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Spallina the Seawolf
Joe Spallina led Adelphi to three national titles. He has similar aspirations at Stony Brook.
After three straight NCAA Division II women's lacrosse titles and many claims that Adelphi could take on the best teams in Division I, Joe Spallina is going big league. The former Panthers coach and current Long Island Lizards assistant has taken the head coaching job at Division I Stony Brook – just down the road from Adelphi but a world away in terms of competition.
Or maybe not.
Spallina seems confident he can get the Seawolves atop the America East and in the national polls pretty quickly. Read on for more from Joe Spa, including the ever-elusive definition of what a Seawolf actually is.
You and Stony Brook seem like a great fit. Who approached who first?
It was mutual interest. It made sense for them, and it made
sense for me, me being from eastern Long Island.
Stony Brook AD Jim Fiore said that the Seawolves are committed to a team that has "a national profile and annually competes for the America East championship." You've had championship success at the Division II level – is there pressure to recreate it at Division I?
That was one of the things that attracted me to the school,
besides the proximity. Speaking with [executive associate athletic
director and former Penn lacrosse player] Donna Woodruff and Tim
Fiore, they had me hook, line and sinker. They have a great vision
of Stony Brook. They've made it clear that this is the place
to be. It starts right there.
Do you expect to bring some of your Adelphi players to SBU?
I can't really speculate on transfers.
You're currently out on the recruiting trail for the first time as a Division I coach. Are you looking for something different?
We're out recruiting for next year's class. The
Adelphi roster, when I left there, it was something where I could
compete in the Division I, top 15, nationally. We're still
looking for that type of kid, a kid who's a raw athlete who
we can shape. We'll shake the trees and turn over the rocks
looking for them. We'll make a good kid great and a great kid
Have you made any decisions about assistant coaches yet?
Caitlin Defliese is definitely coming with me from Adelphi.
She's a Boston University alum, so she's had some
familiarity with the America East. It's also important with
my style of coaching that I have people around me that I trust and
buy into what we're doing. There will be a national search
for the other position.
Are you still going to teach at Rocky Point (N.Y.) High School? What about your commitment to the Long Island Lizards?
Rocky Point, I'm just going down the home stretch with the
last week of school. The MLL, I'll be maintaining my
commitment there. The MLL actually helped with recruiting at
Adelphi. It gives me a connection with the kids, or their dads or
brothers think it's cool. "Hey, my coach is on
Are you going to be able to play the kind of game you had at Adelphi – fast-moving, midfield-oriented – right out of the gate at Stony Brook?
The Stony Brook athletes, they have an opportunity to make a
first impression once again. We started sessions with last
year's game film. There are some things that need to get
tweaked or changed completely, and we'll try to implement our
style of play immediately. It's not about how we get out of
the gate, but how we get to the finish line.
We'll forge a very competitive fall season and try to play the best teams and find every deficiency now. I'd rather learn about it in September than in January. I'm working on getting into the George Mason tournament, which had some great opponents for us last year. We'll try to get into the Colleluori tournament at Hofstra too. I'm trying to close out the fall schedule just now. I've reached out to the returning players, and one of the things they said they wanted was to play a more competitive schedule.
Is the spring 2012 schedule set yet? I imagine a lot of schools will want to play at Stony Brook for the opportunity to test out the 2012 NCAA championship venue.
I know Duke has added us to their schedule and a bunch of top-15
teams that have expressed interest. I realize why they're
doing that. The big thing for me, and for everyone out there, is
that if you're going to get us, you'd better get us
now. We're going to build something that's going to
take a little bit of time. We're going to keep chopping wood
and working hard and get a quality program – a consistent,
quality program – going. We want to get to be
somebody's who's up in the top 20 every year.
Watching that 2011 Stony Brook game film, were there any players who jumped out at you, who you think might work well in your system?
Tara Gerstacker could fit into the style of defense we play, and
Alyssa Cardillo, a Farmingdale grad I know really well, was a
conference All-Rookie recipient.
Finally: what in the world is a Seawolf?
[Laughs] Halfway through the whole application process, my wife
and I were taking a tour of the campus, and she stopped and said,
"OK, I need to know. What the hell is a Seawolf?!" And
the answer is it's a mythical creature that supposedly brings
you good luck if you see it.
Will you need some good luck in your first season as a Seawolf?
I can tell you we're going to work our tails off to make sure we do.


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"Doing what works" doesn't really work, writes Justin Baeder in Ed Week's On Performance blog.
There is a popular myth that we can bring about improvement by finding out "what works" and then making sure everyone does the things that work.
If teachers switch from poor teaching practices to good teaching practices, it will help — but not a great deal, Baeder writes. Bad teachers won't get significantly better results by adopting "best practices" that "work" for good teachers.
My concern is that we are now basing policy on the presumption that abstracted strategy-copying can bring about large-scale improvement. The Gates Foundation is spending millions to find out what teaching practices are "effective" so we can make everyone implement them.
This won't get us very far, Baeder believes. To make a "sustained large-scale improvement," we need to recruit and retain better teachers and principals and develop coherent systems that support teaching and learning.
In an earlier column, Baeder wrote about the "single explanations" fallacy described in Phil Rozenzweig's The Halo Effect and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers: "Many studies show that a particular factor leads to improved performance. But since many of these factors are highly correlated, the effect of each one is usually less than suggested."
17311 17311
Learning is influenced by many factors, Baeder writes.
The armchair reformers want us to believe that education works like this:
Teacher + Student = Learning
If we aren't getting the level of learning we want, and we can't change much about the student, the teacher is the logical place to focus. But what this simplistic model omits is the ecosystem in which the teaching-learning relationship exists.
Value-added models have shown that teachers are responsible for 20-40% of the variance in student performance, meaning 60-80% of student learning is dependent on factors other than the teacher. . . . Poverty matters. Parents matter. School culture matters. Student health matters. Teachers matter too, but they are far from the only salient factor in student learning.
A brilliant math teacher at my daughter's middle school had success teaching the "new new math," but less talented teachers — notably my daughter's seventh-grade pre-algebra teacher — couldn't pull it off. Parents rebelled, forcing the school to offer a traditional math alternative.

subset: commoncrawl


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192-198 Pinckney Rd
AVAILABLE August 5, 2015
2 bedroom townhouse in the Etna/Freeville area on Pinckney Rd. 1 1/2 bathrooms inside the unit. There is also a washer and dryer in this unfurnished unit. The bedrooms are hardwood floors, and the living room is carpeted . Pets under 45 lbs. are negotiable with a refundable deposit of $325.00. The townhouse does have a private patio also. Tenants are responsible for ALL utilities which average $80-$90 a month (call NYSEG for a quote). There is also a parking space specific for this unit. Property is 1/4 mile to bus route. SECTION 8 APPROVED.


