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We celebrate the ideas, both big & small, that inspire your imagination and the more important things in your life. Whether you love arts, crafts, framing, floral, home decor or scrapbooking, visit us at your Chandler Michaels or Shop Online at our new website 24/7! Michaels: Where Creativity Happens. Teachers receive 15% off their entire in-store purchase including classroom supplies, and members of the Military and Seniors enjoy 10% off their entire in-store purchase.
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"Way Overrated!"
I should have learned by now to take endorsements from otherwise credible sources with a grain of salt. The best I can say about this overrated/overhyped book is that the story line was interesting and character development good, however it quickly became disjointed and, frankly, boring. The primary narrator was pretty good---in fact he should have done the entire recording, because the second narrator, assuming the role of the scribe, was just awful----to the extent that I couldn't stand to listen to it. Thankfully, it was a short book but I was still unable to stick with it to the end.
"An Extremely Valuable Contribution"
St. Thomas Aquinas, is without any doubt, the most brilliant human being who has ever lived. He completely systemized theology (as well as philosophy). He built upon and corrected such giants as St. Augustine, the great pagan philosopher Plato, and completed what was left to us by the greatest of all pagan philosophers, Aristotle.
St. Thomas Aquinas' most important body of work, the Summa Theologiae, while intimidating to modern readers, is brought to life and made readily understandable by Peter Kreeft. I cannot say enough about how impressed I am with this with this book!
My only additional comment is to encourage any reader/listener with an interest in theology, philosophy/epistemology to read or listen to this book. No prior education or training in philosophy is required to understand and appreciate it.
"The Disgrace that is the NBA"
Not at all. The reader sounded like he was in a hurry and his pronunciation was atrocious----a problem, unfortunately all too common in audio books. Initially, I thought that the mispronunciations were limited to proper nouns (players' names), which while still inexcusable, would at least be tolerable. But alas, that was not the case.
I can't think of another book with which to compare Personal Foul, but I found it to be an honest and candid representation of the circumstances leading to the problem----i.e. no whining or constantly making excuses, blaming others etc. In fact, to my shock, I found myself empathizing with the author.
Yes, primarily with the plethora of mispronunciations.
I was moved by learning the extent----not the existence--of corruption and incompetence in the NBA management and officiating. If I continue to watch NBA games, and I still haven't decided upon that, it will certainly be with a jaundiced eye. Is pro basketball a sport, like college basketball where fouls are called on the basis of objective criteria, or a "performance," where the object is to keep high profile players on the floor "no matter what"? Clearly it's the latter, and this is evident across the board.
Great book. Couldn't put it down.
"Just Awful"
No chance
The story line was hackneyed, boring and cliched. I only decided to read this book based upon its (unbelievable) ranking on recent fiction---so, lesson learned for me.
It was so boring and, at times offensive, that I couldn't finish it. I think I probably got through a third of it. I suppose I liked parts of the female story---somewhat interesting and credible, but the male part was a loser in so many respects. I'm not sure which was more loathsome---the character or the reader.
I'm sorry I read this book and will never read another from this author.
"Another post apocalyptic disappointment"
Despite the typically brilliant performance (reading) of Scott Brick, this book was a major disapointment. I had hoped that old age would make me more discerning, but it seems to have made me more stubborn, as I stayed with this interminable tale way too long. Speaking of "long," there are way too many extraneous and irrelevant narratives in this book. Based upon some of the more positive reviews, I had hoped for something approaching The Stand---maybe too high an expectation----or Swan Song, but alas, it didn't come close.
"Stephen Hunter Has Never Failed to Deliver"
Until now. I have to take issue with other reviewers on a couple of points. First of all, I have not observed any regression in the quality of his Swagger novels (prior to this one). Although Hunter presents a good and plausible story line, the level of meaningless detail on relatively insignificant matters almost seems like he's trying to
No, I would not, for reasons evident in my review.
Schriner does well with accents.
I, Sniper inspired me to read a summary and some reviews of the next Hunter novel before purchasing.
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subset: commoncrawl


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News Article
We just got our hands on the new one-sheet poster for the post-apocalyptic thriller The Day, starring a few folks who are more than a little familiar to genre fans -- Shawn Ashmore, Ashley Bell, Michael Eklund, Cory Hardrict, Dominic Monaghan and Shannyn Sossamon. And we've got a release date for you: August 29th! Check out the poster art below.
Here's the official synopsis for The Day: "A group of five survivors, armed with shotguns, axes and machetes, wander the back roads of a ravaged landscape looking for refuge in The Day, a terrifying look into a post-apocalyptic future. As war ravages humanity, destroying civilization and most of life on earth, the survivors realize they must do whatever it takes to stay alive. Lost, starving, and exhausted, they seek shelter in a seemingly safe abandoned farmhouse. However, while searching for food and resources, they unwittingly set off a trap signaling to their ruthless predators lying in wait to begin their deadly attack. With food and ammunition dwindling, the group must make a desperate final stand—over a 24 hour period—battling for their ultimate survival."


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Lovastatin (By mouth)
Lovastatin (loe-va-STAT-in)
Lowers high cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blood. Also helps prevent heart attack or strokes. Also helps keep atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) from getting worse. This medicine is an HMG-CoA inhibitor (statin).
Brand Name(s):
Altoprev, MevacorThere may be other brand names for this medicine.
When This Medicine Should Not Be Used:Do not use this medicine if you have had an allergic reaction to lovastatin, if you have active liver disease, or if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. Do not use lovastatin if you also take any of the following medicines: boceprevir (Victrelis®), nefazodone (Serzone®), telaprevir (Incivek®), certain antibiotics (such as clarithromycin, erythromycin, itraconazole, ketoconazole, posaconazole, telithromycin, voriconazole, Nizoral®), or medicines to treat HIV/AIDS (such as atazanavir, indinavir, lopinavir, nelfinavir, ritonavir, saquinavir, Crixivan®, Kaletra®, Lexiva®, Norvir®, Prezista®, Reyataz®).
How to Use This Medicine:
Tablet, Long Acting Tablet
- Take your medicine as directed. Your dose may need to be changed several times to find what works best for you.
- Take the regular tablet with food. Take the extended-release tablet without food.
- Take the medicine in the evening, unless your doctor tells you otherwise.
- Swallow the extended-release tablet whole. Do not crush, break, or chew it.
- Carefully follow your doctor's instructions about diet and exercise. This medicine is part of a complete plan for lowering cholesterol and triglycerides in your blood.
If a dose is missed:
- Take a dose as soon as you remember. If it is almost time for your next dose, wait until then and take a regular dose. Do not take extra medicine to make up for a missed dose.
How to Store and Dispose of This Medicine:
- Store the medicine in a closed container at room temperature, away from heat, moisture, and direct light.
- Ask your pharmacist, doctor, or health caregiver about the best way to dispose of any outdated medicine or medicine no longer needed.
- Keep all medicine out of the reach of children. Never share your medicine with anyone.
Drugs and Foods to Avoid:
Ask your doctor or pharmacist before using any other medicine, including over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and herbal products.
- Make sure your doctor knows if you also use amiodarone (Cordarone®), cimetidine (Tagamet®), colchicine (Colcrys®), cyclosporine (Gengraf®, Neoral®, Sandimmune®), danazol (Danocrine®), diltiazem (Cardizem®), dronedarone (Multaq®), niacin (Vitamin B3), ranolazine (Ranexa®), spironolactone (Aldactone®), verapamil (Calan®, Covera®, Isoptin®), medicine to treat fungus infections (such as fluconazole, voriconazole, Diflucan®, Vfend®), or a blood thinner (such as warfarin, Coumadin®, Jantoven®). Tell your doctor if you use other medicine for lowering cholesterol (such as fenofibrate, gemfibrozil, Lopid®, Tricor®).
- Tell your doctor if you usually drink more than 2 glasses of alcohol per day or if you drink grapefruit juice.
Warnings While Using This Medicine:
- It is not safe to take this medicine during pregnancy. It could harm an unborn baby. Tell your doctor right away if you become pregnant.
- Make sure your doctor knows if you have kidney disease, diabetes, low blood pressure, muscle pain or weakness, or thyroid problems. Tell your doctor if you have a history of liver disease or if you drink alcohol regularly.
- Call your doctor right away if you have unexplained muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness. These could be symptoms of a serious muscle problem called myopathy.
- Call your doctor right away if you have dark-colored urine, fever, muscle cramps or spasms, muscle pain or stiffness, or unusual tiredness or weakness. These could be symptoms of a serious muscle problem called rhabdomyolysis, which can cause kidney problems.
- Make sure any doctor or dentist who treats you knows that you use this medicine. You may need to stop using this medicine if you have major surgery, a major injury, or you develop other serious health problems.
- Your doctor will do lab tests at regular visits to check on the effects of this medicine. Keep all appointments.
Possible Side Effects While Using This Medicine:
Call your doctor right away if you notice any of these side effects:
- Allergic reaction: Itching or hives, swelling in your face or hands, swelling or tingling in your mouth or throat, chest tightness, trouble breathing
- Blistering, peeling, red skin rash
- Change in how much or how often you urinate
- Dark-colored urine or pale stools, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, pain in your upper stomach, yellow skin or eyes
- Fever
- Muscle pain, tenderness, or weakness
- Unusual tiredness
If you notice these less serious side effects, talk with your doctor:
- Confusion or problems with memory
- Headache
If you notice other side effects that you think are caused by this medicine, tell your doctor
Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. You may report side effects to FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088
Last Updated: 7/4/2014
The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Call 911 for all medical emergencies. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites.
Copyright © 1984- Truven Health Analytics. All rights reserved.
A.D.A.M. content is best viewed in IE9 or above, Fire Fox and chrome browser.


