text:
No time to sip Mo's with hostess, never mind what the total gross is
from Rakim – 18th Letter Lyrics on Genius
He couldn't care less about how many CD's he's sold and whether or not he went platinum.
He is also not distracted by the women that fame brings.
To help improve the quality of the lyrics, visit Rakim – 18th Letter Lyrics and leave a suggestion at the bottom of the page


text:
What's better: Caribbean cruise or resort?
Each has its joys, but for pure relaxation and value, all-inclusive resorts are hard to beat.
In fact, so spectacular are these new ships that they essentially are destinations unto themselves, boasts Andy Stuart, executive vice president of Norwegian Cruise Line.
But those big, brassy high-rise resorts at sea - many taller than the Statue of Liberty, some too fat to fit through the Panama Canal, and others so long they dwarf a football stadium - come with novelties, such as a New-York-styled Central Park and a Coney Island-like Boardwalk, and they arrive with heftier fares.
Except for a passel of luxury vessels, the once all-inclusive-cruise concept is mostly as extinct as the dodo. In its place, cruise lines have installed a la carte cruising, in which your fare is just the starting point. Add gratuities, wines and spirits, spa treatments, photos, specialty coffees and pastries, shore excursions, the fine dining at a plethora of signature restaurants - all with a fee - plus irresistible onboard doodads, and the cost of your cruise easily could double, if not triple.
In fact, a goodly number of Oasis' 24 distinct dining experiences carry a cover charge or a la carte pricing. And, should you hanker for room service in the wee hours, expect to pay for it. Choose a premium steak in the main dining room, and you'll pay extra, too. On Oasis, you'll even have to pay for cupcakes.
With this in mind, we wondered whether a land resort might not get us more bang for our buck and serve as an alternative to a Caribbean cruise.
Of course, comparing a land resort to a seagoing Caribbean vacation is, in some ways, like comparing pineapples and coconuts. Most land resorts don't have casinos on their properties or entertain you with million-dollar Broadway-style shows and Vegas-like revues, as Royal Caribbean will with Hairspray or Norwegian with Blue Man Group. Nor is sampling the Mediterranean by ocean liner comparable to a week's stay in France or Italy or, for that matter, any European country.
To test our thesis, though, we booked five days at Sandals' all-inclusive Grande St. Lucian Spa & Resort, one of three Sandals properties on St. Lucia, each located on a gorgeous white-sand beach. Though we stayed at one resort, all the activities and amenities at the other two - including 17 restaurants (most open to the sea breezes), 11 freshwater pools, a championship nine-hole golf course, basketball and tennis courts, catamarans, sunfish sailboats, aquatrikes, glass-bottom boat rides, snorkeling, scuba diving, windsurfing, kayaking, and 22 bars serving unlimited premium brands and champagne - are available, at no extra charge.
Dine where you want, when you want, with anyone you want, and pay nothing extra. Zip. All wines, spirits and soft drinks are complimentary. So are all sports activities. So are all the pastries, crepes, and specialty coffees and lattes. So is the sushi.
Not having to reach into our wallets each time we were tempted by a special treat or captivated by an enticing menu at a restaurant on stilts above the bay, or chose to sip margaritas under a dazzlingly scarlet evening sky, was a relief from the nickel-and-dime environment so common on cruise ships.
Those weren't the only reasons we got hooked on Sandals. Silence and solitude stood high on our list.
Instead of a crush of people on a ship's pool deck or crowds on the sports decks during a day at sea, we found ourselves floating in a calm pool just steps from the beach and with only a handful of other couples for company. And, at week's end, we didn't jostle down a gangway with 3,500 other passengers.
A sprinkling of thatched-roof cabanas, hammocks, and lounge chairs by the sea also awaited whenever the spirit moved us.
No one pressed drinks on us. There was no constant blaring of a PA system announcing an art auction or a seminar on precious gems or gold sold onboard for $1 an inch or pitches for shore excursions. At turndown on Sandals, our bed was more likely to be strewn with tropical flower petals than with the sheaf of promotional fliers ubiquitous in cruise cabins.
We also were not captives at Sandals. We could shuttle freely among the three resort properties in complimentary vans. Land and sea excursions readily could be arranged for a fee. However, these weren't hawked. No staffers had their hand out. All gratuities were included, but it didn't dampen staff enthusiasm or desire to deliver prompt, smiling service.
Just as important, our vacation at Sandals didn't break the bank. The least expensive accommodations (about the size of a minisuite on most larger ships) offer either ocean, poolside or garden views and ran about $350 a night per couple at the time we visited in midsummer. On Oasis of the Seas, a comparable minisuite category would cost about the same per couple per night, excluding port charges and taxes, and would not be all-inclusive.
So was it thumbs up for a land vacation vs. a cruise?
Decidedly yes. This time, we did what we always wanted to do on a Caribbean vacation: nothing but enjoy a sandy beach, lovely accommodations, and bountiful food at our own pace.
As cruise lines try to duplicate shoreside resorts, some experiences are impossible to achieve. For us, it was the evening we dined at the aptly named Barefoot by the Sea, a candlelit restaurant on the Sandals beach.
Sitting shoeless with our feet in the cool sand, serenaded by waves breaking gently under a moonlit sky, we thought of the cruise passengers who sailed away from St. Lucia's harbor that day, and we toasted our good fortune at being on terra firma.
Luxury Included
For information about Sandals' Grande St. Lucian Spa & Resort, go to www.sandals.com/main/grande/gl-home.cfm
or call 1-800-726-3257.

subset: commoncrawl


text: My name is Lina and I am originally from Russia but I have now lived in Canada for many years. I have a positive, bubbly personality and love learning about cultures different to my own. I'm friendly, outgoing and very conscious and considerate of others. I absolutely love traveling and I find the best experiences are had when they are planned out.


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Grassroots campaign hopes to show support for Tony Stewart.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. says other drivers shouldn't be surprised either if the final laps of the Food City 500 turn a bit wild.
Danica Patrick: Irish Heartbeat
Penske Racing press release
Six Chevrolet SS race cars qualify in top 15 starting spots.
Kasey Kahne was still in shock as he celebrated his victory in front of a packed crowd at 'the world's fastest half-mile' aka Bristol Motor Speedway.
Mark Martin to drive No. 14 Chevrolet at Bristol and 11 other races; Austin Dillon to drive No. 14 Chevrolet at Talladega
Late-race pit speeding penalty costs GoDaddy.com driver better finish
Points racing? Respect? Why didn't Kahne move Kenseth for the win?
Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Kellogg's Frosted Flakes Ford Fusion, qualified 12th for Sunday's scheduled Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Pole winner for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series' Bristol 500 set a new track record as he notched his first-ever pole on the oval in Tennessee.
Night racing in Bristol: Once Kahne made his way around Montoya, he chased down Kenseth but came up short.
Stewart and Co. head to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, a .533-mile, high-banked, concrete bullring where racing has been compared to flying fighter jets in a gymnasium.
Amanda Vincent, NASCAR correspondent
In 18 starts in NASCAR's premier series at Bristol, Busch has compiled five wins, eight top fives, 12 top 10s and 1,431 laps led.
Amanda Vincent, NASCAR correspondent
Jeff Gordon press release


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preparing a bed for mini's
leeaann(z6 MO)April 4, 2005
Hi, I'm getting some minis in about 6 weeks, and need to prepare their new home. I've read about putting news paper down, how much?? how thick? I will be building the area up about 1' to 1-1/2' deeper in soil. It is a square corner between the house, sidewalk, driveway and porch. I'm thinking of making it slope up towards the corner where the house and porch meet. Any suggestions on how to prepare the area? soil mixture? Will they survive being above actual ground level, should I prepare to protect them when it gets cold? Please help!


