text:
Barneys New York announces the debut of "Carine's World," the Women's Fall 2011 campaign celebrating Carine Roitfeld and her iconic style. Featured in the campaign are individuals cast by Ms. Roitfeld from various aspects of her life, including those with whom she has worked throughout the years, others she has admired for their style, and some of her closest friends and family.
Today's Image: Naomi Campbell in Fendi
Carine on Naomi:
"I met Naomi 25 years ago at the beginning of her career and worked with her often. She is of course a legendary model and an icon, but one thing that people don't know about her is that she has a very big heart."
Shop the Fendi collection at Barneys.com.
Giovanna Battaglia in Junya Watanabe
Carine on Giovanna:
"I have known Giovanna for years. She has that sexy, sensual, aristocratic quality of actresses in classic Italian films. There is the innocence of Audrey Hepburn, the stature of Maria Callas, and the fragility of an actress like Silvana Mangano."
Shop the Junya Watanabe collection at Barneys.com.
Marie-Amélie Sauvé in Balenciaga
Carine on Marie-Amélie:
"The muse of designer Nicolas Guesquière and one of the most talented stylists of her generation, Marie-Amélie has everything you could ask for: culture, style, humor, elegance, and glamour. I am lucky to be able to call her a very close friend of mine."
Shop the Balenciaga collection at Barneys.com.
Carolyn Murphy in Marni and Gianvito Rossi
Carine on Carolyn:
"I have worked with Carolyn many times, often along with Mario Testino, and we really trust each other. She doesn't seem like a typical model – she looks so marvelous, but is also somehow approachable. You see her and you want to look like her."
Shop the Marni and Gianvito Rossi collection at Barneys.com.
Jessica Hart in Marc Jacobs
Carine on Jessica:
"Jessica is the Australian girlfriend of my son Vladimir's best friend. So pretty, natural, and elegant. She's got a spontaneous, sporty allure and she's always smiling."
Shop the Marc Jacobs collection at Barneys.com.
Alexandra Richards in Maison Martin Margiela
Carine on Alexandra:
"Alexandra is the daughter of Keith Richards, and there is no better company than her. Amusing, funny, laid-back, and down to earth, you feel like you could have a beer with her. She's a girl of our time."
Shop the Maison Martin Margiela collection at Barneys.com.
Melanie Huynh in Yves Saint Laurent
Carine on Melanie:
"Melanie is a stylist and was my assistant for 3 or 4 years. We have stayed close – I am even godmother to her daughter. She is ravishing and brings a lot of grace to the Saint Laurent clothes. She looks like a princess."
Shop the Yves Saint Laurent collection at Barneys.com.
Bambou in Lanvin
Carine on Bambou:
"Bambou was the last wife of singer and French idol, Serge Gainsbourg, which alone makes her almost mythical. Her background is a mixture of Asian and German genes. She's just irresistible, ethereal, and exquisite."
Shop the Lanvin collection at Barneys.com.
China Chow in Giambattista Valli
Carine on China:
"I met China by chance three days before this shoot. I did not know her, but I was instantly drawn to her presence, poise, and charisma. She is also very chic. I introduced myself and only afterward discovered that she was the daughter of Michael Chow, owner of my favorite restaurant in New York."
Shop the Giambattista Valli collection at Barneys.com.
Daphne Groeneveld in Rochas
Carine on Daphne:
"Daphne is the youngest of all the models featured here. I put her on her first magazine cover with Tom Ford. I find her incredible with her innate kindness and that enormous mouth. She has an unusual and strange beauty. For me, she's like a new Lara Stone."
Shop the Rochas collection at Barneys.com.
Dasha Zhukova in Proenza Schouler
Carine on Dasha:
"Dasha is cool, reserved and has an impressive intelligence. She is an art world pioneer with the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow; she also has a new magazine coming out this fall. Here, she's letting go and looking magnificent."
Shop the Proenza Schouler collection at Barneys.com.
Izabel Goulart in Mugler and Gianvito Rossi
Carine on Izabel:
"Izabel, a Brazilian, is one of my most recent discoveries. She is a very, very beautiful girl that I first saw at a Victoria's Secret runway show."
Shop the Mugler and Gianvito Rossi collection at Barneys.com.
Theodora Richards in Rodarte
Carine on Theodora:
"Theodora has inherited the daring style of her father, Keith Richards, and it suits her divinely. She's also very spirited and lively and has an incredible presence."
Shop the Rodarte collection at Barneys.com.
Mademoiselle Marie Agnes Gillot in Ann Demeulemeester
Carine on Marie Agnes:
"Marie Agnes is one of the principal dancers with the Opera de Paris. I love dance and I love dancers — their discipline, their humility, their politesse. Marie Agnes is an inspiration, and since meeting her I have actually started taking dance lessons."
Shop the Ann Demeulemeester collection at Barneys.com.
Joan Smalls in Comme des Garçons and Gianvito Rossi
Carine on Joan:
"Joan has a tremendous natural beauty and carries with her the feeling of her native Puerto Rico. I always knew she would be a very big star."
Shop the Comme des Garçons and Gianvito Rossi collections at Barneys.com.
Vanessa Traina in Altuzarra
Carine on Vanessa:
"I once saw Vanessa at a dinner in Paris with her mother, Danielle Steele. She was in Balenciaga and I thought, "Who is that girl?" She had such an expressive and fascinating face. Later, she became my intern at Vogue."
Shop the Altuzarra collection at Barneys.com.
Malgosia Bela in Celine
Carine on Malgosia:
"Malgosia is one of those rare models that really understands photography, and will do anything to get a good photo. She's very intelligent, and we've worked together many times. Once, we partnered with artist Taryn Simon to shoot her nude in a Japanese restaurant with sushi on top of her."
Visit Barneys to shop the Celine collection.
Victoire de Castellane in Alaïa
Carine on Victoire:
"Victoire is like family. She is a striking character and her jewelry designs show that she has an otherworldly talent. This is a real Parisian — very amusing, unique, and a wonderful eccentric."
Visit Barneys to shop the Alaïa collection.
Saskia de Brauw in Nina Ricci
Carine on Saskia:
"I met Saskia at a Givenchy runway show and hired her immediately. She is an exceptional model, and I put her on the cover of my final issue of Vogue."
Shop the Nina Ricci collection at Barneys.com.
Mary Frey in Stella McCartney
Carine on Mary:
"Mary is Mario Sorrenti's wife. You rarely see her at parties because she often stays home with her beautiful children, as her family is everything to her. This is why I wanted to put her in an evening dress. She's stunning, with a very American kind of beauty, the kind that will endure forever."
Shop the Stella McCartney collection at Barneys.com.
Crystal Renn in L'Wren Scott
Carine on Crystal:
"I have worked with Crystal before, when she was more full-figured and voluptuous. I think there are all types of beauty, and I have always liked very curvy women – maybe because I am very skinny myself. But even now, slimmed down, she's still magnificent."
Shop the L'Wren Scott collection at Barneys.com.
Fei Fei Sun in Bottega Veneta
Carine on Fei Fei:
"I find Chinese women exquisite. I had never worked with Fei Fei before, and I found her absolutely ravishing. She has the grace of a child; she is bewitching, like a fairy tale."
Shop the Bottega Veneta collection at Barneys.com.
Olympia Scarry in Haider Ackermann
Carine on Olympia:
"Olympia often attended Vogue parties, and I always found her very beautiful — and then I discovered her talent as an artist. Her work is strong and also very feminine. She has a touching, unique kind of elegance."
The Haider Ackermann collection will be available at Barneys at the end of August.
More About Carine's World
For this campaign, Ms. Roitfeld was invited to serve as a special guest editor and stylist working alongside renowned photographer Mario Sorrenti and Barneys New York Creative Director Dennis Freedman.
Mario Sorrenti, who shot the campaign in both Paris and New York, also produced an exclusive short film featuring Ms. Roitfeld that captures the essence of the campaign. Having worked with the iconic editor for over a decade at French Vogue, Sorrenti has created a personal view of her world, style and passion in a way that only he can.
"Carine's World" will be featured in the Madison Avenue windows at Barneys New York this fall. Leading up to their unveiling (and the premiere of the campaign video), be sure to check back here for a new campaign image each day.
- Jennifer Alfano
Read more about "Carine's World" in WWD, and click through the gallery below for a sneak peek of the campaign.
Don't forget to check The Window each day from now until September 2 for more images from the "Carine's World" campaign!


