevalence rates presented in Table 1 demonstrate salient effects for age in transitions among the stages of alcohol use. Only a few (22.8%) of the youngest users progressed to regular alcohol use, and 13.2% of this latter group developed abuse with or without dependence. By comparison, most adolescents (60.2%) 17 to 18 years old who used alcohol later reported regular alcohol use, and nearly 1 in 3 regular users (32.1%) in this age cohort met criteria for lifetime alcohol abuse with or without dependence. Regarding sex differences, male adolescents were more likely to make transitions among the stages, especially among the oldest adolescents. In addition, generally robust racial/ethnic differences were observed in the proportion of individuals making transitions from one alcohol stage to another. The percentage of individuals at each stage making transitions to the next was generally lowest for the black and other ethnic groups and was observable across all age cohorts.
Most US adolescents (60.2%) reported having had the opportunity to use illicit drugs (Table 2). This exposure concerned 39.2% of adolescents aged 13 to 14 years and 81.4% of adolescents aged 17 to 18 years, thereby doubling during the adolescent period. The use of illicit drugs for these same cohorts ranged from 9.6% (nearly a quarter of exposed youth aged 13-14 years) to 42.5% of the oldest adolescents (52.2% of those exposed), respectively. Abuse of illicit drugs was slightly more common than the abuse of alcohol, ranging from 3.4% of youth in the 13- to 14-year cohort to 16.4% of adolescents aged 17 to 18 years old. Figure 2 presents the cumulative prevalence of drug use stages by age. The median ages of onset for each category were 13 years for the first opportunity to use illicit drugs, 14 years for the first illicit drug use, 14 years for drug abuse with dependence, and 15 years for drug abuse without dependence. Similar to the pattern in alcohol use, there was a slight overall male preponderance in prevalence of stages of drug use, which was most pronounced among older adolescents. The same pattern of racial/ethnic differences was observed across the 3 age cohorts, with black and other racial/ethnic groups having typically lower rates than white or Hispanic adolescents. High rates of opportunity to use drugs and drug use were observed among Hispanic adolescents, especially in the youngest age cohort. Concerning conditional prevalence rates, 40.5% of the sample used illicit drugs when given the opportunity, and more than one-third of adolescents who used illicit drugs developed abuse (36.6%). The overall patterns of effects by sex and race/ethnicity in the conditional prevalence rates for drug use stages were highly similar to those observed for alcohol, as demonstrated by increasing male preponderance in transitions among older adolescents and generally lower rates of transitions, particularly among black adolescents. Concerning types of illicit drugs, cannabis was the most frequently used substance in all age cohorts (Table 3). The use of each category of illicit substance was again typically lowest for black adolescents and slightly higher for male adolescents compared with female adolescents, with the exception of prescription drug use.
Figure 2. Cumulative prevalence of drug use stages in the total sample (N = 10 123).
Adolescent age cohort, sex, and race/ethnicity in the risk of transition among the alcohol and drug use stages were examined in multivariate analyses (Table 4). For alcohol, the 2 younger age cohorts were less likely than adolescents aged 17 to 18 years to become regular drinkers if they had already consumed this substance and less likely to develop abuse (without dependence) if they had reached regular use levels. Female adolescents were also less likely to make the transition from any alcohol use to regular use, as were adolescents who were black or members of other racial/ethnic groups compared with white adolescents. However, the patterns observed for drug use categories were more complex in the multivariate analyses than those observed for alcohol. The 2 younger cohorts were less likely than older adolescents to use drugs when given the opportunity, but no significant sex differences were observed in the risk of transition among drug use stages. Black adolescents were less likely than white adolescents to use drugs when given the opportunity and less likely to abuse drugs (without dependence) if they were drug users. Conversely, adolescents of other racial/ethnic groups were more likely than whites to develop abuse with dependence if they were already drug users.
Knowledge of the developmental trajectories of alcohol and illicit drug use among US adolescents has relied on retrospective reports from nationally representative adult samples and on prospective observation of clinical cohorts and local community youth samples. The purposes of the present investigation were to estimate in a nationally representative sample of adolescents the prevalence of multiple states of alcohol and illicit drug use and abuse and to examine the association of sociodemographic variables with transitions across these substance use categories.
The present study reports several novel findings concerning the incidence and prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse among US youth. Although the NSDUH has shown that the rates of abuse with or without dependence of alcohol or illicit drugs have converged during the past several years among adolescents aged 12 to 17 years, we found greater rates for drug abuse (8.9%) than alcohol abuse (6.5%) among adolescents. Our conditional analyses also revealed high rates of regular use and abuse in adolescent substance users. Among alcohol users, 42.2% reported regular use, and 25.9% of these regular drinkers met criteria for abuse with or without dependence. For illicit substances, 40.5% reported using drugs after having had the opportunity to do so, and nearly 36.6% of drug users met criteria for abuse with or without dependence. These conditional rates are higher than base (unconditional) rates reported by prior surveys of youth and therefore provide additional information concerning risk of substance abuse after initial use during adolescence. The risk of drug abuse among adolescent users is of concern considering the recent findings from the Monitoring the Future and NSDUH, which show a resurgence of marijuana use among adolescents, even surpassing use of nicotine, a finding that may reflect increasingly tolerant attitudes concerning the use of illicit drugs.10,12
The median age at onset of alcohol abuse with or without dependence was 14 years, with 15.1% meeting diagnostic criteria by 18 years of age. Drug abuse was characterized by a similarly young median age at onset and with a prevalence of 16.4% among the oldest adolescents. These adolescent lifetime prevalence estimates for abuse can be compared with adult prevalences observed in the National Comorbidity Survey–Replication, a study that used parallel methods and was conducted concurrently with the NCS-A. Lifetime prevalence of alcohol abuse in the adult survey (18.6%) was only marginally higher than the adolescent prevalence we observed, whereas the prevalence of drug abuse among adults (11.1% overall and 15.1% for the youngest cohort aged 19-30) was actually lower than the adolescent prevalences we estimated.16,17
Taken together, these findings suggest greater incidence risk and lifetime prevalence of substance abuse during adolescence than has been estimated from adult samples.14- 17 Such differences are likely to reflect the inclusion of older-onset cases in investigations of adults and increases in retrospective memory biases in these samples. It also remains possible that younger cohorts are more likely to use specific substances or to use them at an earlier age. In this regard, the conditional analyses demonstrate that the risk of abuse among users is particularly high among the youngest adolescents. The conditional rate for abuse with or without dependence among the youngest drug users (13-14 years old) is 10-fold the unconditional rate (35.4% vs 3.4%). By contrast, the conditional rate of abuse with or without dependence among the oldest adolescents is just more than twice the unconditional rate (38.6% vs 16.4%). Although high conditional rates in younger adolescents may be partly attributable to the low unconditional prevalences, they nonetheless pinpoint early adolescence as a period of heightened risk for substance use and abuse.29,30 The elevated rate and risk of substance use and abuse among youth should be considered relative to neuroimaging data that demonstrate the occurrence of important maturational changes in the brain during adolescence, particularly in regions associated with regulatory control and decision making. Such normative developmental processes may be substantially compromised by substance use.31- 35
Although probability of each stage of alcohol and drug use increased with age, rates were almost always lowest for black and other racial/ethnic groups compared with white or Hispanic adolescents. These findings may contradict common assumptions but are consistent with previous investigations in adult and adolescent samples.10,11 No salient sex differences were observed in lifetime alcohol use, whereas minor differences were observed for all other stages of alcohol or drug use among adolescents aged 13 to 16 years. However, for those 17 to 18 years of age, male adolescents had notably higher rates for most stages of alcohol or drug use. These findings are globally consistent with previous reports of the associations between sociodemographic characteristics and substance use and substance use disorders11,12,14,16- 21,29 and indicate that sex differences in substance use behavior are most visible after 15 years of age. In conditional analyses, male alcohol users were significantly more likely to transition to regular alcohol use, whereas no sex differences were associated with drug use transitions. Reduced risk for black adolescents was significant only in transitions from alcohol use to regular use, from having the opportunity to use drugs to drug use, and from drug use to drug abuse without dependence. Despite lower rates of drug use among other racial/ethnic groups, these adolescents were more likely than white adolescents to transition from use to abuse with dependence. These findings are concordant with previous studies16,17,22,29 demonstrating that stage of previous substance use moderates the role of sociodemographic factors.
