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Havel: For young radicals or middle aged and middle of the road?
Václav Havel has lent his name and inspiration to many events and movements. His dissident writings have been translated into Arabic, serving as point of reference for activists and thinkers contemplating entrenched but brittle authoritarian regimes.
More expectedly, perhaps Havel's is a liberal oppositionists in Putin's Russia which – as Havel himself suggested in later life – has seen communist structures morph into a new repressive structures. So it's no surprise to see a Guardian commentary by Natalie Nougayrède that flags Havel and the Central European dissident movement as inspiration for young, radical left movements that have emerged in Western and South Europe.
It's a balanced piece, which notes the obvious differences between normalisation era Czechoslovakia regime and the far more open and competitive political and social systems of Western Europe. The typewriter and carbon paper technology of 1970 and 80s samizdat is also clearly a world away from networked and internet-based communications of the early 21st century – even for those fighting authoritarian regimes thumb drives and encryption software have replaced clandestine printing and duplicating.
And Nougayrède is surely right when she suggests Václav Havel is in some ways an unlikely source of inspiration for Podemos, Syriza and similar movements (themselves often the products of mash-up of various heterodox Marxist traditions, Trotskyist, Maoist, Euro-communist etc)
The sharp critique of Western societies Havel expressed in his writing of 1970s and 1980s as somewhat less extreme version of a single impersonal technocratic mass civilization mellowed after the fall of communism into a pragmatic, if critical, acceptance of conventional parliamentary democracy, capitalism and the European Union. Havel's disdain for party politics and big scale economics also saw him quickly outmanoeuvred after 1989 by opponents, on both left and right, who realised more quickly than he did both that parties were necessary workhorses of democracy and that voters' concerns about economic security and prosperity needed addressing head on. Read More…
Comrade Baggins? When Middle Earth met Middle Europe
It's not difficult to Christmas shop for my nephew. Any of an array of Hobbit-branded products drawing on the latest New Zealand -filmed Peter Jackson blockbuster franchise would do. I settled on a DVD, a map of Middle Earth and a poster-sized calendar.
But – to borrow Timothy Garton Ash's quip about Central Europe–tell me your Middle Earth and I'll tell you who you are.
An interesting meme has been doing the rounds of the Czech internet in the past year: a review (or so we are told) of The Lord of the Rings published in 1977 in the (then) central organ of the Czechoslovak Communist Party Rudé právo denounced Tolkien's fantasy masterpiece as a work of thinly disguised bourgeois and imperialist propaganda:
The Kingdom of Evil belching smoke and ash is transparently located in the East. The working class, uniting to build heavy industry by the sweat of its brow, is depicted as revolting and evil orcs. (…) Those living the West – overflowing lands of milk and honey – the elves (that is the aristocracy), men (bourgeoisie) and hobbits (farmers) on the other hand live a prosperous life (although it is not explained how they get it) and their only problem is the 'threat' from the East.
The 'forces of good' are represented by a set of representatives of these reactionary circles… Their leader is Gandalf, a spreader of reactionary ideologies, which keep the population in ignorance and fear of progress. (…)
Small wonder then that Saruman, the defender of the oppressed and friend of progress, is branded a traitor and his stronghold is destroyed by a band of fanatical reactionaries. When he spread socialism to the Shire he is caught and subject to punishment without trial by the hobbits supported and paid by the capitalist powers of Gondor… But socialism cannot be destroyed by throwing its relics, not even its most sacred relics, into the fire. Hold out against encirclement by your reactionary neighbours Mordor!
It was not entirely clear if the review is real. As it turned out it was a clever pastiche. No date, scant referencing and no trace of in the archives. And, of courses, rather too much of hint of tongue-in-cheek for the notoriously humourless Rudé právo.
But that's beside the point. It is exactly what Rudé právo could, or should have written about Lord of The Rings in mid-1970s. Moreover, the pastiche does seem to have drawn heavily on real Communist-era article published in Poland in 1971.
Because Communist regimes did have a problem with Tolkien and particularly with Lord of the Rings. Read More…
Eastern Europe 25 years on: catching up or catching cold?
25 years on from the fall of communism, the Wall Street Journal recently told its readers, Central and Eastern Europe is still playing catch-up. The reasons are mainly economic and infrastructural. Too little growth by the standards of the Asian tigers. Too few high speed rail links. Not enough motorways. Viktor Orbán bossing it over Hungary in an ever more worrying project of illiberal transformation. A bad subsidy habit fed by an indulgent EU. A Middle Income Development Trap waiting to be sprung. And –when did this ever happen before? – progress that " has fallen short of what many of its citizens had hoped".
But we shouldn't be too harsh. The WSJ is not particularly well known for the quality of its CEE reporting. And this occasion it's absolutely right: Central and Eastern Europe is playing catch-up. The politics of catch-up, rather than geography or culture or post-communism, are probably what define the region best. If it wasn't catching up, it wouldn't be Central and Eastern Europe. Historians of East Central Europe such as Andrew C. Janos or Ivan Berend have long been preoccupied by the region's long-term efforts to push its levels of socioeconomic– and political – development into line Europe's core West European states – although they have sometimes bluntly simply spoken of "backwardness".
The post-1989 project of European integration and enlargement, although more usually referred to in terms of 'convergence' or 'Return to Europe' is also all about one catch-up – and a very ambitious form of catch-up: overcoming deeply rooted east-west divide, which as Janos and others have noted, predates the Cold War division of Europe. Enlargement and integration – and liberal reform in CEE generally –been sold politically on the basis that the poor, historically peripheral societies of CEE will (and after a painful process of adjustment) reap the full benefits of prosperity, social welfare, democracy and freedom enjoyed by core West European societies that had the good luck to stay out of of the Soviet zone of influence after WWII.
If, in the long term, integration fails to deliver, there may be significant consequences both for the EU and for the fate of democracy and liberal institutions in Central and East European countries themselves. As recent developments in Hungary show, liberal and democratic reforms are not irreversible or consolidated as once thought or hoped. If the European project fails to deliver catch-up – or the Western model CEE was busy catching up on with proves exhausted and unattractive – it will exacerbate both centrifugal pressures in the EU and erosion of democracy in some or all of CEE. There is the uncomfortable possibility that in his nationalistic rejection of liberalism, Viktor Orbán may be a leader rather than a laggard as far as the future direction of the region is concerned – the Central European vanguard of the revolt against a broken Western model that Pankaj Mishra sees rippling out from Asia. Read More…
Czech democracy: the wheel turns full circle
In the immediate aftermath of the fall of communism many Western analysts feared that, far from 'returning to Europe', Central and Eastern Europe would slip into a spiral of Latin-American style instability and authoritarianism.
Stanford professor Ken Jowitt predicted that 'demagogues, priests and colonels more than democrats' would shape the region's future, while Polish-American political scientist Adam Przeworski famously wrote that the 'East has become the South'.
Even as astute an observer of the region as Timothy Garton Ash was moved to conclude in mid-1990 that 'Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia are the countries where the fate of democracy hangs in the balance today'.
But the region quickly confounded the doomsayers. Central Europe emerged as one the most successful newly democratizing regions in the post-Cold War world. Many states including the Czech Republic made smooth and rapid progress to OECD and EU membership and were soon marked down by Western political scientists as consolidated, if flawed democracies. In the Czech case, the flaws were readily apparent. The democracy that emerged was, for example, far from the optimistic vision of a prosperous, settled Central European state sketched out by Václav Havel when he looked into the country's future in his 1991 Summer Meditations.
As well as failing to sustain the common state with the Slovaks, Czechs saw overblown claims of a post-communist 'economic miracle' disintegrate amid corruption scandals that ended the Klaus government in 1997. And, while the Czech Republic did generate a stable system of 'standard' parties of left and right recognizable to West European eyes, Havel's warnings that party politics would become the preserve of a caste of career politicians seemed, in hindsight, prophetic.
The strong locally-rooted civil society and political decentralization Havel envisaged as the bedrock of Czech democracy were present only in fragments. Local democracy was too often expressed in the murky world of municipal politics and a system of belatedly implemented regional government that become a still greater byword for corruption. Non-ideological consensus politics that Havel and others hoped would be a defining feature of Czech democracy have existed only in bastardised form of Grand Coalitions and power-sharing deals that had more to do with dividing the spoils of office than agreeing inclusive, balanced policies.
To most outside observers, however, the Czech Republic remained one of a belt of successful, stable Central European democracies, scoring well on most indices of governance, reform, and democracy, albeit with a clear lag behind West European democracies. Most would have agreed with the assessment of the Hungarian economist and political scientist Béla Greskovits that CEE states, including the Czech Republic, had created poor quality, but essentially 'crisis-proof' democracies where market economics co-existed in 'low equilibrium' with democratic politics.
However, following the enlargement of European Union in 2004 and, particularly, the onset of the global economic downturn and the Eurozone crisis, many commentators have started to view the future of Central Europe in much darker terms seeing the onset of 'democratic backsliding' or a 'democratic recession'. Hungary has been at the centre of such concerns. The metamorphosis of Viktor Orbán from pro-Western Christian Democrat to authoritarian populist exploiting an electoral landslide to impose an illiberal constitution, rein in the media and emasculate the judiciary, was particularly shocking.
In 2012 Romania's Prime Minister Victor Ponta tried similarly to exploit a landslide election victory to overturn of established procedures and strip away constitutional checks and balances to unseat his country's president Trajan Basescu. Elsewhere voters across CEE have turned not to establishment strongmen but to a range of to protest parties ranging from Poland's ultra-liberal Palikot Movement to neo-fascists of Jobbik in Hungary. Where does the Czech Republic fit into this picture? Read More…
Will the West become the East?
"I included a dummy for Eastern Europe" the presenter said, explaining the statistical methodology in her paper.
You have, you see, to control for the unknowable, complex bundle of historical peculiarities that mark out one half of the continent's democracies from the other and might skew your results.
"But not just a dummy for Western Europe?" my colleague and I mischievously wondered.
Silly question. of course. And we didn't ask it. Most comparative political science research –West European democracies in the old (pre-2004) EU as their point of departure. Most political science theories and paradigms have been framed on the experience of established (or as they are sometimes termed 'advanced') democracies of Western Europe and the United States. Many political models, – of democracy, interest group politics or party organisation – are abstractions and distillations of the experience Western Europe.
The task of those studying Eastern and Central Europe typically been an exercise in model fitting, of noticing and measuring up the gaps – like a tailor trying to fix up a suit made for someone else with quick alterations. Eastern Europe – despite geographical and cultural proximity success of democratisation and liberal institution building – is not Western Europe.
The normative question lurking in the background is, of course, that of catch-up and convergence: when will Central and Eastern Europe become more like Western Europe? When would it consolidate 'Western-style democracy'? Read More…
Teaching Eastern Europe: A course by any other name?
Like most British academics I'm loath to put any of my courses through multiple committees merely for a change of name. But sometimes you come to a point where you just know that the old name's old name's just got to go.
The Politics of Transition and Integration in Central and Eastern Europe course has evolved since I started teaching it some ten years ago. Less on communism, more on the EU. Out with Democratic Consolidation, in with Quality of Democracy. Downplay ethnic conflict, foreground state-building and welfare state reform. Fond farewell (sniff) to George Schöpflin's book on Eastern Europe and the 'condition of post-communism'. Hello to a new generation of work on leverage and democracy in CEE with sharper methodology and fewer Shakespearean quotes.
Oh and make a small, small berth on reading list for Theories of European Disintegration alongside Andrew Moravcsik and Frank Schimmelfenning onwhy the EU integrated and why it expanded.
And yes the end, there are no two ways about it. That name too will have to change, paperwork or no paperwork. Transition, at least in the democratisation sense of the word, is almost a historical topic. And integration (well EU membership anyway) is ten
But the difficult question, of course, now is what do I call it? If the region's current politics are no defined by transition and integration, what does define them? Read More…
An 'Arab 1989' in 1989?
When the Arab Spring broke out two years ago, and there were plenty of commentaries about the Arab 1989. And, perhaps against their better judgement, many specialists on Eastern Europe – including me – piled in to muse about the lessons post communist transitions might hold for unfolding democratisation in the Middle East and North Africa.
A few of these, such as the lecture Thomas Carothers of the Carnegie Foundation gave at UCL well thought through and insightful. But in hindsight many of these pieces did not go further than juxtaposition seasoned with a dose of speculation.
Having witnessed the academic spats of the 1990s when East European area studies got bogged down in polemics with comparative political scientists, in part driven by anguish and reproach over the failure of area specialists to anticipate the collapse of Communism, perhaps we should have known better.
The military intervention in Egypt and the brutal and tenacious resistance of the Assad regime in Syria – and the apparent internationalization of the Syrian civil war – have caught many commentators flat-footed. There doesn't seem to be so much writing about the Arab 1989 (or even 1848) now.
One of the biggest problems of such current affairs driven, instant cross-regional analysis is that we hardly know the beginning of the story, still less its end. To put it in the jargon of political science, we do not have a consolidated outcome.
But perhaps, in any case, the question is the wrong way round. Rather than East Europeanists pondering what post-communist transition tell us what the unfinished story of the Arab Spring, we should asking what events in the Middle East tell us about post-communist region we actually (supposedly) know something about. Maybe we should view events in Eastern Europe in a new light.
The tenacity of regime resistance and ongoing instability driven by poverty and conflicts between political religion and the more secular groups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) certainly makes what Ralf Dahrendorf anticipated would be Central and Eastern Europe's 'vale of tears' look relatively quick, speedy and benign. The rapid reassertion of entrenched regime forces in the failed or failed transition in the former Soviet Union also begins to look more the norm than it once did. Read More…
Pussy Riot: Russia's Plastic People?
The widely criticised detention and trial of the three members of the Russian feminist punk collective Pussy Riot, now awaiting verdicts in Moscow on charges of 'hooliganism' for an anti-Putin protest happening at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour has been widely – and rightly – reported as a litmus test of the nature of power and opposition in contemporary Russia.
But for anyone with a slightly longer historical memory – and an interest in East European affairs – it also has echoes of earlier trial of a group of muscians in a politically constructed trial four decades ago: that of the Plastic People of the Universe in communist Czechoslovakia in 1976 on a charge of 'organised disturbance of the peace'.
Having stemmed popular protest following the Soviet-led invasion in 1968 that had terminated the Prague Spring reforms and then a variety of organised political groups in the early 1970s, Czechoslovakia's hardline communist rulers wished to complete the 'normalisation' of the country by sending a powerful and intimdating signal to artists, intellectuals and young people with unconventional tastes.
Plastic People 1976 from Charta77 on Vimeo.
Subsequent jail sentences for the long-haired Plastici ranged from eight to 18 months. Outrage over the trial provided the key impetus for the diverse groups to coalesce into the Charter 77 movement, creating the peaceful civic dissent that eventually provided the political leadership for the 1989 Velvet Revolution.
In some ways Pussy Riot trial seems to offer direct parallels. An authoritarian regime with no real ideology which has emerged in the wake of a failed democratic experiment seeks to reassert its potentially fragile social control itself by making an example of a rebellious non-conformist musicians with an English name.
A trial with a veneer of legality – and large doses of bathos and farce – ensures and proceeds to a predictable, politically fixed conclusion. Custododial sentences for loosely framed public offence seem a distinct possibility. But in seeking to dish out exemplary punishment and send a signal to sectors of society inclined towards protest and opposition, the regime miscalculates. The trial creates a focus for a diverse national and international coalition
But the Pussy Riot trial also underlines how authoritarianism and opposition have moved on. Czechoslovakia's Plastici were alternative, avant-garde and deeply at odds with their cultural and artistic values of the regime, but were in no sense a political opposition. Left alone they would probably have eked out an existence as part of a marginal underground sub-culture. But while happy to see people retreat into private and family life, Czechoslovakia's communist 'normalisers' were determined to monopolise public space and seek and crush pockets of organised cultural and social non-conformity.
Putin's more modernised post-Soviet regime wouldn't have bothered.
It has learned the lesson that, provided the commanding heights of media and economy are securely under control, society can be kept on a much looser leash.
As various in-the-field projects written by SSEES students about St Petersburg punks and Moscow football hooligans attest, marginal sub-cultures happily flourish on the fringes of contemporary Russian society.
It is independent political activity and political protest that brings a sharp, brutal tug on the leash. For while they might share some of their avant-garde aethetics and style, unlike the Plastics, Pussy Riot are clearly in the business of overt, provocative political opposition – opposition intended to be seen and heard as widely as possible.
The two trials also highlights changes in the breadth, gender and social composition of those involved in anti-regime protest in Eastern Europe. While the Plastics of 1970s – like the later Czech dissident cultural and intellectual elites their trial helped give rise to- were exclusively male, with wives and female partners very much in the background. Pussy Riot's identity, impact and elan, by contrast, stem from the fact that its members are young, female and feminist – although the Western media, well accustomed to kick-ass punk heroines, doesn't dwell on the gender politics.
Where the two historical moments seem to touch, however, is in highlighting the underlying continuties of an over-powerful (post-)communist power apparatus accountable neither to law, nor society.
Pussy Riot's commitment to
… horizontal political activity, self-organization and the capability to be aware of oneself as an equal participant in civil politics, to understand one's rights and fight for them to develop…
would be immediately comprehensive to even the most non-hip, conservative Chartist of the 1970s or 80s, as well as to those like Havel with more obviously Bohemian cultural leanings, although its feminism, anti-sexism and libertarian leftism and in-your-face political militancy would probably be less palatable. Also deeply familiar across the the gap of decades and countries is the absence of the rule of law, facade of independent legal process and the obvious political pliability of judges and courts.
Whatever the sentences next week, the final unanswered question is if and how the Pussy Riot trial will have the politically galavanising effect similar to that of the Plastics forty years ago. Putin's Russia is not Communist Czechoslovakia whose apparent strength eventually proved so brittle, but a far more adaptable and multifaceted regime whose hard to grasp mix of concession, repression and regression may be altogether tougher to crack.
Populism in Central and Eastern Europe Spectres of moderation?
Radicalism and extremism, especially of the far-right variety, hold an enduring hypnotic fascination for political scientists and journalists.
Extremist populism and illiberal movements more generally, we are told, relentlessly on the rise in both Western and Eastern Europe.
In countries such Austria or Flanders radical right parties have stacked up sufficient votes to become as major political players and contenders for government office. Elsewhere in countries such as France, Norway, Denmark they have sufficient electoral clout to influence the parliamentary arithmetic and help make the political weather.
And just look the electoral breakthroughs in the past couple of years of the True Finns, the Sweden Democrats or Hungary's Jobbik.
Or the illiberal leanings of mainstream parties of the right in Poland, Hungary and Latvia. Remember the brouhaha about the British Conservatives' East European allies?
Indeed, instability, populism and extremism Central and Eastern Europe is surely where it's at – or where it will be at. Authoritarian nationalism traditions, high unemployment, vulnerable open economies, rampant corruption, the end of EU conditionality and minority nationalities and Roma minorities acting as functional substitutes for the multiculturalism Western Europe.
But, of course, it isn't
Social conditions and ethnic make-up in CEE region as a variable as they are in Western Europe, if not more so. And, if far right and illiberal populists have recently broken through big time in Hungary and (slightly smaller time) in Bulgaria with the rise of the Ataka bloc in Bulgaria, they are so far going nowhere electorally most other countries in the region.
National Parties in Slovakia and Slovenia have a maintained marginal parliamentary presence, based on a vote share of around 5% the Greater Romania Party is out of parliament despite a bounce in the 2009 Euro-elections and the Polish populist-nationalist right (or left, I'm never sure) collapsed.
As Cas Mudde shrewdly observed in 2002 extremist movements in Central and Eastern Europe have tended – and this trend has, interestingly, so far endured even in the difficult political and economic times we now live in – to bite the dust as often as they have risen from the deck to sock it to established parties.
But there is a spectre of populism haunting Central and Eastern Europe, which should give us pause,
But this one isn't a scary monster, but a political will-o'-the-wisp that often gets missed: a new breed of anti-establishment party lambasting the political class in time honoured style but which combines mainstream, moderate, modernising priorities with a potent and uneven cocktail of appeals embracing anti-corruption, political reform, e-politics, ethical government, novelty or sheer entertainment value.
Led by a diverse array of anti-politicians – aristocrats, academics, artists, technocrats, bankers, businessmen, bloggers, journalists, entertainers – such parties have scored a series of sometime spectacular electoral victories, which can put even the best performing far-right ethno-populists distinctly in the shade, and lead directly to government office: New Era in Latvia in 1998, the Simeon II National Movement in Bulgaria in 2001, Res Publica in Estonia in 2003 and last year TOP09 and Public Affairs (VV) in the Czech Republic.
While often fissiparous and short-lived such 'centrist populist' protest parties, to borrow Peter Účen's phrase, seem to spreading and growing phenomenon: Lithuania has no fewer than three such coming up through the political mainstream in successive elections: the New Union (2000), the (mis-named) Labour Party (2004) and in the 2008 elections the National Resurrection Party founded by former TV presenter and producer Arūnas Valinskas, who seems to have been a mix between Chris Tarrant and Simon Cowell.
As Kevin Deegan-Krause observed the new breed of anti-political mainstream protest party is a slippery and multifaceted thing.
…. not exactly a new party family (though in their cultural liberalism and anti-corruption emphases they share significant elements) and not exactly a new party type … but with strong and intersecting elements of both. Nor is it unique to Central Europe alone but elements of it have emerged also in the West
My UCL colleague Allan Sikk and I nevertheless decided to have a go at pinning down this new phenomenon more precisely, focusing in the first instance on Central and Eastern Europe, presenting some of our findings in a paper (downloadable here) at last month's ECPR General Conference in Reykjavik.
Analysing elections in the region since 1998 using Charles Ragin's Qualitative Comparative Analysis technique we found no single story.
But we did find that these Anti-Establishment Reform Parties, as we called them, broke through electorally in three distinct sets of circumstances:
- When relatively narrow core of established mainstream parties, flanked by strong radical outsiders, faces a deteriorating social situation characterised by rising corruption and/or rising unemployment.
- When established governing parties of the mainstream pro-market right fail to engage new or re-mobilised voters.
- When the left or market sceptic conservative-nationalist are in office and opposition mainstream pro-market right – and the party system generally – is weakly consolidated and/or fragmented
Sometimes these circumstance overlap, sometimes they run in sequence, but – while radical outsiders have walk on part – what matters, unsurprisingly, is the abilily of mainstream, big tent governing parties to hold together and retain a grip on corruption and the economy to stem electoral insurgencies, which are likely to be angry, anti-political, often offbear but decided – destabilisingly – mainstream.
And like the patchy rise of the far-right, such trends – as Kevin Deegan-Krause notes above and shrewder journalists have also already spotted are not be confined to the rarified political climate of Central and Eastern Europe. When Silvio Berlusconi and Forza Italia burst onto the Italian political scene in 1994, people could have been forgiven for thinking it was just a strange denouement to Italy's unique corrupt post-war politics.
Now you could be forgiven for wondering if varieties of personality-centred, broadly liberal sometimes) neo-liberal anti-establishment poilitics might gradually be infiltrating in way into more established democracies andbecoming a more Europe-wide phenomenon.
The Pirate Party has just entered the Berlin legislature with 8.5% of the vote and when we met them in a break in the ECPR conference, Iceland's anarchic Best Party (see trailer for forthcoming documentary) founded by comedian Jón Gnarr which emerged as the city's largest party last year (33%), turned out to be among the more focused and serious political outfits we had come across professionally.
When UEA's Sanna Inthorn and John Street rhetorically titled a paper on young citizens and celebrity politics 'Simon Cowell For Prime Minister?' they may perhaps not have been so far behind the curve.


