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Go say hey to Nathan at Brain Fertilizer. He's the newest member of the Blogmosis Bunch -- a most excellent credential, if I do say so myself.
April 2003 Archives
From today's Israel Insider:
The siren's wail
By Stan Goodenough April 30, 2003
Courtesy of Jerusalem Newswire.
Find yourself, as a gentile, standing on Jerusalem's streets as the air raid sirens sound their remembrance call for the six million Holocaust dead, and again a week later as they wail for those cut down in uniform since the blood-birth of their haven state.
Listen to the pain of a people which has suffered unparalleled persecution at the hands of others, and you can never be the same.
Where else in the world...? The question is spontaneous, unavoidable. In days when others try to play down the extent of Jewish suffering, this question demands a response.
Loud. Long. Keen. The rising sirens immobilize the nation, paralyzing movement up and down the land. Vehicles stop, their drivers alighting to stand, heads bowed, in the streets. On the sidewalks, in shops, offices, schools and cinemas, on beaches and playing fields, people stop dead in their tracks.
Life arrested. The world turned to stone. Sirens howl their pain to the skies. And in the howling are a myriad sounds, hard to listen to, impossible to ignore.
Screaming children torn violently from mothers' arms, their cries reverberating echoes in your mind. Despairing, pain wracked cries of tormented generations.
Listen - Rachel weeps for her children. Through the clash of hooves, tracks, jackboots, steel; the shouts of Roman, Crusader, Cossack, Nazi - impaling children, women, new-born babies on spear, sword, bayonet - she weeps, her cries drowned out by theirs.
"For the glory of Rome!" "By the blood of Jesus!" "Juden Raus!" "Itbach al yahud!" "Death to the Jews!"
And today it continues.
"Genocide." The deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group."
What does it mean to set out to deliberately and systematically exterminate an entire nation, race or culture? And what does it mean to be the target of such a campaign? Though we use words like "genocide" and "Holocaust" casually in everyday speech, the reality behind the words is too mindboggling to comprehend. And yet, every year, on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan (which is today) Jews all over the world spend a few hours thinking, remembering, grieving, praying, trying to wrap their hearts and minds around the horror that was that reality in the not-so-distant past.
Many of us have friends and family who lived through the Nazi Holocaust. Survivors. Some of us actively seek them out, others prefer to avoid them. Often they're a little strange. Many of them don't talk about it, don't want to talk about it, can't talk about it. Others share their stories as if they were precious gifts. Which they are. With some, you can look into their eyes, if they'll let you, and feel that you're falling into a bottomless well of pain. But you'll find others brimming with an infectious kind of joy, as if still, today, they're marveling that they're alive and free and cherishing each and every moment.
My cousin Trudi (z"l) was one of the latter. She passed away last year in Jerusalem. I'd like to introduce you to her, via this website, which is dedicated to her memory. She was a most remarkable person.
Trudi Birger's privileged childhood is Frankfurt, Germany, ended abruptly at the age of seven when the Nazis forced her and her family out of the life they knew. After several years of hiding, they were captured by the Nazis. Trudi and her family were separated from the rest of their family and sent to a death camp. Trudi was literally snatched from the crematorium door through a miracle that she describes in her book "A Daughter's Gift of Love (The Jewish Publication society, 1992). She made a vow then never to leave a child in distress. After the war she married and emigrated to Israel with her husband and mother. She began to fulfill her vow in the 60's when she was a full-time microbiologist pregnant with her third child. During her work with needy children she became aware of the physical and psychological suffering of severe dental problems. She could identify with those children, having had her own teeth knocked out by a Nazi guard in a concentration camp. In 1978 she established the Dental volunteers for Israel, a non-profit organization. The organization is staffed by volunteer dentists, both Jewish and non-Jewish, from many countries, who pay their own travel expenses. Living quarters are provided by funds donated to DVI. These donations also cover expenses other than direct dental care, such as a very effective oral hygiene community educational program conducted by dental hygienists, in which children and their mothers participate. Unfortunately, the Government aids with only 5% of the expenses. The organization serves 150 of Jerusalem's poor children ages 5 to 18 every day, free of charge, regardless of race or ethnic background. Most of the children come from large families and have a religious background. These children would not have been able to receive dental care without DVI.
(Taken from the article of the Association for Wise Giving by the Sherman Foundation)
Trudi Birger. Beloved mother, cherished wife, devoted daughter, dear cousin and angel of mercy to so many. Her memory is indeed a blessing.
I'm so glad to see that Vicky's back. And hopefully recovering nicely. I'm sorry to read that Big Cat got hit by a car, poor thing. Best wishes for his speedy and complete recovery, too. This is an unbelievably bad string of luck (luck?) for Vicky and Matt, but hopefully it's all over now.
I myself am under the weather (can you tell?) but determined to snap out of it by tomorrow. It's Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and I do have a few things I'd like to say on that subject. Yes, indeed.
I really didn't want to dwell on this subject, but the usually eloquent Wind Rider has taken a bit of a flier on this one.* In fact, I'd respectfully suggest that he's engaging in some of the same sort of creative interpretation he starts out by accusing others of.
(*As usual, Blogger's permalinks aren't working -- scroll down to "Puzzlement," April 26)
What Wind heard:
I find that I must agree with Senator Santorum, or at least my read on what his point actually is, in this particular instance. While there is ample reason to believe that Santorum's personal views do not hold homosexuality, its forms or its practices in high regard, that is not the basis of his indictment. What that is, is that if society has changed so much that the practice of homosexuality, and its forms, are socially acceptable, then in fact, the law, she is an ass. And such laws, specifically with regards to sodomy, should be re-examined by the various legislative bodies of those states that still have such laws, and repealed or modified to better fit the sensibilities and practices of the society we live in.
What Rick said:
We have laws in states, like the one at the Supreme Court right now, that has sodomy laws and they were there for a purpose. Because, again, I would argue, they undermine the basic tenets of our society and the family. And if the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery. You have the right to anything. Does that undermine the fabric of our society? I would argue yes, it does. It all comes from, I would argue, this right to privacy that doesn't exist in my opinion in the United States Constitution, this right that was created, it was created in Griswold -- Griswold was the contraceptive case -- and abortion. And now we're just extending it out. And the further you extend it out, the more you -- this freedom actually intervenes and affects the family. You say, well, it's my individual freedom. Yes, but it destroys the basic unit of our society because it condones behavior that's antithetical to strong healthy families. Whether it's polygamy, whether it's adultery, where it's sodomy, all of those things, are antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family.
Santorum's not saying the sodomy laws should be re-examined, repealed or modified. To the contrary, he says quite clearly, in so many words, that the laws are doing exactly the job they were intended to do -- that they "were there for a purpose," and that purpose is to prevent the undermining of "the basic tenets of our society and the family." And he's stating categorically that polygamy, adultery and sodomy are all "antithetical to a healthy, stable, traditional family," i.e., to the American way of life as he would like it to be. No one is twisting his words, here. He's twisted them just fine all by himself.
What they both said (via WR):
As I perceive Senator Santorum's concern, I share it. By addressing this issue via the courts, and using this as another opportunity to construct a framework for an argument as to the existence of 'sexual rights', it is of great concern that by opening that door, and giving that concept credence, it would only be a matter of time before it was used to strike down, despite the sense of society as to their necessity as expressed through legislative action, the various laws proscribing bestial or incestuous or other such conduct, on the basis of the 'rights' argument. Put simply, and just as simply pooh pooh'd and dismissed, the slippery slope.
Yep, that's the argument. Postulate that what goes on between consenting adult human beings in the privacy of their own homes is their own business and not that of either their neighbors, the legislature or the courts, and the next thing you know, we'll have to license marriages between brothers and sisters, people and their pets, perhaps even between folks of difference races and religions (ooops, being there, doing that).
Well, I'm going to open a real can of worms and ask, hypothetically: so what? What if, under some (highly unlikely) reading of a Constitutional right to privacy, the Supreme Court decided we had to repeal state laws prohibiting incest and beastiality? Are we actively enforcing those laws much these days? Would it cause a run on such behavior among people who would otherwise find it abhorrent? Would it lessen the stigma attached to those acts? I think not. Isn't the real issue here that some people simply want, at any cost, to prevent or ignore an existing evolution of societal norms (and in my opinion a very positive evolution) with which they personally disagree?
And that's sort of where we are in today's world, unfortunately. The idea is that the state doesn't have rights to limit individuals' wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire. And we're seeing it in our society.
What we're seeing in our society is a recognition that love and affection are no longer considered mere tools in the implementation of a survival agenda -- the reproduction of the species, the race, the tribe in the face of possible extinction. This agenda was adopted early on as an exclusive province by church and state alike (and again by our Puritan founding fathers) and for some reason they still conspire to maintain the monopoly. It's a losing battle.
The devout Catholics and the ultra-Orthodox Jews and the fundamentalist Muslims will continue to view the primary purpose of their sanctified unions as procreation and proliferation, but the rest of us have other agendas. In fact, there are those of us who earnestly believe that the key to humanity's survival on this planet lies in discouraging wanton multiplication of the species. But that's a topic for another day.
Rick Santorum and Wind Rider are most certainly entitled to their opinions on this topic. I happen to disagree with both of them, but that's not the point. The point is that Santorum is a U.S. Senator who is clearly infusing his personal religious agenda into his job at the expense of a substantial number of his constituents. He should be held accountable for this. If enough of his constituents and colleagues believe that he nonetheless continues to represent their interests, he'll weather the storm nicely. If not, the democratic process will do its work. In the meantime, lobbying will continue on both sides.
Postscript: the Constitutional "right to privacy" that was first articulated by the Supreme Court in Griswold v. Connecticut back in 1965 (and that Rick Santorum claims does not exist) has come under attack from many quarters for many years. So far, it's proved to be fairly resilient. Regardless of whether that continues to be true in the future, there will always be behavior that's considered unprotected by any "right," just as there will always be some sphere of privacy recognized into which government may not intrude. How large or small you believe that sphere should be will probably depend upon where you fall on this grid.
I was much too busy on April 15th to follow up on this -- no, before I link it, I have to say that it's really not worth following. Not even a little. And I say this as an avid science fiction fan.
But if you don't already know and you remember that once upon a time you were mildly interested in what the 8march2003 mystery was all about, and you need some closure, well, ok, click.
See? It's really not worth the energy. What a {predictable} dud.
It thrives wherever difference is despised, where faith is brandished as a club and a sword, whenever there's no room for compromise or understanding.
It exploits the worst in all of us. It takes nourishment from our doubts, our suspicions, our fears, but it's never sated.
It rarely acknowledges its true identity and often accuses those who would see it destroyed of practicing it in their own right.
