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Milan Journal; Italy Bares Its Soul, and More, at La Scala Opening
By ALAN COWELL,
Published: December 9, 1991
MILAN, Italy, Dec. 8— There were the King of Sweden and the President of Italy, authors and artists and critics under the chandeliers. There were glitter and diamonds, mink and paparazzi, and somewhere between them all, the music. And on the opening night of La Scala, Italy's premier opera, Sandra, Monica and Elena came too, sprinkled pamphlets, bared their breasts and shouted, "Better nude than wearing furs!"
Thus with all its various rituals -- some old, some new and none too far removed from Milan's preoccupation with money and show -- did the opera season begin on Saturday night in this northern city that sets an artistic standard for the world's opera lovers. And at $850 a seat for opening night, it takes the measure of just who is who on the city's social register.
"It's half about opera, half about just being there," said Sabino Lenoci, editor of L'Opera, a monthly magazine devoted to the art form practiced with such virtuosity Saturday night by Riccardo Muti, the conductor, and Placido Domingo in the title role of Wagner's "Parsifal" -- five hours of symbol and music interspersed with Champagne and photo calls at intermissions.
Anti-fur protesters provided late-20th-century counterpoint to Wagner's vision of death. They tossed leaflets with lurid photos of dead and caged furry animals at women in sleek and glossy furry coats just before the opera began with a first act that revolves around Parsifal's slaying of a swan. When Furs Are Required
The debate over the fur trade is relatively new in Italy. Wearing fur has none of the stigma attached to it in the United States and is de rigueur among those in this city who quickly rose to wealth.
"It was cold tonight so the women came in their furs," said a longtime opera devotee, as the temperatures tumbled below freezing. "But even if it was 90 degrees, they'd still wear fur at the opening night."
The fabled occasion, which starts with opera and ends with a midnight supper of shrimp and risotto and more Champagne, is not altogether typical of Italy's long-running love affair with opera, something deeply entwined with the nation's sense of itself as a land of song and passion.
"La Scala is the big event, not only in Italy but also in Europe," Mr. Muti said. But the opening "is a little bit different."
"It's a big event socially," he emphasized. Such is the pressure for seats that the ticket touts offer first-night seats at up to $5,000 to a people that pride themselves on ready access to an operatic heritage.
"Most Italians know some opera," Mr. Lenoci said. "Every Italian knows the famous arias. Verdi and Puccini and all the others were born in Italy and we studied them at school." An Opera Renaissance
Yet there had been worries that the art form was headed for extinction among all but a few. What has happened has defied those forecasts.
"There's a renaissance at the opera," Mr. Lenoci said.
Cesare Mazzonis, artistic director at La Scala, recalled: "Twenty years ago, everyone thought the opera was the sort of entertainment for old people and it was finished. But it's happened the other way. It's still a middle-aged audience, but you have young people. It was supposed that young people would disappear from the opera. Then something happened and the situation changed."
That "something" may be partly a result of opera houses seeking a younger audience. In Bari, in the south, for instance, the opera recently staged a version of "Hansel and Gretel" for a young audience.
But others detect a wider change reflecting a shift in Italian society.
In an interview before an opening-night performance that won high critical acclaim, Mr. Muti said Italians had moved away from a vision of opera centered on their own operatic giants and on to a broader sense of the art. Even in Parma, which regards itself as Verdi's hometown, opera lovers recently awarded their highest prize to a performance of a Mozart opera.
"That's a very interesting sign of how things change," Mr. Muti said. "The cultural level of the nation is going up very rapidly. People in Italy read more, are more interested generally in culture, and this is the result of the general cultural level going up." Concerts Provoke Fears
But change has brought other portents that trouble purists like those who flock to La Scala, braving chills in non-fur coats, to obtain the standing-room-only tickets for the highest galleries that are sold on the day of the performance.
This year, for instance, the tenor Luciano Pavarotti staged two open-air concerts -- one in Hyde Park in London, another in the ruins of the ancient Caracalla Baths of Rome. He also performed with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, and in the process stirred much passion in Italy, not all of it flattering.
"There's this fear," said Mr. Lenoci, that singers will be lured away by the high fees and other income generated by concerts recorded and resold on cassettes and compact disks, and that Italy's own stars will therefore stay away from their operatic home base.
But what has troubled opera lovers more, several experts said in interviews, was that the concerts might popularize the most famous arias of opera, but not opera itself.
"It is another sort of phenomenon," said Mr. Mazzonis, La Scala's artistic director. "It has nothing to do with opera itself. It is the phenomenon of the star."
"When the singers do this sort of thing, they earn such an amount of money that even the highest fees in the theater seem ridiculous," he said.
Some assess the danger differently.
"I absolutely disagree that events like Caracalla will have an impact on the popularity of opera in Italy," Mr. Muti said. "The danger is that having an evening where you have only the highlights of opera, the public can get lazy."
Stars singing in open-air concerts, he said, "get tremendous popularity throughout the world."
"But then if they want to get back again to the dignity of a real artist, then they have to go to important theaters and again follow the normal procedures of serious and long rehearsals."
Photo: The last tickets for opening night at La Scala being distributed by an employee of the famed Milan opera house. (Alan Cowell/The New York Times)


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DXC Technology CEO Mike Lawrie: We Want To Be An Industry Leader
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8 New Cisco Incentives And Products Unleashed At Partner Connection Week
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5 Companies That Came To Win This Week
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7 Security Opportunities For Partners Around Third-Party Risk Management
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CRN Exclusive: New HPE Global Channel Chief Denzil Samuels On Synergy Sales Offensive, Dell's Channel 'Imitation' Game And Future Acquisitions
HPE Global Chief Channel Officer Denzil Samuels speaks with CRN about the company's Synergy blade replacement sales offensive, the channel battle with rival Dell EMC, and the channel plan for future acquisitions.
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Cisco's channel leader Wendy Bahr keynote at Partner Connection Week revolved around the five key routes to profitability to partners around digital opportunities in 2017.
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subset: commoncrawl


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Mönch, Diederik (16 items)
Welcome back! Whilst you were away we added the functionality to view auctions and bid in pounds.
Mönch, Diederik: Information on the Catawiki site about Fietstochten met onderdak, 1998.
At its heart, Catawiki is an online catalogue with images of, and information on, collectibles. Our catalogue is compiled by users in a similar way to Wikipedia.