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Sat, May 3, 08 at 18:08
A Cereus sp. about 5-8 years old with a true trunk,true branching and real moss-lol. It even has jin. I even went with the traditional pine tree form!
You can Bonsai a carrot if you make your mind up to do it-lol. sorry, the photos are worse than usual. It doesn't seem as colorful or as wide as in real life. |
Follow-Up Postings:
Like to figure out how to work on THAT one with bare hands! |
- Posted by betula_pondula (My Page) on Sat, May 3, 08 at 23:40
i like the idea, but im curious how often you had to trim the root ball in such a small pot was it grown from seed? |
I havent trimmed the roots.Over time the soil evaporates since it's an artificial mix. Watering and the occasional knocking over from wind or hose,(dog), and who knows what. I just throw a handull of new mix on top,or add below.The moss doesnt take much time growing through the soft mix if topped off. No it was just a dish garden type plant. Cereus species can become huge trees,so it is a true Bonsai.It even has a bit of turtleback bark.. And i want to point out that the lean is an all natural balancing act. |
- Posted by betula_pondula (My Page) on Sun, May 4, 08 at 14:22
This is truly a great example of cactus in the bonsai form. I have a neighbor that has the same type of cactus and it is taller than his house. Lastly im wondering what the age of the plant is it looks great with the literati(if tats how you spell it). |
I should-to be a little technical-say that this is a dwarf form of Cereus..then,dwarfed more in pot culture.Yet,somewhere in the DNA is the original form that can reach upwards of 60' in Mexico and South America. I really can't remember the exact age..more than 5-6 years,less then 10. And like i wrote on the Poinciana topic,for years it was just a stunted looking plant.A few years ago it branched,you could see the trunk and how it had become woody..it became an "adult" plant in form. On the Bonsai scale,you have Junipers that look like instant Bonsai the moment you pot them-pruned or not-and then you have some that just cannot be made to look artificialy old without years passing.Also not a caudiciform that looks Bonsai quickly.It's a tree.And it takes time that no amount of wiring or pruning can replace. |
btw,I have a 30 year old dwarf cereus "fairy castles" not a Bonsai. It's in a Mexican terra cotta pot and about 2 1/2 feet tall. That shows these are not short lived plants and I can see them out living me at my almost,50 years.Although it may be pushing it for the one above to remain in a 4-5" Bonsai pot for that length of time.And thanks betula and Luci,i appreciate your nice words!. |
Nice potted plant, but by any definition NOT bonsai. |
You must be a pine,juniper and maple, hardore. It IS Bonsai even if it doesnt grow in your climate. |
- Posted by greenman28 7/8 (My Page) on Sat, May 10, 08 at 13:42
Doesn't bonsai mean 'potted plant?' Josh |
Tree, potted tree. |
- Posted by greenman28 7/8 (My Page) on Sat, May 10, 08 at 15:33
Oops ;) tree! Thank you, Lucy. |
Well, I suppose you would technically have to get the spines reduced to call it a bonsai.... It still looks nice, though! -Jmcat |
Not trying to make anyone mad, but I have a serious question. I know that that "bonsai" are trees grown in pots. Does that technically mean then that the specimens that we use like boxwood, ilex vomitoria, etc. are not really bonsai because they are not "trees" but rather shrubs. I know that many use these species because of their small leaf size and the ability to make them look "like" a mature tree and be proportional with trunk and leaf size, etc. If left to grow wild, they won't ever be "tree" like. I know because my parents let their boxwoods go for 15 years (long story) and they still were just a clumped messy hedge. I guess my question is what classifies a tree? I know it doesn't affect the cactus thing, but I really would like to know. |
From Answers.com: n. 1. A perennial woody plant having a main trunk and usually a distinct crown. 2. A plant or shrub resembling a tree in form or size. |
Thank you. I really was curious. I have heard of people even using English Ivy and coleus as specimens for bonsai. I know they said it took a LONG time for it to work. |
I've heard of using Ivy for bonsai, but never coleus. It sure doesn't seem to me that it would work, as it is an annual and dies after flowering (I guess you might be able to keep the flowers pinched off), and I'm pretty sure it doesn't get a woody stem. I guess you could dwarf it, but I don't think you could bonsai it. Maybe I'm wrong, though. -Jmcat |
It works, woody stem and all. See below link. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Link to see Coleus Bonsai
Interesting! I haven't seen any of those before. -Jmcat |
Hey jmcat, in the post, I think it was Al, said that coleus are perennials, but used as annuals in most parts because they are so tender. Where I am in Houston, they are pretty much perennials - even if I don't pinch. If we get anywhere near 32 degrees, they're goners. I live in the very southern part of Houston, so I'm only 22 miles from the coast. We hit 32 onces last winter. I had a jalepeno plant actually live through much neglect and put on growth in the spring again. It had a woody stem and all. I thought about using it for bonsai material - ummm! |
Yeah, I haven't ever heard of coleus as perennials before. I had always thought that they were annuals and died after flowering, whether they got too cold or not. Well, I guess you're always learning something new! -Jmcat |
- Posted by beachplant 9b (firstname.lastname@example.com) on Fri, May 23, 08 at 15:59
There is a coleus in the garden that must be 3-4 years old. I'm on the coast and we didn't get to freezing last year. Just south of Houston. I've seen boxwoods that were close to 8' tall, wouldn't that count as a small tree? A lot of what is considered an annual in the north are perennials here, my brother has a 10 year old jalapeno plant, pentas-annual in Delaware, perennial in south Texas. Tally HO! |
and moulman way at the top it is a bonsai 1) becuase the cactus is a tree and 2)in its bleakest form bonsai only means a potted plant before i read all the books that i have i wouldve said it wasnt a bonsai either and the difference between a tree and a shrub is a plants mature height must be at least 14 feet tall but bonsai are still trees becuase if planted in the ground and aloud to grow would grow to its mature hieght and stanofh great example of a cactus bonsai |
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subset: commoncrawl


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The original deal pioneer keeps on pinching pennies and cracking wise. No, that price isn't a typo.
Go to Woot
Candlepower and puppet shows are so passé. Get the newest TVs, speakers, home theater gear, and more.
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448,294 deals (and counting) from around the web, shared and ranked by a community of deal fiends like you. Go to Deals.Woot.
Re: Swiped
That's hilarious! The colors really worked out too! Poor Boots.
Re: Wrong Wyrm V-2
I liked the original colors, too, but will also vote for this one as it looks really great.
Re: Too Much Hot Sauce
"Burn on the way out" Ouch!
Re: Gorging Ermine
Aren't ermines carnivores?
adorable <3 love the colors and the shading.
Much better. Has my vote now.
endangeredomega wrote:I'm not a visual artist myself, so this is coming from someone with an untrained, non-professional eye, but there's something about the proportions here that just looks ... off. The mouse's body appears to be weirdly shortened?
Could be the way he is sitting, I think. But I am not an artist either.
AlexIAm wrote:That third arm IS a foot... cats are very flexible.
Oh I know, it's just weirdin me out!
Re: Chip's revenge
I like how you click the thumbnail thinking: "Oh look, a cookie." And then WHAM, an eyeball. Revenge indeed.
Narfcake wrote:Aren't ermines carnivores?
Well, the pink kinda makes it look like blood anyway! So maybe he just ate a squirrel and the fruit's an after dinner snack!
Re: Stuck
Super cute! But did you know those colors on the side are shirt colors? You can use any 6 pantone colors you want for the design! Unless you know that and were just inspired by the colors (then ignore me!). It's an awesome cartoon either way.
Re: Cream Filling
I love that he's obviously a Twinkie even though he's all bent and bloated. Very solid cartooning!
Re: See-Note
Eye hope it isn't too subtle
shaelyn wrote:adorable <3 love the colors and the shading.
Thank you!
Re: Cloud Candy
Looks yummy!
Re: Too Much Courage
Hahahaha, that's great. I love it.
Very nice! I do like the original colors, but the newer ones stand out a bit more, which is nice, but I'd take either one if it prints!
Re: One Fatal Flake
oooo this should have more votes, so I voted for it. Now it has 1 more than it used to. The colors are really nice, they're my favorite part of the design. I also totally get the joke. My mom was very adamant about not over-feeding the fish, but this one fish went and ate all the other ones so I dunno...
This is awesome. The slave Leia mouse just kills me.
No toast? D: ...the expression just slays me. You don't even know. It's priceless.
I adore the textured look here, and the colors rock. Really good stuff!
This could so be an illustration in a children's book. I love the color usage. :D
Aw, that poor, poor goldfish =( (is a fish lover) I really like the expressions, particularly the bottom right one. The water is also very nicely colored. Might be nice if the food was more flaky looking and colorful, but it's been a while since I've seen actual goldfish flakes. It certainly reads as food though. =)
Re: Dyson's Dream
Love this! Also, info: Dyson Sphere
Re: Gotta Catch them ALL
Perfect shirt to relive my childhood ^.^
Thanks for the votes and critiques guys! @thewronggrape Thanks for bringing up the t-shirt color. I never thought of it that way. I will definitely keep the t-shirt color in mind in my future designs. @cpresti Thanks for pointing out about the purple. I actually created the purple by using halftones of red on top of blue to create the illusion of purple. You can see a little bit of it in the half-tone details in my comp on the purple mushroom bits by his foot. I hope that's ok! I'm still learning more about half-tones and trying to see what effects and looks I can get with it. :>
I guess seeing the world through a metaphorical lens, representing an hysterical fan-based hobby, or materialism, or work-a-holism really is too subtle. No more off topic than a mouse on the moon..
Re: Portly Portal
Through the years of suspended sleep, you've managed to... pack on a few pounds.
This must win! I won't buy it because I'm broke, but it must become a shirt!
"Dude, this might be the best shirt ever ever. EVAR!" -diehard SW fan (me aloud when I saw this)
ApeLad wrote:I thought for sure someone would have submitted this idea by now.
Sorry, I thought I'd get to it but then stuff happened. =/ Silly holidays.
anemality wrote:...the expression just slays me. You don't even know. It's priceless.
Plus, how many ermine t-shirt designs are out there? Glad to see them contributing to fashion in a more positive way.
Re: What makes Grandma happy this Christmas?
Awesome idea! Hilarous!
devsop wrote:Awesome idea! Hilarous!
Why do you hate me? Your reasons make no sense. This fits your explaination???
Re: It's all gouda...
I'd want one! Love the intricate design and color!
Re: What makes grandma happy this Christmas??
Grandpa over-indulged on the little blue pills.
rochejohn wrote:Grandpa over-indulged on the little blue pills.
Nice overindugence! I like how it is set up like a tree...but then it's not!
I got to vote before they rejected this. haha It is hilarious.
cpresti wrote:Oh I know, it's just weirdin me out!
While I get the point of the leg out of whack, it does look a bit odd. At first glance, the tail looks like another limb... I still love the concept and voted for it.
View All →