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My Crazy Beautiful Life
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In less than three years, I've gone from being the worst waitress in LA to living out my childhood dreams of singing my songs to people all over the world. Sometimes, it feels as if the last few years have encompassed a few decades. . . . You might have heard my voice on the radio, seen me onstage and on the red carpet, or in a music video, but that's only a part of the story. In these pages, I'm revealing a more complete picture of what my life is really like. It's not all glamorous and it's not all pretty, but it's all real. . . . I want you to come on a whirlwind journey with an all-access pass to My Crazy Beautiful Life.
Touchstone; November 2012
200 pages; ISBN 9781476704197
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Title: My Crazy Beautiful Life
Author: Ke$ha
200 pages; ISBN 9781476704197
Download in secure PDF format
Title: My Crazy Beautiful Life
Author: Ke$ha
Buy, download and read My Crazy Beautiful Life (eBook) by Ke$ha today!
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We're still trucking through these 2012 game recommendation gift guides and I have to say, the PS3 holiday gift guide has been especially difficult to write. Not because there weren't a lot of great games released this year, but because there were too many fantastic games released. 2012 was a great year to be a PS3 owners because plenty of quality games made their debut. This means shopping for PS3 owners should be very easy, especially if you decide this is the year to buy someone a PS3.
First, there's the PS3 holiday bundle. This year a really fantastic one is available. It includes a 250GB PS3, one free month of PlayStation Plus, the inFamous Collection that includes inFamous, inFamous 2 and inFamous Festival of Blood and the Uncharted Dual Pack that includes Uncharted and Uncharted 2. The standard price on this bundle is $249.99, but nearly every retailer is selling it a $199.99 doorbuster on November 22 or 23, 2012 as part of their Black Friday 2012 sale.
Assassin's Creed III
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: Action/Adventure
Description: Players meet Connor, an all new assassin who is involved with the American Revolutionary War. This is the first time the series has come to the United States. It also has a robust multiplayer feature for people who want to play online.
Who would want it? Adults who want a historical, open world adventure. Fans of Assassin's Creed.
Borderlands 2
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: FPS / RPG
Description: Four new Vault Hunters have come to Pandora in the hopes of getting rich, finding a challenge and dealing with Handsome Jack.
Who would want it? Adults who want a stylish and fun first person shooter they can play with their friends.
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: Action/Adventure
Description: Players follow Corvo Attano, a framed bodyguard with special powers forced to become an assassin to get revenge on those who ousted him and clear his name.
Who would want it? Older gamers looking for a challenge and a game that has a morality system.
Dragon's Dogma
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating:
Genre: Action RPG
Description: The game begins with a dragon stealing your avatar's heart, making him or her a chosen Arisen that is destined to slay the dragon. The result is a quest around the world to fight monsters and find the dragon.
Who would want it? People looking for an open-world, fantasy RPG that isn't Skyrim.
God of War Saga Collection
Price: $39.99
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: Action
Description: This is a collection that includes God of War, God of War II, God of War III, God of War: Chains of Olympus, and God of War: Ghost of Sparta.
Who would want it? New PS3 owners who have been interested in the series and ae looking forward to God of War: Ascension and want to catch up.
Journey Collector's Edition
Price: $29.99
ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
Genre: Action/Adventure
Description: This collection includes the formerly PSN exclusives Journey, Flower and Flow, as well as three mini-games
Who would want it? People who like artsy games and are playing more for the experience. These are games that could also be considered not-games.
Mass Effect Trilogy
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: Shooter RPG
Description: Players can help Commander Shepard save the galaxy from the alien threat known as the Reapers in Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.
Who would want it? It packs all three Mass Effect games into one collection for people who missed it the first time or just want to have all three games at once. It will be released on December 4, 2012
Persona 4 Arena
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Teen
Genre: Fighting
Description: This 2D fighter from Arc System Works offers an easily understandable combo system, a large cast of characters and a huge story mode that has visual novel elements and acts as a sequel to the PS2/PS Vita RPG Persona 4.
Who would want it? People who enjoy slick, 2D fighters that are easy to play. Fans of the Persona series would want to pick this up as well.
Resident Evil 6
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Mature
Genre: Shooter / Horror
Description: Bio-Organic Weapons are hitting select areas and it's up to Chris Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Jake Muller and Ada Wong must fight against the monsters to prevent an outbreak. The main game has received mixed reviews, but the multiplayer mode is supposed to be quite good.
Who would want it? People who love the Resident Evil games and want a game they can play online with their friends.
Tales of Graces F
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: Teen
Genre: Action RPG
Description: Players follow a young man named Asbel Llant and his friends through the years as they fight a supernatural force that has taken control of a king and hopefully save the world.
Who would want it? People looking for a good, long JRPG.