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Authors weigh in on the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination
One gunman (maybe), three gunshots and 36 pounds of new books piled high on the bathroom scale.
In the past month, during the run-up to the 50th anniversary of the day that President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, publishers have flooded the market with books about the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination.
It seems every bookseller with an eye on the calendar was poised to weigh in on this "cruel and shocking act," as the Warren Commission described the murder.
But 36 pounds of reading — which accounts for most but not all of the new JFK-Oswald-assassination-anniversary literature — is much more effort than most people want to put in.
Who has the time?
Besides, it gets depressing to experience the same shooting over and over, like some ghoulish version of the movie "Groundhog Day," in more than a dozen books. Conspiracy-theorist authors try to spice things up by directing blame at someone new, but the story still ends in the same disheartening way.
That's why we've pored over these books, some quite good, others rather ridiculous, so you don't have to waste precious time and money on any of the lesser releases.
The new Kennedy books basically fall into three categories:
There are those maintaining that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and that the Warren Commission more or less got the facts right; there are those suggesting that the truth can be found in one or more of the many conspiracy theories; and there are a few that valiantly try to put a fresh spin on the subject.
One author who attempted to tell the story in a completely new way is Philip Shenon. His "A Cruel and Shocking Act" (Henry Holt, $32) focuses on the seven members of the Warren Commission and the support staff of young lawyers, on how they did their work and how they were sometimes led astray.
Although Shenon, a former New York Times reporter, comes away expressing admiration for the team that tried to do a good job, he ultimately concludes that the Warren Report is deeply flawed, mostly because the FBI and CIA withheld and destroyed mountains of evidence for a variety of reasons.
In the meantime, Shenon gets sidetracked chasing after a few conspiracy-theory ghosts, as well (namely, the possibility of a Cuban connection), even though he admits that this wasn't his agenda when he started writing. There's just something about the assassination that brings out the theorist in all of us.
Another solid book is "The Day Kennedy Died: 50 Years Later LIFE Remembers the Man and the Moment" (Life Books, $50). It's a photo-fueled volume culled from all the work published over the decades by Life magazine. It even includes a replica of the Nov. 29, 1963, Life issue that reported the tragedy.
The editors of this book have almost no interest in acknowledging alternate theories, but they're obsessed with the Zapruder film, which is why they show all 486 frames of the famous 8mm footage.
One of the book's highlights is the collection of "Where Were You When You Heard?" anecdotes from an assortment of famous people, including Jimmy Carter, Sergei Khrushchev, Tom Wolfe, James Earl Jones, Roger Staubach and Bob Schieffer (who was the night police reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram at that time).
"End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy" (William Morrow, $29.99) is very readable because the author, James Swanson, writes it like he would a fast-paced true-crime book.
Swanson re-creates the day in rich, colorful detail and minute-by-minute pacing. When, in the fourth chapter, JFK tells the first lady on the morning of Nov. 22 that, "We're heading into nut country today; but, Jackie, if someone wants to shoot me from a window with a rifle, nobody can stop it, so why worry about it?" it feels more like thriller fiction than actual history.
Bill Minutaglio and Steven L. Davis also address the assassination in a different way in "Dallas 1963" (Twelve Books, $28). They make the city itself the main character and examine how a climate of hatred within the community "set the stage for one of the greatest tragedies in American history."
The most physically imposing JFK book comes from Vincent Bugliosi, who is best known for his definitive Charles Manson book, "Helter Skelter." Bugliosi's 1,612-page reissue of 2007's "Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy" (Norton, $79.95) promises to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Oswald acted alone and to discredit all of the other crackpot theories.
Alas, despite Bugliosi's efforts, wild speculation still runs rampant.
Thus, we get fringe material like "The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ" (Skyhorse, $24.99), in which author Roger Stone, a former Nixon insider, merges two conspiracy theories. He insists that Kennedy's successor, Lyndon Johnson, masterminded the shooting while identifying a man named Malcolm "Mac" Wallace as the actual shooter.
Meanwhile, Jesse Ventura — yes, THAT Jesse Ventura — lets the speculation fly in "They Killed Our President: 63 Reasons to Believe There Was a Conspiracy to Assassinate JFK" (Skyhorse, $24.95). His book promises to expose inside information that he personally compiled for his "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura" TV show, info that leads him to conclude that Oswald was "operational with U.S. Intelligence." Then Ventura closes with a purely personal agenda, directing readers to his Facebook page, on which he wants to rally Americans to put pressure on Congress and "take back our country."
Julian Read, a longtime Texas political insider, also gets personal in "JFK's Final Hours in Texas: An Eyewitness Remembers the Tragedy and Its Aftermath" (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, $24.95). But given Read's credentials, he's allowed to insert himself into the story. What's more, his book is probably deserving of a much bigger publisher.
As the national media representative for Texas Gov. John Connally, Read was on the White House press corps bus that trailed the presidential limo by fewer than 200 yards. Later, he was in the room at Mrs. Connally's side and across the hall from an unaccompanied first lady, at Parkland Memorial Hospital, where surgeons tried to save Kennedy.
Read's is a slender book, barely more than 200 pages, but he offers something that the more verbose JFK authors can't. While they did painstaking research, hoping to re-create the day and to capture an insider's feel, Read needed only to write down the things that he remembers from actually being there.
Meanwhile, Scott D. Reich's "The Power of Citizenship: Why John F. Kennedy Matters to a New Generation" (BenBella Books, $24.95) attempts to redirect the JFK conversation elsewhere.
His book is more about citizenship and public service, assessing Kennedy's legacy and value to "a new generation born in a new era and in a world dramatically different from the one he inhabited."
While so many authors are preoccupied with playing conspiracy-theory detective on a mystery that just might be unsolvable, maybe Reich's approach is the one that's going to be more constructive in the long term.


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- Doctors
- California
- Camarillo
- Orthodontists
- Dr. Mark C. Mcdade
You may also like
Ratings for Dr. Mark C. Mcdade
Communication on treatment plan and coordination with other providers not as well as hoped.
I decided to get braces at an older age(30). I made an excellent choice going to Dr McDade. His office hours are convenient for a working adult and his office staff are professional and very friendly. The process of having braces for two years seemed easy for me going to Dr McDade. I felt no pain and had no problems with the doctor or the experience. Before braces, I had a smile that I was insecure about because I had my canine tooth sticking up on top of my gum. Dr Mcdade fixed that problem without extracting any teeth. My smile is amazing now and I get so many compliments. I would definitely recommend Dr McDade to all my friends and family, and I do. He has a special gift of perfecting your smile.
I consulted with several orthodontists in Santa Barbara. Dr. McDade was the only one calling for extractions. Needless to say, I regret going with him and his pro extraction philosophy. I now cannot breath or eat properly due to missing teeth. The sad thing is orthodontists know extractions ruin faces and function, so this could be prevented, but it is not due to extractions resulting in less chair time.
Staff are a bunch of phonies who are nice to you until they get your money. Dr. Mcdade uses dated orthodontic techniques, specifically pulling healthy bicuspids to speed up his treatment time. This results in reduced oral space and bone in the patients' face. He doesn't mention this during the consult. One top of this, he is insulting and told me "I cannot accept positive change" after losing all support in my face due to him pulling teeth. He cares about nothing except gambling on the stock market and roller blading down State St on his lunch break. He is the most apathetic man I have ever met. The orthodontist who prepared my teeth for surgery, after switching from this **** noted 20+ errors. He has 3 offices b/c not enough go to the main one. The only reason gets away with this behavior is that most people don't notice the negative changes. If you care about aesthetics and your tooth/bone health, RUN.
Love it there!! He's the best in town and my kids have a great smile!!!
As a "mature" orthodontic patient I was made to feel very comfortable and welcome. Staff is very friendly, and was never kept waiting more than 5 minutes. I would highly recommend Dr.McDade to others.
He helped rectify a major issue with previous braces for my son. Dr McDade did it with professionalism, an obvious broad knowledge base, and class. I would highly recommend him without reserve.
Gread orthodontist, took me in as a very difficult case and althought the results werent "perfect" *my fault not his... I loved how they turned out. He and his staff are great!Thanks Dr.McDade
Very personable and knowledgable. Very nice man and wonderful staff.
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Whoa! A Rap / Hip-Hop song for our Thanksgiving playlist?! It's pretty unexpected, I admit, but you don't want to miss listening to this song, or to the story behind it! Come with me today on a special musical pilgrimage. The Empty Hands Music organization has a simple yet profound mission, "To spread seeds of goodness to the world through selfless … Continue reading
Tagged with India …
Christmas Every Day In India
When I heard the story of Narayanan Krishnan, my heart was deeply touched and I was moved to tears. I cannot think of a better story to share as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ – whose ministry was devoted to the forgotten and neediest of society.


text: LUERAS, Shawn Robert, born August 12, 1975 in Anchorage, AK passed on April 21, 2013 in Tucson, AZ. He is survived by his parents, Robert and Linda Lueras; his sister, Carmen Donehue; his brother-in-law, Dickson Donehue; his niece, Ivy Donehue and a large extended family. He received his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage and his Doctorate of Jurisprudence degree from the University of Arizona. He spent the most of his law career as a prosecutor in Arizona and took special pride in his cases that brought justice for abused children. He was loved dearly by his family and friends and will be profoundly missed. A Graveside Service will be held at East Lawn Palms Cemetery, on Friday, April 26, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers please make a contribution to the Southern Arizona Children's Advocacy Center. Arrangements by BRING'S BROADWAY CHAPEL. bringfuneralhome.com


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The Federal Court has derailed an attempt to overturn a four-year investigation by the Australian Taxation Office into 20 wealthy Australians who held bank accounts in Liechtenstein.
The court rejected a claim that records provided by whistleblower Heinrich Kieber were the proceeds of crime. In Brisbane on Friday, Justice John Logan denied an application by a Gold Coast diver, Kevin Denlay, and his wife Mirjna, to quash $3 million in tax assessments based on material provided by Mr Kieber, who sold the records to the German government for €4.2 million in 2007. Other prominent Australians holding LGT accounts included Westfield founder
The Australian Financial Review


