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Although critics of the Democrats' health care form, which President Obama signed into law on Tuesday, say it features too much intrusive new goverment regulation, higher prices in health care industry stocks on Monday suggest that investors believe that bigger profits lie ahead. Could health reform prove a boon to business? (Watch a Bloomberg report about stocks rising after the health care bill passed)
Don't let the stock blip fool you: It's perfectly understandable that stocks would tick up once the health reform question was settled, says blogger Rossputin in People's Press Collective, because markets hate uncertainty. But the Democrats really want to "end the private health insurance industry, not just tame it," and once it becomes clear that Obamacare moved them closer to that goal health stocks are in for a dive.
"The stock market initially misinterprets ObamaCare"
Sorry, but investors aren't buying GOP fear-mongering: Republicans tried to paint reform advocates as "totalitarian socialist freedom-haters," says Andrew Leonard in Salon, but in the first hours of trading after the health bill passed drug stocks, including "Pfizer, Merck, AstraZeneca, and GlaxoSmithCline were all up, with gusto." The reality is that when you insure more Americans, it's "good for the health of real people, as well as for healthcare industry profits."
"The stock market doesn't fear healthcare reform"
There will be winners and losers on Wall Street: The health care overhaul will cut $132 billion from the Medicare Advantage program, says Matt Phillips in The Wall Street Journal. So while pharmaceutical companies and many hospitals will get a "boost" from the expanded coverage set to begin in 2014, managed care companies, such as Humana, that depend heavily on the Medicare Advantage program for business could be in for a tough time.
"Here are stock market winners in health vote"
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Forest fires, terrorism, war: explorations of danger by the author of The Perfect Storm.
Forest fires, terrorism, war: explorations of danger by the author of The Perfect Storm.
Here is the same meticulous prose brought to bear on the inner workings of a terrifying elemental force; here is a cast of characters risking everything in an effort to bring that force under control.
Chapter One
Late in the afternoon of July 26, 1989, a dry lightning storm swept through the mountains north of Boise, Idaho, and lit what seemed like the whole world on fire.
A dry lightning storm is a storm where the rain never reaches the ground. It evaporates in midair, trailing down from swollen cumulus clouds in long, graceful strands called virga. The electrical charges from a dry storm do not trail off before they hit the ground, however; they rip into the mountains like artillery. On July 26, 1989, lightning was hitting the upper ridges of the Boise National Forest at the rate of a hundred strikes an hour. Automatic lightning detectors at the Boise Interagency Fire Center were registering, all over the western states, rates up around two thousand an hour. By nightfall 120 fires had caught and held north of Boise, little one-acre blazes that eventually converged into a single unstoppable, unapproachable front known as the Lowman fire.
For the first three days Lowman was simply one among hundreds of fires that were cooking slowly through the parched Idaho forests. Around four o'clock in the afternoon of July 29, however, the flames reached some dead timber in a place called Steep Creek, just east of the town of Lowman, and the fire changed radically. The timber was from a blowdown two years earlier and was so dry that when the flames touched it, the entire drainage went up. The fire created its own convection winds, making the fire burn hotter and hotter until the fire behavior spiraled completely out of control.Temperatures at the heart of the blaze reached two thousand degrees. A column of smoke and ash rose eight miles up into the atmosphere. Trees were snapped in half by the force of the convection winds.
The fire rolled across Highway 21 and right through the eastern edge of town, detonating propane tanks and burning twenty-six buildings to the ground. A pumper crew was trapped at the Haven Lodge, and they hid behind their truck and finally stumbled out of the blaze an hour later, safe but nearly blind. The fire had attained a critical mass and was reinforcing itself with its own heat and flames, a feedback loop known as a fire storm. The only thing people can do, in the face of such power, is get out of the way and hope the weather changes.
Which they did, and which it did, but not until a month later, after forty-six thousand acres of heavy timber had been turned to ash.
I saw the site of the Lowman fire in 1992, three years afterward, when the ponderosa seedlings were already greening the hillsides. A roadside plaque said that eight million ponderosa and Douglas fir would be hand-planted by the mid-1990s. The plaque went on to describe how the land had been treated with enzymes so that water and microorganisms could penetrate soil that was now seared to the consistency of hard plastic. Thousands of flame-killed trees had been dropped laterally along the slopes to keep the land from washing away, and thirty thousand acres had been planted with grass and fast-growing bitterbrush. In a hundred years, more or less, the area would again look the way it once had.
I was driving a big, painfully beautiful loop from Ketchum, Idaho, around the Sawtooth Mountains and down the South Fork of the Payette River toward Boise. It was late afternoon when I drove through the Lowman burn, and the quiet darkness of the dead valleys depressed me. The West was well into one of the worst droughts of the century, and I was out there to see the wildfires that it was sure to produce. My idea was to go to Boise—where all the fire-fighting resources were coordinated—tell them I was a writer, and hope they let me on a fire.
I pulled off down an old logging road and pitched my tent in a clear-cut. It seemed to get dark very quickly that night, and I cooked spaghetti on my camping stove and went to sleep listening to the weekend traffic die down on Highway 21. The Lowman fire, I'd heard, had burned so hot that Highway 21 had melted. There were places, I'd heard, where fire trucks had left their tread marks as they rushed from Boise to fight the flames.
In 1965 the U.S. government established the Boise Interagency Fire Center to coordinate the three federal agencies—the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the Forest Service, and what was then known as the Weather Bureau—that were engaged in fighting wildfire in America. The Bureau of Indian Affairs, the National Park Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service were added later, and the name was ultimately changed to the National Interagency Fire Center. Two years after BIFC was established, the Northern Rockies were hit with a catastrophically bad season that culminated in the Sundance fire in northern Idaho. BIFC managed to deploy thirteen thousand men and thousands of tons of supplies, prompting a study by the Office of Civil Defense, which was trying to figure out how to handle a similar crisis in the event of a nuclear war.
BIFC is located next to the Boise airport, across the interstate, south of town. The lobby is filled with the sort of display that, were you even vaguely inclined toward a job fighting fire, would make you move out west on the spot. There is a smoke jumper mannequin in full jump gear, including a wire face mask for when the jumper goes crashing into the treetops. There is a board with everything—food, medical supplies, tools—a jumper needs for forty-eight hours on a fire. There are color photos of air tankers dropping retardant and sheets of flame rising from stands of trees. One photo shows a fire in dense forest on the Umpqua National Forest in Oregon. "The total-timber jump spot," the caption reads, "trees in this photo are between 80 and 125 feet tall. Five of six smokejumpers committed to this fire `hung up' in trees, thus the rope carried in the leg pocket for a `letdown.' The fire was stopped at a quarter-acre."
A short, powerful man named Ken Franz—one of the Boise smoke jumpers, as it turned out—spotted me loitering in the lobby and came over to investigate. I told him I was interested in wildfire, and he motioned me into a cluttered conference room and sat me down at a long table to tell me the basics. Behind Franz was a map of the western United States that covered most of one wall. There were seven red circles on it around seven towns: McCall, Idaho; Boise, Idaho; Missoula, Montana; Redmond, Oregon; Redding, California; Silver City, New Mexico; and Winthrop, Washington. Franz turned and pointed to them.
"Those are the smoke jumper bases," he said. "We are constantly getting sent from one place to another; you never know where you're going to be the next day, or the next week. They just shift resources around to wherever the hazard is greatest."
