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- Sha Guozheng – Xingyi SanShouPao (SanShou-Two-Preson-Form)
- Sha Guozheng – Xingyi LianHuanJian (Linking-Sword)
Sha Guozheng (沙国政, 1904 – 1993), from Rongcheng City of Shandong Province, was a famous martial artist in recent martial arts history. Sha started martial arts training at the age of 7, he has learned from Jiang Huating (姜华亭), Liu Guangxing (刘光兴), Zhai Shuzhen (翟树珍), Wang Zhezheng (王者政), etc. in Taijiquan, Xingyiquan, Baguazhang, Tongbeiquan during his early years, Sha later studied under Jiang Rongqiao (姜容樵, 1891 – 1974). Sha Guozheng began his martial arts teaching career at 20 years old and became his lifetime career. Sha has composed numerous wushu taolu (forms) by blending different sub-style of his learning, e.g., Jixing (Rooster-Form), Dalianhuan (Large-Linking-Form) and Sanshoupao (Sanshou-Two-Person-Form) in Xingyiquan.


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Why would you fly to New York City with eight bags of powdered custard?
That was a question that likely led to the arrest of a passenger at John F. Kennedy International Airport after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers reported finding nearly 18 pounds of cocaine hidden inside his luggage.
Officers arrested Godfrey Cassius when he arrived on a flight from Georgetown, Guyana.
Cassius allegedly had 17.9 lbs. of cocaine hidden in bags of "Champion" powdered flan.
The motto on the bags of Champion-brand custard read "Always a winner."
When they opened the bags, officials said, they smelled a "strong chemical odor" coming from the white powder, which later tested positive for cocaine.
The street value of the contraband custard was estimated at $300,000.
Cassius now faces federal drug smuggling charges.


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Lover of humour and letters? Here's one of the funniest quote to print on your custom t-shirt.
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Sexual Assault Trials, Fourth Edition
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With economic activity exceeding $2 trillion, California commands the largest economy in the U.S. – bringing with it both the responsibility and opportunity to lead the country and world to a more environmentally sustainable future. As the largest campus in the UC system, UCLA is helping accelerate this process by partnering with a diverse group of leading companies committed to both California and the health of our planet.
Through our Corporate Partners Program, the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability (IoES) provides world-class educational and networking opportunities to business leaders in Southern California and beyond – along with the unique opportunity to learn from, and work with, UCLA's distinguished faculty, affiliate faculty, and researchers.
Developed by the IoES's Center for Corporate Environmental Performance with input from a number of globally recognized leaders in "green business,"" including several companies ranked in the highly competitive Dow Jones Sustainability World Index, the Corporate Partners Program draws upon the philosophy that the development and communication of effective environmental practices and products is both good corporate citizenship and good business.
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Lucille O'Hara
Services: 2 p.m. Saturday at Portales Cemetery.
Mrs. Lucille O'Hara, 92, of Las Cruces, died Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2005, at Cottonbloom Assisted Living Center in Las Cruces.
She was born on May 13, 1912, in Bellville, Mo., to Rose Mae and George W. Davison.
She married Sam McCaskell in the late 1930's. They made their home in Oklahoma. Mr. McCaskell was missing in action during World War II. She relocated to Chicago and while there married Terry O'Hara. He preceded her in death in the late 1950's. She then moved to Albuquerque where she was employed as a secretary at the University of New Mexico. In the late 1960's she moved to Portales and was employed as a secretary at Health Services at Eastern New Mexico University. In the early 1980's she moved to Belen where she remained until she moved to Las Cruces about 10 years ago. She was a member of the Methodist Church, and the Order of the Eastern Star. Family members said she enjoyed gardening and was known for her beautiful roses.
She was preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, George and Dwight Davison; two sisters, Dorothy Hubbard and Esther Wackerly; and by both of her husbands, Sam McCaskell and Terry O'Hara.
Survivors include a sister, Margaret "Peg" Linton of Chicago; a number of nieces and nephews, including Lee and Margaret Hubbard, Marvin Dale and Karen Hubbard, Allen Dale Hubbard, James Kirk Linton, Linda Davison, Tory Linton, Amber Lanahann, Dana Lanahann and Michel Hubbard.
Burial will be at Portales Cemetery.
The Rev. Dick Ross will officiate the services.
Memorial contributions may be made to the New Mexico Baptist Children's Home or the New Mexico Boys Ranch.
Arrangements are by Wheeler Mortuary of Portales.
Feb. 11 Obituaries
Lucille O'Hara


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Drexel Bike Share is open to all students and employees with a valid Drexel University ID and in good standing with the University. There is no rental fee to use a Drexel Bike Share bike. To be eligible to participate in Drexel Bike Share, the student or employee must complete a Drexel Bike Share Membership Agreement and, prior to each use of Bike Share equipment, a Drexel Bike Share User Agreement. The use of a Drexel Bike Share bike includes a helmet, u-lock, cable and lock key (the "Equipment"). All Bike Share Equipment is picked up and returned to the Drexel Bike Share hub located in the Parking Services Garage Office, Room #124, 3330 Market St, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (the "Hub"). Drexel makes no representations as to the availability of the Equipment. Use of the Equipment is strictly on a "first come, first served" basis. Reservations for Equipment will not be accepted.
Share Time (in general, two days or one weekend) The maximum share period for the Equipment will depend upon the day of the week that the share commences, as follows:
If the date of the return falls on a holiday, the Equipment must be returned by the later of 48 hours after the time it was borrowed, or the first business after such 48 hour period. Equipment should be returned not later than the time of day when it was initially checked out.
All pick ups and returns must occur between 8:00 AM and 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday (excluding holidays). Members must return the Equipment to the Drexel Bike Share designated rack, lock the bike, and then return the helmet and key to the Parking Office located at the Hub. Equipment left at the Hub after the Parking Office is closed will be considered late, and may result in the loss of the Equipment, and the suspension of the Member's rental privileges.
Failure to return the Equipment on time may result in the suspension of the Member's rental privileges. As outlined in the Drexel Bike Share Membership Agreement, if the Equipment is lost, stolen or damaged, Members may be held financially responsible for the full replacement cost of the Equipment. Drexel will assume that the Equipment is a complete loss if it is not returned within 24 hours of its designated due date and time. Drexel does not maintain insurance to cover the loss of any Drexel Bike Share Equipment. By executing the Membership Agreement and the User Agreement, Members acknowledge and agree to be financially responsible for any loss of or damage to Drexel Bike Share Equipment, regardless of the cause.


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Best Olympic PG this decade....right.......
I stopped reading after that.
Worst come to worst, we don't get Kidd, Nash, or Rubio...Arroyo would be the best option left.
World reknown for being the best Olympic PG in this decade, he has been a solid NBA PG who has threaten and caused panic(because he's Hispanic) to other PG's starting jobs such as Nelson and Billups...actually won the job in Orlando...and at the end you saw how Nelson ended the season for Orlando in the finals with his awful preformance.
Arroyo isn't Nash, but he can work the pick and roll with perfection and has an excellent midrange shot and is a very slick scorer.
Arroyo could be a short term guy till we draft a PG (Hopefully John Wall).
Not only because he's PR and MSG will be rocking with passionate PR fans (Finally all those YUPPIES could leave MSG and stop acting like its a church)
But because he's a GOOD PG.
Not great, but Arroyo is capable of being more productive and efficient than Duhon.
Check this out:
He won over Nash, Paul, Parker, Kidd, and PG's all around the world.
Thats 3 titles in 9 years...for a team that doesn't get to compete in the Olympics every-time often because of their depleted talent
IMO, Paul is the best Olympic PG right now...but Arroyo is PG of the decade, and if you can't see that, then you just straight up ignorant inside.
Los is my dude, but he has zero interest in playing defense. He is a born ball player though, thats all he's ever known.
If Carlos Arroyo was a blonde white guy, metroidiot wouldn't want him. You are such a closet racist, it's ridiculous.
i like this idea.you can't really knock him for his defense when we have dudu, we where gonna get a pass prime kidd, and want nash.
Still not sure how we could possibly obtain a top 3 pick in next years draft to be able to draft John Wall.
Who cares about FIBA?
Dude got cut from every team he ever played for in the NBA.
He's cool but honestly like you said, I don't see why we would need another mediocre PG at this point.
There's a difference between being a good basketball player and being successful in the NBA.
I knew a lot of kids that played like Arroyo back in the day - that doesn't necessarily translate to the NBA. It's rare and only a select few can really make that transition.....
Is he at least young? If he's over 28, I say pass....
He's highly skilled man, no doubt about it. I played 2 years with him at FIU, and i saw it every day, and some of the stuff he could do with the ball was crazy. I think the 2 things that hold him back, are his deficiencies in defense and that he's only an average athlete for the NBA. But in Mike D's system he could easily be a 14 and 8.5 player easily.
Arroyo could be one of the best options out there, a good short term PG for us to use.
Its kinda crazy to say Arroyo has zero interest in defense...at times he's solid and at he just gets beat on defense because he's bad at fighting screens.
The World cares about FIBA, you ****. Its the international league of the world. Thats like saying no one cares about FIFA...you really coming hard with the foolish remarks for no reason.
Getting cut and getting traded are two different things.
Isn't your punk ass an Artest fan? Artest has been traded more times than Arroyo, would it be smart to say Artest has been CUT from every team he was on? Just a DUMBASS thing to say, period. I'm an Artest fan + Arroyo fan...sometimes talented players get traded often, doesn't mean their bad(no Arroyo isn't on Artest level, just calm ya ass down and don't jump on it)
And why is Arroyo is cool? What was the logic in writing that?
Arroyo > Duhon, thats why we could use him.
You said:
"There's a difference between being a good basketball player and being successful in the NBA. "
How would you know? You were neither.
Are they really that different? Isn't making the NBA a success in itself?
Malditomariconass*****...no one is saying is Arroyo is the most successful, but he is PROVEN at the NBA level, **** success.
But I shouldn't OD on you because you barely know a damn thing about Arroyo.
And a 30 year old veteran international PROVEN EXPERIENCE SKILLED bball star will always be a good option as PG.
Plus, we don't have a back up PG on this roster, so Arroyo wouldn't be a bad idea at all.
I'm in a BAD MOOD today...so excuse the violent text.
Arroyo's biggest weaknesses are injuries, over-dribbling/thinking, fighting picks, finishing at the basket.
Arroyo's biggest strengths are pick/roll-to-jumper/pass, elite ball handling, craftiness, strength, experience, confidence, mid range jumper.
Honestly, any PG that isn't Duhon would be fine by me. Arroyo is talented, and could flourish in this system. Probably wouldn't cost much, so I say pick him up.