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Pre-Market: BlackBerry Takeover Bid Due Today; Euro Manufacturing Expands
Vincent Trivett
Two months of US factory orders data are also due.
After four straight weeks of gains on US stock indices, futures indicated a higher opening on Monday.
Before the start of the trading day, stock futures pointed toward a higher opening.
(INDEXDJX:.DJI) futures were up 0.35% at 15,596.00 while futures on the
(INDEXSP:.INX) rose 0.34% to 1,760.70.
(INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) futures climbed 0.49% to 3,384.50.
On today's economic calendar, US factory orders for August are expected to have increased 0.3% after plunging 2.4% in July. September orders will come out as well. Economists forecasts point to a 1.7% rise in September.
European shares are up this morning after countries published purchasing managers' indexes. France was the only country in the region besides Greece to go into a contraction in October. France's PMI reading came in at 49.1, below the breakeven threshold of 50. The pace of German expansion accelerated in October to 51.7 from 51.1 in September. Ireland shot up to a 30-month high of 54.9 and Austria rose to a 28-month high of 52.7. Italy slowed to 50.7 from 50.8. Spain rose to 50.9 from 50.7 as it had the sharpest rise in new orders since February 2011. The European Union as a whole picked up to 51.3 from 51.1.
China's services sector also showed strong growth last month. The country's non-manufacturing PMI rose to 56.3 from 55.4 in September.
Today is the due date for
Fairfax Financial Holdings
(OTCMKTS:FRFHF) to seal its $4.7 billion bid for
(NASDAQ:BBRY). Fairfax has had trouble getting financing for the deal. The firm also saw its losses grow to $569.1 billion in the third quarter. If Fairfax cannot execute the preliminary offer, it might ask for more time. Cerberus Capital,
(NASDAQ:QCOMM), and the original co-founders of the smartphone company might make a joint offer as well. There were even reports that
(NASDAQ:FB) might have an interest in BlackBerry.
The Department of Justice is demanding that
US Airways
(NYCE:LCC) and
AMR Corporation
(OTCMKTS:AAMRQ) to divest airport takeoff and landing slots at several airports before it approves of the merger of the two. The DOJ listed 1,000 routes that the two carriers dominate and competition could be further affected by a merger.
Federal Reserve members Jerome Powell and Eric Rosengren will deliver speeches today that could shed some more light on the central bank's thinking after the recent Federal Open Markets Committee meeting. On CNBC this morning, St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said that the Fed doesn't need to hurry to scale back its $85 billion monthly asset purchases and that inflation is not a concern yet.
No positions in stocks mentioned.
The information on this website solely reflects the analysis of or opinion about the performance of securities and financial markets by the writers whose articles appear on the site. The views expressed by the writers are not necessarily the views of Minyanville Media, Inc. or members of its management. Nothing contained on the website is intended to constitute a recommendation or advice addressed to an individual investor or category of investors to purchase, sell or hold any security, or to take any action with respect to the prospective movement of the securities markets or to solicit the purchase or sale of any security. Any investment decisions must be made by the reader either individually or in consultation with his or her investment professional. Minyanville writers and staff may trade or hold positions in securities that are discussed in articles appearing on the website. Writers of articles are required to disclose whether they have a position in any stock or fund discussed in an article, but are not permitted to disclose the size or direction of the position. Nothing on this website is intended to solicit business of any kind for a writer's business or fund. Minyanville management and staff as well as contributing writers will not respond to emails or other communications requesting investment advice.