The principal strengths of this study include its use of a nationally representative adolescent sample with direct diagnostic interviews and the assessment of multiple stages of alcohol and drug use. Study limitations include its cross-sectional design, retrospective reporting for age at onset information, and the lack of assessment of alcohol or drug dependence without a history of abuse. However, although we would expect that only a small proportion of youth would be excluded in this latter reason, the conclusions are limited to the categories examined and may not be generalizable outside of the US adolescent population. Caution is also warranted in drawing parallels to findings from retrospective estimates in adult samples because such interviews may underestimate rates due to forgetting or other memory biases and may increase biases in estimates of age of disorder onset due to the longer period of recall.36
In addition, the use of the term lifetime to describe the prevalence of substance use disorders in adolescence does not necessarily indicate the persistence of these disorders in the long term, in particular because individuals may "mature out" of harmful substance use as they progress into adulthood or begin to assume adult responsibilities.37,38 A final limitation of the present investigation is that it cannot account for societal factors that vary over time and that affect prevalence rates, such as the degree of tolerance for specific illicit substances or their availability. It is important to consider that psychoactive substances are implicated in more than 12% of mortality worldwide and their use constitutes the leading cause of preventable death.39,40 Because the early onset of substance use is a significant predictor of substance use behavior and disorders in a lifespan,1- 9 the public health implications of the current findings are far reaching. The prevention of both alcohol and illicit drug abuse requires strategies that target early adolescence and take into account the highly differential influence that population-based factors may exert by stage of substance use. The lack of information concerning the precise stage of alcohol or drug use most associated with sociodemographic factors may partly explain the modest success observed for certain prevention strategies.41- 43 An additional challenge for national policy concerns the emergence of drug instrumentalization models that emphasize the adaptive role that psychoactive substances may play in the daily lives of nondependent individuals.44 The critical evaluation of such perspectives and the development of appropriate national policy on alcohol and drug use can only be achieved through empirical data describing the nature of harm or risk posed by alcohol and drugs.
Correspondence: Kathleen R. Merikangas, PhD, Genetic Epidemiology Research Branch, Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health, 35 Convent Dr, MSC 3720, Bethesda, MD 20892-3720 (email@example.com).
Submitted for Publication: June 7, 2011; final revision received August 11, 2011; accepted September 4, 2011.
Financial Disclosure: None reported.
Funding/Support: This work was supported by grant Z01 MH002808-08 from the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute of Mental Health. The NCS-A and the larger program of related National Comorbidity Surveys are supported by grant U01-MH60220 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and should not be construed to represent the views of any of the sponsoring organizations, agencies, or US government.
Additional Information: Jianping He, MSc, performed all statistical analyses for this investigation.
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Robert Gates in Neck Brace After Fall
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates is starting the new year in a neck brace after falling at his home Wednesday night, his office said.
Mr. Gates, who is preparing to hit the road to promote his new memoir, is wearing a neck brace after fracturing his first vertebrae in the fall at his home outside Seattle, the office said. Back in 2008, Mr. Gates suffered a broken shoulder after slipping on ice and missed a congressional hearing.
Mr. Gates is set to launch a book tour later this month to discuss "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War." The book, set for release on Jan. 14, is being billed as a candid, high-level, behind-the-scenes look at the Pentagon and White House under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
"Duty" delves into some of the biggest national security issues of the past decade, including the decisions behind the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the military surges in Iraq and Afghanistan, and release of classified military information by WikiLeaks.
Mr. Gates, the former Central Intelligence Agency director for President George H.W. Bush, took over as defense secretary in 2006 when the second Mr. Bush to become president asked him to return to government service. After he won the White House in 2008, Mr. Obama asked Mr. Gates to remain in the job. Mr. Gates left the Pentagon in 2011, two months after the military raid in Pakistan killed Mr. bin Laden.
Follow @wsjwashington on Twitter.

subset: commoncrawl


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Elkins man arrested for DUI, grand larceny
January 4, 2013
A 22-year-old Elkins man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly stole a vehicle and drove it while under the influence of alcohol....
Seriously,$25,000 cash or surety bond?? For a third offense DUI and grand larceny. Wow, maybe they will decide to do something with him after he kills someone? Probably not..
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Dumb as he looks ...
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Back to game info
PixelJunk 4am Screenshots for PS3On: PS3
Create and broadcast music over PSN.
Latest Articles for PixelJunk 4am
Nintendo needs a special new IP to save Wii U, says PixelJunk maker
Has faith the platform holder will come up with something.
PixelJunk 4am confirmed for May 15 release
PixelJunk 4am, the music creation game which lets users broadcast their creations over PSN, will be released on PSN on May 15, Q-Games has announced. The free PixelJunk 4am Viewer will also be released May 15.


text: Posted this one of me a couple years ago but is now a dead link and a lot of you probably know me better by now. I'm far right with the Yzerman jersey, grizzly looking guy in the middle is my buddy Matt and I think we all know who that man on the left is. This was taken late 2011, this is right in front of the doors to the Wings locker room.


text:
on December 23, 2012 - 12:31 AM
, updated December 23, 2012 at 2:07 AM
1. Get ready for the read option. Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill said this week the Dolphins don't "major" in running the read option, but after watching the Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson run all over the Bills last week, they may want to change their focus. The Dolphins have dabbled in the read option in recent weeks, running six plays out of the formation last week against Jacksonville. "We've had trouble with that zone-read type of deal and conventional runs we've picked it up and played a lot better since our bye week," Bills defensive tackle Kyle Williams said. "We just have to play a lot better against that because we're going to see a lot of that."
2. Reach the end zone. Pretty simple key to victory, right? Well, it wasn't against Miami in the first game. The Bills scored 19 points on a punt return for a touchdown and four field goals. The Dolphins, in fact, are the best team in the league at limiting opponents in the red zone. In 49 trips to the red zone this season, opponents have scored touchdowns just 19 times. That touchdown percentage of 38.8 is the best in the league. The Bills can help their cause today by giving C.J. Spiller the ball inside Miami's 20-yard line. They did that last week against Seattle, and Spiller scored a TD.
3. Get off the field. Third-down defense is such a key stat for the Bills. Last week, the Seahawks finished 5 of 11 on third downs, but set the tone early by picking up their first five. In the first meeting against the Bills, Miami went 3 of 10 on third down. That's part of the reason the Bills dominated time of possession, holding the ball for 10 more minutes. Last week against the Jaguars, Miami was better than 50 percent on third down, going 6 of 11. Three of the Dolphins' scoring drives went 10 plays or more. The Bills have to get off the field if they're given that many chances.