text:
found a new home!
Plenty of my friends are looking
for one too. Find a pet to adopt.
Find a pet to adopt |
My name is Catatude!
Facts about Catatude
- Breed: Siamese
- Color: Brown Or Chocolate (Mostly)
- Age: Adult
- Sex: Female
- Hair: Short
Catatude's Info...
I am already spayed, up to date with shots, not good with kids, not good with dogs, and not good with cats.
Ctaatude is a Chocolate Point Siamese ,she is about 3 years old ,She currently lives in a bathroom as she fights with the other cats,She can be very friendly ,if she were the only cat,references are needed.She is FIV Positive but very healthy .
Other Pets at CNY ADOPT A CAT
Why Adoption is a Great Option
Catatude, a Clay Siamese cat was adopted! Here's how you can benefit by looking at adoption as an option to buying a Siamese for sale in Clay, or seeking a Siamese cat from a breeder in Clay.
- Rescues and shelter volunteers in Clay already know the personality and tendencies of their pets. This means they can match you with the right pet. That will makes it much easier transition to owning a pet for yourself and your new pet.
- On average adoption fees are much less than you'd pay a Clay breeder, or pet store. Plus most often rescue pets have already been to the veterinarian for a check-up, had a round of vaccinations, and are spayed or neutered. That is a lot of savings!
- You will become a hero, and give a needy dog or cat a loving home. In fact, there are even Siamese breeders who help with Siamese rescue. One puppy or kitten adopted in Clay paves the way for another one to be saved.


text:
We are dedicated to rescuing and finding loving homes for homeless or needy basset hounds throughout the state of Alabama.
Since 2000, BHRA has taken in and placed close to 1500 Basset Hounds in loving homes!
The hounds we rescue come from a number of places and situations including shelters and owners who can no longer care for their hounds; some are unclaimed strays.
Every hound we rescue is first sent to one of our veterinarians where, at minimum, treatment includes:
- A full check-up and vaccinations
- Spay or neuter if needed
- Heartworm test and treatment if positive
- Other treatments specific to each animal's needs.
After complete medical evaluation and treatment, each dog is placed in a loving foster home until a "forever home" can be found.
The financial survival of BHRA is due solely to adoption fees (which usually do not even cover vetting costs) and donations from the public. All funds received go strictly to the care and vetting of these precious hounds; no administrative fees are claimed.
Join the Conversation
Organization Information
60 Sweetgum Drive
Odenville, AL 35120
Dedicated to rescuing and finding loving homes for homeless or needy basset hounds throughout the state of Alabama.
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for this Cause
Anyone can set up a fundraiser for this charity. It's quick. It's easy.
And it's free!
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Help a Hound!


text:
France's stock market opened deep in the red Monday and the euro tumbled after the Socialist candidate came out on top in the first round of the country's presidential election, raising questions about whether the markets are nervous about a Francois Hollande victory.
French president-elect François Hollande has launched a preemptive attack blaming outgoing president Nicolas Sarkozy for the huge budget deficit of France. Given Hollande wants to tax millionaires 75%, I find it quite ironic that Hollande blames the problem on "hidden taxes" of Sarkozy. Please consider Brussels raises alert over French deficit
Two recent events regarding Marine Le Pen and her eurosceptic party have the nannycrats in Brussels worried. The first occurred in early October when Marine Le Pen's Eurosceptic "National Front" Party Took Lead in France National Poll. Yesterday, a huge victory by the National Front in a local election had the nanmnycrat alarm bells ringing.
As a refresher course in French politics, presidential elections are a two-stage process. In the first round, voters select from candidates of all the political parties. The second round pits the top two vote getters against each other. Never before in history has a sitting French president polled so low 100 days before the first round of votes.


text:
Hi. I apologize if this has been asked and answered a million times, but nothing turned up when I did a search.
I want to paint my son's bedroom navy blue. The room is not huge, so I'm thinking that a little extra shine to the paint might help counteract all that dark. OTOH, the walls are your usual not really perfect sheetrock. I usually use eggshell on the walls. Would you recommend moving to a pearl or semigloss (all BM paints)? Or should I take this question to the decorating forum? |
Follow-Up Postings:
Aura Matte - absolutely gorgeous in navy blue. Will definitely hold up in a kids' room. The gloss level in paint isn't enough to act as a reflector of any significant quantity of light. Plus there's scatter issues. The idea that shiny paints somehow reflect a useable quantity of light back into the room is more myth than fact. |
- Posted by christophern (My Page) on Sun, Oct 28, 12 at 5:59
I agree with fun ^ |
- Posted by lazygardens (My Page) on Tue, Oct 30, 12 at 7:27
The only thing shiny dark blue paint will do is make every flaw in the sheetrock show up. When you say "dark" .. think "cozy" and add more lights. |
- Posted by sombreuil_mongrel (My Page) on Tue, Oct 30, 12 at 11:09
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text:
Album review
The Blue Nile - High
Another lengthy hiatus, another Blue Nile album. Here Paul Buchanan revisits the same spot on the hillside overlooking the evening city lights, is still filled with the same surging, oblique melancholy and longing that has sustained The Blue Nile since 1984, is still crafting singularly mature MOR in a darker shade of turquoise all his own. This time, however, the overall return feels diminished in effect—"I Would Never", for instance, trespasses dangerously close to U2's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Still, purchase of this is mandatory for the tolling, appalling beauty of the opener, "Days Of Our Lives", which must go down as one of the five greatest ever Nilesongs.
Rating: 4 / 10


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Today was going to be one of those days when nothing happened. And that was good.
And, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest. Zechariah 1:11
Heat waves are a fact of summer in New York. When one hits, Manhattan turns into a concrete desert. A lethargy settles over the populace; even my dog is affected. The minute Millie steps outside our building and senses the temperature hovering above ninety, she does an about-face.
"Come on, Mil," I snapped at her one steamy Saturday morning last year before the day became too hot. "You need exercise."
Filled with 365 true stories, Bible verses, personal prayers selected by 50 engaging writers, you'll find your daily dose of inspiration - in just five minutes a day.
She gave me one of those pleading looks dogs are so good at and then set out in the direction of the dog run, moving slowly, deliberately. I tried to speed up but she was having none of it.
Finally we arrived. Millie greeted her friends, took a long sloppy drink from the communal water bowl, and settled herself for a nap in the shade, under the bench where I was sitting checking my BlackBerry.
Napping was not exercise. I glanced up and scanned the dog run for a ball I could throw. What I saw slowed me down.
Dogs were everywhere, relaxing in the shade, wading sedately in the big kiddies' pool we all chipped in for, stretching languidly or just sitting peacefully with their people. And everyone appeared very content. Owners read books and newspapers, sunned themselves, chatted and, yes, even napped, heads lolling to the side. A briny breeze wafted softly from the Hudson, rustling the trees. Otherwise, all was quiet.
Millie was right. What was all the hurry about, especially in this heat? Slow down. Take a break.
I turned the phone off, slipped it into my pocket and closed my eyes. Today was going to be one of those days when nothing happened. And that was good.
Lord, sometimes You need to tell me when to slow down, because I'm not always as smart as my dog.
Edward Grinnan is Editor-in-Chief and Vice President of Guideposts Publications and author of The Promise of Hope: How True Stories of Hope and Inspiration Saved My Life and How They Can Transform Yours.


