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Burien won't be divided into council districts for upcoming election
Facebook lingerie photo nets Block a council censure
Burien will not be divided up into wards for the upcoming City Council election races.
Informed that the King County Elections Department needs to receive adopted ward/district boundaries by April 1, City Councilmember Gerald Robison on March 18 withdrew his proposal to change the way city lawmakers are elected.
Robison emphasized he is not abandoning his idea. He noted there was not enough time before the April 1 deadline to fully discuss and then act on the changes.
He had suggested dividing the city into wards. In the primary, candidates would have to file and run in their own district. In the general election, the entire city would vote on the candidates.
Robison said that would ensure council members come from different areas of the city. He said the current system where candidates can file for any council position favors richer areas west of Ambaum Boulevard Southwest.
However, critics, who have flooded the council with e-mails and public comments, said the ward system would promote cronyism and discourage the best candidates from being elected.
Robison said he wants to keep his proposal on the council's work plan.
"It deserves and requires more discussion so the public is not in such a panic," Robison declared.
Mayor Brian Bennett and Councilmembers Rose Clark and Joan McGilton are up for re-election. The three along with Robison usually vote as a majority on the closely divided council.
The council censured Councilmember Jack Block Jr., who is also up for re-election, on March 18. The censure was in response to an "I Love Redheads" photo Block posted on his personal Facebook page. It showed a lingerie-clad woman on her hands and knees. Her head is partially shown.
Block had added, "Merry Christmas, ya'all."
The censure vote reflected the council's 4-3 split. Bennett, Clark, McGilton and Robison voted for censure. Block and his council allies, Deputy Mayor Lucy Krakowiak and Councilmember Bob Edgar, abstained. The censure does not carry any official sanctions.
Bennett noted the photo had gone out to numerous public officials on Block's Facebook page.
Robison called the material "inappropriate" and "poor judgment" that does not reflect city policy.
Clark said, as a woman, she considered such material "pornographic" and not the way the council treats women.
Edgar said Block posted the photo on his own time and did not use city or council resources. He noted Block removed it after three people objected.
Krakowiak said she doesn't approve of the photo but Block posted the photo "in a private setting that spilled over into the public."
Calling himself a "flawed and imperfect person," Block said the photo should be placed in the proper context. He said models in lingerie ads wear less than the woman in the Facebook photo. He also pointed to a bronze statue of a nude woman squatting that was publicly displayed on a Town Square vacant lot during an interim art display.
He also charged the censure action was politically motivated. The issue was brought up just after he proposed the council explore a succession plan in case the city manager is fired or resigns, Block said.
Block also noted the woman who brought the complaint has announced she will be running against him for his council seat.
During public comments, Boulevard Park resident Dick West declared, "According to the King County Assessor's Office, property values in Burien are falling 35 faster than SeaTac, 35.1 percent faster than Tukwila and 34.6 percent faster than Des Moines."
West blamed the reduced property values on 50 to 100 houses with code violations that the city has not dealt with. Some are bank repossessions while others are owned by "slumlords," according to West.
At the previous council meeting, City Manager Mike Martin said he would give lawmakers a report on West's previous allegations on a "nuisance house." Martin did not report on March 18 but said city staff disagrees strongly with West's conclusions.
We encourage our readers to comment. No registration is required. We ask that you keep your comments free of profanity and keep them civil. They are moderated and objectionable comments will be removed.


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By Giuseppe Muro at London Colney
Arsène Wenger is planning January loan moves for Aaron Ramsey, Carlos Vela and Henri Lansbury.
The trio have had limited first-team opportunities of late and the manager has revealed that some temporary deals are in the pipeline.
Ramsey is still searching for full fitness after returning from a long lay-off and was frustrated by a number of postponements during a month-long spell at Nottingham Forest at the turn of the year. Vela has caught the eye of a number of clubs while Lansbury is heading back to Norwich where he has already impressed this season.
"I am considering to give Ramsey one month out on loan, with a possibility of him going to Cardiff," said Wenger at his pre-match press conference.
"I don't want [Ramsey] to go to a Premier League club because I want him to finish the season with us. I just look for competition for him.
"There is much interest in [Vela] for a loan, that is what I want to do. We have plenty of clubs who are interested in him. At the end of the day I look for a guarantee [that he will play]. For him, he has as well to agree to join the club who wants him.
"Henri Lansbury might go on loan as well, [to Norwich]."Copyright 2017 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source

subset: commoncrawl


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Country distribution from AmphibiaWeb's database: Papua New Guinea
Range Description
This species is known from 1,400-2,000m asl at several localities between the eastern edge of Eastern Highlands Province, and Wau, in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea.
Habitat and Ecology
It lives under litter on the rainforest floor and breeds by direct development.
It is thought to be a reasonably common species.
Population Trend
Major Threats
There are no known threats to it.
Conservation Actions
Its range includes Mount Kaindi Wildlife Management Area.
Stephen Richards, Allen Allison 2004. Liophryne allisoni. In: IUCN 2014


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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Bank of America Corp.has agreed to pay compensation to eligible mortgage loan applicants to resolve allegations of discrimination against recipients of disability income, the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Under the settlement, Bank of America N.A. BAC, -0.48% will pay $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 to mortgage loan applicants who were asked to provide a letter from their doctor to document the income they received from Social Security Disability Insurance. Applicants who were asked to provide more detailed medical information to document their income may be paid more than those who were asked to have a doctor verify their source of income, the DOJ said.
The bank will hire an administrator to search about 25,000 loan applications involving SSDI income to identify any other victims.
A Bank of America spokesman wasn't immediately available for comment.
Bank of America also agreed to maintain revised policies and conduct employee training as part of the settlement.
The lawsuit stems from three complaints filed by loan applicants with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. HUD charged Bank of America in February with discriminating against disabled home buyers by asking them for medical information and proof of federal disability income.
The government charged that the bank violated the U.S. Fair Housing Act, which bars lenders from imposing different qualification standards on disabled borrowers. Under federal law, it is illegal for lenders to ask about the severity of a disability.
The HUD complainants will receive a total of $125,000 in compensation, the DOJ said.


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Manhattan area club!
Does anyone have any interest in creating one?
Bump Come On!
I'm in manhattan. What do you have in mind for a club?
Would be cool to meet some fellow planted tank addicts and trade some plants. Not a huge selection at the LFS here.
yeah your right I was thinking like once a month or somthing meet up and trade stuff. the LFS here is good but plant wise not great unless he gets somthing special. Do you go to manhattan aquarium company? thats where I go and im starting work there on the 13th.
Any place around here carry cork bark? I know Dave's has some, but it's limited and never gets new pieces. Maybe topeka? lawrence? I know salina doesn't have any...
call and ask manhattan aquarium company just google manhattan aquarium co and it wil pull up the number
I go to wichita once a month for business and have found that Sea Dreams off of Harry st is amazing. They have great pricing and a ginormous selection and assortment of plants, fish, coral, tanks and everything in between. I highly recomend you to stop by and check them out. The owner is full of information, I think they call her momma or something, shes a "big" white lady, and super nice.
I keep hearing good things about Sea Dreams, I was planning to take a trip down there but this fricken ice storm knocked out my power for 5 days. And now we have a good amount of snow on the ground. Will have to wait till after christmas most likely.
Manhattan Aquarium Supply is junk, the owner is knowledgeable but he is very very rude to customers. Pets N Stuff doesn't really have a great selection of fish, and they aren't very experienced in that field as well. Seems like out of town is the way to go.
Scaley Daves would be awesome if they carried more fish stuff, which I have heard will hopefully be soon.
Not really, we sucked for plants and fish as well. Although we did get a wide variety of plants in, rather then the 50 different types of swords that Aquarium gets.
He has a great fish selection I will give him that, and a HUGE selection of OVERPRICED aquarium hardware.
And his reptiles? Don't get me started!
To be completely honest, you can find supplies/plants online cheaper than ANY pet stores locally.
Want to see a owner not running a store properly? Walk in and go to reptiles and look what the owner is doing on the computer - playing video games while customers are walking around in the store.. Brilliant!
heck ya make a fish club please
I dont think there is a ton of interest
Best would be to talk with the manhattan aquarium guy I guess? I do frogs and 2 reef tanks, one is a 72 bow front in salina and one is here but only a 20 and I am redoing it all....
I keep some live plants in my frog tanks, riccia, java moss, water hyacinth, etc.
Konza Reptile Breeders Expo
:icon_smil Hi, its that time of year again and the Konza Reptile Breeders Expo will be in town the 4th of September at the Clarion!
See you there!
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Did the FBI Execute That Kid in Florida?
Source: lewrockwell.comThe Shooting of Ibragim Todashev: Is the Lawlessness of Obama's Drone Policy Coming Home?
Once a state gets used to abusing the rights of foreigners in distant lands, it's almost inevitable it will import the habit
Did the FBI execute Ibragim Todashev? He appears to have been shot seven times while being interviewed at home in Orlando, Florida, about his connection to one of the Boston bombing suspects. Among the shots was the assassin's hallmark: a bullet to the back of the head. What kind of an interview was it?
An irregular one. There was no lawyer present. It was not recorded. By the time Todashev was shot, he had apparently been interrogated by three agents for five hours. And then? Who knows? First, we were told, he lunged at them with a knife. How he acquired it, five hours into a police interview, was not explained. How he posed such a threat while recovering from a knee operation also remains perplexing.
At first he drew the knife while being interviewed. Then he acquired it during a break from the interview. Then it ceased to be a knife and became a sword, then a pipe, then a metal pole, then a broomstick, then a table, then a chair. In one account all the agents were in the room at the time of the attack; in another, all but one had mysteriously departed, leaving the remaining officer to face his assailant alone.
If – and it remains a big if – this was an extrajudicial execution, it was one of hundreds commissioned by US agencies since Barack Obama first took office. The difference in this case is that it took place on American soil. Elsewhere, suspects are bumped off without even the right to the lawyerless interview Ibragim Todashev was given.
In his speech two days after Todashev was killed, President Obama maintained that "our commitment to constitutional principles has weathered every war". But he failed to explain which constitutional principles permit him to authorise the killing of people in nations with which the US is not at war. When his attorney general, Eric Holder, tried to do so last year, he got himself into a terrible mess, ending with the extraordinary claim that "'due process' and 'judicial process' are not one and the same … the constitution guarantees due process, not judicial process". So what is due process if it doesn't involve the courts? Whatever the president says it is?
Read the full article at: lewrockwell.com
Ibragim Todashev and Reniya Manukyan.
Todashev was killed while being questioned by FBI agents and Massachusetts police.