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Welcome to Lakeside Chiropractic Clinic located in Dallas, Texas near White Rock Lake. We are committed to the philosophy that all healing comes from the inside-out. The body is a self healing, self regulating organism of some 100 trillion cells under the direction of an innate intelligence. When free of interference the body has the potential for wellness and health.
W.H.O. (World Health Organization): Health is not just the absence of disease, Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Chiropractic:I use a bio-mechanical model that encompasses the concept that the body operates as a whole in three dimensional space. The spine is global....what affects one area affects the whole. There is an optimal position for the spine. By using plane film x-ray, digital range of motion (ROM), orthopedic and neurological exams your condition is evaluated. Once we know your status, we can work toward short and long term goals to wellness.
Nutrition:As a nation we are overfed and under nourished. I use symptom survey, and case history as my base for nutritional recommendations. Blood work, hair and saliva analysis may also be used. In most cases I use concentrated (to clinical potency) whole food supplements. An under nourished body loses its potential for balance and repair, thus wellness.
Congratulations on being named the "Best Chiropractor" in the 2009 Neighbors Choice Awards.
Carla Bowman, Miracles of Massage, is available by appointment. The whole body must be treated to achieve the maximum effect and you know you deserve it.


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Latest News
- American Heart Association Gets Emotional
- NBA Stamps Its Twitter Handle on the League Ball
- LinkedIn's Revenue Hits $534 Million
- FX Networks Taps Zenith Media
- Report: Snapchat Talking to Alibaba Group Regarding Potential Investment
- Butler, Shine, Stern & Partners Nabs Blue Shield of California
- Where Is Social Headed Next? Hundreds of Marketers Joined #AdweekChat to Weigh In
- Devin SuperTramp Strikes YouTube Gold With Assassin's Creed Reenactment
Popular Now
- Why Instagram Ads Could be Huge for Facebook's Mobile Empire
- Ad of the Day: Jude Law Dances for Johnnie Walker Blue in Jake Scott's Short Film
- Agency Tries to Make an Ad That's All but Unskippable as YouTube Preroll
- Indian Ad With Female Boss Sparks an Uproar: Is It Super Feminist or Super Sexist?
- Stacy Peralta's 6 Principles for Capturing Humanity in Commercials
- Adman Writes His Own Hilarious Obituary, and It Goes Viral
- We Asked Agencies to Share Their Oddest Decorations, and They Did Not Disappoint
- Ad of the Day: David Lynch Visits Cloud Cuckoo Land in Louboutin Nail Polish Ad


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Junior quarterback Connor Shaw will have surgery to repair his injured left foot today, and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier doesnt think Shaw will be able to participate in spring practice, Spurrier told The State on Thursday.
Hes got to get it fixed, Spurrier said. I dont know what they call it. I dont know if its a fractured bone. I dont know if its tendons or ligaments between the bones, but every time he plants and twists or cuts or somebody falls on it (it hurts).
Team physician Dr. Jeff Guy will take part in the procedure.
Shaw started Tuesdays Outback Bowl victory against Michigan but had to leave during the game-winning drive after aggravating the injury. Sophomore backup Dylan Thompson came in and threw a 32-yard touchdown pass to Bruce Ellington to give the Gamecocks a 33-28 win.
Shaw injured his foot during an Oct. 27 win against Tennessee and has been hampered since then. He was 18-of-26 for 224 yards and two touchdowns and had 96 rushing yards against the Wolverines, including a 64-yard run. For the season, he was 154-of-228 for 1,956 yards, 17 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 435 yards.
I dont know what hell be able to do (in the spring), Spurrier said. Thats only two-and-half months. I dont think hell be able to.
If Shaw cant participate in spring practice, it will give sophomore Dylan Thompson a head start on the 2013 starting job, although Spurrier said Thursday that he plans to have both quarterbacks ready for next season.
What were going to do with that is were going to have two guys ready to play, Spurrier said. Well see how it all works out. Theyll keep competing. We may have two quarterbacks ready to play all year. Well see how it works out. It worked out with no problems the other day.
Thompson was 66-of-127 for 1,027 yards, 10 touchdowns and two interceptions and rushed for 23 yards this season.
The last time Spurrier won an SEC title, during the 2000 season at Florida, quarterbacks Jesse Palmer and Rex Grossman each played in four conference wins, Spurrier said.
The next year, Rex Grossman set all kinds of passing records, and we didnt win the conference, he said. There are all kinds of ways to do it, as we know.


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The Players (Bell Shakespeare's travelling acting ensemble) perform one of the bard's most loved plays to an audience of lucky Melburnian students. Co-artistic director Peter Evans will share his vibrant and highly physical vision of a play that the World has come to know and love so dearly.
First published on . Updated on .By Time Out Melbourne editors |
St Kilda South 3182
Telephone 03 9525 4611
Price from $13.00 to $26.00
Date 13 Aug 2013-16 Aug 2013
Open 10am & 1pm
Director: Peter Evans
67m - Best. Name. Ever. The teensy new café is gently opening in St Kilda as we...
96m - Like +39 pizza? Remo Nicolini's pizze and pasta has hit St Kilda.
187m - St Kilda is generally filled with tourist trap eateries, so it's...
222m - With live bands, karaoke and poker, the St Kilda RSL has something for...
274m - Easily the best place to watch footy in St Kilda. When the bands crank up,...
304m - Tucked in the corner of Barkly and Grey St, there is a locals bar down on...
8m - Beyond The Pale create amazing rock posters as artforms, based in St Kilda....
166m - An icon of Acland Street, Readings offers of books by Australian and...
178m - Ignoring the dodgy name, the Cosmopolitan is reasonable-priced hotel in the...
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Exercise and readingCamy here. I know, you're looking at the post title and thinking, "Waaaaaaaaaah?"
But I confess, I read while I'm on the exercise bike all the time. Or I'll go for a walk with an audiobook on my iPod.
There are some people who say that if you can read while on the exercise bike, you're not working hard enough. They say that you shouldn't be able to read while doing exercise.
But I say, phooey on them! Sometimes, the only way I can motivate myself to get on the exercise bike is with the promise of reading a good book!
And let's face it—a moderate speed on the exercise bike is better than nuthin'! And reading while on the bike makes me feel like I both exercised and pampered myself with some reading time. Win-win, right?
So for all those who say you have to be heaving and sweating on the bike, I turn a deaf ear. And dig back into the latest Love Inspired Suspense novel. LOL
Sweat would stain my pages. Can't have that.
Do you "trick" yourself into exercising? Or are there ways you can "trick" yourself into getting moving?
Camy Tang writes romance with a kick of wasabi. Her novel Single Sashimi is out now, and her Love Inspired Suspense novel, Deadly Intent, releases in July this year. She runs the Story Sensei critique service. In her spare time, she is a staff worker for her church youth group, and she leads one of the worship teams for Sunday service. On her blog, she gives away Christian novels every Monday and Thursday, and she ponders frivolous things. Sign up for her newsletter YahooGroup for monthly giveways!
Labels: Camy Tang, exercise, reading


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General Dentists in Caneyville, KY
Dr. Mike Utley specializes in general dentistry in Caneyville, Kentucky.
Dr. Mike Utley has been compared 4 times. Details of Dr. Utley's experience as an DMD are available on your free dentist report.
Dr. Mike Utley identified specializing in
General DentistryGeneral Dentistry
General dentists provide a full range of services for all ages. General dentists can perform the majority of major dental treatments, including fillings, crowns, bridges, root canals, periodontal therapy, and tooth extraction. .
Patients may also know Dr. Mike Utley DMD as:
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BamBooBat Bamboo Wood Youth Baseball Bat: HNBUY Natural/Royal
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Questions and Answers
Got a question about the BamBooBat Bamboo Wood Youth Baseball Bat: HNBUY Natural/Royal? Ask our team of experts, and they will respond within 24 hours.Ask A Question
Is this bat legal for Nations Select 9U baseball?
The BamBooBat Bamboo Wood Bat (HNBUY) Natural/Royal Youth is legal in Nations Select and other major youth leagues.
Weight of a 32" HNBUY?
The BamBooBat Bamboo Wood Bat: HNBUY has an approximate -3 to -6 length to weight ratio. This means a 32" model will weigh between 26 and 29 ounces.
How much does the 31 inch weigh?
The 31" BamBooBat Bamboo Wood Bat will weigh approximately 25 to 28 oz.
Product Description
BamBooBat - the New Weapon in Baseball! Why BamBooBat? BamBooBats are made from the highest quality bamboo material available. Bamboo is one of the strongest natural materials on the planet with a tensile strength of 28,000 PSI versus 23,000 PSI for steel. This is so important given the ease of breakage found in normal wood bats. Take your BamBooBat to the practice fields with no worries of easy breakage as well as a 100-day one time manufacturer`s warranty replacement. This assures players that even if they make a mistake and hit the ball on the wrong spot of the bat within 100 days of the purchase, BamBooBat will pay for the mistake with a new bat! BamBooBat uses its Patent Pending Quadcore Technology that allows the ball to `jump` off the bat. This Quandcore Technology also allows for a balanced feel not found in some other bamboo bats. BamBooBats are made with a beautiful high gloss lacquer finish on all models. BamBooBat: Go Green, Save the Earth. Free Shipping!
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On the road
Farmall Cub Forum -- Questions and answers to all of your Cub related issues.
Moderator: Team Cub
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Notice: For sale and wanted posts are not allowed in this forum. Please use our free classifieds or one of our site sponsors for your tractor and parts needs.
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On the road
Went to a local hardware store today, and was talking about going to tractor shows since I retired, when the son of a local welding shop owner commented he had seen an 18 wheeler loaded with cubs last week. said he didn't get a good look at it, but one of them looked kind of small. He also stated it had a big yellow Penske road tractor pulling the load. i suggested he should have followed Leon and seen a good show.
"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government
to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the
government lest it come to dominate our lives and interests." Patrick Henry
Hey John,
Leon does bring a nice load with him when he shows....I think I counted seven cubs on the trailer. Out of all his cubs, his '55 lo-boy is my favorite. I have voted for that tractor all three years as my "peoples choice".....still waiting on him to win that one.
"Never forget where it is you come from, or you may find yourself someplace you don't want to be"
Greg Norman
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Definitions of Some Planning Words and Phrases
Action PlanThis is a step-by-step layout of what has to be done in order to implement a strategy. It identifies who will be responsible for taking each individual step. It also establishes when each step should start and finish.
Cost/Benefit AnalysisAn effort to estimate the costs that go with obtaining needed resources...and then matching those costs against the benefits that are anticipated from implementing the Action Plan involved.
CultureHow we do things. Actual behaviors. Our personality and style.
Key Result Areas (KRA)A major priority for the Museum over the next ten years. It is where we most need to do things that are new, better and different, to make things happen.
MissionA comprehensive statement which defines the nature and purpose of the San Diego Natural History Museum Marketing function.
ObjectiveA measurable, specific, time-certain thing we set out to accomplish in a KRA. This is like a destination marked on the map for a trip. It must be measurable so that we can determine what progress we are making along the way...and know when we have achieved our end.
Resources RequirementsThis is a spelling out of the resources in people, money, material, equipment and other kinds which will be needed in order to carry out an Action Plan that implements a Strategy.
StrategyThis is a direction which we believe will best take us to an objective. It is like the route we set out to follow in reaching a destination on a map. When we adopt a strategy, we automatically are committing the various kinds of financial resources required to implement it.
ValuesShared beliefs which energize action in a consistent manner. Principles that are held most dear.
VisionThe statement of the most desirable situation for the San Diego Natural History Museum to be in at some future time. It sets out the ideal positioning for the long term clearly and inspirationally.
Strategies & Teams, Inc. Robert F. Smith San Diego, California July, 2001
SP Home | The Process | Background | Calendar | FAQs | Findings
SDNHM Home
© 2013 San Diego Natural History Museum