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On crystal surfaces, nanotubes self-guide themselves into dense structures with exciting potential applications as sensors or integrated circuits
USC researchers have found that sapphire surfaces spontaneously arrange carbon nanotubes into useful patterns - but only the right surfaces.
Nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of carbon rolled into seamless cylinders. They can be used to work as chemical sensors and transistors, like devices made from carbon's close chemical cousin, silicon.
As a substrate for the creation of single wall nanotube (SWNT) devices, sapphire has a critical advantage, says Chongwu Zhou of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's department of electrical engineering.
Single walled carbon nanotubes will grow along certain crystalline orientations on sapphire. No template has to be provided to guide this structuring: it takes place automatically.
Or more accurately, it sometimes happens automatically. With an elegant experiment, Zhou has resolved how and why this occurs.
The process is potentially predictable and controllable, opening the door for systematic exploration of sapphire as a SWNT (single wall nanotube) transistor medium.
In a paper accepted by the Journal of the American Chemical Society (V127, P5294, 2005), Zhou says the understanding "may allow registration-free fabrication and integration of nanotube devices by simply patterning source/ drain electrodes at desired locations, as the active material (i.e., nanotubes) is all over the substrate," to build such devices as sensors and integrated circuits for various uses.
According to Zhou, nanotube transistor devices now have to be painstakingly positioned and aligned using methods such as flow alignment and electrical-field-assisted alignment and then individually connected.
Zhou believes exploitation of the properties of sapphire his team investigated may allow production of the right kinds of dense, ordered arrays necessary.
Sapphire is aluminum oxide, also known as the mineral alumina, the abrasive corundum, and when colored by small quantities of iron, ruby. It is readily available as a cheap synthetic.
The crystal is six-sided, rising from a flat base, (see diagram, right) and has four natural planes on which it can be split to form thin, smooth slices: one parallel to the base, and three other vertical ones (see diagram). The self-guiding phenomenon was first reported last year by a research team at the Weizman Institute in Israel.
Zhou's team systematically investigated the phenomenon. Certain vertical slices, particularly the a- and r-planes, exhibit the self-guiding nanotube behavior. The c-plane, parallel to the base did not.
According to Zhou, two possibilities might explain the difference. One would be the arrangement of the atoms in the matrix; the other, differences in the "step edge" properties of the surfaces.
Step edges are nanoscopic surface irregularities, minute rises from the suface level.
To eliminate step edges as a possibility, Zhou's group annealed (treated with high, long-lasting heat) samples of both forms, and then tested. Annealing emphasizes step edges, and would accordingly emphasize the arrangement effect, if the effect was dependent on the edges. It did not.
The basal, horizontal slices remained unable to self-guide nanotubes. The two of the vertical slices continued to do so. The behavior seems to be due to the varied arrangement of aluminum and oxygen atoms on the surface.
Zhou's team is now investigating how the exact mechanisms at work, in order to further control the process.
Zhou and his team have also, worked with quartz substrates for nanotube synthesis, which did not exhibit any guided growth.
Zhou worked with Xiaolei Liu and Song Han on the research, which was supported by an NSF career Award, an NSF-CENS grant, and an SRC MARCO/ DARPA grant.
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NASA Awards $11 Million "Quantum Wire" Contract To Rice
Houston TX (SPX) Apr 25, 2005
NASA has awarded Rice University's Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory a four-year, $11 million contract to produce a prototype power cable made entirely of carbon nanotubes.
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All thoughts and opinions mentioned here do not represent the teaching of the CREST program. They are the personal opinion of the student, Tiger Stidnick.
Spring Break/ 4th Quarter
AZ Envirothon
Dow Jones Index
Sorry folks, but vlogs will be delayed for a little bit longer. I have come into a few problems, the main one being the OS (Operating System) on one of the laptops i use crashed, so I will be restricted to every other weekend posting one, which I will try to keep up with. I will also be posting normal text blogs to catch up, due to how I am a little behind, but I will be doing a regular of 2 vlogs to keep up with the norm. To get to the actual topic of this post, the Dow Jones Index stock has reached an all time high at 14,253.77. This surpasses the previous set in 2008, before the recession happened. This is a great thing, showing that we are coming back from this recession. Also, house prices rose about 9.7% since January 2012. This is showing that a large part of our economy, houses, is coming back as well. Unemployment is still too high, but many are hopeful that it will start going down. These feats are not caused by any one person, one administration, or one party, but a bipartisan effort. Though this is good, I am fearful of this being a repeat of the recession, the economy and middle class are on top of the world, only for a combination of a bunch of bad things happening, and then a recession happens, or, even worse, a depression. I think if this were to truly happen, it would be worse than the previous one, but I am not economically knowledgeable enough to know when, why, where, or how bad this will be, but I hope it wont get worse than the Great Depression. This may sound gloom, but I am NOT hoping this will happen, I just believe it is a possibility, and I hope a slim one. That will be it for today, and always remember. You gotta' fight, for the right, to party!
Time's Running Out...
'Tis the Season to be Jolly
this video for an example of how crazy people can get for a few deals. Even though most of the sales start earlier in the week and continue on to the next week, this madness is still happening. Don't go out Black Friday shopping. Stay in with your family, friends, or whomever you are spending the holidays with, even if it is yourself. Wait until Sunday or Monday to go shopping, as most deals will be the same. If you want, you can even check before to see if the deals have already started. As for Christmas shopping, get out as soon as you can, the later it is, the higher the chance they will be out of stock, higher prices, or mobbed. Also, you don't have to go super elaborate on gifts, simple things with sentimental meaning will be a great gift for most family members or friends, most don't want you to go out and gouge yourself for a stupid trinket that will break in a few years. On a CREST note, the teachers and higher staff met on Friday to discuss the future, some changed were made to the schedule. STEM collaborative was moved to Freshmen year, first semester, so they have a class first semester for Sustainability. Also, any of the 3 major AP sciences can be taken instead of just chemistry Junior and Senior year. Along with that, the AP agriscience (I believe) can be taken without taking the class, seeing as how that is similar to what we learn in Sustainability. Some rome is freed for electives, possibly, Senior year as well, so everybody is happy about that. I just want to see about getting out of the level 3 foreign language, seeing as how for most Universities, excluding some, only require 2 years of language, and the one I'm planning on going to, NAU, only requires 2. If that is taken off my schedule, I could possibly have 2-3 electives. Furthermore, Internships/Projects can be taken over the summer, freeing up the 2 blocks taken by that, 1 each semester. From what I have noticed, that MAY give room for half days, in which I would thoroughly enjoy. Thanks for reading!
here. That will be it for today. Thanks for reading.
Halloween was yesterday, I didn't do anything, except handing out candy. Class is working on a Hurricane Sandy project, in which we hypothesized about what would happen. Also, we then showed reasons why we said that, and what happened. The classes, both Juniors and Sophomores, collaboratively worked on a presentation in which we summarized out hypothesis, and reasoning. It turned out pretty well, we all had the chance to look at one another's, and see what level we all are on. We also started a project in which each person got a part of the "what is the smart grid." I am in the group in which there are 2 people, the only group with more than one. This project is really fun. The posted picture is an example of the smart grid. Pretty much the basics are on what it is are that it makes the relationship between power company and consumer more closely knit. Sorry for the late post.
Fun weekend. Went down to Flagstaff, Arizona, and had a ball. Went to a RCPM, Roger Clyne & the Peacemakers, concert at the Orpheum. Then went down to a small town called Crown King, about 25 miles of dirt road off the I-17. Also, just posted the RMI assignment, seeing as how I left Friday a little after school, and got back 30 minutes ago. Now I am doing a blog post, then studying for APUSH. This week in Sustainability class, we will be working on "Transmission of Energy" all about energy infrastructure, the less talked about part of the energy industry. It should be interesting, because I was getting bored of the forms of energy. The Energy sheets were scraped, seeing as how Mr. B didn't realize how much work they were, and how it would take the whole class one day, the whole 90 minutes ish of class, to finish one of the 12 documents. Glad that happened, because it was quite tedious. We are currently in the Data Collection section of the semester research project. I feel bad for the people whom have STEM Collaborative this semester, seeing as how they have the English/APUSH, Sustainability, and STEM research projects all at once. I am lucky to get it next semester, though I have the other hard classes this semester. Well, you cant pick your schedule, unfortunately. There will be no picture today, because my sister, with her video streaming and her Iphone, draining all the Wifi, it is impossible to open any google image pages, but expect one next time. I think I will end it at that, goodbye reader(s).
Field Trip!
Today marked the day the Sustainability class, and Biotech class, went on our field trip to the Ethics Symposium at the Tempe Center of the Arts hosted by ASU's Lincoln Ethics Center. Everyonehad a blast! And we also got to miss all but 30ish minutes of school, so that was a bonus. There were 4 speakers, one on Colorism in Local news, one on Cheating in Video Games (my personal Favorite), one on the cost of the war and warcheating, and the last pro-cheating. They were all interesting, and all the presenters seemed really passionate about their topic. This was the third annual event, and I am hoping we get to go again next year. The past couple days Mr. B has been gone was pretty much catch-up work on any portfolio thing, research project thing, or other class thing. It was fun, but now Mr. B is back, so back to work. AIMS makeups are going on now, tomorrow is last day for it, finally. Then there will be no more annoying announcements about it, and we get to go back to our history class, seeing as how the History classrooms are being used for the testing. Since these are makeups, we do not get the AIMS time off, but come February, when the AIMS for the Freshmen/Sophomores, I get all 4 days, 3 in a row then science on its own, as late start. It is like a half day, only reverse. Class starts at 10:30 or 11:30, I don't remember, and end same time. This means I get to sleep in, and have lunch before I go to school, even though there is lunch set aside. That will be it for today, and as always, stay classy Phoenix.
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Wordless Wednesday: Whoosh
I feel so inspired lately.
The problem is, my inspired-side can beat my follow-through side in a foot race any day. I need some time to stop, focus, and decide where I want to channel all of that inspiration.
Let's just say, I'm really looking forward to spring and summer and huge fluffy white clouds in a blue sky. I can't wait.