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Decapitated Model in Kanye West Video Says 'Monster' Shoot Was 'So Much Fun'
Taylor Warren, the 23-year-old model that appears decapitated in Kanye West's "Monster" video, says she was first offended at the idea of being beheaded (because she thought it meant no one would see her face). But, when she realized it meant Kanye would actually be dangling her head by the hair, she was all for it, writing in a forum online,"that video was so much fun to make!"
Apparently, what Warren learned was that she actually enjoyed kneeling at Kanye's feet and appearing as if she were dead throughout the two-day shoot. "I couldn't move or talk because it would ruin the shot!" she asaid. "Between takes, he still had my hair and would talk to the director or on his phone while I was chilling three feet below him, but I couldn't help but think, 'This is so surreal and amazing.'"
Aside from being beheaded for the duration of an entire 'Ye verse, Warren also plays the role of a vampire in the clip, who kills a man with a stiletto and drags his dead body across a drained swimming pool.—XXL Staff


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'Ottawa owned the third period though. Oleg Saprykin and Jason Spezza gave the Sens a 4-2 lead. An empty netter made the final 5-2. Buffalo was held to just 20 shots. Ryan Miller made 29 saves for the Sabres.'
Sabres Surrender Game One
May 11, 2007 Submitted by
Via: RNews.com


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Learning search results
Adobe Photoshop software tips, tricks, and inspirations that bring out your brilliance.
Tutorial: The Synchronize Command
By: George Jardine
Learn the basics of Lightroom's Synchronize command. You'll learn how to apply Develop settings across multiple photos, in the Library and the Develop modules.
Tutorial: Digital Photos Making Your Hard Drive Sink Like Venice?
By: Kush Amerasinghe & Julieanne Kost
Episode 40: While in Venice, Kush realized what a viewer was going through as photos filled the disk. He talks to Julieanne Kost from The Complete Picture a...


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Tokyo Electric Power Co. has reached a deal to sell an affiliated hospital to major real estate developer Tokyo Tatemono Co. for ¥10 billion.
The building and land in the Shinanomachi district of Shinjuku Ward owned by Tokyo Denryoku Hospital will be transferred to Tokyo Tatemono on March 31.
The building is likely to be demolished because Tokyo Tatemono is considering residential and commercial use for the site.
Tepco initially planned to keep the hospital even after the March 2011 triple meltdown crisis started at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
But the utility decided to sell the facility in June 2012 when then-Vice Tokyo Gov. Naoki Inose strongly demanded its sale at the firm's general shareholder meeting. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is a major shareholder of Tepco.
The hospital, built in 1979, stands on a 5,609-sq.-meter site. Only Tepco employees and former employees can use the hospital, but its occupancy rate was only 30 percent.
Scandal-tainted hospital chain Tokushukai had planned to acquire the hospital and Tokushukai founder Torao Tokuda told Inose about it in November 2012.
Tokushukai joined bidding for the hospital sale but withdrew after the Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office raided the group last September over its suspected illegal electioneering.
Inose, who was elected Tokyo governor in December 2012, stepped down from the post last month following the revelation he had received ¥50 million from the scandal-hit group.
Prosecutors have been investigating whether the ¥50 million was in exchange for Inose's favorable treatment for Tokushukai's attempt to acquire the hospital.


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- Instrument:
- Ensemble:
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- Publisher:
Japanese Impressions: Cymbals
Percussion Ensemble
Cymbals. Composed by Anthony J. Cirone. Instructional. Part. 2 pages. Published by Alfred Music - Digital Sheet Music (AX.00-PC-0000000_CYM).
Item Number: AX.00-PC-0000000_CYM
For five players. The 1968 San Francisco Symphony tour of Japan provided the inspiration for this work which includes the old Japanese melody "Moon Over the Ruined Castle." Conductor's score and other parts are available separately. Instrumentation includes: orchestra bells, temple blocks, bamboo sticks (Player 1); xylophone, woodblocks, bamboo sticks (Player 2); tom-toms, bongos (Player 3); suspended cymbal, finger cymbals, bass drum, bamboo wind chimes (Player 4); timpani (Player 5).
About Digital Downloads
Digital Downloads are downloadable sheet music files that can be viewed directly on your computer, tablet or mobile device. Once you download your digital sheet music, you can view and print it at home, school, or anywhere you want to make music, and you don't have to be connected to the internet. Just purchase, download and play!
PLEASE NOTE: Your Digital Download will have a watermark at the bottom of each page that will include your name, purchase date and number of copies purchased. You are only authorized to print the number of copies that you have purchased. You may not digitally distribute or print more copies than purchased for use (i.e., you may not print or digitally distribute individual copies to friends or students).


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An ECI Conference
The electric power grid system is central to all critical infrastructures, including transportation, oil and natural gas, water supply, and communications. Events such as the 2003 blackout in the northeastern U.S. simultaneously disrupted ground and air traffic, cell phone and internet communication, food and water service, industry, and banking. The world economy's growing dependence on electricity for power, computerized transactions, and other services will make future disruptions even more costly.
The power grid system faces an evolving set of challenges as it grows in complexity through large-scale adoption of variable and uncertain renewable energy resources, smart grid technology, and energy storage options. At the same time, evolving power market structures and regulations and new environmental policies will affect our future resource mix. These changes will require the optimization of the power system from widely dispersed generation facilities to urban load centers; lead to two-way power flows at the distribution level; and generate vast amounts of information and data that must be aggregated, verified, organized, accessed, analyzed, and secured. These changes represent challenges to grid security, reliability, resiliency, economics, and efficiency.
Modeling, simulation, and optimization have been important tools for grid management, planning, and recovery. There has been growing recognition, however, that current efforts must be greatly expanded to meet the evolving needs of the power grids and that the new methods that are needed will pose significant mathematical and computational challenges.
This Engineering Conferences International (ECI) conference, which will include invited and solicited oral and poster presentations, will provide a forum for the broad power grid community to share their latest methodological approaches, findings, and insights.
Session topics will include:
- Evolution of the modern electric power grid
- Projections for demand patterns, variable generation, energy storage, and demand response.
- New planning and operations paradigms to reduce the margin required to maintain a secure, stable system.
- New approaches that make efficient and optimal use of the existing infrastructure and minimize capital investments.
- Modeling, simulation, and optimization needs
- System operational prognostics and decision support.
- Faster-than-real-time dynamic analysis using state estimation.
- Dynamic model creation, verification and validation.
- Grid operations and planning
- Stability analysis for planning and operations.
- Ultra-fast state estimation for use in real-time applications.
- Local energy networks, including smart devices and local-area components.
- Planning methods that support the emerging modern grid (e.g., stochastic planning methods).
- Wide-area controls for grid operations with demand-side management, energy storage, and variable generation.
- Integration, optimization, and control of demand response.
- Advanced unit commitment (e.g., mixed-integer and stochastic security-constrained unit commitment).
- Analysis of retail and wholesale markets with emerging resources.
- Characterization of consumer behavior for demand response applications.
- Cross-domain modeling and simulation for transmission and distribution.
- Transmission disruptions
- Sufficiency assessment of primary and secondary frequency response and balancing reserves.
- Infrastructure assurance.
- System stability analysis for real-time decision support.
- Extreme-event modeling and analysis.
- N-k contingency evaluation.
- Recovery analysis.
- Computational science
- Data management, verification and validation.
- Modeling approaches.
- Optimization algorithms.
- Numerical methods, including those for continuous and discrete variables.
- Visualization.
- Scaling to supercomputing platforms
Conference Organization
Conference Chairs
Mark C. Petri
Argonne National Laboratory
Paul Myrda
Electric Power Research Institute
International Organizing Committee
Guenter Conzelmann, Argonne National Laboratory
Joseph H. Eto, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Steven Fernandez, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Brian Gaucher, IBM Research
Ross Guttromson, Sandia National Laboratory
Marco Janssen, UTInnovation
Michael Papka, Argonne National Laboratory
Jianhui Wang, Argonne National Laboratory
Submission of Abstracts
Original papers for oral and poster presentations are invited. Abstracts should be approximately 300 words in length and submitted electronically following the instructions given in On-line Abstract Submission. If you encounter any problems with the submission process, contact Engineering Conferences International (ECI) at firstname.lastname@example.com">firstname.lastname@example.com. Abstracts will be published in the conference program book, which will be provided to participants during the conference.
Abstracts for oral presentations: May 1, 2012
Abstracts for poster presentations: August 15, 2012
Conference Venue
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa
The resort city of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, has a history as a summer retreat for the rich and powerful of Chicago, who built magnificent homes and mansions along the shores of the 12-km-long Geneva Lake in the 1920s. The city, sometimes called "The Hamptons of the Midwest," became a refuge for Al Capone and other Chicago mobsters. Today Lake Geneva is a popular destination, known for its swimming, boating, fishing, skiing, horseback riding, shopping, and dining. A 34-km self-guided hiking trail circumnavigates the lake. Nearby are museums, theaters, and the world's largest refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory.
Just east of the city is the 4.5-km2 (1,100-acre) Grand Geneva Resort & Spa, one of only five AAA Four-Diamond resorts in Wisconsin. The resort includes a spa, horseback riding, tennis courts, ski hills, and two 18-hole champion golf courses with a lighted driving range and a putting green. Located at the resort is the Timber Ridge Lodge, which features the Moose Mountain Falls Water Park. This year-round indoor/outdoor park has two 10-m high slides and a lazy river. Dining options include three restaurants and room service to midnight.
The resort's conference facilities are highly ranked and have won numerous awards, including in 2011:
Meetings MidAmerica Magazine's Best of MidAmerica Award
Meetings and Convention's Gold Tee Award
Successful Meetings Magazine's Pinnacle Award for Outstanding Meeting Facilities in the Hotels and Conference Centers category
Elite Meetings - Gold Certification
Talk of the Town Award for Excellence in Customer Service
Grand Geneva Resort & Spa is an hour's drive from Milwaukee's General Mitchell Airport and 90 minutes from Chicago's O'Hare Airport. Shuttle services are available from both airports. ECI will provide transportation if there is sufficient interest from attendees.
Engineering Conferences International (ECI) is a global engineering conferences program, originally established in 1962, that provides opportunities for the exploration of problems and issues of concern to engineers and scientists from many disciplines.
The format of the weeklong research conference provides morning and late afternoon or evening sessions in which major presentations are made. Available time is included during the afternoons for ad hoc meetings, informal discussions, and/or recreation. This format is designed to enhance rapport among participants and promote dialogue on the development of the meeting. We believe that the conferences have been instrumental in generating ideas and disseminating information to a greater extent than is possible through more conventional forums.
All participants are expected both to attend the entire conference and to contribute actively to the discussions. The recording/photographing of lectures and presentations is forbidden. As ECI conferences take place in an informal atmosphere, casual clothing is the usual attire.