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The environment
February 11, 2008 | 10:24 AM
In the lead-up to the March 3 provincial election, what is your biggest concern about Alberta's environment?
How much will your concerns about the environment influence your vote?
In the lead-up to the March 3 provincial election, what is your biggest concern about Alberta's environment?
How much will your concerns about the environment influence your vote?
« Quality of life | Main | Promises, promises »
This entry is now Closed. View the comments.
To all of those who are using this forum to bash the CBC, this is a forum on environmental issues, not the place to air your views on media bias. But if you want to complain about media bias, why not start with the political coverage of the various other TV stations and newspapers in Alberta, all of which have a very pronounced right-wing bias and wouldn't recognize balanced journalism if it hit them in the face. If you can't see the media in the province for what it is, which is basically a mouthpiece for the right and nothing else, then you're clearly only seeing what you want to see and not reality.
And if you don't think the PC government is just about the worst thing that could ever happen to this province's environment, then you truly are blind, deaf and dumb to what's been happening in Alberta for years. In the end, it really doesn't matter what stupid environmental policies Stelmach and his crew dream up, because global warming will just keep happening regardless of our so-called plans, and when the environmental crises start piling up and the shit really starts hitting the fan, actions will have to be taken worldwide, and our pathetic little provincial government is not going to matter much. It's just too bad that people like me, who never voted for them, will end up paying for it just the same.
Posted March 4, 2008 01:40 AM
I heard it takes 2-3 barrels of freshwater to produce 1 barrel fo oil from the tar sands. There are 175 billion barrels of recoverable oil = at least 350 billion barrels of contaminated waste water. Where is that going to go ?
Posted March 3, 2008 11:56 PM
To Karen Payne (in Edmonton),
I am a climate scientist. While I agree that "Environmental issues are not resolved by voters expressing misinformed opinions and kneejerk reactions". The facts are in (they were years ago!), the solutions to modern environmental problems will require changes to the living standards of Albertans and Canadians. While you suggest these changes to be "adverse", they are in fact necessary and a step in the right direction to lowering the footprint our modern lifestyle has on the environment. This is an opportunity, lets make the most of it - be a leader. While compromise is often viewed as tool to reach consensus, we can't ignore the real solutions.
Posted March 3, 2008 11:55 PM
Environmental issues are not resolved by voters expressing misinformed opinions and kneejerk reactions but by carefull examination of the issues and effective ways that produce results that do not adversly affect the living standards of Albertans and Canadians.
I still believe that the PCs will produce results that balance the needs of Albertans while mitigating potential enviromental impact. Such a solution will involve all levels of Government.
If Canadians would take the time to inform themselves from more sources that the newspaper they would realise that environmental preservation is more complicated that just electing the party that parrots what they think voters want to hear.
Posted March 3, 2008 10:36 PM
I would apriciate it if you would read this one!If PC wins,i hope they will make more bike trails.i love bike riding and i hope others will start too.(its better than McDonalds!!hehe)
Posted March 3, 2008 09:20 PM
RE: Joe
True, although we are only a small piece of the world problem, we in Alberta are still part of the environmental problem. Saying that we can not do anything because China, India, Russia, and the USA will not follow is a poor excuse. We in Alberta need to be leaders in environmental issues. Our oil sands represent a great deal of power in the world's proven energy deposits. By not changing, ignoring the problem, and blaming "the big guys" we are playing the victim card. I do not like to believe that we, as Albertans, are victims on the world stage. The issue of the environment is no different. We must be leaders, instead of followers. Alberta must be a responsible global citizen. As Ghandi had once said "Be the change you want to see in the world."
Posted March 3, 2008 08:00 PM
Alberta contributes more than 10 billion annually to Ottawa in equalization payments so provinces like Saskatchewan can receive monies from Ottawa in order to enjoy a better life.
C.B.C funding is off topic but to keep things in the right receives about one billion dollars annually from the Federal Government and some of these monies comes from Alberta.
I disagree with my friend in Saskatchewan that Alberta has a poor education system.
Our education system is at least equal to that in Saskatchewan.
Posted March 2, 2008 05:42 AM
Alberta contributes more than 10 billion annually to Ottawa in equalization payments so provinces like Saskatchewan can receive monies from Ottawa in order to enjoy a better life.
C.B.C funding is off topic but to keep things in the right receives about one billion dollars annually from the Federal Government and some of these monies comes from Alberta.
I disagree with my friend in Saskatchewan that Alberta has a poor education system.
Our education system is at least equal to that in Saskatchewan.
Posted March 2, 2008 05:40 AM
There is not much Alberta and even Canada can do because we are "small players" in the world of billions of people.
Canada has approximately 33 million people while China and India have billions of people.
Canada CANNOT dictate to China,India, Russia, U.S.A and other countries as how to deal with environmental issues.
I am glad Alberta and Canada is already careful with environmental issues.
Albertans and Canadians spending millions and billions of dollars will NOT save the world.
Scientists report Canada emits approximately 2% of the world emissions.
I sometimes wonder if Dr Suzuki is aware of how much Canada actually emits into the atmosphere based on the total global emissions?
Posted February 29, 2008 05:45 PM
Have any of the candidates even mentioned bill C-46? I thought it would be a topic that would be debated more or at least mentioned by some of the party leaders.
Posted February 28, 2008 04:08 PM
A funny thing happened to me on my way to this forum: A friend who gets virtually all of his news from "FOX" told me that my CBC was bias!
He could have just as easily have substituted Can-west Global: But I must admit, the CBC is starting to lean to the right.
Following an interview that Paul Kennedy had with David Sanbourn Scott, I had thawed somewhat to nuclear power generation, when reality struck: Gary Lunn canned Linda Keen.
She was the head of Nuclear Safety, not garantor of isotopes. One person could not possibly ride both horses!
We will likely fry because of the conspiracy that demonizes the Nuclear industry, sponsored by Big Oil.
I keep doing the math and continue to get the same result: at the present rate of world consumption, 83 million barrels / day, we will directly destroy an area larger than Florida, and contaminate an area many times that size just to prolong the inevitable by 5.7 years.
That's Leadership at its finest, 37 years and counting. Longer if you include EC Manning's time.
Posted February 24, 2008 11:05 PM
As is typical of Alberta Conservatives, Chris Rudnisky is 100% dead wrong. Actually CBC TV has not receieved a government grant in years, actually largely paying for themselves through income gained from advertisers. And as for his ridiculous claim that most taxpayers are Conservatives, apparently because or Redneck Ralph's education cuts, math is not taught in Alberta schools. Federal Polls put the Conservatives at 35%, the Liberals at 33%, the NDP at 16% and the Green Party at 11%. The Liberals, NDP and Green Party are all left-wing, social democratic parties. So it would seem that 65% of Canadians are left-wing social democratics, while only 35% are right-wing, redneck conservatives. So by simple math to represent the most Canadians CBC should be left-wing.
Furthemore CanWest gets most of its money from advertisers, not customers. So therefore it only pushes the agenda of its paying advertisers (a small minority of the population) not its readers...65% of which totally oppose the Conservatives.
Posted February 22, 2008 02:50 PM
The questions around the pace of development and environmental issues should have provided an opportunity for the opposition to hit a slam dunk.
-Communities downstream from tar sands mines and tailings ponds are being diagnosed with rare forms of cancer and auto-immune disorders;
-The overheated economy means high inflation and a shortage of health care professionals, affordable housing and workers for critical infrastructure projects;
-Out-of-control tar sands development has made Alberta the pollution capital of Canada; the industries greenhouse gas emissions now represent the fastest growing source of Canada's global warming pollution;
-Up to 5 barrels of water are needed to produce 1 barrel of oil from the tar sands; with much ending up in toxic tailings ponds;
-Government spending is at record levels – trying but failing to address the consequences of an irresponsible rate of oil sands development
The issues are clear and the answer is even clearer, no new approvals on oil sands development!
Posted February 21, 2008 07:58 PM
Stelmach doesn't address any criticisms; in fact, he's seems to be stumbling along without content or information hoping the debate will end without much damage.
Posted February 21, 2008 07:15 PM
Ryan Foster thinks canwest is more biased than the cbc? Even if that were true, at least they deserve the right to be biased - it is a private company that is paid for by customers. The cbc, however, is taxpayer funded. All taxpayers pay for, and none more so than wealthy Canadians and Albertans who more often than not vote conservative.
At the very least, the cbc should at least spend conservative voters' money impartially.
Posted February 21, 2008 06:54 PM
Ryan Foster, I completly agree with you on the bias issue. While CBC may not be perfect I would say they are far less bias the some other companies in the media. Theresa Carey and Angela B you both make good points about the presence of the green party and the fact that CBC should be equaly including them in there broadcasts. I hoowever do not actually think that the Green Party has the best environmental platform. I think there's is good but it is still not as comprehensive as the NDP's. My vote is for the environment this election as it is every election! Good luck to all the opposition as it is time to knock the PC party out of power!
Posted February 21, 2008 02:20 AM
Election 2008 has more conservative thinkers, not die hard tories changing their votes to Wildrose or Liberal.
Seniors are having difficulty keeping with the economy and the more workers brought into Alberta will cause more difficulties for seniors. Likewise, disabled and students are caught in the overheated economy.
Alberta needs a plan and not a conservative plan.
Posted February 18, 2008 05:24 PM
J Calvin and Ryan are cracking me up! CBC biased? Maybe, but hardly more so then their right-wing pals at CanWest-Global. Nothing more then mouthpieces for the Harper Conservatives, Ed Stelmach and our own wrong-headed Premier Bad Call, er I mean Brad Wall. The Calgary Herald, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, National Post,etc are so biased in favour of the right-wing they might as well be called the Conservative Politics Supporter chain. They are completely incapable of reporting the actual facts in a story, only regurgitating right-wing, captialist rhetoric.
CBC only brings a little balance to other wise totally right-wing media. Get your pals at Team Harper/Stelmach to drop their bias and maybe the CBC will drop theirs.
Posted February 17, 2008 08:50 PM
Angela B, I agree with you, it would be good if the Green Party had a bigger presence. It would sure help if the CBC would include them on the Leader Profile page and the Election Promises page, and provide equal coverage during radio broadcasts as well!
Posted February 14, 2008 06:57 PM
I am very new to Alberta and I have noticed many issues that I have with the governments and their impact on the enivironment. I have moved from the Yukon, where the environment is very special and in great harm. Down here the government doesn't really seem to care anything about the environment. Being the richest province in Canada, one would think that the government would have the decency to spend money on various programs to help clean up this nation and help with global warming. Living in rural Alberta, there are really no recyling depots. Places usually only take bottles and cans. How about introducing stations at all the landfills to have a universal drop off and if people want the cash for the returnables let it be on their own. If the government really cared about the environment they wouldn't be telling their landfill managers to burn tires. I drove by our local landfill in Galahad only to see mounds of tires being burned. Not only is the richest province a huge contributor to pollution it encourages it. With the governments doing whatever they will sends a very poor message about their lack of concern on the environment. Each year the galciers in the Yukon, the Alsek glacier, in particular; loses 30 meters of its glacial ice for the past 12 years, every year!! People in the south need to realize that what these governments do and have done, not only effect this province but the world and special places like the arctic. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean that it doesn't exsist. Spend your money and start actually showing that any government cares about the environment, quit talking about and take action. Our children and their generation will thank you for it.
Posted February 14, 2008 09:56 AM
We need a government that will take a stand against the introduction of the toxic nuclear energy industry. We need a government that will rein in the tar sands frenzy. We need a government that doesn't go cap-in-hand to sell the war criminals in Washington more and more Alberta bitumin.
Posted February 14, 2008 07:05 AM
Amen to "J Cavin" I couldn't agree more. CBC has really gone overboard. They should just join Team Taft.
Posted February 13, 2008 09:59 PM
The environment will play into how I vote in a significant way. I'm not only looking at what specific policies the parties may have on CO2 emission and alternative fuels, but also at how their tax, R&D and economic policies will impact the environment. It is too bad that the Green Party does not have a significant enough presence....it would be great if they could get at least a few seats, rural and urban, to show the government that Albertans do indeed care in a meaningful way about the environment.
Posted February 13, 2008 04:09 PM
This is the most important issue to me.
The oil sands epitomize our failed approach to environmental management. The Government sells all the land (50,000 km2 and counting) and rubber stamps approvals while admitting there is no way of knowing it is sustainable.
I want a government that actually governs, rather than letting the free market do what it wants.
Posted February 13, 2008 11:55 AM
This series of broadcasts so far is so biased as to degrade it. The CBC is apparently on a mission to bash the current government by broadcasting clips only from those who think the same way. An example this morning.."Gee,if a 70 year old man who voted PC all his life is changing, wow that means something". etc etc etc. A little more balance please. This sounds like Kevin Taft paid for it.
Posted February 13, 2008 09:27 AM
The environment is the most critical issue for me in this election. We are not separate from the environment: we are all a part of it. Without a healthy, vibrant environment nothing else matters. Without clean air to breathe, clean, safe water to drink and fertile soil to grow food, everything else becomes pointless. We have to stop 'soiling our nest' and clean up this mess we have made.
We need to elect a government that will take the duty of environmental stewardship seriously, instead of just exploiting Alberta and its citizens for its own greed-based, mean-spirited agenda. We need to elect a strong opposition as well, to ensure that we have a democracy again in this province, rather than the arrogant dictatorship we've had for the past 37 years.
I've had it. I'm voting Green.
Posted February 12, 2008 01:12 PM
Robert's got a valid point. However, Ed was in the Cabinet room with Ralph and was part of the group making those decisions that got us where we are today.
Posted February 12, 2008 09:52 AM
I think Alberta and Canada needs a complete change in government. Most of these decisions have been made by outside influences and corporate thugs.The Royalites review should have been fully implemented and gone beyond what was suggested because the oil prices will only rise. These Royalites won't be implemented until 2012, give me a break, phase 1 of the Tarsands has been completed mined out. By 2012, Phase 2 & 3 will be depleted, these are non-renewable resources. It takes 2 barrels of water to make one barrel of crude oil. We're talking about millions of barrels. The oil spill from the pipeline rupture near Slave lake causing contamination of the water supply. The CN train derailment spilling 1.3 million litres of HEAVY BUNKER C OIL near Wabuman. Then the cover up from the government and corporations of the increase of cancer and immune diseases in Fort Chipewyana. I think we need to slow down this growth and use our leverage of peak oils prices for re-investing in Alberta's future. Now the time to invest in new energy sources before it's too late. Ed Stalemach is just left over residue from the Klein years, they have no real plan for the future of Alberta just riding on the scraps that the Oil companies throw to them. Turning Alberta into a dumping ground for Toxic waste, the idea of pumping carbon dioxide into the ground is just a bandaid solution, to solve the problem go to the source of the problem. And this idea of bringing Nuclear power to Alberta so they can bury the nuclear waste and contaminate our water supply. Nuclear waste they don't know what to do with it, so they bury it.
Go!!!Green party!Go!!!
Posted February 12, 2008 09:41 AM
I cannot believe that so many Albertan's still believe Ralph Klein was such a great leader - he and only he got us in the mess we are in - not Eddie!
These people might as well vote for Don Cheery as it seems they are only interested in being entertained and not governed.
Posted February 11, 2008 06:00 PM
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text:
Academics . Illustration . Faculty . Thomas Nowacki
Thomas Nowacki
Title Associate Professor/Chair of Biomedical Art
Department Illustration
Phone 216.421.7000
Courses BFA Thesis Research | Biomedical Art: Advanced Media Concepts | Biomedical Art: BFA Thesis | Biomedical Art: Interactive Narratives | BMA: Advanced Problems, Concepts, and Media | Graphic Design: Advanced Studio | Independent Projects in Ceramics | Intro to Digital Biomedical Illustration | Natural Science + Zoological Illustration
Thomas is the Chair of and Associate Professor in the Biomedical Art Department at CIA as well as Adjunct Professor in Anatomy at Case Western Reserve University. He is the founder and principal illustrator of Novie Studio, which produces accurate and aesthetically clear illustrations and 2D animations for print and digital publication as well as exhibit design for litigation. Thomas received his MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in Medical Illustration and is a Board Certified Medical Illustrator (CMI).
Degree MFA, Rochester Institute of Technology; BFA, Baldwin-Wallace College
Illustration students in Adjunct Professor Bradley Ricca's Graphic Narratives class wowed the crowd at the fifth annual Genghis Con Comics and Arts Festival.
While at CIA, you'll learn from the masters through our rigorous, world-class curriculum and connect with working professionals to begin your career.