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The Canadian outdoor adventure magazine Explore has ranked the Trout River campground in Gros Morne National Park 23rd best in Canada out of 25 for national and provincial parks.
The magazine praised the campground for its scenery and lakes. The article said it is: "One of the few places on the planet where Earth's mantle is exposed," and that, "from the campsites, you can see the orangey Tablelands rising above the other side of the water."
The article states that things to do at the campground include hiking the brand new Overfalls Trail, hiking the Greens Gardens Trail, as well as the "short but steep" Lookout Trail.
It also praises Trout River Pond as "one of the best places in the park to launch a kayak."
Explore Magazine's top three campsites are all in British Columbia: Green Point Campground at Pacific Rim National Park, the main campground at Alice Lake Provincial Park and the Lake of the Woods Campground at Cathedral Provincial Park.


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Unlike high school teachers, many college professors don't have the time to get to know all of their students, especially if it's a 200-person lecture. If you're like me, you sit in the front of the class, ask a lot of questions and try to wear something to stand out, as if my bright red hair isn't memorable enough. However, if you have the case of the nerves, don't like speaking in front of class or want to sit in the back with your friends, it's always recommended to meet with your new professor at the kick off of the semester.
This Fashionisto has perfected the studious yet memorable look, great for heading to your professor's office hours or dropping by to introduce yourself. It's important when meeting with your professor to act professionally and dress cleanly. This Fashionisto's look is not wild, sloppy or inappropriate. He wears denim on denim, an extremely popular trend in men's fashion, cuffed jeans and men's version of boots. This Fashionisto plays with color through his choices in denim, still keeping it simple, but adding some variety. His lighter jean jacket contrasts with his dark jeans and black shirt. His worn brown shoes are the perfect complement to the several shades of blue in the look.
This Fashionisto's accessories are what truly stood out to me as I saw him leaving class. His thick-rimmed glasses and filled backpack imply he is serious about his studies and make him stand out to his professor. His clean-cut look and studious style will be sure to make the best impression. Accessories can make or break a great outfit, so add them wisely! For a pop of color, a scarf in colors such as a deep purple or forest green would be appropriate. To intensify the range of textures even more than this Fashionisto's look, a light brown leather messenger bag instead of his canvas backpack would be another great option for the occasion.
Take the chance and meet with your professor before his office is flocked with students trying to argue their way from a C to an A after finals. You can make your first and best impression through your choice in clothing, so take after this Fashionisto and dress scholarly!
One Simple Change: Switch out the jean jacket for a nice button-down and you have the perfect look for a casual date night!


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For hundreds of years, the Missions, Pueblos, Kivas, and Homesteads of Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument have stood as testaments to the people and cultures that have called this area home. From the prehistoric Ancestral Puebloan and Jumano groups, to the 17th century Spanish Franciscan missionaries, the returning settlers of the 1800s, and the 19th and 20th century archeologists and Park Service employees, the people, places, and stories of the Salinas Pueblo Missions make this a special place.
The park may also be closed due to inclement weather. Please call ahead to check the status on days of heavy wintry weather. Free admission.
Events in Albuquerque this week include Hopfest, free admission to National Parks, the Latin Dance Festival and more! Watch our KRQE events segment for all the details.…more
Celebrate 100 years of the National Park Service by exploring these natural wonders in and around Albuquerque.…more
In the mood for a day trip getaway? Roy highlights some unique road trip favorites just a few hours from Albuquerque.…more


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With each type of prayer requested, light offerings will be mainly offered at Padma Samye Chokhor Ling Monastery. Incense will be offered at all three of the Rinpoches' monastic institutions. Prayers will be performed one day, unless you request an additional number of days as the item quantity.
Lighten Karma & Usher through the Bardo
Prayers and mantras of Amitabha, Chenrezig, the Peaceful and Wrathful Deities and others. This practice can be performed for up to 49 consecutive days following a person's passing.
Remove Obstacles | Wellbeing | Wedding & Newborn | PSL Light Offering
For more extensive practices and ceremonies performed on behalf of loved ones,
please contact Laia or Pema Dragpa at Padma Samye Ling for details. (607) 865-8068


text: In the News 1. The attack in Norway was horrific, with an explosion in town to attract the interest of police and then a wanton slaughter of the children of the elite on an island summer-camp. Anders Breivik was driven by a sort of "crusade" on behalf of Christian society. And Norway police arrived 90 [Read More…]


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It all culminated in a live auction of an electric guitar springsteen picked up and played at the end.
"Nowhere to run ain't got nowhere to go," springsteen sings before launching into the "Born in the U.S.A." chorus in repetition.
She received a life sentence for her part in a killing spree that inspired a springsteen song and the movie Badlands.
Seeger showed springsteen that political music could be buoyant, even as it dealt with the weightiest issues.
What I don't understand is how a right-winger can be such a big springsteen fan.
springsteen then emerged from the shadows, dressed identically to Fallon.
Then springsteen bridged the gap between how candidates employ campaign songs now and how they were used in the past.
When springsteen asked, "How can a poor man stand such times as this?"
It was the first time springsteen had played London without legendary saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who passed away a year ago.
Then, of course, there was the time he was allegedly spotted sleeping during a springsteen show, which he profusely denied.