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When you bank with 1st Mariner, you can rest assured that your security is our number one priority.
Learn More
As part of the system upgrade, we are giving Online Banking a new look. This will provide you with easy access to all of your account information as well as improved navigation. Here is a sneak peak of what you should expect when you sign into your Online Banking account on Monday, October 15th.
Your Online Banking homepage will give you a snapshot of all of your account balances. You will also be able to search for specific transactions, view your spending report and make express transfers right from your homepage.
Navigate to the "Accounts" option on the top menu bar if you would like to perform a task. Place your mouse over the account that you would like to use, and select the task you would like to perform.
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text: Welcome to Middle Creek Campground. Nestled among the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains in Buchanan Virginia, the Gateway to the Shenandoah Valley. Feel the peace of the mountains, listen to the secrets of the water and see the joy of nature. We are a family oriented campground that offers you and yours the opportunity to get back to the basics while enjoying an abundance of outdoor activities in the area.


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- Course Number:
- Course Title:
- Dance Performance
- Credit Hours:
- 2
- Lecture Hours:
- 0
- Lecture/Lab Hours:
- 0
- Lab Hours:
- 60
- Special Fee:
- $24.00
Course DescriptionOffers practical experience in dance rehearsal and performance with a varying focus each term. Provides experience in production elements of dance performance as well as the opportunity to expand understanding of the choreographic process through research. Requires audition for admission. Prerequisites: WR 115 and D 131B or D 151 or D 191B or D 230A or D 230B or D 290A or D 290B or D 252 or instructor permission. Audit available.
Intended Outcomes for the course
Upon successful completion, students should be able to:
- Engage the imagination through dance performance.
- Appraise own skills and abilities, through feedback, to improve future performance.
- Engage in and appreciate different forms of artistic expression through dance performance.
- Apply production elements as they relate to dance rehearsals and performances.
Course Activities and Design
Warm up
Review choreography (or structure)
Introduce and/or create new choreography (or movement material)
Apply feedback to improve performance
Observation and discussion
Journaling or notes may be used
Outcome Assessment Strategies
Performance Review/Critique
Other assessment strategies may include:
Assistance with rehearsal and/or production
Research paper
Research presentation
Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)
Develop productive rehearsal and performance techniques
Contribute to rehearsal and performance process
Choreographing or developing material from a source/focus
Gain skills in collaboration and interpersonal communication
Manipulation or adaptation of choreographic material
Recording and applying feedback to improve performance
Rehearsal preparation and focus
Sound cues and musicality (when appropriate)
Memorization of staging, cueing, entrances and exits
Communication of choreographic intent
Care of costumes and props
Apply specific hair and make-up requirements
Engage in appropriate offstage and dressing room behavior


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The Top 10 Most Amazing Effects of Weed Legalization
If marijuana were legalized nationally it would have amazingly beneficial consequences on many different aspects of our legal system, culture and society at large. Here's a list of ten of the most compelling benefits that will come about after legalized cannabis.
1. It would create a powerful marijuana industry, especially as opposed to the Alcohol and Tobacco industries.
California's marijuana market is already the largest cash crop in the state at an estimated $14 billion annually. This estimate only includes the marijuana itself and not all the ancillary industries a legal pot market would bring, from accessories (eg vaporizers, grinders, jars) to fashion, from tourism to retail, and all the incredible markets for marijuana's non-drug cousin, industrial hemp. Legalization creates new job and business opportunities and opens the door for industrial use of hemp, which can be another powerful sector of growth. The growing medical marijuana markets in Colorado and California are already bringing in much needed tax revenue for many cities.
2. It would help the cops focus on real crimes like theft and violence, instead of who's smoking what in the privacy of their homes.
It is estimated that including the arrest, jail, prison, court, and marijuana eradication costs, the US spends more than $3 billion dollars. Then there is the time and space we can't afford in our overworked court system and overcrowded prisons. Marijuana legalization alleviates much of those problems while maintaining the current laws against irresponsible use of marijuana, such as driving under the influence and giving marijuana to kids. Marijuana legalization focuses police priorities away from adults who enjoy marijuana responsibly and onto real crime.
3. It would cut down on the insane burden the War on Drugs is putting on our legal system.
In 2009, there were 858,408 marijuana arrests in the US. Imagine how much wasted money and effort our judicial system spends trying to stop people from doing something that isn't harmful to themselves or others around them (unlike alcohol or tobacco).
As President Jimmy Carter acknowledged: "Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use."
4. Amazingly, legalization of marijuana will decrease use among adolescents and teens.
In America, is easier for a high school teenager to buy marijuana on the street than it is for them to buy alcohol or tobacco from a connivence store. It might seem counter-intuitive to some, but illegal marijuana is much easier to acquire than regulated marijuana because weed dealers don't check ID's.
Listen, marijuana, like other drugs, is not for kids. There are many activities in our society that we permit adults to do, but not children, like driving a car, skydiving, getting married and drinking booze or smoking tobacco. However, we do not condone arresting adults who responsibly engage in these activities in order to dissuade our children from doing so. There's no way you can justify putting an adult in jail because they like to engage in adult behavior.
5. Create a booming hemp industry, restoring this amazing plants utility and effectiveness.
Hemp is a distinct variety of the plant species cannabis sativa L. It is a tall, thin fibrous plant similar to flax. Farmers worldwide have harvested the crop for the past 12,000 years for fiber and food, and Popular Mechanics once boasted that over 25,000 environmentally friendly products could be derived from hemp.
More than 30 industrialized nations commercially grow hemp, including England and Canada. The European Union subsidizes farmers to grow the crop, which is legally recognized as a commercial crop by the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Nevertheless, US law forbids farmers from growing hemp without a federal license, and has discouraged all commercial hemp production since the 1950s.
6. Stop the profits of marijuana sales from going to violent criminals.
Prohibited marijuana brings with it the same problems as prohibited alcohol did – gangs and violence. We don't see bootleggers shooting up the streets over rum distribution any more. We don't see clandestine wine grape vineyards sprouting up in national forests.
7. Legalization will end the murderous drug war 'cartel' gangs in Mexico.
Many Latinos in the United States worry for the safety of friends and family back in Mexico. Residents in northern border towns face violence and murder rates usually only found in war zones simply due to the contraband profits associated with selling illegal marijuana. Law abiding Mexican citizens aren't sure if their police officers and government officials are corrupted by the wealthy drug cartel gangs. The very stability in Mexico is threatened by marijuana prohibition.
8. Sick medical marijuana patients will no longer have to buy an expensive 'recommendation' from a doctor in order to get their plant medicine.
Currently a patient has to see a doctor and pay for a recommendation to use medical marijuana. The person has to carry around that recommendation to prove medical use to the police. A patient can designate a caregiver to grow for them or buy from a dispensary at grossly inflated prices. After legalization, you can use marijuana simply because you decide to, no medical marijuana doctors, no notes. Any number of your friends could be growing marijuana for you.
9. To end the disproportionate arrest and harassment of people of color.
Blacks in California's 25 largest counties are arrested at rates two-to-four times greater than their white counterparts, despite whites using marijuana at greater rates. In the 25 largest cities, the arrest disparity ranges from twice-to-thirteen times the rates for whites. Arrest rates for Latinos also exceed the rates for whites. Legalization removes the probable cause for law enforcement to harass people of color for simply having marijuana on them.
10. To end street-level dealing of marijuana.
Marijuana's profitability and rarity create the street-corner dealing that haunts many minority communities and utilizes youth to perform the transporting and selling of small amounts of pot. The profit enriches gangs and leads to violent confrontations over turf. Marijuana legalization will reduce the cost of marijuana and provide a regulated place to buy it that will undercut the street dealers.
Final Thoughts from NORML National Director Allen St. Pierre:
7 Responses to The Top 10 Most Amazing Effects of Weed Legalization
I hope all is well with you. Healthline just published an infographic detailing how marijuana affects the body. This is an interactive chart allowing the reader to pick the side effect they want to learn more about.
You can see the overview of the report here: http://www.healthline.com/health/addiction/marijuana/effects-on-body
Our users have found our guide very useful and I thought it would be a great resource for your page: http://legalizationofmarijuana.com/the-top-10-most-amazing-effects-of-weed-legalization
I would appreciate it if you could review our request and consider adding this visual representation of the effects of marijuana to your site or sharing it on your social media feeds.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
All the best,
Nicole Lascurain • Assistant Marketing Manager
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That's true what you are saying. Hemp should be legalized. Then our community would be in a very high position than it is in at present. i know that a lot of guys need a way to relieve pain with pain medication.
Make it legal and put it in forms less harmful than smoking.
Yes, along with most of the rest of the world, i am illegal right now, but it's the only way to get my mood stabilized enough to function in public. I have bipolar and other related disorders, as well as muscle tightening that makes my whole back feel like a piece of steel is between my skin and spine. It's very painful. I've been on everything except lithium, which I cannot go on, due to kidney and thyroid issues . Marijuana is the only thing that stabilizes my moods. PLEASE legalize it! I will not vote for a president that is stupid enough to reject medical marijuana! Please take a stand with me. It's a very important and necessary medicine that should be utilized, not scrutinized!!!
this is amazing, lets legalize.
beautifully written article.
hey i totally agree with your post. weed should be legal. it would help the community a lot. i know that a lot of the guys i work with at the wrecking ball crew really need a way to relieve pain with pain medication.