4. Control the lines again. The Bills were strong against the run in the first matchup with the Dolphins, limiting Reggie Bush to 20 yards on 10 carries, and the Dolphins as a team to 60 yards on 24 carries. Buffalo also registered three sacks on Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill. Bills defensive end Mario Williams has a favorable matchup against reserve right tackle Nate Garner. Bush is coming off a 100-yard game last week, but has a tendency to miss holes at times. If the Bills can bottle him up again, the Dolphins' run game will be hurting, because it's also without Daniel Thomas (knee injury). Conversely, the Bills rushed for 120 yards on offense. The return of center Eric Wood from a knee injury will be a big boost for the Bills up front. Buffalo's right tackle Sam Young has a huge test in Miami pass rusher Cameron Wake (14 sacks).
5. Back up their words. The Bills have said all the right things about playing for pride, in support of coach Chan Gailey, for jobs next season, blah blah blah. All those words ring hollow with efforts like last Sunday's. The Dolphins are an evenly-matched opponent. The Bills have said finishing the season 3-3 in the AFC East would represent progress. That's debatable.
Outlook: Since their Week 11 meeting with Buffalo, the Fins have gone 2-2 and played San Francisco. It's overstating things to say they're peaking, but they're playing better than Buffalo at the moment.
Prediction: Dolphins 20, Bills 13


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This Week on C9 1 year anniversary - cake, champagne, and Scott Hanselman
- Posted: Feb 07, 2009 at 12:15PM
- 17 comments
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Congrats all, I really enjoy TWOC9!
Now where do I send my postcard to get cake?
Good call, NONE of us got that reference and that's exactly what it is. I still think the scary animatronic monkey is cooler than K-9 and was robbed of first place.
Great show, it was pure fun and a big congrats on 1year B-day!
I tested the RAM disk idea, and it doesn't help. I used the RAM disk for two weeks and I ram extensive performance tests. I posted the results of my tests on my blog. Conclusion:
RAM disk doesn't speed up Visual Studio. I think that because of Visual Studio and Vista caching, there is no really benefit of manually copying files to a RAM disk.
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on February 13, 2013 - 7:34 PM
, updated February 13, 2013 at 9:15 PM
ALBANY – The state agency investigating the sexual harassment cases against a once-powerful Brooklyn assemblyman has sent its findings of ethical violations to two legislative panels for possible further action.
The probe against Democratic Assemblyman Vito Lopez by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics has been described by sources as explosive, and the ethics agency said it had found a "substantial basis'' to conclude wrongdoing was committed in the case.
Officials at the commission and the Senate and Assembly declined to make the report public.
While Lopez already has lost his political power since the scandal erupted last summer and could find himself now facing new legal problems, all eyes in Albany have been waiting for the report to see how far it might go in causing problems for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
"As we have said throughout, we are confident that the commission found no legal or ethical violation by Speaker Silver or his staff and urge the Legislative Ethics Commission to release the report immediately,'' Michael Whyland, a Silver spokesman, said in a statement Wednesday night.
Individuals subject to the "substantial basis'' charge by the ethics commission are required to have been sent a copy of the agency's findings. Lopez's lawyer was sent a copy of the report by commission officials. But Whyland said Silver and his office were not provided a copy, which suggests Silver will face no serious ethics allegations as a result of the probe.
The Manhattan Democrat approved a secret $103,000 settlement with taxpayer funds involving Lopez. Lopez, who had been chairman of the Assembly housing committee and served for years as the Democratic Party boss in Brooklyn, had been accused of sexually harassing two female staffers in his Albany offices, including an alleged incident in which he groped one of the women.
Silver last year defended his decision on the settlement as "legally correct and ethical'' and a way to resolve matters involving employees who are harassed by their bosses. But he said it was wrong "from the perspective of transparency.''
Silver said such confidential settlements would end in the Assembly and that any future cases would be brought to the legislative ethics panel for an investigation.
The investigation by the ethics commission, an agency heavy with senior staff who are loyalists of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, sent its "substantial basis investigation report'' to the Legislative Ethics Commission, a Senate and Assembly panel.
Senate Republicans declined to release the report, citing confidentiality rules. Sen. Andrew Lanza, a Staten Island Republican and co-chairman of the panel, was unavailable to comment.
Assemblyman Charles Lavine, a Long Island Democrat and the panel's other co-chairman, would not say if the report would be made public anytime soon.
The Joint Commission on Public Ethics cannot impose penalties on legislators or legislative employees. That will be up to the Legislative Ethics Commission. If it concurs with the joint commission's findings, the legislative panel can determine penalties in the matter.
The joint commission's statement Wednesday evening did not say if its findings were turned over to any criminal prosecutors. The Staten Island district attorney's office already has been investigating the episode for possible criminal violations.
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Secret DOJ Memo Suggests Drone Strikes May be Necessary to Kill American "Terrorists"
Jason Mick
February 5, 2013 1:55 PM
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Feb 9
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A drone strike in 2011 killed to American citizens associating with the terrorist group al-Qaida. The citizens had not been charged with crimes.
(Source: Drone Wars UK)
If Americans become "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaida or "an associated force", the memo suggests a death strike
U.S. Department of Justice
and Obama administration likely wished that a 16-page memo/white paper building a detailed case justifying killing American citizens with
drone strikes
never made it into the hands of the media. But that is precisely what ended up happening. The memo -- titled "
Lawfulness of a Lethal Operation Directed Against a U.S. Citizen who is a Senior Operational Leader of Al Qa'ida or An Associated Force
" --
NBC News
via a source who had access to it. And the memo's suggestion of highly qualified scenarios for death strikes is reviving a major debate over
due process and terrorism
I. Should the Feds Kill American Terrorists With Drones?
The memo in question was distributed to members of the
Senate Intelligence
Judiciary committees
in June. The committee members were asked to keep the information secret from the public and not discuss the memo's existence. Now the secret has slipped.
The debate revolves around whether Americans involved in terrorist groups such al-Qaida can reasonably be killed overseas, even if there is no intelligence to indicate that they are actively engaged in a plot to attack the U.S. Such was the case in the Sept. 2011 strike in Yemen that killed alleged al-Qaida operatives Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan. Neither man had ever been indicted by the U.S. government or formally charged.
The memo leak comes on the eve of the confirmation hearing for potential
U.S. Central Intelligence Agency
director John Brennan. Mr. Brennan, a former counterterrorism advisor to President Obama, was among the first to make the case publicly for deadly drone strikes on Americans involved with terrorist groups. At a speech last year he argued such strikes were "consistent with the inherent right of self-defense."
Those comments were echoed in March at a
Northwestern University
by Attorney General Eric Holder, who argued killing Americans targets could be justified if there is "an imminent threat of violent attack."
II. Memo Argues for Redefinition of "Imminent Threat" for Drone Killings
But the white paper goes beyond the public comments of Mr. Brennan and the Attorney General, arguing that even in cases where there is
a known imminent risk, use of deadly force is justified. This principle is described therein as a "broader concept of imminence", which suggests that mere membership and training activities in high-profile terrorist groups represents an imminent risk.
The memo suggests that if a capture operation on an American involved with a terrorist group would pose "undue risk" to American special forces soldiers, a death strike may become lawful, even if it was not already.
AG Holder perhaps alluded to such a premise in a comment in his speech, in which he said, "The Constitution does not require the president to delay action until some theoretical end-stage of planning, when the precise time, place and manner of an attack become clear."
