text:
I have a some code that is drawing out regions when a country a selected.
I want the regions to order alphabetically, but its not doing it for some reason.
$q=mysql_query("select * from tbl_resorts where Id_show=1 ORDER BY Nom_Rsrt") or die (mysql_error());
echo "";
Not sure what the problem is as its working fine, and doing whats asked of it, but its just not being ordered alphabetically
please post the results of a SHOW CREATE TABLE, and please show some sample rows
You can see the results on the site if you like.
checksafetyfirst . com and the best one is to select Spain and then look at the drop down. There no alphabetical ordering at all.
I'm gutted in honesty I have left it until Friday, as I cant do it over the weekend now, so will try and give answers if I can.
You are ordering by Nom_Rsrt. Maybe you should be ordering by region instead?
Hi Guido,
No the ordering by Nom_Rsrt is correct.
That row contains all the resort names, so should be ordering correctly, but for some reason they dont.
Silly I left it until late Friday to post the message, but its a new week now, so hopefully get it sorted asap.
If you order by resort name, the result will be ordered by resort name.You said you wanted the result ordered by region. If you order by resort name, the result won't be ordered by region.
Unless I'm missing something?
Nom_Rsrt contains all the regions eg.
Cancun, Majorca, London, Paris, Barcelona, Rome etc.
They are what populate the drop down after the country is selected, and it's those that I want ordering alphabetically, and thats why its ORDER BY Nom_Rsrt
So the column 'Nom_rsrt' contains the name of the region?
Please do what Rudy has asked you. It will help us understand what we're talking about.
CREATE TABLE tbl_resorts ( Id_Rsrt bigint(20) NOT NULL auto_increment, Nom_Rsrt text NOT NULL, Desc_Rsrt text NOT NULL, IdCntry_Rsrt bigint(20) NOT NULL default '0', Id_show bigint(20) NOT NULL, PRIMARY KEY (Id_Rsrt)) ENGINE=MyISAM AUTO_INCREMENT=347 DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1
Is that enough data?
Thank you again Guido,
I can see what you mean so will try this out.
Are you able to help me with the change to the fillregion() function too.
Could you show me what you mean
Ok, I understand now. The regions are stored in the resort table.I took a look at the HTML code of your site, and the regions are present in alphabetical order.

The problem I think is, as you can see, that you put them in an array using the Id_Rsrt as array key. So in the end, in the array, they are sorted on Id_Rsrt again.
Try something like
$q=mysql_query("select * from tbl_resorts where Id_show=1 ORDER BY Nom_Rsrt") or die (mysql_error());
$counter = 0;
echo "";
And then adapt your javascript fillregion() function to work with this change as well.
I'll move this to the javascript forum now.
Thank you Guido,
With the javascript all I see is this, and its very confusing, as I am expecting to see a lot more, but maybe I'm wrong.
<select name="selectCountry" class="anywhere" onchange="fillregion(this.value)"><option value="0">anywhere</option><?php $r=mysql_query("select Id_Cntry, Nom_Cntry from tbl_countries order by Nom_Cntry");while($q=mysql_fetch_assoc($r)){?><option value="<?=$q['Id_Cntry']?>"><?=$q['Nom_Cntry']?></option><?php } ?></select>
It means that when the value of selectCountry changes (because the user selects a country) the js function fillregion() will be called, passing it the chosen country value.
The fillregion() function is found in this javascript file: indexScript.js
Let me have a try at modifying it:
function fillregion(countryid)
var i=0;
if(countryid==0 || i==0 ){
document.search.selectRegion.options[0] = new Option()
if(countryid!=0 && i!=0 ){
document.search.selectRegion.options[i] = new Option()
[B]document.search.selectRegion.options[i].value=regionid[j];[/B]
The only changed line is indicated in red.
Sorry no that didnt work...
The regions didnt show when the country was selected.
www checksafetyfirst com / index2.php
this is where I'm working now.
Try adding this line to the top of indexScript2.js
// JavaScript Document
var country = new Array();
var region = new Array();
var countryregion = new Array();
[B]var regionid = new Array();[/B]
Oh Guido youve done it again, thank you very much.
I was concentrating so much on the jscript that I didnt think about that.
Thanks again, it works brilliant.


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Major League Baseball's Trade Deadline is Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET, and heading into the final 24 hours before the deadline passes, the Rays are looking more and more like they will stand pat.
D-backs GM Kevin Towers remained with his staff in his suite at the team's Pasadena hotel on Monday night, a white board detailing possible trade scenarios.
The rumors on Monday regarding Ryan Dempster ranged from talks heating up to no new discussions, depending on who you followed on Twitter. Cubs manager Dale Sveum can't wait for Tuesday's non-waiver Trade Deadline to pass.
Ryan Dempster did the same pregame prep work he normally does before a start, except the right-hander isn't quite sure he'll be taking the mound Tuesday night for the Cubs.
A scorching July has turned the A's into surprising playoff contenders, which means they're now the type of team that could look to add another weapon or two before Tuesday's 1 p.m. PT Trade Deadline.
Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said he has been in communication with a number of clubs regarding potential trades, and that it could come down to the final hours leading up to Tuesday's 1 p.m. PT non-waiver Trade Deadline.
By now, manager Jim Leyland's statement that he doesn't expect a trade to happen has become almost a standard line. When he says it with less than 24 hours to go before the non-waiver Trade Deadline, though, he seemingly has a very good chance of being spot-on.
Saturday's late-night deal involving Francisco Liriano might not be the Twins' only trade before Tuesday's Trade Deadline, as clubs have interest in first baseman Justin Morneau and outfielders Denard Span and Josh Willingham.
We're down to the final hours before baseball's non-waiver Trade Deadline, and trade talk dominates the game. Talk has given way to action, and the annual flurry of moves is well under way. It's already been one of the most active run-ups to the Deadline in recent memory, and now the home stretch has arrived.
Some teams are trying to add talent in order to go for broke, and some are trying to divest themselves of players now in order to improve their future prospects. It will take time to sort out which teams succeeded in their disparate efforts, but there will be even more intrigue Tuesday and after the Deadline passes.
Brian Cashman may have been on what he called "a sanity walk" around Yankee Stadium, enjoying a brief respite from the stresses of his office, but the Yankees' general manager said he doesn't expect his club to be a mover and shaker at Tuesday's non-waiver Trade Deadline.
Drafted by the Marlins in 2002, Josh Johnson has made it clear that he wants to remain with the only franchise he's ever known, but he knows it's out of his control.
The National League Central-rival Astros and Brewers have been selling. Pittsburgh's been buying. Cincinnati appears poised to do so, too. But as Major League Baseball's non-waiver Trade Deadline at 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday approaches, the Cardinals have, to this point, stood pat.
The Indians looked poised to jump into the buyer's market earlier this month while still hanging within a few games of the American League Central lead. The situation has suddenly changed in Cleveland.
The Reds acquired reliever Jonathan Broxton from the Royals on Tuesday.
The Phillies and Dodgers finalized a trade Tuesday that will send Shane Victorino to Los Angeles for right-handed relief pitcher Josh Lindblom and Double-A right-handed relief pitcher Ethan Martin.
The Phillies are on pace to lose more than 90 games just one season removed from recording a franchise-record 102 victories, so general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. and his top lieutenants are incredibly busy in advance of Tuesday's 4 p.m. ET non-waiver Trade Deadline.
The Nationals' organizational depth has been on full display at the Major League level throughout the season, helping the club overcome injuries en route to a 61-40 record that's the best in the Majors.
The Phillies have made it clear that Joe Blanton is available in a potential trade, and the Orioles -- who have shown by far the most interest in the right-hander -- are debating whether the veteran is worth taking a flier on, multiple sources told MLB.com on Monday.
What will the Indians do with Shin-Soo Choo? The answer will tell us quite a bit about the Indians' evaluation not only of their 2012 season going astray, but also about 2013, too.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Use the strength of your own arm,
Stop putting hope in others.
When the river flows through your own yard,
How can you die of thirst?
The Jogi cries:
"Gorakh Gorakh!"
The Hindu utters
The name of Ram,
The Mussalman repeats:
"God is one!"
But the Lord of Kabir
Pervades all.
The best place to look for God is "in the heart of your heart."