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Interview and music from the band Loomis and The Lust – they talk about the catchy music, their start, and the new EP, Spacecamp!
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Winston Churchill refused to pay his tailor's bills
LONDON (Reuters) - Refusal to pay the bills of one's tailor was famously almost a point of honor among English gentlemen in past centuries and Winston Churchill was no exception, newly released archives show.
Britain's World War Two leader had racked up a bill of 197 pounds by 1937 - around 12,000 pounds ($18,000) at today's prices - with Savile Row tailor Henry Poole and Co before he was finally asked to pay up.
He took offense, refused to settle the bill and never darkened Poole's door again.
Despite the arrears, the tailor had continued to make clothes for Churchill, said James Sherwood, a historian who has examined Poole and Co's archives.
"Churchill said it was for morale, it was good for us [Henry Poole] to dress him and he wasn't aware we were short of cash. He never did pay, and never came back – he never forgave us," Sherwood added on Poole's website.
Churchill, who led the British government during the war and again in the 1950s, was in exalted company when it came to not settling tailors' bills.
The son of author Charles Dickens, for example, ran up a bill with Poole which eventually had to be paid by his father.
When he was prince of Wales in the 1870s, King Edward VII, made "infrequent payments on account that accumulated over years". When a bill was eventually sent to the prince, he withdrew his custom and only came back 20 years later when he became king.
Other famous - and better behaved - customers of the tailor included author Bram Stoker, Prussian Prime Minister Prince Otto von Bismarck, American banker J.P. Morgan and Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia, who was visited in person by the tailors in Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Continued...


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World powers want new nuclear talks with Iran quickly
By Justyna Pawlak
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Six world powers agreed on Wednesday to seek renewed talks with Iran as fast as possible, reflecting a heightened sense of urgency to resolve a long rift over Tehran's disputed nuclear activity and avert the threat of war.
Their call coincided with growing evidence of Iran expanding nuclear capacity in an underground bunker virtually impervious to attack and follows the November 6 re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, which has cleared the way for new contacts.
Senior diplomats from the six countries - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - met in Brussels on Wednesday to consider new negotiating tactics despite abiding skepticism that a deal with Tehran can be reached.
It was not clear after the meeting what options, if any, were agreed. But the six said "necessary contact" with the Iranians would be made "in the coming days".
"The (six powers) are committed to having another round of talks with Iran as soon as possible," said a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the six countries in dealings with Iran.
Analysts warn that a window of opportunity for a negotiated solution is narrowing because of growing alarm over Tehran's nuclear course in Israel, the Middle East's only nuclear power which has threatened to bomb the atomic sites of its arch-enemy.
Any Israeli air strikes, which many believe would escalate into a wider Middle East war damaging to a wobbly global economy, are unlikely before Israel's January 22 election, experts say, giving the six powers some room for diplomatic maneuver.
"There certainly is a window to do a deal, but that window is closing, and closing fast. Ultimately it depends on the Iranians meeting their international obligations," said Ariel Ratner, a former Obama administration political appointee on Middle East issues at the State Department. Continued...


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The Pro Players Foundation is a group of professional athletes and business and community leaders, who volunteer their time and talents to assist disadvantaged youth. With the mission of "Enriching the lives of disadvantaged children across North Texas through sports based programs," Pro Players Foundation uses Instant RePlay, Character Camps, Play It Forward, and PPFeed The Need, to help make sure every child has the ability to succeed and the opportunity for a bright future. test
Please click here for more information on our Play It Forward Program!
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Funding Issues Could Mean the End of the Pioneer Park Aviary
For more than three years now, the fate of the Pioneer Park Aviary has been unknown due to funding issues.
A local Walla Walla organization, Friends of Pioneer Park Aviary, is trying to keep the city's aviary open, that after the Walla Walla City Council voted to cut the aviary's funding two weeks ago.
"It was a tough vote, I was extremely upset that night and I left the chambers and went home and couldn't sleep," said Shane Laib of Friends. "It was quite a passion for a lot of people and it was very hurtful to the citizens."
The large enclosure housing more than 170 birds from differnt species costs nearly $60,000 per year to maintain, a bill that up until 2010 was paid for fully by the city since the aviary's opening in the 80's.
Walla Walla's general fund budget is $25,000,000 and funding for the aviary comes out of that budget.
The budget also covers basic city services like police, fire, streets and public works, the city said it has to go in a matter of priority and with what it has to pay for, the aviary is lower on the list.
"We have a limited amount of resources and we have to apply those in a way that addresses the most important needs and that's how it shakes out," said Deputy City Manager Tim McCarty. "That's been the case from the beginning of the issues a few years ago."
Friends is hoping to get enough funding to sustain the aviary this year so that they can raise enough capital dollars to improve the facility.
The group has $10,000 on hand now and hopes it will be able to continue raising money to sustain the facility without much help from the city in the future.
If the aviary is forced to close down, the birds would be distributed to other aviarys in the country and the structure would be torn down, something Friends hopes will never become a reality.
"It's just a passion of mine to keep this treasure alive for the next generations," said Laib. "We always hear the story, 'there's nothing to do in Walla Walla,' well this is something to do for kids, adults and different people."
At a city council meeting tonight, the Friends will propose a counter plan to the closure vote in hopes the council will agree to allocate funding originally put aside for this year so it can raise money to rebuild and eventually take over the full operation.
Local and Regional News
- Ousted South Korean president's confidante sentenced
- Vulnerable pets earn second chance at life with generous donation
- Lineup ready for Yakima's Apple Jam talent search
- Burning of garbage cause of West Valley fire
- Camp Hope in Yakima sticking around until possibly November
- Funding for Yakima downtown plaza once again a problem


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Hi WRXSTigirl:
Nice ride! It is so nice to meet another female subie owner, there are so few of us.
I wish I'd bought the STi. I bought a silver 04 WRX 11 months and 2 days ago, Dec. 23 - it was my Xmas present! I love this little car and drive it like a mad woman. I found that if you get the rpms up around 3.5-4 or so before you shift, it is much smoother. The car likes to be driven hard and I'm sure yours with 300hp is even happier at higher rpms.
I have a few questions for you, if you don't mind. Mainly questions I don't think the guys can answer - or maybe their wives, girlfriends, or some female driver allowed to drive their car can answer.
1. I have a hard pressing the clutch all the way to the floor while driving with heels over 3 inches. I bought the rubber Subaru floor mats that are about 1/2 inch thick and somehow the heel of my boots get caught up in it. I find if I turn my left foot out to the left, sort of sideways, I can get it all the way to the floor. However, I often find myself with a horrendous cramp in the arch of my foot when I do this. I stalled my car one time because I just couldn't handle the cramp and shifting. Does this ever happen to you? Have you figured out a better way to drive with heels?
2. I am always so excited to see another Subie driver on the road - especially another WRX or STi driver. I often try to catch up to them to give them that "hey, you have a cool car" look. But the other drivers rarely even look up to acknowledge another Subie. Is it just me that feels a little excitement in the vicinity of Subie-kin?
3. Do you plan on doing any mods yourself or do you have a trusted mechanic you are going to use? I would love to have some mods done on my car, but don't have the experience to do it myself and don't know anyone I would trust to do for me.
I hope I haven't been too lengthy, but couldn't help myself. Another Subie chic. Finally!!! I have friends in Seattle and hope to visit someday.


