text: Yes sir i know that happened for a fact. That is why Tom Brown needs to realize that we all sin and have no right to judge anyone because we all have faults. All we can do is ask for forgiveness and keep trying to become better people.People had the heart to forgive him for his errors and yet he is judging other people. He is lucky to still be a Pastor because of the the good heart of the elders in the church. All we can do is pray for each other for guidance.

subset: commoncrawl


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Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike3 Siblings 1 Hot MessJan 21 – Feb 15, 2015 The master of comedy, Christopher Durang, mixes four distinct characters and dishes up a hilarious stew. "Will Vanya and Sonia ever find happiness? Will Masha sell the Bucks County farmhouse out from under them? And will Spike ever put his pants on?" writes USA Today. Touching and wickedly hysterical. Winner of the 2013 Tony Award for Best Play! Meet Vanya:Meet Sonia:Meet Masha:Meet Spike:Conversation Club: Join us on select Thursday evenings one hour before curtain for an informal, informative gathering. You'll learn more about the performance you're about to see and perhaps catch a glimpse of the stage being set. The Director's Viewpoint: One hour before curtain on the first Wednesday of this show we host a pre-show discussion in the Renee Foosaner Art Gallery. Q&A With The Cast: On the fourth Saturday of each production, stick around for a lively Q&A with cast members directly following the matinee performance. Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
By Christopher Durang
Upcoming Events


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Universal Pictures
Get the screensaver for Nicole Kidman's new thriller.Windows Version ... Added: 04/25/05Total Downloads1,215Last Week4
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This screensaver turns your desktop into an animated submarine action scene.Windows Version 1.0 ... Added: 04/17/00Total Downloads20,986Last Week3
The Fastest Dodgeball in the West: A Lesson in Doing Good DeedsDoug PetersonVeggie Tales7/1/2006Rattlesnake Ricky was just released from jail, and...iOS Version 1.05 ... Added: 02/04/10Total Downloads4Last Week2
Search thousands of full-length movies, concerts, tv series and cartoons on YouTube. Full Movies is a YouTube player that lets you create the...iOS Version 2.0.0 ... Added: 10/14/13Total Downloads5Last Week2
Get the screensaver for Will Ferrell's new comedy.Windows Version 1 ... Added: 05/14/05Total Downloads1,256Last Week2
Celebrate the box office success and outstanding A Cinemascore with Despicable Me: Minion Mania! Get the movie here: http://itunes.apple.com/WebObj...iOS Version 1.1.4 ... Added: 06/02/12Total Downloads25Last Week2
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nana Jo's
Life is like recipes. Alll those unusual ingredients and voila! Look at what comes out...delicious blessings for all to enjoy. : )
(35 Recipes) Created by PLUNGER
Recipes in this Collection
Very Good 4.3/5
(23 ratings)
Cookbook creator says: I am so excited to use these recipes! Submitted by LILDINI Carbs: 11.5g | Fat: 7.7g | Fiber: 1.8g | Protein: 22.2g | Calories: 208.2
Very Good 4.6/5
(12 ratings)
Cookbook creator says: is high in sodium, watch it Submitted by MORDONNA Carbs: 4.9g | Fat: 9.2g | Fiber: 1.4g | Protein: 31.5g | Calories: 234
This recipe has been marked private.
Cookbook creator says: Will prolly add more salsa ,as I see reviews say it needs it, even leave out breadcrumbs replacing them with oatmeal. Add an egg white if needed. Submitted by JIMINNYC Carbs: 7.6g | Fat: 1.5g | Fiber: 0.5g | Protein: 29.4g | Calories: 161.8
Delicious and quick, this dish is a great way to get more fish into your healthy meal plan! We think this baked tilapia recipe can't be beat! Submitted by RACHIELOO Carbs: 1.2g | Fat: 10.5g | Fiber: 0g | Protein: 19.6g | Calories: 177.1
Cookbook creator says: Need to check calories on the ingredients, author mentioned info was for entire recipe, so need to check it. Carbs: 92.7g | Fat: 5.3g | Fiber: 3.8g | Protein: 15g | Calories: 426.3
I can't get enough of this easy recipe; it's ready in 15 minutes!The still-runny egg yolk adds a creaminess to the sauce and perfectly mixes with the spinach. Submitted by STEPFANIER Carbs: 53.9g | Fat: 6.5g | Fiber: 6.9g | Protein: 18.1g | Calories: 337.3
This healthy apple crisp recipe is sweet and simple to prepare but uses very little added sugar. Submitted by JLCROMP Carbs: 25.2g | Fat: 3.5g | Fiber: 2.5g | Protein: 1.5g | Calories: 127.4
Serve these holiday cookies with a cup of tea or lowfat vanilla ice cream. Submitted by CHEF_MEG Carbs: 10.3g | Fat: 2.6g | Fiber: 0.5g | Protein: 0.8g | Calories: 61.1
Creamy pudding makes fantastic frozen treats. Carbs: 6g | Fat: 0.7g | Fiber: 0.1g | Protein: 2.4g | Calories: 35.3
Perfect for breakfast or a quick snack. Carbs: 29.1g | Fat: 1.3g | Fiber: 2.2g | Protein: 3.1g | Calories: 119
Very Good 4.9/5
(21 ratings)
Submitted by CHELLES Carbs: 31.1g | Fat: 4.6g | Fiber: 3.8g | Protein: 1.2g | Calories: 165.2
A great substitute when you are looking for low carbs. Submitted by AUBURN0921 Carbs: 23.6g | Fat: 7.4g | Fiber: 4.5g | Protein: 2.5g | Calories: 163.9
(no ratings)
Just sweet potatoes, oil and salt, roasted in the oven 'till nice and tender. Great side. 3 servings per recipe. Submitted by PATCHMOMMA Carbs: 21g | Fat: 4.8g | Fiber: 2.6g | Protein: 1.4g | Calories: 130.8
(no ratings)
Cookbook creator says: This is so filling I can eat it for breakfast and not feel hungry til lunch time. Submitted by PLUNGER Carbs: 52.9g | Fat: 4.4g | Fiber: 9.2g | Protein: 27.4g | Calories: 336.4
Good 3.8/5
(69 ratings)
Sweet treat for dessert, or at any time of the day. Carbs: 21.2g | Fat: 3.2g | Fiber: 2.5g | Protein: 3.6g | Calories: 123.5
This is a really filling soup that's easy to make. Each serving is a hearty 2 cups! Submitted by CHEF_MEG Carbs: 39.9g | Fat: 3.1g | Fiber: 8.9g | Protein: 28.1g | Calories: 289.8
A simple, hearty meat-free meal. Pair with a green salad, and dinner is ready. Submitted by CHEF_MEG Carbs: 45.6g | Fat: 1.5g | Fiber: 7.6g | Protein: 8.8g | Calories: 213.1
This filling vegetarian meal is nutritious and easy to make. Submitted by TWINMOM143 Carbs: 52.7g | Fat: 5.1g | Fiber: 10.2g | Protein: 13.7g | Calories: 284.5
This is the best asparagus you will ever have! Submitted by AUNTKEEKEE Carbs: 5.6g | Fat: 3.8g | Fiber: 2.5g | Protein: 2.5g | Calories: 57.1


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Mainstage Tickets on sale for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner through the online Box Office or by calling (314) 968-4925 Studio Theatre Tickets on sale for Safe House through the online Box Office or by calling (314) 968-4925 Mainstage Tickets on sale for The Winslow Boy through the online Box Office or by calling (314) 968-4925 Join us for the fourth season of the Ignite! Festival, and celebrate the development and discovery of new American theatre. Click here for more information!
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
January 7-February 1
A progressive couple's proud liberal sensibilities are put to the test when their daughter arrives home bursting with excitement and an unexpected fiancé. Expectations and reality collide when questions of race, fear and cultural beliefs are staring them directly in the face. A new adaptation of the award-winning film explores family and acceptance and asks which has the greater hold on our hearts.
Safe House
January 21-February 8
In 1843 Kentucky, the Pedigrews hold a unique place in their community as free people of color. While one brother has dreams of opening his own business as a cobbler and creating a life for his family, the other risks everything in an effort to help slaves escape. Inspired by the lives of his ancestors, playwright Keith Josef Adkins tells a gripping and heart-wrenching story of love, freedom and survival.
The Winslow Boy
February 11-March 8
When young Ronnie Winslow is expelled from military school for stealing a five-shilling postal order, his father wages an exhaustive fight to clear his son's name. What begins as a private matter quickly becomes a larger question of the rights of the individual against the power of the state. Though the legal battle jeopardizes his health and the reputation of the entire family, Arthur Winslow is determined that right will prevail, no matter what the sacrifice.