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Analyzing Fabrinet (NYSE:FN) and CyberOptics Corporation (CYBE)
Fabrinet (NYSE: FN) and CyberOptics Corporation (NASDAQ:CYBE) are both small-cap computer and technology companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their risk, valuation, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitabiliy, institutional ownership and earnings.
This table compares Fabrinet and CyberOptics Corporation's net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
|Net Margins
|Return on Equity
|Return on Assets
|CyberOptics Corporation
Earnings and Valuation
This table compares Fabrinet and CyberOptics Corporation's gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
|Gross Revenue
|Price/Sales Ratio
|Earnings Per Share
|Price/Earnings Ratio
|$1.33 billion
|$121.84 million
|CyberOptics Corporation
|$59.05 million
|$5.33 million
Fabrinet has higher revenue and earnings than CyberOptics Corporation. Fabrinet is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than CyberOptics Corporation, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Volatility and Risk
Fabrinet has a beta of 1.08, suggesting that its share price is 8% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CyberOptics Corporation has a beta of -0.35, suggesting that its share price is 135% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Fabrinet and CyberOptics Corporation, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
|Sell Ratings
|Hold Ratings
|Buy Ratings
|Strong Buy Ratings
|Rating Score
|CyberOptics Corporation
Fabrinet presently has a consensus price target of $53.55, indicating a potential upside of 17.93%. CyberOptics Corporation has a consensus price target of $41.67, indicating a potential upside of 67.00%. Given CyberOptics Corporation's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe CyberOptics Corporation is more favorable than Fabrinet.
Insider & Institutional Ownership
94.2% of Fabrinet shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.3% of CyberOptics Corporation shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.3% of Fabrinet shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.8% of CyberOptics Corporation shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Fabrinet beats CyberOptics Corporation on 10 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Fabrinet
Fabrinet provides optical packaging and precision optical, electro-mechanical and electronic manufacturing services to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of products, such as optical communication components, modules and sub-systems, industrial lasers, medical devices and sensors. The Company offers a range of optical and electro-mechanical capabilities across the manufacturing process, including process design and engineering, supply chain management, manufacturing, complex printed circuit board assembly, advanced packaging, integration, final assembly and test. The Company's customer base includes companies in industries that require precision manufacturing capabilities, such as optical communications, industrial lasers, automotive, medical and sensors. Its customers in these industries support end-markets, including automotive, biotechnology, communications, materials processing, medical devices, metrology and semiconductor processing.
About CyberOptics Corporation
Cyberoptics Corporation is a developer and manufacturer of sensing technology solutions. The Company's products and services are used in the surface mount technology (SMT), semiconductor and three dimensional (3D) scanning solutions and services markets. Its products are sold into the electronics assembly, dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and flash memory, and semiconductor fabrication capital equipment markets. The Company develops, manufactures and sells non-contact sensors and systems for process control and inspection, and general purpose metrology. The Company's product offerings are sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and end user customers in the SMT circuit board assembly, semiconductor and general-purpose metrology markets. Its OEMs incorporate the Company's sensor offerings into capital equipment serving these industries. The Company also sells standalone inspection systems that are sold directly to circuit board assembly companies.
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Pruning Grapes
Pruning Grapes
Part of Ep. 904 The Winter Garden
Prune grapevines in early spring with and Phillipe Coquard at Wollersheim Winery in Sauk City. Wine growers prune vines to maintain grape quality, to lengthen the vine's life and to control the crop size. Coquard also shares planting and pruning tips for gardeners planting grapes at home.
Premiere date: Dec 26, 2001
- Wisc Gardener Transcript:
Late winter and early spring is generally considered a down time for gardeners. And true, we can't be weeding outside, but pruning is a major activity for this time of year. We're at Wollersheim Winery in southern Wisconsin and we're going to talk about pruning grapevines. We're with Phillipe Coquard, he's known around here as the winemaker, the grape grower and today the grape pruner. Phillipe thank you for letting us join you.
I have to ask a question. When I walk in the woods I see wild grapes, nobody has ever pruned them. Why do we have to prune?
For many reasons, three reasons. Quality reasons, good grape, good wine. Longevity of the vine. It will ensure the vine will be alive for the next 20 to 30 years, and also the size of the crop.
Good reasons then. Where do we start?
First of all you have to step back a little bit and judge, assess if the vine is well balanced. This is a beautiful vine, very well opened, and the shoots are nice and straight, hang down. You are always looking at the ripening of the fruit, sun penetration, and you want this vine open and balanced like it is.
Alright, so the sunlight can get to all parts of it.
Okay, then what do we do.
So we would be trying to recreate exactly what this vine had last year. Those are the little spurs that were left last year, this is last year's pruning right here, right there. Right here. Each spur had two or three buds, for such a vine which is 30 years old we have seven to eight spurs per side, meaning 15 to18 buds per side times two, 30 to 40 buds.
So about two buds per spur. Where would you make some of your cuts there?
Actually, right here. I will take out, we always try to stay the closest to the main cane as possible, so we cut right here, and again. Here are my two buds.
Okay, so we will get shoots that will be coming out of these two buds. And that's where the grapes will come from?
Right here, out of those two little buds you will get a nice big healthy shoot, which will have two or three clusters and on such a vine two or three clusters per shoot will be eight to ten pounds of fruit per vine.
Wow, that will do me. Okay, now you have a finished one, let's take a look at the difference here. Wow, this is a haircut.
This is quite drastic and we remove anywhere from 80 to 90 percent of the shoots.
And so we have about 16 spurs on each side and each spur has about two buds?
We have 16 buds, we have eight spurs.
Okay, so two buds per spur. Am I as a homeowner going to want this drastic?
You could leave each spur a little bit longer. On this slope, for this quality wine, we want 30 buds, more or less, per vine. In your backyard, you could push it to 50 or 60 buds per vine.
They might be double the length of yours.
Double the size, three to four or five buds, spurs.
Okay. Let's go back to the beginning. I'm just planting my first grapes because now you've got me all excited about this. How do I start?
Well this is a vine, which was a cutting last year, it was into a nursery for a year, and that's the way we get our vine. So we will clip all of the roots, and we will prune the top, take the nicest, straightest top, this is the vine.
That's it.
This is it, this is it. So this is part of the roots, not part of the trunk.
So this has to be planted in the ground then?
Absolutely. Quite often people make the mistake to plant them that so, and this part will dry out completely. So ground level, my hand being ground level, this is how deep it needs to be planted.
Eight to ten inches in the ground. And for the first year we planted it, then do we do anything to it that first year?
No, you just let everything grow. Each of those little buds will have green shoots, just trim them straight up on a piece of conduit.
Get this in right away then.
As soon as it's planted get a stick to it, and keep tying the green shoots.
So basically the first year it just establishes roots and we tie it to go up. Second year?
Second year, you will end up, you will be in trunk formation. You will end up with one or two nice straight shoots, you will always promote the growth at the top so that it will reach the top within a year or two.
So you're getting rid of everything below there.
Absolutely. It will break your heart, but you just break them, clean them out, and leave the top two.
And we're up to a harvest size in what, three years?
Three years. So the first year, you can be here, the second year you can start fruiting cane, third year you start the second one, fourth year you extend the other one, and then you're in business.
So we get fruit by that third year.
That's not too bad. Why do we even have to train them up, why can't I just put a tomato cage around it?
Genetically the concord, the grapes suited to the midwest are bred to hand down.
Okay, so they're happier that way.
Absolutely, better fruit.
Thank you very much Phillipe.
Pruning Grapes
Prune grapevines in early spring with and Phillipe Coquard at Wollersheim Winery in Sauk City. Wine growers prune vines to maintain grape quality, to lengthen the vine's life and to control the crop size. Coquard also shares planting and pruning tips for gardeners planting grapes at home.
Community Support Agriculture
Visit the Vermont Valley Community Farm, a Dane County Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm owned by Barb and Dave Perkins. The 20-acre farm hosts seasonal events such as the spring pea pick, the corn boil, the pumpkin pick and the pesto fest. Barb Perkins notes that CSAs are usually organic and she stresses that eating locally supports family farms and local economies.
A Choo-Choo Garden
Enjoy this Mukwonago backyard train garden nurtured by Kevin Ylvisaker and Jim Hunnicutt. Miniature plants thriving next to the train tracks and ponds include:Coleus, Santolina, Labrador Violet , Phlox , Dianthus, 48 Dwarf Albertas, Boxwood and Edelweiss.
Ornamental Peppers
Discover some of the best ornamental peppers. Judith Reith-Rozelle, the assistant superintendent at the West Madison Ag Research Station, introduces us to her favorites--include foliage-rich Varingata and hot peppers Orange Thai and Poinsettia.
- Wisc Gardener Related Links:
Grape pruning has a reputation for being very complicated. However, Philippe Coquard, vice president of Wollersheim Corporation and the winemaker at Wollersheim Winery in Prairie du Sac, showed how simple it really is.
Grapes are best pruned in late winter/early spring, so now is a great time to start practicing and sharpen the tools. Pruning will not only improve fruit production, but will also extend the life of the vine. Unpruned vines will choke themselves out and stop bearing fruit.
Old Wood and New Wood
It is very important to know the difference between old wood and new wood, since grapes are borne only on one-year-old wood (last years shoots).
The goal of pruning is to remove the old shoots that steal energy from and shade the grape-producing shoots. This "green" pruning is actually done throughout the growing season - removing green shoots at that time minimizes scar tissue.
Basic Pruning
More basic pruning needs to be done in the winter when the vines are dormant. The amount of pruning to be done depends on the age and size of the vine, and the size of the previous year's crop, as well as how the vines are being trained. Try to balance the vine, leaving a small number of the nicest and cleanest shoots as the spurs that will produce fruit in the coming year. Each spur should have 2-4 buds. Remove any diseased prunings and destroy them.
Funding for The Wisconsin Gardener is provided, in part, by The Wisconsin Master Gardener Association.