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THE SQL Server Blog Spot on the Web
My previous post focuses on the performance impact of enabling hyperthreading (HT) on a machine with four Intel Westmere-EX processors on reporting queries. Let's turn our attention to OLTP queries.
To oversimplify it, reporting queries are generally processed by scanning a large number of pages, whereas quick index seeks are the hallmark of OLTP queries.
The OLTP queries used to check out the hyperthreading impact are the two TPC-C read-only transactions (Order Status and Stock Level), slightly modified to work properly in the test environment. The need to modify these two TPC-C transactions is discussed in an early post. Briefly, it's because in their original forms they don't scale properly on this 80-cpu test machine running SQL Server 2008 R2. You can find the modified code of these two transactions in the attachment of this post.
The benchmark described in the same post is used to drive the tests whose results are reported here. If you want to find out more about the benchmark, please check out that post, so I won't duplicate its description here.
Essentially, with this OLTP benchmark (or workload) I want to see how it behaves when I increase the load level by increasing the number of concurrent users, with and without hyperthreading on a DL580 G7 with four E7-4870 processors (10 cores per processor) and 264GB of RAM. The OS is Windows 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition with SP2 and DBMS is SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise x64 Edition (10.50.1600). There is no intra-query parallelism; maxdop is set to 1 in all the cases.
Four test configurations are examined:
The following chart shows the results when 200 simulated users are driving the workload concurrently. Note that with 200 users, all the processors on this test system are pushed to ~100%.
Compared with the results for the reporting queries (see the previous post), the performance gain from enabling HT on the 40 cores is very much more marginal with this OLTP benchmark. We see an increase of about 5% from ~7900 batch requests per second to ~8300 batch requests per second. Enabling HT on the 20 cores produces an improvement of similar magnitude (about 7.5%).
Going from 20 cores with HT to 40 cores without HT, however, gives the OLTP queries a dramatic throughput gain of about 67% from ~4730 batch requests per second to ~7900 batch requests per second. We see similar behavior with the reporting queries. Knowing how HT works, I think it is intuitive we expect a big gain, whether or not it should be 67%.
So for both the reporting queries and the OLTP queries that I have tested, the hyperthreading results are positive. So far so good!
Another good post Linchi, I am following this series with interest. One small point: I wish you had used build 10.50.2500 (R2 SP1) rather than 10.50.1600 (R2 RTM). I can't say whether it would have affected the results at all, I just have this general feeling that R2 RTM was not the best.
Thanks, Paul, for pointing that out! I was a bit lazy in keeping up with the SPs and CUs. I'll repeat the tests with SP1 CU4 (2009.100.2796.0). But since you mentioned 10.50.2500, is there any specific reson I should stay with SP1 instead of SP1 CU4?
I apologise if I've missed this but was any parallelism enabled for the oltp test?
I'm still a little surprised that HT doesn't show more gain, based upon your graph which shows HT makes little difference - which sort of doesn't match your comment about gaining 67% with HT or am missing something obvious?
Great work, thanks.
There is no intra-query parallelism in these OLTP tests. maxdop is set to 1. I should have made that clear. [I updated the post and included the maxdop setting]
The 67% gain is from 20 cores with HT (thus 40 logical cpus) to 40 cores without HT (also 40 logical cpus). So the point is that at the OS and SQL level, you may see the same 40 cpus, their performance power is very different whether they are made up of physical cores or HT.
The only reason for mentioning SP1 was that some/many people prefer only to apply the CUs for specific issues. Also, I guess SP1 is likely to remain the 'current latest service pack' longer than CU4 will remain 'the latest CU'...if you see what I mean.
Personally, I do try to keep my test instances up to the very latest CU (though I notice my R2 is only at SP1 CU3 right now!) so I'm happy whichever way to choose to go. R2 RTM just bugs me :)
Hyperthreading? Really? Who makes this stuff up?
we tried HT on a Nehalem server with 32 cores (64 HT CPU) with a large SAP Export/Import in July 2011. Which is a far more realistic high load test with a 7 TB SAP database and 512 GB of RAM. Sadly we had a lot of jobs crashing (just reading data, with maxdop enabled = 8, = #cores per each NUMA node) with internal dead-lock on SQL thread schedulers (we used SQL 2008 R2 X64 and default settings for # of worker threads). We submitted the dumps to Microsoft but there was no clear cut reason determined. So it was not the case of better performance but the case of crashed jobs under high load on large tables. So we turned off HT and the deadlocked thread-schedulers problems cleared (many others remained but its off-topic). I can *not* prove that HT was the culprit but what I would like to say that until Microsoft makes SQL Server fully HT-aware *by design* (like they with with by-design NUMA support for SQL 2005) I would NOT recommend using HT in production for large mission systems. If it works for you - its more by luck than by design. This is my 10 cents only. I am sure many will disagee.
It would be interesting to determine whether your problems were more related to the number of processors regardles whether they were HT or not. In other words, would you still run into similar problems if you had 64 cores with no HT? I'm asking, but just wondering.
In this post, my focus is squarely on performance. And as I already mentioned, people should not extrapolate too much because the results were indeed specific to the test setup.
Running a SAP Export/Import isn't very similar to running normal OLTP SAP workload, so I think it's a stretch advising against HT for OLTP generally based on results from an Export/Import.
Do you have any other basis for advising against HT with normal OLTP? fwiw, I don't have a strong opinion either way, I'm just surprised you'd make a general recommendation for OLTP configuration based on an Export/Import load testing.
Personally, I think the entire SQL Server multi-tasking architecture is a patched up, old school design. Why run a co-operative design at the SQLOS level when there's a pre-emptive layer in the host OS? SQL Server should really be embedded closer into Windows & multi-tasking should be done at one layer, in the way that SQL needs it done (eg, a Windows SQL edition where certain cores are assigned for direct management by SQLOS and a few for pre-emptive management by the host O/S). This would eliminate much un-necessary complexity in the SQLOS scheduling system & eliminate much context switching.
This is probably because these queries are memory fetch intensive vs compute intensive. If the problem is compute intensive you can expect larger gains (20-30%), if the query had some complicated arithmetic perhaps these numbers would increase a little.
Knowing how Intel hyperthreading works, I'd agree with your assessment in that it's probably more likely to see a higher impact with a more compute intensive workload. But of course, more compute intensive workloads are not guaranteed to benefit more from hyperthreading. I think if we have to pick one between the two, I'd argue that OLTP queries are more memory fetch intenstive than compute intensive, not always of course but in general.
This HT article and discussion is very interesting. I'd like to thank all contributors publishing there thoughts and experiences.
With our Dynamics-NAV based ERP solution we've made the experience, that we've seen some installations where the request for data took a lot of time (more than 100 ms), though it was a simple "select * from Table with read uncommitted order by PrimaryKey" (* is something NAV unfortunately always does) on less than 100 rows. We tried everything to reduce the duration but nothing worked since we turned off HT. After that the duration for queries went down to zero.
I have really no tangible explanation for it, but I believe it has to do with the NUMA-Support and the distribution of worker and administrative threads (lock management, cache maintenance, ...) in the SQL kernel. HT is more something like a marketing gag than a technical innovation.
Matthew, did you check whether Max Degree Of Parallelism was set on your server prior to turning off HT? Halfing the number of CPUs could reduce query parallelism issues if the query optimiser decides to choose serial plans instead. I have seen many instances of Dynamics-NAV servers suffering badly from query parallelism which, once turned off (MAXDOP set to 1) the overall query performance issues disappear, hence I'm wondering whether you investigated this avenue?
Hi Greg,
we always set DOP to 1. We tried it the other way round as well just to be sure. But in general, a DOP value of one reduces the amount of lockings a lot when you have simple queries like NAV produces. And with HT enabled, I assume that SQL Server is not really HT aware and doubles the number of worker threads hence they need to share a core and have to wait for execution. That fits to the bad query execution because it distributes parts of the execution plan to other worker threads which can't finish their work instantly. But as I said, it's just an assumption!
@Matthew Those assumptions are not correct. SQL Server doubles the number of schedulers, not worker threads (though the maximum number of worker threads will increase a bit as a consequence). See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187024.aspx (Books Online).
There is a great deal of good information about SQL Server's scheduling architecture online, and in great books like SQL Server 2008 Internals. I would recommend the following to you:
SQL Server Batch or Task Scheduling (Books Online)
Inside the SQL Server 2000 User Mode Scheduler (Ken Henderson)
Platform Layer for SQL Server (Slava Oks)
@Greg: Given your comments about cooperative scheduling, I'd encourage you to read those links too!
Matt, there are many bad things about SQL Server's task scheduling unfortunately..
Paul, thanks for the reading suggestions but I've read those already. Actually, Ken Henderson asked me to review various articles + chapters in his SQL 2000 Internals Guru's Guide & after much work on those reviews he listed me first in his acknowledgements in the Guru's Guide.
Ken was somebody who worked extensively with SQL Server in the field & his perspective was sometimes different from the architects who designed SQL Server. Architects tend to defend how designs are *supposed* to work whereas field engineers such as he & I end up dealing with the consequences of designs & hence end up questioning things.
Task scheduling is a great example of where Microsoft DBMS architects have gotten things TERRIBLY wrong in the past. The story about the Microsoft / Sybase partnership actually centered on this issue - if you follow it through, the case is very clear..
Originally, Sybase wanted to implement a design similar to the current SQLOS model (DBMS layer multi-tasking) but Microsoft was embarking into the commercial server OS market in the early 90s & needed SQL Server to be a killer app which would work closely with & promote WinNT, so they split from Sybase & implemented their idea - a monolithic multi-threaded DBMS which relied entirely on WinNT pre-emptive multi-tasking. This design remained in the 4x & 6x releases but never performed well & was ultimately replaced years later in SQL7 with the "User Mode Scheduler" (UMS) - basically a throwback to Sybase's original plan.
Clearly, Microsoft's DBMS architects got this decision very wrong & a lot of time was lost whilst they sheepishly circled back to Sybase's original design.
However, even after this first huge mistake there was another obvious problem with reverting to the Sybase design in the SQL7 release. Sybase's objective was originally to target multiple OS platforms (OS2, Unix, Windows etc) but Microsoft were only ever going to target Windows NT with SQL Server, so they didn't need a DBMS multi-tasking layer for the same reasons as Sybase. Instead, Microsoft could have / should have redesigned Windows NT microkernel architecture to support SQL Server (its killer app in those days) better.
Many who read this probably won't know that the O/S designers who architected WinNT used to design O/Ss with optional kernels when they worked at Digital Equipment many years earlier.. PDP & Vax O/S systems used to be available in either pre-emptive, co-operative or real-time kernels, so it was definitely possible to provide more focussed WinNT kernels for key apps such as SQL Server. Microsoft's WinNT OS team had done it all before & hence knew exactly how to go about it.
They apparently just thought that pre-emptive would work generically & as a result, SQL 4x & 6x releases were performance disasters & the decision was eventually made to resdesign SQL Server (UMS / SQLOS) rather than Windows.
As a result, we now have an absurd design where the DBMS does application layer multi-tasking in a co-operative model, to avoid problems associated with the host OS pre-emptive multi-tasking, even though SQL Server runs only a single platform (WinNT). It is obviously not ideal, it is inefficient & is an artifact of bad choices made many years ago.
Throw Hypervisor based Virtualisation underneath the host O/S & you have an even more absurd third layer of un-co-ordinated task scheduling.
Reading articles is good & I've done my share of reading whilst working with SQL Server for nearly 20 years, however one shouldn't always just accept whatever is written. It's also important to question what's written & also how SQL Server is designed. Microsoft doesn't always get it right & needs feedback from the field - my point here is that this is even possible in the big picture stuff such as multi-tasking, which is at the core of what SQL Server does..
That's a rather negative review of history if you don't mind me saying so. Naturally, it is easy to criticize but in the process it is easy to come off as dismissive of the efforts of the (conscientious and skilled) people involved in those decisions at the time.
There are always multiple competing factors (including commercial and legal ones) in play, and I just don't think it's very constructive to take a "oh, you don't want to do it like that, do it like this!" attitude.
There may be some technical merit in suggesting things like alternative kernels for SQL Server, Exchange, and so on, but I don't think the chances of that happening any time soon are very high, for a variety of fairly obvious reasons.
@Paul, you're correct. I should have used "scheduler" and not "worker thread". But it doesn't change the assumption in general.
Thanks for the reading suggestions. I know parts of it because I struggled with a horrible problem some month ago. It had to do with the cache mechanism. When analyzing it you get into the scheduling mechanism automatically. The HT experience was some time later. That's where my assumption comes from.
@Greg: Thank you for reminding me of the whole story, it's really an interesting history. I don't have such a vast knowledge about SQL Servers evolution and devolution like you, but in our company we have departments working with SQL Server in Microsoft environments (like me) and Sybase on IBMs iSeries (which I prefer ;)). This is always an inspiring dialogue ;)
Thanks to all!
@Matthew: I see. If I change 'worker thread' to scheduler, your statement now reads "... doubles the number of worker threads hence they need to share a core and have to wait for execution.".
My worry is that you are thinking of a situation where two worker threads (on different SQLOS schedulers) are competing for exclusive access to a single physical core. This is not the case in general for two reasons:
(1) The OS will generally not schedule two threads on the same physical core (with two hyper-threads) if another, uncontended, physical core is available
(2) Even where all physical cores have at least one active thread, the second hardware thread on a single hyper-threaded physical core does not necessarily have to wait for the other hyper-thread to yield. The best introductory explanation I have found to the issues involved here can be found at http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/performance-insights-to-intel-hyper-threading-technology/
>(1) The OS will generally not schedule two threads on the same physical core (with two hyper-threads) if another, uncontended, physical core is available<
I read this in multiple places as well. But I wonder if you know how to actually check if this indeed the case. I'd love to confirm and see this behavior in action in my own tests. Maybe I haven't tried hard enough, but I have not found a way to verify this. Intuitively, the OS absolutely has to do this at the minimum to be HT aware.
Yes, multiple places. The most authoritative that comes to mind is Mark Russinovich's excellent Windows Internals Fifth Edition. The detailed descriptions there put me off ever attempting to verify the behaviour on a real machine, but I know you like a challenge. I imagine it would involve using some very low-level tools.
This is in part a response to a comment by Paul White ( @SQL_Kiwi ) to my previous post on the performance
Paul, I don't mind you saying whatever you like.
Yes, it's a negative story but it's also the truth & I pointed it out as an example of why you shouldn't just blindly read whatever is written or accept things as they are.
Too many context switches per second are considered bad for your database performance. But how many is