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I am An air conditioning engineer. This means I have lots of use full things kicking about in my van. I have a vacuum pump for evacuating refrigeration pipe work, its a powerfull thing which is used to suck out moisture so can evaporate water at cold temperatures so i'm guessing can evaporate alcohol, with its lower boiling point. Has any one ever used some thing like this for degassing wine? I have seen methods using much smaller hand pumps over long periods of time. could this be a time saver and a half rugged up to a drilled rubber cork? can a Demi John cope with pressure of a vaccume? I also have welding gear, which comprises oxygen and acetylene. Is this welding grade oxygen any good for oxygenating at the start? Would I just blast it threw an air stone for a few seconds? Any one use pure oxygen for this?
I would not pull a vacuum on a glass carboy or demijohn, at least not indoors. Those things aren't really rated for pressure, so the roughly 14psi it would encounter with a deep vacuum pulled on it might be enough to fracture it. I think some people do use welding cylinder oxygen to oxygenate, as long as it doesn't contain anything else. I've not used it but of course many things that are normally not flammable will burn quite readily in oxygen, and any hint of oil or grease impinging in the line I think can cause a nice energy release. Right for getting the moisture out of an A/C system it relies on getting the boiling point of the water to be above the ambient temp. So if it is at 70F ambient and you can get the water boiling point lowered to 60F with a deep vacuum then the water in the system will boil off, and if the vacuum is left on for long enough time, it will travel toward the vacuum and then out of the system.
What are you talking about? I use a medical vac pump to pull vac on my glass carboys for degassing purposes all the time. Granted, it's probably not as much vac as an HVAC pump might pull, but... ETA: I would not use welding grade O2 to aerate, though.
I'm not saying it would fracture it, I'm just saying right on the packaging it says not for pressurized liquids. Just because someone does something all the time and hasn't yet had a problem with their particular setup doesn't necessarily mean it's safe or is a good idea. Just be aware of the risks and prepare accordingly and then if it ever does implode there will be no personal injury and the liquid will spill say into a rubbermaid container instead of all over the carpet or floor. Granted there is a couple psi of static liquid head when its full but that is less than the roughly -14psig when a deep vacuum is pulled.
Why wood you not use welding grade o2? Just a precautionary thing? I'll maybe give it a go with a one gallon batch, all my meads have been fermenting virtuously without it but I just wondered if it would speed it up. The medical vac will be similar. How long do you leave the pump on? Just until the co2 bubbles stop? I'll do it in the bath to be on the safe side. I love brewing in the bath anyway.
I recently tried my hand at vacuum degassing using a brake bleeder. According to the gauge I got my one gallon carboy to around 25in. Hg and everything was fine, aside from my forearms. I have now bought a vacuum ejector from Hong Kong and will connect that to my air compressor and achieve about the same vacuum without the sore arms
Harbor Freight has the venturi style vacuum things that will run off the air compressor and draw a pretty decent vacuum, not as deep as a refrigeration vacuum pump but not too bad.
How long do you leave it under a vacume? Was thinking if I hooked up 2 demijohns, one full one empty I could make a vacume and just leave it with the empty one their to fill with the co2?
Ah cool that's good to know. That wand looks like the sort of thing I was thinking of making out of an air stone and some rubber. My oxygen bottles are a bit bigger and have their own trolly but its the same stuff. That's good theirs says 50 seconds so if I blast it gently for a min or two It should do it. I take it oxidation before pitching the yeast only? You would not repeat until this 1/3 sugar break I keep reading about along with staggered nutrients? Just a Goood shake to get some co2 out


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Originally published Friday, December 9, 2011 at 5:32 AM
Tori Amos communes with classical, other pasts
On Tori Amos' latest project, "Night of Hunters," the 48-year-old singer-songwriter presents a song cycle based on themes by Chopin, Schubert, Satie and Debussy, among other classical composers. Amos performs two sets Wednesday, Dec. 14, at Seattle's Paramount Theatre, one with a full band and one with a string quartet.
Special to The Seattle Times
On the Internet
Hear a preview of Tori Amos' "Night of Hunters": www.youtube.com, search "Tori Amos Night of Hunters"
Tori Amos
8 p.m. Wednesday at the Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle; $49 (877-784-4849 or www.stgpresents.org).Of all the collaborators Tori Amos has worked with in her two-decade solo career, none have been more intimidating than the most recent — even though most of them have been dead for years.
The 48-year-old singer-songwriter's 12th studio album, "Night of Hunters," is a darkly romantic, sweeping song cycle based on themes by Chopin, Schubert, Satie and Debussy.
"That's a very, very tall order, and a very dangerous one," Amos said of the project over the phone a few weeks ago. "If you get it wrong, you get it really, really wrong."
An eight-time Grammy nominee widely known for her single "A Sorta Fairytale," Amos performs two sets at the Paramount Theatre on Wednesday, one with full band and one with a string quartet.
Amos credits a doctor of musicology at classical label Deutsche Grammophon — which released "Night of Hunters" — for suggesting the album.
"He would send me endless amounts of classical music so I could expose myself to all kinds of things," she said.
Though the disc didn't hit the chart heights of her more popular records, fans catapulted "Night of Hunters" to No. 1 on the Billboard classical charts the week of its release. It's the first album by a woman to appear simultaneously on Billboard's rock, alternative and classical lists.
The album takes the form of a song cycle, a lyrical device perhaps best employed by Franz Schubert. The story follows a pair of lovers in crisis, as Amos carries the couple through past civilizations and mythologies — placing them in ancient Celtic wars, ship voyages to the New World and deserts with mystically powerful cactus elixirs.
"The story doesn't have to be understood in a linear fashion," she said, "but more from an emotional place."
Making the album, Amos discovered some composers who were new to her.
"Erik Satie, (Enrique) Granados — I wasn't really familiar with their work," she said. "Once I discovered it, it just demanded to be a part of the project."
Amos hopes the lovers' story arc serves as a springboard for other couples to examine themselves.
"We get so distracted by the traumas that are happening in the world," she commented. "It's not as if they shouldn't command our attention. But our own relationships have to command our attention as well. If there's no healing within the sacred relationship of the home, then there's no way we can have peace outside in the world."
Paul Pearson blogs at paul-pearson.blogspot.com


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Temporal Lobe Resection Center - Fargo, NDFargo Neurosurgeon Doctors for Temporal Lobe ResectionType of Physician: Neurosurgeon What is a Neurosurgeon? A certification by the Board of Neurological Surgery; Neurosurgeons are skilled in the diagnosis and surgical management of disorders of the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system. Specialty: Surgery , Neurological Common Name: Brain Surgeon Neurosurgeon Doctors in Fargo *Sanford Neurology Sanford Neurology Essentia Health Altru Main Clinic Fargo, North DakotaTemporal Lobe ResectionIntroductionThe largest part of the brain, the cerebrum, is divided into four paired sections -- the frontal, parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes. Each lobe controls a specific group of activities. The temporal lobe, located on eith... Other Related Temporal Lobe Resection ArticlesEmergency Contact for Fargo
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KPMG answers questions at the forefront of provider's minds, and offers suggestions on what can be done now to mitigate risk and maximise opportunities.