The memo suggests joining a terrorist group and committing to "threatening" activities may be justification enough for the U.S. government to kill an American citizens without warrant.
[Image Source: Al Arabiya]
States the paper:
The condition that an operational leader present an 'imminent' threat of violent attack against the United States does not require the United States to have clear evidence that a specific attack on U.S. persons and interests will take place in the immediate future.
A lawful killing in self-defense is not an assassination. In the Department's view, a lethal operation conducted against a U.S. citizen whose conduct poses an imminent threat of violent attack against the United States would be a legitimate act of national self-defense that would not violate the assassination ban. Similarly, the use of lethal force, consistent with the laws of war, against an individual who is a legitimate military target would be lawful and would not violate the assassination ban.
The Obama Administration argues that targeted killings do not constitute assassinations (which an executive order bans). It also argues that they are Constitutional and not a war crime, when placed in the context of counterterrorism.
II. Even More Classified Memos Remains Secret
But the Obama Administration has also fought to keep precise details of its policy secret. The white paper, while confidential, mirrors arguments in even more highly classified memos on targeted killings from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, memos that are used as the basis for actual operations. Reportedly, the DOJ has refused to turn over these memos to Congress or even acknowledge they exist.
Sen. Ron Whyden
(D-OR) and a bipartisan group 10 other senators, have written
a letter
[PDF] to President Obama asking him to release the rumored classified DOJ memos on drone strikes on Americans. In the letter the group writes, "[T]here will clearly be circumstances in which the president has the authority to use lethal force [against Americans who fight against their own country]... [However] it is vitally important ... for Congress and the American public to have a full understanding of how the executive branch interprets the limits and boundaries of this authority."
The Obama administration opposed releasing classified details on its rules about killing terrorist American citizens. [Image Source: Matt Ortega/Flickr]
Jameel Jaffer, deputy legal director of the
American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU), argues in an
NBC News
interview about the less-classified memo, "This is a chilling document. Basically, it argues that the government has the right to carry out the extrajudicial killing of an American citizen. … It recognizes some limits on the authority it sets out, but the limits are elastic and vaguely defined, and it's easy to see how they could be manipulated. [It] redefines the word imminence in a way that deprives the word of its ordinary meaning."
The fight to release the more classified memos has been the subject of a court case brought by the ACLU and reporters at
The New York Times
. In U.S. federal District Court in New York,
Judge Colleen McMahon
expressed sympathy and support for the plaintiffs' arguments.
In her opinion she writes, "[Administration officials] had engaged in public discussion of the legality of targeted killing, even of citizens. [But they did so] in cryptic and imprecise ways, generally without citing … any statute or court decision that justifies its conclusions."
She told the plaintiffs that she would like to order the release of certain classified documents, but that a "thicket of laws" prevented her from releasing the information, even if it pertained to a topic in which the government, at face value, appeared to be behaving unconstitutionally.
NBC News [1]
, [2; memo],
remember me
This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled
RE: Coupled with gun control...
'Liberal' here: The intelligence reports that the executive presented in argument for the preemptive strike on, and subsequent occupation of Iraq, were flimsy at best, if not outright contrived. And that was gathered for an ENTIRE REGIME. I have absolutely ZERO confidence that this executive could gather credible evidence to support a preemptive strike against an individual, constitution and citizen-status aside. That is clearly why this is being conducted in secret. Current and past administrations know that, were they to present evidence in a court of law, it would not even come close to passing muster.
The executive branch is setting its own precedent and creating its own definitions at its convenience. This isn't new, but doing it in the name of the so-called 'Global War On Terror' (GWOT) is particularly insidious due to the fluid definition of what it is to be a terrorist. It is abundantly clear that the label 'terrorist' is arbitrarily given to those who the State deems to be a threat. There is no internationally agreed upon definition of terrorism, which is why governments are able to do this to begin with. Take Syria for example, the Assad regime has labeled the rebels as terrorists from day one. But from our perspective, they aren't terrorists as much as they are freedom fighters. Of course, it works the other way too. From the US government's perspective, those who were resisting the occupation in Iraq were deemed terrorists, but to those who cared to oust the occupying forces from Iraq, the terrorists suddenly became, once again, freedom fighters, for all intents and purposes. Herein lays the core problem, barring constitution and citizen-status, of the GWOT: Anyone at any time, can become a terrorist, which in past executives and the current executive, is evidence enough for assassination (murder).
And to those who insist that just because you don't see 'lefties' criticizing the Obama administration on this website about its fucked up policies, that it must mean there's a tacit lefty agreement for those policies, I say to you "pull your heads out of your asses." I frequent some pretty liberal websites (mainly for the witty banter in the comments), and get news-letters from an anarchist publication and I have not ONCE read an article or comment in support of the extrajudicial killing of ANY world citizens, American or not.
Also, to you Second Amendment freaks out there: Your gun as your defense in your upcoming imaginary (civil) war against a tyrannical government is pipe dreams. You would do well to concern yourselves with the gutting of the 4th , 6th, and 14th Amendments first, before setting your sites on the 2nd, because by the time you do that, the government will already know EVERYTHING there is to know about you, and will simply lock your ass up for thought crime. Also, just to entertain the idea of a civil war, it's not going to be divided neatly among loyalists v revolutionaries. It will be a fucking mess, and you will be pit against your family, friends, and neighbors. So get the god damn fantasy out of your gourds.
"Folks that want porn can buy an Android phone." -- Steve Jobs
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Wednesday, November 27, 2013
A name is the first gift parents give their pride and joy. In choosing this gift they should remember this is the kid they will depend on in their old age. When I think of all the names out there I kinda lucked out on the name gift. The second gift is the date of your birth and lady luck was not shining on me. December 21 is not the lottery jackpot of birthdays. Mother said not to blame her, she was expecting me in January and thought it was very rude of me to mess up so many plans by coming early. I guess if there had been a principal's office in the hospital nursery, I would have spent my first few hours on earth in a time-out crib, thus starting me out on the path of troublemaker.
My battle with the 21st was its closeness to Christmas. I got one gift with a happy birthday and Merry Christmas written on the card. It was just plain mean to do that to a child, well lets face it, to a grown up too. My parents did try to ease the pain. December 21 was officially the Christmas tree-decorating day at our house. For dinner's dessert the first fruitcake of the season was cut.
We baked our fruitcakes the day after Thanksgiving and stored them in a tall tin in the pantry. Every Friday Daddy would take them out and marinate the cakes in bourbon, rum, and brandy. I am one of the four people in the whole wide world who truly loves fruitcake. I begged for quite a few years to serve one as my birthday cake at my party, but Mother stood firm with her no. The last thing she needed was to have my friends staggering home with an alcoholic breath.
My town gave me our Christmas parade as a birthday present. All my party guests would pile into cars and go to town to enjoy the festivities. The high school band always started the parade. "Jingle Bells" never sounded so wonderful even though half of the band was playing a different song. Our mayor came by waving and grinning from ear to ear like he was the one, we all had come to see. Ha.
We were all anxiously waiting to hear the fire truck siren in the distance. It finally appeared with Santa sitting on top waving and throwing candy canes. The story passed down year after year was if you caught the treat, you were on the good list, but if you missed the candy cane, you were on the naughty page. I noticed that even the bad boys looked very nervous, if Santa's aim was off center. As for me, I could have signed a contract with any professional baseball team. I excelled at candy cane catching.