text:
Superstition Bash
|Planning Time
|4 to 6 weeks
|Group Size
|Staff #
|Event Date
|Friday the 13th /
Activity Overview:
Superstitions, old wives' tales, and other silly myths may seem quaint, but you'd be surprised how many people still believe in them! A superstition bash is a great way to promote critical thinking while having fun! There are two approaches to this. The first is to set up an awareness table on Friday the 13th, one which features activities as an incitement to come over. The second is to incorporate the superstition-bashing activities into a full-fledged party. Of course, they are not mutually exclusive, but involve different planning.
Planning Timeframe:
This event works especially well when held on a Friday the 13th - hundreds of millions of dollars are lost on this day to superstition. Additionally, Friday the 13th is the most common calendar date, occurring between one and three times in any year. Scope out your school calendar at the beginning of the year to see if one falls during the semester - if not, you can have it any old day, really. Halloween is another great time! To plan and promote this effectively, you probably want to plan at least four to six weeks in advance.
In order to pull this off, you need to coordinate activities and decor related to the theme, as well as some promotion to get attendees. It's probably best if these are handled separately, so you'll probably need three to four coordinators. Volunteers will be needed to set up a party, to run activities, to promote the event, and just generally to create interest.
Material requirements:
A large part of what you'll need will depend on what activities you plan, which we'll get to in a moment. In general, you'll need a room to hold it in, with enough space for activities, dancing, perhaps refreshments, and music. In terms of decor, important elements can include umbrellas, (cardboard) black cats, (cheap) mirrors, ladders, horseshoes and four-leaf clovers. You can also get hats for your guests to wear.
As with all activities, you should have a clipboard, pens, and pre-printed sign-up sheets for people to join your group email list, along with whatever other tabling supplies you normally have.
Promotion is key to a successful event. Once you have decided on your activity, time, and location, look through the Group Promotion resource for ideas. We suggest promoting through your group email list, Facebook or other social media, and flyers. Also consider sending a press release to the student newspaper.
Suggested Walkthrough:
In reality, this part would boil down to the same steps and ideas in the Awareness Tabling activity packet, so to reduce duplication we'll direct you there. Instead, this will go through some activities and ideas specifically for a superstition bash.
Superstition Obstacle Course:
There are a couple of ways you can organize this. You can have participants go through a bunch of different superstitions, or (better yet) you can have them tempt fate by trying to collect as much bad luck as possible. There are a number of possible activities, but here are a few favorites (see more at http://www.csicop.org/superstition/obstacles/):
- Walking under a ladder
- Breaking a mirror
- This, of course, requires strict attention to safety. Be sure to wrap mirrors in layers of plastic, and there must be a bin to collect all shards. CSICOP notes, "We set the mirrors on long tables and included a small hammer and goggles on both sides. An attendant was stationed here to help participants and ensure their safety."
- To find cheap mirrors, you can buy large ones at a hardware store and cut them into smaller squares. Ask members to bring in old, unwanted mirrors from home. Glass stores may offer broken mirrors for free or at a discount.
- Walking under upside-down horseshoes
- Have participants walk a path that forces them in front of a cardboard black cat
- Many holiday stores have black cats for cheap after Halloween
- Stepping on cracks
- Spilling milk
- For best safety and cleanup, pour small cups of milk to spill, and have participants throw them on towel
- A miniature bowling game on a table, with salt shakers for pins
- For extra bad luck, have participants throw salt over the right (wrong) shoulder
- Opening umbrellas indoors
- A MissFortune Teller with a crystal ball
- Ladder limbo
- Pin-the-tail on the Astrologer or Psychic
- Costume contest!
- Have attendees create a costume illustrating a myth or superstition, and vote on winners
- Umbrella dance - attendees dance under open umbrellas
- Homeopathic Juice Bar, or a Homeopathic Beer Chugging Contest
- For each, dilute a tiny amount of raspberry juice/beer in gallons of seltzer water. If homeopathy works, it should taste (and intoxicate) just like the real thing!
- Check with your student activities department to see if this is OK, root beer can be a substitution!
- Dunk a Witch
- Have attendees pay to "test" a witch/warlock in a water tank. You can also reenact the witch-testing skit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Note: Many more suggestions are available at www.csicop.org/superstition/. You can also talk to Margaret Downey, the Friggatriskaidekaphobia Treatment Nurse (www.friggatriskaidekaphobia.com/index.html), who puts on superstition bash parties for very reasonable rates.
One of the best resources to find out what works and what doesn't is you - our student leaders! If you've employed a strategy that worked well, let us know about it so other groups can also use that idea. If you've learned a lesson of caution about something we suggest, point out the pitfalls! Email us at firstname.lastname@example.com with your stories and experiences!


text:
HOUSTON - A man has been accused of exposing himself to a 12-year-old and asking her if she wanted to have sex with him.
Stephen Christopher Scott, 24, has been charged with indecency with a child by exposure.
Houston police said a 12-year-old girl who lives at an apartment complex in the 8300 block of Cinnamon in southwest Houston reported that Scott, who she described as a neighbor, exposed himself to her in a laundry room in May.
Investigators said Scott touched himself and asked the girl if she wanted to have sex with him.
The girl tried to leave the laundry room and Scott grabbed her arm and once again asked her if she wanted to have sex, detectives said.
Police said the girl broke free and immediately told her father and Scott's girlfriend about what happened.
Scott's criminal history includes convictions on charges of burglary of a building, trespassing, evading arrest and drug possession.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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Double Lace Ribbing by Charlene Schurch
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by YarnOverHere Flickr
Double Lace Ribbing
Pattern Summary: Patterns designed for a variety of gauge and foot sizes. Methods include 2 Circulars and 4 and 5 DPNs, Toe-up or Top-down.
Pattern Section: This pattern is in the 'Six-stitch pattern with even instep and heel flap' section
Notes on gauge: As with all of the patterns in this book, with the aid of an included chart the pattern can be adjusted to your gauge, and desired finished measurements.
Related Patterns: The following patterns have similar stitch repeats, and thus the same sock construction:
- Double Fleck
- Crosshatch Lace
- Swedish Block
- Basket Weave (6-stitch)
- Double Lace Ribbing
- Embossed Moss Stitch
- Faggot and Cable Stripe
- Italian Chain Ribbing
- Vertical Eyelets
- Waving Ribbing
- Stansfield 14
Sock Pattern pg 28, Stitch Pattern pg 90.