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Gordy greets Valisia LeKae, who plays Diana Ross, during a rehearsal last month in New York. The musical opens for previews Monday. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press
Charl Brown, center, plays Smokey Robinson in "Motown: The Musical," one of the highest-profile shows to hit Broadway in recent years. At right are Bryan Terrell Clark, who plays Marvin Gaye, and Valisia LeKae, who stars as Diana Ross. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press
The love story between Berry Gordy Jr. and Ross is a key part of the musical. Brandon Victor Dixon and LeKae fill the roles of the two Motown legends. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press
Motown Records founder Berry Gordy Jr., left, and Charles Randolph-Wright, the director of "Motown: The Musical," share a laugh at a news media event in New York last month. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press
Dancers rehearse a scene from "Motown: The Musical" last month in New York. The rehearsals proved to be full of the same energy, talent and catchy sounds that filled Hitsville in Detroit during the 1960s. / Kimberly P. Mitchell/Detroit Free Press
NEW YORK -- Motown history is ready for its new future.
Fifty-four years after its humble beginning on West Grand Boulevard in Detroit, that legacy will get bathed in Broadway's bright lights as "Motown: The Musical" opens for previews Monday at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.
The red carpet will be rolled out April 14, when the official premiere is expected to draw a crowd of VIPs from Berry Gordy Jr.'s star-studded Rolodex.
• Cast: Meet the cast of 'Motown: The Musical�
• Related: Chrysler goes to Broadway, teams with 'Motown'
The show's arrival culminates a long labor of love by the Motown founder, who conceived the idea a decade ago and enlisted showbiz heavyweights Doug Morris (Sony Music) and Kevin McCollum ("Rent") as coproducers in 2010.
Gordy, who wrote the initial script and has been hands-on throughout the process, said the show could become his greatest career accomplishment.
"I think it's magical. It's different," he said. "Motown has a way of spanning around the world, and that's why I did the play in the first place. It's not just for me to feel good. It's for the fans around the world who believed in me when everybody was saying a kid out of Detroit could never do a Motown."
Punctuated with vintage hits and energetic dance numbers, the musical will portray Motown's first 25 years through the eyes of Gordy, played by Tony-nominated actor Brandon Victor Dixon. More than half of the 2 1/2-hour show is set in Detroit, where Gordy's courtship of a young Diana Ross (Valisia LeKae) becomes a key source of drama.
"We have Detroit on our mind," said director Charles Randolph-Wright, who has visited the city several times for inspiration. "I've been very aware of what Detroit means -- what was unique about that place, that time, that person. I wanted to be sure I have that essence."
"Motown" is one of the highest-profile shows to hit Broadway in recent years, accompanied by heavy news media interest and a multimillion-dollar national campaign by marketing partner Chrysler. If all goes as producers hope, the show could secure the megahit status of such jukebox musicals as "Mamma Mia!" (ABBA) and "Jersey Boys" (the Four Seasons).
It could also bring new life to Motown's music catalog, akin to the resurgence sparked by the soundtrack for the 1983 film "The Big Chill."
"We have very high expectations for the type of boost we'll get and the type of audience we'll gain," said Bruce Resnikoff, president of Universal Music Enterprises, which manages the Motown Records catalog. "It's an opportunity to introduce another generation to some of the greatest music in history."
The show seems to have hit ingredients: a repertoire of classic songs, a timeless American success story and a roll call of famous characters, including Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye.
A story heard through the grapevine
The story arc will be familiar to anyone who knows the basic Motown tale, from the $800 Gordy family loan that got it started to the triumphant Motown 25 show in 1983. Scenes revealed at a private preview in September included a young Gordy cheering boxer Joe Louis, a race-mixing Motortown Revue, a Paris love scene with Gordy and Ross and an "Ed Sullivan Show" gig by the Jackson 5.
Driving the plot is Gordy's quest to succeed and a "careful-what-you-wish-for" angst, as coproducer McCollum described it.
Still, the musical has faced some skeptics since it was announced last summer.
Some theater insiders have questioned Gordy's playwriting credentials. Others wonder whether he can grant his own story the juicy conflict it needs to be compelling. News media reports out of New York claim the script has been relentlessly overhauled in recent months, refined with help from veteran writers Dick Scanlan and David Goldsmith.
McCollum said such doubters are familiar challenges for Gordy, who fought for credibility in a racially charged era.
"Brian Epstein found the Beatles, and he's known as a genius," McCollum said. "Compare that to Berry Gordy. How many (stars) did he have to find before somebody finally said, 'Oh, you know what, he might know something'?"
The project has also elicited mixed reactions from some hard-core Motown fans, who are happy to see the music in the spotlight but who worry that Motown's artists will amount to extras in the Gordy-focused plot.
Former Motown publicist Al Abrams has locked horns with some of those fans online, pointing out that today's Broadway market is geared toward mainstream tourists.
"Because the show is entertainment, not infotainment, you've got to expect some liberties in the historical accuracy," said Abrams, who has staged his own musical tribute to Hitsville, "Memories of Motown." "It's for popular consumption by the masses, who really don't have any clue about the behind-the-scenes people, or the second- and third-echelon artists, songwriters, producers or musicians."
Gordy defends it as a chance to tell the Motown story his way.
"I've seen so many other versions of what it was," he said.
Let's get it on Broadway
Engrossed in what could be a final hurrah, the 83-year-old Gordy has been eager and recharged � a life of long rehearsal days and late-night brainstorms.
�His energy is like a teenager,� said actor Bryan Terrell Clark, who plays Marvin Gaye, �like he�s had this amazing second wind.�
Inside the show�s Manhattan rehearsal studio last month, the atmosphere was right out of Motown lore � a swirl of young energy, creative buzz, team-spirit pep talks and deferential references to �Mr. Gordy.�
�Motown� is Broadway-big: A 19-piece band will put gloss and grandeur on Motown�s songs, with full-scale dance numbers from a colorfully costumed cast of three dozen.
The past month has been crunch time, as crews iron out myriad details, from lighting cues to backstage wig placement.
In Broadway terms, �Motown� has been a quick process: It was summer 2010 when Randolph-Wright first met with Gordy at the Motown icon�s California mansion. Three years earlier, another Gordy musical � �Ain�t No Mountain High Enough� � had been quietly shelved before a scheduled L.A. debut. This time, Gordy was intent on getting it right.
�I picked Charles over some very renowned people,� Gordy said. �He turned out to be the most incredible director you could find.�
In selecting show personnel, Gordy said he focused on personal traits above all, �because stress makes people who they really are.� And there certainly would be stress.
�Sometimes, when we�re in the middle of something heated, all of a sudden I realize, �Oh my God, I�m fighting with Berry Gordy,�� Randolph-Wright said.
Over lunch at a nearby caf�, lead actors Dixon and LeKae talked about their two-year immersion in Motown and each other.
Dixon is open and affable, the sort of guy who�d fit right in for an afternoon of beer and sports. At 6 feet, he�s got half a foot on the real-life Gordy. LeKae carries a quiet elegance, and with her coy voice and delicate manner, the Diana Ross vibe is almost startling.
The chemistry between the two romantic leads is crucial to �Motown.�
�These two people really loved each other,� LeKae said. �I mean, (Gordy) still loves her unconditionally � he never forgets to remind me about that. But she has such a strong belief in him that she shares the same feelings. When it�s time for us to do a scene, it becomes very natural for us to fall into that place.�
Gordy said the Gordy-Ross relationship made a natural centerpiece to his story �because that was the thing that inspired me to do almost everything else I did,� he said. �And I was a sucker for anybody who believed in me, because growing up, nobody did.�
A hit: Signed, sealed, delivered
The show will be accompanied by a pair of albums: �Motown: The Musical � The Classic Songs That Inspired the Broadway Show,� in stores Tuesday, features the original recordings of tracks such as �My Girl,� �Shop Around� and �I Want You Back.�
A Broadway cast album will be released by the end of spring.
Universal�s Resnikoff said the company is embarking on �a massive marketing campaign� tied to the show, which it sees as a unique opportunity.
�If you think about it, the classic Motown songs have been marketed to some extent through nostalgia,� Resnikoff said. �This really helps us bring it current, and gives us a new story to work with.�
Chrysler�s chief marketing officer, Olivier Francois, said he�s �convinced that this show will be a very important piece of Broadway history.�
�It is going to be on Broadway, I think, for decades,� he said. As for Gordy � there�s a new working definition for success.
�I�m not really looking for glory, honors, even money or fame,� Gordy said. �That�s all passed. When I give back to people, especially those who believed in me, I feel good. And that�s way more important than the money or fame. I�m just looking to do good work. To do great work is an art.�
Contact Brian McCollum: 313-223-4450 or firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
More On Legal & Compliance
from The Advisor's Professional Library- Risk-Based Oversight of Investment Advisors Even if the SEC had a larger budget and more resources, it is doubtful that the Commission would have the resources to regularly examine all RIAs. Therefore, the SEC is likely to continue relying on risk-based oversight to fulfill its mission of protecting investors.
- Dealings With Qualified Clients and Accredited Investors Depending upon an RIAs business model and investment strategies, it may be important to identify "qualified clients" and "accredited investors." The Dodd-Frank Act authorized the SEC to change which clients are defined by those terms.
Securities and Exchange Commission chairwoman Mary Schapiro has agreed to meet Tuesday with a bipartisan group of organizations to further hear their demands that the SEC take immediate action to confront what they say is the rise of secret corporate spending in U.S. elections.
The Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending (CAPS), which is leading the group, held a March 26 rally in front of the SEC's Washington headquarters. CAPS leaders met with both Schapiro and Meredith Cross, director of the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance. Bill de Blasio, the CAPS president, and Kate Coyne-McCoy, the group's executive director, urged Schapiro and Cross to take up action on the SEC's rulemaking petition on disclosure that was proposed seven months ago, but both of the SEC officials refused to offer a timeline for action on the new rule.
CAPS' vow to keep up the pressure on the SEC prompted the Tuesday meeting.
"The SEC can actually do something about the fact that money is hijacking our political process. It can force publicly traded corporations to disclose their political spending—but has so far refused to use that power," said de Blasio in a statement. "We can't wait months and years for action. We'll keep coming back to the SEC's doorstep and ratcheting up pressure until the SEC does its job."
Coyne-McCoy added in the same statement that "It's been seven months since the SEC was petitioned for a rule change to require disclosure of corporate political spending, yet no action has been taken." Shareholders, she said, "are deeply invested in this issue—it's time for the SEC to stop ignoring those voices."


text:
The standards for Demeter certification express an internal agreement covering the outwardly active Biodynamic agriculture. They set the framework for the guidelines which are formulated by the respective organisations for Biodynamic agriculture in the different countries (hereafter called the "respective organisation"). Products that are marketed with the Demeter trademark must have been produced within these standards. The legal requirements of these standards are equally applicable to all producing enterprises.
Biodynamic work requires that one is strongly connected with the essential nature of the Biodynamic method, its principles and aims. To this end it is necessary to live into the natural processes using observation, thinking and perception. An ever-deepening understanding of the connections in nature, based on knowledge, can be gained by constant striving. Cooperative work in the various advisory associations, public events, magazines and books are all important sources of aid and support.
The special body of knowledge which is the basis for Biodynamic agriculture, insofar as it extends beyond practical and scientific experience, is derived from Rudolf Steiner's "Agricultural Course" of 1924 , and the spiritual context of anthroposophy within which this course was held.
German version of the production standards (version 2013)
Spanish version of the production standards (version 2013)
English version of the aquaculture standards


text:
Undoubtedly already wedged into Christmas stockings across Whitehall, Lords of Finance brings the last great financial meltdown to life by focusing on the four most important bankers in the world during 1929, foregrounding the human drama as the boom of the 1920s collapses into the Great Depression. The potentially baffling economic history is buoyed by Liaquat Ahamed's flair for creating a compelling narrative from intimate details, using letters exchanged by the men to show how friendships and animosities provided the personal backdrop to otherwise abstract events. Ahamed, an investment manager, brings an insider's shrewdness to the proceedings, concluding that the collapse was caused not by mysterious forces but, rather, by the intellectual failures of those at the helm.
Sign up for the Guardian Today
Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.
Sign up for the daily email


text:
Login to add this name to your list! |
The meaning of the name Adria is Person From Hadria (Northern Italy) | |
The origin of the name Adria is Greek | |
Notes: Adrià is also a Catalan male name, meaning the same as Adrian. | |
People who like the name Adria also like: Adrian, Aiden, Ethan, Liam, Asher, Gabriel, Jackson Ava, Abigail, Adriana, Amelia, Aria, Adrianna, Aurora |
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text:
Contact details
One of the finest accommodations in Cork city centre, the Gresham Metropole Hotel is just a short stroll from many excellent shops, boutiques, theatres and galleries, as well as the city's business district.
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Can we help you with anything else? Find out how to get in touch by email Facebook and more.
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text:
I really like this small skit resort. My daughter learned to ski here, the magic carpet was perfect for her. I only wish they would expand to have more runs.
The best part of Frostfire is that it is a small town ski resort. The runs are short but it is a fun place to ski. In the summer there is a theater production that is always good and what a pretty setting.
Pretty much the only place to down hill ski in my area. The surroundings are beautiful. I would recommend everyone take a trip up there if you are a beginner skier like myself
I was impressed with the quality of the Ring of Fire show and even the audience. Great location at the ski lifts with some nice old buildings that have been moved in and fixed up.
If you are in the area and need to or are itching to go out, this place is by far the nicest and most fun.
Nice little prairie ski area. This hill is not mountain skiing, but the folks here do a great job with what they have; great grooming and wonderful hospitality. The best skiing in the area!
This is a Ski Resort in North Dakota! Yes one of the flattest states has some really great skiing. It is set way up north near the boarder on the dege of the Red River Valley. Besides great skiing, they have a summer musical dinner theatre.
And they say there is no good skiing in Manitoba. Not true, this place is a great option for those who love to ski and snow board and don't have a lot of time. Location is great, facilities good and all around just a great option for beginner and advanced.
Register now for free — and start getting automatic notification of new reviews, responding to traveler feedback, adding new photos to your listing and much more.