text:
What is in this article?:
- Disease control ranks at No. 4 in Keys to Peanut Profitability
- White mold is special case
- Control begins with rotation
• Great strides have been made in peanut disease control in recent years, especially through the development of genetically improved varieties. But as producers look ahead to the 2012 production season, white mold looms large as a serious disease threat.
More About:
Organizers of the Farm Press Peanut Profitability Award have reviewed production data from previous winners to arrive at a "Top 10 Keys to Peanut Profitability." This list of successful production practices is being presented in descending order in Southeast Farm Press and on this website, with sponsorship provided by DuPont Crop Protection. The Peanut Profitability Awards, based on production efficiency in whole-farm situations, is entering its 13th year and is administered by Marshall Lamb, research director for the National Peanut Research Laboratory, and his staff.
As the countdown continues to the No. 1 Key to Peanut Profitability, disease control comes in at No. 4, including the control of soil-borne and foliar diseases and nematodes.
Great strides have been made in peanut disease control in recent years, especially through the development of genetically improved varieties. But as producers look ahead to the 2012 production season, white mold looms large as a serious disease threat.
White mold has become one of the most important, if the not the most important disease faced by Georgia peanut producers, according to Bob Kemarit, University of Georgia Extension plant pathologist.
"No matter what you call it — white mold, stem rot, Southern stem blight — the bottom line is that every grower has to fight white mold, to a greater or lesser degree.
"No grower will control white mold 100 percent, no matter what you do. In the best situation in a bad year, getting 60 to 70 percent control might be the best you can do, and that's with your best fungicides and your best efforts," says Kemerait.
White mold is an important disease, he adds, and resistant varieties are rare, although Georgia-07W is one good example.
"Fungicides add to production costs, but it's a good investment," says Kemerait.
"As tomato spotted wilt has diminished, our losses to white mold on a regional basis are much greater than to any other disease in peanuts. You can argue that controlling peanut leaf spot adds significant cost to a production program.
"But when you look at the yield loss associated with white mold, despite a fungicide program, regionally it's much greater than for any other disease."
Peanuts are a susceptible host to white mold. Also, hotter temperatures like those experienced by producers in the lower Southeast also encourage the development of the disease.


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Welcome to the CRG Discussion Forum!Forum registration problems: Make sure you enter your email correctly and you check your spam box first. *Then* email KurtS2@gmail for help.
I think lots of people (who participate here) would like to have a hat/shirt to represent themselves as serious members of the Camaro hobby, BUT... before your idea takes wings, you should coordinate with Kurt (or whomever owns the CRG logo/website/etc)... someone does.. and they have to approve this plan FIRST... Gary


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PHOTOS: Infamous Crime Bosses Click To View Photos
Carlo Gambino He was the boss of the Gambino crime family and died of natural causes. (credit: AP)
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel Siegel was a driving force behind the development of metropolitan Las Vegas in the late 40s. (credit: AP)
Vincent "The Chin" Gigante The boss of the Genovese family, Gigante ordered several assassinations. Before joining organized crime, Gigante was a professional boxer. (credit: AP)
Sam Giancana Giancana was a Chicago mob boss who was noted for his friendships with show-business personalities. (credit: AP)
Paul "Big Paul" Castellano Castellano is one of five reputed leaders who were arrested in a Federal indictment. Castellano's bail was $4 million. He was the head of the nation's largest Mafia family. (credit: AP Photo/David Bookstaver)
Nicholas "Little Nick" Corozzo Corozzo was indicted in 1996 on racketeering charges that included attempted murder, arson, and loansharking. (credit: AP)
Michael Coppola Michael Coppola was a reputed acting captain of the Genovese crime family. He was wanted in the 1977 murder of a fellow mobster outside a Bridgewater, N.J., motel. Coppola was captured by police in 2003. (AP Photo/Mike Derer, Pool)
Meyer Lansky Known as the "Mob's Accountant," Lansky established a gambling empire from New York to Las Vegas. (credit: AP)
Charlie "Lucky" Luciano Luciano was an Italian mobster known for splitting New York City into five different Mafia crime families. (credit: STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Joseph Massino Known as "Big Joey," Massino agreed to testify against his former associates to avoid the death penalty. In 2005, he was sentenced to life in prison. (credit: AP Photo/U.S. Attorneys Office, File)
Joseph Bonanno Nicknamed "Joe Bananas," he was known as a man with superior organizational skills. (credit: AP)
John Joseph Gotti, Jr Gotti was boss of the most powerful crime family in America. He made hundreds of millions of dollars a year. (credit: AP)
John Angelo Gotti III The son of John Joseph Gotti, John A. Gotti was charged in an alleged plot to kidnap Curtis Sliwa, founder of the Guardian Angels. (credit: AP)
Infamous Crime Bosses Click To View Photos
Categories: Local News Photo Galleries Photos


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Haggerston Park Day 12. After Royal Courts of Justice.
This is just a report on the events for the last week of the Nomadic camp, in Haggerston Park, London Borough of Hackney.
- We arrived 13th Of May 2012, Sunday.
- We were approached by the Park Manager on 14th Monday.
- We informed him that we were intending to stay for a maximum of 28 days.
- We promised not to have any more tents than the 16 we had already set up.
- 22nd of May, the camp received a High Court summons. Mispelling two names that were known to Hackney Council. Along with Occupy London and Persons unknown.
- We had 48 hours to appear in court, leaving no defence possible.
- We have already stayed 2 weeks in Limehouse Basin (Corporate land) and 6 weeks Mile End Park, for a total of 2 months in Tower Hamlets. We do not want bailiffs getting involved and the taxpayer paying the bill.
- Kay represented us in court. Not to fight the case, which would be setting a precedent that would make things harder for Occupy and other protest camps in Britain, but to ask for a reasonable amount of time for us to find temporary accommodation for our homeless campers.
- Master Cook of the Royal Courts of Justice, granted possession to the claimant and the defendant should leave the area forthwith.
- The "forthwith" is problematic as we have no idea about timeline.
- Kay will call the Council and see if we can have one week to find other accommodation.
- We have a van ready for when the move becomes necessary.
- The Solar Panels are off-site and safe.
- It's good to see some Finsbury people visiting the place and enjoying the surroundings.
- The camp looks to have 15 members. All males…c'est la vie
- We need more flyers and literature.
Plans for the future:
We need more flyers and need to create some more specific to the local area.
Hit the ground running, rather than play catch up.
We do think that as a small camp,we are being used as a testbed to cleanse London of protesters and homeless.


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If you wish to attach one or more files enter the details below. You may also attach files by dragging and dropping them in the message box.
Post by myangel » Wed Nov 25, 2009 10:21 am
Post by kdreher » Sat Oct 10, 2009 05:12 pm
Post by holiday » Mon Sep 28, 2009 02:25 pm
Post by darateacher » Fri Sep 25, 2009 12:03 am
Post by kdreher » Fri Sep 25, 2009 10:11 am
Post by darateacher » Thu Sep 24, 2009 12:26 am
Post by trish » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:59 am
Post by kdreher » Thu Sep 24, 2009 10:33 am
Post by darateacher » Tue Sep 22, 2009 02:00 pm
Post by kdreher » Tue Sep 22, 2009 08:39 am
quote:Originally posted by darateacher
Adam and Noah both wear the DOC band, and it really works fast!!! In fact, Noah's will be off before Halloween, and they've had theirs since August. Adam's will probably be off by Thanksgiving. gotta tell ya...they're great! The OT's are wonderful where you're going, as we have an office out here five mins from our house. I was worried about how "outsiders" would react to the bands, but no one's said a word. We've even decorated them. Have you seen the DOC band calendar? Totally gives ideas on how to decorate a DOC band. I hope your son doesn't have to wear it long. But, as I've been told, they really don't notice it. It only weighs about 4oz.