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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/11/2012 (1728 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Casey CREEHAN will be the next defensive co-ordinator of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Expect an official announcement as early as today. The Bombers asked the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for permission to talk to Creehan early this week and a deal is all but complete.
Bombers head coach Tim Burke had a short list of candidates, including former Bombers defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall, but a deal with Creehan came together quickly late Wednesday afternoon.
Creehan was linebackers coach in Winnipeg while Burke was defensive co-ordinator during the 2011 season.
The duo put together the league's best defence and Winnipeg rode all the way to the Grey Cup.
That work resulted in Creehan being hired as defensive co-ordinator last season with the Ticats under head coach George Cortez.
But Creehan's defence struggled and there were reports of a personality clash between the two coaches.
Creehan may be coming off a difficult year in Hamilton, but he and Burke have similar defensive philosophies. Burke will also have a strong trust factor with Creehan and will view him as a confidant as he begins his first full season as the head coach in Winnipeg.
Burke and Creehan have a long history, first working together from 2005-07 in Calgary when Burke was the Stampeders' defensive backs coach and Creehan was the defensive line coach.
Burke was hired in 2008 as the Montreal Alouettes' defensive co-ordinator and brought Creehan along as linebackers coach.
They got back together in 2011 when Burke joined the Bombers as defensive co-ordinator. Creehan was already in Winnipeg as linebackers coach.
Hamilton's defence gave up more points than any other team in the league in 2012 and finished dead last in the CFL in 11 of 25 defensive categories.
-- with files from Paul Wiecek
firstname.lastname@example.com Twitter: @garylawless


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The entire list
Daily Comments
Baskent TV, February 13- 2009
Adnan Oktar: This is an inevitable destiny. Pakistanis and Egyptians, Armenians, Georgia and Lithuania, all of them are our dear brothers and our souls within the Turkish-Islamic Union. We will embrace them all with affection, guarantee their security of life and property and ensure them a peaceful environment in both material and spiritual terms. This is destiny… We are going to found the greatest super nation of the world. It will be the sole power of the world; the world will be made up of one pole and only the Turkish-Islamic Union will be left. This is a work that could also save America; it is a blessing, a beauty. This is a blessing that could save Europe as well. As a result of this economic crisis, the whole Europe will suffer on a great scale. So does America. You will see that in the coming days. In spite of all the measures taken, it will demolish everywhere just like the Noah's flood. The Turkish-Islamic Union will spread light and prosperity to the whole world. You will see also that. Not much, in the coming days and years, these will be seen almost every day. For example, I mentioned the Turkish-Islamic Union. In all newspapers and in foreign press headlines like, "A new Ottoman? Turkish-Islamic Union coming" started to appear. This subject is on my agenda for two months and it has currently come to the agenda. NOW GO TO PALESTINE AND ASK WHICH COUNTRY SHOULD BE THE LEADER. THERE IS ONLY ONE ANSWER: TURKEY.
Haberturk, April 22 - 2010
Memorial ceremony with Turkish flags in Palestine
Palestinians carried Turkish flags during the "Al Naqba" (Great Catastrophe) day they commemorate every year on the Israel's foundation day.


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When filled with vibrantly colored notepads, this metal frame basket will seem wired for energy! The bottom of the basket is made with wire mesh to securely hold the eight 100-sheet personalized lime notepads included in this set. Sizes include six 2.875" x 5.5" and two 5.5" x 7.5" pads. A lime green ribbon is also included to accessorize your basket.


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… O Believers! Do you know how many tribes of enemies have taken up position to attack the people of belief? There are more than a hundred of them, like a series of concentric circles. THE BELIEVERS ARE OBLIGED TO TAKE UP DEFENSIVE POSITIONS IN SOLIDARITY, EACH SUPPORTING THE OTHER. IS IT THEN AT ALL FITTING FOR THE PEOPLE OF BELIEF THAT WITH THEIR ENVIOUS PARTISANSHIP AND HOSTILE RANCOUR THEY SHOULD FACILITATE THE ATTACK OF THE ENEMY AND FLING OPEN THE DOORS FOR HIM TO PENETRATE THE FOLD OF ISLAM? There are maybe seventy circles of enemies, including the misguided, the atheist, and the unbeliever, each of them as harmful to you as all the terrors and afflictions of this world, and each of them regarding you with greed, anger and hatred. Your firm weapon, shield and citadel against all of them is none other than the brotherhood of Islam. So realize just how contrary to conscience and to the interests of Islam it is to shake the citadel of Islam on account of petty hostilities and other pretexts! Know this, and come to your senses!
According to a noble Hadith of the Prophet (saas), noxious and awesome persons like sufyan and the dajjal will come to rule over the godless at the end of time, AND EXPLOITING THE GREED, DISCORD AND HATRED AMONGST THE MUSLIMS AND MANKIND, THEY WILL NEED ONLY A SMALL FORCE TO REDUCE HUMANITY TO ANARCHY AND THE VAST WORLD OF ISLAM TO SLAVERY.(Letters / Twenty - Second Letter - First Topic- p. 319)
2011-02-12 13:42:59


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Google has added new features to its Gmail service during the past couple months that make the Web-based e-mail service more business-friendly and versatile. Here's a look at three free add-ons that could really improve your usual Gmail routine.
Gmail is part of Google Apps, the Internet giant's software package that includes e-mail, calendar, documents, spreadsheets and sites (a wiki). Anyone can get a free Google Apps account by singing up for Gmail, while businesses can buy a premier edition for $50 per user per year.
More about Google Apps on CIO.com
Five (More) Favorite Gmail Add-Ons
Understanding What Google Apps Is (And Isn't)
You can install the following three add-ons with either version (free or paid) of Gmail. To add them, you must first go to Gmail Labs. To access Gmail Labs, click on the green beaker in the upper right hand corner of your Gmail inbox (it appears next to the "settings" tab).
If you like these add-ons, be sure to scan our previous Gmail Add-on reviews: five favorite Gmail add-ons and five (more ) favorite Gmail add-ons . As the Google guys will tell you, all of these features are experimental, so don't be surprised if you see some kinks.
1. Offline Gmail
How it helps do no evil: Call it the airplane problem. One of the hang-ups businesses have had in adopting Gmail for their workers has been offline e-mail access. With traditional, client-based e-mail, it's easy to launch your Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook and type out some e-mails while in an area sans Wi-Fi. After balking at the need for offline e-mail for quite some time, as any offline software essentially runs counter to Google's business model, the company finally relented with offline Gmail that allows you to work on e-mails in your browser while you're not connected to the Internet.
With offline Gmail, you can write and read e-mails. Messages that you compose while offline will be stored in your outbox and automatically sent next time you connect to the Internet.
How to set it up: You must first install Google Gears on your web-browser. Gears, a Google-led open source project, allows you to utilize many Web-based applications in an offline mode. After you install it, you probably will have to restart your browser.
Log into Gmail and click on the green Labs beaker. Scroll to "Offline." Click "enable" and "save changes." After you do that, an "offline" tab will appear next to the Google labs beaker and "settings" tab in the upper right corner of your inbox. From here, it's simple. Click on the "offline" tab and it will create a locally stored cache of your e-mail messages (if you have a pretty healthy sized inbox, it will go back about six months).
Doing no good: It would be great if you could control the amount of messages you choose to take offline with greater granularity. I appreciate the fact that the tool doesn't try to download all of the e-mails if you have a big account, but I'd prefer to just take a select 20 or so offline rather than clog up my machine with several months' worth of messages.
Google has listed some other limitations to offline Gmail, including not being able to send e-mail with attachments. This could be a big limitation for some of you, so beware.
2. Gmail Inboxes
How it helps do no evil: This tool basically adds more inboxes, or window panes, to your main Gmail inbox. These boxes can contain e-mails related to frequent search terms that you use. You can also match them to labels that you create to help organize your Gmail messages. For instance, if you have a label for "Travel," you can create a pane that lists your travel messages. This add-on can be helpful if you're hoping to have a front-and-center visual of certain e-mails and don't want to have to keep searching for them.
How to set it up: Go to Labs, click "enable" and "save changes." After your inbox reloads, click on "settings" in the upper right hand corner of Gmail. In the settings menu, you'll see a new "Multiple Inboxes" tab. Click on it. This will let you set what you want to appear in your extra panes (up to four of them). If you type a term into one of the fields on its own, the tool will create a pane with that search term. To add a pane that contains a label, add "Label:" before you type term into the field.


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Before the Games: Jennifer Lawrence, Lenny Kravitz & More
Ivanka Trump
Accessories and fine jewelry designer; Executive at The Trump Organization
"When times are tough, people dress up; when things are good, they start dressing down—there's a psychological connection with appearance when you're working on things that are important to you."
Embroidered tulle gown, Zac Posen, price on request, collection at Bergdorf Goodman, NYC. Rock crystal and diamond earrings, $2,300, freshwater pearl necklace, $4,400, both, Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry.
Zoe Lister-Jones
Writer, producer, actress in this summer's film Lola Versus; costar, NBC's Whitney
"Lola Versus is a New York–centric film, and it captures our generation, fashion-wise. There's something very authentic and playful in the way my character dresses—I toy with patterns and textures and shapes."
Organza dress, Chanel, price on request, at select Chanel boutiques nationwide. Diamond, amethyst, and white ceramic earrings, Bulgari, $4,950. Sunglasses, Merce by Oliver Peoples, $285.
10 Books Taboo for Their Time


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Robinson signs letter of intent
May 24th, 2012 |
Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College is proud to announce that Sarah Robinson of Shelbyville, Kentucky, signed a letter of intent to accept a soccer scholarship with the Pomeroys on Friday, May 11, 2012. She is an accomplished athlete, an excellent student, and a person who's willing to challenge herself.
The captain of her high school team, Robinson earned Team Most Valuable Player honors and was named to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association District 16 All-Tournament Team. She has also honed her talents as a player for the last four years with the Javanon Soccer Club of Louisville, one of the premier clubs in Kentucky, playing both in midfield and in front.
As a student, she is a member of the National Beta Club, the National Honor Society, and National Honors Society of High School Scholars. She was awarded the Principal's Award for maintaining a 3.5 or higher GPA while participating in athletics, and was most recently awarded the Presidential Scholarship at Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, with plans to major in Biology/Pre-Professional Studies. These honors only begin to show her initiative, though. Taking extra classes, she made the Dean's List at Jefferson Community College while still enrolled in high school, graduating from high school a semester early. Remarkably, she is also a member of the Kentucky National Guard and will train with them this summer before arriving at The Woods.
Robinson will become the seventh signee in a very strong new class. Coach Mike Aycock believes her skills and experience will be very welcome: "Sarah is one of those people that kind of define 'student athlete,' and we're lucky to have her join us. She should fit in well and contribute right away."
The Pomeroys won bids to the USCAA national soccer tournament in 2009 and 2010, finishing as runners-up in 2009.
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Features four illustrations by the great Mark Ulriksen. 3"x3" and 225 sheets.
Gift Cards
Redeemable for concert tickets, merchandise or membership, an SFJAZZ Gift Card is a fast and flexible way to share the world of jazz with those you love.
SFJAZZ T-shirts
Classic threads from SFJAZZ look great and fit right. Commemorative Festival t-shirts make a great collectible.
General Public: 866-920-5299Members: 415-788-7353Administration: 415-398-5655
SFJAZZ Center • 201 Franklin Street, San Francisco, CA 94102Copyright © 2016 SFJAZZ • San Francisco Jazz Organization


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STAFF and pupils at an Oldbury school are celebrating after being ranked one of the top primaries in the country.
St Hubert's Catholic Primary comes in at number eight in the Sunday Times list of the top state primary schools in the country and the second best catholic school nationally.
The ranking comes after four consecutive years of pupils achieving a 100 per cent success rate at level four in English and maths.
The school also has a consistently high and still rising number of children reaching level five in both English and maths.
It has also earned a variety of accolades including the ICT Mark, Artsmark Gold, the International Schools Award, the Green Flag Award and the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools Award.
Headteacher Clare McNally said: "We were thrilled to be ranked the eighth best primary nationally.
"We are especially proud that the academic success reflected in this ranking is matched by high quality opportunities for pupils to achieve in a wide range of other areas.
"Everyone who visits our school comments on how wonderful our pupils and staff are and I totally agree."
She put the school's success down to the ambitious vision of governors and strong working relationships between school, parents, Sandwell education department, St Hubert's parish and the local community.
"The Gospel values that underpin all St Hubert's does as a Catholic school makes us determined to discover and fulfil the potential of each and every child in our care and to develop in them a love of learning," said Mrs McNally, adding:.
"St Hubert's is blessed with an outstanding leadership team and a highly skilled, enthusiastic and committed team of staff and governors who give of their best to provide every support for pupils and their families pastorally and academically.
"Everyone has a "can do" approach and this fantastic ranking is the well-deserved result."