text:
Join us for the 2014 SDFRA Holiday Party! To confirm your attendance (RSVP is mandatory this year), please click the button below. |
Join us for Mason Moore's fundraising workout at P360! Mason and his family invite you to Performance360 gym in Crown Point on Saturday, November 8, 2014 for a special event dedicated to him! Funds raised will help Mason receive treatment and training at the Conductive Education Center of Orlando. Click here to download the flyer, or make a donation in Mason's name on the FirefighterAid site. |
Check out the latest photos and video from the 2014 San Diego 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb! |


text:
The Global Intelligence Files,
files released so far...
Index pages
by Date of Document
Our Partners
Al Akhbar - Lebanon
Al Masry Al Youm - Egypt
Asia Sentinel - Hong Kong
Bivol - Bulgaria
Carta Capital - Brazil
CIPER - Chile
Dawn Media - Pakistan
L'Espresso - Italy
La Repubblica - Italy
La Jornada - Mexico
La Nacion - Costa Rica
Malaysia Today - Malaysia
McClatchy - United States
Nawaat - Tunisia
NDR/ARD - Germany
Owni - France
Pagina 12 - Argentina
Philip Dorling - Fairfax media contributor - Australia
Plaza Publica - Guatemala
Publica - Brazil
Publico.es - Spain
Rolling Stone - United States
Russian Reporter - Russia
Ta Nea - Greece
Taraf - Turkey
The Hindu - India
The Yes Men - Bhopal Activists
Sunday Star-Times - New Zealand
Community resources
courage is contagious
The Global Intelligence Files
On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
Re: FOR COMMENT: GMB bullets
Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT
Email-ID | 908972 |
Date | 2007-10-18 16:58:53 |
From | email@example.com |
To | firstname.lastname@example.com |
(updated bullet) MEXICO - A bidding war erupted over ailing Mexican
airliner Aeromexico, as three bidders vied for a 62 percent stake being
sold by the Mexican government. An investing group consisting of
Banamex, the Mexican arm of US's Citigroup, and brewer Modelo won the
air carrier Oct. 17 with a bid of nearly $250 million in the last 30
seconds of bidding. Other bidders included Mexico's Saba family and
rival Mexican air carrier Mexicana de Aviacion. Mexicana's bid, however,
was rejected by Mexico's anti-trust commission; Mexicana and Aeromexico
together comprise more than 70 percent of the Mexico's air transport
industry. Mexicana has appealed the decision and said it would pursue
every legal means to gain control of Aeromexico; it had asked that
offers not be accepted until it has exhausted its appeal. The move
toward privatization of Aeromexico comes as the airliner struggles to
compete with low cost carriers. Previous efforts to sell the airline had
failed to generate reasonable offers, but current bidders have all vowed
substantial investments to bolster the air carrier.
EU - The European Commission will launch several punitive procedures
against EU newcomer, Bulgaria, that could result in hefty fines.
Bulgaria is seen to be remiss on a number of EU regulations that were
required when it became an EU member, such as judiciary reforms,
corruption and environmental waste. Sofia has already received a warning
letter on each of the red-flags, but has delayed on any implementations.
Penalty measures are not expected to take effect until after 2007,
though many EU members consider Bulgaria's reforms are backtracking
instead of moving forward. In an extreme case, which is being
considered, Bulgaria could have its EU funding cut as a penalty. The EU
has considered fines and penalties like this for the other EU-newcomer
POLAND, RUSSIA - Poland's Internal Security Agency (ABW) informed the
government that Polands energy company PKN Orlen was facing a hostile
takeover by an un-named Russian energy firm. PKN Orlen-which is 30
percent state owned-has slowly been losing small amounts of its shares
and ABW believes Russia is buying them up. The shares only account for
around nine percent of the company currently and it is possible for the
Polish government to revoke the shares. PKN Orlen and Russian energy
firms have had a tumultuous history. In 2006 Rosneft attempted to
purchase the large Lithuanian refinery Mazeikiu Nafta, but it was
secretly sold to PKN Orlen. The following week the oil pipeline
supplying Mazeikiu Nafta mysteriously ruptured, cutting supplies for
almost a year. Warsaw accused Moscow at the time of political sabotage.
IRAN - Iran's acting oil minister, Gholam-Hoseyn Nowzari, has issued the
permit for importing gasoline temporarily. The move involves importing
14-15 million litres of gasoline per day. This move comes after Iran
halted imports for the current budgetary year saying they had enough
stocks to last them, especially in the light of the fuel rationing
policy that was imposed June 22. This revision of stated policy is
similar to the one in which the government agreed to increase amounts of
fuel rationed per month to the consumer.
TURKEY, SAUDI ARABIA, UAE - According to the World Investment Report
2007, published yearly by the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)
continued to be the major recipients of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).
Combined, the three countries accounted for nearly four-fifths of the
$60-billion inflow to the region last year. An improved business climate
and high oil prices are the main factors behind the increasing amounts
of FDI to oil and gas and related industries. Some large cross-border
mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and the privatization of financial
services made Turkey the largest recipient, with inflows doubling from
last year to $20 billion. Saudi Arabia came in second place, receiving
$18 billion, an increase of 51 percent over last year. The UAE stood at
number three; inflows there declined by 23 percent compared to last
year, to $8 billion. Efforts by Persian Gulf countries to diversify
production beyond oil-related activities succeeded in attracting greater
FDI inflows to the manufacturing sector.
CHINA - For the first time in 20 years, Chinese state-owned city and
rural banks may be forced to make deposits with the People's Bank of
China. Much like the eight hikes in the reserve requirement for
commercial lenders so far this year, the move is designed to absorb the
excess liquidity in the Chinese economy. Chinese household savings in
state bank accounts have been dropping at record rates, shrinking the
supply of low-cost credit that Beijing has traditionally tapped to fund
its state-owned enterprises. Aside from replenishing this supply,
Beijing is keen to prevent a resurgence of the country's nonperforming
loans problem, driven by households that are increasingly willing to
take out loans/mortgages in order to make a quick buck in China's
overheated stock markets. But only a drop in Chinese net exports or a
significant shift in Beijing's yuan policy will have any notable impact
on China's excess liquidity.
Araceli Santos
Strategic Forecasting, Inc.


text:
Collection Booths Mist Collectors and Fume Collectors Datasheets
from Mystaire, Inc.
Mystaire Misonix Latent Print Dusting Workstations are designed as stand alone, ductless units that protect workers from powders or fumes. The workstation's open design allows for close inspection of samples while maintaining a high level of operator protection. Particles or fumes are drawn downward... [See More]
- Collector Type: Collection Booths; Downdraft Tables
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- Unit Type: Fume/Smoke
from Scientific Dust Collectors
Scientific Dust Collectors' Supersonic Pulse Jet Bin Vent (SPJ-BV) Collector is designed specifically for storage tanks, silos, work bins, and material receivers. It employs the patented supersonic nozzle cleaning system which allows the collector to operate at higher air-to-cloth ratios, lower... [See More]
- Collector Type: Collection Booths (optional feature); Source Collector (optional feature); Stationary Unit (optional feature)
- Applications: Abrasives; Explosives; FinePowders; General Cleaning; Litter Pick-up; Non free Flowing; Metalworking Chips / Fluid; Reclaim / Recycle; Spill Recovery; Toxic Media; Welding Fumes
- Unit Type: MistCollector; Fume/Smoke
- Filter Type: Bag-type Units; Cartridge-type units
from United Air Specialists, Inc.
The MCB Series of cartridge dust collectors effectively remove fine airborne dusts while providing workers space for unrestricted movement to perform industrial processes. Available as 3 ′, 6 ′ or 9 ′ modules, the MCB cartridge collector can be used alone or in combination with a... [See More]
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- Applications: Abrasives; FinePowders; General Cleaning; Metalworking Chips / Fluid; Reclaim / Recycle; Welding Fumes
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- Filter Type: Cartridge-type units


text:
A movie
P.S. I Love You is a 2007 movie based on the book by Cecilia Ahern. In the beginning of the movie, Gerry life is taken away due to the effects of a brain tumor. As his wife Holly (Hillary Swank) sulks and clings on to every last memory of … see full wiki