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Are you irrationally terrified of something that most people brush off as a distant threat that will never have any sway over the direction of their life? A lot of people are, and we love to make fun of them for it.
Is every "you have a better chance of winning the lottery" type of phobia as silly as it seems, though? We talk about that on this week's Unpopular Opinion podcast ...
... where I'm joined by comic Al Jackson (Legit on FXX) and Danger Van Gorder from the band Countless Thousands. The first fear we explore is one of the most regularly dismissed phobias ...
4Shark Attacks
Jupiterimages/Stockbyte/Getty Images
You have a better chance of winning the lottery than being killed by a shark in the United States. That's the kind of statistic people like to throw around when some coward friend mentions the possibility of encountering one of nature's most efficient killing machines while swimming in the ocean.
Well, guess what? People win the lottery all the goddamn time. I understand that it doesn't happen with the same frequency as car accidents or cloudy days, but it does happen. People win the lottery, and no matter how silly people want you to believe the idea is, people do get attacked by sharks. If the threat wasn't real, Googling the phrase "protect yourself from sharks" probably wouldn't return 875,000 results. If a shark attack was something you never needed to worry about, the movie Open Water wouldn't exist.
Even Jaws was based on some truly unfortunate shit that really did happen.
The problem with this type of comparison is that it's usually taking the entire population into account. Figuring the landlocked citizens of Nebraska into shark attack numbers is absurd, as was pointed out by the Freakonomics people when that famous "vending machines cause more deaths than sharks" statistic made the rounds a few years back. There are so many factors that need to be considered before you can just toss that fact in your wallet and use it as universal shark protection.
For starters, imagine you're standing in 4 feet of water and you see a shark swimming around 8 feet away. Now, imagine you're alone in a room and there's a vending machine 8 feet away. Your instinctive response to the first situation is going to be complete and total panic. Your response to the second would be a quick assessment of whether your snack preference is skewing toward salty or sweet that day. These are completely different situations.
David De Lossy/Photodisc/Getty
Dude, look out, Type 2 diabetes is behind you!
Also, if that strikes you as a fantastical comparison, keep in mind that the world capital for shark attacks is New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where shark activity is such that scientists estimate that anyone who's been in that water has been within 10 feet of a shark. Getting attacked isn't a lottery at that point, it's more like a raffle.
Or what about lightning? People love to talk about how you're more likely to die by God's most trusted brand of fury than any number of other potential killers, including sharks. But here's the thing: Lightning can get you anywhere. In the water, on land ... anywhere. Meanwhile, when's the last time a shark attacked someone at a Herbie Hancock concert?
Sharks attack fewer people than lightning because sharks are given fewer opportunities. If sharks could move about cities and towns the same way they do in the ocean and were found in the same numbers, we'd pray for lightning just on the off chance it might take out a few of the land sharks that routinely consume our people.
Pictured: The unspeakably tragic death of Dan Aykroyd.
I'm not saying you should never go in the water, obviously, but I am saying that if you frolic in the ocean with the same "fuck sharks" swagger that you walk around with on land, your chances of getting struck by the lightning of the sea increase exponentially. If you don't believe that, check out this uncomfortably extensive list of shark attack prevention tips that I promise a lot of you aren't taking into consideration when you swim. That list doesn't exist because sharks are some kind of paranormal entity.
Yes, overall, the chances of getting attacked by a shark are slim, but those numbers you hear that make it sound like an impossible dream are factoring in that you'll probably never even be in the ocean. Once you are, it's more likely that you'll die by drowning than anything else, but if you think sharks still pose less of a threat than vending machines or auto accidents when you're thrashing around in 4 feet of ocean water, you're half the reason shark attacks happen in the first place (sharks are the other half).
Oxford Scientific/Photodisc/Getty
I'll be the first to admit that my fear of bugs is pretty irrational, so much so that the one that terrified me above all others as a child was the June bug. Sure, it mainly eats shrubbery and has no real means of harming a person, but have you heard that tapping noise it makes when it gets inside your home and stupidly flies into the wall repeatedly? It literally sends chills down my spine. I cannot be in the same room with a June bug, no matter how harmless it might be.
Brand X Pictures/Stockbyte/Getty
I would kill this picture if I could.
The problem is flying ants. I was swarmed by an army of them as a kid, and it apparently scarred me to the point that I now make it clear that, no matter what type of relationship I'm entering into, be it personal or professional, the other person or persons are solely responsible for handling any bug extermination issues that may arise. I don't care if it's just me and a small child: If that kid isn't willing and able to kill a wasp, we're going to have to call animal control to fix the problem or something. I'll be too busy cowering under a table.
Again, I accept that this is completely silly, but I'd also argue that not all bugs are quite so innocuous. For example, what about the mosquito? It's the most lethal killer in the animal kingdom for one simple reason -- malaria. Those worthless pests spread that deadly disease in uncontrollable numbers all over the world, and the worst part is that it's a problem we totally had fixed at one point.
Have you ever heard of DDT? Those letters are so synonymous with death and destruction that Jake "The Snake" Roberts named his signature wrestling move after the disgraced pesticide.
Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
Still not sure why he was allowed to carry this into the ring, though.
It was banned from use in 1972 after a series of what turned out to be ludicrously faulty studies claimed that DDT was killing off the peregrine falcon population. Getting it outlawed is considered one of the earliest victories of the environmentalist movement. Speaking of that, here's some trivia to run past your environmentalist friends sometime: Did you know that the makers of DDT actually won the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts?
A well-deserved victory indeed.
It's true. See, DDT is remarkably effective at one thing, and that one thing is killing mosquitoes. It was last used in Sri Lanka, in 1963. There were 17 reported cases of malaria that year. By 1969, with DDT no longer allowed, malaria cases skyrocketed to 2.5 motherfucking million.
Hey, at least those falcons are safe, right?
Right, because they were always safe. As stated earlier, the studies that led to DDT falling out of favor turned out to be incorrect. In some areas where DDT was used, peregrine falcon populations actually increased. Nevertheless, the use of DDT has been banned ever since, and malaria continues to kill millions each year. Thanks, stupid birds!