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Kate Middleton promises to continue working – FemaleFirst.co.uk
CTV.ca |
Kate Middleton promises to continue working
FemaleFirst.co.uk Kate Middleton has promised her parents she will continue working for the family business until she marries Prince William. Kate Middleton will work for her … Wedding is good business for Pippa MiddletonTelegraph.co.uk For Kate Middleton's Family, the Party's Just BeginningAOL Small Business Plans start to form for Prince William's and Kate Middleton's wedding dayExaminer.com About – News & Issues -Mirror.co.uk -Babble (blog) all 9,440 news articles » |
Original post by family business – Google News
Recommended Reading
- Business Management Training Leads to 21st. Century Business Success
- The Surprisingly Simple Truth Behind Extraordinary Results


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| Email | Full Article (TrendHunter.com/id/15257) |
By now just about all of us have grown sick of sparkly gadgets… it's the now very mainstream trend we at Trend Hunter are now simply referring to as the "Bling Bling Boring" craze.
As a final adieu to feature posts which feature nothing unique or exotic other than rhinestones, Swarovski crystals, gems or diamonds, we've compiled a list of the most blinged out things we've posted on Trend Hunter. This is part one and features all sorts of luxury gizmos like phones, USBs and the glitzy MacBook Air featured as the main image.


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J&M Doors, Inc.
Miami, FL
Sliding Glass Door Replacements / Patio Doors
Copyright © J&M Doors, Inc. Sliding Glass Door Replacements | Patio Doors | Miami, Florida
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The page you are looking for no longer exists. Perhaps you can return back to the site's homepage and see if you can find what you are looking for. Or, you can try finding it by using the search form below.
Trendy Girl Clothes - Trendy Fashions For Women
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- Collection Home
- Search
- Property Rights of the Collection
- History of the Collection
- Editorial Comment
- Chronology of the Life of Louis Dembitz Brandeis
- How to Request Inter-Library Loan Copies of the Collection Microfilm Reels
- Acknowledgments
- The Brandeis Family Tree
- Writings by Louis D. Brandeis
- Writings About Louis D. Brandeis
Reel 2 Nutter, McClennen & Fish 1905-1909
This reel continues material on the Boston and Maine/New Haven Railroad merger and
includes research notes used to prepare anti-merger legislation
and drafts of proposed bills. A large body of statistics
comparing the financial condition of various railroads is
included. There are also typescripts of Mr. Brandeis's argument
in 1907 before the Massachusetts legislative Commission on
Commerce and Industry in opposition to merger, other testimony
given before the commission, and copies of other speeches
Brandeis gave on the topic. (Boxes NMF 1B-2, 1C, 1D-1 /2b)


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Lottery will begin at 9:00 A.M. in Classroom D-4. Public is welcome.
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Applicants that were chosen in the lottery will be called within the next 5 business days and offered admission via email and a phone call to the phone number listed on your child's application. Failure to repond will result in losing the offered position within 3 business days.
All results will be posted within 3 business days on our school's website following the lottery. Please do not call Main Office for results. Results will not be given over the phone.
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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Marion Cotillard Officially Join 'The Dark Knight Rises', Roles Revealed
Not playing Alberto Falcone, neither is she playing Ras Al Ghul's daughter.
Looks like Christopher Nolan is really gunning for an 'Inception' cast re-union with his final film in the Batman trilogy. We already have Tom Hardy as the villain Bane and Joseph Gordon-Levitt was always rumored to have joined the film. Now, we have a new member as well as official confirmation on roles.
JGL is NOT playing Alberto Falcone as most people thought, but "John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon". Cotillard will play "Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father's philanthropic endeavors for Gotham." Joseph playing a cop? That's a great role to begin with. I really hope too many characters and name faces don't end up diluting the story which should be key for the final film.
There's a whole press release and it's outlined below.
BURBANK, CA, April 19, 2011 – Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that Oscar® winner Marion Cotillard ("La Vie en Rose") and Joseph Gordon-Levitt have joined the cast of "The Dark Knight Rises," the epic conclusion to the Dark Knight legend.
Cotillard will appear as Miranda Tate, a Wayne Enterprises board member eager to help a still-grieving Bruce Wayne resume his father's philanthropic endeavors for Gotham. Gordon-Levitt will play John Blake, a Gotham City beat cop assigned to special duty under the command of Commissioner Gordon.
The film reunites the actors with Christopher Nolan, who recently directed them in the award-winning blockbuster "Inception."
The director stated, "When you collaborate with people as talented as Marion and Joe, it comes as no surprise that you would want to repeat the experience. I immediately thought of them for the roles of Miranda and Blake, and I am looking forward to working with both of them again."
Heading the cast of "The Dark Knight Rises," Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne/Batman. The main cast also includes Anne Hathaway as Selina Kyle and Tom Hardy as Bane.
Nolan will direct the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Christopher Nolan will also produce the film with his longtime producing partner, Emma Thomas, and Charles Roven.
"The Dark Knight Rises" is slated for release on July 20, 2012. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.


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Meet the professionals who write for BE Radio.
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After 10 years in traditional radio, Stephanie Parrish Snyder made the
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Tintin Pantoja is an artist based in the Philippines. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York with a BFA in Illustration/Cartooning.
She has illustrated four books including Hamlet: The Manga Edition for John Wiley and three volumes of Manga Math for Lerner's Graphic Universe.
Her latest book, Who Is AC? by writer Hope Larson, is expected to be published in late 2012.


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Summary: When learning mathematics, have you ever asked yourself, ''When am I ever going to use this?'' If you have--and even if you haven't--this book will help you learn the mathematical concepts behind the procedures, and discover how to apply quantitative thinking in your daily lives. COLLEGE ALGEBRA: A MAKE IT REAL APPROACH doesn't simply ''wrap'' a real-world situation around a mathematical concept or procedure. Instead, you'll be immersed in familiar real-world contexts--from parking r ...show moreates and the higher winter incidence of the flu to Egyptian pyramids--that will help you understand mathematical ideas intuitively. One student commented, ''It's like having the teacher standing over my shoulder explaining things to me.'' With this text as your guide, your comment about college algebra will likely be, ''Yes, I get it!'' ...show less
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A remake of the original Alien Breed released on Amiga in 1991 will be revived for PS3 and Vita via a PlayStation Store release in "early February", developer Team17 has confirmed.
The remake will give players the option to play with enhanced visuals or the original 16-bit graphics of the Amiga version, while adding further enhancements in the form of online and local multiplayer for both versions.
The game will also support cross-platform multiplayer, allowing Vita and PS3 owners to co-operate with each other, and full compatibility with save files on either system letting owners of both consoles carry their Story mode progress over from one system to the other.
The game has previously been released as a PS Mobile title - which are playable on Vita - and via the iOS App Store. Team17 says news on an Android version is coming soon.


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Degrees a valuable job hunt addition
Some students would say a college degree means less than it once did, but several new studies contradict such notions.
According to 2011 United States Census Bureau research, 30.4 percent of U.S. adults have a bachelor's degree. That percentage was ... Continue Reading →


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Sat, Oct 22, 11 at 13:15
Asking for some suggestions and comments, After looking at many inserts with all the options I finally ordered a Vermont Casting insert Montpelier type. I may have overlooked at one major option, Fresh Air option, creating an 4" fresh air flow to the insert. Other inserts have it, the Montpelier don�t (correct me if I�m wrong), I was sure it has it because all other inserts I was reading about have this option. I was reading the manual over and over and I can�t find this option. Where exactly the Montpelier takes the fresh air, or maybe from multiple locations, inside the fireplace, and from the room, please advice. What are my option, what modifications I can do so that fresh air will get to the unit and not taking the room air. Thanks for your help in advance |
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Music Production
A Dv8 Sussex music production course is the starting point for your career in the music industry. Whether you're joining us at Level 1, 2 or 3, this is your gateway to the world's most exciting, fast-moving and ever-changing sector. Our study programmes will provide you with the skills, confidence and experience required to make it as a music industry professional.
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Highland Wheel Estates 1004 Hammock Road Sebring Florida 33870 Tel: 863-385-6232 Fax: 863-385-0621 email: highlandwheelestates |
St. Patricks' Day Celebration -
Your hosts, camp owners Shane & Ann Stephenson invite camp residents and guests to a FREE St. Patrick' Day party. Come and enjoy the 2013 party with us here at Highland Wheel Estates, it will be a lot of fun!! There will be food, drinks, drawings and live entertainment. You don't have to bring anything but a camera to take pictures of all the fun you will be having. |
2012 Party Pictures | |


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Published: December 28, 2012
Greene County Humane Society donation
Blue Knights Law Enforcement Motorcycle Club Chapter 16 recently presented a check for $1,000 to the Greene County Humane Society. The money was part of the proceeds from the ninth annual Blue Ride, a joint effort between the Blue Knights and Washington Lodge 164 Free and Accepted Masons. From left are ride chairman Dave Richards, Fran Suppok, Jan Gapen, director of the Humane Society, and Bill Parker, Blue Knights chaplain.