That shifting of resources, Franz explained, is what BIFC is designed for. Everything from government-issue paper sleeping bags to food to foam fire retardant to Ken Franz himself is shipped around the country, following fires, following thunderstorms, even following droughts. There are 410 smoke jumpers and perhaps 20,000 active and on-call fire fighters in the United States. Should a smoke jumper's father die, say, or his house burn down, BIFC would know what state, what fire, what division, and what 20-person crew he was on. Should an air tanker go down en route from Denver to Missoula—one of hundreds of flights during a busy day fighting fires out west—BIFC would know what route it was taking and when it was supposed to arrive. The immense task of keeping track of all these things is accomplished at the logistics center on the top floor of the main BIFC building, across the parking lot. Across one wall of the room is a huge map of the country. Cardboard cutouts representing airplanes are moved around on it; cards representing fire crews are switched from "available" to "unavailable" slots. More detailed information is stored on a computer. In late August 1987 lightning started two thousand fires across the West that burned almost a million acres. In ten days 22,500 fire fighters and forty-five tons of supplies were deployed to fight the fires. BIFC accounted for every chain saw, every hard hat, every gallon of retardant.
"Smoke jumpers are considered an initial attack force," Franz went on. "That's a generic term for the first response to a fire. The classic situation would be a lightning-struck tree in a remote area where two guys jump in, fell it, buck it up—put out what amounts to a small campfire. Basically, the whole world's a jump spot; within a mile of any fire you can usually find a very acceptable place to land in. On a big fire you have to start somewhere, so you jump a whole planeload and establish an anchor point, at the tail of the fire. You clear helispots for landing supplies, and you work your way around the sides of the fire."
Smoke jumpers land with eighty pounds' worth of gear, including two parachutes, puncture-proof Kevlar suits, freeze-dried food, fire shelters, and a few personal effects. Following them in cardboard boxes heaved out of the airplane with cargo chutes are chain saws, shovels, ax-hoe hybrids called Pulaskis, sleeping bags, plastic cubitainers of water, and dozens of other things needed on a fire. If there's an injured jumper, a medical emergency pack comes out of the plane. If it's a fast-moving fire, the crew can call for boxes of explosives that can blast an instant fire line in the forest duff. The list of what can be thrown at a fire is endless—and expensive. A more cynical view, popular among many, is that the government puts fires out by throwing money on them until it starts to rain.
Not much of the money, however, goes to the fire crews. A jumper makes about $8.50 an hour. If the fire is uncontrolled, as, since smoke jumpers are initial attack, it almost always is, the crews get another 25 percent hazard pay. If they work overtime—again, almost a sure bet—they get time and a half. The jump itself has been ruled as simply another way of getting to the fire, like a bus or a pickup truck, so jumpers get straight pay when they leave the airplane and time and a quarter when they hit the ground. If they are injured on the jump, however, and don't make it to the fire, the hazard pay does not kick in. From fifteen hundred feet it takes about a minute and a half to reach the ground with a parachute. At $8.50 an hour, that's about 21 cents.
"In a good year you can make almost thirty thousand dollars," said Franz. (As with all fire fighters, a "good" year is a year with a lot of fires; a "good" fire is a fire that isn't brought under control too quickly.) "Under twenty thousand is more typical. That's for six months. The rest of the year we sew."
They sew everything: harnesses, fire line packs, jump bags, even little duffels with the BIFC flame logo on the side. They do it to save the government money, they do it because they're better sewers than most manufacturers, and they do it to keep themselves employed. The only thing they don't sew are the parachutes. Some jumpers are certified to make repairs, but the chutes themselves are bought from a manufacturer. The parachutes the BLM uses cost a thousand dollars apiece and are expected, with upkeep, to last at least ten years. They were of a design invented by a French kite maker in the early 1900s. They are called Quantum Q5 Ram Air parachutes.
"Ram air means there are cells that fill with air," said Franz. "They make the canopy so rigid you could walk across it. You could also put a line on it and fly it like a kite; in Alaska, jumpers fly their chutes like kites. You steer with toggles and have a forward speed of twenty miles an hour. It's a very high tech delivery system for a very low tech job; once we hit the ground we're just fire fighters. Afterward we have to pack ten miles or more, to the nearest helispot. Our gear weighs over one hundred pounds, and usually we're not even on trails; it's harder work than fighting fires. It keeps you honest."
Honest means capable of enduring a training regimen that used to weed out 30 percent of the preselected men at the training camp (overwhelmingly men, but not entirely). Rookies are considered the fittest and most perfectly trained because they have endured boot camp most recently: three hours of workouts a day, a jump simulator called the Mutilator, an array of courses and tests that virtually guarantee you'll pull your ripcord after jumping out of the plane. Overwhelmingly, it works, though not always. In 1991 a jumper in Montana was killed because he didn't reach for his ripcord until "ground rush," when it was too late. The entire thing was caught on video because it was a training jump. The consensus was he froze.
"The biggest hazard is probably the fire itself," Franz told me. "Felling burning snags, logs rolling down hillsides. Jumping is usually a relief. It's hot in the airplane, and sometimes you feel sick; then suddenly you're totally focused on what you're doing. It's a little dreamlike."
After our talk Franz took me for a quick tour of the jump loft. He showed me the rigging room where the chutes are packed, and the sewing room, and the weight room. Afterward we returned to the conference table, and he popped a short tape into the VCR. It was quick and unprofessional but highly dramatic. It showed a jump crew working a fire at night, right on the line. At one point a sawyer was cutting down a huge ponderosa, and his saw was halfway through the trunk when flames started pouring out like liquid. The tree was hollowed out by fire, it turned out, and was drawing like a chimney. The sawyer kept cutting; the flames kept spurting; eventually the tree fell.
As I left, I asked Franz—against all hope—if there were any fires around for me to see. He told me I'd just missed a good one. An older couple from Pennsylvania had been towing a car behind their RV, and the car got a flat tire; sparks started a fire front two miles wide. Six thousand acres, a million dollars to put out.
"I suspect the government will try to collect too," he said. "Try the dispatch office; they'll know what's going on."
The dispatch office for the Boise National Forest was a trailer east of the airfield. "I just came from BIFC," I told the young woman behind the desk. "I'm a reporter. Are there any fires?"
I felt a little bad asking the question. She didn't blink. "Seven hundred acres as of midnight last night," she said, spreading a map of Idaho out on the table. "Lightning-started, wind-driven, with three helicopters and twenty-two crews. It's called the Flicker Creek fire. They've called in a type one overhead team."
A type one overhead team is called in only when a fire is really bad or is expected to get really bad. The Flicker Creek fire was in steep terrain with extremely dry fuels and strong winds. Steep slopes help a fire because uphill fuels get preheated; winds help a fire because they make it burn hotter and push it across the land. A seven-hundred-acre fire could jump to seven thousand or even seventy thousand in no time at all.
An hour later I was driving north on Highway 21 in my green fire-retardant Nomex pants and yellow fire shirt. In the back seat were a yellow plastic hard hat and a fiberglass and aluminum fire shelter. The shelter is a pup tent that comes in a small pouch with belt loops. It reflects radiant heat, reducing what would be a 1,000-degree fire to 120 degrees or so. I would be assigned a public relations person when I got to the fire camp, the ranger told me. I would be fed and I would be lodged in a tent if I didn't have one. Tomorrow morning a helicopter would take me into the fire line.
I breezed past some bored Forest Service guards and turned off Highway 21, into the hills.