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Historical Perspectives
Another Tack: The first day (JERUSALEM POST OP-ED) By SARAH HONIG 04/27/12)
Source: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=267679
JERUSALEM POST Articles-Index-Top
It is with great joy that I hereby close the Mandatory Police record book, wrote an anonymous duty officer at Tel Avivs central precinct precisely as David Ben-Gurion recited the renascent Jewish states Declaration of Independence.
Just below that spontaneous hand-inscribed historic annotation, appears the first criminal entry ever in sovereign Israels annals. It documents the capture of a thief. He stole a book, perchance pointing to preferences peculiar to the People of the Book.
Several hours later, the first ship docked in the new state. It began its journey furtively five days earlier in Marseilles when Israel was still under British rule. Its 300 young passengers were outfitted with fake IDs, forged at the Hagana laboratory in France.
But the Teti would claim special distinction it became simultaneously the last illegal aliya boat and the first legal one. The counterfeit visas proved superfluous. The vessel proudly hoisted the Israeli flag as the new day dawned. Because it was the Sabbath, the newcomers were issued their new countrys entry permits only at sundown.
With such seemingly ordinary bureaucratic yet emotionally charged tasks, the Jewish state adeptly began the business of self- determination. In time that would be presented to world opinion as inherently sinful. By its very brazen determination to be born, it would be asserted, Israel had displaced the Palestinians, condemning them to miserable refugee subsistence.
According to the Arab narrative, Jewish independence, in and of itself, constitutes aggressive belligerence. Incredibly, this perception sank sinister roots. It takes stronger hold abroad now than it did 64 years ago. We may speculate why. We may point to two millennia of merciless anti-Jewish hate-mongering on religious and other mundanely lucrative grounds. But whatever the motive, our legitimacy, alone among the nations, is undermined assiduously.
Expediently forgotten is the fact that never, not for a single solitary day, were Israelis allowed to savor the elation of their newfound freedom. Behind the aforementioned two matter-of-fact exemplars of sovereignty, a frightening reality festered malevolently.
Israels birth was legally ordained via the UN Partition Resolution of November 29, 1947. Two states Jewish and Arab were to be established between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean. Jews cheered the patchy territorial crazy-quilt they were accorded, existentially untenable though it was, and proceeded to meet all UN prerequisites for independence. The Arabs vehemently rejected the offer of a Palestinian state and, in vituperative defiance of the UN, set out to destroy the embryonic Jewish state rather than construct one of their own.
On Israels first day, Arab League secretary-general Abdul-Rahman Azzam Pasha, articulated Arab priorities. Sending forth seven Arab armies to slay the newborn Zionist entity, he declared: This will be a war of extermination and a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres and the Crusades. The Arab agenda and intentions were unmistakable. New Israels citizens harbored no misconceptions.
The Arabs had already violently opposed the Jewish community which existed in this country pre-WWII and which was ripe for statehood before the Holocaust. The Great Arab Revolt of 1936- 39 fomented by the stillrevered Haj Amin al-Husseini and financed by Nazi Germany merely delayed Jewish independence. The Arabs denied asylum here to desperate Jewish escapees from Hitlers hell. Thereby they doomed these refugees to death. The blood of numerous Holocaust victims indelibly stains Arab hands.
But thats not all. Husseini, in the role of pan-Arab prime minister, spent the war years in Berlin, where he hobnobbed with Hitler, Himmler, Eichmann, et al. He broadcast Nazi propaganda, recruited Muslims to the SS and actively foiled the rescue of any Jews, even children, during the Holocaust.
The Arabs of this country were avidly pro-Nazi, saluted each other with Heil Hitler, flaunted the swastika, hoarded arms, harbored German spies and planned to heartily welcome Rommels invading Afrika Korps.
The war that the entire Arab world launched against newborn Israel, three years post- Holocaust, was explicitly geared to complete Hitlers unfinished mission. Not only was there no attempt to camouflage this genocidal goal, but it was broadcast boastfully for all to hear and be intimidated. Clearly Israeli independence was fraught with the most extreme and tangible danger.
Hence no fanfare could conceivably accompany the official inauguration of the state, and with good reason. Independence was to be proclaimed at 4:00 p.m. on the 5th of the Hebrew month of Iyar, which in 1948 fell on May 14. The venue Tel Aviv Museums tiny auditorium on 16 Rothschild Boulevard, in what previously was the home of the citys first mayor, Meir Dizengoff was no ones top choice. Jerusalem was besieged, while Tel Avivs Habima Theater was ruled out precisely because it was bigger and could accommodate more participants.
Even a marginally larger affair was reckoned undesirable for fear that publicity about when and where the Jewish states birth is slated to be announced would invite Egyptian air strikes. It was, therefore, thought advisable to keep everything hush-hush, make do with fewer honorary guests and cram them all into a minuscule hall (although the secrecy was quickly breached anyhow, in keeping with local proclivities).
The invitation (including a request to keep it confidential) was mimeographed and sent unsigned. The declaration itself was placed for safekeeping in a banks basement vault, lest it be destroyed by enemy bombardments. These indeed came, just hours afterward, at daybreak (of May 15, 1948).
As Israels masses danced in the streets on the night that followed the declaration of independence, Abdullah I, King of Transjordan (this brainchild of British imperialism now parades under the moniker of Jordan) positioned himself dramatically at the center of Allenby Bridge over the Jordan River. At the stroke of midnight, he pulled his ornate gilded pistol from its holster, held it up in the air and fired to signal the start of the Arab invasion. Its aim was to ethnically cleanse the land or as it was then phrased non-too- diplomatically, to throw the Jews into the sea.
Israels thwarting of the genocide plotted against its people is now presented as a premeditated Israeli-instigated ethnic cleansing of Arabs. The capacity of the human mind to tolerate falsification cannot apparently be underestimated.
The battle plans called on the Jordanian-led Arab Legion, the Iraqis, Syrians and Lebanese to converge on the Jezreel Valley and from there move in a concerted offensive on Haifa. The Egyptians were assigned to take Tel Aviv from the south, with Yemeni and Saudi participation. But hubris caused deviations. Abdullah coveted Jerusalem and the Syrians focused on the Jordan Valley.
Still, the Arab generals who drew up the blueprints for neonatal Israels annihilation figured it would take two weeks to complete the job, deviations notwithstanding. They had compelling reason for optimism.
The infant state, assaulted ferociously from every direction and furiously fighting for its very life, possessed no resources or military hardware. Its population of 600,000 also comprised the old, the infirm and the very young all hardly combat-worthy.
But these noncombatants nevertheless became the enemys primary targets. For three days, from May 15, Tel Aviv was mercilessly bombed by the Egyptian Air Force. Spitfires swooped down on the very section of Tel Aviv, where the Teti was moored. The first aerial pounding lasted three days. Its worst came on May 18 when the central bus terminal was bombarded, killing 41 civilians in only that one incident, wounding hundreds of others, inflicting severe damage in the heart of town and even hitting Tel Avivs beloved double-decker bus.
The Egyptian planes were back two days later. They would hound Tel Aviv well into late July. Fifty Tel Avivians were killed between July 13 and 16. Hadassah Hospital was among the targets, as were queues of shoppers housewives and children. Even the Red Cross complained about indiscriminate bombing of non-military targets.
Hot on the heels of independence, the makeshift Israel Air Force challenged Egyptian pilots for supremacy of the skies. This, despite the fact that the IAF was assembled from an improvised mishmash of light civilian aircraft requisitioned from or contributed by their owners and precariously adapted for military purposes.
A curious assortment of outmoded and surplus WWII planes as well as prewar antiques were additionally acquired, mostly from Czechoslovakia. Israels air fleet was more than anything powered by ingenuity and sheer pluck like the rest of the IDF.
Because its ragtag army stood its ground, despite the worst of odds, Israel is today accused of the crime of surviving and is portrayed as a menacing ogre for having dared to come into the world rather than surrender.
But it wasnt without a terrifying price. Besides the hundreds of Tel Avivs casualties, the entire country bled profusely. The Old City of Jerusalem fell to Abdullahs legionnaires on May 29 (the 1967 Israeli reversal of the Jordanian conquest is now dubbed occupation). The attempts to open the bottleneck blockade on the road to Jerusalem at Latrun loomed as young Israels most painful failure of the War of Independence.
The British had turned their hilltop Taggart Fort at that crucial junction to the Arabs who used it to besiege Jerusalem with an eye to emptying West Jerusalem too of its Jews.
When the War of Independence was finally over a year-and- a-half later, Israel mourned 6,000 dead, a full one-percent of the fledgling states population. But perhaps the most tragic sacrifice alas, hardly atypical for that era was epitomized by the Tetis passengers. Many of them gave their lives for their country just one week after arriving on that fateful first day of independence.
The next morning they made their way to the encampment at Tel Avivs Kiryat Meir (at the end of todays Zeitlin Street) where they enlisted in the IDF. Most fresh off the boat, with Holocaust horrors still fresh in their minds ended up in the Alexandroni Brigade and Division 7, which were dispatched to Latrun. The battlefield training they received consisted of a few instructions, generally incoherent to them, on the way to the front line. (© 1995- 2011, The Jerusalem Post 04/27/12)
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Cooch Behar, Sept. 4: Over 60 buses that ply from the main terminus of the North Bengal State Transport Corporation here were not allowed to run this morning after contractual conductors, whose services had been terminated, did not allow the depot to be opened.
The agitation, started by the contractual conductors yesterday, was withdrawn at 8pm today after Trinamul Congress state general secretary Abdul Jalil Ahmed said he would start talks with them.
Twenty-nine people who were appointed as conductors on contract, following the demise of their kin in harness, began an indefinite dharna at 5pm yesterday and confined eight NBSTC officers to their offices.
Around 65 NBSTC buses from the depot ply on 89 routes daily and todays shutdown affected at least 8,000 commuters who had to take private transport to reach their destinations.
The five cashiers, a chief inspector and a traffic officer who were gheraoed were released after 6pm today.
One of the agitators, Ranendranath Roy, said: My father died in 1999 while working with the NBSTC and I was given a (contractual) job in 2001. I get a net pay of Rs 3,490 a month. There are 295 of us who have got jobs in a similar manner. Since the Mamata Banerjee government came to power, our contracts are being reviewed every three months. We are seeing that many of us are being sacked after these reviews, he said.
Samit Pandey, another contractual conductor, said: On Wednesday also we sat on a dharna and that day we had gheraoed the divisional manager of the NBSTC. Later, the managing director of the corporation, C. Murugan, sent us a message saying that he would meet a five-member delegation on Monday. But during the meeting yesterday, he began asking us about our performances and the meeting fell through. He did not speak once about giving back our jobs.
Ahmed, who is also a member of the board of directors of the NBSTC, blamed the managing director for the state of affairs.
The managing director is taking decisions without consulting the board and he is doing this under the instructions of Citu. We are not in favour of sacking people and what is being done is to sully the image of Mamata Banerjee. I have told the agitators that I will initiate discussions with the management about renewing the contracts and they have withdrawn the agitation. Normal services will resume tomorrow.
Murugan, however, said the performance records of all the 29 conductors were not up to the mark.
They have not showed up for duty for a single day in the past three months. That is all I can tell you, he said.