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[Date Index]
[Thread Index]
[Author Index]
Asking you how to...
Dear Sir,
I am having a hard time to find out how to use Mathematica to plot
experimental Physics results which consist of a set of lines with
three measured numbers each, respectively corresponding to
DataX DataY DataZ[DataX,DataY]
that is, where DataZ is a measured quantity whose two-dimensional
dependence on variables DataX and DataY should be graphically
displayed through three-dimensional and contour plots of DataZ as a
function of DataX and DataY. Please note, however, that DataX and
DataY are not evenly spaced, so that I cannot just take DataZ as an
array and use ReadList and ListPlot3D or ListContourPlot to draw
graphics showing DataZ dependence on DataX and DataY.
I am using Mathematica Version 2.2. Please, tell me how to do it.
Sincerely yours,
Huberto Closs


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text: Took the STS to a local state certified emission testing station last week. After about 30 minutes, the tech came out of the shop and said the car won't start. I went to look; the STS was insane. Indicator lamps were all on, as in the self test mode, but the start button would not work. Nothing - no click, no nothing. And the radio was on, but I could not turn it off. :cookoo: I disconnected the diagnostic tool. Tried locking/unlocking, tried remote start, tried fob in pocket, nothing worked. Called dealer service advisor. Finally disconnected and reconnected the battery. Car started, and has been starting and running fine since then. Tech said he didn't do anything wrong. What happened?


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President Obama's Remarks On Dean Smith
The President of the United States, Barack Obama, had the following remarks on Dean Smith today during the Presidential Medal of Freedom ceremony:
"Dean Smith is one of the winningest coaches in college basketball history. But his successes go far beyond Xs and Os. Even as he won 78 percent of his games he graduated 96 percent of his players. He is the first coach to use multiple defenses in a game. He was the pioneer who popularized the idea of pointing to a passer. After a basket, players should point to the teammate who passed them the ball.
"And with his first national title on the line, he did have the good sense to give the ball to a 19-year-old kid named Michael Jordan. Although they used to joke that the only person who held Michael under 20 was Dean Smith.
"While Coach Smith couldn't join us today due to an illness he is facing with extraordinary courage, we also honor his courage in helping to change our country. He recruited the first black scholarship athlete to North Carolina and helped integrate a restaurant and a neighborhood in Chapel Hill. That's the kind of character he represented on and off the court."
Later, President Obama added of the group of 16 Americans receiving the medal:
"These are the men and women who in their extraordinary lives remind us of the beauty of the human spirit, the values that define us as Americans, the potential that lives inside of all of us. I could not be more happy and more honored to participate in this ceremony here today."
And when the President presented the medal to each individual, with Coach Smith's wife, Dr. Linnea Smith, accepting on his behalf, this was the introduction:
"Dean E. Smith spent 36 seasons taking college basketball to new heights. As head coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he led his team to 11 Final Fours, two national titles, and 879 victories, retiring as the winningest men's college basketball coach in history.
"Dean Smith brought the same commitment to supporting his players off the court. He helped more than 96 percent of his lettermen graduate, and in an era of deep division, he taught players to overcome bigotry with courage and compassion. He will forever stand as one of the greatest coaches in college basketball history."
As he presented the medal, the President acknowledged Roy Williams, sitting in the audience, with the familiar Carolina basketball "pointing to the passer" gesture:
No matter what your politics, this is cool: leader of free world "pointing to passer" at Roy Williams: pic.twitter.com/c4NY5NfUQO
— Adam Lucas (@jadamlucas) November 20, 2013


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Poetry News
Ira Glass on His Practice Catching Up with His Taste
Ira Glass took part in this interview over at SF Gate. In it, Glass is asked about another film interview he did in which he talked about storytelling and how it's important to have the patience to allow one's practice to catch up with one's taste. It's a great video, watch it.
A bit later, however, he describes the evolution of his voice on This American Life in a bit more detail, referencing Billy Collins:
But listening to the very first This American Life (which you started some years later), any difference from how you did it then to how you do it now is very subtle. But are you able and willing to describe any ways in which you think your practice has caught up to your taste in the time you've done the show?
Yeah, totally. I think when we started the radio show, there was a slightly more precious sound that I was interested in that I would "perform." The longer that I've been performing the show, the more I think I sound like my actual self and less mannered. It was a lot more "performance art" and more pretentious. We experimented a lot more because it wasn't clear what the show was, and then as time went on, it became clear that what we were interested in were these reported stories with characters, scenes, emotional and funny moments. I went through something that I think a lot of people go through when they start off making work of any kind, and that is, I was making work that was like other peoples' work. I was trying to do it the "official way," like "This is what a reporter sounds like on public radio."
One time I got to interview Billy Collins, the poet laureate. He's just this incredibly funny writer, the poetry itself is just a very funny, a very distinct personality comes through. I asked, "Did you always write like this?" And he said, "No, I went through different periods, for years." I think he said he was a beat poet at first, and he thought "Well this is what a poet sounds like." Then finally he said, "This is who I sound like." Talking to other reporters I haven't found that many who went for that but the ones who say they did are the stand-up comics. They say it takes about seven years to finally sound like yourself.
Full article, with aforementioned video, here.
Tags: Billy Collins, Ira Glass
Posted in Poetry News on Thursday, August 30th, 2012 by Harriet Staff.