Flicker Creek is one of hundreds of small creeks that cut through the steep, dry hills of the Boise National Forest. Most of the land is grass and rocks and sagebrush, with heavy stands of ponderosa on the north slopes and in the drainages. Flicker Creek empties into the North Fork of the Boise River, which quickly joins the Middle Fork and continues on to fill the Arrowrock and Lucky Peak reservoirs. The entire West was seven years into one of the worst droughts since the 1870s, so both reservoirs were severely depleted. Arrowrock had been reduced to a muddy brook that you could practically jump across.
After twenty miles of rough driving, the road leveled off along the North Fork of the Boise. There was plenty of water up here—or so it looked—and the river was fast and lined with big, open stands of ponderosa. The fire camp was in a huge meadow called Barber Flats that ran alongside the North Fork of the Boise. Hundreds of bright nylon tents were pitched in the yellowed grass. A helicopter thumped over a ridgeline, trailing a retardant bucket. Water trucks rumbled back and forth, spraying the dust down. Hotshot crews came and went, Indian file, or slept in the shade, or sharpened their tools. Some were black with dirt; others looked as if they'd just arrived. They all had on the same green and yellow Nomex that I wore and big lug-soled boots.
I parked my car between the trucks and water tankers and searched out the information desk. The public affairs people knew I was coming, and I was pointed toward a large, deep-voiced man named Frank Carroll. "You'll need boots if you want to go out on the line," he told me. "You'll need water bottles; you'll need food; you'll need gloves. I'll set you up after dinner. You can pitch your tent anywhere you like. People get going around five in the morning; make sure you're at breakfast and ready to go by then."
I thanked him and went off to get my gear set up. All around me, big, lean men and a few women went about their duties. I pitched my tent in tall grass behind a cabin that served as a command post and then wandered over toward the catering tent. Behind it was a full-size truck outfitted as a kitchen. Hotshot crews passed by it in line, taking plates of food from the young woman behind the window and then sitting down at folding tables under a canvas army tent. The woman was pretty and had a sheath knife on her belt. I tried to pretend I belonged there, and she loaded my plate up with steak and carrots and mashed potatoes and salad and two slices of white bread.
I took a seat by myself at a corner table and watched the crews come and go, talking loudly, eating fast. Most of the fire fighters were young white men, sinewy and unshaved. There was a scattering of women among them, but the women were treated—as far as I could tell—no differently from anyone else. I didn't think they would be discriminated against so much as subjected to one form of gallantry or another, but they weren't. Everyone seemed to be too tired and hungry to notice the opposite sex. (This turned out to be emphatically untrue.) Furthermore, beneath the baggy clothes and grimy faces it was hard to tell who was what.
The Indians and Latinos generally had their own crews. It was a reflection of demographics more than anything else: Twenty men from Browning, Montana, are likely to be Blackfeet, not white; twenty men taken off the farm crews in the Snake River valley are likely to be Latino, not Indian. It's the Indian crews, the caterer told me, that can really clean out a food truck. "They'll eat anything that's not nailed down," she said. The convicts eat sweets and spicy foods because they can't get much of that in prison. The white `shot crews are the most health-conscious: They eat a lot of fruits and vegetables; some won't even touch meat.
That was hard to imagine, because the government food contracts were defined by how much protein—meat, in other words—was provided per person per meal. Everyone gets four ounces of meat at breakfast, seven ounces at lunch, and ten to sixteen ounces at dinner. Everything else—vegetables, grains, fruit—was considered a condiment and didn't figure into the equation. It's a lot better than it used to be, though. Back in the dark ages of fire fighting—before women, before showers, before Nomex—the crews subsisted mostly on ham. Ham and eggs, ham sandwiches, fried ham. Catering trucks were essentially big meat lockers with ham hanging in them, and maybe some Wonder bread. Back in those days the hotshots wore T-shirts that said, "When forests burn, pigs die."
After dinner I sat in on the planning session. It was held under a ponderosa pine by the dirt parking area. The entire overhead team was there, identifiable by the fact that they weren't dirty and weren't wearing Nomex. They were trained together and used on the Flicker Creek fire as interchangeable parts of a network called the Incident Command System. The system is based on the idea that any person trained for a certain job—logistics chief, information officer, helibase manager—can perform that job for any agency, in any situation. Overhead teams are made up of people from a dozen different government agencies and are pulled in from all over the country. You might find an incident commander from Georgia and an air operations branch director from Colorado and a safety officer from the next town over. There are seventeen type one overhead teams in the country, and they mainly fight fires, but they have also been effective on other catastrophes: oil spills in Alaska; hurricanes in Florida; earthquakes in Mexico. An overhead team was sent to clean up the Valdez oil spill, for example, and the system worked so smoothly that it was copied by both the Exxon Corporation and the U.S. military. A fire camp with an overhead team, in fact, can put two people in the field for every one person acting as support—a ratio roughly twenty times as efficient as the military's.
I went to bed when the five hundred fire fighters did, at dark. The only noise was the continuous rumble of the generators. The planning session had brought bad news, in a way: The fire was cooperating almost too quickly. A thirty-acre spot fire had started in light fuels on the south front but had been contained by three crews. Seven type two crews—less experienced than hotshots and usually used for mopping up—had cut line all the way down to the river, farther than expected. The winds were dying down, and unless they picked up again, the fire would be contained within days.
A fire camp is never completely still. All night long I was aware of the movement of men. They walked past, packed equipment, coughed, spat. Around four in the morning the sounds were so continuous that I woke up even before my watch alarm went off. It was still dark, and the camp undulated with human forms and occasional headlamps. Crews were packing their line gear, drifting toward the catering tent, clustering around the big stand-up kerosene heaters set up at intervals in the field. It was cold, maybe in the twenties. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and pulled on several sweaters and my boots—I had to wear leather on my feet in the helicopter, for some reason—and hustled toward the lights of the tent.
The person assigned to me was Bill Casey, a type two safety officer from the Boise area. He was a strong, clear-eyed man in his late forties who directed the local Bureau of Land Management district and was also qualified to command a type two overhead team. (A type two team handles smaller fires, but operates the same way.) He had bagged thirty elk in the past thirty-two years of hunting them, he said. His father hunts with him and can still shoulder fifty pounds of elk meat, at age seventy-one. Casey is part Blackfeet; he has dead-straight gray hair and brown eyes and a handsome, open face.
"We're a little overstaffed because the fire didn't do what we expected," he admitted as we sat in his truck at the helibase.
"What did you expect the fire to do?" I asked.
"Well." He chose his words carefully. "The guys don't want to see the forests burn, but on the other hand, they want to have a good, productive summer. They like to have two to three weeks on a fire and then move on to another one. In that sense, it's disappointing to have the fire lay down so fast."
Excerpted from FIRE by SEBASTIAN JUNGER. Copyright © 2001 by Sebastian Junger. Excerpted by permission.
Barnes & Noble.com Science & Nature editor Laura Wood met Sebastian Junger at his New York City restaurant, The Half King. This interview was conducted later via email.
Barnes & Noble.com: In the introduction to Fire you make an interesting observation about humans' fascination with danger. Rather than simply a morbid fascination, you speculate that instead there is a feeling of amoral awe. Can you elaborate on that?