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A diverse array of insurances providers to protect and secure all-size businesses.
There are many different types of insurance policies designed to protect business owners and their employees for a wide variety of situations. These insurance policies are designed to serve a unique purpose and provide different protection. Some of the most common insurance policies include:
Medical Insurance
Designed to help employees and their families cover the cost of medical bills, doctor visits, hospital stays and prescription medications, surgeries and much more.
Disability Insurance
If an employee is out of work due to illness, injury or pregnancy related conditions, disability insurance coverage helps individuals by providing partial wage replacement.
Commercial Vehicle Insurance
A form of auto insurance specifically designed to cover vehicles used by a business. These can include company cars, trucks and vans.
Protect your business and employees by educating yourself on what insurance coverage your business needs. Find helpful buying guides and business articles on various business insurance topics on Business.com.
Latest Insurance Guides
How to stretch your dollar when shopping for Florida car insurance
Cover your downtime when disaster strikes
Protect your business and cargo with commercial truck cargo insurance
Acquiring dental insurance in the United States is a crowning achievement


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Windows ActiveSync
Microsoft's Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) allows devices to synchronize the inbox, calendar and other items with your Exchange mailbox.
Using ActiveSync, faculty, staff and students are able send and receive ECU email, access contacts and update calendar appointments using their smartphone.
For more Windows Mobile tutorials, visit the Windows Mobile Basics page.
Configure over-the-air synchronization by following these steps:
- From the Home screen, press Start
- Scroll to ActiveSync
At this point, you may see several screen messages such as, "If your company supports syncing directly with its Exchange Server you can set up your device to sync with it."
Clicking this link will begin a series of steps to sync your email with the Exchange server. If you don't see this link, continue with the steps below.
- Select Menu >> Add Server Source
- Enter Piratemail.ecu.edu as the server address
- Select the check box for "this server requires an encrypted (SSL) connection."
- Select Next
- Enter your username, password and domain name (Intra)
- Select Next
- Select (or de-select) the types of information items you wish to synchronize
- Selecting Menu >> Advanced allows changing the rules for resolving synchronization conflicts
- To change synchronization details such as how far back to synchronize, select the type of information and click Settings
- Choose Finish


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home >> news
Friday, 13th July
Friday the 13th was a lucky day. Not only did we speak for the voiceless, but also welcomed three new activists. We started the protests at Legal & General Investment Management, who donate £10 to the disreputable charity 'Cancer Research' when someone buys 'L&G Life Insurance' or 'Life Insurance with Critical Illness Cover'. Cancer Research has been recently exposed by Animal Aid in their report 'Victims of Charity': (http://www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/booklets/victims.pdf) for funding horrific and useless experiments on animals.
An example of a Cancer Research animal experiment: 'a 2009 project funded by Cancer Research UK, in which furless mice were injected with human cancer cells and then force-fed, via a tube from the mouth to the stomach, an experimental anti-cancer drug. There were daily force-feedings over a ten-day period. This was in addition to painful daily injections, via the tail vein, of a radiotracer chemical to study the cancer's development. At the end of the ten-day trial, the mice were killed and their organs studied'. Cancer will never be cured with the current mindset. If cancer were controlled, thousands of well paid people would be out of work. Not surprising that Legal & General, who make money from the torture and murder of 500 animals every single day of the week inside HLS, would support a charity like Cancer Research, who want us to believe that they are making progress in the fight against cancer. The appalling reality is that nothing has changed for the last 40 years in the fight against cancer. We still use the traditional methods of choice: surgery, chemo and radiation therapy. If any progress has been made against cancer, it is due to our better diet.
Next stop was BlackRock Investment Management, a major shareholder of AstraZeneca. The sunny weather and the location helped to attract people who listened to our speeches and chants, aimed at humiliating this pathetic asset management firm with no morals or ethics. They invest in cluster bombs that kill innocent people and invest in vivisection that kills innocent animals and patients.
To finish the day, we went to AXA Investment Managers, another asset management company with an 'Anti Bribery and Corruption Policy' that says: 'AXA IM UK strictly prohibits the use of bribery or any other illegal non-commercial method when conducting business.' However, it's ok to be a major shareholder of the profiteering pharmaceutical company 'AstraZeneca', which has been investigated by the US government for paying bribes to increase their sales to foreign countries, raided by the European Commission for keeping cheaper copies of medicines off the market, and indicted last year in Serbia for alleged bribery. Vivisection is pure evil and exactly what the infamous Dr Mengele was doing to those innocent people in Auschwitz. We will stop those 'Angels of Death' who get away with murder in the name of profit and we'll fight until that hell hole is closed once and for all!
SHAC London
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By Gelene Simpson
Corsicana Daily Sun
When I was growing up in Corsicana in the 1940s and early '50s, I saw firsthand how important my parents thought it was to exercise the right to attend the church of their choice and to vote in every election of state and national representatives. In those earlier times voters had to pay a poll tax. My parents saved all those poll tax receipts. Mother seemed particularly interested in impressing upon us the importance of making sure that we had followed every requirement so that our ability to vote would not be challenged when we reached voting age.
In time I began to admire women who crusaded for women's rights and family justice. Louise Ballerstedt Raggio was just such a woman. She came from a small farm where there was neither electricity nor even a book. Nevertheless, she became a famous attorney, responsible for the revamping of women's legal rights and family law. How did she accomplish this outcome back when even after five years of law school at night, no one would hire her?
Of course, if she would settle for typing and filing she could have a job. But being a real lawyer seemed out of the question. But she kept on scrambling, and in Dallas in the 1950s she finally landed a job as assistant district attorney in charge of child support and the related categories of delinquent dads and juvenile court. This was under the authority of family law.
There was some bad news about family law, however. It really held women hostage. In Texas a woman once married had no property rights. She couldn't get a bank loan, couldn't start a business of her own, and couldn't even have protection for herself or her children if they became abused or there was a divorce. At that time, there were 44 different laws discriminating against married women in Texas and 27 legal disabilities of coverture. In fact the only way a married woman could control her property was to die. Then she could "give her half of the property to her children or anyone else of her choosing."
Another great irony was the fact that even though a single woman could have a bank account, she lost control of it if she married. Her husband could tell the bank "not to allow her access to her own money." The disabilities of coverture caused trouble for married women. They could be removed "only for mercantile and trading purposes." Professional women did not have the same right. In fact, all married women like Raggio, who were professional before 1967, were "actually practicing illegally" because the way the law read, their husbands were responsible for the actions of their wives.
Of course this did not apply to single women, widows or those who were divorced, only the married women. The husband, however, "could sell his property without even telling his wife." Pressure built up for something to be done about this situation.
The Equal Legal Rights Amendment kept being introduced, but it didn't get anywhere. Raggio could see why this was so. The legislature didn't want married women to have equal rights and didn't like the women who were sponsoring the amendment. The president of the State Bar in 1964 was Joyce Cox. As a male, of course, he felt pressured to name a committee to draft a bill to do something about the "disabilities of coverture of property rights for married women." Raggio worked on this, but it did not result in legislature action. She realized that tampering with the law in one area threw things off in another area. The situation was much too intertwined to be righted by a constitutional amendment. It would be like Prohibition and would probably have been rescinded.
Finally, however, a bill was approved and in June of 1967, Louise Raggio saw Gov. John Connally sign the bill in Austin. Married women in Texas could thereafter conduct their own affairs and be responsible for themselves legally.
(Facts from "Texas Tornado: The Autobiography of Louise B. Raggio" with Vivian Anderson Castleberry.)
Gelene Simpson is a Daily Sun columnist. Her column appears on Tuesdays. Want to "Soundoff" on this column? Email: email@example.com