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Top Definition
someone who farts on their loved ones!
My dear piss bottom I love you so much, so I will be your piggy boy and pass wind on you!!!
ayon kay piss bottom ika-08 ng Enero, 2012
a honky, a cracker
damn crackers smell like wet dogs
ayon kay Anonymous ika-27 ng Setyembre, 2003


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The University of Maryland field hockey team has been selected as the #1 team in the 2009 Preseason Kookaburra / NFHCA DI Poll. Maryland, coached by Missy Meharg, Tjerk Van Herwaarden, and Marybeth Freeman, will look to repeat their 2008 NCAA title and win their 7th NCAA championship. The rest of the NFHCA rankings include:
1. Maryland
2. Wake Forest
3. Syracuse
4. North Carolina
5. Connecticut
6. Virginia
7. Princeton
8. Michigan State
9. Iowa (Coached by Tracey Griesbaum and Lisa Cellucci)
10. Duke (Coached by Beth Bozman)
16. Old Dominion (Coached by Beth Anders)
Tracey Griesbaum has recently released two new field hockey DVDs titled Positional Skills and Drills for Defense and Positional Skills and Drills for Offense. These DVDs will help you:
Tracey Griesbaum is the Head Field Hockey Coach at the University of Iowa. Griesbaum has compiled more than 100 career wins and has guided the Hawkeyes to Back-to-Back-to-Back Big Ten Tournament Championships ('06, '07, '08)! The Hawkeyes were a National Semifinalist in 2008 and ranked #8 in goals per game (3.30). Griesbaum has also coached the USA Under-21 and Under-23 National Teams.
About Us | Security & Privacy | Shipping | Affiliates | Advertise With Us | Help | Contact Us | Site Map | Drake University Distance Learning | Gift Certificates | Request a Catalog | Print Order Form
© 2016 Championship Productions, Inc.


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Following the success of both, his sophomore album, 8 Year Affair and his mixtape, Music From My Heart, one of Reggae's fastest rising stars, Protoje teamed up with fellow up-and-comer, Chronixx for his latest single, "Who Knows."
With the Winta James-produced hit already creating a buzz on radio stations internationally, the two roots rock revivalists came together once again for the "Who Knows" video, which was released on iTunes earlier this month. Plans for a new album have not been revealed as of yet, but fans should be on the lookout for more music from the Jamaican hit maker before the end of the year.
Protoje has steadily been making a name for himself over the past few years, particularly in places like Africa, the UK and Germany. And with a loyal legion of fans spreading the word via social media the 32-year-old singer/songwriter looks to make his mark on North America as well.
Click here to check out the video for "Who Knows" by Protoje featuring Chronixx.


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Oct. 3, 2000
Growing up a Cougar fan, watching his brother go away to college, dreaming about playing in the Pac-10, those were some of the things that drew sophomore offensive lineman Tyler Hunt to the Palouse.
"It's an honor to play in the Pac-10, it was one of my dreams as a kid," the 280 pound Tacoma resident said. "I never thought I'd be playing for WSU, but I knew I'd be playing in the Pac-10 somewhere."
After redshirting the 1998 season, Hunt played in three games in 1999, including the season-ending win at Hawaii. After a football intensive summer with the other players who chose to stay in Pullman, Hunt has earned himself a starting role on the Cougars young offensive line.
"I felt like I needed to get better," Hunt explained as his reasons for training in Pullman this summer. "As a young player I needed to get stronger, get quicker, anything I could do to get better. I had to sacrifice the summer, that's what it took."
And that sacrifice paid off, moving Hunt's name to the top of the depth chart in the season opener.
"It's exciting," the Wilson High graduate said, "coming in I never imagined starting as a sophomore."
Part of a young offensive line that only included one upperclassman on the starting lineup against Stanford, Hunt realizes the work cut out for him and his teammates this season.
"We're a young group, but I think we can get a lot of things accomplished even though we are young," said Hunt who did not allow a sack in his senior year at Wilson. "It's the same 100-yard field everyone played on in high school, so it's just about coming together and working as a unit."
A humanities major, with an emphasis in English, fine arts and music, Hunt is leaving his options open as to what will come after Cougar football. When not on the football field at WSU, he is a social member of Lambda Kai Alpha, where his brother, a Cougar grad, was formerly president.
In Hunt's decision to play football as well as to come to WSU, he gives his brother a lot of credit. "My brother went [to WSU] a couple of years ago and I came up and visited a lot in high school," Hunt said. "I just liked the atmosphere, the college town and I like the WSU football tradition."
The Cougar tradition on the football field was a part of growing up for Hunt, born in Washington.
"I grew up watching the Cougars," Hunt said. "It just seems like they've always been the underdog and I kind of like being the underdog. No one really expects too much from you and then when you win it opens their eyes. I like that feeling."
Part of a starting offensive line that averages 292 pounds, Hunt has always played with the big kids.
"I've been playing [football] since the third grade, I was on the fifth grade team," Hunt said.
After a tough season-opening loss to Stanford, Hunt still has high expectations for 2000. Included in those season goals Hunt said he plans to "contribute in all 12 games and win as many as we can."


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SMU Football Postgame Notes - November 24, 2012 - SMU-35, Tulsa-27
SMU Hosts Tulsa For Senior Day; Bowl Eligibility On The Line
Free Tickets For Kids 12 & Under
SMU Postgame Notes - October 27, 2012 - SMU 44, Memphis 13
SMU Postgame Notes - September 8, 2012
205 SMU Student-Athletes Named To C-USA Commissioner's Honor Roll
Football at Baylor - Sept. 2, 2012
Football drops season opener at Baylor
Junior (2011): Started all 13 games... Had 69 tackles, 32 solo... Posted a career-high 10 stops at Tulsa... Had five or more tackles in seven games.
Sophomore (2010): Saw time in 13 games... Tallied 15 tackles and 1.5 tackles-for-loss on the season... Started season with a TFL at Texas Tech... Posted a season-high four tackles against TCU... Had three tackles against Tulsa.
Freshman (2009): Started two of the first three games of the season before suffering an injury... Finished with eight games played and nine tackles... Had four tackles in the season-opening win over SFA... Wrapped up the season with a tackle in the Hawaii Bowl win.
2008: Redshirted.
Prep: Two-year starter at strong safety for Wylie... Named District Most Valuable Player... Earned All-Region honors... Named Academic All-State... Also lettered in track and basketball... Chose SMU over Texas Tech, Baylor and Abilene Christian... Parents are Jeff and Robbie Rogers.
Personal: Majoring in Business.