text:
Two Tone Stockings
Lady Gaga Two Tone Blonde With Yellow Wig
Create or complete your pop star or rock idol costume with this officially licensed Lady Gaga Two Tone Blonde with Yellow Wig and rock the party.
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You won't need to straighten any seams when you wear these sexy black net stockings - but he'll offer to help nonetheless!
White Fishnet Adult Stockings
Jazz up any costume with these wild white fishnet tights! These sexy stockings dress up nurses, nuns, and flirty french maids alike.
Skeleton X-ray Adult Stockings
Every guy dreams of having X-Ray vision - now you can make his dreams come true with these outrageously sexy Skeleton X-Ray adult stockings. It's not so much what he sees, but what he thinks he's going to see...which is completely up to you! No bones about it, these are some funky and fun hose.
Black Fishnet Adult Stockings
Industrial Fishnet Pantyhose vamp up any outfit whether wild or conservative. This highly versatile accessory works for all kinds of outfits like Sorceress, Femme Fatale or even private school Headmistress!
Rag Doll Stripe Stockings
Whether you're a Raggedy Ann or Andy, these classic rag doll stockings ever-popular, classic stockings add an authentic rag doll touch to your costume. Just pull up these red and white striped stockings and you're ready to clown around the circus or the playground.
Girls Blue Fishnet Stockings
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For that sexy schoolgirl costume, naughty nurse costume, or whatever else comes to mind, these leg-lengthening white thigh-highs are sure to draw tons of attention. A sexy Halloween item that's also great year-round for lingerie!
Red Fishnet Adult Stockings
Fan the flames of red hot passion in these Red Fishnet Pantyhose. But careful you don't get burned in this great nylon Halloween hosiery. Feeling devilish yet? Well, put your soul into a Create a Devil Costume, sold separately.
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Slip into these Fishnet Neon Orange Stockings. These skin revealing tights are barely there so you can draw attention to your legs and still show them off by baring it all.
Wetlook Thigh High Stockings
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Green and Red Adult Fishnet Stockings
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Opaque Black Adult Plus Size Stockings
Add a dark and sexy touch to any costume with these opaque black plus size women's stockings and get wicked.


text: I have a confession to make but I'm going to do it quickly and quietly because I'm going to offend the entire South in one fell swoop. (Idon'tlikesweettea.) There. I said it. I just don't. I love tea -don't misunderstand me- but I like my tea black and bitter… like my attitude in hot weather….


text:
Playing Music for Kids
By Josh Dulaney
RIALTO – Craig Newton is a demanding artist.
"I'm going to need singing, clapping and smiling," he told his audience Tuesday.
The Simi Valley-based musician performed "Musical Bugs," an hour- long set of music for 60 kids at the Rialto Library. "Even if you don't play for a living, music is good for you," he said. "If you don't play, think about learning."
Newton was self-taught. He couldn't afford lessons, so he learned from books. He brought several instruments to play, including the recorder, the ukulele and an electric guitar.
His set was part of the library's summerlong "Catch the Reading Bug" program. Each week an entertainer serious about education uses his craft to inspire kids to read.
Newton has performed at the library numerous times, said Susan Scamara, the children's librarian.
"He's enthusiastic for music and he always shows joy for his work," Scamara said.
Some kids keep in touch long after they've watched him perform. Occasionally, he performs in classrooms whose teachers saw him play when they were younger.
"It's weird," Newton said. "You don't realize you're getting older. It's neat. It's just really fun to demonstrate an instrument."
Eight-year-old Joy Adams, who attends Trapp Elementary School, enjoyed learning where each instrument originated from.
"There was one from Africa and Hawaii," she said.
In keeping with the theme, Newton played songs like "Shoo Fly" and "There Ain't No Bugs on Me." He also played a couple songs from the Beatles.
Newton performs at 150 libraries and public schools a year.
(c) 2008 The Sun, San Bernardino, Calif.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.