text:
I read that the above enzymes are part of the grain and that one must include at least 50% of a 2-Pale grain (or other) in order to have a supply for enzymatic degradation. I think that this really limit my options.
I was wondering if I can purchase these enzymes and add them to the water once I get the target temperature. If this is case, how much I should add?
Thanks, Nil
I have the same problem... I wanted to do a 70% roast barley beer but was worried about conversion.
On a serious note, what are you talking about? It doesn't need to be 2 row, it could be any base malt, or even malted wheat. Are you suggesting you want over 50% special malts?
Read This:How to Brew - By John Palmer - How the Mash Works
and no...I don't think, I might be wrong, but I don't think you can purchase them.
Brewers make wort, Yeast make beer!!!!
Use 6 row malt. It has a way higher enzyme content, and I'm pretty sure it can convert somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40% specialty malt.
70% RB just doesn't appeal to me for some reason, but to each their own...
The first thing about this is, why would you want to do a 70% roasted barley beer? The greater portion of roast barley has non-fermentables sugars.
You CAN buy .
Also, you can consider using 6-row malt which allows you to use up to 60% non-enzyme grain (such as corn, rice, etc).
How do you BBQ an elephant....first you get your elephant....
Boo boo - you win a cookie.
The rest of you - no cookies!
Thanks for all you input.
To M_C:
Is there's some limitation with regards the "others" starch sources relative to the malt extract used?
Here is the deal: I got malt extract (2 lb of Munton extra light 100% malt extract) for Xmas and I plan to make a 1/2 grain (maybe wheat) and a add some other sources of starches (rice, potato and corn) as adjunct to see what I get.
Any thoughts?
Thanks, Nil