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General Information
You have arrived at the official website of the Cleveland Card Game Players (CCGP). We are very confident that you have found one of the most unique card-playing social organizations in the world. As you read on, we are sure you'll agree!
While we were once just a single group featuring games from all six of the playing card hotpots of Europe (Central Europe (formerly Austria-Hungary), France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland), we have now split into six groups, or divisions, each focused on the games of one of these regions. This new format allows each member of CCGP to join only the divisions in which they have an interest. Those who are of an Italian background may only be interested in learning and playing games of Italy. Players from France may wish to stick with French games, while those from Germany may only be interested in playing Skat or Schafkopf. We actually have several examples of this type of regionally-focused card player in the CCGP, and this new arrangement gives them the ability to focus on their preferred games, without the frequent distraction of emails announcing games in which they are not interested.
Those of you who don't have a preference for one European region over another can have your passion for a wider variety of card games satisfied by joining multiple divisions, even all six if you are adventurous enough!
The six divisions of CCGP are as follows:
1 CENTRAL EUROPEAN GAMES DIVISION: Currently featuring games such as Schnapsen, Bauernschnapsen, and Tapp Tarock from Austria; Mariáš from the Czech Republic, Zsírozás from Hungary, and Tarok from Slovenia.
2 FRENCH GAMES DIVISION: Belote and Tarot are the two most popular card games in France, and as fun as they are, one is rarely left wanting for any others.
3 GERMAN GAMES DIVISION: Skat, the national game of Germany (think "Bridge" in the US), and its less complicated, more social, cousins, Schafkopf and Doppelkopf, are the games most often played when more than 2 players are present. However, two players can thoroughly enjoy an evening of Sechsundsechzig (Sixty-six). This is the original game of Sixty-six, before it was brought to the US and changed to accommodate 4 players in teams. It's a real thinker, and considered by many (alongside its Austrian version, Schnapsen) to be one of the best two-handed games in the world.
4 ITALIAN GAMES DIVISION: Scopa is one of the great classics of Italy, While very easy to learn, continued play reveals it to be chock full of strategic complexities. Other popular games are Briscola and Tressette. If you are not sure which CCGP division to start with, pick this one. The games are all easy to learn, and therefore easy to teach to your friends and family. They also make great entertainment on pizza night!
5 SPANISH GAMES DIVISION: We normally play Brisca or one of the many variations of Tute, but have also been known to indulge in the popular vying game known as Mus.
6 SWISS GAMES DIVISION: When it comes to card games in Switzerland, there is but one word, Jass. So much an obsession is this family of games in Switzerland that many folks there refuse to be caught without a deck of Jass cards in their pocket, or at the very least, in their car. The most popular game in this family is the 4-player Schieber-Jass, but if only 3 players are present, we play either of two variations, Coiffeur or Mittlere.
Thinking about joining? Click here for some necessary financial details, as well as links that you can follow to join any, or all six, of our groups!


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Win a Family Membership! Henricus is giving away a one-year, family membership for two adults and six children! Henricus Historical Park re-creates everyday 17th-century life in the Citie of Henricus, the second successful English settlement in the New World, an…Read More
Frontier Culture Museum
Spring Homeschool Day An HEAV-Sponsored Event! Location: 1290 Richmond Road, Staunton, Virginia Date: Friday, May 2, 2014, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Cost: $3/student; $5/adult, if preregistering; $5/student; $7 adult, when purchased at the door Registration: Tickets may be…Read More
A Day of History
A sunny, fall day was a fantastic backdrop for the 1,101 homeschoolers who attended Homeschool Day at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton last Friday (October 4)! Enjoy the slideshow below!Read More
Homeschoolers Link to the Past
During Fall Homeschool Day at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, hundreds of homeschoolers learned about the different cultures that made up America in the early days of our nation. From a West African farm, to an English farm,…Read More
Biltmore Fall Festival a Success!
Homeschoolers from Virginia and North Carolina gathered last week in Ashville, North Carolina, for the 11th Annual Homeschool Festival at the Biltmore, a special event co-sponsored by HEAV. Self-guided tours of the 250-room Biltmore home included the towering banquet hall,…Read More


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Unwelcome Wake-Up Calls
Then there's the bladder problem. Needing to go often or suddenly or simply having heightened bladder sensitivity (leading the body to think you have to go even when you don't) can prevent you from getting the hours of uninterrupted REM sleep you need. One theory is that thinning tissues in the bladder and urethra lead to increased sensitivity. "Certain women don't even fully wake up when they start getting those sensations—but just the heightened sensitivity and partial awareness are enough to negatively impact sleep," says Hedaya.
A Controversial Solution
If biological changes are the root of your sleep problems, does taking prescription versions of sex hormones bring about restful nights? For many women, the answer is You bet!So far, hormone therapy (either a pill that combines estrogen and progesterone, or an estrogen-only pill, which is usually given only to women who have had their uteruses removed) is the single most effective treatment available for hot flashes and night sweats.
However, many women (and their doctors) were scared away from hormone therapy in 2002 when government researchers halted a major study out of concern that the protocol might raise the risk of breast cancer and heart disease. (For the most recent thinking on the safety of HT, go to more.com/htupdate.) Doctors have tried to minimize jeopardy in a few ways. One is to limit your exposure by prescribing the drugs on a short-term basis: You use hormone therapy to get through the years leadingup to menopause (which technically occurs on the day that's one year after your last period) and possibly a year or two more. This is the regimen now recommended by most experts, says Hartford, Connecticut, ob-gyn Alicia Stanton, author of Hormone Harmony.
Another way to reduce risk is to take estrogen (alone, not in combination with progesterone) transdermally. Low doses of estrogen can be absorbed through the skin directly into the bloodstream via patches, a delivery method that's less likely to precipitate blood clots and strokes, according to studies done in the last two years.
Typically, progesterone is taken with estrogen as part of HT to reduce the chances of developing uterine cancer. But lately cutting-edge research has begun focusing on using one particular form of progesterone in a new way, as a sleep aid. This formulation, called micronized oral progesterone (brand name: Prometrium), is derived from plants and is chemically identical to what your body makes. (The progesterone variant in most kinds of HT, progestin, is synthetic and differs importantly from your internal hormone.) According to a study reported at last year's annual Endocrine Society meeting, women who took micronized progesterone pills slept more soundly and for a longer uninterrupted period than women who did not.
Prior, who has done much research on this pill, believes micronized oral progesterone is safer than most currently available sleeping pills, because unlike those medications, Prometrium is not addictive and does not decrease restorative REM sleep. To help patients sleep better, doctors may prescribe anywhere from 100 to 300 milligrams of Prometrium. Take the pill at bedtime every night for as long as you think you need it, Prior advises.
The problems associated with the combination of estrogen and progesterone have been well researched, but the use of progesterone on its own hasn't been widely studied. Still, the evidence so far suggests that this hormone causes no serious side effects. Since any kind of treatment with sex hormones is controversial, consult an MD who is up on the latest research. One easy way to find a well-informed physician is to search on the website of the North American Menopause Society (menopause.org).
Ambien (zolpidem) and Lunesta (eszopiclone): These prescription sleep aids are relatively safe options as long as you don't rely on them night after night, which could create a psychological dependency, says Santoro. In addition, most prescription sleeping pills, as well as over-the-counter ones (which are mainly antihistamines), make some people feel drowsy the next morning.


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White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity Praised
Statement of CSPI Nutrition Policy Director Margo G. Wootan
May 11, 2010
The White House has laid out a comprehensive strategy that if made a national priority and implemented should reduce obesity. From urging companies to improve restaurant childrens meals and reduce unhealthy food marketing to getting good food in and junk food out of schools, the recommendations are bold, yet achievable.
Straight away, Congress could deliver on many of the Task Force recommendations by completing the child nutrition reauthorization. With one days attention, the Senate could pass the Agriculture Committees bill, which would provide a historic increase in school lunch funding, get junk food out of vending machines, and help schools implement stronger nutrition and physical activity wellness policies.


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Home / LSA Faculty & Staff / Facilities & Operations / Policies & Procedures /
LSA Alcohol Policy
To Request Permission to Serve Alcohol Click Here
Any units planning to serve alcohol at an event held inside an LSA Building must contact the LSA Facilities Office for written approval
Criteria for approval include:
Please see Section V of the LSA Policy on Alcohol below.
Call LSA Facilities and Operations at 734.764.0323 for more information.
If the event is to be held outside on University grounds, contact the Office of the Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations at 734.764.3402.
Information about certified servers:
The Michigan Unions can do in house training for University employees who meet the server guidelines. Please contact Keith Soster (email@example.com or phone 734.936.0869) for more information about this training. Certification will be valid for three years following the training.
The Office of the General Counsel's alcohol Policy:
LS&A Policy on Alcohol and Other Drugs
Introduction | Prevention | Assistance | Sanctions | Selling and Serving
- high stress;
- low self-esteem: isolation from others; and
- inadequate skills in decision-making or action taken, resulting in high vulnerability to peer pressure.
On the basis of this information, the Committee recommends the following activities as a basis for the LSA policy on the prevention of problems with alcohol and other drugs. To establish an environment that helps to prevent problems related to alcohol and other drugs, LSA will:
C. Procedures for Providing Assistance
While the emphasis of this policy is on prevention and assistance for problems associated with alcohol and other drugs, sanctions are likely to be necessary in some situations.
A. Reasons for Consideration of Sanctions
B. Determining Sanctions
C. Local, State and Federal Laws
A. Introduction
B. Guidelines for Serving and Selling Alcohol at LSA Events
Before deciding to sell or serve alcohol, each LSA unit or individual planning an event that involves LSA facilities or planning an official LSA event that involves LSA faculty, staff and students, should consider the following guidelines.
C. Specific Regulations
D. Advertising Guidelines
Copyright © 1999, The Regents of the University of Michigan
LSA Faculty & Staff
- Academic Affairs
- Budget and Finance
- Chairs and Directors
- Development, Marketing & Communications (DMC)
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
- Events and Communications Support
- Expect Respect
- Facilities & Operations
- Graduate Education
- Human Resources
- Information Technology (LSA IT)
- Instructional Support Services (ISS)
- LSA Administrative Forum
- Management Information Systems (MIS)
- Office of the Dean
- Security and Safety
- Standard Practice Guide
- Student Academic Affairs
- Undergraduate Education
- Unit Administrators


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San Francisco poets, get your pens—Friends of the SFPL, the SFPL and Friends Poet-in-Residence Jack Hirschman are pleased to announce Poets 11 2012!
Now in its fourth year, Poets 11 is a citywide poetry contest and reading series that collects poems from every neighborhood in San Francisco and features poetry readings at branch libraries in each of the City's 11 districts.
In October and November, selected poets will take the microphone and share their works in a variety of languages and topics.
Próximos Eventos
- Poets 11 is Back!
- Miércoles 6 de Julio de 2016, 6:30 pmNorth Beach, North Beach
- Poets 11 is Back!
- Martes 12 de Julio de 2016, 6:30 pmSunset, Sunset: Área Juvenil
- Poets 11 is Back!
- Miércoles 13 de Julio de 2016, 6:30 pmWestern Addition, Western Addition: Área Principal
*Patrocinado por los Amigos de la Biblioteca Pública de San Francisco.