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Main :: POD HD
Support forums for all POD HD products
by raz_klinghoffer on 2012-09-08 15:33:26.9500
Hey everyone
I just finished programing my Cubase to change my presets on our live set
My question is, can I change the inside effects (like delay and harmonizer) in addition on ';ABCD" mode?
How do I do that?
by mazuwa on 2012-09-08 23:33:16.8880
What you cannot do:
Changing inside effects e.g. from "ping pong delay" to "stereo delay" within the same fx block over MIDI CC.
What you can do, instead of changing presets:
Use 2 fx blocks. Then set the 1st fx acive and the 2nd fx inactive. Furthermore assign them both to the same FS (footswitch). This is called MULTI.
In "ABCD" mode, you can only assign FS1-FS4 on MIDI CC 51 - 54 and Toe switch (CC 59) to do so.
What you also can do:
Join HD Edit CONTROLLERS page, choose a Model to be controlled (e.g.Model = Stereo Delay), choose a PARAMETER (e.g. "Mix") and assign the CONTROLLER "EXP-1" or "EXP-2".
The result is now you can use MIDI CC 01 / 02, which belong to the EXP predal, to change fx values over MIDI, like the delay's MIX value.
(I think professional programmers / insiders can change effects inside an fx block just like HD EDIT can do. It would be necessary to know what MIDI sysex data to send over USB. This would generate temporary preset settings with a star. But this isn't meant for normal users like us. Maybe someone can find it out if he connects a MIDI monitor between POD HD and HD EDIT).
by raz_klinghoffer on 2012-09-09 00:48:21.1180
What I want is more simple
I want to be able to turn on\off an effect inside of a preset
Is ths possible?
by raz_klinghoffer on 2012-09-09 05:35:33.2140
While I'm waiting for an answer, O'm trying to do this myself
So I go to "Midi Assign" on the POD HD 500
"Footswitch" = FS4
MESSAGE - "Note On"
Note - C1
Velocity - 127
Then I go to Cubase , open a midi channel on 01, see that my POD responds (It responds to preset changes) , write C-1, C1, C2 (just in case there' an offset between Cubase and POD)
Nothing happens!
I also tried to do that with CC
Another strange thing is that I can't save midi assign in anyway, or remove it in anyway on the POD HD Edit
Anyone managed to do that before and have any tips?
Message was edited by: raz klinghoffer
The only thing I'm trying to do is ON\OFF to FS4 through my Cubase in ABCD mode
by mazuwa on 2012-09-09 11:44:23.8610
- "Footswitch" = FS4
*** O.K. Like you want. Don't forget to assign FS4 as controller for your chosen fx
How to do it in HD Edit see later below
(edited): At your HD 500 you can hold the ENTER button instead***
- MESSAGE - "Note On", Note - C1, Velocity - 127
*** No. Completely wrong.
FS1 - FS4 have Controller number 51 - 54!!!!
Message type = CC
CC Number = 54 (for FS4)
CC Value = 0
This command will toggle fx between on/off as FS4 does***
- Then I go to Cubase , open a midi channel on 01....
*** Well, take care that in SETUP menu page 6/10 you have also chosen MIDI channel 1. The channels must be equal. ***
- I also tried to do that with CC
*** Right way to do so. ***
- Another strange thing is that I can't save midi assign in anyway, or remove it in anyway on the POD HD Edit
*** Very easy:
1. Go to FX page in HD edit and set your desired effects on "fx model"
2. Go to CONTROLLERS page in HD Edit.
3. Choose your desired "Model" for FS4.
4. Now set FS assign, in your case FS4
5. To save the curret preset on your HD500 you must press the "SEND SELECTED" button.
Ps.: You can choose each "Model" one after the other. Although it is only displayed one Model in a time, they are still in HD Edit's mind.***
- Anyone managed to do that before and have any tips?
*** Yes, I have already managed it myself and it works as described above. ***
- The only thing I'm trying to do is ON\OFF to FS4 through my Cubase in ABCD mode
*** Now I have understood what exactly you are meaning. ***
(and again folowing part copied from Jim):
Appendix B to the Advanced User Guide for the Pod HD500 contains confirmation of the Midi capabilities of the POD.
The section 'Controlling POD HD500 Functions via MIDI'.
by raz_klinghoffer on 2012-09-09 13:43:29.0020
Thanks man!
Seems like you solved my problem!
Will the FS1-FS4 change with the same CC no matter the preset\bank changes?
by mazuwa on 2012-09-09 23:37:57.5390
Yes, it always stays the same CC, no matter what preset or bank has currently been chosen.
It always applies to the current preset by following CC commands:
So I go to "Midi Assign" on the POD HD 500
*** There is a page at your HD500 called MIDI ASSIGN (when you hold the MOVE button). Inside HD Edit it is called MIDI Assign options.
This page is only there to make your HD500 send Midi commands to other devices (over MIDI OUT jack).
You don't need to make changes here if you only want to send MIDI data from your sequencer to your POD HD (over MIDI IN jack).
Example 1: If you also had a POD HD PRO, you can use HD500's foot controllers to turn effect on/off at the HD PRO.
Example 2: You can perform live with your HD 500 and record MIDI commands with your sequencer which your HD500 is sending. ***
The information above may not be current, and you should direct questions to the current forum or review the manual.


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Product Description
Imagine taking a camping trip in a Model T. Now look around and see Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone as your companions. You sit around the campfire exchanging wild ideas, while members of the press hover just beyond your circle, snapping photos and feverishly scribbling notes from the conversation of geniuses. Such is the nature of this interview with historian Steven Watts. After five years culling through Henry Ford's lifetime collection of personal notes and documents, and records of interviews with his colleagues and employees, Mr. Watts brings us a picture of a man whose impact on our society extends far beyond the automobile and the assembly line. Ford planted seeds of consumerism, modern marketing practices, anti-smoking activism-and even fostered the now widespread availability of campsites. But his complexity and contradictions are perhaps most intriguing, as "a man whose talents were enormous and whose flaws in many ways were equally enormous, who outraged intellectuals but had a kind of love from common folk in this country – a kind of folk hero." Enjoy this humorous and poignant look at a man who is such an incremental part of the fiber of American culture.
Steven Watts is a professor of history at the University of Missouri. His books include The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (Houghton Mifflin 1997) and The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century (Knopf 2005).
Topics Explored in this Dialogue:
- Why Henry Ford could never work on the assembly lines he created
- Why this white anti-Semite was revered by his black employees
- How Ford laid the groundwork for American consumerism
- What impact Ford's wife had on the organization of the first unions
- What role Henry may have played in his son Edsel's early death
Host: Michael Toms Interview Date: 4/6/2006 Program Number: 3142


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Meds, Mind, Body & Benefits > Insurance, Benefits Programs & HIV
Is he serious?
I thought of posting this in the Obamacare thread but didn't want to distract the topic.This Texas senator has serious mental health issues. He is all for insurance companies denying legitimate claims to save them the expense of paying for what people paid for. WOW!!!http://nineinchnews.com/ted-cruz-says-okay-insurance-companies-deny-legitimate-claims/
Mitch, nineinchnews is a satire site. Have a look at the titles of some of their other recent stories....Boehner Announces Retirement Will Retreat To MonasteryDEA Chief Admits War Against Cannabis A Fraud Vladimir Putin Admits To Wrestling Nekked With BearsPat Robertson Converts To Hinduism, Becomes Raw VeganI have to admit that I too was taken in (it's a very believable story) until I realised what site it was on.
Oopsie. :-[ Thanks Ann! Guess I need to pay closer attention. He is so nuts that I would almost believe anything about him. lol.
That ,s there success they get it so near the bone , I would off been taken in had it not been NIN , well I would off read wider I hope . What has happened during the shut down was/is on a par with satire , the Politician asking the Park worker where they not ashamed while wearing an over sized American flag he looked like he was dressed by South Park creators.In our own community what has happened to thunter , resulting in being left without drugs , scandalous.
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A midlife spiritual challenge
In my 45th year, I "came to my senses in a dark forest." Somehow my life had once again veered out of control, though not in the usual sense: not morally. In that sphere, I was looking pretty good. I was teaching at a university and was a published writer. After a challenging stint as a single mother, I'd made a go of it with a new marriage. Most important, after a decade of deliberate, repetitive sinning, I'd repented and returned to the church. I was bashfully pleased with myself and content with my life.
The Century's work relies primarily on subscriptions and donations. Thank you for supporting nonprofit journalism.
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text:
Five Points Washington continuing to host MARC
By Denise Molina • Nov 25, 2013
The MARC brings together representatives from more than 20 local and state agencies. Some state agencies offering service include the departments on Aging and Human Services as well as the Department of Insurance. The American Red Cross is providing client casework, information and referrals.
Governor Pat Quinn has declared 15 counties state disaster areas, opening the door to state resources such as trucks, communications equipment and heavy equipment for debris removal. The MARC is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. through Tuesday.


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Columbus, Ga. (Carver High School) cornerback Deion Bonner admitted there were times he wasn't sure if he would get the opportunity to play college football. The 5-11, 185 pound four star defensive...
Bonner finds opportunity with the Vols
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text:
Oct. 04, 2012
Oct. 04, 2012
View all HumanaVitality articles
Do you have a Mac® and a HumanaVitality® G1.0 or G2.0 pedometer? We're very excited to announce that Mac GearSync is live and compatible. Check it out by signing in to HumanaFit.com. For answers to some Frequently Asked Questions or tips on how to get started, look to the "Humana Pedometer" section of the site located on the right side of the Web page. Please note: Mac GearSync supports Mac OS 10.6 and higher.