text:
The Global Intelligence Files,
files released so far...
Index pages
by Date of Document
Our Partners
Al Akhbar - Lebanon
Al Masry Al Youm - Egypt
Asia Sentinel - Hong Kong
Bivol - Bulgaria
Carta Capital - Brazil
CIPER - Chile
Dawn Media - Pakistan
L'Espresso - Italy
La Repubblica - Italy
La Jornada - Mexico
La Nacion - Costa Rica
Malaysia Today - Malaysia
McClatchy - United States
Nawaat - Tunisia
NDR/ARD - Germany
Owni - France
Pagina 12 - Argentina
Philip Dorling - Fairfax media contributor - Australia
Plaza Publica - Guatemala
Publica - Brazil
Publico.es - Spain
Rolling Stone - United States
Russian Reporter - Russia
Ta Nea - Greece
Taraf - Turkey
The Hindu - India
The Yes Men - Bhopal Activists
Sunday Star-Times - New Zealand
Community resources
courage is contagious
The Global Intelligence Files
On Monday February 27th, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing The Global Intelligence Files, over five million e-mails from the Texas headquartered "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The e-mails date between July 2004 and late December 2011. They reveal the inner workings of a company that fronts as an intelligence publisher, but provides confidential intelligence services to large corporations, such as Bhopal's Dow Chemical Co., Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon and government agencies, including the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines and the US Defence Intelligence Agency. The emails show Stratfor's web of informers, pay-off structure, payment laundering techniques and psychological methods.
Re: Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb? [A few days old but an interesting read]
Released on 2013-02-13 00:00 GMT
Email-ID | 996484 |
Date | 2009-08-19 15:59:55 |
From | email@example.com |
To | firstname.lastname@example.com |
List-Name | firstname.lastname@example.com |
Shoot me now
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kamran Bokhari" <email@example.com>
To: "Analyst List" <firstname.lastname@example.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:52:46 AM GMT -05:00 Colombia
Subject: Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb? [A few days
old but an interesting read]
August 16, 2009
Can Game Theory Predict When Iran Will Get the Bomb?
By CLIVE THOMPSON
Is Iran going to build a bomb?
Many people wonder, but Bruce Bueno de Mesquita claims to have the answer.
Bueno de Mesquita is one of the worlda**s most prominent applied game
theorists. A professor at New York University and a senior fellow at the
Hoover Institution at Stanford, he is well known academically for his work
on a**political survival,a** or how leaders build coalitions to stay in
power. But among national-security types and corporate decision makers, he
is even better known for his prognostications. For 29 years, Bueno de
Mesquita has been developing and honing a computer model that predicts the
outcome of any situation in which parties can be described as trying to
persuade or coerce one another. Since the early 1980s, C.I.A. officials
have hired him to perform more than a thousand predictions; a study by the
C.I.A., now declassified, found that Bueno de Mesquitaa**s predictions
a**hit the bulla**s-eyea** twice as often as its own analysts did.
Last year, Bueno de Mesquita decided to forecast whether Iran would build
a nuclear bomb. With the help of his undergraduate class at N.Y.U., he
researched the primary power brokers inside and outside the country a**
anyone with a stake in Irana**s nuclear future. Once he had the
information he needed, he fed it into his computer model and had an answer
in a few minutes.
In June, I visited Bueno de Mesquita at his San Francisco home to see the
results. A tall man with a slab of gray hair, Bueno de Mesquita, who is
62, welcomed me with painstakingly prepared cups of espresso. Then he
pulled out his beat-up I.B.M. laptop a** so old that the lettering on the
A, S, D and E keys was worn off a** and showed me a spreadsheet that
summarized Irana**s future.
The spreadsheet included almost 90 players. Some were people, like the
Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei;
others were groups, like the U.N. Security Council and Irana**s
a**religious radicals.a** Next to each player, a number represented one
variable in Bueno de Mesquitaa**s model: the extent to which a player
wanted Iran to have the ability to make nuclear weapons. The scale went
from 0 to 200, with 0 being a**no nuclear capacity at alla** and 200
representing a test of a nuclear missile.
At the beginning of the simulation, the positions were what you would
expect. The United States and Israel and most of Europe wanted Iran to
have virtually no nuclear capacity, so their preferred outcomes were close
to zero. In contrast, the Iranian hard-liners were aggressive. a**This is
not only a**Build a bomb,a** a** Bueno de Mesquita said, characterizing
their position. a**Ita**s probably: a**We should test a bomb.a** a**
But as the computer model ran forward in time, through 2009 and into 2010,
positions shifted. American and Israeli national-security players
grudgingly accepted that they could tolerate Iran having some civilian
nuclear-energy capacity. Ahmadinejad, Khamenei and the religious radicals
wavered; then, as the model reached our present day, their power a**
another variable in Bueno de Mesquitaa**s model a** sagged significantly.
Amid the thousands of rows on the spreadsheet, therea**s one called
Forecast. It consists of a single number that represents the most likely
consensus of all the players. It begins at 160 a** bomb-making territory
a** but by next year settles at 118, where it doesna**t move much.
a**Thata**s the outcome,a** Bueno de Mesquita said confidently, tapping
the screen.
What does 118 mean? It means that Iran wona**t make a nuclear bomb. By
early 2010, according to the forecast, Iran will be at the brink of
developing one, but then it will stop and go no further. If this computer
model is right, all the dire portents wea**ve seen in recent months a**
the brutal crackdown on protesters, the dubious confessions, Khameneia**s
accusations of American subterfuge a** are masking a tectonic shift. The
moderates are winning, even if we cannot see that yet.
Could this possibly be what will happen? Certainly Bueno de Mesquita has
his critics, who argue that the proprietary software he uses cana**t be
trusted and may cast doubt on the larger enterprise of making predictions.
But he has published a large number of startlingly precise predictions
that turned out to be accurate, many of them in peer-reviewed academic
journals. For example, five years before Ayatollah Khomeini died in 1989,
Bueno de Mesquita predicted in the journal PS that Khomeini would be
succeeded by Ali Khamenei (which he was), who himself would be succeeded
by a then-less-well-known cleric named Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (which he
may well be). Last year, he forecast when President Pervez Musharraf of
Pakistan would be forced out of office and was accurate to within a month.
In a**The Predictioneera**s Game,a** a book coming out next month that was
written for a popular audience, Bueno de Mesquita offers dozens more
stories of his forecasts. And as for Irana**s bomb?
In a year, he said with a wide grin, wea**ll know if hea**s right.
a**Ia**m not an Iran expert,a** Bueno de Mesquita told me cheerfully as we
walked down his tree-lined street on our way to grab some Burmese food.
Indeed, his career has been built on a peculiar concept: If you want to
predict political events, wisdom and expertise, deep knowledge of a
countrya**s culture and history, arena**t enough. To forecast the future,
you need to be an expert not in statecraft but in the way individual
people make decisions. You need a**rational actora** game theory.
Bueno de Mesquita began studying political science in the 1960s. While
working on his dissertation at the University of Michigan on parliamentary
politics in India, a professor assigned him William H. Rikera**s book
a**The Theory of Political Coalitions,a** one of the first works to apply
game theory to politics. Game theory is a branch of mathematics that
studies the way people will behave in strategic situations a** that is to
say, when theya**re making decisions based on how they think other people
will make decisions. Generally, game theory assumes that people are always
rational and selfish; theya**re always angling to get whata**s best for
them, which means their behavior can often be predicted. One famous
application of rational-choice theory that particularly intrigued Bueno de
Mesquita was Duncan Blacka**s analysis of a**committee voting,a** which
argues that if two rival candidates are trying to get elected on a single
issue a** say, taxes a** theya**ll inevitably shift their positions toward
the median voter.
Bueno de Mesquita was enthralled by the idea of rendering the messy
business of politics and history into precise, logical equations. He began
his signature academic work on a**the selectorate,a** or the group of
actors who run a country. In Bueno de Mesquitaa**s worldview, there is no
such thing as a a**national interesta** (or a**statea**). There are just
leaders trying desperately to stay in power by building coalitions within
their selectorate a** buying off cronies in the case of a dictatorship,
for example, or producing enough good works to keep hoi polloi happy in a
When Bueno de Mesquita spotted a logical error in one of Rikera**s books,
he wrote the author a letter; Riker offered Bueno de Mesquita a job in
1972 at the University of Rochester, where a new generation of political
scientists was starting to apply formal mathematical models to political
Thata**s where Bueno de Mesquita began programming his computer model. It
is based loosely on Blacka**s voter theory, and it works like this: To
predict how leaders will behave in a conflict, Bueno de Mesquita starts
with a specific prediction he wants to make, then interviews four or five
experts who know the situation well. He identifies the stakeholders who
will exert pressure on the outcome (typically 20 or 30 players) and gets
the experts to assign values to the stakeholders in four categories: What
outcome do the players want? How hard will they work to get it? How much
clout can they exert on others? How firm is their resolve? Each value is
expressed as a number on its own arbitrary scale, like 0 to 200.
(Sometimes Bueno de Mesquita skips the experts, simply reads newspaper and
journal articles and generates his own list of players and numbers.) For
example, in the case of Irana**s bomb, Bueno de Mesquita set
Ahmadinejada**s preferred outcome at 180 and, on a scale of 0 to 100, his
desire to get it at 90, his power at 5 and his resolve at 90.
Then the math begins, some of which is surprisingly simple. If you merely
sort the players according to how badly they want a bomb and how much
support they have among others, you will end up with a reasonably good
prediction. But the other variables enable the computer model to perform
much more complicated assessments. In essence, it looks for possible
groupings of players who would be willing to shift their positions toward
one another if they thought that doing so would be to their advantage. The
model begins by working out the average position of all the players a**
the a**middle grounda** that exerts a gravitational force on the whole
negotiation. Then it compares each player with every other player,
estimating whether one will be able to persuade or coerce the others to
move toward its position, based on the power, resolve and positioning of
everyone else. (Power isna**t everything. If the most powerful player is
on the fringe of an issue, and a cluster of less-powerful players are
closer to the middle, they might exert greater influence.) After
estimating how much or how little each player might budge, the software
recalculates the middle ground, which shifts as the players move. A
a**rounda** is over; the software repeats the process, round after round.
The game ends when players no longer move very much from round to round
a** this indicates they have compromised as much as they ever will. At
that point, assuming no player with veto power had refused to compromise,
the final average middle-ground position of all the players is the result
a** the official prediction of how the issue will resolve itself. (Bueno
de Mesquita does not express his forecasts in probabilistic terms; he says
an event will transpire or it wona**t.)
The computer model, in short, predicts coalitions. And computers are much
better at doing this than humans, because with more than a few players the
number of possible coalitions quickly multiplies. With 40 players, the
typical size of one of Bueno de Mesquitaa**s forecasts, there are 1,560
possible pairs to consider just for starters. This is why, he says, his
model often produces surprising results. Ita**s not that it is smarter
than humans. But it methodically works through not only the obvious
coalitions we know about and expect but also the invisible ones that we
For Bueno de Mesquita, the first prominent use of the model came in 1979,
when the State Department was canvassing academics with expertise on
India, including Bueno de Mesquita, to see how some parliamentary
maneuverings would unfold. Bueno de Mesquita decided to use his first
version of the software (which was, as he puts it, a**barely workinga**)
and his own knowledge of India to determine the power players and each of
their numbers. Then the universitya**s mainframe computer worked on the
data all night.
In the morning, Bueno de Mesquita said, he was astonished: the predicted
victor was a seemingly minor figure, someone discounted by the experts.
Bueno de Mesquita shared their opinion, he told me, but he accepted the
computera**s verdict anyway. a**So I called the person back at the State
Department, and told him what I had concluded,a** Bueno de Mesquita went
on. a**And there was a long, quiet period and some laughing. He said:
a**How did you arrive at that? Nobodya**s saying that.a** So I told him I
had a little computer model. He just guffawed. He said, a**I wouldna**t
repeat that if I were you.a** a**
Three months later, according to Bueno de Mesquita, his prediction turned
out to be right.
The son of Jewish immigrants who arrived from Brussels during World War
II, Bueno de Mesquita grew up in Manhattan, where his father ran a small
publishing company and his mother managed a womena**s clothing shop. He
went to Queens College when he was 16 a** a**way too young,a** he says a**
and read history and literature voraciously. (Bueno de Mesquita spent
years researching and writing a short novel that defends Ebenezer Scrooge
as a kindhearted man.) a**He is one the most remarkably intelligent human
beings Ia**ve met in my life, and Bruce does not hesitate to tell you
that,a** Kevin Gaynor, an environmental lawyer who has twice hired Bueno
de Mesquita to advise his corporate clients on a**extremely sensitivea**
government negotiations, told me half-jokingly. a**Hea**s not
self-effacing. But hea**s not self-effacing in a charming way.a** Bueno de
Mesquitaa**s voluminous academic work a** he has published 16 books and
more than 100 papers a** is credited with helping to move game theory and
mathematical modeling into the mainstream of political science; according
to one count, by 1999 fully 40 percent of papers in the American Political
Science Review used modeling. (The figure was so high it prompted deep
consternation among non-game-theory political scientists.) While few
perform the consulting work he does, other game theorists have produced
models very similar to Bueno de Mesquitaa**s, and he actively promotes his
technique, including training N.Y.U. undergraduates to do similar
predictions.) He spends half the year at N.Y.U., where he recently
finished a four-year stint as the chairman of the political-science
department, and half the year at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. Under