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Indiana State University accepts credit from regionally accredited college and universities within the United States, and from selected schools located outside the United States. Credit also may be granted for military training and experience.
NOTE: These are general guidelines. Upon admission, advisors will review your transcripts and determine which credit transfers and which courses will be included in your program of study.
If you have earned an associate of applied science (A.A.S.), associate of arts (A.A.), or associate of science degree (A.S.), or if you have completed the Indiana Statewide General Education Transfer Core, several of ISU's Foundational Studies/General Education requirements will be waived. Students with an A.A.S., A.A., or A.S. are granted an Associate Degree Waiver.
Indiana State University has partnered with two-year colleges to formalize transfer plans for particular majors. These plans enable students to complete a specific associate degree and receive credit toward a specific ISU bachelor degree. Benefits include maximum credit transfer and streamlined advisement.
Browse these plans IF you are entering one of the schools (below)—and planning to transfer an associate degree to an ISU bachelor degree.
Last updated March 3, 2017


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If you are using Adobe Acrobat/Reader in a Citrix XenApp environment, you may experience issues related to problems in Citrix or the underlying Windows operating system. Citrix have issued recommendations for hotfixes in XenApp and Microsoft Windows, which resolve most of the common issues with XenApp 6.0 and later, running on Windows 2008 Server.
If you do experience issues running Acrobat/Reader in a Citrix XenApp environment, ensure you have the recommended hotfixes installed. You should contact Citrix for support or refer to their technotes such as the one below:
For more information related to Acrobat/Reader deployments on Citrix, please refer to our Enterprise Administration Guide:


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Thanks to our sponsors who contributed this post.
The other day I hooked up with a fellow sports handicapper, who happens to be a huge National Basketball Association fan. Being as we hadn't touched base since the 2012 NBA Playoffs had ended, the conversation quickly turned to the Miami Heat finally crowning their King by getting a ring on LeBron James' finger. After briefly chatting about the NBA Finals series being kind of anticlimactic, the conversation quickly turned into a rather heated debate over which contests could be included in the discussion of the greatest games in NBA history.
There are a ton of games that qualify, most of which have kept hoops fans who had bets tied up at sports betting sites on the web, up until the wee hours of the morning, fingers crossed. After we each rolled out several games that were tattooed to our collective memories, here are some of the more memorable NBA games that received a common nod. Thoughts?
Indianapolis Olympians vs. Rochester Royals – Longest NBA Game in History
Back when sportsbooks were just beginning to dot the Nevada desert landscape – they were called Turf Clubs back then – Indianapolis and Rochester played in what is still the longest game in NBA history. The date was January 6, 1951, and the Olympians edged the Royals 75-73 in six overtime periods. While both teams would later fold, this contest stands the test of time not only for its length, but for its influence on the NBA as well. While games often reach the 75-73 point range by the third quarter today, this match-up was played before the shot clock was introduced in the NBA. With both teams seemingly playing keep-away from each other, the 23 total combined shots in overtime helped usher in the 24-second clock era in 1954.
Detroit Pistons vs. Denver Nuggets – 1983 NBA Contest Pays OVER Bettors Big Time
If you need proof that the implementation of the shot clock helped raise scoring in the NBA, look no further than the Pistons versus Nuggets gem that was played at the McNichols Sports Arena back on December 13, 1983. Though only watched in person by some 9,655 fans, this contest was a shootout from the get-go as the teams were tied 74-74 at halftime. The assault on the rims continued in the second half and the fourth quarter ended with the scored tied 145-145. Three overtime periods later, the Motor City Bad Boys finally pulled down a 186-184 victory. The 370 total points scored was, and still is, the NBA record for most points in a single game.
Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan vs. Phoenix Suns Charles Barkley – 1993 NBA Finals
Considered by many hoops fans to be one of the greatest games in NBA Finals history, the matchup between Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley back on June 13, 1993, is easily in the conversation. This Game 3 Finals contest is known as much for Jordan's 44-points scored in a losing effort as it is for Bulls guard Scottie Pippen shooting a horrendous 13 of 33 from the field – in a game played in his own backyard. Charles was in charge in this one as Barkley pulled down 19 rebounds, helping the Suns to a 129-121 triple overtime win. This was after Chicago had taken the first two games of the series in Phoenix against the Suns, who had an NBA best record of 62-20 that season. In the end, the marathon loss was just a blip on the map for the Bulls as Chicago captured their third straight Larry O'Brien Trophy with a 4-2 series win.
OKC Thunder Leave the Grizzlies Singing the Memphis Blues in Triple Overtime
Oklahoma City and Memphis waged an epic Game 4 battle in the NBA Conference Semi-Finals back on May 9, 2011. In that contest the Thunder rolled the Grizzlies 133-123 in triple overtime from the Home of the Blues. As the sixth-longest contest in NBA history, this was a game changer for the Thunder as they tied the series at two games apiece heading back to OKC. After leading for most of the game, Memphis was down 96-93 with three seconds to play. Grizzlies point guard Mike Conley then drained a 26-foot three-point jumper to send the contest into overtime with the scored tied at 96-96. Another 26-foot Memphis three-pointer, this time by guard Greivis Vasquez, sent the game to a second OT with the game tied at 109-109. The second OT saw each team score ten points before the Thunder outscored the Grizzlies 14-4 in the third OT period to capture the victory.
This is a sponsored post written by a sponsor.


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Giant reef found in northern Australia, according to a report in New Scientist, 30 April 2005, p6. Researchers from Geoscience Australia on a survey ship have found a huge, previously unnoticed patch of coral reefs covering over 80 square kilometres in the Gulf of Carpentaria, with a long 100 km platform reef extending westward from Mornington Island. It would seem a mystery that such an enormous structure hadn't already been found, but most known coral reefs are less than 20m below the surface. If they are deeper than this they will not be picked up by remote sensing satellites, and if they are not under a regular shipping lane they will not be found because no-one goes looking for them, except in specialist surveys such as the Geoscience Australia one. The newly found reef is between 20 and 30 metres below the surface. Peter Harris who led the survey said that coral reefs would have flourished in the past "when sea levels were typically 30 to 50 metres lower than today".
Editorial Comment: If the oceans were 30 to 50 metres below current levels, many islands and continents that are now separated would be joined, and migrating humans and animals would have been able to spread across the world without having to cross vast expanses of oceans. These sea level changes would have facilitated the scattering of peoples as they spread out after the judgement at the Tower of Babel. When the sea levels rose again, probably due to the melting of the ice which is mentioned in the book of Job, the people were "trapped" in new lands until they developed seagoing vessels. However, God had achieved what He forced the people to do at Babel - spread out and fill the earth. (Ref. oceanography, sea-levels, reefs)