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NICE, France - Bleary-eyed European Union leaders wound up a marathon summit early Monday by reforming their voting procedures and institutions, making it possible to add up to a dozen new members in the years ahead, mostly from the former Soviet bloc.
The agreement - reached after four days of discussions and a final all-night push - fell short of the sweeping decision-making reforms proposed by France and other countries to prevent deadlock as the EU grows over the next decade. New members will be considered beginning in 2004.
"Not everything has been done," acknowledged an exhausted French President Jacques Chirac just before sunrise. "But we did make substantial progress."
EU spokesman Jonathan Faull agreed: "We would have preferred a more ambitious, far-reaching outcome. Overall, it will be enough so the EU can function in a reasonable way after enlargement."
The biggest battle was waged by small countries to prevent their political clout from diminishing. The final agreement left some of them unhappy.
"There were some people around the table - but not many - who were working for the common good of Europe and not for me! for me! for me!" said Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, who led the disgruntled small nations. "We fought very hard . . . and it is still too little."
The European Union had its beginnings after World War II, fueled by the idea that the economies of former enemies could be stronger and more secure if they banded together. A 1992 treaty gave the European Union its name, strengthened its economic bonds and expanded its political role.
The candidate countries, eager to break from the past and join the stability and prosperity of the EU, had been upset by perceived delays. Two years after accession talks began, some complained the EU had ignored the reforms and refused to discuss entry dates.
"If we had not succeeded, I think that for all the candidate nations this would have been really bad news," said French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, calling the agreement a balanced package that "opens the door for enlargement."
Most important among the revisions made by the 15 EU leaders were to:
Re-determine the number of votes of each member country and assign votes to the countries expected to join the EU over the next decade.
Thin the number of policy areas that require a unanimous vote, thus reducing the veto power of individual nations.
Change the makeup of the European Commission, the EU's executive body.
Reallocate seats in the European Parliament.
Allow some nations to move ahead on some issues faster than others.
Plan another round of reform talks in 2004.
The summit in this Mediterranean resort city assured the candidate countries - Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Malta - that the door to membership would be open as of 2004. Each country will get in when it has met all the criteria.
Before that can happen, however, the EU had to prepare its own institutions.
The most heated discussions had to do with how many votes each country is entitled to on issues. It was agreed that the biggest countries should have the strongest voice, but provision had to be made for small countries.
Under the adopted formula, Germany, Britain, France and Italy will each have 29 votes in an expanded union. Spain will have 27; the Netherlands, 13; Greece, Belgium and Portugal, 12; Sweden and Austria, 10; Denmark, Finland and Ireland, seven; and Luxembourg, four.
Of the candidate countries, Poland - the largest by far - is to have 27 votes; Romania, 14; the Czech Republic and Hungary, 12; Bulgaria, 10; Slovakia and Lithuania, seven; Latvia, Slovenia, Estonia, Cyprus, four apiece; and Malta, three.
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The Central Crossing High School marching band performed its show "Enlightened" at the 51st Bonanzas of Bands competition at Zanesville High School Oct. 5.
The band scored Best Overall Music, Best Overall General Effect and first place in class AA. It was named the Grand Champion band.
For more information about upcoming band performances and competitions, go to centralcrossingband.org.


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The phrase "death panel" does not actually occur in any of the proposed "health care reform" bills. MoveOn.org has seized on Sarah Palin's characterization of the outcome of "reform" in its mass email piece entitled "Top Five Health Care Reform Lies: and How to Fight Back":
"Lie #1: President Obama wants to euthanize your grandma!!!"
When asked about the end-of-life counseling provision at an AARP-sponsored "tele-town hall," Obama grinned and told the woman called "Mary": "I guarantee you, first of all we just don't have enough government workers to talk to everybody to find out how they want to die" (Judi McLeod, Canada Free Press 8/13/09).
This argument is a straw man.
In fact, neither the President nor cadres of government workers would be doing the job personally, and euthanasia is not being discussed. Rather, the bills "incentivize" doctors to "counsel" patients about "options"—which must include orders to withhold life-sustaining "treatment," such as food and water.
While signing a directive to withhold treatment or food and water, or to implement a "do not resuscitate" order, may be voluntary, suggestible patients may bow to white-coated authority, especially when the directive is presented to them to sign immediately. Vulnerable patients may be especially susceptible to guilt-provoking scenarios, such as being a burden on their families.
The counseling provision has been removed from one of the Senate bills, but many believe the enabling legislation for treatment denial is already law, in the Stimulus Package, as comparative effectiveness research. While proponents denied that there was any intention to turn this into cost-effectiveness research, an amendment to codify that reassurance into law was defeated. This "research" program is supposed to collect information on every medical visit by every patient for a national electronic database.
This is the infrastructure for a program like Britain's NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence), which determines the dollar value of a Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY). NICE allows payment for treatments that cost less than that, and disallows treatments that cost more.
Doctors who want to violate the "voluntary guidelines" will likely have to appeal—to a body that is not called a "death panel" (Greg Scandlen, American Spectator 8/13/09).
What are the beliefs and principles of the leading reformers? Obama himself has said, "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery but taking the painkiller."
As Betsy McCaughey points out, prominent Administration advisor Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D., "believes that 'communitarianism' should guide care. He says that medical care should be reserved for the non-disabled, not given to those 'who are irreversibly prevented from being or becoming participating citizens…. An obvious example is not guaranteeing health services to patients with dementia' (Hastings Center Report, November/December 1996)" (NY Post 7/24/09).
More recently, Emanuel and others write that they "recommend an alternate system, the 'complete lives system,' which prioritises younger people who have not yet lived a complete life, and also incorporates prognosis, saves the most lives, lottery, and instrumental value principles" (Lancet 2009;273:423-431).
This system "produces a priority curve on which individuals aged between roughly 15 and 40 years get the most chance, whereas the youngest and oldest people get chances that are attenuated."
Obama's regulatory czar Cass Sunstein, who will play a major role in defining government's role in controlling medical care, prefers the QALY formula (Joseph Ashby, American Thinker 8/15/09).
Seniors are worried. Having lost about 60,000 members, AARP is back-pedaling on its endorsement of the reform push (Wall St J 8/21/09).
It's not just seniors who are worried. There are also the 10 million American cancer patients whose access to expensive treatments may be cut off, as it routinely is in Britain. In addition, progress in treatments may stall because of the likelihood that new technology can never repay the cost of development (Wall St J 7/31/09).
The highly touted Oregon health plan already denies payment for advanced chemotherapy, but offers to buy physician-assisted suicide instead.
Then there's the "Death Book for Veterans," entitled Your Life, Your Choices. The primary author is Robert Pearlman, who in 1996 advocated for physician-assisted suicide before the U.S. Supreme Court in Vacco v. Quill, and is known to support rationing of medical care. The 52-page book presents choices in a way that steers users to predetermined conclusions, like a political "push poll." Withdrawn from the VA by the Bush White House, the book has been resuscitated by the Obama Administration. The only organization listed in the updated version as a resource on advance directives is Compassion and Choices (formerly the Hemlock Society). A July 2009 directive instructs VA primary physicians to raise advance planning issues, using this book, with all patients, not just the aged or debilitated (Jim Towey, Wall St J ).
An angry disabled Marine veteran shared his views at a recent town hall with Congressman Brian Baird.
Hospice Patients Alliance, led by Ron Panzer, is concerned that U.S. federal and state government are already trying to balance budgets by hastening deaths, without raising the issue of explicit euthanasia. In the UK, where euthanasia is illegal, continuous deep sedation (CDS) may account for as many as one in six deaths (BBC News 8/12/09).
Palin quotes NY State Senator Ruben Diaz, a Democrat, chairman of the Aging Committee: "Section 1233 of [H.R.] 3200 puts our senior citizens on a slippery slope and may diminish respect for the inherent dignity of each of their lives" (Hawaii Free Press 8/12/09).
To the consternation of the Obama Administration and congressional Democrats, many Americans have shown up at tea parties and town halls with symbols warning about where that slippery slope has led before.
Daniel Greenfield observes the similarity in thoughts expressed by Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel and Dr. Hermann Pfannmüller, who stood trial at Nuremberg for his Starvation Hospitals for those he deemed unfit:
"The idea is unbearable to me that the best, the flower of our youth must lose its life at the front in order that feebleminded and irresponsible asocial elements can have a secure existence in the asylum."
Pfannmüller preferred the "simpler, more natural" method of starvation to poisons or injections, which might supply "inflammatory material" for the foreign press.
"[A]t the heart of the difference between socialized medicine and free market health care," writes Greenfield, is that "in the free market no one gets to class an entire category of people as "Life Unworthy of Life" (Canada Free Press 7/28/09).
Greenfield notes that it takes time for the consequences of changing from an individual to a collective morality to become manifest. "Most systems don't turn monstrous over the weekend. Even Nazi Germany took nearly a decade to follow through on to the logical conclusion…." (Canada Free Press 8/11/09).
General Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered extensive photographs of those consequences to be taken, predicting that in 60 years some would try to deny that the events ever happened.
Additional information:
- "Futilitarianism," AAPS News, July 2005.
- "Dependency and Death," AAPS News, June 2005.
- "Why Terri Schiavo Had to Die," AAPS News, May 2005.
- "The Holocaust Memorial, Ayn Rand, and Politics in Pre-Revolutionary New York: Lessons for Today," by Joseph M. Scherzer, M.D., presented at AAPS annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas, Oct 8, 1993


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The Style Gallery is a great new way for you to view, love, and share outfit photos. It's meant to showcase
all the expressive, creative, and inspirational personalities of our community!
Love you too!
Your email has been sent!
Your trip to the Southern Hemisphere is a welcomed one since the temperature in your town has been dropping by the day! The sun shines brightly on your first morning in Sydney, the perfect excuse to pull out this orange maxi dress from your suitcase. As the embroidered ruffle of this floor-length frock flutters in the warm breeze, you couldn't be happier swapping your scarves and laced boots for sunnies and beaded sandals before taking in the sights!
Final Sale: This item cannot be returned or exchanged.
All measurements in inches.
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Started this discussion. Last reply by Kanupriya Sep 23, 2011. 6 Replies 0 Likes
which are the stitches that can be done on chiffon fabric?
Started Sep 2, 2011 0 Replies 0 Likes
how can i make sure that the pattern that i transfer on to my long scarf are equidistant?
Started this discussion. Last reply by Kanupriya Sep 6, 2011. 5 Replies 0 Likes
Hi all! I am kanupriya and a newbie to embroidery....well actually i have to thank stitchinfingers for giving me the much needed kick to start out! i had always wanted to embroider but never really…Continue
Thank you Kanupriya ! for your comment on my libellule ...
I 'm very happy to meet you ...