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will get lots of hate, but will still rule. love this band.
^ Word. Also, potential positive Staff review of Mother Mother in a few months maybe? ;)
awwwww yeah and it wont be rudy or pianotuna saying they suck
Or Keelan hahaha.
You can't deny that they have a good sound. I've been listening to them since O' My Heart, and they haven't let me down yet.
Well the guys on this site have been pretty good at denying that ahahaha.
ugh mother mother
i usually love mother mother but lyrically, this song was meh
• Poison The Well reunite• Papa Roach stream F.E.A.R• Blink-182 performing without Tom ..• Title Fight streams Hyperview• Asking Alexandria singer quits• New Death Cab for Cutie single• Demis Roussos dies at 68• 10 Years release new single• Napalm Death drop new video • Phil Elverum streams Sauna
• Minsk end hiatus• Halasan Bazar / Tara King Th. str..• Kai Hahto leaves Wintersun• Anthrax teases new album• Drenge drops new song• Moosedriver stream debut EP• Calexico return with new album• Crypt stream debut EP• Killer Boogie stream debut album• New Patrick Watson Single• 1886 stream debut LP• Franck Carducci streams new album• Zoë Keating's Youtube dilemma• Powder For Pigeons stream LP• Cryptrip stream debut LP» see all news
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In our webinar on video storytelling, "Made to Stick" by Dan and Chip Heath was highlighted as resource about nonprofit branding. My curiosity got to the best of me and I decided to picked it up. Here are a few things I learned and wanted to share about making your nonprofit's brand and mission 'stick' with your constituents.About "Made to Stick""Made to Stick" looks at the anatomy, of what Malcolm Gladwell characterized in The Tipping Point as a sticky idea. This idea takes root in a group and can shape and transform behavior. The lessons can easily be applied to how your nonprofit can communicate your message and make it stick to inspire your supporters to fundraise for your mission.6 steps to SUCCES(s)SUCCES(s) are the building blocks for crafting your sticky idea. If you can check off each of these characteristics, your message will no doubt stick with your audience.Simple - Your idea has to be simple. This doesn't mean you're dumbing it down. You are simply making it as easy as possible for someone to comprehend. You're cutting away any sort of excessive details and getting straight to the point.Unexpected - Create curiosity with your idea. Has your nonprofit achieve unexpected results? Is there an unexpected need that is not met? Is your nonprofit looking to meet that unmet need? Is your mission something no one has ever supporter before, or are you fundraising in a new, creative way?Concrete - Details, examples, and facts help make an idea concrete. This doesn't mean drowning your supporters with statistics. Vivid details about conditions and individual accounts are concrete. Use photos, videos or personal testimonials to supplement your idea.Credible - Make your supporters know you are a reliable source. If your nonprofit is helping fight hunger in Africa, a testimonial from a member of the Ghana tribe your nonprofit is aiding is a better and more credible account than a board member's account of what your organization is doing to help. Charity Water constantly posts photos from the towns in Africa that they are providing clean water to on Instagram.Emotional - People are people, not numbers. Humans respond better to emotions than statistics. Statistics are used to build concrete details but emotions are what really stick. Find a way for your supporters to connect emotional to your cause.
Story - Next to simple, story is probably the most important component to a sticky idea. Why? Because a good story usually encompasses many of the above characteristics. Good stories are unexpected, filled with concrete details, and should always be emotional.The curse of knowledgeOne of the main points the Heath brothers warned about was the "curse of knowledge" or the human inability to perceive a world without the knowledge we have. As an example, try remembering how you felt before you knew how to tell time. What was time? How did you measure it?Your new donors or supporters most likely know very little about your organization and its mission. Give them all the facts and never assume anything.How will you make your message stick?Image Credit: familymwr 2010
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Not my area, but I've stumbled on this shop's website a few times:
Not my area, but I've stumbled on this shop's website a few times:
Hollister is the most profitable "surf" brand in the industry. why you may ask?
the same reason small companies stand no chance in this corporate fight for greed and exploitation. DISTRIBUTION! it's simple really. whoever makes more of a product gets it cheaper. which means they sell a higher quality product for cheaper.
which puts the press on brick and mortar surf/skate shops to only carry the "top 5" and will continually be harder and harder to open. while zumies and pac sun will continue to thrive. unless there is a supportive community that takes a conscious choice to support local. or else we all f*cked.
by the way...cancel your Fuel TV (owned by rupert murdoch) subscriptions.. that bad boy is sinking quick. that soon is going to be a regular sports channel that fox is positioning up against ESPN.
and DVS in now owned by Justin timberlake...and his parents...
just read http://shop-eat-surf.com/ for you daily depressive dose on the fight of good and evil.
however on the bright side, we will probably get some nike wave pools popping up places because if there was a pocket deep enough for that dream to become a reality they would be the ones to do it. the only action sports that really make good money is moto x among some other race sports. the skate industry is all jumping ship because there isn't enough money in it. but thanks to street league hopefully that will change.
You have some valid points and obviously love crony capitalism. I just find it ironic that your avatar is from the movie Fight Club which is basically against everything you seem to spew out of your mouth. This is America and people love great deals at convenient big box stores. If you give them money, most would tatoo the nike logo on their forehead Charles Manson style.
This country is a scary place now. There aren't any manafacturing jobs here because companies want to make higher profits. The current business model for the country is soft fascism. It's when the country is run by corporations which is why we have a soft version of fascism here. I just don't want it to escalate. It would be great if the country got back to its roots or at least comprised. We would no longer import all this merchandise but create it in our country. People would actually take pride in their work, their community and respect their neighbors. People would buy goods in their community from locals in their community and the local econoomy would thrive. Basically, we just need morals and principles again. Instead of just ****ing the guy in the ass next to you for the almighty dollar.
This is not just a surfing issue but a problem with all industries. We are losing our way. Eventually, there will no longer be mom and pop shops. We will be bought by the big companies for advertising too. I hope we eventually don't see people with permanent tattooed Hollister shirts.
Last edited by motivated2surf; Jul 31, 2012 at 05:48 PM.
you are aware that Nike started out as a very small operation about of Phil Knights car don't you?
an walmart started as a small mom and pop store and Ford started as a small shop.
Just about every company based in the US started out small. They just did it better than every body else and grew. So all these evil 'corporations' are really mom and pops who made it big.
Last edited by aka pumpmaster; Jul 31, 2012 at 05:56 PM.
I see what your saying but there are too many other factors. They might have done it better in business terms but ****ed up in bunch of other areas which have direct impacts of all of us. Why can't they be honest and run their business with high morals and ethics. They might have started that way but they are defintiely running on a non-moral platform now. They ship jobs oversees which directly affects people without jobs and we pay higher taxes to give unemployment benefits to these people directly affected by the outsourcing of jobs. They receive corporate welfare when times are tough because they gave compaign contributions. Where's my check?
When a company gets huge, the decisions it makes affects everyone in our country and they actually shape the laws in this country through their influence in Washington. Now, that is crazy ****. There is a ripple down affect just from the outsourcing of jobs that affects a huge amount of areas. From unemployment benefits, to local businesses going under (more unemployment and bankruptcy liquidation), to higher taxes for social services for people who lost their jobs, etc. etc. etc. Then, they get too big and they receive corporate welfare from our pocket. Give me a break. We need a fair marketplace. Not just a monopoly. Everyone can complain all they want including me. If we really want to make a difference. Don't go to Walmart, Target, McDonalds, Home Depot, Lowes, grocery store chains and other big box stores. Don't buy big name brands. Buy whatever you can from local shops including produce from local farms not corporate produce from chain grocery stores.
Until people start buying locally, we will always see corporations spreading their logos in every aspect of live and in every corner of this country's landscape. Local goods may cost more but it's not that much more. Maybe you give up buying some **** you don't need at a big box store (sneakers with lights in the sole) and buy some other stuff locally.
There's nothing wrong with making it and I'm the sort who believes that if you don't like something, fine don't buy it. Vote with your wallet, but giving any entitiy a pass just because "that's business", is a problem.
Nike did start small. Walmart did too. H-e-double hockey sticks, most people forget or don't know that up until Sam Walton died in the mid-90's, Walmart prided themselves on being one of the largest distributors of goods "Made In America". Walmart was one of the direct reasons that the 89-91 recession wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been, no bull. Sam made a commitment to buy American goods and sell them cheaply. His kids, who are some of the richest people in the world, most certainly don't follow that credo now and Nike never did (I'm not knocking being rich or making it or any of that, just pointing out that their commitment to profit is greater than their commitment to the ol' U.S. of A.; G-D, Family, and Country above all else is a credo that has been lost in my life time).
That's why I'm wearing New Balance shoes and socks right now, because they're a company that has made a commitment to keeping and bringing back manufacturing jobs. The NB socks I'm wearing right now, the label they sport cost me 2$ more a 3-pack. It ain't the NB on the back either, it's what's woven into the weave on the inside of the collar that counts. In big, block, bold letters it says, "MADE IN THE USA" and they were. The last car I bought my wife was a Ford. Three reasons, quality control improvements, assembled in America (I know a great many of the parts say "Hecho en Mexico) and they didn't take TARP money. When Ford stock plummeted in March of 2009, I put even more money where my mouth is and bought every share I could, because I believe in the company and their ideals. From the New Balance website:
"We made our first pair of running shoes in 1938 and hold the distinction as the only company that still manufactures athletic shoes in the USA. One out of every four pair of shoes we sell in the U.S. is made or assembled here. Where the domestic value is at least 70% we have labeled them "Made in the USA"."
I guess my point is, in the U.S. a corporation has the same rights as an individual. We as surfers talk about educating people in the line-up, community focus and informing ourselves on local issues. When we go to other places, we talk about respecting them, acting properly and giving as much as we take (don't be a wave hog). These are kind of hallmarks of "good citizenship". If a corporate entity is a person, why do they get a pass on being poor citizens? If a person you know kept children in miserable conditions, in indentured servitude with no hope of anything better in this life; would you give that person your hard earned money? I try not to.
Last edited by zaGaffer; Jul 31, 2012 at 09:05 PM.
i dont see a big issue with these corporations. How is a big company lobbying any different from labor doing it? I would prefer that they all buy stuff in this country but as long as labor rates are so high, they cant and survive. from what I am seeing, there seems to be some movement to bringing production back to the US (mainly the southern states) due to the corruption in China and other areas so hopefully that trend continues.
Getting back to the topic, it all goes back to adaptation. Those shops that adapt to changing conditions will be fine. those that cling to the past will not regardless of Nike or any other big player.
Last edited by aka pumpmaster; Jul 31, 2012 at 06:48 PM.