After the parade we piled back into the cars and went to my house for games and treats. My Nana always made my favorite cake, next to fruitcake – chocolate pound cake with chocolate frosting. Instead of pinning tails on a donkey, Mother came up with a different game. One year we pinned paper candles on a cake she had drawn on a big piece of paper. Another time we had to pin decorations on a paper Christmas tree. Even the bad boys had a good time.
As I look back on it, I know how blessed I have been. I had a whole town to throw a parade and even invited Santa because it was my birthday. No one had the heart to tell me that wasn't exactly true. But what was true, was a family that made so many days in my life so special and who loved me even if I did come too early. So you don't have to throw any candy canes. Santa knows I have been really good lately – well, really good for me.
Brenda Loyd Allred grew up in Summerville when it was a very small town. She now lives at Franke at Seaside with her husband Les.
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The Velvet Underground
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Few rock groups can claim to have broken so much new territory, and maintain such consistent brilliance on record, as
the Velvet Underground
during their brief lifespan. It was the group's lot to be ahead of, or at least out of step with, their time. The mid- to late '60s was an era of explosive growth and experimentation in rock, but
the Velvets
' innovations -- which blended the energy of rock with the sonic adventurism of the avant-garde, and introduced a new degree of social realism and sexual kinkiness into rock lyrics -- were too abrasive for the mainstream to handle. During their time, the group experienced little commercial success; though they were hugely appreciated by a cult audience and some critics, the larger public treated them with indifference or, occasionally, scorn. The
' music was too important to languish in obscurity, though; their cult only grew larger and larger in the years following their demise, and continued to mushroom through the years. By the 1980s, they were acknowledged not just as one of the most important rock bands of the '60s, but one of the best of all time, and one whose immense significance cannot be measured by their relatively modest sales.
Historians often hail the group for their incalculable influence upon the punk and new wave of subsequent years, and while
the Velvets
were undoubtedly a key touchstone of the movements, to focus upon these elements of their vision is to only get part of the story. The group was uncompromising in its music and lyrics, to be sure, sometimes espousing a bleakness and primitivism that would inspire alienated singers and songwriters of future generations. But the band's colorful and oft-grim soundscapes were firmly grounded in strong, well-constructed songs that could be as humanistic and compassionate as they were outrageous and confrontational. The member most responsible for these qualities was guitarist, singer, and songwriter
Lou Reed
, whose sing-speak vocals and gripping narratives came to define street-savvy rock & roll.
loved rock & roll from an early age, and even recorded a doo wop-type single as a Long Island teenager in the late '50s (as a member of
the Shades
). By the early '60s, he was also getting into avant-garde jazz and serious poetry, coming under the influence of author
Delmore Schwartz
while studying at Syracuse University. After graduation, he set his sights considerably lower, churning out tunes for exploitation rock albums as a staff songwriter for Pickwick Records in New York City.
did learn some useful things about production at Pickwick, and it was while working there that he met
John Cale
, a classically trained Welshman who had moved to America to study and perform "serious" music.
, who had performed with
John Cage
LaMonte Young
, found himself increasingly attracted to rock & roll;
, for his part, was interested in the avant-garde as well as pop.
were both interested in fusing the avant-garde with rock & roll, and had found the ideal partners for making the vision (a very radical one for the mid-'60s) work; their synergy would be the crucial axis of
the Velvet Underground
's early work.
(who would play bass, viola, and organ) would need to assemble a full band, making tentative steps along this direction by performing together in
the Primitives
(which also included experimental filmmaker
Tony Conrad
and avant-garde sculptor
Walter DeMaria
) to promote a bizarre
-penned Pickwick single ("The Ostrich"). By 1965, the group was a quartet called
the Velvet Underground
, including
, guitarist
Sterling Morrison
(an old friend of
's), and drummer
Angus MacLise
quit before the band's first paying gig, claiming that accepting money for art was a sellout;
the Velvets
quickly recruited drummer
Maureen Tucker
, a sister of one of
's friends.
Even at this point,
the Velvets
were well on their way to developing something quite different. Their original material, principally penned and sung by
, dealt with the hard urban realities of Manhattan, describing drug use, sadomasochism, and decadence in cool, unapologetic detail in "Heroin," "I'm Waiting for the Man," "Venus in Furs," and "All Tomorrow's Parties." These were wedded to basic, hard-nosed rock riffs, toughened by
's metronome beats; the oddly tuned, rumbling guitars; and
's occasional viola scrapes. It was an uncommercial blend to say the least, but
the Velvets
got an unexpected benefactor when artist and all-around pop art icon
Andy Warhol
caught the band at a club around the end of 1965.
quickly assumed management of the group, incorporating them into his mixed-media/performance art ensemble, the Exploding Plastic Inevitable. By spring 1966,
was producing their debut album.
was also responsible for embellishing the quartet with
, a mysterious European model/chanteuse with a deep voice whom the band accepted rather reluctantly, viewing her spectral presence as rather ornamental.
remained the principal lead vocalist, but
did sing three of the best songs on the group's debut, The Velvet Underground & Nico, often known as "the banana album" because of its distinctive
-designed cover. Recognized today as one of the core classic albums of rock, it featured an extraordinarily strong set of songs, highlighted by "Heroin," "All Tomorrow's Parties," "Venus in Furs," "I'll Be Your Mirror," "Femme Fatale," "Black Angel's Death Song," and "Sunday Morning." The sensational drug-and-sex items (especially "Heroin") got most of the ink, but the more conventional numbers showed
to be a songwriter capable of considerable melodicism, sensitivity, and almost naked introspection.
The album's release was not without complications, though. First, it wasn't issued until nearly a year after it was finished, due to record-company politics and other factors. The group's association with
and the Exploding Plastic Inevitable had already assured them of a high (if notorious) media profile, but the music was simply too daring to fit onto commercial radio; "underground" rock radio was barely getting started at this point, and in any case may well have overlooked the record at a time when psychedelic music was approaching its peak. The album only reached number 171 in the charts, and that's as high as any of their LPs would get upon original release. Those who heard it, however, were often mightily impressed;
Brian Eno
once said that even though hardly anyone bought
the Velvets
' records at the time they appeared, almost everyone who did formed their own bands.
A cult reputation wasn't enough to guarantee a stable livelihood for a band in the '60s, and by 1967
the Velvets
were fighting problems within their own ranks.
, never considered an essential member by the rest of the band, left or was fired sometime during the year, going on to a fascinating career of her own. The association with
weakened, as the artist was unable to devote as much attention to the band as he had the previous year. Embittered by the lukewarm reception of their album in their native New York,
the Velvets
concentrated on touring cities throughout the rest of the country. Amidst this tense atmosphere, the second album,
White Light/White Heat
, was recorded in late 1967.
Each of the albums the group released while
led the band was an unexpected departure from all of their other LPs.
White Light/White Heat
was probably the most radical, focusing almost exclusively on their noisiest arrangements, over-amped guitars, and most willfully abrasive songs. The 17-minute "Sister Ray" was their most extreme (and successful) effort in this vein. Unsurprisingly, the album failed to catch on commercially, topping out at number 199.
By the summer of 1968, the band had a much graver problem on its hands than commercial success (or the lack of it). A rift developed between
, the most creative forces in the band and, as one could expect, two temperamental egos.
presented the rest of the band with an ultimatum, declaring that he would leave the group unless
was sacked.
reluctantly sided with
, and
Doug Yule
was recruited to take
's place.