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Martin D. Myers of Eldred, NY passed away Friday, October 21, 2011 at Sullivan County Adult Care Center in Liberty, NY. He was 90.
The son of the late Mary Fee Myers and Martin D. Myers Sr., Martin was born in Highland Lake, NY on November 7, 1920. On September 13, 1942 he married his high school sweetheart, Christene Stevens.
Martin was a World War II veteran of the U.S. Navy. He was employed by Sullivan County Highway Department for 16 years, and retired from the U. S. Postal Service in 1986 after 24 years of service. He was a member of American Legion Post 1363 and of the Town of Highland Lions Club where he was past president and treasurer for many years. He served with the National League of Postmasters as vice president of the auxiliary of the NY branch for several terms.
Although an active member of his community, Martin's first love was for Christine, their family and happy home.
Martin is survived by his wife of 69 years at home; children Patricia and Dennis Toaspern of Binghamton, NY and Steven and Leesa Myers of Gray, ME; grandsons and great-grandchildren Adam Toaspern and son Kain of Howes Cave, NY, Jeffrey Toaspern and daughter Miah of Ithaca, NY, Thomas Myers, and Timothy Myers of Gray; and several nieces and nephews.
He is predeceased by his infant daughter, Jean Ellen, sisters Mary Crandall, Ethel Myers and Helen Hulse; and brother Thomas Myers.
Funeral services were held on Monday, October 24 at the Harrison Rasmussen Funeral Home, Barryville, NY. Rev Nancy Vonderhorst officiated. Burial took place at Montoza Cemetery, Eldred.
Memorial contributions may be made the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, 322 Eighth Ave., 7th fl., New York, NY 10001; or to a charity of the doner's choice.


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Follow @DaytimeRoyalty
|Viewing Single Post From: Deidre Hall & Drake Hogestyn FIRED!
|Nov 26 2008, 07:13 AM
She loves her John unconditionally. The man she married. I don't know how anyone would expect Marlena to just love this Jawn like she loved the man she married. It would be impossible not to think that way and compare them, especially considering their history. John and Jawn are practically complete opposites of one another. The fact that she won't settle for Jawn and that she is still trying to bring John out is evidence right there of how much she loves him.
She still loves Jawn unconditionally in that she would do anything for him if it would mean keeping him safe/healthy/alive. However, I could never expect her to live the life with Jawn that she had with the man she married. The only thing that is the same about him is the way he looks. He might as well just be John's twin brother. Same look, different person. She met him for the first time when she freed him from that dungeon
I don't particularly like the way she's been written in that all we have gotten in the last year is her changing her mind over and over. But just because I want them together, doesn't mean that they should be. Marlena's John would dislike nuJawn very much. How can we expect Marlena to love him and spend her life with him? To just pick up with her marriage with nuJawn wouldn't be believable. For Marlena to love this John how she loved the man she married wouldn't be believable. And to treat the relationship the same would be a disservice to John. Yeah, she loves him unconditionally. She is just not in love with him anymore. One of the things that made their relationship so endearing was that if John walked into a room, Marlena's face would light up, and vice versa. Regardless of how entertaining he can be at times (even though it has gotten very old for me), she would never be able to feel that way about this Jawn. And I don't see how we could expect her to. He's too different. You fall in love with someone for who they are, not how they look. And the person she fell in love with and has been through hell and back with over the last 22 years is nothing like the person he is now. But she would still do anything for him regarding his well-being.
|Deidre Hall & Drake Hogestyn FIRED! · DAYS: News, Spoilers & Discussion


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Breanna Stewart is one of four finalists for the Naismith Trophy, it was announced today by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. She is joined by Kayla McBride of Notre Dame, Chiney Ogwumike of Stanford, and Odyssey Sims of Baylor.
The finalists were chosen by the Atlanta Tipoff Club's National Voting Academy, which determined that the player performances throughout the 2013-14 regular season stood out among a host of great women's basketball players. The award will be presented in Nashville, Tenn. April 7.
Stewart is looking to become the sixth UConn player to win the award, joining Rebecca Lobo (1994-95), Sue Bird (2001-02, Diana Taurasi (2002-03, 2003-04), Maya Moore (2008-09, 2010-11) and Tina Charles (2009-10).
"What's impressive about these four finalists is that each of their teams is among the best in the country, so in addition to them achieving individual accolades, they all are strong team leaders,'' said Eric Oberman, executive director of the Atlanta Tipoff Club. It's anyone's award to win, and we're looking forward to watching it play out during the tournament.''
Fans can vote of the player of their choice from March 24 through April 5 at www.NaismithVote.com. The fan vote represents 25 percent of the selection process – the largest fan impact of any collegiate basketball award.


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While the Xbox 360 vs. PlayStation 3 discussions are really heated in these parts, lots of you seem to overlook the Wii. Gamasutra's latest analysis of the best selling games in 2008 (thus far) show that four of the five top sellers are Wii titles. How you like 'dem apples? The list looks a little something like this:
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii)
- Mario Kart (Wii)
- Grand Theft Auto 4 (Xbox 360)
- Wii Play (Wii)
- Wii Fit (Wii)
Sure, it's not the most powerful console this generation, but the Nintendo Wii shows how successful a relatively low price point and aggressively targetting a mainstream audience can be.


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Most sports betting sites had Philadelphia and Boston at or near the top of the list when it came to World Series favorites heading into the season, and even though both have stumbled out of the gate, you know they're going to be a factor before it's all said and done. The two meet in the City of Brotherly Love on Friday night in the marquee interleague matchup of the weekend.
Red Sox vs Phillies Betting – Friday, 7:05 PM ET
Daniel Bard (3-4, 4.30) snapped a two-start losing skid with a great performance in a 12-1 romp at home against Cleveland, and online sportsbook sharps should know that the Red Sox have scored a combined 28 runs in his three wins. Bard, a converted reliever, scattered a run on six hits over six innings, with a pair of strikeouts and four walks, and while that is still an issue with Bard, he seems like he has the resolve to get over it; this is a frequent concern when you bring someone from the bullpen to the rotation. The 26-year-old has made four relief appearances against the Phillies, recording a save, but he has posted a 9.82 ERA: all four have come in Philadelphia.
Cole Hamels (5-1, 2.28) returned from suspension with another solid performance in a 3-2 win at home over San Diego, allowing a run on five hits over seven innings of work, striking out five and walking three. Hamels, who would be a pretty nice Cy Young darkhorse if you're betting online, was suspended for five games for intentionally hitting Washington rookie Bryce Harper and then admitting it, but he only missed a start and never missed a beat. The 28-year-old lefty is 3-0 in four starts against the Red Sox with a 1.44 ERA, and he is 2-1 in three starts at home with a 2.79 ERA.
Sport betting odds should favor the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, but the Red Sox have won six of their last 10 in Philadelphia with five games going over the posted total, along with a push. Even though most of the attention in Philadelphia goes to former Cy Young winners Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee, Hamels may be their best big-game pitcher with the postseason awards to prove it and it won't be hard to find motivation for this game as the Phillies will be seeing a team they could meet in the World Series, despite both getting off to rough starts. Put Hamels against a converted reliever and the odds should be tilted heavily towards the Phillies, who should pay out with a sports betting online victory on Friday night in Philadelphia.