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Italian Lesson
When I Wait for a Cab in the Rain
Morning Ritual
Walking in Savannah With My Landscape Architect
Low Tide
Hospital With My Sister Visiting
Being Single
Wisdom of the Grandmothers
After Six
Nice Girl Turns Mean at Spiritual Retreat
Tasha's Water Bowl
Their Last House on Earth
False Prenup
English as a Second Language
Dopo Cena
It's lunchtime in August. I'm standing on the corner of Duane Street
waiting to Walk. Waiting to take my Italian friend, Valentina, to Odeon.
I want to see her eat an 18 dollar hamburger.
I want to introduce her to American mustard and potato salad.
I want her to get parsley stuck between her teeth.
To hear her ask for help.
To teach her new words.
I want her to be happy, bask
in hours of air-conditioning.
I'm sweating. Hazy sky muted yellow. Fancy work shirt sticks
to my back and it's hard to breathe.
A garbage truck passes and its loud breeze cools me.
I shake out my shirt and fan my face.
I ask her to say garbage truck in Italian.
Anything sounds beautiful in Italian, I tell her.
Camion della spazzatura, she says.
I roll the words around in my head.
Truck of trash, and remember.
I want my father back.
To hear him utter garbage truck in French. In Yiddish.
The Latin meaning: derivative.
My father spoke four languages fluently. But never Italian.
He'd add o's to the endings of English words
and call it a day. Garbago de trucko, he'd say.
I want to hear him tell me another story.
How life in Tribeca was small then:
1942 and the Bronx Bombers had just lost the Series
and the grocer tossed him an apple each day on the way to school.
And were the streets uneven? Did he help his mother?
Cup her elbow in his hand to keep her from tripping in high heels?
I am not hungry anymore. I am waiting
for a table on West Broadway and it's blurry and my eyes are sad.
I hear laughter from the bar. It muffles inside me.
I turn to Valentina and ask her to say two more words.
Ma dai, she pleads. Come on. I bite my lip.
How do you say, history?
How do you say, gone?
"Italian Lesson" appeared in Lumina (2004), where it won First Place in the 2004 Poetry Contest, judged by former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins.
When I Wait for a Cab in the Rain
it's the sound of a snare drum I love.
Water beads bounce and land
on the tops of air-conditioners.
It's earth's wish for water,
filling dry cracks
on soil and pavement.
Tulip bulbs, seedlings, tree roots
and the birds at my feeder
have learned how to drink.
We all know about parched things.
Cars splash through puddles;
sometimes our feet get drenched.
O, let this ground around us fill.
Let no one ever go thirsty again.
"When I Wait for a Cab in the Rain" first appeared in Eclipse (2005).
It now appears on Eric Kent Wine Cellars's 2007 Freestone Pinot Noir wine label.
I pull up the covers of my bedspread,
adjust pillows, spray them
with lavender and geranium,
smells of a harbor on Monhegan.
The door is open, and the window,
and I leave them that way.
A breeze blows through my curtains.
Outside, leaves from a Bottlebrush Buckeye
fall to the pavement.
"Morning Ritual" appeared in Lumina (2005).
Walking in Savannah With My Landscape Architect
Daffodils unfurled, yellow signs
of rebirth bursting through
green shoots. I noticed and pointed
to the Spanish moss, impatiens
and begonias, walled gardens
of clivia and ivy.
If I always admire the weeping
willows, magnolia trees and live oaks,
I will live forever.
Everything reaches for warmth,
I whispered once,
leaning my head on his shoulder.
"Walking in Savannah With My Landscape Architect" appeared in Watershed (2006).
How the hermit crab,
carried from stone to stone,
unbruised, moves
with the current she is given.
She knows what I know:
when to wait for stillness,
then stretch and scurry.
She can find new shelter in
driftwood and empty conches.
I wriggle my toes for warmth
and hear the thrumming
of pebbles drenched in attention
before the tide retreats.
We all wear our homes on our backs.
"Low Tide" appeared in Oberon (2006).
Hospital With My Sister Visiting
It isn't the IV line or me
at the window feeling winter at my fingers.
It isn't the heart monitors beeping,
or vomit, bedpans, ammonia,
but the light out there – genuine
light and a large maple tree
moving in the wind.
It's the shining of sun on certain patches
of bark harkening: orange and gold.
A white plastic bag, clean and empty,
blows across my window,
flutters from limb to limb
until it hooks a high branch
and stays put
while its body floats and fills.
I touch my swollen and throbbing face.
See, Sarah? Things hold.
"Hospital With My Sister Visiting" appeared in Illuminations, an anthology published by Celestial Arts, an imprint of Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, California (2006).
At a fruit stand, I'm trying to examine a pomegranate: ripe or rotten? And I want to call my dad and ask him to explain everything, all over again. Ask him where periwinkles come from. His hands cupping my five-year-old face. Let's go find their mothers and fathers. At ten, how to clean the paintbrushes so the bristles won't fray. I sniff the pomegranate for sweetness, freshness. I don't know what I'm doing anymore. All I really want is to make that new salad I saw on a cooking show last week. The one with a pomegranate, arugula, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and shredded dried ricotta. He'd know the difference in texture between dried ricotta and Parmigiano-Reggiano. I listen for the pit's rattle. But he said to shake the avocado. I drop it back into its heaping pile and fish for one that isn't too soft. A clear, red pomegranate without mold or bruises. I close my eyes and hear my dad explaining, pick before overly ripe, before they crack open, especially if they've been rained on. The chef on TV said to warm the fruit by rolling it between your hands to soften the insides, to ready the juice of the seeds.
"Pomegranate" appeared in Gastronomica (2007), where it was nominated for the 2007 Pushcart Prize in Poetry.
I used to steal bras from Bloomingdale's
where real women shopped: lip-sticked,
high-heeled grown-ups in suits searching
for perfection. Red silk and satin C-cup push-ups,
mesh and black and slutty bustiers.
Before sensors and tags, security guards and guilt,
I piled two or three onto my virgin breasts,
putting my old bra on top, shirt and jean jacket
back on, walking out the revolving glass doors.
I didn't mind the generic cotton ones
Mom bought at Carter's: good girls
wore them happily without complaining,
because sixty-dollar price tags and fancy
French labels waited for me in secret at midnight.
While all of suburbia slept in the dark,
I went to my shoebox at the bottom
of my closet and played bad-girl dress-up
in front of my mirror. Everybody,
get up and do your thing, I sang
like Madonna, rubbing my nipples
till they peeked through the lace.
"Fifteen" appeared in The Paterson Literary Review (2007), where it was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2006 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize.
Sitting here at the table, Café Sha Sha, a May Sunday on Hudson Street, I feel the rain beginning. Sounds of silverware scooped up in one hand, waiters squabbling, a soup ladle chiming against the side of a pot. One Sunday 17 years ago, I sat with Beth in her car, stopped at a traffic light, hot vinyl burning through my short shorts, halter top stuck to the back of my seat. I wiped off my upper lip and reapplied thick pink lip gloss, snapped my watermelon bubble gum hard, and boosted the cigarette from Beth's mouth for a long drag. And so, green light go, she accelerated and I made my smoke rings disappear. Feathered wings of my hair blew high. We started to sing Like a Virgin, and sped off to watch the local college football practice. I hung my feet out the window so the cotton-candy color of my toes could attract any suitor. Love's Baby Soft so strong, every boy in the parking lot could smell it. I could make out the raised seams of jock straps through the tight maroon and gold-eagled uniforms as their cleats marched in unison toward the field. Their eye contact, a whistle or a thump on the hood of our car, and I hit my pose – tossed hair and head tilted back Charlie's Angels style. There's a kegger tomorrow night at Bowman Hall, one of them said to us. Now, rain on Hudson Street and we are grown-ups. Beth is married, drenched in desire, pregnant with son, husband massaging her swollen feet. And I am single, still remembering a car radio in the distance and its lustrous orange glowing neon light at night.
"Being Single" appeared in The Paterson Literary Review (2007), where it was awarded Editor's Choice in the 2006 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize.
My German Catholic grandmother taught me it's easy to raise seven children in a house with one bathroom if you assign each child a different color – blue toothbrush, blue towel, blue washcloth. Here are some of her adages: always have rental properties for extra income in case your husband's oil company goes belly-up. Add red and white vinegar to a three-bean salad for extra kick. Collect Haviland China. Tend to your dying husband but don't forget your charity work – serve as president of your local Red Cross chapter. Keep your neck warm in winter. Ignore the Nazi flag hanging in the garage of your older sister Wilma. Inscribe Jesus was a Hebrew on a candelabra (one that could pass for a menorah) and give it to your new granddaughter, Meghan, the half-Jew, when she is born.
My Polish Jewish grandmother taught me not to ask for public assistance when your husband dies and you are poor. Instead, have your seven-year-old son help you deliver dry goods on the weekends. Mix farmer cheese, pot cheese, sour cream and plain yogurt for breakfast because calcium will make you grow. Always wear lipstick. Keep your nails long and paint them Revlon Red. Go to night school and learn English after working twelve hours a day mending wedding veil lace on the Lower East Side. It's important to look your best – even if only shopping for oranges. Best foot forward regardless of immigrant challenges and schooling back in the old country for only six years. You don't want to be called a Greenhorn. Let your son leave Brooklyn. And never forgive your daughter-in-law for divorcing him.
"Wisdom of the Grandmothers" appeared in The North American Review (2008).
There are no facts, only interpretations.
- Nietzsche
Does he remember? The steep hills of Eze, slow
walks on cobblestones past high walls, narrow
roadways lined in red bricks surrounding
the medieval village. A small church perched
on a narrow rocky peak overlooking the Mediterranean.
Some say Nietzsche composed the last part