the terms of his academic contracts, he is permitted to spend one day per
week during the academic year doing outside consulting.
It is this consulting, more than his academic work, that has made Bueno de
Mesquita both well off and controversial. He began offering predictions to
the private sector in 1982, when A.F.K. Organski, a former professor of
his, suggested they go into business using Bueno de Mesquitaa**s model.
Business negotiations, they reasoned, were like international relations in
that they involved players trying to wheedle and coerce one another. Soon
Bueno de Mesquita and Organski (who died in 1998) acquired clients ranging
from Arthur Andersen to Union Carbide, which tapped them for advice on
placating the Indian government after the Bhopal chemical spill. Today
Bueno de Mesquitaa**s firm essentially consists of himself and Harry
Roundell, a former banker at J. P. Morgan who met Bueno de Mesquita when
Roundell hired him in 1995 to help the bank figure out how to push for
new, favorable regulations in the U.S. They charge $50,000 and up to do a
prediction and offer negotiating tips, and they take on 18 to 20 of these
assignments a year. Beyond saying it was a**a reasonable amount of
money,a** Bueno de Mesquita would not describe his income from the
To produce a corporate prediction, Roundell and Bueno de Mesquita
determine the numerical values of the players in a negotiation by
interviewing a firma**s executives. This can take anywhere from a few
hours on the phone to two days of face-to-face conversations. Both men
conduct the interviews, and Bueno de Mesquita enters the information into
a spreadsheet.
The real value of Bueno de Mesquitaa**s work, several clients told me, is
not only in his predicting how a corporate event might unfold. It is also
in figuring out how to influence that event. Because Bueno de Mesquitaa**s
model forecasts the future by calculating the impact every player has on
every other player, round by round, Bueno de Mesquita can go back and see
when some players suddenly become more flexible midway through a
negotiation. He can thus perform a**what ifa** experiments: What if that
person could be persuaded to change his mind? Hea**ll enter new values
into the model, manually changing that playera**s position, then run it
again to see if this change recasts the future to his clienta**s
advantage. If it does, Bueno de Mesquita now has a piece of advice: focus
on that player in real life, and try to influence him. If there are dozens
of players and dozens of rounds, the number of possible a**what ifa**
scenarios becomes enormous: it can take Bueno de Mesquita days of peering
at his spreadsheets to identify useful pressure points.
One of Bueno de Mesquitaa**s most prominent public consultations occurred
in 1999, when Richard Lapthorne, then the vice chairman of British
Aerospace, asked him to help engineer a $10 billion acquisition. The
British government wanted British Aerospace to form a pan-European firm by
merging with the German firm DASA and the French giant AA(c)rospatiale;
British Aerospace, however, was more interested in trying to buy the
British electronics giant Marconi Electronic Systems. To persuade the
British government to approve the Marconi deal, Lapthorne asked Bueno de
Mesquita to predict the viability of mergers between the German and French
firms. The model forecast that the three firms would never be able to
agree on terms, and that the Marconi deal was the better option; when
Bueno de Mesquita showed his analysis to the government heads, they agreed
to permit the Marconi acquisition. a**Therea**s nothing shimmy shammy or
flip-flop about it,a** Lapthorne says of the logical nature of Bueno de
Mesquitaa**s prediction. a**Ita**s very clear where the information came
from. It has intellectual rigor.a** Lapthorne is now chairman of the U.K.
telecommunications company Cable and Wireless; he has used Bueno de
Mesquita for seven predictions since, though he would not disclose the
It is difficult to verify how accurately Bueno de Mesquitaa**s model
performs in corporate settings because most firms are loath to discuss his
work for them. For most of the cases we discussed, Bueno de Mesquita would
disclose details of the negotiation but wouldna**t name the firms in
question. In other cases, clients would talk to me and praise Bueno de
Mesquitaa**s work for them, but they would not disclose verifiable details
of specific negotiations. There were a few exceptions: Robert F. Kelley, a
retired former partner of Arthur Andersen, described using Bueno de
Mesquita for a**60 or 70a** cases, ranging from internal firing decisions
to figuring out how to persuade the U.S. to support Chinaa**s entry into
the World Trade Organization. (Bueno de Mesquita also offered to use his
software to predict which of Arthur Andersena**s clients a** including, at
the time, Enron a** were likely to engage in financial fraud. But the
firma**s lawyers, Bueno de Mesquita says, didna**t want to use the tool
for fear it would put them in awkward legal positions. a**Had I been able
to convince the firma** to use the model, Kelley says, a**I think that
Andersen would be alive today.a**)
Bueno de Mesquitaa**s most regular client by far has been the C.I.A. He
says he has performed more than 1,200 predictions for the agency, tackling
questions like a**How fully will France participate in the Strategic
Defense Initiative?a** and a**What policy will Beijing adopt toward
Taiwana**s role in the Asian Development Bank?a** In 1987, Stanley Feder,
a research political scientist for the C.I.A., published a report
analyzing forecasts that Bueno de Mesquitaa**s firm did of political
events in 27 countries; he found that the success rate of its predictions
was the same as that of the C.I.A.a**s own analysts, only more precise.
(He a**got the bulla**s-eye twice as often,a** Feder wrote in his report,
which was declassified in 1993. No other reports have been declassified
since.) Feder noted, for example, that Bueno de Mesquitaa**s model
predicted in a forecast done of Italya**s budget one year a specific
figure that turned out to be off by only 1 percent; the C.I.A. method
would predict just a deficit.
Those who have watched Bueno de Mesquita in action call him an extremely
astute observer of people. He needs to be: when conducting his
fact-gathering interviews, he must detect when the experts know what
theya**re talking about and when they dona**t. The computera**s advantage
over humans is its ability to spy unseen coalitions, but this works only
when the relative positions of each player are described accurately in the
first place. a**Garbage in, garbage out,a** Bueno de Mesquita notes. Bueno
de Mesquita begins each interview by sitting quietly a** a**in a slightly
closed-up manner,a** as Lapthorne told me a** but as soon as an
interviewee expresses doubt or contradicts himself, Bueno de Mesquita
instantly asks for clarification.
a**His ability to pick up on body language, to pick up on vocal
intonation, to remember what people said and challenge them in
nonthreatening ways a** hea**s a master at it,a** says Rose McDermott, a
political-science professor at Brown who has watched Bueno de Mesquita
conduct interviews. She says she thinks his emotional intelligence, along
with his ability to listen, is his true gift, not his mathematical smarts.
a**The thing is, he doesna**t think thata**s his gift,a** McDermott says.
a**He thinks ita**s the model. I think the model is, Ia**m sure,
brilliant. But lots of other people are good at math. His gift is in
interviewing. Ia**ve said that flat out to him, and hea**s said, a**Well,
anyone can do interviews.a** But they cana**t.a**
You might expect Bueno de Mesquita to be the toast of both Washington and
Wall Street, constantly in demand for prognostications. Yet he and
Roundell have found that it is not so easy to attract clients. This is
partly because most of their clients a** especially the C.I.A. a** swear
them to secrecy. (And perhaps also because, as Roundell says, a**Bruce and
I are . . . terrible salespeople.a**) But they have also faced a barrier
thata**s almost existential, a skepticism that computer models can truly
predict the outcome of negotiations. The C.I.A., for example, built its
own replica of Bueno de Mesquitaa**s original forecast model, but as Feder
noted in his report, a**the vast majority of analystsa** didna**t use it
because it seemed too rigid. They thought of analysis as reading and
pondering until they had an aha! moment a** not feeding data points into a
computer model and waiting to see what comes up.
When we spoke, Bueno de Mesquita often seemed irritated by resistance to
his work. For all his gifts of intuition, he has a Spocklike disdain for
gut instinct. When he occasionally hires colleagues to help him with a
complex bit of corporate work, he sternly warns them that they must
refrain from expressing any personal opinions and describe only what they
see in the spreadsheets. Bueno de Mesquita habitually and hissingly
disparages traditional political analysis. He is savvy enough to know that
nobody likes a scold, yet he cana**t help himself; he sheepishly admits to
becoming a**confrontationala** when people think mathematical reasoning
cana**t be used. At the C.I.A., Feder told me, a**there were some people
who found him arrogant, which was maybe a reasonable reaction.a**
Donald Green, a political scientist at Yale, questions whether Bueno de
Mesquita is serving the discipline well. a**When I see clips of Bruce at
the TED conference,a** he says, referring to the annual conference
promoting ideas in technology, entertainment and design, a**I watch the
video and I think, Wow, this is so far from the typical way in which
political scientists of any stripe behave.a** Some political scientists
are openly dubious about the accuracy of Bueno de Mesquitaa**s model.
Stephen Walt, a Harvard professor of international affairs, says that
Bueno de Mesquitaa**s nonprediction work a** like his theory of the
a**political survivala** of heads of state a** make him a a**respected
scholar, deservedly so.a** Ita**s the predictions that Walt doesna**t
trust, because Bueno de Mesquita does not publish the actual computer code
of his model. (Bueno de Mesquita cannot do so because his former firm owns
the actual code, but he counters that he has outlined the math behind his
model in enough academic papers and books for anyone to replicate
something close to his work.) While Bueno de Mesquita has published many
predictions in academic journals, the vast majority of his forecasts have
been done in secret for corporate or government clients, where no
independent academics can verify them. a**We have no idea if hea**s right
9 times out of 10, or 9 times out of a hundred, or 9 times out of a
thousand,a** Walt says. Walt also isna**t impressed by Stanley Federa**s
C.I.A. study showing Bueno de Mesquitaa**s 90 percent hit rate. a**Ita**s
one midlevel C.I.A. bureaucrat saying, a**This was a useful tool,a** a**
Walt says. a**Ita**s not like hea**s got Brent Scowcroft saying, a**Back
in the Bush administration, we didna**t make a decision without consulting
Bueno de Mesquita.a** a** Other academics point out that rational-actor
theory has come under increasing criticism in recent years, as more
evidence accumulates that people make many decisions irrationally.
And ita**s true that there have been cases when Bueno de Mesquitaa**s
model has gone awry. In his 1996 book, a**Red Flag Over Hong Kong,a** he
predicted that the press in Hong Kong a**will become largely a tool of the
statea** a** a highly debatable claim today. (In 2006, Reporters Without
Borders noted concerns about self-censorship but said that a**journalists
remain free in Hong Kong.a**) In early 1993, a corporate client asked him
to forecast whether the Clinton administrationa**s health care plan would
pass, and he said it would.
Whata**s more, with corporate clients in particular, therea**s always the
potential problem of reflexivity, of the prediction itself influencing
events and making it hard to evaluate the predictiona**s value. Suppose a
firm is told a merger will fail, for example, and abandons its merger
efforts. Was the prediction accurate or a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Spending time with Bueno de Mesquita is alternately alarming and
reassuring, because he has such confidence in his own predictions about
our global fate. Like many, he believes the future of Pakistan is
a**incredibly distressinga** right now, but he has reached this conclusion
in his own way: when he and his students modeled its future last year, the
power of Al Qaeda and the Taliban in that region grew quickly throughout
2009, far outstripping that of the government and military. Global warming
is another area where politics are doomed to fail. World governments are
set to meet this December in Copenhagen to commit to firm CO2-reduction
levels a** but when Bueno de Mesquita modeled the future of these targets,
most countries renege on them. No democratic government will seriously
limit CO2 if it will hurt its citizens economically.
a**When people are asked to make personal sacrifices for the greater good
in the longer term, they seem to find 1,001 reasons why their particular
behavior is so virtuous that this one particular deviation is really
O.K.,a** Bueno de Mesquita told me recently as we talked in his home
office. a** a**I have to drive an S.U.V. because I want to protect my
little children from a car accident!a** a**
Yet Bueno de Mesquita remains cheerful, almost unnervingly so. Years of
peering at his model have shown him that conflicts almost always have
hidden solutions a** places where the computer illuminates the sort of
leverage that could be employed to create a sudden, useful
countercoalition. For example, with Pakistan, his model showed that if the
U.S. merely doubled its annual aid from $700 million to $1.5 billion,
Americaa**s influence in the country would significantly jump, while the
militantsa** would drop drastically. Why? Because with that sort of
financial flow, corrupt rural officials would suddenly profit more from
helping the U.S. than from helping the Taliban.
In the short term, though, Bueno de Mesquitaa**s reputation will be
colored by Iran. The last time we met, it was two weeks after the Iranian
election, and the opposition protests had been quashed. The hard-liners, I
noted, seemed to be winning a** did this mean that the prediction was
wrong? a**The street movement is running out of steam,a** Bueno de
Mesquita agreed. a**Shooting people does act as an effective deterrent.a**
But he still maintained that his model was likely to prevail, and that
domestic coalitions we might not detect from abroad are gathering to
overwhelm the religious conservatives.
He spent that morning looking over his Iranian data, and he generated a
new chart predicting how the dissidentsa** power would grow over the next
few months. In terms of power, one category a** students a** would surpass
Ahmadinejad during the summer, and by September or October their clout
would rival that of Khamenei, the supreme leader. a**And thata**s huge!a**
Bueno de Mesquita said excitedly. a**If thata**s right, ita**s huge!a** He
said he believed that Irana**s domestic politics would remain quiet over
the summer, then he thought theya**d a**really perk up againa** by the
Bueno de Mesquita also approved of Obamaa**s hands-off approach. Bueno de
Mesquita ran an experimental version of his Iranian model without the U.S.
in it as a player at all, and the coalitions that oppose Ahmadinejad and
the bomb emerge a few months more quickly. In other words, American
meddling is indeed counterproductive; the less America tries to influence
Iran, the more quickly Iran will abandon nuclear weapons, if the logic of
the computer is correct.
Ita**s a fascinating analysis, but, I wonder, has he given it to anyone in
the State Department? He laughed. a**Ia**m working on access.a**
Clive Thompson, a contributing writer for the magazine, writes frequently
about technology.