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Spaghetti Squash Stir-Fry
Total Time
Prep 25 mins
Cook 20 mins
This is a great way to use this healthy squash. Chef's note 9/13: I just changed it up and it worked perfectly. I used the squash as directed and added more carrots (I didn't have bell peppers). I used the broth and soy sauce as well as a heaping tablespoon of spicy black bean sauce. It was so tasty, I put it under a chicken and broccoli stir fry and I didn't need any rice.
Ingredients Nutrition
- 1 spaghetti squash (about 3 pounds)
- 2 carrots, julienned
- 1 cup onion, chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 green bell peppers, seeded and julienned
- 2 red bell peppers, seeded and julienned
- 1 cup vegetable broth
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon basil, dried
- 1⁄2 teaspoon pepper
- 1⁄4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
- Pierce the squash with the tip of a sharp knife in several places; place on a paper plate and microwave on high 20 minutes, until just softened, turning once during cooking. Let stand 5 minutes to cool. Cut the squash in half lengthwise and remove the seeds. Using a fork, scoop out the pulp. Measure out 6 cups of squash (reserving any remaining squash for another use).
- Spray a large nonstick skillet or wok with nonstick spray; heat. Add the vegetables and cook, stirring as needed, until tender-crisp, 7 - 8 minutes.
- Stir in the spaghetti squash, broth, soy sauce, basil and black pepper; cook until heated through, about 2 minutes. Serve, sprinkled with cheese.
Most Helpful
This is a great way to use a spaghetti squash. It's healthy with so much taste. I used low sodium chicken broth. And didn't use the parmesan cheese as it's already yummy without. Thanks Jan :) Made for Holiday tag game
Yum! Used a bag of frozen stir fry mix and added chili garlic sauce for kick to a side of baked tilapia!
What a delicious way to get a lot of veggies in! I absolutely love the method for cooking the spaghetti squash. That couldn't have been easier. Made for Everyday is a Holiday in the Cooking Tag Games forum.


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French House (Bailey: Maison Francophone)
208 N. Professor St.
French House, also called Bailey, is a small building on north campus just across the street from Stevenson Dining Hall (which sets aside a private room for practitioners). On the other side of the house is the North Quad and Science Center. Like all the language-based program houses, students should have some French speaking ability, anywhere from beginner to fluent.
(Above Image: View from N. Professor St. - East side of building)
For more information about French House visit their blog: https://lamaisonfrancophone.wordpress.com/
House Support and Resources: One Faculty-in-Residence, two French Teaching Assistants (TAs), and one Resident Assistant (RA) live in the house and provide residents with close ties to the Department of French and Italian. A library with program related resources is located inside along with a TV lounge.
Programming: Around 35 students enjoy programs that include French films, social activities, language tables, and French breakfast once a month.
House Requirements and Application: Residents are active members and leaders with planning house programs. Each resident is encouraged to facilitate a house program and attend the French Language tables in Stevenson-Griswold Dining Hall. Anyone wanting to live in French House needs to fill out an APPLICATION!
Amenities: Compare!
Capacity: Compare!
Floor Plans
Related Links
Space Reservations
Those wanting to make common space room reservations in Bailey/French House should contact the Program House Area Coordinator.
(Above Image: View from N. Professor St. - East side of building)
(Above image: West side of building)


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CHANTILLY, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Engility Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:EGL), today announced that it has been awarded a position on a $24.9 million indefinite-delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract for engineering and technical support at the Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Division.
Under this new, three-year, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract, Engility professionals will support engineering, systems engineering and technical analysis, and development of programs and technologies that will support the EOD war fighter mission.
"We are honored to win a position on this award and we are proud of our longstanding relationship with our Navy customer," said Engility President and CEO Tony Smeraglinolo. "Engility's highly skilled team of experts currently support this important mission on another contract and this award will give us further opportunity to proudly continue that support."
Engility is a pure-play government services contractor providing highly skilled personnel wherever, whenever they are needed in a cost-effective manner. Headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, Engility is a leading provider of specialized technical consulting, program and business support services, engineering and technology lifecycle support, science and engineering, information technology, supply chain services and logistics management, and training and education for the U.S. Government and state governments. Engility's customers and addressable markets include defense, homeland security, healthcare, cyber security, international development, training, transportation, ISR, justice, and financial and regulatory. To learn more about Engility, please visit www.engilitycorp.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements regarding Engility's future prospects, projected financial results and business plans. Words such as "may," "will," "should," "likely," "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "projects," "believes," "estimates" and similar expressions are also used to identify these forward-looking statements. These statements are based on the current beliefs and expectations of Engility's management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause Engility's actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found under the heading "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012, and our more recent periodic reports, which have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and are available on the investor relations section of Engility's website (http://www.engilitycorp.com) and on the SEC's website (www.sec.gov). Forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. In addition, historical information should not be considered as an indicator of future performance.


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Student-Loan Changes, With Lower Rates for Now, Are Set to Be Signed Into Law
August 9, 2013
President Obama is expected to sign legislation on Friday that will lower federal student-loan interest rates - for now, at least. The Bipartisan Student Loan Certainty Act of 2013 will allow all undergraduates to borrow at a 3.9-percent interest rate this fall and graduate students to borrow at 5.4 percent, with both rates tied to the 10-year Treasury note. The new rate for undergraduates is significantly lower than the 6.8-percent level to which the rate on subsidized loans had risen in July, after Congress failed to come to an agreement to keep it from doing so.
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Optometrists are doing a much better job with the medical model of eye care, but this is still a sensitive area in practice management because patients
naturally want some input into whether we bill their vision plan or medical insurance. Two major factors to consider are the exam fee structure and how to
decide which insurance to bill. I'll present an analysis of both these factors here, along with some tips on how to bill for the maximum fees without
upsetting the patient.
A good place to begin your fee strategy is to decide if your practice should have a lower fee structure for routine vision exams compared to medical eye
exams. If the patient has a vision plan that the practice accepts, it may not make any difference because the practice ultimately accepts the vision plan
payment, but in some cases, routine vision exams are private pay. It is not an easy decision but we should start there.
Let's begin by looking at medical eye exam fees because they are a bit easier to determine. Many doctors use the published fee levels for Medicare as the
minimum to charge for a service. You could use any medical insurance plan fee schedule as your basis, but Medicare is often considered the standard. This
makes sense because doctors want to be paid the maximum for a service and the popular expression is that we don't want to "leave money on the table" by
billing less than insurance will pay. Of course, you could charge more than the approved amount and many doctors do, but that fee will be adjusted down to
the approved fee level and you can't balance bill the patient for covered services.
S-codes and TOS discounts
For a 92014 the Medicare approved fee is about $126. That does not include refraction and let's say that averages about $35. So the eye exam with medical
insurance is at least $161. So, will a routine private pay patient pay $161 for an eye exam? In many cases, they will. I know many ophthalmological and
some optometric practices that charge more than that to private pay. My practice charges more than that and we only have one comprehensive exam fee for all
types of patients, regardless if it is routine or medical, regardless of no insurance, vision plan or medical insurance. If you can charge the same fee to
all, then you don't need S-codes or a time of service (TOS) discount.
But many practice owners feel they would lose a lot of patients if they charged that high of a fee for a routine exam. There are always optical places in
every community that charge very low exam fees. If you feel you need a lower fee for routine and private pay, then S-codes or TOS discount are both good
ways to go. To my knowledge, there is not a published maximum for TOS discounts but it must be reasonable and represent the true administrative cost that
would be incurred for billing and collection. If we use 20% as the TOS discount, that would bring the fee down to $128 for the private pay patient. If you
feel that is still too high for a routine exam fee, then you can use an S-code like S0621. An S-code exam is a different service than a medical eye exam
and it can legally have a different fee. S-codes include the refraction. You can make an S-code exam fee any amount you want. S-codes are never billed to
medical insurance; they don't recognize them.
Billing medical or vision?
We give each patient in my practice at check-in a short handout explaining that vision plans only cover routine vision wellness exams, eyeglasses and
contact lenses. Medical eye exams (the diagnosis and treatment of eye health problems) are billed to medical insurance. From there, the doctor determines
how the case is billed. Much depends on the chief complaint and the medical diagnosis.
Questions from patients
If patients ask why you have two different exam fees or why you bill medical insurance instead of the vision plan, your staff must explain that a routine
eye exam is different than a medical eye exam. A routine exam is faster and easier to perform and there is no medical decision-making or disease treatment
in a routine exam. That is fair, but there is a gray area in between routine and medical that the patient may not understand or accept, and ODs need to be
careful with that. You might find a very minor medical issue, let's say a very mild dry eye condition that does not require treatment or follow-up. You
could insist that it is a medical exam because of that finding, but the patient may feel that he did not really have a medical problem and he just wanted
an exam for new glasses.
I let the patient win on borderline medical cases like that and also if I know there is a high medical deductible in play (if there is an exam co-pay, the
deductible is usually not a factor). I just consider those exams as routine and bill them to the vision plan. My practice treats and bills a high number of
medical cases, but the patient relationship is more important than a higher exam fee. If a case is clearly medical and the patient still objects - let's
say diabetes for example - I might let the patient have his way on this initial visit, but I'll explain that he has a chronic medical eye problem that
requires a higher level of care and in the future, we will have to charge a medical exam fee and bill medical insurance. We mark the record accordingly so
my staff knows how to handle it next year and we know what we said. I might lose a few of those patients next time, but that is OK with me because I'm
doing the right thing. I will keep most of them and I let the patient get out of the issue gracefully the first time. I also avoid a negative online review
and bad word of mouth and I keep the stress level low for my staff.
There is usually a way to achieve your business goals and keep patients happy if you work on it.
A Proud Supporter of
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Dr. Gailmard offers consulting services to eye care professionals through Prima Eye Group; information is available at www.primaeyegroup.com.
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text:
Memorial soccer advances to face Oregon, other scores
Middleton eliminated in shootout
The Madison Memorial boys' soccer team is another win closer to state by defeating Middleton 4-3 at Breitenbach Stadium Thursday.
Middleton had a 1-0 lead in the second half before Memorial's Ty Pelton-Byce tied the game, which went to a shootout.
Memorial's keeper, Paul Koebke Barsic, made a save to give his team a chance to win and a kick from Alex Young started the celebration.
Memorial will face Oregon Saturday at 3 p.m. in Waunakee for a chance to advance to state. Oregon beat Madison West 4-3 Thursday night on penalty kicks.
Madison LaFollette and Fort Atkinson also lost in Division 1 action Thursday.
Division 2 teams Mount Horeb and Evansville advanced to sectionals, which will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. in Mount Horeb. Whitewater lost.
Lakeside Lutheran and Columbus both lost in Division 3 tournament play Thursday.
Copyright 2012 by Channel 3000. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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At a pre-wedding party for his daughter Sarah, Moe Prager is approached by his ex-wife and former PI partner Carmella Melendez. It seems Carmella's estranged sister Alta has been murdered, but no one in New York City seems to care. Why? Alta, a FDNY EMT, and her partner had months earlier refused to give assistance to a dying man at a fancy downtown eatery.
Moe decides to help Carmella as a means to distract himself from his own life-and-death struggle. Making headway… (more)
Publisher: Tyrus Books (November 18, 2011)
Format: EPUB
Page count: 320 pages
File size: 1.8 MB
Protection: DRM
Language: English