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Countdown for ABT's Nutcracker
Only eight more chances to see Alexei Ratmansky's Nutcracker at the Brooklyn Academy of Music! Next year it moves to Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. It may not be as kid-friendly as New York City Ballet's time-honored version, but it has its own beguiling assets—including a goodly dose of humor.
I loved American Ballet Theatre's new Nutcracker when it opened in 2010 (although I had a few, um, objections). Visually and psychologically it's very three-dimensional. Clara is a real girl, pulled between her fantasy worls and her wish to grow up. The snowflakes swoop and dive and dart, they don't just drift. The big pas de deux entwines and swirls; it doesn't just hit beautiful lines.
Musically Ratmansky doesn't make the obvious choices that would match Tchaikovsky's climaxes. He kind of slithers underneath the music. I posted this blog about his way of subverting the crescendos. My advice is to go there not expecting the big moments but enjoying the richness of his subtler relationship to the music—and the surprising places where the funny parts crop up.
Now I'm getting nostalgic I'm a bit sad that this week will be my last viewing of this wonderful Nutcracker.
But hang on: There's good news for NYC area audiences. This week three of the most magnificent ABT soloists will dance the lead (meaning Clara as a grown-up): Sarah Lane, Misty Copeland—who just received a Dance Magazine Award—and Stella Abrera, the latter two as debuts. I've written about why these three women, each with an unmistakable individualty, are star dancers even though they are still soloists. (If you want to see a clip of both Misty and Sarah Lane dancing at the Awards, click here.)
To buy tickets to this soon-to-take-the-highway-westward Nutcracker, click here — and click here for casting.
Photo: The snow scene from ABT's "Nutcracker." Photo by Gene Schiavone, Courtesy ABT.
Booking a gig on a cruise ship can feel like you're diving into the unknown—dropping everything to live in the middle of the ocean without family, friends or cell service. But cruise jobs can also offer incredible rewards, like traveling the world for free and delving into a new style.
Is ship life the right fit for you? Here are some elements to consider.
We knew that New York downtown dance darling Okwui Okpokwasili was a big deal. Critics and audiences have been raving about her dance-theater works for years, and the new documentary about her, Bronx Gothic, has attracted the attention of the larger arts community.
But never in our wildest dreams did we imagine she'd show up in a Jay Z video, along with flex dancer Storyboard P. Though we're slightly less surprised to see Storyboard in Jay Z's "4:44" video than we were to see Okpokwasili, we're jazzed that two of our favorites are featured on such a huge platform. (We're also feeling #blessed that we didn't have to subscribe to Tidal to watch this.)
Throughout the years, choreographer Seán Curran has worked with a diverse array of talented collaborators—from Kyrgyz music ensemble Ustatshakirt Plus to the the Grammy Award–winning King's Singers. But perhaps none are as meaningful as his most recent group of co-choreographers: At-risk teens from the after school program and nonprofit The Wooden Floor.
Curran has been in residence with The Wooden Floor since June, where he's worked with students to build choreography based on their lives and communities:
Their creation will be shown July 20-22 at The Wooden Floor Studio Theatre in Santa Ana, California.
"Besides the stage, baking is my other happy place," says New York City Ballet corps member Jenelle Manzi.
Four years ago, she thought her baking days were over when she was diagnosed with gluten intolerance. Manzi had been dealing with pain, frequent illness and joint inflammation for nearly 10 years. Once she cut out gluten, Manzi gradually started to feel better, noticing a transformation in how her body felt and functioned. She found her joints were less inflamed, and she got sick less often.
New York City Ballet soloist Unity Phelan and American Ballet Theatre soloist Cassandra Trenary spend every day making their hard work look effortless and graceful both in the studio and onstage. That's exactly what makes them the perfect spokesmodels for the dance-inspired activewear line, Belle Force.
To celebrate our 90th anniversary, we excavated some of our favorite hidden gems from the DM Archives—images that capture a few of the moments in time we've documented over the decades.
This image was captured during a 1978 New York City Ballet tour that took the company to Copenhagen—home turf for Adam Luders (right), who trained at the Royal Danish Ballet School and briefly danced with the company before joining NYCB as a principal dancer in 1975. Next to Luders is (of course) George Balanchine, in conversation with ballerina Suzanne Farrell. And looking on with a smile? NYCB's current ballet master in chief Peter Martins.
On March 8, 2016, Rami Shafi found himself inspired to film an impromptu dance video of his best friend, Aaron Moses Robin, improvising on Gay St. in New York City's Greenwich Village. Thus was born Pedestrian Wanderlust, a collection of dance videos that has grown to include a monthly improv jam.
Shafi works with anyone who wants to take part in the project, filming videos in locations chosen by the dancers and later adding music. The videos are shot on Shafi's iPhone in one take and, other than the starting and ending points, are entirely improvised. The editing afterwards—including the music choice—is minimal. "I don't like to edit too much. It's just what it is," says Shafi. "I usually can do the editing on the train ride home."


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M3 as a good Daily Driver?
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Dave 330i
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Originally Posted by
Jon Shafer
I have been driving mine daily since 2005. I get 22-24 mpg in town, 28 HWY.
Jon, I came back from a CCA Houston annual drive/restaurant to Freeport. Three E36 M3 with the younger kids showed up.
BTW, the drive was hosted by Advantage BMW, Clear Lake. Beside a complimentary lunch, I won their give away...A BMW to drive for a weekend. I hope the GM wasn't kidding that I can hold on to it longer. The certificate expires in 6 months. I'm waiting for the 2013 cars to arrive at the showroom. I think I want the 640i convertible. I saw a 2013 640i Gran Coupe for $102K, a coupe with 4 doors with the 3 liter twin turbo (noted in the MSRP). I was confused since the designation is 640i, thinking it had a V8, not. So, the 6 series overlaps the 5 and 7 now. 640i with 4 doors. I guess it got started with the 6-SUV. The M7 to compete with the Panorama is next.
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On August 5, NASA's Curiosity rover will have to go from the top of the atmosphere to the surface of Mars in just seven minutes. Team members describe the insane complexity behind landing on the Red Planet. … [Read more...]
Little Kitten – Seven Minutes Of Terror
Learn With Portals… Teach With Portals!
I don't know if you've seen this video before:From Geek.com, back in 2011: Steam have created "Teach with Portals", a website that allows educators to sign up to gain access to an educational version of Portal 2 and the Portal 2 puzzle maker. The software uses realistic physics (just like the other Portal games) and inspires teachers and students to create their own puzzles, explore different worlds, and share custom lesson plans. Here's what the official site says about Teach With Port … [Read more...]
Little Kitten – Clang (Neal Stephenson Kickstarter)
Neal Stephenson wants to revolutionize sword fighting video games. … [Read more...]
Little Kitten – Shaun Micallef Wreaks Havoc On Breakfast
Little Kitten – Build Your Own Sasquatch Tracker!
This one is for Doubtful News, with the hope that future Sasquatch hunting finds will be as cute. Head to the 12 minute mark to see the eventual product that these 'hunters' created. … [Read more...]
Media140 Perth – Working At DigitalMe 2012
You can spot me working with the other brilliant bloggers at around the 1:20min mark. I'm taking photos. This was one of the three days that I spent volunteering with Media140 - highly recommended and a wonderful experience with a dedicated team.By the way, you can see the screen of my laptop at about the .26 second mark here in the Media140 Business video... because I was probably the only blogger following Teller on Twitter! … [Read more...]
The First Rule Of Atheist Club…
"Even when atheists make entirely peaceful, positive, seemingly uncontroversial statements in public forums, we still get vicious rhetorical attacks and threats. I think incidents like these prove that we can't possibly be "nice enough" to win everyone over, at least not if that's our sole tactic." The First Rule of Atheist Club is that you cannot be nice. No one can be nice. You'll never be nice enough, so don't try.Second Rule of Atheist Club is that arrival tea, biscuits and fruit must be … [Read more...]
Humanity+ @Melbourne 2012 Summit – Happening Soon!
A Future Science and Technology conference - this two day long conference in Melbourne may interest some scientists and science communicators, as well as skeptics (considering that both the recent NECSS featured a panel on Futurism and the forthcoming TAM is advertising a workshop on "Skepticism about the Future: Techno-optimism vs. Reality").5-6 May 2012 - Melbourne - Humanity+ FUTURE SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGYJoin the conversation at Humanity+ Summit on 5-6th of May to explore the poss … [Read more...]
The Token Skeptic Interviews – Gia Milinovich (Meets The Blues Brothers – Kind Of)
I'll be away volunteering for the next few days at several conferences in a row (check out the work of the Media140 Perth team here) - in the meantime, feel free to be entertained and enlightened with some behind-the-scenes stories and interviews from the Token Skeptic podcast - and check out Sharon Hill's latest "Sounds Sciencey" at CSICOP with "You are Not Entitled to Your Own Bigfoot Facts"! I'll be back blogging as usual early next week. I don't know about you, but whenever I think about some … [Read more...]
Little Kitten – Mini Golf Inspired By Portal, MineCraft And More
Digital Futures – Media140 Conferences In Perth – Coming Soon!
There's three technology and internet conferences happening in a row in Perth - two are free for everyone to attend! You'll be able to see the content featured at http://media140.com/perth2012 - but first, here's the days that are up for grabs:26th April - DIGITAL BUSINESS - Agenda - What are the key challenges facing business in the digital age? DigitalBusiness will showcase the latest thinking in social media, social mobile and social commerce to help you develop more effective digital str … [Read more...]