Sebastian Junger: Humans are curious, and I think that curiosity can be mistaken for lack of compassion. A fatal car accident or a forest fire or war -- or a human birth, for that matter -- are rare events to witness. As uncomfortable as these things can make us, in some ways we should consider ourselves lucky to have been at the right spot at the right time. We can learn a tremendous amount from these things and apply them to our lives in ways that could be very positive. The criterion I use is: Am I actually making a situation worse -- am I increasing the total amount of human suffering in the world -- by doing what I'm doing? Clearly, turning my head to see a car accident doesn't hurt anyone, but taking photographs at a private funeral might. One is immoral and the other amoral and, possibly, a source of understanding.
B&N.com: As you point out in the title essay, "Fire," smoke jumpers don't exactly make a huge salary (I love the calculation that the actual jump earns them 21 cents!), but since it's so competitive there are obviously people who would rather risk their lives than make more money sitting behind a desk.
SJ: Frankly, I can't think of something that should be less interesting to a 22-year-old than money. The 22-year-olds who have lots of money -- movie stars, heiresses, the occasional musical genius -- invariably seem to lead tragic, unfulfilled lives. That a 22-year-old would prefer -- for a few years, at least -- to jump out of airplanes and put out fires seems to me to be the most natural thing in the world. Of course, there's a time in a person's life to stop doing those things, but that comes much, much later. Ask smoke jumpers if they're happy. Then ask a 22-year-old behind a desk in an office if they're happy. Take their blood pressure. Check their pulse. Ask how much they drink or smoke, and whether they are happy with the relationship they're in. Then decide which is the richer life.
B&N.com: Physical danger is one thing, but there are other kinds of dangerous pursuits. Writing itself can be thought of as dangerous. What do you think the risks of writing are?
SJ: There are risks to writing, mainly failure. The other risk is wasting your time. Think of all the interesting things you could have been doing -- like working as a smoke jumper -- while you were at home struggling to find something interesting to say. Writing isn't an end in itself, like yoga. It's a way to express ideas. If you haven't yet acquired the ideas to express, you're risking all kinds of things by pursuing a career in writing. Get dirty and come back to it later.
Sebastian Junger Catches Fire
From the September/October 2001 issue of Book magazine.
Sebastian Junger's bedroom -- the one in his parents' house, where he still sleeps from time to time -- looks out on a lush, verdant landscape. Above a small desk are the bows and arrows he crafted when he used to build lean-tos in the woods to see how long he could survive in the wild. There are summer camp photos here, books about Native American tribes and aboriginal peoples, as well as one book Junger no longer needs -- about how to make a living as a professional writer.
This is where Junger grew up -- on a tree-lined lane in a Boston suburb, where SUVs careen around cul-de-sacs. Here, Junger wrote some of his first stories, in Belmont, Massachusetts, founded in 1630 and known as "the town of homes," where every house looks like a bed-and-breakfast.
It's only a half-hour drive between Belmont and Gloucester, Massachusetts. But that distance defines the contradiction of Junger. Gloucester, America's oldest seaport town, was founded in 1623. It is a partly quaint, partly hardscrabble village where muscular fishermen shoot pool, glug Budweiser, and listen to the Allman Brothers Band on the jukebox in a bar called the Crow's Nest. It is the town from which the crew of the Andrea Gail set off on a fishing expedition in 1991 and never returned. That tale was chronicled in Junger's 1997 book, The Perfect Storm. Junger, with his permanent five o'clock shadow, weatherbeaten good looks, loping gait, and vaguely punch-drunk patter, could pass for an able-bodied seaman in a Gloucester oceanside bar. Junger might have liked to come from here. But he didn't.
Straight Out of Belmont
"It was a hard place for him to be," John Vaillant says of Belmont. Vaillant has known Junger since the two were five years old (they attended grade school together). "It was really staid and suburban and prosperous and extremely quiet. He felt like a Martian there."
"He's always had troubles with the fact that this is the suburbs, and an elegant house in the suburbs is not what he likes," says Junger's mother, Ellen Sinclair.
In Belmont, Sinclair sits in her living room with her husband, Miguel Junger. The Junger house is filled with antiques and books. One shelf is stacked with volumes about fine artists; another contains leather-bound antique manuscripts inherited from Miguel's family, who lived in a passel of European countries. Miguel, a retired physicist who ran a consulting company and taught at MIT, is currently reading three books in three languages (he speaks six): One, Peter Nichols's A Voyage for Madmen, was purchased for Sebastian. Inside it, he has written the following inscription: "For Sebastian, my good shipmate. From the ancient mariner, Miguel."
"We live very, very well, very comfortably," says Sinclair, an artist whose family used to own and operate an amusement park in Canton, Ohio. "But Sebastian doesn't like this house."
The Perfect Dorm
Sebastian Junger ("Seb" to his buddies), age 39, war reporter, bestselling author, is heading home to his Manhattan apartment to pack for Macedonia. Vanity Fair is sending him to investigate the looming conflict between the Slavic majority and the Albanian minority, as well as the human trafficking there. Loping up the stairs of his Lower East Side walk-up, Junger stops to greet a workman in a white undershirt and soiled jeans.
"You go on vacation," the man says, smiling.
"No, no," Junger says, intent on making his point. "Not vacation. I'm going on assignment."
"Vacation." The man smiles again.
"Not vacation," Junger repeats. "Work."
Junger walks with the purpose and determination of a man who thinks all eyes are upon him but will not allow himself to be distracted. He has a focus and intensity -- which clash with his predilection for self-deprecation -- suggestive of someone who recently discovered he has a secret power but is still uncertain of what it is or how he can harness it.
Arriving on the third floor, Junger slaps loudly on a door.
"Hey!" he shouts, still slapping. The apartment belongs to journalist John Falk. Junger and Falk recently co-wrote a screenplay with Scott Anderson, author of The Man Who Tried to Save the World. The screenplay, which concerns the three writers' experiences in Bosnia when they were mistaken for CIA agents, was sold to Intermedia. The original title, Risk, has now been changed to Springtime in Sarajevo.
"He usually sleeps during the day," Junger says of Falk. "I want to freak him out."
He rings the bell a few times.
"Hey, what's the matter? You chicken?"
No answer.
"I guess he's not there," Junger says, somewhat disappointed, and strolls over to his place. According to Junger's agent, Stuart Krichevsky, The Perfect Storm sold more than 600,000 copies in hardcover and over 2 million in paperback; the paperback rights sold for $1.2 million, the film rights for $500,000. The Wolfgang Petersen-directed film starring George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg, and Diane Lane was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2000, raking in approximately $180 million. People has tagged Junger one of the sexiest men alive. Oprah has drooled over him. Fire, a collection of Junger's articles -- mostly previously published -- about Idaho smoke jumpers, Afghani rebels, the Caribbean's last whaler, and other people involved in dangerous activities in the world's hot spots, is rolling out this fall.
"Things have gone very well and very smoothly for him," says Anderson. "Whether it's prescience or luck, he's repeatedly in the right place at the right time."
Nevertheless, Junger's apartment is sparse and unassuming, more Gloucester than Belmont, more skid row than Gloucester. It's a cozy two-bedroom (in any city other than New York, this would be called a one-bedroom), and it looks as if it's still awaiting the next shipment of moving boxes. The living room contains three pieces of furniture -- a mushy couch the color of a very thin gravy, a chair and a table, atop which is a chessboard and a gag lighter in the shape of a bikini-clad woman (the bikini lights up when you flick it). A window is propped open with a hatchet that his sister Carlotta -- now an art director for a London publisher -- once found in the woods.