of Thus Spoke Zarathustra over 100 years ago under
the olive and pine trees along Jardin Exotique Panorama.
Four hundred meters from the sea, boutiques hide in tiny caves
filled with candied tangerines, lavender soap, bergamot
perfume. A stand selling fresh figs, dates, rosemary,
tarragon and thyme, the smell of lemons filling the sea air
as carob trees block the hot sun.
Or does he just remember the essentials,
what he thought we needed to carry that afternoon?
Clutching one baguette, a local bottle of Bandol –
the Romans who seeded the first vineyards 2,500 years ago –
a wedge of mountain milk cheese. And she, holding
a map close to her chest, Badoit water, bottled in
St. Galmier since 1883, the guidebooks, the knife.
"Provisions" appeared in The North American Review (2008).
Cheek pressed against the cordless phone, I picture
my mother in her Savannah kitchen, leaning
both elbows on the glass breakfast table as she asks
if I can send her 50 newly minted 2007 pennies.
It's 8:30 p.m. and she wants to give them out to mark
her one-year anniversary of being sober. I can hear
the emery board filing her nails in the background.
For 20 years, I knew not to call after six. Questions asked,
stories shared before the slur of words, Merlot numbing
her senses. Now, she asks how my breakup is going.
I tell her I walked the Golden Gate Bridge. On the other
side, I threw out love letters, photographs, lingerie,
baseball caps and ticket stubs. A cool gust of air
blows the Chronicle off the table. I adjust the phone
and push down each cuticle until I can see the half moons.
My mother is silent and I know she is crying.
I hear her shift as she tells me how she said good-bye
to my father when they divorced. Alone at Gooseberry Beach,
she made nine sand castles at low tide. Each one represented
a house they'd renovated together, from frames to foundations –
homes they'd dreamed of happily living in one day.
She sat for hours until high tide washed them all away.
Do you think you can find those pennies? She asks again.
I live behind the Mint, I tell her. We laugh.
My mother's mother taught her always to pick up a penny.
Bring luck inside. I agree with Grandma Shea. I will visit
every bank in the city to find those newly minted pennies.
I have waited a lifetime to talk with my mother after six,
like this, listening to each other through miles of cable
buried under the soil late into the evening.
"After Six" appeared in Rattle (2008), where it was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2008 Rattle Poetry Contest.
Nice Girl Turns Mean at Spiritual Retreat
It's the fourth night in a row that my bunkmate Blondie, newly divorced with a lavender eye patch, is snoring. Our bunk bed's shaking. She rolls over occasionally to cough and I think: Great. Fucking great. Her snoring will stop, but no, it doesn't, and I feel guilty since she has asthma, lungs constricted, chest heavy and wheezing, her meds and inhalers all lined up on the windowsill like Adirondack chairs. It's 2:07 a.m. Now, 5:11 a.m. and the moon and sun are meeting halfway to weep at my ruinous sleep. My makeshift toilet paper ear plug wads are beginning to fall out. Blondie's here for some group-therapy-cry-and-hug-type thing. Fuck. It feels like it's the end of the world. Full-time teaching begins in two weeks, and I have poems to write and miles to go before I sleep, and would you believe it? Suddenly, the other roomie, who's stunk up the cabin with her PABA-free Hopi tourist sunblock joins in the snorefest – emphatically answering her back. Look, I've been to camp with Quakers and Unitarians. I learned to swim naked twenty-five years ago. Bush-whacked up the backside of Mt. Snow. Was named like an Indian, Beaver Who Laughs With Pride, and shat in an outhouse for eight weeks. So after I imagine taking this 100% hemp pillow and smothering Blondie and Roomie, and after I've written a few good poems, I'll do community work in the garden. God help me. I swear on a stack of bibles as tall as the Sears Tower in Chi-town. I'll nourish compost with browned petals. I'll pick the rotting sunflowers. I'll weed weeds and find a yurt by the ocean like the Inuit nomads and pray. Really pray. Get down on my knees and beg for forgiveness. I will water the wilted sage and look for dried-up zucchinis until I'm up to my elbows, like the damned, forever in dirt.
"Nice Girl Turns Mean at Spiritual Retreat" appeared in The Comstock Review (2009), where it was a finalist in the 2008 Muriel Craft Bailey Award Contest.
Tasha's Water Bowl (25 Years Later)
I fill her bowl with
salad grown in the soil where
her spirit still rests.
When my parents were moving a few years back, they found Tasha's stainless steel water bowl. It was mixed in with the old kitchen bowls that were going to be donated to Goodwill, but luckily Tasha's name was marked on the bottom in black permanent marker. I love that my parents saved the bowl for so many years. I love that they gave it to me. I love that now I serve salad in her water bowl, remembering her as I fill myself and my friends with fresh vegetables.
"Tasha's Water Bowl" appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle (May 6, 2009). Read it here.
When my first grade teacher asked
what was the first thing I should do
when moving into a new home,
I told her, "Knock down the walls."
Installing toilets, sanding floors, stripping paint
and varnish – primed and ready to refurbish
the Victorians from the ground up – my mother and father
worked together then, in the eddying
final days of their marriage, preserving the abandoned
fixer-uppers, unfinished lots and driveways
of Newport's historic houses on the Point.
Saving cantilevered upper stories
the way they couldn't themselves anymore,
they dropped rusted nails
into the bounty of a Savarin coffee can.
Back and forth, making trips to empty the remains –
history's proof of what was unsturdy.
Aging roofs, beams and shingles incapable
of holding their own weight.
I watched in silence: sunburned backs, stained fingernails,
and my parents' white sneakers blackening like fish –
salvaging what beauty they could from the earth.
"Their Last House on Earth" appeared in The Ledge (2010).
Legend from Aunt Yetta had it that after my father proposed,
he took my mother to see Woody Allen's Annie Hall
and said to her: This is the story of my life. Are you sure
you want to marry me? Yes, she insisted, tossing her
clichéd long red hair, seated in her '67 Mustang convertible,
as she drove the New-Yorker-without-a-license home. Yes.
Despite being raised in more than two rooms, schooled by nuns,
not knowing about pot cheese and New Jersey, the difference
between sturgeon and lox and what it meant to take the El.
I don't care if you lived underneath a rollercoaster, or whether
you're a Jew, my mother told him later over marbled cheesecake.
But in Googling my father's favorite movie after he died,
I realized it premiered ten years after they married, and two years
before they divorced. This is like finding out that Columbus
never set sail, or maybe it's almost as shocking as when your twin
sister called you Chink-eyes – more almond-shaped than hers – at seven.
You were adopted from an orphanage in China, she insisted.
I think people should mate for life, like pigeons or Catholics,
Woody's character said in another one of his films of the 70's.
Oh, I used to believe everything anyone told me.
"False Prenup" appeared in The Ledge (2010).
Loma Prieta tribute specials are all over the news.
Flashbacks of a bridge almost fallen and three-story
apartment buildings crumbled like the sides
of the gingerbread houses I made every Christmas
with my mother; laden with heaps of icing,
purple spice gumdrops and candy canes.
I am reminded to recheck the emergency car kit:
one dozen water bottles, first aid supplies,
five pull-top cans of Chef Boyardee raviolis, flashlight
with four C batteries, towels, duct tape, sneakers.
The heaviness of everything in its blue canvas sack,
like the bricks I used in the trunk when commuting
on the slippery Long Island Expressway in snow,
as if we might ward off danger with weight.
"Talismans" was a winner in the Poets 11 2010 Poetry Contest, sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library and judged by Poet-in-Residence Jack Hirschman.
For Roberto, Age 10
So what if he hasn't matriculated from reading class yet,
can't hear the difference between mile and mild
or a diphthong from a digraph,
has no sister or brother to help him with homework.
Roberto has worn socks and shoes for only three years
and still speaks about the stray dogs he had
and the grandmother he called Mamá.
Still, he smiles because school breakfast and lunch are free
and there's always extra butter for pancakes
and as much bread as he dreams of eating.
His dirt floor's been replaced with pine.
Erasers glow in the dark and here,
All Spanish people wear shoes.
In the hallway, when his new American friends
ask nonchalantly where he hails from,
he tells them about crossing the border with an uncle,
about listening for footsteps in high grass,
spotlights and flashlights of the policía
making it hard for him to see Orion,
about meeting his mother for the first time:
I thought she was a lady representing my mother.
Soon it will be Halloween
and Roberto hasn't chosen a costume yet.
Maybe he's a football player, he tells his friends
one morning on the way to art class.
But not a devil, he says to Ariella,
putting his small hand up like a stop sign.
I never wanna see the devil again.
"English as a Second Language" was a winner in the Poets 11 2010 Poetry Contest, sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library and judged by Poet-in-Residence Jack Hirschman.
Turin, Italy, 1992
After dinner, Mamma fed the 16-year-old parrot,
serving him pesto e gnocchi on a white cocktail napkin.
Loreto ate with his beak and claws inside his cage,
yelling Ciao, Ciao between mouthfuls.
Papá in the living room poked at the fire
to make the flames stronger for the chestnuts,
then watched his soccer team triumph on the TV.
Forza, Juventus. Gol!
Away from home, I was a guest
and wasn't allowed to help.
I could sit in silence as my Italian mother
glanced over her right shoulder
to see if I wanted more
biscotti, acqua minerale.
Valentina, Cristina, and I sat drinking espresso
and leaned toward each other on elbows.
We stirred our white porcelain cups,
metal spoons clanking like lost cowbells
as Mamma rinsed the dishes.
Loading the Miele, she sang something
off-key and beautiful:
Good night, between the sea and the rain,
between your snowflakes and tea leaves.
Blue-flowered tablecloth scattered with sugar
and me, picking up each sweet crystal,
licking my fingers, one at a time.
"Dopo Cena" appeared in Alimentum (2010).