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Discover your "Stars" for today
Submitted by peak on
A simple activity to try is to print oout flash cards for the astrological signs. Then print out the "advice" from one of the many offered in papers or magazines. Ask the students what is their birthdate, then give each the appropriate "Advice" printed out. Ask them to read it aloud and make comments. This is suitable for small groups.
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found a new home!
Plenty of my friends are looking
for one too. Find a pet to adopt.
Find a pet to adopt |
My name is Francis!
Facts about Francis
- Breed: Basset Hound
- Color: Tricolor (Tan/Brown & Black & White)
- Age: Adult
- Size: Med. 26-60 lbs (12-27 kg)
- Sex: Male
Francis's Info...
I am already neutered, housetrained, purebred, up to date with shots, good with kids, and good with dogs.
Francis is still in New Orleans with Looziana Basset Rescue but can be easily transported to the Northeast using www.rescueroadtrips.com Francis is a young adult who is heartworm negative, vaccinated, wormed, microchipped and neutered. He is very calm for a young male basset. He loves car rides and long walks. We check vet references and do home visits prior to an adoption. Please email email@example.com for an application and more information.
Other Pets at Animal Rescue Front, Inc.
Why Adoption is a Great Option
Francis, a Groton Basset Hound dog was adopted! Here's how you can benefit by looking at adoption as an option to buying a Basset Hound for sale in Groton, or seeking a Basset Hound dog from a breeder in Groton.
- Rescues and shelter volunteers in Groton already know the personality and tendencies of their pets. This means they can match you with the right pet. That will makes it much easier transition to owning a pet for yourself and your new pet.
- On average adoption fees are much less than you'd pay a Groton breeder, or pet store. Plus most often rescue pets have already been to the veterinarian for a check-up, had a round of vaccinations, and are spayed or neutered. That is a lot of savings!
- You will become a hero, and give a needy dog or cat a loving home. In fact, there are even Basset Hound breeders who help with Basset Hound rescue. One puppy or kitten adopted in Groton paves the way for another one to be saved.


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With its updated models and prices, Ford continues to be one of the earliest car & truck manufacturers (e.g., Ford F-150) in the world. Ford Motor Co. was founded in Dearborn, Michigan in 1903 by Henry Ford. Poised to evolve with constantly changing consumer demands, Ford offers vehicles with a variety of engine sizes, body styles, seating configurations and transmissions as well as hybrid gasoline-electric powertrains. Review the latest Ford deals.
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Gamma TNT2 Prodigy 17 String Customer feedback
Contribute Your Feedback |
Click the button below or email email@example.com to contribute your experiences with this product. Although not necessary, it's interesting to have a first name, city, state and country (no email addresses will be used). Any information submitted becomes the property of Tennis Warehouse. Please include any relevant information such as skill level and style of play. |
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text: Most of us only see war on the news and can separate it from our daily lives. For military youth, news is real life. Military teens understand the realities of war and worry if the deployment will be extended or if their parent will be different when returning. Here are ways to ease the worry during this time:


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Ang Nawawala premiere with The Strangeness boys and girls at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
This photo was shot on film. Taken by mayeemayee with a Lomo LC-A loaded with Kodak Gold 200 (35mm) film in Manila, Philippines. These tags describe this photo: strangeness and the. This photo can also be found in the album Cinemalaya 2012.Please login to get more out of this site
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"I think that that's something that a woman should do when they're marrying a man. It's a tradition that I think is a great tradition." — Ashlee Simpson, talking about how she's going to take Wentz as her last name and use Simpson-Wentz professionally. [Newsweek.com]
Frisky Quote Of The Day: Ashlee Simpson
Posted Under: ashlee simpson, marriage, name changes, pete wentz