Junger divides his stereo equipment between the living room and his office; in the living room, there's a Sony Discman, in the office, a boom box. In the living room, wooden crates house several dozen cassette tapes, most of them hand-labeled (artists include Harry Belafonte, U2, Los Lobos, Bruce Springsteen, and Portishead). CDs, some out of their cases, are stacked haphazardly on the floor. So are printouts of articles about Macedonia downloaded from the Web. There's a smattering of artwork on the floor and the walls -- photographs and paintings by some of his friends, a couple of iron curiosities he found on the beach at Cape Cod and on the streets of New York.
The bedroom is sparser. True, the mattress is no longer on the floor (a recently purchased bed frame is a concession to his girlfriend, a science journalist). But aside from one of his mother's paintings and a half-read copy of Jonathan Raban's Passage to Juneau, it's basically the only thing in the room.
The most cluttered room is the office. A low shelf filled with reference books. A desk strewn with papers. A laptop. News clippings tacked to the walls -- an obituary of a matador, a picture of a sinking oil tanker. Here and there, other odd items: a temporary ID from Afghanistan, maps -- some on the walls, some rolled up and shoved into corners -- family pictures, snapshots with curling corners depicting Junger, arms around his buddies. (Note to burglars: The checkbooks are lying on the floor.) The window above the desk looks out onto a seedy, profoundly unspectacular New York cityscape -- a dingy Mexican restaurant, cluttered little grocery stores, wholesale clothing shops, their wares spilling onto the sidewalks. "Luxury just isn't interesting," Junger says. "I really don't buy expensive things. They just depress me; they always have." (Adam Langer)
Posted October 2, 2012
This book has a catchy title and cover, however, it has very little to do with wilderness fire fighting. Don't recommend!Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted September 16, 2002
Some of Junger's exploits are compelling, while the others drone on and on with violent and repetive prose. Junger has certainly led a dangerous life, however the drama and excitement of each treacherous voyage does not translate well in this book. He should have copied his excellent technique in "The Perfect Storm" by fleshing out the first story about firefighters to fill the whole book.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted July 26, 2002
Sebastian Junger has covered stories that other writers don't dare to cover. Fire is another excellent example of the dangerous work that he does so well. This book should be on any readers' shelf.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted November 22, 2001
Not up to the focus in 'The Perfect Storm'; but I knew that going into it. This pre-9/11 work certainly helps open our eyes to a need to better understand global affairs - perhaps a few years too late. Down with the Monroe Doctrine and up with 'Seb' and authors like him for helping us 'get out of the box'.....AT LAST. Looking forward to his insights as ABC's war correspondent - especially the 'behind-the-scene' stuff.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted November 1, 2001
The most interesting stories were the first ones on fighting fires, the one on Sierra Leone, and the last one on Afghanistan, which provides some insight into the type of war being fought there. Junger is really an adventurous person who can bring the tension and urgency, when it exists, to the reader.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted October 5, 2001
This book was great, I read about the Author and his topics in mindsurfing. I highly recommend this book to anyone.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted October 13, 2001
The book is a little interesting, but drones on documentary style of a few specific examples of extreme situations, but really leads nowhere. Usually a book is either entertaining, educational, or purely captivating in subject, and this book, in contrast to the excellent 'Perfect Storm', fails on those accounts. I unfortunately bought the tape which was also dry and dronely read. The stories came across to me as little more than an author facinated by the horrific but with little story line to follow. Perhaps a specific account of a single firefighter or a Kosovo survivor could have told the same story in a more interesting fashion.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted September 27, 2001
I first encountered Sebastian Junger in reading the `Perfect Storm.¿ As an award winning journalist he has honed his meticulous investigative prowess and prose. At this point in history, especially American history, Junger¿s writings on Afghanistan are timely. I also found his viewpoints on the genocide in Kosovo amazing. I also recommend Brad Steiger¿s `Alien Rapture¿ which is also timely as we are on the brink of WW III, using Top Secret black technology. I read his bio on mindsurfing.com and was quite impressed. Junger does a remarkable job, both unforgettable and comprehensible, of explaining diverse human phenomena in `Fire¿ and I will surely look forward to his future non-fiction books. `Fire¿ is highly recommended by this reader.Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Posted February 12, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Posted October 5, 2010
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Posted February 11, 2011
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Posted December 12, 2011
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Posted April 17, 2010
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Posted May 11, 2011
No text was provided for this review.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
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Published: January 13, 2012
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TS star Krissy Kyung is proud to return as a sponsor of the 2015 Transgender Erotica Awards. She has been creating and showcasing her unique...
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Grooby Productions announced Shemale.com as the first official sponsor of the Seventh Annual Transgender Erotica Awards. The company is...
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In the fourth installment, fans can expect the same hot solo action from cast members Wendy Williams, Wendy Summers, Brooke, Kourtney, and first-...
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Adult entertainment e-tail site GameLink.com will provide reality star Hank Baskett with free access to its vast library of transsexual and...
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Fresh off her win for NightMoves 2014 Best Transsexual Performer, Asian adult actress Venus Lux meets with fans at New Jersey's Exxxotica...
Article: Trouble Films' 'Fucking Mystic' Hits Streets October 30
Published: October 28, 2014
You are under her spell.
Company News: Grooby's Shemale Yum Celebrates 1800 Unique Models Milestone
Published: October 09, 2014
Katie Pastel becomes the 1,800th model to join ShemaleYum.com.
Company News: ASACP Honors October's Featured Sponsors
Published: October 01, 2014
The Association of Sites Advocating Child Protection (ASACP) is pleased to announce its Featured Sponsors for the month of October.


text:
Edward Wong
Recent and archived news articles by Edward Wong of The New York Times.
Q. and A.: Ann E. Carlson and Alex Wang on the U.S.-China Climate Accord
Alex Wang and Ann E. Carlson, law professors at the University of California, Los Angeles, who study environmental policy and regulations in the United States and China, responded to questions about the United States-China agreement on cutting...
November 28, 2014, Friday
Q. and A.: Zhang Lifan on the New Chinese Nationalism
The Chinese historian has become outspoken in recent years on the need for China to undertake ambitious economic and political changes.
November 27, 2014, Thursday
Another Feline Incursion From Russia Into China
Chinese officials said the tiger, Ustin, had crossed into frigid northeastern China, following in the footsteps of Kuzya, a tiger released in May.
November 27, 2014, Thursday
In Step to Lower Carbon Emissions, China Will Place a Limit on Coal Use in 2020
The State Council, China's cabinet, released details of an energy strategy that includes capping coal consumption at 4.2 billion tons.
November 21, 2014, Friday
Thailand Is Searching for Scores of Uighurs Who Fled China
The escapees, almost all women and children, left a shelter in southern Thailand in several separate groups this month, and about 120 remain at large.
November 19, 2014, Wednesday
U.S. Policy Makers Could See Opportunity in China's Rise
"It would be a mistake to view increased frictions as the result of inattention or clumsy policy," says Ely Ratner, deputy director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.
November 13, 2014, Thursday
China's Climate Change Plan Raises Questions
Analysts and policy advisers wonder if the climate accord reached by the U.S. and China goes far enough, and how Beijing will meet its targets.
November 13, 2014, Thursday
Climate Accord Relies on Environmental Policies Now in Place
The United States and China should both be able to meet the stated goals by aggressively pursuing policies that are largely underway, analysts said.