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Burgundy comes to London
This year's Decanter Man of the Year is Aubert de Villaine of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti - apparently, if almost unbelievably, the first time this honour has been held by a Burgundian. A dinner for nearly 50 to celebrate this was held at the offices of DRC's UK importers Corney & Barrow last week, complete with guardsmen at the entrance, a nod to C&B's managing director Adam de la Falaise Brett Brett-Smith's position as member of the Royal Household Wine Committee and wine advisor to Prince Charles perhaps. Tradition has it that the winner provides the wine for the celebration dinner - except...
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Join the discussion about health care issues in our nation and community on our blog, WakeMed Voices.
A CT scan of the upper abdomen showing multiple metastasis (cancer that has spread) in the liver of a patient with carcinoma of the large bowel. Note the dark areas in the liver (left side and center of picture).


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It was the best team in the North West Hockey League that the Huskies were up against on a rare Tuesday night game at North Peace Arena.
To make up for a game postponed back in early November, the Fort St. John Huskies and the Grande Prairie JDA Kings went head-to-head in front of a rather sparse crowd on Jan. 8.
Short benched due to work, multiple injuries and a few players caught behind a snowy wreck up the highway, it didn�t look good for the Huskies as the puck dropped, but despite their roster, they battled the league�s best team for a good 40 minutes.
For the first two periods, whenever the Kings scored, the Huskies answered with goals from Robbie Sidhu, Jayton Wieler and two from Cayle Bell to start the third period tied with the Kings at 4-4.
The third period was a different story, with the Kings scoring three unanswered goals to go up 7-4. Even with some pressure and another goal from the Huskies, the Kings sealed the game�s fate with an empty netter late in the third to win it 8-5.
�[It�s been happening] all winter,� said Huskies head coach Gary Alexander after the game. �We just can�t seem to sustain the effort that we put into it. I don�t think that we actually changed our effort a whole lot in the third period, and we have to up it instead of playing the same game because the other teams seem to shift gear and get up there.�
�We just haven�t been able to do that. It�s something we�ve tried every angle to work on and nothing seems to be accomplishing anything at the moment.�
Although the Huskies recently lost to the Kings in an even closer 2-1 game last weekend, Alexander said his team seems to play this way no matter what caliber the team is on the other end of the ice.
�We�ve led every team in the league at one time or the other throughout the whole winter and we haven�t been able to sustain that,� he said. �We know the capabilities are there. We can�t put our finger on why we can�t pull off a complete game.�
�I don�t think we were totally outgunned or anything but we have terrible puck luck. WE can�t seem to be able to get it to hop that direction, but sometime�s that�s the extra step that we aren�t taking to get possession of it when there is a hop there. You can make all the excuses that you want but the work ethic is what it comes down to.�
To fill some of the holes in their roster Tuesday night, the Huskies called up two players from the Trackers, Ricky Bateman and Thomas Webster, who were seen crashing the net and making hits along to boards.
�They performed well,� Alexander said about the Midget players. �You can tell they haven�t had a lot of experience with the older guys but they held their own pretty good. A little bit of confidence a couple more games and they could play here quite easily.�
As it stands the Huskies are sitting in second to last in the NWJHL with 16 points (7-15-2).
The weekend ahead might not prove any easier for the Huskies either. They�ll be hosting the North Peace Navigators, the league�s second-best team, Saturday night at North Peace Arena.


text:
It has been several weeks in intensive development, and now Moxl (Movim XMPP Library) the new XMPP library that will replace Jaxl is merged into Movim's development branch and will be released with the next version.
Why develop yet another XMPP library?
Movim has specific needs and Jaxl didn't provide for some of them. Jaxl was conceived as a standalone framework that works in a synchronous fashion with a heavy javascript part whereas Movim is asynchronous and has a heavy and complex server-side. Jaxl is also very complex and difficult to maintain, much of the code provides unnecessary modularity and dirty hacks were needed to link it with Movim.
Example: The requirement to parse for a second time each packet received by Jaxl to extract informations while keeping the structure, the base parser "putting flat" all packet informations.
The Jaxl complexity was heaving performances and code size (almost 65% of Movim), causing serious delays on small machines moderately stressed. The last major defect was related to the integration with Movim: sessions.
For instance, interfacing Movim's sessions with Jaxl's relied on very dirty glue code that created a maze of callbacks and exceptions so that Movim could be synchronised with Jaxl's status and vice versa.
Moxl cleans this all up
The Jabber class that previously glued Jaxl and Movim has disappeared altogether. The sessions system could be cleaned up and simplified further. We now only have a single session managed by Movim instead of two, which means that when the XMPP session is disconnected, so will the web session.
Moxl features a powerful events system called XEC (XMPP Events Controller) that lets it smartly route communication packages and thus simulate a stateful system. You can find XEC's documentation online.
Moxl lets Movim connect to existing XMPP accounts
Thanks to Moxl, Movim can now connect to an existing XMPP account straight through. There is no need for a web-server side registration any more, and thus Movim does not store user account details, leaving this responsibility to the XMPP server and preventing data leaks. The project's documentation is online and you can find the project's code on Launchpad.
What of its support in Movim?
Testing of Moxl happens within Movim. Therefore the library is entirely supported by the social network only 2.5 weeks after the development started. Movim on Moxl has already reached the same feature level as Movim 0.5 but with a much cleaner and maintainable code. It is furthermore possible to connect to a large variety of accounts and to connect without first registering on the web interface.
Moxl give a boost to Movim and accelerate its development by simplifying the code and provide easier error management. This also benefits the user with more granular error messages to take better decisions. With Movim 0.5, when an XMPP error happened, Movim just skipped it, Jaxl didn't provide error reports.
Porting Movim to the new library took only 2 weeks, thus it is realistic to expect a new release with only Moxl by the end of the year.


text:
The San Ramon Nawaabs were crowned the Tennisball Cricket Association-San Ramon Cricket Association (TCA- SRCA) 2010 Winter League Champions when they beat the Piccadilly Pacers in an exciting final that was enjoyed by a sizeable crowd that had gathered on a sunny Saturday morning at the picturesque Monarch Park in San Ramon to watch this encounter between the top two teams in the League.
The game was followed by an award function and presentation of the Winner's Trophy by San Ramon Mayor Abram Wilson to Sandeep Harigopal, the Captain of the San Ramon Nawaabs team. Mayor Wilson also presented medals to all the members of the San Ramon Nawaabs as well as the losing finalists the Piccadilly Pacers. It was not the first time that Mayor Wilson had done the honors, but it was the first time since the start of the TCA-SRCA League that a team other than the San Ramon Tigers, were the champions.
The presentations were watched and enjoyed by a large crowd of over three hundred including a lot of friends and family, who were treated to a delicious Indian lunch, sponsored by Peacock Indian Restaurants, one of the many sponsors of the League. It was clear from the turnout that the TCA-SRCA brings together not just the players, but also their families, including children, spouses, and parents who find a sense of community from the sport of cricket.
Interestingly, San Ramon is the only City in the Bay area that has dedicated a field specifically to cricket, and that has been one of the factors besides the terrific schools and great new infrastructure and facilities that have attracted so many to move to the City to live and raise their children. Yet, a recent study by the City found that on a per hour per person basis, the Cricket League which has over 300 regular participants, an overwhelming majority who are San Ramon residents, lags far behind sports such as Baseball and Soccer in the number of fields and field hours available for participants.
The TCA-SRCA is looking forward to working with the City officials to rectify this imbalance, and recent meetings and hearings have indicated that the City too sees the tremendous need for such facilities.
The TCA-SRCA has already started a summer cricket coaching camp for kids, and in the future would like to reach out to the larger community to bring this vibrant and family friendly sport to many more residents of the City. In a sense it would be homecoming for the game, which some historians believe was first played in the newly emerging nation of the United States of America by George Washington and his men at Valley Forge, as they fought for our Independence, which we will all be celebrating is a few short days.