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Mystery Native Plant
at_walker(4)May 22, 2012
Can anyone identify this plant? It appears to be an herbaceous annual. On May 18, 2012 it was abundant throughout Fort Ridgely State Park, in south-central Minnesota.
The plant is 18" to 30" in height, but has not yet reached maturity. The leaves are opposite with bluntly toothed margins. The stem is hairless and is covered with whitish, waxy bloom (glaucous). The area where it was photographed is moderately moist.
There are more photos and higher resolution photos at
Image link:


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Love among 19 players named to Team USA
USA basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo confirmed the 19-player roster for the national team, headlined by 2012 gold medalists Kevin Durant, James Harden, Kevin Love and Anthony Davis.
The roster for the 2014 USA World Cup Team will be selected from the group and reports to training camp in Las Vegas July 28. DeMar DeRozan (Toronto Raptors) and Chandler Parsons (Dallas Mavericks) were added to
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Monday 14 April 2014
A Ministry for Complaints might sound like something out of Monty Python, but if it improves public services, bring it on
I am still waiting for a refund I claimed from a train company a year ago
Leaders regularly proclaim their support for giving more power to the people. The proclamations are accompanied by a lot of waffle, and ill-thought-through, vaguely defined policies.
The disparity between leaders' support for the idea of empowerment and the reality on the ground is especially obvious when people using public services try to complain about them. Quite often nothing happens. Their complaints are lost in complex procedural structures or are treated by providers as an awkward intervention that will go away if the protestations are ignored. Complainers feel powerless – as impotent as those who seek cheaper fuel bills in a flawed energy market.
Complacency and indifference to complaints was one of the many depressing findings from the inquiries into the shocking events at the Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Relatives of patients tried to protest about appalling mistreatment but secured no adequate response, and in some cases got no response at all. They had no power.
Triggered by the Mid Staffs saga, the Public Administration Committee has published a review of complaints, and considered what can be done to empower those who seek to register concern. The chair, Bernard Jenkin, is better known for being an ardent Eurosceptic and also for his scepticism about David Cameron's leadership. But as chair of the committee he has accomplished more substantial work.
The committee's earlier proposals to modernise the Civil Service have informed the urgent work that Francis Maude has carried out in the area of Civil Service reform. And the proposals were also the theme of a weighty, impressive debate in the Lords earlier this year involving a number of big names who used to work in the Civil Service as well as former cabinet ministers. Most of them were broadly supportive of the need for reform along the lines the Committee had suggested. Now Jenkin's committee focuses on a related issue: how to complain effectively.
In both cases, no doubt unintentionally, the committee's focus makes an important wider point about the stifling debate over public service reform, one that has been distorted by banalities. The distortion began when Tony Blair characterised the debate about his plans for public services as "reform versus anti-reform", with the implication that those who opposed his costly and sometimes unworkable proposals for public services were against change of any kind whatsoever. Rightly seeing an opportunity, Cameron declared that he agreed with Blair and was also "pro-reform" – as if there were only one set of changes available to bring about improvement.
As things turned out, Cameron was the first to challenge this deceptive narrative in his response to the inquiry into Mid Staffs, outlining the need for a number of reforms that had nothing to do with "choice" or "markets", previously the only acceptable definition of change. Instead Cameron focused on pulling levers in order to bring about improvements in services, an altogether different emphasis. He proposed the suspension of hospital boards for serious care failures, performance-related pay for nurses, a new chief inspector of hospitals modelled on the Ofsted inspection agency for schools, and an inquiry into hospitals with the highest mortality rates nationwide. In doing so he illustrated that change in public services can take many forms.
Jenkin and his committee have suggested other changes, including the introduction of a new minister for complaints. The proposal sounds like something out of Monty Python. But such a move, along with other recommendations that aim to simplify procedures, would focus minds in public services. Providers would know that pretty quickly the concerns of patients, parents and the rest could be receiving national attention. Such forms of accountability mean that a casual dismissal of complaints becomes less likely.
Nonetheless I have three complaints about Jenkin's report. It should have at least acknowledged the problems of getting complaints addressed when private companies enjoy a monopoly. I am still waiting for a refund that I claimed from a train company in January of last year. I have given up. The committee also fails to acknowledge that real-terms spending cuts will lead to problems for users of public services that can only be addressed by the Chancellor, not by a middle-ranking minister for complaints.
Above all, the earlier public service reforms, designed – in theory – to empower users, make it much more difficult to identify responsibility. They therefore make users powerless. Is the failure of a hospital the responsibility of NHS England? The Health Secretary? The hospital managers? How do parents complain if they disapprove of activities in newly fashionable free schools? Is it the local council which is responsible if streets are filthy? Or does blame lie with the private companies that are supposed to keep them clean? Lines are so blurred, layers of responsibility so convoluted, that complaining would be a mountainous challenge even if there were a cabinet full of ministers for complaints.
Even so, if complaining becomes even a little more effective, users will be genuinely empowered and services will improve.
MPs are dangerously IN touch
The outcome of the Nigel Evans' trial has generated a new anti-politics hysteria in which Westminster is portrayed as uniquely debauched.
For sure, there are plenty of people at Westminster who are hyper-ambitious, work long hours, drink, have affairs. The same applies to media organisations or any company. The idea that there is a "Westminster bubble" is a dangerous myth. Those who refer loftily to the bubble not only imply that Westminster is a place of recklessness and decadence, but also suggest that the people who work there are disconnected and out of touch.
Most of those who work at Westminster are dangerously IN touch. Unlike editors, chief executives and those in other bubbles floating around the country, they have to stand for election. They pay attention to polls, listen to focus groups and read newspapers. They go back to their constituencies and meet constituents.
The talking points in the so-called bubble are not that far removed from those outside it. If anything, modern politicians are so in touch that they are too scared to say what they think and do what they regard as necessary, although the early radicalism of the Coalition was a rare example of ministers following their convictions.
It's an irony that as politicians adjust their views to respond to the voters and the media, they become less authentic and voters turn away.
Perhaps politicians would be more popular if there was a "Westminster bubble" protecting those inside it from knowing what voters think about them.
I am going to start a campaign for a Westminster bubble.
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Fox News media critic Howard Kurtz downplayed the bloody arrest and subsequent national media coverage of a black University of Virginia (UVA) student, arrested during an alleged dispute over his ID, claiming "such arrests are common in this college town."
The Washington Post reported that Virginia's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) is under scrutiny after the violent arrest of UVA student Martese Johnson, who "sustained head injuries that left him with bloody streaks down his face" following St. Patrick's Day celebrations near the UVA campus in Charlottesville. Photos of Johnson's bloody face sparked widespread outrage and protests over the use of excessive police force.
During a segment on March 20 edition of Special Report, Kurtz criticized the national media attention claiming that this was a local story with "no evidence that race was a factor" in the arrest. Kurtz later downplayed the arrest as typical, asserting that "bartenders tell us such arrests are common in this college town."
Wall Street Journal editorial board member Jason Riley argued that black people saw faster progress "when whites were still lynching blacks" in a recent op-ed.
In his column on the video of University of Oklahoma students singing a racist song, Riley claimed that "the reaction among some black liberals was closer to glee" than disgust. Riley went on to criticize the "Democratic Party's belief that there is a federal solution to every black problem" and claimed blacks were in fact progressing faster in an era when many were being lynched (emphasis added):
History shows that faster black progress was occurring at a time when whites were still lynching blacks, not merely singing about it. Liberals want blacks to ignore the lessons of this pre-Civil Rights era, which threaten the current relevance of groups like the NAACP and call into question the Democratic Party's belief that there is a federal solution to every black problem.
He went on to decry a "post-Civil Rights era social pathology and misguided government interventions," which Riley sees as the cause of not just a lack of progress but a "retrogression" among black Americans. Riley argued that "the problem isn't the attitudes and behaviors of the boys on the bus so much as those of the boys in the 'hood." The "boys on the bus" Riley refers to are the group of Oklahoma fraternity members who were filmed chanting, "There will never be a nigger in SAE. You can hang them from a tree, but they'll never sign with me."
An analysis by the Equal Justice Initiative from February revealed that almost 4,000 African Americans were lynched -- murdered as a form of extra-legal vigilante justice, often with public spectators -- between 1877 and 1950.
Fox News host Bill O'Reilly attacked efforts to decrease school suspensions and expulsions with programs known as "restorative justice," ignoring that these traditional punishments disproportionately target students of color.
For decades, many school districts followed zero-tolerance policies on student discipline. Such policies encouraged schools to suspend students for many types of violent and non-violent misconduct, including "insubordination," often at racially disproportionate rates. According to a report by UCLA's Center for Civil Rights Remedies, American students lost almost 18 million days of school instruction due to suspensions just in the 2011-12 school year. In 2014, the Department of Education and Department of Justice reported that the racial disparities "are not explained by more frequent or more serious misbehavior by students of color," and issued new guidelines aimed at reducing racial disparities in school discipline.
In an effort to combat such racially disparate suspension rates, some school districts have promoted alternative school discipline models known as "restorative justice" programs. These programs typically involve working with students to get them to take responsibility for their behavior through group talking and dialogue rather than outright suspension or expulsion. New York City recently announced that "principals must get approval from the Education Department central office before [a] student can be suspended," and in recent years has included "more alternatives to traditional punishments, like peer mediation and early interventions."
During the March 17 edition of his Fox News show, Bill O'Reilly hosted New York Post columnist Paul Sperry for a segment titled, "Chaos in Public Schools." O'Reilly claimed that "liberal mayors all over the country are making it easier for violent students to remain in public schools." O'Reilly added that "students can actually assault teachers without being suspended or expelled in some cases."
But O'Reilly's dismissal of such school discipline reform efforts ignores the racially disparate impact of zero-tolerance policies. As Capital New York explained, "during the 2013-2014 school year, the most recent year for which data is available, 53,000 suspensions were issued, and black or Hispanic students made up 87 percent of those suspensions" in New York City. According to U.S. News & World Report, "Black Americans are suspended and expelled at three times the rate of white students. They make up 16 percent of school enrollment, but account for 32 percent of students who receive in-school suspensions, 42 percent of students who receive multiple out-of-school suspensions and 34 percent of students who are expelled":
The school discipline reforms that O'Reilly attacked have resulted in fewer suspensions. The Christian Science Monitor in 2013 described the impact of such a program in the Oakland Unified School District:
In the 2011-12 school year, African-Americans made up 32 percent of Oakland's students but 63 percent of the students suspended. In middle schools, principals suspended about 1 out of 3 black boys.
The US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights investigated whether the discipline was discriminatory. Before making a legal finding, OCR collaborated with the district last fall on a five-year voluntary resolution plan to reduce suspensions, expulsions, and the racial disparity.
Suspensions not only dropped by 51 percent last year, but they continue to fall, and [Ralph J. Bunche Academy] eliminated disproportionality in suspensions for African-Americans.
From the March 13 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