Its fingerprints are all over crimes like these, but it also lurks behind accusations like this and sanctimonius garbage like this and it stares blankly out of the inanities in messages like the one described here.
It leaves disaster and ruin in its wake. It's self-perpetuating, self-justifying and more resiliant than a cockroach.
I'm so sick of it. Sick of reading about it and sick of reading it, sick of seeing its droppings on television and on my computer screen, sick of listening to those who practice it devotedly trying to throw it back in the face of those who just want to live and love and go about their business without being pushed or shoved or blown up or mowed down.
It's just a four letter word, but it packs a mean punch. Hate. Let's learn to live without it.
Shabbat Shalom.
We picked up a PIZZA on the way home tonight.
I don't know why, exactly, but every year I find keeping Passover just a bit more tedious. Part of it is that matzah tends to clog up my plumbing (er, yes, excuse me, that plumbing). But the bigger part is that after five or six days, the diet starts to get incredibly boring.
Bread, wonderful bread! Pasta, pizza, cake and cookies, cereal, rice and NO potatoes (even though I love 'em) for at least a week. Yes!!!!!
Combing through my email for the last few weeks, I've managed to find all manner of execrable essays by various contributors to the likes of the Arab News, the Jordan Times and the Egyptian English language weekly, Al-Ahram. But so far, nothing has gotten my dander up nearly so much as what I'm reading in the English language online version of Ha'aretz - the Israeli paper to which Imshin recently canceled her subscription.
I mentioned one of their nastier pieces last week. Now I've discovered a real doozie, from way back on April 4, by the ever so annoying Ari Shavit. The last time Mr. Shavit put me in this foul a mood was back in January. But in "White Man's Burden," he outdoes himself. Let's take a look.
The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history. Two of them, journalists William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, say it's possible. But another journalist, Thomas Friedman (not part of the group), is skeptical.
Great start. The neocon (a/k/a Zionist conspiracy) cabal in Washington managed to finagle a war with Iraq to suit their own nefarious needs. If you don't get that from this opening paragraph, believe me, you'll get it in spades before you reach the end of the article.
WASHINGTON - At the conclusion of its second week, the war to liberate Iraq wasn't looking good. Not even in Washington. The assumption of a swift collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime had itself collapsed. The presupposition that the Iraqi dictatorship would crumble as soon as mighty America entered the country proved unfounded. The Shi'ites didn't rise up, the Sunnis fought fiercely. Iraqi guerrilla warfare found the American generals unprepared and endangered their overextended supply lines. Nevertheless, 70 percent of the American people continued to support the war; 60 percent thought victory was certain; 74 percent expressed confidence in President George W. Bush.
Oops! Well, it appears events have overtaken Mr. Shavit just a bit. And I guess most of the rest of this article appears so totally ludicrous to me in part because, by the time I read it, his initial premise had already been discredited. But even without the slight drawback of having been proved totally wrong, his presumptions here are so clogged with hubris, so laced with the perpetual sneer of moral superiority that is his trademark, that they offend regardless of their accuracy.
In the course of the past year, a new belief has emerged in the town: the belief in war against Iraq. That ardent faith was disseminated by a small group of 25 or 30 neoconservatives, almost all of them Jewish, almost all of them intellectuals (a partial list: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, William Kristol, Eliot Abrams, Charles Krauthammer), people who are mutual friends and cultivate one another and are convinced that political ideas are a major driving force of history. They believe that the right political idea entails a fusion of morality and force, human rights and grit. The philosophical underpinnings of the Washington neoconservatives are the writings of Machiavelli, Hobbes and Edmund Burke. They also admire Winston Churchill and the policy pursued by Ronald Reagan. They tend to read reality in terms of the failure of the 1930s (Munich) versus the success of the 1980s (the fall of the Berlin Wall).
Are they wrong? Have they committed an act of folly in leading Washington to Baghdad? They don't think so. They continue to cling to their belief. They are still pretending that everything is more or less fine. That things will work out. Occasionally, though, they seem to break out in a cold sweat. This is no longer an academic exercise, one of them says, we are responsible for what is happening. The ideas we put forward are now affecting the lives of millions of people. So there are moments when you're scared. You say, Hell, we came to help, but maybe we made a mistake.
William Cristol. Charles Krathammer. Breaking out in a cold sweat over the possible catastrophe their cleverly manipulated policies may have wrought? Does that sound right to you? I mean, I've been reading and listening to these guys for a long time, and I never detected a whiff of that. And I have a pretty good nose. Nor, by the way, will you detect such trepidation in the "interviews" with these two fellows that follow, except insofar as it's deposited there directly by Shavit. In fact, though the piece is written in quasi-interview style, you won't find a set of quotes anywhere in it. It's impossible to tell what's verbatim, what's paraphrased and what's Shavit's pure invention. Such clever journalism!
The icing on the cake, though, is his capping it all off with an "interview" with Tom Friedman, the pompous windbag who brought us the old and unimproved "Saudi Peace Plan" wrapped in a new pink ribbon. The same Tom Friedman who manages to get it consistently wrong without ever suffering from a noticable lack of credibility in the press. Don't miss this part. It's a classic.
Is the Iraq war the great neoconservative war? It's the war the neoconservatives wanted, Friedman says. It's the war the neoconservatives marketed. Those people had an idea to sell when September 11 came, and they sold it. Oh boy, did they sell it. So this is not a war that the masses demanded. This is a war of an elite. Friedman laughs: I could give you the names of 25 people (all of whom are at this moment within a five-block radius of this office) who, if you had exiled them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would not have happened.
If you detect a common thread uniting the beginning and end of this story, well, that sums up Shavit's agenda nicely. Nevertheless, for some reason he decided to conclude with a slight backpedal.
Still, it's not all that simple, Friedman retracts. It's not some fantasy the neoconservatives invented. It's not that 25 people hijacked America. You don't take such a great nation into such a great adventure with Bill Kristol and the Weekly Standard and another five or six influential columnists. In the final analysis, what fomented the war is America's over-reaction to September 11. The genuine sense of anxiety that spread in America after September 11. It is not only the neoconservatives who led us to the outskirts of Baghdad. What led us to the outskirts of Baghdad is a very American combination of anxiety and hubris.
I'd suggest that both the anxiety and the hubris belong to Messrs. Friedman and Shavit. But the tin hat ZOG crowd should love this one. It's right up their alley.
One of our local news channels [new link substituted], in the interest of presenting the matter in context, of course, has published the full, unedited segment of the recent interview with Senator Rick Santorum that's gotten him into a bit of well-deserved trouble. And I refuse to print more than just a bit of it here.
Um, this is my senator. This man represents me in the U.S. Senate? I - don't - think - so.
Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. Why? Because society is based on one thing: that society is based on the future of the society. And that's what? Children. Monogamous relationships. In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That's not to pick on homosexuality. It's not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be.
Well, no. Of course not. And he's not against homosexuals. He's only against homosexuals' "behavior." Please don't mistake this for "picking on homosexuality." It's just likening it to beastialitiy, pedophilia, incest and bigamy. Not picking, though. Definitely not.
Rick Santorum is
a Jew and * a proud supporter of Israel. I wonder how he feels when people say, "I have nothing against Jews, it's just their religion I find repulsive." Or, the classic, "I'm not anti-Semitic, I'm just anti-Zionist."
Get a clue, Rick. "Tolerating" what you call "deviant behavior" is not going to bring Western civilization crumbling to its knees, no matter what wacky analogies you dream up to prove that it will. And excuse me for asking, but don't you have anything more constructive to focus your attention on these days?
*CORRECTION: Rick Santorum is a devout Catholic and I humbly apologize for my earlier error. Somehow, with all the press releases about his participation in missions to Israel and various local events sponsored by the Jewish community, my perception became clouded. Color me beet red. The rest of the post stands.
UPDATE (still catching up): There's a wealth of interesting analysis of Santorum's comments and their implications over at The Volokh Conspiracy. Too many posts to link, but start here and scroll up.
Hey, Meryl's celebrating the SECOND anniversary of her blog today. That's quite a landmark. Make sure to drop on over to check out her anniversary post, where she's reviewing the road from there to here. It's, like, total Meryl.
America's Fox News network has been demonstrating since the start of the war in Iraq an amazing lesson in media hypocrisy. The anchors, reporters and commentators unceasingly emphasize that the war's goal is to free the Iraqi people from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. The frequency, consistence and passion with which they use that lame excuse, and the fact that nearly no other reasons are mentioned shows that this is the network's editorial policy. The American flag lies in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, while the logo accompanying the programming is Operation Iraqi Freedom, the official name given by the Pentagon. Fox journalists display what appears to be genuine happiness, innocent and sincere, brainwashed in nature, in the expectation for the wonderful day when the American army leads the Iraqi people from slavery to freedom.
* * *
As far as the war's motives are concerned, Fox looks like part of the propagandistic campaign of systematic disinformation by the Bush administration, while it accuses the Iraqi regime of disseminating false information about the situation on the battlefield. The motives for the war and measure of its justice are at the heart of the current conflict between the United States and its European allies, and has ramifications over its relations with Russia, China and the Arab world as well as its position as the global superpower. Just as the Iraqi TV deceives its viewers about the situation on the battlefield, Fox misleads its American viewers about the reasons for the war. If only the issue of the human rights of the Iraqi people was at stake, there never would have been a war.
But Fox broadcasts to the entire world. Like CNN, it presents to the globe the face of America and its perception of reality, and it exports its dark side, the infuriating side that inspires so much hostility: the self-righteousness, the brutality, the pretension, hubris, and simplicity, the feverish faith in its moral superiority, the saccharine and infantile patriotism, and the deep self-persuasion that America is not only the most powerful of the nations, but also that the truth is always American. Fox looks like the media arm of the superpower mentality, indifferent to any perspective that is not American and alienating vast portions of the world. Its war coverage is as governmental as that of Iraqi TV. This is American TV.
From whence comes this hysterically anti-American drivel? From some rabid Islamist rag or the ravings of a preacher in Gaza? Or perhaps from some remaining pocket of daft defiance in Paris or in Moscow?
Nope. The foregoing is courtesy of the only slightly (cough) left-leaning Israeli daily Ha'aretz. It's almost two weeks old now, but the melody's still the same. Nice, huh?
Oh, my! Another crisis I've missed over the last few weeks and quite close to home. My Blogmosis-mama Vicky has been struck by the asswipe overload virus, a/k/a Trolls Cubed - a common infection that seems to come with Comments. Which is one reason I have none. In the last few months, it's driven the likes of Imshin and Diane (currently down for other reaons) to despair and, worse, to temporary blogging hiatuses. So sorry to see Vicky join the club and I hope she returns soon in all her glory.
Meanwhile, however, at the risk of attracting the ire of "jefe" and his ilk, I'd like to add a personal addendum to this post, which seems to have tipped the bucket.
Some shmoe is suing McDonald's for discrimination in violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act.