text:
The Effingham County Sheriff's Office Traffic Enforcement Unit will be participating in the "Stop means Stop" campaign, which has been endorsed by first lady Sandra Deal. Deputies with the Effingham County Sheriff's Office will be vigorously enforcing stop arm violations.
South Effingham High School is mourning the loss of one of its students.
Girl Scout Troop 30197 participated in the God and Me program, the first of four segments in the PRAY (Programs of Religious Activities with Youth) program. Through this program, families explored their faith together and the girls became best friends with Jesus. A GAME (God and Me Exploring) box was made to keep the games created to remind them of the lessons learned throughout their journey. The lessons were: 1) God created me, 2) Jesus is God's gift to me, 3) I can talk with God and 4) because God cares for me, I can care for others.
The community is invited to a basketball showcase that also will bring a serious message.
LEXINGTON, Ky.-Effingham County High School has been selected as the 2012 Georgia Outstanding Postsecondary/Adult Agricultural Education Program.
As they are gradually seeing through their first two weeks of classes, Effingham County public school students are now under a new set of academic standards.
Georgia Southern University's Rural Health Research Institute (RHRI) has been awarded a $5.1 million grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) designating the RHRI as a Center of Excellence for the Elimination of Rural Health Disparities.
The South Effingham High School dance team recently earned high marks in an elite Universal Dance Association camp, receiving a Superior UDA Award for their ability to learn skills and routines rapidly.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Meredith Arrington, agricultural educator at Effingham County High School, has been selected as the 2012 Georgia winner of the Outstanding Young Member award given by the National Association of Agricultural Educators.
4-H State Congress brings 4-H'ers from all over the state of Georgia together for the opportunity to compete at the State level. After a first-place achievement at State Congress, they are considered a "Master" 4-H'er. Mastering in a project area or in a special event is the ultimate goal for 4-H'ers. Through project achievement, 4-H'ers gain public speaking, resume building and interview skills by presenting a portfolio of accomplishments and a demonstration based in their project area.
TIFTON - Shane Rahn of Rincon has been awarded a scholarship from the ABAC Foundation to attend Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College during the 2012-13 academic year.
Cade Zipperer, an eighth-grader at Effingham County Middle School, received multiple awards at the FFA Advanced Wildlife Camp, held July 15-22 in Covington.
Although Effingham County students routinely score above state and regional results on standardized tests, school district officials are always looking for improvement.
The Effingham County 4-H held its annual Junior-Senior awards banquet at Effingham County High School.
All Effingham County schools will hold elections this month for their school councils for the 2012-13 school year.
Armstrong Atlantic State University recently announced president's list honorees, each of whom earned a 4.0 grade point average for two consecutive semesters during the 2013-14 academic school year.
AMERICUS - Three Effingham County students were among the 300 graduates from Georgia Southwestern State University at the spring 2014 commencement ceremony in Convocation Hall of the Student Success Center.
Girls in kindergarten-seventh grade are invited to participate in the Mini Mustang Cheer Camp hosted by the South Effingham High School cheerleaders.
Four students from Blandford Elementary School were honored recently at the Georgia Stock Market Game Awards Luncheon in Atlanta.
Hank Miles and Casie Wilson are the recipients of the Effingham Community Orchestra's fourth annual academic scholarships.
ATLANTA - The Georgia Institute of Technology presented degrees to approximately 2,700 undergraduate and graduate students during its 247th commencement exercises.
Gov. Nathan Deal announced that Georgia was one of three states chosen to receive a $1 million grant to lead an education initiative, Guided Pathways to Success (GPS), focused on making college more affordable, boosting college completion and saving taxpayers millions. The grant is funded by the Lumina Foundation in partnership with Complete College America.
Boosted by a substantial increase in economics scores, Effingham County's high school students fared better than the state averages in every subject of Georgia's end of course test this spring.
Beth Helmly is another step closer to serving on the Effingham County Board of Education.
David Lariscy enlisted in the Army National Guard while he was still in high school, and he plans to continue serving in the military while pursuing careers in engineering and education.
Members of the Rotary Club of Effingham County honored the winners of the club's scholarships at their meeting Thursday.
F. Lamar Allen, the Effingham County Board of Education's District 3 representative and chairman, was recently elected to serve as a district director for the Georgia School Boards Association.
Four local students named to Mercer dean's list
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text:
August 2, 2014
DALLAS (AP) A Texas Army post has razed the building where a former psychiatrist carried out one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, with plans to put up trees and a memorial in its place.
Fort Hood officials said Tuesday that they have torn down Building 42003, the site of a 2009 massacre that left 13 people dead and more than 30 wounded.
The building was part of a processing center complex for soldiers deploying and returning from combat. On Nov. 5, 2009, then-Maj. Nidal Hasan carried two weapons inside, shouted "Allahu Akbar!" - "God is great" in Arabic - and opened fire on soldiers waiting for vaccines and paperwork.
As soldiers and civilians tried to take cover, Hasan walked through the building, targeting anyone in a green Army uniform. He left pools of blood and spent ammunition in his wake. He was eventually confronted outside the building by Fort Hood police officers, who shot him and paralyzed him from the waist down.
Hasan was convicted in August of charges related to the massacre and sentenced to death. He is on death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, while his case goes through a review at Fort Hood before it enters a series of mandatory appeals.
The building was sealed off for nearly four years until post officials announced in November that they would demolish it.
Fort Hood officials plan to place trees, a gazebo and a memorial plaque at the site.
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Disney Frozen's "Let It Go" In 25 Languages: Behind the Mic
(Source: kpfun)
Disney Frozen's "Let It Go" In 25 Languages: Behind the Mic
(Source: kpfun)
Pretty much sums it up!
I don't think my parents ever dreamed of their kid growing up to be a depressed sarcastic asshole that's addicted to the internet and has more internet friends than real ones
RIP Paul Walker (September 12, 1973 - November 30, 2013)
(Source: imsodonewithjustinbieber)
Lol! #disney ❤
I GET IT…. now
Disney on We Heart It
This is why our generation is the way it is <3
i will reblog this every time
I worked with a lady that came into work one day with no hair. No one mentioned it, no one talked about it. She was wearing a bandana so we all knew she was bald.
But I have ADD, and not so great control of my impulsiveness. Finally, near the end of the night I asked. "So… can I ask, what happened to your hairs?"
She smiled and hugged me. I was the only person with the cajones to ask. "My best friend is pregnant, already has a 4 yr old, and was diagnosed with cancer, and her boyfriend left her because it was too much. So I've been helping her out, being supportive. And I promised her if she started losing her hair I would shave my head too."
"Last night she called me, crying because her hair was falling out in clumps. I told her I'd be there in 10 minutes. She shaved me first, then I her."
It's the most supportive thing she could think to do.
omg this is beautiful
My dad has had cancer twice already and all I remember is him looking I'm the mirror saying "I'm disgusted" ill never forget the day that I saw him lose hope