The group's third album, 1969's
The Velvet Underground
, was an even more radical left turn than
White Light/White Heat
. The volume and violence had nearly vanished; the record featured far more conventional rock arrangements that were sometimes so restrained it seems as though they were making an almost deliberate attempt to avoid waking the neighbors. Yet the sound was nonetheless effective for that; the record contains some of
's most personal and striking compositions, numbers like "Pale Blue Eyes" and "Candy Says" ranking among his most romantic, although cuts like "What Goes On" proved they could still rock out convincingly (though in a less experimental fashion than they had with
). The approach may have confused listeners and critics, but by this time their label (MGM/Verve) was putting little promotional resources behind the band anyway.
Even in the absence of
the Velvets
were still capable of generating compelling heat on-stage, as
1969: Velvet Underground Live
(not released until the mid-'70s) confirms. MGM was by now in the midst of an infamous "purge" of its supposedly drug-related rock acts, and
the Velvets
were setting their sights elsewhere. Nevertheless, they recorded about an album's worth of additional material for the label after the third LP, although it remains unclear whether this was intended for a fourth album or not. Many of the songs, though, were excellent, serving as a bridge between
The Velvet Underground
and 1970's
; a lot of it was officially released in the 1980s and 1990s.
The beginning of the 1970s seemed to herald considerable promise for the group, as they signed to Atlantic, but at this point the personnel problems that had always dogged them finally became overwhelming.
had to sit out
due to pregnancy, replaced by
's brother
Doug Yule
, according to some accounts, began angling for more power in the band. Unexpectedly, after a lengthy residency at New York's famous Max's Kansas City club,
quit the band near the end of the summer of 1970, moving back to his parents' Long Island home for several months before beginning his solo career, just before the release of
, his final studio album with
the Velvets
was by far the group's most conventional rock album, and the most accessible one for mainstream listeners. "Rock and Roll" and "Sweet Jane" in particular were two of
's most anthemic, jubilant tunes, and ones that became rock standards in the '70s. But the group's power was somewhat diluted by the absence of
, and by the decision to have
Doug Yule
handle some of the lead vocals. Due to
's departure, though, the group couldn't capitalize on any momentum it might have generated. Unwisely, the band decided to continue, though
left shortly afterward. That left
Doug Yule
at the helm of an act that was
the Velvet Underground
in name only, and the 1973 album that was billed to the group (
) is best forgotten, and not considered as a true
, and
establishing important solo careers of their own, and such important figures as
David Bowie
Brian Eno
, and
Patti Smith
making no bones about their debts to the band,
the Velvet Underground
simply became more and more popular as the years passed. In the 1980s, the original albums were reissued, along with a couple of important collections of outtakes. Hoping to rewrite the rules one last time,
, and
attempted to defy the odds against successful rock reunions by re-forming in the early '90s (
had died in 1988). A European tour, and a live album, was completed in 1993 to mixed reviews; before a planned American jaunt could start,
(who have feuded constantly over the past few decades) fell out yet again, bringing the reunion to a sad close.
Sterling Morrison
's death from illness in 1995 seemed to permanently ice any prospect of more projects under
the Velvet Underground
name, although a few of the surviving members played together when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. By that time, an impressive five-CD box set (containing all four of the studio albums issued when
was in the band, as well as a lot of other material) was available to enshrine the group's legacy for the ages.
continued with solo careers into the 21st century, but
underwent a liver transplant in April 2013, and although he subsequently proclaimed his strength and intention to continue performing and songwriting, he died of end-stage liver disease at his home on Long Island in October of that year.
Richie Unterberger, Rovi
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A Sacramento man was arrested Friday after police said he cut another man several times with a sword.
Gary Watkins, 66, was taken into custody in the 3800 block of 9th Avenue just before noon Friday.
Police said Watkins and the victim know each other.
During the attack, the victim was able to take the weapon away from Watkins.
He then ran across the street to a fire station, where he called for help.
The victim was taken to an area hospital with multiple non-life-threatening injuries.
Watkins was booked in the Sacramento County Main Jail on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon.


text:
After the beating Toyota's sales took following the unintended acceleration accusations of a couple years ago, it was expected that Hyundai and Kia would suffer in a similar fashion after the news of inflated MPG claims broke. But it seems that this is far from the case, as Hyundai now reports that they just had the best November of sales in the US yet, and that 2012 will close as their best sales year of all time. New additions to Elantra lineup gave the car a boost of 28 percent increased sales, and the Sonata also saw a big uptick.
This comes as good news to the company, where settlements over the MPG are expected to cost them $100 million annually, according to AutoGuide. Perhaps motivated by the fact that Hyundai will be able deal with this setback relatively easily, Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, has sent a letter to Hyundai warning that the company might face congressional hearings, according to a report in AutoGuide. Rockefeller's concern is that the inflated figures were used to attract customers who otherwise would have bought cars elsewhere. He issued a statement saying "I will monitor the results of the EPA's ongoing investigation to better understand how this error occurred, how Hyundai and Kia may have used inflated fuel economy numbers to attract consumers, and how federal enforcement agencies can better deter similar violations in the future."
It most certainly is important for customers to be told the truth, and it's always good to see that the Senate Commerce Committee is taking this responsibility seriously. But if sales haven't slowed, and in fact have picked up, since the news that MPG figures were inflated, were they really playing such an important role in customers' decisions to buy a Hyundai? And if they were so unimportant, is another penalty on top of the substantial financial cost of the settlement really necessary? Make yourself heard in the comment section.


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How young
is too young to begin embracing personal computing technology? Are gadgets like
smartphones and tablets valid educational tools? Are they worth the cost?
Those questions speak to the heart of a USA Today article, which
reports that almost 300 kindergarten students in Auburn, Maine, will be
receiving Apple
iPad2's next fall along with their chocolate milk and crayons.
"It's definitely an adventure, and it'll be a journey of learning for
teachers and students," Auburn kindergarten teacher Amy Heimerl told USA
But not everyone is thrilled about the proposition of spending $200,000 -- the
cost Superintendent Tom Morrill plans to incur -- on the high-tech
gadgets. "I understand you have to keep up with technology, but I
think a 5-year old is a little too young to understand," Auburn mother Sue
Millard says in the report.
The superintendent disagreed. "It's a revolution in education,"
Morrill said, citing the iPad's hundreds of educational applications and
simple-to-use touchscreen.
Maine has been ahead of the curve when it comes to personal technology in the
classroom. It was the first state to distribute laptops (Apple iMacs) to all
seventh and eighth graders nearly 10 years ago. The former Maine governor who
launched that initiative, Angus King, believes in the iPad
program. "If your students are engaged, you can teach them
anything," King says in the report. "If they're bored and looking out
the window, you can be Socrates and you're not going to teach them anything.
These devices are engaging."
But Maine is not the first state to give its tots tablets,
either. "Schools in Omaha, Neb.; Columbiana, Ohio; Huntington, W.
Va.; Paducah, Ky.; Charleston, S.C.; and Scottsdale, Ariz., are among the
places where kindergarten pupils are using them," USA Today reports.
"We can't say whether what the school district in Maine or anywhere else
is doing is good or not good," Peter Pizzolongo of the National
Association for the Education of Young Children told USA Today,
"but what we can say is when the iPad or any other technological tool is
used appropriately, then it's a good thing for children's learning."
Superintendent Morrill said that most of the criticism of the iPad plan has
been of the plan's cost, not about the age-appropriateness. He plans to
raise the money "from foundations, the federal government, the local
school department, and other sources."