Connor, who weighs 420 pounds, claims that McDonald's violated the laws when it regarded him as morbidly obese and refused to hire him based on that perception. Further, he alleges that his obesity is a disability, and the restaurant chain violated the CFEPA by deliberately not hiring him.
U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill concluded that Connor must be given the opportunity to prove that he is protected under the law.
McDonald's had argued that obesity, except in special cases where the obesity is due to a physiological disorder, is not a "physical impairment" within the meaning of the ADA.
I'm sorry, weighing 420 pounds is, indeed, morbidly obese. It is not a mere "perception." What restaurant would want to hire a 420 pound person? It's just plain impractical. They wouldn't be able to fit anyone else behind the counter, and the person would certainly eat all of the food. If Connor and his lawyer are successful in making obesity a disability, the next step would be forcing McDonald's to renovate its kitchen so the guy can actually fit into it.
A few years ago, I had just boarded a full flight from Philadelphia to Denver en route to Phoenix. I was occupying the middle seat in a row of three, with the sole empty seat on the plane to my left, when a man came lumbering down the aisle. A man so huge he could move only by squeezing painfully past each row. Aiming his bulk at the empty seat next to me.
But he couldn't get in. He tried, several times, to maneuver it. No luck. And then the unbelievable happened. This man reached behind him, raised the armrest between our seats and plopped himself down, with approximately one-third of his bulk resting on and just beginning to squash the crap out of my left leg. To which I responded by rapidly and mindlessly extricating the leg from harm's way.
This foolish move allowed our friend to settle comfortably, with an audible sigh of relief (I swear) into both our seats. The space left for me was less than one-half of the seat I'd previously occupied. The flight attendant flatly refused to do anything about it. When I pointed out to her that FAA regulations supposedly require the armrest to be down for takeoff, she shrugged. She offered to escort me off the plane, which offer I declined.
Fortunately, the passenger to my right was my travel companion. I basically sat on his lap for the entire flight. When I filed a formal complaint in Denver, I was offered a $75 travel voucher and assured that the airline had no choice. Had they insisted that this man occupy only one seat, they said, they would have been sued. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
I didn't believe it then and I don't believe it now. Vicky, I'm with you 100% on this one. And please -- come back soon.
Almost exactly one year ago, I was searching for some stuff on the internet and stumbled across a thing called a weblog. And life changed. The blog was Chris Newman's Dagger in Hand (the stuff I was searching for was info on Oriana Falacci), and in the process of my quest for more explanation of this blogging phenomenon, I followed a link to Yourish.com. Thus began a most rewarding cyber-friendship. But I had never actually met Meryl, or even spoken to her, until yesterday.
Well, Philadelphia (and its suburbs) are more or less smack dab on the way between northern New Jersey and Richmond, VA, so S. and I enjoyed a great visit with the delightful Ms. Yourish, who's now on her way back home. She might even post some photos from Valley Forge National Park, which was brimming with people out to enjoy yesterday's beautiful weather. And we treated her to a feast of beasts that would definitely make PETA (and probably even some with less delicate sensibilities) squirm. Copious amounts of wine were consumed, as well, though I fear I did quite a bit more of that consuming than did Meryl. And has anyone else noticed how incredibly bright it seems to be today?
Once upon a time, when I was a kid, we had things called "pen pals." These were people with whom one was encouraged to establish a written correspondence over a relatively vast distance, resulting in exposure to different and more varied cultures, beliefs and ideas. Or so the theory went. I suspect it was basically a ruse to encourage us to express ourselves creatively through the written word, which is a very good thing. It was also more dramatic and, well, proper, than picking up the phone and calling a perfect stranger. But most of those correspondences petered out in relatively short order due to lack of interest.
E-mail correspondence, due in part to its immediacy and its informality, bears only surface resemblance to the pen pal sort. Especially since it's usually launched by an initial discovery of commonly held views and values rather than as a shot in the dark. I find it fascinating that over the past year I've discovered so many far flung "friends" and established so many and such varied relationships through this blog and those of others without a clue as to how accurate or complete my perceptions of them are. Well, "normal" personal relationships have the same issues, I guess, but they enjoy the benefit of hundreds of little clues of facial expression, vocal nuance and body language, not to mention sheer physical presence, that we learn to rely upon in moving closer, backing off or choosing how to respond in any given instance.
Where am I going with this? Nowhere in particular. Just some musings on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Oh, and this. I think we bloggers should try to get together in person more often. Maybe even with others who are not of like mind. It might enrich the tone of our encounters. And it can be a hell of a lot of fun.
Safe trip, Meryl. Let's do it again sometime soon.
And to all of you who are celebrating Easter today, here's wishing you a peaceful and joyous holiday.
I've spent a good part of the day catching up with mail. Ugly. The best part, the part that's had me mesmerized, are the excerpts from the Arab press on the war with Iraq. It's fascinating to read how the Americans are losing the war, how we're being surprised and thwarted at every turn. Hmmmm. Not all that much different than the reports by much of the American media, I guess.
I haven't quite gotten up to date yet, but I notice the sun has already set. And I haven't even started truly preparing for the arrival of a most illustrious houseguest tomorrow (more on that later, I suspect). Time to get a move on, here.
Shabbat Shalom.
I see that while I've been otherwise occupied, Diane has been obliged to close up shop and take down her blog. This is extremely annoying, but apparently it can't be helped.
We'll miss you, D. Big time. Hope you find a way back soon.
Oh, my. Where did this day go? Well, everything I wanted to say will have to wait. The fish is chilling, the brisket and the tsimmes are in the oven, the table is set, but still much to do before guests arrive.
I wish to all who are celebrating this festival of our freedom a safe, peaceful, wonderful holiday.
Chag sameach.
The older the Rachel Corrie story gets, the less of a story it turns out to be. The real story, it would seem, was the rush to hyperbole with which this young nitwit's death was welcomed in certain quarters. Not to mention the deafening silence from those same quarters that's greeted the unravelling of the fabrications.
The latest, via IMRA:
Follow up on ISM and the death of Rachel Corrie
Excerpt from NGO Monitor April 10, 2003 5763 Nisan 8
The IDF has completed an exhaustive investigation of the death of Rachel Corrie, and as the findings hardly matched the original "eyewitness reports" of fellow ISM protestors, NGO Monitor thought it would be beneficial to provide a brief follow up. As one may recall, Rachel Corrie, a 23 year old American woman, was serving as an international peace protestor/human shield with the Palestinian International Solidarity Movement when she was allegedly killed by being run over by an IDF bulldozer.
First, it has been determined the "eyewitness report" that the world received following the death of Corrie was fictional. The IDF performed a complete and exhaustive investigation of the death and discovered the following: 1) Corrie was not sitting in front of the bulldozer, but was obstructed from it by a mound of earth; 2) She died not from being hit by the bulldozer - apparently there was no contact between her and the machine - but rather was hit by heavy building debris that the vehicle was moving; 3) the bulldozer was not demolishing homes at all, but was flattening out an area frequently used as a staging ground for terrorism and arms smuggling, in order to increase Israel's ability to maintain security control of the area. Judy Lash Balint of the Jerusalem Diaries prepared an informative article documenting the discrepancies in the account.
Judy Lash Balint's essay (called "Peace Activists in the Middle East: Out of Their Depth") is also well worth reading, as it goes into quite a bit more detail, albeit without the benefit of all the findings listed above. This is one instance in which, it seems, the more we learn, the less there is to know.
Well, it's with great pleasure that we welcome Laurence Simon's Amish Tech Support to the exploding Blogmosis family. We all wish him good health and happiness in his new home. He seems to be settling in quite nicely.
In the meantime, here's Lar's take (from an interim location) on Friday's nauseating Eason Jordan revelations. He's looking at this picture through a wider lens than most. Let's pay attention.
One of the occupational hazzards of blogging is that it seems new and exciting ideas for posts are always popping into one's head at the most inopportune moments. Caught in traffic (without a dictaphone handy) and miles from a keyboard or in the shower rushing to get ready for an important meeting or on the treadmill at the gym, the most profound essays will crowd my brain just begging to be translated into bits and bytes.
Well, I've found a way to stem the flow. Spend a week entering someone else's (several someone elses's) spectacularly unprofitable stock trades (hundreds of them), real estate tax and mortgage payments, business expenses, charitable contributions and W-2 information into the computer for translation to the magical Form 1040. I find my brain to be stripped of all creative impluses. Numb. Someone should have suggested to the powers-that-be that scheduling a war during tax season was cruel and unusual punishment for tax preparers who would like to be paying attention, let alone creating commentary.
Ah, well. It's almost over. And once my house is cleaned and my gefilte fish is chopped, mixed, formed and boiled, once the last cup of wine has been drained and the afikomen eaten -- in other words, once the Passover Seder is over, I expect to return to some modicum of normalcy. In the meantime, I thank those of you who are still here for bearing with me.
This Shabbat, the last one before the beginning of Passover, is called Shabbat Hagadol, which means "the great Sabbath." I've been browsing around trying to find out why, but the explanations I'm finding simply do not have the ring of truth about them and, well, my usual investigative demon is asleep at the switch. I may follow this up over the next week or so if I find anything interesting (or if anyone emails me something that doesn't have to do with Egyptian kids killing their parents because they wouldn't let the Jews go -- gimme a break).
In the meantime,
Shabbat Hagadol Shalom.
Another precious gem from Imshin.
I'd say this is a very good piece of news, if true. As a matter of fact, it could potentially be the beginning of something quite spectacular. (Via IMRA)
Monday, April 7, 2003
Kuwaiti Worshipers Said Opposing Anti-US Sermons, Preachers
GMP20030406000044 Kuwait Al-Siyasah (Internet Version-WWW) in Arabic
05 Apr 03
[With thanks to www.mideastweb.org/mewnews1.htm]
[FBIS Translated Text]
Al-Siyasah has learned that a new phenomenon has emerged in some Kuwaiti mosques. The worshipers have begun to reject the extremism that some imams express in their sermons and their advocacy of fighting the Americans and viewing them as enemies. Worshipers at a mosque in the Janub al-Surrah neighborhood interrupted the prayer leader Nabil al-Awadi when he began to call down imprecations on the heads of the Americans during last Friday's sermon. They demanded that he stop doing that. Friday worshipers at the A'ishah Habib Mosque in the Al-Jabiriyah neighborhood yesterday shouted the slogan: "O God, grant a lofty status to Islam and grant the same to the United States." They did this to express their opposition to the anti-American announcements that the mosque's imam was making.
It's truly not my intention to devote much of what little blogging time I can scrounge right now to Jonathan Pollard. But it seems that his name is suddenly popping up with annoying frequency again (there are lulls in this storm) so today I thought I'd simply let him speak for himself.
The following is a letter released by Pollard's organization. It was written to Uri Ariel, a member of the Knesset since October, 2001, who has had the audacity to send Pollard a number of letters recently, wishing him well, but has so far apparently spent insufficient political capital lobbying for his release.
Via Regular Mail
Dear Uri,
Please stop sending letters to me. All they do is underscore the blatant cowardliness and treachery of our political establishment.
Despite your "best wishes," Uri, when it comes right down to it, both you and your party are no better than the bootlickers who abandoned me 19 years ago.