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The right-wing media's calls to end birthright citizenship -- a constitutional guarantee -- have been repeated incessantly over the years and have once again found a sympathetic ear in Sen. David Vitter (R-LA), who recently re-introduced legislation that would supposedly "prevent children born in the U.S. of foreign national parents from gaining automatic U.S. citizenship."
Conservative media figures going back to Glenn Beck in his Fox News days have railed against so-called "anchor babies" and "birth tourism," the former a derogatory slur and debunked myth used against U.S. born children of non-citizens, the latter of which represents a sliver of births that experts have repeatedly pointed out are "extraordinarily rare" and an insignificant immigration problem. As Salon's Simon Maloy recently wrote, this "grossly nativist and legally dubious" rhetoric has nevertheless found a receptive audience in Republican legislators on both the state and federal levels.
At the same time, right-wing media continue their drumbeat on this issue, most prominently ABC contributor and talk radio host Laura Ingraham, who has called ending the constitutional guarantee of citizenship at birth a "common sense step." This is nothing new for Ingraham, a self-proclaimed influence on Republican politics who has repeatedly condemned "birthright citizenship nonsense."
On the March 10 edition of The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly joined the chorus when he heard that children born in the U.S. automatically receive citizenship -- "the baby gets the passport" -- and declared, "That law's got to change." In the segment, which focused on "birth tourism" by Chinese parents, O'Reilly concluded, "This law is being abused like crazy. It's got to be changed. That should not be a hard thing to do."
In fact, that would be an extremely hard thing to do -- it would require amending the U.S. Constitution or overturning centuries of post-Civil War Supreme Court precedent.
O'Reilly and his guests -- Fox host Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former prosecutor, and contributor Lis Wiehl, also a lawyer -- ignored the fact that it's not merely a "law" that confers citizenship to children born in the United States -- it's the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment, intended to ensure equal protection for all in the wake of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery, unequivocally states, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States ... are citizens of the United States." This amendment has long been understood to grant birthright citizenship, and that interpretation has been re-affirmed by the Supreme Court since as far back as 1898. James C. Ho, the former solicitor general of Texas, explained in 2011 that birthright citizenship was intended "to reverse the Supreme Court's notorious 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford ruling denying citizenship to slaves" and their children, and challenging its legality is "wasting taxpayer funds on a losing court battle, reopening the scars of the Civil War, and offending our Constitution and the rule of law."
But conservative media's radical calls for the end of birthright citizenship continue to make headway with Republicans in Congress.
On March 10, Vitter re-introduced his Birthright Citizenship Act, which would "close a loophole by clarifying that birthright citizenship is only given to the children of U.S. citizens and legal resident aliens." In announcing this legislation, Vitter claimed that allowing birthright citizenship is based on "a fundamental misunderstanding of the 14th Amendment," suggesting that the framers of the amendment, the Supreme Court, and legal experts have been wrong about its plain language for the last 150 years.
An alternate explanation for Vitter's legislation -- other than pure confusion -- is that this is intended to be unconstitutional and represents a "test case" expected to be repeatedly struck down in the federal courts on the way to the Supreme Court. Although GOP senators have shied away from acknowledging this, right-wing anti-immigration activists like Kansas' Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach have plainly admitted as much.
Right-wing media is not quite so honest in its calls to rewrite the U.S. Constitution, choosing instead to baselessly scaremonger about "anchor babies" and "birth tourism."
From the March 12 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered:
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From the March 9 edition of Comedy Central's The Daily Show:
From the March 5 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
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Fox News Host Sean Hannity is criticizing singer John Legend's Oscars speech, which invoked the civil rights movement and the ongoing fight for racial and social justice. In response to Legend's completely accurate statement that the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is under attack today, Hannity disagreed and appeared to argue that the seminal civil rights law was irrelevant to strict voter ID laws.
On February 22, Legend and co-writer Common won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Glory," from the film Selma, a historical drama about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s fight for equal voting rights. In his acceptance speech, Legend noted that the civil rights struggle represented in the movie continues "right now": "We wrote this song for a film that was based on events that were 50 years ago, but we say that Selma is now, because the struggle for justice is right now. We know that the Voting Rights Act that they fought for 50 years ago is being compromised right now, in this country, today."
On the February 23 edition of his show, Hannity complained that Legend "decided to make all things political." Even though Legend didn't explicitly bring up voter ID laws in his speech, Hannity went on to suggest that it was inappropriate for Legend to "equate the Voting Rights Act with showing an ID to get to vote so we can keep honesty and integrity in our elections ... I like John Legend as a musician, but he doesn't know anything about politics":
The Wall Street Journal is celebrating a ruling from a lower-court judge who has temporarily blocked President Obama's exercise of prosecutorial discretion over undocumented immigrants by repeating a litany of right wing-media myths, some of which were repeated in the legal decision itself.
On February 17, federal district court Judge Andrew Hanen issued a preliminary injunction that will block the Department of Homeland Security's implementation of the president's recent executive actions on immigration in the face of GOP opposition to immigration reform. These actions, which will defer deportations for some undocumented immigrants and were scheduled to open the application process today, have long been criticized by right-wing media as "unconstitutional," despite the fact that there is plenty of legal and historical precedent for the order.
Hanen's ruling -- which not only goes against other recent lower-court rulings, but also Supreme Court precedent -- found a receptive audience at The Wall Street Journal. The Journal has been particularly critical of Obama's immigration actions, erroneously suggesting the administration had not sought a legal justification for his order before issuing it and denouncing Obama for acting "on his own whim because he's tired of working with Congress." In a February 17 editorial, the Journal commended Hanen, calling his decision "a vindication of the 26 states that brought the challenge and, more significantly, for the rule of law":
Last November the Department of Homeland Security published memos instructing immigration enforcers to disregard federal laws that require deportation of the undocumented and place strict limits on who may work in the U.S. The White House and DHS claim this "deferred action" is nothing more than routine prosecutorial discretion, as if the department is merely conceding that its officers cannot hunt down and deport the millions of illegals in the country.
Judge Hanen dismantles that fiction. As he points out, the DHS memos amount to "a massive change in immigration practice" that reorders "the nation's entire immigration scheme." Instead of the historical norm of forbearance in individual cases, the memos devote 150 pages to detailing a blanket policy for whole classes of immigrants -- meaning that discretion is "virtually extinguished," as Judge Hanen writes.
The memos also actively bestow benefits that Congress never granted, such as the right to work, obtain Social Security numbers, and travel to and from the U.S.
The editorial is a rehash of myths about the executive action. For example, it is true that Congress never granted undocumented immigrants "the right to work," but neither did Obama's executive order. Undocumented immigrants who qualify for deferred action will become eligible for work authorization permits, not because of Obama's order, but because of a federal law that was passed in 1986 under Ronald Reagan.
From the January 27 edition of Premiere Radio Networks' The Rush Limbaugh Show:
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From the January 22 edition of Fox News' The Kelly File:
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Wall Street Journal editorial board member Mary Kissel is misinforming about a new fair-housing case under consideration by the Supreme Court, scaremongering that a decision to uphold half a century of civil rights precedent could force sellers, lenders, and landlords to establish policies that amount to "informal quotas."
On January 21, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Texas Department of Housing v. the Inclusive Communities Project, a fair-housing case that could make it more difficult for victims of discrimination to bring legal challenges against policies that reinforce decades of racial segregation, unintentionally or not. The Inclusive Communities Project argues that the way the Texas Department of Housing administered an affordable-housing plan had a discriminatory effect by entrenching racially segregated housing patterns in the Dallas area. This kind of lawsuit is known as "disparate impact" litigation, which has long been used under various civil rights statutes, including the Fair Housing Act (FHA). It does not require that intentional discrimination be demonstrated, rather that the challenged policies had an unjustified and disproportionate, negative impact on vulnerable groups protected by the FHA. Even though the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and other fair-housing advocates have successfully relied on disparate-impact litigation for almost 40 years, Texas is arguing that lawsuits under the FHA should newly be required to provide evidence of intentional racial discrimination.
On the January 21 edition of the Journal's WSJ Live video series, Kissel used a hypothetical about the government forcing a bank to make mortgage loans to attack the logic of disparate-impact analysis. Kissel said in this scenario, "Effectively, the government is saying, 'We want informal quotas. You have to lend x to Hispanics, y to blacks, and z to whites.' That doesn't sound constitutional to me." Kissel then went on to say that the Obama administration had "used this theory to shake down banks for millions of dollars. Let's hope the justices actually read the text of the law":
Right-wing media have long objected to the use of disparate impact in fair-housing litigation, calling it a "dubious legal theory." In fact, every one of the 11 federal circuit courts that have considered the question over the last 40 years have reaffirmed that the amelioration of discriminatory effects is a core component of both the intent and text of the FHA, and Congress specifically amended the statute in 1988 in recognition of the fact. Such overwhelming consensus was unsurprising -- the need to begin the slow process of integration after centuries of residential apartheid was specifically designed to be a systematic task, and not a game of Whac-A-Mole aimed at individual bad actors. It was anything but a fringe theory, but rather the product of bipartisan efforts, including those of the Republican HUD chief George Romney in the Nixon administration.
Nevertheless, the attacks on disparate impact continue at the Journal, whose editorials have frequently maligned disparate-impact analysis in the past.
From the January 22 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
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Fox host Eric Bolling called on the New York Police Department to engage in more racial profiling and stop-and-frisk after the terrorist attack on the offices of a satirical French magazine, but his characterization of the legality and constitutionality of race-based policing misrepresents these practices.
On January 7, masked gunmen attacked the headquarters of Charlie Hebdo, a French weekly that had previously run caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad. Right-wing media were quick to politicize the attack and describe it as an argument for the practice of race-based police tactics in America, even those prohibited by federal law or the U.S. Constitution. On the January 7 edition of Fox & Friends, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck suggested that NYPD officers should be able to target certain communities without fear of being painted with "a racist brush." Hasselbeck also suggested that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had demoralized the NYPD and threatened security by calling on the police to stop improper racial profiling.
As right-wing media have done repeatedly in the past, Hasselbeck failed to recognize that police practices must pass a threshold of constitutionality regardless of their alleged efficacy at imposing "order."
This narrative continued on the January 7 broadcast of Outnumbered, where Fox host Eric Bolling joined the panel to claim that people in New York should feel "anger" toward de Blasio for his efforts to eliminate unconstitutional stop-and-frisk policies and curb racial profiling. Bolling argued that police had used racial profiling "so effectively for so long" to target people who are "the type of person who's done it in the past." Bolling went on to wonder, "How did profil[ing] become a) unethical, b) illegal? It's throughout history been the most effective law enforcement tool." Outnumbered co-host Andrea Tantaros agreed with Bolling that "leftist mayors like de Blasio" and the Obama administration had "taken those tools away at a time when we need them the most," and claimed that "targeting mosques" was "crucial" towards uncovering terrorist activity:


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On Cutting A Deal To Avert The Fiscal Cliff
Here's the reality of the situation.
— The economy is in bad shape and it's conceivable that going over the fiscal cliff could push it into recession, although nobody really knows one way or the other.
— Going over the fiscal cliff is probably the best hope for deficit reduction we'll have in the next four years.
— We're being told that Republicans will be blamed if we go over the fiscal cliff and that may be so. However, the Republicans always seem to be blamed, so what else is new?
— Publicly at least, the Democrats don't seem to be making any sort of serious attempt to avoid the cliff. They're refusing to continue the status quo, they're offering nothing of significance in return for tax increases and Barack Obama is on vacation. In fact, the Democrat strategy seems to be to go over the cliff and play it for politic's sake.
Republicans in Congress have received all sorts of advice on how to handle this and here's mine: A good deal is better than no deal, but no deal is better than a bad deal.
Just as Barack Obama was reelected, Republicans were reelected to control the House. So, John Boehner has every bit as much of a mandate as Barack Obama to deal with the situation as he sees fit. In an ideal world, we wouldn't go over the fiscal cliff, but if this were an ideal world, Barack Obama wouldn't be President and people like Nancy Pelosi would be considered unelectable.
However, in the real world that we're in, the Republican base is going to be unhappy if the party raises taxes and that would do as much political damage, if not more, than the Democrats' transparent attempts to engineer a crisis so they can blame Republicans for it. That doesn't mean the GOP shouldn't cut a deal, but it does mean that if they do, it needs to be a genuine compromise, not a Republican cave-in. If the Democrats want tax increases, are they willing to cut spending NOW? Are they willing to put real entitlement reform on the table? If the answer is, "No," they're only willing to offer small spending cuts or will only agree to offer spending cuts in the future, then offer to continue things "as is." If they refuse that offer, then go over the cliff and point the finger where it belongs — at the President of the United States.
Barack Obama has spent four years engaging in the most hamfisted partisanship we've seen since the Nixon years even as he's claimed to be a bipartisan reformer. He apparently intends to keep that up throughout his second term and that cannot be allowed. Republicans should represent the people who sent them to the House by cooperating if it's in the best interests of the country and saying, "No," when it isn't.
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What insulation is best?
Right now we have the spray foam stuff in our attic and the regular roll stuff in our walls. Our walls are 2x6 and we live in South Dakota (i.e. cold climate). Is this sufficient? Or should we do the spray foam stuff in the walls as well? We originally had that in the bid and then changed it because people have told us if we get good windows and doors, the roll stuff will be sufficient.
sounds like you are in the middle of building. those peole are stupid. the fiberglass bats are actualy not that great, they allow alot of air infiltration. foaming the walls full would be the best, yes more expensive but the way fuel prices are going.......
second best would be compressesd cellulose insulation.
i know i could kick my self for allowimg my contractor to talk me out of foam 7 years ago.
i hope you are puting in triple pane windows
there is a ton od info at build it solar.com
good luck
Here is a link that might be useful: there is a ton od info at build it solar.com
I try to discourage people from foaming the underside of their roof deck as much as I can. Regardless of the foam installers saying their foam is 'open cell', I have yet to see a sample that allows water to run through it.....go to a home show with a bottle of water and try it yourself. The problem as I see it is that down the road your roof will leak...they all do, that's why roofers continue to have employment. When it does leak, with a waterproof layer of foam under it, the water will remained trapped against the foam, rotting your roof deck and even the trusses before you realize anything is wrong. When a foam company can show me foam that water will pass through, I'll change my opinion.
With 2x6 construction the nominal space is 5.5". Fiberglass insulation at 5." is an R21 or R3.8 per inch. Expanded Polyisocyanurate would be aprox R33 or R6 per inch. The added bonus for spraying insulation is that it virtually eliminates all infiltration air through the structure. Eliminating Infiltration is the best way to cut your heating costs. Sioux Falls, South Dakota winter design temp is -16 and when that air enters the structure, you have to heat it to +68 desgrees.
I'd go with sprayed insulation unless you plan on having a stucco finish, stucco tends to trap water vapor and condense on the sheathing rotting it.
Hope that helps,
Dan Martyn
Designer Dan...do you have any comments regarding my concern about leaking roof water getting trapped above the expanded polyisocyanurate foam? I've handled sample blocks of that stuff and water doesn't seem to penetrate it at all. It also seems to form a strong bond with the roof decking and trusses (pushed as a hurricane benefit here in FL) so water would not just flow across the top side of it down to the eaves. I really think there are going to be serious issues down the road as the roofs above this stuff begin to leak....
People using sprayed in foam for the entire house should be thinking about installing air make up due to the house being too air tight. I know of a couple of people that had to install these and they run about $4,000. My state doesn't require air makeup but I have been told some do.
Faom is the best But where you live straw is better and having much thicker walls. new low e glass and argon filled double or triple windows is great. Your windows and doors are just a big hole to let in cold air get them sealed to fix that problem