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Monona Rossol Responds to Your Questions and Comments
On November 27, industrial hygienist and chemist Monona Rossol talked about a study that showed that rich people and poor people have different toxic substances in their bodies (listen to that interview here). She answered to some of the questions listeners left. Here are her responses:
gene from NYC
Rossol seems ill-infomed on e-cigs, and not very rigorous in her approach to science, or her language.
I'd have been more comfortable had she said e-cigs SEEM to be safer. But that is far from proven. As she herself said just moments earlier (in regards to US v. European regulations), it's unfair to expose innocents to unknown chemicals. I am worried that she has some influence on their use on stage.
Re: propylene glycol as "safe." Ingestion is FAR different from inhalation. Water is safe if ingested; fatal if inhaled.
E-cig vapor contains far more than propylene glycol. See PLOS One's "Metal and Silicate Particles Including Nanoparticles Are Present in Electronic Cigarette Cartomizer Fluid and Aerosol" for one study.
Plus, this is a highly unregulated field, with hundreds of manufacturers of varying levels of competence. You often really don't know what you're inhaling; let alone the danger of explosions/fires.
As a person acting/appearing as some sort of health authority, Rossol can't just mindlessly spout e-cig manufacturers' propaganda and then expect to be considered seriously in anything else she says.
Nov. 27 2013 01:51 PM
Dear Gene,
I'm glad to have an opportunity to answer this, actually. I hope others will also read what I have to say.
First, while you are right about there being no animal tests of propylene glycol by inhalation, there is 40 years of human experience since it is one of the major theatrical fog chemicals. And there are 5 studies of the fogs' effects in performers including a big NIOSH report. The glycols can cause, at high levels, vocal problems and upper respiratory irritation in performers. I personally think the glycols can cause asthma in some people, but there is only anecdotal evidence of this effect. However, the amount of glycol in those e-cigs are magnitudes less than the exposures that were found to cause these symptoms.
Second, the study to which you refer analyzed the smoke and found particles of a number of chemicals including boron, iron, aluminum, sulfur, zinc, tin, lead, boron, chromium, nickel, manganese, titanium, and lithium. There are also some low toxicity silicate particles which should not be confused with highly toxic crystalline silica.
It is reassuring that the amounts of the chemicals found in the smoke was small. I recalculated the study's data in order to compare it to the workplace air quality standards for these substances. I found that the amounts from even 200 puffs a day don't even come close to these standards.
The chart in the study also compares the amounts of each of these e-cig chemicals with the amounts of these same chemicals found ordinary tobacco cigarette smoke. In almost all cases, the amounts of these chemicals in real cigarettes are much larger that those in e-cig smoke.
The most troubling data in the study is that some of these e-cig particles are in the tiny hazardous nanoparticle size. And the tin particles are in the form of "whiskers" or needles, a form some toxicologists associate with cancer. Several of the metals are also associated with cancer. But these same cancer causing metal particles are in tobacco smoke. And many of the cigarette smoke particles also are in nanoparticle size.
Before accepting this data, we might consider flaws in the study itself. This online journal charges most contributors for publishing their articles. The articles are peer-reviewed, but most of the reviewers are from rather small universities and institutions. The study only looked at one brand of e-cig which they didn't identify when there actually are dozens of brands.
In summary, I think that this study is a heads up that there probably are some hazards associated with this fake smoke. But what they found, with the exception of the tin whiskers, is smaller amounts of the same chemicals that are in tobacco smoke. Plus tobacco smoke has thousands of other toxic chemicals in it. I will continue to advise actors on stage not to inhale when faking smoking.
Amy from Manhattan
JF, it's been promoted as a supposed utopia. "Better living through chemistry," remember? We've been told these chemicals do wonderful things, but the reality is that they're poisoning us. That's the whole point.
Nov. 27 2013 12:47 PM
Dear Amy, I think you've said this well.
Alicia from NYC
Just caught a bit of the talk on chelating to get rid of lead. May have missed something, but I have to comment. I (and one of my 3 cats) got lead poisoning in my mid-40's from removing paint from my 1911 apartment--the cat began losing a lot of weight, and I felt like I had the flu--achy joints and tired. We both had chelation (am I spelling that right?) and my symptoms and his cleared up completely. The cat had lost a few lives earlier (he was rescued) but lasted until 18, and I'm quite healthy and full of IQ points almost 20 years later.
Nov. 27 2013 12:43 PM
Dear Alicia, I suspect you both would have felt better in time without any chelation.
I paid tuition in the 1960s to get acute lead poisoning. We were taught to do dripped lead sculpture, where we literally used welding torches to melt bars of lead near our faces and drip the hot lead into our molds. We all came down with what appeared to be "flu." My flu included uncontrolled vomiting and diarrhea. As is typical, these symptoms did not occur during the work but some hours later since lead fume takes time to dissolve in the lungs. I felt rotten and was losing weight, just like you. After I stopped doing this work, I got better over time. And like your cat, I have lived a long time and I am still rather bright. But I know, from the massive amounts of data on this subject, that I lost a few IQ points during that period that will not come back. It is also likely that my high blood pressure today is related. I also know, that none of this would have changed for the better with chelation. And there is significant evidence that chelation would have caused more harm than good.
Amy from Manhattan
I'm glad to hear that the precautionary principle is followed in Europe, & I hope market forces will lead the US to change its laws, or at least lead US corporations to change their practices. But I've been hearing about a proposed trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which among other things would allow private companies to sue gov'ts. that enact laws banning toxic manufacturing practices & toxic chemicals in food & other products. Has Ms. Rossol heard about this, & if so, what does she think about it?
Nov. 27 2013 12:40 PM
Amy, you can rejoice! Every employer in the US is required to retrain their workers who use chemical products in the new labeling and safety data sheet system being used in the EU. And the law you are talking about is another attempt to try to stop this kind of progress. They will have a hard time since the new system adopted by the EU has also been adopted by almost all major countries including China and Japan. And now our own OSHA has put it into law.
There are also three bills that would stop individual states from passing laws restricting or banning chemicals in products. Those I am more worried about. Because waiting for our legislators to pass any chemical safety bills is futile.
jf from DYSTOPIA
THE DIESEL IS ALL OVER FROM TRUCKS. ALL DAY EVERY DAY BUMPER TO BUMPER Traffic in Brooklyn. SANITATION TRUCKS COULD COLLECT BIO-DIESEL AND USE IT IN THEIR TRUCKS! BIO DIESEL IS COMPRESSED NOT BURNT.
Nov. 27 2013 12:39 PM
Dear JF.
Bio or not, the fuel in a diesel engine is combusted to create the large volume of gases needed to cause the engine to run. And while it is better to use biofuels, the amount of carbon created in burning either fuel is roughly comparable.
Curtis from Bronx
Is it also the case that poor people's bodies contain more toxins because poor people tend to live in areas, neighborhoods, that contain factories and industrial complexes.
Nov. 27 2013 12:38 PM
Dear Curtis,
Absolutely. Read the whole study and you will see how they looked at a number of factors. But it is interesting that living in the world of the rich also contributes significant amounts to one's blood levels of toxic chemicals.
genejoke from Brooklyn
Lead poisoning? "LET IT HEAL ON IT'S OWN." Next caller ...
Nov. 27 2013 12:38 PM
Dear gene,
No, it doesn't "heal." But don't make the problem worse by getting the lead out of the bones, into the blood stream, and back to your brain, kidneys and other organs. And we also know that a significant portion of the chelated lead also goes back into the bones. I wish dearly it were not so. I wish there were effective and safe treatments for all of the pollutants. Sadly, there are not.
Flame retardants
here is the series: http://media.apps.chicagotribune.com/flames/index.html
[[Chemical companies, Big Tobacco and the toxic products in your home
The average American baby is born with 10 fingers, 10 toes and the highest recorded levels of flame retardants among infants in the world. The toxic chemicals are present in nearly every home, packed into couches, chairs and many other products. Two powerful industries — Big Tobacco and chemical manufacturers — waged deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don't even work as promised.]]
Nov. 27 2013 12:37 PM
Right on! And every generation of babies carries more flame retardants, PCBs, DDT, phthalates, dioxins, etc., etc., than then last because babies are born carrying about the same body burdens as their mothers. It is a good reason we need to become active on this issue.
[[JF from THE FUTURE DON'T CALL IT UTOPIA WHEN YOU MEAN DYSTOPIA. AS A UTOPIAN I AM EXTREMELY OFFENDED. DON'T POISON THE WORD UTOPIA WITH IT'S OPPOSITE MEANING. HOW COULD YOU DO THAT? Nov. 27 2013 12:23 PM]]
In my Utopia, people know how to turn CAPS LOCK off.
Nov. 27 2013 12:36 PM
Dear JF,
I agree about the caps. No need. Actually, it was the editors at Wiley & Sons that chose the title. They know how most people interpret words. That's good enough for me. And I'm sure people would not have understood the subtitle if we said "how our mad dash to chemical dystopia....." Hell, I wouldn't have even understood that.
Flame retardants
Has the author seen the Chicago Tribune reporting on flame retardants in furniture that are hazardous and the DON'T actually slow down fire?
Nov. 27 2013 12:34 PM
Yes, there are a number of studies that show they are ineffective in some types of flame ignition scenarios. I have mixed emotions here, because of the work I do. On stage, it is vital that all fabrics, flats, drops, and sometimes costumes (e.g., when flame effects are used on stage), be fire retarded. History is full of terrible theater and nightclub fires with piles of bodies involved. I also was one of the expert witnesses for one of the people involved in the Rhode Island nightclub fire in which 100 people died due to ignition of a non fire retarded plastic foam used to line the band shell area. So I hope these people have REALLY thought this through.
And I hope these activists stay away from the issues in my theater and entertainment. Strange things go on stages. Besides, there are inorganic fire retardants that can be used in theater that do not have the hazards of the brominated chemicals these people are concerned with.
Molly from NYC
Because the people who work in the gov't regulated orgs that are supposed to protect the public, EPA, USDA, are from the corporate sector beholden to corp interests. It's not a mystery why all these chemicals are allowed into our environment, before they are tested or even allowed into our products.
Nov. 27 2013 12:33 PM
Dear Molly,
Well, don't be too hard on EPA or USDA. Neither have the budgets or the mandates needed to do their jobs well.
EPA in particular is supposed to abide by the rules in the Toxic Substances Control Act which only gives them jurisdiction over a portion of the chemicals that might be used and then they can only demand an industry do tests if they can PROVE that the chemical poses a significant risk. Now just how can EPA prove a chemical which has never been tested for toxicity poses a significant toxic risk? So you see, the framers of this legislation never wanted it to work in the first place.
Hal from NYC
Please explain, for the benefit of the gullible woo-woo types, the difference between the actual toxins the guest is referring to, and the metabolic by-products that new age quacks refer to as 'toxins' when they try to sell a variety of bogus 'detoxification' treatments, snake oils and therapies.
Nov. 27 2013 12:27 PM
Dear Hal.
The best place for that is the Centers for Disease Control's website. One of their publications, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (yes, there actually is a publication with this name!) covers every year recalls of herbal products that have caused serious injury in a number of people. Remember, FDA has no jurisdiction over the supplement world until there is a documented problem. So they have to wait for a body count before they can act.
If you want to see an interesting collection of information on liver damage from herbal medicines, google using some of the following bits of information.
West J Med. 2002 January; 176(1): 39–44.
Evidence-Based Case Reviews
Making a diagnosis of herbal-related toxic hepatitis
Christine A Haller,1 Jo Ellen Dyer,2 Richard Ko,3 and Kent R Olson4
After you do that, you can do the same for kidneys, lungs, or any other organ or system--your choice.
Truth & Beauty from Brooklyn
Leonard: Perhaps you are speaking to the lowest common denominator, but, yes, it is best to use (well-cleaned) glass for storage (plastic is porous and things spoil faster in plastic than in glass), and yes, it is best to eat natural and organic. We depend too much on chem labs for production of foods that should not be made in chem labs. Food is something that is grown in the earth - or, in the case of meat, grazed on plants that are grown in the earth - and the closer we get to that primordial state of food, the healthier we will be. Of course, this also means that chem labs should not be permitted to pollute the soil, air or water, because there is runoff that can spread to the most pristine environments, but as industrialization seems to have contamination as its parallel, we are all doomed unless this pollution is stopped.
Nov. 27 2013 12:25 PM
Most of what you say I agree with. Be sure the glass is a soda, lime, boron, type of composition. There are lead glass containers still in production. And recycled glass usually contains a mish mash of types of glass. Many antique glass containers also may be radioactive. But most glass food containers made in the US for this purpose will be fine.
When getting food "grown in the earth," remember that most farm land is already so contaminated that it still will not be contaminant free even after the 4 year period required by some of the organic standards. Further, over the years all of the ground water in the US is no longer deemed fit to drink due primarily to pesticide, fertilizer, and animal waste runoff. So even if the farm is organic, there are still going to be soil and ground water irrigation contamination of the products. It might be better, but never perfect.
We just need to do the best we can while being realistic that there is nothing perfect out there.
jf from TRUTHLAND
Corporation are making these things. Corporations are dispersing these things. They are poisoning us. They don't care. They are poisoning us. They are murdering us. They are destroying our thinking processes by destroying our brains. WHEN WILL WE GET JUSTICE? WHEN WILL THEY BE PUNISHED? EVERY MAJOR CAUSE OF DEATH IS CORPORATE. CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE, PSYCHOPATHS AND THEY NEED TOP BE LOCKED UP, AND NOT ALLOWED TO POISON AND MURDER US.
Nov. 27 2013 12:17 PM
I recognize your caps. But it is true that the problem is the corporations.
Evan S Cowit
Yes, Leonard, poor people have Teflon. And no, Ms. Rossol, they don't all buy things from late night television.
Pompous, elitist snobs.
Nov. 27 2013 12:17 PM
Oh Evan, we ARE the poor so we have the right. I don't know who you think I am, but being on the consumer side of chemistry rather than working for industry is the quickest way I know to end up poor.