And just who are you, Uri, to "fight for my freedom"? What a sick, pathetic joke. Kever Yosaif [Joseph's Tomb] lies in ruins and your so-called "party" joins a Government of liars and murderers! Ma'araht HaMachpela [Tomb of the Patriarchs] is besieged on all sides, and the National Union negotiates for a place at the trough! Our holy Temple Mount has been destroyed for a 3rd time, Uri, and you pathetic politicians run around the Knesset like a bunch of scared hens, afraid of Edom and Esau. What a disgrace to all of our martyrs who have fallen dreaming of a proud, independent Jewish national homeland!
For 2000 years Uri, our people prayed for a restoration of our sovereign right to The Land, and all we have to show for it is the political equivalent of a cheap whore house. G-d must look at you and weep.
So Uri, my friend, let me give you some very good advice: worry about yourself. The Lord G-d of Israel will save me.
'Nuff said.
Just a few more ramblings on the "Road Map" to close out the week.
Ever since this proposal started circulating, it's had an odd smell to me. On the one hand, it bore the distinct odor of Oslo (and at this point, that's quite a stink). On the other hand, it was being promoted by a U.S. administration that seemed last summer to "get" that continued Israeli concessions, in the absence of concrete evidence of palestinian efforts to reign in terror, were counterproductive. If nothing else, Bush's June 24th speech seemed to acknowledge that the "peace process" could only continue if both sides demonstrated a willingness to reach an agreement. And it made clear exactly who Bush considered the obstacle. Hint: it wasn't Israel.
So what is it with this "Road Map?" I've suggested before that it may be just a ploy to keep our allies (both real and imaginary) off our back until the war is over. But that doesn't really ring true. Of course, the UN is pushing hard for it. So are the EU and Russia. The real stinker, though, is the vehemence with which the palestinians are pushing for it. Even if I didn't find its terms alarming in their own right, the fact that it's so darn attractive to one side of the conflict would be a flashing red light in my brain. Why is it that the "Quartet" doesn't seem to notice?
Here's just a sampling of comments made for public consumption by various palestinian officials over the past few weeks.
[Chief Palestinian negotiator and cabinet minister Sa'eb] Erekat stressed that "what is wanted from the United States is to find a real mechanism to carry out the roadmap, impose it on Israel with a timetable and international observers."
The [PLO] Executive Committee said the "roadmap" is not a subject of fresh negotiations but a formula that requires immediate implementation, including a stop to all forms of aggressive action, withdrawal from all territory occupied by Israel, and ceasing all settlement activities, in accordance with the Tenet Understandings and the UN Security Council Resolutions.
The "roadmap" to peace in the Middle East was put forward by the "Quartet" of mediators comprising the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. It envisions a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel by 2005 and gives Israel Arab-wide recognition.
Implementing the "roadmap" should also include "applying the Mitchel Recommendations, lifting of siege, and terminating the policy of collective punishment, house demolitions and killing of thousands of civilians, as well as the detention of thousands of Palestinians amidst other war crimes," the committee stressed.
I've quoted this one at some length to point out what the Executive Committee is sort of missing in its reading of the terms of the map. Like this stuff:
In the first phase, the Palestinians will start immediately implementing an unconditional halt of violence according to the specific steps as outlined below; Palestinians and Israelis will resume security cooperation on the basis of Tenet Plan to end the violence, terrorism and instigation through restructured and effective Palestinian security services; the PA will undertake a process of comprehensive political reform. . ..
Now, why is that? Perhaps because the Committee doesn't really see those things as necessary. Look at the language. The palestinians will "start immediately implementing. . .," "undertake a process. . .." Weasel words. Israel, on the other hand, will "withdraw from . . .," will "freeze all settlement activities . . .." The whole document follows a similar pattern. Concrete physical and territorial concessions made for "efforts," "processes" and "attempts" that may or may not succeed and, in fact, are not required to. Anyway, back to the rave reviews.
"Consequently, we call on the members of the Quartet and the American administration to apply as soon as possible the 'roadmap' setting the steps toward creating a Palestinian state by 2005," Arafat's media adviser Nabil Abu Rudaineh said.
And that is, after all, the big attraction. The creation of a palestinian state. After which, all bets are off.
Washington and London have come under fire by the Palestinian leadership for their decisive pressing ahead with the war on Iraq while constantly delaying publication of an internationally drafted "roadmap" to end the 30-month Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian chief negotiator and cabinet minister Sa'eb Erekat slammed the repeated delay.
"It seems the delay in the peace process is in marked contrast to the immediate and final decision for a war on Iraq. The decision for war was not delayed, but the decision for peace has been delayed six times in four months," he said.
I confess, this one is sort of my favorite. For the hundredth time, I find myself wondering what planet Sa'eb Erekat lives on. One can only hope that the "Road Map" is introduced, if at all, with the same sense of "immediacy" as was the war against Saddam. That would mean, what, 2015?
[Palestinian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Nabil] Shaath stressed the Palestinian rejections to any amendment to the roadmap saying " if the American side agrees to consider these amendments, this means the end of the Roadmap." Shaath added "any Israeli amendments on the Roadmap would foil it and we are not ready to discuss any amendments."
They're so in love with this roadmap that any change to it whatsoever will mean "the end." Is the writing on the wall here, or what?
In the meantime, they're sending suicide bombers to Iraq to express their appreciation for the impending introduction of the roadmap by blowing up American and British soldiers. Maybe it's just me, but something definitely seems wrong with this picture.
Yes, ending the week on another sour note. Well, maybe not. This interesting item just popped up in my inbox.
Group pans selection of Phila. man for panel
By David O'Reilly
Inquirer Staff Writer
The White House yesterday announced that President Bush had nominated Daniel Pipes of Philadelphia, a controversial scholar of militant Islam, to the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace.
An American Muslim advocacy group that Pipes has called "Osama bin Laden's representatives in Washington" quickly denounced the appointment as "insensitive" and called on Bush to rescind it.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) yesterday described Pipes as "the nation's leading Islamophobe" and an advocate for Israeli interests.
On this Sabbath eve and at all times, let there be light.
Shabbat Shalom.
This is an issue I've kept quiet about for a long time. I really have little constructive to say about it, to tell the truth. But I've now been provoked into putting my $.02 in. I guess I'm easily provoked.
Background: Jonathan Pollard was a U.S. naval officer who, back in the early 1980s, took advantage of his position to pass highly classified information to Israel about Iraqi offensive plans and capabilities (against Israel) that our government preferred to keep to itself. Then he got caught.
The Pollard case is a messy one. I don't have the time or the inclination to embellish or annotate it right now. A quick search, though, will reveal more commentary than you can sift through in a year. The long and short of the matter is that Pollard's information was apparently instrumental in facilitating Israel's defensive meaures against Saddam Hussein prior to the near global awakening to the threat posed by his regime. When his espionage was revealed, though, Israel denied that Pollard was working for them and continued to deny it publicly for years.
But secretly, Israel turned over extensive documentation of his work to the US government under a solemn pledge that the documents wouldn't be used to convict him. At the same time, Pollard agreed to plead guilty to the only charge against him (one count of delivering classified information to an ally) in return for the government's promise not to seek the maximum sentence.
As a result of a secret memorandum sent by then Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to the judge, Pollard received a life sentence. This, notwithstanding the plea agreement, the conditions under which Israel turned over the evidence in its possession (which was used in violation of those conditions) or the fact that no other spy for a friendly power had ever received more than a token sentence. Something unpalatable was clearly at work here.
Jonathan Pollard has now served more than 17 years in prison for his crime. His health is bad. There are anecdotes awash on the internet and elsewhere that he has been subjected to anti-Semitic abuse in prison. His release was half-heartedly bought and paid for by Benyamin Netanyahu at Wye and thoroughly squirreled out of by Bill Clinton on the grounds that he was afraid of George Tenet's response. The whole thing stinks. And yet. And yet.
What is it about Jonathan Pollard that makes every US administration from Regan to Bush to Clinton to Bush determined to keep him in prison while pardons abound for other criminals? What has made every Israeli government from Peres to Shamir to Rabin to Netanyahu to Barak to Sharon reluctant to lauch a full press for his release? Why do leaders of the American Jewish community consistently shy away from this subject? Is it anti-Semitism? Is it simply that Pollard doesn't have the charisma of a Mumia Abu Jamal?
I don't know the answer, but I suspect there is more to it than is readily apparent and I, for one, have had my fill of the incessant string of Pollard press releases and published letters castigating this or that public official, the Israeli government, the leadership of the American Jewish community and any writer who dares to question or criticize Pollard's complaints. Whether this stuff comes from him, his "network" or his wife (not the wife who was charged as his collaborator, but the one he married in prison after his divorce), it all reeks highly of W-H-I-N-E. Thus, yesterday, the following landed in my mailbox:
Jonathan Pollard's rabbi, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, His Eminence HaRav Mordecai Eliyahu, has given his blessing to a proposal by Rabbi Shlomo Aviner calling on all of Israel to set a place at the table for Jonathan Pollard on Seder Night. His empty chair symbolizes the longing and hope of the Nation to see Jonathan (Yehonatan Ben Malka) free and speedily returned home to Israel.
No. No, thank you. I have no intention or inclination to set a place or even cast a thought in Mr. Pollard's direction at my Seder this year. I understand that his heart may have been in the right place. I understand that he may have contributed greatly to Israel's security (though the extent to which this is true remains unclear). I understand that, based on all the information I've been able to obtain, his punishment is way out of proportion to the severity of his actions as well as to that doled out to similarly situated criminals in this country. But I also understand that he committed an act of espionage against the United States of America. That's a serious crime.
The truth is that there doesn't appear to be more than a handful of members of "the Nation" who give a high hoot whether or not Pollard is set free and "returned" to Israel (where he's never lived and to which he only applied for citizenship after his arrest). Having been barraged by the ludicrous and, frankly, caricaturisticly religious appeals with which his organization has flooded my mailbox over the past few years, I know that I've lost most of my former interest in and sympathy with his plight. I guess this is the heart of my dilemma. It isn't the arguments of Pollard's detractors that have turned me from his cause. It's Pollard himself.
I do highly recommend a vist to the "official" website devoted to and authorized by Jonathan Pollard and, in particular, his latest letter to Israel's new Interior Minister, Tommy Lapid. Let me know what you think.
Once a year, it comes. Inexorably. Without mercy. April 15th.
In my real life, I prepare tax returns, among other things. But at this particular time of the year, that's often all I do. Eating, sleeping, blogging, all that other stuff takes a back seat. So posting is likely to be sparse the next few weeks. Not to mention I have to put together a Seder for the night after TAX DAY, complete with homemade gefilte fish (I insist on making it myself).
To all those wonderful people who have waited until the last possible moment to submit their receipts, their brokerage statements and their shoeboxes full of bits and scraps of unintelligible scribbles, I utter unpublishable expletives. To the rest of you, I apologize. I'll be here in dribs and drabs over the next few weeks, but I'll be back full force in due course.