If nothing else, the development is one step closer to Bill
Gates' vision of education in the future.
quote: Too bad the iPad doesn't really teach you anything about technology other than how to overspend on it. Lets give our 6 year olds computer tablets so they can be disengaged from society from the very start.... good idea..
quote: I think the most empowering technologies a child can have access to are those that get out of the way and just let a kid explore and create in a way that is exciting and unlimited.
quote: Not everyone wants to live in apple's utopia of mediocrity. They are doing this not just with technology but also music, film making, photography, design, etc.Look at what they are essentially saying... No need to learn how to play an instrument! With garage band any idiot can pretend to be a musician! We'll even teach you how to play a couple of songs so you can impress your friends. And who needs to waste time learning about editing? With imovie you too can insert "professional" transitions into your home movies. And we'll even provide you with a million templates so that you can put out a polished result and pretend you did something creative.What ever happened to doing things not because they are easy but because they are hard? For striving to achieve something great, not be like everybody else?I'm told that in the old USSR there was this joke: One professional musician says to another "you know, under communism, everyone will be able to write a song!" and the other replies "Sure, but would anyone want to listen to it?"
quote: The fact of the matter is that unless one is studying information technology itself nobody should have to devote a second of thought to using information technology in order to do something useful.


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New Zealand Windows Phone 7 Dev Training Events
- Posted: Jun 18, 2010 at 1:10AM
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Last week we delivered a series of developer events for Windows Phone 7 in New Zealand. This is a highlight video of the sessions. Further detail of the events can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/nigel/archive/2010/06/18/new-zealand-windows-phone-7-dev-training-events.aspx
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Give John Mandel chance to lead real health care reform
October 27, 2012
Many Ohioans will pay more for health insurance if "Obamacare," the president's health care law, remains in effect. Many others will lose the coverage they now enjoy through their employers....
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Want Free Shipping Every Day? Learn How.
I have recently rebranded myself as Patternorium, I have kept my name as Uzumakijo on here as have many followers, but can be found elsewhere online as Patternorium. If you would like any of my designs in a different size or repeat just drop me a message!
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Bytes by MSDN: Jim Griesmer and Jerry Nixon discuss Visual Studio Graphics & Tools for Game Developers
- Posted: Apr 27, 2012 at 7:00AM
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Join Jerry Nixon, Developer Evangelist for Microsoft and Jim Griesmer, Sr. Development Lead Microsoft on C++ and Graphics IDE team. Jim talks about how game developers using DirectX can use Windows PIX as a graphic diagnosis tool. Tune in and find out how Visual Studio is bringing tools that triple A game studios have been using for years to the masses.
Visual Studio 11 Express Beta for Windows 8 Download
Jim Griesmer has worked at Microsoft since 1995 mostly as a developer, then development lead for the Visual Studio Debugger. Jim's most recent role is with the Visual C++ team as development lead responsible for C++ productivity tooling, including graphics and GPU diagnostics, features such as Intellisense™, and the C++ project and build system. Jim has always been strongly drawn to innovative and highly functional UI so he invests much time "investigating" the state-of-the-art in UI interaction by "using" games.
Jerry Nixon is a Microsoft Developer Evangelist in Colorado. He has been developing and designing on the Microsoft platform for 15 years. He speaks at universities, events and groups on Kinect, XAML, Windows Phone, and Windows 8. Most of Jerry's days are spent teaching his three daughters Star Trek character backstories and episode plots.
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Hermine Leather Tote - Joos Orange Combo
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Buriti oil comes from the fruit of the buriti palm tree, which is known as the Tree of Life. The palm grows along rivers in Brazil and local people gather the fruit as it floats near the shore. Buriti oil is extremely moisturizing, so its ideal for reviving dry hair in dry remedy™ moisturizing shampoo, conditioner, masque and daily moisturizing oil.


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Introducing hands-on computing in secondary education | Opensource.com
Introducing hands-on computing in secondary education
On the teaching open source mailing list, the following question was recently posted:
I'm advising a high school teacher who is putting together a computer programming course. We are thinking along the lines of:
- Basic electronics with PIC processors
- Assembly
- Robot programming with VEX
The underlying idea is to make sure that students have ample opportunities to tinker and to see how things work (instead of just using black boxes).
Before I comment on this, I should be clear where I'm coming from. I have taught with small robots in tertiary settings regularly since the release of the LEGO Mindstorms RCX in 1998. I have served as a judge at both the UK regional and national level for the FIRST LEGO League, and I continue to contribute to the development of runtimes for these small systems.
My philosophy regarding teaching is that it should be authentic, constructive, and fun. The shortest reasonable summary I can provide is as follows:
I believe good learning experiences should be authentic, constructive, and fun. Learning experiences are authentic when they reflect the needs of the learner both now and in the future. They are constructive when the student has the opportunity not just to create an artifact, but also to build their own understanding of that creative process. This process is fun when the learning is both engaging and challenging.
The Educator's and Students' Needs
Teachers work long hours and are underpaid for the work they do. Between 7AM and 3PM they're responsible for their students, with (possibly) an hour of time during the day where they might be free to "prep". The truth is that "preparation time" for many educators comes either early in the morning or after work. Many teachers spend one, two, or more hours after work (either at school or at home) preparing their lessons for the next day. Weekends, likewise, are often time spent catching up, grading, or doing other work that (in theory) should be doable during their "preparation time." Put simply, educators work hard.
If a teacher wants to engage their students with extracurricular activities, or opportunities that do not casually slot into the standardized curriculum, they are talking about committing their own time to their students. In the world of open source, this should be familiar... the donation of time to a cause that matters to the individual. If that donation of time and effort isn't successful, it will still impact them negatively when it comes time for professional evaluation—even if it was a "donation." If the students or parents complain about the teacher's efforts, no one will care if they went "above and beyond," they will only care that things may have gone wrong.
For these reasons it is absolutely critical that if you are going to offer to help a teacher with some educational activity that you are fully committed to supporting them throughout the exercise. This is not a patch that you fire off to a mailing list and hope someone picks up. It is not a ticket you leave languishing in a tracking system, wondering if someone might do something about it. You must be 110% along side the teacher from start to finish. And the reason for being there isn't because it makes things better for the teacher: you're there because it means a better educational experience for the students. Never, ever forget that.
Principles for Choosing Technology
If you're trying to bring technology into a classroom or learning experience, there is a critical rule that you must adhere to at all times: the technology must JUST WORK. If they already have Windows machines in place, and they work (and are supported by an admin), DO NOT suggest that everyone boot Sugar on a Stick to carry out your exploration of robotics in the classroom. Neither the teacher, students, or admin will be familiar with the tools, and if anything goes wrong, you will have done nothing more than applied open source technologies to detract from a student's learning experience. If the point of the exercise is to learn about open source tools, then great—do this! If the exercise is about success in being exposed to programming, don't confuse the matter. Use what is there and is institutionally supported.
Second, choose technologies that will yield success early and success often. This is a mantra I try and apply to my own teaching. My commitment to this ideal is why I have little respect for people who say students should start by learning assembly, or insist that "C is where I started, so should they" or that "Perl is a great scripting language to teach with." Assembly should be generated by compilers. C is a horrific language that does nothing to protect the developer from themselves—especially novices. A bowl of alphabet soup is probably syntactically valid Perl. None of these technologies yield success from the start, and none support a novice in learning big ideas and concepts quickly... they just teach students about the worst of the tools we use as software developers, and require them to try (and fail) to think like experts on day one.
Pick technologies the students can learn and be successful with, not tools that experts continue to struggle with in their daily practice. Scratch. Alice. Greenfoot. NetLogo and StarLogo. These are just a few tools that were designed for beginners, and they are where you should look to if you want to introduce students (successfully) to programming.