text: Prior to any tuning, remove excess sidewall material using a sidewall cutter. Using a file or coarse diamond stone, bevel your side edge and your base edge if necessary to your desired angle. Foley recommends that intermediate to aggressive skiers use a side bevel between one and three degrees. Make sure all scratches and abrasions are polished out of your edges. The goal here isn't necessarily a sharp edge, but a smooth edge.


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Journal of Religion and Film
Seeing and Being Seen: Distinctively Filmic and Religious Elements in Film
by Greg Watkins
Vol. 3, No. 2 October 1999
Seeing and Being
by Greg Watkins
[1] Using philosophical propositions from Stanley Cavell's work The World Viewed, I argue in this paper that there is a religious dimension available in film which has to do with a creative and disruptive approach to the normal and naturalized habits of the typical viewer. By examining both Von Trier's Breaking the Waves and Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice, I attempt to show that these film makers challenge their viewers via the nature of the medium itself and in ways that have religious/ethical implications.
[2] Recent work on religion and film has tended to fall within one of the following three approaches: 1) film seen as a culturally predominant medium and therefore a necessary conversation partner for on-going theology (e.g., Marsh and Ortiz 1997); 2) film as providing fashionable examples for the application of various academic theories of religion (e.g., Keefer and Linafelt 1998; Deacy 1997); and 3) the use of popular films as a prime indicator of a culture's values broadly understood and, therefore, (in a thin definition of the term) 'religious' (e.g., Miles 1996). While these approaches are often illuminating in their respective ways, their dominance has often been at the expense of more careful thought--both the nature of the medium and, by extension, what it might mean for an artist to think 'religiously' within it.
[3] To my mind, most of the recent work on film and religion fails to bring the uniquely filmic into contact with the distinctive insights of religious studies. In the three approaches mentioned above, such a point of contact is rare and typically fleeting. In the first case, theologians seem almost compelled to discuss film because of its cultural dominance. Indeed, much time is spent in these works either defending or attacking the appropriateness and value of a theological consideration of film. Such inquiries are driven primarily by the question: what are we as theologians to make of the content of a particular film given film's influence and cultural presence? In the second case, the various theories of religion certainly do not stand or fall as a consequence of their application to a particular film; i.e., the method of applying standard theories is usually a one-way street in which the film analysis merely confirms the theory. Film criticism in this vein is merely the 'exercising' of an otherwise independent train of thought. Finally, the broad cultural criticism found in a work like Seeing and Believing (Miles 1996) could come from any humanistic discipline -- there is nothing particularly 'religious' about it. For Miles, films re-present societal values broadly construed, and this alone puts them loosely in the domain of religion. I believe that the intersection of film studies and religious studies holds more distinctive promise than that.
[4] If film is, in fact, a powerfully new and different medium, then perhaps religious thought, whatever that might be taken to mean, takes on new forms within it. Perhaps film has as much to say to our understanding of religious thought and religious experience as the current theories of religion might presently be able to say about film. In what follows, I want to give some intimation of what such criticism would look like by recounting how a particular meditation on the nature of the film medium by Stanley Cavell, in his book The World Viewed (Cavell 1979), allowed me to see more clearly. the religious nature of two films expressly concerned with religious issues: von Trier's Breaking the Waves and Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice. However, unlike the kinds of criticism described above, I hope to show how the religious dimension of these films is inextricably tied to the uniqueness of the film medium.
Cavell on Film
[5] Cavell's primary work on film explicitly mentions religion only briefly (1979:39). But more than any explicit connection with religion, Cavell's concerted effort at clear and straightforward thinking about the nature of the film medium holds great potential for the exploration of film within the field of religious studies. Cavell's primary insight is deceptive in its simplicity: the photographic medium allows us to see something that is not present, and, in seeing what is not present, we are able to remain unseen. When we look at a photograph (or at the images presented to us in a typical film), we are given viewing access to something not directly present to us, and to which we in turn are not present either. It is this dynamic, the ability to see what is not present and remain unseen, in combination with the existential situation of the modern subject, which for Cavell explains film's power for us and its easy rise to prominence as an artistic medium:
[6] Although Cavell does not explicitly refer to anxiety, he seems to be saying that this situation with film absolves us of a certain uneasiness about our relationship with reality and our concern for presentness: "In viewing a movie my helplessness is mechanically assured: I am present not at something happening, which I must confirm, but at something that has happened, which I absorb (like a memory)" (1979:26).
[7] Again, the apparent simplicity of Cavell's argument is deceptive, and it takes some time to get accustomed to it. However, armed with both this particular characterization of the uniqueness of the film medium and an argument about its relationship to modern existential issues, I began to see the religious aspects of film in an entirely new light. On the one hand, film has a unique power in easing the peculiarly modern sense of displacement from reality, our condition of distance from it. In this sense of 'religious,' popular film functions culturally as an opiate (and precisely in Marx's sense of that term (Marx 1978). By naturalizing almost mechanically the particularly modern forms of alienation, i.e., by making the distance between the viewer (self) and the world viewed (film) an apparently unquestionable 'matter-of-fact', the viewer is relieved of the burden of that distance. On the other hand, I am coming to the conviction that many of the great 'auteurs' of film making are precisely interested in unsettling that relationship once again, and, in the space of renewed dis-ease in the viewer, find other ways of addressing the modern human condition. In a very different sense of what is religious, the artist behind this kind of film seeks both to disrupt the 'naturalized' viewing habit described above and to transform the once safely distant world viewed into one that returns the viewers gaze and places ethical demands on the viewer. Von Trier achieves this transformation by the simple technique of the actor looking into the camera. With Andrey Tarkovsky, the particular combination of the shape of the narrative and the nature of the film medium makes possible its religious potency.
Von Trier
[8] The overtly religious content of Breaking the Waves invites commentary from those interested in religious studies, but the more profound and truly filmic moments have been under-appreciated in the critical commentaries I have seen. Whatever we might conclude the director was trying to say about institutional religion, personal religious belief, sacrifice, miracles, patriarchy, etc., the lead character's direct looks into the camera and the computer-enhanced images of the intertitles, in concert with the general thrust of the narrative, engage the audience in a way that opens up a potentially religious space through the nature of the medium itself. Bess's looks into the camera threaten our 'unseen-ness' and call us to a kind of imaginative work, an imaginative work guided by the other-worldly quality of the intertitles and the ending of the film.
[9] Bess's looks into the camera have by no means gone entirely unacknowledged. Both articles discussing this film in The Journal of Religion and Film (Keefer and Linafelt 1998; Makarushka 1998) have taken note of Von Trier's technique. However, in the first case the note is literally a parenthetical one supporting the Bataille-inspired analysis of Bess as a 'border-crossing' figure (1998:8), and, in the other, her gaze is merely described and in no way interpreted (1998:4). However, in the language of Cavell, Bess threatens our unseen-ness and does so in a very particular way. In being the only character in the film to look at the camera, to make us feel seen, she establishes an intimacy with the audience that has interesting implications. Her unique intimacy with the audience is paralleled by her unique intimacy with God in the narrative. I assume that most viewers find her conversations with God strange if not disturbing. She apparently sees God in a way no other character in the film does and apparently has an intimacy with God no other character has. When she looks into the camera, we are made part of the world she sees. We are made to be a part of her extra-mundane and religious world view, and, by extension, we are brought into, and challenged by, her ethic, an ethic of love and self-sacrifice dependent on her relationship with something other-worldly. Von Trier makes this connection most strongly with Bess's gaze into the camera on her second and ultimately sacrificial ride to the ship. Whatever von Trier himself thinks about the explicitly religious issues listed above, I would claim that he achieves his ends only to the extent that we are made uncomfortable by the looks from Bess.
[10] The discomfort that Bess creates in the viewer works in turn with the unnatural quality of the computer-enhanced world presented in the chapter interludes ('unnatural' in the sense of their tension with the cinema verite of the rest of the film). Apparently more controversial than the looks into the camera, the counterpoint style of these interludes has received a lot of attention. The best critical defense of them I have come across is in Victoria Nelson's article, "The New Expressionism: Why the Bells Ring in Breaking the Waves (Nelson 1997). For Nelson, the style of the interludes is meant to "concretize inner psychological and spiritual forces" (1997:230). She sees Von Trier as working against "...the sort of art Westerners have happily consumed for a hundred and fifty years: social realism shading into modernism that steadfastly upholds a rational-empirical worldview" (1997:232). Nelson champions Von Trier's style by asserting that the interludes and bells are ontologically weightier than mere Romantic symbols. They are embodiments of psychological turmoil, the materialization of Bess's inner powers (1997:232), a legitimate 'expressionism' that asserts something more real than the conventionally real (1997:229). However, the complete failure of Nelson to mention the fact that Bess occasionally breaks the frame leaves out an important piece of the equation that Nelson intends to defend and which Cavell helps us to understand. Our greater degree of intimacy with the lead character, our being seen by the one who sees the otherworldly, gives the weight these images need to be more than 'over the top' or sheer (and thus unacceptable) Romanticism. In other words, is not any world seen from the position of being unseen, even the manifestly metaphysical ones of these intertitle sequences, a naturalized world, a world viewed?
[11] Tarkovsky finished The Sacrifice in 1986. It was his last film, as he was to die from cancer at the end of that same year. It contains many overtly religious elements. For example, it opens with Bach's Saint Matthew's Passion on the sound track and uses a wide variety of religious music throughout. It begins narratively with the lead character telling his son a story about a monk, a dead tree, and a lesson of requited faith. It deals with supernatural themes of magic, miracle, and witchery. In short, the film poses a formidable challenge for sorting out what Tarkovsky wants to accomplish with his religious eclecticism. However, what I want to show in this paper requires only that I deal with the narrative elements and the effect these elements produce at the end of the film. By making the overtly religious peripheral, I hope to show that there is something else happening, something religious in nature but which is a consequence of the medium and not of the tapestry of religious references that Tarkovsky weaves.