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Since the iPod debuted in 2001, it has gone from portable music player to a medium in itself: Podcasts, like blogs, indelibly shaped the media landscape in less than a decade. The A.V. Club listens to a lot of them, and Podmass is our weekly roundup of the podcasts we follow.
"Pee-wee got snarkier and snarkier as the years went on and I got angrier and more bitter." —Paul Reubens, Comedy Death-Ray Radio
The B.S. Report: 3/11 Jackie MacMullan
ESPN NBA writer Jackie MacMullan joins Simmons for a wide-ranging interview that starts with a discussion about her career and her time off to raise children, then veers into the issue of women in the locker room. After revisiting the Lisa Olson incident—the 1990 case of a Boston Herald reporter who was sexually harassed in the New England Patriots locker room—MacMullan recounts her own experiences, both good and bad, as a female sports reporter in male locker rooms, including why hockey players are the easiest to talk to. MacMullan, a fellow Bostonian, indulges Simmons in a long discussion about Larry Bird and his personality before moving on to discuss another enigma, Shaquille O'Neal, also the subject of MacMullan's next book. Between these topics, the two also talk about other NBA issues—PEDs, the Miami Heat, Kevin Garnett—in one of the more engaging NBA discussions (even beyond the Celtics) Simmons has had on his podcast. Given his love of the league, that's saying something.
Comedy Death-Ray Radio #96: Paul Reubens, Dave Foley, Thomas Lennon
Scott Aukerman—er, Hot Saucerman—almost out-Marons Marc Maron on this week's special episode with Paul Reubens, recorded live in Austin during South By Southwest. Aukerman plays the rare role of a straight (and noticeably nervous) interviewer, and a thoughtful and candid Reubens talks about Pee-wee Herman, his new HBO special, and upcoming projects, like a Judd Apatow-helmed Pee-wee movie. During the hourlong talk, Reubens describes how rejection from Saturday Night Live, and the career panic that followed, catalyzed the creation of the Pee-wee character, then shares some funny stories about everything that followed, like the ridiculous pitches TV networks gave him. The Reubens segment ends with his giving a heartfelt speech about how much fan enthusiasm has meant to him, and afterward, a clearly elated Aukerman says, "Well, that was fantastic. I can't believe it." It isn't a typical Comedy Death-Ray Radio installment, but the silliness resumes when Reubens leaves and Dave Foley takes the stage with Tom Lennon as Little Gary. Considering Little Gary's abrasiveness, he's a bold choice for an episode that will attract new listeners. But it's still funny, and in the end, #96 will go down as one of CDR's best.
Doug Loves Movies: Amy Poehler, Chris Pratt, Jim O'Heir, Retta, Adam Scott, and Ben Schwartz
Filling the void left by two weeks without new episodes of Parks And Recreation, friend of Doug Loves Movies Adam Scott brings his Pawnee cohorts to the UCB Theater—with the notable exceptions of Aziz Ansari, Nick Offerman, and Aubrey Plaza. At least Amy Poehler shows up to test her bullshitting skills in The Leonard Maltin Game. Meanwhile, we get to know a little bit more about Parks And Recreation supporting players Jim O'Heir (Jerry) and Retta (Donna)—namely that O'Heir appeared in the "little people playing a monkey playing baseball" vehicle Ed, and that Retta has an astoundingly operatic vocal range. It's also revealed that six guests is too much for Doug Loves Movies to handle.
Extra Hot Great: More Like Baloney Los Angeles (Nailed It)
After taking the week off—save for David Cole's sadistic placeholder episode, a "Game Time For The Masses" involving beat-long soundtrack samples from various popular movies—Extra Hot Great returns with co-host Tara Ariano in particularly fine form. Having spent the hiatus visiting her parents in Pakistan, Ariano returns with exotic tales of watching OnDemand movies in a comfy Air Emirates business-class seat, and later spending much of the week watching bootleg movies on the couch with her mother. (We smell a travel book here.) She later leads a mind-blowing segment called "Simpsons Continuity Cop," in which she notes some glaring inconsistencies in the Simpsons universe over the years and decries the show's recent habit of focusing entire episodes on obscure, one-joke peripheral characters. (This week: The crazy cat-lady.) The gang also picks apart the joyless thriller Battle: Los Angeles, comparing it unfavorably to the likes of District 9 and Starship Troopers; that segment ends with an inspired Top Five list on reasons why Los Angeles is worth saving. (Their friends are an afterthought: "Reason 1b.") They also consider an episode of Daria for "The Canon," and come away with the consensus that the show is more of-its-time than timeless.
Hang Up And Listen: The March Fabness Edition
The addition of two more play-in games to this year's NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament lets more bubble teams into the Big Dance, and with a "weak bubble," that means less controversy, right? Not so much. Josh Levin, Stefan Fatsis, and Mike Pesca talk about the selection committee's more contentious decisions—VCU and UAB in, Virginia Tech and Harvard out—and the misplaced outrage of the sports punditocracy. Keeping with the college-basketball theme, the trio also weighs HBO's UNLV documentary against ESPN's Fab Five doc, and finds the latter far more compelling and revealing of the racist attitudes that were prevalent at the time. But the most compelling segment of the three is a discussion of the NHL's lax policies on violent hits, stemming from a brutal Zdeno Chara bodycheck on Max Pacioretty into "the turnstile" that left Pacioretty with a major concussion and fractured vertebrae. In spite of pressure from fans and corporate sponsors—namely Air Canada, which threatened to pull its support of six Canadian teams—the league seems inclined to police itself lightly. This week's "Afterball segments" are the strongest part of the show, with funny stuff from Pesca and Levin on the Providence Friars' hyped-up media guide and a totally-real-no-kidding New Orleans Fantasy Debutante League, respectively, and Fatsis on the soaring career of Don Yaeger, a writer and motivational speaker whose 2005 Sports Illustrated piece on disgraced Alabama coach Mike Price reveals his disturbingly casual relationship to the truth.
How Did This Get Made: Battlefield Earth
For the first time in the podcast's run, the bad-movie lovers over at How Did This Get Made hop inside the wayback machine for the bad-movie equivalent of a golden oldie: Battlefield Earth. Hosts Paul Scheer, June Rayfield, and Jason Mantzoukas, along with guest Rob Huebel, feast on the embarrassment of riches that is the richly embarrassing John Travolta-fueled L. Ron Hubbard adaptation Battlefield Earth, marveling at the screenplay's deliciously purple, seemingly undeliverable dialogue, idiot plotting, egregious overacting, and ridiculous overuse of "leverage" (both the word and the concept). Battlefield Earth is so textually rich that it almost seems a shame the gang doesn't devote a full hour to it. Otherwise, this is destined to make bad-movie lovers as happy as a baby raised on a diet of straight kerbango.
Judge John Hodgman: #16: The Potluck Problem
How should a party be orchestrated? Should the person throwing the party be responsible for the food, thus executing a consistent and unified (and possibly prohibitively expensive) vision? Or are "potluck dinners," with their widely varied homemade and store-bought items, the better way to go, especially for a host on a budget? In other words, should dinner parties be a benevolent dictatorship, or embrace democracy in all its untidiness? Potluck-hater and amateur DJ Ben brings the case against his potluck-throwing friend Jenny, and Judge Hodgman does an admirable job of staying impartial, in spite of his stated preference for a tightly managed soirée. Though sprinkled with wit throughout—including some terrifically funny food-related pre-trial summary judgments—"The Potluck Problem" is most notable for the sincere wisdom of Hodgman's ruling, which emphasizes the importance of staying open to communal experiences.
The Nerdist: #69: John Oliver
Guest John Oliver and host Chris Hardwick get a lot of mileage out of the former's Britishness on this live episode taped at South By Southwest. When Hardwick drops into a Ricky Gervais impression at one point, the stand-up and Daily Show correspondent immediately admonishes him, "Oh, don't do that," kicking off a riff about Oliver being a "professional British person." They also discuss transatlantic issues like the pains of getting a visa and green card, essential British stand-ups, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the upcoming royal wedding, and inevitably, the Arthur remake. (Oliver's take: "It seems, at best, unnecessary, at worst, ill-conceived.") There's also a fair amount of Daily Show behind-the-scenes talk (Oliver says the department tasked to comb hours of C-SPAN footage are "looking into the heart of darkness") and the requisite audience Q&A, which features a round of "fuck, marry, kill" starring Oliver, Craig Ferguson, and David Tennant. Hardwick and Oliver clearly feed off the live audience's laughter, making for a lively, good-humored discussion that makes up for the episode's less-than-stellar audio quality.
Pop Culture Happy Hour: This Craziness With Vampires And Foreheads
This week, the PCHH foursome leads off with a segment called On Second Thought/How Wrong I Was, touching on various things they initially disdained but later came to appreciate, from the TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer to Beck to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. (Along the way, Linda Holmes pauses to triumphantly take sides in the Scott Tobias/Noel Murray Twitter argument about whether it's kosher to start a TV series in the middle, and Stephen Thompson announces that anything questionable with his name on it at avclub.com was actually written by Keith Phipps.) Since the podcast will be skipping next week due to SXSW, they follow with Filling The Hole In Your Heart, a list of films, shows, and podcasts they recommend fans listen to instead of PCHH next week—including Thompson's SXSW coverage. (Man, that Fang Island song is catchy.) Then they end in the usual manner with What's Making Us Happy, in which Glen Weldon lists more of his punny DC Universe Online characters, including Biff Bampow, Major Bummer, White Flight, Captain Tennille, and Charles Grodin-Man, whose power is being mistaken for Charles Grodin. For PCHH fans, this installment is worth it just to hear everyone go into helpless hysterics while Weldon calmly, proudly describes these characters and their abilities, and explains how Charles Grodin-Man in particular is maybe a little more of a conceptual art piece than a functional DC Universe Online character.
Sklarbro Country: Josh Radnor, Jesse Thorn
By this point, it's become cliché for the Sklar brothers to gush that their guests are close personal friends and some of the most talented people in the universe, but the twins are generally so sweet and sincere that it doesn't come off as phony. That feels a little forced this time, however, as the brothers welcome How I Met Your Mother's Josh Radnor, who tosses in some quips when not awkwardly plugging his earnest new independent comedy-drama Happythankyoumoreplease. The episode ends with the always-welcome Jesse Thorn filling in for Chris Cox with more picks for another agreeably far-fetched fantasy league, in this case involving promising debutantes.
WTF With Marc Maron: Live At Bell House in Brooklyn with Heather Knight, Otto & George, Liam McEneaney, Ted Alexandro and Todd Barry
Live WTFs tend to lack the intimacy of episodes taped inside the Cat Ranch, but there's still plenty of anxiety and misplaced rage on display as Maron welcomes a motley aggregation of funny people onstage at the Bell House in Brooklyn. The presence of Otto and George, an aggressively profane ventriloquist duo, and Heather Knight, a cute lady scientist who invented a joke-telling robot, lends the evening a distinctly vaudevillian air. When Knight, the ultimate geek fantasy girl, casually mentions that she has a boyfriend, the entire audience lets out a sigh of disappointment, but the best line of the evening goes to a comedian who shares a revelatory anecdote about how sometimes being an adult means saying no to cocaine and casual sex on a Tuesday night. It isn't just entertaining, it's deep, too!
The Adam Carolla Show
Bobcat Goldthwait recalls opening shows for Nirvana (Kurt was a fan) and Michael Bolton (it ended badly). Dan Band frontman Dan Finnerty and Patrick Warburton (Rules Of Engagement, Seinfeld, The Tick) let Ace do the talking. Stacy Keach is the highlight of the week, via a long conversation about acting, addiction, incarceration, and faith (but not his current gig on the FX boxing drama Lights Out). Comedian Dan Cummins and Ace discuss post-apocalyptic survival scenarios. Sports-business journalist and author Jonah Keri and Ace ruminate on sports, management, sports management, and Keri's new Tampa Bay Rays book.
The B.S. Report
Simmons starts off the week with a visit from his buddy Adam Carolla, who helps review the new Nic Cage movie, Drive Angry. This involves typical Carolla rants, this time on 3D movies and Cage's hair. Simmons then moves into full March Madness mode, beginning with ESPN's NBA guru Chad Ford, who reflects on the 2010 NBA Draft and looks ahead to this year's draft and what prospects are lurking in the upcoming NCAA tournament. Simmons takes his first look at gambling with the tournament with expert Chad Millman, who breaks down Vegas odds and who the sharps like; that episode concludes with the now-annual visit from former Ohio State walk-on Mark Titus. Simmons closes out the week, which Simmons claims is the best in the BS Report's history, by going over various NCAA tournament prop bets and complaining about the new expanded format with Cousin Sal, followed by his traditional filling out of a bracket with buddy Joe House. Hint: bet the Big East.
Firewall & Iceberg: #64
Alan Sepinwall and Dan Fienberg answer listener mail and discuss the ongoing seasons of NBC's Parks And Recreation and Showtime's Shameless, and the new HBO special The Pee-wee Herman Show On Broadway—which, they concur, amounts to an overlong episode of Pee-wee's Playhouse.
Jordan Jesse Go!: Live For MaxFunDrive 2011: Jordan Morris and Jesse Thorn go live with the finale of the MaxFunDrive with a mega two-hour podcast, featuring Al Madrigal and Gene O'Neill. In addition to raising money, the crew discusses topics like space fucking, cholos hiking, and reasons why everyone likes Jesse Thorn.
The Moth Podcast: Liz Tuccillo: Unpopular In Jail
The former Sex And The City writer and co-author of He's Just Not That Into You breathlessly tells the story of her arrest during a protest at the 2004 Republican National Convention. Her subsequent shunning by her fellow prisoners—who have little desire to hear more about Carrie and Big—makes for some funny observations, but Tuccillo's aggressively perky, every-sentence-ending-in-a-question-mark delivery makes it far too easy to empathize with Tuccillo's unimpressed jailhouse audience.
Never Not Funny: #816 Eddie Trunk
Regular listeners of Never Not Funny are well aware of Jimmy Pardo's unabashed love of '80s hard rock, and whether a whole episode spent debating Hagar vs. Roth or the merits of Kiss sounds like "the fastest hour in podcasting" should determine the casual fan's interest level. Guest Eddie Trunk—host of XM's Boneyard and VH1 Classic's That Metal Show, and self-proclaimed world's largest Kiss fan—rivals Pardo's pace with insightful insider stories (like how Mike Piazza was responsible for first leaking Chinese Democracy), but their respectful tone often gets in the way of bringing the funny that the show's title promises.
Savage Lovecast: #230
Sometimes, episodes of the Savage Lovecast are just mega-depressing. This week, for instance, Dan Savage does his best to advise a 22-year-old married woman who is tired of sex and a woman who was abused after a BDSM scenario went wrong. He also counsels a teen on how to help his ex-gay friend. Well, every week can't be a sexy party.
The Sound of Young America: Greg Mottola
Host Jesse Thorn interviews director Greg Mottola, whose stints as a director on beloved TV series like Arrested Development and Undeclared led to acclaimed work directing films such as Adventureland and Superbad. Mottola talks about his new sweetly nostalgic comedy Paul.
Sound Opinions: The Vaselines
Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot talk with The Vaselines, a Scottish indie band probably best known for writing several songs later covered by Nirvana, including "Son Of A Gun" and "Molly's Lips." The hosts also offer surprisingly generous takes on Lupe Fiasco's embattled new album, Lasers. For his Desert Island Jukebox pick, DeRogatis shines a light on the great, oft-overlooked psych-blues epic "East-West" by the Butterfield Blues Band.
Stuff You Should Know:
On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, ushering in one of the more shameful chapters in American military history. In "Were U.S. Citizens In Japanese Internment Camps?", Clark and Bryant investigate this chapter, explaining how the camps were formed, the tenuous reasoning behind them, and their ultimate cost. In the much cheerier episode, "How Fossils Work," the two help give listeners a solid foundation in how dinosaur bones become monuments to the past.
Stuff You Missed In History Class:
There's drunken revelry and drunken beatings both in the last two entries of History Class. In "The Best Mardi Gras Ever," Dowdy and Chakraborty tell some of the facts behind Fat Tuesday, leading into a description of a New Orleans police strike in the late '70s which effectively cancelled the town's Mardi Gras celebrations. And in "The Riotous Life of Carvaggio," the ladies look into the life and death of Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, an Italian painter from the late 16th, early 17th century who killed a man, pissed off the Pope, and heavily influenced the Baroque school of painting.
This American Life: #429 Will They Know Me Back Home?
Nancy Updike takes over hosting duties once again this week, looking at the stories of those at war who have a difficult time transitioning back into their previous lives. Actors read adapted monologues from David Finkel's The Good Soldiers, and Updike interviews an Iraqi woman whose job as an interpreter for the U.S. upended her quiet life as a housewife.
WTF With Marc Maron: Kathleen Madigan
Marc Maron tends to gravitate toward the alternative side of the comedy divide, but he's equally comfortable—or at least comfortably uncomfortable—talking to mainstream club comics like the funny, likeable Kathleen Madigan, who shares war stories from the road and tales from her stint on Last Comic Standing, but is most fascinating discussing her relationship with ex-boyfriend/soulmate/best friend Lewis Black. Maron thinks Black and Madigan's relationship should be a reality show; by the end of the episode, most listeners will probably agree.