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See All Contributors »
For my second one this week, who is the "love of your life"?
Let me explain, not your literal love. Not your wife/husband if you're married. Not someone you dated.
It is someone that you had in a class, saw all the time at work, saw on the bus once, he/her is just amazing looking and seems like you're kind of person but YOU NEVER (or almost never) TALKED TO THEM.
So basically the biggest crush you had ever but didn't have the guts to talk to them. Some might call it "the one that got away" (thanks CyHipHopp)
Last edited by ISUCyclones2015; 04-18-2014 at 10:38 AM.
So more the "One that got away" than the "love of your life"?
2014-15 Cyclone Fanatic NBA Fantasy Basketball Champion!
Originally Posted by cyhiphopp
So more the "One that got away" than the "love of your life"?
Yes. But I feel as though the "one that got away" is someone you talked to and had a chance but it never happened. But whatever you wanna call it
Inb4 someone posts Curly Haired girl for some reason.
Originally Posted by CyFan61
I bleed cardinal and urinate gold.
I've had 3.
One was this girl that lived in Oak/Elm Freshman and Sophomore year and she was in one of my econ classes. Damn fine specimen and she seemed like a nice person.
Another was a girl in my marketing class. She sat near me all the time but she was almost always late and got out of there fast so I never even had a chance. I saw her last week at a bar but one of my friends distracted me and then she was gone forever.
Lastly was this chick I met in LGA airport in NYC after the Sweet 16 games. We had the same flight to Chicago and had adjoining seats, we talked the whole flight and we hit it off. When we got off the flight, we both went to the bathroom and then I never saw her again. We only exchanged first names and she was going to Oregon. So she's gone forever too. However... she added me on Facebook last night. Like totally out of the blue. I don't know how she found me other than creeping hardcore for guy's with my name at Iowa State. So we'll see.
Every girl I've ever talked to at a bar.
Slight exaggeration, but you get the point.
I fall in love with at least 1 different girl every night I go out.
Fred Hoiberg.
Mila Kunis.
Girl I went to high school who I was **** blocked by a different girl. She then went to duke. She was perfect haha.
The Official Paul Rhode's Salt Truck Driver.
Originally Posted by Rabbuk
Girl I went to high school who I was **** blocked by a different girl. She then went to duke. She was perfect haha.
Is she paying her way at Duke by an alternative method?
Originally Posted by cyhiphopp
Is she paying her way at Duke by an alternative method?
She got a full ride.
Originally Posted by Rabbuk
She got a full ride.
That kinda helps his question.... the girl hiphopp is talking about definitely got a full ride.
No one
I get what I want.
Originally Posted by Rabbuk
She got a full ride.
Originally Posted by ISUCyclones2015
That kinda helps his question.... the girl hiphopp is talking about definitely got a full ride.
Yeah she did!!!
The thing that makes it worse is that a girl I didn't like who she was friends with "claimed me" so apparently the girl I liked couldn't make any move. Men have no such construct every woman is single till she is married.
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I am from Connellsville Pa. I have 2 dogs and a big family that I like to make things for. Quilting is my passion. My mother sews and she taught me how to sew, I taught myself how to crochet and knit. I love to cross stitch and read in my free time.
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Green Education
Ryan Reynolds Reflects on the Gulf Oil Disaster, Local Impacts and How We Move Forward
In New Orleans' leafy Uptown district, about a dozen blocks from Tulane University, there's a hidden dog park on the banks of the Mississippi River. Hounds from all over the neighborhood lead their humans over the levee and into a small wood to cool off with a romp in the shallows. On a hot, damp Sunday this summer, I took a small film crew there to meet the actor Ryan Reynolds, who spent much of 2010 in New Orleans shooting Green Lantern for Warner Bros.
10 Simple and Creative Ways to Save Water This Summer
Challenge yourself this summer with these 10 useful tips to eliminate your water waste!
In addition to saving money on your utility bill, water conservation helps prevent water pollution in nearby lakes, rivers and local watersheds. Conserving water can also extend the life of your septic system by reducing soil saturation, and reducing any pollution due to leaks.
Final Week of Green Job Scholarships for U.S. Veterans
The July 4th deadline for home installation contractors to register for the Green Job Continuing Education Scholarships is quickly closing in as the summer heats up. On Memorial Day 2010, GREENandSAVE's Eco Academy, announced the launch of an unprecedented $1 million Energy Service Scholarship Program (ESSP) to help create green job opportunities and stay ahead of the expanding demand for trained green building and energy specialists.
Jane Goodall And The Elephant In The Room
Primatologist Jane Goodall wants people to face the fact that human population growth is a big problem:
It's very frustrating, as people don't want to address this topic. It's our population growth that underlies just about every single one of the problems that we've inflicted on the planet.If there were just a few of us, then the nasty things we do wouldn't really matter, and Mother Nature would take care of it - but there are so many of us.
Happy World Water Day!
Today is World Water Day, and lots of people are writing good things about it. Here's a list of what we've liked best so far:
Many Americans Less Concerned About The Environment Than Ever
Between March 4 and March 7, Gallup polled over 1000 American adults, asking them if they were concerned with any of eight environmental issues:
Climate Change Bedtime Story Advertisement Draws Criticism
Schools, Water, and Plastic
Most people agree that schools shouldn't feed kids soda or other sugary drinks. But what about bottled water?
National Geographic's Daily News site published an article on Wednesday about children, health, and water. And it sounds like drinking fountains have some stiff competition.
Van Jones: A Welcome Return for a Green Jobs Visionary
On Tuesday, Van Jones announced he will be joining the Center for American Progress and taking a teaching position at Princeton University. On Friday, he will also receive the NAACP's President Award for his remarkable achievements.


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The Breaking Dawn Part 2 Trailer is out and it shows Bella in vampire form! The second movie of Breaking Dawn will be out on November 16th, 2012. It will be the final Twilight movie. I am actually much more excited about this second half than I was about the first half. And seeing the stills and the preview or teaser I think I know why. It looks very exciting!
Take a look for yourself and see what you think. Watch the video here. And take a look at some still pictures from a fellow examiner here. Very exciting indeed! I can't wait for this one.
There will be plenty to pick up from part 1 and there will be the addition of the Volturi. That will probably mean more fight scenes than part 1. Which, may mean more Jasper! He is our fighter vampire and is otherwise not in the plot onscreen as much other than with Alice, but one of my favorites in the books. There is much to see ahead, I am sure of it!
These beginning shots and trailer show just a glimpse, but are very promising of a great final movie to the Twilight saga that we have all been enjoying and submersed in for years now. Enjoy!
~Your Fresno Books Examiner


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What is in this article?:
- Cover Crop Options after Corn, Soybean Harvest
- Cover Crop Seed Mixtures
- Cover Crop Type and Time of Seeding
Cover Crop Type and Time of Seeding
Cover crops are usually classified as cool season, warm season, winter annual, biennial, or perennial and as grass, legume, brassica or other. Often times, cocktail mixes of the various types are used to ensure success or to achieve a variety of goals as the diversity of the mix adds to the benefits. Selecting a single cover crop, the seeding rate or the amount of any type in a mix would depend on the goals and the time of seeding. Most cover crops need at least 30 days of growth to start being effective and many should have 60 days of growth or more for the full benefits.
As examples, a cool season grass like oats would work if seeded as soon as possible after harvest since it will continue growing after a light frost and be killed by a hard frost closer to November. A winter annual grass like cereal rye or winter wheat could be seeded later, become established in the cool fall and continue growing once the spring warms up. However, it would have to be killed before planting the next crop. Mixing oats and rye would give some quick growth in the fall, some additional growth in the spring, and improve the soil building.
Further examples include seeding a cool-season legume like forage peas or lentils now as they can survive a mild frost but will later be killed by a hard frost. Seeded later, a winter annual legume like Austrian winter peas or hairy vetch would be better, but would have to be killed in the spring before planting the next crop. Mixing a grass with the legume would provide more cover and increase the diversity.
While most brassicas are cool-season annuals, they are most effective if they have 45-60 days before a killing frost to allow the taproot to penetrate deeper into the soil. They shouldn't be used as a single species cover crop because the residue breaks down rapidly, they don't fix nitrogen and they aren't very mycorrhizae friendly. Many producers include them in cover crop cocktails as the seeding rate is fairly low and the benefits of the large taproot are great, if the killing frost comes later in the fall. However, after mid-September, the odds of getting much growth aren't very good.
If unable to seed any cover crops in the fall, a cover crop seeded in the early spring would still provide benefits. For a spring seeding, consider cool-season grasses and legumes – like oats and forage peas – to help build the soil and manage soil moisture. Often these spring cover crops are seeded as soon as the soil conditions allow, before the spring rains really start. Brassicas, mustards and other cool-season broadleafs can be used in the spring, but they won't develop the large taproots as if they were seeded in the early fall.
Frost seeding of oats, mustards, vetches or clovers may also be an option, once the temperature drops and the soil firms up. These cool-season cover crops will then germinate and grow in the spring, providing some cover and feeding the soil system. However, they may start growing early and be killed by a frost later because of the lack of residue to help protect them from temperature fluctuations.
Proper timing of an herbicide application will be needed to reduce the risk of using too much soil moisture in the spring. Tillage to kill the cover crop often negates the cover crop benefits and destroys soil structure. The tillage also reduces the residue cover and plants weed seeds. Thus, cover crops are best suited for no-till or ridge-till conditions.