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Mortenson chosen for GSL program
Former Becker County administrator Tom Mortenson has been selected to participate in the Government Strategic Leaders program at the National Defense University's Information Resource Management College.
Mortenson was selected because of his expertise in government, business and leadership skills.
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- 1 bedrooms
- 1 bathrooms
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- Cabin
Bedrooms: 1
Bathrooms: 1
Sleeps: 3
Type: CabinApartment Lady Harvington
Description from the manager
Apartment Lady Harvington in Haus Wichje lies in the lovely area of Winkelmatten, on the outskirts of Zermatt. The local supermarket, ski bus stop and restaurants are on your doorstep, it is an 8 minute walk to the Matterhorn departure station and a further 3 minutes into the centre of the village.
Apartment Lady Harvington, is on the 1st floor (Lift), comprising one twin bedroom, bathroom (bath/shower/wc), lounge / dining room, fully-equipped open-plan kitchen, cable TV with English programmes, radio/CD player, telephone and internet connection. South-facing balcony with exceptional Matterhorn views.
Additional amenities include: washer/dryer, ...Read more
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Apartment Lady Harvington
Zermatt, Valais, Switzerland
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This fairy-tale alpine resort is the home of the fabled Matterhorn and one of Switzerland's oldest alpine resorts. A unique car-free village offering the splendour of the highest alpine peaks and the sporting and leisure facilities of an international destination.
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Boutique hotel located very close to the city center...clean, contemporary, and excellent service! The room was spacious with a beautiful bathroom and nice amenities! Would definitely stay here again.
Tip: the 4 tram stops right outside the hotel, takes you smack in the middle of Dam Square in less than 7 mins
- Official Description (provided by the hotel):
- Hotel Notting Hill Amsterdam is a boutique design hotel, in which you will feel right at home. The hotel is situated in an attractive and historic building in the heart of the bustling city of Amsterdam. Discover Amsterdam from your doorstep with Leidseplein Square, Rembrandtplein Square and the Museum Quarter right around the corner. The blend of classic elements, modern facilities and historic features make this former governmental building a perfect place to stay in Amsterdam. This stylish luxury hotel is the key address for cosmopolitan and international travelers. ... more less
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Yahoo Pushing Vertical Search Through More Yahoo Shortcuts
Yahoo! Shortcuts must be working for searchers and for Yahoo!
Starting last week, I noticed Yahoo prompting me a lot more to search for retailer coupons, flights from city to city and movie showtimes – all which trigger a Yahoo Shortcut. While shortcuts have been around for a while, this is the first time I remember Yahoo prompting me over and over use them before I've completed a search.
I've gotten used to getting this after a generic search:
But these showed up when I went to search.yahoo.com or my.yahoo.com:
If you want to learn more about these vertical search results creeping into the main results, check out the series I wrote for SearchDay: Yahoo! Shortcuts, Google OneBox, Microsoft Instant Answers, and Ask Smart Answers.
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Butlers Corners is a populated place located in Chittenden County at latitude 44.51 and longitude -73.084.
The elevation is 518 feet. Butlers Corners appears on the Essex Center U.S. Geological Survey Map. Chittenden County is in the Eastern Time Zone (UTC -5 hours).
Chittenden County: Cities & Towns | ZIP Codes | Schools | Features (airports, churches, hospitals, etc.)
BIG Map |
Driving Directions |
Data Source - USGS GNIS FID: 1456701
BOUNDARY MAPS: Town of Essex | Chittenden County
Butlers Corners, VT
(< 0.1 mile)
Pages Corner, VT (1.9 miles NNE)
Essex Junction, VT (1.9 miles SW)
North Williston, VT (3.6 miles SSE)
Colchester, VT (3.9 miles NW)
Kirby Corner, VT
(4.3 miles SSW)
Jericho, VT (4.3 miles E)
Bowman Corners, VT (4.5 miles NNE)
Williston, VT (5.1 miles S)
Winooski, VT (5.1 miles WSW)
Essex Center, VT
(1.4 miles E)
Tafts Corner, VT (4.3 miles SSW)
Nourses Corner, VT (6.1 miles WNW)
Brookside, VT (6.1 miles NNE)
Oakledge Park, VT (8.2 miles WSW)
Redstone Park, VT
(8.3 miles WSW)
Bernard J Leddy Park, VT (8.5 miles W)
Thayer Beach, VT (9.1 miles WNW)
East Georgia, VT (11.8 miles N)
Huntsville, VT (14 miles NNE)


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Elux ranges - 'baking drawer'
I'm looking to replace my range and am considering Elux & Bosch (or maybe Bosch Benchmark). I just read a review about an Elux slide-in range that mentioned the 2nd oven, aka "baking drawer" isn't much more than a toaster oven/higher powered warming drawer. The post said there was a thread about this, but I can't find it. Comparing it to a toaster oven isn't all that bad, IMO. I use my toaster oven alot to heat up things for the kids (much faster than heating up the oven if it's something small). I was just trying to get some real-world feedback on the baking drawer. How well does it work? Does it heat up quickly, etc? If that drawer heats very quickly and can cook something at about 350, that could be a game changer (as I could free up counter space by eliminating the toaster oven!). For me, that's one of the difference between Elux & Bosch for slide-in ranges.
Thanks so much!
The quip about the Elux's lower oven being "warming drawer with delusions of granduer" came from weedmeister and Co-Co in the middle of this thread. (I'd like to claim credit for the nice turn of phrase, but credit should be given where it is due.)
Co-co, chac-mool and other owners have posted about the lower oven in several threads including these:
hope this helps.
This post was edited by JWVideo on Tue, May 20, 14 at 17:16
I can't claim the delusions of grandeur, but agree!
I rarely use mine, but it does come in handy in a pinch when cooking a large meal with different temperatures. I, like you, thought that perhaps it would act more like a toaster oven and heat up quickly given it's smaller size... I have not found this to be true. In fact, it might heat up slightly more slowly due to no convection. I've never bothered to test it.
As reported in other threads, I have baked a pie, pizza, and some other dishes in it. I prefer the bigger oven and use it 99% of the time.
Okay, couldn't resist the experiment! Lower warming oven (from cold start, big oven not on) took 13:38.27 to reach 350.
*note: this is on 40A circuit, as we didn't change it to 50A. I think that only matters for the stovetop, but just in case I thought I'd add that info*
This post was edited by Co-Co on Wed, May 21, 14 at 19:11
Thanks so much JWVideo & Co-Co.
But 13-1/2 mins to preheat...yikes! The very quick preheat is one of the primary reason I use my toaster oven so much. In 13-1/2 mins, my kids could already be eating their chicken nuggets I cooked in our (less than grandeur) Oster toaster oven! :-)
Thanks again for the help. Now I know that when looking at the pros and cons of each range, the "second oven" isn't exactly a strong 'pro'. I'd have to imagine it's also quite a pain to use since it's practically on the floor! Thanks again for the insight!
Co-Co, thanks go the real world data. I agree with the OP that is way too long for regular toaster oven like use. I had hoped to replace my toaster oven with a double oven range + microwave drawer but might reconsider the more expensive speed oven+single range combo.