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Was it the gauger who received six hundred dollars a month for being a liar and a thief?
Clinton the gauger—may the devil break his neck at any rate!
Pottheen; illicit whiskey: always distilled in some remote lonely place, as far away as possible from the nose of a gauger.
On going down from Salem to inquire about it, he received another and better appointment as weigher and gauger.
But what d'ye think, my trusty fier, I'm turned a gauger—peace be here!
Hae ye settled with the gauger for shackling him by the hill of Physgill?'
I know not how the word exciseman, or still more opprobrious, gauger, will sound in your ears.
Do they not all know I have been a gauger for the last five years!
And you would howl for help as you did last Martinmas, when you did mistake Cooper Dick's wife for a gauger.'
The gauger was astounded: 'Why the d—— didn't you show me that before?'

subset: commoncrawl


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|Starring: Gloria, Kyra Banks
|Stashed: 516 times
|Director: Raul Cristian
|Added Apr 25, 2014
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Whatz Really Hood: Vol. 1
You think you know what's street? You ain't seen nothin' yet. School starts right here, right now with this release that features some hot up-and-coming rappers. This collection gives you what you really want and need -- pulsating hours of raw, uncut street raps straight outta the mouths of the hottest underground rappers right from the hood. Give a listen ...


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Johnny Depp's Kids
Nice, France :: Actor Johnny Depp, 42, travelled through a Nice airport earlier this month with longtime girlfriend Vanessa Paradis, 33, and his two kids, Lily-Rose Depp, 6, and Jack Depp, 4. His upcoming film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest co-starring Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley opens July 7th. Watch the trailer below. More pictures in the gallery!


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On 6 November 2012 06:09, Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com> wrote: > On Sun, 2012-11-04 at 15:13 -0500, Tom Lane wrote: >> Jeff Davis <pgsql(at)j-davis(dot)com> writes: >> > Is there any fundamental or philosophical reason why a foreign table >> > can't accept arguments? >> >> That isn't a table; it's some sort of function. Now that we have >> LATERAL, there is no good reason to contort SQL's syntax and semantics >> in the direction you suggest. > > Maybe I should rephrase this as a problem with SRFs: you don't get to > define the init/exec/end executor functions, and you don't get access to > the optimizer information. > > It seems like foreign tables are a better mechanism (except for the > simple cases where you don't care about the details), and the only thing > an SRF can do that a foreign table can't is accept arguments. So, I > thought maybe it would make more sense to combine the mechanisms > somehow. > > Take something as simple as generate_series: right now, it materializes > the entire thing if it's in the FROM clause, but it wouldn't need to if > it could use the foreign table mechanism. This seems a useful thought to me. Tom is complaining about conflating the two features, which does seem unnecessary. But we can still merge code. Providing run-time parameters or table-level options to Foreign Scans seems sensible. I can see why you'd want to pass through parameters like "work_mem" to the foreign scan and yet not have those as permanent table options. (On another thought: why do Foreign Scans get to avoid the materialization we hate with SRFs?) -- Simon Riggs http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/ PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services
Next: From: Dimitri Fontaine Date: 2012-11-06 08:39:22 Subject: Re: Arguments to foreign tables? Previous: From: Ronan Dunklau Date: 2012-11-06 08:19:03 Subject: Re: Arguments to foreign tables?


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The Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) Library is available as an internship site for graduate-level students who have completed at least two semesters toward a Master's degree in Library and Information Science.
Applications will be accepted on a continuing basis, and internships may be completed during any semester. Room and board is available on-site, and will be provided by LUMCON in lieu of a stipend. Tuition is remitted to the home institution and credits will be awarded based on the number of person-hours completed (40 person-hours per credit hour). Prior library experience or an undergraduate degree in science is desirable, but not necessary.
The LUMCON Library houses a core collection of marine science-related material in a variety of formats including books, journals, newsletters and government reports. The Library primarily serves the research and education faculty and staff at the DeFelice Marine Center, as well as faculty and students of Consortium-member institutions throughout the state. The Library is a long-standing member of the LOUIS consortium.
The internship will consist of both field experience, encompassing many operations of a special library, and a special project in technical services. John Conover, Associate Librarian, will give the intern an overview of reference services, technical services, library administration, budgeting, and will guide the intern through special projects. The LUMCON Library uses SIRSI/Dynix's Symphony Integrated Library System, as well as OCLC for Cataloging/Interlibrary Loan services.
If you are interested in participating in the Library Internship Program, please contact John Conover at (985) 851-2875 or email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Christine D. Niero, Ph.D.
Dr. Christine D. Niero, PhD, Vice President, Professional Certification and Client Development, is an executive who brings over twenty years of experience in credentialing and not-for-profit organizations. Dr. Niero heads the Washington, D.C. office of Professional Testing.
Dr. Niero has worked with the ISO/IEC 17024 since 2000, and from 2003 – present, serves as member of the Personnel Certification Accreditation Committee, as previous mentioned, the decision-making body for accreditation under ISO/IEC 17024. In addition, Dr. Niero is a member of CAPC (since 2003), the ANSI appointed Conformity Assessment Policy Committee, responsible for policy oversight to all of ANSI's conformity assessment programs. CAPC has oversight to the ANSI International Conformity Assessment Committee, ICAC, which develops consensus among stakeholders, advocates policy nationally, regionally and internationally, and coordinates U.S. positions via ICAC and ensures that these positions are considered in the development of conformity assessment guides and standards within ISO/CASCO (Conformity Assessment Committee).
Directly related to the development of certification programs, Dr. Niero's areas of expertise include: developing and re-engineering certification programs; benchmarking and auditing programs; achieving accreditation, developing recertification and ethics and disciplinary programs; strategic planning; policy development; building effective governance and organizational models. She has directed and served as the CEO of certification programs national in scope and at entry and advanced/specialty levels. Her expertise in credentialing and management has enabled certification programs to sustain significant growth, operate at the level of best practices, and earn industry recognition.
A recognized leader, Dr. Niero frequently provides presentations on the topic of certification at national levels, and to certification boards, and has presented at the Association of Test Publishers (ATP); the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA); the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE); the Metropolitan D.C. Certification Networking Group; and the Council on Licensure, Enforcement and Regulation (CLEAR).
Dr. Niero serves as a committee member of the Personnel Certifier Accreditation Commission (PCAC) for the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and is former Chair and a member of Steering Committee of the Metropolitan D.C. Certification Networking Group. Dr. Niero served as an officer on the Board of Directors of the National Organization for Competency Assurance (NOCA) and chaired the Task Force on Recognition for the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors, which recognizes specialized accrediting agencies.