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Desiree White
Freshman Lindsey Murray set SIU's all-time indoor pole vault record at 4.02m (13-02.25).
Ashley Gaston (discus) and Luke James (triple jump) won individual MVC titles on Sunday, and Josh Freeman (MVC Most Outstanding Field Athlete) and Sadie Darnell (Elite 18) were recognized as MVC award recipients.
Southern was picked to finish third in women's competition and to tie for fifth in men's competition.
SIU swept both the men's and women's 800 meter run for the second-straight week.
Sophomore Josh Freeman (shot put) and freshman Kyle Landon (high jump) each won for SIU.
2015 Bill Cornell Spring Classic at the Lew Hartzog Track and Field Complex, March 28, 2015.
Photos from Day Two of the 2015 SIU Invitational at the SIU Recreation Center, Feb. 7, 2015.
Photos from Day Two of the 2014 Bill Cornell Spring Classic, 3.29.14.
Ran a leg of the 4x100m race that finished in 48.32 to take first place at the Redbird Invitational...Finished in fourth place in the 4x100m race at the MVC Outdoor Championships with a 46.39 finish...Ran in three events (60m, 200m, 4x400m) in eight indoor meets...Competed in three events (4x100m, 100m, 200m) in seven outdoor meets...MVC Academic Honor Roll.
All-MVC, 4x100m (Outdoor)
Part of outdoor 4x100 meter relay that set the second-best time in school history at 45.91...Ran in three events (60m, 200m, 4x400) in eight meets indoors and five events (100m, 200m, 4x100, 4x200, 4x400) in eight meets outdoors...Set personal bests in the 60m (7.85), indoor 200m (25.92) and outdoor 200m (25.21)...Won the 200 meter dash indoors at the EIU Friday Night Special.
Raced in four events (55m, 60, 100m, 200m) in 15 meets combined in the indoor and outdoor seasons...Finished in the top-five seven times total.
Daughter of Ezra and Jessica White...Majoring in kinesiology.


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Little Lulu
I sure like these old Little Lulu comics,
She's loads of fun!
I'd like to meet her in person,
You silly!
... she's just a drawing in a comic book.
Becassine knows lots of people.
Hey! Where'd they go?
Such foolish children!
Now zat we are alone, Mademoiselle Lulu...
I really must be going now.


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Evil and Suffering
Examines philosophical, theological, biblical and pastoral perspectives on the problem of evil and suffering. The problems related to Christian theodicy will be introduced by classical readings in Scripture and theology, by key philosophical texts and by literary and artistic explorations of pain and evil. Evil and suffering represent the biggest obstacle to belief in Christian theism, not only in an intellectual sense, but also in terms of deep personal reaction as one faces the realities of evil and suffering in one's life and/or in the lives of others. Addresses the intellectual and personal aspects of evil and suffering in light of Christian theism.
View all Seminary Courses | View Course Schedules


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Bentley Mulsanne saloon
Price £229,360 - £275,000
- Good long-distance cruising ability
- Beautiful hand-crafted cabin
- Capable on twisty roads
- Very high asking price
- Quite big on UK roads
- Controls lack delicacy
At a glance
- The greenest
- Mulsanne 4dr £229,360
- The cheapest
- Mulsanne 4dr £229,360
- The fastest
- Mulsanne Speed 4dr £252,000
- Top of the range
- Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase 4dr £275,000
"The Bentley Mulsanne's beautiful interior is a masterclass in British luxury, featuring genuine wood trim, glass switchgear and super-soft leather"
The Bentley Mulsanne is the British marque's flagship saloon and it offers buyers opulent luxury mixed with scintillating performance. It's powered by an effortlessly smooth and hugely powerful 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V8 that produces a hefty 505bhp.
The Mulsanne's very high price reflects the quality of the hand-crafted cabin, where passengers are spoilt with power-adjustable front and rear seats, super-soft leather upholstery, wool carpets, traditional wooden dash and door trim, independent air-conditioning and a whisper-quiet environment. Buyers also have an almost endless choice of interior colours and finishes, with nine different types of leather available in 24 different colours.
The Mulsanne is fitted with an eight-speed automatic gearbox that also comes with manual shift paddles and as happy tackling twisty roads as it is cruising in silence on the motorway.
MPG, running costs & CO2
Requires deep pockets
Bentley has added a cylinder-deactivation system to its big V8 engine, so the Mulsanne runs on four cylinders when it's cruising gently. The system cuts in and out so smoothly as to be unnoticeable, but the claimed fuel economy figure of 17mpg is still far from what anyone would consider frugal. The Mulsanne sits in the highest road tax bracket, meaning an annual bill of £505, while servicing costs will be astronomical, too. However, if you can afford to buy a Mulsanne in the first place, you can easily afford to keep it on the road.
Engines, drive & performance
Driving the Mulsanne is an event in itself
Driving the Bentley Mulsanne is a unique experience; it offers a fantastic sense of occasion. You sit high up in total comfort, but the big saloon is surprisingly agile, with accurate steering and effortless acceleration.
The Mulsanne is capable of 184mph flat-out and can also accelerate from 0-62mph in 5.1 seconds, which is on a par with some high-performance sports cars. The standard automatic gearbox provides seamless shifts and is best left in fully automatic mode, as the steering wheel-mounted gearshifters add little extra enjoyment to the experience.
Bentley also offers the faster and even more powerful Mulsanne Speed, with 25 more horsepower and a 0-62mph time of 4.8 seconds. In spite of bigger wheels and a sportier suspension set-up, it has a better blend of ride comfort and handling ability than the standard car.
Interior & comfort
One of most comfortable cars on sale
No matter what speed you drive at, there's almost no perceptible road noise inside the Mulsanne, such is the level of sound deadening. The doors are even fitted with acoustic glazing and electric privacy blinds in the rear. The air-suspension automatically adjusts to provide a comfortable ride on all types of road surface, while the front and rear power-adjustable seats are trimmed in sumptuous leather.
The rear armrest cleverly houses a control panel for the rear climate control settings, but although leg and headroom are very generous, the high rear transmission tunnel does affect the Mulsanne's ability to carry five people in total comfort. Extra-thick wool carpets feel very luxurious underfoot.
Practicality & boot space
Overall size is sometimes an issue
Despite the tremendous luxury, living with the Mulsanne does have its drawbacks. Its sheer size makes driving in busy towns and on narrow roads quite daunting. We doubt many owners will have any need to reverse-park their Mulsanne, but should the need arise, due care and attention is required. Also, boot space isn't as large as you might expect, nor is rear legroom. It's okay, but this is a sporting saloon as much for the driver as for the passengers.
The automatic gear selector takes some getting used to, especially when going from forward to reverse. Finally, the Mulsanne is certainly not subtle, so expect onlookers to stop and stare wherever you go.
Reliability & safety
Very few cars are built this well
Bentley is owned by the Volkswagen Group, and the parent company has ensured that all new Bentleys are highly reliable. The Mulsanne boasts exceptional fit and finish, as every car is hand-built. In the event of an accident, side-impact bars feature in the doors. Also, the sheer weight (2.5 tonnes) and size of the car make it a very safe option. Electronic tyre-pressure monitors inform the driver of any sudden loss in pressure. Front, rear, head and chest airbags are also fitted.
Price, value for money & options
Incredibly expensive to buy and run
At nearly a quarter of a million pounds, the Bentley Mulsanne is massively expensive, but it's still cheaper than some of its main rivals. It slots in above flagship versions of the BMW 7 Series, Mercedes S-Class and Rolls-Royce Ghost, but isn't as expensive as the Rolls-Royce Phantom. The Mulsanne is a high-performance saloon with a truly hand-crafted feel. The huge list of standard equipment includes adaptive cruise control, parking distance control, voice control, a 60GB multimedia hard drive, sat nav and four-zone air-conditioning.


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I have a game client. Which connects to this game. I'm trying to set up a socket server which intercepts all traffic to the game server(The game runs through the use of sockets)
My problem is that i would need to redirect all traffic my computer makes to the game servers ip + port to 127.0.0.1 to make it connect to the socket server i've made myself first.
I know i could use the windows hosts file but this redirects ALL traffic. I only want 1 port redirected(The one with TCP traffic) If the HTTP traffic also gets redirected it ruins everything.
I'm using windows 7 The programming language is java.