November 13, 2014, Thursday
In New China, 'Hostile' West Is Still Derided
Using language reminiscent of the Cold War, Chinese officials have voiced conspiracy theories accusing foreigners of plotting to weaken or overthrow the Communist Party.
November 12, 2014, Wednesday
Putin Drapes China's First Lady in a Blanket, and Invites Speculation
The exchange during a dinner at an economic summit meeting in Beijing took only a few moments, but it set off a flurry of discussion and speculation as to the Russian president's intent.
November 11, 2014, Tuesday
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Traveling is all about getting out of your comfort zone, so Tanner and Pat decide to take a trip to the German Alps. After visiting some castles they venture into the mountains to meet up with a crazy German named Karl where they jam out, drink beer and enjoy some Bavarian delights. The next morning the bro's rise before the sun to milk some cows and make some cheese... German style. Finally the bro's head high in the sky to paraglide through the Alps. Music: "We Don't Wanna Be People" by Cathy, "I Know You're Holding" by Moses Luster and The Hollywood Lights, "Bella Dina" by The Moonlight Wranglers, "Chlorine Colored Eyes" by The Crash That Took Me, "The Silver Lining" by Gold Leaves, "Earthling Men" by Fergus & Geronimo, "Architect" by Filligar, "The Cuber Bake" by The Diplomats Of Solid Sound, "Walking with the Dead" by Jon McKiel, "The Cure" by Jon McKiel, and "Escape From Shantytown" by The Diplomats Of Solid Sound
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We're often told staring at screens for extended periods can weaken eyesight. But now some tech firms say using a mobile app can actually improve vision, and even eliminate the need for reading glasses. CNET's Kara Tsuboi explains how these apps work and if they can deliver what they promise.
Reading Reddit's Ask Me Anything chats on the Web can be challenging, but a new mobile app attempts to clear up the confusion.
PDFs? Check. Web pages? Check. Learn everything you need to know about printing from your iPhone or iPad.
Apple wants to replace plastic credit cards with the Apple Pay mobile wallet and the new iPhone 6. It's not the first to attempt such a feat. Will it finally be the one to succeed?
The Wikimedia Foundation has redesigned its app for iOS and Android, with new features including editing and saving pages for offline reading.
The latest version of Apple's smaller tablet is identical to last year's model except for the addition of the company's fingerprint-reading technology from its iPhone line.
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Doral Resort Renamed Trump National Doral Miami
Tuesday August 13th, 2013 - 4:01PM BGH
| | | | | | | | | | |
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MIAMI—Trump Hotel Collection has renamed its historic Doral Resort as Trump National Doral Miami, as part of its restoration since the Trump Organization purchased the property in June 2012.
Once complete, the nearly 800-acre property will feature five expanded golf courses, 640 remodeled guestrooms, revamped main building, lobby, fitness center, ballrooms, pools and spa. It will also have new restaurants and bar concepts; landscaping renewal and technology upgrades to all rooms and meeting and event space.
Trump Hotel Collection appointed WATG and Wimberly Interiors to spearhead the architectural transformation while preserving the historic integrity of the property. The Trump Organization's EVP Ivanka Trump serves as the principal behind all of the resort's design decisions.
Once completed, visitors can expect contemporary guestrooms adorned in a palette of neutrals, including ivory, champagne and caramel—accentuated with Mahogany wood and gold leaf Spanish revival details.
The hotel's eight villas will also be renamed in honor of well-known golfers; with each room to feature artwork comprised of classic black and white photos of a golf great. In addition, the exteriors of the villas and main Clubhouse area will undergo a transformation, receiving a Coquina treatment.
Tags: • Hospitality • Brands • Construction/Renovation • Ownership •
For the past few years, the talk of The Lodging Conference in Phoenix had been focused on the economic recovery, solid industry projections and "cautious optimism." With the word cautious no longer necessary, the economic outlook took a backseat this year to the seemingly unending parade of new lifestyle brands.
Crowne Plaza Charlotte Executive Park Unveils $10-Million Reno »
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American Hotel Income Properties REIT LP Acquires Portfolio for $41M
Renovated Mahekal Beach Resort to Open December 2014
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- Kings' Slava Voynov will face felony assault charge
- Tim Howard earns U.S. Male Soccer Athlete of the Year honor
- Is Robert Griffin III an NFL bust?
- Sharks close trip with uninspired loss 4-1 loss to Sabres
- Chargers notes: Seyi Ajirotutu fined, Ryan Mathews and Manti Te'O to return after bye
- Clippers' concerns revolve around defense and rebounding
- Do the 49ers have an identity crisis?
- Marcus Lattimore injury: 49ers running back has bigger issue
- Klay Thompson signs 4-year, $70 million extension with Warriors
- VIDEO: Steve Ballmer scares his son with enthusiasm after Clippers' win
Kobe Bryant Achilles' injury: Lakers star has foot on the ground
- Updated: May 7, 2013
Los Angeles Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant is now off crutches and is able to put weight on his left foot after suffering a torn Achilles' tendon in April.
Foot on the ground! #pray4bear #standup #mambaarmy instagram.com/p/ZBLtUwxNpf/
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) May 7, 2013
The injury instantly ended his season, and even has his status for the beginning of 2013-14 in question. But smart money says that Bryant defies odds as he has his entire career and makes his debut come the opening tipoff (i.e. the "pray for the bear" hash tag). He is already showing progress, and has demonstrated nothing but a positive outlook with respect to what used to be a career-threatening injury.
Modern medicine is only accentuating his progress.
Bryant is wired differently than most, and his drive will fuel him to come back and at the very least, be an effective player. The Lakers will need that production from him coming off one of the worst seasons in franchise history. Bryant's injury came at a critical juncture at the end of the regular season as L.A. was fighting to make the playoffs. After he went down, the team rallied around one another and managed to string together wins against the San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets to grab the No. 7 seed.
After that, the Lakers lost in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, 4-0 to the Spurs, and were overmatched and undermanned without Bryant and Steve Nash.
Though things look bleak in Laker-land, Bryant's optimism gives the squad a glimmer of hope for the immediate future.
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- Kings' Slava Voynov will face felony assault charge - November 21, 2014
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- VIDEO: Steve Ballmer scares his son with enthusiasm after Clippers' win - October 30, 2014


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Worship: Sundays at 9:30 a.m.
605 Spruce Street
Madison, WI 53715
Welcome To St. Mark's Lutheran Church!
St. Mark's is at the place where we can feel God's guiding spirit leading us
into a new future. "Behold" says our God,
"I make all things new". We are
committed to growing our spiritual lives, continually asking, "what does it mean
to follow in Jesus' footsteps?" We are committed to strengthening the
relationships within the community and developing new relationships with our
friends who come to eat and stay for worship. We are grateful to discover the
joy in being renewed.
From Our Pastor
From our November issue of
I have a list of what I call my "Amazing Graces". Opportunities or
circumstances or something that happened to me that helped me find my path
in life. For example, growing up in a small farm town was an "amazing
grace". It felt like we had the whole world to play in while I was growing
up giving us confidence, and nurturing a sense of adventure and curiosity...
...What are your "amazing graces"? What are the blessings that have helped
you find your way even when you have had to walk the rocky path and were not
sure where it would end? Read
all of Pastor Lori's article in the November 2014 issue of Branches.
Click here.
New Playground
Fundraising goal for completion of playground
and new signs $1300.
So far $550 has been raised!