text:
Public safety building: Williamstown voters get a 'do-over'By David Delcore
Staff Writer | April 08,2013WILLIAMSTOWN — It's official: May 6 will be "do-over" day in Williamstown when voters will be given a second shot at deciding whether to come up with the money needed to finance a new public safety building and to pay for an after-school program.
Less than 48 hours after the School Board was forced by petition to schedule a special election to reconsider voters' narrow Town Meeting Day rejection of $40,000 to pay for an after-school program, the Select Board grudgingly agreed to schedule a concurrent revote on the proposed public safety building.
They sure weren't happy about it.
Presented with a petition that they ultimately "rejected" but could not ignore, board members unilaterally agreed to put the project they supported, and voters narrowly approved last month, back on the ballot May 6.
The board arrived at its decision after briefly discussing its options behind closed doors during a special session Thursday. When they emerged members and some of those in attendance used words like "unfortunate," "aggravating," "frustrating," and "heart-breaking" to describe how they were feeling, while at the same time expressing their shared fear that delays associated with a second vote — a vote they had hoped to avoid — would push the price of the project well beyond the $2.5 million figure that voters approved, 298-283, last month.
"This sucks," Board Chairman Larry Hebert said.
Selectman Rodney Graham agreed, and, in the end, could not bring himself to vote for a motion to put what he characterized as a painstakingly planned, voter-approved, "shovel-ready" project back on the ballot.
"This is not in the best interest of the town," Graham grumbled.
Although Graham didn't get any argument from the rest of the board, the general consensus after consulting multiple lawyers was that the town's options were limited and the only risk-free solution was for the board to schedule a special election of its own accord.
"We're in a no-win situation, no matter how we do this thing," Hebert said after ticking down the list of options — in his view none of them good — outlined by the town's bond counsel Paul Giuliani.
Though Giuliani advised the board that he believes the petition Normand Peloquin dropped off at the town offices first thing Thursday morning didn't contain enough signatures to force the board to schedule a re-vote he acknowledged others would argue that it did.
The petition was signed by more than 5 percent of the town's registered voters — the figure typically needed to force a revote, like the one scheduled by the School Board earlier in the week — but less than the 10 percent Giuliani believes is needed to reconsider a bond issue.
Reading a letter written by Giuliani, Hebert said the board had three choices. It could reject the petition as insufficient while honoring its request for a re-vote, reject the petition as insufficient and proceed with plans for a mid-April groundbreaking, or accept the petition as valid and schedule a special election.
"'Of the possible outcomes (rejecting the petition and warning the re-vote it requested) is the only one free of litigation,'" Hebert said, reading from the letter written by Giuliani. "'A taxpayer on either side of the issue could challenge any one of the other possible options.'"
That, Hebert explained, would be problematic because, according to Giuliani, "the mere threat of an appeal" would freeze the town's pending request for financing through the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank for at least 31 days.
In this case, Hebert said time is probably money and there really isn't much the town can do about it.
According to Hebert, Jack Barnes, of Summit Catamount Construction, has indicated it will be difficult for his firm to stick to its low bid of $2,060,000 now that plans for an April groundbreaking have gone by the boards. Citing the potential loss of subcontractors among other things, Hebert said Barnes has estimated costs could easily increase by 5 to 7 percent — $103,000 to $150,000 — due to the delay, and the number could go much higher if the low bidder for the building's mechanical work backs out. More than $200,000 separated the chosen subcontractor for that work and the next lowest bidder.
Selectman Matt Rouleau said the blame for that rests squarely with those who waited until the last possible day to file a petition attempting to overturn the Town Meeting Day vote.
"We're going to have to re-vote this thing and it's just a real shame that we're going to have to spend more money than we really had to," Rouleau said.
Resident Art Kramer agreed, but said the board shouldn't belabor the point.
"The increased cost is already there, just by the sheer fact we're sitting here right now," Kramer said.
The board also heard from one resident, who was having misgivings about signing the petition, and another who voted against the proposal on Town Meeting Day but had changed his mind.
Larry Ellison told board members his "no" vote last month will be a "yes" vote next month and Rob Hepburn applauded them for the work they'd done suggesting he might have "put the cart before the horse" when he put his pen to the petition at the dump last Saturday.
Hepburn said he never questioned the need for the proposed public safety building, but had believed it could be constructed in the heart of the village — an idea he has since abandoned due to the sheer size of the structure.
That said, Hepburn told a board ignoring the petition based on one attorney's opinion that it might not have quite enough signatures wouldn't be wise.
"The fact is I don't give a crap what the lawyers say … you have 137 people (who signed the petition)," he said. "You need to revote this and you need to educate those people."
As for concern that the price of the building could climb, Hepburn said that ship had already sailed.
"We're already screwed cost-wise," he said, suggesting if the board made a mistake it was in assuming the vote wouldn't be challenged.
"We should have put this building out to bid knowing in Williamstown, as it is, it was going to come to this," he said. "It was not going to be an 80-percent-20-percent-go. There's just too many people (in town) objecting to everything that you guys do."
Town Clerk Barbara Graham said the May 6 special election will be held at the current fire station on Depot Street. Polls will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Regardless of the outcome the up-or-down vote on the proposed public safety building will be the last word on the matter in the foreseeable future. If the bond issue is approved a second time, the new emergency services facility will be built on town-owned land on Meadow Street. If it is rejected, Hebert said plans to bring the town's fire and ambulance departments under one, energy-efficient roof will be shelved for at least a year.MORE IN This Just InMONTPELIER A new report from a commission that studied the cost, availability and quality of... Full StoryVermont fish hatchery changes focus, looks inland
BETHEL, Vt. Full StoryHONOLULU (AP) A group of Hawaii musicians and a Hawaiian Airlines flight attendant provided... Full Story
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Room 3-40
Jamaica, New York 11439
United States
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Administrator, Legal Operations
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The purpose of the position is to provide administrative support and assistance to the Associate General Counsels and Deputy General Counsel and other attorneys within the division on confidential mat...
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Under the General Direction of the Supervising Attorney and Assistant Supervising Attorneys, with wide latitude for independent judgment and unreviewed action and decision, engage in difficult and com...
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A. Harrison Barnes is a well-known attorney throughout the United States. As a member of the Malibu community, Harrison is committed to serving the needs of Malibu residents and businesses in legal matters.


text:
Page: 174
A vCard is an electronic business card. It is a file containing information on a person or company. Like a business card, the vCard text can contain text elements for the characteristic data as well as graphical and multimedia elements.
WMA (Windows Media Audio)
WMA is a compression standard developed by Microsoft for lossy compression and decoding of audio files.


text:
What is in this article?:
- Precision nematode control in cropping systems
- Two-trial focus
- The southern root knot nematode may have met its match in Arizona crop fields thanks to improved targeted applications of soil fumigants in various soil textures delivered through precision agriculture technology.
- Field trials conducted from 2006 to 2010 tabulated information gathered by global positioning systems, variable rate technology, and harvest yield mapping data.
- Consistent cotton and corn yield increases were achieved with Telone II under heavy nematode populations.
- The RKN is the No. 1 nematode species threat in Arizona crop fields.
The crop nemesis southern root knot nematode (RKN), Meloidogyne incognita, may have met its match in Arizona crop fields thanks to improved targeted applications of soil fumigants in various soil textures delivered through precision agriculture technology.
Field trials conducted from 2006 to 2010 tabulated information gathered by global positioning systems and variable rate technology, including the electrical conductivity-based Veris 3100 and EM38 sensors for on-the-go soil mapping, plus harvest yield mapping data.
This technology illustrates that nematicide applications can be applied sparingly in some cases while maintaining good nematode control and trimming chemical costs.
The grower cooperator field trials included six studies with the nematicide Telone II applied at pre-plant in cotton and corn in central and southwestern Arizona conducted by University of Arizona (UA) researchers Randy Norton, Tim Hatch, Mike McClure, and Pedro Andrade.
Norton, UA regional extension cotton specialist based in Safford, shared the findings during the 71st annual Cotton Disease Council meeting at the 2011 Beltwide Cotton Conferences in Atlanta, Ga., in January.
Norton labeled the RKN as the No. 1 nematode species threat in Arizona. The microscopic roundworm damages crops by attacking the young tap and secondary roots which stimulates the production of galls. Galls interfere with the ability of the roots to absorb water and nutrients, and allow other disease-producing organisms to enter the plant.
Arizona hotspots for RKNs include the Coolidge, Casa Grande, Florence, and Buckeye areas in central Arizona and the Bonita area in the Sulphur Springs Valley in southeastern Arizona.
In cotton, the RKN is responsible for a 5 percent lint yield reduction on average across the Cotton Belt, Norton says. Five gallons is the standard Telone II application rate in Arizona to maintain cotton yields in RKN-infected fields.
"The 5 gallon Telone II rate results in tremendous increases in cotton yield per acre," said Norton, a cotton agronomist. "Heavy RTK infestations without Telone II can result in nearly complete crop loss in highly infested areas."
Soil texture is directly related to Telone II efficacy. Many Arizona crop fields contain stream and river deposited alluvial soils. A 70-acre field, says Norton, can have five to six soil classifications with high soil texture variability which impact nematode numbers and distribution. The tests reveal that soils dominated by sand have higher RKN numbers. Clay loam-based soil has a low RKN population.
The field trial locations were selected on baseline nematode levels and growers' experiences. The Veris mapping survey divided the fields into four management zones; Zone 1 with the most sand to Zone 4 with the least sand. A prescription was developed based upon the zones. Zones 1 and 2 were treated with Telone II. Zones 3 and 4 were untreated.
Each trial layout included verification strips (treated and untreated) placed across the field to cross all management zones. Yield data was obtained from a monitor at harvest. Full-length strips across all zones were evaluated along with the yield response within each zone (Telone treated and untreated).
"Observational data suggests that the entire field does not always require a nematicide application," Norton said. "The ability to target and apply a nematicide to specific areas of a field predicted to have a high potential for crop damage while avoiding application on areas of the field with a low potential for crop damage allows the grower to greatly enhance the efficiency of nematode control thereby improving profitability and reducing the amount of nematicide released into the environment."