[12] The protagonist of The Sacrifice is a man named Alexander who abandoned a promising acting career for a life in academia as a theater critic. It is his birthday, and his family has gathered to celebrate at their beloved home in the countryside. But before the birthday meal can begin, jets roar overhead and the party learns from an eerie television broadcast that the world is on the verge of a nuclear holocaust. Finally driven to his knees by the agony of impending doom, Alexander prays to God for the deliverance of the world from the coming destruction. In return, Alexander promises to leave the family he loves, destroy their beautiful home, and never speak a word to anyone again. "1 shall give up everything that binds me to life," he says in his plea to God, "if you will only let everything be as it was before, as it was this morning, as it was yesterday: so that I may be spared this deadly, suffocating, bestial state of fear."
[13] Soon after Alexander's plea, the postman, Otto, returns to the house to tell Alexander a way out of the situation. He tells Alexander that one of his own serving girls, Maria, is a witch, and that if he were to go to her home and sleep with her, all would be well again. Alexander resists the apparent absurdity of these claims at first but is finally convinced to go to her. He sleeps with her that night, and, when he awakens in his home the following morning, the world has indeed returned to its state before the outbreak of war. Alexander finds his family outside the house enjoying breakfast in the morning air. However, Alexander remains true to his offering to God. In a single-take, long-shot (the simplest of world 'views', the most natural capturing of material reality), Alexander proceeds to set the house ablaze, refuses to speak a word to his family during the ensuing chaos, and is finally taken away in an ambulance. [FILM CLIP]~ The film ends with a scene of Alexander's son watering a dead tree, having been told by his father in the first scene of the movie that if he watered the tree everyday with diligence and faith, then it would one day blossom again.
[14] It was with Cavell's help that I was finally able to formulate why I find this narrative sequence especially powerful within the film medium. At the end of the film, when Alexander is burning down the house, we see in this photograph of reality two worlds and not one. We see the world of his family members, a world in which nuclear war has not broken out and in which the actions of Alexander could be seen as nothing short of insanity. But we also see Alexander's world, a world returned from the brink of obliteration, a world transformed, or at least restored. In Cavell's terms, this narrative development has two effects. First, these two worlds, which are present to us at the end of the film, are given in the same image, the same photograph of reality -- a unified view enhanced by the single-take, long-shot of the mise-en-scene. The world we view in this final sequence is a world split in two, such that the single image of reality represents both the world of the one who has made a sacrifice and the world of those who do not see the sacrifice or its effects. In giving a dual role to this one image of reality, the image begins to function more like a symbol than a world viewed. The view of material reality, the simple reproduction of sight, has exploded, as it were, in this bifurcation. (Indeed, isn't this a religious problem par excellence - that more than one reality can pertain to the same 'place'?).2
[15] More importantly, it seems to me that in this bifurcation of the image of reality, we, the audience, can no longer remain unseen in the way to which movies have accustomed us. Because of the bifurcation, the audience is implicated in the tension between the two worlds. As the perception of all of the other characters gets wiped clean of a particular past, the past in which nuclear war has broken out, they return to our world, the world in which we ourselves were living when we walked into the theater, a world in which nuclear war has not taken place. However, in having followed them into that apocalyptic world and then returned, we become seen by the world of the lead character; we become seen by a world in which nuclear war has been reversed by the sacrifices of one person. Being seen by that world, or perhaps being caught between the two, places a certain ethical weight on the audience, and I think this is what Tarkovsky intends. I use the word 'weight' intentionally here, for the film's opening dialogue includes a direct reference to Nietzsche's "The Greatest Weight," his ethical proposition of the 'what if' of eternal recurrence (Nietzsche 1974). I think that Tarkovsky is trying to offer an ethical proposition of his own, viz., 'what if we live in a world restored and we do not see it?' However one might formulate the question, I think that it is precisely in the becoming-seen-again that this ethical weight is brought to bear.
What Is a 'Religious' Film?
[16] Clearly, films have no trouble taking up manifestly theological and religious content. It is equally clear, given the dominance of movies as a cultural force and product, that many people in the field of religious studies would have good cause to discuss that content critically. But if one throws out the manifestly religious, as I have tried to do here, precisely what is 'religious' about what remains? How best to talk about this is something I am struggling to clarify and is something, it seems to me, that those in the field of religious studies would be uniquely qualified to help clarify. My concern is that such criticism is hard to come by in the current landscape, a landscape dominated by the twin peaks of either the avowedly secular or the tradition-bound theological project which sees film only for its cultural pervasiveness. I have come to think as a result of the investigation above that the 'religious' in one sense can be seen as inextricably tied to the ethical,3 which is to say that the films discussed here try to engage us ethically if non-propositionally (without being explicitly prescriptive or proscriptive); they try to engage us ethically at precisely the level of our world view, i.e. imaginatively. 'Being seen' in a medium which has accustomed us to the comfort of having 'views' without having to be accountable for them awakens our responsibility for our own fantasies: "Viewing a movie.., takes the responsibility for it out of our hands. Hence movies seem more natural than reality. Not because they are escapes into fantasy, but because they are reliefs from private fantasy and its responsibilities; from the fact that the world is already drawn by fantasy" (Cavell 1979:102).4 What I am suggesting is that there is an important sense of the word 'religious' in which the naturalized fantasy of most films is overcome, and in its being overcome, the viewer is ethically/religiously engaged.
[17] In his own writings, Tarkovsky seems to consider his role as artist along these same lines.5 The decidedly Christian tenor of Tarkovsky's thinking, as should be clear even from the bare-bones narrative discussed above, has at its foundation a more general emphasis on the responsibilities between artists and viewers: "Modern mass culture, aimed at the 'consumer'... is crippling people's souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his consciousness of himself as a spiritual being" (Tarkovsky 1987:42). In this light, and outside of any specific religious tradition, Tarkovsky views his art as serving a religious function: "The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to the good" (1987:43).6 Finally, his vision of achieving these aims is not a simple-minded one: "Art only has the capacity, through shock and catharsis, to make the human soul receptive to good. It's ridiculous to imagine that people can be taught to be good; any more than they can learn how to be faithful wives by following the 'positive' example of Pushkin's Tatiana Larina. Art can only give food - a jolt - the occasion - for psychical experience" (1987:50). How best for a critic concerned with issues of religious experience to engage the particularities of the film medium as well as the religious sensibilities of this kind of artist is difficult terrain, but terrain which stands well outside the broad cultural criticism and 'stock' theoretical work which dominates the present literature.
Works Cited
Cavell, Stanley. 1979. The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Deacy, Christopher. 1997. An Application of the Religious Concept of Redemption through Film Noir. Scottish Journal of Religious Studies. 18:199-212.
Keefer, Kyle and Tod Linafelt. 1998. The End of Desire: Theologies of Eros in the Song of Songs and Breaking the Waves.Journal of Religion and Film. 2(1)
Makarushka, Irena S. M. 1998. Transgressing Goodness in Breaking the Waves. Journal of Religion and Film. 2(1)
Marsh and Ortiz (ed.). 1997. Explorations in Theology and Film: Movies and Meaning. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers.
Marx, Karl 1978. The Marx-Engels Reader. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Miles, Margaret R. 1996. Seeing and Believing: Religion and Values in the Movies. Boston: Beacon Press.
Murdoch, Iris. 1998. Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature. Penguin Press.
Nelson, Victoria. 1997. Why the Bells Ring in Breaking the Waves. Salmagundi. Issue 116-117:228-37.
Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. 1974. The Gay Science. Translated by Walter Kaufmann. New York: Random House.
Schrader, Paul. 1972. Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer. Berkeley: University of California Press..
Steimatsky, Noa. 1998. Pasolini on Terra Sancta: Towards a Theology of Film. The Yale Journal of Criticism. 11 (1): 239-58.
Tarkovsky, Andrey. 1987. Sculpting in Time: Reflections on the Cinema. New York: Knopf.
Yearley, Lee H. 1998. Selves, Virtues, Odd Genres, and Alien Guides: An Approach to Religious Ethics. Journal of Religious Ethics. 25(3): 127-56.
1 The film clip is included with some hesitation. For those who have seen the film, it serves as a reminder. For those who have not, the clip's power (or, as I fear in this context, lack of power) depends on the sweep of the previous narrative. The clip, indeed, is something quite different from one's experience of the same sequence when seen in the course of the entire film.
2 For a thought-provoking study of similar issues as they relate to the films of Pasolini, see Steimatsky (1998). There is also a lot to gain from Schrader (1972) in relation to the issue of 'place' and the religious.
3 For a recent and valuable discussion of the kinds of relationships between the religious and the ethical which concern me here, see Yearley (1998).
4 For an insightful and more detailed elaboration of the distinctions between imagination and fantasy, as well as a discussion of the import of these differences for religion and ethics, see also Murdoch (1998).
5 For those readers unfamiliar with it, Tarkovsky's book Sculpting in Time is a reflective mix of theory and biography in which all of his films are discussed.
6 I think that it would be worthwhile to consider further the place of auteur theory in examining the ethical dimension of a film with religious sensibilities. Tarkovsky could easily be the focus of such a study.
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We told you Silent Hill 5 was coming the other day, and now here's the new stuff we know. According to game developer Konami, SH5 will "thrusts players into a shadowy world of chaos and terror with atmospheric high definition graphics and an original storyline that sheds new light on the desolate, fog-shrouded town of Silent Hill."
Sounds good to us!
The game follows Alex Shepherd, a war veteran returning home from an overseas tour of duty to investigate the disappearance of his younger brother, Joshua. His travels will lead him through the small, insular community of Shepherd's Glen and eventually through the hauntingly empty streets of Silent Hill.
The game will feature an enhanced combat system allowing players to execute a number of offensive and defensive maneuvers. Yes. There will be puzzles and there will be decay.
Continuing the series' tradition of awesome music and sound design, Silent Hill 5 features an original soundtrack by composer Akira Yamaoka.
"Silent Hill 5 is an international, cross-cultural production, with leading development talent from around the globe collaborating to raise the bar even higher for this incredible series," said Brian Christian, Vice President of Product Development at Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "With gritty graphics and sound that create a haunting atmosphere to all-new visceral gameplay elements, Silent Hill 5 truly epitomizes the extent to which next-generation hardware can enhance the player's overall gaming experience."
Silent Hill 5 is planned for release on the 360 and the PlayStation 3 in 2008.