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They're our best friends on four legs, offering lasting joy every day. Now the Loyal Companions embroidered fleece jacket will bring warmth and a smile each time you wear it because it's decorated with colorful pet art of the dog breed you choose. Find your favorites in our wide selection, from Dachshund to Pug and more, and your custom-crafted dog lover gift will come to you with a FREE matching fleece coat for your dog! This women's embroidered fleece jacket is decorated with unique dog embroidery that keeps your pet close to your heart throughout the holiday season. Plus, it's fashioned of high-quality mid-weight fleece for incredible comfort and wind resistance. You'll love the flattering princess cut, drawstring waist and collar that can be worn up or down. For the perfect finishing touch, this embroidered fleece jacket features two zippered pockets with sculptural dog-shaped zipper pulls that match your chosen breed. Don't wait to wear it yourself or give as a unique Christmas gift. Strong demand is expected. Order now!


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HOUSTON - The entire world was horrified to see four lives claimed by a fire at a Houston day care owned by Jessica Tata last year.
More than a year later, Tata is still in jail awaiting trial.
This case changed the way Houston inspects the safety of day cares. Last year, the city passed an ordinance requiring the Houston Fire Department to conduct annual safety checks at all licensed day cares.
The state of Texas also requires all day care operators to undergo criminal background checks before working with kids. In Texas, violent crimes prohibit someone from working in or operating a day care.
However, the state does allow day care workers and operators to have some lesser crimes on their record. Tata had a juvenile record for arson.
So, how does a parent choose the safest place for their child?
"I drove by before hours, after hours, made an unannounced visit. You have to see how receptive they are to that," said mother of three Pam Yokley.
Yokley said those unannounced visits helped her avoid choosing another day care with an otherwise good record.
"I went in and they looked terrible. They had paint chips and there was other stuff and people seemed indifferent and uncaring to the children," said Yokley.
Yokley also spoke with several teachers and parents to find out which day cares had the best reputation. Yokley said word-of-mouth can go a long toward helping choose a day care.
"People know who's good and who's bad," said Yokley.
Linda Gonzales has been a day care operator in Houston for 29 years and urges parents to also regularly talk with the people who will be caring for your child.
"You interact with the owners, or with the directors, or you interact with the staff," said Gonzales. "That has a lot to do with it, see what kind of person they are."
Gonzales said also to watch your child for signs of trouble, like whether the child seems apprehensive when being taken to or picked up from a day care facility.
"A lot of times, go with your gut feelings," said Gonzales. "If you feel something's not right, ask questions."
Gonzales also said make sure to ask a day care facility to show you its current permits from the state, recent inspection reports, and affidavits showing all employees have been through a mandated criminal background check.
Parents can also search the Texas Department of Family and Protective Service's website to find a facility's recent inspection reports and history of any disciplinary action taken.
Parents can also search another database to find persons who have abused or neglected children.
Copyright 2012 by Click2Houston.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


text: NEW YORK ( TheStreet) -- A September study by the Pew Research Center shows that almost one-in-five U.S. households -- 19% -- owed student loan debt in 2010, and that's double the amount of student loan debt owed by U.S. students and families in 1990. But the U.S. Department of Education is rolling out some rules geared to lower short-term student loan payments and tie those payments to the total income earned by the loan recipient. The plan, officially known as "Pay As You Earn," is straightforward: The borrower's monthly payments are capped based on the amount of monthly earnings. Uncle Sam has a new policy capping loan payments at 10% of the discretionary income of student loan borrowers. The federal government estimates that up to 1.6 million Direct Loan borrowers are eligible for Pay As You Earn. The Department of Education already has a program called Income-Based Repayment, which raises the 10% cap to 15% of discretionary income. The government reports that 1.3 million student loan borrowers already qualify for that program. The department says that borrowers who aren't eligible for Pay As Your Earn can qualify for the Income Based Payment plan. In a statement released by the agency, government officials say the initiative is aimed at "struggling" borrowers such as teachers and nurses "in lower-paying public service careers." "These income-driven plans could reduce monthly payments to help ensure that borrowers are able to manage their debt and avoid the negative consequences of defaulting on their student loans," the department says. "While borrowers may pay more in interest in the long run under an income-driven plan, those options can provide some relief on loan payments, especially in a borrower's early years of repayment." To figure out where you stand on Pay As Your Earn, the department has a website dedicated to the program.


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SWINDON Town were held to a goalless draw by 10-man Colchester United at the County Ground this evening.
Sanchez Watt saw red for the visitors with 20 minutes left, giving Town – who dominated long periods of the game – the platform from which to secure what would have been a vital League One victory.
But no winner was forthcoming and Swindon will be left to rue their missed opportunities and what might have been.
Mark Cooper kept faith with the same XI which began the 3-2 victory over Port Vale last weekend, while the County Ground pitch was only deemed playable by referee Darren Sheldrake at 6.55pm on his third assessment.
In the first half, Ryan Dickson skewed an early free-kick over for the visitors, while Alex Pritchard drew Sam Walker into a fine save from 25 yards, but neither side could create a gilt-edged chance.
Town's cause was hurt in stoppage time in the opening period, when Nile Ranger had to be replaced by Jacob Murphy after picking up a groin injury, but they were boosted 20 minutes from time by the red card shown to U's midfielder Watt for an apparent headbutt on Nathan Thompson.
Despite their man advantage, however, Swindon could not find a breakthrough and the chance to pick up three crucial points went astray, with Pritchard and Byrne both firing wide in the final 10 minutes.