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Asustek has announced the GTX Titan Z, a new high performance graphics card with dual Nvidia GeForce graphics processing units (GPUs) and GPU Tweak for graphics tuning. It alaso features Nvidia GPU Boost 2.0.
The GPU Tweak is an Asustek-exclusive interface that allows users to tune graphics parameters. The tool helps modify clock speeds and voltage levels, as well as cooling fan speeds to let gamers overclock the GTX Titan Z graphics card.
The GTX Titan Z graphics card features two Nvidia GeForce GPUs running at 876MHz boost clock, 12GB GDDR5 on-board memory, and a combined total of 5760 CUDA cores to power Ultra HD monitors.
- Wireless broadband developments in Southeast Asia markets
As of 2013, the 10 ASEAN nations had a total of over 700 million mobile subscriptions, with the CAGR from 2003-2013 reaching 24%. This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the various mobile broadband markets in ASEAN and looks at the respective trends in 4G LTE development for those markets.
- 2015 global tablet demand forecast
This Digitimes Research Special Report provides a 2015 forecast for the global tablet market and analyzes the strategies of key market players such as Google, Apple, Intel, and Microsoft.
- 2015 China smartphone panel trend forecast
This Digitimes Research Special Report analyzes the strategies of key China-based major panel makers BOE, Tianma and IVO for attacking the different market segments through technology and pricing, and their relationship to local vendors Huawei, Lenovo, ZTE, Xiaomi and Coolpad.


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Drew Struzan Art For New Star Wars?
Iconic poster designer will consider it
Easily the most famous – at least among cult film connoisseurs – current movie poster artist is Drew Struzan. He's worked on some of the most notable films of the last few decades, including Back To The Future, Harry Potter and the Indiana Jones trilogy. Oh, and a little series of films called Star Wars. So you can imagine the excitement when Struzan revealed to the Fanhattan blog that Disney has asked him to consider working on Episode VII.
We would caution at this point that it's only a request for now – Struzan himself has said he mostly wants to retire after years meticulously crafting imagery. But the lure is there… "Never say never," he laughs, "because…in fact, I got a couple calls already this week on Star Wars from Disney. Oh my god, I'm trying to be retired!
"You know, I spent 35 years painting Star Wars. I painted Star Wars before most of you were born! But I guess there is always a chance. There's no intention. But I would love to have a day off every now and again, and I have to work a weekend and all through the night. If the opportunity arises, it will be a real temptation. But it's going to have to be a real temptation to get me away from my wife and my little grandkids and my family. All things are possible."
The idea of Struzan art adorning walls and poster cases at cinemas is certainly a tempting one for us. Let's all start crossing our fingers and willing him to do it…


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I have known ever since moving to Texas that I had the choice for which company I wanted to supply my energy. I never really appreciated that until recently though. A friend gave me a link to look at online that had a good bit of information on it about the different companies. It all started out because she told me how much one of her electric bills was. I was so surprised because I was paying a lot more than she was. I asked her what company she uses, and that is when I found out that we have different ones supplying our energy.
One of the reasons why I never looked into the different companies is because I thought that all of them were pretty much the same. I knew that each one had their own name, and serviced different areas other than where I live, but I thought everything else was the same. Continue reading


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- log in
- account
SWISS Provides Content In Context To Enhance In-Flight Experience
Posted by David Aponovich on November 19, 2012
Whenever I fly, I'm an inveterate gawker — geographically speaking.
Getting a window seat on a cloudless day is like getting a ticket to a great performance. At 35,000 feet you're witness to a world playing out in miniature — cities and villages, mountains and deserts, even the occasional crop circle.
The mind wanders: What exactly am I looking at? I see the interstate highway built to bypass that little farm town in Kansas, or is it Oklahoma? I know I'm flying from Point A to B, but what I really want to know is: what's down there? (And, how much longer will it take to get to my destination?)
Last week I flew Swiss International Air Lines (SWISS) to Boston from Zurich returning from a client workshop. The experience was a vivid lesson in how an airline (core mission: get me home safely) is using content, creatively and in context, to provide a relevant and engaging customer experience in flight.
SWISS's secret? The seat-back video screens don't just play on-demand movies and TV shows (itself a big plus on an 8.5-hour flight). They deliver real-time mapping showing what we're flying over; arrows mark the flight path like a "heads-up display" in some autos, along with content and photos of tourist hot spots on the ground.
At the same time, it shows the speed the plane is traveling, the altitude, and the distance and time remaining in the flight.
This isn't brand-new technology. However, the marriage of technology, data and interface into a meaningful user experience by SWISS pushes this into bonus territory for me.
Here's what I like about it:
- This is one small example of content presented in context: Where am I and what information makes me smarter/happier/more engaged?
- The experience is personalized, in this case to a single user persona: everyone on SWISS flight 052 (a captive audience, you might say).
- The content is engaging (well, it was to me).
- And it's oddly humanizing, flying seven miles high and getting a glimpse of what's going on down there.
It all got me thinking about how organizations work hard to find ways to differentiate using digital strategies and tools. One lesson here: it need not be overly complex or profound. In many cases, it just needs to answer a need, or deliver unexpected delight and usefulness. In this case, it's one digital touchpoint among many. (For more information on this topic, read Forrester's report "Unify The Digital Experience Across Touchpoints".)
SWISS presents what it has for information in a meaningful way — and there's the lesson for application development pros and their counterparts in content and communications roles. The simple solution blends real-time data and consumer-centric travel content (flying over Paris, a photo and description: "The Champs-Elysees and the Arc de Triomphe at night") in a way that satisfies my curiosity.
And, it helps pass the time on a long flight just a bit more quickly.
To application developers out there, have you found similar yet simple ways of combining technology and content to create a great experience in new and surprising ways? Let us know in the comments.
Content in Context... extended.
Comment from Andrew Davis (not verified) on Tue, 12/04/2012 - 19:47
You're so right - there are so many opportunities to leverage well-organized, formatted and captured content across a wide variety of consumer experiences.
In fact, check out Box Fish... http://boxfish.com/
What they're doing is capturing - in real time - what's happening on live television. Go ahead try it... you can search for anything... Fiscal Cliff, Prince William and what you end up with is a resulting search of all the content being created right now.... about that topic.
Now, imagine if you were watching live television and an app, knowing what you're watching - like INTO NOW - starts displaying all the relevant information related to that topic... like what is the Fiscal Cliff, or How old Prince William is...
That's a contextual experience. Just like the one Swiss air is creating. In fact, what if the Swiss air folks leveraged WikiHood to let you explore what you're flying over? I'd be mesmerized....
Maybe I don't need a window seat anymore.
Thanks for the food for though!
- Andrew
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Updated 1:33 p.m. ET
The Campaign for Primary Accountability, a super PAC targeting congressional incumbents of both parties in primaries, is up with its first attack ad.
The target: Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio.
The script:
Narrator: After 30 years in Congress, Marcy Kaptur says one thing, does another.
Kaptur (from her campaign ad): I still live in the same house I grew up in, this one right here.
Narrator: Actually, Marcy Kaptur lives in this fancy condo in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Her taxes there: Paid in full. But Ohio property taxes: late nine times. Marcy Kaptur – out of touch with Ohio.
The ad cost $116,111 and went up on the air in Ohio's 9th Congressional District this morning. The new super PAC, funded largely by Texas construction company CEO Leo Linbeck III, has raised $1.8 million so far, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
Kaptur, a 15-term Toledo Democrat, is an unusual target for a super PAC that purports to challenge incumbents. The overwhelmingly Democratic district was redrawn this year to pit her against another incumbent, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Cleveland.
Property records show Kaptur owns two homes: A $488,732 condo in Alexandria, Va., and a home in southwest Toledo. Lucas County (Ohio) treasurer's records show Kaptur paid late nine times from 2007 to 2010, though her tax situation is complicated by the fact that, until 2009, she received six tax bills for six different lots. Only one bill was more than 11 days late, and she paid a total of $295 in late penalties. "She was treated like any other taxpayer who paid late," said Mark Austin, the chief deputy treasurer.
Kaptur campaign spokesman Matthew Klempner e-mailed a statement saying Kaptur still lives in the family home she inherited. "Just ask anybody in her neighborhood," he said.
"More telling is that the pro-Kucinich Republican super PAC has spent far more money on its smear against Marcy than the appraised value of the Kaptur family home," he added.
The winner of the March 6 primary will face the winner of a GOP primary, where the candidates include Samuel Wurzelbacher -- who gained fame in the 2008 campaign as "Joe the Plumber."
Catalina Camia leads the OnPolitics online community and has been at USA TODAY since 2005. She has been a reporter or editor covering politics and Congress for two decades, including stints at The Dallas Morning News and Congressional Quarterly. Follow her at @USATOnPolitics.
USA TODAY's Jackie Kucinich (@jfkucinich) and Fredreka Schouten (@fschouten) also contribute to the OnPolitics blog.