text:
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text:
By Sarah Johnson
Special to Elk Grove Patch
Last week's Elk Grove City Council meeting was interesting, also disappointing in that designing from the dais took place once again. Agenda item 10.3, Wayfinding Signage was pretty much a fiasco from start to finish. The only bright spots were Pat Hume and Jim Cooper's "NO" votes.
The staff report was prepared using the wrong sign design. I notified the Council members and staff and on Monday, I got word that the mistake would be corrected. It appears that the Mayor may have been the only one who got the correct design prior to a "Green Sheet" being issued on Wednesday, the day of the Council meeting. So my first question is, how can staff brief Council members on agenda items correctly under these circumstances? What was said about this during the briefings? How can a Council member give thoughtful consideration to an agenda item with the wrong information? If they don't see it until they are on the dais, how good is their decision?
Council members said things like, "I support the concept", "I like the entire program, including the electronic readerboard signs", "I don't support the readerboard signs because there were objections to them from the community", etc. ( not exact quotes, but just an illustration. Watch the video for the exact discussion). By the way, the new terminology is "dynamic signs". Just another semantics exercise to confuse the issue.
Good points made by speakers were pretty much ignored. I would point out especially Mr. Monasky's discussion about signage focused toward pedestrians. How in the world will we ever begin to turn away from our auto-centric society if every thought and every action reinforces the worship of the automobile. Don't tell me it is because most people drive, etc. In my opinion, that is exactly the wrong approach. Set an example! Use your bully pulpit to advance new ideas. Quit falling into lockstep behind the idea that the automobile is the center of the universe! And, speaking of centers, how can you even look at the examples for signs internal to the Auto Mall and not see the very definition of sign clutter? If the public can find the Auto Mall, they can find the individual dealers without cluttering up the landscape with these ugly and confusing signs. It is disappointing to have these passed with a shrug because the Auto Mall provides lots of sales tax dollars to the City.
It may come as a surprise that pedestrian amenities are an important part of an integrated public transit system. They provide the connectivity necessary for a seamless path from front door to final destination. Of course, as Mr. Monasky also pointed out, you also have to have safe walking routes on which to travel. After thirteen years, why are we not emphasizing these issues?
Thanks Mr. Hume and Mr. Cooper for voting "no". Too little, too late!
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Is it too early -- or already too late -- to begin drawing lessons from "the Long War"? That phrase, coined in 2002 and, by 2005, being championed by Centcom Commander General John Abizaid, was meant to be a catchier name for George W. Bush's "Global War on Terror." That was back in the days when inside-the-Beltway types were still dreaming about a global Pax Americana and its domestic partner, a Pax Republicana, and imagining that both, once firmly established, might last forever.
"The Long War" merely exchanged the shock-'n'-awe geographical breadth of the President Bush's chosen moniker ("global") for a shock-'n'-awe time span. Our all-out, no-holds-barred struggle against evil-doers would be nothing short of generational as well as planetary. From Abizaid's point of view, perhaps a little in-office surgical operation on the nomenclature of Bush's war was, in any case, in order at a time when the Iraq War was going disastrously badly and the Afghan one was starting to look more than a little peaked as well. It was like saying: Forget that "mission accomplished" sprint to victory in 2003 and keep your eyes on the prize. We're in it for the long slog.
When Bush officials and Pentagon brass used "the long war" -- a phrase that never gained much traction outside administration circles and admiring think tanks -- they were (being Americans) predicting the future, not commenting on the past. In their view, the fight against the Islamist terrorists and assorted bad guys who wanted to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction and truly bloody the American nose would be decades long.
And of that past? In the American tradition, they were Fordian (as in Henry) in their contempt for most history. If it didn't involve Winston Churchill, or the U.S. occupying Germany or Japan successfully after World War II, or thrashing the Soviet Union in the Cold War, it was largely discardable bunk. And who cared, since we had arrived at a moment of destiny when the greatest country in the world had at its beck and call the greatest, most technologically advanced military of all time. That was what mattered, and the future -- momentary pratfalls aside -- would surely be ours, as long as we Americans were willing to buckle down and fund an eternal fight for it.
Arm and Regret
With the arrival of the Obama administration, "the Long War," like "the Global War on Terror," has largely fallen into disuse (even as the wars that went with it continue). Like all administrations, Obama's, too, prefers to think of itself as beginning at Year Zero and, as the new president emphasized more than once, looking forward, not backwards, at least when it came to the CIA, the Bush Justice Department, and torture practices.
Perhaps, however, the Long War shouldn't be consigned to the dust bin of history just yet. It might still have its uses, if we were to do the un-American thing and look backward, not forward.
As we call a contentious era in European history the Hundred Years' War, so our war in "the Greater Middle East" has already gone on for 30 years, give or take a few. If you wanted to date its exact beginning you might consider choosing President Ronald Reagan's brief, disastrous invasion of Lebanon in 1983, the occasion for the first suicide truck bombings of the modern American era. (As Mike Davis has written, "Indeed, the suicide truck bombs that devastated the U.S. embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983 prevailed -- at least in a geopolitical sense -- over the combined firepower of the fighter-bombers and battleships of the U.S. Sixth Fleet and forced the Reagan administration to retreat from Lebanon.")
An even more reasonable date, however, might be July 3, 1979, when, at the behest of national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Jimmy Carter signed "the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul." In other words, six months before the actual Soviet invasion of Afghanistan began, the U.S. threw its support to the mujahideen, the Afghan anti-Soviet fundamentalist jihadists.
As Brzezinski later described it, "[O]n the same day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained that in my opinion this aid would lead to a Soviet military intervention." Asked whether he regretted his actions, given the results so many years after, he replied: "Regret what? The secret operation was an excellent idea. It drew the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? On the day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter, saying, in essence: 'We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam War.'"
Another inviting date for the start of our 30-years' war might be January 23, 1980, when Carter, in a speech officially billed as a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, outlined what came to be known as the Carter Doctrine, which would put an armed American presence in the middle of the globe's oil heartlands. Having described the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf as a "vital interest" of the United States, Carter went on to state in the speech's key passage: "An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force."
What followed was the creation of a Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force, meant in a crisis to get thousands of U.S. troops to the Gulf region quickly. In the Reagan years, that force was transformed into the Central Command (Centcom, of which General David Petraeus is now commander), while its area of responsibility grew as the U.S. built up a massive military infrastructure of bases, weaponry, ships, and airfields in the region.
Since then, war, however labeled, has been the name of the game: in Afghanistan, our war began in 1979 and, in start-and-stop fashion, still continues; in Iran, it's gone on largely in a proxy fashion, from 1979 to the present moment; in Iraq, from the First Gulf War in 1990 to now; briefly and disastrously in Somalia in 1993 and intermittently in this new century; and more recently in Pakistan.
The future is, of course, unknown, but as our president and his foreign policy team prepare to make crucial decisions in the coming months about Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq, shouldn't our 30-years' war across the oil heartlands of the planet, essentially one disaster-hailed-as-a-victory after another, offer some cautionary lessons for us? Shouldn't it raise the odd red flag of warning?
American Jihad
Let me suggest just one lesson that seems to be on no one else's mind at a moment when a key "option" being offered in Washington -- especially by Democrats not eager to see tens of thousands more U.S. troops heading Afghanistan-wards -- is to arm and "train" ever more thousands of Afghans into a vast army and police security force for a government that hardly exists. Based on the last three decades in the region, don't you think that we should pause and consider who exactly we may be arming and who exactly we may be supporting, and whether, given those 30 years of history, we have the slightest idea what we're doing?
With those questions in mind, here's a little potted history of our own 30-years' war:
In the Afghan branch of it, our fervent American jihad of the 1980s involved the CIA slipping happily into a crowded bed with the Saudis, the Pakistanis, and the most extreme Islamist fundamentalists among the anti-Soviet Afghan fighters. In those years, the Agency didn't hesitate to organize car-bomb and even camel-bomb terror attacks on the Russian military (techniques endorsed by CIA Director William Casey). The partnership of these groups wasn't surprising at the time, given that Casey, himself a Cold War fundamentalist and supporter of Opus Dei, believed that the anti-communism of the most extreme Islamist fundamentalists made them our natural allies in the region.
With that in mind, in tandem with Saudi funders, the CIA provided money, arms, training, and support (as well as thousands of American-printed Korans). The funds and arms were all funneled through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence organization (ISI). At the time, our generosity even included offering Stinger missiles, the most advanced hand-held, ground-to-air weapon of the era, to our favored Afghans. The CIA also came to favor the most extreme of the jihadists, particularly two figures: Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani.
In the early 1990s, after the Soviets left in defeat, the jihadists descended into a wretched civil war, and Washington essentially jumped ship, a new movement, the Taliban, initially a creation of the ISI (with at least implicit American backing at least some of the time), almost swept the boards in Afghanistan, creating a fundamentalist Islamic state in most of the country.
Now, leap forward a couple decades. In that same country, who exactly is the U.S. military fighting? As it happens, the answer is: the forces of the old Taliban, rejuvenated by an American occupation, as well as its two key allies, the warlords Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and Jalaluddin Haqqani, who are now our sworn enemies. And we are, of course, pouring more billions of dollars, weaponry, and significant blood into defeating them. In the process, with hardly a second thought, the Obama administration is attempting to massively bulk up a weak Afghan army and thoroughly corrupt police force. The staggering ultimate figure for the future combined Afghan security forces now regularly cited in Washington: 400,000.
In other words, 30 years after we launched our jihad against the Soviets by arming the Afghans, we are now fighting almost all the people we once armed and arming a whole new crew. All sides in the debate in Washington find this perfectly sensible.
Then, of course, no one should forget al-Qaeda itself, which emerged from the same anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan in the late 1980s -- Osama bin Laden first arrived there to fight and fund in 1982 -- part of the nexus of Islamist forces on which the U.S. bet at the time.
Our Man (and Mortal Enemy) Saddam
Above all, let's not forget Iraq. Indeed -- not that anyone mentions it these days -- back in the early 1980s, the Reagan administration threw its support behind the Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein against the hated Iranian Shiite regime of Ayatollah Khomeini in the brutal eight-year Iran-Iraq War that began when Saddam launched an invasion in 1980. According to Patrick Tyler of the New York Times, Washington went far indeed in its support of Saddam's military on the battlefield:
"A covert American program during the Reagan administration provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war, according to senior military officers with direct knowledge of the program."


text:
July 31, 2014
WASHINGTON (AP) - A federal audit of 18 beef slaughterhouses
after the nation's largest beef recall has found humane handling
violations in three of them. One plant was temporarily suspended.
The audit by the Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and
Inspection Service found that one plant was insufficiently stunning
animals, which failed to make them insensible to pain before
slaughter. That plant has taken corrective actions and its
suspension was lifted. None of the plants were identified.
The audit results were provided to the chairman of the Senate
Appropriations agriculture subcommittee, Wisconsin Democrat Herb
Kohl, for a hearing he was holding Tuesday on the USDA's response
to the beef recall.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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[on the blog]
[about mintography]
Mintography is photography inspired by fresh creativity. Follow Natalie through her adventures as a community organizer by day and a photographer by night--or at least the weekends when she's free. Learn new techniques and quick tips to master your own camera through Natalie's upcoming Youtube tutorials. Book a session with Natalie to capture your special moments with style. Be a part of Natalie's journey to achieve her dreams!


text:
Eighteen-year-old Jessica Fielding is the "baby" of the family.
"She's the finale of six kids, and we're going out with a bang," mused her mother, Ruth Morris, who married Marc Morris and blended two families when her daughter was just a toddler.
Ruth's remarks allude to the fact that Jessica, a senior in 's International Baccalaureate program, is making a lot of noise in school and throughout the community.
Fielding recently won the 2012 GFWC Florida Youth Leadership Award in the field of education, which came with a $500 check. Nominated by the , she competed against other contenders from 23 clubs across the state.
"The entire GFWC Florida Federation knows these awards highlight youth around the state of Florida who not only are strong leaders, but use their leadership to be involved in their communities," said Jolie Frankfurth, GFWC Florida Director of Junior Clubs.
The straight-A student with all International Baccalaureate honors classes has a 6.4624 grade point average and during her four years at King has been on the Principal's Honor Roll 14 times.
Despite the rigors of her demanding academic schedule she makes time to tutor fellow classmates and mentor students in the band, where she plays the euphonium, trombone and tuba and has been a participant in superior-rated All-State and All-County bands.
Fielding also is a member of the National Honor Society, King High's Student Government Association, the Spanish Honor Society and the Science Honor Club, where she serves as vice president.
In addition, she volunteers weekly as an aide at Tennis for Fun, a program that benefits Special Olympic athletes, and she teaches Bible classes for young children at her church three days a week.
By way of a tuition-paid scholarship, the National Merit Scholar Finalist plans to attend the University of South Florida Honors College, where she'll major in bio-medical studies with an emphasis on genetics.
"Jessica knew from a very early age what she wanted to do," her mother said.
And doing the best job possible in her academic life has never been an option, Fielding said.
"Getting good grades is set before you as a challenge, and I've never accepted doing anything less than I'm capable of," she said.