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Let me start by being perfectly clear: if you are a professional programmer, then Haskell is in your future.
In 1987, this statement would have been equally true about Smalltalk. Today, 20 years later, object-oriented programming, class hierarchies, model-view-controller patterns, and other ideas from Smalltalk are now commonplace, even though Smalltalk never saw widespread adoption.
Haskell is in a similar situation today. It is an esoteric language, yet stable and reliable enough for serious work. Perhaps you will learn Haskell, or even use Haskell on a real-world project. Even if you don't, ideas from Haskell are slowly finding their way into mainstream languages like Java, C#, C++, Perl, Python, and Ruby. Haskell is poised to have a strong influence over the next 20 years of programming and language design, just as Smalltalk has had an influence during the last 20 years.
Haskell sounds important, but what makes it so special? The brief definition of Haskell from haskell.org says:
Haskell is a general purpose, purely functional programming language featuring static typing, higher order functions, polymorphism, typeclasses and monadic effects.
If you are an academic or a language designer, these terms may be meaningful. If you are a professional programmer, terms like static typing and polymorphism may sound familiar, even if this definition isn't particularly elucidating.
Fundamentally, Haskell is a functional programming language, which means it is based on a form of lambda calculus. If this sounds intimidating, then fear not, because lambda calculus is not difficult at all.
Lambda calculus is nothing more than a precise set of rules that describe how to evaluate functions. There are two moving parts (function definition and function evaluation), and two building blocks (functions and values). If you're a professional programmer, you already have all the skills you need to understand lambda calculus. For example, in any C-like language, the rule for evaluating this statement is already wired deep into your consciousness:
printf("%.03f\n", sqrt(incr(1)));
The rule is to evaluate all the arguments to a function first, then evaluate the function with the resulting values. This process is repeated recursively, until an expression yields a single value. In the example above, the innermost function,
incr(1) is evaluated to produce the value
2. Next,
sqrt(2) is evaluated to produce
1.414.... Finally, printf is evaluated with the two arguments
"%.03f\n" and
1.414... to produce some formatted output.
There are a few more key features to lambda calculus, like the ability to create functions that return functions, and the ability to define functions that take functions as arguments. These features make it possible to define small, modular functions, and glue them together into highly specialized functions with minimal effort.
For example,
filter is a general purpose function that accepts a testing function (a predicate), a list of values, and returns a new list containing all values where the test passes. The
even function is one such test, which determines whether or not a number is divisible by 2. Here is how those two functions are used together in Haskell, to extract the even numbers from a list of values. This example uses
ghci, the interactive interpreter provided with the Glorious Glasgow Haskell Compiler (
Prelude> filter even [1..10] -- filter the even numbers out of a list
If I want to define a function that takes a list of values, and returns only the even values in that list, it would look like this in the interpreter:
Prelude> let evens = filter even -- define the function Prelude> evens [1..10] -- filter numbers out of a list [2,4,6,8,10
This example may appear trivial, but it demonstrates a key benefit of working with lambda calculus in a functional programming language--the ability to create specialized functions by merely gluing together a small number of more generalized, pre-existing functions.
Interestingly, this is exactly how shell pipelines work.
Writing the function
evens in C is much more complex. First, the output list must be allocated, and to do that, the number of output values must be counted. Next, the values must be copied to the new list, one at a time. This simple expression in Haskell becomes this function in C:
int *evens(int *in, int count) { int matches = 0; int i, *out, *ptr; for (i = 0; i < count; i++) { if ((in[i] % 2) == 0) { matches++; } } out = malloc(sizeof(int) * matches); ptr = out; for (i = 0; i < count; i++) { if ((in[i] % 2) == 0) { *ptr = in[i]; ptr++; } } return out; }
This function defines the combined behavior of the Haskell definition of
evens. That is, this block of code is equivalent to the expression
filter even in Haskell. If there were a C library function that handled the behavior of
filter, this code would be simpler. However, this is kind of solution is sadly idiomatic in C-like languages.
Writing this function in a more modern language like Java, C++ or C# isn't as odious, because automatic memory management takes care of the first half of this function. Writing the expression '
filter even [1..10]' in dynamic languages like Perl, Python and Ruby are closer to the Haskell definition, because they define primitive functions that act like filter. Here is what this expression looks like in those languages:
## Perl grep {$_ % 2 == 0} (1..10) ## Python filter(lambda n: n % 2 == 0, [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]) ## Ruby [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10].delete_if {|i| i % 2 == 1}
Most mainstream programming languages focus on managing a machine, whether it is a real computer or a virtual machine. That is, most languages have an imperative nature, where the programmer must tell the machine what to do in a step-by-step fashion. Understanding a program usually means reading through a program one statement at a time and asking, "what will the computer do next?"
Functional programming languages use lambda calculus to take a different approach. Instead of telling the computer how to solve a problem one statement at a time, they allow a programmer to describe what the solution is, and let the computer figure out how to execute it. For example, it is easier to produce a new list by using a function like filter to select the elements you want to keep (or, in the Ruby example, removing the elements you want to ignore), than it is to write a function in C that must first allocate space for a result, then place each selected value in the result list.
Of course, it's not necessary to use a functional programming language to use these techniques. Because ideas from the functional programming world are appearing in mainstream languages, it is more important than ever to understand these techniques. Tom Christiansen said it best:
A programmer who hasn't been exposed to all four of the imperative, functional, objective, and logical programming styles has one or more conceptual blindspots. It's like knowing how to boil but not fry. Programming is not a skill one develops in five easy lessons.
Many programming languages offer a mixture of styles. Most object oriented languages have an imperative core, where classes, objects and methods provide a thin veneer over a language that is little more than a slightly improved version of C. Many functional programming languages mix functional, imperative, and object-oriented styles together in a manner that makes it difficult to tell them apart.
Haskell, on the other hand, is a purely functional language that restricts itself to the functional style of programming. Learning and using Haskell makes it easy to see the power and benefits of lambda calculus and functional programming.
Tom's observation describes four cornerstones of computer science: imperative programming, object-oriented programming, functional programming, and logic-oriented programming. These four families can be grouped into two styles: mechanical (imperative and object-oriented) and mathematical (functional and logic-oriented).
"Mechanical" languages focus on expressing a program as a series of steps to execute, one after another. Object-oriented programming is more powerful than simple imperative programming, because it defines an additional series of rules that let the compiler or interpreter do more of the drudge work to compose a program.
"Mathematical" languages start with a theoretical model of how to solve a problem, and a concrete implementation of that model. Four examples of this approach are regular expressions, SQL, make and, of course, Haskell.
Regular expressions use automata theory to describe a mechanism for matching strings. It is much easier to write a regular expression like '
^(NYC?|New York( City)?)$' than it is to write code that matches the four strings "NY", "NYC", "New York" and "New York City". Furthermore, a good regular expression library can always use an optimal search, scanning each character only once, while hand-coding an optimal string search each an every time a string must be matched is far more difficult.
SQL uses set theory and relational algebra to search for data in a database. A single statement in SQL can refer to many tables, many constraints, and many calculated expressions. A typical relational database engine uses a query optimizer to determine if any of the necessary data are indexed, and if so, refers to the index to reduce the amount of work needed to return a result. The alternative to using SQL and a relational database is to write pages of code to perform all of the I/O operations to manage data tables (and their indexes) on disk. This might be feasible for very simple SQL statements, but it is certainly more tedious. Complex SQL statements are still somewhat easy to write and understand, while the alternative can easily become pages of hard-to-write, error-prone code that is difficult to understand or optimize.
Make and related tools like
ant, nant and rake, use a series of recipes to determine how to build a software project. Internally,
make reads these recipes and interprets them using a little bit of graph theory to model the dependencies described by those recipes. When
make is presented with a desired goal like
make test,
make docs,
make all or
make debug, it traces the dependency graph from that goal back to a set of dependencies that need to be rebuilt, and proceeds to build only what is absolutely necessary. This process is much more maintainable and reliable than a hand-crafted shell script to perform the same work. Additionally,
make can be run in a multiprocessing mode, where multiple independent jobs can run concurrently to speed up the build process, something that is nearly impossible to achieve with hand-coded build scripts.
Haskell also falls into this category of programming languages, and lambda calculus is its foundation.
make, SQL and regular expressions all describe limited purpose languages, fit for a solving a specific kind of problem within the context of a larger project. Haskell is a general purpose language, and it brings the same kind of heavy lifting into the design and construction of applications and large systems.
Software development today is at an inflection point. Until recently, almost all software was written to run on a single machine with a single processor. Today, more and more software must be written to accommodate multiprocessing, whether it involves using multiple CPU cores, multiple nodes on a network, or both. Yet many of the languages and environments used today work best when used on a single machine with a single processor.
It's an open question how we as developers should build software to take advantage of the ever increasing amounts of compute power available. Three of the most interesting ideas are available now, or will soon be available in
One persistent problem in multiprocessing programs is managing global shared state. Haskell avoids these issues by making all values immutable. In other words, variables in Haskell don't vary. Whenever a function returns a result, it creates a new value, and lets the garbage collector handle memory allocation and destruction. A function's result is sent back to its caller, and as a result, there is no such thing as global state that can modify the behavior of a program. Programs that require stateful behavior do exist in Haskell, but they are strictly quarantined and can be handled separately from the rest of the program.
Haskell programs use a "shared-nothing" style naturally. This is the same architecture that is considered a best practice for writing web applications that need to scale up to use multiple CPUs, or scale across to support replication across multiple networked nodes.
Another problem in multiprocessing is resource contention, where two threads interfere with each other as they try to update the same shared resource. One solution involves using semaphores and locks in a strictly coordinated manner. Unfortunately, dealing with threads and locks is very tricky, and very easy to get wrong. Another approach is to use atomic transactions, where each writer succeeds and writes all of its changes, or fails and writes none of them.
Database engines have used transactions for decades to make multi-user updates sane. Until recently, this familiar mechanism was not available to software developers when writing software outside the scope of a database. This model is available today in
ghc, through software transactional memory, or STM. Libraries supporting STM are slowly appearing for other languages as well.
A third problem deals with using multiple CPUs efficiently on a single machine. Some of these "embarrassingly parallel" problems are easy to write using a set of sequential instructions to execute on a single CPU. Writing code that distributes the work across multiple CPUs on a single machine is considerably more difficult.
There is work in progress to remedy this situation in
ghc. The Data Parallel Haskell extension integrates a form of parallel computation into Haskell programs. This extension allows the programmer to specify when arrays can benefit from parallelized operations that are spread across multiple CPUs within a single machine. This allows programmers to write a normal straightforward Haskell program, and identify which parts are "embarrassingly parallel," and that should be parallelized transparently. Data Parallel Haskell is a work in progress, and an area of active research by the
ghc development team.
Clearly, Haskell is an important language. It deserves your attention.
The next parts in this series will discuss two distinctive aspects of Haskell: functions and monads.
Adam Turoff is a software developer with more than a dozen years of experience in building web backend systems with open source tools. His current project uses a mixture of Perl, Ruby, Rails, Haskell, and other tools.
Return to ONLamp.com.
Copyright © 2009 O'Reilly Media, Inc.