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Having missed out on the PIT game (I watched the scores on SKY munted, whilst doing the family thing:grbac:) I am ready to be on-line for the final match of the season.
Anyone else going to be around on the net?
I know it's a late game, and much may be already decided by then.


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This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
A fiber grating sensor capable of distinguishing between temperature and strain, using a reference and a dual-wavelength fiber Bragg grating, is presented. Error analysis and measurement uncertainty for this sensor are studied theoretically and experimentally. The measured root mean squared errors for temperature T and strain ε were estimated to be 0.13 °C and 6 με, respectively. The maximum errors for temperature and strain were calculated as 0.00155 T + 2.90 × 10−6 ε and 3.59 × 10−5 ε + 0.01887 T, respectively. Using the estimation of expanded uncertainty at 95% confidence level with a coverage factor of
The advantages of fiber optic sensors include light weight, small size, immunity to electromagnetic interference (EMI), large bandwidth, environmental ruggedness and electrical and optical multiplexing capability. Thus, fiber optic sensors are ideal for the applications in potential smart structures and materials. Fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have many wide applications, ranging from tele-communications to optical fiber sensors. Though Bragg grating sensors (BGSs) have offered a variety of potential advantages over their conventional counterparts, their widespread practical use has been plagued by their inability to effectively discriminate between temperature and strain fields. A number of attempts to overcome this limitation have been demonstrated [
Though BGSs have offered potentially numerous advantages over their conventional electrical and mechanical counterparts, their widespread use has been limited by their inability to discriminate effectively between temperature and strain fields, and this poses serious problems for sensors system designed to monitor quasi-strain signals, as temperature variations along the fiber link will induce indistinguishable thermal-apparent strain signals. It is apparent that measurement of one wavelength shift from a single grating will not determine those two variables simultaneously. A number of methods that separate temperature- and strain-induced wavelength shift and overcome this limitation have been proposed and demonstrated, including the use of reference grating [
We have developed a simple and low-cost optical fiber sensor for this purpose [
It can be seen that the errors measured in temperature and strain are determined primarily by the resolution effect of optical spectrum analyzer and the errors in estimation of temperature and strain coefficients (see
According to the error analysis technique presented by Jin
Thus, the maximum relative errors for δT/T and δε/ε were calculated as 0.0016 + 2.90 × 10−6 ε/T, and 3.59 × 10−5 + 0.0188 T/ε, respectively. In
Secondly, considering all the measurement errors involved in determining the coefficients and the precision of wavelength measurement, the maximum relative errors for δT/T and δε/ε is given by
However, in Reference [
The measurement uncertainty for temperature and strain simultaneous measurements using dual wavelength grating method was studied as estimation of standard uncertainty, combined standard uncertainty, and expanded uncertainty [
The models for temperature and strain difference were shown in
Since the measurement resolution of wavelength shift using the ANDO AQ6331 OSA was ±0.05 nm, the uncertainty on the FBGs measurement was as large as 3 pm [ Standard uncertainty, uΔλ1 Standard uncertainty, uΔλ2 = 3 pm/2 = 1.5 pm;
Standard uncertainty, uΔλ1
Standard uncertainty, uΔλ2 = 3 pm/2 = 1.5 pm;
Based on Sensitivity coefficient for Δ T due to λ1:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δ T due to λ2:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δε due to λ1:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δε due to λ2:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δ T due to λ1:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δ T due to λ2:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δε due to λ1:
Sensitivity coefficient for Δε due to λ2:
Since the temperature is compensated, it is reasonable to assume there are non-correlated uncertainty components. The combined uncertainty is obtained from the uncertainties of the single components without taking into account possible covariances. The combined uncertainties for temperature and strain are the square root of
Thus the combined standard uncertainty for temperature difference as:
The combined standard uncertainty for strain difference as:
Effective degree of freedom for Δ T,
Effective degree of freedom for Δε,
Thus for coverage factor
Therefore, values of temperature and strain measurement uncertainty were determined to be 2.602 °C and 32.049 με, respectively. The estimation of expanded uncertainty provides at 95% confidence level with a coverage factor of
We present a simple and low-cost reference dual-wavelength grating sensor system that could offer the potential of simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature for infrastructures. Experimental results show that measurement errors of 6 με and 0.13 °C for strain and temperature could be achieved, respectively. We have performed and characterized the error analysis and measurement uncertainty for this strain-temperature sensing system. The maximum errors for temperature T and strain ε were calculated as 0.00155 T + 2.90 × 10−6 ε and 3.59 × 10−5 ε+ 0.01887 T, respectively. Based on the analysis of estimation of expanded uncertainty at 95% confidence level with a coverage factor of
The authors thank Yi-Hsien Wang for his laboratory assistance. The partial support of the National Science Council (NSC) of Taiwan under Contract Nos. NSC 95-2122-M-194-013, NSC 95-3114-P-194-001-MY3, NSC 96-2112-M-194-004-MY3, NSC 97-2111-E-224-050, and NSC 98-2111-E-224-060 is gratefully acknowledged.
A reference dual wavelength grating system.
Strain performance of grating sensor. Inset: output spectrum for the fiber Bragg grating sensors with an applied strain at 0 με (black color) and 900 με (magenta color), respectively.
Temperature performance of grating sensor. Inset: output spectrum for the fiber Bragg grating sensors with an applied temperature at 35 °C (black color) and 85 °C (magenta color), respectively.
3D Scatter plot of strain errors with applied temperature and applied strain.
3D scatter plot of temperature errors with applied temperature and applied strain.
Measured and calculated relative strain error as a function of strain. In error analysis, the measurement errors in wavelength were neglected.
Measured and calculated relative strain error as a function of strain. In error analysis, all measurement errors are taken into account.
Experimental and theoretical errors of individual strain and temperature measurement.
|Strain coefficient (pm/με)
|0.914 ± 0.003
|0.918 ± 0.003
|Temperature coefficient (pm/°C)
|10.4 ± 0.10
|12.1 ± 0.10
|12.1 ± 0.08
|Theoretical strain error (με)
|Experimental strain error (με)
|Theoretical temperature error (°C)
|Experimental temperature error (°C)
Strain and temperature coefficients for calculation of measurement uncertainty were as follows: κ1ε = 0.914 pm/με; κ1ε = 0.918 pm/με; κ1T = 10.4 pm/°C; κ2T = 12.1 pm/°C
Not applicable


text:
Relatively new on the luxury watch scene, Richard Mille has steadily affixed their position among the upper echelon watchmakers in the industry. A refined hybrid of style and culture, the RM 028 diver's watch is a prototype of the brand's innovation and contemporary design. Constructed from a dark DLC titanium case, it features an unidirectional bright red inner bezel, red and white numbers and hands, and conforms to the necessary dive watch standards being water resistant up to 300 meters. Limited to only 30 pieces for the Americas, the timepiece can be yours for a cool $82,000 USD.
Source: TimeZone


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Fulper, Clifton & More,
Wisconsin Pottery Association New Jersey Exhibit and Pottery Show
The Wisconsin Pottery Association will hold its 12th annual Pottery Show and Sale on Saturday August 25, 2007. All types of antique and collectible pottery will be on sale from 9am until 4pm, one day only. Some 50 Pottery dealers from across the nation will participate, as well as noted studio potters.
Fulper, Clifton and More: The Art Pottery of New Jersey is the theme of this years exhibit. Visitors will see a great selection of New Jersey Pottery including Fulper, Clifton, Stangl, Volkmar, Vontury, Mountainside, Trenton and more.
The ever-popular What Is It? will again be part of the event bring your mystery pottery item to the show (two per admission) and Wisconsin Pottery Association members will informally identify and evaluate it.
Buyers can expect our 50+ dealers to be selling pottery and dinnerware dating from 1880s to the present. Styles range from Art Deco and Streamline to Arts and Crafts, Mid-Century modern, and Art Nouveau, from companies such as Fulper, Rookwood, McCoy, Roseville, Weller, Cowan, Red Wing, and many more.
The Pottery Show and Sale, and the Exhibit: Fulper, Clifton and More: The Art Pottery of New Jersey will be one day only, Saturday, August 25, 2007 in Madison, Wisconsin at the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center, just off Rimrock Road near John Nolen Drive. From I-90, take exit 142A, Hwy 12-18 west 5 miles to Exit 262, Rimrock Road then, north ¼ mile. For a map, visit our website www.wisconsinpottery.org or see our display card. The Exhibit and Show will be open from 9am until 4pm. Admission will be $4.
Parking will be $5.00 or free with a parking coupon downloaded from the WPA website or any official WPA ad or display card. The coupon or ad must be presented to the parking attendant at the Alliant Energy Center for free parking.
While you are in Madison check out the Ceramic Arts Studio Collectors Convention at the Crowne Plaza East. Check out their website at www.cascollectors.com for details.
This will be the Wisconsin Pottery Associations 12th Pottery Show and Exhibit of Art Pottery and dinnerware. The WPA is a non- profit organization formed in 1992 by collectors interested in studying and promoting collectible pottery. Meetings are held monthly and include speakers and informal discussions on pottery. For more information, visit wisconsinpottery.org.
WPA Related Pages:


text:
Eugene Pellette was born in 1946 and died December 21, 1994. He had researched and worked on a report on the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway Company. Today, portions of the abandoned track have been converted to the Caprock Canyons Trailway. The trail comprises 64 miles along the former rail line from Estelline in Hall County to South Plains in Floyd County, Texas.
The collection contains Eugene Pellette's original research concerning Museum interpretation of the histories of the Fort Worth and Denver South Plains Railway and the towns established along the rail line. The materials consist of company correspondence, printed material ephemera relating to the railroad industry, maps, and Pellette's draft manuscript.
The collection is organized into the following series:
The subject headings used by the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library are derived from the Library of Congress and/or locally developed.
Collection accession #(s):
Gift, 1994
Open for research
Karen Hicks, 2004
Eugene Pellette Papers, 1912-1983 and undated, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas
For related materials located in the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, see the following collections:


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Struggling brokerage Century 21 NY Metro is merging with A.C. Lawrence, industry sources said today.
The Real Deal reported yesterday that Century 21 NY Metro — a Manhattan-based, independently owned franchise of the Century 21 brand — has experienced cash flow problems in recent weeks and has been looking for new investors to inject fresh capital into the firm.
It appears they may have found it.
Agents were told today that Century 21 NY Metro would be absorbed into the boutique sales and rental firm A.C. Lawrence. It's unclear what the new entity would be called.
A.C. Lawrence co-founders Anthony DeGrotta and Larry Friedman — who both declined to comment — are now listed as agents on the Century 21 NY Metro website. DeGrotta and Friedman are Citi Habitats alums who founded A.C. Lawrence in 2006.
Industry insiders speculated that investor Leonard Franzblau is involved in the transaction. Several years ago, Franzblau injected capital into a competing rental firm, Manhattan Apartments, where Marc Lewis, the president and CEO of Century 21 NY Metro, used to work. Franzblau recently hired Degrotta and Friedman as consultants to help manage the struggling Manhattan Apartments. At the time, there was talk of a merger between A.C. Lawrence and Manhattan Apartments, but as of now it appears the two firms are still separate entities.
Franzblau and Lewis declined to comment for the piece. It's unclear what the future relationship between the three firms will be if Franzblau invests in Century 21 NY Metro.
Antonio del Rosario, the former president of the sales division at A.C. Lawrence, said Century 21 NY Metro and AC Lawrence have been "courting" each other for a while.
"Those two companies are a good match," he said, since Lawrence, Degrotta and Friedman have a similar background in rentals. It's a smart move for both to share overhead costs, he said.
"They want to make an alliance and be strong together," said Rosario, who left A.C. Lawrence in October and has founded his own group,adrnewyork, at Charles Rutenberg Realty.
Lewis founded his own firm, Marc Lewis Realty, in 1988. In 2002, he merged the firm with Manhattan Apartments, then joined Century 21 NY Metro in 2007 as COO. A year later, he was made CEO.
Earlier this year, Century 21 New York Metro had around 150 agents with plans to expand, but many agents have left in recent weeks, sources said.


text:
In the News
Original journalism from the Center's OpenSecrets Blog
News Companies Popular Investments Among Congressmen
June 15, 2011 | Many members of Congress have a vested interest -- beyond just their political careers -- in the performance of the same organizations that are supposed to be their watchdogs, a Center for Responsive Politics investigation indicates.
Tea Party Caucus Members Bankrolled by Health Professionals, Retirees, Oil Interests
July 30, 2010 | A Center for Responsive Politics analysis shows that the biggest contributors to the 49 members of the newly-established congressional Tea Party caucus -- it so far includes only Republican -- are health professionals, retired individuals, the real estate industry and oil and gas interests. Furthermore, donations from health professionals, oil and gas interests and Republican and conservative groups are, on average, higher for Tea Party caucus members than for members of the House of Representatives in general and even their fellow House Republicans.
Third Quarter Campaign Finance Reports Show Money Race Is On
October 16, 2009 | An initial Center for Responsive Politics analysis has found that sitting members of the U.S. House of Representatives raised $48.2 million from July 1 through Sept. 30, 2009, based on the 336 reports we have in. The mean amount these lawmakers raised was $143,640, and the median amount was $126,680.
Tracking Your Representatives' Health Care Cash
June 25, 2009 | Here's a cool tool that brings together data from various parts of OpenSecrets.org to show how much money each current lawmaker has raised from various health-related industries and the health sector overall since 1989 (including President Obama's haul).
Brothers Grim: Is Lehman Next?
September 12, 2008 | Uncle Sam bailed out Freddie Mac and the company's twin sister, Fannie Mae, this week, and the next in line in the Wall Street family to get a helping hand might just be Lehman Brothers. Executives at the struggling investment bank are looking to sell the company with assistance from the government--and fast--as its stock plunges. Although the government isn't expected to completely bail out Lehman Brothers, the fourth-largest U.S. investment bank, the company has built a strong financial relationship with politicians over the years and coincidentally ranks fourth in the largest contributors in the race for the White House.
These Candidates Must Have Been Going Postal
July 21, 2008 | Capital Eye reported recently on a direct-mail fundraising firm that often keeps most of the money it raises for candidates to pay for postage and printing—and as profit. The direct-mail business as a whole has inherently high overhead, and regardless of which firm a candidate employs, it's likely that when a donor responds to a piece of mail soliciting campaign funds, a good chunk of the donation goes toward paying for the letter that asked for money in the first place.
Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center.


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OK I think people just have to have something to say because it didn't even cross my mind that Alicia Keys was sitting down during her performance of the National Anthem during the Super Bowl. She was seated at her piano as she has done many times before. I know everyone does stand but I think this is reaching. However, some people I guess found it disrespectful for her to not be standing.
The Huffington Post reported that a morning show producer stated:
"It was disrespectful. They had enough time and manpower to think of this before the performance. They could have had her stand at her piano keyboard and sing. To me and a lot of my friends, she sounded great but the visual was wrong."
Also On Boom 103.9 Philly:
comments – Add Yours


text:
So I'm thrilled to be a part of this community and super thrilled as to the many ways this software can potentially help me communicate with and encourage the young and dedicated volunteers that work with my organization.
I've been successful in importing contacts I think (It said that it didn't work, but then when I went to my contacts they were all there????)
But I don't seem to have a connection and the connection section under "Help" is dead when I try to click on it or open it in a new tab????
Any ideas my beauties?
Views: 135
Let me add more. I am and will primarily be using an internet connection directly through my lap top and not a mobile phone.
Further more, when I go to add a new connection I am afraid I am not tech savvy enough to even know where to begin with "Name", "Port", "Baud Rate" and so on ...
Hi Jeremy,
Could you clarify how you intend to send SMS? FrontlineSMS currently supports sending through a usb modem, a tethered mobile phone, or internet aggregator services Clickatel and IntelliSMS.
The settings you mention (Port, Baud Rate, etc) are specific to modem and mobile phone connections. FrontlineSMS will attempt to automatically set these up for you if you have a connected modem. From your second post, it sounds like you intend to use one of the internet aggregators; if this is the case, you need to sign up to them on their websites (links provided above), then provide your credentials in the FrontlineSMS connection wizard.
© 2017 Created by FrontlineSMS Admin. Powered by


text:
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Superior Glove Dexterity NT Cotton Knit Gloves with Nitrile Palms
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text:
  <meta content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type">   On 2/10/2012 3:21 PM, girlgeek wrote:
 <meta http-equiv="Context-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> what about this option as certain members have already noted they like doing projects for long periods of time and just do not get upset about napping?
 Power Naps
 Power naps are limited to less than 20 minutes. That way, one can get into stage 1 and stage 2 sleep but, by being woken up before 20 minutes have elapsed thus before stage 3 sleep, they are not drowsy and can work productively.

 Oh yeah, I used to do that in preschool (or kindergarten was it?) We had these little bathtubby type things we'd lay down in & take half hour naps in the afternoon.

 Of course, I picked my nose and ate paste in preschool, too.

 gl@m


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Prestige Lakeside Habitat is located Gunjur close to Varthur Main Road Whitefield Bangalore city. Prestige Lakeside Habitat proposes you the choices of 2 & 3 Bedroom flats with a huge room utility covering ground region are 120 Acres with approximately 3500 flats & 350 Villas. The venture is a diverse growth & will consist of flats / Villas the length of with workplace Spaces & Shopping facilities in the lines of Prestige Shantiniketan. Prestige Lakeside Habitat is a outlook venture by Prestige building in Bangalore city.
Prestige has commenced a latest housing venture with retail chain Prestige Lakeside Habitat Bangalore city with globe class amenities. There is a hum just about the corner that Prestige Group is about to begin on one of the largest & most up to date property expansion ventures in Bangalore city named as prestige Lakeside HabitatThe design for this imposing Prestige Lakeside Habitat new sell & free moment in time end is enthused by Bangalore's reputation as India's 'G
- Category: Business
- Tags: prestige lakeside habitat, prestige lakeside habitat varthur


text:
Unsupported Browser Detected
The Lenovo Support website supports Microsoft Internet Explorer 10+, Mozilla Firefox 29+, Chrome 34+ and any other modern web browser.
System hangs at Lenovo splash screen after Windows 2016 November update - Lenovo System x M5 and X6
Windows 10 Redstone Anniversary Update
LEN-4326: Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities within Lenovo Solution Center
Dear Lenovo Customer, On March 27, 2014, Lenovo voluntarily recalled certain lithium-ion batteries. These batteries were manufactured for use with ThinkPad notebook computers that shipped worldwide between October 2010 and April 2011. Lenovo is offering replacement batteries free of charge regardless of warranty status.
Update on free McAfee subscription for Lenovo customers with Superfish preload
Superfish Vulnerability
2014 Power Cord Recall
SuperCap may not be recognized resulting in potential data loss with a LSI 9270 (RAID 710)/9286 Adapter - ThinkServer
Lenovo Smart Assistant Released for Android System
M90z_M70z recall


text:
Ferguson's New Plan: Police Cameras
(NEWSER) – Ahead of a visit from Attorney General Eric Holder today, officials in Ferguson, Missouri, say they want to make big changes to law enforcement and end the "discord and heartbreak" that has followed the police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
A statement released by city leaders says it is looking at changes including requiring all police to wear cameras, hiring more African-American officers, and requiring police to live in the city, reports NBC, which notes that a petition seeking a "Mike Brown Law" to require state, county, and local police to wear cameras has now received more than 127,000 signatures.
Read the original story at Newser