Upcoming Events
December 7 - Child Friendly Worship
December 14 - Christmas Sing-A-Long and Cookies
December 21 - Service of Healing
December 24 - Christmas Eve Worship
St. Mark's Calendar
Every Tuesday Food Pantry 10 a.m. – 12 Noon
Every Thursday Food Pantry 5:45 p.m. – 7:45 p.m.
Every Friday - Friday Free Meal 12:00 Noon – 1:00 p.m.
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Milk prices sour dairy outlook
|| Print |
|High Five
|Wednesday, January 05, 2011
Mallorie's Dairy of Silverton is closing after 56 years of producing milk, due to declining milk prices.
The dairy has sold its 3,000 cows and will shut down by the end of the month.
Read more at Capital Press.
{biztweet}mallorie's dairy{/biztweet}
|A Complex Portrait: Immigration, Jobs and the Economy
|Revenge Forestry
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|The Bookseller
|Kill the Meeting
|Political Clout
|Ferguson bakery saved by crowdfunding
|Obamacare yields more than 1M applicants in first week of open enrollment
|Price of already-built homes in Seattle area drops
|Apple hits record-high value
|Fed's ability to regulate questioned
|Budweiser to move away from Clydesdales
|Mergers lucrative for departing CEOs, but not necessarily shareholders
Is your business ready to join us in the call for action? This opening panel includes Oregon businesses who will discuss why they signed the Oregon Climate Declaration, the investments they are making to reduce carbon emissions, and how their actions are affecting their companies.
Get ready for two days of special events produced with the EPA, Portland Timbers and ISOS before and after the GoGreen Conference on October 16.
Plenty of employers seem "dazed and confused" after the recent vote to legalize marijuana. In light of Measure 91 passing, what are some issues for private-sector Oregon employers to consider?
Rotary's Oregon Ethics in Business aims to raise consciousness about business ethics by honoring exceptional companies.
Barran Liebman's annual employment law seminar is an industry classic.
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More than 400 "Change Makers" will gather to invest in a socially sustainable community.
Sussman Shank LLP is pleased to announce that Dallas G. Thomsen and Victor J. Roehm have become partners of the firm.


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The reputation of your legendary game day parties has spread throughout Boston. With your amazing appetizers, Red Sox-themed decor and the game on the big-screen, your guests are always in awe. Next time, outdo yourself once again with this True Fan Platter featuring Boston graphics and team colors. As the delicious goodies on the platter disappear, your guests will be greeted with this festive Red Sox greeting! Show all your friends you know how to say "hello" in Boston!
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Signifyin' Marlon Riggs: Screening and Panel Discussion of Marlon Riggs's "Black Is Black Ain't"
Filmed Friday, October 21, 2011, in Timken Lecture Hall on the San Francisco campus of California College of the Arts. Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts (QCCA) presents a screening of the late Marlon Riggs' final film, Black Is Black Ain't (1995), followed by a panel discussion with producers, editors, mentors, artists, and friends involved with Marlon Riggs, including Jeanne Finley, Blackberri, Pat Turner, Nicole Atkinson Roach, and others!. The panel, moderated by filmmaker and CCA
Reanimating Sierra Leone's cultural heritage (UCL)
Dr Paul Basu (UCL Anthropology) has been working with institutions across Britain and Sierra Leone to gather objects and stories of Sierra Leone's cultural heritage in both a website (http://www.sierraleoneheritage.org) and a new exhibition at UCL. The West African country, still recovering from a Civil War that ended in 2002, has a rich cultural heritage of textiles, masks and more but with little resources to preserve them. Providing an opportunity to re-evaluate Sierra Leone's cultural herita
Upper Beginner #1 - Good Japanese Kids Go Home at Five
Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! When your friends tell you in Japanese that it's getting late, you check your watch. You had been having so much fun that you hadn't been paying attention to the time. It is late, and you don't want your Japanese host family to worry. They told you about a recent rash [...]
ISS Update - Jan. 10, 2012
The International Space Station video update for Jan. 10, 2012.
09.01.2012 – Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten
Trainieren Sie Ihr Hörverstehen mit authentischen Materialien. Nutzen Sie die Nachrichten der Deutschen Welle von Montag – als Text und als verständlich gesprochene Audio-Datei.Die USA haben eine ungewöhnlich deutliche Warnung an die iranische Führung gerichtet. Der Iran überschreite eine "rote Linie", wenn er Atomwaffen entwickeln oder wichtige Schifffahrtswege wie die Straße von Hormus blockieren sollte, sagte Verteidigungsminister Leon Panetta. Die iranische Führung hatte zuvor bekan
Panther Chameleon Climbing Up and Down Branches
This short video gives excellent real life footage of a brightly colored Panther Chameleon climbing up and down logs and branches in a tropical environment. Students will enjoy seeing how this amazing reptile maneuvers with its legs and tail. This is a great resource to help build background knowledge and to help make real world connections between nature and the classroom. (Less Than 2 Minutes)
Enterprise in the sports industry
This presentation discusses Drucker's thesis that failure is a "good thing" if the opportunities that arise from such failure allow the development of personal and enterprise skills
Romney wins New Hampshire
Jan. 10 - U.S. networks project that Mitt Romney won the New Hamshire primary. Deborah Lutterbeck reports.
Luna (with Karis) 2
Description not set
Integration of the Arts in the Curriculum
In this three minute video the host provides an overview about art integration in 8 aspects. The definition of arts integration is teaching the arts in conjunction with other subjects. It is, in effect, an advertisement for a DVD that is being sold. However, the contest presented is well worth watching in terms of integrating the arts in different ways.
Is This the Theory of Everything?
This model by Garrett Lisi reveals the link between gravity and the other fundamental forces of nature. The intricate pattern is shown in this animated selection accomapnied by narration. ( 2:24)
Basics of the Coordinate Plane
This selection provides an introduction to the basics of the coordinate plane. An interactive board is used to show the x and y axis, quadrants, and an ordered pair. A tip is also provided to help students learn the number of each quadrant. ( 1:46)
Trouble for NYSE, D. Boerse deal
Jan 10 - European anti-competitive regulators are prepared to block the $9 billion merger of Germany's Deutsche Boerse and NYSE Euronext. Conway G. Gittens reports.
Photography@Google: Moose Peterson, "Captured"
Moose stops by the Googleplex to discuss his latest work, his passion for aviation, and his recent conservation trips. Moose's work has direct impact on our world. Captured: Behind the Lens of a Legendary Wildlife Photographer is more than just a photography book-it's a chronicle of more than 30 years'worth of unbelievable moments that only nature can reveal. And Moose Peterson is more than just a wildlife photographer-he's a storyteller in both prose and pictures. If you're looking for the ul
What are Multiple Intelligences?
What are Multiple Intelligences? what is intelligence? 7 original multiple intelligences by Dr. Howard Gardner and this five minute video features a lecture about the seven main types and how they are identified and ways to use this knowledge to help them learn. Gardner has identified more, but these are a good starting point.