If your goal is to do something in the physical realm (small robots or similar), then I have a few more thoughts I'd like to share. All of the above still applies, of course.
Technologies to Avoid
I would rule out PICs and assembly. In no small part this is because Microchip insists on keeping parts of their toolchain proprietary, which means you would be introducing your students to tools that they will never fully own. Atmel makes perfectly good processors, and with the Arduino you can do some really awesome things (plus, it has a massive user community). That said, I would tread carefully in this space. Having recently introduced soldering to 12 college students, I learned many things. Despite creating a complete set of videos to support their build process, I still had the opportunity to learn about:
- Cold solder joints...
- Bad oscillators...
- Burning in missing bootloaders...
... and many other problems. The bad oscillator (a bad component in one of the kits) took 4 hours to diagnose. While this was rewarding in the end, it would have been disastrous in a 1-hour after-school computer club (or 50-minute, 3x a week classroom setting). Or, perhaps that is exactly what you want your students to experience... you have to weigh the possible problems and the possible learning outcomes against the particular needs of the teacher and students.
If the purpose of the educational experience is to learn about soldering, electronics, and their relationship to computing, then go for it! If the purpose of the experience is to engage students quickly and empower them to do cool stuff from the start, an Arduino kit may or may not appeal to your target audience. This would absolutely be the platform I'd introduce students to, though, if my goal was to explore embedded electronics.
Technologies to Try
Having expressed my concerns regarding technologies I would not start with, let me talk briefly about some technologies that should serve well in K-12 classrooms.
The IPRE Scribbler/Fluke
The Institute for Personal Robotics in Education is a joint venture between several academic institutions and Microsoft Research. The Scribbler platform provides a vehicle for exploring robotics through the Python programming language. The text and curricular materials supporting this exploration is open, as are all of the tools involved in the project.
The IPRE has a lot of years of effort in it, and represents an excellent open resource for learning about robotics and AI. The IEEE Robotics and Automation society provides a number of (mostly open) robotics education links; the IPRE's work features heavily in this list.
The LEGO Mindstorms
The LEGO Mindstorms is over a decade old. It has a massive community of users, and has serious industrial and user-centered design behind it. The technology is robust, and there is a great deal you can do with it quickly. I am a fan of the RCX and NXT.
Both require infrastructure: you must have software installed on your PCs (either what ships with the kits or Robolab, a visual language based on LabView). You need a way to recharge the kits between uses—this is easier with the NXT, and harder with the RCX, as the latter requires 6 AA batteries. (This also implies that, for 10 kits, you need at least 60 rechargeable AA batteries.) You need space for the students to work, and ideally space to store models that are in progress between sessions.
The reason community matters (do I need to say that here?) is because the teacher can grow their exploration into larger opportunities for their students. Both Botball and the FIRST LEGO League are excellent competition frameworks that teachers can plug their students into. These kinds of competitions provide a way for something that begins as an exploration to grow into a high-profile (and educational, and excellent) opportunity for the students and teacher(s) at the school to engage in. Lastly, there are excellent curricula available from the CEEO at Tufts as well as through LEGO Dacta.
VEX Robotics
I don't know as much about VEX, but there are many similarities (conceptually) with the LEGO RCX/NXT platform. There are several curricular resources available to teachers, and the kits are designed with student learners in mind. Like FIRST LEGO, there are competitions teachers and students can get involved with, and there is a community of practitioners surrounding the tools who can act as resources to you and the teacher you are working with.
In Conclusion
I may have ranted a bit, but I'm passionate about students having excellent learning experiences with technology.
Tools like the IPRE Scribbler/Fluke, the LEGO Mindstorms, and the VEX kits provide a great jumping-off point into tools like the Arduino. Once students have a taste for success and what is possible, I think you should absolutely get a soldering iron into their hands and turn them loose. Or, you can start there... but you need to be prepared, from the beginning, to support their activities thoroughly. Whatever you do, remember: focus on learner needs, and strive to encourage success early, success often!
9 Comments
I know there's a ton of noise around Mindstorms and open source -- how much value do the various open source projects add to the Mindstorms experience? Have you played with that at all?
Mindstorms look like a load of fun right out of the box. When you use Mindstorms, are you stuck learning the RCX code or can you use other software and languages with the LEGO hardware?
This is a great focus on the issues at hand. To not push personal open-source-friendly devices just because it is open source, but to use what will be the most beneficial!
There's a reason why BASIC was taught for so many years, and I don't think it was because of Microsoft!
We build our own PC's, and program routers, switches, Lego Mindstorms (Robofest), C++ (GCC), Assembly (Droidbattles), shell scripts, etc. This is all done with high school juniors and seniors.
We also do one more thing that is not mentioned here. We build our operating systems from scratch using Gentoo (or LFS), and stick with Linux all year.
Our class is a blast. My students love learning all of this stuff and I love to teach them. Do not underestimate the potential of teenagers.
I highly recommend online education but make sure its a good program. My suggestion is to stay away from generic schools and try to find a program that will add credit to your resume.
I have been using Alice in my 8th grade classroom for the past couple years. What a wonderful application to teach programming principles. It is free at http://alice.org . There are also several tutorals that were created by teachers.


text:
Serves 5 |
Prep Time 10 minutes |
Cook Time 25 minutes
1 Tbsp Eden Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup onion, diced
30 ounces Eden Cannellini (White Kidney) Beans, 2 cans, do not drainor Eden Great Northern Beans
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/2 tsp dried sage
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp Eden Sea Salt, or to taste
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/4 cup carrots, diced
1/2 cup fresh spinach, finely choppedor frozen chopped spinach
1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste
Heat oil in a large saucepan, sauté the garlic and onions for 2 to 3 minutes. Add celery, carrots, sage, basil, beans, water and sea salt. Cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes. Add black pepper and spinach. Simmer 2 minutes.
If you wish, you may puree the soup in a blender before adding pepper and spinach.
Beans, Condiments, Gluten-Free, Good/High Fiber, Italian, Macrobiotic, No Sweetener Added, Oils, Soup, Chili & Stews, Vegan, Wheat-Free


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Oft-injured midfielder Tomas Rosicky is at it again and will miss Arsenal's trip to Sunderland in Week 4.
Manchester United is close to arriving at full strength following the return of Anthony Martial with Henrikh Mkhitaryan close as well.
Bournemouth will be happy to see the return of forward Joshua King this weekend against Watford, barring any injury setbacks.
Bournemouth is already making their hopes to sign Jack Wilshere to a permanent deal known at the end of his season-long loan.
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola confirmed that defender Vincent Kompany has not suffered a massive injury setback.
The Theo Walcott redemption tour continued with a first half brace against Basel in the Champions League group stage.
Arsene Wenger has indicated that Aaron Ramsey will definitely miss out on matches with Burnley and Basel before the international break.
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has signalled his intention to play Zlatan Ibrahimovic twice this week.
Harry Kane, who was thought to be out of action for about two months because of ligament damage in his ankle, is thought to be able to fully recover in a matter of six weeks.
Sam Allardyce is no longer England manager after the FA mutually agreed to terminate his contract just 67 days into his "dream job."
Mike Phelan is not ruling out a defensive future for Jake Livermore who has made the successful transition from midfield maestro to ball-playing centre-back following a number of injuries at the start of the new campaign.
Jose Mourinho has revealed a few players who will not be able (by choice and necessity) to play in the Europa League against Zorya Luhansk this Thursday.