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Tokyo Electric Power Co. will expand the geographic area eligible for compensation for damages from harmful rumors of radiation-contaminated agricultural, marine and forestry products beyond its crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Iwate and Miyagi prefectures will be added to six prefectures, including Fukushima, that already qualify for agricultural and other damages.
Tepco will begin sending and accepting claims documents Wednesday.
The utility will compensate for estimated lost earnings caused by consumers avoiding purchases, costs for radiation tests and for the disposal of returned products. Compensation will be paid to producers, processors and distributors.
Damages related to marine products produced in Hokkaido, Aomori, Iwate and Miyagi prefectures will be newly compensated. Mushrooms and other forestry products grown in Tokyo and six other prefectures as well as tea leaves grown in Tokyo and Miyagi Prefecture will be added to items covered by compensation.


text: The knocks I've heard against De Castro are twofold. One is that despite his intellect, his judgment sometimes strikes people as off. A good example is perhaps when he rose at the All Things D conference a couple of years ago to ask Apple's ( AAPL) Tim Cook why he was in the ad business. Why do you try to embarrass the CEO of your biggest competitor in front of all your tech peers? What's the upside to you of doing that? The second knock, relayed to me from a former co-worker of De Castro's, is: "When I heard Henrique was going to become Yahoo!'s COO, I thought, I can see him being 'chief' and I can see him being 'officer' but what I can't see him doing is 'operating.' That's just not Henrique." I'm long Yahoo! and a big reason why is I believe that the core can return to greatness. Turning the ship on sales will be a big part of that, and that falls under De Castro's purview. I want him to succeed. But, 10 months into the job, I think he needs to take responsibility for the state that sales is in now and a good look in the mirror. He has a number of strengths. I truly hope he also sees his weaknesses as well and is prepared to embrace them and ensure he's got people around him to help cover them off. If the sales don't turn around -- and if Tumblr doesn't deliver a meaningful bump in sales and Ebitda next year -- it will be De Castro's head on the line - not David Karp's or Marissa Mayer's. As of now, De Castro is officially on the hot seat at Yahoo!. At the time of publication the author was long YHOO and AOL. Follow @ericjackson This article was written by an independent contributor, separate from TheStreet's regular news coverage.


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Cold Reach at Wikia
Welcome to the Cold Reach mini wiki at Scratchpad!
You can use the box below to create new pages for this mini-wiki. Make sure you type
[[Category:Cold Reach]] on the page before you save it to make it part of the Cold Reach wiki (preload can be enabled to automate this task, by clicking this link and saving that page. Afterwards, you may need to purge this page, if you still see this message).
The Story So Far
More in this section as the campaign develops.


text: Just tried burning the .iso of PC-BSD 1.4 in SAO at the max speed for a CD-RW (4x). The burning process finishes succesfully. But, trying to boot the CD-RW from two different machines (using two different brands of CD-ROM drives: Samsung and Lite-On) yields the very same result: CD Loader 1.2 Building the boot loader arguments Looking up /BOOT/LOADER... Found Read Error: 0x3a Could not find Primary Volume Descriptor -- Pierre Bauduin 2007/10/30, Gerard van Essen <gvanessen at gmail.com>: > > I had this very same error coming up on my system over the weekend. > > Not wanting to waste too many CDs I tend to burn ISOs on a CD-RW. However > this time I burned the PC-BSD 1.4 ISO as multi-session and not as > burn-at-once, which caused the problem. > > So, please make sure: > you check the MD5 of the downloaded file (it should match the MD5 string > on the download page) > You burn the ISO to a CD-R or burn the ISO to a CD-RW as burn-at-once > session (burning at a lower speed decreases the chance of writing errors) > Your RAM is more than 256Mb > > Cheers > > Gerard > http://fbsd.wordpress.com > > > > On 10/28/07, mrosnok at eastlink.ca <mrosnok at eastlink.ca> wrote: > > > > For quite some time now I have been having a problem installing > > PC-BSD. Everytime I attempt to install it the installation stops and an > > error message occurs: > > > > can't exec getty: user/init/exec/getty ttyv0: no such file > > > > or something similar repeats continually. I have been trying to get > > help with this issue and have been frustrated at every attempt. You can > > keep your PC-BSD. I'm sticking with Microsoft Windows from now on. At > > least when I contact them I actually get some form of help. PC-BSD is > > nothing but crap. Every one who asks me about it will be told what a waste > > of time it is. There is no support for the novice user whatsoever. Instead > > of learning how to fix this problem, I only learned that no one involved > > with PC-BSD knows what's going on. Don't waste my time responding to this > > e-mail because I want nothing more to do with PC-BSD or any one involved > > with it. I would be very pleased if the entire thing were scrapped and any > > and al evidence of it's existence were erased. PC-BSD is a bigger waste of > > time than internet porn. Thanks for infuriating and frustrating me at every > > turn. Because of the inept bungling I have been accosted with I will NEVER > > attempt to use any operat > > ing system even remotely associated with this sorry excuse for a > > programme. Good bye and good riddance. > > _______________________________________________ > > Support mailing list > > Support at lists.pcbsd.org > > http://lists.pcbsd.org/mailman/listinfo/support > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Support mailing list > Support at lists.pcbsd.org > http://lists.pcbsd.org/mailman/listinfo/support > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.pcbsd.org/pipermail/support/attachments/20071030/ae5f5377/attachment.html


text:
Here's a bucketload of stories from the past month or two that I'd like to share with you. Sorry to be dumping so many at once. I would have preferred to share these with you one at a time as they were published, but life got in the way. But it's still win-win; I get to clean out my browser tabs, and you get some good stories to read.
Some of these are newsy, others are feature-y or opinion-y. Some of these stories
are were breaking news, but others are notable for being traditionally under-reported animal-interest topics in mainstream venues. Some are short; some are very, very long. I have not read them all in their entireties yet, but I endorse you checking them out anyway. We may have shared a few of these on Twitter, but most of them have gone totally unnoted by SuperVegan until now. I tried to sort them into rough categories, but some certainly blur the lines.
- Jonathan Franzen on the slaughter of songbirds migrating across the Mediterranean (National Geographic, July issue)
- A giant seizure of elephant tusks in Hong Kong (NYT 7/19/13)
- "In the Himalayas, Nepali villagers hunt down poachers to help save the tiger" (Guardian, 7/27/13)
- "Emptying the World's Aquarium: The dismal future of the global fishery" (Harper's, August issue)
- Robert Redford versus the Navajo Nation on wild horse slaughter (NYT 8/10/2013)
Fake Meat
- There were a lot of articles everywhere about the test-tube burger that was unveiled on August 5; the mainstream is definitely interested in this story, though with varying degrees of sympathy.
- "The Better Meat Substitute" in an engineering journal! (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Spectrum magazine, 6/3/13)
- "Your Meat Addiction Is Destroying the Planet (But We Can Fix It)" (Longish piece from tech-trendy The Verge 8/13/13)
- "Can We See Our Hypocrisy to Animals?" Inspired by the juxtaposition of reviews of Act of Killing and Blackfish, Nick Kristof wonders "Some day, will our descendants be mystified by how good and decent people in the early 21st century — that's us — could have been so oblivious to the unethical treatment of animals?" Kristof is one of the best New York Times columnists, and has a lot of journalistic experience with perpetrators of human-on-human violence; this coming from him is a rather big deal. (NYTimes, 7/28/13)
- That same day, the Times's Dot Earth blog ran "A Closer Look at 'Nonhuman Personhood' and Animal Welfare"
Companion and Farmed Animals
- "The supply and demand of pound puppies" and how different breeds/types of dogs are in greater surplus or demand in different parts of the US. (Marketplace, 7/29/13)
- "Kicked from the coop: Urban farmers ditching chickens" (WTOP, DC-area news station, 7/31/13)
- "Survey finds young adults overlook animal shelters" (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, 8/8/13)
- Marmite ran a TV ad that pissed off some animal rescuers; make a big donation to the RSPCA to atone. (Guardian, 8/8/13)
- Long article about the lives of celebrity elephants in India (NYT Magazine, 8/18/2013)
- Simpsons creator Sam Simon "faces down his terminal cancer diagnosis by spending his vast fortune (how much? 'I don't know') on animal rights and feeding the hungry" (Hollywood Reporter 7/25/13)
- "Blackfish' gives Pixar second thoughts on 'Finding Dory' plot" (LA Times, 8/9/13)
- The AARP profiles Bill Clinton's vegan diet. Definitions of "being vegan" aside, this piece has great potential to influence older people worried about their health to eat a lot less animal products. (Sounds like Bill might be a little bit more strict than he used to be, if you enjoy keeping track of such things, but who knows anything for sure with that guy.) (AARP Magazine, August issue)
6,500+ transcribed words likely to incite frustration and despair in the caring reader
- "Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl Hash out the Food Revolution" (Smithsonian Magazine, June 2013)
2 Comments
Comment by
Peace Loving Vegan Policeon #
Re: 6,500+ transcribed words likely to incite frustration and despair in the caring reader, "Michael Pollan and Ruth Reichl Hash out the Food Revolution"
You weren't kidding, Jason.
How fucking insipid.
Comment by
Kitchen guyon #
That is a lot of stories. I like.


text:
Will This Android-Powered Smartwatch Replace A Smartphone?
Developed by 19-year-old Simon Tian, the Neptune Pine brings the powers of a typical mobile device to your wrist.
Simon Tian is 19 years old, and he's aiming to turn the world of mobile computing on its head.
His device is called the Neptune Pine, and it is essentially an Android device that you wear on your wrist. Different from many other smart watches on the market, the Neptune Pine can function completely untethered from a phone or tablet. It has front- and rear-facing cameras and can make and receive calls.
It's true — at first glance, the Neptune Pine looks much too big to be worn on any human's wrist. But the value here is in this wearable's power. With web browsing via WiFi and 3G, this behemoth has the potential to make early adopters foam at the mouth.
While the Neptune Pine isn't yet commercially available, its founder has set up a Kickstarter to get the ball rolling. As of this posting, the campaign has already blown past its funding goal, so if you're eager to get your hands on one, be sure to back the project in order to save your spot in line.
Sources: Quartz, Kickstarter
Images: Kickstarter, Neptune Pine