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International Edition
December, 6, 2016
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Ludicrous talk of Taiwan fiscal cliff points to profound problem
By Alan Fong, The China Post
November 14, 2012, 12:21 am TWN
The China Post--The finance minister saying Taiwan is not in danger of falling off a fiscal cliff is as preposterous as the Central Weather Bureau director-general reassuring residents that Hurricane Sandy will not hit Taiwan. But that's what happened at the Legislative Yuan on Monday.
To be fair, Minister of Finance Chang Sheng-ford (張盛和) was responding to a question by Kuomintang Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆), who is supposed to be a financial expert. But the fact that he had to answer such a query, and the following media misinterpretation of the sensational imported term, shows how tragically misinformed the public in Taiwan have been.
Coined by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, the "fiscal cliff" refers to a specific situation in the U.S. when the nation's fiscal deficit could go down a cliff as automatic across-the-board cuts kick in and tax cuts from Bush era expire. The next possible drop down the cliff is Jan. 1, 2013.
The cliff Bernanke referred to is actually a drastic deficit decrease, not the situation of the fiscal house going down the cliff, which is what some Taiwanese media apparently misunderstood the term to mean ("Taiwan might be NT$10 billion short in tax revenue next year but it will not face the fiscal cliff" read one misguided media summarization of Chang's comments on Monday). The fiscal cliff is a crisis for the U.S. not because of the deficit decrease but because of the way it is to be achieved. Massive cuts on both defense and domestic spending compounded with tax increases could badly hurt already fragile private spending and push the U.S. back to recession.
The misinterpretation of the fiscal cliff is actually the latest example of politicians' and the media's misguided exploitation of foreign situations to drum up sensation and fear. The fiscal cliff originated from the debate over the so-called debt-ceiling crisis in the U.S. last year, which was in no small part inspired the Greece debt crisis. Despite the U.S.'s totally different situation from Greece — take the U.S.' near record-low borrowing costs as an example — and the widely held fear that a short-term government spending crunch is bad for the economy and in turn bad for deficit cuts during a downturn, U.S. politicians went into deficit-cutting mode with little debate on the virtues of fiscal contraction. Instead they debated only on how the cuts should be made, with suggestions sharply divided along party lines.
The fiscal cliff has come into being because that debate went nowhere. The automatic cuts were devised as a scary scenario to force the two parties to cooperate — the defense budget is as sacred for Republicans as welfare program are for Democrats so across-the-board cuts are undesirable for both parties. Yet both sides are still engaging in a staring contest with globally disastrous consequences. In short, the fiscal cliff is a self-inflicted crisis by U.S. politicians because they picked an unnecessary fight and then pushed themselves to crisis point in that fight.
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Cheats and Walkthroughs
Cheats and Walkthroughs
Cheats and Walkthroughs
Activision is being much more conservative with its music game releases in 2010. On its first quarter 2010 conference call this afternoon, the company confirmed Guitar Hero 6 and "the next DJ Hero" (Activision didn't call it DJ Hero 2) are on track for a release sometime this fall.
Guitar Hero 6 will be released prior to the next DJ Hero, however. Activision said the turntable follow-up would be available "soon after" the release of Guitar Hero 6.
Activision said both games would feature "more great original music, new and innovative gameplay modes and a significantly enhanced social gaming experience," and plenty of downloadable content.
Both games will most likely see a proper unveiling next month at E3 in Los Angeles.
Have something to share? Sitting on a news tip? E-mail me. You can also follow me on Twitter.


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InfoComm Today Podcast: Previewing the AV Executive Conference
Type: Podcasts
Topics: AV Industry; Business and Management; Marketing and Sales
Date: August 2013
Do you want to know what business experts will be evangelizing at September's AV Executive Conference in Amelia Island, Fla.? Well, we got all of them on the line for this special InfoComm Today Podcast. Hear directly from business experts and strategists David Nour, Les McKeown, Everett Hill and Nhat Pham as they discuss what it takes to run a successful company in today's rapidly changing market. Tune in now.