text:
England rise to fourth in Fifa world football rankings
England have risen two places to fourth in the Fifa world rankings despite their Euro 2012 quarter-final exit.
European champions Spain remain number one, while beaten finalists Italy - who knocked England out on penalties - go up six places to sixth.
The 2014 World Cup hosts Brazil drop out of the top 10 for the first time, falling five spots to 11th.
Wales remain 38th, Scotland are ranked 49th - down eight places - while Northern Ireland move up one to 102nd.
Brazil's rankings fall
Brazil are out of the top 10 for the first time since the Fifa rankings were created in August 1993
The Republic of Ireland, who lost all three group matches at Euro 2012, fall to 26th from 18th.
Both defeated Euro 2012 semi-finalists rise in the rankings with Germany up a place in second while Portugal climb five spots to fifth.
The Fifa world rankings are compiled every month, with ranking points accumulated according to results, the importance of the matches played and the strength of opposing teams.
Five-times world champions Brazil, who do not have to qualify for the World Cup as hosts, have played less top-level matches in 2012 than some of the other leading nations.
England have not reached a major tournament semi-final since the European Championship on home soil in 1996.
At Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, England topped their group after drawing with France and beating Sweden and Ukraine before the defeat on penalties to Italy.
Fifa world rankings - top 20
1. Spain 2. Germany 3. Uruguay 4. England 5. Portugal 6. Italy 7. Argentina 8. Netherlands 9. Croatia 10. Denmark 11. Brazil 12. Greece 13. Russia 14. France 15. Chile 16. Ivory Coast 17. Sweden 18. Czech Republic 19. Mexico 20. Japan
Selected others: 26. Republic of Ireland 38. Wales 49. Scotland 102. Northern Ireland
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Comment number 608.
6th July 2012 - 7:14Now .. why is Brazil falling?
Say there are 2 matches next week: Brazil 10x0 Spain (friendly) & Argentina 1x0 Bolivia (WC 2014 Qual)
Brazil gets 600 pts (3 pt x 1 (friendly) x 2 (Spain's 1st) x 1 (SA vs EURO) x 100 pts);
Argentina gets 877.5 pts (3 pt x 2.5 (WC Qual) x 1.17 (Bolivia-83rd) x 1 (SA) x 100 pts);
So, Argentina climbs 277 pt above Brazil, who killed Spain. Does it make sense now? -
Comment number 607.
6th July 2012 - 6:32I think most of you have the wrong interpretation of the FIFA raking system
. It doesn't tell you who the best teams ARE. It actually tells you which teams HAVE BEEN THE BEST in the last 48 months. And half of the points obtained in the raking come FROM THE PREVIOUS 12 MONTHS.
So, anything that happened prior to July 2008 was forgotten for this month's ranking. And that's that -
Comment number 606.
5th July 2012 - 22:06The only joke on this news story is the number of uneducated posts.
The performance is not relevant, results are.
How stupid do you need to be to not understand that?
Having a panel of judges (like the orcs here) making the call who is 'best' is just not wise.
The list means nothing, it's just doing it's best to try and order chaos.
On past results 4th-6th is where England are. Deal with it. -
Comment number 605.
5th July 2012 - 21:56You sure this is FIFA and not UK rankings?
Comment number 604.
5th July 2012 - 21:54These rantkings are the result of misleading statistical analysis or flawed statistical process.
Either way, the result is almost certainly incorrect. Perhaps having world rankings for national football teams is wrong as the results are inaccurate and misleading?
Comments 5 of 608
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This article was first published in September 2010. Some facts may have aged gracelessly. Please call ahead to verify information.
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Tarred and Feathered
A Canadian-based company is bluffing and bullying its way through six states so it can pump the world's dirtiest oil through a 1,661-mile-long pipeline that crosses some of our most fragile wildlife habitats and lies inside earth's largest underground reservoir.
On the afternoon of April 7, 2011, Marian Langan, Audubon Nebraska's executive director, picked me up at the state's capital of Lincoln. We struck out for Audubon's Rowe Sanctuary on the Platte River--a waypoint along the five-hour drive northwest to where we'd be meeting with ranchers desperately trying to defend their property from fragmentation, pollution, and eminent-domain condemnation by a Calgary-based company called TransCanada.
The U.S. Department of State--the agency that okays cross-border pipelines--appears willing to give TransCanada a "presidential permit" to lay a tar sands oil pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, under the remote, water-rich Sandhills of Nebraska, then on to refineries on the Texas coast.
We arrived at Rowe just as the sandhill cranes, which derive their name from sandhills in Canada not Nebraska, were settling onto the river's banks and shallows for the night. This is one of the planet's great migrations, and people come to the sanctuary from around the world to watch it.
Fueled with waste corn for their trek to breeding grounds in Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, the cranes poured in by the thousands, descending in near-solid curtains gray as the sky, landing gear extended, and filling the chill night for 30 miles with clacking and clattering that fell and rose from mere roar to implausible crescendo. In the last smudge of twilight they lined the far bank like riprap--upstream and downstream as far as I could see. I dug out my cell phone, dialed my wife in Massachusetts, and let her listen to the Sandhills' wild, discordant music.
Apart from being one of the more eloquent expressions of the region's beauty and wildness, I'd assumed that the crane migration wasn't part of my story because virtually all their Platte River habitat is safely upstream from the pipeline's proposed route. But with the sandhill cranes come whooping cranes, among the most endangered of all species, with a total population of about 400. One, in fact, was seen that night from a different blind. The whoopers breed in northern Alberta close to tar sands strip mines and tailing ponds, and lately they've been showing up with their white feathers fouled by black material. While the contaminant has yet to be positively identified, tar sands waste is the prime suspect.
As ravenous as we are for oil these days, we'll take it any way we can get it from any place we can get it. Having drained most of the easy reserves, we're tapping the difficult ones--three and a half miles under the Gulf of Mexico, for instance, and "tar sands" several hundred feet below northern Alberta's boreal forests.
It's expensive in all sorts of ways. In Alberta, for example, the entire native ecosystem has to be bulldozed away, the tar sands below strip-mined, and the oil-laced product, "bitumen," steamed out by vast amounts of gas-heated water in a process that spikes the planet's carbon load even as it destroys its carbon-sequestering potential. Waste products include hundreds of billions of gallons of toxic goop, plants, wildlife, fish, rivers, and people (see "Crude Awakening," March-April 2010).
Keystone XL, as TransCanada calls its proposed pipeline, will be 36 inches in diameter and two times longer than the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. In Nebraska's Sandhills it will be buried inside the largest underground reservoir on the planet--the Ogallala Aquifer, which charges rivers, lakes, and marshes and supplies drinking and irrigation water to eight states.
Bitumen is too viscous to be piped, so it is spiked with volatile liquid condensate from natural gas and thus converted to a thinner cocktail called DilBit (short for diluted bitumen) that contains all the toxic and carcinogenic fractions found in regular crude oil. And tar sands oil makes pipeline leaks more likely. DilBit has high concentrations of chloride salts, sulfur, abrasive minerals, and acids, and it needs to be pumped under high pressure. So it is rough on pipes.
TransCanada and another company--Enbridge, also based in Calgary--already pipe DilBit to U.S. refineries. In July 2010 Enbridge's Lakehead Pipeline ruptured, causing the biggest oil spill in Midwest history and sending about a million gallons of DilBit into Michigan's Kalamazoo River system. The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, whose regulations don't differentiate between DilBit and regular crude oil, reported many uncorrected erosion problems in the Enbridge line.
TransCanada, which only ventured into the DilBit business in 2006 but has considerable experience transporting natural gas, operates a DilBit pipeline from Hardisty, Alberta, through Manitoba, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri to delivery points in Wood River and Patoka, Illinois, and Cushing, Oklahoma. The spills it has reported so far have been less severe than Enbridge's. There have been 10, but they've occurred above ground at pumping stations.
Underground leaks are more dangerous. "The environmental impact statement says that some slow leaks will not be detected for long periods," comments photographer and Nebraska Sierra Club board member Mitch Paine.
But TransCanada's PR person, Shawn Howard, assures me that the aquifer, two-thirds of its water pooled below Nebraska, will be perfectly safe and that underground leaks aren't a problem. "If there was a leak underground," he explains, "it's so sandy in some of those areas that it's like if you go to the beach and pour water on sand. It just kind of sucks into one spot; and you've got this little drop left. Why would we go and invest $13 billion in a pipeline and put a product in it that was going to destroy it like these activists are trotting out? It makes absolutely no business sense."
True enough. On the other hand, "business sense" is a commodity more often wished for than possessed. For instance, it made no business sense for BP to invest $350 million building its Deepwater Horizon platform to extract a product so unsafely that the rig blew up.
Also confident that nothing bad can happen and whooping it up for the project are chamber-of-commerce types from the private sector and the state legislature. But they're in the minority.
In strong opposition is an unlikely alliance of liberals and conservatives, environmentalists and ranchers, sportsmen and property-rights advocates who complain that Keystone XL has been routed for straightness rather than safety. This alliance includes but is not limited to the entire environmental community, the Nebraska Cattlemen, the Nebraska Farmers Union, Bold Nebraska (an online news service that seeks to "restore political balance"), Nebraska's Republican senator Mike Johanns, Nebraska's Democrat senator Ben Nelson, 28 members of Congress, and landowners from Montana to Texas.
So TransCanada is feeling unloved and unappreciated. Howard is especially frustrated by America's media, which he describes as generally slovenly and which he alleges have warped the thinking of Americans so that they have come to distrust TransCanada and its supposedly fail-safe technology. As one of the more egregious offenders he cites The New York Times. On April 2, 2011, the Times called the XL pipeline "unnecessary," assessed its environmental risks as "enormous," and revealed that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had "sharply criticized" the State Department's draft environmental impact statement.
Howard directed me to a TransCanada website stating that DilBit from the pipeline will "meet American demand for petroleum products." DilBit may not even ease that demand because the petroleum products rendered from it will be sold on the world market. And with tar sands oil bypassing Midwest refineries, the price of petroleum products in that region is likely to rise as the supply decreases. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) has gone so far as to ask the Federal Trade Commission to investigate TransCanada for what he identifies as "clear" evidence that it has colluded with tar sands strip miners to manipulate oil prices in the Midwest.
Another TransCanada link alleges that after excising Canada's boreal forests, tar sands strip miners are "restoring the delicate environment pleasingly to its natural state." The "restoration" is about as pleasing, natural, and genuine as the coal industry's perfunctory seeding of the stumps it leaves throughout Appalachia after it blows up mountains.
TransCanada contends that it's just in the delivery business and can't be blamed for all the carbon pollution and conversion of fish and wildlife habitat to pits and toxic waste. But the EPA doesn't agree. In the agency's pillorying of the State Department's environmental review is a warning, cited by The New York Times, that the pipeline will increase the extraction of Canadian tar sands and therefore greenhouse-gas pollution while simultaneously removing the carbon-sequestering boreal forest. The EPA calculates that the "annual well-to-tank emissions from the project will be 27 million metric tons of carbon dioxide . . . roughly equivalent to annual CO2 emissions of seven coal-fired power plants."