Panther Chameleon--An Overview
This very short video gives excellent real life footage of a Panther Chameleon. This chameleon has one of the most spectacular color variations of all chameleons. Students will enjoy the close up views of this amazing reptile. This is a great resource to help build background knowledge and to help make real world connections between nature and the classroom. (Less Than 2 Minutes)
Difference Quotients - Problem 2 of 3
This video is a continuation and presents another example that demonstrates how to calculate and simplify a difference quotient. (3:05)
Namaqua Chameleon Walking Through Desert Habitat
This short video gives excellent real life footage of Namaqua Chameleons walking through the desert. Students will enjoy the close up shots of these amazing lizards in their natural habitat. This is a great resource to help build background knowledge and to help make real world connections between nature and the classroom. (Less Than 2 Minutes)
Luxury race heats up at Detroit show
Jan 10 - Dinner reservations? No problem with some of the new luxury cars unveiled at the Detroit auto show. Deborah Gembara reports from the Detroit auto show.
Urgent Emergency Disaster Ultra Readiness
This important part of the video starts at 40 seconds. It tries to be clever, but the most important part of it is the listing and showing of materials that all homes should have to be prepared for an emergency. Preview first as it may not be suitable for all audiences.


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W.Va. high school playoff pairings
November 23, 2014
PARKERSBURG, W.Va. (AP) — Pairings for the West Virginia high school football playoffs. Friday games are at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday games are at 1:30 p.m. more »»
No. 18 Marshall stays unbeaten, escapes UAB 23-18
November 22, 2014
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Defensive lineman Ra'shawde Myers recovered a fumble in the end zone for a go-ahead touchdown with 8:20 left and No. more »»
No. 18 Marshall holds off UAB 23-18
November 22, 2014
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Rakeem Cato threw for two touchdowns and Ra'shawde Myers recovered a fumble in the end zone for a late score as No. 18 Marshall defeated UAB 23-18. more »»
Jones, Rozier led No. 7 Louisville past Marshall
November 22, 2014
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Chris Jones scored 18 points and backcourt mate Terry Rozier added 17 as No. 7 Louisville overcame poor shooting to beat Marshall 85-67 Friday night. more »»
West Virginia outlasts Boston College 70-66
November 22, 2014
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Devin Williams, Juwan Staten and Jevon Carter had 15 points apiece as West Virginia rallied in the second half to top Boston College 70-66 in the semifinals of the... more »»
No. 18 Marshall faces UAB, trying to stay perfect
November 21, 2014
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Marshall is fighting to earn its way into a New Year's Day bowl. UAB's more concerned with becoming eligible for any bowl and learning the program's uncertain fate. more »»
West Virginia loses to No. 12 Kansas State 26-20
November 21, 2014
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia may have to finish the regular season without quarterback Clint Tricket. more »»
Mississippi State drops No. 17 West Virginia 74-61
November 21, 2014
STARKVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Freshman Victoria Vivians scored 26 points and sophomore Ketara Chapel had 19 with 11 rebounds, all career-highs, as Mississippi State upended No. more »»
No. 12 Kansas State beats West Virginia 26-20
November 21, 2014
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Jake Waters threw for a career-high 400 yards and a touchdown, Tyler Lockett returned a punt for a score and No. more »»
West Virginia runs past George Mason 91-65
November 21, 2014
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — At a glance there wasn't much that West Virginia didn't seem to do well in its opening game of the Puerto Rico Tip-Off. more »»
Marshall-UAB Preview Capsule
November 20, 2014
No. 18 Marshall (10-0, 6-0 C-USA) at UAB (5-5, 3-3)
Line: Marshall by 20.
Series Record: Marshall leads 7-2. more »»
UAB faces big game, murky future for program
November 20, 2014
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The UAB Blazers are preparing for potentially one of their biggest games amid fears that the program will soon be eliminate. more »»
2015 Big 12 football slate has Baylor-TCU late
November 19, 2014
IRVING, Texas (AP) — TCU and Baylor will have to wait until after Thanksgiving for their rematch next season.
The Big 12 released its 2015 conference football schedule Wednesday. more »»
Big 12 releases 2015 football schedule
November 19, 2014
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia's will have seven home football games next season and play a Thursday night game on the road. more »»
Kansas St-West Virginia Preview Capsule
November 19, 2014
No. 12 Kansas State (7-2, 5-1 Big 12, CFP No. 12) at West Virginia (6-4, 4-3), 7 p.m. EST (Fox Sports 1)
Line: West Virginia by 2.
Series Record: Kansas State leads 3-1. more »»
No. 12 K-State looks to rebound vs West Virginia
November 19, 2014
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Kansas State coach Bill Snyder prefers to find incentive from the disappointment of the Wildcats' first Big 12 loss. more »»
Marshall beats WVU Tech 87-65
November 19, 2014
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Ryan Taylor scored 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds on Tuesday to lead Marshall to an 87-65 win over NAIA West Virginia University Institute of Technology. more »»
No. 17 West Virginia holds off Seton Hall, 89-87
November 18, 2014
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — No. 17 West Virginia went 9 of 12 from the line in the final five minutes to hold off Seton Hall, holding on for an 89-87 win Monday night. more »»
Big 12 title still up for grabs with 3 weeks left
November 17, 2014
With three weeks left in the Big 12's regular season, the league champion is far from being determined.
Title contenders No. 5 TCU, No. 6 Baylor and No. more »»
Marshall thunders past Savannah State 66-47
November 16, 2014
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) — Ryan Taylor scored 13 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and blocked three shots, helping Marshall easily defeat Savannah State 66-47 on Sunday. more »»


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!! Monday !!
Find a Conversation
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 7:52am
If you are married, How many years did you wait- if any - to have children after getting married?
Are there any things you miss doing before kids? If so, what?
Is your life now what you expected it would be 10 or 20 years ago?
At what point do you self actualize? Do you believe in it?
What's on your agenda this week?
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:05pm
isn't it littlemiss? She has friends and family who don't want 'depressing' updates... some source of support huh?
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:07pm
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:09pm

Jambles, do you know what it's like to sit up with your child, night after night, when said child is in so much pain that there is litterally nothing that you can do to help her? Do you know what it's like to be told that your child is not responding to treatment, the very treatment that is causing her pain, and that she will have to undergo more aggressive treatment. Do you know what it's like to be told that your child will not be leaving the hospital alive? Do you know how all of this effects the other children in your home? Do you know about the challenges that face parents of an ill child, when they are trying to meet the needs of that child, and their other children, and their spouse...and their own needs? Are you really going to tell me that families going through all of this and more are living in bliss?

Save the implication that I don't know a thing about the tasks, the roles and duites families with ill or special needs face. The fact of the matter is their days are eased by support groups and relationships with other families that understand what they're going through, That is what I'm defending here. You've made some pretty nasty claims, The reality is I don't think you know a whole lot, Count your blessings.
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:10pm
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:13pm
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:14pm
oh yeah Rollmops it is common.. I don't think people like to be reminded of mortality.. I"ve lived many many different go rounds in cancer land and am in it again with another dear friend (the third in my close group of friends ... we lost the other two) and people's reactions are so troubling sometimes...
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:15pm
Jams wrote: "The fact that both real life/face to face and online communities exist and are used is evidence on this debate board that many if not most families are thriving and at peace with ill/disabled children. Thank you for recognizing that." ------------ No, not really. If anything it is evidence that people living in that situation are in dire need of support and counseling. That is why all those groups exist.
You mean consoling. Counseling is certainly a program many are in/many are getting too.
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:19pm
|Mon, 06-24-2013 - 3:21pm

isn't it littlemiss? She has friends and family who don't want 'depressing' updates... some source of support huh?

Yes I think a lot of people's idea of support with this kind of thing is to tell the parent that God wouldnt' give them more than they could handle...which is crap.


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