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Outdoor JournalEpisode Guide »
Tenkara | Dead Creek Days |Trail Cutting | Backcountry SkiPerch | Rock Climbing | Tubing | Sailboat RacingSalmon| Soaring | Waterskiing | Rivers and RoadsPike On The Fly | Duck Stamp | Herps Walk | LaPlatte RiverTrophy Trout | Camp Cooking | Bird Banding | Tour de FarmsMysterious Coyotes | Walleye Restoration | Beaver Pond BrookChain Pickerel | Wildlife For Educators | Moose HuntOak Orchard River | Museum of Natural Hist | Skeet ShootingWhite River Snorkeling | Lake Sturgeon | Haystack MountainHang Gliding | Trout in the Classroom | Waterbury ReservoirDeer Herd Management 2015Deer Hearing - 2015Fly Fishing | Autumn Paddling | Bike Trek | Owl BandingSteelhead Fishing | Bristol Pond | Turkey Hunting | SurfingBass Fishing | Autumn Horseback | Mount HorridVT Fish, Deep-woods Trail, Camping at Burton IslandBristol iNaturalist | Kayak Fishing | White River Raftinggot your deer yet? An Outdoor Journal SpecialDeer Herd Management: An Outdoor Journal SpecialIce Fishing, Shooting Ranges, Bob Klein, Bald Eagle SurveyDog Sledding / Timber Rattlers / Wenlock WMAScuba Diving, Panning For Gold, Rock River WMA, GillnettingHudson River Stripers, Doe Camp, Podunk WMA, Goose Round-Up
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A Really Simple Workshop Exercise
Dear Engaged Bystander: When I have the chance to lead a workshop, I am always struck by the strong social expectation that we all seem to hold -- when faced with a crisis, no one will step out of their comfort zone to offer help.
One particularly powerful exercise I use is to ask people to turn to someone next to them and share a bystander story. I explicitly tell them that it does not have to be about sexual violence or inappropriate sexual behaviors. I usually offer an example and describe a situation where I saw an issue and stepped in to help. The last one I used was sitting on an airplane and noticing that a woman was carrying a hot cup of coffee and trying to put away her luggage. We were all watching until I offered to hold her hot coffee. Then another passenger helped her lift her luggage to the overhead compartment and a third held onto her other bag. It is simple but shows how one action can have a domino effect and touch a number of surrounding people.
I have heard many many stories through this simple exercise. But what strikes me each time is the common theme that begins with "when x happened, no one did anything" -- even when the person telling the story did something. Even when others joined in to help, the story is told with the theme, "when x happened, no one did anything…"
During the workshop I try to talk about how to begin to retell the story. "When x happened, I did not see anyone responding, so I did do/say something. And I found that once chose to act, that single action encouraged others to do/say something. .."
Telling these stories with a sense of hope is so essential to changing how we respond to sexual violence, harassment, and events that are inappropriate or just uncomfortable. Often the people who choose to tell their story out loud bring up their doubts about whether they should have acted differently, did they do enough, and what other resources could they have used. This retelling of the story helps everyone in the room hear that something was done – and while it may not be the perfect response it was a clear and important beginning.
So my thought is to take time in EVERY workshop to encourage people to share their positive stories, give them feedback about how important each action can be, and offer concrete examples that celebrate the small ways we can say or do something.
Posted by jtabachnick on 08/20/2010
Filed under
Submitted by slaskey on
Don't forget to share your bystander intervention stories with us!
As Joan said, concrete examples help us celebrate the small things that we each can do or say.


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Standing order 75 provides a procedure whereby a senator can raise for debate, without the usual notice of not less than one day, any matter which is regarded by five or more senators as warranting immediate debate.
A senator has a choice of proposing that a matter of public importance be submitted to the Senate for discussion, in which case the matter may be debated without any question being put to a vote, or moving a motion that in the opinion of the Senate a specified matter is a matter of urgency. A proposal under the standing order is made by delivering in writing to the President not later than 12.30 pm on a sitting day a statement of the proposed matter of public importance or urgency. Proposals are not received until 8.30 am each sitting day.
If more than one proposal is submitted on any day the proposal first provided to the President is reported, and if two or more proposals are presented simultaneously the proposal to be reported is determined by lot.
A proposal under standing order 75 may be signed by more than one senator, in which case any of the joint proposers may move the motion of urgency or speak first to the matter of public importance (8/4/1970, J.51; 2/5/1973, J.137; 26/11/1991, J.1734-5).
If a proposal is in order the President reads it to the Senate at the time provided in the routine of business, and, if four senators, not including the proposer, by rising in their places, indicate their support of the proposal, the debate proceeds. (For a proposal read again by leave when not supported on the first occasion, see 17/2/1999, J.467.)
A senator who has submitted a proposal may withdraw it when it is read to the Senate or prior to that time (19/2/1975, J.526; 14/2/1991, J.746; 8/3/1995, J.3048; 28/10/1996, J.765; 24/3/1999, J.613; 31/8/1999, J.1608).
Special time limits apply to the debate. There is a total time limit of 90 minutes, or 60 minutes if motions to take note of answers are moved after question time, and a speaking time limit of 10 minutes for each speaker. The time allowed does not commence until the debate actually starts. If the debate proceeds by way of an urgency motion, at the expiration of the time, or if the debate is interrupted by other business taken at a fixed time, the question on the motion is put.
Except as otherwise provided in standing order 75, urgency motions and matters of public importance are subject to the normal rules relating to motions and debate. The mover of an urgency motion may speak in reply if time permits.
Rulings have been made that a proposed urgency motion or matter of public importance must relate to a matter of Commonwealth ministerial responsibility, but proposals are accepted if there is any element of such responsibility in the matter in question (ruling of President McMullin, 5/3/1969, J.399). The rationale of such rulings is that the procedure under standing order 75 gives special precedence to a discussion over all other business at the relevant time, not by majority decision but at the request of five senators. The procedure should not therefore be used to debate matters merely of interest to senators, when there are other opportunities without precedence, such as the adjournment debate, to discuss such matters.
An urgency motion may not be amended. This rule is sometimes circumvented by the suspension of the standing order to allow an amendment to be moved, and senators usually place on the Notice Paper contingent notices of motion to allow them to move motions to suspend standing orders to allow amendments to be moved to urgency motions (see Chapter 8, Conduct of Proceedings, under Suspension of standing orders). When an amendment has been moved by these means, it is in order to move amendments to the amendment. A suspension of standing orders to authorise an amendment to an urgency motion would not authorise an amendment not relevant to the subject of the motion. If an urgency motion is amended pursuant to a suspension of standing orders, the motion as amended must be put (ruling of Deputy President, 9/4/1991, J.888). Amendments are sometimes moved to urgency motions by leave (30/3/2004, J.3273-6).
The procedure in standing order 75 is designed to allow debate on a matter without the Senate making a decision on a substantive question. In voting on an urgency motion the Senate does not give its decision on a substantive motion, but simply indicates whether in its opinion the matter raised is a matter of urgency. The vote is often regarded, however, as a vote on the matter itself. A motion may therefore be cast in terms which make it difficult for a party to vote either for or against a motion. For example, if the motion is to declare that the level of unemployment is a matter of urgency, a vote on the motion is regarded as a test of the Senate's attitude to the level of unemployment. If the party supporting the ministry votes against the motion this may be regarded as an expression of indifference on unemployment, but if the party votes for the motion this may be regarded as a confession of ministerial failure. It is because of this potential of an urgency motion to embarrass a party that the rule against amendment is often circumvented.
An urgency motion may not be divided (ruling of President McClelland, 18/9/1985, J.468). This ruling was based partly on the prohibition of amendment of an urgency motion.
It is not in order for an urgency motion to be framed so as to build a substantive motion into the statement of the matter of urgency (see report of Standing Orders Committee, 17 August 1971, PP 111/1971, p. 2).
The closure (that is, the motion that the question be now put) may be moved during debate on an urgency motion (see Chapter 10, Debate, under Closure of debate). The standing order provides a means whereby discussion on a matter of public importance may be terminated. At any time during the debate, but not so as to interrupt a senator speaking, a senator may move that the business of the day be called on. This question is immediately put without debate or amendment, and if it is agreed to, the matter of public importance is disposed of and the Senate proceeds with its business.
There are precedents for debate on an urgency motion being adjourned till a later hour of the day (30/8/1956, J.135; 13/9/1961, J.107; 27/9/1972, J.1137, 1141). It is not clear how it was determined in these cases which items of business could be transacted before the adjourned debate was called on, or when it was to be called on; presumably this was done by agreement (see Chapter 8, Conduct of Proceedings, under Resumption of postponed and adjourned business). The precedents have not been followed. The terms of standing order 75 clearly prevent adjournment of a debate till a subsequent day, and if a debate adjourned till a later hour were not called on or concluded before the Senate adjourned it would lapse (20/5/1969, J.469).
Similarly, an urgency motion or matter of public importance lapses if it is not reached on a day or is superseded by business which is called on at a fixed time (23/3/1995, J.3134; a matter of public importance was lodged but not reached on 11/5/1995). Where debate is interrupted by order for some business of limited duration (such as a senator's first speech), however, the debate is resumed if time permits (21/8/2002, J.629).
On 23 October 1997, during debate on an urgency motion, a motion for suspension of standing orders to allow an amendment to be moved to the motion was moved and debated, and debate on the suspension motion had not concluded when the time for the main debate expired. The motion for suspension of standing orders was then taken to have lapsed and the question on the urgency motion was put in accordance with standing order 75. The rationale for this is that the motion for suspension of standing orders is not related in any substantive way to the actual question before the Senate, but is a procedural motion designed to allow, but not to require, the moving of an amendment, which would be substantively related to the question before the Senate. Even if the suspension motion had been passed just before the time expired, its effect would have been merely to allow the moving of an amendment, not to require an amendment to be moved, and it would be anomalous to allow an amendment to be moved after the time had expired. If the suspension motion had been successful and an amendment had been moved before the time expired for the debate, at the expiration of the time the amendment would have been put and then the main question, because the amendment then would have been part of the substantive matter before the Senate for determination.
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