text:
Feb. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Hungary sold 55 billion forint, 10 billion forint more than planned, in three-month Treasury bills at an auction today as financing costs fell.
The average yield was 7.32 percent, compared with 7.41 percent at the last auction of that maturity on Jan. 31. Investors bid for 148 billion forint in debt, from 137 billion forint a week ago.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andras Gergely in Budapest at email@example.com
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edith Balazs at firstname.lastname@example.com


text:
Ronix Krush Women's Wakeboard 2014 (Black/Shocking Pink)
The Ronix Krush Women's Wakeboard 2014 is the latest shape designed to help you master edging into the wake. The Krush has quickly climbed the ranks of the Women's wakeboarding scene by delivering one of the easiest shapes to ride and progress on. Learn More
Ronix Krush Wakeboard + Luxe Bindings Package 2014
The Ronix Krush + Luxe Women's Wakeboard Package is great for all different levels of riders. The unique shape of the Krush helps you master your edging and the comfort and style of the Luxe boots is second to none. Learn More


text:
Event Name
- OR - Select an option belowThe Municipal Building at 311 Main Street in Flagler, Colorado, is truly a sum of all its parts. It is a stately structure, housing the town government offices and the public library. But its history as a hotel and then hospital appeals to tourists, who visit all year 'round.


text:
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any member of a class of organic molecules with positive charges localized at a carbon atom. Certain carbonium ions can be prepared in such a way that they are stable enough for study; more frequently they are only short-lived forms (intermediates) occurring during chemical reactions.


text:
Eagles & Agriculture Set for 2015
Schedule Announced and Reservations Open for Year 13 of Event
Eagles & Agriculture, the Carson Valley's celebration of wildlife and ranching, has set its schedule for its thirteenth year of exploring the interaction between eagles and other raptors and the ranches of Carson Valley. Headquartered at the Carson Valley Inn and set for February 19-22, 2015, this year's lineup includes one new offering along with long time favorites.
Thursday night, the Opening Reception at Holiday Inn Express brings together some of the area's most accomplished wildlife photographers for an exhibit and the kestrel and snowy owl will return as well.
On Friday, the tours begin with the Wetlands Tour in the morning and the Raptor Highway & Byway Tour in the afternoon. On Friday night, the Falconers' dinner returns to Carson Valley Inn for your chance to view gyrfalcons, harris hawks and other raptors up close and to meet their handlers. A four course dinner is served and we continue to work on the speaker lineup.
Saturday morning, the heart of the weekend, the Ranch & Eagle Tour & Luncheon takes you to a number of ranches for a behind the gates tour and raptor and eagle viewing. That afternoon, the ever popular Owl Prowl and the 'Ins and Outs of Agriculture - the HIstoric Stodieck Ranch' tour give you a chance to explore further. On Saturday evening, the classroom session of the Photo Workshop, taught by Craig Moore of Gordon's is held at Holiday Inn Express.
On Sunday morning, for the first time ever, we are offering the Ranch & Eagle Tour & Luncheon program for a second time. Sunday morning is also when the field exercise of the Photo Workshop, led by John Humphrey, puts the classroom knowledge into action. Sunday afternoon the final tour is of the Comstock Seed Co, a historic ranch converted to a new business model.
Click below to download tour details and descriptions and then click here to make your reservations online. We strongly suggest you have a print out of the schedule and your choices in front of you before making the reservations online. Reservations are not confirmed until fully paid.


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Conspicuously absent in games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero III, weaponized musical instruments are going to take "Battle of the Bands" to a whole new level later this year if THQ and Planet Moon Studios get their way. Officially announced for the Wii today, Band Mashups is a competitive rhythm game that will see fictional bands going head-to-head in musical battles played out with sniper violins, flamethrower guitars, trombone missile launchers, and other instruments of mass destruction. We had an opportunity to spend some time with a work-in-progress version of Band Mashups recently, and we're pleased to report that it's looking very promising.
Band Mashups' story-driven single-player campaign is set in the fictional city of New Cadenza, where disputes are settled with band battles and everyone looks like a character from an animated Tim Burton movie. The city is ruled by an evil guy known simply as Mr. Hong, who sees off anyone daring to challenge his authority with the aid of his powerful Violent Orchestra. You can choose to play as any of 11 bands determined to put a stop to Hong's reign of terror, and each purportedly has a different storyline. Each of the playable bands has a unique appearance and unique weapons at its disposal, but falls into one of five genres that determines which version of a song they actually play during battles. The genres are rock, marching band, Latin, country, and funk/hip-hop.
Playing a song in Band Mashups works in much the same way as it does in the aforementioned music games, but in the absence of a plastic guitar you'll be hitting notes by making gestures with the Wii Remote. There are five different types of notes to hit as they travel up toward the middle of the screen, and the gestures to play them include moving left, moving right, moving up, thrusting, and shaking. Assuming that the two battling bands are representing different genres of music, the version you'll hear is always the one being played by whichever band is currently winning, and it's not uncommon for that to change quite frequently once the weapons start coming into play. Before we talk about the weapons, though, here's a list of 15 of the 30 songs that will be appearing in the game to give you some idea of the eclectic selection. None of these songs are performed by the original artists, but all have been recorded in the styles of all five genres, with language translation where necessary. That's a total of 150 playable recordings for those of you keeping score.
"Adios Mexico" - Texas Tornados
"Blitzkrieg Bop" - The Ramones
"Brick House" - The Commodores
"Dum Diddly" - Black Eyed Peas
"Master Exploder" - Tenacious D
"Feel Good Inc." - Gorillaz
"Insane in the Brain" - Cypress Hill
"Jungle Boogie" - Kool & The Gang
"That's The Way (I Like It)" - KC & The Sunshine Band
"Mama Said Knock You Out" - LL Cool J
"One Thing Leads to Another" - The Fixx
"Photograph" - Def Leppard
"Man of Constant Sorrow" - The Soggy Bottom Boys
"Spoonman" - Soundgarden
"Whoomp! (There It Is)" - Tag Team
At the start of each battle, you'll get to equip your band with three weapons chosen from a selection that's determined by your band of choice, as well as by how far into the game you are and what extras you've unlocked. You get a light weapon, a heavy weapon, and a special weapon, and while playing through a song you'll hit the A button to switch between them. After selecting a weapon, you'll need to hit a certain number of notes in sequence to fire it. You'll need to hit just three consecutive notes to pull the trigger of a gun with the firepower of a peashooter, but you'll need as many as 20 to activate some of the stuff in Band Mashups' endgame arsenal. It's worth noting that most of the weapons have a cooldown timer as well, so you can't just settle on a favorite and spam it over and over again.
Light weapons and heavy weapons hit the opposing band where it hurts and score you points in the process. Incoming attacks can be blocked with a well-timed press of the B button, but that's not always an easy thing to do when you're waving the Wii Remote around in time to music. On the other hand, special attacks are designed to hamper your opponent's ability to play by messing with his or her controls or the area of the screen where his or her notes appear. Special weapons we put to good use (or were victims of) during our session had effects such as obscuring note tracks with smoke, reversing the left/right controls, setting the onscreen cursor on fire so it can only be put out by shaking the Remote, and charging the sides of the note track with electricity so that any overly energetic left/right gestures are punished with a shock as the cursor hits them. There are plenty more, and we can tell you that a favorite during our session was one that simply made the opponent's notes come at them much faster.
Regardless of whether you're playing the single-player story mode or a two-player versus match, Band Mashups offers three difficulty levels that appear to cater to genre newcomers and experienced guitar heroes alike. In versus mode, each player can choose a different difficulty level. As we learned while playing against a Planet Moon representative who was on a harder difficulty level than us, it's an adequate handicapping system that will let players of varying abilities enjoy some closely contested battles.
Band Mashups is currently scheduled for release in April. We'll bring you more information on the game as soon as it becomes available.