text:
RUSH: "Iowa Democrats say notoriously disciplined Sen. Hillary Clinton may need to loosen up if she wants the state to support her presidential plans. Gordon Fischer, the former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman, said Clinton's carefully controlled demeanor might prevent her from connecting with voters, the New York Daily News reported Tuesday. 'I don't know that you can win in the Iowa caucuses and be a control freak,' said Fischer, who supports the presidential ambitions of Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. Fischer said [that Hillary] can improve her chances by visiting every county in the state before the Democratic caucuses, which are scheduled to be the first in the country, in 13 months...
"'You get a bus, and you go to all 99 counties...you've got to spend time, and really talk to people.'" There's an interesting companion story to this, unrelated to the details of this, but it's quite telling at the same time. The whole concept here: Hillary needs to loosen up. Nobody really knows her. Nobody really knows who she is. She's just so tightly wound that she appears fake. So what do they want her to do? Dance? Smile? Tell jokes? Wear low-cut dresses? Hell, wear dresses! They want her to act human? They want her to take a position on something? They want her to cry? This woman cannot hold a press conference unless it's totally planned and scripted to protect her. She hasn't been asked any tough questions about anything from anybody in six years.
She's not going to visit 99 counties in Iowa and subject herself to this, and here is why: (story) "Raymond Hernandez of the New York Times informs the world [in a story] that Hillary Clinton has long enjoyed the services of a chief aide, someone who plays an absolutely key role on her life, whose existence has received approximately zero media attention until [this story]." In other words, Hillary also has a Karl Rove. "'(The person Senator Clinton) is relying on to run things is a reclusive adviser who is intolerant of leaks, who demands strict loyalty from her staff and who, on those rare occasions that she speaks publicly, measures each word. Her name is Patti Solis Doyle, and the job of mapping out the senator's national political strategy falls to her.
"'Indeed, as the news media buzz grows around Mrs. Clinton's political ambitions, Ms. Solis Doyle has worked in the shadows wooing prominent donors over dinners, meeting with some of the Democratic Party's top talent ... and conferring with Mrs. Clinton on an almost daily basis. Officially, Ms. Solis Doyle, 41, is the executive director of Hillpac, known widely as Hillary Inc., a vast political operation that has employed as many as 50 press assistants, opposition researchers, media specialists and fund-raisers at any one time. But [her] title does not begin to convey the singular role she has played for Mrs. Clinton since the two women crossed paths about 16 years ago.'
Thomas Lifson at the AmericanThinker.com says, "If anyone ever doubted that Hillary's public persona is a completely manufactured product, bearing only tangential relationship to the reality of the woman, the public oblivion of Patti Solis Doyle should provide evidence of the divergence between image and reality in the case of Hillary," which takes us to the Tom DeLay story. "Tom DeLay said yesterday that Senator Clinton would be elected president in 2008 and would probably tap Senator Barack Obama as her running mate. DeLay met with conservative bloggers at a weekly lunch meeting hosted by Human Events and the Heritage Foundation. He's making the rounds in Washington to promote his new blog, an activism website TomDeLay.com. He said, 'Look, she's going to be the next president. They've built a coalition.' He also implored conservatives to start digging into Obama's past.
"He said, 'Obama's record in the Illinois Senate was on a par with a Marxist leftist.'" Now, here's the thing about Hillary. She is always hiding. She's rarely out doing things. She's rarely out there giving speeches. She doesn't have very many photo-ops. She doesn't give many interviews except at the New York Times every other year when they put her on the cover of their magazine as St. Hillary or The Virgin Hillary or whatever, but they're always puff pieces. She's been this way pretty much through two elections and one term in the Senate. When she does let loose -- and we have it on tape -- she's just out of control. The screaming and the squawking and the screeching reminds you of an ex-spouse or two, and so the effort is going to be to get her the nomination almost by acclimation, without her having to go out and meet people and be Miss Warm and Fuzzy -- which takes us now to Barack Obama, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday on PMSNBC live, here is a montage of the "Wonkette" blogger. This is a classic illustration. There's a blogger out there called Wonkette. Her name is Anna Marie Cox, and because she had this blog that nobody read, TIME Magazine snuffed her up and she's now a cultural writer, political writer. She's the hot info babe of the moment, and she was on PMSNBC live discussing Barack Obama.
COX (montage): He is a rock star! He hasn't gone old for us! Uh, he hasn't developed into some joke that he tells over and over! He's the neeeew, vaguely exotic foreign exchange student! He's the sexiest of the new people! We talk about him being vaguely exotic... Sexy and rock star! ... Drop dead sex appeal! He's someone who you want to follow! Suuuure, I like Obama, too! I actually was at a cocktail party where Barack was! Talk about sexy! He's so young! It's the first blush... Obama can do no wrong! Sexy! Sexy! Sexy!
RUSH: (Sigh.) All right, that's the appeal to Anna Marie Cox. (interruption) Well, there's no question the power is crackling through his jeans! Hell, yes, Snerdley! That's the translation of this: "vaguely exotic sexy rock star, drop-dead sex appeal." Now, we have some EIB exclusive audio here. It's from Sunday in New Hampshire when Barack Obama made a speech up there. After his speech was over he made a beeline for Maureen Dowd and the audience. The camera kept rolling. We have this. I haven't seen it. I mean, it's not really "exclusive" to us. It's exclusive in the sense we're the only ones that are going to use it. Just listen. He goes up to Maureen Dowd. This is your sexy rock star, drop dead sex appeal, somebody you want to follow, somebody firm in his convictions. This guy is a rock, not just a star, and this is what he said to Maureen Dowd.
OBAMA (off mic): You talked about my ears, and I just want to put you on notice: I'm very sensitive about -- What I told them was, ''I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.'"
DOWD (purring): We're trying to toughen you up.
RUSH: Did you hear all that? Were you able to hear it? You want me to translate this? All right. Maureen Dowd has written about his big ears, and after his speech Barack Obama made a beeline to Maureen Dowd and said, "You talked about my ears, and I just want to put you on notice: I'm very sensitive about -- What at I told them was, 'I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.'" Maureen said, "We're just trying to tough you up." Just trying to toughen you up. I tend to personalize a lot of these things. I'm sorry, my friends, I'm like everybody else: everything is about me -- and I hear this, and I think, "If I went to a reporter and said, "You know, don't talk about X aspect of me. I'm very sensitive. I was made fun of my whole life because of X. Would you just stop? I'm putting you on notice that I'm very sensitive about that," instead of Maureen Dowd saying, "Come on, Rush! We're trying to toughen you up," it would be the subject of her next column.
The weak, cowardly, insecure and insensitive Rush Limbaugh begged me not to make fun of X!
But Maureen Dowd has decided that the Drive-By Media needs to toughen Barack up. Listen to the bite again now that you know what was said.
OBAMA (off mic): You talked about my ears, and I just want to put you on notice: I'm very sensitive about -- What I told them was, ''I was teased relentlessly when I was a kid about my big ears.'"
DOWD (purring): We're trying to toughen you up.
RUSH: We're just trying to toughen you up. You sexy, exotic rock star, sexy, sexy, sexy, we're just trying to toughen you up! (interruption) Snerdley is convinced that Maureen wants Barack Hussein Obama. (sigh) I don't even want to go there. I know more than you do about this and I'm not going to talk about it. Here is a question. An unidentified reporter said to Barack, "What do you make of the recent fascination that people have as they are getting to know you about your middle name being 'Hussein'?"
OBAMA: It would be one thing if my name was John Hussein Smith. Then, you know, this might be a real problem. When you're already starting with Barack Obama, you know, let me put it this way. If name's -- if my name is going to be an issue, then -- then I don't think, uh, my middle name is relevant. The American people are not concerned about middle names.
RUSH: (Laughing.) Ha-ha-ha! (Clinton impression) "The American people are not concerned about middle names. It doesn't matter to people. Middle names, Limbaugh? You folks keep focusing on this. I mean, my name is Jefferson Blythe, and nobody cared! I mean, I'm Bill Clinton: Good Old Boy." Okay, so that's our Barack Obama segment for today, ladies and gentlemen. Maureen Dowd trying to toughen him up as he tells her he's very insecure about being made fun of over the size of his ears.
RUSH: Go back to the archives here, April 28th, 2003. I was talking about Hillary a moment ago and how she's so tightly wound and controlled and programmed. They don't let her loose. She doesn't take tough questions. Here is an example when the control slips.
HILLARY (screeching): I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic, and we should stand up and say, "WE ARE AMERICANS AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DEBATE AND DISAGREE WITH ANY ADMINISTRATION!"
RUSH: What's happens when Ms. Soltys, whatever, isn't around, When the controls are off and Mrs. Clinton...freelances, and you don't see that much, because they're paranoid of this happening. She's got her own Karl Rove but nobody knows about it.