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Villa Mekrech's first victims
The diatribes between Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority about Villa Mekrech in Għaxaq have confused many who found it hard to follow the timeline of events and judge both entities' actions.
I have tried to get the facts right to understand the villa's convoluted history. In 2005, Mepa's Heritage Advisory Board called for the urgent scheduling of Villa Mekrech and its gardens. This call went unheeded for seven years, as it was only on September 25 that the entire 7,551 square metres of the garden grounds were scheduled through an emergency conservation order.
But the significance of this scheduling was diminished, as on October 1, 2008, an outline permit PA 01350 /06 was granted for the development of a site that Mepa claims is adjacent to, not forming part of the villa's 'formal gardens', a claim disputed by the FAA. After the granting of the outline permit, an application for a full development permit for six residential units with underlying garages was submitted to Mepa in May 2010.
The outline permit and above-mentioned full development application might have induced Mepa to water down the rigour of the Emergency Conservation Order it issued on August 31 for the entire 7,551m2 footprint of the villa's gardens as, just three weeks later, on September 25, part of this footprint which was fully protected from development – 569m2 or 7.5 per cent of the entire footprint – were designated as a buffer zone (Grade 2), opening them up for limited development, which Mepa duly approved on October 25.
One may argue that the approval of the outline development permit has committed the site to development. But the permit should have been withdrawn once it was proven, through letters and photos, that mature olive trees on site had been chainsawed or compromised, at least in one case, by having a nail driven through them.
Mepa claims the applicant was granted a permit to transplant three mature olive trees and that, so far, only one has died, but the photos featured with this article suggest otherwise. Mepa's Heritage Unit claims that the granting of this permit sets a precedent for the piecemeal destruction of the adjacent gardens.
One wonders why it took seven years to issue the Emergency Conservation Order for the site, which Mepa's heritage experts described as "unique in Malta", but just three weeks to water down this scheduling to accommodate the issuing of the outline permit.
The impression one gets, as transpires from the case officer's report itself, is that rather than preserve the garden's integrity, Mepa was more concerned to cover its back against a possible protracted legal battle with the applicant, emboldened with the outline permit in hand, and to preserve the public perception of the way outline permits are issued.
FAA members should be commended for their sterling work in bringing such cases to the fore and for exposing the Mepa's partial back-pedalling on the case.
It's fine being 167th
In an article in Malta Today on November 6, Malta Developers' Association chairman Michael Falzon made much of the World Bank's survey on obstacles hindering business worldwide, which placed Malta in 167th place in ease of obtaining construction permits, lower than most African countries. Given his current role, he obviously couldn't do otherwise, but given his former role as the minister under whose watch the Structure Plan and the Planning Authority was ushered in, his cynicism somewhat rankles.
I am sure Falzon is fully aware of Malta's unique context, which may be summarised as follows: a built-up area that is over seven times the European average (roughly four per cent of the European mainland is built up, compared with almost 30 per cent of Malta); over 70,000 vacant buildings (according to the Mepa chairman himself) or as Carmel Cacopardo puts it on his blog, the equivalent of nine ghost Birkirkaras; and the issuing of redundant building permits (since more residential building permits are being issued than are necessary to meet demographic trends).
To further complicate matters Malta has one of the world's highest population densities, making the need to protect third party rights and minimise construction-related inconvenience all the more important.
Against this backdrop, it makes sense to call for the brakes to be applied, except for Falzon, it seems.
For instance, in 2006, when the so-called 'scheme rationalisation scheme' (which was actually an extension of building zones) was approved, Falzon had downplayed its significance, saying this would increase the area within the building scheme by a mere 0.18 per cent.
This rubs more salt in the wound of those who felt cheated that more Outside Development Zone (ODZ) land was being handed over for development. What will Falzon's position be in 2016, when the 10-year moratorium on further scheme extensions expires? Without doubt, he, along with his developers lobby, will again clamour for the building zones to be further extended.
Strangely, these facts were omitted in Falzon's opinion piece. By conveniently leaving out of his arguments the caveats imposed by our limited geographical space and stifling population density, he is doing a disservice to developers.
With so very little uncommitted space left on these islands, God forbid it should be 'business as usual', as Falzon would have it.
Leo Brincat and EIAs
Labour's environment spokesman Leo Brincat recently claimed that the Government has warmed up to solar power because experts had advised it that the proposed offshore wind farm was not feasible, presumably through the recently-completed Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) study.
I fail to see the news value of Brincat's statement. Did he expect an EIA to formally endorse the project it was commissioned to assess?
Does he not realise that an EIA is not commissioned to give a project the green light but that some projects might actually be shelved as a result of the EIA? If this was not so, it would defeat the purpose of EIAs, which would otherwise simply become rubber stamps.
Decision-makers should be applauded for taking decisions based on expert assessments in EIAs rather than on the basis of populist considerations. Otherwise, we would regress to the dark old days when projects were rushed through without any impact assessment study being conducted.
The environment matters, or does it?
In a recent interview featured in Mepa's Outlook newsletter, US Ambassador Gina Abercrombie Winstanley said she was buoyed by the interest the Maltese show in environmental matters. My upbeat reaction to this positive statement was somewhat deflated after watching two recent editions of Xarabank featuring the party leaders.
In an analysis by the programme producers, the word 'environment' does not feature as one of the key terms mentioned by the leaders of the two main parties, who stuck almost exclusively to terms such as health, employment and education.
The only reference to environmental issues involved photovoltaic panels and sewage treatment plants, which are laudable initiatives; but in both programmes, thorny issues like ODZ development, illegal boathouses and air pollution were only mentioned by Alternattiva Demokratika.
MIA tree-planting
Kudos to Malta International Airport and its employees and to the Tree4U campaign, which recently planted about 300 indigenous trees, mainly olive, cypress and bay laurel in the areas of Gudja and Għaxaq.
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Play "Just Like A Woman" by Bob Dylan on any electric guitar. Bass included. This song includes a new Authentic Tone. NOTE: Rocksmith® 2014 game disc is required for play. Music credits available at www.rocksmith.com. Music Downloads Not Rated by the ESRB.
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"Zombie" Attack Location Added to History Museum's Sightseeing Tour
Riptide used to get a sick kick out of driving over the Julia Tuttle Causeway and informing our visiting friends we were now directly above America's most infamous sex offender colony. Of course, that's no longer there, so instead we'll just take the MacArthur Causeway to the Beach and casually quip, "Oh yeah, there's that place that one dude got his face eaten off."
HistoryMiami is following suit and will add the spot to one of its sightseeing tours.
Miami Dade College professor Paul George leads the Mystery, Mayhem and Vice Crime Bus Tour through HistoryMiami's tour program, and the infamous spot along the MacArthur Causeway exit ramp is now a natural fit.
"We are definitely going to add [the location] as a stop," George told the South Florida Business Journal. "Horrible as it was, it is part of our history. Currently, our tour takes us over the causeway right past the site, so this fits well."
The tour also includes sightseeing related to notorious mobster Al Capone, the murderous Ashley Gang, Gianni Versace's murder, and Miami Vice. Sounds charming.
You might have to wait awhile to take the tour, though. HistoryMiami doesn't have the crime tour scheduled this summer, according to its website.
More on Rudy Eugene, AKA the Miami Zombie:
- Miami Zombie Witness Called Police 17 Minutes Before Cops Shot And Killed Rudy Eugene
- Causeway Cannibal Rudy Eugene Has North Miami Beach In "State of Shock"
- Ronald Poppo, Face-Eating Victim, Had Been Shot in Bayfront Park Back in 1976
- Rudy Eugene Identified As Miami Zombie, Plus NSFW Photo of Attack's Aftermath
- Naked Man Shot by Miami Police After Eating Other Man's Face
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