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Therapy dogs
Have any of you ever taken your pet to the local hospitals/nursing homes for visitation with the patients/residents?
How was the experience?
I am thinking of doing this and would like to hear pros and cons from any of you.
my best friends teacup Chi goes on visits. She mostly goes to retirement homes or nursing homes, she found the develomentally disabled people a bit too rough for her dog (top weight 3lbs) other than that, the dog ust be clean, certificates presented, and an orientation usually takes place. This was all done through a volunteer organization. Most of the "visits" last less than an hour. One major drawback is people trying to get you to commit to visiting them more or bringing them something which is against the rules. I suggest you contact the local volunteer organization or the places you are interested in visiting and determine their rules. Good luck
It feels great. I didn't take my dog to a nursing home per se. We lived right next to an old age home and the seniors would sit outside everyday to wait for us to walk past. I always made sure we stopped by for a little visit. They loved it. Of course when I didn't necessarily have time for a visit it was always hard to disappoint them. But we saw them everyday...even in the winter some of them would brave the cold to come sit outside and wait for us.
Two of my Australian Shepherds are certified therapy dogs and we go to local nursing homes and hospitals and we participate in the children reading to dogs program at our local library. With my male, we are committed to one Sunday every month. My female is recovering from knee surgery so we have taken some time off as the lineoleum floors are too slippery for her. I love going as do my dogs. We are certified through Therapy Dogs International. (TDI) Check them out on line. Its a wonderful thing to do and the residents love it. Many non-communicative residents open up when we visit and the feedback we get from their family members who visit can bring tears to my eyes. For some dogs it is a bit overwhelming, so you have to know your dog and watch for signs of stress. My male especially eats up all the attention and its been nothing but a positive experience for all of us. Best of luck to you, I hope you find it as rewarding as we do.
I have certified 3 of my greyhounds as therapy dogs and we have been volunteering for over 5 years now. We love it. We have participated in a Reading Program for elementary school kids, and visit an Assisted Living and a residential home for the severely developmentally disabled weekly. It is truly rewarding. I try to match the activity to the dog's preference -- one adores children, one prefers seniors, and my boy just loves everyone! We keep our visits under an hour usually.
Not all facilities require official "TD" certification, but I think it is wise to get it if you can. I like having the insurance and found the *human* training and organizational support really useful. TDI is a great organization, as is Delta Pet Partners. The testing criteria for the dogs is online if you go to their respective sites. If neither have chapters near you, there are also many smaller local organizations that are excellent and some hospitals have their own pet therapy programs.
Good luck!
My dog is also certified through TDI. We go once a week to a nursing home and we both love it. It's such a rewarding feeling.
I am also in the process of filling out paperwork to go to a terminally ill children's hospital, and in September my dog and I will begin visiting UCP (United Cerebral Palsy) for once a month assemblies (with about 60 children). Can't wait.
Several years ago I started the process of getting her certified through Delta Society, but it seemed so tedious. Maybe it is different now though. TDI was much easier in terms of time and steps to get the certification.
I just wanted to add that my dog is paralyzed and in a wheelchair, so the nursing home adults LOVE her! They really relate to her since most are in wheelchairs themselves. I'm sure it will be great for the CP kids to see that even dogs have disabilities. When she started using the wheelchair, that's when I decided to go back and finish the certification - so glad I did.
There is some research into the risk of therapy dogs acquiring MRSA and Clostridium dificile infections. One study found therapy dogs in health care settings were 6 times as likely to acquire MRSA than therapy dogs in non-health care settings. Good hygiene should minimize the risk to people. There is more information here:
Here is a link that might be useful: AVMA backgrounder on MRSA in therapy dogs
Wow...I read that whole article and the FAQ's as well, and now I'm quite worried. The staff member who accompanies me and Sawyer on our visits to the geriatric hospital (which has both long-term and acute care floors) carries a container of sanitizing wipes for the patients to use AFTER they pet my dog. Sometimes I see these patients wiping their nose right before petting her, or their hands just don't look clean.
I now would like to ask her if she can have the patients use the wipes before AND after they pet her, but I don't feel very comfortable. Also, each patient only pets the dog for a minute or less due to the amount of patients that request pet therapy in the one hour we have to stick to - and I feel strange asking the recreational manager to wash the patient's hands before and after, when they are only petting the dog for a brief moment. I already know she'd be uptight to take up so much time, which I do understand since we are on a tight schedule.
For others here who volunteer in health care settings, what is the protocol there? If it is like mine, are you thinking of asking them to change it?


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No rest for health care fraud enforcement in metro Detroit: AG charges 9 in past 10 days
Investigations involving Detroit and Pittsfield Township medical clinics resulted in charges against physicians and their co-workers.
Crain's Detroit Business is a metered site. Print and digital subscribers have unlimited access to stories, but registered users are limited to eight stories every 30 days. After viewing three metered stories, you'll be asked to register or log in. After eight more stories in 30 days, you'll be asked to subscribe.
Grosse Pointe Park's Cornwall Bakery, a European-style bakery known for its artisan breads and pastries, recently started offering breakfast and lunch. Who's hungry for croissants and soup?
Investigations involving Detroit and Pittsfield Township medical clinics resulted in charges against physicians and their co-workers.
The closing on the $20 million purchase of a 382-unit senior living complex in Southfield yesterday marked one of the final deals to sell off a local investor's real estate portfolio for around $60 million.
In this special report, founders of Nikki's Ginger Tea and Coliant Corp. give lessons in letting go.
Promising discounted rent to Northland Center retailers for one year, property owners in the Indian Hill district of Pontiac are looking to make Southfield's loss downtown Pontiac's gain.
In 1986 and 1987, 11.7 million new square feet of office space opened in metro Detroit. It was unprecedented ... but is the region still paying the consequences?
Northland Center's closure, approved by an Oakland County judge last week, has been a long time coming. But 50 years ago, with a Hudson's store as an anchor for 110 other retailers, Northland was a global wonder.
The planned closure follows news that Macy's department store, the last remaining anchor tenant of Northland Center — the largest shopping center in the world when it opened in the 1950s — would close its Northland location.
Pending approval, the deal will add $93 million in assets to the larger Ferndale-based Credit Union One.
The 9-year-old community bank in Milford said it hit an important milestone in 2014.
Janet Tyler, the former co-CEO of Airfoil Group, a Southfield-based public relations and marketing firm, has been named the COO of Red Level Networks, an IT services and consulting firm based in Novi.
The U.S. Marine Corps could have a new military ground vehicle program worth more than $1.5 billion up for bids by April, from defense contractors in Southeast Michigan and elsewhere.
Ruth's Chris Steak House chain will open its third Michigan location in late April, its architect says.


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Puzzler for June 28, 2006
Bruce Adolphe returns with another Piano Puzzler, in which he disguises a popular tune in the style of a well-known classical composer. This week's contestant is Maggie Zadikov of Portland, Ore.
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Performances take place at Mae Wilson Theatre, Peacock Auditorium, Zion United Church, and Mosaic Place.
Four full days of non-competitive performances of concert and jazz bands, concert choirs and vocal jazz for fun and education. Guest artists to be announced. Night shows 6:30pm and 8pm.
Visit the Moose Jaw Band & Choral Festival website right now
Box 883
Moose Jaw, SK S6H 4P5
Tel: (306) 692-0563
Email: email@example.com
Website: http://www.mjbandfestival.com
11-May-2015 to 14-May-2015
Rate details: Free daytime performances. Night shows $5 adults and students.
Full wheelchair access
Information in this listing is subject to change at any time. Please contact the organizer to verify that information is accurate.