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- Table View
- List View
The Obama Diariesby Laura Ingraham
The Diary of President Barack Obama The White House May 19, 2010 I was going to write about tonight's state dinner for Mexico and the amnesty plan, but we've got a national crisis here! I think somebody's been snooping in this diary! The pages are all wrinkled! And the most personal entries are dog-eared! WHAT THE HELL'S GOING ON HERE? (WASHINGTON, D.C.) On May 20, 2010, Laura Ingraham received a package from an anonymous source that will change the history of the United States and the legacy of President Barack Obama. While retrieving her automobile from the underground garage at the Watergate complex (where she had just enjoyed her weekly pedicure), Ingraham discovered a manila envelope on the hood of her car. When she picked it up, a deep baritone voice called out from a nearby stairwell: "Just read it. You'll know what to do." The shadowy figure then disappeared into the darkness without another word. The envelope contained copies of what appeared to be diary entries written by President Barack Obama, his family, and high-ranking administration officials. Because the "diaries" are so revealing, Ingraham felt compelled to release them to the American public and the citizens of the world. Major media outlets love to describe the president as "no drama Obama," but The Obama Diaries tells a different tale. Through these "diary entries," readers will see past the carefully constructed Obama façade to the administration's true plans to "remake America." In The Obama Diaries, Ingraham hilariously skewers the president and his minions. She takes aim at: *the cynical "razzle-dazzle" marketing of Obama's radical agenda *the use of the Obama "brand" and family to obscure Obama's true aims *Michelle Obama's gardening and anti-obesity initiative; and much more. Informative and hugely entertaining, The Obama Diaries will inspire both laughter and critical thinking about the future of the nation and the man currently at the helm. *the use of the Obama "brand" and family to obscure Obama's true aims*Michelle Obama's gardening and anti-obesity initiative; and much more. Informative and hugely entertaining, The Obama Diaries will inspire both laughter and critical thinking about the future of the nation and the man currently at the helm.Excerpts from Laura Ingraham's The Obama DiariesObama on Sarah Palin:"Hell, doesn't Palin have anything better to do than criticize me? Shouldn't she be back home shooting some endangered wolf species from a helicopter?" (April 9, 2010)Michelle on being First Lady: "I'll be damned if all this fabulosity is going to go to waste reading Dr. Seuss to snot-nosed kids all day." (January 23, 2009)Vice President Joe Biden on Michelle Obama: "She's kind of like a black Hillary Clinton. I mean that in a good way." (May 5, 2009)Obama on his visit to the Vatican:"If I can ingratiate myself with a few more of these red-hats, the pope thing might not be a bad follow-up to the presidency." (July 10, 2009)
Of Thee I Zingby Raymond Arroyo Laura Ingraham
While Laura Ingraham was walking through a Northern Virginia shopping mall one Saturday afternoon, it all became clear to her. Everywhere she turned, she saw signs of the impending disaster: zombie teens texting each other across a cafÉ table; a man having his eyebrows threaded at a kiosk; a fiftyish woman shoe-horned into a tube top and skinny jeans; and a storefront ad featuring a Victoria's Secret model spilling out of her push-up bra and into the faces of young passersby. Ingraham wondered to herself, "Is this it? Is this what our forefathers fought for? What my parents struggled for? I wonder if Victoria's Secret is still having that two-for-one sale?" A menacing force surrounds us. We see it, we feel it, we know it. The country we love is in grave peril. While politicians and "experts" prattle on about the debt crisis at home, and terrorism abroad, a more insidious homegrown threat is emerging. It endangers our future and undermines our present. The uncomfortable truth is: We have become our own worst enemy. The culture we have created is now turning on us. We're on the verge of drowning in our ignorance, arrogance, gluttony . . . can you believe there are only three shots of vanilla in a Caramel Macchiato?!? Now in an act of patriotic intervention the most-listened-to woman in talk radio casts her satirical eye upon all that ails American society. In this sharp-witted, comic romp, Laura Ingraham takes you on a guided tour through ten levels of our cultural hell. You know we're in trouble when . . . * Airplane seats shrink--just as the passengers expand. * Celebrity baby names go from the peculiar (Apple, Stetson, and Daisy Boo) to the pathetic (Bamboo, Blanket, and Bronx). * People meticulously tend their virtual crops on Farmville, while their children eat takeout. * "Breaking News" usually means it happened yesterday. * The weddings last longer than the marriages. * Facebook has become a verb and reading has become an ancient art form. Of Thee I Zing is cultural commentary too funny to ignore, igniting a national conversation long past due. America, your cultural recovery begins here.
Power to the Peopleby Laura Ingraham
This popular talkshow host sets forth in a lively style the problems she sees besetting America and her solutions for them. She addresses Attack on the family, runaway government, uncontrolled judiciary, failing schools, politicization of science, and terrorism.
Power to the Peopleby Laura Ingraham
In her latest, radio personality and author Ingraham (Shut up and Sing) calls on the American people to take back the phrase "Power to the People" from the anti-establishment groups of yesterday that, today, have made the country, according to Ingraham, "a slave to fringe groups, political correctness, expanding bureaucracies, and our own consumerism." Taking an approach that makes mutually exclusive groups out of those "working and taking care of their families" and the "protest culture," Ingraham's message is loud and clear: "they're coming for you." Specifically, "they" means the Lifetime network (brainwashing women to "swear off men and family"), the growing ranks of "Team Atheist" (including Dan Brown), "family deconstructivists," illegal immigrants and Islamic jihadists, among others. Chapters cover most of today's hot button topics-the war in Iraq, homeland security, the judiciary, the news media and global warming-with attitude and conviction. Ingraham's commentary on the lack of education in our schools and the "pornification" of the culture contain her most sound, articulate arguments (bolstered by a wealth of statistics), but Ingraham's assembling tactics are overzealous; still, fans of her strident radio show should be pleased to find more of the same here.
Shut Up and Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting Americaby Laura Ingraham
Ingraham unmasks the shallowness of elite thinking everywhere it is found: in politics, the media, the ivory tower, arts and entertainment, business and international organizations.
Shut Up & Singby Laura Ingraham
Shut Up & Sing: How Elites from Hollywood, Politics, and the UN are Subverting America by Laura Ingraham
Select your format based upon: 1) how you want to read your book, and 2) compatibility with your reading tool. To learn more about using Bookshare with your device, visit the Help Center.
Here is an overview of the specialized formats that Bookshare offers its members with links that go to the Help Center for more information.
- Bookshare Web Reader - a customized reading tool for Bookshare members offering all the features of DAISY with a single click of the "Read Now" link.
- DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) - a digital book file format. DAISY books from Bookshare are DAISY 3.0 text files that work with just about every type of access technology that reads text. Books that contain images will have the download option of 'DAISY Text with Images'.
- BRF (Braille Refreshable Format) - digital Braille for use with refreshable Braille devices and Braille embossers.
- MP3 (Mpeg audio layer 3) - Provides audio only with no text. These books are created with a text-to-speech engine and spoken by Kendra, a high quality synthetic voice from Ivona. Any device that supports MP3 playback is compatible.
- DAISY Audio - Similar to the Daisy 3.0 option above; however, this option uses MP3 files created with our text-to-speech engine that utilizes Ivonas Kendra voice. This format will work with Daisy Audio compatible players such as Victor Reader Stream and Read2Go.


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- ITV Report
- ITV Report
Pressure mounts on next Olympic host city
Live updates
Mo Farah makes return to Olympic Stadium
Double Olympic Champion Mo Farah is back on the track at the former Olympic Stadium later today.
The athlete is returning to the ground where he won gold in both the men's 5000 and 10,000 metres titles to launch the Anniversary Games.
Ticket registration for the games opens at the beginning of next week.
Harman: 2012 legacy 'has not materialised'
The promised Olympic "legacy" of increased participation had failed to materialise and fewer people were now active than before the London 2012 Games Shadow culture secretary Harriet Harman said.
"We were all proud to host the Olympics and Paralympic Games in London two years ago but instead of seeing increased participation things have got worse, especially amongst young people, as a result of the Government axing school sports partnerships. "Labour wants to help everybody to do more sport and physical activity - from children to the elderly, girls as well as boys, and people from all backgrounds and regions.
Betting firm profits from horseracing are already subject to a levy which raised £82 million for the sport last year and the Premier League has in place a voluntary 5% levy on television revenues for the grassroots game. But Labour is considering extending the betting levy to gambling - including online - on all sports and measures to pressure the country's richest football clubs into properly meeting their promise.
'Happy to be alive' tweets Tom's partner
Tom was travelling with his partner, writer and producer Dustin Lance Black.
Happy to be alive. @virginatlantic have been very helpful. Now we just need to get out of Siberia. Bit scary.
Locked in the broken plane. No word on what's happening. #EmergencyLanding in Russia. #FireEngines abound.... http://t.co/MhyaowhIlz
EMERGENCY LANDING into a Russian town. This was our view over Mongolia. #VirginAtlantic #ScaryAsHell http://t.co/gCmeMMDWPT
Diver describes emergency landing as 'scary'
Scary to emergency land in RUS after recent events, yet no word on what problem is after hour surrounded by fire engines #VirginAtlantic
- ITV Report
Tom Daley's plane makes emergency landing
A plane carrying diver and Olympic medalist Tom Daley has had to make an emergency landing in Russia after "a technical issue".Read the full story ›
Artists celebrate London 2012 anniversary
Artwork from two critically acclaimed artists, 3D Joe and Max has been unveiled at the East Village - former home to the Olympic Athletes during London 2012. The 3D artwork is to celebrate the two year anniversary of London 2012. Members of the public are invited to interact with the installations which feature a vortex view over iconic East London.
- ITV Report
Pressure mounts on next Olympic host city
Today's statement from the International Olympic Committee suggests all is not well with the preparations for the next summer games.Read the full story ›
Rio delays criticised by Olympic chiefs
Each postponed decision, each subsequent delay will have a negative impact warns CoCom chair Nawal El Moutawakel. @itvlondon
Each postponed decision, each subsequent delay will have a negative impact warns CoCom chair Nawal El Moutawakel. @itvlondon
The IOC hasn't been critical of a host city's preparations since Athens. @itvlondon
Olympic bosses warn Rio to get its act together
Another carefully-worded IOC warning to Rio to get its act together. http://t.co/RLcG1NGP3Z
IOC Coordination Commission talks of important decisions still to be made to avoid further significant delays. @itvlondon
In IOC-speak, this is pretty damning. @itvlondon
Tom Daley meets children at the Aquatics Centre opening
Tom Daley turned up at the Aquatics Centre to show youngsters how it was done today. He impressed the crowds with his dives off the 10m board.
The diver is no stranger to The Queen Olympic Aquatics Centre. He took home an Olympic Bronze medal in the same venue in front of home crowds in 2012.


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Sony Ericsson Rachael X3/X10's UI demoed on video again
Remember that first demo video of Sony Ericsson Rachael's UI, leaked way back in July? Some sort of sequel to it has recently appeared on YouTube, showing even more of SE's customized Android interface.
The demo here is concentrated on Rachael's media player, which looks quite different from what we're used to see on other Android phones.
If we're to believe the title of the video, the Rachael's 4 inch touchscreen display has a resolution of 480 x 854 – just like the display of Motorola Droid (which seems to be one of this year's nicest Android handsets).
November 3 is the date when Sony Ericsson plans to officially announce the Rachael Xperia X3 (or X10) – let's hope the phone will meet the high expectations everyone has about it.
Via Engadget


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Faculty Travel Grant Program
Confirmation of Extraordinary Childcare Expense
Word .doc | interactive PDF
Eligible faculty will be guaranteed up to $1,200 per academic year for travel expenses to present original papers at scholarly and professional meetings.
Eligible faculty will need to complete and sign this Confirmation of Extraordinary Childcare Expense form to claim extraordinary childcare expenses incurred because of the travel, subject to an annual $1,200 total limit. These are extra expenses due to the travel, and are above and beyond the normal childcare expenses. Faculty should also be aware that these expenses will be paid as a TAXABLE reimbursement to the faculty member.
Complete information about the Faculty Travel Grant Program can be found on the Graduate School website.
* With an interactive PDF, you can type the required information directly on to the form and then print it and mail it. You can NOT save it without the full version of Adobe Acrobat.