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Trucking regulations can be taken too far
We all drive the highway and byways here in West Virginia every day, but when we drive on the interstate or truck routes we become annoyed by the fact we are being held up or being passed on the highway by one of these titans of the road. We blame them for driving too fast or spraying water, snow or dust and dirt all over our cars.
But have you ever stopped to think what might be on that truck that is either going too slow for you or that truck that just passed you? The public perception of heavy trucks is not going to improve much as long as we have the sensational reporting, perpetuation of myths and a few bad apples that are intent on spoiling the bunch.
People rarely remember the trucks they pass, cut off, force to apply the brakes or follow too closely on any given day. But they always remember that one that passed them. Those white-knuckle memories lead to the complaints. Add in a story about a fiery truck crash and you've the formula for new laws and restrictions. I do believe that the general public doesn't understand that trucks bring everything we eat, wear and use on a daily basis. But I also believe the majority of the general public is naturally afraid of the tractor trailers they share the highways and byways every day with.
The public needs to know that the vast majority of truckers are the safest drivers on the roads today. But most people only seem to remember that one incident that really scared them. I know it's hard for the general public to understand but it's time to stop overreacting and use some common sense in the way we think about the tractor tailors that we share the road with. If you regulate trucks to the point that they can't operate, then ask yourselves how we will get our everyday things we use in the home and work or wear on our backs or our feet?
Mike McRae


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The Canon EOS 650D is the world's first DSLR to be equipped with a touchscreen also arrives with a clever focusing system and a handful of extra features. The What Digital Camera Canon EOS 650D review investigates the extent to which their implementation has been successful
Canon EOS 650D Review
This isn't, however, the only justification for the new release. With core aspects of the camera's specifications being tweaked and refreshed from the previous EOS 600D model, the new arrival looks set to appeal even to those not convinced of the benefits of touchscreen technology. But do they make for just an incremental upgrade? Or is there more to it than that?
Canon EOS 650D review – Features
Perhaps the most significant shift on the inside concerns the Canon EOS 650D's imaging sensor. Although it retains the same 18MP effective resolution as both the Canon EOS 600D and the EOS 550D before it, the sensor now uses its most central pixels for phase detection AF, in addition to the already-standard contrast detection AF. The system, dubbed Hybrid CMOS AF, is designed to improve focusing performance in both live view and video modes, although only contrast detection AF is used when the subject lies outside this central area.
The Canon EOS 650D's processor has also been upgraded to the DIGIC 5 version; while this isn't Canon's most advanced engine – that honour belongs to the DIGIC 5+, a pair of which can be found inside the EOS 1Dx – it nevertheless promises a six-fold increase in processing speeds in addition to the usual claims of low noise and natural colour. This has also enabled a wide ISO range of ISO 100-12,800 as standard, with a single extension option to an ISO 25,600 equivalent setting – a full stop wider than the EOS 600D.
As with the Canon EOS 600D the camera's LCD screen measures 3in in size and resolves details with 1040k dots, although Canon has dubbed it Clear View II to distinguish it from the first generation display. According to Canon the main change concerns the air gap between the screen and the protective front panel, which has now been removed. Once again the screen pivots around a side hinge, folding out to 175° and turning through an angle of 270°.
Those using the Canon EOS 650D for video can record full HD (1080p) footage at 29.97, 25, 23.976 fps, and 720p footage at 59.94 and 50fps. Two microphones on the top-plate capture stereo sound, and a wind-cut filter may be actiavted through the menu system as and when required. There's also an attenuator, which is designed to subdue any sudden loud noises.
The Canon EOS 650D's focusing module has also been upgraded, so that all nine AF points are of the cross-type variety. Theoretically this makes it more sensitive than usual, given that each point comprises a pair of sensors which work in directions perpendicular to one another. All points are sensitive to f/5.6, with the exception of the central point which extends this to f/2.8; EOS aficionados will recognise that this is the same as that in the EOS 60D.
Those using such a camera for action photography will be pleased to learn of an improvement in burst rate, from the Canon EOS 600D's underwhelming 3.7fps to a more respectable 5fps here. Canon's triple-digit EOS models have always fallen behind the competition here somewhat, so this change is more than welcome (and no doubt a result of a superior processing engine).
Another new feature on the Canon EOS 650D is the Multi Shot Noise Reduction option, which combines four images into one. This, Canon claims, results in a single image with less visible noise than that achieved with the strongest noise reduction option.
The Handheld Night Scene mode, which is also a new addition, also works on the principle of combining four of the same images into one, although here the aim is to reduce blur rather than noise.
Strangely, there doesn't appear to be any way to set colour temperature numerically (i.e over the Kelvin scale) which is fairly standard, although with six presets, a custom option and small adjustments towards particular hues possible, the system is still fairly flexible.
Canon EOS 650D review – Design
As with the camera's feature set, Canon has only made a handful of modifications to the camera's body on top of the basic template carved out by the model's forebears. The top-plate now incorporates stereo microphones just past the hot shoe rather than on the front, for example, while many buttons have been gently restyled and the thumb rest around the back made larger.
The power switch has been joined by a movie option, which lies past the on position. In practice it's easy to overshoot the on position when simply wanting to turn the camera on for stills shooting. The menu and info buttons can also be awkward to press when the screen is extended from the body, given their placement just above the hinge, although on such a button-heavy body there isn't really any better place for them.
In place of the relatively smooth body, the new model gains a more matte finish, particularly the back of the LCD screen. It's not clear why Canon has opted to do so as, not only is this less pleasing to the touch, but it picks up marks and scratches easier than the smoother one on the EOS 600D. Admittedly, most superficial marks can be quickly rubbed away.
Other than these minor grievances, there's little to fault. The body is built to the expected standard, with the stainless steel chassis and polycarbonate resin shell keeping weight down to just 575g. Both the grip, thumb rest and side are rubbered, which not only makes the camera more secure in the hand but also more pleasing to hold, although the grip itself is decidedly more suited to those with smaller hands given its shallowness. The camera's buttons are all labelled clearly, although some may find their travel a little short, and the screen pulls away easily from the body while remaining fixed in any desired position.
Canon EOS 650D review – Performance
Extensive use of the touchscreen makes it obvious how useful this technology can be when well integrated. Those likely to benefit and appreciate it the most will be those using live view and the articulation of the LCD with some frequency, particularly when the usefulness of the touch-shooting is considered. When activated, this allows the subject to be tapped on screen, after which the camera will either focus and keep a lock on the subject, or focus and expose the frame, depending on the settings defined by the user. Although the camera keeps a lock on the subject well, it only maintains this providing it stays well within the peripheries of the frame – otherwise it loses it entirely.
While the camera's more standard focusing system was adequate on the EOS 600D, the revision to an all cross-type system should theoretically make it an even better performer. A side-by-side comparison with the EOS 600D shows this to largely be true, with certain flat, low-contrast subjects completely missed by the EOS 600D's peripheral points being picked up with a much higher rate success rate with the EOS 650D.
The screen itself is pleasingly responsive, at least as prompt as an average smartphone if not more so. When using a finger to zoom around an image, it image moves promptly and with no lagging, and when moving through the main menus you simply need to lift your finger off at the relevant function for it to bring up its various options. Pressing the Q button when in live view also reveals commonly used functions bordering the screen, with the options within each one at the base and all being operated by touch. Overall, Canon has gone beyond expectations to deliver a screen that actually changes the whole user experience, rather than one which just allows certain functions to be selected on screen.
Yet, there's room for improvement. When reviewing images, double-tapping the screen fails to do anything, when it could so easily be used to zoom into the image to 100%. It also takes a fraction of a second to render the image in its full quality as images are swiped. It's entirely likely that those with larger hands may be less enamoured by the implementation, given the relatively small dimensions of many of the controls. While average-handed users are unlikely to feel the need for a stylus of any kind, it's difficult to imagine these controls being any smaller while remaining usable, particularly within the main menu system which follows the same basic template as previous EOS models.
Even ignoring the touchscreen technology the display is more than capable in its performance. While it suffers from the same visibility issues in stronger light as any other camera, in more balanced conditions it presents the scene naturally and without issues. While it isn't based on the OLED technology that has impressed us elsewhere the viewing angle is still impressively wide; a side-by-side comparison with the EOS 600D shows this to be noticeably improved from before.
As promised, the new EF 40mm f/2.8 STM lens delivers a smoother focusing performance than more conventional optics, with greater fluidity when focusing between different areas, although it's noticeably slower to achieve focus. The greatest difference, however, is its sound as it's doing so; whereas the focusing motor of an optic such as the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II delivers a more obvious scratching sound as it achieves correct positioning, the motor inside the pancake lens is closer to a low hum. In silent conditions the sound of both is apparent, although when ambient noise is present the 40mm lens's motor cannot be heard.
The built-in microphones manage to capture sound with impressive clarity, although their sensitivity does make them susceptible to ambient noise, wind etc. Although there is only a basic level of control provided over audio recording (which is entirely expected), there is a wind cut filter which attempts to help out in more turbulent conditions. Comparing footage shot with and without this employed reveals that this does indeed have an effect, although by cutting out the most obvious high-frequency details it still leaves a low rumble, leaving these sounds noticeable but just less obviously so.
One of the less headline-grabbing features of the camera is its 5fps burst speed, which still falls short of peers such as Sony's A57 and Pentax's K-30, although admittedly it's an improvement over the 4fps Nikon D5100. While the camera meets its promised 6-frame depth when shooting JPEGs only, it seems impossible to record its promised 22 JPEG frames at a consecutive speed, even with the fastest card available and all processing options kept to a minimum. Worse still, the depth for Raw and JPEG images appears to be a paltry three frames at consecutive speed.
The HDR Backlight Control setting doesn't produce a radical HDR image as such, but attempts more to produce an image with better detail throughout lighter and darker areas. Examining the histograms of these images shows the feature to successfully reduce contrast by bringing up shadows and taming highlights, although as this requires three consecutive exposures which are then merged together critical sharpness is lost. In less extreme conditions, therefore, it may be better to simply shoot a single Raw image with better sharpness and gently process the shadows and highlights in post-production.
Finally, the Creative Filters can be easily applied to images once captured, and their effects can generally be varied over three levels to achieve different effects. The only criticism that can be levelled here is the speed at which this happens, as it's slower than expected. Those wanting to process a number of images in one go may find this somewhat tardy, although processing images post-capture at least retains the original version.
Image Quality
Image Quality
Tone and Exposure
There isn't much to fault with the camera's iFCL 63-zone metering system, and in most occassions it can be trusted to record the scene faithfully and with no bias towards shadows or highlights. In high-contrast conditions it doesn't appear to be easily fooled into underexposure, an issue which bothers many cameras. The Auto Lighting Optimizer does a good job to lift balance highlight and shadow areas with the remainder of the image (the images below shows the effect this has), although as it attempts to bring back shadow and highlight details it does have the effect of making certain images – particularly those captured in more contrasty conditions – appears a little HDR-esque, which may not appeal to everyone.
White Balance and Colour
Colours straight from the camera are neutral and close to reality, rather than optimised in any way, and the differences between the various Picture Styles aren't quite as pronounced as may be expected. The camera's auto white balance system handles both natural and artificial light well, although it does have the tendency of leaning towards cooler and more neutral tones than towards reproducing the source faithfully. Admittedly the differences here are slight, and some may even prefer this when shooting portraits under artificial light as it will help to remove excess warmth from skin tones.
Contrast receives a slight boost in JPEGs over Raw files and details are noticeably more defined here too, although Canon hasn't been too aggressive with its sharpening on default settings. Those looking to use JPEGs straight from the camera may wish to adjust this, depending on their intended use and the subject being captured.
Sharpness and Detail
As obvious as it is to say that the lens used affects detail and sharpness in images, the point is underlined here given the occasionally lacklustre quality of the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS II kit optic. Softness is noticeable at either end of the focal range, particularly when a wide aperture is used, while barrel distortion and chromatic aberrations also make themselves known. Fortunately, once stopped down, or when an alternative lens is used, finer details are recorded much better.
In a number of scenes such as the one above (captured at the ISO 25,600 equivalent setting), texture begins to form at ISO 400, becoming progressively worse past this point. In terms of colour and exposure, images retain their integrity up until ISO 12,800, with a sharp drop at ISO 25,600. Use of the camera's noise reduction system is only advisable if JPEGs are not destined being viewed at their full size – if they are, the blurring effects are too apparent.
Value and Verdict
Canon EOS 650D – Value
At around £230 more than the EOS 600D, the new model can't be said to be particularly good value right now, although its price is more than likely to descend once it's settled into the market. Its USP is very much its touchscreen, given that its other headline features are equalled or bettered by the likes of Sony's a57 and Nikon's D3200. As a body-only upgrade to the EOS 600D it's unlikely to tempt too many, although users of Canon's earlier triple digit models might be more inclined to make the leap.
Canon EOS 650D – Verdict
Combining a touchscreen into a DSLR would always be controversial, but DSLR LCDs have, for some time now, been much more than simply devices for viewing images post-capture – and this would always be the next logical move. Not only has Canon implemented the technology well, but it hasn't sought to make it obligatory for general operation. It's unlikely this will remain unique to the EOS 650D.
Most of the other changes may not in themselves be significant, but collectively they make the EOS 650D a more enjoyable camera to use than the EOS 600D. With live view and video recording still not universally embraced, it's perhaps the changes to the focusing system that have been the most important. In summary, it's an interesting and logical progression for the EOS line, and once the price falls a little it will be a decent upgrade option for users of previous Canon DSLRs.
Many thanks to Cameraworld for supplying the Canon EOS 650D for review.