In addition to its role as an important carbon sink, North America's boreal forest sustains some of our rarest mammals such as wolverines and woodland caribou while providing habitat for 30 percent of the continent's land birds--at least 215 species. Northbound birds from all four flyways converge in the boreal forest to feed, rest, or nest. But, as the EPA notes, boreal forest wildlife is being threatened by tar sands strip mining and the toxic waste it produces, about three million gallons of which leaks daily into the environment.
In the United States the pipeline will chew up important wildlife habitat with roads and powerlines to pumping stations and with the excavation itself. But a much bigger threat is leaking DilBit, which could pollute the aquifer for great distances, rendering water unfit for use by wildlife and humans. The state of Nebraska can require that Keystone XL be moved east or west, safely away from its Sandhills. Maintaining the current route simply so TransCanada can save money is, as the Times reported, unnecessary and risky.
The world is fast running out of places like the Sandhills. They seem to roll on forever--20,000 square miles of dunes, some that migrate in the wind, others 330 feet high, and all composed of tiny pieces of the Rocky Mountains ground off and dumped by Pleistocene glaciers as recently as 10,000 years ago, when people were watching it happen.
Because the unstable, porous soil makes crop growing difficult, something like 85 percent of the Sandhills has never come under the plow. As a result they support by far the most intact native ecosystems on the Great Plains, including short-grass, mixed-grass, and tallgrass prairies. Found here are at least 720 plant species, many of which, like the federally endangered blowout penstemon, are tolerant of--in fact, dependent upon--wind and shifting sand. And 314 species of vertebrates are known to breed in this internationally recognized ecoregion.
Jim Hamilton and his sister, Cindy Myers, guided Audubon's Langan, the Sierra Club's Paine, and me through Green Valley Township. So close is the Ogallala Aquifer to the surface here that water flowed in the ditches along the dirt roads. Muskrats swam in them; pintails, mallards, and widgeon billowed out of them. Wet meadows teemed with ring-necked pheasants, wild turkeys, western meadowlarks, snipe, killdeer, and red-winged blackbirds. Even when we couldn't see water we heard the tinkling of chorus frogs. It's hard to build a fence in this country because when you dig a post hole you get a well.
At the ranch where Hamilton and Myers grew up and which Hamilton now runs, I saw a pipe for a cattle tank that was squirting water three feet into the air. Visitors ask Hamilton what powers it, and some don't believe him when he accurately informs them it's the aquifer.
When we crossed into the roadless, virgin prairie behind the barbed wire--where Hamilton and Myers had played in the blowouts, sledded down the dunes, and speared fish--I got a full view of the Sandhills' wildness and diversity. Strewn among the native grasses were yucca and prickly pear, but there was flowing water even here. It was all a desert in disguise--dry on top, sopping wet a foot down.
"Anyone who thinks Nebraska lacks water hasn't seen the Sandhills," intoned Hamilton. And Myers added: "I so wish you could see these hills when they're cloaked in green and all the wildflowers and cacti are in bloom. There's no place more beautiful in America."
Back on the dirt roads, Hamilton showed us the one-room schoolhouse he'd attended when the student body swelled to eight; it's now abandoned and moldering into the prairie. Clumps of trees marked the sites of recently dismantled houses. The population of the entire township was 84 in 2010, down from 93 in 2000. "When I was a kid it was double or triple that," said Hamilton. "It's the same in most of the Sandhills. People keep moving to the cities. We used to have neighbors every half-mile or mile. Now you drive miles and miles to see a neighbor. We're a small minority, and politicians know they don't have to pay attention to us."
The responses of the Nebraska state legislature and the U.S. State Department to public concerns about the pipeline appear to bear Hamilton out. Although the State Department has yet to issue TransCanada a presidential permit, its environmental review seems scarcely more than an effort to feign impartiality. Last October Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that she was "inclined" to support Keystone XL. And her agency has denied a Freedom of Information Act request by Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law, and Corporate Ethics International that would have shed light on her ties with the former "Hillary Clinton for President" campaign committee's national deputy director, Paul Elliott, who is now TransCanada's chief D.C. lobbyist.
On March 8, 2011, Cindy Myers, Mitch Paine, and nine other Nebraskans flew to Washington to express their concerns about TransCanada's proposed pipeline to their congressional delegation, the EPA, and Dan Clune, the State Department's principal deputy assistant secretary. When the group asked that the pipeline be rerouted east or west away from the aquifer Clune correctly pointed out that this was the responsibility of state government.
Yet for three years Nebraskans had been told by Governor Dave Heineman and state legislators that routing pipelines was up to the feds. State senator Chris Langemeier, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, had even labeled any regulating or rerouting on Nebraska's part "obstructionist," and his committee has stalled three bills that could marginally protect wildlife and the public from DilBit pipelines.
"It was heart-wrenching to hear some of these folks at the hearings on these bills," says Langan. "They're going about their lives. They start getting these somewhat threatening letters from TransCanada asking for easements. In many cases, they felt defeated right then."
On March 22, 2011, a state senator's aide told Ken Winston, policy advocate with the Nebraska Sierra Club, about a memo from the U.S. Congressional Research Service declaring that "state law establishes the primary siting authority for oil pipelines." Winston was shocked when he saw the memo's date--September 10, 2010. "State legislators seem to have sat on this information," he told SolveClimate News. "This is bad faith." Such is the political muscle of the increasingly voterless Sandhills.
The 11 Nebraskans who trekked to our nation's capital felt a surge of hope when, within a week of their session with Clune, the State Department announced it would prepare a draft supplemental environmental impact statement. "They listened to us," Myers effused on April 8. But a week later she was feeling "deflated and angry." The State Department had just hatched its supplement, a 320-page report that appears to clear the way for Keystone XL. I got this appraisal from Senator Johanns: "The State Department still thinks the best route goes through the Sandhills, and I think that's wrong."
Johanns is livid about how TransCanada has been threatening landowners with eminent domain in order to frighten them into selling it right-of-way easements. On August 11, 2010, he wrote the company as follows: "I have had multiple conversations with Nebraskans who have indicated that TransCanada representatives have established hard deadlines for landowner responses to offers of easement payments within as little as two weeks, I am told. Nebraska landowners are being told in addition that the use of eminent domain authority will be triggered if they do not accept the offers extended by TransCanada within the arbitrary deadlines. The establishment of such deadlines is especially troubling because TransCanada does not possess the presidential permit required for the project."
Twelve days later TransCanada responded voluminously, circuitously, but with a promise to remind its agents "not to use the right of eminent domain as a threat." But the threats continue.
Some landowners simply cannot afford the time to defend their property in court. Two such are Teri and Dennis Taylor, whose cattle ranch, one of the biggest in Nebraska, will be sliced by the pipeline in three counties. When I stopped by their house near Newport they were busy branding, but Teri agreed to knock off for an interview.
"There's a bull's-eye on our back," she said. "This couldn't have hit us worse. The pipeline crosses [under] our three sections corner to corner for nearly six miles. You saw those big rolling hills on the left as you came in. That's the path of the pipeline, and it's the most fragile area on our ranch. TransCanada doesn't have a permit, and yet they're threatening us. To me this pipeline is the worst thing that has ever happened to our ranch and the state. It's a tremendous grab. The route they have chosen is absurd. They just want the shortest one."
The Taylors think they may have no choice but to sell an easement. "This eminent domain thing frightens us," continued Teri. "All we want to do is ranch. We spend 100 percent of our time ranching. We have to be on site every single day; we have no hired help. We can't be distracted by anything."
She went on to say that a few days after she and her husband had encountered TransCanada surveyors on their property and politely asked them to leave, rumors circulated that the Taylors had chased them off with a pickup truck and then pulled up all their survey stakes. "Those were lies," she said.
TransCanada proclaims it's not "bullying" or "threatening" anyone. But back in Lincoln I met rancher Randy Thompson, who made the trip to D.C. with Myers, Paine, and the others. He showed me a letter from TransCanada threatening to condemn his family ranch beside the Platte River. It reads in part: "While we hope to acquire this property through negotiation, if we are unable to do so, we will be forced to invoke the power of eminent domain and will initiate condemnation proceedings."
"This pipeline would be submerged in water," said Thompson. "That's my concern. Being close to the river, we have undercurrents. A leak could be carried who knows where." When I asked if he'd sell a right-of-way easement if the company gets a permit, he said: "I don't think so. It's a family decision, and there are four of us, but we're all pretty much on the same page. If we voluntarily sell, I feel we could be liable if a spill damaged other property. Our neighbor sold an easement a couple years ago. Like most people he thought it was a hopeless situation."
In its letter to the Thompsons, TransCanada also stated that it was making its "final offer," one that would "remain open for one month." The letter was dated July 21, 2010. But TransCanada's "final offers" come and go, giving the distinct impression that the company is bluffing. At least one other "final offer" followed in February 2011, says Susan Luebbe of Stuart, Nebraska. Then, on April 7, a third final offer imposed yet another monthlong deadline. Holdouts, TransCanada again warned, will face "litigation."
Can a foreign company really show up in the United States and invoke eminent domain against U.S. citizens before it gets permission for a project it hopes to construct? TransCanada says yes.
But Nebraska law says that no company can invoke eminent domain without all its permits: "A petition filed pursuant to [the eminent domain] section 76-704 shall include a statement of the authority for the acquisition." At this writing TransCanada has no such authority, and the State Department isn't expected to issue a presidential permit until the end of the year.
It's by no means clear that a foreign entity can invoke eminent domain against Americans even after it gets a federal permit for a project. A lawsuit by Oklahoma landowners against TransCanada for eminent domain threats may partially settle that issue.
No matter what the State Department decides, TransCanada's legal standing is as porous and unstable as the Sandhills themselves. And the question Americans need to ask the Obama administration and state politicians is this: Is our addiction to foreign oil really so irresistible that state lawmakers and the White House have to risk the health of U.S. citizens and trample their property rights?
Write Secretary Hillary Clinton--at the U.S. Department of State, 2201 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20520--and urge her to deny TransCanada's permit. Ask your legislators to make the same request. For the latest information on Keystone XL, go to Bold Nebraska.