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About FDA
Building the Infrastructure to Drive and Support Personalized Medicine
Previous Section: Rebuilding FDA's Small Business Outreach Services
Recent biomedical research breakthroughs, including the sequencing of the human genome and a deeper understanding of the molecular underpinnings of disease, have the potential to transform the treatment of disease and the practice of medicine. One of the most profound changes to medicine is the movement toward tailored therapeutics, or personalized medicine. As defined by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), personalized medicine is the tailoring of medical treatments to the individual characteristics of each patient, and the ability to classify individuals into subpopulations based on their susceptibility to a particular disease or their responses to a specific treatment. Personalized medicine therefore has the potential to optimize targeted delivery and dosing of treatments so patients can receive the most benefit with the least amount of risk, cutting out the difficulties of the current trial-and-error process many patients endure to find the correct drug and dose to treat a condition.
FDA Innovates
Predicting Adverse Reactions to Drugs
Patients respond differently to medicines, and all medicines present the possibility of side effects. Based on the belief that these differences may be based on genetic factors, FDA has been providing scientific and strategic input to the International Serious Adverse Events Consortium (iSAEC) to identify genetic markers that are useful in predicting the risk of drug-related serious adverse events. The iSAEC's initial studies have successfully identified genetic variants associated with drug-related liver toxicity and serious skin rashes. While the majority of iSAEC's genetic findings have been focused on a specific drug instead of across multiple drugs, a number of cross-drug inherited genes are emerging that may provide important insights into the underlying biology leading to a drug-induced serious adverse event.
Realizing the promise of personalized medicine requires a sustained commitment to advancing our understanding of the structure and function of our genomes, the underlying genetic and environmental bases of human disease, and human genomic variations and the ways in which these variations influence disease or responses to therapy. This research also requires a pathway to translate such findings to real world medical products and practices.
Much of the applied regulatory science for evaluating the strategies and outcomes for personalized medicine - such as standards for whole genome sequencing, fully qualified biomarkers (measurable characteristics in patients), and innovative clinical trial designs and statistics - are still underdeveloped. Additionally, the move toward personalized medicine is resulting in an increasing number of new products that fall within the purview of multiple centers at FDA, creating an additional challenge during the approval process. To address these issues, FDA will continue to take a leadership role on the scientific front and build the infrastructure necessary to support the development of these more personalized targeted therapies, most immediately through investments in regulatory science, clarification of FDA policies, a reorganization of leadership, and engagement of physicians, patients, and their advocacy groups.
Scientific Leadership: Supporting Personalized Medicine through Regulatory Science
FDA Innovates
Stem Cells
Human embryonic stem (ES) cells, which hold great promise for providing innovative treatments for a variety of incurable diseases like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and diabetes, have the ability to proliferate for an indefinite period of time and can develop into a variety of cell types. However, the mechanism of differentiation, or how cells change from one type to another, and the factors regulating cell development are not completely understood, meaning ES cells may vary when grown in different conditions or may change forms, potentially developing into cancer cells. To address this challenge, scientists at FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), in collaboration with NIH, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and academia, are developing new methods to evaluate stem cells using a variety of advanced analytic methods that compare the cells' characteristics when grown in a dish to how they change when placed in an animal. This approach allows scientists to correlate the measurable characteristics of the cells with a desired result, such as the repair of a blocked blood vessel, or with undesired or toxic effects. The knowledge gained from these studies, including the cells' characteristics and how they change, contribute to the development of safe and effective ES cell-based products being evaluated by CBER for humans and will be used to create advanced tools and processes for evaluating how ES cell-based products planned for humans will perform.
As we continue to expand our understanding of how genomic variations contribute to an individual's disease or response to therapy and gain deeper insights into the mechanisms underlying diseases and disease subtypes, innovative medical product development will increasingly use strategies where diagnostics and drugs are "co-developed" allowing for the diagnostic to guide which patients will be more likely to benefit from the drug and less likely to be at risk for serious side effects.
In order to fully realize the co-development approach, clinical development programs for medical products will require increased investments in regulatory science. Regulatory science, the term used to describe the knowledge, tools, standards, and approaches necessary to assess the safety, efficacy, quality, and performance of FDA-regulated products, will play an important part in addressing the challenges presented by personalized medicine. FDA's regulatory science initiative, as discussed in the Agency's Advancing Regulatory Science for Public Health white paper issued in October 2010 and the recently released Strategic Plan for Regulatory Science, calls for investments in key scientific areas necessary to promote innovation in personalized medicine.
Approaches that use novel clinical trial designs and statistics will be crucial. These novel designs will allow for patient selection strategies that identify those patients who will derive the most benefit from a treatment, balancing the need for methodological rigor with the need for more rapid, targeted answers and smaller study populations. Equally important are improved approaches to identify and qualify the performance and quality metrics of biomarkers to ensure that diagnostic tools can be developed and used to guide the selection of therapies.
FDA will continue to invest in these key scientific areas through direct funding efforts and collaborations with other agencies, such as NIH. FDA will also work to expand its efforts through collaborations with other government agencies and academia, as well as through public-private partnerships with industry scientists as collaborative partners to support these efforts.
Regulatory Infrastructure: Facilitating Personalized Medicine through FDA Policies and Procedures
Because science alone is not enough to translate personalized medicine from microscope to marketplace, FDA is also developing a series of regulatory policies and procedures to support its fruition. The Agency has received feedback about policies related to personalized medicine from industry groups that regard personalized medicine as one of the most promising avenues for new drugs and other innovative medical products.
During discussions about the future of medical devices in relation to personalized medicine, representatives of industry specifically requested that FDA address the issue of companion diagnostics, the tests that are used to determine whether a particular therapy may work for a particular patient. In response, FDA issued the draft guidance entitled In Vitro Companion Diagnostic Devices on July 12, 2011, to communicate to industry how FDA defines these devices and to assist sponsors in understanding the Agency's perspective on them.
The In Vitro Companion Diagnostic Devices guidance addresses several key elements for developing drug/diagnostic products, such as when an in vitro diagnostic test is considered a companion diagnostic and what requirements apply when companion diagnostics are used in clinical trials. It also outlines the steps necessary to obtain FDA approval if a company were to develop a diagnostic that identifies patients with an increased probability of responding to a therapy or an increased risk of adverse reaction to a new or existing therapy, and it specifies the information that must be included in the label of the test and its corresponding therapeutic product. In other words, it seeks to ensure that the tests steering patients toward targeted therapies are accurate and reliable and that the right patients receive the right drug at the right dose, promoting the basic tenets of personalized medicine.
As a follow on to the In Vitro Companion Diagnostic Devices guidance, FDA is also developing a draft guidance outlining strategies for clinical trial design and regulatory considerations for co-developing a novel companion diagnostic and therapy simultaneously, where the approval and subsequent use of the therapy would incorporate a requirement for the diagnostic test. This draft guidance includes recommendations for the strategic use of biomarkers for patient selection and screening, as well as clinical trial designs that allow for ethical patient selection strategies. FDA is also producing an internal plan for how it will review applications using co-development strategies for product development to accompany both guidances and ensure the Agency meets the special needs of these types of products in a timely way.
It is fully anticipated that the pathway to personalized medicine will utilize an individual's full genomic sequence, and rapid developments in ultra high throughput genomic sequencing technologies indicate that the era of the personal genome is fast approaching. In order to effectively utilize these new sequencing technologies for clinical applications, appropriate evaluation tools in the form of standards and criteria are needed to ensure sequencing quality and the accuracy of tests. Though public meetings and direct engagement, FDA is actively seeking input from academia, industry, patients, and other stakeholders on validation methodologies, materials, and bioinformatics approaches needed to address these issues and accelerate and support the introduction of innovative sequencing applications.
Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products
Promoting personalized medicine not only means having the right policies and science in place, it means making sure the FDA medical product centers work together as a team to get safe and effective new treatments to patients as quickly as possible. Since the primary responsibility for diagnostic approvals lies within CDRH while drugs, biologics and cell-based therapies lie in CDER and CBER, coordination between the Centers for applications incorporating diagnostics as a requirement for therapy use will be necessary.
To spearhead efforts for a seamless integration between the Centers as they must increasingly work together to promote highly innovative personalized therapies using the latest science and streamlined processes and procedures, the FDA Commissioner appointed a new Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products to oversee and manage the three medical product development centers. The Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products will be responsible for providing overall leadership for the three medical product centers. This person will also be responsible for other programs, such as combination products, where the Centers must work together to establish cross-center programs.
Table of Contents: Driving Biomedical Innovation
Next Section: Expedited Drug Development Pathway


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