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From "body-blocking" fashions to peek-a-boo bras and more, TODAY style editor and Bobbie.com's Bobbie Thomas highlights what's hot now.
More from TODAY.com
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- Hillary Clinton: Granddaughter led me 'to speed up' political plans
Shape shifters
From faking a fit body to making a fit body, it's all about carving out those curves! You could jump into the black and white "body-blocking" trend for an instant way to trick the eye. The dramatic contrast offers an optical illusion that can highlight and hide (Calvin Klein Side Stripe Pant $69, calvinklein.com; Blaine Dress $198, bcbg.com). And if you're looking to tone your actual tush and more, a brand new activewear line will help you carry the weight. W8Fit's innovative collection features hidden pockets for credit card-sized weights. The added resistance while working out or just running errands is a quick and easy way to feel the burn and shape up for summer ($52 & up, w8fit.com).
Peek-a-boo bras
For summer tanks, racerbacks and sheer styles, girlfriends have new options they don't have to hide. Spanx's just-debuted Bra-Vo sheer back bra features a lightweight mesh panel that's both supportive and smoothing, while Maidenform's Charmed bras offer up lace side bands, perfect under low-cut tanks and loose tees (Bra-Vo Bra $72, Spanx.com; Lace and Mesh Bras $22-24, maidenform.com).
And brand new to the US, Curvy Kate creates bras with stylish straps that are too pretty to conceal, so slip into an off-the-shoulder top and fear peek-a-boo moments no more ($29-$78, barenecessities.com).
Glamping? Duchess Kate camps outdoors in $500 boots, Zara jeans
Jewelry on demand
Can't get enough of accessories, but don't have the budget to buy them all? Then you'll be thrilled to learn about Jetworthy.com, a Netflix-like service that delivers high-end, designer jewelry right to your door! You can keep the pieces for as long as you'd like with no late fees; then send them back in the pre-paid envelope ($32 per month & up, jetworthy.com).
SendTheTrend.com is another favorite, bringing a selection of chic accessories to you on the first of each month (and yes, this includes handbags!) The designs are picked with your taste in mind, you can easily request alternatives, and shipping is always free ($29.95 per item, sendthetrend.com).
© 2013 NBCNews.com Reprints


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I also have some plants that do not set seeds. However I just read that Arisaema is unique in changing sex during their lifetime. They starts as males and later changes to females but can continue changing. I know shrimps do the same, start as males and change to females at the age of 5!
Maybe that's why some plants don't set seeds.


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INGREDIENTS:6 turkey chops 1 ½ tsp. kosher salt 1 ½ tsp. black pepperBrine Ingredients: 6 cups boiling water 2 oranges, zest only 1 cup honey or maple syrup 3 Tbsp. kosher salt 1 Tbsp. molasses 1 Spanish onion, cut in half and sliced 2 bay leaves 20 whole black peppercorns 1 head garlic, split in half ½ cup fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped 1 Tbsp. mustard seeds, optionalCompote Ingredients: 1 Tbsp. olive oil 1 red onion, finely minced 1 Tbsp. fresh ginger root, peeled and chopped 2 cups ...
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